Look at the Book
Luke 12:32: Fear Not, Little Flock
In this session of Look at the Book, we focus on Luke 1232. Father, it's a tiny verse and I pray that the magnificence of it would hit us so that we would walk through our days without fear of anything that man can do to us. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. The reason I chose this tiny little portion of scripture is to model what you do if you don't have a lot of propositions to relate to each other. Here you just have two, right? Fear not little flock. That's a proposition. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So you only have two and they are connected with that little word for. So this is the ground of why you don't need to fear. No fear. No fear little flock because it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And you might think, well, now we're done. We've got it figured out. We're not supposed to be afraid. And this word signifies that he's going to tell us why and because our father's good pleasure is to give us the kingdom, end of meditation hardly. So let me try to show you the kinds of things that I do. One of the things I do is I take some of the words like fear not and I try to put them in my own words. Like don't be afraid. Or don't worry. Or don't be anxious. It helps to ask can I re-say something in my own words. Another thing I do is to ask not just can I restate the meaning of the words in other language, but what is pointed to or signified by the words. For example, you got flock here. That signifies that he's calling me a sheep or us sheep. And this word little here underlines the fact that the sheep or are small and insignificant and weak. And the reason he's doing that is because it's true and because that's why we probably feel afraid. If you have lots of power and you're big and you're dominant, then you feel in charge and you don't have fear. But if you're small and insignificant and vulnerable and not very smart like sheep aren't, then you are more prone to fear. So you ask about implications of words and one of the ones that stands out less obviously but glorious is that if we are a flock, he is a shepherd. And when you see things like that, a third thing I do besides repeating the words in different ways and asking about the implications of words is to do what I call trigger connections. And I say that here because if he calls himself or God a shepherd here of the flock, then I also notice he's a father here which says to me, "Hmm, Jesus seems to be multiplying the designations of God so that my fear would be taken away." So I have a shepherd. I don't need to be afraid. I have a father. I don't need to be afraid. And I ask, are there any more? It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So now he's the king. So in this short space he has multiplied three designations for God. God is my shepherd. God is my father. God is a king over his subjects. And then you ponder the meaning of that. A king is big and strong and able to use this authority to get done what he wants to get done. And a father is caring about his children. There's a family bond there that invests the father's heart in me. And then shepherd, he's smart. He knows the problems that sheep face. So God is wise like a shepherd and he's caring like a father and he's strong like a king. And the reasons for not fearing are starting to multiply as we meditate. This is called what we're doing right now is called meditating. Or preparing to teach. To me these are all the same. Or preparing to preach. That's what we're doing. But when you begin to focus on the words like that, don't lose sight of the fact that there are propositions here. You've got one here and you've got the one at the end and they're connected by four. So the logic is not just take away my fear because you're a shepherd. Take away my fear because you're a father. Take away my fear because you're a king. That's true. I think he used those words precisely to help us overcome fear. But also because the father's going to do something. He's going to do something. He's going to give me the kingdom. He's going to give us the kingdom which causes us to then pause over this word give and realize, well, what does that signify? Well, it signifies not sell. He's not going to sell it to. He's not going to trade it to us. Which causes me then to reflect on the disproportion between little flock and kingdom. I mean, this is God's kingdom. This is massive. And this is little flock. This is tiny. And this tiny little band of people weak and insignificant are going to get inherit, what, share the rule maybe? At least enter and enjoy fully the massive universal kingdom of God which then triggers in my mind. This is called meditation that I don't deserve this and this is all disproportionate. And so I go forward in this gospel to Luke 22, 20 where Jesus says this cup that I'm holding here is the new covenant in my blood. In other words, the covenant of forgiveness for sins. There's no way that I as a defiled and dirty and needy and weak and ungodly sheep can inherit the pure and holy and glorious and infinitely valuable kingdom of God. No way is that going to happen. Oh, yes, it is because this gospel ends with the cross and he wants us to remember that as we read the gospel. Now I need to make a correction. This is why meditation works. You get an insight and then you keep reading and you say, oops, that wasn't quite right. I said that the logic here of because your father is going to do something and that's why you don't need to be afraid. He's going to give you the kingdom. No, it isn't. That isn't what it says. And in your leading a lesson or preaching or just meditating, you say this to people and they, their ears perk up and say, well, I thought that's what it said. Are you misleading us? And then you correct yourself. It is your father's good pleasure to give. There are a lot of kings, a lot of fathers and a lot of shepherds that give things to their children, subjects and sheep, begrudgingly. And Jesus is saying, that is not the heart of God. It is his good pleasure. It is his pleasure, pleasure, pleasure to give. This makes God's day to give you the kingdom. So let's sum it up like this. We have a shepherd, father, king. And he's the kind of shepherd, father, king who delights, enjoys, takes pleasure in giving freely at great cost to his son's life, the kingdom, with all of its eternal joy. Therefore, and I should have, I suppose I should have said here, to us, this little tiny insignificance and full flock, therefore no fear. So the way, so what have we spent 10 minutes meditating? This is what you do in the morning. You get out of pad of paper, you do this, and then you memorize this fear, not a little flock. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And all day long, you preach that to yourself, mulling over all these words. And thus, you defeat fear in your life and lead a radical life of love for Jesus. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
There are often riches and depths of meaning in the simplest verses. Luke 12:32 is one verse with two short propositions, but there are riches buried in its simplicity. In this lab, John Piper reveals several profound reasons not to fear.