“The axe has already fallen at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into fire!” This guy is a Pentecostal pastor on speed!
Now that whole rant - you fatherless people, you basket of snakes, you brood of vipers, the axe has already fallen at the root of the tree, and every one of you are going to be thrown into fire and burned - what do you think the sin was?
You'd think the sin was idolatry, adultery, child sacrifice, burning people - something heinous, something horrible. What do you think the sin was? This is what he says...
“What should we do then, the crowd ask? You're really wound up - what do you want us to do? John answered:
“The man with two tunics should share with him who has none; and the one with food should do the same.
It's Generosity! That whole rant was about having more than we need, and not taking care of people who don't have enough.
Luke 19:5-10 has a cool story about a man named Zacchaeus, and he's a tax collector. He's a bit of a shyster, but he has this encounter with Jesus. He's so moved by the compassion of Jesus, that he says: “here and now, I'll give half of what I have to the poor”. Jesus said: that's it - salvation has come to your house now. It's generosity.
James 1:26-27 - “If anyone considers himself religious, and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, then he deceives himself, and his religion is worthless. Religion that God, our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” - Generosity.
Luke 11:34 – “The light of the body is the eye” - which is a Hebrew reference for generosity.
In First Century Hebrew culture, if you said that someone had an ‘eye full of light’, it meant yetzer tov, it meant they were generous. If you said somebody had an eye of evil it was called yetzer hara, which meant they were selfish or greedy. So the phrase ‘don't give me the evil-eye’, its root is found in: don't be greedy with me, don't be stingy with me.
Therefore, when your eye is ‘full of light’, then the whole body is full of light; but when your eye is ‘dark’, your whole body is dark. In other words, if you're generous then it gives light to the whole body; but if you're greedy, then it corrupts the whole body.
“Therefore take heed that the light in you is not darkness.”
“Therefore if your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the shining of the lamp enlightens you. As He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him, and He went in and reclined.”
So Jesus is doing this whole thing about light-eyes and dark-eyes, and the Pharisee says: can I talk about that with You?
When the Pharisee saw it, he was amazed that He did not first wash His hands before dinner. And the Lord said to him: “now you Pharisees, you make the outside of the cup and platter clean, but the inside is full of greed and wickedness” - greed and wickedness.
“You fool! Did not He who made the outside of the cup, also make the inside? Then Jesus gives him the solution in the next verse.
“But begin to give alms of all such things as you have to the poor, and behold - all things will be made clean for you” - Generosity.
So Jesus is telling this guy: become generous and your life will be clean.
There’s something about a regenerated heart, that when it manifests itself in putting other people first, everything else just seems to fall in place.
In Acts 10:25-31, this is a story of the start of the Gentile church. You're actually here tonight because of this. God chooses this guy named Cornelius to lead the Gentile church; and Cornelius was a Roman centurion, which meant that he had publicly proclaimed that Caesar is god.
This odd thing happens - when Peter shows up at his house, Cornelius bows down to Peter. The man has publicly proclaimed that Caesar is god, but he didn't know it wasn't right to worship a man. Would you want him to be your pastor? Yet God chooses him to start the whole Gentile church - watch what He says...