Good morning. Today, we’re going to be looking at a powerful passage from the Gospel of Luke. It’s about how we can stand firm in our faith, not through our own strength, but through the power of God at work within us. Our main text is Luke chapter 12, verses 4 through 12.
Let me read it for you now from the NIV:
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
“I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
Today’s passage is about the confession that believers are called to make in times of great trial and tribulation.
But let me ask you, what kind of tribulation comes to your mind when you hear that word? When I was growing up, maybe in the 80s or 90s, I remember revival speakers would often give a dramatic example. They’d say, “Imagine an enemy army invades, captures you, and brings you to a church. They demand to know if you believe in Jesus. What would you do?” Or they would say, “Imagine they place a picture of Jesus on the floor and command you to step on it to save your life. What would you do then?”
What would you do?
The thing is, for most of us, this is not our reality. Whether you live in Korea or in America, we are not living in a state of intense persecution. And because of that, it’s very easy for us to say, “Of course, I would give my life for God! My life belongs to Him, so I would absolutely make the right confession.”
We say this with confidence. But I want us to look at ourselves with a little more honesty for a moment. Think about your daily life. Forget about those huge, life-or-death trials for a second. Think about the small, everyday moments of decision. When you are faced with a choice, and you know what would please God, do you choose it? Or do you choose what benefits you, even just a little? Whether it’s a choice involving money, physical comfort, or your reputation—do you choose God’s will, or do you choose the path of ease for yourself?
It’s ironic, isn’t it? When faced with a huge, dramatic crisis, we can boldly declare, “Yes, I will lay down my life for God!” But when asked about the small, seemingly insignificant choices we make every day, we find it much harder to answer. We can speak boldly about the big issues because, frankly, they feel distant from us. But we hesitate to speak about the small things, the things we face every single day.
Why is that? The reason is simple: because that is where we are failing. Moment by moment, we stand at a crossroads between God’s will and our own will. And if we’re honest, most of the time, we choose the path that we want. When this choice is repeated over and over, our hearts grow numb. We stop even asking for God’s will in the small things.
And that’s why, when we read today’s passage about tribulation, it’s so easy to just gloss over it and think, “I’ll be fine. I’ll do the right thing.” But Jesus isn’t just talking about some far-off, future crisis. He has just spent time warning his disciples about the “leaven of the Pharisees.” He is speaking about the tribulation that will come to Him and His followers because of that very leaven, and He is teaching them how to face it.
When I think about this, I feel a holy burden. I think of the martyrs of the early church. Men and women like Polycarp, who were burned at the stake or fed to lions simply for believing in Jesus. And yet, if you read their stories, you find them praising God while engulfed in flames. They are forgiving their persecutors.
How is this even possible?
The answer, the key to everything, is right here in our text, in verse 12: “…for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.”
Do you see? In the midst of our trials, the Holy Spirit Himself will give us the words to say. The incredible strength of Polycarp and all the martyrs throughout history did not come from their own power. It came from the work of the Holy Spirit. So the point today is not just to make a new resolution, to say, “I will be stronger.” Such resolutions are easy to make when we aren’t facing the fire. The real call is to learn to depend on the Holy Spirit and to desire to obey His teaching.
If we truly cultivate a heart that wants to obey the Spirit’s guidance, then we will start to see the small, daily temptations—the ones we used to ignore—in a new light. We will pause. We will reconsider. We will seek God’s will again and learn to walk in obedience, both in the small things and in the great.
To understand this, we need to look at our passage from two perspectives that we’ve discussed before: the perspective of leaven, and the perspective of being a friend of Jesus.
First, Jesus calls His disciples His friends. He says, “I tell you, my friends…” What does it mean to be a friend of Jesus, according to this passage? It means to acknowledge Him before others. When we acknowledge Jesus before people, He will, in turn, acknowledge us before the Father. That is when our status as His friend is confirmed and sealed.
Do you believe this? Do you believe that at the final judgment, Jesus will stand before God the Father and acknowledge you, testifying on your behalf? Our confidence in the face of any trial is not based on our own strength or our own ability to be brave. Our confidence is based on the final verdict. At the great judgment, when we are standing in God’s courtroom, Jesus Christ Himself will testify for us, proving that we belong to God. That is the foundation that allows us to endure anything we face today.
So, where does your faith rest? Do you believe that Jesus will be your witness? Your confidence is not based on your own feelings or merits, but on what Jesus has already done. He died on the cross. Others died on crosses, but His death was different. He died to pay the price for our sins. And He rose again on the third day, proving that we have been made righteous before God. Because of Him, we are children of God. Our very identity is secured in this truth.
Because we are His friends, we are called to be His witnesses in this world. How are you testifying about Jesus? The world may call him a great teacher, a philosopher, or a revolutionary. But who do you say that He is? How you confess Jesus before others reveals where you truly stand.
Think of the three friends of Daniel. When King Nebuchadnezzar commanded everyone to bow to a golden idol, they refused. That was their moment of great tribulation. The punishment was a fiery furnace. But they did not bow. And what did they say? They said, “Our God is able to save us from the furnace. But even if he does not, we will not bow.”
Where did such incredible faith come from? Was it from their own inner strength? No. They had experienced God’s faithful hand protecting them time and time again. In the language of our text, the Holy Spirit had been teaching them all along. God had chosen them as His children, as His friends, and His Spirit gave them the words to say when the moment came.
This brings us to the idea of leaven. Last week, we said that leaven is all about expansion and influence. It spreads. Good leaven makes dough rise into delicious bread. But leaven is a fungus; there is good and bad. You wouldn’t eat moldy bread. For leaven to produce good bread, it needs the right environment, the right temperature, and the right amount of time.
The leaven of the Pharisees could never produce good bread. Why? Because its purpose was self-exaltation. Its final product is pride, self-satisfaction, and arrogance. It’s the desire to become your own god, to lift yourself up. Jesus warns us about this because this leaven goes back to the very first sin. When Satan tempted Adam, he twisted God’s words and made Adam the judge. In that moment, man, who was created to be a citizen in God’s kingdom, tried to usurp the throne and become king himself. This is the essence of sin, and like leaven, it spreads until it corrupts everything. It promises satisfaction but leads only to decay. It pulls us deeper and deeper into a pit, and what started as a small compromise eventually grows to consume our entire lives.
But what about the leaven of the Kingdom of God? Its result is completely different. Its result is a confession that can overcome any trial.
There’s a difficult verse here, verse 10: “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” The best way to understand this is to see it in terms of salvation history, before and after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Think of Peter. Who spoke against the Son of Man more famously than Peter? He promised he would die for Jesus, but then denied Him three times before the rooster crowed. He failed with his words. But what happened after the Holy Spirit came upon him at Pentecost? He stood up and preached boldly, and the man who had denied Jesus was now the one calling others to repent and believe in Him! Peter, who had been forgiven for speaking against the Son of Man, was now empowered by the Holy Spirit.
We now live in the age of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s work is to testify about Jesus. To reject that testimony, to blaspheme the Spirit’s work, is to reject the final and complete offer of salvation. There is no other way. Those who have received the Spirit—the leaven of the Kingdom—cannot help but testify to the cross of Christ.
And this brings us back to the process. Think of Abraham. The climax of his faith was offering his son Isaac. But where did that journey begin? It began years earlier, in Genesis 12, when God called him and made a promise. That was when the leaven was first placed in him. The offering of Isaac was not the beginning; it was the final result of a long, slow process of fermentation.
Good bread needs time. It needs pressure and heat. Abraham went through trials, failures, and hardships. That was the environment God used to work His promise into Abraham’s heart. Was it just Abraham? What about Jacob, the deceiver? He spent years of hardship and struggle before he wrestled with God and became Israel. That process took time.
Brothers and sisters, if you feel that you are not being a faithful witness for God right now, do not despair. The leaven of the Kingdom, the Holy Spirit, has been given to us. What we need is God’s time. The valley you are walking through, the struggles you are facing, the moments you feel abandoned—these are not meaningless. They are the heat and the pressure that God is using to work His leaven in you. Just as Abraham and Jacob went through periods of failure, so do we. But that is not the end of the story. Through this process, God will bring you to a place where you, too, will make a beautiful confession of faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord.
Why? Because you are not the one doing the work. The Holy Spirit is teaching you. Sometimes, just when you feel like you are growing and becoming something great on your own, God will allow you to be broken. Do not be discouraged. In those moments, realize that God is shaping you, that you simply need to wait on His timing.
I will close with this. Verse 11 says: “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say.”
Do not be anxious. We spend so much of our lives worrying. But the Bible tells us again and again, do not worry. Instead, pray. Why? Because we are people who have been given the leaven of the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit who was given to us is constantly at work, teaching us and shaping us, so that at the proper time, we will produce the beautiful result God desires. May you be a people who remember this truth and trust in His work in your lives.
