Podcast appearances and mentions of andy davis

Our good friend and award winning musician Andy Davis joins us this week! He gives us some big updates on a new album coming from The Andy Davis Band along with news about the annual Farm Show. We also talk about his new job as a fishing guide and his addiction to steel head fishing. If your interested in going hit him up or message him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fishwithandyCHECK OUT OUR BRAND NEW WEBSITE: www.thekeystoneexperience.comYOUTUBE CHANNEL:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+keystone+experience+podcastCheck out our sponsors:https://creekarchery.comhttps://www.hillviewmotors.comhttps://www.duketraps.comhttp://www.apparitionscents.comhttps://www.facebook.com/CHICOOUTDOORS/https://www.bowcreekoutdoors.comhttps://zmharleydavidson.com/https://www.theoutdoorcallradio.com/Intro music by The Lyin Hearts

In this one off special episode Andy Davis talks Data Centre Club with Paul Hammer of Uptime Punks.Data Centre Club is a community created to enable collaboration across the data centre sector. Paul and Andy discuss why Andy started the club, where the inspiration came from, what he hopes to achieve, and the five rules of data centre club. The first rule of data centre club is you must tell everyone about data centre club.Join the club - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12007257/ Check out Uptime Punks podcasts here - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/uptime-punks/id1532507668

Dr. Alex McFarland takes us through the days proceeding the resurrection and uncovers rich historical data about the days before Jesus's victory on the cross. Then pastor Andrew Davis passionately teaches on the last hours of Jesus in the garden Gethsemane. Faith Radio podcasts are made possible by your support. Give now: Click here

A talk directed to pastors where Andy Davis explores the thesis that everything is equally clear to God, who knows the truth or falsehood of all assertions, but all things are not so equally clear to us.

In our second episode of The Dive Table's, 'Humans of Scuba,' Nick takes on the task of sitting down with sidemount wreck technical diving specialist, Andy Davis. Nick took a trip to the Philippines last month and decided to take a skills clinic with Andy to determine what it is he needed to work on before going back next May to take 'Advanced Wreck' with Andy. The guys sat down at 'Hops N' Brews' for a couple of beers and 90 minutes later, voila!, a new episode pops out. Andy Davis https://scubatechphilippines.com/ Hops N' Brews https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298450-d12479130-Reviews-Hops_Brews-Makati_Metro_Manila_Luzon.html The Dive Table www.thedivetable.com Fish Dive Surf, Inc. www.fishdivesurf.com Gardner Underwater www.gardnerunderwater.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/daniel-porter73/message If you enjoyed this episode and want to be a part of this growing community, you can join us in a couple of ways: Subscribe to the podcast so you get notified when new episodes drop; Leave a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts; Send the link to the show; thedivetable.com to a dive buddy, your dive team, or your last scuba instructor. Share your thoughts with us by leaving us a voicemail here on our website or say howdy. Also visit us at, www.fishdivesurf.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/daniel-porter73/message

Listen as author and speaker Tammy Lea Fabian explains her method of memorizing Scripture, including taking an entire year off every 7 years. And why should we stop asking the question, "What is your favorite book of the Bible?" Watch the full interview on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2NQGEpUmec  Resources Mentioned in the Episode: Tammy's Website: https://www.tammyleafabian.com  Tammy's Book: https://www.timeinthedesert.com/online-store/The-Art-of-Wisdom-Volume-I-p249610081 Interview with Janet Pope: https://pod.link/1624868713/episode/176909e0e5306c9d873748098b296921  Interview with Dr. Andy Davis: https://pod.link/1624868713/episode/6b2ef4cd921ac745b5dfb4bb47ae25b4   

In this weeks episode we turn the tables on Andy Davis. Rob Elder is the special guest host and he asks Andy about his experiences hosting the podcast over the previous two years.Like many others Andy fell into the data centre sector during his recruitment career and he hasn't looked back since. Andy outlines how the sector has changed and why he has become an advocate for all things data centres.Andy then outlines the story behind the podcast: why he made the decision to start the podcast, what he hoped to achieve, what he has learnt along the way, and how he sees the podcast developing over the next few years.Finally Andy shares some predictions for the data centre sector and what he is hearing from all his discussions with those working in the sector.Thanks to Rob Eder of Bulk Data Centers for being the special guest host.

Some just want to boost their resume, some have true intentions, and others simply can't say “no." The intentionality behind your board of directors' service is fundamental to a healthy and thriving board. In this episode, Katie interviews Andy Davis, the Associate Vice President of Education and Outreach for Boardsource. They talk about everything from board members asking for a "pass” on their duties to the goal of developing purpose-driven board leadership.

Andy Davis experiences a new way to relate to his identical twin; Carla Katz battles bureaucracy to bury her mother alongside her father; and Valerie Gagliano connects a deceased donor with someone in need of a new liver. Show you appreciate these extraordinary storytellers by making a donation in any amount at give.worldchannel.org/stories.

It's a whirl wind episode! We start with a recap of the  ESC in Killington. Then we dive into what the F happened in the bike industry the last 3 years. Our inside guy, Andy Davis, joins us and sheds some light on things from another perspective.

If you love P!NK's song "Love Me Anyway," featuring Chris Stapleton, you're going to find this episode very entertaining. Multiple award-winning music producer Sal Oliveri joined Gary Scott Thomas for an episode where Sal takes us behind the scenes and shows us how hit songs are brought to life. He also talks about being the son of an immigrant who is living out his dreams, including working with Billy Joel. Also in this episode:How a band he wasn't a fan of won him overHow extending grace can produce something amazingLetting kids find their own wayStarting in music at age 4The fantasy Sal's living and Gary wishes he couldHow music is a different languageWhat a producer actually doesTaking a demo and making it fit the artistBuilding a studioWorking with Billy JoelAdvice he gives to younger artistsA big skill artists must havePicking the right songWomen in Country musicHow he blended Chris Stapleton & P!NKWorking with Haley & MichaelsHow different the world of music is once you're actually in it About Sal:This Nashville based Producer/Writer has played a pivotal role in the careers of artists and songwriters for over a decade. Often behind the scenes, Sal is providing the sound, inspiration and development needed to launch artists' careers into the forefront of the music industry.Raised in the shadows of Manhattan, Sal Oliveri developed a diverse musical background. His grandmother, an opera singer, and father, a golden-voiced “crooner”, set the bar high for Sal when it came to execution and musical taste. By age 4, Sal was riveted to pop radio and his upright piano. Before long, Sal was performing as musical director and keyboardist at Harlem's famous “Cotton Club” and hitting the NJ/NY studio scene. Soon after, Sal relocated to Nashville where his musical efforts quickly earned him a #1 single he co-wrote and a Grammy Nomination for Best Rock Album.Sal is known for his attention to detail and instinctive gift for bringing out the essence of the Artist and making it extraordinary.CREDITSPop/Rock/Urban: P!NK, Jack Antonoff (FUN, Bleachers), Dan Wilson (Semisonic, Adele), Stan Lynch (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Billy Joel, Emily West (America's Got Talent 2014 #2 finalist), Brooke White (American Idol), David Cook (American Idol), Daniel Powter, John Paul White (of The Civil Wars) Dia Frampton (The Voice), Lucie Silvas, B.Reith, Room for Two, Jaren Johnston of “Cadillac Black”, Andy Davis, Kevin Griffin (of Better Than Ezra) David Hodges (Evanessence)Country/Americana: Parmalee, Carrie Underwood, Charles Kelly (Lady Antebellum), Kenny Chesney, Brett Eldredge, Sheryl Crow, The Band Perry, John Paul White (The Civil Wars), Garth Brooks,  Lee Brice, Kip Moore, Keith Urban, Randy Houser, High Valley, Leigh Nash, Haley & Michaels, Ricky Skaggs, Faith Hill, Jo Dee Messina, Lee Ann Womack, David Nail, Lori McKennaAwards/Recognitions:Multiple Billboard & iTunes #1's in Pop, Country, Soundtrack, CCM/Gospel#1 Country Video on CMT w/ Haley & Michael's “Me Too”Grammy Nomination for Best Pop/Rock Albumhttps://saloliveri.com

Psalm 130 - Rev. Andy Davis

On this week's episode of The PineBeltSPORTS Podcast, Area Baseball Coach of the Year Andy Davis joins the show. Davis and Abadie break down the All-Area team and recap Sumrall's championship season.

Meet Andy Davis, worship leader with Forest City Worship.  From a young age, worship was a part of Andy's life and built a strong foundation for her faith.  Just a few years ago, her husband Leonard and Andy were excited to welcome their first child.  While their experience was nothing short of miraculous, the journey was full of ups and downs.  It was then that Andy had truly activated her faith and leaned into the words she has been singing about for so long.Andy also shares how she ended up at Forest City Worship after leaving her day job as a teacher.  God was with her step by step and now she is able to help others connect to God authentically.Reflection QuestionsIn what ways can you have some tools in your back pocket for when situations arise in your life and you have to activate your faith like never before?What is one way that you can authentically worship this week?Connect with AndyInstagram | E-mail Forest City Worship Praise Party in The ParkTickets and More infoWhat: The Worship Party of The Summer featuring Blanca & Forest City WorshipBlanca is a Puerto Rican-born American musician. Her most recent single, “The Healing” with Dante Bowe, has topped the charts. Blanca was also nominated as Female Artist of the Year for the 2022 K-Love Fan Awards. Blanca's first single as a solo artist, "Who I Am", charted No. 1 on Billboard Chart Christian Airplay. When: Tuesday, August 9th, 2022 - concert starts at 7:00 pm. Where: Hideaway Brew Garden in Hoffman Estates, IL 100% of the ticket sales are going to The Baton Pass, a women's ministry that empowers the voices of overcomers & ultimately connects “overcomers” with those that are hurting and in need of hope. How to support The Parable Podcast#1 Subscribe or Follow the show so you don't miss the next episode of  The Parable Podcast through your favorite podcast app (i.e. iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher).  #2 Share this show with a friend, this is a perfect opportunity to start your own Parable Conversation together.#3 Join The Parable Podcast E-mail list so you can hear some of Danielle's own Parables and encouragement.

Tune Up is a Wednesday noon meal series usually led by Rev. Andy Davis. First Baptist Belton exists for the sole purpose of knowing Jesus intimately, serving Jesus passionately, and sharing Jesus globally. Our desire is to know Jesus, have a passion t

On today's This Green Earth, hosts Claire Wiley and Chris Cherniak speak with Jordan Clayton (1:42), Supervisor with the Utah Snow Survey and Natural Resources Conservation Service about snowfall, rainfall, soil moisture and water storage levels throughout Utah.Then (24:49), we speak with Andy Davis, research scientist at the University of Georgia, about this data and the life of a Monarch. For years, scientists have warned that monarch butterflies are dying off in droves. New research coming from the University of Georgia suggests that the population of monarchs has remained relatively stable over the past 25 years.Published in Global Change Biology, the study states that population growth during the summer compensates for butterfly losses duet to migration, winter weather and changing environmental factors.

What does it mean to "kiss the book goobye"? And why is memorizing the Bible similar to "buying blue chip stocks 20 years ago"? These are just a few of the incredible insights Dr. Andy Davis offers in this wide-ranging interview on Scripture. Andy is the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina and is the author of multiple books including An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture. He has been memorizing Scripture for almost 40 years now and has completely memorized more than 40 books of the Bible. Resources Mentioned You can find all the Bible memory resources mentioned in this interview in the following links:    ▶ Interview Transcript: https://www.biblememorygoal.com/interviews/dr-andy-davis/    ▶ An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture: https://geni.us/andy-davis-book    ▶ The Glory Now Revealed (Pre-Order): https://geni.us/glory-now-revealed    ▶ More Biblical resources from Dr. Davis: https://twojourneys.org/ ------------------------ Did you enjoy this interview? Please consider rating and reviewing the Memorize What Matters podcast on whatever podcast player that you're listening from. That helps us continue to create high quality content for you related to Scripture memory on a weekly basis.

Tune Up is a Wednesday noon meal series usually led by Rev. Andy Davis. First Baptist Belton exists for the sole purpose of knowing Jesus intimately, serving Jesus passionately, and sharing Jesus globally. Our desire is to know Jesus, have a passion t

Cat and Melissa breakdown why Toy Story 2 is Tragical! Get ready for Ohio vibes, three headed sheep children, and a sweaty chicken man. Jessie is Andy's mom! Check out our website tragicalpodcast.com! Electronic mail can be sent to tragicalpodcast@gmail.com. Become a Patron! Follow us here! Instagram | TikTok | Twitter | Facebook Tragical Podcast Intro produced by Jahreezy. Tragical Podcast Art by Johnny the Alchemist. Toy Story 2 Fun Facts (IMDb)

Tune Up is a Wednesday noon meal series usually led by Rev. Andy Davis. First Baptist Belton exists for the sole purpose of knowing Jesus intimately, serving Jesus passionately, and sharing Jesus globally. Our desire is to know Jesus, have a passion t

In this episode, Saka speaks to Andy Davis about his work supporting black founders and discusses the importance of storytelling when raising funds.  Andy Davis, is an angel investor at Atomico and ex-Director of Backstage Capital London. He also leads the 10x10 group - a group of black founders and has recently launched the 10x10 Fund with an open invitation to commit a minimum of £1,000 to be invested in Black founders. Andy is spearheading efforts to make European investing more diverse and inclusive by raising awareness of underrepresentation, and providing financial, strategic, and networking support to Black founders.

On Resurrection Sunday, Andy Davis preaches Hebrews 2:9 on how we see Christ, who is invisible, with the eyes of our souls, our faith. -Sermon Transcript- We're taking part today in a worldwide celebration. We're aware of that as Christians. All around the world, Christians are gathering on this day to celebrate this awesome truth, that Christ is risen, that death has been defeated forever. This worldwide celebration is a testimony to some powerful realities. Centrally, the universal problem of death and the fact that we do not have in ourselves the resources to defeat this enemy, but Christ has defeated death for us. Death is the enemy of the entire human race and it is a relentless enemy, which absolutely does not discriminate. It stalks everyone. Death has the final say over everyone's earthly existence, rich and poor alike, young and old alike, beautiful and successful or despised and downtrodden. Any human being who draws breath is held in bondage by this terrible foe. No mighty ruler, no king or prime minister or president or potentates can confidently say, “I am beyond death's reach. I have made a covenant with the grave so that death's bony hand cannot reach me.” No one can make that statement. Neither can a wealthy Wall Street, hedge fund manager or fortune 500 CEO buy a guarantee of immunity from death's reach. Neither can a new mother look on the fresh sleeping face of her newborn child and say with certainty, "You my child have many years ahead of you." She doesn't know. She cannot be certain and neither can a young man in the prime of his health who visits the health club or the gym every day, be guaranteed of another day on earth beyond this one. The terrors of death enslave, all people. Hebrews 2:15 speaks of people who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. So if death, the ultimate enemy of the human race, has been defeated, then truly we have reason to celebrate every day. Death has been pressing on people's minds, always presses on people's minds. But recently in our experience everyday life, death has risen up and pressed in on us. None of us will ever forget the grip of the worldwide pandemic through which we have been passing and we hope to soon be through with, from early in 2020 until even this year, the lead story night after night. Many of us know personally, loved ones who have died from COVID. Others came very close to death, right to the brink because of that disease. More recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed COVID more from the headlines with the terrible devastation of open warfare and visions of death in the streets. Recently, I saw a very powerful video depicting some of the agonizing details of the war in Ukraine and the sufferings of the people. It focused on the word "was", some of you may have seen it. The narrative went like this in the video. “’Was’” a simple word, merely a part of speech used in everyday life, but it is not that simple for us. Because now the everyday Ukrainian simply cannot say "was" without bursting into tears. This was my home. This was my friend. This was my dog. This was my car. This was my job. And this was my father, showing an older man lying recently struck with a bullet or something lying in the street, while you hear in the video in the background, an agonized voice crying, "Papa, Papa." This was my daughter showing a little girl in a pretty dress loaded on a gurney and being wheeled into a crowded hospital and her father screaming, ‘Hurry, hurry, come quickly,’” translated for us. The narrative continued, the millions and millions of fresh wounds are bleeding with that word "was". Russia has drowned Ukraine in tears and blood in children's corpses. Then the video turned, the turning point of the video. It put the word "will" on the screen and made all these bright promises. “We will win. There will be new houses. There will be new cities. There will be new dreams. There will be a new story. And those we have lost will be remembered and we will celebrate anew. Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but it will become great.” As I was watching that video, I was thinking about this celebration that would be coming up in a number of weeks. I couldn't help thinking about the dark enemy of death standing over everything we value in this world and saying that same word "was". But then Christ in his resurrection victory standing over us and giving us a future and saying, the word "will" such as John 11, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Also Revelation 21, "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away." So this morning we join believing Christians around the world in celebrating that glorious future that Christ has bought with his own blood and his resurrection victory. We have a “will” that is guaranteed for us through the words of Christ. This morning, our focus is going to be on this majestic text. You just heard Hebrews 2:9 and there it says, "but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone." From that text, as I was meditating, the theme comes, seeing Jesus. The context in Hebrews is powerful. It's one of my favorite books in the Bible for the glory of Christ, the majesty of Christ that shines in that epistle. Hebrews 1 celebrates the infinite majesty of Christ. Hebrews 1:3, "The son, Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word. And after he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." Hebrews 1 gives this glorious vision of Christ, this majestic being. But then in chapter 2, it addresses the burning question, if Jesus is so glorious and so majestic, why did He seem so lowly, so weak? He was born of a human mother, Mary, in a stable where animals were sheltered. He lived as normal human beings do physically. He got hungry and thirsty and tired. His appearance was completely normal while He lived on earth. Even more shocking than all of that, his weakness, his physicality was his death on the cross, the painful and humiliating death of crucifixion. The author acknowledges that though Jesus is the creator and king of angels in chapter 1, He was made for a little while lower than the angels or a little lower than the angels while he was on earth. But he did this so that He might become one of us, that He might become human like us, be part of the human family and that He might be able to shed his blood to die for us and set us free from the penalty of our sins from death. Having achieved that saving work on the cross, Christ rose from the dead and is now exalted far above the heavenly realms, so we see Jesus exalted. That's going to be the focus of our study today. Seeing Jesus by Faith We begin with this concept of seeing Jesus, and we see Jesus by faith. Look again at Hebrews 2:9, the text says, "but we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor." Faith is the eyesight of the soul. Sight is the most powerful of all of our faculties. Science tells us that we derive 83% of our knowledge about the physical world around us, by our eyes, only 11% through hearing, 3 1/2% through smell, 1 1/2% through touch and only 1% by taste. 83% comes by sight. Therefore, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be filled with light." That's especially true of the eyesight of the soul, which is faith. If your spiritual eyes are good, your whole soul will be filled with God's glorious light. However Jesus went on, "If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" Another text speaks of the eyes of the heart. Ephesians 1:18, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." What could this be other than faith? What are the eyes of the heart, other than your faith, the ability to see invisible, spiritual realities, past, present, and future? That is the eyesight of the soul, it's faith, the eyes of the heart. Also in that great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, the author defines faith, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things, not seen." Not seen, invisible things. Later in that chapter in Hebrews 11:27, it speaks of Moses living the life of faith, “By faith Moses endured, listen, as seeing him who is invisible.” How do we do that apart from faith? It is by faith that we can see God who is invisible and to see Christ who is for us invisible. “Faith is the eyesight of the soul.” The text says that we see Jesus and we see him now, but we see Jesus now crowned with glory and honor. But we have never seen Jesus. Peter said in I Peter 1:8, "Though, you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." We've never seen Jesus. And we don't see him this morning. I hope you're not going to show us the invitation card that says,”See Jesus”, and say that's false advertising. “We're expecting to come to see Jesus and we saw you, the pastor. We want to see Jesus.” I want to see him too, but Peter said, “ you've never seen him, and we don't see him now.” He's speaking physically, but seeing Jesus physically never saved anyone anyway. The overwhelming majority of people that saw Jesus physically didn't believe in him. They didn't see him properly. Many think, oh, I wish I could have lived back then and seen Jesus with my own eyes. I don't deny it. It would've been a great grace, but just understand that most of the people that saw him underestimated him. His physicality threw them off. They didn't understand how a mere man could claim to be God. The reason was, there was nothing particularly attractive about him, physically. Isaiah 53 predicted this in verse 2-3, speaking of Jesus, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not." So if you had seen him physically, but you weren't given the gift of faith, you would not have seen him properly. The physical side of Christ alone does not save the soul. To be saved we must see Jesus by faith based on the word of God. We begin by saying, “We see Jesus crucified”. Seeing Jesus Crucified This morning we're going to see Jesus crucified. The text speaks of his suffering. Look again at Hebrews 2:9, "We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. Now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone." Jesus tasted death. He drank the cup of death, the cup of suffering. The cup of God's wrath for us in our place.We see him crucified. When the facts of the gospel, the account of his death are read publicly, or you read them privately, you have the opportunity to see Jesus crucified at that time, based on the scripture.Mark's account runs like this, Mark 15, "They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. There they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes they cast lots to see what each would get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read, the King of the Jews. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right, one on his left. At the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' which means my God, my God why have you forsaken me? And then with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last." When you read that, you can see Jesus crucified and see him based on the historical account. He tasted death for everyone. That is for all who would believe in him and trust in him by faith. He tasted death for them because only in that way could our sins be atoned for before a holy God. Sin and death were linked from the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, the warning was, do not eat from the forbidden fruit because in the day you eat of it, you'll surely die. The wages of sin has always been death, and Jesus tasted death for us all so that we would not have to die eternally. The real death is what the Bible calls the second death. What is that? Well, first comes physical death and it is appointed. Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” But what happens after judgment? If you're not a believer in Christ, hell comes after judgment, the Bible calls that the second death. The lake of fire is the second death. Revelation 20:14-15 says, "The lake of fire is the second death. And if anyone's name was not found written in a book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." So we see Jesus' death on the cross by faith, when the gospel is preached clearly and publicly. As I was pondering this theme of seeing Jesus, especially seeing Jesus crucified, I was led to consider the most famous verse in the Bible John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." The most famous verse in the Bible also has the most misunderstood word in the Bible. It's the little word "so". It is so misunderstood. Some people think it means “so much.” By saying it doesn't mean so much. I'm not saying God doesn't love us so much. I'm just saying that's not what that word means. Not in that verse. The Greek word translated "so" is "in the same way”. Two things are being compared. You're right in the middle of a thought with that famous verse, John 3:16, “For in the same way, God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should and not perish, but have eternal life.” The same way as what? We have to go back to the two verses that precede in John 3. In John 3:14-15 says, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God in the same way, loved the world," et cetera. It brings us to the story of the bronze serpent. In the Old Testament one of the great central events of the Old Testament is God's rescue of the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt through the Exodus. He brought them out into the brink of the promised land, but they did not trust God. They did not believe in God. They did not obey God. They did not cross the Jordan river and take the promised land. They were condemned to wander for 40 years in the desert, but God sustained them physically. He fed them with manna, bread from heaven, miraculous, that they collected every day. But these people complained about the manna, “’We’re sick of eating the same thing every day.” They should have crossed over into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, and they wouldn't be eating manna at that point. God wasn't hearing any of it. He judged the nation for their complaining. He sent poisonous desert serpents into the camp, and those serpents bit many Jews, and many died. The people cried out to God for deliverance, they cried out to Moses to intercede for them, and Moses did. He interceded to God, but God said, “ I will not take away the poisonous desert snakes, but I will help the people.” He commanded Moses to make a replica of the serpent out of bronze and lift it up high on a pole and put it where everyone in the camp could see it. This message would then be spread throughout the camp of hundreds of thousands of people, even a couple million people. This vast message would be spread that if you're bitten by a serpent, you should get out of your tent as soon as possible and go look at the bronze serpent, and if you do, God will see your look of faith. He will see it, and He will heal you and you will not die. This is a brilliant picture of the gospel. God was dividing the bitten people into two categories, believers and unbelievers. The believers would live and the unbelievers would die. In the same way, God lifted Jesus up on the cross to separate the bitten people into two categories, believers and unbelievers. Who are the bitten people? That's us. That's all of us. We all have the serpent bite on us, on our souls. It is sin. We have the poison of sin cursing through the blood vessels of our soul as it were. And we have limited time, friends. In the wisdom of God, He could have chosen different serpents and different poisons. There are some that'll kill you instantly. That wouldn't do any good, right, because then you have no time to look at the bronze serpent. God in his wisdom gave a certain kind of toxin that gave you some time, some time to go look at the bronze serpent. How long do you have? He didn't tell us. So what should you do when you're bitten? When you feel feverish, when you start getting hot and you feel the poison? You better get out and look at that bronze serpent. You better look while you have time. And how long do you have? I don't know how long you have. But you're here today under the hearing of the gospel, and you have the opportunity to look to Jesus now by faith, you have that chance. Jesus said in John 6:40, "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day." Do you realize what He's promising you there? If you just look to the Son now by faith right now, your sins will be forgiven. God will see you looking. You don't have to get up or go anywhere. You just look to Jesus, knowing you're a sinner. You can feel the poison of sin in your life. You know you have violated God's laws, you know that you deserve to die, and Jesus is your only hope. For God in the same way, loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever looks to him, sees him and believes in him, will have eternal life, they'll not perish in that second death. So that's what it means to see Jesus crucified. “For God in the same way, loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever looks to him, sees him and believes in him, will have eternal life, they'll not perish in that second death." Seeing Jesus Resurrected We also this morning, see Jesus resurrected. How do you do that? The same way, by reading the accounts of the empty tomb. We get to see the accounts of Jesus showing himself to his beloved disciples. We get to see it by faith when we read the account of John 20, for example, verses 1-8, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter who was behind him arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed.” What did he see? He saw the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He saw the stone had been moved away from the entrance to the tomb. He saw that there was no body in the tomb. He saw the grave clothes lying, wholly undisturbed in their original position with that sticky resonance, aromatic spices and the myrrh and all that, in which Joseph of Arimathea had wrapped Jesus. It was all there. The head cloth folded up in an orderly way off to the side. This is no work of a grave robber, all of the physical evidence spoke to resurrection, and John was convinced. He saw the physical evidence and believed. His faith at that moment was based on what he saw with his eyes. But then he knew very well, and God especially knew well, that all of us coming centuries later would not have the same privilege. I don't know how long it took Jesus' Jewish adversaries to destroy all the physical evidence, get rid of it, gone. I would say later that day maybe. The opportunity was gone. It would never be again to actually see the physical evidence. John adds in the very next verse, “ They still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” By scripture alone we see the physical evidence of Jesus' bodily resurrection. Now you can say, “but pastor, I know I can buy a ticket, a plane ticket to Jerusalem and I can go on a tour. They'll show me the empty tomb.” Do you believe that? Well, which one are you going to go to? I think there's like four of them. And I don't know what to believe if I go see some empty hole somewhere. It's not going to convince me of anything. Frankly, you're going to read the Bible and the accounts of Jesus' resurrection and you'll believe or not based on the scripture. That's why John wrote John 20:9, "They still did not understand from scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead." Later we had that even better evidence, which is an actual physical appearance of Jesus before his beloved disciples. John 20:19-20, "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace, be with you!' After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord." I wasn't there at the time, and neither were any of you. Oh, neither was Thomas. He should have been, but he wasn't. So Jesus comes a week later to convince doubting Thomas of his bodily resurrection. The account is in John 20:24-29, "Now Thomas called Didymus one of the twelve was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him 'we have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.' A week later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace, be with you.' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand, put it into my side, stop, doubting and believe.' And Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God.' Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed." All of you who are genuine Christians, born again through the power of the spirit are in that category. You have not seen, and yet you believe. You believe that Christ has been raised from the dead. On what basis? Scripture. You read it, and you believe it. There is no other basis to see Jesus resurrected. Seeing Jesus Crowned Thirdly, we see Jesus crowned. That's what the text says. Hebrews 2:9, "We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone." Once Jesus' humiliation was finished, God exalted his Son to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. Christ's present exaltation can only be seen by faith. By reading scripture, we're told amazing things about the present exaltation of Jesus. Scripture probes into the invisible heavenly realms to tell us some things we would have no other knowing. So this is the only source of our heavenly vision, the feeding of our faith by scriptural truth, the same way. “By reading scripture, we're told amazing things about the present exaltation of Jesus. Scripture probes into the invisible heavenly realms to tell us some things we would have no other knowing. So this is the only source of our heavenly vision…” What do we learn about Jesus' present exultation? Go back to the first verse I quoted from Hebrews, Hebrews 1:3 which says, "Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word.After he had provided purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." That's Jesus' present exaltation. He is sitting down at the right hand of God. Ephesians 1 teaches the same thing, v. 20-23, "God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." It's incredible! Jesus is at the right hand of God, ruling the universe. All the powers and principalities and authorities and spheres of influence, both among humans and angels and demons, all the seats of power there are in heaven and on earth are under Jesus's authority. Vastly under his authority, so that if they all combined together in one vast rebellion against Christ and sought to topple him from his throne, they must fail before the tidal wave of his omnipotence. That's the infinite greatness of Jesus's present exaltation. As God the Father said in Psalm 110, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion. You will rule in the midst of your enemies." God, the Father has been doing that. After Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, He said, “Sit down next to me and watch what I'm going to do.” By the power of the Spirit, He then makes his enemies transformed into friends, worshipers, or crushed by his sovereign power in his own good time. Those are the two options. Isn't it wonderful that we who are Christians were at one point God's enemies by our rebellion and our sins and our violation of his laws, but now in Romans 5:10, "When we were God's enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son." We're not enemies anymore. This is the majestic and powerful work going on all over the world. Christ is winning his former enemies over, and He's melting their hard hearts and bringing them, sweetly and submissively, under his kingly authority. We're glad that He's our king, glad to do His will and to serve him. Christ's future exaltation is going to be obvious for all to see, we won't need faith for that one. Now is the time of faith, this is the era of faith. This is where you come to church, Easter Sunday, and you have a pastor saying, “We see Jesus.” It's like, hmm, interesting. I'm telling you when He comes in glory, you won't need faith to see Him. You won't need faith at all. The era of faith will have ended. Matthew 24:27, "As lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west. So will be the coming of the Son of Man." Everyone's going to see it. Then Revelation 1:7 says, "Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen." That's the second coming of Christ, no faith needed. But now's the time for faith. Now's the time through faith to have your sins forgiven while there's time. Seeing Jesus Now and Continually Finally, we see Jesus now and we see him continually. So to all guests, I have already strongly urged you to look to Christ while there's time. I hope you can see the evidence of the snake bite in your life, just understand God's laws. Understand that you're commanded to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself, and you don't. Understand that God commanded you in his Ten Commandments, many things, and you violate them all, in your hearts and perhaps even with your bodies, you've broken God's laws. The poison of sin is coursing through the veins of your soul, and you have a limited time. Look to Jesus now while there's time. It's all you need do. What did the thief on the cross do but look to Jesus and see him as a coming king? Just look to Jesus and your sins will be forgiven. “You need to feed the eyesight of your soul by taking in God's word.” Now for all of us who are believers. We're not done looking to Jesus. We still need to look to him. Our faith is a living thing and that living thing needs constant food. You need to feed the eyesight of your soul by taking in God's word. Our vision of Christ can get pretty cloudy sometimes. Like the blind man that Jesus healed in stages in Mark chapter 8, “I see people, they look like trees walking around. And then once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes and then his eyes are open and he could see everything clearly.” So it is with us. We need to look to Jesus again and again daily, by taking in God's word and feeding on it. You can see Jesus by faith. At an unusually early age I had cataracts, cloudiness of vision in both my eyes. I ride a bike for exercise. I also listen to earbuds. So one day I was climbing up a hill, deaf through the ear with earbuds and pseudo blind, through my cataracts. I looked over my left shoulder, didn't see anything, coast was clear. I crossed the road, the car missed me by feet I think. I would want to say by inches, I felt the whoosh as it went by me. I needed to do something about these cataracts. The car was right in the center of one of them, I guess, I never heard anything, never saw anything. That's what we can get through sin and through unbelief. Even as Christians, we can get a cloudy vision. We just don't see Christ the way we need to. The author of Hebrews commands us to look to Jesus, to look to him, to persevere in our marathon race of faith, Hebrews 12, it says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God." We're supposed to look to Jesus every day, throw off the weights and the nets of sin that are entangling us, as we run this race with endurance. As I already mentioned in Hebrews 11:27, "Moses persevered as seeing him who is invisible." Christian brother and sister, run your race every day as seeing him who is invisible. Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, for God took him. Enoch walked with God by seeing him who is invisible. Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife, day after day. “Come lie with me, come lie with me.” She pulled on him and tempted him and tried to seduce him. And Joseph said, "How could I do this and sin, commit this great sin against God?" He could see the invisible God seeing him, and he could not sin. Job said, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl for God sees my every way and counts my every step." That's what it means to see Him who is invisible. Jacob had a dream at Bethel of heaven open and a stairway with angels ascending and descending. When he woke up, he said, "How awesome is this place? Surely God was here and I did not know it.” How many days do we as Christians live like that? God is here and we did not know it. I'm urging you to keep looking to Jesus. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing the word." As you hear, you see, and you see Jesus, you see him as the one who is invisible and you live a holy life, that's pleasing to God. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to see Jesus this morning in the scripture. Thank you for the joy of this day. Thank you for the joy of Christian fellowship that we get to band together and celebrate and urge one another on to be joyful. Lord, help us to see Jesus by scriptural intake, day after day and by faith, being developed. And, oh Lord, I pray that there wouldn't be a single person here under the hearing of the gospel that would walk out of this place now unconverted. But instead that their sins have been forgiven through simple faith, trusting in Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.

On Resurrection Sunday, Andy Davis preaches Hebrews 2:9 on how we see Christ, who is invisible, with the eyes of the souls, our faith.

Andy Davis preaches on John's eyewitness account of Jesus' crucifixion, establishing Jesus' life, death, and resurrection as historical facts.

Andy Davis preaches on the book of John and John's eyewitness account of Jesus' crucifixion, establishing a true testimony that every aspect of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection are indeed historical facts. -SERMON TRANSCRIPT- Please pray with me now. Father, as we have had the opportunity to sing songs that meditate on the death of Your Son, it's a sober meditation. It is good for us, O Lord, to meditate deeply and to understand the death of Jesus on our behalf. I pray that now, You would give us the gift of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in this place. For it is His unique work in this world to exalt Jesus to the highest place in our minds, our hearts, and our estimation based on the Scripture that He himself inspired. We pray now that there would be an anointing of the spirit on me, on my words, and then on all of our hearts so that we can understand the things that we have just heard, and that these truths would burn in our hearts within us, transforming us and enabling us to live, to walk in newness of life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 71:15 says, "My mouth will tell of Your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure." All of us infinitely underestimates what our salvation cost Jesus Christ. We underestimate the gravity of our sins and the holiness of God and the heat of His wrath, His righteous wrath, against us for our sins. We underestimate all of these things. Even if we've been Christians many years, even if we love Jesus, we underestimate what our salvation cost Jesus. This is a Good Friday observance. For myself, I was raised Roman Catholic, and Holy Week observances were a big part of my spiritual formation growing up. I remember being an altar boy and doing something called the Stations of the Cross. We would go from place to place in our church. There were stained glass pictures of the final hours of Jesus' life, and there would be readings at each of those. We Baptist, I think, have rightly rejected the elaborate system of holy days and the holy year that was handed down from medieval Catholicism on even to the present day. Baptists focus on Good Friday, on the death of Christ. Certainly here in this church, we preach Christ crucified every week. It's not a week that goes by that I don't mention the death of Christ for our sins, and it's as it should be. Yet, a Good Friday service like this gives us a chance to slow down, to pause, and to look at specific details connected with the death of Christ that ordinarily we wouldn't mention. This evening we're going to be looking at just some details from the death of Jesus from the gospel of John, chapter 19. I want to assert right away how important in particular John's testimony is, John's account of the death of Christ, because he was an actual eyewitness of Jesus's death. He was the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was standing right there watching Jesus die. He adds some specific details to our knowledge of the death of Christ that we could have no other way. One of those details is the fact that the soldiers determined that Jesus was already dead, greatly to their surprise, but to confirm it, one of the soldiers drove a spear up into Jesus' side. When he did, blood and water came flowing out. John strongly emphasized this, and he strongly emphasized the eyewitness testimony that that happened. He underscores it in verse 35 of John 19. "The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he tells the truth and he testifies so that you also may believe." That's very serious words connected with this flow of blood and water. The reason this is so important, among other reasons, is that every aspect of Jesus's life, Jesus' death, and Jesus' resurrection from the grave are established in the gospels as historical fact. The role of eyewitness testimony is vital to that. Luke begins his gospel with these words: "Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated…” . The reason Luke wrote his gospel based on careful investigation of the testimony of eyewitnesses is so that we would know the certainty of the things we have been taught. He means historical certainty, the accuracy of it. John in his epistle, 1 John 1:1, speaks of this also, his role as an eyewitness. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. And we proclaim this eyewitness testimony so that you also may have fellowship with us and with God." So it's all based on eyewitness testimony. Peter writes the same thing in 2 Peter 1:16, "We did not follow cleverly invented myths when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." Cleverly invented myths, skillfully woven fiction, Peter said, "We didn't do that." Jesus' life, His death, and His resurrection are not cleverly devised fables or myths. They're not fiction or even spiritual parables which when we read them are move or moved morally and spiritually to live a better life. No, that's not what the gospels are about. It's not what the New Testament is about. “…Every aspect of Jesus's life, Jesus' death, and Jesus' resurrection from the grave are established in the gospels as historical fact.” Some of you may have heard of a place called Narnia. It's a fantasy world crafted by an author named C. S. Lewis and written into his books called the Chronicles of Narnia, a fantasy world that four British children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, reached through a wardrobe, a wooden closet where the clothes are kept. They go further and further back, and suddenly, they're in another world, Narnia. Readers of Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia can derive all kinds of spiritual benefit from the books, indeed they have for decades now. But I certainly hope all of you know it's fiction. It's absolutely cleverly invented myths, fables which are written for a spiritual purpose. The same thing with Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, with the Shire and Gondor and Mirkwood and Mordor, and all those places. They're all fantasy locations, and Aragorn and Gandalf and Frodo are fictitious characters. I hope you all know that. Some people are so into these worlds that they can forget, and it gets blurry. But they are cleverly invented fables, it's not true, but the accounts we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are based on eyewitness testimony. They're history, works of historical fact based on the sober testimony of eyewitnesses. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul testifies concerning the resurrection of Christ from the dead that, "If Christ had actually not been physically raised from the dead," he said, "our preaching is useless, and so is your faith." In other words, if this whole thing that we're talking about tonight is a cleverly devised fable, you shouldn't have come here tonight. I shouldn't be up here talking. My preaching is useless, and so is your Christian faith. It's a strong statement. More than that, Paul says, "We have not been found to be false witnesses about God for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. It actually happened." And then a few verses later, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you're still in your sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost." That's how important history is to Christianity. So it really matters whether or not Christ really lived, whether or not Christ really said and did the things the gospels record that He said and did; whether or not Christ really died on the cross, and whether or not Christ really actually rose from the dead. The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are written based on the testimonies of eyewitnesses who saw Jesus personally. Over the centuries, many false teachers have arisen to trouble the church with questions about these very things. Early on there were some false teachers called docetists based on the Greek word “dokein”, meaning “to seem”, that Jesus seemed human, but He really wasn't. Others raised questions about Jesus's death. Even in the 19th century and beyond, some devised something called the Swoon Theory that Jesus actually fainted on the cross, He just seemed dead. Some theologically liberal scholars have questioned the gospel records as faulty because they contain miracles. They look on them as religious myths. Scholars like a man named Rudolph Boltman tried to go through and demythologize the New Testament, strip it of all of its, clearly, obviously, mythological aspects, miracles, and embarked on the quest for the historical Jesus. Can I just shut that down right now? You want the quest for the historical Jesus, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There's the historical Jesus. You don't have to go any further. It's all of it history based on eyewitness accounts, and that includes that of the apostle John in the account you just heard read, John 19. John was standing there, watched it happen, and he testified that it happened. Based on these gospel records, all four of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we have a strong sense of the truthfulness, the absolute certainty of what we have been taught. Jesus actually lived, fully God and fully human. Jesus actually died. He actually was dead on the cross. He literally died. The effusion of water and blood from His side proves it. Jesus actually rose from the dead, physically, bodily on the third day. Therefore, our sins are actually forgiven. We ourselves will actually be raised from the grave in bodies like Christ. We ourselves will actually live forever in heaven. That's how important this history is. Assurance, certainty, a sense of the certainty of the things you have been taught, that's what we get from meditating deeply on these historical details. The account of these details gives us an intensification of our awareness of these truths. The account of Jesus' death in John 19 gives us that certainty. The evidence is that Jesus died at exactly the right time that day. I mean within seconds. He died at exactly the right time to fulfill prophecy, to fulfill the plan of salvation that God had made for sinners all over the world in every generation, even from before the foundation of the world. Certainly, there were events, human events that led up to His trial, His conviction, and His execution. Satan did in fact put it in Judas heart to betray Jesus, so Satan had a role. Judas Iscariot did, in fact, conspire with the chief priest and the teachers of the law to hand Jesus over to them. This he did by identifying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane with a kiss. The chief priests and the teachers of the law and the Pharisees did, in fact, arrest Jesus. They did, in fact, bring Him to the house of Annas, the high priest, Annas and Caiaphas, did, in fact, condemn Jesus to death on the testimony... It all happened. They did, in fact, hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilate. Then they effectively pressured Pilate so that he would finally give in to them and murder an innocent man, a man he knew was innocent. Pilate did, in fact, condemn Jesus to death, turn Jesus over to the soldiers who did, in fact, mock Him and flog Him, spit on Him and beat Him. All of that's true. And they did, in fact, lead Him away to Golgotha where they crucified Him by nailing His hands and His feet to the cross with two other men, two robbers, one on His right, the other His left. Yes, yes, yes, these human actors, all of them did these human things, and they are held accountable for what they did. However, all of them were merely servants of almighty God carrying out a plan that had been crafted in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. Every one of those details had been planned out before God said, "Let there be light." Peter said this in his great Pentecost sermon in Acts 2, "Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by signs and wonders and miracles, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know." This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked men put Him to death, nailing Him to the cross.” Do you hear that? He was handed over to you by God, by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, carrying out a plan that had been crafted before the world began. They say the same thing a couple of chapters later in Acts 4. As the church is praying together, persecutions about to ramp up and they're getting ready for it by praying, this is what they said. "Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against Your holy servant, Jesus, whom You anointed." They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. They couldn't be clearer. They were following a script, though they didn't know the script or know that they were following a script. The soldiers gambled for Jesus clothes so that Scripture would be fulfilled. The soldiers didn't get up that day saying, "I think we'll fulfill Scripture today by gambling for someone's clothes." They just gambled for clothes because they wanted them, but the Scripture says, "So this is what the soldiers did because that's what the prophecy said they should do." All of this was crafted in the mind of God before God said, "Let there be light." Before the foundation of the world, God determined to crush His Son to death to save sinners like you and me from hell. That's what God decided to do for us. He established prophecies through the Holy Spirit, and through prophets so that we could identify, triangulate on this one person, of all the billions that have ever lived. This one man is the savior of the world. The prophecies identify Him. “Before the foundation of the world, God determined to crush His Son to death to save sinners like you and me from hell. That's what God decided to do for us.” One of the most important religious customs was animal sacrifice, which was established, I believe, in the Garden of Eden and then carried out multiple times with the patriarchs, Noah after the flood, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; they all did animal sacrifice. Especially, Moses at the time of the dreadful 10th plague, the plague on the first born, the night of the Passover when each Jewish family would set aside a lamb, a Passover lamb. There were certain stipulations about it, et cetera. But the laws in Exodus 12:46 about the Passover lamb was that not a single bone of the lamb would be broken. Exodus 12:46, "It must be eaten inside one house. Take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones." The same thing in Numbers 9:11-12 about the Passover, "They are to eat the lamb together with uneven bread and not leave of it till morning or break any of its bones." When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow the regulations. Jesus died at just the right instant to fulfill this prophecy. The thing with crucifixion is it's designed for cruelty. It's a very cruel death, it's a very vicious death because there's nothing immediately killing the victims. They were known to linger for days on the cross. When Jesus was dead, Pilate was shocked that He was already dead. The Jewish authorities, because it was a Passover, it was a high Sabbath, they knew that action had to be taken on these three men or they would linger all night, and they didn't want them on the cross all night. So Jesus died just in the nick of time to avoid having His bones broken. He had the power to do this. Jesus uniquely had the power over his life and his death. He said to Pilate, “The reason I entered the world was to testify to the truth.” None of you can make such a statement. Why did you choose to be born? What was your purpose in entering the world? None of us can say that. We don't have any purpose, we're born. But Jesus chose to enter the world. In the same way, He chose to die. If He hadn't chosen to die, He would never have died. He said this plainly in John 10:17-18, "The reason My Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I receive from my Father." That's an utterly unique speech that only Jesus could make. "No one can kill me if I don't want to die, but I'm actually laying down my life." At just the right time, Jesus gave up His spirit and died. He gave up His spirit of His own choice. John 19:28-30 says, "Later, knowing that all was now completed and so that the scripture will be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it and put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus' lips. And when He had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' And with that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." None of us can do that. You can't just pillow your head on your chest and die. But Jesus had that power to give up His spirit. If He had died even just a few moments later, His bones would've been smashed by the soldiers. It says in verse 31-33, "Now it was the day of preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have their legs broken and the bodies taken down. Soldiers, therefore, came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that He was already dead, they did not break His legs." There was a clear Jewish law against leaving dead bodies on a tree overnight. Deuteronomy 21 says, "If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance." Jesus was under a curse by being hung on the cross. As Paul points out in Galatians, "He was made a curse for us. Because of our sins, we deserve to be cursed by God." Jesus took that curse on Himself. The Jewish legalists are trying to avoid the defilement of the Passover by allowing these dead bodies to remain on the tree overnight. The soldiers in conformity with this Jewish demand brought probably a huge hammer, a mallet or something like that, smashed the legs of the first man, unspeakable cruelty, so that he couldn't push up. So also the other man, smashed his bones, probably sent the body into shock, greatly accelerated death because they couldn't push up, they couldn't breathe anymore, and soon they were dead. But the soldiers came to Jesus, and these were expert executioners, they knew He was dead. There's no doubt. They were surprised, I'm sure, because it's just a short time. But Jesus had fulfilled all the prophecies that He could while still alive, and He pillowed His head on His chest and gave up His spirit. And in this way, the prophecy was fulfilled, "Not a bone will be broken." “Why did you choose to be born? What was your purpose in entering the world? (…) We don't have any purpose, we're born. But Jesus chose to enter the world. In the same way, He chose to die.” The actual physical cause of Jesus' death I think is more violent than we can possibly imagine. It is possible that when that soldier shoved the spear up into Jesus side and the blood and water flowed out, it gives evidence of a level of internal violence inside Jesus that is unspeakable beyond anything we could possibly comprehend. Verse 34 says, "One of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." There's so much discussion about this blood and water, and there are many themes that one could pick up here. The hymn “Rock of Ages” by Augustus Toplady. "Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure, save me from wrath and make me pure." The blood taking away the wrath of God, the water cleansing as it speaks in the Book of Titus, being cleansed from our sins, so I think it's a valid meditation that Augustus Toplady does there. But I want to focus just on the significance of the blood and water physically. I was listening to a sermon by Martin Lloyd-Jones who before he was a preacher was a Royal physician, a doctor. He cited research done by other medical experts that this flow of water and blood was evidence that Jesus died of a ruptured heart, that the actual muscle of Jesus' heart was shredded. There's reasons for this. It has to do with the pericardium and what happens after death and all that. I'm not a doctor, I actually called a doctor friend as I was writing the sermon and he said, "We don't really know." So here I am saying I don't really know if Jesus died of a ruptured heart. But one thing I do know, when He was in Gethsemane, He was under such pressure that He sweat great drops of blue blood. Luke 22:44 says, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." What in the world is going on there? I believe that God revealed the cup to Him at levels and dimensions He had never seen before, and it knocked Him to the ground, and He was under intense mental, emotional, psychological, even physical anguish and pressure in Gethsemane. So much so that it seems, there's evidence, if He hadn't dispatched some angels to strengthen Him, He might have died right there. What could this be other than the wrath of God and the the relational separation, between Jesus and the Father as our sin-bearing substitute that pushed Him to a level of anguish and agony and grief that we can scarcely imagine. Jesus said in Mark 14:36, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will." That cup represents the aggressive, pure, holy wrath of God that God feels rightly for all of the sins and violations of His holy laws that we have committed. That's the cup. Psalm 75:8, it says, "In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs." That's the cup of God's wrath, judgment. Revelation 14:10 says, "He too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath." There is no man in history who understood the holy wrath of God better than the pure Son of God. Jesus experienced in a way we... we use these expressions…, but with Jesus it's not just expression, Jesus experienced hell on earth for us. He drank hell for us so we wouldn't have to. It cost Him. It knocked Him to the ground in Gethsemane. It put blood coming out of His pores, and maybe it shredded His heart. I do know this, that the effusion of water and blood proved that it stopped His heart, so at least this much we can say, the flow of blood and water proves that Jesus was actually dead. He died for us. And why is that important? Because we deserve to die. We deserve death. The wages of sin is death. Isaiah 53 says, "Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds, we are healed. We're all like sheep who've gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The soldier shoved this spear up into Jesus' side, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. John testified, "The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe." Believe what? What are you supposed to believe? Well, in the immediate case, believe that Jesus was actually human and that He was actually dead, and that His death on the cross is an actual atonement for your sins. As Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." That's what you're supposed to believe, that Jesus' death was for you, that you deserved to die, but Jesus died in your place so that you would not have to drink that cup. Whether his heart was actually literally ruptured or not, his heart was stopped. He was killed because of our sins. He died. So what? So therefore, we should have a sense of obligation. We should, first of all, realize, if our sins did that to Jesus' body, how much should we hate sin? How much should we hate sin since that's what it cost Jesus? So therefore, we should have a sense of indebtedness to Jesus resulting in personal holiness. Paul makes that point in 1 Corinthians 6, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you have been bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body." Do you know what that means, you're not your own, you've been bought and paid for? Jesus shed His blood for you. He owns you. Therefore, be holy. Here it's talking about sexual purity. Also, we should realize that Jesus bought us and, therefore, we should live for others. We should witness to others. We should evangelize others. This is the very point that Paul makes in II Corinthians 5, "For Christ's love compels us because we're convinced that one died for all and, therefore, all died. And He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again." There's an obligation we have. Because Jesus died for us, we should stop living for ourselves and live for Him and for others. The context there is evangelism, that we're ambassadors and that we should share the gospel with lost people. Personal holiness and evangelism, both of them flowing from a sense of indebtedness or obligation we have to Jesus. “Christ's death does indeed pay our debts. So in that sense, we're free from debt. But there's a biblical sense in which we are indebted also. We're indebted to Christ; to live for Him who died for us and to live for others who need Him.” I'll close with this story. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf was a German nobleman born in the year 1700 into a life of ease and privilege. He was a good man in that sense, a moral man, a Christian, who was seeking to live a good life. But one day as a teenager, he was arrested by a powerful painting at an art museum in Dusseldorf. It was by Italian master Domenico Fetti, and it was called in the Latin, “Ecce homo”, which is what Pontius Pilate said, "Behold the man." It depicted the crucified Christ in agony on the cross. At the bottom of the painting was this caption, "All this I have done for you. Now what will you do for Me?" He stood there looking at this painting and was dissolving in tears. He had a mystical powerful experience right there looking at that painting. He resolved that for the rest of his life he would serve Christ and serve others. He became the leader of the Moravians at Herrnhut. The Moravians were leaders in Protestant missions long before William Carey, sending missionaries to the West Indies. A tremendous movement of Moravians, all of it flowed from his commitment to Christ. "All this I've done for you. Now what will you do for me?" Christ's death does indeed pay our debts. So in that sense, we're free from debt. But there's a biblical sense in which we are indebted also. We're indebted to Christ; to live for Him who died for us and to live for others who need Him. As Isaac Watts put it so powerfully in his hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” the final stanza, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all." Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank You for the chance we have tonight to meditate with more detail than usual on the death of Jesus for us. Help us to hate sin. Help us to love Christ more than we do. Help us to live for His glory more than we do. Help us to be willing to put sin to death because we've learned to hate sin because it cost Jesus all of that agony. Help us to know that we are forgiven in ways that are deeper and richer than we can possibly imagine. And Lord, help us to go again and again to the cross for the power to live for others. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

In the sermon on Mark 3: 7-19, Andy Davis expands on this summary of Jesus’ earthly ministry: the physical and spiritual healings; the evidence of Christ's deity; and the twelve apostles' call. - sermon Transcript - Turning your Bibles to Mark chapter 3, we continue our study in this incredible gospel. As we look at Christ’s powerful ministry just summarized, kind of a summary statement that the gospel of Mark gives us here. Throughout Jesus's ministry, he was surrounded daily by huge crowds, huge crowds crushing him, invading his personal space, demanding ministry from him, especially healings. Most of these people had, it seemed far less interest in his preaching, in his doctrine, than they did in getting their bodies healed or getting their stomachs full. Jesus knew their hearts better than they did. He knew that a mob is fickle, that nothing of lasting consequence happens by unruly self-focused crowds. A crowd, then a short time later, the crowd dissipates and it soon throngs after some other fad. Jesus himself personally thinned out such a crowd. In John chapter 6, right after the feeding of the 5,000, the people came back the next day for another physical feeding, and Jesus urged them to lift their eyes heavenward and also inward to the health of their souls. He said in John 6, "I tell you the truth. You're looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not labor for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give you." And they asked him, "What must we do to do the works that God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent." Jesus wanted them to feed on a different kind of bread, to feed on his atoning work, his body and his blood given up for sinners, given up in death for the forgiveness of their sins. So in John 6, he turned up the heat and taught them this shocking statement. John 6:51, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Oh, by the end of the day, that huge self-focused, worldly minded throng had been greatly thinned down. John 6:60 says, "On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching, who can accept it?’ And from that time on many of them no longer follow Jesus.” Jesus was not surprised by that. He did it on purpose, to thin down that crowd. Now in the account we're looking at today, in Mark 3, we come to another throng, a massive pulsating crowd that was following Jesus, I think for similar reasons. We also come to a remarkably efficient summary of Jesus' earthly ministry. We have that huge crowd. They're desperate only for physical healing, not really aware of what their true needs were, the salvation of their souls. They represent the vast mission field of the world, the teaming millions of lost souls who need forgiveness far more than they need any earthly thing, more than they need physical healing, more than they need material prosperity, more than they need their stomachs filled with bread, more than they need any sensual pleasure or earthly blessing. Forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with almighty God, that's what they need. Teaming multitudes, crowds and crowds of people pressing in on Jesus, physically crushing him, wanting healing, and for the most part, it seems not anything more. We also have in this account, terrorized demons who know the truth about Jesus and who are falling down before Jesus and are screaming right theology at Jesus, from their infinitely wicked beings, screaming at Jesus, "You are the son of God," and Jesus forbidding them to speak those holy words. They are the hidden enemies of the gospel of Christ, the hidden enemies of the advancing kingdom of Jesus Christ. The servants of Satan from whose dark kingdom, souls must be rescued from invisible chains that are holding them. Thirdly, in this account, we have the calling of the twelve apostles, chosen by Christ to lead the worldwide advance of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Twelve ordinary men who change the future course of the world by the power of God and by the simple ministry of preaching the preached word. This chapter and this section that we're walking through today captures these basic elements that's going on even to this present day. This is how the kingdom of Christ is spread from a small upper room one day in one city in Jerusalem, and moved out even to the ends of the earth. By the time Jesus' ministry will have finished, by the time all the work is done, there will be a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe and language in people and nation, no longer a mindless pulsating, earthly minded crowd, but changed from a mindless earth focused mob to a glorious heavenly congregation. Christ’s Ministry: The Mission Field It begins with the mission field, crushing crowds needing healing. Look at verses 7-10. "Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake and a large crowd from Galilee followed. And when they heard all that he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him to keep the people from crowding him, for he had healed many so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him." So Jesus withdraws. He withdraws to the sea with his disciples. Why? Well, it's because of the determination of his human enemies to kill him. Jesus had flouted the ironclad grip, the authority of the Pharisees in their legalism over the Sabbath. He'd allowed his disciples to pick heads of grain and rub them together in their hands and eat them on the Sabbath and defended it, and he defended it in shocking terms. He claimed to be the Lord of the Sabbath, something only God could say. No one else in history could ever make such a claim. " The Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath," [Mark 2:28]. No one else in history could ever make such a claim. " The Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath," [Mark 2:28]. Then the next Sabbath, that seems the very next Sabbath in the next account in Mark's gospel, Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath with a shriveled hand in the synagogue. He did it right in front of men who are determined to catch him in some faults and find accusation, and accuse him and arrest him. He defended it with a clear question, Mark 3:4, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" After healing this man, this was the reaction of his enemies in Mark 3:6, "The Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus." Verse 7, "Jesus withdrew, Jesus withdrew to the Sea of Galilee." It was not yet his time to be arrested and brought to trials, it was too early for that. He works a strategic retreat, knowing the mind of his enemies, knowing what they intended, he retreats. He gets away from them, temporarily kind of turning the heat down under the pot, lest it boil over too soon. But along with this, we have a huge crowd following. By this time Jesus' reputation as a healer has spread far and wide. This was openly asserted in Mark's gospel, Mark 1:28, "News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee." A few verses later, Mark 1:32 says, "That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed and the whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases." Later in chapter 1 after healing the leper, Jesus commanded him, "Remember not to tell anyone." Instead, the man went out and spread the news everywhere. In Mark 1:45, as a result, Jesus could no longer enter town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places, yet the people still came to him from everywhere, huge crowds thronging around Jesus. Then back home in Capernaum, in Mark 2 again, the word spread again, and crowds thronged so large that as you remember, the four friends bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus, can't get close to Jesus, can't even get near him. They had to destroy the roof to get the paralyzed man down in front of Jesus. Mark, 2:2, "So many gathered. There was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them." So huge throngs. Again, Jesus healed the paralyzed man and linked it to his authority to forgive sins. “So that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Rise and walk,’ and the man did. He took up his mat and went home.” The reaction is again huge. In Mark 2:13, a large crowd came to him and he began to teach them beside the lake. Then later at Levi's house, a huge crowd of tax collectors and sinners gathered, and there seemed to have been a massive revival there as many of them turned to faith in Christ, but again, a huge throng. So by the time we get to today's account, the news about Jesus as a healer is spread far and wide, and even larger crowds are coming. Look again, verses 7-10, "Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake and a large crowd from Galilee followed." Verse 8, "When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions that crossed the Jordan around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him to keep the people from crowding him for he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him." We see the diversity of this huge crowd. They're from Galilee, his hometown, they're from Judea and Jerusalem, the Southern part of Israel. Jews, no doubt hearing what Jesus was doing, wanting to come, then from Idumea and the regions across the Jordan around Tyre and Sidon, its listed there, it's a mixed crowd. Almost certainly many Gentiles are included at this point. The region of Idumea was Southwest of Judea, basically made up of Edomites, descendants of Esau, the Greek name for Edom. Tyre and Sidom were merchant cities, port cities, Gentile regions on the Mediterranean shore. The size of the crowds are huge and it's a mingled group, probably Jew and Gentile together. The text calls it a great multitude, and there's an urgency in the crowds. The people were crushing Jesus, they're pressing in on him. Remember that Jesus ordinarily liked to heal individually by touch. There's no account of Jesus doing mass healings, and so it seems like he did it one at a time, this real bottleneck where he wanted to interact with people, even to touch them. Sometimes people would be healed just by touching his garments, like the woman with the bleeding problem that we'll read about, God willing, later in Mark 5. Then again in Mark 6:56, it says, "Wherever he went into villages, towns or countryside, they placed the sick in the marketplaces and they begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched them were healed." This huge throng of people threatened to crush Jesus with their urgent needs, and it's pretty obvious what their motive is, pretty obvious what they want. They want physical healing. When you're hurting, when you're sick, when you're dying, when you're disabled, when you're crippled, blind, leprous, paralyzed, or a loved one is any of those things, it seems like there's nothing else you care about but having that pain alleviated, nothing else matters. And here's Jesus. Remember the elements of his healing ministry that we zeroed in on a number of weeks ago. Jesus' healing ministry was successful in every case, it was universal. There was no one he could not heal. There was no disease he couldn't address. It was effortless. His physical healings were effortless, instantaneous. People were healed instantaneously as though they had never had the malady at all. The leper skin is instantly restored. The man with the shriveled hand, it's like his hand was always working normal and fine. As I said, his healings were personal. He wanted an interaction with them. This is big. His healings were free, he didn't charge anything. He said to his disciples when he sent them out to heal, "Freely you oversee, freely give," and the healings were varied. He handled different cases, different ways. It was something different every time. That was Jesus' healing ministry. Their urgency bordered on rudeness, born from desperation, verse 10, "For he had healed many so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him." When the crowd is wanting to crush him, they're falling in on him, falling down in front of him, pulling on him, pleading with him, pulling on his garments. That's what it was like, desperate and sad people. Jesus, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, drinking in all of that misery as if absorbing it like a sponge into himself. It was difficult for him and his disciples to do anything normal, for him to eat or rest, or take a break, or do anything. It was impossible. Jesus' priority in all of this as we've seen is his preaching ministry. The disciples, the followers of Jesus, they knew. They were there for more than the healing. Maybe they'd been healed already. They weren't there for healing. They weren't there for feeding. They were there because they wanted to hear the word of God. They hungered for the word of God. They knew that no man spoke like this man. No one had ever taught like Jesus and they wanted it. They wanted to drink that in, and this was definitely Jesus' priority as well. All of the healings, as spectacular as they were, all of them were temporary. And there's no promise that some other malady or some other injury might not come to you next week or next month or next year, we're still under the curse of Adam. We're still under the curse of misery and sin and death. All the healings were temporary, though they were real healings. The preaching of the word of the kingdom was the essential. That was the healing needed by all these sinners, though their felt needs made them desperate, their felt needs made them come. Jesus knew their true need was the ministry of the word. He commanded his disciples to get a boat ready for him. Look at verse 9, "Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him to keep the people from crowding him." Sitting out on a little boat in the lake gave Jesus the twin benefit of some space, physical space away from the crowd, keeping the crushing crowds at bay, and it also facilitated preaching through the acoustics, the sound reverberating off the surface of the water. More people could hear him preach, and we're going to see that again in the next chapter, chapter 4. Christ’s Ministry: The Enemy All right. So that's the crowd. Let's talk about the enemies, the seething demons needing restraining. Look at verse 11 and 12, "Whenever the evil spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, 'You are the son of God,’ but he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was." Again, the demons, again, the unclean spirits. This has already been a big theme in Mark's gospel, and it's going to continue to be. Demons are spiritual beings, they're fallen angels or rebellious angels. Here in the text they are called unclean spirits. They're filthy, they're vile spiritually, they're polluted. They're morally dark beings, twisted in their inner beings, and Jesus's authority over them is strong evidence of his deity and the power of his kingdom. Not only did Jesus rule over the physical realm over every disease and sickness among the people. He also ruled effortlessly over demons, over the spiritual realm, the supernatural realm, for every demon was terrified of Jesus. They're terrified of him, which I find greatly encouraging. Don't you? How terrified demons are of Jesus. I just want to hide behind Jesus; just get behind him because the demons that are still active, though we don't see them, they didn't retire after Jesus ascended to heaven, but they're still invisibly active doing their mischief, but they're terrified of Jesus in these gospel accounts. They fall down before him. They clearly acknowledge his power over them. They have no recourse but to beg for his mercy in many cases. What are they afraid of? They're afraid of him and they're afraid that he's going to torture them before the appointed time. They fully expect to be tortured in the lake of fire. None of them are in the lake of fire now, no being is. That's in the future, but there is this place called the pit, Tartarus, or the abyss, that is a place of demonic torture, or torture of demons, and they're afraid of it. So we have in Luke 8:31, "They begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the abyss." The word just literally means “bottomless”, it's a place of torment. II Peter 2:4 says, "For if God didn't spare angels when they sinned, demons, but threw them down into Tartarus, and deliver them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment." These demons have freedom to roam and cause mischief, and they're afraid that they're going to lose that freedom, and they're going to be tortured before the final punishment that they certainly will have, so they cry out before him. They're shouting, yelling, screaming. They're unruly and seething, churning rebels, no peace, no serenity, nothing but seething rage, but they get their theology right. Their doctrine is right about Jesus. They shout out, "You are the son of God." They have no doubt whatsoever about his identity. Earlier, the demon in the synagogue of Carpenium had said, "I know who you are. The holy one of God,” testifying to Jesus' perfect moral purity as sinlessness. They knew he had never sinned. Later in Mark 5, the demoniac of the Gerasenes, legions of demons will say this, he shouts at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me Jesus, son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me." They're so afraid of Jesus, but they're getting the theology right. James talks about this in James 2:19, "You believe that there is one God, good. Even the demons believe that and they shutter." So they get their doctrine right and they're terrified. Jesus silences these demons, verse 12, “He gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.” They're on a gag order, they're silenced by the sovereign power of Jesus. They're not allowed to talk about him. Why is that? They're saying the right things, but Jesus does not want demons as his mouth pieces. He doesn't want demons as his representatives, so he silenced them. He's going to send out the apostles to preach. They're going to be his official representatives and so also the entire church. Christ’s Ministry: The Messengers So we come now to them, the messengers, ordinary men who are appointed. Look at verse 13-15, "Jesus went up on a mountain side and called to him those he wanted and they came to him. He appointed twelve, designating them apostles, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons." This is Jesus' long range plan. While demons were forbidden from speaking his name and his kingdom, the twelve apostles would be commissioned to do precisely that and to proclaim in Jesus name, the forgiveness of sins. These apostles would at the human level be the foundation of the church that would come. Paul says in Ephesians 2:20 and 21, “The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord." That's built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets it says. These apostles were sovereignly called, appointed by Jesus. He went up on a mountain side. Well, why is that? As usual, it was a place of isolation for him, a place of prayer, a place where he could have intimate fellowship with God. He went away from the throngs to pray. Luke 6 tells us at that time, he spent the whole night in prayer. He spent all night in prayer, Luke 6:12 and 13, "One of those days, Jesus went out on a mountainside to pray, and he spent the night praying to God. And then when morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them whom he also designated apostles." He spends the night in prayer, I find this convicting. If the perfect and pure son of God needed time in prayer before making a vital decision, how dare we be prayerless before the big decisions of our lives? How dare we say effectively by our prayerlessness, "I got this one, God. I know what to do.”? When we're weak, then we're strong when we take it to the Lord in prayer. The Lord spent all night and then conferring with his father, he chose the men he wanted and he's summoned them by name to come to him. John 10:3 says, "My sheep listened to my voice.” The sheep listened to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:27, "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me." He calls them and they come to him, and he appoints twelve. He designates them to be apostles. These men could not take such an honor upon themselves. It was not for them to call themselves apostles, but they had to be chosen and identified, and designated by Christ for this role. Jesus said to the twelve in John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last." If the perfect and pure son of God needed time in prayer before making a vital decision, how dare we be prayerless before the big decisions of our lives? Jesus' choice of them was most certainly based on his knowledge of them, his knowledge of their hearts and in what they would become. Out of all the crowd that was following him, he knew all of them, all of them individually and perfectly. Remember the account at the end in John chapter 1, where he meets a man named Nathaniel. When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said of him, "Now here is a true Isralite in whom there is no guile. He is exactly what he appears to be, there's no deception in this man." Nathaniel had never met Jesus before and he said, "How do you know me?" And Jesus said to Nathaniel, "Before Philip called you while you were sitting under the fig tree, I saw you. That's how I know you. That's how I know you have no guile in you. I saw you." He is the one who has eyes of blazing fire and feet of burnished bronze. He sees us and knows us, and Nathaniel's blown away. He said, "Rabbi, you're the son of God. You're the king of Israel." Jesus said, "Because I told you I saw you under the fig tree you believe, that I'm the son of God, the king of Israel. You're going to see greater things than that. You're going to see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” What a great first conversation to have with Jesus, but the core of it is, “I saw you and I know you.” Negatively, the same thing with the teaming crowd, that pulsating crowd, he saw them and knew them too. At the end of the next chapter in John's gospel, John 2: 23-25 says, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast. Many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name, but Jesus would not entrust himself to them because he knew all man. And he did not need man's testimony about man for he knew what was in a man." Before he chose his twelve apostles, he didn't do references. He didn't call up the references. "Can you tell me more about Peter? What kind of man is he?" It'd be an interesting conversation, but he conferred with his Father and he made this choice. Now these twelve, all of them are sinners. They're quite an interesting lot, aren't they? Don't you praise God for how messed up these men were? They're faithful, it’s true, but they also constantly just didn't get it. We're going to walk with them through some of their trials. They're ordinary men, nothing special about them in that respect, sinners saved by grace. But by the power of the spirit, these apostles would turn the world upside down for Christ. They would be world-changing men. There were twelve of them, not an accident that there were twelve. The number should call to mind the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve patriarchs of the nation of Israel. This was to be the new Israel, a nation of believers. They were designating apostles, which means “sent ones”, emissaries, ambassadors sent out from the king, and he would commission them that they should go out into all the world. He said in John 20:21, "As the father has sent me, even so I am sending you." They're sent ones, they're apostles. At the end of this gospel that we're studying, Mark 16:15-16, "He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned." That's the commission they're going to be sent out to. There are two aspects of his ministry. He appointed twelve, designated them apostles, that they might number one, be with him. Then number two, that he might send them out to preach and have authority to drive out demons. So first, they had to be with him. They had to live with him, walk with him, observe him, learn from him. They would eat with him. They would suffer persecution with him. They would listen to how he interacted with other people, with the rich and the poor, with the powerful and the weak, with women, with children, with the Pharisees and Sadducees, with tax collectors and sinners, and lepers and Roman centurions and their servants, and synagogue rulers and their daughters. They would see all of these things. And yes, they would learn by example, how to live, how to pray, how to do all those things. But they also were like little mini camcorders, just recording the things that happened. They were eyewitnesses and based on their testimony, do we know anything about Jesus of Nazareth at all? The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all of them are based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles. Jesus said this to the twelve in John 15:27, "You also must testify for you have been with me from the beginning. You were there when all those things happened, you were eyewitnesses." Luke is not one of the apostles, but he wrote his gospel based on apostolic testimony. Luke said in Luke 1:1-2, "Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word." So we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John based on the eyewitness account of the apostles, or again, as John the apostle said in 1 John, 1:1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life." Everything's based on historical fact. It's based on things actually having occurred in space and time. These ordinary men would be charged with being the witnesses to the son of God. Then they would be sent out to preach and have authority to drive out demons, and by these means, Christ would build his worldwide kingdom. What were their names? They're very familiar to us. Look at verse 16-19. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James son of Zebedee and his brother, John, to whom he gave the name Boanerges which means sons of thunder, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. In all the lists of the twelve apostles, Simon Peter is always listed first. The name Peter is a nickname, “Rock”. He was a natural born leader. He was impetuous, occasionally a “speak first, think later” kind of person, but he also would be the first to testify among the twelve that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God. He would have to be deeply humbled of his pride, broken down by God, and then built back up and restored by Christ, and then used in a mighty way on the day of Pentecost to preach that sermon that led to the conversion of 3,000 people, Simon Peter. Then you've got James and John, brothers, sons of Zebedee, called the Sons of Thunder because of I think their boldness in wanting to call down fire on a Samaritan village that would not let Jesus pass through, like modern-day Elijah, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire on that Samaritan village?" Jesus rebukes them, but he also gives them this nickname, “Sons of Thunder”. James was the first of the twelve to be martyred, beheaded by wicked King Herod. John would write five books in the New Testament, including the priceless gospel of John, and the incomparable book of Revelation, the close of the cannon, and then his three epistles, first, second, and third John, and he's known as the apostle of love. An amazing work that God did in John to transform him in that way, but these three, Peter, James, and John were the inner circle of the twelve. They were the ones that were selected and went with Jesus up on the Mount Transfiguration. They were the ones who are called apart from the other twelve to be with him in Gethsemane, and to be with him in his final hours on earth, Peter, James, and John, the inner circle. Then you've got Andrew, Peter's brother. He was known for constantly bringing people to Jesus. Everywhere he is, he's bringing people to Jesus. Wouldn't it be great to be an Andrew in our present day? Then there's Philip from Bethsaida, same hometown as Peter and Andrew. He was the one that would say, "Show us the father and it's enough for us,” when Jesus would say, "Don't you know me Philip, even after I've been with you all this time?" Then you've got Bartholomew, who was led to follow under the influence of Philip in John 1:45. Most likely, many scholars think that he was Nathaniel. Don't know for sure, but it's quite possible, the very Nathaniel I was talking about earlier was indeed Bartholomew. Then you've got Matthew, also known as Levi the tax collector, who we were introduced to a few weeks ago. Then you've got Thomas, called the twin. He's very famous, isn't he? The doubting Thomas. He missed the bodily appearance of Jesus raised from the dead, and said, "Unless I put my finger in the nail marks and put hand in the side, I will not believe in the resurrection." A week later, Jesus came and gave him the privilege that he wouldn't give to any of us, which is of actually touching the body, the resurrected body of Jesus. And why is that? Because he's one of the twelve, he's an eyewitness. Jesus said, "Go ahead and do it. Touch my wounds, touch my body, touch me and see. The spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see, I have." Then he said, "Stop doubting and believe," and Thomas did. He said, "My Lord and my God,” and Jesus said, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet to believe." And there's James, son of Alphaeus, very little is known about him. You got Thaddeus, very little is known about him, we’ll find out in heaven. There's some traditional stories about them, but not in scripture. Then you have Simon the Zealot, all we know is the zealot. That would be he's very nationalistic, a Jewish man who hated Roman domination of the Jews in their own promised land, and who without the grace of God would probably have wanted to kill Matthew the collaborating tax collector, but instead they were brothers in the gospel, Simon the zealot. Then always, in all the lists of the twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot comes last and always, he's identified as the traitor, the one who betrayed Jesus, and that was no surprise to Jesus. Jesus knew him like he knew every man. He says at the end of that account in John 6 that I began this sermon with, when all those people are going away, he said to the twelve, "You don't want to leave too, do you?" And Peter said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Then Jesus said this, "Have I not chosen you the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?" Not “one of will become a devil later”, “one of you is a devil right now." These are the twelve, and isn't it amazing that Jesus could change the world through twelve such ordinary men as this? If God can use them, he can use each of us. Application Briefly, let's take some lessons from this. First of all, isn't it going to be exciting to see the huge crowds, the throngs of self-focused, focused selfish people transformed up in heaven to passionate, eternal worshipers of the glory of Christ? That's the work that goes on, frankly, in each one of us. We come to God with selfish motives, and we're transformed to thinking higher ways. We're transformed to care more about our souls than we do of our bodies. Isn't it marvelous that the miracles that Jesus did, the accounts that we read about are foundational to our faith? I love this, John 20, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this gospel, the gospel of John. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. And by believing, you may have life in his name.” My faith gets strengthened every time I read these accounts of Jesus' miracles. I don't need him to heal me physically. I don't need him to heal my loved ones physically. I pray for it. I yearn for it, and so we should, and we have prayed for each other through the COVID era and through other occasions. There have been chances to trust God for healing, but whether he does or doesn't, Jesus has done enough to convince me that he's the son of God and that I can trust in him for the salvation of my soul, because foundationally, I'm convinced the real healing that I need and that all of you need is spiritual, not physical. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”[ Luke 5:31,32]. Next, as I already said, let's celebrate Jesus' absolute power over demons. They're still active. You can't see them, but how many of your headaches and your depressions, and your discouragements, and your temptations, and the bigger things in your life are mediated to you by the malevolent power of demons. We underestimate, all of us underestimate them, but we're told in Ephesians 6, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Let's be strong in Jesus, the triumphant powerful king of the kingdom of heaven. Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Let's put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil's schemes, “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark age, and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms." Those are demons, friends, and they're opposed to us. So let's rejoice and delight in Jesus' absolute power over demons. Then finally, let's delight in these twelve ordinary men who preached a simple gospel. Just think this week, if Jesus can use Peter, he can use me. If Jesus can use Thaddeus, of whom we know nothing, he can use me. All you have to do is speak the words of the gospel. The same gospel that saved you, that God sent his son into the world to live a sinless life, to die an atoning death on the cross, to shed his blood for sinners like you and me, and God raised him from the dead on the third day, and by repentance and faith in Jesus, our sins forgiven. We get to proclaim that message this week. Let's go ahead and invite people to church and say, "We're going to be celebrating the resurrection victory of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ." Close with me in prayer. Father, as we turn our attention now to the Lord's supper, we thank you for the feeding that we've already had. We thank you for the simplicity and the truth of the word of God, the gospel of Mark. And father, I pray that you would sustain and strengthen us, not just by the ministry of the word, but now mysteriously and powerfully by the ordinance of the Lord's supper. And we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Tune Up is a Wednesday noon meal series usually led by Rev. Andy Davis. First Baptist Belton exists for the sole purpose of knowing Jesus intimately, serving Jesus passionately, and sharing Jesus globally. Our desire is to know Jesus, have a passion t

Each year True Tales Live has the on month set aside for the theme: Activism/Exercising Your Rights. It has been a consistently popular theme and this Zoom edition was no exception. Our three storytellers (in order of appearance) were Jezrie Marcano-Courtney ("The Blasphemer" ) Vicki Juditz ("Longing for Jail Time") and in a rerun recorded at PPMTV Studio on May 28, 2019, Arnie Alpert ("Bending Toward Justice"). After the storytelling there is a brief Q+A session from the Chat List on Zoom and then our announcer, Amy Antonucci, hosts a discussion with Arnie Alpert and Cathy Wolff...all three of these folks have been very involved in "Activism" and they talk a bit about that, but also pay tribute to a NH Legislature Renny Cushing, who had just passed away about 2 weeks before this show. Renny was an activist for many things, but was connected with our program by being one of several people who helped rid New Hampshire of the Death Penalty on May 30, 2019... two days after Arnie Alpert presented his story "Bending Toward Justice". This discussion between Amy, Cathy, and Arnie also included a few words from Storyteller, Activist, Andy Davis who happened to be in the viewing audience. For "Backstory" fans ... we did not do that portion of the program for this show.

Andy Davis unfolds Revelation 10, pointing to the reality of God's glory in both the physical and spiritual realms. Guest preacher at SEBTS on 3/16/22

In this episode, Andy and Wes cover Acts 3:11-26. Peter preaches a powerful sermon giving all glory to God and to Christ for the prior healing, calling upon the listeners to repent of their sins and to believe the gospel.

With 15+ years of experience within the data centre sector, our guest this week is Andy Davis, director of DataX Connect a business designed to match talent with new businesses. In this interview with JSA Europe's João Marques Lima, Davis discusses major data centre trends, especially around talent, including the challenges around attracting and retaining people into the sector. He discusses the need to make the jobs more appealing to entry-level members as well as what operators can do to help attract and retain that talent. Davis is also the host of his own podcast, the Inside Data Centre Podcast where people working in the data centre sector share their stories.SUBSCRIBE to JaymieScottoTV for the latest Telecom News: https://www.youtube.com/JaymieScottoTV HOMEPAGE: http://www.jsa.net LIKE JaymieScottoTV on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/JaymieScotto... FOLLOW JaymieScottoTV on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jsatv

In this episode, Andy and Wes cover Acts 3:1-10. Peter and John continued in the daily life of Judaism, and God used it to give them an opportunity to advance the Kingdom of Christ. They saw a famous beggar sitting at the temple gate called Beautiful...

Andy Davis walks us through Revelation 10:1-11, pointing us to the reality of God's glory present in both the physical and spiritual worlds.

Andy Davis preaches an expositional sermon on Mark 1:29-39. The sermon focuses on the nature of Jesus’ healing ministry and the importance of prayer and preaching in his ministry. - Sermon Transcript - Turn in your Bibles to Mark's Gospel, Chapter One. We're looking at verses 29 through 39 as we move through this incredible gospel message. We live in a world groaning in the pain and agony of physical disease. The worldwide ravages of disease are so devastating. The way that diseases destroy the body, the way that they change the pallor of the skin. They make people look gaunt or look like living skeletons. It's simply devastating to see. God hears the cry of the afflicted who cry out from their beds of pain and suffering begging God for relief. "How long, oh Lord, must I lie in this bed and suffer?" Some of you I know are dealing with chronic pain day after day with little or no relief. Others are in the middle of a serious battle with disease. You're undergoing heavy treatments and procedures and the hope of healing by the skills and insights of the medical community. More than that, however, you are crying to God directly for help, for healing. My desire is that this sermon will feed your faith as you cry out to God. That your faith will be fed. But your suffering is just a fraction of the overall worldwide groaning of a world swimming in a sea of disease and pain and death. When Adam sinned, he led the entire human race into the death penalty that God had imposed. God had warned Adam, "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat of it, you will surely die." From the moment that Adam ate, he died spiritually, and he be began to die physically though it would not come for nine centuries. The Bible also teaches that in Adam, all of his descendants sinned and through Adam, all of us die as well. Disease is one of the main executioners of the human race. The mortality of the human body was exposed as part of Adam's death penalty. So even down to the cellular level, our bodies are dying. God and his judgment on our human race allowed, or maybe fashioned, various diseases to torment and to kill people all over the world. Medical science constantly records the nature and the symptoms and the effects of a staggering number of different diseases. In the year 2016, a study published by the University of Michigan Medical School asserted that there are roughly 10,000 diseases afflicting human beings with only about 500 known cures and treatments. Among the top 10 diseases causing the most deaths worldwide are coronary artery disease, number one, responsible for almost nine million deaths. Stroke, which killed 6.2 million in the year studied. Lower respiratory infection such as flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, 3.2 million. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, 3.1 million. Respiratory cancers, 1.7 million, and diabetes, 1.6 million people a year. Since COVID-19 ran amok worldwide, people have been daily aware of the devastating effect of diseases as never before. As the consciousness of the whole world has, in some degree, been held in its iron grip since the first quarter of the year 2020. And there's no ultimate remedy for all these diseases. Suffering, the death that can come from the brilliance of human intellects, from the laboratories of pharmaceutical companies, from the blinding insights of physicians and microbiologists and epidemiologists. Certainly individual diseases can and have been eradicated. Clear example of this is smallpox, the greatest single killer of human beings in history, half a billion people. But old diseases still hang over us all like the sword of Damocles, twisting, suspended by a thread ready to fall at any moment. "For a brief moment in human history, a man appeared who had absolute, complete power over every disease and sickness known to man. And that man is Jesus Christ..." But for a brief moment in human history, a man appeared who had absolute, complete power over every disease and sickness known to man. And that man is Jesus Christ, and we're studying Him today. We're studying the power of Jesus Christ, the great physician, who entered the world to give us life and give it to us abundantly. And for a brief, perhaps maybe a three-year span, Jesus effectively banished disease and sickness from Palestine. Huge crowds thronged around Jesus. And the New Testament tells us he healed them all. He healed them all. Matthew 4:24, "News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them." Matthew 9:35, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness." Mark 6:56, "And wherever he went-- into villages, towns or countryside-- they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed." There had never been a healing ministry like Jesus's before Him, nor has there been anything to that same degree since. Though Jesus did entrust a measure of his healing power to his apostles, it was nowhere near the staggering scope and dimensions of his own healing ministry. The annals of church history do not record any such healing ministry since the end of the age of the apostles. Though, certainly individual healings have come in answer to prayer in every generation, and some prayer warriors may have seen many such healings in their time. Yet, no one moved around from place to place with throngs of people around them, healing every disease and sickness they encountered. There's no record of that in 20 centuries of church history. Jesus alone, Jesus alone. And it was in direct fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. As Matthew records in Matthew 8:17, "This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." So today we're going to look at the beginning of the healing ministry of Jesus and draw out some lessons from it. These themes we're going to see repeated again and again in Mark's gospel, but today it begins. And it begins, I believe, in the home of Simon Peter, with one woman, Simon's mother-in-law. So it's the beginning of Jesus' healing ministry. The Beginning of Jesus’ Healing Ministry (Mark 1:29-31) Look again at verses 29 through 31. “As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.” Jesus’ First Miracle Now, the Apostle John in his Gospel tells us that Jesus' first miracle was performed at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Well, that means if that's true, literally true, that was his first miracle. It means that in all of his growing up years, his childhood, teen years on into the 20s, as he began his public ministry, supposedly around the age of 30, approximately age of 30, all that first 30 years, he never did a single miracle. His miracle work and career had to start somewhere, and it started at a wedding. And so John 2:11 says, "This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee." Changed a huge amount of water into wine. That's how it started. He thus revealed his glory and his disciples put their faith in Him. But the healings, it seemed, waited for this occasion, around this time. And they would make up the overwhelming bulk of his miracles. Overwhelming bulk of his signs or healings. The Context: Leaving the Synagogue of Capernaum After Sabbath Worship So what is the context? Well, he's leaving the synagogue of Capernaum after Sabbath worship. So they're moving out. They've had Sabbath worship. They're in the synagogue of Capernaum. We studied this last week. Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue with amazing authority. No one had ever heard anyone teach with that kind of authority. And they were astonished. And then suddenly a man, demon possessed, stands up and cries out to Him. "What do you want with us? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, swear to God that you won't torture us." “And Jesus says, "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.” Saw this last week. And the people's reaction was overwhelmed. Verse 27, 28. "The people were so amazed that they asked each other, 'What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey Him.' And news about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee." So that's what happened. Saw it last week. Now, the Sabbath worship at the synagogue was over. Generally, we're told it ended around noon. And so they were going out and they went to Simon and Andrew's house. Simon and Andrew’s House (Mark 1:29) Look at verse 29. "As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew." So Simon, who we best know as Peter, lived with his brother, Andrew, and his family in a house there in Capernaum. So they were successful enough as a fisherman to own their own house. Archeologists believe that they have found a house that may well have been Peter's house. It was dated at that same time, whether it was Peter's or not gives a sense of what the house might have looked like. One commentator described it this way, "The house has doors and windows that open to an interior courtyard rather than outward to the street. The courtyard accessed by a gateway from the street was the center of the lives of the dwellings around it, containing hearths, millstones for grain, hand presses, and stairways to the roofs of dwellings. The dwellings were constructed of heavy walls of black basalt over which a flat roof of wood and fat was placed." So that's what it might have looked like. So, after the amazing events in the synagogue in Capernaum, Peter, Andrew, James, and John and others connected with the family would've been talking with great excitement as they made their way to Simon and Andrew's house. So presumably Simon and Andrew had invited Jesus to join them for a Sabbath noontime meal. But as they're going there, a cloud hangs over that family. A cloud hangs over it because Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever. Simon’s Mother-in-Law and Her Fever (Mark 1:30) Look at verse 30. "Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her." Now, if we could just stop and say, this is just significant, we have to note things along the way. It's not the main point of the text, but we find out in this way that Simon Peter was married. Friends, I don't know any other way to get a mother-in-law. I don't think that's possible. All right? The only way you get a mother-in-law is to have a wife. And so he was married. Paul mentions in first Corinthians 9:5 that Peter took his wife along with him on some of his missionary journeys. So he had said, "Don't we have the right to take along a wife, as Peter does?" Peter being married is significant in church history because the Roman Catholic church identifies Peter as the first Pope and also mandates clerical celibacy for all of its clerics, all of its priests, no marriage. So there's something jarring there from the very beginning, who they consider to be the first Pope, clearly married. So that's just something to note. At any rate, at that point, the deep concern was for her health. She was sick with a fever. Luke 4:38 tells us that she had a very high fever. She's burning up. This is a very serious medical condition. There was not much that rudimentary medical science at that point could do for her. So she was in trouble, and the scripture says that they told Jesus about her. That's such a picture of prayer for me. Just like I began in my pastoral prayer. Sir, we would like to see Jesus. There's just so many moments. They told Jesus about her. So just stop right there. Here's application. Tell Jesus about it. Just bring the sick people you know to the Lord in prayer. As the hymn says, what a friend we have in Jesus. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Just tell Jesus about it still. The Healing (Mark 1:31) So then we have the healing, verse 31, “He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.” So Jesus lived the life of a servant. We'll see this again. Any need that's brought to Jesus, he just goes and deals with it. He hardly ever says no. There's really no actually clear example of Him ever refusing. So he just immediately goes. We also will see again and again, how often Jesus used physical touch in his healing. He loved to touch people to heal them. And more on that in a moment. Now, as soon as he touches this woman, the fever left her immediately, immediately healed. There's no need for convalescence, no need to recover her strength. No one brought her chicken soup with noodles. She's not resting at all. She's immediately ready to go. She felt strength and energy in her body and got up and served the guests that were there for the afternoon meal. So what is fever? I had to look it up. I'm not a doctor, but I'm interested in fevers. What causes the body to raise its temperature? Medical science can explain these things. Fever is the body's response to a bacterial or viral infection. It mobilizes the body's immune system to kill the infectious agents, the bacteria or the virus. The body can handle the higher temperatures better than the infectious agents can. The hypothalamus, which sits at the base of the brain, regulates body temperature. It is triggered to raise the body temperature when the immune system identifies a pathogen, the cause of the infection in the body. So the immune system sends a signal to the hypothalamus by things called pyrogenes, related to the word for fire, something that creates a fire, heat, in the bloodstream. When the hypothalamus registers these pyrogenes, it raises the body's temperature, and you get a fever. So what did Jesus do when he took her by the hand? Well, there's no medical explanation for this other than a miracle. Whatever infectious agent was in this woman's body is instantly destroyed. It's gone. Furthermore, the pyrogenes are instantly removed from the bloodstream. The hypothalamus instantly reset to normal. Fever abated instantly. Like the stilling of a storm, it quieted down immediately. Her forehead got cool. Her clothes would've been still wet from her fever sweat, just like the boat in the storm would've still been filled with water. There were still effects of it, but she was a 100% healthy. She felt strength in her body and stood up. So medical science is getting more and more brilliant down to the cellular level, like tailor made cures that study your particular genetic tendencies, and it's incredible the things that they're doing. Let me tell you something. When science travels the end of an amazingly complex road, they're going to find Jesus was already there. I mean, down to the cellular level, just done. We're going to see that with the leper as well. Whatever cellular destruction was happening through leprosy was cured. Clean. We'll get to that, God willing. At any rate, she's cured. She stands up to serve. “When science travels the end of an amazingly complex road, they're going to find Jesus was already there.” Well, this just opens the floodgate. A river of healing starts. Coupled with the demon-possessed man and news about Him had spread. And now this, so verse 32 to 34, “That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.” So the Sabbath began at sunset the day before Friday evening, and then would continue to sunset Saturday evening. The Jewish community was waiting breathlessly for the Sabbath to end, so that the healing could just really start, like a river of healings. So they want to get to Peter's house. They're going to flood to Peter's house. As soon as the sun goes down, they want to bring Jesus all these sick people to heal. This began a river of miracles that would characterize his ministry for the rest of the time. So Jesus went out to the doorway, perhaps a gateway into which one could go into the central courtyard at Peter's house. And Jesus began addressing them one at a time, if we understand his usual pattern. They brought demon-possessed people, especially, showing that demon possession was of various types. And there's the demoniac of the gatherings who can't be restrained by chains. He's out of his mind. But then there are others that could be led even with a demonic affliction, led to a certain place to be cured. So it's all different levels. So Jesus drove out the demons. The powerful, forceful action, like a military blow in the spiritual dimension, like the rolling on of the kingdom of light and rolling back the kingdom of darkness. It can't be stopped. Demons have no power against Jesus. Jesus also forbade the demons from speaking. As we saw last time and also in the book of James, the demons have accurate theological knowledge. They get it right theologically, but they hate God. The text openly says so. They knew who he was. They knew who Jesus was, but Jesus forbade them from saying anything about Him at all. He wanted his messengers, his ambassadors to be us. That's our role. It is committed to us, the ministry of reconciliation. Do you see what a privilege that is? That we get to speak these stories and tell lost people about Jesus. Demons do not have that right. Elements of Jesus’ Healing Ministry All right, so let's just stop and look at elements of Jesus' healing ministry. We're going to see it throughout the gospel and in all the gospels. So I'm going to give you seven words that describe Jesus' healing ministry. First of all, successful. That's a good place to start, don't you think? Successful. Jesus never failed. Every case was addressed successfully. He never lost a patient. Secondly, universal. There was no disease or sickness he could not heal. He was not a specialist, but he addressed every possible disease and sickness that was ever brought to him. Especially organic, deep, chronic conditions. These were easily healed by Jesus. Universal. Thirdly, effortless, effortless. There was no struggle. There was nothing that Jesus found particularly difficult. I've thought of this before. If you asked Jesus at the end of a long day of healing, of all the cases you faced today, which was the hardest, what would he say? If he had a sense of humor, he'd laugh. None of them, none of them are hard. Effortless. Fourth, instantaneous. We've already talked about that with the mother-in-law. She's instantaneously healed. There's no process. There's no convalescence period, no need to regain strength. Fifth, personal, personal. Jesus often preferred to touch people. He tended to seek out a relationship with someone. Like the woman, with the issue of blood, all that. He wanted to talk to her. He wants a relationship with her. He's looking for a relationship. It's personal. He loved to heal people one-on-one, one at a time by touch. Loved to touch people. Seeking a relationship. There is no record of group healings. There is a record of group feeding, but there's no end of the day, there's 500 more people to heal, and he just heals them all and goes home. It doesn't go like that. It may have, but there's no overt record of it. Personal. Six, free. I mean, financially. I'm not in any way disparaging people who make their money by medical things. A lot of my best friends are doctors and they do that. A lot of you. So it's like, ah, you're treading on some toes now. But Jesus did send out his disciples saying, "Freely you have received, freely give." They didn't charge anything either. So he did it financially for free. Now Americans spend on average $12,500 per person per year on medical things, on average. 4.1 trillion a year spent on health. This is nothing new. The woman with the bleeding problem, Mark 5:26, "She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors, and had spent all she had yet. Instead of getting better, she only grew worse." By the way, it doesn't surprise me that Luke, the doctor, didn't include that in his gospel. Moving on. Seventh. Varied, Jesus used a lot of different approaches. He wasn't always the same. Take his healing of blind people. Sometimes he spit and made mud and put it on a man's eyes. He did that once. Another time, he spit directly on a man's eyes and touched him. Another time he just spoke. Just different approaches every time. So these are seven elements or characteristics of Jesus' healing ministry: successful, universal, effortless, instantaneous, personal, free and varied. “…Seven elements or characteristics of Jesus' healing ministry: successful, universal, effortless, instantaneous, personal, free and varied.” All right, well, what do the healings signify? They're called signs. What are they pointing to? What do they teach us? Well, first of all, most importantly for us personally, they signify spiritual healing. The real healing we need is not primarily physical. It is spiritual. We're going to talk about this as the time comes with the paralyzed man who's let down by his friends and Jesus does not heal him physically at first, but just says, "Your sins are forgiven." That's the priority structure. And then Jesus will liken his physical healing ministry to the real spiritual healing ministry that's necessary. Luke 5:31-32. "Jesus answered them, 'It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'" The sickness is sin. The healing is repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus alone can do that, the atoning work. Secondly, Jesus' healing ministry signified human weakness and inability, powerlessness. It says in Romans Chapter 5, “when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly”. We're powerless. Jesus' healing ministry pictures human powerlessness, inability. Can't see. Jesus heals, you can see. Can't walk. Jesus heals, you can walk. Can't hear. Jesus heals, now you can hear. Human inability. We can't fix ourselves. We need a savior. That's what it's teaching. And then thirdly, it signifies a world to come in which there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. Amen. Hallelujah. It's a sign of a world to come. The real healing is yet to come. It's called resurrection. And at the resurrection, we're going to get resurrection bodies that will never have disease or injury ever again and will not die. And I believe in a dynamic ongoing healthiness of the resurrection body. I don't see anything severed from God. Everything comes from the throne of God. The river of the water of life flows from the throne of God. And on each side of the river of the water of life is the tree of life. And it's got leaves and crops 12 months a year. And the leaves of the tree, it says, are for the healing of the nations. You're like, "Well, I thought you already told this last chapter, there's no more death, mourning, crying, or pain." Yes, because of a river of health flowing from the throne of God. That's why. It's not independent health. It's not like God says, "All right, you're set. Off you go." No, in Him we will forever live and move and have our being. So those are the three significant aspects of Jesus' healing ministry. None of his healings was a permanent solution to the problem of disease. None of them. All of the people he healed later died. All of them. Some of them, I would imagine, got sick or injured within days or weeks or months after that. We have no record of anyone coming back for healing, but why wouldn't they? I'm sure he did, but we just don't have anybody doing that. Death is the final enemy, the last enemy that's going to be with us to the end. It's not permanent. What the Healings Proved About Jesus All right, what do these healings prove about Jesus? First, they show his compassion. He's a compassionate God. He cares about our suffering. It's the number one emotional state ascribed to Jesus, is compassion. Secondly, they show his power. There's nothing he cannot do. This is the omnipotent Son of God. There's nothing he cannot do. And thirdly, ultimately, they show his identity as Son of God. What kind of person can do all this? Only God, that's what they teach. Now, what is the link between healing and faith? How do we connect healing and faith? Frequently, Jesus linked them. "According to your faith, it will be done to you." So Bartimaeus, he says that to him. "According to your faith, it will be done to you." But not always. As a matter of fact, some of the people Jesus healed didn't believe at all. The guy in John 5 turned Him into the temple police. Jesus came later and said, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." he didn't look on him as converted. Just because he healed him didn't mean he converted him. But these miracles, the whole accumulated evidence of Jesus, were a valid basis for the saving faith of people who were being saved. Jesus said so in John 14:11. He said, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father's in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." Believe on the evidence of the miracles. It's a valid basis for our faith. John said openly in John 20:31, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written, these miracle accounts are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and believing you may have life in his name." It's a totally valid thing to say, "I believe in Jesus, the Healer, I believe in Jesus the Wonder Worker, the Miracle Worker, I believe he's the Son of God." It's totally valid. That's why the scriptures were written. Prayer Fueled Jesus’ Healing Ministry (Mark 1:35) All right, let's move on now. And in the account, we see the undergirding power of Jesus' healing ministry was his prayer life. Look at verse 35, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed." This is one of the great verses in the Bible on a daily quiet time. Just basic principles of a daily quiet time. A time with the Lord. All right? It's a striking glimpse into Jesus' private, spiritual life. Jesus absolutely relied on prayer. He wanted, he yearned for time with his Father. He loved to be with his Father, and that time guided Him and it gave Him power. Jesus is our role model. Our prayer lives are generally weak. I've never met anyone that has expressed complete, perfect satisfaction with their prayer lives. Would you say that to me? "Pastor, I got to tell you, I am a 100% satisfied with my prayer life. It's exactly how it should be." I've never met anyone like that. We all know we have a way to grow, and Jesus is our role model. He definitely came to shed his blood on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so that through faith and that blood, all of our sins may be forgiven. That was the center ministry he came to do, but he also came to be our role model, to give us a pattern of life we could follow. Jesus is our role model. As 1 Peter 2:21 says, "Christ left you an example. You should follow in his steps." So look at the details. I'm like, "Pastor, I'd really rather not look at the details because it says very early in the morning while it was still dark. I mean, you don't mean me, do you?" Yes, I do mean you. Very early in the morning while it's still dark. Morning is the best time for a quiet time. It's not the only time. You can have a quiet time at the end of the day, but a long time ago I learned, I don't think it's in the Bible anywhere, but I read somewhere an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Now that's not in the Bible. That was Ben Franklin, I think. What does that mean? It's better that the bad thing not happen than that you can pick up the pieces after the bad thing. So I just took that and applied it to a morning quiet time. Would it be better to not have the bad day and pick it up at the end of the day and feel better about it? I'd rather get my brain, my mind, my heart, my body, ready for the day at the beginning of the day, and then go off into the plan that God has for me. At least that was Jesus's pattern. So he got up very early in the morning, still dark. Before the world gets cranking, before the world can clamor for your attention. I might recommend you do something with this nasty little thing. Set it aside. Turn it off, put it on airplane mode. Put it in a box and latch the box, and just focus your mind. Don't let the world steal from you that time that you can have with the Lord. It's sacrifice. And the world can't clamor for your attention. Mothers of little ones, the babies aren't sleeping yet. It's like, "But they got to bed really late last night, I need a few extra hours." It's fine. I'm not being legalistic. I'm just saying the kids aren't up and crying yet. You have a chance to meet with the Lord, a chance to pray. And it says he got up. He got up. I'll never forget my missions professor, Christie Wilson, told this story. And it was about a man that used to get up regularly at four of the morning for prayer time, for several hours of prayer. I'm not advocating or saying, but a young man came to him and said, "How do you do it?" he said, "I'm going to tell you my secret. Young man, I get up." There it is. That's the secret. Young man, I get up. Well, that's what the text says. He got up. So he just gets up. He got tired just like any of us. He got tired before. He was tired from his journey before he talked to the woman at the well. He fell asleep right before the stilling of the storm. Jesus got tired like any of us. Imagine the day he just had that Sabbath day. Sun goes down, and he heals tons of people. The next day, he gets up very early, and it says he went off to a solitary place. He got away from people so he could focus. I think that it is wonderful and it is good to learn to pray without ceasing. That's what 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says. That's the continual prayer that you offer up. That's a good thing, but it's not the same thing as having a focused time of prayer in which you're free from all distractions. You're away from people if you can be, and you're able to focus on the Father and pray. There's a deeper level of intimacy. And God sometimes speaks to us like he did with Elijah on Mount Horeb, in a still, small voice. You just need to get away and focus and be able to have God speak to you. And he prayed. And in this way, I believe that the Father communicated love to the Son. Remember at his baptism, the Father said, "You are my Son. You are my Son. With you, I am well pleased." I think the Father continued to say that kind of thing to the Son, to reassure Him of his love for Him. And Jesus said of his own ministry, his own life, John 8:29. "The One who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him." How did he know that? Well, he's God, truly, but also because God told Him, "What you have done today pleases me." Wouldn't you love a time like that with Almighty God? To have God tell you again, "I love you. You're my son, my daughter, your sins are forgiven. You're going to heaven when you die. I'm with you. And the things you're doing are pleasing to me." Just to hear that from Him. How sweet is that? And then, also, Jesus, I believe, every day got his marching orders from the Father. He found out what the Father wanted Him to do. It says in Isaiah, "The Lord has given me awakened ear to listen like one being taught." Says that in Isaiah. And so he would listen, and you know how it says in Ephesians 2:10 that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do what? Good works, which God prepared in advance, that we should walk in them. Don't you think he’d do that with Jesus too? Prepared some good works in advance that he should walk in them. And so Jesus just walked perfectly in the good works the Father had prepared in advance for Him. This explains a great mystery to me. Jesus was a great man. How can you have those kinds of great responsibilities? To be a great man and be apparently infinitely interruptible? Didn't matter who interrupted Him. A woman, children, a group of people, Jesus immediately is available and yet incredibly effective in three years. Perfect ministry, atone for sin, dies and goes to heaven. Eternal. A perfect ministry, three years. How do you do both? Both efficient and effective? Interrupted and all that? Well, the way he did is everything had been worked out ahead of time. And the interruptions that happened were part of God's plan, and he never despised them. And the way he did it is, he knew that he didn't do anything apart from the Father. John 5:29, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He can only do what he sees his Father doing because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. I do nothing apart from what the Father told me to do." Again, John 8:28, "I don't say anything. I do nothing my own, but I speak just what the Father has taught me." So the Father told Him what to speak. He says the same thing again in John 12:49-50. "I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life, so whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." Now, I don't in any way minimize a moment-by-moment sense of the presence of the Father between the Father and the Son and all that. But I think there's nothing wrong with saying, so what do you think Jesus prayed about? And what do you think happened early in the morning? he's getting ready for his day of ministry, getting ready for his teaching ministry, hearing from the Father what to say and do. And then not only apart from the Father, Jesus did nothing, but apart from the Spirit, Jesus did nothing that he would be empowered by the Spirit for his day of ministry. Peter said in Acts 10:38 that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. And he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with Him." God was with Him through the Holy Spirit. So this was an insight I had within the last year or two. It occurred to me, just as Jesus did nothing apart from the will of the Father, he also did nothing, no miracles or no teachings apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit perfectly work together at all times. And so Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, went into the desert for his temptation, Luke 4:1. And then Jesus returned out of the time of temptation, Luke 4:14, full of the Holy Spirit. He entered the desert and left the desert full of the Holy Spirit. He did everything by the power of the Spirit. “Just as Jesus did nothing apart from the will of the Father, he also did nothing, no miracles or no teachings apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.” So what about us, brothers and sisters? What about us? If a sinless Jesus needed a good quiet time every day with the Father, how much more do we? Are you daily meeting with the Lord for Bible intake and prayer? That's what I want to ask you. The Priority of Preaching in Jesus’ Healing Ministry (Mark 1:36-39) Next, the priority of preaching in Jesus' healing ministry. Look at verse 36 and 37. Simon and his companions went to look for Him. When they found Him, they exclaimed, "Everyone is looking for you." What's going on there? There's a hidden request. What are you doing here? Bunch of people waiting for you back in Capernaum, right? It's almost like they had a vision that Jesus was going to be the house chaplain, and he was going to stay in that one house and people would come for healing and he would just be there and do those awesome teaching things and just be here. So Jesus didn't do that. He didn't come to be a localized chaplain. All right? And he didn't come to meet their physical needs and heal them day after day after day. He came to preach the Word. Look at verses 38-39. "Jesus replied, 'Let us go somewhere else, to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I have come. ' So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons." All of the healings were temporary, as I've said. The preaching was the key to everything. The preaching was the priority. Why is that? Because our souls need salvation, and salvation comes from hearing and believing the Word of God. Hearing and believing the Word of God. And Jesus could not stay in just one locality. He had to travel around. So you remember Isaiah 49:6, the Father said to the Son, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the Earth." So if it's too small a thing for him just to be Israel's Savior, how much more is it too small a thing for Him to stay in Capernaum at that one house and heal whoever came to the doorstep? No, no. He had a ministry to move out and preach the gospel. Applications for Us from Jesus’ Healing Ministry All right. Applications. Well, the first application I've already hit hard, and that is your daily quiet time. How is your prayer life? And if the Lord is speaking conviction to you, don't feel negative. It's not a matter of what you to do. It's a matter of what you get to do. I mean, if you had a chance to meet tomorrow morning with Almighty God in a time of prayer, in which he assures you of his love and then tells you what good works he has for you to do that day, how could you miss it? And so just begin some new patterns. Also look at the core elements of Jesus' ministry. His healings, his prayer, and his preaching. Understand all of it led to one thing and that is the salvation of souls. Especially the preaching of the Word. And so I beg you, each of you that are hearing me today, be certain that your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ. That was the key to everything. That's the message that's being preached. That's why the Son of God became incarnate. That's why he died on the cross and shed his blood is so that sinners like you and me who are such mess-ups, who are so sick in our sin. Yes, we're physically sick, and we're physically injured. I get it. But we are spiritually sick, spiritually injured. Jesus came to save us. And that happens through repentance and faith in the gospel. Are you a Christian? Have you received the gospel? Have you received forgiveness of sins? And then look what all of this is teaching, what the whole gospel is teaching. That Jesus is the son of God, his deity. I'm beginning to realize more and more, the more I meditate on this, I will not get to one millionth of a percent of understanding of what that means. Do you realize that Simon Peter said under the inspiration of the Father, the Father revealed, "You are the Christ, the Son of God." He said that. "You're the Christ, the Son of God." Do you know what he did a minute later? He took to Jesus aside and rebuked him. Can I just stop and just say something simple? Never rebuke the Son of God. Let's just keep it simple. He's never doing anything wrong. He doesn't need your input. He doesn't need your advice. All of that flows from unbelief. What did it tell me? Peter didn't really understand what Son of God meant. And then the next thing, in the next chapter, he's up on the mount of transfiguration and thinks that Jesus needs a booth along with Moses and Elijah. Oh, the three of them, side by side. And a bright cloud has to appear and say, "This is my son whom I love. Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am? Do you know who Jesus is?" That's the thing. And we can have a phrase. I know he is the Son of God, but we don't have one millionth percent of understanding of that. So saturate your mind in these accounts. Expand your sense of the greatness of Christ and trust in Him. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things that we've learned today in the gospel of Mark. It's really amazing. There's so many things to learn. We thank you for Jesus' healing ministry, how powerful and universal and unique and effortless it was. But you know that the real healing that he needs to do in all of us is healing from sin. And so, Lord, work in us an ongoing deep work of repentance. Turn us away from wickedness and sin. Turn us to purity and holiness, that we might live a life worthy of the Lord and might bring glory to your name while we live in this world. In Jesus' name, amen.

On a cold winter's night... 3 excellent storytellers were able to be warm and cozy at home and each of them shared their wonderful stories based on our "Open Theme" night. We had a live audience listening to the the following storytellers: Miyo Yamaucchi: "Love for Joes" Andy Davis: "Identical" Jackson Gillman: "Take the Plunge". Our announcer is Amy Antonucci and our Emcee is Pat Spalding Following the storytelling there is a Q+A session generated by our audience members and hosted by Amy Antonucci. Please note that there is also a section we call "The Backstory" where host David Phreaner, chats with one of the storytellers to "get the story behind the story". That portion of the program is on a separate audio file on this podcast. The storyteller David has the pleasure of chatting with is Andy Davis. There will also be a video version of this show located on Portsmouth Public TV YouTube Channel. Here is the link to the channel... https://www.youtube.com/user/ppmtvnh/playlists look for the "True Tales Live" Playlist and you will find this show from 01_25_22 there. The video contains the storytelling and "The Backstory" section all together. Visit us at www.truetaleslivenh.org or on Facebook @truetaleslive We offer free storytelling workshops on Zoom... you can find out more information on our website or Facebook.

This is the audio only section of our January 25th program where host David Phreaner has a conversation with one of the evening's storytellers. Andy Davis is the guest as David Phreaner is the host of what we call "The Backstory." The storytelling portion of the evening is on a separate audio file in this podcast. There will be a video of the entire program together available on Portsmouth Public Media Television Channel on YouTube and on their Channel 98 in the Seacoast area of N.H. https://www.youtube.com/user/ppmtvnh/playlists Just look for "True Tales Live" Playlist and you will find the video. Links are also available at www.truetaleslivenh.org and on our Facebook page @ truetaleslive

Andy Davis preaches a Christmas Eve sermon. Transcript coming soon!

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 28. This passage is a hymn or poem (possibly spoken by Job) elevating God's wisdom over human ingenuity. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Job 28. And we come to a magnificent chapter, a poem, or a hymn to wisdom. This chapter will celebrate God's wisdom over against man's science by using an extended illustration of mining. Mining. It will say men know how to mine precious materials from the earth, but we don't know where to find wisdom. Now, the question that's in front of me as I continue to walk through this complex, this deep book is, what function does this chapter have in the book of Job? Why did the Holy Spirit move that this be part of this book here and now? What purpose does it serve? Well, at the simplest level, it gives us all a break. I don't know about you, but I feel a need for a bit of a break in the book of Job. I mean, it's been 27 chapters of sorrow and distress and misery. Of Job, a man, a righteous and a godly man who had wave upon wave of affliction and trial that came upon him, who lost much of his wealth in a single day, who lost all ten of his children in that same single day, who then subsequently lost his health to a terrible disease and was greatly afflicted. And then for all these chapters through chapter 27, we've had a cycle of discussions and debates by his friends who have come to comfort him in some way, and you know what that's been like. One of those “with friends like that, who needs enemies” kind of thing. But it's been very distressing and difficult as again and again, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad have unfolded the same basic theology. You, Job, are suffering because you are a wicked man. You're suffering greatly because your wickedness is great. If you would just confess and renounce your wickedness, the suffering would go away. And so how does Job 28 fit into that? Well, I think that we should look on Job 28 as part of Job's final defense of his own righteousness. Job 27:1 says, "Job continued his discourse." Job 29:1 says, "Job continued his discourse." So it's kind of right in the middle it seems, of a section of Job's statement. So it's best to just, I think, read it that way. I've said again and again, it really doesn't matter to me who says what, ultimately. I think if we do know we can line it up with what we know about that person and their personality and try to understand their words, but it really is the Holy Spirit that's speaking this book to us and he has a purpose and we have to look to that and understand it. So what does Job 28 say? I've already given you a brief kind of summary. It is, "Man knows how to mine precious materials from the earth, but we don't know where to find wisdom." That's point one. Then in verse 23 and 28, it will say, "True wisdom comes from God alone. God is the only one who knows where wisdom can be found and who can teach it." And he does teach us wisdom and it culminates in a simple, clear statement in verse 28, "This is wisdom: to fear God and to shun evil is understanding." Well, that's the whole book, whole chapter. How does Job 28 fit into the book of Job? Well, it's part of Job's defense because of verse 28. Verse 28, "To fear God and to shun evil is wisdom." But the very first thing we find out about Job at the beginning of the book is that this is the exact description of Job. God says to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him, a man who fears God and shuns evil." That should look very familiar to you. So Job is a wise man. He's saying this about himself. "I am not who you say I am. I'm not a wicked man. I fear God and shun evil." Now I'm going to unfold that and show how clearly it lines up with Job's life in chapter 31. And we're not going to go to 31, but I'll just tell you that is his ethic. That's how he lives his life. Well, how does Job 28 fit into the Bible? And then how does it speak to us? Well, we've seen in general with the book of Job, there's timeless wisdom here, but it's a shadow compared to the full reality we find in Christ. We get the idea of good, better, best in the unfolding revelation of God. And so while it is true that wisdom is to fear God and shun evil, there's a better wisdom than that. That is true, but it's not sufficient. I would say along with that, not either/or, but both/and, along with fearing God and shunning evil is the delight and the joy and the love that comes in a relationship with God where God becomes our treasure. God becomes our gold, worth more than anything we could ever find in this world. The kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he sold all of the material treasures he found on earth and bought that field and the treasure is Christ, and Christ gives us God. And so if you put those together, to fear God and shun evil, plus to delight in God and yearn for him and find pleasure in him, now that's wisdom and we find all of that in the gospel of Jesus Christ. All right, so there's the sermon. You can go rest now or kind of take the rest. I'm going to go into a lot of details. Seems beneficial to do so, but you have the overview. I guess if I could just apply it to you, I want you to know, just look at where we're at, where we live, what our setting is here. We're in one of the smartest places in the country. There are a lot of different ways to measure that, but there's just a lot of PhDs around here. There's a lot of high tech companies around here. There's a lot of intelligent people who take human technology and human wisdom and do amazing things with it. We have high tech companies right near us that are doing semiconductor research. We have software companies. I guess Apple's going to come and build a big campus here and do what they do. You've got pharmaceutical research. We've got all kinds of amazingly intelligent, smart people doing amazingly intelligent, smart things. But those who are not yet converted are not wise. They're not wise. And they need us and the other godly people, other churches in this area, to tell them to flee their foolishness and to find true wisdom in Christ so that we would not be overwhelmingly amazed with human wisdom and human ingenuity and human technology. Not intimidated at all by that, but say, "Can I point you to true wisdom? That wisdom is Christ." And beyond that, I want each of you who are Christians, who came in here today born again, to go home thanking God that he made you wise, that he won you out of your foolishness into a lasting wisdom through Christ. Just thank God for that. I. Human Wisdom on Display in Mining Okay. So now let's look at some details. In Job 28:1-11, this section celebrates the staggering levels of human ingenuity found in mining. Maybe you've never thought much about mining before, but that's what's going on in this chapter. These 11 verses talk about mining. Human technology in general is a stunning marvel. It far exceeds the capacities of even the most extraordinary animals and birds, as we shall see. There's a massive, almost immeasurable gap between the intellectual prowess of human beings and every other creature. Human beings, therefore can do amazing things by virtue of their brain power. Now, the example that Job uses in this chapter is the extreme complexity of mining, but as we shall see human ingenuity, technology, science as we know it, is not ultimate wisdom. We may be able to extract gold and gemstones and other precious things from the depths of the earth, but we cannot trade that gold and those gems and those precious things for true wisdom. "We may be able to extract gold and gemstones and other precious things from the depths of the earth, but we cannot trade that gold and those gems and those precious things for true wisdom." So however far human science, human wisdom, human technology, and ingenuity takes us, it's going to fall far short of the wisdom that God yearns to work within human hearts. And a lot of that wisdom comes through suffering. Suffering makes us wise. Job feared God and shunned evil before any of this happened, but he feared God more profoundly after God showed up and talked to him at the end of the book. And so whatever level of fearing God and shunning evil you may have in your life, you could have more, should have more. Now let's walk through the details of how this chapter celebrates human skill and mining, human ingenuity and mining. So the existence of rare and valuable materials is a feature of planet earth and it was woven into the physical creation that God made and it's described very early in the Bible in Genesis chapter two. You remember how there was a river that flowed from the garden of Eden and it broke off into four headwaters of four rivers, and one of those rivers was the Pishon River. And it says, if you were to follow the Pishon river out from the garden of Eden, you would come to the land of Havilah, where there is gold and onyx. So very early in the book, we've got this idea of precious materials and throughout the history of human society, gold has played a major factor in commerce and in wars and in conquest and all kinds of things because of its attributes. Gold is precious because it's malleable, easily meltable, formable, shapeable, and it's incorruptible, it doesn't rust, and it's rare. So as with any economic issue, you've got the law of supply and demand. It's valuable, but rare. And so Job 28 describes the extreme efforts men have gone to draw precious materials from below the surface of the earth. Now the history of mining must be fascinating. When did people realize that these precious materials could only be brought forth into the light of day by extreme efforts, down into the dark deep, dark recesses of the earth? Perhaps early on men found caves and you know how men are, they just want to explore them. Hey, there's a deep dark hole. I'd like to go into it. I mean, what's up with some people? But that's how they are. And so they would get torches and they would go in there. Maybe they're looking for some water or I don't know what, just that sense of adventure. And in the flickering light of the torch, they see some glitter along the wall, silver maybe, or they find some vein somewhere of silver or gold, and then they kind of chunk it out and bring it out into daylight and start looking at it. In the course of time, they learned how to process it. And so in Genesis four, we have a man called Tubal-cain, who it says in Genesis 4:22, "forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron," forged them. So that's just technology of learning how to deal with different types of materials that come from the earth. Tubal-cain seems to have been the first blacksmith or at least he's the first one mentioned in the Bible. He's learning to work metals like iron and bronze. Given that he's also in the lineage of Cain and a son of Lamech who delighted in being able to wreak vengeance on his enemies, some of this blacksmithing must have been used for forging weapons. Herein lies is a big part of the problem of man's ingenuity. Man is brilliant in science, but then he uses his discoveries to make better and more destructive weapons by which he can kill his fellow man and take over his property, his farms. So mankind learns how to do things, but not why or why not to do certain things. Thus, to man's amazing brain is given a low level of wisdom that makes him vastly superior to all animals and other creatures, but man's essential wickedness and foolishness since the fall of Adam, makes that low level technological wisdom actually often damaging or destructive. Mining is also very dangerous. You could imagine some expeditions going to various hot, dry places where certain things were found and the people have to go down into the depths of the earth and it would be maybe slaves that would be forced to do this. And so you get this economic disparity between the mine owners and the mine workers and all of these kinds of things go on. And it must have been from a very early stage. Under the hard, rocky earth the ground had to be essentially assaulted to pry loose its riches. It was a forceful, violent effort. It was deadly dangerous. In some mining endeavors, a large fire perhaps would be kindled in the shaft or tunnel, which heated the rock to high temperatures. Then cold water was poured on the super-heated rock, causing it to crack. Chunks of rock then fell down and the miners could go down to the bottom of the hole and pick them up and bring those rocks up into the daylight where they could be processed. All right. So that's the nature of mining in general, what we know about it. Let's look at the words, what Job actually says. First of all, he introduces the topic in verse one and two. "There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth and copper is smelted from ore." So those words are why we're talking about mining today. That's what the text talks about. That's what we're talking about. And so it's about mining. It talks about the challenges of the search for precious metals, the need for light, torches, lanterns to push back the darkness. Look at verse three, "Man puts an end to the darkness. He searches the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness." It stands to reason, it's away from the sunlight. It's deep down in the depths of the earth. There's no light down there and so you need to bring torches. It mentions cutting the shaft in these austere places where no one can live or wants to live and hanging on a trapeze to do the work. Verse four, "Far from where people dwell he cuts the shaft, in places forgotten by the foot of man. Far from men he dangles and sways." It speaks of these trapezes are there because the pit is deep, and halfway down on the wall there's some precious materials they have to get off. So the only way they'll be able to work them is with ropes and platforms. And so they dangle and sway on those platforms. And then verse 5, "The earth from which food comes is transformed below us by fire." You have to do something to the walls, the rocky walls, you have to do something to get this stuff out. And so it speaks of the transformation of the earth, of holes that are dug that weren't there before, by again human ingenuity, and the products are precious, verse 6, "Sapphires come from its rocks and its dust contains nuggets of gold." Now mankind's technology makes them far superior to all other creatures. Look at verse seven and eight. "No bird of prey knows that hidden path. No falcon's eye has seen it. Proud beasts do not set foot on it and no lion prowls there." So these are pinnacle creatures, birds of prey that soar high on the thermals, far above the surface of the earth. The eagles and falcons kind of rule the air. And then lions, the king of beasts kind of rule the jungle. But these lordly creatures never do anything like this. It would never enter their little minds to do this. They're not found there. They know nothing about the subterranean regions of the earth. It is mankind with his relentless thirst for exploration and knowledge, his scientific mind, his sharp eye, his ability to reason and put together technologies that might have seemed to have nothing to do with mining but then it's like, wait a minute, we could use that over here to do this. And so technologies are put together using iron tools, forged in a smith to then mine other precious materials more efficiently. No eagle, no falcon, no lion, no chimpanzee, no really intelligent porpoise is thinking about any of these things. It also speaks of the violence of the effort. Look at verses 9-10, "Man's hand assaults the flinty rock and lays bare the roots of the mountains. He tunnels through the rock." So the earth does not yield its precious treasures easily or free of cost. In later years, explosives, powerful explosives will be used to crack open the Earth's treasure box. So you imagine the 19th century sticks of TNT or other explosives used to open up the rocky mountain. As a result of that, human lives are lost. Mining accidents occur regularly. Massive boulders are broken loose and rolled down and block the escape of miners that are further down below and, little by little, their air goes away and then they die. The discovery of hidden treasures in verses 10-11, that's the whole point of all of this.,"His eyes see all its treasures. He searches the sources of the rivers and brings hidden things to light." So all of this technology, these amazing efforts are made for treasures, material physical treasures brought up from the subterranean regions of the earth. They were hidden from view, but now the sunlight captures their glory and makes them glitter and shine. But, part two, "True wisdom cannot be mined and it cannot be purchased," verses 12-19. This is an analogy, it's really a parable almost, an illustration. Verse 12-14, this is the point of the chapter, "Where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? Man does not comprehend its worth. It cannot be found in the land of the living. The deep says it is not in me." So we humans know how to mine hidden treasures from the depths of the earth, but we don't know where to find wisdom. II. True Wisdom Cannot Be Mined or Purchased The true treasure is not found in that way. Human science cannot discover it. We are brilliant at technology, but fools toward God and eternity. Now this very point is the point that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians chapter one, where he says, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God. For that reason, God was pleased to the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe in Christ." And so we're not going to find it, not even by philosophical reasoning or by inventing our own religions. We will not find eternal wisdom that way, either. God has ordained that he must teach us wisdom or we will never learn it. We don't know where to find wisdom. Verse 12, "Where can wisdom be found?" We can search for diamonds deep in the earth. We can discover sapphires. We can discover their stony fire and look at their faceted brilliance and it's going to captivate our eyes and our hearts. And it'll be the envy of our neighbors. But we are essentially fools because we can't find wisdom on the earth. We don't know where it dwells. Verse 13-14, look at it again,"It cannot be found in the land of the living. The deep says, it's not in me. And the sea says, it's not in me." Furthermore, what is wisdom worth? What is wisdom worth? What's the value of wisdom? We cannot set a market price on wisdom and the things we got up, the glittery shiny things we got up out of the depths of the earth, you can't trade that for wisdom. It's not for sale in that sense. Look at verses 15-19, "It cannot be bought with the finest gold nor can its price be weighed in silver. It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir, with precious onyx or sapphires. Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it, nor can it be had for jewels of gold. Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention. The price of wisdom is beyond rubies. The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it. It cannot be bought with pure gold." So some rich fool can be surrounded with the rarest gems and gold aplenty, but his restless heart has led him to all manners of corruption and tyranny. His marriage is ruined. His children hate him. He has developed bitter enemies who would love to kill him and take all of his treasures from him. And he's mortal, he's not going to have them forever. When he dies, he'll give them to others. He'll let them go. He is a rich fool and he cannot trade all his gold and jewels that he's so prized for wisdom. Wisdom was far more valuable than all of those things he accumulated all along, but he didn't know it. He was allured, he was deceived by the glitter. He learned how to assault the earth for its hidden treasure but true treasure was truly hidden, because true wisdom comes from God alone. III. True Wisdom Comes from God Alone That's the third point. True wisdom comes from God alone verses 20-27. The hymn reveals the source of true wisdom, and that is God. Again, it asks the same question. Verse 20, "Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?" Then it presses deeper still, verse 21, 22, "It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing concealed, even from the birds of the air. Destruction and death say only a rumor of it has reached our ears." So if you could search every square inch of the surface of the earth, you would not find wisdom openly displayed anywhere. Like gold and diamonds, it starts out hidden from view. It is concealed treasure. But even if you could move all the mountains and probe down to the realm of the grave, the deepest depths of the earth, the place where death and destruction live, the subterranean regions of the earth. If you could probe deeper and wider than any mining enterprise has ever reached, you still would not find wisdom. A rumor of wisdom, a whiff, an aroma of it would be around you the whole time through the whole search. As though tantalizing you, enticing you and tormenting you, but you wouldn't find it. You would know that something called wisdom existed, but it would elude you. So you are smart. You are a genius with all manner of technological achievements, which have enriched you with the rarest gems the earth possessed. You uncovered them all and you have them on display in your dining halls, in your storehouses, but you are a fool. Ruining your life, finding no lasting peace, no joy, no pleasure. You are a rich, intelligent, accomplished fool, and it would be good for you to know it. A rumor of existence, so the existence of wisdom is there, a whiff, but you cannot find it. But God knows where to find it. Look at verses 23-24, "God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells. For he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens." God knows how to find what you're looking for. He understands the way to it. A journey to the place where it exists, where wisdom exists, but it's not a physical journey, it's a spiritual journey. God knows the way to wisdom for he made the earth and sees every part of it, nothing escapes his notice. And God's creation shows his credentials in giving wisdom. We're going to see this at the end of the book. The book of Job is saturated with what theologians called natural theology, the theology of nature, the theology of creation. Look at verses 25-27, "When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters. When he made a decree for the rain and a path to the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it. He confirmed it and tested it." Well if man is wise in science, in studying the earth in its nature and using its attributes, how much wiser is the God who made nature? We're always infinite steps behind him intellectually. He made it, we're studying it, using it. So God is the creator, we are the students of creation. God said, "Let there be light," Isaac Newton studied its attributes. God said, "Let there be gravity and time," Albert Einstein came up with some theories of relativity. God made all life, biologists and botanists and zoologists analyze the species and study their natures and their habitats and genes and all that. But God made it all. The evidence of God's wisdom is everywhere around us. "God is wise," says Job, "in the force of the wind." He knows how much wind to use in every situation. Sometimes the light breath of a zephyr, barely able to cause leaves to flutter, cool the face of the labored at the end of the day and cause the aromas from the flowering trees, the magnolias, the lilac to fill your nostrils and it's very pleasant. But sometimes he unleashes gale force winds that rip and rend and topple and whip the ocean into a frothy frenzy. God wisely decides how to move the air in the atmosphere and what to do with weather. The weather patterns all over the earth, as he alone sees fit and understands. God is wise also says the text in measuring out waters. The waters. There is enough water to cover the entire surface of the earth, so says the Bible. Noah's flood, everything was covered. There's enough water. But God, in his wisdom, when the flood was over, caused the subterranean areas of the ocean, even to sink down and to accept water into itself and then to move the edge of the ocean back. And as another text says, "He speaks to the proud waves and says, this far you may come and no farther." He limits the force of the waves. Here you may go and no farther. God measures out also the fresh water. How much of it that we need to stay alive? How much should be sprinkled down from the heavens as we discussed in an earlier sermon, spritzing it down so that there is a bumper crop. He knows how to give just the right amount of rain for a bumper crop. He also knows how to give rain for not a bumper crop, for crop failure, for drought or for a flood. Either way you end up with crop failure and God wisely chooses how much water in each case. God is wise in directing the path of the storms. The thunderstorms may seem completely random to you. Have you ever seen the flash of a lightning bolt across the sky and you think what causes that jagged shape? Why does it go like that? It's every movement is dictated by the wisdom of God. God made and sustains the entire world by daily wisdom. Not even daily wisdom, instantaneous wisdom. He is flying this planet like a skilled pilot and every moment is ordained by his wise providence. Verse 27 it says, "God confirmed and tested wisdom by creation and by his daily sustaining of creation." Everything in creation, everything in daily providence is the of the wisdom of God. But have you ever driven by some area of the town your whole life? And then one day you had to walk by it and you're like, "Wow, I didn't know that was there. And I didn't know that was there either. And look at that and look." You were blowing by all of these displays of the wisdom of God in providence and you missed almost all of them. It's okay. In heaven, you get to review them and look at God's mighty works and celebrate his providence in creation, in nature and in history. And then you get to bring him the praise and glory he deserved all along. As it says in Psalm 111:2-4, "Great are the works of the Lord. They are pondered by all who delight in them." Another translation says studied. "Glorious and majestic are his deeds and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate." So we who lack wisdom, we can only find it from one source and that is God himself. Human ingenuity and scientific accomplishment will never result in wisdom. It will only produce arrogance and tyranny and materialism and warfare and agonies, if not tempered by the wisdom that God alone can give. IV. Job’s Preliminary Definition of True Wisdom Now in verse 28, we come to the crowning moment of the chapter, a definition of true wisdom, verse 28, "And he said to man, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to shun evil is understanding." This is the beginning of wisdom we're told in another place. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And that leads to shunning evil. Job is going to make this very clear in Job 31. This is his motive for everything he does. He's going to talk about sexual purity in that chapter, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman." Why? Well, because God sees my ways and counts my every step. That's why. He also treats his servants, men servants and maid servants with justice and fairness. He is kind to the widow and the orphan and cares for them. Again, why? Because he fears God and he's going to have to give an account to God for how he treated them. As he says in Job 31:13 and 14, "If I have denied justice to my men servants and maid servants when they had a grievance against me, what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?" He fears God, therefore he treats people well. This is his ethic. This is the way he lived his life. In order to do this, you have to believe that God exists and that God will bring to judgment all of the people who ever lived. That you're going to have to give an account on the day of judgment for everything you've ever done or didn't do. And so this infinite, majestic God should just tower over you at every moment and give you a sense of an appropriate fear of the Lord that leads to a shunning of evil. No book, I think, in the Bible gives such dramatic language of natural theology as does the book of Job. Later, in a few chapters, Job 37:2-5, Elihu says this, "Listen. Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heavens and sends it to the ends of the earth. And after that comes the sound of his roar, he thunders with his majestic voice. When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back. God's voice thunders in marvelous ways, he does great things beyond our understanding." That's the terror of the Lord. And by faith, we are brought to another place in redemptive history, to the base of Mount Sinai, where God descends in fire and gives his law to mankind and causes the ground to shake beneath our feet. And he speaks with such a mighty voice that the people beg that they never hear that voice again, unless they die. The fear of the Lord causes us, and he says that in Exodus, he says, "Do not fear. The fear of the Lord has come to keep you from sinning." And so it is a healthy ethic though inadequate, I'll say it more in a moment, healthy but inadequate, but it's still necessary, that all of you who hear me today and I who speak these words should fear God and shun evil. Just in your mind, be brought to the base of Sinai and see God descending in fire on that mountain and hear him speak, because God says it to you. And then go in your mind to the darkness of Gethsemane where Jesus, who feared God like no one has ever feared God, fell to the ground in anticipation of drinking the cup of God's wrath and in terror said, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," and great drops of blood came out of pores of his skin. No one feared God like Jesus. "No one feared God like Jesus. " That's wisdom. Fear God and shun evil. We need to understand what evil is. The Bible gives us a whole taxonomy of it. Many sin lists, many. Galatians 5:19-21, it says, "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like that will not inherit the kingdom of God." Evil is relentless. It is treacherous. It is devious. It is deceptive. The Bible gives a whole long treatment of what it looks like and how it functions in human society and what happens to the people who do it, like Ahab and Jezebel, dogs licked up their blood. We have whole stories about what happens when you live evil and how God brings judgment. And therefore salvation, in part, consists in the people of God coming to hate evil like God does. We come to that point that we fear the Lord and hate evil, shun evil. As it says about Jesus, that God the Father said about his own Son, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness and therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness perfectly. And you know what's so beautiful? You know what gives me hope? Someday I will love righteousness and hate wickedness as much as Jesus. And so will all of you who are my brothers and sisters in Christ. That'll be the perfection of our salvation, won't it? V. Christ is Gods Eternal Wisdom We need to understand therefore, that God does not, cannot tolerate sin. We need to realize a day of judgment is coming. God is patient. He does not bring judgment immediately, but he does warn us. In this text in the end, Job 28:28, "Fear the Lord and shun evil is a warning” for all of us. Job lived this out. But I want to say to you now, as I already said at the beginning of the sermon, true wisdom goes infinitely beyond that. That negative side is essential, but it's not enough. Christ is God's eternal wisdom and Christ is infinitely greater than “fear God and shun evil.” Christ is the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:23 and 24. "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." And I believe like that parable says, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who found treasure hidden in a field. Kind of links up with our mining theme. He mined it up and found it, put it back in, covered it so no one else would buy it. Runs and sells everything he had and with joy, bought that field and that treasure. So there's a fear and a joy aspect of true salvation. And you know what the treasure is? Christ. Christ is the treasure. Colossians 2:3 says, "In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." He is the treasure of God's infinite wisdom. And the thing that's exciting, what I've learned in my studies about heaven is you have only begun to scratch the surface on the infinite majesty of Christ. You'll be studying Christ for the rest of eternity. That's how infinite this treasure is. So there is a fear and hatred and loathing and negative side of true holiness. And then there's an attractive, alluring, positive, delight, treasure side. Both of those together, are found in Christ and that's true wisdom. Christ is the wisdom of God incarnate. It was wise for God to send his son, his only begotten son into the world to save us, telling us we could not save ourselves. That was wise for God to humble us like that. And it was wise for Christ to be born in humility, born of the virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. It was wise for him to grow up in the normal way. “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52. It was wise for him to be hidden and concealed from Israel until he was about 30 years old. And it was wise for God to send John the Baptist to announce his coming and point at him and say of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” And then it was wise for Jesus to have his public ministry that consists in perfect words and incredible miracles. Rivers of healings, walking on water, stilling the storm, feeding the five thousand, giving multiple evidences of his deity through these miracles. It was wise for him to do that. And the specific miracles he did were very wise and it was wise for him to talk like no man had ever talked before. It's one of my favorite moments when they send some temple police to arrest Jesus and they go and listen for awhile. That was their first mistake. No, that was a good thing to do. They come back empty-handed and say, "No man ever spoke like this man." It was wise for him to live a sinless life every day under the law of Moses, under the law of God, perfectly fulfilling the righteous demands of the law of God and winning for all of us, a robe of righteousness that he just is willing to give us freely as a gift the act of obedience of Christ, our perfect holiness and righteousness. And it was wise for Jesus, every moment to display all of the attributes of God, the Father. So he can say to his followers, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." But most of all, it was wise for Jesus to die on the cross in our place as a substitute under the wrath of God, that we might not have to face the wrath of God, but would be freed from our sins forever by simple faith. And it was wise for God to raise Christ up from the dead on the third day, triumphing over death in the grave and giving us a hope of eternal life. And it was wise for him to save us in stages so that we are justified, forgiven, made right in the sight of God by simple faith, apart from works instantaneously. All of our sins forgiven, past, present, and future by faith in the blood of Christ. It was very wise for God to do that. And then it was wise for him to call on us to be holy and to be sanctified and to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, day by day, and to wrestle with our sins by the power of the spirit and be humbled thereby, and to learn how much we needed a Savior and still do, and to be humbled by this journey of holiness and to yearn for perfection and holiness. And then it will be wise at the end of all things, at the Second Coming of Christ, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, to change all of the children of God instantaneously and give us perfected resurrection bodies to go with our perfected, resurrected souls. The consummation of our salvation will be perfectly wise as well. And then you'll begin your eternal education in the glory of God in earnest. And you'll become wiser and wiser and wiser and wiser for all eternity, but you'll never get, you'll never be omniscient, for God alone is omniscient. So you'll always have more to learn about the infinite majesty of God. Now, where is all of this wisdom found? This wisdom is found in Scripture. It says, and this is a word for you fathers, how it says in 2 Timothy 3:15, how Timothy from infancy, "from infancy have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." The best thing you fathers could do is sit down with your families, gather them around and crack open this book night after night and pour out the wisdom of God on your children. Pour it out. But look again what it says, "wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." You want to know where the wisdom of God in Christ is found? You read about it in his book. You don't see it in nature. You're not going to see it in the wind or the storms or the ostriches or any of that. You find it in scripture, alone. So we have an obligation to the people, the really intelligent, smart PhD people of RDU to tell them what true wisdom is, to lead them to find it through faith in Christ. To be bold, even this week in evangelism. Don't be intimidated by them. Esteem it, great. Be interested in their research, that's fine. But change the subject at some point to true wisdom, the wisdom that's found in Christ. And then I'll finish with what I started with. If you are born again, if you're a child of God, your heart right now should be filled with thankfulness that God rescued you out of dark foolishness, into the wisdom that he alone can give. And that is Christ. "You want to know where the wisdom of God in Christ is found? You read about it in his book. You don't see it in nature. You're not going to see it in the wind or the storms or the ostriches or any of that. You find it in scripture, alone." Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for this time we've had to study Job 28. I thank you for the song that we sang earlier in which we begged you, show us Christ. Lord, I pray that the way that this chapter has shown us Christ would stick with us, that we would realize that Christ is the wisdom, the true wisdom of God and that we would give eternal thanks for that wisdom. Lord, I pray for any that came in here as yet unconverted. I pray that now, even now, you would be drawing them by the sovereign Spirit to faith in Christ. It's in his name I pray. Amen.

Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 25-27. Bildad asks how someone can be found righteous before God. Jesus' imputed righteousness is the answer. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - This morning, we'll be looking at Job 25-27, and as we do, we come to a very challenging section of this book for the interpreters, for scholars, for preachers like me. It's a challenging section for a couple of reasons, and therefore, it's good for me to give you just some of the principles, or perhaps even remind you of some of the principles that I use as I approach the book of Job, as I approach all scripture. Really, it's beneficial for me to teach you how to read the book of Job for yourself. So that years later, when you're no longer listening to a sermon series in Job, and you may actually never hear an exegetical sermon series on the book of Job again in your lives; it's actually pretty unusual. And you may not ever hear again, expository sermon on Job 25-27 again. So how can we understand the book of Job? How can we understand this passage? It is with great reverence that we should come to the Scriptures. We should come to it realizing we're reading a document that has stood over and been involved in the lives of God's people for two and a half millennia or more. This book is going to be here long after any of us are dead, and so there's a respect and a reverence that we take to this. And also we're taught in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is God breathed. And so we're reading the words of men. We're reading human words, but we are reading the Word of God. So the Holy Spirit is saying something to us as we read these chapters. And that's an awesome thought, isn't it? The idea that we can actually have God speak to us and talk to us, but it's not simple. It's not a simplistic thing. We have to interpret it because it's coming to us through the words of the actors, the players in this drama, through Zophar or Bildad or Eliphaz, through Job. And so we kind of filter what we're reading through them and through what we know about them and try to understand it, but we know that it's God-breathed. And so behind their human words, we have God speaking to us, and we want to try to understand that and to understand what God is doing in our lives. And so in order to do that, I think it's good to go one section before 2 Timothy 3, where we're told what the purpose of all Scripture is, and how Paul said that Timothy “from infancy had known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” So I believe the book of Job is for that purpose. It's able to make all of us wise. It's a wisdom book, but able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ. And not only that, the Scripture is given to equip us. “[So] all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” So I expect to get rebuked and corrected when I read Scripture. And I think that's going to happen for us today, and that rebuking and correcting will bring me, in some amazing way, to Christ. I expect to be brought to Christ by reading Job. And I expect, having been brought to Christ for salvation, for the forgiveness of my sins, I am brought to Christ by the Scripture for equipping and training and preparation so that I might be prepared to do good works. "So that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work," the text says 2 Timothy. So I expect that this book of Job, not only will it aid or point toward the salvation of my soul through faith in Christ, but it's able to equip me and prepare me to do good works for the rest of my life. But it does so in a unique kind of pattern here. It's a book about suffering. It's a book about a man who lived it a long time ago, we don't know when, who was blameless and upright, who was a godly man and who suffered overwhelming afflictions and trials, in his life; who lost overwhelming percentage of his wealth and his possessions; and whose 10 children died in a single day, all of them; and who subsequently then lost his health in an affliction that was just so overwhelming that his physical appearance was very different than usual. He was in agony, physical agony. So those three things, the dread of all of us who live in this world. Shouldn't be, we shouldn't be filled with dread, but we do naturally fear the loss of our possessions, our money, what might happen to our loved ones, our children, our loved ones, our spouses, and what might happen to our health, even to the point of death. These things stand over us and we are afraid of them. And along comes this man and he walks through this, and then he begins to talk and some friends, Eliphaz and Zophar and Bildad, come and they talk to him. And there's this cycle of discussions that go on that make up the bulk of the book of Job. And we're nearing—this is the end. I. Bildad’s Question: How Can a Man Be Righteous Before God? (Job 25) This is the final time that we'll hear from one of Job's friends, Bildad, his third speech. But here we come to some interpretive problems. I was thinking this, I don't know if this is helpful, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. Therefore, you shouldn't say it, but anyway, I'm going to say it. There was a woman that Jesus dealt with. It said of her that she had a problem of bleeding, she had suffered a problem of bleeding for 12 years. And it says in Mark's gospel, she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and didn't get any better, but only got worse. Hence, this text, it has suffered a great deal under the care of many interpreters and didn't get any better, but only got worse. And I'm probably one of them, because I think it's quite possible that the second half of Job 27 isn't Job, but maybe is Bildad or one of his friends. And yet there's no scene telling me that. There's no, "Bildad answered," or any of that. So it's right in the Job section, but it's so contradicts stuff that Job said earlier that you're left scratching your head. So you're either saying, "Why did the account get kind of rearranged or shredded in some way?" Or you're like, "What is up with our friend Job that he says one thing in chapter 21 and something entirely different in chapter 27? How do we deal with that?" Either way, you've got a problem. So that's what I get to preach on today. Hence all kinds of introductory comments saying, "All right, what are we going to do with this text?" But here's the thing, I think in the end, I have to be honest, it doesn't matter who said these words. It doesn't matter if it's Job. It doesn't matter if it's Bildad or one of the other friends. It doesn't matter. We know that it's not God Almighty saying it. It's coming through a human. So we're going to have to do the same thing we always do: take the words you read and evaluate them by the rest of Scripture. And we're going to find some things that will be very true and helpful, no matter who said them, and we're going to be lifted up from the present text and the circumstances to a timeless meditation that I hope will lead to your salvation and to your fruitfulness in service to Christ. So that's what we're going to walk through today. And what we're finding in the book of Job, I said this to a woman at the back of the church last week, I find this every week, the book of Job raises some of the deepest, most profound questions there are in life. Questions about life and death and suffering and pain, and about resurrection, death, resurrection. Some of the deepest questions, and I find again and again, and again, the answer is Christ. The answer is Christ. And we're going to find that here right away with Bildad. Bildad asks a question here, in his section in Job 25. And this is part of the problem, Bildad's section is so short, six verses. It's like, “Is that it? You have nothing more to say? Job has worn you out, and you have nothing more to say?” Or did his section get transposed to somewhere else? We will never know, I think. So there's some brevity here, but he asked this profound question, verse 4, "How then can a man be righteous before God?" So we could just expand it and say, "How can wicked, sinful people like you and me actually stand righteous before such a majestic, holy God?" Do you not see how that question will lead you to Christ? How that question will be useful for your salvation? That's what we're going to look at today. So we're going to walk through this and try to understand what Bildad says and the exalted language he uses about Almighty God. And then I'm going to jump over to chapter 27 and read the second half, and then kind of continue as though that's still Bildad. That may be right or wrong, but no matter what you do with it, I think you're going to have to evaluate the words anyway and their statement. And then we're going to walk through Job's statement and apply it. So in verse 1-6 of 25, "Bildad the Shuhite replied: 'Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes peace in the heights of heaven. Can his forces be numbered? Upon whom does his light not rise? How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is but a maggot—a son of man, who is only a worm!'" This is an excellent question. God is infinitely majestic, so how can a man be righteous before him? He says, "Dominion and awe belong to God." Dominion is God's sovereignty. His kingly rule over the universe. As Nebuchadnezzar said in Daniel 4:35 of God, "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?'" That's dominion. He is king. He doesn't ask permission. He's not accountable to anyone for anything he does. Dominion belongs to God and awe belongs to Him. Dread, terror, the fear of the Lord that comes upon creatures who come into his presence. "Would not his majesty terrify you?" Job 13:11. Yes, it would. And so awe, even the holiest angels cover their faces when they come into the presence of such a holy God. And it says, "He establishes peace in the heights of heaven." This is the Hebrew word shalom, which is a deep, rich, full word, has to do with a peaceful orderliness, an arrangement in an orderliness. And God in the highest heavens establishes peace or tranquility, order. God is a God of peace. He is of tranquility of mind. The heavens, therefore, where he has his throne are in perfect order around Him. Almost, you get the picture in the book of Revelation of concentric circles, all around the throne of God. Everything's in order in heaven. All of the angels are gladly and instantly obedient to Him, and they worship him. More importantly, God has peace, shalom, within himself. God is at peace with himself. He is one with himself. What that means is He has not ever conflicted within his being about anything. He never has second thoughts or doubts. He's never conflicted. His attributes never fight each other so you get half of the attributes on one side and half of the other, and he's going back and forth on any decision. It's just not the case. God is one with Himself, and we Christians understand in the deep mystery of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God, this one, God exists in three persons. And the three persons, the Father and the Son and the Spirit are perfectly at one with one another. They never disagree with each other, ever. And isn't it marvelous to think that we, God's children, will someday be as one with each other, every one of us, as one with each other, as the Father is with the Son. Perfect unity in heaven. There's that peacefulness the highest heavens represent the realm of God himself. He is above even the highest created order, and there God is at peace. But we human beings are not so. We are not so. We are deeply divided within ourselves. We are deeply conflicted within ourselves. We battle within ourselves as Isaiah 57:20-21 says, "The wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and [muck]. 'There is no peace,' says my God, 'for the wicked.'" We have that churning mire and muck going on inside our minds and hearts. And because we, individually, are not at peace with ourselves, we're not at peace with each other, either just person A to person B or nation A to nation B, there's all this disharmony and disunity in the world because of our wickedness and our sin. Says an Isaiah, 17:12, "Oh, the raging of many nations—they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproars of the peoples—they roar like the roaring of great waters!" We see that every day on whatever news based websites you go to find out what's happening in the world. Disunity, disharmony, brokenness, strife, and conflict because individuals, sinners, are not at peace within themselves. And they're not at peace with God. But God—praise God! God brings order out of chaos. That's what's happening in our salvation. He's taking all of this churning wickedness. And in the end He will banish it. He will convert it, transform it, or destroy it. And the universe will be at peace with God and with one another. That's where we're heading. Reminds me of Jesus stealing the storm. Remember how he was asleep in the back of the boat, on the cushion, and the disciples were distressed to find their boat filling with water. And they went and woke Him saying, "Don't you care that we're about to drown?" The things they said to Jesus. "Don't you care that we're about to drown?" But you remember what Jesus did, “[He] got up, and [he stretched out his hands] and said to the wind and the waves, ‘Peace, be still.’" And instantly it became quiet. He has that power. He establishes peace. And Bildad says, "Look at the imensity of his army. He's got a very impressive army. Can his forces be numbered?" Well, we get some numbering of the forces of God's angelic army. He is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of army hosts, the angelic armies. And so in the book of Daniel, in Daniel 7, and also Revelation 5, we get 10,000 times 10,000. Some pastors will do the math and others won't, all right? So that's 100,000,000 angels, 100,000,000. See, you're looking at me. My kids never got over of the fact that I was in the math club. Say, "Dad, what is the math club? What did you do?" I'm sorry I said that. Let's move on. But actually, Bildad is implying His forces are beyond number. And it's incredible because, you know, we're told in that account about Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, that a single angel went out and killed 185,000 as Assyrian troops in one night. That's one angel, imagine 100,000,000 angels. And Bildad says, "His light illuminates the entire universe and every creature in it." Verse 3, "Upon whom does his light not rise?" That started on the first day of creation when “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” And then He delegated that job on the fourth day to the sun and the moon and the stars, but He didn't need them because in the new heaven, the new earth, they will not be needed. Revelation 21:23, it says, "The city [the new Jerusalem] does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." So Bildad is saying that all light ultimately comes from God, and there's not a single creature that God's light does not illuminate. "As a matter of fact," says Bildad, "to God who is pure light, even the moon and the stars are dim by comparison." Look at verse 5. It says, "If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes." "Bildad is saying that all light ultimately comes from God, and there's not a single creature that God's light does not illuminate. "As a matter of fact," says Bildad, "to God who is pure light, even the moon and the stars are dim by comparison."" Now what's the point of all this poetical, meditation on the greatness of God? Well, keep in mind, this is debate going back and forth between Job and his friends, Job and his friends, and their basic theology is God is a just holy God who gets involved in human affairs, who gets involved in human history, and brings justice against the wicked and great justice against those who are greatly wicked—judgments. And therefore, in their theology, Job must be a greatly wicked person because of the magnitude of the judgments God's brought on him. That's their theology. And yet, Job keeps claiming to be innocent. He keeps claiming to be righteous. And so Bildad says, "How can you, a human, be righteous before such a God?" Look at verses 4-6, "How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is but a maggot—the son of man who is only a worm!" Now, that kind of language, like "Amazing Grace," we sang earlier, "that saved a wretch like me." That's wretch language, maggot, worm is not popular with those who would like their preachers to tickle their ears and fluff up their self-esteem, but Jesus didn't come to do that. He didn't come to fluff up anybody's self-esteem. He came to heal us of a deadly contagion, which is sin. And he said, "[It is not the righteous. He has] not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” It's a great work of therapy that he's doing here. He's healing maggots and worms and rebels like us so that we'll be healthy, we'll be forgiven, pure, and holy. That's what he's come to do. And so the Scripture does this kind of leveling work in us, using very extreme language like maggots and worms, and then poets come along like John Newton and say, "Wretch, saved a wretch like me." So the central question he's asking here is how can such an evil corrupt being as I am, be righteous in the sight of such a majestic, holy, glorious, powerful God? Now, Bildad is asking this of Job. It's a tool in his arsenal against Job. That's what he's doing. "It's a great work of therapy that he's doing here. He's healing maggots and worms and rebels like us so that we'll be healthy, we'll be forgiven, pure, and holy. That's what he's come to do." Job has consistently said, "I'm innocent. I want to make my defense before God, and he will equip me." So Bildad is actually right to ask this of Job. It's a good thing for Job to feel the weight of that question: "How can a maggot like you, by comparison with a holy God, ever be righteous before such a God?" It's right, actually. And not only is it right for Bildad to ask that of Job, but it's right for all of us to ask that of ourselves. Are you feeling the of that question? You should. How can I, someone like me, stand before a God like this, forgiven of my sins and righteous in his sight? Bildad's problem is he doesn't seem to ask it of himself, doesn't seem to bother him—it's for Job to deal with. I can't help but think about Jesus' parable in Luke 18 of the Pharisee and the tax collector. “Two men went up to pray,” and the Pharisee prayed about himself. He was self-righteous and he said, "I thank you, God, that I'm this and I'm that," and he's so full of himself, self righteous. “But the tax collector beat his breast and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but said, ‘Be merciful to me, oh God, a sinner.’ … ‘That man,’ [Jesus said,] ‘went home justified.’" So the answer to this question is Christ. That's the answer. I cannot go any further in this sermon without celebrating the answer. There is an answer. If there were no answer, we would, all of us, be condemned. God's perfect holiness would exclude us all. God's future world, the new heavens and the new earth, would exclude us all. As Revelation 21:27 says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful." And so only in Christ can maggots and worms and wretches like us be made pure and holy, and be able to stand in His presence. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, concerning Christ, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." So look, just look with your eyes at whatever form of Scripture you have in front of you. Look at Bildad's question, Job 25:4, "How then can a man be righteous before God?" Just stop and ask yourself that question, "How can I be righteous before God?" And you will stand before God, so will I, so will Bildad, so will Job. We're all going to stand before Him. How can we survive? And the answer in the gospel, the good news is we survive by faith in Christ, alone by his gift of perfect righteousness, alone, and no other way. If you stand before God and you pray about yourself saying, "I thank you that I'm so awesome," and you're effectively saying, "I thank you. I don't need Jesus to save me," that's what you're saying, then you will not be justified. You'll be condemned. But if, on the other hand, you like that tax collector, in some way, you're beating your breast and you won't even look up to heaven to such a holy God is this, and you say, "Be merciful to me, oh God, the sinner." And you know that mercy is found in Christ, crucified and resurrected, then you will be forgiven. II. Bildad’s Final Warning to Job (Job 27:13-23) Well, if we jump ahead now to Job 27:13-23, again, I don't know if this is the right procedure. If you want to say, this is Job speaking here, fine, but you got to pay your money, make your choice at the fork and the road. So we're going to jump ahead, and let's think for a moment that this is one of Job's friends, or maybe Bildad finishing, or it may be Job contradicting himself. That's fine. Either way, you have to make some—but let's just walk through what he says. Now, what he is going to say in this section is the wicked are going to be overwhelmingly judged by God. That's what he's saying, but you've heard that before. The wicked are going to get it, they're going to get crushed. Look at verse 13, "Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty." And what does he say? Well, their children are going to get slaughtered by the sword or die of starvation or of the plague. Verse 14-15, Job 27:14-15, "However many his children, their fate is the sword; [their] offspring will never have enough to eat. The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them." Now, the problem I have as an interpreter is this is a direct contradiction of what Job said in chapter 21. What did he say in chapter 21? He said, "The wicked actually seemed to do very well. Many of them die in their beds and their children sing and dance with tambourines." You remember that? So let me just read it again, Job 21:7-8, "Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes." So that's hard to harmonize those statements. There's not a single commentator that writes a commentary on this that says this is Job. And if you're going to say to me, "Well, how did they get disconnected?" Or "Where's the 'Then Job said,' or 'Then Bildad said'?" I'm going to say, "I don't know." But in any case, this is what this text is saying. So what Bildad is continuing—I think, his final case against Job, he's saying, and he lines these things up with what Job actually, what happened in his life. He suddenly lost his children. They died quickly. See that's what happened to you? He lost all of his wealth, instantly. See that's what happened to you. All the wealth of the wicked melts away. Other people are going to get their ill-gotten gains. Look at verse 16-17, "Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay, what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver." And the mighty mansions of the wicked will crumble though they build with marble pillars. And though they look like they're going to last forever, they won't. Verse 18, "The house he builds is like a moth's cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman." You're going to lose everything. The disasters will come on the wicked instantly. Verse 19, "He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, [everything's] gone." Doesn't that seem like that's something like one of the friends would say to Job? It seems that way. The judgements of God are overwhelming, like a man swept away by a mighty wind or a flood powerless to stand against the onslaught. Look verses 20-23, chapter 27, "Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night. The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power. It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place." Well, how do we hear all this? How do we read the second half of Job 27, no matter who says it? Well, in one sense, this is going to be true, ultimately, of all the wicked. They are going to face the overwhelming judgment of God. They will lose everything, all of them, in some ultimate sense. God's wrath cannot be escaped. It cannot be avoided. There is one and only one refuge for the coming wrath, and that is Christ. He's the only refuge. And so if those words cause a sinner to flee to Christ, then they will have done good. As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly." And so that is coming. Judgment day is coming. Your own death is coming. Everything will be lost and quickly. So as I said, the problem with this being Bildad is that he's saying it to Job, saying, "Look what happened to you? You are a wicked man, in a way the rest of us aren't. You're a significantly evil man. Look, what's happened to you. This is why it's happened. And secondly, I don't need to worry about this." Those are the problems with this being Bildad saying it. III. Job Praises God’s Majestic Power (Job 26) All right. So let's go now to chapter 26 and look at Job's statement. First of all, as always, he rejects Bildad's council. We start with—almost every Job's speech starts with some version of "You guys are losers, and why should I listen to you?" Something like that. Not exactly like that, but you know what I mean. Look at verses 1-4, "Then Job replied: 'How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble! What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! And what great insight you have displayed! Who has helped you to utter these words? And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?'" All right, that's sarcasm, friends. He's not like, "Boy, I'm so glad to have a friend like you." Not at all. So he’s just rejecting. Here's a man that was beaten and crushed and struck down by trials. His friends come, they sit with him, and he has got nothing but destroyed by them, so he swats them aside like annoying mosquitoes. Then Job has his own meditation on the majestic power of Almighty God. Again, let me say to you, we talked last week about transcendence and imminence. Transcendence is the sense of the infinite majesty of God. There are a few books in the Bible that speak with such transcendent language as the book of Job above God. So any drinking in of transcendence and majesty you can get, do it, because we all have a very lax, low view of God. We're very informal, casual people. And so whatever ways we can have a sense of God's majestic power, it will do us good. Look at verses 5-6 of chapter 26, "The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them. Death is naked before God; destruction lies uncovered." God knows the living and the dead. He knows them completely. There's nothing hidden from Him. God is mighty over the heavens and its celestial bodies. Look at verse 7-11, "He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it. He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness. The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke." So Job here is touching on the mysteries of God's creation, especially of the heavens above of invisible physical forces that cannot be explained, how the earth itself hangs in space on nothing at all. Just like God created the universe itself out of nothing at all. So the earth just seems to hang suspended on nothing at all. And then Job ponders, the clouds they're made up of water, he knows, and they're heavy. And yet they just float in the air, again, suspended on nothing at all. And then those clouds, suspended on nothing, are massive enough to block the light of the moon and snuff it out entirely on some nights. He also ponders—Job ponders the mysteries of the horizon line. Have you ever watched the sunrise over the ocean? Have you ever gone where it's just pitch black and you're there throughout the whole pre-dawn, and then watch the sunrise? At some point, there's this line of light that separates night from day, and then it gets brighter and brighter. It's really quite spectacular. I think the astronauts had the clearest example of these kind of sunrises around the edge of the earth, or around the edge of the moon if they were that far. And you can see God putting a line of demarcation between night and day, light and darkness. He's talking about that. And he speaks of the pillars of the heavens, whatever they are. The heavens rest on them and do not come crashing down, yet God is able to shake those pillars, make them tremble, with his voice anytime he chooses. And he's mighty over the sea, verses 12-13, "By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent." So the sea is mysterious with its endless, powerful, undulating waves. Its breakers rolling on one after the other, frothy, foamy crashing, and it's God who stirs up the storms and controls them, and He sets a limit to the boundary of the mighty wave saying, "This far, you may go and no further." He has that power. And then he mentions Rahab, in Old Testament wisdom literature, this Rahab character shows up. Some scholars talk about some mythological dragon or serpent or something like that, that's part of the primordial creation order. It's very fascinating to me. I don't know really what the truth is, but the image here is of God, a mighty warrior, hacks Rahab to pieces and brings peace to the sea. And so the idea is God, a warrior for peace, is able to defeat wicked enemies, even one as powerful as Rahab the silent, hidden serpent. So you get the idea, part of the problem with the ocean is that it's monsters are invisible. They're below the surface. I will never forget the summer that Jaws came out, and I didn't know the difference between fresh water and salt water. We were in Lake Winnipesaukee, and I didn't want to go swimming because you can't see what's down below. You know what I'm saying? You just don't know what's down there. But what Job was saying is whatever is down there, God's sovereign and powerful over it, mighty over it. And He has the power to churn up the sea and then calm them. As we said, Jesus has that power. And His disciples looked at Him after the distilling of the storm and said, "What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves, obey Him." And Job says in all of that, in all this meditation we're doing, we're only touching the fringes of the edge of his garment concerning his power. This is just the absolute fringes. Verse 14, "These are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint is the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?" So as I was writing my book on heaven, this whole thing has expanded for me in ways I can't even begin to explain to you. When you die, in Christ, and go to heaven, you will begin in earnest your education in the greatness of God, and you'll spend eternity learning it. I really believe that. You're going to spend eternity finding out how infinitely majestic God really is. Isn't that exciting, to understand that you're going to be studying the glory of God? As Psalm 111:2-4 says, "Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered," or studied, "by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered," forever. And so we're going to study them forever. And we're going to find out just how great God was, is, and always will be. And that's exciting, isn't it? IV. Job’s Conscience Testifies That He Is Innocent (Job 27:1-12) Well, Job in 27:1-12 continues his testimony that he is innocent. And here's where he gets into trouble too. Fundamental is his claim that he is innocent, that God has, in some sense, wronged him. Look at verse 1-5, "Job continues discourse: 'As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice.'" Stop there. That is a problem. I hope by now, we've heard many of these sermons, whenever you see Job say these kinds of things, that's just not okay. "[God,] as surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, my tongue will utter no deceit. I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity." He cannot agree with his friends that he is secretly wicked, famously wicked though no one knows yet how wicked he is. He will never agree to that. This is just not true. And it's amazing how this same Job who just celebrated the infinite immeasurable majesty of God in chapter 26 says, "Yes, but He has denied me justice." And he even takes a Hebrew kind of vow on this, "As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice." We just need to understand when we suffer, when we hurt, when we ourselves have the cancer diagnosis or a loved one does, or we're walking through that, that trial can bring us to these points. It's never OK, but it can push us to the point where we can start saying these hard, wrong things about God. The book of Job is given to help you not do that, so that you can be fruitful and do good works in the midst of your suffering, and lead other sufferers to Christ rather than be bitter toward God, because it seems Job is very bitter toward God. And fundamental to his bitterness, it seems, is that he's accepted the same basic theology that his friends have, right? The same basic theological structure. The only possible explanation for all this suffering is I am a great wicked man. That's the only way we could understand this. And I'm not, therefore God has made a massive mistake concerning me. Like there's no other possible explanation for the sufferings that Job's going through. And this is the very blunder that God is going to rebuke him for at the end of the book. At Job 40:6-8, "The LORD spoke to Job out of the storm: 'Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?'" We should never do that, ever. Now, Job's greatest defense, he says, is a clear conscience. Verse 6, "My conscience will not reproach me as long as I live." What is conscience? Well, it's part of the original equipment of creation, inside the heart and mind of every human being that presses them to do the right and avoid the wrong, and then evaluates behavior after the fact to see whether you did right or wrong. That's what conscience is. Every human being has this as part of the original equipment. Now, conscience is only as good as two things. First of all, is it harnessed to a true system of morality, to a true understanding of right and wrong? And secondly, conscience is only as good as if you listen to it, because if you don't listen to conscience, its voice will get dimmer and dimmer and dimmer in your life. Those are the limitations of conscience. So people in false religious systems have a conscience about their religion. For example, a Muslim is taught by his religion to do the Ramadan fast, so a month of fasting during Ramadan. Well, you could imagine a Muslim secretly violating the fast, but looking like he's a righteous Muslim to all of his neighbors, and then his conscience will smite him for the falsehood. So his conscience is harnessed to a false religion, because I believe every non-Christian religion is ultimately demonic, taught doctrine of demons, Paul talks about, and so ultimately false. And yet he's conscience is smiting him because he snuck food or did something that violated the Ramadan fast. And then beyond that, for anyone, even if the conscience is tied to the Judeo-Christian system of morality, if you don't listen to the conscience, then the conscience will become what Paul calls seared, a seared conscience. 1 Timothy 4:2, it says, "Such teachings come from hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron." That means you don't feel anything anymore. The nerve endings are seared. You just don't feel anything. I read an account of an abortionist doctor who, when she performed the first abortion, went home and vomited and wept all night. Then she performed thousands of them. And after, you know, she didn't do any of that on the 1,000th or 2,000th. Her conscience was seared. Didn't bother her anymore. Now beautifully, when we come to Christ, the conscience gets healed. Our conscience gets tied to a biblical system of right and wrong, and we begin to feel things again. And I would say, it's very mysterious how Holy Spirit and the conscience work, but there is some kind of partnership there. And Paul gives us both sides of the healthy Christian conscience. He said in Acts 24:16, "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." Why? Because there's going to be a resurrection and a judgment day. I'm going to have to give Him an account for everything I've done in the body. So every day I try to keep my conscience clear, vertically before God, and horizontally before others to do nothing to violate my conscience. And so the author to Hebrews says, in Hebrews 13:18, "Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way." Isn't that a great statement? Wouldn't you love to be able to look someone in the eye and say that? "Pray for us. We're sure that we have a clear conscience and [we do] desire to live honorably in every way." But there is a limit, Paul says, to conscience. 1 Corinthians 4:4 he says, "My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me." So you can have a clear conscience and still be wrong. You can have a clear conscience and still you'll find out on judgment day, so it'd be good to be humble about your clear conscience. Paul was. Job had a clear conscience, and he was wrong. And he found out on a mini judgment day how wrong he was about God and about his own sense of righteousness. Job then gives some final words in verses 7-12. He says, "May my enemies be like the wicked, my adversaries like the unjust! For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him? Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?" So there's going to be judgment for his enemies. So you could think who are his enemies? Are his friends, his enemies? I don't think he's thinking necessarily about his friends here, but I think about the Chaldeans and the Sabeans who came and killed his servants and stole all his stuff, and then there's people in the community there that were mocking him and opposed to him, et cetera. But then he zeros in on his friends, verse 11-12, he says, "I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal." Verse 12, "You have all seen this yourselves. [So] why then this meaningless talk?" V. Applications All right, applications, I've already given you the central application for this text, and I just want you to feel the weight of it. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Almighty God, and Christ will sit on that throne, and He will judge all of us. And He's going to separate everyone into two categories: the believers and the unbelievers. What about you? How can a sinner like you stand before such a holy God? You need to ask that question. What is your hope? What is your confidence? If your answer has something to do with your own righteousness and good works, you are lost. But if your answer is, "I am a great sinner, saved by a great Savior and his name is Jesus Christ," then you have eternal life. So feel the weight of Bildad's question. And isn't it beautiful that impure people like us can actually be purified by faith in Christ, purified. We are purified, perfectly pure positionally in God's sight the moment we come to faith in Christ. He sees us pure in Christ. "What about you? How can a sinner like you stand before such a holy God? You need to ask that question. What is your hope? What is your confidence? If your answer has something to do with your own righteousness and good works, you are lost." And then, as we live our lives, he then continues to purify us as we walk in the light. It says in 1 John 1:7-9, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin." So you can be walking in the light, a Christian, and still need purification from every sin. Still need it. And how do you get that? First of all, don't deny it. Come to God honestly. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." But "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins..." And what else? "... purify us from all unrighteousness." So did you come here today with a guilty conscience? Maybe you're able to hide it from others, but others are not the point. God is the point. He knows everything. As soon as you go home, as soon as you have time alone, confess your sins to God, call them by their biblical names, whatever it is you've done wrong. However your conscience is smiting you, confess it, and receive from 1 John 1:9 the forgiveness and the purification that God has the power to give. And then beyond that, if I can just urge you do what Paul does, "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." Do that. Don't do anything, ever, that would violate your conscience. And then thirdly, stand in awe of the majesty of God. Go back and find some of these great passages in Job, and read them and drink in the infinite majestic Person who God is. We are way too informal and casual with God. Let's fall down on our faces before him and tremble at his greatness and realize this great God loves us in Christ, and wants to spend eternity with us. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had to study today, these three chapters. So much in here, Lord. We thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit who enables us to walk through these difficult waters, to walk through these difficult words, and put some meaning to them. Father, I pray that you would help us to lift up these truths and press them to our hearts, so that we might find forgiveness through Christ and find the right way to live, that will be maximally fruitful for your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.