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The Poco a Poco Podcast with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal
Series on The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups (Part 3) Are you familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan? When we're beat up, when we're in this place of difficulty and shame, He's there, at the side of the road looking at us, desiring to pick us up and saying, "Come with me.". That's Jesus for all of us. The invitation of this episode is to allow the Lord to get close into our deepest places of darkness and shame so he can help us and love us there. Jesus actually comes into our messiness and He loves us unconditionally. This Lent, let Jesus unconditionally love you, and let the healing begin. The Poco a Poco podcast happens because of many generous donors, including recurring monthly donations of any amount. Thinking about helping out? You can give at https://spiritjuice.org/supportpoco. Thank you! You can get a copy of The Ascension Lenten Companion by Fr. Mark Toups from the link below: https://ascensionpress.com/collections/the-ascension-lenten-companion
B stands for BEAUTY in THE CURATED LIFE alphabet because we're letting God be our narrative therapist and He is helping us draw a map out of the land of fear stories into the land of love stories. If you missed episode #128, "B is for BEAUTY," check it out! Our guest in this episode is Joshua Gordon. Josh is a lay pastor, husband, dad to five kids, business owner, and author of Antidote For My Anxiety. He writes honestly and openly about his journey of faith, and how Jesus brings change in areas of struggle, frustration, and difficulty. Join us in a new conversation about beauty where we invite you to trust these life-giving truths - Beauty gives me a great sense of honor. Beauty can transport us. It can lift our eyes from whatever mess we're in. Beauty is hope - and the sense of hope reminds me, “That's Jesus!” Joshua's book begins with “I have big feelings, and they are a target.” Isn't that where so many of our stories begin? Or where our stories get stuck? Today's conversation invites you to linger in these TAKEAWAYS: My feelings of stress, fear, etc... are signal flags indicating areas where Jesus needs my cooperation to further heal my heart. A vibrant, passionate relationship with Jesus (i.e., one where he has earned my trust... and I have risked giving it) most often grows in deeply uncomfortable circumstances. Jesus is my Antidote. I need to go back to Him again and again. And again. RUN! Don't dawdle to Lazarusbooks.com to buy your own copy of Antidote For My Anxiety and follow Josh on IG @joshuahgordon. We predict you'll go back and buy more copies for friends and family, too. It's not just a tagline - together, there is great hope. Subscribe to Janet's newsletter, THE CURATED LIFE at janetnewberry.com. Also, shop fun merch from the LOVE IS FEARLESS collection to find t-shirts, hoodies, kitchen towels, posters, and more. Every purchase from this collection helps support our work with John 15 Academy.
It was another one of those tragic shootings that killed four students (and the shooter) at Marysville High School in Washington state. It shocked everybody. When the identity of the 15-year-old shooter was revealed, it was all the more shocking. Because he wasn't the typical loner, the bullying victim, the outsider. He was the Homecoming prince, a football player, the popular guy. But, as it turns out, there were hints of the anger and anguish in his soul. You could read about it on Facebook and Twitter. See, social media is the new confessional. That's where he spilled his romantically broken heart, his despair, his rage. Social networks have become the new place to dump the contents of your heart. All the contents of your heart, even the dark stuff. It's a catharsis, but it's not a cure. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where to go Before the Explosion." The authorities and talking heads analyzed for a long time that shooting. Teenage angst. Gun violence. Warning signs. For my account, I found myself asking what we could learn about handling life's shattering moments. Without making tragic choices. Well here's some lessons I think: First, don't stuff it. Buried pain is a ticking time bomb. A lot of us were raised to believe that our pain and brokenness should be kept inside, hidden behind this "I'm fine" mask. And all the while, this volcano is building inside. And there's grief, and there's anger, and desperation, and feeling alone - I'll tell you, if you stuff those things they just keep growing. They morph into an emotional monster. Until that emotional monster explodes, doing irreversible damage. Like the eruption at Mt. St. Helen's years ago. The explosion didn't last long. What was blown away is gone forever. And then, don't store it. Treat the wound before the infection sets in. Talk about it when the wound is fresh. Before it submerges. And don't take it to someone who's in the same swamp. You say, "but they get me." Well when we're broken, we don't just need someone who gives us sympathy. We need the objectivity of someone who's completely outside our situation. Someone who can help us see the big picture. Because pain distorts reality, convincing us that this wound will never heal. That everything's dark. But there's never been a winter without a spring. Or a sunset without a sunrise. We need someone with perspective. And another lesson is to have your "go to" person before your storm hits. When you live in "Tornado Alley," they tell you to "know where your shelter is before there's an emergency." That's a good idea emotionally, too. Decide what wise, objective person you can trust with your deepest, darkest feelings. As soon as they hit. I'm so grateful I have found my "911" person. He's the one I've been able to trust with feelings I didn't dare tell anyone. He has calmed my frantic soul when nothing else could. He's pointed me to hope when it looked like there wasn't any. He actually said, "The Lord has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted." The Bible says, "He is close to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit." That's Jesus. And the more broken I've been, the closer He has seemed. And as far as having someone who understands? No one has ever been more wounded, more broken than He was. Abandoned. Attacked. Crucified. Of course, I'm not alone in finding refuge in the open arms of Jesus. So many people have found that, for a very long time, they've accepted His invitation: "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest." This man who loved you enough to die on a cross for you, who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave and conquer the biggest monster of all - death - He stands ready to come into your life, at your invitation. If you have never had a moment when you began a personal relationship with the savior, where you've told Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." Would you tell Him that today? Get to our website. We've laid out, there, the path where you can be sure you belong to Him. That website's ANewStory.com. See we're all Humpty Dumpty at times. All the King's horses and all the King's men can't put us together again. But the King can.
We should be willing to go to work wherever Jesus is moving. ~~~ Have you ever been dared to pray something? Me either! But I loved it and now I'm daring you to pray it too! But, before I get to the prayer, let's talk about mission. What is your mission? If you're a believer in Jesus, I really hope you know the answer. If you don't, let me give you a refresher. Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” What's our mission? We are to go and tell and teach the world about Jesus. Mission is the heartbeat of God. It began with Jesus and now it is to continue through you and me. Jesus said in John 20:2, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” That's you and me! Yes, it's also all of our missionaries we support and pray for that are all around the world, but it's also YOU and ME, right where we are. Luke 10:2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers or laborers are few. Why are the workers few? Because our eyes are only seeing what we want to see. We're not even seeing the harvest field around us. Where we work, where we live and where we play, that's where the harvest is. There are people all around us that need Jesus. They need a friend to listen. They need a helping hand to help them with a meal. They need someone that won't judge them. They need someone that can lay aside their agenda to see a divine opportunity to love. They need someone who will put their needs above their own. That's Jesus. That's what people need. Why do you love like that? Jesus. Why do you listen like that? Jesus. Why do you serve me like that? Jesus. Why do you care for me like that? Jesus. That's our mission. Will you accept it? If so, I dare you to pray this prayer. Jesus, where are YOU already at work where I live, work, learn and play? Jesus, how can I join you? That's it. That's what I'm praying in this season. Join me. I dare you. Don't miss where God is at work around you. There's no better place to be! Is it uncomfortable? Yes! Will you get your hands dirty in the field? Yes! Let's go! You can read all through scripture how God used ordinary men and women, just like you and me. Go and tell the world about Jesus. Show them His love. That's YOUR mission. That's the truth. May our prayer be, ‘Jesus, show me where YOU are at work', then may we be willing to go into the field. I'm Lori Cline.
Gospel Reflection– Fr Mark De Battista– Family Life (Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. That's Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All focused on doing the will of the father. So here is Mary and Joseph focusing on this divine child. Who in all that they can see is an ordinary human being who was conceived and born under extraordinary circumstances. The church focuses on the feast of the Holy Family because she wants to remind us that not only is the family so important and blessed as an institution by God, but that God thought it's beautiful and important enough to have a family for his own son to grow up in. We have an example of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, living their life based on the Torah, the instruction that first five books of the Old Testament and the message of the Psalms and the Prophets. Serving God, the Heavenly Father, as good Jews of that time, and that in living by faith, doing the ordinary things of family life, the work, the joys and the sorrows, the love of one another, the daily sacrifice, serve as a model for us and for all families.)
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with James 5:17-18:"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit."I love that this scripture stresses that Elijah was an ordinary man, just like you and me. Let's go to Mark 11:24:"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."That's Jesus speaking. I want to say to you that God honours the prayer of faith. God doesn't honour prayer; He honours the prayer of faith. There's no good praying a prayer and then doubting whether it will happen - "Well, I'm gonna pray this prayer, and I hope something comes of it." No, by faith, we've got to find out the will of God in that situation, and then we must pray accordingly, with faith, and God will do the rest. "When men work, they work, but when men pray, God works." We need to pray the prayer of faith!Do you know the story of the old lady who was just about to go to bed? She looked out the window, and there was a big mountain in front of her little house. She prayed, "Lord, I'm praying that when I wake up tomorrow morning, the mountain will be gone." She drew the curtains, got into her bed and went sound asleep. The next morning, she woke up early, opened the curtains, and the mountain still stood there. Her remark was, "Oh ya, I thought so..." No faith in that prayer. I want to tell you I don't know how many times, mainly through desperation, I have prayed: "Jesus, please send the rain!" or "Jesus, please stop the rain!" Floods and droughts, and I've seen the Lord answer my prayers too many times to believe it is just a coincidence. God honours the prayer of faith. As we look forward to Christmas day tomorrow, I want to wish you a very peaceful and joyful Christmas Eve, and I want you to start to pray, like I'm going to, more often and, most of all, begin praying the prayer of faith. Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
Christmastime is kind of like time to get things in shape, especially around the house. Most of us become very motivated when December arrives in terms of getting things cleaned up. We dust corners and clean areas that haven't been touched for like eleven months. Trouble spots in the carpet that had gone unnoticed, suddenly we notice them and we work on them. That wall in the kitchen that needed some touch-up paint, it becomes a priority. We begin decorating things! Houses are suddenly in better shape than they've been in all year, especially since last Christmas. Christmas is shape-up time for houses...and people. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Really Ready for Christmas." Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Isaiah 55:6. And it happens to be about fixing things up. Here's what it says: "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near." The 7th verse says, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts, and let him turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will freely pardon." Now, you notice here it says, "Seek the Lord while He is near." You say, "Wait a minute. This isn't about Christmas. What does this have to do with Christmas?" Well, honestly, I don't think there's any time of the year when people feel closer to the Lord or have Jesus more on their radar than the Christmas season. Remember, "while He is near." I think Christ seems close at this time of the year; almost inescapable. You can probably sense that. There's a softness - a kind of warm and cuddly feeling on the inside this time of year. We're softer than any other time. We find ourselves drifting into thoughts about Christ more often than usual. I mean, even watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special or hearing a carol at the mall; in places we wouldn't normally think about Christ. We're open to Him. That's when it's time to fix things up with Jesus. Not just around the house; I mean inside the heart house of your life. "Seek the Lord while He may be found," it says. That's really the Christmas season. "Call on Him while He is near." Well, in a very real way, that is now. This may have been for you a year of slowly drifting away from the Lord. You didn't run away; you're just not as close and warm...intimate like you used to be. Maybe it's been a year of real confusing doubts, hardships that have made you disillusioned and maybe a little hard-hearted. Or there could be a distraction that has taken His place for a while. But I'll bet you've discovered it's really no good away from Him is it? Those are the best times of your life when you're close to Him. It's Christmas time! It's time to fix things up. "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He's close" like He is now. And maybe this year, maybe this is when you finally think about opening up to Christ as your personal Savior. Not just a baby in a manger. Not just the One we sing about in our carols and we go to church services and go through our Christmas thing. You miss Him. You've missed having a personal relationship with Him. That's what you were made for. It's not that you haven't known about Him. You've never been against Him. You're religious. You know a lot of people who are Christians, but maybe you've never made your personal commitment to Christ. You've never said, "Jesus, what you did on that cross; what you came to do was for me. That was for all the wrong things I have done." Well, Christmas is close, and I wouldn't be surprised if you feel a tug in your heart. And that tug? That's not me. That's Jesus. This could be your first Christmas with Christ in your heart if you'll fix things up with Him. I'd love to help you begin that relationship with Him and understand from what He wrote in the Bible exactly how this relationship works. Would you go to our website? It's ANewStory.com. I think you'll find your way home there. Whatever stands between you and Jesus right now, would you let Him clean it up before Christmas? Then it will be more than a song for you. You can really say, "I'll be home for Christmas!"
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:37 - 2:47 37 Now when they heard this, they were acutely distressed and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “What should we do, brothers?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” 40 With many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation!” 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 people were added.42 They were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Reverential awe came over everyone, and many wonders and miraculous signs came about by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and held everything in common, 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need. 46 Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, 47 praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.Main ThemesTHE RESPONSERepentanceThe crowd is persuaded by Peter. Contrite over killing their own graciously God-given king, the crowd asks what to do. Peter summons them to repentance, as in the prophets, and to call on Jesus' name in a baptism involving such repentance. God's promise to them is the Holy Spirit. The biblical prophets summoned Israel to “turn” or “return” to the Lord. Similarly, in Acts 2 individuals need to turn from wickedness to righteousness, that is, change their lifestyle. Early Judaism heavily emphasized the value of repentance.The crowd is described as having a deep emotional response to Peter's message (“struck to the heart”), producing a favorable behavioral response. We need not assume exaggeration on Luke's part. He provides two other occasions where, by contrast, the emotional response provoked deadly hostility (Acts 5:33; 7:54). I think that we are so used to our current Christian world, we simply assume that joining a religious movement involves repentance. This was not the case at the time (and it is not the case today with many non-Abrahamic religions). Gentiles did not speak much of moral repentance in light of religion. Joining a new mystery cult simply supplemented one's previous religious experience.Because God's “kingdom” was his reign, those who turned to embrace his reign were accepting a new king. Genuine faith in Jesus as Lord requires acknowledgment of his lordship and beginning to adjust to its practical demands.BaptismJust as John the Baptist preached a baptism symbolizing repentance, so now does Peter. Jewish people traditionally applied immersion baptism only to Gentiles (more on this later). Peter here demands a conversion no less radical than that of a Gentile converting to Judaism, but from members of his own people who must likewise turn to Israel's God and the divinely appointed king, Jesus. After reading this passage in acts, we might ask: Is forgiveness tied to baptism or repentance? Are both required? “Forgiveness of sins” is explicitly associated especially with repentance in Acts and in Luke. Most importantly, Jesus' final command to the disciples in the Gospel of Luke was that of preaching repentance.Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it stands written that the Christ would suffer and would rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:45-49One could debate to what extent forgiveness of sins is also associated with baptism (i.e., the act of baptism itself as distinct from repentance). Some of the arguments are based on the grammar of the text we just read. Those arguments are complex and, frankly, beyond me. Besides, grammar alone is hardly dispositive of the issue. If we surveyed texts in Luke and Acts relating to forgiveness, we would find that forgiveness is more often associated with repentance than baptism, and repentance is never missing when baptism is mentioned with forgiveness of sins. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that for Luke baptism is not dissociated from repentance. At least under normal circumstances, one does not separate the two.As I remarked above, we live in such a Christianized age, we are not surprised by facts that ought to surprise us. The fact that Jesus' followers used baptism as the initiation rite is actually quite unexpected. Ritual lustrations were common throughout the ancient world. Various temples had their own rules mandating ritual purity. The early Jewish practice of ritual washings was widespread long before the time of the Jesus movement. Christian baptism seems a bit different, though. John's baptism in the Synoptic tradition was initiatory and eschatological, a baptism of repentance in light of the coming kingdom of God. The Qumran community practiced initiatory baptism, but unlike for early Christians, the initial baptism at Qumran was apparently viewed only as the first among many. The closest Jewish parallel to John the Baptist's and early Christian baptism was proselyte baptism, a specific and extremely potent form of ritual purification. Proselyte baptism provided a clear, symbolic line of demarcation between a proselyte's Gentile past and Jewish present, much like the baptism suggested in Acts.In Jesus NamePeter calls his audience to be baptized in Jesus' name. Jewish people were known for “calling on the Lord's name,” and the more specific application to Jesus would be striking. (Again, this reveals a high Christology.) But what does the phrase mean? Baptism “in Jesus's name” distinguishes this baptism from other Jewish immersion practices noted above, with respect to its object. That is, it clarifies the convert's new allegiance.We should also note that for Luke, baptism in Jesus's name does not involve a ritual formula uttered over an initiate but the new believer's calling on the name of Jesus. In Luke's writings, the verb to baptize (βαίτίζω) appears in both passive and active forms. However, in the formula “in the name of Jesus,” it appears only with passive uses of the verb. Put simply, I do not baptize you, you are baptized. This indicates that the formula has to do with receiving rather than giving. This is not to argue that early Christians would not have cared who supervised baptisms. The Promise of the SpiritLuke recalls earlier teachings about the Spirit through his terms “gift” and “promise.” By noting that the promise is for others, he makes the proper response for the present crowd (namely, repentance and baptism in Jesus's name) and the gift of the Spirit paradigmatic for all subsequent believers. By alluding to “far-off” Gentiles by way of Isaiah's language, Luke also reiterates the promise of the Spirit for the Gentile mission. By concluding that the gift was available to “as many as God calls,” Luke clearly echoes the end of Joel 2:32, completing the quotation interrupted in Acts 2:21.It will so happen thateveryone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive,just as the Lord has promised;the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call.SUMMARY AND EXHORTATIONVerse 2:40 (“[w]ith many other words he testified”) probably means that Luke skips through many supplementary proofs and arguments provided by Peter. Instead, Luke's narrative moves quickly to the final exhortation and emotional appeal: “Save yourselves!” This restates briefly the speech's central idea. The immediate referent of “save” here is Joel's prophecy in Acts 2:21: whoever calls on the Lord's name will be saved. Therefore this salvation at least includes deliverance from God's eschatological wrath and destruction, available through Christ. For Peter's hearers to save themselves from the generation's wickedness was not, as some later Gentile Christian interpreters would have it, a summons to leave Israel and their Jewishness; rather, it was a summons to leave their rebellion against God, like a repeated prophetic summons to Israel in the Old Testament.Peter's term γενεά (genea) means here a temporal “generation,” not (as some would interpret it) “race” (γένος). By calling the generation crooked here, Peter is appealing to the Old Testament, particularly Deuteronomy 32:5. Peter's point is an exhortation not to harden their hearts as their ancestors did in the wilderness.Peter thus continues the preaching tradition followed by John the Baptist, underlining the continuity of salvation history and of the saving message.3,000We discussed baptism earlier, so I will not discuss the religious significance of 3,000 people being baptized. Nevertheless, we should briefly consider the mechanics of this. Could so many people even be baptized in a day? (The text could easily be understood to mean that 3,000 came to believe in Jesus, regardless of whether the actual baptisms would have taken several days to perform. But let's assume the harder, albeit simpler reading of the text.) To accommodate the thousands of worshipers the temple hosted daily, the Temple Mount had plenty of baptismal pools. Even the Roman historian Tacitus was familiar with the claim that the temple held many pools.“Baptizing” in this period involved mainly supervision while the people coming for purification immersed themselves. Like John the Baptist, the disciples could have supervised mass baptisms, without having to physically lay hands on each person. Once verbal instructions were issued, mass immersions in response to Peter's command could have occurred.One more question: is 3,000 converts in one day a believable number? At feast times such as Pentecost, Jerusalem could host as many as half a million people, with an estimated thirty thousand from the Diaspora. The Temple Mount was large enough to hold tens of thousands at one time, perhaps up to four hundred thousand (according to some of the larger estimates). Even if some of these estimates are too high (although they might be correct), thousands of hearers and a rapid mass movement of three thousand conversions are not at all implausible.Another reason to believe Luke's account of converts is that Luke seems quite honest about audiences' reactions to hearing the gospel. After each sermon in Acts, Luke reports people's acceptance or rejection (2:41; 4:4; 5:33; 7:54; 8:6, 36;10:44; 13:44, 48-50; 17:32; 22:22; 28:24, 29). Reporting rejections does not seem to fit a false narrative of ineffable success.The First ChurchVerse 42 begins a summary section describing the Jerusalem community of disciples, or what I may refer to as the first church. Before we discuss whether this first church is meant as a model for the rest of us, let's just focus on the text. What is the community engaged in? Prayer, learning from the apostles, signs, eating together, and sharing of possessions. Let's discuss these in further detail.SummariesAs a quick side note, what do I mean by a summary section? Speaking of situations in broad terms (i.e., summarizing) is typical of ancient historiographical works that were based on research and the use of sources. In other words, here Luke condenses a wider collection of information than he can afford space to narrate.The Ideal CommunityIn the ancient world, just like today, tales and dreams of ideal communities that shared all possessions were not unusual. The language employed by Luke is reminiscent of Hellenistic language for the ideal community. However, Luke and his audience are probably not thinking of Gentile sources. Instead, there is a nearly unmistakable connection between this first church and the Old and New Testament emphases on caring for the poor. For example, recall a passage like Deuteronomy 15:7-11:If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition. Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend him whatever he needs. Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite and you do not lend him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be regarded as having sinned. You must by all means lend to him and not be upset by doing it, for because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you attempt. There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open your hand to your fellow Israelites who are needy and poor in your land. Deuteronomy 15:7-11Consider also the following verses in Deuteronomy:One must not take either lower or upper millstones as security on a loan, for that is like taking a life itself as security. Deuteronomy 24:6When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you may not go into his house to claim what he is offering as security. You must stand outside and the person to whom you are making the loan will bring out to you what he is offering as security. If the person is poor you may not use what he gives you as security for a covering. You must by all means return to him at sunset the item he gave you as security so that he may sleep in his outer garment and bless you for it; it will be considered a just deed by the Lord your God.You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. Deuteronomy 24:10-15There are countless verses about helping the poor in the Psalms. Broadly speaking, the psalmists express the idea that the one who helps the poor will be blessed (e.g., Psalm 41:1-2). Jesus spoke repeatedly about helping the poor and about their blessings to come.So, this first church is surprising and unsurprising. Surprisingly, it describes a nearly unbelievable setting filled with love and generosity. Unsurprisingly, this has been the goal Moses, the Prophets, and Jesus spoke about. One could hardly expect otherwise.If one believes that Pentecost was a sort of reversal of the curse at Babel, then the church's unity in these verses builds upon that reversal. TeachingThe apostles' teaching provides a crucially important link to Jesus' ministry. The early church devoted itself to the apostles' teachings, which is to say they devoted themselves to Jesus' teachings passed on by the apostles. Luke is emphasizing the continuity between the mission of Jesus and his church.What might this teaching have looked like? Moral teaching was not unusual in the ancient world. For example, we could picture the lectures in a philosophic schools. However, considering the Jewish background of the apostles and other (approximately 120) Jesus' followers that received the Spirit during the Pentecost miracle, the teaching probably looked like the Midrashic exposition familiar in the synagogues. Or, put even more simply, it would have looked like Peter's speech: lessons and admonitions expanding on scriptures.Fellowship (Koinōnia)The first church engaged in “fellowship,” the Greek word being koinōnia (κοινωνία). I mention this bit of Greek trivia because the Greek word often appears in churches and Christian college campuses to describe events and meeting places. It has become part of the modern Christian lingo. The word means exactly that, a partnership, community, or “sharing in” something. The term can refer to the sort of harmony created by shared purpose and working together. In a commercial context, the word could mean sharing profits.In light of early Christian teaching, much like sharing possessions, fellowship is not a surprising fruit of Pentecost. Remember what we read in the Gospel of John when Jesus prays for the believers:“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me. John 17:20-23In verse 46, we read the believers met by common consent. The term translated as such is rare (appearing nowhere else in the New Testament or Septuagint). Although I do not want to read too much into it, I think it does show a strong form of unity.Breaking BreadIn the text, breaking bread and fellowship are side by side, giving the impression that fellowship included sharing meals. We may surmise that these common meals were at the expense of those who were sharing their possessions—those who could afford the food. More importantly, what do we mean by breaking bread? Certainly our modern experiences with the Eucharist or Lord's Supper (the wording will change depending on the Christian tradition) affects how we read this passage. We should, however, keep in mind that, as the most basic staple, “bread” could easily stand for food in general. The passage is probably conveying the idea of eating together, not exclusively the breaking of literal bread. Recall the original Lord's Supper (Luke 22), in which bread and wine were shared, but just like they were shared at other meals. They were notable components in a meal involving many other components. If anything, the bread and wine were special in the fact that they were not—they were the most basic and always-present elements of Jewish meals.One could read the text to say that the early Christians were simply taking bread together, like the sacrament with which we are so familiar. That is not the most likely reading. (I am not trying to make a broader point about the sacraments. I am simply trying to clarify what the text means.)As we read this text, we should remember that a host who shared a meal with guests was thought to have formed a bond of relationship that was not taken lightly. Providing food and partaking of what was provided were important social obligations. To eat with someone was, at least to some extent, to befriend them. Considering that this early church was made up of people from all over the known world, and rich and poor, this sharing of meals was nothing short of revolutionary.Prayer and WorshipPrayer was the prelude to Pentecost, but it did not stop there. At the end of chapter 2, we see that prayer is a continuing part of the Christian community life.On a related note, we find that they praise God together. The word Luke uses for praise is found many times in the Septuagint. It is almost always associated with praise carried out in the temple. Consider, for example:They brought the ark of God and put it in the middle of the tent David had pitched for it. Then they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God. When David finished offering burnt sacrifices and peace offerings, he pronounced a blessing over the people in the Lord's name. He then handed out to each Israelite man and woman a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. He appointed some of the Levites to serve before the ark of the Lord, to offer prayers, songs of thanks, and hymns to the Lord God of Israel. 1 Chronicles 16:1-4What did that early worship look like? Again, considering the background of most of the people involved, it probably looked like (not necessarily the same as) the Jewish liturgy and reading of the Psalms. Nevertheless, early Christians would have rejected the idea that the Jewish liturgy in the temple was the required or even best way to pray and worship.SignsIn verse 43, we have one of many miracle summaries in Acts (e.g., 5:12; 8:7; 19:11-12; 28:9). We are also told how people reacted. “Reverential awe came over everyone . . . .” In the Greek, the imperfect tense is used. Awe (or fear) was coming over everyone. This suggests a continued phenomenon rather than a one time event.What is this “awe” or, literally, “fear” that they felt? The text suggests a newfound attitude of paying attention to God, his work, his commandments, and his very person (i.e., who he is).Meeting at the TempleUndeniably, homes became the dominant meeting places for Christians. Yet, notice that in this first church, they meet both in the temple and in homes. Some suggest that Christians used public meeting places to evangelize, but houses to disciple the converts. That very well could be the case, but in the case of Acts 2, worshipping at the Temple does not seem like a tactic. Instead, at this point, the temple serves a positive function—it right and proper to worship at the temple. The revival of spiritual temple worship here would evoke for Luke's biblically informed audience grand precedents. In the Old Testament, renewal of temple or tabernacle worship accompanied revivals in Israel's history. The early Christians thus had good reason to expect (and experience) a renewal of temple worship, whether or not the authorities saw fit to cooperate with their agenda. (Many Jewish people expected a new or renewed temple in this period.)Lessons for TodayI am going to do something a little unusual for this Bible study. Generally, I try to stay close to the text—focusing on the cultural and linguistic issues. My goal is to explain what the text really says—what it meant to the author and original audience. The implications of the text, particularly for our lives, I touch on lightly and briefly. As some have let me know (and there is nothing wrong with that), this has the effect of hiding the forest for the trees. I spend much of the time discussing details like grammar, and I never get to the “good stuff.”Well, today, I do want to pause for a brief moment and consider some questions. In particular, I have three in mind. First, does charity matter? Second, should we preach like “Acts 2 Peter”? Third, should our churches resemble the “Acts 2 church”?Does Charity Matter?I do not wish to repeat myself, but the Old Testament and Jesus' ministry have a heavy emphasis on charity. Helping the poor is part of the Jewish law. The Psalms say that helping the poor will result in blessings. Jesus says that helping the poor will result in exaltation.Then when Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. He said to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor because a person more distinguished than you may have been invited by your host. So the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place.' Then, ashamed, you will begin to move to the least important place. But when you are invited, go and take the least important place, so that when your host approaches he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up here to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who share the meal with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors so you can be invited by them in return and get repaid. But when you host an elaborate meal, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:7-14It is this Bible-wide emphasis on caring for the poor that climaxes in the depiction of the first church. And, I think the undeniable truth is that this emphasis on the poor has been crucial for the vitality and expansion of the church. Listen how Craig Keener describes how early thinkers, Christian and pagan alike, noticed the early church's attitude towards the poor:Justin claims that former pagans, converted to Christianity, continue to share their resources in common and with the needy (Justin 1 Apol. 14). In the late second century, Tertullian remarks wittily that Christians readily share everything in common except their wives—the one thing, he complains, pagans were most willing to share (Tert. Apol. 39.11– 12). In antithetical contrast to the apologists' idealized portraits, Lucian ridicules worshipers of “the crucified sophist” as despising “all things indiscriminately” and reckoning everything as “common property,” hence easily cheated. Celsus critiqued Christians for their effective appeal to “the socially objectionable classes” as well as to “the unhappy and sinful.” Other sources also attest to Christians' continuing commitment to share their resources in the second century and beyond.In short, I think charity is both a means of blessing in this life (I mean for the giver, not the recipient) and one of the primary means by which we show the kingdom of God in this world. Regarding blessings, allow me to make a wildly inflammatory statement: the answer to many of our personal problems is a lack of charity. Are you experiencing depression? Go help the poor. Are you having trouble with your wife? Go help the poor. Are you dissatisfied with your job? Go help the poor. No, I am not saying that helping the poor will make your problems go away, but I am saying that helping the poor will provide you with a certain perspective and patience that will help solve them. Charity is simply that crucial and life-changing. And, do we want our churches to be lively and vibrant? We must help and welcome the poor. What are the limits to charity? Yes, a line must be drawn. My suggestion is we discuss that once we think we are getting close to the line.Should We Preach Like Acts 2 Peter?In Acts 2, Peter makes a perfect presentation of what we generally call “the gospel.” Peter stood up and told them (paraphrased), “Listen! The scriptures spoke of a day when the Spirit of God would be poured out on all people. As you can see and hear (because of the Pentecost miracle), that day is today. That also means that the end is near, call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. Who is the Lord? Jesus. How do we know? He did miracles among you. Also, you killed him using dirty tactics but God raised him from the dead. The scriptures spoke of one who would not see decay—that's Jesus! The scriptures also spoke of a king who would reign forever, who would be exalted. That's Jesus! He has been taken up to heaven as King and Savior. He will not lose. Save yourselves! Repent!”Obviously, I do not disagree with Peter one bit. My question is not whether Peter is right. I believe he speaks of true things. My question is whether we should present that truth the same way, and whether his argument would be compelling today.If you are thinking I am about to start a discussion about how sensitive people are today, and how offended they would be by Peter's speech, do not worry. I am not convinced people have ever been different (e.g., more or less sensitive), but be that as it may, I am more interested in the argument itself.Peter's argument depends partly on the audience's personal experience with Jesus. It depends much more, though, on scripture that the audience believes to be true. Peter does not even need to argue that scripture is truthful.Would we find a similar audience today? In my opinion, yes and no. In the United States, we live in a time of great apostasy (or at least of many people leaving the churches). People are leaving the Christian faith by the hundreds of thousands. In 2007, religious “nones” were only about 16%. Now that number has nearly doubled (29%). Perhaps many of these people still believe the Bible to be true, much like Peter's audience, and we can call them back to God based on that. But about a third of Americans (coincidentally, also 29%) believe that the Bible is simply fables. What then?I have two suggestions. First, like we will read of Paul preaching in Athens, we must meet them where they (the audience) are. We must explain why the gospel is true and good. Second, and this will lead into my question of the early church, we must help them experience Jesus. How? The church is the body of Christ. I think that unbelievers should truly encounter Jesus in the community of his followers.Should our churches resemble the “Acts 2 church”?Why do I ask this question? Partly because many churches claim to be Acts 2 churches. This is particularly common with nondenominational churches (this is not an attack, simply a statement of fact), but even some more traditional, denominational churches advocate for this.We must begin by asking what do we mean by an Acts 2 church. Here are some answers I found to get us started:Their Four KeysThe church in Acts 2 has four priorities: studying good teaching, hanging out, sharing meals, and praying (verse 42). That's a great start, but many churches today don't even do that, not really.Their MiraclesAmazing supernatural things occur. People are amazed (verse 43). Today, most churches don't encounter miracles or anything supernatural. They forgot how or never learned. And for many who do walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, their focus is on the experience, not on people's reaction. Their emphasis is backwards. The purpose of “signs and wonders” isn't to gratify themselves. It's to show God's power, pointing outsiders to him, not delighting insiders.Their FinancesThe kicker is that they pool their resources; they even sell their possessions to give to everyone in need. The church takes care of their own (verses 44 and 45). Too many churches today do not even care for the needs of their members; they expect government or some other organization to. And I've never encountered a church that shares all their material possessions. That's just un-American!Their PatternThey continue to hang out—every day—and share food. They are delighted (verse 46). I don't know of any church family that meets every day, but the Acts 2 church did.Their ResultsBecause of all this, others esteem them and they grow (verse 47). Too often today's churches don't have the respect of society but quite the opposite. Too many churches aren't growing; they're not even maintaining; they're dying. However, none of the things the church did in Acts 2 are commands for us to follow. The passage is descriptive; it shows what the church did and the outcome they enjoyed. It may be a viable model for us to follow.Unfortunately, many churches today don't even practice these four key actions; supernatural results are rare; and sharing everything is virtually nonexistent. Is it any wonder why churches aren't respected by society or growing? Perhaps they're doing church wrong and not more closely following the Acts 2 model.—Peter DehaanBeing an Acts 2 Church in the 21st CenturySome churches are known for their music programs, others for their children or youth ministries, while yet others for some sort of “niche” that appeals to a large audience. While all such ministries can be good and helpful for both reaching your community and encouraging the church, it's interesting to look back at what the first church devoted themselves to. In Acts 2, after Peter's Jewish audience heard the gospel proclaimed, they responded with repentance and faith, were incorporated into the church through baptism, and they devoted themselves to a common faith and a common life.It's no accident that the first devotion mentioned was to the apostles' teaching. We too should be devoted to the apostles' teaching. But what is their teaching? In Acts 2:22-26, Peter preaches the good news concerning Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and exaltation as Lord and King. In Acts 4, Peter and John annoy the Jewish leaders because they were “teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (v.2). Then the Jewish leaders charged them not “to teach at all in the name of Jesus” (v.18). Then in Acts 5, the apostles' teaching is referred to as “the words of life” (v.20-21). But again, the Jewish leaders “strictly charged them not to teach in this name” (v.28). Nevertheless, after they were released, Luke says of the apostles:And every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching that Jesus is the Christ. (v.42)I trust you get the idea of what the apostles' teaching entails.Still, there is a little more going on in Acts 2:42 then first meets the eye. You see, faithful Jews were to be devoted to Moses' teaching. By devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, the early church understood that they were under a new authority—King Jesus, the new and better prophet than Moses. The apostles' teaching is nothing other than all of Scripture, now interpreted through the lens of Jesus. This is, after all, how Jesus himself viewed all of Scripture (Luke 24:44-49). All Scripture is inspired by God and points to Jesus.For this reason, we should want what we do together as a church to be Word-saturated (all of Scripture) and gospel-centered (interpreted through the lens of Jesus). In light of this gospel commitment, here are four areas in which we should encourage our church to be devoted to the apostles' teaching.Personal DevotionsIf our churches are to be devoted to the apostles' teaching, then our members need to be personally devoted to the apostles' teaching. . . .Sunday SchoolYour church may or may not have Sunday school. At High Pointe, we call it Life Classes, and we offer topic specific classes. . . .Small GroupsPerhaps your church has small groups that meet throughout the week. These groups should also be Word-saturated and gospel-centered. . . .Worship GatheringsIt is a great joy when God's people gather to declare our joint allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . .—LifewayChurch As It Was Meant To BeIn many respects, the contemporary church in America looks more like a large corporation than like anything described in the New Testament. Even church leaders sometimes bear a closer resemblance to CEOs and corporate executives than to humble, tender shepherds. Sadly, the good news — that a sinner can find forgiveness for sins before a holy God by placing his trust in and committing his whole life to Jesus Christ—is often eclipsed by “success”-oriented programs and an interest in the bottom line. As a result, many churches have become nothing more than entertainment centers, employing tactics that effectively draw people into the church, but are incapable of truly ministering to them once they come. …So, what's the blueprint? A logical place to start is at the beginning with the first church—the church at Jerusalem. It began on the Day of Pentecost . . . . Back to the Blueprint: Bible Study, Fellowship, and PrayerActs 2:42 gives the blueprint they followed: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Those are the vital elements that make up the actual function and life of the church— and all of that in just one verse! Here's an obvious starting point: A church built to the Master's plan will begin with the right raw material—a saved congregation. Verse 41 identifies the church as being made up of “those who had received [Peter's] word,” and “were continually devoting themselves.” The church at Jerusalem was filled with true Christians — those who continually adhered to apostolic teaching.…While the early church didn't have a New Testament, they had God's Word in the form of the “apostles' teaching.” The church at Jerusalem was committed to receiving that Word. Doctrine is the basis of the church—you can't live out what you don't know or understand. . . . Don't ever allow anyone to stand in the pulpit who isn't committed to leading the congregation through a deep, penetrating study of God's Word. The central focus of the early church's fellowship was the breaking of bread — the Lord's Table. It was the most fitting symbol of their fellowship since it reminded them of the basis for their unity—salvation in Christ and adherence to apostolic doctrine. . . .We eat and drink in remembrance of Christ's self-sacrificing love that took Him to the cross. In your fellowship, make it your habit to practice the same kind of love Christ demonstrated toward you. Practically speaking, you can always give your life to those God brings across your path. Do you habitually pray for fellow believers? Are you encouraging them, edifying them, meeting their physical needs? Do you love them enough to confront them when they are sinning? Those are the marks of true Christian fellowship. It is church as it was meant to be. Acts 2:42 says the believers continually devoted themselves to prayer. Sadly, the same devotion to prayer is often neglected today. Churches can pack pews by offering entertainment, but when a prayer meeting is held, only a faithful few trickle in. . . .Built to Scale: Wonder, Love, and JoyWhat happens when true believers remain under biblical teaching, in a spiritual fellowship, and in devotion to prayer? Acts 2:43 says, “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe.” “Awe,” the Greek word for fear, speaks of a sense of reverence. It is reserved for special times when people are struck with wonder because of something divine or powerful that defies human explanation. Your church ought to be able to instill awe in your community. . . .—Grace to YouI think we can pick up on a couple of things. First, everyone picks and chooses. Some emphasize signs, some leave them out. (Of course, there are theological reasons for this.) In the second example I quoted, we see a nearly exclusive emphasis on learning—on words. Is that what we see in Acts 2?The community of believers in Acts 2 is the culmination of the salvation story, at least in this life. It has learning but it has has doing; it has giving and receiving; it has love and generosity. Whatever we decide we should carry forward to today's church, I think we cannot forget that the first church was like family.
This week we continue our series on prayer, Graham is speaking on "Prayer - When God Seems Silent " Summary The sermon titled 'Prayer - When God Seems Silent' by Graham Reed on November 12th, 2023, explores the dynamics of prayer and the interaction between the soul and the spirit. Graham uses three chairs as a visual representation of the body, soul, and spirit. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the distinction between the soul (emotions, mind, and will) and the spirit. Graham draws from the biblical story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-13, highlighting the various elements like wind, earthquake, fire, and a gentle whisper representing God's presence. The central theme of the sermon revolves around the challenge of praying when God appears silent. Key points include: 1. **Body, Soul, and Spirit:** Graham explains that the body is the outer shell, the soul comprises emotions, mind, and will, and the spirit is the innermost part, born again when one comes to Christ. 2. **Distinguishing Soul and Spirit:** The soul is not born again but saved, while the spirit is entirely new and perfect after accepting Christ. Graham mentions the potential influence of demonic forces on the soul, even in Christians. 3. **Communion with God:** Praying from the soul is described as addressing an external being (God), while praying from the spirit involves communing with God on an intimate, internal level. Graham quotes John 14, emphasizing the concept of being in Christ and Christ being in us. 4. **Continuous Prayer:** Graham encourages the idea of continuous communion with God, likening it to being in a coffee shop with Him. He stresses that God's love is constantly flowing into our lives, even if we perceive silence. 5. **Medicines from the Spirit:** Graham discusses three powerful "medicines" or rivers from the spirit into the soul - the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and the dynamis (power) of God. 6. **Worship and Revelation:** The sermon concludes with a focus on worship as a way to transition from the soul seat to the spirit seat, experiencing the revelation and praise that come from the spirit. In summary, the sermon delves into the intricacies of prayer, the soul-spirit dynamic, and the continuous communion with God, providing practical insights for a deeper spiritual experience. Transcript I'm just going to do some furniture removal, you don't mind, do you? And you've all been wondering about these three here, haven't you? Yes. I did just there so you can wonder about them. Let me just say something about them. They've been in our loft for eight years, those three stalls. And they're not everybody's cup of tea. But Stefan, I don't want to go home with them this morning. So if anybody wants three bar stalls, in vibrant green, then please, I'd love you to come and just see me at the end. It'll be kind of like first come first, so we're not selling them there. Free, they're free. So they're very 1970s, you're quite right there. So there we are. Yeah, it's just lovely to see all high there in 146. I can't see you, but I hope you can see me today. I just wanted to check in the corner. Is that video or song available at the end? Yes, that's great. And whilst I'm standing here, yeah, just following on from what Andy was saying, Stefan, I just are so grateful to be part of the family here at MCF. And I know we sort of come and go. But the church has done so much to support the work at Satch. I just hope we can organise this Sunday when we can all go and just be there. And you can see some of the things that you're supporting even now. So I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you all before I start speaking this morning. Then I also want to say we've got this series on prayer at the moment, which is really good. I found Andy Stewart really, really helpful last week and challenging, especially about the discipline of prayer. And so we're continuing with that subject this morning. But I want to look at it from a slightly different angle, which is why I've brought my three chairs with me. So I hope you're going to help me. Hip hip. Hip hip. Hip hip. Hip hip. Hip hip. Hip hip. Hip hip. Hip hip. Hip hip. And hip hip. Hip hip. And hip hip. And hip hip. And hip hip. And hip hip. Three chairs, anyway. Can only get better. Can only get better. All right. There they are. I also just wanted to say before I kind of launch out, but it's wonderful always to be reading a book of some sort. And books in Sparrow and they speak into the journey that God's taking us on. If ever there was a book that illustrates the truth that you can't judge a book by its cover, it's this one. Because that's got to be about the most boring cover I've ever seen in the world. But it's called Free Indeed and it's written by Tom Marshall. He was a pastor from New Zealand. The book was written in the 1970s. But I have been reading this book slowly. It's taken me three months to read this because it has been so helpful for me to understand the whole thing about body, soul and spirit, which is what I want to talk about a bit this morning. So I really, really recommend this book to you. It's not Bill Johnson. Bill Johnson is like, wow, stories all the time. But it's a really helpful book. Have a look at it at the end if you want to. Then I want to read this morning from one Kings chapter 19 verses 11 to 13. But you can just listen. This is a story of Elijah. You remember how Elijah defeated the prophets of Bale and called down fire on the altar of God. That was pretty cool. But then he was swamped with depression and he ran away because he was frightened of Jezebel. And the Lord took him into that cave. And he wanted to teach Elijah a lesson. So we read this reading. The Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord. For the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. Came a gentle whisper. And I love the next verse. It says, when Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face. And he went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. There's something precious about what happened in that verse. Suddenly Elijah recognized the presence of God. That's why he did that. And he went and stood in the Lord's presence. The subject that we're going to be thinking about this morning is this whole subject of how can we pray when God seems silent? Have you ever prayed and thought, you know what? I think my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. Or have you prayed for something for so long that you think it'll never happen? Abraham did that. So that's something we're going to think about this morning. And we could talk about perseverance and some of the other things that we need in order to press through when God seems silent. But I want to look at it from a slightly different perspective. So with my three chairs here now, they're going to have individual names. You can help me with this as well. Because they've already proved that you're marvellous people. This chair is called body. This chair is called soul. So what is this chair called? Spirit. That's right. And I want to talk about this because this has been, I found this idea so exciting. And really it's kind of come as revelation to me, although we kind of know it. Let me tell you the truth. Understanding what our body is is fairly straightforward, probably for you as well. It's the crusty bit on the outside. And in scripture it says we have this treasure in jars of clay. So this is the jar of clay. And I don't want to talk too much about our bodies today. Some of us like our bodies and some of us don't. But that's fine. I particularly want to think about these two today. Our soul and our spirit and how it affects the way that we communicate with God. How it affects us hearing God speaking into our lives. So what is our soul? Well, I'm going to try and keep this simple. I work a lot with children so it helps me to keep things simple. And you might go away thinking there's more to it than that. And I'm sure that's true. But for this morning our soul is our emotions, our mind and our will. That's enough. We could go further. But for the sake of this morning's talk it's our emotions, our mind and our will. It's also, if I might say so, the kind of default position that most of us live in. But actually God wants us to live here. So how on earth can we begin to describe our spirit? Well, the Scripture tells us that our spirit is dead in its relationship with God before we come to Jesus. And this verse tells us something important. This is one John chapter 3 verse 14. Yet we can be assured that we have been transported from spiritual death into spiritual life. And you know those of you who read John chapter 3 that there the Bible talks about us being born again when we come to Christ. And you remember when Jesus said that to Nicodemus, Nicodemus was confused because he thought it was this bit that was going to be born again. Have I got to get smaller and smaller and smaller said Nicodemus until I can get back into my mother's womb? That would have made me hood. But Jesus was gentle with him. No, he said. It's your spirit that's born again. And it's difficult to describe the spirit in John chapter 3. It says this, the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. So whilst it's easy to give a little label to our soul, it's more difficult to talk about what our spirit is. In fact, many people who are not born again because their spirit is dead. So there is no spiritual dimension to life. I have friends who would say that to me. This whole spiritual thing is just a load of nonsense. But we know when we're born again that something is that free, that we have a spirit. You know what happens when we come together and meet like this and it's happened today is that the spirit of God begins to seep into our meeting and his presence becomes bigger and bigger until it overwhelms our hearts and our mind. Is that what happens sometimes? I felt it happening this morning because when I'll talk a bit about worship in a minute, but when our worship leaders open the door for us to walk into the presence of God, we move from here and we begin to set here and God in His grace and mercy releases Himself into our lives. And we begin to experience God in a different way. So we know that this spiritual dimension is true. There are other ways that we can see the truth of the spiritual side of our lives. Let me talk about intuition. Now some of us are more intuitive than others. Sometimes if I have a little fallout with somebody in my family, it wouldn't be my wife because I never fall out with my wife. But just supposing I did, I can be sitting in front of my TV in the lounge if I've done something upsetting. And I can be watching the TV and my wife can walk in and I will feel. Or is it just me? I will feel something is in the room. Some sort of discomfort is happening. It's not just with our spouses, it can happen with our friends or it can happen with our family. You know what's happening? Our spirit is communicating with their spirit. No words are being said. No eye contact has been made, but there's a spiritual connection. The scripture talks about deep, crying out to deep. And it's talking about this spiritual communication that goes on. And that is also the way that we communicate with God. From our spirits. So I want to think about that a little bit. I can give some more examples. I find the whole idea of beauty, a very interesting one, because beauty is not in emotion. But you and I know what beauty is, don't we? We can't even describe it. Why? Because it's a spiritual thing. We appreciate beauty from our spirit. It does something to us. It's a spiritual thing. There's an old hymn somewhere which talks about the grass being greener when we come to Christ and the sky's bluer. It's that idea that we see more beauty because we have become spiritually aware. And it's the same with Jesus. There's a beauty about it. Isn't there a beauty about Jesus? And we haven't seen him with these eyes, but we've seen him with the eyes of our spirit. And there's something inside us that helps us to understand his beauty. Now I want to talk about knowing. This is another interesting thing. I found this fascinating in the book that I've been reading which I showed you. One of the things that happens in our spirit is that we can know people or we can know things. Now there are two ways of knowing things. Number one is that we go and sit in a classroom and see all the facts written on the board. And our mind accumulates knowledge and we know something. So that's the kind of knowing that happens here. But there's another kind of knowing. And this knowing happens here. It's the knowing of somebody else. When I say I know Steph, I don't mean, you know, I saw a lecture about her. And they wrote up lots of things on the board. So I've learnt that off my heart. So I know her. Some people think you can know God like that. Well, you can start to know God like that, but there's a different kind of knowing. When I say I know Steph, I'm talking about a spiritual connection that I have with her. And that's released out of our spirit. That's the kind of way that God wants us to know Him. Here we can learn all the facts about God. We can go to university and do a degree in theology and not know God. You know all about Him, but you don't know God. And this knowing is really important because it helps us in our prayers. I love this when Jesus is talking in John chapter 10 verse 4. He's talking about the good shepherd and he says he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. And they follow him. Knowing a voice is an interesting thing. An interesting thing happens recently in our family. My dad died 23 years ago. So I haven't seen or heard him for 23 years. But looking through some old boxes, my brother found a diktophone. And it's a diary, a voice diary that my dad made of a world trip that they did. One long ago, 25 years ago. And when he switched it on, there was my dad's voice. Yeah. Wow. It's my goodness. And you and I know voices don't we? When you pick up the phone and it's somebody you know, immediately you recognize their voice. You can't describe that. You can't. But that's a knowing that comes out of your spirit. And actually, you know, when we're praying and learning to pray, we're learning to recognize a voice that we can't hear with our natural ears. But it's projected out of our spirit, like the person walking into the room. And tell you that when your papa or Jesus walks into the room, you know you're loved because of the power of that communication that comes to us. So I want to talk a little bit about soul and spirit. But now I don't want to give this impression that the soul is bad and the spirit is good. Because they're both good. And so is your body. God made it. He made the whole package. And then it says in Scripture that we are made in God's image. So if we're made in God's image, we're not really talking about our body because God doesn't have a human body. But we are talking about our soul and our spirit. There is something of God's image built into our soul and into our spirit. Are you with me so far church? Good. So I want to make this comparison for a good reason, but I don't want you to think the soul is a bad place. This is what I want to say and this is why I'm learning myself. Is that either my soul or my spirit is going to rule my life. It's going to be the command center in my life. Now I'm one of those very emotional people. So if you say, well, you know, who is the boss? Then the boss in my life, the default position is my emotions. So, you know, push. And let me tell you something about emotions shout very loudly. Or is it just me? Maybe they whisper to you but they shout at me. And some people are ruled by their minds. They're more cognitive. They're minds work everything out and direct their lives. And everything's done in a methodical and thoughtful way. I'm not saying this is bad. I'm just saying that that can rule your life. And actually God doesn't want either of those to rule our lives. He wants this part of our lives to be in charge to rule. And so that's the difference that I want to talk about. And one of the things that maybe this is the most significant thing for me that I want to say today is that when we pray from here, it can often feel as if God is silent. Because the voice of our emotions in our mind is very loud here. And when we pray, it's kind of like our feelings when something goes wrong or something goes right or somebody does this or something just happens, our emotions speak to us and they're loud and they keep us awake and we don't know what to do with ourselves and it affects our mental health. Or maybe it's our mind, you know, we're trying to sort out some problem that's a good at work in our lives or our mortgage or in our family and the thoughts go round and round in our heads and they take over and we can't sleep night. It's so difficult to hear God when that's happening. And those voices drown out the voice of God because we are so wrapped up in sitting in our soul seat and not in our spirit seat. And then there's another voice that shouts loudly to us here. Now, this might sound controversial but I don't think it is. When you come to Jesus, your soul is not born again. Okay, I know, let me explain. And the elders could come and talk to me about this afterwards. But actually, read John chapter 3, it's our spirit that's born again. It's our spirit that was dead before we came to Christ. And when we, on that day that we come to Christ, our old spirit is completely dead and swept away and we get a completely new spirit. And that spirit is perfect and it's wrapped up in the righteousness of God, which is perfection. So we have a new and perfect spirit. Our soul, although it is not born again, is saved. Oh gosh, am I confusing everybody? Yes, sorry. When we come to Jesus, our whole self is rescued. Our whole self is rescued. Once a heaven will get a new body, but there is medicine from here that can flow into my body that can even heal me now. We'll talk about that in a minute. But I still have the same emotions I have before I was born again. My soul is saved because I am completely rescued by God. I'm going to spend eternity with Him. And because of this new spirit I have, there is going to be a life flowing through me that affects my soul. But this is where the damage is in my life. God may free me from addictions and all sorts of things at the moment I'm born again because God is full of grace and love. But not everything gets cleaned up at that first moment. I still bring some of the damage of the past. And the damage of the past is where the enemies' minions can land and try to affect our lives. I know that might be controversial too. But I've come to believe that demonic influences can affect our souls even as Christians. They cannot endure us because they can't live here. This is perfect and there's some good things to say about that. But they can affect this part of our lives. And they shall loudly at us, these minions, I love to call them minions, because that's what they are. And they're totally insignificant compared with who we are here. But what they do is they sow lives into our lives. It's not enough that our emotions and our mind are shouting at us. These minions want to tell us how worthless we are. They want to drag us back to the past. They want to sow lives into our minds and into our emotions so that we don't want us to do this journey. Oh no. So we have these voices over here. So my question to myself is this. Graham, why on earth do you spend so much time living here? Because this is my default position. And I'm learning how to live over here. And I would love to talk about seven ways of getting from here to here, which is another tool. And I'll just say this at this point here. If anybody wants to explore that idea, then I'd be happy to put an evening together to do it. But if I talk about it now, it's a missy lunch. So if you're interested in that seriously, come see me. If there's half a dozen people, then we'll find a room and a date. I know the church is busy. And we'll look at that idea because it's really important. It's easy to listen to preachers and understand the concept and still go away thinking, but how can I do that? So that's for another time. But I want to say this about prayer. This is exciting to me. When you pray from here, you are addressing an outside being. Does that make sense? You are crying out to God and hoping that He'll hear you. Even trusting that He'll hear you because you know that He's good and He loves you. And even with all these voices shouting loudly at you, it's God where are you? You know the Psalms are full of it. Because David didn't live in the New Testament. So he lived his life from here. When we pray from our soul, we are crying out to an outside being. When we pray from our spirit, we're communing with somebody who's inside us. Do you see the difference? It's absolutely huge. Here we are praying to God. Here we are communing with God. Let me just talk about the word communion, which you know is such a beautiful thing that Jesus said I want you to do this in remembrance of me. The word communion has its roots in the same word as communication. Because when we are in communion with each other or with God, something opens up, something changes in us. I just want to read this verse from John chapter 14. It says on that day, this is a day, any day, you will realize that this is Jesus speaking. I am in the Father. And you are in Me. And I am in You. That's Jesus describing what it's like to live from here. This is absolutely mind-blowing. That when we are in this new spirit that God has given us when we're born again, then we find that we are completely infused in Jesus. He is in us and we are in Him. And He is in the Father. So the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it happens to, we could go find the verses for that, are completely melded together in this position here. It's like taking three different kinds of oil or four different kinds of oil. It's our spirit. It's the Holy Spirit. It's Jesus spirit. It's the Father spirit. We let down the olive oil and stir them together to the point where you can't even see the difference anymore. That's what happens to us here. So when we talk about communion, we're talking about that being melded together. The word communion then has its roots in the word communication pray to God. We don't need words here. In fact Paul talks about groaning in the spirit. There are all sorts of things you can use to pray. He can use tongues which is that special language God gives us. You can use tears. They're a really good prayer. You can just allow your emotions to be your prayer. Even your thoughts you can allow them to become your prayer. Because here prayer stops being communicating with your voice and it just becomes being together with God. So the word communion has its roots in the same word as community but also in communication but also in community and that describes that being melded together. I often think that prayer is a little bit like being in a family you know. It is when we're living out of our spirit. It's like we're together all the time. So when Paul talks about praying continuously, he doesn't mean us being like a monk on our knees and trying to find words to you know constantly be verbalizing something to God. He means that we're just in communion together. We're praying ceaselessly. If I'm in my house with my family I don't have particular times when I talk to them and particular times when I don't. However it's true that sometimes we say let's go and have a coffee at the coffee shop. Now that's for two reasons. One is because we're all like coffee and the other is because actually that's time when you sit opposite each other and you concentrate on having a discussion. That's important isn't it? Otherwise you never get deep with anything. And so that was the encouragement, one of the encouragement from Andy was saying about this whole thing about discipline is that we need to choose to go to the coffee shop with God sometimes. The scripture says go into your closet. In other words it's you know imagine the closet is a coffee shop. I always thought it was a cupboard under the stairs before and it was kind of like dark and dusty in there and we had to discipline ourselves to be in there sit there with God and talk to him and then we could come up. No imagine it's coffee shop. That's much better isn't it? But it's that time when we make time because we choose to in order to speak to God like this. But we don't then say to okay God I'm sorry I'm not I'm not that's it we finished conversing thank you for the chat because he comes home with us and we're still in communion. So we don't stop praying and the truth is that sometimes God feels silence because we're sitting on the wrong chair from here constantly God keeps telling us I love you I love you did I tell you I love you oh I'm not sure if you know this but Father says he loves you too or at least Spirit loves you it never stops coming the love of God flowing into our lives gosh I've gone on too long already I want to say this but I'm not going to develop it from our Spirit there are three powerful rivers that are released into our soul and it's almost as if there's a valve between our Spirit and our soul so that stuff can go one way but thanks to the grace of God our Spirit cannot be overwhelmed by the our emotions or the the loud voices in our mind praise God for that that's why God said be still and it's good here there are three powerful medicines that are released rivers or medicines that are released from our Spirit into our soul number one the name of Jesus gosh where we're releasing that name this morning you know we sat down together to have a little chat because we no idea what each other are doing and we discovered that there's so much in the songs even in Andy anyway I'll come to that moment but the name of Jesus number one number two is the blood of Jesus we could talk about what the name of Jesus and what the blood of Jesus does to our soul but I haven't got time for that today number three is the dynamis of God the power of God is released into our lives and that's exactly what Andy was that verse that Andy was reading the incomparable power of God can flow out of here into our soul that's why David in Psalm 23 he said he restores my and he does it when we're sitting here because when we're sitting here the voices are too loud so the big question we're left with this morning is how do we move and we can look at that another time but I want to I just want to finish there really and say this here there is understanding big in our minds and here there is revelation here there is praise because the scripture says let everything that has breath praise the Lord but only here there is worship you know when we begin to choose to worship even if we're sitting in our soul we find we're sitting in our spirit seat you know you slide across from one seat to the next happened to us this morning so I want to finish by playing a song which you know I just find worship music is such a help to me to move me into the right seat and so I just want you to sit I want you to imagine ask yourself which seat are you sitting in this morning perhaps when you came you're sitting in your soul seat you might still be sitting in your soul seat but let it go just for five minutes and listen not just to the words but the spirit of this song just sit in your spirit seat and be loved for a little while
Every moment of the day, Jesus Christ's call to us is to pour ourselves out in service to the needy, deny and spend ourselves for them, and love them as we love ourselves. - Sermon Transcript - The scripture tells us that all of creation is groaning because of human sin, groaning through its endless bondage to decay and death. But the groaning of nature is nothing compared to the groaning that sin has caused among the human race itself. I can hardly imagine what it must be like for the perfectly compassionate God to hear those groans 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Bible tells us that God saw the miseries of Israel when they were in bondage in Egypt. He heard their groaning because of their task master's lash, and we are told He was deeply concerned about them. It's a picture of the compassion of God. Then after saving Israel from slavery in Egypt, He taught them not to oppress their neighbor, because then their neighbor would cry out to him. Exodus 22:27 - "And If he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate." How costly has human sin been? How many times have people rebelled against the Second Great Commandment that we are studying this morning, and have not loved their neighbor as themselves? How many groans have gone up as a result? Not only so, but our general human condition, caused by Adam’s fall into sin, has resulted in miseries, not caused by any direct evil human choice, but they're just part of our fallen condition. Diseases, like cancer, leave people groaning in hospital wards all over the world. Natural disasters, like hurricanes, and tornadoes, and floods, have wiped out crops, and destroyed homes, and taken lives, and left misery and groaning in their wake. God heard the collective groan of pain and suffering from the human race, and in mercy He moved toward misery. Out of compassion, He moved toward misery. He sent his beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to enter this world, fully-human in the incarnation, to make his dwelling among us, and to share our sorrows. Jesus, in mercy, moved toward misery, and now He's calling on his people to do the same. Our tendency, naturally, is to flee misery, to run away from it, to avoid it. In our society, there are so-called first responders who are paid by our society to move toward misery, to move toward the car accident, to move toward the fire, to move toward the flood, to move toward the bomb threat, to move toward the collapsed building, but most everyone else instinctively flees. Jesus, in the Second Great Commandment, especially in the parable of the Good Samaritan, has commanded his people, in mercy, to move toward misery, and to alleviate it. That is the call of the Jericho Road that's in front of us this morning. It’s exactly the opposite of our self-saving, self-serving nature. We desire to be insulated from suffering. We desire to move through this world of pain with as little personal pain as possible, until we finally escape it, and go to heaven, a world free from all death, mourning, crying, and pain. I remember well, a number of years ago, the first time I was ever out of the country, riding through the streets of Mombasa, in Kenya, my first overseas mission trip. It was the last week of a summer-long trip. We were staying in a comfortable resort right on the Indian Ocean. Some of us wanted to see the city, Mombasa, and so we were touring, in some of the poorer districts of Mombasa, in a brand new air-conditioned van. That was nothing unusual for any of us Americans. We're used to air-conditioned vans. What was new for me, anyway, was the site of urban poverty in a country not our own, another country. I had never seen poverty like that in all my life. The more streets that we drove down, the more uncomfortable I became with what I was seeing. The shocking disparity I saw between what I know to be my life, the life I'm used to, and what I was seeing through the tinted glass in that air-conditioned van ride. It also became a symbol of the way that I was making my way through this world, that that air-conditioned van ride, that bubble of security, was the way I honestly wanted to move through this misery-filled world, to be in a different way of understanding this phrase: “In the world, but not of it.” It's like, that has nothing to do with me, and I've been convicted ever since of that tendency. I had a second experience a year later, when I was in Pakistan, my second time out of the country. I was on a team, at that point, that summer, ministering. It was 1987. We were ministering to refugees who had fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan.They fled because of the Russian invasion in that summer of 1987. Again, I had never seen poverty like that in all my life. As a matter of fact, they're still the most destitute people I've ever seen in my life. They had literally nothing, except the clothing that they were wearing. Because they had fled for their lives, they brought nothing with them. Most of them had recently lost loved ones, violently, to the ravages of war. They had a haunted, and terror-filled look on their faces. They were squatting in a desolate area, across the border, in Pakistan. They were barely tolerated by the Pakistani government. They were basically ignored by the local Pakistani population, and they made an impact on me. But it wasn't really even them that I have in mind. It was a later experience I had in that city, Peshawar. We were going through the streets of the city, and we became accustomed to being accosted by beggars in ways that we don't really face here in our culture. They would come up to us, and pathetically point to their mouths, and to their stomachs, indicating that they were hungry. They were starving to death. The missionaries that we're working with told us that there were professional begging syndicates that used women, children, cripples. They were organized by strong men, similar to the way pimps work with prostitutes in our country. The missionaries didn't seem that concerned. They'd been in that country for decades, and it just wasn't something they were really that worried about, but they saw our unease with the topic of beggars, and they suggested, "Well, why don't you just go buy some naan", which is that beautiful flat bread in one of the bakeries. “Just carry it with you, around, and as you do your work, and then as they come up and point to their mouths, and their stomachs, you can give them food, immediately.” I thought that was a great idea. So we bought naan, and I carried it around. It was still steaming hot, delicious, really some of the best bread I've ever had in my life. Sure enough, later that morning, one of the beggars came to me, and she pointed to her mouth, and her stomach, and triumphantly, I produced the bread. When I gave it to her, she angrily threw it on the ground, and walked away. She didn't want bread, she wanted money, and she was using this hand and stomach thing. What really bothered me, however, was my reaction to what she did. I felt somewhat relieved. Relieved from what? Relieved from the whole problem. You can see why. The whole thing's kind of a scam, right, and we don't really have to be that concerned. The only problem was as the morning continued, soon another beggar came with a child and did the same kind of gesture. So I produced the loaves, and she took them immediately out of my hand, and gave one to her daughter, and they both started eating it like they hadn't eaten in a week. So now I was stuck. My earlier happy kind of outcome was now destroyed. I gave her the bag that I had. I realized that I was seeking, like the lawyer in the story you just heard, to justify myself. This is the big danger, that we seek to justify ourselves, and exonerate ourselves, from the vast problem of the haves and have-nots in the world, and I don't think that Jesus is meaning to exempt us. He's not going to give us... Not in this sermon, not in any good solid right teaching, you'll ever hear a way out from the problem. Probably the most convicting thing I've ever heard in this, is when Jesus said, "The poor, you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want." Why is that convicting? There's another understood statement: "We'll talk about that on Judgment Day, how much that was." It's going to be a topic of conversation. "This is the big danger, that we seek to justify ourselves, and exonerate ourselves, from the vast problem of the haves and have-nots in the world, and I don't think that Jesus is meaning to exempt us." This morning, we're going to look down the Jericho Road. We're going to look at the Second Great Commandment's call to a heart of compassion, a heart of mercy, that instinctively moves toward misery, and not away from it. That's what I think the call of the Jericho Road is. It's dangerous, because it searches us. Like the Scripture says, "Lord, you have searched us, and you know us." The Scripture is searching us. That's what law does, by the way. Jesus said, "What do you read in the law?" This is law. This whole parable is law. We need to understand that. We need to, therefore, see what is the law supposed to do. What does it do in your life? I went through that in the beginning of my sermons on the two Great Commandments that say, "Law fundamentally crushes your self-righteousness, and brings you to Christ, but then once you've come to Christ, then the law tells you the right way to live." That's what I expect this law, this Jericho Road, to do. The Jericho Road has to do with interactions with other human beings. The Lord Jesus is testing us to the core. Are we going to see misery, and move toward it in this world, in our trip through the world, or like the priest and Levite, are we going to see it, and move by on the other side of the road? Are we going to put a road between us and the misery? We can imagine, if we're honest, a life in which we move, like that air-conditioned bubble, through this world of misery with as little compassionate suffering as we can, and the Lord is calling us to a better kind of life. It's a relentless call of Jesus Christ, that we would pour ourselves out in loving service to others, to deny ourselves for them, spend ourselves for them, and to love them as we love ourselves. I. The Two Great Commandments Again, our context here. We're in the Gospel of Mark, but I chose to focus, this morning, on the Parable of the Good Samaritan as an illustration of the Second Great Commandment, but our home base is the two Great Commandments, and this is the last sermon I'll preach on the two Great Commandments. In Mark 12:28, one of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating, noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer. He asked him, of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one is this, said Jesus, "Here O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The second is this, love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." As we compare this to the text you heard this morning, in Mark, about an inquirer, a lawyer, who in my opinion, is an honest seeker of spiritual truth. He's a very different individual than the one who came in Luke. In Luke, he comes to justify himself. In Mark, I think this man comes to know the answer he wants to know. The recitation of the same answer is given, but in Mark's Gospel, it's Jesus that gives it. In Luke's Gospel, it's the lawyer seeking to justify himself that gives it. We can know the right answer. These two commandments, the two Great Commandments, are intertwined. True love for your neighbor depends on first, loving God, but true love for God always results in loving your neighbor. They're intertwined. 1 John 4:20 , "If anyone says I love God, yet hates his brother, he's a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." They're intertwined. II. What Does It Mean To Love Your Neighbor What does it mean to love your neighbor? That was the question in front of us last week, and last week I gave this definition: Love is a heart attraction, resulting in cheerful, sacrificial action, for the benefit of another person. Heart attraction, cheerful, sacrificial action. Love is heart attraction. There's a heart movement toward the person. We see that in the Good Samaritan. He is moved with pity, moved with compassion. The Good Samaritan has a heart attraction to the individual. Love is also a sacrifice. It's a willingness to give something valuable: time, energy, money yourself, your attention, your gifts, your personality. Without sacrifice, there's no love, and the more sacrifice there is, the greater love, but the sacrifice must be given cheerfully. You have to be delighted to give it, not reluctantly, or under compulsion. There's something flowing from that heart attraction, and it results in beneficial action. The actions you take are going to be beneficial to the person you're helping. That's last week's definition. The two aspects I argued last week are indispensable. There has to be a heart attraction, or God doesn't see it as love, and there has to be sacrificial action, or God doesn't see it as love. If it's just the one, or the other, it doesn't meet the criteria of the Bible. Jesus has given us a beautiful example of this through his perfect ministry. A very good example of this is in Mark 1:40 and 41, Jesus' heart of compassion. "A man with leprosy came to him, and begged him, on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean'. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing', He said. 'Be clean.'" The number one emotion ascribed to Jesus, in the gospels, is compassion. Again and again He knit his heart with people like this leper. What would it be like to be a leper? Filled with compassion, He wants to alleviate his suffering. His mercy moves toward misery, and He heals him. In that case, the Holy Spirit, through the gospel writer, Mark, ascribes it to Jesus. Filled with compassion. But later, in Mark 8, He ascribes it to himself. He describes himself. "During those days, another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me three days, and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way.'" That's a beautiful picture of that heart connection with a suffering person, or in that case, a crowd. “ I have compassion. I can't just ignore what's going to happen. If I send them home, they're going to collapse.” Jesus says that He has compassion, that’s his heart attraction. What about his sacrificial action? No one sacrificed more to fulfill the Second Great Commandment than Jesus. Day after day after day, there was a huge urgent crowd of sick people surrounding him so fiercely that, at some places, He almost couldn't breathe. In some places, they couldn't bring the next paralyzed person to him, so they had to dig through a roof. He was crushed by need, every day, and He never once pushed back, or complained, or did anything but be there for hours and hours, caring for sick people. But of course, the ultimate display of the Second Great Commandment is Jesus' death on the cross. No one has ever more perfectly fulfilled the Second Great Commandment than Jesus's substitutionary atonement on the cross. He took our sins, and the wrath that we deserve under the justice of God, on himself. He took our misery on himself. He took hell, our hell, on himself, on the cross, and died under the wrath of God. There is no more perfect display of the Second Great Commandment than that. That's Jesus’ giving example. Now, He calls on us to love our neighbor as ourselves. The words of the command is: “To love your neighbor as yourself.” What does that mean? We talked about this last week. You have spent, since last week, a whole week loving yourself. I'm not saying it's wrong. There's not a sense, at all, in the command that it's wrong, that you need to stop loving yourself. It's not saying that at all. It's saying, expand your love. The way you already love yourself, love your neighbor as you do love yourself. How is that? You're constantly thinking about your own preferences, your goals, your pleasures, your desires, your aspirations. Turn it around. What is somebody else's preference? What is somebody else's goal? What is somebody else's aspiration? What is somebody else's emotional state? Expand yourself, and take theirs into you, the way you do for yourself. That's what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. Also, physical needs. You will alleviate whatever misery you have, as best you can. Again, there's nothing wrong with that. Are any of you uncomfortable right now? There's not much I can do to help you. The temperature's not exactly right, et cetera, but you know at least you can shift around in the pew, and get yourself comfortable. If you have some problem with your lower back, you're going to alleviate it. Love your neighbor as yourself. How can I alleviate suffering? How can I alleviate pain? Mercy moves toward misery. That's the command. We're told in Philippians 2:4, "Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others." That's the Second Great Commandment. The non-Christian is fanatical about self-interest. It's what they do. Philippians 2:21 says everyone looks out for his own interests. Looking out for number one, survival of the fittest, dog-eat-dog selfishness is the root of what makes life here on Earth so utterly miserable. It's been going on since the beginning of our journey in evil, from the tree. But a loving Christian learns to see others' needs as if they were his. A Christian looks at that third world's urban poverty and says, "What would it be like for me to live here?" What would it be like if I were one of those people on the other side of that tinted glass? What would it feel like for me to be a day laborer in India, clamoring with a hundred, or 200, other day laborers, surrounding one guy who had 10 jobs to offer that day? That's it. If you're not one of those 10 people, you won't work that day, and your family probably won't eat that day. What is that like? I saw day laborers like that, from a hotel room in India, when I was there a couple years ago. Also, a Christian looks at the lostness of a coworker. It has nothing to do with socioeconomics. It has to do with the fact that they're lost. They're without hope, and without God in the world. They're under the wrath of God, and they're accumulating more wrath every day. We're told in Romans 2, "Every day, more wrath." What is that like? What is it like, that every day that they live on earth, they have more wrath waiting for them when they die? What is it like to be on that broad road that leads to destruction? What is that? Paul responded in Romans 9, with this, "I have great sorrow, and unceasing anguish, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ." For the people of Israel, the lost among his own people. “I would be willing to give up my salvation for them, but I can't, but I'd be willing to do it.” That's what it looks like. It's mercy moving toward misery, and seeking to alleviate it. Jesus gives us this new command: "A new command, I give you: Love one another as I have loved you." That's the newness of it. The Old Testament already told us, love your neighbor as yourself. That's why the lawyer gave him that answer, it was well-known. It's well-known as a summary of the law, Leviticus 19:18. But Jesus says in John 13:34, "A new command, I give you: Love one another as I have loved you." You must love one another. Ultimately, as I said, Jesus going to the cross, greater love has no one, than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. We're not going to be called to die for somebody else. Paul says in Romans 5, "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die." It's a very unusual thing, that you would, literally, physically give your life for someone else. It does happen, but it's rare. But the question is, how can you metaphorically die for another person? How can you die to yourself in evangelism, or in mercy ministry, benevolence ministry? How can you die to your own preferences? It feels like dying, because you have things you want to do, and instead, you don't do them. How can you, like Jesus, be willing to die for a neighbor? It says, in 1 John 3:16... “This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." There is a laying down of your life, similar to Jesus dying on the cross. III. Heart Attraction Described: 1 Corinthians The heart attraction, we walked through last week. I want to remind you of it, from 1 Corinthians 13. What does it mean to have a heart that's genuinely attracted? Without it, any sacrifice, even the greatest sacrifice, will be as nothing on judgment day. 1 Corinthians 13:3 , "If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." Meaning, on Judgment Day, it's not rewardable. I can do this incredible sacrifice in an unloving way. My heart isn't attracted to the person in that way. I have not gone out, in compassion, to them. Then he just beautifully describes what that heart attraction looks like. 1 Corinthians 13:4, and following, "Love is patient. Love is kind. It doesn't envy. It doesn't boast. It's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. It's not rude. It's not self-seeking. Love does not delight an evil, but rejoice in the truth.” That's what it's like. It carries itself. Love carries itself that way. You could do the most amazing benevolent ministries in the city here, or anywhere, but if you're not like this, it's actually doing more harm than good. That's that heart attraction, resulting in sacrificial action, but it must move out to act, and that's what the Good Samaritan is all about. Look at it if you would, or just listen along. IV. Sacrificial Action Described: Luke 10: 13 Luke 10:25-37, look at the words again. "On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher’, he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” A very important question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? “'What is written in the law?’, He replied.” How do you read it? “He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly’, Jesus replied. ‘Do this, and you will live.’” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" It’s a very important moment in this whole account. He wanted to justify himself, and ask, who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, "A man was going down, from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him, and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out two silver coins, and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him', he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'" His inquiry begins as an effort at self-justification. The lawyer was seeking to justify himself, rather than to repent of sin. I can tell you the big picture. The whole point of this excursion into the Second Great Commandment, the law, and this Good Samaritan story, is not to help any of you justify yourselves. Rather, it must be to convict you, so that you can live better, or so that you can come to Christ, but not so that you can look at it and say, "I thank you, God, but I already do the Good Samaritan stuff." Not at all. That's the point. He's seeking confirmation that his righteousness was enough. He's already done enough. So, day after day, we seek that air-conditioned van ride through the world. We seek to be the priest and the Levite, going on the other side. But along with that, as knowers of the Bible, we seek to justify ourselves. We want some escape, some way to say, "Hey, what I've done is enough." We will make excuses. We'll come up with concepts like the undeserving poor. Things like that. What is undeserving poor? Somebody who I don't have to help, because their poverty, or their circumstances, are their own fault. So we're exempt, because they're undeserving poor. Or we'll look at the costs, and say, "Look, you got to realize how busy I am in my life. You got to realize I have my own limitations." Or I have my own family needs, et cetera. I understand. We make these kinds of excuses. We all try to draw boundary lines around who we should love, so tightly, that it excuses the most difficult mercy ministries. There are two key questions in front of us in this parable of the Good Samaritan. Who is my neighbor, and what does it mean to love him as myself? But above that is the question, what must I do to be saved? The big question is: What must I do to be saved? Then below that, within the parable, these two questions, who is my neighbor, and what does it mean to love him as myself? Let's walk through the parable. The setting is the deadly, dangerous, Jericho Road, which was notorious for robbers that could hide in the mountainous clefts, and the twists and turns of the road. This was just a well-known dangerous spot. The story unfolds, as you know. There are six people in the parable. First, we have the victim. We know literally nothing about him. We don't know nothing about him. We don't know his nationality. We don't know his race. We don't know his age. We don't know his socioeconomic status. We don't know anything. That's striking. You get the feeling that none of that matters. It's not important who he is. He's human. He's been attacked. He's lying, bleeding, by the side of the road. Nothing else about him matters. Therefore, Jesus's answer to the question who is my neighbor is: “Anyone in need. It doesn't matter who the person is.” Next we have the robbers. Let me line up the mentality that each of the actors in this drama has about resources, about money. The robbers have this attitude: “What's yours is mine, if I can take it from you.” These are the people in the world who are takers, they’re thieves, they’re violent. They absolutely are breaking the Second Great Commandment. No doubt. They're criminal elements, and they will assault, or invade, or do what's necessary to take other people's stuff. The robbers; what’s yours is mine, if I can take it from you. Then you've got the priest, and the Levite. They're basically the same. It's just two times the same person. The doubling is for emphasis. There's no essential difference between the priest and the Levite. It's just doubled for emphasis. Their attitude is: “What's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours,” period. I mean, you live your life, I'll live mine. Your problems are not my problems. My problems are not your problems. This is the way most people go through this world. Furthermore, Jesus makes it clear that both the priest and Levite see the guy on the side of the road. They see him, and move by on the other side. They willingly choose not to get involved. The separation by the road, the distance, represents willful ignorance, staying far enough away from the suffering so you don't know its details, because if you find out the details, you might get drawn into it. You might get involved, and you don't want to, so you're on the other side. It's willful. It's a symbol of willful ignorance, and that's also a problem for most of us Christians. Most of us aren't just cold-hearted, bad people. We just are ignorant of the suffering of the people in the world. We just don't know that much about it, and we choose to be that way. Notice, also, that they're both religious people. The priest is religious, the Levite is religious. They're religious people. It's just a common problem. The lawyer, who's coming, is a religious person seeking to justify himself. For us, we need to be mindful of the fact the most terrifying sins that we're going to be pressed on, on Judgment Day, will be sins of omission. These would be good works, that God went ahead of you, in advance [Ephesians 2:10], and set up for you to do, and you didn't do it. That's what sins of omission are. Good deeds, good works God set up, and you didn't do them. This is the topic, very much the topic, of the sheep and the goats, which isn't a parable, it's just an analogy of what Judgment Day is going to be like. Jesus is going to come and sit on a throne of glory. He's going to assemble all the people that have ever lived in front of him, and He's going to separate them into two groups; the sheep and the goats. He's going to say to the goats, the reprobate, those about to be condemned, "I was hungry, and you did not feed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me in. I was sick, and you did not visit me. These are things you did not do." The sins in the sheep, and the goats, are sins of omission. We know full well there are sins of commission too, but that's not what He describes there. "We need to be mindful of the fact the most terrifying sins that we're going to be pressed on, on Judgment Day, will be sins of omission. …Good deeds, good works God set up, and you didn't do them." What will it be like for us, on Judgment Day, to see a replay of our lives, and see all the good works that God set up, day by day, for us to walk in? What will that be like? My job as a pastor is to make that moment acute to you now, by faith, and by the ministry of the Word. To make it sharp. Make it clear what's going to happen. You are going to give an account to Jesus, and so am I, for every moment you've lived on earth. "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good, or bad.” [2 Corinthians 5]. "Please don't tell me" [Romans 8:1] "I thought there was no condemnation." Friends, I'm not talking about condemnation. I'm talking about accountability. You're going to give an account to Jesus, and that includes sins of omission. Then we've got the innkeeper. What's his attitude? “What's mine is yours, for a price.” This is the innkeeper, a merchant. This is a professional medical person. This is their job. It's what they do, but that's not Second Great Commandment stuff. That's the market. That's the job. That's what it calls the price. Then you've got the Good Samaritan. His attitude is “what's mine is yours, if you need it. What's mine is yours if you need it.” I find it amazing that Jesus chooses the Samaritan to be the hero. Jesus loved doing this kind of thing. It's like, "Oh, I'm not supposed to heal on the Sabbath. Watch me heal on the Sabbath." He goes right at things that would be irksome to the Jews. The hero of the story is an outcast, that they all hated. I think the feeling is if the victim had been a Samaritan, and we are supposed to... In the story, we're Israelites. What are we supposed to do? Help the Samaritan. That's the point. So what does he do? He helps sacrificially. He stops. His heart is moved with compassion. He's drawn over. He stops. He helps. He pours oil and wine on the wounds. He binds them up. Immediate first aid is given, then he puts him on his donkey, and gets him down to an innkeeper so that he can be cared for. He spends the night caring for this individual, and then he gives of his money, paying the two days' wages to the innkeeper, to meet the needs, and he promises to come back later, and make certain that the man's all right. He's invested, he's committed. Then Jesus summarizes the whole thing [verses 36-37], “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” It an interesting way to phrase that. “Then the expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’" You just feel like, for all of us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that's what He's saying to us, “Go and do likewise”. Now we have those questions. Who is my neighbor? Any needy person that God brings into your life. What does it mean to love him as I love myself? Sacrificial acts of service to meet the need presented. Let's ask the hard questions. It starts with that whole question, what must I do to be saved? Is mercy ministry necessary for me to go to heaven? That's an interesting question, isn't it? What must I do to inherit eternal life? Do I have to be the Good Samaritan in order to go to heaven? Let me say, directly, the law cannot save you. No one is saved by obedience to the law, and this is law. When Jesus says, "go and do likewise”, He understands the theology of salvation by grace very well. He's just doing something different there. He's not saying law can save you. Then what is the function of the law? It is to convict you, to kill you, basically, and bring you to the cross. Fundamentally, we are not justified, that is forgiven of our sins, by our own mercy ministry. We are justified, forgiven of our sins, by Jesus's mercy ministry toward us. Jesus had compassion on us, and in mercy, moved out to alleviate our eternal misery, which is hell. Therefore it says, in Romans 59, "In order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, we're going to spend eternity glorifying God for his mercy." We're not justified by our own good works, we’re not justified by our own obedience. "We are justified, forgiven of our sins, by Jesus's mercy ministry toward us. Jesus had compassion on us, and in mercy, moved out to alleviate our eternal misery, which is hell." The next question: What is the scope and dimension of my life of loving my neighbor? Like the lawyer, aren't we ready to ask who is my neighbor again, and again? We tend to excuse ourselves from this service. I've argued that the law crushes you, kills you, and brings you to the cross, but then it's not done with you. Then having been forgiven, we are now filled with the Holy Spirit, who wrote the law to begin with. Now, He enables you to obey it, by his power through Christ. We circle back to the Good Samaritan, and say, "Okay. How can I do this? Who is my neighbor?" Let's begin by acknowledging we have the tendency to justify ourselves, and try to get out of it by... Like I said, the whole idea of the deserving poor. I'm not saying that there's not addictive behaviors that destroy people's lives, and it would be very good for them to stop doing them. I'm not saying we should just give money to anybody that comes up and asks, especially to addicts, knowing full well that that money will go right into intensifying their addiction. I think we have to be intelligent about it. What I'm saying is, we can't excuse ourselves from this whole thing. That's all I'm saying. V. Priorities in Love How then can we be transformed to be a person that actually fulfills this law? I want to give you priorities that I have discerned in Scripture based on this topic. What are our priorities? Top priority: Justification before mercy ministry. First, make certain that your sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ. What is the work of God? John 6, "This is the work of God. Do you believe in the one he has sent?" Start there. Don't try to earn your way to heaven by your good deeds, by being the Good Samaritan. You'll never do enough. Besides which, it's apples and oranges. You can't use present, or future, obedience to the law, to pay for past disobedience to the law. You can never get ahead or get extra credit. If you do a Good Samaritan thing today, you were supposed to do it. So you can't use it to pay for the fact that you didn't do a Good Samaritan thing last week. So, the top priority is your own justification by faith in Christ, before any mercy ministry. Second priority: Minister to the soul, above the body. What would it profit someone, if they should gain the whole world, and lose their souls? Therefore, any mercy ministry this church does has to prioritize the proclamation of the Gospel, for the salvation of souls. It is more important, like when Jesus forgave the sins of the paralyzed man, before healing him of his paralysis. There is a clear priority structure. Your sins are forgiven. This was, by the way, the flaw of the social gospel, and I worry sometimes that American evangelicalism might go right back into the social gospel again, caring more for the temporal needs of people, and forgetting that they are on their way to hell, apart from the gospel. Therefore, I think this is a good slogan: We Christians care about alleviating all misery, but especially eternal misery. And what is eternal misery? It is condemnation in hell. So the top priority of our ministry to others is the soul above the body. Third priority: Ministry to the family of believers, especially your own family, above ministry to outsiders. Our top priority, in terms of physical provision, is for our own biological family. As in 1 Timothy 5:8,”If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith, and is, worse than an unbeliever." In other words, all you families, and heads of households, and all that, take care of your own people. Don't bring them to the church for benevolence. That's the strong message of 1 Timothy 5. But then, even within our benevolent ministry, we should care about the needs of Christians, before we care about the needs of outsiders, as it says plainly in Galatians 6:10, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." What does the word “especially" mean? That's our top priority, but it doesn't exclude the other ministry.Wh Start with the household of faith. We start with believers. We seek to alleviate their misery as best we can, and then it moves out from there. Then fourth: Ministry to the poor, above ministry to the rich. What does that mean? Jesus said in Luke 14, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, or relatives, your rich neighbors. If you do, they may invite you back, and so you'll be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you'll be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." That's the priority structure, but that doesn't mean we can't do mercy ministry to rich people, because they suffer in other ways, and ultimately, through the proclamation of the gospel. Those four priorities should shape the way we do mercy ministry. VI. Application: Moving Toward Misery As I finish applications, let's just start, all of us, with repentance. “God, show me my sin.” It could be, for some of you, repentance and faith in Christ. You came here an unbeliever. Start there. Repent, and believe the good news of the Gospel, for the forgiveness of your sins. Start with that. But if that's happened to you years ago, say, "Lord, how am I like the lawyer seeking to justify himself? How am I like the priest who saw him, and move by on the other side? How am I like the Levite who saw, and moved on the other side?" Then, "How can I then move out into mercy ministry here, where I live? Who are my neighbors, my actual physical neighbors? What do I know about them?" We have less of a neighbor-feel than we've ever had in our society. Do we even physically know our neighbors? What do we mean by the word “neighbor”? Wouldn't it be a shock if we actually, in some cases, got to know our neighbors, and then found out what was going on in their lives? Maybe see a tree down, and bring a chainsaw over there, and maybe find out that one of them has been in the hospital for while, and bring a meal. Love your church member as you love yourself. Take the church phone directory. Go through it. Pray for people daily. A page a day, or two pages a day, whatever. Then also say, "Is there some kind of suffering in the church that I can alleviate, some way that someone's hurting? What can I do?" Use the home fellowship as a basis for that. Then love your urban neighbor as you love yourself. Our urban setting has changed radically in the last number of years, some call it gentrification. More and more wealthy people are buying up ramshackle properties, and then renovating them, et cetera. You used to be able to walk, literally, three minutes, and get to poor and needy people, and care for them. Now it's a different time, but like Jesus said, "You'll always have poor people." So the question is, what benevolent ministries can our church be involved in? We're already involved in refugee ministry. We could be involved more. There are always more ministries. Find out what opportunities there are in our city for this kind of service. And then finally... I'm going to preach, God willingness, on this sermon soon, in Mark 13. How can we love unreached, people groups better? How can we care about eternal suffering of people that have never heard the gospel? How can we love our lost coworkers better. In evangelism, how can we use mercy ministry to couple it with the words of the gospel? What is God calling us to do, individually, and as a church? Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to walk through this powerful passage. God, teach us to have a heart of mercy that moves toward misery. Teach us, O Lord, to care about the suffering around us, and to seek to alleviate it. Give us opportunities to share the gospel with people who are on that broad road that leads to destruction. Help us, out of compassion for them, to do that. God, give us opportunities to alleviate suffering here in our community. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Jesus Teaches the teacher! Welcome back to our series, AGOG – A Glimpse of God. We are on Day 12 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. John 3:1-15 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel's teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. News about Jesus and the work he is doing is spreading quickly. One night, Nicodemus approaches Jesus to talk to him. He has heard about the miracles Jesus has been doing. Nicodemus is a leading teacher scholar from the Jewish ruling council. He wants to know more about Jesus and investigate him personally. Like many people, Nicodemus was looking for the kingdom of God based around a political Messiah; hence admitting that due to his miraculous signs, Jesus must have been from God. However, Jesus corrects Nicodemus and says that it will not be through a political kingdom that God's kingdom will be seen. Entrance to the Kingdom of God will not be through a person's efforts but by being “born again”. Jesus goes on to say that being “born again” is the new covenantIt is being born with water and spirit – cleansed of sin and indwelt with the Holy Spirit! It is being born from above, which is looking to the one who has come down from heaven. That's Jesus! For the phrase “born again” can also be translated “born from above”. The ancient Israelites were once saved by looking at a bronze snake lifted up (Numbers 21v8)! Jesus goes on to say, that people will be saved by putting their salvation trust in the Son of Man (himself) when he is lifted up! Salvation will be personal under the New Covenant and not corporate as it was under the Old Covenant! Even though at the start of his earthly ministry, Jesus is focussed on that time when he will die. Jesus goes on. God loves the world. God will save the world through the gift of His Son. I am that son, says Jesus! I am the light of the world come to shine light into the dark places. The world is in darkness due to sin and evil, and the Son of Man has come to take away that darkness. Those accepting of me are in the Kingdom and will not be condemned. Those who reject me will be condemned by God! Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped! He sure did seem astonished that Nicodemus didn't already know that, seeing as he was one of the leading teachers at the time! Again, I ask, who do you say Jesus is? But further, what are you going to do with this Jesus and let Him do to you? Are you born again, that is, trusting in Jesus for your salvation? It is not too late! Today can be the day of your salvation! Come back tomorrow for Day 13 of our series AGOG, as we continue to look together at that extraordinary man, Jesus Christ, through the Gospel accounts! We will see together, Jesus teaching somebody who is in great need – much to the initial dismay of his disciples! See you soon! Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file
Robin Williams, many thought was one of the funniest men in America, successful in movies, TV, even Broadway. But a suicide? That was the shocking news that left the entertainment world - and the entertained world - reeling. It just seems that the joy and laughter he gave so many just somehow wasn't enough for him. Not to keep on living. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Pain Behind the Laughs." You know, his death makes me think of Jimmy, who always made me laugh. He made a lot of people laugh. He was never famous, but he was the funniest guy we knew at the time. I tried not to show how shocked I was the night I got a call from Jimmy to say goodbye. In fact, he had broken into my office. He said, "I just was going to call you - because you're the only person I want to say goodbye to." He was on his way to kill himself. Well, thank God, he stayed there until I could get there. We talked all night. And Jimmy poured out all the pain that his humor had concealed. I never knew. And seemingly, so full of life, he was thinking about dying.That's part of what has made Robin Williams' death so hard to grasp. There is this huge gap between the bright light we saw on the outside and the darkness that must have been stalking him on the inside. And there's certainly many other examples of this as well. Sadly, that haunting contradiction, it's all too familiar to a lot of folks who may never have their name in the headlines. See, we've got it all together on the outside, but we're falling apart on the inside. You see my smile - inside, I'm battling my secret pain. And it's that word secret that makes our inner darkness so dangerous. When I hide my monsters in the shadows, they stalk me constantly. Rather than facing our monsters, we opt for pain relievers. Which, rather than solving our problems, become another problem in themselves. Stuffing our pain? That's not a cure. "Outing" our pain, that's where a cure begins. When I drag those monsters into the light, they begin to lose their power over me. There is no shame in letting people into your battle. There is great danger in trying to fight it alone. I'm forever grateful that young Jimmy called me that night that he was going to die. Strangely, he found a reason to live that night; actually, the reason to live. He opened up all his pain to the One who said, "The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted." He talked about a darkness that comes to us when He spoke of it in our word for today from the Word of God, John 10:10. He said, "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." That's Jesus, of course. The Bible actually says we were "created by Him and for Him." Which means we've got this God-sized hole in our heart that no relationship, no accomplishment can fill. So, we're ever searching; we're never finding, because God has planted what the Bible calls "eternity in our hearts." I'm so thankful that I found that "forever" thing when I embraced that relationship with the God I was made by and made for. A relationship that was free for me, but it cost Jesus everything. It meant sacrificing His life, dying on a cross, to open the way for a sinful me to belong to a perfect God and to live forever. Now, with the vista of my life opened up beyond my years here to this amazing forever, I can live life here to the fullest, doing life with the One who said, "Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." On this very day, this Jesus stands ready to come in and turn the darkness to light inside of you. Please tell Him today, "Jesus, you died for me. I'm yours." Go to our website and there I'll show you how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. See, because of Jesus, we know the darkness doesn't have to win, because light has come.
Some friends said, "How would you like to use our condominium down by the ocean in Florida?" Oh, it was a very hard decision, took about ten seconds. I'll tell you what, it was really a great place. I never thought I'd stay in a place like that. It had some very distinctive furnishings. Well, yeah, the mirrors! They were everywhere. And they were very strategically placed so you could see the ocean from almost any spot in the house. Cool! I was the first one up that first morning. I'm not familiar with this place, right? So, I'm puttering around in the kitchen for breakfast. I went over to the kitchen table. I leaned over to get something and suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw this hand reaching for me. Scared me to death! Of course I spun around to see who was sneaking up on me. It was me. I hadn't realized that there was a mirror on the wall right next to me reflecting everything I did. Everywhere I went in this place I kept running into me. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Our Inescapable Dark Side." One of the writers of the Bible kept running into himself everywhere, and he didn't like what he saw. He wrote words that people have been able to identify with very closely for a long time. His name is Paul. He wrote much of the New Testament. So our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 7, beginning with verse 18. "I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing." Oh for goodness sake, who can't relate to that, in our marriage, with our kids, with our friends? Then he says in verse 21, "I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me." And finally he's desperate. In verse 24 he says, "What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Then he's got an answer. He says, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." In spite of being a very religious man, Paul kept running into this dark side of himself that was selfish and sinful. Is that unique to him? No! Like that condo we were in, we've got a lot of mirrors that show us some things that scare us. If you're married, your spouse is probably a mirror for you, showing you things that you may not like about yourself; you may not like to hear. Our children - man, are they our mirrors! They reflect our inadequacies, our weaknesses, our baggage, our mistakes, and our pain. And a crisis where things are coming apart, that's when you see the real you. Now, when our dark side is suddenly staring us in the face, we try to run from it, we try to rationalize it, blame someone else. Until one day we finally get honest and say, "You know what? There is a darkness inside of me that scares me. I can't change the ugly parts of me. If I could, I would've." And that's where Paul was here, "Who will rescue me?" And then there's the answer: God would through Jesus Christ. See, life's mirrors all seem to say the same thing, "You need a Savior." That's why the Bible says in Romans 5:8, "While we were still sinners (that means running our own lives that God was supposed to run) God proved His love for us by Christ dying for us." We have this killer disease called sin, and God's Son came to break its power, to die for your sin and to be our Rescuer. And then He showed His power over the most powerful force on earth, which is death. He conquered it on Easter morning. Couldn't you use that power in your life? There's a new beginning that comes when you get every sin and every mistake forgiven by God. This all happens when you go to the cross of Jesus in your heart and you surrender to this wonderful Savior. Have you ever started your relationship with Him? If you haven't and you want to, can I ask you to take the next step on that journey and go to our website? It's ANewStory.com. I want to help you get this going. Maybe you are even running into yourself in life's mirrors recently and you don't like what you see. Look again. Right behind you, just over your shoulder, there's someone there. That's Jesus. He's helped you run into yourself so you'll run to Him.
We had a few days off, and the phone rang in our little cabin in the woods. A family member was calling. She said, "You need to turn on the news. A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." I watched the news for much of the next three days. I was trying to absorb a scene that I had no mental file folder for. I don't think any of us did. I felt sickened, I felt vulnerable and profoundly sad beyond words. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "September 11th and Its Haunting Question." Radio stations began calling and asking if I would do an interview the next day to talk about what had happened. How could I help thousands of listeners process this unprecedented trauma when I was still trying to sort my own thoughts and feelings? Then I just bowed my head and prayed: "God, would You please help me see what's happening today through Your eyes? What are You seeing here?" Suddenly, I wasn't just seeing collapsing towers or a terrorist attack. This was about thousands of people unexpectedly rushing into eternity at one place and one time, ready or not. Nothing can diminish the deep grief and the horror of that defining September morning. But looming above those images and memories is a deeply personal question for each of us, "Am I personally ready for eternity whenever it comes, however it comes?" That's why the Bible tells us in our word for today from the Word of God in Amos 4:12, "prepare to meet your God." See, you and I have an appointment with God that's long been scheduled in His calendar. But it's not in mine. It will come without warning, and only one thing will matter at that moment. Listen to this from the book of 1 John in the Bible, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12 ). All that matters in a person's eternity moment is, "What did I do with Jesus?" Because it was only Jesus who did the dying that I deserve for the lifetime of the wrong things I've done against God. If a religion could have taken care of my sin or your sin, there's no way Jesus would have been butchered on a cross like that. But He loves me too much to lose me. He loves you too much to lose you. So He died for you; He died for me. One of God's greatest blessings to us is the stunning discovery that we actually can be sure - right here and now - that we will go to heaven when we die; never have to sweat that question again. Not because of how good we are, but because of how good God is. In the words of the Bible, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). From the moment you take that gift, it's yours and it's yours forever. Every day in America alone, it's like there are two September 11ths, at least in terms of lives lost. Six thousand Americans go into eternity each day and 150,000 in our world. One day that will be you. One day it will be me, and we don't know when that is. To be ready for eternity, to know you're going to heaven when you die, means to know that you have had every sin of your life - the sin that would keep any of us out of heaven - it has been erased from God's Book forever. Only one person can do that; the man who paid the penalty for it. That's Jesus. He did it when He died on the cross. But He's alive - resurrected - to give you life. He walked out of His grave. He's ready to walk into your life today, if you'll just open up your heart to Him. Put your life in His hands. Let me encourage you to join me at our website, and I can explain to you there exactly how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. There's one final heartbeat, and then God, ready or not. It's life-or-death stuff to make sure you are ready for eternity.
So last winter we began our series in the book of Hebrews anticipating that God would show us how just Jesus, in the New Testament era, fulfills all the Laws and sacrificial demands that we had seen established and on display in the book of Leviticus, which we had covered the previous fall. And, through the first nine chapters of Hebrews, the Lord certainly did just that.Having now completed this summer's Summer of Psalms series, we're going back into Hebrews because there is still much more to be said. More glories to be seen. More truths to marvel over. More of Jesus for us to learn and love. If you were with us last winter and Spring, you may remember the three-word phrase that has formed the DNA of the book of Hebrews up until this point is this: Jesus is better. You may also remember, importantly, that the author to the Hebrews did not wave the “Jesus is better” flag as a matter of mere opinion, as suggestion, or as an educated guess. Rather, armed with thorough knowledge of the Old Testament, Jewish practices, and logic, the author to the Hebrews has presented an airtight and irrefutable case to his fellow Hebrews that Jesus (Ch. 1), is better than the angels, that Jesus (Ch. 3) is better than Moses, that Jesus (Ch. 4) offers a better rest than Joshua, that Jesus (Ch. 5) is the better High Priest, that Jesus' (Ch. 7) Priestly line is better than that of Aaron, that Jesus (Ch. 7-8) is the guarantor of a better covenant, and that Jesus (Ch. 9) ministers in a better Temple.Essentially, if you were to take all major threads of the Old Covenant promises and practices, and trace them all to their ultimate end, who you'd find waiting there as the fulfillment of them all is Jesus, every time. Because Jesus is better. And that is news worth hearing. That is truth worth forming your world around. But I want to make sure, as we head back into Hebrews, that we're capturing the full freight of what “Jesus is better” means. Because, I don't know about you, but when I hear that something is better than something else, my first reaction is not to just go and discard the other thing that is now, no longer better. For example…if you were to convince me that vanilla ice cream was somehow better than chocolate ice cream, which, I can promise you, you will not be able to do. But if you were to, I wouldn't then go over to my freezer, grab the cartons of chocolate ice cream, and just start throwing them all away. I mean, sure, you've convinced me, vanilla is better than chocolate, but chocolate is still good. Chocolate still has a good flavor. In fact, a few scoops of chocolate alongside the vanilla might go along well with it – may even improve it's overall taste – the less better flavor supplementing the better one. Insufficiency of the TempleThough we may get away with that kind of thinking when it comes to ice cream, the author to the Hebrews will not let us get away with it here. For when he says, “Jesus is Better,” he means it in an utterly exclusive sense. An “out with the old, in with the new” sense. A “not this, but this instead” sense. Hebrews means to argue, in such a way, so as to convince the Jewish Christian readers to never, never, never go back to the old (ie. Temple, priests, sacrifices) now that the new has come. The text in which he is going to do that most emphatically in the book of Hebrews is the one before us this morning. Hebrews 10:1, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” See, if any Jewish man or woman had been reading up until this point with even the slightest thought of going back to the Law, going back to the sacrifices at the Temple, going back to the annual Day of Atonement, it'd be here that their thought would have its feet kicked right out from under it. The Law has but a shadow. Not the true form. It can never make perfect those who draw near. Now that is quite a sweeping statement.Not, “it can only sometimes make perfect.” Nor, “It can only make partially perfect.” Nor, “It'll only ever be a supplement to making someone perfect.” But, definitively, “It can never make perfect those who draw near.” He's pointing out the futility of these shadow ceremonies. The insufficiency of imperfect priest and animal sacrifices. He's pulling out the details in such a way that as we read, we almost hear the entire temple system groaning in weariness and exhaustion. Still verse 1, “The same sacrifices that are continually offered every year.” After a thousand plus years of it's existence – from the time of Moses, to Joshua, to Judges, to the kings, to the deportation to Babylon, and the return from Babylon, the 400 years of silence – Hebrews pulls up the scorecard of this shadow-like Temple system and says that after all its sacrifices, after all its ceremonies, all its Days of Atonements – these same sacrifices continually offered every day have resulted in a grand total of zero people being made perfect. Zero. After all, “It is (v. 4) impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” And, 11, the priests who stand daily at their service offer repeatedly the same sacrifices, “which can never take away sins.”Temple's PurposeOn the whole, it could come across to you as a rather dismal passage. But take heart — while it is true that he is intending to deflate any remaining sense of our confidence in the Temple system, he is also, at the same time, attempting to bolster and grow our confidence in what the Temple was designed to point toward. See, look again at verse 1: “The Law has but a shadow…” A shadow of what? “Of the good things to come.” See, the shadow of the earthly temple, imperfect priest, animal sacrifice had a purpose, but not to be the means by which sins would be forgiven. If that had been its purpose, then it would have proved an epic failure. But, in fact, that was not it's purpose. Rather, it's purpose was more akin to that of a blueprint for a house. You don't expect the blueprint to be your house. You don't drive home from work and park your car next to a blueprint. You don't put down a welcome mat in front of a blueprint. You look at a blueprint, study it, and dream of the day when the thing signified by the blueprint becomes reality. God designed the temple as a blueprint, so to speak. As a hint at what was to come. As a teaching mechanism, saying, “watch the exchange of death for life that happens here, watch the movement from unclean to clean depicted here. Watch this progression of priest and blood in the outer court, on into the Holy Place, and on into the blazing center – the Holy of Holies. Trace these lines and get familiar with their contours so that when the true form comes, you recognize it in all its fulfillment splendor. See, the old has served as a shadow of the good things to come. And, dear brothers and sisters, hear the good news, these good things have, indeed, come.Jesus as the Willing SacrificeAnd now, take a look at this amazing statement, verse 5: “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said...” Can you see the quote marks there? It's not a quote from the gospels, but the Psalms. Psalm 40. A Psalm that had been written by David. A Psalm that had been written about a century before Jesus was born. And yet Hebrews says these are Jesus' words. Hebrews implies these words, though written by David, are actually more Jesus' than David's. They're more fitting on Jesus' lips, than David's. But how does that work if David was the one who wrote them first?Well, it works like a shadow. Like a blueprint. See just as the brick and mortar Temple that one could argue was in the world first, was a shadow, a pointer, to the truer Temple still to come, so the words of Psalm 40 on the lips of David were Psalm 40's meaning in shadow, While Psalm 40 on Jesus lips were this Psalm's meaning in full. David – king, man after God's own heart – lived a life as a blueprint, a shadow, of the better King, the man wholly after God's own heart, still to come.You might say, “Well, so what?” Why does this matter?Well it matters because it would mean two things for Jesus to say, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me, in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” First, that Jesus, unlike every single animal ever offered upon the altar in Jerusalem, gave his life intentionally. Intentionally, Jesus answered the call, went forward with the mission, knowingly, intentionally, to go and die as a sacrifice for mankind. The goats in the temple never arrived there on purpose. It was never the intention of any lamb to go and die as a sacrifice. Not one of the animals ever aimed to cleanse sinners. The calves were led unknowingly to the temple. They were just being animals. And though God designed it to be that way, he didn't ultimately take pleasure in them for there was never any sense in any of the animals that, “I am going to do God's will in this moment.” Nor, “I aim to worship God through my obedience in this moment.” Nor, “I aim to give my ‘yes' to my Father though everything in my flesh may be tempted to say ‘no' in this moment.” Animals, by nature of being animals, lack the capacity to intentionally obey God by their actions. Jesus, on the other hand, can say, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” He had capacity to fully and perfectly obey his Father on purpose, and even unto death. Second, note that he says, “I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” “As it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” In other words, Jesus' coming to replace the Temple and its sacrifices was not him improvising. Not him as plan B at saving mankind. But him fulfilling the will of his father that had been written in the scroll all along. The will that had been inscribed there all along. Planned all along. The Hebrews, reading this letter inscribed to them, might at this point say, “Hold on a sec, there's a few words in the scroll I want to now go back to and read again in light of this.” Perhaps they'd go to this one: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed…He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;” (Isaiah 53) They'd look back on a text like that, written in the scroll, and say, “Oh, it was there, all along.” So, the earthly temple, imperfect priests, animal sacrifices – in a John the Baptist type way, prepared the way for the Great High Priest, the Pure and Spotless Lamb, the Heavenly Temple. These good things having now come, the temple that must now decrease, and Jesus who must increase. Or, in the words of verse 9, “He does away with the first in order to establish the second.” But I know what you might thinking: Hold up, did it actually work? Did the true form actually live up to its promised blueprint? Did his death on the cross actually accomplish what the death of animals at the Temple could not? Once and For AllImagine with me for a moment, and it will require some imagination here. Imagine that you speak that question out loud. As you do, an angel appears before you, and says, “I heard your question, let me bring you to the place where you will find your answer.” He grabs you by the hand, he pulls you out of the realm of this world, flying at a million miles an hour, feeling the wind whip by you for a time till you finally come to a stop. When you do stop, you look up, watch as the clouds part before you, and you catch a glimpse, right there, of the brightest light you've ever seen in your life, you make out the figures of millions of the most glorious people you've ever seen crowded as a sea before you. You notice in the center of them all – the King over all. And he's sitting. The angel whispers to you what you already know, “That's Jesus.” You wonder, “Why is he not up on his feet? Why is he not racing around? Why is he not at some helm of operations furiously clicking buttons and turning dials? Why is he not like the priests at the Temple who are working, moving, sacrificing animal after animal after animal for a covering for my sin? Does he not care? Does he not know how great of a sinner I am? Does he not know that he's my own hope in life and death?” And then the one upon the throne, the king of all, turns and says to you: Son, daughter, “I have sat down because all that you need to be saved from your sins, I have already done.” Everything that the Father demands for your pardon, Jesus has accomplished. All that the father willed regarding the cleansing of his church, Jesus has completed. In the words of Verse 10, “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” It's done. It's completed. It is finished. We have been sanctified. Jesus has done away with the Temple, done away with the priests of Aaron, done away with blood of goats and bulls, and having offered for all time this single sacrifice of himself, Jesus now sits, verse 12, “at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” “Perfected” means the pardon for your sins is complete. “Perfected” means the holiness required of man is yours in full. “Perfected” means that when God sees you, covered by the blood of his Son, he sees not a single wrinkle, or spot, or blemish. Jesus has made you, by faith in him, “perfect” in the eyes of God. Can you handle that kind of weight of glory? Can you handle a love, a mercy, of that magnitude? I mean, doesn't the gospel threaten to swallow you whole by its immensity? Do you not find yourself wholly engulfed by the depth of his grace?Hebrews puts you out on the top of that mountain, so to speak, and allows you to peer over the vastness of Jesus' perfect-making sacrifice for you. And then Hebrews draws you to the obvious conclusion, verse 18, “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” None. None. Receiving ForgivenessAnd now, what about us? What about you? I mean, I think it's safe to say none of us have ever felt the temptation to offer a lamb on an altar at a Temple. We're not, in that way, similar to the Hebrews who first received this letter. We're not in danger of leaving Christ for the blood of animals. Not prone to turn from Christ and to a brick and mortar Temple. But might we take a look at the core idea of this warning, which is, “Now that you've received Jesus as the means of having your sins forgiven, don't turn back to those former means you used to look to for the forgiveness of sins.” For the Hebrews, those former things involved the Temple, and the performance of the priests therein. For us, it often involves our world, and our own performance therein.In other words, prior to receiving Jesus' grace to you, in full:Did you previously look to your attendance in church, your participation in a small group, your daily Bible reading, even in the slightest way, served as being a means of having your sins forgiven?Did you previously think that your being a good person, avoiding sexual immorality, honoring your father and mother, getting good grades, being a good citizen, or making an honest living, served or contributed, even in the slightest way, to your sins being forgiven?Were you prone to rely on what was tangible, what could be completed, what could be checked off a list, rather than what could be believed on by faith?Listen to this one because I think it is very prevalent in many Christians, myself included: Did you attempt to bear any of the weight for your sin on your own shoulders before putting the rest upon Jesus'? Do you do that even now? Like, say it's nine o'clock tonight and you've just committed some sin that you immediately regret, immediately feel guilty of, immediately know that was wrong. Do you take it right to God? Like right then and there? Right in that very moment? No preamble, no wait time, no pause in between, just right as soon as you feel guilt, do you take it to him? If not, why not?Are you under the impression that you have to let things cool for a bit, settle for a bit, before you take it to him? If so, then you are treating time as if its passing has the power to shrink the debt of your sin.Do you think, “I should go do some nice things for others, show some kindness to others, and then I'll go and take my sin to him? If so, then you are treating good works as if they contribute to your sins being forgiven. Do you think, “I need to first sit with my head bowed low for a bit, think poorly about myself for a bit, penalize myself for a bit before I go and take it to him? If so, then you are doing penance – swallowing a bit of the bitter cup on your own before handing the rest off to Jesus. Brothers and sisters, when Hebrews says Jesus is the Better sacrifice, he says it in an exclusive sense. In an “out with the old, in with the new” sense. In a “not this, but this instead” sense. In a “doing away with the first in order to establish the second” sense. Do you want to be cleansed of your sin? Do you want the removal of your consciousness of sins? Do you want your sins taken away?Then you need to give Jesus all of them. All of them. They must go upon his shoulders in full. He will not receive 99% of your sins while you try and pay off the 1% on your own. He will not accept 99% of your sins while you try and take the 1% elsewhere. Your self-made sacrifice cannot serve as supplemental payment for your sin. Before the cross of Jesus, Hebrews says, all other attempts at forgiveness for sins must end. Brothers and sisters, the gospel is for those who have nothing. Nothing. No bull to sacrifice, no lamb to offer, no capacity to earn any favor before God. The gospel is for those who have nothing, and who know they have nothing. The gospel if for those who have sin on their hands and possess no means of getting it off on their own. The gospel is for those who come empty-handed and asking, “Lord, would you take care of it all, for me?” Would you drink every simple drop of this bitter cup for me? So, are you ready to come empty-handed to him? Are you ready to spend the rest of your life, the rest of your eternity, empty-handed, and happy to receive your all from him?The TableAs we turn now to the table, one final thought to consider… Our text points out here that the annual sacrifice at the Day of atonement served as, verse 3, “a reminder of sins every year.” A reminder of sin still needing to be pardoned, still needing to be paid for, still needing to be dealt with. This table, which we partake of every week, also serves as a reminder of sins. But not a reminder of sins still hanging over us, still indicting us, still making us guilty before God, but, instead, a reminder that our sins, through our faith in Jesus, have been paid for in full through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Because that is what this table represents, if you're here today and you've trusted in Jesus for the full forgiveness of your sins, then we invite you to take and eat. Likewise, if you've not put your trust in Jesus, we ask that you'd let the elements pass, but that you would, in this moment, ask, “Lord, I need you to make me perfect by grace through faith alone.”
No man in history submitted so perfectly to authority as Jesus Christ. And no man in history had as much authority given by God the Father as Jesus Christ. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 11:27-33 as we continue our journey through the incredible Gospel of Mark. In this text today, in today's passage, the religious leaders, the enemies of Jesus, surrounded Him with a challenging question on His authority. In Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah had a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ seated on a lofty and glorious throne. Angels known as seraphim, literally in the Hebrew “burning ones,” were constantly surrounding Him and ministering to Him. They had six wings. With two wings, they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet, and with two they were flying and calling out to one another, "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord almighty.” The Gospel of John tells us that Isaiah saw Jesus's glory and wrote about Him. The glory of the pre-incarnate Christ enthroned. In Ezekiel 1, the prophet Ezekiel had also a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ, seated on a high and lofty throne, a throne of fire. High above an expanse, below that expanse, were mysterious beings called cherubim, barely able to be described with human language, with fire moving back and forth amongst them. With wheels interlocking with wheels and eyes all around the rims of wheels, high and awesome, and when the pre-incarnate Christ seated on His throne spoke, they lowered their wings and stood quietly and listened to His voice. In Revelation, the apostle John had a vision. He was invited to come up off the island of Patmos and in the spirit he was transported through a doorway into the heavenly realms, and he immediately saw a throne with someone seated on it. That throne is the center of the universe. I. The Center of the Universe is a Throne Everything in the universe visible and invisible revolves around that throne, whether it knows it or not. That throne is a throne of the sovereign God. The vision and revelation concerning Jesus and that throne is a little more complex. The one seated on the throne, the Ancient of Days, is Almighty God. God, the Father. Jesus in that vision is portrayed as the lion of the tribe of Judah, awesome and powerful, but also a lamb looking as if it had been slain. There is a scroll in the right hand of the one seated on the throne, almighty God. A call went out into the universe, “Who is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals?” Only Jesus in the universe was worthy and had the right to take that scroll. He's pictured mysteriously as standing in the center of the throne, surrounding that throne are other thrones. Twenty-four elders are seated on their thrones, subordinate power; subordinate authority in a concentric circle around the throne of God. But none of them have the right to take the scroll, only Jesus. None of them has the right to stand in the center of that throne, only Jesus. There are beings that we can scarcely understand seraphim, and burning ones, cherubim, hard to describe. Archangels we’re told means “ruler angels." It's what the Greek prefix ‘“arch'" means, they’re ruler angels. Hence, there is this language of thrones and principalities and powers in the spiritual realm, authorities. Man was created in the image of God and placed on the earth to rule over it, to subdue it, and rule over it. God reigns over all of these lesser authorities with absolute total authority on a throne of glory. Psalm 103:19, "The Lord has established His throne in heaven and His kingdom rules over all." So at the center of the universe is the throne of Almighty God, the glorious throne of God. The seraphim can't even look at it, so great is its glory. Therefore, at the center of our sin is rebellion against that authority, rebellion against the authority of almighty God. Therefore also at the center of our salvation must be submission, glad submission to that authority. II. Jesus’ Enemies Questioned His Authority Jesus’ enemies gather around Him to ask Him about His authority. What a moment that was. Imagine if the seraphim could have been summoned that moment, and they were asked, "What could you tell us of the authority of this one?" What would they say? "We can't even look at His glory. We'll do anything He tells us to do." If Ezekiel's cherubim were summoned and asked the same question, “Tell us about the authority of the one seated on that throne of fire,” what would they say? “When He speaks, we lower our wings, we lower our heads, we listen, we do whatever He tells us to do.” But these human beings, with utter disrespect, challenge Jesus and ask Him by what authority He is doing in these things. It's only possible because in the wisdom of God, God sent His son in the likeness of a servant and the likeness of a man. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” [Isaiah 53] So they saw Him as just a man. “How dare you do these things.” This sermon's bigger than just a quick conversation between Jesus and His enemies. It really goes to the core of everything that God sent His son into the world to do. These chief priests, teachers of the law and elders of the people put their finger on the question of Jesus's authority. They're challenging Him. They were the religious leaders of the Jewish nation. Their authority was established in the human realm by the laws of Moses. Jesus said that in Matthew 23, "They sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. “ It was also upheld by Roman law in its wisdom. The Roman Empire did not seek to interfere with local religions and local government. They wanted them to rule. They just wanted tax money and peace, commerce. So by law, it was established there. The chief priest, teachers of the law, and the elders had authority. Yet despite their authority, they were indeed blind leaders. Jesus calls them blind guides in Matthew 15:14, “If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Their central blindness was vertical. They didn't see their sin before Almighty God. They thought they were righteous in His sight. They sought to establish their own righteousness by their own good works. They were utterly convinced of this, and anyone that sought to point out their sin, they hated with a deep passion. Jesus says in John 7:7, "The reason the world hates me is that I testify that what it does is evil." These religious leaders were steeped in pride, spiritual pride, but they also had pride of their position and their power and all of the prestige that flowed in because of that position of power. Anyone who challenged that, including their money, their flow of revenue, anyone that challenged that was their enemy. But Jesus openly challenged it, their authority, and He openly challenged their righteousness, so they were Jesus's most violent foes. Their hatred of Him went marrow deep. They're constantly opposing Him, debating Him, laying traps for Him, scheming against Him, plotting to take His life. Here they try this frontal assault method. Look at verse 27:28, "They arrived again in Jerusalem. And while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priest, the teacher's law, and the elders came to Him. 'By what authority are you doing these things?' They asked, and who gave you authority to do this?" What do they mean by these things? What are they upset about? Jesus' recent actions were offensive to them, shocking even. Think back to the triumphal entry, Jesus is acclaimed as the Son of David. They're all cheering for Him. “Hosanna” calling out, “save.” Jesus accepted this worship, even defended it. On the second day, He cleansed the temple. Look at verses 15-17, "Jesus began driving out those who are buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts." And as He taught them, He said, "Is it not written? My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers." Look specifically at that statement in verse 16. He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. I mean, these are caravans that are just making the temple a thoroughfare. It was just easier to get from point A to point B right across the holy ground. Jesus said, "Absolutely not. Not today. You're not doing that." He stopped them. Who is He to do that? To forbid them from coming across. Those buying and selling in the temple worked directly for Annas, the high priest, the real high priest, and for Caiaphas, his son-in-law who is the puppet high priest. He worked directly for that wicked family. So Jesus' authority to do that was specifically in their minds because they had charge of the temple area in that whole system. So here the chief priest and the elders assume that they were operating from position of strength. By this they could, they thought, humiliate Jesus. They were the religious authorities in Jerusalem. They ruled the temple and everything to do with it. They had absolutely not given Jesus the right to overturn those tables. They'd absolutely not given Him the right to stop the commerce going across. They had absolutely not given Him permission to walk around teaching the people there in the temple area. They knew that. Even the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate upheld their authority on pain of law. If any Roman soldier went in the temple area, the Romans themselves would see to it that they would be executed. They upheld the authority of these Jewish leaders. These men truly were in charge of the temple and they're demanding from Jesus, "Show us your credentials. What right do you have to do this?” The Jewish leaders thought they had trapped Jesus. They figured they had Him either way, either He had to acknowledge that He had no authority to do what He had been doing, in which case He would be humiliated before them or He would claim to be operating directly under God's authority, in which case they would've grounds to execute Him for blasphemy. Either way, they had Him, so they thought. Tragically, really tragically, they never stopped to consider, is it true? Could Jesus really be who He claimed to be, the son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world? These are not truly religious men, they’re not truly religious seekers. They don't want the truth. They were hardened hypocrites. They were whitewashed tombs seeking to protect their own power and authority and self-righteousness. That's who they were. Let's try to understand this issue of authority. What is it? A definition could be this: authority is the God-given right to command, thought and or behavior in a certain area or realm. Authority is the God-given right to command. Keep it simple. The God-given right to command, command behavior in a certain prescribed realm. That's what authority is. The Bible teaches us that all genuine authority comes from God, from that throne that I began the sermon, all authority flows from that throne, genuine authority. Romans 13:1 "Everyone must submit Himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established." The authorities that exist have been established by God. That's the truth. The biblical truth about authority. It's a God-given right to command in a certain realm. It comes from God. That's what “God-given" means, and everyone must submit Himself to those governing authorities. I'm going to make two assertions that are going to kind of dominate the next part of the sermon. Two assertions about Jesus. Number one, no man in history so perfectly submitted to authority as Jesus Christ. No man in history so perfectly submitted to authority as Jesus Christ. Number two, no man in history has as much authority as Jesus Christ. No man is as perfectly submissive to authority and no man wields so much authority. "Two assertions about Jesus, number one, no man in history so perfectly submitted to authority as Jesus Christ. Number two, no man in history has as much authority as Jesus Christ. No man is as perfectly submissive to authority, and no man wields so much authority." Let's look at the first. No man in history so perfectly submitted to authority as Jesus Christ. Why do I say this? Let's keep it simple. Because Jesus never sinned, because Jesus never sinned. All sin is an abrogation of God's authority, a rejection of God's authority. Jesus was born, we're told under the law, and He lived His whole life until the moment of His death under the law of Moses. He perfectly fulfilled it. He never violated one of its precepts, not one of its major or minor precepts, not once. He was perfectly submissive to His parents, imperfect as they were. They were good people, but they were still sinners, yet He submitted to His parents. The Bible tells us that openly, He was submissive to them. He was the only perfectly obedient child in history. Some of you may have a claim, but I'm not going to believe it. The only perfectly obedient child that's ever grown up in any family is Jesus. I've often wondered about His younger brothers and what a burden that was hearing from Mary. "Why can't you be like your brother Jesus? He never gives us any trouble." Jesus was even perfectly submissive to the wicked authorities that killed Him. “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers was silent, He did not open His mouth.” He was submissive to them, but supremely, He was submissive vertically to His father. In every respect, He submitted to His father, every moment. Jesus's fundamental submissiveness to God was predicted in many places in scripture, but especially Psalm 40:7-8. There, the Psalm prophetically says of Jesus, "Here I am, I have come. It is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God, your law is written within my heart." Think about that. That's Jesus. The author of Hebrews says that's Jesus saying that to His father. “Your law is written in my heart. I'm here, Father, to do your will.” Philippians 2 says, "Jesus made Himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Perfectly submissive to His father. John's Gospel testifies about this over and over and over and over again. So many verses I could have chosen, but here's a few. John 6:38, Jesus said, "For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me." John 5:30, "I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me." John 8:28, "I do nothing on my own, but I speak just what the Father has taught me to say." I don't even say a word except what the father's told me to say. Then in the very next verse, John 8:29, "I always do what pleases Him." It’s an incredible statement. Ultimately, this comes fulfilled in Gethsemane, when God the Father reveals, supernaturally, reveals the cup that He's going to have to drink to save our souls, the cup of His wrath, the infinite wrath of God. Jesus is literally knocked to the ground and He's asked a question by the Father, "Will you drink it?" He said, "Abba, father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done even if it costs me my life." Hence my assertion that no one in history has been as submissive to authority as Jesus Christ. But the real issue here that His enemies are bringing is Jesus' wielding of authority. Did He have the right to cleanse the temple? Did He have the right to walk through the temple and teach the people? Did He have the right to do all of the amazing things He was doing? By what authority was He acting like this? And who gave Him that authority? Now here I make this assertion, no man in history had or has as much authority as Jesus Christ. His authority was displayed in many ways. First, in His teachings. Jesus taught like no man anyone had ever heard. No one spoke like this man. The Jewish teachers frequently cited other rabbis or other authorities based on their assertions. This rabbi said this, commenting on this thing that was said by this other rabbi, Jesus didn't do any of that ever. Seventy-five times in the Gospels, He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you." You see it very plainly in the Sermon of the Mount. "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with His brother will be subject to judgment." Again, “You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in His heart." “You have heard, but I say to you.” Doesn't that beg the question? Who are you? At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, it was said, "When the people heard Him, they were astonished because He taught them as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law." Jesus authority was also displayed in His miracles like authority over demons. Again and again in Mark's Gospel, have we not seen how the demons instantly obeyed Him? They were clearly terrified of Him. No doubt about it. Even Legion was terrified of Jesus. Jesus had authority over every disease and sickness, He rebuked a fever and it fled like it was some living thing. When Jesus came around, sickness ran away from Him. There was no disease or sickness He couldn't heal, absolute authority over it. He had authority over fish. He made fish swim into nets. “All right, all you fish take a strong left-hand turn,” and they all go into the nets, or one single fish with a coin in mouth found its way to Peter's hook. He had authority over matter, material. He created loaves and fishes out of nothing. He created Malchus' ear out of nothing. He had authority over weather, over the wind and the waves. He stretched out His hands over the storm and said, "Peace be still,” and it instantly obeyed Him. The weather obeyed His voice. He had authority over death. He spoke to Lazarus and said, “Lazarus, come forth,” and He came out. He had authority, claimed authority that only God has. He dispensed with the traditions of the elders, the hand washing and all of that, as manmade rules, he dispensed with them. He declared all foods clean, ending the old covenant dietary laws.He had the right to declare all foods clean. He claimed absolute authority over the Sabbath. Imagine this statement, the Son of Man, “I am Lord even of the Sabbath.” I'm in charge of the Sabbath. It’s an amazing statement made to the Jews. Only God could have said that. He sent out His apostles with authority. He delegated authority of them. They could drive out demons and heal people and preach the gospel. But especially, and this is where the rubber meets the road with us, He has the authority to forgive sins. How good is that news, dear friends? If Jesus tells you that your sins are forgiven, they are. In Mark 2, He healed a man to prove that the Son of Man had authority on earth to forgive sins. He ultimately has the authority to judge the world. He will be the judge of all the earth. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the nations, all the peoples of the earth into two categories, believers and unbelievers, sheep and goats. He has that power. He has that authority. He has the authority over His own life, death and resurrection. He said in John 10:18, "No one takes my life 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.” “I can die whenever I choose and I can come alive again whenever I choose. God gave me that right." He is the authority to give eternal life to whoever He chooses to give it. John 17:2, "He prayed to His father. You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him." “Him” being Jesus in that sentence. He has the right to give you and me eternal life. On trial, before Pontius Pilate, just like Jesus's enemies, Pilate did not know who He was dealing with. Pontius Pilate was frustrated that Jesus wouldn't answer him at one point. "Do you refuse to answer me? Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" And Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above." After His resurrection, He made this supreme claim, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Think about that claim. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. The Bible makes it plain in Psalm 1:10, "God, the Father said to the son after His resurrection, sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet." Right hand of what? Of the throne of power, throne of God. In Ephesians 1:20-22, "God raised Him 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 one 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." That's amazing. Ephesians 1 says, Jesus is not just above authority but far above, infinitely, above all authority. The gap between Jesus and whatever's in second place behind Him in authority is infinite, far above all rule and authority, all authority in heaven and earth. That's the true answer to their question: “Who gave you this authority? His answer is, "Almighty God gave me my authority." So I say, no man in history has as much authority as Jesus Christ. III. Jesus Challenges His Enemies Let's look at the conversation here between Jesus and His enemies, now that we've set it up. Jesus knew that they could never accept this truth about His authority. He doesn't try in this conversation to say all these things. They're all true. But He doesn't try to do that. They would consider His claims to be blasphemous. When He said to the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven,” they thought He was blaspheming saying, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" When He defended His healing on the Sabbath by saying, "My father is always working and I too am working,” they picked up stones to stone Him. They're not going to listen to Him, He knows that. So instead He asked them a question. Look at verse 29-30. Jesus' counter question, “Jesus replied, ‘I'll also ask you one question. Answer me and I'll tell you about what authority I'm doing these things. John's baptism, was it from heaven or from men? Answer me.’" Jesus seizes control here. Do you see that? He's taking charge of this conversation. He's never reacting to them. They have to now react to Him. Notice that they thought to trap Him, yet actually the shoe’s on the other foot. He ends up trapping them in their own cowardice. Jesus sets them a condition. If they meet it, He'll answer their question. If they don't, He won't. Jesus's question is not a diversion or attack. It actually goes to the heart of the issue. Are they able to recognize God ordained spiritual authority or not? Wouldn't you say consistently the problem of Israel is that they hated the messengers God sent to them and sought to kill them? It happens over and over. That's a fundamental blindness the Jewish nation had. So Jesus goes into this, the origin of John's baptism. Let's talk about that. John's baptism is a symbol of His entire ministry. In John the Baptist’s ministry, baptism was at the center of it. Now, baptism, John's baptism, was a new thing in the history of Israel. There's no command or example or anything of it in the 39 books of the Old Testament. It's not an Old Testament ordinance or anything. It's a new thing. Scholars tell us that in the intertestamental period when the Jews had been scattered throughout the Gentile world because of the Diaspora, because of the Assyrian invasion and the Babylonian invasion and the Jews were everywhere, many Gentiles wanted to become Jews. They learned about monotheism. They wanted to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They wanted to become Jews. The men had to be circumcised, but both men and women converts to Judaism, had to have a bath, to cleanse them of their nasty Gentile paganism. So it wasn't commanded, but that's just what they did. Now, along comes John. Who is he baptizing? Jews. “So you're saying we're as dirty and filthy as Gentiles.” “Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying.” He came and preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. “And do not think you can say, we have Abraham as our father. I tell you, out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham.” Don't bank on that. So the question is, where did all that come from? The baptism, John's baptism. Who gave John the authority to do this ministry? Who sent him to baptize? John the Baptist was an enigmatic, divisive, shocking figure. He appeared in the foreboding spirit of Elijah, dwelling out in the desert, wearing camel's hair and a leather belt around His waist just like Elijah did. He ate locusts and wild honey, like Elijah. He was utterly devoid of love for worldly comforts and luxuries. He had no interest in them. Like Elijah, John was utterly fearless, a preacher of the truth, no matter what. Like Elijah, John's words were fiery. They called on his hearers to repent. Like Jesus, John the Baptist singled out these specific men and opposed them publicly. When John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, He said, "You brooded of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming wrath, produce fruit in keeping with repentance." So they are questioned by Jesus. "Where did John's baptism come from? Who gave Him the authority to do it?" The Pharisees and Sadducees pull off into an unholy huddle. They pull off and they're just talking among themselves. Look at verse 31:32, "They discuss it among themselves and said, if we say from heaven, He will ask them, why didn't you believe him? But if we say from men, they feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet." Rather than trapping Jesus, it was Jesus who trapped them. They hated John as much as they hated Jesus for the same reasons. But the crowds loved John, especially now that Herod had martyred him. There was no doubt in the crowd's mind that John was a prophet sent from God. That's done. Everybody knew that. These wicked men were afraid of the crowd's reaction. So what is the truth about John the Baptist? God sent Him. In the Gospel of John 1:6-7, it addresses John the Baptist. It says, "There came a man sent from God whose name was John." Well, that settles it. Don't you think that settles it? I think it does. He was sent from God. God sent him. Later that same chapter, John 1:32 and following, John gave this testimony when he saw Jesus and he identified Him and said, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." John gave this testimony. "I saw the spirit descend from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. I would not have known him except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, the man on whom you see the spirit descending or remaining is the one. He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this man is the son of God." But within that answer, listen to what he said, “The one who sent me to baptize with water.” Who's that? God. God sent him to baptize in water. The fact is this is a regular pattern. It's a tragic pattern in Israel's history of hating the messengers God sends and not recognizing their authority. It happened over and over. A very good example of this is Amos the prophet to the wicked northern kingdom of Israel. Amos was from the southern kingdom and he was sent by God up to the wicked idolatrous northern kingdom of Israel to prophesy. A priest named Amaziah confronted him and said to Amos, "Get out, you seer. Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don't prophesy any more here at Bethel because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom." That's an authority issue. "I'm warning you keep doing this, we will kill you." Then Amos answered the priest Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet or a prophet son. I was a shepherd and I also took care of sycamore fig trees." I love that line, “I was particularly good at sycamore fig trees.” But anyway, "The Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, go prophesy to my people Israel. That's why I'm here." IV. Jesus’ Enemies: Unbelieving, Lying Cowards So enemies of Jesus, do you believe in that whole thing? Do you believe that God can raise up someone and anoint him with the Holy Spirit and send him to the people? Do you believe in that? No, they didn't. They didn't. Let me just tell you right now, we're all sinners. We've all violated God's laws. We will be saved only if we believe the prophets. It's the only way we're going to be saved. This is the Word of God sent through people, and you'll be saved if you believe it. Well, they didn't. They told us this. Jesus told us what they thought about John, “John came neither eating nor drinking and they said He has a demon.” They thought He was demon possessed. They thought Jesus was demon possessed and therefore none of these religious leaders of Israel had submitted to John's baptism. Luke 7:30, "The Pharisees and experts of the law rejected God's purpose for themselves because they had not been baptized by John." They did not receive the baptism. They did not believe he was a true prophet sent from God. They did not believe his message that the kingdom of God was near and they certainly didn't believe the one who came after him, the thongs of whose sandals John was not worthy to untie, the one who had baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire. They didn't believe Him either. To believe in John was to believe in Jesus. They were linked together. It was John that testified that "Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the worlds. And I have seen and I testify, that He is the son of God." They had unbelief, but they also had cowardice. Why didn't they just say we think He was a false prophet? We think John was a quack, he was demon possessed and a bad man. Why didn't they say that? The text tells us they were afraid that they were going to get killed. They were afraid of the people. They didn't have the courage of their convictions. In Luke 20:6 it says, "But if we say from men, all the people will stone us because they're persuaded that John was a prophet." So they lied and said, "We don't know." And just understand who they are. They are the spiritual leaders of the nation of Israel. Along comes a massive figure like John the Baptist, and they're not sure about him. It's like, well then, what is your function here? You don't have any role at all. You don't know one way or the other. Jesus judges them with a profound judgment. Silence. The silence of the Word of God. Do you understand what a privilege it is to hear God's Word? It is a privilege. It is a privilege to have God speak to you by His Word. Jesus says, "All right then I'm not going to tell you by what authority I'm doing these things." Amos, that same prophet, said that he would judge Israel by sending a famine because they did not hear the word of the Lord. There is a window of opportunity for all of us sinners, and it all has to do with what you do with the prophetic word, apostolic word. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He's near. You have an opportunity now to believe the preached word. "Recognize the heavenly origin of Jesus' authority… And what authority? Well, first and foremost relevant to you and me is the authority to tell us that our sins are forgiven through faith in His name." V. Lessons What are the lessons from this? First of all, recognize the heavenly origin of Jesus' authority. Jesus' authority was established by His miracles, by His teachings, by His fulfillment of prophecy. It was all there. His credentials were absolutely in place. And what authority? Well, first and foremost relevant to you and me is the authority to tell us that our sins are forgiven through faith in His name. How beautiful is that? To have the judge who's going to sit on your case tell you ahead of time before your trial, on judgment day, "You will be acquitted, you will be forgiven, you'll be welcomed into heaven." How beautiful is that? On what basis? All you need to do is do what He said, what John the Baptist said, repent and believe the good news of the kingdom of God. Repent and believe that Jesus Christ shed His blood for your sins and you'll be forgiven. In order to do that though, you have to be willing to submit to Jesus' yoke. We sang about that in the “Come to Me” song. What a beautiful song that is. In some of the most beautiful words Jesus ever spoke [Matthew 11:28 -30], "Come to me all you who are weary and burden and I will give you rest." What does He say next? "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm gentle and humble and heart, and you'll find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light." The yoke, dear friends, is His kingly authority. It is His right to command you as your king. That's what the kingdom of heaven is. You're entering into glad submission to God as your king. You're done with your rebellion. His yoke is His right to tell you what to do. You're like, well, wait a minute, about what? Everything. He has the right to tell you how to spend your money. He has the right to tell you how to spend your time. He has the right to tell you what to do with your relationships. He has the right to tell you to listen to His apostles, like Paul and Peter and others. He has the right to tell you to do things. As a matter of fact, your love will be measured by your obedience, “If you love me, you'll obey me.” What that means is, “Submit to my authority, you'll do what I tell you to do.” The beautiful thing of the gospel is He enables you, empowers you to do it by His Holy Spirit. He doesn't leave you like an orphan. If you submit to Him as your savior and recognize that means yielding to Him as your Lord, He will, by His spirit, enable you comprehensively to obey Him. Guess what? You're going to spend eternity with redeemed brothers and sisters in heaven, perfectly submissive to God, the King. You're going to enjoy every moment of it. So come to Christ, trust in Him. Make certain your sins are forgiven through faith in His name. And then, dear brothers and sisters, obey Him. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this sermon today, this chance that we've had to look at the authority of Jesus, which is infinitely greater than we can possibly imagine. Help us, O Lord, willingly, gladly to submit to His authority. Help us willingly, gladly to bring every area of rebellion in our lives under the authority of His word. Help us to realize it's not thereby that we'll be forgiven of our earlier sins, but by faith in His blood. But just because you are setting us free from sin, we're finding that your yoke is easy and your burden is light. Help us so Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.
My wife and I had just visited her father and we were driving on this busy Interstate that's right near a large city. Suddenly everyone was coming to a complete stop, and we immediately thought, "Oh, there's got to be an accident, or maybe construction." Well, my wife was driving, and as we inch along we see that there is a roadblock ahead that was stopping everything. A man with a hard hat stuck his head in the window and began asking questions. "Where did you begin your journey today? How long have you been driving? Where are you headed?" My wife said, "What's this for?" He replied, "Oh, we're just taking a survey here to see if we need to widen the road." So, they are stopping the busiest highway in the area to do a survey as the traffic is backing up behind us? Really? My wife then notices this video camera filming the conversation with Mr. Hard Hat, and a woman with a microphone in her hand. And she saw the letters on the microphone. We've got a TV anchor woman here. And suddenly my wife began to think, what any of us would think if we suddenly saw a TV camera filming us, "Oh, what do I look like?" Well, that morning we had hurried to get started on a long drive, so no makeup, no hair grooming, kind of crummy travel clothes. As we pulled away, my wife pulled down the visor mirror and she said, "Is this what they saw?" Well, you never know when folks are going to be seeing you. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing to Hide." Here's our word for today from the Word of God from chapter 3 in John, beginning at verse 19. "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been through God." Now, this verse makes me think about people who have one of life's great freedoms - nothing to hide. "I'm living in the light. I don't care what's exposed. Roll the film, roll the tape. I don't fear discovery." Boy, that's a great way to live isn't it? I mean, you never know when someone will be watching, as my wife discovered on that busy Interstate that day. You can be sure that God's tape is rolling on every conversation you have, no matter how secret you might think it is. His camera is rolling on every activity, no matter how alone you may think you are, and usually people find that out too. The Bible says, "Be sure your sin will find you out." It's often not right away, but at a later time when the disclosure can do the greatest damage to your family, or your ministry, or to your representation of Christ. It's a good idea to never leave home without making sure you look okay inside. Each new day, why don't we deal with the attitudes that we don't want recorded that day, the compromises, the selfish way we get things done, the immoral thoughts. See, repentance is what makes you a camera-ready person who's got nothing to hide. "Hey, I've confessed it to Jesus. I've let Him clean me up today." And repentance honestly should be a regular part of getting dressed spiritually every morning. It just feels so good to know that you can welcome the light. You don't need to hide in a dark corner because somebody might find out. Maybe God's using our visit today to speak to you about that dark secret. Would you listen to His voice? It's not mine; it's His. By the way, the Bible says that when Jesus comes and when we stand before Him that "all men's secrets will be revealed." And we will be judged based on the things that were in the dark. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have all that erased from God's Book, forgiven so you would never meet them on Judgment Day? There's one man who can do that; the man who died to make it happen. That's Jesus. The day you say, "Jesus, I'm Yours" that's the day every sin of your life is forgiven forever. I'd love to help you know how to make that happen. Would you visit our website? It's ANewStory.com. The cameras are rolling in heaven and they're rolling on earth, in public and in private. So let Jesus give you a picture that you could be proud of.
This is episode 623 of the Daily CHRIST TODAY podcast.
I Have Something More Precious than Silver and Gold That's Jesus ( Acts chapter 3 )
So in light of the psalms we've seen before, David's situation in Psalm 64 is one that sounds familiar: David cries out to God for help against his enemies, God acts, and then there's the result.Psalm 64 includes the combination of human trouble and divine action, and then the reality that it creates. That's a common theme in the Psalms. And so today, instead of us just digging into this psalm like we'd normally do, I want us to slow down and think about how we approach the Psalms as readers. Psalm 64 is the psalm we're looking at, but this morning we're going to be more deliberate in looking at how we look at the Psalms overall.And I think the best analogy for what we're doing here comes from dancing.Most of the time if you're dancing you just wanna dance. You dance your heart out. But sometimes in dancing though, depending on the kind of dance it is, you need to slow down, count your steps, and learn the moves. It takes practice. That's what I want us to do in this sermon. When we approach the psalm, we're taking three steps, answering three questions:What does the text say?Where does the text show us Jesus?How must I respond?This three-step approach goes, basically: Text, Jesus, Life. Let's pray and get started:Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that he is our true prophet, priest, and king, that he is head and savior of the church, that he is the heir of all things, and the judge of the world. And thank you that before the foundation of the world, you gave us to him and you have made him our hope in life and death. This morning we worship Jesus, and we ask, show us his glory, in his name, amen. 1) What Does the Text Say?The first step to ask is, What does the text say?, and we already got started here. I mentioned at the start that we can see three parts to Psalm 64 right away: there's human trouble, divine action, and then the reality that it creates. Look closer at verse 1 for a minute and let's track what's going on:In verses 1–2 David pleads with God for protection against his enemies (three verbs of petition: hear my voice, preserve my life, hide me). Then in verses 3–6, David describes his enemies in detail. Then verses 7–8 starts “But God.” This is where God acts. And in verses 9–10 there's a result because of God's action — all mankind fears and the righteous rejoice.That's Psalm 64. And at this level, in this first step, we just want to read well. We're not thinking about application or what it means for us, we just wanna read the psalm on its own terms — the goal here is to slow down and understand what's being said. And it's pretty straightforward: David is in a jam; he's got enemies; he begs God to do something about his enemies. That's verses 1–6. And we can make some observations here.Enemies DescribedThese enemies are described as doing seven things in verses 2–6. Look at this. David says:They whet their tonguesThey aim bitter wordsThey shoot their word-arrowsThey hold fast to their evil purposeThey talk about laying snaresThey think they can do it secretlyThey search out injusticeNow what's interesting about each of these things is that none of them advances beyond words. This is all about intent and speech. I asked the kids this week, How would you describe evildoers? They said: those who kill innocent people; those who steal stuff; those who hurt children, born and pre-born.That's what the kids said and all that is true, but now look at Psalm 64. The evildoers here are described only in terms of what they think and say. Their evil is first what they devise in their minds and spew with their words.God's ActionAnd David has asked God for help against them (in verses 1 and 2). And look what God does in verse 7. God responds in judgment — and it's fascinating that in God's response, we see four words repeated in verses 7 and 8 that were first said in verses 3 and 4: Tongues, shooting, arrows, and suddenly. Look at this. God turns the table.Verse 3: the tongues of the evildoers is what perpetrates their evil; and verse 8, it's their tongues that lead to their own ruin. Verse 4: the evildoers shoot ‘word'-arrows at the blameless suddenly; verse 7, God shoots his arrow at the evildoers and they are wounded suddenly.Do y'all see those words repeated?Now get this: notice that when talking about the evildoers, David says they shoot arrows (plural, verse 3). But God shoots his arrow (singular, verse 7). I asked the kids why the evildoers had lots of arrows but God only had one arrow. Hannah said, It's because God never needs another shot.See, we just wanna read the text and ask questions. What's this text saying?The ResultIn verse 9 we see the result of God's action. God has given the wicked over to their own devices, to their own ruin, and at the end of verse 8, “all who see them will wag their heads.” That means they shook their heads. Everybody who sees the wicked and what comes of them will shake their heads. Then in verse 9 David says that “all of mankind fears.” God's action has gotten everyone's attention. All mankind — meaning, all peoples (which is setting up Psalms 66 and 67) — they see what God has done and they talk about it. They ponder “what he has done.”And then in verse 10, David turns this into an exhortation. Beyond seeing and pondering what God has done, David says: “Let the righteous one rejoice in Yahweh and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!” Rejoicing, taking refuge, exulting — “rejoicing” and “exulting” go together easily and then “taking refuge” gets sandwiched right in the middle. Our coming to God for refuge — our trust in God — is all mixed together here with our joy in God. David is not talking about a different thing when he says to take refuge, he's talking about a different aspect of the same thing. To have faith in God, to trust in him, hide in him, take refuge in him, is to be happy in him. And we should be… that's what the text says.Moving to ApplicationSee what we're doing here? We're reading slow, making observations and asking questions. We want to see what the text means. And then, of course, we want to see what this text means for me. What impact does God intend for this to have on my life? We call this application. How do I apply Psalm 64 to my situation right now?Those are good questions, but we need a caution here: we should be careful not to run to application too quickly. Sometimes we can read a text, find a theological truth in the text, and immediately jump to our own lives — and the problem with that is that sometimes we can apply biblical truth to our lives without ever even thinking about Jesus. And if we don't think about Jesus then we're not really understanding the meaning of the text because every text in the Bible is ultimately about Jesus. Now we might still find some wisdom in the text. It might still be helpful. But unless we're thinking about Jesus, we are underselling the purpose of the Bible. Everything in the Bible ultimately is meant to show us the glory of Jesus, and everything in the Old Testament at least points to him, and so in order for us to make real application — in order to understand what the text really means for us — we have to see Jesus.So this is Step #2.2) Where Does This Text Show Me Jesus?Now I'm calling these “steps” — this is “Step 2” — but I don't want you to think we have to be super mechanical as if it's like “read this way” and then “this way” and “then this.”We want to learn the steps, but remember it's dancing. And the goal at this point is to know how the text in front of us flows into who Jesus is and what he has done.There's a good new book I recently read about this by a Bible scholar and professor named Nicholas Piotrowski. He says the purpose of seeing Jesus in the text is to understand the “climatic meaning” of the text. He says the Bible overall is Christological — which means that the person and work of Christ is the unifying rationale of the Bible. The gospel is ultimately what brings coherency to the Bible in its entirety. And so, get this: if the texts of Scripture are flowing toward Jesus and his gospel, then the application to our lives should follow that same path and flow through Jesus and his gospel.He gives a helpful image: every text is the Bible, in some way, is flowing toward the gospel, and then real, full application flows through the gospel to our lives in all kinds of different ways. Flowing Toward the GospelSo the first thing is how is this text flowing toward the gospel? Where is Jesus?In some texts it's easier to see than others, but if it's not obvious, we can get help if we expand our view a little and think about the wider context.We first start with textual context — we wanna know how the words of this text fit together and within all the words of this particular book; and then we want to think about the canonical context — we wanna know how these words and this book fit within the Bible as a whole.For example, when we read that David has enemies in verse 1, there are some important connections here to the Book of Psalms overall, going back to Psalm 2. Remember that in Psalm 2, the kings of the earth and powers of evil have set themselves against God's anointed. God's “anointed” means God's Messiah (in Hebrew); in Greek, “Anointed” is the word Christ. So Psalm 2 is about the Messiah, the Christ, and this is who God has promised will come from David's lineage. That's the big promise God made to David in 2 Samuel 7. It's the central promise leading into the Book of Psalms. God promised David that he would have a son who would reign as King forever, and so anytime in the Psalms we see the word “King” or “Anointed” we're supposed to remember God's promise about that Son. In Psalm 2, which is like a lens for how to read all the psalms, we see that the King and the Son are the same person.And Psalm 2 says the King-Son has enemies. So Psalm 64 is continuing that theme, and then that takes on even more depth when we remember that the story of the Son and his enemies actually goes back to Genesis Chapter 3. This is the wider context, canonical context.After Adam and Eve sinned and brought the curse of sin on this world, God promised that in the future the Offspring of Woman would crush the serpent. There would be a Savior-Son to come, and God said there would be enmity between Satan and his offspring and this Promised Son to come.Those words in Genesis 3 start a theme we could call the “drama of the Son” and it continues all the way through the Old Testament — from the hope of Noah, to the birth of Isaac and Jacob, to the story of Joseph, to Pharaoh's attack on the firstborn sons of Israel, to the rise of Moses and God's claim on Israel, to the judges and prophets to the choosing of David, to God's promise to David that echoes all the way to the New Testament. There's always been this hope in a Son that would come, and that Son has always had enemies — Psalm 64 falls right in line with that. So before we read about David's enemies and make it instantly about “our enemies” we first should think about Jesus's enemies. David, the King, the Anointed one, had enemies, and we know Jesus, the King, the Anointed One, he had enemies too. So we want to bring Jesus in view. We're thinking about him.To, About, WithAnd one thing that might help us when it comes to seeing Jesus in the Psalms is that we normally can see him in one of three ways.Either the psalm is written to Jesus, about Jesus, or the voice of the psalm is Jesus. Sometimes it can be mixed together at different parts, but when we read, we're thinking: is the psalmist here talking to Jesus, is he talking about Jesus? Or is the psalmist himself the voice of Jesus that we read together with him? Is the psalm to, about, or with Jesus?Well in Psalm 64 when we read about these enemies, notice again that their evil is described as speech and intent. The evil is what they say and devise, and so what about the enemies of Jesus? How are Jesus's enemies described in the Gospels?First, we see the scribes and Pharisees question Jesus (Lk 5:21). Then they spoke to provoke him, “lying in wait for him, to catch him…” (Lk. 11:53).They grumbled about him (Lk. 15:1).The conspired against him, how to destroy him (Lk. 19:47).They sought to lay hands on him, to put him to death (Lk. 20:19; 22:2).They mocked him and muttered about him and vehemently accused him, and railed against him (Lk. 22:63; John 7:12; Lk. 23:10, 39).That is how the enemies of Jesus are described leading up to the cross. So do you think Jesus would say of his enemies that they whet their tongues like swords…who held fast to their evil purposes…who talk of laying snares secretly?You could say that the enemies of Jesus searched out how to do injustice, and they were successful. They were evil from the mind and heart, it came through in their words, and they accomplished what they set out to do.The enemies of the King in Psalm 64 fit the description of the enemies of Jesus, and if Jesus ever asked for help against those enemies, then it's his voice in Psalm 64 that we're reading with. And did God ever shoot his arrow at Jesus's enemies? We know that God did not stop the enemy's arrows shot at Jesus. Because Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me” (Lk. 22:42) But he was not.The arrows were shot.Nails in his hands and thorns his head,the arrows landed,Jesus was dead. The enemies of Jesus killed him. Except that… in the cross of Christ there was the truest turning of the tables. The devices of the enemy were turned against themselves; they brought upon themselves a ruin worse than what they conspired, because in the death of Jesus there was the death of death. On the third day, suddenly, with one shot, death received its fatal wound because Jesus came back to life, and through his death not only did he make many to be accounted righteous, bearing their iniquities, but he caused them to be more than conquerors, because now the enemy of death doesn't destroy the hopes of God's people but it actually ushers them into his presence of inseparable love and everlasting joy.And when Jesus looked out before the cross and saw that, even in the anguish of his soul he was satisfied. And so for that joy set before him he endured the cross. Jesus knew a joy deeper than the universe; Jesus has gone there; and he's bringing us with him.In Psalm 64, in response to God's action, “all mankind fears.” But in the last verse, David, the psalmist — and with him the voice of Jesus — looks out with an exhortation, really an invitation: Let the righteous one rejoice in Yahwehand take refuge in him!Let all the upright in heart exult! This is a calling…from Jesus, with Jesus. Now, Step 3 — How must we respond?3) How Must I Respond?This is the question: How does application flow to me from this text through the gospel?And it's important that when we think about ourselves here we don't think about ourselves in isolation. Don't skip straight to us as individuals, but instead think: How should the universal church — how should all Christians everywhere respond here?How should our local church respond in light of our time and place?Then — how can I as a member of my local church be part of what God by his Spirit is calling us to?In Psalm 64 it's straightforward. Our response is to rejoice, verse 10. That's the exhortation, and we receive it as an invitation from Jesus to rejoice with him. And this is an idea we actually see in Hebrews. In Hebrews Chapter 2, remember that Jesus is called the founder of our salvation. He's our pioneer, our sanctifier, and Jesus is like us. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers. Hebrews 2:12, Jesus says to God the Father: “I will tell of your name to my brothers;in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” That's Jesus speaking, from Psalm 22, and do you see what he's doing there? He's leading us in praise.Look, this is amazing. The praise that we give to God — the praise and joy that we have in Jesus is praise and joy that we have with Jesus. Which means, we never should just hear him as saying: praise me, rejoice in me — but it's always: join me in my joy. Hey, he doesn't need our praise. He doesn't need our rejoicing, and that's our only hope that we can rejoice. The joy that Jesus calls us into is deeper than the universe. It's from before the foundations of the world. It's what's behind everything we see. This is the joy of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that was and is and is to come.That's why we can have this joy no matter what our circumstances are. Because this joy is as deep as God himself. It's deeper than anything. It's deeper than our pain.Because we all have pain. Losses. Hurts. And sometimes, if we get this confused, we can think that our joy is supposed to cover over our pain, and suppress it.We can think about it like a pie chart, and we can think that as long as we have more joy than pain and then we're okay. But that's not it. We can't ignore the pain. We don't cover it. Instead we drill down through the pain to what is most real and most true. We want to get down beneath the losses, beneath the cancer, beneath the disappointment, beneath the broken relationships.We want to get down to what is most real and most true and there we find God who is full of joy. And it's joy that Jesus invites us into with him. There's a little song I've been singing with the kids at home — and they're gonna wanna kill me if I do this — but it's a simple song and it's Father Day, so I wanna teach it to you. It goes like this: You give me joy,down deep in my soul,down deep in my soul,down deep in my soul. I think we should just sing that forever. That's Psalm 64, and that's what brings us to the Table.The TableWe are invited into the joy of Jesus with Jesus because he died for us on the cross. We remember his death here at this table. The bread represents his broken body, the cup represents his shed blood, and if you're here this morning and you trust in Jesus, if you are united to him by faith, we invite you to eat and drink with us. Let's give him thanks.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.We go to the Gospel of John 1:1-3“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (That's Jesus). All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”I want to say to you today, that you need to write that book, you need to write that diary, you need to make that account - the powerful written word! There is nothing stronger than that. You know, you might be sitting there saying, “I always wanted to write a book but I have never had the courage to do it. I want to encourage you today to write that book. You say, “My spelling is not too good!” Don't worry about the spelling as long as the Spirit is in it. Why? Because you will bless others, you will bless your family and those who come after you. Who knows, you might even bless the whole world. The word of God, the Bible, is still the most popular book on earth. Do you know that they cannot print enough Bibles, even now, and it is in so many languages? I read the life story of a young man by the name of David Brainerd. David Brainerd lived in the 1700s in the USA. He went to Yale University but eventually, he was dismissed from the university because of some things that he said, and they would not let him back. It broke his heart, but he went out into the forests, into the wild, and he started to preach the Gospel to the First Nation people, and he was a young man, not even 24 years old. He slept in the snow. He succumbed to all kinds of physical pressures but he carried on. David Brainerd started writing all his experiences in a diary and he wrote more than a dozen of those diaries. No-one knew about him and when he was 29 years old, he got TB and died, virtually an unknown person. Jonathan Edwards, who God used to start a great revival in the USA, got hold of those diaries and printed them out. Do you know that those diaries influenced men of God of the calibre of William Carey, who took the Gospel to India; John Wesley who was instrumental in starting one of the biggest revivals on earth; Robert Murray McShane, who also died at 29 years old and started a massive revival in Dundee, Scotland; Jim Elliot, remember the martyr that died for his faith in the Amazon Jungle; Henry Martin and many others.I want to say to you today, write your book. John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress. It is probably the most popular book next to the Bible itself. Just do it and God will honour you.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
What does the cross symbolize to you? That's Jesus, right? God's redemption on display as Jesus stretched out his arms and died for you and I. The cross represents the most important and valuable thing that has ever been done for us. So, we wear a cross around our neck. We hang a cross on […]
Homily of Fr. Michael O'Connor from Mass on April 4, 2023, at Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church in Bay St. Louis, MS Referenced Readings Isaiah 49:1-6 John 13:21-33, 36-38 https://www.olgchurch.net/ https://www.facebook.com/ourladyofthegulfchurchbsl
My friend Dave was a veteran sailor, and our family got to enjoy his seamanship several times when we were guests on his sailboat. Of course, I asked him tons of questions, but I was never able to stump him. I remember the day we were leaving the harbor, and I asked him about those big open gates we sailed through on our way into the Sound. He said, "Oh, those are hurricane gates" - which it turns out are closed when hurricanes are approaching so the boats that are anchored in the harbor are protected from the worst of the storm. Interestingly enough, that very afternoon, Dave sensed a surprise storm coming up, so we raced the storm and just before it cut loose, we made it back to the safety inside the hurricane gates. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Safe Place In the Storm." You never know when a powerful storm is going to blow into your life. Maybe one, or maybe several, have blown into your life recently. Life has so many variables; so many unpredictables, especially today. And, you know, if you're not in a storm, you know you're probably going to be soon. There's nothing you can do to stop most of life's storms, whether it's medical or relational, financial, parental, things at work, things at school, things at home. These are things that are out of your control, but you can have a harbor that protects you from going down. There is a hurricane gate where you can always be safe no matter what. I remember one day when the stock market was absolutely tanking; it was a day of huge losses. I was sitting in an airport lounge, and I was watching on TV as this drama unfolded on the trading floor on Wall Street. I had just gotten my Bible out, and I had it in my lap. This very well dressed businessman suddenly zoomed by me with his suitcase following him on wheels. He looked at the TV for a moment, he absorbed the horrendous financial news, and he wheeled around to go chase his plane. But as he brushed past me, he looked at the Bible in my lap and he said, "I guess that's the right book to have on a day like today." He was right. When you belong to Jesus Christ, your anchor holds, no matter what else is caving in. And that leads us to our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 112:6, talks about the complete security of the person whose sins have been forgiven and who is, therefore, really close to God. The Bible says, "Surely he will never be shaken...he will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord." Now, imagine this - no fear of bad news; unsinkable, no matter what hits you. That kind of un-shake-ability is for a man or woman who knows they are totally in God's hands. That kind of a relationship with Him begins the day that you acknowledge to God that you're done running your own life, that you actually deserve the death penalty the Bible says there is for sinning, and that your only hope is God's Son. That's Jesus, who died to remove everything that keeps you from belonging to God. At that point, Jesus Christ enters your life, takes it in His all-powerful hands, and gives you a love, and a peace, and a future that nothing on earth can take away from you! If you're ready for that kind of security, then it's time for you to tell Jesus you want to begin your personal never-ending relationship with Him - that you are totally trusting Him and His death on the cross for you; believing that the man who walked out of His grave under His own power is bigger than anything you will ever face. If that's what you want, if you want to belong to this Jesus, then I want to invite you to our website - ANewStory.com. It's really set up to provide a simple and non-religious explanation of exactly how to get started with Jesus Christ. Jesus offers to you the one totally safe place in a world that's full of storms, and you know what? He's waiting to welcome you right now.
The single most important question you will ever face came from Jesus Christ, "Who do you say that I am?”. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles this morning to Mark 8: 27 -33. I'd also like to ask you also to look at the parallel passage in Matthew 16: 13-23. I don't do this every week, but this week in particular, I want to be walking in a parallel way through both of these passages, but of course giving priority to the gospel of Mark. I. A World Full of Questions As we look at this text, we come to the most significant question any of us could ever face in our lives. We face questions every day of our lives. Some of them are completely mundane and trivial like, "What should I have for breakfast?" Some of you say, "No, pastor, that's a significant question right there." Or, "What should I wear to church today? Should I wear the blue sweater or the green one? I know I'm going to be wearing a sweater today so I don't have to iron the shirt underneath the sweater so I know that decision has been made, but which sweater? How shall I drive to church on a Sunday or to work tomorrow morning? What does the traffic report say? What's the forecast? Is it going to be hot or cold? Is it going to be rainy or not?" Et cetera. Trivial questions. Some questions are more significant, we understand that. Like some of the questions you young driver candidates are facing that you're going to face at the DMV so that you can get your license. You need to be ready to answer those questions or questions that you face on the SAT or the GRE or other things, the questions law students face on the bar exam. Or what young families will do with their budget, how they will spend their money, aspects like that. Some questions really do shape our entire lives or are weightier than any of these. A high school senior that has to decide which college she'll go to. She’s been accepted to three or four colleges, which ones should I choose? I need wisdom for that. More significantly, you married women can think back to a time when there was a man on his knee in front of you asking you the significant question, "Will you marry me?" and that has shaped your life because you said, yes. Your whole future life, in some ways, hung in the balance there. Or the question that your moms would ask the ultrasound technician, "Is it a boy or a girl?" Or the question a father should ask, "Should I get a different job? I’m not making enough money, What should I do about my financial income?" Or the anxious question a senior may ask a doctor, "Is it cancer?" There are some worldview questions that stand over all of us. I shared these this past Wednesday: creation, fall, redemption. Creation: Where does everything come from? The Fall: Why is everything so messed up? Why is there such corruption and wickedness in the world? Redemption: Where can we go to see those problems solved? More personally, is there purpose in my life? Is there any reason for my existence? What will happen when I die? All these are very significant worldview questions. II. The Most Important Question in the History of the World In the text, as I said, I believe the most significant question any individual can ever face stands before us here. In this text, Jesus Christ stands before individual people, all of us in the text and asks you, "What about you? Who do you say that I am? What about you? Who do you say that I am?" I believe your eternal destiny hangs on the answer to that question. Whether you'll spend eternity in heaven or hell, depends on your answer to that question. Eternity in heaven, a place that can barely be even imagined for its beauty, a world free from death, mourning, crying and pain, a perfect world. Will you spend eternity in that beautiful and perfect world? Or conversely, will you spend eternity, wailing and gnashing your teeth in anguish, and agony, as Jesus taught, about eternal conscious torment in hell? Those are the two destinies, one destiny or the other for each one of you that listens to me, and I believe your answer to this question, "What about you? Who do you say that I am?", determines whether it's going to be heaven or hell for you. The Gospel of Mark, I believe, was written to give you everything you need to make the right confession of Jesus. And not just Mark, but Matthew and Luke and John. All four of those Gospels give you everything you need to make, from your heart, by faith, this confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The context of this question is a retreat Jesus went on with his apostles. The location is given, Caesarea of Philippi, about 25 miles northeast of the sea of Galilee, 40 miles southwest of Damascus on a beautiful plateau near the headwaters of the Jordan River. Nearby a few miles to the north was Mount Herman, generally snow covered, over 9,000 feet tall. Caesarea Philippi was originally named Paneas after the Greek nature god, Pan, who according to Greek mythology, was born in a cave nearby that region. Caesar Augustus gave the region to Herod the Great, Herod's son. Philip the Tetrach named the city, Caesarea, after Caesar, and Phillipi after himself. So that's where they were. It was a few miles from the ancient Jewish region of Dan, the northernmost tribe of Israel. Surrounded by Gentiles, therefore more of a cosmopolitan area, a crossroads where Jewish and pagan culture met. For Jesus, it was a retreat from the urgent demands of the crowd and from the plots and schemes of his hateful and murderous enemies. The crowds, relentless demands for healing and for feeding, constantly. Some of them, in John 6, zealously wanted to take Jesus by force and make him king. King Herod probably wanted to kill him as he did John the Baptist. The Pharisees, Scribes and priests definitely are plotting to kill him by this point, so Jesus withdrew to Tyre and Sidon first and now to this Gentile region next. It's a retreat, but it's also an opportunity for Jesus to focus on the twelve, the training of the twelve. A.B. Bruce wrote a classic on the training of the twelve. You get that picture of Jesus, touching the lives of his apostles and shaping them as a potter shapes the clay. He's got time with the twelve apostles. They were, humanly speaking, the centerpiece of his strategic plan to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, including to Gentile nations. His methodology includes asking probing questions and beginning some kind of dialogue based on those probing questions. Look at verse 27, “Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea of Philippi. On the way he asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’” He starts this question, this topic. The topic is, “Who am I?” and He starts it by getting current opinions, popular opinions. We have to be aware of the focus of Jesus's questioning, “Who am I?” Is this a vital topic? In one sense, Jesus was the most self-centered teacher in history. Everything ultimately revolved around Jesus. This was not pride or ego on his part, not at all. It has to do with who He is and how our understanding of who He is fits into God's salvation plan. He said self-centered things all the time, such as, "I am the bread of life" or, "I am the bread that came down from heaven. If you feed on me, you'll live forever.” "I am the spring of living water. Come to me and drink if you're thirsty.” “ I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” “ I am the good shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep.” “ I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” “ I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain to me, you'll bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.” “ I am sending you many prophets and righteous men and teachers, some of them you'll kill and crucify." Who would ever say that, "I'm sending you prophets?" Who does that, but God? "I am the Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus was the most self-centered teacher in history. But again, not through ego or pride, Jesus knew who He was and He knew that salvation consisted in knowing him, as He prayed to his own father in John 17: 3, "Now this is eternal life; that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." That is eternal life, that they may know Jesus Christ. He especially said this plainly to his enemies and He warned them concerning this, they must know and believe his true identity or be eternally lost. In John 8:24, Jesus said, "I told you", to his enemies, "I told you that you would die in your sins." That means go to hell. To die in your sin means to be condemned to hell. "I told you that you would die in your sins for if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins." What does that mean? "If you do not believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.” "I Am", the Jews knew, that's God's name. He is the I Am out of the burning bush when Moses says, "What shall I say is your name?" "Tell them, I Am who I Am. I Am has sent me to you.” In that same chapter, John 8, He said, "You must believe that I Am or you'll die in your sin”. At the end of that whole exchange, He said, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I Am." It's an open claim to deity. He says in John 8:24, "You have to believe that or you're going to die in your sins." So with his disciples at Caesarea of Philippi, He's going to zero it on that topic, the most important topic, who am I? He gets current opinions on this. What are people saying about me? He wanted the disciples aware of the current opinions about Jesus. Who do people say that I am? Essential to their mission would be to proclaim the truth and to correct false understandings of Jesus. So also our mission today, there are many false opinions about Jesus. “Who do people say that I am?” They give their answers. In verse 28, they replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and still others, one of the prophets." That's an interesting list of opinions. There's obviously no way that Jesus could be John the Baptist. I mean, the two of them had a conversation. I would think that would settle it. Jesus showed up where John was baptizing and John baptized him, so that settles that. But king Herod thought that John was raised from the dead, and Jesus' miracles are proof of that, but that’s not possible. Others brought in that prophecy about Elijah. You remember Elijah, the mysterious and powerful prophet of God who ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire. Malachi gives a clear prediction or prophecy that Elijah would come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord in Malachi 4:5. So maybe Jesus is Elijah. Others thought it's just one of the prophets. In Matthew's account, they say Jeremiah. There's no promise that Jeremiah would come back, but God can do that. Maybe He's brought Jeremiah or one of the other prophets back. But as I said, no prophet ever said the kinds of things Jesus said. No prophet would ever make this statement, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” No prophet would claim to be Lord of the Sabbath. No prophet would claim, "I'm sending you prophets." So then we get to the most important question in the history of the world, Mark 8:29, “ What about you? Who do you say that I am?" Jesus zeroes in on them, the twelves, they've been with him for several years now. They've seen him do literally thousands of miracles, huge populations of people have come and been healed. They've seen it. They've watched at every move, they've heard as every word. They don't need any more information. The time has come for them to face this question, "Who am I?” John 3:36 says, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him." So it's life or wrath, based on whether you believe in and accept the Son. "So it's life or wrath, based on whether you believe in and accept the Son. " III. Peter’s Greatest Moment: The Mouthpiece of God At this moment, Peter steps up, and this is one of, if not Peter's greatest, moment as the mouthpiece of God. Peter speaks for all believers of all time, he speaks for the twelve, he often did that. They'd all be thinking something, but Peter would say it. Peter was a natural born leader, a leader of men. He would venture forward, that's who he was, and he would speak. Now, moved by the spirit of the Father, Peter spoke for all believers throughout all ages, but what did he say? In Mark's gospel, Mark 8:29, this is what it says, “Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ.’” That's a significant statement. “You are the fulfillment of all that our nation has been waiting for. The fulfillment of all the prophecies that a son of David would come and sit on David's throne and reign on David's throne over his kingdom.” It's a very significant statement, but it obviously falls far short of fullness of understanding. Many Jews of that day would be ready to say that Jesus was the Christ but not understand his deity. They would think He was just a human descendant of David in the genealogy ready to come like David reigning on a human throne. But the fullness of his identity as God in the flesh, is not obvious in this truncated confession ascribed to Peter in the Gospel of Mark. So now we have to do the hard work of New Testament theology and exegesis. We are innerrantists at this church. We believe that every word of scripture is perfect, everything scripture asserts is true. We also believe that none of the four Gospels is exhaustive. John says, “Jesus did lots of things not recorded in this book.” So there are lots of things that happened that didn't get written. All of them are truncated to some degree. We have to harmonize Matthew's account and Mark's account. Whenever any of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John gives us additional perceptual historical information, we accept it and harmonize it. It's true, it happened. The fuller confession comes in Matthew's Gospel. If you're there on the page, you can see it, Matthew 16:16, "Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’" The Son of the Living God, Peter said that at that moment. This is fascinating for me as a student of the Gospel of Mark, because I believe this is the purpose statement of the entire Gospel of Mark. Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the son of God.” We don't have to wonder what the Gospel of Mark is written to do to bring us to that place where we can say He is the son of God. Then to some degree, the climax of the entire gospel, as Jesus has just died, the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry, saw how He died, and said, "Surely this man was the son of God." That's like the Alpha and the Omega, really pretty much. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus, the Son of God. Then as He dies, "Truly this man was the son of God." Now in the middle, right in the center, we have this opportunity for Peter, who parenthetically, New Testament scholars surmise, that the Gospel of Mark is to some degree Peter's gospel. That Mark was Peter's secretary. We don't know that for sure, but it's quite possible. Why would he truncate, led again perfectly by the Holy Spirit? Why just say, "You are the Christ"? Here's my official answer, I don't know. I don't know. There's a perfect reason why, I can guess like all of you at the reason, but I don't know for sure. I just know he did. But let me speculate, for what it's worth. The real issue here is the full revelation of the person of Jesus by the spirit of the Father to individual sinners, understanding who Jesus is. We get that from Matthew’s Gospel. We'll talk about that in a minute. But it's pretty clear that whatever Peter said at that moment, he didn't fully understand it. He didn't fully understand that Jesus was the son of the living God. Why do I say that? Because moments later, he's rebuking him. Can I just say it is a bad idea to rebuke the Son of the living God? But both of those happened. I would guess, perhaps, the Holy Spirit led Mark to truncate because even though it is the theme of the whole Gospel, and even though Peter's a centerpiece of it, he didn't fully understand it at that moment. In humility, he held back from the full revelation, knowing the spirit knew that the full confession would be in Matthew's Gospel. What it says to me is, and I'm going to make this application at the end of the sermon, we all similarly have to go beyond a slogan, beyond words only, to reality. What it really means for us is that Jesus is the son of living God. We'll get to that at the end of the sermon. The center issue here is the revelation of the identity of Jesus to your soul. Jesus said this when Peter made that confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For this was not revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven." It is by revelation, direct revelation by God the Father to the sinner. By that means alone can we make that confession from our hearts. This is the most blessed state a sinner can ever reach here on earth, is to have God the Father, reveal Jesus to you so you understand who He really is, and He does this by the Holy Spirit. You can't do this to yourself. Naturally, all of us are spiritually blind, especially to Jesus. We don't see his glory. But when God chooses to, He can take away your blindness, the blindness of your soul and show you the glory of God in Christ. Jesus said in John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father sent me." He draws him, I would say, based on what He said to Peter in Matthew 16:17, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me reveals me to him." God the Father has the power to give, as Jonathan Edwards put it, "A divine and supernatural light directly imparted to your soul." And what is that? 2nd Corinthians 4:6 tells us what it is, “ For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, that God is glorious in Jesus.” That's a light that shines in the heart of every truly born again person. When God shines that light, similar to the original physical light at creation, when God said, "Let there be light", when He shines that spiritual light inside you, He also says, "Let there be sight." The sight of the heart of the soul is faith. You can see the invisible glory of God in Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You see it and you're justified by faith. You're forgiven of your sins. That's salvation. My question is, has that happened to you? Has God revealed his own glory in Christ to you? Is that light shining in your soul and do you see it? So that's what happened. Then Jesus, continuing the account in verse 30, warns them not to tell anyone about him. This is one of a regular pattern of these warnings. “Don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone.” As I've said again and again, I pick up the Bible and say, here it is on the page. That was just temporary, He wants everyone to know about this. But at that time, He wanted it held back. Again, we can guess at the reasons, but it's just He had his purpose for that restriction. IV. Jesus’ Shocking Warning At that point, then Jesus gives a shocking warning. At this moment in history, He begins to explain to his apostles, what's going to happen. Look at verses 31, 32, “ He then began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priest and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed. And after three days rise again.” He spoke plainly about this. Matthew makes it clear that it was at this point and repeatedly from then on [Matthew 16:21] from that time on, Jesus began to explain these things to his disciples. Why did He do this? Many reasons, but primarily because those apostles, none of them were expecting this, at all. None of them were. It didn't compute in their understanding of the kingdom. Jesus wants to tell them ahead of time so that when it happens, they won't lose their faith. It's going to be the greatest trial of their faith, of their entire lives. When Jesus gets arrested, beaten, and killed, He wants them to know that this is all part of his plan. He says in John 14:29, "I've told you now, before it happens. So when it does happen, you will believe." He wants to give them warnings. There's many other reasons why He says his arrest and death is going to try them, deeply. He wants to get out ahead of it and predict it and say, "Look, this is not an accident. I'm not a victim. I'm not trapped. I'm not surrounded by a net that I didn't see coming. No one takes my life from me. I lay it down freely of myself." [John 10]. I'm not going to get trapped. I'm dying on purpose.” V. Peter’s Worst Moment: The Mouthpiece of Satan A moment ago I said, this was Peter's greatest moment as the mouthpiece of God. Now we have Peter's worst moment, or among them, there's a number of candidates. But among them, this, his worst moment, a mouthpiece of Satan. How can he, in such a short time, in mere moments, go from being a mouthpiece of God to being a mouthpiece of Satan? Verse 32, “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.” Matthew tells us what he said, "Never Lord. He said, this shall never happen to you." Here we see Peter's arrogance exposed. Can I ask you a question? Why do you think Peter took Jesus aside to do it? Perhaps you've never thought about that before. What an awkward and weird moment in redemptive history. "Jesus, do you have a moment? Just you and me in private? I have something I want to say to you. Just come here, just you and me." Why does he do that? You want to know why? He wants to spare Jesus' reputation. He wants to spare him the embarrassment because he's clearly wrong about this death thing. “Let's see if we can get this fixed, just the two of us and we'll go back and you know, you can take that back, kind of walk that whole thing back.” So he takes him aside and rebukes the son of the living God. How can this be? How can he actually say, "Son of the living God", and then in moments later be rebuking him or correcting him? Sadly, rebuking God is something all of us sinners do. Sadly, regularly, we rebuke God and we correct God when we think He's wrong, when we think He's done something in our lives or in the world that's wrong and we question him and challenge Him as in the Book of Job. It's very common. But consider these words in the beautiful doxology in Romans 11, "Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments and his path beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?" What do those words mean to you? God doesn't need your advice. He doesn't need your counsel. He didn't need Peter's counsel at that moment. It's arrogant for us to think we can give God any kind of council or advice. It's like Job, when God answered Job out of a whirlwind, remember in Job 38, "Who is this that darkens council by speaking words without knowledge?" …brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you understand.” You can see the same thing here with Peter arrogantly thinking to rebuke Jesus. "Sadly, regularly, we rebuke God and we correct God when we think He's wrong." In so doing, you must understand Peter is speaking out against his own salvation, isn't he? He's speaking out against his own salvation. If Jesus doesn't go to Jerusalem and be arrested by the chief priest, teachers in the law, and be condemned to death by them and then by the Gentiles mocked, flogged and crucified and dead, and his blood shed on the cross, we all will spend eternity in hell. There is no other hope. There is no other salvation than Jesus being the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. We sang earlier this morning, "Lover of my soul”. “I want to live for you, lover of my soul.” That's Jesus. He is the lover of Peter's soul and to love his soul to the uttermost, He has to die for him, and He knows that. Peter doesn't understand that. Later, Jesus will get ready to wash Peter's feet. Peter stopped him and said, "You'll never wash my feet." And Jesus said, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me." We would say the same thing about the cross, only even more so, it's actually the same thing. "Unless I bleed for you, you cannot have any part with me. You cannot be with me in heaven." Later, after Jesus's resurrection, ascension, coming of the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost, Peter's continued development and the time came for him to write his epistle, First Peter, he clearly understands substitutionary atonement by then. First Peter 3:18, “For Christ died for sins, once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” He understood it. “I get it now. Jesus has to die.” So then, Jesus turns and rebukes Peter and He does it in front of everybody. Peter took Jesus aside privately. Jesus doesn't do this rebuke privately, He rebukes Peter publicly in front of everybody. Look at verse 33, "But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.’" He wanted all the disciples to hear this rebuke of Peter because undoubtedly Peter was speaking for all of them when he vigorously rejected the concept of Jesus dying in Jerusalem. He said in verse 33, "You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men." All of them did. They all had human conceptions of the kingdom they are going up to Jerusalem to establish. They’re all going to be sitting on fine seats. “Jesus gets the best seat, but some of us are going to sit at your right and your left and the rest are sitting around you, and we're going to rule the world. We're going to be on comfortable thrones, and we're going to be sitting in silk and we're going to be eating whatever we want at the banquet table every night, and we are going to rule the world.” Your thoughts of the kingdom, Jesus would say, are far too human. “My kingdom is not of this world. You don't understand what you're thinking about.” They're thinking of a human glory, a human power, a human wisdom, human sensual delights. That's what Peter was thinking about and they're all thinking about that. But to begin the rebuke, what does Jesus say? “Get behind me, Satan.” Wow, that's a shock. “Get behind me, Satan.” He said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan." It's reasonable for us to ask, based on this text, what is the connection between Satan and Peter at that moment? It's pretty clear biblically and also practically experientially. Satan has the power to insinuate thoughts into the human mind. He does not have the power to make you pull the trigger on them, act on them, speak them. But he does have the power to put them in your mind. This is the essence of the flaming arrows that he shoots. He has that power. Now, we are always responsible for what we say and do, but at that moment, Peter was speaking Satan's words for him.It reminds me of Job's wife. Remember in Job chapter 1 and Job chapter 2, Satan's program was to get Job to curse God to his face. After the assault on Job's body, the second assault, when Job is sick, his wife comes to him and says, "Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die.” Whoa, whoa, where'd that come from? Curse God? She was speaking Satan's words for him at that moment. Satan can do that. In Second Timothy 2:26, Paul talks to Timothy about disputes within the church, and tells him that he’s going to have people that are going to disagree with him. People are going to oppose him, sometimes very vigorously. Paul told Timothy to deal with them gently and patiently [2nd Timothy 2,] in the hopes that they'll come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, listen, who has taken them captive to do his will. Satan can take people captive temporarily to do his will, including speaking his words. Let me just say to all of you and to myself, be very careful what you say in moments of stress, because Satan, through demons will be insinuating thoughts in your mind and you might say something you don't believe is true or something that just has popped in your mind and then you say it and you can't unsay it. So be very, very careful at moments like that as Psalm 141: 3-4, "Set a guard over the door of my mouth, oh Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Let my not my heart be drawn to what is evil." Okay? But let's go even deeper. What was Satan thinking at this moment? This is really amazing. Satan was tempting Jesus to not go to the cross. This makes sense because he's going to oppose whatever Jesus wants to do. But later, Satan is going to inhabit Judas to betray Jesus to the cross. Which is it Satan? Are we trying to get Jesus to not go to the cross, as in Matthew 16 and Mark 8 or are we trying to trap Jesus so that He would go to the cross, as in Judas Iscariot? In John 13, Jesus said very plainly, “'I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me." They were all troubled. And then John laying on Jesus's breasts at the last supper said, ‘Which one?’ And he said in John 13, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I've dipped it into the dish", then dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said, ‘What you're about to do, do quickly.’" And he goes out and it's night. What does he go out to do? Betray Jesus to his death. I meditated on this years ago. What does Satan want? Does he want Jesus to go to the cross or not? It's what I call satanic confusion. He's playing checkers and God is playing chess or some game infinitely higher. Satan's smart, God is omniscient. Here's the incarnate son of God in a human body, physically on earth and he can die. It's possible for him to die. The question is for Satan, should I kill him or not? Should I kill him or not? Should I kill him or not? Should I kill him or not? In Caesarea of Philippi he's like, "Let's tempt him not to die”. But then in the end, I would say it this way, he can't help himself. Why? Because he is a murderer and he's going to do his basic nature. He's going to kill the Son of God, and in so doing, hallelujah, destroy his own dark kingdom. 1st John 3:8, “The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.” Hebrews 2:14 -15, “so that by his death[ Jesus] death, he might destroy him, who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” So when Satan orchestrated Jesus' death, he destroyed himself. But in the wisdom of God, God ordained a long, slow, very long, very slow death for Satan in his kingdom. Praise God. But that's what's going on, satanic confusion. VI. Lessons Let's go back to how I began. Focus on the most important question, and it is your most important question. Every single one of you listening to me today has an eternal soul. Every single one of you will spend eternity either in heaven or hell. It is not hard for me to prove biblically, I'm not making an overstatement, your eternal destiny depends on your heart conviction about Jesus Christ. If you can confess from your heart, with Peter, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God", then you are blessed by the Father, and you'll spend eternity blessed by my Father. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world, blessed by God if you can make that confession. If you have not yet made that confession, I am pleading with you and the eternal weight of your soul. Come to Christ. You have all the evidence you need in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, read it. Spend this afternoon. If you're not yet convinced, read one of the gospels straight through. There is nothing more important, as Jesus will say later in this chapter, "What would it profit someone to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" I'm begging you, come to Christ. For us, all of us, we need to be aware of current opinions on Jesus. What are people saying about Jesus? Lots of weird stuff. I've got all kinds of quotes here, but I put a big X across it so I'm not going to read it. They're like, "Oh, pastor, what were they?" Someone can come up and swipe it at the end, it will be right here. But I tell you what, people have all kinds of lighthearted things to say about Jesus. Jesus has generally a good reputation in the world. We could sum it all up under one heading, good moral teacher. But Jesus, as CS Lewis proved, is not merely a good moral teacher if he claimed to be God. He either is God or he's a liar or insane. He's not merely a good moral teacher. We need to understand that. We need to be instruments in the hands of God the Father through the spirit to bring lost people to the point of confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." How do we do that? Tell them about Jesus. Tell them miracle stories. Seriously this week, choose a miracle story, a healing, walking on the water, stilling the storm, something, and tell it to a lost person this week and see what happens. See what kind of conversations you can get into. You can start talking to people about worldview. Start that way. Don't say worldview, they'll be all upset. But say, "I have a couple questions for you. Where do you think everything came from? And why do you think everything's so messed up?Where do you think we're going with all that? How do you determine ultimate purpose and meaning for your life? What do you think happens when you die?"If you ask those questions, you're going to get to the gospel. Then tell them the greatness of Christ so that they can make that confession. "We need to be instruments in the hands of God the Father through the spirit to bring lost people to the point of confession, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" One last thing I want to say is we are a knowledgeable church doctrinally instructed. I think it's a warning to us that we can make a verbal confession and not really truly understand what it means. So I'm urging you go beyond the slogans of "You are the Christ, the son of the living God" to the reality of Christ alive within you. The hope of God. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to walk through this complex multifaceted passage, and it's vital, oh Lord, for us. Help us, oh Lord, to understand what you're teaching us, to understand the truth of the confession that Peter made and how it only happens when God directly reveals and imparts a divine and supernatural light to our souls. Help us as evangelists to be willing boldly here in the Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill area to speak the gospel so that people can make that confession in front of all of us in water baptism. Oh God, make us evangelists, make us bold, Lord, for all of us who have already been saved, help us just to be deeply thankful, knowing that it's only because of your sovereign grace that we ever made that confession. In Jesus' name, amen.
Pastor Bill: [2:04] Hello and welcome to season four, episode four of The Berean Manifesto; Faith, Hope, and Love for the Modern Christian. I'm Pastor Bill and I am joined by Pastor Newms. As always, Newms, how are you doing? Pastor Newms: [2:22] I'm good, sir. How are you today? Pastor Bill: [2:24] I'm well tonight. I'm well. How was your Christmas break? We took two weeks off the podcast. Pastor Newms: [2:30] We did. We were busy between the two of us. Days that you weren't busy. I was, days that you were busy. I wasn't. And it made it very. It's no big deal. It's the holidays. I mean, I actually texted Mom. I was like, Hey, make sure Biggs is on right on time tonight because I had something funny. And she was like, I didn't know you guys were going live tonight. I was like, That's true. It is the first. So the way it fell, you know, it's a little different, but it's good. It's good. I had pretty, pretty good things. I worked. A lot. I've only had I had last Friday and then Monday, and then I have Monday off. So it was three, four-day weeks in a row. But I didn't take any additional time this year because I didn't do any traveling, so I saved my vacation for later. So. And Biggs is saying that you did your office is something different that I'm not noticing? Pastor Bill: [3:48] Um, I don't know. I mean, we did. It is a recent redo, and then we did take a couple of weeks off, so. Maybe it's just hitting different. Pastor Newms: [3:59] Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. How was your holidays? Pastor Bill: [4:05] All right, So. There were holidays. You know, my sister Natalie flew in from California with her husband, Luke. We haven't seen them in three years, so we got to go spend some time with them. That was fun and games and whatnot over at my mom's house. Pastor Newms: [4:28] Did you guys get any bad ice or anything? Pastor Bill: [4:28] Christmas at the mother-in-law's. We got some cold, but there was no bad ice. Pastor Newms: [4:36] That's good. There was snow on the ground near Christmas, but technically not a white Christmas this year. It was like. Pastor Bill: [4:44] We got snow. But it didn't stick. So. Pastor Newms: [4:49] And we had ice by the time it was Christmas. Pastor Bill: [4:50] And then today. It was like 80 degrees with a nice breeze outside. I spent like 2 hours in the front yard laying on a comforter spread. Doing my last-minute study for tonight. Just enjoying the, you know, the nice temperatures. Pastor Newms: [5:10] It's like sixties here now. Yeah. So. Pastor Bill: [5:17] Cool. But as far as weeks go, it was just, you know, busy with a bunch of holidays. Pastor Newms: [5:25] Yeah, I. I did something. I did something big in games, but not a huge deal outside of games. I completed the Pokédex for Scarlet Violet, minus one. Because you have to in order to get a tradable version of the legendary, you have to beat the game. And I haven't beaten Violet yet, so I don't have them right on. But I have every other Pokémon in my life decks. And so that was a thing that I did this week and then started playing a completely different game. So that was fun. Yeah, it was fun. Pastor Bill: [6:06] Is the game called Your Chronicle? Pastor Newms: [6:09] No, that's one of my idle games. Your Chronicle and idling to rule the gods are my two idol games that I play, so they're pretty much always up, and Discord just grabs whatever game was up last. I try to normally not play heavy. Lots of movement and sound games during. Pastor Bill: [6:34] Service podcast. Pastor Newms: [6:34] Sunday night. And yes, as Senior Poopie Bottom said, I, I did not know. Okay. So I just realized. Senior Poopy Bottom who Senior Poopy Bottom is. And I don't know if I knew who Senior Poopy Bottom was until just now. Pastor Bill: [6:55] Who is a Senior Poopy Bottom? I do not know who it is. No. Pastor Newms: [6:55] Have we talked about that? Senior Poopy Bottom. Did I know that you were Senior Poopy Bottom? Pastor Bill: [7:05] Let the rest of us in on the secret, bro. Pastor Newms: [7:08] Well, he's sitting on my couch, um, downstairs. Not. Not the dog right here. That'd be creepy. Pastor Bill: [7:16] Not to judge the type. Pastor Newms: [7:18] But that's actually. That's actually Mr. Groggy. Pastor Bill: [7:24] That's Mr. Groggy. How many identities does that man have? Pastor Newms: [7:25] Mr. Groggy. I don't know what I do. Oh. Well, that's why I was like, Wait a second. He was letting me play Violet. Yeah, I let him borrow Violet last week, which is why while he was borrowing Violet, I finished the Scarlet dex and then did a bunch of trades when he came in. You know, because he came to spend New Years with us, and we played Mortal Kombat 11 on the Switch all night till, like, one. And if she says anything, it's not true. Rayne did not beat me like four or five times in a row. That is fake news. If she tells you that it is, it is not true. Mm-hmm. I was not a happy person. She beat me so many times. Just over and over again. And. But anyway, it's. It's all good. Pastor Bill: [8:31] So you got a venom thing? You showed us that. I got a pocket watch that I attached to a wristband. So I can just. Find. Pastor Newms: [8:33] I did. Oh, that's. That's steampunk. Pastor Bill: [8:48] So steampunk. I love it. It's great. So steampunk. Pastor Newms: [8:48] It's so steampunk when you come out here to visit. There's this. And we decide to take everybody to Dollywood. There's down there in Gatlinburg, there's this place that is this thing that you do. I can't do it because it's. It's like 3D and stuff, but. The whole idea is that you're in the steampunk ship going around the world. And so, like in the gift shop, there's the steampunk hats and steampunk goggles. And I was like, Oh, Bill would love all this crap. Pastor Bill: [9:26] Have to go just for the gift shop. Pastor Newms: [9:28] Yeah, we will. We probably won't pay for everyone to do that because it's like, Yeah. That was part of the existing grandma. Gloria's Christmas to us was everything they paid for, for the girls you know how that is, with Six Flags often. And so it was like, oh no. And yes, because I do know how you felt all those times that I beat you now while my children beat me at games so. Mhm. Pastor Bill: [10:00] The wheel of time turns. Pastor Newms: [10:02] Yeah. Yeah. Pastor Bill: [10:05] What else? I got money. I got some money. Um. A couple of shots, of Fireball. Pastor Newms: [10:19] How's that? Okay. Okay. Pastor Bill: [10:22] They sell those little bottles that are just a shot's worth. Pastor Newms: [10:23] I. Yep. Now, I fully understand. It's just. That's an interesting Christmas present. I didn't. Didn't. Huh? Pastor Bill: [10:32] That was one of my favorite stocking stuffers, actually. Pastor Newms: [10:36] He. I can understand. Pastor Bill: [10:41] So, you know. Pastor Newms: [10:43] It's actually, the cinnamon is not that high in carbs. So. Pastor Bill: [10:51] All right. And now it's time for Getting To Know The Pastors. Yep, it is. As I pack my deck. Now the. Yeah. Yeah. Pastor Newms: [10:55] Is it your week? Yeah. Like a pack of cigarettes when neither of us smokes. Okay. That makes so much sense. Only. Hmm. Pastor Bill: [11:07] Right. All right. Would you rather. Pastor Newms: [11:11] I'm going to say something right now. If this card is terrible and we start the year off with an awful card out of your deck, I'm not going to be happy. Go. You did not just change the card. Pastor Bill: [11:29] I'm thinking about it. Pastor Newms: [11:39] Oh, man. Now just read it. Try to start the year off. Right. Pastor Bill: [11:45] So. Yeah. It's starting off, right? I mean, come girl. Pastor Newms: [11:56] Oh. Pastor Bill: [11:59] Okay. I'm sorry. Would you rather. Be the best player on a horrible team or the worst player on a great team. Pastor Newms: [12:14] See, that's really hard because here's the reason why I say that's really hard. So like, if you're the best player on the worst team. And you feel like you're. Like you're wasting your time and talents. And I take that from a team, sports or business. But if you're the worst, you're constantly worried you're about to get got. So. Oh, that's. That's rough. That one is rough. I prefer to be third on either side. Pastor Bill: [12:58] I prefer just not to do team things. But just. Yeah. Pastor Newms: [13:02] I prefer to be like the third or fourth smartest person in a room and the most efficient person in a room. And like the. Unless you get traded a week before the Super Bowl. Um. Pastor Bill: [13:17] Oh, yeah, that would stink. Pastor Newms: [13:20] But Biggs. So Biggs says the worst on a good team. Um, I. Oh, I would have to say probably. Think if I actually had the answer, I would say. I don't want to ever be the best because it just feels. Even being mediocrely above the medium feels terrible when you're doing when you feel like you're doing more than others. Pastor Bill: [13:52] If I was the best, I'd always be worried about eighties montages. It's like if you didn't suddenly be like. You're the best around. And I'd be like, Oh, crap. I'm in a montage. Pastor Newms: [13:57] She's not us. 30-second buffer, 30-second buffer, 30-second buffer, Pastor Bill started. Singing 80 songs. Hmm. For those of you who don't get that joke, come join us live. And you will. Oh, yes. So but you got to choose which one? Which one would you truly choose? I prefer to just be middle, but. I think I agree with Biggs. Pastor Bill: [14:45] The worst. Pastor Newms: [14:46] Yeah, I think it's just I think being the best at anything at any moment is just would be infuriating. Like, if you were. Pastor Bill: [14:52] The worst on the team, I mean. Pastor Newms: [14:54] Because if you're the best on a bad team, I mean, if you're like, yeah, if you're the best on a bad team, you're constantly you'd be constantly frustrated because you're failing, but you're awesome. Pastor Bill: [15:08] I mean, you'd constantly feel like Judas, just like, Man, I am better than these. Oh, wait, That was just. Pastor Newms: [15:14] That was just pride. That's different. That was just. That was just pride. I need a fidget. Okay. I got one. I got one. I just realized I'm fidgeting with an extremely sharp. Knife. And if I slip, I must cut a finger. Of course, that's a straight, like, straight-edge razor blade. That's what I'm looking for. So that should not be what we're fidgeting with. Pastor Bill: [15:40] So. You know, there's a new doctor coming up for Doctor Who? Pastor Newms: [15:44] I have heard. Mm hmm. Hmm. Hmm hmm. Even though I'm far behind. But. Yes. Pastor Bill: [15:47] And David Tennant, David Tennant is now the 10th and the 14th doctor. And there wasn't supposed to be any kind of release this year. And the BBC made this big deal of something big is coming tomorrow. Right. Pastor Newms: [16:08] Like tomorrow is and tomorrow or they made a big deal and it's in the past. Okay. Oh. Pastor Bill: [16:08] And it was. No like. New Years Adam They made a big deal that New Year's Eve, they were going to drop something big. And everybody was like, Oh, we're getting a surprise episode. Some kind of short. It was a trailer for next year's special. They made a Big To-Do about releasing a trailer. Pastor Newms: [16:35] Well, that's what a teaser is. Pastor Bill: [16:36] Oh, people are livid. Pastor Newms: [16:39] That's what a teaser is. It's teasing the fact that there's a trailer. Pastor Bill: [16:40] That they made such a big deal about the trailer. Pastor Newms: [16:45] But that's. They do that with movies. They do that with everything. Because you release a teaser that says that there's a trailer coming. Pastor Bill: [16:46] Oh, people are upset. I'm upset. Pastor Newms: [16:55] I mean, that's what a teaser is. A teaser teases the trailer. Pastor Bill: [16:59] But they could have said, we're releasing a trailer. But they made it sound like they were releasing something real. Pastor Newms: [17:02] No, that's no fun. That's not a teaser. Hmm. Well, it was real. It was real footage. It was. Does he look good as The Doctor? Pastor Bill: [17:09] And then there was this very. Pastor Newms: [17:19] Oh, David Tennant's the next special. Okay. I'm sorry. I thought the next. Oh, okay. I'm trying to. Pastor Bill: [17:24] Gave it the next, like three specials. As the 14th doctor, and then he'll regenerate into the 15th doctor. Pastor Newms: [17:32] I've. I've tried to not be to. Spoilery in the fact that I'm, you know, old dude before chick. Pastor Bill: [17:44] Hmm. You're asking about Nick. Cute chee guy. How do you say his name? Pastor Newms: [17:52] I'm not going to try. I can't speak English correctly. I'm not going to insult someone else. Pastor Bill: [17:57] I didn't want to say it, but. The first Canon black doctor I was going to say is his name, but he's the first Canon Black doctor, which I think is great. Pastor Newms: [18:08] Yes. Pastor Bill: [18:11] We've always known the doctor could and in spoilers. We saw a previous incarnation of the Doctor that's never been released in Canon during Jodie Foster, Jodie Whittaker's time, and as a black woman doctor. Pastor Newms: [18:26] Oh, interesting. Thanks for the spoilers. Pastor Bill: [18:28] But she's not like canon at this point. You know she's, you know, and so it's exciting to see where this actor will take the doctor. But that's what you're asking about. And as far as how he looks. They have released what his costume is. And it's very. Different. Let's put it that way. You know, The Doctor has always been buttoned up in suits and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And this is more like a t-shirt with a blazer and, dress down. It's not now. It's like what we saw in Matt Smith's first promotional material. Pastor Newms: [19:10] Mhm. Pastor Bill: [19:11] Except they've actually said this is actually his clothing. Dr.. Pastor Newms: [19:14] Got it. Interesting. It'll definitely be interesting to see where he takes where they take it with him as the head and where the girls are actually trying to get caught up to then back to where we were. Since they're older now and actually like, you know, cause there was like three the last time we watched it. Um, no, she wasn't that. Who? Pastor Bill: [19:39] Is he Scottish? Biggs, said Scottish black Doctor Who, But I don't think he's Scottish. I think he's. Pastor Newms: [19:48] Mm hmm. I don't think he's Scottish. He's. Uh-hmm. Pastor Bill: [19:51] Ughandan? Pastor Newms: [19:54] Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. I don't. I don't remember. Pastor Bill: [20:00] I was thinking he was born somewhere else and then grew up and. Pastor Newms: [20:03] Yes, that's what I believe. Because I like him a lot on another show. Pastor Bill: [20:19] Oh, yes. The. The woman. From. Previously, she was Scottish while she sounded Scottish. But she wasn't. She's not officially canon. Pastor Newms: [20:37] Right here. Yeah, and I have no idea. So he's were Rwandan Scottish actor. Pastor Bill: [20:44] Rwandan. Pastor Newms: [20:45] Yeah, he's Rwandan. And his, you know, rose to prominence as Eric on the Netflix show Sex Education. Which is a pretty funny show. It's interesting, you know. And he is. Yeah, It's an interesting show. Pastor Bill: [21:07] I'll take your word on it, as soon as this thing and the BBC finish ironing out their deal to have the full catalog of Doctor Who on Disney Plus. I'll be able to go in and rewatch a whole bunch of stuff and catch back up myself before the new stuff drops. Pastor Newms: [21:28] And. there is how to pronounce his full name, which I. Pastor Bill: [21:37] All right, here we go. Pastor Newms: [21:39] I'm not good with little symbols either. So he doesn't help me, but. Pastor Bill: [21:43] And Cookie. Shoot t. Institute. Hi. Is pronounced Shooty. Okay. It says it's pronounced shooty, not okay. So N - C makes a sound. And his last name is got to. He prefers to go by his middle name professionally, which is shooting. Well, that's fine. I didn't. I've only ever seen his name written. I haven't actually heard anybody say it. So. Pastor Newms: [22:35] I heard it. Once, but I can't remember it. Pastor Bill: [22:42] Yes, because they're supposed to have the exam, which says all 50 years on Disney Plus is supposed to be ironing out that deal to bring. Everything, all of Doctor Who on Disney Plus this year. So all the way from number one, all the way up to all of Jodie Whitaker's tenure and everything moving forward, it's supposed to come out on Disney Plus as it's released by the BBC overseas. Because like, right now I can't watch Doctor Who anywhere unless I download it. I don't have anywhere that I can watch Doctor Who. Pastor Newms: [23:33] Yeah. Right now it's on. I believe it's HBO, Max. And we get it through our AT&T. We have it through. Yeah. Pastor Bill: [23:44] So. I have Hulu. With HBO, Max. But the HBO Max that's with Hulu doesn't include foreign productions. So you can't watch Doctor Who on Hulu with HBO, Max. Pastor Newms: [24:12] Interesting. Pastor Bill: [24:20] Esker Boro, Week three. Oh, it's. It's okay. Pastor Newms: [24:21] Yeah, I already. I already deleted it. Pastor Bill: [24:26] I thought he was saying you could go somewhere to watch Doctor Who, and I was a bit like, Hmm. But no, you're right. It's. Pastor Newms: [24:30] Nope. Now it's gone. It's gone out of everywhere. But what you call it? Yeah. And it's about to be. Pastor Bill: [24:49] Well, it's gone. Whoever got rid of it, it's gone. All right. So. If you haven't been following along in season four, then you've missed. Three episodes. But we didn't get very far in what we're currently talking about. Pastor Newms: [25:06] Well. Well, I mean, we've gotten far. It's just we haven't gotten far. Pastor Bill: [25:13] If we're marking distance by numbers of chapter and verse. Pastor Newms: [25:17] Oh. Hmm. We haven't gotten far. Pastor Bill: [25:20] And we haven't gotten very far. Pastor Newms: [25:23] If you're basing it on that, we have not gotten very far now. Pastor Bill: [25:25] Right. We haven't got to read the first verse, number, and verse. And so this week, first off. Merry Christmas. We are currently in the 12 days of Christmas. Today is what, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, and 31. Is the eighth day of Christmas. I don't know why. I can't just remember which day is which when the eighth day of Christmas, we got Epiphany coming up. So that's fun. Epiphany is January 6th. The day when we celebrate the Wise men, the Magi, the men of Orient, the probably Zoroastrian individuals. Who brought gifts to Jesus with their caravans of camels and. And all the people that came with them. That's coming up. So that's exciting. That's not. I mean, not exciting, but it's exciting to me to mark those holidays, you know, for me personally. But I know a lot of people don't celebrate those things anymore. The commercialization of. Pastor Newms: [26:35] Mm hmm. Pastor Bill: [26:47] Christmas has proliferated greatly. I will just say it. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Any excuse to feel hope and inspiration and to reconnect with people that you haven't connected with in a while. And bury the hatchet and get rid of old grudges. Is a good deal. All right. The baby monitor was still on the receiver. Turn it off. Pastor Newms: [27:25] So. Okay. I was wondering if and could hear Nibbles over here. Nibbles is very loud at the moment, and I just ask the girls to come get her because she is, loud this weekend. Pastor Bill: [27:44] I don't hear the cat. Biggs says that he does. Pastor Newms: [27:48] Yeah, that's Nibbles being a something. Pastor Bill: [27:54] I don't hear it. So we started this. Pastor Newms: [27:55] Well. Pastor Bill: [27:57] We talked about Genesis one-one, and then we talked about Genesis one-two, and then we talked about John one-one, and then we talked about Genesis one-three and Genesis the first half of Genesis one-four. And we did all of that in the first three episodes, so. Where we pick up in this episode is the second half of Genesis one-four. And then we're going to go hopefully all the way through Genesis one-five. Although we may just burn right through this and be done early and be twiddling our thumbs. Pastor Newms: [28:40] Mm hmm. I'm sure. Pastor Bill: [28:42] Yeah. Genesis one-four. Last week we talked about God creating light and we talked about how it was less of the light to exist or light it exists and more of a light recognizing or calling out to the light. But we didn't really talk about it. Why we see it that way. Why we framed it that way. And where that comes from is here in verse five. So God creates the light. We're starting in the second half, of verse four. Yes. Pastor Newms: [29:25] Well, are we going to start in four? Pastor Bill: [29:31] So God sees the light that it's good. And then God separates the light from the darkness. Right. Now the word there is still gods. We're still talking about the plural. We're still using the plural for God, God's. And this word. Separated is. Is two words. It's. It's H914, which is baw-dal' and it is H996, which is bane. Okay. Now, baw-dal' is to distinguish as difference. To look at something and make a judgment and say the light and the darkness, we recognize them as two different things. And then, bane. Make sure I wrote this in my notes right. Pastor Newms: [30:39] Me to read it, have it open. Pastor Bill: [30:42] You don't have my notes open. Pastor Newms: [30:44] No, but I have the thing open. Pastor Bill: [30:49] And H996 is to declare a distinction between the two. Right. So he's making, God's making two statements here. He's declaring them as separate and seeing them as separate. So not only does God look at them and go, Well, you're two separate things, lightness and darkness. We talked about the light. There was that sentience of man. It was enlightenment, it was consciousness. And then that darkness was everything that's dark, right? It was misery and destruction and chaos. And all this stuff. And God is saying, well, these are two separate things. Two very separate things. Now, later. We're actually going to start calling those things good and evil when we get into chapter two. We're going to start using different terms. And the reason for the different terms is that like we talked about before. Genesis originally started with chapter two. And went on. And then when they went into captivity in Babylon, then they added chapter one, incorporating what the Babylonians knew about creation. Including those details into the story there at the beginning. And that's why there's this different viewpoint, different phrases for the same things. So this is the point where God is separating good and evil and saying these are actually separate things. These aren't just, you know, intermingled. And it's all it is what it is. It's not that's not what these things are. There is clearly good and there is clearly evil. And God can do that. Because God can deal in black and white. Pastor Newms, can you deal in black and white? Pastor Newms: [32:57] I like Gray a lot, huh? Pastor Bill: [33:00] I feel like the Sunday school teacher at this point. No, you cannot deal in black and white because you are human. Pastor Newms: [33:04] I like. Yeah, Yeah, I like Gray a lot. Um, I pretty much live in gray. Pastor Bill: [33:09] Yeah. Humans deal in gray. We do not deal in black and white. It is physically impossible for us to deal in black and white. They, God deals in black and white. God deals in pass or fail. So we see this in the character of God. We see this from the very beginning. Later on when we get to the ideas of salvation and we start talking about if you've broken one law, then you've broken all laws. If you're a sinner in one way, then you're a sinner. And always if you don't believe, then you're not saved. And it's a pass or fail. It's a yes or no. It's not a “Well, I was a good person” or “I went to church” or “I gave money to the poor,” and No, no, no. There was one answer. There was one question, and there was one answer. It was black and white. It was yes or no. It was not gray. There was no middle ground. We see that in the nature of God from the very beginning. Light and dark. Good and evil. Pastor Newms: [34:22] Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Pastor Bill: [34:26] That is the nature of God. That doesn't change. It doesn't. God deals. In black and white, right? Now. That's the nature of God. God also exists. In the business of mercy. Which is Jesus. We call that Jesus, right? Pastor Newms: [34:51] Uh huh. Pastor Bill: [34:52] Not just there's black and white. And humans are failing that. And then God goes, and I have an answer for it. And that's God's mercy. That's Jesus. And then Jesus offers salvation. And salvation is still this black and white. But it's being offered. When you haven't earned it, you don't deserve it. You're sitting over in the darkness and it gets off. It's still black and white, right? Impossible. And God says, Ha! But. I am Holy Spirit, too. I am the Comforter. I am the reminder. I can move in your life. And that's where we get that part of God, the Holy Spirit. And that gives us the grace to change. Right? And be worthy of the free gift that Jesus gifts. And we see all of that playing out. In that statement. God separated. The light. From the darkness. And so there's this great poetic thing going on here. And we're seeing the nature of God and we're seeing all this power of God. And we're only four verses in. Pastor Newms: [36:31] Mm hmm. Pastor Bill: [36:31] And this such as deep, deep, deep thing going on here. All right. And then we get to verse five. Okay. Now, you got to remember you're reading a poem. All right. Verse five. Is it? It's basically. I don't really know how to explain it other than to say if you reach out and you grab dough and you go to make a ball of dough and you go like this. And you squeeze that into the dough to make the finish off the ball. Verse five is that it's finishing off the ball of dough for this poem. That's a weird visual, but that's what I'm getting in my head. So. Pastor Newms: [37:22] A. Pastor Bill: [37:24] When you look at verse five. What you're reading is actually telling you what was happening in verses three and four. Okay. So this statement, God called the light day and the darkness he called night. That statement is what actually was seen to happen. And everything before that. This is the explanation of the nuts and bolts. Abatbrain on twitch. My wife says it is a bit odd. My little ball of dough thing. Pastor Newms: [38:11] It is. Pastor Bill: [38:11] But all of my analogies are odd, so I'm not surprised. Okay. So when we get to verse five, we see God and we're using the same still the plural for God's called. All right. And. And called there. We see that as God naming the lights. And it would be if this wasn't a poem. If this wasn't poetic, you know, wordplay. Right. But H7121 called. Which is kaw-raw'. A primitive route rather identical to H7122 through the idea of accosting a person met, to call out to that is properly addressed by name, but used in a wide variety of applications, and then gives you a list in the Strongs of all the different ways it's been translated. So what this is saying, this is actually showing you in verse four when God said, let there be light. That was them describing what God did. But what actually happened? Is God. Called out to or accosted the light by name like we were talking about in the previous episode. What actually happened is, is God went light, but he didn't because that's not the name of light. What is the name of light? The name of light is Yome or what we then call day. So in verse three, when he said, Let there be light. And the poem says, And God, you know, said, Let there be light. It's all wordplay for God addressing accosting, calling out to light as if it existed. And the name that it used for light was Yome. As if when Pastor Newms gives me a phone call. Like I said if it wasn't a weird thing for him to call me because he only calls me in emergencies. If he called me on a regular basis and he's my best friend, I saw his name on the phone. I would pick up the phone. I would go Newms! It's the same thing. God, said Yome. Called out to the light as if it already existed. As if it was an old friend. As if he already knew it. And at that point. It came into existence. It then existed. And then God compared. That, too. What was within himself? And then in verse. What is that verse four? No, where to? Pastor Newms: [41:28] For us. It's good. Pastor Bill: [41:33] Compare that saw. Compare that to what was within himself and declared it good. I see that within myself. That is good, right? And then. He did the same thing for the darkness. And he called the darkness. I think these are three different pronunciations of the same word. I don't think this is the actual word. It says lah'-yil, lale, and lah'-yel-aw. I think those are three diffeerent pronunciations. But he said that. And. And what that means is a twist away from the light or adversity. Right? So he addressed the night, the darkness as adversity, or a twisting away from the light, twisting away from life, twisting away from enlightenment, twisting away from, sentience, and all of that good stuff. The poet wrangles all that together. And says and the evening in the morning were the first day. Hey. God is talking and calls the light day. But it's not the word day. But that is what the humans then later called a day. They use that same word. Right. So we see the poet playing off of that wordplay. And using the word in both places. Because that's what God called it. And then he calls upon that in the same verse and says, Well, the first day. It's a different day. This is a human day now. Right. And we only have an evening and a morning. Because. God. Separated. The light from the darkness. So the poet's working on several levels. Here is the cosmic level where he's talking about good and evil, and then he's using wordplay to relate that to the reader the difference between sunshine and darkness and where those two meet in the evening and the morning. Which is the gray area. Where we live. Where we exist. Right. In that evening and in that morning. That's where we exist. We exist somewhere in between those light, and that darkness. And that was the first day. And so then when we looked back and we were talking about. The first day didn't end until the first day ended. Right. And well, and what we meant by that was we don't know when the first day began. For God, there could have been. Millions and millions of years. We talked about it in the first verse, God created the heavens and the earth we were talking about. That's a hands-on word, hands-on action, where you're building something up, using the baser elements. And we don't know how long in God's perspective that took. But there was no time yet. There was no marking of what we think of as time. There was no turning of day and night in seasons. And so we don't know how long. There was from the moment that God created the heavens and the earth, right? Started that work. The evening and the morning existing. To create the quote-unquote, first day. It's all very deep and very involved. And I encourage everybody to go back and reread those verses. Go back and listen to the first three episodes of season four. And. Let's back up. Now that we know we've worked through the holidays. We're settling down. We're ready to get things going. Make if you're going to make a New Year's resolution, make a resolution to be in. Right. So we say be very in. Because when we go to Acts, we find people fleeing from one place to another. And he goes to a town called Berea, and when he gets to Berea, he starts preaching. And the believers in Berea, not just the believers, but also the. The Jewish men, they refused to believe anything Paul said until they were able to go and find it themselves in the scriptures. They wanted to be able to go and own what Paul was preaching to them or, have grounds to dismiss it. They didn't want to just receive it. And Paul praised them as being more worthy than the highfalutin Jews over in Jewtown. He didn't use those words, but that was the equivalent of what he was saying. You guys are more worthy than the snooty guys over there. That's awesome, guys. Because they refused to believe what he was saying until they proved it for themselves. So if you're going to make a New Year's resolution and the last episode we talked about, a lot of people start in January, they're going to read the whole Bible in a year. And we talked about how I don't recommend that because it loses a lot of that deep study time because people don't read with intention. They read to just I got to get my daily reading done so I can make it through the year. Resolve to be buried. Go back. And look at these verses in the deep poetic terms that they are intended to be. Cross-reference that with the other parts of Scripture. And let what is one of the deepest chapters in the Bible speak to you, and revolutionize the way you think about this Sunday school topic of creation. You know, like it is. So there's so much there. And. Yeah, that's what I had for tonight. Look at that. 7:25. Pastor Newms: [49:22] It means you're 3 minutes early. Pastor Bill: [49:22] But we'll be whittling. Pastor Newms: [49:26] Right. We have 3 minutes to twiddle now. Pastor Bill: [49:29] We don't have to twiddle. We can. Pastor Newms: [49:34] Why are you playing with a grippy thing? Pastor Bill: [49:38] A clamp. It's a clamp. Pastor Newms: [49:40] I know. I forgot what the word clamp was for a minute, but I know its purpose. Pastor Bill: [49:50] Well, I know its purpose. It clamps. Pastor Newms: [49:51] It's one of those it's it's one of those where we weren't clever. Our English definition of explaining things was not clever. What is what does it do? It holds other things. It clamps one thing to another. What are we going to call it? A clamp. Pastor Bill: [50:08] From the clamp. Pastor Newms: [50:12] Let's like, call a vacuum. A vacuum? Why? Because it vacuums. Well, because it creates a. Yeah. Pastor Bill: [50:17] Because it uses a vacuum to suck things. Pastor Newms: [50:21] And. Pastor Bill: [50:25] Yeah. Did you have anything you wanted to add to any of that? Pastor Newms: [50:28] No, I mean, I think. Pastor Bill: [50:30] I didn't really stop and give you time to interject at any point, did I? Pastor Newms: [50:33] I think it's important as we look at these types of things, to think about the fact that, you know, it is not a simple aspect. And so often we look at it as such. And so it's good to take time to dig in and actually understand what the words mean and actually understand what. You know, is being said not just what is written, because it is definitely. English is not as we were just saying, you know clamp is clamp-like if it's not clever it is not pick up the artistry of other languages. Well. Pastor Bill: [51:16] It was clear. Pastor Newms: [51:29] You know, So I think it's one of the reasons why studying is so important. Pastor Bill: [51:35] It's hard enough to understand poetry in English. And then you take some other cultures, poetry, and you translate it to three different languages and then try to transliterate that in English. Pastor Newms: [51:52] It is complicated. Pastor Bill: [51:59] Yeah. All right. This podcast comes out every week on Wednesdays. Wherever you get your podcasts, if you found this, I don't know. Helpful, entertaining, funny, and inspiring. Or you think somebody might benefit from it, then like, follow share. Tell people we exist. And also, if you'd like to join us live and be a part of the conversation where you can type out your message and then we can respond and we can, you know, get a deeper explanation going on. If you have a question or something like that, then we do that on Sunday nights at 6:30 p.m. Central Standard Time. You can go to our website www.ekk.house to find out which Twitch which YouTube and which Facebook that we are live on, where you can catch that video and participate in the chat. As always, we are glad to have our listener base. And as we go into 2023, that hasn't changed. We're in season four, which means we're many, many, many episodes and several years into this thing. And we're quite thankful to just. I don't know. I guess I'm more thankful to have you Pastor Newms in my life than the platform itself. Pastor Newms: [53:29] It's the people that we interact with is more important than the. Pastor Bill: [53:30] You know. Pastor Newms: [53:36] Following, because that's not what's important. Pastor Bill: [53:37] Yeah, I mean, I know, I know. It's important to, you know, get the stuff out there and, and, you know, help people and make a difference in the world, but. You know, I'm not immune to the benefits of. What this does for me. So thank you, sir. For your part in my life. All right. Okay. So if you're with us live now, we have to do this thing that, you know, streaming some. Pastor Newms: [54:07] No, you didn't say. You didn't say and the next time and all that other stuff. So that way I can then say, be safe. You skipped all that. Go back and do it correctly. Pastor Bill: [54:19] I love you guys have a great week. Pastor Newms: [54:20] Be safe out there. Pastor Bill: [54:23] And until next time.
Today's Reading: Romans 1:1-7Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 40:18-41:10; Revelation 8:1-13Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3b).In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God became a man, meaning that all that was common to fallen men was what Jesus understood, knew, lived, and bore with. Jesus cried, felt pain, knew ridicule and being made fun of. He knew sorrow and sadness, watched people He loved go through pain, scarcity, and worry. Jesus Christ, fully God (that's 100%); fully man (that's 100%) bore all the sin, weight, guilt, sorrow, and so on, and all this without sin. To say this doesn't make sense is perhaps the understatement of the year. 100% plus 100%; that's 200%. Isn't it wonderful then that to our world, to our feeble and simple minds Jesus simply came, not to make everything in this world of law make sense? He came because in the fallen world very little, if anything, has made sense; people get sick and die, tragedies and misunderstandings plague each and every day. Since the Fall, although we like to think that we're logical, reasonable and that most things make sense. in reality very little actually makes sense at all. He came to a people, to us, in the depths of the ocean who've only known darkness, depths, and weight and has come to believe that that's the only normal way.To a world of darkness came The Light, and the world hated the light. He came bringing peace and the world hated it because they'd grown used to strife, darkness, pain, misery, and the like. He came into a world that we said made sense, a world in which we said He'd have to assimilate. Jesus takes sin, darkness, death, destruction, and depravity and hangs them with Him and dies; God-Man. THE God-Man dies and with Him our guilt, shame and heaviness. Jesus was long spoken about by God in the Garden “I will put enmity between thee (the serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15.) That seed is Jesus. Hear St. John: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a seed fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (John 12:24). The seed of David? Jesus is THE MAN, the seed that Crushes the serpent's head? That's Jesus too! The seed that dies and bears much fruit? You guessed it–Jesus; The God-Man come for you. In the Name + of Jesus. AmenThe everlasting Son, Incarnate deigns to be, Himself a servants form puts on to set His servants free. (LSB 331 “The Advent of our King” St. 2)-Pastor Adam DeGroot is Pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Duane BamschStudy Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.
Church of the Nazarene - East Rock Learning & Unlearning: Peacemakers Learning and Unlearning Part 3Luke 9:52-55And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. In this scene, we see Jesus acting as Peacemaker. Jesus didn't run from that tension, he stood firm on the kingdom truth that his followers were to love their enemies. That's Jesus. The reconciler, the mediator, the peacemaker for you and for me. A Peacemaker is not only who Jesus is, it is who he invites us to be within our tumultuous world. Welcome back to our teaching series “Learning and Un-learning” Within this series we are trying to see the importance and the necessity of believers and the church adapting to the changes and disruptions in our world. I know you might be thinking that we are trying to change the message... that's not it at all. In fact, the best news we can share is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. That alone is news worth sharing! The point of this series is that we want to see how we are to live out the timeless truths of scripture in our ever-changing world. Paul's ministry wasn't quite the same as Peter's and the evangelists of 19th century America didn't have the same issues to face that we have today. The question is, are we, the church, ready for such a time as this? Matthew 5:3-10 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Any genuine reader of scripture will quickly realize within our teaching text, that this is no ordinary way of living. In fact, it's pretty much exactly opposite of the way the world operates. And friends, that's the point of the sermon on the mount, it reveals the “upside-down” nature of the kingdom of God. So, the teachings we find here are not optional accessories for the fashionable Jesus believer. They are not given as extra credit options for those who need a better grade on their eternal report card. These are the key features, the elements, the ingredients, the essentials of what it means to be a Christian. It's within these first few verses that we find Jesus pronouncing blessing, joy, fulfillment, on those who are peacemakers.2 Corinthians 5:18-20All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. As peacemakers in 2022, we share in the same ministry of the Apostle Paul. The call of Jesus to be Peacemakers in our world should cause us to ask a few questions in reflection: 1. Do I have this peace in my own heart? 2. Am I living as a peacemaker or only a peacekeeper? 3. Finally, where do I begin? Verses for further study/reflection: Proverbs 12:20 Romans 14:19 Romans 12:18 Genesis 13:8-9
Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Mark 5:35-43. In the account of Jesus’ interaction with the bleeding woman and Jarius, we see both Jesus’ power over death and his great tenderness and desire for intimacy with his people. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 5. We're going to continue our study in the Gospel of Mark with this incredible account. I want to preach today on the infinite power and the intimate tenderness that Jesus Christ displays. I've meditated on those themes in God for a long time. Two verses in Isaiah 40 capture the staggering combination of God's infinite power with his gentle tenderness for his people. Isaiah 40:11-12, “He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, over with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” The same God that measures the waters of the oceans and the seven seas in the hollow of his hand. And who, later in that chapter, marks off the dimensions of the heavens with the breadth of his hand? It also says, "Carries the lambs, tenderly in his arms and gently leads those that have young." The same God. I. God Majestic Over Us, Yet Close to Us Now, in our text today, we're going to see Jesus Christ picturing both aspects of God. We're going to see him displaying infinite immeasurable power in raising this little 12-year-old girl from the clutches of the monster known as death. But he does it with the gentle touch of his hand, an intimate tenderness. As he touched her, he spoke these words, "Talitha koum." Talitha, as I'll discuss later, the etymology of it as “little lamb.” Little lamb. Jesus, just in saying that, fulfills these marvelous words of Isaiah 40, “He tends his flock like a shepherd, and he gathers the little lambs in his arms.” We're pondering a God who is infinitely majestic over us and yet desires intimate closeness with us. The infinite majesty of God is taught in the Bible from the very first verse of the Bible. In the beginning, “God created the heavens in the earth.” Almighty God is infinitely beyond. He soars beyond anything we can possibly comprehend. The boundless scope of the nature that he has created confirms this, the ocean, which stretches out to the horizon as far as the eye can see, unfathomably deep roaring with power. God made it. The towering mountain ranges peak after peak, dwarfing us, looming over us with their brooding magnificence, the limitless reaches of outer space, which has no boundary, stretches to infinity in every direction from our tiny planet. It is the power of God, creating all of that saying, "Let there be," and there is. It's the majesty of God. And yet, the intimate closeness of God, the Bible reveals a God that is closer to us than we can possibly imagine. We are dependent on him every moment for our very existence as Paul said in Acts 17, God is not far from each one of us “for in him, we live and move and have our being.” More than that, God yearns to have a close relationship with us, a love relationship with us. He wants to love us. He wants us to love him moment by moment. He created humanity in his image with the capability to do that, the capacity to have a relationship, a love relationship with God. Therefore, this intimate relationship with God is truly what life is all about. As Jesus said in his prayer to his heavenly Father in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” But sin ruptured that intimacy. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned, if you read the account, they immediately sought to hide from God. With sin, a terrible barrier has been erected between us and God. And in our sin and in our misery, we live our lives distant from God. "The intimate closeness of God, the Bible reveals a God that is closer to us than we can possibly imagine. We are dependent on him every moment for our very existence..." God seems distant. To some, he seems literally non-existent. Suffering people cry out to God for relief, and they seem to get no answer. They thought that the lack of an answer proved that God doesn't exist or that God doesn't care. But the problem is sin. The problem between us and God is sin. As Isaiah 59 says, verse 1-2, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.” Because of our sins, our intimate relationship with God is severed, destroyed. God is distant from us relationally, ready to judge us for our sins, not seeking intimacy with us, apart from atonement for our sins. The incarnation of the Son of God is God's answer to that problem that we cannot solve. In Christ, we have God drawing near to us. Christ is Immanuel, God with us. By his incarnation, Christ has come to live among us in very close intimacy. John, 1:14, “The word, Jesus Christ, became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son from the Father full of grace and truth.” The Greek says he literally “pitched his tent among us,” hearkening back to the days of the patriarchs, their tent dwelling days. He came in our midst and pitched his tent right in the middle of us. God, in Jesus, came to draw near to us seeking an intimate relationship with us. He is near to us in our misery, in our sin, in our alienation from God, in our suffering, our diseases, even in our death. All of Christ's ministry is to achieve one end, a reconciled relationship between us and God, between a Holy God and sinful humanity.The restoration, the perfection of intimate closeness, as it says in I Peter 3:18, “for Christ died for sins, once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous to bring you to God.” Meditate on those words. That's the work of atonement, to bring us to God. Therefore, in II Corinthians 5:20, we are told that we have been given a message and a ministry of reconciliation,"We are, therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God.” Reconciliation is a restored relationship with God, intimacy with God. I think Jesus's parable of the Prodigal Son perfectly gives me a picture of that from the father's point of view. As this sinful son comes back, trying to get a job on his father's plantation working with him, it ends with [Luke 15:20], “but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”We sinners should meditate on that much. That is our father running to us, throwing his arms around us and kissing us while we're still stinking of pig manure and covered with filth, just recently come out of rebellion. This is what our father does. Jesus's ministry is all designed to repair the breach between sinful human beings and a Holy God. In Christ, therefore, we have the perfection of intimate tenderness but also infinite power. He was compassionate toward broken sinners. He showed them astonishing tenderness. He also displayed stunning power to heal their diseases and even to raise the dead. Let's talk about the context of today's account. We're spending two weeks on one lengthy account, two encounters that Jesus has with two desperate people, a desperate father with a dying daughter, and then a desperate woman with an incurable illness. They're united together in Jesus' display of tenderness and power. It began last week as we saw and continues this week with a man named Jairus, a synagogue ruler, a powerful man, well connected with a Jewish religious leaders of the day, but a desperate man whose precious little daughter is dying, his only daughter. He has nowhere else to turn. Abandoning all restraint and all decorum, he comes and throws himself down on the ground before Jesus and begs him. Verse 23, “My little daughter is dying. Please, come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” Now, we know from other accounts, Jesus could easily have healed her from a distance. Occasionally, he did that, but generally not. He wanted intimacy. He wanted relationship. So in humility, he gets up and goes with this sorrowing man, surrounded by a crushing crowd. On route, the second desperate person approaches him, a woman suffering from a chronic bleeding problem, heard about Jesus's healing power, a kindled hope and faith in her heart. Mark tells us her sad story of seeking healing. Verse 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.” She sought to be healed from Jesus without any interaction at all. I don't mean to disparage her at all. But she seems to be a miracle shoplifter, like kind of a smash and grab job. Come up behind, touch the hem of the garment, and get out of there quick. Verse 27- 28, “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’" Her healing was instantaneous. She felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. But Jesus felt in his body that the power of God had flowed through him to someone in that crushing crowd, someone different than all the others. Verse 30, “At once, Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’” As we have noted, Jesus had come into the world, not merely to be a dispenser of miracles, like a miracle-vending machine, a pipeline of impersonal blessings. You need to know that God and his goodness does that every day. He causes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. In his goodness, He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous to unbelievers, atheists, whoever. He's an impersonal goodness vending machine, and they never think to thank him. Jesus didn't come to do that. He wanted an interaction with this woman. Verse 32, “Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.” The surging massive humanity was not his focus at that moment. One person in that crushing crowd was his focus, one desperate sinner. He wanted to do more than just heal her body, He wanted to save her soul. Verse 33:34, “then the woman knowing what had happened to her came, fell at his feet, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. And he said to her daughter, ‘Your faith has saved you.’" The Greek said “saved you” though healing is involved. “Go and peace and be freed from your suffering.” But in the intervening time that Jesus spent with this woman, Jairus's daughter died. The flickering candle of her life went out. II. The Terrible Crisis of Faith This brings us to this man's terrible crisis of faith. It begins with the faithless bearers of bad news, verse 35, “While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. ‘Your daughter is dead,’ they said. Why bother the teacher anymore?” These messengers are curt, they’re unfeeling. They crush Jairus with this devastating news, with the delicacy of a sledgehammer, "Your daughter is dead.” Behind this blunt news is a significant measure of unbelief. Why bother the teacher anymore? In other words, there's nothing he can do. Everyone knows death is final. It's the end of the line. In our technologically advanced world, we have the advantage here in the Raleigh, Durham area of being surrounded by some of the best doctors, nurses, medical practitioners in the world, state of the art. You could picture them working in an emergency room on a person who comes in right on the edge of death. You can imagine all of the frantic activity and the commands and the energy and people running in and out of the room and bringing equipment or medicines or techniques, whatever's needed to try to save this person's life. But when the physician in charge declares that the individual is dead, all of that stops. Time of death is noted. All that activity, then people slow down. They walk. There's nothing more that can be done. We know that. It's finished. That's how these messengers were. That's how it is in almost every case. They believe there is nothing Jesus can do. Death is the final enemy, the monster no one can defeat. Along with this is the great sorrow of a dead child. Few things are sadder than the funeral of a child. Death is hard in any case, but the agony is greater when someone's young, a teenager or younger child. It's a sense of rage, a sense of injustice and fairness, like something was stolen. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon for a young teenager named Billy Sheldon who died in their community. The name of the sermon and the funeral sermon was “Youth Is Like a Flower Cut Down.” Later with many tears, Edwards revised that same sermon and used it to preach the funeral of his own beloved daughter, Jerusha. The message said, in part these words, "Youth maybe liken to a beautiful wildflower growing in a field. And their death is like the sudden cutting of the flower in the stem. Youth is an age wherein people are commonly full of hopes and promises to themselves of the good and the prosperity that they shall see in this world. They're just entering upon the stage of this world. And they promise themselves much that they shall see and enjoy afterwards. And their parents and their friends are also ready to promise themselves much future comfort in them and are full of hope in seeing them settled.” He told the young people at the funeral to come and look on the face, the dead face of this young boy, Billy Sheldon, "Come and look at him. Do you see how cold and gray is his power, how stripped of color his cheeks, like when a wildflower is cut and soon droops and withers and loses all of its beauty in its vitality, how instantly this happens.” So it was with Jairus's daughter, the end of the account. We're told that she's 12 years old. You picture her happy, energetic, promising life and joy to her parents, still happily hugging her beloved father, kissing his cheek with tender affection. He imagined the years ahead. Soon, she would be of an age to be married, bear them grandchildren, perhaps even a beautiful little granddaughter to kind of take her place and then jump up in his arms and kiss his cheeks. He's imagining this. But suddenly, sickness gripped her, and it just got worse. We don't know much about the sickness, maybe she had a fever or something like that burning up. As the days passed, she only got worse, not better. Her mother nursing her, caring for her, patting her, fevered brow with a cloth. Not much anyone could do. Parents crying out to God for healing, but to no avail. Instead of getting better, she grew worse. But Jairus had one hope. He'd heard about this healer, Jesus, and he went to find him. It's a last hope for his daughter, Jesus wasn't there. He'd gone across the Sea of Galilee. There was no no telling when he was going to come back. It seems he just stood there and waited by the shore, waited for Jesus to come because in the account, as soon as he has got back from the gatherings, he's there right away. With urgent anguish, he comes and throws himself on the ground before him and Jesus gets up and humbly goes with him. But on route, we have this encounter with the woman and the bleeding and all of that. And that must have taken some time because by the time they get back to Jairus's home, the funeral rituals are well on. They're well established, so it must have been a while. Then the messengers come with that cold blunt message, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?" Now, what did Jairus feel? We don't know, but it's not hard to imagine, waves of dark grief, sorrow. What he dreaded has now happened. And perhaps some anger at the crowd. Jesus could have gone faster. If it weren't for the crowd. Maybe he's even frustrated with the woman, perhaps questioning Jesus in his priority structure. And like the men who brought the message, it doesn't seem like his faith is much beyond theirs, “There’s probably nothing more Jesus can do.” His faith in Jesus had reached a crisis level, so Jesus addresses Jairus's faith right away. Verse 36, “Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, ‘Don't be afraid. Just believe.’" In all of the accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all of his encounters with people, Jesus never coddled unbelief. He never excused unbelief. It was never okay to not believe, ever. Even the most extreme circumstance, like a raging hurricane, professional fishermen in the boat seeing their boat filled with water. Matthew 8: 26, he said, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid? You shouldn't be." Now, we know in the economy of God and salvation and the gospel work, we are justified, forgiven of our sins by faith in Jesus, by simple faith in Christ, not by works. By trusting in Jesus are our sins forgiven. Jesus knew that. So when any disciple doubts or begins to doubt, it is a big deal. It is a bigger crisis than any fever or any bleeding problem, so he addresses the problem. He speaks directly to Jairus's soul. Literally in the Greek, it's this, “stop being afraid and keep believing.” Stop being afraid and keep believing. Fear and faith are often opposites in the Bible. Jairus needs to beat back his fear by trusting in Jesus. He did believe, but he needs to keep believing through this, even in the face of our greatest and our final enemy, death itself. Jesus gives an additional promise to help him. Faith feeds on the promises of God. That's where faith comes from, the promises of God. In Luke's gospel, Jesus gives Jairus an additional promise to help feed his faith. In Luke, 8:50,”Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, ‘Don't be afraid. Just believe, and she will be healed.’" She will be healed. "Faith feeds on the promises of God." So it is with us. In our greatest trials, God has the power to speak directly to our souls based on the scripture and remind us of things maybe that we had forgotten so that our faith can be fed and strengthened in the midst of the suffering to renew our faith in Christ. Notice also, and isn't it beautiful again, and again, how beautiful, the serenity, the leadership of Jesus, the majesty of his person, never flustered, never distressed, never not knowing what to do, always in command of the situation. So beautiful. He is the captain of our salvation. That's Jesus. III. The Commotion of Unbelieving Grief So now, we see the commotion of unbelieving grief in the account. First, Jesus weeds out the crowd, whittles them down quickly, he doesn't want them coming. He filters out his own apostles, nine of them and the disciples, the huge crowd that's following him. Then, just the hangers on, all of them, weeded out. It doesn't let any of them follow, verse 37, “He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James,” the inner three. The inner circle of the 12 apostles was Peter, James, and John, the rest of the apostles are excluded. The disciples are excluded. The huge crowd is excluded. No one else can come. Then, Jesus arrives at Jairus's house. He's confronted by another crowd. But this time, a crowd of noisy mourners, verse 38, “When he came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw commotion with people crying and wailing loudly.” Jewish funerals back then very different than what we are accustomed to, very different. If you go to a funeral home now for the visitation, everyone there speaks in hush tones. Everybody's whispering and go up quietly and say to the grieving family, "Praying for you," expressing condolences, this kind of thing. I've been to lots of them. That's how it is. It would not be appropriate for me to wail loudly and express grief at the funeral home. People would be thinking I was out of my mind. But in the first century, this is what they did. People were actually expected to give loud and boisterous voice to their grief and anguish. The more they did, the more they were connected with the family and showing the anguish that they have in reference to this death. They're also expected to tear their clothing in displays of grief. Now, along with this apparently, there was a class of professional mourns who did this for a living. They would show up and they would do some wailing and grieving for a fee. Hard to believe but there it is. They would bring along musicians, flute players who would play in loud discordant notes to kind of represent in musical tones, the anguish everybody's feeling. That's what's going on as Jesus comes. Now, these professional mourners are merely actors. They don't have any genuine compassion for the people. They felt no appropriate level of grief for Jairus and his wife. Why do I say that? Well, look at the account. In a short time, they are instantly laughing at Jesus. Where did all the grief go? Where was all the grief? It was fake. It wasn't genuine. Even worse though, they're unbelieving toward Jesus. Verse 39, “He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.’" IV. The Tender Touch of Infinite Power Jesus is about to show his infinite power in the greatest possible context. Our ultimate enemy, death, will be defeated effortlessly. But he's not going to do it in front of these unbelieving people, so he has to rebuke these fake mourns. He makes this clearest assertion, "She is not dead. The child is not dead, but asleep." Death is like sleep. It's only temporary. In other words, it is no more difficult for Jesus to raise this girl from the dead than it would be for her parents to wake her up from an afternoon nap. Jesus' resurrection is going to prove this for all time. But the mourner's reaction is pure faithlessness and mockery, verse 40, “They all laughed at him.” They laughed at him, so Jesus clears them all out. After He'd put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where the child was. So picture this, our powerful commander, the master of our souls, going down into the valley of the shadow of death alone to defeat the foe for us. Now, picture that. I know that there's people with him, but in terms of who's going forth to do the battle, it's Jesus. Now we see the tender touch of infinite power. As I've said, everything Jesus did was for relationship. He could have healed this girl from a distance, no problem, but instead, he wanted to touch her hand with his own hand. He wanted to reach out his hand and take her by the hand. He wanted to display his power nestled in his astonishing tenderness in gentle mercy. "He wanted to display his power nestled in his astonishing tenderness in gentle mercy." Verse 41, “He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means, “little girl”, I say to you, get up.” You have the touch and the word. It's beautiful. In Franco Zeffirelli's classic Jesus of Nazareth, it films this encounter with tremendous sensitivity. Jesus goes into her room. There's three square windows, way up high. She's laying flat on the ground on a palette, and sunlight is streaming in through these three little kind of portholes, but mostly the room is shrouded and shadow. Jesus goes over and kneels down near her. The camera zeros in on Jesus's face. Look on his face and then down on his hand. The hand, just the way it's shot, is covered with light, but there's darkness all around it. Then, he reaches down and takes her by the hand. Instantly, she just sits up and puts her arms around his neck. He hugs her and picks her up. That's how Zeffirelli pictured it. Probably something like that. Along with that are the words that he spoke, which I've already noted. Only Mark's gospel gives us the Aramaic, “Talitha koum.” Now the word Talitha's translated for us “little girl,” but like I said, etymologically, it means “little lamb.” It's definitely a term of endearment, tender affection for a little girl. Though she was 12 years old and would soon be entering into the duties of adulthood, of motherhood, of marriage and motherhood, still to her parents, probably, especially to her dad, she's a little lamb, but so, it is with him. That's the way it is for Jesus. This scene is why Christii and I named our daughter Daphne Talitha, because we trusted that Jesus would raise her from the dead spiritually while she lived, which he has through faith in Christ and that he would raise her from the dead physically at the end of the world, which he will. Talitha koum, “little girl,” arise. Instantaneous healing. Jesus has absolute effortless power over death. Verse 42, “Immediately, the girl stood up and walked around.” She was 12 years old. As with all of Jesus's healings, there's no need for convalescence, no need for rehab or long process of recovering her strength. Her body is as healed as it was before the sickness came. This dark enemy, this powerful implacable, undefeatable foe of the human race, death, Jesus defeats with effortless power. After his own resurrection, Jesus will claim absolute power forever over death for all of his people. Then comes worship, verse 42, “At this, they were completely astonished.” Jesus's awesome power is breathtaking. We're going to spend eternity in heaven, completely astonished in wave upon wave upon wave of astonishment. It's never going to end. As he keeps telling you and teaching you things he did, you never knew he did, you'll be on the ground praising, worshipping. Then you'll get up ready for the next wave, completely astonished. This is the essence of worship. V. “Don’t Tell Anyone” But then comes this strange command, “Don't tell anyone.” In verse 43, he gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this. Again and again, we see this restriction in these gospel accounts. We must acknowledge this is obviously temporary. How do you know that? Well, it's in the Bible. The Bible's a very famous book. The Holy Spirit inspired this account to be written. Clearly, God wants this story published abroad. There is no restriction now. There's no strict command, “Don't tell anyone.” Actually, we have strict commands to tell everyone. So I just charge all of you this week. Tell this story in the workplace. You're free to do it. Then, why did he restrict them? Why this Messianic secret? Why this command? I think it really just comes down to crowd control. They had misunderstandings of the kingdom. So, it's already crazy. Remember that the whole woman with the bleeding problem, Jesus can't even breathe just because of the healings, but this knowledge would make it more difficult. That's probably the reason. Another interpreter says it's also because Jesus hasn't finished his work over death yet, so the message isn't complete yet. He wants to finish the message by his resurrection from the dead. Then this can get out. That's possible. After Jesus rose from the dead, he appears to the apostle John in the island of Patmos and in Revelation 1:17-18, he says, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead and behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and the grave." Isn't that awesome? The message has been completed by Jesus' historical bodily resurrection from the dead. He also gives one final practical command. Did you notice? He told her parents to give her something to eat. I love that. “Give her something. She hasn't eaten in a while.” I just love it, this show of tender care. He cares for every aspect of life. VI. Lessons What lessons can we take from this? First, the way I couched this entire sermon was infinite power and intimate tenderness. Ponder that. Ponder both sides. It is vital for us to realize how powerful Jesus is. There is nothing he cannot do. There is no enemy we face that he cannot defeat. There is no need we have that he cannot meet. He created the universe by the word of his power and sustains it by the word of his power. That's who Jesus is. He rules the win and the waves. But instead of that making us terrified of him and distant from him, we need to see how tender he is with sinners and with little girls and with women and with weak people. He's so tender with them. “The bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” He is skillfully tender with broken people, perfectly gentle. All of his power, his ministry, his miracles, his teachings, his atonement on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, all of it is toward one end, to bring us to God. Do you know him today? Do you know him? Have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? Have you realized he shed his blood on the cross so that you would not have to burn in hell forever and ever as you would deserve to do? So would I if it weren't for the blood shed. He died the death we deserve so that we could live a life with him forever. Do you trust him? Have you trusted in him? Secondly, this theme of faith versus fear, there is a category of faithless fears that we're all plagued by in life. I've seen it a lot in COVID. I still see it sometimes. I worry about some folks. I can't judge him. I don't know. But I wonder if they're enslaved to some faithless fears. If it wasn't just COVID, it’s just in general. We're all plagued by faithless fears by that, I mean fears, we should not have, fears that faith in the word of God and Jesus should drive out. There are some fears we should have, fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom, fear of what sin might do to my life. There are certain things we should fear. But there are faithless fears, usually having to do with circumstances, things that go on in life. Are you suffering from any faithless fears today? Jesus says right in this text, "Don't be afraid. Keep on believing. Stop being afraid. Keep on believing. Bring your faith into that fear." The big lesson of this text must be Jesus' power to raise the dead. That must be the big lesson here. Death is the final enemy, and we have no answer to it. There is no pharmaceutical company, there’s no research hospital that's working on this problem of death. They may be working on not dying in this way or that way or the other way. But death itself stands over all of us. It is the final enemy. Jesus has absolute power over it. "That must be the big lesson here. Death is the final enemy, and we have no answer to it. ... It is the final enemy. Jesus has absolute power over it." Think about Revelation 1, “I hold the keys of death and the grave. I was dead, and behold, I'm alive.”Jesus claims to be able to give that power to us. He is going to raise us from the grave. As John 5 28 says, "Do not be amazed at this. A time is coming when all are in their graves will hear his voice and come out,” just like Talitha koum. He won't say that to you. But he'll say like, "Lazarus come forth," something like that. Only you'll come forth in a resurrection body never to die again. He has that power. In John 11, he says, "I am the resurrection in the life. He who believes in me will live. Even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Like he said to Martha, "Do you believe this? If you believe in Christ, he is resurrection in life.” Finally, we have a responsibility to liberate people in this area, this geographical region, from their fear of death. We have the power to do that. Jesus by his death, Hebrews 2 tells us, destroyed him who holds the power of death, the devil, so that he might liberate or set free those who all their lives are held in slavery by their fear of death. I want to say it comes in two steps. First, if they are lost, if they're dead in their transgressions and sins while they live, they ought to fear death because if they die in that condition, they will spend eternity apart from God in hell. So I want them to be afraid and then flee to Christ. As Newton said in Amazing Grace, "T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved." We get to do that with people. We get to help them to fear like they should and then say, "Jesus will relieve those fears through the gospel.” Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had to walk through incredible account. Thank you for the infinite power and the tenderness of Jesus. I pray that you'd help us to understand what this teaches us about Jesus to draw close to him. I pray for brothers and sisters who have been trusting in Christ for years, but are going through trials that they would be able to draw near to you and allow your words to drive out faithless fears. I pray, Lord, that you would strengthen each of us to be faithful to share this gospel message with people who are lost in our community, lost who need to hear of Christ. And we pray these in Jesus's name. Amen.
In todays episode, Rick and I discuss the problem with Fear within the church body, as seen by the actions of the last 2yrs and the approaching evil days. Why was the spirit of fear so prevalent in the church and why are we not raising up a generation that know how to Bind and Loose as Matthew 16:19 tells us. Bible puts it, “Whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth will have [already] been loosed in heaven.”www.ricknorrismusic.nethttps://rumble.com/vofn0t-where-has-christs-authority-gone.html?mref=ijkk3&mc=a98jb-His Books are available at:Restoration Preparing for His Fullness https://amzn.to/3k1GwvCWhen Heaven Speaks Out Loud https://amzn.to/3k1pj5vFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/rick.norris.1694 Gary Duncan 0:39 All right. Welcome back to remnant Revolution podcast with your host, Gary Duncan. I'm here again with my friend, good friend, Rick Norris. Rick is an author of a book called restoration, preparing for his fullness, and wanted to get his thoughts on where we are with the church and the world that we're living in, right in this day. And if you're listening to this five years down the road, or whatever, this is 2022 in July, and we're coming off the back end of a pandemic, per se, vaccines and all kinds of stuff going on war and in Ukraine and Russia, and just a lot of stuff in other countries in our country that are happening. And so I wanted to talk to him today, Rick, about fear. Because I know fear has been one of the things that to me, this country has been gripped with, especially the last couple of years. But even the church has been gripped in fear. And so you're, again, your book you wrote this years ago, but it is so pinpoint for where we're at right now. Everything that we're going through has some piece in that book, it seems like, give us your thoughts on that. Rick Norris 1:52 Well, you know, for someone like me, if you ask a question, like, where are we at now? It's just like, it couldn't get scattershot, I'll just try and give a panoramic view. Gary Duncan 2:05 What is your what do you see as fear? Rick Norris 2:07 Yeah, that's what I was gonna give you a pin since you started. Yeah. And you wanted to pinpoint the fear issue. And as we should, that, that's a major, major priority, much more than people realize. And the reason is, it's the only remaining weapon, if you think about it, it's the only remaining weapon that the adversary had. And we get a progress if we allow ourselves to be taught correctly. And we don't cling to the old we don't cling to the old wineskin, of going to a comfortable church and making sure that nobody's confronted with anything, nobody gets their feelings hurt, and sin is not confronted. And a new understandings of the word that are still true to the word are still rejected, because we have our status quo, or the leadership has their status quo, and they're controlling everybody, blah, blah, blah, you know, if we're if we're afraid of, in something new, it's still fear. Right? So the only weapon that Satan and his minions have left is fear. And God uses us uses that fear against us. For us, you know, he uses all the attacks of the enemy, he works at all for good, that's the way he is. That's his thing. That's just, you know, He's God. And, man, there's several chapters devoted to this when you when you think about it, but some of them are direct, some are indirect. But so the progression of our growth or maturity in Christ is supposed to be built on predicated on a revelation of the fact that our enemies are defeated. All of them. He said, Behold, I give you that means us all of us. authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and nothing shall by any means harm you. And elsewhere he said, similar things, and that word, all the power of the enemy. Over all what you know, please, whoever's listening, stop and think of that for a minute. You know, don't just brush over scriptures like this. All does not have a synonym in the original language all means all. So we have authority over all the power of the enemy, right? And it's a progressive revelation, sometimes you get a sovereign revelation of it, I had to have that. Because you know, sometimes he'll want you if he wants you to learn to swim, he'll throw you in the pool. If he wants you to learn warfare, he'll throw you in the arena. And that's what he did with me. And I had learned fast. And he was there, of course, you know, early on, boy, was he there. You read the second book, it'll blow your mind. And is Christianity is either supernatural, or it's a fairy tale. Right? So they can really get scary I've had, I know what Paul meant when he said he wrestled with demons. at Ephesus, I know exactly what he meant. And other there are other people who, you know, they might have a bent or an emphasis in their calling where they have to be on the frontlines all the time. Or a great deal of the time. Usually intercessors, mature intercessors will break through and suddenly they're dealing with principality. And I want to come back to I'm headed somewhere with this answer. It's not the scenic route, it's definitely important for us to understand. And so we get this progressive revelation of the fact that we're fighting a defeated foe, but there's so as you progress, and as you get deeper into the Lord, and as the supernatural, you get, you start getting your breakthroughs and the gifts start happening and the miracles start happening and stuff like that you're a bigger threat to the kingdom of darkness, and they're gonna break out the big guns. And the big guns still only have fear. So I've had them show up in the most heinous manifestations you can imagine. Most people, you know, some people have heart attack. Some people just pee their pants, and run seriously. Gary Duncan 7:11 And do but most people actually even see that Rick Norris 7:14 well, they don't press in far enough to be a threat. They're too afraid. That's the point. Right? We we've allowed? Well, okay, I'll give you an example. I was saving this. Because I was Lee, I was headed there, I better cut to the chase. I'll give you an example. Example of where that progressive revelation of how defeated our foes are and how endowed we are. That's the other thing. We're blessed with all spiritual blessings. I mean, you could sit and meditate on that for days. What all spiritual blessings we don't even know that's eternally big. And it's going to take eternity to step into that and understand it. But so here's a picture, if you will, this actually happened to, and I'm sorry, I can't remember if it's Spurgeon or Luther, one of the early preachers that came out of, you know, stepped away from the Vatican and got persecuted. He was in jail for preaching the gospel in a place he wasn't supposed to. And he was asleep facing the wall. and an evil so powerful that, you know, it's you can't hardly describe it, it was glowing evil, you know, emanating evil, and it was so palpable and powerful in the cell. He was in that it woke him up and he rolled over and looked and here was the, again the most heinous manifestation, fangs drooling picture, the scariest, you know, demon face, whatever you could come up with. And he rolled over and he looked at it, Oh, it's you. And he rolled over and went back to sleep. Now, what does it take to get a revelation of the fact that you know when Satan obviously that was Satan himself. And that shows how important that man's destiny was because Satan is not omnipresent. Right? So he singled this guy out of all the people on the planet to try and scare away that but but my point is this. The man again, I think it might have been Luther now I dug on it. I embarrassed it. I can't remember which one is so many church fathers. I've studied out there. And some of them really got some testimony, man you don't hear about Got a bit Whoa. Anyway. So he, he knew that this was this was a scare tactic. And this was the last ditch, last best effort. So it was really he was saying sorry, we're out of candy, they're triggered treat. Sorry, we're out of candy and I don't play. Gary Duncan 10:21 So it's more about identity and understanding your place in your identity. I mean, I think back about, you know, if we lived in King Arthur's day, and we're the son of the king, you know, the prestige and the power that we would yield because of our father. How that how different that would be, or if you were coming to a king, and you're not of the king, but you're coming to him? Because you have treated somebody poorly. And the king didn't like it. Can you imagine the difference? The difference is gonna, it's there. I mean, the think thought about that many times you feel what when we say, King, we can Americans? We can't, we can't really picture that. A monarchy. Yeah, because we're not we didn't grow up in that and all that kind of stuff. But I mean, we see the movies with kings and King Arthur, and all this gladiators and all that. But when you really think about, okay, get down to the nitty gritty of it. There is some power behind the authority of that King. And so if we're the Son of God, and he's our King and our Lord, then it seems that we need to understand how our, the way we act, and then we're how we treat each other and how we walk on this earth should reflect that. But I don't see that at least in myself, I don't know, I'm sure. You just don't see that, in general, from the church from Christians, because we don't really get our identity. If we did, we would walk in that power all the time. Rick Norris 12:13 The real, the Yes. And the real word is authority. The power behind the authority is another issue. And there's another word when it says, you know, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. That's a different word from power. That's its cause, which means the original Greek as is coos, which means, you know, the full fullness of the might of God, which is, you know, we can't even remotely get our head around that but but that gives you an idea how powerful those words are. And of course, you we've heard sermon after sermon and teaching about, I heard when yesterday about dunamis. You know, the power word dunamis in the original language, which we get dynamite from, but the other word that gets kind of ignored, is Kratos. Kratt, tosses dominion. Now, we are kind of tangent here. But it's not really a tangent because the authority of the believer is the issue. And you're right, if we had a full revelation, of who we are in Christ, and and what was delegated to us, which is his sword. It's his sword, the sword of the of the living God is in our mouth. When we bring, you know, whatever we buy, he says whatsoever things you, that you folks, that's us, you bind right on earth shall be bound in heaven. He said that Jesus said that, he said, What's your things you? That's you that's us, loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And so yeah, our identity is a big part of that. And nowadays we have, at least well, I would say we have two generations now. that have not been taught spiritual warfare. That's why I wrote the first book, restoration, preparing for his fullness. Now, if you think of the subtitle preparing for his fullness, what think about that, you know, and I know I say this a lot, but you put the fullness of God in somebody and they're not ready for it. Right? They'll short circuit and either puff up and start the first church or what's happening now. obey me, or self destruct with, you know, any number of grandiose projects that God didn't ordain. So, you know, we have to be prepared to walk in that. But even before we get to fullness which we're not even close, I don't think so. But we, if you'll notice, take heart. Because the people that Jesus said that too, I'd send you out, you know, among wolves. And he said, you know, what's everything's you I give you authority, whatever things you bind, our nerves should be bound in heaven. They came back member, they were rejoined. They said, Lord, even the spirits are subject to us now. And he says, Now, don't get hung up on that. Now, was Gary Duncan 15:47 it the 77 777? It went out? Rick Norris 15:52 Yeah. And and they said, uh, we, you know, even though he said, Don't get hung up on that. I mean, we got people all over the country saying, Oh, I have a deliverance ministry. I've started the new big deal, deliverance ministry. Well, no, you don't have a deliverance ministry, you have ministry. And the demons are subject to you don't get hung up on that. And you've made it a big deal. Because when you were young, you cast out a demon or two, he said, these signs shall follow them that believe that can mean a child. If a child has a revelation of the authority, which I've seen him, do it and healing, God will use the foolish things of the world to confound the so called wise, right. But, you know, he said, Don't get hung up on that, because he knew we were going to, you know, start the first deliverance, big deal thingy, you know, we just can't help ourselves, we have to find an identity and be somebody. It's just, that's not what ministry is, Jesus left the throne of the universe, and came down and allowed himself to be humiliated, over and over, and then ultimately humiliated at the cross and mutilated. You know, he was greatest among us serves the rest. So that's all I'm gonna say about, like, for us, we say it's all sorry, but not for us. Because we're, you know, identity is only part of the equation here. And one of the chapters in my book is know your enemy. Right? If you know how your enemy thinks, you know, how your enemy operates, you know, there are subtle without that you don't have any advantage. Gary Duncan 17:48 But some people would say, Well, I don't want to focus on the negative. Rick Norris 17:52 Well, sure, and that's fine. Too much attention on the devil. But what I understand and that I hear that kind of dunghill all the time, right. And the and the fact of the matter is, is that's not what I'm doing what I'm trying to say is all he has is fear. I was going somewhere and that is his arsenal is all about the Boogeyman. And he Yes, he can physically manifest stuff. I a lot of that stuff that you see that have real which not one of those, you know, want to be witches, but a full on real grand witch or Warlock that's been at it, their astral projecting they're levitating. They're doing all kinds of stuff. That's by the power of Satan. And it's real, because he's a counterfeit. Well, yeah, well, no, he was given power. And you know, the gifts and callings that Gods are without Gary Duncan 18:50 repent. Everything he does is like the opposite of what God? Well, yeah, of course. So he's like, I heard it the other day. Somebody was saying these. The devil has his own Trinity. Rick Norris 19:03 Yeah, he mimics everything God does. Gary Duncan 19:05 Yeah. So he's got his own train. He's got the he's got off guy. But it was interesting. I was like, oh, never thought about, hey, mimics everything. It's got his demons. He's got himself as the Grandmaster and as witches and stuff on it. Rick Norris 19:21 So but the point is, it's real and people get, you know? Well, let me let me Gary Duncan 19:29 believe it's real. They just think it's Marvel movies and DC movies. Rick Norris 19:32 Well, they kind of do or some are that far gone. Some are just as far gone. But in a different slant. It's more subtle, and that's where we get into trouble. Let me share an example what I mean by that. I recently was asked the to join a prayer team. That is the elite of the elite intercessors supposed to be in a high place in In the city. And when I say high place, literally, you can see all of the midsection of the state. And, and I got there. And I've always wondered to so many promises over the that region, I was always wondering, why is it still being held back? Right? Well, I get there and I find out, God tells me shows me plainly that the high places still matter, not because they matter to him or matter in the spirit to us, but because they matter to the evil ones. Because there is when Satan fell, I mean, when mankind fell, and when the angels who followed Satan fell, we all inherited Satan's God sized ego. And they especially because they were sons of God, whatever that meant, then are meant meant meant for them. You know, the fallen ones, it's in their genesis, right? That they, you know, they had power before they were worshipped in heaven. To some degree, not like, you know, our God, the Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, but there was something like that going on even even Satan was it was glorious beyond where he was the covering. He was the glory over and canopy over the throne of God. That's how he got puffed up. I mean, you know, he was in charge. He was a rock star in heaven. He was the big deal. Right? As far as appearance goes, but he was a little creative being you know, he just didn't know that. Or he forgot. But my point is this. I get there. And and I'm doing this kind of like a my first time out with this crew. And it's really, really young people. Unknown Speaker 22:01 Millennials that because you're really really old. Older. Rick Norris 22:08 Yeah, I'm a relic. Yeah, yeah, I'm a relic. So I was there with in the Jesus people days with, you know, the likes of Keith melody Green. And, you know, back in the day with all the Jesus bands, and everybody, and a lot of those folks are friends. And so but anyway, so I'm old. And but that's not the point. The point is, when you're old, you know, stuff. And when I was young, I knew stuff. It's just I couldn't handle that kind of knowledge, they got puffed up and went sideways. God had to bring me back in. That's why I call seminary cemetery, because knowledge really does puff people talk about your rabbit trail. But so the point is, they said, well, we don't do binding and loosing here. Now this is the high places. And when Satan fell to the earth, he didn't eat, they set up in the second heaven. We've shared this. I've shared this many times. This is in both books. But the second heaven is where they set up because they could block this prayers of the saints going forward and prolong the inevitable, which we're coming up on. He's going to be judged, so he knows it. But, and I'll wrap this up, they said we don't do binding and loosing here. This is the one place it should be done. Because when you're praising when you're binding, and you're losing, you're coming against the powers and principalities, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. And they said, well, we don't believe you're supposed to be going after the principalities and powers because they're the big deal. And you'll stir things up. It'll, it'll get messy. They literally said that. And my jaw dropped. And I had a person that came with me. And I didn't say anything to that person. And later they called and said, I can't believe it. Well, now I know why the strongholds. Remember. Paul said, we're tearing down the strongholds and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and what certain things you bind on earth and buy down in heaven? Why would he say heaven? What is binding here have to do with binding in heaven? And why did David say when I send the heavens were like brass. Right? There's a lot of little hints and pictures, you spin up time to where you start to put this thing together. And so and they're saying, No, we don't want to stir up any problems. That's like, Okay. The first time one of them came to me before and I did I realized that he was being coached later, but he came in he said, Look, man, we had people coming in here, trying to take over Same with this binding and loosing thing. And we don't want to do any of that because you're stirring stuff up. And even, you know, we don't want we've had enough problems and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So fear he's Yeah. And I said, I said, I said, and he's, you know, 2425 Maybe. And he said, and I said, You know what you call that he was what? I said, Fear. And he stopped. He couldn't say anything, because he's got a good heart harder goal. And he's just kind of looked around, he went, you know, it caught him completely flat footed. And I said, you know, we son, you got to get some skin on. We're in a war. Whether you fight or not, you're gonna get shot right out of the saddle. If you don't stand up and fight. So you're in a war, Satan hates your guts and wants to kill you. And he's saying, well, we don't want to fight back because we don't want them to be angry with it. It's kind of like the woke crowd. Right? Well, don't be islamophobe. Gary Duncan 26:03 Let's still speak truth. Yeah, let's get yelled at. Rick Norris 26:07 Yeah, let's not be an Islamophobe. To the terrorist, because they might get mad. Gary Duncan 26:15 Yeah, well, no. And that's a real fear. I mean, I remember years ago, when they were really the ISIS and everything was going on. And it's like, somebody and I think Europe, England, wrote just did a comic and they firebomb their, their building. And it's like, that's the there's a reason they call it terrorists. But if you think about, you know, how many churches would stand up and speak truth about Islam? I don't think none of them would, because they don't have the backbone to do it. Yeah. Because the fear that Islam has perpetuated within society, and they'll just kill you. Rick Norris 26:58 Yeah. And the fear of rejection of those around them that are so mushy, Gary Duncan 27:03 right, because we're trying to give a good witness. We want to be a good witness for Jesus. And we don't want to project meanness or the truth, which might offend them. Rick Norris 27:13 Yeah. That's all predicated on fear. Gary Duncan 27:17 What do you mean, I can't speak truth. Yeah. No, and that's kind of where we've, we've come out of the last two years is this fear mongering of a of a cold that developed and it turned into something big because nobody wanted to use simple solutions. They wanted to push an agenda. A boy did and now that now we've got vaccines that do the same thing. Yeah. And I mean, I was just that was looking at some people yesterday, I mean, they were two years later, okay. And we've got 20 Somethings still walk around with masks. So I'm like, dude, Rick Norris 27:59 well, and the, you know, the mainstream media I don't know how they have continued to be have any credibility at all. Because it's so blatant what they're doing. They've become an extension of CCP and the who and the NH now national health institution Gary Duncan 28:21 is to be system the whole system are part of that's it. Rick Norris 28:25 Yeah. And there really is a cabal and I like somebody the other day said, I'm gonna have to get some new conspiracy theories because all my other true all the other ones came through. I love that. This that's a whacked our world is this stuff's really happening. Gary Duncan 28:44 And it's all it's all pepper. Dee Dee. It's all Rick Norris 28:50 perpetuated. There Gary Duncan 28:52 you go. It's all perpetuated on fear. Oh, predicate, predicate, predicate all built on fear. Yeah. And, I mean, I'm affected by there's things that I won't say or do because I'm fearful. I haven't broke through that level yet. But my biggest, you know, my biggest issue has been about how the church went through this whole thing. And, you know, it's, it's just over fear. It's fear of turning people away offending people, because we're not wearing masks during the time that all the higher beings are telling us to wear masks and, and, you know, all this kind of the more think about how we didn't, how we shut down and closed up. And there was nobody bold enough with courage to stand up who there was one or two. Yeah, in my city, there was one or two to stand up and just say, No, you know, we're not shutting down. We never shut our doors. We've been through wars and we've never showed doors. But if you want to come to or you can come if you don't want to come to church, you can stay at church, you know, at home, we will have a zoom, but we're gonna have in service no matter what. And that's not a Western thing. That's that's a God ordained thing that we're to gather. Does it is there anywhere in the Bible tells us not to gather out of fear? That we might catch a cold or catch a virus? Or, Rick Norris 30:22 or and Don't? Don't? Don't battle the principalities because they might get upset at you? Yeah, he might Gary Duncan 30:31 just wonder where in the Bible does it tell us to not assemble, to worship Him and to edify the church when the Bible doesn't say for us not to symbol, and that anywhere, anywhere? I mean, if people are listening, and you can find it in the Bible, please. Yeah, it's not there. So. So why would we do it now? Rick Norris 30:56 Why did we do it? Yeah. Well, it's fear. Yeah, that's unambiguous. But Gary Duncan 31:00 I'm showing because I talk about that. I want to I want to get answers. I want to hear reasoning and understanding of why do we do that? And they have yet to hear churches repent because of that. Yeah. We're even having a discussion about Rick Norris 31:14 Yep. Yep. And that's, that's why I have several chapters dedicated to the fear factor. In fact, that's the name of one of the chapters, the fear factor, all right, because that which is not a faith is sin. And faith is the opposite, exact opposite of fear. And vice versa, obviously, so. So we have the here we have coming back to that experience I just had recently with those young folks well, because they were never taught true spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare for them as Oh, Lord, just bless what's his name? And, and what's your name and cause them to, to come to know you more deeply and, and Kumbaya. That, you know, they might sing some praise, which is always good, because, you know, praise inhabits the praises of his people, he isn't thrown on the praises of His people. I recently was walking down, driving down 14th Street, and well, it doesn't matter where I live and cast a demon out of a young man. I mean, one of the most dramatic changes in human being before and after. Gary Duncan 32:39 That's the one where you screaming out the window. Yeah, I love to see that. Rick Norris 32:44 Oh, it was amazing. And the changes what was amazing. I mean, I've seen a great deal of that in my life. Because it's just part of my calling, and it's not all deliverance ministry, it just, you know, whatever, you know, we're also these signs shall follow them that bully in my name, they will cast out demons. All right, people are afraid to step out into this isn't that fear? In my name, Jesus said this, they will cast out demons, right. If you believe that middle cast out demons will speak with new tongues. You know, Gary Duncan 33:21 laying drink, poison will not harm you. Yeah, Rick Norris 33:24 you'll lay hands on the sick, they shall recover, and so on. So, so here's Gary Duncan 33:29 what was that just for the Jews that wasn't for Gentile. Rick Norris 33:33 So, and, and people I literally have people all times that will I just don't believe that? Well, I just tell them say, well, it's not for you. You know, it says it. It's for those who believe those who believe in my name. Those who believe Yeah, and if you don't believe, I'm sorry, you're out of luck. You just don't get them. You know, and they'll turn around, you know, the next week and say, you know, I can't understand why I don't have any miracles in my life. What? You know, but anyway, so that's a little bit of a humorous tangent, Gary Duncan 34:05 for those that believe humorous, but it's just, you know, for those who believe, but fear, I believe it. But I'm gonna, I'm not walking around, casting demons out. And well, Rick Norris 34:21 that's another subject Pete, you can appropriate that kind of power. That's the other thing that nobody's getting taught. And then another reason why I wrote that book. There's, I've had three people come to me on occasions, and say, I've been in the church for 40 years. Right? And I'm repeating this for a reason, because it's so appropriate to what you just said. And they'll say I, you know, I've never even had a prophetic word, a vision, much less a miracle or a healing or cast out a demon. What am I doing wrong? And these are people that you know, really want God and really are seeking God? Or they wouldn't have asked for one thing? I said when's the last time I asked him to rhetorical questions when the last time you spent three hours praying in tongues? All right. And by the way, if you're one of those people that doesn't believe in tongues, go do some homework. It's an idiom, praying in the Spirit is not what the liberal theologians have tried to play it down to be it's an idiom from the first century, it means praying in tongues. And and it says right there in the word, do not despise praying and tongue. So are prophesying, which is another idiom, but we won't go into that. So now Gary Duncan 35:47 our gun at Paul said that Paul was telling us, yeah, you know, he'd rather pray I'd rather prophesy than Rick Norris 35:57 Well, that's yeah, no, that's a different question. Correct? What's the kind of stuff that does quote to you when you say that? And it's a mis representation of the context, you know, you're taking it out of context, the context there that you just mentioned is, hey, if you're going to stand up and give a word in tongues, you better have an interpretation. Or you're out of order, because the idea is to edify the bride. And if if everybody was to get the interpretation, that'd be fine. But I've never seen that happen. I've seen interpretations, many times back, and especially back in the day, but not so much these days. But and that's part of the plan. Some Gary Duncan 36:39 of them say, well, that's not for the church. That was that was just for back then. And now that's Rick Norris 36:43 denominational. Yeah, that's John MacArthur's Gary Duncan 36:45 that way. Rick Norris 36:45 And, well, there's a lot of old school denominations that believe they've had to say that because their theologians that went to cemetery, as I call it, started playing games with the words because they didn't have that in their life. So they had to find a way to justify the fact that that wasn't in their life. It's Christianity, again, is either supernatural, or it's a fairy tale. And if you haven't broken through it to the point where you're starting to get into the miraculous that and be a threat to the darkness, so it manifests, and all and you can deal with that and bind all that. If you haven't had miracles in your life, if you haven't had the gifts manifest in your life wins is coming back to what I was saying. In all three cases, I said when's the last time I came it down, brought it down to one thing, when's the last time you spent one hour praying in tongues? That's all you did. And and, and they said, I've never done that. And I said, try that and get back to me. And shortly thereafter, they had a breakthrough. And into the supernatural was like something happened that they knew was supernatural. And it was for them so that they would do and it was incentive to encourage them to make the time. See, we're not supposed to take the time to do this. We're supposed to make the time to do this. Gary Duncan 38:10 Even Jesus said, you know, about those 70 that came back or, you know, some things only happen because of prayer and fasting and fasting. Yeah, that's a tough one for me. We're gonna have to do a podcast on fasting because I like to eat. Rick Norris 38:27 Okay, err, hands on my ears, la La, la, la, la, la, la, la. Yeah, no, I don't want to talk about that. So I'm kidding. Of course. Yeah. It's, it's tough at my age, and I have, you know, dealing with the effects of carbohydrates at my age. And so, you know, fasting is really, Gary Duncan 38:50 you know, prayer and fasting and praying in tongues as prayer. Yeah. Yeah. So, Rick Norris 38:56 okay, so what are we in? We're talking about spiritual warfare. And how fear negates it. Fear will allow the adversary to come in and kick your butt. All right. So why did why did he say prayer and fasting? Well, it's an actually an act of violence. And, and the Lord said, Remember the word says the kingdom of God suffers violent and violent men take it by force. Gary Duncan 39:30 Yeah, explain that because I always get a little bit confused because I'm thinking the enemy is the violent one and the violent take it by storm but yeah, speak to that a little reason Rick Norris 39:40 you think your brain goes there? Yeah. Is because the what you've been taught and not taught the back of back page of my first book, it addresses that in a basically a rebuke and it's a rebuke mostly to leadership. I know that sounds heavy, but I feel called to rebuke leadership. Because we aren't we have two generations that are anemic. And the devil is handing them their butt and popping the bag and eating their lunch arrive with all those cliches. And the reason is, is there. They didn't teach them the other side of who Jesus is. Jesus is not squeamish about drawing a sword, or drawing blood and we have no concept of that part of him Gary Duncan 40:33 or chocolates, chocolate soldiers. per day. Rick Norris 40:38 Yeah. Well, and so the devil comes in and, and he, he's not like us, he always knows what he's gonna get, like a box of chocolate soldier, and he's gonna eat Yeah. Right. So unless you stand up and fight, you know, and what's funny is about those young people that told me, you know, I, that we don't do binding and loosing because it stirs up trouble. That's an indication that you realize that there's a real supernatural effect in the spirit realm. Hello, right. So wake up to what you're saying. And they'll say, Well, yeah, but you know, we're, what it is, here's an example. I'm gonna have to say, this is gonna go, this is gonna make some folks upset. Well, I'll tell you what, I won't use his name out of love and respect. Because we all make mistakes. He's gone. Now. It was a man that a prophet, you know, some call them the problem is a lot of self proclaimed prophets out there these days. And he wrote a book, and that claimed, and I'm not even gonna use the title of a whale, maybe? Well, the title of the book was needless casualties. Right? And his premise was, well, you don't want to fight against the big boys. You know, don't fight against the, you know, the principalities and stuff, because I mean, they're just too big for us. And he does it in, you know, subtle ways. But that's the premise. And the fact of the matter is, is only one area that I agree with him on that, and that's if you're right out of the box, you're a brand new baby Christian, you don't, you know, you might start to get a revelation of the authority of God and you go out and pick a fight with something that four out of your weight class, you could get in trouble. Now, I've also seen God intervene. In my life, I was a brand new baby Christian and three of my friends took me out in the vehicle in the boonies to have a debate. And, and they were seducing me. I mean, they were actually good. You know, Hey, man, like, you know, they were like, into the new age and drugs and everything. You can Yeah, man. God's cool. You know, you can like have both worlds. And, and, and you can get in and God was showed up defendant and nearly took that vehicle apart. The girls were screaming stuff that's in my second book. I didn't share some of that stuff for 50 years, because I didn't want to end up in a funny farm. You know, miracles of biblical proportion in my life. And it's only because of these revelations, not because I'm all that, not because I'm spiritual and special. Or it's just, you know, in fact, he, Rick rhymes with thick. He had to work me over man. I spent so much time in the wilderness. I got some friends in California that call me the park ranger. So the bottom line is, these kids were saying that we don't want to battle against the principalities and powers because they're too big in them. We don't want to bind and loose because it'll stir stuff up. Well, Paul says, we don't battle against anybody else. That's exactly what we are battling. We battle against powers, principalities, and spiritual wickedness darkness in heavenly places. Well, the question is, what is spiritual wickedness doing and heavenly breezes? And why are we told to tear down the strongholds? And why does it say that the principalities are already defeated? Right. Well, I have people say, Well, where does it say that? Well, it says in Ephesians. Also in Ephesians, it says, Having disarmed Are you listening folk, Having disarmed Prince abou apologies? Look at the wording there, you know, and powers. He made a public spectacle of them. triumphing over them in it. That's Ephesians. All right. So what that depicts is, you know, when a king would conquer another king and back in the day, they would put them in chains and marching through the streets of the town to show their victory. And so that's what that's alluding to, you know, Jesus openly publicly shamed. Satan and his minions defeated them utterly, completely. Hello. Sound like I'm preaching here. And so, so they're saying, we don't want to fight the principalities. And that's the very ones that we're supposed to be fighting. And they're disarmed. Having disarmed principalities and powers. Right? So but they have some power. So they'll show up and, and scary it, you know. And if you if you're like most folks, your hair stands up, get goosebumps all over again, you can't hardly move. Gary Duncan 46:03 The thing that I'm seeing, I mean, I'm not seeing demons flying around and all this kind of stuff. I'm seeing people that are demon eyes, that are attacking us. Rick Norris 46:15 best weapon. That's, Gary Duncan 46:16 that's the thing. We're in a culture right now that I was listening to. Yeah, I was just listening to a Senate hearing. Just a clip of it, where Senator Holly was interviewing some some woman. I'm listening to it. And it's so basically it means if you have any disagreement with my belief that people drank chant transgender people. Rick Norris 47:36 Oh, that Congressman was yes. Oh Gary Duncan 47:39 my gosh, it was like he's like, Ma'am, are you saying that? Are Rick Norris 47:43 you insane? Gary Duncan 47:44 Are you Yeah, it was crazy. And it was like, You have no argument against them. You can't say anything? Or else you'll be labeled as a terrorist a bigot transpose transphobic. Wow, that is such fear that she was propagating to him which he was going to take. Yeah, just a normal person totally exposed. Oh, guy did but but that that's just a subtleness of what Rick Norris 48:09 this defining subtle, it's so stupid. Well, yeah. Insane. She Gary Duncan 48:13 was just a total idiot. Yeah. But she was possessed had to be possessed, because of the ludicrous of what she was saying. Yeah. And so looking at that they're using that ludicrous see, to put fear in people's hearts to just even to a question. Yeah. Did God really make man and woman? Yeah, even the question. And what was interesting, and I'll go off track here for saying, we went and saw the newest Thor movie. And, and I'm sitting there watching this, and this really, you know, demonic looking guy, the bad guy, of course, you know, you got your good guy and your bad guy, your evil eye. And it was all about how the gods really didn't care about the minions. The people. Yeah. And I thought sounds like politics. And so it was really this guy is up and won't tell the story. Because people probably me if you see those movies, fine. But it was saying that God's and so you could just take that and go, the God, Jehovah, Jesus God, the Holy Spirit. You could take that and replace it with what this movie is preaching. Or, you know, fantasizing about is that you can't trust Gods because they won't take care of you. Yeah, they'll let your children die. And they'll let this happen. And he went on a war war page to kill all the gods. And I thought Hollywood, Hollywood likes to mimic what they believe. So is Hollywood, trying to implant in people's minds, of course, that God will not take care of you. God does not like you he lets you perish. And because the God that set this whole thing up in the movie He was was a real jerk, you know? And this guy was worshipping this God all the way to his last breath. And then when he met the guy in heaven wherever that the God just laughed it. So it's like, oh, I can see how Hollywood would do that. Yep. Anything against God so that just that, you know setting up well against God. Yeah. So anyway that mean that's the way I was thinking as I was watching the movie and, you know, improperly reinforcing the reinforcing what they believe Rick Norris 50:32 the fear, the fear the insecurity is Gary Duncan 50:35 but if you're not paying attention to what the enemy is doing, you don't know your enemy, you're not going to realize that they're trying to implant fear into your heart while you're being entertained. And some people say, Well, why do you even waste your time and go to those movies? I asked myself that question a lot. Why don't I entertain myself? Rick Norris 50:56 Yeah, I, I don't I had to get away from television and movies and stuff, because I really enjoy a good one. Now that all of that is coming back to what you were talking about is predictive programming. That's what that's cool. And it's always been there. It started with Fantasia Fantasia was the first real animated Big Deal production. Gary Duncan 51:21 Now you're getting into conspiracies? Rick Norris 51:24 Yeah. Well, I have a new one, like I said, because the other ones all came true. Gary Duncan 51:29 In case six, I'll it early, Rick Norris 51:34 all that stuff happening, man. What anyway, so we got to stay on track. Because what's happening right now is we have two generations that have not been taught that Jesus has a sword in his hand. And when He returns, he returned, it says he will. The Lord comes with fire. And every man's work will be every man work will be tested. Right? This is real. And, and the so you know, read Isaiah 30 You know, the voice of the Lord comes from afar bring in his anger and his Furies and it's like a turret torrent of fire up to the neck. You look at the Hebrew there, it's amazing. And he's bringing his sifting the nations in his seeds of death, see the destruction but isn't that the old guy and but right in the middle of that I want you to bring me back to them. Very important. Right in the middle of the most fire and brimstone you know, scriptures in probably the Bible, but definitely Isaiah, right in the middle of it says but you will have a song as in the night when one goes to the mountain of the Lord for a festival with a flute and joy of heart. And then it goes back and the Lord's gonna burn all of us in your back into this, you know, fire damnation and he's gonna, you know, do all this and that and judge the nations and fury and blah, blah, blah. And then it says an everywhere that the rod of His punishment passes will be to the sound of stringed instruments, and timbrels. So there's your praise and worship element again. He inhabits the praises of His people remember in that one battle in Israel, where they went, they said, you know, send in the Levites singing, you know, singing, His mercy endures forever. Well, I know I'm a veteran, I know a little bit about combat, you don't send singers in against even small arms. Because small arms are moving about 2300 feet per second. And when they go through, I had a buddy that got shot through the hand and he was in shock, of course. And he looked it was daylight right through the middle of his hand. And it was smoking. You know, that's how hot those rounds are. Right? It was smoking. And so you the point is we are we're in a war. I can't really it's so hard for me. It's so frustrating, because I can't make people understand the reality of where we are now. You said something a second ago Gary Duncan 54:43 about Well, that was the old god. Okay. Yeah, this is really what we're talking about Jesus, Rick Norris 54:47 this is really important. And this again, is in the first book and very, very important. Alright, so this is, this is a real Your eye opener and I know we're going long, but it's so important. Alright, so who is the real Jesus? Right? He's a priest and a king. We've been taught till we're blue in the face about the priests because that's comfortable. And love. It's safe. It's safe, and it's loving. And it's comfortable. And it's don't offend anybody that and unless they're in the temple doing making it all about Gary Duncan 55:30 money makes it everybody feel good? Yeah. Rick Norris 55:33 So okay, so they'll say, Well, why do you why do you always teach about this warfare thing? Well, I don't, I most often don't. But now we're at a crisis point, because we have a war, an onslaught of Satan, a defeated enemy that everybody's afraid of. And it's a wave. It's like a tsunami coming out of hell on the earth right now. And Christians are clueless, they don't know they can bind. They can defend themselves, they can defend their families, they can defend their church, they can bind it and render that stuff powerless. They have no clue. And they get a little pain right here and the demon starts whispering in their ear and they buy into like all kinds of diseases and sickness and it's real. This is how we operate. Now it's it says in Scripture, the spiritual rock that led them in the wilderness was Christ. That that hang for a minute, I'll repeat it. The spiritual rock rock of ages remember that song? The spiritual rock that led them in the wilderness? Right? Was Christ. Okay, so here we Gary Duncan 56:56 are Old Testament. Yeah, that's the Old Rick Norris 56:58 Testament. I mean, I mean, the account is in is in Hebrews. But it's saying the word of God the Bible's that that was Christ leading them in the wilderness, or what did he lead them to do? Everything from warfare to genocide. So he's, he's a warrior's warrior. That's why he said, You asked David, hey, what do you do? I kill people. What? Well, I'm a soldier. I mean, just what Gary Duncan 57:33 God Yes. Like, how do they reconcile? Rick Norris 57:35 And, and so I'll lose my train of thought. Gary Duncan 57:40 I'll lose my do. Rick Norris 57:42 We always do this one retired. So, so this, so the spirit, you know, what I'm trying to say is, he's a warrior. And we don't know that side of him at all. Right? So why would he leave? Why would Jesus Jesus meek and mild, right? lead somebody to, you know, nail, an entire culture, you know, do what is the equivalent today of genocide? Well, the reason was, is because those cultures were part of the Nephilim bloodline. We don't know about that. Member. Well, when the spies went in, they said, they're giants in the land. So there's the there's the confirmation, all those cultures were tainted with the blood of the Nephilim were the sons of God went into the daughters of man's son of God means the Fallen One. If you do some real heavy homework, you'll find the word Anunnaki. In the earliest gret early cultures, and that word means the Fallen month. So they when they had sex, they weren't supposed to have sex with women because they weren't of human full human origin. Had I don't know how to put that. Yeah, we don't really understand that they were angels. They were angels, and many ways not entirely. Meaning there had to be some, some other stuff going on there. But I, I don't know how that work. Gary Duncan 59:12 You were there mixing they mixed to namely different species species. Rick Norris 59:17 Yes. So. So here, you have women that are having babies that grew up to be giants, some, you know, the Smithsonian keeps hiding the bones, but the cats out of the bag there too. Now, you know, some are like 15 to 20 feet tall. And we you know, they're they were all over North America and all that and I won't get into all that. But you do enough archeological homework on that issue. And it's overwhelming evidence is just that they keep. They don't want to have anything that would mess with the vindicate the biblical narrative. So they started that early, really early. All of a sudden, all those bones they had just disappeared. All right. That's why they won't let them dig up the mounds, those big mounds in wherever that is Ohio. I think it is. Because they'll just oh, well, that's sacred ground for the American Native. That's not American Native grant. Even the American natives say that's not ours. And, um, but they won't let them go in there. That's a bit of a tangent also. But the point is conspiracy. Yeah. Oh, there's another conspiracy thing, conspiracy alert. And that, and that cats out of the bag, the evidence, is there empirical evidence. So anyway, the reason I share that is because that's why he had those cultures eradicated. Because they were that bloodline was demonic. The bloodline was actually going to was an attempt of the adversary to take the worldwide bloodline, so there wouldn't be a bloodline like marriage. It was preempted. And so anyway, I won't go into that, except that people say, Well, that's an exception to the rule. Well, not really, because if you want to see the Jesus, the same Jesus in the New Testament, you can go to the letters to what was not Smyrna. One of the seven letters like right now, I can't remember which one of the seven letters to the churches is Jesus speaking? You ask people, What is the book of Revelation about, oh, man, it's about like prophesy, and in times and stuff? No, it's a revelation of Jesus Christ. And those other things, he's showing what's going to happen in the process. And there's a lot of breaking it down, well, how it's going to happen. Bring me back to the white horse. And I'll share some of that. And I guess we'll have several pots, again, but it's important stuff. So you want to see that same Jesus, that is the spiritual rock that led them in the wilderness. Look at the seven letters. He says to one of the churches, in one of the letters, he says, I, you know, He commends him a little bit, but then he says, But I have this against you, that you have allowed this Jezebel in your church. And she's a witch, by the way, Jezebel is a witch. And it's a it's a controlling spirit that's rampant in all just about every church. And we're unaware of it. People, you know, it's like, doesn't mean church lady, it usually is, but it can mean just as easily. There's a guy with control issues, it becomes a demonic stronghold, and lot of your really big churches where there's a lot of accountability, function, technically function like a call. Because if you stand up, go, hey, you know, your scripture here wasn't quite lining up with, you know, something in the Word. They'll they'll blacklist you running out of dodge. Right. And I won't go into that. Gary Duncan 1:03:15 Yeah, that's another podcast. Yeah. Rick Norris 1:03:16 But here's the deal. Gary Duncan 1:03:19 Oh, fear? Well, that's Rick Norris 1:03:21 what I'm saying is that we fear that Jesus is a little more monarch than we care for. He scares us. And we worry about him being arbitrary. That's us doing using a big word, anthropomorphizing. We're projecting human attributes on the God. Right. But that's not who he is. He's He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And part of them is the soldier Warren King. We've never been taught because it's uncomfortable. And so here we find Jesus saying, Okay, you have that Jezebel, I'm going to throw her on a bed of sickness. Wait a minute. You know, one minute he's raising them off a Betta sickness next minute, he's throwing them on one. Right? And he says that I will kill her children with death. That's Jesus speaking, folks. Now, the reason you never heard that is because it's uncomfortable. And not a pastor out here wants to jeopardize his budget. And there's a few that are bold. But and truthful, true to the word. Now you say Well, Jesus would never kill children. Well, again, remember what he did when he led them in the wilderness? Well, these children from Jezebel are the Jew direct, demonic and or satanic progeny. They are the children of the devil. She's in the devil's bed. spiritually. She is a Any guy, any guy in the church that she happened to have sex with? Is that progeny? That child is got, technically spiritually 50% Demon bloodline, say, Satan's bloodline, because she's a full blown dedicated, blood sacrificed. In other words, she's like necromancy, and I hate to use that word, but I mean, it's it's a gross as it gets, but she has given herself totally over to Satan and death and is a plant, if you will, she's a spy from hell. So, and there's bunches of that in the churches and nobody's even as a clue, man. But the point is, Jesus is not afraid to do warfare, and he hates fear. And to wrap us up on fear. In Revelation, I believe it's 21 He lists who's going to the lake of fire. Right, and it's the usual suspects. adulterers, idolaters, liar, liars. You know, extortion or pervert. And what's the first hint right in the middle of that? Yeah, right. Even at the front of that is an all cowards and fearful. I wanted that to soak in for a sec. All the cowardly and fearful will be in the lake of fire with that other lineup. Those other characters. Wait a minute, what? So that's how much God hates fear. And the reason he hates fear is it is the exact demonic opposite. It of faith, it's faith in the devil. Gary Duncan 1:07:01 Because he didn't give us a spirit of fear. Right? Yeah. So if we have fear, then he says like, okay, within you didn't get the spirit of the Holy Spirit because you're in fear. Rick Norris 1:07:14 Well, even if you've got it, give you a spirit of Gary Duncan 1:07:17 fear. Yeah. sound mind. Yeah. Rick Norris 1:07:21 And there's been people I've seen a lot of people you know, digress, regress, died, degenerate, whatever you want to call it. So they don't spend a lot of time alone with the Lord. They don't pray in tongues, and their spirit atrophies. And pretty soon they're right back in fear, having already been baptized in Lagos. And some of them even had a revelation of all of this and just atrophied. Let their faith go weak because they weren't pursuing God. So well, let's wrap this up. And if I can, I pray? No, okay. No, pray. Gary Duncan 1:07:55 Leave this in fear. As you can pray. Rick Norris 1:07:58 Lord, you know the bride, you know your people. And, you know, I've been terribly verbose again, because you've rise in me in that wave of holy love that you have for your people comes through and you you're so passionate about your, your bride knowing how to defend yourself and others for what's about to happen on the earth. I asked, Lord, we asked, Are we intercede from our hearts with tears? Or we ask that you please give your bride the the commensurate Revelation the revelation commensurate to stepping into her new battle dress, armor. Please, Lord God, we're gonna get blindsided. You know that that's why we're having this pod. Lord, you're the only one that can wake your bride up to realize what's coming, and how to defend herself and to do whatever it takes a crash course visitation, dreams, visions, and bring your bride to the place where she realizes we have all the armament, we need all the arms. We need to bind and loose and decree and declare and establish that your word and your kingdom on the earth. Please, Lord, help us. Rescue your bride from all this fear and cause us to remember that you did not give us the spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. We ask it in Jesus law, according to your great love and mercy, Lord. Gary Duncan 1:09:57 Well Rick again appreciate enjoy conversations with you. And please, folks share this podcast with others that might be going through some times of fear, trepidation and just struggle. And that hit the like button, do all that kind of stuff to help get the word out. And till next time we appreciate it and God bless Transcribed by https://otter.ai
All of us can accomplish being a worshipper. Everyone can accomplish being a prayer. That's Jesus banner over our lives.
1 (2s): Psalm 1 45 says that he is trustworthy and he has faith. He said this morning, we worship you this morning, father, we praise you. 1 (4m 25s): We lift your name. Hi, this place 2 (4m 45s): Bad. And you see oh God you make 0 (9m 51s): You 2 (9m 51s): Make Hi. I'm move. 2 (11m 53s): You make giants. You use songs of praise to shake. I will speak. I will preach them by 3 (12m 53s): Love you so much. You're so faithful. You're so faithful. What a great song to sing on grand opening Sunday, Lord, that we can declare your faithfulness to us as a church and us individually. Lord, you are so faithful and Lord, even in the hard times and the good times that you're faithful, no matter what's going on around us. Jesus, you're so good. We love you so much, Lord, we just give this whole Sunday to you. We celebrate you today. It's all about you, Lord. It's not about this building, but it's about what you want to do with it. It's a tool for your kingdom and for your glory and for your good and for our good as well. 3 (13m 33s): Jesus. And so we love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. All right. You can be seated. Welcome. It's grand opening. Let's give the Lord a round of applause. Yeah. My name is Curtis, and I'm glad to be doing announcements with you guys today. But before that I'm going to invite all of the high schoolers who are going away to camp up to the stage. Come on up, come on up. Let's go. You're going to camp. Come up here. We're going to pray for him. 3 (14m 13s): It's going to be really good. So I just encourage you to extend a hand. You can come up here, come right up here, right up in the front. Yep. File in. Yeah, we can skip this way. If you guys would, we got to have the people online. They got to see you too. Your beautiful faces. All right. Yeah. So if you could extend a hand to that would be great. And Lord Jesus, we just thank you so much for, for all of these students. We thank you for what you want to do while they're away at camp and Lord, no matter what their motivation is, if it's a girl or a boy or one that they don't know, Jesus, we know that you want to get ahold of their hearts. 3 (15m 1s): And so Lord, I just pray that you administered at each individual who's on this stage, Lord. We just want to come into alignment with what you have for their lives. We love them so much. We've, we're so grateful that you've entrusted them to this church. And we just want to lift them up to you, just be with them. Holy spirit, guide them and minister to them as they go in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys. Yeah, you guys can go now if you want. Thanks. All right. Awesome. 3 (15m 42s): Well, we've got a couple of announcements going on. If you haven't heard, we have a barbecue and a celebration happening after this service. So at 1230, meet us over at the west campus on our patio on the west campus is not as far as it sounds. It's like one minute walk. So don't be afraid. You can do it. If you need a map to get there, it's at the info center. So check that out. Also, we've got some men's events coming up and want to make you aware of that because a lot of times men don't want to get connected into community. So if you don't want to get connected into community commit right now to going and plug in, because it'll be a great decision for you. 3 (16m 25s): Okay? So we've got two things we've got M six tomorrow night at six o'clock, which is always awesome. They got food. They've got a testimony worship. It's a really great time. And then also on the 23rd, we've got a men's breakfast. So that's here at harvest. It's going to be amazing again. There's going to be great food and testimony. Really good. So come to that. If you're a man, if you're a woman, there'll be other things. Sorry. This is going to be something else. Okay. All right. Yeah. So that's all I got for you. If you're new here, we have restrooms in the back behind this wall and we've got coffee and tea out on the courtyard area. So that's all I got for ya. We've got an amazing legacy video to kind of recap the history of harvest as we're celebrating this big milestone. 3 (17m 11s): So direct your attention to the screen 7 (17m 29s): Started making plans and we didn't have any money. We didn't have any equipment. We didn't have any backing. We just had a few families for the 12 people and, and seven of those people were kids. So we had, you know, it was 12 of us, you know, which is good number. And so we just started making plans and thinking about where we could meet and that sort of thing. And we in landed, we ended up thinking about Lopez high school. It's just down the road from our house and we contacted them and they gave us permission to start meeting there. And so we just kind of picked a date and we didn't like have a lot of big vision or anything for what we were doing. In fact, I remember, I don't know, month or two into it. 7 (18m 13s): A family came by to visit the church on a Sunday morning and they wanted to take us out to lunch. And so we went to lunch and they said, you know, what's your vision for harvest church? And we're like, I don't know. We just want to have church. And we just want to teach the Bible. And we just want to, you know, love people. We don't have much of a vision other than that right now. And you know, things have developed of course over the years, but that was kind of the, you know, the, the very rough kind of beginning. 8 (18m 40s): We really had a heart for a specific type of church culture that was very inclusive. That felt like home for people that felt like a place that they could plug in and be involved and feel a part of the family. And that was something that was really important to us. And so we just felt like maybe other people will enjoy that too. So let's just start moving in the direction of starting a church and see what God does with that. And, you know, if it fails, it fails, then no harm, no foul, you know, we tried and, you know, maybe if we create a culture that we enjoy, that we feel passionate about, maybe other people will enjoy that too. And so that's kind of, you know, maybe the, the roots behind it is that we kind of always had sort of a passion and it was just normal to be involved in the life of a church of our church, whatever church we're involved in 7 (19m 31s): And kind of our belief is that, and it's scriptural that God gives his people gifts to be used. And so we just felt like that's what we were trying to do. Just use our gifts and talents that God had given to us. And, you know, just to bring glory to him and, and invite others to do the same thing so that they could find fulfillments in life and joy in life and, and fulfill God's plan and purpose for their lives. So we wanted to do create something that allowed people to just be free and who they were as Jesus and point people to Jesus and serve Jesus and kind of along the way, you know, thinking back to that original conversation with that couple, that we're, we're, we're curious about who we are and what we're all about. 7 (20m 21s): And we didn't really have a lot of words to describe that. And, but over time we identify some core values that, you know, we're called to love all people. I think that's obvious in scripture, old and new Testament, we're just, God is a God of love and we're called to love all people were committed to that. The Lordship of Jesus Christ, You know, without Jesus, as we've kind of talked about without Jesus kind of guiding and directing everything, we, we don't have a story, you know, and without Jesus, we don't have new life and the purpose that we have, you know, so we're committed to not just Jesus, but the Lordship, the leadership of Jesus Christ. 7 (21m 12s): I, when we need him, want him and depend on him to lead and guided direct, direct to what we're doing. So we're confident in the word of God, that's another core value. So that's what we teach just every week. We just, and throughout mid we Bible studies and youth and young adults and college and home groups. I mean, our goal is just to teach the Bible men's groups, women's groups, you know, and we're, we're confident that God's word is meant to guide us and direct us and give us wisdom and speak to us about the plans and purposes of God. And so we're, we're confident in the word of God, call to love people, committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and we're called to serve. 7 (22m 3s): We're called to serve people. And so we've, we've done that. I think that's what we strive to do and try to do is serve the community by opening our doors and inviting people in serving people in the community, but also serving people within the church. You know, we're, we're called to serve people. That's Jesus said, Hey, I didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. And so we just trying to do what Jesus modeled for us and instructed us to do. We're just, we're we're we want to serve people 8 (22m 39s): Part of how we've attempted to love and serve our community is through a lot of outreach over the years, we've kind of always felt like it's intimidating for people to walk into this four walls of a church building, but if we can get out and love on people and be a blessing in our community, that that really speaks volumes to people and helps kind of make it less intimidating to enter into the walls of the church. 7 (23m 2s): Sort of, it's mostly about just being faithful in the season, faithful in the moment. And, and, and we've had to learn how to do that 8 (23m 11s): Really at the core of it, you know, it's like the disciples said, like, where else would we go? You know? I mean, what else is there? You know, it's to be a part of furthering the kingdom, helping people along in their walk with Christ. There's nothing else like it. 7 (23m 59s): Let's pray. Thank you. Thank you so much, Lord. We are humbled by what has happened over these years, these 19 years, we're grateful for your constant goodness toward us, the favor that we've received and the provision Lord, there's just been amazing. Goodness, Lord. And we're so, so thankful for your amazing goodness. It we've experienced it every day through the challenging days and through the glorious days, your goodness has been consistent. And so we praise you for that Lord, as we have the celebration service today, thank you for the opportunity to gather in this new space. 7 (24m 40s): He's just part of our story. Like so many other spaces leading up to this. So this is just part of the story. So we praise you, Lord, we thank you for who you are. We bless you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well welcome. Hey, it is a family Sunday, although it's not typically a family Sunday on this day in the month, but because it's family sending cause of the celebration, I've got some jokes. Jokes are always part of family Sunday. So this is when I heard, I already paid five bucks for this one today. Cause I just got it. But so the rule is that if you're a kid, no adults qualify, but if you're a kid and you give me a joke that I use and I'll give you five bucks. So that's the deal. So I think I still owe a little girl five bucks anyway. 7 (25m 22s): So, so the joke that I heard this morning was what do you say to a gorilla with headphones on anything you want? He can't hear you just heard that this morning. I got an, I've got another one. What's the joke. I'm trying to remember it now here. What, how did the cell phone proposed to his girlfriend? He gave her a ring. You gave her a ring. All right. Enough of that, as you can see from the video, a lot has changed over the years. We all looked just a little bit younger back in the day. And, but it's fun to kind of look back a couple decades and just kind of see what God has been up to and just to appreciate who he is. 7 (26m 8s): And I'm now going back really 20 years ago, when we first had the idea to plant a church, people asked us, you know, why in the world do you want to plant a church? And you know, we've got plenty of great churches here on the central coast. I said, I know there's amazing churches here on the central coast. And others said, you know, I'm not sure that you actually will. You know, that you've got what it takes to be a senior pastor. I said, I know you're probably right about that. And others said you don't have any resource or backing any people, any facility, any kind of church stuff that you need. I said, I know I totally get all of that, but we just got to have this sense that this is what God is up to you. So if we kind of made a list of all the pros and cons, we probably never would have planted a church. 7 (26m 53s): We never would have done anything. We'd just gone off doing what we think we should have done. I don't know what we did none, but, but when I think about pros and cons, I kind of have a different kind of perspective, a different kind of filter. I think about pros and cons differently because over 45 years ago, my mother-in-law Margaret Miller. She was dating a guy by the name of Marvin Miller. So Margaret was dating Marvin and they were just in this dating relationship. And one night Margaret was coming home through Guadalupe and she got run off the road by a drunk driver and, and she became a quadriplegic. 7 (27m 34s): So she's in traction at cottage hospital down in Santa Barbara and she's in a striker bed. She's got bolts into her head to keep her head from moving. And she's her life is forever and tragically changed as a result of this gnarly accident. And so Marvin Margaret, again, just dating at the time, they decided to make a list of pros and cons. Do we move forward with this relationship or not? They made a list of pros and cons and their cons weigh out, listed the pros. And so they said, you know, we're just, it's not possible for us to move forward. 7 (28m 15s): Like this it's just impossible. So Marv went home and he was at home one night and he felt like the Lord speak, spoke to him and said, Hey, you need to go and be by her side. And so he went to the hospital and knelt down by her bed or she's face down. So she had a mirror I believe. And so that's how she could see who was in the room. And so she said, he said, you know, I don't know how, I don't know what the future looks like for us, but I, I know that I'm supposed to be by your side. And every day for the last 45 years, Marv has been by her side, serving her and faithfully loving her. 7 (28m 57s): And they've just served and loved each other for decades and been an amazing example to my wife and our kids and our grandkids. And so when I think about pros and cons, I've got a totally different filter because I think most things in life that seem impossible, you can make a list and talk yourself out of it like right now, but if God's in it and if God's spoken and I've got us leading, then all of a sudden you've got the courage to do things that don't make a lot of sense. That seem, it seems like a bad idea unless God, unless God is in it, it's a bad idea. 7 (29m 37s): So when we took a made a list, you know, or heard all the reasons why we shouldn't plant a church, we didn't, you know, we said, you know what? All of that is true. It's, they're all true. But that doesn't mean that God's not calling us to do it. And so we just decided to do it. And so in March of 2003, we planted harvest church again with three families, five adults and seven kids. And we just started having church. We just set a date on the calendar and I was, I had never been a senior pastor before, never preached weekly at, at a church service. I'd done other ministry, but I'd never done that type of ministry. 7 (30m 18s): Like full-time lead pastor type stuff. And so I, I didn't, you know, we, we just had, we really had no idea what we were doing. He never planted a church, never any, all of the above. We had never done it before. So it was just this big kind of step of faith. I, I talked to another guy in the area who was getting ready to plant a church around the same time. And he's like, man, I got a hundred sermons in the can. Like he had like a hundred sermons ready to go. And I heard that. I'm like, dude, I don't even know what I'm going to say. Our first Sunday, when we gather, I have no idea. He had all this backing, all of this money. He was being planted by this church planting network. And so they had resource out the, out the ears and they were just going for it. 7 (31m 1s): I'm like, holy cow, Lord, what are we doing? We've got none of the above. But we just, by, by God's grace just decided to just take it a day at a time and do what we felt like God was calling us to do. So in 2003, we started meeting at Lopez high school. Two years later, we had this amazing conversation with Amanda Lambert. Who's sitting here on the front row with us. We had been praying that God would give us an opportunity to move from the Mesa. I don't know if you know where Lopez high school is, but it's up on the Mason. And so if people showed up, we were always surprised. We're like, how did you know that we were meeting here? You know, cause we had the sign up for like two hours on Sunday morning and you know, it was just a miracle if anybody showed up. 7 (31m 44s): And so we knew that we wanted to be in the village of a Ray granny where we could have a bigger impact. And, and so we just began to pray and just ask the Lord. And I was driving through the village and I see this big four foot by eight foot sign out on the lawn of 1 24 west branch up the road here about a minute. And I just pulled over and went in to talk with Amanda. I don't know. I can't remember if Clem was there, but you were there for sure. And clam probably. And I said, Hey, I'm Steve. I pastor this really small church, you know, and we, we have this desire to move into the village of a rear grand day. And we noticed that you've got this church that's for lease. Would you be interested in leasing it to us again? 7 (32m 25s): And she'd been using it as her decorate her, her, her store or storefront for her decorating business or interior design business. And there's the word interior design. And, and, but she was, you know, ready to kind of scale back a little bit and moved back to the back of the property a little bit. And so I said, you know, we just started that conversation. And, and just really just in that moment on kind of a handshake, we decided to move forward. And, and so we started the renovation and come and Amanda helped us with renovation. We had to put in fire sprinklers and all kinds of stuff. Anyway, we, we, we just moved in, in 2003 and during the time that renovation, we were actually meeting outside on the lawn behind the parsonage was just up the driveway at the west campus. 7 (33m 8s): And so, you know, we, we grew from like 60 people to 180 people while they're meeting outside on the lawn and we we'd be outside and be cold and drizzly. And we'd like, why are people coming to our church? We've got we're meeting on the lawn and it's cold and wet. And all these people kept coming up the driveway. I say, who are these people? But God just kept bringing people. And, and it was just this sweet, sweet thing. So 2005, we started meeting here, there, and then we purchased one 20 heart lane, which is the house next door that our friend neighbor Mark Miller had for years and years. And so we just kept having church and slowly but surely we take over more and more of that space. 7 (33m 49s): There's a bunch of buildings behind the chapel, the sanctuary and little by little, we just kind of take, you know, started taking them over. And then in 2015, 2017, we bought it from the Lamberts. And so the circumstances worked out. We bought the house at one 20 Hart lane in 2015, we bought the church property in 2017. And then, and then we just have been having church. And as we've needed to, we've just been praying that God would give us some more space we've we just needed some more space. And so we looked around and we actually had looked at this space like 10 years ago, John Hayashi is the owner of this property. And 10 years ago, I called John and said, Hey, would you be interested in leasing us your space or selling us your space? 7 (34m 33s): And he said, absolutely not. He was like, he didn't want a church here. He didn't want, I don't know what was going on in John's life, but he was not interested in leasing it to our shirts. But fast forward, 10 years, I called him up and said, Hey, John, where, you know, the place is empty again, can we lease your space? He's like, Hey, I'll meet you down there in 15 minutes and we'll talk and really on a handshake, he opened the doors for us to, you know, to, to, to get this place. And so, you know, it was just over a year ago, it was March last year, we made the decision to move in here and took 59 weeks or so to get it renovated, you know, everything around, it had to be changed. And so here we are, and we're just, we're just excited about what God is doing and what he's up to. 7 (35m 17s): And so we just wanted to celebrate in kind of a special way today and just invite people to be a part of what we're doing. There's, there's a lot to celebrate and we're so thankful for what God is doing. So again, we, we planted not because we had a plan, not because we knew what we were doing, but because God had called us to do something. And so I just want to encourage you in your life. Maybe God is calling you to do something. We challenge people all the time to listen to what the God the Lord is saying. And then step into those supernatural plans that God has for you. And just maybe just, maybe God will do something wonderful in your life. 7 (36m 1s): It's a day at a time adventure. So I shared this last week, but recently we were having a lot of like church challenges. I don't know if you've ever experienced church, challenging circumstance. Have you ever been in church where you had like challenging circumstances? Just me. Okay, good. Just me. So I'm not walking, I'm a hundred prayer walk and I'm like, Lord, what's going on? There's some hard stuff going on. And I felt like Lauren said, do three things. Number one, keep your eyes on me. Okay. I can do that. I can just cause you know, the temptation is to see everything that's going sideways in your life and get your eyes and focus your attention on that. So I knew that I needed to get my attention back on the Lord. And then the Lord said, don't be fearful. You know, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of sound mind. 7 (36m 41s): So the temptation to say, watch everything be fearful about what might happen and then just kind of freak ourselves out. But God said, no, just keep your eyes on me. Don't be fearful. And they just take it a day at a time. The Bible says, don't worry about tomorrow. Today's worries are an F for the day. So those three things that's been kind of our, our focus, although I just kind of felt like the Lord reminded me recently, but that's really been our focus for these last 1920 years is that we would just keep our eyes on Jesus, not allow ourselves to get fearful, but just take it, take things a day at a time and watch what he will do. And that's been kind of our story and, and that's kind of continues to be our story and it will always be our story. 7 (37m 25s): Recently this last week I had a chance to speak at our youth group midweek Wednesday nights at six 30, our junior high and high school are actually our club five, six gathers as well, but it was just junior high and high school this week. And Jeremy, our youth and family, pastor got sick. And so we talked and you know, we talked about canceling it, canceling the meeting mid-week I said, no. I said, how about if I speak? I I'd love to speak to the young people. So I volunteered to speak. And I, I love young people because in when, when we were, when I was in that season of life, so many amazing things happen to me. Number one, I got saved, gave my life to Jesus. I felt a call to ministry. When I was in high school, a lot of transformational stuff. 7 (38m 8s): I met my wife during our high school years and 32 years, we're still going and still going strong. And so a lot of amazing things happened for me when I was in high school. So any opportunity that I have to speak to our young people, I do it. And I it's so, so fun to watch what God is doing with our young people. So I spoke to them and I challenged them with choosing the right path. And the title of the message Wednesday night was how do you choose? How do you choose the right path? I want to share with you kind of what I share with them. I'll fill it in a little bit more and give you some more information. I've already done that, but I want to talk to you about choosing the right path. 7 (38m 51s): It's, it's a challenge for young people, but it's also a challenge for people of any age throughout the seasons of life. We're always wrestling with what is the right direction? What is the right path for my life? How do I move forward? And so we're going to look at a king Josiah in second Kings chapter 22. And we're going to look at the scope of his life because we get kind of to jump into his life at age eight. And then we get to see his life lived out as one of the Kings of Judah. So Josiah was one in a long line of Kings in his family. 7 (39m 32s): And that's an interesting place to be your granddad, great granddad, your granddad, your dad were Kings. You know, you're going to be king. And then your generations that follow will be Kings. And so we're gonna learn something about Josiah, his heritage and why he chose what he chose. So Josiah, his great grandfather was king has a Kiah and he was a godly man. You, you, as you read through the Kings about the Kings of Judah and Israel, it'll mention a king. It will say this king did what was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, or it'll say this king did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. 7 (40m 15s): Every king had a choice. Every person has a choice. How will we live our lives? Well, Joseph is great. Grandfather king has a. Kyle was a godly man. It says in second Kings 18 three, he did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight, just as his ancestor king David had done. So just as king David was a man after God's own heart has a Kaia was also a man after God's own heart. Josiah's grandfather was king Manasseh, but he did not follow the footsteps of his father. Instead, second Kings 21 2 says he did what was evil in the Lord's sight. 7 (40m 55s): Following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israel. So as the people of Israel were heading into the promised land, God drove out all the pagans in the land, but when the people settled, some of the Kings misled, the people doing some of the very things that they drove out, the former inhabitants for, they drove out the previous inhabitants of the land of Canaan because of their wickedness. Now the Kings of Judah are leading the people to do the same thing. Josiah, his father king Ammon in his brief two year reign as king second Kings 21, 23 22 says this. 7 (41m 37s): He did what was evil in the Lord's sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. He followed the example of his father worshiping the same idols. His father had worshiped. He abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and he refused to follow the Lord's way. So Josiah's dad and granddad did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Let's take a look at what Josiah will do. Second Kings 22 verse one says this Josiah was eight years old. When he became king, he imagined being king at eight year olds. We have any eight year olds in the room. Eight year olds. Yeah, we got an eight year old. Imagine you're ruling everything like you're in charge like your parents, your grandparents, all your siblings, all your friends, they get to do what you tell them to do. 7 (42m 25s): So that's a big responsibility, right? As an eight year old w the kingdom is mine, right? But Josiah, he was a tender little eight year old, just say I was eight years old when he became king. And he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years, his mother was jetted up the daughter of a Daya from Bose cough. And verse two tells us he did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and follow the example of his ancestor. David. He did not turn away from doing what was right. So how do you choose the right path? Number one from Josiah is example. You must decide, you must decide, will I serve God or the world? 7 (43m 8s): So we're not sure why Josiah chose the path that he chose, but maybe just, maybe he watched his dad and he watched his granddad lead and lead the nation into sin and destruction. Maybe, maybe just, he watched that example. And maybe he heard stories about king David and other righteous Kings, who, who led the people to honor the Lord. They pleased the Lord with their lives. And so somewhere along the line, he was persuaded that it's better to please the Lord with my life. And so at eight years old, he made the decision to honor the Lord with his life. 7 (43m 52s): So I did that at about 17 years old. I gave my life to Jesus when I was in junior high school, but kind of waffled in my faith. I was trying to decide, am I really going to serve God? Or am I going to serve the world? Am I going to go headlong into serving Jesus? Or I'm going to go headlong into the world? I can't do both. I got to decide, right? So at 17 years of age, I decided to give my life to Jesus. I had seen enough of the world and enough of the church, then enough of godliness and ungodliness that I decided at 17 years old to give my life to Jesus. We, we actually have to make that decision. And apparently you're never too young to make that decision. 7 (44m 33s): And the truth is you'll make that decision. And if your decision is to serve, Jesus, you'll need to continue to make that decision all of the days of your life. Like you're going to come up against difficult challenges, temptations hard things in life. And it's in those moments that you're going to have to decide. I'm continuing to put my trust in Jesus. Like I'm going to keep my eyes on Jesus. I'm not going to be fearful. I'm going to take this a day at a time. I'm not going to worry about tomorrow. I'm just going to be faithful today. We have to decide, and really in decision is a decision not to serve Jesus. 7 (45m 14s): We, a decision to serve. Jesus requires that you be intentional and that you're serious about that commitment to follow Jesus and be a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ. When Jesus called his disciples, he, he called them into something. He said, he said, come and follow me. And I will make you fishers of men. God's calling us to follow him. And so whatever challenged Josiah to make that decision, he decided against, against his suppose, the world, the flesh and the devil, the same foes that we face today, the world, the flesh and the devil that is trying to draw us away. 7 (45m 55s): He, he refused his foes and it appears from his life that we read about in this chapter that he continued to choose to follow God. And to please the Lord with his life. It says in verse three, second, Kings 22 in the 18th year of his reign. So now we're in 18 years, king Josiah, son of Azalea and grand set of the court secretary to the temple of the Lord. And he told him, go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money. The gatekeepers have collected from the people of temp at the Lord's temple in trust this money to the man assigned to supervise the restoration of the Lord's temple. 7 (46m 40s): Then they can use it to pay workers, to repair the temple. So if you look back at the previous generations, his dad and his granddad, Josiah is a parent dad and granddad. They would probably have taken that money and used it for selfish gain for whatever they chose to use it for. Because after all, they were setting up idols within the temple of God, they would set up Asher, a pole Astro was a female goddess. She was worshiped. She was a fertility God. And so the people would worship her to maybe in hopes that they would become pregnant, that they would be able to have children. 7 (47m 24s): And so they would worship Asherah, but also bale and tradition says that Asher was actually, Asher was the mother of bail and bail was at fertility God, but they would worship him in hopes that their crops would be fertile and that they would have great crops. And so we're told in, I think in second Kings chapter 18, that that the people of God were not to have any type of idols in their lives. So it's interesting that the Kings struggled and the people of God struggled, mostly with idolatry, they struggle with idolatry. God spoke to them specifically about his plans for their lives in this area, so that they would be strong and resist, but instead over and over again, they fell into this trap of idolatry. 7 (48m 12s): And so we see a change in Josiah, his heart in previous kingdoms, his dad and his granddad, they would desecrate, they desecrated the temple and set up idol worship within the temple. But Josiah's heart is to restore the temple. And so he's saying, Hey, give these these resources that have been collected to the craftsmen so that they might honor the Lord by restoring the temple. So Josiah made a decision and his decision is being reflected in his life. In verse six says they will need to hire carpenters, builders, and masons also have them buy the timber and the finished stone needed to repair the temple, but don't require the construction supervisors to keep a count of the money they they received for. 7 (49m 1s): They are, they are honest and trustworthy men. So Josiah had godly, honest, trustworthy people around him, people that he could give work to do. And he trusted them to do the kind of work that would honor the Lord. Now, how do you choose the right path from Josiah is example number one, you must decide, well, I serve God or the world, and we're all faced with that decision now. And throughout the course of our life, Josiah shows to honor the Lord with his life, but also number two, your life must reflect your decision. This is how you make right choices. You decide that my life will reflect my decision to make God priority. 7 (49m 46s): And so now we look at Josiah's life and instead of desecrating the temple setting up idols within the temple of God, he is restoring the temple. He's using resources and dispatching men to restore the temple, honoring the Lord with his decisions. Your life must reflect your decision. This is how you will find the right path in life. You'll discover God's law in verse eight, it says Hilkiah. The high priest said to Schaefer and the court secretary, I have found a book of the law in the Lord's temple. Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to shaven and he read it. So imagine the temples in this order, it's it's in disrepair, but when they go into restore it, they find this law, they find this scroll the word of the Lord. 7 (50m 36s): So shape and went to the king and reported your officials have turned over the money, collected the temple of the Lord to the workers and supervisors at the temple. Shaven also told the king he'll Kaia. The priest has given me a scroll. I'm gonna read it to the king. And when the king heard what was written in the book of the law, he tore his clothes in despair. So our seeing Josiah respond to the word of the Lord. His life is reflecting his decision. He's hearing a word from the Lord and he's in despair. Let's find out why he's in despair. Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, ah, cam son of son of McCaya chef and the court secretary. 7 (51m 23s): And Asya the King's personal advisory said go to the temple and speak to the Lord for me and for the people. And for all Judah inquire about the words written in this scroll that have been found for the Lourdes. Great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do. So he's hearing the word of the Lord and he's realizing we're not doing everything it says we must do. So Josiah is all in. He's made his decision. My life will be pleasing to the Lord. And I'm going to make sure that the actions of my life reflect that and reinforce that reality that I am a follower of God in my life will reflect that. 7 (52m 10s): So he's realizing that they're not doing everything right. He says they must do first 14. So Hilkiah, the priest went to the new quarter of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet holdup. She was the wife of Shalom son of Tikvah. Son of has the keeper of the temple wardrobe. She said to them, the Lord, the God of Israel has spoken, go back and tell the man who sent you. This is what the Lord says. I'm going to bring disaster on this city. And its people, all the words written in the scroll that the king of Judah has read will come true for. 7 (52m 51s): My people have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to pagan gods. And I am angry with them. For everything they have done. My anger will burn against this place and it will not be quench. But he said go to the king. She said, go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek the Lord and tell him, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says concerning the message. You've just heard. You were sorry, and humbled yourself before the Lord. When you heard what I said against the city and its people. So God is recognizing the contrition and the humility of his servant and Josiah that'll keep happening by the way. 7 (53m 44s): So God is wrecking. That's the good news of the gospel is that we need a savior. We need Jesus, the Lord to forgive us of our sins. And so when we recognize our need for God, and we are sorry for our sins, not just sorry that we got caught or sorry, because we've got to deal with the consequences, but sorry, like Josiah ripped his clothes because he was in anguish about the disobedience that his people were involved with. Even though they didn't realize that he rent his clothes because he knew he knew there was work to do. You were sorry, and humbled yourself before the Lord. When you heard what I said against the city and its people that the land would be cursed and become desolate. 7 (54m 29s): You tore your clothing in despair and webs before me in repentance, I have indeed heard, you says the Lord. So maybe you're here today. And you're like, man, I feel like I keep confessing the same thing over and over again. Listen, if you've confessed your sins, the Bible says that God is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So maybe you did something yesterday or last week or last year or 50 years ago, but you're still carrying that baggage. God's grace is sufficient. If you will confess your sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, why? Because DOD sees the contrition, the brokenness, the humility of his people. 7 (55m 11s): And he responds. I have indeed heard you says the Lord, so I will not send the promise disaster until after you have died and been buried in peace, you will not see the disaster. I'm going to bring on this city. So they took her message back to the king. So how do you choose the right path? Number one, you must decide. We got to decide, are we going to serve God or we're going to serve the world? And then you must, your life must reflect your decision. And the truth is that if you've really made a decision to serve Jesus, it's a life transformational decision. And so your life will begin to reflect that decision. 7 (55m 52s): The fruit of that decision will produce good fruit in your life. But at times you just have to decide, I'm going to make sure my life reflects my decision. And then you must say contracts and humble. You got to say contract. So the word contract just means, I'm sorry. It goes hand-in-hand with a broken this brokenness. And contrition is what God requires of his people. When we're made aware of our shortcomings and our sins. We just simply say, Lord, I'm so sorry. Not because I got caught now because of the consequences, because I sinned against you. And as we stay humble and contract, God will be able to direct us and guide us and lead us. 7 (56m 38s): I tell you there's been a, 1,001 questions that we haven't had answers to over the course of the planting and this life of this church. And we've made mistakes and we've done things that we wish we hadn't done. But at the end of the day, we've tried to stay just humble about it. Say Lord, that we don't have any idea what we're doing, but we're asking for your help. And Lord forgive that misstep. We didn't realize what we were doing and, and we just watch God lead us and guide us and direct us. It'll be true for every one of our lives as we just stay broken and contract before Lord and stay super humble that this is the, the design of God in the old and the new Testament. 7 (57m 19s): We say, God, blessing, contrition and humility and the old and the new Testament it's God's plan for our lives. So as you're trying to figure out the right path, maybe you've got a decision in front of you. Take it a day at a time. First of all, keep your eyes on God, keep your eyes on God. Not the circumstances. Don't allow yourself to get fearful and then just take it a day at a time and then make a decision. I am choosing to honor the Lord. I want, I don't know about you, but when I stand before the Lord, I want to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. I want to have people writing about us as a church that their lives pleased the Lord. 7 (57m 59s): So choose today, make that your choice today to make God your priority and then make sure your, your life aligns with that. And then just stay contract and humble and watch what the Lord will do to direct your path. And so with that, let's just go and stand up and we're gonna invite the worship team. And at the very end, we've got one more video to show you, but let's pray and get ready to sing a couple more songs. And then we'll wrap up the service here shortly Lord. Thank you for who you are. Gotcha. Thank you. That when we're curious about the path to take you, show us you, you make it clear to us and you're faithful to do so, Lord. So thank you, Lord. I pray for anybody. Who's got decisions as in front of them today, Lord, I pray that you give them wisdom. 7 (58m 43s): Lord, I pray. If there's anybody here that needs to say yes to you to make that decision to follow you. I pray that they would do that today as well. So if you're here today, you want to make a decision to follow Jesus. You simply acknowledge your need for him. There's no formula or, or word that you can say. You just have to with humility and contrition, just make yourself available to the Lord. Say, God, I confess my sins. Thank you for your grace. I want to stay humble, Lord. I want to choose you. And I want my life to align with that decision. And I want to, I just to follow you all the days of my life, making sure that I always stay contract and humble as you do that, as you sincerely make that your aim and your commitment, God will meet you. 7 (59m 32s): He'll hear you. And he'll respond to you. If you made that decision today and you give your life to Jesus at the information booth after service, you can grab their Bibles and things like that. We'd like to give to you. And so Lord, thank you for this day. As we worship be glorified. We thank you for your grace in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 2 (1h 3m 7s): Are you ready to go out some songs of praise We worship the God who was we picked God, we were this giant in the house. 2 (1h 7m 35s): We seem to the God who saves. We seem to and the house there's joy in the house. 2 (1h 8m 35s): We shout out house. 2 (1h 9m 28s): The house of the Lord. Shout out. Y'all pray this joy in the house of the Lord. God, we won't be quiet. We shout out in the house 0 (1h 9m 53s): In 2 (1h 9m 53s): The house. We won't be quiet. Please shout out your in the house. We won't be quiet. We shot it out of your 7 (1h 10m 42s): One last time Glenn, have a seats and then we're going to watch a quick video. But as you have a seat, when everybody's seated, everybody's seated. All right. Now, if you were involved in this project on any level, if you prayed for this project, this renovation of this building, go and stand up. If you prayed at all, go ahead and stand up. There we go. There we go. If you gave financially this project, go ahead and stand up. Now, stay standing, stay standing. Everybody stay standing. If you helped on a cleanup day, if you showed up for a cleanup part of the day, you go out and stand up. If you are a contractor on this project, go ahead and stand up. 7 (1h 11m 25s): If you work in the village for the city of Rio Grande day and you help get this project pushed through, then go ahead and stand up. Cool. Well thank you so much. We're actually going to watch a quick video and it'll just kind of show kind of what happened. That'll lead of credits. Everybody who participated. So good job guys. Watch your video and then we'll come right back. 7 (1h 13m 4s): Lauren. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. For all that you accomplished in the last 59 weeks of getting this building ready to go. We are so thankful for all of the amazing people that participated people who prayed and gave and worked and, and, and worked tirelessly to get this project across the finish line. So we thank you, Lord, pray, blessing upon each person. Lord, pray, blessing upon the city of Rio Grande day. They've worked so well with us. We're so thankful Lord bless them. We pray Jesus and Lord, as we get ready to go have some lunch and celebrate with some food, we praise you. Bless the food to our bodies. 7 (1h 13m 46s): Thank you for the opportunity to celebrate with food. We love you. Thank you for this day presence. You continues to minister to us throughout the balance of this day until we meet again in Jesus name. Amen. Hey man.
Pastor Andy Davis unfolds an episode of Jesus' life that expands our comprehension of him as the Son of God and alerts us to not underestimate him. - Sermon TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 4:35-41. We continue this incredible study in the Gospel of Mark. There's something deeply unsettling to most of us when it comes to the sea, a primordial fear of its power, and its unpredictability, and its mystery. We cannot see below the surface or beyond the horizon, and we can never know for sure what's coming at us. There is, of course, the simple fear of drowning that can seizes us all. The fact is, we cannot survive for long underwater, and death by drowning is a terrifying way to go. Beyond that is the fear of the weather, a sudden storm that can turn the once placid sea into a raging inferno of power, mighty white-capped breakers coming at us, and wave upon wave, utterly beyond our ability to withstand or subdue. Then there's the irrational terror of creatures of the deep. The summer of 1975, the summer that Jaws came out, I was in Lake Winnipesaukee. I was on an Astroturf-covered floating raft, unwilling to dive into the lake and swim back to shore for fear of a great white shark. Having no idea that that was a saltwater creature, and I was in fresh water, and there was zero chance of being eaten by a shark. That didn't matter, I was terrified. We read the accounts of the sailors that sailed with Columbus, and they were afraid of the terrifying monsters of the deep, of great whales with their immense size, and their powerful tails and their powerful mouths, or even a giant squid with their long undulating tentacles. All of these things are terrors. The sea represents the darkest side of man's terrors, and it can quickly reduce even the most courageous man to a trembling child. That's why this account of Jesus' effortless power over the wind and the waves is so compelling. It asks the fundamental question that's before us, when we read all four of the Gospels, “Who is this man?” The fundamental answer, that's so clear, only Almighty God can control the wind and the waves with the simple word of His command. This story adds more vital information to the quest of our faith, to understand the basic thesis of the Gospel of Mark, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. What does that mean? What does that mean that He's the Son of God? What does that mean for each of us individually, personally? Beyond this, this amazing account gives us a sense of the total control of Jesus over the hardest moments of our lives, and His ability to speak peace to our souls when we need it the most. That's what we're looking at today. "Only Almighty God can control the wind and the waves with the simple word of His command." I. The Setting for the Storm, and Its Sudden Severety Now, we need to set this storm, the setting of the storm and its sudden severity, and the personal setting, Jesus' ongoing, amazing ministry, his overwhelming ministry. Jesus had had a very long day of ministry just like every day. So in Mark 4:1-2, it says, “Jesus began to teach by the sea. The crowd that gathered around Him was so large that He got into a boat and sat in it out on the sea while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables.” Though Mark 4 doesn't mention any healings or demon possessed people being set free, that was of course the norm, the huge crowd that was there almost certainly were there to be healed as well as taught. So it was that same busy day, it was the end of a very overwhelming, busy day, in verse 35-36, “That day, when evening came, He said to His disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along just as He was in the boat. There were also other boats with Him,” so it was absolutely exhausting, long day. The text says that they left the crowd and took Jesus along just as He was. What does that mean? He didn't have the chance to change his clothes or refresh himself in any way, it's just there it is. It's time to go to get into the boat and go across the lake, right on the heels of a very hard day. The boat that they were in seemed to have been powered by wind and sail, not by oar. These boats generally could hold about 15 people. So we would imagine, and the text confirms, a kind of a flotilla of boats, not just one, but a group of boats going across, carrying the twelve apostles and other disciples that were following Jesus. Now, we need to look at the physical setting, which is the Sea of Galilee. Mark 4:1 mentions the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is one of the most fascinating bodies of water in the world. It's a freshwater lake that is, at the lowest altitude of any such lake in the world, approximately 690 feet below sea level. It measures about 13 miles long, 7 miles wide, about 150 feet deep at its deepest point. It's fed partially by underwater springs, but mostly by the Jordan River, which flows north to south from Mount Hermon, which stands 9,200 feet above sea level. It's a marvelous source of fresh water, supplying, even today, much of the nation of Israel with drinking water. Over the centuries, it provided an amazingly, abundant supply of fish. Although fishing is now banned in the Sea of Galilee because the stocks got to a dangerously low level, but even in our lifetime, it still was a source of sardines that were caught there every year. The biggest issues with the Sea of Galilee are the geography and the weather. The lake is in the center of a deep geological rift that cuts a gash in the surface of the Earth, running 4,500 miles long down through Africa, as far south as Mozambique. I myself have been in that rift in the nation of Kenya, I was in the Rift Valley Academy, the same gash. It makes that area vulnerable to earthquakes, seismic activity. The rift causes steep hills and cliffs on each side of the Sea of Galilee, making it effectively sit down in a deep bowl. It is therefore vulnerable to high winds, which can cause staggeringly dramatic storms to rise up. The narrow confines of the lake multiply exponentially the effect of these winds and storms, making the Sea of Galilee, a very dangerous place in a storm. The record shows in March of 1992, one storm in the Sea of Galilee generated a 10-foot wave that overwhelmed and flooded the city of Tiberius. The storm comes up with sudden severity, look at verse 37, “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped.” The suddenness of the storm is more clear from the Gospel of Matthew, as if the storm just came up out of nowhere, without any warning at all. Matthew 8:24 says, "And behold there are arose a great tempest in the sea.” The Greek word for the storm used here is also used for a hurricane, an overpowering wind of gale force, maybe as high as 80 miles an hour. The word is intensified by the additional Greek word “megale”, a mega storm, a great storm. This is a great hurricane. Matthew 8:24 uses the Greek word “seismos”, from which we get seismic, like a seismic event, an earthquake. Luke 8:24 says the waters were raging, dashing and pummeling the boat. The effect of this hurricane wind and these raging, thrashing waves was that the boat was quickly filling with water. These men, we need to understand are professional fishermen who grew up on the Sea of Galilee. In their professional opinion, their boat was about to go down — it was going down. Those conditions meant certain death for them all. II. Jesus' Perfect Humanity vs. the Disciples'Faithless Terror We see Jesus in this account, Jesus' perfect humanity contrasted with the disciples' faithless terror. Jesus' humanity is on display in that He was physically exhausted and asleep on a cushion, Jesus was fully man and fully God. This is the great mystery of theology, the mystery of the incarnation. His attributes as both fully human and fully God are on full display in this amazing account. First, we see the humanity of Jesus in His physical exhaustion. Verse 38, “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.” Jesus' physical limitations are part of the mystery. He got tired, just like the rest of us. He got very little rest. The needs of the crowd were relentless, and so also was His compassion on the crowd, relentless. It's fascinating that Mark alone gives us the detail of the cushion, Jesus sleeping on a cushion. You may ask, why did Jesus sleep on a cushion, and I would answer because it's more comfortable. There's no great mystery here. What it shows is that Jesus is no ascetic, seeking out intentionally harsh treatment for his body. If there was a cushion around, He's going to use it and support his head, it's just more comfortable. So He's not an ascetic, but at the same time, He was willing to live a very difficult physical life. He said to one man who wanted to follow Him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head,” [Matthew 8:20], so He was used to a difficult life. But in this particular case, He found a place to lay His head on a cushion. He must have been extremely tired because the wind and the waves, and the boat filling with water don't wake Him. That's Jesus in His humanity. We know that Almighty God needs no rest at all, ever. It says in Psalm 121: 3-4, "He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Or again, Isaiah 40:28, it says, "God's power is limitless. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, he will not grow tired or weary." But Jesus in His humanity did grow tired and did get weary. We also see Jesus' perfect humanity in His complete trust in His heavenly Father. Here, by his sleep in the storm, He is commending a life of faith to each one of us. He was perfectly at rest in His Father's hands. He knew there was literally no chance whatsoever He was going to die by drowning in the Sea of Galilee. Imagine the heavenly newspaper with the headline, "Son of God dies tragically in a boating accident. All of heaven, shocked prophecy's not fulfilled.” You know about piercing hands and feet and things like that, Psalm 22. Impossible. So Jesus thought it was a good chance for a nap. Jesus lived out every moment of His life in complete trust in His Father. Psalm 22, that same Psalm says, "You brought me out of the womb. You made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. From birth, I was cast upon you, from my mother's womb you have been my God." So He knew He could sleep, and God would watch over Him. I love Psalm 4:8 on this very matter, "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety." Wouldn't you love to live your life like that? In the midst of the deepest troubles of your life, just be able to go to sleep and know that God is going to take care of you, He's going to protect you. This is what the disciples had to learn to do, to so trust in their heavenly Father, that there's never any cause for mindless, unreasoning terror. So that's Jesus' humanity. "Jesus lived out every moment of His life in complete trust in His Father." We also see Jesus' infinite majesty as the incarnate Son of God. We have a combination, therefore, of normal weakness and infinite power. In one passage, we have Jesus' weakness and His weariness and His fatigue, but we also have Him give the display of, I would say arguably, the most physically powerful thing that any human being has ever done on Planet Earth. We have, by contrast, the disciples' faithless terror. Jesus gives us the plain example of a man completely trusting in His heavenly Father. But by contrast, the disciples are wild with terror, they're out of their minds. They wake him, verse 38, and say to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we perish?" Big picture is that Jesus came into the world because He cared that we were perishing, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16] So He cares. No one has cared more than Jesus. The disciples' faith needs to be strengthened so that they would not ever doubt Jesus' love or power, and they must also trust God's plan. They must lose their fear of dying, and Christ's resurrection will do that for them. Now, the question comes, why did they wake Jesus at all? What were they thinking when they woke Him? They certainly weren't expecting Him to do what He got up and did. They were stunned by it. Maybe they just thought it was good manners, "If we're going down, it'd be good that Jesus were awake when it happens." Or maybe they felt that He had, which He clearly did, a specific “in” with God, and that God would affect some kind of protection for them though they didn't know how. The Old Testament actually speaks much of God's protection in the midst of storms, perhaps the clearest is Psalm 107:23-29 which says, "Others went out on the sea in ships, they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, His wonderful deeds in the deep. For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens, they went down to the depths. In their peril, their courage melted away, they reeled and staggered like drunken men. They were at their wits' end. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper, the waves of the sea were hushed.” So God spoke and the storm came, and then God spoke and the storm went away. He brings it, then He ends it. So perhaps they thought, in waking Jesus up, that He would call on His Father and that God would deliver them in the same pattern. I don't know what they were thinking, they certainly didn't expect what was about to happen. Now, as I'm walking through the account, I also want to ask, what did the disciples do wrong? They're professional fishermen who are bred and raised on this very sea. They knew it like the back of their hands. They saw the magnitude of the wind, the size of the waves, the swamping of the boat, they were bailing, they were trying to save their lives. In their expert opinion, they're going down, they're all going to drown. They didn't wake Jesus immediately, but sought to use all of their skills to survive. At the last moment, they went to Jesus and woke Him up, and He rebuked them. So why did He rebuke them? What did they do wrong? We'll get to that at the end of the sermon. Hold on to that thought. III. Jesus’ Stunning Power Over Creation Now, I want to talk about Jesus' stunning power over creation. Now we know the wind is beyond all human control. No one can control the wind. As a matter of fact, scripture says it openly. Ecclesiastes 8:8, "No man has power over the wind to contain it." Or again, John 3:8, "The wind blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going." That's the wind. But Jesus, Jesus is the master of all creation. John 1:3, "Through Him, all things were made, and without Him, nothing was made that has been made." And again, Hebrews 1:3, "He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word." He made it and He sustains it, that's Jesus. Again, He has effortless power over the wind and the waves, verse 39, "He got up, rebuked the wind, and said of the waves, 'Peace be still.'" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm, by the Word of the Lord alone. No striving, no effort, just sheer power, absolute authority. The power of the Word of Jesus. Now that's the miracle. It's a simple matter of cause and effect. There's nothing miraculous about a storm ending, all storms end, eventually, thank God. But the circumstances here directly link the end of the storm, the sudden end of the storm with Jesus' Word — cause and effect. It was because He said 'Peace be still' that everything was completely calm. That's the miracle. Note both aspects, the wind and the waves died down instantly. This is a miracle beyond all description. The wind instantly stopped this gale force, hurricane wind stops, a staggering amount of power ,just stopped in its tracks. In the text, there's not even a breeze or a gentle zephyr at the end, nothing, it's done. But for me, being more kind of mechanically engineering minded, the stilling of the waves is even more remarkable. How long would that take? The undulating white-capped waves crashing back and forth instantly leveled. Ordinarily, they would've undulated for hours, but it became as flat as a millpond on a still day, all of that at the Word of Jesus' power. Why the word “rebuke” in Matthew and Luke? Why does He rebuke the wind and the waves? Matthew 8:26, "He got up and rebuked the wind and the waves, and it was completely calm." Luke 8:24, "He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters, the storms subsided and always gone." Why this word “rebuke”? As if the wind and the waves were living beings who were doing something wrong rather than inanimate objects, air molecules or water molecules just doing what physics was telling them to do. There is a sense in which that storm, that devastating hurricane storm is part of this sin-cursed world. It's part of the cursing of nature, that's part of man's sin. And Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth, and He came, we're told in Ephesians 1, as the plan of God for the consummation of the ages to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. So they represent evil and curse, and He came to put it to an end. I think that's why it says “rebuke”. Unruly, wild nature will be subdued, brought into peaceful order in the New Heavens, in the New Earth — more on that at the very end of the sermon. I believe this is the most visually stunning miracle of Jesus' life. No other miracle is as spectacular as this. It's similar to the Red Sea crossing, it's just simply spectacular. Most of Jesus' miracles are quiet, subtle healings, they're not really much to look at. I do not say that the distilling of the storm is His most significant miracle, that's His own resurrection, far more significant than the distilling of the storm. But I'm just saying it was the most spectacular. The healings are just subtle. You think about the paralyzed man. There's nothing spectacular about a paralyzed man getting up off of His pallet and walking home. There's nothing spectacular about a blind man, a man born blind, washing mud off His eyes. Now, it's very significant for those who knew Him, or for those men themselves, it’s very significant, it's just not spectacular. This would've been spectacular, this is entirely different. If you had been there, the sheer spectacle would've taken your breath away. Then Jesus rebuked His disciples. He turns to them and rebukes them. He rebukes their lack of faith. He said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" I mean, this is the whole point of the miracle, and indeed of all miracles. It's the point of having the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit having Mark write this down. The lesson is that we, the readers, we who hear about this would have faith in Christ, that we would believe in Jesus as the Son of God. That's the reason for the miracle and the account. The rebuke of His disciples' lack of faith is sharp. He never coddled unbelief, He never said, "It's okay to not believe in me." Notice also the clear contrast in this account. We'll see it again with Jairus, and at other times, the clear contrast between faith and fear. Faith and fear often seem to be opposites in the Bible. Faith drives out fear. If there is this kind of fear, it's because there's a lack of faith. "Faith and fear often seem to be opposites in the Bible. Faith drives out fear. If there is this kind of fear, it's because there's a lack of faith." Now, after the rebuke, the disciples have another reaction, and what is it? Fear. But it's even greater now. They seem to be more afraid of Jesus in the boat than they were of the storm outside of the boat, and with good reason. This is the presence of Almighty God, the incarnate God in the boat with you. Look at verse 41, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind in the waves obey Him.’” Fear is the constant right reaction to the display of the omnipotent Holy God, to us as sinners, as creatures. For example, Elijah and his contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Elijah prayed a simple prayer and fire fell from heaven, and burned up the sacrifice and the alter and everything there. And when the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God." There's a fear that was filling them at that moment, and so it was with these disciples, fear of the Lord. IV. Two Lasting Questions The text ends with these two lasting questions that just kind of stand over, and they're timeless questions. Jesus, to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" The questioning of Jesus to us and our faith, and then the disciples, to one another, and to the world, "Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey Him." So we take those questions and we translate this account into our lives. The point of the Gospel of Mark is to answer the question, “Who is this man?” He is the Son of God, He is your savior. That's who He is, He and no other. Along with that is the constant expansion of our comprehension of what that means. So what does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? It means this, He can speak to the wind and the waves and they obey Him, that's what it means. He can drive out any demon and they're terrified of Him. He's not afraid of them, they're afraid of Him. There's no disease or sickness He cannot cure instantly with a Word or a touch. He can raise the dead, He can raise you from the dead. That's what it means that Jesus is the Son of God. He can look at you and tell you, based on your faith in Him, your sins are forgiven, and they are. That's who this is, that's who Jesus is. But even more is to apply that faith directly to our lives, and to drive out faithless fears, wherever they may be. Many people readily connect with this account, speaking metaphorically of the storms of our lives. I think that's right actually. All of us have challenges, deeply distressing issues that cause us to writhe and roll and churn like we're being tossed about in a storm. But when we have those storms, we can turn to Christ, the one who stilled the storm to quiet this storm around us, and even more importantly, inside of us. Many songs and hymns capture the sense of Christ's power over the storms of life. I like this one by Casting Crowns, Praise You In This Storm. The lyrics go like this, "I was sure by now, God, you would've reached down and wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day. And once again, I say, 'Amen,' and it's still raining. But as the thunder rolls, I barely hear your whisper through the rain, 'I'm with you.' And as your mercy falls, I'll raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away. And I'll praise you in this storm. And I will lift my hands, for you are who you are, no matter where I am. And every tear I've cried, you hold in your hand, you never left my side. And though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm." Or this one, It Is Well With My Soul. "When peace, like a river, attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul." Or one of my favorites, Be Still, My Soul. "Be still, my soul” [second stanza], "Thy God doth undertake to guide the future as He has the past, thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul, the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below." Oh, I could multiply these songs. What kind of storm are you going through? I don't know. Maybe you've been through some, or you're just getting ready for the one that's coming and you don't even know what's coming. I don't have a problem with this storms of life approach at all. In fact, it's normal biblical speech. The Bible often uses metaphors to speak of painful trials we endure, of the saving work that God has for His people. Isaiah 4:6 says this, "That saving work will be a shelter and a shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and a hiding place from the storm and rain." Of the trials we endure in life, the metaphor of passing through water, river, fire, Isaiah 43:1- 2 begins with the simple command, "Fear not. Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name, you are mine. And when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you." This seems to be a lasting image, this storms of life approach. Yes, Jesus' miracle was physical, absolutely. I believe that, the account says it. But His ability to bring a peaceful end to our trials is taught again and again, as well as His ability to give us peace in the middle of the storm. So the lasting lesson of this miracle is to trust Jesus and not give way to fear when you're going through a storm. So what are the storms of life? It's anything that buffets you and causes you pain, anything. Any trial that rocks your world, knocks you around, maybe even threatens your life itself. We think about the three trials we walk through with Job again and again, remember? Loss of possessions, loss of loved ones, loss of health, those three. To expand, it could be for you a chronic illness. And the treatment, it's just not responding to the treatment. It could be the loss of a child through death, it could be the long goodbye of Alzheimer's with a beloved parent or spouse. It could be a wayward, grown child that just will not submit to Christ. Any news that rocks your world and staggers you and brings you to your knees and brings tears to your eyes and causes you to cry out to God, "Why, Oh Lord?" And then all the more, if that news causes a significant change in the way you have to live your life from that point on, it’s permanent, that's a storm. This text tells us Jesus controls that storm. He wisely brings it, decides how long it's going to last and how severe it will be, and then He is able to bring it to an end. He's telling you, in the middle of that storm, He is with you. He's speaking to you in the midst of the storm, just like Job, “and God appearing in a whirlwind and speaking in the midst of the storm” to Job, saying, "I'm right in the middle of whatever storm is buffeting you." When He says, "Peace, be still," He's not first and foremost, speaking to your circumstances, He's speaking first and foremost to your soul. Philippians 4:6 and 7, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." That's Him saying, "Peace, be still," to your soul. God has the power to bring supernatural peace to your heart in the midst of the worst storms of your life. Now, the question I want to ask you is, how are you displaying faithless fear in your life? Where is the faithless fear? I don't know where that is, you have to answer that yourself. Be honest with yourself, where am I displaying a faithless fear? The whole world just went through this COVID pandemic. I wonder if it's possible that there's some people that have been scarred by the experience, and have developed a faithless fear in the midst of it. I don't know, I'm not judging people, I just am asking for people to judge themselves. Where is there an inappropriate fear of death, or fear of disease, or fear of pain or loss that is gripping your soul? Jesus would say, "Why are you so afraid? Where is your faith?" And if that's not it, there are other places. We're susceptible to faithless fears everywhere. He wants us to use our faith to drive away our fear. Now, let's circle back on this question. How could the disciples have done better? I mean, it’s a little hard on these guys; the boat's filling with water, what did you want them to do? They didn't know what they're talking about. Yes, they did. They knew better than you, that boat's going down. So why does Jesus rebuke them? Should they have waited longer to wake Jesus? Was God pushing them right to the very brink? I mean, they'd done everything they could, the bailing, all of that. I don't know what they did, but no, God wasn't pushing them to the brink. First of all, they should not been afraid that God would let Jesus drown. I mean, that's not going to happen. By extension, he's not going to let His apostles drown either. Beyond that, they should not have been terrified of death at all, but that won't really come until He conquers death with His resurrection. From then on, they would be delivered a fear of death. But this is where I'm going to land on this one. I think they should have woken Jesus earlier. Why do I say that? They tried everything they knew to do, everything in their own strength, and at the last resort, they bring Jesus in. I think that's a bad model for the storm. What do you say? “I’ll do everything I can, and when all else fails, as my last resort, I'm going to bring Jesus in.” Don't do that. Get Him up immediately. "Looking like a storm's brewing, Lord, what do you think?” I think that's what they should have done. We're going to end with Jesus' final and eternal power over creation. This awesome miracle shows Jesus' power over all creation. By that power, He's going to bring in a new heaven and a new earth, and the turbulent world of evil will finally be subdued. I want you to contrast these two statements in Isaiah. Isaiah 17:12, "Oh the raging of many nations, they rage like the raging sea. Oh the uproar of the peoples, they roar like the roaring of great waters," along with Isaiah 57:20-21, "The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace says my God for the wicked." That, with Revelation 4:6, the vision of the throne of God, Almighty God, “Before the throne of God, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.” A placid sea, there's no hurricanes, no storms in heaven. Jesus, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control will transform the universe and get rid of all storms. You can look forward to that. In the meantime, if He wills to bring you through a storm, He does it because He loves you and because He's wise, and He knows how long to make it last. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to look at your Word. And we thank you for the power of your Word, and we thank you for your power over every storm. And now, Lord, as we turn to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, we pray that you would bless us with your presence through the Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray, Lord, that you would minister in this room through this ordinance. We know that there's nothing special about the bread or the juice, but there's something powerful about the combination of these elements, and the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, and the people of God. So be in our midst now, as we observe this ordinance of the Lord's Supper, in Jesus name. Amen.
Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Mark 4:21-25 and the fact that people's eternal destiny hangs on how they hear God's word, also their eternal health and daily fruitfulness of their souls depends on how they consider it. - SERMON Transcript - I. The Key Moment in Life: Hearing the Word of God Turn in your Bibles now to Mark chapter 4. We continue our study in this glorious G ospel of Mark. And as we do every week, we come to the key moment in life, the hearing of the word of God. But today we get to study what Jesus said about that moment in a very focused way. Verse 24 of chapter 4, Jesus said, “Consider carefully what you hear”, or literally in the Greek, “See what you hear, see what you hear”. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes from hearing God's word. It is by faith that our sins are forgiven. It is by faith that we live and move and have our spiritual being before almighty God. So Jesus is saying be very careful that you understand and accept and believe and obey what you hear from me. When I speak the word of God to you, your soul literally hangs in the balance, Jesus is the saying. Everything comes down to the moment of hearing God's word. Do you hear God's word in such a way that you are alive spiritually, that you're in a reconciled relationship with God as a result, and that you then bear abundant fruit as a result of how you hear God's word? Or is the word having little or no effect on you at all? Your eternal destiny hangs on how you hear God's word. “Do you hear God's word in such a way that you are alive spiritually, that you're in a reconciled relationship with God as a result, and that you then bear abundant fruit as a result of how you hear God's word?” Your daily spiritual health, your continued spiritual fruitfulness depend on the same, the moment of hearing God's word. So in every Christian worship service, the most significant thing is the ministry of the word. The most significant moment for each person sitting in the pews all over the world, wherever they sit to hear is what happens after your eardrums vibrate with the sound of the word of God. What happens then? Now if you come to church and you're evaluating the church architecturally. You like the carpet, you like the lighting, you like the comfort of the pews or you like the parking. We have good parking here, lots of parking. People were friendly. Coffee was excellent. Thank you, Bill, grateful. The donuts or whatever pastries were, they were your favorite flavors. What a great church. Even if you're evaluating the music offerings, whether this or that song was your favorite, or the bass guitar was too loud, James, or the drums were just what you like, acoustic guitar too soft. Listen, as important as many of those things are, all of them shrink into absolute insignificance compared to this one thing: see how you listen, watch what you hear, consider carefully the word of God. The eternal health and fruitfulness of your soul does not depend on any of those things or others like them that I've listed. Frankly the same is true of details of my preaching. The sound of my voice, the cadence I use, the grammar, the illustrations, whether I use humor or not, illustrations or not, whether you like my flow or not. Ultimately all that matters is did the preacher preach the pure word of God to you or not? And then if that happened, did I consider carefully the word that was preached to me? What did I do with it? The eternal health and daily fruitfulness of your soul depends on that. Consider carefully what you hear. Now, the context of this statement is the parable of the seed in the soils. The seed is the word of God as we've been saying, the soils represent different human responses to the word of God. The seed hits the soil. In the first three cases, it produces no fruit at all ultimately, no harvest. In the last case, it produces an amazing abundant harvest, a varying sizes, 30, 60, even a hundred times what was sown. But the key moment is the soil's reception of the seed, that is the heart response to the word of God. Jesus concludes this with a challenge, verse 23 to all to hear, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. In private, Jesus explains his parables to his disciples. Look at verses 10-12, “When he was alone, the Twelve and the others gathered around him and asked him about the parables.” So he's alone, he's got his inner circle with him and “he told them the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything said in parables, so that ‘they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding, otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven!’” So the parables given in general without any explanation whatsoever to the teaming crowd was Jesus is saying a form of judgment on them. The parables without explanation seemed to many of them like gibberish. But they actually were brilliant articulations of kingdom truth if you had ears to hear and got the explanation, they could understand it. Now those ears to hear, that's a spiritual capacity to understand spiritual truth about Christ and his kingdom. And it has worked in the hearts of the children of God by the secret working, the powerful working of the Holy Spirit of God. Now Jesus underscored that this parable, this parable of the seed in the various soil types was a gateway parable by which you could understand his whole body of doctrine, all of his parables, all of his teachings. Verse 13, Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?" He then went on to explain that parable in clear terms to them. Verse 14-20, “The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and snatches away the word that was sown in them. Others like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others like seed sown among the thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others like seed sown on good soil hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop 30, 60, even a hundred times what was sown.” So the key moment in life is how you listen to the Lord when he speaks by his word. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1:4-5, Paul talked about that moment for the Thessalonians when he came to town and preached the word to them, “For we know brothers love by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” And then in the next chapter, that same epistle, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, he says, "And we also thank God continually because when you heard the word of truth, the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe." That's the essence of it. This is not merely the words of a man, this is the word of God for me. Jesus himself said in John 5:24-25, he said, "I tell you the truth. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, the time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live." Well, that's at that moment of hearing the word. In the parable of the Good Shepherd which he told in John chapter 10, he uses the same hearing moment again and again, and again, this idea of hearing him speaking to you. John 10:3, “the sheep listened to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” And “when he is brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” In the end, John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” Verse 16, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” And then finally, John 10:27-28, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” “My sheep listen to my voice, they hear me speaking and they follow me.” That's the key moment. The good shepherd, Jesus is speaking to your soul and he's going out and leading out and you're following him all the way to heaven because you hear his voice. Well, that happens. How does that happen? It happens when you hear the word of God being preached to you. And you know this is not just a human moment, but this is actually God talking to you. You know that by the Holy Spirit. So what I want to do now is draw out elements from this brief part of Mark chapter 4, elements of how to hear Jesus speaking to you based on these words. There's far more I could say about this moment from the entire New Testament, but I'm just going to zero in on what he says here. If we are being commanded to be very careful how we listen to God's word, what do these verses in particular teach us about that? II. Listening so we may shine brightly So first, listening so we may shine brightly. Look at verses 21-22, “He said to them, ‘Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever's concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.’” Now, this is very interesting, you need to listen carefully to this section, so you'll know how I'm handling the word of God here. Be very careful how you handle it. Jesus' own teachings are meant to shine. That's what he's saying here. He's talking about his own teachings. They are meant to shine and not be hidden. So Jesus in the Sermon in the Mount uses the light on a stand image to talk about us. And I'm going to get to that, I will talk about that in a minute, but that's not what he's talking about here in Mark. In this context, he is talking about his own intentions in teaching these parables and more broadly, all of his teachings, Jesus's own purpose in his teaching ministry in general. True, he is concealing the truth behind tricky parable language. That is true. And true, he's doing this as an act of judgment to his unbelieving Jewish Nation, that is true, he says that. Verse 11-12, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside, everything said in parables so that ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven.’” But ultimately, it is not his desire that the truths of the kingdom of God remains secret and hidden. He didn't come into the world to start a mystery religion, a secret cult of insiders, a secret society in which a few select people know all the code language and come in behind closed doors and no one else sees and you've got all these secret passwords and all that. That's not what he came to do. This is not some secret mystery religion being started here. Jesus entered the world as the light of the world. John 8:12, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." And again, the next chapter, John 9:5, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” So Jesus did not enter the world to keep hidden, not at all. It is God's purpose that Jesus would shine on people walking in darkness all over the world. Isaiah 9:2, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light and those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.” That's Jesus. Or again, as God the father said to God the son before he was ever incarnate telling him what his mission would be. Isaiah 49:6, “[God the father said to God 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 that 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.’” That's not some secret mystery religion. That's the light shining for people all over the world. Furthermore, God's word itself is meant to be the light for the world. As the psalmist says in Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” So while the speaking of these parables is indeed a form of judgment, he does not intend that they remain a secret. So in this context, that's what these teachings mean. Verse 21-22, he said to them, "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open." Do you see it there in Mark's gospel, just Mark's gospel, that's the context here? These teachings are going to be everywhere. It's meant for everyone. So in the course of time, the Holy Spirit ordained that Mark would write these words down in scripture. And also not just the parables, but the explanation of the parables which he gave in secret to the inner circle that day. He wrote that down too. And now I don't know if you noticed, but they're published for all the world to read. I know you've noticed. Yes, they're out and abroad, full access, God intends for this teaching to be made clear, to shine in this present darkness, in this devilish darkness, as a clear light of truth, bringing God's salvation to the ends of the earth. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl or a bed. That makes no sense whatsoever. Whenever anyone back then went to the expense and trouble of filling up a lamp with expensive olive oil and trimming the wick and igniting it, they did it for a reason, to give light to people in the house. So it is with the incarnation, with Jesus coming, empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the truth, he wanted it published widely and broadly. He wanted everyone to hear it. Practically speaking, this amazing gospel of Mark is part of a worldwide effort to get these truths to the ends of the earth. Start with Bible translation. The Bible, the whole Bible has been translated into 2300+ languages. Portions including Gospel of Mark which would be a top priority for New Testament translators, they are going to go right to it, are well over 3000 languages. Reaching, accessible to 7 billion people on earth. Meanwhile, Bible distribution has been staggering. Do you have any idea how widespread the Bible is? Print media, electronic media, in India, they're using SIM cards with the whole Bible on it plus other teachings besides. The technology is amazing. Everybody's got a smartphone all over the world. And on these SIM cards, you got whole Bibles in the Hindi language or in other languages that are appropriate to them. It's amazing. But how many paper Bibles are there? How many actual books are there? How could anyone know that? But Google knows. Five billion plus copies of the Bible, think about that, five billion Bibles. So that means Jesus's “secret” explanation of the parables are available and by means of those five billion Bibles. Furthermore, you should know the Bible's public domain. So you can just search online and get the text of the Bible easily. It's out there. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl. It's not God's intention, it's not the Holy Spirit's intention. He wants everyone to have this. So while Jesus initially hit his explanation to the insiders, his intent was to publish these explanations to the ends of the earth. He then goes on to speak of the apparent mysteries of these doctrines, look at verse 22 “For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out in the open.” Now again, you have to stick with me just here in Mark 4. These words are used to one purpose here, but similar words are used to very different purposes elsewhere. In other places, Jesus used this to speak a warning against thinking you can hide your sins from the holy eyes of God. You can't. So a clear example of that is Luke 12, every sin you have ever committed will someday be known far and wide. There will be no secrets on judgment day. Don't be deceived. So Luke 12:1-3 is saying that, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy”, putting on a show of religiosity and there's no truth behind it, corruption, don't do that. This is Luke 12:2- 3, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known.” Same words, different application, different purpose at that point. “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner room will be proclaimed from the roofs.” There he's talking about your words, not his word. But here in Mark, he's talking about his word and the apparent mysteries connected with it. So your secrets will be fully exposed on judgment day. Romans 2:16 says that, “On that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of people by Christ Jesus.” So don't say that it's good to know that, just good to know. There are going to be no secrets on judgment day so live accordingly. Paul says, "I strive always because of judgment day to keep my conscience clear before God and man." But that's not what he's talking about here. In this context, he's talking about his own teachings, his parables which seem so dark and mysterious. The secrets of the kingdom of God are actually meant for people all over the earth. The hidden words of Christ, so obscure initially will be made clear ultimately, that's what he's saying. Bottom line is Jesus intends all his words, his teachings to be understood, fully understood, by people all over the world. There is no point whatsoever for Jesus to open his mouth and teach dark mysterious things that literally no person on earth can understand or ever will understand. That's foolish. He knows that. The purpose of his speaking is to be clear, to teach. “The secrets of the kingdom of God are actually meant for people all over the earth.” All right, so practical application for us is this. We should expect to be able to understand everything in the Bible. We should expect to be able to understand everything in the Bible. Jesus did not speak his words so that no one could understand him. Now I know some teachings are hard to understand. Peter said that about Paul's writings. And Peter wrote some of the hardest passages to interpret the New Testament! Peter! So he wrote some things that are hard to understand too. That doesn't mean you can't ultimately understand them. What would be the point of giving doctrines like that? Some of them are so clear they're like milk, a child can know them old them. But there are harder teachings. However, everything is ultimately meant to be clear. Now having said that, that's true of the teachings, that's where it starts. The question is next, what does that teaching do to you? How does that teaching, Jesus's beautiful teaching transform you? What does it do in your life? Now, here we go to the Sermon on the Mount for the same language, but now applied to you. Matthew 5:14:16, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.” So once we have come to Christ, we have been rescued from darkness and brought into light and we become light ourselves, Colossians 1:13, you have been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought over to the kingdom of the beloved sun. That's you, Colossians 1:13. And then it says in Ephesians 5:8-9, “For you were one's darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)” and find out what pleases the Lord. So now we are no longer darkness, we are light, we are the light of the world. And he's not going to ignite you with the truth of the gospel and hide you under a bowl or under bed, he's going to put you up on a stand and you're going to give light to everyone in the house, he's saying. Philippians 2:14-16 says “Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold forth the word of life.” You're shining and you're holding out the gospel. So we listen to Christ's clear teachings, we look at Christ's beautiful radiant light, and then we ourselves are made beautiful, we ourselves are made glorious. Our lives shine, God puts us up on a lamp stand to give light to everyone in the world. And we do this as we share Jesus's teachings, especially the gospel. III. Listening with a hungry heart Secondly, listening with a hungry heart, a hungry heart. Look at verse 24 and25, “Consider carefully what you hear”, that's what we began with, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you –– and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” So in this context, Jesus wants his disciples hungry for the word, hungry for the word. The measure that we use is the measure we'll receive. What this means is the more of God's word that we hungrily take in and understand and live out, the more he's going to show us. Remember how Jesus spoke of the good soil producing some 30, some 60, some 100 times what was sown. Christ wants his people burning with a holy ambition. You should be hungry for more. You should be hungry for more. That's what he's saying. Don't ever be satisfied. Hungry for more of God's word, hungry to have more return on God's investment in your life, a bigger harvest. I'm hungry for that. I think about the Bereans remember in Acts 17:11, it says of them, they “were of more noble character than Thessalonians for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Hungry. They had a holy ambition to know more and more and more and more of God's word. Perhaps the greatest articulation of this hunger for the word is in Psalm 119. Psalm 119, what a great Psalm that is. I'm just so hungry for God's word. So Psalm 119:10-11, “I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” I would just commend scripture memorization to you. Memorize God's word, hide it in your heart so that you won't sin against God. Or again, Psalm 119:14, “I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.” I'm hungry, I want to be as rich as I can in God's word. There's no limit to it. Psalm 119:20, “My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.” Now the psalmist considered carefully the word that he was reading through meditation. So going back to the whole opening concept, consider carefully how you listen. Meditation, the psalmist said, meditate on it, think deeply on it. Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” You should pray that. Open my eyes, I want to see wonderful things in your word, God. Show me new things. Again, Psalm 119:97, “Oh how I love your law. I meditate on it all day long.” Or again, verse 99, “I have more insight than all my teachers for I meditate on your statutes.” So the measure the psalmist uses for God's word is to be hungry for it, meditate on it, searching out evermore truth in it what can it tell me? That's what I think it means to consider carefully what you hear. Some truth I've found come immediately, got it right away. Others don't come right away. Basically this whole sermon and how I'm approaching Mark 4 has come as a result of my own meditations. I didn't just quickly jump over to the Sermon on the Mount and say, "Oh, we're the light of the world." That's not what's happening in Mark 4. So I meditate, it's like, that's interesting the Holy Spirit would do that with these same words. It was just meditation on God's word and then new insights come. Beyond that, is the scriptures urging the measure of obedience. The measure of obedience. You hear God's word, but do you obey it, do you put it into practice? The more we hear and obey God's word, the more he will entrust to us. John 7:17, “If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” Jesus is saying, "You want to know who I am? Then get ready to do God's will. Get ready to obey, then you'll know who I am." Or even better, John 14:21, which is a prime verse, I love this verse. I recommend it to you for memorization, “Whoever has my commands,” plus, “and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love him and we will manifest ourselves to him.” We will disclose ourselves to him. In other words, if you hear and obey God's word, you'll get to know God better, he will reveal himself to you. And it all comes down to hearing and obeying. If you hear and don't obey, you won't know God very well. So that's the measure you use, is the measure you'll receive. If we hungrily study God's word eager to put into practice the things we've learned, God will reveal more and more of himself and his purposes to us. Guess what? Your harvest will be bigger on judgment day. You'll know what God's doing and you won't waste your time on things that are going to be destroyed. “If we hungrily study God's word eager to put into practice the things we've learned, God will reveal more and more of himself and his purposes to us.” The measure you use is the measure you receive. Now with this comes a pretty dire warning of judgment, and I would be remiss if I didn't zero in on it. “Whoever has, will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” What does that mean? Well, there could be individuals that start out with great excitement in the word of God. Like the stony ground here, they start out with some joy, they're into it, they think it's great coming to church, listening to God's word, they have a basic understanding of it. But if they don't continue in God's word and they don't mix it with faith and they don't mix it with obedience, even what they have will be taken from them, Jesus is saying. What does that mean? Fast forward a year, five years, 10 years, they don't care about God's word anymore. It's like they never heard it at all. What they had for that little while got taken from them and now it's nothing to them. Their hearts have gotten hard. So Hebrews 3:7-8, it says “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart’.” It's a warning here. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Now this text in another place speaks of the measure you use toward other people. There's a measure you use toward the poor and lost people of the world, and that will be the measure you get rewarded with on judgment day. So you want to have that big judgment day reward, then be generous to other people, be lavish toward other people. We're so stingy. Be lavish. Luke 6:38 says, “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap for what the measure you use will be measured to you.” So that's horizontal. You take in God's word, you're hungry for it, it comes in and then it starts pouring out. Yes, in teaching, and evangelism, but also in finances, caring for the poor and needy, just serving people. The measure you use is the measure you get on judgment day. IV. Lessons All right, lessons. Let me just ask some questions of you as we close. How would you characterize your hearing of God's word? Consider carefully what you hear, how would you characterize it? Do you understand that the hearing of God's word with a faith filled, submissive, obedient heart is the key to your eternal life and your spiritual health? Do you understand that? It's the key to everything? Are you in a regular pattern of Bible intake in your life? Are you feeding on God's word daily? Do you have a quiet time? Do you feed your soul on the word of God? I'm not asking, do you think a quiet time is a good idea? I didn't ask you that. I asked, do you have one? Is this your regular habit? That's what I'm asking. Do you expect that Christ will reveal his secrets to you if you meditate on it and go after it? If you come up to a hard text, do you work on it and ask him to reveal it to you? Do you expect that Christ's word will shine brightly like a light shining in your heart and in this present dark world? Do you expect that? Do you listen to God's words so that you yourself can shine brightly in this age? Lord, make me a better person, so that I can shine in this dark world. Are you holding forth, Philippians 2:16, holding forth the word of truth to people like you're a star shining in a dark place? Is that what you're doing? Do you boldly share the gospel to lost neighbors, coworkers, family members, even total strangers? So I was on a plane this week and every seat in the plane was taken but the one next to me. That was odd because I like doing plane evangelism. I thought, "Okay, I'll be reading a book or something like that." An older woman had come and I knew the seat next to me, I knew its number and she said that number was hers and then promptly sat in the wrong seat. I wasn't going to get involved. But then came, as the last person on the plane, a very large man. I mean, significantly large, and my heart sank. I'm being honest with you. I can be a little selfish when it comes to these things. I feel like I've been assigned by the airline a certain zone that's mine. You guys know what I'm talking about? And this guy he didn't ask, but he wanted to use some of my zone. And to make matters worse, he had a wallet in his pocket here in the side which just definitely it was like, if there were an alarm system, it would be going off. That's my area. However, we had the richest gospel conversation I've had in a long time. He was the one. Do you understand? He was the one that was chosen for me, not the older woman who was much smaller than he was. But that was the guy. His name was Pete, lived in Western Massachusetts, works for a record company, was coming from a weekend in Las Vegas. He needed the Lord. And I'm not saying he came to Christ. I'm saying we talked about it for about 45 minutes. I asked him to read the gospel of Mark, he said he would get it, he would read it with his mother, she's religious. So all right, great, the two of them can read it together. I'm just telling you there's a selfishness inside my heart that fights against that but God can use us even as selfish as we are. Are we willing to do that? Do you have a hungry heart toward God's word? Do you show that in your life? Are you meditating on it? Are you memorizing it? Do you see that? And in your private life, would you say how are you responding to the word? How would you characterize your spiritual state right now? Are you plateaued? Are you growing? Are you declining? Are you regressing? Are you bored? Are you dormant? Are you growing? What? What's happening? Now, the most important of all of God's words is the milk of the gospel, the simplicity of the gospel. “For what I received”, 1 Corinthians 15, “I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.” There is nothing more important than that for you. Have you believed in that for the forgiveness of your sins? It's everything. Your eternity depends on that. Have you? Have you trusted in Christ? 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I resolve to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” “The most important of all of God's words is the milk of the gospel, the simplicity of the gospel.” Now I make a pledge to you, a promise that as long as I live and I have this role to be the regular preacher of the word from this pulpit, I am determined to preach the word of God to you week after week. I have nothing else to offer you. And like Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:20, "I have not hesitated to proclaim anything that would be helpful to you." Or in Acts 20:27, I've not shrunk back from proclaiming the whole council of God, everything in God's word. My call is to do what Jesus called Peter to do, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, John 21. That's what I want to do. And I'm committed that all of the men who get up here to preach, I'll be on a study leave as I do in the summer to work on a couple of books and there'll be men here preaching to you, all of them are committed to the same thing or they wouldn't preach here. And then when my time comes and I'm not here anymore, you as a congregation are responsible for this pulpit to make certain that the person who stands here does the same, your souls depend on it. Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for this clear message on the vital significance of hearing the word of God, consider carefully what you hear, how you hear. God work this in us now by the Spirit. Thank you for Jesus, thank you for his teaching, thank you for the word of God. Thank you that it's come to us pure, ready for us to feed on. Thank you for all these things in Jesus's name. Amen.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 24th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.If we go to the Old Testament, to Jeremiah 33:3, Jeremiah 333! The Lord says:'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'That's right! That's Jesus's telephone number: Jeremiah 333! “Call to Me, and I will answer you,” but how can we call on someone that we do not know and how can we call someone we don't believe in or even worse, we don't trust? You see, in Hebrews 11:6, the Lord says:“But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Maybe today, you and I are like Moses of old, when he stood before the burning bush in Exodus 3:13-14:“Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' " I want to say to you that today that we need to know His name. It is all about faith, isn't it? Not faith in faith but faith in a person. Now Augustine said, "Faith is to believe in something you cannot see, but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe." And that is what I love about it. Can you imagine phoning somebody, dialling the number, and they say, “Yes, can I help you?” And they say, “Who is he, what is his name?” And you say, “Well, I don't know his name.” - How can they help you? They can't help you... Now, Thomas had the same problem. In John 14:5-6, he said,“How can we know the way?”“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”Today, we need to get to know the name of the person we are phoning - “Call unto me!” Lord Jesus, please help me today - and I tell you what, He will help you! He wants to help you more than you want to call Him.Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you!Goodbye.
Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Mark 2:23-3:6, explaining that Jesus was sent to proclaim liberty for the captives, and he did it by claiming full authority as Lord of the sabbath. - TRANSCRIPT - Introduction Turn in your Bibles as we continue to work our way today through Mark's gospel, Mark 2:23 to Mark 3:6. Six centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah predicted the nature of his ministry speaking for him in prophetic voice in Isaiah 61:1-2, "The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Hear again those words, Jesus came to proclaim freedom for the captors, freedom from slavery. Jesus taught us all sinners are slaves to sin, therefore, slaves to Satan, the invisible slave master. Satan has many different patterns of slavery however, with many different foreman on his plantations of sin, many different task masters lashed the slaves. One of the most powerful in Jesus' day was religious legalism, a harsh bondage of relentless religious obligations and duties to fulfill a pattern of works righteousness gained by the law. And the religious leaders of the day, especially the Scribes and Pharisees loaded up the people with guilt and lashed their own people relentlessly with unbending laws. Jesus came to set all people free from slavery, from bondage. Recently, I looked up a photo I thought of before and then tracked it down. It was of a slave labor camp during World War II that the Nazis were running in a place in Austria called Mauthausen. It was a terrible death camp there. The death camp held a third of a million people of which only 80,000 survived to the end of the war. There was something called the stairs of death. They led out from a quarry in which granite was carved to build the GRA architectural vision of the third right. The stairway itself led up out of the quarry to a rim above it. The guards forced the prisoners to pick up blocks of granite weighing over 100 pounds and forced them to put them in wooden backpacks and lift them up and then carry them up 186 steps to the top of the quarry. The slave labor walked five abreast as they walked up these 186 steps. Frequently, some of them, in weakness, would topple over backwards and take out people behind them, even to their death. This pictures somewhat the bondage that Israel experienced in Egypt as they built for the store cities for Pharaoh; they were worked seven days a week, it was relentless labor. “The Lord looked down on their condition," it says, "and was concerned about them and delivered them." The Real Issue: Sabbath Legalism: Salvation by Works of the Law In Jesus' day, there were different kinds of slave drivers over the Jewish people. As I said, there were spiritual task masters, the Scribes and Pharisees who made these relentless spiritual laws by which they bound the consciences of the people and forced them to work in a certain pattern for their own salvation. Jesus talked about them in Matthew 23:4. He said, "The Scribes and Pharisees tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not lift a finger to move them." Central to this spiritual slavery was the concept of God himself as a harsh taskmaster and salvation, being something earned by external obedience of the people to these manmade laws. Salvation by works with no mercy, only the strongest survive. Like a slave labor camp with God, the one holding the lash. One of the greatest of these forms of bondage were the Sabbath regulations. The Scribes and Pharisees felt they owned that day and they multiplied the traditions of the rabbis to plant the entire day thick with laws and regulations and prohibitions that were never written in the law of Moses. With these relentless Sabbath laws, they made the day a form of bondage, a crushing burden really to the people. Almighty God sent his only begotten son, Jesus, to set them free from all this. Hallelujah! Jesus sets us free. We've already celebrated. Jesus didn't come to put burdens on us. He came to take the burdens off us. "Come in to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn from me for you will find my yolk is easy, my burden is light for I am gentle and humble in heart." That's who Jesus is. I have no idea what's going on in your lives, but as a pastor, I can't help but think that some of you must have walked in here today with crushing burdens. Burdens that cannot be seen, especially the burden of guilt. How can a sinner like me be righteous in the sight of a Holy God? How can a sinner like me actually survive judgment day and spend eternity in heaven and not in hell? Jesus came to take that burden off you. To put it on himself and to die in your place under the wrath of God that you might be set free. That's what I see in today's text when Jesus calls himself the Lord of the Sabbath. Let's see if we can walk through that and understand it. We begin by contemplating the Sabbath legalism into which Jesus ministered. The origin of the Sabbath and Scripture is in Genesis 1 and 2. In Genesis 1, God created heaven and earth in six days. Then in Genesis 2:2-3 it says, "By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work and God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Because on it, he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." That's the origin of it, the theological basis of the Sabbath. Then in terms of the Jewish people and their laws, at Mount Sinai, God included a Sabbath observance as part of the 10 commandments. Exodus 20:8-11, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Do all your work in six days and rest on the seventh. The seventh day is a Sabbath for the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work. … For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Later in the book of Exodus, He gives further clarification. In Exodus 31:17, a key verse for me today, we're going to see it three times in my sermon. Exodus 31:17 says, "The Sabbath is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed." The basic command is do not work, nothing more. But behind it, of course is a sense of spiritual refreshment, of focusing on the Lord the creator of all things and being refreshed in him. As Isaiah the prophet said, we are to call the Sabbath a delight, meaning through focusing on the Lord together with the people of God, drinking in the ministry of the word in corporate worship as well, we are spiritually refreshed, we're renewed. But the Jewish leaders couldn't leave it at that. They began at a certain point in Jewish history, a long history of legalism concerning the Sabbath. The Jewish rabbis over the centuries began adding additional commands to protect the law, fence upon fence, upon fence to protect the law. These additional commands are found nowhere in scripture. They became as binding on the consciences of the people as any command found in scripture. That's how their legalism worked. These extra rabbinic traditional laws were codified in a big book called The Talmud and it had 24 chapters of Sabbath regulations. One rabbi actually spent two and a half years of study on just one of those 24 chapters. Friends, at that rate, it would take 60 years to get through The Talmud's regulations on the Sabbath. They added dimensions and definitions and a long heritage of rabbinic interpretation on what it means to keep the Sabbath day holy and what it means not to work. For example, they had limits on how far you could walk on a Sabbath day. You could not walk 2,000 paces. 1,999 was fine, but 2000 was too many. This is before the electronic devices that helpfully count your steps for you. I'm not sure who it was that was counting the steps. Anything that might be contrived as work was forbidden on a Sabbath. For example, Scribes could not carry pens. Carpenters could not touch a hammer or saw. Tailors could not have on their person, a needle. All of that might tempt them to work, just to have the tools of the trade near you. No one was permitted to pick up anything heavier than a fig. If you tossed an object in the air with one hand, you had to catch it with the same hand. If you caught it with the other hand, it was considered work. Insects could not be killed. No candle could be either lit or extinguished. No bathing was allowed because some water might slosh out of the tub and accidentally clean the floor. All farm work was illegal, especially plowing, sewing and harvesting, which will be relevant for our text today. A woman could not look in a mirror because it's possible she might see a gray hair and be tempted to pluck it out and that would be work. This is coming from The Talmud. Especially relevant for Jesus' healings, sick people were only allowed enough treatment to keep them alive on the Sabbath day. So if a condition were literally life threatening, like someone bleeding out or drowning, they could be saved, but anything not life threatening should wait until after the Sabbath was over. That would include a man with a shriveled hand. We'll get to that. If someone put cotton in their ear before the Sabbath began, they could leave it there. But if it should fall out, you couldn't put it back in. Along with all of this, the Jews found clever ways of circumventing these rabbinic requirements. For example, as I said, you can't travel more than 1,999 paces from your home. Yes, but what constitutes your home? Now, that's an interesting question. Wherever your food is, would be defined as your home. So if before the Sabbath began, you stored some food in some place, 1,998 paces from your front door. That could be constituted your home as well so you could actually double the length. You could go on the Sabbath day, see how all that works? They could carry certain household items like keys and medicines, all that kind of thing. If you connected two buildings with a string or a piece of wood, that would be considered one building. So if you had a bunch of Jewish people living in an urban setting, a ghetto, or something like that, if you connected all the buildings, you could move freely in that city block on a Sabbath, no problem. You would see Jewish communities even across streets with strings or pieces of wood connecting so that it would expand the area that you could walk on the Sabbath day. You can see how ridiculous all this could become. Once you begin that journey of legalism, it never stops. The Real Problem: Religious Hypocrisy So the problem is the Scribes and Pharisees had a sense of overt ownership of this whole process. They had set themself up in Moses seat, felt they were interpreters of Mosaic law, and they had authority over all of these matters. Anyone who questioned them or challenged them was considered a spiritual outlaw or a blasphemer. That's why Jesus so enraged them. He didn't follow any of their additions, their manmade additions. He showed no fear of them at all, and especially when it came to healings, He did not hold back at all as we'll see even today. Behind all of this is the real issue of salvation, how our sins are forgiven before God and the concept of legalism that's so devastating. The Scribes and Pharisees preached and sought to live out a salvation by works of the law. They believe that they kept the minutia of the law, they would be right before God, that was their righteousness. Along with this legalism comes the problem of religious hypocrisy. The Scribes and Pharisees meticulously kept a manmade standard of rules and regulations, but their hearts where every bit as foul and corrupt as any pagan's ever was. Their hearts were characterized by pride, greed, lust, blasphemy within rage. All of these things were a raging fire of wickedness within them while they're externally keeping all these laws. Jesus says in Matthew 23 in his seven woes, He says, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you are like whitewash tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way on the outside, you appear to people as righteous, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” These external regulations do not save the soul, they do not transform the corrupt wicked human heart. Jesus leveled the whole system. Jesus' first challenge to corrupt Sabbath legalism happened before the account we're reading today in Jesus' ministry. Jesus did not accidentally heal on the Sabbath. Not like He forgot that it was the Sabbath. It's not like that at all. He is actively doing the work of the Father and the Father wanted him to heal on the Sabbath. He was sent to liberate the captives. In John 5, Jesus healed a man that had been paralyzed for 39 years. He told him to pick up his mat and go home. But then the Sabbath police found him and didn't see an incredible signal miracle of God's grace, they saw him as a mat-carrying Sabbath breaker. That guy I think was in an unconverted state and this act turned Jesus in to the Sabbath police. He had a debate with them right there and then about the Sabbath and in John 5:16-18, it says, "So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath that Jews persecuted him.” Jesus said to them, 'My father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working.'" Wow! What an answer. Then it says, "For this reason, the Jews tried all the harder to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God." What they didn’t understand was that Jesus personally instituted the Sabbath itself. If you understand who Jesus, the Son of God is, and you understand the significance of John 1:3, "Through him, all things were made. And without him, nothing was made that has been made.” What that means is the one who rested after the creation of every thing was Jesus, along with his Father. Jesus, the creator of all things instituted the Sabbath rest to begin with. Christ Challenges Sabbath Legalism Let's look at our text, the first case study, which is picking heads of grain. Let's look at what happened. Mark 2:23, "One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grains field and as the disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain." First of all, this gives us an insight into just how poor these apostles were and Jesus was. Jesus had said to someone who wanted to follow him as a disciple, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Luke tells us that some wealthy women were supporting Jesus out of their means, their financial means. Jesus didn't have any money and his followers had very little. It was a hard life. So the disciples moving through the grain fields on the Sabbath, then plucking heads of grain and rubbing them in their hands and eating them shows that they're poor. This was a Jewish form of welfare where owners of fields are told not to harvest everything or not to go right to the edge of the field, but leave some for the poor. By the apostles doing this, it shows they were included in the poor. It also shows how heartless the Pharisees were. They didn't care less that these poor people were moving through the grain fields and filling their empty stomachs with a few heads of grain. What they saw was a violation of the law against harvesting. This was not a matter of thievery on their part. Not at all. They were free to do it the other six days. It was a problem of Sabbath regulation. They challenged Jesus. Verse 24, "The Pharisees said to him, 'Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?'" Jesus then gives a complex defense of the action, a complex defense, not easy to fully understand. In verse 25- 26, He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar, the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he gave some also to his companions." Jesus cited scriptural precedent, a well known story of David who was the true anointed king of Israel, had been anointed by Samuel, but was made to flee for his life because the increasingly insane King Saul did not recognize him and would not embrace him as his son-in-law, so he had to flee for his life. David and his men in fleeing were in great physical distress, had nothing to eat, they were extremely hungry. David goes to the tabernacle. There was no temple in the days, but it was a tent where the Ark of the Covenant was, and the priests were carrying on the ministry there. The priest in those days greeted him in fear. David asked if he had anything to eat because he and his men were hungry. Hamelech said, "There's nothing there but the bread of the presence," which was the consecrated or holy bread put out each Sabbath by the priest as specified in Leviticus 24. The priest realized that David wasn't just any person, but was the king's son-in-law, he was a significant individual in Israel. The priest also more importantly recognized that no ceremony or ritual law should be greater than someone's physical survival. The laws have to fit into a hierarchy. This religious requirement was not more important than feeding starving people. All of this constitutes what we would call a “how much more” argument. If David, the King's son-in-law merited special consideration and if a bending of a ceremonial law for a higher purpose, namely to feed the hungry was acceptable, how much more Jesus, the son of God, the Son of Man. We'll talk about that in a moment. Jesus’ disciples should be free to break man-made regulations that were never in God's word. I don't know about you, but I'm convinced. If David could do that to an actual legal requirement in the law of Moses, how much more should Jesus and his disciples be free to pick heads of grain on the Sabbath and eat them. But He's not done. He then goes on to teach about the Sabbath and makes this amazing assertion. Then He said to them, verse 27, "The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath." At the heart of this was the failure of the Pharisees to understand the whole point of the Sabbath to begin with. What was it for? It was to bless man, to refresh him, to strengthen him, to free him for one day from the burdens of work and to allow him to refocus his mind on God and on his throne. God ceased work on the seventh day and sat down on his throne to rule the universe. The Sabbath was made for man to refresh himself in the Lord. Now I'm going to go back to that great verse, Exodus 31: 17. I have to tell you, this is a new insight for me. I didn't notice this until about a week and a half ago, Exodus 31:17. It's really interesting. There again, speaking of the Sabbath, God says, "The Sabbath is assigned forever between me and the people of Israel, that in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth. And on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed." That Hebrew word “refreshed”, literally is tied to breath and it could be translated that He caught his breath. That's fascinating. Six days making heaven and earth. And then on the seventh, He caught his breath. I hope you find this amazing. If not, let me help you find it more amazing. Isaiah, 40:28, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary." What do you get out of that? God's omnipotent. Does He need to catch his breath? Never. This is what theologians call an anthropomorphism, where God is portrayed like us. Like the hand of the Lord, the mouth of the Lord, the eye of the Lord, this kind of thing. But God doesn't have a hand, He doesn't have an eye or a mouth, but it's so that we can understand some aspects of God and how He relates to things. God didn't need to be refreshed, but we do. The work that God did in making heaven and earth did not tire him out. The Sabbath was instituted for us because we do get weary, and we do get worn out in our labors, and we do need to be renewed and refreshed, especially spiritually. As it says in Psalm 23:2-3, "He makes me lie down in green pastors, he leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul." God intended the Sabbath to restore your soul. God never intended the Sabbath to become the most oppressive, burdensome, shackled, crushing, soul-deflating day of the week, but that's what the Pharisees had made it to become. Man's welfare is above Sabbath regulations, not a slave to it. Then comes Jesus' stunning claim. Verse 28. I spent a long time pondering this, every word. "Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." What is the logical connection between verse 27 and 28? “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” In order to understand the logical connection, you have to understand the significance of the title, Son of Man. What does that mean that Jesus is the Son of Man? It comes directly from the vision and the Prophet Daniel in Daniel 7. There is this awesome vision of God up on a throne of fire, a river of fire flowing from the throne of almighty God, ruling over all the beasts of the empires of the earth." Here's sovereign God ruling over tyrants and beasts and a river of fire and a 100 million angels are on him, the ancient of days, Almighty God. Then suddenly, into the presence of Almighty God, the Ancient of Days, comes one like a Son of Man. Listen to Daniel 7:13-14, "In my vision at night, I looked and there before me was one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence and he was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All people's nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will never pass away. And his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." That's who the Son of Man is, that's who Jesus is. He is human, Son of Man, but He is God, He's riding on the clouds and He's given glory and people worship him. The number one question I would ask a biblically literate Jewish unbeliever is “Who is the Son of Man in Daniel 7?” I would spend all my time on that. Who is he? Jesus called himself Son of Man, over and over. As Jesus would say at the end of his ministry, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me because I am the Son of Man." That's why all authority in heaven and earth have been given to me because I am the Son of Man. So if they, the Scribes and Pharisees, knew who He was, they would not be asking questions of him or questioning him at all. The logical link, because Jesus is Son of Man, what that means is everything pertaining to the human race is given to him. He's in charge of everything relevant to us. That's his prerogative as the Son of Man. That includes, for example, being judge of all human beings. John 5:27 says, "God has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.” That's the same logic. Because He is the Son of Man, He gets to judge us all. He's the judge of all the earth, of all humans. Therefore because He is the Son of Man, He gets to decide what we get to do or don't do on the Sabbath. It's up to him what we do on the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. This is a stunning bombshell. This is a claim to nothing less than full deity. Can you imagine anyone else in biblical history making such a claim? Can you imagine Moses calling himself, "Lord of the Sabbath.” He would never have said that. He's a servant in God's house. Can you imagine David saying, "I'm Lord of the Sabbath”? Or any of the prophets? Can you imagine Elijah claiming to be Lord of the Sabbath? No one would make such a claim, except Jesus. Jesus, himself together with his father instituted the Sabbath rest. As Lord of the Sabbath, He has the right to say what is permissible on the Sabbath. It's a matter of kingly authority. He's the king of all the earth and He gets to decide what we do and don't do on the Sabbath. The Majestic Person of Christ Jesus is God. Jesus is worthy of our worship. Therefore, Jesus is the focus of our time on the Sabbath. He's the focus of that worship because He is Almighty God in the flesh. The Sabbath itself is in some sense a shadow whose reality is Christ and is now fulfilled and in some sense has become obsolete. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath. By his death and by his resurrection, Jesus invites all who believe in him to enter into his rest and to finish from all works of righteousness, and rest finally and completely in his finished work on the cross. The author to Hebrews makes this plain in Hebrews 4:3, "Now we, who have believed," [that is in Jesus] "have entered into that rest." Again, the author says a few verses later, in Hebrews 4:9-10, "There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work just as God did from his." We who have believed have entered that Sabbath rest and there still remains a Sabbath rest. It's an already not yet thing. When you come to faith in Christ, you have rested from all of your works, you are righteous in God's sight because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, you have entered your Sabbath rest, but there still remains a Sabbath rest for you and that's heaven. Therefore, the mosaic regulation of the Sabbath was a shadow. Jesus is the reality. Colossians 2:16-17, "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with your regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day." Let me just keep it simple for our purposes right now. Do not let anyone judge you by what you do with the Sabbath day. Verse 17, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come.” The reality, however, is found in Christ." So the old covenant Sabbath was a shadow, Jesus is the reality. That shadow-reality language is used in the book of Hebrews for the ceremonial laws that are fulfilled in Christ. The Sabbath as the Jews observed in the old covenant is obsolete. Jesus has made a new Sabbath. So from the beginning of the New Testament era on, we ceased gathering to worship on the seventh day and it was moved over to the first day. I think this symbolism is vital. The old covenant Jews looked backward to the old creation, the six days in which the physical universe was made and celebrated that. We look ahead to the new creation that Jesus has won by his resurrection from the dead. We're looking ahead to a new heaven and a new earth by meeting on the first day of the week and calling it the Lord's day, so we assemble the worship on the first day, not the seventh. Along with this comes a second case study, the man with a shriveled hand. Look at the verse, Mark 3:1-6, "Another time, he went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with a shriveled hand, 'Stand up in front of everyone.' Then Jesus asked them, 'Which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil? To save life or to kill?' But they remained silent. He looked around at them and anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored.' Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus." In all the gospels in which these accounts occur, these are back to back, the grain fields and the shriveled hand, back to back. These probably are consecutive Sabbaths. I think they're meant to be taken together. Jesus is going around, village to village in Galilee, preaching and proclaiming and working and going on the Sabbath to reach scripture and to teach. Jesus' enemies, at this point, are starting to follow him around, to dog his steps. They want to make trouble for him, they want him to fail. They want to hang him with his own words and works. They really are after him at this point. Why? The Sabbath is one of the number one reasons. Jesus in John 9 heals a man born blind. He's hauled up in front of the religious police and the council. It says in John 9:16, some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God for he does not keep the Sabbath." Simplistic mathematics. It's like, "He's not from God. He doesn't keep our Sabbath regulations." He doesn't keep the Sabbath, he's not from God.” But then the next phrase in John 9:16 says, "But others ask, 'How could this sinner do such miraculous signs?'" They have a problem. They don't get it. How could anyone do that if God were not with them? It's impossible. They don't know what to do. The crowning argument of Jesus' enemies against him is He doesn't keep the Sabbath. They are like prowling predators. They're lying in the tall grass waiting to pounce for Jesus, they're watching him. Jesus, the most courageous man in history, attacks them head on. Mark 3:3, “Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone." I think not only was Jesus courageous, I think the man with the shriveled hand was somewhat courageous. He knew this was heading for nothing but trouble, but he had this shriveled hand, the Greek word implies, withered. It says it'd be very hard for him to work. This is a clear test case, for the man's medical condition is not life threatening. So you're going to say, "Look, six days you can do all your healing. Come back after the Sabbath is over." We've already seen that in Mark's Gospel while people waited for the Sabbath to end to come get healed. No, Jesus is not going to wait. He wants this man healed right now because He's not only after the man with the shriveled hand and showing compassion to him. He is after that, but He wants to blow up this yolk of legalism right now. He wants to set the people free from that legalism. He puts them in a logical trap. Look at Verse 4, “Jesus asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath? To do good or to do evil? To save life or to kill?’” Jesus is saying, “So go ahead, let's answer. Let's talk about which of these two is lawful on the Sabbath”. They remain silent, He's seeking to expose their corrupt hearts. In Matthew's gospel, He sites another one of their faulty patterns. There's nothing wrong with the pattern, but there's something wrong with how they were dealing with humans. He said, "If any of you has a sheep that falls in the pit on the Sabbath, you'll do whatever you can to get the sheep out. But you care more about your own livestock than you do other human beings. What's wrong with you?" The question he asked here goes deeper to their evil intentions. What are they going to do after this whole thing's done? They're going to go out and on the Sabbath, they're going to work really hard. It's going to be intellectual work. They're going to do the work of plotting his murder. Sometimes He called them out straight out, "You're trying to kill me." He openly said that to them sometimes. He knew what they were doing. He says, "All right, each of us is going to be working on the Sabbath. I'm working to heal this man, to bring life to him. You are working to kill me. Which of those two do you think is lawful?" He traps them, but they didn't answer. I think this happens a lot. Jesus will trap some group of evil people and they will not answer his question. Jesus has a passionate response, look at verse 5, “He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts." He's very angry at them. He is an emotional man. Jesus had emotions, but unlike us, his emotions are always perfect. Jesus looked them right in the eyes, exposed their evil corruptions and then He's truly angry at them with a clean, pure fire of holy wrath. Their hypocrisy toward God, their lack of love for other people was pure evil, and it made Jesus angry. This is the only verse in the entire new Testament that overtly says that Jesus was angry. I think He was angry at other times like when He made the whip and drove out all of the corrupt merchants in the temple area. I think He was filled with a holy anger then but it doesn't say so. I think once He was indignant with his own disciples for not letting the children come, but it doesn't say He was angry. This says, “He's angry at them”. Secondly, it says He was grieved. He was grieved at their stubbornness or their hardness of heart. The hard heart will not yield and ultimately Jesus knows where that hardheartedness will lead. It will lead to the point where He will say to them while sitting on a throne of glory, "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." That's where their legalism will lead. "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teaches of the law, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." He knows they're heading toward hell and He's grieved over them. He turns to the man and says, "Stretch out your hand." The man stretches out his hand, and it's instantly restored. I don't know what happened. I think hands are amazing. I was a mechanical engineer for 10 years. When you think about all the tendons and capillaries and all of the stuff. Anyway, there it is, all of its articulations and its movements and they're instantly restored, effortless, perfect healing by Jesus. That's Jesus passionate, compassionate powerful response. What about his enemies? They're pretty passionate too. You don't have it in Mark's gospel. In Luke 6:11, it says they were furious. Don't you see something wrong with that? A guy has just been healed and they're furious. In verse 6 of our text, the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Jesus threatened their power. The Herodians and Pharisees are usually enemies. The Herodians are secularists, they're Hellenists, they're Greek-speaking worldly people who linked up with Herod the Great and then his four successors to get worldly power and do well in life, a little bit like tax collectors in that regard. True patriotic Jews would usually see the Herodians as sellouts. But there's an old saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Jesus made enemies come together and fight. Lessons The True Sabbath Rest: Salvation through Faith in Christ What lessons can we take from this text? The central lesson of the entire gospel of Mark, indeed, all four gospels—the infinite majesty and glory of Jesus. Jesus is Lord of the Savage. Jesus, the Lord of all. Jesus is God. He is majestic. Every single one of us right now is underestimating Jesus. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the infinite majesty and glory of God in bodily form, that's Jesus. Lord of the Sabbath. Secondly, the true Sabbath rest is salvation through faith in Christ. The reality of the Sabbath is found in Christ. We who have believed enter that rest. I said, some of you may have walked in here with terrible spiritual burdens, maybe you're not sure that you're a Christian. You're not sure that your sins are forgiven. You don't need to do any works. Lay down those works. Give up those works. He who has entered into the rest of God, has ceased from those works. Find perfect forgiveness in Jesus' finished work on the cross. Hear simply what Jesus said to the thief on the cross. "Today, you'll be with me in paradise." What works did that man do? None. But simple faith in Christ led him to forgiveness of sins. So lay aside your burdens, give them to Jesus, all your guilt, give it to Christ. A Persistent Danger: Religious Legalism & Hypocrisy Thirdly, let all of us watch out for this persistent danger of religious legalism. It's still with us today. Basically, there are two religions in the world, salvation by works through religious efforts and all of that and salvation by grace, through faith in Christ. That's it. There's a lot of different versions of that first type, but religious legalism is still with us and it dogs our step as Christians. We think that whenever we feel guilty and sinful and our conscience rises up against us, we need to go do a bunch of religious works. Kill it, flee to the cross. That's the only righteousness that will survive judgment day. Let's get rid of any religious legalism and hypocrisy. A Lasting Question: The Best Way to Spend the Lord’s Day Fourth, a lasting question. What is the best way to spend the Lord's Day? "Pastor, are you going to do this? You've been preaching already a good long while. Are we going to actually get into all the ways that Christians should and shouldn't use the Sabbath.” This is probably the seventh sermon I've preached on the topic of the Sabbath. I would suggest you go to TwoJourneys.org and look at my sermons in Hebrews 4, Romans 14, Colossians 2. I’ve covered all that. Isaiah says, "Call the Sabbath the delight." I walk through lots of particularities on how Christians should spend their day. I think the key is in Exodus 31:17, "Whatever you do, catch your breath spiritually. Be refreshed spiritually in Christ." It's not legalistic to say you should come to public worship every week when you're physically able, that is vital. It's not legalism to say that you should be here and drink in God's word and worship with the people of God. That's a given. But what else? Am I going to start talking about sports like the Super Bowl or like the tournament, or should we be allowed to watch sports and all that?" No, I'm not. Except I just kind of did. Anyway, the idea is you have to judge yourself. It's not for the elders to judge you and what you do on the Sabbath day, but I think you should evaluate yourself. Your Sunday patterns, do they refresh your soul in the Lord or not? Finally, heaven is the ultimate Sabbath rest. Let me close with a question that popped in my mind and I'm not going to solve it for you, but I think it's pretty cool. How do the glorified saints in heaven both rest from all their works and engage in the energetic labor that their resurrection bodies will be doing? How do they do both? I think they will be doing both an eternal rest in the Lord and energetic, creative labor in the new heaven and new earth. I think that's pretty exciting, don't you? Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this passage. Thank you for the complexity of the topic of the Sabbath. Thank you for the simplicity of the gospel that Jesus is everything. Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Father, I pray that you would enable us to flee to him and find in Christ everything we need for the salvation of our souls. That we would realize that Jesus came to take burdens off us, not to crush us with legalistic burdens. Help us to understand that and then help us to make wise choices on the Lord's day. Wise choices that our souls would be refreshed, that we would spiritually catch our breath through a renewed vision and love of Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, Amen.
Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Welcome back to the Follower of One Podcast. I'm talking through John chapter one and we're in a passage today where it switches back to talking about Jesus. And I just want to read the passage. I don't have a cute introduction. In verses 9-11. It says, "There was the true light, which coming into the world, enlightens, every man. He was in the world and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own and those who were his own did not receive Him." So John, the apostle who's writing this book is switching between talking about Jesus and talking about John, the Baptist, which we spoke about in the last episode. And now he's back to talking about Jesus again. The true Light, which is capital L in the New American Standard, the true light enlightens, every man. That's Jesus. So we have a new paragraph here and we're talking about Jesus again, and Jesus is the true light coming into the world. That light shines on everyone. And it gives light to everyone. But some of us don't recognize it. Most of the people that we know probably don't recognize the light of Jesus. Our job is to live as if the light is on. To live like we know Jesus and that this is His world. He came into this world and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him. That's how fallen we are. Jesus came into His own world that he created and we didn't understand Him or recognize Him. But He is the light and He pushes away the darkness. And for 2000 years, His life has been pushing away more and more of that darkness. "He came to His own." I think this is a reference to the Jewish people "and those who were His own did not receive Him." That's exactly what happened. He came to the Jewish nation, that's his lineage and those people did not receive Him. And we'll talk tomorrow about what happens when we do receive Him. But today let's remember that he's the true light. He comes into the world and he enlightens every man. The light in you is designed to shine in your workplace. Often that's not through us talking. Often, that's more through our actions; loving God and loving others. That's a Great Command. When we love God and love others, then we demonstrate, that the true light came into the world and is living inside us. We bring that light into the world every day, by the way we live. Today, I'd like to challenge us. Let's live in such a way that the light of Jesus becomes visible. What can you do today to serve a coworker or to serve someone that you will see? Think about the people on your schedule. Think down through your list of, to do's, but don't think about the actions as much as the people that you will see. Flip the switch. Often we get so busy with our to-dos that we forget the people. Today, I want to challenge you. Let's get so busy with the people that maybe we blow off a couple of to-dos. Today, our job is to pay attention to the people around us. Let's love others and let the light in us become visible. We don't have to do this in a showy way. We can trust God and know that even if you serve people anonymously, God's in charge and he will make it right. And he will make it known and he will make a difference. Everything we do because we trust Jesus matters. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. Thanks for listening to this podcast. I hope you will share it with someone else. Let's challenge our brothers and sisters in Jesus to live in such a way that other people go, "Why are you doing this?" And then we get to tell them a little bit about how Jesus changed our life. I believe that's the plan Jesus has for us today. And so today in your workplace, go ahead, love other people, let God be in charge and watch what happens. I believe it will be pretty exciting. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thanks for listening to and sharing this podcast. If you want to join a community of people who are working on doing this every day, head over to https://community.followerofone.org and create a free profile. We're excited to have you on this journey with us: of trying to live in such a way that we glorify Jesus. We experience joy when we do that. Thanks very much.
Luke 7: 1 - 9, .....I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. UNCOMMON - out of the ordinary, unusual. We put our faith on the line by believing God's Word. Expect Him to develop our faith. He is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith. The Word Finisher in the Gree means "one who raises the level of faith to its perfection by setting the highest example of Faith. That's Jesus, look to Him. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tasha-mack9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tasha-mack9/support
We must develop our idea of who Jesus Christ is from the totality of Scripture. Today we see Christ from several different perspectives that should heighten our view of Him and increase our faith.Reading Plan: Old Testament - Ezekiel 28-29Psalms - Psalm 132:11-18Gospels - John 11:1-16New Testament - Revelation 1:9-20Visit https://www.revivalfromthebible.com/ for more information.
God speaks of two mysterious beasts: the behemoth and the leviathan. He uses them to humble Job, remind him of his limits, and that he can't save himself. - Sermon Transcript - Turn your Bibles to Job 40. We continue our sermon series in the book of Job. As we do, I am mindful of a pretty spectacular moment in the history of Israel. The prophet Elisha and his servant were surrounded by an invading army sent by the king of Syria who was enraged at the prophetic gift of Elisha, and the fact that he was telling military secrets to the king of Israel, so that the king of Syria was consistently thwarted in his efforts, militarily. And the king of Syria was frustrated, and sent a whole army to capture one man who was residing in Dothan. And they went stealthily through the night, snuck up into position, did everything right militarily, surrounded the city, and they're ready to capture this one man. And as the sun rose early in the morning, Elisha's servant went out and suddenly saw the Syrian army surrounding Dothan and figured that the game was up. Terror filled his heart. And he went back to the prophet and he said, "Oh my Lord what shall we do?" And Elijah said these words, "Don't be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And then he prayed this prayer. "Oh Lord, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So I have that story in mind as I preach this sermon today because I believe that surrounding us every moment of our lives is a spiritual dimension, sometimes in scripture called the heavenly realms. This spiritual dimension cannot, ordinarily, be perceived by our five senses, though occasionally the barrier, whatever it is, between this physical world and the spiritual dimension, the spiritual realms, is occasionally torn open, such as at Jesus's baptism. That's the very word used in Mark's gospel, the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit descended on Jesus. Or again, at Stephen's martyrdom, the heavens were torn open. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. So occasionally, that membrane, or that wall, that barrier is torn open, but usually not. And everything that we know about the spiritual dimensions we learn in scripture. We read words in scripture and find out these truths and believe them, so that we are aware of the spiritual realms, and that within the spiritual realms that surround us at every moment are powerful beings called angels and demons. And these angels and demons are created beings. They have great power and great influence over the unfolding events of Earth and the unfolding events of our lives. They exert an invisible but constant force on the minds and the bodies of people, so the scripture says. Now this morning, this sermon is meant to be a plea to all of us. As Elisha said, "Lord, open our eyes that we may see." I. Open Our Eyes That We May See Now the book of Job, big picture, is addressing the problem of evil and suffering in the world. We have walked through ... We're in the 40th chapter now. We've walked through, again and again, this issue, given to try to explain why it is that there is so much evil and so much suffering and destruction in this world. And specifically for us as followers of Christ, why do bad things happen to God's people? How do we understand that? And I am asserting today that the problem of evil and suffering in the world cannot be fully and rightly explained, understood, without understanding the effect of Satan and his angels called demons. So we come to Job 40 and 41, and these two animals, behemoth and leviathan. And immediately we come, as I have week after week in the book of Job, to the problem of hermeneutics, or Bible interpretation. What shall I do with these two animals? How can we rightly divide the word of truth? My desire is not just to feed you one meal, but to teach you also how to feed yourselves rightly from scripture, so that throughout the week you can read the Bible accurately and rightly for yourselves. So I try to work through that at various moments in the book of Job. And I believe that this issue of spiritual warfare, the opposition of demons and of Satan, is such a significant issue that I plan on spending two weeks on this topic. Originally, this sermon was one sermon called “Dragonslayer.” Isn't that exciting? What a great title. But then I realized the sermon was 23 pages long and getting longer. It was growing at night without me doing anything. It just kept getting longer and longer. And so I said, "All right, I've got to separate them." But separating sermons like that is like separating conjoined twins. And both of those twins have to live, so how do we do this? How do we understand? So I thought let's have two sermons on Jesus as dragonslayer. And it really makes sense because Jesus has been slaying this dragon for 2000 years. It's a long, slow death he has ordained for Satan. And he will, in some sense, instantly put his career to an end, in the future, but not yet. In the meantime, it's a long slow death, and that's pretty exciting. So we get to walk through it for two weeks. And so I have the problem of hermeneutics, of Bible interpretation, with behemoth and leviathan. Who are these mysterious beasts? And they're described only, simply, in beast like terms. So let's understand the context in the book of Job. God has been speaking to his suffering servant Job. Job has had his life shredded by wave upon wave of suffering: the loss of all of his wealth, and the loss of all of his children and then, in phase two, the loss of his health, wave upon wave, and then some ongoing debates and discussions with his friends about the problem of evil, which make up the bulk of the book of Job. And during that time, little by little, by little, more and more of Job's sin came out, emerged where he sinfully accused God of injustice and wrongdoing in his case. To humble Job, God appears and speaks to him out of a storm, a whirlwind. Job 38:2-3, "Who is this that darkens my counsel by speaking words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me." He then exposes Job's frailty and limitations as a man by rolling out natural theology, what we can learn from God's creation. That's what he confines, that's what God confines his comments to with Job. He walks Job through overwhelming evidence of the attributes of God woven through creation. God's power in creating the universe, the foundations of the Earth, the boundaries of the sea, the clouds, the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, the patterns of weather, snow, hail, lightning, thunder, the path of the east winds, the giving of the right amount of rain and dew to satisfy the grasses on the Earth, the freezing patterns of ice, even up to the distant stars that make up the constellations, and the laws of physics that control their motions. The use of all of these inanimate objects that God made show his great power and his wisdom. And then he brings forth animate creatures, animals, 10 of them, one after the other, animals and birds that God made and controls: the lion, the raven, the mountain goat, the deer, wild donkey, wild ox, the ostrich, the horse, the hawk, and the eagle. He cites their birth, their habits, and habitats, their feeding, their marvelous attributes, the stealthy hunting at night of the lion and the lioness, the mighty strength of the ox, the freedom of the wild donkey, the speed of the ostrich, the bold courage of the horse, the flight of the hawk, the eyesight of the eagle, all of these attributes. But he keeps mixing it in with Job's limited attributes, his limitations. “Job, you are limited in time. I am not. You are limited in wisdom. I am not. You are limited in power. I am not. So how then, Job, can you think to question me? How can you think to challenge me? How can you question my justice?” And by the time this work of natural theology spoken by the Creator of it all is done, Job is humbled. And he says in Job 40:3-5, “Job answered the Lord, ‘I am unworthy. How can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer. Twice, but I will say no more.’” But God, as I said last week, didn't feel that the work was done. Still more humbling work to do. He doesn’t- God doesn't deal lightly with the corruption of his children. And so he probes deep and deeper, even deeper still. And basically just says the same thing again, we've got more to say, verse 6-7, "Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me." We saw last time that God addresses at that part of Job 40, the fundamental disrespect of Job toward God is fundamental unbelief, charging God with injustice. Verse 8, "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?" Now this is the very thing we must not do when we're suffering afflictions, and that is see God as the enemy. God is not accountable to us. He doesn't owe us any explanation. He's infinitely above the entire human race, and he knows exactly what he's doing. Job is not God. He has no splendor of his own. He has no glory radiating from his being, and he has no mighty voice. Verse 9-10, "Do you [Job] have an arm like God's? Can your voice thunder like his? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.” “And restrain the evil doers of the earth. And if you can do all of that, then I will admit, myself, I will admit to you: that your own right hand can save you." So that's exactly where we're at in the Book of Job. So, Job, you're limited in time, limited in knowledge, limited in power, and you cannot save yourself. That's exactly the point we're at in Job. We suffering human beings cannot save ourselves. But from what? Who's the adversary, what's the adversary? How do we understand that adversary? Now we've got these two beasts that come in, behemoth and leviathan. God wants Job to know that his own right hand cannot save himself, and then implies we've got two enemies to talk about, because, unlike the 10 animals, he puts Job in an adversarial relationship with these two animals, behemoth and leviathan. Can you fight them? Can you overcome them? He doesn't do that with the other 10 animals. And basically, the concept you cannot save yourself is, in my mind, expanded to these phrases. With these two beasts, you cannot control them, you cannot capture them, and you cannot kill them. But I can control them, I can capture them, and I can kill them. So that's the simple way of looking at these two beasts. Now, again, with Bible interpretation, we can simply just take them as animals, just two more animals. Should we do that? Should we just take them as literal predators that are just too hard for human beings to conquer, but God has no problem dealing with them? And so the argument, then, is just how then can you challenge God, such a mighty God? He's greater than they are. So if you can't handle them, you certainly can't handle God. And so you got 10 animals, and then Job's repentance, and then you got two more animals, possibly. Some Christian scholars do that. It is safe in one respect. You're just taking the words at face value. Two mighty animals you cannot control, you cannot capture, you cannot kill. God can, so be humble before God. Don't question God. Repent before God. If you can't deal with them, you can't deal with me. That's it. And that fits if you look at chapter 41, the next chapter, verse 10 and 11 in the middle of the leviathan section he basically does this. He says, “No one is fierce enough to rouse leviathan. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.” So that's a simple way of understanding these two animals. How much more argument? If you can't handle these animals, then you certainly can't handle their Creator. And then, what you would do is try your best to identify these animals, which almost certainly all of your Bibles have done in the footnotes. What do you have in your footnotes? “Pastor, we have hippopotamus and crocodile.” Is that what you have? I don't know. Maybe you have a study Bible with more options. I don't know. What are they? But I can tell you right now, no matter what you choose, absolute certainty on the literal interpretation will elude you. We don't know for sure. We don't know what the ... But the point is straightforward. God is mightier than they are, so humble yourself before God. And at that point I could just pray, and we would be done with the sermon. You've heard it. All right. There's nothing more to say. But I personally do not find this satisfying. Seems like a letdown at the end of all these chapters. Ten animals, and now two more animals. I feel like that point's already been made. Job's already repented. And now we're going to circle back with two more animals and make the same point again. But I think the problem of evil and human suffering is far deeper and greater than that. And I think God wants to help us. God wants to give us some answers. And another issue that is openly brought up at the beginning of the book is never addressed again, and that is the role of Satan in human suffering. It's openly brought up for the first two chapters. Satan's one of the main dominant characters in Job 1-2. And then he drops off the account entirely. He's just never mentioned again. So you can go back and look, or just listen, Job 1:6-12, right at the beginning of the book, "One day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, 'where have you come from?' Satan answered the Lord, 'From roaming through the Earth and going back and forth in it.' Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on Earth like him. He is blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil.' 'Does Job fear God for nothing?' Satan replied, 'Have you not put a hedge around him, and his household, and everything he has? You've blessed the work of his hands so that his flocks and his herds spread through the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.' The Lord said to Satan, 'Very well, then. Everything he has is in your hands.'" It's a key statement, isn't it? "'But on the man himself, do not lay a finger.' Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord." Then, as the narrative continues in Job 1, the loss of Job's oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, and even his 10 children, immediately follows Satan going out from the presence of the Lord when God says, “Everything he has is in your hands.” And then look what happens. Satan's direct activity in the rest of Job 1 isn't mentioned. He's not there in the rest of Job 1. But it's just so openly implied that all of those things that happen, happen because of Satan. Then in phase two Satan comes back and God directly ascribes the suffering in Job's life to Satan's accusations and activity. Some might argue Satan was not mentioned, therefore not really involved. If you read the account, it was the Sabeans that took Job's oxen and donkeys, the fire of God, whatever that means, fell from the sky and burned his sheep and his servants. The Caldeans came in and stole his camels. And a mighty wind from the desert destroyed Job's children. But just the way Job 1 reads, Satan's behind all of that, all of it. And then in chapter 2:1-6 it says, "On another day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?' Satan answered the Lord, 'From roaming through the Earth and going back and forth in it.' Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on Earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.’ ‘Skin for skin,’ Satan replied. 'A man will give all he has for his own life, but stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and his bones, he will surely curse you to your face.' The Lord said to Satan, 'Very well, then. He is in your hands. But you must spare his life.'" And this time there can be no doubt because it openly says in Job 2:7, "So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the souls of his feet to the top of his head." Satan's activity and disease is a deep mystery, isn't it? We'll find out in heaven how active he was in crafting viruses to cause trouble. There's an intelligence behind it. But on that, I'm not going to go any further. It just openly says in Job 2:7 that Job's afflictions, physical afflictions, were directly worked by Satan. It is reasonable, therefore, I think, to see all of the calamities that came on Job as mediated to him directly by Satan. And I think, therefore, any explanation of evil in the world must address the activities of Satan. Yet, Satan's not mentioned again in the book of Job. He never comes up in the debates between Job and his friends. Elihu never mentioned Satan. God never openly mentioned Satan in all of his statements here at the end of the book. But it may well be that behemoth and leviathan represent the demons and the devil, though hidden behind the forms of beasts. Satan appeared first in the Bible as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, so this isn't at all far fetched. And even Peter in I Peter 5 says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like [what?] a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” He's like an animal. So if behemoth and leviathan represent Satan and demons, then to some degree, I feel that the book of Job has come now full circle. And we're going to come around to, to some degree, the real enemies of the human race. God is saying to the human race, “Evil and suffering in the world is directly worked by the devil and his demons. They use wicked men as their puppets, but they control this evil world. And behemoth, representing demons, and leviathan, representing Satan, are vastly more powerful than you are. You cannot control them. You cannot capture them. You cannot kill them. But I can.” And in the end he will. And that is a consolation to us in the midst of our suffering. So in that sense, it's satisfying. And beyond that, God will continue in a very powerful, wise, infinitely deep way to channel, and control, and block, and reign in, and use demons and Satan to do things in every generation, literally, I would say every day, in ways that we will discover, I think, in the next world. But in the meantime, we just know general principles that God puts hedges of protection, and leashes, and does all of these things to advance his own purposes. So, I am 100% biblically certain that Satan and demons are directly involved in human suffering every single day. I am not so certain that behemoth and leviathan are talking about that at all. So if you are a let's stick to the animals person, you've heard your sermon. For the rest of you, I'm going to go on and say we're going to talk about behemoth as representing demons, and leviathan as representing Satan. II. Leviathan Representing Satan: Job 41 And in taking this symbolic approach, leviathan, I believe, is the key, just in the book of Job. You have to jump ahead to leviathan, though; I'm not going to walk through the leviathan versus today, but next week. He's the key because he shows up in Psalms and he shows up in Isaiah, and especially Isaiah 27:1 is important for me. He, leviathan, is mentioned in Isaiah as an enemy whom God will slay in the future. Isaiah 27:1, "In that day, the Lord will punish with sword his fierce, great, and powerful sword, leviathan the gliding serpent, leviathan the coiling serpent. He will slay the monster of the sea." a direct enemy of God, who God will slay with his sword, his fierce, great, and powerful sword. What a great verse. John Calvin, in commenting on Isaiah 27:1, wrote this. "The word Leviathan is variously interpreted. But in general, it simply denotes either a large serpent, or whale, or sea fishes, which approach the character of monsters on account of their huge size. For my part, I have no doubt that he speaks allegorically of Satan and his whole kingdom, describing him under the figure of some monstrous animal." Calvin hated speculation. That's not the kind of interpreter he was. He's just saying, to me, it's patently obvious in Isaiah 27:1 that leviathan represents Satan. So it seems to me, best to do the same with Job 41. Leviathan represents Satan, the monster whose wickedness is devastating the whole Earth. It's made even stronger when you read Job 41 and the descriptions of leviathan and he seems like a fire-breathing dragon, especially verses 14-17. He says, "Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth. His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together. Each is so close together that no air can pass between. They're joined fast to one another. They cling to together and cannot be parted." And then fire breathing stuff in verses 18-21. "His snorting throws out flashes of light. His eyes are like the rays of dawn. Firebrands stream from his mouth. Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth." Now it's interesting. Many cultures have depictions of dragons, fire breathing dragons, that are very similar. The artistic renditions are very similar to one another, though the countries are thousands of miles apart, like the British Isles and China. And they have similar depictions of dragons. I find that interesting. Ken Ham, in his Answers to Genesis, has done a lot of research on dragon legends, and they have a whole wing of dragons in their creation museum. And so creationists will point to Job 40 and 41 as evidence of aspects of creation as over against evolution. However valuable those insights are, for me, I just am not going to pursue that. I think it's probably true that there were creatures like that, and that's where this analogy comes from. But I think it's better to see the dragon here as Satan. And to me, the clincher is Revelation 12, where Satan is clearly presented as a dragon. Revelation 12:3, it says, "Then another sign appeared in heaven. An enormous red dragon with seven heads, and 10 horns, and seven crowns on his head." And then clearly Revelation 12:9, "The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the Earth, and his angels with him." And so, Satan is clearly portrayed in Revelation 12 as a dragon. And then also, in Daniel 7, we have four great beasts that come up out of the turbulent sea, each of them representing a human empire. So the empire of Babylon, Neo-Persia, Greece, and Rome depicted as success of four beasts coming up out of the sea. And so then again in Revelation 13, the final single world ruler called Antichrist in 1 John 2, the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians, to this single world conquering ruler is the beast from the sea, same image as Daniel 7. So all of this representational language of evil and of Satan makes sense to me. III. Behemoth Representing Demons So now let's zero in on behemoth, and then, God willing, next week will look more at leviathan. Behemoth- and I believe behemoth, in this pattern then, would represent demons. Why would I say that? Well, because the Hebrew word means beast, like a beast of the field, like any four footed creature. It's frequently used of cows, but the plural is used here. The O-T-H ending, oth, is a Hebrew plural, behemoth, like beasts. But he's treated in the text as a singular. So it's kind of odd. You've got this plural singular that behaves cohesively in a certain way. The word behemoth is just inevitably brought over as such into the English translations. They don't translate it saying beasts, but it's just behemoth. But it's a plural word. It's interesting. The plural sets us up well to see behemoth as representing demons collectively. Now, who are the demons? Revelation 12 tells us that when the dragon was hurled to the Earth, his tail swept a third of the stars and flung them to the Earth. And this represents angels that joined Satan in this heavenly rebellion against the throne of God. One third of them fell into wickedness, and they are the devil's angels, or we also say demons. It's good to know that more ... there are more on our side than on their side. Praise God. Two thirds, isn't that encouraging? Of course, none of that matters. God is on our side. Amen? If God is for us, who can be against us? Even if he had all the angels, we would still win because of omnipotence. Then Matthew 25, and the sheep and the goats, he says to the wicked who rebels and who never believed in Christ, “Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." So those are demons. And that's the ultimate end of Satan and of demons, the lake of fire. In Mark 5, when Jesus interacted with the Demoniac of the Gadarenes, the demons, many of them spoke collectively as one entity, and named themselves Legion, for we are many, so behemoth then, a plural word representing many demons acting collectively as one evil force in the world. Now, what does he say about behemoth? Well, he starts in many translations with the word behold, or even more urgently, behold now behemoth. It's like he's unveiling behemoth. I want you to see behemoth. Behold him now. Look at him. Behemoth is hidden from our eyes. We don't see him. But I want to unveil him. I want you to look at him. And then he says, "I made him along with you." So God created every creature that exists. As the Creator, he also sustains every creature that exists. Nothing in the universe has existence apart from the will of God. God continues to will the existence of the devil and his angels. At every moment, he sustains them. If God chose, he could speak them out of existence instantly. They would cease to exist. Of course, that begs a question. Why doesn't he do that? I'll address that briefly at the end of this sermon, and more next week at any rate. Then he says behemoth eats grass like an ox. Well, we know that a beast of the field would do this. So if we're just dealing with a beast, that's what they do. He likes grass. But in a more of an allegorical, or interpretive, or a parable type of ... How do demons eat grass? What is that? Perhaps, I don't know, but that's the whole thing with parables, it's hard to know what every line represents. But it perhaps represents the frailty and mortality of human beings. Because it says in Isaiah 40:6-7, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall." That's speaking of people dying. They die like grass. And I believe that demons are executioners or killers. Satan is a murderer from the beginning. He hates human beings. And so do demons. They don't have any allegiance to any group of human beings. They hate them all. So they're executioners. Remember that God has to tell Satan not to kill Job. He has that power. He has the power to kill. The next statements all speak to the overwhelming power of behemoth. This beast is very strong, much stronger than human power. Look at verses 16-18. "What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly. His tail sways like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are close knit. His bones or tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron." Well, just speaking of demons, they are vastly more powerful than we are. Vastly more powerful. If you look at the account of the Demoniac of the Gadarenes, it says of him in Mark 5:4, "He had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons from his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him." He was just physically powerful. Remember how God sent a single angel to move the stone from in front of Jesus' tomb. Remember how the women were worried? Who's going to move the stone. Oh, send an angel to take care of it. He just picks up the stone and moves it, and puts it down somewhere. Just no problem for him. So demons are strong, very strong. And then his rank in creation, verse 19, "He ranks first among the works of God." Interesting statement. If it's just an animal, I don't really understand that. Why would a hippopotamus rank first among the creations of God? But in this case, if demons really are ... if we're really talking about fallen angels here, I would think chronologically they may well have been the first things he ever made. The first things he made were spirit beings who then watched him make everything else and celebrated. As it says in Job 38:7, "While all the morning stars sang together and all the angels," or sons of God there, but clearly angels, "shouted for joy." And so originally, they were created good, powerful, glorious, beautiful beings. So they're very, very powerful. Yet God, the creator, retains full power over behemoth to kill him anytime he chooses. Verse 19, "Yet his Maker can approach him with his sword." That's an interesting statement if we're talking about just an animal. He's saying, "You," effectively, "You can't kill him, but I can. I can do it easily." “His Maker can approach him with his sword.” So it's very obvious that while demons are vastly more powerful than humans, God is infinitely more powerful than they are. So let's just keep it simple in terms of the hierarchy. We are, effectively, we are powerless. Demons have much power. God has all power. So that's what we're dealing with here in the problem of suffering and evil. And that is our great hope. Behemoth, representing demons, exists continually under the threat of that fierce, great, and powerful sword with which God is going to kill Leviathan, Isaiah 27:1. So the- Satan and his angels are afraid of God. They're afraid of his judgment, his fierce, great, and powerful sword. And it will be Jesus, at his second coming, who is depicted in Revelation 19 as having a sword coming out of his mouth, also in Revelation 1. There's no literal sword coming out of Jesus' mouth. His word is his weapon. If he says, "Be dead," you're dead, because he's God. And so the demons were terrified of Jesus during his time on Earth. They were clearly afraid of him. And he had zero fear of them at all. There was no doubt in Jesus' mind who has the upper hand in these encounters. First one, in Mark's gospel, Mark, 1:23-24 Jesus is at the synagogue in Capernaum, and suddenly a man with an evil spirit cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God." Well, who's afraid of who there? They are afraid that Jesus has come to destroy them, and they know he can do it. And then in verse 20, the whole world pays homage to the behemoth: “The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby.” Satan runs the world, and the demons run it with him. And just as Satan wanted Jesus to fall down and worship him, so the demons thrive on worship, the worship given by men. All false religions in the world are demonic. All of them, they're essentially demonic. So demons are god and goddess impersonators. They get behind the false ideas, and they make them supernaturally come alive so that people worship. And so Paul says in I Corinthians 10:20, "The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons." Thus, the unbelievers of the world are feeding the demons, feeding their demonic egos by this kind of worship. Remember, Satan wanted Jesus to fall down and worship him. The demons are like that. And so the world brings the harvest, the produce, to the behemoth. Behemoth also is portrayed as concealed. Look at verse 21:22, "Under the lotus plants, he lies hidden among the reeds in the marsh. The lotuses conceal him in their shadow, the poplars by the stream surround him." So this is beast like for you literalists. It's like yeah, it's the hippo. He's in the river. You can barely ... You just see his eyes and his nostrils moving through the water like that. He's in the reeds. Okay? But for the spiritual interpretation, saying that demons are hidden from us. We can't see what they do. They're invisible. And they do their attacking from the shadows. And so we have to be told by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:12, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities against the powers,” plural, plural, plural, rulers, authorities, powers, “of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” That's what's opposing us. So these demons do their destructive work in the heavenly realms, concealed from our eyes. They lurk in the shadows and suddenly rise up to attack. And they have no fear of man, none. Verse 23-24, "When the river rages, he is not alarmed. He is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth." Verse 24, "Can anyone capture him by the eyes or trap him and pierce him through the nose?" So that's why I say you can't control them: you can't capture them, you can't kill them. And so that adversarial sense between Job and behemoth is set up. It's even stronger, that adversarial sense, even stronger with leviathan, as we'll see, God willing, next week. IV. Christ the Dragonslayer We're powerless against behemoth. We can't control him. We can't capture him. We can't kill him. And so, like I said, we're going to walk through leviathan next time, but we need a dragonslayer, don't we? Amen? We need a dragonslayer. And that dragonslayer is Jesus Christ. Christ is the dragonslayer. He was predicted in Genesis 3:15 as the one who had crushed the serpent's head, the serpent, Satan in disguise. So God spoke to the serpent and judged the serpent in serpent-like words, “You're going to crawl on the ground on your belly and eat dust.” But we know he's talking to Satan behind the serpent. And so in Genesis 3:15, he says, "I'll put enmity between you and the woman and in between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel." That happened at the cross. Jesus died, physically died, to crush the serpent's head. "Christ is the dragonslayer. He was predicted in Genesis 3:15 as the one who had crushed the serpent's head, the serpent, Satan in disguise. " Now, Christ the dragonslayer could not be slain when he was born. Revelation 12, "The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter." That's Jesus. "And her child was snatched up to God into his throne." So the dragon was ready to devour Jesus the moment that he was born. Read about it in Matthew 2, where King Herod sent soldiers to kill all the boy babies in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the magi, but they couldn't get him. They killed a lot of babies, but they didn't kill Jesus because Jesus escaped. And then when he began his public ministry, Christ the dragonslayer moved out to destroy Satan's kingdom. God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. And in the power of the Spirit, Jesus drove out demons effortlessly. So again, the Demoniac of the Gadarenes, Mark 5:7, "What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Swear to God that you won't torture me." Who's afraid of whom there? 6,000 maybe demons in one man, and who's afraid of whom? “Please don't torture me before the appointed time.” And they begged permission to go into the pigs, and he granted them permission. And that concept of begging permission and permission granted is essential to my understanding of God's sovereign control over this whole thing. So he is absolutely in charge of behemoth. Syrophoenician woman comes with a demon-possessed daughter. She's not even there. She's back home lying in bed, demon possessed. And Jesus said, "First let the children eat all they want. It's not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she said. "But even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go. The demon is gone. The demon has left your daughter." Like that. Didn't speak any words. He didn't go to the house. He didn't lay hands on her. How did it happen? What was the modality? What was the effective force that made the demon leave the daughter? He just thought it. And the Father sent forth the power of the Spirit. The demon was evicted immediately. Not given a 30 day notice here. He's out. Effortless power. And Jesus spoke about his power over the demons. "If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." Or again, “How can anyone enter strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.” So we cannot control them. We cannot capture them. We cannot kill them. But Jesus effortlessly can do whatever he wants with him. And when he wants to plunder Satan's house, he just ties him up and plunders the house. You know what the plunderer is? It's us, dear friends. We were in Satan's dark kingdom. We were rescued, Colossians, from the kingdom of darkness, and we were brought into the kingdom of the beloved Son. And so, if you came here today in an un-converted state, the Bible says that you're Satan's possession, you're in Satan's house. Jesus is more powerful than Satan. He can set you free. He can set you free. The chains, the invisible chains that have been around your soul can just drop off by simple hearing of God's word and believing. And the centerpiece of this gospel is Jesus' death on the cross, to some degree under Satan's power, because Judas betrayed him, and Satan was inside Judas. And Jesus gave himself over to that and didn't fight it, and just went like a lamb to the slaughter. But in his death, Hebrews 2:14 says, "By his death, he destroyed him who holds the power of death- that is the devil- and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." So maybe you came here today knowing you're a sinner and afraid to die. Well, you should be afraid to die if you're outside of Christ. You should be afraid. But if you come to Christ, you don't need a fear of death anymore. Death will be a doorway into heaven. You'll spend eternity looking at the glory of God. That's what Jesus did. He crushed Satan at the cross by his death. "Jesus is more powerful than Satan. He can set you free. ...The invisible chains that have been around your soul can just drop off by simple hearing of God's word and believing. " And then he gave us the power of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of gospel, the ministry of reconciliation, and told us to go out gradually, 20 centuries of destroying Satan's kingdom. “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And so we go forward in the power of the Holy Spirit, and little by little, by little, a long, slow death for Satan's kingdom, a torturously long slow death, because in every generation there are God's people to be rescued. And so it says in Revelation 12:11, concerning the people of God, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." And in the end, he will kill Satan for all eternity. And the demons. It says in Revelation 20:10, "The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever." That is the death of leviathan. V. God’s Goodness in Controlling, Using, and Conquering Evil All right. So as we bring this to conclusion, God willing to look at it again next week, look at God's goodness in controlling, using, and conquering evil. The big picture topic in the book of Job is the issue of suffering and evil in the world. The book of Job, I think, makes it plain from the beginning. And here, I think again at the end, that Satan and demons have a huge role in that. Any theology of evil and suffering that does not deal with that, with Satan and demons, is defective, inadequate. In Job 40 and 41, we've revealed the power of two great beasts, behemoth-representing demons, leviathan- representing Satan. These beasts are too powerful for human beings. But God has them on a leash. To some degree, he uses language like, "They are my pets." He uses them every day for his own purposes. And in the end, he will kill them for eternity. In the meantime, we need to understand how wise and good it is for God to keep them going, to keep them alive. It must be, because he does it, and he could effortlessly speak them out of existence if he didn't want to. But God wants to use them. We may say, "Why? Why not kill them now?" Why does he give the legion of demons permission to go into the pigs? Why doesn't he just kill them? Because he's going to use them. And he is using them. "God uses Satan and the demons as foils, creating a context for him to display his power, his wisdom, and his love. And every single day, God uses evil to bring about good. " Augustine said, "God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist." And so God uses Satan and the demons as foils, creating a context for him to display his power, his wisdom, and his love. And every single day, God uses evil to bring about good. The clearest example of this is the death of his own dear Son, the most singularly evil thing that has ever happened in history. Look at the river of good that's come from it. And so, also the evil of pain, and suffering, and natural disasters, and wars, and all of that create context for us, the servants of God, to show valor, to show self denying love, to lay down our lives for others. That is context for glory that God displays in our lives by enabling us to do courageous, good works. You won't need any courage in heaven, friends. No courage needed in heaven. You won't be sacrificing anything in heaven. Time for that is now. This is the time for courage. This is the time for valor. This is the time for self denial. The time to lay down your life, the time for sacrifice. That's what we're called to do. And behind all of that, are the devil and his angels. And God is controlling them for his own glory. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had to look today at Isaiah ... or at Job 40, 41, behemoth and leviathan. Lord, give us courage, give us courage. Help us, oh Lord, to not be afraid of what the devil and his angels are doing, but know that you have put us, all of us, behind a beautiful hedge of protection, and that Satan can't tempt us beyond what we can bear, that we can stand firm in the time of temptation. Give us courage to witness to people who are lost and in invisible chains so they can be set free. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Finally, God descends to earth and speaks to Job with awesome power... out of a whirlwind. - Sermon Transcript - Well if you could, and you can't, but if you could be transported back in time by the Spirit of God to any moment in redemptive history, what would you like to go back and see? Where would you like to go? So many options. Love to be there when God created the universe and see it all unfolding step by step. To see the beautiful garden of Eden, to see the beauty of that pristine and perfect world. What would it be like just to be there? Or when Noah got off the arc after the flood, and he offered up the sacrifice, that pleasing aroma to God, and then that rainbow came in the skies and that sense of the beauty, the freshness of a world cleansed from wickedness and sin, a fresh start. Maybe when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and the Angel of the Lord stopped him and a voice from heaven, from the Angel of the Lord said, “Now I know that you fear God.” There's so many options, but for me this morning, at least, I would love to be there when God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. To just stand there and hear the voice of God. Because I have a feeling that in the end, that's the message of the book of Job. That if God would be with us in our suffering, if he would talk to us, if he would speak to us, if he would walk with us through the water and through the fire, we could make it through anything. If God would be with us and would be for us, we could endure any of the afflictions he would choose to bring into our lives. I know that this is the lesson. And so I want to hear from God this morning, we've come in Job 38 to the climax of the book of Job, four chapter climax. We're not going to get through all of the dimensions, the beauty of God speaking to Job, but we're going to begin. Job 38 begins one of the most dramatic conversations there's ever been in human history. Job, one of the godliest men in history has been yearning for a face to face with God. This is as close as any man could come, for almighty God descends to earth and speaks to Job with awesome power. The glorious God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind. At last, the seemingly silent God, the invisible God, the omnipotent God speaks, at last. Job assaulted by his sufferings which came upon him wave upon wave has been yearning for the chance to confront God and to interrogate him. Job seems convinced that God has made the same mistake in some ways that his friends did. Essentially Job seems to be operating at least from time to time out of the same faulty theology that they had. The only explanation for human suffering is punishment by a wise God for specific sins that that person has committed, the law of retribution. And he knows that he hasn't committed any great sins. So it must mean that God has, in some sense, made a big mistake. And all that needs to happen, Job thinks, is to have somewhat of a court trial in which he gets a face to face with God. And the evidence can be presented at last of his basic righteousness, his blamelessness, and God would agree, consent to it. And Job would emerge triumphant in some sense against God, himself, as his unjust adversary. He expected to grill God like a prosecuting attorney and have God answer all of his questions. But this conversation doesn't go anything like Job expected that it would, not at all. Because God being God seizes the initiative here, right from the start. And he asks Job all the questions and demands that he answer God. And as he does all of this, he brings deep repentance to Job and he brings final spiritual healing to Job. And through Job, as we read, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us, to us. So that's what we're getting as we look at Job 38. I. God’s Voice in the Whirlwind Humbles Us This is God's voice; God's voice in the whirlwind and it humbles us. Look at verses 1-2, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: ‘Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?’” the overwhelming majesty of God. Now earlier in the book of Job we saw in Job 13:11 this statement, “Would not his splendor terrify you? Would not the dread of him fall upon you?” Yes, it would. It's always the case with these theophanies, these appearances of God in the Bible, whenever it happens, human beings are on their face before him; they're leveled by him. So God determines to appear in majesty with the trappings of power and glory, and to overwhelm Job with his infinite greatness as he did with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. When God spoke to Israel that day, he descended from heaven to earth in clouds and fire, and he made the ground shake under their feet. And his voice was so terrifying that the people begged Moses that God not speak to them anymore less they should die. And God did all this to fill the people with fear. That was his motive, clearly. There's no doubt that God has this capability. He can show up with this level of power. He can cause his glory to shine brilliantly. He can cause the ground beneath our feet to shake and he can speak to us with a voice that sounds like thunder and that fills the whole world with terror. God can do that. He has a dimmer switch on this. He can ramp it up, the display of his glory and his omnipotence, and his majesty to such levels we can scarcely begin to imagine. If he dial it up to 1% maybe, I feel that we would immediately die. “No one can see me and live,” God said to Moses. He has that power and God can choose any level of display he wants with any person at any time. Then why does he use a whirlwind to speak to Job? He didn't have to use a whirlwind. Why did he do it? He uses the wind, but in overpowering magnitude. I mean, wind can be gentle, like a zephyr, like a fragrant spring breeze, barely causing leaves to flutter. Making a few strands of your hair to dance around your face, making the tall grass sway just a little bit here and there. That's all. That's what the wind can do at that level. That was the choice it seems that God made when he spoke to Elijah on Mount Horeb. God said, “Go out and stand in the presence of the Lord.” So Elijah went out and the Lord passed by Elijah and an overpowering wind at that time, tore the mountains apart. But God was not in that hurricane. And after that mighty wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And then after that came the sound of a gentle blowing, like a gentle breeze, like a faint whisper, but the KJV calls it a still small voice. And when Elijah heard that still small voice, that gentle whisper, he covered his face and went out into the presence of the Lord and God spoke to him. So why did God use the gentle whisper with Elijah and this terrifying whirlwind with Job? God seeks to humble Job in order to heal him I believe. God is the perfect counselor and he is also Job's greatest friend. He's the lover of Job's soul. These three counselors failed in their ministry to Job. Their motive initially may have been to help their friend in his suffering, but their theology, their theology was flawed. Theology is the ground beneath your feet as you reach out to help a falling friend. But if your theology is flawed, you're standing on wet rotten wood in a collapsing derelict house. So you cannot catch a falling friend with faulty theology. You cannot lift a falling friend with faulty theology. You have no ground under your feet. You really are falling yourself. So it was with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. In the end their truth system was flawed and their pride kicked in and they doubled down, and they doubled down again on their flawed theology, and they became destructive to their supposed friend. But, this is by the way the greatest understatement of my entire sermon, you ready? God's theology is good. God's theology is actually perfect. God knows what he's talking about. Everything God says is true, and along with that, God is perfectly wise. He is the wonderful counselor and he knows precisely what approach to take to heal Job. He knows what truths to speak to transform Job's anguished heart, and to restore his soul to health. Now, admittedly, I would have to say, it's not what we would've thought a man in Job's situation would've needed. Isn't that true? We would've thought, “God, if you're going to show up in a wind, why don't you choose that little still small voice thing again, that gentle whisper. I mean, don't you think this man's been through enough?” I mean, I would've thought a gentle whisper would've been just a thing for a man like Job in that circumstance. But Isaiah 55 makes it plain. God says this, “My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” It seems like one of the basic lessons of the book of Job is don't question anything God does ever. So that includes this whirlwind strategy. Don't question it, it was the right thing for the moment. He knew what to do. God knew exactly what Job needed here. And none of the things that God said to job were for God's own benefit, but always for Job's spiritual healing and through Job, all of us. Apparently that's what Job needed the most. "Everything God says is true, and along with that, God is perfectly wise. He is the wonderful counselor and he knows precisely what approach to take to heal Job." He needed to be humbled and put in his place. He needed to be brought to repentance for the hard things he was thinking, the hard things he had said about almighty God. He needed to be brought down a number of pegs to be made to realize that he cannot possibly think to stand toe to toe with God as an equal and debate with him. None of us can. And more than that, Job needs to be brought to a point of absolute trust in almighty God. So what is God's approach going to be? What are we going to talk about over these four climactic chapters? Well, he's going to use something that we have learned to call natural theology, natural theology, to prove his wisdom and power. God's going to speak natural theology. He's going to engage Job in the process so Job is deeply thoroughly humbled. So it's going to be a bit of a conversation, but not really. He's going to bring Job in at some key moments, but just to humble him and he's going to use natural theology. What is that? Natural theology is what nature teaches us about God. What you can learn about God by looking at nature, at creation, that's natural theology. So God builds on Job's experience in the world and stands as the creator, the sustainer, the ruler of everything in the universe. God made it without man's aid. He sustains it every moment without man's aid. And he rules over every moment without man's aid. Excuse me. God will effectively be saying, “Since I have done and am doing all of these things and you have done none of them, you should trust how I'm dealing specifically with your life right now. You should trust me. You are absolutely in no position whatsoever to question me. Just trust me, I know what I'm doing.” That seems to be the lesson. So that's what we're going to get in these four chapters and more, a lot of details. So he is directly humbling Job and through Job he's humbling all of us. So God sees his control as I said of this encounter. Remember that Job wanted to ask him questions, but it's not going to go that way. It's God who's going to ask him, look at verse three, “Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me.” “Brace yourself like a man.” What an expression. “Get yourself ready Job. Get dressed for battle. Okay, are you ready? Let's go.” There's that sense, “Let's go. You wanted to talk to me, here I am.” And then fundamentally it's, “Who are you to question me?” That's the tone here. Do you see that? Almost all of the roads lead to that. “Who are you to question me?” Verse two, “Who is this?” Who are you? “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” Remember the two basic issues always in life are the same, fundamental aspects of our wisdom. Number one, the knowledge of God and number two, knowledge of ourselves. That's what we're learning. And so God wants Job to see himself properly in light of the infinite majesty of God. That's how that works. “So who are you to question me?” And so he is going to expose three basic limitations of Job and through Job, all of us, we have the same limitations. First of all, knowledge: “Job you know almost nothing. I am omniscient.” Secondly, time: “Job, your lifespan is very brief. You haven't been around very long. I am eternal.” And then thirdly, power: “Job, you have very little power. Actually, you're very weak. I am omnipotent.” So these basic limitations he's going to expose and then through Job, us. Also along the way God is going to use irony and perhaps some sarcasm. And people don't like that word sarcasm, but I don't know what else to do with some of the statements. We'll see it very plainly at one point. But he says, “Tell me, since you know. You were there, weren't you? At that point, remember when I made everything. Teach me Job, I'd really like to know. Have you done this? Have you done that? Can you do the other?” That's just sarcastic or ironic to some degree. God is using this as a technique. All right. So let's look at those limitations. We need to be humbled in this way. Fundamental aspect of our salvation is our humbling. When we get to heaven, we will be leveled when it comes to pride, leveled. We will be so perfectly humble in heaven. The more humble we can be now on earth, the better. So let's look at these limitations. First of all, knowledge, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” So when a wise man speaks, his words bring light, right? They bring enlightenment that represents insight, wisdom. “But Job when you speak, it just gets darker. It's like what comes out of your mouth are thick, dark clouds of ignorance that cover over light. You're darkening my counsel and you're speaking words without knowledge. That's ignorant words. Job, you are actually shockingly ignorant. There is so much you don't know.” Now, the human mouth displays the arrogance of the human heart. Jesus said, “Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” So what's in your heart out it comes out the mouth. And it says in James 3, “The tongue makes great boasts.” That's who we are. We're very arrogant. We need to be humbled. Secondly, the issue of time, “You haven't been around very long, Job.” Look at verse four, “Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundation?” And then later in verse 21, “Surely you know, since you were already born! You have lived so many years!” That's an example of that sarcasm that I was talking about, verse 21. So, “You're limited in time. You haven't been around very long.” Thirdly, power. You're limited in power. You are very weak. Verse 12, “Have you given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place?” So it's not just power, you're limited in authority, “Go ahead, speak to the dawn and let it obey you.” Or again, verse 34-35, “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do the lightning bolts report to you and say, here we are, what do you want us to do?” So anyway, this is the counseling strategy that God takes with Job and through Job to every generation of his suffering people since then. God vigorously puts us in our place so that we will suffer well and we will not question his wisdom, his power or his love. God’s Power in Creation Educates Us Secondly, God's power in creation educates us. So let's just drink in this natural theology. Let's just learn what God talks about. God's three great works when it comes to the physical creation, the physical universe. First of all, God originally created it out of nothing by the word of his power. Secondly, God sustains it every moment by the word of his power. Thirdly, God rules over it actively, every moment, by the word of his power. These are the displays of God's power in the physical universe, his great works. Creation, sustaining, and governance. And he begins with the earth's foundations. Look at verses 4-7, “Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footing set or who laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” So he begins with the planet, the earth, the ground under our feet. The earth is solidly set. It cannot be moved, another scripture said. God laid the foundations of the earth permanently. This is the stage, the physical stage on which the drama of human history and redemptive history has been unfolding. He marked off the dimensions of the earth, knowing how large to make it. He laid the foundations of the earth, and he says, verse 7, “While the angels watched him in sang for joy.” Most of your translations say, sons of God, one translation just tells us what that is, angels. We know that there's no humans at that point. There's no physical earth out of which they were made yet. So the angels are the audience and they're enjoying it. God does these things for an audience. Everything's a theater. We are the knowledgeable beings, angels and humans, who watch what God does and praise him for it. Animals don't do that. Rocks and rivers, and trees don't do that, we do. And so before, in verse 7, before this adoring audience of angels, he laid the foundations of the earth. They were his first audience and they applauded him. Then he discusses ocean's boundaries, verses 8-11, “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds, its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt?’” Well, that's awesome. I mentioned last week in Japan, seeing the after effects of a tsunami, a hurricane, and just the thrashing of the ocean, the raging power of the ocean is terrifying. Think of the might of the billowing waves. Think how destructive they are on cities who are built on the coast, when the tsunami hits and tidal waves come crashing down. Nothing created by man can restrain the oceans. And there's certainly more than enough water to 100% inundate planet earth, Noah's flood proved that. But God restrains the oceans. He sets boundaries for the oceans, limits. And they are, apparently very fragile. The sand dunes with the little wispy grass and you're not allowed to walk on them. Have you ever been there with all those warning signs about walking on the fragile dunes? They're very fragile. It's like, “That's it God? That's the limit? That's the boundary?” Yep. It's enough. It'll stop. The proud waves halting right here. This is the limit. Here your proud waves must halt. The limits of God. God limits all of his creation. Every created thing has boundaries and borders, and limits, and he upholds them. God says to Job, “I'm the one who did this.” He openly tells him. And then he gets to day and night, verses 12-15, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, [Job], have you ever shown the dawn its place that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal, its features stand out like those of a garment, the wicked are denied their light and their upraised arm is broken.” So God set up from the beginning, the rhythms of evening and morning. As you read in Genesis, there was evening and there was morning, the first day. There was evening and there was morning, the second day. There's this rhythm of days, of sunrise and sunset. On the fourth day of creation, God created the sun to govern the day and the moon to govern the night. He also created the stars. And God gave orders to the sun and the moon in terms of their boundaries, in terms of what their task would be. He controlled the rotation of the earth as we understand it, to make each day as long as it should be. God figured all that out, and in the language here, God claims to give orders to the morning, to command when it should be morning. This is not the machine, the mindless machine of the Deists. You know how they said, it's like a clock that God made all the gears and the springs and wound it up and just lets it run. The mindless creation, the machine of the Deists, that's not it. God gives orders to the dawn when it's time for the dawn to come. He's in charge of it. And as the sun rises, the contours of the earth become increasingly visible to the naked eye. As the light kind of shines more and more over the terrain, you can see the high places and the low places, it takes shape like a seal. So this could go back to the original creation, but it seems to be more what it looks like when the sun rises. “Did you, Job, command this, the morning, would it obey your voice?” And he notes with the rising of the sun, the wicked crawl back into their dark caves, no longer able to do their deeds of darkness. This is a picture of God's sovereign control even over the rebellious of the earth. So God is ruling over even the wicked of the earth. He doesn't talk about it much, but he does that. Then in verse 16 he talks about the sources of the sea. Verse 16, “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?” He speaks, it seems, of the sources of ocean water from the bottom of the ocean floor. He uses language asking if Job has ever walked there or walked on the ocean itself. When Noah's flood broke on the earth, it wasn't just 40 days of rain, but in Genesis 7:11 it says, “all the springs of the great deep broke forth.” So from down below, there was this pressured water and it just roared up. God's in charge of all that, as though there's hidden sources of ocean water deep within the earth's crust that God unleashed; God's in control of that. And then verse 17-18, the vast dimensions of the earth: “Have the gates of death been shown to you, [Job]? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?” The vast expanses, the dimensions of the earth, “Tell me if you know all this.” This speaks of the dimensions in details of planet earth, including the subterranean regions, the deep regions of the earth, where the dead are buried. The actual dimensions of caves and deep crevices and sinkholes, even down to the core of the earth itself. “Job, have you ever seen these? Do you have any sense of the vastness of the earth's size and dimensions?” And then again, light and darkness, verse 19-20: “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?” So he goes back to the sun and moon perhaps, but even more to light and darkness itself. The nature of light, how it works, what it is physically, and then darkness as well. God's in charge of all of this, the light of the world, how it shines and where. I wonder if at this point Job doesn't have any idea what God is talking about. I mean, that's the point, isn't it? You don't know how to do all this. Like Jesus said to Nicodemus about being born again, “I've spoken to you in earthly language and you don't understand what then if I speak in heavenly language? There's whole levels of communication I could be using here and you wouldn't have any idea what I'm talking about.” And so he takes a little bit of a break for sarcastic mockery, as I mentioned, verse 21, “Surely you know, [Job], for you were already born! You have lived so many years!” I just find that interesting. People say often God has a sense of humor. There's not a lot of evidence that he does, but we have a sense of humor and we have a sense of that. It's like, “All right Job, I'm ready, ready to listen since you're so old and you've learned so many things.” So again, he is humbling him. And then he deals in verses 22-30 with weather patterns of every kind, snow, hail, lightning, wind rain, thunderstorm, dew, ice, frost, freezing water, and the effects of the rain watering the earth. Look at these verses. Verse 22, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens, when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?” Honestly weather patterns are beyond most ability of human beings to comprehend. Certainly beyond anyone to control. We can barely comprehend what has happened. The rhythms of meteorology and some of the best among us who have spent a life studying this can give us a five day forecast. And sometimes four out of those five days are right. Maybe even all five. Those are good days. I wouldn't want to be a meteorologist. I don't know how they do what they do, but God's going beyond this. God actually controls staggeringly huge movements of air, massively huge. And he controls temperatures, cold fronts, warm fronts, thermals rising, does all of this. And he knows how much rain to give each region of the earth to produce the exact outcome he desires. He waters, the text says, the desert regions with just the right amount, as well as the grasslands, the tropical rain forest, the wheat fields for us in Kansas, the corn fields in Iowa. He's controlling all of that. And his power is beyond comprehension. God doesn't just know the weather patterns or predict them. He's controlling them. He's controlling the movements of air. And then he goes to the stars in verses 31-33, the constellations and the laws of physics, “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the chords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's dominions over the earth?” So at this point, God raises Job's eyes up to the heavens like he did with Abraham. Look up at the stars, look at the staggering dimensions of outer space, clearly beyond man's control. No doubt about that. We have no control over that. Most of it is beyond man's even observations. We don't even know how big it is, how many stars there are. We're never going to reach even the closest stars. Stars are given to give light to the earth, but also to humble us, because the nearest star Proxima Centauri is 4.25 light years away. So you're not going to get in your vehicle and dial up the cruise control to one light year, and then in four of those, you'll be there. You'll never make it. The only thing we ever made that has left the solar system, Voyager, at its rate it would take 73,000 years to get there. Like, “Oh, we got much better technology than Voyager now, we can go twice as fast.” Okay. Then that's 37,000 years maybe. One of you will do the math and come back at me. I know that. But then that's the nearest star. The Pleiades that he mentions, the stars that make up that constellation group, is 100 times further away than that. We'll never make it. We just look at it. Job has absolutely no control over the stars. He cannot bind their chords or loosen them, whatever that means. He cannot bring any star forth, but God actually controls each star, because of his mighty power not one of them is missing and he knows each of them by name, Isaiah 40:26. It's interesting, he talks about the laws of the heavens. Like long before there was Newton figuring out the laws of gravitation or Einstein, figuring out the laws of light and of relativity, God knows, verse 33, the laws of the heavens, all of it. And then whether, again, verse 34-35, “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you and say, ‘here we are?’” “Are you in charge of the wind and the rain, and the clouds? Can you control all that?” Now, interestingly, in verse 36, for the only time in these four chapters, the only time, God addresses human capacity. He doesn't talk about man pretty much at all in these four chapters. I find that interesting, but here he mentions it briefly. Verse 36, “Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?” So he's saying, “I created you in my image, and I gave you a brain.” The human brain is the most complex physical thing God ever made. The number of neural interconnections in the human brain are equal to, they tell us, the number of leaves in the Amazonian rainforest. God made that. He made your brain to do what it does. It is made in the image of God. And so your reasoning powers, your thinking, your analytical powers, your understanding, God did that. And he's greater than all of it for he made it. Man's understanding is like a flickering candle compared to God's omniscience. But this capability is still an astonishing display of God's creative power. And then he goes one more time to human limits and to weather again. Verse 37-38, “Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?” All right. So God's basic natural theology approach, I think comes in two main parts, not counting Behemoth and Leviathan, we'll get to in due time. Basically you've got inanimate objects and then animals. Those are the two basic approaches. So we've done all this inanimate stuff. The foundations of the earth, the oceans, the weather, the wind, the clouds, the stars, all this inanimate creation and how God runs it. Then he starts getting into animals. Now I know this is still chapter 38, but if I can tell you, the chapter divisions are not inspired by God. They were done by monks, I guess at some point, or somebody did them. I don't know who divided up the chapters. Some of the divisions are excellent and wonderful, and shouldn't be changed others are a bit confusing. So this one, I'm just going to put a line across here and say the two animals he discusses here we'll talk about next time with all the other animals. And there are 10 of them, one after the other, each of them with their capabilities, each one with their domains and God feeding them and caring for them and all that. We'll get to that God willing next week. III. God’s Truth in Scripture Prepares Us So that's natural theology. That's what God's saying. Now, God's truth as revealed in scripture is higher and clearer. The book of Job is clearer than looking at creation itself. We learn more from scripture. So again, keep in mind the whole book of Job and the context, Job's sufferings, the problem of human pain. That's what we're addressing here. God is addressing the problem of human suffering. The problem of pain that comes in our lives, the afflictions that come and hurt us deeply, and he wants to help us. And this is how he's helping us. This is how he wants to help us. This is God's answer. What is it? The God who made all these things and wisely sustains them, and powerfully sustains them, knows also how to run your life. “Trust me, trust me, I have earned, I should have earned your trust.” That's the argument that's going on here. We know there's stronger arguments. I know in the New Testament, the giving of Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection. We'll get to that in a moment, but this is what's happening in this chapter. “Know me. Look at creation.” The astounding evidence of God in creation. The clearest description in scripture of natural theology is in Romans 1:20 and following, “Since the creation of the world,” that text says, “God's invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” So let's not be fools. Let's look at nature. Let's look at creation and say, “The God whom I love made all these things. When I look at this creation, I see how powerful he is, how wise he is, how loving he is.” And if we don't, then our foolish hearts are darkened. We're not glorifying God as God and giving thanks to him. "The God who made all these things and wisely sustains them, and powerfully sustains them, knows also how to run your life." So do that, and as you're doing that, know yourself. What do you think you should know about yourself? You should be humble. You should be humble in reference to God. You should know yourself. You're a creature, you're created in the image of God. That's true. That's your exaltation. But you are not God, that's your humbling. So fall down before God in humble worship, renounce all arrogant claims and charges against him. And in suffering, especially, trust God that he is wise. He knows what he's doing. The same God who orchestrates the weather patterns, who moves masses of warm air in one direction and cool air in another to produce exactly the right amount of rain and sunshine for the crops, God knows how to orchestrate your life. And not only that, he knows how much you can handle. We would've been, admit it, extremely gentle with Job. We would've had God be gentle with Job. In terms of the trials that he brought, we would've had fewer, less. We feel that God maybe wasn't gentle. But I'll tell you this, God was effective. The level of trial he brought in Job's life was the right amount to achieve what he wanted. And the counsel, the approach to counseling was just right. So therefore, suffer well, suffer well. Look at creation and realize that God is in control and knows exactly what he's doing in your life. Trust him; speak words of confident faith to him when you're hurting. When you're hurting, speak words of confident faith, “God, I trust you. I know you love me. I know this is working in good purpose in my life.” Say those things to him. Pray your pain back to him. Be patient in affliction. And as you study creation, learn the attributes you can learn from creation. You can't learn all of them. There are some attributes you can't learn from creation. I mentioned that last week. I don't think you can learn God's justice in creation. You have to look at what he does with people. And in the end, his justice will be vindicated. We'll talk about that. But what can you learn? Well, Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field,” right? Consider them. David said in Psalm 8, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers.” So you got this considering thing going on. So consider the lilies of the field. And what do you get, according to Jesus, when you do? You realize you shouldn't be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or drink or about your body, what you'll wear. Look at the lilies of the field. If God clothes them better than Solomon, he knows how to take care of you. So what you get from looking at that creation, you get a sense of God's love, his love. And when you look up to the stars in the night sky with Psalm 8 in your mind, and you say, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have made,” you know what I think, I think, “what is man?” So you get humbled by that. And you also have a sense of God's infinite power and your lowness. So you get humility from that. And what do you get when you consider the complex ecosystems, about the animals and how they relate to their terrain and all that? We'll get more of that, God willing, next week. But the Psalmist does that in Psalm 104. You realize that God has a place for every creature and every creature is in its place. And it lives as long as it's supposed to and it eats what it's supposed to, and it functions like it's supposed to, and all of it interacts in amazing ways. So what do you get when you meditate on that? A display of God's wisdom, wisdom. Psalm 104:24, “How many are your work O Lord. In wisdom, you made them all, the earth is full of your creatures.” Now, look at the three attributes we've just seen. God's love when you consider the lilies. God's power, when you consider the heavens and God's wisdom, when you consider the animals and the ecosystems, and their relationships to each other. Those are the three attributes people always question when it comes to human suffering, always. Either God's not loving or he is not wise, or he is not powerful or none of the above. But when we look at creation as Christians, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we see differently, we see differently. Now, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Job's real problem was not his sufferings. The loss of his possessions, his children's health, that wasn't his real problem. His real problem was his own deeply embedded sin. Deep inside his heart there were sinful attitudes toward God, and it took this level of pressure, pressure, to bring them bubbling up to the surface. And they came, didn't they? God knew they were there. And so he puts pressure on Job to bring him to humbling so that he can have mercy on him, that he can heal him from those things. And he's going to be humbled. The fear of the Lord in all of this brings it to the surface and saves him. In Job 42:5-6, this is where we're heading, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. And I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” So humble yourself. Let's do a little logic problem. Job is the godliest man alive. One that God boasted about as blameless and upright, a man who it says feared God and shunned evil. That's who Job was. If I can just be general with you folks and with myself, that's not who we are. We're not blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil like Job, not to his level. So here's my logic problem: If a man like Job as good as he was needed this level of humbling, how much do you think we need? Certainly not less. And this humbling is designed to get us ready for suffering. So either you're going through suffering right now, or you will someday. The best thing you can do in either case is to fall down before almighty God and humble yourself. Tell him that he is your everything and that he is everything, and that you are nothing. Scuttle your pride. Tell him that you trust him and whatever he chooses to do with your possessions or with your loved ones, or with your help, he has the right to do. IV. Christ’s Perfect Fulfillment Saves Us Now, as I finish this morning, I want to bring to you the sweetest meditation that I had on this chapter. It's not in the chapter at all, but I'm just moving out further to the whole scope of 66 books of the Bible and all of what God is saying to us. I want to bring your mind to Christ. I want you to think with me together about Jesus Christ. We need to see the infinite majesty of Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the exalted perfect God man. And unlike Job, this is beautiful, he actually can answer each of God's questions to Job, all of them. Christ is actually perfect in wisdom. Christ is actually eternal in his person and Christ is actually infinite in his power. So look at the questions that God asked Job, and imagine him asking them of Jesus. Look at verse 4, “Where were you, [Jesus], when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Well, according to John 1:3, “Through Christ, all things were made and without him, nothing was made that has been made.” Or even better, this will blow you away. Hebrews 1, in which we have an intra-Trinitarian conversation going on, in which the Father is exalting the Son, “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I've become your Father?’” He's talking, the Father's talking to the Son. Keep that in mind. Then you get to Hebrews 1:10-12, God the father says to Jesus the Son, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Wow. That's Jesus. That's our Savior that God is talking to, “They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe they will be changed. But you remain the same and your years will never end.” He is eternal. That's Jesus. What about walking on the sea? Look at verse 16 again, “[Job], Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?” Imagine him saying that to Jesus, “Actually, father, I have. I have walked on the billowing waves of the sea of Galilee.” Mark 6:48-51, “About the fourth watch of the night. Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. And immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid.’ Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down and they were completely amazed.” What about the storm? Verse 34-35 of Job 38, “[Hey Job], can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you and say, ‘here we are?’” In other words, “Job, do you control the weather?” What about Jesus? Oh, you know he does. In Mark 4:37-41, “A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples went and woke him saying to him, ‘Teacher don't you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Peace, be still.’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.’” And at the second coming, Jesus is going to come riding on the clouds. Matthew 26:64, “In the future you'll see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” He's going to be riding on the clouds. And best of all, what about the gates of death? Look at verse 17, Job 38:17, “Have the gates of death been shown to you, [Job]? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?” Well, Jesus has not only seen them, he's blown them apart, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” "By his mighty death and resurrection Jesus has destroyed the power of the grave; death could not hold him. And if we trust in Christ, if you trust in Christ as your Savior, death won't hold you either." By his mighty death and resurrection Jesus has destroyed the power of the grave; death could not hold him. And if we trust in Christ, if you trust in Christ as your Savior, death won't hold you either. He's going to bring you through the gates of death into everlasting life. For he says, “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.” So God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind and restored his soul. But now, right now, God is speaking more clearly through his Son. Trust in him, put your faith in him. He is the perfect Son of Man who can answer all of these questions on our behalf and will be eternally worshiped at the right hand of God, forever. Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for the things that we've learned already in Job 38. There's a lot to cover. Thank you for speaking the truth to us. Thank you for Christ who died and who rose again that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This is how John starts his gospel account. It parallels Genesis 1 - In the beginning, God. So John makes it clear that God and The Word are one and the same. He also tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's Jesus. He is the Word of God. He is God. Everything begins and ends with him. He is also the one who is full of grace and truth. And from him we receive grace upon grace. That's the story of the Bible. God giving us grace in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And that's good news.
This show is about the beauty of a wife in her role as helpmate. This does not sound so dramatic, until you realize the role Joyce took with Bloodgood vs. the role she was used to having previously in show business. It is an incredible testimony for the wife of today's world to realize that, when you humble yourself and operate in God's calling, it not only benefits your husband, but who knows how many other people. This is a real-life story of that very thing. But you will also learn how, although she was not in a role she was used to, God “trained her” for this moment. Not only did He train her, but He elevated her to another role that, as Les says, “That's Jesus.” Do not miss this episode! This was the continuation of the first part of our interview with Christian rock legend and Bloodgood front-man, Les Carlsen and his wife, Joyce. We want you involved! To get involved in the show, you can call (833) 8-JUNGLE, or go to www.MaritalMonkey.com and submit your information there to get involved! Segments include: · Marital Monkey Questions and Answers · Marital Monkey Rant of the Day · Marital Monkey Milestones · Marital Monkey Joke of the Day · Marital Monkey Special Couples · Monkey Business Stop monkeying around and get to it! If you would like to help us in our mission to help people "get the marital monkeys off their backs," please consider becoming a "monthly monkey" by donating to our ministry. You can do that at the website address listed above. Your donation helps us stay on-air and spread God's plan for marriage (and relationships)!
Jesus was raised from the dead. He is alive and he will never die again. Which means death no longer has dominion over him. That's Jesus. But what about you? Well here is your story as Paul writes it. You have been baptized, or placed into Christ's death, burial and resurrection through faith in him. Which means your old man was crucified with Christ. This is good news, because the one who has died has been set free from sin. Sin is no longer your master. And since you have died with Christ, you will also live with him. Death no longer has dominion over you. Because he lives, you live. So today, live in this truth. Count yourself dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Sun 5:00 pm | Series: That's Jesus | Speaker/s: Andy Harrison
The core message of the gospel is that Christ is in you. The first message God gave humanity, when sending down His Son, was “God is with you.” That's Jesus's name—Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” For Him to not be with you would mean He would cease to exist. Many of us have believed a partial gospel. We thought the gospel was just about being forgiven and going to heaven one day. But the rest of the gospel is that Christ has joined Himself to you, right here and now.
Sun 5:00 pm | Series: That's Jesus | Speaker/s: Ps Nathan Bean
I share in this episode some updates & vacation. The (4-F's) Faith, Family, Friends, Fellowship! Lastly, a vision from Holy Spirit showing that through Christ & Grace I'm able to joyfully overcome all major obstacles in life. In this fun vision I'm taught, "Do not be afraid, just ride the slide that's Jesus!" --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/justwenministries/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/justwenministries/support
Capernaum was Jesus's home base during his public ministry. He taught there, prayed there and ministered there. One day, a huge crowd gathered to hear him teach the word. Four men showed up with their paralytic friend. There were so many people, they couldn't get in the house. They climbed on the roof, and tore a hole in it just so they could lower their friend down to Jesus. When Jesus saw this man, he said to him, "my son, your sins are forgiven." The Jewish leaders were perplexed, because they knew that God alone had authority to forgive sins. That's Jesus. He and the Father are one. He has the authority. So when he says to you, your "sins are forgiven", believe it, because it's true. So today, rejoice, because of the blood of Jesus, you are a forgiven person.
Zack Snyder's approach to the DC material is to skin the heroes as modern mythological figures. And he does so by using blatantly obvious parallels. Superman? That's Jesus. He literally dies sacrificially, he literally resurrects. Batman? That's Hades. He's grim and glum and sulks around in an underworld called Gotham. His is a Divisive approach but he has something to say. Because Zack Snyder's Justice League pays off on all that deconstructionism. It actually takes all the little broken pieces of classic characters and rearranges them to build them anew. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Cole Burgett about the modern superhero myths and how they can point seekers to the truth of the gospel and his online-exclusive article, “No Us Without Him: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Zack Snyder's Justice League“. **Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League.**https://www.equip.org/article/no-us-without-him-the-life-death-and-resurrection-of-zack-snyders-justice-league/Please note this article will be fully accessible by the public in the future, to get early access to read it now, please see our FAQ section on Early Access to Online-Exclusive Articles by clicking here.https://www.equip.org/early-access-to-online-exclusive-articles-faqs/We'd also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast. Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author: Episode 234: Star Wars Happy and Glorious in The High RepublicHappy and Glorious in The High Republic: A Review of The High Republic Era beginning with Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles SouleEpisode 227 Catharsis and the Power of Release in WandaVisonCatharsis and the Power of Release in WandavisonEpisode 222 Deconstructionism and the Gospel of Hope in LoganDeconstructionism and the Gospel of Hope in LoganEpisode 218: Wonder Woman 1984: The Truth Is Enough.Wonder Woman 1984: The Truth Is Enough.Episode 214 Star Trek's Christopher Pike: An Old Fashioned Hero For Our Cynical TimesStar Trek's Christopher Pike: An Old- Fashioned Hero for Our Cynical Time Don't miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.
Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 15-17, where we can see the parallels between the things Job longed for and the fulfillment those longings ultimate found in the person of Christ and His work for us. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Well, turn in your Bibles. We're looking this morning at three chapters in the book of Job, Job 15-17. Before the foundation of the world, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, planned our salvation. God planned that his children would be saved from their rebellion and their misery by the intervention of Jesus Christ, their Savior. This plan was in God's mind when God created the heavens and the earth. When God said, "Let there be light," this plan was also fully formed in God's mind. When Adam and Eve fell into sin and doomed their children to sorrow and suffering through the relentlessness of evil, even then, God knew that his chosen people in every generation and in every nation on earth would be saved through Jesus Christ. However, despite the fact that plan was fully formed in the mind of God, before anything was created, fully formed in the mind of God, down to the smallest detail, yet God revealed it only a little at a time over the centuries, through his holy prophets. Their limited knowledge of the coming Savior was dim and distant, as this light grew brighter and brighter across the centuries. Numbers 24:17, the prophet said, "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel." So dim and distant to the prophetic eye at that point. As the time drew nearer, the light grew clearer. The prophets were given bigger and bigger pieces of the mystery to write down and ponder. Now we don't know exactly when Job came in and where he fits into this unfolding story, don't know for sure. It seems to many scholars, he came in at a very early stage in all of this. His knowledge of the coming Savior and of the life and light he would bring was very limited. Paul speaks in Ephesians 3:9 of “this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things.” So this mystery is Christ, kept hidden in God for ages past. So Job went through his suffering, yearning for things that we now know much more clearly about by the open assertions of scripture that we have in the New Testament, in light of the past accomplishments and achievements of Jesus Christ, our Savior. For us they're past, and they're perfectly recorded in the pages of the New Testament, but Job didn't have any of that. And one of those things that we now know much, much more clearly than Job did is Jesus' role as our heavenly witness, our heavenly advocate, our heavenly intercessor, and our heavenly friend. Job didn't understand that. Job yearned for that, but he really didn't know him. Jesus came to fulfill those roles for all of us, for all eternity. And in the text we're going to look at today, as he says, “I know that I have that,” but his knowledge is limited and dim. We get to look now at Jesus as a perfect fulfillment of that yearning and how beautiful it is. Now, whenever individuals go to buy a high-quality diamond from a jeweler, often the jeweler will spread out a black velvet cloth and sprinkle out the various diamonds that are an option to buy. And the glitter, the blinding light (because the lighting is just right to make the diamond sparkle) just shines radiantly against the backdrop of that black cloth. And that's the way I think we should look at Job 15-17. There's a glittering diamond of a statement that we just heard read in Job 16:19-21, which talks about Jesus as our intercessor, advocate, and friend. But the rest of it is a lot of blackness. A lot of blackness. Now we should not think that God the Holy Spirit only means for us to look at the glittering diamonds. He wants us to understand the black cloth as well, because we're going to go through it. I don't know what it's going to be like, but we're going to go through our black times. And it's good for us to see how Job spoke in the midst of that blackness. But it's also good, isn't it, to see the glittering diamond of Christ in the midst of all of it. And I think that God in his infinite wisdom has chosen to let us get this education in evil that we sought at the tree through Adam. From the very beginning, we sought to know good and evil, and we're getting this education in evil, and it is the black backdrop against which the glittering diamonds of the grace of God through Christ will shine for all eternity. So we're going to walk through these three chapters, and I'm going to dive right into chapter 16, go back to 15, and then move on from there. I. When Will Windy Words End? And so I begin by standing alongside Job, as he said, "When will these windy words end?" Job at this point has become utterly disgusted with his friends. Look at Job 16:2-3. He says, "I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you, that you keep on arguing?" What an incredible statement. Miserable counselors or miserable comforters are you all. Their comfort, so to speak, their counsel to him is actually shredding him. It's not healing him. And he wonders when their long winded speeches will ever come to an end. Their words to him are wind. They are chaff. They're empty of truth and nourishment for his soul. And he chides them directly for their demeanor, for the simple reason that they have not suffered as he has, so they cannot possibly understand what he is going through. Look at 16:4. He said, "I could also speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you." And if the roles were reversed, he actually is saying, “I would do a much better job than you're doing. I would be a better friend and a counselor to you than you are being to me.” Verse five, 16:5, he says, "But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief." Now this is just one of the basic principles. Sometimes God brings us through specific patterns of misery so that we can bring comfort to others who go through that same misery later. This is openly taught in 2 Corinthians 1, that we can give to others the same comfort we ourselves have received from God. So Job is already in that place, saying, “if I were to go, I would be much more compassionate than you're being with me.” All right, well what brought all that on? Well, Eliphaz's second speech brought all that on, chapter 15. Remember this section of Job, this long middle section is made up of three cycles of dialogue between Job and his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. All three have spoken once. Job has answered each of them. Now Eliphaz speaks for a second time, as recorded in chapter 15, Job 15. Remember the first time that Eliphaz spoke, his basic proposition was you reap what you sow. Job's grievous afflictions have come upon him from a just and energetic and active God, who is intervening and dealing with Job in his sin. Now Eliphaz has a second crack at Job. And what did Eliphaz say? Well, look back at chapter 15. Eliphaz said that Job's words are nothing but wind. Look at 15:2-3, "Would a wise man answer with empty notions or fill his belly with hot east wind? Would he argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value?" So this is in chapter 15 and 16, this is the dueling bickering between these two. “Your words are wind.” “No, no, your words are wind. They're empty.” Eliphaz basically rebukes Job, saying his sinfulness is prompting his speech. He says in verses 2-6, “It's ungodly to attack God. He's seeking to humble Job and lay him low.” Look at verse 7-10, chapter 15. "Are you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills? Do you listen in on God's council? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we don't know? What insights do you have that we do not have? The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men even older than your father." So basically, “Job, who do you think you are to talk like this?” Go to 15:14-16. Eliphaz says, "What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman that he could be righteous? If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, how much less a man who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water!" So this is a recurring theme, and we will address it more fully, God willing, in a later sermon. But the idea of “How can a corrupt human being ever be righteous in the sight of God?” Eliphaz is saying that. And then Eliphaz traces out in great detail the doom that the godless can expect, the godless evildoer in verses 20-35. He traces all that out and implicitly applies it to Job. Job, the wicked man, who's getting what he truly deserves. Look at 20-25. He says, "All his days the wicked man suffers torment, the ruthless through all the years stored up for him. Terrifying sounds fill his ears; when all seems well, marauders attack him. He despairs of escaping the darkness; he's marked for the sword. He wanders about—food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand. Distress and anguish fill him with terror; they overwhelm him like a king poised to attack, because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty." He's saying this to Job, when many of these things have happened to Job, and says, “The reason why is you shake your fist at God. That's who you are.” Look down at 30-32, "He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God's mouth will carry him away. Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return. Before his time he will be paid in full, and his branches will not flourish." This is the law of sowing and reaping. “You, Job, are clearly reaping what you have sown. You've sown evil, and now you're reaping judgment.” So Eliphaz, as you can see, is getting more aggressive, much more aggressive than he was in his first speech. He's calling Job a massive sinner, a wicked evildoer. And just as Eliphaz called Job's words wind, Job returns the favor and calls Eliphaz's words wind as well, empty of truth. II. Job’s Complaint Against God But then Job, in chapter 16, after having addressed his friends, again turns up to God. And that's the real issue—it's his complaint toward God in chapter 16:7-17. God has devastated Job's household. Look at verse seven, "Surely, oh God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household." All 10 children are dead. His wife has been, in some ways, just destroyed by this. His family life has been destroyed. God has assaulted Job's body through disease. Look at verse eight, "You have bound me—it has become my witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me." His friends couldn't recognize him when they came to see him. He didn't look like the same man. It’s what disease can do to somebody. And he says, "God has attacked him violently like an enemy." Verse nine, "God assails me and tears me in his anger. He gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent, my enemy fastens on me his piercing eyes." This is speaking of God here. Looks on God as an opponent. And it's not just vertical—it's horizontal. “People are being mean to me as well.” Verse 10, "Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek and scorn and unite together against me.” “God has assaulted me in wave upon wave." Remember how it was? Messenger would come. And while that one was still speaking, the next messenger would come. You remember, wave upon wave. That was all part one. And then part two came and the next wave, that was his disease. So he lost all of his material possessions, he lost all of his children. And then part two, he lost his health. Wave upon wave. Look at verses 12-14. "All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target; his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground. Again and again, he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior." This is Job speaking of God. Job says, "My body is repulsive." Verse 15 and 16, "I've sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust. My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes." And all of this, all of this has happened to an innocent man. Look at verse 17 and 18, "Yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure." Then he cries for vindication, verse 18, "O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!" So this is the basic accusation he has toward God is injustice. It's the very first thing God's going to bring back to him when he speaks out of the whirlwind. So it comes again and again. “This is unjust. What is happening to me is unjust.” III. Job’s Bitter Lament: “Death Is My Only Hope” So in chapter 17, Job continues his bitter lament. So friends, I'm just tracing out the black velvet cloth against which this beautiful diamond is going to glitter, and it's very tough. It's difficult with his friends, horizontally. It's difficult vertically toward God. And he continues in chapter 17 with a bitter lament. “Death is my only hope.” None of these words are bringing Job any comfort at all. So he goes into a deep and bitter lament. Look at 17:1. He says, "My spirit is broken, my days are cut short, the grave awaits me." Think about those words. “My spirit is broken. I'm completely shattered by what's happened to me.” And then again, in verse 11, "My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart." So Job has reached the point where he sees nothing good left in his future. Everything he has ever set his heart on in this world has been taken from him, violently ripped from him. Well, what else is there left to hope for? More camels and donkeys and sheep and oxen come back? They could just be taken away again. More children? We've already been through that. They could just be taken away again. “There's actually just nothing I want left in this world.” He has lost all taste for life. Now, his friends may try to give him hope by minimizing his trial. Look at verse 12, 17:12. He says, "These men turn night into day; in the face of darkness, they say ‘Light is near.’" Happy days are coming. But he says, “Honestly, the only hope I have left is the grave.” Look at 17:13-16. He says, "If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in darkness, if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? Will it go down to the gates of death?" Meaning hope, “will hope go down with me? Will we go down hand in hand to the gates of death, hope and I?” “Will we descend together into the dust?” Can any of you give me any hope that will last from now until the day I die? We looked at this passage last time when we talked about Job's view of the grave. Remember? In 14:14, "If a man dies, will he live again?" And what did Job think about that? So this was some evidence that shows he has this very dark view of the grave. Doesn't think much beyond it. Whatever there is beyond it isn't bringing him much joy. He does not have, it seems here in this text, a developed hope in resurrection. For him, the grave is a place of darkness, of cessation of all sensory input, all pleasure and all pain become obsolete. And for Job, that's an improvement because he's in pain. At least it would mean an end to his suffering. But he says, “That's what I'm down to now. The only thing I have to hope for is to die and have the worms eat my corpse.” That's not much of a hope. “Can such a hope sustain me from now until the day I actually do die? Will such a hope hold my hand through all of my miseries, until I finally go down to the dark river and cross over into darkness? What kind of existence is really left for me here on earth? And I'm not really thinking about much beyond the grave.” All right, friends, that is the black velvet cloth. Very dark. It's very sad. It's very depressing. It's good to have these words. The Holy Spirit wants us to have these words because someday, you're going to go through sorrow and afflictions, and this is what it sounds like to go through it. IV. My Witness, Advocate, and Intercessor Is In Heaven But in the midst of all of that comes a beautiful, glittering, pure diamond. Look at verses 19-21 of chapter 16, "Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God on behalf of a man." He pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend. Again and again, Job, in this book, speaks words with prophetic insight that I believe he doesn't even fully understand himself, because he then lapses back immediately into black depression, discouragement, yearning for death. "Again and again, Job, in this book, speaks words with prophetic insight that I believe he doesn't even fully understand himself, because he then lapses back immediately into black depression, discouragement, yearning for death." So God the Spirit moved in Job to say some things that didn't bring him much comfort at the time, it seems, but bring us a lot of understanding concerning Christ, who Christ is for us now. And this is a very important principle of the inspiration authority of the Bible. It has to do with how we have our scriptures, how God the Holy Spirit moved in prophets to speak and then write words that they did not understand, get them down, so that future generations could read and understand who Christ is. This is openly taught in 1 Peter 1:10-12. Peter writes there in 1 Peter 1:10-12, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things." Powerful words from Peter. What's he talking about? In simple words, the Old Testament prophets who lived before Jesus were moved by the Holy Spirit. Peter teaches that in 2 Peter 1:21, “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by Holy Spirit.” So the Old Testament prophets said things about Christ, his sufferings, and his glory that they didn't understand. And it was revealed to them at that time that they were not supposed to understand it. Clearest example of this is Daniel 12, where Daniel writes a whole bunch of visionary thing down and says to God, "I don't get it." And he's told to seal up the scroll because it's for a later generation. Plain in Daniel 12. And so it is here, I think. Job says some amazing things about Jesus he doesn't fully understand. But we, with the fuller teaching of the New Testament, we're able to look and say, “What a diamond of glory this is, that we have this kind of an intercessor and advocate and friend on high in Jesus.” That's what these beautiful words are all about. So this happens, I think, often in the book of Job. Job says things that will later be fulfilled in Christ, and he doesn't fully understand his own words. For example, earlier in chapter nine, you can turn there and look there if you'd like, or just listen, Job 9:33-34. There Job had said, and we went through it at the time, "If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand on us both, someone to remove God's rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more." As a Christian, you read those words. Aren't those beautiful words about Jesus? Job is yearning for a mediator to stand between God and man, who will represent him, and that's what we have in Jesus. Isn't that beautiful? I Timothy 2:5-6 says, "There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time." That's amazing. Notice that Paul says that Jesus' mediating role is a testimony that would be spoken at the proper time, in the fullness of time. At the right time, we will understand Jesus as our mediator. He is the God-Man, conceived in the virgin's womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, fully God, fully man. And he's able to be a mediator between God and man. He's able to speak on behalf of God to man. And he's able to speak perfectly on behalf of man to God. And so he's able to represent sinners like you and me and like Job. And he does it perfectly well. So in Romans 5:1, it says, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And also Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." So that is God's rod removed and his terror is frightening us no more. Fulfilled. Did Job understand that? No, he did not. But he receives the benefit of it because he's absent from the body, present with the Lord now. He's forever in heaven, based on the mediating work of Jesus. He was saved by Jesus, just like all the Old Testament saints were, but he didn't understand, not fully. And now here in our chapter today, we have this other example. So look at it again. Job 16:19-21. I'm thinking a recently engaged woman doesn't look at her diamond ring just once. Just thinking, what do you think? She looks at it a lot, and she shows it off to her friends, and she looks at it some more. So tell you what, let's look at this diamond a lot. You get to look at this when you go home today. You get to keep looking at it and looking at it and realize what you have in Jesus. Look at these words, "Even now, my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man, he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend." So let's extend this now beyond any comprehension Job could have had about this ministry of Jesus Christ. Now Job says, "Even now, I have this." So that might be just the sweet foretasting ministry of the spirit to give him enough comfort to get him through. He says, "I have this now. I've got someone." But he didn't fully understand Christ's activity on our behalf as we do now. Now what did Job want? He wanted a witness for him in heaven. He wanted someone to testify in heaven that the things that his friends were saying about him were just not true. That at the heavenly courtroom, at the heavenly trial, he'll be a witness on Job's behalf that he was actually, truly innocent of all these charges. Someone to present the truth, the evidence on his behalf, so he could be vindicated. He wanted an advocate on high, someone to speak on his behalf. He wanted an intercessor. He says someone who would plead for him with great passion, as he himself is weeping tears. Someone who would weep with him and care that much about his case. Who would actually care for him and his vindication as much as he did. Someone who could plead for him as a man pleads for his friend. Now I know verse 20 has different translations. Verse 20 either speaks more of the same that he says plainly in verse 21. “I want a friend, if only I could have a friend.” Or verse 20 may be speaking about his present earthly friends who are terrible. With friends like that, who needs enemies? Doesn't matter. The point ends up the same and even strengthened, no matter what you do with verse 20. And so the fact of the matter is he doesn't want friends like this. He wants someone who will be a real friend to him in heaven. That's what he's yearning for. So now we turn, with our hearts full, to understand the ministry of Jesus as our great high priest. V. Jesus Our Great High Priest And this we get again from the book of Hebrews. It's hard for me to even state how indispensable Hebrews is in the canon. The things that Hebrews tells us about Jesus are not so clearly told us anywhere else in the Bible. And we have taught us in the book of Hebrews that Jesus is our great high priest. It's clearly asserted, Hebrews 2:17. It says, "For this reason [Jesus] had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God." Think about those words, merciful and faithful high priest. "And that he might make atonement for the sins of the people." So Jesus is our great high priest. Again, Hebrews 4:14. It says, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess." And then again, Hebrews 5:5-6, “God said to him…‘You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.’” So according to the book of Hebrews, what are Jesus' credentials as our great high priest? Well, first of all, he is perfect in holiness. He's perfect in holiness. He does not need to offer sacrifices for his own sins and then for the people. He never committed any sin. He's pure and holy. He also has an eternal, unchanging priesthood because those priests died, and when they died, the next priest would come along. But Jesus, having died, can never die again. And so he has an eternal, permanent priesthood. He will be our priest forever, a priest forever. And he has perfect access to God. He sits at the right hand of Almighty God over all the universe and can speak to the Father at any time. I'm going to develop all these a little more fully in a moment. And he offers a perfect sacrifice, his own blood. These aspects of his perfect ministry, as I said, we're going to walk through a little bit more in a moment, but I want to start and zero in with Jesus' perfect compassion. Perfect compassion. "But Jesus, having died, can never die again. And so he has an eternal, permanent priesthood. He will be our priest forever, a priest forever. And he has perfect access to God." Job wanted someone to plead for him as a man pleads for his friend. We could imagine an advocate who is detached, aloof, uncaring, professional, in it for the money, like a public defender with an overwhelming caseload, and you're one of his cases. Right? He barely knows your name. He barely knows your case. The only reason he cares about you is his track record of success in court, so he can get a better job. We could imagine a person like that. He has no vested interest in your vindication. Friends, Jesus is nothing like that. He is nothing like that. He has staked his life blood that every one of his sheep will be saved. Now in the Old Testament, the Aaronic priest would wear a breastplate over their heart. And on that were 12 stones with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel inscribed, one on each stone and set in a matrix at three by four. And it was over his heart as he ministered, the names of the people he was ministering for. We see an even more beautiful sense of that commitment. Your name's engraved in stone. Well, how much better than the image that we have in Isaiah 49:15-16? By the way, this is a beautiful Mother's Day verse, Isaiah 49:15-16. It says there, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." Now that's a step up, isn't it? The Aaronic priest had engraved this on this breastplate, the names of Israel on stones. Jesus says in a beautiful metaphor, "I've engraved your name in my hands." I think about John 20, his resurrection, he showed them his hands and his feet. But you think about that. “These wounds, I've engraved your name in my hands.” And I love that Mother's Day verse, so to speak, Isaiah 49:15-16, because Christ, God chooses mothers with their nursing infants as the pinnacle of compassionate, committed love on earth. Say, “is it even possible for her to forget her babies? But it is possible. There are some bad mothers who would. But even if she would forget, I am at a higher level.” The Lord is saying that. “I'm at a higher level even than a mother with her nursing infant.” That's his committed love for us. And so we have his compassion and his commitment to us. And Jesus is our friend. He is our compassionate, committed friend. He says in John 15:13-14, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. So I no longer call you slaves. I call you friends." Hebrews tells us of his perfect compassion to our weakness. Hebrews 4:15, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin." We see this in the gospel accounts, don't we? Jesus is again and again moved with compassion for people. It's the number one emotion that he displays in the gospel accounts. For example, in Mark 1:40-42, “A man with leprosy came and begged him on his knees. ‘If you were willing,’ he said, ‘you can make me clean.’ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. “Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.” Moved with compassion. Or again, in Mark 8:1-3, it says, "During those days another large crowd gathered. And since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion for these people; they've already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they'll collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.'" That's compassion. “I know their situation. I know what's going on in their stomachs. I want to feed them.” Or again, in Luke 7:12-13, "As he approached the town gate, [a place called Nain,] a dead person was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her. [And he went over to her] and said, 'Don't cry.'" That's Jesus. That's who he is. He poured out tears and blood for us. Job poured out tears for his own sorrows. Jesus pours out tears and blood for ours. That's who he is. That's his compassion. So Jesus is our witness in heaven. Now, how is Jesus our witness in heaven? Well, he's not going to do what Job wants done. He's not going to do that. He will not stand up in heaven at your heavenly court trial, if you could imagine that, and testify, “You are all innocent of all charges. You didn't do it.” He's not going to do that. He knows very well that you couldn't answer once in a thousand times what God would accuse you of. He knows very well. Well then, how is he our witness in heaven? He's going to witness that he knows you as his own sheep. He's going to claim you as his own by name. As it says in John 10:3, "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." John 10:14, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." Or again, Isaiah 43:1, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine." That's how he will witness. He will witness that he knows you. And he will witness that you are righteous through the imputed righteousness that was given you as a gift the moment you were born again, through faith. That's what he's going to witness to in heaven. So he will say of you, "He's one of mine, or she's one of my sheep." And he will know you by name. And he will advocate for you. He is your intercessor. It is very good for you to get Christian brothers and sisters to pray for you, whatever you're going through. That is a good thing, but just know this—you're already completely covered in prayer. We're told in the New Testament that both the second and the third persons of the Trinity are constantly interceding for you. You are covered in prayer. And so it says in Hebrews 7:24-25, “because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." So he's constantly alive and praying for each of us. He never stops. His energy in prayer is limitless. Have you ever gotten tired in prayer? “Pastor, when do I not get tired in prayer?” Jesus' energy is limitless in intercession. Says in Romans 8:34, "Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." Now, where does he intercede? Well, I just said it a moment ago. Job said he wanted an advocate on high, somebody up there for him. This makes me think of this amazing verse, Isaiah 57:15, "But this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, and whose name is holy." This is God describing his living place. I live in a high and holy place. But also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit. So Jesus does his intercession in the highest place. Says in Hebrews 1:3, "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven." Ephesians 1:20-21 says, "[God] raised [Christ] from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms," listen to this, "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given." Infinite gap between Jesus and every other power and principality that there is. Again, Ephesians 4:10, "He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe." So Jesus just passes through the heavenly realms up above them all. He's above all created realms. He's above the heavens. That's how high it is. And so it says in Hebrew 7:26, "Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners," listen to these words, "exalted above the heavens." That's where he does his advocacy work, his intercession work. So he's in a perfect place to do his intercession. He also is at the right hand of God. He's at the right hand of God. So I had a conversation this very morning with someone dear to me, that I won't mention. All right, and she asked me, she said, "Wait a minute, James and John wanted to sit at Jesus' right or left. Isn't Jesus at the right hand of God, so he doesn't have…. Like one of those places is taken, maybe the left." So whatever. I said, "Look, don't do that calculation. We're talking about infinite dimensions up in heaven. So don't worry about the right hand, left hand thing, OK?" Some of you like, what are you even talking about, others know exactly what I'm talking about. But Jesus is at the right hand of God. He has access to the Father, intimate access. And to what basis does Jesus intercede for us sinners? On the merits of his own shed blood, shed once for all, for their sins. Hebrews 7:27, "He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." He offered himself. Hebrews 10:19, "We have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus." I love the hymn, “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” One of the stands as says this: "Lo, the incarnate God ascended, pleads the merits of his blood." Pleads the merits of his blood. "Venture on him, venture holy, let no other trust intrude." There's a lot of theology in that. So Jesus, the incarnate God, is ascended and pleading on your behalf the merits of his once for all blood sacrifice for you. Now, what does he pray for? What is Jesus praying for as he's constantly interceding for you? Well, limitless things, tiny details and big things—all of it pertaining to your final salvation. He's very active in this. You're underestimating all kinds of stuff. Jesus doesn't underestimate anything. Little things matter, big things matter. Everything is worthy of his intercessory prayer for you. He's filtering your temptation so that nothing will come on you more than you can bear. He is praying for protection. He's putting walls around you, hedges around you. He's doing all kinds of things. But I think the focus, most especially, has to do with what he said to Simon Peter when he predicted that Simon Peter would deny him. The night before Jesus was crucified, he said in Luke 22:31-32, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you," plural, "like wheat," all of you, "but I've prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail." It's one of the most important statements you can ever find concerning the intercessory ministry of Jesus. He's praying for you, that your faith in Jesus will not fail. And if you're going to say, "But it won't, pastor. I'm reformed in my theology. I believe once saved, always saved." Are you going to keep saying that I don't need Jesus intercessory ministry for me at the right hand of God? You know you do. Your faith would fail in an instant if he stopped praying for you and the Father stopped sustaining your faith. If Satan could just have at you, you would deny him within minutes. He's that powerful. But it won't happen. And he's praying that your faith will not fail. And he's praying that you will not be lost, that none of us will be lost. John 17:11-12, "I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world and I'm coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be won as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost." So that none of us would be lost. He also prays for the unconverted elect, who haven't come to faith yet, that they will believe in the gospel. John 17:20-21, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." Now, how successful would you say Jesus' intercessory ministry is? What do you think his batting average is? Well, I'm telling you he bats a 1,000. Or in other terminology, he's 100% effective in his prayer. Everything he prays for, he gets. Everything. Why? Because the Father is delighted in him. "How successful would you say Jesus' intercessory ministry is? ... He's 100% effective in his prayer. Everything he prays for, he gets. Everything. Why? Because the Father is delighted in him." In Matthew 3:17, the Father said, "This is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased." The Father reveals to the Son every aspect of the Father's plan. The Son knows everything the Father knows about his plan. John 5:20, "The Father loves the Son and shows him all he does." The Son always does what pleases the Father. John 8:29, "He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." Now we know from 1 John 5, whenever we pray according to God's will, we get what we ask for, right? 1 John 5, "If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we ask of him." So Jesus only prays according to the will of the Father and is perfectly pleasing the Father and gets everything he asks for, all the time, on your behalf. So all of the sheep that have been converted will continue to believe in Jesus, despite the constant assault of the world, the flesh, and the devil on their faith. They're going to make it through. You're going to make it through. You're going to survive. You're still going to believe in Jesus on your deathbed. He's going to pray for you to that end. And all of the unconverted elect will come to faith. Missionaries are going to get there. Evangelists are going to get there. They're going to hear in time, and they're going to repent and believe. This is the nature of his prayer ministry. We are not going to be tempted beyond what we can bear. Do you see how beautiful this is? And so Job said in Job 16:19-21, "Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man, he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend." VI. Applications Applications. Just thank God you have Jesus as your intercessor. Thank God that you have him as your advocate. Thank God that he is witnessing on your behalf and he is your friend. Thank God for Christ's compassion for you. Praise God that you're where you're at in redemptive history, and you have all of these wonderful texts that support your faith and give you confidence concerning Jesus. And rely on Jesus as your great high priest. Rely on him. "Praise God that you're where you're at in redemptive history, and you have all of these wonderful texts that support your faith and give you confidence concerning Jesus. And rely on Jesus as your great high priest." You may be going through afflictions now. You may be fearful about what afflictions will come in the future. Don't be fearful. No matter what you're going through right now or what God in his wisdom may cause to bring into your lives, no matter what happens, your witness and advocate and intercessor and great high priest will pray you through that and get you through to the other side. And my only final question to you who are listening to me today is do you know him? Is Jesus Christ your Savior? Is he your Lord? Have you trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? And if not, I would just plead with you, cross over today. Cross over today from death to life. All you have to do is repent of your sins. Just acknowledge that you're a sinner. Don't think that Jesus is going to get up there and say, "Oh, he, she is perfect. They never did anything wrong." It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. So repent and find in Jesus this intercessory ministry. Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for the time we've had to study these three chapters, how rich they are. Lord, it's hard to read. Some of it's hard. Some of it's dark and depressing. But Lord, we thank you, that you have given us light in the midst of darkness. You've given us radiant truth that we can look at and admire the glistening, sparkling beauty of Jesus as our advocate and our intercessor and our friend on high. And we thank you for the things we learned and pray that you would press them to our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Today's Reading: Luke 24:36-38 Daily Lectionary: Exodus 15:1-18; Hebrew 9:1-28 . . . Jesus. . . said to them, 'Peace to you!" (Luke 24:36) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. When the LORD Jesus says, "Peace to you!" it's not like He's saying, "I wish you well," or "I hope you feel better," or "Even though I don't know how things are going to work out, here's hoping for the best." Ah. . . no! When God proclaims peace upon you, it is created upon you; it becomes a reality upon you, so that peace for you is as empirical and objective as the iPhone you're holding right now or the thing upon which you are sitting. Think of the opening of Genesis, "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). When God speaks, what He speaks becomes. The spoken thing is now an "is" reality. Peace IS now yours because Jesus has spoken it to you! He speaks it every time you attend Divine Service, as the pastor in Christ's Office says, "Peace be with you." That's Jesus speaking to you and casting His peace upon you. Why is this so important? Because we--according to our core sin--are like those Emmaus disciples in Luke 24. We are ". . . troubled. . . [and have] doubts [arising] in our hearts" (Luke 24:38). That's what sinners do. In fact, the old man does nothing but doubt, fret, complain, and curse. But when Jesus sees you like this--like He saw the Emmaus disciples--He has compassion upon you as He had compassion upon them. So His response is not to condemn you, but in the greatest love and mercy impart to you His peace, which means that you are right with God through the life, death, and resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ. But how can we know this with absolute certainty? Well, if we sneak ahead a little bit to Luke 24:39 we see what Jesus did with the Emmaus disciples: He got REAL with them! He showed them His hands and His feet and told them that they could touch Him! Well, guess what? He gets REAL with you, too! You go to the Divine Service and receive Jesus' REAL Absolution through the REAL pastor; and then hear Jesus' REAL Word through Jesus' REAL preaching Office; and then--best of all--you receive the REAL Body and Blood of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament. You get to see exactly how and why the peace that Jesus gives to you is not theoretical, but absolutely the real deal. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. O God, in the paschal feast You restore all creation. Continue to send Your heavenly gifts upon Your people that they may walk in perfect freedom and receive eternal life; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch
Commentary on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John 18: 1 – 19: 42 Today, more than ever, we must pray, meditate and lapse into silence; we must grow quiet. The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John that is read in the celebrations is too long for an audio message; that's why I suggest that you read it on your own so that you can meditate on it. (St. John 18: 1 – 19: 42) The richness in the contemplation of the Passion of the Lord is inexhaustible. Each word, each gesture, each silence that Jesus maintains, each attitude people had towards Him, each attitude He had towards people, His attitude when He was on the cross, His silence before Pilato, His looks, everything tells us something; everything can tell you something. Therefore, if you reread it, it'll reveal something new. If you can take some time to go to a temple or to stay at home in complete silence and to meditate on the Passion again, today is the day to do so. There is no other day as special as this one to contemplate once again the outpouring of Jesus's love for us on the cross. This audio will be short; it's just an invitation to do what we should naturally do. Good Friday is a day devoted to silence. The silence that descended yesterday at the mass of our Lord's Supper, continues today and lasts until Easter Vigil. Could you keep silence? Because only by keeping both inner and outer silence can we see, contemplate, and weep in front of the cross, in front of our Lord who we ourselves nailed. As it happened in Jesus's life when He was left alone on the cross, as it has always happened in the history of the Church and will continue to happen, today, there are less parishioners in the temples than there were on Palm Sunday. The Crucified is left alone. When it's time to celebrate, everyone accompanies Him; but when it comes to the cross, He is left alone. The Crucified stirs up a scandal in a world that chases success at all costs, in a world that is ready to sell its soul in exchange of some power or to sell Jesus – as Judas did – for little money. The Crucified, Jesus, is foolishness to a world that is now mostly on vacation, getting distracted, missing out the best part. And at the same time, how many Christians are living with their “hearts on vacation”? Poor Jesus! Poor Jesus who keeps suffering on account of our lack of love! Jesus remains alone and cries out from the cross: “I thirst.” I thirst for you to thirst for Me! That's Jesus's thirst. His infinite love hasn't touched our hearts yet. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that we're always the same parishioners, that we're always few. We're the small family of our Father God who wishes to continue falling in love with so much love made manifest in His son, Jesus. Meanwhile, we pray for everyone; it's our job – praying for everyone. We should come to the end of this Holy Week full of love. It can't be the same as usual. Let us continue keeping silence; let us continue fasting a little to be sensitive to Jesus's love. Today, fast and abstinence will do no harm. Let us retreat into silence with Jesus. The Crucified must be our obsession nowadays, our obsession with love. If you gaze at Him, if you kneel before Him, He will help you fall more and more in love with the power of His grace. Only by doing so, will your Holy Week make real sense.
Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 5:17-18. He focuses on the healing discipline and correction that God gives those he loves. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - So turn in your Bibles to Job chapter five, we're looking at just these two verses today. We will go back and look at chapter four and five next week more fully, but I wanted to zero in on these remarkable words. One of the great reasons that I love church history is I'm able to learn from the lives of those that went before us, heroes and heroines of the faith. One of the great heroines of the faith for me is Sarah Edwards, the wife of Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was a pastor and a theologian who lived in colonial Massachusetts in the first half of the 18th century, arguably the greatest American theologian of all time, but he was also married to an amazingly patient, wise and godly woman, Sarah. She was every bit his equal in Christian maturity, powerful ministry, and God chose by a bitter providence to put her character on display for all time. Jonathan, her husband was away from her. He was preparing to become president of the College of New Jersey, what we know now as Princeton. And he received a smallpox inoculation, as many did in those days, but it went horribly wrong. His throat swelled up with the disease, his fever raged, and he soon died, March 22nd, 1758. Sarah received the news of his death and wrote this timeless letter to their daughter, Esther: “What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths. The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness that we had him so long, but my God lives and he has my heart. Oh what a legacy my husband and your father has left to us. We are all given to God, and there I am and love to be. Your ever affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards.” So here is a godly woman who deeply loved her husband and has now learned that she would never see him again in this world. This was her reaction. She's well aware of her sorrow. She feels deeply her pain for she speaks of a dark cloud that's come over her. She embraces the doctrine of God's sovereign disposal in her life, for it is God who has chosen to cover her with this dark cloud. She says, clearly the Lord has done it, but she does not charge him with wrongdoing, instead she calls him holy and good. Furthermore, she is clinging to him as her living treasure, for she says, "My God lives and he has my heart." Her true delight is God, not her godly husband, Jonathan. "We are all given to God. There I am. And there I long to be", she writes. She is well aware that she is on display even while she writes to her dear daughter. She wants Esther to know we are all given to God. She's deeply thankful for the past goodness of God, in having had such an incredibly godly and fruitful husband as she did. She is mindful of the legacy Jonathan has left to future generations of Christians, yet it was very personal to her and to Esther for she calls him my husband and your father. But for me by far the most amazing part of this letter, are these words: “Oh that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths.” what incredible maturity this reveals. The rod that she mentions is the chastening rod of reproof by a loving heavenly Father. No matter how godly she is, she's well aware that there is still within her and in all of us who live, deep seated corruptions of indwelling sin. And that God uses these kinds of bitter moments to drive the sin out of our souls. But that only happens, optimally; if we kiss the rod, if we accept, willingly accept what God is choosing to do in our lives. We must see such painful providences as part of God's wise and fatherly plan to sanctify us through and through, and thereby fit us for heaven, but she also knows her own weakness. And so she quotes Job like Job in Job 40:4. She says, "We need to lay our hands on our mouths." Why is this? Well, because the tongue “is a restless evil, full of deadly poison,” James 3:8. It will speak the hidden corruptions of our hearts in bitter accusations against God if we do not set a guard over the door of our mouth, Psalm 141:3. So friends this morning, I want to commend to you the theology of Sarah Edwards. I want us to learn how to kiss the rod. I want you to learn to expect the rod, to not think of it as a strange thing when it happens in your life, to expect it, but to see the goodness of God in it. In order to do all of this, I would want to commend to you the words of Job's friend, Eliphaz the Temanite. Look at verse 17 and 18 of chapter five, “Blessed is the one whom God corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the almighty for he wounds, but he also binds up. He injures, but his hands also heal.” Now, as we come to this statement, we come to some of the challenges of interpreting the book of Job. "I want you to learn to expect the rod, to not think of it as a strange thing when it happens in your life, to expect it, but to see the goodness of God in it." I. The Challenges of Interpreting Job Now we believe in the doctrine of inerrancy; 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the Lord are flawless like silver refined in a furnace of clay purified seven times over.” But, there are some difficult aspects of interpretation of scripture, and scripture interprets scripture. And with that brings us some of the challenges of the book of Job, for God himself said about Job's statements at the end of this book in Job 38:2, "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?" that's what God said about Job's statements. And then later he speaks of Job's friends in Job 42:7, “After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the team Temanite, ‘I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.’” so where does that leave us? The words of Job and the words of his friends make up the bulk of the book. And God's already said negative things about both what Job says and what his friends say. And yet later in redemptive history, the apostle Paul quoted Eliphaz the Temanite as he was writing I Corinthians; the plot thickens for us in interpretation. The Holy Spirit moved Paul as he's writing the inerrant scripture, I Corinthians, to quote Eliphaz. Job 5:13 Eliphaz says, "He catches the wise in their craftiness and the schemes of the wily are swept away." Then Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I Corinthians 3:19, "For the wisdom of the world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness." So some of what Job's friends said is true. So how do we sift through all this. Now next week, we're going to begin answering this question more broadly as we look at Eliphaz's entire statement and his approach and that of his friends. But today I want to lift up this statement because I find it corroborated in other scriptures, and I want us to ponder it: “Blessed is the one whom God corrects, so do not despise the discipline of the almighty, for he wounds, but he also binds up. He injures, but his hands also heal.” I want to walk through this as true and helpful to us in the Christian life. II. Blessed is the One Whom God Corrects First, blessed, behold, blessed is the one whom God corrects. Let's unfold Eliphaz's statement; Blessed means happy in God, richly blessed, richly gifted by God, that's what he means. And the word corrects could be translated chastens or reproves or chastises. The implication is that we're having our sin addressed by God. The discipline is of the Lord. The idea is that we are capable of wandering away from the path of holiness and righteousness through sin, or that we could have some deep-seated inner sin issues in our hearts that we didn't even know were there, some idolatry, some false expectations, some things inside that need to get dealt with. Therefore, since this is a great blessing from God to have your sin addressed, to have him reprove you for your sin, therefore as a result of this assertion, that you are blessed of the Lord, chastised, you should not despise the Lord's discipline. You should not reject it. You should not refuse it. You should not get angry about it, or as Sarah said, you should kiss the rod. We're not just going to be neutral about it, we're going to actually be thankful for it. We're going to see the goodness of God in it, welcome it into our lives. And why is this? Verse 18, because of God's final healing. God's final healing. God wounds, but then he binds up the wounds. God shatters, he strikes, he injures different ways of translating, but then his hands heal. I think about the healing hands of our savior, Jesus Christ, how often he uses hands as instruments of God's sovereign healing. "God wounds, but then he binds up the wounds." Again and again, we see this. In Mark 1:30-31 Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So we went to her, took her hand and helped her up. We know that Jesus didn't need to even go see her. He could just speak the word and she'd be healed, but he just loves to touch sick people and heal them. He does the same with a leper who no one would've touched back in those days, you'd be unclean. But Jesus was never made unclean by touching a leper. He made the leper clean. As light drives out darkness, so Jesus' health drove away sickness. In Mark 1:40-42 it says, “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said, ‘Be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.” He did the same with Jairus' little daughter who was dead, “He took her by the hand and said, ‘Talitha koum!’ (Which means, ‘Little girl I say to you, get up.’)” And she got up. He took her by the hand. I love how in the movie, Jesus of Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli, mid '70s it was made, just beautiful, the light streaming in from the window and Jesus bends over her and she's just laying there. And he zeros in on his hand, and it's shining in light. And he reaches down and takes her hand, and then her eyes start to move and she sits up and hugs him. It's just very powerful. And so you've got the hand of Jesus picturing what Eliphaz is talking about. His hands will heal. So God wounds us and hurts us deeply, then with his own hand, he binds up the very wounds that he has made. Hosea 6:1-3 speaks of this, and I love these verses so I commend them to you. Go study them this afternoon. They're so beautiful. Hosea six: "Come let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us. He has injured us, but he will bind up our wounds. After two days, he will revive us. And on the third day, he will restore us that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." Now we need to see and understand what God finally brought about in job's life. How Eliphaz's words came true when it came to Job, James 5:11 speaks about what God finally brought about: "As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered," says James 5:11, "You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” What did the Lord finally bring about? Well, Job 42:12-17 speaks of some of it, "The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And the first daughter named Jemima and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father granted them in inheritance along with their brothers. After this job lived 140 years, he saw his children, and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died old and full of years." Well, that's just the language of old covenant blessedness, even though I don't know where the old covenant was at that point, whether Job was before it or during it, but this is the language the Old Testament uses of earthly blessedness. But we Christians, we know that the real blessing comes at the resurrection. That's where all the healing happens. Not just symbolic healings, partial healings, temporary healings, not just the giving of physical blessings that will be taken away from us at death. I'm talking about the kingdom of heaven for all eternity. That's the ultimate healing we're going to get through the salvation work of Christ. That's the true happy ending, and the new heaven, new earth, where it says in Revelation 7:16 and 17, "Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them nor any scorching heat. For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will lead them to Springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” so that's where the final blessedness that Eliphaz is speaking of comes. I don't think he fully understood it, but we understand because of the New Testament promises in Christ. III. God’s Children Alone Are Thus Blessed Now God's children alone are thus blessed. God's children alone are thus blessed. The reprobate also experience many of the same afflictions. Most of these afflictions that we talk about are common to the human race, happens to everybody. Cancer diagnoses, touches both the righteous and the wicked. COVID doesn't care whether a person is pious or an atheist. Natural disasters happen to all, floods and hurricanes and earthquakes sweep away the homes of both the righteous and the wicked. They don't distinguish at all, these tragedies befall everyone alike. Sudden tragic deaths happen to both believers and unbelievers alike or to their loved ones. Believers and unbelievers alike have to bury children after car accidents or drownings. Economic downturns happen to both the righteous and the wicked, unemployment, poverty, economic struggles. So all people experience these same things alike, but the wicked do not benefit from them at all. Actually in most cases it just hardens them more. Human beings are naturally rebellious against God, and they are like anvils that only get harder when struck. There is something in metallurgy called work hardening. You heat up a piece of iron and then pound it and pound it and pound it. You're actually making it harder as a result. Work hardening pounds carbon into the molecular structure and makes it harder. And you see this biblically with the unregenerate and their afflictions. We see it very clearly in Revelation 16:8-11: "The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. And the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God who had control over these plagues. But they refused to repent and glorify him." just made them harder, "And then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. And his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done." So these afflictions for the wicked don't do them any good. They're actually just foretaste of hell, just as the sweet outpourings of the spirit are foretaste of heaven for the righteous. Actually far worse for the reprobate is to experience prosperity and success in the midst of a life of rebellion against God. That's worse for them. The worst thing, I believe, that God can ever do to anyone in this world, not in the next, but in this world, is to give them over to their sins. There's nothing worse that God can do to anyone in this world than to give a sinner over to his sins. It says it three times in Romans 1:24, "God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another." Then again in 1:26, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts." and then again in verse 28, "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done." what does this mean? It means God isn't interfering anymore. He's not bringing any feelings of guilt anymore. They don't feel any conviction. They actually feel vindicated by their prosperity and their success, and they're not thinking self reflective thoughts about the path they're on. They think it's just a path of success and happiness. So Psalm 73:3-6, the Psalmist says, "I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They're free from the burdens common to man. They're not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace. They cloth themselves with violence." what does it mean, “pride is their necklace?” They're confident that their way of life is just fine. Job's going to speak about this at length in chapter 21:7-13, it says: "Why do the wicked live on growing old and increasing in power? They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes, their homes are safe and free from fear. The rod of God is not upon them. Their bulls never fail to breed, their cows calve and do not miscarry. They send forth their children as a flock. Their little ones dance about. They sing to the music of tambourine and harp. They make merry to the sound of the flute. They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.” But God chastises his children in love. Hebrews 12:5-7 teaches this openly, "My son do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" This is the rod that Sarah Edwards was referring to, the rod of fatherly chastisement. Now, we need to understand the theology of salvation. Our salvation from sin comes to us in stages. And at the very beginning of the Christian life, at the moment of faith in Jesus, at that moment, all of our sins are completely forgiven, past, present, and future. And God sees us in Christ positionally as perfectly holy and will for all eternity. In that state, we, the justified through faith in Jesus, will stand holy and blameless on judgment day. And we should be thankful and happy about that every day of our lives. But then God rolls up his sleeves and gets busy on you. And then the next stage of salvation is sanctification. And here he's dealing not with your position, which is set for all eternity, but with your actual heart state and practice, how you actually think and feel and reason, and then how you behave. And there is much indwelling sin in all of us. Romans seven makes that plain. Paul himself said, "The very thing I hate, I do. And the thing I want to do, I do not do." why is that? Because of sin living in me. And God will not allow that sin living in us to triumph over us, to trample us. He loves us too much for that, and so the rod. This is the rod. And we have to get these things clearly. It doesn't mean God doesn't love you. It's quite the opposite. Doesn't mean that he doesn't see you in Christ, holy and blameless. In one sense, God sees no sin in you, but in other sense, he sees all the sins in you. And many, most of them you don't see. And so he is lovingly chastising. Now God, with the righteous, not with the wicked, but with the righteous, he combines the external afflictions with internal working through the Holy Spirit. And he brings about conviction of sin internally, and then assurance of final triumph. That's what he's doing. He combines a sense of conviction and repentance for specific patterns of sin and issues of sin. And along with that, a promise and a sense of hope of final triumph over all sin through glorification and eternity in heaven and he testifies with our hearts that we're God's children. Romans 8:15 and 16, “You receive the spirit of sonship, and by him, we cry, ‘Abba father.’ And the Spirit himself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children.” while he's chastising us. And that God's Spirit within us tells us in Romans 8:18, "I consider that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” So that's what the Spirit's doing inside of the righteous while the afflictions are going on. And he will in the end perfectly and completely bind up every wound, and lavishly restore prosperity in ways that go even far beyond what Job experienced, and I'm talking about heaven. All of our afflictions lead to heaven. "All of our afflictions lead to heaven." IV. The Complex Connection Between Our Sins and Our Sufferings Now there is a complex connection, therefore, between our sins and our sufferings. We need to understand this. This is one of the great lessons of the scripture, not just in the book of Job. Now, the common wisdom that we get if you know enough about the book of Job, about Job's friends is: don't be like Job's friends. I mean, if you've had any teaching or any encounters with the book of Job, it's like, don't be like Job's friends. They're merciless Pharisees who judge Job harshly and think they're better than him. So if your Christian friends ever go through some earth shattering loss, death of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or loss of a home through a house fire or something like that, the worst thing you can do, you're told, is to be like job's friends. Well, what does that mean? Well, don't even hint that any of their suffering has anything to do with sin. The worst thing you can say to, you know, a woman who's lost a child, let's say, is, "Honey, is there some sin you need to confess in your life?" Well, I think there's a lot of truth to that. There's a lot of truth, but counseling strategy and the doctrine of the connection between our sin and suffering are related but different. Timing matters. Word choice matters. And there are deeper issues that we have to address. And I'm going to say later in the sermon, but I'll just go ahead and say it now. Pastors preaching sermons to huge groups of people can get away with things that individuals in hospital rooms can't. So, I'm giving you general biblical principles to help you and enable you to apply them when the time comes for you, because I'm not singling any of you out and I'm giving you things that the Bible tells that will help you. But then when the time comes, you probably should behave like Job's friends did initially, and put an arm around someone and just be quiet and weep with them for a long time. But it could be down the road, a year or two down the road, that there may be some deeper conversations that you're able to have depending on your relationship with the person. Let's talk about some of these deeper themes. First of all, let me just say what should be obvious. We are not Job. That should be obvious to all of us. God singled job out on planet earth, and said there was no one on earth like him. He boasted about him to Satan to that end. "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him. He's blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil." Ironically, Job's friends had it completely wrong. Their basic approach was, "If you were as righteous as us, this wouldn't be happening to you." Well, the shoe is actually on the other foot. If one of them had been more righteous than Job, he would've been selected for Job's role. So that's, I think, rather ironic. They couldn't carry Job's shoes and neither can we. So when we're suffering we should not think quickly that we are like Job. We shouldn't go so quickly there. Secondly, in the lives of Christians, there are differing layers or types of sin. First of all, generally, there's just that general sinfulness that all of us have to deal with all the time. Commonplace yes, but still repugnant to God. And David spoke of those kinds of sins like this in Psalm 40:12, "My sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails within me." So those are those numerous sins that are just afflicting us all the time. Then secondly, there are specific soul shattering or soul damaging sins in which you have ruptured your conscience and your relationship with God, what we would consider like a skeleton in the closet, and you know immediately what is happening and you know what's going on and others may not know, but it's a significant sin like David with Bathsheba. Now on the first, those sins more numerous than the hairs of our head, we're all struggling with them daily. The corruptions at levels that go far worse than Job. We have bad habits, laziness, procrastination, lusts, covetousness, greed, lovelessness, sinful anger, bitterness, gossip, slander, pride, pride, pride, and more pride. And then after that more pride after that. That's what we are dealing with all the time. And some of the effects of the suffering we go through is to burn some of those off, that we would forsake those daily sin habits and flee to God and grow in holiness. Not that those sins are why our loved one died, but that God may actually be using that time of overwhelming tragedy to work in us a quantum leap to put aside those sins that are hindering our walk with God, because we need God more than ever before, and we just can't afford those things, not that we ever could have before, but we are moved ahead in our holiness when we go through these times of suffering. Because God, we know, wants clean hands and a pure heart. And so wherever we have violated our conscience, wherever we're sinning, we want to put that to death. And so we are by the rod of affliction moved much further along in our daily sanctification. So while we cannot say, "God is punishing me for all of these heart sins, that's why he took my child from me." or something like that, we can say that God is wise and is going to use this pain and this sorrow to help me grow as a Christian. But then there are some sins that are huge, things we know, like what David did with Bathsheba, committing adultery, murdering her husband to cover over the pregnancy. And the sinner knows it. It's been concealed from everyone else, but it's not been concealed from God. Now a child has died. An infant has died. Is there any connection? Yes, there actually is. You remember when Nathan confronted David concerning his sin with Bathsheba? David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan said, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." That's an amazing statement. Wow, is that scary to hear that? “You could have died. I could have killed you, but you're not going to die. However, because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die." And the child did die. And David knew full well there's a direct connection between his sin and the child's death. Now, even when it comes to those kinds of sins, there's not such a clear connection between this thing that happened and this sin that occurred. We're not prophets like Nathan. We don't get to say there's that connection. But if there's anything that is going on in your life while you're going through affliction and your mind immediately goes to that, I think you should deal with that, whether you can fully understand the connection between that sin and the thing that's happened. Now in the issue of massive secret sin, this is exactly where I think job's friends went wrong. They assumed that Job must be doing that massive secret sin, very bad stuff in proportion to the trial he was going through. And the biggest problem is they just simply didn't believe their friend when he said, "Nothing like that is happening." In this way they were insensitive and arrogant. They didn't listen to him. And their theology forced them in a bad direction. We'll talk more about this next week. Now, big picture, in fact, all human suffering, all of it is connected to sin. All of it. Not some of it, all of it. Why is this? Well, because in heaven we will not experience any suffering at all. There won't be any rod of chastisement ever again. “There'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away,” Revelation 21:4. We know theologically that death entered the world through sin, Romans 5:12. Adam's sin: “Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all men because of sin.” So you just take that word death out and make it broader, painful afflictions including death, all of that misery entered through Adam's sin. So sin and death are forever linked. Every single human being is cast into a world of hurt and pain and sorrow and suffering and death because of Adam's sin. That's what we're all dealing with. So all pain is in some way connected with sin, and God's orchestration of world history is his response to this fact. Fourth, Job's blamelessness presents him as an example of the general education on sin and suffering in this world. God put Job on a pedestal, not just for Satan, but for all readers of the book of Job. He is a special case, but he proves that there is suffering that happens in this world that is not in any direct way connected to specific sins. Job didn't do any of those sins and yet he suffered greatly. And yet Job is a part of God's overall strategy to instruct us his children about sin and sorrow and suffering. The idea is this, if blameless Job could suffer like this, then how much more we who are not blameless like Job. There is a pattern of innocent suffering in this world. We just need to understand that. Fifth, Job did eventually sin. We're not there yet in the book, but it's going to come out. One friend of mine talking about this said, "It seemed like God just smoked him out." You know? Like there's a criminal deep inside and he just kind of set a fire around the house and waited, and sooner or later he came out. He put pressure on him and the sin just oozed out or crucible kind of thing with the heat, the dross bubbled to the surface, it was down there. It was down there and Job acknowledged it. The end of the book in Job 40:1-5, “The Lord said to Job, ‘Will the one who contends with the almighty, correct him. Let him who accuses God answer him.’ Then Job answered the Lord, ‘I am unworthy. How can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer, twice, but I will say no more.’” and then in chapter 42, “then Job replied to the Lord. ‘I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge.' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. And I will question you and you shall answer me.’ My ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you, and therefore I despise myself and I repent in dust and ashes.’” So there are deep-seated issues and idolatries and attitudes and expectations that trials bring to the surface, and when they do, we need to repent of them as Job did. V. Counseling Yourselves So how do we counsel ourselves? Afflictions are going to come. Don't be surprised when they come. The Bible makes it very plain. You can't go to heaven without them. So how will we counsel ourselves? Well, first in counseling others as I said, be careful not to be like Job's friends. Don't take your theology and run roughshod over someone. Have some tenderness and compassion. Jesus, it was said of him: “a bruised reed, he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” He knew how to deal with people. So be gentle. We're going to talk more about this next week. When suffering, however, individually, when it's in your life, you should go to God and say, "Is there any sin in my life you're dealing with?" And as I've said before, if something pops to your mind right away, you don't even need to wonder about it. Yes, deal with that. Before the affliction happened, this was an issue. Now the Lord is highlighting it. So on the daily issues, sins more numerous in the hairs of your head, they're hurting you. They're hurting you now. They're making your life difficult. We're told in Hebrews to lay aside every obstacle or the sin that so easily entangles us. Like we've got a net and a weight around our waist as we're running a marathon race. Lay them aside. Afflictions are times that help us to unbuckle and lay those sin patterns down. "When suffering, however, individually, when it's in your life, you should go to God and say, "Is there any sin in my life you're dealing with?" And as we've said, many times before Psalm 139:23 and 24, "Search me, oh God and know my heart. Show me and teach me if there's any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." And then just listen to him. And then as sin appears in your life in the time of affliction, James 4:6-10 are the steps: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Then humble yourselves: “submit yourselves then to God.” that's what Sarah did. That's what kiss the rod means. I'm going to humble myself under what God's doing here. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts. You double-minded, grieve, mourn, and wail, change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” Final word I want to say is concerning the gospel. A group this large, is it possible that someone walked in here today unregenerate? Yes. In any case, it would be wrong for me to take this pulpit and assume all of you were born again when you began hearing the sermon. Now you've heard the gospel. You've heard it before. Sometimes God brings afflictions into the lives of unbelievers to cause them finally to flee to Christ. This could be that day for you. I don't know what's going on in your lives, but I know this, there is one and only one savior for sins. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. That's Jesus. Call on the name of the Lord, and you'll receive that gift that I talked about earlier: Justification, full forgiveness of all sins, past, present and future. Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank you for this powerful word today from Eliphaz. Thank you that you put it in scripture for us, that we would understand your wisdom in dealing with us. Lord, we know that we've got so many sins in our lives. We thank you that we are forgiven in Christ. But Lord, I pray that we would be as mature as Sarah did when she found out about the death of Jonathan, and that we'd be willing to both kiss the rod and put our hands over our mouths and not charge you with wrongdoing. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
We may not have the same type of enemies that David had but we DO have the same and only hope. That's Jesus.
Based on John chapter 6 verses 1 to 15 Feeding the Hungry ‘My name's Andrew, I'm Simon Peter's brother and I've been following Jesus since He started His work here. It's been an amazing time. I've seen things you couldn't even imagine. The sick being healed, the demon-possessed being freed and even the dead brought back to life.' ‘But even though Jesus did such amazing things, He was always concerned that the people heard His message. There was an urgency within Him that everyone should know that the Kingdom of God was coming and that they should be ready by turning away from all their sinful and selfish ways and turning back to God.' ‘One day, Jesus called the twelve of us together and spoke to us. As He spoke, He gave us authority to make evil spirits come out of people and to heal every disease! Then He told us, ‘Go into the surrounding towns and villages, heal their sick and tell all the people that the Kingdom of God is about to come. Don't take anything with you, no bag, no food and no money. And when you enter a village don't stay in different houses, stay in just one house. And if the people in that village refuse to accept the message you bring them, then as you leave shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.'' ‘So we did what Jesus asked us to do. With the power He'd given us we healed the sick and we cast out demons, and most important of all, we told the people the message Jesus had given us to pass on. ‘The Kingdom of God is coming.'' (PAUSE) ‘When we came back we told Him of all the incredible things that'd happened, and Jesus decided it'd be wise for us to get away from the huge crowds that seemed to dog His tracks, and spend some time together alone. There were so many people constantly coming and going that we couldn't even find time to eat! So we got into a boat and started to travel across the great lake once again.' ‘What we didn't know, as we set sail and headed for a more peaceful area, was that some of the crowd had seen us go. And can you believe it, they ran round the lake to catch up with us, and as they went through each village, they'd point us out on the lake to the people of the village saying, ‘Look, you see that boat out there? That's Jesus in there!' But we didn't know anything about this as we headed for a nice quiet spot a safe distance from the crowds, or so we thought!' ‘We saw them even before we landed. A huge crowd all wanting to see Jesus. The rest of us couldn't believe it and to be honest we were – how should I put this – less than impressed. But not Jesus, He saw them for what they were, like sheep without a shepherd - needing to be taught and to hear from Him. So in His compassion He taught the great crowd many things and we all stayed there a long time.' ‘My tummy started to rumble about mid-afternoon. And by late afternoon we began to realise that if we didn't get this massive crowd shifted soon there could be some real trouble. We'd come to such an isolated place, how were the people going to find food? We needed to send them on their way so that they could reach the villages and towns and farms in time to buy some food for themselves. So we went to Jesus, ‘Jesus,' we said, ‘this is a pretty remote place and time's going by. We think you should send the people away now so that they can get to the nearby farms and villages to buy themselves some food.'' ‘It seemed a reasonable enough suggestion to us, but can you imagine our astonishment when Jesus turned to us and said, ‘No, don't send them away, you feed them!'' ‘‘What?' we replied, ‘that's impossible. It would cost a small fortune to feed this massive crowd! Not only that, but where are we going to find that much food in a place like this?'' ‘‘Well, how much food do you have?' Jesus asked. ‘Go away and find out.'' ‘We didn't have any food ourselves and to be honest we didn't really know how to go about finding out how much food there was. As we stood there wondering what to do, a young lad came...
The letter of the law is hard enough to obey, but God's standards go far beyond that. Jesus shows us that God is looking at our heart, at our very thoughts and judges by a much higher standard. This is impossible, you say? That's Jesus point! Without him, we can never enter the kingdom of heaven.
The highly anticipated fall series has arrived: Conversations with Jesus. This is no insta pot recipe. We've been stewing this one for a long time. Remember Walter Cronkite - CBS anchor man who was legendary for his human interest pieces and signing off with "And that's the way it is"? Google him. He was known as the most trusted man in America. What he said stuck. That's Jesus. What he said stuck with people and was passed down from generation to generation. Jesus was provocative. He engaged people conversationally and provoked change. So what did Jesus converse about that was so "And that's the way it is"? Love God, Enjoy People, Play Your Part, and Share His Story. That about sums it up. We're going to start by looking at what Jesus said about Loving God. Let's start with the Greatest Commandment from Matthew 22:34-40 and the three ways we can love God. Todd
It’s a Wonderful Life: Celebrating Mr. Everyman Please turn in your bibles to Luke 21. We're looking this morning at a very brief account of a gift given by an obscure widow, a woman we know nothing else about and the lessons we can learn from it. Anyone who knows me knows that one of my favorite movies is, It's a Wonderful Life. Daphne reminded me this morning that we don't watch it every Christmas, but we alternate; we do Scrooge one year and then It's a Wonderful Life, back and forth. It's a Wonderful Life was shot in 1946, it was directed by a man named Frank Capra. And Frank Capra was an immigrant, a man who had come from humble background and who, in his movies, consistently celebrated the triumphs of Mr. Everyman, Mr. Ordinary Citizen. He had another famous movie called Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and another movie with a similar title, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and these would just celebrate the value of an average ordinary life. But I think that theme came to its pinnacle in Capra's work in the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. Now you know the story, but I'm going to go ahead just from my own joy and recount some of what it's about. So it's about a man named George Bailey who lives in ordinary town, Bedford Falls, and he lives a very ordinary life, and as his life is unfolding he has a strong growing desire inside himself to get out of Bedford Falls and go do something great somewhere else. And so he has an increasing distaste for the ordinary life that people live in places like Bedford Falls. He wants to go somewhere else and build long bridges and build tall skyscrapers. His father owned a building and loan, Bailey Building and Loan, that gave small loans to ordinary people so that they could live in houses. And so, George Bailey has no desire to follow in his father's footsteps in the Bailey Building and Loan. But his father suddenly dies and the board comes together, and the villain in the movie, Mr. Potter, the richest man in town, very evil, angry man wants to just get rid of the Bailey Building and Loan, it's competing with him. He wants to just shut it down. Now, George Bailey's got one foot out the door, he's ready to go to college, he's ready to get out of Bedford Falls, but he gives an impassioned speech about the value of the Bailey Building and Loan. And this is what he said, "Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay, and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so, people are human beings to him." Well, George Bailey ends up, as far as he's concerned, trapped by the Bailey Building and Loan. Duty calls and he stays there, he doesn't go to college, he gives his college money to his younger brother, and he stays there working and he never can quite get out of Bedford Falls. And as events unfold, financial crisis comes into his life, a personal crisis, and he gets to the point where he's ready to commit suicide, throw himself off a bridge. Then God sends the angel, Clarence. Now, please don't think that I'm espousing a theology here. I don't know of any named angels in the Bible named Clarence. There are two named angels in the Bible and neither of them are named Clarence. But Clarence comes and is given, it seems, supernatural power to show George Bailey what life would have been like if he had never lived, an alternate reality universe. And in so doing, he's able to see really what his ordinary everyday commonplace life really achieved, and his mind has changed and he realized he actually has had a wonderful life. Well, anyway, that was the theme, that's what Frank Capra wanted to get across; the value of ordinary life, the value of ordinary people like you and me living in ordinary places like Bedford Falls doing ordinary things, there's value to it. Encounters With Jesus Now, Frank Capra had that vision, he put it in his movies and clearly movies are powerful medium, but I say this Scripture's more powerful, and these themes are more powerfully articulated by our Savior Jesus Christ in this text that we're studying today than in any movie you'll ever see. In this text, in these four brief verses, Jesus elevates ordinary commonplace people doing seemingly insignificant things, elevates it and celebrates it, and I think gives us a glimpse into what judgment day will look like for obscure people that make great sacrifices for Jesus. And in so doing gives hope to all of us, that the things we do in our ordinary lives actually have value if done for the glory of God, if done according to the pattern of Scripture, if done by faith in Christ and if done sacrificially, they're going to be celebrated by the only one that really matters, and that is by Jesus Christ. So, here we get that foretaste of judgment day and here we get the theme that your daily life matters eternally. Your small gifts matter eternally. Your work matters eternally. Now this summer, we've been in a series called Encounters with Jesus. And the desire has been as we put the summer of preaching together that week after week, that we would have an encounter with the greatest person that ever lived, the only Savior there is for the world. You would have an encounter with Jesus. Now, we can't see Jesus with our eyes, he's invisible to us but we can encounter him through the Scripture. It is by the Scripture alone that we know anything at all about Jesus. There's nothing we know about Jesus apart from Scripture. And especially in the four biographies of Jesus at the beginning of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; they give us stories of people just like you and me, sinners like us that have encounters with Jesus. In our desire, as we have been doing all of this, is that people who come to this church on Sunday mornings, would have an encounter with Jesus Christ, a saving encounter, that you would see your need for Christ the Savior, the one who lived a sinless life, the one who died an atoning death, whose blood was shed on the cross for sinners like you and me. That the Holy Spirit would move on your heart and transform you from the inside and make you see that you can't live without Christ, you can't face judgment day and hell without Christ, that you need a savior, and Jesus is the only savior, and that He did die in the place of sinners like you and me, and that He was raised from the dead, physically on the third day, and that He is God in the flesh, and that by faith in Him, all your sins can be forgiven. That's the encounter with Jesus that we want you to have. Now, it's interesting that this would even be part of the series, Encounters with Jesus, because this is a little bit different. He doesn't actually encounter the widow as far as we can tell, He doesn't have a conversation with her. As far as we can tell, the widow who put in those two little copper coins didn't know Jesus was watching, never knew it, as far as we can tell. They didn't have a later subsequent conversation, not recorded in the gospels anyway. The encounter is really more about the widow that Jesus has with his disciples, and through the Holy Spirit's moving in Mark and in Luke, we have these two accounts, the account's also in the Gospel of Mark, so that we can read and we can have an encounter over this widow and learn the lessons that Jesus wants us to learn. That's the encounter. I. Jesus the Judge of All Giving So let's walk through it, and we begin with a vision here of Jesus as the judge of all giving, the judge of all the living is Jesus. And the account gives us a strong sense of that. Look at verses 1-4 in Luke 21, "As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury, he also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 'I tell you the truth,' he said, 'This window, this poor widow, has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.'" So, the image of Jesus sitting and watching all of the giving is a powerful one. I want that to be a lasting, powerful image in your mind, Jesus sitting and watching the giving. Let me make it personal, Jesus sitting and watching your giving, what you're giving, that he is sitting, watching that, observing it, making comments about it, evaluating it, that's powerful. Jesus in the Scripture is portrayed as the judge of all humanity. He is the one that we are going to have to stand before on judgment day. It says in John 5:22, "The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." That is as God. And so Jesus has the unique honor because he is the Son of Man of being the judge. And the Scripture reveals that someday, every single one of us will stand before Jesus and give an account for every aspect of our lives. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad." So we are going to talk to Jesus about the good and the bad, everything, and give him an account. Now, this definitely will include our money, our giving patterns financially, definitely will include that, but it will include also our other stewardship issues such as time and our energy, our strength. What did we spend our time on? How did we invest our strength, our energy, mentally and physically? What did we invest in? So we're going to give him an account. And in this text, there's a sense we're going to talk to him about the issue of sacrifice. What sacrifices did we make? What did it cost us to be Christians? What did it cost us to serve Jesus in his kingdom? So we're going to talk to Jesus, so that powerful image of Jesus sitting opposite the giving area in the temple watching, and that's powerful. Have that in your mind by faith, establish that in your mind by faith. Then Jesus summoned his disciples so he could talk to them, so he could instruct them. We don't get it here in Luke's Gospel, that's implied. But we have it openly stated in Mark's Gospel. In Mark 12:43, it says, "Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.'" So, he summons them and says, "Hey, have something to say. I want to teach you about this widow." And so, he summons all of us who are disciples of Christ in the same way, timeless by it being here in the Bible now we're summoned, "Come and stand around me. I have something to tell you, I want to use this widow and her gift as an object lesson." Understanding the Physical Setting So, let's understand the physical setting, Jesus is sitting there, it says, opposite where the giving was happening. This is... We're told by people who wrote about the archaeology and the structure of Jewish life at the time, he was in what was called the Court of Women. So he was there, where any Jew male or female could be, no Gentiles were allowed to be there, and he's sitting there and apparently, there were 13 chests that were trumpet-shaped, made of metal into which people would pour their offerings, and the coins that they poured in, there wasn't paper money then, just the coins that they poured in were metal and they would clatter as they went down into these chests. That's what you can picture. Now, this brief account in Luke, just four verses, is sandwiched by two very interesting accounts that weigh in on this brief account. And so right at the end of Luke 20, you can look there if you'd like, verses 46 and 47. He, Jesus, and I love this image in Revelation 1 of Jesus with eyes of blazing fire. Jesus has eyes of blazing fire in Revelation 1. So he is seeing everything, and he sees the religious leaders of the day who are corrupt and wicked, and how they're plundering the poor and needy and using the offerings for their own benefit, and how corrupt they are. And so he talks about them in Luke 20:46-47, he says, "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets." Look at verse 47, "They devour widows' houses." In other words, they just take advantage of poor widows and plunder them. They devour widows' houses and for a show, they make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely. So that's the context, the judgment He speaks on them, then goes out and sits down and sees this widow give. And then the next thing that happens in Luke is the disciples talking about the grandiose stones of the temple, which have been embellished by some of those gifts that have been given. So look at it in Luke 21:5-6, it says, "Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 'As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another, every one of them will be thrown down.'" So, the leaders who are collecting the offering are corrupt and they're using it for themselves. The building that's being embellished by the gifts is going to be destroyed, and in the middle you have this account of the widow giving. So Jesus is speaking clear words of judgment about the leaders who are taking advantage of poor people just like this widow and he's speaking words of judgment on the temple building grounds themselves, but in the middle of it there's this widow giving. Some commentators have therefore said she shouldn't be giving, but I don't get that at all from this account. I think Jesus is celebrating and honoring her for her gift, no matter what happens to it. And so she is being taken advantage of, she is being plundered, but as far as she's concerned she's giving to God, she's giving to God. And so that's the way I see it, he's commending her for that. And Jesus, as he's sitting there, notes the giving of the rich as well as of the poor widow, he doesn't just see her. The rich are pouring in large quantities of coins. And those coins would rattle loudly as they went down the metal trumpets, down into the boxes. Remember that Jesus in the Sermon of the Mount condemned people who announced their giving with trumpets so everyone could see how much they gave. Now I'm not saying everyone that was giving that day was doing that. I'm not saying that, but there were some people that would do that. "Hey everyone, I want you to know what I've given and what it cost me." That kind of thing. So he condemns that. He would rather that our right hand not know what our left hand is doing, so our giving may be in secret. But along, in the middle of all of this rattling coins and all that comes this poor widow. She takes out these tiny copper coins and drops it in. The Value of Her Gift Now the text highlights her poverty. It says three different times, in three different ways that she's a poor woman, very poor. She has no one to lean on, no one to rely on. She has nothing and she gives. But what of her gift? The text says that the widow put in two copper coins, two lepta. The smallest coin they had in their currency, it would amount to about 1/16th of a denarius. Less than an hour's work for a paid laborer in a field. So a very, very small amount of money. Just barely enough maybe to get a little meal. That's what she put in. And as those two little copper coins went down, I can't imagine they could have even been heard. They were so tiny, their size was so little it wouldn't have been able to be heard with all the commotion of the rich giving many, many larger, heavier coins. And so Jesus compares the gifts. He uses her as an object lesson. He did this all the time. You remember when the disciples were bickering about which of them was greatest? Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? And He calls a little child and has the little child stand. "Do you see this child?" "Yes Lord, we see the child." "Unless you change and become like this little child you will not enter the kingdom of God." So he uses her. Or remember the woman that's weeping and washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, and Jesus says the same thing, "Do you see this woman?" And so he's using this widow as an object lesson. Do you see her? The widow, she put in more than anyone. Look at verse 3 and 4, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. Wherefore all these people gave their gifts out of their wealth but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on." Now as the judge, he's sitting there and he's rendering a verdict. He evaluates her gift compared to all theirs. She put in more than all of them. Not only that he brings in supernatural knowledge about her situation that an ordinary person wouldn't have. She has no money waiting at home, she has no resources waiting at home, she has nothing, this is all she had to live on. So it's similar to the Samaritan woman where Jesus knew her marital history. And Jesus just has supernatural knowledge of the circumstances, and she knows they're rich, or he knows they're rich. He knows that they're putting in out of their surplus, out of their abundance. But she out of all that she had to live on. Now Jesus' verdict as judge is she put in more than anyone else that day. Now this would have been a shocker to anybody that heard it. Please don't think that Jesus didn't know math. Jesus, was it right-brained or left? I never remember which side. He wasn't a math science guy. Oh, Jesus is perfect in math and science, and perfect in art. Isn't that amazing? Perfect in creative writing and in all aspects. So he knew math very well and he didn't need to know the tables of weights and measures that we all have at the back. So what's a talent? What's a mina? What's a denarius? He knew it. He knew very well that these two little copper coins with the smallest currency they had. In an absolute sense of weights and measures he knew that gold's worth more than silver, and the silver's worth more than copper, and big is worth more than little. He knew all that, he knew all that. But in his spiritual economy she put in more than anyone else. II. Some Timeless Lessons on Giving That's the account. Now let's talk about some timeless living, lessons on giving. 1) Jesus Sees Everything and Watches All Our Giving First, Jesus sees everything and watches all of our giving. I told you have this strongly in your mind. I feel fundamentally every week that I get up to preach, my primary task is to elevate Christ the invisible Savior before your eyes so you see him by faith. See this, Jesus is the judge of all of your giving, he sees everything. Numbers of times I've been to Christian homes and I've seen this plaque in many homes, and it says this, "Christ is the head of this home, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation." It's good to kind of, you don't have to put that plaque up on the wall, but just in your mind, "Christ is the head of my life, he is the unseen guest at every moment, he is the observer, and hearer of every conversation and he is the judge of all my giving. He sees what I do, what I give." And so some day, Hebrews 4:13 says we're going to give him an account. "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." That's Jesus. We need to see him the invisible judge of everything that we do, this is the true encounter with Christ in the text. 2) Jesus Understands Our True Circumstances Secondly, Jesus understands our true circumstances. He knows what's going on in our lives financially, knows very well. He knew that the rich gave out of their surplus, he knew that they were rich and they had abundance and the amount they gave was surplus giving. He knew that about them. He also knew that the widow, he knew her circumstances and that she had put in all that she had, to live on. Also, he knows every dollar that you make, every dollar that comes in by gift into your accounts, every windfall, he knows all of your bills, your financial obligations, he knows everything. Even if you don't have a budget, he kind of has one for you, he knows exactly what your income and outlay is. All these things, the Heavenly accounting, is there. There's nothing hidden. Remember Ananias and Sapphira, when they sold a piece of property and gave a portion, a part, not 100% of the gift, and that was fine. But then they lied about it and they said they put in the whole amount, remember? And each of them in turn was judged by Peter saying the Holy Spirit knows what you've given. You've not lied to men, but to God, the Holy Spirit saw and Ananias died and then Sapphira died. Now again, not because they didn't give the full amount, but because they lied about it. And behind that is the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. We can't lie to God. He knows exactly our circumstances. And all of our giving is evaluated clearly based on what we have, not what we do not have. And 2nd Corinthians 8, and verse 12, the apostle Paul said if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. Okay. He knows your circumstance. 3) Jesus Evaluates Giving Based on the Level of Sacrifice it Entails Third, Christ evaluates giving based on the level of sacrifice, that it entails. Sacrifice has to pinch, it has to hurt in some way, that's what sacrifice is all about. Remember when King David was about to offer a sacrifice to stop a plague. And one of his subjects wanted to give him the threshing floor give him the wood for fire and the altar and give him the animals and he said, "Absolutely not." "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God a sacrifice burnt offerings that cost me nothing." Sacrifice, has to cost us something. It has to pinch in some way. 4) A Life of Bold, Sacrificial Giving Requires Faith in God to Meet Future Needs Fourthly, a life of bold sacrificial giving requires faith in God to meet your future needs. There may come a time that God will cause you to give away some money, that rightly could be reserved for something reasonable in your life. And that your sacrificial giving will put you in a difficult position, that God then will have to make it up. It's what happened to the widow. It's easily imaginable that some of you would get in that situation. But you need to have faith that God will meet your needs. But fundamentally, behind this, some of the commentators I read seemed to critique or even criticize the widow. It's not wise to give all you have to live on. Might be better, give one of the copper coins, hold another one back or just say, "The Lord knows that I want to give. If I had more, I would give, but the Lord knows." And there's a bit of a critique of the widow. And also as though some that take the opposite position of saying, "Unless you give everything you have to live on, you're not really giving." That's not true. Jesus isn't saying that. Unless you give everything you have to live on, you actually haven't given at all. He's not saying that. He's not criticizing the rich. He's just honoring the poor widow for what she did, that's all. You have to step out in faith. Remember another widow when Elijah during famine was told to leave the desert where God had been feeding him by ravens and go to a widow at Zarephath. And he said, "I have commanded her to provide for your needs." He goes and finds this widow in Zarephath and she's collecting some sticks. And he asked for her something to drink, and she gives it. And then he says, "Please make me some bread." And she's like, "Do you know what's going on here? Do you know that we're in a famine? Maybe you don't know what I'm doing here, I'm collecting some sticks so I can build a fire and go take the handful of flour that I have at home and make one last small biscuit for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die." That's what she literally says, "That we may eat it and die." And then the Lord spoke through Elijah to her a word of promise, and this is what he said, "Do not be afraid, go home and do as you have said, but first make me a small cake of bread from what you have and bring it to me. Then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord the God of Israel says, 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the Lord gives rain on the land.'" She didn't do anything wrong. I'm talking about this widow for Elijah, by taking the last bit she had, and baking that biscuit for Elijah. And God fulfilled his promise that He had spoken to meet her future needs. We get the same thing in a story that I read recently about the great missionary Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a man that God used, a visionary missionary in the 19th century to take the gospel to the inland regions of China. And he was also a pioneer of what became known as the faith-based mission movement, where missionary stepped out in faith and raised their funds in faith like George Muller, using his faith to care for orphans. And so before he ever got there, he was in training as a medical orderly because he was going to do some medical missions work in China. And he was doing work among some poor people in a part of London called Hall, a part of England, sorry, called Hall. And the doctor that he was working for forgot to pay him, he was a forgetful man. This happened again and again, but Hudson Taylor resolved, he wouldn't tell the doctor that he hadn't gotten his monthly pay. So he was down to one coin, half a crown, a half crown piece. I don't know that much about British currency but anyway, that's a certain amount not the smallest not the middle, it's like middle-level coin. One coin he had left. Anyway, at the end of an evangelistic service on a Sunday night, a very poor man, came and said, "Would you please come to my home and pray for my wife? I fear that she and our new born child is about to die." So he came with this man and as he was walking and talking with the man. Hudson Taylor found out this man was completely destitute. Had nothing. He had nothing at home, he had no money, he had nothing. Hudson Taylor for his part had just two servings of porridge left, one for his dinner and one for his breakfast and then that half crown piece. Well, he goes up the stairs of this dilapidated apartment and as he gets in there, he can't believe the scene there. There are four or five children with sunken cheeks, clearly starving. A very weak looking woman on a pallet in the corner, and a baby, a newborn baby next to her, and the baby is not crying, the baby is just moaning. And Hudson Taylor prays for them and gives them some words of encouragement but he feels like a hypocrite. "You've got a coin in your pocket. You could help them." And the man seeing, I don't know, seeing him waiver. Looks at Hudson Taylor says, "If you can help us for God's sake, do so." And Hudson Taylor is lamenting that he didn't have the same amount broken into three coins. "I would gladly give you two, and hold one of them back for my own provision." But, he wrestles and finally, he gives the man the coin and he says, "It may seem like a small thing, to you, but I have nothing but two servings of porridge back in my home." But I want you to know that God is a loving Heavenly Father, He'll care for you. Well that night he went home, he ate half of his amount of porridge left, Hudson Taylor did. And then he prayed in light of this scripture. Proverbs 19:17. It says there, that those who gives to the poor lend to God. "So God I am quoting Proverbs 19:17. Would you please let this loan be a very short one." Very short. Alright. And he went to bed with a heart filled of peace and joy wakes up, eats the last porridge he has, and then there's the knock-on the door. And this always happens to these great men of God. And there's the postman at the door and inside there's actually folded up a blank piece of paper and some gloves, some kid gloves in it interestingly and then a sovereign, I guess, worth four times, a coin worth four times what he'd given the night before. Anonymously given. Out of nowhere. So he's thinking about the interest rate. That's a 400% interest for like a 12 hour loan, that's not bad. So here's the thing, whenever you step out in faith and God calls on you to sacrifice, you need to trust him that He'll make up the difference in your budget or a difference in your lifestyle when you step out. I think very rarely would we be called to make the level of sacrifice the widow did, giving everything we have to live on. And so Paul says, speaking of the gifts that the Philippians gave, Your gifts "are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing the God and my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches." So as we give, we need to step out in faith and trust that God will meet our needs. 5) There Will Be Massive Surprises on Judgment Day! Some hidden heroes will emerge Fifthly. There will be massive surprises on Judgment Day and in heaven. This obscure widow, we don't know her name, we don't nothing about her. Jesus said, she gave more than anyone else. This, I believe is a principle of the great reversal on judgment day. In which obscure people are elevated and honored for things they did and no one else ever knew what they did. Their giving was in secret. Their praying was in secret, their serving was in secret, nobody knew their names. They did all of these good works, and Jesus saw all of it. And he is honoring this widow and this woman and this man and these servants, that very, very few people even knew what they did, and then once they're dead within a couple of generations, no one even knew they ever lived. But Jesus knows, God elevates and knows and honors obscure people who no one else knows. I just finished in my annual Bible reading one of the hardest parts of scripture for me to read. First Chronicles. I actually made a pledge to the men's Bible study that I would never memorize first Chronicles, and I'm probably going to keep that pledge. It's 10 chapters of genealogies of obscure Jewish people that no one knows the sons of Naphtali. Can you name any of the sons of Naphtali? How about the sons of Dan? And they're all listed there. Oh Lord why? Of all the other things, like other aspects of Jesus' life? A few extra miracle stories. We got these 10 chapters of genealogies and I thought, "Alright, I'm probably never going to preach an exposition sermon through First Chronicles one through 10 either, because my lesson would be simple. God cares about people you don't know anything about. He knows their names and how they lived and what they did. And so Paul in speaking to the Corinthians, he says, in first Corinthians, "Consider yourselves when you were called, not many were wise, not many influential, not many of noble birth, but God shows obscure people to honor and to glorify His own sovereign grace." So in heaven, I imagine there's going to be a woman who lived during the Black Plague in the 14th century. And when everybody's out, so all the big strong courageous people ran out of the town, she stayed and nurse some people to health and caught the disease herself and died from it. And we're going to meet her, and we're going to honor her sacrifice even though you don't know anything about her. And how many such stories will there be in heaven? III. Applications on Sacrificial Giving So some applications on spiritual sacrificial giving. First, if I can just say to you who have come here this morning, who are not yet Christians or walked in here not yet Christians. What I want to say is God's not calling on you to give sacrificially to him, he wants to give sacrificially to you. And as a matter of fact, we can say to all of us, none of us will ever out-give God, ever. God did not spare his son, his only son, whom he loved but gave him up for us all. And we're not going to out-give, sacrificial out-give Jesus because Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this that he laid down his life for his friends." He laid down his life under the wrath of God for you and me. And so what I'm saying to you who came here this morning on the outside looking in, let Jesus serve you, let him sacrifice for you, let him give to you, his life for your sins. Trust in him, all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and he will forgive you. And God will lavish grace upon grace, and make you rich. He wants to give to you, he doesn't need you to give to him. So we'll start there. But if you have already trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, then let's learn some lessons on sacrificial giving. Ask God to search you and know your heart and know your sacrificial giving patterns. Ask him to show you how you're spending your time and your energy and your money. What are you spending it on? And is there sacrifice? Are you giving? Are you first giving of yourself to God? And then, in conjunction with what he's done for you, than what he's calling on you to give. And trust God to meet your needs sacrificially. That God will meet all of your needs, no matter what you do, how you give. And then finally, let's not look down on people who are obscure. Let's not look down on the aged, let's not look down on the poor. Let's not look down on people with special needs, who are born infirm, mentally or physically. Let's not look down on anybody because it could very well be that Christ is going to elevate people from all of those categories in ways you can't even imagine and say, this one and this one and this one gave more than you ever did because of their level of sacrifice. Let's honor the giving that each other gives and let's give in the pattern that God's called on us to give. Close with me in prayer.
What is a Church? So turning your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5. We are looking today as you just heard John read for us verses 1-13. And as we do, we're looking this morning at the church, specifically, that I mean the local church. What is a church? Is it wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus' name? Is that a church? Or is it more than that? Is a faithful street evangelist up on a podium in Central Park, New York City faithfully preaching the gospel to a mixed group, is that a church? Or how about a campus fellowship on Friday night as college students gather in a room and listen to a Christian topic being unfolded from the Scripture, is that a church? During the 16th century, when the Reformation was going on, the Roman Catholic Church, which was basically the only game in town at that point in Europe rejected the reforms that Martin Luther and the other reformers were pressing based on the Scripture of justification by faith alone and all, that they rejected and excommunicated anyone that followed those doctrines. They kicked them out of the Roman Catholic Church, whereupon, I think in response, but also just in general trying to study the Word, the reformers started asking the question, "What is a church? What is a real church?" If they knew that they were not heretics, they felt that they had been kicked out by a heretic church, and so they were asking questions, "What is a true church?" And they began to derive theological answers. Some of the theologians discerned three key items. First, where the Word of God is preached faithfully in Christ's name; and second, where the ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, are scripturally followed or administered; and where church discipline is faithfully practiced, there, you have a church. Those three things. Now, in history, Baptists, which were part of that stream of Baptist history, made their contribution by coming to the conviction that the local church should, as much as possible, be made up of born again people. That only truly regenerate people should be members, covenant members, of that local church. In this, they rejected the idea of a state church where a whole nation would be Lutheran or a whole nation would be Roman Catholic or a whole nation would be Reformed etcetera, and if you were a baby born in that that's what your religion was going to be. Whatever the ruler of that state was, all of his people would be that. Well, the Baptists rejected that idea cause they rejected infant baptism and they felt that as much as possible the local church should be made up of only believers, only born again people. And there were two great safeguards the Baptists presented. First was believer baptism, that only those who could give a credible profession of faith in Christ should be water-baptized. And secondly, church discipline. When individuals who are members of the church began to act like pagans, began to act like unbelievers, they should be excommunicated from that local church. These were the two safeguards to a Believer Church. The Biblical Call For Holiness Now behind the zeal for church discipline, there is a far greater a biblical zeal for holiness, the personal holiness of the individuals in the church, the holiness of the local church. And this comes from Leviticus 11:44 quoted in 1 Peter 1:16, where God Almighty says to his people, "Be holy, because I am holy." Now many people have a negative view of holiness, as though it's essentially misery, as though God were some kind of cosmic killjoy up there, looking over the parapets of heaven and trying to see if there's anyone having a good time, anyone enjoying anything at all and saying effectively, "Now, cut it out." That's the vision that they have of holiness. I remember reading a critique of the Puritan movement, and puritanical is almost always used negatively in the English language, that kind of thing. But in a similar vein, saying defining Puritanism as "The haunting fear that somewhere on earth someone is happy." So that's a very bad view, not only of Puritanism but of holiness. But people who fear holiness and hate holiness do so I think from a deep-seated misunderstanding of what holiness really is, a deep seated misunderstanding of the evil of sin and the beauty of perfect goodness. How attractive and how beautiful it would be to live in a world with nothing but perfect goodness and no evil at all. And that stems from the essential nature of God himself, 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." Or again, in Psalm 29:2, it says, "Give unto the Lord the glory due his name and worship the Lord," listen to this, "in the beauty of holiness." There is just a beauty to holiness. There's a perfect beauty then to that holy world we are going to. I just looked it up as I was in the pew there, I wanted to confirm that that adjective is used, the Holy City, and it is. Revelation 21, the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. The Holy City, a city in which righteousness dwells and no evil, in which it's pure light and no darkness at all, just like God. Well, what would it be like to be in a world like that, a perfectly holy world? Jonathan Edwards was meditating on holiness in one of his private meditations, in his journal, and he likened holiness to the beautiful simplicity of a spring flower, like a wild flower, which lay low and humble in the ground very low, and which opened up its petals to the flow of sunlight and drank in the sunlight, and gave off a beautiful fragrancy. And then he extended it to a whole field of these wild flowers drinking in light and putting off fragrance and beauty. That's his picture of holiness. And heaven is a place of perfect holiness, and therefore, also a place of perfect happiness. So, we should understand sin as the greatest enemy the people of God will ever face. It ruins that beautiful holiness that God intends. It is the damaging enemy that has come into this universe that God made. So therefore a healthy church must address the sin of its people, to be glorifying to God and fruitful as well as truly happy and truly blessed in peace. I. Our Context: Tolerance, Not Holiness So let's talk about our context, and by that I mean we as American Christians. America's prevailing spirit is one of relativism and tolerance of sin. In the post-modern era, there is an absolute uncertainty about absolute truth, and along with that comes relativism in which we're going to say like Pontius Pilate, "What is truth?" And not wait for the answer, because truth is relative to your perspective wherever you're standing, that's what truth is for you. We also have a radical individualism, where every person is an island unto him or herself, on their own, and mutual accountability, covenant faithfulness within a group is avoided. Beyond that, there's a tendency of us to question authority. You can even see those two words, sometimes on cars, "Question authority." And below that is just, "What right do you have to tell me what to do about anything?" And then the idea of tolerance, being America's greatest virtue. American educators have imbibed this. They mixed a potent cocktail of self-esteem plus tolerance as the ideal for interpersonal relationships. Think very highly of yourself and tolerate everything in others, opening the door to tolerating, even embracing, even celebrating things that the Bible rejects as immoral and wicked such as homosexuality, to be tolerant of these things and the attitude would be the unbiblical slogan, "Live and let live." And then the misunderstood biblical slogan. "Judge not, lest you be judged." And so that's our context. As a result then, churches, local churches, more and more walked away from healthy church discipline. They just didn't do it. Now, my good friend Greg Wills who's a Baptist historian at Southern Seminary wrote a book on church discipline practiced by Baptists in the 19th and the early part of the 20th century, and he said to a 19th century Baptist, a church without discipline would hardly have counted as a church at all. If there's no discipline that's not a church. He said his statistic show that mith century Baptist churches disciplined on average 2% of their members every year. But as things unfolded, church has just abandoned that practice. Stopped doing it. Why? What happened? Well, Greg Wills says some of it was legalism. The way that church discipline would be applied unevenly on various moral standards that weren't necessarily biblical or might have been a few steps removed from biblical standards. For example, card-playing and dancing were frequently sins that Baptist churches disciplined because they were worldly. Greg Wills zeroed in on dancing in particular, and he said, "Dancing was the rock on which the ship of discipline foundered in the early part of the 20th century." So they sank on the rock of dancing. Now, some of you are like, "What in the world? I'm not even sure what world you're talking to me about. Churches actually disciplined people for dancing?" They did, but it became harder and harder to justify it biblically, they were getting further and further away from biblical absolutes. And so, just in general, Baptist churches just chucked the whole thing. Stopped doing discipline. As a result, sin's deadly plague in local churches went on unchecked. More than anything, churches were accommodating themselves to the liberalism of the society theologically and just socially, accepting things more and more, and getting rid of any idea of discipline within the church. Sin is a deadly plague and as J L Dagg said, "When discipline leaves, Christ goes with it." And so we have to address it and when we allow sin to spread unchecked, we are begging for disaster. The church loses all of its power. Sinners are no longer converted, professing Christians are in constant danger of backsliding, nothing is going to be done to check it. The end result is that churches end up not much different than the world, they're just the same. Now let me talk about our context here at First Baptist Durham. I was saying to some of the other leaders of the church just how glad I am to pastor this church. I mean, even specifically this morning. I am not in any fear of preaching faithfully 1 Corinthians 5 before you, I don't think that there is going to be any faction that will rise up against what I'm speaking as long as I carefully go through the text and say, "We're not doing that," etcetera. And you need to know just how unusual that is sadly, in so many Baptist churches, how many of my brother pastors would preach this text faithfully with fear and trembling, of what the people will say and think. Our church when I first got here 20 years ago was not actively consistently practicing church discipline. But little by little, the church began to embrace, based on biblical truth, its responsibility and certain cases came along, the church was faithful to do its task, and now we are in a regular pattern, and developing pattern, of doing church discipline. And I'm grateful for that, I thank God for being in a healthy church. My desire is just be faithful to this passage, which is the next passage in 1 Corinthians and just to urge that we continue and even grow more and more in this area that I feel like the Lord has led us to do well in. Now, next week, God willing, I'm going to talk more about details about how church discipline should be done in a local church. II. Christ’s Clear Steps for Dealing with Sin: Matthew 18 This morning, my task is mostly just to walk through 1 Corinthians and try to understand what Paul says here. But I'm going to begin by looking at Matthew 18 briefly. There are two great passages on church discipline, Matthew 18. You can turn and look there if you like, verses 15-17. I'm not going to spend much time here. But Matthew 18 plus 1 Corinthians 5, these are the two great passages on local church discipline. Now, they're different from one another because I think they have a slightly different focus. There are different kinds of sins being addressed. Mathew 18 seems to be more into interpersonal sin, person A, person B. Some carnal behavior might happen between person A and person B, and a person is wronged and they address it privately, just between the two of them, they can get it worked out. So Jesus says in Matthew 18:15-17, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you, and if he listens to you, you have won your brother over, but if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." That's Jesus's words, Matthew 18:15-17. Now, I'm not going to walk through that, but that gives you a process to go through person A to person B when you're affronted by an individual. Now, if you go over to 1 Corinthians 5, you're going to see a different kind of sin and a different kind of response. There it's dealing with a more public and scandalous sin for which I would say an individual's assurance of, "I'm sorry," and all that is not going to be good enough because the reputation of the church is at stake. And so I think they're just different, so you don't see the steps that Jesus lays out being laid out here by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5. There is a way to harmonize them, they're just different, different sins being dealt with there. It's more of a public issues. III. Paul’s Commands About Church Discipline So let's look at what Paul is dealing with. And the context here in 1 Corinthians 5 is of a notorious and scandalous sin that's occurring in the body of Christ. It's a sin, Paul says, that would make all of pagan Corinth sit up and take notice and gossip about those Christians in their city. Paul himself seemed shocked. So look at verse 1, 1 Corinthians 5:1, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans, a man has his father's wife." So Paul is clear that, and he'll be even clearer in the next chapter, chapter 6, that all sexual immorality is sin, very serious sin. But the kind that's going on here as we said would make even the pagans be shocked. They know that this is wicked. And not only that the sin is being reported, people are talking about it, it's being noised around. Gossip is already spreading. Now, probably what's going on is that a man was having a sexual relationship with his stepmother, I think. He doesn't say a man has his mother, but a man has his father's wife. So I think it's probably that he is sleeping with his stepmother. But it's shocking. Even worse, the Corinthians are responding with pride. Look at verse 2, "And you are proud." This is a consistent problem with this local church. They are arrogant people, they're prideful people. They're proud of their leaders. "I follow Paul…I follow Apollos…I follow Cephas…" They're proud people, they're proud of their spiritual gifts. We'll be talking about that toward the end of this book. They're very proud of speaking in tongues or prophecies or other things. They're proud of their status in the community there. Now here, I don't think you should imagine that they're proud of the sin. I don't think that's what's going on. It's more they're proud in spite of their sin. The sin hasn't in any way harmed how proud they are of their church. They were proud of themselves despite their sin of omission, of not doing something they should have done. And so, Paul's job here is to shock them to their senses with their duty. Look at verse 2 again, "You are proud, shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and put out of your fellowship the man who did this?" So now we come directly to the issue of what's called excommunication. The person is no longer seen to be a member of that church. They're not going to be able to communicate, in other words, take part in communion, they're not a member of the church. Excommunication, that's what the word means. So, you should have put out of your fellowship. This is the final stage of discipline in which a member is put out of the church because of sin. Now, God willing, next week, I'm going to talk about subordinate steps that healthy churches do to address sin in the church, long before excommunication. We'll talk about that, God willing, next week. The whole array of proper responses to a whole array of sins. Excommunication though is the final step. Keep in mind, in history, the Roman Catholic Church did things like the Spanish Inquisition and other things in which they would actually torture sinners or heretics, burn them at the stake and do different things. These things are not mentioned at all in the text. They are not approved at all by the Scripture. They were never in view. The final step of what a local church could do is this, "You're no longer a member of our church." That's the end. And nothing more that the church would do, but they needed to do it and they weren't doing it. So look at Paul's commands and his reasons verse by verse, verse 3, "Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit, and I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present." Notice that Paul uses judgment language. He is sitting in judgment on this case, and he's going to do it again at the end of the passage. Look at verses 12 and 13, "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside, expel the wicked man from among them." So clearly, this passage is the limiting passage or a boundary passage on Jesus' statement in the Sermon of the Mount, "Judge not, lest you be judged." Apparently, there are some judgments that it is sinful to make, and there are some judgments that it's sinful not to make, and you just have to be discerning which is which. In this case, it's sinful for them not to pass judgment on this individual and excommunicate him. That would be wrong for them not to do that. So Paul in verse 3 is speaking as an apostle who represents the authority of Christ in a church matter. He is there with the authority of Jesus, as though Christ himself were rendering this judgment through him. That's the feeling you get. And Paul says, "I've already passed judgment on the sinner." Now, the church in order to stay faithful to Jesus needs to do the same. Paul says, his power is present through the Holy Spirit. I think that's the implication, "When I am with you in spirit." And I think the same is true for any healthy church in the 21st century. Paul's power can be present with us as we need to fulfill this, because really we've always known the issue is not Paul anyway, it's Christ through Paul, or it's the Holy Spirit using Paul as he wrote this text. So the power of Paul's words is still with us, even in the 21st century. The Remedy Commanded Now, Paul clearly wants this sin to be dealt with immediately, no delay. So he commands this remedy. Look at verses 4 and 5, "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit and the power of our Lord Jesus is present," verse 5, "hand this man over to Satan so that the flesh may be destroyed and his spirit saved in the Day of the Lord." So Paul is giving us formal sentence like in a court trial in this matter. He's telling the local church precisely what they should do with this sinner. First, the discipline must be done in public assembly, not in private, in public. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus. Secondly, Paul is saying he is with him in spirit, so the church must honor Christ's authority speaking through him to obey what he's telling them to do. And through the Holy Spirit, he is with them in spirit, so the Holy Spirit is there, it's a very serious thing. We should remember the ominous assembly in Acts chapter 5 of Ananias and Sapphira, they're all together. Peter was the apostle dealing with that case. You remember the story, they lied about money, they individually did it, first Ananias, the husband, then Sapphira, the wife. They spoke the lie, and Peter said, "How could you agree to lie to the Holy Spirit?" And they both dropped down dead, so there's that serious sense of direct judgment, so very serious. And later in this book, 1 Corinthians 11, he's talking about excesses with the Lord's Supper. They were getting drunk at the Lord's Supper, they were gorging themselves, they had no thought about the others, they were not recognizing the seriousness of the Lord's Supper. So he says in 1 Corinthians 11, "Anyone who eats and drinks the Lord's Supper without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself." That is why, listen to this, "Many of you are weak and sick and a number of you have died, have fallen asleep." This is a very serious thing that Paul is talking about here. So Paul then says, At this solemn assembly, you should "hand this man over to Satan." Now, that's just a different way of saying the same thing he says three different times. Look at verse 2. They should have put the man out of the fellowship. "Hand this man over to Satan," is in this verse, but verse 7, they should get rid of the old yeast. And then at the very end, verse 13, in case they missed what they're supposed to do, "Expel the wicked man from among you." He's very clear what has to happen, no doubt about it. Hand this man over to Satan. Now, here the text says, "Hand this man over to Satan." Now, here's where you need to understand how Paul sees the local church. He talks about it at the end of this text, inside, outside language. Inside, outside, inside, outside. So there's a sense of a boundary, and it's not architectural. It's not walls, like you're going to have armed guards or a bouncer, and you're going to get the person physically out of the building. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about a sense of who is that local church and who is not. And so the boundary is one of, really a list of names and a knowledge of who our flock is. And he says, your business is with those people, not the outsiders. So there's a sense of an outside world out there. And then he's using a language of Satan here, Satan's in-charge of that world. He is the God of this age. He's deceiving the whole world. Put the man out into Satan's kingdom so he can live out there, because that seems to be his allegiance. He's acting like a non-Christian, send him out to follow the dictates of Satan out into Satan's world. That's what's excommunicated. Jesus used the language, "Treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." Outsider, that's what it means. So just out in the pagan world, just see him that way. So that he says, "The flesh may be destroyed." One translation has sinful nature, but that's a leap for me exegetically. I don't know that I can say that he's urging that his sinful nature be destroyed. The word is just flesh. So, let Satan work him over. There could even be fleshly effects of the sin. There could be disease, there could be other things that might happen. His body might be destroyed, but he's hoping that his spirit will be saved in the Day of the Lord. So there could be some bad things that will happen to him physically, but his real hope is that his spirit will be saved on Judgment Day. The Example of the Yeast Alright, verses 6-8, he gives us the analogy of yeast, "Your boasting is not good, don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast, as you really are." Interesting statement, "As you really are." Get rid of the yeast so you can be what you are. You are pure, now be pure. That's just the way justification and sanctification works. God has declared you clean, now live clean. So he's saying the same thing to the church, "Get rid of the yeast so you can be what you are which is a lump with no yeast, no evil. So be what you are," that's what he's saying. "For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed, therefore, let us keep the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread made without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth." So now we got this image of yeast, now we got a chemistry lesson. Alright, what is yeast? It's a one-celled fungus that spreads rapidly throughout a lump of dough, let's say, simply by dividing in two, and it's used in baking to give breads and cakes a nice fluffy texture. Right in my outline here, I describe how that happens but that is so geeky and most of you don't want to know about the carbon dioxide bubbles, but that's what happens. It spreads and it makes cakes and muffins light and airy, and if there's no yeast, it's like crackers, like dry... You know, very unleavened bread. So Paul actually is reaching for the Jewish traditions around Passover, and they were commanded to eat bread without yeast and get rid of all the yeast in their homes. And so, the Jewish people would go through all their homes and get rid of the yeast. Just get rid of all the old yeast, so that their homes will be free of yeast. And it's a picture of permeation and spreading. It's not necessarily bad or good. Jesus said, that the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman makes into a large amount of flour until it permeated the whole lump. He's talking about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven spreads invisibly through the world. No one can see it, but it spreads. That's a good thing. But in this case, it's bad. Sin spreads, it metastasizes, it's contagious. And so, just like that we are to be even better. We're in the New Covenant now, not the Old Covenant. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. He's better than any lamb ever was. So we should be even more committed to holiness and purity than the Jewish people ever were before. That's the language he's using. So let's get rid of all of the wickedness and sin. The Prohibition from Associating with Immoral So-Called Brothers Now, in verses 9-11, he says, "I'm putting on you a strict prohibition in terms of who you will consort with, who you will eat with." Verses 9-11, "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. With such a man, do not even eat." So here, Paul gets to the end result of the expulsion. When you kick this man out, do not set up a lunch date with him. Don't hang out with him. He needs to know it's not okay what's happened. So he's dealing with the idea of the danger of this individual. Now, Paul is clear there's a big difference between unbelievers, the people of this world who live in constant sin all the time. Those people are enough of a threat, they can influence the church. That's true. But they're doing it clearly saying they're not Christians, they're pagans, I'm not a believer. And Paul says, "I'm not telling you not to eat or drink with them or not to spend time with them or do business with them or different things, I'm not saying that. Because in that case, you would have to leave this world." Look at the example of Jesus, he ate and drank with pagans and tax collectors all the time. He was never polluted by them, but he spent time with them. And then in his high priestly prayer in John 17, he said, "My prayer is not that you take them out of this world, but that you protect them from the evil one." So we're supposed to be salt and light, we're supposed to be in the world influencing. So he said, "I'm not saying don't consort with those sinful people who are worldly. What I am saying is don't hang out with someone who calls himself a brother but lives in that kind of habitual sin. With that kind of person, don't even eat." Now, this is where groups like the Amish and other Anabaptistic groups and others had a practice known as shunning. And it does raise very practical questions like... I mean, how far does this go? Jonathan Edwards helpfully explains some of these things in church discipline. It doesn't mean we shouldn't give basic human kindness to someone who's been excommunicated, medical assistance if they're in need, common acts of kindness such as opening a door when you go through ahead of them, or picking something up they may drop. Nor does it mean within families that husband shouldn't eat with wives or wives shouldn't eat with husbands if one of them has been excommunicated, or parents with children, children with parents, like ongoing human relationships need to be maintained so he would not say that you would stop eating dinner together if you're married or you're in the same family. But it does say, "I don't want to communicate to the excommunicated person that what they've done is okay. I want them to know I'm deeply troubled, that I'm praying for their soul. I want them to repent." And what's so beautiful is in 2 Corinthians 2, it seems like the sinner who was kicked out, and we'll talk about this more next week, repented and they were welcomed back into the church. They needed to be welcomed back in. So that's the desire. We want the person to repent and flee from Satan and come back into the colony of heaven that the church is. It's what he's talking about here. And then finally in verse 12 and 13, judging those outside or inside, not those outside of the church. "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside." I mean, the wrath of God is onto the pagan world. You don't need to worry, but God's going to take care of that. Our business in this chapter is with those who are part of the covenant fellowship and who have sinned in this grievous way. Expel the wicked man from among you. So that's 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. IV. The Purposes of Church Discipline Now, let's talk about the purposes of church discipline. And like I said, God willing, we'll come back to this topic next week. Above All Things: The Glory of God The top purpose for everything in the Christian life is always the same: The glory of God. And so, we, local churches, must practice biblical church discipline for the glory of God. We want to put God on display in the world. We want to shine like a light up on a stand, we want to be a city on a hill. We want to put the glory of God on display and if we don't do church discipline, we will not glorify God. We want to put His attributes on display: His justice, his mercy, his wrath, his grace, his patience. We want these attributes on display and a church that tolerates sin does not glorify God. The Salvation of the Individual Secondly, the salvation of the individual. Paul said, "Hand this man over to Satan so that his flesh may be destroyed, but his spirit saved in the Day of the Lord." The desire is that the individual will be saved while there's time. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, and he will freely pardon him. Say those kinds of things to this individual. I want you to be saved, I want you to give up the sin, I want you to turn away from this wickedness while there's still time. There's a pleading that goes on with this, the salvation of the individual. We don't want them to hear these dreadful words, "I never knew you, away from me you evildoer" on Judgement Day. While there's still time, we want them to flee to Christ. The Purity of the Church Thirdly, the purity of the church. Listen, even if the individual never repents, good was still done by biblical church discipline, because the church needs to be protected from the metastasizing tumor of sin, needs to be protected from the evil yeast spreading through the whole group. The idea, the logic is, if you don't address it, it's going to spread. And church history has borne this out, churches that get weak on church discipline start having the problem multiplying in there. And not the exact same sin, but there will be other sins like it. And so, for the purity of the church, you have to practice biblical church discipline. The Restoration of Unity in the Church Fourthly, for the restoration of the unity of the church. Sin divides churches, it rends unity. And so for the sake of the unity of the church sin has to be addressed, the church has to come together and agree again, to the pattern of holiness we all love and we're going to live it out and it brings us together as a church. And then finally, fifthly, the reputation of the church in the community. It matters a lot how the outsiders see the church. We are supposed to be the salt of the earth, retarding the spread of corruption in society. We're supposed to be the light of the world, we're supposed to hold out the word of truth, as we shine like stars in the universe, Paul says in Philippians. We're supposed to be shining and holding out a pure gospel. We need to have the reputation in the community, as a church that is committed to biblical holiness. So the glory of God, the salvation of the sinning individual, the purity of the church, the restoration of unity within the church, and the reputation of the Lord and of the church in that community. Those are the motives. Now, next week, we're going to talk about more practical questions. One of the number one lessons I'll try to give next week is how this is the ultimate step. There's lots of shepherding, and lots of discipleship, and lots of conversations that can happen long ago, or long before we get to this point. You want to try to nip sin in the bud. And so, we'll talk more about that next time, but let me just close by making an appeal based on the holiness that we've discussed here to those of you who have not yet come to faith in Christ. This, this is church business that we've been talking about today, this is for Christians who have drawn together in a covenant fellowship, that we should be holy. But the question is, "What about you?" Do you know, and can you see the principles of sin in your own life? All of us, we're saved by knowing and recognizing ourselves to be sinners, that we are under the judgment of God apart from Christ. That we have violated the 10 Commandments. We have violated the two great Commandments. We have been angry with other people enough, perhaps even to want them dead. We have lusted after other people, we have lusted in our hearts, we've broken those spiritual commandments that God gave and we've not loved God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors ourself. We need a Savior. And I don't know how you got here today, if you're an unbeliever, but maybe you were invited by a church member and I'm pleading with you while there's time, find salvation through faith in Christ. You don't need to do anything, no works could ever pay for your sins. But Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you and me and all you need to do is trust in Him and you'll receive full forgiveness of sins. And when you've done that, you can testify to that by water baptism, and you'd be ready to be welcomed into a healthy local church. And part of that health is a church that cares about sin. And we'll address it as we've discussed today. Close with me in prayer.
Introduction Amen. Well, for me, as a pastor, as a student of the Word of God, I find that some of the most powerful insights, in the Christian life come from facing hard questions, confident that God's Word has the right answer. For us to face hard issues, hard questions knowing that the Word of God will not let us down, that God has not left us as orphans, he is going to sustain us and help us. So for us to face squarely as we look at Ephesians 6:5-9, second sermon that I preached, last week was the easy one. Preaching on employer-employee relationships, and work and all that, but it didn't seem appropriate for me to stop short of asking hard questions, this week and next week. So this week, I want to look at the issue of slavery just simply as it's written, "Masters and slaves." And for me, as a preacher, also, we're always striving to be relevant, we don't want to preach sermons and have services that are just irrelevant to our lives and chattel slavery is illegal all over the world. So one is in a simple way, you could say Ephesians 6, 5-9 is obsolete. There really is nothing more that we can get out of it. And so there's nothing for us to look at. And I set that aside last week. I don't think it's obsolete. They're abiding principles even though slavery is obsolete, we would have to say now, in that slavery is obsolete the law of the land everywhere is simply this, "Masters emancipate your slaves." That would be what the text would say to us. So the question that has pressed itself on my mind is, why doesn't the Bible specifically the New Testament clearly teach abolition? Why doesn't the Bible just clearly say,"Set your slaves free." Why does it instead seem to manage the institution of slavery rather than just simply abolish it? So that's been on my mind and my purpose today, I have two purposes, one first and foremost, above all things, I want all of us to understand the theme of slavery in the New Testament. How rich and powerful a theme it is for your relationship with God and of Christ and with other people. And to embrace the term “slave of Christ,” like Paul did as he wrote and began the book of Romans. “Paul a bond slave or a servant, a doulos, a slave of Christ,” right away, identified himself that way, he was proud to present himself that way and wanted to say that I want us to just swim in that and embrace it and see the richness of that theme. And how powerful it'll be for us to understand those aspects, how slavery has been transformed by the Gospel and how slavery will be eternal, an eternal theme of our relationship with our creator, God, it's not going to go away. And then secondly, to defend this book against modern critics who used the fact that slavery is so clearly immoral and obsolete and all that to somewhat take, they think the higher moral ground over the Bible, and make the Bible obsolete and then extend it to other very hot issues. Like the LGBT questions and other things. And say the Bible is obsolete, it's commanding things that none of us does anymore. And so, we've moved on from it, to defend the Bible against that. Even if our defense, our apologetic isn't convincing to them, we need to be convinced the Bible is not obsolete, that the Bible's a living word, that it's an inerrant Word, and that we can have confidence in it. So that's what's on my mind today. I. The Heroic Fight Against Slavery’s Wicked Abuse Two Hundredth Anniversary of Wilberforce’s Triumph Well, you just heard the text, read for us. I won't read it again. I want to begin by just talking about the amazing history of Christian leadership in abolition. Really the abolition of slavery around the world is an achievement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For the most part, at least in the early stages, it was Christians that led out and seeing the need to abolish slavery and there's some heroes in that story like in 2007, mark the 200th anniversary of William Wilberforce's successful ending of the slave trade in the British empire. Thomas Jefferson wrote a similar law in the United States the next year 1808, but it was Wilberforce and his group that led out. He was an evangelical Christian in England, a member of parliament. He led a successful 18-year fight against the British slave trade, he was struck down again and again, he was vilified, he was opposed, he was shouted down, he was hated and mocked and threatened, but he tirelessly persevered until at last, success was his in 1807. He reminds me of a huge block of cork, and you just kept pushing him down and he just kept popping up again and again. And I just think there's so many good lessons from church history, and I just want to be like that. I don't know what issues and what ministry God's called me too, but just in my life, I want to be so filled with hope like he was that I'm just buoyant and you just don't give up. Eighteen years of losing until he finally won. And it wasn't just him. There were many others that worked together to abolish the slave trade. History of Abolition By this, we mean the abolition of the infamous Middle Passage, the Atlantic slave trade in which people were taken from the African continent and brought over to the New World. Maybe 15 million Africans were eventually snatched from their homes and transported across the Atlantic Ocean, to be enslaved in the Western atmosphere. African kings, warlords, private kidnappers sold captives to Europeans, who held several coastal forts as staging grounds for this middle passage. The captives were usually force-marched to these ports along the western coast of Africa, where they were held for purchase to the European or American slave traders. Ships contained up to 300 slaves aboard one slave ship with a crew of about 30 people, the male captives were normally chained together in pairs to save room while the women and children generally had a little more freedom. The captives were fed beans, corn, yams, rice, palm oil. Slaves were fed one meal a day with water, but if food was scarce then slaveholders would get priority, concerning meals. It is a matter of record that in 1781, the captain of the slave ship Zong, threw overboard 130 living slaves chained together because he had run out of provisions, and he was going to claim them as lost cargo and get insurance money. Now Wilberforce spared nothing in making the horrors, the specific, the detailed horrors of the slave trade widely known, the inhuman conditions on-board, the over-packed slaves slave ships and in 1807, he was successful at that first leg of abolition, just the first leg, and that's the abolition of the slave trade. That was just the first step of the fight, for the next 26 years, Wilberforce also participated in the next phase and that is the fight to abolish slavery itself throughout the British Empire, and that was successful finally in 1833, just days before he died. Now, that passion for abolition continued not just in Wilberforce's heart and throughout the British Empire, but in the hearts of many here in America, and indeed around the world, as I said, abolition as a product in their hearts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the excesses of American slavery were extreme after that barbaric Middle Passage. Once they arrived, they were auctioned off like animals, completely dehumanized. They were kept literally in chains, often being branded with the owner’s mark to prevent them from being stolen. They could not form families because at any moment husbands and wives could be sold away from each other, parents and children sold away from each other, never to see each other again. Slaves were consistently beaten as a matter of principle, even for tiny infractions to assert the master's authority over their wills. More willful slaves, more determined slaves were forced to submit by iron bits and other iron implements that brought pain into their lives that reminded me of medieval torture devices. If slaves ran away seeking freedom, they were hunted down by professional slave-catchers and by dogs, and when they were recaptured they're often severely lashed with whips. If they persisted in running away in some cases, they would have their feet amputated. Questions Linger About the Bible Now we're aware that slavery was defended by people who claimed to be Christian, maybe even people who were Christians and defended it biblically. That's part of the problem we have in the apologetic to our present age. People made a defense for this, but you must see how, what I've just described, does not line up with what Paul commanded in Ephesians 6:9. I hope you see it. There's no defense for that. Look again at the text, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way." is one translation. The idea is go back and look at what Paul just said to the slaves and they're supposed to do their service in a certain way with a heart full of faith, seeing an invisible master, an invisible savior who sees everything they do and they're doing their service as unto, as unto him. The invisible master and king. Okay, “Now masters, you do your mastering in the same way. Seeing an invisible master who watches everything you do.” And then, the command "Do not threaten them." A prohibition against threatening. Friends, can we just have a how much more argument? If it's not okay to threaten them, how could it possibly be okay to beat them or whip them? So we must say that with the excess is that all those things are just completely biblically indefensible. The masters were not obeying the New Testament. They were not obeying what Paul commanded. Now, I've talked about the first two phases of the fight against legal slavery, the abolition of the slave trade and then phase two, the abolition of slavery itself. Now that went on for a long time after the American Civil War worldwide. Abolitionists in this country continued their fight right up until obviously, 1861 when the war basically took over on the issue of abolition. And the United States passed the 13th Amendment, ratified by the states at the end of 1865. It was passed by Congress January 31st, 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States, and then ratified by the states on December 6, that same year, 1865, but then illegal slavery began in earnest in the United States. I didn't know this, but following the Civil War hundreds of thousands of African-Americans were re-enslaved in an abusive manipulation of the legal system called peonage. Across the deep South, African-American men and women, were falsely arrested on trumped-up charges, convicted of those crimes and then leased to coal and iron mines, brick factories and plantations and other dangerous workplaces. The system slowed down after World War One, but didn't fully end until the 1940s. So that's the third phase of the battle against slavery, and that is the fight against illegal slavery. Now worldwide as I said, long after the American Civil War and the 13th and 14th Amendment, ended that in our country. Other nations stubbornly resisted abolition, stubbornly resisted it, especially Islamic nations. And finally in 1980, the last nation Mauritania abolished legal slavery, and that meant that every political nation on earth in every nation on earth, slavery is illegal. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including an article stating, "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Now we're in that third phase which is the battle against human trafficking, and it's a problem that we only are beginning to understand the magnitude of. There's a lot of information here I'm going to spare you from. You can come and ask me later. But one organization connected with the United Nations estimates as many as close to 21 million people are in forced servitude right now. 21 million worldwide. There is a plan one ministry has a plan for ending slavery, worldwide. How to free today's slaves. And the cost, the estimated cost of worldwide abolition is close to $11 billion over 25 years. The United Nation International Labor Organization estimates that the annual profits from human trafficking could be as high as $150 billion. $150 billion every year. So clearly, the worldwide fight against slavery is not over, but in this case it's just that final phase against illegal slavery. But questions linger about the Bible. How can we read the Bible’s passages on slavery? Look especially at the Old Testament in which slavery is just clearly even not just permitted, but encouraged with the Jewish nation concerning the nations that they conquered etcetera. It's just managed. How do we do that? And then the New Testament, "How do we understand that?" And how do we defend this book against those who would seek to go out into other moral issues like the LGBT issue and all that? And say, "You have no standing, you're being selective, you're being hypocritical, you're only applying some aspects and not the others." How do we respond to that? Especially beginning in our own hearts. Well, let's begin with a definition of slavery. What do we mean by slavery? It's the social sanction that permits one person or group to compel the involuntary labor of another person or group in conditions that usually make them socially inferior and are restrictive of their freedom. So, that's what slavery is. Now, the key issues then are compulsion of labor or involuntary labor. Conditions that make the individual inferior subhuman, and then the lack of personal freedom, the Gospel transforms each of those three elements. Just completely transformed it. So the eternal aspect of slavery that I'm going to advocate from the Book of Revelation, is radically different than the things that we've seen on Earth because sin nature will be gone forever. So, let's begin by looking at slavery in the Old Testament. II. Slavery in the Old Testament Overview of Old Testament History The first mention of slavery was in the curse on Noah's son, Ham, for his treatment of Noah when Noah fell drunk and the curse went on Ham's son Canaan, cursed to be Canaan the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. Abraham had male and female slaves like Hagar, when Hagar was abused by Sara, she ran away and God told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt, and then he threatened his brothers when they didn't know who he was threatened his brothers with slavery for stealing his cup. Then eventually, once Joseph died and the next Pharaoh came along who knew nothing about Joseph, the entire nation fell into bondage in slavery. It's a big part of the Jewish heritage because in the Exodus, they were brought out with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm and through the Red Sea into freedom. The Puzzling Laws of Moses Then the laws of Moses come along and they seem, at least to our perspective, a little puzzling a little challenging. Moses consistently reminded the Jews, that they had been slaves in Egypt. He commanded them to be mindful of treating aliens and strangers with that kind of kindness saying, "Do not oppress an alien. You yourself know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt", but yet slavery was as I said, permitted in the Laws of Moses, especially in times of war, where captives were brought in and they were made to be slaves and that's how it was managed. Key Text: A Voluntary Slave Who Delights in their Master You could even have a fellow Hebrew as a slave, but it was managed very carefully. And Deuteronomy 15 is one of the key texts that kind of brings us into the New Testament themes, and even into the eternal theme of slavery as a beneficial relationship. Deuteronomy 15 it says, "If a fellow Hebrew man or woman sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free, and when you release him, don't send him away empty-handed, supply him liberally from your flock, and your threshing floor and your wine press, give to him as the Lord, your God has blessed you. Remember that you also were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. And that's why I give you this command today. But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you’ because he loves you and your family, and is well-off with you then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door and he will become your servant for life, do the same for your maid servant." So the idea of piercing the earlobe for somebody that just was so delighted to stay with the family and submit to that master because it was such a good life and so richly blessed, then is brought over first and foremost, with Jesus Christ. In the prophecy in Psalm 40, it says, "Sacrifice and offering. You did not desire. But my ear, you have pierced. Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, O God." That's taken over in the Book of Hebrews, and ascribed directly to Jesus and in fact, Jesus said, "Alright Father pierce my earlobe. I am yours to command. I will do everything you command me to do. Whatever you command me to do, I will do. That's Jesus leading out on this and Jesus himself said, “I've come down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.” III. Christ a Perfect Slave, Christ a Perfect Master Christ the “Very Nature of a Slave” So, Philippians 2 as we come to Christ, the perfect slave and perfect master, Philippians 2, it says of Jesus Christ, “who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave, being found in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” What's interesting to me about Philippians 2:5-8, is that it uses this “very nature language.” Jesus was as much slave, as he was God. And the clause it follows, being found in human appearance, is kind of like, you need to realize we were made to be douloi, we were made to be servants. That's what we were made for. We are so deceived about this. And so, the nature of being human is to be a servant, that's what we're made for. Jesus led the way in that. He was the most servant of us all. He was the perfect slave, he went as low as a slave could possibly go. And he carried himself like a servant to everyone around him, that was just his nature. Anyone and everyone who came to him for a need, he got up and met it. And think of the healings. He has got to be the most incredibly interruptible and yet efficient leader in history. I can't match his interruptibility. People just came, and he got up and went and served them. Didn't matter what the need was. Christ’s Slave-like Demeanor to Others The Roman Centurion came and his servant was suffering and Jesus said, "I'll go and heal him." And then the woman with the issue of blood, and then Jairus's daughter, and all this, whoever had a need, huge crowds came and he healed them all. But the ultimate servanthood is displayed in his death on the cross, and he foretold it and showed it in John 13 with the foot washing. You remember how he took off his, symbolically his robes, royal robes, picture the incarnation. Put, covers himself with a towel, and then washes his disciples feet, drying them with the towel around his waist. Just such a picture of servanthood. And you remember how Peter said, I love that moment. He's like, "Lord are you going to wash my feet?" I figure his like the seventh or eighth of the 12. He's like, "Yes." I don't want you to wash my feet. I remember how he says, "Lord, you will never wash my feet." That's one of Peter's never statements, four never statements. Another topic, another sermon, but four times he says, “Never," he said, "you'll never wash my feet." Jesus says, "Unless I wash you, have no part with me. I have to serve you, or you can't go to Heaven." And so, the ultimate servitude was Jesus's death on the cross. That downward path of slave-like obedience led him to the cross, that led him to his death on the cross. Christ’s Ultimate “Bondage”: The Cross Jesus in another place used I think slavery language to talk about this feeling he had about his crucifixion. In Luke 12:50, he said, "I have a baptism down to go." In context, he's talking about his crucifixion. I have a baptism down to go and I am as if in a straight jacket until it is accomplished. I'm bound in, I'm roped in until I go die on the cross. So as a slave, Jesus drank the cup of Hell and condemnation for me and for you, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So he's a perfect slave. He is also the perfect Master. We see in our text in Ephesians, we see it in Colossians 4:1, "Masters provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know you also have a master in Heaven." So he's a perfect master. IV. Slavery in the New Testament: Some Observations Spiritual Slavery: Every Human Being a Slave So let me talk about slavery in the New Testament. Just make some observations. I just handed it out at a moment ago. Every single human being is a servant or a slave. All of us. Not some of us, all of us. We're going to serve some master. It's inevitable. Now, Satan is a liar about this, right? He's going to come and he's going to lie to us and he's going to offer us freedom, as he defines it. Freedom, freedom from all submission, freedom from all authority. You can do whatever you want with your time, with your money, with your energy, you can be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. You can choose, and no one has the right to tell you what to do, you can eat whatever food you want, you can spend your money however you want, you can go where you want, etcetera. But Satan omits in all of that, the message of freedom that you owe complete obedience to your creator and lawgiver, to your God. He leaves that out. And at the core, Satan's deceiving us into a different kind of bondage, into slavery to him and to sin. He knows very well what he's doing. He wants you to serve him, remember how he tempted Jesus, saying, "If you'll fall down and worship me," why the physical falling down? “I want to dominate you.” That's what Satan's like, that's what sin is like. So every non-Christian, is already a slave. A slave of sin. Jesus said this in John 8:34, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin," Romans 6:17, "you used to be slaves to sin." The Gospel, Jesus comes along, and there we are in chains to sin, and to Satan and death and he sets us free, sets us free. But it's not freedom in the way Satan defines it. That doesn't exist, that freedom doesn't exist. He says, "I want you to serve me." And so he comes with this beautiful offer, one of the most beautiful in the New Testament, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." What's the next thing he says? "Take my yoke upon you". “Take that stiff neck of yours and put it under my kingly yoke. Stop rebelling against me, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So trade the one heavy, crushing yoke of sin and death, and Satan, for a light one in which you find out that all of my commands are morally beautiful. And they're delightful, and they result in a beautiful world, in a peaceful life and all that. “Take my yoke upon you. Let me be your king, your master,” that's what he's saying. Paul uses this kind of slave language quite boldly, in 1 Corinthians 6, talking about sexual morality, sexual purity, he says, "You are not your own. You were bought at a price." Wow, that's strong. I was bought, a price was paid for me and I don't own myself. Somebody else paid for me. “Therefore glorify God with your body.” So that's clear servitude language, you are a servant, a slave, of crisis like I am, Paul is saying. You were bought at a price, and that price was infinite. So the bottom line, every human being on the face of the Earth will either serve God through Christ, or serve Satan, sin, death and Hell. Those are the choices. There's no third option. You're going to serve someone. Freedom and Slavery Both Redefined by Christ So if you ever talking to somebody and they say, effectively, "I'm free! No one tells me what to do, I can do whatever I want with my life, my money, my time, my relationships, my interest and my hobbies, I am master of my own fate, I am captain of my own soul." Be assured they are slaves of Satan, and it's somehow your job by the ministry of the Law and the Word to show them that and to show them a better freedom that comes from serving Christ. That's the reality. So therefore, freedom and slavery are both redefined by the Gospel and by Christ. Freedom is redefined. It's a whole different view of freedom now. I think the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32, had it, "I run in the path of Your commands, for you have set my heart free." So my pathway is bounded by the laws of God, and when I run in there I feel free. That's the freedom for me. Outside of the laws of God is corruption and wickedness, and bondage to sin. And I will not run there, but this path is a free path. My heart is free. Or Jesus said in John 8:31-32 to the Jews who had believed him. "If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Paul teaches this kind of freedom as well, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness," that's the same thing as the pathway of God's laws, slaves to God, slaves to righteousness. Now that's what you have, it's a different kind of freedom. Therefore slavery has been redefined by Christ. We are all slaves now to Christ and also we are told to other people. We're actually slaves to everybody, anybody and everybody. That's pretty powerful. We are free now, to serve other Christians, we are free to wash their feet. Jesus said, "I give you an example, now, as I've washed your feet, so you must wash each other's feet. Be servants to each other.” Galatians 5:13, "You my brothers were called to be free but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another in love." There's freedom for service, that's what it is, serve one another in love. So we're free to wash the feet of other Christians, we're actually free to serve non-Christians too, to become slaves to non-Christians. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:19 and following, he says, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. I become all things to all people, so that by all possible means, I may save some." Now I have a powerful illustration of this by a friend of mine who's the Vice President with the International Mission Board. He went to serve at a refugee camp in Greece, was made up of people that had fled from ISIS. The Muslim families for the most part, fled from ISIS, the camp was managed by the United Nations. Bunch of tents. The United Nations doesn't get into actually managing what the tents are like for the families that come. There's a high turnover rate, and the people that are there don't want to be there and have very little respect for the camp or miserable and sad and leave the tents in horrific conditions. I can't even describe what it's like. He showed his photos, but he and his team would go in and clean excrement, and urine, and rotting garbage from out of those tents, getting them ready for Muslim families to move in while the missionaries were sharing the Gospel with those Muslim families, with a clear display of servanthood right in front of them, that's I think what Paul means when he says, "I can be a slave to a non-Christian in the hope that I might, somehow lead them to Christ." So that's all spiritual. Physical Slavery: Not Overthrown but Subverted What about physical slavery? What about that? Now, masters and slaves, it's right there. It's not talking about some spiritual thing. It's talking about actual chattel slavery. Why aren't there abolitionist verses? Well, there aren't abolitionist verses, but there are subversive forces unleashed by the New Covenant, that destroyed slavery. It was not the purpose of the Gospel during that era of Roman history to overturn the entire socioeconomic system of the Roman world, the estimates up to half of all the people in territories dominated by Rome were slaves. It was woven in the economic system. It was not God's purpose to just overturn all of that. Instead, there's this management of it, but then there are these subversive themes. In a very good way. I'm using the word subversive in a good way. They were subversive to destroying chattel slavery, and they worked. For example, the Golden Rule, very effective, "Do to others what you would have them do to you." Right? It's a simple logic. “Would you like to be a slave?” “No.” “Then don't enslave someone else.” It really just works, it's very, very powerful. As a matter of fact, Abraham Booth, an English Calvinist Baptist, preached basically, that sermon. I'm thinking if that's the sermon I think it's a real short sermon, but very effective. A minute and a half long. But his title was longer than that. “Commerce in the human species and the enslaving of Innocent Persons Inimical,” I guess, “Hostile to the Laws of Moses and the Gospel of Christ.” That's the sermon title. They had more words back then. But he said this, one of his application point is, "How would you like it if some foreign slave traders came to Liverpool, here in Liverpool, and took your wives and children right from you, and enslave them, how would you like that?" That's subversive and attacks and destroys slavery, it's a very effective argument. Jesus himself gave this hierarchical sense, in John 15, he says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you, I no longer call you slaves because the slave doesn't know what his master is doing." That's very interesting. Now later, Paul would call himself a slave of Christ, what he's saying is, I have a higher role. And later in that same Gospel, he says, "I'm going to call you brothers and sisters. I'm going to make you co-heirs with me, you're going to rule with me on the throne of the universe." So, we are slaves and sons and daughters and co-rulers with Christ, all of the above, all of those themes are valid and powerful, not just some of them. The common brotherhood of master-slave in the Gospel is a subversive force. Galatians 3 "you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Then in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul gives a command to slaves, that if they can get their freedom, they ought to do it, 1 Corinthians 7:21. "Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you." Interesting statement. You know what he's saying by that, he's saying, “You can actually live a flourishing, fruitful Christian life as a slave. And God will reward you richly on Judgment Day for your faith-filled obedience. So don't let it trouble if you can't get your freedom, but if you can get your freedom, do it.” The whole ethos of 1 Corinthian 7 is the less things that tie you down there, the more free you'll be to serve Christ, in this world. That's what he's saying. 1 Corinthians 7:22, "For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord, is the Lord's freed man." You're actually free in the Lord's eyes. But similarly, who is a free man is called Christ's slave. So you think you're free, but you're actually Christ's slave. So that's what he's saying. There's a clear condemnation both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament of slave traders. There's no doubt about that. They were condemned to death in the Law of Moses, so the laying weight in the jungle with the net and a club for somebody that goes to get river water, and then you jump up on him and knock him over the head and drag him away in a net, you're guilty and deserve death in the Law of Moses for that. And in 1 Timothy 1:9-11, “We also know that the law was not made for the righteous, but for law breakers and rebels for the ungodly and the sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, adulterers, perverts, for slave traders, and liars, and perjurers.” So they're listed as wicked people. And then finally, there's the Book of Philemon, which I think is marvelous. You remember the story in Philemon? It's just a little book. But Paul writes and apparently the story is the slave Onesimus, had run away from his master Philemon and had stolen from him apparently. Runs away in the Roman Empire, ends up meeting the Apostle Paul. Now it turns out, Paul had led Philemon to Christ. So they were good friends. What are the odds? Oh, what a lucky day. You know, that kind of thing, not the whole thing was orchestrated. Paul leads Onesimus to Christ, to faith in Christ, then writes the letter that's now in our New Testament, gives it to the slave and sends them back to his master. Think about the faith it would take to obey Paul, and go back. But in the content of the letter, he says this, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good." Key verse, "No longer as a slave," that's key, “no longer as a slave.” What's he telling him to do? "No longer as a slave, but better than a slave: Now, a dear brother. He is very dear to me and even dear to you. Both as a man and a brother in the Lord. So, I know you're going to obey me because I want to just, I'm not going to remind you, this is pure rhetoric. I'm not going to remind you, you owe me your very soul.” But I know you'll do the right thing. Oh, come on, that's very subversive. What is he telling him to do? Set him free? Set him free. So all of those forces over 18 centuries, were subversive and destroyed chattel slavery. Now you might say, "Well why didn't God do it faster? God has his own ways. God's ways are not our ways. But in the end, it was the Gospel and Christians that destroyed it, and it is gone. Now, what's the future of all for slavery? V. Service in Heaven: Redeemed from the Curse Eternal Rewards Based on Becoming Slaves Well, in Heaven, in Heaven slavery will be 100% redeemed from the curse. We will get rewards on Judgment Day based on how much we acted and felt and truly acted out as slaves in this world. Jesus defined true greatness this way. "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." In other words, our rewards on Judgment Day will be based on how well you live like a slave. The Angel's Perfect Obedience And then, when we get into Heaven, we're going to see a throne, surrounded by 100 million angels that live every moment to do the perfect will of God. They're delighted to do anything he says to do and actually one of those angels called himself to John, "A fellow slave with you of the Lord." A fellow slave. Angels and humans both of us, fellow slaves. Now, those angels are delighted to do anything God says. John Newton, made this observation he said, "If two angels were sent to the Earth, on a mission from God. And one of them was sent to run an empire and the other was sent to sweep the streets of the city, neither one of them would seek a different job, but would do it gladly, for the glory of the one that sent them." I love that. No matter what the Lord assigns you to do, just do it as unto him. It's a beautiful picture, isn't it? But, in that same chapter, Revelation 22:3 it says, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will serve him." So there it is, in the New Heaven, New Earth we will be sons and daughters, we will be co-heirs, but we also be his servants. And so what's the essence of that? What It Means to be a Slave We'll think it, think it through. What's the difference between being an employee and being a slave? Well, an employee can say, "I'm not working here anymore." Right? "I'm quitting today. Famously, I've seen some pretty dramatic quittings in my professional life. Oh, there's one story I'll tell another time but it was dramatic. What was cool is the guy came back a week later and asked for his job back. Didn't get it, they were still repairing the wall, and some other things that had been broken on that day, so. But that was humorous to say the least. But you can quit and you can demand wages. Okay? When we're in the New Heaven, New Earth will we be able to quit? No, that's already been tried. That's what redemptive history was all about. And will we be able to go to God and demand wages for our labor for him? No, we can't do that. We will be forever his slaves, but we're going to be delighted, and we're going to reign with him forever and ever. And you know what's going to happen? It says in Luke 12:37, "It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, the Master," listen to this, "will dress himself to serve, and have them recline a table, and he will come and wait on them in Heaven." So you're going to be at the wedding banquet of the lamb and the bridegroom is going to come up and ask if you like, a refill. He's going to serve you up in Heaven while being the King of glory. So servanthood, itself, has been totally redeemed, and made perfect, and it is eternal, so that's why the Bible doesn't totally abolish or destroy slavery because there are aspects of it we need to embrace for the rest of our lives. Jesus himself embraces it. VI. Application Alright, so what applications can we take from that, well, let's just begin with this, submit willingly to Christ the King. Perhaps for the first time. You may be an unbeliever, maybe God brought you here, I'm calling on you to submit to Christ, come to him. All you who are weary and burdened, and let him give you rest. Take your neck and submit it to Christ's kingly yoke and let him forgive you, let him wash your, wash our soul with his redeeming blood. Start there. But then secondly, for you Christians, realize that you are the slave to the one whom you obey. Whether to sin, which leads to death, or to Christ, which leads to eternal life and righteousness. So who are you obeying? Are you fighting the good fight of holiness? Are you submitting to God's laws? Are you living like a slave of sin, or a slave of righteousness? What is actually happening in your life? You have been set free. Roman 6:18, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Are you living that out? Thirdly, seek to obey Christ, every moment, just present yourself to him as your Master, and you the slave. Be proud to say I'm a doulos. I'm a slave of Christ. What do you want me to do? Command me, and I'll obey. Fourthly, serve other people, be a servant to all, find ways to wash feet, and not expect to be thanked or noticed. I think much about that IMB Vice President. I want to do that ministry. I actually sought an opportunity to go in September, but the IMB has been separated from that ministry right now by political forces unfortunately, but I would love to take a team to go wash tents. "Well now that you described it like that. Pastor, I'm not so excited, if that was a different kind of mission trip," but I'm thinking this is a great opportunity for us who don't know the language and don't know the culture, to serve those who are trained and can. So stay tuned. I'm still looking for a chance to go do that, to be a servant, but find ways to serve non-Christians and lead them to Christ. Fifthly, defend the Bible. Defend it against people who think that they know better about the Bible. And it's like, "Well the Bible teaches slavery," it's like, does it? Let's talk about that. Defend the Bible, be honest about the past. The excesses of chattel slavery, but to say, "Look, those folks were disobeying God's Word." Clearly. And look forward to the future when we will spend eternity serving God. I'm yearning to look forward to that. In the meantime it may be that some of you may be called on to give your lives, a focus of your lives to the third phase of this abolitionist battle and that is battling illegal slavery. I know at least a few of us have been involved in sex trafficking and some other things. There's child slavery, going on. There's other issues and some of you may be called on to be influential, like William Wilberforce in greatly reducing illegal slavery in our world. Close with me in prayer if you would. Prayer Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study today. I pray that you would press these lessons to our hearts. Help us to delight in serving you Lord help us to embrace it, help us, O Lord, to look for opportunities to serve others, and not ask to be thanked or paid or in some way receive anything back, help us, O Lord, to be effective in becoming servants to all people so that by all possible means, we might save some. And thank you, Lord Jesus especially for serving us when we were so filthy and covered with sin, you became our slave and you washed our whole souls in your cleansing blood. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Introduction The Miracle of a Late Conversion Amen. Some time ago, I was reading one of John Piper's most moving books, at least for me, personally. And in that book, he shares a powerful memory from his days traveling with his father, who was, among other things, a traveling Evangelist. And his father went from church to church and they would do revival services in that style, that pattern, and there would be a very, very clear, powerful preaching of the Gospel. And there was one time that stuck out in John Piper's memory, unforgettable, in which there had been a particularly notorious, hard-hearted, elderly man whose family and friends had been praying for years that he would come to faith in Christ. And finally, really, to the amazement of everyone, this man accepted Christ after hearing the Gospel clearly explained by John Piper's father, and with tears and repentance and brokenness, he received forgiveness of sins and came to faith. And it was just an amazingly powerful, moving moment. But then, something crashed in on this elderly gentleman with vivid reality, and he began to realize how many years he'd resisted people coming to him with the Gospel, how many family members he'd turned away, how many times he'd said no, and all of the years that had been wasted, “walking in vanity and pride,” as the hymn puts it. All the years of his life that he had wasted. And he began crying out from the bottom of his heart, "I've wasted it, I've wasted my life." We Will Give An Account for How We Spent Our Time Well, in the spirit of that kind of bitter realization and to remedy that, Piper wrote his book, "Don't Waste Your Life", and I would commend it to you. But it's in the spirit of that that I stand before you today, and I want to preach this text. The deepest desire I have is that you would redeem the time, that you would realize how precious a thing time is. And if I could speak just quite bluntly, that you would stop wasting it. And I'm speaking to myself, to all of us, that we would not waste our lives. The basic concept of that book and of this text today is that there's going to be a day coming in which we will give God a careful account for everything in our lives, everything that we've ever said or done, or everything we didn't say and didn't do. Everything, we're going to give God an account. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad." I just think about that Bible verse every day. Someday, I'm going to give God an account for this day. And this text, Ephesians 5, especially verse 16, this text, with this section, verses 15 through 17, is of incalculable assistance in helping us get ready for Judgment Day. "Be very careful, then, [or look carefully] how you live [how you're walking], not as unwise, but as wise, not as fools, but as wise." I'm going to stick with the more literalistic, "Redeeming the time." Many translations say something like, "Making the most of every opportunity," which I think gets at the spirit of it, but I'm going to stick with these words, "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." So, we're looking this morning at the issue of time. I've been thinking much about time this morning. I have my app up, it's 11:11. I have timed this sermon. It started at 27 pages. It went down to 21. Now, it's at 17. So, there's some hope we'll finish it today. And isn't that ironic? I thought, "Alright, I've shortened it, I've shortened it, I've shortened it." Now, I've given you folks the gift of 12 minutes you didn't think you would have. Now, you have no idea what I'm talking about, but trust me. I gave you the gift, and I thought, "How will you spend them?" And that's another message, another day. But what will you do with your extra 12 minutes. But from the very beginning, God has wanted us to be aware of the passing of time. “There was evening, there was morning, the first day. There was evening, there was morning the second day. And He put up in the sky, the sun and the moon and the stars.” It says in Genesis 1:14, "To mark seasons and days and years." Since that time, we, using inventiveness that God gave us, have developed various time-keeping pieces, like this smartphone and like this clock and other time-keeping devices, that let us know where we're at in the day. So, early on, there were sundials, which would trace the movement of a shadow across a face. Certainly thereafter, the Egyptians invented water clocks, the Chinese invented candle clocks. About 100 or 200 years before Christ, someone invented, in Alexandria I think, the hourglass, so dry sand, very fine sand, moving down through a necked in place in the glass and flowing down, so there's a sense of, "How many more grains of sand are left in my life?" Or how much is left in the day? Mechanical clocks really came in when something called an escapement, which is a sprocket, or something like that, which would rock back and forth and it enabled accurate mechanical time-keeping. Wisely Spending Time Calvin and I were in a museum of technology in Dresden, and my favorite part, I don't know what Calvin's favorite part was, but my favorite part was the clock section because right around Dresden, there's some of the most advanced watchmakers in the world. Switzerland's known for it, and well, they should, but also that area of Dresden, Germany, has some incredible watchmakers. And so, I saw one watch about that big, about 100 years old, that kept the day and the month and the year as well. It was over 100 yeas old, but it's all from gears and springs, and I was just amazed at the technology. But as I stood in that part of the museum, I could literally hear just almost deafening “tick-tock, tick-tock.” I was standing near a pendulum clock that was going back and forth, the sense of just the consistent measuring and the passing of time. Now, for businessmen, the adage "time is money" is well known. And I don't think that all of the clock inventors really cared about the themes I'm preaching about today. Their desire was to make the most of the day, so that they wouldn't get behind in business. So that they could run the race, what we have called perhaps the rat race, against competing businessmen, and be able to make the most money. Benjamin Franklin had a lot of proverbs and adages about that, that type of thing, making the most of the day. And so, that's just kind of a worldly wise theme, but if I can say, that kind of hard working non-Christian businessman, who is very aware of the way he's spending his time at every moment and is driven by a desire for material gain is every bit as much a fool as the lazy heir of an oil tycoon who sits around in the Riviera and just get a tan all day long, they're actually equally foolish. To the hard-working, time conscious, non-Christian businessman, Christ would speak these words of wisdom from Mark chapter 8, "What would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Or on judgment, what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” So this idea of redeeming the time in Ephesians 5:15-17 has not so much to do with the accurate measurement of the seconds and hours and days, etcetera. I think it's there, that's something we're aware of, but it more has to do with a unique opportunity that God has set up every day. That you would cherish that opportunity maximally. Ephesians 2:10 says, "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them." The same verb of walking, “walk wisely” equals, so in 5:15, "walk wisely" equals 2:10, "walk in a pathway of good works if you've come to faith in Christ." If you haven't come to faith in Christ, this is the work of God, believe in the one that God sent, believe in Christ. That's the work. But having come to Christ, walk wisely equals do all of the good works that God has set up for you to do today. God’s Desire for Our Use of Time So, God created this world with its physical laws, including the rotation of the earth on its axis for 24 hours a day, evening and morning a day, and then the revolution of the earth around the sun. There we have the seasons, and they changed, and the years passed by, 365 days is a year, but he did all of that, I believe, to tell a story, a true story of His own glory, in the redemption, in the salvation of sinners. From Satan's dark kingdom, that's what all of this was for. That's what the history was for. I don't think history has any other purpose apart from that, and so you and I and every person that God has ever created or ever will create are a part of that story, and God has a role for us to play in that story. And sin wants to intervene, and wants to intercept and stop you from playing that role, so if you could picture it like a play, you missed your cue, and you're supposed to come out and say these lines on the stage but you missed it because you were asleep, or drunk, or missed the bus. And that's what sin wants to do at every moment. And it never happened, we missed that good work that God had set up for us to do, and that is a great tragedy. And we will not comprehend how great a tragedy that missed opportunity is until Judgment Day, then it will be clear. My job as a pastor is, by the preaching of the Word, by the ministry of the word, to make invisible things very vivid to you. And like the invisibility of Judgement Day is a hindrance to us when we don't have a strong faith. So my job is to make that Judgement Day very vivid to you today this morning, so that you will be wise and not be a fool, and that you will redeem the time and make the most of your life, to make the most of every opportunity. Wisdom vs. Foolishness A Powerful Warning So, as we go to verse 15, we begin with the issues of wisdom and foolishness. We have this very powerful warning from Paul. "Be very careful then, see." [look is the verb,] how you live, [therefore, how you live, or how you're walking,] not as fools but as wise. So in context, as we've said, this is in the application section of the Gospel, Ephesians 1 through 3, those chapters lay the foundation of God's saving purpose, His eternal saving purpose in Christ. And then Ephesians 4-6 says, "How then shall we live?"So Ephesians 1, “from the very beginning, we celebrate the grace of God the Father, for He chose us in Christ before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. And in Christ, we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins. And how we, when we heard the word of truth, the Gospel of salvation, having believed we were marked in Him with a seal.” And how, in Ephesians 2, there's this vision of a glorious church, a temple, a holy temple rising, little by little, little by little, more and more glorious, larger and larger every day, being built in the heavenly realms, a place where God presently does, and in the future will, live by His Spirit. That's what's going on in the world. And we are told in Ephesians 4:1, “to live according to the calling, or live up to the calling, a life worthy of the calling that we have received.” This is just a part of that whole appeal. It's all part of that section. Live a life worthy of that calling, a calling to be holy, a calling to build the church, etcetera. That's the calling. And then, in Ephesians 5, he talks about, and this is the immediate context, "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, and righteousness and truth, and find out what pleases the Lord." And don't have anything to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness that he's been unfolding from Ephesians 4:17 on. He's been very clear about the way pagans live, the way you used to live, the non-Christian life, a life of lying, a life of stealing, a life of sinful anger and bitter disputes, and unforgiveness, a life of using your mouth to hurt other people, a life of unforgiveness, a life of sexual immorality, a life of laziness. And idolatry. Not that life. Those are the fruitless deeds of darkness. But now, a different kind of life in which righteousness and truth drives out of all of those sin patterns. Truth-telling and hard work, so you can have something to share with those in need. And not sinful anger, but forgiveness and mercy and kindness to people who have sinned against you. And not sexual immorality, but living a life as pure as light. A different kind of life. That's what it means to walk wisely. Walk Circumspectly Now, Paul says in verse 15, in the KJV... I love this. It says, "See then that ye walk circumspectly." That's a great word, isn't it? I guess it's great if you know what it means, so I looked it up. Circumspectly. It's like carefully, accurately, meticulously, that's the idea. There's a sense of accuracy to the walking here. Accurate walking, what does that mean? A precision. Well, imagine that you're a soldier in a war zone, and you wander away somehow from your unit and you get yourself in a place and it’s not familiar, and you sense there's danger. You just stop. And then you look around and you notice, because you know what to look for, that you're in the midst of a minefield. You can see the New Earth and the dirt and all that, and you can see the pattern, but you're in grave danger of having your leg blown off or even your life ended, and you know that. Now, you know you can get out because you have the skill to do it, but you have to be very careful how you walk. So, I want that image in your mind. There's a sense of circumspect walking in this world. There's a precision to the holy walk. The Puritans, the English Puritans, were called by their enemies "Precisionists", and there is a derision to that. It's like, they weren't "live and let live" people. They were very careful. I mean, Jonathan Edwards actually weighed out, and measured his food, and then saw the impact of various foods on his energy level. He was like a scientist of nutrition for the purpose of holiness, the purpose of fruitfulness. "I want to eat in such a way that I'll be maximally energetic for Jesus." And not only that, but physically, but also just, he would analyze how he did every day and how it went in conversations and he was just a very careful man of God. He was walking circumspectly, he's walking precisely in the world. Wisdom and Foolishness: Basic Definitions So, what does it mean? Now, how do we live not as unwise, literally “unwise,” or “fools.” Not as fools, but as wise? Well, I think it has to do with living a life of faith as opposed to a life of the flesh. I think that's what Paul has in mind here. And so, faith, for me, is first and foremost, it's the eyesight of the soul, so we're going to go with "see" or "look", that's the verb in verse 15. Let's see the physical realm, but see it spiritually, and let's see beyond the physical realm into the spiritual realm. And what are we going to see in the spiritual realm? We're going to see Almighty God enthroned, we're going to see Him with eyes of faith. That's wisdom. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” So, fundamentally, lost people are fools because they say there's no God, and they live a practical atheism. But tragically, occasionally, Christians, too, live a practical atheism. We forget the invisible God, God enthroned. And so, for me, to walk as wise means to have a vivid sense of God all the time. A sense of God enthroned, of “God who is light and in Him there is no darkness.” A sense of the reality of God all the time. And not just God, His existence, but that He has spoken through the prophets, and He has given us the Bible, He's given us the Word, He's not left us in the dark. And how Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." I know what to do because you've told me what to do. And so, the life of faith is a life of the reality of God, the invisible spiritual realms being real to you, and then the truth of the Word of God. "I'm going to live according to this." That's what it is. So, it says, "The righteous will live by faith," Romans 1:17. It's the faith walk that leads to Heaven. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "We walk by faith, not by sight." So, that's what I think it means to walk wise, as a wise man or woman. It means a life of faith, not the life of the flesh. Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it this way, that, "Unbelievers are living an anti-faith life, a life of the flesh, by instincts of mental pride, selfish lusts, sensual pleasures, worldly themes. They seem to have no knowledge of what is going to come upon all of us at the end of this age." No knowledge of it, the terrifying day of God's wrath that will come on the world. So, that's what it means to walk as wise, not as fools. Christ is Wisdom Every One of Us Begins as a Fool Now, here I want to zero in on Christ as wisdom. Christ, for us, is wisdom. Because at one time, Titus 3:3, “we were all fools.” We were all of us foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and lusts. We were living the lives of fools. Just like everyone, we were all foolish. But thanks be to God, Christ appeared, and He has become for us wisdom from God, wisdom from God. First Corinthians 1:30, “That is our righteousness, He is our holiness, He is our redemption. That is Christ.” This is God's wisdom to the human race, and He is the wisdom of God. And the wisest thing any person can ever do is repent of his or her sins and come to faith in Christ. That is the wisest way you can redeem the time. I prayed this morning as I was going over the sermon. I prayed that God would bring lost people to hear this moment of the sermon. So I did, I prayed that, and if they did, that they would hear with ears of faith, while there was still time for them to flee, from the wrath to come, to flee from judgment that is coming, to see it, to believe that it's true, and to flee to find salvation in Christ. There's no wiser thing you can do. And to not do it would be infinite foolishness. He is offering us full forgiveness of all sins, past, present, future. He's offering the gift of adoption into the family of God. He's offering us a bright future in this world of good works, which I mentioned earlier, and I'll talk more about in a moment. And then, eternity in His presence, and a glorious New Heaven, New Earth. Free, just completely free. Not by works, but by faith. It's what He's offering to you. Christ is wisdom. Christ is Our Wisdom And then, for the Christian, Christ continues to be wisdom. Walking as Christ walked in this world. God could have incarnated Jesus and put Him right on the cross as an atoning sacrifice, and in some sense, I suppose, His righteousness would have been met. But in His wisdom, Jesus lived an entire life under the law of physical life and He gave us an example that we should follow in His steps. So Christ has become for me wisdom from God. Live like Jesus did. We'll get back to that toward the end. But now, we come to the centerpiece of my message and what I want to share to you now, redeeming the time. Redeeming the Time Fundamental to Walking in Wisdom: Redeeming the Time Look at verse 16. "redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Fundamental to walking in wisdom is this idea of “redeeming the time.” Now, what does redeeming mean? What does it mean to redeem? It's not a word that we necessarily know or understand fully. I think what it means is to free a captive from captivity by the payment of a price. That's the basic, biblical idea. A captive, someone is kidnapped or someone's enslaved, and a price is paid, and the captive is set free. That's the idea of redemption. That's what Jesus did for us by His blood. He redeemed us from Satan's chains, from Satan's dark kingdom, by His blood. We've been redeemed. But now, we're supposed to redeem the time. So, the idea here is like the time, that word there means the opportunity. It's a different word for, "the days are evil." But the opportunity is enslaved, and you have to get up and go do something to it or it's going to be lost. The Romans said, "Carpe diem", seize the day. Now, Christians would say redeem the day. Let's go redeem it. So, the image I have here is the day is like, I don't know, a snarling beast out there, a wild dog, and I'm a homesteader in the early 1800s. I have a historical imagination, so I'm like Daniel Boone. I'm out there, and every day, these wild dogs go running by my homesteading property. And my job, my mission, is to go out early in the morning and hunt down one of those wild dogs, capture it, and tame it until it's a hunting dog, and it brings in my dinner that night. That's the image of life I have. It's like, "Wow, what a weird image." Hey, look, if that doesn't work for you, think of another one on redeeming the day. But the idea is, get up and go grab the day. If we chill, if we hang out, I've always pictured bats hanging upside down. "What are we doing? We're hanging out. We're just kind of chilling and hanging out." One of the great dangers of this sermon is that you'll think that I'm going to go so far as to say things like that are never appropriate. I'm not saying that they're not. Jesus, however you defined it, chilled and hung out with his disciples. But He was always purposeful. There was a reclining at table, but there was always a purpose to everything He did. But if you're just going to be kicking back, you're on the inflatable tube of life and you're on the wide water, you're going to get swept downstream. That's the image here. You can't live your life that way. And if that's how you're living, you're going to lose. You're going to lose every day and you're going to lose on Judgment Day, so that's what we're talking about. Time is Precious Now, I'm following here as a mentor Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest sermons he ever preached was on this very text, "redeeming the time, because the days are evil". I would suggest it to you. You can read it for free online. It's called The Preciousness of Time, and I just want to follow somewhat his warnings and outline in this section of my sermon. His doctrine of the sermon is this: Time is a thing that is exceedingly precious. That's what he was trying to teach his people. Time is a thing that is exceedingly precious. Reason number one: Time is precious because eternity depends on how you improve the time. It is in these days now, in this present era of time, that we hear and believe the Gospel. And so, your eternity will depend on whether you improve the time wisely. So, time must be a pretty valuable thing if your eternity depends on it. And not only that, but salvation isn't an instant, but it's a life process. There's a whole race of salvation to be run. That initial, justifying faith will be with you for eternity, but then there's a sanctifying race to be run, and we run it in time. And so, the soul is to be saved in time, so time must be a precious thing. That's his first point. The Brevity of Time Second point: Time is precious because it's very short. If I can add a word here, it's shorter than you think it is. It's shorter than I think it is. The more scarce a precious commodity is, the more valuable it is. Basic economics, law of supply and demand. If there's a high supply, low demand, it's valuable. Or, vice versa. If there's a high demand, low supply, it's valuable. Well, I've already established that time is precious, but it's even more so because it's short. The Bible testifies that there's not much of it. So, Job said, in Job 7:6, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle.” So you picture like an old loom like that and the warp and woof etcetera, you got the strings like that and you got the weaver's shuttle with the thread on it and the weaver goes like this, “woosh” and just it's gone. Job said that that's what my life is like. “Swifter than a weaver's shuttle.” Blink of an eye. It's gone. James said, "What is your life? It's a mist that appears for a little while then it vanishes.” It's like the morning mist. I've seen that out where I live. There's one field in particular, it's misty almost every morning and then give it an hour and it burns off it's gone. Our time on earth is like a blink of an eye, compared to eternity. Time is so short for the greatness of the work that's in front of us. And if time is already short, and then we squander a proportion of it, how great is that loss? Louis Zamperini’s Chocolate Bars Some of you may have seen the movie, or I read the book and saw the movie Unbroken about Louis Zamperini. I don't know if you know that story, but Louis Zamperini was a World War II bomber pilot, or was on a bomber and the plane got engine trouble and crashed in the Pacific and only three men survived. And they are in two inflatable rafts, in the middle of Pacific with very scant hope of survival. They had very small supplies of food, and very small supplies of water and among their supplies of food, were some candy bars, three of them I think, and they calculate if they broke off squares each of them having a square a day, could extend their lives, but one of them in the middle of the night freaked out and ate all the candy bars. All of them. Just out of terror and fear and whatever and just ate them all. I was telling that story to somebody I said, "I would have thrown him overboard at that moment" But no, I mean they overcame and it's really quite an amazing story, but that's an image of it was the time was already short and now we wasted some. That's the sense I have here. It was already short, now we wasted some. Reason number three, time is precious because time is actually uncertain. You don't know the amount you have. So it's precious and it's short and it's uncertain. Our lives could end tonight, or they could continue for many years, we actually have no idea. And we have to make the most of what God gives us. How much more would many people prize their lives if they knew they had but a few months to live, or even a few days left in this world. And so it is with multitudes in this world who assume that they have many years left to enjoy. They're in good health, plenty of money, resources, like the rich fool of Luke 12, remember who's land produced a bumper crop? He said, "I don't know what I'm going to do, what I'm going to do with all this harvest, I know what I'll do, I'll tear down my barns and build bigger barns and then I'll say to my soul, "Soul you've got things laid up for many many years, take life easy, eat and drink, and be married". But God said to him, "You fool, this very night, your soul will be required of you". Meditate on the word required, not requested. Death doesn't come and make a request. That’s it. And yet how many will be surprised by the coming of their death, and think to themselves and this is from John Bunyan, "Cries from hell", "I always thought I would have more time. I always thought I would have more time." I wonder if there are Christians saying that. I always thought I have more time. Reason number four: Time is precious because when it is spent, it can never be recovered again. Now, hear the illustration that came to me is of a pawn shop. Imagine you had a precious heirloom maybe you men, you had a watch that your father gave you, that his father gave him. Or maybe you women, you would have a piece of jewelry that the same thing your mother gave you, that her mother gave to her. And you're under such economic extremity that you feel like you have no choice and you go sell it in the pawn shop. Actually, you can get it back, if you have enough money, and if it still exists, somewhere on earth, and you pursue it enough and you're willing to spend, you could get that heirloom back, but you can never get last Wednesday back. Never! Another illustration I have of this is of God as a chef and a table waiter. Let me shift the image here, cooked up in advance that we should eat, think of it that way. And so in effect, God in the kitchen, the divine kitchen, the Heavenly kitchen cooks up a recipe for you, it's a soup maybe or a stew or something, and he sets that dish in front of you, and you know what? He will never make that dish again, never. It's got a combination of spices, it's got an aroma to it. He gives you a spoon, and then he just stands back and just looks. And if you just don't eat it, he'll wordlessly pick it up and bring it back in the kitchen or rake it into the dumpster. And you'll never have that particular dish again, ever. You can't find it, you can't go anywhere on planet earth to find last Wednesday, it's gone. You never get it back. That moment was unique, it was unrepeatable, it was special and precious. Now if we live 50 or 60 or 70 years, and for the most part haven't improved those years it can't be help. There's nothing I can do to help you about that. It's gone. All of it is gone. All that we can do is make the best of whatever time God may graciously give us still. That's the point. So, what do we do with all this? The Four R’s of Valuing Time I'm going to give you four Rs that I think will help you. First, reflection, second rebuke, third repentance, fourth reformation. First, reflection. What have you done with your time? Just think. You don't need to tell anyone, just think about it, you've heard now the preciousness of time, this concerns you, it applies to you. God created you. Gives you a reasonable soul. Reflect. How have you lived up to this point? You've already had a great deal of time that was given to you, what have you done with it? Let your conscience answer for you. Perhaps you may conclude that your lifetime is half gone, it may well be, I don't know. If you're 35 or 40, you may think you've got half of your life still ahead of you, you may be right, you may be wrong, you don't know. But let's say you did. You've spent half your life. What have you done with it? Every day that God has given you, has been unspeakably precious. How have you spent it? Have you spent it wisely or foolishly or have you wasted hours and days and months even years? Now, if you look back and search your memory, do you find that in a large measure, you've wasted your time or used it well? Think of how much can be done in a day in which you gave absolutely everything to Jesus. Think of what that day would look like. You gave yourself fully, energetically, mentally, and physically, everything you had for Christ that day. That's how much you can do in one day. How many of your days have been like that? And what have you done with all the time you spend in spiritual pursuits? How many sermons have you heard? How many teachings, how many books have you read? How many things has God poured into your soul of the word of God, how much has He given you? Now, we're in America today, not in Jonathan Edwards day. We have far more leisure time than those did who listened to Edwards preach this message back in 1734. They were carving their existence out of a recent wilderness maybe 100 years before that, a little over the 100 years they began settling in that part, so they were farmers, they were merchants. It was a rough life, they didn't have a lot of leisure time. We are glutted with ways to waste time. I don't know if you noticed that but we are glutted with opportunities to waste time. They didn't have internet, they didn't have Netflix, they didn't have endless sports. I don't think they had sports in colonial New England maybe they did, but they certainly didn't have 24/7. And they didn't have the resources to eat at restaurants or to do the different things that we do, etcetera. They didn't have that kind of life. This is the life we have. The question we're asking in reflection is how have you spent your time? Number two. The second purpose of this is rebuke. Another way to look at it would be conviction of sin. I really believe in Christ as a Christian the only good thing ever to be gained at looking back at past sins is to repent and be convicted and live differently. So I'm not trying to marinate everyone, so we all go out feeling guilty. That's not it at all. We'll get to that in a moment, but it's all about conviction. To those who waste time, to those who actually are convicted that they have had a habit of squandering it as though it were an endless resource like tap water. Not in a well system, by the way. Just turn it on, it just flows forever. If you've been thinking like that and you've been wasting time, then be convicted. This text kind of stands over you to rebuke that way of thinking. So I want it to speak to those who spend a lot of time in idleness. That may not be any of you, it maybe many of you, I don't know, I'm just putting out the shoes and if they fit, wear them. But if you know that you're spending a lot of time in idleness, doing nothing at all, following no business, not improving yourself, not working on spiritual strength, not working on a skill set, not working on your spiritual health, not praying, interceding, not studying scripture. Not being out leading others to Christ, not being out serving others in the Body of Christ. You're not doing those things, but instead you're just pouring hour after hour down the hole of mindless recreation, I'm just setting out a pair of shoes. If you know they fit you and you can put them on, then the text calls on you to repent. It calls on you to labor and live differently to a different kind of life. I want to take Ephesians 4:28 and apply it to you. "He who has been stealing must steal no longer but must work doing something useful with his own hands, that he may benefit those in need." So just do that. It's like you've been stealing from God. So use your time going forward well for others. Invest in your heart, in your mind, and your soul, so you can bless others. And then, get out and serve. Use your spiritual gifts, use the Gospel. Get out and do things. Even worse are those who spend their time not merely in idleness, but actually violating their consciences. I'm talking about you know you're sinning. It will be better for those people to have done nothing than to do that because what sin ends up doing it puts you further behind. You're like negative 20 now and you have to put all of this effort to get back up to zero and then go on from there. Jonathan Edward says sin is a terrible time waster. I'll just take a little example. Let's say a husband and wife are intending to do something and instead they get in some big conflict or argument. They spend a couple of hours to rectify that, just get back to square one. When, if they had been humble and loving and patient with each other, they wouldn't have to spend any time on those things. Or, you may develop a bad habit, a corrupting habit and you have to now invest a lot of time to get out of that hole. I would say invest the time and get out of the hole but just understand sin has stolen from you. Number three and number four, I'm going to put together, repentance and reformation. Edwards, as I said, makes it clear that the time once spent has gone forever. So Pastor why are you burdening us with this? There's nothing I can do about last Wednesday. No, but you have a memory and you can look at how, if you remember at what you did last Wednesday. And as I already said, "The only reason for looking back in the Christian life is not to have a murky, guilty feeling. But to just do better, repent. Live better. God, in His grace, may give you more time." And so, repent, turn in your mind and thought. The time you've wasted can still serve a useful purpose in your soul's endeavors if a sense of conviction and a kind of holy passion, a zeal, of resolution fills us, then the painful memory of those wasted hours will actually serve us well. God may still be pleased to bless some that up until that moment were in an unconverted state like that man who wasted all those years but still you can gain the victory that overcomes the world, which is faith in Christ, and all of Heaven will rejoice. So there's that. But then, for you Christians God wants you to feel the weight of the preciousness of time and reflect seriously on how much depends on it, to feel the brevity of life, and how short time is and how rapidly it's flowing. And you feel the weight of these truths, then you will buy back each hour of the day, and you'll acknowledge yourself accountable to God for how you're living. As part of it, it's like our time to spend how we want. And actually it says in Romans 14:7-8, "None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” So, seek to find out what pleases the Lord. What good works he has for you to do. You may feel the sting of time already wasted, you should, if you're alive you should feel that sting. Some of you may feel the sting of conviction, realizing you wasted some of the best years of your life, your youth, the years when you had maximum physical energy, maximum vigor, maximum idealism, but you were deceived into squandering it. Now you're middle aged, you're older and there's nothing you can do about that except resolve to spend your middle age years and older years better. So, do not be discouraged. God is gracious. I remembered a verse this morning, I looked it up. It's Joel 2:25 God is able to "restore the years the locusts have eaten." But I'm going to tell you who he does that for. He does it for people who seriously repent, and feel the weight of what's happened. If you haven't repented, he won't restore the years the locusts have eaten. They'll eat more years is what will happen. So, it is madness at Edwards for you to just sink back in a bed of depression over all this, over what's happened and do nothing. Let me give you an illustration of this. Alright? How to Respond When You Have Wasted Time Imagine you are a wheat farmer in Kansas 100 years ago. Okay. I love these historic illustrations. So, we were Homesteaders with Daniel Boone in Kentucky. Now, we're wheat farmers in Kansas. Alright, so it's middle of the nights harvest time, but there's a fire in the harvest field near the house. And it's already burned a third of your harvest. And it's now caught the corner of the house on fire, and a friend and neighbor sees it and runs in. It's three in the morning, everyone in the house is asleep and he rouses everyone to wake up. "Get up, get up, you're in danger, your crop is burning, your house is burning get up." And imagine they sit up, the farmer looks out, and sees that a third of the harvest is burned and smells a smoke in his own house, and he's just so depressed and just lays back in bed. It's like, "Wrong answer!" You can still save two-thirds of your harvest, get up, put the fire out in your house, save your life, and run out and save your harvest. Don't get depressed, get energetic, be zealous, have a fire in your belly, zeal for the glory of God. Not, "There's nothing I can do." Last Wednesday is gone forever. I don't do that. That's madness. It's not the right answer. So, understand verse 17 what the will of the Lord is. Understand what He wants out of you. "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of God, and finish His work." That's Jesus's wisdom for you every day. What does he want you to do today? And do it. Application Mothers of Young Children I'm going to close with just a couple of specific words of application to you. You may be in a unique place in life. I want to speak directly to you. I want to begin by speaking to mothers of preschoolers. Okay? You have a unique opportunity to pour into your little ones as they're growing. Make the most of it. It's tiring, I've seen it. My wife worked hard with our toddlers. I've seen other moms. I see some of you moms. I see the look of fatigue, I understand. It's hard, make the most of it, it doesn't last long. You turn around three or four times and it's done. So I just want to urge you make the most of it. Parents of Teenagers Are you perhaps the father of a teenage boy? You don't have long to teach him how to be a man, to speak into his life, and get him ready for the warfare he's going to have to fight to be a warrior for Christ, to learn how to put on his spiritual armor. Are you speaking into the life of your son? Like I said, a couple of times you turn around and they're gone. Are you the father of a teenage son or the mother of a teenage girl getting her ready for the things that are going to come? Just make the most of it, that's all. Teenagers What about you, are you a teenager yourself? Maybe you just finished Disciple Now. You're barely struggling to keep awake. Alright, I get that. Alright, two in the morning. Actually, the kids who are with us were phenomenal. Went to bed. You guys were great. You guys right here. I see you guys, you guys were awesome. It didn't cost me any sleep. So thank you very much, I appreciate that. But I mean, you're a teenager, I already mentioned about five minutes ago, you are about to come into the prime years of your life physically, in terms of zeal, idealism, energy. It's incredible what young men and women have done for the cause of Christ, in missions, evangelism, in church building. Incredible. Don't waste your childhood, don't waste your teen years, don't waste your young men and young women years. Get ready for them. Come to Christ, be sure that you're born again. Don't assume because you're in a good Christian home that you're born again. Be sure that you're born again and then make the most. Retirees What about you, are you a retiree? You’re thinking, “Lots and lots of my years are passed.” Yeah, but you might have some freedom, you might have some money and some wisdom and some resources and some things that, boy, the church could use them. Are you squandering your years? John Piper talks about a couple that spent their years on their shell collection. Wandering the beaches, collecting shells. Early retirement, 59,60. You got extra years of shell-collecting. Don't waste it, don't waste your retirement years. You could go on mission, you could go overseas, you could do things to enrich the Church. Many of you are. Praise God. But don't waste your retiree years. How about a specific circumstance? Maybe you're diagnosed with cancer or the closest loved one, a spouse to one who is, don't waste it, you're like, "How in the world? What you mean don't waste it?" What I'm saying is it may put you in a unique position, a platform that other Christians can't use to minister. Single Christians Perhaps you're single, don't waste your singleness. You yearn for a spouse and God may give you one, he may not, but make the most of your years. 1 Corinthians 7 says that Paul had a kind of a freedom as a single man that he wouldn't have if he were married. So, make the most of your years when you're single, and God may well bless you with a spouse, but he may not, but just make the most of it. Friends, I could go on and on. I actually did go on and on, but I cut it down. Alright. So I'm just asking you each of you to redeem the time for the glory of God. Let's live as though every moment were precious and live it maximally for Him. Close with me in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you for the time you give us. Help us to make the most of every minute. Help us, O Lord, to live for your glory. Help us to be balanced in recreation. Help us to use it only to renew and recharge your battery so we can serve you and others. Help us, O Lord, to run the internal race of holiness, and the external race of evangelism and missions. Oh, God, help us to live for what you have laid before us to do in Jesus' name, Amen.
Introduction Well, as we come to this section of Ephesians, we're going to see more and more how intensely practical the Gospel really is, that the Gospel really addresses rubber meets the road issues, practical issues of everyday life, everyday morality, key moral issues. And we're going to look today at two of them, the issues of lying and of anger. Context To set this in context, we've already had in the Book of Ephesians the glorious vision of the Church of Jesus Christ. We have two different metaphors given us in the Book of Ephesians. One of a “spiritual temple, a holy house that's rising to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit,” that's the Church. And that's such a glorious picture, isn't it? To bring in that image from Peter of “living stones” being quarried or rescued from Satan's dark kingdom by the power of the Gospel and transferred over and put in the walls of this rising glorious temple. And you, all of you who are brothers and sisters in Christ, you've already come to faith, you're in those walls now. You're already members of the Church. And you will be for all eternity, and you will give praise and glory to God from this day on and forever. So that's that image, an architectural image. We also have a biological image of the Body of Christ, Christ Himself, the head of the body, we members of it and all of us united together through faith in Christ, united in the Spirit. Growing and developing and becoming more and more mature, as the Church of Jesus Christ. So these two different images and in both cases, the idea of unity is huge, that we must be fit together in the walls, and we must be members together one of another, and as we're going to look at these moral issues, lying and sinful anger or unrighteous anger, they are very divisive in the Body of Christ. They fracture our unity. We're going to talk about that. So the context of all of this, Ephesians 4:1 it says, "As a prisoner for the Lord then," the apostle Paul says, "I plead with you. I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received. Walk in a manner worthy of that calling." And we're wanting to do that. Now right in the middle of Ephesians 4, we have a magnificent three-step process that's going to carry us through the rest of this chapter and then on into the next chapter on these specific moral issues. And then it becomes just a general recipe or mechanism for holiness that God gives us, and we saw it in verses 22 through 24, “that we are to put off the old man, the old nature, which is being corrupted, constantly corrupted. We are to be “made new in the attitude” or “the spirit of our minds,” and we are to” put on the new self,” created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. A Kingdom of Truth vs. a Kingdom of Lies Old Life as Liars So we come to the practical issue right away of lying, and isn't it amazing that the Apostle Paul begins with this? Like Paul, if you're going to address a moral issue in the life of the Church, where do you want to start? He starts with lying. He starts with lying, with the issue of deceit. He begins, verse 25, with the word “therefore,” "Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, if we are all members of one body." So the essence of the old life was that old corruption we had in lying and deceitful desires, we're told in verse 22, “deceitful desires,” desires that lied to us, and then we lied about them. So the deceitfulness of that, and we are to be transformed, “made new in the spirit of our minds,” primarily by the ministry of the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we are to put on the new self, and I like the Holman Christian Standard Bible here in verse 24, "To put on the new man, the one created according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. Therefore, put off falsehood." Do you see the connection then? So it's in the purity of the truth, on the basis of that. So the Christian life is one of walking in the truth, walking in the truth and Jesus Christ is the king of truth, isn't He? Prioritize Truth Like Christ We want to have, as Christians, the same commitment to truth that Jesus has. We want to speak the truth with the same kind of passion that Jesus uses. Jesus has a commitment to the truth that's infinitely greater than any of us, even to the point of dying on the cross, rather than to lie about Himself. Remember when He was on trial before the Jews, "I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." He said, "I am." He gave that truthful declaration, knowing it would result in his death, because they wouldn't believe him. I, as a Christian, I want to have that same kind of commitment to truth that Jesus had, that's what sanctification is all about. Jesus, on trial before Pilate then mentioned His kingdom. Pilate seized on that, because He was there as somehow the leader of an insurrection, "You are a King then," and Jesus said, "You are right in saying I'm a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Jesus is the king, the king of the kingdom of truth. And in that way, He more than just teaches the truth, preaches the truth, exemplifies the truth. He is the truth. John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That's Jesus and Jesus in this way, and we saw that in the scripture, in Hebrews 1, is the perfect display of the character of God. Jesus tells the truth, is the truth, loves the truth because God, His Father is the exact same way in reference to the truth. Actually, Titus 1:2 says, "God cannot lie." Think about that. It is impossible for Almighty God to lie. He always speaks the truth, and this Almighty God, who cannot lie, is omnipresent. He is omniscient. It is before Him that we will give an account for all of our words and actions on Judgment Day. It says in Hebrews 4, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account." For this reason, we Christians should be passionately committed to the truth because on that day, there will be no secrets. On that day everything will be uncovered and laid bare, everything. And so we want to live a life of truthfulness. So David, in confessing his terrible sin with Bathsheba, in Psalm 51:6 said, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts, you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." We want to be characterized by truth straight through. We want to be light with no mixture of darkness at all, because that's how God is. The Kingdom of Lies Now, we have been rescued into this kingdom of truth, that I've been describing, out of a kingdom of lies. Ruled by a king of lies, Satan himself, fundamentally, at his basic nature, Satan is a liar. Fundamentally a liar. Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it this way, "Just as it is true to say that nothing so represents God as truth and truthfulness, it is equally true to say that nothing so represents the devil as lies." The devil and his kingdom are characterized by lies. Jesus said to his enemies in John 8:44, "You belong to your father the devil and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks of his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies." So that means his whole kingdom, his whole dark kingdom is based on lies. First and foremost, Satan fell out of holiness into wickedness, because he lied to himself, he deceived himself. He believed that he could take God's place on the throne of glory ruling over the universe, he believed this and he told this to himself. In Isaiah 14:13-14, "You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to Heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the Mount of Assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain, I will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the most high God.'" I mean, he lied to himself. God was never going to give up His position of absolute holiness and sovereign rule to a created being, but Satan became entranced by his own power, his own glory, his own beauty, and he looked to himself and he lied to himself, and he was cast down to earth, but when he was cast down to earth, he then commenced to lie to the human race, to Adam and Eve at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Remember how God had clearly warned Adam, "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die," but then Satan comes along and says, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, you'll be like God, knowing good from evil.” How complex are the lies of Satan. First, a flat-out lie, a denial of something God asserted, "You will die if you sin." The soul who sins will die. The death penalty, linked to sin, he lied about that. He said, "You're not going to die." He keeps on telling that same lie to sinners, "You're not going to die. You're not going to die. There's no death penalty, there's no accountability for our sins." He's telling that lie but then he brings in some elements of the truth for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you'll be like God, knowing good from evil. That's true, but it's still a lie because the true statement in the service of an overall overarching lie, that's the essence of cults and false religions, they say a lot of perceptually true statements, but in the overall overarching framework of a lie, of false religion, Satan's whole kingdom is based on lies about God. All the atheistic scientific systems are based on satanic lies, all the godless philosophical systems are based on satanic lies. See, he has a complex system of lies that Satan has crafted, and those that are his subjects, those that are his slaves, they're liars, too. As a matter of fact, Psalm 116:11, the Psalmist says, "And in my dismay, I cried out all men are liars." Every human being, we're all liars. Romans 3:13-14, "Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." Just the way we use our tongues, the way we speak, we are liars. Rescued from the Kingdom of Lies And Satan tempts Christians to act in the old pattern, he tempts us to lie too, though we have been delivered from his dark kingdom of lies, and we have been brought over into the kingdom of the truth, he still tempts us effectively to lie to one another. Well, you remember the story in Acts 5 of Ananias and Sapphira, you remember that, how they had sold a piece of property, but they kept back some of the money for themselves, debatable whether that was a godly thing to do or not, but one thing that was definitely ungodly is that they lied about it. They lied to Peter. They lied in front of the whole church. "Tell us is this the price you got for the land." "Yes, that's the price." Peter said, "Ananias how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you've lied to the Holy Spirit, you've not lied to men, but to God." And Ananias and Sapphira in turn both dropped down dead for telling a lie. I mean, do you not see the grace of God in your own life that you don't drop dead every time you tell a lie? I mean, think about that, thank God that whenever you're convicted about lying that you're still alive. I mean, we should tremble at the grace of God concerning this, and not be so glib about our lives. Ananias and Sapphira are a permanent warning to the Church. We have been rescued from a dominion of lies, amen. We've been set free from it. And the thing that's beautiful about us is the truth about us is only good news. We are going to end up in Heaven, free from all sin, so we're free from the need to lie. We don't need to lie, we can speak the truth to one another. That's the point of the Gospel here. Put Away All Lies and Speak Truth The Basic Command: Put Off Lying and Speak Truth So we're commanded here to put off all lying, to put off falsehood and speak the truth to one another, put off the lying like a filthy garment that defiles and corrupts you, put it off and resolve to commit yourself to the truth and the pattern of Jesus Christ. Say, "Lord, Holy Spirit, work in me the same love for the truth that Jesus had. I'd rather die than tell a lie, work that in me, Lord. I know I'm not there, but that's what I want. I want to speak only the truth." Lies and Sin Go Hand in Hand Now, we know that the problem here is that lying and sinning go hand in hand. They're like partners in the crime. A certain pattern of sin brings on lying to cover it up, so that the pattern can go on unchallenged. It's been going on since Adam ate that fruit. You remember? And God came to him in the garden and he called to him, and Adam was hiding from God, and there's this deception and hiding and a desire to present something other than what we really are. Now think about the scribes and Pharisees who Jesus called out as hypocrites, "Woe to you you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you're like white-washed tombs. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, you're full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way on the outside, you appear to men as righteous, but inside, you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Well, that's what lying does. It puts a white-washed cover on a life of unrepentance in specific areas of sin, and so lying is a major issue. We must commit ourselves to telling the truth. Lying Flows Through All of Non-Christian Society Now, as we live in this world we look around, we see lying flowing through just about every aspect of society and culture. It's just we're just used to it. I mean, take a party, for example, get a party of non-Christian people together, office parties, some Christmas party and all of the talking that's going on. How much of it is true, how much of the things that the people are saying about themselves or stories they're telling, or whatever are truth, or how much exaggeration is going, how much flattery is going on? How much of these other things is going on? And there's just so much deception going on in the room, people trying to make themselves look good or powerful or competent, etcetera, and they're hiding their weaknesses by lying, this goes on all the time. People just become experts at shading the truth, stretching the truth, adapting the truth, arranging the truth, etcetera. Like it's some silly putty that we can arrange however we like. Or take politics, for example. Presidential campaigns. Have you noticed how the networks after these debates will give this truth-o-meter, or something like that? It's just, we assume they're lying, we just want to know how bad the lie is, how egregious, or how obviously false it is, but we know that the politicians must be lying. Why? Because the truth is so unpopular and you need to be popular in order to get elected and so you have to come back from a statement of your full convictions on controversial issues. You have to couch it a little bit, put some slogans, and nuances because if you just simply tell the unvarnished truth, you will not get elected. Would Jesus Christ get elected in the American political process? He would never lie or shade the truth about any controversial issue, and that's just simply unpopular in reference to unbelievers. And so, in politics, we are seeing it. What about diplomacy? You ever wonder about diplomats sitting at the negotiating table? There's a great verse, one of my favorite verses in the Book of Daniel, it's not as well-known but Daniel 11:27, there in this incredible chapter of prophecy about the kings of the north, kings of the southeast, Greek kings and all these things are going to happen over Palestine, minor details of redemptive history, but God's showing off how much detail he can predict about the future, there's like 108 specific prophecies in the Book of Daniel, but minor Greek kingdoms that are going to follow Alexander the Great. It's an incredible thing, but I love Daniel 11:27, talking about these two pagan kings, "The two kings with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other but to no avail, because the end will still come at the appointed time." I just love that verse. The two evil kings are just lying to each other in diplomacy. You see? And God says, "It doesn't matter because I rule. I rule over the kingdom of lies, and I will achieve what I will achieve when I want to achieve it." That's God's sovereign power. Or, take law enforcement and the judicial process. We're told the policemen and detectives, they just assume that the people they're talking to, the persons of interest are lying, that somewhere in there there's lies, even lots of lies. And then think about the actual court trial, how much effort is made to get at what actually happened. Cross-examinations, examinations, and objection overruled, and all that. None of that's going to happen on Judgment Day. It won't be needed. God will just say the truth. Do you remember how God called up Sarah on laughing? Remember that? "Why did you laugh?" "Oh, I didn't laugh," she lied. And here's the final word on the matter, "Oh yes, you did laugh." See, that's Judgment Day. There's a clean efficiency to that, it's called omniscience, omnipresence. "You laughed. We're done. I don't need any cross-examinations, I don't need any witnesses. We don't need any material evidence. You laughed." And that's Judgement Day. God tells the truth because He sees it all the time. Lying Complicates Life Furthermore, we understand that lying complicates life, as Walter Scott said, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." As you begin to cover up your sins, you weave a cobweb of lies around your lifestyle, and it becomes harder and harder to remember the truth, harder and harder to remember who you really are. Every relationship in life is polluted and made more complex by lying. Biggest problem in the Christian life is that genuine holiness can only come about when people genuinely address the sin problems in their life and they stop lying about it. To me, that's the essence of a really trusted accountability partner, where you can tell each other the truth. Self and pride is at the root of all lying and we lie to protect a projective false image of ourselves. Think about social media. How much of the image that people put on Facebook or Instagram or other social media is actually the truth. Or are they selectively putting photos, selectively putting things on to create an image. And that's a dangerous thing because you don't want to do that, you don't want to create an image. You want to be the truth. You want to be a man, a woman, a young person of integrity. That's what the Gospel calls us, to. And so we're called in verse 25 to “put off falsehood and speak truthfully to our neighbors, for we are all members of one body.” It's pointing to the unity that we have, lying destroys that unity. Furthermore, it is by “speaking the truth in love, right doctrine that we build each other up.” “When we heard the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation, that's when we were included in Christ, and we received the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Lying and the Christian Church So it is the ministry of the truth of the word of God that builds the Body of Christ, we must speak the truth to one another, we must resolve to speak the truth. If you have a sin problem, be honest about it, and deal with it. Don't make excuses. Conversely, don't exaggerate your good works and achievements and make much about all the good things that you do, don't do that, don't seek to puff up your outward appearance. Now I need to say a couple of things here because we're just messed up. It's like, "Pastor told me to tell the truth, I got to tell you what I really think about your outfit today. I'm just being honest." Okay, well that's not honesty, that's your own unkind opinion. We must make a distinction between biblical truth and your own unkind opinion. Alright and even if it might be true, you kind of have to earn the right to say some of those hard things to each other. And we see people and we're like, "They need this, they that." We're making these judgments. Is it you, are you the messenger to go say that? So let's be careful and let's be careful about TMI as well, you know what I mean? Too much information. “Yeah, my stomach is just really…” “I had the grossest thing this…” It's like no, really. That's not what I mean by speaking the truth. Okay? Each one needs to bear his own burdens. Alright, so don't need to hear about your toenail fungus. Your doctor needs to hear about it. But I have a need, a physical need, if you'd be praying for me. Good, thank you. I will. I will pray for you. Fundamentally though, the most important truth we need to say to each other is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to speak the cross to each other consistently. We'll never be done with it. I think as I was thinking this morning about this point in the sermon, I just want to appeal to lost people to come to Christ because all of us are liars, Christians, non-Christians alike, but only Christians have the remedy and the covering and the forgiveness of Almighty God and how do we have that? Through the blood of Christ. So the verse that came to my mind is 1 Timothy 1:15, which says, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst." So you could put in there Christ Jesus came into the world to save liars. And I don't know anyone who lies as much as I do, because I know my own lies. Everyone else they might be lying to me, I don't know, but I know when I lie and I need a savior and you do too. So if you're already a Christian, let's speak the cross, the grace of God to one another. It's the only remedy there is to any of these moral problems we're going to be studying. But if you're not a Christian, if you're not a Christian, then trust in Christ, look to Christ crucified. He is the Savior for liars. Be Righteously Angry The Next Issue: Human Anger The second issue that he deals with, the moral issue he deals with here is anger. Look at verses 26 and 27 says, "Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give an opportunity to the devil." Human anger, like lying, sinful anger is a powerfully destructive force in human relationships. Now, the issue on anger is complicated. It's complicated. There is something, I think, Paul's making a distinction here between righteous and unrighteous anger. There are some things you should be angry about, and there are many things that you regularly get angry about that you should repent from and not be angry about. And so we have to make a distinction. Now, the NIV says, I think it kind of smooths it over, but it's not helpful how it smooths it over. It says, "In your anger do not sin." All the other translations just give that imperative. “Be angry. But don't sin.” So that's what he's saying here. So there is an aspect and I want to talk about it briefly, of righteous anger. Righteous Anger is Right Some counselors, some people would say it's never appropriate for us to get angry, but when you feel those feelings of, let's say, righteous anger, what do you do? Do you stuff them down? Like a cap volcano. We're living in a world characterized by such egregious unrighteousness. There is such a thing as righteous anger and Jesus gives us a great pattern of it. In Mark 3, He's about to heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath and his enemies are ready to pounce. And He looks around at them and He says, "Which is lawful to do on the Sabbath, to heal or to destroy?" To save life or to kill, but they won't answer because of their hardness of heart and Jesus, it says there, in Mark 3, became angry at them because of their hardness of heart. Or even better, in John 2, Jesus comes to the temple and sees all the temple concessions there, all the animals and the doves and all of that being sold for a huge profit with injustice and unrighteousness going on in a river of profit going to Annas and Caiaphas. And He is righteously angry, enraged. And so what does He do, He sits down and weaves together a whip. That's just a picture of God being slow to anger, deferring judgment while He makes the whip. But when the whip was done, He used it. And he cleaned out that temple. He was filled with the righteous zeal for the glory of God and the purity of his temple. "How dare you turn my Father's house into a marketplace?" There's a sense of righteous anger at the wickedness on display there, so Jesus, displays that and in that again, He's just a picture of Almighty God. God throughout the Scripture, displays holy righteous wrath against wickedness and sin. God in His anger refused to allow the Israelites to enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief, but He commanded that they turn around and for 40 years wander the desert, directly ascribed to the wrath of God. It says in Psalm 7:11, "God is a righteous judge, who expresses his wrath everyday,” everyday." If you knew what to look for, you would just need to go around to the police precincts, or to the hospitals, or the nursing homes, or just the streets of everyday life. And if you knew what to look for, you could see the wrath of God on display everyday. But we don't, and we just see really hard things happening to people, and God may be doing some things. I'm just saying this verse tells us every day God expresses His righteous wrath. And there is a day of God's wrath coming in the future when e will settle all accounts when his righteous indignation and wrath will be poured out on all the ungodly who have not found refuge in Christ. Now God has an amazingly long fuse, stunningly long. As a matter of fact, He said to Abraham, "In the future, your descendants will enter and take this Promised Land but not yet because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." 400 years later, God's cleaned them out. God cleaned them out by Joshua and the Israelite army. 400 years He waited. That's the patience of God. So it's actually right for Christians to feel anger about the wickedness we see. Every January, we have Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, it is right for us to feel a righteous anger about abortion. We should feel a righteous anger about that. We should feel a righteous anger about the mocking of God and of Christ that goes on in our culture. We should feel a righteous anger about the martyring of Christian brothers and sisters by terrorists in Syria. Probably the thing that should make you angriest is the stubbornness of your own heart after all of the grace you have received that you still struggle with the same sins again and again. And cry out against yourself and say, "The very thing I hate, I do, and the very thing I want to do, I do not do, what a wretched man I am." And at the end of that encounter with Almighty God Job said, "I despise myself and repent in sackcloth and ashes." So there's a sense in which I hate my own sin more than anything else, and it makes me, it angers me that I still sin, but that's not all. It should bother you to know that hundreds of millions of people around the world have never heard the name of Christ. It should arouse anger inside you, when you hear of East African nations, the governments using food as a weapon in a political war so that their own people who they should be caring for are starving to death, literally. It should make us angry to hear about the graft and corruption of the Haitian government after the earthquake when tens of millions of dollars of aid goes in and government officials, some of them siphon off that money to feather their own nest, that should make us angry. And as a matter of fact, if you don't feel anger about some of these things, something's wrong with you. But we should remember that God is able to save amazingly sinners and separate out the ones who are doing these things from the actions that they're doing. You should say, "I'm yearning for you to repent, I want to see you come to Christ, I want you to know the same forgiveness because I'm guilty of the same kinds of sins." Alright, so that's the issue of righteous anger. Be Not Sinfully Angry, But Quick to Forgive Most Human Anger is Not Righteous What about unrighteous anger? "Well, Pastor, actually, that's not something I ever deal with, honestly." Well, go back to the earlier part of the sermon on lying, okay? There is a problem that we all have with unrighteous anger. “Be angry but do not sin.” Now, we could say, in your righteous anger, deal with it patiently, as Jesus did, but I'm going to just go over to the topic now of unrighteous or sinful anger. So much of our anger is based on the flesh. I mean, if you get angry 100 times in a stretch of period of time, whatever that is. How many of those, 90 or more are tied in some way to your flesh? I was talking to my kids about it this morning, I've got two in particular, two roots, two sources of sinful anger, pride and inconvenience. James says, "Also, you want something covetously and you don't get it and that makes you angry." So that's another one. But I look at these two as huge. Pride. We get angry when our pride is ruffled, when we are publicly embarrassed in some way. When someone isn't dealing with us as we ought to be dealt with. “Don't you know who I am? You can't talk to me like that.” You know that pride that leads to an angry reaction. Cain got angry at his brother Abel, because God accepted his offering and not his own. Clear indication in the text is that he offered what God told him to offer and Cain didn't. But he got angry, angry enough to murder his brother. Moses became angry at Israel and struck the rock twice, lost his place in the Promised Land. Nebuchadnezzar became angry at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that they wouldn't bow down to his idol, became so enraged that he, I think just lost his mind. So anger is like a drug, and it makes you irrational. Saul, King Saul was enraged at David because of his pride was ruffled when these women of Israel went out and sang the song, you remember, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David, his tens of thousands," that really bothered Saul. It's like, Saul you're number two, it's okay, don't get discouraged. But he was galled by this, and he wanted to kill David as a result. It was all out of pride. Alright, so look at your own displays of anger. Let me speak to your parent, you parents, alright. Let's say your kid does something disobedient and does it in the privacy of your home versus at Walmart, or at church, even worse. Okay and you are going to bring down the righteous judgement for that sin. Are you not telling me that there's a little more passion when you have been publicly embarrassed than there is when you're just dealing with it privately at home, and why is it? It's your pride. And so, you might chastise or discipline with more anger than you should, because you've been publicly embarrassed. Or when your kids foolishly break something in the house and it's going to cost time, energy, money to get it repaired and you become angry, because you've been inconvenienced in some way. Or all of us when we go out and you're in line and someone cuts in front of you in line, doesn't even look. They're talking on the cellphone or something like that, and it's like, "Oh, hmm, I'm feeling feelings right now. I'm feeling strong feelings right now. This ought not to be done, this is righteous indignation! I'm a human being, okay." "I deserve to be treated better than this. Excuse me, I know you're taking on the phone, but I have something I need to say to you." What is going on there? Well, your pride and your inconvenience both kicking in and you have unrighteous anger. Or whenever you might become angry at an inanimate object or an animal. Have you ever been angry? Now, you say animals are different than inanimate objects, they should know better. Well, it's a debatable point but Jonathan Edwards resolved never to show the least motions of anger toward animals or inanimate objects. So that's a resolution. Have you ever wanted that you stood up into something, banged your head, and wanted to hit the thing that just banged you and your hand is stopping and you're saying, "What did I do?" Why compound it? You have a headache. Now you're going to have a broken hand. But what is it that moves inside of us? This is unrighteous anger. So, be suspicious of your own anger, be suspicious of it. I don't know, but one out of 100 times it might be righteous. One out of a 100. James Calls Human Anger “Moral Filth” James actually says this to us, "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God, therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent," the word therefore means that James is calling human anger moral filth. It's like radioactive toxic waste, get rid of it. And by the way, that's the verb that in the New Testament, always uses for anger. Get rid of it, get rid of it, take it out like the trash. A Lifestyle of Settled Anger is Great Sin A settled angry life is inappropriate for Christians. I'm talking about bitter, unforgiving, unhappy people. We should be forgiving, we should be gracious, we should be living for the future world, we should realize that we deserve to be in Hell right now, and whatever has ruffled us or made our life difficult, we should still be overflowing with thankfulness, for the grace of God, and instead of being bitter, unfriendly, unhappy people. Concerning other people's sins, we're told in 1 Corinthians 13, "Love is patient, love is kind, it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not rude or proud or self-seeking, it is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs." So we should not be irritable, irascible, grumpy. That's a choice we make. The High Cost of Anger I feel like our nation's getting angrier and angrier. We're angry people. I see a lot more public displays of anger. And I don't just mean road rage, I just mean people that are filled with hatred toward humanity and go down to literally gun down totally innocent people. I just wonder how many people are in prison right now, how many people are in prison right now, because anger like King Nebuchadnezzar, made them irrational, made them insane, and they did something, and for the rest of their lives, they're going to be paying the penalty for it. I wonder about that, it's like a drug, just takes over. How many marriages have been destroyed because of sinful anger and because people did not know how to deal with their anger, or dealing with pet peeves? I was convicted by this topic of pet peeves. I have too many of them. I want to cut it down by half in the year 2016. It's hard, but things irritate me. I'm not going to tell you what they are, because you'll probably do them to help with my sanctification. But there's actually a website, I'm not going to read them to you, but it's getannoyed.com. There's like 150 pet peeves, you can write in with yours and they'll add them to the list. But we should be characterized by contentment in any and every situation, right? “We've learned the secret of being content and joyful in any and every situation.” Quick to Forgive And the verse says, in verse 26, "We should be quick to forgive." If somebody has angered us, somebody has sinned against us, the Bible says, the Scripture says, "Do not let the sun go down on your anger." This is strong advocacy for quick forgiveness. Now, I know a man, I'm not going to say his name, but he said to his wife, from time to time, "The sun has already gone down, so I've got another 23 hours that I can stew on this one." I don't think I've ever said those words. Oh, that was me. Now the idea is quick forgiveness. Be reconciled quickly. Don't let it fester, don't let bitterness come in, don't give the devil a foothold, don't give him a beachhead, like D-Day, to operate in your marriage, or in the Church. Go quickly with your adversary, Jesus said, who's taking you to court, "Do it while you're still with him on the way. Leave your gift there in front of the altar and go be reconciled to your brother” Immediately. There's no delay. Deal with it quickly, address it. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And if they have sinned against you, Matthew 18 says, "Go show them their fault privately, just between the two of you and win them over.” But deal with it immediately, deal with it. Do Not Give the Devil a Place to Operate Anger: A Danger Zone of Demonic Power And do not give the devil a place to operate. And when Christians settle in or are angry with each other, bitterness grows, and that destroys relationships. And we're going to talk at the end of the chapter on forgiveness. So I'm not going to say much on forgiveness now, we'll talk more about it later, but the Lord wants us to forgive as He has forgiven us, and so we must. So Paul is revealing to us the ramifications of the Gospel. Only faith in Christ can save, only faith in Christ can transform a life that's been immoral and unvirtuous and displeasing to God and make it pleasing to Him. Preparing for the Lord’s Supper But now is the time for us to come to the Lord's supper. And we have the joy of fellowship with the Lord around the elements. And to me, this is a feast of grace. I prayed about it in my pastoral prayer. And I don't believe in the real presence, that the bread and the juice are actually the physical body and blood of Jesus, but I don't believe the other end of the spectrum, which many evangelicals say “It's just a mere memorial, it doesn't mean much.” It means a lot! I believe that here by the Spirit, by the ministry of the word, we can have an encounter with the living God. Come to the table expecting to partake in the body and blood of Christ by faith. That's why I say you must be a believer in Christ to partake. It says you're eating and drinking judgment on yourself if you don't recognize in the elements, the body and blood of Christ. So don't partake if you've not come to faith in Christ, and testified to it by water baptism, but if you have, you're welcome to come. And again, we had a time with Rick Lesh earlier to confess our sins, this isn't for perfect people, there's no perfect people here, we have all lied. We have all gotten unrighteously angry. We have all had bitterness and unforgiveness in our lives. This is a good time to repent from all of those things. Wherever the Lord has been convicting you of sin in these areas, confess it and come to the table. So, deacons, if you would please come and serve the table.
Two Great Questions As I come to the text today, there are two great issues that confront me from verses 2-3 of Hebrews 11 that I think confront people all over the world, every culture, every generation. All the time, these questions are among the great questions that face us as human beings. The title of the sermon in the order that we find in Hebrews 11:2 and 11:3 is Commendation and Creation. But kind of reversing them into a more logical order, the question that's in front of us is: "How did we all get here?" A question of origin. And, "What should I live my life for?" A question of significance or meaning. These things stand over us every single day. Whether an atheist, Christians, Muslim, it doesn't matter, these are the questions that are common to the human condition. We yearn to understand origins, where it all came from, and we yearn to understand what is worthy of my attention in my life, what should I be living for, a sense of purpose or calling or something that is worthy of my attention. And I tell you, we live surrounded by people who are lost on these issues. They're lost. They're without hope and without God in the world, and they live depressing lives, empty lives, and they try to find meaning in created things and they can't really find any ultimate satisfaction in them. And people who are skillful at capturing those thoughts, authors, playwrights, musicians, artists of various types, have been able to capture the feeling of emptiness that comes from considering the question of origin and the question of worth and coming up with nothing. I mean absolutely nothing. Like, for example, Jean-Paul Sartre in his book "Nausea," parenthetically, why would anyone want to read something called, Nausea? But I guess I read part of it anyway. And this is what he says: "I had always realized it; I hadn't any right to exist at all. I had appeared by chance. I existed like a stone, a plant, a microbe. I could feel nothing to myself but an inconsequential buzzing. I was thinking that here we are eating and drinking to preserve our precious existence and that there's nothing, nothing, absolutely no reason for existing." Somerset Maugham wrote this: "If one puts aside the existence of God and the survival of life after death as doubtful, one has to make up one's mind as to the use of life. If death ends all, if I have neither to hope for good nor to fear evil, I must ask myself what am I here for, and how in these circumstances I must conduct myself? Now, the answer is plain but so unpalatable that most will not face it: There is no meaning in life, and thus life has no meaning." Now, I can't live my life like that. And the joyful good news of the Gospel is I don't need to. The universe didn't pop up out of nothing and have no purpose or no meaning. The text today asserts that God created the universe by his word. It's what it says, and it tells me I'll know that only by faith. We'll get into all that. And that based on that faith, if I live in the faith that he alone can give, he will commend me, and that's worth living for. Well, that's it. You've got Hebrews 11:2-3. By faith, we understand a life worthy of commendation, a life worthy of living, and by faith we'll live it and be commended. Secondly, by faith, we understand the origins of the universe, that God created it so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible, and therefore there is a clear priority put on the invisible realm rather than the visible. Hebrews 11 Set in Context And that's what we have to look at today in our text. Now, what is the context here? Going back one verse, we had last week, Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." We talked about that last week, and we saw that faith has a beautiful, sweet, attractive, alluring side in which by faith, we are constantly buoyed up by hope, by assurance, a confidence of incredibly good things yet to come, and they are most certainly going to happen. But also, we are aware of the constant need for conviction of sin, and that the Lord by faith is going to keep us mindful of the truth of ourselves that we're mixed beings now. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we are also struggling with sin that lives in us. And so, by faith, we are convicted continually of specific ways that that sin acts up, and we repent of it, and with these two aspects of faith, we are conducted safely to heaven. We need them both, got to have both. And the reason for this whole chapter, this faith chapter, Hebrews 11:1, I'm just going back one step to the end of Chapter 10, there it tells us, "The righteous or the just shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not among those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who believe and are saved." So, there at the very end of Chapter 10, he's describing the kind of life that leads to heaven, the kind of life that leads to not being destroyed, but rather, to being saved. There's a life that comes. It flows from faith. That life leads to heaven, not to hell. And so, that's the context. We're looking at faith. We're trying to understand it. We're trying to understand what it brings to us, and in Verse 2 and 3, we have some additional elements. I. Faith Resulted in the Commendation of the Ancient Saints (vs. 2) Now, I want to begin in the order that it gives us, so I reverse them logically starting with creation and then going to commendation. We'll just take it in the order that the text gives it. And so, immediately in Verse 2, we have the issue of commendation. Commendation. We are taught in Verse 2, "For by it, by faith, the people of old [or the ancients] received their commendation." So we have in front of us this verse, and we try to understand it. Who were the people of old? Who were these ancients? And what does commend mean? What does it mean to be commended? Who commended them, on what basis were they commended, and what is the significance of their commendation? These are the things that flow from the text for me. So, in Verse 2, let's start right away. Who are the ancients? What do we mean by this? By faith, the ancients were commended, people of old. The ESV translates it. Well, I think we have a sense from the rest of the chapter who he's meaning, who he's talking about. We go right from Verse 3 into Verse 4, and we find right away, we're talking about Abel. By faith, Abel offered a sacrifice, and then Enoch, we go to Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and all of these, Moses, all of these great men and women of old, these ancient people, the people who lived in centuries before, or what it says in Hebrews 1, our fathers. "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers…" the ancients, the ancestors, the people before. Now, Christy and I were missionaries in Japan, and there is... I think there are, in their culture, an unhealthy worship of ancestors. It's part of Shintoism. It's part of the religion there. Christians don't worship ancestors, but we revere or esteem them and we can learn from them. And so, this chapter is filled with the examples of ancients, of people who lived before, and that's who they were. What does it mean that, by faith, they were commended? What is this commendation? Well, the Greek word relates to a witness or a testimony given to them that they were testified about or positively. So, the word commend is a good translation, a sense in which someone says something positive about them, presents them as positive examples, praises them in some way. That's what the commendation is. And who is it that commended them and how did he do it? Clearly, this is God. There's no doubt about it that it is God who commends these ancient people. And how did he commend them? Well, first and foremost, for our purposes, he commended them in the pages of scripture. And so, Abel's offering was acceptable and his offering was spoken well of in scripture. We'll get to all that, God willing. And the same thing with Enoch. As he walked with God, he's commended in the pages of scripture concerning his faith and what he did, and Noah's activities in building the ark, his faith and his obedience to God, is commended in the pages of scripture and on and on. All of these examples are spoken well of in the Bible by God. God testifies to them through the authors of scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit. But we have a sense that's just a little bit of a, that's just a tip of the iceberg, don't you? That, I mean, the scripture is a limited book. There's only so much that God could put in. There's a sense that anybody who has lived by faith, God will commend to that person, and that's, I think, why the verse is here, that this isn't just for the ancients and it's just for specifically those people whose stories are recorded in the Bible. We know, like in 1 Chronicles and the Genealogy, there's a lot of people, we don't have anything of their stories at all. But if any of those lived by faith, the sense from this verse is that God commended them. And so, I have a sense of the heavenly council, you know, the angels and the elders and the four living creatures. And having God say something like he did concerning Job, "Have you considered my servant, Job?" To have God speak well of you, a commendation from God, to have God praise you, I want to talk more about this when we get to verse 6 because I think this is the reward part of it, but that God would praise your activities. He would praise your actions. I think about what we learned on Wednesday night in the Gospel of John. We're studying there in John 12, and we find in verse 26 an astonishing statement that Jesus makes. You know, in verse 24 he says, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." And then, he says, "If you love your life in this world, you lose it, but if you lose it, you'll save it." And then, he says, "Wherever I go, there my servant must be." And then, he says this: "My father will honor the one who serves me." That just still brings goosebumps to me. I mean, to think about the Father, the God and Father of Jesus Christ honoring a human being, speaking highly of them, praising that person, it's commendation, you should want it. You should yearn for that commendation. I tell you, you should live for it. It should be the organizing principle of your life. I'll say more about that in due time, but I just think this is something worth living for. Don't you? That God would be pleased with you, that he would commend you, that your works would be satisfying to him? And that's the commendation that's listed here. And on what basis were these ancients commended? Well, it's not because of their courage, it's not because of their beauty and not because of their strength, their leadership, their winsome personalities, their financial skill or acuity or business acumen, it's not because of any of those attributes that might, we might even select. Frankly, it's not even mentioned in reference to their love at this point. But on the basis of their faith, they were commended. Now, we need to understand this, that faith is not meritorious, it doesn't deserve anything, but I really look on faith as the conduit by which sinners like us can be praised by God only by faith. And so it says in Romans 14, "Anything that does not come from faith is sin." Conversely, the implication in this verse two is anything that does come by faith is praiseworthy, commendable. You have to have as many of those good works as you possibly can. Your life should be rich and full in good works, commendable actions, flowing from faith. What Is the Significance of their Commendation? And so, what is the significance of Verse 2 for me? Well, first the unity of God's work. What I would mean by that, I mean, in every generation, God's doing the same thing, every single generation, before the flood, after the flood, before Christ, since the time of Christ, in every generation, God always does the same thing. It's always on the basis of faith. And so, therefore, we see a unity also secondly of God's people. We are all the same in this regard even though we live in very different, a very different culture, a different time from those that dwelt in tents and where shepherds, or their wealth was in livestock. We were living in a different culture and yet we are one with them by faith. We are part of an incredible family of faith. And so, across the generations back to the people of old, there's a unity in God's people. We are one through faith in Jesus Christ. And I'm going to develop this much more next week, God willing. But it's always been faith in Christ, always been faith in Christ, not merely faith in God, but it's faith in Christ that justifies. And so, I'm going to make the case that Abel offered his sacrifice in the name of Christ and that Enoch walked with Christ and that Noah built by faith in Christ, and I'm going to make it all based on one statement in Hebrews 11:26 when it says of Moses that he considered reproach for the sake of Christ as greater worth than the treasures of Egypt. And so, it's a Christ focus that we have here. It unifies us. In every generation, God has always been doing the same thing. Abraham was justified by faith in Christ and so are we. And so, it's the same thing in every generation. And so, unity of God and his workings with people, the unity of the people of God, comes out of Verse 2 and therefore a unifying principle for your life. Live for the glory of God. Live to display the glory of God so that when he looks at your catalogue of your works, of your words, of your attitudes of your heart, that he may find his own glory there and may commend you. As it says in Romans 2:7, "But for those who by persistence in doing good, seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life." That's the kind of life that leads to heaven. II. Faith Understands God’s Creation of the Universe (vs. 3) So that's what I get out of Verse 2. Now, for the next two hours, we're going to be looking at Verse 3. That's not true. That's one of those preachers so I shouldn't have said that. I would love to. As a matter of fact, Verse 3 has been jumbling around in my brain now for four weeks, and the jumbling actually increased over the last 72 hours, and then it reached kind of a fever pitch this morning. And so, you're all going to be blessed with my jumbled thoughts today. So I came from working on a sermon this morning. Carolyn asked me, she said, "So, how is the sermon?" I said, "Clear as mud." I think it's clearer now than that, I hope. A number of people have been praying for me because Paul urges that we pray for clarity and I want to pray because the themes that flow out of Verse 3 are... Oh, they just don't stop in my brain. I've been thinking about, for example, faith and science for decades. I've been thinking about evolution, thinking about all these things. It just flows and flows and flows. It just never seem to stop. So for me, the answer is get back to the text, get back to what Verse 3 says. Stick to that first and foremost, and then go as far as time will, reasonable time will allow to talk about the implications of it. All right. So, what are we talking about in Verse 3? Well, you just look at it. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible. That's what it says. So the topic has to do with the origin of the universe. That's what we're dealing with here. The Greek word "universe," translate universe and some of the translations, is eons. It has a sense of just levels of existence, generations, physical realms. So we generally think of everything that was created, everything that was made, eons. So we're talking about... I think it's a good translation of the universe. And so, the origin of the universe is in front of us in Verse 3, and specifically, the assertions made positively, "By faith, we understand" the origin of the universe. We understand that the universe was formed at God's command, positively it says that, negatively so that what is seen is not made out of what was visible. So there's a positive assertion made and a negative assertion, and it gives us a sense of what we Christians should think of in terms of origins. And so what does faith understand, based on this? So I'm going to give you eight things that flow from this. Five of them come right up off the words, three more come more generally from the book of Hebrews or maybe the New Testament in general, but I think you'll see it and what do we understand about creation by faith? Well, first thing that I learned from this is the universe is not ultimate it's not eternal. Neither is it independent. The universe was created it is not true based on this verse that the universe has always existed. It didn't. That's the first thing that faith teaches that the universe had a beginning, and a dependent one at that. I'm going to talk more about that in a minute. But secondly, that God created the universe. Here, we're going to be different from the intelligent design folks who will never fly that flag because they want to discuss and debate in academia and get along and they want to get into the public schools, they want to do all that, that's fine, I don't have to do that here. Amen. I'm going to fly my flag. And by faith, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of Jesus Christ made the universe. That's what I believe and that's what faith tells me. By faith, we understand that God and it's in Hebrews, and so this is the God of the Bible, God made it. Thirdly, that God created it with exactness and precision, everything in its proper place. And that comes from the Greek word translated fashioned or formed. It's a beautiful word hard to get across in English, but the idea is that the universe is beautifully finely made. When I consider the Heavens, the work of your fingers, you get a sense of precision and craftsmanship in the universe. I'm going to talk more about what I mean by that. But by faith, we are able to see the precision and the beauty in the order of the universe that God fashioned it or formed it. Fourthly, that God created it by certain means and that is the means of His word. That God used his word to create the universe. He spoke and it came into being, "God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light." This is how Genesis I is recorded for us. "God said, 'Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." "God said, 'Let the waters be gathered to one place and let dry land appear' and it was so.'" God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation, seed-bearing plants" and it was so. God just speaks and speaks and speaks and so the word of his power is what just flowing from this, the word of God's power, it's by that means the physical universe exists. I'll talk more about the significance of that for our faith. But I'm just going through these phases now. This is what faith teaches me, it's by the word of God. And fifthly, we learn from this, that the universe was created or God created the universe out of nothing. So there's a distinction made here between those things that are visible and those things that are invisible and I think ultimately by implication, the distinction between creator and created, there's just a huge gap between the two. And so it is very helpful for us to think of a time when God Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the triune God existed and nothing else existed at all. Nothing. And that is so refreshing and helpful to us, who get so wrapped up in the events of our lives and we forget there was a time that none of this stage on which this drama is unfolding this human history even existed. And I just think it's so helpful for me as a believer, to just kind of center in on God from time to time, and forget everything else. There was a time, there was only God and God created it all out of nothing. That is the central miracle of the Bible, and if you can believe that everything else is child's play, frankly. That God created the heavens and the Earth out of nothing to go from that to Jesus, the Son of God, walking on water, is not a big deal for me. For him raising Lazarus on the dead on the fourth day. That's not a problem for me. I see it his own resurrection. I'm not minimizing these great miracles, I'm just saying for God that created all out of nothing is the central great action on which everything else follows. Alright, let me add three more that don't come directly from the words of verse 3, but are in Hebrews, and I think connected to Verse 3, by implication. Six, the universe in its present form is temporary. Okay, clearly, this is taught in Hebrews, it's not necessarily coming right from verse 3, but it's there. The universe in its present form is temporary, so in Hebrews 1, 10, and following, quoting a Psalm, it says "They will perish, but You remain. They will all wear out like a robe, like a garment, they will be changed, but you remain the same and your years will never end." Remember that's the Father speaking to the son. And so, the universe is temporary, later in chapter 12, we're going to talk about those created things that can be shaken and removed. So the created things are temporary what is unseen is eternal and it's temporary, the universe in its present form is temporary. The next one won't be. Amen. The new Heavens and new Earth will not be temporary, but this one in its present form is. Is that helpful for you to know? I think so. I think so. We are going to be told in this chapter. We're aliens and strangers, passing through, and this adds a temporary universe. We are just passing through, like walking through the hall. Alright, we'll get to all that. But it's like walking through the hall, we are walking through the hall. I'll talk at that time about what we ought and ought not to do while walking through the hall, alright? But the point is, we're here temporarily and it's here temporarily. Seventh, the universe exists for God's glory. To put God on display. That's why it's here. By faith, we understand that. The best, maybe one of the best verses on this is Romans 11-36, "For from him and through him and to him are all things, to Him be glory forever and ever, amen." Is that not a healthy way to live your life? For you to realize, I exist because he spoke me into existence. I'll exist as long as he wants me to exist in this present form and when He takes me back, I'm going back to him to give him an account, and may I live for His glory forever. It's just the best way to think about creation. ‘ And then finally, the universe was created by Christ, for Christ through Christ, it's a Christ-focused universe and we get this right at the very beginning of the book of Hebrews "in the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His son whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word." That's Jesus. The universe, the heavens are telling the glory of Jesus. For me as a Christian, I see that. And so, Colossians 1 tells us that through Christ, all things were made visible and invisible, where the thrones, or powers, or rulers, or authorities, all things that were created by Him and for Him. Now, if you take those eight things and you bring them to the halls of average academia, you're going to get laughed to scorn and I want to talk about why that is and what to do about it. But for us in the family of God, we take these eight things and we say, "This is true, this is what God's word says. I know it's true by faith, it's true and not only that, it shapes the whole way I live my life." Those eight things. Alright, now I want to dig a little deeper and try to get at a complexity here. This is where I hope it doesn't become clear as mud, but a complexity between faith and understanding between faith and what the mind does, what we call the rational process, the thinking process, ultimately science, we'll get to that. But just by faith, we understand that's what the verse says. How does that work? By faith I understand creation, how do I get at that? And the problem becomes deeper when you look at it. I think a parallel text in Romans Chapter 1, verses 20 through 22, "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse," simply put Hebrews 11:3 "By faith, we understand," Romans 1:20, "by creation, we understand that God exists." How do you put that together? It seems to be mutually exclusive it isn't, but harmonizing that, too, has taken up a lot of my mental time over the last few days. How do you put that together? And let me give you my best shot at it here, okay? This is the thing. Our five senses take in the physical world around us, and tell us things about that world. It starts the moment we enter the world, the moment we're born. And so learning by experience happens before learning by God's word, it just does chronologically. You first learn by experience and then you learn language, and then you learn the Word and then it comes in. That's the order naturally. Okay, so the first thing that happens is your five senses tell you, your sight, your sound, your taste, all of the five senses tells you about the world that's around you. About the sights, the colors, the sounds, the sensations, the taste, the aromas, the... The world is flooding and it's just amazing, isn't it? Marvelous to watch little ones grow and see their eyes just be filled with creation and kind of experience it again, through that. And this is the joy of parenting, one of the many. But just seeing them grow and develop, and then be able to bring scripture in and be able to teach them about God from that. But here's the deal, I think, for all human beings, creation, the five sense world strews a bunch of information out on a table. Willy-nilly. Just, right there. And it's up to us to make some sense of it, to put it together in what's known as a world view, something that's going to harmonize all that and make sense. And only by faith can you do it well. If you don't have faith, you're going to take all of those raw ingredients and you're going to make a monster like Frankenstein's monster you're going to make a monstrosity a horror out of it. And we heard that at the beginning of the sermon. That's what you'll make of it, it's awful, but by faith, we can understand how to assemble it all and you know what's going to flow out of that healthy assemblage? Praise to God Almighty, you're going to worship Him, you're going to glorify Him, you're going to see the wonders of the universe you're going to see the incredible things that God's built in to the universe, we'll talk about some of those in a minute, but you're going to see it and it's going to make you praise God. And then after that happens where you're still filled with that, please don't go to infidel.com and find out how they deconstruct all of your excitement about evidence, because it's so depressing. So depressing. See, but now, some of you are going to do it, infidel.com. That's like a... Yeah. What did he do with Lee Strobel's book? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. The fact is that evidence is there Bible tells us it is evidence that God exists. Psalm 19, we've already quoted, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge." So you go out and you look at the starry host, and it just is telling you of God. God is flowing in, and do you see that? Yes, if you have faith, yes. If not, it's just more raw material and you're going to make a monstrosity out of it. But by faith, we see that Psalm 104 is just the whole Psalm just celebrates the glories of God and physical creation and how he waters the upper hills and how He provides food for all of his creatures the rock badgers, the Coney and all that, and how God has an arrangement for the lions and how they go out at night and the men work during the day and they go out in the sea that ships and then the leviathan plays there, it's just this beautiful Psalm of all that God has made. Oh, how majestic and beautiful it all is. III. Understanding Creation And so, I looked at two books in particular, it helped me understand all of this, and the data, the evidence, the evidence for God, it's in the area of the realm of Christian study known as apologetics. So, I've often wondered what is the use of apologetics? Do people actually genuinely come to faith in Christ, when you give them Tim Keller's book, The Reason For God, or Lee Strobel's, The case for the creator, they do, God does that, but we know that faith ultimately comes by hearing God's Word doesn't it? By hearing the Gospel. So what do we do with evidence-based apologetics what would we do with the evidence of God and creation? What kind of evidence is there? Well, there's different categories of evidence. The first is just the existence of the universe itself. The question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" And there's just a lot of something, isn't there? There's just an awful lot of something. And so why, why is it there? Why is there something rather than nothing? And science has helped to some degree, in this regard, because astronomers have taught us that the universe is expanding and the further away it is the faster it's going. Hubble saw that through the telescope. Einstein's theories help explain some of that. And so, basically, Stephen Hawking said there's almost no scientists today that doesn't believe in the origin of the universe, there was a time that many would just say the universe is all there ever has been or ever will be, and it's eternal. And so basically the universe... Well, I'll get to that in a minute, but there are views that the universe itself is eternal, but scientists don't even believe that anymore. They talk about the big bang, they just kind of rewind the film and they go back and they say, "Alright, there was this moment when everything in the universe was in this infinite thusly small space and nothing else." I mean, that was it. And then you go, I go, I always go, "Back before that and there's God." Okay? So it helps to ask the question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" And look at origins. But secondly, Lee Strobel, and Tim Keller both talk about what's known as the finely tuned universe. What do we mean by the fine-tuned universe? Well, it has to do with physics and it has to do with physical constants that define physics. Constants are just numbers that help physicists do their work and they're just coming from nature to the physicist mind and they just... And everybody agrees that's what it is. For example, there are 15 major ones, like the strong nuclear force and speed of light and universal gravitational constant. And various things like that. This is that clear as mud part. Okay, but let's take for example the universal gravitational constant, it has to do with two massive bodies and their attraction to each other. There's this big G, and the point is it is exactly what it needs to be for life to exist. That's the point. How accurate is it? Let me try to describe it. Alright, I... Never mind. So imagine the universe, this huge big universe, and I'm trying to give you a sense of the number how precise the number has to be. Imagine a... Well, it wouldn't be a yard stick, but a ruler. From one end of the universe to the other, that's how long this ruler is, 15 billion light years across and it's divided up into inches. [chuckle] Inches. Somewhere on there, is the number that is the universal gravitational constant. If you move it one inch to the left or the right, you can't have life. It's exactly where it has to be. And that's not the only one that's just like that. So also the rate of expansion of the universe is the same thing. I mean, they use these outlandish examples to show how precise this whole thing is, so that nobody even doubts it. Everybody says "Alright, they take these 15 constants. They all have to be within a trillion trillion trillion part accurate and all of them are that accurate, and that's how you have life." Huh, I think there's probably a creator, amen. You know what some people are doing with that? I'll get to that, I won't do it yet, we'll get there. Or how about information in the DNA molecule? I'm not talking about the DNA molecule, I'm talking about the information. What do I mean by that? You remember a few years ago when Coca-Cola changed their recipe and they went to some new flavor, how long did that last? Is that like three weeks? I don't know, I mean it was just like, "Whoa, what is this?" And then it's like, "Okay, we're losing market share, huge, we're hemorrhaging it". So they went to Coke Classic and it's been back that way, ever since. Alright, well, there is some secret top-secret recipe for Coca-Cola alright? It's a recipe. Well, there's a recipe for everything. There's a recipe for a butterfly's wing, there's a recipe for the eyeball there's a recipe for the fragrance of a rose. There's a recipe, and it's in the DNA molecule, and again if you re-arrange one step of that sequence in that, you don't get the rose's fragrance, you don't get the bird wing, you don't get that stuff. It's got to be exactly that or you don't get all this complexity, that's information. Where did it come from? And it's ridiculous to say, "Well there are certain physical laws that make it... That make the molecule bind together," and I say, "Look, that has nothing to do with the information, information floats above the medium, doesn't it?" Let's take the newspaper for example, newspaper has ink on it, right? And there are physical laws by which the ink binds to the newspaper, but we don't read the newspaper for that. We try to find out what it's saying, like World War II is over the Germans have surrendered it's there's information that floats above the medium. And I don't really, I'm not really that interested in May of 1945, about how it is that ink adheres to the paper. I'm fascinated by the fact the war is over. So, there's information. Where did it come from? Came from God, I think. Alright, now these are just some of the evidences. There are many many others. Believers love it, it causes me to worship, it causes me to praise God. Unbelievers shred it if they can or shrug it off. They try to find arguments. Like the first one, they just say, "Alright you believe in God, I just believe in the universe." I mean, you say God's mighty and big and wonderful and amazing and mysterious. I just say all that about the universe. You say that everything had to have a creator, well why didn't God have to have a creator? Whatever argument you give for God, I give it to the universe, that's what they do, it's the games they play. Or on the finally tuned universe, this is really funny. You know what they... Some of them are saying that there are actually infinite numbers of universes, going on and we happen to be in the one that allows life. I love that one, that's one of my favorites. It's called the multiverse theory. There's zero scientific evidence for it, but imagine, let's, I just don't think we can live this way. I don't think we can live life like that way. I mean think about the old scene back in Wild West when there's a bunch of grungy gun fighter guys playing poker, and the dealer deals himself 20 consecutive four ACE hands 20 consecutive times, he got four aces all right. I don't think they make it to 20, but let's just, for the sake of my ridiculous illustration. All right, the 20th one, the other three are really upset with this guy, and they start to pull out their six shooters. All right. He said, "Now, wait a minute. Could it be that we're living in, just the one universe where actually I did honestly deal to myself 20 consecutive winning hands?" I think he's dead within four seconds. What do you think maybe two? We don't live life like that. It's not realistic and it sure isn't science. Science deals with what you can measure. What you can observe about theories about postulates and things you can test, you can't test multiverse. Bottom line is there's an amazing, incredible creator and He's revealed to us in Jesus Christ, in the scripture. But here's the fundamental thing, this is what unbelievers will do, and it's what they'll keep on doing, and it's what they're going to continue doing. I mean we talked about it on Wednesday night with Lazarus, what happened with Lazarus? God... Jesus raised him from the dead, he is walking, evidence of the deity of Christ. Oh, the unbelievers all want to get to know him so they can become believers in Jesus right? No, they want to kill him, too. They want to kill the evidence and so that's what they try to do, they try to kill the evidence. Well, in my opinion, the number one evidence-killer there is, is atheistic evolution. It's the naturalistic explanation for everything. We don't need a God of the gaps, a God to step into the place we don't understand. Give science enough time and we'll have a natural explanation for everything. And so, what Darwin gave to the unbelievers, of the world, a intellectually creditable kind of explanation of how random mutations and natural selection can explain everything we see around us which I find just amazing. I don't know how it can... I've often wondered and no one has a good answer to this. Where did the first living cell come from? You have a bunch of chemicals, bunch of chemicals, nothing's alive, nothing's alive. Then, first cell. And it has a cell wall, and it has DNA to pass on its recipe to its child, and it can eat and it can excrete and it can breathe and it can do all the stuff you have to do to have life, and it doesn't live long because the cells don't usually, but it just-in-time replicates and then dies. Okay, that's all very interesting. And so, you go from the Big Bang to, galaxy clouds and they coalesce and you get a solar system exactly arranged like it needs to be for life with the earth, just the right distance from the sun and you've got water being a really weird substance that floats when it becomes a solid just amazing weird stuff about water. And out of all of this comes and then you suddenly have your first cell. Well we're a long way from a human being friends, an awfully long way, step by step by step. I wrote out the journey here, I can't remember it. I'll just read it for you. You go from non-living chemicals to amino acids from amino acids to proteins, from proteins to RNA, RNA to DNA, DNA to the single celled organism, that's the first living thing, single celled organisms to multi-celled organisms in which they are sharing functions, multi-celled organisms to invertebrate marine life, invertebrate marine life to vertebrate marine life, vertebrates to amphibious animals, amphibious animals to reptiles, reptiles to mammals, mammals to primates, primates to the human race. Every single step, the jump is just incalculable in complexity, what I call the inverted house of cards in a wind storm. And the wind storm is whether it's law of entropy, second law thermodynamics, all the stuff, breaking stuff down all the time but it's getting more and more complex all the time. If you can believe that. Oh, how do I finish the sentence? But it's the only other alternative there is, evolution and creation are the two answers for how we got here. There isn't a third and so you gotta have this or you're going to have the other and they dread the other. And I want to ask... All right, if this has been going on for millions and billions of years where are all the fossils? I mean, this is a continual development, right? A continual development, instead the fossil shows snapshots of creatures, some of which still exist and some of which don't that appear in the fossil record fully formed. I want to know where is 99% of a coelacanth or 90% of one? Where is the development? There aren't any, they just pop up there they are, it's creepy-looking old. You've seen him at the Museum of Natural Sciences. They look like hermit crabs, Right? But they've got articulated arms, they've got eyes, they've got all this... Where did all that come from? I can't make a coelacanth and neither can you. They're out of nowhere. Why doesn't the fossil record show this constant development? You know what I think? I think that evolution is a religion, I think it takes faith and as some humorous once put it, evolution is the assurance that fossils hope for and the conviction of transitional forms not seen. And they keep waiting for it to come at some point, it's going to come. Darwin said the fossil record didn't show it, Charles Lyell, who came up with the column, the geological column, he said, "I don't believe in natural selection because the fossil record doesn't show it." Well in the next 150 years, we'll find them. Haven't found them and friends, we should be tripping over them, we shouldn't be able to be able to drive home because there's so many of them around. It's been billions of years after all. And thirdly, what Michael Behe has given us, irreducible complexity. I'll put it this way, in common language, what good is 28% of a wing? And it needs to be good or natural selection doesn't work, it's got to be an advantage to the species or it will get selected out and not only that, 29% has to be a little bit more of an advantage than 28% and 30% a little bit more. And then eventually you get a wing that actually works after 10 million years, doesn't make any sense, friends. And yet in the halls of academia, whether at Duke, UNC at MIT, at different places we are brow beaten and we are intimidated and afraid to speak up because of the emperor's new clothes, you won't get societal recognition, you won't get research dollars because you won't sing from their piece of sheet music and you know what this guy in infidel.com did with all of the experts, with Lee Strobel, interviewed their PhDs, whatever, he would either say yes but they're not PhDs in the field they're discussing, or he would say in Michael Behe's case, yes, but it's not the majority view of the field. Dismiss, dismiss, dismiss. All right, why is all this happening? Because God wills it. And let me tell you, this is very important, you need to understand what I'm saying here. God has not willed that it be logically inescapable that He exists, He has given the unbeliever a window to crawl out of if he wants to. He just wills to do it in that way. But what he has told us is in Romans I, it is morally inexcusable for them not to believe in God, they will have no excuse on judgment day, none. Not logically inescapable. But, morally inexcusable. And God wills it, that way specifically when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God." Now, take the word wisdom out and put the word science in there. Okay. For since in the wisdom of God, the world through science did not know Him and can't know Him. And so what that verse is saying, is it was wise for God to make it impossible for science to find him, it was wise why? Because he didn't want us boasting in heaven about our intellectual process by which we reasoned out his existence instead he made us dependent on faith that he alone can give and if He doesn't give it to you, you will not believe these things. It's a gift of God. "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached, to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but 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, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser. The man's wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." And so I am the sermon by preaching the cross of Jesus Christ. All Faith is not ultimately directed toward the universe and all that, it's directed toward the cross of Jesus and God sent his son into the world and He died on the cross. What looks foolish to man, but what is beautiful to the believer, Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus is God's righteousness, His wisdom, His power, and if you confess His name, if you believe that God sent Him that He died on the cross for your sins and that God raised Him up on the third day you will be saved. Live for that. Live for commending the God who did all of these things. It's worth a life worth living. Close with me in prayer.
The Court of the King – Access Needed So, I can scarcely imagine at this moment, this incredible moment of redemptive history, recorded for us in the biblical book of Esther, Queen Esther standing outside the throne room of her husband King Xerxes, the most powerful man on earth. What it must have been like to be there, to see her? Perhaps her heart rate elevated, short of breath as she's just about to walk into the throne room of this, the most powerful man on earth, her husband, yes. But still the most powerful man on earth, the emperor of Persia, 127 provinces stretching from east to west, sitting on an exalted throne reflective of his great power surrounded by dozens of counselors doing the business of the empire, surrounded by many soldiers who would at any moment been willing to lay down their lives for the Emperor or to take life if he commanded it as well. And the circumstances that had driven Esther to take her very life into her hands are recorded in the pages of that book. You remember how the king had been duped, had been tricked into issuing an edict amounting to the genocide, the annihilation of the Jewish people. And how Esther had been approached, persuaded to go into the throne room of the king and beg for the lives of her people. But there was a problem and she said in Esther 4:11, "All the kings officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned by the king, the king has but one law: That he be put to death. The only exception to this, is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king." Esther though with incredible boldness, incredible courage was willing to risk her life, and go in and speak to her husband on behalf of her people, to go uninvited into the throne room of the King of Persia. And she said, "If I perish, I perish." A great moment of courage. And so with that boldness, she walked uninvited into the throne room of King Xerxes, the king saw her. And says in Esther 5:2-3 "When he saw a Queen Esther, standing in the court, he was pleased with her. And he held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. Then the king asked, 'What is it Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half of my kingdom, it will be given to you.'" Friends, this amazing story from the Old Testament is a picture of a bold access into a throne room of power, the golden scepter extended to her as a picture of a welcome of grace into that throne room and an invitation that she should make her request known to the king. Amazingly, I find this a picture of what's extended to us in Hebrews 4:16, a picture of the grace that flows like a vast river into our lives from the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with confidence. So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Now, my goal in this sermon is to give you a sense of the immense privilege that Jesus is won for us, pictured by Queen Esther's approach to her husband King Xerxes as he sat on the throne. Access, however to the throne room of Almighty God, not merely that of a temporary earthly potent-y who would some day die. Access granted continually to that throne room, not just on one particular occasion. Whenever is our time of need. An access that actually comes with a command that we should do so that we should approach. A command to draw near to the throne of God. An access that is paid for and granted to us not merely by the extension of a golden scepter, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ shed for us on the cross. I want to unfold therefore Hebrews 4:14-16, because I just want you to pray more. I want you to saturate your lives in prayer, I want you to pray and pray and pray. I want you to pray without ceasing because I'm going to make a case this morning, that there is no such time as a time that's not a time of need. Every moment is a time of need. And so we have this invitation to come right into the throne room of grace. I. First... A Word About Faith Now before I do that, I want to speak briefly a word about faith. A word about faith, faith is the eyesight of the soul, that enables us to see invisible spiritual realities. The Word of God is the food of faith. It opens your eyes to this vast spiritual world that we would not see if God didn't grant us the gift of faith. The basic building blocks of this passage can only be perceived by faith, Almighty God, the Holy One seated on His throne, Jesus the Son of God, our great High Priest, ourselves as sinners in need of grace, as children of God, who are welcome in His presence, our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, our situation, that naturally we were separated from God because of our sins, with an infinite gap between us and the Holy One, Jesus the Son of God has worked for us, a great salvation on the cross. By faith, now we are children of God, the completely forgiven of our sins, but we are in immense danger. Jesus, our great high priest, has gone through the heavens and is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us. We must hold fast to our confession of faith, we must hold fast and this we cannot do without an ongoing supply of grace. Every moment as I said a moment ago, is a time of need. We must see our great need, and our great privilege. In order to hold fast, we must draw near to the throne of grace. Now, this is the basic spiritual lay of the land. This is what is true invisibly and spiritually and we cannot perceive it except by faith. So, my desire is to strengthen your faith. I'm not going to urge you to go on a pilgrimage. There's no physical place on Earth, more holy than another. The throne room of grace is an invisible spiritual reality. And so I'm going to urge you to be strong in faith and believe and step into that throne room of a grace. Now, I want to talk about greatness and I'm going to just lay out this passage with three senses of the greatness of the issues here. I want to talk about Jesus, our great High Priest, I want to talk about the greatness of our need, and I want to talk about the greatness of the privilege that Jesus is one for us. So the word great, is going to appear a lot in this sermon, because these are great issues. These are immense issues. II. The Greatness of Our High Priest Jesus So I want to begin by talking about the greatness of our High Priest, Jesus. Now, what do we mean by High Priest? Well a priest is an intermediary between God and man. The first time that a priest is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 14:18, "Then Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High." That's the first time the word priest appears in the Bible. Now we're going to get to know Melchizedek very well when we get to Hebrew 7. We're going to talk much about him. Now, the Book of Hebrews summarizes the calling of a priest plainly in the very next verse, that we're going to study God willing, next week, Hebrews 5:1, "Every priest is selected from among men, and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, and to offer gifts and sacrifices." Now in the Old Covenant Aaron, the brother of Moses, was chosen as the first high priest. And then his sons, his descendants after him, took that office in the Old Covenant. High Priest, represented the people before God and God before the people. Now in Latin the word for priest as "pontifex", which means bridge builder. And I think that gives a good sense of that mediator role of a priest as a go-between, in some way between God and man. For example, Ezekiel the prophet was also a priest and God said to him, in Ezekiel 22:30, "I looked for a man among them who would stand in the gap on behalf of the land, to stand before Me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it, but I found none." So, a priest is one who is qualified by God to stand in the gap. Now, the gap gives a sense of a breach like a tear in cloth or a breach in the wall. That's what the Hebrew word means, there in Ezekiel 22:30, there is a breach or a gap. Well, between what and what? Well, I think it's pretty clear, between God and man, between a Holy God and sinful human beings, and that gap, that breach is wider than the Grand Canyon, is wider than the gap between us and and the edge of the Milky Way or the edge of the universe. It's an infinite gap because of the infinite holiness of God, and a priest, then stands in the gap between a Holy God and sinful man, and seeks to build a bridge. How is Jesus a High Priest? Now how then is Jesus a High Priest? Friends, we're not going to plumb the depths of that this morning. We have actually six chapters to study that theme. Hebrews 5-10, just meditates on and on about the greatness of Jesus's ministry as High Priest. So I don't need to go into any great detail, but very soon we're going to be looking at these profound concepts from Psalm 110 in Verse 4, "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek." Simply put, then Jesus is a High Priest because He represents us sinners to God by offering His blood, as a perfect sacrifice, and praying for us based on that blood and He represents God to us sinners by displaying the perfect image of God. And by teaching us the very words of God, Jesus is the Great High Priest. Now, what is the greatness of Jesus as our High Priest? Well, we've already seen in many respects, the greatness of Jesus Christ, right from the very beginning of the book, Jesus is greater than all the prophets in the past, God spoke through all the prophets. But in these last days, He's spoken to us by His son Jesus is God's final Word to the human race, Jesus is greater than all the prophets. In that same chapter, and then on into chapter 2, we saw that Jesus is greater than all the angels. They are merely servants, they are merely winds and flames of fire. But Jesus is the Son of God. And then again in Hebrews 3, Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, but Jesus is faithful as a Son over God's house. And so Jesus is greater than Moses. And we saw that Jesus in Hebrews 4 is greater than Joshua in that, the promised land He brings us to, is a greater promised land. The rest of God, that perfect final Sabbath rest, is heaven, it's eternal not a temporary lodging in an earthly Promised Land, but rather the eternal lodging in heaven, and so Jesus is greater than Joshua. And now from Hebrews 5 through 7, we're going to be comparing Jesus to Aron and we're going to find that Jesus is a greater high priest than Aaron. The greatness of Jesus as our High Priest. Why is Jesus Such a Great High Priest? Well, why is He great? Why is Jesus greater? 1) Great in His Person Well, first and foremost Jesus is greater because of his person-hood. Just who He is even before He became our High Priest. In Hebrews 4:14, it says, "We have a great High Priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." Jesus is a great high priest because He is great in and of Himself. Now, there are some times men who fill great offices, but they're not great men. Significant offices, great offices of leadership worthy of great honor because God ordains that office, but they're not great men. And we see this again and again in the Bible, kings are to be held in honor, because they're kings with their wicked people. But Jesus is great in and of Himself. He is the Son of God, or God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. And it says in Hebrews 1:3, "The Son 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 sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." Jesus is our great high priest, because he's the Son of God, because of the greatness that He has in and of Himself. And since Jesus is the Son of God, He has a special in with His Father, the judge of all the earth. The Father loves the Son. He delights in the Son. Think about the Mount of Transfiguration, and Jesus is up there with Peter and James, and John, and His face and His clothes, and His whole being is transformed before them and He becomes radiant, bright shining with light. His heavenly glory, for a brief moment, partially restored to Him. And then a bright cloud envelops them all there on that mountain. And a voice from the cloud says, "This is My Son whom I love, with Him I am well pleased." Aren't you glad Jesus is your Great High Priest? Aren't you glad that that's the love that the Father has for our Intercessor? He is great, because He is the Son of God. 2) Great in His Journey Also in the text, He is great because of the journey He traveled, because of the journey He travelled. Look at verse 14, again, "Therefore since we have a great High Priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God." It's an incredible thing. In the old covenant, the ironic priest took the blood of the animal from the sacrifices that were done in the holy place and carried them and brought them into the most holy place, or the Holy of Holies. But I tell you that Jesus went on an infinitely greater journey to bring His blood before Almighty God. It says he passed through, or moved through, or went through the heavens themselves. He went right through the heavens to the other side. Well this bends even breaks my mind. This is where your circuit breakers start to trip. Jesus has gone through the heavens. Friends, the heavens are a created realm. In the beginning, God created them. But our God is infinitely above any created realm, and so the Scripture repeatedly presents God as above the heavens. So it says in Psalm 8, and verse 1, "Oh Lord, our Lord, How majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens." Or again, in Psalm 57:5, "Be exalted, Oh God above the heavens, let Your glory be over all the Earth." So Jesus goes through all created realms visible and invisible to a place that only He as God could go. The place where the Creator where Almighty God is and there He presents His blood. So, Jesus is great because of this infinite journey, he has traveled. And so Hebrews picks up on this, again, in Chapter 7:26, "Such a High Priest meets our needs, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens." There our great High priest, exists with His Heavenly Father. And He has offered his own blood for us right before the throne of Almighty God. 3) Great in His Sympathy Toward Us as Sinners Thirdly, Jesus is great in his sympathy toward us as sinners. He is a great High Priest because He's great in sympathy. Look at verse 15, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin." This is one of the most incredible themes in this passage may be in the whole Bible. Jesus the perfectly holy one is perfectly sympathetic to us as sinners. He sympathize with us, even us sinners. The Greek word is literally sympatheia, from which we get the English word. It means to feel with, to link my feelings, my passions with someone else, very related to the word compassion. They're completely related. And so the idea of sympathy or compassion is a union of one person's heart with another. We're supposed to do that when we rejoice with those who rejoice in one with those who mourn. We have genuine compassion for each other. Jesus has a genuine compassion to Himself, in Himself, with us sinners. And specifically with people who feel that they are sinners that they need His ministry as a great High Priest. And what's interesting, how Jesus here uses a double negative, as if to strengthen the assurance in our minds. We ought to be strongly motivated to come to Jesus as our Great High Priest, because listen, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize. The word unable shows a limitation on Jesus, a limitation, that would be on Jesus's character. It would be a limitation on him as a high priest. But He doesn't suffer from this limitation. Like, when some people thinking they're being humble, say that God is too busy, spinning the planets, to look after my little needs. They don't realize, by this false humility they're really limiting God. We serve a God who is unable to both spin the planets and look after your little needs, so therefore, we'll let him spin the planets and you look after your own little needs. No friends. We serve a God who can do both, he can spin the planets and He can look after your little needs. And so, it's a dishonor to God to say that kind of thing. So it would be a dishonor to Jesus to say, he's unable to sympathize with you. That he doesn't know what it feels like to go through what you're going through. It's a dishonor. And so the author uses this double negative to jar yourself out of thinking that you have a high priest who doesn't know what it feels like what you're going through right now. Jesus is actually infinitely great in his sympathies toward us as sinners, he is moved deeply with compassion toward us, as we struggle with the effects of our own sins, and those of others to us. Deeply sympathetic. Jesus watches us struggle with temptations linked to our flesh and as He does that, He knows exactly what it's like to be tempted. He is mild and gentle, and faithful as a loving priest who will welcome us warmly into the throne room of grace. He's not standing like a guard at the door saying, you're not getting in here. But he is warmly welcoming you into this throne room of grace. He is moved with compassion for us. As Xerxes was moved with love for his wife, Esther, as she stood there in her beautiful queenly robes. And he loved her, and he extended his golden scepter to her, just right from his heart, flowed right through him and he loved her. But his love for Esther is just nothing compared to the love that Jesus has for his bride, the church. He loves his church and he's moved with love for her and extends a warm welcome to her, to come any time. 4) Great in His Temptations And why is He so moved with compassion because Jesus is fourthly, great in his temptations. He is great, he was great, in his temptations in his time on earth, Hebrews 4:14, "for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin." Jesus 's compassion for us and our temptations and trials is certainly linked to his incarnation. He took on flesh and blood so that he could sympathize, so that he could experience those same things that we do. He shared our flesh and blood. He lived a life in the flesh, he felt its pulls, its desires, its weaknesses, its afflictions. He knows by experience what it is to be hungry. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and was tempted in the desert. He knows by experience what it is to be poor, he said, "The Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Women were supporting him out of their means, He and his disciples are walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath, plucking them and eating them like all the other poor people. Jesus knows what it's like to be poor, he knows by experience what it's like to be weary to the bone. Fell asleep in the back of a boat on a cushion in the middle of this storm and had to be awakened. He was exhausted. He knows by experience what it's like to be rejected by people who ought to love Him, but instead hate him. Who twist up their faces in anger, he had to look at that for three years. And He saw the hatred in them, and He knew that they wanted to kill him. He knows by experience what it's like to be hated and rejected and despised, and He knows what it's like to feel physical pain, and death. He's been through all these experiences. He knows what that's like. He's been tempted in every way. Just as we are. Now here friends I tell you, we come to infinite mystery, and this is a mystery to me, and it ought to be a mystery to you too. Meditate on this with me. Our temptations are not merely linked to our bodily nature, our physical drives, but also linked to our sin nature which we inherited from Adam. We were born sinners in Adam with a tendency to rebel against God and then we rebelled against God and in so doing, we built up habits of sin. That form a strong pull on us, and make it very difficult for us to live upright, lives. We develop addictive habits of sin, of lusts and jealousies and pride and overeating and other things, addictive habits, just by transgression. And so James describes our temptations in this way, in James 1:14-15. "Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed, to then after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death." Friends, these words cannot be ascribed to Jesus. He had nothing inside Him dragging him away from the Father. He had no habits of sin that he had to battle all of his life. How then can we say that Jesus's temptations were real temptations. How were they not like the pull of a magnet on a block of wood and that there was nothing inside Jesus, responding to the temptation. My answer to you is, I have no idea. It's good for a theologian and a pastor, to know his limitations. I have no idea, I just know the text says that He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. I know that. I know He had no habits of sin to battle against but I think it was a real battle, he was fighting in Gethsemane, when he was deciding what to do. Isn't the evidence there that that was a battle for him, to obey his father? It was real temptation. And so the bottom line is, Jesus is a great high priest for us because he is so compassionate on us in our weakness and our temptations and because he's experienced it all himself, no not every single temptation there's some temptations that He never has to go through. He never has to tell a second lie to cover the first lie. But I think what the author means here is he understands all the categories of struggles, we have in our lives, because he went through them too. But in all of Jesus ' temptation, I hope you notice there's a key difference as well. He was tempted in every way, just as we are, but there's a big difference. He never sinned, He never gave in, not once. 5) Great in His Holiness And therefore He is great in his holiness. We have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin, Jesus never sinned. It's just, it boggles my mind to consider 30 plus years of life in this earth. Tempted every day and never once sinned in any way. And this makes him a perfect high priest for us. It qualifies him to be our high priest because he was perfectly holy in every way. And therefore He was acceptable to God. And if you go back in your mind to Hebrew 7:26, again, such a high priest meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners exalted above the heavens. Jesus, I contend, I've said this in this pulpit before, and I say it again now, is the most tempted man in history. More tempted than any of you have ever been. You know why, because he ran all of his temptations into the ground. Jesus and his temptation without a foot raised, Jesus won. Temptation drops in exhaustion, Jesus is still strong. He wrestled all of his temptations to the ground and stood in triumph over every one of them, he felt every temptation to the maximum level, and defeated everyone. We sinners, cave in at some point. And you know it's true. Take for example a man with a temper. He's got a problem with anger, gets up resolves in the Lord that he's not going to get angry once that day. Says it out loud and Satan says, "Okay, now we know what we're working on today." Okay? And so he goes to breakfast, and his wife may say something that he doesn't like, but he's not going to get angry today, so yeah, but there's a little heat that's rising. Some memories. You know what I'm saying? Some things, but nothing comes out. Kids may do something etcetera. This is not autobiographical. I hope you know that. You understand that. I'm not speaking auto-biographical, but these experiences happen. He goes to work, his boss criticizes him at a conference in front of other people, and he's embarrassed by that and tempted to do a lash back but he doesn't, for good reason. And on his way home, there's some incidents with another driver who's in a bit more of a rush than him, and who honks at him and makes a gesture and is, but I'm not going to get angry today. Yeah, but he's close, isn't he? I mean, he's like ripe fruit, ready to drop. And so he comes home and I don't know what it is, but there is that straw that breaks the camel's back, you know what I'm talking about? And so the camel's back breaks, and he lashes out. He congratulates himself, that he made it that far in the day. Friends, look, he cut out at 62% of the temptation, he didn't feel the whole thing, there were still more Satan could have done. There was more things that could have come, he just cut out he kicked out. Pushed the red eject button, the canopy went and he went out of the flaming jet. He's out, he's done Jesus never did it. He felt every single temptation right to the end, 100%. 30 plus years he took on those temptations one at a time, like Samson with the jawbone of a donkey until all of those Philistines were laying dead at his feet. That's Jesus our perfect High Priest and therefore He is qualified to be our high priest. See then dear friends, the greatness of our high priest, great in his person as the son of God. Great in his journey through the heavens to the right-hand of God. Great in his sympathy toward us as sinners, great in his experience of temptation and great in his personal holiness. We have a great high priest. But we are also great in our need. III. The Greatness of Our Need Look at the greatness of our need, and look at verse 16, it says, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Verse 16 speaks very clearly of us as needy people. It uses the word help so that we can find help. We can find grace, to help. The Word which we could say assistance to gain assistance implies we can't make it on our own. The Greek word was a nautical term it's used during the shipwreck of Paul's ship in Acts 27, of the cables that are passed under the hull of the ship to keep it from falling apart. And so the idea is that the hull is going to fall apart if it doesn't receive the help of these cables and so it is with us, we need help, Amen. We need help. We're going to fall apart if we don't have help, we can't make it on our own. What cursed independence, we have. And how we express that in prayerlessness. We don't need to pray because we're fine on our own. Really, we need help. We are greatly in need of help, And it says to receive help in time of need, the image, there is of timely help, help that comes just when you need it. Like Calvary, over the hill. And the horses come just at that moment. And the text also speaks of our weakness in verse 15, "We do not have a high priest who was unable to sympathize with our weaknesses." These weaknesses are moral infirmities. We are feeble as we battle temptation. We're not strong, we're not Samson's, we're like little children we're weak and sick as we try to battle. The whole context, I think, of Hebrews 4:14-16 is one of the temptation. These Jewish professors of faith in Christ, were being tempted to turn their back on Jesus because of these external temptations and they were, they were dropping like flies. And so the author is saying, don't drop run to Jesus when you're being tempted. Don't fight on your own, it's too strong for you. You need help, you're weak. And why is that? Well, we've got an infinite journey ahead of us. We'd speak often of the two infinite journeys. One of those two infinite journeys is that internal journey of personal holiness. We were predestined to be conformed to Jesus, to be just like Jesus in Hebrews... Sorry, in Matthew 5:48. It says, "Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect." We're called then to be perfect like God. Hebrews 12:1 says that we are to throw off everything that hinders in the sin that so easily entangles and run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Christian life then is portrayed not only as a long distance race, but also as a battle like a warfare that we have to fight and these two images come together in 2nd Timothy 4:7, when Paul says, "I fought the good fight, I finished the race." It's a fighting race. And we have these enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil that are just assaulting us all the time and get the image of World War One and no man's land. You can imagine just barbed wire on the left and barbed wire on the right. The Germans and the allies and there's just... It's like... It's looks like a moon scape nothing living and just artillery fire and all kinds of grenades and machine gun-ness, and you have to run 10 miles along no man's land to make it to the other side. Think, well, that's an overstatement. No, it isn't. Spiritually, that's what you're trying to do here. Every day, lusts and Satan, with his demons, assault us and try to pull us from Jesus every day. If you didn't have great assistance, you would have fallen long time ago. Now, I say to you some of that assistance comes whether you pray for it or not, but this text is telling you to pray for it. To get the help you need as you run this perilous, race. It says, we need mercy, and grace for our time of need. Mercy and grace are almost, in some cases, interchangeable terms hard to distinguish between the two. Some theologians say that mercy is God's goodness to us in times of suffering, when we're hurting. Somebody blind by the road and says, "Have mercy on me son, of David." He's suffering, he's in pain, he's struggling. And then grace is just going right for your sins, the thing that makes you defile before God, it covers your past sins. It helps you not sin in the future, mercy and grace. And that's what you need in this time of need. Our needs are great. IV. The Greatness of Our Privilege: Full Access to the Throne of Grace Thirdly, look at the greatness of our privilege. We have a great high priest and we are greatly needy. Look at the greatness of our privilege. Full access to the throne of grace. We needy sinners, needy sinners. Who are we? We are great sinners friends, one Puritan said our sins are as many as they are great and there are as great as they are many. Our sins are great, like the mountains, not like little ant hills, they're great because God is infinitely Holy. And our sins are many, they're not occasional. King David said, there are as many as the hairs on my head. And so how can it be that sinners like us would actually be welcomed into the throne of grace, how could it be? But look what it says in verse 16, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace." Now, when you think of a throne, don't you think of a place of sovereign power, where a king is seated. He's seated on his throne. And ordinarily for us as sinners, it would be a place of sheer terror. Think of a throne of righteousness where God Almighty, God displays His righteousness, the throne of righteousness. Or think of a throne of justice where God dispenses his justice against those who have violated his transgressions in his laws. Or think of a throne of omnipotence. Where God can do anything He chooses to do and nothing can thwart him and nothing can stop his mighty hand. But for us as sinners these are terrifying concepts. Absolutely terrifying the throne of God. But see the value of what Jesus has done for us. He has transformed it, and made it a throne of Grace. And I'm not going to say it's not a throne of justice, it's not a throne of righteousness, it's not a throne of omnipotence. No, it's a throne of grace. I'm not going to say that, that wouldn't be true. But now God's justice is helping you get saved, God's righteousness is on your side. It is just and righteous for God to forgive you your sins in Jesus. His powers unleashed to get you to Heaven. It's a throne of grace. And all of God's attributes are working together to bring you to your final end in the new Heaven and in the new earth. Friends, the Old Covenant was all about restrictions. We weren't welcome, we were left on the outside. If you weren't a Levite you couldn't come into the holy place. If you weren't a high priest, son of Aaron you couldn't come into the most holy place, or else you would die. But the new covenant is all about access. Amen. It's about a doorway. Jesus is the door of the sheep. It says, in Ephesians 2:18, "For through Him, we [both Jew and Gentile] have access to the Father by one spirit." In Hebrews 10, it says, "Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, open for us through the curtain, that is His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water." Do you not see the great privilege we have here? We have a great privilege, we are invited right into the throne room of Almighty God. God is opening wide the door to his presence and not only that, He is commanding you, a believer in Jesus, He's commanding you to come in. Now, I said in a sermon, years ago, I don't really know the difference between God's commands and His invitations, and His invitations and His commands. Well, command is something. Well, kind of negative and invitation is like to a party. So that's something positive. Friends, are any of God's commands burden, some are negative? No, they're all wonderful. And you are commanded to come to the throne of grace. Or if you like better, you're invited to come to the throne of grace, but you need to come. V. Application #1: Let Us Hold Fast to Our Faith Application number one. Therefore, let us hold fast to our confession of faith. And I want to just start by saying, "Have you made a confession of faith?" I mean you're here today, it's Sunday morning, you're in church, maybe because you're invited or you think you should be in church or something like that, but have you made a profession of faith in Christ? Have you testified that Jesus is your savior? Have you cried out to Jesus to save you from your sins? Have you asked that his blood shed on the cross would be a cleansing river for you? Have you made a profession of faith? The goal of Hebrews is not only that you would make some initial profession of faith in Christ, but you would hold fast to your profession of faith. That you would hold it just as firmly now as the day that you with tears trusted in Jesus and asked Him to be your savior. Hold on to it fast and in order for you to hold fast to your confession, you need to come regularly to the throne of grace. You need to come again and again, you need rivers of grace, you know that throne, that throne of justice and righteousness, and holiness, and power? Do you know that throne in Revelation 22:1, is the source of the river of life flowing clear as crystal from the lamb, from the throne of God, of the lamb? That throne has become for you a river of grace. Stand in that river and let it cleanse you. Come near to the throne of grace. Let us draw near to get help in time of need. VI. Application #2: Let Us Draw Near to Get Help Now I already said at the beginning and now here I say at the end, there are all times of need. There's never a moment which you can say Jesus I got this one, I got it. You can go help somebody who's more needy. I'm doing just fine. Friends you're really in need, then. That's when you're neediest, when you don't think you need Jesus. We need him at every moment, we need him every hour. You need them in the morning when you first get up. That's a time of need, when you first get up in the morning, you get down on your knees and you anticipate your day, you think about what's coming. Maybe you're going to school, you've got a test or you going to have... You're meeting with some other students for a project, maybe you're working at a company, maybe you're raising your kids, you're a mom that's raising her kids, maybe... You know, who knows the situation, but you know what your day holds, you don't know for sure, but you have an idea. Bring those things before God in prayer, say, "God I need your help today. Satan's planning some things. I don't know where he's coming from, I know this, he wants me to sin. So I ask You for grace and mercy to help me in this time of need." Times of temptation are a time of need. I think that's the home base of these three verses. When you're tempted, go. Now for the longest time in my Christian life, I would use these after I've sinned. We'll get to that in a moment, but like a mop and a bucket, you know, to come clean it up. And it is that, friends. But better not to sin, Amen. And so, times of temptation are times of need, when you're being tempted go to the throne of grace, say Jesus I'm being tempted right now, I'm being tempted. This same old lust has hold of my mind, in my imagination and I don't want to sin but I know that I will unless you help me. Will you please help me? This temptation to slander or gossip has come over me, I want to lay this person low but I ought not to do it, it's a bad habit. Help me. The individual earlier, in my sermon, he's struggling with anger. He's going and he is saying, "I just want to... " He needs to bring it and just douse it in the ocean of grace, so he's not heated anymore. Times of temptation are times of need. And so are times of sin. We all sin, we all stumble in many ways. When you have violated your conscience, when you have done what is shameful, when you have experimented again with those things of which you are ashamed. And you think through insanity, it's going to have a different outcome this time than it did the last. And you have been duped, you have been tricked and you have sinned. You need to come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need. What is the time of need? Well, that you'll add a second sin on to the first one and a third on to the second and develop a new habit of wickedness that will be even harder to break later. Nip it in the bag. You sinned, go admit it, confess it, and He is faithful and just and He will forgive you, your wickedness, and He'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Bring it to the throne of grace in times of sin. Times of trial are times of need, God is marshaling trials at you. He's bringing them to you to train you and prepare you and build up your faith. You may be going through an economic trial, you may be unemployed, you may be struggling financially, having trouble making ends meet. It's a trial, the Lord has brought it on you. Bring it to him, he's the one that brought it to you bring it back to him and say, "Lord I need grace to not curse your name or to question your love for me in the trial, I want to stand up and rejoice in this trial." It could be physical, it could be a health problem, a very serious diagnosis of cancer or diabetes or heart disease, for yourself or a loved one. It's a trial. Bring it to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in your time of need, to stand under the trial and to not give in to the temptation to question God or murmur, or to lose your faith. Times of prosperity are times of need. You may not think they are and that's your danger. When you're doing well, you get the promotion, you get accepted to grad school, you get a raise, something good happens it's a time of need. You know what you ought to do, you got to recognize every blessing that ever comes to me comes from... Well, it comes from the throne of grace. I might as well bring it back to the throne of grace and say, thank you Jesus. What do you want me to do now with this blessing? I've got some extra money. How do you want me to invest it in your kingdom? I've got a little bit easing of my circumstances here, I'm healthier now. How do you want... I'm healed. How do you want me to use my strength now for you?" You're bringing it back to the throne of grace, lest you forget that God gave you the blessing, lest you forget to be compassionate to other people who aren't blessed like you, lest you forget to use every blessing for His kingdom and for His glory, lest you forget to thank him simply thank him for the good things he's given you. Times of weariness are times of need. Weary, tired, fatigued, burdened, just bring it to Jesus, say, "Renew my strength, dear Lord." And finally ordinary, boring everyday life-ness, are times of need. I don't know how to call it, just regular life. That makes up 85% of your life, and if it's only these other times then what, you got it on your own these other times? No, when you're sitting behind the wheel and you're about to put it in drive, pray. It's a time of need and he may tell you, you don't need to put it in drive you should put it in reverse. You'll hit that car if you put in drive, that happened to me. I prayed and I put it in drive and the Lord, showed me, you need to be in reverse, right now. What it is, is we think we got it. We don't need any help. When you're making that same meal you've made a hundred times ask Jesus for help. When you're about to sit down and eat that meal, thank him and bring it to him, and say, "Thank you Lord for this food. Help me to eat it to your glory." There is no time, that is not a time of need. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for your mercy, we thank you for your grace, we thank you for the river of life flowing clear as crystal from the throne of grace. And we're drinking from it now, oh Lord, I pray, teach me, teach all of us to pray more than we do. Teach us to pray throughout the day, pray in quiet times, pray while driving, pray right before meeting with somebody, pray in the middle of conversations quietly in our minds, pray when we're tempted, pray when we've sinned. God teach us to pray consistently, not just for ourselves, but for others as we go through this difficult journey, this battle, some quarrelsome way as we're trying to make it to heaven Lord, just help us we pray. Thank you for Jesus, thank you for His death on the cross. In his name we pray, Amen.
Coming Down the Mountain I wonder what it must have been like to watch Moses coming down from the holy mountain with that radiant shining face. This was the awesome, confident, bold leader who had faced down Pharaoh and had boldly commanded him, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, 'Let my people go...'" This Moses, this was the one who had brought awesome and devastating plagues on the whole nation of Egypt. Plagues of blood and frogs and flies, gnats, locust, boils, hail, darkness and death. This Moses. This was the man who had led Israel to the brink of the Red Sea, hemmed up against the Red Sea, and then facing Pharaoh's enraged army. This man who had said, "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today." Then led the Jews through the Red Sea on dry land, with water walling up to the right and to the left. Israel walking on dry ground, and then this one who had unleashed one final devastation on Egypt as the waters of the Red Sea came crashing back down on Pharaoh's army and destroyed it completely. This was the man, this Moses, who had fed Israel with manna from heaven, and had struck the rock and had water flow out of the rock to care for the thirst of almost two million Israelites out in the desert. This Moses was the man who had led them to the base of the mountain of God. Mount Sinai with its terrifying display of power and of the holiness of God, a dark cloud, thunder, lightning, earthquake, a trumpet blast and the voice of the living God speaking the 10 commandments. "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." This Moses was the very one who had climbed up that mountain and disappeared in that same cloud. Gone for 40 days and returned with two tablets of stone, the same 10 commandments now inscribed with the finger of God. And "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, he was not aware that his face was radiant, because he'd been speaking with the Lord God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant and they were afraid to come near him." This Moses, how great was this man? How great this giver of the law, this terrifying, glorious figure, the greatest man of all Judaism? Well, he was great. He was very great. Jesus is infinitely greater. And that's the burden of the text. As great as Moses was, Jesus is infinitely greater. Whose glory will not only temporarily cause one man's face to shine, but will irradiate all of the new heavens and the new Earth and us besides for all eternity. How great is that? And so we get to contemplate the greatness of Jesus once again. I. Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus I know you won't believe me, but now I'm telling you Hebrews is my favorite book in the Bible. Now you're going to quote that to me when we do the next book and you go ahead and do that. But right now at least, my favorite book in the Bible. And why? Because it just preaches Jesus to me day after day after day. And right away, that's what the text tells us to do in verse one. Fix our thoughts on Jesus. Amen. That's what we get to do again. It's going to be renewing to you. If you're a child of God, this is going to refresh you. If you're a child of God, it's going to recharge your spiritual batteries. Because you get to fix your thoughts on Jesus. That's the whole purpose of the paragraph. Now keep in mind again, the danger that the author to Hebrews was addressing. These Jewish people that he's writing to had made some kind of outward profession of faith in Christ. That profession is mentioned even in this paragraph. Look at verse one, "Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in the heavenly calling, consider or fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession." They had made a confession or a profession of faith in Christ. That confession, I think it's a formal title for what these Jewish people had done to make a clear outward profession of faith in Jesus Christ. I think it probably involved water baptism. Says in Romans 10:9 and 10, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. And it's with your mouth that you confess and are saved. So these Jewish people had made that confession of Christ. And they had, I believe, been water baptized and baptized in Christ. Now however, these Jewish people were under tremendous pressure by their surrounding Jewish friends and neighbors, and relatives, and rabbis to renounce their faith in Christ and go back to Old Covenant Judaism. And at the center of Old Covenant Judaism is the law. And the mediator of the law was the towering figure of Moses. They're being tempted to turn their backs on Jesus and go back to Moses. And so these six verses are saying, "don't do it," because Jesus is infinitely greater than Moses. That's what he's getting at. The author compares Jesus with Moses. And why? To show the superiority of Jesus to Moses. It would make no sense whatsoever to retreat to Moses, to turn away from Jesus and go back. It's especially true when we consider that Moses was merely a servant in God's house but Jesus is a son over God's house, ruling over it. And we're going to talk about it. The Purpose of this Paragraph This paragraph exists to continue the exhortation of the entire Epistle. The whole letter of Hebrews is to stay close to Jesus and finish the race you've begun. Don't merely start with Jesus, let's go ahead and finish with Jesus. Let's run every day this race with endurance. Day after day in Jesus. That's what this is about. More than anything, he wants these Hebrew Christians to know who they are in Christ and to know how great Christ is. They need to consider themselves, who they are in Christ and they need to consider the greatness of Christ. And so he focuses on them here in verse one it says, "Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in the heavenly calling." Now, whenever you see the word therefore, it should instruct you to look backward in the text. You never begin a book of the Bible with the word therefore. It's always in the middle in the flow of an argument and so the author having said some things, having established some truth, now based on that, he's going to call them to consider some things. And so we have to look back. So we're looking back and now at Hebrews 3, we're looking back to Hebrews 2. Now what we learned in Hebrews 2 and it proclaim there, of course, Jesus as the captain, the trail blazer of our salvation. He is the author of our salvation. This is the one who defeated death, crushed Satan, who held the power of death and released from captivity all of those who are held in slavery all their lives by fear of death. This greatness, the greatness of Christ and then ended with that enticing and comforting news that Jesus is for us a merciful and faithful high priest and service to God, who made atonement for the sins of the people. And in verse 18, "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he's able to help people like us and them, who are being tempted." Therefore, because of all of the greatness of Christ and because he is our high priest and because he is able to help us who are being tempted, how could any Christian, therefore, turn away from Jesus? How could any Christian therefore, go back to Moses? That's really the link here. Understand Who You Are, What You’re Called to Be: Holy Brothers The real remedy here isn't turning away from Jesus. Now it's getting even closer to Jesus, drawing even closer to consider him more, to call on him more, to meditate on him more. And this first verse calls them holy brothers. Holy brothers. Now, the word "holy" means set apart unto God as His precious possession. Set apart unto God. In the Old Covenant, "holy to the Lord," was actually literally written on things or spoken over significant things in the Old Covenant. For example, a holy plate, a plate, a golden plate was engraved holy to the Lord and it was put on the priest's turban, on his head, as though his head, and really therefore his whole body is holy to the Lord. The priest, the Aaronic priest is holy to the Lord. The annual blood atonement for sin was called, "Most Holy to the Lord." That special blend of incense, whose recipe is carefully described in Exodus 30, was called, "Holy to the Lord," and therefore, no Israelite was permitted to make a special blending of the same recipe and use it for his or her own private use. No, no. It was holy to the Lord. I was for His sacred possession, only for Him. The Sabbath Day was called a sacred day, set apart and holy to the Lord. This understanding of being holy to the Lord was well established to Jewish people. Above all, the people of God themselves... The people of God themselves were to be God's holy people. They were to be set apart for His personal use. They were to be separate from all of the nations and separate also from their own wicked ways. And so the word "holiness" at its root gives a sense of separation. The people of God separated from the unholy nations, the wicked nations, and they themselves separated from all evil and God's prized and precious possession. Says in Deuteronomy 76, "For you are a people holy to the Lord. The Lord, your God, has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the Earth to be His people, His treasured possession." So the Church of Jesus Christ now in the New Covenant, We are holy to the Lord. We belong to God. We were bought with a price, the blood of Jesus. We are holy to Him. We are holy brothers. And the word "brothers" implies that beautiful sacred family that we are. We are brothers and sisters in the living God. It's not a bunch of strangers now. We are together with Jesus in the family of God. We have been given the right to be called children of God. How beautiful is that? And so we are members of God's household now. Members of God's household. The end of this little section in verse six, Hebrews 3:6, it says, "We are His house." We, we the people. We are His household and we, holy brothers, we are the ones who share, it says, in a heavenly calling. Now what does this mean to share in a heavenly calling? Well, we share many things together. There's the sense of Koinonia, that sense of sharing or fellowship that we have. In the early church, they shared all things in common, their possessions. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything that they had. But far more significant fellowship is in our spiritual blessings. The things we share spiritually which unite us together. We share Christ, we share the indwelling Holy Spirit. We share our adoption into the family of God, these things. And here we share, it says, "A heavenly calling." I think about those two witnesses in Revelation 11, you remember those ones that stand during the days of the tribulation and they take on the Antichrist and they're so powerfully preaching Christ and no one can stop them, you remember those two? Awesome ministry. Remember if anyone opposed them, fire came out of their mouths and burned up the enemies of God. I remember hearing John McArthur preach about it, he said, "If God's looking for volunteers, I'd like that job." That would be an awesome job, being one of the two witnesses during the final days. But at the end of their ministry, they were killed. The beast rose up against them, the Antichrist, and killed them, and they died, and they were there in the streets of the city for three days. Then, suddenly, they came to life. And immediately after that, a loud voice from heaven called down to them, "Come up here." And they went up to Heaven in a cloud while their enemies looked on. Now that's a heavenly calling. Amen? A heavenly calling. "Come up here and live with me." The apostle John himself had the same kind of heavenly calling in Revelation 4, "Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this." This is the call of God to Heaven, in the future I think. Coupled with the call of God, this heavenly calling is a call of God to live like it now. Amen. A heavenly life now, a holy life now, that's your calling. Philippians calls it "the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." It's an upward call. We're going up. We're improving in our Christian lives. We're becoming more like Jesus, not less. We're not degenerating. We are growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ. It's an upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 4:1 talks about the heavenly calling in this way, it says, "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." That's the heavenly calling. It's a future calling that we're going to Heaven, but coupled with a present lifestyle. That's the heavenly calling. The Remedy: Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus And now comes that consistent command of the book, the remedy to all evils and all ills. If you're unhappy today, listen to these words, here's the remedy: Fix your thoughts on Jesus. Consider Jesus, meditate on Jesus, feast your heart on Jesus, "the apostle and high priest whom we confess." Again and again, the author wants these suffering, persecuted, downtrodden people to think about Jesus. The entire Epistle began, as you know in Hebrews one, with an extended meditation on the greatness of Jesus, right from the very first paragraph. Remember, in Hebrews 1:3 it says, "The Sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Right through that first glorious chapter, we're talking about Jesus. We're talking about Jesus and we're not the only ones. God, the father, talking about Jesus. Remember that in Hebrews 1:8, "But about the son, he says, 'your throne, oh, God, lasts forever and ever. Righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.'" That's God, the father, talking about God, the son. It's an amazing thing to think about it, isn't it? God, the father, fixes His thoughts on Jesus too, and He loves him. And so fix your thoughts on Jesus. And on into chapter 2, we have this meditation on Jesus. "We see Jesus," it says, "who is 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." Notice what it says there in Hebrews 2:9, "we see Jesus… now crowned with glory." Now, how do we do that? How do we see Jesus, now crowned with glory and honor? We can understand how we will see Jesus then, crowned with glory and honor, but in Hebrews 2:9, it says, "we see Jesus now crowned." Well, I tell you it's only by faith. You take the word of God, like Hebrews, a good chapter on Jesus, and just read it and meditate on Jesus. You think about Jesus by the power of the spirit. You feed your mind on Jesus, you fix your thoughts on Jesus. The Greek word here in this verse implies a deep, diligent, rational, spiritual, consideration of Christ. Who he is, what he's achieved, by faith based on the scriptures. That's what you're doing. This alone can feed our souls in our days of trial and keep us strong in Christ. By this alone, dear friends, can we avoid drifting away from Christ. As it said in Hebrews 2:1, "We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away." Toward the end of the book, it's going to give us the same recipe again. In Hebrews 12:2, it's going to say, "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 the throne of God." Very next verse says, again, "Consider him who endured such hardship or opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Again and again, consider him, fix your eyes on him, we see Jesus. So do it. Use this sermon time well. Think about Jesus. Frankly, it's so blatant as I'm preaching this that if you're thinking about anything else, you are, dear friends, distracted. [chuckle] We are thinking about Jesus today. We're considering him. And what does it call him? It calls him the apostle. It calls Jesus the apostle. What an interesting title to give to Jesus. We know Jesus chose the 12 apostles, sent them out with a mission. The word "apostle" is just the English version of the Greek verb "apostolo" which means to send off or a sent one, somebody went with a mission. An apostle is literally an authoritative messenger from a king, a legate, let's say, an ambassador, you could imagine an ambassador with a right to represent the head of state. Jesus is that for the kingdom of heaven. He is the kingdom of heaven's ambassador, apostle, come from heaven to earth. And he is the sent one literally. Jesus called himself that in John 10:36. Right in the middle of a thought, just picking up, it says, "What about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?" Jesus was sent into the world by God the Father. And so, he came into the world to speak the Father's words, an authoritative message from the Father. He is the Father's apostle. And so it says in Hebrews 1:1-2, "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son." That means the son's an apostle, he's sent by God to speak the Father's message. And Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am... " literally what it says, we'll just leave it there. "I am the I am," "and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak only what the Father has taught me to speak." He is the ultimate apostle from the Father. He only says what the Father told him to say. He's sent him to the world as God's apostle, it also calls him the high priest of our confession. He is the apostle and high priest of our confession. This is the second time now that the Book of Hebrews has called him the high priest, starting to ramp up, starting to heat up now on the theme of high priest, but still not yet what we fully develop. We'll wait till later chapters, but we start to see that Jesus has that ministry like Melchizedek, a high priest in the order of Melchizedek, he is a king and a priest and we'll develop it fully there. But he is our high priest, and he is faithful to the one who appointed him. The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ Now, what does that mean that Jesus was faithful? Well, whatever the Father gave him to do, he did. He carried out what the Father had entrusted him. He was faithful to what was given into his hands. And so, Jesus in his high priestly prayer, John 17:4, makes an astonishing and an amazing statement. He says this in John 17:4, he says, "I brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." Jesus is the only man in history that can say that. I can't even say it for a single day, maybe not even for a single hour. Could you really say, "Lord, for the last hour, I've done everything you wanted me to do"? But Jesus can say that over his whole life work. "I brought you glory on earth, [Father] by completing all the work you gave me to do." That's what he's saying. And again, in John 14:31, "The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what the Father has commanded me to do." He was faithful to the one who appointed him. Faithful to God. II. Moses Was Faithful in God’s House Now, we bring up this idea of Moses. Moses is now brought into the text, brought into the epistle now, we have to deal with Moses. And we have to deal with him carefully because Moses is going to be in heaven. Moses is our brother in Christ. Moses did a good ministry. There's nothing wrong with Moses. And so, we have to honor Moses but honor Jesus more, that's all. And that's exactly what's going on here. And so, in verse 2, "Moses was faithful in all God's house." Jesus "was faithful to the one who appointed him just as Moses was faithful in all God's house." This is God's testimony about Moses. Just stop for a moment. How would you like that to be God's testimony about you? At the end of your life? "He, she, faithful to what I gave them to do." Oh, you should yearn... You should have a holy ambition for that. I want you to say that over my life, "He was faithful. She was faithful to what I entrusted to them to do." And that's God's testimony right here, "He was faithful." He had called Moses to go back to Pharaoh and deliver the Jews out of Egypt, and Moses did that with great faith and with great courage. Moses boldly confronted Pharaoh with all 10 of the plagues, commanding again and again, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, 'Let my people go...'" God used Moses to do those mighty signs and wonders. God led the Jews boldly through Moses out of Egypt during the first Passover, led the people through the Red Sea, again, with great courage and boldness. Moses was used by God to provide manna from the sky and water from the rock. Daily miracles that kept Israel alive. Moses led the Jews to Mount Sinai and received, as I said, from the finger of God, the tablets on which the 10 Commandments had been written. Moses, then, as time allowed over the next 40 years of wandering the desert, gave to the Jews an incredible legacy, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; written by Moses as they wandered in the desert. And when the faithless, unbelieving Jews refused to enter the promised land, and it was extended to 40 years, Moses, first of all, interceded for them and prayed that God wouldn't kill them. And then having received that blessing from God, he then led that fractious and rebellious people for 40 years in the desert, caring for them like a nursing mother caring for little infant. He says, "Did I give birth to these people? Do I have to keep looking after them?" There are moments, difficult moments, but he was faithful. He was faithful to do what God want to do. Faithful in all God's house. And therefore, Moses is rightly revered in Judaism. God appeared to Moses in the flames of the burning bush and chose him as the leader of the people. God had done incredible miracles through Moses, supernatural miracles like no one else in Jewish history. Moses was the one that God had spoken to in some mysterious sense, face to face. Think about Exodus 24, "Then he said to Moses, 'Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance.'" Listen to this, "But Moses alone is to approach the Lord. The others must not come near and the people may not come up with him." What an honor for Moses. He alone was invited right into the very presence of God. In Exodus 33:7-11, says, "Now, Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp and whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people, all the people rose and stood at the entrance of their tents and watched him go. And as Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stay at the entrance. When Moses was there, the cloud would come down while the Lord spoke with Moses. And whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped as God spoke with Moses." Incredible. The Lord would speak to Moses, it says, face to face as a man speaks with his friend. Exodus 33:11. God gave a direct testimony concerning his intimacy with Moses in Numbers 12 when Aaron and Miriam began to speak against Moses and say that the Lord had spoken as much through them as they had through him, God said, "I beg to differ." He made a clear distinction in Numbers 12:4-8, "At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, 'Come out to the tent of meeting all three of you.' So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. And when both of them stepped forward, he said, 'Listen to my words.'" Now I want to tell you something. I believe the author of Hebrews, as he's writing chapter three, is thinking about these verses. See if you can see the connection here. "Listen to my words. When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions. I speak to him in dreams, but this is not true of my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face clearly and not in riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" So there are two little themes there from Numbers 12. 1) Faithful in all my house, and 2) he is my servant. And I think the author's pulling those two ideas out and meditating on them. Again, I said, this text is not in any way trying to denigrate Moses. Not at all. Just trying to exalt Jesus as infinitely greater than Moses. When Moses then would speak with God and return to the Jews, his whole face shone radiantly with the absorbed glory of God. He would have to put a veil across his face because they're afraid of him. They're afraid of just being near Moses because of the glory that was shining, fading as it was. In generations to come, then Jews would revere Moses as the greatest figure of their history, and that's the whole problem that the author's trying to address here, revering Moses and denigrating Jesus as a result. Well, how does that happen? Well, it definitely happened. Think about the time that Jesus healed the man born blind. Do you remember that? There was a man born blind and he was sitting and begging. Jesus crouched down and spat on the ground and made mud with his saliva and he put it on the man's eyes, smeared the mud on the man's eyes and commanded him to go away and wash. And the man went away and washed, then he came home seeing. And he was then arrested by the Jews, the Jewish leaders. They arrested the man, brought him into the Sanhedrin, I guess, into account for what had happened. And as the thing unfolded, they began to become abusive, to hurl insults at this man. In John 9:28-29, "They hurled insults at him and said, 'You are this fellow's disciple. We are disciples of Moses. Now we know that God spoke to Moses but as for this fellow, we don't even know where he came from.'" Now there it is, you see. Moses and Jesus, head to head, and Jesus is nothing. He's denigrated. That's what these Hebrew professors, their faith in Christ, were being tempted to turn back to. "We know God spoke through Moses but as for this fellow, we don't know where he came from." I love how the man born blind answered, he said, "Now that is remarkable. You don't know where he came from and yet he opened my eyes." Actually, literally in Greek that man said, "Now here is the real wonder. Not so much that God can open the eyes of a man born blind but that you can't see God when he does it. That's the real wonder." It's an amazing statement. That man born blind may be one of my favorite figures in the New Testament. I love him. Look forward to meeting him in heaven. But it wasn't just this man born blind, there's also Stephen. Remember how Stephen was preaching Christ boldly? And again, they pitted the Christ that Stephen was preaching against Moses who had given them the temple or the Tabernacle which led to the temple. And so they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God." That's the attitude that the author to Hebrews is addressing here. We know that God spoke through Moses but as for Jesus, we can leave him behind. Now Moses mediated the old covenant, and that's why the author is mentioning Moses. The old covenant was called the Law of Moses. And Jesus Christ came to give us a higher way. As it says in John 1:17, "The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Let me tell you right now if you end up in heaven, it's not going to be because of the Law of Moses. It's going to be because of the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. And so that's how much greater Jesus is. Jesus can get you to heaven, Moses can't get you there. It's a law, it's what it is. The Law of Moses. Law condemns. Grace saves. And grace came through Jesus. And so these Jewish Christians who are being tempted to renounce Christ and go back to Judaism were choosing Moses over Jesus, and that choice was eternally foolish, infinitely foolish. III. Jesus is Greater than Moses as a Son is Greater Than a Servant And so Jesus is greater than Moses as a son is greater than a servant. Look at verse 3, "Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself." He's directly comparing in verse 3, Jesus and Moses, and he says Moses is worthy of honor and I would say that Moses was greater than any other prophet. All the prophets that God sent to Israel in the old covenant, you know what they were? They were basically prosecuting attorneys, like district attorneys. And they went in the name of the law to a rebellious people to bring a lawsuit against them on God's behalf. Alright, that's fine. That's what they did but where did the law come from? Well, it came from Moses. So Moses is greater than any of the prophets that followed. As Numbers 12 said, Moses is faithful in all my house. When I speak to a prophet now, I'm going to do it with visions and dreams but with Moses, face to face. Saw God's glory, achieved all of these incredible things. A man of action, a man of accomplishment, brought them out of slavery. But, still, merely a house servant really. He's a house servant. Moses was faithful, verse five, as a servant in all God's house testifying to what would be said in the future. The author reiterates Moses' faithfulness, faithful as a servant and a prophet. Testifying to what would be said in the future. What's that? Well, can we sum it up in one word? Jesus. That's what Moses is testifying about the future. Moses is talking about Jesus. In John chapter five, Jesus deals directly with the Jewish authorities who are there in the name of Moses. And he says, "Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. No, your accuser is Moses on whom your hopes are set." Now that's interesting, isn't it? You're trusting in Moses, he cannot save you. He's going to accuse you. He's not going to save you. If you believe Moses, you would believe me. Listen to this statement, because he wrote about me. [chuckle] Do you realize how arrogant that would be if Jesus isn't the Son of God, the Messiah? Either you believe or you don't believe. And Jesus says very plainly, "He wrote about me but since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" And so after his resurrection, you remember? Jesus, resurrection, body, disciples, disoriented, dismayed, discouraged, depressed. And Jesus catches up with two of them on the road to Emmaus, you remember that? Wouldn't you love to be one of those two? Wouldn't you love that? To get rebuked by Jesus on Easter morning. What a good thing. You ought to be happy right now and look at you, you're sad and miserable. "How foolish you are," Jesus said to them. "And how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he showed them everything what is written in the scriptures concerning himself." Well, that's what Hebrews 3:5 means. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house testifying to what would be said in the future about Jesus. It's all about the gospel. But Jesus is worthy of greater honor than Moses. Look at verse three, "Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself." Moses is worthy of great honor but he's still just a creature. That means something created. He's a created being. Frankly, in verse three, if you read carefully, Moses is portrayed as the house, Jesus as the builder of the house. Later, as I said, he's going to make it clear that the house is all of God's people, but Moses is included. Moses is part of the house. Verse 4, "For every house is built by someone but God is the builder of everything." Moses then was built by God. It's kind of a weird thought, isn't it? Moses was assembled by God. He was assembled where? In his mother's womb. His father was Amram, a descendant of Levi. His mother was Jochebed, Amram's aunt. An interesting story. You can ask them about it when you get to heaven, but there it is. And so, as Moses was growing inside his mother's womb, God was knitting him together. And then he protected him as he was floating in that basket, in the bulrushes there in the Nile. But the scripture reveals that it's Jesus himself that knit Moses together. It was God through Jesus that all things were made. It is through Jesus that Moses' body held together. It's through Jesus that Moses even exists. It was Jesus himself, I think, if you read carefully, who appeared to Moses in the flames of the burning bush. For wasn't it the Angel of the Lord who did that? And wasn't it Jesus, who was the Angel of the Lord, that led Israel? Remember how God basically said, "I'm going to send my angel ahead of you and he's not going to mess around with you people. He's going to punish you if you don't follow him, so you better follow him." That's what God says about the angel. The angel is Jesus. Jesus then, in effect, is represented by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. That's Jesus. It was Jesus himself, in some mysterious spiritual sense, who was the Rock that gave them drink, it says in Corinthians 1:10. No, He wasn't the rock, but He is the spiritual Rock from which the water flowed. And Jesus gave them the manna that they ate, that Moses just told them where to find it. And so He likens himself to this in John 6, "I tell you the truth, it's not Moses who gives you the bread from heaven, but it's my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." And the people said, "Sir, from now on, give us this bread." Jesus said, "I am the bread of life; he who feeds on Me will never go hungry and he who drinks from Me will never go thirsty." Jesus is greater than Moses in every way, dear friends. In every way. Jesus is the builder of God's house and He's the authority figure over it. That's how I read it. When I read this section, I read it this way, "Moses was faithful, as a servant in all God's house, testifying what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house." You see, the contrast there is between someone who's under and someone who's over. And Jesus, as the Son, as the only begotten Son, as the heir of everything, He is the ruler of the house. He's the only begotten Son of God. And so, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17, Jesus one day takes with him Peter, James and John, leads them up a high mountain by themselves. And there he is transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. And Peter spoke up at that moment. We've talked about that before. Peter's an interesting man, isn't he? It's time to talk. Mark says he didn't know what he way saying. But he speaks up and says, "Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, we'll make three shelters. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah." He didn't know what he was saying, that's what the scripture says. "While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them. And a voice came from the cloud, 'This is My Son, My only Son whom I love. Listen to Him.'" Notice that the voice from the cloud didn't mention Moses at all. Never said a word about Moses. And when the disciples heard that voice, they fell face down to the ground terrified. But Jesus came and you picture him gently touching their shoulders, telling them to get up. "Don't be afraid," he says. "And when they looked up," the text says, "they saw no one except Jesus." Do you not see the significance of that? The way it's written? Moses and Elijah just disappear. So does every human being, they all just disappear. Just servants, all of them, us too, servants, servants, servants through whom God works. Jesus stands alone to the glory of God the Father. That's what's going on here in this text. IV. We Are God’s House, If... Now, one final word. We are God's house if... If, friends, is why the book was written. It's because there's an if here. You may be part of God's house. You may not be part of God's house. It's not a given. It's not a guarantee, actually. Just because you're a human being doesn't mean you're part of God's house. It's not true that every single human being that lives is part of God's house. That is not true. We are His house. Now, what does that mean? We are the temple or the tabernacle where God dwells by His Spirit, it says in Ephesians. 1 Peter 2 says we're like living stones built up in the house of God. We are living stones in the house. We are the spiritual temple, that is the house. We are the house but only if. There's some uncertainty about this. Well, if what? If we continue in our confession in Christ. You see it? If we continue to profess that Jesus is our Savior. If we hold on to our courage in the hope of which we boast. The Book of Hebrews is all about keep running, dear friends. Keep running the race. Don't give up. Don't drop out. Don't stop coming to church. Don't stop your quiet time. Don't stop your prayer life. Don't stop your fight against sin. Keep running this race with endurance. We are His house if and only if we continue in Christ. We hold on to our courage in the hope of which we boast. What courage is that? Courage toward God, to enter into the very presence of God boldly through the blood of Jesus. And courage horizontally to a persecuting Christ-hating world. Don't be ashamed of Jesus in this world. Testify to Him. Do it tomorrow at work. Do it to a non-Christian friend or relative or neighbor. Be courageous Christians. Hold on to your courage and hold on to your hope, the hope of your boasting. And what is that hope? You're going to heaven when you die. It's going to be glorious. You're not looking backward to the land you left. You're looking ahead to the New Jerusalem where you're going. And you've got a strong and vibrant hope that that place is going to be glorious. V. Applications What applications? Well, I prayed and I will continue to pray. If there are any lost people here, that you would turn to Christ and look to him now in faith. You're not going to see him physically, you're hearing the word of God now. Jesus took on a human body, shed his blood on the cross, so that if you trust in him, you have eternal life. And Christ is faithful to God's mission, dying on the cross for our sins, and he'll be faithful to save you right to the end if you just trust in him. Secondly, just understand how great Jesus is. Do you realize he is 100 million times greater than the highest estimation of him that any of us have in this room right now, whoever it is? It might be me, it might be one of you, I don't know, but wherever we've got Jesus, he's 100 million times higher than that. Keep pushing upward in your estimation of Jesus. Keep meditating on him, keep seeing how great he is, how much greater than Moses, how much greater than anyone. And thirdly, worship Christ based on that estimation, just love him. I won't do it, but I'd love to ask Eric and all those beautiful musicians come and sing to Jesus again. Wouldn't that be awesome? I'm not going to do it, I abused my privileges here but I was just worshipping Jesus. I love that song because it sings to me of Jesus, and makes me sing. We need to worship Christ and fill our hearts with gratitude to him, and with sweetness and joy that comes from contemplating him. And finally, if I can just urge you as a brother and sister in Christ, embrace your heavenly calling. You are holy to the Lord. Set apart for his precious possession. God is jealous over your affections. He's jealous over your life. Don't give yourself over to idols. Don't sin. Don't lust. Don't covet. Don't gossip and slander. Don't steal. Don't do things that are wicked. Be holy. Embrace your heavenly calling in Christ. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the greatness of Christ. We thank you for the joy that comes to me personally to be able to proclaim Christ, and to feel in my heart the joy that just today, at best, at best, we saw through a glass darkly but someday, we're going to see face to face. And I pray Father, that you would move in us. I pray again for a lost person, a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, someone hearing the gospel for the first time that they would trust in Jesus. And Lord, help the rest of us to know just how great Jesus is, and embrace our heavenly calling in him. In Jesus' name. Amen.
We are coming this morning to a new book of the Bible and, as I frequently like to do, we are going to look in an overview fashion. My desire as we look at the Book of Hebrews, not just this morning but also in the weeks to come, is that we would have a better vision, a clearer vision of "our great salvation," as the writer calls it in Hebrews 2. On the morning of September 17th, 490 BC, some 10,000 Greeks stood assembled on a narrow plain 26 miles east of Athens ready to fight to the death even to the last man. Behind them, physically behind them, lay everything of value in this world to them: their homes, their families, their lifestyle, their beautiful city of Athens. In front of them lay a seemingly invincible army, a Persian army, 48,000 men who had landed the assembled forces of Darius I, the king of the Persian Empire. This vast invading force had landed from an awesome armada whose ships could still be seen there as they were preparing to fight the battle. They were there to wipe out the Greeks to the last man and plunder their homes. The narrow plain hemmed in on each side by boggy marshlands was chosen specifically by the Persians because it would help them in their use of chariots. And its name would become one of the most famous named battlefields of antiquity of the ancient world. Somehow, against all odds, the Greeks defeated the Persians that day, winning the Battle of Marathon, saving Greek civilization. After the battle, however, the danger was not completely over. The Persian fleet was still intact and still was able to sail down and get right near Athens and threaten that beloved city. And so in an amazing feat of strength, the Greek army marched at double time from that battlefield and somehow reached Athens ahead of the Persian ships. But ahead of them, they dispatched their best runner, Pheidippides, to cover the 26 miles with the message that they had won the battle but that danger was still coming. And so that man ran the 26 miles and thus invented a new race that we call the marathon. We think about it without knowing the battle, the history behind it; now you know and you can impress your friends with your knowledge, if you can rehearse the facts I just gave you. But that's what it was and this man Pheidippides covered the 26 miles and legend has it that he gave the message and then died after having run the distance. Now, myself in high school, I was a distance runner. The farthest I ever ran was 25 kilometers, which is a little less than 16 miles. I thought I was going to die that day. I'll never forget that day. Way too long, and the idea of running another 10 miles beyond that, I don't have any idea of how people do that, and if I'm in the presence right now of someone who's completed a marathon, my hat's off to you. I don't know how you did it. But I believe that the Book of Hebrews, while not using the language or the term "marathon," presents the Christian life in that way. It's a marathon, friends. It requires tremendous endurance, painful suffering, and determination when things get very, very difficult not to give up and grow faint. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance or endurance the race marked out before us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." I think that's something we should do every single day of our lives. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, amen. Let's think about Jesus and think about the race that He has set out in front of us to run. The Book of Hebrews speaks with a very serious tone about the need to persevere in the Christian life. Hebrews 10:36 says, "You need to persevere, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised." We have such a great salvation, as I already mentioned. It is a great salvation and the Book of Hebrews stands alone, I think, in the Bible in revealing to us the greatness of Jesus Christ as the mediator of the new covenant that saves our souls. It is a new and better covenant and by that covenant we are forgiven of our sins and we will be welcomed in the heaven. And Jesus is that superior mediator, the one who brings the covenant to us from God. I. General Overview Exhortations (paraklésis) and warning in Hebrews He is a superior mediator. He's bringing that superior covenant and it results in a superior life, that's the theme of the Book of Hebrews. The Book of Hebrews, I think, also stands alone in giving us some of the most serious and severe warnings in the Christian life and many Christians go astray when they see the warnings in the Book of Hebrews. They do not understand the role that these warnings play in our salvation. Many Christians think they do not apply to them because we cannot lose our salvation, which we definitely cannot. But they do not realize how much we who are running this race of salvation need these warnings to keep us going in that race. And so I'm going to be preaching the Book of Hebrews as written to the church, written to us. We who claim to be Christians, we who have made a profession of faith in Christ, we need to heed these warnings. Frankly, I think only the elect, only the true believers, heed these warnings. I think those who are only sham Christians do not heed the warnings and so they fall away. And so this fall, we are going to be looking carefully at a unique book of the Bible, and as we do, I think we are going to get a greater, a clearer sense of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. What is this covenant that saves us? What was the old covenant? What was its role? We are going to get a sense, ultimately, of the greatness of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now, I am going to begin at the end. We are going to be all over the place so do not despair of following me. I do not know, friends. Do the best you can but we are going to go across the scope of this great book. And I am going to begin at the end, when the author tells us what the book is. In Hebrews 13:22, he says, "I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation for I've written you only a brief letter.” By the way, this is what stood for a brief letter back in the antiquities, all right? They didn't have Twitter back then, I guess; now that's a brief letter. Okay? But this is what he said it was a brief letter, 300 verses. Bob read the section that I asked him to read. We were toying with him reading the whole book but we would still be at it right now. We would probably be around chapter four or five right now, so... But it would have been worth doing. It is a brief letter but it is a word of exhortation. That is what he calls it. The Greek word is paraklésis. The basic concept, then, is that Christian salvation is a process. It is what I would call a marathon race, a journey that will only be completed when all the elect, all the children of God, are eternally perfect and have glorious resurrection bodies. While we are in this world we are in enemy territory, friends. We are in danger while we are in this world, grave danger. And we must keep making progress on our journey. We must continue to fight the good fight of faith. We have to keep running the race with endurance until we are done in this world and thus we must have exhortation along the way. The Greek word, as I said, is paraklésis in Hebrews 13:22. It is an interesting word; an interesting word of comfort, consolation and encouragement spoken to someone in difficulty, suffering, and distress to bring them consolation, giving them internal courage, and comfort to continue in the midst of their trial and their suffering. But, it is also a word of exhortation, warning and admonition. Paraklésis is urging people to get moving, fight the good fight, keep running the race. So, therefore, you have a softer side of paraklésis and a harder side. One side knows, it seems, when to put an arm around you and weep with you. And one aspect of paraklésis knows when to be a drill instructor or a tough coach who is yelling at you while you are running up a hill for the tenth time to get you ready for the physically grueling trial you are about to have on the battlefield or in a football game. Both sides are part of that word, paraklésis. That is what this letter is. The Holy Spirit is called "Our Paraklete." That is the noun form and we get it in the Gospel of John 14:26. It says, "But the counselor." NIV gives us, "The counselor, the Holy Spirit and the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." So paraklete, related to paraklésis, is translated in NIV "counselor" like a lawyer, someone called alongside to help you in a court trial. KJV, however, uses the "comforter." ESV uses the "helper." The basic idea, then, is the Holy Spirit lives with you, he'll be in you, he gives you moment by moment all the wise counsel, and the gentle comfort, and consolation, plus the stern rebukes, the hard warnings, the discipline that you need to finish the Christian life. Now, the Book of Hebrews uses this word "encourage" a lot, this paraklésis idea a lot. In 3:13 it says, "Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called the day so that none of you be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." So you want that encouragement around you while you're dealing with sin's deceitfulness. Or again, Hebrews 10:25, which you heard Bob read, "Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching." I really think that Christians need to learn what this word means so that we can have really good fellowship with each other. It is great to have a Labor Day picnic or some people over but let us, as Christians, let us really encourage each other. The Book of Hebrews, I think, helps us to do that so we can know what to do for each other. Audience of the Book of Hebrews Who is this book written to? The Book of Hebrews, who is the audience here? Well, throughout the book you are going to find an overwhelming appeal to Old Testament scripture, to Old Testament imagery; clearly, the author considers his audience very familiar with Jewish imagery, with the sacrificial system and with the Scriptures. He assumes a lot: the authority of the prophets, and of the Word of God, these kinds of things. The audience is very familiar with the history of the Old Testament and with the imagery, and the sacrificial system. And the opening statement in Hebrews 1:1, here we are at the beginning of the book now, way at the beginning. In Hebrews 1:1 it says, "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets." Well, that I think identifies the audience as Jewish. And so as he is speaking about our forefathers he is saying the prophets, God sent the prophets to them. Well, God sent the prophets to the Jews. And furthermore, as you continue to read in chapter 2:1-4, these are people who had heard the gospel. They had seen miracles. They had heard the gospel from the messengers sent out by the apostles. “And they...”, in chapter 6, it says, "Once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the word of God, powers of the coming age." They have been involved in gospel ministry, they have been coming to church, they have been hearing the preaching, the explanation of New Testament doctrine, they have had all this. And they had made some kind of profession of faith in Christ, they were professors of faith in Christ. In Hebrews 3:1 it says, "Therefore, holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess." Or again, 4:14, "Therefore since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess." Hebrews 10:23, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promises is faithful." So there's actually a number of times when the author refers to the fact they'd made a profession of faith in Christ. So these are Jewish people who had heard the gospel, had been involved in church life, had made an outward confession or profession of faith in Christ, but there is a problem. They were going through severe persecution it seems. Some people had lost their property, some had been imprisoned, there was pressure being put on them by Satan through the world, and I think probably through Jewish friends and relatives and neighbors to give up their profession of faith in Christ. They were being squeezed by the world; they were being squeezed economically. They were living in a Jewish community, perhaps, and no one was buying their things or they could not get work or whatever. And so they are facing poverty, they're going through a very, very hard time and there is pressure on these Jewish professors of faith in Christ to give up their confession of Jesus and just go back to the old covenant life. Turn their back on Jesus, just give up Jesus, just go back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, go back to Moses, go back to the law, go back to what you have always known, just give up on Jesus. So they were drifting away from Christ, developing hardened hearts, they were losing their courage, they were choosing not to come to church, staying away from church and they were going back to the old ways of Judaism. And the author clearly looks on this as a dire emergency for them. Dire emergency. So he is writing to them. Author of the Book of Hebrews? Now, who is the author? Now, I thought you were going to tell me who is... I said, who is the author? Now, some will call out Paul, and he is probably the most common choice in church history. However, the author never identifies himself. But because Paul always in other places identifies himself, doesn't mean he didn't write it. Those that are really experts at Greek style, which I am not, say that the style is very different than Paul's letters, a much higher, more polished style. I know this from personal experience: it's the hardest Greek to translate in the New Testament; just very, very high level, the vocabulary is at a high level. Paul could have done that -- it is possible. However, I do not think it’s a matter, an article of faith. No one should be offended if I do what I am planning on doing, saying Paul is not the author of Hebrews. It's safer, a little less risky, and if I get to heaven and it turned out to have been Paul, I think by the time I am in heaven, I’ll not need to apologize, but we’ll deal with that on judgment day and I’ll apologize to him for missing out that he wrote this. But we'll go with what Eusebius said that Origen said, "Who wrote the epistle in truth only God knows." And he lived just a few centuries after it was written, so I don't know. So I'm going to be saying "the author to Hebrews." The superiority of Christ Now, let's get to the real issue. What is the significance of this book? Why did he write it? What was he saying? What is the message? And that's really what's going to take our time the rest of this morning. But, what is the message of Hebrews? A.W. Pink said the central theme of Hebrews is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism; the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. Hebrews 7:22, "Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant." There's lots of comparison in the book, something that's better, something that's superior, at a higher level. Again, Hebrews 8:6, "The ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator is superior to the old one, and it's founded on better promises." So superior, superior, better. So, two things are being compared and what A.W. Pink says is Christianity is being compared to Judaism. New covenant is being compared to old covenant. Jesus is being compared to no Jesus. Fine. I think, more precisely, I would say it's a superiority of Christ over all other mediators that God has ever used or ever will use, including the prophets, Moses himself, and the angels, and, therefore, the superiority of the new covenant that Christ came to bring over the old covenant that He had fulfilled and superseded. And the kind of life that should come from that life, from that covenant, a life filled with faith, filled with courage, filled with good fruit, willing to face persecution, a life in which you would have your name in the hall of faith if we're extended. So, that you face courageously the trials of your life and you don't shrink back away from them, but you boldly fulfill that new covenant spirit-filled life that God has given to you. That's what the book is about, a superior mediator bringing a superior covenant resulting in a superior life, that's what the Book of Hebrews is about. And so, we have beautifully the doctrine of Christ. What specifically were these Jewish professors of faith in Christ doing when they were going back to Judaism? They were specifically turning their backs on Jesus. That's what's going on, they were specifically looking Jesus in the face and turning their back on Jesus and walking away back to Moses, back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, back to the God of Moses and other patriarchs, turning their backs on Jesus. And so, therefore, right away in Hebrews 1, the author is going to give the superiority of Christ in every way; the glory of Christ, glorious descriptions of the person and work of Christ, they exalt the person of Christ the Son of God. I'll quote those later in the message when I go over that section, but the perfected work of Christ, the mediator and high priest from God. John Calvin said this, "There is indeed no book in the holy scripture which speaks so clearly of the priesthood of Christ, which so highly exalts the virtue and dignity of that only true sacrifice which He offered by His death, which so abundantly deals with the use of ceremonies as well as their termination and in a word so fully explains that Christ is the end of the law." So, the glorious doctrine of Jesus Christ and, as we've mentioned, the fact that the old covenant is now obsolete. I remember when I was doing scripture memorization in the Book of Hebrews and came across in Hebrews 8 where it called the old covenant obsolete. And I thought, "I wouldn't have the courage to speak over the old covenant, this word obsolete," except that this book gives us the permission to do it. It's obsolete, friends. Its time has passed. It's been fulfilled in Jesus and superseded by the new covenant, so it says in Hebrews 8, "If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another." But God found fault with the people and said, "The time is coming," declares the Lord, "When I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah." And by calling that covenant new, He's made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete and aging will soon pass away. Hebrews 8:13. It is by this book, then, especially we know that we are not to be offering animal sacrifices. So stop doing that. We are not to be offering animal sacrifices though they are clearly commanded all over the place in the Old Testament. But, we know that time is finished. That old covenant religion, which was so prominent, has been fulfilled in Christ and become obsolete. It is by this book that we do not establish in some new way Levitical priests to offer bulls and goats. We do not erect a new temple to replace the old one. We do not make three annual pilgrimages to that temple, to Jerusalem. Without the teachings of this book, we might rightly wonder if God still expected these things of us, perhaps as a memorial of Jesus. Now we are told to stop, the time is finished. It is by the Book of Hebrews that we see the completeness and perfection of the new covenant directly contrasted with the incompleteness and the imperfection of the old covenant. Here we will learn what is included in the new covenant, which the old covenant could never produce. I'm going to talk more about that in a few moments. Old Covenant Explained Fourthly, we also see the old covenant explained. Old covenant is explained. It is by the Book of Hebrews, more than any other book in the Bible, that you understand all of that stuff that was going on. The tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the blood sacrifices, what it was all for? Why did God do it? Why was animal sacrifice so significant? A.W. Pink said, "Perhaps its chief distinctive value lies in its exposition of the Old Testament types." Here we are taught that the tabernacle and its furniture, the priesthood, and their service, the various sacrifices and offerings all pointed ahead to the person, offices and glories of the Lord Jesus. Of Israel's priests, it is said they serve a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. The first tabernacle was merely a symbol for the present age. The ceremonial law was a shadow of good things to come. Melchizedek was a type of Christ, Isaac was a figure of Christ, and so on. The Book of Hebrews, then, we can see how perfectly the Old Testament's sacrificial system, animal sacrificial system, was getting ready for a very powerful presentation of the gospel in Jesus Christ. It's really by Hebrews that I understood what to do with the animal sacrificial system and now it's become probably one of my favorite ways to share the gospel. And we'll talk about it, I think, probably multiple times as we study Hebrews. But, I learned from the book of Hebrews, concerning the animal sacrificial system, three lessons of that animal sacrificial system. All sin deserves a death penalty, the death penalty can be paid by a substitute, but the substitute cannot be an animal. And that just is like a cliffhanger where you're waiting for the final chapter, that's what the old covenant was meant to do. Okay, what's coming now? Jesus is coming. And so I saw with clarity from the Book of Hebrews, it was through the portal of the Book of Hebrews, when I was preaching in Genesis, when the little boy Isaac said to his father, "Here's wood and here's fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" And Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb." What a great answer that was. And how I saw that his question, that little boy's question on Mount Moriah, was really the summation question of the old covenant, "Where is the lamb?" "Can't be these animals, the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin." Oh, I just quoted Hebrews. They cannot take away sin. All right, where is the lamb? John the Baptist answered, remember, pointing at Jesus said, "Behold, the lamb of God takes away the sins of the world." Those two verses just summed up old covenant, new covenant for me. "Where's the lamb, behold the lamb." There it is. And it was Hebrews that gave me that kind of clarity and now it is probably my favorite way to share the gospel with somebody who's familiar with Christian terminology, with perhaps a nominal Catholic or somebody who's aware of these things and understood that animal sacrifice was there but didn't know what it was about. I love doing this, because it brings us straight to the cross, dear friends, and it explains why Jesus died. All sin deserves a death penalty. The death penalty can be paid by a substitute, the substitute cannot be an animal, and, therefore, the substitute is Jesus. If you trust in Jesus, if you put your trust in Him, your death penalty for your sins will be paid in full, dear friends. Warnings in the Book of Hebrews and God’s sovereignty And I prayed this morning that God would bring someone here who needed to hear that. And you just heard the gospel, Jesus stood in your place, He shed His blood for you that your sins might be forgiven if you repent and believe, your death penalty has been paid in full, and you're going to heaven when you die, that is the gospel. It was Hebrews that gave me that kind of clarity. But along with that came an understanding of the dynamic of the Christian life. It is a dynamic thing. We are not done being saved, friends, we're on a journey. We call it in this church the internal journey, sanctification. We are not there yet, and we have got to have some warnings to keep us going. We've got to have that drill instructor that comes along at key moments and yells at us. Now, let me tell you a story from my cross country days. I remember the summer between my sophomore and junior year, we were supposed to be running on an average between eight to 12 miles a day. I considered that somewhat in June, thought about it a little bit more in July and started to do it in August. Okay, if you know anything about distance running, it's too late. The season's probably gone at this point. I didn't realize that, but it became clear at our first formal practice when the captain of the team, who was one of the best runners in the state, took the team on a 14-mile hilly run. I will never forget that as long as I live. And I was laboring up this hill and the other good runners were already at the top of the hill. This guy turned around and came back down the hill to join me in my run up the hill. I will never forget that run as long as I live. I didn't think he was very nice that day. He wasn't being nice, he was yelling at me, you know. I don't know where he got off doing that, he was only a year ahead of me in school, but at any rate, there it was. But I've thought about that and I think there are times that we need to get yelled at in the Christian life and there are scriptures that'll do it. And Hebrews has a lot of those scriptures. And we need it. And what I've come to realize, I believe in God's sovereignty and salvation, I believe in predestination, I believe you can't lose, I believe once saved, always saved, I believe all those things. We'll talk about it plenty. But I think the warnings help bring it about, and you need to listen to them, and take them seriously, not blow them off for any reason, theological or practical, don't say, "I don't need to hear that." Take it seriously. So in Hebrews 2:1, it says we must therefore pay more careful attention to what we've heard, so that we do not drift away, so don't drift away. Hebrews 3:12 says, "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God," so don't turn away. And then the worst of all, Hebrews 6: 4-6, "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away to be brought back again to repentance," because to their own loss, they're crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace. Don't drift away, don't turn away, don't fall away. To say, "Well, if I believe in the sovereignty of God I don't think any of those things can happen to me." Don't think like that, friends. Don't think like that. The warnings were given to us. It goes beyond that and says, "Don't shrink away." We are not, Hebrews 10, "Of those who shrink back like the Jews did who refused to enter the promise land through unbelief." We're not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but we are of those who believe and are saved, we cross the Jordan, we go on and fight the battles. So don't shrink away, don't stay away. Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together," it is not a small thing to skip church, friends. We'll get to that in due time, but it's not a minor deal. It has an impact on the body of Christ and on you. And I understand, I'm not being legalistic here about it. I'm just saying it plays a role in your salvation. You do it once, you'll do it twice; do it twice, you'll do it four times. After a while it becomes a habit. It says, "As some are in the habit of doing." It's talking there about the habit of staying away from church, but how do you know it's not going to be a habit in you a year from now? Don't stay away and don't throw away your confidence. Hebrews 10:35, “don't throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded.” Sometimes you, through just willful sin, we just throw away our peace and are filling with the spirit, the fruit is spirit, throw it away like it's little or nothing. Don't throw away your confidence. It's good to have a healthy, strong assurance of salvation. Don't throw it away like it's cheap or nothing. And don't be carried away by false teachings. In Hebrews 13:9, "Don't be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching." Those are warnings to all of us. We've got to hear those. Don't drift away, don't turn away, don't fall away, don't shrink away, don't stay away, don't throw away anything of value. Warnings. And there are therefore exhortations to the church. Let's draw near to God, let's stand firm in our faith. Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need," in the passage that Bob read. Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near to God." You realize what a privilege that is? What a sweet privilege you're given in the new covenant. II. Summary of the Major Sections The Glorious Superiority of Jesus Christ (1:1-3:6) The essence of the old covenant is thus far and no farther. You are the people of God, but you may not come in. There is a barrier, there's a wall, there's a curtain, you're not allowed in, you'll be struck dead if you go up in the holy mountain, that's old covenant. New covenant, there is a new and living way for us named Jesus and you are not just encouraged, you are actually commanded to draw near to God and come right close to Him and sit on His lap and pour out your heart to Him and be intimate with Almighty God through Jesus. Isn't that powerful? That's why the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And so we have these exhortations. Those are just some major themes in the Book of Hebrews. Let's look at some of the major sections and then we'll be done. We can't go into great detail, but the first major section is the glorious superiority of Jesus Christ. If you're there, just look at Hebrews 1:3, we'll preach about this next week, God willing, but Hebrews 1:3 says, "The Son 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." Oh, what a sweet verse that is. The Son is the radiance of God's glory. We'll talk about it in detail next week, but we're just going to talk about the greatness and the majesty of Jesus. The application to these Jewish professors of faith in Christ is that they're just leaving Jesus out. They're not just leaving Jesus out, He is the radiance of God's glory. He's the exact representation of His being. How can you turn your back on Him? He sustains all things by His powerful word, including your body. How can you turn your back on Jesus? Impossible. So the greatness of Christ, He is the final word, God's final word to the human race. In the past, He spoke through the prophets. Now, He's speaking to us by Jesus. He is God's final word and is thus as the Son of God, He's superior to angels and to all creation, which He is upholding by His powerful word. At the right time, He'll roll it up and throw it away like an old garment and make a new one in its place. That's Jesus. How powerful is that? And so because of that, then, don't drift away from Jesus. We see in chapter 2 the glorious superiority of Christ in this humanity, because the children, that's us, have flesh and blood. "He too," it says, "Shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death," that is the devil, "And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Man, I would just like to go on Hebrews the rest of the day. Wouldn't that be awesome? I mean, that's incredible. Jesus by His death has freed you from being afraid of dying. Don't fear death. Don't fear death. And know that Satan's been destroyed. Satan's been... He just doesn't fully know it yet, how destroyed he is, but he has been destroyed by Jesus' death. Hallelujah. And Jesus took on a human body to do it, and therefore He is superior as a mediator. He's superior to Moses. The Jews revered Moses. They're gonna turn their backs, they're gonna go back to Moses, the leader of the people. The one who led the exodus. The author of Hebrews has to be careful here, and he is, Moses is a good man. Moses was a faithful servant of God. He did what he was told to do. He was given living words to pass on to us and he passed them on. Moses was faithful as a servant in God's house, but Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. Warnings against Falling Away from God (3:7-6:20) The superiority of Jesus to Moses is clearly established. The supremacy of Christ, and secondly, then, serious warnings about falling away from Him. Don't turn away from God, Hebrews 3:7 and 8. I'll tell you this, I probably don’t want to overstate now, but I think Hebrew 3:7 and 8 are probably the most important practical verses I've ever learned on the daily Christian Life. And it goes like this, quoting Psalm 95, "So as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Unbelievably important. "As the Holy Spirit says," quote, and then comes Psalm 95. You know what that means? You can have an encounter with the Spirit of God every time you open the Bible. As a matter of fact, that's what it is. The Spirit is speaking to you when you read this book, and He's saying something to you now. He's talking to you and if you hear Him talk to you, don't harden your heart, but do what He tells you to do. Do you not see how powerfully important that is? Read the Bible, by the power of the Spirit, glean what He's saying to you and go do it, and don't harden your heart. Vital verses. It's a warning. How the author of the Hebrews looks back to Psalm 95, 1000 years before him, David writing Psalm 95 and then David looking back even further, four-and-a-half centuries back to the Exodus. They refused to enter the Promised Land. They hardened their hearts. They didn't do what God wanted them to do and they were destroyed. You see in Hebrews 3 and 4 an ongoing rumination over Psalm 95, the author is a meticulous worker over scripture. He works over passages. You're going to see that. He teaches us that meticulous study of the Bible is a good thing, but he's just saying, "Today, today, today. If you hear his voice today, if you hear him speaking don't harden your heart. All you ever have is today." And then he just steps aside and said, "You realize what I've been doing? I've just been thinking about Psalm 95." Wow, is the word of God powerful. Wow, is the word of God living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It's able to penetrate even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account. Oh, my goodness, you read that and it's like the word of God is an encounter with the living God. A sharp sword, it's bringing you to conviction, getting you ready for judgment day and, then as you're trembling, as you're thinking about that, then you are escorted by the ministry of Jesus, our new high priest, into the very presence of God. Since we have such a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to that faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who's been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Let us therefore draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Oh, how sweet are those verses. And so as you're trembling with the word of God and thinking about day, you have a mediator, you have a high priest. He is sinless and pure. His righteousness is yours. He's praying for you. He's interceding for you. His blood was shed for you, let's draw near to God. And so Jesus, then, as high priest is introduced to us. The supremacy of Christ as the high priest and then because of that then the author just takes a break, he wants to talk about Melchizedek. I always find this interesting, he says, "I have a lot to tell you about Melchizedek, but it's hard to explain because you're slow to learn." He just gives them a spanking right there in the middle. It's like, what is that? By now you should be teachers, you guys should be spreading the word everywhere and look at you, you're like babies. You need milk, not solid food. I'd like to give you some solid food, that whole Melchizedek thing, we'll get to it in chapter 7, but I can't, because you're slow to learn and I'm worried about you. And that's when he gives the devastating chapter 6 that causes so many people so much struggle. If you fall away, you can't come back. It's impossible to renew you to repentance. You drink deeply from this fountain, you swim in these waters for a while, you walk away, you're not coming back, friends. You're not coming back. You've heard it all, there's nothing new to say to you. That should make you afraid. Stay here. You know, 1 John said, "They went out from us because they weren't really of us." And so that's why the author gives that warning. But he says, "Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we're confident of better things in your case, things that accompany salvation." That's what he's saying. So he gives them a comforting word, but he's given them that warning. The Glorious Superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant (7:1-10:39) And so we have this glorious supremacy, the superiority of the new covenant to the old covenant in chapters 7 through 10. We have this man Melchizedek. He is an interesting figure, who pops up in the middle of the Genesis account after the defeat of the kings. And Abraham gives him a tenth of all of his plunder and then he disappears again. Who is this man, this Melchizedek? But he doesn't disappear forever. He reappears when the psalmist, David, writes in Psalm 10, "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek." Who is Melchizedek? Well, he's a combination priest and king. A priest king, a king priest. And that's the very thing that was precluded in the old covenant. Any king, who tried to offer sacrifices, generally lost their life or their kingdom. Couldn't do it, but now in Jesus there is someone from the tribe of Judah, king, descended from David, but he is also a priest and so in order to do that you have to change the rules of the game. The old covenant would not have permitted Jesus to be a priest. So we have to have a new covenant to have the better priesthood, and we do. We have a new covenant; we have a new order of priesthood, an order of Melchizedek, where out of that he ministers. The Son of God, living forever, not in one of these dying sons of Aaron, that die and then the next one comes along, and then he dies and then the next one comes along. One who is weak and sinful, and has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people. We don't have anyone like that. We have a pure, spotless, holy Son of God who lives forever as our high priest. And He's up there in the heavens and He's ministering His blood at the right hand of God, and He is interceding for you, and He's praying for you so that you may receive your salvation to the uttermost, right to the end. He is interceding for you. And He'll go on praying for you and the Father hears the prayers of the Son. And so therefore, that's the superior ministry that Jesus gives. And His sacrifice, His own blood, offered Himself, is better than any of those animals and we already touched on this. The animals could not bring you forgiveness. The animal blood could not save you, so Jesus had to come. And He offered his blood, not over and over, many, many, many, many times, but once for all. Once for all. And in the midst of this comes glorious chapter 8. Just look there for a minute, 8:10-12, which is the essence of the new covenant, how it's better than the old covenant. Oh, I just love this, it's actually in the Book of Hebrews twice, it's also in chapter 10. This quote from Jeremiah 31:33-34, "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more." You have three glorious elements of the new covenant that the old covenant didn't have. Let's take them in reverse order. Complete forgiveness of sins. All of your sins, past, present, and future, can be, will be, completely forgiven by the blood of Jesus. Old covenant couldn't do it. All it could ever do is show you what your sins were, but it could not forgive them. Not a single person is in heaven right now because of the ministrations of the old covenant. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, all of those, they're in heaven because of what Jesus did. Amen. The old covenant doesn't save anybody, never has. And so I will forgive their wickedness, and I will remember their sins no more, first. Secondly, I will put my laws in their minds and I'll write them on their hearts. It's a transformed nature. He's changing your heart, He's taking out that heart of stone and giving the heart of flesh. He is putting God's word inside you, so that you yearn to obey the law. As it says, even in that sad Romans 7, the author Paul there says, "In my heart, in my mind, I delight in God's law." How did that happen? God did that. Even though we still struggle with sin, we delight in God's law. We have a new nature. And then thirdly, "I will be their God and they will be my people." Based on the forgiveness of sins, based on that transformed nature, He has adopted us and we are His guard and we don't need anyone to tell us, "Know the lord," we will all know Him, from the least to the greatest, all the way up to face to face fellowship at the throne of God in heaven. That's what the new covenant can do for you, friends, old covenant can't do those three things. And so old covenant was just a type, it was a shadow, it was a symbol, the tabernacle, the blood, all that just pointing ahead to the real ministry, the ministry of Jesus. And therefore we are exhorted, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place, to get right into the holy of holies with God, we have confidence to enter the most holy place. Let us then draw near to God. Do you feel distant from God today? Did you come in here today feeling distant? Do you feel guilty for sins? Do you feel like you're trapped in some pattern you can't get out of? Friend, if you're a Christian you are not a slave to sin, you're not trapped, you're forgiven. You've been given a new nature, you've been set free from sin and death. So draw near to God, it's the devil telling you you don't have a right to come in the into the fellowship, you're commanded to come close and to draw near into the very holy of holies. But if you choose not to, Hebrews 10 also has not only some of the sweetest enticements, but the most severe warnings. "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot," that's what he says. Our God is a consuming fire. So there's the sweet enticement and then there's the severe warning, both in the same chapter. The Life of Faith….so-called “Hall of Faith” (11:1-40) And then you have Chapter 11, the hall of faith. Faith is to find the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, the importance of faith has told us that without faith it's impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. And then you have whole examples of the life of faith, from Abel offering up his sacrifice, Enoch who walked with God, Noah who built an ark, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, these patriarchs who were living in tents but looking ahead to a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God, right through Moses, Moses' parents, then Moses who lived by faith, and all of these heroes of faith; even the judges, some of the judges, Samson is mentioned, what a surprise, but there he is. Samson mentioned, right? In the hall of faith, a man of faith, who trusted God, who conquered kingdoms. It says, "These heroes of faith, who women received back their dead raised to life again." People, men and women of faith, and so clearly the author is saying, "Okay, you've got this cloud of witnesses around you, then let's run the race like they did." Let's run the race with endurance, filled with faith. God Working in Us a Life Pleasing to Him (12:1-13:25) And if you should falter, just know that your heavenly Father will just give you a spanking, that's all. He'll just discipline you, because He punishes every child that he receives and scourges them, but He's never going to let you go. He's got hold of you now, you're a child, the son and daughter of the living God. And if you need a spanking, He'll give you one. He may just warn you, He may convict you, He may do other things, but He's not going to let you go, and so therefore live for His glory, because we're not coming to that old covenant mountain and shaking in blood and thunder and lightning, but we're coming to the New Jerusalem, Mt Zion, the heavenly kingdom where we get to see God. We're surrounded by spirits of righteous men made perfect and angels and heavenly array, that's where we're going, and so, therefore, let's live a life of faith to the glory of God. Friends, that's the best I can do in 45 minutes summarizing the whole book. Thankfully, we're going to have time to go back over it. The central lesson is this. Jesus, the Son of God, the superior mediator, has brought to us a covenant that saves our souls, and if you allow by faith Jesus to minister that to you, it's going to pour out in a whole new kind of living, and part of that is going to be running a race with endurance, it's going to be hard to run, and we are here in this body of Christ to help you run it and you help each other, we help each other as we run this race and why? So that God can be glorified in our full salvation. Close with me in prayer.
Introduction Hypocrisy, that's the word that's in front of me and in front of us this morning, hypocrisy, the wearing of the spiritual mask. It starts with pride, it starts with the desire to be praised and honored by other people. And it gives little thought to what God really thinks. Hypocrisy is concerned with external appearances, with a show of righteousness. Hypocrisy wears a mask and a costume, having learned religious jargon, having learned religious facial expressions, religious tones of voice and religious body language, it's able to appear to most any audience as righteous. Hypocrisy gets dressed for church every Sunday, polishes up the image and walks out on stage, and puts on a show. Conversations in the parking lot, in the church foyer, over coffee during Bible for Life. All of these handled with skill to hide the reality. And what is the reality? Spiritual death, spiritual decay, enslavement to sin, to pride, and lust, and materialism, and pleasure. That's the truth. And though that person knows the language of Christ and of the gospel, the reality, the power of godliness is starkly absent to the only audience it really matters, and that's God. It's one of the most painful works of a pastor, to expose a gospel hypocrite. Maybe one of the most difficult as well. But that's a labor that's in front of us, not just this week, but next week, for two weeks. We're going to look at the issue of hypocrisy. And the issue of spiritual hypocrisy, I think is one of the most deadly in the Christian life. It's a counterfeit righteousness, that effectively blocks the sinner from receiving the true righteousness that Christ offers freely by faith. Contrasted with the actor is the true Christian, the true Christian cannot stand the sham, is deeply aware of the sin within, and wants the genuine remedy. Wants a genuine walk with Christ. And the greatest grief in the life of a true Christian is the gap between their life, and the true standard taught in the gospel, that's the greatest grief in the heart of a true Christian. True Christians aren't perfect, they don't live the perfect standard that's not the case at all. But they yearn for it, they hunger and thirst for it. But not so the hypocrite. A true Christian is spiritually humble, broken-hearted meek and lowly, concerning his own condition and his own situation. The Beatitudes describe the true Christian well, “Blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. And blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” So this morning, we're gonna take a painful walk through Matthew 23, one of the most devastating chapters in the Bible. You have Christ, the gentle Savior, launching missiles of judgment on the Scribes and Pharisees. We hear this repeated refrain, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.” And as I mentioned last week, and I'll keep reminding, the biggest mistake you can ever make when you come to a passage like this, is to assume that Christ is talking about someone else and aren't you glad it isn't you? That's a big mistake you can ever make. No, a genuine Christian, is deeply concerned about hypocrisy. One of the marks of true Christianity, is you take warning passages very seriously. You never blow them off, because you're well aware of the sin within. You feel it, you know it, you're wrestling, you're fighting it every day by the power of the Spirit. And the warnings help you in your fight. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the warnings give you that strength to fight. So we don't run from the warnings, we embrace them. We say, “You must be speaking to me, Lord.” And so as we hear Christ verbally undress the scribes and Pharisees and their wretched hypocrisy, if this passage should make us feel smug, and righteous, and say, “I'm sure glad I'm not like them,” then I do believe you've missed the point. Rather we should be taking our hearts to Christ and saying, “I want a genuine work of grace in my heart. I want a genuine walk with Christ, change me dear Jesus.” Blackest Darkness Reserved for Them Now also, as we come to Matthew 23, we're not just coming to any kind of hypocrisy, we're coming to a specific kind of hypocrisy, and that's hypocrisy in spiritual leaders of the people of God. It's a deadly dangerous form of hypocrisy, when spiritual leaders are hypocrites, and that's what we're dealing with here with the Scribes and Pharisees. Satan’s Three Deadly Attacks Now, I've said before, we need to be aware that Satan has three great, categorically, three great weapons that he uses on the people of God. Worldliness which is the allure of the world. Its enticements, its appeal, its sensual pleasures, its excitements, visual pleasures. Vanity Fair, and all of its enticements, the allure of the world that's worldliness. Secondly, there's persecution, that's the attack of the world. Rejections, insults, missed promotions, gossip, slander, shunning by cliques, all the way up to bitter pounding by hate-filled governments and religious zealots, imprisonment, riots, confiscation of property, torture and death, that's persecution. And then the third, false doctrine, false teaching. The perversion of right doctrine, by a subtle convincing counterfeit. An overemphasis of some truth until it becomes a falsehood. The infiltration of strange ideas, strange worship patterns, things that are contrary to the biblical conception of God, legalism on one side, license on the other. False doctrine. The Greatest Danger: False Teaching And of the three, the greatest as I've said before, is false teaching, Because it lingers to attack that thing which is said to be the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, to the gospel. The gospel is doctrine, and false teaching attacks the doctrine and therefore cuts the tap root of spiritual life and the people. The Greatest Condemnation: False Spiritual Leaders And the greatest condemnation there is in the Bible, is for spiritual leaders, hypocritical spiritual leaders who are teaching false doctrine. 2 Peter 2:17, Peter says of them, “These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.” The Bible hints at the fact that there's not all equal punishments in how there are different levels of condemnation. There are different levels of judgment and it seems that blackest darkness is reserved for false teachers. Hypocrites. Scribes and Pharisees: A Hellish Combination of All Three Attacks Now, as we're looking at Matthew 23, we're looking at the Scribes and Pharisees, or the teachers of law and the Pharisees. We see a hellish combination of all three attacks. We see worldliness in these men, worldliness, because they're consumed with their earthly situation, they do spiritual things for earthly benefits, they're very worldly. They're concerned with earthly prestige and power and greetings, and marketplaces and titles of honor. Most important seats in the banquets and they're materialistic too, in terms of they devour widows' houses it says in Luke 20, they gobble them up and so they use their position to get money. I think they're in charge of the sacrificial system in there and the money is just rolling in. And so there's that materialism, worldliness. Persecution, we see that absolutely, they savagely attacked true religion. They fought Jesus every step of the way. Persecuted him on every step of the way, and they are the ones at this point, who are secretly plotting to have Jesus killed. And Jesus says, “This is what your future holds.” Right here in this chapter, verse 34. I won't cover it today, but he says, “I'm sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. And some of them you will kill and crucify and others, you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.” Persecution. And then thirdly, false teaching, they taught a false teaching, false gospel of legalism and self-righteousness. Legalism is thinking that you can be in right standing with God by your obedience to God. That's what legalism is. And so as you try to have a right standing with God, you look to your own obedience to God's rules and God's commands, that's the essence of legalism. That's what they taught. They had a meticulously careful system of reinterpretation of Moses's laws, human traditions and all that, and they taught that you could be saved, by following their approach to religion. And so these are the deadliest enemies of the gospel that the early church faced. The triple threat of worldliness, persecution and false doctrine. More than that Jesus's denunciation of them in Matthew 23, exposes the hypocrisy of our own hearts. The fact that we ourselves are not what we ought to be, and we have our own outward shows of righteousness and our inward corruptions, and so that's the work that's in front of us here. Overview of Christ’s Condemnation The Bitterest of all Christ’s Teachings Now, as we look at Matthew 23, we're looking, as I said, at the bitterest of all of Christ's teachings. He pulls no punches and therefore he's hard to listen to in our tolerant age. Our Day and Age: Toleration This post-modern age of ours is an age of toleration. And we embrace that kind of toleration. Live and let live. So clear denunciation of other people for their spiritual lives and their doctrines is considered extremely rude and harsh and divisive and judgmental. But let's never forget, the one who's speaking these words here in Matthew 23 actually is the judge of all the earth. And so, if it seems judgemental, understand the one giving it has the right to judge. It says in John chapter 5 that “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” And later in the same Gospel, in Matthew 25, Jesus said this, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the nations one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” He's gonna put the sheep on his right and he's gonna put the goats on his left. And then, he's going to pronounce over some eternal blessedness. And he's gonna pronounce over others eternal condemnation. And he has the right to do it. That's the one who's speaking here in Matthew 23. So what should happen in the hearts of some people, the Scribes and Pharisees, to hear the judge of all the earth say this, “You snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to Hell?” That's one of the most terrifying verses in the entire Bible. Think of who's saying it. Asking what are you gonna do to get out of Hell? How are you going to escape? Context Now, the Gospel of Matthew, the context for this, the unifying theme of the Gospel of Matthew is the Kingdom of Heaven. And really, more specifically, if I can say it this way, Jesus as the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, that's the unifying theme of the whole 28 chapters, the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus as its King. And so, from the very beginning, it starts with the genealogy proving Jesus' right to be king. And then after the birth narratives, we have John the Baptist who is coming and saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” And he testified that someone was coming after him, whose sandals he wasn't worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire and his winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, he'll gather up the wheat into his barn, but he'll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That's Jesus, the judge of all the earth coming in the name of the Kingdom of Heaven. Then after Jesus faces Satan in the desert, fasting 40 days and 40 nights, and defeating him, he then begins to preach the exact same message that John the Baptist had been preaching: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” And then in the Sermon on the Mount, as I have already quoted the Beatitudes, we have an unfolding of the nature of the hearts of those that are in that kingdom, starting with the Beatitudes, but just going on beyond that. The nature of the kingdom is a kingdom of true heart righteousness, of heart religion, in which the righteousness of those who dwell there must surpass that of the Pharisees and scribes. It's a true heart righteousness, in which we fight not only external crimes like murder, but the root of it, which is anger. Not just external sins like adultery, but the root of it, which is lust. It looks right down into the heart, in which Jesus warns us, be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. Don't put on a show, but do your acts of righteousness secretly, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so you're giving may be in secret. And when you pray, go into your rooms and close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. And when you fast, put oil on your head, and wash your face, so that nobody knows you're fasting, live secretly unto God. He's the one who sees everything, have a heart religion. Have a heart righteousness. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these other things, food, clothing and shelter will be given to you. Don't judge other people. Take the plank out of your eye, see your own sin first. See how plain it is, should be there, it's right in front of your face, you should see it. And if you're able to deal with that and honestly deal in a broken-hearted way, with your own sin, then you'll be able to see clearly to help a speck out of a brother or sister's eye. And beware of false prophets. Beware of false teachers. They come to you and sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ferocious wolves. The Sermon on the Mount, describes the Kingdom of Heaven, and from that point on, Jesus goes on to display the power of the Kingdom of Heaven. It's not a matter of word only, but of power of transformation, of the forgiveness of sins of miracles done, sins to a paralyzed man. “Your sins are forgiven,” because he sees his faith. He can look right into the man's heart and he can say, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Jesus read the minds of his enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees standing around, “This is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said, “Which is easier to say: ‘your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘rise, and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” And then he said to the paralyzed man, “Rise and walk,” and he got up and walked. That's the power of the Kingdom of Heaven, forgiveness of sins, a genuine heart transformation. We come at the end of Matthew's gospel, the final week of Jesus' life, Jesus makes his triumphal entry. They're proclaiming him the Son of David, but they don't understand who he is. They don't know what he's come to do. His enemies are angry at him. Jesus gets into one conflict with them after another, they demand to know by what right he cleanses the temple, and they deal with him at that level. And then Jesus tells parables concerning their wickedness and their sin, and then they come at him in chapter 22 with one tough question after another, and Jesus deals with them all. And after all of that, this is Jesus' final formal word to the Jewish nation, Matthew 23. That's the context of these woes. Overview Who were the Scribes and Pharisees? We talked about them last time, the Pharisees were members of a religious sect, it was legalistic and he had worked its way into a position of power and authority and influence in Israel. Who thought that they were righteous because of how well they obeyed their version of the laws of Moses. And the scribes were professional copyists of the law, who therefore knew the law better than others, and were arrogant because of that and taught the same kinds of things that the Pharisees taught. And in this chapter, we have a seven-fold woe. Seven times Jesus says, “Woe to you.” Seven times. Now, this is Jesus is taking on the office of a prophet here. There are three great offices in the Old Testament: prophet, priest and king, Jesus is the consummation of all three. And here he is the ultimate final prophet of God. The ultimate prophet of God. And he's standing over Israel and Israel's leaders pronouncing a seven-fold woe. The word woe is danger from a prophet. You're in danger of condemnation. You're in danger of judgment. It's a prophetic word. Isaiah used it frequently. Isaiah 3:11, “Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They'll be paid back for what their hands have done.” In Isaiah 5, six times he uses the word “woe.” And then in chapter 6, he turns it on himself. “Woe is me” says Isaiah “I am ruined, for I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” He turns the word of woe in on himself. If you do that, in truth, you're safe dear friends. You're safe in Christ, because you realize you need a Savior and you run to the cross. You run to the blood shed on the cross for you. If you can say, “Woe is me” and then run to the cross, dear friends you're safe. So that's what Jesus is doing, He's proclaiming woe to them. And I really do believe it's one final effort to save them. I think he's reaching out, he's just speaking words at this point. It's just words, friends, it's just words. But it's not just words, is it? Those words held out the only hope of life for them, if they would just listen. And we see Jesus probing their hearts, astonishing perceptiveness in this chapter. He knows what their motives are, he knows why they do what they do. How can he know us so well? Well, he is the one who searches hearts and minds, Revelations chapter 2. He reads your thoughts. I already talked to you about when they said this fellow is blaspheming. I love that passage in Luke, where a Pharisee had him over and he's eating and this sinful woman comes and touches him, and the man says in his heart, “If this man really were a prophet, he'd know what kind of woman is touching him, that she's a sinner,” he was just thinking that thought. And the text says, “Jesus answered him and said, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’” That's a bit eerie when you think about it. Jesus answered him, answered what? His thoughts, the thoughts of his heart. Does Jesus know your heart? Yes. Does Jesus study your heart? Yes, he does. Is Jesus concerned with hypocrisy? Yes, he is. And the judgment, the Judgment Day, it says in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “He's going to bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts.” That's what he does on Judgment Day. Romans 2:16 speaks of Judgment Day, as the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” The safest thing you can do dear friends is just lay under that gaze of God now. Say, “Search me, know me, search my heart. Find if there's anything wicked in me,” Psalm 139, “Lead me in the way everlasting.” That's the safest thing you can do. The Seven Woes Woe for Shutting Seekers Out of Heaven So let's look at the first of these seven woes. We're gonna finish next week, but let's start with this one in verse 13. “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces, you yourselves do not enter nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Simply put, these men were spiritual leaders who led to hell. That's really what Jesus is saying. “You yourselves do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you're not going to Heaven, not as you are.” He calls them blind guides in verse 14. “If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” In another place again in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:20, he makes it plain that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You must have a perfect righteousness, and that can only be given to you as a gift by faith, if you just trust in Jesus, He just gives you that righteousness as a gift. But these men, they reduce the laws of God to a system of works established by the traditions of men. This system was overwhelming, it was comprehensive, but it was doable, just as long as you were a hypocrite. You can actually claim, “I've kept all of the laws of God from my youth, all of them.” And they missed the point of the law of God, the point of Sinai was to crush our self-confidence and get us to flee to Christ. That's what the law is for, to crush our self-confidence and enable us to flee to Christ. But these men were legalists, and they thought that if they could just keep their own traditions of the law, keep them as far as the outward human audience went anyway, then they would be right with God. Legalism fails before God, and that's the only place that matters, isn't it? Isn't that the only thing that matters, whether God thinks you're righteous or not, whether God accepts you or not? That's the only thing that matters. Legalism may soothe your conscience if you do well, it may make you feel proud, it might make you feel religious, might make you feel better than other people, it might be a little bit of a religious bump or high or something like that. May bring order to your life. It may enable you to achieve showy outward results, but inevitably, it will damn your soul. Because your righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, it must be perfect righteousness. Now, there's another way to understand this saying, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you allow those to enter who are trying to.” These men had in effect made themselves judges of who was going to Heaven or not. And they were essentially dispensers of despair. They shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces saying, “You will never go to Heaven, you have no hope.” They offered no hope to a prostitute. There's no grace or mercy in their system. They offered no hope to a tax collector. They also offered no hope to an adulterer or adulteress. Disqualified, you’re out of the race. And I think for them, they're probably happy about it, they're in competition with these people, and the more unrighteous people that were around them, the more righteous they felt. They shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. For people that were trying to enter, the scribes and Pharisees just ministered hopelessness, and they were bitter enemies of Christianity. This is another way to look at it as well, when the true gospel started going forth, they got in the way of it, they impeded it, they tried to prevent people from coming to faith in Christ. You read the book of Acts, and we'll talk more about this next week, but everywhere Paul went, there were these zealous Jews that were there trying to hinder the gospel, everywhere. They would travel to do it. It's like, didn't they have jobs, didn't they have something to do with their time? Where is Paul going next, we'll be there. Just to make trouble for him. Paul talks about them in 1 Thessalonians 2, speaks of the Jews, I think he means people like the scribes and Pharisees, “who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displeased God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they may be saved. And in this way, they heap up their sins to the limit the wrath of God has come upon them at last.” Shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. You know what I wanna do, I wanna open it wide. I wanna say what Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, said Jesus, for I'm humble and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls.” Come to Jesus, Kingdom's open wide. The curtain of the temple has been torn in two from top to bottom. The way is open. Come. And if today you hear his voice, don't harden your heart, but just come to Jesus, Let him forgive your sins. It's wide open. Woe for Making Hellish Disciples Second woe, verse 15, “Woe to you teachers of law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert. And when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Hell as you are.” Continuing the previous themes, he just addresses their zeal here. Here it’s their zeal for converts. They exert themselves with great zeal to gather disciples after themselves. I think it's all a matter of pride. If you can have 20 disciples who follow your ways it makes you feel proud. And that was what was motivating them. A yearning for pride. And notice the level of their zeal, they travel over land and sea for a single convert. Back then travel was very difficult, laborious, dangerous. Getting on the Mediterranean Sea in a boat, you might have a shipwreck like Paul did. Very dangerous. But they're willing to do anything, they're willing to travel over land and sea, tremendous zeal. So it is today, we're surrounded by religionists who are more zealous than we are. Twenty-first century Islamic jihadists who will train body and mind for one thing, and that is death, for suicide, all for the glory of Allah. And their zeal greatly outstrips ours. But if any should follow their teachings, they will lead them to Hell. For it's just yet another legalistic system is all it is, just another work system, a system of works righteousness, but their zeal is great. Or how about the Mormons, many young Mormon people, young men and women, travel over land and sea, they get on airplanes, they go into dangerous and difficult places. I remember seeing them in Japan, they look the same in Japan that they do here. It's always the same. I mean, the white shirt, the tie, you know, bike helmets, the backpacks. There's a couple of Mormons. And they are there, they're all over the world. 53,000 Mormon missionaries on the field right now, 5,000 Southern Baptist missionaries. Travel over land and sea to win a single convert. And then if they should make one, they make them twice as much a son of Hell as they are. Or what about the Jehovah's Witnesses? They go from door to door, knocking on doors, trying to win converts. And if they should ever win them to that false system, they would make them twice as much sons of Hell as they are. What this means is, under condemnation, they've not come to the true gospel. So I say to you, zeal for evangelism is a good thing, it's good to be a soul winner, amen. It's good to sacrifice so that others can come to faith in Christ, but it won't save your soul. The only thing that's gonna save your soul is if you yourself come to Christ. And having been saved, then you can invite others. Woe for Being Blind Guides Thirdly, woe for being blind guides, look at Verses 16-22. “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by Heaven swears by God's throne, and by the one who sits on it.” These men were blind guides, they had no idea where they were going. In John 9, Jesus speaks to the Pharisees after the healing of the man born physically blind. And he made this statement: “For judgment I have come into the world so that those who are blind may be able to see, and that those who see may become blind.” And the Pharisees said, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you claim we can see, your guilt remains.” And so, they were spiritually blind. Now, how is it displayed? Well, here it has to do with the issue of the swearing of oaths. This is very big in Judaism. Swearing of the oaths. “I swear by the temple of God that I'll be in Jerusalem by the Passover, I swear by the temple of God.” Well, it turns out, if he said that, his oath meant nothing. You have to read the fine print here, it's gotta do with fine print. These folks were lawyers, remember? They were legally-minded. You have to read the fine print. Such an oath is invalid. Now, if he had sworn by the gold of the temple to be in Jerusalem by the Passover, now that would be binding. Playing games, playing games. “If you swear by the altar, now it means nothing, but if you should happen to swear by the gift on the altar, now that oath is binding.” Now Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, do not swear at all: either by Heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’; or else you'll be condemned.” So at core, a dishonest heart makes a read-the-fine-print oath, you know, crossing the fingers. I always wonder, where’d that come from? If you say something but you're crossing your fingers behind your back, it really doesn't count. Do you not understand? God created Heaven and earth by the word of his power, when God speaks it's true. God is incapable of lying. There is a God in the universe, that's Jesus' point here. And he holds you to what you say, and if you start playing tricky games with your words and try to evade your promises, woe to you. And so, Jesus reminds them of the temple and the one who dwells in it, that's God. And he who swears by Heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it. A true spiritual guide has eyes of faith, and everything he does is in the presence of God. And when you say something, God is listening to you, he hears what you say. And so, Jesus just sweeps away these tricky little word games that they were playing. And next week, we're gonna look at the last woes, the tithing of mint leaves, and neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness. The fact that they externally look clean and actually inward, they're full of corruption. And for honoring dead prophets while murdering the live ones. We'll talk about that next week. Applications Assess Your Own Heart What application can we take from this? Well, start with this, just say, “Lord, I acknowledge that there is hypocrisy in my heart.” Now let me say something to you about this. There are two kinds of hypocrisy. One is the hypocrisy that every single Christian feels when there's this difference between what you espouse as a standard in the way you're really living. Do you not feel that in your heart? And if you think you're entirely free from that, you don't know yourself and you don't know the Word of God. But if you look at the word of God, and then you see your life and you see there's a gap between him, that's the hypocrisy that sanctification seeks to address. You're trying to make that as small a gap as possible. The answer to that hypocrisy has come back again to the cross and say, “Lord, I am not living as I should. I want you to purge me, I want you to clean me, I want you to change me.” But then there's a different kind of hypocrisy, in which you present yourself to be a Christian and you really aren't. And that one will condemn your soul to Hell. Now, next week I'm gonna talk about how can you tell the difference? We all see sin in our lives. How can I know whether I'm a gospel hypocrite? I'm gonna talk about that. But let me say this one thing in closing. The mark of a genuine Christian is a yearning after righteousness inward and out, and the yearning to make your life conform to what Christ commands, whether anyone sees it or not. And so, Thomas Brooks said this, make this your prayer and let this all close. A genuine Christian says this, “Oh, that this ignorant heart were more enlightened! Oh, that this proud heart were just more humble! Oh, that this profane heart were just more holy! Oh, that this earthly heart were more heavenly! Oh, that this unbelieving heart was just more believing! Oh, that this angry heart was more humble! Oh, that this carnal heart was more spiritual! That this vain heart was more serious-minded! That this dull heart was more quickened! that this dead heart was more enlightened! Oh, that this lukewarm heart was more zealous for God and for Christ in the Gospel, and the great concerns of eternity!
Introduction In one of his most profound and triumphant statements in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to Simon Peter, in Chapter 16:18, “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” It really is an astounding statement because it combines two images that don't ordinarily go together —that of an astonishing rescue and a magnificent building project. Now for myself, I love to read stories of heroism. I was reading recently about one of the most incredible rescues that occurred toward the end of World War II January 30th, 1945. 150 rangers specially trained commandos from the United States Army went 30 miles behind the lines enemy lines, in the Philippines, where the Japanese were still fighting for every square inch of territory. The US High Command was concerned that the Japanese might murder over 500 POWs held at the Cabanatuan POW camp, so they sent 150 rangers, 30 miles behind enemy lines to rescue 511 POWs. It was an incredible achievement. Then to lead them back over those 30 miles of enemy-held territory back to safety, which they did successfully — it was an incredible rescue. But even this daring rescue, I tell you in all of the daring rescues that there have ever been in history, does not compare with what Jesus Christ is doing every single day in rescuing sinners and bringing them to eternal life, through faith in Christ and using us to do it sending us into enemy territory to bring them back. He says the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it, more about that later. He sends us into enemy territory, and yet here is this other image, the image of a building on this rock, “I will build my church.” There is erected inside our mind an elaborate glorious structure for worship. Like the Cathedral at Notre Dame, which took 185 years to build from the 12th century to the 14th century. All of those stones were quarried from gypsum right around Paris and built up. And for 185 years, expert craftsman, stone masons and craftsmen, and stain glass carpenters and architects erected this incredible structure which you've seen perhaps in photos, if not in person. The Cathedral of Notre Dame is a center of French culture, of French literature, of French history. It's even the zero-kilometer point of the entire nation, all the miles to Paris, are marked from a stone right in front of the cathedral of Notre Dame. Certainly, the Cathedral of Notre Dame took exquisite skill to build, a lot of courage, a lot of money, some people died while building it. But I tell you again as glorious and majestic as it is, it doesn't compare with the Church of Jesus Christ, which is taken far greater courage, far greater skill, far greater investment of all resources that are valuable in the human race. Over 2000 years Jesus has been building his church. Now I have begun my sermon in a strange way. With two very different images and with a Mother's Day debut. You have these images coming together in this text of an astonishing military rescue and that of a building rising up to the glory of God. How do they fit together? Imagine, just in your mind's eye, the most incredible building project in history going on during the midst of the fiercest battle in history. The building materials for the church are over the walls and in enemy territory, and the skilled craftsmen that are going to be building that cathedral to the glory of God have to be commandos with military courage to go into enemy territory, quarry out the living stones, and safely get them to the building site where they are erected to the glory of God. You have a picture then of what Jesus is doing in Matthew 16:18 when He says, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it." Let's get our bearings here, in some context. Last week we looked for the first time at this section of Scripture. In Mathew 16:13-20, we saw the most important question you'll ever answer. Remember that Jesus had gone somewhat on retreat with his disciples to Caesarea Philipp. He wanted to spend some time with them, build into them pour into their lives, and so when He came there, he asked them the most important question. He began by getting a sense of a survey of opinions of popular opinions. “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” That's Jesus, the son of man, and they replied, "Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah or Jeremiah and some, one of the prophets.” “But what about you,” he asked. “Who do you say that I am?” In a world full of opinions and a world full of questions, this one remains the most important question you will ever face as we mentioned last week. Who do you say that Jesus of Nazareth is? As we mentioned last week, the destiny of your soul depends on your heart-filled answer to that question. Simon Peter gave the correct answer. He said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him, “This wasn't revealed to you by man but by my Father in Heaven.” The correct answer must be revealed to you by almighty God by the power of a spirit through the ministry of his word. That's how we discover who Jesus is. That was last week. But Jesus goes on from Peter's saving confession to make an incredible statement about the church. Look at verses 18 and 19, again, “… and I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The Foundation of the Church Through the Apostles and the Prophets So, we come to the question of the foundation of the church, on what is it build, and it's interesting that He begins by changing Peter's name. Now this had already happened, but he's reiterating the change that has occurred in Peter's name. A change of name, I think, gives a sense of ownership and a sense of the transforming power of Christ in the life of an individual. Jesus owns Peter, He rules over him, He has the right to change his name. It's just like what happened with Abram going over to Abraham, Sarai becoming Sarah, Jacob becoming Israel. The book of Revelation 2: 17 says, "To him who'll overcomes, I will give a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it." If we overcome by faith in Christ, we're going to get a new name. It's a sense of ownership and of a transformation of our very natures. Made like him, we rise. We will become new creations completely, including our resurrection bodies. The change of name, I think in Peter's case, signifies a divine work of God's grace in Peter's heart. He will be a major part of the church, and Christ intends to equip him for it. He's going to prepare him to be what He wants him to be, for the history of the church. However, these words have caused major consternation in the history of the church and a great deal of misunderstanding. “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church and I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” For millennia and a half, the Roman Catholic Church has gone back to this statement by Jesus to the apostle Peter and said that Jesus was investing him papal authority and papal succession. In this moment, He gave him papal authority, the right to rule over all affairs, for the Christian church in Christ's place. The symbol of the Vatican is the Cross Keys. The keys, they're going right back to this statement in Matthew 16, a symbol of the Vatican and its authority and powers that Jesus entrusted to Peter, the keys. So, he has papal authority as the Bishop of Rome. Furthermore, there's also this idea of papal succession. That once Peter died, and went on to his eternal reward, he gave his earthly position to his successor, like a king on his death bed giving it to the Crown Prince. There is this idea of papal succession, so the present Pope has authority over all matters to do with the church in the entire world. That is Catholic teaching. However, I believe that Jesus is not doing that here, I don't think that's what He's doing with Peter. He's not entrusting to Peter authority over all spiritual things, so that Peter would rule somewhat like an earthly potentate over the church. There's a play on words going on here. There are two different Greek words, very similar in meaning. Both of them could be translated “rock”. He says, "You are Petros and on this rock, Petra will build my churches... Changing the terminology slightly to show that there's not a one-to-one correspondence between Peter and the rock. So, for me, I want to know what is Christ's church built on? What is the foundation of Christ's church? Some has said it's Peter's confession and, on that rock, the rock of confession, you are the Christ, the Son of Living God, I will build my church. But I don't think so, although I do think it's essential that we all make that confession in order to be saved, but I don't think that's what He has in mind. I think it says Peter, and the other apostles, were to play a very significant and unique role in the history of the church, a role that we don't play. What then is the foundation of Christ's church? Paul the apostle puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 3:11, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one that is already laid and that is Jesus Christ,” so Christ is the foundation of his own church. But in one sense, there's another truth to this idea of foundations and that is that none of us has access to Christ, except through the ministry of the apostles, and prophets. We must have the apostles and prophets tell us who Jesus is or we will never know him. Therefore, the apostles play a key role with the prophets in the foundation of Christ’s church. In Ephesians 2:19-20, the Apostle Paul wrote, speaking of God's household, that it's built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. How are the apostles and prophets a foundation for God's eternal temple and how is that not contradictory to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:11, "No one can lay any foundation except Jesus,”? I think this is it. The fact is that the apostles and prophets testified of Christ for now twenty centuries. They’ve been testifying to us to who Jesus is so that we can put our faith in him, and believe and on that foundation, the apostolic testimony and witness to the risen Christ the whole structure depends. It depends on the word of God through the apostles and prophets. This is how we know who Jesus is, and no other way. There's an intimate connection between Jesus Christ and his saving work, and this Bible. The apostles and prophets and their testimony to Christ. We can know a lot of things about God the Creator, by looking at what he has made by looking at creation, by looking at a magnificent sunrise, or a beautiful sunset, by looking at a majestic and powerful mountain, or experiencing a thunder and lightning storm, or feeling a soothing general rain or breeze, or hearing about a hurricane or tornado and its destructive power or watching an eagle soar on a thermal. All of these things give us evidence that there is a God, that He is mighty, that He is loving, that He is powerful, but they tell us nothing directly about Christ. We must have the scripture in order to know him. So, in this sense, “You are Peter, and you are going to testify to me, and on the basis of your testimony and that of the other apostles will the rest of the church be founded.” Therefore, we must know Christ based on the ministry of the apostles, and prophets. the Apostle John put it this way, in 1 John 1:1-3, "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. The life appeared, we have seen it, and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us." Do you see the “we” in rhythm in 1 John 1:1-3? The “we” is the apostles, I believe. That's a good interpretation of it because we haven't seen with our eyes or handled or heard with our ears. We were not eyewitnesses, but they were. “Those things which we saw with our own eyes, which we were eyewitnesses to, this we proclaim concerning the word of life, so that you also can have fellowship with us and go to Heaven.” In that sense, the church is built on the apostles and prophets. Peter put it this way in 2 Peter 1:16, "We did not follow cleverly-invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." Peter was the rock on which the church was built in that he was an apostle, and together with the other apostles, he began on Pentecost preaching that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and that was the start of it all. On this rock I will build my church. Christ is the Builder of the Church Look at the progress of the church. He says, "On this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it.” Let's begin with Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who builds the church. “On this rock I will build my Church, I will build it.” Peter did not build the church and neither did Paul or John or any of the apostles. Martin Luther did not build the church and neither did Calvin or Zwingli or any of the Reformers. William Carey did not build the church neither did any of the missionaries, however great their sacrifices might have been. Yes, Jesus used each one of these godly servants to build up his church, but it is Jesus who builds his church and each one of those godly people would have told you the same. “Jesus raised me up, and he used me to build this church, but it was Christ that built it.” Notice also that sense of a promise, a sense of certainty. “I will build my church.” There's a sense of absolute confidence in this. I am putting my omnipotence behind this. "All authority in heaven and earth is behind this building project and it cannot fail. I will build my church.” He never loses focus, never forgets what He's about, never gets distracted. There are no significant setbacks, everything is on schedule, everything is progressing for 2000 years. Notice also the sense of ownership, “I will build my church.” There is no one here who can make that statement, not about any local church, not any absolute statement about the church. Jesus alone is the ruler of the church, Jesus alone shed his own blood for her, He bought her with his own blood. We are his... “I will build my church”, a sense of possession. Misconception of Papal Authority in the Church That leads us to the question of authority — the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Many again have stumbled over these words, misunderstanding them. As I said, the Catholic Church Roman Catholic church focuses on Peter saying that he is Christ’s vice regent on the earth, able to make absolute statements and the church must obey. Sometimes the interpretation is given that Peter has the keys in terms of who gets in and who doesn’t and from that has come a whole genre jokes about Peters at the pearly gates — ask a series of questions and if you answer the question right, you'll get in and if you don't, you won't. You know what I'm talking about? The whole thing is based on a theological misunderstanding as though Peter has the right to decide who gets in and who doesn't. He has the keys and if he doesn't let you in, you don't get in. Henry IV, in order to receive forgiveness from his papal magnificence, had to go and spend three days begging in the snow. Kneeling and begging and doing contrition in the snow before the Pope ordained to see him. When Henry was humbled sufficiently, he was brought into the papal court and there the Pope humbled him some more in front of everyone. Finally, he re-established him and took away the excommunication. Pope Gregory VII declared that the Pope has the right to depose kings and emperors, to make laws to require secular rulers to kiss his feet. He said that nobody has the right to judge the pope. Gregory also declared that because of the merits of Saint Peter, every duly elected pope is automatically a saint in their way of understanding. One hundred years later, Pope Innocent III said the authority of the Pope was like the sun, and that of all secular leaders like that of the moon, a reflected authority emanating originally from the pope. Let me tell you something, all of this pomp and arrogance does not come rightly from Matthew 16. It doesn't come from the keys, it doesn't come from the binding and loosing. I know in the Greek; Peter does receive something directly. It is second person singular, "I'll give to you Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven." That is true, but he also links the keys to the binding and loosing. Look at verse 19, "Whatever you bind on earth will bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Binding and loosing, is a term used by rabbis, to make spiritual pronouncements and decisions like binding someone's lifestyle or someone's practices or someone's behavior or binding the church, concerning doctrine. It implies the power to govern spiritually to make decisions. I believe this is what He gave to Peter, but we should not understand that Heaven was following Peter's leadership, as though Heaven didn't know what to do. "Tell us, Peter... What to do. The angels are wondering. We're kind of in a mish-mash up here, let us know what to do." It's not like that at all, there's perfect clarity in heaven. Heaven knows exactly what to do. The cloud is here on Earth, is it not? Even Peter sometimes got into the cloud, not dealing properly with Gentile converts and needed to be rebuked by the Apostle Paul, in Galatians 2. So, it's not like heaven needs Peter's help in figuring out what to do. In Matthew 6:10 in the Lord's prayer, "May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So, Heaven takes the lead. Actually, I think the problem is a translation one. I think that the translation would be better this way, "Whatever you bind on earth will be having already been bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be having already been loosed in heaven." That's the way it is and that's an accurate translation. Therefore, what is Peter's role of announcing what's been bound and loosed in heaven? We have the role and the responsibility of saying what heaven decides in matters, not doing it ourselves. And the binding and loosing is based on the Scripture. It's based on how God has revealed his truth, this is what binds us, this is what loses us, the scripture, and the binding and loosing He has given to all of his disciples. Turn over a few chapters to Matthew Chapter 18: 15- 20. There it's dealing with sin between brothers and sisters in Christ. As we have encounters with one another, we have issues from time to time. Look at verse 15 and following, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. I tell you the truth, whatever you, plural, bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you, plural, loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three come together in my name there am I with them." Here in this passage, the binding and loosing is given to the disciples, it's given to the church and in this case, it has to do with church discipline. Notice in the hierarchy, the final court of appeals isn't Peter, it's the church. This authority of the church concerning binding and loosing, concerning sin and doctrine, this authority stands over every individual believer in Christ no matter how powerful they are in their secular responsibility. For example, it stands over a President of the United States. If the President of United States is a member of a church and commits adultery, the church has the responsibility to deal with it as they would anyone else. There's no difference. Doesn't matter what their position, doesn't matter if they're a king, an emperor. It doesn't matter who they are, if they have sin, the church has a responsibility of dealing with the sin in the same way they would with anyone else. But the church does not have the right to dictate secular policy to the President, and that's where the papal authority made its mistake, it got involved in secular affairs. The power of the church in the statement by Christ to Peter, and it's still in place, concerns spiritual ministry, strategy for missions, doctrinal statements and the issue of church discipline. The binding and loosing I think is especially connected to the issue of the forgiveness of sins. The issue of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, the day He was raised from the dead, appears to his disciples in John chapter 20 and, "He shows them his hands and his sides, and he breathes on them and says, receive the Holy Spirit, if you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." Again, we are not in the place of God. We don't sit on the throne and judge, that's not it. We are given the responsibility and the great privilege to announce based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, based on the Word of God, somebody's spiritual situation before God, based on that. Let's say you're doing some workplace evangelism. You've got a co-worker who's an atheist. You share the gospel with that co-worker, they don't change at all. They might even mock a little bit. You get done with the encounter. I think it's your responsibility to tell him the truth. "I want you to know that based on your rejection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you are still in your sins, and you're not ready to die." That may be uncomfortable, but I think it's our responsibility. “You're still bound by your sins. Jesus can release you; he can set you free. Every chain can be broken. Simply trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll have eternal life. But if you don't, you're still bound by your sins and in that you will die, you'll die in your sins and you'll be condemned to hell if you don't repent.” You must tell them the truth; they are still bound by their sin. Conversely, you share the gospel with someone, and they're moved. They're asking questions. You answer their questions. They're moved some more. After a while you start to know the spirit of God is present in that encounter. They want to accept Christ. What do I do? Act 16 says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." You tell them that, and they say, "Lord Jesus, save me from my sins." I think you have a responsibility to tell them that based on their confession of faith in Christ, that their sins are forgiven. Now we can be tricked. We can be fooled, and our approval of their faith doesn't mean much on Judgment Day, but I think as we share the Gospel with people, we have the responsibility to tell them, in Christ, their sins are loosed, and they can be forgiven. That's the binding and loosing. The Gates of Hades: Jesus is Stronger But then Jesus makes this incredible statement, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it." Now what does this mean? The gates of Hades? In Greek mythology, Hades was both the name of the King of the Dead and his dark realm where he reigned, the underworld realm where the dead went. Hades was used either for the king or for his dark kingdom. It was similar to the Hebrew concept of sheol, the grave. The dark kingdom of Hades in Greek mythology was across the river Styx and had powerful gates guarded by a three-headed dog named Cerberus, a vicious, vicious dog and there was no getting past the gates of Hades. However, in Greek mythology from time to time, famous Greek heroes would be able to pass through the gates on certain missions to be able to show their skill or their strength thereby. For example, Hercules. One of his errands was to go down and actually capture Cerberus, the three-headed dog which he does by his supernatural God-given, in that mythology, strength. He's able to grab this three-headed dog and carry it up. King Hades wants his dog back and he eventually gets his dog back. But so, the story goes, it takes incredible strength. Then there's another story of a sweet singer named Orpheus who I believe on his wedding day, lost his bride because she stepped on a poisonous snake. She was carried down to the realm of the underworld and Orpheus wants his bride back and so he... Through the sweetness of his song is able to charm King Hades and he allows Orpheus to bring Eurydice, his wife, back up through the tunnel, through the gates and back to the realm of the living, except on one condition. That is, he cannot turn around and look at her as they are departing. So, he's traveling up as he goes, he's not hearing anything behind him. Very concerned about this, right as he's approaching the gates of Hades, he turns around... She's there and then suddenly there is King Hades as well who takes her back down, and Orpheus spends the rest of his life singing sad songs. How does Christ use this term, then, the “gates of Hades”? I think it represents death, and the one who holds the power of death, the devil, it says in Hebrews 2:14-15, "Since the children [that's us] have flesh and blood, He, Christ too, shared in their humanity. So that by his death, He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who, all their lives, were held in slavery by their fear of death." Christ is mightier than Hercules. He rescues all of his people from the kingdom, and He destroys the kingdom itself. Christ is more skillful than Orpheus; He can look at us as much as He wants, his bride, and nobody's going to suddenly pop up and take us back to the realm of the dead. Christ is the hero that rescues us from the gates of Hades. I’s so beautiful, because it says in Revelation 1:18, Jesus’ speaking, “I am the living one. I was dead and behold, I'm alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades." Jesus holds the keys. And this is the one that speaks and says, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove strong within it." How? I think in two senses, in the present age, and in the future, the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than the church. Notice He doesn't say, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than me." That's not what he says. He says, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than the church." He's going to send the church on an assault mission and the gates of Hades don't stand a chance. That's the picture here. Now, in the present age, the gates of Hades, I think represent Satan's power of death that Satan holds captives in that power. That fear of death, they're captives. For most of military history, the safest place you could be would be inside a fortress, a walled fortress, like a walled city, or a castle or stronghold of some sort. That's where you wanted to be, until gunpowder blew that apart. But that's where you wanted to be. The weakest defense are the gates, so that's where special military engineering went. They were designed to be gates of death really, where they'd let you in and then some portcullis would come down and arrows would rain down. It was diabolical and powerful. If you can take the gates, you can take the whole city, so the gates represent the whole walled fortress I believe of Satan's dark power of sin and death. Jesus says, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it." What's the issue here? It's a battle of power. You've got one captain, Jesus. You've got another captain, Satan. They are not equal in power, not even close. Jesus sends his church and they're going to win. Satan is not equal power to Jesus, but Jesus said in Luke 11:21-22, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and he divides up the spoils." Satan is the strong man, Jesus is the one stronger and he strips Satan's powerful gates away, and he plunders Satan's dark kingdom. Each one of us who sit here today, each one of us who believes in Christ today were rescued from the dominion of darkness. Colossians 1 says we were transferred over into the kingdom of the Son that God loves, we were rescued from Satan's dark dominion. Christians are the Building Blocks of the Church Furthermore, we have become building materials. Remember I told you there's two images here. There's the image of a commando-raid rescue and then there's the image of a building. "I will build my church on this foundation," He says, "On this rock." Solomon's temple was built by stones that were dressed by Hiram, King of Tyre, floated down and then traveled inland, dressed off-site and then so no iron tool was heard on the work site there. Notre Dame was made, as I mentioned, from gypsum stones quarried from around Paris. It was very expensive to transfer them, so it was right nearby. St Peter’s Basilica in Rome was built in1499 out of marble from a specific quarry that Michelangelo later used to make the Pieta and other sculptures that were there. What did Christ use to build his church? He built the church out of us. We are the living stones in 1 Peter 2, "As you come to him, the living stone rejected by man, but chosen by God and precious to him. You also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." We're living stones set in the walls of this beautiful spiritual house. That's what we are. We are both commandos going over the wall, through the wall, through the gates to go get the living stones and we are also the living stones in the wall. We're both. We are given, therefore, a mission and the only way, friends, that we are going to accomplish our mission is to have unshakable confidence in Jesus Christ that we will be victorious. The early opposition of the Jewish leaders couldn't stop the church. The persecution of the Roman emperors couldn't stop the church. Neither could the barbarian hordes that swept across. Neither could the Dark Ages. Neither could the Viking depredations stop the church. Neither could the Counter-Reformation stop the church. Neither could the Age of Enlightenment, or German higher criticism or the theory of evolution or two world wars, or the Cold War or communism stop the church, and neither will the self-indulgent materialism in which the United States of America leads the way, stop the church. None of those things can stop the building of the church. All of them have been satanic threats, but Jesus has overcome every single one of them by his sovereign power. Are you confident in that? Are you willing to risk it to do some evangelism? Are you willing to risk it, to go over the walls, and rescue some people who are perishing? Are you willing to do that? That is the present triumph of the church over the gates of Hades. What about the future triumph of the church? Our biggest test is yet to come. Someday it is appointed to every one of us to die, every one of us will die. Right before Jesus died, He said, "Father into your hands I commit my Spirit”, so you will do as well," and will Hades, those dark gates, be strong enough to keep your body in the grave? Can the grave hold you back when Christ summons you forth and gives you a resurrection body? Does the grave have the power to say, "No," to Jesus in that matter? I tell you it does not. "I will build my church out of people who will have... resurrection bodies and the gates of Hades cannot hold them back," and glory to God for it. In John 11: 25-26, Jesus said, "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 in 1 Corinthians 15, "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead, the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised, imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body but is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there will be a spiritual body.” And “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true, death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” When Jesus raises you from the dead and you pass through the gates of Hades and you see them as nothing and the grave cannot hold you back, you will sing a triumph song and say, “Where O death, is your victory?" Application What application can we take from this magnificent passage? First of all, I want to speak to those of you that are here today, maybe your guests, family members, and maybe you've never trusted in Christ. I was speaking to you earlier. When I was saying that Jesus has the power to break the chains of sin. He has the power to forgive all of your sins, all you have to do is call on his name. He doesn't want your good works; He wants your faith. He wants you to just simply trust in him, turn away from sin. Turn away from wickedness, repent and turn to Christ, and He will welcome you. He will forgive you. On the basis of that I, and any Christian here, has the authority to tell you, "Your sins will be forgiven if you simply trust in Christ." If you've already made that commitment, can I urge you to be courageous for Christ? Don't waste encounters with non-Christians, not talking to them about Jesus. See yourself as a courageous warrior involved in a very powerful battle. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. There are spiritually flaming arrows flying everywhere, bullets going everywhere, it's on. It's a tough battle, but this is what God has called us to do. Our theme verse for the entire year, in Luke 19:10, Jesus said, "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” Are you seeking, and are you an instrument in God's hand to the saving of the lost? Are you involved? This week speak to someone about Christ, invite them to church, talk to somebody at the workplace, bring these issues home to bear. They're not thinking properly, they don't see time properly, they don't see sin properly, they're not ready for judgment day. Please tell them the truth. If they repent, tell them the good news that their sins are forgiven. If you've already repented and trusted in Christ, can I tell you the good news, your sins are forgiven. We walk around defeated all the time forgetting that Jesus' blood is ample provision for our guilt and that we are forgiven people. Shake off your chains and get up and get involved in what Jesus is doing in the world. Follow him. He's a courageous captain. He said, "Nothing's going to stop the building of my church." Can I also urge you to respect the authority of the church? The Church has the right to send out from its midst unrepentant sinners. Matthew 18 says, "We have that authority and that responsibility. Respect that authority." God also raises up leaders, elders who have the power and the authority to preach and to teach and to rightly divide the word of truth. I believe in congregational polity. The Church has the right to remove them from their position if they're found to be inaccurate and wrong in their ministry, but I believe that God raises up spiritual leaders and it's for the church to follow that leadership. Respect the authority of the church. Finally, don't fear death and Hades. Their days are numbered. Jesus is going to throw death and Hades into the lake of fire, it says in Revelation 20, and there'll be no more death. No more Hades. Death and Hades are temporary, but your life in Christ is not.
sermon transcript Introduction Ordinarily on Easter Sunday, I like to somewhat put the people who are listening to me on a time machine and go back to that first resurrection day. I like to go to narratives that describe what it was like on that day, what it would have been like to go with the women as they went to dress the dead body of Jesus, worried about who's gonna move the stone, and to see the look on their faces when the stone's already removed and the angel gave the message: “He is risen. Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He's not here.” And just to be there and experience it, that would have been something. Or to be with Peter and John as they heard the news and they ran toward the empty tomb, and they saw the physical evidence of the resurrection, the grave clothes laying there, perhaps in a cocoon, in the shape of the body of Jesus, the head covering folded up neatly off to the side, the stone, the massive stone removed from the entrance by a supernatural force, the whole scene just proclaiming he is risen from the dead. Oh just to be there and see the physical artifacts, that would have been something. Or to be with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, wouldn't that have been something? Best of all, those personal encounters with the risen Lord. To be able to have a conversation with Jesus, they didn't even know it was him. And their hearts are burning as they hear the word of God from Jesus's own lips. And it's only when they sit down at table with Jesus and he breaks the bread, that their eyes are opened, and they realize that it's Christ, and instantly he's taken away from them. Just to sit with those two disciples, let's make it three disciples or five, and just be able to see the risen Lord, I would love to be able to do that And so that's how I like to preach usually on Easter Sunday, because I believe with all my heart, it really happened in space and time. There was a time, there was a body, there was an empty tomb, there were eyewitnesses. It all happened. He has risen. It actually occurred. And it's so important for us to realize that that is the truth, and that our faith is established on the unshakable fact of the empty tomb of the resurrection of Christ. So I like to do that on Easter Sunday. But this morning, I feel led to take you on a different journey, perhaps one of the most incredible journeys that any prophet has ever taken. The Apostle John in exile on the Island of Patmos, having a vision on the Lord's day of the resurrected Christ in his glory, in a way they didn't see him while he ministered on earth, and to hear his voice like the sound of rushing waters, great power. And then in Revelation 4, he sees a door standing open in heaven, and a command that it's absolutely impossible for us unaided by supernatural power to obey, but John got the command, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this,” and at once, John says, “I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.” That's the center of my life. That's the center of my theology, a heavenly throne and someone sitting on it. That is the Ancient of Days. That is the Almighty Heavenly Father. He's sitting on the throne. He is the God of creation in Revelation 4, and there are 24 elders surrounding that throne, and they are continually giving praise and glory and honor to the God who created all things. Revelation 4, the picture of God the Creator, the king sitting on the throne. I wanna take you, not back in time therefore, but somewhat outside of time, and also mystically and prophetically ahead in time to the future. Outside of time and ahead of time, to see not what Jesus looked like the morning he was raised, but what he will look like when we see him in heaven, when he will be glorified before our very eyes, and we get to worship him for eternity. Because even then there was still work to be done, even that first resurrection morning, there's still a journey to be traveled. There's Mary holding on to his feet, and Jesus has to say, “Let go of me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. There's still some work to be done here.” But how about when there's no more work to be done? How about when Jesus is in his glory, when he's on the throne, and we get to be with him, with a countless multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation around the throne, giving glory and praise to Christ? How about then? Oh, how my heart yearns for that day. And I look forward to it. And this resurrection morning, the first one, that was just the most important step in a long journey that will be fulfilled for all of us by the power of the Spirit. So let's go outside of time, let's go ahead of time, and let's see in Revelation Chapter 5, a picture of the resurrected and glorified Christ in prophetic perspective, a picture of Jesus on his throne. Four things focused our attention in this chapter. There is a scroll in the hand of Almighty God. Secondly, there is a proclamation by the angel about the scroll. Thirdly, there is a lamb receiving the scroll, and fourthly, there is honor and glory given by all creation to the lamb who receives the scroll. That's the four-part outline of this chapter, Revelation chapter 5. The Scroll: God’s Plan for Redemption and Judgment for the Earth The Scroll Described Let's begin with the scroll. It says in verse one, “Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals.” That is the scroll described. The Greek word is “biblos,” could be just a book, but it's probably a scroll, rolled up. And it's in the right hand of someone who's sitting on a throne. The one sitting on the throne is none other than God Almighty, the God who created heaven and earth. And so he sits on his throne in heavenly glory, and in his right hand there is this scroll. And the scroll must be a very precious thing indeed, for it's in the right hand of God, and it is the focal point of all heaven at that moment. All of heaven is focused on that scroll. It must be a very precious thing indeed to be in the right hand of God. The Scroll Interpreted And it says that there's writing on both sides. We don't know how John could know this, but he knew it, just like you know something in a dream, you just know. And there's writing on both sides of the scroll. This implies that it's a complete and total record of full accounts, nothing more can be added, and because it is the writing of God, nothing can be removed. It is a perfect writing, perfectly complete. No room to add to it, and nothing can be taken away from it. This must be, therefore, the redemptive plan of Almighty God, culminating in the ownership of heaven and earth, the title deed of the universe with the plan to get there, it is the redemptive plan of Almighty God. And it says that it's sealed with seven seals. Seal implies ownership and authority. It forbids anyone to break open the scroll and look inside if they don't have that right. There's a sense of punishment to any that break open the seal if they're not worthy to do it. Now, the seven seals, the number seven in the Book of Revelation is a mystical number, signifying deity, signifying the actions of God. It's a complete sealing of the scroll, and what's inside is a complete mystery. And so it's completely sealed. No one can pry up a corner and look inside, get a little glimpse. It's impossible. It's completely sealed. And based on what happens in Revelation 6 through 8, when the seven seals are opened, the scroll, in my opinion, is probably progressively sealed, rolled up a little and sealed, rolled up a little more and sealed again, rolled up a little more until it is sealed seven times. And so as you break open one of the seals, a little more is revealed. And so it unfolds. Now, this scroll, as I've said, is the eternal plan for the redemption of heaven and earth. It is, as some commentators have called it, the title deed of the earth. And as the seals are broken, this plan is unfolded before us in the Book of Revelation. And thus it is with God's sovereign plan written in his hand before the foundation of the world, it remains in the mind of God a secret until he chooses to reveal it. And so it says in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” And so here is a secret thing in the right hand of God. The Angel’s Proclamation: Who is Worthy? The Nature of the Proclamation Secondly, we notice the angel's proclamation concerning the scroll. Look at verse two, “And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?’” Look at the nature of the proclamation. The task is entrusted not just to any angel, but to a mighty angel. Now, to us mortals, to us weak people, any angel is a mighty angel, but this must be a truly mighty being, to be entrusted with this job of proclaiming. He is a mighty and a powerful angel, perhaps more powerful than other angels. The proclamation is made with a loud voice so that it can be heard across all of creation. And the proclamation is a question, and the question rings out over all of time in history, “Who is worthy? Who is worthy?” In one version of the legend of King Arthur, there's a story of Excalibur, the sword, and it's stuck in an anvil, which is in a boulder, in a stone, a sword in a stone, and there's inscribed on it, “Who so pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is right-wise born king of all England.” You know the story, how Sir Kay is going to a jousting tournament, he has a little squire named Arthur, and Arthur is forgetful, he'll do better when he's a king later, but he forgot his knight's sword. That's pretty big. You're going to lose any jousting when you don't have your sword. Because when you're both de-horsed and you're standing there with nothing in your hands, you lose. So he's in trouble, he needs a sword, Arthur realizes he's in big trouble. He happened to notice, strangely, a sword sticking out of a stone. Goes out, pulls it out without any trouble and brings it into Sir Kay who recognizes it immediately. That's the sword that was in the stone. He said, “Where'd you get this?” He said, “It was just outside. It was in a stone somewhere. I don't know why it was there, but there it was.” Sir Kay is amazed. They go out, they put it back in, and Sir Kay is not able to pull the sword from the stone, neither is anyone else. Arthur does it easily and repeatedly. And thus it is identified that he is right-wise born king of all England. Now, that's a myth. It's a legend. It almost certainly never happened. This is no myth, friends. This is no legend. Whoever has the right to take this scroll from the right hand of Almighty God is right-wise born king of all creation. And the question is, who is worthy to do it? Who has the right to take it from the right hand of God? That's the question. The Purposes of the Proclamation Now, there are many purposes for the mighty angel's proclamation. First of all, to display the greatness of the task of taking the scroll, breaking open its seals and opening it, it is a great task, and not everyone is worthy to do this task. The taking of the scroll from the right hand of him who sits on the throne implies the right to rule heaven and earth. The opening of the scroll seal by seal implies the right to govern the development of God's redemptive plan. Under whose hand can this plan develop? The one who can break open the seals and open it. The rights and privileges of taking the scroll and opening it are greatly dramatized by the pomp and circumstance of this cry by the angel: “Who is worthy?” Secondly, the proclamation also displays very vividly the disqualification of all the rest of creation, of all of creation, disqualified. Look at verse three, “But no one in heaven or on earth, or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.” Friends, this involves every single human being that has ever lived. All the mightiest emperors, from Alexander the Great through Caesar and Genghis Khan, Napoleon, right on through, none of them are worthy to take the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. All the wisest philosophers, whether Socrates or Plato or Aristotle, or Descartes, right on through, none of them are wise enough, none of them are worthy to take the scroll. All of the greatest scientists and inventors, whether Archimedes or Pythagoras or Einstein, Edison, none of them are worthy to take the scroll and look inside. Even the humble unknowns, the humble servants, the ones that no one knows their name, the ones that have lived a life of love and service to their fellow men, all of them are disqualified. Not one of them is worthy. Whether famous or non-famous, none of them are worthy. Even among the godliest believers of the Bible, whether Abel or Enoch or Job, or Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, whether King David or Solomon, right on through the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, none of the Apostles of the Lamb, none of the great figures of church history, it didn't matter. Even the martyrs who shed their blood to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ, those that died in the coliseum in Rome, mauled by lions, or the reformers, they're all of them disqualified, every last one. Even John himself who gave us this book, the apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, he would not dare cross that space and go forward to the throne of God and take from his right hand the scroll. He wouldn't dare do it. Let me get really personal. You are disqualified. I am disqualified. We're not worthy, not one of us. And why is it? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're all sinners, every last one of us. We have, all of us, this in common, and we are disqualified from taking the scroll. But we can go beyond that. All of the angels, holy as they are, who have never sinned, who have only obeyed God, even the mighty angel who's doing the proclaiming, the angels are all disqualified, all of them, because this must go to the Son of Man, who is the Son of God, and none of them are the Son of Man. They're all disqualified. So the angel's proclamation heightens the sense of anticipation and also of grief. Look at verse four, “I wept and wept,” said John, “Because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” John is reacting, “Is there no one? Is there no one who can take the scroll?” And he weeps and weeps. And the proclamation therefore displays the greatness of Jesus Christ, does it not? Then there's a dramatic pause, and everyone that has ever lived is disqualified, and all of the holy angels and the 24 elders and the living creatures, all of them disqualified. And then up steps Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and he has the right to do it. Does this not display the greatness of Jesus Christ? Isn't that the purpose of the proclamation? Look at verse five, “Then one of the elders said to me, do not weep, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” He is able, he is able to take the scroll, he's able to break open its seals, he is able to govern history, 20 centuries of it and more, he is able to do it, and he is able to save your soul and mine. He is able to save us. And he is able to hold our attention for all eternity, so that we will be worshipping him forever and ever. As new waves of revelation come and we learn more and more about our great Savior, he is able to take the scroll and open its seals. And so we see this lion who has triumphed, victorious lion. A Lamb on the Cross The Lamb Predestined You think he would have some great appearance, some dreadful and terrifying appearance, but instead, he looks and he sees a lamb looking as if it had been slain. And so we have this vision of the Lion who is the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb looking as if it had been slain. This is the Lamb who is Jesus Christ. John's conquering hero throughout the Book of Revelation is a Lamb, and he's a Lamb still now. But first and foremost, he was a Lamb on the cross. This was God's plan. It was his purpose that his Son should become an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and this plan was made before the foundation of the world. God didn't make this up as he went along. He didn't have a good idea one day and come up with it. It wasn't like that. It's an astonishing thing about God, is that he has never learned a single thing, and he never will. Meditate on that. Doesn't that trip your breakers? He's never learned a single thing and he never will. Never been a new idea for God, never. And so he is the lamb predestined before the foundation of the world to die on the cross. Revelation 13:8 says, “He was the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” Jesus Christ was chosen before the foundation of the world to die on the cross for the sins of men and women and boys and girls. This plan was worked out before God said, “Let there be light,” this was a predestined, planned. The Lamb Predicted Secondly, he was the Lamb who was predicted. God didn't just work out the plan, he told us about it ahead of time, so that when it happened, we could see that he had told us ahead of time. This is something only God can do. We don't know what's gonna happen next week. We really don't. It's really humorous to me that the workers work so hard to get the air conditioner fixed so that we could be nice and cool this morning. Isn't that wonderful? I just think that's great. Are you cool enough? Maybe we can open some windows for you. What was it, 35 degrees this morning? We don't even know the weather, we don't know what it's gonna be like in a week. God predicted Christ thousands of years before he was born. He predicted it. And said what would happen. He is the Lamb predicted. And so we have this idea of the lion of the tribe of Judah. Genesis 49 gives us the prophecy, it says, “Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion and as a lioness, who dares to rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” This is about 18 centuries before Jesus was born, spoken by Jacob to his son, a prophecy of Jesus. So he's the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He's also predicted to be the root of David, that was in the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet, about six centuries before Jesus was born. Jeremiah 23:5 and 6, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I'll raise up to David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. And in his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord our righteousness.’” That's Jesus. He is the Lord and he is our righteousness. That's six centuries before Jesus was born, he is the root of David. God identified him again and again through history, especially through the animal sacrifice. God set up a system of animal sacrifice whereby animals could represent the taking away of sin, and the priest would take his hands and put them on the head of the substitute of the animal, and he would confess onto the substitute the sins of the people. And then the substitute, the animal would die and its blood would be poured out before God on the altar. It was a picture of Jesus Christ. Every single animal sacrifice there has ever been is a prediction of Christ. The Lamb Presented He was the lamb predicted. He was also the lamb presented. At the right time, in the fullness of time, God presented him to the world. Born of a virgin, he presented him. He said at his baptism, “This is my beloved son whom I love. With him, I am well pleased.” He presented him. And for 30 years, he lived in relative obscurity until the time came for him to be presented to Israel as the Savior of the world. And that happened when he was baptized by John the Baptist. John was a prophet sent by God. And one day he saw Jesus coming toward him. And he pointed toward him, and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That's a presentation. Everyone behold, behold Jesus. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His death on the cross is God's atoning sacrifice. The only one there is for your sin and mine. There's none other available. Behold the Lamb. God presented him, it says in Romans 3, as a sacrifice of atonement. The one who takes away God's wrath through faith in his name. The Lamb Punished He is also the Lamb punished. He's the Lamb punished. Four phrases in our text today speak of that. Look at verse six, “Then I saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slain.” Do you see that? Looking as if he had died, “standing in the center of the throne.” Look at verse nine, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain. And with your blood, you purchased men for God.” Again, in verse 12, “In a loud voice they sang, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom, and strength, and honor and glory and praise.’” That's four mentions just in these 14 verses. It's almost as if heaven just can't get over that Jesus died. That he was slain, that he died on the cross, that his blood was shed. It's really quite astonishing. This is the one before whom they hide their faces. He sits on the throne. He is powerful, he is the eternal son of God. What a mystery, Almighty God in physical human flesh, and yet he meekly and weakly submits to death, even death on a cross and does nothing. Does not lift a finger to save himself, though he has all power in his smallest finger. More than any of the potentates that have ever lived. He is omnipotent, incarnate. He could have stopped the crucifixion, but he didn't. It's really quite amazing. How could he do it? How could he suspend his power so meekly and die so weakly? How could he do it? Why was he punished? Well, he was punished for us. Punished for us. Whenever I read or see depicted in some way the sufferings of Jesus Christ, I have learned to say, “I deserved that.” I did. Because I broke God's law. Because I'm a liar, because I'm a sinner, because I'm not godly, because I've sinned and fall short of the glory of God, I deserved that. And worse, because the Bible speaks of hell, it speaks of a place of eternal torment, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. And there is no rest, day or night for any that do not receive the gospel and believe it. And I've come to train myself to say I deserve that, I deserve hell, and Jesus came as my substitute, to die in my place to take that away from me and from a countless multitude of people, from every tribe and language and people and nation, and all they need to do is believe. And so the prophecy is given in Isaiah 53, “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 all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The Lamb punished. I saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slain. That was Jesus. The Lamb Purchased Well, he is also a lamb who has purchased with his punishment something of great value. Look at verse nine, “And they sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.’” This is the amazing purpose of the lamb's punishment, of his incarnation, of his coming to earth. Jesus had a purpose and it was to buy us back from slavery to sin, so that we would be God's precious possession. That we would be God's. Herein find your self-esteem. I am God's and he is mine forever and ever. Your soul can say that, he has purchased you for God with his own blood. That's his purchase. And it's not a small number friends, and it's not narrow either, there will be people from all over the world. Herein ends racism and bigotry, and parochialism and focusing on our own little worlds, God is looking at the whole world. And there's gonna be people from all over the world at the throne worshipping Jesus for his purchase. And by his purchase he has made us, it says, “to be a kingdom of priests.” I think that's the best way to understand that we are priests who are kings, and we will reign with him forever and ever. How much did that cost? How expensive was that? Jesus paid it all. That's his purchase. A Lion on the Throne… But Still a Lamb The Nature of the Lion Well, that's how he's a lamb. How is he a Lion? It says, “He's the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Well, everywhere throughout scripture, lions are portrayed as terrifying foes. It's an amazing thing that Samson is able to rip a young lion to shreds with his bare hands, only the Spirit of God coming upon him can do it. I don't care how big his muscles were, he loses, if the Spirit of God doesn't help him. Because lions are powerful beasts, 700, 800 pounds. Their roar can be heard five miles away. They're pictures of great power, they shrink back from nothing. They are fearless, terrifying, really. Their roar is terrifying. Their claws, their jaws are terrifying. A terrifying enemy is a lion, you don't want one as an enemy. Jesus Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Look at verse five, “Then one of the elders said to me, do not weep, behold the lion.” So we have in John chapter 1, in the mouth of John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Here we have, “Behold the Lion.” And how can they both be true of one individual? They're opposite kind of creatures. The Triumph of the Lion But this lion, it says, has triumphed. He has won a great victory. You know what he did? He took that lion-like strength and he ripped to shreds sin and death and the grave, and hallelujah for it. He's a Lion on our behalf, really. I've wondered about this because he's never called Lion again, ever. In the book of Revelation, he's never called Lion again. Isn't that interesting? So the sermon's a bit misnamed, sorry. He is the Lamb on the throne and the Lion on the throne, both at the same time. He's still Lamb And I meditated on this. Why is it always lamb, lamb, lamb for the rest of the book? We never see lion again. Well, he's already done his lion work for us. When he roared like a Lion, “It is finished!” That's a victor's cry. And he has torn apart enemies we could not face ourselves. And he is the victor, he has won the victory. The Power of the Lion And we see the power of the lion in symbolic form, difficult to visualize. So just understand it symbolically and prophetically. It says he had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Seven horns, the horn symbolize strength, kingly power. The number seven, a number of deity, of divinity, of perfection. Perfect power is omnipotence. It says he had seven eyes, the eye is the lamp of the body. With it, we gain information about the world around us. Seven eyes is perfect knowledge, it's omniscience. It says here is “the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Where can I flee from your Spirit? Where can I go from your presence?" This is a picture of perfect presence by his Spirit. It is omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence. He is God. He is God, the Lamb is God. The Position of the Lion And look at the position of the Lamb on the throne. Quite simply, he stands in the middle of the throne, again, a picture of Christ’s deity. Look at verse six, “Then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.” Who can share this throne but God himself? Only God can share this throne. The Lasting Image: Lamb not Lion Now, why is it for the rest of the book, we never see “Lion” again? Well, you know why? Because I think this book was written for us, it's written for us to read. It's to show his servants what must soon take place. It's for us, for us Christians. For us he's never a Lion. He doesn't treat us like a lion would treat. He is gentle with us. He's tender-hearted. He says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Those are lamb-like qualities. That's the way he deals with his own. He is always a lamb to us. He's always terrifyingly a lion to his enemies though. And so you get some anomalies in the book of Revelation, some oddities. Even when Jesus is doing mighty, powerful things against his enemies, he's still called the Lamb. And so it says very interestingly in Revelation 6, “Then the kings of the earth and the princes and the generals, and the rich and the mighty, and every slave, and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.’ For the great day of their wrath has come. And who can stand?” The wrath of the Lamb is a bit odd. We would understand wrath of the Lion. But for us, he's a Lamb. It's the same one. All I'm saying is that Jesus is a delightful Savior, but he's a terrifying enemy. And oh, that we would not be included among those that are fleeing from him when judgment day comes. That we would be ready to face him unashamed, knowing that his blood was shed for us and toward us, he is gentle and welcoming like a Lamb is. The Lion/Lamb Is Worthy of Universal and Eternal Worship Worship: “You Are Worthy…” The passage ends up with universal worship, isn't it beautiful? The Lion and Lamb is worthy of universal and eternal worship. Verse nine, “And they sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals.’” He is worthy of worship. He's the only one in history qualified to take the scroll. He is the only one that died on the cross for our sins. He's the only one that has been raised from the dead on the third day. He is the death conqueror. He is worthy of our worship. Universal Worship And it's universal worship, notice, first the living creatures, then the 24 elders, then the 100 million angels, then every created thing in heaven and on earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, universal worship. Worship Based on Christ’s Accomplishment And it's also worship based on Christ's accomplishment. Look at verse nine and 10, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because” - there's a reason he's worthy. Because he was slain - “because you were slain and with your blood, you purchased men for God from every tribe and language, and people and nation. And you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” Eternal Worship And it is finally eternal worship. Look at verses 13 and 14, “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them singing, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever.’ The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshipped.” Application Come to Christ… Know Him as LAMB so you need not fear Him as LION Don't you wanna be there? Don't you wanna see it with your own eyes? When judgment day comes, don't you wanna be forgiven for all of your sins by the blood of this lamb that I've talked about today. How did you get here today? Did a friend bring you? I say, the best friend brought you, it was Jesus that brought you. Maybe he used someone to invite you, but God brought you here today to hear this message. Because some day you're going to see this Lion, this Lamb, that he would be for you Lamb and not Lion, that he would be your Savior, that his blood shed on the cross would be full forgiveness for your sins. Do not pretend to say, “I don't need a savior like this. I'm basically a good person.” There are no basically good people. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and we need a savior. Oh, come to Christ. Come to this gentle savior. He is inviting you. As I've already said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” And you'll find more than that, you'll find a door standing open in heaven and a voice will call come up here and I will show you my glory forever and ever, and you will be in the Spirit. And you will see his glory forever and ever. And you will never run out of things to say about Jesus. Come to Christ, worship him today. Trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins, that you might have eternal life. Please close with me in prayer.
Introduction: Analyzing Psychoanalysis I'm essentially preaching a whole sermon on one verse today, so that must be a good verse, and it is. It's a verse, that's the foundation I think of a movement called Biblical Counseling that is growing in strength, to the glory of God in our country and around the world. The November 29th, 1993 issue of Time magazine had as a cover article, a picture of Sigmund Freud with his head kind of unraveling in some kind of a three-dimensional puzzle and getting put back together. One of those artistic renditions, like that. And it asked the question, "Is Freud dead?" When I saw it, I thought it's a good thing that Time asks easy questions to answer. The answer is, yes, Freud is dead. But obviously they're meaning more than just, is his body in the grave. They're really asking a deeper question, "Is the influence of Sigmund Freud and his approach to psycho-analysis, is that dead?" And the answer to that is No. Though Freud has come under some severe questioning even by people who maybe originally believed in his theories. Yet his influence is increasing. You know the picture of mustache, goatee, a man sitting there dignified with a notepad and a pen, and somebody laying on a couch, and spilling out their lives and telling him their dreams and all this sort of stuff, and he analyzing all of that. That's a lasting image and it's had a tremendous effect on our society, and our culture and a tremendous effect on the church of Jesus Christ. At present, there are over 200 identifiable talking cures in America today, with between 10 and 15 million Americans doing the talking. We live surrounded constantly by people who are feeling in their lives, in their marriages, in their homes, the devastating consequences of sin. I. A World Crying for Good Counsel Sins ravages are visible everywhere, in addictions, in dissolving and hurting families, in escalating mental anguish, in increasing temptations, we're surrounded every day by people who are crying out for help. And the world's response is, "Get some counseling." If you can just get some counseling. And more and more counseling is coupled with medications. Prescriptions for mood and behavior altering drugs are proliferating. More and more that seems to be the solution. Now, all of this, all of this is intensely important for us as Christians, who should be, and who are, genuinely concerned about the welfare of our co-workers, and neighbors, and family and friends, that they would know and love Jesus Christ. Franklin Graham, the evangelist said, the key, one of the keys to evangelism is taking your finger as it were, and rubbing it around the inside of the rim of the cup of their lives, and trying to find the places where sin has left its cracks and that's the place where the gospel can begin to work in people's lives. But psychotherapy stands as a direct challenge to the spiritual healing ministry of Jesus Christ and the Gospel. Remember that Jesus said in Luke 5:31-32, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." That's the essence of the healing that Jesus has come to bring. That's the essence of what the Gospel does, it bring sinners to repentance, to a healed relationship with God and therefore with one another. A History Lesson on Psychology Now, psychology over the last 100 years has gone through some interesting twists and turns. It started with Sigmund Freud in his office in Vienna, and he wrote a book on the interpretation of dreams and that started the modern psychotherapy revolution. His basic ideas were that the key to psychosis, mental illness, is what happened to you in the past and many of the most significant issues that happened to you in the past, lie repressed in your memory. Sometimes it comes out in dreams or under hypnotism or other things, but the key is what happened to you in your past. Perhaps your mother was too protective or your father was too harsh, or there was a school bully that beat up on you and abused you in some way. And the purpose of counseling then, is to dredge up these past memories and to deal with them. In recent years, we've heard more and more about these repressed lives and repressed memories, and they're these thoughts that come out that get incredibly bizarre and challenge the way people even see reality. Tales of satanic ritual abuse, and there's no historical evidence that any of it happened but these repressed memories and it's all part of the Freudian approach to healing, bringing out those secret memories. And if you could just understand them then you could be healed. Now, many of Freud's theories actually showed more about him than they do about the true nature of man. Some of his own psychosis and perversions come out as you study his approach. However, I'll say this, for all the attacks on Freud, his basic ideas still remain and are pervasive in our culture. Man is not responsible. Guilt is imaginary. The key to therapy is digging up the past. These things are still with us. Now, after Freud, came other schools of counseling, like BF Skinner for example. The behaviorist model, the idea there is that man is totally conditioned by external training, by circumstances, by positive and negative reinforcement. To understand behavior, you have to understand the environment that shaped it. To change behavior, you have to change the environment, re-train the mind. So therefore, man is nothing more than a machine to be programmed. And if we're going to see a difference in behavior we've got to change the programming. That's BF Skinner. Then there is Carl Rogers who came up with this reflection approach to counseling. "Human beings," said Rogers, "are basically good and like all living creatures, they will try always to make the best of their existences. Evolution has given us everything we need for being all that we can be." A counselor's job according to Rogers then is to help the person find their own solutions to the problems that they face. The idea is that they know themselves and their situations far better than the counselor ever could or would, therefore, the counselor's job is simply to reflect back to the counsel-ee, their own feelings and their own thoughts. The goal is to help the person reach their own highest potential. And so the counseling session involves the counselor simply repeating back to the person what they're saying. Like a mirror. So it would go something like this. "So you're saying that you'd really like to quit your job, but you're afraid of the consequences." Or, "you feel that your husband doesn't appreciate you the way that he should," or “it seems to me you feel like you wish your son would be a little more responsible," or "you feel like you're on a roller coaster, going up and down, and there's no way to get off." Listen, if you ever come to me and I start doing that sort of stuff, just slap me. Okay. I'm going to cut right to the heart of the matter, alright. That's called reflection. Okay. The key question in this kind of counseling is, "How does that make you feel?" So we're trained to ask that question over and over. How does that make you feel? And so we write down how it makes the person feel and at some point, after 14 years of counseling they'll stumble upon the solution that was embedded in their own heart and lives, all along. Twenty-first century counseling: widespread chaos I was reading one particular author, Dr. Arthur Janov who was a secular counselor, and he's analyzing his field of expertise, he's not a Christian, but he's analyzing the field so that he can lay it waste and bring his own counseling approach as the primal one, the central one. But his analysis, I think, is mostly accurate about the field of psychotherapy in America today. He said this. "In no other area of medicine is there such disagreement about the nature of a disease, what its symptoms are, how it manifests itself, not to mention its causes. In short, the field of psychotherapy today is nothing less than chaotic." He went on to talk about the whole different ranges of approaches that psychotherapists are using to try to heal people. He talked about obviously prescribing drugs, using hypnotism, analyzing guilt into oblivion, acting out kind of therapies like gestalt, where you get to act out what you're really thinking and feeling. Or using mild shock treatment, re-training people to think differently about their actions and to redefine them. Biofeedback therapy, day dreaming and image therapies. And what Janov says, as he looks at all of these things is that none of them, not one treats the genuine causes of neuroses, they only ever treat the symptoms. Well, the sad thing is that the Christian church is kind of imitating these types of approaches in what it's called, what is called Christian counseling. And I'm going to make a distinction, this morning between Christian counseling and Biblical Counseling. Not all Christian counseling is biblical. You can get a lot of Christian counseling that's not biblical at all. Now, my training at Gordon-Conwell an Evangelical seminary in Massachusetts was essentially Carl Rogers mirroring techniques with a thin veneer of Christianity painted over the top. And I mean a really thin veneer. I took that book, it was sitting on my shelf. It's been sitting there for the last eight years. I hadn't looked at it once, and good thing too. It wouldn't have help me at all. But I took it down and I skimmed it very, very carefully, and I did not find anywhere, a single Scripture quote in over 250 pages. Practical Psychology for Pastors is the name of the volume. It was written for the Christian pastor, but there's no scripture, there was a whole chapter on dealing with anger and anxiety. I can think of a couple Bible verses that might help. Not one of them were quoted. This is how I was trained to do counseling, in my seminary. It was a good seminary. Biblical in every other way, but in this one way it wasn't. And we were told that in our counseling sessions, we should refrain from doing any of the following with the people who come. We should refrain from ordering, directing or commanding, warning or threatening, giving advice, making suggestions, providing solutions, persuading with logic, arguing or lecturing, moralizing, preaching, telling them their duty, judging, criticizing, disagreeing, blaming, agreeing, approving, praising, shaming, ridiculing, name-calling, interpreting or analyzing, reassuring or sympathizing, consoling, questioning, probing, withdrawing, distracting or changing the subject. Now, you may be wondering with me, what's left for me to do? I think I ought to just buy a big mirror, and set it up in front of the person and they can talk to themselves because that's all I'm doing. "So you feel that such and such etcetera." Obviously some of those things I would never want to do, but others, it seems that's exactly why they've come to me that they would have some insight and know what to do. In this approach, when the time came to give solutions, the basic role was to help them solve their own problems. Christian counseling all over the country, is often very little more than worldly counseling. One of the insights I gained from going to a counseling and Biblical Counseling seminar in the last year, is that the basic approach of secular counseling, the basic premise is, that the heart of man is essentially good and the problems are on the outside, therefore all the problems come from outside, and the solutions all come from inside. Brothers and sisters, you know, the Bible teaches the exact opposite, the problems come from inside, and the solutions come from the outside, a Savior named Jesus Christ. The Word of God that comes from the outside in and gives us good counsel. That is a significant insight I believe. Now, one of the problems with counseling with the Christian counseling, is that pastors are told and Christians are told even more, that they are not qualified to solve these kinds of problems, and they should refer people as quickly as possible to trained professionals. Now, in 1970, a man named J. Adams, brought a radical revolution to this whole approach with a book entitled Competent to Counsel. He got his title from the verse that I'm preaching on this morning, Competent to Counsel, brought about a revolution and something he called Nouthetic Counseling. Now, I'm going to define Nouthetic Counseling for you in the sermon this morning. But basically, it has to do with Biblical Counseling. The basic premise is that the Bible is sufficient to solve people's problems, it is sufficient for the cure of souls. His ground-breaking work has led many to call Jay Adams the father of Biblical Counseling. Five years after the first publishing of Competent to Counsel, he started a ministry that we know as NANC. 1975 National Association of Nouthetic Counselors. And the center piece of NANC is that the Bible is sufficient for the counseling needs of God's people, and that God's people completing goodness and knowledge are themselves Competent to Counsel. II. A Church Competent to Give Good Counsel The Bible is sufficient, the people of God, fully trained are competent to administer those treatments. And the key verse on Christian counseling is Romans 15:14. Look at it with me, if you would. And there it says, "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and competent to counsel, one another." So we live in a world surrounded by people who need good counsel. The second point I want to make to you this morning is that the church is competent to give that good counsel. The two fundamental doubts of secular psychology is number one, the insufficiency of scripture for the cure of souls and number two, the incompetence of common Christians for the cure of souls. Those are the two basic assumptions. Sadly, the Church acts like it agrees with these basic premises. More and more psychology is weaving its way into ministry. More and more pastors get up and preach, not so much the text, but they preach psychology to the people. So also in pastoral counseling, and in actual Christian counseling, there's very little Biblical wisdom or insight given to people who need it so much. And so the church acts like most problems of the soul can only be solved by trained psychiatrists or at least by professional counselors. So therefore, assuming that most serious problems will have to be solved by medications anyway, and buying into the presuppositions that the Bible is insufficient to solve human problems, and afraid of getting sued, and in awe of secular degrees, PhDs and all that in highfalutin terms like obsessive-compulsive disorder, and transference and blocking and all these kinds of things, and fear of the commitment, that it will take to really get down and dirty in somebody's life and try to help them grow through very troubling sin problems. For all these reasons, and some others, the church abandons its ministry of curing souls and leaves it to the trained professionals who are not for the most part, using the Bible to do it. But let's understand a fundamental thing. Psychology is literally the study of the human soul, that's what the word means, it's the science of the soul. And my friends, if this Bible is not sufficient for that, then what was it given to us for. The Bible is sufficient to study and analyze and cure the human soul from its sin problems. Amen. And so I believe the fundamental conviction as Christians, we have to have is the answers are found in this book. Let's try to find what they are. Paul’s Context: The Roman Church Now Paul's context we already know, he's writing to the Roman church. He's well-acquainted with their faith. He'd never visited them before. He doesn't know them personally. But he says in Romans 1:8, "First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world." They were a very famous local church because they were there in the heart of the capital of the Roman empire. Now, Paul has completed over 14 chapters of doctrine and exhortation. He's in his 15th chapter now. And Paul's assessment of them in verse 14, is he says, "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers that you yourselves are full of goodness, and filled with all knowledge, competent to counsel one another." He's persuaded, he's satisfied about them, he's investigated their conversion and their spiritual growth since they were converted. He is convinced about the statement he's about to make, Therefore, I say to you that it's not a given that every Christian is competent to counsel, not in the way the Paul means in this verse. He had to be persuaded or convinced that they were competent to counsel. But I also believe that every Christian could be competent to counsel other Christians on these matters. Two Criteria for Competency in Counseling: Goodness and Knowledge Now, Paul gives two criteria for competency in counseling. Notice neither one of them talks about a degree from an accredited higher institution. He says, "I'm convinced that you yourselves my brothers are full of goodness, and filled with all kinds of knowledge." Full of goodness, filled with knowledge. That's the criteria that he gives. 1) Full of Goodness Now first, full of goodness. Now, I said already, the essential problem of Freud and Skinner and especially Carl Rogers is that they're coming at it from a perspective of the basic goodness of the human heart, basic goodness of the human heart. Well we've already had our basic anthropology, back in Romans chapter 3. Romans 3 told us, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one." In this Jesus already established, very plainly, when the rich young ruler came to him, and said, "Good teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus picks up on this word good. He said, "Why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good but God alone." That's Jesus assessment of the human race So, how did the Roman Christians get to be full of goodness? Now that's a very fascinating question, isn't it? If Romans 3 is true, that, there's no one naturally righteous, no one who seeks God, all have together turned aside and there's no one who does good, not even one. Then how is it that now he's making the statement that they're full of goodness? Well, I say to you this, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to make wicked sinners good. Isn't that awesome? The Gospel has the power to make evil people good. The blood of Jesus Christ has that kind of power. And so, in Ephesians 5:8-9, it says, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light. For the food of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth and find out what pleases the Lord." We were, apart from Christ, darkness, but having come to the gospel, believing that Jesus's death on the cross, his blood was shed for us, having faith in Christ, we were cleansed of all of our sins, the righteousness of Jesus Christ was imputed to us and we were made good in the sight of God. But Paul goes beyond that. Not just good positionally, he says, "You are filled with goodness, full of goodness." Now, that's a different matter. It's built on the foundation of the imputed or given goodness that we receive by faith in Christ. But then there's a building on that goodness, it's what we call sanctification. And so by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become more and more filled with goodness, as it says in Galatians 5:22, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control." Goodness then is something that the Holy Spirit works in us by His power as we grow gradually and become more and more like Jesus. And so we can actually be full of goodness. Now, my question in the matter of counseling is, "Why is it important, essential even, to be full of goodness?" Well, true counseling must involve a genuine love for the person you're ministering to. You have to genuinely love them. You're trying to help them, it's a genuine commitment to their well-being. Without genuine goodness ulterior motives could pollute the counseling session. For example, some counselors, secular counselors charge as much as $135 an hour, for the counseling session. Is there not a temptation for that kind of money to string the person on for 15 years? We're making real progress. Keep on coming we'll see again, Tuesday, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, $135 a week. What a temptation that is, but if you're full of goodness, you're not into that. You want to see them genuinely move past these sins, put them to death, by the power of the Spirit, see triumph and victory in their lives. Full of goodness is essential to good Biblical Counseling. 2) Filled With Knowledge Secondly, he says filled with all knowledge. Literally, it says, Having been fulfilled with all knowledge. It's a strong statement of their full training having been completed. They are fully trained as Christians. Now, we're not talking about omniscience. You don't have to know every single Biblical doctrine, it's not that, but rather you are fully trained. Jesus talked about that, "No student is greater than his master, but when he is fully trained it is enough for the student to be like the master." So there is a point of being fully trained, and he says "You Roman Christians you're fully trained." Now, this implies a full training in Christian doctrine, a knowledge of the deep things of God. Well, how does that happen? Well, no one is born again into the Christian faith having full knowledge. Basically you subject your mind constantly to the renewing influences of the Word of God. You sit under a good preaching or teaching ministry. You imbibe as much of the scriptures as you can. You saturate your mind in the Word of God, and over time you can reach a level where the Apostle Paul might say about you, "You are filled with all kinds of knowledge." Now, why is it essential to be filled with knowledge in order to be competent to council? Well, let me tell you something. If you're just going to do Rogers reflection, you don't need to be filled with anything. You actually kind of need empty yourself and forget about yourself and just reflect back constantly. And that's the allure of it, it seems so Christian, it seems so other-centered. You don't have an opinion in the world, you don't have a thought about anything, you're just reflecting back what they're saying. But I say to you, the people who are desperate for wisdom and counsel, they need to know what the Word of God says about their situation, and they don't. Maybe a Christian couple, a husband and wife want to know how to have a godly marriage after perhaps each of their families were divorced and they grew up in homes that were not filled with Christian influence. And they don't know how to do it and they're running into some problems now with conflicts and they don't know how to resolve conflicts. Or someone else is struggling with habitual lust through internet pornography. Or somebody else is battling depression in their daily walk, perhaps they've even toyed with thoughts of suicide, though they know it's a sin, but they're just discouraged, they're depressed. Somebody else wants to know how to discipline their children so that they can grow in grace and they can be fruitful, productive Christians, when they're done being trained. Maybe somebody else is battling laziness and procrastination. Or maybe a wife is married to a non-Christian husband and he neglects her, mocks her faith. Or another person has an alcoholic family member and they want to intervene in some way and help them break their sin pattern. This and 100 other cases come into the life of the church and those folks, they don't just need reflection. They need to know what the Bible says about those situations. The Scripture says very, very plainly that everything we need for life and godliness has been made known to us by the Word of God, by the promises of God. 2 Peter 1 says that. The Bible is sufficient to handle every sin and character case we could ever face in life, the Bible is sufficient for all of it. But you need to be full of knowledge in order to wield the sword of the Spirit, well, skillfully to know which verses to apply to which situation full of knowledge is essential. And as a result, we are competent to counsel one another. Paul's phrase is able or powerful or competent, qualified perhaps, a sense that we have this ability then to counsel one another. III. How Should We Define “Good Counsel”? Well, thirdly, how should we define good counsel? Here we've left out one word, and it's the word noutheteo. It's from that word that we get the nouthetic and National Association of Nouthetic Counselors. Now, the word nouthetic is odd to everybody. You shouldn't look at it and say, "That's an odd word. I guess I'm not used to those kind of words." I think that Jay Adams specifically wanted to retain the word so that we could bump into the concept and try to understand what noutheteo means. It's a Greek word, and it's made up of two smaller Greek words. Nous meaning the mind and Tithemi meaning to put or place It has to do with putting something into the mind of another person, making them mindful of something. And the basic premise of this kind of counseling is that the mind leads and the life, the body, follows where the mind goes. It is bad thinking that leads to bad living. If you want to live differently, you have to change the mind. The Biblical word for the change of mind, is repentance, and by repentance, we can change the way that we're living. That's the basic premise of Nouthetic Counseling. Jay Adams frequently translated the word, to confront nouthetically. The basic idea here is that of warning or admonition. A sense of a serious word given in a serious situation. Paul uses the word in Acts 20:31, that's his final address to the Ephesian elders. Very serious and somber moment, and he's got the leaders of this local church around and He says to them. "So, be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you, night and day, with tears." With tears, warning them for three years, night and day. Noutheteo. Note the passion, note the love, note the sense of warning Be on your guard against false teachers who are going to come in your midst, like ravenous wolves, not sparing the flock. He's warning them, warning them about the danger of sin. A second use we see in 1 Corinthians 4. The Corinthian Church was, in their own minds anyways, upwardly mobile. Trying to get better and better off in the world. Thinking... Having all their neighbors and their family and everybody think better and better of them, going up. But as they're going up, they're passing the apostles who were going down, like Jesus, down, becoming more humble, more rejected by the world. Paul says it seems to me that we're the off-scouring of the scum of the earth. But look at you, you're getting better and better. And so he writes very poignantly in 1 Corinthians 4, trying to show them how they're not thinking properly, about their lives in this world. And so he writes this, after all of that, he says, "I'm not writing this to shame you but to warn you as my dear children…" Again the affection, a sense of danger for them that they're not seeing the Christian life properly. Or again in Colossians 1:28. Paul says this really sums up his whole ministry. "We proclaim Him, admonishing [there's the word] and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." This is both Christian and non-Christian. There's a sense of warning somebody based on the gospel and then continuing to warn and admonish in an ongoing sense. And then fourth, Paul says we should be doing this for each other all the time. In Colossians 3:16 he says, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom." So we're supposed to be doing this for each other. This noutheteo, we're supposed to be noutheticing each other all the... Is that the right word? I don't know, noutheing each other. We're supposed to be nouthetically confronting one another all the time. There are many other uses of the word but I've given you those four to give you a sense of what the word means? Let's sum up the Biblical evidence then. Good Counsel is Nouthetic Counseling and it involves a loving concern, like a father for children or like a brother for another brother. It definitely involves a sense of danger or warning. Now, you might say, "Why do we need a warning? Everything's fine in my life." Do you realize you have two mortal enemies of your soul outside of you and one mortal enemy of your soul inside of you? The two outside of you are the world's system, and Satan who runs it. The mortal enemy inside of you is called your flesh or your sin nature, which is actually attracted to that stuff out there. You are in great danger and so am I. And we will be as long as we live in the tent of this body. And so we need to be warned, we need to be protected from our own sin and from the sins of others and therefore, we have to be admonished by the Word of God. Now, Jay Adams gave three aspects of Nouthetic Counseling. First, there's a problem to be solved, there's a problem that needs to be solved. Second, the problem is solved by verbal means. Now, I'm not going to talk this morning about the role of medications in all this. I think the human mind, the brain is incredibly complex. There are brain chemical issues and all that, but let me tell you something, no sin issue in life was ever solved that way. Even if medications were used in a way that would please the Lord, it's to clear the space, so that the Word of God can then deal with the sin problem in the person's life. It's not chemicals that solve sin problems, it's repentance and the blood of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Word of God, that's what solves sin problems. So there is a problem to be solved. Secondly, the problem is solved by verbal means. And the third is that the purpose of the counseling is to benefit the counselee. Now there's Nouthetic Counseling, that either does go on or doesn't go on in the Bible. Adams sites the example of Nathan. One of the most courageous men in Biblical history went to face David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Bathsheba's husband to cover up his adultery, and then a year later, he's still sitting in his sin, and Nathan comes and tells a parable that draws him in to the point where he is very upset, and then Nathan points a finger and says, "You are the man." He's confronting him, nouthetically. And then there's Eli who had sons that were sinning wickedly. They were priests in the priestly family, and he never confronted them. Finally, when it was too late, in 1 Samuel 2:23, he says to his sons, "Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours?" Nouthetic Counseling has much more to do with what than it does with why. Have any of you parents ever asked your kids, "Why did you do it?" And then listened to what came back. There is no possible answer. You can try for years and you'll never figure out the why questions. We already know the answer to the why question. Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that's why. We don't need to plumb the depths of why. Instead Nouthetic Counseling focuses on what. What happened? Remember how God said to Cain concerning his brother Able, "What have you done? What have you done?" Nouthetic Counseling starts there. What have you done? What problem is in your life? What approach have you taken to solving it? What does God's Word say about this? You see it focuses on the what, not on the why. And the purpose of the counseling is to benefit the counselee. IV. All Christians Can and Should Grow in their Competency in Counseling Fourthly, I say to you based on this text, that all Christians can and should grow in their competency to counseling. I already said, not every Christian is fully competent to counsel. Paul had to become convinced, or persuaded that the Roman Christians were full of goodness, complete in knowledge and thus, competent to counsel one another. It's not automatic. Some Christians make very little progress in their sanctification over decades and decades of church attendance. They would not necessarily be competent to counsel. But others make remarkable progress in even short amounts of time and they are full of goodness, and complete in knowledge and therefore competent to counsel. Now I think that any Christian, spirit-filled Christian is more competent to counsel, than any non-Christian on most issues. Just the basic knowledge of scripture that you have is better than some worldly philosophy that's going to screw you up. But I believe every Christian should become more fully competent to counsel than we are presently. We can keep growing, we can keep moving and there's proof from the text. Look at Verse 15. Paul, look at his train of thought. He says they are already full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to counsel one another. But verse 15, KJV gives us, "Nevertheless, on some points I've written you very boldly by way of reminder." You see? So even a congregation that is competent to counsel, can still get more training or be reminded, be further sharpened in their ability to counsel their brothers and sisters in Christ. And so he wrote the book of Romans. And so now you're more competent or more trained than you were before you read Romans. So there's ongoing counseling training needed for all Christians. The fifth point I want to make to you this morning is that Biblical Counseling is essential to the two infinite journeys that God has set before each Christian and before this church. The two infinite journeys are the center piece of our ministry here. The internal journey of growth to become more and more like Jesus Christ, that's called sanctification, that's an infinite journey, because it takes infinite power to do it The second infinite journey, is worldwide disciple making based on the great commission, "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded." Do you see how Nouthetic Counseling fits into both? How would you prepare yourself to become a better counselor except by immersing yourself in the Word of God and growing in your own goodness and in your love for others who are hurting and who need you to do it. That will help you to grow as a Christian. It'll help other people to grow as they get the good counsel from you. It also helps you when you're having problems that you could go seek some good counsel and get over your problems too. It helps the internal journey. It also is fundamental to the external journey. Paul said, "I wrote you about these things because I was given the grace of God to be a minister of Christ Jesus so that I could present the Gentiles perfect before the throne." And so, therefore, I want you to admonish one another. I want you to train one another, I want you to use the Word of God to help each other through sin problems, so that we can finish the worldwide mission among the Gentiles. And so, I say that Nouthetic Counseling, Biblical Counseling is essential to the internal journey of becoming more and more like Jesus and the external journey of worldwide evangelization. Let me speak very practically. We have a community of people all around us who need to be reached with the gospel. We can do a number of things, but I'll tell you this, if we had a developed healthy, strong Biblical Counseling ministry and we offered Biblical Counseling to people for free and urged them to come and get Biblical solutions to their problems, I think we might see a river of people getting baptized here as they came to realize, they never come to faith in Christ at all. They don't have any foundation. And so along with the counseling these folks give the Gospel and we're going to see people saved, it's already happening in local churches around this country as they see a Biblical Counseling model even to evangelism and outreach. V. Application Now, what application can we take from this text for ourselves? Well, first, I hope it's already happened this morning. Understand Biblical Counseling I'd like you to understand the difference between Biblical Counseling and Christian counseling. Not all Christian counseling is Biblical Counseling. So therefore, I hope you understand, Nouthetic Counseling and what it means. What Biblical Counseling, that's the first application, understand Biblical Counseling. It is the basic idea that the Bible is sufficient to solve people's sin problems. Seek Biblical Counseling As Needed Secondly, can I exhort you to be discerning from this sermon time on, to never again settle for anything less than Biblical Counseling? If you're sitting down with a counselor, and they're not opening the Word of God with you, they're not sharing from the Word of God, they are not going to help you ultimately. So therefore seek nothing less than Biblical Counseling for your own counseling needs. Get Trained! Thirdly, can I urge you to get trained yourself in Biblical Counseling. I would urge you to consider the NANC Conference is coming up three times in this fall, September 8th and 9th. It's not too late, it's not too late for you to go. And what you're going to find there is a whole world opening up to you that shows the practical application of the Word of God in everyday issues that people face. That maybe even you're facing right now in your life. So, get trained. Use the Word of God to Solve Problems for Friends, Co-Workers Fourth used the Word of God, then to help solve problems for the friends and family and people around you in your life. Assume that the Word of God has the solution and minister the Word of God in their lives. Do it with your co-workers, people are going to open up to you be available to that. And then start showing them how the Word of God can be brought to bear on the problems of their lives. Yearn to be a Biblical counselor, a fully-trained competent to counsel, man or woman here in this church, so that you can use your wisdom to minister to men and women as they have needs. Pray for a Developed Biblical Counseling Ministry Here at FBC Fifth, pray for a developed Biblical Counseling Ministry here at FBC. It's going to take time. The vision I have for using counseling as an outreach tool in this community is going to take years and years to see it come to full fruition, but no time like the present. Let's start now, let's start this September, let's start with some of the training that Scott Markle and others are going to be doing on Wednesday evenings. Biblical training, be part of that. Say I want to be trained, I want to learn how to use the Bible to help people. Pray for Evangelistic Fruit And then finally pray for evangelistic fruit, as a result of all this. Wouldn't it be exciting to see people brought to faith in Christ that way? See them get up in the baptismal area and just say, "This is what God's done in my life, my whole life, has changed. I came to realize that I didn't know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Everything has changed. Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for the Gospel and for the Word that has the power to change lives." Oh, I want to hear those testimonies. Pray for evangelistic fruit. And if you're here today and you've never given your life to Christ, Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, he's the one that gives the good advice through the Word and through other believers. Come to faith in Christ. Trust in him, that his blood is sufficient for your sins. That's why he came. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Close with me in prayer please.
I. The Cause of Paul’s Anguish: “My Kinsmen are Accursed!” The great preacher, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, was anointed by God with the power of the Holy Spirit with what they used to call an unction. There was a sense of the presence of God when he would preach. You could feel it in the sanctuary, and young preachers would come and try to understand the secret of his power. And there was one that came once to the church and met an elderly deacon there, and he said, "I want to know the secret, Robert Murray M'Cheyne's secret. I want to know how he does it. How is it that there's so much evangelistic fruit? How is it that lives are transformed like they are?" So he said, "I'll show you." He brought him in to M'Cheyne's study. He wasn't there at that time, and he brought him to his place of secret prayer. He said, "Kneel down here and weep and pray." And then he brought him out to the pulpit and he said, "Take this book and open it up and preach." That's it. As I read Romans 9:1-5, I realized that I don't weep and pray the way Paul did. Maybe that's true of you too. Maybe you don't care for the lost the way that Paul did. My desire is, that after hearing this message by the power of the Spirit, you will. I want the same for myself. For what does he say? "I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow, an unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people." That's what he says. And therefore, as we look into this text, we're looking right into the heart of the apostle. We're looking into a pool of tears that he wept for his own people. We're looking into his heart of compassion for the lost and for the needy. And as I look in there and I find it to be somewhat of a mirror, I find myself coming up short. I find that I don't care like I should about the perishing around me. And so I at least would like to be transformed by the scripture today. I'd like to be moved in my heart. I like to care more about people that are around me that are lost and dying. I'd like to care more about those on the other side of the world that are lost and dying. I want it to move me emotionally the way it moved Jesus. I want it to matter to me that the waitress serving me iced tea doesn't know Jesus. I want that to matter to me. And I think that the Word of God has transforming power. Under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it can change a hard, cold uncaring heart to one that is genuinely conformed to His image. He who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness, that's our God. And if we're not like him, then we need to be transformed and thanks be to God, that that's the very work he's doing in us. That when we are done, we will be conformed to the image of Christ totally and perfectly in every way. Paul’s Intensely Fervent Nationalism Now, as we look in this text, we find ourselves moved by Paul as he opens himself up and bears his soul for all to see. He speaks very personally and very emotionally. And he's crying from the depths of his heart for the law, specifically those of his own people, his kinsmen the Jews who are rejecting Christ. And that's very poignant. You see, Paul had naturally an intensely fervent nationalism. He was a Jew, and it meant everything to him, before he knew Christ. It meant everything to him to be a Jew. Now, they were living in a time when Jew-Gentile relations were at an all time low in terms of the strain and strife between them. The Jews were tired of Roman domination of the promised land. They would love to have seen the Romans evicted, but there seemed to be no end to that domination. Indeed there wouldn't be for centuries. They were weary of seeing the Romans plunder the best they had and threatened their people with imprisonment for no reason it seemed, or even with death. And events like this forge, or can forge a deep seated resentment in the heart of nationalistic people like the Jews. Now, we know from scripture, Paul was very proud of his heritage as a Jewish man. If you look in Galatians, chapter 1, he says, "For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism, beyond many Jews of my own age, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." What does that mean, "extremely zealous" except that he was proud of his Jewish ancestry? He brags about it to some degree, in one way. In Philippians 3, you remember, when he talks about that, he says, "if anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee as for zeal, persecuting the church as for legalistic righteousness, faultless." That's his pride there, that Jewish nationalistic pride coming out. Even here in our section, if you look at Romans 11:1, he identifies himself directly with the Jews. He asked the question, "I asked then did God reject His people by no means," and then he says, "I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin." You see how he identifies himself. "Even now, I am a Jew. I am a physical descendant of Abraham." Now, we know that Paul was originally adamantly against the Gospel and probably therefore, almost certainly a hater of all things Gentile. Probably like the most zealous of the zealots, that was the Apostle Paul. I think he just specifically despised the message of Stephen who saw the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection as an end to the Old Testament sacrificial system and an end to the temple worship and possibly even an end to the Jew-Gentile distinction period, which all of it was true. And it could be that God gave Stephen an incredible anointing to preach that message and it was a message that I believe Saul of Tarsus despised. And so he was willing to say, "I was there holding the garments of and giving of those that killed Stephen and giving approval to those who put Him to death." That was where he started, but then everything changed. On the road to Damascus, everything changed. Acts 9 tells a story as he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from Heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "'Saul, Saul. Why do you persecute Me?' 'Who are you, Lord,' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up, and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do.'" Converted Man and Apostle to the Gentiles Paul was given eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, all of his sins forgiven, but he was also given more than that. He was given a life work. He was called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Ananias, the one who went and baptized Saul, was the first who understood this. He didn't want to go be near this persecutor. He was afraid that he was going to get arrested, and killed. But the Lord told him. He said, "This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Those were his marching orders. He was going to carry the name of Christ before the Gentiles and their kings, including Caesar, and he was going to suffer greatly to do that. He was also going to be called to carry the name of Christ before His own people, the Jews as well. These marching orders were greatly clarified as time went on in Galatians 2:9. There he's talking about the whole circumcision controversy and did the Gentile converts have to be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses. And so Paul was dealing well with that, and he talks about James and Peter and John. He says, "Those reputed to be pillars gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews." So Paul's calling was as the apostle to the Gentiles. He's going to go and minister to the Gentiles. This is an incredible thing. This is an amazing thing. Paul seems specially trained and designed to be an apostle to the Jews. Thoroughly trained in the law under Gamaliel, just as zealous for the law, as any of those had ever been, able to argue with the best of them from Old Testament text. He seems especially designed to go to the Jews, but instead God called on him to go to the Gentiles. How strange are God's ways? How much are His ways different from ours than the heavens are higher than the Earth? God's plans are not our plans. His thoughts are not our thoughts. And so he chose this Jew of all Jews, this Hebrew of Hebrews to go and be the apostle to the Gentiles. And so he went. In Romans 11:13, he calls himself, "the apostle to the Gentiles." Now Paul's call to preach to the Gentiles so that they would be saved was intensely opposed by his countrymen. They hated it, they despised that call. Probably the clearest evidence of this... There's lots of different evidences but the clearest is in Acts 22 when Paul is arrested because they thought that he was bringing an uncircumcised Gentile right into the temple. Absolutely forbidden and so they arrest him. There's going to be a huge riot and the Romans have got to send in the police and grab him and get him out of there before they tear him to pieces. And Paul, to him, a crowd is only for one thing, preaching the Gospel. That's what he's there to do. So, he sees a crowd. They all want to kill him. He's like, preaching opportunity. This is a mission chance. And so he says, "Can I speak to the people?" And so he said, "Certainly." And so he begins to speak to them in Aramaic and Luke records in Acts 22. When they heard that he was speaking Aramaic, they all got quiet and listened. You know the mother tongue. He's speaking that nationalistic mother tongue. He's speaking to us in our heart language. And so he begins to go through his whole Damascus road experience, the blinding light, and resurrected Christ. They don't say a word. They're just listening. They were really into what he's saying until he said one thing. He's reporting that the Lord said to him, "Go. I will send you far away to the Gentiles." Oh my. Circle that word. At that moment, it just says, "The crowd listened to him until he said this, then they raised their voices, and shouted rid the earth of him, he's not fit to live." They hated the Gentiles and the very idea that God would call on him to go to the Gentiles and proclaim salvation, forgiveness of sins through simple faith in Christ was abhorrent to them. They were very angry about it. Now what was Paul's evangelistic experience? As he went from place to place, everywhere that he went, he preached the Gospel. His methodology was always the same. He would go to a community. The Jews had been spread in the diaspora, the spreading of the Jews all over the Mediterranean area, and wherever they went, they set up synagogues. And so, therefore, Paul came along centuries later, and just would come and the first thing he would do is he would go and preach in the synagogue. You know what he said? He said, "To the Jew first and also to the Gentile." So that was even his missionary strategy. He would go to a synagogue and he would go in there and on the Sabbath day, he would reason with the Jews from the Scriptures proving that Jesus was the Christ. He would use prophecies. He would use reasonings. He would talk to them. They would listen. They would reject. They would get a little aggressive. He would go to the Gentiles, they would accept. Hundreds of them would be saved and then the Jews would violently oppose and plot to murder him and chase him and hunt him down. It went that way, every place. How would you like that to be your ministry? But that's exactly what it was like for Paul. Acts 13 talks about it. It says, "When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. ‘We had to speak the Word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us. 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.' When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the Word of the Lord, and all who are appointed for eternal life, believed." We'll get to that later in Romans Nine, but that's exactly what happened. The strategy, they turned to the Gentiles and the Gentiles believed in large numbers. Again, you see the same thing in Acts 18. Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Again, to the Jew first. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "'Your blood beyond your own heads. I am clear of my responsibility. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.' Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and was baptized." So the pattern's clear. You go to the synagogue. You preach. You unfold the Scriptures. You talk about the law and the prophets. You prove Christ. They oppose. They basically throw you out. You go to the Gentiles. They come in in huge numbers, then the Jews try to kill you. That's how it goes in every town. That was his ministry. The Book of Acts ends on this exact same note. Acts 28:23-28, "the leaders of the Jews in Rome arranged to meet Paul on a certain day and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening, he explained and declared to them the Kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets." That's a challenge by the way, brothers and sisters. Could you do that from morning till evening, from the Law of Moses and the prophets? Oh, there's enough there, there's enough there. But there he was unfolding the Scriptures to the Jews. Paul’s Spiritual Understanding: Jewish Rejection of Christ Some were convinced by what he said. God always has his remnant. So some of the Jews believed but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement. "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers, when he said through Isaiah, the prophet, go to this people and say you'll be ever-hearing but never understanding. You'll be ever-seeing, but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become callous. They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and I would heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen." That's how The Book of Acts ends. The theme is clear, Jewish rejection of the Gospel, Gentile acceptance and Jewish hatred and opposition as a result. This didn't start with Paul. It started with Jesus. We don't have to go into great detail on this, but Jesus described this exact thing in the parable of the tenants and the vineyard. In Matthew 21, He said, "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine-press in it and built a watch tower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants, so then more than the first time and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son. 'They will respect my son,' he said. But when they saw the son they said, 'Look, here is the heir. Come let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of that vineyard comes, what will he to do those tenants?" The Pharisees, who are listening to him, answered, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end…and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." Jesus said to them, "Have you never read the Scriptures? 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.' Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls in the stone will be broken to pieces, but the one on whom it falls will be crushed." Now, he said that the Kingdom of God is going to be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. We see that in Paul's ministry, don't we? He said, "I'm going to turn to the Gentiles and they will listen and they will be fruitful." This is the exact same thing that's written about in John 1, speaking of Jesus, "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet as many as received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of the will of flesh, or the will of blood or the will of man, but of God." Children born of God. The exact same thing. This was not a localized experience for Paul, wasn't just Paul. "Paul, if you would just change your methodology, if you'll come on a little sweeter, if you could just understand the Jews better", it was nothing like that. This was a spiritual phenomenon, this was happening to the Jewish nation as a whole. The Jewish nation was rejecting Christ. They weren't just rejecting Christ, they were hating him. They were despising and rejecting Him as Isaiah said they would. And Paul, remembering his days as a blasphemer and a persecutor, and a violent man, had compassion on those who were persecuting him. He said that, "I was like you, I was just like you." And so, he had compassion on those who were persecuting him. The Cause of the Anguish: The Eternal Consequences of Jewish Unbelief And so therefore, what is the cause of Paul's anguish? Well, it's the eternal consequence of Jewish unbelief. This was not an idle issue, this is not one of trifling theological insignificance. This was not a matter of haggling over dietary rules, or bickering over a genealogy. This was right at the core and center of their being, of their future. Would they spend eternity in heaven or in hell? That's how vital this was. It was the consequences of Jewish unbelief that was hanging in the balance here. Just like John the Baptist had said of Jesus, in Matthew 3:12. He said, "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering up the weeds into the barn but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And it's just as Jesus had said to the Scribes and Pharisees, "You snakes, you brood of vipers, how long will you escape being condemned to hell?" Paul's own countrymen, therefore, were cursed and cut off from Christ. That's the language he used. He puts it on himself, but that's the issue, that is the problem. Notice that Paul doesn't say this directly, he turns it around on himself. But that's the problem. It was true, they were rejecting the Gospel. And if they persisted in unbelief, they would be condemned to eternity in hell. That's the cause of Paul's anguish. II. The Depth of Paul’s Anguish What is the depth of his anguish? Look at verses 2-4. He says there, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel." These are overpowering emotions. The language is very strong here. "I have great sorrow. I have unceasing anguish in my heart." Powerful emotions. And then he has an astonishing desire. He says, "I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ." This is incredible. This is an apostle speaking like this. Perhaps, by now, he's already been caught up to the third heaven, and he's caught a glimpse of the future glory of Christ. He says, "I know a man in Christ, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, God knows. He was caught up to third Heaven and He saw inexpressible things. Things that man is not permitted to talk about." And Jesus says in John 17, 24, "Father, I want those whom you have given me, to be with me, where I am, and to see my glory, the glory I had with you before the creation of the world." Paul says "I'd give it up. I would give it up. I would be willing to be cut off from Christ, to not see him again. I saw his glory in the road to Damascus, I saw his glory in the third heaven. But I'm willing to never see it again, that which is the desire, the heartbeat of my soul, I'm willing to never see it again, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, but I'm willing to not have that gain". "I could wish that I'd be cut off from Christ. I could wish that I would be accursed." Do you know what that means? Sent to hell. To languish in hell and the lake of fire, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth in eternal darkness. I could wish that on myself, if it would mean the salvation of my countrymen, those of my own race, the people of Israel. He's willing to trade it all. This is astonishing. He's willing to hear said into his ears concerning himself, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I'm willing to have that happen to me". He's speaking about his eternal soul, of which Jesus said, "What good would it be for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul, or what could a man give in exchange for his soul?" He's willing to exchange his soul for that of his Jewish brothers and sisters, his kinsmen, that they would be saved. This is astonishing. It's an amazing desire on Paul's part. It's also an impossible desire. It cannot be. Notice what he says. "I could wish that". Every translation has it the same way. It's a good translation, because it's not possible, it's not possible. He just got done saying in Romans 8, look at verses 38. "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." So I can't, I can't do it. I could wish it, but it's impossible, because nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ. I can't be cursed and cut off from Christ. Jesus said in John 6, this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none, of all that He has given me, but raise him up at the last day, 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." Paul was going to be raised up by Jesus, is going to be raised up by Jesus, at the Last Day. It's impossible, I could wish. This can never be. Remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? The rich man is down there, languishing in hell, Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham. and the rich man wants Lazarus to come and cool his tongue and Abraham says, it can't be, and he says, "besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can any one cross over from there to us." Well, I think there's just as great a chasm in this matter too, Paul cannot trade his soul for that of the Jews, the Jewish nation. John Piper put it this way, "God has not designed a world where a person can be damned because of Christ exalting love. If there were such a world, then the Biblical standards of the world that exists would not apply. And Paul stands ready to take Israel's place in hell, but he can't. God does not send people to hell because they love others enough to sacrifice for them. So Paul cannot take the place of Israel, he can only grieve." It's very much like what Moses said after the incident with the golden calf, he basically says "Lord, now blot me out of your book on their behalf." And God said, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book." Neither Moses nor Paul can offer themselves up as a substitute for the sins of the people. But do you see how Christ-like this desire is? How Christ-like Paul is here? For frankly, this is exactly what Jesus did, it's not just that he could wish to be cursed and cut off from the Father on the cross, he was. Isn't that incredible? Jesus drank the cup of our wrath on the cross, he was the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, he was cursed and cut off from the Father, for those of his own people, for his sheep, he died for them. He drank the cup of our wrath. But Paul is not the substitute, is he? He's not the Savior, he cannot do this, he's just expressing an incredibly Christ-like desire. Let me just stop for a moment and say, "Is this your desire too? Are you like this?" You know, one of the things that Jesus does when we're saved, is he makes us like Him. He transforms us so that we're like him. And it's just a good time to assess yourself. Say, would I be willing? Could I? Could I even make the statement? I could wish. Do you wish it? Even though you know it's impossible. Or less than that, would you be willing to just put up with some abuse to lead someone to Christ? Not that you'd have to go to hell, but that you would just kind of get abused for a while, while they sort it out and think whether they want to follow Jesus. Are you willing to put up with that? Paul gives a sense of the authenticity of his anguish in verse one. Cause of his anguish is the eternal consequence of Jewish unbelief. The depth of his anguish, he's expressed in incredible terms. III. The Authenticity of Paul’s Anguish What about the authenticity? Is it authentic? Is he just using rhetoric here? Are these just words? Just preacher talk. I hate using preacher talk. "Oh, that's just a preacher story." Well, how then can you know if a preacher ever says anything true? I try never to use preacher stories in that sense. This is not just preacher talk for Paul. How do you know? Look what he says in verse one: "I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit." It's a piling on of words so that you will know how seriously he means what he's about to say. Repeated statements, like he's taking a solemn vow. He says, "I speak the truth in Christ…" His status as a Christian is on the line here. "I am in Christ and while in Christ, I'm telling you this, and my words are true, I'm not lying, this is how I genuinely feel". "My conscience... " You know, that part of us that screams at us when we do something wrong, "my conscience is testifying, but not just by itself. Now I'm redeemed and my conscience is testifying in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." Why does he lay on these phrases? Well, first of all, because all men are liars. Psalm one, 16-11 says that we're liars, we say things that aren't true, we exaggerate. It's just our nature, we talk and we lie. Secondly, because what Paul is saying is so unbelievable. In what sense is it unbelievable? Well how would you feel about a group of people that had basically taken an oath not to eat until you were dead? There were some Jews who did, they took an oath that they would not eat until Paul was dead. In that God ordained that Paul would live for a number of years later, that's an incredible diet right there. They were not going to be able to kill him, God rescued Paul because he must stand trial before Caesar. But that's how much they hated him, and he knew it. How would you feel toward people that picked up stones and threw them at your head, and would do it again if they had another chance? Disappointed to find that you got up out of the pile of rocks and continued preaching. How would you feel about people like that? Would you not want at least to never have anything to do with them again? Paul wants to spend eternity in Heaven with them, he wants to live with them forever in Heaven. That's a supernatural attitude. How do we get to love our enemies that much? And what could prove this kind of heart attitude? If Paul had some tears running down his cheeks, would you believe it? No, those could be faked. How about if he had a certain facial expression, a kind of a quivery voice? There's some great actors out there. He says, it's got nothing to do with the tears and has nothing to do with the quivery voice, and it's not an act. I'm telling you the truth. If I could, I'd switch places. That's an incredible statement. Can I tell you that I think that this kind of genuine compassion for the lost is a rare thing? It's a supernatural work of God in your heart, and in... Something that God had worked in Paul. IV. The Fruit of Paul’s Anguish What is the fruit of his anguish? Well, he doesn't just leave it at feeling anguish. Look at verse one of chapter 10. Romans 10:1, he says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved." You know, emotion alone doesn't accomplish anything. To just feel feelings doesn't mean anything. Paul's tears in his anguish cannot save a single soul. It's not enough for Paul merely to be in intense anguish over the spiritual state of the Jews. It had to flow out into some fruit, some action, and it did. First, I think, manifesting a heart desire for their salvation, his deepest heart desire is for the salvation of the Jews, he yearns for it, it's what he wants with every breath and how beautiful and how perfect is this. Instead of harboring bitter, revengeful thoughts, in which he'd like their destruction. Rather, he wants to spend eternity with them. He wants to see them transformed and saved. That's the fruit, it's a heart desire first, and then flowing from that comes prevailing, fervent prayer for the Jews, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. Never let anyone tell you for a moment that we are not commanded to pray for the lost. Romans 10:1 refutes that forever, we are to pray for lost people, we are to pray for lost relatives, pray for lost coworkers, to pray for lost people around us, even if we don't know their name. Pray right at that moment for this lost person here who's serving you or cutting your hair, or you might have a chance to talk to. We can pray to God for the lost, and Paul prays for the Israelites that they may be saved. And never let anyone tell you for a moment that God's eternal decrees in salvation, his predestination, His election, (which doctrines Paul will go through in great detail in Romans 9, and which he holds to be absolutely true) cut off energetic effort on our parts. He who believed more about predestination, election, than any of us in this room, prayed more and evangelized more than anyone. They are not mutually exclusive. And so here he is, pouring out his prayer, his heart. He’s not saying, "God, I know you've already got it sorted out. So what's the point in praying?" He didn't say that at all. He is praying fervently for the salvation of the Jews, almost certainly by name, some that perhaps had been in his face in the last city, praying for them, that they might be saved. And so prevailing, fervent prayer for the Jews. And tireless evangelistic labor for the Jews. In every city, he is willing to put up with imprisonment and suffering and yes, even death, for the salvation of the elect. This is exactly what he says in Second Timothy, 2:10. "Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." I'm willing to put up with incredible abuse, city after city, that they may be saved. And among those elect are some Jews. Like for example, Crispus, the synagogue ruler in Acts 18. He was a Jew, and he got saved. Paul was a Jew. There are a lot of Jewish people who become Christians, and Paul is going to maintain to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, and so he's going to pay fervently for them, and he is going to evangelize tirelessly. That is the fruit of his anguish. V. The Significance of Paul’s Anguish What is the significance of Paul's anguish? Well, first the status of unbelieving Jews. And I'm not going to develop this, this week. We're going to talk much more about it next week when we talk about the Jews inadequate spiritual blessings that he lists here. But simply put, unbelieving Jews are lost and need the gospel. They're not okay. They're not fine as they are, they need the gospel, they need Jesus Christ. If they don't believe in Christ crucified, they will be lost. If that is not true then what is all this anguish for? Secondly, then let's extend it out. Look at the status of all unbelieving people. Paul's particular grief for the Jews here should be extended to all people everywhere. If the Jews, with their spiritual advantages are lost without Christ, how much more the countless millions of people, in let's say, unreached areas of the world, who don't even have these advantages, they're in now a much more spiritual situation. Should not or would not Paul grieve just as much over them? Yes he would. And shouldn't we? Thirdly, there is the terrors of hell. I've already described it to you, biblically. The driving force of Paul's agony and anguish is the irrefutable biblical fact that the majority of humanity will spend eternity separated from God in torture. That is a biblical fact. We can try to mess with it, we can try to change the words of God, we can do all those things, but let me tell you something. If you mess with it too much, you don't need a savior anymore, after a while. You don't need Jesus, or you become universalist and say that his death saved everyone, and we don't believe that either, so we're left with this: The doctrine of hell that Jesus taught, it is true, and that's why he felt unceasing sorrow and anguish in his heart. Because hell is real, it's not a metaphor, it's a genuine threat. Revelation 14, it says "…he too, will drink the wine of God's fury [the lost person] which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, there is no rest day or night." That is biblically accurate, that is the threat we're facing. Jesus himself said, "If your right eye caused you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes, be thrown into the fire of hell." That's what Jesus said. That is the significance of Paul's grief, here. We see also the display of an evangelist heart. Paul's deep, heartfelt agony is a role model for the evangelistic compassion of all Christians. Paul shows us what we should feel about the lost, just as Jesus did when He stood over the city of Jerusalem, and wept over it. Wept over it. He said this, as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day, what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes." And he wept. That's Jesus. And that's Paul. More next week on the fifth, understanding the limits of Old Covenant blessing. I'll talk more about that next week, but simply put, the old covenant blessings that are listed here in Romans Nine, four and five, insufficient for salvation, it's not enough. There must be more. Understand sixly, the power of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ alone has the power to turn Paul's wailing into dancing, it's the only power there is. The power of Jesus Christ in the gospel. It can save lost people. You know, I'm not speaking just theoretically. In a crowd this size, a group this size, undoubtedly, there are people listening to me who are not born again. And all of the danger that I spoke, the spiritual danger concerning the unbelieving Jews, it's true of you, in your unbelieving state. It's a dangerous state to be in, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ has power to save you. If you'll only believe in Christ, if you'll trust that His death on the cross is sufficient to pay for your sin, if you'll trust that His resurrection is your resurrection, God will give you eternal life. A mystery, you know, it's possible to rejoice in God greatly, while sorrowing over the lost greatly. Don't you find it remarkable that he goes from Romans 8, the soaring heights, "Nothing else in all creation will be able to separate us, and the love of God that's in Christ Jesus…" Amen and Hallelujah. "I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience confirms I have great sorrow... " How can you go from the heights to the depths in about seven words? But that's what he does. And here's how it works. When we look up to Heaven spiritually, and see a sovereign God sitting on his throne, filled with goodness, and light and power, we are filled with unspeakable joy, full of glory. But when we look at the Earth and look around and see the ravages and the devastation that sin has brought, we should be filled with unspeakable horror and sadness and sorrow. Can you do both? Can we live both? Paul does here, he says in 2 Corinthians 6:10, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. How do you do that? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing? Can we be a church like that? First Baptist Church? Can we be the church that sorrows over lostness, and always rejoices over the God who has the power to save out of it? Can we not do both? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing? And then finally, it is possible to believe in God's sovereignty, I mean His absolute sovereignty over all things, while sorrowing greatly over the lost. They're not mutually exclusive. Can... Just check your rationality at the door, and come into the scripture here, and say "Apparently it is possible." I know you don't know how it can fit together, how we can believe in a God who sovereignly chooses and hardens and has mercy if he wants to, and all that, and still grieve greatly over the lost. Yeah, it can be done. Now you may ask a question. Okay, if we're supposed to be sorrowing greatly over people who may be lost, I mean may be lost. Someday, in the future they may come to Christ, but we're supposed to sorrow greatly over people who may be lost. Will we not then actually sorrow more and eternally over people who actually are lost and now we know them? In other words, how can we enjoy heaven? Have you ever wondered that? Are we not supposed to be sorrowing and grieving over people we knew in life, who now we know that didn't make it? Do you wonder that? Well, first of all, I know it's not possible, because it says in Revelation 21, "There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." How is that possible? I don't know, except that a vision of the glory of God will so swallow up any earthly concern and any earthly connections, that it will be sufficient. Jonathan Edwards put it this way, "With respect to any affection that the Godly have had to finally reprobate, the love of God will wholly swallow it up and cause it wholly to cease". So it's not going to be a kind of hell in heaven that forever we're weeping over lost ones, but our love for God will cause it wholly to cease. John Piper put it this way, "Those who die in their sinful rebellion, we say it with tears now, will not have the power to hold heaven hostage with their own misery. Here we groan and weep, there we are consumed with the glory of Christ". VI. Application Now, what application do we take from this? Well, Charles Spurgeon powerfully put it this way, "From all our congregations, a bitter cry should go up to God, unless conversions are continually seen. Can we be barren, and yet, content? If sinners will perish, then let them perish with our arms above their knees." It's been a while since we baptized anyone, folks. It's been a while. I take that personally, and I take it seriously. So should you. It's been a while. Has it been a while since you've witnessed anybody? Has it been a while since you've been willing to pay the price of someone's rejection of the Gospel? Are your arms metaphorically around someone's knees as it seems they're determined to go to hell? Are you doing what you can so that they would not? Are you willing to be kind of embarrassingly persuasive? Are you willing even to cry in their presence? Do you have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in your heart? Is that a description of you? I mean, when you read about gay rights activists or terrorist cells, or even... I mean, the people, some of the people are hardest to love. Do you have sorrow over their spiritual state and want them to be converted? Do you pray for them? And my question is, if not, if not, how do you get it, how do you get it? Can I urge you to pray that God would change your hard heart? Acknowledge that it's a hardness of heart and mine too, pray for me too, that our hardness together would change and we would be soft in our hearts and care and be readily hurt by lostness? Can I urge you to load up your mind and imagination with biblical truths? Think of what it will be like on judgment day. Think of what it will be like when He says to people who are shocked, thinking they were okay. Depart from me, you who are cursed. Think of what that will be like. Load up your mind and your imagination with truth, biblical truth, think about it, and see if your heart doesn't start to melt. But even better, even better. It's really hard to be compassionate in the abstract. Get involved in evangelistic ministry, as Paul was. And then you'll start to see actual faces and names of people who are rejecting, and then you can start to weep over them. In a few minutes or a few moments, we're going to have an opportunity to commission an urban ministry team with CEF. They're going into an urban elementary school and they are going to have the opportunity to reach out with the Gospel to some kids who are not hearing the Gospel. That's wonderful, isn't it? You may want to get involved in that ministry. There's lots of work to be done. Or if that aspect of ministry is not yours, look at the short term mission trips, or look at some other aspect of evangelistic ministry, but get involved. Be like Paul. Unceasing prayer, tireless evangelism. That's how we grow in our compassion for the lost.
I. Our Meticulous God When I was a student at MIT, I worked in the carpentry shop. And there were many carpenters there of various skill levels, but the best ones were from Europe. They had come over... This one man, in particular, was an Italian man. And he used to, after making a day's worth of shelves for offices and doors and all that kind of boring thing, which I'm sure was no challenge to his amazing skill, then after hours he would use the equipment to build furniture for relatives or to sell. And he was especially good at inlaying wood... You know, two different shades of wood putting it in there. And the way he would work, it was amazing. I used to love just watching what he would do with the chisels. It was all handmade things. And he would just carve and just fit each piece of wood in, then just buff it until there was... It just felt like silk. It was amazing to watch the meticulous approach that he took to his work. And what that means is he was attentive to detail. He was meticulous. He was careful. But he's nothing compared to our God. Amen. Meticulous as Creator Our God is a meticulous God. That means he gives careful attention to detail. And as I come to our passage today, Daniel 9:20-27, I see more evidence of that meticulous nature of God. Our God is meticulous. He is carefully attentive to detail. It's woven into the creation around us. He was meticulous as a creator. Do you realize that the atomic nucleus is exactly balanced? The proton just a little bit more massive than the neutron, or else life itself would be impossible. The solar system. If the earth were just 1% closer to the sun, or 1% further away, life would be impossible on this planet. Meticulously arranged. God is a meticulous creator. Meticulous as Provider He's also meticulous as a provider. He's created trillions of life-forms on this earth and feeds them every day. Now some of you are good at administration, but I can't imagine that kind of provision, every day providing for those things that he's made. It says in Psalm 145, "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." From the little plankton, all the way up to the huge whale that eats the plankton, it's all been meticulously arranged. Our God is a meticulous provider. Meticulous as Protector He's also meticulous as protector of his people. He's a meticulous Good Shepherd. He leaves the 99 on the hills and goes to look for the one that wandered off. Most of us would be satisfied with 99%. That's not a bad grade. Our God is not that way. And so, it says, in John chapter 6, "This is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all he has given me, but shall raise them up at the last day." Aren't you glad that he's meticulously watching over you and doesn't let you just wander off? "Oh, well. My statistics are pretty good. I've still got most of them." But he goes and leaves those that are still there and goes and gets you and brings you back. He's a meticulous protector. Meticulous as Judge He's also a meticulous judge, is he not? Well, what did we learn from Daniel, chapter 7? The court was seated and the books were opened. And what's in the books? Well, Jesus told us that you'll have to give an account for every careless word you have spoken. So the books are full of a meticulous account of everything you have ever said or done. And so, we need a meticulous salvation, don't we? Every sin atoned for, every transgression covered. He's a meticulous judge. Meticulous as Prophet He's also a meticulous prophet, Careful attention to detail. I don't have time to go into all the detail and the prophecy from the tiny little town where Jesus would be born, Micah 5:2, Bethlehem, up to the exact way that Jesus would die. "They have pierced my hands and my feet," Psalm 22. And the fact that there'd be a little pot of wine vinegar at the foot of the cross for him to taste, Psalm 69 verse 21. And the fact that Judas would betray him with 30 pieces of silver, Zechariah 11. Meticulous detail. Well, does that kind of meticulous detail extend to the actual time of Jesus' first arrival on earth? The beginning of his ministry. Could it be that God laid out in prophetic perspective exactly when Jesus would come to redeem Israel? Could it be that this passage that we're going to study this morning is what Peter meant when he said in 1 Peter 1:10 and following, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care trying to find out the time... " Stop right there. "The time and the circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow." The time? Is that actually in there? Can we figure out when Jesus was to come? Is it in the Old Testament? I, actually, don't think it can be found anywhere else but the passage I'm preaching on today. I believe that God did predict the coming of Jesus Christ, down to the time. And that's what we're going to focus on today. Our God is a meticulous God. And my goal, today, is that you understand the beauty of this passage, that you may see, not so much the exact working out of the decrees and the timeline and the history. That's interesting. But that you may know what kind of salvation has covered you completely. What kind of salvation it is that's going to bring you all the way into the presence of God. You can't see him in the face now. You wouldn't survive. But God has big plans for you, and he's got it all worked out. And if you trust in Jesus Christ, this meticulous, this careful God will bring you all the way right into his presence. So that's what I want you to see in this. But there's some details along the way. And this passage has crushed me with all there is to say. I don't have time to go into all the details, so some of the things that I've learned in this passage we're going to be discussing tonight. Alright, we're going to take a break from our study in Proverbs and I'm going to take some of the details and move it over. It'd be well worth your time to come tonight and listen to that. But today, I want to focus on the four major aspects of this prophecy. There are four of them. Number one is the specific details about what Jesus Christ would accomplish when he came. There's a six-fold unfolding of what Jesus would accomplish. Number two is the prediction about when Jesus would come. The 70 weeks, at the end of the 69 weeks, we'll try to figure that out. Number three, a specific prediction about the destruction of Jerusalem after it was rebuilt after Daniel's time, that Jerusalem would be destroyed again. And then number four a prediction, I believe, about the anti-Christ in the final seven years of history in this world. And so that's quite a challenge to lay out before us in half an hour, isn't it? So I'm going to take off my watch and I'm going to lay it down here, I'm not going to look at it again. But I'm going to put it down here, and then we're going to do what we can with this passage. Why don't you read along with me in Daniel 9:20-27. "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill, while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, 'Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore consider the message and understand the vision. Seventy sevens [or weeks] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know and understand this. From the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one, the ruler, comes, there will be seven sevens [or weeks] and sixty-two sevens. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two sevens, the anointed one will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood. War will continue until the end and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven, or week. In the middle of the week, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.'" II. The “Experts” Disagree Now, as we come to this passage, I have to be honest with you that the experts disagree about this passage. People are all over the map and why? Because this is an extraordinary passage. There's all kinds of things, and wherever God gets extraordinary in his word, Satan brings people to bring division and distress and trouble so that we're not really sure what it's saying. And that's true here as well. But there's just different ways to approach this. And therefore, some of what I'm going to say is more certain than other things. I am absolutely certain that verse 24 is talking about Jesus Christ and the atoning sacrifice is a sacrifice that he offered and the full accomplishment of the end of sin. There's no doubt in my mind about that at all. I am a little less certain about the sixty-nine weeks and the decree, but I'm fairly certain about that. I'm a little more certain about the same level, about the destruction of Jerusalem, and about the anti-Christ a little less. That's how it works. But I'd like to explain to you, we don't have time to give all the varying details and the different approaches, so we're just going to kind of go with mine today. And this evening, I'll talk about some of the other views and the other ways to look at this passage. Fair enough? Unless you want to stay 'til 2:00 or 3:00, we could do it all right now, but... Well, alright, but we'll do it this way. III. Context: Daniel’s Prayer, Gabriel’s Answer (vs. 20-23) Alright, let's start with the context, verses 20-23. The context is Daniel's prayer. Remember last week that we looked at Daniel's prayer, verses 1-19, and Daniel came before God because there was a specific thing that happened. Daniel unrolled the scroll of Jeremiah and read in there a specific prophecy that the desolation of Jerusalem would last for seventy years, and at the end of that seventy years, God would restore the people to the promised land and Jerusalem would be rebuilt. And so as he read that and counted off the time that he'd been in there, Daniel, now an old man in his 80s, maybe even later, fell to praying. He said, "God has made it clear what he's going to do," and rather than just sit back, as some of us would say, "Well, God, you're going to do what you're going to do anyway, what do you need me for?" Not at all. He was motivated to pray. The very certainty of the scripture motivated him to pray. And so he got down on his knees and said, "God, do the very thing that you promised to do. Bring the people back, restore Jerusalem." And in the middle of all that, he couldn't help but confess his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of his people that had brought on that desolation. Jeremiah the prophet had warned about it. He said the people of God were breaking the commandments of God. They were breaking the covenant and therefore, God was going to bring the covenant punishments on them, the desolation of Jerusalem. And so if you were to see Lamentations 1, 1 and 3, it says Jeremiah... Just envision him sitting looking out, perhaps on the Mount of Olives looking down over the city. A smoldering heap of ruins, the walls destroyed, the temple destroyed, it's all ruined. And this is what he says. "How desolate lies the city once so full of people. After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile." So the desolation of Jerusalem, the emptiness of it. This was to be God's holy, set apart city, and now it's desolate, a smoldering ruin. And how it must have brought grief to the weeping prophet, the prophet Jeremiah. And it brought grief to Daniel many years later as well, and so he fell to praying, and he was confessing sin and just fasting and seeking God and asking that he might please fulfill the promise that he'd made and bring the Jews back to the promised land. And so he's praying. In verse 20 he says, "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill," that's Mount Zion, that's Jerusalem, he's praying for his people, and he's praying for Jerusalem, and you need to keep that in mind. I don't think you'll interpret this passage properly if you don't keep that in mind. He's praying for his people and for Jerusalem. Verse 21, "While I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man [he calls him a man, but we know he's an angel] I had seen in the earlier vision came to me," it says either "in swift flight" or "in the time of extreme weariness," difficult Hebrew, "About the time of the evening sacrifice." So Gabriel is dispatched, he's sent from heaven. You know Gabriel. We meet him in Luke chapter 1. Gabriel is the one who stood in the altar of incense, and announced to Zechariah that his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son in her old age, John the Baptist. And then later on at that time, he went to Mary, the Virgin Mary, and announced to Mary that she would have a son, though she was a virgin and she would be carrying the very son of God. And so, Gabriel is an angel to whom it has been committed these important messages. The word angel, by the way, in the Greek, angelos means messenger. And so, they're given these messages and so Gabriel is coming. Now, I don't like that translation in swift flight. It imagines that he's flying down, the Hebrew won't bear that, I think. It really looks more like a sense of weariness. So it could be that Daniel was in extreme weariness after all his prayer. So at just the right time, when he's just about worn out, Gabriel appears. Don't stop praying too soon, keep praying, keep praying until God answers and that's what he does, he just, he lingers, he waits in his prayer, and he keeps praying. And then, Gabriel shows up. Now, the last time that you were praying, did you have an angel come and give you the answer? [chuckle] What would that be like? And so he's startled by the appearance and he's already seen Gabriel. It's not the first time we've met him, we met him back in the Alexander the Great chapter, he was the one that gave the information about Alexander. And so, here's Gabriel again, to give an even more astounding answer and this what he says in verse 22, "He instructed me and said to me, 'Daniel, I have now come to give you insights and understanding. As soon as you began to pray an answer was given.'" Isn't that interesting. Right away the answer is given, you just haven't heard it yet. And God held it back until the right time. Now, in chapter 10, we're going to see something of a spiritual struggle and some warfare in the heavenly realms over that. We're going to talk about that. But right now the answer had been given right away, and now I'm here, alright. And he says, "An answer was given for which I have come to tell you," and then he says, "For you are highly esteemed." Now, I'm going to preach more fully on that next week, because he says it again in chapter 10 and there's too much this week, to go into this, but I would like to set in front of you a yearning, a hunger and a thirst that this be the thing you live for that you be highly esteemed by God. That God look at your life work and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." That God be pleased with you, that that be the goal of your life that you be highly esteemed. We'll talk about this more, but this is extraordinary. That God would say this about a human being, you are highly esteemed. And therefore he says, "Consider the message and understand the vision." To summarize the context, Daniel is praying to God intensely about the fate of his people, the Jews, and Jerusalem. Remember how he used to get down on his knees three times a day, he used to open the shutters and face where? Where would he face? Jerusalem, he's facing Jerusalem and so his mind is focused on his people and the holy city. And so the answer's going to come regarding that. IV. The Six-Fold Purpose of the Seventy Weeks (vs. 24) Now, in verse 24, we get into the seventy weeks. Now, in verse 24, we have the six-fold purpose of the seventy weeks. There's a reason for the seventy weeks and what are they. It says in verse 24, "Seventy sevens" or weeks we can just stop right there and say that the Hebrew literally says sevens, but that's the common word for week or weeks, okay. And almost every conservative commentator agrees that this is talking about seven-year periods, just like Jacob served a seven-year period for Rachel. Got Leah at the end of that and then had to do it again, for Rachel, the one he loves. So there's a stretch of seven weeks or seven years and then seven years, so I believe we're talking about years here. "Seventy sevens [of years, therefore a total 490 years] are decreed for your people and your Holy City." And here he lists these things. First of all, notice they're decreed for your people and your Holy City, we're focused on what? Jerusalem and the Jews, that's the zeroing in of this, okay. You want to know what's going to happen to Jerusalem, Daniel, you want to know what's going to happen to your people. I'm going to answer you. Seventy weeks are decreed for six things, look at what it says. Three of them are negative, and three positive. 1) "To finish transgression," 2) "To put an end of sin," and 3) "To atone for wickedness." So this is a full covering, a full provision for the sins of the Jews. If you read Daniel's prayer, 1-19, it's just... He almost can't get through a verse without mentioning his sinfulness and that of his people. He's just overwhelmed with a sense of wickedness before God and this is the way it is, the holier you are, the more you walk with God, the more you'll feel this to be true of yourself. Don't expect the opposite. You're going to feel yourself to be broken before God and sinful, because that's just how holy God is. It's when you're far from God that you don't feel that. And so if today you don't feel your sense of sinfulness before God, even if forgiven through Christ, even if forgiven, completely covered, still a sense like Daniel did of unworthiness to be in the presence of God, then you're far from God. You must repent and come close to him, because God is holy, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all, and so he's confessing sin, and so, this is glorious good news. We're going to have a full provision for all sin. Read these things like they're promises for you. I know you're not Jewish, most of you anyway, and that you're not concerned or intensely wondering what's going to happen to Jerusalem the way Daniel was. But this reads for you as well, because there is one atoning sacrifice for all the world, not more than one, but only one, Jesus Christ. And this is what it says, "To finish transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for wickedness." Now, the Jews tend to think of their sacrificial system, they did back then, the sacrificial system as the way that sin could be atoned for. With the temple having been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, how could sin be atoned for? This was a problem. And remember what Daniel just said a moment ago, he said that Gabriel came to him, when? At the time of the evening sacrifice. Well, is there an evening sacrifice in the exile? No, there's no temple. But he remembers, he remembers the morning sacrifice, the evening sacrifice. He's still on that timetable, that sense of the sacrificial system. And it had been given by God. God invented it as a picture for the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ. And so what he's saying here is that there's going to be a full provision for sin. Daniel, you are so concerned about your sin? Good, well, you should be. Because that's the problem. That's why the city is desolate. Well, seventy weeks are decreed to finish it all. To finish sin, to finish transgression, make an end of sin and make an atonement for iniquity. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away human sin. You know that, don't you? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And so there's a full complete provision atoning for sin, and then he says to bring in everlasting righteousness. Oh, everlasting righteousness, not temporary righteousness. And to my conservative pre millennial friends, not thousand-year righteousness, but everlasting righteousness. This is not the millennial kingdom. This is eternal righteousness before God, and nothing can be done for that but the blood of Jesus Christ, the cleansing. What does it say in Romans 1:16-17, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God has been revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith." Are you clothed in that righteousness, the Gospel righteousness of Jesus Christ? It is not yours, it's a robe that Jesus offers to you. Put it on by faith. Everlasting righteousness. And then it says to seal up vision and prophecy. All vision and all prophecy centers on the person of Jesus Christ, doesn't it? He's the center of it all, it all revolves around Jesus. It says in the Book of Revelation that the spirit of prophecy is a testimony about Christ. And so it's all zeroed in on Jesus, and so there's going to be a fulfillment of all vision and prophecy. It's all going to be fulfilled. Do you remember when Jesus went to Nazareth and preached and they read a passage from Isaiah and he said, "Today in your hearing, this scripture is," what? "Fulfilled." To seal it up. And so Jesus came to fulfill and to seal up vision and prophecy, and then finally to anoint the most holy. The Hebrew says a most holy thing or perhaps even the Holy of Holies. To anoint the Holy of Holies. Now, this could be several things. It could be, if it's A, most holy thing, it could be the anointing of Jesus Christ, because when Jesus preached in Nazareth, he said, from Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." So he is the Anointed One, he's the Messiah. But I don't think that's what this means. Neither do I think it's referring to the Millennial Temple, the anointing of a Holy of Holies in the Millennial Temple. I don't know why we need a temple. The Book of Hebrews ends that. There's now a spiritual temple, and therefore, I think it's probably the spiritual, heavenly Holy of Holies. It's a big theme in the Book of Hebrews. Do you realize the temple itself was a pattern of a heavenly one? It was an imitation of a heavenly one, and therefore when it was finished, we don't need it anymore. And so therefore, in Hebrews 9:11-12, it says, "When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle," or temple. He went into a spiritual, heavenly temple "that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of bulls and goats, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption." So what happened is, when they built the tabernacle, got it all ready, they had to anoint it, didn't they? With, not oil, but with blood for sacrifice. Jesus went and anointed the heavenly tabernacle with what? With his own blood, once for all that we might have eternal redemption. Yeah, verse 24, that's a sermon in itself, isn't it? We haven't even gotten to the seventy weeks, but that's what Jesus came to accomplish. Okay, but when, when would it be? Now we get to the sparkly stuff. I actually this... Well, I just preached the spiritual center of it. You don't need anything more than this, because this is full provision for your sins as well. If you're a sinner, you're going to find your salvation in verse 24 of Daniel 9. It's right here. There's no other salvation, there's no other name under heaven given a man by which we must be saved. You will give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Hebrews 9:24 tells us that. V. The Unfolding of the Seventy Weeks: Messiah Comes!! (vs. 25-26) Okay, you want to know what's the date? Alright, I want to know, it's in here, okay. And it says, "Know and understand this. From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One... " As far as I can tell this is the only place in the Old Testament that the word Messiah is used, Anointed One, of Christ. It speaks of Cyrus as God's Anointed One in a different way, but this is the Messiah now, this is the Christ. Okay, "From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble." So God decrees, now, it's interesting, he says 70 weeks have been decreed, verse 24. The Hebrew literally says, "seventy weeks have been divided out for you." That's the literal translation. So he's going to parcel out these 70 weeks. And that comes important because it comes 7, 62, and 1, doesn't it? No matter what you do with it, you're dealing with 7, 62, and then 1. At the end of the 69 weeks, the Messiah's cut off, and then we've got this one last week. It's divided out in a certain way. So first, from the time of the decree, we'll talk about that in a minute, until the Anointed One, the Messiah, comes, there will be 7 weeks and 62. 7 plus 62 equals 69. Alright, so we got 69 weeks. But why does he divide 7 and 62? Well, realize, the decree, which I believe, and we'll talk about this more this evening if you're interested. The decree that best fits this is Artaxerxes the First's decree in 457 BC. There are other options, and we'll talk about that this evening if you're willing. But this one's the best one. Now, he measures out the seven weeks and then the sixty-two from that degree. Now, what is prophesied? Look across verse 25 and 26, and we can just kind of gather together all the things that the prophecy says are going to happen. There will be a decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem, number one. Number two, Jerusalem will be rebuilt with its streets and its walls and a moat or a trench of some sort. 69 weeks after that decree, the Anointed One, the ruler, will come. That's Jesus. That ruler will be... I mean, sorry, the Anointed One, will be cut off, I think that means killed, doesn't that make sense? Cut off, but not for himself, for any transgression of his own. Or it could read, Hebrew-wise it could read that he will have nothing, cut off and have nothing, none of the glory or honor, perhaps, that he deserves. And then there will be another ruler who will come, and the people of that ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary again. Rubble again. And then, during the time when the temple is destroyed, war will come like a flood until the measured out desolations have been completed. That's verse 25 and 26. We haven't even gotten to verse 27 yet, alright? That's a huge bunch of prophecy right there, isn't it? Well, let's see, did history fulfill the prophecy, did it work out? Well, we don't know exactly how long the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem took. But it says here seven weeks of years, so that would be 49 years. And so, from the issuing of the decree, which was 457 to about 408 BC, Jerusalem was rebuilt. Now, only God knows when he thinks, "There, it's done." But we knew that was during the time of Nehemiah, remember? And it says it will be rebuilt during time of trouble. Do you remember what was in Nehemiah's hands? One in each hand, what did he have? He had a sword in one hand and what did he have in the other hand? Trowel to do the building. Why the sword in the one hand? It was a time of trouble. And so he rebuilt it. Fulfilled. Alright, from 408 BC on, we've got these 62 weeks. Now, you all have your bulletins there, don't you? I've given you a little chart. Someone once said, "If you can't chart it, don't believe it," especially when it comes to eschatology. Well, I don't think that's true, but I think it's helpful for you to look at the timeline now here. We've got 457 BC to 408 BC, and then we've got sixty-two weeks left. 62 times 7 is 434, is it? So we've got 434 years from 408 BC, and that brings us to 27 AD. Now, if you're doing the calculation you wonder how do we end up with the extra year, you subtract it out as it should have gone to 26? The reason is there's no zero year from BC to AD. We skip over zero. So on a numerical line, there'd be a zero there, but on the timeline, there's no zero year. So we go from 1 BC to 1 AD. And so we end up with 27 AD. Did anything happen in 27 AD? Well, yeah, Jesus came. He began his ministry that year. How do we know that? Well, we don't know it for sure. Realize these kind of dates and chronologies aren't in the Bible. We kind of have to look outside of them. But we know that Jesus was born when Herod the Great was king. Herod the Great died in 4 BC. It says from Luke chapter 3 that Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. That puts us at 27 AD. You see what I'm saying? Right at that time. And then this has been corroborated by other ways, so that's a good estimation. Be amazed. The time is right there. And you say, "Now, listen. You worked backwards. You went and tried to find some decree and see if you could make it work and all that kind of thing." Well, yes, we did work backwards, and frankly, I think it was given for that purpose. If you were to read 1 Peter 1 again, it says there it was revealed to them that "they were not serving themselves, but you," future generations who look backward. We couldn't have looked ahead and predicted it, but we can look backward and see it. There were only three decrees, and we can choose one of them, and guess what? One of them works out perfectly. Be amazed. Our God is a meticulous God who knows the end from the beginning. And he has testified to you through faith in Christ that you're going to Heaven. Praise God, if you have faith in Christ. VI. The Interruption of the Seventy Weeks: One Desolation After Another (26-27) Alright, so, now we have an interruption in the seventy weeks, verse 26 and 27. Remember it said in verse 24, seventy weeks are divided out for your people. So we've got the seven weeks and the sixty-two. Any of you can figure out that 7 plus 62 doesn't equal 70, it equals 69. But we have from verse 24 that it's going to take a full seventy weeks to finish the transgression of the people of God and to restore Jerusalem completely. And so therefore we have an interruption, don't we? It says after the sixty-ninth week, doesn't say when, but after the sixty-ninth week, the Messiah will be cut off and we'll have nothing. We don't know how far after, but I think it was three years after. Three years after, he was cut off, he died. Why stop at 69? Well, this is the so-called parentheses or gap, and I think it's right because there's got to be a gap anyway. There's already a gap between when Jesus dies and when Jerusalem is destroyed. But I think that gap has extended out now 2000 years. This is what Jesus called the times of the Gentiles, when the Gentiles are trampling the city of Jerusalem one after the other. And when Gentile people like you and me are getting saved, to believe in a Jewish God, believe in Jewish scriptures, are reading Jewish prophets like Daniel and claiming the name of a son of David, Jesus Christ, as our Savior. We are the Gentiles who are getting grafted into a Jewish tree. Romans 11, this is the times of the Gentile. So there's this extending period out between the 69th and the 70th week. And it's a time of desolation for the people of God, the Jews. It's a time of emptiness. Remember what we said when Jeremiah looked out over the city, Lamentations 1:1, he said, "How desolate lies the city, once so full of people." Daniel, you know, you're praying and praying for your city and your people that it wouldn't be desolate anymore, but you know something? Even if the city gets rebuilt, it will be desolate if they don't understand who I am. And so there are two desolations, I believe, in this passage. The first is the desolation spiritually of the Jews when they rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, when they cut him off from the people, when they killed him. That's the first desolation. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, Luke 19:41 following, and he says, "Because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you," this is your time of desolation. And Jesus said so beautifully... We're going to talk about this more tonight. He's in the temple and he's teaching in the temple, and the scribes and the Pharisees are standing there opposing him and hating him. They've seen all his miracles, but they don't understand that the spirit of God has anointed him to do this, and so they reject him, and Jesus issues seven woes on them. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Woe to you, woe to you, woe to you," seven times. Do you think the number's an accident? It's a seven-fold woe in the house of Israel. And then he finishes up with this. He says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you, how often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not. Look, your house is left to you desolate." It brings hairs in the back of my neck. "Your house is left desolate, for I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And what's the next thing that Jesus did? He walked out of the temple, never to return. And just at that moment, the disciples came up to him and they said, "Master, what incredible stones. What a beautiful building. Isn't this incredible?" Oh, bad timing. Bad timing. I mean, did they not understand? No, they did not understand what the desolation of that house meant. And Jesus looked and he said, "You see all these things? Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." Well, that's prophesied right here in Daniel, isn't it? The sanctuary is going to be destroyed. Look what it says. It says in verse 26, "The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and... " The what? "The sanctuary." The temple." It's been predicted. Jesus knew Daniel. Jesus inspired Daniel to write this, and so he said, "I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." Well, they're obviously very distressed about this. They really figured the temple was going to have a big part in Jesus' kingdom and so they didn't understand, and so they come to him on the Mount of Olives, and they said, "Tell us when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" And then we get the great Olivet Discourse. We'll talk more tonight. There isn't time. But in the middle of it, Jesus refers to the abomination of desolation, doesn't he? This is the second desolation now in this passage. Not only is there a spiritual desolation of rejecting Jesus, there's a physical desolation of what's going to happen to Jerusalem, and this is what he says. Luke 21, we write this down. It's not in your outlook, I mean your pamphlet, but this is what it says. Luke 21:20-24, "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near." Wow, the consistency of Scripture. Desolation number two, armies surrounding Jerusalem. Well, what armies surrounded Jerusalem? Well, 70 AD, the Romans came. The emperor Vespasian had about enough of these Jews. I mean, just enough is enough with the zealots and all that, enough is enough. And so, he sent four legions plus some other auxiliaries, about 80,000 men, and they surrounded Jerusalem, and Jerusalem's tough to take. It's a hard city to conquer. But he surrounds them, and after a holdout and after a fight, finally the city is destroyed. And according to Josephus, approximately 1.1 million Jews perished during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. Now, think about that: 1.1 million by sword, famine, and plague. That's a ton of dead people. And Jesus speaking to the Christians said, "When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken through the prophet Daniel, "So when you see standing in the holy place `the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel--let the reader understand-- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Pray that it may... The flight may not take place on the Sabbath. Pray that you may not be pregnant or nursing at the time. "Run, run, run," he says, because it's a time of slaughter. And so, they did run. The Christians actually escaped to a place called Pella and they sat out the siege of Jerusalem there and they were spared because they believed Jesus' words. The Jews stayed and they were wiped out, and the temple was destroyed, physical desolation, physical desolation, and the times of the Gentiles openly was revealed. The Romans trampled Jerusalem until 637 AD. And what happened in 637 AD? The Muslims took over and they trampled Jerusalem. About 50 years after the Muslims took over, they built a shrine there, a place where Abraham was said to have sacrificed Isaac. Probably it's true. It's called the Dome of the Rock. Have you ever seen it? It's still there right on the Temple site, and it goes right on today. The Gentiles continue to trample. You say, "Well, the Muslims had it until World War I, the Ottoman Empire, right? Then the British took over. The British had it until the end of World War II. And then, who did they give it to?" Well, the Jews kind of. But remember a man is not a Jew if he's only one outwardly nor a circumcision really out and physical. A man is a Jew if he's one inwardly, so it's kind of a secular state over there, isn't it? Okay, but we'll give it the Jews there, but are they in charge of Jerusalem? Do you remember what Colin Powell said about this on March 7, 2001? Talk about relevant. He said it's the policy of the Bush administration to regard Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. How did that go over among the League of Arab nations? There was a hue and cry. Do you remember that? Do you read the newspaper? Alright. I mean, it was huge. Absolutely, they rejected that. Why? Because that's a Muslim holy site. They don't want the Jews in charge of Jerusalem. And so, no, it's still not free. Jerusalem's not been redeemed. It's not free. It's still the time of the Gentiles. They don't have control. Alright. Well, we brought you up to the sixty-nine weeks. VII. The Completion of the Seventy Weeks: The Final Desolation (vs. 27) What about that final seventieth week? Look down at verse 27. "He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." Now, who are we talking about here? Well, the ruler who is to come, in verse 26. He's going to put an end to sacrifice. Now, some commentators, conservative ones, who love the Lord, say this was fulfilled when the Romans destroyed the temple. But I don't think so. Because the 70 weeks are... The purpose of the entire 70 weeks, as stated back in verse 24, to put an end to transgression for the people of God, the Jews, and for Jerusalem. Has that happened? No. The Jews have not as a nation turned to their Messiah. Will they? Yes. Romans 11 says, "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the gentiles has come in. Then all Israel will be saved. As it is written, 'The deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness from Jacob. And this is the covenant I will make with them when I take away their sins.'" That has not been fulfilled yet. Paul looked on it as yet future. The seventy weeks have not been completed. So we're waiting for a seven-year period, and we believe, we call this the tribulation time when this man of sin, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:4, will "set himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God," he'll put an end to sacrifice and offering, and he will defile it by accepting worship. As a human being accepting worship as God. And that'll go on for a while, three and a half years, exactly. Verse 27, "Until the end that is decreed has been poured out on him." And what is that? Nothing other than the second coming of Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 tells us, "The lawless one," that's the antichrist, "will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth." And how perfect is that? He created heaven and earth with the breath of his mouth. And then he'll just say, "Your time is over. You're finished." And it's over, just like that. It's done. And then Jesus Christ returns. Well, obviously, there's lots of details we have not covered. There's lots of things, but do you see the scope and the grandeur of this passage? Do you see in verse 24 the total and complete... The author of Hebrews calls it the "great salvation" that God has provided for our sins? Do you see in verses 25 and 26? Secondly, the time of the coming of Jesus laid out beautifully? Remarkably. Do you see, also, in those verses, the destruction of Jerusalem, even after it had been rebuilt a second time. And then do you see, finally, the final seven-year period, in which the antichrist will come and follow in the footsteps of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Romans, the abomination of desolation, all of it is there. VIII. Applications Well, so what? What does this do? What does this do for me? Does this help me to be a better father, a better husband, or a better wife, a better worker? Well, one thing's for sure. God has carefully figured this thing out, hasn't he? He's looked over this whole thing. And he's laid out much of it, not all of it, but much of it in his word. You can rely on the promises that God has made, because he is a meticulously careful God. And if you find your salvation in a God like this, he will never let you go. You will most certainly be saved. He will leave that 99 on the hills. As often as you wander, he will bring you back if you truly trust in him. But now, can I urge you, don't wander? What caused the desolation of Jerusalem, but rejection of God? Rejection of his ways. Sin. Sin brings desolation, sin brings desolation. And for those who have never been redeemed through faith in Christ, it brings the ultimate desolation: Eternity in hell apart from God. May you not find that desolation, but rather, may you understand what Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." Why don't you close with me in prayer?
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