Podcasts about that jesus christ

Introduction: John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Revelation 16:17 - The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” The Hope is Real: The Truth About Heaven (Revelation 21:1-8) Everything is New. (Rev 21:1-2) Every day is in God's Presence. (Rev 21:3) Everything that Hurts is Gone. (Rev 21:4-5) Everything is Yours. (Rev 21:6-7) Romans 8:16-17 – The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Everyone is Not Going. (Rev 21:8) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Audio Transcript After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture,"I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on ahissy branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished."He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Over this past month, we've been examining God's Word tosee that the Son of God came to finish some things. And we've been trying to just answer one question.What is finished? Jesus made the declaration, "It is finished." Well, what is? Well, I guess to put itall in one word, salvation. The way of salvation, it's done. The work is done. And we've been spendingtime looking at different facets of salvation. First, we saw justification. The guilt is gone.You realize Jesus has taken your sin away. There are no grounds for punishment when you're in Christ.The guilt is gone. He's made you righteous. And then we saw reconciliation. The relationship isrestored. By nature, you are not God's friend. The Bible says by nature, we are enemies of God.And Jesus Christ came to restore the relationship with God. Pastor Taylor a couple of days agotalked about redemption. The price was paid. There was a literal price that was paid. You see, youhave sinned against God, and it wasn't as if God was like, "Oh, that's okay. Don't worry about it. I'mjust going to forget about it." No, no, no. As Pastor Taylor pointed out, you owe God an infinite debt.And God paid that Himself through the death of His Son. It is finished.You know, you think of those words on the cross, "It is finished." You know,that's not the only time that Jesus declares that something is finished.It's only the first time. Do you know the next time Jesus says it is finished?It is when God pours out judgment. Revelation 16-17, it's the last bold judgment. The book ofRevelation talks about there's seal trumpets and trumpet judgments and bold judgments. When thelast judgment of God is poured out, look at this, Revelation 16-17, the seventh angel poured outHis bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is done."That's the next time Jesus says it is finished. Today I want to talk about the last time He says it.Do you know the last time Jesus declares something is finished?As after He creates a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation chapter 21, I want you to turn there.Revelation chapter 21,Revelation chapter 21, look at verses 5 and 6. It says, "And He who was seated on the thronesaid, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'" Also, He said, "Write this down. For these wordsare trustworthy and true. And He said to me, 'It is done.'"Like, wait, wait, what is He talking about here? What is finished, the promiseof glorification? That is, the hope is real. The hope is real. We're going to talk about hope today.Because when we talk about hope, we use it in a different way than the Bible uses the word hope.When we say hope, what we mean is wish. You know what I mean? We say, "I hope it doesn't rain today."What are we saying? "I wish that it doesn't rain." Or we say, "I hope that the pirates win today."What are we saying? We're saying that our theology allows for miracles.But you see, that's not how the Bible uses the word hope.Biblically, church, listen, hope is the confident anticipation of receiving Jesus' promises.Biblically, hope, it's in the bag. It's happening. I'm just waiting for it to take place. But it'sgoing to happen. I'm not wondering if it's going to happen. I can't wait. I know it's going to.I'm just waiting for that to happen. That's biblical hope. That's the receipt that we hold on tothat says it's coming. I know that it's coming. And I can't wait for that day. That is biblical hope.See, that's what we're here to celebrate today.Actually, every Sunday we celebrate this. And actually, for the Christian,you celebrate this every day of your life. That Jesus Christ rose from the dead.We've been spending so much time talking about the fact that He died for our sins. Yes,that's true. But three days later, He rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life.And the Bible says that He went back to heaven. And you're like, "Well, what's He doing now? Doyou know what Jesus is doing right now? Like, right now, do you know what He's doing?"He told us in John chapter 14 what He would be doing. He says, "I go to prepare a place for you.Right now, Jesus Christ is building a place for His people in heaven."We're going to talk about heaven today, the place of our hope. Do you know what heaven's like?Sadly, there's so much confusion about heaven because people embrace ideas about heaven thatjust aren't in the Bible. I think for a lot of people, their ideas of heaven come more from aBugs Bunny cartoon than from what God actually said. There's just so much nonsense aboutthat people believe about heaven. It's just not true biblically. You know what number one is,by the way? The most nonsensical, wrong, false thing that people believe about heaven that's justabsolutely not true? Is that good people go to heaven. You have to be a good person to go toheaven. That's just bombarded onto us from society. Good people go to heaven. Good people...Well, that's not true. If that was true, heaven would be empty. We're going to talk more about thatin a bit. But no, you do not get to heaven by being a good person.But you know, even Christians, honestly, even Christians are clueless about heaven.Just grab your Christian, your average churchgoer, and say, "Well, what's heaven like?"You're going to get answers like, "Well, I'm thinking grandma's there."They're like, "Well, what are you doing heaven?" "Well, I guess you play a harp."And then you sit on clouds. And yeah, that's all I got. Like, well, maybe you've been gettingyour theology about heaven from Bugs Bunny or from a far-side cartoon.But I think many Christians aren't really excited about heaven because they don't know what theBible actually says about it. You know, we had a funeral last week for the oldest member of ourchurch. She was two weeks shy of 99. And she's having a good day. What a great celebration of her lifeand a celebration of the fulfillment of her faith. But I think a lot of people, even that we're sittingin that funeral, might not have been excited because they don't really know what she's experiencingin heaven. What is coming in the future in heaven? We need to educate ourselves, church.I mean, think about it this way. Imagine if I booked you a three-month vacation.Imagine that. If I booked you, I'm like, "You know what? You've been working hard. You know what?I'm going to get you the plane tickets. You know, you just bring your wife, jump at the airport,and get on the plane, three-month vacation on me." Would you want to know where you're going?Would you want to know what you'd be doing? What if you said, "Oh, thanks, Pastor Jeff. That wasreally nice of you. Where am I going? What am I doing? What if I said, "Don't worry about it. You'lllike it." No, I want to know where I'm going to be spending three months of my life. And I'm like,"Oh, it'll be nice. What am I going to be doing there? Fun stuff."Wouldn't you want more information of where you're going to be spending three months of your life?Okay, reminder, heaven is eternal. Wouldn't you like to know what it's going to be likefor eternity? If you do, you're in the right place this morning, because that is exactlywhat we're going to be seeing from God's Word. So on your outline, take some notes.The hope is real. The hope is real. The truth about heaven.The truth about heaven. Number one, write this down. Everything is new.Everything is new. Verses 1 and 2 in Revelation 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Stop there. New heaven and new earth. Why?Why do we need a new heaven and new earth? Well, because this is talking about what'shappening in the future. And at this point, the heaven and earth now, the one that you'resitting on right now, will be vaporized by God's glory according to 2 Peter 3, according to Revelation2011. He talks about this new Jerusalem. Like, what is new Jerusalem? What's the capital cityof the new heaven and the new earth? And John describes it as coming down from heaven onto thisnew earth. It's a fascinating study. You can really dig into it on your own. Just to give you a littleoverview. Verses 15 and 17 give us the dimensions. And by the way, these are literal measurements.The Bible is clear about that. But new Jerusalem is a massive city and it's shaped like a cube.And each wall is 1,380 miles long. And each wall is 216 feet thick. You're like,"Can you give me a frame of reference?" Yeah, absolutely, I can. If you were to take this newJerusalem and put it on our current earth, just drop it onto North America. If you were to dropit onto North America, it would go from Canada to the Gulf of America. It would go from the AtlanticOcean. I'm still trying to adjust to that. I'm sorry. It would go from the Atlantic Oceanto Colorado. That is the size of new Jerusalem. You're like, "Why do I need to know this?That is the place that Jesus is preparing for you right now."And this passage describes the final and eternal heaven. And over and over, he usesthe greatest word possible that he could use to describe anything. And it's the word "new."New. Look at verse 5. This is the best verse in the Bible. And I know somebody would say,"Well, actually, Pastor Jeff, it's all God's word." Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But this is the bestverse in the Bible. It says, "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all thingsnew.'" Look, that is awesome. And we can relate to that, can't we? Because there's nothinglike getting new stuff, right? Don't we love new things? New shoes? A new car? New jeans?A new phone? I'm pleased to announce that Pastor Taylor finally upgraded from his iPhone 8.Yeah, a little bonus celebration today. But wasn't it so exciting getting that new phone, Pastor Taylor?You know what? I thought it was bad until Jane Auer showed me. He has, what do you have an SE?Yeah, take good care of that, Jay. We're going to put that in the museum.So we love getting new stuff, right? Getting a new computer. Men, get that new fishing rod. Ladies,get the new purse. How about a new puppy? Oh, that's the best. But there's nothing likegetting new stuff. And you know, the Bible says in heaven everything is always new.So a little tip for you. If you're in Christ and if you are, you will end up in heaven. I just wantto encourage you, if you're trying to make friends, to not walk up to somebody in heaven and say,hey, what's new? Because they're going to say, you are an ego because I don't know if you got thememo, but everything here is new. I had people say to me sometimes like, you know, heaven soundskind of boring. Like, what are you talking about? That is a clueless statement. Boring.Everything is always going to be new.And if that's not a beautiful enough description with that little word,he gives us a word picture that really drives it home. He says, it's preparedas a bride adorned for her husband. Like Jesus, what kind of care and attention are you puttinginto creating this new heaven and earth, this new Jerusalem? You know, what kind ofmeticulous care is going into preparing this new city? The Bible says it's like a bridepreparing herself for her husband. That's a word picture that really impacts me.Because I've been to a lot of weddings. It's part of my job. I've been to a lot of weddings.And you know something that I've never, ever, ever seen in a wedding is this. Like, it's wedding dayand you know, I come to the front of the chapel or the woods or the barn or whatever we're havingand like, and like, oh, they have them everywhere now, but like, I'm up there with the guys, right?And here comes the bridesmaids and they take their place. Oh, it's the big moment.The music shifts, right? And you know what's next. Here comes the bride, right?You know what I've never seen? It's the doors fling open and there's the bridein a college hoodie.Wearing sweatpants and crocs.Crocs will not be in heaven, by the way. Well, the Bible doesn't say. I'm justthinking it's a safe assumption, but I've never seen her where she's got a near-terminal case of bedhead.I've never seen that ever. Do you know what I have seen though? Every time.A breathtakingly beautiful bride.How did she get that way? She prepared. Do you know how much time and effort and energy and moneyand detail and it goes in? She puts everything into making herself as beautiful and perfect as she canfor her husband.And that is the kind of attention and care that Jesus is putting into preparing this placefor his people. Wrap your brain around that. But the Bible says in heaven,everything is new.Oh, it gets even better than that. Because number two, write this down, every day is in God's presence.Everything is new and every day is in God's presence. Look at verse three. Verse three.He says, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is withman. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as theirGod.'" Every day is in God's presence.Don't you wish that you lived at the time that Jesus lived? Wouldn't it have just been absolutelyamazing to watch Jesus, like to sit down with Him, to hear Him teach, to watch Him heal,to watch Him feed the thousands with the little kids lunch? Wouldn't that have just been awesometo personally be in the presence of Jesus Christ?Well, I got good news for you. In heaven, you're going to get that, like every single day.Because according to verse three, we're always in God's presence.You see, that's good news, my friends, because I think if we're honest, sometimes God seems distantright now. I mean, He's not, right? He's not distant.But can we just be honest in church for a second and say sometimes it feels like He is?You know, we go through trials. We're hurting. Maybe you've been betrayed.Disappointed. You're just worn out. And you're like, "God, where are you?"Seems like I need you the most right now. You seem absent. Where are you?Well, never again will God seem distant.The Bible says He is going to tabernacle with His people. He is going to pitch a tentin unprecedented, perfect fellowship in the midst of His people. Every day of heavenis being in the presence of God. It's the truth about heaven. Everything's new.Every day is in God's presence. In number three, everything that hurts is gone.Everything that hurts is gone. Look at verse four."He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there bemourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.No mourning, no crying and no pain." Do you know what that means?That means no a lot of other things. That means no depression. That means no cancer.That means no diabetes. That means no organ failure. That means no autism.That means no wheelchairs. That means no mental health problems.That means no dentist appointments.I see somebody rejoicing in the back greatly over that.But I get to tell you in the first service, there was a group of dentists sittingright about where the Zentcos are right now. I told them, "Look, we're going to be out of a job in heaven.Nobody's going to need to hear about Jesus from me. Nobody's going to need their teeth fixed by them."There's no more tears. There's no more death. There's no more goodbyes.Every bit of pain and heartache and discouragement. Never again. Never. Everything that hurts is gone.People ask, "Well, will I remember the failures of my life on earth?"Because I would think if I could remember my failures of my life on earth, that, boy,there'd be some tears over that in heaven. Will I remember the failures of this life?I don't know. But I do know this for a fact.That if you do remember the failures of this life, it's not going to bother you.Because there's no more mourning or pain. I'm sure about that.And you can get to this point, you're like, "Really?" Hang on a second.This sounds just a little too fantastic. Really? Well, look at verse 5 again."And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'Also, he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"Oh, everything is made new. Everything stays new. And you're like, "Is that really true?"Jesus says here, "Write this down. You write this down. You take this to the bank.You build your life on this, man. This is trustworthy and true."Listen, this isn't fantasy stuff. This isn't like fairy tale stuff that we say toplacate children when grandma passes away.Jesus says this is real. This is trustworthy and true."Every hurt is forever behind you." Everything that hurts is gone. Number four,oh, it gets even better. I know you don't think it can, but check this out.Number four, everything is yours. Everything is yours.Look at verse 6, "And he said to me, 'It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,the beginning and the end, to the thirsty. I will give from the spring of the water of lifewithout payments.'" Who are the thirsty? Who are the thirsty? I hope you are.Thirsty refers to people who realize their spiritual need and genuinely thirst for God.Heaven is for people who know they need Jesus Christ and they receive Jesus Christ and they loveJesus Christ. That's what he's talking about here. You see, water biblically is a symbol offulfillment. It's a symbol of satisfaction. "I was thirsty in a need. Now from the living water,I have been satisfied." That's what water is talking about. That's what the Bible is talkingabout when it talks about water. It's satisfaction. It's great news. That means heaven is not goingto be lacking anything that would add to your satisfaction. You know that? That means you'renot going to be walking around heaven and say, "You know what? This place is pretty good, butI have a few ideas that would make it a little better."You're going to be absolutely, totally, perfectly satisfied in heaven.And this, this is your heritage. Look at verse 7. He says, "The one who conquerswill have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my Son."We talked about this with justification. We don't live in fear of God as judge. If you're in Christ,that is. You're not afraid of God as judge. You live in the freedom of God as Father.That He adopted us as His children.But being a child has implications for the future.Like what do you mean? What I mean is, if you're a child of God, you receive an inheritance.Look at Romans chapter 8 here.Romans 8 says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And ifchildren, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Himin order that we may also be glorified with Him."You see, Paul wrote this to the Romans and Roman adoption was very interesting. I was readingabout it this past week. Do you know in Roman culture adopted children actually received greaterhonor than naturally born children in the home? Like if a couple has natural children, it's like,well, you just came into the world the regular way. But if you adopted someone, it was, ah, you,though on the other hand, you were chosen to be a part of this family. But there's something elseinteresting about Roman children, including the adopted children, by the way, that they allreceived an equal share of the inheritance. You're like, good for the Romans. What does that haveto do with me? Here's what this has to do with you. Look at this. We are fellow heirs with Christ.Do you know what that means? I can tell some of you aren't very excited about that. So we're goingto walk through this together. You are fellow heirs with Christ. Do you know what that means?That means you will receive the same inheritance that Jesus receives.So what does Jesus own? Everything. So what do you stand to inherit? Everything.Everything. You're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second there, Pastor Jeff.You was talking about the new heavens earlier. Do you mean I'm going to inherit the new heavens?Everything. And if you're like, oh, well, he's creating the new earth. Do you mean I'm going toinherit that new earth too? That's going to belong to me? Everything. And you're like, well, thatgiant city that you was talking about, am I going to inherit that too? Is that going to belong to me?Like, look, I'll do respect. What part of everything do you not understand? Everything will belong to you.But do you know the greatest thing that you're going to inherit?Is God Himself? Do you see that in verse 7? He says, "I will be His God." Oh, no, let's not gloss over thatbecause that's like the Levites in the Old Testament. Remember, Israel was told, you know,that they were going to receive an inheritance in the Promised Land. But you got like Deuteronomy 18-2.The Levites did not get an inheritance like the other tribes of Israel. They were toldthat God is their inheritance.And if you get God, you get everything. If you're a fellow heir with Christ,that means someday everything is yours.And finally, number five, truth about heaven, everything's new.Every day's in God's presence. Everything that hurts is gone and everything is yours.But we do have to say this because it's in the text. Everyone is not going.Now look, you know, it'd be real easy to come into Easter service and we're all wearing ourspiffy clothes and the music is fantastic and it would be so easy to get caught up in this passageand get excited about a heaven that some of you aren't going to see.Look at verse eight. John says, "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur," which is the second death.See this list? These are people that love their sin more than they love Jesus.But I could ask you, are you on that list?Is there anything here that characterizes you?Understanding that murder means hateful and sexually immoral means lustfuland immoral.Are you there?You know the one that always sticks out to me in this list is the first one, cowardly.What does that mean? It's not saying, being afraid of stuff is a sin, like in the sense ofI'm afraid to go camping because I'm afraid of bears and snakes.And that's not what that's talking about at all. It's talking about being afraid to follow JesusChrist because there is a cost. And what will my friends think? And what am I going to have to giveup? And refusal to follow Christ, God says, "You're a coward." You mean He bought your way to heavenwith the blood of His Son? And you're too afraid to receive Him because of what your goofy friendsmight think. Because of what sinful thing you might have to give up. You're a coward.And that's not my opinion. That's God's opinion. Well, I guess it is mine if it's God's.But He said it.You think following Christ is easy? You think it's easy to trust God?Do you think it's easy to say no to sin? Do you think it's easy to say yes to serving Christwhen it's inconvenient or difficult or harder than we thought it was going to be?This ain't for cowards, okay?All of the items on this list characterize people who have never repented. They've never receivedChrist. And these are just evidences. He's saying that this is what they lived like.And I have to ask you, if you took an honest inward look at yourself, would you say that my life isgenerally characterized by a love for Jesus Christ? Or would you say my life is generallycharacterized by a love of my sin, myself, my way? Which one is it for you?Because if it's the latter, then none of these promises about heaven, none of this hope is for you.If I can have the worship team join us back up on the platform here.It is finished.It is finished. Someday, you're going to hear Jesus say those words again.For some of you, you're going to be horrified to hear him say it when he brings judgment.And for some of you, you will rejoice when you hear him say itbecause he's giving you everything, the hope of heaven.It is finished. Today, today, we hear those words from the cross.So if you have received Jesus Christ, your sin has been taken away. If you have received JesusChrist, he rose from the dead to give you eternal life. And if you have received Jesus Christ,you do not need to wait for heaven to rejoice in him. So let's stand and let's celebrate himfor who he is and all that he's done. Let's rejoice in the victory of Jesus Christ. Small Group DiscussionRead Romans 8:16-17, Revelation 21:1-8What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What are some wrong ideas about heaven that even many Christians believe?What is an aspect of heaven covered in Revelation 21 that was new or surprising to you?What does it mean that we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17)? What exactly do we inherit?BreakoutPray for one another.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 13th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 19:40, Jesus said: “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” Oh folks. The Pharisees said to the Lord, ”Listen to these people; they're worshipping you. Tell them to keep quiet.” And the Lord said the very stones would praise Him if the people didn't. You know, we go to an early morning men's prayer group, and we gather together when it is still dark. We have been doing it for years, and these men are working men but they come out to pray and to worship the Lord, and we pray before the sun rises, just ordinary men, we pray for our families, we pray for the countries of the world, we pray for the lost, we pray for revival but before that, we sing! No, no, no, we are not opera singers. No, no, we are not famous singers, we are not on the hit list, but you know something? We praise the Lord.Folks, I want to tell you that when we go into that little chapel on the farm, men come in there with all kinds of burdens, but when you praise the Lord you can feel the burdens literally lifting and there is an openness that comes and a joy, and laughter, and faith and expectancy. I want to sing a little song. You all know it, and I want you to sing it with me. It goes like this:And He is Lord, He is Lord,He has risen from the dead And He is Lord.Every knee shall bow,Every tongue confess,That Jesus Christ is Lord.Come on, you in your pick-up, you are driving, you are getting the kids ready for school, I don't know where you are - come on, sing it with me!And He is Lord, He is Lord,He has risen from the dead And He is Lord,Every knee shall bow,Every tongue confess,That Jesus Christ is Lord.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Go Tell It On The Mountain”: “Go, tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere. Go, tell it on the mountain, That Jesus Christ is born”. This story in Luke 8, is a great illustration of this song as we read what happened after Jesus cast the demons out of the maniac of Gadara.   A great miracle has just taken place when this man is delivered from a lifetime of demon possession. You would have thought the people of his home city would have been thrilled when they found him sitting at the feet of Jesus, with clothes on, and in his right mind! You would have thought that they would have invited Jesus to come to their town and perform the same miracle there on those that needed a powerful deliverance too. Or maybe there were sick and afflicted people that needed healing. But just the opposite happened!   Instead of being delighted they were afraid when they heard and saw what had happened and they ask Jesus to leave the area! It might have been because they lost a few thousand of their swine and the money they had invested in them. Or because they were content with their lives and community the way it was and didn't want any change. They could be a good example of the wayside path, or the stoney ground that Jesus had told earlier in His parable in this chapter. They obviously didn't want Jesus and rejected Him!   We need to point out that when a notorious sinner gets saved, people take notice and have to make a decision also about Jesus for themselves! Notice first the people who spread the message about Jesus and this miracle. It was the swine herders who went and told the townspeople. This is not surprising. The work of Christ sent them into the ranks of the unemployed. When Christ cleans up society, many will be without jobs, such as, bartenders and casino workers.   Not everyone was happy about the miracle. When righteousness does a great work, though it be a great benefit to society, not everyone will be happy. Evil is not happy when righteousness does a good work, for it hurts the work of evil. Verses 35-37, says: “They were afraid and …. seized with great fear”. The people who were not only upset, they were terrified. The ungodly are terrified when God works. Criminals are never happy when policemen show up in force. Guilt works this way.   How amazing! Verse 37 tells us: “Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them”. When Christ was rejected and told to leave the area, He acquiesced to their wishes. God still does this. Unwanted, God will leave, but much to the loss of those who do not want Him. The people who ran Christ out of the country of the Gadarenes ran out a tremendous blessing. There were many people who continued to suffer physically who could have been healed had Christ stayed. There were many people who have suffered spiritually and are still suffering spiritually in the fires of judgment because they ran Christ out of the country.   It is a dangerous thing to reject Jesus and His offer of salvation. You might never get another opportunity!   The man who was healed desired to go with Jesus and disciple into the boat to go back to the other side. But Jesus “sent him away” (v. 38). It was a good sign that the man wanted to be with Jesus! It was evidence and proof that he had experienced a genuine salvation. When we get saved, we should want to pray, read our Bibles, commune with Jesus, and go to church with God's people. But Jesus sent him back to his family and region to share the “great things” that God had done with him! And he obeyed and proclaimed Jesus to everyone he could in that region of the “ten cities”.   I trust you are willing to publicly testify for Jesus to your family and friends, and “go tell it on the mountain”, during this Christmas season too!   God bless!

The most important message is the Good News of Jesus! That Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day! That's what 1 Corinthians 15 is all about, and it reminds us that the Good News of Jesus isn't just the starting point of our faith; it's what carries us all the way through life.

Pastor David Gentino looks at 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 and Paul's ability to keep the main thing of the Gospel the main thing. That Jesus Christ died for our sins.

"My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?"Matthew 27:46 “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).I just opened the Bible to a random place this morning, and this is what I read. I found it fitting since it is Holy Thursday today. I also found it fitting because I am listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast again this year, and Father Mike just talked about this line in the episode I heard yesterday. Father Mike explained that although Jesus asked God why He had forsaken Him, it is essential to know that Jesus was not actually rejected by His Father. God never turned His face away from Jesus. Jesus always lived and continues to live in the eternal gaze of love with His Father. “At the same time, in the redeeming love that always united Him to the Father, He assumed us in the state of our waywardness to sin to the point that he could say in our name from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He had such solidarity with sinners that he experienced what we experience when we are away from the Lord. He experienced what it was to be rejected, but he was never rejected. He experienced what it is to be cut off from the Father, although he never was cut off from the Father. His solidarity with us was so real, was so great that his experience and his humanity was that of he could say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But we recognize that he never, never, was away from the Father. He was never disconnected, just like in so many ways; I mean, we can have analogies here, right? We can experience this distance from the Father. We can experience the silence of prayer. We can experience dryness in prayer. That does not mean God is absent. His silence does not mean that His is absent. But we experience that. Jesus experienced what it felt like to have lost his Father, but He never lost the Father, and the Father never lost Him.”Father Mike goes on to say, “God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love. He talks about paragraph 604 in the catechism and how it says by giving up his own son for our sins, God manifest that his plan for us is one of benevolent love prior to any merit on our part that is a mission of love. This is what God wants for us because he loves us. And so we just recognize that Christ's redemptive death is in God's plan of salvation. Yep, here's God's predestination and here's God's will working with our free will. Here's our grace working with our brokenness. And yet grace still is operative and our free will is still operative. That Jesus Christ took upon himself the guilt of us all in such a way that he had this solidarity with sinners. He identified himself with sinners, although he himself never sinned, in order to reconcile us to God and that is God's initiative. That is God's prerogative that we did not deserve it, we did not do anything to merit it and we could never do anything to merit it. But God himself takes the initiative, which is just an incredible, incredible note.”The Catechism has so much that I would love to share with all of you. It is so good! I recommend that you listen to this podcast if you have ever wondered what Catholics believe and why we believe it. I want to take a minute to read you paragraphs 604 and 605 in the Catechism, as I believe we all need to hear this, especially today, the day before Good Friday. It will give us more perspective tomorrow.604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.”Did you catch that last line? "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.” Do you know what that means? That means that the devil is a liar. It means that when he tells you that God forgives people but that your sins are too great, he is a liar. It means that when the devil whispers in your ear that Jesus died for other's sins but not for yours, he is a liar. It means that when the devil whispers you couldn't possibly be forgiven, accepted, or whatever else he is telling you, he is a liar. Jesus died for your sins, every single one of them. Tomorrow, on Good Friday, I invite you to offer your sins up to Jesus! I invite you to spend some time thinking about all the ways you have offended the Lord. I invite you to think of all the ways you haven't been faithful to the Lord. Then I invite you to turn all of that over to the Lord. Tell Him you are sorry, and then release all of that to him and let Him take it all to the cross. Then I invite you to take some time to praise Him and thank Him for taking your sins to the cross. Thank Him for taking every sin you will ever commit to the cross in advance. Thank Him for the unending love He has for us. I want to leave you with the last sentence in paragraph 605 because I really don't think we can hear it enough. “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.”Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we ask you to remind us of any sins you want us to bring to you today. Lord, we ask the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins, not so we can feel guilty, but so we can release them to Jesus and allow Him to take them to the cross for us. Lord, we thank you for loving us so much that you sent your only son to die for us so that we may be forgiven. You are amazing, and we are so grateful. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to Walk Boldly With Jesus. I am so grateful I am not on this journey alone! I pray each one of you has an amazing holy week. Tomorrow will be sad, but we know the ending, and we can all celebrate on Easter Sunday! I look forward to meeting you all here tomorrow morning. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in November 2023 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or about these words please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Vision: “The Lord is calling us because when you feel the world is overflowing your boat and the waters are filling it up and you are bailing and bailing but you can't stop the waters from rising. The Lord is saying Stop bailing. Let go and float; let Me do the work.

Heavenly father, we come to you with hearts of gratefulness thanksgiving and hearts of love. We thank you that you are a glorious God, a great God and a gracious God, and we thank you heavenly Father, that despite our spiritual blindness, the veils over our eyes, the lies of Satan over the eyes of our faith. Lord, you offer us vision, the vision that is gifted to us when we look to the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ, when we look to the cross, we see God, the Son of God and the Son of man bearing the full condemnation that we deserve for our sins, for our blindness, our willful ignorance.And Lord, you offer us by grace through faith, sight of you, you promise us that those who are pure in heart will see God. And Lord, we today ask for the purity of heart. We repent of our sins, of our pride, of anything that gets in the way of seeing you. And Lord, if there are other veils over our hearts, over our minds, over our faith, I pray today, unwrap them, unravel them, and give us a clear sight of who you are, what you've called us to do. Lord, we thank you for the holy scriptures. We thank you that in the scriptures we meet Christ and in the scriptures we hear from Christ. And in the scriptures we learn that Christ calls us to a life of self-denial.Lord, you'd call us to take up our crosses on a daily basis and follow you. That's what it means to be a believer. And I pray, Lord, if there's areas in our life where we deny you instead of self, I pray, you give us grace to switch that and deny self and follow you. And Lord, if there's anyone who is not yet a believer, who has not seen the truth of who you are and the truth that there is a chasm between every sinner and the holy God, and only Jesus Christ is powerful enough to bridge that chasm and he does so with his work on the cross.I pray, Lord, if anyone is still blind to you, that you give them eyes to see today, regenerate their hearts, save them, draw them to yourself and give them the gift of eternal life. Save their soul and save their soul for eternity and make us the people that continue to care about the lost souls around us as we look at them with compassion. I pray, Lord Jesus, pour out the Holy Spirit and save many, send a great awakening and a great revival in this land and beyond. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the incredible work, the Gospel of Mark and we've entitled the series Kingdom Come the Gospel of Mark in the Secret of God's Kingdom. And the idea comes from the fact that Jesus Christ has come.He has inaugurated his kingdom with the gospel message. He says, repent and believe for the kingdom of God is here. And then, once we follow him, Jesus calls us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Lord, already your kingdom is here, but we want your kingdom to expand in our lives, in our hearts with our faith, and the Lord does that. The title of sermon today is What's Blind But Now, I See and that's a lyric from the beloved hymn, Amazing Grace. Anytime anyone gets baptized at Mosaic, we sing this downstairs. "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see."Blindness is one of the most precise metaphors to describe our spiritual condition apart from God's grace. In our natural, sinful, unconverted, unregenerated state, we're blind to the most important dimension of reality. And that's the spiritual realm. We're blind to the truth about the existence of God, the person of God, the will of God, and coming to the realization of the truth, the veracity, the reality of God, who he truly is. What happens is the Lord opens up the eyes of your heart, eyes that you had never even known to exist. The eyes of faith. CS Lewis once presented a paper at the Oxford Socratic Club entitled, Is Theology Poetry?And in that paper he has this one line where he says, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." And when you see Christ for who he truly is, you begin to see reality as it truly is. With that said, would you look at our text today, Mark chapter eight verses 22 through 38, "And they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly.""And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered Him, you are the Christ. And he strictly charged him to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him."But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what is the prophet of man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can man give in return for his soul, for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels?This is the reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time today. First, a blind man healed progressively. Second, a blind disciple sanctified incrementally and finally, follow Christ with eyes wide open to the cost. First, a blind man healed progressively. The scene right before this text is one in which Jesus was continuing to teach his disciples and the scene in which they had a difficulty grasping the truths of who Christ is, of what it means that he is the Messiah. And in chapter eight verse 18, he says to them, "Having eyes do you not see?"And immediately after that text, we get a symbolic healing of a blind man, but it's not instantaneous. He's healed after first passing through an intermediate state of indistinct vision. And there's a deliberate juxtaposition here that the Holy Spirit is giving us in showing us that the disciples don't really see yet because they are approaching the teaching of Jesus with their own manmade categories of teachings they had received from the scribes and the Pharisees. So not only does he have to dismantle their categories and then, fill them in order to give them sight, but he has to give them grace to actually do that. And the juxtaposition is deliberately reinforced by showing us that in the same way that Jesus needs to touch a blind man twice, he needs to touch his disciples over and over to give them clarity of sight.And the theme before us is distortion of vision. Spiritually speaking, that's every single one of us, all of the time. That apart from God's grace, apart from the spiritual eye surgery that the Lord offers us from his word and through his spirit, we don't see as we ought to see things get in the way the world gets in the way, the flesh gets in the way, our own misguided ideas of what God is get in the way. And then also, there are layers of demonic lives that the Lord needs to unravel, not to mention our sin. Jesus Christ and the sermon in the mountain, what did he say? He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," that there is a purity that is necessitated for us to see God with clarity.Verse 22, we pick up the story. They, the disciples in Jesus came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him once again. We see this pattern that we've seen often in the Gospel of Mark, that it's friends who see their friend. Friends whose hearts are filled with compassion for a friend who's ailing and they do everything to bring that person to Jesus. And they beg Jesus, "Please heal our friend." They believe enough. They believe enough that Jesus in his power to bring their friend to Christ and then, they beg him to heal him. The faith of others here besides the inflicted man is involved. And this shows that the importance of intercessory prayer to God on behalf of others, on behalf of the physically and the spiritually blind.In the same way that it's a miracle that Jesus heals the blind man, gives him sight. It's even a greater miracle that God gives spiritual sight to anybody. It's an incredible miracle that he saves anybody. He's almighty. He can save anyone. Yes, we must pray. We must pray for our friends, our neighbors, those people in our lives, in our spheres of influence that do not yet know the Lord, can we give them eyesight to see Christ for who he is, we cannot. We are helpless, but can we bring them to the Lord? Can we beg the Lord? Lord in my prayers, I'm interceding on behalf of my neighbors, of my community, of the people that I see every day rub shoulders with every day who are so far from you.They have souls, eternal souls and their eternity hangs in the balance. Lord save them, and we see this pattern and that's incredible pattern for us. A lot of people like talking about the compassion of Jesus Christ that before he heals anyone, he does feel compassion for them. While the greatest level of compassion that you can feel for anybody is, have a compassion for their souls, for their eternity. Verse 23, "And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit in his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? He takes the blind man by the hand and leads him out of the village. Why? He doesn't want to make a spectacle of this in a village, a small village. There are no secrets.The Lord wants to deal with this man privately and the seclusion away from the crowd. In the same way, that Jesus here takes the man by the hand, God took Israel by the hand, led them out of Egypt to shows his care for the person. The word for eyes here in the Greek is the more poetic term, it's not just physical eyes, but it also has a spiritual dimension. And Jesus is in the business not just of healing physically, he wants to heal the person's soul. The saliva was to draw the man's attention to what Jesus is about to do. The laying on of hands has the same effect. Touch means something incredibly profound to a blind man. In verse 24, he looked up and he said, "I see people but they look like trees, walking." He says, "I see, but it's indistinct. I see, but something is off."And here you pause and you say, despite Christ's touch, there's still an obstacle to the blind man's complete healing. His perception is still fractured. The healing isn't complete. The man is not blind anymore, but neither does he see with fully functional eyes. In contrast to all the other healings in the gospel, this is the only one that comes in a two-step process. It's not instantaneous. And the intermediate state of the man's vision after Jesus' first touch is symbolic. It is symbolic, what happens with the disciples? They see Jesus, but they don't really understand who he is. Not fully, not truly. There is an understanding of seeing but not seeing of already but not yet. There is an understanding that we are to grow in our vision and our spiritual insight.And the Christian walk is compared to life to begin a walk with the Lord Jesus Christ to be regenerated. It's as if you were born again, Jesus uses that language and that metaphor. It's as if you were spiritually dead inside, blind did not see. And the moment you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you repent of your sin. You believe in him, and you're born. You're born again. And then as a baby needs to grow as we too as believers need to grow in maturity and understanding and in health, First Corinthians 13, a famous passage, but verses nine through 12 here are particularly relevant.St. Paul says, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child, I reason like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face-to-face. Now I know in part and then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known, will we know God fully in this life? No, but we are to attempt to grow as much as we possibly can. Seek the Lord's illumination from the holy scriptures and from his Holy Spirit. Darkness has begun to give way to light, but there's still demonic resistance in this world.There's still demonic lies that we have been fed that we need unveiled from our faith. Another contact with Christ is necessary and we are to be believers that say, Lord, I want to grow. I want to grow beyond where I am. I want to see you more clearly. I want to know you in a deeper way, in a fresher way. Lord, give me a fresh encounter. Give me a fresh touch, Lord, I see, but not the way I know I'm supposed to see. And when we come to the Lord with that posture of heart, he loves to answer that prayer of Lord, give me another touch from your hand. Mark 8:25, then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Jesus again lays his hands on the man's eyes and it says His sight was restored.Perhaps this is explaining to us that he had seen at one time had sight at one time, he knew what trees looked like subsequently had lost his sight. We're not sure. Either way, he now sees everything, clearly. There's restoration of physical sight and then also a Lord willing spiritual health. The Lord loves to reveal secrets and mysteries that are profound, that beyond our understanding when we come to him in First Corinthians 13:2 for example. It says, "If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing." And a lot of us we love to put the emphasis on the love part.Don't forget the love part. That's the most important. Yes, don't forget the love part, but here in this text it's showing us that there are mysteries and there is a knowledge that the Lord does reveal and he can reveal to those who continue to seek him and seek him humbly. Gradual growth and vision is a symbol for a progression and spiritual understanding. Verse 26, and Jesus sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Jesus doesn't want to be known as just a miracle worker. He doesn't want to be known as just the person you go to, to have your physical needs met. He's not a divine pinata or a vending machine. He isn't Santa Claus upgraded.No, he's here to save souls sin six souls and illuminate the eyes of the heart. And that brings us to 0.2, a blind disciple sanctified incrementally. Verse 27, "And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?" What he's getting at is what's the public opinion? Jesus has been ministering for quite some time. He's done miracles, he's taught many sermons. And Jesus is saying what's the consensus? In verse 28, they told him John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets.It's not surprising that Jesus would be identified as a great figure of the past, returned from the dead even, given the widespread ancient Jewish belief that saints were alive. All these roles of the prophets of John the Baptist of Elijah, they were roles of preparation, not fulfillment, not consummation. John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus Christ and he did that by saying, repent, believe. The king is here, turn to the king. And now, the king has come and there is a fulfillment of the prophecies. Mark 8:29, "And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are the Christ." Here in the Greek, there's an emphatic you but you.You, who do you say that I am? This is the most important question that every single human being needs to answer while still alive. Who do you say that Jesus is? And Peter correctly says, "You're the Christ." That's the Greek translation of the Aramaic Messiah. You're the Messiah. You're the anointed expected king of Israel. You're the one who's going to come to teach us the righteous ways of God and established God's dominion. And in the Jewish theology, the scribes and the Pharisees had come up with a whole theology of what the Messiah would come to do. In Jewish theology of the time, the Messiah was expected to be entirely human, like King David was a great king and he loved the Lord.He knew the Lord and he established the kingdom of Israel. They thought the son of David would be much greater than David, but he would just be a son of David. He would just be human. And for a human being to establish his kingdom, the human being has to be alive. A human being builds a kingdom through victory, through taking dominion. And here, Jesus Christ, "Yes, Peter, you're correct," but later he is going to continue to restore and heal Peter's wrongheaded spiritual vision and definition of the Messiah. There was no general expectation that the Messiah would suffer or die. What kind of king dies as he's establishing a kingdom? If the king dies, the kingdom dies.If Jesus, you are the Messiah and you die, the movement is over. It's done. Peter gets the title, right, as we see, but he has no understanding of what the Messiah has come to do. And Peter, where did you get this understanding that Jesus is the Messiah. It was given to him through divine revelation. In Matthew 16, the parallel passage verse 16, "Simon Peter replied, You're the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.""I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth shall be loose in heaven. Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ." And that's how our paragraph ends in Mark 8:30. He strictly charged them to tell no one about him, strictly charged. Another translation says vehemently ordered. It's the same word for rebuke, used later in verse 33. He rebukes them. Don't tell anyone that I'm the Messiah, partially because Peter doesn't fully understand what that means. And by teaching people that Jesus is the Messiah would be the blind leading the blind, so to speak.Mark 8:31, "And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again." This is the first three of the passion predictions in the Gospel of Mark, and Jesus here continues to teach. He has come to teach. And what is he doing by teaching? He's establishing his kingdom because his kingdom is a kingdom of truth. The way that he dismantles the kingdom of the evil one is by dismantling the lies, supplanting the lies, replacing them with truth. And what is he teaching? He's teaching Peter. He's teaching the crowds. What kind of Messiah he is?He says, "The son of man must suffer." It's necessary. He used the word must. He must suffer. He must be rejected. He must be killed. He must rise again. What's the word must mean? It means there's no other way. This is the only possibility. This is the only potential path for human redemption. There is a divine compulsion. Why? Because this is the will of God. This is the will of God the Father. There's divine necessity. He begins to teach them because they needed to be taught because no human could come up with an idea like this, that God would come and die. How can God die? How can the Son of God die? That Jesus Christ, the incarnate Lord is to be beaten, scorched, mocked, tried, tested, forsake and crucified dead and would be buried.And the necessity of Jesus' death is also ... it is a necessity because he is to fulfill the scriptures. The scriptures prophesied that the suffering servant will come, Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53. Clearly, it's about Jesus Christ. And then, Jesus uses the title Son of Man and part of the background for the son of man is Adam. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cursed with various sufferings by God. So if God is going to redeem humanity, one who is like human, who is the son of man, the son of Adam, who needs to represent the people. He needs to be fully man and fully God and Daniel seven is a great prophecy that this ancient of days, son of man, son of God is coming and he's coming to redeem humanity.He will be rejected by the elders, the Sanhedrin, the priestly court of Israel will scrutinize the claims of Jesus and then deliberately reject him. And he says, "After three days will rise again." The phrase after three days and on the third day, our equivalent phrases is because of how they measured time in that culture. Mark 8:32, "And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." Now, Peter was the first apostle chosen by Jesus. Peter was in the inner group of the big three of the disciples. It was Peter, James and John. The sons of thunder that Jesus called him. And Peter perhaps, because he thought of that proximity, allowed him to speak into Jesus' life.All of a sudden he feels bold enough to take Jesus' aside, and there is a sense of the fact that, in the language, that he's patronizing Jesus. And then, the word says that he began to rebuke Jesus and as soon as Jesus specifies the kind of Messiah he is, Peter, he can't fit that definition of the Messiah into his mind, and he begins to wonder, "You know what, Jesus, perhaps your mom was right, perhaps your siblings were right. Perhaps you are out of your mind. The Messiah to suffer, that doesn't make any sense." It seemed so nonsensical to Peter that it was almost demonic, what kind of paradoxical Messiah is this? He begins to rebuke Jesus Christ.And the same word for rebuke is what Jesus used when he cast out demons, he rebuked them. It's almost as if Peter here is rebuking a demonic idea. "Jesus, what are you talking about? You're the Messiah. We're here. We follow you. You're supposed to be the king, you're going to establish the kingdom and we're going to have positions in your kingdom. And you're talking about death. What are you talking about?" As soon as Jesus begins to define what kind of Messiah he is, as soon as Jesus begins to specify the kind of Messiah he is, everything changes for Peter. And we live in a day and age where people are fine talking about God in general. They're fine talking about faith in general, fine talking about even Jesus in general.As soon as you begin to specify, as soon as you begin to define terms, that's when people take up arms, and that's what's happening with Peter, a Messiah who will suffer, die and rise again. Peter has the gall to rebuke Jesus and to rebuke Jesus in the strongest of terms. He sees what God's will is. And he's like, "No, no, no, no. Lord, you're doing it wrong." I don't know if you've ever rebuked the Lord. We've all had that temptation where you ask for something and the Lord gives you something diametrically opposed to what you asked for. You're like, "Lord, you're not doing your job right, Lord. Let me help you do your job. Perhaps I'm better being God than you are."That's what's going on here. He is correcting Jesus. He is rebuking Jesus and it doesn't go well. And Mark 8:33, "But turning and seeing his disciples, he Jesus rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Peter rebukes Jesus, Jesus rebukes Peter. Guess who won? Jesus wins. Don't rebuke Jesus, be careful of rebuking the Lord. Apparently, this idea that the Messiah would not suffer, it had taken root even in the other disciple's hearts, so Jesus turns to everyone and makes an example of Peter. Peter wasn't unique in his obtuseness. They had inherited this interpretation of the Messiah, inherited it from people.It's not from the holy scriptures and the holy scriptures is clear. Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, clearly prophetic passages that show that the Messiah will suffer. And here what Jesus is doing is he's nullifying the lie and he's nullifying this lie with the truth. He's telling Peter, so to speak, "Peter, you have come to me with old wineskins of a definition of the Messiah." An old wine skin of the definition of God, of how God works, but if you are to have new wine, new wine means that this is completely new and the new wine needs to come in new wine skins. So it's truth that we want to accept from the Lord, but we can't just accept it into our lives without having the Lord completely change the receptacle of that truth.He says, "Get behind me Satan." Harsh words, but I do want to pause here and show the grace in it that Jesus isn't rejecting Peter. "Peter, you're wrong. You're so wrong and you've actually ... you're trying to rebuke me with a lie of Satan," but he's not rejecting Peter. Peter remains a disciple of Jesus Christ and we see the grace of God there. How often have we been so misguided about the Lord, so misguided about understanding who he is and understanding what it means to follow him and he continues to give us grace. Later on chapter nine, actually Jesus takes Peter, James and John onto the Mount and he transfigure in front of them, reveals who he truly is and reveals that he has given Peter more grace.By saying, "Get behind me, Satan." Jesus isn't saying get away from me. He's not banishing Peter forever with this rebuke. No, what he's saying is, get behind me. I am God. I am the Messiah. You are to follow me. Get behind me. Resume the path of following a path that you have momentarily forsaken. I'm the Lord and you are not. And this is a command to Peter. "Resume the path of discipleship rather than trying to lead Jesus Christ." When Jesus used the word Satan, he means, adversary, adversary of divine purpose. Peter here, at least temporarily is opposing the will of God and he needs to understand that he is on the side of Satan when he opposes God. Jesus reveals truth to Peter and as new truth is revealed, old lies must be rooted out.And who does Peter look like here? Well, Peter is half percipient, half insensible condition is similar to the sufferer that we had just read about in the previous narrative. The person who was half seeing, half blinded. And Jesus reveals to Peter that he needs another touch from Christ. He needs more teaching, more revelation. He says to Peter, "You're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." This is where Peter was demonic and that Peter, you're offering me the same path that Satan offered me. And if you remember Jesus when he was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and Satan comes to tempt him and Satan takes him to the top of the mountain, he says, "Look at all the cities, look at the kingdoms." I'll give everything to you if you fall down and worship me."And what's Satan tempting him with? Jesus, you've come to get the crown. I'll give you the crown. Just don't go to the cross. He understood that if Jesus goes to the cross, he's going to ultimately defeat Satan's sin and death. He's like, "Jesus, let's not do that. You can have all the kingdoms, but let me reign through sin," and Jesus telling Peter, "Peter, you're on the side of Satan. You're tempting me with the same path." The holy scripture often talks about the blinding power of Satan over unbelievers. That apart from the grace of Jesus Christ, we're all blinded to the truth. St. Paul, when he shares his testimony to King Agrippa in Acts 26.This is what the text says in Acts 26:12, "In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun that shone around me in those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the gentiles to whom I am sending you."To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Saul, before he becomes Paul, he was so zealous for the Lord, but he was so blind in his zeal. He was on a path to Damascus to go and persecute Christians, to murder Christians, and he thought he was doing this in the name of the Lord. And then Jesus appears to him and says, "Why are you persecuting me?" And at that point, Saul could have been like, "I'm not persecuting you Jesus. I got nothing against you. I'm persecuting your followers." Jesus so closely connects himself with his followers, with his church. He says, "By persecuting the church, you're persecuting me."And then Paul gets saved and God gives him a mission to do what? To proclaim the gospel and to help people begin to see God for who he is. Second Corinthians four, continues this theme, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it has veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord. With ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake, for God who said, let light shine out of the darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."How does Satan blind people? He blinds them with lies. If you don't believe in God, you're believing a lie and all of a sudden you're closed off to even the possibility of who God is. If you don't believe in Christ, if you don't believe in what Christ has come to do, you're blinded to the reality of Christ. If you don't believe in the scriptures, you're blinded to the reality of the truth of God's word. And only divine grace permits us to escape this condition of satanic blindness. And demonic blindness is only countered with divine revelation. There's nothing capable of ending this alienation between us and God and the blindness of humanity to God's will except to look to Christ on the cross. As Messiah, Jesus is not only God's holy warrior, but he's also the teacher.And this is why Jesus came to teach. His primary role in his ministry was to teach in order to combat the lies of the enemy so that when people come to know the truth, they begin to see God for who he is. Isaiah 11:2, "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him and the spirit of wisdom and understanding and the spirit of counsel and might." When we grow closer to Christ, we grow closer to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit longs to reveal wisdom and understanding and counsel and might. Modern Christians today, we've been cushioned by 2000 years of church teaching to the point where we understand the Messiah is supposed to suffer. That idea is unremarkable. To the Jewish people of that time, the idea of a Messiah was the idea of triumph, not of suffering, not of death.And Peter agrees, "Jesus, you are the Messiah," but the question is, how does the Messiah triumph over his enemies? Well, at this point, Peter, we have to have a conversation. Who are your greatest enemies? Peter and Peter, in that frame of mind, before Jesus corrects him, he would say Caesar Augustus or he would say Pontius Pilate or King Herod, these are our greatest enemies, Lord Jesus. Let's build an army together. You are the king, clearly. You just fed 5,000 men. They're pretty happy about it. Just continue doing that and then, we can take over. We're going to take over Jerusalem and then from there, we're going to build your kingdom, because those are our greatest enemies. It's evil people out there. It's evil people in positions of power.Jesus, that's who we need you to get rid of, put us in positions of power and all of a sudden, we're just going to take over. And Jesus will push back and say, "Peter, those aren't your greatest enemies." Before this Caesar, there was another Caesar and many more before that and there will be Caesars after. No, that's not your greatest enemy. It's not, people in politics. It's not your greatest enemy, your greatest enemies. And unless you know this, then you've already lost, but your greatest enemies are Satan, sin and death. Well, if Satan is your greatest enemy, how do you take Satan out? That's a really important question. Well, you take him out by taking his greatest hit.You take Satan's greatest hit, and that's exactly what happened on the cross. Jesus Christ allowed Satan through his human pawns to crucify him. Satan, that's the greatest weapon. You have to kill me. He takes on Satan, but he wasn't just taking on Satan, he was also taking on sin. Well, Peter, if we take over this Caesar, what happens to sin? What happens to the sin in your own heart, Peter? A lot of people say if there's a good God and all powerful God, why does he allow evil to happen in the world? Well, if Jesus Christ could annihilate evil in one second, he can do that. How many of us would still be alive? We'd all be dead. So for Christ to counter evil, to dismantle evil, to take a sin head on, he had to pay the penalty for sin on the cross.And that's why Jesus Christ on the cross, he quotes Psalm 22, which is one of the most profound texts in all of the scripture. He says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And you say, "How can the first person of the trinity forsake the second person of the trinity? How can the father turn his back on the Son just abandoned him on the cross and this hellacious suffering?" Well because the son had taken our sin upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And then, Jesus Christ dies and through his death, what is he doing? He's giving death itself the death blow By God's grace. He didn't stay dead, he was raised.So on the cross, Jesus takes Satan head on. Takes his fiercest attack, takes on the sin of the elect and its wages and takes on death itself with his death. And praise be to God, he wins. From Peter's limited perspective, all he was thinking about was, "Jesus, I got to preserve you. Jesus, I can't let you die because if I let you die from his limited perspective, everything dies. All my dreams die. All my aspirations die." And from God's perspective, that wasn't the way. God's thoughts are so much greater than our thoughts. Praise be to God. Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways than my thoughts than your thoughts?"Jesus fought Peter's believing of lies. This demonic delusion, and he does it with the truth. He does it by teaching the truth. And now, he challenges Peter and he challenges the other disciples because in their faulty understanding, if we're following an earthly political king, then what does that make us? We are your closest followers, Jesus. We're going to be in your cabinet. We're going to have thrones next to you, but if the Messiah is one who suffers. One who dies and dies a gory death on a cross. Well then what about us? If that's the kind of king that we're following, is he worth following? And Jesus proclaims here in the text, the gains and losses of following him, having prophesied his own suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus now proclaims a similar fate for his followers, and that's 0.3.Follow Christ with eyes wide open to the cost. Mark 8:34, "And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." He calls the crowd, you've been following me. You see my miracles, you see the signs. Now, I'm calling you to become my disciples. I'm calling you to follow me, and if you are to follow me, you need to know what it's going to cost you. First of all, deny yourself. He says there's a sense of existential immediacy. Jesus is confronting the crowd. So you do you want to follow me? Well, you need to deny yourself. You need to turn from your selfish ways, deny yourself and follow me.And just how far is this self-denial expected to go? Jesus brings in the word cross. He says, "Take up your cross," and we're so accustomed to the image and the idea of the cross. There's an aura of sanctity and beauty that surrounds the idea of the cross. And it's hard for us to understand how repugnant the idea of a cross was to the people of the time. The symbol of the hated Roman occupation, a form of death so cruel, so dehumanizing, so shameful that even the most debauched regimes in human history since have not employed crucifixion as a means of executing enemies. It was the preeminent means of Rome's terror apparatus and to liken the following of Christ, the bearing of cross was as powerful way as Jesus could explain, that If you follow me, here's the terms.You must be willing to sacrifice anything and everything. You must be willing to endure anything and everything to be a follower of Jesus Christ. One of the cruel and shameful aspects of crucifixion was the criminal was forced to carry the cross or a part of the instrument to the place of crucifixion, most likely a horizontal cross beam you had to carry, which itself was called a cross, the same thing that Jesus had to carry after he was scorched, his back was torn up from the cat of nine tails, and then, he has to carry the beam across his back on the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. When his strength ended, Simon of Cyrene took over. And Jesus is saying, "Take up your cross and follow me in the same way." It's an exhortation to surrender life and saying, my life is not my own. "And Jesus is upfront about the cost, completely upfront. All of you, for all of me."If you go to the restaurant and they're like, "Yeah, lobster, it's market price, like what's market price? I don't know. Just tell me market price, order of magnitude," or you go to a medical office and you're like, "How much is this procedure?" They're like, "I don't know. We'll bill you." Jesus doesn't do that. The cost is upfront completely. He's saying it's going to take your whole life. Your life is no longer your own, and the idea that you thought your life was your own was actually sinful, and that's how we got here in the first place. And what Jesus here is doing is he's just informing the disciples that I'm Yahweh who has given the 10 commandments, and this right here is just definition of the first commandment. The first commandment is thou shall have no other gods before me.That means you'll not live for anyone more than you love God. It's a matter of reprioritizing. God, you are the greatest treasure of my life. I'm going to live for you completely. Everything in my life is secondary to that. You are God and you alone. He says, "Follow me." And the image of following Jesus is used twice here in the first clause if anyone wants to follow me. And what Jesus is saying is you either denounce self or you denounce Christ. You either denounce self or you denounce God. You can't live for God and yourself in a competing set of priorities. Verse 35, "And whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it."It's counterintuitive, but it's true. He's saying that life, eternal life is found, true life, life to the full is found in treading the path of self death, of self-denial. Death is the way to life and the cross, the way of victory. It makes all the sense in the world. If you live for yourself and if you live for pleasure, for comfort, for self-preservation, and then you die. Well, what happens to your soul? Well, for eternity, you are experiencing condemnation. Your soul spends eternity apart from the presence of God. Why would you expect to spend eternity in the presence of God if you rejected his presence in this life? Obviously, if you live for self, you're going to experience ... you're going to lose your life.If you lose your life now and say, "Lord, I don't want to live for myself. That's not going that well. Lord, I want to live for you. I want to follow you. I want eternal life. I want it to begin now." The moment you die, it's just a transition from experiencing eternal life here to eternal life in the presence of God. Counterintuitive as it is the truth of Jesus' words about finding life on the pathway to death has not lacked witness. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was in the Soviet gulags, as a political prisoner. And there in the gulags, he actually met the Lord. The Lord revealed himself to him. And he often wrote about this, of this experience of self death as a means of getting through whatever sacrifice he had to.He writes this in the gulag. He says, "From the moment you go to prison, you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself, my life is over, a little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I'm condemned to die, now or a little later. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me, those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me. And confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogator will tremble. Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory."In verse 36, Jesus continues for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?" And Jesus here is saying that all the wealth of all the world, if you could accumulate all of it, all of that would not be more valuable than one human soul. And each person is confronted with the dramatic choice between death and life, between the world and his or her soul. Is anything worth more than the soul? No. The soul is more precious than all. Psalm 49 verse seven, "Truly no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life for the ransom of their life as costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit."Verse 38, "For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father and with the holy angels." There is a tendency both outside and within the Christian community to gloss over the crucifixion, to downplay or take offense at Jesus' crucifixion. Isaiah 52 and 53 alludes repeatedly to the onlooker's shame. They see Christ's suffering. There's a humiliation in that ... we're following him. That's our God, and Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation. Yes, some of his words are very difficult to receive, especially upon first hearing. Some of these words that define what sin is.Our culture shirks at it. Bristles, there's a visceral reaction. What? No, we understand that the adulterous generation, those that want nothing to do with the Lord would bristle, but what about believers? What about those who take on the name of Christ, who profess themselves to be followers of Christ? And do people do this today or are people Christians, self profess Christians, are they ashamed of the Lord's words? All too often, way too often. I saw a video clip of a sermon that a pastor has given recently and the pastor got up and said, "I think you noticed we skipped a passage of First Corinthians. We read a little bit and then skipped a passage and then continued."And the pastor said, "The reason why we skipped that passage is because, quote-unquote, yikes. That was the answer. We don't want to read the word of God out loud because yikes, because of how it makes us feel. What are you doing? You're being ashamed of the word of God. You're being ashamed of the words of Christ." And Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my works, I will be ashamed of them. It's as if the son of man will be as second coming called as a witness to answer the question, are these people who profess to be yours, are they truly yours? And the answer, no, indeed, I am ashamed that they should take my name on their lips. In Matthew 7:21, the sermon in the mountain, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.""On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Jesus says when he comes and he will come in the Second Coming, and he will come in the glory of his father and he will come with the angels. The first time he came to inaugurate his kingdom, to establish his kingdom and offer amnesty, offer forgiveness to anyone who would turn from sin and turn to him. The second time he's coming and he's not coming to offer amnesty, he's coming in judgment. For those who are found to be in Christ, that'll be a tremendous day of rejoicing, a day of glory.For those who are found outside of Christ, that will be the worst day in all of eternity for any one of them, any one of you who are not in Christ. So today, friend, if you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, if you're not sure that he knows you, if you're not sure that you are known by him, today in prayer, as we're singing, as we're praying, respond to the Lord in your heart of hearts and cry out, "Lord Jesus, I'm blind. Help me see. Lord Jesus, I'm lost. Find me. Save me." And he will. He promises to. I'll close with Daniel 7:13 through 14, "I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him.""His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." The Lord Jesus Christ offers each one of us grace today. Another touch, another encounter, another touch of healing so that we can sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now, I see. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for the holy scriptures. We thank you Jesus that you were so gracious as to reveal yourself to us. I pray, Lord, if there's anyone here who has not been regenerated, has not been justified, I pray, save them today and put them on the path of following you the path of sanctification.And those of us who are believers, Lord I pray, clarify our sight. Give us a clear vision of who you are and a clear vision of what means to follow you. Lord, if there are areas in our life where we have not denied self, I pray, give us grace to deny self. If there are areas in our life where we have not taken up the cross that you have called us to take up, I pray, give us the grace to do that. And I pray, Lord, that as we follow you, that you give us a boldness, the courage to never be ashamed of your word, never be ashamed of you, but just be daily blown away by incredible mercy that you would choose us before the foundation of the world.That you will write our names in the book of life that you would choose to save us and sanctify us by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would choose to use us to establish your kingdom. And I pray that you do so, evermore here and beyond. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Heavenly father, we come to you with hearts of gratefulness thanksgiving and hearts of love. We thank you that you are a glorious God, a great God and a gracious God, and we thank you heavenly Father, that despite our spiritual blindness, the veils over our eyes, the lies of Satan over the eyes of our faith. Lord, you offer us vision, the vision that is gifted to us when we look to the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ, when we look to the cross, we see God, the Son of God and the Son of man bearing the full condemnation that we deserve for our sins, for our blindness, our willful ignorance.And Lord, you offer us by grace through faith, sight of you, you promise us that those who are pure in heart will see God. And Lord, we today ask for the purity of heart. We repent of our sins, of our pride, of anything that gets in the way of seeing you. And Lord, if there are other veils over our hearts, over our minds, over our faith, I pray today, unwrap them, unravel them, and give us a clear sight of who you are, what you've called us to do. Lord, we thank you for the holy scriptures. We thank you that in the scriptures we meet Christ and in the scriptures we hear from Christ. And in the scriptures we learn that Christ calls us to a life of self-denial.Lord, you'd call us to take up our crosses on a daily basis and follow you. That's what it means to be a believer. And I pray, Lord, if there's areas in our life where we deny you instead of self, I pray, you give us grace to switch that and deny self and follow you. And Lord, if there's anyone who is not yet a believer, who has not seen the truth of who you are and the truth that there is a chasm between every sinner and the holy God, and only Jesus Christ is powerful enough to bridge that chasm and he does so with his work on the cross.I pray, Lord, if anyone is still blind to you, that you give them eyes to see today, regenerate their hearts, save them, draw them to yourself and give them the gift of eternal life. Save their soul and save their soul for eternity and make us the people that continue to care about the lost souls around us as we look at them with compassion. I pray, Lord Jesus, pour out the Holy Spirit and save many, send a great awakening and a great revival in this land and beyond. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the incredible work, the Gospel of Mark and we've entitled the series Kingdom Come the Gospel of Mark in the Secret of God's Kingdom. And the idea comes from the fact that Jesus Christ has come.He has inaugurated his kingdom with the gospel message. He says, repent and believe for the kingdom of God is here. And then, once we follow him, Jesus calls us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Lord, already your kingdom is here, but we want your kingdom to expand in our lives, in our hearts with our faith, and the Lord does that. The title of sermon today is What's Blind But Now, I See and that's a lyric from the beloved hymn, Amazing Grace. Anytime anyone gets baptized at Mosaic, we sing this downstairs. "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see."Blindness is one of the most precise metaphors to describe our spiritual condition apart from God's grace. In our natural, sinful, unconverted, unregenerated state, we're blind to the most important dimension of reality. And that's the spiritual realm. We're blind to the truth about the existence of God, the person of God, the will of God, and coming to the realization of the truth, the veracity, the reality of God, who he truly is. What happens is the Lord opens up the eyes of your heart, eyes that you had never even known to exist. The eyes of faith. CS Lewis once presented a paper at the Oxford Socratic Club entitled, Is Theology Poetry?And in that paper he has this one line where he says, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." And when you see Christ for who he truly is, you begin to see reality as it truly is. With that said, would you look at our text today, Mark chapter eight verses 22 through 38, "And they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly.""And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered Him, you are the Christ. And he strictly charged him to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him."But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what is the prophet of man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can man give in return for his soul, for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels?This is the reading of God's holy and infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time today. First, a blind man healed progressively. Second, a blind disciple sanctified incrementally and finally, follow Christ with eyes wide open to the cost. First, a blind man healed progressively. The scene right before this text is one in which Jesus was continuing to teach his disciples and the scene in which they had a difficulty grasping the truths of who Christ is, of what it means that he is the Messiah. And in chapter eight verse 18, he says to them, "Having eyes do you not see?"And immediately after that text, we get a symbolic healing of a blind man, but it's not instantaneous. He's healed after first passing through an intermediate state of indistinct vision. And there's a deliberate juxtaposition here that the Holy Spirit is giving us in showing us that the disciples don't really see yet because they are approaching the teaching of Jesus with their own manmade categories of teachings they had received from the scribes and the Pharisees. So not only does he have to dismantle their categories and then, fill them in order to give them sight, but he has to give them grace to actually do that. And the juxtaposition is deliberately reinforced by showing us that in the same way that Jesus needs to touch a blind man twice, he needs to touch his disciples over and over to give them clarity of sight.And the theme before us is distortion of vision. Spiritually speaking, that's every single one of us, all of the time. That apart from God's grace, apart from the spiritual eye surgery that the Lord offers us from his word and through his spirit, we don't see as we ought to see things get in the way the world gets in the way, the flesh gets in the way, our own misguided ideas of what God is get in the way. And then also, there are layers of demonic lives that the Lord needs to unravel, not to mention our sin. Jesus Christ and the sermon in the mountain, what did he say? He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," that there is a purity that is necessitated for us to see God with clarity.Verse 22, we pick up the story. They, the disciples in Jesus came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him once again. We see this pattern that we've seen often in the Gospel of Mark, that it's friends who see their friend. Friends whose hearts are filled with compassion for a friend who's ailing and they do everything to bring that person to Jesus. And they beg Jesus, "Please heal our friend." They believe enough. They believe enough that Jesus in his power to bring their friend to Christ and then, they beg him to heal him. The faith of others here besides the inflicted man is involved. And this shows that the importance of intercessory prayer to God on behalf of others, on behalf of the physically and the spiritually blind.In the same way that it's a miracle that Jesus heals the blind man, gives him sight. It's even a greater miracle that God gives spiritual sight to anybody. It's an incredible miracle that he saves anybody. He's almighty. He can save anyone. Yes, we must pray. We must pray for our friends, our neighbors, those people in our lives, in our spheres of influence that do not yet know the Lord, can we give them eyesight to see Christ for who he is, we cannot. We are helpless, but can we bring them to the Lord? Can we beg the Lord? Lord in my prayers, I'm interceding on behalf of my neighbors, of my community, of the people that I see every day rub shoulders with every day who are so far from you.They have souls, eternal souls and their eternity hangs in the balance. Lord save them, and we see this pattern and that's incredible pattern for us. A lot of people like talking about the compassion of Jesus Christ that before he heals anyone, he does feel compassion for them. While the greatest level of compassion that you can feel for anybody is, have a compassion for their souls, for their eternity. Verse 23, "And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit in his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? He takes the blind man by the hand and leads him out of the village. Why? He doesn't want to make a spectacle of this in a village, a small village. There are no secrets.The Lord wants to deal with this man privately and the seclusion away from the crowd. In the same way, that Jesus here takes the man by the hand, God took Israel by the hand, led them out of Egypt to shows his care for the person. The word for eyes here in the Greek is the more poetic term, it's not just physical eyes, but it also has a spiritual dimension. And Jesus is in the business not just of healing physically, he wants to heal the person's soul. The saliva was to draw the man's attention to what Jesus is about to do. The laying on of hands has the same effect. Touch means something incredibly profound to a blind man. In verse 24, he looked up and he said, "I see people but they look like trees, walking." He says, "I see, but it's indistinct. I see, but something is off."And here you pause and you say, despite Christ's touch, there's still an obstacle to the blind man's complete healing. His perception is still fractured. The healing isn't complete. The man is not blind anymore, but neither does he see with fully functional eyes. In contrast to all the other healings in the gospel, this is the only one that comes in a two-step process. It's not instantaneous. And the intermediate state of the man's vision after Jesus' first touch is symbolic. It is symbolic, what happens with the disciples? They see Jesus, but they don't really understand who he is. Not fully, not truly. There is an understanding of seeing but not seeing of already but not yet. There is an understanding that we are to grow in our vision and our spiritual insight.And the Christian walk is compared to life to begin a walk with the Lord Jesus Christ to be regenerated. It's as if you were born again, Jesus uses that language and that metaphor. It's as if you were spiritually dead inside, blind did not see. And the moment you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you repent of your sin. You believe in him, and you're born. You're born again. And then as a baby needs to grow as we too as believers need to grow in maturity and understanding and in health, First Corinthians 13, a famous passage, but verses nine through 12 here are particularly relevant.St. Paul says, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child, I reason like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face-to-face. Now I know in part and then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known, will we know God fully in this life? No, but we are to attempt to grow as much as we possibly can. Seek the Lord's illumination from the holy scriptures and from his Holy Spirit. Darkness has begun to give way to light, but there's still demonic resistance in this world.There's still demonic lies that we have been fed that we need unveiled from our faith. Another contact with Christ is necessary and we are to be believers that say, Lord, I want to grow. I want to grow beyond where I am. I want to see you more clearly. I want to know you in a deeper way, in a fresher way. Lord, give me a fresh encounter. Give me a fresh touch, Lord, I see, but not the way I know I'm supposed to see. And when we come to the Lord with that posture of heart, he loves to answer that prayer of Lord, give me another touch from your hand. Mark 8:25, then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Jesus again lays his hands on the man's eyes and it says His sight was restored.Perhaps this is explaining to us that he had seen at one time had sight at one time, he knew what trees looked like subsequently had lost his sight. We're not sure. Either way, he now sees everything, clearly. There's restoration of physical sight and then also a Lord willing spiritual health. The Lord loves to reveal secrets and mysteries that are profound, that beyond our understanding when we come to him in First Corinthians 13:2 for example. It says, "If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing." And a lot of us we love to put the emphasis on the love part.Don't forget the love part. That's the most important. Yes, don't forget the love part, but here in this text it's showing us that there are mysteries and there is a knowledge that the Lord does reveal and he can reveal to those who continue to seek him and seek him humbly. Gradual growth and vision is a symbol for a progression and spiritual understanding. Verse 26, and Jesus sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. Jesus doesn't want to be known as just a miracle worker. He doesn't want to be known as just the person you go to, to have your physical needs met. He's not a divine pinata or a vending machine. He isn't Santa Claus upgraded.No, he's here to save souls sin six souls and illuminate the eyes of the heart. And that brings us to 0.2, a blind disciple sanctified incrementally. Verse 27, "And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?" What he's getting at is what's the public opinion? Jesus has been ministering for quite some time. He's done miracles, he's taught many sermons. And Jesus is saying what's the consensus? In verse 28, they told him John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets.It's not surprising that Jesus would be identified as a great figure of the past, returned from the dead even, given the widespread ancient Jewish belief that saints were alive. All these roles of the prophets of John the Baptist of Elijah, they were roles of preparation, not fulfillment, not consummation. John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus Christ and he did that by saying, repent, believe. The king is here, turn to the king. And now, the king has come and there is a fulfillment of the prophecies. Mark 8:29, "And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are the Christ." Here in the Greek, there's an emphatic you but you.You, who do you say that I am? This is the most important question that every single human being needs to answer while still alive. Who do you say that Jesus is? And Peter correctly says, "You're the Christ." That's the Greek translation of the Aramaic Messiah. You're the Messiah. You're the anointed expected king of Israel. You're the one who's going to come to teach us the righteous ways of God and established God's dominion. And in the Jewish theology, the scribes and the Pharisees had come up with a whole theology of what the Messiah would come to do. In Jewish theology of the time, the Messiah was expected to be entirely human, like King David was a great king and he loved the Lord.He knew the Lord and he established the kingdom of Israel. They thought the son of David would be much greater than David, but he would just be a son of David. He would just be human. And for a human being to establish his kingdom, the human being has to be alive. A human being builds a kingdom through victory, through taking dominion. And here, Jesus Christ, "Yes, Peter, you're correct," but later he is going to continue to restore and heal Peter's wrongheaded spiritual vision and definition of the Messiah. There was no general expectation that the Messiah would suffer or die. What kind of king dies as he's establishing a kingdom? If the king dies, the kingdom dies.If Jesus, you are the Messiah and you die, the movement is over. It's done. Peter gets the title, right, as we see, but he has no understanding of what the Messiah has come to do. And Peter, where did you get this understanding that Jesus is the Messiah. It was given to him through divine revelation. In Matthew 16, the parallel passage verse 16, "Simon Peter replied, You're the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.""I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth shall be loose in heaven. Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ." And that's how our paragraph ends in Mark 8:30. He strictly charged them to tell no one about him, strictly charged. Another translation says vehemently ordered. It's the same word for rebuke, used later in verse 33. He rebukes them. Don't tell anyone that I'm the Messiah, partially because Peter doesn't fully understand what that means. And by teaching people that Jesus is the Messiah would be the blind leading the blind, so to speak.Mark 8:31, "And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again." This is the first three of the passion predictions in the Gospel of Mark, and Jesus here continues to teach. He has come to teach. And what is he doing by teaching? He's establishing his kingdom because his kingdom is a kingdom of truth. The way that he dismantles the kingdom of the evil one is by dismantling the lies, supplanting the lies, replacing them with truth. And what is he teaching? He's teaching Peter. He's teaching the crowds. What kind of Messiah he is?He says, "The son of man must suffer." It's necessary. He used the word must. He must suffer. He must be rejected. He must be killed. He must rise again. What's the word must mean? It means there's no other way. This is the only possibility. This is the only potential path for human redemption. There is a divine compulsion. Why? Because this is the will of God. This is the will of God the Father. There's divine necessity. He begins to teach them because they needed to be taught because no human could come up with an idea like this, that God would come and die. How can God die? How can the Son of God die? That Jesus Christ, the incarnate Lord is to be beaten, scorched, mocked, tried, tested, forsake and crucified dead and would be buried.And the necessity of Jesus' death is also ... it is a necessity because he is to fulfill the scriptures. The scriptures prophesied that the suffering servant will come, Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53. Clearly, it's about Jesus Christ. And then, Jesus uses the title Son of Man and part of the background for the son of man is Adam. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were cursed with various sufferings by God. So if God is going to redeem humanity, one who is like human, who is the son of man, the son of Adam, who needs to represent the people. He needs to be fully man and fully God and Daniel seven is a great prophecy that this ancient of days, son of man, son of God is coming and he's coming to redeem humanity.He will be rejected by the elders, the Sanhedrin, the priestly court of Israel will scrutinize the claims of Jesus and then deliberately reject him. And he says, "After three days will rise again." The phrase after three days and on the third day, our equivalent phrases is because of how they measured time in that culture. Mark 8:32, "And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." Now, Peter was the first apostle chosen by Jesus. Peter was in the inner group of the big three of the disciples. It was Peter, James and John. The sons of thunder that Jesus called him. And Peter perhaps, because he thought of that proximity, allowed him to speak into Jesus' life.All of a sudden he feels bold enough to take Jesus' aside, and there is a sense of the fact that, in the language, that he's patronizing Jesus. And then, the word says that he began to rebuke Jesus and as soon as Jesus specifies the kind of Messiah he is, Peter, he can't fit that definition of the Messiah into his mind, and he begins to wonder, "You know what, Jesus, perhaps your mom was right, perhaps your siblings were right. Perhaps you are out of your mind. The Messiah to suffer, that doesn't make any sense." It seemed so nonsensical to Peter that it was almost demonic, what kind of paradoxical Messiah is this? He begins to rebuke Jesus Christ.And the same word for rebuke is what Jesus used when he cast out demons, he rebuked them. It's almost as if Peter here is rebuking a demonic idea. "Jesus, what are you talking about? You're the Messiah. We're here. We follow you. You're supposed to be the king, you're going to establish the kingdom and we're going to have positions in your kingdom. And you're talking about death. What are you talking about?" As soon as Jesus begins to define what kind of Messiah he is, as soon as Jesus begins to specify the kind of Messiah he is, everything changes for Peter. And we live in a day and age where people are fine talking about God in general. They're fine talking about faith in general, fine talking about even Jesus in general.As soon as you begin to specify, as soon as you begin to define terms, that's when people take up arms, and that's what's happening with Peter, a Messiah who will suffer, die and rise again. Peter has the gall to rebuke Jesus and to rebuke Jesus in the strongest of terms. He sees what God's will is. And he's like, "No, no, no, no. Lord, you're doing it wrong." I don't know if you've ever rebuked the Lord. We've all had that temptation where you ask for something and the Lord gives you something diametrically opposed to what you asked for. You're like, "Lord, you're not doing your job right, Lord. Let me help you do your job. Perhaps I'm better being God than you are."That's what's going on here. He is correcting Jesus. He is rebuking Jesus and it doesn't go well. And Mark 8:33, "But turning and seeing his disciples, he Jesus rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." Peter rebukes Jesus, Jesus rebukes Peter. Guess who won? Jesus wins. Don't rebuke Jesus, be careful of rebuking the Lord. Apparently, this idea that the Messiah would not suffer, it had taken root even in the other disciple's hearts, so Jesus turns to everyone and makes an example of Peter. Peter wasn't unique in his obtuseness. They had inherited this interpretation of the Messiah, inherited it from people.It's not from the holy scriptures and the holy scriptures is clear. Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, clearly prophetic passages that show that the Messiah will suffer. And here what Jesus is doing is he's nullifying the lie and he's nullifying this lie with the truth. He's telling Peter, so to speak, "Peter, you have come to me with old wineskins of a definition of the Messiah." An old wine skin of the definition of God, of how God works, but if you are to have new wine, new wine means that this is completely new and the new wine needs to come in new wine skins. So it's truth that we want to accept from the Lord, but we can't just accept it into our lives without having the Lord completely change the receptacle of that truth.He says, "Get behind me Satan." Harsh words, but I do want to pause here and show the grace in it that Jesus isn't rejecting Peter. "Peter, you're wrong. You're so wrong and you've actually ... you're trying to rebuke me with a lie of Satan," but he's not rejecting Peter. Peter remains a disciple of Jesus Christ and we see the grace of God there. How often have we been so misguided about the Lord, so misguided about understanding who he is and understanding what it means to follow him and he continues to give us grace. Later on chapter nine, actually Jesus takes Peter, James and John onto the Mount and he transfigure in front of them, reveals who he truly is and reveals that he has given Peter more grace.By saying, "Get behind me, Satan." Jesus isn't saying get away from me. He's not banishing Peter forever with this rebuke. No, what he's saying is, get behind me. I am God. I am the Messiah. You are to follow me. Get behind me. Resume the path of following a path that you have momentarily forsaken. I'm the Lord and you are not. And this is a command to Peter. "Resume the path of discipleship rather than trying to lead Jesus Christ." When Jesus used the word Satan, he means, adversary, adversary of divine purpose. Peter here, at least temporarily is opposing the will of God and he needs to understand that he is on the side of Satan when he opposes God. Jesus reveals truth to Peter and as new truth is revealed, old lies must be rooted out.And who does Peter look like here? Well, Peter is half percipient, half insensible condition is similar to the sufferer that we had just read about in the previous narrative. The person who was half seeing, half blinded. And Jesus reveals to Peter that he needs another touch from Christ. He needs more teaching, more revelation. He says to Peter, "You're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." This is where Peter was demonic and that Peter, you're offering me the same path that Satan offered me. And if you remember Jesus when he was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and Satan comes to tempt him and Satan takes him to the top of the mountain, he says, "Look at all the cities, look at the kingdoms." I'll give everything to you if you fall down and worship me."And what's Satan tempting him with? Jesus, you've come to get the crown. I'll give you the crown. Just don't go to the cross. He understood that if Jesus goes to the cross, he's going to ultimately defeat Satan's sin and death. He's like, "Jesus, let's not do that. You can have all the kingdoms, but let me reign through sin," and Jesus telling Peter, "Peter, you're on the side of Satan. You're tempting me with the same path." The holy scripture often talks about the blinding power of Satan over unbelievers. That apart from the grace of Jesus Christ, we're all blinded to the truth. St. Paul, when he shares his testimony to King Agrippa in Acts 26.This is what the text says in Acts 26:12, "In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun that shone around me in those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the gentiles to whom I am sending you."To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Saul, before he becomes Paul, he was so zealous for the Lord, but he was so blind in his zeal. He was on a path to Damascus to go and persecute Christians, to murder Christians, and he thought he was doing this in the name of the Lord. And then Jesus appears to him and says, "Why are you persecuting me?" And at that point, Saul could have been like, "I'm not persecuting you Jesus. I got nothing against you. I'm persecuting your followers." Jesus so closely connects himself with his followers, with his church. He says, "By persecuting the church, you're persecuting me."And then Paul gets saved and God gives him a mission to do what? To proclaim the gospel and to help people begin to see God for who he is. Second Corinthians four, continues this theme, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it has veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord. With ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake, for God who said, let light shine out of the darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."How does Satan blind people? He blinds them with lies. If you don't believe in God, you're believing a lie and all of a sudden you're closed off to even the possibility of who God is. If you don't believe in Christ, if you don't believe in what Christ has come to do, you're blinded to the reality of Christ. If you don't believe in the scriptures, you're blinded to the reality of the truth of God's word. And only divine grace permits us to escape this condition of satanic blindness. And demonic blindness is only countered with divine revelation. There's nothing capable of ending this alienation between us and God and the blindness of humanity to God's will except to look to Christ on the cross. As Messiah, Jesus is not only God's holy warrior, but he's also the teacher.And this is why Jesus came to teach. His primary role in his ministry was to teach in order to combat the lies of the enemy so that when people come to know the truth, they begin to see God for who he is. Isaiah 11:2, "And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him and the spirit of wisdom and understanding and the spirit of counsel and might." When we grow closer to Christ, we grow closer to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit longs to reveal wisdom and understanding and counsel and might. Modern Christians today, we've been cushioned by 2000 years of church teaching to the point where we understand the Messiah is supposed to suffer. That idea is unremarkable. To the Jewish people of that time, the idea of a Messiah was the idea of triumph, not of suffering, not of death.And Peter agrees, "Jesus, you are the Messiah," but the question is, how does the Messiah triumph over his enemies? Well, at this point, Peter, we have to have a conversation. Who are your greatest enemies? Peter and Peter, in that frame of mind, before Jesus corrects him, he would say Caesar Augustus or he would say Pontius Pilate or King Herod, these are our greatest enemies, Lord Jesus. Let's build an army together. You are the king, clearly. You just fed 5,000 men. They're pretty happy about it. Just continue doing that and then, we can take over. We're going to take over Jerusalem and then from there, we're going to build your kingdom, because those are our greatest enemies. It's evil people out there. It's evil people in positions of power.Jesus, that's who we need you to get rid of, put us in positions of power and all of a sudden, we're just going to take over. And Jesus will push back and say, "Peter, those aren't your greatest enemies." Before this Caesar, there was another Caesar and many more before that and there will be Caesars after. No, that's not your greatest enemy. It's not, people in politics. It's not your greatest enemy, your greatest enemies. And unless you know this, then you've already lost, but your greatest enemies are Satan, sin and death. Well, if Satan is your greatest enemy, how do you take Satan out? That's a really important question. Well, you take him out by taking his greatest hit.You take Satan's greatest hit, and that's exactly what happened on the cross. Jesus Christ allowed Satan through his human pawns to crucify him. Satan, that's the greatest weapon. You have to kill me. He takes on Satan, but he wasn't just taking on Satan, he was also taking on sin. Well, Peter, if we take over this Caesar, what happens to sin? What happens to the sin in your own heart, Peter? A lot of people say if there's a good God and all powerful God, why does he allow evil to happen in the world? Well, if Jesus Christ could annihilate evil in one second, he can do that. How many of us would still be alive? We'd all be dead. So for Christ to counter evil, to dismantle evil, to take a sin head on, he had to pay the penalty for sin on the cross.And that's why Jesus Christ on the cross, he quotes Psalm 22, which is one of the most profound texts in all of the scripture. He says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And you say, "How can the first person of the trinity forsake the second person of the trinity? How can the father turn his back on the Son just abandoned him on the cross and this hellacious suffering?" Well because the son had taken our sin upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And then, Jesus Christ dies and through his death, what is he doing? He's giving death itself the death blow By God's grace. He didn't stay dead, he was raised.So on the cross, Jesus takes Satan head on. Takes his fiercest attack, takes on the sin of the elect and its wages and takes on death itself with his death. And praise be to God, he wins. From Peter's limited perspective, all he was thinking about was, "Jesus, I got to preserve you. Jesus, I can't let you die because if I let you die from his limited perspective, everything dies. All my dreams die. All my aspirations die." And from God's perspective, that wasn't the way. God's thoughts are so much greater than our thoughts. Praise be to God. Isaiah 55:8, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways than my thoughts than your thoughts?"Jesus fought Peter's believing of lies. This demonic delusion, and he does it with the truth. He does it by teaching the truth. And now, he challenges Peter and he challenges the other disciples because in their faulty understanding, if we're following an earthly political king, then what does that make us? We are your closest followers, Jesus. We're going to be in your cabinet. We're going to have thrones next to you, but if the Messiah is one who suffers. One who dies and dies a gory death on a cross. Well then what about us? If that's the kind of king that we're following, is he worth following? And Jesus proclaims here in the text, the gains and losses of following him, having prophesied his own suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus now proclaims a similar fate for his followers, and that's 0.3.Follow Christ with eyes wide open to the cost. Mark 8:34, "And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." He calls the crowd, you've been following me. You see my miracles, you see the signs. Now, I'm calling you to become my disciples. I'm calling you to follow me, and if you are to follow me, you need to know what it's going to cost you. First of all, deny yourself. He says there's a sense of existential immediacy. Jesus is confronting the crowd. So you do you want to follow me? Well, you need to deny yourself. You need to turn from your selfish ways, deny yourself and follow me.And just how far is this self-denial expected to go? Jesus brings in the word cross. He says, "Take up your cross," and we're so accustomed to the image and the idea of the cross. There's an aura of sanctity and beauty that surrounds the idea of the cross. And it's hard for us to understand how repugnant the idea of a cross was to the people of the time. The symbol of the hated Roman occupation, a form of death so cruel, so dehumanizing, so shameful that even the most debauched regimes in human history since have not employed crucifixion as a means of executing enemies. It was the preeminent means of Rome's terror apparatus and to liken the following of Christ, the bearing of cross was as powerful way as Jesus could explain, that If you follow me, here's the terms.You must be willing to sacrifice anything and everything. You must be willing to endure anything and everything to be a follower of Jesus Christ. One of the cruel and shameful aspects of crucifixion was the criminal was forced to carry the cross or a part of the instrument to the place of crucifixion, most likely a horizontal cross beam you had to carry, which itself was called a cross, the same thing that Jesus had to carry after he was scorched, his back was torn up from the cat of nine tails, and then, he has to carry the beam across his back on the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. When his strength ended, Simon of Cyrene took over. And Jesus is saying, "Take up your cross and follow me in the same way." It's an exhortation to surrender life and saying, my life is not my own. "And Jesus is upfront about the cost, completely upfront. All of you, for all of me."If you go to the restaurant and they're like, "Yeah, lobster, it's market price, like what's market price? I don't know. Just tell me market price, order of magnitude," or you go to a medical office and you're like, "How much is this procedure?" They're like, "I don't know. We'll bill you." Jesus doesn't do that. The cost is upfront completely. He's saying it's going to take your whole life. Your life is no longer your own, and the idea that you thought your life was your own was actually sinful, and that's how we got here in the first place. And what Jesus here is doing is he's just informing the disciples that I'm Yahweh who has given the 10 commandments, and this right here is just definition of the first commandment. The first commandment is thou shall have no other gods before me.That means you'll not live for anyone more than you love God. It's a matter of reprioritizing. God, you are the greatest treasure of my life. I'm going to live for you completely. Everything in my life is secondary to that. You are God and you alone. He says, "Follow me." And the image of following Jesus is used twice here in the first clause if anyone wants to follow me. And what Jesus is saying is you either denounce self or you denounce Christ. You either denounce self or you denounce God. You can't live for God and yourself in a competing set of priorities. Verse 35, "And whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it."It's counterintuitive, but it's true. He's saying that life, eternal life is found, true life, life to the full is found in treading the path of self death, of self-denial. Death is the way to life and the cross, the way of victory. It makes all the sense in the world. If you live for yourself and if you live for pleasure, for comfort, for self-preservation, and then you die. Well, what happens to your soul? Well, for eternity, you are experiencing condemnation. Your soul spends eternity apart from the presence of God. Why would you expect to spend eternity in the presence of God if you rejected his presence in this life? Obviously, if you live for self, you're going to experience ... you're going to lose your life.If you lose your life now and say, "Lord, I don't want to live for myself. That's not going that well. Lord, I want to live for you. I want to follow you. I want eternal life. I want it to begin now." The moment you die, it's just a transition from experiencing eternal life here to eternal life in the presence of God. Counterintuitive as it is the truth of Jesus' words about finding life on the pathway to death has not lacked witness. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was in the Soviet gulags, as a political prisoner. And there in the gulags, he actually met the Lord. The Lord revealed himself to him. And he often wrote about this, of this experience of self death as a means of getting through whatever sacrifice he had to.He writes this in the gulag. He says, "From the moment you go to prison, you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself, my life is over, a little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I'm condemned to die, now or a little later. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me, those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me. And confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogator will tremble. Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory."In verse 36, Jesus continues for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?" And Jesus here is saying that all the wealth of all the world, if you could accumulate all of it, all of that would not be more valuable than one human soul. And each person is confronted with the dramatic choice between death and life, between the world and his or her soul. Is anything worth more than the soul? No. The soul is more precious than all. Psalm 49 verse seven, "Truly no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life for the ransom of their life as costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit."Verse 38, "For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father and with the holy angels." There is a tendency both outside and within the Christian community to gloss over the crucifixion, to downplay or take offense at Jesus' crucifixion. Isaiah 52 and 53 alludes repeatedly to the onlooker's shame. They see Christ's suffering. There's a humiliation in that ... we're following him. That's our God, and Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation. Yes, some of his words are very difficult to receive, especially upon first hearing. Some of these words that define what sin is.Our culture shirks at it. Bristles, there's a visceral reaction. What? No, we understand that the adulterous generation, those that want nothing to do with the Lord would bristle, but what about believers? What about those who take on the name of Christ, who profess themselves to be followers of Christ? And do people do this today or are people Christians, self profess Christians, are they ashamed of the Lord's words? All too often, way too often. I saw a video clip of a sermon that a pastor has given recently and the pastor got up and said, "I think you noticed we skipped a passage of First Corinthians. We read a little bit and then skipped a passage and then continued."And the pastor said, "The reason why we skipped that passage is because, quote-unquote, yikes. That was the answer. We don't want to read the word of God out loud because yikes, because of how it makes us feel. What are you doing? You're being ashamed of the word of God. You're being ashamed of the words of Christ." And Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my works, I will be ashamed of them. It's as if the son of man will be as second coming called as a witness to answer the question, are these people who profess to be yours, are they truly yours? And the answer, no, indeed, I am ashamed that they should take my name on their lips. In Matthew 7:21, the sermon in the mountain, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.""On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Jesus says when he comes and he will come in the Second Coming, and he will come in the glory of his father and he will come with the angels. The first time he came to inaugurate his kingdom, to establish his kingdom and offer amnesty, offer forgiveness to anyone who would turn from sin and turn to him. The second time he's coming and he's not coming to offer amnesty, he's coming in judgment. For those who are found to be in Christ, that'll be a tremendous day of rejoicing, a day of glory.For those who are found outside of Christ, that will be the worst day in all of eternity for any one of them, any one of you who are not in Christ. So today, friend, if you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, if you're not sure that he knows you, if you're not sure that you are known by him, today in prayer, as we're singing, as we're praying, respond to the Lord in your heart of hearts and cry out, "Lord Jesus, I'm blind. Help me see. Lord Jesus, I'm lost. Find me. Save me." And he will. He promises to. I'll close with Daniel 7:13 through 14, "I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him.""His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." The Lord Jesus Christ offers each one of us grace today. Another touch, another encounter, another touch of healing so that we can sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now, I see. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for the holy scriptures. We thank you Jesus that you were so gracious as to reveal yourself to us. I pray, Lord, if there's anyone here who has not been regenerated, has not been justified, I pray, save them today and put them on the path of following you the path of sanctification.And those of us who are believers, Lord I pray, clarify our sight. Give us a clear vision of who you are and a clear vision of what means to follow you. Lord, if there are areas in our life where we have not denied self, I pray, give us grace to deny self. If there are areas in our life where we have not taken up the cross that you have called us to take up, I pray, give us the grace to do that. And I pray, Lord, that as we follow you, that you give us a boldness, the courage to never be ashamed of your word, never be ashamed of you, but just be daily blown away by incredible mercy that you would choose us before the foundation of the world.That you will write our names in the book of life that you would choose to save us and sanctify us by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would choose to use us to establish your kingdom. And I pray that you do so, evermore here and beyond. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

PreludeWelcome & News of the ChurchCall to WorshipOpening Hymn - (#171) "Joy To the World"Confession, Assurance, and Gloria PatriSermon - "The Weary World Rejoices" (Isaiah 9:1–7) - by Amy Hemseri-SabalaMusic of Christmas - "O Holy Night"OffertoryDoxologyPastoral PrayerClosing Hymn - (#205) "Go, Tell It on the Mountains"BenedictionPostludeJoy To the WorldJoy to the world! the Lord is come:Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world! the Savior reigns: Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, Rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders of His love. Go, Tell It on the MountainsGo, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! While shepherds kept their watching O'er silent flocks by night, Behold throughout the heavens There shone a holy light. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! The shepherds feared and trembled When lo! Above the earth Rang out the angel chorus That hailed our Savior's birth. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! Down in a lowly manger The humble Christ was born, And brought us God's salvation That blessed Christmas morn. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Big Story - Act 5 Scene 3: The Church at the End of the Ages with Roger Kirby There is a marvellous unity to the Bible story even though it was written by many different people over many hundreds of years. It began, after the Creation, with a garden; it ends with a garden city in Revelation 22: 1 – 4 : “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” There are two great differences between them: the garden has only 2 people in it; the city is full of people, all those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Only God walks in the garden; the Lamb walks with him in the city and the people walk by the light of the lamp, which is the Lamb. Wow! And triple Wow! Unfortunately I find it difficult to write this chapter because there is so much disagreement about how we should understand what the Bible says about the End of the Ages. That Jesus Christ will revisit the scenes of his triumph, his death on the Cross, is beyond doubt. What will happen to us is much less clear. The popular picture seems to be of us sitting on the clouds, playing harps, but that is an old idea from a few hundred years ago and is not the Biblical picture at all. About 200 years ago the idea was spread about that when 1 Thessalonians 4: 17 says “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever,” means that the Lord will come halfway to earth to collect his people and take them back to heaven with him in what is called the Rapture. But that is not really the picture here. The scene reflects what happened if Caesar visited a city in one of his outlying provinces. The people of the city would come out to greet the Emperor and then escorted him on into their city. Caesar kept going in the same direction; it was the people who reversed their direction. Yet in the popular teaching of the Rapture it is the Lord who reverses while the people keep going in the same direction! I cannot begin to unravel which is correct. Fortunately Jesus himself said: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” And we should heed that warning. The book of Revelation is a an uncertain guide here for there are so many ways to understand its amazing images, but it is useful to illustrate what the more straightforward parts of Scripture say. Nowhere is more straightforward than the book of Romans and there we read in 8: 18 – 23 : “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” This says that our final destination is not heaven, floating in the sky, but here, on earth, part of the New Heaven and New Earth. And that is what the book of Revelation also says in 21: 1 – 3: “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” When John was writing he said that there would be 144,000 people there – a big enough number that all followers of Jesus might expect to be included but not so big that all might presume to be included. (I have ignored the distinction between those described as of Israel and the great multitude. In this age we, the people of God are all Israel. ) That number is 12x12x10x10x10. If he was writing today he would have needed to add 2 more 12’s and 2 more 10’s to get a number slightly bigger than 2 billion so that we might all hope to be present but not presume on it. See you there! This is what one writer has called ‘life after life after death’. ‘life after death’ is our immediate presence with the Lord which is what Paul meant when he wrote Philippians 1: 21, 23b: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far”. Unfortunately this is what there is so much argument about. Our ultimate goal is beyond dispute as Revelation 22: 1 – 5 says: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” So what? This is the promise for all of us that believe in Jesus and seek to follow him. It is hard to get your mind round how the New Heaven and New Earth could possibly be. Sitting on clouds is far easier to think about, but this is what Scripture and therefore the Lord tells us. It will be obvious to you that I have left out many things that could be included in the Big Story of the Bible. I think the really interesting one is that last Scene where I thought about the church NOW. We should not, and cannot, replicate any of the previous scenes ourselves. We can only live now. How we behave, how we act, how we serve is inevitably bounded by the world we live in and who we are. The important thing is to worship and serve the Lord within those bounds. For many of you, many of us, that means working with Dave in the WOW church, on the Internet. The Lord is Worthy-Of-Worship indeed. Our way may well be in this very new, very different, very important development. Go to it! The Lord bless you. Tap or click here to save this as an audio mp3 file

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 4th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Colossians 1:15-16: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23You will find that very same scripture written hundreds of years before the birth of our Saviour in Isaiah 7:14. Jesus is God. That is what Immanuel means. He is not our mate; he is not the man upstairs; He is not the big boss, He is God. We need to respect that name. That name should never be used as a swear word. It cuts me very deeply into my heart and soul when I hear that magnificent, beautiful name used as a curse. The Bible tells us that every single knee shall bow and every single tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You will find that in Philippians 2:10-11. He is the Word. Jesus is the Bible in print. A young man wrote to me the other day and asked, ”Where does it say in the Bible that Jesus is God?” Oh young man, everywhere! Everywhere! At church the other day, a young lady came up to me and asked me, “How, after forty-four years, can you still love Him with such passion?” I told her, “My faith in Christ is not just a feeling, it is a fact, and as I continued to study His word, the Bible, my love for Him grows more deeply every day.” One translation says, in Colossians 1:17: “He existed before anything was made and now everything finds completion in Him.” Do you remember that beautiful old song? Please sing it with me if you know it:And He is Lord, He is Lord, He has risen from the dead, and He is Lord,Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess That Jesus Christ is Lord.God bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

Whether it is multi-million-dollar settlements where companies do not have to admit guilt, ministries hiding sexual abuse or covering up theft, or platforming the narcissistic pastor so that they can save face. We have witnessed the fallout from wrongdoing, both on a personal and national level. This is just how the world works, right? The Prophet Amos challenges this status quo and reminds the people of God that we have a role to play in bringing about justice.Now Dylan has a song called “God On Our Side” where he traces some of the moments from America's history and speaks about how he was taught that we won wars and had a right to manifest our destiny because God Was On Our Side. And one of the verses goes like this: Through many a dark hour I've been thinkin' about this That Jesus Christ was Betrayed by a kiss But I can't think for you You'll have to decide Whether Judas Iscariot Had God on his side. Am I a part of the problem? Am I contributing to ecological disasters? Am I caught up in the extreme consumerist attitude of the culture? Am I doing anything to help my city and my neighbors suffering from injustice? Do I have implicit or explicit prejudice? Does the change I want to see in the world need to start with me? Amos, like all prophets, is a messenger sent by God to call the people of God back to covenantal or relational faithfulness. Amos is advocating on behalf of the covenant God established with the Israelite people. Which is consistently broken by their sin, rebellion, and unjust treatment of one another resulting in a broken relationship between the people and God..." “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye' while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye,” (Matthew 7:3-5). Justice and Righteousness is THE key theme for the book of Amos. God has called us to change our hearts, not just our clothes. To be people who go through both outward AND inward change. Israel, however, thought changing their clothes was enough. Amos 5:21-24, I hate, I despise your feasts! I can't stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream. “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not!” Romans 6:1 The prophets never separated themselves from the people of Israel. They led through their EMBODIMENT, not through political or social power. “Forgive US our debts,” Matthew 6:12 “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44 “Seek God and live.” Amos 5:4 Spiritual Practice:Grieve/Lament Personal inventory Energization/Hope Luke 19:41-44, “41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” “Faith without works is dead.” James 2:17

Beginning May 7, 2023, Redemption Christian Church will be singing a new song together called “You've Already Won.” Utilize this song teaching audio/video from Redemption worship ministers Ryan Lynton and Caleb Spencer to learn how the song is arranged and get ready to sing together once we gather again.VERSE 1There's peace that outlasts darknessHope that's in the bloodThere's future grace that's mine todayThat Jesus Christ has wonVERSE 2So I can face tomorrowFor tomorrow's in Your handsAll I need You will provideJust like You always haveCHORUSI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonNo matter what comes my wayI will overcomeDon't know what You're doingBut I know what You've doneI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonVERSE 3There's mercy in the waitingManna for todayAnd when it's gone I know You're notYou are my hope and stayVERSE 4When the sea is ragingYour Spirit is my helpHe'll fix my eyes on Jesus ChristI'll say that it is wellOh I know that it is wellBRIDGEI know how the story endsWe will be with You againYou're my Savior my defenseNo more fear in life or deathTagI know how this story endsI'm fighting a battle You've already won"You've Already Won." CCLI Song # 7194845. Written by Bryan Fowler and Shane Barnard. © 2022 Be Essential Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC), bryanfowlersongs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)Songs From Wellhouse (Admin. by Right Angle Music). All rights reserved. CCLI License # 2226886

Beginning May 7, 2023, Redemption Christian Church will be singing a new song together called “You've Already Won.” Utilize this song teaching audio/video from Redemption worship ministers Ryan Lynton and Caleb Spencer to learn how the song is arranged and get ready to sing together once we gather again.VERSE 1There's peace that outlasts darknessHope that's in the bloodThere's future grace that's mine todayThat Jesus Christ has wonVERSE 2So I can face tomorrowFor tomorrow's in Your handsAll I need You will provideJust like You always haveCHORUSI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonNo matter what comes my wayI will overcomeDon't know what You're doingBut I know what You've doneI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonVERSE 3There's mercy in the waitingManna for todayAnd when it's gone I know You're notYou are my hope and stayVERSE 4When the sea is ragingYour Spirit is my helpHe'll fix my eyes on Jesus ChristI'll say that it is wellOh I know that it is wellBRIDGEI know how the story endsWe will be with You againYou're my Savior my defenseNo more fear in life or deathTagI know how this story endsI'm fighting a battle You've already won"You've Already Won." CCLI Song # 7194845. Written by Bryan Fowler and Shane Barnard. © 2022 Be Essential Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC), bryanfowlersongs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)Songs From Wellhouse (Admin. by Right Angle Music). All rights reserved. CCLI License # 2226886

Beginning May 7, 2023, Redemption Christian Church will be singing a new song together called “You've Already Won.” Utilize this song teaching audio/video from Redemption worship ministers Ryan Lynton and Caleb Spencer to learn how the song is arranged and get ready to sing together once we gather again.VERSE 1There's peace that outlasts darknessHope that's in the bloodThere's future grace that's mine todayThat Jesus Christ has wonVERSE 2So I can face tomorrowFor tomorrow's in Your handsAll I need You will provideJust like You always haveCHORUSI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonNo matter what comes my wayI will overcomeDon't know what You're doingBut I know what You've doneI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonVERSE 3There's mercy in the waitingManna for todayAnd when it's gone I know You're notYou are my hope and stayVERSE 4When the sea is ragingYour Spirit is my helpHe'll fix my eyes on Jesus ChristI'll say that it is wellOh I know that it is wellBRIDGEI know how the story endsWe will be with You againYou're my Savior my defenseNo more fear in life or deathTagI know how this story endsI'm fighting a battle You've already won"You've Already Won." CCLI Song # 7194845. Written by Bryan Fowler and Shane Barnard. © 2022 Be Essential Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC), bryanfowlersongs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)Songs From Wellhouse (Admin. by Right Angle Music). All rights reserved. CCLI License # 2226886

Beginning May 7, 2023, Redemption Christian Church will be singing a new song together called “You've Already Won.” Utilize this song teaching audio/video from Redemption worship ministers Ryan Lynton and Caleb Spencer to learn how the song is arranged and get ready to sing together once we gather again.VERSE 1There's peace that outlasts darknessHope that's in the bloodThere's future grace that's mine todayThat Jesus Christ has wonVERSE 2So I can face tomorrowFor tomorrow's in Your handsAll I need You will provideJust like You always haveCHORUSI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonNo matter what comes my wayI will overcomeDon't know what You're doingBut I know what You've doneI'm fighting a battleYou've already wonVERSE 3There's mercy in the waitingManna for todayAnd when it's gone I know You're notYou are my hope and stayVERSE 4When the sea is ragingYour Spirit is my helpHe'll fix my eyes on Jesus ChristI'll say that it is wellOh I know that it is wellBRIDGEI know how the story endsWe will be with You againYou're my Savior my defenseNo more fear in life or deathTagI know how this story endsI'm fighting a battle You've already won"You've Already Won." CCLI Song # 7194845. Written by Bryan Fowler and Shane Barnard. © 2022 Be Essential Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC), bryanfowlersongs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)Songs From Wellhouse (Admin. by Right Angle Music). All rights reserved. CCLI License # 2226886

Do you like it when people accuse you of something? Whether you are guilty or innocent, we typically get defensive and aggravated when people accuse us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ produces a very important truth in the life of a believer.. That Jesus Christ is our advocate.

Scriptures are the White-Blood cells of a culture. When you reduce the white blood cell count, they body is more susceptible to infection and disease. When you excise the Holy Scriptures from society, the society has no defense against lies. The U.S in 2023 is so bereft of the Holy Scriptures that we live among lies every day from the covid scam to JFK, to stolen elections to trannies, homos and false Jews. There is only one institution in the U.S. that can re-normalize the Holy Scriptures and that is the Church, yet the Church does not want the Scriptures. When was the last sermon you hear on any of the following: 1) The global flood of Noah (Genesis 7) 2) There was light, day and night BEFORE the sun was created (Genesis 1:1-19) 3) The existence of Satan's children (Genesis 3:14-15, John 8:44). 4) Satan's very own synagogue (Revelation 2:9, Revelation 3:9) 5) The Tower of Babel and God's destruction of that project by forcing people apart by changing their languages. (Genesis 11:1-9) 6) The primary purpose of mankind is to reproduce and multiply and thus the impossibility of accepting homosexuality. (Genesis 1:28) 7) That Jesus Christ is God the Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Moses. It was Jesus Christ (pre-incarnation) that the Patriarchs knew. (John 14:6-11, John 6:46, John 1:18, Exodus 3:6, Exodus 33:11, Genesis 32:28-30, Genesis 18:1) 8) The impossibility of Evolution (Genesis 1 and Genesis 6). Creatures ONLY reproduce after their own kind — they do not change kinds.  And mixing kinds is evil. Pastors and Christians who resist this are listening to the Serpent to told Eve: “Indeed has God really said . . . ?”  (Genesis 3:1). Satan has no need to change the tactics that already work. They worked on Eve, why not on Christians today?

In this Episode, Dan sits down with Aaron and brad to discuss the difference of the Prosperity Gospel and the Good News Gospel. That Jesus Christ came to die for our sins in order to transform our lives, so that we can live in the fullness of life that we were meant to have from the Beginning. Listen in as we discuss the pitfalls of the Prosperity Gospel and how it has twisted our worldview on what a relationship with Jesus is actually supposed to look like. Beyond Damascus: The show where encounter meets mission. On this podcast, Dan, Brad, and Aaron will give you practical tips on how to live out your faith every day. We'll get into actionable steps of what it means to have an abundant Christian life and share things that we've learned through our personal journey's about overcoming obstacles, pursuing joy, and living a meaningful life. Tune in each week! Check out Beyond Damascus on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at: https://open.spotify.com/show/3MMe7sJcCTSZwyYu4D8EF3?si=1e9fe39919bb43e9 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-damascus/id1587181752 Learn more about Damascus Catholic Mission Campus at https://damascus.net Special thanks to St. Gabriel Catholic Radio for their support in the production of Beyond Damascus. Learn more about St. Gabriel at https://stgabrielradio.com

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston ordonate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com Before we begin, first of all, everyone looks great. Elephant in the room, I'm wearing a suit. I told my brother Chidi before our service, "There's only three ways you're going to see this. Someone needs to get married, someone needs to die, or someone needs to rise from the dead." And praise God, we get to celebrate all three. That Jesus Christ came, He lived, He died, He rose from the dead, He is coming again to take His bride home to eternity, to the wedding supper of the lamb. We look forward to that. And before we begin today, there's something we got to do. If you've been around Mosaic for a while, you know what's coming. Hopefully you got warmed up on your way to church this morning. And we're going to do a little bit of a call and response. And so if you're new to Mosaic, if this is your first time here, what we're going to do is I'm going to say, "He is risen." And then we're all going to say together, "He is risen indeed." We're going to do that three times, each time with more emphatically, as loud as you want. So is everybody ready? All right, Here we go. He is risen. He is risen indeed.He is risen.He is risen indeed.He is risen.He is risen indeed. Praise God. Jesus is alive. He is risen. He is reigning. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He's coming again to judge the living and the dead. These are the facts of the matter. This is the truth of the matter. And the question that I want to put before us this morning, however, is if this is the truth of the matter, why does it matter? What does it mean? What are the implications of such a thing? How does a man rising from the dead 2,000 years ago impact us today? And if you go to our website, we probably have at least a dozen sermons out there archived on our website that look at the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The evidence is there. And if that's not something that you've examined, if that's something in you're interested in, I would encourage you to go and to examine the evidence. There are so many resources out there that look at that and that prove the veracity of Christianity, that Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead. But the question is why does it matter? And it matters because if this is just a nice story, a fable, a myth, a legend for children, if Jesus was just a nice guy who did some nice things, He died and that was it, then the reality is that really nothing in life matters. Not in any objective sense. That ultimately life is meaningless and that ultimately death is coming and it's going to have the last laugh. But if Christ is risen, well then that changes everything. Because if Christ is risen, then everything matters. Your life matters, my life matters, our lives matter. Our choices matter. Every moment that we have matters. It's loaded with potential that could send ripples throughout all of eternity. It matters. So if you have your Bibles, we're going to be in the Gospel of John today. If you turn to the New Testament, it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. We're going to be in John chapter 20. And this chapter, it tells us about a couple of interactions that took place between Jesus and His disciples on that first Easter Sunday. And as we look at the story, we're going to see just the life changing difference that His resurrection made for them on that day and the life changing difference that it continues to make for us on this day and every day. And so here in a moment, I'm going to read a couple verses from John chapter 20 to get us started. But before we do, before we get into our text today, I want us to all try to get into the disciples' shoes today, to put ourselves in their place, to get in the mindset that they were in. That for the last three years of our lives, we have been following our rabbi Jesus all over the place, wherever He goes. And during this time, we have learned the truth and the wisdom of His profound teaching. We have observed the integrity and the purity of His life and His character. And we've seen Him do things that we thought were impossible. He's walked on water, He's healed the sick. He has given sight to the blind. A couple of weeks ago, we even saw Him raise a man from the dead. And all of this, for the past three years, this has been our lives all kind of leading up to the zenith, to pinnacle that we reached just one week ago as we walked with this man into the city of Jerusalem. And as we did, He's greeted by crowds of people from all over the world, shouting, "Hosanna." And waving palm branches that at last their great expectations have come to fruition. That this is the king. This is the one we've been waiting for. This is the Messiah, God's chosen one who has come to save His people. We began our week just a few days ago with the euphoria of Palm Sunday of the triumphal entry. And as we walked into the city of Jerusalem that day, a whole new world of possibilities opened up before our very eyes. We began our week with that elation only to end our week with the horrors of Good Friday, to have that door slammed violently back into our face. And we watched helplessly as our teacher, our friend, our king, our hope for the world was betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, viciously beaten, mocked, flogged and crucified, nailed to a cross. We watched as they sealed His cold dead body into a cold, dark grave. And you try to imagine the spectrum of emotions that we would be feeling right now as His disciples. Your best friend is dead. More than that, your Messiah is dead. With Him, the mission is dead. Our purpose in life is dead. Our hope for the world, our hope for the future is dead. And realistically, you're probably beginning to wonder about this time, "How long is it before the rest of us are dead as well?" And I say all this because as we turn to our text and read about that first Easter Sunday, we don't find the disciples all nice sharply dressed, excited, ready to go out for a nice Easter brunch. We find them sleepless, anxious, nauseated, and terrified. We find them with bloodshot eyes and with garments that have been stained with tears. We find them hiding in a cold, dark room behind a closed locked door. And John tells us in his gospel that they were hiding and they were afraid. Afraid for their lives, afraid that all had been lost, afraid that their mission had failed, afraid that after everything that they had been through that nothing really changed. And then Jesus Christ steps into the room and they realize nothing is ever going to be the same. Jesus was alive. And that this changes everything.So if you have your Bibles, we're going to work our way through John chapter 20. And I'm going to begin just by reading a couple of verses from the middle of the chapter. John 20:19&20. The Apostle John tells us that, "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked were the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and He stood among them and He said to them, 'Peace be with you.' And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." Now the first change, the first difference that we see from this encounter with Jesus, that Christ is risen, therefore fear has been overcome by peace. That Jesus stepped out of the tomb of His death and into the room, into the tomb of their anxiety. And in doing so, He lands a death blow to all of their fears, that He stands there before them as the ultimate undeniable proof that nothing in this life, not even crucifixion, not even death itself, could put an end to the mission, could put an end to God's plan of salvation. See, we need to understand that when Jesus died, the disciples, all their hopes and dreams died with Him. They were shattered, dashed to the ground, pounded into dust, burned into ashes, blown away by the wind. They were gone, hopeless. The problem is not that the disciples had set their hopes too high, it's actually that up until this point, they had been setting their hopes way too low, that they were hoping for a messiah who could come and maybe help them escape their problems, help them to escape their enemies. Jesus hadn't come for that. Jesus did not come to merely escape death. He came to face it head on, to experience it and to defeat it. He had not come to overthrow the feeble Roman Empire. He had come to overthrow the dominion of darkness, to rise in victory over Satan, sin and death. And in doing so, to declare to the world, to offer to the world terms of peace, to a world that was ravaged by war, ravaged by sin. So when Jesus tells His disciples, "Peace be with you.", He's not promising them that their problems are all just going to immediately disappear and go away. But He is promising them that despite all of these problems, that despite all of their trials, all the tribulations, all the persecutions that they face, that they would ultimately overcome. Apostle Paul in writing about these things in Romans 8:31, he says, "Therefore, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies us. Who is to condemn us? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who is raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" And he says, "Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or swords?" He says, "As it's written for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. "For...", he says, "... I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. In Christ Jesus, our Lord." Jesus is alive. And this doesn't mean that the battle is over, but it does certainly mean that the war has been won. So as we fight this good fight of faith, we can do so with peace, with hope, with joy. We can do so knowing, as Paul tells us in just a few chapters later in Romans 16:20, that, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." And this is the heart of the matter, that the true peace that we need, it is not just peace with the superficial circumstances of our life, the true peace we need more than anything else, it is peace with God and everything else is rooted in that peace. It's the peace of knowing that we have been forgiven, that we have been justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and therefore no weapon formed against us can prosper. No accusation of the enemy brought against us can stand because Jesus Christ on His throne at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. So there's nothing we need to fear in this life. There's nothing that we need to fear and death because nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now Paul says in Romans 5:1, he says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we also obtain access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Verse three says, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces, that it is not vain. It is doing something productive. Suffering produces endurance." And he says, "Endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through His Holy Spirit who's been given to us." So therefore, if we are to face this battle, we do so knowing that our king is with us, that He loves us, and that He is leading us to certain victory. And even if we are to fall in this battle, we do so knowing that our king has gone before us, He has defeated death and He now holds the keys to eternal life. And so let's take that from up here and let's bring that down to earth like practically and personally. How peaceful is your life right now? The peace that we're talking about is objectively true for all who have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ. But are you experiencing it? Are you living in it day today? Well, a few verses earlier in John chapter 20, we read about another encounter that Jesus had with another one of his disciples, his disciple, Mary Magdalene, that early that morning she had gone to the tomb and she gets there and she finds it empty. And as we see her in verse 11, we're told that, "Mary stood there weeping outside of the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. And they said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' And when she said to them, 'Well, they've taken away my Lord and I don't know where they've laid Him.' And having said this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus. "Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?' And supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, 'Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you've laid Him and I will go and I will take Him away.' And Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' And she turned and said to Him in Aramaic, 'Rabboni.', which means teacher. And Jesus her, 'Do not clinging to me for I've not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and she announced this good news to the disciples. This is a pretty familiar story that you often hear on Easter Sunday and it's a familiar story. But the question that I want us to ask ourselves, the question I want you to ask yourself this morning is we see two very different Marys in this passage from beginning to end, one who is stricken with anxiety, with fear, and one who is overcome with peace and with joy. And are you more like the Mary that we see anxious and distraught, weeping at the tomb of your shattered hopes? Or are you more like the Mary that we see weeping tears of joy worshiping at the feet of her risen savior, her living hope? Because a lack of peace, well it comes from a misplaced hope. You're building on a shaky foundation. And that's what Mary really, she'd come to that tomb and her hopes had been shattered and she needed to find a better hope. She needed to find a living hope that she had hoped for a savior that could avoid death. Well, she needed a savior that could defeat death. Because Mary, her biggest problem was that she didn't so much need to be saved from her enemies nearly as much as she needed to be saved from herself, saved from her sin. And the only way that Jesus could do that for her was by laying down His life, going to the cross and first dying in her place so then therefore He could rise in victory over Satan, sin and death to offer her this peace. And Jesus offers us peace. If you're not experiencing this in your life right now, however, well, I think Jesus would ask us the same thing He asked Mary, "Why? Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" If you're anxious, if you are afraid, perhaps you've been building your hope on a shaky foundation. Perhaps you've been looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. You've been looking for maybe a Jesus that could save you from your circumstances, where what you need more than anything else is a Jesus who can come and save you from yourself, from your pride, from your self-righteousness, from your self-reliance, from the sin that separates us from our father, that that places this wedge, that drives this chasm between us and God. Because Jesus Christ is the king of kings. He is the Lord of lords. Jesus is the Prince of Peace objectively, but you're only going to experience that peace personally when He is seated in his proper place, not on a throne in Jerusalem, but on the throne of your heart. In Colossians 3:15, Paul says, "Therefore, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." Paul says again in the book of Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God." In verse seven, he says, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So the first thing that we see is that Christ has risen, therefore fear can be overcome by peace. Now the second point we see is that Christ is risen, therefore futility has been overcome by purpose. So picking up again in John 20:19 it says, "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and He stood among them and He said to them, 'Peace be with you.' And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." In verse 21, "Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me even so I am sending you.' And when He had said this, He breathed on them and He said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. And if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.'" So Jesus, He gives His disciples peace to overcome their fears, but then He stands before them, He's standing before them as evidence that the war has been won and they can therefore have peace. But then He reminds them that even though the war has been won, this doesn't mean that the battle... Battle has just begun, that the mission wasn't over. The mission hadn't failed. The mission didn't fail when Jesus Christ died on the cross. To the contrary, the mission was just getting started. That all of their hard work, all of their sacrifice, none of that had been in vain. But now the training wheels were coming off. And Jesus was saying, "I'm going to send you out with a mission, with a purpose that yes, the work of the cross is finished, but the witness to the cross has just begun." Says, "I'm sending you with the greatest purpose, the greatest mission, the greatest task of telling the world the greatest news, the good news that Jesus is alive, that He is risen, He has overcome Satan, sin and death, and there is forgiveness in His name." And so here in these couple of versions, Jesus, He explains that mission. He gives us the what, He gives us the how, He gives us the why. He says, "Just as the Father sent me, I am sending you." To what? "To go, to be my disciples, to be my witnesses, to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth." That's the what of the mission. And then He tells them how. He says, "And I'm giving you my Holy Spirit. I'm giving you the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the gospel. This is how you're going to go out and accomplish this mission." And then He tells them the why in verse 23. He says, "For if you forgive the sins of any there forgiven them, and if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." What on earth is Jesus talking about here? Because if you know scripture, you know that scripture teaches us that only God has the authority to forgive sin. So Jesus, is He contradicting that here? Well, no, He's not. This is one of those rare places where we kind of do need to take a closer look at the Greek grammar. I don't like to be that like Greek geek type of pastor, but occasionally it's helpful to know, because when you look the phrasing in English, it is a little bit awkward. But grammatically what's happening here is that this phrase, "They are forgiven them." In the Greek, it's just one word and it's a perfect passive verb. It's indicating an event that has already taken place and yet is ongoing and continuing. So Jesus, He's not saying that we as His disciples have the authority to go and forgive sins. But He is saying that we do have the responsibility to go out and declare the forgiveness of sins, to declare that the world that the means by which our sins can be forgiven is to repent and to believe the gospel, that forgiveness comes only by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. We need to go to the world and tell them this good news. The apostle Paul does a really great job teaching about this in 2 Corinthians 5:17, he says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and behold the new has come. And all of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." And he explains, "That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and in entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore...", he says, "... We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us, and we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God." And this is the message, "For our sake. He made Him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." Jesus is sending this out as his ambassadors with the message of reconciliation, not to forgive sins by our own authority, but to announce with authority, to announce with conviction and confidence that yes, all who repents and believe this good news will be saved. They have been forgiven. So He sends us with a peace that passes understanding, He sends us with a purpose that presses into eternity. Now, there's something else going on here as well. Throughout this passage, John is dropping these hints, he's dropping these clues and he wants us to pick up on a theme, that he is telling us the story of Jesus' resurrection, but he's doing it in a way where he kind of wants us to alert our minds, to draw our minds' attention to another story, a story that he kind of assumes that we're all familiar with. It's the story of creation in the Garden of Eden. So two times in this chapter, John pauses and he makes it a point to alert us, the reader, to know that all of these things, they happened on the first day of the week, on the first day of the week. Then we find when Jesus finds Mary Magdalene, He finds her in a garden. And actually she mistakes Him, she thinks that He is the gardener. And then here John tells us that after Jesus tells his disciples that He's sending them out, He does something really strange, He breathes on them and gives them His Holy Spirit. It's a weird detail, but what's happening is John is noticing the providential connections between these two stories, and he's trying to help us connect the dots so that we can see the bigger picture of what's going on here. If you remember Genesis 2:7, it says, "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed." And the big idea, the picture that John wants us to see is that just as the opening chapters of Genesis tell us the story of creation, well a new chapter is opening with the resurrection of Christ, the beginnings of the story of new creation, that Jesus Christ is the first fruits of that creation. As we read earlier, Paul told us that, "And therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are also a new creation born again by the Holy Spirit." That just as Adam's sin brought a curse upon the world, Christ's righteousness is reversing that curse. It's undoing death. It is bringing a blessing to all who repent and believe. And that just as God breathed life into Adam and gave him his purpose, gave him his mission, Jesus Christ is breathing new life, eternal life into us as His disciples and sending us out with a mission as well to fill the earth with the glory of God by going and making disciples of all the nations. So again, practically, personally, what does this mean? This doesn't mean that every follower of Jesus needs to quit their job today and go be a missionary on the other side of the world somewhere. But it certainly does mean that every follower of Jesus Christ needs to live with this awareness, live with this mindset that we are living, walking every moment of our lives in the presence of God the Father, that we are living our lives abiding in the grace of God the Son, and we're living our lives by the power of God the Holy Spirit, so that we can assess, so that we can understand, so that we can know how we can be the most effective witnesses, the most useful servants to Christ that we can possibly be no matter where it is that He has called us to stand, in whatever location and whatever occupation and whatever vocation and whatever station of life He calls us to, we are to be His witnesses. And so at home, at church, at work, at school, in private, in public, and whatever you do and wherever you go, go with this mindset that the purpose of God is to be lived out in your words, in your worship, in your work, in your witness, that you are an ambassador for Christ. So Christ is risen, therefore, fear has been overcome by peace. Now Christ is risen, therefore, futility has been overcome by this great purpose. And then finally, we see Christ is risen, therefore, frustration has been overcome by passion. This is John 20:24. We see another interaction between Jesus and his disciples. We're told in verse 24 that, "Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, he was actually not there with them when Jesus came. And so the disciples, they told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails and place my finger into the marks of the nails and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.'" I think we're all familiar with Doubting Thomas, even if you never heard this story before, it's popular enough that we're most of us familiar with the idiom, right? We're familiar with the idea of a Doubting Thomas. Thomas has been immortalized for his doubts. But when I read this, I think there's something more going on there. He says, "Unless I touch those wounds for myself...", he says, "... I will never believe." Never is not a word often used by skeptics. Never is a word more often used by cynics. There seems to be an air of bitterness, of resentment, of frustration in his reply. "I put my heart out there. I trusted this man. I gave God my hopes and my dreams and look what it got me. My dreams have been shattered, my heart has been broken, and I don't know what's going on. You guys say Jesus is risen from the dead, but I'm never putting myself out there. I'm not going to trust. I'm not going to open my heart. I'm not going to allow my hopes to get up like that. I will never believe." These sound like the words that are coming from a cold and a hardened heart. And I'm sure that there are some people here today that have some honest doubts, and you just need to go and look at the evidence and find those answers. But I wonder if there are some here today who, like Thomas, it's not so much that you have honest doubts as much as it is you've got a hardened heart. It's not that you don't see the evidence, you really don't want to see the evidence. You don't want to believe. You're afraid to believe, afraid of what that might mean for all of this to be true. Because if Jesus Christ is risen, then Jesus Christ is Lord. And if Jesus Christ is Lord, then I need to submit my life to Him as Lord. And if I need to submit my life to Him as Lord, how do I know that I can trust Him? And I say that not to provoke anyone, not to anger, but I want to stoke in you a passion because, thankfully, this is not the end of Thomas' story, and it doesn't need to be the end of your story either. John goes on in verse 26, and he tells us that, "Eight days later, His disciples, again, they're inside again." And this time he says, "Thomas was with them. And although, again, the doors were locked, Jesus came again and He stood among them, and He again said to them, 'Peace be with you.' And then He said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe.' And Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God.' Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.'" I love this because Jesus, He comes again, He goes straight for Thomas this time, and He basically grants him his wish. He says, "Here I am, Thomas, you can put your hand in my wounds, feel my side. I'm putting this opportunity before you." But Thomas doesn't take it. We don't see him reaching for Christ. We see him falling at the feet, worshiping Christ, crying out, "My Lord and my God." What is going on here? Well, I think what's going on here is that Thomas, he thought that he wanted proof that Jesus was alive and what he really needed even more than that was proof that he himself was loved, and he saw that proof. It was etched in the hands and the feet. It was carved in the side of the risen Jesus Christ. He saw and he understood, his hard heart was melted as it put the pieces together that those scars proved to Thomas that yes, this man standing before him really was Jesus. And yes, this proved to him that Jesus really was God, and also proved to him that God really was good, that he could trust him with his heart because this is the man, that was my cross that Jesus bore. That those are our scars that Jesus continues to bear, not just for Thomas, for all of us, for all of eternity, so that we can all have this great reminder of how we have been loved. That the passion of Jesus Christ, this is the only thing that can take a cold, hard, cynical heart and replace our doubts, replace our frustrations with passion and with joy. Have you ever wondered what became of Doubting Thomas? Because you read the New Testament and New Testament tells us a lot about Paul, tells a lot about like Peter and James and John, it doesn't really tell us that much more about Thomas. And what we know is that Thomas not only became a passionate worshiper of Christ that day, he actually became a passionate missionary for Christ for the rest of his life. That after this, history tells us that Thomas took the good news 3000 miles to the East, and for the rest of his life, he spent his days preaching the gospel, planting churches and ministering to the people of India until eventually he was martyred for his faith around 70 AD. There are actually somewhere between 25-30 million Christians living in India today, and many of them, most of them, trace their heritage all the way back to good old Doubting Thomas. I actually learned after our first service this morning that we have a sister in the church, a member of Mosaic whose family came from India, and she says, "Our family, we have been Christians from the first century because of Thomas. Because of Doubting Thomas, we are here and we've persisted throughout the ages as followers of Jesus Christ." Thomas may be immortalized right now for his doubts, but he's going to be remembered throughout all of eternity for his great passion and faith. Thomas saw, he believed and he did something about it, right? He had this great passion for Jesus Christ. And because of that, millions of people since have been blessed that. Jesus says, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." And how many people have believed, not because they saw the risen Christ, but because of Thomas, because of his witness, because of his faithful testimony to Jesus Christ? When you truly experience the power and the love of the risen Christ, you will have peace. You will have purpose, but you should also have this passion and you should grow in this passion, a passion to worship God, to worship Christ for all that He is, and a passion to go and to tell the world of all that He has done. And if you're here today and you're like, "Yeah, I don't have that. I don't have that passion." Well, I would encourage you to look, to meditate, to fix your eyes on the passion of the cross and the passion of Jesus Christ. These are not things that we can muster up from within ourselves. These are things that come as a result of looking, of considering, of understanding in the center of who we are what Christ has done for us. That the risen Christ has only risen because He has first fallen. Because He first laid down His life that he loved us to such an extent that before rising from the dead, He first died in our place, that He took up the cross, He laid down His life, and then He rose in victory over Satan, sin and death so that we could be raised up with Him to stand with Him in victory over Satan sin and death as well. 1 Corinthians 15:54, the apostle Paul tells us, "When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain." If you're here today and you're not a Christian, you don't consider yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, or you're new to Christianity, I just want to say we are so glad that you made the decision to be here with us this morning. We really are glad that you are here. And after the service today, Pastor Andy and myself are going to be right up here after the service, and we would love to answer any questions that you might have about Jesus, about the gospel, about Christianity, even if you want to just come up, introduce yourself and say hi. We would love to meet you. But our greatest desire, my greatest hope, I want every single person, every single soul in this room to experience the peace and the purpose of a life that has been submitted to Christ Jesus, to grow in their passion for Christ and His kingdom as they grow to know and to experience God's passion for them, that He gave, that He poured out through His son Jesus Christ. So you're welcome. We invite you, come talk to us after the service, talk to people around you. Talk to people at the welcome center. There's people here that would love to meet you and get to know you and talk to you today. But right now, speaking of passion, we have an opportunity to express that passion as we continue and sing together right now. So it's Easter Sunday. I hope you're ready. I hope you're excited. I am ready to celebrate with you. So as the band comes up, I am going to pray and we are going to spend some time just celebrating, worshiping, praising our risen Lord together. Let's pray. Father, your word tells us that if Christ has not been raised, well then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain. But in fact, Christ has been raised and this changes everything. We praise you. We thank you for this. God, give us clean hands. We pray that you open our eyes and soften our hearts and remind us again of your power, of your goodness, of your beauty. May all that you are and all that you have done right now in this moment, captivate our minds and our hearts, and stir our affections, our passion to give you the praise and the glory that you deserve. And we thank you that we can just sing to you now. We do so in the name of Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston ordonate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com Before we begin, first of all, everyone looks great. Elephant in the room, I'm wearing a suit. I told my brother Chidi before our service, "There's only three ways you're going to see this. Someone needs to get married, someone needs to die, or someone needs to rise from the dead." And praise God, we get to celebrate all three. That Jesus Christ came, He lived, He died, He rose from the dead, He is coming again to take His bride home to eternity, to the wedding supper of the lamb. We look forward to that. And before we begin today, there's something we got to do. If you've been around Mosaic for a while, you know what's coming. Hopefully you got warmed up on your way to church this morning. And we're going to do a little bit of a call and response. And so if you're new to Mosaic, if this is your first time here, what we're going to do is I'm going to say, "He is risen." And then we're all going to say together, "He is risen indeed." We're going to do that three times, each time with more emphatically, as loud as you want. So is everybody ready? All right, Here we go. He is risen. He is risen indeed.He is risen.He is risen indeed.He is risen.He is risen indeed. Praise God. Jesus is alive. He is risen. He is reigning. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He's coming again to judge the living and the dead. These are the facts of the matter. This is the truth of the matter. And the question that I want to put before us this morning, however, is if this is the truth of the matter, why does it matter? What does it mean? What are the implications of such a thing? How does a man rising from the dead 2,000 years ago impact us today? And if you go to our website, we probably have at least a dozen sermons out there archived on our website that look at the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The evidence is there. And if that's not something that you've examined, if that's something in you're interested in, I would encourage you to go and to examine the evidence. There are so many resources out there that look at that and that prove the veracity of Christianity, that Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead. But the question is why does it matter? And it matters because if this is just a nice story, a fable, a myth, a legend for children, if Jesus was just a nice guy who did some nice things, He died and that was it, then the reality is that really nothing in life matters. Not in any objective sense. That ultimately life is meaningless and that ultimately death is coming and it's going to have the last laugh. But if Christ is risen, well then that changes everything. Because if Christ is risen, then everything matters. Your life matters, my life matters, our lives matter. Our choices matter. Every moment that we have matters. It's loaded with potential that could send ripples throughout all of eternity. It matters. So if you have your Bibles, we're going to be in the Gospel of John today. If you turn to the New Testament, it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. We're going to be in John chapter 20. And this chapter, it tells us about a couple of interactions that took place between Jesus and His disciples on that first Easter Sunday. And as we look at the story, we're going to see just the life changing difference that His resurrection made for them on that day and the life changing difference that it continues to make for us on this day and every day. And so here in a moment, I'm going to read a couple verses from John chapter 20 to get us started. But before we do, before we get into our text today, I want us to all try to get into the disciples' shoes today, to put ourselves in their place, to get in the mindset that they were in. That for the last three years of our lives, we have been following our rabbi Jesus all over the place, wherever He goes. And during this time, we have learned the truth and the wisdom of His profound teaching. We have observed the integrity and the purity of His life and His character. And we've seen Him do things that we thought were impossible. He's walked on water, He's healed the sick. He has given sight to the blind. A couple of weeks ago, we even saw Him raise a man from the dead. And all of this, for the past three years, this has been our lives all kind of leading up to the zenith, to pinnacle that we reached just one week ago as we walked with this man into the city of Jerusalem. And as we did, He's greeted by crowds of people from all over the world, shouting, "Hosanna." And waving palm branches that at last their great expectations have come to fruition. That this is the king. This is the one we've been waiting for. This is the Messiah, God's chosen one who has come to save His people. We began our week just a few days ago with the euphoria of Palm Sunday of the triumphal entry. And as we walked into the city of Jerusalem that day, a whole new world of possibilities opened up before our very eyes. We began our week with that elation only to end our week with the horrors of Good Friday, to have that door slammed violently back into our face. And we watched helplessly as our teacher, our friend, our king, our hope for the world was betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, viciously beaten, mocked, flogged and crucified, nailed to a cross. We watched as they sealed His cold dead body into a cold, dark grave. And you try to imagine the spectrum of emotions that we would be feeling right now as His disciples. Your best friend is dead. More than that, your Messiah is dead. With Him, the mission is dead. Our purpose in life is dead. Our hope for the world, our hope for the future is dead. And realistically, you're probably beginning to wonder about this time, "How long is it before the rest of us are dead as well?" And I say all this because as we turn to our text and read about that first Easter Sunday, we don't find the disciples all nice sharply dressed, excited, ready to go out for a nice Easter brunch. We find them sleepless, anxious, nauseated, and terrified. We find them with bloodshot eyes and with garments that have been stained with tears. We find them hiding in a cold, dark room behind a closed locked door. And John tells us in his gospel that they were hiding and they were afraid. Afraid for their lives, afraid that all had been lost, afraid that their mission had failed, afraid that after everything that they had been through that nothing really changed. And then Jesus Christ steps into the room and they realize nothing is ever going to be the same. Jesus was alive. And that this changes everything.So if you have your Bibles, we're going to work our way through John chapter 20. And I'm going to begin just by reading a couple of verses from the middle of the chapter. John 20:19&20. The Apostle John tells us that, "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked were the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and He stood among them and He said to them, 'Peace be with you.' And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." Now the first change, the first difference that we see from this encounter with Jesus, that Christ is risen, therefore fear has been overcome by peace. That Jesus stepped out of the tomb of His death and into the room, into the tomb of their anxiety. And in doing so, He lands a death blow to all of their fears, that He stands there before them as the ultimate undeniable proof that nothing in this life, not even crucifixion, not even death itself, could put an end to the mission, could put an end to God's plan of salvation. See, we need to understand that when Jesus died, the disciples, all their hopes and dreams died with Him. They were shattered, dashed to the ground, pounded into dust, burned into ashes, blown away by the wind. They were gone, hopeless. The problem is not that the disciples had set their hopes too high, it's actually that up until this point, they had been setting their hopes way too low, that they were hoping for a messiah who could come and maybe help them escape their problems, help them to escape their enemies. Jesus hadn't come for that. Jesus did not come to merely escape death. He came to face it head on, to experience it and to defeat it. He had not come to overthrow the feeble Roman Empire. He had come to overthrow the dominion of darkness, to rise in victory over Satan, sin and death. And in doing so, to declare to the world, to offer to the world terms of peace, to a world that was ravaged by war, ravaged by sin. So when Jesus tells His disciples, "Peace be with you.", He's not promising them that their problems are all just going to immediately disappear and go away. But He is promising them that despite all of these problems, that despite all of their trials, all the tribulations, all the persecutions that they face, that they would ultimately overcome. Apostle Paul in writing about these things in Romans 8:31, he says, "Therefore, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies us. Who is to condemn us? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who is raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" And he says, "Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or swords?" He says, "As it's written for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. "For...", he says, "... I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. In Christ Jesus, our Lord." Jesus is alive. And this doesn't mean that the battle is over, but it does certainly mean that the war has been won. So as we fight this good fight of faith, we can do so with peace, with hope, with joy. We can do so knowing, as Paul tells us in just a few chapters later in Romans 16:20, that, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." And this is the heart of the matter, that the true peace that we need, it is not just peace with the superficial circumstances of our life, the true peace we need more than anything else, it is peace with God and everything else is rooted in that peace. It's the peace of knowing that we have been forgiven, that we have been justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and therefore no weapon formed against us can prosper. No accusation of the enemy brought against us can stand because Jesus Christ on His throne at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. So there's nothing we need to fear in this life. There's nothing that we need to fear and death because nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now Paul says in Romans 5:1, he says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we also obtain access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Verse three says, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces, that it is not vain. It is doing something productive. Suffering produces endurance." And he says, "Endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through His Holy Spirit who's been given to us." So therefore, if we are to face this battle, we do so knowing that our king is with us, that He loves us, and that He is leading us to certain victory. And even if we are to fall in this battle, we do so knowing that our king has gone before us, He has defeated death and He now holds the keys to eternal life. And so let's take that from up here and let's bring that down to earth like practically and personally. How peaceful is your life right now? The peace that we're talking about is objectively true for all who have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ. But are you experiencing it? Are you living in it day today? Well, a few verses earlier in John chapter 20, we read about another encounter that Jesus had with another one of his disciples, his disciple, Mary Magdalene, that early that morning she had gone to the tomb and she gets there and she finds it empty. And as we see her in verse 11, we're told that, "Mary stood there weeping outside of the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. And they said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' And when she said to them, 'Well, they've taken away my Lord and I don't know where they've laid Him.' And having said this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus. "Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?' And supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, 'Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you've laid Him and I will go and I will take Him away.' And Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' And she turned and said to Him in Aramaic, 'Rabboni.', which means teacher. And Jesus her, 'Do not clinging to me for I've not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and she announced this good news to the disciples. This is a pretty familiar story that you often hear on Easter Sunday and it's a familiar story. But the question that I want us to ask ourselves, the question I want you to ask yourself this morning is we see two very different Marys in this passage from beginning to end, one who is stricken with anxiety, with fear, and one who is overcome with peace and with joy. And are you more like the Mary that we see anxious and distraught, weeping at the tomb of your shattered hopes? Or are you more like the Mary that we see weeping tears of joy worshiping at the feet of her risen savior, her living hope? Because a lack of peace, well it comes from a misplaced hope. You're building on a shaky foundation. And that's what Mary really, she'd come to that tomb and her hopes had been shattered and she needed to find a better hope. She needed to find a living hope that she had hoped for a savior that could avoid death. Well, she needed a savior that could defeat death. Because Mary, her biggest problem was that she didn't so much need to be saved from her enemies nearly as much as she needed to be saved from herself, saved from her sin. And the only way that Jesus could do that for her was by laying down His life, going to the cross and first dying in her place so then therefore He could rise in victory over Satan, sin and death to offer her this peace. And Jesus offers us peace. If you're not experiencing this in your life right now, however, well, I think Jesus would ask us the same thing He asked Mary, "Why? Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" If you're anxious, if you are afraid, perhaps you've been building your hope on a shaky foundation. Perhaps you've been looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. You've been looking for maybe a Jesus that could save you from your circumstances, where what you need more than anything else is a Jesus who can come and save you from yourself, from your pride, from your self-righteousness, from your self-reliance, from the sin that separates us from our father, that that places this wedge, that drives this chasm between us and God. Because Jesus Christ is the king of kings. He is the Lord of lords. Jesus is the Prince of Peace objectively, but you're only going to experience that peace personally when He is seated in his proper place, not on a throne in Jerusalem, but on the throne of your heart. In Colossians 3:15, Paul says, "Therefore, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful." Paul says again in the book of Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God." In verse seven, he says, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So the first thing that we see is that Christ has risen, therefore fear can be overcome by peace. Now the second point we see is that Christ is risen, therefore futility has been overcome by purpose. So picking up again in John 20:19 it says, "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and He stood among them and He said to them, 'Peace be with you.' And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." In verse 21, "Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me even so I am sending you.' And when He had said this, He breathed on them and He said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. And if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.'" So Jesus, He gives His disciples peace to overcome their fears, but then He stands before them, He's standing before them as evidence that the war has been won and they can therefore have peace. But then He reminds them that even though the war has been won, this doesn't mean that the battle... Battle has just begun, that the mission wasn't over. The mission hadn't failed. The mission didn't fail when Jesus Christ died on the cross. To the contrary, the mission was just getting started. That all of their hard work, all of their sacrifice, none of that had been in vain. But now the training wheels were coming off. And Jesus was saying, "I'm going to send you out with a mission, with a purpose that yes, the work of the cross is finished, but the witness to the cross has just begun." Says, "I'm sending you with the greatest purpose, the greatest mission, the greatest task of telling the world the greatest news, the good news that Jesus is alive, that He is risen, He has overcome Satan, sin and death, and there is forgiveness in His name." And so here in these couple of versions, Jesus, He explains that mission. He gives us the what, He gives us the how, He gives us the why. He says, "Just as the Father sent me, I am sending you." To what? "To go, to be my disciples, to be my witnesses, to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth." That's the what of the mission. And then He tells them how. He says, "And I'm giving you my Holy Spirit. I'm giving you the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the gospel. This is how you're going to go out and accomplish this mission." And then He tells them the why in verse 23. He says, "For if you forgive the sins of any there forgiven them, and if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." What on earth is Jesus talking about here? Because if you know scripture, you know that scripture teaches us that only God has the authority to forgive sin. So Jesus, is He contradicting that here? Well, no, He's not. This is one of those rare places where we kind of do need to take a closer look at the Greek grammar. I don't like to be that like Greek geek type of pastor, but occasionally it's helpful to know, because when you look the phrasing in English, it is a little bit awkward. But grammatically what's happening here is that this phrase, "They are forgiven them." In the Greek, it's just one word and it's a perfect passive verb. It's indicating an event that has already taken place and yet is ongoing and continuing. So Jesus, He's not saying that we as His disciples have the authority to go and forgive sins. But He is saying that we do have the responsibility to go out and declare the forgiveness of sins, to declare that the world that the means by which our sins can be forgiven is to repent and to believe the gospel, that forgiveness comes only by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. We need to go to the world and tell them this good news. The apostle Paul does a really great job teaching about this in 2 Corinthians 5:17, he says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and behold the new has come. And all of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." And he explains, "That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and in entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore...", he says, "... We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us, and we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God." And this is the message, "For our sake. He made Him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." Jesus is sending this out as his ambassadors with the message of reconciliation, not to forgive sins by our own authority, but to announce with authority, to announce with conviction and confidence that yes, all who repents and believe this good news will be saved. They have been forgiven. So He sends us with a peace that passes understanding, He sends us with a purpose that presses into eternity. Now, there's something else going on here as well. Throughout this passage, John is dropping these hints, he's dropping these clues and he wants us to pick up on a theme, that he is telling us the story of Jesus' resurrection, but he's doing it in a way where he kind of wants us to alert our minds, to draw our minds' attention to another story, a story that he kind of assumes that we're all familiar with. It's the story of creation in the Garden of Eden. So two times in this chapter, John pauses and he makes it a point to alert us, the reader, to know that all of these things, they happened on the first day of the week, on the first day of the week. Then we find when Jesus finds Mary Magdalene, He finds her in a garden. And actually she mistakes Him, she thinks that He is the gardener. And then here John tells us that after Jesus tells his disciples that He's sending them out, He does something really strange, He breathes on them and gives them His Holy Spirit. It's a weird detail, but what's happening is John is noticing the providential connections between these two stories, and he's trying to help us connect the dots so that we can see the bigger picture of what's going on here. If you remember Genesis 2:7, it says, "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed." And the big idea, the picture that John wants us to see is that just as the opening chapters of Genesis tell us the story of creation, well a new chapter is opening with the resurrection of Christ, the beginnings of the story of new creation, that Jesus Christ is the first fruits of that creation. As we read earlier, Paul told us that, "And therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are also a new creation born again by the Holy Spirit." That just as Adam's sin brought a curse upon the world, Christ's righteousness is reversing that curse. It's undoing death. It is bringing a blessing to all who repent and believe. And that just as God breathed life into Adam and gave him his purpose, gave him his mission, Jesus Christ is breathing new life, eternal life into us as His disciples and sending us out with a mission as well to fill the earth with the glory of God by going and making disciples of all the nations. So again, practically, personally, what does this mean? This doesn't mean that every follower of Jesus needs to quit their job today and go be a missionary on the other side of the world somewhere. But it certainly does mean that every follower of Jesus Christ needs to live with this awareness, live with this mindset that we are living, walking every moment of our lives in the presence of God the Father, that we are living our lives abiding in the grace of God the Son, and we're living our lives by the power of God the Holy Spirit, so that we can assess, so that we can understand, so that we can know how we can be the most effective witnesses, the most useful servants to Christ that we can possibly be no matter where it is that He has called us to stand, in whatever location and whatever occupation and whatever vocation and whatever station of life He calls us to, we are to be His witnesses. And so at home, at church, at work, at school, in private, in public, and whatever you do and wherever you go, go with this mindset that the purpose of God is to be lived out in your words, in your worship, in your work, in your witness, that you are an ambassador for Christ. So Christ is risen, therefore, fear has been overcome by peace. Now Christ is risen, therefore, futility has been overcome by this great purpose. And then finally, we see Christ is risen, therefore, frustration has been overcome by passion. This is John 20:24. We see another interaction between Jesus and his disciples. We're told in verse 24 that, "Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, he was actually not there with them when Jesus came. And so the disciples, they told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails and place my finger into the marks of the nails and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.'" I think we're all familiar with Doubting Thomas, even if you never heard this story before, it's popular enough that we're most of us familiar with the idiom, right? We're familiar with the idea of a Doubting Thomas. Thomas has been immortalized for his doubts. But when I read this, I think there's something more going on there. He says, "Unless I touch those wounds for myself...", he says, "... I will never believe." Never is not a word often used by skeptics. Never is a word more often used by cynics. There seems to be an air of bitterness, of resentment, of frustration in his reply. "I put my heart out there. I trusted this man. I gave God my hopes and my dreams and look what it got me. My dreams have been shattered, my heart has been broken, and I don't know what's going on. You guys say Jesus is risen from the dead, but I'm never putting myself out there. I'm not going to trust. I'm not going to open my heart. I'm not going to allow my hopes to get up like that. I will never believe." These sound like the words that are coming from a cold and a hardened heart. And I'm sure that there are some people here today that have some honest doubts, and you just need to go and look at the evidence and find those answers. But I wonder if there are some here today who, like Thomas, it's not so much that you have honest doubts as much as it is you've got a hardened heart. It's not that you don't see the evidence, you really don't want to see the evidence. You don't want to believe. You're afraid to believe, afraid of what that might mean for all of this to be true. Because if Jesus Christ is risen, then Jesus Christ is Lord. And if Jesus Christ is Lord, then I need to submit my life to Him as Lord. And if I need to submit my life to Him as Lord, how do I know that I can trust Him? And I say that not to provoke anyone, not to anger, but I want to stoke in you a passion because, thankfully, this is not the end of Thomas' story, and it doesn't need to be the end of your story either. John goes on in verse 26, and he tells us that, "Eight days later, His disciples, again, they're inside again." And this time he says, "Thomas was with them. And although, again, the doors were locked, Jesus came again and He stood among them, and He again said to them, 'Peace be with you.' And then He said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe.' And Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God.' Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.'" I love this because Jesus, He comes again, He goes straight for Thomas this time, and He basically grants him his wish. He says, "Here I am, Thomas, you can put your hand in my wounds, feel my side. I'm putting this opportunity before you." But Thomas doesn't take it. We don't see him reaching for Christ. We see him falling at the feet, worshiping Christ, crying out, "My Lord and my God." What is going on here? Well, I think what's going on here is that Thomas, he thought that he wanted proof that Jesus was alive and what he really needed even more than that was proof that he himself was loved, and he saw that proof. It was etched in the hands and the feet. It was carved in the side of the risen Jesus Christ. He saw and he understood, his hard heart was melted as it put the pieces together that those scars proved to Thomas that yes, this man standing before him really was Jesus. And yes, this proved to him that Jesus really was God, and also proved to him that God really was good, that he could trust him with his heart because this is the man, that was my cross that Jesus bore. That those are our scars that Jesus continues to bear, not just for Thomas, for all of us, for all of eternity, so that we can all have this great reminder of how we have been loved. That the passion of Jesus Christ, this is the only thing that can take a cold, hard, cynical heart and replace our doubts, replace our frustrations with passion and with joy. Have you ever wondered what became of Doubting Thomas? Because you read the New Testament and New Testament tells us a lot about Paul, tells a lot about like Peter and James and John, it doesn't really tell us that much more about Thomas. And what we know is that Thomas not only became a passionate worshiper of Christ that day, he actually became a passionate missionary for Christ for the rest of his life. That after this, history tells us that Thomas took the good news 3000 miles to the East, and for the rest of his life, he spent his days preaching the gospel, planting churches and ministering to the people of India until eventually he was martyred for his faith around 70 AD. There are actually somewhere between 25-30 million Christians living in India today, and many of them, most of them, trace their heritage all the way back to good old Doubting Thomas. I actually learned after our first service this morning that we have a sister in the church, a member of Mosaic whose family came from India, and she says, "Our family, we have been Christians from the first century because of Thomas. Because of Doubting Thomas, we are here and we've persisted throughout the ages as followers of Jesus Christ." Thomas may be immortalized right now for his doubts, but he's going to be remembered throughout all of eternity for his great passion and faith. Thomas saw, he believed and he did something about it, right? He had this great passion for Jesus Christ. And because of that, millions of people since have been blessed that. Jesus says, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." And how many people have believed, not because they saw the risen Christ, but because of Thomas, because of his witness, because of his faithful testimony to Jesus Christ? When you truly experience the power and the love of the risen Christ, you will have peace. You will have purpose, but you should also have this passion and you should grow in this passion, a passion to worship God, to worship Christ for all that He is, and a passion to go and to tell the world of all that He has done. And if you're here today and you're like, "Yeah, I don't have that. I don't have that passion." Well, I would encourage you to look, to meditate, to fix your eyes on the passion of the cross and the passion of Jesus Christ. These are not things that we can muster up from within ourselves. These are things that come as a result of looking, of considering, of understanding in the center of who we are what Christ has done for us. That the risen Christ has only risen because He has first fallen. Because He first laid down His life that he loved us to such an extent that before rising from the dead, He first died in our place, that He took up the cross, He laid down His life, and then He rose in victory over Satan, sin and death so that we could be raised up with Him to stand with Him in victory over Satan sin and death as well. 1 Corinthians 15:54, the apostle Paul tells us, "When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain." If you're here today and you're not a Christian, you don't consider yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, or you're new to Christianity, I just want to say we are so glad that you made the decision to be here with us this morning. We really are glad that you are here. And after the service today, Pastor Andy and myself are going to be right up here after the service, and we would love to answer any questions that you might have about Jesus, about the gospel, about Christianity, even if you want to just come up, introduce yourself and say hi. We would love to meet you. But our greatest desire, my greatest hope, I want every single person, every single soul in this room to experience the peace and the purpose of a life that has been submitted to Christ Jesus, to grow in their passion for Christ and His kingdom as they grow to know and to experience God's passion for them, that He gave, that He poured out through His son Jesus Christ. So you're welcome. We invite you, come talk to us after the service, talk to people around you. Talk to people at the welcome center. There's people here that would love to meet you and get to know you and talk to you today. But right now, speaking of passion, we have an opportunity to express that passion as we continue and sing together right now. So it's Easter Sunday. I hope you're ready. I hope you're excited. I am ready to celebrate with you. So as the band comes up, I am going to pray and we are going to spend some time just celebrating, worshiping, praising our risen Lord together. Let's pray. Father, your word tells us that if Christ has not been raised, well then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain. But in fact, Christ has been raised and this changes everything. We praise you. We thank you for this. God, give us clean hands. We pray that you open our eyes and soften our hearts and remind us again of your power, of your goodness, of your beauty. May all that you are and all that you have done right now in this moment, captivate our minds and our hearts, and stir our affections, our passion to give you the praise and the glory that you deserve. And we thank you that we can just sing to you now. We do so in the name of Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.

PreludeWelcome & News of the ChurchCall to WorshipCarols of Christmas - (#171) "Joy to the World"Message for Children & YouthConfession and AssuranceGloria PatriAffirmation of FaithSpecial Music - "O Holy Night" by Adolphe Adam - Saousan Jarjour, soprano; Cornel Radulescu, organSermon - "Arise, Shine, God's Son Shines Brightly!" (Matthew 2:1–12) - by Rev. Jason GrifficeCarols of Christmas - (#180) "What Child is This"Offertory - "Happy Birthday, Jesus"DoxologyChristmas PrayersCarols of Christmas - (#205) "Go, Tell It on the Mountains"BenedictionPostludeJoy to the WorldJoy to the world! the Lord is come:Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world! the Savior reigns: Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, Rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders of His love. What Child is ThisWhat child is this, who, laid to rest, On Mary's lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping? Chorus: This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing: Hast, haste to bring Him laud, The Babe, the son of Mary. Why lies He in such mean estateWhere ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian, fear: for sinners hereThe silent Word is pleading. [Chorus]So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh, Come peasent, king, to own Him; The King of kings salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him. [Chorus]Go, Tell It on the MountainsGo, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! While shepherds kept their watching O'er silent flocks by night, Behold throughout the heavens There shone a holy light. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! The shepherds feared and trembled When lo! Above the earth Rang out the angel chorus That hailed our Savior's birth. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! Down in a lowly manger The humble Christ was born, And brought us God's salvation That blessed Christmas morn. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We welcome you to Podcast 3 of our Spring Basic Training. As soldiers In the army of the Lord we must know and understand that Jesus Christ is The Great Head of The Church. He is our Commander in Chief. Ephesians1:21-23 Jesus Christ is “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And (God) hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him i.e. Jesus Christ to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” So we see That Jesus Christ is the Great Head of the Church. He is the One who is with us and will never leave or forsake us. Now May God bless you & all of yours in the name of Jesus Christ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pastorhelenprice/support

Slideshow for this message is available Introduction John 20 There are stories. And then there are true stories. There is fiction and then there is non-fiction. Now here's the claim this morning. What we are about to read is not fiction. It's a narrative account describing something that took place in history. A lot of us come in here this morning, consciously or even subconsciously, not terribly concerned about that point. Why? Because reading about the life of Jesus is just a good read. It is a good story. It inspires us the way a story inspires us. A good story has lots of drama, great character development, and unpredictable plot line, lots of irony, lots of tension and then there's this resolve at the end and we love it. And what a happy ending, Jesus Christ rose from the dead! We are addicted to that feeling of drama that resolves, of happy endings. Think about great stories we all love: Cinderella gets taken advantage of, marginalized, mistreated, but then in the end there's justice, the slipper fits, and she marries the prince and we feel great. The White Witch in Narnia has her stranglehold and it's always winter but never Christmas. And all these creatures are turned to stone. And there's this deception. But then Aslan is on the move. And the land begins to melt. And the white which is defeated and we feel great. But here's the thing and I hate to break it to you: Cinderella is not a real person. There aren't magical pumpkins. There is no such thing as a white witch. There is no actual lion named Aslan. And in a way, who cares, because we don't need the story to be real for it to be meaningful, to have a purpose, to move us, change us, exhilarate us, even shape and transform us. But, here's the point: a story does need to be real if it's going to change what is real. There's a pretty big difference between writing a story in which you win a million dollars and actually winning a million dollars. Which would you choose? You see in order to be helped in the physical realm, the helper must be real. He must exist. if the building you are in is burning, you must be saved by a real fireman, not a story about a fireman. If the heart in your body is failing, you must be saved by a real heart surgeon, not a story about one. So when we come to the Bible this morning, let me ask you a question, "Is this a story about a man who rose from the dead or did a man actually rise from the dead? Is this another happily ever after story the likes of Cinderella or is this history? Listen, everything depends on it. EVERYTHING. The whole meaning of the Christian faith depends on the factual basis of this claim, that what we just read actually happened. That's why Christianity if a faith that is concerned with apologetics - the historic defense of its claims. If it's not true, then the whole thing is worthless. Who Jesus factually is the foundation for what he's done. In other words if Jesus is a great story, then he has done nothing about death. If Jesus was just a man, then he's done nothing about death. But if Jesus was God come in the flesh, and he really did rise again, then death has been abolished and eternal life awaits all who place their faith in Him! So today we are going to look at the REAL story. We have only two points today. We are going to listen to the story, the real story and then we are going to consider the implications of it. Now let's enter into the narrative. Last week we left off at John 19:42. Joseph of Aramithea along with Nathaniel, laid the body of Christ in a rich man's tomb very unknowingly fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah 53:9 Isaiah 53 So the Friday sun of Nissan 14 sets. And when the sun went down, hope went down with it. That night as far as anyone saw, or could see, Christianity was dead. It was utterly destroyed by the murder of its founder and sole leader. At that moment, as the stone was rolled shut, and silence filled the air, nothing could have seemed more abjectly weak, more pitifully hopeless, more absolutely doomed to scorn and extinction, and despair, than the Church which He had founded in his name. Imagine how empty the words of Jesus would have rung in Peter's ears, “Peter you are Cephas and upon this Rock I will built my church.” Look at what Jesus left. It numbered a handful of weak followers. Peter, the most hopeful member in terms of boldness, had denied his Lord 3 times with lies and cursing; the most devoted had forsaken Him and fled. They were poor, uneducated, ignorant, and frightened. They could not claim a single building. They didn't have a single sword. They had no money. They possessed no notable skills. They wielded no political influence. They had no religious influence. If they spoke Hebrew, their own language, it betrayed them by its mongrel dialect; If they spoke the current Greek of their region, it was despised as the uneducated version, the redneck version, the miserable, despised version. Here you have an insignificant, weak band of Galilean fisherman wielding a cross of wood trying to overcome the world. But here's the thing: they did. I want you to think about this: The best selling book of all time is Don Quiote with 500 million copies printed. Do your realize that there have been over 5 billion copies of the Bible printed translated into more languages than any other book. The Bible has been the NYTimes best seller every year since its inception. Every year, the Bible sells twice as many books as any book on the NYT best seller list. Last year over 26 million Bibles were sold in the U.S. alone.If you were to leaf through one of these 25 million copies, whose words would be highlighted in Red all throughout? The man who was whipped, nailed to a tree and laid in a tomb. But it ABSOLUTELY COULD not have been this way had Jesus stayed there. How could it? Paul was preaching throughout the Roman world. He's writing 1st Corinthians in A.D. 52. Even the most secular God-hating historian will grant you that fact. That's 25 years after the event happened. Nobody who actually lived it would believe it, if Jesus was in the grave. There would have to have been hundreds who could personally testify to the resurrection. Otherwise, all you'd have to do is produce the body and the whole thing would be over. How did this empire transforming message begin? So let's pick up the narrative in John chapter 20:1. It is early Sunday morning (still dark). I'm not sure what you all have in your heads here. For a lot of year, in fact all the way up until college, I had a flannel graph picture in my head of a large boulder in front of the mouth of a cave that was pushed aside. Let me try to give you a better picture. And inside the tomb it would would have looked something like this. There are many, many examples of this in archaeology. So the body is placed upon that shelf for one year. And then after the body has decomposed the bones are gathered up and placed in these ossuaries or bone boxes. So Mary comes to the tomb and she comes to anoint the body. The idea is that as the body decomposes, it's going to smell. So to combat that odor, you put spices. The more wealthy, the more honored, the more perfume. She comes bearing whatever spices she had; it's very early Sunday morning. It's officially after Sabbath. She finds that the stone has been rolled away. So Mary comes to the tomb. She probably has a desire to put some burial spices on Jesus. But when she arrives she sees the tomb is open. This frightens her so she runs back to tell Peter and John. John wins the footrace but doesn't enter the tomb. Peter in characteristic brashness, doesn't care if the tomb will defile him, he just plunges in headlong only to discover that the burial clothes of Jesus have been set aside. The head garment which we were already told was made of fine silk and was folded neatly by itself. This was certainly not the way a tomb raider would have dealt with that costly piece of cloth. All throughout the text, there's these little details that nobody would include, unless of course, it actually happened. In other words, it's an appeal to go check. As and see what other say. See if the stories check out. Mary stays back while Peter and John return to their homes. She is then the first to see Jesus. As many have noted, it's highly significant that in a culture that did not honor women, Jesus first reveals himself to a woman. It's significant on a a couple of levels. First it's significant because it's obviously a choice. Jesus is always preferring the lowly, those who are trodden under foot, those who are overlooked. And he honors Mary in choosing to appear to her first. But secondly, think about this from the standpoint of credibility. Put yourself in the shoes of an author who is trying to fabricate a mystery, and you wanted people to really believe this stuff, who would you put as an eye-witness to the resurrection? You'd pick some high posting official. You wouldn't pick a woman, who in the Jewish context, couldn't even testify in court because of her gender. The only reason you'd do that, is if in fact, it actually happened. In seeing him, she falls to the ground grasps his feet and says Rabboni, which is an extended form of Rabbi. In rabbinical Hebrew this expression is regularly applied to God. This may be Mary's way of addressing her teacher as God. Much has been written about Jesus' statement, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father;” The Greek is very difficult and unusual here. I think some of the confusion in this verse comes from the way we naturally read the phrase, “I am ascending.” Jesus says, stop clinging to me for I have not ascended to my Father as if to say that touching Christ in his pre-ascended state is not proper. Until then, stop clinging. But that would be a strange reading since Thomas is later asked to touch Jesus. Here is the paraphrase that I think is most helpful, "Stop touching me for I have not yet ascended to my Father. I am going to ascend but that time is not now, so stop acting like I'm going to immediately disappear! This is a time for joy and sharing the good news, not for clutching me. Stop clinging to me, but go and tell my disciples that I have risen. I promise I'll still be here when you get back! And so Mary obeyed and the message of the risen Savior began to spread. And just think about what has happened. It went first to the Disciples, from the Disciples to the 500 from the 500 all around Jerusalem. From there it spread to all Judea and even the despised people of Samaria. From there it spread to the Aramaic-speaking peoples along the Mediterranean coast and also to the inland parts of the Roman Empire, and beyond that into the Parthian Empire Southern Indian coast By the latter half of the second century, the resurrection of Jesus had spread west throughout Media, Persia, Parthia, and Bactria In the fourth century it was Frumentius who brought Christianity to Ethiopia and it began spreading into Africa. Christianity spread to other great pre-modern states, including the Kingdom of Aksum where it became the state religion. Even the Germanic peoples gradually heard about the resurrection of Jesus and the claims of Christ and many became followers of this resurrected King. And down through the corridors of history it continued to spread. We stand here today nearly 2000 years later as recipients of a message first spoken by the mouth of Mary, “He is risen from the dead.” Now what are the implications of this? What does this mean? How do we interpret the claims? Many think Christianity is just a philosophy. If Christianity is just a philosophy, you can reject it and there's no problem, because philosophies are a dime a dozen. If that philosophy isn't anchored in anything objective, well you have just as much of a right to develop your own philosophy as the next guy. And that's the level at which a lot of people reject the Christian faith. I'm glad you've found something that works for you. But you know, I personally don't like this idea of submitting to a set of morals because it conflicts with what I think is good for me. I really don't like the idea of a God who is angry at sin. The only reason someone would feel the freedom to say that is if they thought Christianity was merely an idea. Nobody says this sort of thing as it relates to real things in a real world, things that demand your submission. If a forest fire is coming your way, you don't say, “I won't submit to a flame that destroys property. How cruel.” That's insane. You just run for you life. Why? Because the flame doesn't care what you believe. It doesn't care what you feel. It just is. It will just consume you if you are in the way. It will consume you because it is real and you are real. Let the full weight of the Christian message come falling down upon you right now. Let me distill it to two points. You will die. You will perish because you are finite and this real world destroys living things. There are not a lot of certainties in life, but that one's pretty certain. No matter how many pushups you do, miles you run, one day you will be put into a box and buried in the ground. And as obvious as this is, it's easy to forget. But Christ Jesus, because he rose, made a way for you to rise. Do you hear this? This is not a philosophy like Buddhism or a set of philosophical social ideals like Marxism. This factors into the very fabric of reality like physics or time or space. The claim is that Jesus Christ has conquered death. This is why the resurrection matters. This is why Paul says, “If Christ was not raised we are still in our sins and we are all of all men most to be pitied.” If the resurrection isn't history, this whole thing is a joke.Ggo home. But if it is true - and that is what we are claiming and what billions of people who have lived and died before us have claimed, then death has lost its sting. The fangs of death have been pulled out for those who believe. There's no venom in it. There's no fear. Death is safe for the believer. If Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then he holds the keys to eternal life as he claimed. The main message of Christianity is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And because of that, death has been defeated. It's what made Christianity so powerful in the first century. Ben Myers who specializes in systematic theology and the history of ideas recounts the way this transformed the early church: “Christians would assemble for prayer in tombs. They would worship Christ among the bones of the dead. Believers would raise the bodies of martyrs in the air and parade them through the streets like trophies. At funerals they would gaze lovingly on the dead and sing psalms of praise over their bodies. Such behavior shocked their pagan neighbors. According to Roman law, the dead had to be buried miles away from the city so that the living would not be contaminated. But Christians placed the dead right at the center of their public gatherings.” And this was true of Christians up until very recently. For centuries the dead were buried right in the churchyard and you'd walk through the graveyard on the way to church to remind yourself that one day, you too will be there, but a resurrection is coming. Christ has overcome the grave. A real God entered into real space to help real people from the very real problem of death. That's the whole message of the book of John. These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God and that by believing you might have life in his name. How Do You Receive Him? Now under what conditions does this eternal life apply to us? Or to say it another way, what is the difference between a Christian and non-Christian? Think about what kind of person it is that becomes a follower of Jesus. Can we point to qualities that makes a person more likely to receive Jesus? It's very hard to do. You can find genius on both sides of the fence. There are hundreds of nobel laurretes who have claimed the name of Christ. You can also find hundreds of idiots. Genius and fools are on both sides of the fence. It has nothing to do with personality. Every enigram type is represented. It is a faith which appeals and equally repels all personality types. It has nothing to do with wealth or power. You have professional athletes on both sides, you have powerful CEO's, politicians, you have window washers, fast food workers, mechanics, engineers making all amounts of money. You have wealthy and poor on both sides. You have famous and infamous on both sides. You have people who go through terrible tragedy and some harden themselves against God and some turn to God. It has nothing to do with cultural appetite as it has spread in every culture in every continent of all times. Let the statistics speak. You have an equal divide. To some, God is discoverable everywhere; to others, nowhere. The same evidence, the same access to information, the same book being read. What's the difference. You know what a Christian is? A Christian is one who has found eternal life in Jesus. The search for eternal life is not unique to Christians. Let's just be clear, that search for eternal life that is RAGING in every single person who has ever been born and it's not just a search for an eternally beating heart. We don't just want to biologically live forever. Who wants to live forever hooked up to a life support machine. End the misery, please. When we say we all want eternal life, what we are saying is that we want meaning, purpose, happiness, and satisfaction that lasts FOREVER. The search for eternal life is really the search for God. It's the search for the ultimate. What is your highest good? What is the thing you really live for? What is that thing that if, we give ourselves to it completely, will provide us with satisfaction, meaning, happiness. We all have things we enjoy that give us life, things that are life-giving to us. Jesus say, those things are only life giving because I made them. I am life. “I am the bread of life. I am living water. I am the true vine. I am the way the truth and the life. I am the resurrection and the life.” These are all fantastic, monstrous claims of joy. Jesus is claiming to satisfy! But we've been duped so hard so many times in life, tricked, swindled, and taken advantage of that many of us choose to protect our hearts from the possibility of ever being hurt again by another swindler, that we push Jesus away and refuse to even entertain the possibility that this offer might be true. The real answer for the reason people accept or reject the Christian faith is not an intellectual one, a social one, a factual one….it's an emotional one. We all have a highly irrational love for that thing we BELIEVE will satisfy. It's the same irrational connection that binds a drug addict to his drug. Think about the devastation of addiction. Of course the initial hit is euphoric. But the problem is you need more and more of the addictive substance to get less and less of the satisfaction. That ends up destroying a person because there's diminishing returns on joy. It's scary. The problem with addiction is that the addict is trying to be satisfied with something that cannot actually satisfy. It has some of what is needed for satisfaction but the substance itself lacks the necessary properties necessary to truly satisfy. And while the addicts knows this, he also doesn't know anything better and he is terrified of not having that thing that at least brings him some pleasure. And so he will destroy his family to get it. He will destroy his health to get it. He will destroy his integrity and respect to get it. And even though the LOGICAL answer to his satisfaction problem is to surrender his addiction, emotionally he can't do it. There's too much fear. Believe it or not this is the exact same reason why so many can't accept Christ. We are all addicts. We are all trying to extract from this world, something this world was never meant to give us. And admittedly it isn't perfect, but its something. Some of us are getting a good bit of satisfaction from our appearance. People find us attractive and it feels good to be wanted. Some of us are addicted to respect, power, approval, comfort, control. It's quite satisfying to have those things. Some of us are addicted to money. You can do so much with it. It feels great. Some of us try to find it in religious self-righteosusness, our morality, our family. We are very satisfied at our moral accomplishments. How well is this really working? How long will it last? The longer you live the more you realize how shallow this is. And there's a reason it's shallow. And to understand why it feels so shallow you have to understand what's driving the addiction. What's the craving? It's the quest to have a reason to be loved. You see, we want so badly to be loved but we all have this haunting suspicion that we are not lovable. We know it at the core of who we are so we are working, working, working to silence the condemning voices in our heads. We want people to look at our athletic accomplishments, work accomplishments, financial accomplishments and we want people to respect those accomplishments and love us because of it. Or We want people to look at our smashing beauty and love us for it. Or We want people to look at our well-behaved family and love us for it. That's the hit. That's what feels so good. That's the drug. The compliments that people give us are so satisfying. It's so addicting. We love the praise, the words of affirmation. But just like a drug they diminish in their effectiveness over time. We need more and more. It never quite silences the voice of condemnation inside our souls. But you know what the message of the cross is to the world. I can silence it once and for all. Because the reason Jesus Christ loves you has nothing to do with your performance. While you were yet sinners, Christ died for you. Romans 5 Jesus comes to us and says, “I did not die for you because you were loveable.” I died for you because I chose to love what was not loveable. Stop believing that you need to do something to be loved. And here's the mystery of mysteries, it is that gaze of love that actually gives us value. Remember the story, beauty and the beast. The beast is hideous. He wants to be loved but he knows that he can never experience love because of who he is. And he can't change that! And he's destroyed by it. He's terrified. He's a monster because of it. But then the princess sets her gaze on him. You want to know what the great lesson of Beauty and the Beast is? A thing must be loved before it is lovable. And Jesus as Lord, Jesus as the ultimate good, Jesus as God, says, "I love you." Don't try to extract your value from your performance, your talent, your looks, your accomplishments. Lay it down. Make your choice. You can't have both. Lay down your money. Lay down your career. I demand it all. I demand total allegiance. Die to self. Give up everything and follow me. I am the resurrection and the life. I love you. I am that ultimate thing you've been searching for your entire life. Have the courage to give up your drugs of approval from men and follow me. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever belives in me should not perish but have everlasting life. PHYSICALLY AND SPRITUALLY. You know how to have eternal life? Believe who he is. That Jesus Christ was real, that he was God and that he died for you. And then allow Christ to love you. And if you do that, the whole gravitaitonal center of your life will shift. Because it's not longer about trying to work hard to become loveable. You are made loveable by the love of God. In the same way that a stock shoot up in price becaause billionare sets his eye upon it, you become precious because God sets his love upon you. FAITH COMMUNITY BIBLE CHURCH, JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF KINGS LOVES YOU. Receive that love. The next step is for you to be baptized, to identify yourself as a follower of Jesus Christ who is loved.

To Consider The Scriptural Evidence, Both In The Old Testament And The New Testament, That Jesus Christ is our Only Lord.

Jesus + NothingLet's Be Real [Galatians 3:1-5]That's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

Jesus + NothingCan I ever be Good Enough? [Galatians 2:15-21]That's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

Jesus + NothingDon't tell me what to do [Galatians 2:11-14]That's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

Jesus + NothingWhat do you want to do? [Galatians 2:9-10]That's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

Jesus + NothingWho's on your team? [Galatians 2:1-6]That's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

Jesus + NothingSnap out of it [Galatians 1:10-24]That's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

Jesus + NothingCounterfeit Gospels [Galatians 1:6-9]That's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

Jesus + NothingThat's the theme of the book of 'Galatians' (the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches in ancient Galatia). That Jesus Christ is the ONLY piece of the puzzle necessary to be in relationship with God, and to experience God's Grace, Love, and Truth! It's simple, but not easy. It still takes a tremendous level of discipline to keep our focus on Jesus above the noise and drama in our world at every moment. And many times, that 'noise' is disguised as church, religion, history, tradition, all things that have good elements and come from good places, but are incomplete half-truths that distract us from our core relationship and guidance towards God.Every Sunday at 10:00am we are on campus and online streaming a worship service to Facebook, Youtube, and right here at cedarvalley.ca. Hope on to one of the social platforms to get a real-time engaging experience during the service and consider inviting a friend or neighbour to join you for church at home and engage in the discussion together after the service.One of the best ways to be connected with our church community is by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and signing up for our weekly newsletter! Below you'll find an audio only recording of our service.

PreludeWelcome & News of the ChurchCarols of Christmas - (#171) "Joy to the World"Moment for Children & Youth, led by Keri ScrogginsConfession and Assurance, led by Amy Hemseri-SabalaGloria PatriSpecial Music - "O Holy Night"Sermon - "A Thrill of Hope" (Psalm 27; John 1:14) - by Rev. Sharon YagerlenerHymn of Response - (#205) "Go, Tell It on the Mountain"OffertoryDoxologyPastoral PrayerCarols for Christmas - (#182) "How Great Our Joy"BenedictionPostludeJoy to the WorldJoy to the world! the Lord is come:Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world! the Savior reigns: Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, Rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders of His love. Go, Tell It on the MountainGo, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! While shepherds kept their watching O'er silent flocks by night, Behold throughout the heavens There shone a holy light. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! The shepherds feared and trembled When lo! Above the earth Rang out the angel chorus That hailed our Savior's birth. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! Down in a lowly manger The humble Christ was born, And brought us God's salvation That blessed Christmas morn. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! How Great Our JoyWhile by the sheep we watched at night, Glad tidings brought an angel bright. Refrain:How great our joy!(Great our joy)Joy, joy, joy! (Joy, joy, joy!)Praise we the Lord in heaven on high! (Praise we the Lord in heaven on high!)There shall be born, so he did say, In Bethlehem a Child today. [Refrain]There shall the Child lie in a stall, This Child who shall redeem us all. [Refrain]This gift of God we'll cherish well, That ever joy our hearts shall fill. [Refrain] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.We're going through a sermon series through II Corinthians that we're calling prodigal church. Why prodigal church? Because every church goes prodigal in one way or another. So we need to focus on the scriptures, go back to the scriptures to reorient our focus on what's most important. This week reminded me of one of my favorite things about living here is that Boston is a city of champions. And I was reminded of this last Sunday night when Tom Brady came back to Gillette Stadium. And I grew up watching Tom. Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl when I was still in high school.And so the immensity of the moment didn't really hit me until I sat down like, "Oh wow. My childhood hero is playing against my favorite team. Who am I rooting for?" And I rooted for both. And every single play of the game was awesome because it felt like two of my favorite teams were, the bucks I don't care about, but it's Tom Brady. He's a team in of himself against the... And it was tremendous. And then Mack Jones went 19 for 19 completions in a row tying Tom Brady's long. So I remembered that. Awesome. And the reason why Tom Brady, he orients his whole life around this one goal of winning championships. And then Tuesday comes around and it was Sox, Yankees, oh my. And the Sox pulled it out. It was probably the best game they played all season.And then now that with the Rays. This is all in one week. This just happened this week. And then the Rays, okay, we blew that first game, but the second one we snagged the second one. Now, it's one on one. And so that's all to say this is a great city living. And we know about winning and we know what it takes to win in life. It takes short term pain to win for long term gain. Every athlete knows this. And we just lose sight of the fact of what is the finish line? The finish line isn't it when you get a championship, the finish line isn't when you cross the marathon finish line, that's not the finish line. The finish line is when you die and you stand before God. That's the only race that ultimately matters.And when we talk about Christianity, why is there suffering in the world, it's because in order to have the ability to love, in order for love to exist, sacrifice has to be part of reality, because you can't love without sacrifice. So how can we talk about loving God and loving people if we don't talk about the pain that you have to go through to do that. It takes pain to live a revolutionary life. I'm so fed up with this narrative of kids growing up in a good solid Christian home, and then finally they turn 18 and they go off to college and they rebel against their parents. And by rebel, we're taught the rebellion is you get drunk, you get high, you live any way that you want. That's rebellion. That's not rebellion. That's what everyone does.You know what true revolutionary living is, you love God, you love Jesus Christ, you love the holy scriptures. If you were single, you commit yourself to chastity. If you're married, you commit to yourself to this one person. If you have kids, you do not abandon them. You proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with your words and with your life. That's the only revolutionary life that's left. And that's the only way of living that actually matters in terms of eternity. Living a revolutionary life means you do not live for yourself. Look at everyone in scripture and live a revolutionary life.Jesus Christ comes to hung out with 12 dudes, just regular dudes. And he taught them, "Look, don't live for yourself and I'm going to throw you transform the world." They turned the world upside down. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Nathaniel, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Judas, not Iscariot, and then Paul replaced Judas Iscariot. As you got Sarah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Mary, Anna, Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene and Lydia, all people that changed the world, but not living for themselves. So today we're going to look at the keys to living a revolutionary life from II Corinthians 5:11-21. Would you look at the text with me?Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.This is the reading of God's holy in our infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The bigger the mission, the bigger the goal, the more sacrifice it takes. So if you have a big vision for life, if you have a big goal for life, you need a why that is iron clad. Why am I doing this? What motivated Paul to orient his whole life run the gospel. What was it? What were the keys to a revolutionary life? And I'll give you four from this text. It was fear of judgment, love of Christ, gospel, respect and reconciliation. First is fear. I missed out one, but that's okay. Fear of judgment. The context here is one of the greatest summaries of the message of scripture. It's all about salvation and St. Paul saved. You need to understand what happens after.Once you are saved, a lot of people think that you're saved and Jesus saves you from your sin. And then all of a sudden, you are in the waiting room. Like in a hospital, you're in a waiting room. Like yeah, you got better, but you're in a waiting room until you die. And that's now what happens, what happens is when you become a Christian, you get thrown in gladiator and God gives you a sword. And now lions and tigers and soldiers are coming at you. That's what the Christian life is. And Saint Paul says, there will be a ceremony, there will be a podium, a medal ceremony when we die.There's the first judgment. We talked about that last week before the White Throne of Christ, where Jesus Christ is going to judge us, did we believe in him, did we trust... Out medals. And St. Paul says, "This drives me." II Corinthians 5:9-10: So whether we are at home or away, whether we're alive or not, we make our aim to please him. That's our goal. That's our finish line. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Saint Paul says, "I've been saying, I know I'm saved." Now, I'm running with every fiber of my being to get to the finish line. And I want to win as much as possible for God, for God's glory. And verse 11" Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.He's saying since we are going to give an account to God, I fear, I stand in fear in awe of the awesomeness of the Holy God before whom I stand. Fear of God is what fuels me, he says. He's not terrified or afraid that God won't accept him. He knows he's accepted because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He just knows that he's going to stand before a Holy God who is morally superior in every way. So removed from evil in every way and in his awesome presence, all human pride, all selfishness, boasting, arrogance, all of it vanishes. And as you stand before, you got nothing to say, you're a humble speechlessness. God, you saved me, thank you. And you equipped me and you gave me time and you gave me talents, you gave me treasure and I will give an account to you for that.And as an apostle, St. Paul felt the fearful way on his soul, that he will give a strict account, the judgment, see, for how he fulfilled his apostleship. James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know, that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." I do not take that verse lightly. And if you are a leader, if you're a Christian, you should be teaching somebody. It's called discipleship. You should be learning from somebody and you should be teaching somebody. And you should know that when you teach someone something that you do not live out yourself, God will judge you for that hypocrisy.There's a verse in Hebrews that says, "Elders will give an account for the souls that God has entrusted to them." I do not take that lightly. That's why we take membership seriously. Who's part of the church? Who are the souls that I will give an account to God for? Knowing the fear of the Lord, he says, that's why we persuade others. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. Fear evokes in him persuasion. Fear of God releases him from fear of people so now he can persuade people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was at the park yesterday. There's a gentleman that we've just known for years. He's got two daughters who are the same age as my two youngest daughters. And we got to talking. And he's like, "Do you want to slice it? We're birthday parties. Like do you want to slice pizza?" I said, "No, I'm saving room." He said, "Saving room for what?" I said, "I'm saving room for barbecue. I got our 10th anniversary. Our church is doing our 10th anniversary birthday party today. I'm saving room for the brisket," which I did not have any of.So if you had brisket, I want to emphasize that fact, that leaders eat last. And I sacrificed my love for brisket, because I love you guys so much more. And so he said, "Oh, your church 10th anniversary. Wow." He's like, "Oh, have you been going there for a while?" I was like, "Yeah, kind of. Yeah." He said, "Why did you start a church, because you like community or because you're religious?" Where are we going with this one? If a fear for the Lord does is like... I was like, I can't reveal all the cards right away, because I still got to see him every week. But I said, "Yeah, because we believe in God. That's why. We believe that there's a God that created everything and you haven't said thank you to him." So that's how I planted that seed.Fear of God helps you get over the awkwardness of telling people, hey, we really believe this. We believe this is true. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved from the wrath of God that we deserve for our spiritual insurrection before God is the only way. Fear of God. Do you share the gospel with people in your life? Do you speak words of the truth of the gospel? Not just talking about living in a way where people see that you're a good person. Everyone's so self absorbed, they're not even going to notice. Do you speak the truth of the gospel to people in your life? That Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and he is life. He's the only way to God. Do you speak truth of the gospel? If not, what's holding you back? I know what's holding you back. Oh, what are they going to think? Who cares? Who cares? Who cares what people think about you? Only one person's opinion matters, and that's God's.Saint Paul says that fear evokes persuasion. He's persuaded. He persuades people of the gospel. You know that someone said something and you definitely disagree with them, but you do the math of is it worth it? Is it worth to have this conversation right now? Is it worth the emotional toll it's going to take? And St. Paul says it is when it comes to God. And Saint Paul doesn't need to persuade God. He says what we are is known to God. And I hope it's also known to your conscience. Paul says, "I don't need to persuade God, God knows my life, character, motives." All of that is laid bare before God. And Paul's character has been assailed with these poisonous slurs by critics that come in and they've criticized him for not being an apostle, not seeing Jesus Christ, not really being anointed, not being filled with the Holy Spirit. And Saint Paul appeals to the Lord. The Lord knows. So does your conscience.He speaks to their heart. Your heart testifies what the critics are saying is a lie. Deep down, the Corinthians were aware of Paul's character and the character of his ministry and the moral faculties of their conscience would connect the dots. He's sure of that. And in expressing himself like this, that God knows who I am, he knows my character, you know in your heart. He's aware that his detractors are going to accuse him of boasting in a dubious manner. So he covers himself. Verse 12 he says, "We're not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you a cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance, not about what is in the heart." So as critics are boasting about outward appearance, literally, about the face, about their image.And it's a conscious reference here to God's advice to Samuel. When Samuel goes in and he's about to choose a king, and he goes into David's family, he sees all older brothers and God says, "No, I'm not picking people based on height or based on what they look like or based on their athletic ability or leadership skills or anything like that." He's like, "I will choose a leader based on the heart." I Samuel 16:7: But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, that's face and the Septuagint, but the Lord looks on the heart." So Paul's opponents come in and they boasted in the face on their sheer externalities, perhaps about their skills or about the rhetorical eloquence that they had or extravagant letters of recommendation or where they went to school.The Paul's saying, "I'll give you cause to boast about me." My heart is in this. I love the Lord, I love you, I love the gospel. What's most important was written in the heart by God's spirit says I'm giving you cause to boast about us. I remember when I was a new Christian, I was enamored with... So I grew up in a church where no one went to seminary. And I grew up in a church where if you showed up to church 15 minutes early with a Bible, you're probably preaching. Especially, if you wore a tie, the pastor would come up to you and he was like, "I think you have a word from the Lord." You're like, "I do." Yes, you're going to preach them. And the reluctant preacher, you're going to preach on Jonah. And that's why.So no one really knew what was going on. Guys would just read the text and they're like, "Yeah, I think this is what it's talking about." And another guy would be like, "No, that guy is totally wrong." And then once in a while you get into these debates. And at the end, the pastor would get up and correct everything and then you go home. And it was a four hour service. So I was enamored with pastors who had degrees. Like, "Oh, that pastor went to Cambridge university. He's got a PhD in church history. He really beezes better. He knows more." But if that pastor doesn't preach from the holy scripture, it doesn't matter. That pastor doesn't love God with all his heart, soul, strength, mind, love Jesus Christ, love the cause, love the gospel, love his family. And none of that.Saint Paul says those are fine, skills are fine, degrees are fine, all of that. Influence of a pastor or how well known a pastor is, that doesn't matter, what matters is what's in the heart. Boast about the fact that God's spirit is in or upon a person and ever weary and attuned to his critics. He continues verse 13. He says, "For we are beside, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are not in our right mind, is for you." What's going on here? When he talks about being beside ourselves, he's talking about spiritually ecstatic experiences, where you have an experienced vision from God or a prophetic dream or you have a prophetic word or ecstatics. That's what he's talking about, that's being outside the body.And he's like, "If we want to go there, if we want to establish credibility for spiritual work there," he's like, "I could do that." Paul was taken up to the third heaven. He talks about this in II Corinthians 12:4. And heard things that cannot be told. He's talking about himself. I heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. He says, "I've seen, I've experienced things I can't even communicate to you, but that's not, I don't want you to base your spiritual walk on my spiritual experiences." I have spiritual experience, some kooky spiritual experiences, I don't share. I never share. Sometimes I share once in a while, maybe I'll share. I'll share right now.My wife wakes me up in the middle of the night this week. She wakes me up in the middle of the night. She's like, "What were you doing?" I said, "I was wrestling." She said, "Who were you wrestling?" I said, "I was wrestling a demon." She said, "What did it look like?" I was like, "I didn't see it. The demon, don't see demons, but I've felt it." See, that's why I don't share because that's kooky. You're like this guy's a nut. That's what I'm saying Paul doesn't share any of this stuff. The spiritual realm is real. It's as real as everything that we see. A spiritual warfare is absolutely real. But Saint Paul says, I don't want you to ground your walk with the Lord. I don't want you to ground on that stuff.He said, "I want to reason with you." He said that if we are beside ourselves is for God; if we are in our right mind, it's for you. He's like I want to be in my right mind because I want to argue with you, persuade you from the holy scriptures because that's the only foundation that we really have. II Corinthians 5:18-19, Paul told the Corinthians earlier. It's in I Corinthians and it's not second Corinthians 5:18. I don't know why I put that in there. I Corinthians chapter 14. I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. St. Paul says, "I spoke in tongue. I pray in tongues, he says that." But in church, I want to speak words with my mind in order to instruct mark of authentic ministry is an ecstatic experience is public ministry, where you persuade others passionately, soberly.Martin Lloyd Jones called this logic on fire. It's just truth and logic and you're persuading and you're doing it passionately. And that was Paul's consuming passion to persuade others from scriptures. So he was motivated by the fear of God and that he's motivated by the love of Christ. This is the opposing side of the paradoxical power of Paul's revolutionary life. It was fear of God. On the one hand that I will give an account to God, fear of God, love of Christ on the other. II Corinthians 5:14: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died. Love of Christ controls us. And how is Christ's love demonstrated to us, not just in sentimental words. He says, "This is the love of Christ that he died," because we have concluded that he has died for all, therefore all have died. And that's curious logic here.Why does he say therefore all have died? Wouldn't it make more sense to say Jesus died for all, therefore all did not die? Or Jesus died for all, therefore all live. That would make more sense. But he says one has died for all, therefore all have died. How does that compute? Well, from the scope of scripture, the math is rigorously logical and it's also sublime. What does this mean that we have all died? Christ died for all, therefore all died. He's talking about the fact that Christ died, not just the personal death, he died a substitutionary death. He didn't die for his own sins, he's pure and blameless. He died for the sins of the elect. The all here doesn't mean all. It doesn't mean that Jesus Christ died for the sins of everybody alive ever. That's not what it means.Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for everybody, but ultimately it's only efficient, it's only going to count for those who repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. Because if Jesus Christ, by the way, that's where universalism starts that Jesus Christ died for everybody. And then they say, well, Jesus Christ died for everybody. And then how is there a hell? Because it's like double jeopardy of Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and why would he make you pay for your sins in hell? So that's where that goes. That's not what scripture teaches. You have to respond. It counts to you, but you have to respond. Christ's death is the death of all the elect. In a sense, he died the death that we each one of us should have died. He bore the penalty for our sins. He died in our place.So when Christ died on the cross, I died on the cross. When Christ died on the cross, you died on the cross if you are follower of Jesus Christ. I died on the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. That's what he's saying. I deserved that, but Jesus did that for me. This is the unmitigated love of Jesus Christ. This is the love St. Paul says that controls us. Christ love is the controlling force in his life. It's what keeps us tethered, keeps us in bounds, hams us in. Fear of the Lord negatively controls us. Although that could be argued that it's actually positive control, because you want a reward. But then love is what propels us, overpowering love of Christ demonstrated when he died in the cross for us. This is what led Paul to live a revolutionary life and seeing this great love.How in the world could you live for yourself? That's what he says. II Corinthians 5:15: And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Do you live for yourself? I think this is why I'm going to start asking people. Are you a Christian? Like yeah, I believe in Jesus. I repent of my sin. I want to start, do you believe in Jesus? Yeah. Do you live for yourself? Because Christians do not live for themselves. If you're like, I'm a Christian, but I still live for myself, you're probably not a Christian.Back in the day, I used to think there was different levels of Christians. Like if you're a Christian, you just got to pray this prayer and you're a Christian. And then you got to grow to get to the point where actually you're a revolutionary Christian and you do not live for yourself. That's not true. It's not true. Like that point of when you live for Christ revolutionary life, that's you become a Christian. Jesus literally says, "Take up your cross and follow me daily." That means every single day you got to die to something that you really, really want. That's what it means to follow Jesus. You wake up and you pray a prayer, "Lord, Jesus, what would you have me do today? And in order to do that, what would you have me sacrifice on my personal cross that I'm carrying around?"Jesus died for you. So it's unfathomable to live primarily for yourself. If you're a lukewarm Christian, Jesus is having a conversation with you as he's doing an assessment of your current life. And Jesus will sit down and say, "I died for you." And in response, you show up to worship service once a month at best twice a month, once a month, when there's a long weekend. That's once a month. When there's a holiday weekend, okay, I'm gone, I'm going to go worship God, doing something else. Well, worshiping God just isn't even a priority. And you show up once in a while, you give God some half hearted worship on Sunday and then you tip God and pray to him whenever you're in a bind. How does that math make any sense? Jesus says, "I gave everything for you and you give me lip service and the tip? I died for so much more than what you're giving me and I didn't die so you could live a small life focused on possessions and earthly passions."Jesus, didn't die just to save us from sin, he died to save us from a pathetic life. Pathetic life is a small life is when you live for yourself. You just live for yourself and you can get older and older and older, and it's just you. You're just living for yourself. There's no joy in that. Jesus died to free you from yourself to live for him to give you freedom and joy. What good? And then ultimately, is there anything better? Is there anything better than serving people, seeing them rejoice and that fills your whole heart with so much joy. Is there anything better? Romans 8:31 says, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?Every athlete knows this. It's like short term pain, but that's actually the best thing for you. Deny yourself in the short term, but then the feeling of completions, the satisfaction of crossing the finish, I did this. There's nothing greater than that when you do it for the Lord and God fills your heart with joy and satisfaction and just his delight. This is the energy cell and Paul's revolutionary heart is charged both negative and positive fear of Christ and love of Christ. And the combination was explosive. Point three is gospel respect. Verse 16, from now on, therefore we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.The word regard means to be cognizant of or aware of something, understand something, but also means honor something. So when he's talking about regarding Christ and regarding the gospel, he's talking about a level of respect. I Thessalonians 5:12, he uses the same word with the same Greek word. We ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. St. Paul here is saying, he said, "I knew of Jesus before I was..." Paul was a Pharisee. He was a high ranking Pharisee. I don't know. We're not told if he heard Jesus preach or saw Jesus or had conversation with Jesus before his crucifixion, burial and resurrection. We don't know if he saw his miracles. It's easier to assume he didn't, some theologians say, because he doesn't mention it anywhere. But perhaps he doesn't mention it anywhere because he viewed Jesus through the flesh.He saw Jesus and he just did the analysis. And in his mind, Jesus was a messianic pretender who pushed too far and got exactly what was coming to him. And when Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin, crucified by the Roman, Saint Paul was in agreement with that, so much so that he then persecuted the church because in his mind, from the old Testament, it was clear that Jesus Christ was cursed. The scripture in Deuteronomy says, "Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree." Jesus was hung on the cross, the tree, but something changed. Jesus changed all that by appearing in splendor, the splendor of his glory. And something happened in Paul's life where the thing that Paul had despise became the center of his life. And he realized that he had been viewing Jesus through the flesh. Therefore, he wasn't respecting Jesus and giving him the respect that he deserved.In personal irony, Paul, now is being regarded in the same way by certain people in the Corinthian church, where they are regarding him according to the flesh and judging him on his looks, on the way he speaks, judging him on his credentials, judging him on letters of recommendation. And Saint Paul is saying, there's two ways of looking at Jesus Christ. Some people evaluate Jesus Christ on his historic significance, historically, and they just look at the stats, everything he's accomplished. And there's a different way of looking at Jesus Christ. And that's through the eyes of the spirit. Many know Christ only in worldly ways. They know about him and judge him without a true understanding of who he is. And St. Paul talked about this in the past chapter, it takes the holy spirit to come in and change your heart. Put the lights on. And because of Christ, St. Paul says, "Because he did that, now I have respect for him, respect for the gospel. I honor him.And also because of Christ, he says, we regard no one according to the flesh. He says, "I'm done with judging people by what they look like. I'm done with judging a book according to its cover. I'm done with judging people in the shallow, external carnal way, especially those of the household of God." Stop judging people according to the flesh. That's what the whole world is doing. The whole world wants everybody focused on what you look like. The whole world wants, because image is everything. So let's focus on image. And Saint Paul says, "Instead of judging people by image, we should view them as image bearers and look at everyone through the eyes of Christ's love." This changes everything.Imagine we viewed each other like that, like children of God, image bearers of God, it doesn't matter what your skin color is, it doesn't matter what your nationality, none of that matters. We're children of God, the whole world's trying to divide and conquer. That's what they're trying to do. And Saint Paul says, "No, we are to be unified, unified as one human race, unified in our need for Christ. And then unified once we're in Christ as the body of Christ. Why? Because anyone in Christ is a new creation. This is verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The oldest passed away, behold, the newest come. This is a biography of every single Christian.There's many metaphors in scripture to describe becoming a Christian, receiving a new heart, a new birth, being born again, becoming a new person. And one of the main results of being United with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection is that you change. There's a profound and radical change that happens when you become a Christian. Salvation isn't just Jesus forgiving you of your sins, it's Jesus changing your nature, it's a radical change. You've changed at the core, change so profound, it makes you a different person than you were.Jesus had this conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He shows up to Jesus at night because he didn't want the other Pharisees to know that he's having a conversation with Jesus. And he says, "How do I inherit the kingdom of God? How do I get into heaven?" And Jesus said, "You got to be born again." And Nicodemus says that's not even a category in his mind, because he thought he was good enough. I was born this way and Jesus says you have to be born again. You need a new heart, you need a new nature, you need new affections, new desire. You must be changed. The presupposition to you must be changed. This is why it's highly offensive. The presupposition is something so wrong with you and me. In of ourselves, there's something wrong with us and God is offering to make you new, make you all over again, wants to make you a new creation from the inside out.So what's the prerequisite to becoming a new creation. You've got to accept, acknowledge your need. This is the gospel respect. I need the gospel. God, I need transformation. There's something wrong with me. I can't fix it. Yes, God. I agree with the fact that I'm so bad that God had to save me, that Jesus Christ had to die for me. I'm helpless without his work. But then when you are in Christ, there's a security and acceptance and insurance for the future. Inheritance of glory of participation in the divine nature that you now are a new creation. And the fourth thing that motivated him to live revolutionary life was reconciliation. II Corinthians 5:18: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.There's three models of Christ's work in scripture. There's redemption, which is Christ buys us out of bondage by a payment of ransom. There's propitiation, which is turning away of wrath by offering a sacrifice, redemption, propitiation. And then there's reconciliation, which is the restoration of a relationship, a restoration of a friendship or a harmony of Shalom between two parties between two persons, who've been estranged or alienated. And obviously if Christ reconciles us, offers us reconciliation, it means that we need reconciliation, it means that we are profoundly as strange and alien and from whom. Everyone around us is telling us that our biggest problem is that people are at odds with one another, that we need reconciliation between people.Is that our biggest problem? St. Paul says, "No, our biggest problem is that we're separated from God that we are at war with God." Our problem with God isn't some minor misunderstanding that can be easily put right with just a conversation, God, can we work it out? No, we're at war with God. Then of ourselves is a mutiny against God, a rebellion, an insurrection, a true insurrection. There's no human rebellion that can compare to this insurrection. It's an insurrection against the God of the universe. That's the essence of sin that you put yourself in the place of God, that you become the arbiter of truth, that you become a controller of all things. And this desire obviously leads to self absorption, self love, self worship. But this isn't the only factor on alienation from God. Some of us don't understand because we're like, "Oh, we sinned against God. Okay." But the greater the party, the more honorable the party against whom you've sinned, the more egregious that same sin is.If you go up to a person on the street and you spit in their face, that person is no body. Yeah. You might get a ticket or something. If you go up to a person and the person is the governor of state, well, then there's deeper consequences. If you do that to the president of a nation, well, now that's insurrection. Well, what if you spit in the face of the God of the universe? And you know what insurrection is? It's basically flipping God off. Who are you? Who are you? You're nobody to me. That's what insurrection is. It's not just sin. It's sin against the holy just God. And we deserve his wrath until God's holiness has been satisfied, terms of his justice met. There is no reconciliation.Romans 1:18-23: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, having clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So we are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.Basically says, everyone knows that God exists everybody, deep in your heart. You know it. To believe that everything came out of nothing, takes more faith than believing in a God who created everything out of nothing by speaking. Deep in our hearts we know that we are not here just by accident, we know this, our heart testifies to it. And he says, "This sin is that we didn't honor him. We didn't respect him. And we didn't give him thanks. Didn't give him thanks." I was listening to a comedian who was talking about the fact that he can't be a veterinarian. He's like, I couldn't be a veterinarian. And I didn't really understand what he was talking about. He's like, because animals don't really say thank you.And then I saw this video clip of this guy driving down the street, I don't know where it is, like in Australia or something, and he's driving down and there's sheep, a big fat sheep. And it's stuck in barbed wire fence. And he pulls over and this thing's massive. This thing's like 100, 150 pounds huge. He gets out of the car and he tries to wrangle it free from this fence. And he's wrestling with it. The thing is fighting back. He's wrestling with it and it's inflicting pain on him, but he finally pulls it out and he understands he can't just leave it, because it's a dumb sheep and it's going to jump into the fence again. So then he musters all his strength and with tremendous deadlift form, he hoisted upon himself and toes it over and then the sheep just runs away. It just runs as fast as it possibly can.And I'm watching this thing run the whole time. And I'm watching it run to a tree and then it turn. And in my heart, I see it go, "Thank you." But it didn't. And the guy's crestfallen and he is like, "You're welcome." And he gets back in the car, like I did all of this for you, dumb sheep, all I want is a thank you. And that's what I was telling the guy at the playground. If you want to have a gospel conversation, you want to start over here. That's basically what we're saying is everybody owes thank you to God. No one is saying thank you to God. And what we're telling people is you should say thank you to God. And then they're like for what? For the fact that he provided a way for you not to go to hell through the reconciliation and the work of Christ on the cross. That's what Paul's saying. This is precisely what makes Christ sacrifice so important. Jesus died in our place, the just for the unjust, precisely meet the mans of God's holiness and his justice. We've rebelled and we deserve God's wrath, but God matches our rebellion with his love.Verse 19: That is in Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespass against them and trusting to us the message of reconciliation. This is the message. The message of reconciliation isn't telling people, hey, you got to make peace with God. That's not what we're saying. You can't make peace with God. If right now, from this moment on to the rest of your life you live like Mother Teresa, that would not be enough to atone for your past sins. That's not how the holiness of God works. Ministry reconciliation is telling people, look, Christ has made peace. Christ is offering us amnesty, but you have to accept it. That's why the gospel isn't just good advice, it's good news, is tremendous news, but you need to act upon it. Verse 10. Romans 5:10-11: For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Salvation isn't achieved, reconciliation isn't achieved, it's received. You have to just take it. Just ask for it.And he says in Christ, God doesn't count our trespasses against us. So apart from Christ, this is the assumption that God does count our trespass against us, which dooms us. We're sinners deeply, constantly comprehensively. We're guilty and liable to be punished for our sins. Therefore, we're in desperate need of salvation. What is the most important information that I can give anybody? What is the absolute most important information I can give anybody at any point? This is it, Christ is offering reconciliation with God. And also there's no information, more offensive, because every time you say that, you're telling the person they've been living wrong.And that never feels good. That never feels good for someone to show up, and you're like, you're wrong. But I'm saying we're all wrong. That's what I'm saying. We're all unified and being wrong. It doesn't matter how you see yourself, it doesn't matter how others see you, all that matters is that God sees you based on his standards, not the worlds. And a lot of people push back and are like this is so out of date. Speaking of sin is so out of date. Is it speaking about evil is so out of date. We see evil all around us. There's nothing out of date about sin or evil. And because there's nothing out of date about sin or evil, there's nothing out of date about God's grace.We live in a world where there's so many just logical inconsistencies with the worldview outside of Christianity. One of them is we're told in school that everything came from nothing meaning we got here by accident. Primordial soup and all of that, we just got here by accident. It's all just a lucky accident. So here we are. So there was no creator, no designer, no benevolent God. We are insignificant. If you came from nothing, then you're not significant. That's on the one hand. On the flip side, everyone thinks they're awesome. Everyone thinks they're just amazing. Everyone thinks that you are God's gift to the world. There's no kid that is born and he's like, "Oh, I'm just really insignificant." No, every kid that's born is like I own the place. I am awesome. And I am going to be a tyrant of this house. And that's why you got to parent them actively, parent them. So that's on the one hand.And then Christianity shows up and says, No little human being. You're not awesome. You are, but you're not." You're sinful. We're all sinful. And we're all alienated from God. We all need to be remade. And at the same time, we are magnificently significant to God because he gave his greatest treasure to save us. We're the object of the most amazing thing that ever happened. The son of God came into the world as a man to suffer and die in our place to reconcile us. Now, Blaise Pascal said, there are only two kinds of men, the righteous who believe themselves sinners and the rest sinners who believe themselves righteous. It's all it takes to be a Christian. Just recognize your need. I Peter 2:24: He himself bore our sins in the body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. How are people reconciled with God through the proclamation of this message, the belief of this message and this changes everything. Verse 20, therefore we are ambassadors of Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.And St. Paul uses a bold analogy here to describe this ministry and the ministry of each Christians that were ambassadors, that you are a representative for him. Ambassador was your representative of the Roman empire. So you walk into towns with immense authority, you don't speak for yourself. You don't act on your own behalf. It's not your authority. It's not your message. It's the sovereigns authority. It's his words. And this is the message is be reconciled to God. Receive the offer of reconciliation except the amnesty. Isaiah 53:5: But he, Jesus, was pierced for our transgression; he was crushed for our inequities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. Dear Christian do not drift from this message. This is the center of the message that we proclaim, the message of reconciliation between God and human beings. Don't drift like the church in the United States has been drifting for a while.Quick test. What's more important to the world today, reconciliation between the races or reconciliation between the one human race and God? That's a battle that's waging in the church right now. What's more important? What's more important? What's in the position of primacy? There's nothing more important than talking about reconciliation between the one human race, all of us and God. Talk about unifying and healing, racial tensions. We are all united in the fact that we need to be reconciled with God. There's no greater need. And therefore there's no greater power for unity. You want to be United, I'll do my best to unite this Mosaic. You're all sinners. That's what I do every Sunday. We're all united in that. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, no matter your skin color, nothing.You know what? I was meditating on this week. We got a couple minutes. I was meditating, my wife noticed recently and she's like, "How come wherever you go, you always find enemies." She's like whatever room you walk into, there's always someone shows up that just doesn't like you before they have ever met. I'm like, "Yeah, why is that?" And then you probably already know. But then this was a revelation to me. Well, first of all, I'm a man, I'm a big man, I'm like 6, 2, 240. I'm a big dude. And I'm a big white man. And I'm a big white Christian man. And then I'm a big white Christian heterosexual man. And on top of that, I'm rushing. So it's like every one of those adjectives just times 10, whatever room I walk into, I just already know hater's going to hate and how's the Lord going to use this?What's the point? The point is, we're all sinners. That's the point and me too. So we all need Jesus. And II Corinthians 5:21, this is how he sums it up. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. This is one of the greatest verses in holy scripture, 15 words in the Greek. This is our foundation. This is how salvation comes to sinners. Knows how careful the language is. He doesn't say that Jesus became a sinner, he says that Jesus became sin. The sinless became sin. God didn't make us righteous, but he made us righteousness. It's imputed. It's not our righteousness. So our sin was imputed to Jesus and Jesus righteousness is imputed to us. Imputed means counted.Jesus never sinned. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. 33 years, zero sins. Remained sinless until he became sin for us. The sinless one becomes our sin, our substitute, our sacrifice. All of our sins were poured over Christ on the cross wave after wave, after wave, after wave, he was robed. And all that was heinous and hateful and evil and corrupt lies, hatred, jealousy, pride, lust, gluttony, greed, all poured on his sinless soul. And it wasn't just that. It's not only that our sin is poured on him, it's our sin is poured on him and he's robed in it. And then God's wrath is poured on our sin, which is upon Christ.Jesus died the death that we deserve to die so that we can live the life that he deserved to live. And John three, that conversation about Nicodemus. And I'll close with this. Everyone knows John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Everyone knows that, but not most people just, they don't know the context. And I'll give you the context. The context is verse 14. And as Moses, John 3, lifted up the serpent and the wilderness. Yeah, there was plague. God set in a plague upon the people of God because they sinned. They rebelled against him. And then he tells Moses, "Hey, Moses, I want you to take a serpent and I want you to lift it up high." And whoever looked upon the serpent got saved. Serpent. So as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of God be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name, the only son of God. Jesus Christ here compares himself with the serpent. Serpent. Jesus died the death the serpent deserves to die, to extend to us the life that the son deserves. He did that so we might be the righteousness of God both legally and practically. This is our justification.And then II Corinthians 6:1-2: Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, "In a favorable time, I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I've helped you." Behold, now as a favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. If you yourself right now, do not know that you are a Christian, that you do not live for yourself, that you are eternally secure, today is a day of salvation, repent from sin and turn to him. And for the rest of us, what motivates us to live revolutionary life should be fear of judgment, love of Christ, gospel, respect and reconciliation.Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you paid everything. You paid the full price. And therefore Lord, we owe everything to you. And I pray that you make us people who are motivated by fear of you and love of you, people who respect the gospel and take the gospel to those who need to be reconciled with you. And bless us as we go and fulfill the mission you've called us to. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for supporting this ministry, I lovingly refer to as "The Little Green Pasture." Click here: PayPal: http://paypal.me/joanstahl​​​​​​​​​​​... ​ Please prayerfully consider becoming a ministry partner: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/joaniestahl​​​​​ **Contact Email: jsfieldnotes@gmail.com **Send Donations To: Joanie Stahl - P.O. Box 1386 - 205 Avenida Del Mar - San Clemente, Ca. 92672 **You can also visit and subscribe to me on Rumble: https://rumble.com/account/content?ty... The subject of hell has always been one of contention. Some people either accept it as a very real place. Others think it is metaphorical or that it does not exist at all. However, the Bible continually warns of a place called hell. There are over 162 references in the New Testament alone which warns of hell. And over 70 of these references were uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ. Recently I heard a brief teaching from a very popular young minister who is gaining a worldwide following. His position on hell was that it was never part of the new creation. Furthermore he taught that hell is in man and comes from man. That hell is the result of James 3:6, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." He believes that hell is on earth due to the wicked tongue of people. He purports that hell is not a place but replaces the word "sin" with the word "hell." That Jesus Christ died on the cross in order to get "hell out of us." His discourse was universal. Hell is a very real place, as real as heaven. Jesus said, "Behold, I go to prepare a place for you..." Paul told us long ago what would be in the latter days, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Timothy 4:3-4. The only reason this doctrine of there being no real place called hell is gaining such world wide popularity is obvious. Jesus Himself said, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." That destruction is eternal separation from Christ in hell. Yet he adds, "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." That life is eternal with Christ in heaven. How shocking will it be for all those that mocked the existence of hell that will find themselves there in the end. Make sure you are not among them. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/joanie-stahl/support

That Jesus Christ rose from the grave is no mere factoid in a world drowning in information overload; it is the ultimate truth that matters eternally to each and every soul.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Good morning. Welcome again to Mosaic. It's good to see you this morning. If you're new, welcome, my name is Shane. I am one of the pastors here at Mosaic, and so glad to have you with us. As we mentioned earlier, we would love to connect with you. The way we do that is through a little connection card. You should have gotten one of those with your worship guide on the way in. If you fill that out for us, you can just drop it in the little white box back there at the back of the room on your way out this morning, and we'd love to follow up with you this week and just send a small gift to you in the mail to thank you for being with us. You can also fill that out online or in our app as well.Before we start, happy Palm Sunday to everyone. This is the first day, the beginning of a holy week. We have a couple of special service times coming up just to remind you of before we jump into the sermon. First of all, this Friday we're having a good Friday service at 6:00 PM here at the temple. Childcare will be provided for kids up through fifth grade, and so if you have kids that want to participate in that, just jump on our website and fill out the little registration form, that way we can know how many children to prepare for, but looking forward to that. We'd love to see you back here Friday night for that service.Then Easter Sunday, this is really important. We're having three services, and as we've mentioned in the last couple of weeks, they're all going to be at different times than usual. Our first service is going to be at 8:30. We're going to have a full-blown mini-Mosaic program and Mosaic teens at this service, so families with kids, this will be a great option for you. Second service is going to be at 10:15. This service is also going to have childcare mini-Mosaic up through fifth grade. We're anticipating this is going to be our largest, most popular service.If you're planning to come on this one, you might want to come early to make sure that you get a seat. Really, the reason we're expanding to three services, we just really want to make sure that with all the distancing requirements, that we don't run out of space next week. But our final service is going to be at 12 o'clock noon. Go get brunch, come and join us at 12 o'clock if you want to join us for that third service. Really, whatever service you're able to attend is great and just look forward to celebrating with you next Sunday morning. But with that being said, let's pray before we start the sermon this morning.God, we thank you for this amazing section of scripture and the time that we've been able to spend in the sermon on the mount over the last several weeks, and Lord, we thank you that you have spoken to us through your son, the living word, and Jesus Christ, and you've also spoken to us through your scriptures, the written word. As we look into your word again today, Lord, we ask that you would humble us and give us ears to hear what you have to say, our minds and hearts that are open that are humble to you. God, your word is good, it is perfect, it is without air, and it is authoritative, but also beautiful and beneficial.It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and so Holy Spirit, we ask that you would come and illuminate this path for us, so that we can stay on this narrow way that leads to life, following after Christ, following that path that he has blazed on before us. We pray all this in his name, amen. Today we're wrapping up our sermon series on the sermon on the mount. We're going to be looking at Jesus conclusion to the sermon on the mount. If you've ever studied homiletics, if you've ever studied public speaking, you know the importance of your introduction and your conclusion. These are the two most important parts of any address that you make.They're kind of like the takeoff and the landing. In your introduction, really, you're earning the right to be heard by your audience. Right now, you're here. You're about to sit down and hear me talk for the next 40 minutes or so, but I understand that just because you can hear my voice doesn't mean you're actually listening to what I have to say. I got to earn that right to keep your attention. It helps a lot, if in your introduction, you can give people some kind of hook that's going to show them that what you're about to say is worthy of that time and attention.Even before I start preparing for a sermon, I like to keep this phrase in mind, don't preach because you have to say something, preach because you have something to say. A good introduction, it lets people know that you're about to say something that's worth saying, something that is worth hearing. In Jesus' introduction, he gives us this little hook. It's like a bombshell of a statement. You remember what He said when He starts the sermon, He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."It's really unexpected, and yet, it's powerful, it's intriguing. It's maybe even a little bit perplexing, but all right, Jesus, you got my attention. I want to see like where you're going to go with this. Not only is it a really good hook, it's really relevant to everything else that he has to say. It's almost like this is the key that unlocks the rest of the sermon on the mount. Now, if you understand what Jesus is saying here, you're going to get the rest of the sermon, but if you don't, a lot of what Jesus is going to say that follows is going to be puzzling.Jesus had a great take off. What about his conclusion? Well, how does Jesus land the plane? That's what we're looking at today. It lands like ... You've probably heard sermons that nose dive and crash and burn on the landing. Not here at mosaic, but at other churches perhaps. Jesus lands, it's like an atomic bomb, just boom explosion, fire everywhere. He walks down the mountain like an action hero. Doesn't even look back at all the minds that he just blew behind him. How does he do this? He does this by turning to his listeners, turning to us, and asking us, how are you going to land the plane?How are you going to land, not the plane of the sermon, how are you going to land the plane of your life? Every single one of us, from the moment we're born, we are on our descent, and we're flying through the turbulence of life, and the runway of death is coming closer and closer with every moment. This is what we need to consider. This is what we need to ponder. When the rubber hits the road, are you going to make a smooth, peaceful landing, or are you about to crash and burn? How much time do you spend thinking about eternity?What do we expect to find on the other side of death? Where do we go when we die? These might sound like cliche questions, but these are the most important questions that anyone could ask, and these are the questions that Jesus wants us to consider today in the conclusion to a sermon. If you have your Bibles, open up to Matthew 7, I'm going to be looking at verses 13 through 29, the end of Jesus' sermon. As we work through this text today, I want us to focus on these three points that Jesus drives home here in His conclusion. First of all, there are only two paths. There are only two directions.Then thirdly, there are only two destinations. Read along with me. If you don't have a Bible, you can follow along and the words will be up here on the screen as well. This is Matthew 7 beginning in verse 13. Jesus says, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the disease tree bears bad fruit. Healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a disease tree bear good fruit.""Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?" And I will declare to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness." Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.""The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock, and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell, and great was the fall of it." When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes."This is the reading of God's Holy word for us this morning. Point number one is that there are only two paths, and Jesus begins by telling us, you need to enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. There are two identical Proverbs in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 14:12, and 16:25, and they both say this, "That there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." What are these two paths that Jesus is talking about?Well, let's start out by what is the path that leads to life? What is Jesus talking about there? If you were here last Sunday night at our prayer service, one of our members, Nathan Young, he brought a great message on this from John 14:6, where Jesus tells His disciples that, "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. Peter and John preached this in Acts 4. They said that, "This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone," in verse 12, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved."Jesus is the narrow gate. He is the only path to salvation. What that means is that the broad road to destruction, that is anything and everything else, and we hear that and we say, that's so exclusive, and it is. Jesus acknowledges that. Jesus says the gate is narrow. But before we can begin to object, we have to first ask, what are the alternatives? Romans 3:23 tells us that, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23 says that, "The wages of the sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord, that Jesus being the only way, it sounds exclusive, it is exclusive, but the alternative is that there is no way. No way at all. That we are all sinners, we are all guilty and we are all incapable of saving ourselves.We have all sinned again and infinitely just, and Holy God. The chasm that we need to cross is infinite. Think about this, only Jesus, in his complete perfection and full divinity was worthy and able to pay the penalty that our sin and rebellion deserved, and yet only Jesus, because of his full humanity could stand in humanity's place to be that atoning substitution. There could be no other way. It had to be Jesus. For Jesus to say, I am the way, I am the only way. I'm the truth. I am the life. I am the narrow gate. It excludes any other means of salvation, and yet, at the same time, it is more inclusive of any other alternative because the gate is narrow. But entering through this gate is open to all. It's free.That the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, offered to all, to any who would repent and put their faith in Him and cry out to Christ for salvation. This is what scripture says. We know this, John 3:16, one of the most famous verses in scripture, "That God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." Romans 10:11, the scripture say, "Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."You don't have to be born into a certain ethnicity. You don't have to have a spiritual, a pedigree. You don't have to go and achieve self-actualization or enlightenment. You don't have to climb to the peak of some holy mountain to offer sacrifice or maintain a life of perfection to be saved. You simply call on the name of Jesus and you will be saved. Believe, confess, cry out to Christ and say, no matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, you will be saved. Look at verse 14 again. It says that, "The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."This is important to understand. Jesus acknowledges the gate is narrow, and yes, it is free to enter by that gate, but the road that follows is not going to be easy. Jesus says, it's going to be hard, that the Christian life is hard. If it's not hard, then perhaps you're not actually on the path that you think that you're on. We've heard this phrase, that salvation costs us nothing, and yet discipleship costs us everything. This is Christianity 101, that we are justified freely by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, and yet, the lifelong work of sanctification of putting our flesh to death, it's hard.The lifelong work of engaging and carrying out the mission of God and living our lives as witnesses to the gospel and the kingdom of God, it costs us a lot. Following Jesus comes with trouble, tribulation, persecution. It takes perseverance. It takes patience. It is not a broad easy road. It's a road of self-denial. It's a road of self-discipline. It's a road of laying down your life and picking up your cross daily and following after Jesus. It is all of those things, but it's also worth it. It is the road that leads to life and there is no other way.What this means is that, if we are walking this path as Christians, we should stand out and seem very distinct from the rest of the world around us, as if we are walking in a complete opposite direction against the flow of everything that surrounds us. We live in a world that follows this cultural mantra of like, you only live once, and so have a good time all the time, get the most out of life while you can. In scripture would put it like this, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. We say things, we hear things like, life is about the journey, not the destination. To go with pastor Jan, false. That's a false statement. Not true. If it is true, if life is really only about the journey, then yeah, go spend your life on yourself, get the most out of this life while you can, because this is all you'll ever get.You can do this in a number of ways. You can do this through living a life of rebellion and sin of just seeking self-gratification and earthly pleasure. Or you can do this the way the Pharisees did this through practicing your righteousness before people. Not because you love God, but to be honored and respected by others, that they'll look and say, oh, look at that person. They're so virtuous. They're so right. Jesus would say, to either of these approaches like, great, but you've received your reward in full, that whatever satisfaction you got out of that is all you will ever get, and your best days will now forever be in the past.Jesus calls us, as his followers, to a different kind of journey, a journey that doesn't begin with discovering ourselves, with finding ourselves, but with losing ourselves. It begins with humility. It begins with repentance and faith, and acknowledging that Jesus paid it all. So, all to him I owe. I am not my own, but I belong body and soul to God and to my savior, Jesus Christ, and therefore, my life, my time, my talents, my treasures, these are not mine to be spent on myself in this life. These are mine given as a steward from God to be invested for the sake of the next.Knowing that in Christ, the best is always yet to come. Now, we heard this a few weeks ago. Jesus put it like this in Matthew 6:19. He says, "Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal." Now, if we live this way, apart from faith, this kind of investing in eternity, it doesn't make sense. It seems foolish. Right, you're denying yourself something right now and you're betting your life on something that you can't even see.From the perspective of the world, it seems like folly. Jesus talks about it like this, that the kingdom of God, it is like a treasure, but it's like a treasure that's buried in a field, and not everybody can see it, but once you discover it, once you see what's there, you're willing to go and sell everything you have to acquire that field, because you know what's inside it, and everyone else might look at you and think you're crazy for the price that you're willing to pay, but you know the return on that investment.Imagine like this. Imagine I had a time machine right here and I was willing to sell you a ticket, but it came with some strings attached. First of all, you could only use it to go backwards in time. Secondly, you could only stay there for five minutes. Third, it's only capable of bringing you maximum like 10 years into the past. Then finally, this ticket is going to cost you everything that you have, every penny to your name. You would probably think, well, that sounds very novel, but it's probably not a good investment. Not worth the cost of that. But let me remind you, 10 years ago, you could convince your former self to buy Bitcoin, which was like less than a dollar at the time.If you could scrounge $10,000 $15,000 to go, you would be a billionaire today, and so yes, of course I would make that investment, but this is what I'm getting at, that the kingdom of God is a better investment than that. This is not financial advice. I'm not your financial advisor, but this is spiritual advice. I am a spiritual advisor of sorts. Jesus is talking about eternal stocks here. Don't miss this opportunity to invest in eternity, is a sure bet, and it's hard. It's going to be costly. It may cost everything you have, but you're investing in something that will never tarnish, that will never fail.This is why 2 Corinthians 4:16 sells us that we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to think things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are seen are eternal. There are only two paths. Point number two, there are only two directions. Jesus continues in verse 15. He tells us, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the disease tree bears bad fruit.""A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?" And I will declare to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness."In this passage, we see that these two paths results in two very different destinations, and so therefore, Jesus, here in the middle, wants us to be careful that we not lose our sense of direction, that we make sure that we know where we're going, to not only know what the right path is, but to know how to know when we are on that right path. Some of you might be too young to remember this, but way back in the day, before smartphones, before Google Maps, before big tech was tracking our every move, if you were going on a road trip with your friends or something, like you had to have a physical map made out of paper in order to figure out where you were going.What you would do is you'd go to the gas station or something, you would buy a map of whatever area you were trying to travel to, and you'd jump on the back of your Brontosaurus and you'd take off on your journey. It was great. The map could show you what was there, but the map could not show you where you were in relation to what was there. The map could not tell you what road you were on or what direction you were going. You had to figure that out for yourself. What that meant is you had to like look out at the road and look for the signs along the way that say, this is the road that you're on, and this is the direction that you're going, North, South, East or West.What that meant is there would be these times, it's never happened to me, but maybe it happened to some of you, where you would be on the right road. You thought, I'm on I-80. I'm good to go. I set the cruise control. I can kick back and relax. Then like an hour later, you notice, hey, that sign says there's an I-80 with a little E on it. I was supposed to be on I-80 with a little W after it. I've just driven a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction. If it wasn't for the sign, I wouldn't have known that I'm actually lost.How do you know when you're on the right path? That's what Jesus' wanting us to get at here. What are the signs to look for? We're going to talk about that in a minute, but first, Jesus warns us that, if that's not bad enough, there's false signs out there pointing in the wrong direction. He says, "Beware of false prophets." There are people trying to lead you astray, telling you that this is the way to go and actually pointing you in a way that is the opposite. This was a problem back then, this is a major problem today.We live in a day and age where, because of things like social media, anybody and everybody can have a platform and gather a following. On the one hand, this means there's a lot of good, useful content out there, Christian teaching available online. It also means there's a lot of horrible, deceptive, false content out there, false prophets, people who are claiming to present the truth with authority, and yet they are leading people in the wrong direction. Some of these people, they can be religious. Some of these people are irreligious. Churches used to worry a lot about the false teachers that people would see on TV, the televangelist, the snake oil salesmen, the charlatans preaching their prosperity gospel.That's something we need to be concerned of and discerning about and look out for as Christians. But today, we don't honestly see many people being deceived by the cookies, people that we see on Christian television. Instead, what we see is there's a lot of people are being led astray in other ways, the political causes, activists, personalities, celebrities, talk show hosts, influencers, even teachers and professors, and Jesus warns us that it's not always going to be obvious who these people are. Don't assume that you know what they're going to look like, because they're going to look like sheep on the outside. When you look up a little closer, you see that they're actually ferocious wolves.He's warning us, you need to be cautious, you need to be careful who you follow. You need to be wise and discerning so that you can tell the difference. Now, you're going to need community around you to help you with this. You're going to need to know God's word and filter everything through that. We have a great example of this in Acts 17. Acts 17:10 tells us that, "The brothers sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so." On the one hand, they're open, they're teachable, they're eager to learn, and that the other hand, they're discerning.They're taking everything they hear from Paul and Silas, and they're filtering it through God's word to see if these things are so. We need to do that as Christians with everything that we hear. Galatians 1 gives us this warning in verse six, and Paul tells the church, "I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be cursed."Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of this world and not according to Christ." Jesus says, watch out for false prophets, don't be fooled by false teachers. But secondly, He's also telling us, don't even be fooled by yourself. Don't be self-deceived. This is where things get kind of scary. Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone who calls me Lord or even does ministry in my name is actually a Christian."Some people are going to go through their life self-deceived thinking that they are serving Christ, and when they stand before him in the judgment, He's going to say, "I never knew you and depart from me." This is sobering. This should cause us to examine ourselves. Now, as Christians, this doesn't mean that we should live in doubt of our salvation, but the alternative is not to have this carefree, blind assumption that we are saved either. What are we to do? Scripture doesn't want us to assume our salvation, but what it wants us to do is to seek assurance of our salvation.What does that mean? How can we have a surety that we are truly saved? That's what Jesus is getting at here. He says, you want to know the tree? You got to look at its fruit. If there's evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in your life, that's a pretty good sign that you've been truly born again, that God has saved you, that you are a new creation. Now, if you don't see that, if these signs aren't here, maybe you're saved, maybe you're not. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're not saved, but it doesn't mean that you lack assurance of your salvation.How do we find this? What are we looking for here? A couple of passages of scriptures to help us out, 2 Peter 3, 2 Peter 1:5-10, and Peter says this, "That for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ.""For whoever lacks these qualities is so near-sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fail." When you identify this trajectory of growth in your life, that's a good sign that you're heading in right direction, that you're confirming your calling and election.Galatians 5:16-24, the apostle Paul talking of the fruit of the spirit. He says, "I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.""But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the Lord with its passions and desires." Are you growing in the fruit of the spirit? Notice, he doesn't say fruits of the spirit, plural, this is not like an a la carte, pick and choose which ones you want to grow, and this is an all or nothing. You don't have to be accrued in order to have a bit of self-control or to show a bit of kindness. One or two of these things does not give us assurance of our salvation in and of themselves.Our assurance grows when we see that all of these things, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, they are growing in tandem, not because of our own willpower, or the work of the flesh, but because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The big idea here is that Jesus doesn't want us to be doubting, but he does want us to be discerning, because we can be deceived by others. We can even deceive ourselves, but God is not deceived. He knows the state of our heart. Galatians 6:7-8 says, "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows that he will also reap. For the one who sows to his on flesh will, from the flesh, reap corruption.""But the one who sows to the spirit will, from the spirit, reap eternal life." 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us, "To examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith." Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves? That Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test." If Christ is not in you, then that's where you need to start, right? You don't start by trying to tuck healthy looking fruit onto a dying tree. Instead, you start by calling out to Jesus and asking him to make you a new tree, to change you from the inside out to give you a new one heart and a new desire by the power of his Holy Spirit.Now, if you examine yourself and you do see this, you see the Holy spirit at work in your heart, you take heart because of that, know that you are on the right path, and that, even if that path is very difficult at times, it doesn't mean that Christ is not there with you. He is with you and he's ensuring that you will arrive at your destination. We see this in Philippians 2:12. It tells us, "To work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." A chapter earlier, in chapter verse six, Paul wrote that, "I am sure of this, that he who began and a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."There are only two paths, there are only two directions, and point number three, there are only two destinations. Jesus concludes in verse 24 with this, says, "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock, and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the wind blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.""When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes." Many of you know I was born and raised in Illinois, and in the Midwest, thunderstorms are like a very real thing. They're very long, they're very loud, they're very violent, and they always came with this looming threat of tornadoes. As a kid, I was simultaneously fascinated and completely utterly terrified of tornadoes the entire time growing up. You'd hear those sirens go off in your neighborhood, and everybody knew you had to stop what you're doing and you had to get to shelter.You had to find someplace stable, someplace safe, and that usually meant you need to get down into the basement, into the foundation of your home for safety. Notice that Jesus doesn't say that, if you hear these words of mine and you do them, that you will therefore avoid all of the storms of life. No, he says the storms are coming, they're coming for everyone, and that they come in many forms. A family member gets sick, a job gets lost, the economy tanks, or relationship falls apart. Even if we dodge these smaller storms of life, there's always that one storm looming on the horizon.Now, the biggest storm is the storm of death. It's one that none of us can escape. It's coming and it's getting closer with every breath. How are we going to weather that storm? Jesus says, it doesn't matter what you build. The only thing that matters is where you build, what you build on. He says, if you're building your life on me and on my teaching, you're like a wise person who's building on an unshakeable foundation. I hope you understand this. As Christians, we have this piece. It's like an anchor for our soul. It transcends the circumstances of life and death, because we know that, even if the very worst were to come true, our worst fears were to be actualized, if everything was lost and death was at our doorstep, even then, our hope is not in this life. Our hope is in the next.Our soul is standing on a foundation that can't be shaken, that can't be moved, that will not give way. We know this because Jesus proved this through the cross. On the cross, Jesus faced our biggest, our darkest storm. Not a storm of life, not even a storm of physical death, but of total death. The fierce storm of God's wrath toward rebellion and sin was poured out and absorbed by Jesus on the cross. The scripture tells us, the sky grew dark, that the earth quaked on the day that our savior died, but it was through this, his death, that we were granted eternal life.It was through this storm that he faced, that we are able to weather the storm ourselves, because through his death, Jesus defeated Satan, sin, and death. That God, the father, three days later, raised him up in victory and just vindicated him from the grave, glorified him at his right hand, and in doing so, he proved that he can and he will do the same for us, for all those who build on this foundation. Well, where does this lead us? Jesus is calling us to make a decision, decisive action. There are only two options. There are only two paths. There are only two destinations. This is what he's saying, you're either going to build on me, on this foundation, or you're going to continue trusting in the sandy shores of self-righteousness of worldly pleasures of living for yourself.Sermon on the mount, in the very beginning, in Matthew 5:1, we're told that, "Jesus saw the crowds and he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them." Then here at the very end of this section, we're told that, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes." Perhaps you have been standing in the crowd, observing Jesus from a distance.Right now you realize that it's time to leave the crowd and to draw near to Christ as one of his disciples. Jesus had a lot of fans in the crowd. He was never interested in fans. Fans come and go. We're reminded of this a bit today because today is Palm Sunday, and we can't prove this, but it's easy to imagine that the probability, that there were some in the crowd on Palm Sunday crying out Hosanna, who later that week were in the crowd on Good Friday crying out, crucify him. There's a fickleness to the fans that ... Jesus wasn't after that. He doesn't want people who are self-deceived.He's looking, not for fans, he's looking for followers. He's looking for people who are ready to enter through that narrow gate, to take up their cross and to follow him down that hard path, but to follow him knowing that it is the path that leads to life. If you're here today and you're ready to become a follower of Jesus, the way you enter through that narrow gate is simply to repent, to put your faith in Jesus Christ. You can do that right now. If you do, we would love to talk to you, we'd love to pray with you after the service and talk more about what this decision means. If you are a follower of Jesus, understand, hopefully you understand this, that you can't walk this path alone.You need people around you to help you, to encourage you along this way. If you're in a community group, be faithful to that community group, invest in those relationships. If you're not, we would love to help you get plugged into a community group today. It's one of the best ways where you can do this for one another and go on this journey of following Jesus together. If you're interested in that, just mark that on the back of your connection card. or stop by the welcome center, we'd love to help you find a community group today.Then finally, one more thing before we close, next Sunday, Easter Sunday, and so who do you know that maybe needs to come and stand in the crowd with the hopes that they hear the teaching of Jesus, and they see that He is one who taught with authority and they themselves lead the crowd and become a disciple as well? We're going to be praying for those people this week. If you have opportunities to invite them and bring them along next Sunday, we'd love to see them here worshiping with us on Easter Sunday. With that being said, would you please join me in prayer? And then we'll continue and worship together.Jesus, we thank you for giving us this sure foundation for being our solid rock. Lord, we thank you for this week, where we are reminded that you did conquer Satan, sin and death, that you took our sin upon yourself on that cross, and then you Rose in victory on Sunday morning. I thank you for this good news that we have because of you and what you've done for us. Father, I pray that you would make us wise, that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that you'd give us the strength to faithfully continue down this hard narrow path of discipleship, to keep our eyes focused on Christ, the founder, the perfector, the trailblazer, the pioneer of our faith, and to fervently pursue him until that day where we stand before you in judgment.Not to hear those words, depart from me, I never knew you, but to hear those words, well, done, my good and faithful servant. Come, enter into the joy of your master. We long for that day, and we pray, until we get there, that you would, by the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to be faithful witnesses to you. We love you, we praise you, and we give you all glory, in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and savior, amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you sent your son Jesus Christ to be amongst us to live a human life. We thank you, Jesus, that you promised that you will build your church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. Pray today, show us from the holy Scriptures of how you build the church, what the building blocks of your church are, what the basics are, what the fundamentals are, and make us a people who are focused on the fundamentals of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who don't know you, calling people to repentance as we repent ourselves.Remind us that we are called to make disciples who make disciples, that we are to commit our lives to that, orient our lives around the great commission, and remind us that we are to serve people in deed and in word. Send us the Holy Spirit to speak to us to prepare our hearts, our minds, and our wills to continue to live for the glory of God. We pray this, in Jesus' name. Amen. If you're new, we are in the Gospel of Matthew for the foreseeable future, but probably until Easter. Next week, we're starting the greatest sermon that has ever been preached.We'll expose it through that. It's the Sermon on the Mount preached by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as he just called his disciples. Today, the text right before the Sermon on the Mount, we see Jesus Christ making disciples. This is how Jesus Christ transformed the world. The most influential person in the history of the world was Jesus Christ. We know that, and that's to be expected because he's the God man. If God comes, becomes a person who lives amongst us, obviously, he's going to be the most influential person who ever lived. That's not a miracle.We understand that. What is a miracle? Is that after Jesus Christ leaves, the church grows, the church grows, so much so that the church transforms the world. This morning, millions, dare I say, billions of people are worshiping Jesus Christ around the world. He transformed the world, not just through his own work, but through the work of his followers by the power of the Spirit. One of my favorite quotes about the radical influence of Jesus Christ in the world is by the Emperor Napoleon who, at the end of his life in exile, he came to the following conclusion about the King of kings.He said, "I know man and I tell you, Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial mind see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires. On what did we rest? On what did we rest the creations of our genius upon sheer force? Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love." At this hour, millions of men will die for him.Every other existence, but that of Christ, how many imperfections? From the first day to the last, he is the same, majestic and simple, infinitely firm and infinitely gentle. He proposes to our faith, a series of mysteries and commands with authority that we should believe them, giving no other reason than those tremendous words, I am God. Clearly, Jesus influenced the world, changed the world, transformed the world. The greater miracle is, how did his followers do it? How do we, today, continue to do it?How do we bring that radical life transforming force into the lives of our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues, into the lives of the people in this city and beyond? That's what we're going to talk about today. Matthew 4:12 through 25, would you look at the text with me? Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the city, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there he saw two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.His name spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. Great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame of our time. First, repent and preach the gospel. Second, follow Jesus and make disciples.Third, serve people in word and deed, the basics, the fundamentals of Christianity, of our faith. All too often, we complicate things in life, including our own faith. We forget about the basics, the fundamentals on which everything is built. Even professionals in sports, they need to get back to the fundamentals every once in a while. That's why you need spring training for baseball. That's why you need a preseason in football. We didn't get a preseason this year in the NFL, and that's why the Patriots stunk. That's the only excuse. That's the only reason.Tom Brady had nothing to do with it. We're going to get back to the fundamentals. Last week, I had to write a check. First of all, I haven't written a check in months, maybe a year. I had to write a check. I had to go find the checkbook. I had to find the payment. I take the pen and I start writing. I realized, I haven't written with my hand in a very long time. It felt foreign. It felt like, what am I doing? I don't even know how to write. I feel like I'm in kindergarten. I feel like my daughter, Milana, has better writing than I am. Get about the fundamentals. We need the fundamentals.We need the fundamentals in the Christian faith. That's why we need this text, which is the text preceding the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus here makes disciples and then he teaches his disciples. We need to learn how to make disciples, just like Jesus did. The first point is repent and preach the gospel. Some time has elapsed between verse 11 and verse 12. Verse 11, Jesus Christ was in the desert and he was getting tempted by the evil one. He resisted the evil one. The angels then came and ministered to him, most likely with food. Some time passes between verses 11 and 12.Jesus continues his ministry in Judea, Jerusalem, concurrently with John the Baptizer, whose ministries reported in the Gospel of John. Then in Matthew 4:12, it says, now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. John, who? This is John, Jesus' beloved cousin, who was only six months older than Jesus. John's ministry was predicted in the book of Isaiah, seven years before he was born. In the book of Malachi, 500 years before he's born. Centuries before, prophesied. He will come.He will prepare the way for the Lord by proclaiming the gospel, the gospel of repentance. Then his ministry lasts only 18 months. Fascinating. It's kind of weird point. I've been meditating on this week. We never know how much longer God will give us. Yes, in our lives, but also in our ministry. John serves and he serves and he serves. It's grace of God to be used by God. Whenever we get tired of ministry, tired of serving God, we can never forget that it's a gift to be used by God. That gift can be taken away at any moment, just like it was with John.What happened with John, he was arrested. What was he arrested for? He was arrested for speaking truth to power, not just truth to power, we hear that phrase all the time. God's truth to power, truth about morality to power. He spoke to King Herod and he said, "No, it is not right for you to take your brother's wife." He speaks God's moral truth to those in politics, to those in influence, which obviously destroys the argument that says, no, no, no, you can't talk moral truth to non-Christians. Moral truth, the 10 commandments only has to do with Christians.No, it's God's law for everybody. God is king over everybody. John the Baptizer, he speaks truth, God's truth to power. He's beheaded. First arrested, then beheaded. As Jesus learns that John has been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He goes to Galilee. Galilee was a very important place because it was a crossroads. There are lots of roads going through Galilee. Judea, one commentator said, is on the road to nowhere, Galilee is on the way to everywhere. Jesus chooses a place to do ministry, started his ministry, a place where people come and go, a place of transfer of ideas.He doesn't go to Jerusalem, which is to be expected. He defies expectation and goes to a place where people come and go. In Verse 13, leaving Nazareth, that's his hometown, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. Nazareth, small, insignificant town, Capernaum, which is part of the Sea of Galilee, bustling town, sea in the region of Galilee. That's where he goes. Why did he leave Nazareth? He leaves Nazareth because he was rejected in his hometown.In Luke Chapter 4, it's recorded that he preaches in the synagogue, takes the scroll of Isaiah, and says, today, this prophecy is fulfilled in your midst. They pick him up and then carry him to the edge of a cliff and they want to kill him for proclaiming himself to be the Messiah. Did Jesus have a hard time doing evangelism? Yeah. Jesus had a hard time doing evangelism in his hometown. No one believed him. He then goes to Capernaum, spend significant amount of time in Capernaum. It becomes his home base, base of operations.Then by Matthew 11, Jesus brings down a woe on Capernaum, woe on you, Capernaum, woe on you, Chorazin. For if the work is done and you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have believed and repented a long time ago. They rejected him as well. He brings the light. They reject the light, because it doesn't matter how great the light if you're blind. That's what the people were, blinded by their own sin, by their own pride, by their own selfishness, and rejected the Messiah. Matthew 4:14, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.He goes to Galilee, Zebulun, Naphtali. He goes not because King Herod had arrested John, but because Jesus need to fulfill the prophecy. In verse 15, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here." Zebulun and Naphtali, the 2 of the 12 tribes of Israel, they're the smaller tribes.They were given land that was farther away from Jerusalem. That's why it's called Galilee of the Gentiles, because it had a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. Because of the mixture of Jews and Gentiles, people from Jerusalem looked down on people from Galilee. Once again, the Lord is choosing to associate himself with the lowly, the despised, not the high, not the mighty. He goes to a place where it's absolutely clear that the Messiah is the Messiah, not just for the Jews. God has sent the Savior not just for one ethnicity, but for absolutely everybody.Every single person alive, no matter your ethnicity, no matter your skin color, no matter your country of origin, no matter your socioeconomic status, no matter where you're from, who you are, what you've done, we all need. Jesus. Doesn't matter if you're from the United States, you need Jesus. Doesn't matter if you're from Canada, you definitely need Jesus. Doesn't matter if you're from Russia, you definitely need Jesus. Everybody needs Jesus Christ. This is the point of him going to Galilee, not Jerusalem. Jesus hasn't come as a Messiah just for the Jews.He's come as a Messiah, as a King of the world. This is what Matthew was telling us, the magi coming, the magi of the Gentiles. They're coming to worship the king. This is why Matthew ends with the great commission, the last verses of the book, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the light. He is the Savior. He's come to seek and save that which is lost, the light that shines in the darkness. How does Jesus Christ shine the light? This shows us how do we shine the light into our world.How can we shine the light of Christ? We are the salt. We are the light. How do we shine the light? That's a tremendous question. I'm glad you asked. Jesus answers that in verse 17. This is how he shines the light. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." You hear that and you're like, that doesn't sound very lightful. That doesn't sound like full of light. A message of repentance. Well, it is because sin is darkness. Sin pulls us away from the source of light, which is God. Proclaiming this gospel of, hey, you can repent.You can return to God is a message of light. This message sounds familiar. Who else preached this message? John the Baptizer, Matthew 3:1 through 3. In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Verbatim. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight." John the Baptizer preached this message. Jesus preached this message.Jesus, when he sent His disciples on the first preaching tour, told them, Matthew 10:17, proclaim as you go, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Meaning the king is here, therefore repent. St. Peter, this is after Jesus' ascension, on the day of Pentecost, as he's filled the Holy Spirit, proclaims the gospel, preaches a powerful sermon, that people are deeply affected, and they cry out, "What shall we do?" This is what Peter said in Acts 2:38, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. St. Paul, speaking to the elders in Ephesus after finishing his ministry there, he said, he summarizes the ministry by saying, in Acts 20:21, testifying both to Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Later in his defense before Agrippa, Paul summarized his preaching in Acts 26:20, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.Performing deeds with keeping with their repentance, fascinating. Because many of us, when we think of the gospel, we think I repent, I believe in Jesus Christ, period. I'm saved. That's it. I don't have to do anything. St. Paul preached, no, are you bringing deeds, performing deeds keeping with your repentance? John the Baptist preached the same thing. Matthew 3:8, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. That's fascinating. He's saying prove that you're saved, prove that you have repented. Make your election and calling sure says St. Peter.Prove it. This is why we don't do ... You know how some churches do? By the way, this is how I think I got saved. I don't know. We don't do the walking down the aisle thing. Raise your hand if you're from a church where they did the walking down the aisle if you want to get saved. You know what I'm talking about it. I went to a youth conference at 13 and they said, "This is how you get saved." By the way, Russians, they know how to manipulate. They had a girl with a violin and there was someone playing in Oregon.They're singing a song about like, what's going to happen if you die today? Are you really going to go to hell? I'm like, ah, I don't want to go to hell, 13, and I walked down the aisle like, I'm saved, I'm saved. I walked down with my best friend. We walked down together. Afterwards, I'm like, "How do you feel, man?" He's like, "I feel saved." I was like, "I feel saved too, man. That's great." We don't do that. We don't do that. You know what I say? When someone's like, "I think I've trusted in Jesus," I'm like, "We'll see." We'll see.A week will pass, two weeks will pass, are you growing in the faith? Are you bearing fruit with repentance? Tremendous. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? We need to see some kind of track record, if you're saved by the Savior. This is how Jesus Christ talks about repentance, that there is transformation. We repent and believe in the Gospel because the kingdom is at hand, meaning the king is now the one whom you follow. There's life change. The centrality of repentance also stated negatively by Jesus in Matthew 11:20 through 21.Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Meaning if you do not repent, there are consequences. Matthew 12:41, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.A lot of people misunderstand repentance. They think repentance is either remorse or reformation. I will submit to you that it's not just remorse and it's not just reformation, it's actually returning to God. A lot of people think repentance is remorse, that you feel sorry, you feel deeply sorry for your sin, most likely, because you're sorry of the consequences of your sin. There are consequences. A lot of people think it's just self-reproach, it's self-loathing. This is what Martin Luther, before finally reading the book of Romans and seeing the gospel in the book of Romans, he suffered from what he called navel-gazing, where he would just focus on his own sin, on sinning against God.He was focused on himself. That remorse never led him to Christ, never led him to God. It was actually very selfish. It's a self-concentration. I feel so bad that I did X, Y, and Z because it's impacting me in the following ways. Paul says that remorse or worldly sorrow left by itself and leads to death. Judas. Did Judas repent after selling Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver? Did Judas repent? He was remorseful. He brought the money back and he threw it at the feet of the Pharisees. He did not repent. Committed suicide.Others said repentance is just moral reformation, that you just change your life. Well, you go to Christianity and change your life. I go to AA to change my life. I go to rehab to change my life. I go to therapy to change my life. Repentance is more than just turning over a new leaf. Reformation is changing your behavior. It's on the behavior level. People can do that without God. Repentance is on the heart level. Repentance is when you realize that you have sinned, not just against yourself and not just against people.Repentance is when you realize that you have sinned against a holy God, God who has created you, God who has given you everything that you have and continues to give and sustain, starting with the very breath that you take. In the Hebrew, the word repentance means to turn. In the Greek, it's to change one's mind. It's a returning to God, a turning to him, turning away from sin, and turning to God. There's two parts, recognition of sin, God, I see how sinful, odious, filthy my sin is against you. I turn away from it and I turned to you.It's a godly sorrow for sinning against God, of offending the God who loves you, of offending the Christ who has made a terrible sacrifice for you, of offending and grieving the Holy Spirit who has shown you the way of eternal life. It's a fear of God mixed with a love of God that turns you from sin to him. That's why Jesus says, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here. It's the establishment of God's rule. The king is here. His will is clear. We are to live according to it. What does fruit of repentance look like? I'm glad you asked.In Chapter 5, Jesus Christ sits down and he begins to teach his disciples. This is what fruit of repentance looks like, and he gives us the Sermon on the Mount. Definitely come back for that as we start the Sermon on the Mount next week. It's the transcript of the life of repentance to repent is to live a new life. It's a new way of life. Repentance is how you grow in the faith. It's the means by which you become a Christian. It's the means by which you continue to be a Christian. It's the means by which one is always a Christian. Humorously, I tell people that I get saved every day.When did you get saved? This morning. I was saved this morning. I say that tongue in cheek, but it's true. Because I mean I repent every day of being a sinner before a holy God. I need God's grace every day. Yes, my salvation began with justification. There was one day when that's the beginning of it. You continue in sanctification with repentance on a daily basis. Our Christian walk begins with repentance, continues with repentance. We are also then called to preach the gospel to others. That's the second point.We preach the gospel to others by making disciples, by being fishers of men. In terms of your own life, if you look at your own repentance, repentance has to do with life change. Are you repenting because the kingdom of God has drawn near? Is repentance a characteristic of your life? Are you changing in direction of Christ's example teaching commandments? Are you markedly different from a year ago? The world definitely is, but are you? Are you different from a year ago in your spiritual walk? Are you different from two years ago?To be a Christian means you are alive and you're growing and you're thriving in repentance. Point two is follow Jesus and make disciples. Verse 18, While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there he saw two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. A few comments here. Sea of Galilee is actually a lake. The Galilee and industry was actually very prosperous. A lot of us, when we think of Peter, Andrew, James, and John as fishermen, we think that they're poor. Not necessarily. They probably did actually really well. They had a small business and the two families, Peter and Andrew's family and the family Zebedee, James and John, they had a partnership. They worked together. Fishermen were not educated according to the pharisaical teachings in Jerusalem.They weren't educated. A lot of people, when they read scriptures like, oh, fishermen, that means you guys are idiots. Being not educated does not mean you're dumb. Because education does not add IQ points. A lot of people have bought into the lie, that you need formal education for intelligence. Those two are very different. That's why a lot of people, when they read the epistles of Peter, I remember in seminary, reading liberal theologian commentator, they're like, "There's no way that Peter could have written this because a fisherman can't write this well."Well, how do you know? How do you know? Maybe he was a very intelligent fisherman. He didn't have to get a PhD from a school to confirm his intelligence. He was just gifted with intelligence from the Lord. Then there's the Holy Spirit that actually adds IQ points, praise God. They were fishermen. What do we know about fishermen? It was actually a very dangerous profession. People die all the time. These are people who are familiar with hard work. They're familiar with hardships. Jesus sees them.As he sees them, two of the brothers are fishing, two of the brothers are mending nets. Jesus chooses these guys who are industrious. They know hard work. They know hardships. They know what it means to be on the brink of death. He picks these brothers who have known each other, they love each other already. They've been working together. There's a camaraderie. What else do we know? Simon is a Hebrew name. It's a Jewish name. Peter is his Greek nickname. There's a mixture of the cultures there. Andrew had a Greek name.That reflects the mixture of the cultures as well. Jesus Christ calls them. Twice we see the word immediately. They left everything immediately. Was this the very first time that they met Jesus Christ? Probably not, as we see in the Gospel of Luke. They had met with Jesus in the gospel of John. Andrew is actually a follower, a disciple of John the Baptist. Then he met with Jesus. He went to check things out, and then finally called Peter. They knew about Jesus. They had time to consider the teaching of Jesus. They had time to consider the mission of Jesus.They had time to count the cost. Then finally, Jesus comes to them at a moment, he says, "Now is the time you make a decision." Today, right now, follow me. Follow me. This is what it means. This text is right after the text where he says, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Now he's giving us an illustration. This is what repentance looks like. When Jesus Christ comes to you and says, follow me, follow me. This is what it means to be a Christian. This is what it means to be a disciple. This is what it means to bear fruit, keeping with repentance. Follow me.Follow Jesus Christ. You see that they leave everything immediately. They had jobs. They had family responsibilities, people that depended on them. They leave everything. We know for certain that Peter was married. He had a wife and he had a mother-in-law. He didn't leave them forever, but his priorities changed. Now his greatest priority in life is Jesus Christ and His mission. There's definitely a disruption in their lives. Then also now, they're on a path. Follow me. Means I'm putting you on a brand new path.Did James imagine that he, at this moment, is exchanging a peaceful life as a fisherman for dying brutally, way too young? Did Peter imagine he was taking his first fateful step to being crucified upside down 35 years later? No, they had no idea. St. Paul, when he was called to Jesus, he says, "I suffer the loss of all things for the sake of Christ." What did St. Paul lose? He lost a family. To study Gamaliel, you have to be at least 35 and married. Most likely, Paul was married at some point. Most likely, when he followed Christ, his wife refused to follow.Then he endured stonings and shipwrecks and beatings. He left a career where he was enjoying incredible rise to fame. Instead, he traded in for becoming a laughingstock of his former world, although, by the grace of God, he becomes the most influential, the greatest mere man who ever lived because they understood what it means to follow Jesus. To follow Jesus, yes, it begins with information. You're a disciple. You're learning things, but it also entails obedience. I'm not just following a rabbi, I'm following a king. The king tells me what to do.That's what it means to follow him. It's to live like he lived, to follow in his footsteps. 1 Peter 2:21, to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. The phrase follow me is used 25 times in the Gospel of Matthew, because that's the essence of Christianity. Are you a Christian? I don't want to hear, yes, because I go to church, yes, because I watched church online, yes, because I read scripture. No, no, no, no. Yes, because I follow Jesus Christ. Right now, today, I am following Jesus Christ.I'm following his commandments. I'm doing what he taught me to do. What he teach us to do at the very moment that he calls these guys to himself, he calls them to his mission. It's a double invitation. It's not just follow me and enjoy the perks of being a Christian. It's follow me and I'm going to make you fishers of men. Drop everything. I'm going to make you disciple makers. You follow me, you abide in me. As you do, you are transformed to be a fisherman, a missionary. You're transformed to be a person that summons others to God.The phrase fisher is used in Jeremiah 16:16 where God says, behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they will catch them. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will catch them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. In Jeremiah, God speaks of fishing for people as God's judgment. The nets were God's judgment. When Jesus Christ comes, he talks about being fishers of men as God's salvation from judgment. That Jesus Christ came and he himself was caught up in the nets of God's wrath for our sin on the cross.Jesus Christ was hunted by the wrath of God for our sin. He dies on the cross, so that he can extend to us now nets of salvation to pull us out of the sea of the wrath of God that we deserve for our law breaking. That's why God says, repent, return to me, so that you are now not under the wrath of God, but under the love and mercy of God. That's what it means to make fishers of men, is to call people to God, to call people to grace, to call people to faith in Jesus through repentance. This is how Jesus Christ changed the world. Jesus Christ, did he write any books?The only thing I think Jesus wrote that we know of, is one time he wrote in his finger in the sand. Did Jesus Christ build institutions? Were there any monuments created to his life and work in his lifetime or immediately thereafter? No. How did Jesus change the world? He chose 12 men, poured his life into them, taught them to be disciples of him who make disciples. That's what discipleship is. A lot of people think discipleship is we're going to sit together and read a nice Christian book and talk about it and that's discipleship. No, that's a book club.Discipleship is when you make other disciples of Jesus Christ. That's the ultimate goal of discipleship. Discipleship isn't just reading the Bible. It's not just memorizing scripture. All of that is important, but to culminate in sharing the gospel with someone else and they become believers in Jesus Christ. This is the whole goal of the church. This is why I want to talk about like the basics, the fundamentals. We can't forget, this is our job. This is why we're here. If you move from here, your job stays the same. Just the location has changed. We're called to be fishers of men.We're called to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The question here at the end of point two is, am I following Jesus? Am I making disciples? Am I a hard worker and making disciples? Am I bold in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ? We should be. Did Jesus Christ proclaim the gospel boldly? Did everyone gets saved when he preached? No. Nazareth, his hometown, rejected him. Capernaum rejected them. He said, all right, great. I'm just going to go to the next town. I'm just going to go to the next city. You proclaim the gospel. When you do, the elect will come to faith.That's what we trust in, is in the sovereignty of God. Point three is serve people in word and deed. That's what Jesus does ministry, not just of serving them in deed and not just the word, but it's both. Matthew 4:23 and 25, and he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. His fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.Great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. First, Syria here is not the modern country of Syria, but an area north of Galilee. People are traveling to see Jesus as his fame grew. What did he do? It says, he spends time teaching in the synagogues. That's the religious centers for Jewish people, preaching the good news of the kingdom to everybody, and healing people of their sickness, of their affliction, of their demon possession. Jesus Christ is the second person of the trinity of the triune Almighty God.It's inevitable that Jesus performs miracles. He's the maker of the world. He's the Savior of the world. He's the one who created sight, therefore he can give it to the blind. He created the hearing so he can give it to the deaf, et cetera. Jesus is the God man, the maker of heaven and earth. We should not be surprised that he does miracles. We should expect it. We should expect it. It's more of a surprise that Jesus died, then that he rose again. The resurrection should not be a surprise. He's the God man. Of course, he comes back from the dead. Surprise that he dies.You expect creation from the creator, that he has creative power, the one who gives life can restore and resurrect. Perhaps, that's why the gospel writers, they present the miracles very nonchalantly. Yeah, Jesus walked around and he resurrected this guy and gave sight to this guy. Yeah, because he's the God man. That shouldn't be an issue. The question is, why did God give us these miracles? The scripture says that they are signs. Acts 2:22, men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.They're wonders and signs, meaning God gives them to point to a greater truth and a greater reality. Nicodemus, when he came to Jesus by night in John Chapter 3 says, "Rabbi, we know that you are sent from God, because no one can perform the miraculous signs that you were doing." For Jesus, the miracles weren't the point. Because miracles do not change hearts. That's why in Matthew 11, he says, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For signs done in you had been done." They saw signs, they didn't get saved.That's why Jesus, whenever he did signs, the miracles were given to bolster faith, not to create faith. Faith is only given to us as a gift from God. Mark 1:32 through 39, incredible passages where Jesus heals people and then stops. That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. The whole city was gathered together at the door. He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, "Everyone is looking for you." He said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns." Everyone is looking for you to get healed again. More people want to get healed. "Everyone is looking for you." He said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out."He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. What's Jesus saying? He's saying, I can heal you of your sickness. If you do not repent of your sin, you are desperately sick. What's the point of you physically getting healed? Then time passes and you die, and you are spiritually sick for all of eternity in a place called hell. What's the point? Jesus focuses on the gospel, that this is the greatest news. This is the only hope for the world. This is the only thing that can transform us. He does do miracles.There are miracles that point to the greater miracle. The greatest miracle of all, is that God resurrects people from spiritual death, that God gives the gift of repentance, gives the gift of faith, gives the gift of obedience, the gift of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus feeds the 15,000, it's a sign that he is the bread of life. When he heals sick, it's a picture of him delivering us from the sickness of sin and death. When he drives out demons out of the possessed, it's to show that he has power over Satan.When he speaks to a paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, now pick up your bed and walk, he's showing that the greatest paralysis that you have is that of sin. The second is the physical paralysis. Physical healing is a sign. Forgiveness is a reality. We live in a world where more than ever, in this season, we've been thinking about death and people getting sick. That's why it's more important than ever for us to not forget our job. A lot of Christians, I think, have taken a little vacation from the great commission. Why? Pandemic. That's an excuse for everything, pandemic.No. We still have a job to do, which is the great commission of Jesus Christ, to go and make disciples. Let us not forget that. So that when people do die, which is inevitable, we're all going to die. We go to a better place because of your faith in Jesus Christ, because of repentance, because you are a disciple, because you follow him. Think of Lazarus, I always think of Lazarus. Lazarus came back from the dead. That's awesome. Comes back. Live in life. New lease on life. You ever have a near death experience and then for a week, you're a much better human being. It's awesome.Lazarus comes back. Oh, this is incredible. Life again. Wow! Then years go by, I don't know how many years, a decade, maybe two. Then he's on his deathbed again. Tell me how he feels. Most likely, he's pumped. I'm so glad to be done with this dump. Mission accomplished. I'm going to heaven. I'm spending eternity with Jesus. I can't wait. That's how I feel about it. I tell my wife all the time. She's not enthused by that. I was like, "I can't wait to go to Jesus. Jobs done. I'm going to heaven." She's like, "You still got four kids to raise." I'm like, "Yeah, that's right."That's why I'm here. It's better for me to stay for a little while longer. When you believe in Jesus Christ, that's the assurance you have, that's the truth you have, that Jesus Christ brings light and life to the whole person. He can forgive anyone and everyone of all sins. He can heal any emotional heartache. He can free from any deep addiction. He can heal any physical disease, any broken heart, any struggling families. If you're not a Christian, come to Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, come to Jesus Christ as well.If you missed any of the points, repent and preach the gospel, follow Jesus, make disciples, serve people in word and in deed. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time in the Holy Scriptures. We love the scriptures. They don't just teach us and illuminate our minds, but they feed our souls. We thank you for the reminder, that we are to repent of sins and follow you and to make disciples and to serve people on a daily basis in both word and deed. We pray, continue to send us the Holy Spirit, continue to embolden us to speak the truth of the gospel.Continue to give us opportunities to speak the gospel and call people to repentance because they've offended a holy God, but he's also a merciful God who sent us Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. For that, we thank you. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen.

We are in a new series on the gospel of John entitled the story of Amazing love. Last week introduced the book from John 1:1-5.And we saw from this text 2 things:That Jesus Christ did not have a beginning. In the beginning was the word. God had no beginning. In the beginning God was wasing. In the beginning God was already there and had always been there.That Jesus Christ was the creator. All things were made through him. That all the energy in the universe, 10^70th joules of power were not made by Jesus, they were made through Jesus. You’ve perhaps heard the creative act of God being described as ex nihilo (out of nothing). Well, if we want to get technical about it, that’s not quite true. The universe was not created ex nihilo. It was created ex christus. Or more accruately still, propter christo. The universe was created THROUGH Jesus Christ.So the first five verses begin by making this point. Why? There’s a definite reason. In the pages that are to follow we will befriend this real flesh and blood Jesus who eats and tires. A man who is filled with the emotions we are familiar with - sorrow, joy, anger and empathy. We will meet a man who is beset with human weakness. And John intends us to connect the man who is described in these pages to the omnipotent, all-powerful, creative LIFE-GIVING God of the pre-created world.John is going to argue that the man Jesus is in fact, God. Nobody would be expected to come to that conclusion by merely looking at him. Why? because he looked so NORMAL. The prophet Isaiah predicted this.Jesus wasn’t born with super powers. John knows that you are going to make a snap judgment concerning the nature of this man. We stereotype and you are not to be blamed. Who in the world would believe that this guy you are looking at, this guy who looks like a man, and an average one at that, is in fact God himself, the creator of the entire universe?John was written for this very purpose - that you might believe that this man, this Jesus, is in fact, the Christ (Messiah) the son of the living God and that by believing you might experience LIFE in his name (spiritual life and physical life).Or you could put it this way: John 1:1-5 is the claim that Jesus is God. The rest of the book is going to try and defend the claim.The Prologue of Revelation.John 1:1-18 is considered the prologue. It’s the word given before the word. It’s the 20,000 foot view of what’s to come. And the prologue begins with the concept of REVELATION.The REVELATION IS THE CLAIM. The claim of John 1:1-5 is that Jesus is God. Revelation, according to the Christian tradition, is God choosing to disclose himself. In order for us to know anything about God, he’s got to make the first move. Without God initiating, we could never know Him and we could never fully know ourselves.Perhaps it’s obvious but it’s worth noting that divine revelation is by no means a given. There’s nothing that says that God had to reveal himself. He could have just as easily created the world, walked away and left us to our own demise. A deist believes that there is evidence of a God but he is unknowable because he has not chosen to reveal himself. God wound up the world like a clock and then left it on a shelf and he has simply gone elsewhere, wherever Gods go. But that is not the claim made here. God has chosen to reveal himself. And he did that through his Son, Jesus Christ.Now that self-revelation was preceded by a messenger named John and that’s where our text today begins.Revelation here is pictured as light that slices through darkness. Imagine being in that dark cave we described last week. Am I in a chamber 8 feet high or 800 feet high? What colors are in the rocks? Is there water? Are there crystals or stalactites or are the walls smooth. It’s all there, it just can’t be known because we don’t have light to reveal it.Without a source of light/revelation we are blind men groping in a dark world. Without light/revelation, our observational abilities can only get us so far.Consider what is knowable about God from mere observation of the created order. No REVELATION just OBSERVATION. Let’s assume you deduce from looking at creation that there must be a God. There is too much complexity to explain it away by chance. But let me ask you just one simple question about this creator: Is he merciful or merciless?What evidence could you begin acquiring?Zebras get taken out by Tigers. That’s pretty violent. That doesn’t seem too merciful.Innocent people get murdered, women are oppressed, defrauded? God does not seem merciful at all by that metric.On the other handIt doesn’t seem that we are not destroyed instantly by our evil actions. It seems like we are given a second chance. That seems merciful.The wicked and the righteous alike are given gifts of a beautiful day, the opportunity to love, wonderful food. That seems merciful.It’s inconclusive. We can’t know. But here’s an even more fundamental question. Is being merciful good or bad? Without God revealing himself, we can’t even answer which is more noble?If there’s no revelation, if there’s no place where God has spoken and told us what is right and wrong, then all morality can be nothing more than a matter of opinion. It can’t be absolute.If there is no revelation, then a woman might rise up and object to being treated like a slave. But from the perspective of the one enslaving, it’s a good thing. He gets a free servant. There is not a way you can consider one inferior to another. You have no basis for saying so. Does not the natural world operate according to the principle of survival of the fittest?When it comes to our sexual ethic, our sense of justice, our sense of right and wrong, there cannot be absolute answers to these questions without revelation. We need the creator to intervene and say:I did not intend for you to behave like this. I intended instead for you to behave like this.This is acting according to design. This is acting against my design.Only a creator can say that. Do you see how lost we are without revelation?We need intellectual light.We need moral light.And Jesus Christ comes bringing both. Jesus is the LIGHT.Now we are going to save the story of John the Baptist for next week but suffice it to say that God used John not as the light, but as the man who would announce that the light was coming.John was to Jesus as a map of Disneyland is to Disneyland John was to Jesus as a sign to McCall is to McCallJesus was the light of the world. John handed you the flashlight and told you where the on switch was.So the prologue begins by telling us that light came into the world. Again, the prologue is the overview of the entire thing. So John’s going to show us people’s reaction to the light. **John essentially says, “I am about to tell you a story.** I am going to tell you about that period of history when the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, The LIGHT of the world, was REVEALED.”But BEFORE I tell you the beginning, let me first tell you the end. Here’s the summary of how people reacted to that REVELATORY claim. The claim itself divided. The claim itself was a WEDGE.Some loved him. Some hated.Some worshiped. Others cursed.Some gave everything they had for him. Others gave everything they had to destroy him.Some believed. Others disbelieved.So John begins with the end. He starts with how the REVELATION itself was ultimately and finally received.Now let’s look at the response that people had to this light.Let’s start with rejection.At first he points out the irony. How could the creator, the one who owns everything, made everything, is the source of life for everything, be rejected?How could the owner and creator be rejected by the creatures?Several years ago, I remember reading about the CEO of Mozilla. He was an entrepreneur and built the firefox browser and this giant company from the ground up. And even though he was the founder and developer and CEO of the company his board fired him for being unwilling to support a political agenda. How can it be that the man who built the company be fired by the company he built?That’s what’s being described here. Jesus Christ is the creator of all things, and specifically the human machine.Jesus Christ is the inventor of DNA with it’s 3 million base pairs.He didn’t even need a patent because it’s so complex nobody could copy it.The inventor of the eye with it’s ability to differentiate between 10 million colors.The inventor of the ear complete with it’s ability to magnify sound and provide feedback for balance.The inventor of neurons that chemically transmit information at 120 m/s.The inventor of the brain with it’s 100 billion neuronsSo God invented, gifted all this, graced the world with all this and then here’s what happened.We used the eye given by Jesus to see Jesus.We used the ear given by Jesus to hear Jesus.We used the neurons given by Jesus to transfer that sensory information to the brain given by Jesus to evaluate JesusAnd then we used the mouth given by Jesus to reject Jesus.The world was made THROUGH him, yet the world did not know him. It can’t get any more IRONIC and can’t any more TRAGIC.But this is not merely the summary of the response of men to Jesus’ ministry. This is the summary of men to God all through the Bible.I heard someone recently say that the Bible is basically a summary of man’s search for God. I laughed out loud when I heard that. You could not possibly do a worse job of describing the Bible than that. That one sentence undoes the entire Bible. Quite efficient.If you read the Scripture, you will see the Bible is one story piled on top of another story of God revealing himself to men and women who were not looking for him.God revealed himself through prophets. What did they do with them? They stoned them.Jonah’s running.Samson is womanizing.Saul is hiding.Gideon is cowering.Time and time again you have men and women trying to get away from God as far as they can. Are men searching? Well they are searching! They are searching, searching, searching for every possible way to get out of his presence.I have kept my hands out all day to a disobedient people.I have spoken to those who did not seek me.I have answered those who did call out to me.Jesus Christ is the climax of divine revelation. And the climactic revelation is attended with climactic rejection.The response to the REVELATION of Jesus Christ is not surprising. Most people rejected him. But others accepted him. Others received him.Look at verse 12ReceptionSome received him. Some accepted the claim. Some believed that Jesus was God.And he describes the result of that belief as those who become children of God. What’s the significance of becoming children of God. Why that metaphor? Here’s the idea.When a lady bug lays eggs and new life comes out. What kind of life is it? It’s ladybug life.A grasshopper gives birth to grasshopper life.A squirrel gives birth to squirrel life.The point is that whatever the parent life form… a moose, a salamander or a human, a parent can only give it’s offspring the same type of life that he himself has.And here we are told that by believing in God we are given the right to become children of God which means that we will be given the same kind of life as God. Remember the purpose of John. These things are written that you might believe and that by believing you might have LIFE in his name. You partake of the same type of life as the father because now you are his children.And what type of life is that? Eternal life. Perfect Life. That’s good stuff folks.Now if that is the case, why would anyone reject him? If all you have to do is believe in Jesus Christ to have PERFECT LIFE, why in the world would ANYONE reject him? Let’s think.What the Light RevealedWhat was it about the light that caused such violently different reactions? What was this piercing, dividing quality of light? What did the light reveal? There must have been something about that light or something about what it revealed that was either attractive or offensive. We see that in the next verse.Now this is helpful. Here we get our interpretive key to vs. 1. In the beginning was the Word. Who is the word? The word became flesh and dwelt among us. So the Word is Jesus Christ.Why not just say, “In the beginning was Jesus? And Jesus was with God and Jesus was God.” Why refer to Jesus as the WORD? Just as words reveal what is in the mind of a man, so Jesus Christ reveals what is in the mind of God. Jesus Christ reveals God. And this is the most complete, most full revelation that could ever be given.Perhaps you have heroes of the faith. It’s one thing to read about a man… You can read their biographies. That gives you some idea of who they are. But wouldn’t you love to live among them? Wouldn’t you love to see how they respond to stress? How do they balance all the important priorities. What do they do when they get tired? How do they play? What kinds of things are funny to them? What does righteous anger look like? How do they respond to criticism?This is whey Jesus coming to earth is so significant. It’s the ultimate REVELATION. Immanuel - God with us. God among us. It was God revealing in a way he had never done before.Jesus come in the flesh was like revelation on steroids. It’s why the life of Christ is such a powerful, never-ending insight into the person of God.The way John describes the experience of that REVELATIONis that we beheld his glory. Normally when we think of glory we tend to think in terms of splendor, light, perfection. That’s a glorious sunset. That’s a glorious melody.The Greek word for glory is δόξα which ACTUALLY comes from the Greek root dokéō which means to think.What the word really means in it’s most core essence is to think in such a way as to develop a high opinion. What do I think of something. If I think very HIGHLY of you, you have lots of glory. If I think very LOW of you then you have very little glory.And so when we say, that is a glorious sunset, we are of the opinion that the sunset has reached a level of perfection. This sunset has the perfect combination of colors, the perfect contrasting hues, the perfect crisp lines and muted blurred clouds.When I look at it my mind identifies it as perfection.Here’s the point. When the Jews of the NT saw Jesus, they saw perfection. They saw in him something they instantly identified as completeness, unstained, undefiled, beauty. They saw glory.The Attraction of PerfectionNow I think it’s interesting that of all the things to call out in a prologue high/level overview, this is the aspect you’d highlight. I mean the guy walked on water. The guy could raise people from the dead. The miraculous isn’t even called out. Yes, he did miracles. Yes, he had power. But that’s not what John primarily identifies as the thing that makes him glorious. What makes him glorious is the perfect embodiment of grace and truth. Think about this.Life is full of balancing acts isn’t it. And we never get that balance right.- We see it’s important to be critical but it’s also important to accept. How do you get that right?- We know it’s important to speak up but it’s also important to listen. - We know it’s important to stand your ground but it’s also important to back down.What we see in Jesus is perfection. We see glory. We look at the balance of how Jesus lived his life and we say, "Wow, that is glorious." We marvel. That’s perfect. It’s the perfect balancing act. It’s beauty in it’s perfect form. Consider a painting. To much black and the eyes don’t look good. Too much white and it’s washed out. There is a perfect balance. There is a mixture that is absolutely perfect. And that is what is being referenced here. We beheld Jesus, full of grace and truth.When the light came, it was perfect. It was so beautiful. White light is the combination of all the colors of the rainbow. We see in the white light of Jesus all good values contained and balanced perfectly. It’s so beautiful. You just gaze on it in wonder. The picture of perfect light.Look at how this perfect white light is further describedJohn begins his gospel with the stunning REVELATION of God in the person of Jesus Christ. God has ‘made himself known’ through the perfection of JESUS.The fact that Jesus was utterly glorious, utterly reflective of the glory of God can be demonstrated by this simple question, “How in the WORLD did Jesus get ANYONE to believe the CLAIM that he was God?”Think about the difficulty of this problem. It can be summarized with four words. Jesus was a man. If Jesus was talking to a Greek well maybe you could convince him. Because after all, the gods to the Greeks were just men blown big. To the Greeks, the gods were just kind of like Marvel characters. They were more or less men, but men with amazing athleticism, incredible intellect, strong reproductive prowess. And so you could conceive that if Jesus was especially talented in some area, he may be able to convince a Greek that he was a god.But Jesus was a Jew, and he was talking to Jews.Jews believed the OT which revealed that God was a Spirit who existed outside the world.He was the creator of the world.How could God be in the world?He couldn’t be a man because a man was created.By contrast, God was a being of infinite power who created everything by the word of his power. He just whispers and the dust of galaxies obediently fling into existence, 10^70th joules of power strong.For a man to say, “I am God…” To a Jew? This was heresy of the most laughable form. Indeed, many tried to stone him for it.And yet many believed. How did he do it?Now, we aren’t done setting up the difficulty of the problem. Here’s the most problematic part. Think about this. It’s not like he got people to believe in him who lived far away and were simply mesmerized by this romantic idea of God come down in the form of a man.He got people to believe in him who actually lived with him and ate with him and laughed and cried with him. It’s one thing to love a comedian on stage. You think, man he looks so natural, so warm, so welcoming, so likable. You think he’s likable? Talk to his wife. It’s another thing entirely, to live with the guy.Think about this. Jesus had been living with the disciples for 3 years in close quarters. Day in day out. Hungry, tired, opportunities to be irritable, opportunities to be grumpy.Before Jesus heads up to Jerusalem to be crucified, Jesus turns to Peter, and says, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replies, you are the Christ the Son of the living God. Just think…what kind of life must Jesus have lived before them such that this was the answer that comes out of their lips? Can you imagine that? I know my wife and kids love me, but when I ask them that question, “Who do you say that I am?” I’m hearing different stuff.When the disciples looked at him, what did they see? They saw perfection. When they looked at him they saw a man who was GLORIOUS, brilliant was full of grace and truth. He hurt their eyes. Normally, the longer you live with someone the more normal they become. With Jesus it was opposite.The longer you lived with him, the more amazed you became.The more astonished you became.The more you get to know him the better he.He’s better than you expected. Why?Because you are beholding, not a great man, you are beholding God himself.You are staring right at God.Do you not think that would be an amazing experience?They saw in him perfection embodied.Remember I began by asking the question is it good to be merciful or merciless. What is the answer to the question? What does God reveal? Is it good to be merciful or merciless. The answer is Jesus. It’s the perfect combination.There are times when he overthrows the tables of the money changers.He shows no mercy.His eyes are fire.There is a whip in his hand.He is sharp, bitter, hard merciless.You brood of vipers.You white washed tombs.Justice.Other times when God shows absolute mercy.Go and sin no more.He washes the disciples feet.He’s dining with tax collectors and prostitutes.Here he is. Full of grace and full of truth. They saw in him virtues that had never been combined.You have here tenderness without any weakness,strength without any heavy-handedness,humility without any timidity,firm, unbending, unyielding convictions and yet utter approachabilitypassion without prejudice,power without insensitivity.Never a jarring note when you look at him. Never a false step. Never. What do you see here? You see the surprises of perfection.You want to know what the Jews saw that allowed them to rearrange their conception of Messiah. They saw God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among them. Full of GRACE and full of TRUTH. Perfection. The perfect combination.Who is this that the winds and the seas obey him?Never has a man spoke as this man spoke.Who is this?In the end, they had to come to this incredible conclusion. It must be GOD.The Problem with LightSo let’s come back to it. If you had perfect grace and truth, why would anyone reject him? If believing that he was God was the source of life why would anyone reject?Let me explain through analogy: Who wants to join me in a sun staring contest? The person who can stare at the sun longest without blinking wins. Who’s in? Why not? Because when you look at the sun, it hurts your eyes. I fact if you stare longer than just a couple seconds it would damage them. Whose fault is that? How foolish it would be to blame the sun. The problem is not the sun. The problem is my eyes. My weakness cannot take it in. I need the sun.But if our eyes were adjusted to see what’s really there we would see something like this:It is by the sun that you can see all things.It is because of the sun that all things live and exist and have their being.What we need is not to get rid of the sun. What we need is increased capacity to take it in. And when you suddenly filter it out so you aren’t so overwhelmed you begin to see the layers and layers of beauty.“We beheld his glory, full of grace and truth.”The Problem with the Son.So the light came and revealed perfection but we were not capable of taking it in. It hurt our eyes. Yes, we were mesmerized by it, but it hurt us.But here’s another thing about light. Because of it’s nature. Yes it, in and of itself, is beautiful. But the nature of light is that it reveals. It illuminates things around it.And what it illuminated was not pretty. You see the glory of Jesus reveals that we are not glorious. The glory of God shames. We are simultaneous attracted and repulsed. We are attracted to beauty and perfection but we are repulsed by what that beauty and perfection says about our sinful condition.And we want it to go away. We want to remove the revealing light. It was just better not knowing.A few years ago we painted our house white. My wife is a color fanatic. So she spent approximately 7300 hours picking out the particular white that she wanted. And we painted it white. And she just loved it. It was perfect, until it snowed. And then when the snow fell, the snow looked so beautiful, so clean, so fresh and our house just looked dirty and grimy. All the imperfections were so obvious.People thought they were patient until they saw perfect patience. Then suddenly their best patience looked like violence.People thought they were loving until they saw true love.People thought they were compassionate and tender till they saw it in its perfect form.We didn’t know the first thing about it. Never did a man speak like this. When we see the glory of God we are compared and found inadequate. That is the precise reason why some want nothing to do with the light.A couple years ago I watched a documentary called No Place On Earth that re-enacted the story of 36 Jews who hid in a Ukrainian cave for over 420 days to escape the Nazis. Can you imagine this? The men would leave the cave to get food and supplies but the women and children stayed there the entire time. What would it be like to live in a cave for over a year without seeing the sun. There was a period of time in which they went a month without light because they were out of candles and they were fearful of being detected. Night after night after night after night of darkness. There’s no information about your surroundings.Now for the adults it was much harder than for the children. Parts of the movie was from the perspective of this little four year old girl who survived the experience. She entered when she was 3 and she had forgotten that there ever was such a thing as the sun. The darkness was her home. Most people her age would have felt scared in the dark but she felt safe. The Nazis were in the light so she felt safe in the darkness.When she finally exited the light scared her. She was disoriented and confused. The light of the sun was so bright and so overpowering and it revealed so much of the world it just overloaded her senses and she wanted to go back into the dark.She had a conception of the world that was framed in by her darkness. She didn’t feel like she was in the dark. She felt like she understood reality. Darkness was all she had ever known. As soon as the light of the sun entered her world, everything was turned upside down.What this illustrates is that there are unique problems with people who are born in darkness. People who are born in darkness don’t know what they are missing. And interestingly, the Bible says we are all born in spiritual darkness. And when the light comes initially the response is fear and terror. The father of light sends his Son and his glorious brilliance lights up your soul and it terrifies you to see how you’ve been living. Can you imagine how much filth would be in a cave that held 36 people and had not been cleaned for 420 days? Most of that filth would not be visible because there was so little light. But imagine how horrified you’d be if you threw a few thousand lumins into the mix.It’s a metaphor for our hearts. The Son of God comes and he throws light on invisible corners of the heart, places that have never seen the light of day and when that happens, you can’t even recognize your own heart. Your self conception was framed in darkness. And what the light reveals terrifies you.But it’s a necessary step. You have to remember, it’s the heat of the presence of God that removes the roaches. How can we face into the light if the light reveals so much of the ugliness of our soul. How can we bear it? Because we have grace upon grace in Jesus Christ. We have a friend in Jesus, the perfection of grace and truth, who will never leave us or forsake us. A friend who will take, the ugliness, take the reproach and shame of sin upon himself.This is who is revealed to us in the book of John. And I can’t wait to glory in Him! Are you excited?

Welcome to the last Sunday of 2020. It's been a year and we ready ourselves for the beginning of the new. Prelude - "The First Noel" (arr. Fred Bock) - Micah Wright, pianoWelcome & News of the ChurchCall to WorshipHymn of Praise - (#171) "Joy to the World"Confession and Assurance, led by Rev. Sharon YagerlenerSpecial Music - "Gesu Bambino" by Pietro Yon - Performed by Saousan Jarjour, soprano; Cornel Radulescu, organSermon - "Heart for the Lost" (Galatians 4:4–7) - by Rev. Jason GrifficeOffertory - "And the Glory of the Lord" from Handel's "Messiah"Prayers of the People, led by Amy Hemseri-SabalaBenedictionClosing Hymn - (#205) "Go Tell it On the Mountain"Joy to the WorldJoy to the world! the Lord is come: Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world! the Savior reigns: Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, Rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders of His love. Go Tell it On the MountainGo, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! While shepherds kept their watching O'er silent flocks by night, Behold throughout the heavens There shone a holy light. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! The shepherds feared and trembled When lo! Above the earth Rang out the angel chorus That hailed our Savior's birth. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! Down in a lowly manger The humble Christ was born, And brought us God's salvation That blessed Christmas morn. Go, tell it on the mountains, Over the hills and everywhere; Go, tell it on the mountains That Jesus Christ is born! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello everyone!This is a special episode of the Into the Pray podcast specifically with our Edinburgh neighbours in mind! Thank you for making the effort to come through to listen to this episode and we hope that we've managed to strike the right balance in both how and what we discuss. Thanks also to Gareth Hides for joining Nick to make this episode happen. Our priority in this podcast as a whole is to address the "chaos of the Church" - and the Church is more chaotic that any of us are currently able to see. (We've discussed this at length in the early parts of season 1).This chaotic landscape, (ie one church saying one thing, another church saying something very different, a lack of unity around the things that Jesus actually said), probably means that you're not interested in attending any of the 300+ churches in the city of Edinburgh. We completely understand that. We understand that there is often hypocrisy, contradiction, confusion and compromise regarding what the Church stands for (and doesn't stand for); we understand that there is often no real substance or power to what is currently understood to be "the Church".We are so sorry that this is the way it has become, especially in recent decades in Britain. As such, as part of the Church ourselves, we apologise unreservedly on behalf of the Church. However, there also remains spectacularly, (incomparably!) good news that will never spoil or fade...What is the core of the gospel message, really? - That Jesus Christ, the Messiah, lived, was crucified, was resurrected to life on the third day and is returning to redeem a people who will be ready for Him... just as a Bride is made ready for a Bridegroom. Once again, the gospel integrally includes the urgency of the Second Coming firmly, daily, in mind. - That forgiveness for sin - any sin, absolutely any sin, once and for all - is immediately available by trusting in the name of Jesus, by believing in His "atoning" sacrifice on the cross, by believing in your heart that He is Lord and by confessing with your mouth that, by faith, He is yours.Why is this different from any other message on the earth?Grace is uniquely Christian. Only Jesus offers eternal salvation as a gift and that to receive this gift we need not do anything other than believe. Grace is the "unmerited favour" of God and there is nothing that any of us can do to make God love us more or less than He already does. This is very, very good news!We don't have all the answers but we do want to boldly give the most important answer of all: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16). In what is arguably the most uncertain period of modern history, it is our obligation (and privilege!) to point you clearly in the right direction - to Jesus Christ, "...the way, the truth and the life..." and "...the only way to the Father".Please take our word for it: the Church is the problem, not God!Please feel free to drop us any questions or knock on our front door; we'd love to hear from you. in Jesus' Name, Nick & Mairi xx

Well if you have Bibles with you please turn with me to Hebrews 2:1-4. Last time that we were in Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 1 and I understand it was a long time ago, we heard in Hebrews 1 this rather rich exposition on just who the Son of God is. Jesus Christ is, we heard back in chapter one, the one who is the Son, the very God of very God, the one who always was always is and always will be. As we'll see today, all of that rich theology that was unfurled for us in chapter one of the book of Hebrews concerning Jesus Christ, although it was some pretty deep theology that we were in, isn't in the slightest just some interesting theological musings for interested theologians. Far from it. These are truths that we encountered in chapter one that have life and death significance attached to them. In chapter two our author makes the turn, as he so often does in this epistle, from exposition, from the theological discourse if you will, to exhortation, to telling us as a church what to do with all of that really rich theology that was unpacked for us. So, bearing that in mind. Hear now the word of the Lord from Hebrews 2:1-4. 1Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Hebrews 2:1-4, ESV Friends, this is the word of the Lord. When I was in grade school, and later in college, there was a popular tactic that many of my teachers and later professors used that was particularly effective, I think, in quickly overcoming any boredom that may have lingered among me and my fellow classmates in a given class. You see whenever they lectured through material that may have been particularly dry or dull and they having trouble holding the attention of teenagers, well they knew, and I assumed it was an intentional strategy one that they always kept in their back pocket that they could pull out at will and make use of, that they could draw everyone in the class back to attention by appealing to our more practical sensibilities and warning that this material, whatever it was, was going to be included on the next exam. Now predictably as soon as everybody heard what was at stake, I along with my fellow classmates although I was always paying attention, snap to attention. You would notice glazed over eyes in the class suddenly became laser focused. You heard the click of pens as a chorus throughout the whole classes, everybody got ready to take meticulous notes. The once silent classroom was roused to attention with clarifying questions left and right for the professor. All it took was a gentle reminder of what was at stake for nearly everyone in the classroom to wake up and to pay attention. When the stakes are high, we would do well to pay attention. We know that from other areas of our lives as well. This is what we also hear in our passage this morning. When we turn to Hebrews chapter two, we are coming to the first of five what are called warning passages in the book of Hebrews. Now understand that throughout the book our author makes use of a variety of methods in order to stir our minds and our affections towards Christ in a whole host, a variety, of ways. He powerfully and effectively prunes our hearts so that we would begin to think more rightly and feel rightly and move rightly according to the greater salvation offered in Jesus Christ. Among the many methods that our author employs to keep our attention focused and fixed on Jesus Christ and his gospel, well he also issues warnings as an ordained means for our perseverance as Christians in the Christian life. These warnings are intended to impress upon us just what is at stake, especially in those times in our lives where we might feel duller towards Christ. They are intended to drive us repeatedly to a life of faith and repentance. In short, warning passages like the one we encountered today are intended to stir us so that we would begin more and more to heed what we have heard about the gospel of our salvation. Our big idea today is heed what you have heard. We're going three points that we're going to work through. 1. A Command to Heed 2. A Warning to Fear 3. A Word to Embrace A Command to Heed Let's start out with that first one, a command to heed. Again, in verse 1 we read, 1Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1, ESV Now understand that up until this point in the book of Hebrews, really throughout the entirety of the first chapter as I already kind of alluded to, we've already heard this rich theology unpacked for us about the person of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ. Just to review a little bit of that, first we heard it in a variety of ways in chapter one that Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of the Father. In verse 3 of chapter 1 we heard that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. In verse 5 of chapter 1 we heard that together with the Father, so too the Son, and of course the Spirit is to be worshipped and glorified. We read in verse 5, “let all God's angels worship him,” in reference to the Son. Then in verse 8 of chapter 1 we heard of the eternal reign of Jesus Christ the Son as king, where God the Father is also explicitly heard addressing God the Son as God. We read in verse 8, “your throne O God is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” So who is this one? Who is this So, we've encountered in chapter one and who the author of Hebrews exhorts us now to pay much closer attention to? Who is this Son who took upon himself flesh in the first century AD? Well we learn in chapter one that this is very God of very God, who always was, always is, and always will be. He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Yet that's not all we heard in chapter one about the one who is Son, because we also heard about what the Son Jesus Christ accomplished in his in the flesh incarnate ministry on earth. When he, the eternal Son of God, took the form of a servant in history. We heard that when Jesus did that, the eternal Son of God did that, he made purification for sins, in verse 3. He did what the priesthood of the Old Testament and the blood of bulls and goats could never accomplish. He became for us our great high priest. Actually the author of Hebrews is foremost concerned with unpacking Christ's priesthood, as we'll see walking through the rest of the book of Hebrews, and then in declaring to us the will of God and revealing God in his person in a more full way than any of the prophets of the Old Testament could do. Jesus became to us our final word, the final word spoken by God, and the better prophet. Then in vanquishing the forces of sin, death, and the devil, and sitting down on his throne at the right hand of the Father on high, when everything was accomplished, the one who his Son was revealed to be for us our great king who even now rules and defends his church in the heavenly places. So, in short, we heard throughout the entirety of chapter one that the one who is the Son is fully God, always has been and always will be. Then for us in the fullness of time he became fully man as our second Adam, our better David, and our great high priest. Friends this is the gospel. That the word of salvation that we're commanded to pay much closer attention to, it's the hope of the world. Now when chapter two rolls around, our author tells us that these things, everything that was unpacked for us in chapter one about the Son, well these are critical matters of life and death. Despite the theological depth that chapter one plunged us into, this is not a theology that can be brushed aside or dismissed as only stuff professional theologians need to be concerned with, not in the least. Instead these are truths of life and death significance. This comes out in verse 1 of chapter 2 where our author commands us, in view of everything that was said about Jesus Christ the Son of God in chapter one, that we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard unless we drift from it. Brothers and sisters understand first and foremost the great advantage that we have as the church of Jesus Christ, being recipients of the gospel of Jesus Christ and heirs of salvation. First together with the first century Christians who heard and received the contents of this book at some point in the first century AD, we share an advantaged position redemptive historically. That is in comparison with believers who came previously in the Old Testament, because we see the glory of God unveiled in the face of Jesus Christ in a way that Old Testament believers could only look upon in a veiled and shadowy way. Yet even in our own time and place we're at a great advantage compared with peoples elsewhere in our world, who lack an established church in their midst. Those who don't have a single soul among them to preach the word of the Lord, and who in many cases may even lack a translated copy of the Bible in their own languages. In contrast we have churches in every pocket of our city, we have more than 450 translations of the Bible into English, and a copious number of Christians to proclaim the gospel of our salvation to us. Brothers and sisters there are incredible truths to hear in the gospel of Jesus Christ and we have every opportunity to hear them. With those great advantages that we have at our disposal, comes a greater responsibility to hear and to heed what has been graciously preserved and revealed to us in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. In fact, this theme that greater revelation brings with it a greater responsibility is something that recurs throughout the scripture. In Luke 12 for instance, Jesus himself tells us that everyone to whom much has been given of him much will be required. We have been given much by way of revelation and therefore we have all of the more reason to pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift from it. So how do we do that? What does it mean to pay attention? Then on the flip side what it would look like to drift from that? Well in this opening verse it's interesting that these two key words in verse one. The words that are translated in the ESV “pay attention” and then “drift away” are, in the Greek, sailing terms. Now I understand we live in Nebraska and some of you in Iowa and so you may be unaware that there are these vessels that float on water called boats. That's the imagery that this text invites us to unpack a little bit. It's imagery of keeping a ship on its proper course and intentionally fighting the currents or the wind to keep it steadily pointed in the right direction. In the same way we're urged, as the church, as believers, to stay fixed on the greater revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we have been advantaged in a number of ways to receive. We're called here to continue to keep it before our minds and hearts at all times, to drive deeper into it, to fight the currents and the drift so that we never lose sight of it. In that sailing analogy we also learned something about drift as well, the flip side of what it means to keep straight on the proper path. Now I've never sailed before, but I do remember as a child going to the beach and playing in the ocean for hours. Again, ocean is a big body of water that lies on either coast, if you're unfamiliar with it. There would be these long stretches of time as a kid at the beach in the water where I'd get so carried away, bobbing up and down in the water and looking out towards the oncoming waves and watching out for the sharks that as a kid I was terrified of, but oddly enough still kind of hoping that I'd see one. After about 10 to 15 minutes of bobbing up and down looking at the waves and watching out for sharks, well I turned back to shore and realize that without feeling it or being aware of it, in the moment that the current had actually carried me far beyond where my parents had set up our lawn chair and umbrella. It didn't take long, usually about 10 to 15 minutes of inattention, before I would drift far beyond whereas a child, I felt safe or comfortable. I think there's an analogy in that to what spiritual drift looks like as well. Now someone in my studies this week mentioned that our spiritual faculties are very often like leaky sieves in the sense that all it takes is some prolonged inactivity away from God's word, or just a season of prayerlessness or maybe some lingering unconfessed sin and repentance in our lives, before we slowly have chipped away any progress that was made in this area or that area. It chips away progress, while simultaneously inviting other persuasions to minister to our soul. Brothers and sisters the human heart is a fragile and a fickle vessel on this side of glory. I think we know that even the smallest persuasions can pull us well off course, sometimes without us even realizing it in the moment. So in light of all of that we are exhorted in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, in view of the spoil of riches that belong to us as children of God through Jesus Christ, truth that we are at an incredible advantage in a whole host of ways to have at our disposal, to press deeper into everything we've been privileged to hear and receive and for God's glory and for our good to stay the course. To paraphrase Paul from Ephesians chapter 4, don't be children who are tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes. Rather grow up into maturity by paying much closer attention to what we have heard in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's our exhortation that the author of Hebrews opens with that frames this passage. We are called to heed what we have already been privileged to hear and receive in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now maybe for you this prospect of drifting itself doesn't sound all that foreboding. Now maybe the metaphor of drifting instead makes you think of one of those lazy rivers at a water park that kind of sounds pretty refreshing, doesn't it? If you felt that this drift was refreshing in any way or really wasn't a big deal, that there isn't really much at stake, well when we turn to the next two verses, 2:2-3, well the author of Hebrews presses in this command to pay much closer attention by underlining precisely what is at stake if we drift away. A Warning to Fear So, our second point a warning to fear. Now again we read this in verses two through three, 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Hebrews 2:2-3, ESV Now if you recall back in the introduction, I mentioned that throughout Hebrews we encounter a number of these warning passages. This is one of them. Now these various warning passages we encounter here and also Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 are intended to impress upon us the importance of persevering in the Christian life, by bluntly stating the consequences for turning aside and outright rejecting Jesus Christ and his gospel. Now let me clarify that what these warning passages do not teach, and some interpretations I think get these warning passages just terribly wrong, is that someone who's been renewed and regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit and who walks with Christ could lose that salvation. That's not at all what this passage teaches. Warning passages like the one we find here in verse 2 and elsewhere in Hebrews, they aren't intended to fill Christians with doubt and suspicion at every turn about our walk with Christ, but they are meant to impress upon us the need to persevere. In that way there are divine means for our perseverance in the Christian life. When we on the one hand slowly invite temptations, whatever they may be, to minister to us. Or on the other hand we begin to water down and ignore the riches of the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed to us in the word of God, well these warnings boldly remind us precisely what is at stake so that we would adjust course and correct our drift. That's what we find in this passage too. Look at me again with the passage. First, we read about what happened in the Old Testament when the law of God was brushed aside or violated. Now bear in mind that when we read in our text about the message declared by angels or delivered by angels, well that's not a reference to some esoteric knowledge that's out there in the ether. No, rather that's a reference to the law that was given to Moses, and by extension to Israel on Mount Sinai in the book of Exodus. When the law is given in the book of Exodus, specifically in Exodus 20, there's no explicit reference to angels in that passage. If we would look back to it, you wouldn't see anything about angels. Yet elsewhere in the scriptures, as later authors reflect back upon that event of the giving of the law, they tell us that that giving of the law was accompanied by angelic activity. It clearly had its origins from God, that being the law, but it was also delivered by angels. Paul tells us that in the book of Galatians and Stephen tells us that in his speech just before he's martyred in Acts chapter seven. So, all that being said, when the author of Hebrews talks about this message delivered by angels, well he's talking about the old covenant, that is the law of Moses, that we read about in the book of Exodus. We see it further unpacked in books like Leviticus and in Deuteronomy. Furthermore, we read in our text that this law the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and that every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. Now this word translated in your text, in the ESV, “reliable” is a little bit tricky. It seems that nearly every English translation adopts a slightly different understanding of it. I'm persuaded by what the NIV actually gets at when it translates the word “reliable” here as “binding”. That seems to get at the idea that the author of Hebrews intends. In that the idea is that in the law, the law was binding. It was when something was commanded and when God's people went the other way, well then punishments were stipulated for breaking this law or that law, they had to be enacted because the law was binding. There was no way to skirt the law, no way to get around the commandments and the sanctions because the law was binding. Justice demanded that every time the law was violated, regardless of who was doing the violation of it, well they had to be punished, they were subject to the demands of the law and the repercussions for breaking the law. Throughout the Old Testament, this is exactly what we find when someone disbelieves or disobeys or transgresses the law of God, we find throughout the Old Testament that they're punished accordingly. When in the book of Leviticus, a young man curses the name of God, well he's stoned to death because that was what was required in the law of God. When in the book of Numbers, a man was found picking up sticks on the sabbath, well he too was stoned to death because that was what was required in the Mosaic Law. Now bear in mind that that these specific sanctions in place under the old covenant are no longer applicable for us to apply in the new covenant, in the church today. Both of these examples, nevertheless, underscore what the what the author of Hebrews is teaching us in this passage, that the covenant that God entered into with his people on Mount Sinai was binding. It was binding in its promises, it was binding in its stipulations, and it was binding in its sanctions. That's why our author comments in verse two every transgression or disobedience of the law of God received its just retribution. If you break a binding law. well you're required to pay the price. Yet as true as that was under the old covenant, the certainty of sanctions that would be enacted given a binding law, well that's not even the main point of our author. In fact, everyone that our author writes to in the first century AD would have agreed on that point. Instead he's establishing what was absolutely certain, without a doubt, to have transpired under the Mosaic Law, something everyone would have agreed with, to make the case that in the new covenant while the stakes are raised. Remember we have far greater advantages and benefits in the new covenant. So, if retribution for the neglect and disobedience of God's word was certain to befall transgressors and the shadowy administration of the old covenant, well how much more certain is judgment for those who neglect and disbelieve the word made flesh the only Savior of sinners, Jesus Christ? We might say it's doubly certain now. If you recall, I titled the second point a warning to fear. Now the idea that fear would function as a proper motivation to direct this course of action or that course of action is often perceived today, I think, as an undesirable motive. After all, to accuse someone of being motivated by fear isn't to give that person a compliment. I'm sure all of us could identify things that we fear as Christians that we have no need to fear. There is a certain sense in which the author of Hebrews wants to impress upon his readers and upon you and me the fearful prospect of apostatizing, that is of saying either through words or actions I'm done with Jesus Christ, I'm done with the church, I don't want to have anything to do with either any longer. If this is the road you're walking down, if this is where your drift is slowly leading you to, well then you need to know our author is saying that no escape is possible. Escape was not possible under the administration of the old covenant, how much more impossible is it in the new covenant if you stand outside of union with Christ? So, to do just that to apostatize, to reject Jesus Christ, is indeed a fearful thing. A Word to Embrace Yet while this ominous note of judgment is quite stirring, we're also provided as Christians with another motivation for staying the course. This leads to our final point where we see third that there is also a word to embrace. Look with me at the final part of our passage where we read this, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Hebrews 2:4, ESV Whereas the law that our author just talked about was delivered by angels, friends the gospel of our salvation that we read about so richly in chapter 1 of the epistle of Hebrews was declared through the Son of God himself. When the eternal Son of God took on human flesh and he came to earth to save us for our sins, well we find that he declared as our great prophet the fullness of the gospel message that we have come to believe and receive. We see this throughout the gospels in the teaching ministry of Jesus in action. We see it when in Matthew 5, for instance, when Jesus ascends a mountain and he begins to deliver the famous Sermon on the Mount. He teaches with authority, as the new Moses. It's no wonder why at the end of the Sermon on the Mount the crowds respond in astonishment that this is one who's teaching them with authority, not as their scribes have done. Then in Luke 4 Jesus he stands up in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, and with that same prophetic authority declare something bolder than any of the prophets who came before him would have done. Namely that in him, and in him alone, the day of salvation has gone. Unlike the false prophets of the Old Testament who announced comfort comfort when there was no comfort, Jesus announces an everlasting comfort in his ministry, in the greater salvation that we accomplish on our behalf, as our mediator, as the perfect prophet, priest, and king. Throughout Jesus's teaching ministry we see the greater prophet in action who, in the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, “was ordained by God the Father and anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who has fully revealed to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our redemption.” All of this is in view when the author of Hebrews tells us that the gospel message that we have come to receive and believe was the message that was first delivered by the Lord God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, the one who came to earth to atone for our sins and to vanquish sin, death, and the devil. He also declared that in him the kingdom of God had come and then on the cross declared that the work of redemption that he had accomplished was finished. Now it's true that the first century Christians immediately addressed in the letter to the Hebrews, including perhaps the author of Hebrews himself we don't know a whole lot about this author, but it would seem that both were not actually firsthand witnesses to this incarnate ministry of Jesus Christ. Rather they, it seems, heard the gospel message through other teachers and preachers including the apostles. So, our author continues by assuring his readers that this message that was declared by Jesus Christ was also declared by his apostles by those who you yourselves have heard. These eyewitnesses and apostles were in turn validated by the resurrected Lord himself. The same mighty works, and wonders, and signs that God did through Jesus Christ were in turn poured out by the Holy Spirit to validate the apostolic messengers who followed on Christ's coattails, who would bring that same gospel message to the far reaches of the known world. Then who would write down what they declared for generations long after they were gone, including for you and for me. Just as signs and wonders attested to God's endorsement of the messenger and the message in Jesus ministry, so too in the days of his apostles' signs and wonders accompanied their ministry. Not of the means to themselves, but rather to validate and authenticate the gospel message that they carried as a God-given endorsement. Brothers and sisters the same signs and wonders that authenticated the apostolic spokesmen in the first century are no longer be present with us today. Most certainly the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who spoke this gospel message at first, is no longer present incarnate with us on earth he's in the heavenly places and though he will come again he's not here with us on earth right now. That doesn't mean that we're at a disadvantage. Though we lack the physical presence of Christ with us on earth, and though we lack an interaction with Christ's apostolic spokesmen, though we lack the same signs and wonders that validated the ministries of both, well we do still have the same word that they spoke and the same Spirit who attests to that words in our hearts. every time we open up the scriptures and we hear the gospel message of our salvation declared. So what is our motivation for staying the course when we find ourselves drifting? Well it's the fullness of the gospel message that was spoken first by the prophets, proclaimed and accomplished by the Son, and attested to by the apostles. All of which has been preserved in the word of God that we have at our disposal. Also, in the ministry of the Holy Spirit who powerfully speaks into our hearts and drift tendencies, every time we sit under the ministry of the word. Friends this is how we heed what we have heard. Not by our own power, but rather through the power of the Holy Spirit who's been richly poured out among us, who ministers to all of our spiritual faculties, the word of the Lord. Yes, there is a warning to fear, and we must heed that warning as such, but brothers and sisters there is a great encouragement to cling to as well. Namely that we have words of life that have been preserved for us, which attest to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Applications So, with that said what are a few applications or takeaways from this passage. Well I have three questions to ask. Three questions, not that I'm expecting you to respond right now to but rather to think a little bit about in your own lives. 1. Are you currently drifting? At present are you drifting now? If you recall we saw in our first point, and others have made this point too, that drift may not be all that perceptible. You may not appreciate it that you're drifting when you're in it in the moment, until you look back to shore and you recognize just how far you strayed from the place to which you were once so securely moored to and anchored in. Now understand that the objective reality is that in Christ we are infallibly and inaudibly secure. We never ever slip into justification and out of justification and back into it again, not in the slightest. Yet there are times in our lives where our drift tendencies may lead us into sin. Unbiblical doctrinal persuasions might grip our mind, social persuasions may lead us to embrace something that just cuts against the grain of scripture, and moral persuasions can derail our pursuit of holiness. There are a number of ways in which drift takes place in our lives, but often when it does one of the telltale signs that that's happening is that our assurance of salvation is diminished. Our confession, The Westminster Confession of Faith, actually talks about how things like the negligence of the means of grace. That means things like the word and prayer or falling into some special sin, whereas the confession words the, “vehement temptations”. All of these things can collaborate together in our lives and plunge us into doubt about our standing with Christ or about even the gospel promises themselves. Now understand again, and this is important, that a lack of subjective assurance doesn't mean that our objective standing is ever in doubt in Christ. As long as you're receiving and resting upon the promises of God found in Christ, nothing can snatch us out of the Father's hand. When doubt begins to mount on account of drift that's taking place in our lives, well in those moments it's fitting that we would turn again to the word of God, that we would correct the drift through partaking of the ordinary means of grace like the word and prayer. Through that we would be washed and renewed by the promises of the gospel once again. In Christ we have every reason to be assured of our salvation. So, our invitation is to heed the promises of the gospel, to hear the word of the Lord over and over again. In the words of Peter, “to be all the more diligent to confirm you're calling and election. 2. This leads to the second and a closely related application question to ask yourself. Are you listening to this message of salvation? Now as we work through our passage, you may have noticed that speaking and hearing language is found throughout. The message of salvation was first spoken by the Lord and then by his apostles. We have the responsibility to hear the message and to heed the message. It's not that we just hear this message as good pious advice that we filter through our own sensibilities, taking a little of what we like and leaving aside the rest. Or as if we hear this message and then place it on par with other philosophies or truth claims as something with an equal authority claim. No, not at all. Instead we're called to hear this message not as the words of men, but what it really is, the word of God. It is a word that demands that we treat it as the only rule of faith and obedience. So, are you listening to this message of salvation for what it is, but more than that are you listening to the whole council of God? Now our confession makes this point in one of the paragraphs in which it elaborates on our doctrine of scripture or our theology of the Bible. That although everything necessary to know and believe for our salvation is clearly propounded in the scriptures, such that whether you have a Ph.D., or you're a little kid, you can open up the Bible and you can know what God requires us to believe to be saved. The scriptures are abundantly clear. With that said, the confession also notes, “that all things in scripture are not alike plain in themselves nor alike clear unto all.” In other words, there are also some complex and difficult things to understand in the scriptures. Interpretations of what good Christians have and do disagree on. Just because there are difficult things that we find in the scriptures, doesn't mean we ignore them. You know one of the prevailing philosophies of the day in America, actually one of the philosophies so I'm told that that America is responsible for exporting to the world, is a philosophy known as pragmatism. Pragmatism, in short, is the belief that what is true is what works. While probably most of us would outright reject that philosophy, sometimes the way we read the scriptures false prey to a certain kind of pragmatism. You see sometimes when we read the scriptures, we only pay attention to things that are abundantly clear, those things that the scriptures tell us we have to believe for salvation and those are good things and necessary things to pay attention to. Those things that speak most immediately to what we're called in the Christian life we should pay attention to those things. Then when we encounter some of the more difficult things in scripture, some of the more debatable things in scripture, rather than engaging those matters with prudence and charity, well sometimes we end up ignoring them all together because we don't see on the front end how those things really immediately apply to our lives. Now make no mistake about it, all doctrine is practical and all of it is applicable. Sometimes we prejudge that question before we really spend the time to engage with and carefully listen to the whole counsel of God. Remember we encountered some deep and weedy theology on the person and work of Jesus Christ in chapter one. To plunge into the depths of Christology, that is our doctrine of Christ, or our doctrine of the trinity may make our heads hurt a little bit. The payoff when we do so is so enriching and worth it. So, as you listen to the scriptures, as you listen to the message of salvation that we find in the scriptures, listen to all of it for the sake of growing up into maturity, as our passage would have us do. 3. The third question is this; do you have this salvation? Now admittedly most of this sermon has focused on the topic of our sanctification, our growth as Christians in the Christian life or our perseverance, how we maintain the course in the Christian life. Perhaps you read this text, you heard it read, and now you heard the sermon, and now you aren't quite sure whether you've come to believe this message of salvation in the first place. If that's you, recognize two things. First, the warning of this passage is real. There is no escape outside of Christ, period. Second, the invitation stands to hear this gospel message anew. To know that salvation really is available in Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ has indeed fully satisfied the justice of the Father and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven for all those whom the Father has given to him. If you're not sure you have this salvation, friends don't neglect it but instead turn to Christ and him alone as he's freely offered in the gospel. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, Lord we thank you for these words of life that we encounter in the scriptures. We pray Lord that you would continue to sharpen us, to mold us by your Holy Spirit. Convict us so that we would pay much closer attention to the words of life of your scriptures. Lord convict us of our sin. Help us to correct drift tendencies by encountering your word over and over again, by sitting under the ministry of your word, by attending to ordinary means of grace like word, sacrament, and prayer. Lord shape us as people who love you more and more and who love our neighbors as ourselves. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Hear now the word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians 14:1-5. Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. 1 Corinthians 14:1-5, ESV This is the word of the Lord given to us in love. This morning we finally arrive at 1 Corinthians chapter 14, one of the most challenging and controversial passages in the whole Bible. As we enter our study of this chapter it's very important for all of us to maintain a posture of humility. We're dealing with very difficult things here and so as we study this, we're going to move slowly and carefully through this passage. Now I'll say from the outset that our church confesses a particular position on what this passage is teaching, and I am going to be preaching from that perspective. I'm persuaded by it, that's why I'm a pastor where I'm a pastor. I also want to acknowledge that there are sincere godly Bible-believing Christians who have a different understanding of what's going on in this passage and how we should apply it in the church today. So, as we're studying this I want to be as charitable as possible to our brothers and sisters in Christ who come to a different understanding of this, but I also want to make the best case possible for what we believe the scriptures are teaching here, what we believe and why we believe it from the scriptures. So, I would encourage all of us in this posture of humility to set aside any surface level perceptions we may have as we read this and to hold our personal prejudices at arm's length as we dive deeply into what God has to say here and as we let God's word edify our minds and exhort us to faith-driven obedience. So, with that said, as we come to this passage our big idea this morning is this; Use your gifts for building up, not for boasting. Now I'll give a simple outline for how we're work we'll work through this passage and we'll kind of give a little bit more direction and context about what each part is about as we go so. 1. Our Love 2. Our Location 3. Our Language Our Love So, let's start with this first idea that Paul lays out in this first verse, our love. In this first verse Paul is showing us that what he wrote about love in 1 Corinthians 13 relates to what he is about to say. He tells us how love relates to what he's talking about in 1 Corinthians 14, that is the exercise of the gifts namely that our love should direct our gifts. So, let's read verse one again Paul says, Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1, ESV So, in this first verse Paul is giving us a priority order, an understanding of how love relates to the exercise of our gifts. He says first and foremost we need to pursue love. Now this word for pursue is a little stronger than it might sound in English translation. This is actually the same word that is used throughout the New Testament to talk about persecution. So, Paul himself, in the next chapter, is going to talk about himself and the way that he persecuted the church. He's using that same word there that he uses the word here for pursue. He's saying pursue hard after this, persecute this, go with relentlessness after love. Because what Paul is saying is everything, he just wrote about in chapter 13 has to be the first order of business in the church at all times. Particularly what we learn about love has to guide the way that we exercise our gifts. So, that brings us to the second part of what he says; not only pursue love but earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. Our love must govern the exercise of our gifts because what Paul is saying here is that individual Christians don't have gifts that we exercise in order to boast, to puff ourselves up. Rather we have these gifts that we are to exercise to build others up, not to boast but to build others up. Rich Lenski, a commentator on this passage, puts it so well he says that what Paul is saying here is that, “gifts are the hands through which love serves.” Our love should direct our gifts. Then at the end of verse 1 Paul identifies the specific pastoral issue that he's trying to address at the church in Corinth, he says especially that you may prophesy. Now before we go into why Paul wants to put such an emphasis on prophecy, especially as we will see, against using untranslated tongues in this worship context. There's one observation we should make first that what Paul says here when he says spiritual gifts is a word that is different from the word for gifts that we saw back in chapter 12. Now back in chapter 12 Paul was talking about the nature of gifts that God gives to the church and the word that he used there this is very important the word there is charisma, it's from a Greek word charis, which means grace. So, the idea of the charisma is that these are the big category of all the gifts that God gives by grace to his church. That includes all the gifts that God gives to his church, but now as we come into chapter 14 Paul uses a different word and it's not the word charismata it's the word pneumatikos, which is a word that has to do with the Spirit. It's a word that means spiritual things. It can mean spiritual ideas, or it can talk about spiritual people. In this context Paul is using this word to talk about spiritual gifts. Well what are those spiritual gifts? What Paul is going to show us is that these spiritual gifts have to do with spiritual knowledge and spiritual speech that proceeds from that knowledge. We know that because in this chapter Paul uses the word, “to speak” 24 times. What are these spiritual gifts? What's spiritual speech and spiritual knowledge? These are the spiritual gifts that Paul has in mind because it's affecting the way that worshipers speak in worship as they exercise their gifts. Now if you've been with us as we've been in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and onward I've been promising for some time that we would start to deal with this question of why we believe that certain gifts have ceased in the church while we also confess that other gifts continue in their exercise in the church. I started to deal with that a little bit on the two sermons I preached on the on the last paragraph of chapter 13. So, the last two sermons in chapter 13:8-13, I would encourage you if you haven't listened to those sermons to get those off the website In 13:8 Paul tells us that these gifts of spiritual speech and spiritual knowledge must pass away. This is a part of the answer to the question Paul says on the one hand in chapter 13:8, love never ends, it endures, it's perpetual, this is a spiritual grace that will endure for all eternity. On the other hand, as for prophecies they will pass away, as for tongues they will cease, and as for knowledge it will pass away. So, one of the first parts of the answer to this question as we looked at this passage was to say that every Bible-believing Christian believes that these gifts of spiritual speech must cease at some point. Whether you're a Presbyterian or whether you're a Pentecostal everyone who believes the Bible looks at this verse and recognizes that the gifts cease. It's not a question of whether they will cease, it is a question of when and why they cease. That's the first part of the answer to this question. Then the question is sometimes asked, “Okay, well why are you singling out these gifts as ceasing when you think that other gifts will continue?” That's a good question. Part of the second part of the answer to this overall question is to look at the word that Paul uses here this word, pneumatikos, and to recognize that there is a Biblical distinction that Paul is making that separates these specific gifts of spiritual speech and spiritual inspired prophetic knowledge. He separates those off as a subcategory out of the larger category of grace gifts. So, all the gifts are grace gifts, but there's one specific category that Paul sets off as one thing unto itself, a subcategory of the larger category. Now just the fact that we see this subcategory doesn't completely answer the question. I'm not going to suggest that it does. In fact, the commentator who actually pointed out this distinction that I was reading from is someone who believes that these gifts do continue to exist. So, you don't have to believe that these gifts have ceased to see the distinction here. The point that I'm trying to make is not that this is a super clear easy doctrine that we can find in the Bible. This is a very complicated doctrine that we see in the Bible. There are much clearer doctrines, but as we continue to look, and factor by factor we continue to see a part of the answer that shows us that these pneumatikos gifts, these gifts of inspired spiritual speech and knowledge, these were gifts that had a specific purpose that was a temporary purpose, connected to the temporary office of the apostles. Once the apostles died away, that work had done its part and it ceased and passed away because its role was completed. Now we'll continue to discuss that question as we move through 1 Corinthians 14, but for now let's get back into the situation in Corinth. So again, this first point, our love. Paul is saying that our love ought to be the first priority and it should direct, as a secondary effect of that, the way in which we exercise our gifts. Now Paul is going to tell us what that means by distinguishing the different effects of the gifts of untranslated tongues versus the gift of prophecy in two ways. Our Location First by location, the context where these gifts are exercised and second by language, how the language affects the hearers who are hearing it. So, by location and by language, Paul is going to differentiate how love should be informing which gift to use in which context. So, let's start with this question of context. Our second point, in verses two through four, has to do with our location. First, we saw our love. Now we see our location, Paul is going to say, determines our service, it determines which gift we should use. Now as a preface warning, we're going to go a little bit into the weeds as we look at what this passage has to say and also what other parts of the Bible have to say about the exercise of these gifts, but it's important as we wrestle with what Paul is saying here. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 1 Corinthians 14:2-3, ESV So, let's dive right into verse 2. Paul is going to give the first of many reasons that he's going to keep listing all the way through the first half of this chapter, through verse 25, about why untranslated tongues have no business in a corporate worship service of believers who speak the same language. The first answer that Paul gives has to do with the context. He's saying in this context, in this location he says, “the one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.” So, Paul starts by talking about the audience, the context of the audience, when he's saying understand if you're speaking tongues in a corporate worship service of believers who all speak the same language, understand that you aren't speaking to anyone who can understand you. He's saying the only one who can understand you in that situation is God himself, only God can understand these no one else can understand you. Now some people, it's important to understand, look at this verse and they see that these people are speaking not to men but to God and that no one understands them for they are uttering mysteries in the Spirit. They say well this seems like a very different thing than what's happening in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost when people were speaking in tongues because there those who were listening to that preaching did not understand what was being spoken, but here Paul must be talking about a different gift because no one understands these tongues. I want to be as fair as possible, but I want to give the best case for what we believe and why we believe it. To take that interpretation is to read too much into Paul's words. Paul doesn't mean that no one anywhere understands this speech, he simply means that no one in that assembly understands this speech. He can't mean absolutely no one understands this speech because in just a few verses he's going to tell you who does understand this speech, namely a possible interpreter who might be in their midst. So, it can't be that no one at all understands this. The point is that no one present could understand these languages without the presence and the work of an interpreter. We said this a few times, but it's really important as we get back into 1 Corinthians chapter 14 that the word tongues is the normal standard Greek word for human languages. Now 350 years ago when the King James Version of the Bible was translated, the word “tongues” was the more common word for human languages, you talk about the English tongue and the Greek tongue and the Hebrew tongue. If those words were translated today, we don't talk about tongues very often, that kind of sounds weird and mystical, but rather we talk about languages. This is the gift of speaking in languages according to the way that we use the word today. Let me give you an illustration of what this would look like in our context. What Paul is describing is a situation where someone is speaking a language in a corporate worship setting that no one present understands. So, if some pastor came from the from a foreign country and said I'd like to preach at Harvest, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ here. Well we say okay, let's talk about that and this person would say well I'd like to preach in the language Tamil. Tamil a language they speak in India. Well we would say I'm sorry you can't speak Tamil in a sermon in a corporate worship service here because no one understands it. Now we're not saying that no one anywhere understands that, that would be to read too much into our words. We're simply saying that no one in our context understands this. Of those gathered, only God would understand what exactly you are saying. We actually are a church that financially and by prayer supports a seminary in Chennai, India that trains Tamil speaking pastors to preach the Gospel to the 70 million people in India who speak this language. We think that language is important, but the question is one of context. No one here understands it, therefore that language should not be spoken. So what then does it mean to speak in a tongue and how does it differ from prophecy? Well the first important clue we get not that he's just talking to God in prayer and praise, but notice what Paul says at the end of verse 2. He, the one speaking in tongues, utters mysteries in the Spirit. Now Paul has told us already what this means. What does it mean to speak mysteries? This is the work of prophecy. If you look back at 13:2 Paul says, 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2, ESV To understand all mysteries is to have the gift of spiritual knowledge, inspired knowledge. Then back in 1 Corinthians 2:7 Paul talked about the kind of prophecy that he means and not prophecy about future events but prophecy that sheds light on the person and work of Jesus Christ. So, he talks about speaking mysteries in 1 Corinthians 2:7 he says, 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 1 Corinthians 2:7, ESV So, prophecy is a clear Holy Spirit inspired message that casts light to help us to understand the person and work of Jesus Christ, so that we can look to him by faith. Paul says here then to speak in tongues does the same thing to utter mysteries in the Spirit, the difference is the context. This is exactly what happened on Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, but with a critical difference of context. There the apostles were uttering mysteries in the Holy Spirit, but they were doing so in the context, not of a group of believers who all spoke the same language, they were doing so among a crowd of a great variety of people who spoke a great number of different languages. We know that they were speaking in tongues, it's called explicitly that, but we also know what that means. That means that the speakers didn't natively and or already naturally understand the language. In Acts 2:7, the first question that's asked about this miracle of speaking in tongues is how these Galileans came to learn this. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Acts 2:7-8, ESV Then we see the next part of it that people were hearing about the personal work of Jesus Christ in their own language. Then there's a long list of peoples and languages represented and then in Acts 2:11 we read, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” Acts 2:11, ESV They were speaking about the mighty works of God, the person and work of Jesus Christ, but they were doing so on the frontier of missions work among unbelievers who did not know about Jesus. It was not believers meeting and speaking the same language. We should remember, what Paul says back in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 14:22 Paul says, 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 1 Corinthians 14:22, ESV On the mission field, on the frontier, the cutting edge of where the Gospel is going to reach new tribes and languages and peoples and nations, this gift of tongues gave the Spirit-inspired prophetic message of Jesus Christ to draw people to faith who didn't yet believe. On the day of Pentecost 3,000 people came to faith in Christ, as we read in Acts 2:41. Paul's problem here in the Corinthian church is they were misusing the gift of tongues. They weren't trying to spread the Gospel as missionaries to new tribes, languages, peoples, and nations. That is, they weren't trying to build up the church, rather they were trying to show off. They were trying to boast with their spiritual eloquence to show off the spiritual speech that they could make in a corporate worship service of believers, where no one else could understand the language. Because no one at that worship service could understand the language, it didn't build up the church and Paul forbade it. Well in verse 3 Paul contrasts that situation. So, you have tongues that serve a function on the frontier of missions work where people are reaching new unbelieving people with the Gospel so that they may become believers. However, in a corporate worship service Paul says, in contrast, there's a different context, a different location. Here where an untranslated tongue would be useless, let me tell you four benefits of prophecy. That's what he does in verse three in contrast to the uselessness of tongues in this context, think of the benefit of prophecy in this context. So, verse three on the other hand Paul writes, 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 1 Corinthians 14:3, ESV So, Paul says there are four benefits here. The first is that of language. The one who prophesied speaks to the people in their own language is the idea. Because people can understand this, just like you can understand me as I speak English here today, because this prophecy comes to them in the language of the people, the prophecy then has three additional benefits that tongues does not. The first benefit that Paul mentions is that of upbuilding. Now this issue of upbuilding or edification or building up, this is a critical idea to that first question, “how does love relate to our exercise of the gifts?” It means that we ought to build one another up by the exercise of our gifts. This is the first of seven uses of this word upbuilding here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. The idea of edification or building up has the idea of building up believers by teaching them doctrine so that their minds can be shaped to understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Yet it's not just teaching the mind work. The next thing Paul says is encouragement. This is a word that we probably should understand in the context of exhortation, that's the way this word is translated in Romans 12:8, 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; Romans 12:8, ESV It's the kind of encouragement that exhorts people forward in their faith. If upbuilding means to train our minds, this word for encouragement means to exhort us to live lives that conform to that teaching that we have learned. Then the third word is consolation. This is a word that is used elsewhere to describe the kind of comfort you might offer at a funeral to someone who has lost a loved one. That's the way it's used, at the funeral of Lazarus in John chapter 11. Well in our context we don't have prophecy in the same way that believers in the earliest church would have experienced it. I promise you I am not receiving new revelations right now. The moment that I begin to say that I am is the moment that I should be removed from here. What's happening here is that instead of receiving new revelations I am trying, by the grace of God, to faithfully preach the word of God that's been recorded for us in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Understand that even though I'm not receiving new prophecy, this is still the word of God and it accomplishes the same thing. As we preach a sermon it edifies us by teaching us, it exhorts us to live, it consoles us and gives us comfort in the midst of sorrow and persecution in the same way the believers would have experienced it. It's just that we have the whole story and they were still receiving it by piecemeal. So, after verse 3 as Paul has contrasted tongues versus prophecy Paul gives a direct comparison in verse 4, he says 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 1 Corinthians 14:4, ESV If you're speaking in a tongue, you may be edified personally but because no one else understands this language you're better to lean toward prophecy a gift that builds up the whole church. So our initial question was, how does love direct our spiritual gifts? The answer to the first part of this answer is to contrast tongues versus prophecy on the basis of context. Is this a room full of believers who all speak the same language or is this the missionary frontier where people are reaching new languages of new peoples? Well if that's the case tongues is the preferable way, but if you're talking about believers who all speak the same language you need prophecy instead. So, what this brings Paul is to a second distinction that has to do with the use of language. How does the use of language distinguish prophecy from tongues? Our Language That brings us to our third point, our language and the way that our language distinguishes prophecy from tongues. We've seen this principle in part but in verse 5 Paul wants to correct the final misunderstanding. In this paragraph Paul wants to make sure that no one thinks that he is demeaning or denigrating speaking in tongues. Paul says 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. 1 Corinthians 14:5, ESV What Paul is saying is there's a functional priority of prophecy over speaking in tongues in a corporate worship service in the church, but it has nothing to do with the content of what's being spoken, it has only to do with the comprehensibility. So, he says if you are gifted in speaking in tongues and you want to speak a tongue in the worship service that's fine so long as someone interprets this tongue. In that process it becomes not a tongue, a language, that no one can understand, but it pulls out the mystery, the prophecy, for believers who speak the common language. Then the believers will be built up as they hear this prophecy from God that was formerly untranslated and now interpreted by the one doing the interpretation. So, first by location, but also by language. The language doesn't disqualify it. We don't look down on pastors who preach the Gospel of Jesus in Tamil or Chinese or Spanish or anything else. We recognize that we serve the same master and preach the same Gospel, but when we gather as believers it is essential that the Gospel be preached in a language that we all understand. Application So, that's trying to work our way through this first installment of what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 14. How then do we apply this to the church today? How do we take what was happening then versus what is happening now? How do we understand the way that we ought to live? 1. Our first application is this; pursue love. Don't lose sight of everything that's happening here, of what Paul said first of all. Don't lose sight of the digression that Paul had to take into 1 Corinthians 13 to remind us of the critical value of love. Remember that when Paul writes, pursue love, he doesn't mean well you know whenever you might have occasion go for it. He means pursue it as relentlessly as he persecuted the church. Love must orient everything we do. Brothers and sisters, I asked last week for you to read Romans chapter 14 to glean principles of how we might love one another in our current status and situation that we are right now, in what the Bible calls a classic difference between the outlooks of the strong and the weak. Now this is true in terms of how we relate to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as to a lot of other situations. In fact, it's a general principle that's always good to have in mind. Now strong versus weak is not a question of who's right versus who is wrong, it's a question of the implications of your knowledge. Does your knowledge give you greater liberty, greater freedom? Well that means that you are part of the category of those that the Bible calls the strong. Does your knowledge lead you to greater restrictions, less freedom, less liberty? Well that's what the Bible calls the weak. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're right or wrong it has to do with greater restrictions versus lesser restrictions, more freedom versus less. What Paul says in Romans 14 is that if your knowledge leads to greater liberty, you must not despise those who don't have the same knowledge. On the other hand, if your knowledge leads you to greater restrictions you must not pass judgment on those who don't embrace the restrictions that you do. How might we outdo one another in showing honor to one another? How might we welcome one another without quarreling about opinions? How might we become all things to all people that by all means God might save some? How might we avoid passing judgment on one another but instead decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother? Paul writes in Romans 14:18, 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Romans 14:18, ESV I am going to continue to beat the drum of love and unity hard, as often as the scripture texts point in that direction. Paul says pursue love, I'm going to hit on it right now because we have been in uncharted territory for the last six months and we're not out of the difficulties yet. There will continue to be new challenges. There will continue to be new questions, new controversies and at every turn. Let the world fight the culture wars let us remember first and foremost to pursue love, for love is the still more excellent way and love is the greatest spiritual grace and asset that will endure for all eternity. Brothers and sisters therefore let us pursue love. 2. Number two, treasure God's word. We have a privilege that the earliest church really couldn't have imagined. When they had their prophets preach the word of God it was in piecemeal, a little bit this week, a little bit last week, trying to sort of put those together. If they had the gift of knowledge to understand this as God was progressively revealing what had happened in the person and work of Christ. We have the whole foundation built the word of God, that was built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. So, let us consider what we are to do with prophecy. From verse three, number one, be built up by it. Be built up by it, study the teaching, study the testimony, let God's word renew and transform your mind. Learn everything you can from this book. Let it fill your mind with the word of God number. Number two, be exhorted by God's word. Don't live a dualistic life where your mind thinks one thing, but then in your life you behave in an entirely different way according to entirely different principles. Trust and obey what God has spoken to us in his word. Run the race be exhorted to cast off any hindrances. Follow hard after Christ that you might win the prize. Then finally third be comforted by God's word. In times of deep distress and sorrow go to God's word. I don't know what your experience has been with everything that's happened in the last six months, but it's been hard on everyone. Whether the isolation or physical challenges that you've encountered, losing a job or sickness, everyone has been affected adversely by all of this. Instead of finding comfort in substances or in entertainment or in work or in play or in whatever, seek consolation in God's word. Cling to the promises. Ine new discipline that I've added in this time that has been a refuge for me is to sing the Psalms. There are psalters where they put God's word to music, and I have been singing the Psalms and it has been a place of deep refuge to find consolation from God's word. I'd encourage you to do that if that would be helpful. 3. The third application point is this believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The point of all prophecy is to point us to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 19:10 makes it so clear that the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10, ESV Peter tells us that we now have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. In 2 Peter 1:19. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 2 Peter 1:19, ESV In these scriptures God tells us the most important news that we could ever hear, that we are sinners who are deeply guilty and condemned in the sight of God. But in the scriptures, in the prophetic word about the person and work of Christ, we learn what God has done out of his deep love for us. That he's given his Son as an atoning sacrifice in your place so that the death you deserved, Christ suffered for you and the life that you forfeited because of your sin, Christ has given by grace to all those who believe in him. What God was still giving in piecemeal to reflect bit by bit what had happened in Jesus Christ as the earliest prophets in the earliest church were bearing witness to this, we now have the full story for it. So, brothers and sisters, as we study this don't let your curiosity about what was happening in the earliest church with all of these spiritual gifts blind you or distract you from the message that those prophets were bearing witness to. That Jesus Christ crucified is the son of God and the savior of sinners. This morning he offers all those who turn from their sins in sorrow and to faith in him salvation. Oh sinner, turn to Jesus Christ and be saved. Let's pray. Lord we pray for grace as we worship together this morning, as we hear your word, and as we respond to your word in faith. We pray Father that you would build us up in Christ for the sake and the good and the upbuilding of your people. We pray that you would do all this for Christ's glory and for our good. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Audio Transcript: Good morning Mosaic, most of you, some of you. It's a foretaste of next Sunday. So glad to see every single one of your eyes, and glad you're here. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word?Heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessing it is. What a blessing it is to gather as your people. It's so good to come together in the House of the Lord. Jesus, You are here amongst us. We feel Your presence and we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit, minister to us today. Speak a powerful word to us and show us how desperately we need the only good Samaritan, the only truly ultimately good Samaritan. Jesus, You offer us mercy. And some of us are too self-righteous and blinded by our self-righteousness to accept the grace and mercy, the compassion that you so long to pour out into our lives. Then once we receive that mercy, make us a people who extend mercy to others. It's hard, it's costly, it's emotionally taxing, but you're always there to refill our resources in a supernatural way, and I pray do that with us today. Lord, continue to bless this church, continue to bless this body of believers, continue adding to it, and we pray this in Christ's holy name, amen.The title of the sermon today is, The Only Good Samaritan. We are in Luke 10:25-37. There's a lot of important questions going through our minds rapidly now. What is the most important question on the top of your mind, even this week? Is it a question of finances? Is it question of how's the economy going to go? Is it question of, are my kids going to school? Is it a question of housing? Is it a question of, am I going to get married? Is it a question of, am I going to stay married? Hopefully yes, you should. Is it a question of how are we going to get through this season? How should I provide for my family? All important questions.The most important question that each one of us needs to find an answer to is a question that a gentleman asked Jesus in our text today. And what he'd asked is, “What must I do to inherit eternal life? Is my eternity secure? When I die, that's for sure, am I going to a place of paradise, a place called Heaven, a place of God's presence or not?” And then once we get an answer to that question, the second most important question that we need to find an answer to, and then orient our lives around is, how can I help others? How can I extend the greatest amount of compassion to another person, which isn't just to meet their physical needs, it's to meet their spiritual and eternal needs? That's what the text is about today, Luke 10:25-37. That is the fastest introduction in the Pastor Jan's sermon in the history of Pastor Jan's sermons.Luke 10:25, “And behold, the lawyers stood up to put him to the test saying ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it?' And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.' And he said to him, ‘You've answered correctly. Do this and you will live.'.But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?' Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him, whatever you spend. I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?' He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.' And Jesus said to him, ‘You go and do likewise.'”.This is the reading of God's holy inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time together, the impossibility of self-salvation, the impossibility of selfless love, and the only good Samaritan.First of all, the impossibility of self-salvation. Many of us are used to this parable. We've heard this parable, probably not dozens of times, but probably hundreds of times. We already know what it means. It's one of these you know, in staff meeting, we go through the text prior to it being preached as a devotional, as a Bible study. When we got to the very end after reading it, and we're like, “What are your thoughts?” And everyone's like, “You know, we kind of kind of get it. We've heard it. Okay, show mercy to people.” Because we're so familiar with it, we kind of lose sight of the point. We kind of lose sight of the outrage, how provocative this story is, especially set in the context that it's set in.Yes, we know it's a nice ideal to help people. And many of us have devoted, oriented our lives around helping as many people as possible. And perhaps you read this and there's an element of cynicism because of ministry fatigue, where you've been ministering to people in this season over and over and over and over. And you're like, “How many more people will need help on my path?” And you get to this place where you feel a callus, you feel a numbing, desensitization words where it's like, “Yeah, I kind of understand that priest and the Levite. I kind of understand going to the other side and just walking by. That's on the one hand. And on the other hand, there's just so many people to help, and I can't help everyone like this.” So you get to a point where you start asking, “Why should I help anyone like this?”.And what Jesus is ... And this is the radical point and I'm going to bring in the gospel at the very beginning. Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't have to show mercy to get mercy. I don't have to show mercy to get mercy. I get to show mercy because I got mercy. It changes everything. I got mercy from God. This morning, I woke up and I repented of my sin, why? Because I'm a sinner. And every single one of us, we need to repent of sin. And God extends grace. When he extends grace, it changes everything. And now, it melts that numbness, that desensitization, and then we can continue to serve. We don't show mercy to earn mercy. We've been given mercy therefore, we show mercy.So the context is in Luke 10:25, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This isn't just a lawyer like real estate lawyer, this is a lawyer of God's law. This is a lawyer that knows the Old Testament law. Not just the 10 laws, but all the ceremonial laws and all the institutional laws. He knew the law. He devoted himself to this noble tradition and he comes to Jesus and he asks a good question, but he asks it with a very questioning posture of heart. Right question, wrong heart.Here's the thing, whenever anyone comes to you and says, “How shall I inherit eternal life?” What's your answer. I know my answer is, trust in Jesus, repent of your sin, and submit to God. Receive God's grace and you get saved. Jesus doesn't go there. And then you got to ask the question, why doesn't he go there? Well, he doesn't go there because this guy thinks that he's already got it. This guy thinks he's done enough. This guy thinks that he has kept the law. He's never missed a Jewish feast or sacrifice. He's devoted himself to the study of law and traditions. He's got all the bases covered. Kept the Sabbath, tithed from his spice rack. He thinks he's got it. He thinks he's in. And what he wants to do is he wants to undermine Jesus' ministry of telling people, you need to repent and turn in faith back to God. He's not a pagan. He's not a Samaritan, people you look down on, and he's testing Jesus in front of a crowd. And what does Jesus do? Jesus responds to his question with a question, verse 26, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”.This guy knows the law and he knows what's at the heart of the law. And the heart of the law is summarized with love God and love people. That's verses 27, 28. The first commandment, love God with all of your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all of your mind, with every fiber of your being. Love God completely, 100%, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, as much as you care for your own needs, as much as you work to provide for your own needs. As much as you think of yourself, think of your neighbor, be a good neighbor. And those who dislike your neighbor, love your neighbor. That's the law. And we see that he did say the right thing. Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”The story should end there. Why doesn't the story end there? It doesn't end there because this gentleman felt uncomfortable. In the same way when you read passages like the Good Samaritan and you feel a little discomfort because you feel like you're falling short, that you're not living a life full of compassion, he feels it. And instead of going to the Lord and saying, “Lord, something's wrong in my heart. Love my neighbor as myself? I despise my neighbors. My neighbors are awful.” Not my neighbors in particular, some of them. Most of my neighbors are great.So that's why he does what he does in verse 29. And look at the text. This is really important. “He, desiring to justify himself said, ‘Who is my neighbor?'” Why does he justify himself? Because he feels something. What is he feeling at that moment? What is he trying to cover? He feels that he hasn't done enough. He feels that he's fallen short. He feels a tinge of shame or guilt or regret. The context of this parable is a question of salvation, the context isn't what should I do to be a good Christian? How should I live my life? The context is, how do I become a Christian? And Jesus answers, you can save yourself theoretically. You just have to look love God with everything you got and your neighbor as yourself. And then Jesus tells him the story, which exposes that not only does he not love his neighbor, he actually despises his neighbor.Who does Jesus put at the very center of the story? It's called the Parable of the Good, what? Samaritan. The history between the Jews and Samaritans. You can just look into it. They hated each other. The Jews thought that the Samaritans were half-breed. They wouldn't even dine together. So Jesus is saying, “You think you're saved?” I'm not only going to answer your question of salvation. I'm also going to expose how much hate is in your heart. Like think of the person that you hate the most, and there is that person. Every Michael Scott has a Toby.Imagine this parable. This is Michael Scott coming to Jesus and saying, “What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus is like, “Let me tell you a story about this man walking from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he got mugged. And Jim walked by and Pam walked by, but Toby stopped.” That's a humorous way to think about it. Now, it's about to get real.Let me tell you a story of the good, whatever the opposite political party that you're voting for. Let me tell you a story of the good Trump supporter with a MAGA hat and a Trump bumper sticker on his donkey. Let me tell you that story. That just got uncomfortable. Let me tell you a story of the Biden supporter who got down and showed compassion. Now, that got really uncomfortable. That's what's going on in this guy's heart.I'm professing that I love my neighbor. What if my neighbor's different than me? What if deep in my heart, I despise my neighbor? I don't say it out loud, but that's exactly what's going on in the text. Why is he trying to justify himself? Because he's trying to cover that shape, that regret, that hate. He doesn't like what he sees in his own heart. There's a cognitive dissonance. It's not lining up with what he said. His heart isn't lining up with what he professes with his mouth. Jesus said, “They profess to love me with their mouth, but their hearts are far from me.”.It's the same thing that happened with Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sinned, the very first thing that they did before going into hiding from God, what's the very first thing they did? They realized that they were naked and ashamed. So they covered themselves. They justified themselves with fig leaves. That's exactly what this guy is trying to do.Gregory of Nazianzus said, “Why? What changed? What changed? Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed and then all of a sudden they sin and they have to cover themselves, what changed?” He says, “Well, before the sin, before the fall, they were ensconced, clothed in the love and acceptance of God so their nakedness didn't bother them. And through sin, they strip themselves of God's love and acceptance and we're left with a sense of exposure, fear, shame, and guilt.”.The Jews looked down on these people. The Jews claim this lawyer claimed to love people in theory, but people in reality are difficult to love. And that's why we need to exercise and grow in compassion.Luke 10:33, “A Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.” There's a Greek word splagchnizomai. It's to feel pity in the inner most being. It's the deepest form of empathy. It's actually the most common descriptive, emotive word of Jesus Christ's heart or what was happening in Jesus' heart. He felt compassion. That's why he came to die for our sins. In the story of a prodigal son, the father, when he sees his son running to him, he said he had pity, he had compassion on him and ran toward his son.Luke 10:34 and 35 shows us that it's costly to show this compassion. Not just feel it, but to actually act on it. “He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, ‘Take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back'” It's costly. He shows compassion. This is holistic care. He's showing that it was unexpected, but he's willing to take his own resources, his own funds in order to help this person.And then at the end, Luke 10:36-37, “Jesus says, ‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?'” The lawyer still doesn't get it. And he can't even say, the Samaritan. He can't bring himself to say, the Samaritan. He can't bring himself to say that my enemy is actually better than me in a hypothetical story. He says, “The third one.” The one who showed him mercy, Jesus said, “You go and do likewise.” So what's the standard to inherit eternal life? Love God with everything you got and be a good neighbor and love your neighbor as much as yourself.Basically what he's saying is, help anyone and everyone that God brings into your path. This is why I said the impossibility of self-salvation. Because in our culture, when you say, “Every single one, we need to repent of sin because not one of us is good enough.” And then everyone in our culture pushes back with the self-righteousness, “I am a good person. I've never hurt anybody.” That's not the standard. The standard is help everybody. Not just don't hurt anybody, help everybody. That's the standard. You want to earn your way to heaven, that's the standard. And what's Jesus trying to do? He's trying to get him to this place where he says, “That's impossible. Jesus, how can you expect that?” And Jesus is like, “That's the whole point. That's why I'm here.”.And so that brings me to point two is the impossibility of selfless love. So it's impossible to save yourself and this selfless love is impossible. It's to get us to a place where we know the world will be a better place if this were true, but it's impossible to do. But what's fascinating is we do long for it. We long for utopia where people are loving, where people are good and generous and kind and serve one another and extend compassion and mercy. Here's a really interesting thing. Apart from a worldview that God is, that God exists, that God is love, altruism and selfless love does not make any sense.John Lehrer writing about altruism he says, “It's always been a sticky subject for evolutionary biology. And altruism is the act of helping someone else at a steep, personal cost.” Charles Darwin wrote about this and he said that altruism was a potentially fatal challenge to his theory of natural selection. And in the descent of man, he writes, “He who was ready to sacrifice his life, as many a savage has been, rather than betray his comrades would often leave no offspring to inherit his noble nature.” It's been a paradox for many.In the 1950s, the biologist J. B. S. Haldane, someone asked him, “How far would you go to save the life of another person?” He said this, he said, “I would jump into a river to save two brothers, not one.” He said, “I would save eight cousins, but not seven.” So I'm willing to sacrifice my life for another, as long as it's on my terms of multiple people, et cetera. This moral arithmetic that he used.The famous example of this is Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese in New York city. She was stabbed to death in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of the borough New York City, March 13th, 1964. And that led to the Genovese syndrome, especially diffusion of responsibility. Why didn't anybody help her? They thought, “Why should I?” People saw this happen, they'd say “Why should I help, risk myself? Someone else should do it.” And everybody was morally outraged by that. Why are we morally outraged by that? Why are we morally outraged that you had a chance to help this person and you didn't? Why are we morally outraged by that? Because we know it's written on our hearts. You can't find an explanation of why that moral outrage exists, why we know that we should help when we have an opportunity to help. It only makes sense if there is a true God, a living God, the teaching of Jesus, this is what makes it so awesome. The world would be a better place. Not just for you, it would be a better place for absolutely everybody.Nietzsche wrote in The Will to Power, he says, “Another Christian concept no less crazy, the concept of equality of souls before God. This concept furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights.” Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, what does he write? “All men are created equal. This is a self-evident truth.”Is this self-evident? That everybody is created equal. Equal in what sense? If you just look at the facts and the face of it, it's almost absurd to claim that everybody is equal. Equal in what? We're not equal in height. We're not equal in weight. We're not equal in strength, intelligence, stamina, truthfulness. There's inequality all around us. How can we say we are all created equal? In what sense? In the most valuable sense, that every human soul, every human life is valuable to God. That you'd remove that foundation and now you're building a house of morality on sin. And the preciousness and equal worth of every human life is a Christian idea. You just see that Christian idea when it's actually put into practice. And that's what did change the Roman empire. Christians have always believed that God places infinite value on each human life.The pagan emperor, Julian wrote this, “The Impious Galileans ... ” That's how he call Christians, “ ... they relieve both their own poor and ours. It is shameful that ours should be so destitute of our assistance.” Look at world history, Christians when faithful to the gospel, when faithful to the scriptures, they've been a huge blessing to the world.Prior to Christianity, the Greeks and the Romans had little to no interest in the poor. For example, the first ecumenical council was in the Nicaea, 325. That's when bishops were directed to build hospices next to cathedrals. There was never such a thing as hospices. The elderly and the sick were left to fend for themselves. The first hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea in 369. By the middle age, hospitals covered all of Europe and even beyond. In fact, Christian hospitals were the world's first voluntary charitable institutions. Care for mentally ill, that was a Christian idea.Florence Nightingale formed the Red Cross in order to love his enemies in times of war and genocide. The vast majority of hospitals were started by Christians, by Catholics, Presbyterians, Protestants, and even their names reflect this.We know that loving people selflessly is good. It's written on our hearts. We're outraged when it's not done. And we ourselves aren't consistent with what we know we should do. So what do we do with this gap? We know we should love selflessly. If we don't, we're outraged when other people don't, we're not outraged when we don't. So what do we need? What solves this? This is what I said in the beginning. I can't guilt you into loving people. I try with my daughters, if one of them isn't loving another one like, “You need to love your sister. If you don't, there's like this punishment, like no iPad for you. You got to love your sister.” You can't force someone into loving another person. You can try to guilt them into it, you can try to shame them into it. It's always temporary` and it's always on the surface.What's the only way to get people to love other people? It's only in the gospel. It's only the good news. And this is point three, the only good Samaritan. It's awesome to think about this utopia, where everyone loves each other, but it's impossible. And this is what Jesus is doing. He's trying to get the lawyer to a point of desperation where he says, “If that's the standard for eternal life, then definitely I haven't gotten it. Before Jesus saves that guy, he's trying to get that guy lost. Before he gets him saved, he wants to get him lost. He's presenting God's standards. And he wants this guy to see how far he's fallen short, that his heart is actually full of hate.God requires this love, a love that can't be required. But he doesn't just command love, he compels love by showing us how much he loved us. That Jesus Christ is the only true good Samaritan. In the story of The Good Samaritan, we are not the good Samaritan, we're the guy on the ground. He's trying to get the lawyer to see himself, “I'm on the ground and I'm being offered help by a Samaritan. I'm on the ground and I'm being offered help by my enemy. Will I accept that help?” That's what's going on. And Jesus is saying, you actually, like you say you've fulfilled the first commandment, you haven't even come close because the second commandment is easier and your terrible.So you need to accept the grace from this Samaritan, the Samaritan who at his own cost comes to help you. This Samaritan, who doesn't pour out oil and wine, but he pours out his blood and his body is broken in order to extend us mercy, in order to give us compassion, in order to say, “Look, I'm dying on a cross for your law breaking, and I'm going to give you the blessing of my law keeping. And on the cross. I'm going to take your penalty of law breaking in order to do that through the double amputation.”This is how we experienced the grace of God. And when you see that Jesus did that for you, for me, despite our wickedness, despite all our sin. Everything that he knows, we know, we know what's deep inside and we try to hide it. He knows. So don't justify it. Don't don't let yourself righteousness keep you from accepting the grace of God. And when you know that you're saved by grace, when you know that God extends mercy to you, compassion to you, that then begins to melt your heart in order to extend compassion to others.So here's a word for us, for Bostonians, especially for ... We need to repent not just of our sins, our bad works, we also need to repent of our good works. We need to repent of thinking that our good works are what's going to get us into Heaven. We need to repent of our self-righteousness. And by the way, every one of us struggles with this. I struggle with this all the time. The longer I'm in the ministry, the more sacrifices that I make for the Lord. I'm like, “I've given years to you, God, where's my blessing?” I don't know if anyone else has ever done that.The more sacrifices you make, the more you're like I should be getting more. And God's like, self-righteousness, you deserve nothing, you deserve hell. And you're lucky that you're even alive. That's what grace does, it, like, “You deserve nothing. You're lucky your heart is beating today. Now, keep doing what I called you to do.” And everything else is icing on the cake. So we are to repent of our sins and self-righteousness.Galatians 3:11-14, “Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not a faith rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.”.Jesus did it all and there's no better reason to love than love. Jesus loved this for no reason, whatever in ourselves. He love us not because we're lovely, but because he's loving. And unconditional love frees us to love. And this parable isn't about getting us to be people who act once in a while with mercy, it's to get us to a point where we live a life of compassion, a life of mercy.Why does Jesus start with the law? He starts with the law to get this gentleman lost. He gets into a point where he sees, I haven't even come close. Then Jesus pays for our sin. Now what happens with the law? Does the law disappear? No, we're still called to love God with all of our being and love our neighbor as ourselves and to grow in both of those. The law is always a mirror of how you're doing. There's some mirrors that just make you look better. I don't know what it is, it must be the lighting or something. My brother, Vlad], in his apartment, that mirror makes me look so good. Every time I'm like, “Vlad, I just need to go to the bathroom real quick. Oh yeah, that looks great.” And that's why people take selfies in restaurant bathrooms, I don't know what it is, restaurant bathroom, maybe dimly lit or something.Nobody ever takes selfies at the doctor's office or the dental. Nobody does that. Because the light's different. It exposes more of your imperfections. God starts with the law to expose our imperfections, to show us, this is what you got to work on. And the Apostle James said, when you read the holy scriptures it's like a mirror. The Look gaze deep into, where do I need to change? And then God extends grace and fuels us with the Holy Spirit in order to change.Who is my neighbor? The answer isn't who is my neighbor, but am I a good neighbor? That's what Jesus tells him at the end. Am I a good neighbor? Am I a good neighbor to whom? Literally any human being with a legitimate need, literally any human being with a legitimate need. And obviously, we can't help everybody, but I like Andy Stanley's comment where he says, “Do for one, what you would like to do for all.”.1 John 3:17-18, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth.” And the other thing I just want to point out here at the end. When we talk about mercy and when we talk of compassion, usually we think of those things as just doing things for people, helping people with food and helping people with rent and helping people with their car, helping them with whatever physical needs that they have. But one of the interesting things that Jesus Christ here is doing, he's actually in a story using a story about a good Samaritan, he is extending compassion to this gentlemen by telling the gentleman the truth. Jesus is being a good Samaritan for this gentleman and Jesus is trying to meet his greatest need. And his greatest need is to see that he's blinded by his self-righteousness.It doesn't feel like help to the gentlemen at that moment. Sometimes compassion doesn't feel like compassion. Sometimes compassion feels like you just got roasted by Jesus and you walk away in front of a crowd. But sometimes that's what we need. We need that truth to break the hardness of our hearts. Jesus is doing, he's embodying the compassion and telling this man the truth.So love is discerning. You need to discern, how can I extend compassion? What is this person's greatest need at this moment. Sometimes it's an act of love and sometimes it's a word of truth. And in this text, Jesus twice points out, go and do it. Oh, you know the law? Go and do it. And at the very end, he shows him, you didn't know the law and you need Jesus, the gospel. And then he says, “Go and do it again.” Meaning that works always follow salvation, mercy follows mercy. What the law demands, the gospel produces. So we're saved by grace through faith for works that God has predestined before the foundation of the world.And I'll close with Romans 8:1-4, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.”.Everything that God calls us to do, he's already done in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Receive that grace, then he gives us the Holy Spirit to live out and do what he's called us to do.Can you imagine a world without grace? Can you imagine a world without Christ? Can you imagine a world without love? It's almost impossible to. Now, can you imagine a world with true selfless love? Where people aren't just talking about racial divides and financial divides and political divides. People are just talking about how they're serving one another, how they're caring for one another, how they're extending grace to one another. That's what Jesus Christ does and it starts with us. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Let's pray.Jesus, we thank you for not just giving us the law, but fulfilling the law. And we thank you that you often speak a hard truth into our hearts in order to soften our hearts and we need that. We need that on a daily basis. Lord, we do repent of sin and we do receive your mercy. And we thank you for your compassion. We praise you for the gracious and loving God that you are and we thank you for being that God, and we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen.

Audio Transcript: Hello, Mosaic Boston family, and if you're joining us for the first time online, my name's Shane, and I'm one of the pastors at Mosaic Boston Brookline.In just a moment, we're going to have a special message from Pastor Jan, encouraging us from the Scriptures. But before we do, just a couple of things.First of all, we want to acknowledge that we understand that this is a bit weird. Two weeks ago, none of us could have imagined, expected, that this is where we would be, but this is where we are now, and so we want to make the best of it. With that in mind, just a couple of things.First of all, it's important for us as a church to stay connected spiritually, and even virtually, during this time where we've been encouraged to distance ourselves from one another physically. And so, if you haven't done so yet, we would encourage you to download the Mosaic Boston app, keep up to date with the things going on, on our website, and check your e-mail often for further updates about what will be going on in the life of the church. We're going to try to keep you up to date, week by week, as things move forward.Secondly, you can, if you're new to mosaic, download that Mosaic Boston app, and fill out one of the connection cards there. That's a great ways to start getting connected. You can leave prayer requests and things like that there, as well.For the families at Mosaic, if you have children or teenagers, we would greatly encourage you to take advantage of the resources that we are putting out, for you to go through, together as a family. Our Mini-Mosaic Director, Raquel, and our Teen Director, Tyler, have worked hard to put those together, and we hope that they're a blessing to you.Many of you have faithfully been giving to Mosaic Boston Online. If that's not something that you've done before, we would encourage you at this time. This is a great time to do it. Or you can set that up very easily on our website, through our secure giving portal.And then, finally, we'd really encourage you as individuals, as friends within the church, and as community groups, to stay connected with one another. Check in with one another, encourage one another, pray for one another and be with one another, in spirit during this time that we are apart.We will be keeping you up to date, so check the website and your e-mail often, and right now, we're going to hand things over to Pastor Jan.This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.What a week it's been. So much turmoil, so much information coming at us rapidly. So many changes and so many feelings to be processed. How have you been processing everything that's been going on?My wife and I, we have four daughters. Our second daughter, Elizabeth, who is eight, she processes our feelings through poetry, and she wrote this poem last night. She wanted me to read it. It's called A Warm Wooden Cabin.A warm wooden cabin sits in the woods. Inside, you see warm, hot cocoa. You sit down near the fire, and smell nice hot cookies, right out of the oven. You hear the wind outside. While you're reading a good book, you're bundled up in blankets about to fall asleep. When you hear a growl and a loud roar, you jump up and run away. But before you know it, you're in Heaven, eating ice cream and laughing at the bear. The end PS, God is good. Heart emoji.A little dark, but she's Russian, so fits into the genre of Russian poetry. There's a lot going on. And I think as somehow, it's emblematic of where we find ourselves, where it seems like everything was going so well, for so many. We were experiencing prosperity. Then out of nowhere, we've been blindsided. So how are we to respond? And that's what I want to talk about today.Would you pray with me? Heavenly father, we thank you that you, God of the universe, are our refuge and strength. You are our help in this time of need. Lord, I pray that you send us the Holy Spirit, and make your people a people who are characterized not by panic, but by prayer, not by fear, but by faith, not by anxiety, but by action. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you make us a people who are grounded in an unshakable hope, and ready to care for our neighbors, and ready to share the hope that we have in Christ.Lord, bless this city, bless this state, bless this country, bless the world. We pray for our political leaders that you send them wisdom, and knowledge and discernment, and we pray for supernatural intervention, you send healing.Most importantly, I pray that you awakened many from spiritual sleep, awaken them to the reality that life is short, eternity is long, and that we can be reconciled with the God of eternity through Christ. Awake people up from the false assumption that we are in control. We are not. And we cry out to you a God who is, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.So, as you've probably heard, we have had to cancel our in-person gatherings. And why did we do this? Well, first of all, we did not cancel our services, because we ourselves are afraid of getting sick, or even of dying, because the scriptures, as Christian Scripture says that, "To live as Christ, to die is gain."We have canceled our services and we forsake gathering in person, in large groups, for the sake of the most vulnerable neighbors around us. Jeremiah 29:7 says, "Seek the welfare of the city, where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare, you will find welfare."Love is the reason why we are changing our practices. In the case of the young and healthy, this particular virus doesn't pose much more threat than the flu, but in the case of those who are immunocompromised, over the age of 70, this isn't just a flu, this is deadly, and they are potentially at grave risk. One of the central tenants of Christianity, one of the axioms of Christianity, is that the strong must consider and have regard for the week, and that's what we're doing. We're forsaking gathering not to minimize risk to ourselves, but to minimize risk to others.At the same time, the disease can go unnoticed in the healthy, and those who are symptomatic, they can even carry the virus for long periods of time, while increasing the risk to others, without even knowing they're infectious. So we are minimizing physical contact and large crowds.We're doing this at the counsel of medical professionals in our own church, and of those in the healthcare system. We don't want to overwhelm potentially the healthcare system, or cause a spike in other vital social service needs. It is sad. We love our church, we love our gatherings. It's sad that we don't get to meet in person, and it's even more sad that we have to keep physical distance from one another.It seems so counter to our spiritual DNA, where we are drawn towards those in pain. We are called to embrace those who are suffering. It seems like this form of neighbor love isn't very loving, but at this one moment in eternity, we must take a step back physically, and draw near to one another virtually and spiritually.Regarding community groups, we are leaving that up to the discretion of the leaders, who'll stay in communication. If it seems prudent, meet virtually on Skype, Google Hangout, Zoom. If you do choose to meet, please do practice the sermon. If you are showing any symptoms of illness, please stay home, or if you're in contact with those who are immunocompromised, or prone to risk, please stay home as well.Our text for today is Psalm 46. Would you look at the text with me? Psalm 46, a timely text."God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the Holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved."God will help her when morning dawns, the nations rage, the kingdoms totter, he utters his voice. The earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth, he makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariot with fire."Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress."This is the reading of God's Holy in there, and infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.One big point from the sermon today is that God is our refuge, god our refuge. God is sufficient to get us through. He has to this point. He will, from this point on, and we are called to lay hold of this sufficiency.We see three scenes in the Psalm. First, God is the refuge against the raging of nature. Second, God is the resource against the raging of nations, and third, God is the ruler over the rebels of the earth.First, God is the refuge against the raging of nature. We see, in this illustration, the first scene in the first picture, a cataclysmic earthquake. In Verse Two it says, "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling." The author of this psalm is imagining the absolutely worst case scenario, the most, the most cataclysmic apocalyptic event that he can imagine. It's an earthquake that that is so severe, that a mountain is swallowed up by the sea.It's a natural order turned upside down. And what's the response? This is our response as the faithful, as those who love God. We run to him, to find relief and comfort, and God is described as refuge. He's described as our strength and our help.Refuge, meaning, he is our shelter, he is our security, he is our protection, and God doesn't just provide refuge. He is our refuge, the one whom we shelter, and he himself is our defense, no matter what. He's also our strength. We are weak, he's strong.He's able to meet us in our circumstances, provide us with the strength we need. And also, he's our help. Scripture says he's our very present help in trouble, and this is comforting, that the omnipresent God of the universe, who is always with us, extends his heavenly fatherly embrace, when we are particularly in trouble. You see this all over the place, in particular, Psalm 23."The Lord is my shepherd, O shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me."Notice the change from speaking about God, to speaking directly to God. It's a change from the third person to the second: "He makes me lie down. He leads, he restores." It's almost as if he is theoretical, abstract.Verse four, as the Psalmist finds himself in the valley of the shadow of death, when evil is before him, he goes from "he" to "you," from talking about God, to crying out to God, exceeding nearness. This text tells us that God can be trusted. In particular when the whole world goes crazy, God is the source of our calm in the midst of chaos.The second scene we see is that God is the resource against the raging of nations. Psalm 46: 4-7: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the Holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter, he utters his voice. The earth melts, and the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress."In this scene, we see a picture of a city engulfed by a massive siege. It is surrounded by enemies, an innumerable horde of enemies. And the Psalmist says, "There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God."Jerusalem was one of the only ancient cities not built on a river, and ancient cities needed water close to them, especially in a siege. And when the enemy, Sennacherib, attacks Jerusalem in the Old Testament, he's sure that the lack of water will ultimately drive them to surrender. But unknown to Sennacherib, Jerusalem had a source of water.A wise King named Hezekiah built an underground tunnel secretly, bringing in 1,777 feet of a trench, to bring water in through solid rock, from a spring in Gihon, to a Pool of Siloam. And here, the Psalmist says that this water symbolizes God's very presence, that he himself is our greatest spiritual resource. He is in our midst. He shall give us what we need to quench our spiritual thirst. He alone can sustain.It's a God who speaks the siege into oblivion. He is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of angelic armies. In the old Testament, there's a story of the prophet Elisha, and he and his servant is surrounded by enemies. Thousands of soldiers surround them, and the servant is terrified, and he says, "Elisha, my father, what are we going to do?" And Elijah says, "Those who are with us are more than those who are against us. And more than those who are before us."The servant's eyes are opened, and he sees a hail full of angelic soldiers, horses, and chariots of fire. William Plumer said, "No real harm can befall the child of God walking in the path of duty."And the third scene we see that tells us that God is the ruler of, over the rebels of earth, Psalm 46: 8-11: "Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He turns the chariots, burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress."The third picture is that of a battlefield, after a battle is over. It's in the aftermath war. We see bodies, we see weapons strewn all over, and the text tells us that God himself will triumph over his enemies. The word of God tells us in the end times, the words of Jesus Christ. Wars and rumors of wars will come, but in the Old Testament, and the New Testament, believers are fortified with the confidence that all of the kingdoms of this world will one day become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.Because God is sovereign, because God is great, because God will triumph, the believer is told to be still. No matter the turmoil, no matter the turbulence, be still, and know that he is God. We're told to avail ourselves of his sufficiency. We're told that when we rest in the Lord, it is well with our soul.We don't rest in ourselves and we don't rest in people or governments, but in God. The question that arises from this text is, how do I know that when Christ returns? Or how do I know when I die and meet Christ, that I will be accepted, that I will be welcomed, and I will not be on the side of his enemies? The word of God tells us that if you are in Christ by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, you become a child of God. And as a child of God, you have nothing to fear, outside of Christ.The fear that we experience now, and the fear that we experience in the face of this virus, in the face of any adversity, is nothing compared to what we should really feel, which is fear of justice, the wrath of God for our sin. This is what makes the Gospel such good news. That Jesus Christ came, and Jesus Christ personified this psalm.Jesus Christ is our present refuge and our future victory. Jesus personally promised that when we are in him, when we belong to him, he will be with us to the end of the age. That when we trust in Christ, repent of our sins, Jesus gives us the secret aqueduct of the Holy Spirit, who gives us rivers of living water. John 4:14: "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."John 7:37, Christ says, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" To give us this water, the water that leads to eternal life. Jesus thirsted to give us protection from the storms of life. Jesus absorbed the greatest storm known to man, which is the judgment for our sin.Jesus, though he was sinless, paid the penalty for a virus infinitely more deadly than the one before us, and that's the virus of our sin. To give us refuge, Jesus lost refuge. To give us strength, Jesus lost all strength. To give us help, Jesus lost all help. He went through the greatest trouble known to mankind. He did that for us. On the cross, as he was being crucified for our sins. Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"He was forsaken by the Father, so that we would never have to be. So respond to this grace. How are we to respond? We're to repent of our sins, and repent of our fear, repent of our anxiety, and instead, accept the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he'll pour his spirit into your heart, and forgiveness and mercy and grace.Once we're in Christ, there's nothing to fear. Don't panic. Instead, pray, plan, be prudent. We are to remain faithful, not fearful. As believers, we have to redirect our energy from anxiety and panic to love and service and preparation. Faith is surrender to the one who is in control.This virus has brought the world to its knees. And from here, we pray. We pray to God, who is our refuge, and our strength, and our help. We don't overcome fear with just information. We overcome fear with faith, but we are to be informed.There's a difference between fear and prudence, so be informed about this virus and its developments. Go to cdc.gov. If you are showing signs of illness, the best way that we can love others is to stay away. If you see symptoms of illness, call a doctor, hopefully get tested. As more tests come out, if you experience a fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, just a tiredness, or muscle or headache, stay at home, as instructed by medical professionals. Wash your hands. Work to prevent the spread, and pray.Pray for yourself, pray for the church, and pray for our community. In particular, pray for the doctors and medical professionals, who are courageously on the front lines, fighting and preparing for the fight across the country, and across the globe. The apostle Paul said, "I want you to be free from anxieties."Philippians 4: 4-7 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."Matthew Six, 25 and 27, the Lord Jesus says, "Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?"It feels like in the past few weeks, everything has changed, but at the same time, the most important things have not. God is immutable. He's still on his throne. Therefore, we have an unperishable hope, especially in the face of mortality. The storms of life, like this one, they expose our foundations. What are we trusting in? What are we building our lives on? Is the material rock, or is it sand? And Scripture says that only Christ is the rock on which we stand.Suffering, or the prospect of it, reveals what we're truly trusting in, who our true God is. So even as Jesus spoke words of comfort, he made clear that his friends would suffer. He said, "In this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world." Christ offers us a real hope, and the real Christian hope is our ultimate confidence. It's rooted in the historical life, historical death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.Because of his resurrection from the dead, he's proven that he is the creator of the world, and also its Redeemer and sustainer. And he will return. And one day, he will renew the entire creation.And this hope isn't just theological, it's not just cosmetic, but it's personal as is written, the astonishing and wonderful words of the Heidelberg Catechism. "What is your only hope in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins, with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the Devil. He also preserves me in such a way, that without the will of my Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me hardly willing and ready from now on to live for him."The church has experienced epidemics. It's lived through wars and famines, and the church of Jesus Christ has responded, by offering a compelling hope, an unshakeable hope, of a kingdom that cannot be touched by these dangers. The church started in the Roman Empire in the Roman world, and it was a world full of plagues. Epidemics regularly decimated cities and regions, and though people didn't understand germ theory of disease, they knew enough to flee the cities, when they saw people getting sick.And the first Christians, who saw themselves as missionaries, as emissaries, as ambassadors of Christ, that remained in the cities, did not flee the place. They stayed, and they served. Sociologist Rodney Stark in his work, The Rise of Christianity, makes a statistical argument that this commitment, by itself, is commitment to provide meaningful care for those who are stricken by the plague, that in itself, was a major contributor to the growth of the church in the first centuries of the common era.When this plague passes, and it will, what will our neighbors remember of us? Well, they remember that Christians took immediate, decisive action to protect the vulnerable, even at a great personal cost, organizational cost. Will we as Christians be remembered, we are people not of panic but of prayer, not of anxiety but of action, not of fear but of faith, ready to serve as we are able, as we can, while protecting ourselves and keeping appropriate social distance, to provide for the needs of those around us, and most importantly, to bring hope.Practically, if you know of someone who is elderly or immunocompromised or at risk, perhaps that you could reach out, and ask if they need help with grocery shopping. Or perhaps you know someone who is struggling with the economy, has been laid off. This is a great time to practice generosity, sacrificial generosity.And most importantly, are you ready to give a defense for the reason for the hope that you have? With gentleness and respect, pointing people to the great news, despite all the bad news that's out there, to the great news, that in Jesus Christ, by grace through faith, through the repentance of our sins, our eternity is secure, no matter what happens, for me to live as Christ, and to die is gain. No matter what happens, I'll be in Heaven, eating ice cream.Psalm 112: 6-8. "For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He's not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries."And I'll close with Romans 8: 31-38. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus, the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. who will separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?"Or COVID-19. "As it is written for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor anything now nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord." God is our refuge. Would you turn to him?Let's pray. Lord, we pray by the power of the Spirit. Intervene. Stop this virus. We pray, send healing to those who are suffering. We pray, fill our hearts with your Holy Spirit, and empower us, for the duty that you have for us, the mission that you have for us, to care for our neighbors, and to share the good news of Jesus Christ, and the unshakable hope that he offers. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Go, tell it on the mountain. Over the hills and everywhere.-Go, tell it on the mountain. That Jesus Christ is born-

Summary: Psalm 34:8 says: "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" There is a seeing and tasting that is infinitely deeper than physical. Tasting God, who is supremely beautiful to the heart and exquisitely sweet to the soul, precedes seeing God. The only true way to master our harmful desires is to counter them with healthful desires. How can we learn to crave that which is best for us? Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God can recalibrate your taste buds, physical and spiritual. Only when this happens, can we talk about "tasting God."Audio Transcript: You're listening to Audio for Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit MosaicBoston.com.Heavenly Father, we pray that you send us the Holy Spirit to show us what the Holy Spirit desires and, Holy Spirit, you desire to vivify in us and liven in us, resurrect in us affections for God. And why? Because only God can ultimately satisfy. God, you alone are truly beautiful, ultimately beautiful. You alone satisfy the depths of our souls. Lord, we come and we confess that we do not love you as you deserve. We don't love you as we ought because there's so many things competing for our affections, and often those desires are harmful. And I pray today, Holy Spirit, replace harmful desires with healthful desires, and show us that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can grow into the image Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, as we root ourselves in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we see Jesus how much you have sacrificed to love us, to pour your love into our hearts, to redeem us, that that alone is what can transform us, that alone is what radically can humanize us and transform us into the people you've created us to be.So I pray, Lord, today that you show us where our harmful desires need to be supplanted with healthful desires and where the taste buds of our souls need to be recalibrated, and I pray that you do a deep work. I pray for those who are Christians and are caught in sin and shackled in sin. I pray today send liberation. You've saved us for freedom, you call us to stand firm in that freedom, and I pray for anyone who's not yet a believer. I pray today radically regenerate their hearts, draw them to yourself. Lord, there's nothing that we can do to convert anyone, proselytize anyone, Lord. We believe that regeneration is a miracle, supernatural. I pray today, Holy Spirit, save many, and I pray this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, amen.So we're in a sermon series that we are calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for a Life, and what we're doing this series is we're looking at the paradoxical nature of Jesus Christ, that on the one hand he's the lion of Judah. He comes as a king. He comes as the Lord. But on the other hand, he's also the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That he dies as a lamb. He's slaughtered as a lamb, burying the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin upon himself. He's both. He's a lamb who gives himself and he's a lion who devours vehemently Satan's sin and death. And when we see that Jesus Christ is both lion and lamb, and the more that we worship him, the more we revere him, we begin to resemble him in our daily life. So we're looking through this prism of lion and lamb, tough and tender, and we're looking how this applies to every single area of our lives.Today we're talking about desires.Recent data from the Institute of Health Metrics and Valuation shows that the U.S. is among the world's highest rates of substance abuse, has one of the highest rates. Dr. Steven Sussman in a study from 2017 entitled Substance and Behavioral Addictions: Concepts, Causes, and Cures, he says, "Around half of the population of the United States at any one time is addicted to something." Marijuana 17% of 18 year olds are addicted to it, 2% of 50 year olds. Illicit drugs, non-marijuana 8% of 18 year olds, 5% of 50 year old. Tobacco is 15% of the U.S. adult population. Alcohol 10% for older teenagers and adults. Food addiction 10% of the U.S. population, 25% for those who struggle with obesity. Gambling 1-3% of the U.S. population. The internet at least 2%. Exercise 3-5%. But if you are in college, that number jumps to 26% addicted to exercise. Workaholism, addiction of work is 10% of the U.S. adult population. Significantly more probably anecdotally from just living in Boston, in a place like shopping addiction 6% of the U.S. adult population.Dr. Sussman says in the study, he says, "What's fascinating is that income per capita in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1972, and yet our levels of happiness or just general subjective well being has not changed and actually has declined." And he concludes the study by saying, "The U.S. is suffering from three series epidemics, obesity, substance abuse, and depression." That's the study. There's no solution.Well, we believe that solution is in Jesus Christ, that he alone is the one who ultimately satisfies our souls. Today we're going to use the word epithumia. This is a word that shows up in our text simulations five, over and over and over. Epithumia, and it's a neutral word that sometimes epithumia is used positively. Jesus says, "I long, I epithumia. I want to have the last supper with you," he tells his disciples. Same Paul says, "I long to be with Christ," in Philippians 1:23. In First Thessalonians he says, "I long to see you face to face." On the other hand, it's the same exact word that's used to describe our lust or ravenous appetites and inordinate craving. It's desire out of control that we need something to feel alive. It's as if our souls are naked and empty and looking for clothing.Blaise Pascal talked about this gigantic vacuum in every single soul, and we long for it to be filled. And we try to fill it with creation, things around us, experiences or people, or money, or power, et cetera. And the more we get, the more we want. It's like trying a satiate thirst with salt water.Today we're looking at Galatians 5:16-26 to frame up our time. Galatians 5:16-26. Please follow along either in your Bible or on the screen."But I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual morality, impurity, sexuality, idolatry, sorcery, amenity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, decensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherent the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and evil desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. Let us not become conceded, provoking one another, envying one another."This is the reading of God's holy inherent, infallible authoritative word. May he write these internal truths upon our hearts. Three main sections to the sermon today. In Roman Numeral format because there's seven practical points to take away. So I've tweaked the formula because a couple sermons ago the main points were numbered and then the sub points were numbered and everyone got confused. So Roman Numerals, practical points. You're welcome.So number one is crucified as a lamb, resurrected as a lion, that's Jesus. Two is crucify your sinful desires like a lion, and there's five practical points there. We'll get into them. I won't read them now. You can take a picture if you want to follow along. And then three is resurrect your holy desires like a lamb.Number one is crucified as a lamb, resurrected as a lion. Of course we're talking about Jesus Christ. Every other world religion in every misguided flavor of Christianity teaches the following, this is a distilled version of their path to salvation. It's be good and do good. In order to gain acceptance, in order to make your way to Heaven, be good and do good. At the heart of Christianity is the gospel, and the gospel, this is what Jesus preaches his very first sermon. Again preaching the gospel. And the gospel is not what we do for God. That's not the good news. There's nothing that we can do to make ourselves right with God. The good news is that Jesus has done everything. The good news is that Christ died for the ungodly. There's nothing that we can do to atone for our sin. There's nothing that we can do to earn penance before God. Christ has done. When did he die for us? When he saw that we would be good people or would fulfill his commandments. No. He died for us when he saw that we were still ungodly. Christ died for us when we were yet sinners.Isaiah 53:3-7. Isaiah 53 is one of the great prophetic passages about the Messiah who's come. Written 700 years at least before the birth of Christ. It says, "He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not." Meaning we did not desire Christ. We did not desire God. And that's the story of humanity. It's the story of holy scripture. "Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed strick and smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the inequity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. Like a sheep that before it shears is silent. So we open not his mouth."We went astray like sheep. He comes and he sacrifices himself like the sacrificial lamb as a blood offering, substitutionary atonement for our sins. This is what happened on the cross. Jesus Christ absorbs the wrath of God that we deserve for our sins, for our law, breaking for our rebellion. But he doesn't stay dead. He absorbs our wrath like a lamb, but he comes back in the third day like a ferocious lion. After he ravenously consumed, defeated Satan's sin and death. Why did Jesus do that? Jesus didn't destroy the power of death, the power of sin just to forgive us of the penalty of our sin. Jesus didn't die just to forgive us of the penalty, just to remove the penalty, but he also died in order to remove the power of sin over us. He died in order to free us from the bondage of our sin, from the bondage of our harmful desires.So Galatians 5:1, this sets the context for our text. Galatians 5:1 says, "For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yolk of slavery." He set us free from what and free for what. Well, here we got to ask the question what is sin. Sin isn't just breaking God's laws by committing bad things, by doing. The essence of sin is not doing, the essence of sin is desiring. And we get that when we understand what the 10 Commandments are. The 10 Commandments aren't just don't do these things. The 10 Commandments are be careful that your heart's desires are not drawn to these things that pull you away from God. So have no gods before me. Thou shall not have any idols. Thou shall keep the sabbath day holy, devote a day to God. And then Jesus comes in, he looks at the 10 Commandments and the sermon on the mount, this is the greatest sermon that was ever preached. And he says, "You know the commandment around adultery, I shall say to you that whoever looks at another person that they're not married to with lustful intent has already committed adultery."And then Saint Paul talks about the fact that he didn't even know how sinful he was until he read the 10th commandment, which says thou shall not covet. He said, "I didn't understand that the commandments weren't just about action, they're actually about desire." So Christ comes and he says, "Sin is love for things that harm us." Therefore Christ wants to free us from loves or desires for things that harm us, and replace those evil desires with righteous desires for things that actually give us life. From harmful desires to healthful desires.This is the beauty of the gospel. That God does not just command that we love him. God actually compels us to love him. He does this through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As you see, what Jesus Christ is doing on the cross, when you realize that he did that for you, that if you were the only person to have ever lived, Jesus would still have died for you because he's so loves you. Your name is graven on his hands, written on his heart, we sing. That Christ came and he loves you infinitely more than anyone has ever loved you, and when you realize what he did in order to show that love, his love is poured into your heart. And your heart is freed from loving lesser things.One of the things that Augustan said is that the problem with humanity, the problem with humans and the human condition is that our loves are disordered. When we take creature, when we take creation, when we take things and we take a good thing even and we place it in the position of preeminence and we make it an ultimate thing, then that thing begins to control us. And this is how addiction works. Instead the gospel comes in and says, "No, Christ deserves a position of preeminence in the throne of your heart. When you realize what you did in order to free you, you're freed now to love him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." This is the beauty of the gospel. It produces love for right things. It doesn't mean you manufacture it. It produces it organically.Christ did not come just to give us a get out of Hell free card. A lot of people view Christianity like this. You come to God, you pray this prayer. Okay, you're out of Hell. No, you can live anyway you want. If you get into some really bad sin, come back to church, pray another prayer, you'll be fine. Christ didn't come to get us out of Hell and to get us into Heaven primarily. Christ came not just to get us out of Hell. He came to get Hell out of us. Harmful desires, insatiable sinful desires, hellacious desires. God wants to remove those and replace them with vibrant desires, desires that lead to life. And God doesn't primarily compel our obedience through fear. Though he could. He could've. Jesus could've come and said, "I'm Lord. Get on your knees and worship me." And force everyone to become Christians through fear. He doesn't do that because what fear does, it produces a surface level obedience, and actually it's at the heart of it, it's very selfish. It's not God honoring. It's only you honoring. You're doing this because it's the best thing for you, and you want nothing to do with God.God doesn't motivate us to change by saying, "If you don't obey me, you'll go to Hell." He motivates us through love. Fear doesn't change us, love does. Every parent knows this. I've got four daughters and my wife, we got four daughters. And the thing with my daughter, they're beautiful and they're also little. In comparison, I'm a giant to them, and I tower over them. And I could cower them into submission, "Go clean your room," or, "Go wash the dishes," finally. I could do that. My wife and I could say to them, "If you don't obey us, we are leaving forever." It might be effective for a day. It would never change their hearts. How do we parent? We parent with love. We lead with love. This is how much we love you. This is how much we sacrifice for you. So when I tell you to do things, it's because I love you and I want the best for you. So our rules, our commandments in our house, they're not fences to keep you from fun. They're guardrails to keep you from going over the cliff.And this is how God talks about transformation. It's not just about our behavior changing. It's not about behavior modifications. It's about heart transformation. Christianity's actually a spiritual heart transplant. God takes out our heart of stone that's numb to God, desensitized to God, seared to God. And he replaces it with a heart of flesh that is sensitive to God. That's what changes us. What changes us is showing us the extent of God's love. What was the extent of God's love? That Jesus Christ on the cross literally goes through Hell and back in order to save us. This is how much I love you, the gospel says. God says, "I'm wiling to go to Hell, take Hell for you." When you realize that he did that particularly for you and you believe that with every fiber of your being, it absolutely changes you to the core. And now the spirit enters your heart. You are regenerated, and you have the power of God within you. You have new affections, new desires, and you have the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.This is how Saint Paul compels the church in Ephesus to stand firm in the faith. He says, "For this reason," Ephesians 3:14. "I bow my knees before the father for whom every family in Heaven on earth is named. That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power. Through his spirit, in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." So Christ is in you, power of God is in you that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breathe and length and height and depth, an to know the love of Christ that surpassed knowledge. To know Christ's love so deeply in your core, in the core of your being that it's not just intellectual ascent. You don't just understand it with your mind, you understand it with your heart, with all of your being. To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Stand firm, therefore, is a military term. It means that if you do not stand firm in the freedom for which Christ has set you free, you will be pulled back into the bondage of sin.Scripture often talks about Christianity in militant terms, militaristic terms. Fight the good fight. Saint Paul uses the term agonism. Agonize in your faith. What's he talking... He's talking about this warfare between the flesh and the spirit, and then the flesh isn't just our body. It's the sinful nature, unredeemed nature of every single one of us, the darkness deep within. He's saying stand firm in the faith or else the flesh will take over. And then there's Satan in the world that exacerbate the desires of the flesh. So how do we stand firm? By standing firm in the gospel. How do we grow in the faith? By standing firm in the gospel. The gospel, the work of Jesus Christ.Here I got to do a little theology. So if you left, come back for just a little bit. This is important to understanding the rest of the sermon. I've done this long enough that eyes glaze over in evening services. This is how salvation is described in the holy scripture. It begins with justification and then it starts the process of sanctification, and it ends and culminates in glorification. Justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification is I have been saved. Sanctification is I'm being saved. That's from the moment of conversion to the moment that you die. I'm being saved, and then glorification is I will be saved. At the moment that you believe in Jesus Christ, you are justified. That means you are acquitted of all of your sins. God looks at you as if you have never sinned. You're fully accepted, legally righteous. You're justified. Just as if I'd had never sinned.Then it begins the process of sanctification. Sanctification comes from a Latin sānctus faciō, which means to make holy. We grow into holy. So grow in righteous, and we grow into the image of God. We are being saved from the power of sin, and then finally when we're glorified in Heaven, we got glorified bodies. Heaven is a physical, embodied existence. We'll have perfect bodies. Everyone's going to be 4% body fat with six packs. No acne. Everyone's going to be perfect. That's Heaven. Glorification, no calories. Don't have to work out. That's glorification. But in the process from justification when you met Jesus to glorification when you'll see Jesus face to face is the process of growing into the image of Jesus Christ. Justification is Christ puts his robes of righteousness on you. Sanctification is you're growing into his clothes. His righteousness begins to grow in you. We're incrementally transformed. And Jesus Christ is the benefactor who gives us justification. He's also the benefactor who gives us sanctification.It's his justification, he's righteousness, and it's also his sanctification. This is important. First Corinthians 1:30, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Jesus is our sanctification. He's our righteous sanctification and redemption. Meaning that when you grow in your faith, when you grow in righteousness, that's not you. You're part of that process, but that's not your power. So you don't get glory for God does. How does this work? When we believe in Jesus Christ, we are placed in Christ, and he's placed in us. Kind of trippy, I know. But that's theology. We're in him, he's in us. We're reunited with him.So everything that he's done is counted to us. So his death is our death. His death for sin is our death for sin. His resurrection to a new life is our resurrection to a new life. So Jesus died for our sins, which now gives us power to put our sin to death. Jesus was resurrected so now the holy desires to live for God can be resurrected in our hearts. Christ took up a cross, died for sin once and for all, but he tells the disciples, what? In Luke 9:23, he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let me deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow me. Deny yourself and take up the cross..." This is the negative part of sanctification. "Deny yourself and take up your cross on a daily basis." You're putting your sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is called mortification. You mortify or you kill sin within, sinful desires. Then he said, "Follow me." This is the positive aspect of sanctification. "Follow me," this is your vivifying. You vivify. You give life to godly affections. So it's not just fighting sin. It's replacing evil desires with righteous desires. You're fighting fire with fire, desire with desire.When we're joined to Christ by grace through faith, because of the historical act of his life, death, burial, resurrection, we're saved. But also that act, what he did on the cross, has an operative efficacious effect for us today when we use it, when we use the resource that he has given us. This is point to, that we first of all crucify our sinful desires. How do we do that? How do we put our sin to death? Well, primarily begins by humbling seeking, and this is the first practical point, humbling seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit.So Galatians 5:16-18, several times he talks about the spirit. So first he says, "Walk by the spirit." That's active. Then he says in verse 18, "If you are led by the spirit," that's passive. Being led. You're still walking, but you're being led. Verse 25 says, "If you live by the spirit," that's active, "then let us keep in step with the spirit." It's like a mixture of active and passive. So this is really important because a lot of people ask, "What's my part? What am I going to do?" In the practical, give me a list of practical things I got to do, and I'm going to do that. And then I'll be done with sin. I'll be all set. That's not how relationships work. Do this together by his power.The most helpful verse about this incredible paradoxical relationship or active and passive with us and spirit. Ephesians 5:18 where Saint Paul says, "Do not get drunk with wine." So do not give control to a substance over yourself. And then that is paralleled with, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit." So don't be filled with something that will pull you away from Christ because you lose control, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, which actually makes you more like Christ. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is fascinating because be filled is both active and passive. Be, that's a commandment, it's imperative. Filled, that's passive. Be filled. It's imperative that's in the passive voice. Meaning you've got to do something and be filled. But you can't fill yourself. It's like your gas tank. Gas tank, thou shall be filled. How's it get filled? You drive into a gas station in New Jersey where it's full service, that's the illustration. That always catches me off guard. "Oh, okay, I can't do this myself. Get a dollar out."Be filled with the Holy Spirit, meaning you place yourself in a position where the Holy Spirit fills you. This is what I mean. So how does this work? It works just by recognizing your desperation. Lord, I can't overcome these sinful desires myself. Lord, I need you. Lord, I'm nothing without... I'm morally bankrupt without you. I'm spiritually inept without you. Please, Lord. And it doesn't begin with cleaning you our lives, and then we're filled with the spirit. It's actually vice versa. It's be filled with the spirit, walk in the spirit, be led by the spirit, and then you won't gratify the desires of the flesh. It's not a matter of sheer will power. It's the matter of utter contrition before God, humbling coming forward. God, please help me. And God pours his spirit into your heart and he fills you up. But then we need to do something with that power, and that's when we exert all of our energy. We pray. We plead. We position ourselves. We exert our energy. It is our responsibility to obey.One of the most effective programs to fight alcoholism and other addictions is the 12 Step Program for Alcoholics Anonymous. And the first step is powerful because they understood this principle of submitting to God, of admission of powerlessness. And it's the first step of the liberation. And it goes like this, "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable." Admission of weakness, powerlessness is the first step to liberation. And their second point is, "We've come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." And this is what we believe when it comes to sinful desires that have hijacked our walk with the Lord, habitual sins where we come to God and we say, "God, we're helpless. We're entrapped. We're unshackled. Please help." And at that moment, God is always delighted to help those how seek his help humbly.I've seen this issue often with Christians, we just get stuck in the faith where they become Christians by repenting of sin and believing the gospel. And something happens along the way where now they think this is how I stay in the kingdom, this is how I stay in a rightful relationship with God by my works. So I wasn't saved by my works. I'm saved by Christ's works. But I stay saved by my works. So I'm going to try to clean up my sin by myself. That never works because that right there, you're operating out of pride. And whenever we operate out of pride, that right there it actually pushes God away because God, he resists the proud. Often if you think that you are strong enough to do what God has called you to do, God often allows you to keep struggling with particular sin, to get you to a point of brokenness, of humility.I got this idea from John Owen who wrote this incredible book called Mortification of Sin. You can pick it up. It's an old work, but there's a newer version, a revised version. It's abridged version. It's 80 pages, J.I. Packer did the introduction. And this is what John Owen writes. He says, "Says God," here's a Christian. "If he could be rid of this lust, I should never hear of him more. Let him wrestle with this, or he would be altogether lost. Wasn't it a correction to Peter's self confidence that God left him to deny his master?" That's so profound. Peter's the one that told Jesus, "Jesus everyone else is going to leave, betray, deny you. I will never do that." And Jesus said, "Oh yeah? Tonight before the rooster crows this morning's dawn, you are going to deny me three times." Justification, we have absolutely nothing to do with that. Sanctification, we're empowered by the Holy Spirit to watch, praise, strive, take actions as we cry out to God.How does justification start? With a cry of desperation. God, save me. How does sanctification continue? With the same cry of desperate. God, keep saving me. God, help me. Galatians 3:3, Saint Paul says, "Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" You began by the spirit, now you think you can do this on your own. You can't. We can't. God wants us from us a broken heart, and we start by grace. And we take every step by grace.First, humbly be filled with the Holy Spirit. Second, call a sin a sin. And this is important. As I write the list, there was something you probably heard and you were like, "What? That's in the Bible? What? He read that out loud in church in Boston 2019? What?" What he's doing here is he's calling sins by their name. Why? What's he doing? He's countering the enemy's attack. This is what Satan did when he came to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said, "Did God really say..." What's he doing? He's questioning God's word. Saint Paul comes in and says, "No, this is how God views these actions. This is what God calls these actions." And here we have 16, and I'm calling it 16 decaying fruits of the flesh. 16 decaying fruits of the flesh. They come in four categories.The first category is a sexual sin because often this is one of the primary ways the flesh reveals itself. This is one of the primary ways that our flesh rebels against God. There's three words here, sexual morality, porne in the Greek... This is sex between unmarried people. Impurity, unnatural sexual relationships, sexuality, uncontrolled sexuality.The second category is corrupted religion, idolatry, and sorcery. Idolatry is worshiping or craving, desiring created things more than the creator. And then sorcery, this is trying to manipulate God or the spiritual realm. By the way, a lot of people view Christianity like this in terms of sorcery. What do I need to do? Get God off my back. How much money do I need to give? How many times do I need to come to church in order to do penance or atone for my sins? And then I'm out. It's actually sorcery, we're manipulating God for our ends.Third is relational conflict, and this shows us how important it is to God or our relationships with other people. Amity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, descensions, divisions, envy.And the fourth category here is substance abuse. He talks about drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Whatever you need to feel alive. Whatever you need to get that dopamine rush. It could be alcohol, drugs, pornography, prostitutes, drugs. I mentioned impulsive buying, media. Your soul feels dead. It feels empty. Philosophers talked about spiritual unweave that every single one of us feel, and sometimes we look to these substances to feel alive. And this is important that he calls a sin a sin. He calls sexual immorality, sexual immorality. He doesn't call it living together. He doesn't call fiscal responsibility, he calls it covetousness and greed. Amity, he doesn't call it... I just want they have it. He calls it envy. And what he's saying here is unmasked the self deceit. This is what sin does. It blinds us to its own existence. And then point three is see sin for what it really is in God's presence.Galatians 5:21, "I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherent the kingdom of God." And do such things means this is the lifestyle, it's habitual practice. It's not falling into the sin, repenting quickly, getting up and following Christ. It's that you fall and you stay and you never get up.So what he's saying is look to the cross. Look what it cost God to forgive us. Look what our sin deserves. The very son of God dying on a cross. Our sin doesn't just evoke God's displeasure. It evokes God's just wrath. When we feel the weight of our sin in light of its eternal punishment, that begins to reawaken us and our conscious.Some people here push back and say, "But my sins forgiven, isn't it? Jesus died for my sins past, present, and future. So why do I need to keep fighting sin?" Well, again, it's not just about get out of Hell free card. It's about you being a child of God. You're adopted into the family of God. First John 3:9 says, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning." You don't continue in this pattern of sin. "For God seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." What marks a Christian isn't the absence of sin. What marks a Christian is the deep grief over sin. We grieve over it. Every time we sin, there's a brokenness because we understand we broken God's heart.Four is be killing sin or it will be killing you, and I got this term from John Owen. This is Galatians 5:24, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and evil desires." You belong to him. You're his. And you have crucified the flesh with this evil desire. Now it's not an utter destruction of sin. It's not a concealing of sin. But it's the suffocation of sin. You're crushing the life out of it. You're constantly draining the life out of it. It's a tug of war between the flesh and the spirit. You feed the spirit, the desires of spirit, and you emaciate those desires of the flesh. So how do you do it? You refuse it. You starve it. You reject it. It takes strength, power, and resolve. Jesus Christ actually said, "If you struggle with sin, if you eye causes your sin, pluck it out." This is Matthew five. "Cut off your arm." Matthew five. He's not talking about literally, hyperbolic language in order to communicate just how important it is to deal with sin with resolve. And the moment you become a Christian, God gives you this desire to fight sin. To be intolerant with it, unaccommodating. That we are spiritual assassins. This is scorched earth sanctification.If all of my sins have been forgiven, why do I need to work for a righteous life? Scripture says if you are Christian, you don't ask this question. If you are a child of God, you want to honor God with all of your being, so you want to ask how can I fight my sin. Romans 6:1-2, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by know means? How can we who have died to sin still live in it?" True justification and sanctification always go together. So when we try to see have we been justified, am I a Christian. Well, are you continuing to walk with Christ.So my oldest daughter was born when Tonya and I were in seminary. By the way, I was 26 years old. I look back and I'm like, "This is crazy. I had a kid at 26." 25. Whatever. 25, 26. I look back now, and I'm like no one asked me to take a test. There's no IQ test, there was no drug test. There was no test. I have to do more to get a drivers license than I do to get a kid. So we got to the hospital, and they're like, "Here's the kid." I'm like... So I go home. I did all this research about making sure your kid stays alive, and they're like kids actually are like... I was super afraid of this thing called sudden death syndrome where kids just die in their sleep. So every night I would come up to her bed, "Is she alive? Is she alive?" Now in order to prove that she's alive, what do I do? Do I go to her birth certificate and say, "Yeah, she was born. Okay, we're good." Do I look in the stuff that we bought for her, "Yeah, we're good." No. To prove that she's alive, what do I do? I listen to breathing. Is she breathing? I listen to her heartbeat. Is she alive? Yeah. Praise God.Are you a Christian? Don't just tell me, "Yeah. I prayed a prayer. Yeah, I was baptized. Yeah, I grew up in a Christian family." Do you have a heartbeat for God today? And justification, sanctification, they go together. You can't have one without the other. Separating them is like separating the heat of the sun with the light of the sun. No. If you have the son, you have both. If you have Jesus Christ, the son of God, you have both justification and sanctification. So never use justification as a justification to continue sinning. If that's what you do, then most likely you're not a Christian.The more we grow in our sanctification, the more we actually realize how sinful we are. The most mature Christians I have ever met are absolutely blunt about their sin. Saint Paul at probably the pinnacle of his sanctification following Christ, he says, "I'm the chief of sinners." John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace, "You've saved a wretch like me." At the end of his life, people asked him, "You must be a saint already." He says, "No, there's only two things I know that I'm a wicked sinner, and I have a great savior." The more I'm a Christian, the more I realize I've so much more to go.I had a conversation today about the veracity of Christianity. Why don't we do more proof of why we believe in Christianity? We do that all the time. There's sermon series 2014 with a whole series on exploring Christianity. Last fall we had a sermon series on Jesus among other gods. There's so much objective evidence for the existence of God, for the life so Jesus Christ, for his death burial, and his resurrection. It's incredible. I'm a Christian not just because of that. I'm a Christian mostly because of these subjective experience of Christianity. I am a wicked sinner.My wife actually recently, she's like, ты ужасный. That's what she told me. ты ужасный. You don't know Russian yet? "You're horrible. You're a terrible person." She said, "Where would you be if you weren't a Christian?" And I was like, "I know where I'd be. I'd probably be a Russian mobster drinking distilled vodka. That's all I'd be doing." It's a very similar skillset to being a pastor of a church. I know that a part of Jesus on a daily basis, I'm fallen. I'm gone. So I thank God for great...By the way, this is also how I view parenting my kids. This is anthropology. This is from biblical perspective that they're born as very cute, very pudgy, very scrumptious, very delightful little wicked sinners. My youngest, her first two words were nope and mine. Rebellion and selfishness. That's my job to teach, to help her. She definitely needs some sanctification. So point two is take immediate and radical action when tempted.First Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation is overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you maybe able to endure." So as soon as a sinful inclination rears its ugly head. At that very moment, we are to mortify. Why? Because it has a power over us that's suicidal. What sin does, as soon as we let it in the door, the very first thing it does, it goes to the wheel center of your being, and takes over. You let a sin in. You're on fire for the Lord, and then you let a sin in. And then you're like, "I don't even think I'm a Christian." Spiritual amnesia kicks in. There is a suicidal destructiveness over your mind, over your desires, over your will. The more you get it, the less you want to fight it. And then it takes control where you don't even enjoy anymore but you can't shake it. You're like an addict. When you're done with that sin, it's only begun with you. This is John 8:34, Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." This also includes eliminating any triggers. You got to know yourself, and you got to know your sinful temptation, where you're prone and proclivity. But eliminate those triggers. Eliminate the people that pull you back into sin. Place the situation. Romans 13:14, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." So don't lead yourself into situations where you'll be tempted. And this category three, resurrect your holy desires. Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against such things there is not law." Fruit, singular, meaning that when you mature, you mature in all of these. And you are only as mature spiritually as your weakest fruit here. So this is practical point six desire with the holy spirit desires.Galatians 5:7, "The flesh had desires, but the spirit also has desires. And they're opposed to each other." So what does the Holy Spirit desire? So desire what God desires. What does the Holy Spirit desire where he's called the Holy Spirit. He desires holiness. And the Holy Spirit is gentle. He's like a dove who's easily scared away. He's easily grieved. He's easily quenched with our sin. So we have to desire what Holy Spirit desires, he desires to glorify Christ, to glorify God the father. He desires for the gospel to go out. He desires all of this fruit. How do we grow in this fruit? We grow in this fruit by casting deep roots in the gospel of Jesus Christ.The heart can't but love. So what the Holy Spirit wants to do is replace sinful desires with righteous desires. I follow these motivational gym bros on Twitter who try to help millennial guys become men. Just for entertainment I follow these guys. This is what they do, this is their whole thing. They sell these eBooks and become millionaires. So they start like this. They're like, "If you struggle with laziness, you pathetic, lazy, little boy. Stop playing video games and move out of your mom's basement. Cut it out, start working out." And what's the motivation? So they replace the idol of sloth and they're like, "Because you're single and you can't get a girl." Now the motivation is get girls, get girls, get girls. And that's why you want to work out. That's why you want to stop being lazy.So they're replacing one idol with another idol. And then they're like, "Well, you got girls. But you don't have any money. That's why they're not going to stay with you. So get money, get money, get money." They replace this idol with another idol. And then they're like, "You've got all this money. You are such a waste of life. Actually learn to enjoy your life." And then they kick you all the way back to the laziness part. Idol after idol after idol, back to the very first idol. And they sell their eBooks for $19.99. And they make a fortune. That's how a lot of people grow in life. That's how they progress. Christianity says, "No. You got to supplant sinful desires with righteous desires. The desires the Holy Spirit desires are the fruit of the spirit."And then seven is pursue the means of grace habitually. You need to deny flesh, pursue Christ on a daily basis. So much so you string winds together. Follow Christ today, focus on today. Tomorrow comes, follow Christ. Follow Christ. When you string those together, now your character begins to change. Your habits begin to change. And now it takes less effort to follow the... You're still humble. You're still contrite. But now you're focused on other battles.CS Lewis Screwtape Letters, incredible work. There's this demon called Uncle Screwtape. It's a head demon. He has an apprentice, a nephew demon. And one of the apprentice's patients becomes a Christian, and then Uncle Screwtape writes to him and says, "There's no need to despair. Hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn into the enemy's camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favor." Habits didn't change. So we need our habits to change, and we do this primarily through the means of grace that God has given us.The reformers talk about means of grace. They're kind of like waterfalls where if you stand under these particular waterfalls, God sends extra grace in order to strengthen you and wash the sin. The first one is the word and prayer as a means of grace. Jesus talked about in John 17:17 that the truth of God's word is for sanctification. Sanctify them in the word. Your word is truth. When we study God's word and we do it prayerfully that gives us power to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Suffering is a means of grace. Sometimes we ask God, "Why are you sending suffering into my life?" Well, God sometimes ordains suffering as a tool for the purpose of sanctification.Fellowship of the church is also a means of grace. Fellowship with believers and worship. The weak need the strong, build each other up. The spirit is given to individuals, and when we come together, we experience that spirit. Gifts are intended for the body and the church is this community of prayer. And also we get accountability where we help one another keep from relapsing into sin.If you missed any points, they're right here. They're right here. There you are. You can take a picture. They're all there. All the points.Now I'm going to transition into another means of grace, and we celebrate this once a month at Mosaic. It's the means of grace of communion. What is communion? Communion is the celebration of our participation of the death, the burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why is it called communion? It's called a common union that we are united with Christ. First Corinthians 10:16, "The cup of blessing that we bless is it not a participation, the blood of Christ. The bread that we break is it not participation, the body of Christ." Who's communion for? Who partakes in communion? Communion is for the repentant. So if you're not a Christian and you have not repented of your sin and trusted in Christ, it's not for you.If you're a Christian and there's sin that you have not repented of, this is not for you also. We get that from First Corinthians 11:27-32, "Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, unrepentant manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let the person examine themself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For everyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself." That is why many of you are weak and ill. Some have died. But if you judge yourself, we truly would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.So we don't do this flippantly. We do it reverently, with repentant and contrite hearts. And when we come to God with repentance, God is delighted to extend forgiveness. So this isn't a glum time to navel gaze on our sin. It's a time to give our sins over to the Lord and feast on his grace.The way that we celebrate communion here is the ushers are going to hand out the elements, the bread and the cup. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, the cup symbolizes the blood of Christ. Please hold onto the elements until everyone's received them, and then we will we partake together. Let's pray.Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you, God, that your word is powerful. That it does vivify our affections. Lord, we long to desire you more. We long for more of your presence, more of your power, more of your Holy Spirit. Lord, give it to us. We repent of all our sins, our wrong headed, harmful desires, and I pray that you replace them with helpful desires for your glory. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.

Summary: The question we're going to wrestle with this week is, “why is trust something that needs to be built at all?” Why is trust so hard to gain, and so easy to lose? More importantly, how can we master the art of not just creating the perception of trust, but actually being stable, reliable, trustworthy and likable people ourselves? How can we, as follower of Jesus, become the kind of people that others like to be with, and want to be like?Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit MosaicBoston.com.Good morning and welcome again to Mosaic. It's good to see you and if you're new, welcome. So glad you're here. My name is Shane. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic and we'd love to connect you. The way we do that officially is through that little Connection Card in your worship guide. We'd love it if you could fill that out for us and just drop those in the offering baskets later on, or if you turn them in at the Welcome Center out front, we have a little gift we'd love to give to you this morning, as well as some more information about the church.Just a couple of announcements before we get started. Pastor Jan already mentioned it, but in case you came in late, for the members of Mosaic, there is a members meeting next week and it's a really important one: we're going to be voting on Andy Hoot, our pastoral resident, he's actually completed his residency, but we're going to be voting on him to become a pastor here at Mosaic, and so definitely come and show your support for that. But not only is this a members meeting, it's also a potluck. So make sure you bring something good to eat to share with some people as well.And then, if you've been coming to Mosaic for a few weeks now and we understand the ebb and flow of the city. A lot of people move here and a lot of people move around, especially throughout the summer and during September, and if you've been coming to Mosaic for a little while and you're looking to get more meaningfully connected, we want to help you with that and the best way to do that is through our community groups. We have a lot of great groups that meet all over the city, throughout the week, in people's homes. We even have a couple groups that meet on Sunday afternoons here at the temple, in case your weekday schedule is just too packed. But it's just a smaller, more intimate environment where you can really begin to build some meaningful relationships with people in the church.We actually have a bunch of new groups starting up, and so we have groups all over the city and we've got a few new ones starting up. Watertown, Newton, Brighton, here in Brookline, Mission Hill, we've got a group starting even in Medford and Wellesley, so if you're living a little bit farther out from our location here, but definitely check those out and I encourage you to get plugged in.All right. I'm going to pray for us and then we'll jump into the sermon this morning. God, we need you. Apart from you, we are all treading water in an endless sea. And yet, with you, you give us the only foundation on which we can plant our feet. You are the rock that we stand on. You are the anchor for our soul. We thank you that you are trustworthy and true. You are faithful.And you've promised to always be with us and for us, to never leave us or forsake us, and Lord, we ask that as your people that you would make us a people like you. That you would make us a people who are trustworthy, true, a people who are reliable and stable.We pray right now that you come right now and just through your word, speak to us what we need to hear. If we need encouragement, I pray you would give us encouragement. If we need conviction, I pray that you would give us conviction, Lord, and that you would minister to us by the power of your Spirit and shape us, form us more into the image of your son, Jesus Christ.It's in his name we pray, amen.So this fall, we are going through a sermon series called Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. And what we're doing is we're taking a look and we're applying this theme that we see throughout scripture to different practical areas of our life, and it's this theme that God is both/and. He is both just and merciful. He is both truth and love, that Jesus is the lion and the lamb; that is he confident and humble, that he is tough and tender.And when you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you see that he had this amazing stability and resilience that was extremely, profoundly attractive in his time and yet, if we're honest, it's majorly, majorly lacking in ours. That Jesus had a tough mind. He had thick skin and yet, he also had a tender heart.So we see that he did hard things and he spoke hard truths and he faced hard opposition, and through it all, he also loved hard people. And as we're going through this series, this is what we want to do: is how can we become more like him? How can we become more like that? What would happen in our church, in our city, in our culture, if more people were tough and tender like Jesus Christ?And so today, we're going to be looking at a certain quality that tough and tender people have, it's a quality that Jesus had and it's the quality of being reliable, of being trustworthy. Are you a trustworthy person?We live in a culture where trust is hard to come by and it's actually on the decline. On a broad level, the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer reported sharp declines in trust toward major institutions. That right now, only about one third of Americans trust their government to do what is right. Only about 42% trust what they hear from the media. And now, on a more personal level, we don't need some massive report and statistics to tell us that people are hard to trust.Trust is not our default, when we begin a relationship. Trust is not our baseline. It's something that needs to be earned; it needs to be kept. It's hard to get and it's easy to lose. And Scripture actually talks about this from the beginning. That in the beginning, trust was the baseline. You read the description of Adam and Eve in the Garden and what it tells us about them is that they were naked but not ashamed.Now, naked, obviously it's talking about something deeper than just physically, that they were emotionally, factually ... spiritually, they were completely open and vulnerable with one another and yet not afraid. They had no reason to be afraid. Apart from sin, and in the presence of God, they were free. They were free to just fully trust and fully love without fear and then Genesis 3 happens and all of that is lost.Genesis 3, sin enters the Garden and trust leaves the Garden. All of a sudden, there is reason to fear, and the first thing we see Adam and Eve do is what? They begin sewing leaves together to create garments to cover their nakedness. I'm afraid to let you see me for who I really am, because I don't like who I really am and if you find out who I really am, you're not going to like me, either. They covered themselves.The next thing they do is they not only do that, but then they run and hide from God. They feel the guilt before this holy God and they're afraid and they know what their sin deserves, so they run and they had and then ultimately, they begin to turn against one another. They begin to blame one another, and in order to build themselves up, they start tearing one another down. They've lost the freedom that came with their innocence. And in its place is this guilt, is this shame that their trust was replaced with suspicious and with contention and they begin competing with one another for justification.So this is where we are, this is the world that we live in. We're not able to trust without taking risks. Right? In order to trust someone, you're taking the risk that they might hurt you; that they might let you down. In order to trust someone, you're taking the risk that they might find out who you really are, find you out and reject you.And we all want to be close to people. We want people in our lives who are stable, who are reliable, who are trustworthy, but who can we trust? That's one question to ask. But I think a more important question to ask is this: how can we become the kind of people who can be trusted? How can we become the kind of people that other people actually just like to be with and want to be like because they see that we're reliable, steadfast, trustworthy people? And just imagine what could happen. Imagine if a church full of trustworthy, reliable, likable people, just saturated the city like Boston. That's kind of what we're going to be talking about today.So, as we do, we're going to be looking at Paul's second letter to his disciple Timothy. 2 Timothy 3, if you want to follow along in your Bibles. And as we do, we've got three points framing up our time. Point number one: afraid to trust. Two: a friend to trust. And then three: a formative trust.And we're going to start by looking at 2 Timothy 3:1-5, and then also verses 10 and 11. So Paul writing to Timothy, he says this. He says: "But understand this: that in the last days, there will comes times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people."And going on to verse 10, he says: "But you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness. My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all, the Lord rescued me."This is God's holy word for us this morning. Point number one: afraid to trust. When you look at the first four verses of this chapter, you see this long list of just unstable, unlikable, untrustworthy people. That these are the kind of people that you don't like to be with and you don't want to be like. And in the context of 1 and 2 Timothy, what's going on is Paul is giving this young man Timothy instructions for how to be a good pastor.And as a pastor of his church, Timothy's job is not to do all the work of the ministry on behalf of the church. He's not a hired gun, which is a common misconception in a lot of churches today, but Timothy's job was instead to equip the church for the work of the ministry, to equip the saints.In other words, Timothy, as the pastor, he needed to recruit and assess and train and develop people in the church in order to entrust them with the responsibility for the ministry. So his job was to equip and to entrust the church but he was also called to shepherd the church.And what this means is that Timothy also had the responsibility to guard and to protect the church. And specifically, he needed to guard and protect from false teachers and from false teachings and so as Paul is telling Timothy, "Listen, you need to raise people up and entrust them with ministry, but you need to do so carefully. You need to do so cautiously. You need to use wisdom and discernment, because not everyone is going to be deserving of that trust."Now, he even says that some are going to have the appearance of godliness but deny its power. There's going to be imposters. There's going to be hypocrites who pose a danger to the church and so even if things look good on the outside, that's not always a good indication of what's going on inside. It's not always a good indication of what is going on behind closed doors, so you need to be cautious. You need to be careful.He begins by using this phrase 'in the last days.' When we think about that, it might be tempting to be like, "Okay, well, he's talking about something later on in the future and so this doesn't really apply to us right now." But that's now how Scripture uses that phrase. Actually, when Scripture uses this phrase, it's describing the entire period of time between Jesus's resurrection and his return.And so, in some ways, it does refer to future events, but it does so in a way that also refers to present reality. And it does it with the implications of the way things are right now, things are going to ebb and flow throughout human history, but right before Jesus returns, there's going to be this intensification. Things are going to become a little more extreme, and so yeah, Paul's talking about something in the future, but he's also talking about something that was practically relevant to Timothy at the time.And if we're honest with ourselves, right? If we read this description carefully, thoughtfully, he's talking about us, as well. Every single one of us finds ourself on this list somewhere. No, we're not going those qualities up on our LinkedIn, but let's be honest, like ... Okay, let's see how far we get.Number one, lovers of self. I failed already. Why'd you have to start there, Paul? Couldn't you start with murderer or something, like? Lovers of money. This is not looking good. Proud. Arrogant. Abusive. It goes on and on.And I said earlier, this is a list of people that we don't like to be with and that we don't want to be like. It's too late; we are like this. We're with people like this every day. And so here's the point.It's not enough to say that other people are hard to trust. I can't even trust myself. I don't even fully know or understand myself. I question my motives. I'm suspicious of my own desires; I can't trust my own heart because I know that it's broken and sick with sin.Jeremiah 17:9 says that, "The heart is deceitful is above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" Next time someone says just follow your heart, you just quote that verse back to them. Not a good idea.Paul wrestles with this himself in Romans 7:18 when he says this, he says, "I know that nothing good dwells in me. That is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?" And he says in verse 25, "But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord."If we can't trust others and we can't even trust ourselves, well then who's left to trust? Who can we trust? Who can deliver us from this body of death, there is only one. There's only one person to have ever lived who did not make this list of vices that Paul gives us at the beginning of Chapter 3.And actually, if you look at his life, his life was the antithesis of this list. You take this list, you flip it upside down, you read it through the opposite lens and what you begin to see is Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a lover of self, a lover of money. He perfectly loved others. He was generous. He was humble. He was meek. He was compassionate. He honored his earthly parents and his heavenly Father. He was always grateful, holy, tenderhearted, content with what he had. He spoke the truth and he spoke it with love. He practiced self-control. He was gentle. He loved what is good. He was trustworthy, responsible, eager to serve others, he loved God more than worldly comforts or pleasures and had a deep, abiding godliness that he attributed to the power of the Holy Spirit.And this brings us to point two, that Jesus Christ is the friend that we can trust and he's the friend that we need. Paul begins his list in verse two saying that people will be lovers of self, but then he ends in verse four by saying, "And they will not be lovers of God," and this is the root of the problem. Our biggest problem is not a behavior problem; our biggest problem is a heart problem.It is a problem of disordered loves and idolatry. That everything listed between the start of verse two and the end of verse four is merely symptomatic of this problem that we don't love others because we don't love God and we don't love God because we're scared.We're running from fear because we know that we stand guilty before a holy God. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, "This is the judgment." Verse 19: "That the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed."This part's not nearly as famous as John 3:16, that Jesus said a little bit earlier, but it's true. Adam and Eve ran and hid from God in the Garden and we're still running and hiding from him today.And this is the question that we need to ask is, well then how and why should we trust and love a God whose justice and law has rightly judged us guilty and deserving of death?Now, this is where it is helpful to back up to John 3:16, because just a few verses earlier, Jesus also said this. He said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him."The reason that we should love God is because he first loved us. The reason that we should trust God is Jesus Christ. And so, how can we trust a God whose justice rightly demands that we die? It is only by understanding that his love desires that we live, that his love desires that he somehow show us mercy and that even while we were dead in our sins and enemies of God and running and hiding from him, his love compelled him to send his Son, to seek and to save the lost, to mercifully lay down everything in order to give us life.So the secret to loving God is to acknowledge that you can't love God, that you don't love God and you won't love God until you accept that he first loved you. This is what John tells us in 1 John, Chapter Four, he says, "And this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. By this is love perfected in us, so that we may have confidence, no longer fear, but confidence for the day of judgment because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us."Jesus Christ, through his atonement on the cross became the propitiation for our sins, and what that means is that he appeased God's righteous anger toward our sin so that we no longer need to run from him in fear but can run to him for mercy. That Jesus Christ took our sentence, he took our penalty, our punishment, upon himself. He paid the debt and he settled our account. He takes our guilt, he exchanges it for his righteousness.And this is amazing. What this means is that God in his infinite, eternal wisdom has made a way to show guilty people mercy, without compromising his own holiness or justice. That he remains just and yet, becomes the justifier of all who repent and put their faith in Christ. And this is what Paul tells us in Romans, Chapter 3.Verse 21: "That now the righteousness of God has been manifest apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believed. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God put forward as propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins, he was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."This changes everything. When you understand that you are so bad that the only possible solution to your badness is that Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God would come and die for you? That leaves you incredibly contrite, repentant, and humble. It kills your pride and it makes you tender. But when you also understand that you are so loved by God and that he, in his divine character is so merciful that he willingly did that for you? That gives you an unshakeable boldness and confidence and courage as a child of God. That his perfect loves drives out fear and it leaves with you with this lion-like toughness, this confidence.This is what makes Jesus the friend that we can trust. It's not just that he loves us. It's that he fully knows us and he still chooses to love us. We didn't earn it; we can't lose it, and therefore, we should never doubt it. We should never doubt his faithfulness or love. Jesus is the sure, solid, unshakeable foundation. And when we build our lives on him, his stability begins to add stability to every other aspect of our lives.Romans 8, one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture. Like, this is one of those passages every Christian should just memorize. But in it, Paul writes this. He says that: "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Those whom he predestined, he also called and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then, shall we say to these things? For if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love Christ?""Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it's written, for your sake, we're being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our lord."Proverbs 18:24 says that, "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." In our world of many companions, Jesus is the true friend. He is the true big brother that our hearts long for and need. He knows us completely. Yet, he loves us sacrificially and the good work that he began in us at the moment of our justification, he is guaranteed to continue on to completion until the moment of our glorification.And this brings us to point three, that when we put our faith and trust, that when we build our life on him, that trust is a formative trust. It begins to add stability to the rest of our lives as well.Psalm 25:9 says, "He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humbles his ways. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose."The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant, that the faithfulness and the friendship of Jesus Christ, this should have a formative effect in our lives that makes us faithful, steadfast, trustworthy people as well.So Paul begins 2 Timothy 3, and he's got this list of like, really vicious people to avoid, but then in verse 10 and 11, he shows us another way. He shows us how we as followers of Jesus can live instead.And so, 2 Timothy 3:1, he starts out, he says, "Understand this. In the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive," he goes on and on, but then he gets down to verse 10. And he says, "But you, Timothy, you however, you followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness. My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, which persecutions I endured yet from them all, the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from who you learned it and how from childhood, you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able make to wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."How do you live in a world full of faithless people? How do you live in a world where there's just people you can't trust? Well, Paul's advice to Timothy is not so much about them, it's about him. It's about you, Timothy. You, Timothy, embody the change that you want to see in others and then continue in that no matter what it may cost.And so, you Timothy, and to us, as disciples of Jesus, what this means is that we need to become the kind of people that are worthy of others' trust. We need to become the kind of people that other people just like to be with and they want to be like because we're reliable, we're stable, we're steadfast. Become the humble, confident, lion/lamb, tough/tender people that we've been called to be in Christ.And here in this last section, I just want to break down verses 10 through 13 and as I do, I borrowed some wisdom from Pastor Jan. I'm gong to give you 10 marks of a trustworthy person. I don't know if this is going to be a common theme throughout this season, but point three has 10 sub points, some of those points have dove points and so, we're going to rapid, rapid fire. Really quick through this.But 10 marks of a trustworthy person, as we go through these, this is what we need to ask ourselves. Number one, do I have these qualities in myself and if so, do I have a lion-like toughness to stand firm in them and not waver, no matter what circumstances I might go through in life?And then, number two: am I also growing in these qualities? Do I have a lamb-like tenderness and teachability in order to continue developing in these areas, because we're never going to be perfect in any of them, at least not in this lifetime.So those are the questions to ask we go. 10 marks of a trustworthy person. The first one is so intuitive, so you know, obvious that it might seem cliché, but a trustworthy person has integrity. And Paul begins verse 10, he says to his disciple Timothy that, "You have followed my example," in what? "In teaching and in conduct." That Paul talked the talk but he also walked the walk and the things that he taught were integrated, with his lifestyle. He was a man of integrity. And trustworthy people, they need to strive to be people of integrity.Number two is intention. He says, "You followed me in my aim in life," that Paul was upfront about his motives. His aim was clear. He didn't have a hidden agenda, right? He had a clear mission, a clear purpose and he wore it on his sleeve. People knew what he was about and they knew what he was doing and why he was doing it. And trustworthy people, they make their intentions, their motives clear and they stick to them.And number three is faith. Paul says, "You followed my example in faith," and Paul's faith was exemplary, actually in a few different ways. First of all, Paul's faith meant that he was a man who was securely anchored. Right? Paul was not a loose cannon. He was not a ship being tossed about in the waves of doubt. He wasn't double-minded. He wasn't one person one day and another person the next. He had this strong faith that kept him anchored. He was unwavering in his convictions and he wasn't swayed by the opinions of others. He wasn't swayed by his own emotions or even by his circumstance.And so, he was securely anchored. Secondly though, he was also boldly optimistic. Paul was not a cynical or pessimistic person, although we might look at his life and say that he had reason to be. But he boldly trusted God's goodness and sovereignty, even through the suffering and persecution that he faced. He still had hope; he had peace and he had joy because he trusted that God was working it all together for his good. He was boldly optimistic.And thirdly, he was also courageously ambitious. He set great goals and he attempted great things for God, even when it came at great cost to himself. And Pastor Jan preached an entire sermon last week you can go back and listen to about setting godly goals, but Paul was a man who had a godly ambition.He wasn't fearful. He wasn't timid. He didn't procrastinate. He had confidence. He set those goals and he worked hard toward them.Number four is patience. Paul said, "You followed my example in patience." Trustworthy people don't freak out and fly off the handle as soon as things don't go according to plan. Right? Instead, they give stability to everyone else who's freaking out as things don't go according to plan. Patient people are slow to be anxious.Patient people are not quick to take offense; they don't take things personally. They're not quick to judge; they give people the benefit of the doubt. They don't lose their temper. They're quick to forgive. Things can roll off their back. They keep their emotions in check. They set reasonable expectations for others. They don't honk as soon as the light turns green, they wait a few seconds and then, you tap it. Politely. That's how you do it. Life skills, Boston.But they live by the Golden Rule. They treat people the way they would want to be treated. Patiently.Number five is love. You followed my example in love, and trustworthy people don't love, they love and there's a difference and Paul's using a specific word for love here that I think our culture really needs. It's the word 'agape,' it's not a love that's marked by feelings and sentiment. It's a mark, it's a love that's marked by commitment and sacrifice.Our world loves love but the love that they love, it's a phony love. It's a shallow love. Our love expects us to muster up these sentimental feelings about things and then act on them before those feelings run out but agape love says, "I'm going to take action. I'm going to do the right thing, regardless of how I feel."Agape love says that I'm not going to do things just because they feel good but because they actually do good. And this is where you begin to see that agape love doesn't always feel like love on the surface. We talked a few weeks ago on the importance of speaking the truth in love. That if you really care about things, sometimes you have to speak truths, things that are hard for people to hear, but you do so motivated by love. And this is the mark of a trustworthy person, because nobody trusts a yes man. Nobody trusts the person who always is ready to tell you what you want to hear.Now at the same time, nobody likes a critic, but when you have someone who can come to you and offer you constructive, heartfelt criticism, not gossiping behind your back, but actually one-on-one to your face because they genuinely care about you? That's a true friend; that's a person that you can trust. Trustworthy people love.Number six is steadfastness. You followed my example in being steadfast. Trustworthy people, they're people that you can rely on. If they say they're going to do something; they do it. If they make a promise, they keep it. Their word is their bond. Right? If they make an appointment, they show up ready and on time. This is a life hack, but in Boston, what that means, is that you always leave five minutes earlier than you think you have. Because the T's always going to be late; traffic's always going to be bad. There's always going to be a million excuses, but when that happens, it communicates something to that other person. If you're the person who's always late, who's never prepared.It's non-verbally telling other people, "My time is more valuable than yours." But when you're consistent, when you show up when you say you're going to show up and you show up ready to go, it communicates like, "I care about you and I value your time." And that creates trust in people.Steadfast people, they're not afraid of commitment and they're also not fools with commitment, and so what that means is that they count the cost before starting something and then, once they do start something, they carry it on to completion, that they're faithful. They follow through.And in order to do this, we need to be a people who use our yes and our and meaningfully and thoughtfully and intentionally. Jesus told his disciples that you should let your yes be yes and your no be no and that anything beyond this comes from the evil one, but steadfast people, when they say yes to something, they mean it. And they also have the courage and the wisdom and the humility to know when they need to say no.And listen, every time you say yes to something, you are automatically saying no to something else. So, are you doing that intentionally? Are you doing that with wisdom? If you're going to say yes to great things in life, you're going to be required to say no to a whole lot of, a 100 million little good things that want to take you and pull you away from that.But if we're going to be the people that make commitments and follow through on them, that's what we need to do. And so this is a discipline that steadfast people learn.Number seven is persecution. This one might seem strange to be on the list, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Paul says, "You followed my example in persecution."If a person actually has integrity and convictions, a clear purpose, if they hold fast to what they believe, in general, that's going to make them more trustworthy and likable. But it's also going to mean there's always going to be a certain group of people that hate them for it.This is Jesus. Jesus is the most trustworthy, likable person to have ever lived, but much of what made him so also got him crucified because people who are trustworthy, they're often marked by persecution because these are the people who are willing to do the right thing even when it's no longer the popular thing.These are the ones who stand up to the bullies on the playground. These are the ones who refuse to compromise their integrity under the pressure of their peers. And people aren't always going to like that. Paul actually tells Timothy, "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted."And number eight is similar, but a little bit different. He says, "You followed my example in suffering," as well. It's hard to trust a person who's lived a really cushy life. It's hard to trust a person who's never suffered, because you really don't know the true content of a person's character until you see it tested by the fires of hardship and pain.Now on the flip side, there are a few things more admirable than watching a person walk through difficulty, walk through suffering, but do so with hope, do so with joy, do so with grace, and this is what Paul did. Paul, you read his life. He lived a life of tremendous suffering for the Gospel. And yet, he was never grumbling, he was never complaining, he wasn't lashing out at people.What was he doing? He was always rejoicing. He was always trusting that God was in control, that he was sovereignly working all things together for his good, and so he walked faithfully through suffering.Number nine is endurance. Trustworthy people don't just have bursts of stability in life, they have enduring stability over the long haul, over time and over space. Right? There's a proven track record that they're not just faithful in certain areas of life for certain periods of time. They're faithful across multiple areas of life for long periods of time.And then number 10, most importantly, is humility. Trustworthy people are humble. And it might not seem so at the surface, when Paul is like, "You have followed my example," and that you should follow my example. It might not sound like an incredibly humble thing to do, that you should imitate me.But Paul does so and then in the end, he gives all the glory to Jesus Christ. That Jesus is the one who rescued me, that Jesus is the one who's saved me, and 1 Corinthians 11:1 he says, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ." It's all about Jesus. And he makes this even more clear a few chapters later in Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. He says, "It's only by the grace of God that I am what I am. And his grace for me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."It's the humility to say yeah, I have grown in my walk with Jesus Christ. There are things about me that are worth imitating and yet, at the end of the day, it's all Jesus. It's him working in me.I look at this list of characteristics and in the flesh, I am overwhelmed. In the flesh, being a person marked by these qualities, I'm already exhausted. I'm already tired. Like, just thinking about it. In the spirit, though, this is exhilarating.Because like, imagine what could happen if just one person started living this way perfectly. Well, it did happen. That was Jesus Christ. We've already begun to see and to experience what could happen; it changes the whole world. Now, just imagine if we all started to live this world. Imagine if we had a community of reliable, tough, tender, humble, confident, likable, trustworthy people saturating our city.Imagine if the streets of Boston were filled with people of integrity, purpose, faith, patience, humility and an enduring love that was steadfast, even in the face of suffering, even in the face of persecution. Now, this is who Christ is and this is who he's called us to be and this is who, by the power of his Spirit, we are to become and when that happens, when that becomes evident in your life, people are going to ask question. People are going to want to know, like, they're going to see the patience. They're going to see the peace. They're going to see the joy and wonder, "Where does that come from?"Like sooner or later, they're going to come and then they'll say, why don't you join us in the break room when we're all gossiping behind other people's backs? Why aren't you always trash-talking the boss with the rest of us when he's not in the room? Why does there seem to be so little drama in your personal relationships? Why don't you freak out with the rest of us when the rest of us are freaking out? Where do you get this stability in your life to stay so level-headed? And this is something we need to be prepared to give an answer for.And this is exactly what Peter, he tells us this in 1 Peter, Chapter 3. In verse eight he says, "All of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil, reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness's sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them or be troubled, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you, for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet, do it with gentleness and respect, having good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame."God has gathered us here in this place at this time in this city to be faithful, trustworthy witnesses to his Gospel and the thing that we need to be asking ourselves is when the storms of life hits, when things get crazy, when people's stability is shattered, are they going to come to us? And if they do, are we going to have enough lion-like stability in our lives to help them?Are we going to have enough lamb-like humility to show them that any stability that they might see in us, it all comes from Jesus Christ, that he is the rock, he is the anchor for our souls? If you're lacking that stability, just look to the cross. Look to the one who knows you completely and yet loves you sacrificially. He chooses to love you with an unfailing love.If you're not a Christian, like we would love for you to change that today. We would love for you to become a follower of Jesus today and you do that simply by repenting and putting your faith in him. Repenting is turning from away from sin. Stop trying to build life on your own foundations and instead, trust in Jesus. Build your life on the foundation of who he is.And if you are a Christian, for those of us who are Christians, we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions. First of all, how is your stability? Like, are you a stable, trustworthy person? Are you feeling like a leaf blowing around in the wind?This is important, because the second question is has God put people in your life who perhaps could benefit from that stability, if you have it? People that you can love, people that you can serve and people that you can point to the source of your stability so that they can find it themselves.I'm going to close by reading from Hebrews 13:7-8 and then we'll pray together before we continue in worship. "Remember your leaders. Those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Praise God."Let's pray. Jesus, you have sent us on a mission to proclaim your good news to the ends of the earth and you've also promised to be with us and for us until the end of the age. And we thank you that there is no shadow of turning in you but that you are trustworthy, reliable, steadfast. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.God, give us faith to never doubt your power, your goodness, your love, your grace. But grow us to be a people with a magnetic stability, a trustworthy people, a people of intriguing likability, not because of us but because people see you in us. They see the confidence and humility of Christ reflected through our conduct and faith.Jesus, we praise you. We thank you for being the propitiation for our sins, being the reason that we can have confidence to draw near the throne of God, no longer running in fear of the punishment we deserve but receiving the unfathomable mercy that you have attained for us by your blood shed on the cross.Father, we thank you for sending your son so that you could be just and the justifier of those who have faith in him, who trust in his name, and to you be all glory and power and honor forever and ever, we pray.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon by Elder Tony Smith I once had a pastor friend that said: "If the enemy is unable to get to you through traditional means, he will make you busy." No other time do we see this more than the weeks leading up to Christmas. With Christmas parties, shopping, traveling and cooking... It's easy to lose sight of the foundational truths of Christmas. That Jesus Christ came into this world to set the captives free and that one day He'll come again. How free do you feel this Christmas? Are you ready for Him to come again? This Sunday, we'll be unpacking an untraditional passage for Advent. We'll be going through Daniel 5 - The Writing on the Wall. We'll be using this passage to challenge ourselves to draw in near to Him this Christmas. It's my prayer, that we don't miss the "writing on the wall." That we come to realize that Jesus is the only gift we need this Christmas. See you Sunday!

A special prayer just4u in today's broadcast! Part 3-Jesus the Captain of our Salvation, He is our Saviour who has given us a Great Salvation with many promises! Memphis Covenant Faith Broadcast-Setting the Standard of God's Excellence.The prophecies foretold in Isaiah 11:10 & 12 That Jesus Christ would be the Ensign, the Standard, the Flag, The Bloodstained Banner that all nations would rally to. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pastorhelenprice/support

That Jesus Christ was crucified is an historical fact every person must reckon with. The bigger question is two-fold: “What is the significance of Jesus’ death and what evidence do we have for his resurrection?”

In most social circles today, if you announce that you’re a Buddhist, that’s cool; you’re like a celebrity. If you say you’re into yoga retreats, that’s wonderful. Even if you say you’re a Christian (understood as Protestant) everything is still more or less groovy, unless you’re one of those fundamentalist types that believes Jesus really rose from the dead. But announce you’re Catholic? Better get ready for the inquisition. Tim Staples knows all about it. Tim was raised Southern Baptist, later became an Assemblies of God youth pastor, and is now the director of apologetics and evangelization at Catholic Answers. In this interview, Tim goes off-road to talk about life as a Catholic in a post-modern culture. How has the papacy of Pope Francis been a game changer? Some have implied or accused Pope Francis of being a heretic. Tim weighs in with his take. Last year was the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the revolt now called the Protestant Reformation. How can Catholics talk about about the breakaway that had led to constant, and predictable, splinterization of so many different denominations, each contradicting the others is various ways? And what is ecumenism, anyway? What should the endgame be for our prayers “for Christian unity”? Tim Staples has been debating, writing about, and pondering all these questions for 30 years. Listen and learn.   In this episode you will learn: Specific examples of how to interact with people who disagree How life as a Catholic is, in a certain sense, different under the unpredictable papacy of Pope Francis Why ecumenism can’t possibly mean merely being nice and collaborating on projects How to recover from an awkward start to an interview! That Jesus Christ founded one Church Much more! Recommended Reading Behold Your Mother: A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines   by Tim Staples Catechism of the Catholic Church    Join the Conversation Question of the week: Why is it important to get the definition of ecumenism right?   Don't forget to Subscribe and Review!

Acts 20 Jesus made fully human - Hebrews 2:5-18 5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified: ‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little[a] lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honour 8 and put everything under their feet.’ In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.’ 13 And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ And again he says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’ 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.   In Hebrews 1, we see that Jesus Christ was one being with God the Father. That Jesus Christ was fully God! We heard that Jesus Christ was called God's Son and that He was supreme to the prophets, the angels, Moses and Joshua, the Old Covenant with its priesthood and sacrificial system. That Jesus Christ was God's Appointed Heir and God’s Creative Agent. That Jesus Christ Personified God’s Glory was the Perfect Revelation of God and the Cosmic Sustainer... Last week, we thought this fascinating and often unread book was best seen as the transcript of a sermon rather than a letter addressed to a distinct group of people and that it dated originally to the 1st century, probably before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD70. It was accepted as part of the canon of the Bible by the Eastern church early on and it wasn’t until the end of the 4th century that the Western church formally adopted it into the canon of Scripture. Do download the audio to find out more about Jesus being made fully man! Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file   You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Sermon given by Revd Dr Martyn Atkins on Advent Sunday, 27th November 2016. 'So what do we know? That Jesus Christ will return, that he is the judge of all, and that the promise of heaven with him awaits those who love him. Are you ready, or not? And if not, what are you going to do about it?'

This single verse is encouraging us to join in with all creation and to proclaim the greatest truth that has ever been told… That Jesus Christ saves and is Lord Lord over all!! May our life's anthem be to continually proclaim Jesus as Lord!

Jesus Christ continues to sanctify those who repent of their sinsWe will note...1.That we need to acknowledge our sin2.That we need to watch out lest we sin again3. That Jesus Christ intercedes for us as our living SaviourTime:MorningTexts:1 John 1:8—2:2

Jesus Christ continues to sanctify those who repent of their sinsJesus Christ continues to sanctify those who repent of their sinsWe will note:That we need to acknowledge our sinThat we need to watch out lest we sin againThat Jesus Christ intercedes for us as our living Savior Reading: 1 John 1:1-2:17 Text: 1 John 1:8-2:2Time:MorningTexts:1 John 1

Go tell it on the mountain Over the hills and far away Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born The shepherds all were watching Over their sheep at night When a guiding star shone from heaven And the followed that holy light Got tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born They found a lovely manger Where the humble Christ was born And God sent out salvation On that blessed Christmas morn Go tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born He brought with Him forgiveness He live to show us the way He came to redeem all creation And to wash all our sins away Go tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born COPY FREELY ©2011 Shiloh Worship Music-This Music Recording is copyrighted to prevent misuse, however,permission is granted for non-commercial copying only.Traditional Christmas Hymn-Public Domainwww.shilohworshipmusic.com

I. Introduction: Guarding the Treasure That's a marvelous song. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. And I have the joy and privilege of Bringing good news to this morning. In this passage, we have a fantastic description of the gospel itself and I'm looking forward to being able to explain to you just how beautiful is the Gospel that we cherish and that we treasure. Perhaps you didn't know this, but 30 miles south of Louisville, Kentucky, there's a treasure as well, a treasure more vast and more measurable than any of you can imagine, greater than Bill Gates and Ted Turner put together. Probably you never thought of Louisville, Kentucky in this way. I didn't either, until we went there and realized that we were just 30 miles north of Fort Knox. So, we wanted to go down there and see all that gold. Christi and I got the kids, and we put them in the car and we drove down to see bricks of gold. I don't know why I wanted to see that. I saw a National Geographic article on it, so we drove down there and there's a military museum and some other things down there. But when we came to the place where the actual gold was held, we were somewhat disappointed, because instead of a visitor center we saw a guard booth and instead of some kind of a museum or some tour that we could take, we saw barbed wire and an ugly blockade look, reinforced concrete, sunk below the surface of the earth, impervious to bombing and also in impervious to visitors. So, we had hoped to visit this gold and see it, but we had no chance of doing so. There was going to be no visit that day. And nor is there a visit at Fort Knox any day. And why is it so protected? It's because the federal government has the majority of their gold holding there. Now, we're not on the gold standard anymore, but they understand if that gold were somehow to be tampered with, if it were to be stolen, that the United States economy and the whole world economy would be devastated. And so they think they will stop at nothing to protect it. There's no length that they'll go to protect it. But we have a treasure in the gospel that is of far greater worth than all those bricks of gold. And in the passage this morning, the Apostle Paul charges Timothy to spare nothing to protect that gospel message. To spare nothing to cherish the words of the gospel that we're entrusted to Paul by Jesus Christ himself, and then through Paul to Timothy, and through Timothy and others ultimately to us. Spare nothing to protect that message. This is Paul's third charge to Timothy. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read the first 14 verses of Chapter One, just to get a start and then we're going to look more carefully at the beautiful, the good deposit that was given to us. We're going to survey it. We're going to feel it’s worth and its value, and then we're going to look at how it is we are to protect it. So listen out of verses one through 14. "Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. I thank God whom I serve as my forefathers did with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I've been reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you, through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord or ashamed of me, His prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the Gospel, by the power of God who has saved us and called us to a holy life. Not because of anything we have done, but because of His own purpose and grace, this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and brought life, and immortality to light through the Gospel. And of this gospel, I was appointed a herald and an apostle, and a teacher. That is why I'm suffering as I am. Yet I'm not ashamed, because I know whom I believed and I'm convinced that He is able to guard, what I have entrusted to him for that day. What you have heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you, guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." II. Paul’s Circumstances: Persecution under Nero What a charge. The third charge that Paul gives to Timothy. Now let's remind ourselves of the context. Paul was suffering persecution at the hands of the insane Roman Emperor Nero. As you remember, Nero head for one reason or another, burned half the city of Rome, and had decided to blame it on the Christians. This was the first persecution by the Roman government of the Christian people and the Apostle Paul was to die under that persecution, and Paul knew it. When he sat down to write this letter, he knew he was going to die, he'd already had his first trial. Second trial was coming up very soon. And he knew he was going to die. And so he wants to write a final letter to Timothy, to entrust to Timothy a serious charge, the Gospel ministry. That charge have been entrusted to him by Jesus Christ and now he was going to entrust it with all seriousness to Timothy who had been his right-hand man on his missionary journeys. We've already looked at the first charge that Paul gave to Timothy in verse six. He says, "Fan your gift in the flame." We know that this is Timothy spiritual gift of preaching and teaching. The second charge, we discussed a couple of weeks ago. Namely that Timothy should never be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or of Jesus Christ or the people of Christ, but rather, with boldness, with fearlessness, he should preach this Gospel message. III. Assessing the Good Deposit (vs. 8-10) So, now we come to the third charge that he should guard the good deposit. Now, we need to survey this deposit in order to understand what Paul was commanding Timothy to do. Thankfully, in a beautiful way, Paul condenses the Gospel in just a few verses. In verses 8-10, we can survey the whole good deposit. There we see the character of our salvation, we see the source of our salvation and the ground of our salvation. In verse eight, it says that God has saved us, and He's called us now to a holy life. And then in verse 10, it says that Christ has destroyed death, and brought life, and immortality to light through the Gospel. He has saved us. I could say He is saving us now and He will save us in the future. The character of this gospel message is that it's comprehensive. It's a total salvation from sin. The character of salvation Some people have summed it up into three P's. That Jesus Christ has saved us from the penalty of sin. He is saving us now from the power of sin and some day he's going to save us, we who are his children, from the very presence of sin. Oh, what a day that'll be. No more temptation, no more suffering, or struggle with sin, what a day. To be totally free from sin, and all of its manifestations. It's a comprehensive salvation. Well, when we say that Jesus Christ has saved us from sin's penalty, what are we saying? Romans 6:23 tells us what that penalty is, it says the wages or what we deserve for sin, is death. The wages of sin is death. What do we mean by death? Well, we all know about physical death, physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Now, we know from Romans 5 that death entered the world because of sin, physical death. We don't say that people die because they committed this specific sin, but just death entered and hangs over all of us because of sin. But the scripture has more to say about death than just physical death, there's a spiritual death as well. Ephesians chapter two tells us about that. It says in Ephesians two that all people who do not know Jesus Christ are dead in their transgressions and sins while they live. That's somewhat of a paradox, dead while you live, living dead. If you don't know Jesus Christ, you're dead in your transgressions and sins, and you can't respond to God, you can't understand what he's saying to you. You're like a spiritual corpse until Jesus Christ, by His power, raises you from the dead you won't respond, but he has that power. And all of you who are born again who know Jesus Christ, you know what I'm talking about. The power of God to raise you from the dead, spiritually. But there is a more serious death, and it's where that spiritual death that we experience now, when we don't know Jesus becomes permanent, eternal, final on Judgment Day. It's what scripture calls the second death. Revelation Chapter 20:14 says that the lake of fire is the second death. Jesus Christ came to save us from that, to suffer on the cross so that we would not have to suffer eternally away from God. He came to save us from sin's penalty and by His death on the cross, that's what he's done. But he's also come to save us from sin's power. It says that He has saved us and has called us with a holy calling. He's called us to a holy life. He's called us to be different, to come out of the world and to be different. The church of Jesus Christ is to be a holy church. We're not to be like the world. We're to imitate, to follow Jesus Christ and all of His ways. He's called us with a holy calling. Are you taking that calling seriously? If you're a born again Christian, you should be holy, you should be growing in holiness, you should be more holy a year from now than you are now. More faithful in putting sin to death. This is the holy calling, that He's called us for. And in the end, He will save us from sin's very presence. He will save us from the existence of sin in our lives. 1 John 3 says that when we see Him, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. When you see Jesus Christ face-to-face, all sin will be removed forever, there'll be no more temptation and no more suffering under temptation, and under sin. So, this is the character of our salvation. And isn't it comprehensive? Isn't it beautiful? It's a total salvation from sin. It's a salvation in the past, because Jesus died on the cross. We have been saved from sin's penalty. Salvation in the present, as God's power works in us. Holiness and righteousness and it will be a salvation in the future, when Jesus Christ comes back and we see Him face-to-face and all sin is removed. The character of our salvation. The Source of Salvation But what is its source? Where does it come from? As we look at the river of our salvation.Where are the headwaters? The cataracts of this? As we trace it back, what's the origin of it all? In 1860, a British man, named James Hanningspeak traced the Nile River back to its origin. Now this had been a problem that had eluded people for 2000 years. They wanted to know what was the source of the Nile. And so they had traced it from Egypt up, following along into Sudan, but they reached physical difficulties, they couldn't keep following, it was too hard and no one knew where the Nile came from. Well, James Hanningspeak found that it originated in what he called or named Lake Victoria in the center of Africa. 4150 miles away from where it's spilled out into the Mediterranean sea, longest river on earth. As we look at the river of our salvation, we trace it back to its origin, where is it? Well, Paul answers that, both negatively and positively. Negatively in verse 9. He says, it's not because of anything we have done. Not because of anything we have done. This message of salvation is not about what you have done, or have accomplished, it's not about your actions at all. It's about what God has done through Jesus Christ, on the cross. That's the origin. It's not anything that we have done. Paul taught the same thing in Ephesians 2:8-9, it says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not by works. So that no one can boast." I won't stand any boasting before Him on that great day. Salvation is His gift, He offers it freely. It's not because of anything we have done, negatively. He says. But positively, he says it is because of God's purpose and His grace. God's purpose means his will, his reason, his decision, it's what he wanted to do. You look at the first verse of the entire book, he says Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, what, "By the will of God, God wanted me to be an apostle, and that's what I am." The will of God. Each one of you who is a Christian, you're a Christian because the will of God. His purpose, also His grace. What is grace? We sing that wonderful hymn, Amazing Grace. What's so amazing about grace? Well, let me say, if you meditate on sin and understand yourself before a holy God, you'll see what's so amazing about grace. Grace is amazing. Why should He give His beloved son for you? Because He loves and not because of anything He sees in you or me, just because He loves. That's what's so amazing about grace, it's His purpose and His grace. But when was this grace given to us? When was this plan worked out? Well, here's a mystery, but it says that this grace was given us in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time. Before the beginning of time. I was reading a book recently by what many people consider to be the most brilliant man alive, today, Steven Hawking, some of you have heard of Stephen Hawking, he's a British physicist. Confined to a wheelchair because of Lou Gehrig's Disease, but his mind is active and sharp. And he wrote a book called "A Brief History of Time." A Brief History of Time. Many of you perhaps have seen it, it was on the New York Times Best Seller list. It's physics made simple for people like you and me who are laymen, don't really fully understand physics. But what he sought to do and he spent about 30 or 40 pages doing is proving that time had an origin. Many Physicists believe that there is no origins of time, that the universe has always been here, and will always be here, etcetera. That time had an origin. He proves it through mathematics and through observation and other things like that. Well, sometimes I think this is really wonderful. Physicists are somewhat like mountain climbers, climbing up the mountain of truth. And when they get to the top, they find that the theologians were already there, especially believers. All you need to do is read it in the Bible. This grace was given us when? Before the beginning of time. Time had a beginning and before that, God was active, He was doing thing. He was giving you grace. Well, how can that be? I wasn't even made yet. In the mind of God, you were. God has been having a relationship with you, if you're a Christian, before the world began. Jeremiah 31:3 says, "Since I have loved you with an everlasting love and therefore in love and kindness, I have drawn you." Our salvation comes out of an everlasting changeless love of God. Your relationship with God is not like the stock market going up, going down. Up, down, up, up, up, down, down. I think about that. I think, "Is my relationship, is God's love for me affected by how I behave?" No, there's a settled assurance on God's part that I'm a child of God and that He is going to bring me into His very presence at the end of the world, and he made up his mind about this, if we can speak in that kind of language, before the world began, before there was a sun shining in all its radiance, before the moon reflected the sun's light, before there was an earth to walk on, before there was a Nile River flowing down from the center of Egypt into the Mediterranean, God gave us his grace in Christ, Jesus. That's what it says. This idea, this doctrine should produce in us simply two things, deep humility and total security. Deep humility because our salvation is not based on any achievement on our part, nothing we can boast about. The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin made that makes it necessary. But it should also produce in us total, complete security in Christ. We will be saved when that great and final day comes. We've seen the character and now we've seen the source of our salvation. The Ground of Salvation What of it's ground? What's it based on? What's the structure of our salvation founded upon? It says this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed, or it has now appeared through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. When Jesus entered the world, in Bethlehem born as a baby, born of a woman, born under the law at just the right time, God's salvation plan became evident. And as he grew and lived a sinless pure life, and as He did the things He did, and said the things He said, performed those great miracles. And as He was nailed to the cross, suffering for sin. And as He was raised from the dead on the third day, God's salvation plan has become explained and made known, and that story is the ground of our salvation. It's the foundation on which we rest. It was hidden and now it's revealed. Now, that ground again, Paul describes both negatively and positively. Negatively, he says that Jesus Christ has destroyed death. Positively, he says that he has brought life, and immortality to light through the Gospel. Now, what does it mean negatively when he says that he's destroyed death? Now, I talked earlier about the three kinds of death, we see that. But this word "destroyed" is very interesting. You could say, some translations say abolished. I prefer to look on it as rendered impotent, strip the power away from death. You can imagine a scorpion for example, with its tail curving up over its head, with that stinger ready to strike, deadly poison. But then an expert coming and removing that stinger, the scorpion has no sting. There's no power left to death or you can imagine, perhaps, a man, in a rumpled German private officer May 21st, 1945, very end of World War II. Trying to make his way through the British lines, had 11 other men with him. Just trying to get back to his homeland in Bavaria. They pull him off to the side, begin to question him, find out that he's Heinrich Himmler. Heinrich Himmler was the leader of the Gestapo, one of the most feared, one of the most evil man in history. Two or three, four years before then, he had all his power, all his army around him. And he could do all of his evil deeds. But now, he's been stripped of his power by the Allied victory, the military victory. He had no power left, he was a rumpled man. No power. Still alive, still there, but no authority. This is what Jesus Christ has done to death and all of its evil power, its ability to terrorize. And here is the Apostle Paul seated in this prison cell, waiting to die. Is he terrified of death? Oh, absolutely not. "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." He just wants to finish his earthly work, he knows he's being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for his departure. He's not afraid of death at all. There's no fear in Paul, he just wants to finish his work. Jesus Christ has abolished death, he's pulled the stinger out of it. We as Christians have no need for fear of death any longer. That's negative. What about positive? He's brought life, and immortality to light through the gospel. Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and they might have it abundantly." Jesus came to show us a life that apart from Him, we would never know. A life of joy, a life of fellowship with God. John 17:3, he says, "This is eternal life, that they may know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Knowing God, walking with Him, living with Him, that is life and Jesus alone can give it, and He does give it freely. The word "immortality", which we translate immortality, you could translate or say as freedom from corruption or surrounded by rust, withered flowers, things that age. The life that Jesus gives is free from all that. Jesus holds on to it and protects it. Paul says, "I know whom I believe, and I'm convincing that He is able to guard what I've entrusted to Him." What you entrust to God is safe. Your life is hidden with Him in God. Protected and safe. But I love what it says that he has brought this life, this immortality to light through the Gospel. A beautiful illustration of this. King's chapel Cambridge, England, has the most magnificent display of stained glass in all of Europe. Made in the 15th and 16th century, 13,000 square feet of it. Can you imagine? I don't know how many square feet there are here in this sanctuary, but I doubt it's 13,000 square feet. But these are spectacular stained glass windows. Well, during World War II, they thought it was wise to remove the stained glass and get it out of the chapel, bury it, so that it wouldn't be destroyed by the Luftwaffe, by the German bombers. And so that's exactly what they did. Well, after the war was over and enough time had past, they knew it was time to bring these stained glass out of hiding and re-install them at King's Chapel, and so that's what they did. The workers covered them with shrouds and cloths to keep them protected, during their installment, and then at the right time when everything was prepared, everything was ready, the word went out and all the local populous came and they surrounded King's Chapel from the outside, and it was night. And at just the right moment, the word was given and floodlights from inside the chapel were turned on and the light streamed out through those steamed glass windows and all the people gasped, they'd forgotten the beauty of the windows, the glory of all the colors. That is what Jesus Christ has done by His resurrection from the dead, and by the Gospel that we preach in His name. People walking in darkness see a great light, the light of life, freedom from sin, freedom from fear of death, eternal life forever. The shining of the light, and that's what God has called us here at First Baptist Church to do, to shine that light. The light of this beautiful Gospel that he's entrusted to us. We've seen the character of salvation, how comprehensive it is, past, present, and future. We've seen the source of salvation, not anything that we have done, but God's own purpose and grace given us before the world began. And we've seen the ground of salvation. In the past, hidden in the mind of God, but now revealed through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So now Paul commands Timothy, to guard this message because it's so precious. He says, "What you have heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus, guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." IV. Guarding the Deposit Well, what does Paul mean to guard this message? He said, "What you have heard for me, the words you heard from my mouth, hold on to them. They're precious, they're valuable, keep them safe." He says, "Guard them as a pattern." There's a sense in which he's given an outline, like an architect sketch, have you ever seen these architects sketch of what a building is going to look like? A pen and ink description? ] This is exactly what Paul did with the doctrine, he said "Timothy, color it in. Make it brilliant, but don't color outside the lines, stay inside those lines. Don't innovate, don't change it, don't rearrange it. Give them the sound doctrine that I've given to you." Now, the word sound means, sound doctrine means healthy. Like, for example, when you have a last will and testament, you say, "I Andrew M. Davis being of sound mind do here by such and such." It means I've got a healthy mind. This is healthy doctrine and it strengthens and it gives life. "Don't change it Timothy, but stay with it." Why does the gospel message need to be protected? Well, first and foremost, because it's from God, God gave it to us. Paul says in Galatians 1, he said, "I want you to know, brothers, that the Gospel I preach is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. He revealed it to me, showed it to me, I got this message straight from him. And I preached it faithfully. Now you, Timothy, don't change it. Don't rearrange it, don't leave out unpopular parts of it, preach the whole message. You don't have a right to change it, it's from God." This message is life. You also, it says, were dead in your transgressions and sins but you were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. These words are your life, protect them, hold them safe. But we also need to protect it because Satan hates this message, he really does, he hates the Gospel, that I'm preaching in front of you today. He'll fight against it. He has in every generation throughout history, there's been an attack on the Gospel. Early on, false teachers came up and they questioned whether Jesus Christ was really man. Or, perhaps the question whether he was really God. God raised up faithful teachers to fight back against those heresies. In recent years however, there's a more subtle attack on the Gospel. It started in the enlightenment when a man named Emmanuel Kant came and said, "You know something, you really can't know truth as it really is, you can only know truth as it appears to you." This other man, a theologian named Schleiermacher said, "That's especially true in religion. You can't know religious truth, the Bible is not full of religious truth but only people's spiritual experiences, that's all this is, just a record of spiritual experiences." And you also can't know the truth but only have experiences of religious fervor, etcetera. And so people come to church now and they come expecting to have some kind of religious experiences, they're not looking for truth. All of this is an innovation, it's a twisting. It's ultimately a heresy, it's falsehood because there is a truth. The truth is that the tomb is empty, that Jesus Christ has in fact risen from the dead. Believe it or not, there was a theologian at the end of the 1800s, who said it really doesn't matter to me if Jesus ever lived or not. It doesn't matter if the tomb is empty, or full. All that matters is the life and the experience that we have from studying the Bible as it's come to us today. And his motto was, "Life not doctrine." Do you see what a changed this is? This is a perversion, it's a twisting. The life we have in Jesus Christ comes from the teaching, from the doctrine. Well, how is Timothy to guard this life, this doctrine, how is he to protect it? Well, it says guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we guard this message. There are two threats that we have to fight against. The first is surrounded by a culture of people who hate the message, surrounded by a culture of people who are drifting further and further away from Christianity, true Christianity. We are tempted to start to change the message a little bit, or maybe include some things that would be a little more popular, kind of broaden the tent a little bit, get the stakes a little wider. Include some things and leave out some other things, change it a little bit. It's temptation, or there's another issue and that's something we would do knowingly by the way. Something that we would do ignorantly, where false teachers come in and deceive us, trick us and we begin to change the message because we didn't really know what the true message was and were tossed back and forth by every wind of teaching. Either one can happen. By the Holy Spirit, neither one needs to happen. In the first case, we realize by the power of the Spirit, we don't need to be afraid of what surrounding culture says. We don't have to be afraid of death or anything, we live to God, we live to Jesus Christ and we preach this message. People hear it, and they come and they are saved because it's a true message from Jesus Christ. And we don't need to be afraid of false teachers coming in either because we're going to study the message, we're going to know it. We're going to understand what it says. Last week, I was in Washington, and I met a man who was a member of the Capital Hill Baptist Church. And his profession is that he works for the Secret Service and I didn't know that much about the Secret Service. Of course, we know that they protect important officials, elected officials, but one of their original purpose, original function, after the Civil War was to discern true and false currency. They actually work for the Department of the Treasury, and they work against counterfeit money. Counterfeiters. So, I talked to him, I said, "Well, how do you go about doing this?" He said more than anything, "We study the genuine article. We study how the bills were made. We understand the ink, we understand the paper, the procedure." Now, I think you've seen the new bills with the watermark in it, looks like Monopoly money. I think it's kind of funny looking. I actually look at it twice and think that it's counterfeit but it's a new dollar, you hold it up to the light and you see that watermark. I asked him how it was made, he said, "that's top secret". They can't tell what that is, that watermark. But what they do is they study the genuine bill so well that as soon as the counterfeit comes along, they know it and they recognize it. So, it is with the church. We immerse ourselves in this book, we get to know the Scriptures. We memorize, we meditate on them and then as soon as the falsehood comes along, we say, "That's just not true." For it says in Galatians such and such, or it says over in Ephesians such and such. We recognize it immediately, and we have no fear of false doctrine. And that means that a next generation, the people who come in behind us, our disciples, our children, they're teaching the same doctrine that Paul taught. That's how it works. God has given this Gospel message, this beautiful deposit to us as a sacred trust. We are to proclaim it boldly, and faithfully, not to innovate or change it in any way, but to give it to the people so that they may have eternal life. We have to guard this message more faithfully than the gold is gone at Fort Knox. N ow today, you've heard the Gospel message in the midst of this exposition. It could be that some of you have never heard the message preached in this way, it could be that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. But today is the day of salvation for you. If you feel the leading of the Spirit, don't resist, give your life to Jesus Christ. Let Him take the death penalty that hangs over your head if you're not a Christian. Let Him stand in your place and give you eternal life. For all those of you who are Christians, re-commit yourself to the gospel ministry. You know that tomorrow night we are beginning our visitation ministry, it's a practical application. Come and be with us. 7:00, Morgan Hall. We're making a commitment to visit the visitors of our church, share the Gospel with them, find out what their needs are. I've told people on my staff, I'm trusting God for one person to come on Monday night, a church member who's stepping out in faith and doing something that they've never done before. And I'm also asked them that that person come and tell me who he or she is. I'm that person that's trusting God to be here. I hope there's going to be a lot of people like that. But God has committed this Gospel ministry to us and we are to be faithful.