Follow Me
Transcript
Well, good morning. We are in a series called Follow Me. We're in our third week. We're just taking some time to look in the Gospel of Mark and see what it looked like for the disciples to follow Jesus. Our first week, we basically just covered the idea that the Gospel is news. It is not advice.
It's not here's how you ought to live. It's a story. It's news about something that has happened. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died in our place for our sin on a cross. He was laid in a tomb and then three days later he rose again fully alive and ascended into heaven as the king of the universe. That's what we believe as Christians.
And we believe that that news, that fact from history, changes everything for us. That we can be made right with God again. That we live our lives in light of that information. Then the next week, last week, we talked about that there are no unrepentant Christians. That part of the Christian life is to follow Jesus, seeing our sin and turning from it. And that is a continual, lifelong process.
That Christians see their sin and turn away from it to Jesus. That it's not repent and do good works. It's not turn away from your bad deeds and do good deeds. It's turn away from your sin to Jesus. And so we're kind of continuing along with that today as we talk about what it looks like for us now to follow Jesus. How does that show up in our lives now?
And I heard this illustration one time and I think it's helpful to kind of get us started today. If I showed up late today, so if I just came running up a second ago and ran upstairs and was out of breath and sweating because I had to run. You know, there's like four stairs there. So, of course, I'd be sweating. And I was like, oh, I'm so sorry that I'm running behind. It's good to see you all this morning.
I feel like because I'm running behind, I should explain myself. So on my way over here this morning, there was a lady who had a flat tire. So I got out to help her while I was helping with the tire. I lost my balance, fell into the road and an 18 wheeler ran over me. So but glad to get all that straightened out and to get here this morning.
Like immediately your response is no. No, it didn't. Either really my are your options at that point is I'm a liar. That did not happen. I just am not good at lying. So I pick something way too extravagant.
And you'd be like, that's not like you. You've done poorly. You know, you want enough details to sound like it's real, but not too many details to sound like it was rehearsed. And you want some credible things. Getting hit by an 18 wheeler is incredible. Either I'm a liar or I'm just crazy.
Like I actually believe I was hit by an 18 wheeler. But my brain just doesn't work right. Like I buy that is not true. Those are your two options. And here's what the point of that is. If if I was hit by an 18 wheeler, the reason you know that's not true is because that would have had visible, tangible, real life effect on me.
Like there are consequences to that. You can't get hit by a portly person on a bicycle and not like have that go poorly for you. There's going to be some scuffs. There's going to be some problems. There's going to be some dirt in my hair. Like it's not going to go well.
You can't get hit by an 18 wheeler and it not have an effect. And the thing is, Jesus is bigger than an 18 wheeler. When when you meet Jesus genuinely, realistically in life, he has a tangible effect on you. It shows up. So for someone to say, oh, I'm a Christian and there's no evidence whatsoever.
It's simply not true. And so that's what we're looking at as we walk through the series is to say that we believe news. We're not saying this is what you have to do to be a Christian. We're saying Jesus died for us. And because of that, it affects us. This event happened and it changes us.
And that actually shows up in our lives. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump back into Mark. We'll be in chapter one today. But let's pray real quick. God, we just ask that you and your faithfulness and your love for us would be at work in our hearts today. To help us see ourselves clearly and see you clearly as we continue to ask the question of what it means to follow you.
In Jesus name. Amen. We're going to be in Mark chapter one. We're going to pick up in verse 16 right where we left off last week. So last week, Jesus began preaching.
The kingdom of time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. So we just talked about that repentance is the way that you enter into the way you respond to the coming kingdom and the way you live in the kingdom. And immediately following that, we're going to see him begin to interact with people that will be his disciples, would be his followers. So it's on page 543.
If you have a blue and white Bible, if you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. It's our gift to you. Verse 16. Later in the series, we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at that. I will make you become fishers of men. But today we're really just looking at the follow me and kind of their response.
Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And then immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. Okay. So what we just saw is Jesus picks up four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John.
Simon and Andrew are brothers. Simon later becomes Peter. Jesus gives him a nickname. And James and John also get nicknames. They're called the Sons of Thunder. That doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about today, but just while we're covering nicknames.
And so he gets four disciples today. And here's what happens. He walks up into the middle of them working. Simon and Andrew are throwing a net into the water. James and John are mending their nets in a boat. And he just walks up and says, hey, follow me.
And they do. They drop what they're doing and they begin to follow Jesus. And this moment in their lives redirects the course of their life. This moment here where they drop what they're doing and follow Jesus changes everything for them. So that all four of these men, three of them will die for their faith in Jesus.
They will die for having said yes to Jesus saying, follow me. And John dies not of being murdered, but he dies while being exiled on an island for his faith in Jesus. So he dies of old age on an island where he was exiled. He was boiled in oil before that. He just didn't die. But all four of these men, this moment in their lives where Jesus says, follow me, and they say yes, drastically alters their life.
And here's what I want us to see from the very beginning. Jesus is disruptive. Period. Period. He's disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things begin to change.
That's just how it works. He doesn't just slide in and everything works swimmingly and exactly the same from that point on. He's disruptive. He steps in and when he steps in and when he comes into your life, he messes things up. He changes up your schedule. He changes up your time.
He calls you away from what you're doing to do other things. Like Jesus automatically, when he comes into your life, is disruptive. Some of you, if you would sit in here today and say, I'm a Christian, but Jesus, he's not disruptive. He fits right in. Fits right into my schedule. He's fit right into my life.
He just slid right in and has just been helpful. He hadn't tried to change anything. Hadn't like, I would just put forth. That's not Jesus. You. It's not Jesus.
Because Jesus is disruptive. That's how he works. That's like saying, I want to get a tattoo, but I don't like needles and I don't want it to hurt. You don't want to get a tattoo. I want, I want a Lexus, but I want it to have the rolly kind of windows. You're not getting a Lexus.
That's not, they don't make those. That's not how that works. And if you say, no, no, Jesus is fit right in. Like he hadn't been disruptive at all. That's not Jesus. You don't meet that Jesus in scripture.
The Jesus that walks around in scripture is absolutely continuously, aggressively disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things change. Now I want to show us something. I want us to take a minute to look at something. I think Mark does very intentionally in this passage. So when we write books, so the way, the way Westerners write books.
And if you read books, I know a lot of people in America don't read another book after they graduate high school or college. But maybe you remember reading some while you were in high school or college. Maybe some of you are in high school or college and you're familiar with books there. It's like a television, but you have to, you have like, okay. Anyway, the way we write books is there's information about the scene and the setting and what it looks like. And a good author can really help you like picture it.
So they talk about the way things smelled or the way things looked or what the room was like. They give you some scenery. They paint it up a little bit. So J.K. Rowling or Rowling, I don't know how to say her last name. She wrote the Harry Potter series, you know, Harry Potter, Voldemort, all that stuff.
She wrote a bunch of books and they were all very well written and they're all thick. And they got thicker and thicker as she went. It's like she had more and more to say as she went along. And she does really well with like painting up the scene. But she recently wrote a play called The Cursed Child.
She wrote a play. She what? She co-wrote a play. That's actually not the important part here, guys. I wish you will see in a second. But thank you for keeping me honest.
I don't know enough about Harry Potter to be talking right now. Which now makes me want to say a bunch of bad things. But like, you know, in Harry Potter, Dumbledore Calrissian has to take the ring of power to Mordor. You're welcome. The difference between a book and a play. This is the point I was getting to, although I gave way more information than I needed to.
The difference between a book and a play is this. In a play, every bit of information matters. It's just dialogue. And if they give any other information, it has something to do with the story. If they give any other details, it has to do with the setting. It has to do with what the characters are doing.
It does not, in a play, when someone writes out a play, they don't write up a whole bunch of scenery for you. They don't explain the way people felt. They just give you the dialogue and they give you some key, essential information. The Gospels are written like that. If there's information in the Gospels, it was written down for a reason. It was not just because Mark was like, and it was a pretty day outside, and the breeze was blowing.
He doesn't do that. The information given is important. So we're going to walk back through and we're going to put a little bit of pressure on the way Mark writes this because I think he did it on purpose. I don't think he wrote it out this way by happenstance. I think he was led and through the leadership of the Holy Spirit wrote it out specifically the way he did. And so we're going to look at this.
Okay, go back to verse 16. So he tells us what they were. This is who they were. They were fishermen. That's how they understood their place in the world. That's how other people understood their place in the world.
That's how they knew who they were. They were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their what? They left their what? Yeah, this is participation time.
And I know like we don't usually do this. Nets. Yes, they left their nets. They were fishermen and they left their nets. Okay, let's keep going. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets.
Okay, how does he describe James and John? Does he tell us they're fishermen? No. What's he tell us about them? What's their identifying marker? Son of Zebedee.
So are they fishermen? I would assume so. They're in a boat working on nets. But he doesn't call them fishermen. He calls them son of Zebedee. And then he says this.
And immediately he called them and they left what? I got a lot of time, guys. I'm good. They left what? Yeah. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
So they left him in the boat. They left him with the other people who were fishing. They left him with the nets. But that's not what Mark says they left. What Mark says they left was their father Zebedee. So what he just did was he said, Simon and Andrew were fishermen.
That's their identifying marker. And when Jesus called them, they left their nets. And James and John were the son of Zebedee. That's their identifying marker. And when he called them, they left their father Zebedee. Jesus is not only disruptive.
He walks into your life. He takes whatever you use to identify yourself. Whatever is absolutely primary to you. And he says, I'm taking the place of this. You have to let go of this for me. That's how Jesus works.
The only position he accepts in your life is first place. That's why it was important for Mark to write down that the fishermen left their nets and the sons of Zebedee left their father. Because if you ask them, what was the hardest thing to give up that day? Simon and Andrew are going to say, we were fishermen. We had to give up fishing. We had to give up our nets.
We had to give up possessions. We had to give up our career to follow him. That was what was going through their mind. That was what they had to let go of. That's what they were looking at and thinking about when Jesus said, follow me. But if you ask James and John, what did you leave?
They say we left our father. Because that's how they understood their existence. That's how they understood their identity. Let me explain something to you. We were designed by God. We were created.
So we're creatures. We're designed because we're creatures to have something be primary for us. Something has to be foundational. Something has to be the most important. It's just the way we're made. And everyone in this room has something in that spot.
And whatever you use to find your identity, whatever you use to say, this is how I fit in the world. This is what makes me okay. This is what gives me purpose. This is what makes me want to wake up tomorrow. Whatever you put there is God functionally for you. Whatever is your purpose, your identity, how you would describe yourself, how you know you're you and that you matter.
Whatever you put there is God because that was the role he was designed to fill. When he created us, that was the spot that he's supposed to be in. What gives us life and purpose and worth and value is him. That's why when Jesus shows up, that's the spot he claims. It's the only spot he'll take. So when Jesus comes into your life, not only is he disruptive, he is aggressively disruptive because he wants to claim primary role in your heart, in your time, in your life.
So for a Christian, we talked last week about life being a life of repentance, continually turning away from sin. We honestly don't sin until we've put something else in that spot. Until we've looked at Jesus and said, I'd rather have this than you. That's what leads us into sin. Thinking that something else matters more than Jesus so it's worth pursuing more than he is. So that we'll say no to him to say yes to that.
When that happens, we've moved that to the spot of superiority. Does that make sense? Anything that goes in number one slot, everything else ultimately serves that or everything else ultimately can be bumped out of the way, out of life for that. So let me give you an example. On your budget. Let me go back real quick.
A budget is a thing that you use to know where your money goes. Some of y'all. Talk with our toast team. They will help you make a budget. They are helpful. Okay, on your budget, there are things at the top on your expenses that matter more than the things at the bottom.
Unless you like alphabetize it, but just you realize there's a rank system here. There are things you're paying for first before you pay for other things. So when you start to run out of money, there are things you say no to. You pay your rent before your Netflix bill. If you've got that backwards, our toast team will help you make a budget. This is how this works.
First, you're paying your electricity before you're going to Frankie's Fun Park. There are things that go to the top of the list that when things get tight, when money gets tight, you're choosing what are we paying and you're paying what's most important. And if anything gets above Jesus, ultimately he serves that or he'll get bumped out of the way for that. So if you said, my family, my children matter most to me. And Jesus, I love Jesus and I worship Jesus and I follow Jesus, but ultimately my children are at the top. And maybe you wouldn't say it that way, but your life says that.
Here's what happens. Jesus is a means to an end for you to have a good family, to have safe children. Oh, it is so wonderful to know that the God of the universe loves your children and you can ask him for things. And you can ask him to protect your children and watch over your children and help your children. It's so good to know that the God of the universe will help provide for your children. So you're using Jesus for the safety of your children.
Your children are well behaved if they actually follow what the Bible says. They don't cause problems. They treat their parents well. That's one of the ten, you guys. Honor your mother and father. That's in the Ten Commandments.
It actually has a promise. It'll go well with you if you do. Like, that's great. And so if you have children that are in Sunday school and they're reading their Bibles and stuff, it makes them happier. It makes them better. It keeps life good for them.
And Jesus serves your children. But if your family starts falling apart, if your children become rebellious, if their health fails, if God says, I want you to be a missionary, to Africa, suddenly it's a, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I got kids. Can't. I didn't sign on for this. I got to worry about their safety. I got to worry about, like, their primary.
I got to, I started following you because I thought you were going to help me have a good family. I started following you because I thought you were going to help me protect my kids. I started following you because you were, like, what? You see, Jesus is serving them the whole time. And this happens with all kinds of things. So I, I know in my own life, when I have, in my marriage, I've sinned.
I've sinned against God. I've sinned against Anna. And I found, that I know the Bible says you should repent and confess. You should tell your wife what you did. And my response to that is, no, thank you. Kind sir.
Like, this is, this has been a real thing in my life where I have had very big things I needed to talk to her about. Because I have found that when you tell your wife you sinned against her, she doesn't like it. That's something I picked up on. And so I wasn't really willing to talk about it. And here, here's, here's what I came to realize. I was saying no to Jesus.
No to our relationship being good. No to me following him. Because I really wanted to protect the relationship I have with my wife. I was defending that one because I was more afraid of her being upset with me. More afraid of her leaving. More afraid of her, the discomfort that that would cause.
And so what I was saying was, no, no, no, Jesus, you're great for a lot of things, but in my marriage, I'm going to let her kind of rank above you. And we can do this with anything. You can do this with success. You can do this with pleasure. You can do that. I mean, you name it.
So if, if pleasure is primary for you, then your time and your money go towards what brings me the most enjoyment. What makes me the happiest? What, what do I enjoy the most? Like that's, that's how I understand the good life is that I can do what I want. I can eat out when I want. I can go to, to movies.
I can go on vacations. I can, that's the good life. And then Jesus shows up and says, Hey, uh, your money isn't meant to terminate on you. You should actually start giving some away. And you go, Ooh, I really can't. My budget's really tight.
When, when Jesus says, follow me. And when pleasure says, follow me, you follow pleasure. Work. Get your time, your energy. You spend your money on things that help you work better, that make work better, that I need this clothes for work. I need this suit for work.
I need this equipment for work. And, and then when Jesus steps in and says, no, this is how your family life is supposed to work. This is how following me is supposed to work. You say, no, no, no, no. When work says, follow me, or Jesus says, follow me, you follow work. Because the, the one thing Jesus is going to call you to drop is the one thing you're using to give yourself an identity.
And he's going to call you to, to get rid of sin. And he's going to call you to turn away from a lot of things. And a lot of that may be hard. You may like it. The thing that, that you're going to have to wrestle with the most and the thing you're going to want to pick up the most. And the thing that in your story, you're going to say, I had to leave behind is the one thing that you were using.
To identify yourself, to give yourself value and worth. Whatever it was in your heart that was primary. So here, here's our goal today. If Mark was writing about you, what does he say? Jesus walked up to, blank, and he said, follow me. What, what does he say was your identity?
And what does he say you left behind? Now here, I want to point something out to us. James and John stay the son of Zebedee. Simon and Andrew do fish again. Fishing isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage.
Having Zebedee be your dad isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage. Honoring your father, understanding your life in relationship to your father isn't bad. That's not the point. Your children, your spouse, working heart, pleasure. Pleasure isn't bad, y'all.
It's actually really enjoyable. Have y'all noticed that? God made it that way on purpose. The Bible actually says that pleasures are at his right hand forever. Like, he's the one who made pleasure pleasurable. It's good.
All those things are good. Most everything that we would put as primary in our life is actually a really good thing. A gift from God. The issue Jesus has is they can't be number one. And you're going to have to say no to them to say yes to him. That's why he says stuff like, if you come to me and you don't hate your father and mother, your children and your wife, and it's like, whoa, hate?
What? How do you say that? Like, that's crazy. You said to love your enemies, to love those that hate you. How are you then going to tell me to hate my wife? That sounds like really bad marriage advice.
His point isn't to actively hate. His point is that he has to be so far above everything else that nothing else compares. That's why he says if you don't deny yourself and take up your cross, you can't follow me. That's why when people come to him and say, Jesus, I'm going to follow you. And he says, come on. And they say, well, let me go bury my dad.
And he says, no, let me go back and tell my family goodbye. No, it's crazy. What he asks of us, how disruptive he is, but what he steps into every single follower of his and says, this thing right here that you used to make your identity out of this thing right here that you used to say, this is what makes me. Okay. This is what gives me value. This is what gives me worth.
This is how I know life makes sense. That thing right there has to move. That's the place I get. And so for those of us who have said, I'm following Jesus. It's pretty, pretty simple. Not real hard.
I'm not sure he's shown up and done that for you yet. I'm not sure you've moved that out of the way for him yet. So what would, what would your story be? What is it that you sacrifice for? What is it that you give your time and energy and money for? What is it that you use to understand your existence and light up?
You don't have to have it. You can be really poor and it can be money. You just know that once you get money, you'll be happy. You can be single and it can be your future magical spouse that rides unicorns and comes down from rainbow, rainbow land. Like I, I don't know. You could have some future.
Once this happens, I'll be happy. Once this happens, I'll be good. This is what'll fix me. And I'll bend heaven and earth to get to it. And if following Jesus helps me get there, great. I'll let Jesus work for me.
Proverbs 14, 12 says this. We're gonna have it on the screen. I love this verse. It is so helpful to me. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. It's not a very uplifting verse, but it is very helpful.
Some of you maybe have been sitting here going, no, no, no. The thing I'm chasing after Jesus would be totally on board with. It's good. If I get that, it would be good. It's not a bad thing. That's true.
It probably isn't, but this is true. There's stuff that we look at and say, if I just got that, I'd be happy. If I could just do this, it'd be fine. If I could just reach this, achieve this, be this, have this title, have this amount of money in the bank, have this type of success or this type of family or live in this type of place. And what Proverbs says is there's a way that seems really right to you and ultimately leads to destruction. Won't fix you.
Won't save you. Won't save you. Leads to death. So when Jesus steps in and says, I want to be primary, he's actually offering us joy. He's actually pursuing our joy. So, Jesus, if he wanted your begrudging submission, could get it.
Are you aware of that? I don't know. A lot of people just understand Jesus as being really nice. He controls everything and is in charge of everything. He could show up and immediately be like, bow down and you would. Did y'all know that?
We know that? We good on that? He can do that. He can put you in a submission hold. He can do it. That doesn't bring him a lot of glory.
It brings him glory because he's ultimately in charge of everything. But that's not his desire for you. His desire is that you would enjoy him. That you would love him. That you would respond to him. You see, begrudging submission isn't his desire for you.
Enjoyment of him is desire for you. See what? The reason he comes in and says, I have to be primary is because he is primary. He's the best thing you could ever get. He's the best thing he could ever offer you. If Jesus showed up and said, Hey guys, just want to let you know you should all be chasing money.
Then money would be God. And Jesus should serve it. When Jesus shows up and says, you should all get rid of everything and love me. He's saying, this is the best way to happiness because I'm the best thing that exists. And it's actually in our enjoyment of him that he gets a lot of glory. Do you, if some of you are married, some of you are dating, some of you aren't dating yet, but maybe you want to date or want to get married or something.
Do you imagine that when you, before you were married, did you imagine, I can't wait till I meet a person who begrudgingly submits to marrying me. Oh, I can't wait for the day that we celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. And they look over at me and say, I did my duty. And every day was drudgery. Because you're the worst. But I stuck with it.
I can't, I just cry just thinking about it. Like, did you do that? Do you think about that? Is that your goal? Would that be enjoyable? Would you get a lot of pleasure out of that?
No, that, that what you want is someone who loves you for you, who appreciates you, who enjoys you, who wants to be around you because they enjoy you. They like it. 50 years in, they say it didn't feel like 50 years. Some of it, some of it did, but it felt, it was mostly good. We've been married for 50 years, 42 good ones. Like, whatever.
That's what you want. And that's Jesus when he says, I want to be primary. It's not, I want you to begrudgingly submit to you, submit to me. It's, I want you to understand that I'm the best that could ever be offered to you. And Isaiah 55, we'll have this on the screen as well. There's a prophet's writing and he says this, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Um, this, this is reused, rephrased in the book of Revelation, talking about coming to God, coming to heaven, that that's, he freely gives good things that you don't have to have money to come get from him. That's grace that Jesus dies and freely gives us himself. And he says this, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? You know, the, the two commodities you'll have in your life that everybody has, you have some money. That's one of them. That's one of the ways that we place value is money.
The other one's labor, your time and energy. And what the prophet's saying is why, why do you spend your money and your time and energy on something that ultimately will not satisfy you, that ultimately will not bring life, that ultimately cannot hold the weight of being the foundation of your life and your identity? Why do you do that? Why does your, why does your labor and your money go to something that will not fix you, will not make you okay, will not satisfy you? Listen diligently to me. Pay attention and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live. See, I love that. He says, eat what's good, eat rich food. The call of Jesus to us to come to him is not, Hey, I've got a worse offer. You like that good stuff.
How do you feel about terrible things? That's not what he says. He says, come to what's better. Come to what actually satisfies. Come to what actually fills you up. Come to what actually fixes you.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David. In the Old Testament, God came to David and said, I'm going to love you and I'm going to make a king out of you forever. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus. The prophet Isaiah is saying, come to Jesus. And he'll make the same promise with you that he'll welcome you and love you forever.
And he'll give you rich and good food, which is ultimately what your soul needs. You see, we all have something. We all have something that we're using to say, this is who I am. This is what makes me okay. This is what makes me good. This is why I get up in the morning.
There's a journalist named Malcolm Muggeridge. He's talking about political hopes and failures in his book. And he, he talks about that. They had this political guy that they just really wanted to get into office. And they said, we, he said, we got exactly what we asked for. And then he has this quote.
He says, the really terrible thing about life is not that our dreams are unrealized, but that they come true. So the worst thing about life is not that we don't get what we want, but that we do get what we want. And ultimately doesn't satisfy, doesn't fix us. The worst part about life is that all our little dreams come true and it wasn't good enough. Jim Carrey says this. In our culture, I got, I got quotes from a couple of different famous people because in our culture, we've really bought into the idea that if you were really rich, good looking, uh, and had like people knew you, then you, that would be great.
That would be the best. Like we, our culture's kind of just bought into that idea. I know that I've bought into that idea every time the lottery gets really big and I go buy a lottery ticket. And I'm filling out my little Numbers and bubbling them in. It's like the, you know, first time I've done a scantron since high school. And I, I think, wouldn't it be so great to get $43 billion or whatever it comes up to?
You know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's been crazy recently. You remember the one this past summer or whatever, when everybody was going crazy past spring? Like I think I'm running around thinking, oh, it would be so good. And really what I think in those moments is if I had a lot of money, I'd be fixed. I wouldn't want anything else.
I'd be happy. I'd be content. Everything would be good. I'd skip everywhere. I'd giggle. I'd just giggle.
And people would be like, why are you giggling? You're a grown man. I'd be like, I'm so rich. You don't even know. I giggle anytime I want to. Here's a thousand dollars.
Don't tell nobody. Like I could do whatever. Our culture, we really believe that. We really believe that if you had power, if you had fame, if you had money, you'd be happy. You'd be fixed. So I've got a couple of quotes from people.
Because really, celebrities should be the happiest people we've got, right? They should be so content and so happy and joyous and fun to be around, right? Okay. So here's Jim Carrey. I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed so they can see that it's not the answer. Jim Carrey says, I wish all your dreams could come true so that you could know that wasn't it.
Okay, but maybe you're like, well, Jim Carrey, really? Liar, liar? That's who we're talking about here? Here's Brad Pitt talking to the Rolling Stones, like the Rolling Stone magazine. Like, it doesn't get cooler than this, you guess. Brad Pitt, Rolling Stones, this is amazing.
So some of you, I know you've just thought, man, if I could just have Brad Pitt's money or if I could just have Brad Pitt's, maybe his wife or his face or his like abs, life would just be better if I just had a little bit of Brad Pitt. Like if I could just be kind of as cool as Brad Pitt in even his bad movies, life would be better. Here's Brad Pitt talking to Rolling Stones. What does it mean anyway? I had an idealistic thought of what fame is. I thought, yes, lovely, I'm going to be famous and everything will change, but it doesn't.
If you ask me, I say toss all this. We have to find something else. The emphasis now is on success and personal gain. I'm sitting in it and I'm telling you that that's not it. I'm the guy who has everything. I know.
And I'm telling you that once you have everything, then you are just left with yourself. It doesn't help you sleep any better and you don't wake up any better because of it. See, the problem with us is that we won't ever get everything. I'm not going to win the lottery, so I'll continue to believe that it'll fix me. See, these guys have it and they're going, guys, this isn't going to fix you. At best, once all your dreams are fulfilled, you're just stuck with you and there's got to be more to it.
I got one more from Tom Brady. He says this, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. You know, I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, God, it's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.
I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. What else is there for me? When Jesus walked up to Andrew and John, when he walked up to Simon and James, and he said, follow me, his invitation was one of joy and life and hope, even though it ended in hardship and death for them. It was the best invitation they ever got. Because he said, even if this all works out for you, it ends in death.
It doesn't end in joy and satisfaction. It's not what will fill you up. Your only hope is me. And the only position I'll take is first. If you're a Christian, that's the position of Jesus in your life. That's why we continually repent, because we continually see that we put something else up there.
So our goal today, I've got a few questions to just try to help us identify. What do I have as primary right now? What, what's in that spot for me? What have I placed in that spot? So if you're a note taker, take some notes, write some stuff down, and then we're going to end a little bit differently today than, than we usually do.
But I think it'll be helpful. So I've just got some questions, some things to run through pretty quickly to try to help us find, if Mark was writing your story, what would he say? This is, this is her name, this is how she identifies herself, and this is what she's got to let go of for Jesus to be primary. What would he say? This is his name, this is his identity, and this is what he's got to let go of. Okay, what's Jesus not allowed to mess with?
It's pretty straightforward. What in your life can he not touch? What is it he reached for, reaches for, and you pop his hand? Say, no, no, no. I didn't invite you here for that. What's your, can I still go to heaven if?
You hear people ask that question, can I still, well, can you still go to heaven if blank? Sometimes it's a genuine question. Other times it's, hey, can I love this thing more than Jesus and still get there? What's the one thing you've been arguing in your head about? The whole time we've been talking. What's the thing that keeps popping up and you keep going, no, no, no, no, that's not that.
Jesus loves that. That would be great. That's not, that's, that's not it. What's the one thing you don't want me to bring up? What's the thing if I started talking about it right now, you'd be like, okay, this is the worst sermon I've ever heard. That's probably it.
That's the thing you're really afraid he'll come take from you. That's the thing you really have to have. You don't want him to mess with it. Okay. So these are a little less straightforward.
If you're having a hard time thinking about it, really trying to figure out is Jesus in that spot or is something else there? So this is just, is he there? Is he not? Are you reading your Bible? Do you have a prayer life? Is that something that takes up your time?
If we're trying to figure out are we following Jesus? Are you more discipled by Netflix? Or ESPN? Or YouTube? Or some other app I haven't heard about? Does he take up your time or is there something else?
Something else talking to you more, teaching you more about how life should work, about how you should understand your worth and your value? When you see your sin, how do you respond? Do you repent? Are you heartbroken over it? When you see that something else matters more to you than Jesus, what do you do? Do you care?
What's the easiest thing for you to spend your money on? See, there's some things when it comes to your money you have to think about. There are other things where it's like your wallet magically appears in your hand. What will you spend your money on? Where do you place value when it comes to your, when you look at your budget? Is it your own comfort?
Is it most of your money goes to savings because that's one of the best ways to control your future? Is it status symbols like clothes and cars and houses? Something that makes it look like you've arrived? The opposite side of that is where does Jesus fit into your money? Does some of your money go to his church, to his people, to people who don't have money or food? How much of your budget looks like Jesus was radically generous towards you?
So of course you're radically generous towards others. What's the thing you organize your schedule around? And what's the easiest thing for you to organize your schedule around? When there's scheduling conflicts or time conflicts, what wins? Do kids win? Does your own leisure time win?
Does work win? Does work win? What's easily put in the schedule? What gets easily bumped? What are you laboring for? Where's your time and energy go?
All right, let's look at your emotions for a second. What are you angriest about? What do you have the hardest time forgiving? You see, our emotions are usually tied to things we love. What are you most afraid of? What are you most afraid of losing?
Here's the last one, and this is a big one. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a specific category where you always win? You see, there's some things Jesus is going to show up, you're going to read in the Bible you already kind of agree with, and so when he says you should do this, you just say, yeah, smart, sounds good. And there are other things he's going to say, you should do this or you shouldn't do that, and you're going to go, whoa, I'm going to need you to explain. I'm going to need you to win me over.
So maybe some of you, when he says, hey, you should be generous, you go, yeah, we should. We should be generous, and we should be giving to the poor, and we should be helping the homeless, and the people who aren't probably don't really follow Jesus. And when he says you shouldn't have sex if you're not married, you go, whoa, but we're in love. But we really, like, we care about each other, plus I'm also pretty sure that passage probably doesn't really mean what people say it means, and they didn't really, you know, it's translated from other, like, you know, and some of you are like, no, no sex.
That's right. We shouldn't have sex unless you're married. And then the Bible says you should have sex if you are married. But, like, those are the rules. But it's like you should give up some of your money, and you're like, well, some, how much, what's the percentage?
It's really tight. My money's tight right now. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a category right now where you just win? Jesus died for you. Because he loves you.
When Jesus invited them to follow him, he was already on his way to give up everything for them. And when Jesus invited you to follow him, he had already given up everything for you. He'd laid it all down so that you could be related to him, so that he could bring you back to himself. He's ultimately trustworthy, and he is absolutely after your joy. And that's why he won't let you have the harmful things you want. And that's why he says, I have to be primary, because that's the only thing that leads to joy and life and satisfaction and hope.
And if anything else gets put there, it throws your life out of whack, it robs you of joy, and ultimately it ends in death. Jesus died on a cross so that you could be his, so that you could have ultimate joy and satisfaction and hope in him forever. He's trustworthy. He loves you. And him calling you to put something down is for your own good, for your own joy, even though it's going to be really hard. I think Simon and Andrew forever remembered the day they put their nets down.
And it wasn't just letting go of the nets, it was genuinely deciding, I'm going to follow him and I'm leaving this behind. And I think James and John forever know the day they looked at their father and said, I'm following Jesus. I think they remember it. And I think something happened in their heart that day that every time they saw their father again, they loved him, but he wasn't in the same spot anymore. It wasn't how they defined their life anymore. They were going to follow Jesus.
They were going to go for bust. No matter how that worked out, because they knew Jesus was worth it. And how much more for us on this side of the cross, knowing how much he's going to give up for us to welcome us and to make us his. Can we follow him and trust him? So here's, here's how we're going to end today.
We're not going to play any music. We're not going to make this any smoothier. Here's what I want us to do. If you've been sitting here today and genuinely the Holy Spirit has been pressing on you, this is what you got to put down. This is the thing you're holding on. This is the thing you won't let go of, and you've got to put it down.
You've got to walk away from it. You've got to follow me. If that's you, here's, here's what I want us to do. I just want you to take a minute. I want you to write it down. I want the cards in front of you.
And here's what we're going to do. And here's why we're going to do it. I want us to have the opportunity to walk down and lay the card up here. And here's why. When Jesus came to James and John, when he came to Simon and Andrew, they had the opportunity to make a movement. They had the opportunity to act immediately.
Now, they had to continually reinforce that from then on. It's going to be really hard to stand up and walk over here and lay something down, but it's going to get exponentially harder the moment you walk out of there. This will be the easiest time to lay it down. Because it's just a mental step for you to say, I'm trying to lay this down, Jesus. I want you to be primary. I'm trying to follow you and I'm trying to say no to this.
But every other moment, you actually have to do it. See, James and John and Simon and Andrew had the chance to move. They had the chance to let go of the nets and walk. They had the chance to look at their father and walk. And I want us to have the same opportunity to make a movement, to concretely put this in our brains. This is what I'm trying to do.
I know that Jesus saves me. I know that he died for my sin. I know that I'm free and I don't have to accomplish anything for him and I don't have to earn anything for him. But I know he's got to be primary and I've got to let go of this because it leads to death and it doesn't. It robs me of joy and my hope is found in him. So I want you to have the opportunity to move.
And I want it to not be smooth or easy. We're not cutting the lights off. We're not playing music. I think there was an awkward moment between Zebedee and his sons. And I think if Jesus has been working on you, you need to move. This will be the best time to do it.
And then you'll have to continually do it as you walk this out with church family, as you continually confess and repent this and continually try to set it down. Let's pray. God, we thank you. Thank you that you love our joy and our hope and our life more than we do, that you were willing to die for it, to rescue us, to make us yours. God, we thank you that with you is joy and pleasure and goodness and rich food. And I pray that you'd help us to quit trading it out for something smaller.
Quit chasing after something that won't satisfy us, that won't fill us up. And God, I pray that you'd help us to respond. I pray that you'd help us to respond now. But more than that, God, I pray that you'd help us to respond every day for the rest of our lives to continually follow you, to continue to set something down, to continue to say goodbye to something, and to continue to put you in the place of primacy in our lives. We thank you that you're good and that you're trustworthy and that we can follow you. And we love you in Jesus' name.
Amen. I'd encourage you to respond if the Holy Spirit's been working in you, to know that Jesus looked them in the face and said, follow me, and you have the same opportunity today to follow Jesus, to let something go, and to follow after him where there's joy and freedom and life and hope, ultimate satisfaction. And don't just do it because you feel like you're supposed to, because we're talking about it or because that would be the thing to do. Do it if you actually genuinely are saying, Jesus, I want to follow you and I want you to help me. I'm going to sit down. In a minute, the band's going to come back up and we're going to sing together and celebrate that Jesus is good.
Return of the King
Transcript
And so if we're going to say that Jesus is a good king, we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at his kingdom. Now, I know that as soon as we say, all right, we're going to turn to the book of Revelation, there's a little bit of like, okay, this is about to get weird. Like there's just, I don't think we always appropriately view the book of Revelation. And here's how I know this. When you talk to Christians, there's kind of a, people lean one way or the other. So it's like people, you talk to Christians, they're like, yeah, I've read the entire New Testament, except for the book of Revelation.
Like it just kind of a tagged add on thing. It's like, I've read all of it, but not that one. Or you'll talk to people and they've been like, yeah, I read the New Testament and I've read the book of Revelation 47 times. And I've got a chart in my house and I know when he's coming back and I've got a really cool picture of a dragon. Like, it's like, okay, all right. So there's just a little bit of what are we doing when we're reading the book of Revelation?
And so I just wanted to give us a little bit of an understanding of the book of Revelation so that we can actually read it, understand the text, and not be thinking random thoughts the whole time. So Revelation was written by the Apostle John. He's the same apostle who wrote the book of John. He wrote 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and he wrote the book of Revelation. He was exiled on the island of Patmos. And it says he was, this is all at the beginning of the book, but he says he was praying.
It was the Lord's day and Jesus shows up and basically takes him and has an angel at different points take him and shows him things that are going to happen. He speaks at first to some churches that are currently in existence and then shows him some things that are going to happen. And so he writes, it's a book of prophecy, much like when Isaiah wrote a good bit of Isaiah, there was prophecy when Jeremiah wrote, Jeremiah was prophecy, and it was about things that were going on then and things that were going to happen. And so most of that has been fulfilled, all the Old Testament prophets where they prophesied things about countries or things that were going to take place when Jesus came.
Book of Revelation, most of this is not completed yet, hasn't happened yet. So we're still kind of in the, this is prophecy for stuff that's going to come. Now, here's where, what happens with the book of Revelation. John has shown things that I think sometimes are just, he's actually seeing what's going on. So he gets to see a glimpse into the future and he writes it down as best he can.
This is going to happen. There are other times where I think he's shown images that represent things that are going to happen. So kind of like in the book of Daniel, people have dreams and Daniel interprets them and there's like a giant statue with clay feet and he tells them, oh, the clay feet means this. So there's some of that that happens in the book of Revelation. And John, a good bit of seeing things and he just writes as best he can what it is. So there's one point where he says it sounded like, his voice sounded like the rushing of many waters.
So he's just as best he can. He's like, I heard a voice and it was kind of like if a waterfall could talk. That's what he would sound like. So it's just, he's, he's writing as best he can what, what's going on. And so what we're seeing in the chapter we're looking at in chapter 21 is I believe John is seeing a real thing and writing it down as best he can. So it's not imagery of something that's going to happen.
It's actually a picture of it taking place and he's writing down for us what's going to happen. And so we get, we get off in the book of Revelation. We focus too much on the images and they'll, we'll, you'll, you'll, you think that the book of Revelation is about like a dragon and a beast and the number 666 and the Antichrist. Fair? Like you heard all this out of the book of Revelation? Okay.
Just so you know, just for your own brains, this is free. Antichrist isn't even mentioned in the book of Revelation. I know, right? He's mentioned in John and never shows up in the book of Revelation. So the book of Revelation is about Jesus.
So I'm going to read you, we're going to start in 21 in a second, but I'm going to read you some of the stuff from the first chapter just to help us know what we're looking at. Revelation 1.1 starts this way. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is the revealing of Jesus. It's when he comes back. 5 through 7 says this.
Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom. Priest to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.
And all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. Amen. So that's how the book of Revelation begins.
And what it's saying is that this book is about what it's like when the king returns and sets up his kingdom. And so that's what we're looking at in the very last pages of the Bible. We're looking at what that kingdom looks like when Jesus shows back up, sets up his kingdom, and begins his rule and his reign on earth. And so we're going to take a little time. We're going to study that this morning. And so I'm going to pray and then we'll hop in.
God, I pray that you would help us to correctly see what your kingdom looks like. The fact that you are a good king and that you have invited us into your kingdom here on earth. And that one day you will return. Everyone will see you and you will set up your kingdom because you are the ruler of the kings of the earth. And so, God, we pray that we would, through your Holy Spirit, get a glimpse into that this morning. We love you.
We praise you. We thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right.
Revelation 21 says, 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. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. Okay.
A couple of things. The Bible uses heaven in three ways. It refers to heaven as the place where birds fly. So that's like in the heavens. It refers to heaven as the place where stars are. That's in the heavens.
And then it refers to heaven as the place where God exists and where you go when you die. Those who are God's people go when you die. And so we're going to be looking at heaven, and we're going to be looking at eternity. And so since we're going to be talking about eternity today, this will be point one of 47 for those of you who are taking notes. I want to talk for a really long time to help you feel the weight of eternity. I'm just kidding.
So anyway, but we're going to be talking about eternity. And here's the thing. We will not spend, you will not spend eternity in heaven. You may be thinking, speak for yourself, sinner boy. I'm going to heaven. No one spends eternity in heaven.
What it just said was that the new Jerusalem comes out of the clouds, comes out of heaven to the new earth. And so it says that he saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Now what we don't know, because there's other passages in Scripture that talk about this, if the earth we're on now is just completely gone or if it's renewed, if it's restored. We don't really know, and the text doesn't really clearly say, but we know that we have a new earth or a renewed earth and that heaven comes out of the clouds to meet it. And so it says this, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, that's verse 3, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. On the new earth, in Jesus's kingdom, there is no death. There is no pain. There is no mourning.
Prior to this in the book of Revelation, it talks about when Jesus shows up. And when Jesus shows up, what happens is he conquers his enemies. Chief among those are Satan, sin and death. The Bible says that Jesus takes Hades and throws it into a lake of fire. And that he takes death and throws him in the lake of fire. Jesus kills death.
Now, I don't make the rules. But if you can kill death, you're in charge. That's just how that works. Like, they didn't ask me. I just know that's how that works. The guy who is scarier than death is scarier.
That's just how that. So, there is no death in the new earth. There's no pain. There's no mourning. Now, think about how beautiful that is. You don't lock your doors on the new earth.
For those who place faith in Jesus and who are rescued and brought into eternity, you don't lock your doors. You always tell the truth because, first of all, you have nothing to hide. And no one is going to use anything against you. There's no one who's going to maliciously seek to use any information you have to hurt you or to posture themselves up or to take advantage of you. Like, our government has a secret service, has CIA, FBI, because we have things to hide. And we don't want our enemies to know stuff about what we're doing and how things work.
Like, every time, like, you watch a movie and there's, like, a great invention and they're always like, this is beautiful. But if it fell into the wrong hands, it could be used for great destruction. Like, every movie ever where they invent something good. And that's just the way that works. Like, we invent the internet, we invent computers, and then people take the time, spend intelligence and effort to come up with viruses for computers. I don't know why.
You think they could do the same thing to make it productive? Anytime we come up with some sort of technology, it's used for pain, for hurt, for destruction. That doesn't happen on the new earth. There's no crying. There's no pain. There's no mourning.
There's no death. You don't go to funerals on the new earth. Every tear is wiped away. There's no cancer. There's no bad news. There's no fear about what's going to happen in the future.
Perfect peace and perfect rest because of it in God's kingdom, in Jesus' kingdom, where sin has been conquered fully by Jesus on the cross. There's nothing to worry about. Nothing bad can happen. Now, here's the thing. Now, here's what we know about that. First of all, that's beautiful.
We all want that. We all have that imprinted in us. We've said this before, and I've checked the statistics again. Ten out of ten people still die. You can Google that. Science.
And here's the thing. Here's what's true about that. Every time someone dies, there's something inside of us that screams, this isn't how this is supposed to be. This isn't how this is supposed to work. There's something in us that knows that this is wrong, and we don't know why. We don't really have, because it's, it happens to everyone, and so you'd think that humans would be used to it.
You'd be like, oh yeah, of course. That's where we're all headed. And, see, you'd work on Monday. Like, that's not, like, that's not how that works. There's something in us that just knows that this is fractured, this is broken, this falls short. So we know, when we read this, that there's no pain, there's no suffering, there's no cancer, there's no disease.
We were talking in my community group on, this past week, Bone and Kelly were in our group, and Kelly was talking about her son. She's got two sons. One's older, one's younger. They were at a clinic, like a, like a doc in a box, you know, and the older son dared the younger one. He was, they were sitting there, like, in the waiting room, and he dared the younger one. He said, I bet you won't lick this chair.
And so the younger son, being wicked smart, like, was like, oh, yeah, I will. So he licked the chair, won the bet, and then the next week they had to come back because he had two earaches, a stomach virus, and bronchitis, and was sick, like, deathly sick for two weeks, which is just the greatest story I've ever heard. I was trying to cook when they told me that. I got to laughing so hard, though I had to step away so I wouldn't catch myself on fire. Here's what we just read. That doesn't happen in heaven.
In heaven, her son can lick any chair he wants. So we read that, and we know that's beautiful, and then here's what happens to us. We immediately go, I don't know how that works. Like, immediately, our brains can't even fathom, comprehend what it looks like where there's no pain and mourning and suffering and fear. Like, even for us, I got into a discussion this week, even for us, pain is good. Like, fire can burn me, so my hand getting hot and me pulling it away is a good thing for me because if I didn't feel pain, I might have just set myself on fire.
Fear is good because bears can kill me, and so if I see a bear, I'm not just like, that guy looks huggable. Like, I have an appropriate amount of fear. Now, in heaven, so where there is no pain and no fear and no destruction and no death, we immediately just don't even have a way to process that. We just don't have a category for, okay, what does that mean? So you immediately get in things like, so does that mean that you won't hit me with a hammer or that if you do, it'll tickle?
Like, how does that work? Like, does it just mean that we won't do bad things because then it would be like, I guess we don't have freedom. We're like robots in heaven. Or does it mean that there is ways to get hurt, but you don't get hurt? You just like bounce back and laugh about it. But immediately, we have no framework for what this is going to look like.
And so here's what happens to us. It does two things to us. One is it makes us, when we think about eternity, it makes us not think about it too much because we just don't have categories for it. And it also kind of pushes back on us so that when we think about spending eternity, for those of us who are believers, and we think about heaven, and we think about spending eternity with God, we just kind of make it faker, ghostier, more vapory. Like, I might have feet, but I don't know why because I'll be floating everywhere. There's just something in our brains that can't handle this.
And so I just want to point this out to us. As we read through this text, it says this, then I saw a new heaven. Okay, so we know about heaven. And that's, and a new earth. So it's a new earth that's being created.
What I said, we don't spend eternity in heaven. We spend eternity on the new earth. Verse two, And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God.
It doesn't say that the dwelling place of man is with God. And we know that he's more important, but I think it's intentionally worded that way. I think what we're being told very clearly is that God makes a new earth, and he joins us here. So when we think about heaven, we think about like, glittery, vapory, like I would hug you, but we would just like, go through each other, and it'd be weird. Like, we just don't have a category for it, but what it's saying is that it's a new earth. So actually, what we already have in creation is a picture, a fractured, broken, messed up picture, of what his original design was.
When God created the garden, when he created earth in the first place, it was good, and he said it was good. Sin, death, destruction messed it up. The goal isn't him then looking down and going, okay, the best we can do at this point is just suck your souls up, and y'all can float around with me up here. No, he renews it, recreates it, and starts it back off the way it's supposed to be, so that we get to spend eternity in a real place. Real as in it exists, and real as in it's a tangible thing. Now, it's different, because there's no pain and no fear and all that.
It's different, but we'll have real bodies. Corinthians 15 says that like a seed is to a plant is what our bodies now will be to our new bodies. So like your body now is a seed, and your glorified eternal body is like the plant that comes from that seed. I have no clue what that means, but it sounds really cool. He talks about the fact that plants, like seeds are kind of similar, but plants look really different. So we'll have some form of body though, some form of tangibleness to us.
Philippians 3, and we'll read more of this section later, but it says, our lowly bodies will be like his glorious body. So Jesus, after he died, had a body. Like people touched him, he ate food, like he ate fish, it didn't just fall through and land on the chair awkwardly underneath him. Like he had feet, he walked places. He also like went into a room where all the doors were locked. So he can do something that we can't.
Like I don't know how that works, but I don't think he was outside jimmying it. Like pulled out his ID and slid it through and busted in. Like I don't think that's what happened. But we have a real body. Here's what this means though. We think sometimes that earth, like that spiritualness makes things better.
So to think about heaven in an earthy way, like that dirt is good, somehow makes it less than. And that we need to spiritualize. And it's like, no, we're just, we float and it's pretty and there's harps and we're in this weird thing where everyone's a baby and wears a diaper and has a harp. And we have this picture in our minds. Like if you talk to a Christian, this is what you'd say. Do you believe in heaven?
Most Christians, because it's Christian doctrine, would say yes. Like yes, believe in heaven. That's a real thing. Or you believe you'll spend eternity with God. Yes. Will you like heaven?
Yes. Heaven's going to be great. Why? I don't know. Bible says it'll be good. Like we just have a little bit of a picture in our brain.
Like I just always think, yeah, heaven's going to be great. I have no clue why. Like I feel a little bit like it's like how you enjoy coming out of surgery. It's like a dopamine wee kind of thing. It's like, I would not usually think this was great, but woohoo. Like that's the way I picture heaven.
Is it like God's just going to hardwire our brains to like floating and that'll be the best. What have you been doing? Sitting. For how long? I don't know. Heaven's great.
Like, and you just, but there's nothing in me now that thinks that that would be great. I just know that the Bible says it'll be great. But when I think about the fact that it's going to be a new earth, you ever look at pictures of earth and you're like, you have this moment where you're like, this is so beautiful. This is breathtaking and captivating. And then you have this moment where it's like, I will never see this in real life. This may just be photoshopped.
I don't even know if this is real because there's like, I won't ever be able to go investigate all these beautiful places that I see. And what we get in eternity is not a floaty spiritual realm, but a new glorified body that's like Jesus's. And we actually have an earth to re, where he redesigns everything the way it was originally supposed to be. So is there pain? No. Is there mourning?
No. Is there sadness? No. Is there death? No. Cancer?
No. Rape? No. Do people take advantage of children? No. No.
How does that all play out? I don't know. Is it real? Yes. Can you touch it, feel it, smell it? Do you actually use your feet for walking?
Yes. Your glorified plant feet, I don't know how many you'll have. It'll be like Jesus's, so he had to. He looked normal-ish. So, so we don't, we don't get this, but here, let me, I want to, I want to keep reading. I want to show you something.
Verse five. And he who is seated on the throne, so kings sit on thrones, behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. 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 life without payment.
The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. Okay. Spring of the water of life without payment is a picture of the gospel. It's the fact that we get life, fullness, completeness, joy, and eternity without payment. We didn't rescue ourselves. We didn't redeem ourselves.
We didn't moral ourselves into it. We didn't follow the rules really well. We were rescued, redeemed, and brought in because Jesus followed the rules. The law had to be upheld, and it was upheld by Jesus, not by us. And we're given life without payment. And then it says, to the one who conquers will have this heritage.
The one who conquers means this, those who remain faithful and continue to follow Jesus. Saying that you're a Jesus follower is great. Here's what happens a lot in the Bible. There's two sides to things. So there's the side that we see, and there's the side that Jesus accomplishes.
So the Bible says that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith, which means that he started it and he finished it. He didn't just save you and say, all right, you got a clean slate. Now figure it out, and I'll see you at the end if you can keep it together. No, he finishes it as well. But on our side, there's faithfulness.
There's us continuing to pursue him, us continuing in the faith, us staying and sticking and following. That's what happens. A real Christian stays a real Christian, continues to grow, continues to follow, continues to fight. And so he says to those who conquer, those who stay in, I will be their God and he will be my son. Here's the thing. Christianity says very clearly, Jesus is the only way to heaven, the only way to eternity, the only way to the father.
Those who are on the new earth got there by way of Jesus. No other way. And so people will say, that's really small minded. It's really limited. You're being really exclusive. If we had control over it, then we could control the inclusiveness or the exclusiveness.
But this is a reality. Jesus is real. He is a real king. And he doesn't cease to be a king based upon our whims. It's one of the things we said early on. There are no runoffs or recounts for kings.
So he's a real king. And here's the other thing. This eternity is with him dwelling with us, where he's our father. It says that we would be sons. If you don't love Jesus, that's terrible. If you love Jesus, that's beautiful.
The next chapter goes and it says that there is no temple. There is no son. That all of that is fulfilled and completed by Jesus and by God, by the lamb. Heaven is about Jesus. It's about the king. The kingdom, the consummated kingdom is about the king, where we spend eternity with the king.
It's not about you and what you like. It's about Jesus. Who he is, what he's accomplished, what he's done for us. We're invited into the relationship that he has with the father, with the Holy spirit. We're invited into being on earth where we dwell with him in the relationship. We were meant to have with him.
You know, sometimes you feel like, I just don't feel like I've been walking with God. Well, I don't feel like I've been following. Well, I don't think I've been hurt here. It doesn't happen in heaven. It doesn't happen in eternity. That we relate to him perfectly because it's about him.
The next chapter says that his name will be on our foreheads. So in the old Testament, he told them to put the law, to bind the law on their foreheads. Here it says that his name will be on us. If you don't love Jesus, that's not something you would enjoy being marked by him forever. And if you love Jesus, absolutely. It reminds me of toy story where, uh, what he gets lost and every once in a while, like he'll roll up his big cloth foot and look at his shoe where it says Andy, where Andy wrote his name on him.
There's just a little bit of that in heaven where we're just forever marked by Jesus. That we belong to the King, not as a subject, but as a son. That's exciting. Now, here's the thing. We, we go through this. We, we see what it looks like for Jesus to be the King, for everything to be in, in heaven is enjoyable because it comes from Jesus.
That we enjoy what we enjoy in heaven because it, it, he's the fountain of joy. The floodwaters of, of everything that is enjoyable in heaven. And here's, when we read about this, when we think about heaven, there's a little bit of like, why does it matter? Why does it matter that we're going to spend eternity on a new earth? Why, why does it matter that this is what Jesus's kingdom looks like? What's, what's the point in us today reading about that?
Is it just for us to hear it and go, ah, it sounds neat. And if I ever get asked the question, will I spend eternity in heaven? I'll say, nope, new earth. Trick question. I win. Like, like, are we just learning it to be able to regurgitate facts?
Like, why does this, why does this matter? Um, Philippians three, and it'll be up on the screen. 20 through 21 says this, but our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. That's what we read earlier by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. The reason it's helpful for us to learn about our King and to learn about his kingdom is that that's where our citizenship is.
Philippians three says that our citizenship is in heaven is, is currently where Jesus is sitting on a throne, ruling and reigning where God is. What that means for us is that we behave like citizens of eternity. We function like we'll function when we get to the new earth where there is no pain, there is no lying, there is no deceit, there is no mourning. We get to know that heaven is a reality, that eternity is real for us, that the new earth is a place that we will spend eternity. It makes a difference. My uncle is, one of my uncles is from Nigeria.
He's a Yoruba people group. And when he came to the U.S., he was adopted by my grandparents. When he came to the U.S., he's a citizen of Nigeria. Like he thinks culturally like a Nigerian, does life like a Nigerian, sees life like a Nigerian. So like they were in West Virginia, he had never seen snow.
And so he, my granddad was having a hard time getting a trash can down his really steep driveway because it was iced up. And so my uncle sees him and is like, absolutely, this isn't okay. Like I've got to go help him. He shouldn't have to do this on his own. Take the trash out. I should be taking the trash out.
And so he just sprints down the stairs, sprints out the front door, meets ice, and goes all the way down the driveway, like out into the road. And my granddad was like, you got to learn what ice is. Like you can't, this is why this is taking me forever. But he's Nigerian. He told one time, he went back to Nigeria, met his wife, was bringing her back to the U.S. and he was trying to coach her up on like, Nigeria is different from the United States. One of the things he said was, and I'm going to do my Uncle Abel impersonation.
He, which by the way, whenever I talk about Cain and Abel, I don't say Abel, I say Abel. And that's a shout out to my uncle every time I do it, because he says, ah, if it was Abel, it would be L-E. It is E-L, that is Abel, which is what his name is. So I'm like, all right, you're right, Abel. Cain and Abel, got it. But he, I told him, I was telling the story to somebody, and I told him later, I talked to him, I said, I did my best Uncle Abel impersonation.
And he said, ah, you mean I do not talk like you? And then he went, I've been speaking English way longer than you have. You don't even speak it correctly, you speak American. You don't even know English. But he said, he told my aunt, BK, he told her, he said, if an American invites you out to eat, that does not mean they are paying for you.
You better have money. Because in Nigeria, if I say, hey, you want to go grab some food, that means I have invited you, I am paying for you. So he was somewhere, and there was a bunch of college students, they were like, yeah, I want to go eat over here. And he was like, yes, I do. Because he thought, free fruit, sweet. And they got there, and he goes, we get there, and everyone paid for themselves.
So I was like, oh. He said, luckily he had some money, he was able to pay for himself, but he told my aunt, I always have money, because Americans, you just never know. Like, sometimes they'll pay for you, sometimes they don't. There's no rule on that at all. But he was a citizen of Nigeria, and so he viewed the world like a Nigerian.
And the truth is, we're citizens of heaven, we're citizens of this eternity. We get to view the world like that. And that's why it's very helpful, and encouraging for Christians, to press eternity into our minds, to consider it, to weigh it. Paul in Romans 8 says, that he considers the suffering, of this present time, not worthy, to be compared, with the glory that is to be revealed to us. He said, he considers it like, he sat down and waited out. Thought about it.
It's helpful for us as Christians, to press eternity into our brains, and it's hard for us to fathom, but it's good for us. Because it frees us up, and it does a few things for us. This is why it's important for us, to not have just this vague, cloudy, heaven's gonna be good one day thing, but now have a grounded understanding, that that is the reality, of where those who've placed their faith in Jesus, will spend eternity. And, the other side of that, is those who haven't placed their faith in Jesus, haven't had their sin paid for by him, spend eternity in hell. Which is just as real, and eternity there is just as long.
And it's important for us as believers, as those who've been rescued and redeemed by Jesus, to have firmly fit into our brains, that eternity, with our king in his kingdom, is coming. Because it does a few things for us. It does a lot for us, but we're gonna talk about a few. One, we get to enjoy life more now, because eternity is real. There's just something about us, that thinks that enjoying life, to the fullest here, is somehow, earthy and wrong, because we're Christians, we should be spiritual. Because that's what we'll be like in heaven.
Spiritual. Someone will be like, do you want a biscuit? And I'll be like, no, this is heaven, I'm spiritual. No, it's heaven. Carbs don't count in heaven. They don't make you take a nap, you can take one if you'd like.
So, there's something about, the fact that eternity is real, and it's on a new earth, that means that as we enjoy things here, we were designed to enjoy things here, we get to enjoy more. We get to know that it's just a foretaste. That all of the beauty, and all of the fun, and all of the laughter, and all of the food, and excitement, and art, and nature, everything that we enjoy, everything that flares up in us, as we enjoy it on earth, is just a glimpse. Just a small window, into what the new earth will be like. Which means that we get to enjoy biscuits, we get to eat bacon, we get to go on a hike through the woods, and let that worshipfully roll up in us, in praise for our creator, and our savior, and our king, who invites us into something much better, for a much longer time.
It means we get to enjoy earth more now, we get to enjoy life more now, because we have a real eternity that is to come, and holiness for us, isn't a complete stepping away, from all things that are enjoyable. Now there's a time, when we fast from food, when we fast from some of the things, that we enjoy on earth, to remind ourselves, that this isn't all that there is. To help our souls hunger for what's true, and real, and eternal. There's also times, where we get to sit at a table, with family, with church family, and just enjoy, the fact that this is just a small window, into what it's going to get to be like.
Revelation says, that it's going to be the wedding supper of the lamb, that we're invited into a feast. That's what we're called into, when he returns, is a feast. There's something in us, that says that spending a lot of time, sitting around a table, and enjoying it with family, there's actually something, really spiritual about that. Really beautiful about that picture, of us enjoying food together, as family, because that's how we'll inaugurate, and start off the kingdom, when Jesus returns. That's what we'll be invited into. So we get to enjoy life more now, if we press eternity, the fact that we will spend, life on a new earth, into our brains.
Second thing that this does for us, is that we do not have to enjoy life now. We don't have to. There's an aching fear, in us, that I think continually grows. Am I enjoying life? Am I having fun? Am I having as much joy, and fulfillment as I could have?
Am I making the best use, of all my time? Am I, there's just something in us, that says, yeah heaven's going to be great, but if I'm going to enjoy a good meal, it's got to happen now. Heaven's going to be great, but if I'm going to, have a good adrenaline rush, it's going to happen now. If I'm going to travel, and see beautiful things, it's going to happen now. Heaven will be nice, I'm sure, but I've really got to do a lot now, because I've only gotten, a short amount of time, to really squeeze in, all the good stuff. There's something, that says that in us, and it's completely wrong.
Understanding that, eternity on the new earth, awaits us, frees us up, to not have a spectacular life now, to not be forced, to squeeze all the juices, out of it. And what that means is, you get to work a nine to five Job, love your family really well, spend your days in Casey, West Columbia, and that be perfectly beautiful, and good, in the eyes of God. Means you don't have to go see Europe, go if you get the chance. Europe's pretty lame anyway, that's why we made America. But, there's just something in us, that constantly feels like, we're missing out, and the truth is, we have an eternity, of better things to come.
And so we're freed up. It also means, that you're freed up, to not be a success, to give a lot away, to give a lot of your time, to those who are poor, oppressed, those who are sick. It means you're freed up, to go to another country, and nurse those, who have Ebola, back to health. And you're freed up, to get Ebola, and die. Because you've got an eternity, to come, of good things. there's just something, there's just something, about knowing that, and pressing that, into our hearts, that frees us up, to follow Jesus, in a way that we can't, if we forget, that that's what's to come. If we forget, that that's the culmination, of what he's doing.
The reason that he calls us, into really hard stuff. It's because he's already, accomplished everything, on our behalf, and he's got much better things, awaiting us. That's why Jesus, over and over and over again, is going to press into, the topic of money, and pair it with, the topic of heaven. He's going to say, don't care so much, about earthly riches, and earthly treasures, and earthly things, that you fail, to realize what's coming. The third thing, this does for us, is that we, see, we more clearly see, what is important. When this image, gets pressed into our minds, that an eternity, is to come.
A real one. Where there are, adrenaline rushes, where there is reality, where you do, inhale and exhale. Where things are tangible. Where it says, that we'll eat, and drink rich food, and the best wine. When we press that, into our souls, it helps us clearly see, what actually matters here. Here's the truth.
Every person in this room, when God designed creation, designed you to exist, for an eternity. And every person in this room, even though sin, has marred his original design, will spend eternity somewhere. And every person that you know, will spend eternity somewhere. And Jesus shows up, the king returns, and he claims his people, and he takes them home. And those who he hasn't rescued, and those who haven't placed, their faith in him, spend eternity, paying for their sin, and their rebellion against him. That's true.
And when eternity, is pressed into our hearts, it helps us see, what actually matters. When we weigh eternity, against what's going on, then it really matters, that 80% of the people, in this city, don't know, or follow Jesus. Then it really matters. It really matters, that that's true, for this city, so probably true, for where you work, and probably true, for the neighborhood you live in. And that matters. We clearly see, what's important.
When eternity, the reality of it, is considered, and weighed, and pressed into our hearts. Here's something, I've thought about some. It says that, for those who conquer, he says, I will be their God, and he will be my son. And I've got two brothers, and, I always think about, what life would be like, if there had only been, two of us. So instead of three sons, there had been two of us.
And I think about the fact that, when you have more people, it multiplies the joy. So I've got two brothers, Logan and Vince, and both of them are slap crazy. And I get to see, Logan react to a Vince joke, or Vince's nonsense. I get to call Logan, and talk about Vince's nonsense. I get to talk to Vince, about Logan's nonsense. They don't talk about me, because I'm awesome.
I get to call Logan, and talk about Vince's nonsense. I get to talk to Vince, about Logan's nonsense. They don't talk about me, because I'm awesome. Our lives are multiplied, by the fact that, there's three of us. I sometimes think about, what life would have been like, if there was four of us. That, that, I get to, Logan gets to see me react, to, to a Vince. There's just, there's something that multiplies, and if Vince wasn't there, I wouldn't get to see, how Logan would react to a Vince. I wouldn't get to see,
How Vince would, there's something about, more of us, that multiplies that. The only reason, it doesn't make sense on earth, outside of God, calling you to a life of celibacy, but for those who have family, those who are married, I was thinking about this, the only reason, like for my wife and I, she's pregnant, we're going to be having a son, and I'm very excited about, the fact that, that he's going to grow up, and have a personality, and I'm going to get to see, I'm going to learn more about Anna, as I get to see her react, and lead a son, and she's going to learn more about me,
And we're going to get to see, and grow more, and love for each other, as we grow in love for, for this kid, who's going to be, terrible and awesome, but the only reason, it doesn't make sense for us, to just have child, after child, after child, after child, after child, after child, is eventually, we're limited by time, and by finances, resources, so like, if we had tons, and tons of children, we probably wouldn't be able, to feed them all,
Run out of things, to name them, just start numbering them, 12, get over here, that's why, if you're going to have, a bunch of kids, don't do the thing, where you have to start them, all with the same letter, because that just seems like, it'd make it more difficult, for you, you just run out, and eventually, one would be like, Josephina, and Jose, and Joseph, and Josanna, and Gary, because I ran out of J's, but,
Here's the thing, those limitations, time limitations, and resource limitations, do not exist, in eternity, and so when God says, that I'll be their God, and they'll be my son, every time, that's true for a person, there's a multiplication, of joy, that we all get to be, in the same family, and we all get to grow, and see each other, and build with each other, and have connection, and life, and joy with each other, for eternity, that's why, that's why the Bible says,
That when a sinner repents, when someone realizes, that they're sinful, and hands that over to Jesus, and Jesus saves them, that the angels rejoice, every time, that hasn't gotten old, in heaven, because they understand, the weight of it, they feel, the eternity, that hangs in the balance, and they know, the multiplication of joy, when there's a new birth, that there's just something, about every time, a seat is added, to the table, of the feast, that there's joy, and that's why it matters,
And that's why, it's good to follow, this king, who invites us, into his kingdom, and that's why it matters, that people in the city, don't know Jesus, and that's why it matters, that our community groups, are on mission, where we seek, to go out of our way, to build relationships, with people, because every time, someone repents of sin, there's a seat, added to that table, and there's a family member, added to that table, and there's an eternity, of a multiplication, of joy,
That we don't even understand, but the angels do, and they celebrate, and we get invited, into that, because Jesus, paid for our mess, and our sin, and rescues us, and not into some, specter fest, where we float around, but a real eternity, where there's tangibleness, and he's our God, and we're his people, and we're his sons, and that's why, it's important for us, to press eternity, into our minds, to remind ourselves, of where our true family is, where our true hope lies,
What really matters, so that we don't waste our days, on things that are going to pass away, and fail to understand, the weight, of what is to come, Matt and Bianca are going to come back up, we're going to sing, and we're going to praise Jesus, and we're going to take communion, we've got it set up on this table, right over here, and communion for us, as believers, is a reminder, that the gospel is true, it's a reminder, of what Jesus accomplished, for us on the cross, that he had a real body, and shed real blood, that the God of the universe, took on human form, and for us today,
It gets to be a reminder, of not only what he's done for us, but what is to come for us, the fact that a new earth, where there's real flavor, real tangibleness, reality, with him forever, that as we as believers, partake in what he did for us, on the cross, that we as believers, will get to partake, in what he does for us, in eternity, it's the meal that reminds us, of the feast that is to come, he says he, in the last supper, with his disciples, he says, I won't taste of the vine again, until I eat it new, with you in the kingdom,
He's held that promise, he doesn't pick up the cup again, until we show up, and so we today, get to take communion, as believers, reminding ourselves, of what is to come, of the feast that will be for us, and an eternity, that will be for us, so that we get to be for him here, Father we thank you, we thank you for all, that you've done for us, for the reality of the cross, and the reality of the eternity, that we're invited into, by your grace, that as we place faith in you, you rescue us, you redeem us, you seal us, and that one day,
All those who have genuinely, repented of their sin, to have you rescue, and redeem them, will spend eternity with you, where it's about you, where our hearts are set on you, God help us, through your Holy Spirit, to press eternity, into our minds, and into our souls, lest we forget, we praise you, we thank you, in Jesus name, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen,
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen,
An Unlikely Throne
Transcript
Good morning. We are going to be in Matthew chapter 27 today. We put extra Bibles out on the rows so that everybody could have one. So if you didn't bring one, we've got some on the rows for you to look at because we're going to be looking at a good bit of the text. We're going to be spending a good bit of time in Matthew chapter 27. So we are in our fifth week of our Kingdom Come series where we're looking at Jesus as king, where we're understanding that that Jesus is a king.
And here's the problem that we have with that. We don't like kings. Historically, as Americans, we haven't done so well with with kings. We don't have a very good track record with kings. So we might like kings in theory or we watch movies and it's interesting that there's kings.
But the truth is we don't like that idea. We don't like the concept of someone having that much power and authority, that a king can just do what they want so that when they speak things, they can speak things into law. There's nobody that like checks behind whether or not that makes any sense or is a good law. They just get to say, so we're doing right. It down. Boom.
Done. I just kinged it up like they get to do that. And we don't like that. We don't appreciate that to the point that anytime someone seems like they get too much power, we're just automatically suspicious of it. Like the mayor of West Columbia just kind of got into it with city council. So city council like stripped him of some of his powers.
So then he did something where we had to do like a runoff vote to give him more power that he wrote up. So the mayor was going to have not only the power that they took from him, but extra power. And West Columbia was like, no, you don't get more power. Quit fighting with city council about stuff like that was pretty much what happened. And so because we don't even want a mayor to have a lot of power. Like we would much rather diffuse power amongst a group of people because we think that's safer.
And the truth is that it is a safe way to operate when you have sinful people in charge of things. Anytime we've seen someone get ultimate power or a lot of authority, it tends to go poorly. And so we're automatically just kind of wary of this. But let me tell you what's true. We love democracy and we love a republic. We love the idea of being able to vote.
And but the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. Period. The best form of government is a wise and good king. Because then we don't have to have a bunch of elections and we don't have to worry about like if the king could actually be good. And the problem is we immediately go, yeah, but that's not going to happen. True.
But just go with me here. If the king could actually be good, if they were actually wise and benevolent and they were altruistic and they were just loving and made good decisions for the people, that's actually the best way to go. If they actually make things, it's not decisions that aren't just in their best interest, but in the interest of the people. I was talking to my cousin one time and I asked him what he thought was the best form of government. That's what he said. And I thought it was really weird.
But he said, yeah, benevolent dictatorship. That's what I'd be for. And it was like, I don't think that's a good idea. But I've thought about it more and I do think that's a good idea. The problem is you just wouldn't know if it was going to be benevolent. So dictators don't usually handle that well.
But that is the best way to have a government. So what we've looked at is that Jesus is a king. He is the king. The Old Testament prophesied eternal king. And so what we asked early on was, is he a good king? Like if he's a king and if his kingship is eternal so that it extends to us, is he a good king?
And more than that, like, because that's not really even the question. The question is, is he a better king than we are? Because our option when a king shows up, there aren't like dual kingships. When a king shows up, you're either under or over. Like you either submit or you fight. And so the question becomes, is he a good king?
Do we submit to him? Do we follow him in his kingdom? And so I just, thinking along those lines, wanted to talk about what makes a good king. And I've got some thoughts before we get into the text of what makes a good king. A king, a good king, takes on the plight of his people. So a good king knows what's going on.
He doesn't separate himself from his people. Like recently, I've seen a bunch of stuff about Kim Jong-un, who's been sick and I hadn't seen him for a while. And people are making jokes because he's got the best care that North Korea offers. And he's sick. And they're like, I don't know what's going on with the rest of the people in North Korea. But this isn't a good sign for them because he's separated himself so much from his people that he, what they go through isn't what he goes through.
But a good king is a part of his people and is among his people. There's a story, an old kind of story in China where they came to the king and they said, the people are starving because we're running out of rice. And the story goes that the king responded, well, let them eat meat. And I can just imagine the people being like, you don't have a clue, bro. Like, let me time you out for a second. We run out of meat before we run out of rice.
Like, if we're complaining about rice, meat's been gone for a long time. Like, that's not an option. It's not like there's people starving in China and somebody's like, bro, I need rice. And they're like, bro, just eat some meat. No, I don't want meat. I don't want rice.
And if you offer me meat, I'm just going to starve. I need rice. Like, that's not how that happens. And so this king has no idea what's going on with his people. But a good king does.
A good king isn't sitting in a palace eating all the fine luxuries and allowing his people to starve. A good king starves alongside his people. A good king maintains justice. You don't live in fear where there's a good king. You don't live worried where your property will be taken from you. It's not set up to where someone's bigger, stronger than you.
They just walk into your house and they're like, hey, I own this now. You're like, but I live here. Not anymore unless you want to be my slave. Like, that doesn't work under a good king. People are punished for their crimes. That's why we have a fit every time we see a police officer shoot someone who's unarmed.
Because it goes against our sense of justice. It breaks down the system as to how it ought to work. And there's always extenuating circumstances and things. But cops just shoot and shoot people who are unarmed. And I love, like recently there was some stuff and people came on and said, well, nobody's talking about all the people who are shooting each other in inner cities. And it's like, right.
Because they're not cops. That's how that works. Like a teacher jumps up and slaps a kid. You don't go, yeah, but the kids slap each other some. It's like, no. Like, the system's breaking down here.
And that's why we celebrate when cops get it right. That's why we're excited when justice is maintained. That's why we love the fact that if someone steals your property, you have someone to call and say, hey. I mean, recently Matt's truck got broken into. And they stole a guitar, which was Raz's guitar, which is great. So, like, Matt's like, my truck got broken into.
But don't worry. They only stole Raz's stuff. And so later on, a couple weeks later, we get a phone call. And we're working on stuff. And Matt gets a call. And he's like, it's the Lexington County Sheriff's Department there at my house.
And so I rode over with him because I figured he's getting arrested. I'm like, you know, I guess you got warrants. They only do house calls for a few things, man. And so, but we showed up over there, and they had the guitar. And so we didn't tell Raz about it. We pawned it and split the money.
But, no, but they gave his guitar back. And we celebrate the fact that they got it right because maintaining justice is something that happens inside of a good kingdom. And so a king, a good king maintains justice. A good king also offers grace. So he doesn't just destroy everyone who, all of his enemies are the people who don't agree with him.
He offers grace. He offers mercy. He helps people who are down. There's some form of welfare system for people who are down on their luck. Like a good king is gracious to his people. Gives what is unearned.
A good king wars for his people. That's why when you watch movies like Gladiator and Braveheart and The Patriot and basically any movie that has Mel Gibson in it, that's why the hero is at the front of the battle. Like he runs in with his men, and the bad guy is like up on a horse watching. Like if the commander of the good army is in the fray, and the commander of the bad guys is like watching, and he's like, well, I guess we're losing. Whatever, I'm going to leave. And he like rides off.
Or he just tells them to shoot arrows or cannons into his own men because he doesn't care because he's not a part of it. And so a good king actually wars with and for his people. Like I was recently watching another Mel Gibson movie. We were soldiers, and he was talking to them before they left, and he said, I can't promise that all of you will come back. He said, but what I do promise is that my boots will be the first one on the ground and the last one's off when we leave. And there's just this sense of like, yes, that is how that's supposed to work.
If you're going to lead, you need to be a part of, in front of, warring with your people and not having them fight and sacrifice for you. The other thing that happens with a good king is that they can be trusted. You don't always know what they're doing. That's the way it works with the White House. We don't have all the information that President Obama has. I don't wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning and have people brief me on what's going on in remote parts of the world, but he does.
And then he makes decisions based off of that. And we go to war, don't go to war based off of that. And with a good king, what you see is you see all these other things. You know that they maintain justice, that they don't have a sacrifice for them, but they sacrifice with and for us. And there's just this sense of, I don't know what they're doing, but I know we can trust them. And that's what it looks like in the kingdom with a good king.
I don't know why we're doing this plan. I just know that this king is trustworthy. And so we're going to look, and what we've asked early on was, is Jesus a good king? And today we're going to kind of look at and try to answer that question. We're looking to see if Jesus is a good king. So we'll be in the end of Matthew's gospel.
And what we know is that Jesus is the ruling, reigning, forever king. He's the king of the universe who's created everything and rules and reigns over it. And here's something we know about kings. Kings love their thrones. They do. It's like people with cars now.
So like, you know, the show like Pimp My Ride or whatever. Like kings used to do that with their thrones. So if you look them up online, there's some very elaborate, intense, cool thrones. Like King Ivan the Terrible, his whole throne was made out of ivory. So ivory's hard to come by, so he made his whole throne out of it.
Like there's the king of Denmark had his whole throne made out of narwhal tusks. Which narwhals seem like they're made up animals because it's like a whale unicorn thing. And so like you see him in the movie Elf and you're like, I'm pretty sure that's fictitious. And then you look it up online and they actually exist. Just for the record, narwhals are real. And he made his whole throne out of narwhal tusks, which is pretty gangster way to make a throne.
And so, yeah, the king of Ivan the Terrible had his whole throne made out of ivory. Solomon in the Bible had his throne made out of ivory and then coated in gold. So it didn't even matter. Like he just had to tell people, I don't know if you know this, but under all that gold, there's ivory. Like it just, you know, take your word for it. But it's like, but he had it coated in gold and he had it seated up six steps.
And there was two lines, gold lines next to it. And there were lines on every step that went up to his throne. Because kings love their throne. But here's what we see of Jesus. Isaiah 6 says that Isaiah sees God high and lifted up, seated on a throne, and that there are angels worshiping him. And then John tells us in his gospel, chapter, so y'all know who it's coming from, chapter 12, says that Isaiah saw Jesus.
So that Isaiah sees Jesus high and lifted up on a throne, ruling and reigning as the God of all creation. Philippians 2 tells us that he was equal with God, but did not see equality as a thing to be grasped, but rather humbled himself and lowered himself and came to earth. What we see in Jesus is that he doesn't love his throne, he leaves his throne. That the throne of a king is where their seat of power and authority is and that Jesus leaves it. And so what I want us to know before we get into this text is we're looking to see, is Jesus a good king? And we're also looking at the fact that as we read through this, I want us to have firmly set in our mind that this is the king.
Jesus is the ruling, reigning king of the universe. So when we watch movies and a king leaves his palace for a little while and goes and lives among his people, we're like, oh, look at this, like he's learning what it's like. When you watch Undercover Boss, it's that same thing where the CEO of a company is figuring out what it looks like to go pick up trash. And we're like, good, he needs to learn what that looks like. And what we see in Jesus is that he leaves his throne and he joins his people. And we'll read about him now in Matthew chapter 27.
I'm going to pray. We're going to hop in and we're going to look at the ruling, reigning king of the universe as he was in life on earth. God, I pray that through your Holy Spirit, you would apply your word to us today. That you would teach us, that you would firmly plant in our minds the picture of the ruling, reigning king of the universe as we read through this text. That we would not be able to escape the drastic reality of what Jesus deserves and what he receives. Speak to us today in Jesus name.
Amen. We'll start in verse 11. So this is Jesus after he's been arrested, after he has been taken before the Sanhedrin, which is the ruling body of the Jewish people. And they've taken him now to Pilate, who is a governor over Judea area. Now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, are you the king of the Jews?
Because that's what they brought him in saying he was the Christ. He says he's a king. So he says, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus says, you have said so. But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer.
Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge. So the governor was greatly amazed. All right. I want us to picture this. Jesus is in front of a governor.
A governor of not even like a really well-to-do area of the Roman Empire. Colossians 1 says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn among all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven on earth, visible or invisible, whether thrones or rulers, dominions or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And they exist by him, that in him all things hold together. So this is the creator of the universe standing in front of a governor to be sentenced.
On trial in front of a governor. Not even Caesar, which would have been humiliating, embarrassing, and laughable, but in front of a governor. Creator of the universe. And he doesn't defend himself. He sits in silence. John tells us that at one point Pilate looks at him and because he won't defend himself, because he won't make any argument against the claims that they make against him, even though they make a long list of claims, outlandish ones.
Pilate looks at him and says, do you not realize I have the ability to release you or crucify you? And Jesus responds, no you don't. Jesus says, you only have the authority that's been given to you by my father. You have no authority over me because Jesus is the ruling reigning king, but he stands before a governor to be sentenced. Fifteen. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release.
There's a big Jewish holiday going on. It was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, who do you want me to release for you? Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ? So he just calls out the two prisoners that were most well known.
Who do you want me to release? Barabbas, this notorious criminal, or Jesus who's called Christ? For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man. For I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. So his wife had had a dream where apparently it was obvious to her that they shouldn't do anything to Jesus.
There's a spiritual reality to her dream, which is a real thing about dreams, not about all dreams. So sometimes my wife will wake up and she'll be giving me a dirty look and I'll be like, what? And she's like, you were doing a bunch of junk in my dream. And I was like, well, I was behaving myself while I slept. But his wife sends him a thing saying that God had spoken to her.
Something had happened through this dream. And she says, have nothing to do with this righteous man. For I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas.
Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, let him be crucified. And he said, why? What evil has he done? And they shouted all the more, let him be crucified. So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but that rather a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, I am innocent of this man's blood.
See to it yourselves. And all the people answered, his blood be on us and on our children. Then he released for them Barabbas and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. So he stands in front of this crowd and he says, who do you want me to release? This notorious criminal who we know is an insurrectionist and murderer, Barabbas or Jesus, the Christ, the king. And they say, release to us Barabbas and kill Jesus.
And he says, why? What has he done? And they say, we don't care. Crucify him. His blood be on us, not on you. Crucify him.
Kill him. And to the point that a riot was breaking out. That they're beginning to realize that he's lost control of this crowd so that he placates them by killing Jesus. And what it says is that he scourged him, having scourged him, which means that he was beaten by Roman guards who had made a profession of torturing people. So having been tortured, Jesus was delivered over to be crucified, which means that they're going to take him and they're going to nail him from a cross beam through his hands or his wrist right here.
And through the top of his feet, they're going to drop that beam in the ground and he's going to hang there until he dies. A lot of times people were crucified without having been scourged. Jesus was scourged first, which means they took a cat of nine tails and ripped his back and flesh open so that you'd be able to see his ribs. And they would throw salt in it to burn the wounds, make it more painful, but also to stop the bleeding so that he would last longer for them to continue beating him. So that's the state Jesus is in.
The king of the universe. Beaten. Tortured. And heading to a cross. 27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him.
So every soldier there. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. So they take a crown of thorns and they stick it down so that it stabs into his head. And they put it on his head and they put a reed in his hand, in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him saying, Hail, King of the Jews.
One of the only times Jesus was ever treated appropriately as a king was while he was being mocked by a mob of soldiers. You see, they gave him a scarlet robe. And the book of Revelation says that when he returns, he will have a scarlet robe, but it'll be a robe that's been dipped in blood. They gave him a crown of thorns, but the book of Revelation in chapter 19 says that when he returns, on his head, he'll have many crowns. Because he's not just the king of the Jews, as they mockingly say to him, but he's the king of kings. Meaning he rules over all governments, all kings, all rulers forever.
Including the Romans. They put a reed in his hand, but Revelation says that he'll have a sword coming out of his mouth, which is to strike down the nations. Which seems to be that he's going to destroy his enemies through the power of his word, which is how he creates and moves and works. And that he'll rule the world with an iron sepulter. So they give him a reed to hold in his hand, but he'll have one of iron.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews. And they spit on him, and they took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, that compelled this man to carry his cross. Seemingly because Jesus could only carry it so far, having already been tortured. Stayed up all night being beaten by Jewish people on their trial and then was handed over to the Romans in the morning.
33. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And over his head, they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. That was the charge against him. He had declared that he was a king, and they killed him for it. He declared that he was Christ, and they killed him for it. Christ means leader, ruler, one who was going to set up a kingdom. They knew what had been promised.
They knew what was being said. They knew why he was being killed, and they labeled him as such. Jesus was appropriately labeled. The crime against him was true. He was the king of the Jews. But not just the Jews, everybody.
Jesus Christ, king of the universe, leaves his throne in heaven, is born in a manger, lives a perfect sinless life, and this is how he dies. Acts says he dies at the hands of lawless men. That he was destroyed, crucified, murdered. King of the universe. He didn't love his throne and hold on to his throne, but he heads to a cross. He deserves a throne.
He deserves praise. He deserves honor. He deserves worship. He deserves glory. And instead, he takes shame and defeat and torture and pain and leaves his throne and heads to a cross. So the question is, is Jesus a good king?
Does he meet the criteria? As we read through this, is Jesus a good king? We said that a king takes on the plight of his people. And the Bible tells us that Jesus died to pay for our sin. That he joined us in our mess. That he didn't sit far off and declare to us, work it out, fix it yourselves, be really good.
But no, he joined us in our mess. That he walked through life and lived as we couldn't live. And that he died in our place. That he went to the cross because he is a good king who joins in and takes part in the plight of his people. That he doesn't have his people sacrificed for him, but he sacrifices for his people. He said that he maintains justice, that a king is just and fair.
The cross is a pure, unadulterated declaration of the justice of God. Because sin will be paid for. So much so that Jesus, God of the universe, would pay for it himself. You see, when we talk about a king has justice, that sin is paid for, that wrongs are righted, that crime does not go unpunished. And that he offers grace, we see perfectly in the cross that Jesus does both. Perfectly that he does both.
I'm going to read something from Romans chapter 3 just to put this picture in our brains. It says, That's all of us. All of us fall short. This is Romans 3. And are justified by his grace as a gift. Which justified means made right.
So Jesus makes us right by his grace. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation. Which means that he was destroyed on behalf of wrath. Of God's wrath in our place. That we deserve wrath, but Jesus took it. That's what propitiation means.
Propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness. Or another way to say this is justice. Because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It looked like, as we read through the Old Testament, that people got off. That people who sinned and deserved to be destroyed didn't get destroyed.
People who rebelled weren't. That justice wasn't maintained because God let people go. And what we see in the cross is that justice is maintained. Sin will be paid for. He had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time.
So that he might be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. What that means is this. Every sin will be paid for. All rebellion will be paid for. The question is, will it be paid for by us or by Jesus? Every time someone has wronged you.
Every time someone's stolen from you, taken from you, abused you, hurt you. And there's that moment in you, there's something inside of you that cries out for justice and punishment. The cross adamantly declares that there will be justice and punishment. But there's also grace. That Jesus would take the justice and punishment that we deserve and he would take it on himself so that we can have freedom. So he does both.
And just for those of us in this room who've been hurt, who've been harmed, who've been assaulted, who've had people rob us. Know this very clearly. Justice will be paid. And it'll either be paid on them, on those who harmed and hurt us, or it'll be paid on Jesus. And for those of us in this room who are in rebellion, who have harmed and hurt, who have stolen from God, who have fought against him. Know this.
Justice will be paid. Either by you, either by us, or by Jesus. But we're offered free grace because of what Jesus accomplishes on the cross. So he's a king who maintains justice and offers grace. We said that he wars for his people, that he steps in, that he leads in the battle, and that's exactly what Jesus does. That he went to a cross on our behalf.
That he didn't sit far back and declare that we had to go work it out. Christianity following Jesus isn't about us warring for ourselves. It's not about us earning it on our own. It's not about us achieving anything. It's not about us being very moralistic or doing our religious duty or showing up to things so that God gives us points. We don't fight this battle for ourselves.
Jesus stepped in and fought it on our behalf. And we're brought in by his victory. That Jesus has already won the war in our place and we just get to live in light of what's already been accomplished for us. Because he went to battle for us. Ultimately, a good king can be trusted. We so often have no clue what God's doing.
When there's pain, when there's hurt, when there's harm, when we're confused, we have no idea what he's up to. But the cross answers the question of whether or not God can be trusted forever. We look at the cross and we know that God is good and that he's for our good and that he can be trusted. We don't know what he's doing all the time. But we know he's good.
We know he's for our good. So much so that he would die for us because he loves us and he cares for us, which means he can handle all the rest of it. But Jesus stepped in our place and can be trusted because he went to the cross for us. Where we see Jesus's power and authority is not a throne. Where we're given the clearest image and picture as we read through scripture to know that Jesus is in charge and that he rules and that he reigns. It's not him seated on a throne.
He doesn't sit on a throne and hand out edict after edict for us to behave. For how we should follow him. For what his good subjects look like. Where we see Jesus's power and authority is on the cross. Where he's high and lifted up and deserving of honor and glory and worship. The king of the universe isn't on a throne but on a cross.
That Jesus left his throne so that we could be brought back to him. And he went to a cross. That that is his unlikely throne. Because he didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom but he came to destroy our ultimate enemy of sin, death, hell, and Satan. And he went to a cross on our behalf. Then he was buried.
Three days later he rose again. And he is seated on a throne. He does rule and reign over all of eternity. And one day he will return. To bring his church home. And to pay for, to punish the rest of sin.
But we see him high and lifted up and glorified on a cross, not a throne. That he went to a throne by way of a cross. That the one God of the universe who deserved all honor and all praise and all glory and all worship and all followership forever. Took on our plight. Fought for justice to offer grace. Won the battle we could never win.
Proved that we can trust him. And was highly exalted on a cross. Not sitting in luxury. Declaring that we have to work really hard to follow him. And that we get to, by faith, follow him. As he pays for our sin.
The band's going to come back up. And we're going to praise Jesus. Who paid for our sin. Who is a good king. And who is worth following with everything that we have. With all of our lives.
Forever. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for the love that is offered to us through Jesus. God, I pray that you would continue to teach us how to worship and follow you as a king. As the ruler of all creation. Who, instead of destroying us when we rebelled, joined us and was destroyed on our behalf.
We praise you. We thank you.
Kingdom Parables
Transcript
Well, good morning. Jesus is a king. Jesus is the king. And that's what we've been spending the past several weeks talking about is that Jesus comes as a king, that he comes to us through history as the eternal king. So the Old Testament is going to say that there's a prophesied king who's going to come in the line of David.
And then the New Testament is going to say that king is Jesus, the eternal king that is the king of kings, that princes will rise up and bow down to, that is in charge of everything, is Jesus. And so what we've been doing for the past several weeks is we've been looking at what it means for Jesus to be king, for him to be a king, the king of our lives, of the universe. And what does it mean for him to have a kingdom and what does his kingdom look like? How does it work? And so that's what we've been spending some time doing. So the first week we looked and said that you can't have two kings.
That's not how kings work. And so some of you may have read, you know, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and you said there are two kings in that one. That's a made-up story. That's never happened. And there's talking animals there. Like there's other things going on.
You can only have one king. And so Jesus shows up, says he's king. Herod, who is a king, tries to kill him. And that we basically have the same options. We can get off of the throne and quit trying to be king of our lives. Or we can try to fight Jesus.
We said, so you can't have two kings. Then we looked at how we respond to Jesus' kingdom, that we respond in repentance, that he comes and we change to him because he is in charge of everything. And then last week we spent some time talking about the fact that since he is an eternal king, he deals with eternal problems. And his kingdom is a kingdom of light that advances against the domain of darkness and that we actually, as church, family, get to be a part of that advancing kingdom. So what we're going to do today is we're going to be in Matthew chapter 13.
And we've been spending some time in Matthew. Pretty much this whole series has been in Matthew. So we were in Matthew chapter 1 and 2. Then we were in 3 and 4. And we spent some time in 5. And so we're jumping on ahead into Matthew 13.
And Jesus, a good bit of his ministry, would tell stories. And we know them, we call them parables. Which just means, and I said early on, that he told confusing stories. And some of them are. Because sometimes he just says, the kingdom of God is like this. Or following God is like this.
And he'll just tell a story. And he just, he doesn't explain it. He's just like, it's like this. Boom. And he just walks away. And you're like, well, what are you talking about?
What does that mean? And so, so we're looking at some parables. And we're going to look at just a few short ones in Matthew 13. That where Jesus says, this is what my kingdom is like. This is what the kingdom of God is like. And so, the two things we're going to see as we look at, we're going to look at four parables.
But they kind of come in chunks together. Two main points Jesus is making is that the kingdom of God advances. And that the kingdom of God is priceless. And so that's what we're going to be looking at today. I'm going to pray. And then we'll hop in and look at Matthew 13.
God, we just thank you for this opportunity to gather together as church family. Pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, teach us, lead us, and help us to continue to grow in what it looks like to be a gospel-centered community on mission in our city. Thank you for your grace and your goodness towards us. In Jesus' name, amen. Matthew 13, page number is up there. If you're using one of the Bibles that's in the pew, one of those blue and white Bibles.
If you don't own a Bible, take that with you. That's our gift to you. If you do own a Bible, leave that here. Unless you know of someone you can give it to. Matthew 13, 31 through 33 is the first one we're going to read. And it says this.
He put another parable before them. And so what we said is that a parable is just an illustration, a story, where Jesus is going to basically, like we would say a simile. It's going to say this. The kingdom is like this. And so he put another parable before them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree.
So that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Okay, so he's going to tell two back to back, and that's the first one. And what he's saying is that the kingdom advances. The kingdom of God advances. And what we're going to look at, we're going to kind of look at it in two different ways. But Jesus has a bunch of people around, and then he would just teach.
And sometimes he would just teach with authority, which just meant that he didn't have a text. So synagogue leaders would open the Bible, and they'd say, they'd read it, and they'd talk about it, and they'd say, this is what it means. Jesus would just be like, you know how the Bible says this? I say this. And it's like, you can't do that. Are you allowed to do that?
And so people would follow him around, and he would teach with authority. And then he would teach parables. So he would just say, the kingdom of heaven is like this. And sometimes he would explain them to his disciples, and sometimes he wouldn't. And here's what's great about this parable. First of all, we hear that, and we're like, okay, good.
The kingdom of parable is like a mustard seed that a guy planted. And I know all of you are like, yes, mustard seeds. I know so much about them. Like, I mean, I had to Google stuff, because I'm like, I want to find out how big mustard seeds are, what mustard plants are like. Because the most I know about mustard is French's is the best kind. That's about what I got when it comes to mustard.
But here's what's great about this parable, is that Jesus undersells the kingdom, it seems like. So if he had looked at them and said, the kingdom of heaven is like a cedar from Lebanon. All this Jewish audience would have been like, mmm, good. Like, that sounds great. Like, but he says the kingdom of heaven is a mustard seed. Everybody was like, what?
Run that by me again, boss? Like, how does that work? What are you talking about? It's kind of like, and he doesn't explain it, and we're going to kind of unpack it. But it's kind of like the, you know, ogres are like onions kind of thing.
It's like, why? Because they have layers. Well, parfait has layers, and it's better. And so that's kind of what I think they were hearing. It's like, mustard seeds, you're going to have to do a little more here to explain what you're talking about. But let me just unpack a little bit of the story here.
So he immediately, when he says this, everybody's like tracking because it's like this was a weird thing for him to say that the kingdom is like. Mustard seeds are tiny. So that if you took a mustard seed, you could pinch it in between your fingers and play that which hands the mustard seed in kind of game. Like, and let someone guess because they're really small. If I held one, it would just kind of could sit right there about as small as a BB, if not a little bit smaller. Mustard seeds are really small.
And so when he says they're the smallest of all seeds, he means all the seeds that they were familiar with. He's not speaking scientifically as the creator God. He's speaking in context with the people he's talking about because there are smaller seeds than mustard seeds, but not that they would have been familiar with and used. And he's talking about in the context of a garden. So what he's saying is mustard seeds are the smallest seeds y'all use to plant in your gardens.
But here's what happens. Once you plant it, it grows into pretty much a small tree. So that it becomes the largest garden plant. So large that birds come and make nests in it. That's his parable. That's what the kingdom is like.
And so what he's saying, first of all, is that if you got to choose, no one would pick the kingdom based off of how it's going to get started. That it's going to be so epically underwhelming when it starts. So that Jesus is walking around. He has a ministry for about three years. This is the God of the universe has a ministry for about three years. When he dies, 120 people.
God of the universe plants a church. Three years. 120 people. Like I've read books that would be like, we need to coach that guy up. He's doing some things wrong. Like there was 6,000 at one point and he told them to eat and drink his blood.
That's poor strategy. He freaked everybody out. Like Jesus, when big crowds would come, he would say really hard things to him. And so what he's saying is that his kingdom is going to be very small, very seemingly like it's not going to do anything. So that when he dies, he dies and then three days later he rises again and there's 120 people that are following him.
And you wouldn't think, well, obviously that's going to take over the world. Obviously that's going to have massive impacts on world history. Obviously this guy who spent most of his time with 12 men, one of whom betrays him. So even that gets cut down to 11. Obviously that's going to turn the world upside down. But it does.
And that's his point. Is that the kingdom advances externally. And that's the way we're going to look at it today. Is that this first one we're going to look at is it advances externally. Which means that more and more and more people are going to become believers. Are going to follow Jesus.
And that's exactly what happened. So there was 120 then. There are now in the world 2 billion people that follow Jesus. That claim him as king. That submit and surrender their lives to him. 2 billion.
120. I read this quote. And I think it's interesting because I don't understand mustard. Basically mustard plants, once you get them going, are hard to get rid of. And they spread and they grow in unlikely conditions. So that when we were looking up some of the places that mustard grows, it's like Russia and Africa.
And Egypt. And Australia. Like it was all these. It's like, so it's not a regional climate type thing. Mustard is a hardy plant that grows well. And once it gets to growing, it's hard to get rid of.
It says this. The point in other words. This is John Dominic Crossan. The point, in other words, is not just that the mustard plant starts as a proverbial small seed and grows into a shrub of 3 or 4 or 5 feet in height. It is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted. That it tends to get out of control.
That it tends to track birds within cultivated areas where they are not particularly desired. And that, Jesus said, is what the kingdom of God is like. Like a pungent shrub with dangerous takeover properties. So mustard can grow in unlikely situations and grows well once it gets going. One of the best examples, I think, in modern examples for us is the Chinese church. So the church in China under Mao, Mao Zedong, in 1949, he decided he was going to get rid of the church.
He's one of the guys who called it the opiate of the masses. And he wanted to stamp out and get rid of the church. So what he did was there's about a million believers in China. He sent away 10,000 missionaries. So there were 10,004 missionaries in China and about a million Chinese believers.
He sent all of the 10,000 missionaries out. It was referred to as an unwanted Exodus or undesired Exodus. So that was 1949. So it was about 60 years later in China. The estimates, because it's not really legal to be Bible-believing following Christians in China. There are some state-sanctioned churches, but they kind of have regulations on what they're allowed to talk about.
So there are a lot of underground churches. But the estimates on how many believers there are in China now, 60 years later, under a very repressive attempt to stamp out Christianity and religion, is somewhere between 50 and 100 million. So it was a million, and he was like, well, let's get rid of them. And it didn't work. Because that's what Christianity is like. It's like a mustard seed that's very difficult to get rid of.
They estimate that about 10,000 people become believers every day in China. So he got rid of 10,000 missionaries, and there's 10,000 added every day now to be missionaries to China. Because that's the way the church works. Because that's what the kingdom is like. It's like a mustard seed that starts off really small and underwhelming, and then grows and grows and advances and moves and becomes really hard to get rid of. That's why we get really excited about church planting.
That's why we get really excited about community groups and why we want to launch community groups all over our city, why we want to plant community groups all over our city, because a handful of believers in Jesus genuinely following him as king is a dangerous thing. A beautifully dangerous thing when it comes to being a part of his kingdom advancing. Because the kingdom does advance. And it will advance. And so one of the things we need to know as believers, and especially as we try to build with people and we're trying to build relationships and trying to help people meet Jesus and show what it looks like to follow Jesus, and sometimes that can be discouraging, Jesus says the kingdom advances.
Period. Matthew 16, Jesus says, I will build my church. Which means that all of our effort, all of our energy is worth it, because he is going to advance his kingdom. All the energy you put into building relationships with your coworkers, all the energy you're putting into trying to just be a good neighbor and love and bless people in our city, with the hopes that some might would meet Jesus and with the hopes that some might would just be blessed by the fact that you know Jesus. It's worth it. Because the kingdom does advance.
And that's why we care about and get excited about things that look small and like not super likely like they're going to do great things, because that's what the mustard seed is. If you laid them on a table and said, all right, we're going to grow the biggest plant and let kids pick which one they wanted, or if you didn't know anything about them, not a lot of people are going to be like, oh, this tiny one. Duh. It's going to be great later. That's why we get super excited about it. I was having a conversation with my grandmother.
She's a sweet lady. This is a fun conversation. But I had a conversation with her on vacation this year, and she said she, she, my granddad had been a pastor, so she was asking questions. She always asks them questions about the church, church plant, what, what it is, what we're doing, what a church plant is, because she's just kind of, you know, it's a new idea to her. And so she said, she said, let me ask you something. I said, what?
She said, if God called you to a church, would you go? I was like, what? She said, if God called you to pastor a church, would you? And I said, well, if God told me to, sure. She said, really? I said, yes, ma'am.
And she said, well, I'm going to pray that he calls you to a church. And then she said, cause I just, this thing you're doing, I don't really know what it is. And I was like, I was like, okay, well, just caveat conversation I had to have with her, which was if God calls me, sure, I'll do what God wants me to, but I don't think he's going to. And if a church just calls me, no, for several reasons. One of which being that they don't have good sense. And that sounds like a bad idea.
If those are the kind of decisions they make. So anyway, but that's why we get super excited about what we get to be a part of. That's why, that's why it's worth the energy and the effort we're putting in to start something new in West Columbia. And, and why it's amazing and exciting that we have five community groups and the options and the opportunities to have more eventually. Because Jesus doesn't need much. And he actually likes to show off with something really small and seemingly insignificant.
Because he gets a lot of glory from it. That's why I get real excited that we're a ragtag scrub team. Because it's like, Jesus, you're going to have to show up for this to be good. And he can, and he does. And he says that his kingdom does advance and will advance. And then it says, all right, so first, that's the first one.
And we were looking at him. He's saying his kingdom advances. We're looking at him in two different ways. Kingdom advances externally. So people will meet Jesus.
More churches will be planted. More groups will be launched. 33. He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. Again, just kingdom of heaven's like this.
And he doesn't explain it. It doesn't go through. Just, that's what it is. I just want to time out for just a second. One of the things that I, it's very exciting just, just to kind of look at when he tells these stories. The first one is a man takes a mustard seed and plants it.
And the second one is a woman takes 11 and does this. And so even in just Jesus is telling parables, he's inviting everybody in to be a part of his mission. And it's just, it's just cool. So I just wanted to point that out. But the way we're going to look at this one, just mental image wise, and he's just saying the kingdom advances, but the kingdom advances internally as well.
So the kingdom advances externally and the kingdom advances internally. So you take a bunch of flour and he says that it's, how many measures? Three measures of flour, which was about 50 pounds, enough to feed about a hundred people. And so when Jesus first started and he was like the kingdom of heaven's like a mustard seed and some of our outdoorsy gardeny type people were like, I'm tracking. This sounds great. Like a tree.
Okay. Hmm. And then some of, some of us were like, okay. And now he's talking about bread. So I'm like, all right, all right, I'm listening.
Carbohydrates. I'm tracking. Tell me more about this lady with the bread. Do you have any samples that I might understand leaven better? But here's, here's how leaven works.
You take a little bit of starter, which is just like a gross ball of goo. And then, uh, you feed it. You can feed it flour and the starter stays together. And then you add just a little bit to the bread you're using and yeast spreads through all of it. So you can't have like half yeasted.
You can't, you can't have like, it's going to take over the whole thing. So when she adds yeast to this, she can't just have a little bit or she adds a little bit and it takes over 50 pounds of it. That he says it leavens the whole lump. And here's the thing. It doesn't look different. It just operates differently.
It doesn't have this magical external change. It's just going to work differently when you stick it in an oven. When you cook it, it's going to rise. It's going to have different internal properties. And here's what's great about that. What he, what we're looking at here is that the kingdom advances internally.
So some of you became believers. This is what Jesus does inside of our souls. Is that he takes over everything. And that's beautiful and terrifying. But Jesus takes over everything.
So some of us are in here like, man, I'm a Christian, but I just, I'm just not getting it right. Like I'm just messing it up. I feel like a lump. He leavens the whole lump. So if you're like, I'm a lump, good.
Leaven's going to take over the whole lump. That's what he's going to do. That's how that works. And here's the thing. If you become a Christian, you don't look different. It's not like people become a Christian and start smiling like an idiot all the time.
That's not how that works. Why are you so happy? Well, I'm glad you asked. That's not how that works. I'm a Christian. I love Jesus.
My face looks like this most of the time. Like, it's not what happens. It's not an external thing. He changes internally. He takes over our souls. My other grandmother, I just got grandmother stories today, but my other grandmother, when we were growing up, my parents would have to go out of town some and they would invite our grandparents to come watch us.
And so they would just come stay at our house and watch the three boys. And so at first it was just like, they would invite them in and they would be like, just, just hang out, watch, be grandparents, do your, do your grandparent thing. And, but my grandmother, her name is Ea, which is just Yoruba, which is African language means grandmother, but Ea can't sit still and not do things. So when they're like, come relax, just get to be a grandparent. She's incapable of that. So she would, she would get into everything.
So like before they came anyway, we had to like clean the house and hide stuff. And inevitably at the end of the week, she would have found it and been like, Oh, we're, we're reorganizing all this. She, she came one time for like four days when they came back, she had rearranged the kitchen. So that like my parents came back and would like open to get a plate and there'd be cups. And it was just like, why? Why would a person do this?
And the great part was that my parents were just like, we'll get used to it. Like they didn't change it back. It just seemed like too much work, but she didn't like the feng shui of kitchen organization. I don't know. I don't know what drove her to do that, but she just reorganized. So then what they had to do is this happened about once a year.
They started giving her jobs. They started when she was coming, they were like, Hey, we want you to watch the kids and paint these two rooms and do wallpaper. And it got to where they had a list long enough that it was like, do this first, this second. If you get to this until my grandparents would come watch us and like redecorate our house. But my parents had to like point them in the right direction because otherwise they were just going to get into everything.
Here's what happens though. Jesus does that in our souls. So for the most part, most of us, we want to become a Christian because we, we see a glaring need for Jesus here. Jesus, I want to place my faith in you because I need you here. This is a hot mess. I need you active here.
And he shows up and he does that. He changes us. He moves us. He rescues us there. And then you're like, thank you so much. Have a seat.
And he's like, Nope. It's not how that works. Jesus comes in. We talked last week. Jesus isn't a cat that just, we add to our life to add a little bit of comfort and a little bit of, when I feel sad, I get to hug and pet. And then he goes and kind of minds his own business in the corner.
Jesus is a king. And so Jesus leavens the whole lump. He takes over everything. So we'll invite him in because we need help with our children. And then, and then he's like, he helps you learn how, what that looks like and rearranges your view on parenting. And then he's like, you want to talk about, let's talk about finances.
And you're like, whoa, no. Hey, let's talk about your view on relationships. No, no, no. That's not, that's not why you were invited in. And then let me, let me just tell you this. He's going to leaven the whole lump.
C.S. Lewis said at one point that, that God loves us the same way that an artist loves a masterpiece in a lot of ways. And that by the time an artist is done with a masterpiece, that if the canvas could talk, it would be a very painful process because there would be times when he had to restart and re scrape and re, re begin what he was doing. And, and, and over time, eventually the canvas would just be saying, couldn't I just be a sketch? Couldn't you just like make me nice enough? And he says, no.
See, God doesn't have a sleepy love for you. He has an active love for us and that we're satisfied way more quickly than he is. So most of us reach a place and we're like, I feel pretty good. And he's like, no, we got, we got a lot of work to do because I care about you enough to continue working when it's difficult. Because he's going to leaven the whole love. He is going to take over internally.
So here, here's the thing. Romans says that we'll be conformed to the image of his son, that we're predestined to be conformed to the images of his son. Romans 8 says that. And so what's going to happen is that over our life as a Christian, if we've genuinely placed our faith in Jesus and are following him, he's going to continue to change our outlook on, on everything that our, our, our way we look at money is his, the way we look at relationships is his, the way we view marriage is his, the way we view sex is his, the way we view every bit of our time, everything belongs to him. And he's going to continue to take over.
And here's the thing we've said repeatedly that kingdoms only advance militantly, that a kingdom advances against the kingdom militantly. Jesus, because he loves you and is gracious to you is going to militantly take over your soul. And so a lot of times we draw lines in the sand and we hunker down and we say, all right, if you want this one, you're going to have to take it. We draw battle lines and we say, all right, Jesus, this is going to be a fight. Jesus wins. He's going to, and he cares enough about you to fight you.
And so some of you, maybe that's, that's your story. You became a Christian and you're like, man, this has been like a fight. Since I became a Christian. And Jesus cares enough about you to not stop, to not, not let you go and to continue to advance in your soul, his kingdom, because of his gracious love for you. And he's going to take over the whole thing. So.
Let me give some encouragement, because that is true. If you are here and you're saying, I just don't feel like I'm growing. Keep following, keep fighting, keep putting yourself in the right positions, keep trying to get as close to his grace as he possible. Gather with your community group, gather when we get together on Sundays, keep reading scripture, because Jesus is going to leaven everything. He is going to, his kingdom is going to advance in you. And if you've been fighting him, surrender as quickly as possible.
It's the best advice I can give you, because he is not going to be satisfied. There are no holdouts of your old kingdom allowed anymore. There are no areas that Jesus doesn't get to be. There are no dark corners and closets that he's not going to mess with. There are no places that his light isn't going to penetrate. And surrender as quickly as you can.
And ask him to help you surrender. So that he might continue to advance his kingdom in your soul. Because he's going to. Okay. So here's what we're going to do.
Oh, let me say this. As you become a Christian, a lot of times people think that I will sin less. And that's true. Ish. But that's not the predominant way that we grow as Christians.
One of the predominant ways that we grow as Christians is that we see our sin more. We see it more clearly. We see it more often. And so a lot of times you're thinking, oh my goodness, I didn't even realize that this whole aspect of my life was not in line with, I feel so terrible. And it's God's grace to show us our sin. That's one of the ways that he helps us grow.
And so as we continue to grow as Christians, we're just going to see more sin and have more areas we get to repent, more areas we get to surrender. And so sometimes people think, oh, I became a Christian. I was doing really well. And now I know that I've got this scenario and this scenario and this scenario. And the truth is, you had him the whole time. Jesus and his grace is now showing them to you.
And that is growth. And he is going to take over everything. Okay. Now we can jump down. Matthew 13, 44. So in between these sets of parables, he explains another one that he told earlier in Matthew.
And so we're just skipping over his explanation and jumping to 44. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Okay. Two stories, two parables.
First one, there's a guy in a field and he finds a treasure in the field. So we don't know why he was in the field, why he was digging in this field that he didn't own, but he's there. He finds a treasure. Maybe he just, the treasure was there and he covers it up. So he hides it.
He's like, Oh my goodness, I found a treasure. Like, have you ever thought about like daydreamed about finding treasure? At least when you were eight and wanted to be a pirate. Like, so he finds treasure and he covers it up. And then he's like, like, what do I do? And he leaves and he sees a for sale sign.
And he, dear diary, jackpot. Like, so he goes and sells everything that he has. He's just, just like, Hey, Hey man, I need to sell my truck. Like I need to, I need my, I got to sell my car. Like I got to sell everything I got. I got to sell my house.
And he sells everything that he has. I mean, nowadays he'd be like hitting up eBay, selling his lamp. Last thing, just so you know, if you're going to sell everything on eBay, sell your computer last. It's just a helpful tip. So, so he sells everything that he has. And his, his family, I just, could you can just assume that people around him think he's absolutely crazy.
And in his joy, he shows up and he's like, how much you asking for the field? And they're like, this much? And he's like, they don't know about the treasure. And so he buys the field, sold everything he had, buys the field in his joy. The second one is, uh, kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. So this guy's a merchant.
He buys and sells thing and it sells things. And he loves pearls. He loves fine pearls. Like, so he's, he's out merchanting, buying and selling. Uh, and he finds a pearl of great price. And, and it would seem from the parable Jesus tells, that he knows the value of the pearl.
And the other guy, apparently he buys it from knows it's valuable, but maybe not as valuable as it actually is. But he goes and sells all that he has. So he goes with his merchanting and sells everything he's got and comes over and buys that pearl. And that's what the kingdom of heaven is like. Real quick. How much does the kingdom of heaven cost?
The first guy. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man fell and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells. Yeah. All that he has. And he buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold. All that he had. And bought it. Here's what Jesus is saying. Well, here's what we see from the parables. The kingdom costs.
Everything. All that we have. That it takes everything. What this means for us as believers is that there is no non-radical form of Christianity. There is no normal run of the mill Christianity that when we become believers, everything is on the table. It's not, I'll decide where I'm going to work.
No, that's on the table. I'll decide what, what, what kind of, what I'm going to study in school and what, what I'm going to do with my life, what my goals are. No, that's on the table. I'll decide who, who I marry and how my relationships will work. No, that's on the table. When we approach Jesus, everything's on the table so that he gets to tell us where we live, where we go, what we do, how our life's going to play out.
Everything belongs to him that we show up and we submit to him as king. And everything is on the table because he is Lord. And so it's not, we read the Bible and decide whether or not we want to do this. Our choice isn't, is this good or is this bad? And is this what we want to do? Our choice is to submit and follow because he's Lord.
And it costs everything. What's beautiful is that's not the point of the parable. He says that, he says that it costs you everything, but that's not his point. And that's not the point he's making in the parable. So Jesus says earlier, he says that the kingdom is going to advance.
It's going to continue. It's going to move. People are going to meet Jesus. People are going to surrender and follow him. And that the kingdom is going to advance in your soul. And it's going to take over every last square inch of you.
And it's going to cost everything. But that's not the point he's making in this parable. Here's what's beautiful about this. The kingdom is worth everything. The point in the parable is that it's priceless. That these guys give up everything.
They sacrifice everything. And they don't feel like it's a sacrifice. I saw recently that there was a professional football player whose name I will not say because it's Samoan. And it's like, he and his brother both played. His brother had kidney issues and had to stop. And then when he found out that his brother needed a kidney, his immediate response was, he can have mine.
And he was a 99% match. And I was reading the article. And so the article was, professional football player has to stop playing football to give up his kidney. And so he sacrifices his kidney. He sacrifices his playing football. But at no point does that register as a sacrifice to him.
Yeah, he gets it. He had to lose weight to be in shape enough to give the kidney. And he's got to do rehab. And he can't play professional football anymore, which I'm sure is something that he has poured countless hours into. And in his brain, it's like, yeah, but that's my brother. So this is a sacrifice, but not really.
And that's kind of just a glimpse into what Jesus is saying about the kingdom. When we understand the kingdom, that yeah, yeah, it's a sacrifice. And yeah, we're giving up everything, but in our joy, because of the matchless worth, the immeasurable worth of what we're getting out of it. So what I find to be true is when, when I'm frustrated by the amount of work I'm putting into following Jesus, I feel like he's asking a lot. And I can't believe that I got to do this to be a Christian. I can't believe that other people get to live like this and do this with their, and I got to do this.
What, what I, what I've realized is I don't get the weight of my sin when that happens. I don't understand what's been given to me in the gospel. When my heart goes there, I've missed this parable because what I'm thinking is, yeah, it does cost everything. And what I'm missing is that it's worth everything and that we still get the better deal because it's priceless. That what's been given to us in Jesus has no value. You can't, you can't put a price tag on it.
It has, it's not even in the same category. So that, that they give up everything, but they don't see it that way. It's priceless. And that's what Jesus is saying. And that's what Jesus is saying. We need to understand about the kingdom is that it, yeah, it costs everything, but he's already accomplished everything for us.
So, um, I think it was last year, uh, a guy, the gas station I go to all the time called Murphy Express on Augusta road, which is right near my house. Uh, a guy won the mega millions lottery jackpot, $400 million, which is always fun. When you talk to people about someone winning the lottery, because they'll be like, yeah, but after taxes, but it was like 200 million. And it's like, bro, it's $200 million given to you for free. That's a horrible thing to complain about. Like you missed the point here, but he wins $400 million.
You ever sat and thought about, oh man, like when that happened, I thought, man, which it really doesn't matter. It was close to my house. Cause he just picked random Numbers, but it feels like it matters that it was close to my house. It's like, man, what if I won the lottery? Like you ever think about that? Like what you would do if you won the lottery.
And there's just this moment where it's like, ah, there'd be a lot of freedom with that. You wouldn't have to work. I mean, you could have, you wanted to, if you felt what you were doing fun, you wouldn't have to. Anytime your boss got on your nerves, you'd just be like, I quit. Cause you didn't need the money. You have to do what you want.
You wouldn't have to work. There's this immediate feeling of like, I wouldn't have to worry about my future. Like I'd be in control of circumstances because of the amount of money I'd have. I'd get comfort and rest. I just, I wouldn't, the stress and the weight that I carry just wouldn't be there anymore. That I just, I'd be free.
That's what, that's what you play out in your mind. And you may not add those words to it, but that's what you're thinking. When you go there about thinking about what you would do with $400 million, and you just think, oh yeah, I could put a roller coaster in my backyard. And I could pay people to run it. And that would be a good use of my money. Like you just, you go through and you think about all the stuff that you could do and the joy that it would bring you and the, the freedom that it would bring you and the comfort and the control and the power.
Like you just, all of these things that immediately you find rest in just this idea. This idea of what that would accomplish for you. And so what Jesus is saying in this parable is, God has the winning lottery ticket, but he's in the witness relocation program. So he can't go on TV. He can't go cash this thing in. It's not allowed to, but he's going to sell it to you.
Whatever you got. Here's my house. Here's my car. Here's everything I have. I'm going on an adventure. Here's my car.
Cause I'm just going to hold a ticket for a while that says I get $400 million. And I don't mind leveraging everything I have for this short period of time because of the great amount of worth that I'm going to get out of it on the back end. No brainer. And it'd be as if you couldn't talk to your family about it. So they thought you'd lost your mind.
I can explain a little bit about what's happening, but I can't tell you everything yet. You're not going to get everything yet, but just trust me. I know you don't see it, but just trust me. Jesus is saying the kingdom is that for our entire lives. That what he's accomplished for us in the cross, you don't have to work anymore. You don't have to prove your value and your worth because Jesus has already given it to you in the cross.
That when Jesus died, he took your sin. He took your debt. Some of you think, oh man, if I had $400 million, no more credit cards, no more credit card debt. I'd be out of debt. All my school loans paid off. Everything.
I just go pay cash for a house. How much? $300,000. This is going to be a while. Jesus paid our debt. Gone. And he didn't give us a clean slate.
He gave us his slate. He didn't put his back in neutral and say, go work it out. He gave us his righteousness. So we don't have to work anymore. You don't have to prove your worth. You don't have to earn it.
You don't have to be at the end of your life and look at Jesus and say, did I do well enough? He's already accomplished everything on your behalf. We know that regardless of how everything works out, there's a sovereign king in charge of the universe who's adopted us into his family and has perfect control over everything. That our hope and our security and our future is set because of what has already taken place on our behalf because of Jesus. That our invitation into the kingdom is priceless. And that every bit of everything that we give up for it is never wasted.
And at the end of the day, when we put everything, when we put everything on the line, at no point have we reached paying back what's already been given to us. At no point has it become an even trade. And that's why he says in his joy, he sells everything. Because he knows what he's getting. See, Jesus says that the kingdom is going to advance. More people are going to be brought into his kingdom.
And that the kingdom is going to advance in our souls. And that it's going to cost us everything. And that it's worth it. It's priceless. And that what we get out of it cannot be measured. Can't be counted.
That the value of the kingdom is uncomprehendable. So that when we think about what we're doing and what we're a part of, at no point does it tap out in our wildest imaginations of what has been given to us in Christ. At no point have we reached what it actually is. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing and praise Jesus for the fact that through him, through his sacrifice on the cross, we get invited into his kingdom. That his kingdom does advance in us.
That it does advance in this city, in this world. And that it's worth everything. That what he's accomplished for us in the cross is priceless. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love. Thank you for the hope that's been given to us in you.
We pray, Lord, that through your Holy Spirit, you would help us to see the pricelessness of your kingdom. The great value and worth of what you've already accomplished for us in the cross. And God, we ask that you would do what you promised to do. That your kingdom would advance in our souls. That we would repent of sin. That we would continue to follow you.
That we would, when we see our sin, God, we would praise you for your grace. That you've covered it. And that you've been gracious enough to show it to us. God, we ask for your kingdom to advance in this city. For more groups to be launched. More leaders to be trained.
More churches to be planted. More relationships to be built. That God, you would take mustard seeds all over the world and continue to grow them. That your kingdom would continue to grow. And God, we ask you that you would help us to see, to taste, to feel the pricelessness of what has been accomplished for us in the cross. That an unpayable debt's been paid.
That wealth and riches, eternal grace and love, favor has been applied to our account. That we've been welcomed in because of your sacrifice. We love you. We praise you. We thank you. In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Prepare the Way
Transcript
Last week we looked at the fact that there's a problem when there are two kings. And so we saw how King Herod existed and some wise men showed up and said, Hey, we want to see the king. And he was like, here I am. That's not in the Bible. I'm just assuming that's how he responds when people say they want to see the king. He's like, kiss my ring, whatever the kings get to do.
And they were like, no, no, not you. Capital K King, the prophesied king, the king that was to come, the king that that has been promised by prophets, the king that's going to be an eternal king. And so Herod basically tries to get rid of Jesus. He tries to kill him unsuccessfully. Later, Jesus will die. And that was also unsuccessful because he didn't stay dead.
But he tries to kill him. And basically, we looked at our responses. We have the same options. We can, like the wise men, worship and submit to Jesus as king. Or we can, like King Herod, do everything we have to defend our own territory. And what we said was that kingdoms are militaristic, which means they advance at the expense of other kingdoms.
And so, like, I live in a neighborhood. If my property line expands, it expands at the expense of my neighbors. That's how it works. So if I walk into my neighbor's yard and I'm just like, yep, putting a hot tub here, my neighbor would be like, no, you're not. That's my yard. And I'd be like, that's my yard now because that's where my hot tub's going.
We just talked about this. Like, pay attention. And that's kind of how kingdoms work. Kingdoms could only expand at the expense of other kingdoms. And so when Jesus is standing in the Roman Empire and he says the kingdom is at hand, that's automatically a militaristic statement. And what we talked about a little bit last week is that we don't understand how kings and kingdoms work.
We just don't have a good grasp on that. And so we looked at some kings throughout history. And the way kings work is that they have rule and reign and they have absolute authority. That's very interesting to me to look back at just some earthly kings and the things that they got to do. King Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, he was a king in France. He built a palace at Versailles.
And this was like in France when they were wearing like knickers and like really awkward, uncomfortable clothes and stuff. And there's like pictures of him with like weird tight pants and like a giant fur thing hanging off of him. And so but what he did was he didn't like the sound of knocking. And so if you wanted to talk to him, you couldn't knock on his door. You had to use your left pinky finger fingernail to scratch. This is how you knocked on his door.
You scratched with your left pinky fingernail, which is just weird and arbitrary. But he gets to do that because he's a king. And so the people around him started growing that fingernail out longer so they could scratch better. And then you would scratch. This is a power play. You would scratch until he he let you in.
I look cool doing that. And that's what he's doing. He's just showing his power. They used to compete to see who would get to be the guy who would wipe sweat off of his face. It's like when he was out, like you was a good position to be King Louis XIV sweat wiper guy. That meant like he was showing you doing you a favor.
And he's just an earthly king. But that's how kings rule. They have authority and power and reign. And we don't get that. That doesn't fit into our American mindset where we're like, not no, heck no. Somebody going to sit here and make me wipe sweat and scratch on their door.
This is ridiculous. But that's how kings get to act. And so when Jesus shows up and says he's a king, what he means is that he has absolute authority. And so what we're going to look at is how do we respond to Jesus's kingship? If we are going to step off of the throne, if we are going to not like Herod fight for our throne, but we're going to be like the wise men and worship and surrender and step off of the throne. What does that mean?
How do we respond? And so we'll be in Matthew chapter 4, and then we're going to jump back to Matthew chapter 3. So, you know, just like you learned how to count 1, 2, 4, 3. We were in chapters 1 and 2 last week. We're going to be in 4 and then going back to 3. What we're going to look at, Matthew 4 verse 17, is what Jesus began, how he began his ministry.
So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop in and start looking at what the Bible says about how we respond to Jesus as king. God, we thank you. That we have the opportunity to gather together as church family and study your word. And we ask that your Holy Spirit would work in us to change us and to make us more like you. Help us to hear your word clearly today and help us to respond. Don't let us be cold towards it.
Don't allow us to hear your word and to walk away and to do nothing with it. And so we ask that your Holy Spirit would move and speak and change us. In Jesus' name, amen. Verse 17. So from that time Jesus, this is Jesus beginning his public ministry.
It says, from that time Jesus began to preach. He's proclaiming, saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And I think for most people in this room, we've heard something like that before. Or we've heard that said before. Or we've heard that kind of a statement before.
And I think for pretty much everyone in this room, we don't really know what that means. I know for me, like I hear that and I'm like, okay. All right, I don't know what to do with that. Like I don't know. I don't even really know what he's saying. So when he says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It's a lot like when they would send someone. Someone would go before a king. And we're going to look at that in a second. And basically it's, there's a kingdom coming. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And you need to respond.
And so I think for us, we don't really get what repentance is. Repentance kind of has a bad rap. Like we don't really fully grasp what it means, what we're supposed to do with that. So maybe our best, when we think of this declaration, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, is like someone holding a sign that says repent. Like repent, the end is nigh. It's like, well, I don't know what nigh is, but that doesn't sound good.
Or like repent or you will perish. Like those kind of signs. Like I'm dirty and angry. Like they usually look like pretty unkempt. There's, my favorite is the like, repent, you specific person of this specific sin that I happen to be most angry about. So it'll be like, repent, you long-haired hippies.
And it's like, why, why just them? Like why, what you got against those guys? Or like they'll go repent at a specific type of people or a specific, and we just are like, okay, that sounds weird. It's like most of the time I think of repentance. Sometimes I'll think of it in, I'll either think of it in kind of the context I have in scripture, but any outside understanding of where I've seen this kind of declaration, I think of people like angrily shouting on a street corner. And so what we're going to do, if Jesus shows up and the first thing he says is repent for the kingdom's at hand.
Repent for the kingdom is here. I think we need to take some time this morning and figure out, okay, if that's how we respond to Jesus as king, if his kingdom's here and our response is repent, let's find out what repentance is. And so Matthew, who's writing this, doesn't explain much about that. He just says that Jesus declares that. Part of the reason he doesn't explain that is because he's kind of already explained it in chapter 3. And so that's how Jesus begins his ministry.
That's how he begins to declare what our response is. And we're going to jump back to chapter 3. So the beginning of chapter 3, if you've got one of the Bibles on the rows, it should be the same page. If you don't own a Bible, grab one of those and take it with you. That's our gift to you. So this is John the Baptist.
In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I love John the Baptist. And we'll get to see why here in a minute, just from some different things. But he begins preaching in the wilderness.
That always just seemed kind of weird to me. Like someone rides into town and they're like, Hey, um, there's a guy. Like in the wilderness, like on my way in, he was yelling it. There wasn't a whole lot around. He was just yelling. Y'all want to go see what he's doing?
Seemed crazy. Could be fun. Like he's in the wilderness. And it really just kind of means not in the city. So like most people, when you had a message declared, you go to the city.
But he just stays out, kind of does his own thing. Luke's going to say that he wasn't a part of the religious establishment or the political establishment. He was his own thing. But he's in the wilderness declaring, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so this is very similar as what he's declaring is it's when a king would come, when a kingdom was coming, it basically, they would send people ahead of them. And so they would show up to another castle or another kingdom.
And they'd say, Hey, uh, surrender. Cause Xerxes is coming. And he's on his tour day, butt kicking. And you can either be along that tour or you can surrender now before he gets here. So surrender because Xerxes is coming.
And so that's kind of what he's saying is John is declaring, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This kingdom is coming. And this is how you respond. You get to surrender now or you get to, to fight against this. And so it says for this is he talking about John the Baptist 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.
And I'm going to read that section of Isaiah to you really quick. It's an Isaiah 40. If you want to look it up later, I'm going to read verses three through five, just to give you the full extent of what it says when it's talking about John the Baptist, who he is. So in the wilderness, a voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert, a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up. Every mountain and hill be made low.
The uneven ground shall become level in the rough places of plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So it was prophesied beforehand that, that John the Baptist was going to come and declare this. And what he is declaring is a king is coming. We've got to get prepared. You see, when, when kings would travel to certain areas in their kingdom, so it's inside their kingdom, they travel to certain areas, people would go before them and they would prepare the road for them.
So most roads, the Romans had some roads, but when they went to certain areas in kingdoms, there just weren't, there weren't good roads. So there was basically paths that people had walked down or maybe enough horses had ridden down and maybe some carriages. And it just, there were a lot of places where it was, you just kind of winded through what was the most easy way to go. And sometimes it was over things and sometimes it'd be a path. And all of a sudden there was a giant rock. And so people who were walking are going to move the rock.
They're just going to move the path around the rock and go down the hill and up the hill. And so what someone would go ahead into the area and say, a king is coming. We've got to prepare the king's highway because when he comes, he's not going up and down and around. He's got an entourage. He's got his army with him and we need to, to prepare the king's highway. And so they would go ahead of them and say, okay, a rough place places have to be smoothed out.
Big rock stones, trees got to be out of the way. We've got to build a bridge here. We're not messing with this. When the king shows up, we're not messing with having to try to go through this Creek the way y'all go through it. We're building a bridge here. And they would prepare the way for the king.
And so the first thing that we see about repentance, when, when they show up and say, repent for the king, for the king is coming. The first thing we see about repentance is that we actively respond, to Jesus as king, that we actively acknowledge Jesus as king. That's the first step in repentance, because they would show up and say, the king is coming. You change to him. He doesn't change to you. Your ways, your thinking, your system, your setup changes to meet his, not his to meet yours.
And so the first thing about repentance, the first way that we respond to Jesus as king, is we actively acknowledge Jesus as king, which means he's in charge. He has rule and authority and reign. And so you'll hear people say things like, well, God loves me just the way I am. And I love me the way I am. And so God wouldn't show up and make me change, because he loves me the way I am. And the truth is, that's true.
God does love you just the way you are. That's made evident for us throughout scripture. That's what the gospel declares, that God loves us the way we are, but he loves us enough not to leave us there. And so you're making a false dichotomy, to say that God loves me so much, he would never ask me to change, doesn't make any sense. That's not actually how love works. So parents that love their kids don't say, okay, four-year-old, nope, what do you want to eat for dinner?
Candy. Sounds great. That'll be good for you. Do you want to go to sleep? Nope. Cool.
Do whatever you want. That's not love. That's easier. That's not love. Love is, no, you're not eating candy, because that's not good for you. You can have some at certain points when it makes sense.
But that's not your whole diet. And you do have to go to sleep, and you do have to wake up, and we are going to send you to school, even though you don't like it. And when you come home crying, because school's terrible, we'll talk to you about, yeah, it's terrible. You're going back tomorrow. That's love. That's how love works.
And so, to say that God loves me so much, He would never ask me to change, no, what you're saying is, God actually has this vague, fuzzy love towards me that isn't real. No, God loves you so much that He's going to ask you to change. That He's going to step in and take away the candy sometimes, because of what's actually ultimately good for you. See, I heard somebody say this the other day, and I thought it was a really good way to think about this. A lot of times, we think about following Jesus like getting a cat. So it's like, I'm going to follow Jesus, I'm going to be a Christian, I'm going to be a believer, and it's like getting a cat, which is just, my life needs a little bit of something.
It's pretty good. It just needs a little something, a little bit of some warmth and comfort. And so, like you get a cat, like it's going to sleep here, go to the bathroom here, not really do anything else here at all. And then when I've had a bad day, I'll hold it in my lap, and I'll pet it, and it'll make me feel better. And, and then when it, when I don't want to pet it anymore, I'll just toss it to the side, and it'll kind of, we'll coexist. And a lot of people think that's what following Jesus is like.
He'll just be a good addition to my already pretty nice life. And, and when I'm feeling bad, he'll comfort me. And when I need a little bit of warmth, he'll, he'll add that and spruce it up. And I'll, I'll be one of those Jesus people, you know, like, like a cat person. And that'll be good. And it'll help me.
And if, if he starts to get on my nerves, well, I just won't pet him that much anymore or whatever. But Jesus isn't a cat. He's a king. And kings don't coexist. Well, they don't just provide warmth when you want it. It's not how kings work.
So I want to be, because I think it is helpful. If you get to decide what applies, if you get to decide from here, what's real and what's not real and what Jesus means and doesn't mean, if when the Bible is really clear and specifically talks about areas of sin, and you get to say, well, that's not really something I'm going to do right now. Or yeah, I get that the Bible says that, but, but God doesn't really know my circumstances or, or yeah, finances were different. Or yeah, if I had a little more time, if you get to do that, Jesus isn't king. You are. If, if I get to tell Jesus where he can and cannot operate, if I get to tell Jesus what I will and will not do, then he's not king.
I am. And the truth is, who I'm following, worshiping, proclaiming, and saying that is my king and is my Lord is not Jesus. So if on a consistent enough basis, you get to tell God what he will not do, what he cannot do, then you can show up here as much as you want. And you can be in a community group every time that y'all meet, every time y'all have normal rhythms to hang out and share food. You can show up here. And when we're singing, little tears can drip out of your face, but you're not singing to Jesus because he's a king.
I don't know who you're here worshiping, who you're here proclaiming. I don't know who you're acting like you follow, but if he doesn't get to set boundaries, if he doesn't get to tell you when to go and when not to go, if he doesn't get to lead, it's not Jesus. The first thing that happens when we begin to follow Jesus is that we acknowledge him as a king and a king has ultimate authority. That's why it's a very helpful question when someone wants to follow Jesus to say, okay, someone says, I'm ready to be a Christian. Okay. Are you ready to do whatever Jesus tells you to do no matter what?
If he tells you to move, you're ready to move. If he tells you to quit your job, you're ready to quit your job. If he tells you to follow him here, you're ready to follow him there. Because Jesus is a king. Kings don't coexist well. So the first thing we see is that we acknowledge, we actively acknowledge Jesus is king and we change to meet him.
We change our ways to meet his ways. Verse four. Now, John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. He wore a garment of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. The reason they say this is because this is weird. People didn't do this.
And his food was locusts and wild honey. Trader Joe's doesn't have anything on that. Like you think you're, you're green or you're like, I mean, I'm pretty sure that's gluten free right there. He's eating crickets. I don't think there's gluten in those. Like he, the first organic, there you go.
You want to be a proof text right there. If you need to prove to someone that it's okay to be like organic and farmer's market. There you go. Say John the Baptist. It's like John. Uh, so anyway, or belt camel's hair, leather belt, uh, ate locusts and wild honey, lived in the wilderness, yelled at people.
I just, I like John the Baptist. He's great. He probably looked like one of the duck dynasty guys, but more, more Jewish, darker, uh, then, uh, then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him. So everybody starts leaving the cities to go out to hear what he's proclaiming. They were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. So people would show up, they would go, they would hear him proclaim, repent for the King is coming.
You acknowledge him as King. And they would actually walk down into the river where he was. They would confess sin in front of people. They would say, this is where I'm off. This is where I'm broken. This is where I'm wrong.
This is where I need help. This is where I'm twisted. This is where I need a savior. And then he would baptize them as they confessed sin. And so the, it says that all these people are going out to them, confessing their sin. And when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, let me tell you who Pharisees and Sadducees are.
These are the religious elite. These were the respected Jewish leaders. These were the guys in chapter two, when the wise men show up and tell Herod, there's a King. These are the guys he calls in and says, Hey, y'all study the scripture. You know, these are the Bible trivia guys. Like these are the guys that when you were talking about something, they'd be like, actually Malachi says this.
Like they would, those were the, these were those guys. And these were the guys that you asked Bible questions to. These were the guys that were respected religious leaders. It says, when they came out to him, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Um, when we read scripture, there is some cultural distance between us and the people in, in the text. Um, so just to help us out, brood of vipers is, uh, would be considered a, um, what's a cut down, like a mean thing to say to someone.
I know you thought maybe that was like how they greeted each other. Brood of vipers. What's up? Like, no, uh, it was a mean thing. What he was actually pointing to was they understood when he said, you're the son, you're the children of snakes. But there's children of a snake.
What he's saying is, uh, you know, in the garden of Eden when everything was perfect and then a snake showed up and, and led Eve astray and Adam followed. Um, yeah, he's saying, he's saying that was Satan. He's saying you're Satan's children. Automatic bad team. They didn't appreciate this because there's a bunch of people. And then the religious respected elite show up to check things out, to maybe even be baptized.
And he says, you snake babies, you brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee? I love that. Because it means that repentance isn't about our behavior. Can't be. If he yells at these guys, it can't be about what I do.
These guys would have had the old Testament memorized at least the first five books. They brought Jewish children in. They would teach them the first five books. They would memorize it. And if they were good at that, then they got to keep going in school. So the first five books, you know, the books of the Bible that you have a hard time reading.
You know, the books of the Bible that we get to and we're like, all right, I'm going to read the whole Bible Bible reading plan, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, no book of John. I'm going to the book of John. They had it memorized. They were the religious elite. They behaved. They were moral.
They were upright. They looked up to them. And so what we would think, what we think repentance is, is come behave. Come be really good little boys and girls. Repent. Stop, stop being a bad person and start being a good person.
And if that were true, when the Pharisees showed up, he would have said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And the Pharisees would have shown up and he would have said, be like them. Follow them. They're the best. That's not what he says. He says, brood of vipers, who warned you?
And the air was let out of the wilderness. You know how the air can be let out of a room? It was let out of the entire wilderness. And what he declared was, it's not about behavior or good morals. Or being a good little boy and a good little girl. It's about something deeper and more real.
And that's what he says. He said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit. This is verse eight. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. You see, they thought they were good because of who they were. That's why he immediately says, look, they said, no, no, we're Jewish. We're the good guys.
We're the ones who behave. We're the ones who are more. We're the ones who know our Bibles. We're the children of Abraham. They thought they were good because of their lineage, because of their behavior, because they followed really well. They obeyed really well.
They kept the rules really well. And what he says is, God doesn't need you to behave. He doesn't need you to be a certain type of person, because he can raise up those people from rocks. He says, God can raise up children from Abraham, from these stones. And he says, even now the, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. You see, repentance is a root issue.
The first thing we do is we acknowledge that Jesus is King. And then we have to understand that repentance is a root issue. It's not a behavioral issue. The call is not come be good. Come behave. The call is come be systematically, systematically changed, irrevocably altered.
He says, it's a root problem. We spent some time talking about this when we talked in our, uh, idolatry series. And basically Martin Luther, who was a, uh, theologian in Germany, uh, one of the reformers. What he says is when he looked at the 10 commandments, he said that we don't break any of the other 10 commandments until we've broken the first one. The first of the 10 commandments is that you will have no other gods before me. God says I'm God and there are no other gods.
And Martin Luther looks at that and says, okay, we don't do any of the other things. We don't lie. We don't steal. We don't cheat. We don't, we don't defraud people. We don't murder people until we first decided that something is bigger and more important to us than God.
You see, a lot of times we get caught up in sin and we think that the issue is the sin. I lie a lot and I shouldn't lie. That's fruit. The problem is the root. If you have a tree and it has bad fruit, it's not the fruit's fault. It's the root's fault.
You don't buy a better fruit and staple it to the tree. You get a new tree. And so what he's saying is like, so we could both lie. You could lie and I could lie, or we could, we could both lie and we could be lying for completely different reasons. And we could, we could sit in our community groups and we could say, don't lie. It's bad to lie.
You shouldn't lie. But here's the thing. All we're going after is fruit there. We're not actually changing our heart. We're not actually changing the root of the issue. So let's say you're at your house.
Somebody calls you up. I'm like, Hey man. Hey girl. Hey friend. How about that? They're at your house.
They call up. Hey, I'm really needing some help with something. I'm kind of in a tight spot. Are you doing anything? Can you come help me? And you are watching television.
And so you say, because you follow really well, you say, yeah, I've really got some stuff going on. I've got some plans. I'd love to help, but I can't. My schedule is swamped. And you're, you do have plans. Sitting on the couch.
Schedule is swamped. These shows aren't going to marathon themselves. Um, and so you lie and, and you can say, I shouldn't lie. But the truth is you're lying to defend your comfort. But let's say you're in your community group.
You're hanging out with your community group and people are confessing sin and they're talking about how they need to change. And you're just kind of sitting there. Sometimes you get to where it's like, this person's going to talk about where they need to change, where they need to repent, where they need Jesus, where they need the gospel. And it comes to you and you say, yeah, you know, I just, I've been having a hard time reading my Bible lately. And I used to read five chapters and now every day I only read like two. And I just need you all to pray for me.
That may be true. But in this particular situation, you also have a current issue with pornography. But you don't want to talk about that. And you're, you're lying, but you're lying to defend the approval of the people in the group with you. And so we can stand up here and talk about, and they could stand up and say, repent, behave really well, and go after, don't lie, be a good person. But the problem is, your root doesn't change.
So we could talk up here and you could decide, oh, well, if I'm going to be a good Christian, then I need to, to have the approval of all these other Christians and I need to be open about my sin. And so really all you're doing is continuing to worship. Approval is just in a different area. And so John the Baptist shows up and says, this is a root problem. the goal isn't to be really good. The goal is to have your heart changed. So one of the ways to tell us is if we get caught in sin, somebody knows about sin, are we frustrated that they know?
Are we, do we feel bad because people now know about the problem? Or do we feel bad? Do we feel guilty? Do we feel conviction because they're sin and we're broken over sin? Or is it just that people know now? Is it just a problem because, oh, now I got to talk to people about this?
Or is it actually heart level change towards Jesus? You see, they, they behaved really well, but that, that doesn't help. Because their heart didn't love God. it loved a lot of other things. People thinking they were great. People thinking they were smart. Being the best at stuff.
Behaving really well. Putting God in their debt. You know where this shows up? We do a lot of the, um, come to Jesus and he'll make everything great. If you follow Jesus, then your kids will be great little kids. Or if you follow Jesus, then your business will work out.
Then your finances will be good. And so there's some people who, who hop into the church because they're making a deal with Jesus. They're contracting him out. I'll hold up my end of the bargain. I'll behave. I'll be moral.
I'll do good things. I'll vote the right way. Whatever that means. As long as you hold up your end of the bargain. That's why you have a lot of people in the church really mad at God because he's not living up to the promises that he never made. They've just contracted him out.
Their heart doesn't love Jesus. They're not in awe of a God who would step in and rescue them. They haven't changed the route. They're just trying to contract Jesus out. And that's what they were doing. We'll behave.
We'll be good. We'll do these things. And then when God, you show up, you have to love us because we behaved so well. So some people were like, I burned all my bad CDs. I quit going to R rating movies. How could this happen?
I've been showing up every time there was a Sunday thing. And I even started going to that little group. They talk about all the time. And now this is going on. And we're frustrated with God because we contracted him out through our behavior. I'll be good.
And then you pay up. I'll be good. And then everything else gets to be smooth. And John the Baptist looks at those guys and said, brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee? So they needed to repent of their good works.
So they were using to put God in debt. And they needed to change root level, heart level change. Then it gets good. He says this. We're going to jump back up. Verse eight.
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root. And every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So what he says is bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Not bear fruit and that leads to repentance. Not bear fruit, do good things, have good behaviors. And that is repentance. What he says is bear fruit in keeping with it. So when we repent, when we change the root, we have different fruit.
So like in my backyard, I've got like cherry trees that aren't like good cherry trees. They just drop little red things all over my yard. And that's the kind of the fruit that they have. And if I want an apple tree, I plant an apple tree. I don't try to change this cherry tree. Cut out the roots, put a new one in.
And here's what he's saying. He's saying that repentance leads to joy. That root change leads to a fruit change. That's the third thing we're looking at when it has to do with repentance. And it rhymes, so you know it's really important. Root change leads to fruit change.
And so basically, we so often think that God wants good fruit from us, and we work really hard to behave. We work really hard to keep it together. But the root hadn't changed. And here's how fruit works. There is joy in fruit. It's a process.
Cutting out the root is hard. It's difficult. It's painful. Repentance is not easy. But there's joy in fruit.
We don't understand fruit. They use fruit as an example a lot. We don't really get it, because if my involvement with fruit is like, I want an apple, so I go buy them. Like how I pick fruit is I get one of those plastic bags. I'm going to go pick some fruit. And it's super easy.
Like I can get apples all the time. I have no clue when apple season is, because I can always get apples. So I'm pretty sure always is apple season. I know when watermelon comes in, because you can't always get watermelon. But we don't get fruit.
And so like my dad, he plants fruit trees. I was at his house, and he was showing me his fruit trees, and he was like, look at this, look at this, look at my pear tree. See, it's got pears coming in. And I'm like, those don't look like pears. Y'all aren't going to eat those, are you? Like that's not.
And he's super excited, because fruit takes a long time. And you get excited when fruit shows up. See, root change is difficult, it's painful, it's hard, and then you celebrate when fruit shows up. There's joy when fruit shows up. And here's the thing. You have two options when it comes to hanging out with a church family.
You can pretend, because we don't get to see root. Shows up every once in a while, but we don't get to see root. Root doesn't show up on a regular basis. Fruit does. So you can go to the store, you can fabricate what fruit should look like, and you can staple it to your tree, and you can maintain that for a little while.
Or you can go through the process of having your heart level, deep level, root change, and then fruit will come. Because root change leads to fruit. That's how it works. And let me tell you something, if you're in here, and your heart hasn't been changed to love Jesus, if you haven't had a root change, keeping up fruit is unbearable. And very, very difficult. But if your heart's been changed towards Jesus, it's a natural thing that happens.
That we begin to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So some of you are saying, I love Jesus. Deep heart level, I want Jesus. Let me tell you something, growth is coming. The Bible says we're predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, which means you're going to slowly look more like Jesus. And so for some of us, you just need encouragement to know that growth is coming.
That the fruit's going to look weird and odd, and you probably shouldn't eat it at first. And then it's going to continue to grow and continue to come, and you're going to continue to look more and more like Jesus. And for the people in this room that are just pretending, just hanging out, just trying to behave, just being really moral to get God on your team, you're going to wear yourself out, and you can't keep that up. So repentance is acknowledging Jesus as King. It's having a root level change. And then fruit comes.
Root change leads to us bearing fruit, which means we actually do begin to obey. We actually do begin to love things that we didn't used to love. We actually do want to read Scripture. When before you became a believer, you had no desire to do that. We actually do want to confess and repent of sin. We actually do find joy in that.
We actually do want to be with church family. We actually do want to show up early in the morning to hang out because we've been changed. We enjoy being around these people. Fruit is beginning to come, and it's not anything that we're working at or doing. So here's what he says.
This is how this is beautiful. Verse 11. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I. He's talking about Jesus. Whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
What he's referring to there is that you will be changed by Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. You will be a believer, and the Holy Spirit of God will come rescue you and change you, or you will go to hell. That is what he is saying. He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear the threshing floor. That's where they would have wheat.
And gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. The picture there is that wheat has chaff, and wheat is heavier than chaff. And so you would take a big fork and toss it in the air, and the chaff would blow away, and the wheat would stay. And you would sit there and do this. And then you would burn the chaff, and you would keep the wheat. And what he says is, Jesus the King is showing up, and that's what he's going to do.
He's going to keep the wheat and burn the chaff. And they're all together, and he knows the difference. That's what he says. And here's how this is beautiful and wonderful. So you look at this, and you say, well, repentance sounds hard and terrible.
And yeah, I get the fruit thing, but that's far off. And how do I get to this root issue? How do I change my heart? He baptizes with the Holy Spirit. He changes your heart. You see, John the Baptist did something really weird.
He baptized people. And that was really weird. We've got a baptism coming up, and we're doing this because John the Baptist did this. And because Jesus, after John the Baptist, did this. But he baptized people.
And here's why this is really weird. That's why he's called the Baptist, by the way, because he baptized people. It would be the same as calling him like John the Baptizer. He wasn't like denominationally affiliated, just so you know. They had baptism, but here's how baptism worked. I'm Jewish.
You're a Gentile. You want to be Jewish. You want to get in on the right stuff. You want to start following well. Here's what you get to do. You get to step into a river, and you get to wash yourself, signifying that you're cleaning yourself up, you're making yourself nice, and now you can come join the right team.
And here's what John the Baptist did. It wasn't just for Gentiles. It was for everybody. So Pharisees were invited to be baptized, and Jews were invited to be baptized, and Gentiles were invited to be baptized, and he baptized because he was signifying, you're not cleaning yourself up. You need someone else to step into this situation and to accomplish this for you. And he said he's coming, and he's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit.
He's not just going to signify. He's actually going to do it. He's going to change you fundamentally. You see, John the Baptist was pointing that you needed help. You needed someone to step into your situation and clean you up for you because you were never going to accomplish it. And if you were religious and moral and good behavior, you needed to repent.
And if you were a sinner and you were out, you were an outcast, you were pushed to the side, you needed to repent. Everybody needs to repent and have Jesus wash you. You see, Jesus stepped on the earth, and he lived a perfect, sinless life as a king, and then instead of headed to a throne, instead of setting up his eternal reign like they thought he was going to, he died on a cross. And we actually as believers are washed by his blood. We are changed by his blood that was shed for us. You see, what he did was he took our sin, he took our religion, he took all the things that we've tried to put him in our debt and all the things we've tried to use to run from him, and he died for them.
He was crucified for them. And that as believers, when we're baptized, what we're saying is, I was buried with Christ, just like he was dead and buried, and I was raised again up by him, not by me. I've been washed clean by him, not by me, that my sin died with him, and that I've been risen, and I've given new life and righteousness by him, that Jesus swapped places with me. You see, the call isn't come be good. It's come have Jesus change you. It's not come behave, it's come be changed, have the root changed by Jesus.
You can never accomplish this, you can never work it out on your own, Jesus can, and only Jesus can. That's what repentance is. And that's why there's joy there, and hope there, and life there, because it's not about our ability to be good at it. Because it's about what Jesus has already done on our behalf. That we acknowledge him as king, and then we have him change us fundamentally. You see, there were people that, in their understanding, couldn't be forgiven.
They were out. They'd already failed, they'd already messed up, and the only way they could be back, was to be good again, to work really hard, to change their ways, and some of them were just out, like there's no way back in for you. And that's why all of Judea, and Jerusalem came out to him, because he was proclaiming, everybody can be welcomed back in. That's why repentance is really good news. If there is no forgiveness, there is no repentance. So what he's saying is, it'd be like if you ran away from home, or strung out on drugs, and somebody came to you and said, hey man, I was at your house the other day, and I talked to your dad.
And he said he wants you back. And you don't have to pay him back. You don't have to clean yourself up, and get a job, and get off drugs, and show back up respectably. He just wants you back now. In debt, broken, messed up, and in need of a whole lot of help. That's good news.
That you're welcomed back now. Most of us feel like, we've got to clean ourselves up, work really hard, and show up in a respectable manner, so that God would welcome us. And those are the guys, that he calls brood of snakes. We've got a lot of weddings coming up, in our church. A good bit of them. And I'm pretty excited, I like weddings.
I get to do premarital counseling, which is a lot of fun. Because you just get to talk to people, get to know people, get to ask questions, get in their business, annoy them. It's great. One of the things we talk about, in premarital counseling is, we're going to try to have a whole lot, of really awkward conversations now, so that they're less awkward later, when you're married. So we're going to talk about, how to argue, we're going to talk about finances, we're going to talk about sex, and the next time, y'all have to have a big in-depth conversation, about finances or sex, you'll think, at least Chet's not here, and we're not sitting, at a waffle house.
It's just, all together feels better, as a way to have a conversation. And so, but I'm really excited about it, and here's what I know to be true. At a wedding, so we'll stand up, we'll be at a wedding, and there'll be groom, and bride, and they'll be like decked out, and looking, looking nice, and like sweating, and freaking out, and they have no clue what's going on. And so, they put all this work, and effort into making this wedding really nice, and then remember zero of it, because they're freaking out, and like hyperventilating and stuff. But here's what I know is true.
I got to do, my brother's wedding, Logan and Elise, are in my community group. I got to do their wedding in January, and no one, no one was sitting there, while we were performing the wedding, and going, look at how great, a husband, Logan is. Look at him, crushing that husbanding. Nobody was doing that. He was in the process of getting married. Nobody was looking at him, and going, look, he's wearing a suit.
Check. He's repeating those things, that that preacher says. He's crushing this husband thing. Nobody's doing that. Because that's not the test of a good husband. I wish it was.
That'd be sweet. Can you put on pants? Yes. Can you repeat after me? Yes. Word for word?
Almost. That's not the test of a good husband. A good husband is lifetime, devotion, work, effort, repentance, messing up, admitting that you messed up, messing up again, waiting longer, then admitting that you messed up again. That's what, that's what a good husband is. A husband is proven, not in an hour of cleaning themselves up, and repeating after somebody, but it's proven over the course of time. As they prove that they love, as they prove that they serve, as they, you get to see, does this guy love his wife, by his actions over time?
And so the truth is, in Christianity, what he's saying is that your heart will be changed by Jesus as you repent. The root will be changed. It's not your ability to clean yourself up and to repeat some words. That's not how it works. That's not what following Jesus is about. That's not, that's not how this operates.
It's you continually following as you're changed, as you love. It's not your ability to be dutiful. So no, no husband on their 25th anniversary, like shows up with flowers and it's like, honey, 25 years ago today, I repeated words. And I signed something that's kept at the courthouse. And so I've stayed married to you because I signed something that's kept at the courthouse. And I've tried to be a good husband because divorce is bad.
And I bought you flowers because husbands are supposed to do that every once in a while. And I guarantee that 25 years from now, I'll still be holding up my end of the bargain. You're welcome. There's not a female in this room who just got teary eyed. And some of us are acting like that's how we follow Jesus. Jesus, I read your rules and I've been sticking to them.
And I'm going to keep sticking to them because I'm supposed to. And that's good. You're welcome. No. That's not how it works. That's not what we're called to.
That's not how the Holy Spirit changes you. That's not what marriage looks like. Marriage is love. I did the right things. I stuck around when it was terrible because I love. Because I care about you.
Because I'm willing to fight for this. These 25 years, we've been married for 25 years. Eight good ones. And I'm here. And I'm going to be here. Because I've been changed by you.
I love you. I'm going to be here. I'm going to do for you. I'm going to work for you. I'm going to serve. I'm going to do.
And that's what he's saying, that you have a heart level, root level change, that you love Jesus. And you're like, this is difficult. And this is hard. And you're king. And I'm going to follow. And I'm going to be here.
Because you've changed me. Because you died for me. Because you've rescued me when I didn't deserve it. Because repentance is your grace that I can be forgiven. That I'm not out. And I'm not too far gone.
I'm not too broken. And that's what the call is to follow Jesus as king. He shows up and he doesn't coexist well, but he loves greatly. And he died to rescue us and to make us his. And that means we change. Because he changes us.
Because on our good days and on our bad days, he paid for our sin. Period. Period. And it's not about our ability to behave or to be good. It's about what he's done for us. And the invitation is for everyone to repent.
Band's going to come back up here and here's what we're going to do. We're going to do something differently from what we've done in the past than what we do on a regular basis. The invitation always, as we follow Jesus, is an invitation to repentance. It's an invitation to see where Jesus is king and where we're not following well and to change. To acknowledge that we're broken, to acknowledge that we're messed up and that we need him. And so we always have opportunities for repentance.
We gather together in our community groups for repentance. But specifically today, John the Baptist and Jesus both begin by declaring, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is a king and he does have a kingdom and our response is repentance. Which is acknowledging that he's king. Acknowledging, confessing sin where we're broken and where we're off and knowing that we get to because of what he's already done. That he has died for us and that he will change us at a root level.
He won't just help you behave, he'll change your heart. And so the people in this passage came from their cities and they would stand on the bank of the Jordan and then it says they would come down into the water and they would confess sin and they would be baptized. And they were overjoyed at the fact that they were welcomed in. See, they thought they were out. They thought there was no way they could be good enough. Some of them were overjoyed that they'd been working really hard to prove themselves and they didn't have to.
That it wasn't about their ability to clean themselves up. So here's what we're going to do today that's different than what we usually do. We're actually going to, as we sing this last song, you're going to come out from your chair and you're going to come here and you're going to confess sin and talk to Jesus. So we've got a baptism coming up, Raz mentioned it earlier, we've got a baptism coming up October 19th which is where we're going to get together and celebrate that repentance is still offered to us and that Jesus died on our behalf and that we can have life and hope and joy in him. That he'll change our root and that we'll begin to bear fruit and begin to grow and begin to have joy as we follow him.
But see, they would walk down into the water and they would confess sin and I want to offer us the same opportunity to come down. If you come out from behind your chair and you walk up here, everyone in this room will know that you're a sinner and everyone in this room is a sinner who needs Jesus and we will celebrate that Jesus still saves, that he still rescues, that he still changes hearts, that it's not about our work or our effort or our goodness, it's not our ability to stick, our ability to be great and that we're not too far gone. So as we sing this next song, the invitation is to do exactly what they did over 2,000 years ago, which was to walk down and confess, I need Jesus. I'm a sinner.
I need help. I need to be welcomed back in. The invitation is repent for the kingdom is at hand. There is a king and he is good and he did give up his throne to go to a cross so that we could be welcomed in. So that's what we're going to do.
Maybe some Christians in this room and you need to confess, you need to repent, you need to talk to Jesus. There may be some people in this room who've been pretending, you've been working really hard, you've been taking all the time and effort it takes to staple fruit to a tree. You need to ask Jesus to change your heart. And then, on October 19th, we'll do exactly what they did and we'll baptize and celebrate that Jesus is alive and that he saves and that he works and that he does his will and that he changes us. So y'all stand.
Let's sing. And don't fight it. You need to come confess, you need to come repent. It's open. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. We are invited in.
God, we thank you for your grace. We ask you that your Holy Spirit would move, that you would continue to change us, to draw us to yourself. God, that you would keep us as you change our hearts, pull us towards you. Lead us all into repentance, God, as we respond to you as king. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.