Two Kingdoms
Transcript
It's good to see y'all this morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. This is the first week of our Give Series. And so every time around this time of year, as soon as Thanksgiving's over, we have a Give Series where we intentionally give money away. So Merry Christmas.
This is a wonderful time of year. Here we are meant to celebrate well. We're supposed to. One of the things in the Old Testament that I was thinking about a good bit from Thanksgiving and into this time of year, one of the things about the Old Testament that God commanded His people to do was to save money so that they could help the poor, so that they could take care of the priests and the temple who did not have an inheritance among them, but they were supposed to take care of the Acts of worship and what they were supposed to do as a nation, and they were supposed to save money so that they could celebrate.
There were times where they were supposed to spend money to feast, to enjoy the good things that God had given them, to celebrate how He had blessed and provided. And as we go into Christmas, this is one of those times where we get to do that. And Christians ought to celebrate, well, we should have some of the best food and some of the best parties. You should gain some weight. You'll lose it in January. I believe in you.
Look, I'm a Carolina fan. Good things always happen in the future. We'll get it together. It'll be nice. January us is going to crush this. Right now, let's eat some food and celebrate.
We're meant to do that, but the danger for us is that we would get so caught up in that, so caught up in the things that are right in front of us, what is tangible, what we can see, that we would lose the thread. We would lose that our celebration is meant to help us look upward. It's meant to roll up in praise. It's meant to help us see beyond the horizon. It's meant to celebrate something of great significance that has an eternal aspect to it. And if we lose that, then our celebration becomes very dull.
It's very earth-centered. It's just here and now, and we miss the point. And so in that tension, we always as a church have had a gift series where we intentionally try to celebrate well while reminding us and remembering together that we are eternal people with an eternal purpose and we want to give some money away. Rather than just having it all terminate here, we want to send some on ahead. We want to live as eternal people. And so we ought to celebrate well and we ought to be generous and give and remember the eternality of this season.
And so that's our hope as we do this, that we would help walk that tension well and that we would celebrate well and walk generously, live generously. And I didn't mean to just give all those t-shirts a shout out, but we would live as generous people as we move forward together. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to talk about this section of text we're getting to look at today. Lord, we pray that you would bless us as your people, that we would take this time to celebrate well. This would be a season of joy, of welcoming one another, of hospitality, of enjoying the good food, the good time that we get to have.
And we pray, Lord, that it would be a season of generosity, that we would not get so focused on what is right in front of us that we would miss the point. And so may we celebrate well and may we live well in generosity with an eternal hope in mind. We pray that as we study this scripture today, that you would help us grow in that and that you would bless this gift project that we're going to get to focus on this year. In Jesus' name, amen. Turn to Matthew chapter 2. So what we did, we're working through the book of Matthew.
We just skipped Matthew 1 and 2. When we started, we started in Matthew chapter 3 and we're going to look at Matthew 1 and 2 for the next four weeks as we celebrate Christmas because these are more Christmassy type passages. They deal with the birth of Jesus. And so rather than doing them first and then hitting Christmas again, we just said, we'll save that. We'll start. We'll do it out of order.
Some people probably appreciated that and some of you are probably frustrated by it. But now, Matthew 1 and 2 for the next four weeks. Today we're going to look at King Herod. Then we'll look at Joseph. Then we'll look at the wise men.
And so we'll read through some of the same passages together, repeatedly focusing on different areas. And hopefully it'll help us celebrate well and push us towards generosity. In C.S. Lewis' book, The Silver Chair, there's a prince named Prince Rillion. And he is captured by a witch who can also turn into a snake or a snake who also turns into like a beautiful enchantress witch lady. He's captured and she takes him underground.
So he was supposed to be the prince. He was eventually going to be the king over this wonderful kingdom that is joyous and welcoming and at peace that has good relationships between all the people. He was going to be the king over this kingdom. But he's captured and she enchants him so that he no longer knows who he is and he begins to serve her and she takes him underground and they begin to build an underground army. And the plan is with the underground army, dig a big tunnel, pop up in the middle of the kingdom that he would have been king over and overtake it. So he's actually working to try to conquer a kingdom that would have been freely given to him because he's lost who he is.
And there's this tension between this kingdom of darkness, this underground kingdom that's trying to conquer this kingdom of light, this kingdom that lives out in the sun and this story unfolds. They have to send some people to go try to find him and get him back. And as I read this, I realize that this has a lot of similarities to the actual world that we live in and what we meet in the scriptures as the Lord tells us what this was supposed to look like, that we were meant to be sons and daughters of the king, that we were meant to live at peace with one another, that he was going to freely give us all good things to enjoy and that we've been tricked. That the enemy of God, Satan, has blinded our eyes so that we only focus on what we can see and we actually fight, claw for what God would freely give us.
And we try to, as best we can, defend our own little territory and claim our own little kingdom. We're blind, we're living in a kingdom of darkness, and we're fighting for what God has openly, freely invited us into. And there's these two kingdoms that are at war. There's this kingdom that can only see what's right in front of it, and there's this kingdom that's meant to be more. And we're actually getting to look at some of that play out today as we look at two kings and how they interact with one another. So, Matthew chapter 2.
We're going to look at these two kingdoms and these two kings. And hopefully, as we look at this together, we will see that we get to make a choice, that we get to choose which kingdom we're going to live in and which king we're going to follow. Verse 1. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men came from the east, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. All right, so they come to Jerusalem where the king is.
Jesus is born in Judea in the area that the king Herod had jurisdiction. It's really interesting. He's born into the Roman Empire under the jurisdiction of the emperor and king Herod. Now, king Herod was ruthless and very politically savvy. He's one of the only people who in the Roman Empire gets to have the title of king. Most of them get titles like governor.
They get a title that clearly says they're underneath the emperor Caesar. And Herod gets the title king because he's politically savvy and he's ruthless. And the Jewish people were hard to manage and so the Romans were capitulating a little bit because they were having consistently difficult times with the Jewish people. And so, King Herod was an Edomite related to the Jewish people but not fully Jewish. So, when he wanted to make his run for king, he wanted to get this power from the Romans, he married a lady who was from the Maccabees. None of this is in the scripture.
I'm just giving you some background on here. When he did, when he married her, he got rid of his current wife and son. Just got rid of them so that he could move forward. after a time of being married with this lady, married to this lady, they had sons. She was well-liked, was growing in power. The sons were well-liked and were growing in power and so he eventually, over time, had her put to death and had his two sons put to death because he did not want to have anyone try to take away from him his position and he felt like his sons were a threat. Now, can you imagine that?
That he so could only see what was right in front of him that he had no desire for his sons to have a throne after him or for him to manage that well. He just saw everyone around him as a threat. He killed two of his sons. As he got older and sicker, seven days prior to his death, he had another one of his sons put to death. So he eventually killed three of his sons.
The emperor Augustus actually made a joke and it's funnier in Greek because it's a play on words. But I don't know Greek and most of you don't either. So I'm going to say it in English where it's not a play on words. But he says it would actually be better to be Herod's pig than his son. Because Herod's Jewish so they wouldn't have eaten a pig. But his sons were in danger.
So he said he'd rather be his pig than his son. Those words are similar in Greek. So he was ruthless. And so they come to him. And this is the king that Jesus is born under. They come to him.
The wise men come to him. They come to J. And it says, verse 2, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him. Okay, so it says wise men from the east. These weren't just like smart people.
Wise men was kind of this class of people that would have been kind of around a throne usually that would have given a consult to a king. So they're probably wealthy. They bring very good gifts which indicates that. So they most likely rode up on horses or camels. They were an entourage. They show up.
They go to the palace and they say, Where is the king who has been born? And Herod's like, You're 50 years late. Here I am. It took you a long time to get here. I'm the king. Like, he's the only king he knows of.
And so he, it says that they come to him and they say, Where is the king who's been born? King of the Jews. We saw his star when it rose. Meaning they studied the sky and they're saying creation has actually put on display that this king has come. Now if you know anything about Herod, you can imagine how excited at this news he was.
When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. I think had they had a better king, Jerusalem maybe wouldn't have been troubled. But when Herod's troubled, everybody's going to be troubled. But all of them are stirred up. What does this mean? Herod's troubled.
And it says this, And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So he calls the people who study the Old Testament and he says there are prophecies about this. They said they've seen his star. They've said the king of the Jews has been born. Where is he supposed to be born? His immediate assumption is this is the Christ, the Messiah, the promised one, the one who God's been saying over and over would come in the line of David who would set up a kingdom that will last forever.
This is the one who's coming. So he calls together his book reading, Bible studying friends says, tell me where he's supposed to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him bring me word that I too may come and worship him.
That's surprising. That's an excellent response. So King Herod hears that the Messiah has been born and he gets together. The scribes, the people who have studied the Bible said, where is he to be born? He tells the wise men, go find him. When you find him, come let me know because I want to worship him too.
That's how a king ought to respond if you're the king of the Jews and the Messiah is born. You ought to understand who he is, understand who God is and say, my role now is to help facilitate this and make this go well. Seems very out of character for Herod but good for him. Verse 9, after listening to the king they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshipped him.
They saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their treasures they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod they departed to their own country by another way. So God steps in and says don't go talk to Herod. Now when they
Had departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph that's Jesus' adoptive father we'll spend some time talking about him next week in a dream and said rise take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. I knew it!
When I went to college my younger brother got really into the TV show Mari and my parents had Teva and when I would come home he would have saved sections of his highlight reel of Mari shows and he would like have written down and he would have certain ones he wanted me to watch and so in college I got really into the TV show Mari I couldn't just say
That I had to blame it on my brother first but in Mari they do two things they do paternity tests which are always delightful to watch and they also do lie detector tests and so he'll read the results and so when Herod says this you can almost hear Mari saying the test confirmed that was a lie you had no intention of worshipping Jesus he just wanted to know where he was so that he could destroy him
Now follow the logic here let's think with Herod here for a second wise men come from another country and they tell you that the stars have moved and said king of the Jews has been born maybe you don't understand how they go about figuring that out I wouldn't but that's what they say we've come because we saw a star we're here to worship the king of the Jews
Now you don't know anything about this you don't know that there's been a king born you have no desire for this Herod's thinking okay I don't want another king I want to defend my kingdom I mean he wants to defend his kingdom so much so that he'll kill his own children like he then he thinks okay well if creation's involved probably
The promised Messiah from the Old Testament that God creator of the world has been telling us forever he was going to send so he calls together the scribes he says where is the Christ supposed to be born and his plan is kill the Messiah that's his plan it would make sense to me if he just thought this is nonsense like if it just said
He thought no don't know who that is like it would make sense to me if he just rejected it but he actually believes enough to say search the books tell me which city the Christ is supposed to be born in he understands enough to say this is actually the Christ this is actually the Messiah if the stars are involved it's him and then his plan is to defend his kingdom against creator of the world
Not a good plan that's his plan that's surprising to me but that's what he comes up with that's what he's going to do 14 and he rose that's Joseph and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt
I called my son just a quick tag we're going to spend more time on Joseph and the wise men in the coming weeks so I'm skipping a lot of things here because we're just focusing on Herod so if you're really interested in that come back we'll talk about it in the next couple weeks then Herod when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men became furious I mean it is in their name
They're wise so you should have seen it come and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah a voice was heard in Ramah weeping in loud lamentation Rachel weeping for her children she refused to be comforted
Because they are no more so he sent to Bethlehem and the surrounding area and anyone any child that had not hit their third birthday any male child that had not hit their third birthday he had executed in our church family that would be eight children that area is not Bethlehem was not a big city it was not a huge area that it was covering but we're talking probably
In the 30 range and I can't even imagine someone coming to my home by presidential decree hand your son over I got a son who hadn't hit two yet he would be included in this he sent through an entire area and just slaughtered infants to protect his kingdom that's heinous it lines him up with Pharaoh who was doing this
To the Jewish people it's wicked but all he can see is the defense of what is right in front of him the enjoyment of what is right in front of him holding on to his power holding on to his position and having what he can see and touch and feel and he'll go to any length he can to keep it verse 19 and on says that when Herod died an angel came told Joseph they could go back
And they go back and there's two kings in this story and there's two kingdoms in this story and we've been reading ahead so we know what Jesus is going to be like and the type of kingdom he's going to have we've got King Herod and his earthly kingdom that he's doing anything he possibly can to defend and we've got Jesus who's a much better king with a much better kingdom Jesus comes and he starts to teach his disciples
About the kingdom of heaven and he talks about who's welcome who's brought in the weak the mourning those who are broken and hurting and far from God they're welcomed they're brought in we actually see as Jesus goes to the cross that he who was king who was ruling gave up his throne
So that we might have life and you have Herod who will take your life so that he might have his throne we have Jesus who will give up his position so that he can join us be crucified for us to welcome us in and Herod who will
Defend his position no matter what it costs you see Jesus consistently talks to his disciples and tells them to look beyond the horizon tells them to look to what they cannot see what is not right in front of them because
He is the king of heaven an eternal kingdom where there's joy where there's hope where there's life where there's fullness where there's all the good things we were meant to have and Herod's just fighting for what he can have right now and we get to
Choose because it's easy right now the kingdom of Herod and the posture of Herod see I read this and I think I'm not like Herod because that's the easiest thing to think I'm not like that I wouldn't do those things
But the reality is I'm closer and you're closer to being like Herod than we'd care to admit because it's very easy for us to be caught up in what affects me what do I enjoy what harms me what will mess with
My life and the good things that I have and let me defend it I think if you'd look back at some of my prayers and some of your prayers they're pleading with God to not mess with our territory to not
Take from us what we feel like he owes us to not encroach upon us that at some points we're actually talking to God and fighting against God in some ways the way that Herod was whoa whoa whoa whoa
Don't mess with that this is my zone that it's really easy for us to get caught up and worried about what we can grab and what we can have now and to miss what we're invited into to go back
To the story I told at the beginning we're we're the prince who can be tricked into fighting for what would be freely given to us who can be tricked into
Living a small underground life in the darkness with the hopes of tooth and nail clawing out what Jesus came to offer life joy hope position freedom fullness it's what Jesus talks
About one of the places Jesus talks about this a lot is money it's our gift series surprise do you know I was going to get the money do you see it coming Matthew Jesus talks about this in Matthew 6 he's talking about money he's talking
About possessions he's talking about how we treat what is in front of us how we treat our lives and he says this do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal alright how much
Are we told daily lay up for yourself treasures on earth how much are we told daily through advertisement through our own thoughts as we see other people enjoying things the goal of life the good life the hope of life the way to win at life
Is to lay up treasures on earth earth I know I sing that sweet tune to myself all the time look at somebody oh that'd be nice wouldn't it be good if one day one day I'm gonna have
One day we'll we'll get one day that's the hope treasures on earth I could just have this Jesus just flat out says don't do that moth and rust destroy herod was was the
King of this because he did not even want to leave a legacy or a lineage to his children we at least can see beyond our last
Breath most of the time most of the time people who are laying up treasures for themselves are like my kids can have it when
I'm gone here is like nope because I think they're going to try to enjoy it while I'm here I just want everything to be
Great until I'm gone I read this week studying up on Herod and one of the last decrees he gave was that his military
Would go through the area of his jurisdiction when he died on the day of his death would go through the area of his
Jurisdiction and kill every first born son because he thought it was likely people would be happy if he died and so he said
Go kill every first born son he died they did not do that because it was crazy but that was his plan but we
In the spirit of Herod can get caught up in what can I have now what can I enjoy now what makes life good
Now that's the point Jesus says don't do that isn't it refreshing how clear Jesus is on stuff were you thinking about doing that
Yeah don't do that all that stuff is going to fail you you ever get something new you ever have like a really old
Ratty couch and the only thing that bothered you about it was that it looked gross maybe like it was real gross and you were
A little embarrassed by it you ever get a new couch and now you're stressed out over defending your couch like it's like either way like I have a ratty
Couch I don't want my guest to sit on that now I have a new couch well you can sit on it but you
Better sit on it right and don't go plopping down on it and put that a new TV you also probably need to go ahead and
Get a fire stick or a Roku or whatever because it was fine to have the little antenna sticking up behind your old TV I bought
My wife some mums and after I bought her some mums mums are flowers people seem confused I bought her some mums and after I
Bought some mums she was like we need to get a stand book there's a book called if you give a mouse a cookie
And it's about how said I'm gonna write a book called if you buy your wife some mums because I bought some $10 mums
It cost us like $60 it was the craziest thing that's how it is those mums are dead in my backyard now it's okay to have
Some enjoyment of things I'm not saying that it's wrong but he's saying don't have your treasure here that's some king hered stuff but
Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys where thieves do not break in and steal for where your
Treasure is there will your heart be also can I tell y'all a beautiful story a better story king hered finds out that the
Messiah is born and he says I'm king for such a time as this let's pave the way for the messiah let's do everything
We possibly can let's find him let's protect him let's get him ready if he's going to be the king of the Jews let's
Make a plan here and he moves out of the way and then one day when Herod dies he's welcomed into that messiah's kingdom
And he's offered freely everything he would have fought for that's a better story it's not the one we get but right now we're getting to
Decide where are we going to be which story are we going to be a part of are we going to lay up treasures here that are nice here they're nice
No doubt about it probably nicer in our day and age than any other time I read about King Solomon in the Old Testament it
Says that the Queen of Sheba came and visited him and it says there was no other time in Israel's history where there were
Spices in Jerusalem like when Solomon was there after Sheba came and I'm like I can get on every once in a while I
Sit at my house and I think Solomon would have loved to have these digs they're nice and we can enjoy them and they're
Meant to be enjoyed as we look at a good God who is above us at a horizon that is beyond the one we
Can see we're meant to see an eternity and put some hope in an eternity and be welcomed into the place where our heart
Has been all alone you're supposed to give your heart to Jesus give it to his kingdom and when you die meet Jesus and
Meet the king who owns your heart in the kingdom where your heart has been all alone that's what he says lay up for
Yourself treasures in heaven because where your treasure is there your heart will be that's true and we can send things ahead through sacrificing
Not in the way that we used to have to appease the way the sacrifices worked where you were appeasing to try to atone for your sin no but just giving
Some things up he talks in this section in Matthew 6 he talks about praying where nobody gets to see you he talks about
Giving where nobody knows about it he actually says it messes it up you're getting treasure on earth when you give and everybody knows
About it I'd love to see a hospital building that says hospital and you're entering in the east wing and not just the McDaniels
Owens wing because whoever does that whoever gets to give all the buildings that I went to school every building had somebody's name slapped
On it because that was the person who paid for it would be nice if it was girls dorm number two somebody was generous
Just for the sake of generosity but do you get to give without anybody knowing about it so that you're not elevated so you're
Not held up high you get to serve you get to pray you get to labor he says not even a cup of cold
Water that's given to somebody because if cold water counts kid city counts I mean that we get to serve so this time of
Year when money feels tight when there's a desire to use our finances to make everything around us good we say yeah do that
As you celebrate who Jesus is and we say don't forget we're citizens of a better kingdom and send some money on ahead move your
Treasure out from under the tree move your heart so when you meet Jesus that's where your heart will have been the whole time
We get to write a better story than King Herod wrote I get the honor of introducing our give series projects this year they're
A little bit different and we get to do something a little bit different this year than we've done in the past so I'm excited we've got a lot
Going on right now with us trying to move to Casey and so this is even more fun for us because there's a real
Part of me that was like we got a ton of things going on with Casey and a lot of things to pay for y'all been
In that building it is beautiful that we are getting to move to a facility where there's a roof and where there's space and
Where the Lord has just in some ways just promoted us elevated us because how long would it have taken us to actually pay
For a place even like that but you walk in there and you are like we got some work to do some cleaning some
Painting for those of y'all who miss the green carpet that used to be in here I have got good news for you that
Place is green green and for those of you who maybe are color blind it's brown it's nice brown but they've everything over there needs
Work part of me was like why don't we just put our efforts there and then it was like no why don't we do
What we're always supposed to do just give some stuff away just send something that doesn't have anything to do with us that we just
Get to bless and not really get to partake in we get two projects this year we don't usually do two we're doing two
And we're going to give some money a church one Sunday they are planting a church in Charlotte so we just went to them
They're part of the grassroots network we help train and send church planters they've been over at midtown getting trained up they're about to
Go out they're taking 37 people with them which sounds awesome that are going to move to Charlotte to help plant a church that's a
Way better way to plant a church than the way we did so I hardly encourage doing that method than the one we went
With worked out but it's not the best one 37 people already moving up there getting jobs trying to be missionaries in that area
And we just went and said hey how can we help you out and they said well we're going to move we're going to be groups
That's the grassroots network does that we send in leaders we send in groups people to just be missionaries in the area we're going
To do groups first and then at some point they're going to want to gather and we said okay can we help with the gathering
And they said yes so here's some gathering costs here's our plan for them like I said we got two this one's happening in
Charlotte the cool thing we're here's the plan if we can raise fifteen hundred dollars we will give them an iMac we'll give them
Fifteen hundred dollars they'll buy an iMac for their gathering so they'll be able to run some of the stuff they're going to do so
They're already being in groups on mission but when they gather together there's a few things they want to get and so if we get
Three thousand dollars we will get them an iMac and a sound board so that when they get started they already have that they'll
Be blessed with that from our church so that they can just get started and worry about spending their money in other places working
On some other things if we get five thousand dollars they will also get speakers so everything is included if you hit five thousand
It's iMac sound board and speakers because at three thousand dollars they got a sound board but nothing that sends out sound so at
Five thousand dollars that sound board does some stuff and if we're able to do seventy five hundred dollars they'll get all the music
Equipment they need we said what will it take for y'all to do a gathering and they said seventy five hundred dollars I love
That I love that they're way more worried about having groups be on mission having people be missionaries and they said when we get
Together we'll need some stuff but not a ton of stuff you'll notice they left off the lasers and the fog machine so it'll be
Good worship it won't be great but they'll have maybe they smuggled it in they just said all music equipment maybe it's in there
Maybe they got things that will shoot glitter I don't know so if we can do $7,500 you'll have the opportunity to give to
Give directly to this we can do $7,500 from our church family we will send them off with everything they need to as they
Get started and when it makes sense they'll have to find a location they'll have to pay some rent but they'll have the equipment
They need to gather together and make much of Jesus together in Charlotte and I think that's a really cool thing we get to
Do and we'll get to as we give money away give to the kingdom give to some speakers we'll never hear sound out of
Possibly that we'll never get to be a part of but we'll just get to know there's some people worshiping Jesus just like we'll
Get to worshiping all together later and we're going to help them do that that's the first one first ones in the U.S. it's
In Charlotte we're helping send out a church plant the second one is in Minya Egypt so we worked with 1040 Hope last year
To sponsor a church plant in Minya and we were actually able to raise their entire year budget plus buy tuk-tuk they came back
Later and said since we got all this covered can we get some money from our people and instead of doing a tuk-tuk can
We do a van or a bus and we said sure sounds great so they did that then we sent a team to Minya
A handful of our church family to help do a conference over there to help train and equip and encourage their the beloved of Jesus also if
You speak the language it's called habib yes nailed it it means the beloved of Jesus or those whom Jesus loves what he does
Is in Egypt it's very stigmatized frowned upon to have any kind of physical deformity anybody to be a paralytic or have any kind of
Physical deformity a lot of times Spencer was telling us this in a sermon recently that they're actually they just kind of keep them hidden family
Doesn't talk about them it's it's kind of a bad Mark on your family because people might assume that you have some kind of
Genealogy issue some kind of genetic issue and so that it's harder for you to marry off your children and it's very they're poorly cared
For and so what he does is he actively tries to find them share the gospel with their parents share the gospel with them help
Them see that they're loved by Jesus and get them to where they are cared for out in the open known about that's his
Ministry so if you show the next picture this is actually while our team was there they got to be a part of one
Of his small groups where he is they gather together they worship they share the gospel they enjoy being a part of life together
Cared for loved prayed for and the Lord is doing some really cool things there so here's what we're going to do they do
Quarterly gatherings four big events a year it is very hard for people in this situation to get around they often don't go out
They have a difficult time traveling so what they do is they do four a year where they have 3,000 to 5,000 people they
Feed them a meal they give clothes away they worship Jesus their hope is those who already know and love Jesus would have a
Place to get together and worship to get to praise out in the open together with a large group to make much of Jesus
Together their hope is they will help de-stigmatize having a disability so that more people will come out in the open and be welcomed
And get to share the gospel with them and their hope is that people who are not believers will come and they'll get to
Share the gospel with them and they're seeing some really great things 5,000 people their budget is $4,500 to get the space to have
Everything they need to have people come preach the gospel to have things to give away to welcome so we thought if we could
Pay for one of these so one time next year 3,000 to 5,000 people in Egypt would gather to praise Jesus and not have
To worry about the cost they would gather to worship Jesus they pay for two of them if we get $13,500 they'll pay for
Three of them if we get $18,000 they'll pay for four of them let's do $22,000 and tell them they gotta do an extra one
Our hope would be that we can give $4,500 to Pastor Jurgis so they can have one of these where they gather and our
Church family just got to tag in our hope would be that citizen church would gather go out send out as missionaries and when
It came time to gather they'd already have the money in the bank or they'd already have the equipment sitting somewhere they'd be ready
To roll they wouldn't have to worry about it that's our hope that's what we're praying for you're going to have the opportunity over
The next couple of weeks be here let's send our heart and our money on ahead let's pray God we thank you for your
Grace thank you for your love we pray that you'd help us to be generous as you have been generous to us that you
Gave up your life that we might have hope and forgiveness in the gospel and may all of us who are citizens of that
Kingdom live as if that were true
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.