Six Reasons to Love Your Bible
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Dont Waste Your Pandemic
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Isolation and Idolatry
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The Hidden Hope of Suffering
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Kid City can go on in your living room! Check out songs, memory verses, and our lesson.
In Tenderness
In tenderness he sought me
Weary and sick with sin
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again
While angels in His presence sang
Until the courts of heaven rang.
Oh, the love that sought me!
Oh, the blood that bought me!
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold of God
Grace that brought me to the fold of God.
He died for me while I was sinning, needy and poor and blind
He whispered to assure me: "I've found thee; thou art Mine"
I never heard a sweeter voice, it made my aching heart rejoice.
Upon His grace I'll daily ponder, and sing anew His praise
With all adoring wonder, His blessings I retrace
It seems as if eternal days, are far too short to sing His praise.
O Praise the Name
I cast my mind to Calvary
Where Jesus bled and died for me.
I see His wounds, His hands, His feet.
My Savior on that cursed tree
His body bound and drenched in tears
They laid Him down in Joseph's tomb.
The entrance sealed by heavy stone
Messiah still and all alone
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
Then on the third at break of dawn,
The Son of heaven rose again.
O trampled death where is your sting?
The angels roar for Christ the King
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
He shall return in robes of white,
The blazing Son shall pierce the night.
And I will rise among the saints,
My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
A Very Present Help
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Whom Shall I Fear
You hear me when I call
You are my morning song
Though darkness fills the night
It cannot hide the light
Whom shall I fear?
You crush the enemy
Underneath my feet
You are my sword and shield
Though troubles linger still
Whom shall I fear?
I know who goes before me
I know who stands behind
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side
The one who reigns forever
He is a friend of mine
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side
My strength is in your name
For you alone can save
You will deliver me
Yours is the victory
Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
Living Hope
How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness, Your loving-kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Who could imagine so great a mercy?
What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
The God of ages stepped down from glory
To wear my sin and bear my shame
The cross has spoken, I am forgiven
The King of kings calls me His own
Beautiful Savior, I'm Yours forever
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Jesus, Yours is the victory, whoa!
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There's salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Oh God, You are my living hope
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Eternal Family in Temporary Suffering
Use this guide to help as you take notes, learn from and reflect on this week’s sermon.
Kid City can go on in your living room! Check out songs, memory verses, and our lesson.
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not Thy compassions they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever will be
Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
And all I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Searching for a Sign - Matthew 12:38-45
Transcript
If you have a Blue Bible New, it'll be on page 477. There won't be a lot of text on the screen, so we encourage you to follow along with us there. In the late 90s, I got to witness a cinematic classic. And I'm not talking about Titanic. I'm not talking about The Matrix. I'm talking about the rom-com, Fool's Rush In.
So, show of hands. Who has seen Fool's Rush In? Alright, like 10 or 15. Alright, so for everyone else, let me fill in the plot. So Matthew Perry from Friends is the lead role.
He plays the same sarcastic character he does in everything he's ever been in. He meets a girl. That's how romantic comedies work. Played by Selma Hayek. And she lives her life guided by fate. So she looks for signs from fate.
And that's how she lives her life. Now, you can pretty much fill in the plot from there. Fate brings them together. Tears them apart. But in the big climactic finish, the signs lead them back together and they live happily ever after.
So, that was in the late 90s. Early 2000s, Hollywood said that worked. Let's do it again. And they made the movie Serendipity. Which, y'all, is the same plot. Fate brings them together.
They follow the signs. It tears them apart. And then ultimately, it brings them back together. Now, this idea of searching for signs is starting to catch on. Then the show of How I Met Your Mother comes in the mid-late 2000s.
And then the idea of not fate guiding you, but the universe guiding you starts to become mainstream. I mean, throughout that show, it's this consistent theme of the universe is telling me. The universe is giving me signs. And now, that is a mainstream idea. You will hear people say, I think the universe is trying to tell me something. I think the universe is giving me a sign.
And we, as Christians, look at this and we go, that's not right. Right? Like, we don't look to the universe for signs. That's giving the universe this vague idea of universe fate, this God-like force. But what I have seen is I've seen Christians kind of adopt similar language when it comes to God.
I've seen Christians say, I'm looking for a sign from God. That I'm waiting for a sign from God to show me what I should do next. This is something that is, because we live in an experiential culture and we are trying to gather experiences like this. This is something that's consistently I'm seeing over and over again. And my question is, is that okay? Is it okay for us to be searching for signs for God to lead us in pursuits?
Like, is it okay to ask for God for signs if this is the one I should marry? If this is the job I should take? If this is the favorite child that I should spend most of my time with? All the basic pursuits. But then it becomes even bigger when you think about the more profound questions in life.
Is it okay to ask for God for signs with some of the bigger questions? Does God exist? Does He love me? Does He care for me? God, show me a sign that you love me, that you care for me, that you're here. Is that okay?
Is that posture okay to ask of God that He would reveal Himself to show His power, His presence, His love that He exists? That is a question that we're going to face today. It's a question that this story that we're going to read interacts with. In this story today, we're in another chapter of Jesus v. the Pharisees. You've been here the last few weeks. There's been one showdown after the other.
The Pharisees come and confront Jesus. And then He puts them in their place. We get another chapter of that. But it's going to interact with this bigger question. Is it okay for us as Christians to search for signs? So, let me pray.
And then we will jump into the passage and hear what God has to say. Father, I thank You that we get to gather this morning. God, I pray that You would help us be present. That You would give us ears to hear. That You would speak clearly to us and we would respond. We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Alright guys, verse 38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. Alright, so if you were here last week, this is what happened. Jesus casts out demons. And the Pharisees accuse Him of getting His power from Beelzebub.
Of getting His power from the demonic. They accuse Jesus of essentially worshipping demons and getting His power from them. And then the follow-up request that comes from this is, Okay, fine. Then show us a sign. We wish to see a sign from you. Which is just a crazy back-to-back follow-up request.
Now, it's not that signs are inherently bad. Otherwise, Jesus has been doing them over and over again. Since the Sermon on the Mount, we've seen Him heal paralyzed. We've seen Him heal the sick. We've seen Him control the weather. He's continuously performing miracles, displaying His power.
But this request is different. It is uniquely different. The Pharisees have shown, even in this last exchange that happened last week, they don't believe Jesus. They don't believe He is who He says He is. They don't believe what He is doing. And this is a request from unbelief, but also it's one of arrogance.
They are arrogantly looking at Jesus and saying, Dance. Perform a sign. Do what we want to see. And they have completely miscalculated the situation. You don't, creation does not get to look at the God of the universe and say, Do this. That position of arrogance is not okay.
And Jesus makes that abundantly clear in verse 39. But He answered them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. So no, Jesus is not going to bend Himself to these arrogant men in this moment. To the Pharisees, to the scribes, to the religious leadership, to everyone who has come out over this period of time, who have seen Him perform miracles, who have heard His teaching, and have not repented, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He calls them an evil and adulterous generation. This is the language that is used throughout the Old Testament to describe the nation of Israel when it goes after foreign gods.
It's a strong way of saying faithlessness. This generation is faithless, and yet you demand a sign from this position of arrogance. This is similar to if you share the gospel with somebody who is not a believer, and at the end of it they say, No, I won't. If God is loving, and He's imminent, and He's all these things that you say He is, then He should just show up and prove Himself. Why is He hiding? It's this position of arrogance that is uniquely different.
It is not that Jesus is against doubt. It's not that He's against doubt at all. And we see that in the Gospels. We see that when Thomas, one of his disciples, who unfortunately gets the nickname Doubting Thomas, that's really not fair. He has one moment of doubt in the church for the next 2,000 years that gives them that label. But he has this moment after Jesus resurrects.
They say that He's risen. He doesn't believe. And he's like, I need to see His wounds. I need to see His wrists. And Jesus comes. He doesn't respond by saying, You should have believed.
He responds by, Put your hands here. We see this again in another situation where a father has a son who's afflicted by demons, and He comes. And Jesus uses some of this similar language of evil and adulterous generation. And He comes to them and He says, I believe. But Lord, help my unbelief.
Which is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. And Jesus doesn't respond with, He responds compassionately and lovingly. And He heals His son. And so Jesus is not against doubts. That isn't what's happening here. What's happening here is different.
It is unbelief. It is arrogance. And He is not going to respond with anything but what He just said, the sign of Jonah. You will get the sign of Jonah. Now, in order for us to understand the sign of Jonah, we need to understand the story of Jonah and a little bit of the context of Jonah. So just give me a moment.
Let me walk through the story of Jonah again. So he's an Old Testament prophet. God calls Jonah. He says, I want you to go to the city of Nineveh. And I want you to call out to the city of Nineveh. He wants to call them to repentance.
And Jonah says, No. And he runs the opposite direction. Gets on a ship. Goes as far away as he can from Nineveh. Jonah, a storm comes. And it's about to capsize the boat.
Jonah realizes this is from God. This is his fault. He tells them, Throw him overboard. The men on the ship. And they reluctantly throw him overboard. The sea is calm.
And a great fish comes up and swallows him whole. You may have heard the whale. That's fine. We don't know what kind of fish it was. But if the whale is good for picturing your mind, that's fine.
But a great fish comes up, swallows him, and he lives. For three days and three nights, he lives inside the belly of this great fish. And in that period of time, he reflects. He repents. He prays. And God doesn't destroy him for being a disobedient prophet.
He gives him grace. And Jonah is spit out onto dry land. He walks into the city of Nineveh. He preaches this message of repentance. Repent or you are going to be destroyed. And then he walks outside of the city and he sits down and he waits.
And they repent. In sackcloth and ashes, deep repentance, they repent. And Jonah is upset. He is angry. And unless you know the context of what's happening there, that seems a little bit confusing. Nineveh was one of the biggest cities in the kingdom and the empire of Assyria.
And in this period of time, the Assyrians have come in and completely destroyed the fabric of the nation of Israel. And they come in and ten tribes are completely forgotten. If they're not killed and destroyed, they're deported and scattered all across their empire. There is no one who looks for their lineage in Reuben or Dan or Asher or Manasseh. You can't because of what the Assyrians did. And not only that, they were the first major kingdom, the first major empire that was absolutely known for their brutality.
They did things like skin people alive. They were terrorists. Live dismemberments, live castrations. They would put men on, they put people on stakes and watch them die slowly to put fear in people's eyes. They did some of this stuff to the people of God. And Jonah's sitting outside the city and he wants justice.
He wants absolute fire from heaven, burn him up. Now, Jonah isn't justified in what he did. He gives you a little bit of background into why he did it. He didn't understand God's grace. But you need all of that.
You need all that context for the story to understand what Jesus is actually going to say next. In verse 40, he says, For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus uses Jonah's experience to point forward. Just as Jonah was cast into the sea, presumed dead by the men who put him there in this great fish, so also Jesus is going to be killed, presumed to stay dead, and put into the heart of the earth, put in a tomb. And just as Jonah, three days later, bursts forth miraculously from this great fish, Jesus is going to burst forth miraculously from the empty tomb.
He is pointing forward and saying, this is the sign. His death, his resurrection. That's the sign that you need. He's prophetic, and he also knows that still is not going to be enough. He's prophetic and HEezing that the man's not going to be. He is about to persevere a lot of the missed places before he passed away.
He agreed to find UNIVE Thank you.
Demons & Blasphemy
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles and let's head to Matthew chapter 12. We are working our way through the gospel of Matthew, studying through it verse by verse. We as Christians celebrate Jesus.
We celebrate who he is, what he's done. We celebrate the person of Jesus and we celebrate the work of Jesus. So we will magnify him. We'll sing to him and call him the king of kings, the Lord of lords. We'll lift him up. We'll call him the prince of peace.
We'll elevate not only who he is, but what he's done. We'll talk about him as a teacher, as a king, as a prophet. But there's one thing that is highlighted over and over again in the scriptures. That's celebrated globally and historically that we don't talk about a lot or celebrate a lot. And that is Jesus in his role, his position as an exorcist. You don't usually see that on banners in churches.
In this room, there used to be a banner before we put the TVs up so that we could have screens in here. There was a banner here that said King of Kings and a banner there that said Lord of Lords. That's normal. We see that kind of thing. I grew up in a church. We had banners.
People carried them in. But it wasn't like King of Kings, Lord of Lords, powerful exorcist. Like that isn't... I mean, if we had come in here and seen King of Kings, exorcist, we'd have been like, well, all right then. We have some questions. Because in the U.S., in the Western world, we are taught.
It is ingrained in us that everything has a scientific, testable, physical explanation. That is what you were taught. Scientific, testable, physical explanation. Everything. Anything beyond that, well, now we're getting a little kooky. And we're okay because we have a little bit of a Christian background in history in the U.S. with, okay, okay, you can believe in a God that's up above everything, that created everything.
You can even believe that Jesus came. But we're okay with those because they have physical, scientific explanation. Like, God created the whole world. Okay, now we can test this. We can see it. We can touch it.
Jesus came. We could see. We could touch Him. Okay, we're a little bit okay with that. But when it gets into the invisible, spiritual, things are going on that affect the physical realm, but that we can't see or test, we suddenly have some problems.
So I think today's text is going to be a lot of fun for us today. We actually get to look at Jesus in this role as an exorcist, and we get to see how His culture, the Pharisees specifically, respond to Him. And we're actually going to get to look at a few passages that are fairly difficult, and we're going to get to do them all together, and hopefully in context will help us understand them moving forward. So let's pray, and let's start studying the text together. God, we ask for Your Spirit to be active and at work in the Christians in this room this morning, that You would enliven in us, that You would illuminate Your Word, that we would understand it, that You would help us to see our sin and our need for repentance.
And we pray that You would be active and at work on the hearts of those who do not believe this morning, that they might see Your beauty and Your glory, and they might run to You away from their sin and into a beautiful forgiveness. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Romans, not Romans, good gosh, Matthew, chapter 12, verse 22. We saw last week that the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees, the intensity is ramping up, and we saw last week that they have now just decided we have to destroy Him. Not we just don't like Him, not He's causing some problems, not we're not quite sure where His theology is.
They've settled on, okay, it's time to take this guy down. And so we'll see, as He continues to interact with them, that the intensity level has increased. Verse 22. Then a demon-oppressed man, who was blind and mute, was brought to Him, and He healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. Alright, so if we're not careful, we will do a lot of things approaching this text as Americans that will make us misunderstand this text greatly. We will approach it and say, okay, this is, we'll go, yeah, okay, he wasn't really demon-oppressed, that's just how they understood it.
That, you know, back then, they didn't have doctors and science, so everything was a demon. And we'll just put that lens over it and be incredibly wrong. Because they understood that there were spiritual powers and demonic activity, they also understood there were physical ailments. And even as we read the Gospel of Matthew, we'll see that there are times where Jesus heals somebody and it's just a physical issue. And there are other times where He heals somebody and it is a demonic issue. demonic issue. They did not understand the world to only be spiritual.
They understood there were physical aspects. Also, we would be taking this text very incorrectly because it says He was demon-oppressed. And we would somehow have elevated ourselves above the text and now we get to decide what it really means rather than placing the text above us and understanding the Bible to be true. So it says He's demon-oppressed. Now sometimes we'll use the word demon-possessed and even our text will translate it that sometimes.
He's possessed. But whenever we think of possessed we have in mind what we've seen in Hollywood which is this person is now just a puppet for all of this stuff. But it's a Greek word that just means demonized. This person was demonized or with a demon. And so we can translate it a few different ways to try to get the point across in English but I think demon-oppressed is one of the best ways to translate it. Meaning there was some demonic activity that was oppressing this man.
And it was oppressing him not that it just made him crazy or not that it made him mean or he foamed at the mouth or he started speaking Latin which is apparently what they do if you watch movies. He was blind and mute. He had physical ailments caused by demonic activity. that makes us more uncomfortable. Okay, so he's got physical ailments that are caused by demonic activity and also we would want this person to be if you're willing to say okay, okay, okay. I get that there's a God I get that there's a spiritual realm I believe that. I believe that angels that's usually people's first step I believe in angels like I'm okay with there are good spiritual beings and a lot of people go and I'm going to stop there.
Someone can show up and be an angel and do something wonderful. That's fine. It's like okay there are also evil spiritual beings who show up and do the opposite of wonderful things. But then we want to say okay, but they only mess with big stuff. They're only trying to mess with politics. And many of you go and I think I know which party they're messing with the most.
There's one party who's immune and this other one but maybe they mess with politics maybe they mess with powers we're really okay with it they mess with other countries they don't mess with America because they're afraid of freedom and AR-15s. We have some silly thought processes that you didn't realize you had but we have we have this it can happen elsewhere it can happen on this big level but it wouldn't mess with me it wouldn't be minute things but let me tell you this guy is very unimportant. At this point he's blind and mute he's been relegated to the fringes of society. We would want to think he'd have to be in power he'd have to be no.
So Jesus interacting with this man I love this I love how direct Matthew is because in our mind this would be so aggressive and epic and like a showdown. Then a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him and he healed him so that he spoke and saw. Jesus has absolute authority. It's not like Jesus had to square up and he didn't have to stretch beforehand. His absolute authority he's healed. Not a big impressive amazing thing.
And mute was brought to him and he healed him so that he spoke and saw. Jesus has absolute authority. It's not like Jesus had to square up and he didn't have to stretch beforehand. His absolute authority he's healed. Not a big impressive amazing thing. It's beautiful what Jesus does it's glorious what Jesus does but it's highlighting his power
And how simple it seems for him. It says all the people were amazed I had to clarify I said it's not amazing it was amazing my bad guys but it wasn't something that was difficult for Jesus. All the people were amazed and said can this be the son of David meaning is this the Messiah can this be and the answer is yes it can be it is it is the Messiah
You are right they've guessed correctly they see his power and they go okay and you see what's happened is Jesus is displaying himself in such a powerful way that we now only have a few options if somebody comes in who's blind and mute and Jesus just heals them and it was obvious demon oppression you now have only a few options is he the Messiah
Is a good one he has to be greatly powerful and good but you see the Pharisees are about to come in and they're going to give another option which is he is greatly powerful but he's evil that's the other option they're going to say we got two options now we've seen what he's done we've got two options either he's really powerful and really good or he's really powerful
And really evil so they say is this the son of David now I want to before we move into what the Pharisees have said I want to highlight a few things for us that I think are helpful for us that we need to know I don't know this is the point of the passage but I think we need to grow in our theology here and so I want to help us a little bit demons are real they're not omnipresent
Satan's not omnipresent meaning he can't be everywhere at once he's not all powerful he's a created being he is seen as the figurehead the leader of chief over demonic forces so there are times where the Bible will just refer to as Satan and they just mean his work his legion his team he does actively affect humans and the goal is to steal kill kill
I can't say those back to back I'm sorry I'm southern steal kill and destroy that's what he does he's a liar he harms and he actively works to harm and if you are a believer primary goal with you would be to make you ineffective or to rob you of all the things that are given to you in Christ
Joy hope freedom delight love church family would want to rob you of that would want to lie to you and if you're not a believer would want to keep you from all of those as well and ultimately keep you from salvation and lead you into death he tempts he's called a tempter
He also is an accuser so he tempts us do this this will be great this will be wonderful and then he accuses you're terrible if you did that you obviously can't be a believer he does both and he is active but I want you to see a few things I think one of the things he does I think specifically as we look at this passage he does do cause physical harm and so I'm not trying to just
Spiritualize this but I also want you to see I think he does some of this same stuff where he wants us to be blind and mute the enemy wants you to be blind to his activity wants you to not think of Jesus as an exorcist which is actually very beautiful and freeing and hope filled wants you to be blind to the enemy's activity and wants you to if you notice it
Keep your mouth shut so maybe you're having aggressive nightmares maybe you have obsessive thoughts maybe you have you feel at times just absolutely crushingly overwhelmed and under attack and if for a moment you think maybe this is demonic one of the things the enemy does is he says shh you better not say anything they'll think
You're crazy they won't welcome you anymore you don't want to be that person so one of the things we do as a church family is we have a thing we call freedom in Christ which is just a practical prayer process to try to help people who are dealing with oppression from a real enemy find freedom in a real
King and so if you are dealing with something that you would think is oppressive we'd love to get with you and pray that's it we pray and we pray the way Jesus taught us in the model prayer he says pray forgive me my sins as we forgive those who sin against us so notice your
Own sin lead us not to temptation so notice how the world tempts you and delivers from the evil one notice that their enemy is real and most of us only pray a few of those things some of you notice your sin so well and the enemy co-ops that he's just like yes you are the worst
And you're like yes I am the worst you better repent I better repent but he doesn't actually want you to repent he wants you to feel guilty he wants you to feel condemnation he wants you to get the first part which is that you are a wicked sinner and he's right but that's
Only half truth you get freedom in Christ there are other people who notice the world but you don't notice your own sin it's just these friends I got they're all sinners I'm great they're the worst and I'm really just trying to help them out
By doing terrible things with them like you notice temptation you don't notice your own sin and there are some people who only notice the enemy most of us I would argue don't notice him at all but there are some people who only notice the enemy everything's
The devil he got the devil's at work and that he's the reason I got a flat tire it's like okay could also be the construction that's happening down from your house was it a nail was there a nail in your tire because it
Might just be the nail but a lot of us don't even have that as a framework in our mind that we might ought to ask we might ought to pray for deliverance from a great king who dispatches his enemy so I want us to understand that and I want if you have some of that going on
I want for you to get help even though the enemy will tell you not to and I will tell you that we have done this quite often in our church family and it ought not be normal but it is common for people in our church family to have something where the enemy is at work we pray through it and they find some freedom and we want that for all of us because we get freedom in Christ
And he is good and he is powerful so if that is you we would love to talk we would love to pray with you if you have more questions on this we would love to tell you more about it but we have to keep moving so Jesus is the king so the bible mentions demonic forces often but it always keeps the focus firmly squarely on Christ because he is
Authoritative so the people saw him heal and then they say could this be the Messiah verse 24 but when the pharisees heard it these are the religious leaders of the time they said it is only by Beelzebul the prince of demons that this man casts out demons Beelzebul means it is a little phrase they use it means master
Of the house and it was their colloquial term for Satan it is a little bit like in Harry Potter where they won't say Voldemort's name they called him the dark Lord or whatever it is like that and for those of you who haven't seen Harry Potter it is fine just go with it it is Beelzebul and it means master of the house oh I said seen I know
Their books don't talk to me about that later just they were books and movies it is fine anyway Beelzebul master of the house so they are saying they are saying is he is this the one is this the one who is promised look at this authority look at this power and the
Pharisees religious leaders of the day see the crowds start moving in this direction to follow Jesus to worship Jesus to hold him up as the king of everything as the messiah and they say no no no no no no no no no no
It is not that he has great power because he is good he has great power because he is extremely evil evil the reason he can authoritatively because they can't deny the fact that he just authoritatively healed somebody they can't
Deny the fact that he just dispatched the enemy at a word we don't even know if it was at a word he might it doesn't say but he just dispatched the enemy with ease they said no no no it is not
That he is good he is evil so extremely evil and I would tell you those are really your options today you can see Jesus in what he does and you can hold him up as king and as gloriously powerful
You can submit to him or you can reject him as evil you can say he is leading everybody astray he is the reason that everything is wrong with our world if we could just get rid of religion
It is hard to have Jesus come to us the way he does and try to hold him in the middle and say well he is a nice guy he doesn't really leave us that option verse 25 knowing their
Thoughts he said to them every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand and if satan
Cast out satan he is divided against himself how then will his kingdom stand so he knows their reasoning he knows the point they're trying
To make and knowing their thoughts it means he just know what they said or just what they're thinking but he sees the core
Of the issue he sees their hearts it's on display before him now I can't read thoughts but I've had moments where with my
Four year old son I felt clairvoyant I could see right through him I have a four year old he's about to be five
I have a five year old and two year old and there are times where they're playing and all of a sudden my two
Year old is crying aggressively for a while it was only because my four year old had done something but my two year old has learned
Cry the older bigger people will show up and you might get what you want so now since they're both sinners I have to
Go in and figure things out so I walk in and I'll say to Archer the one who can talk I'll say why is
He crying 50% of the time he says oh he fell and smacked his head on that or I had this toy but he
Wanted it but I was playing with it first that's 50% of the time the other half of the time I walk in I
Say why is he crying and he goes well and I have my answer I don't know the technique that he used to inflict
Harm on his brother but we've already jumped to it and he will he's he's going to tell me the truth y'all he's not
At the stage where he's lying to me a bunch but he's really he starts he'll start like three minutes ago well okay so
We were in this room he's giving himself a lot of leeway and I'll go what did you do to hurt him and he looks
At me like oh no he's cut through my stuff and that's what Jesus is doing here Jesus just jumps right to it cuts
Right through it and for adults that's probably pretty startling and so we've got these options either Jesus is powerfully good extremely good gloriously
Good or he is extremely evil because someone who's neutral doesn't just get to tell the enemy what to do now I don't want to
Give away the ending I'm but I'm gonna I lean that he's really good you guys and that's what Jesus is going to argue as
Well so he says every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste no city or house divided against itself will stand and if Satan
Casts out Satan he is divided against himself how then will his kingdom stand so his first argument is basically what y'all said doesn't
Make any sense your argument is silly that's his first argument Satan is fighting himself smart good good plan that's what he says that
Doesn't make any sense so that's his first argument is pretty simple if Satan were attacking himself he wouldn't be able to stand there's
No kingdom that divides against itself that will stand why would he do that then his second argument verse 27 if I cast out
Demons by Beelzebul by whom do your sons that means your followers cast them out therefore they will be your Judges so the Pharisees
Also had a practice of helping people find freedom through the power of God this was a practice Jesus hadn't come yet God was still
Working through the Jewish people so there was a practice for Pharisees to help people find freedom against demonic oppression so Jesus is just
Saying some of y'all do this is your argument with them that it's because they're the most evil among you we have the regular
Pharisees and the ones that help people find freedom are the evil Pharisees is that your argument is that how they do it is
That how I'm supposed to understand how y'all thought this worked the whole time he says they'll be your Judges like that that's not
What you would say about them so why would you say that about me 28 but if it is by the spirit of God
That I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you so he's saying if what you've said doesn't make any
Sense let me tell you the other option I'm walking in the spirit of God and the power and the authority of God and
The kingdom of God is here and where the kingdom spreads his authority spreads and freedom spreads that's your other option or how can
Someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man then indeed he may plunder his house
So he says if it doesn't make any sense for Satan to be attacking himself you now have to understand that I'm walking in
The power of the spirit and this is by the spirit of God and the kingdom I'm already binding him I'm way more powerful
Than he is you can't break into some strong man's house and just be walking out with his goods if he's just hanging out
There first thing you gotta do knock him out bind him up then you can plunder his house so Jesus is saying I'm plundering
The enemy the things that he claimed the people that he claimed I'm bringing freedom and I'm doing it because I have power and
I've already tied him up I love the books the chronicles of Narnia in the first one the line the witch and the wardrobe there's an
Evil witch who's made this whole area of Narnia winter forever she rides around in a sleigh she thinks she's great there's a part where Aslan who's
Modeled after Christ begins to show up and so she's riding and all of a sudden the snow starts melting and flowers start blooming and her sleigh
Gets stuck it's one of my favorite parts in the books and they keep talking about Aslan's on the move that's what Jesus is saying the
Kingdom is here I'm on the move and where I move freedom comes spring is blooming and the enemy power is broken and it's
Because I'm more powerful than he is whoever this is verse 30 whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather
With me scatters he's saying I split the world in half those who are with me and those who aren't there aren't any other
Options I'm either incredibly good or you're going to have to just join the other team and be against me that's what he's saying
That if y'all are warring against me then he says therefore I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people blasphemy is
A direct sin against God now all sin is against God but blasphemy is words hurled at God is a defiant spirit toward God
That's how they understood it Jesus is actually going to be crucified they accuse him of blasphemy because he says he's the son of
Man high and lifted up you're going to see me coming in the clouds of heaven he goes back to this ancient of days
Picture from Daniel says that's me high priest rips his robes and says y'all heard it what other testimony we need blasphemy and so
Jesus is bringing this picture and he says every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people but the blasphemy against the spirit will not
Be forgiven and whoever speaks a word against the son of man will be forgiven but whoever speaks against the holy spirit will not be
Forgiven either in this age or the age to come so he's saying there's no forgiveness that you'll find in this life and there's
No forgiveness that you'll find in the eternity to come there is no forgiveness for blasphemy against the spirit John Piper who's a pastor
In Minnesota I think somewhere where it's cold up there to the left a little bit he said that when God says forever he means forever and that
If what he's saying here is that if all the mountains of the earth were slowly disintegrating one millimeter every thousand years there would be
No forgiveness for this sin when the earth was as smooth as a billiard ball faithful finans what jeez This means forever. This is a weighty statement. And I think we ought to figure out what is blasphemy of the Spirit? What is He talking about? And maybe if you've grown up in the church, you've heard some teaching on this.
You've heard this referred to. Maybe some of you in this room have wondered, have I done this? You've had some fear over what is blasphemy of the Spirit. I know our church family, some of you, this is the first time you've ever heard it. It's still worth, let's figure it out. So as I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word, so this is words spoken against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Before we define this, I want to answer a few things that it's not. It is not the concept of grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit. So this is something that's mentioned later in the Bible, don't grieve the Holy Spirit or quenching the Spirit, which is this idea that the Holy Spirit leads you to do something and you do not do it.
There was a time where He told you to go speak to somebody, where He told you to call something out, where He told you to repent, where He told you to... And you didn't do it. You fought against Him. And the Bible tells us not to do that because we ought to follow the leadership of the Spirit, but that is not what this passage has in mind. It's not what it's talking about. Secondly, and as I was studying this, I learned, this has been taught that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is if someone commits suicide. I don't know how common that is. I had heard before that people thought that suicide was unforgivable. I don't know how many people had tied it to this, but I want to say a few things. For those whose lives have been touched by suicide, it is tragic and horrible, and I'm sorry. But the Bible, not here or elsewhere, says that suicide is unforgivable.
It is a sin. It is something that we ought not to do. But it is a sin that receives forgiveness and grace in Christ. There are some things that people want to nuance and talk out that if someone was a believer, they would have a hard time doing that. And if you want to have a philosophical debate about it at some point or discussion, we can. But I want you to know the Bible does not teach that. And it definitely does not teach it here. The context would not make any sense for this to suddenly be referring to suicide. But if you have questions about that or concerns about that, we'd love to talk with you. And if suicide is something that you are considering, do not do that. Come talk to us. Thirdly, it is not simply being opposed to Christ prior to being a believer. It doesn't mean that you said really mean things about him or that you actively tried to stop the church or attacked the church.
If that were the case, Paul, who wrote Romans, which I wanted us to read earlier, randomly, would not have gotten to be an apostle. He persecuted the church. He hated the church. He thought he was doing what was right. He killed Christians. And he was redeemed, gloriously redeemed. It can't be that if you are a believer, someone who already knows Jesus, and then there's a time where you deny him or you pretend like you don't know him or you run from him. Because if that were the case, Peter would not get to be an apostle and a leader in the church. But that's exactly what he did. He knew Christ. He was the leader among the twelve
And he denied Christ and then repented and received forgiveness. So it can't be simply that. And so looking at the context and trying to understand what's going on here, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a settled position. Heart position. Because he knows their thoughts and he's about to address this more clearly that he can see to their hearts. But it's a settled heart position that the Holy Spirit of God is evil. So they're looking in this situation and they're seeing the works of Christ and they're seeing the works of the Spirit and they're saying this is Satan's work. And we don't know at this point if the Pharisees have actually committed
Blasphemy against the Spirit. We know he's warning them. And they've been saying he's Beelzebul for some time and he's addressing this and saying let me tell you something. There is forgiveness but not if we keep heading down this road. We don't know yet if they've fully done it but he is saying there will be no forgiveness not in this age or the age to come for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit for a settled position that God is evil that his work is evil for seeing what he's doing and calling it Satanic. So let's see. He keeps going. Verse 33.
Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad for the tree is known by its fruit. That's how you know. He just says it's so simple. You know a tree's good if its fruit's good. His point is y'all are saying I'm doing good things but I'm evil. I just did wonderful fruit. I just brought forth someone into freedom and then you said see that beautiful fruit? Evil tree. It doesn't make any sense. The fruit will be good and the tree's good
Or the fruit will be bad and the tree's bad. He keeps going. You brood of vipers. I also think in that past phrase he's calling them into a little bit of repentance. He's calling them to be good trees as he points out their brokenness and this thinking here. He says but you brood of vipers children of snakes. I know there's some cultural difference between us and them but this is received about the same way it would be received if you said it to someone.
Not nice. I think he's telling the truth. He's Jesus. He's calling it as it is but he's not a kind thing to say is he? How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil and I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified
And by your words you will be condemned. I think that the concept of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit gets pulled out of context until people don't use the context to try to understand it and I think that phrase gets pulled out of context. I tell you on the day of judgment people will give an account for every careless word they speak. How many people just thought of middle school and got cold chills? Understanding that this means if I just oh my goodness I'm going to stand before him
In everything I've ever said. I was with my dad we were at my grandparents' house when they used to live in West Virginia and they had a house at the top of a hill and they had a paved driveway that was a very steep slope and it was very icy quite often because we would go visit him at Christmas we were unloading the vehicle this was a difficult process to unload the vehicle and get the bags up the hill and you wanted to be there early so that you could be one of the top cars because of big families so sometimes you were at the very bottom. We were there
We were unloading the vehicle my dad's feet shoot out from under him he lands on his back pow and just splayed out and slides down the hill. For his sons who watched it was great for him he didn't seem to enjoy it that much but he got up he's like oh he said that for a second and then he went I didn't cuss he's so proud of himself and you guys he did it that's all he had to do he passed the test
He didn't say a careless word he's fine in the day of judgment that's not how that works that's not what this passage is saying it does not mean have you said something bad or have you said something ill-timed or has something slipped out or have you had a season where it's not what it's saying what he's saying is you are confessing what you believe your mouth is telling on your heart and your mouth will stand in judgment against you he knows their thoughts he sees to their heart
And he says what's coming out of you is because your heart is evil and so some of us say I'm a good person and we're lying to ourselves I'm a believer but we're lying to ourselves your mouth is telling on your heart all the time when you get the chance to build somebody up when you get the chance to tear somebody down which do you take when you're rehearsing things to yourself about who God is and who other people are and what this city's like are you confessing are your words
Telling you and the world and God in judgment that you believe and that your confession is that Christ is good and that he redeems sinners are you confessing the truth because it's just pouring out of what's going on in your heart so you've got to realize the heart is the core it's not your words that are accomplishing this your words are putting it on display and he's saying the reason why you are settled in this the reason why this is pouring out of you is because your heart is evil
That's why you're making this argument that's why you're bent this direction that's what the Pharisees are doing they've already settled in their hearts their approach to Jesus so it doesn't matter what he does they're going to find a way to fight against it I remember when I first got married and I was I talked with Anna's brother and asked him to read the Bible with me he's not a believer but he was willing to read it he was interested
He was reading it with me we were reading through the Gospel of John and he said to me at one point he goes I don't understand the Pharisees at all because they keep seeing Jesus do amazing things and instead of acknowledging that was amazing they just further decide we've got to kill him like specifically it came out in John 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and they're like oh now we have to kill Lazarus too
We better kill Jesus first or he'll undo it again and he was like what is going on here but the thing is they had already settled in their heart their position towards him and so they were going to fight against it the whole time this is the way I feel when I've ever seen that program Ancient Aliens on the History Channel which I love that that's on the History Channel because what on earth is the History Channel doing all they do they have it settled in their mind God doesn't exist
Supernatural doesn't exist and so they go around the world and they find pictures and stories and they'll read passages of the Bible and they'll go now this person who is supposedly a prophet of God met with God on the mountain this Moses but what if it wasn't God what if it was and it's always a big reveal aliens that's their that's their whole position they're willing to make that big jump to aliens
Aliens started human life aliens did this they're willing to make that jump and I'm always like what if it's what the guy who saw it said it was what if we took the eyewitness account instead of what you've made up but they have a settled position and then they're working from that spot the Pharisees have that their heart is settled and they're working from that position not all the Pharisees thankfully some repent
But in general that's what they're doing the ones he's interacting with are doing that and he's saying your words are pouring out there's no way for you to speak good things there's no way for you to see this well because you are evil so blasphemy against the spirit is the settled position that Christ that the spirit the work of God is evil that it's harmful and Jesus says that will not be forgiven now I want to I want us to not miss some things
First I want us to see the distinct and precious position of the work of the spirit Jesus even says blasphemy against the son of man will be forgiven so this position that he's fulfilling at this time he says that will be forgiven but blasphemy against the spirit won't to see the work of God and to fight against it and to think he's evil won't be forgiven I want you to see the preciousness of the spirit and the beauty of the work of the spirit
I want us to cherish that I want us to learn that if you are willing to repent desiring to repent if you have stuff where you feel like maybe I fought against the spirit repent if he's calling you to repent repent if your desire is for him if your heart is for him don't think maybe I've already committed this you have to repent but I also want us to be careful how we speak
Of the spirit's work because we can easily drift into tribalism and when we see other movements and other things going on in the Christian world we can be quick to judge rather than slow to discern and walk in the spirit as we give judgment I'm not saying accept everything the bible doesn't say that it says test the spirits but have the holy spirit lead that process
And don't just think because that's the first I've heard of it it must be evil be slow in that process secondly be guarded in the way you speak the holy spirit is precious let's not make jokes I don't know if y'all know this I love making jokes I also like jokes that are just on the
Hair of this was not the best time for this joke just on the hair I've never been beyond that just right there the holy spirit is precious Christ is precious let's be careful in thinking oh okay well he's there's grace there's freedom we can talk about him how we want
No he's he's glorious and to be upheld so I'm a fan of jokes but not about the Lord the only one I've ever heard about Jesus that I think is repeatable and I think it's kind of funny my dad
Told me he said at the last supper you know what Jesus said to his disciples y'all eat on this side of the table if you want to be in the picture that's the only one I'll tell because I think we're making fun
Of Leonardo da Vinci not Jesus so be careful the holy spirit is precious his work is beautiful be slow to discern slow to speak lastly don't miss this because I think we read this and we think oh my goodness there's an
Unforgivable sin and we don't see what Jesus just said look at this verse 31 therefore I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven he says
But and he clarifies about this position against the Holy Spirit but don't miss that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven do you see how beautiful that is that's what Jesus has come to accomplish at the cost of his own life to spill
His own blood so that we might have redemption and he gets great glory as he forgives wicked wicked sinners your theft your lies your adultery your hatred your racism your pedophilia the times you've shaken your fist at God you've raged against Christ
Will be forgiven in the atoning blood of our glorious Savior do not miss that do not feel judgment from this passage and only see that see the judgment and find forgiveness run to the one who forgives
Sin and welcomes sinners the Bible is covered in this whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the
Wrath of God remains on him so there is a wrath that remains but there's forgiveness in the son John 3 36 John 5 24
Truly truly I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life he does not come into judgment
But has passed from death to life that we can go to Christ and be forgiven and he forgives all sins one of my favorite
Movies is oh brother where art thou it came out in the year 2000 it's like 20 years ago I talk about it like
It came out two years ago but there's these guys who escape from jail they're running through the woods and they see people getting
Baptized and one of them Delmer runs down to get baptized he goes out he talks to the pastor he comes back he goes
To his friends and he says come on in boys the water's fine and he splashes and they said what are you doing he
Says I've just been saved and forgiven all my sins have been forgiven even that piggly wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo one of
The other guys goes you said you were innocent of those charges and he goes well I lied and that's forgiven too and that's
Us in Christ that's forgiven too what is it that haunts you what is it that you feel like clings to you run to
Christ that's forgiven too in this age and the age to come all sin all blasphemy come on in the water's fine there's freedom
And redemption in Christ that his blood would be shed for sinners wicked evil despicable sinners the thing that makes shame creep up your
Neck the thing that you don't want to tell anybody he forgives he redeems and he receives much glory from it what is your confession
It says if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord you will be saved the Philippian jailer comes to
Paul and he says how can we be saved Paul says believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved you and your household he doesn't say
I need to ask a question about blasphemy first he says no believe you'll find forgiveness you'll find salvation trust so for those of you who have
Placed your faith in Jesus I want you to feel the freedom and the forgiveness in Christ this morning that every sin and every
Blasphemy is forgiven and for those of you who have not placed your faith in Christ I want you to do so I want you to come to come to come to Jesus
That he is evil and that he is at work for bad but see him in his glory and see him in his goodness
And see him in his power and place your faith in him let's pray God we pray that you would work today we pray that you would help us to
See our sin so that we might run to the Savior I pray that you would help us to feel the forgiveness that is in your name the hope that is in Christ and
Christ alone I pray that for those who have been oppressed by the enemy lied to tricked accused tempted I pray that they would find freedom in your name that they would seek you who set
Captives free who have bound the strong man who have conquered the enemy who have brought him to open shame and have triumphed over him and who have nailed our sin to the cross may we find hope and freedom
And joy and delight in Christ this morning amen amen
And I think we ought to figure out what is blasphemy of the Spirit? What is He talking about? And maybe if you've grown up in the church, you've heard some teaching on this. You've heard this referred to. Maybe some of you in this room have wondered, have I done this? You've had some fear over what is blasphemy of the Spirit.
I know our church family, some of you, this is the first time you've ever heard it. It's still worth, let's figure it out. So as I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word, so this is words spoken against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Before we define this, I want to answer a few things that it's not. It is not the concept of grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit.
So this is something that's mentioned later in the Bible, don't grieve the Holy Spirit or quenching the Spirit, which is this idea that the Holy Spirit leads you to do something and you do not do it. There was a time where He told you to go speak to somebody, where He told you to call something out, where He told you to repent, where He told you to... And you didn't do it. You fought against Him. And the Bible tells us not to do that because we ought to follow the leadership of the Spirit, but that is not what this passage has in mind. It's not what it's talking about.
Secondly, and as I was studying this, I learned, this has been taught that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is if someone commits suicide. I don't know how common that is. I had heard before that people thought that suicide was unforgivable. I don't know how many people had tied it to this, but I want to say a few things. For those whose lives have been touched by suicide, it is tragic and horrible, and I'm sorry. But the Bible, not here or elsewhere, says that suicide is unforgivable.
It is a sin. It is something that we ought not to do. But it is a sin that receives forgiveness and grace in Christ. There are some things that people want to nuance and talk out that if someone was a believer, they would have a hard time doing that. And if you want to have a philosophical debate about it at some point or discussion, we can. But I want you to know the Bible does not teach that.
And it definitely does not teach it here. The context would not make any sense for this to suddenly be referring to suicide. But if you have questions about that or concerns about that, we'd love to talk with you. And if suicide is something that you are considering, do not do that. Come talk to us. Thirdly, it is not simply being opposed to Christ prior to being a believer.
It doesn't mean that you said really mean things about him or that you actively tried to stop the church or attacked the church. If that were the case, Paul, who wrote Romans, which I wanted us to read earlier, randomly, would not have gotten to be an apostle. He persecuted the church. He hated the church. He thought he was doing what was right. He killed Christians.
And he was redeemed, gloriously redeemed. It can't be that if you are a believer, someone who already knows Jesus, and then there's a time where you deny him or you pretend like you don't know him or you run from him. Because if that were the case, Peter would not get to be an apostle and a leader in the church. But that's exactly what he did. He knew Christ. He was the leader among the twelve and he denied Christ and then repented and received forgiveness.
So it can't be simply that. And so looking at the context and trying to understand what's going on here, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a settled position. Heart position. Because he knows their thoughts and he's about to address this more clearly that he can see to their hearts. But it's a settled heart position that the Holy Spirit of God is evil.
So they're looking in this situation and they're seeing the works of Christ and they're seeing the works of the Spirit and they're saying this is Satan's work. And we don't know at this point if the Pharisees have actually committed blasphemy against the Spirit. We know he's warning them. And they've been saying he's Beelzebul for some time and he's addressing this and saying let me tell you something. There is forgiveness but not if we keep heading down this road. We don't know yet if they've fully done it but he is saying there will be no forgiveness not in this age or the age to come for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit for a settled position that God is evil that his work is evil for seeing what he's doing and calling it Satanic.
So let's see. He keeps going. Verse 33. Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad for the tree is known by its fruit. That's how you know. He just says it's so simple.
You know a tree's good if its fruit's good. His point is y'all are saying I'm doing good things but I'm evil. I just did wonderful fruit. I just brought forth someone into freedom and then you said see that beautiful fruit? Evil tree. It doesn't make any sense.
The fruit will be good and the tree's good or the fruit will be bad and the tree's bad. He keeps going. You brood of vipers. I also think in that past phrase he's calling them into a little bit of repentance. He's calling them to be good trees as he points out their brokenness and this thinking here. He says but you brood of vipers children of snakes.
I know there's some cultural difference between us and them but this is received about the same way it would be received if you said it to someone. Not nice. I think he's telling the truth. He's Jesus. He's calling it as it is but he's not a kind thing to say is he? How can you speak good when you are evil?
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil and I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. I think that the concept of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit gets pulled out of context until people don't use the context to try to understand it and I think that phrase gets pulled out of context. I tell you on the day of judgment people will give an account for every careless word they speak.
How many people just thought of middle school and got cold chills? Understanding that this means if I just oh my goodness I'm going to stand before him in everything I've ever said. I was with my dad we were at my grandparents' house when they used to live in West Virginia and they had a house at the top of a hill and they had a paved driveway that was a very steep slope and it was very icy quite often because we would go visit him at Christmas we were unloading the vehicle this was a difficult process to unload the vehicle and get the bags up the hill and you wanted to be there early so that you could be one of the top cars because of big families so sometimes you were at the very bottom. We were there we were unloading the vehicle my dad's feet shoot out from under him he lands on his back pow and just splayed out and slides down the hill.
We were unloading the vehicle my dad's feet shoot out from under him he lands on his back pow and just splayed out and slides down the hill. For his sons who watched it was great for him he didn't seem to enjoy it that much but he got up he's like oh he said that for a second and then he went I didn't cuss he's so proud of himself and you guys he did it that's all he had to do he passed the test
He didn't say a careless word he's fine in the day of judgment that's not how that works that's not what this passage is saying it does not mean have you said something bad or have you said something ill-timed or has something slipped out or have you had a season where it's not what it's saying what he's saying is you are confessing what you believe your mouth is telling on your heart and your mouth will stand in judgment against you he knows their thoughts he sees to their heart
And he says what's coming out of you is because your heart is evil and so some of us say I'm a good person and we're lying to ourselves I'm a believer but we're lying to ourselves your mouth is telling on your heart all the time when you get the chance to build somebody up when you get the chance to tear somebody down which do you take when you're rehearsing things to yourself about who God is and who other people are and what this city's like are you confessing are your words
Telling you and the world and God in judgment that you believe and that your confession is that Christ is good and that he redeems sinners are you confessing the truth because it's just pouring out of what's going on in your heart so you've got to realize the heart is the core it's not your words that are accomplishing this your words are putting it on display and he's saying the reason why you are settled in this the reason why this is pouring out of you is because your heart is evil
That's why you're making this argument that's why you're bent this direction that's what the Pharisees are doing they've already settled in their hearts their approach to Jesus so it doesn't matter what he does they're going to find a way to fight against it I remember when I first got married and I was I talked with Anna's brother and asked him to read the Bible with me he's not a believer but he was willing to read it he was interested
He was reading it with me we were reading through the Gospel of John and he said to me at one point he goes I don't understand the Pharisees at all because they keep seeing Jesus do amazing things and instead of acknowledging that was amazing they just further decide we've got to kill him like specifically it came out in John 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and they're like oh now we have to kill Lazarus too
We better kill Jesus first or he'll undo it again and he was like what is going on here but the thing is they had already settled in their heart their position towards him and so they were going to fight against it the whole time this is the way I feel when I've ever seen that program Ancient Aliens on the History Channel which I love that that's on the History Channel because what on earth is the History Channel doing all they do they have it settled in their mind God doesn't exist
Supernatural doesn't exist and so they go around the world and they find pictures and stories and they'll read passages of the Bible and they'll go now this person who is supposedly a prophet of God met with God on the mountain this Moses but what if it wasn't God what if it was and it's always a big reveal aliens that's their that's their whole position they're willing to make that big jump to aliens
Aliens started human life aliens did this they're willing to make that jump and I'm always like what if it's what the guy who saw it said it was what if we took the eyewitness account instead of what you've made up but they have a settled position and then they're working from that spot the Pharisees have that their heart is settled and they're working from that position not all the Pharisees thankfully some repent
But in general that's what they're doing the ones he's interacting with are doing that and he's saying your words are pouring out there's no way for you to speak good things there's no way for you to see this well because you are evil so blasphemy against the spirit is the settled position that Christ that the spirit the work of God is evil that it's harmful and Jesus says that will not be forgiven now I want to I want us to not miss some things
First I want us to see the distinct and precious position of the work of the spirit Jesus even says blasphemy against the son of man will be forgiven so this position that he's fulfilling at this time he says that will be forgiven but blasphemy against the spirit won't to see the work of God and to fight against it and to think he's evil won't be forgiven I want you to see the preciousness of the spirit and the beauty of the work of the spirit
I want us to cherish that I want us to learn that if you are willing to repent desiring to repent if you have stuff where you feel like maybe I fought against the spirit repent if he's calling you to repent repent if your desire is for him if your heart is for him don't think maybe I've already committed this you have to repent but I also want us to be careful how we speak
Of the spirit's work because we can easily drift into tribalism and when we see other movements and other things going on in the Christian world we can be quick to judge rather than slow to discern and walk in the spirit as we give judgment I'm not saying accept everything the bible doesn't say that it says test the spirits but have the holy spirit lead that process
And don't just think because that's the first I've heard of it it must be evil be slow in that process secondly be guarded in the way you speak the holy spirit is precious let's not make jokes I don't know if y'all know this I love making jokes I also like jokes that are just on the
Hair of this was not the best time for this joke just on the hair I've never been beyond that just right there the holy spirit is precious Christ is precious let's be careful in thinking oh okay well he's there's grace there's freedom we can talk about him how we want
No he's he's glorious and to be upheld so I'm a fan of jokes but not about the Lord the only one I've ever heard about Jesus that I think is repeatable and I think it's kind of funny my dad
Told me he said at the last supper you know what Jesus said to his disciples y'all eat on this side of the table if you want to be in the picture that's the only one I'll tell because I think we're making fun
Of Leonardo da Vinci not Jesus so be careful the holy spirit is precious his work is beautiful be slow to discern slow to speak lastly don't miss this because I think we read this and we think oh my goodness there's an
Unforgivable sin and we don't see what Jesus just said look at this verse 31 therefore I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven he says
But and he clarifies about this position against the Holy Spirit but don't miss that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven do you see how beautiful that is that's what Jesus has come to accomplish at the cost of his own life to spill
His own blood so that we might have redemption and he gets great glory as he forgives wicked wicked sinners your theft your lies your adultery your hatred your racism your pedophilia the times you've shaken your fist at God you've raged against Christ
Will be forgiven in the atoning blood of our glorious Savior do not miss that do not feel judgment from this passage and only see that see the judgment and find forgiveness run to the one who forgives
Sin and welcomes sinners the Bible is covered in this whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the
Wrath of God remains on him so there is a wrath that remains but there's forgiveness in the son John 3 36 John 5 24
Truly truly I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life he does not come into judgment
But has passed from death to life that we can go to Christ and be forgiven and he forgives all sins one of my favorite
Movies is oh brother where art thou it came out in the year 2000 it's like 20 years ago I talk about it like
It came out two years ago but there's these guys who escape from jail they're running through the woods and they see people getting
Baptized and one of them Delmer runs down to get baptized he goes out he talks to the pastor he comes back he goes
To his friends and he says come on in boys the water's fine and he splashes and they said what are you doing he
Says I've just been saved and forgiven all my sins have been forgiven even that piggly wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo one of
The other guys goes you said you were innocent of those charges and he goes well I lied and that's forgiven too and that's
Us in Christ that's forgiven too what is it that haunts you what is it that you feel like clings to you run to
Christ that's forgiven too in this age and the age to come all sin all blasphemy come on in the water's fine there's freedom
And redemption in Christ that his blood would be shed for sinners wicked evil despicable sinners the thing that makes shame creep up your
Neck the thing that you don't want to tell anybody he forgives he redeems and he receives much glory from it what is your confession
It says if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord you will be saved the Philippian jailer comes to
Paul and he says how can we be saved Paul says believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved you and your household he doesn't say
I need to ask a question about blasphemy first he says no believe you'll find forgiveness you'll find salvation trust so for those of you who have
Placed your faith in Jesus I want you to feel the freedom and the forgiveness in Christ this morning that every sin and every
Blasphemy is forgiven and for those of you who have not placed your faith in Christ I want you to do so I want you to come to come to come to Jesus
That he is evil and that he is at work for bad but see him in his glory and see him in his goodness
And see him in his power and place your faith in him let's pray God we pray that you would work today we pray that you would help us to
See our sin so that we might run to the Savior I pray that you would help us to feel the forgiveness that is in your name the hope that is in Christ and
Christ alone I pray that for those who have been oppressed by the enemy lied to tricked accused tempted I pray that they would find freedom in your name that they would seek you who set
Captives free who have bound the strong man who have conquered the enemy who have brought him to open shame and have triumphed over him and who have nailed our sin to the cross may we find hope and freedom
And joy and delight in Christ this morning amen amen
Lord of the Sabbath
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer and I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew 12 today, verses 1 through 21. I would encourage you to follow along with us today as we walk through the text. The text will not be on the screen. In the blue Bibles, that's page 476.
There are also black Bibles that have large print as well. So, I have two brothers and two sisters. My oldest brother, Sean, he's a part of our church. My other brother, who's two years older than me, he lives in Charleston. And we grew up together and we were the worst. We fought all the time.
My mom deserves a medal because we fought and we argued all the time. And I remember one specific time when I was about five or six. He was really good at getting under my skin. He was always a few steps ahead of me. He'd get under my skin. He would egg me on.
We were playing basketball this one time and we got into an argument and it started to get more heated. And we started lobbing, you know, schoolyard insults at each other. But it started to escalate and he knew something. He knew that recently I had learned a few colorful curse words. I just started riding the bus and I heard all the words. And public school buses for you.
He knew I learned a few words. And all of a sudden he's like, I'm going to get one of them out of him. So he kept pressing and pressing and pressing. And I finally got so mad that a hundred dollar curse word came out. I just, I lobbed it at him. And his righteous, unstained ears heard it.
And he's like, the only thing I can do to bring justice to this situation is to go and tell mom. So he turns around and he bolts it back to the house. He says, I'm telling mom. And as he heard last week, I had trouble running as a kid. So I took one deep breath and I ran towards the house.
And I ran out of steam. And he got there first. And he told my mom what I'd said. But he had really misunderstood and underestimated how her response would be. Because her general take in situations like this was, you probably deserved it. That's just, that was what she did.
I mean, she saw how much he egged me on. And I think that's literally what came out of her mouth. You probably deserved it. Get out. And the other thing that he misunderstood is that she wasn't a fool. She knew what was up.
She knew all, we pulled these kind of stunts on each other all the time. We were always messing with each other. We were always trying to get the other in trouble. She knew that his motives were not pure. She knew that he wasn't trying to promote justice like that. She completely saw through it.
And at this point in the Gospel of Matthew, we kind of get to do the same thing. I mean, we, at every point when the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of Israel, at every point they show up, you can rest assured, their motives are not pure. They are not looking to promote justice. They're not looking to promote righteousness. Their motives are not pure. And every time that they have an encounter with Jesus, you can see it coming.
They are trying to catch him. They're trying to find a way to catch him in his works. And today we're going to see just that in chapter 12. We're going to see the Pharisees who seize upon something to actively take Jesus down. And from this point forward, it's going to be not just opposition to Jesus, but they're actively looking to take him down and destroy his movement. So we're going to see this today.
We're going to see the Pharisees attack him with a pretty strong accusation. But here's the deal. Jesus, unlike five-year-old me, is sinless. He is guiltless. He is innocent. And also, unlike me, he is ten steps ahead of them when they come at him.
So we're going to see that. We're going to see Jesus go to work with five different defenses against the Pharisees. We're going to watch him walk through these five defenses. And here's what's going to be abundantly clear. There are two different paths that come out of this story. There's one with Jesus that is marked by mercy.
And there's one with the Pharisees that is marked by self-righteousness. We're going to see his mercy at odds with their self-righteousness. And we get to see how we get to respond to that today. So let me pray. And then we will jump into the story. Father, we thank you that you've given us your word and you get to speak to us.
God, I pray that you would help us be present this morning. You give us ears to hear and that we would respond, that you would go to work on our hearts. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.
Verse 1 and 2. All right. So there are a lot of times that the Pharisees come at Jesus with some very weak accusations. I mean, they are grasping at straws. This is probably the one time where as you read it, you're like, wait a second. I mean, they actually might have a little bit of a case here.
The disciples are traveling through a grain field. They're plucking off grain heads as a snack on the Sabbath. And technically, you can make the case that that's harvesting. And harvesting is a work. And that's forbidden on the Sabbath. You go to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.
It says, remember the Sabbath day. This is the fourth commandment. To keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it, I want you to hear this. The force of this. You shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. See, Sabbath was a very big deal.
As we walked through in Genesis a few years ago, God creates the world in six days. And on the seventh day, he rested. Not because he needs rest. God is infinite in power. He does not need rest. But what he was doing for his creation was showing you are created not to endlessly work, but you need to rest.
And ultimately, we need to rest in God. So he ingrains that into the rhythm of creation. And then what happens is, is when you fast forward a little bit, the people of God become slaves in Egypt. For 400 plus years, they are slaves and they work and work and work and they do not rest. There is no Sabbath for 400 plus years. That's a long time.
That's longer than we've been a nation. That's a long tradition of not resting at all. So when they come out of the promised land, when God redeems them in the wilderness, he starts to establish his law. And he makes it abundantly clear. You are not a slave to anyone else. You are my people.
And I've created you for rest. Your work is not what defines you. What you produce does not define you. I'm what define you. You will rest. And this gets cemented in the law.
And about that same time in Numbers 15, there's an instance where a man is collecting sticks on the Sabbath. He's working on the Sabbath. And they catch him. And Moses comes to God and he says, Lord, what do you want us to do? And the Lord says, take him outside the camp and stone him. I mean, it's a sharp punishment.
Because God in that moment is trying to make it abundantly clear to the people of God, you are created to rest in me. Now, that is what the law says. And what comes out of that over the next thousand years are sets of priests who are trying to understand the Sabbath. And what they do is they start to add regulations to it. I think at first it's an honorable reproach, right? You saw how strict it is in the law to rest.
But then you've got one set of priests who says, all right, you can't do this and you can't do that. And then the next generation says, you can't do this and you can't do that. This happens for about a thousand years. Generation after generation of priests who are adding regulations, who are putting more restrictions on the law, all the way until Jesus comes. And this continues even into today. I mean, I was in Jerusalem about a decade ago.
And I was in a hotel. And we were, I think we were on the seventh or eighth floor. And every time that it was Sabbath and you had to get up to your room on the eighth floor, it was super obnoxious. Because you get in the elevator and at every single floor it would open, close, open, close, open, close. Because if you pushed a button, that was considered work. So they have elevators specifically designed to stop at every floor.
And there are tons of rules like that even today. They just are absolutely, they have missed it completely. And at the time of Jesus, there's this long list of extra regulations. And here's what happens. At the time of Jesus, the Sabbath looks nothing like it was originally designed to be. It becomes this anxiety-filled set of requirements.
The people kind of a little bit nervously making sure they don't break any of these rules. That's the context of the Sabbath by the time it gets to Jesus. And the Pharisees, who do not have pure motives, they see this and they say, We got him. We got him. He's breaking the Sabbath. And they call him out.
And I want you to understand something. The Pharisees were very respected, honored, and a little bit feared by the people because of the power they held. So when they told people, You're breaking the Sabbath. The people stepped to. If you get called out for breaking the Sabbath, you straightened up and you did what you were supposed to do. So there's got to be a little bit of, Oh, we've got him right now.
He's going to straighten up. He's going to follow us. Jesus turns and immediately launches into five different defenses. And in these defenses, He absolutely, just completely dismantles their understanding of Sabbath. And really actually reveals who they are. That they have misunderstood the Sabbath for so long.
And not only that, they have used the Sabbath as a way to promote themselves as looking holy. They've used it for self-righteous gain. So, first defense, verse 3. He said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, those who were with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. His first defense is, I am the king.
He launches into this kind of vague story from the Old Testament. He says, Oh, you're going to call us out? Let's go to 1 Samuel 21. And he references this story where David is on the run from his life from King Saul. He's on the run for his life. And then you can read the Psalms.
When he's on the run, they're hungry. They're thirsty. And he comes upon a priest named Ahimelech. And he asks him, Do you have any food? And Ahimelech says, No, the only food that we have is the bread, the show bread, the bread of the presence. And this was bread specifically as the Old Testament law outlines.
It was made holy as a presentation, but ultimately the only people who could eat it were the priests. So David says, Can we eat that bread? And Ahimelech gives him the bread and his men the bread. And guess what? Nowhere in that story or in the rest of the Old Testament are those actions condemned. Not one place.
Because David is unique. He is the anointed one. He is the Savior King. There's some priestly stuff that is built into that. So when he basically, what Jesus just said was, is that I'm the greater David.
That I'm the King. And because I'm the King, we will do as we please. Just as David took bread, we will take grain. And that's kind of an abrasive thing to say. I mean, you should try this. Go down to the Amazon Fulfillment Center, down 12th Extension Street, walk on in, and you try taking stuff off the shelves.
You try to take an inventory. And when somebody comes up to you and says, What are you doing? And you say, No, no, no. You don't understand. I know Jeff Bezos. I'm actually greater than your CEO.
The richest man in the world. I will take as I please. You will end up in jail. And you will look crazy. And that is the point. And what Jesus just said to the Pharisees looks absolutely crazy.
He says, I am the King. Not only that, I'm comparing myself to the greatest King in the history of Israel. And what I love is with each of these defenses, like he doesn't give any room for rebuttal. This is not a debate. This ends up being a monologue for about four different defenses. He launches from one straight into the next.
Second defense. Verse 5. Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests and the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. His second defense is I am the greater temple. He says, Oh, I'm sorry.
Have you not read the Old Testament law that says that priests profane the Sabbath? They have to work on the Sabbath? He said, Y'all know that priests have to circumcise babies on the eighth day, even if it falls on the Sabbath. That's work. Y'all know that when they prepare the temple for worship, they're doing that on the Sabbath. They are working on the Sabbath.
So he makes that case from the text. And then he takes it a step further. And he says, I am the greater temple. Something greater than the temple is here. That's one thing to say, compare yourself to David. But the temple, man, that is the most sacred place for the people of God.
I mean, there's so much history and tradition and ritual that is bound up in the temple. I mean, to this day, there's only one wall remaining from that temple. And all around the world, Jews will travel to pray in front of this wall. They will cry in front of this wall. They will kiss this wall. And that represents how sacred this place was.
I want you to imagine for a second, for you Clemson fans, just take a moment and imagine this. One day, Dabo is going, he's going to leave. I know he's going to retire in 30 years, or he's going to leave for another school. That's up for debate. That's not the point. One day, he is going to leave.
And when he does, I want you to imagine something. A new coach comes in. He's got a press conference. That's right at Death Valley Stadium. I want you to imagine if he just went, Death Valley, the hill, Howard's Rock, someone greater is here. You would tear your orange.
Like you would be severely upset. That's a great overstatement. That takes something that is so sacred. Like I just, Jesus just elevated. He said, I am greater than the most sacred object, than the most revered place. In all of Israel.
I am the greater temple. And he doesn't stop. He keeps on going with his third defense. Verse 7, he says, And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless. His third defense is you don't get mercy.
You don't get it. Jesus starts quoting something that's actually going at the very heart of their character. He quotes Hosea 6.6. He did this back in chapter 9. But they still don't get it.
The Pharisees still don't understand what he's getting at. He says, You don't get mercy. You've used the law, and specifically, you've used the Sabbath as a means of showing yourself to be self-righteous. As a weapon against the people. You don't get mercy. And what he's doing here is a little bit of a rabbi teaching tool.
He quotes the first part of Hosea 6.6. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. But what happens is, and this is how rabbis would teach sometimes, they'll take the first part of that verse, but the second part, the context, is also included. So what he just said from Hosea 6.6 was, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. What he just said was he went straight at their character and says, You don't know mercy, and you certainly don't know God.
You have rituals, you have sacrifices, you have burnt offerings, but you don't know God, and you don't know mercy. He goes directly at their character, which is a big deal even in our time. If you get into a debate with somebody, an argument, and it escalates, and eventually you start, you know, calling out each other's character, it gets heated. And we aren't even in a shame honor culture like theirs. In a shame honor culture, this is a huge deal. He did this to them, to their face.
He does it in front of all the people. He reveals who they are. You don't know God, and you certainly do not understand mercy. And he doesn't give them any room to respond. He goes straight into the fourth defense, verse 8. He says, For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
And this is my favorite one. His fourth defense is, I am Lord. He starts off with Son of Man, which is the, this is Daniel language, this is looking for the Messiah, elevating himself to God. Now, when later he's on trial, right before he is sentenced to death, he references Son of Man language, and they recognize exactly what he just said, that he compared himself to God. At that point, they tear their clothes. They call out for blasphemy.
So not only does he say, I'm the Son of Man, he says, I'm Lord of the Sabbath, which is the trump card. I remember when I was, we were kids, that we would get in arguments, we'd get in debates, and you'd do something like, I'm the smartest, and they would say, no, I'm ten times as smart. You'd say, no, I'm a hundred times smarter. And then eventually, if you learn this word, infinity, it changed the game. It's like, I'm the smartest times infinity. And they go, what?
Grab a Webster's, son, get schooled. It's endless. I win. It's the trump card. Jesus lays down the infinity card. I'm the Lord of the Sabbath.
I run these streets now. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm the captain of it. I'm the one that says what goes. This is a group of people that held God's people in check with Sabbath regulations. They told people what they could and could not do.
And Jesus steps in and says, I'm the Son of Man. Not only that, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. What I say goes. I mean, he says something so bold, right to their faces. And this is what I love. It's that, he just kind of walks right past them.
Because in verse 9, it says he went on from there and entered their synagogue. And it's, this is like, he walks right past them and they're just like, wait, no, we got things to say. He just doesn't even listen. He walks straight into, catch this, their synagogue. Y'all, this, this is where they used to preach every week. This is where they used to teach the people.
This is where they were honored. He walks into their synagogue and he's about to lay down his fifth defense. This is kind of like Michael Jordan showing up to the elementary school, dunking on the school kids. I mean, he, he comes out of their court, their territory, and he launches into his fifth defense. Starts in verse 10. And a man was there with a withered hand and they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him?
He said to them, which one of you has a sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So he walks into their synagogue. He finds a man with a withered hand, knowing good and well what's about to happen. This is what I love, is that they, he just absolutely took it to them for four different defenses and they come inside and they think, oh, we're going to get them now. It's like, y'all don't learn this.
It's not going to end well for you. And they walk up to him and they're ready to catch him. And what Jesus does, he senses this and he quotes something. He says, which one of you has a sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will take hold of it, will not take hold of it and lift it out? What he just referenced was a very common debate at the time amongst Pharisees and Sadducees and the religious leadership in Israel. You see, because they had such intense Sabbath regulations, this was an ethical question that was asked, that was debated.
What do you do if an animal falls into a pit on the Sabbath? Now, there's a few hardliners that said, it dies. You don't want them watching your pets. And there was a couple other ones that would say, no, that's a little harsh. We can put some food in there. We'll come back on the next day and we'll get it.
The rest of them said, no, that's crazy. Let's look at the rest of the Old Testament law. No, God values life. So the overwhelming majority opinion to this ethical question that Jesus just referenced was, no, you save the animal. Go in and get the sheep. You can break a little bit of Sabbath work to save life.
And what Jesus just does, he takes that debate, he puts it front and center and then he says of how much more value is a man than a sheep. And what he just did was, he said, you, it's understood that you'll go in and you'll save something that has material value but you look at a man who has a withered hand and say, no, no, not him. He calls them out. Men and women are made in the image of God. They have value and you don't get it. You'd rather save your material possessions than actually help people.
You have completely missed the boat. So he says, so it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. And he said to the man, stretch out your hand. So the man has some type of withered hand, probably has it his entire life. And he says, stretch out your hand. And when he stretched out his hand, it was completely restored.
His entire life. All right? The stigma of being disabled in this culture and everything that goes along with that. Not be able to work like he wants to. Jesus shows mercy and his hand was restored healthy like the other one. But I want you to see the response here.
Verse 14. It says, but the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him. I mean, Jesus displays this unbelievable act of mercy. This unbelievable act of God and healing. And their response is, he is too dangerous. We are going to destroy him.
We are going to kill him and destroy his movement. What a sharp contrast. It is at this point forward, there are two completely different roads. There is the road that Jesus is going to take and that is one that is lined with mercy. And there is one that the Pharisees are going to take and it is one that is completely marked by self-righteousness. These are two different groups.
These are two different faiths and understanding of who God is. Jesus being the perfect embodiment of mercy and them being the prime example of what it looks like to be self-righteous. And honestly, when you look at it from our position, that is the same choice today. Oftentimes, for those of us, especially in the church, we struggle with mercy and what comes with that and self-righteousness. So I want to actually flesh this out for a moment.
I think it is helpful for us to look and examine ourselves and see kind of which avenue we are going down, mercy or self-righteousness. So, I am going to walk through a few different categories of what this looks like. Starting with self-righteousness. You have good works versus grace. Good works says that I earn God's favor. I earn God's favor.
That by my good works, I can do enough to overcome all the bad. That I can do enough to actually earn God's favor. And there is this striving to continue to impress God. That is what good works that comes from self-righteousness looks like. That I earn God's favor. Grace says God's favor is freely given to me.
When you understand grace that comes from a God of mercy, you get it. It is like, there is not enough good I can do to overcome all of the evil that I am and that I have done. I have no chance outside the grace of God. These are two different paths. Another way of looking at that of good works is I have checked all the boxes which especially if you grew up in the church, that is a big one. I mean, if you grew up in the church, especially going consistently, you went on Sundays, maybe Sunday nights, maybe you were there on Wednesdays, maybe you did VBS, you did all the camps.
I learned a thing a couple years ago, it was called Baptist Allstate. Actually, our pastor Matt Freeman heads it up. I was like, man, these are the all-star kids, right? He's like, no, it's just a worship thing. There is all kinds of things you could have done growing up, checking all the boxes and what happens is is that you can confuse the fact that you're checking boxes, it's this thing and this thing and this thing and this thing and you can confuse that these are supposed to be things that grow you and shape you and mold you to be more like Jesus and you can think, oh, if I do all the things, then I'll be okay.
And then as you get older, it's serving on Sundays, it's doing all the things that you can be involved in, it's going and going and going and the reality is there aren't enough boxes to check. It's understanding that Jesus actually checks all the boxes for us. That by His grace, we are completely covered. Good work says that I can't ever fail, that it's on me, I have to succeed. Grace that comes from mercy says it is okay to fail. It's okay to fail.
That I have His blood that covers me, that His power is made perfect in weakness. That's one way of looking at it. The second way of looking at it is performance versus obedience. Performance that comes from self-righteousness says I obey, therefore, I'm accepted. That I do the things that I'm supposed to do, then I'll be accepted by God, but not only that, I'll be accepted by other people. And if you struggle with that, with some form of idolatry, of approval, you will do, you will do, you will strive, you will strive, and it will never actually be enough.
No, obedience that comes from mercy says I'm accepted, therefore, I obey. Because what God has done for me, because Jesus redeemed me, I'm accepted, therefore, I can walk in obedience. Performance says my good works earn me praise. That so much of the good that you do is so you can be seen by others, so that others will see your good works, that you will get the comment that says, man, thank you so much, you did such a good job, and you were living for the praise of others. Obedience that comes from mercy says my good works are actually worship. My good works are the way that I honor God.
God has poured out His life for me. My only response is that I'm His and that I believe that He's better than everything else. And when He says don't do these things and do these things, I get to worship God in my obedience. It is a response. I give you one more category that comes from self-righteousness is pride versus humility that comes from mercy. Pride versus humility.
Pride says it is never enough. It is never enough. You will work and you will strive and you will struggle and you will do whatever it takes and it is never enough. And humility says no, Jesus is enough. He's enough. I don't have to earn His favor because of everything that God has done for me.
Out of humility I say no, He is enough. Pride also says that I am my only hope. Maybe you have had that thought that it's on me. I'm my only hope. I'm the one that has to get this figured out. I'm the one that has to do all the work.
And humility says no, Jesus is my only hope. That I am absolutely hopeless without Him. When you walk this out and there's a bunch of different ways to walk this out, it is clear there are two different paths. There's one that is merciful and there's one that is marked by self-righteousness. And from this point forward in the Gospel of Matthew, these are the two different roads. And Matthew highlights the difference so clearly in this story by how he closes it out.
In verse 15 it says, Jesus aware of this withdrew from there and many followed Him and He healed them all in order not to make Him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. So Jesus is healing. He's doing His thing sometimes where He heals them and says, don't say anything about this. And what Matthew does a few times in his Gospel is he quotes these long Old Testament quotes. This one's from Isaiah to help us see who Jesus is, to help Him see that He's the Messiah, to help us see different parts of how He saves and that He is God.
And it is this quote that really helps Mark the difference between Jesus and the Pharisees. verse 18 says, Isaiah says, Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom I am well pleased. I put my spirit upon him. That is a picture of what happens at His baptism. The spirit comes upon him and He will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. That is you and me. Everyone that is not Jewish.
That His ultimate goal is not just the people of God. It's all nations, all peoples, everywhere. Verse 19, He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. That's a little bit of a picture of what He just did. He's healing people. He's telling them, don't say a word.
And then I want you to absolutely absorb these next few verses. I want you to sit in this. Verse 20, A bruised reed He will not break. And a smoldering wick He will not quench until He brings justice to victory. And in His name, the Gentiles will hope. And man, that is where you see how good and merciful and gentle our Savior is.
A bruised reed He will not break. Reed grass, you may be familiar with it. We see it sometimes at the coast. It's the grass that just blows in the air. It's not very strong. And He says even more so, a bruised reed that's even more weak is a bruised reed.
He's not going to break. That if you have brokenness in your life, if you are struggling with sin, He's not going to break you. He's going to hold you. How gentle and loving of a picture of a Savior that we have that a bruised reed He's not going to break. And then it says a smoldering wick He will not quench. He's got this flame that it's flickering that it's getting ready to go out and He's not going to smother it.
He's going to take care of it. Maybe that's you that for you faith just feels like a flicker. Maybe you're in a season where it's so difficult right now. It's so difficult to see past all the trials past all of your sin past all of your brokenness and you just feel like it's just a flicker. And Jesus is so gentle and it's His picture that He's going to take care of us. It's not going to snuff us out.
And this picture of how gentle our Savior is has been so good for me. The last six months has been it's been difficult. I feel like following Jesus I've been following Jesus for over a decade and I feel like there's seasons where people ask me are you good? And I'm like yeah and I really am. And I'm like man I'm doing pretty good and I almost sometimes I think I've arrived almost. I'm progressing and then all of a sudden just pulls back the floorboards and I'm like oh dang there's a whole lot of sin and a whole lot of idolatry.
I mean this this happens. That's why Paul when he writes his letters early on in one of his earliest letters he says I'm the least of the apostles. And then you go a little bit later in his letters and one of them he says I am the the least of the saints of the Christians. And in one of his final letters he says I'm the chief of sinners. And it's like did he get more sinful as he got older? No.
But what he did see is more of the glory of God and more of his holiness and he saw more of his sin. And I'm in a season where I'm seeing so much idolatry and sin beneath the surface and I stumble upon verses like this that show me how gentle and loving our God is. He's been so good as I've journeyed through this in his word and in prayer. But about a few months ago I got to hear this song. It's a song called Relent. It's by a group called Citizens.
I've sang a few other songs even this morning. And it has been so helpful and so good when I stumbled upon this because it spoke to me so clearly in this season. So I want you to hear this. If you're in a season of brokenness of struggling with sin of struggling with pain I want you to so clearly hear the words from this song. He says if I gain the world would it be worth the price to work these hands to death and not be satisfied. And you'll feel that?
That you're working that you're striving working yourself to death you're not satisfied. He says if every effort brought another sleepless night I'd be so tired. And if that was the only hope we would strive and we would go and we would go and there'd be only anxiousness only sleeplessness we would be left absolutely tired. but then he gets to the gospel and the chorus and when I heard this it absolutely just wrecked me. He says I relent there is nothing for me here you can have it all this life is not my own you give life that is worth the loss of mine I surrender all I have to follow you.
The King and His Rest
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. I want to take a moment on the front end just to explain a little bit of how we do things in our approach to preaching. We have a team approach to preaching. So every Wednesday, one of us who's preaching brings their sermon to our teaching team.
And our teaching team is preached live, and then for the next hour or so, we go through it. We try to make sure that it's actually coherent here on a Sunday morning, that it preaches the Bible, that it's not boring, because we care about preaching. We care about this time as we open up God's Word. And we also have a team approach to how we do preaching. So we have multiple people that preach throughout the calendar year.
Most of the time, it is myself, it is Chet, and it is and has been Dr. Ken. But if you were at our member meeting a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Ken is going to be going back into semi-retirement again. And he's going to be at the end of March. He's going to be transitioning to just being a member here until God calls him to an interim position somewhere else.
So after that, it will be mostly Chet and I. Raz also, who's in the back walking around, he also preaches sometimes. We try to get Matt Freeman, who leads worship, to preach, but we do it very unsuccessfully. He does not say yes. So we have a team approach to preaching.
We value that. We think it's good to have different personalities. Chet and I have different styles. It also allows us to focus on other parts of the church on weeks that we're not preaching. So that's a little bit of how we do things.
I'm going to be here for the next four or the next five weeks. So if you've been coming around for a little bit, that might throw you off. That just explains a little bit of our philosophy of preaching. So we also preach through books of the Bible. And we are in the Gospel of Matthew. We have been for the last six months.
And we preach verse by verse, section by section. And every now and then we encounter a section that's a little more difficult. It's a little bit harder to absorb. And we don't skip parts of the Bible because they're difficult. We lean into them. And that's one of the parts that we're walking through this morning.
So we're going to be in chapter 11, verses 20 through 30. If you have a Bible, please follow along with us. If you don't have one, there's blue Bibles around you. That's on page 476 is where we will be. But I would encourage you this morning especially to open up a Bible.
There won't be a ton of text on the screen. This is a little bit more of a confusing passage. And it would be helpful to have it out in front of you. All right. So I have learned quite a few things since becoming a parent.
I have learned that you can operate on way less sleep than you thought you could. I have three kids, four and under. And right before our first, I was like, man, I don't know how we're going to do this. I really value sleep. But you just adjust.
It's fine. Your body adjusts. And you'll be okay. I've also learned that dads get way more grace than moms. So I was in Chick-fil-A a couple months ago.
It was the first time taking all three of the kids by myself to Chick-fil-A. And it was an unmitigated disaster. Every kid was crying by the time that we left. Multiple kids were injured. And I was fumbling around. I had a baby that was crying.
I had a daughter that was crying. My son fell out of his chair and conked his head on the towel. And moms came out of the woodwork. Like, they just, they were so there. They were helping tie shoes. They were like, let's get them some ice.
And I could see it on their face. It was, you go, dad. You're doing it. You're figuring this out. If that was my wife, she would not have gotten that kind of help. She would have gotten judgment, stares.
Like, girl, you ain't got it together. You need to figure this out. Like, they just, I've learned that dads get more grace. And the other thing that I've learned is that children are smaller case studies for later future brokenness. They are small little case studies for later future brokenness. So, when my kids get their minds set on something.
And it's just, they, like, they think they're going to get ice cream after dinner. They think that some friends are coming over and they cancel last minute. They lose their minds. They scream. They cry. They fall on the ground, limp, flailing.
And I used to think, stop overreacting. This is ridiculous. But what I've learned is, is they're not overreacting. They're reacting. That's what's going on in their heart. And they're three.
So, all of their emotions are on display. Right? All of their feelings. All of their thoughts. It's just out there in the open. But as you get older, you realize that it is culturally unacceptable to pitch a fit and to lose your mind.
Like, I just, I go to McDonald's a few times a week. And, uh, and listen, you know what you're getting. Like, every now and then they're going to mess up your order. That comes to the territory. Set the bar low. You won't be disappointed.
But I'll go to McDonald's and if they mess up my order in the drive-thru and I start screaming and shaking, I got, I will end up on a viral video. It will not go well. We just, we know you can't do that. You get older, you learn that actually that looks like weakness. You're not going to get what you want. But we do it in more culturally acceptable ways.
When we fix our eyes and our hopes on something and we don't get it, man, we will find other ways to do it. We'll throw our tantrums in silence or away from other people. If you're driving in traffic, that's when you're going to throw a tantrum. You're going to grab the wheel and shake it. Right? We'll beat ourselves up internally to the point of just deep anxiety, even depression.
We'll respond by over-drinking to medicate the pain of loss. When we set our mind on something, we find adult, culturally acceptable ways of dealing with it. But the reality is, is that we're really just a three-year-old version of ourselves. We just grow up a little bit and know how to change. I oversee, one of the things I oversee here is care and counseling. And I've been involved in some form of care and counseling over the last few years in different churches.
And what I've seen is, is that we will forge the good life out of anything we can put our hands on. So if it's a career, if it's comfort, if it's the pleasures of this world, we'll find something that we'll put all of our hopes in. We'll aim for it. And ultimately what happens, just take success for instance. A lot of people will make success the end goal. That's the hope.
They'll put all their eggs in that basket. And they'll ultimately pursue it. And it'll cause them to use their best hours at work instead of at home. They'll cut corners. They'll make questionable ethical decisions. They'll do whatever it takes to be successful.
But here's what ultimately happens. Success is never enough. It's never enough. You'll go and you'll go and you will eventually be disappointed. And what will happen is, is that you will be left disappointed and broken and tired and exhausted. This happens with anything.
You can fill in the blank there. And ultimately it will never actually bring fulfillment. It'll never actually bring joy. And it will leave you tired. It'll leave you broken. It'll leave you depressed.
It'll leave you anxious. Because we were designed to put our hope in something more. And that is what we're going to see as we walk through this passage today. As we get to the end of this passage, we're going to see that the things of this world, the good life that we try to forge and aim for, is not enough. So, I want to pray. And then we're going to jump into the text.
Father, I thank you that you have given us your word. Father, I pray that you would open up our eyes to see, that you would give us ears to hear what you have to say this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. Follow along with me. Verse 20.
Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done. This is Jesus. Because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.
Now, Dr. Ken ended there last week. And we're picking up right here. Jesus is pronouncing woes on these cities. He's been doing ministry all over the region of Galilee. We saw in chapter 8 and chapter 9, he's healing the masses.
He's casting out demons. He's doing all kinds of mighty works. And the people are coming out to see him. They're coming out to see them. But also, he's not just healing.
He's not just serving the least of these. He's not just casting out demons. He's actually also proclaiming a message that we see as early as chapter 4. He's saying, repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's performing mighty works, but he's also preaching a message of repentance.
And these cities aren't getting it. They're not hearing and understanding the message. They're actually just focusing on the mighty works. So when Jesus comes to town, it's, let's see what he can do next. What more do you have, Jesus? Are you going to perform more miracles?
The crowds want to see, but they're not understanding what he is saying. So he starts to pronounce these woes on these cities. Verse 21, woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you have been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
So Jesus, he calls out these cities in Galilee where he's been performing these miracles. And then he mentions two other cities, Tyre and Sidon. Now these are, at the time, these are older cities that have been known. They're not Jewish cities. They're pagan cities. They don't worship God.
And they were known for this. And Jesus just said that if his mighty works had been done in those cities, they would have repented long ago. And then he pronounces this woe on these cities because they have not repented at seeing the mighty works. In verse 22, he says, But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades.
Now, a little bit of what he's getting at and what commentators may see this. He calls out Capernaum, which is actually where he's been living. That's his home base. He calls out this city and he says, Will you be exalted to heaven? Now, that is a statement that if, as the commentators have looked at this, they think this is probably calling out the posture of that city. That they thought there was something special about them since they are seeing these mighty works on display.
Well, now that we've seen these, aren't we too going to be exalted to heaven? They've missed it. They've absolutely missed it. They thought that proximity, nearness to the mighty works of God would gain them passage into heaven. Now, that is a warning that I think is helpful for us to hear as southerners. Because the reality is, is that we have access to these mighty works.
There are churches all across our city. There are preachers preaching this morning about the mighty works of God. There are ministries all across the city that are proclaiming the mighty works of God. And for us as southerners, there's a little bit of a general mindset down here that says, well, I believe in Jesus. I'm a Christian. I'm a Baptist.
I'm a Lutheran. I'm a Presbyterian. I can say that I believe that Jesus died for my sins. Because we have access to hearing about the mighty works of God. When in reality, there's a whole lot of lack of repentance. In a lot of ways, we look like the rest of the world.
And there can be this posture of arrogance. It's because we are Christian by confession. Because we are surrounded by churches that somehow proximity to the mighty works of God gains us entry into heaven. I think that's a warning for us that we need to absorb as we look at this woe that he pronounces on the city of Capernaum. So he pronounces this woe.
And in this, this is a little bit difficult to catch and wrap our minds around. He also says, it'll be more tolerable for these cities than for you. It'll be more tolerable for the cities of Tyre and Sidon than for Capernaum, than for Bethsaida, than for Chorazin. And what he just said was, is that because you have access to the mighty works, and they did not, it's going to be more tolerable for them on Judgment Day. That's a hard thing to wrap our minds around. But that is an implication of what he just said.
And he keeps going. Verse 23 says, for the mighty works have been done, and you have been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it'll be more tolerable on the day of Judgment for the land of Sodom than for you. So he gives another example, the city of Sodom, which in the Bible is one of the primary cities. It's a primary example of the city that has fallen and rejecting God. Sodom, as we walked through this in Genesis a few years ago, they were known for their sexual depravity.
They were also known for their lack of care for the poor, for the downtrodden, which is something that the heart of God deeply cares about. And because of this, his judgment rains down from heaven and it consumes the city and reduces it to ashes. He just used Sodom as an example of judgment for these cities to see. If the works had been done in Sodom, they would have repented. But works are being done in front of you and you are not.
It'll be more bearable for Sodom than it will for you. That is some pretty intense language, some pretty intense woes that Jesus pronounces on these cities. Now on the surface, that's exactly what it is. But as we walk through this, there's actually a little bit more of a bigger picture that's happening here. He picks up in verse 25. At that time, Jesus declared, Now, here's the bigger picture of what's happening.
As he's pronouncing these woes on these cities, for not repenting at his mighty works, Jesus starts to pray. This is a prayer of thanksgiving. And he prays to God the Father, saying, I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Now, wise and understanding in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospels as a whole, that's generally referring to the religious establishment. This is the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the religious leadership of the Jewish people who thought they knew it all, the wise and understanding. And little children is applied to the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the sinners, even the children who hear of these mighty works.
And that actually leads to repentance and faith. Now, I want to take just a brief moment to address this. Just give me some range here. There are, in our culture, highly educated, elite people. So professors, people on TV, famous people, that look down on Christianity as a whole.
There's an arrogant posture about our faith. And what they will do is they will belittle our faith, because the hope for them has been that with actual education, with the 21st century happening, as the world is evolving and getting smarter, the hope was that we would drop this superstition, as they claim. That we would stop this. That the world would evolve, and it hasn't. Man, the gospel is exploding all over Africa and Asia and South America. I mean, the gospel is moving even in our city.
And there's this arrogant posture. They can't figure out why this is actually happening. And the reality is, it's this right here. That God has, you can see it throughout the Bible, that God humbles the proud and He gives grace to the humble. That He has hidden these things from the wise, the learned, the elite. And He's revealed them to little children.
He's revealed them to the simple. He's revealed them to people like you and me. And I say that to say that if you're in a situation, maybe you're a student, maybe you're just overwhelmed by how much some people in culture are talking down. You don't have to get frustrated. In fact, you can have a little bit of pity and pray. Because the reality is, is that their pride keeps them from believing.
And God has hidden this from the elite. He's hidden this from the wise and the understanding. Now, that's an aside. I don't want to bury the lead because I don't want to miss exactly what God is doing here. Because what He just said was, is that God the Father has hidden these things. He's hidden these things.
These things is a little bit of a vague term. But when you look at it in the context of the Gospel of Matthew, this is the whole package of belief. This is repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is God displaying His mighty works that lead to repentance. This is repentance and faith.
He has hidden these things from the wise and understanding. And when you understand what He is getting at, what He is saying is, is He has hidden faith from the wise and understanding. And when you go back and look at the previous five verses, this makes a little more sense of how God works. That God could have displayed His mighty works in Sodom, but He didn't. God could have displayed His mighty works in Tyre and Sidon, but He didn't. God displays His works even in His hometown in Capernaum.
And they still don't get it. It's been hidden from them. They still don't believe. It doesn't actually lead to faith and repentance. And when you skip down, you read it. Verse 27, it makes it even more clear.
And no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. The reality is, is that Jesus has chosen to reveal Himself in a way that leads to repentance to some, but He is not to others. And when you read that, I know there's a part of it to say, wait a second, did He really just say what He said? He can't possibly mean what He just said. But the reality is, is that He doubles down on this again a few chapters later.
In chapter 13, verse 10, He's telling these parables, and some of the people in the crowds aren't understanding. And verse 10 says, Then the disciples came and said to Him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And He answered them, To you, talking to the disciples, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. He's saying, to you the secrets of the kingdom, this faith that leads to repentance, that's been given to you, but to them it has not been given. And this idea that the Bible shows over and over again, that God gives faith to some, and not to others, it bothered me so much as an early Christian.
I came to faith right before I went to college. I got to college, started reading the Bible, started reading across passages like this, and I was like, the Bible can't be saying what it's actually saying, it must be something different. I had some friends that were Christians, and we would spend hours going back and forth about this. Hours in a coffee shop, hours in our dorm rooms, debating this. It's like the only time in my life that I've ever had, just endless hours to talk about this with other people. And we debate, we go back and forth, and I would, I would come up with these, these, these philosophical arguments, that had to explain away, this can't possibly mean what the Bible is actually saying.
I just think, I look back at it, the arrogance of a 19 year old college student saying, no, God has to work in my system, absolutely. But we go back and forth, over and over again, trying to say, no, this can't mean what it means. God can't give faith to some, and not to others. Choose to reveal His mighty works to some, and not to others. And the reality is, is that, I couldn't get on board with this idea, I think for a couple of reasons. I think the first reason, on a very macro, larger level, the reason why I couldn't, get on board with this, is because I think, me and I think others, have a basic understanding, of fairness, and entitlement, that says, that's not fair.
It's not fair. It's not fair that God reveal Himself clearly, that leads to faith to some, and not to others. No, that can't be. And the reality is, the Bible says, that is not the case. The Bible, when it addresses this, and its understanding is, fairness, is everybody, gets judgment. Fairness is, everybody, gets hell.
Because we have rebelled, against a holy, and perfect God, God is absolutely, just, and fair, because of our sin, to bring judgment. That's actually, what fairness is. And I just, I couldn't, wrap my mind, I cannot wrap my mind, around that. But I think, on a more personal level, for me, and this may be the case, for others, is that I had family, I had friends, that did not believe, and I could not, I couldn't possibly, fathom, no this doesn't make sense, that God would get faith, that clearly, is repentance for some, and not for others. That cannot be, the case. So for, pretty much the most, of college, I spent so much time, thinking about this, trying to figure this out, studying the Bible, looking at this, over and over again, and then finally, something clicked.
This summer, this one summer, after my junior year, I was at Myrtle Beach, and I was working, at a resort, cleaning bathrooms, and for some reason, when I'm doing work, especially by myself, it gives me time to think. And that whole summer, I'm thinking about a lot of things, but I'm thinking about this, this, the Bible, I'm thinking about this subject matter, and then finally, something clicked. And it's really bound up here, in verse 26. When in the midst of Jesus' prayer, He says, Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will. Your gracious will. The first part of that, is grace.
The reality is, is that yes, fairness is, we absolutely deserve judgment. But God, in His rich mercy, and His grace, meaning we don't earn it, in His grace, and in His love, He comes from heaven, to redeem us. That He spills His blood, for the lost. That He comes, and He saves, many. And once I finally understood, God is gracious, to redeem many. That He's sending out, church plants, and missionaries, all across the world, to proclaim the gospel, that leads to repentance.
That God is gracious. But the part two of that, that really clicked for me, was His will. His gracious will. And what finally clicked for me was, is that I don't have to understand, the will of God. The greater will of God, is too wonderful, for me to comprehend. That this, the greater will, that is happening here, I don't have to understand it, because I don't actually have to know, the mind of God.
And when I finally understood that, man, it started to make so much more sense. That's a little bit, what Paul is getting at, when he's writing the book of Romans. The first 11 chapters of Romans, is this long, sustained argument, that is touching a lot, on God's sovereignty and salvation. And he's writing this, and there's two kind of basic responses, that come out of it. In chapter 9, he kind of gives a blunt one. And he says, basically, if you don't think this is fair, the reality is, is that you are a clay pot, and God is a potter.
What right does the clay pot, have to say to the potter? And it's like, dang, that's a little blunt. It's true, but it's a little blunt. But then towards the end, right at the end, of this long sustained argument, you get to chapter 11, verses 33 through 36. And Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is writing all these, big theological points. And it's almost like, at the end of this long discussion, he bursts forth into praise.
He has a doxology, in verses 33 through 36. It's almost like he can't, his mind is ready to break, and he just bursts forth. He says, Oh, the depths, of the riches, and the wisdom, and the knowledge, of God. How unsearchable, are his judgments. They cannot be searched. How inscrutable, his ways.
For who is known, the mind of the Lord. That's rhetorical. Nobody. Who has been his counselor? Who has given a gift to him, that he might be repaid? For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things.
To him be glory, forever and ever. Amen. He just can't help it. He can't wrap his mind around it. He doesn't have to know, it's the mind of the Lord. He doesn't have to understand this completely.
But what he can do, is look at a gracious God, that is on mission, to redeem this world, and say, praise God, that he saves many. We don't have to know, the mind of the Lord. We don't have to know, these complicated things, in and out. Thank goodness, we are finite, because we will never understand, the infinite. Once that finally clicked for me, that it was actually good, to see God as sovereign, in how he saves. It changed the game.
In high school, I played high school football, and I was talking to someone, our church family about this, a little while ago, and they were genuinely surprised, that I played high school football. And I was genuinely offended, for a moment, and then I realized, I don't do anything, physically active now, except chase my children. Fair point. But I did. I played high school football, and I was quick. I ran about a 4.640, which in high school football, that puts you, in a few different positions.
I played defensive back, and I played tailback, and receiver. If you don't know football, I got the ball, and I ran the ball down the field. And I would burst past people, for 30 and 40 yard gains. I was quick. But what happened, almost every single time, is at 50 yards, at 60 yards, at the 10, I got caught.
Every single time. I can think of two times, my entire playing career, in high school, that I didn't get caught. It's because those teams, were terrible. But I got caught, every time, and I could not figure out, why in the world, can I just blow, bass people for 30, 40 yards, but I get caught, at the end, every time. And then I got to college, and I learned a thing. That when I do, anything high impact activity, I can be in my room, moving stuff around.
I hold my breath. I don't know why, that's natural to me. But I do. I will hold my breath. And when I played, intramural sports in college, I finally figured it out. I'm running for 20, 30, 40 yards, and I am on one, maybe two, three breaths max.
And you might think, really? Seriously? It took until you were like, 20 years old, to realize that, breathing is a thing, that you should actually do? Yes, I know. I know there are two people, in the room right now, that just went, man, explains everything. I got you.
Breathe. It's helpful. You need oxygen. You are designed, to need oxygen, when you run, when you do anything, high impact activity. You will not make it. Just think, if I would have known that, in high school, I would have gone on, to the next level.
I could have gone pro, guys. But I wouldn't be here, with you. So, I think everybody wins. We, we are designed, to need oxygen, when we do anything, high impact activity. We need that. That's how we are designed, in the same way, in the same way, we are designed, by God, to see him, as the sovereign ruler, the sovereign king, over all things.
And to look to him, with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our strength. that he, is the one, that we are meant to look to, that we are meant to pursue, that we are not, meant, to find lesser things, in this world, and make that our focus. We are not designed, to make lesser, to focus on lesser things, and to forge the good life, out of things, that do not bring fulfillment, and do not bring joy. Jesus, hammers this point, about judgment, about his sovereignty, about how big he is. And then he makes a shift, in verse 28. Now often times, when you hear, this is one of the most, popular passages, from the gospels, and it is one of my, favorite passages, from the gospels.
But a lot of times, you will hear it, just quoted, and you will miss the context. So you need to understand, this is Jesus, after everything he just said, showing how big he is, that he is God. And then he goes, verse 28, come to me, all who labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you, rest. Take my yoke, upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle, and lowly, and hard, and you will find, rest, for your souls. For my yoke, is easy, and my burden, is light. This is how we were designed, to function.
Just as a running back, needs oxygen, to complete a long run, you as a Christian, need to see, God for who he is, and to focus, all of your affections, your pursuit, your life, fixated on how good, our creator, our sovereign king is, we need him, to focus on, that we can make it, through this marathon, of life, called faith. That is what, we are meant to see here. God flexes, his power, Jesus flexes, his power, for seven verses, and then he says, come, to me. I want you to hear that, this morning. The God of the universe, the creator, of all things, the one who is on mission, to redeem this world, all over the globe, just said, come, to me.
Do not make, the good life, about lesser things. Do not pursue, comfort. Do not pursue, the pleasures of this world, approval, money, sex. He says, no, come, to me. And I want you to hear this, I want you to right now, think about, what are the things, that so much, of your focus, so much of your attention, so much of your affection, so much of your focus, is fixated on. Jesus comes in, and says, no, no, no, come to me.
Come to me, you who are living life, on your terms. Your whole life, has been about, living life, on your terms. You're forging, this life, out of things. You're focusing, on everything else. He just says, no, no, no, come to me. They were so focused, on things, here in the earth.
He lifts up our head, he says, no, come to me. For those of you, whose plans, have fallen apart. Maybe life has not gone, the way that you, wanted it to. And you feel disappointed, you feel broken, you feel weary. He says, no, look, look, come, to me. Those of you, that are burdened, with shame, and guilt.
That all you can think about, is your sin. That all you can think about, is that I'm gross, that I'm dirty, that I'm unworthy. How could a God like this, possibly love me? He says, no, no, I'm way bigger than your shame. I'm about to take that, at the cross. No, no, no, come to me.
Look at me. Come to me. Those of you, that are anxious about work, anxious about money, so those of you, that have focused, so much of your life, on success, and thinking, that's going to bring fulfillment. The God, the universe cuts through, and says, no, come to me. If you focused your life, on the pleasures of this world, it could be sex, it could be drugs, it could be anything else. He says, no, look, come to me.
For those of you, that are perfectionists, that so much of life, is about controlling, your circumstances. Those of you, that are moms, that are trying to compare yourself, to other moms, and trying to do this perfectly, and it leads to anxiety, and it leads to depression, and it's just a cycle of crazy. He steps in, He says, oh, look at me, come to me, you were burdened, you were heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We need that. We need to see the sovereign king, who looks at his creation, and says, come to me, I will give you rest. He says, take my yoke.
Yoke is a wooden frame, that is placed on two animals. They're meant to pull a load, together. Jesus says, I'm in this. Come with me, come join this yoke. Take my yoke. And a lot of times, in the Bible, in the Old Testament, especially, yoke is used as a negative term.
It's when the people of God, the nation of Israel, has yoked themselves, to a foreign king. They've yoked themselves, to foreign idols, and it's crushing them. Or in the New Testament, Peter, when he's talking about, the Old Testament law, that the people have yoked themselves, to the Old Testament law, thinking, that obedience to the law, that performing good works, is going to earn obedience. Jesus cuts through all of that, and he makes this a positive. He says, no, no, no. Don't yoke yourself to lesser things.
Yoke yourself to me. I will carry the load. Take my yoke, and learn from me. Learn from me. I will teach you, for I am gentle, and a lowly in heart, and you will find rest, for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
And the reason, that he can say that, is because of where he is going. The yoke that he is going to take, the wooden frame he is going to take, is ultimately going to be a wooden cross. And he is going to carry that cross up a hill. And his blood is going to be poured out. He is going to take his perfect, righteous obedience, with him to the cross. And for those of us, that hear this call, and come to him, he is going to give us that standing, before God the Father.
And he is going to take our sins. He can say this, so helpfully. And it be so true. That he can take, our burdens. He can carry it. But we have to hear the call.
There is an early church father, named Augustine. He said, our heart is restless, until it finds its rest in God. We have restless hearts. Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of this world? Aren't you tired of the things of this world?
Aren't you tired of the focus, that leads to more stress, that leads to more depression, that leads to more anxiety? We don't have to be tired anymore. Our restless hearts can find rest. We just have to hear the call, and come home. The band is going to come up. And we are going to take, the Lord's Supper.
And it is a meal, it is a meal of a reminder, of everything, that I just said. That on the night, that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, that was broken for you. And he took the cup, which is the cup of the new covenant. He said, this is my blood, that was shed for you, that as often as you eat, and drink this, you proclaim my death, until I return. So we are going to take this, there is going to be, members in the front and the back, serving it.
And if you are, if you are a Christian, if you have trusted in Jesus, what I want you to do this morning, is I want you to sit for a moment, and I want you to, to think. What are the things, in this world, that I have placed my hope in? What are the things, that have left me tired, and weary, and I want you to very clearly, hear, the sovereign king, say, come.
Confusion of a Generation
Transcript
Good morning. It's good to see you here this morning. Isn't it exciting to be here? I get to look forward to Sunday every Sunday. Just because it's so great to get to come together and worship the great God we have and do it with such enthusiasm. It's so refreshing to be able to do that.
My name is Ken Harmon. I'm one of the pastors here at Mill City Church. I want to begin this morning with sharing with you something that happened to my wife and I a long time ago. It was 1973. I just finished up my classwork at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. And we were moving back to South Carolina.
We were looking forward to having a church where I could be the full-time pastor. We were looking forward to continuing to serve the Lord. We were looking forward to starting a family. And that was going to happen soon because my wife was seven and a half weeks, I mean nine and a half months. Wait a minute. I'll get it right in a minute.
Seven and a half months pregnant. Six weeks to go. We had been back in South Carolina a couple of weeks. And one day she realized something had gone terribly wrong with the pregnancy. Went to the doctor. She was put in the hospital.
Three days later, she gave birth to our first child. Little girl. Still born. Because she had been dead for several days before she was born and because of the way they did things back then, we never even got to see her. Of course, we wondered, Lord, why did you let this happen? We're your children.
We're trying to serve you. Lord, this hurts so much. You ever felt that way? If you haven't, you will. We live in a fallen world. Bad things happen to good people.
We live in a fallen world. People do evil things to other people. Sometimes they do evil things to us. Sometimes they hurt us just because, like us, they are sinners too. You have a case one time where there was a teenage boy in the family. His teenage cousin got him into drugs because of some of the problems he already had.
Being on drugs led him to commit suicide. If you're a parent, what do you think then about a nephew? He made that happen. Sometimes our mates commit adultery. Sometimes children get kidnapped. Sometimes we're in a car wreck and the wreck was caused by a drunk driver and our back is injured and our job involved lifting.
We lose our job and we're going to be in pain for the rest of our lives. And the drunk driver gets sentenced to time served waiting for trial to six months probation. Life isn't fair. Life isn't easy. Life isn't easy. This morning we're going to look at a passage of scripture that helps us to get to get a deeper understanding that when we go through times like that, we have a deliverer.
Life isn't easy. Life isn't easy. This morning we're going to look at a passage of scripture that helps us to get to get a deeper understanding that when we go through times like that, we have a deliverer. Someone who can help us in one way or another. and we're also going to look at one of his followers who went through something very similar and so we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter 11 we're going to look at verses 1 through 24 it's on page 476 if you're looking at a pew bible and let me begin just by reading verse 1 when Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities now we've been looking at the gospel of Matthew and past three weeks Chad has been preaching through chapter 10 of the gospel of Matthew and we've seen Jesus take his disciples instruct them how to be on mission remind them of the difficulties and challenges that they were going to face and of the strength and help that could come to them and today we're going to be looking as Jesus continues his ministry at an event that took place while he was doing that
Now I need to give you some background we're getting ready to look at a statement and some question a very important question from one of the greatest men who ever lived his name was John John like Jesus had a special birth an angel announced his birth to his father and it was really astounding because both his father and his mother were way past childbearing years so this was this was another in the you know kind of things almost like Abraham and Sarah back at the beginning of the Old Testament he was announced as one who would make ready the way for the Messiah and let me read to you what his father said right after he was born and you child will be called the prophet of the most high for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins so this is what was prophesied about John when he was young and this is exactly what took place he became the one to prepare the way for Jesus he is the one who went out and preached to people and you know call them to repentance he prepared the way for Jesus he was he was a different sort of guy uh he lived in the wilderness he wore rough clothing he ate locust and wild honey I could do the honey not so sure about the locust you know uh you know scientists today tell us that that locust and other insects are really a good source of protein and it takes takes a lot less land and water and feed to to produce that amount of protein but you know what I don't think we're ever going to see an outback locust house it's just not going to happen insects on the barbie
But John was that kind of ascetic person he was serious about what he was doing he he proclaimed the word of God in a very powerful way he preached repentance turning from evil and and he baptized people as as a sign that they had repented that they'd turn from evil and and opened themselves up to God and when he preached he preached uh what we would call hellfire sermons now some of the scribes and pharisees some of the religious leaders of the time went out to listen to him he saw them coming knew that there were a bunch of hypocrites said you snakes who warned you to flee from the wrath to come preaching to people he would say listen unless you're a tree that's bearing the fruits of repentance the axe is already laid at the root you're getting ready to be cut down he said there's coming a time when God's going to gather the wheat into his barn and the chaff the waste product of the fruit is going to be burned with unquenchable fire and and people flocked to him because they wanted to hear that word that would lead them to a different life a higher life a better life John was a woman who was preparing the way for the Lord he was brave he would take on anybody Herod Antipas was the ruler around there in those parts then and uh he had done something that wasn't very good he had enticed his brother's wife away from his brother and married her and John let him know in no uncertain terms that that wasn't right John was brave he would he was one that would stand up against unrighteousness John knew Jesus in fact on their mother's side there were cousins and he recognized that Jesus was the Messiah he looked at him one time when Jesus was coming to him and said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world he had a good understanding of who Jesus was and yet John pushed it a little too far one time and Herod had had enough of him and had him thrown in prison can you imagine what being in prison would have been like for John I mean he was a a man of the outdoors he was a he was a man who could take care of himself in the wilderness
He was a man who who enjoyed being among people he was a man who you know was doing what God had called him to do from the time he was a child he knew his purpose and he was fulfilling that purpose and all of a sudden here he is cooped up in a little cell probably very dark probably very filthy not able to do what God had called him to do and so he had questions why is this happening to me what's going on I thought Jesus was the Messiah I was convinced of it and yet I thought when he came he would solve all the problems we have in this world he would help those who were going through injustice and he would bring justice and he would punish the wicked and here I am in prison and Herod and his new wife well they are living in acclaim and living in luxury so with that struggle going on
He did the best possible thing he could do he sent his disciples to bring the issue to Jesus see what he thought so let's begin reading again looking at verse 2 now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ he sent word by his disciples and said to him are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another and Jesus answered them go and tell John what you hear and see the blind receive their sight and the lame walk lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them and blessed is the one who is not offended
By me John sent a question to Jesus and Jesus took that question and he replied to it he took his John's question seriously understand something when we are going through a struggle when we are facing difficult times we can bring our request to Jesus we can share with him and he will listen because he cares he didn't condemn John for asking that question he didn't he didn't jump on him because he was struggling with what was going on
In his life he listened and he responded Jesus took him seriously even though John's question struck at the very heart of who Jesus was are you the one who is to come are you really the disciple I thought you were but now I'm beginning to wonder are you really that one John would have known the scripture John would have known
That in some of the passages from the Old Testament that look forward to the coming of the Messiah that we find things such as this where it says in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see but he also would have known that there are prophecies
From the Bible that talk about the Messiah coming and initiating that time where there is justice listen to what Malachi had to say for behold the day is coming burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble the day that is coming will set them ablaze says the Lord of hosts so that it will leave them neither root nor branch two different types of prophecies
John was hoping for one especially in the situation he was in Jesus replied it's the other one right now you go back and tell John what do you see and they see the blind getting their sight the lame walking the left was being cleansed the deaf hearing those things are taking place tell John the things that are happening that are blessing
People that are meeting people's needs that are they're beginning to see that with the becoming of the Messiah ultimately life is going to be better sometimes people need to have their needs met before they can absorb the gospel one relief worker said the hungry have no ears in other words
You've got to meet people's needs and then share the gospel with them that's why you see believers doing good things to help people adopting working at food banks working with crisis pregnancy centers spending money to help relief efforts when there's a disaster God's people
Respond in these ways and we're showing the same kind of love the master had and doing the same kind of work that Jesus did but notice Jesus went on and he said good news is preached to the poor because that's got to be
Part of the ministry too we don't just do something good for somebody and leave them hanging we try to go on and share the good news and if we just do a good deed without explaining that this is pointing to Jesus in one way
Or another then we've only gone half way we haven't met people's deepest needs and because we as God's people want to proclaim the gospel we will do things like give away bibles teach children in church we will
Share our faith when we have the opportunity to do so we will support efforts to start new churches we will support missionaries in other countries we do these things so that the good news of Jesus can be proclaimed and people
Can come to know who he really is and what he really can do but notice verse 6 Jesus closed his first response by John to saying and blessed is the one who is not offended by me the word offended there has the idea of stumbling
Over it John was beginning to stumble a little bit over Jesus because he wasn't doing what John thought he ought to be doing and so Jesus said be careful don't stumble over to me don't get to the place where you think you can judge what I'm
Doing and that be the final word on something in other words you've got to let Jesus be Jesus and do things in his own way and his own time and then John went on and he spoke some things
Concerning Jesus beginning with verse 7 as they went away Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John what did you go out in the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind what then did
You go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing behold those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses what then did you go out to see a prophet yes I tell you in more
Than a prophet this is he of whom it is written behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you John had attracted a lot of people he had attracted them by saying
Judgment is coming and it's coming quickly and now John was in prison and judgment hadn't come so some of the people were beginning to leave John probably some of the people who heard Jesus speak and so Jesus was telling them
About John and what it was did you go out to see a reed reed grows in marshy land it's blown away by any kind of small wind and it was something that symbolized
Weakness Jesus is saying John wasn't a reed he didn't wear soft clothing he wasn't a softie he was brave he was strong he was courageous and he was a prophet he was a prophet and more than a
Prophet he was a prophet who made ready the way of the Lord again the Old Testament says that's what he was going to do Malachi 3 1 it says behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and that's
What John was doing by calling people to take their sin seriously they were being prepared to receive Jesus as the one who could save them from their sins so he was preparing the way for the
Lord and in verses 13 and 14 it says for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John but if you're willing to accept it he is Elijah who
Is to come again there was a prophecy that Elijah would come back Malachi 4 5 behold I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes so people were expecting a return of Elijah now John wasn't a reincarnation of Elijah
John was in the spirit and in the power of Elijah that was able to bring people to the Lord bring people made ready for the
Lord God and then Jesus after complimenting John in all of these ways said this and this is an amazing verse look at verse 11 Jesus
Said truly I say to you among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist wow Jesus said
Nobody is greater than John but look what he goes on to say yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is
Greater than he Jesus said this man John nobody is greater than John but the least one in the kingdom of heaven is greater
Than he now what do he mean well John was there and he saw the dawn of the kingdom of heaven Jesus had come
Jesus was beginning his work of bringing the kingdom of heaven to be but John died he got beheaded before Jesus finished his ministry
So John never knew that Jesus went to the cross and paid the price for our sins John never knew that when Jesus died the
Veil of the temple was split from top to bottom God tearing apart and saying you could come into my presence now because my
Son has died John never knew that Jesus has been raised from the dead John never knew that the Holy Spirit was poured out
On all of God's people and we know those things and so we are greater than John and if we are believers we have
The Holy Spirit within us and we can do things greater than John did because we can share more about the Christ than John
Even knew we're greater than John did you realize that as a believer you are that important and you are that great Jesus went on
Verse 12 from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has surfaced violence and the violent take it by
Force that probably means that people try to take the kingdom of God that Jesus was breaking and use it for their own devices or
They were trying to force Jesus to be a political military messiah and right away do away with the wicked throw off Roman rule
And establish a kingdom an earthly kingdom that would suit what they wanted so again you get to see this question what kind of messiah
Is Jesus is Jesus a messiah who meets physical and spiritual needs is Jesus a messiah who brings judgment is Jesus the one who
Is going to come and establish perfect justice which is it what kind of messiah is Jesus one who does good deeds one who
Judges one who establish justice all of them Jesus is all of those things Jesus is the messiah who comes to us and delivers
Us from the troubles and difficulties we face now just understand he does it in different ways sometimes he does it in a remarkable
Way way we would almost call a miracle you know Jesus comes in and all of a sudden the tumor that was there is
Now gone all of a sudden the wayward son or daughter has finally come to his or her senses and come home and started
Living a life that's going to be productive sometimes Jesus changes things right away sometimes Jesus uses other people to help us so that
In the midst of our struggles and difficulties we have someone to come and walk along beside us and help us and encourage us
And guide us and support us and provide what we need sometimes Jesus gives us the grace that we need to bear up under the struggles and difficulties
That we are facing and just day by day by day somehow he's always there and he gives us just the help we through one
More day sometimes Jesus uses the difficulties and challenges that come into our lives and takes them and molds us and shapes us and
Prepares us to be more beneficial in his kingdom and more helpful in dealing with other people because joy and I went through what we
Went through when our first child was still born we know what it's like to lose something and to grieve over it and to
Hurt because of it and sometimes we can understand people and sometimes when they know that about us they know that we understand what
It's like to lose and to grieve and to hurt and to question so we can form a bond and we can help Jesus
Is the Messiah the deliverer who does come and help now Jesus is the Messiah who will return and bring judgment he will come
Back as the king of kings he will come back as the Lord of lords he will come back and destroy all evil he
Will judge all evil he will come back and bring an eternal blessing Jesus is the Messiah who will bring a new heaven and
A new earth have you ever stopped to think about what it's going to be you could open the Old Testament and see even
Reflected there some of the wonderful things that are going to take place when the Messiah comes back returns again and really establishes his
Kingdom love what Isaiah says in chapter 11 he says the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with
The young goat and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together and a little child will lead them don't you love
That picture little kid playing with a lion the cow and the bear shall graze their young shall lie down together the lion shall
Eat straw like the ox the nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra and the weaned child shall put his hand
In the adder's den they shall neither hurt or destroy and all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge
Of the Lord as the waters cover the sea oh what a time what a time it's going to be no more nature red
In tooth and claw no more danger for any little child anywhere from anything no more sorrow no more crying listen to what it says
In Revelation and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man and he shall dwell
With them they will be his people and God himself will be them and will be their God and he will wipe away every
Tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more for the former
Things have passed away one day our deliverer is going to return and he's going to make such a perfect world that we can hardly begin to imagine how wonderful it's going
To be and he loves us now and he wants all all to be saved now so the scripture goes on look at this verse 16 but to what shall I compare this
Generation it is like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their playmates we played the flute for you and you did not dance we sang
A dirge and you did not mourn for John came eating neither eating nor drinking and they said he has a demon the son
Of man came eating and drinking and they said look at him a glutton and a drunkard a friend of tax collectors and sinners yet
Wisdom is justified by our deeds here's the picture marketplace busy to trade their goods buy the things they needed children left to play with
One another and they had their different games and so a group of children one day were saying I tell you what let's play wedding
Let's play some of this joyous and happy and a good time let's play wedding another kid said no don't want to do that
Today if you don't want to play something joyful why don't we play something sad why don't we play funeral no don't want to
Do that either and Jesus says this generation is like that in the sense that John came preaching a fiery judgment and they said don't want to
Hear that nope no part of that Jesus came as one who entered joyfully into life and he got with anybody and everybody and
He worked it so that even those who had been pushed aside now felt forgiven and accepted people said no don't want no part
Of that either sometimes no matter what God does how he approaches us what he offers we want to push it away and we
Forget that he's doing that out of love whether he's calling us to repentance or offering us eternal life and eternal blessing he's calling
Us out of love because he wants us to be forgiven he wants us to have eternal life he cares for us and there's a little bit more to the answer John had are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another
Verse 20 Jesus Jesus still speaking then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent woe to you chorizan woe to you Bethsaida for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago
And sat cloth and ashes but I tell you it would be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you and you Capernaum will you be exalted to the heaven you will be brought down to Hades for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom it would have repainted until this day
But I tell you that it would be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you three cities where Jesus had done his ministry Jesus had done great deeds there healed cleansed wonderful things and got really no response and he said well then
You're like these cities Tyre and Sidon and Sodom who were known for their wickedness you're just like they are they didn't you know if what I'd done in them they would have changed but you're not changing don't change be judged if you don't respond to what Jesus is doing
The offers he's making the warnings he's given then it's a dangerous thing like children in the marketplace needed to respond to their friends you need to respond to Jesus maybe you need to renounce your sins maybe you need to hear a dirge be sorry for the wrong that you've
Done realize the consequences of it and realize that Jesus is the deliverer who can forgive you of your sins and give you a new start maybe if you're a child of God despite what you're going through you need to rejoice
Jesus is saying I'm here with you I care for you I'm going to get you through this and besides I've got a future waiting for you that's so wonderful you can't begin to imagine what it's going to
Be like like unrepentant cities you ignore Jesus at your own peril there can be a time when you leave this world and you're not ready man I knew was pastor in Newberry he was a member
Of the church bought and really out of the church didn't really know the Lord he was he had children as old as I was at the time so he was an older man very successful businessman hard gruff people told
Me that his mother had been such a godly woman and his wife came to church all the time she was a faithful woman but you know he just didn't seem to be too interested in that he was going to have surgery one time and they lived around the
Corner from us and so I went by his house and visited him with the wife for a while and you know before I left I said well can I have a prayer with you and he didn't really care where I had a prayer with him or not so he said well go ahead it
Will make my wife feel better later on he got sick again went to the hospital one complication after another no matter what treatment they gave him it didn't seem to work literally he was there for months I would see him went to see him one time and thought I need to talk with him again
About his relationship to the Lord he's in serious condition didn't get very far before he cut me off ah preacher I ain't interested in that stuff he died that night he had a godly mother he had a godly wife he had other people who had shared with him about Jesus
And if they wanted him to dance he wouldn't dance if they wanted him to be sorry he wouldn't be sorry he just didn't have anything to do with it people are still like that Jesus gives us the opportunity to have more than
We could ever imagine and sometimes we ain't interested in that stuff what kind of Messiah is Jesus is he is he the need beating joy bringing Messiah is he the Messiah who comes in judgment and pronounces judgment against those who will not
Turn to him because all are sinners is he the Messiah who is going to bring an end to wickedness an end to all unrighteousness an end to all evil and establish a perfect world what kind of Messiah is Jesus I think he's all of those
But the most important question is what kind of Messiah is Jesus to you will you let him deliver you from your sin will you let him walk with you through the midst of your troubles will you trust in him to provide for you
Now and provide for you for all eternity what kind of Messiah is Jesus to you now with me please for prayer heavenly father we stand amazed at Jesus Jesus the Messiah the Christ the deliverer father sometimes we struggle sometimes
We struggle with the hurts and the unfairness this old world that have come into our lives and sometimes we wonder Lord where are you father some of us here today need your comfort we need to assure us that
You are with us and that you are working for good in the midst of what we're going through some of us here today father need to repent to really admit that yes I am a sinner and I need Jesus to forgive
Me and give me eternal life some of us father may be on the verge of just walking away and not paying Jesus any attention help us to see that Jesus is the Christ is the Messiah is the deliverer and father I pray
That today when each one of us leaves this place we may be able to say Jesus is my Christ he is my Messiah he is my deliverer we pray this in Jesus name Amen
The Fearfully Fearless
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. It is good to see you all this morning. Grab your Bibles. Go to Matthew chapter 10.
We've been working our way through the book of Matthew because we love the scriptures. And we believe that in them we have wisdom and life and they lead us to Christ and they train us and they equip us. And so we gather as a church and we study the Bible together seeking to not just learn it but to apply it to our lives. In 2006, in Quebec, Canada near the Hudson Bay, there was a mom walking with two small children. She heard some other children begin to yell. She looked in the direction of where the children were and they drew her attention to a polar bear.
This polar bear began to head towards her and her two small children. She had a seven-year-old. It seemed as if the polar bear was eyeing him. She told her sons to run and then she assaulted the polar bear. She charged it, began punching and kicking it. It knocked her to the ground, jumped on top of her.
She continued to kick it and she was outside aggressively fighting a polar bear. The beginning of the article I read said, Mother in Quebec, Canada will no longer have trouble from her two sons after they watched her fight a polar bear. That was the lead to the article. Eventually, somebody came with a gun and was able to get the polar bear off of her. It was a 700-pound polar bear. Why on earth would she do that?
The answer is immediately clear. Because if she didn't, there was a great fear that the polar bear would get her children. She had an overriding fear that made her absolutely fearless. This is often how someone who is brave, courageous, fearless is. They have a greater fear that drives them. If the story was local lady, unprovoked, walking by herself, attacks polar bear, I would read until I found out what substance she was on.
Something to help me understand what just happened here. But as soon as you hear that there were children in danger, it makes perfect sense to us because we understand that what she was more afraid of in that moment was not a polar bear. And most of the time, when you have fierce and aggressive, hungry polar bears on one side, it wins. Most of the time. But she had this overriding fear that made her fearless.
And that's actually, as we're reading this passage today, that's what we're going to see Jesus is instilling in his disciples, is calling them to. He's sending them out into a fearful situation and he's telling them this is a fearful situation. But he consistently says, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Actually, every time that Jesus mentions fear throughout any of the gospels, he's saying, don't be, except for in one place, in one case, he actually calls his disciples to fear. But it's a great overriding fear that creates complete fearlessness.
So let's pray and then we'll study this together this morning. God, we ask that as we look at this together, that you might make us fearful. So that we might be sent out utterly fearless. We ask for your help in this, this morning, through the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Matthew chapter 10, verse 16.
So we've been seeing Jesus commissioning his disciples, sending them out on their first missionary work. He says this, Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. A lot of animal analogies there. But he's saying, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
That's not something that if we were having a commissioning that you want to hear. That's not the most exciting news. Sheep and wolves don't get along very well. And sheep have no ability to defend themselves. But he says that's exactly what he's doing.
I'm putting you intentionally, purposefully in a very bad spot. I'm putting you intentionally, purposefully in a very dangerous, precarious position. So, so the rest of what he's going to say here is coming out of this idea that they're going into a fearful situation. The rest of what he's going to say in this passage is explaining how they ought to think and how they ought to approach life. He says, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Serpents, sneaky, crafty, intentional.
Doves, not so much. Doves are innocent. They're not accused of things very often. They're, they're considered blameless. They're just, there's not much to them. Nobody's ever like, can I just tell you what this sneaky dove did to me?
Like it doesn't happen. It's not. So what he says is be intentionally crafty, but be absolutely innocent in your approach. And this is how missionaries ought to approach their work. Be wise. Be smart.
He's sending them out into dangerous situations. Don't be foolish, but don't be causing trouble. Don't be stirring things up. I'm going to mention in just a second, a missionary that I'm familiar with. But for the sake of posting this online, I'm not going to be able to say names.
So I'm going to give a very unspecified story. But there is a missionary that I am familiar with. And he helps an organization and their organization supports missionaries. They are currently actively supporting some missionary work and some church plant work in a nation where it is illegal to do so. And so those who are actively being missionaries there and trying to start churches are in danger. So this individual who is trying to get money to one of the people in the field has no ability to directly wire the money to them because if it got traced back, this person could get arrested.
They're already on a watch list. So they send money to another person in another country that nobody cares. They send money to that person gets in a vehicle and drives to the other country, crosses the border, meets this missionary and hands him cold, hard missionary cash. Wise as serpents, innocent as doves. This is how they are sent out and to make wise decisions to work within the means that they have. And there are times where Christians are slightly bending or breaking some laws in the midst of a difficult regime.
There are places where Christians in China and in Soviet Russia at times in different places have had to break laws, but they were doing it in an innocent way. If that makes any sense, they were not stirring up strife. They were doing it with good God honoring hearts, but they were having to break some laws because they were. Working inside of a system that was fighting against it, and that's what Jesus is calling him to. This isn't, I'm sending you out a sheep among wolves, so arm yourselves and become very aggressive, mean sheep. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying, but be intentional about how you go about this. Be wise in it. Nineteen. Oh, sorry, no, hadn't made it there yet. Seventeen. Beware of men.
So he's saying, watch out for them, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. Okay, so Gentiles are non-Jewish people. This specific mission was given to them to just go among Jewish people. We read that last week. So he's beginning to say this is overall information for the future mission of the church.
He's given more generic information for all the missionary work they're going to do from here on that also applies to us as we go forward. So he says, watch out for men. They're going to deliver you over to courts. This is verse 17. Flog you in their synagogues. So the synagogue in a bunch of rural places was where they held court.
The synagogue in rural areas was kind of the center of town. They would gather there. They would make good decisions there. They would lead from there. And so he's saying, as y'all go, there are going to be some synagogues that aren't going to like what you say. They're going to get you in front of everybody, and they're going to beat you with sticks.
There are going to be times where you're dragged before courts. To bear witness before them and the Gentiles. I think we ought to think really long and hard as Christians in the U.S. because one of the things that I hear often, and I have dealt with myself in work situations, is people saying, well, I'm not really supposed to talk about religion at work. I'm not really supposed to bring it up. It's kind of frowned upon. And I think we have to walk out the tension of being good missionaries in our culture, where I think being dragged to court and being publicly beaten meant that what they were called to do was frowned upon.
So let's be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, but let's be good missionaries where we are. 19, when they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say. I love that. He says, they're going to drag you to court. They're going to beat you with sticks. And people are like, okay.
And then you're going to have to do public speaking. And anxiety just shoots up in them. But don't be anxious. I heard Jerry Seinfeld talk about this. He said he saw a list of people's greatest fears. And the first one was public speaking, and the second one was death.
Jerry Seinfeld was like, really? At a funeral, most people would rather be in the box than giving the eulogy? Jesus isn't saying this because he understands people greatly fear public speaking. I don't think that's what he's getting at here. He is telling them, don't be anxious over this, that they're going to have to stand before powerful people, that they're going to have these moments where they're absolutely put on the spot. Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. This is an active missionary work. And in moments where we're put on the spot and where we're having to testify to bear witness in a hostile environment. This is not a rule for preaching. This is not a rule for if you're going to help facilitate a community group or teach in Sunday school. He's going to give me in that hour what I'm supposed to say.
You weren't dragged there, hopefully. You ought to prepare. But this is a great encouragement for us when we think I'm trying to bear witness about the goodness of the gospel to my neighbors and to my coworkers. And I don't know what to say. And there are going to be these moments where I'm put on the spot and we can trust the Holy Spirit to work. I cannot tell you how many times I've had somebody have a story where they helped lead someone to the Lord or they just had a really wonderful conversation and they will say all excitedly, I don't even know what I said.
Or they do know what they said, but they're like, I was saying some really good stuff that would not be normal things for me to say. I was like quoting scriptures I didn't know I knew and was like, I was like, man, that's like third grade Bible school that just shot out. I don't know. I've had that so often because the Holy Spirit empowers those moments. And I also want to give you some encouragement. I've had times I went to try to share the gospel with somebody and what came out was some confusing, convoluted mess.
And some of y'all have heard me preach enough that you're like, that doesn't seem too far fetched. But I get to walk away trusting that the Lord can, through the power of his Holy Spirit, give me the words that are needed in that moment. And if he doesn't, I get to trust him when he does and when he doesn't. He says, don't be anxious about it. So as we go forward and try to share the gospel with our neighbors and our coworkers, as we are intentional about building relationships and sharing what we believe to be absolutely good news, walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in the power of the flesh.
Don't be anxious. Verse 21. Brother will deliver brother over to death and father, his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my namesake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the son of man comes. Okay. Brother will deliver brother over to death and father, his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my namesake. This is not an encouraging commission.
But Jesus doesn't blink. He says, this is, as you are sent forward, you will not be well received. There will be those who hate. I have two brothers. The idea that one of them would hand me over to death or that I would be willing to do that is craziness to me. But this is what the gospel does and is doing, has done throughout history and actively is doing in other parts of the world where someone believes and their family ostracizes them or has them put to death.
Where someone believes and someone in their family tells on them. In the U.S. this is a bit muted. We aren't having public executions for Christians. They're not being rounded up. You just may have someone who says, I can't believe that you would spend your time doing that. You may have friends and family say, this is so ridiculous.
They might call you bigoted or narrow-minded. They might call you intolerant. Foolish. We've had people who, parents said they were believers. And then when their children said, I'm going to go, I'm going to quit this job and I'm going to go help plant a church. They said, are you crazy?
Why would you do that? We still face some of this, but not to the extent that he's talking about. But this is the Christian mission is to go forward with good news in the face of death. He says, I'm sending you out a sheep among wolves. He tells them to be intentional, to be wise about it. But then he just says, you're going to be hated and some of you are going to die.
You'll be handed over to death. And then he says this, when they persecute, this is verse 23. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For truly, I say to you, have not gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. There are a couple of different ways to understand that verse as to what he means by the Son of Man coming. Some would argue that he's talking about his death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave, specifically that he's talking about all the places in Israel.
I believe it is actually more of a eschatological comment, meaning the end of time comment. That eschatology is what that is. It's the study of the end times of when everything comes to a close. And the reason I believe that is because he uses the title Son of Man and that when he uses that again in front of the Sanhedrin, he's talking about his return. He says, the next time you see me, I'll be coming with the clouds. So I think he is saying that this mission won't fully end.
We won't have reached everybody before he returns. This is scary. This is intense. This is what he is calling his disciples to do. Verse 24. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master.
It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher. So they understand he's saying, y'all aren't above me, but it's good to be like me. And the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household? Beelzebul is the devil. He says, if they've called me Satan, who buddy?
What are they going to call y'all? But it's enough for you to be like me. So then he says this. So have no fear of them. So this is the first imperative that he's given in this section.
He says, have no fear of them. Now, if you've been reading up to this point, fear seems an appropriate response. Sheep among wolves. Some of you are going to be flogged. Some of you are going to be dragged before court. Some of you are going to be killed.
Don't be afraid. But I want to show you something. He says this. Have no fear. And right before that, he says so. So when you're reading your Bible, when you see words like so and but and for, realize they're helping you understand the argument he's making.
So what he thinks is when he says have no fear, the reason he says so there is he thinks this first thing. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household? That's one of his points. That's to encourage us. It didn't sound encouraging when I read it the first time. What he's saying, his encouragement, the reason we ought to have no fear is when you face opposition, you're in very good company.
He's saying that you look like the master of the house and that's what else would a what else would a servant want to look like but his master? What else would a disciple want to look like but his teacher? That if they call me names and then they call you names, this fits with the other things where he says rejoice in that day. So he says have no fear because when they fight against you, you're in good company. But then he says this for so he's about to give us another one.
Another reason for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. That's his next point. Have no fear because when they attack you, when they fight against you, you look like me, look like Christ for nothing is hidden that won't be revealed. I think what he's telling us there is that the church, that you as a missionary, the disciples as missionaries will be vindicated. That one day this will all be evident. It is not now.
That is why we face opposition. If we said things that were clearly evident, perfectly understood by everybody, people would just nod along. But we're sent to send a message, to say a message to a group of people who don't want to hear it that fights against their understanding of things. And he says one day it will be clear. It'll be revealed. Meaning that as you share this with your friends and they no longer like you because you've become a weirdo.
Now, I think it's perfectly good to be a normal human and a Christian. Some people are weird not because they're Christians but just because they're weird. So I'm not saying everybody needs to try to be weird. But I am saying that there are certain things that we believe that are odd and that are at at odds with our culture. But here's the deal.
Jesus actually tells a story about someone who dies and then they're made aware of how everything works. And they begin to cry out and ask for help and they ask that somebody would go tell their siblings who are still alive. It tells us in Luke. There's some of your neighbors, some of your co-workers, some of your friends, some of your roommates, some of the people who live in your dorms, some of the people that you work with that are going to one day face the king standing in their own righteousness. And that will not suffice. And in that day, we want them to see that they had heard this message and they didn't believe.
Not that they were surrounded by a bunch of people who believed this and never told them. They'll make fun of you. You'll be vindicated. But if we don't speak, they won't malign us and we won't be vindicated because we never said this. So have no fear.
Proclaim this message. Go forward with it. He gives two more commands in the next verse, 27. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. So again, this is a message to be told.
Say it in the light. Proclaim it on the housetops. What you're learning, what you're growing in, where the Lord's teaching you, where you're seeing so truly in your own soul what is real. Share it. Proclaim it. Help people see who Jesus is and what he has done.
And some of them will hate you. There ought to be Christians who are getting written up at work. Some of the best workers, kindest people, they ought to be, they used to drag the disciples in front of, they would drag them in and they would say, stop talking about Jesus after they just healed somebody. They're like, we're fine with healing people. Shut your mouth about Jesus. And the disciples said, we can't help it.
So keep your stick ready. There ought to be Christians who have bosses pleading with them. You're one of my best workers. Please quit talking about Jesus. There ought to be neighbors who are serving and working with their neighbors and they're sharing the gospel and some will believe it and some won't. Some will hear it and be responsive and some won't.
But let us be saying and proclaiming from the housetops. It's one of the weirdest things I think you could do is proclaim this from your housetop. So I think whatever the Lord leads you to do is going to be just shy of that, but still really good to do. Verse 28. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body, soul and body in hell.
Verse 28. Do not fear. Fear him. Those are the two commands. So he said multiple times, do not fear, do not fear, do not fear.
There are other places where he says, do not be afraid. And then he just said, be afraid. He says, do not fear those who can kill the body. And the reason is they cannot kill the soul. Well. Now, if you said, I'm going to New York and I'm a little worried about getting mugged.
And I said, oh, you shouldn't. Don't be afraid about going to New York. I've had plenty of people that I know have gone up there. The worst thing that they ever did was kill their bodies. That neighborhood's perfectly fine. The worst thing that will happen is someone will grab you and kill your body.
He'd be like, what? Tell me another neighborhood to go to. I don't. When he says, do not fear those who kill the body, my immediate response is. It's actually one of the things I'm most afraid of. I do a lot of my choices in life are based off of not having my body killed.
Seatbelts, helmets, door locks. I mean. But then he's making a clear break for us here. The absolute worst persecution that you could ever face is that they kill you. And then when they do, they have relinquished all control, all right. They have no claim.
Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. It is frowned upon to talk a lot about hell. I want you to be terrified of hell. I want you to be terrified of the great God and King who rules over the universe and who holds all eternity. I want you to be terrified at the notion that your soul will last forever. I want that to be an overriding fear.
Because it is a reality. I do not want my children running around afraid of everything. But there are some things I want them to be afraid of. My son, because he had only been around kind and generous people, had in his mind that everybody was his friend. This is problematic for a three and four year old. Because he would just open our front door.
And he would say things like, well, I know the mailman. And I would be like, bro, I don't even know the mailman. He seems nice. He delivers things to our home. But you can't even tell that's who's out there.
So just guessing it's the mailman that knocked is a bad plan. But I came and he had our front door open. So I took my three year old. I closed the door. I stood outside. I said, open the door.
He opened the door. I grabbed him by his shirt, clamped over his mouth and snatched him out of my house. He was in tears. And I said, this is why you do not open the door without me here. Because if someone tries to snatch you, it will be all on. But if I don't know you've opened this door and they close the door and we come out here and we're looking for you and they've already thrown you in a car and taken off, we don't know where you are.
He was terrified. But I'm fine with that. Because there are some realities that we ought to stare wide eyed into understanding the consequences. Hell is one of them. There is an eternity without the saving grace of Jesus. There is an eternity that humans will face in punishment for their rebellion and sin.
And we ought not to close our eyes to that. Because there is an eternity where those redeemed by Jesus are enraptured in his joy and grace and love based off of his work. And how dare we claim to believe this and be fearful of such small things as being disliked. May we see with wide eyes the king of the universe and in eternal hell so that we might be fearless in all other respects. There is a Romanian pastor. His name is Joseph Sons.
T-S-O-N. That's how you spell his last name. During a certain time. 1970. 1977. Around in there.
The Romanians were stomping out the church. They were trying to get rid of Christians. This man had been called to preach. So he was. So while the Romanian government was trying to get Christians to shut up.
This guy had a bad case of the can't help it. And he was telling everybody about Jesus. So they called him and they offered him a job. As long as he would quit preaching. So they thought maybe this is his livelihood.
We will give him a job. He will shut up. He prayed about it. He went to meet with the government official. He said this. I told the man.
Now I am ready to die. You said you were going to finish me as a preacher. I asked my God. And he wants me to continue to be a preacher. Now I have to make one of the two of you angry.
And I decided it's better to make you angry than God. The guy told him to go home. Later they rounded him up again. He would be interrogated at different times. For weeks on end. He says this in one of his things he wrote.
He said during an early interrogation. I had told an officer who was threatening to kill me. So the officer got him. Said look if you don't shut up. We're going to kill you. And he said sir.
Let me explain how I see this issue. Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying. Here's how it works. You know that my sermons on tape have spread all over the country. If you kill me.
Those sermons will be sprinkled with my blood. Everyone will know I died for my preaching. And everyone who has a tape will pick it up and say. I better listen again to what this man preached. Because he really meant it. He sealed it with his life.
So sir. My sermons will speak ten times louder than before. I will actually rejoice. In this supreme victory. If you kill me. After this.
After I said this. The interrogator sent me home. But he had settled in his mind. What the overarching reality of the world was. And therefore nothing else seemed to matter. Everything else became trivial.
In the face of the reality. Of what God has called us to. The reality of the world that we live in. And there is a God who rules over all eternity. There is a heaven. And there is a hell.
And we ought to. Rightly. Appropriately. Worshipfully. Fear the God. Who rules over both.
Who wants our bodies have died. And everyone's body will die. I looked it up. Ten out of ten. Still. CDC's website.
Everybody will die. But not everybody will be redeemed by Christ. Not everybody will have to taste the second death. Of judgment for their sin. And we ought to be fearless. In the face of anything.
That keeps us from proclaiming. The good news of Jesus. Who redeems sinners. Verse 29. He just said. Fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny. Odd transition. Not one of them will fall to the ground. Apart from your father. Fear. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear. Not. Therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. I find those few verses so absolutely encouraging. He just said.
Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Does that register with us at all? Like I don't know. Has anybody ever bought two sparrows with a penny? Is this a thing? I looked it up.
It was very common food. For poor people. They could buy a couple of sparrows very cheaply. So I just made me think about chicken. I wondered. I got to thinking.
How many chickens did I eat in 2019? I'm going to spoil it for you. There's a lot. I eat. Chicken in my burritos. I eat.
Chicken. If it's a good week. I'll eat chicken from Bojangles. On a Sunday. My wife and I will get a rotisserie chicken. I'll eat half of that.
Rotisserie chickens cost like five dollars. It's a whole chicken already cooked. I think it equates here. Every Thursday I eat chicken at Egg Roll Station. I eat chicken in tortilla soup. Like we eat chicken all the time.
And I never think about it. But what he just said was. Not one single solitary chicken. Went from having a heartbeat. To a plate. Without God's permission.
Not one. There's not a bird on the earth. That we have given zero thought to. That falls somewhere out of a tree. And lands in some leaves. That God did not okay that.
That God did not allow that. That God did not work that. Then he says. You are of more value. Than many sparrows. He is saying.
God pays attention to everything. He knows everything. He is at work in everything. Sometimes I will sit and think about this. And sit outside. And just listen to birds chirping.
That he is in charge of their little heartbeat. That he knows. Every intricate detail about them. Whether they are hungry or not. Where he is going to feed them next. How many more breaths they have.
He helps them sing their song. And that when he calls us. To go into mission. When he calls us. To proclaim this news. In the face of opposition.
How much more do we matter to him. He also says this. It's an encouragement. He says the hairs. Even. The hairs of your head.
Are all. Numbered. Do you see the level of attentiveness? Dr. Ken and I were looking at this earlier. He said that he was trying to make it easier on God.
Do you see the attentiveness? My wife. We have two little boys. She pays a lot of attention to them. She will come to me. Often.
And say things like. I noticed Archer had a little spot on his hand. Have you seen that? I'm like. I am aware he has hands. She'll be like.
We need to look at it. And she has me investigate things a lot. And then her question is. Should we be worried? Which I always answer. No.
Even if I think we should. I'm just like. Probably not. And then I go Google things. I don't let her Google things. Because.
The first ten things that Google guesses. Are awful. Are awful. Google does not say at the beginning. You're probably fine. Google is like.
Well here's the worst fifteen things it could be. But she pays so much attention. She'll say. Ellis has a new spot on the back of his leg. Ellis had two bug bites. Where were y'all where there were bugs?
I'm like. The world. What are you talking about? She's paying attention to them. She's never once come to me though. And said.
Do you see this? What is that? It's Ellis's hair. Okay. No, no, no. This is hair.
Two thousand. Two hundred and fifty two. It fell from his head today. Should we be worried? I'd be like. I'm a little concerned.
It's not for Ellis. But do you see how well God knows us? How much he is zoomed in. It doesn't say your hairs are counted. It says they're numbered. This is so clearly proven to us.
That the man who is saying these words. Is God come from heaven sent to die? He says. You don't understand how much God loves you. I can sit and send you out as sheep among wolves. And you can be afraid.
But let me tell you. There's a God who rules over all eternity. And don't be afraid. He loves you so immensely more than you could ever comprehend. And this is the son of God come to die to give his life for sinners. He did not come to save the well behaved.
He did not come to rescue the righteous. He came to save wicked, evil sinners. And make them righteous. Through the power of his blood. That this love for us is overwhelming. And incomprehensible.
So we ought to go forward fearlessly. Because there is an eternity. But there's a king who rules over it. Who loves us so beyond our understanding. That it is baffling. Verse 32.
Verse 32. So everyone who acknowledges me before men. I also will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men. I will also deny before my father who is in heaven. So he ends here.
He's going to change directions a little bit. Following this as he continues to send them out. But he says. So. In light of this. The chief desire of our hearts.
Ought to be. To stand before the king. And have Jesus go. I know him. I know her. Because we walked forward.
Proclaiming this good news. To those who would hear it. And that we would be before him. And he would accept us. And welcome us. Because we have placed our faith in him.
Publicly. And then he says. Those who. Have no desire. To claim me. Those who would say they're a believer.
But it doesn't show up. Don't walk it out. Don't have any desire. To tell others about me. Then. I'll stand before him.
And say. I don't know him. He tells so many stories. That work along these lines. So we ought to.
In light of eternity. And God's great love. Go forward. Fearlessly. To help people know who Jesus is. To know the hope.
And the life that is in him. John G. Patton was a missionary. Who went to the new. Hebrides islands. The islands.
At this point. Were. The people who lived there. Were cannibals. So when he told his.
Church. That he was going. There was a. Leader in his church. Named Mr. Dixon.
Says he exploded. The cannibals. You will be eaten. By cannibals. Because there was. Missionaries that had gone before.
And that's exactly what happened. So later. In writing a letter to this. Church leader. He said. Mr.
Dixon. You are advanced in years now. And your own prospect. Is soon to be laid in the grave. There to be eaten by worms. Jesus.
And I confess to you. That if I can but live. And die. Serving the. And honoring. The Lord Jesus.
It will make no difference to me. Whether I'm eaten by cannibals. Or by worms. And in the great day. My resurrection body. Will rise.
As fair. As yours. In the likeness. Of our risen redeemer. May we be those. Who take the call.
Of Christ. Seriously. Because we understand. The reality. Of an eternal soul. Seriously.
And may we rise. Gloriously loved. Gloriously welcomed. Gloriously brought home. In the image of Christ. Who on that day.
Says I know you. Let's pray. God we pray. That we would appropriately. Fear you. That we would.
See you. Above. All else. That we would see. The eternity. That awaits us.
Lord may we see your love. Feel your closeness. That may we be fearless. In the face. Of everything. For the sake.
Of your name. In Jesus name. Amen. There may be some of you. In here today. Who have never.
Placed your faith in Jesus. Have never publicly told others. That you trust him. May I tell you. That he loves you. And that he redeems sinners. and I would encourage you after this to grab somebody, grab me and say, I believe, what do I do now?
I trust him, what do I do now? May we be public and bold in our proclamation that we love Jesus and may we be fearless in the face of all else.
Sent
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm glad to be with y'all this morning. If you'll grab your Bibles and go to Matthew chapter 10, that's where we'll be this morning. Matthew chapter 10. I want to begin this morning by reading a few quotes.
We're going to be looking at a section of Scripture where Jesus is sending his disciples out as missionaries. And I want to talk a little bit about mission. And I want to begin by reading a few quotes about mission and missionaries and this desire to share our faith. The first one comes from Pope Francis, the current pope. He says this, but listen, never, never bring the gospel by proselytizing. Proselytizing means by attempting to convert, by sharing a message where you are trying, the end goal being that you are trying to convert someone to Christianity.
So he says, never, never bring the gospel, the good news of Jesus. So gospel means by trying to convince someone. Of the good news of Jesus so that they might believe. If someone says they are a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, they are not a disciple of Jesus. Now that's the pope.
There's a reason why he's not quoted often from this pulpit. I want to read what it says in the Atlantic. They were looking at Christian missionaries and Christian mission. They're studying this because the tone of Christian mission and the tone of Christian missionaries has changed. It says Christian missionaries nowadays are relatively less inclined to tell others about their faith by handing out translated Bibles. They're more likely to show it through their work.
Often a tangible social project. For example, in the context of a humanitarian crisis. Humanitarian work has long been part of the Christian mission experience. That last statement is very true. The humanitarian process has long been a part of the Christian missionary experience. But it can now take precedence over the work of preaching.
Some missions do not involve proselytizing in any significant way. But there's no attempt to preach, to proclaim, to convert. It's not to say, she's quoting a professor. It's not to say that no one ever does any preaching. Of course they do, said Melanie McAllister, a George Washington University professor who writes about missionaries. But the notion that our main goal is to convert people has been much less common.
Much less common. It's becoming less common for missionaries to be sent out with the desire and the purpose to see people come to Christ. While I was looking into this, I read a study from Barna. They asked 992 practicing Christians. They gave them this statement. It is wrong to share your faith with someone in the hopes that they will come to have the same faith.
That was the statement. And then the Christians were supposed to say, agree, disagree. It's a statement. It is wrong. It is wrong. Morally incorrect.
To share your faith in the hopes that someone would come to share your faith. Come to believe the same thing. Most of the age demographics fared fairly well at this. Until we got to the age of 25-year-olds to 39-year-olds. 47% agreed with this statement. Half of the practicing Christians in this sample group said, yes, it is wrong to share your faith with the hope that someone would believe it.
I guess you could share it as part of your story, as part of your experience. Because there's this push in our culture that what's true for you is true for you. And you let everybody else have what's true for them. And we don't try to push our ideology on someone that's closed-minded. It's offensive. It's arrogant.
Depending on how you go about it, it could be bigoted or colonialism. Now, I would hope that there's part of us that says, yeah, not us. No, no, no, no, no. That's not us. Like you started with the Pope. That's not us.
We're not there. But I would say that I think culture has shifted on us. And there's a bit of a hush that has fallen over the American church. I was sitting at a wedding yesterday. And we're sitting there and they're playing the prelude. It was very pretty.
And everybody's just sitting chatting. The room was full. They're playing. And then the pianist and the person playing the really big violin stopped. And they quit playing. And then from there, the rest of the room just got quiet.
And everybody, just picking up on context clues, shut their mouth. Now, I'm willing to bet that most of us would not agree with that last statement that Barna put out. But functionally, we may be operating like we do. When I hear this utter nonsense, it is insidious. It is evil. It is demonic.
I want us to read as Jesus sends out his first disciples in Matthew 10. As he's sending these disciples out, this is the first mission he sends them on. And I hope that we might learn a little bit of the foundation for mission. What flows out of it as he's training them to be missionaries, that we might begin to see just some core factors to this, that we might grow in this. So let's pray.
Lord, help us. Help us to believe with grace-filled defiance of the cultural push for us to keep this to ourselves. Help us to so believe the reality of eternity with Christ and the reality of an eternity without Christ. That we cannot but speak. Do not let us shut our mouths. In Jesus' name.
Amen. This is Matthew chapter 10. It says, And he called to him his twelve disciples. This is verse 1. And he gave them authority over unclean spirits. So there's a spiritual realm.
There are good spirits. God being God, Christ, Holy Spirit. And then there are angels that are ministering spirits. And then there are unclean spirits. Those who have fallen away. Those who have rebelled against God.
Led by Satan, which means adversary. And he gives them authority over those unclean spirits. The sermon today will not be primarily about the demonic activity. But if you have questions or concerns about that, I would love to speak with you. But we do believe this.
Over unclean spirits to cast them out. And to heal every disease and every affliction. So we're going to come back to this. But he endows these disciples with this authority. And it keeps going. It says he called them together.
He gives them this authority. The names of the twelve apostles are these. First, Simon, who is called Peter. And Andrew, his brother. James, the son of Zebedee. And John, his brother.
Philip, and Bartholomew. Thomas, and Matthew, the tax collector. James, the son of Alphaeus. And Thaddeus. Simon, the zealot. And Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
I want to make a few observations here. First of all, Jesus calls them. They did not assemble themselves. He calls them. He calls specific people. With specific names.
And specific nicknames. Like he calls specific people. He calls some that are brothers. He calls some. He calls Matthew, who is a tax collector. Which means he was actively serving the Roman Empire.
To help keep the Israelites in check. Would have not been popular among Israelites. And he calls Simon the zealot. Who is actively working. Being a zealot. To try to overthrow the Roman Empire.
And sow discord. I feel like it got real awkward. Between Matthew and Simon. When they were introduced to one another. What do you do? I'm a tax collector.
What do you do? Until recently. I snuck into groups. And stabbed tax collectors. I was like. Okay.
Cool. I'm going to hang out with the fishermen. It was good talking to you. The beauty of this. Is that. This is displayed.
All throughout our church family. Where people are being pulled. From different areas. From different political parties. From different. Socioeconomic backgrounds.
From different forms of racism. And we're growing into. What it looks like. To be Jesus people. As he changes. Our hearts.
It's glorious. And it's beautiful. He calls them together. And even being called. And being pulled into this. Does not mean.
That faithfulness will ensue. Because Judas Iscariot. Is one of these. And he ultimately. Betrays. Betrays.
Jesus. But he says this. Verse five. These twelve. Jesus. Sent out.
So he calls them. That he might send them out. And you got to understand. That's foundational. For Christians. That we're called to Jesus.
That we belong to him. That he pursues us. Chases us. Makes us his. And then. Commissions us.
As his church. And when Jesus gave them. The authority. That he gave them. He was sending them out. As his representatives.
To the world. And we're told. As the New Testament progresses. That that's the church. That we are now his body. He's the head.
But we're his body. He fills all in all. In us. But he sends us out. As his representatives. To the world.
This is why Christians. Ought to. Be kind. Gracious. And do humanitarian aid. We ought to.
Care for the least of these. We ought to. Practice church discipline. Where we. Watch over the holiness. Of one another.
And pursue Jesus together. Because we are sent out. To represent Christ. To the world. So he calls them.
He gives them authority. He sends them out. And then he gives them instructions. Instructing them. Go nowhere. Among the Gentiles.
And enter no town. Of the Samaritans. But go rather. To the lost. Sheep. Of the house.
Of Israel. And proclaim. As you go. Saying the kingdom of heaven. Is at. Hand.
Okay. So let's make a few observations here. He says. Go nowhere. Among the Gentiles. And don't go.
Among the Samaritans. That's honestly. A little bit odd. Because Jesus. Had not been going. Anywhere.
Among the Gentiles. He had not been going. Anywhere. Among the Samaritans. And his Jewish disciples. Would not have jumped up.
And done that. On their own. They would have had no desire. To go to the Gentiles. If he said. I'm sending you out.
As missionaries. They would have thought. There's no. There was no. Mental place for them. To think.
I'm going to go. Hang out with Gentiles. Because there was this. Big gap. Between Jews and Gentiles. He's actually.
By saying that. Indicating. That while this mission. Is limited. There's going to come a day. Where Gentiles.
And Samaritans. Are included. Which is really good. For us. Because most of us. Are not Jewish.
Probably not a lot. Of Samaritans. In here. We mostly fit. In the Gentile camp. Those who were outside.
Of the covenant promises. Of Israel. And ultimately. At the end of Matthew. He's going to say. Go to all people.
Groups. All languages. All nations. But he limits it here. And the reality is. He still does this.
The global scope. Of the reach. Of the church. Is not limited. To a culture type. To a skin type.
To a language type. It's not limited. But. For specific missionaries. With specific names. It is.
God calls specific people. To specific tasks. And it's beautiful. There's a great diversity. In what he calls. The church to.
This is why. It seems so silly. To me. When we argue about. This is who we ought. To care about.
There's a. There's a man. In our church family. His name is Ben Johnson. He has. Felt called.
Specifically. To the people. Who live. In the 1040 window. It's what it's called. But it's this.
Area. On a map. It has to do with latitude. And longitude. It's where the most. Unreached people groups are.
It's the Arab world. It's North Africa. He weeps. Over the loss there. And he's excited. That people want to go.
To South America. But I don't think. He spends a lot of time. Crying. And stressing out. Over the people.
In South America. He feels. Specifically. Called. To. The 1040 window.
God's. Claimed him. And said. This is where you're. Supposed to go. He's burdened his heart.
With a specific. Mission. There's another. One of our church family members. Named Chris Rocky. And his wife.
Danielle. Who. Felt called. To missions. And they went. And talked.
To Ben. And Ben. And tried to convince them. That the people. In the 1040 window. Are the most lost.
More lost. Than the other lostness. And Chris Rocky. Said. Neat. We're supposed to go.
To probably Honduras. But somewhere. In South America. Is where we feel that. Now. We're going to vote.
By raise of hand. Who is wrong. Don't we as Christians. End up arguing. Over some silly things. There's some people.
Who think. I have a burden. For the homelessness. In the city. Because I have this burden. Everybody else.
Needs to have it. Hmm. We should care. Yeah. But there are some people.
Who have a burden. For every elementary student. At this school. Praise Jesus. Go. And do not.
Take your burden. And think. That it has to become. Everybody else's. That's not. Healthy.
You get to lead. You get to call others. To go with you. One of the things. That I found. As a pastor.
Is that. The Lord will wake somebody up. And tell them. You're supposed to go do this. And they will come to me. And say.
I think we're supposed to go do this. He didn't wake me up. He didn't wake me up. And tell me that. I'd love to help equip. I'd love to help send.
I'd love to help you have a platform. To explain what it is. And help people go with you. I'd love to help give some guidelines. But I'm actively doing this thing.
He woke me up and told me to do. And by God's grace. I'll get to keep doing it. But he calls specific people. To specific missions. But.
One message. A lot of mission areas. A lot of mission fields. A lot of methods and approaches. But one message.
He says. As you go. Proclaim. As you go. Saying. The kingdom of heaven.
Is at hand. This is the same thing. That Jesus was proclaiming. It's the same thing. That John the Baptist. Had been proclaiming.
That repent. For the kingdom of heaven. Is at hand. Jesus is walking around. Proclaiming. Repent.
For the kingdom of heaven. Is at hand. When he sends out his disciples. He says. Go. And proclaim.
The kingdom of heaven. Is at hand. The first thing they are to do. Is proclaim a message. This is why. Just doing humanitarian aid.
With the hopes. That if somebody wants to believe. They can ask me. And I'll explain it to them. But that's not my primary deal.
Is not at the core. Of what Christian mission is. The gospel. Is the good news. Of what Jesus Christ. Has done.
It's news. The gospel. Is not. Christians are nice people. Hopefully. That's true.
But that is not the gospel. The gospel. Is a message. To be shared. Maybe some of you. Have heard the quote.
Preach the gospel. At all times. And if necessary. Use words. Words. I'm fine with that quote.
Because it is always necessary. To use words. So it's necessary. From the beginning. Keep using them. It's a message.
To be shared. And he sends them out. With this message. That the kingdom. Is breaking in. Now.
They get a glimpse. Of this. We get the full picture. That the kingdom of God. Is breaking. In.
That where Jesus is. As king. There is hope. The kingdom of heaven. That there is opportunity. To be in heaven.
To be welcomed in heaven. For heaven to come down. And to rescue us. And that's what Jesus. Does. That's what the gospel.
Is. That heaven is real. And Jesus has brought it. To us. Through his sacrifice. Through his death.
Through his resurrection. So this is what it says. Verse seven. And proclaim as you go. Saying the kingdom of heaven. Is at hand.
Verse eight. Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse lepers. Cast out demons. So he gave them authority.
Go proclaim this message. Do these signs. The signs. Co-sign. The message. The kingdom of heaven.
Is at hand. And then they. Put it on display. To. He's lending his authority. So that they might.
Display to the world. This is what it. Looks like. For heaven. To break in. So that people.
Might believe. We've been reading through. Matthew together. We're studying through Matthew. We're picking back up. We're going to keep.
Going through. Matthew. And there's this time. Where Jesus is. Looks at a paralytic. And he says.
Rise. He says. Son. Your sins are forgiven. And there's some. Religious leaders there.
Who have a problem. With this. Because. Only God. Should forgive sins. This would be a problem.
Were Jesus not God. But there's no problem with this. Because Jesus is. So he looks at them. And says. So that you may know.
That I have authority. To forgive sins. Rise. Walk. And he stands up. And walks.
The signs. Are so that you may know. So that you may believe. So that you may know. That this is real. That what he says is real.
That heaven is breaking in. So they. Raise the dead. You ever seen. Like old. Like you watch a western.
Or something. And there's like an old. Charlatan-y guy. Doing some like. Snake oil stuff. And he has a friend.
In the crowd. Who's going to help him. Act like he can hear now. Or his. All his joints are fixed. Or whatever.
That's not what's happening here. They'd roll up. They would raise. The people who were dead. In that town. They would heal the sick.
In that town. People that they knew. They would cleanse. Lepers. And that's not easily done. And it's obvious.
Sign. They would cast out. Demons. Because that authority. Over the enemy. And this is a picture.
Of what is ultimately. Going to happen in Christ. That all that is broken. Is going to be taken away. All that is dead. Is going to be.
Raised to life. Where we're coated. In shame. And sin. And guilt. He's going to forgive.
This is. This is heaven. Brought to us. Proclaimed to us. In Christ. Showed to us.
Ultimately. In the resurrection of Christ. That we might. Believe. So Christians are sent.
With a message. And yes. We ought to. Do good. We ought to. Proclaim.
And help. And help. Show. What it looks like. For people. To belong to one another.
To love. One another. To serve. One another. The Holy Spirit. Is still active.
He still does work. Miraculous works. We have a more. Fulfilled. Completed version. Of the resurrection.
Of Christ. That we are to proclaim. So that people. Might have faith. And what they were doing. Was it was a foretaste.
Of ultimately. What was going to happen. Kind of like. The smell of food. Before you get to eat it. I walked.
I had been working. All day. I walked into my house. The other night. I opened the door. My wife had been cooking.
And oh my goodness. I just dropped my bag. I said baby. It smells so good in here. That's what it is. They're saying.
This is what heaven is like. This is what the kingdom is like. And they're giving a glimpse of it. And they're saying. Now believe.
Believe in this king. Who does this work. And do you all know that. That in heaven. That as Jesus goes to work. Death doesn't win.
Sickness doesn't win. Where our bodies begin to fail us. And fall apart. That he restores. That he works. That the sickness of sin.
You see he gives these physical signs. That we might believe the spiritual. Eternal reality. The cancer of sin. That creeps through our bodies. That claims us.
That will kill us. That will choke out life in us. That he actually can redeem. He actually can fix. And our shame. And our guilt.
That causes us to be outcasts. Like lepers. He can fix. And that the enemy. Does not win. That Psalm earlier said.
Your enemies come cringing. To you. That's a reality. In Christ. So they proclaim this message.
Says this. It gets better. It says. You received. Without paying. Give without paying.
Acquire no gold. Or silver. Or copper. For your belts. No bag. For your journey.
Or two tunics. Or sandals. Or a staff. For the laborer. Deserves his food. And whatever town.
Or village you enter. Find out who is worthy in it. And stay there. Until you depart. So he gives specific instructions.
For this missionary journey. There are other missionary journeys. Where he gives some different instructions. So we know this isn't just. Exactly how it works forever. But there is a tone here.
That I think is helpful. First of all. There's an urgency. He just says. Go. Don't get two tunics.
Don't get another staff. Just go. And there's a dependency. That they would be dependent. On those they were sent to. But ultimately.
That they would see. That they were dependent on God. To provide everything. They needed. But the more beautiful thing here.
Is that this is by grace. He says. As you received without paying. Give without pay. The point of this. Is not to exchange goods.
For the glorious. Inbreaking of the kingdom. The impetus. Behind them going out. Was that God. Had already given them everything.
He had already redeemed them. He had already worked. On their behalf. So they would go out. With gracious. Joy.
To share this. That they had received it. Without payment. And they would just give it away. Freely. Without pay.
The heart. Behind Christian mission. Is not obligation. It's joy. The heart. Behind Christian mission.
Is not fearfulness. It's a delight. It's an overwhelming sense. Of the glory of Christ. And the inbreaking of heaven. And the hope that we have in Jesus.
That drives us to mission. Guilt. Makes a terrible missionary. But joy. Makes an unstoppable one. Delight.
An overwhelming sense. Of appreciation. And gratefulness. He says. You received without pay. Give without.
Pay. That you might go forward. By grace. That that is actually. How the gospel moves forward. It's not a transaction.
It's not something. That we pay for. And receive. That we ultimately. Are motivated. By delight.
And we naturally. Do this in life. If you enjoy something. You share it. You praise it. I had a friend.
This past week. Who's in my neighborhood. He. We and I. Were going to grab lunch together. So I asked him.
What I ask everyone. Who's going to go eat lunch with me. Have you ever eaten. At egg roll station. He said. No.
And his choices. Became very limited. On where we were going to eat. I had to ask the follow-up question. Which is. Do you have cash?
Because egg roll station. Is not a high class establishment. They don't have a card reader. But. I do that with everybody. Because I delight.
In egg roll station. I have to watch about it. When I talk about it in sermons. Because I might just close my eyes. And start thinking about it. Like I.
I share it. Because I enjoy it. Naturally. It overflows. And what he's saying. Is you received without payment.
Give without pay. This is how. We respond. In light. Of the glorious. Joy.
And delight. That is in Christ. Who redeems sinners. Who did not deserve it. There's not a soul. In this 12 man team.
That was a well behaved. Super stud. There's not one. That he was like. Everybody. Try to be like that guy.
Because he's awesome. Simon. It lists as first. And then the Bible. Seemingly. Goes out of its way.
To highlight. How terrible he was at that. I don't know. So that we wouldn't. Turn him into a pope. Sorry.
I got to leave the Catholics alone. There are a lot of Catholics. Who love Jesus. We have been redeemed. By grace. And grace alone.
That makes us a joyous bunch. We're not earning it. We haven't paid for it. We don't get to strut. There is no swagger. In this room.
There's the delight. Of someone who has not deserved something. Who has received way more than they deserve. In a gracious overflow. Of God's goodness towards us. And a freedom that comes with that.
You didn't earn it. You don't have to keep it. That he keeps us. As he pours out grace on us. And we get to share this message. Twelve.
As you enter the house. Greet it. And if the house is worthy. Let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy.
Let your peace return to you. It's unclear. As to how much. That is just him acknowledging. This is how this is going to work. And how much they actually had control.
Over. Their peace going and returning. It seems as he keeps going. That it's more of a. Their posture towards the people. So they're basically blessing.
A house that's going to. Hear the word. That's going to. Welcome them. In this culture. They were supposed to be.
Very hospitable. So it was. Understood. That if people came around. You would welcome them. You would host them.
And he says. Greet the house. Bless it. And if they receive you. Let your blessing stay. But if they don't.
Move on. The reality of the Christian mission. Is that God has people. Who are prepared. This is what Jesus just said. In Matthew 9.
The harvest is plentiful. Meaning. There's a harvest. To. To just be. Brought in.
He says. We don't have enough laborers. To just bring in the harvest. So they go out. There are people. That God had prepared.
To hear this. Who would delight. In this message. So as we're sent. There are God. People.
God. Who wants to. He wants to redeem. That he's already got ready. We're just sent. To try to bring them in.
So they might hear this news. And there's. Freedom. For those who don't want to hear it. For us to not feel like. It's our job.
He's the Lord of the harvest. It's not our job to convert them. It's not our job to make them. Receptive. It's our job to go. It's our job to proclaim.
That we can keep praying. We can keep pleading. If it's someone that lives near us. If it's someone in our family. But we're not.
Sent to continually. Try to get one person. To believe. Who's not going to. We're sent to go. And see who's receptive.
Who's ready. Who wants to. Which means that as we go. As missionaries. God has designed it. To be effective.
One way or the other. If he has people ready. To receive. Or he has people. That you'll have the freedom. Of saying.
Lord. I tried. I'm going to keep moving. We get to go to places. Where he's already at work. And where he's.
Working among. People. I've seen this. With my neighbors. I've seen this. With co-workers.
People who want to hear. People who. Do not. Want. To hear. So we get to build.
With those who want to build. We get to pour into those. Who want to hear it. We get to. Meet with those people. Who will show up.
And listen. Verse 14. And if anyone. Will not receive. You. Or listen.
To your words. Shake off the dust. From your feet. When you leave that house. Or town. Truly.
I say to you. It will be more bearable. On the day of judgment. For the land of Sodom. And Gomorrah. Than for that town.
What Jesus just said there. Is striking. Sodom and Gomorrah. Is a story that we're told. In Genesis. Of a town.
That was so. Wicked. That the cries. Against that town. Had risen up to God. And God.
Who knows all things. But also. Who joins us. In misery. Says. I'm going to go down.
And see for myself. It's a picture. Of what Christ does. Is our wickedness. Rises up to him. That he comes down.
For himself. But. There's this picture. Of total. Depravity. And wickedness.
And God. Judges it. Directly. Immediately. That fire. Falls from heaven.
And crushes this town. That the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Is wiped. Off the map. And it stands. As a monument.
To God's. Wrath. And judgment. On sin. And sinners. So that.
All those. Who knew. This story. Understood. That God. Does not take sin.
Lightly. And that judgment. Is real. So what he just said here. Is striking. If anyone.
Will not receive you. Or listen. To your words. Shake off. The dust. From your feet.
When you leave. That house. Or town. Truly. I say to you. It will be more.
Bearable. On the day. Of judgment. For the land. Of Sodom. And Gomorrah.
Than for that town. Romans 1. Tells us. That all the world. Ought to know. God's goodness.
Because it's been displayed. Through creation. That we have no excuse. That we look at creation. And see. We see his.
Greatness. And his glory. I asked somebody. This past week. We were talking. About.
Faith. And I was trying to. Talk with him. About Jesus. And he just said. That he has a hard time.
Given that. Our world. Is just. He says. We're just a dot. On a dot.
On a dot. In a dot. On a dot. Like that's what he's. We're just. People.
On a little planet. A little planet. And a little solar system. A little solar system. Next to bigger solar systems. Next to.
He just said. It just seems like. The likelihood. With all this. That there would be humans. That it would work out this way.
He was just saying. That this randomness. And this massiveness. Of the galaxy. Seems to point towards. There's just really.
No way to tell. And I was like. The bigger it gets. The more I think. There's got to be. Somebody back there.
Working. It doesn't seem like. This would just shoot out. Of nothing. Like the bigger. And more massive.
And more glorious. It gets. And then we find out. That he named all the stars. That they respond. To his call.
Like I. That he's this. Glorious God. Who oversees. All of this. That he is at.
Work. And that he knows. Us. So he tells them. You see. He's put on display.
For Sodom and Gomorrah. Who he is. Through his creation. They ought to have known better. They had their own. Conscience.
That testified to them. The wickedness. Of their deeds. That all of humanity. Ought to know better. This is why.
You go globally. With people who. Do or don't believe. There's in general. Some sense of morality. That's in line.
Somewhat together. Because we are all built. With this understanding. Of how things ought to work. What's justice. What's right.
What's wrong. We yell things out. Like that's not fair. Because it's innate in us. That there's some sort of. Fairness.
And some. Some judge. That ought to. Arbitrate over it. There ought to be. A booth.
That can do a review. Over what just happened. That's Sodom and Gomorrah. For those who are told. Here's the kingdom. Of the king.
And here's what it looks like. And they reject it. It's far worse. That there is. Genuine. Eternal.
Judgment. For those who do not believe. There's an urgency. To this message. It is eternally. Urgent.
And I think the question for us. Is do we believe this. Do we believe that in Christ. We are given heaven. And all that is good. And all that is glorious.
And that in his person. We see the king of the universe. Who would die to redeem us. And do we believe. That there is a judgment coming. And that it falls on all of us.
In our wickedness. And that ultimately. Only those who are redeemed. Are those who are in Christ. Not those who are well behaved. Not those who are good.
Not those who are nice. Not those who are kind. Those who are in Christ. You see judgment fell on him. So that it will not fall on us.
The king. Has won the battle for us. That we might be brought in. Freely. And joyously. The high.
On this side. Is so gloriously. Beautifully. High. And the low. Is so eternally.
Terribly. Low. Do we believe that? Because if we did. I don't think there would be a hush. Over the church.
As to this message. I don't see how we could claim. To care for others. So much so. That we would fly somewhere. And dig them a well.
But we would not tell them. About the eternal realities. Of joy. And delight. And pleasures. Forevermore.
At the right hand of a God. Who redeems. And forgives. And saves. And the weightiness. Of running from that.
And standing in our own sin. And in our own glory. And in our own ability. And in our own morality. Before God. So that our wickedness.
Might be put on full display. It seems as if the posture. In the church has been. If someone wants to become a Christian. They can. But it's not my job.
To go tell them about it. If they want to become a Christian. That'll be great. But I'm not going to necessarily. Just be offending people. And bothering people.
When you believed this. When it clicked in your mind. Were you bothered? Did it mess you up. In any other way. Than a glorious one.
That changed your world. Some of you in our church family. Are here. Because your neighbor. Or your co-worker. Harassed you.
Praise Jesus. At one point. You thought. This is the most annoying human. I've ever met. And there was another time.
When you stood with them. In a baptismal water. And you hugged them. You said. Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for pursuing me.
Thank you for pleading with the Lord for me. Thank you for talking to me. Do we believe this? I was talking to a co-worker. At one point. And I said.
I was a Christian. And he said. Oh. So I guess you want me to become a Christian too? I don't know what he expected. I said.
That would be wonderful. If you are here. And you don't know Jesus. We want you to become a Christian. Because in Christ. You are redeemed.
You are brought in. You are loved. You are cherished. You are forgiven. You are free. You don't have to go earn your own identity.
Your own salvation. Your own worth. It's given to you in Christ. And we get to from that position. Proclaim this good news to whomever will listen. And some of them will.
And praise God for every one of them. How dare we be silent. In the face of heaven. And in the face of judgment. God help us. If we can't help but talk about this.
God help us. If we don't labor in prayer for this. God help us. If we don't get to know our neighbors. And our co-workers. So that they might believe.
God help us. If he doesn't call us to places. And we go. The stakes are too high. The delight is too good. Our God is too glorious.
For us to shut our mouths. So may we sing his praises here. And may we proclaim his gospel there. And may we do that. Until we stand face to face with our king. Let's pray.
God we thank you for your grace. And your goodness towards us. We pray that you would change. Our hearts. That we would believe. So that we might go.
We pray that you would speak now. To those who need to go to a specific people. In a specific place. That you would call them. God we pray that. Weekly and monthly and yearly.
We would see people leave our church. That they might be a part of your global church. That we would lay hands on those. Who would go start new works. And new churches. And join those who are laboring.
In the field. That you would call those who would proclaim this. And lead churches. And God we pray that every one of us. Would be sent as an everyday missionary. Where you have already infiltrated.
Because we are there. And we are your church. May we see the harvest before us. That we might proclaim your glory. In Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. It seems to me that the opposite of what the Pope says in this quote is true. That if you meet a Christian. And they care nothing for you coming to know Christ. They may not actually know him. That if they don't come to you with some desire to see you believe.
To see you changed. They may not actually know the Jesus that so radically redeems and saves. That may we be people who so love Jesus. So delight in him. That we can't shut our mouths. Amen.
2020 Vision: Mission Part 1
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. And just a quick announcement before we jump in. So, one of the things that we've been doing the last few months is joining our Kid City program and memorizing scripture. As a whole church family, we thought this would be a good idea to join together with them.
So, we have, over the next three years, 36 verses. One verse a month that we are, if you want to participate in, that we will recite together. It'll be on the announcements that scroll on the screen before and after gathering. It's also the top of group content. We want to grow in knowing the Word of God, have it hidden deep in our hearts. So, if you want to participate in that, just look for that every month as we look to growing that as a church.
Alright. So, we are in the last week of our 2020 Vision Series. The goal of this series was to show who we are as a church. That we are a gospel-centered community on mission. So, the first week, Chet walked us through what it means to be gospel-centered. That Jesus is central to everything that we do.
The gospel, that it's life, death, and resurrection. What that means for us is the center of everything we do. And then last week, Dr. Ken walked us through what it means to be a community. What it means to be a church family together. Which is a beautiful, man, last week was a beautiful celebration.
As two churches together as one. Learning about what it means to be church family together. And this week, we get a look at what it means to be on mission. That God has called His church, but He's also sent His church to go and make disciples. So, in doing that, we're actually going to jump back into Matthew. Alright, we're going to be in chapter 9, verses 35-38.
So, you can go ahead and flip there. But we're going to be walking through that. Which means, also, as we close out our 2020 Vision Series, we're jumping back into the Gospel of Matthew. So, we were in Matthew in the fall. And we're going to be in it for the next little bit. So, we're actually jumping back into Matthew as well.
And we'll continue that next week. As we close out chapter 9 and go into chapter 10. Okay. So, a couple of weeks ago, I read this article. It was on DesiringGod.org, which is just a website that has a ton of resources. Good teaching.
They have good writers. If you're looking forward to growing and knowing more of Jesus, we recommend DesiringGod. That's a good source. And I read this article from one of the younger staff writers. And he was critiquing masculinity in America. But honestly, as I read it, you could broaden that out as a critique for American culture and the church.
So, here's how he opened up his article. He said, So, that's a lot of big words and poetic phrases. But here's what he said. He said, When we spend so much of our time and our focus and our energy on things that will not last. On frivolous, empty pursuits. When that becomes all that we look upon, we become a shadow of the men, and I would say women of great density, that God has called us to be.
Something light. As opposed to something solid and weighty. He goes on, he says, Our society often promotes a silly, light, and airy moron of a man and its sitcoms and movies. He stands for nothing. Weeps for nothing. Lives for nothing but the next punchline or comedic blunder.
It's insulting on screen, but tragic in real life when we meet similar men who lack any gravity because they put off thoughts of eternity. Now, the rest of the article kind of flows out of that tone. And part of me when I first read it was like, Okay, you seem fun at parties. That was really heavy handed. But when you wrestle with what he is saying, he's not off.
That's exactly what our culture does. We spend so much of our time, our energy on things that will not matter in days, weeks, months, or years. They lack any really internal significance. We'll binge watch a show in a few days. We'll watch sports for hours on end. We'll put so much focus and energy on those things that do not last.
And listen, I love those things. I do. If you know me, like I love sports. I love watching my teams disappoint me regularly every season. I love culture, media, music, film. We could talk about it on and off.
Those are good gifts that God has given us. But the problem is, is that we elevate those to the status of worship, affection, time, energy. We get consumed by it and we become a shadow of what we're supposed to be. Men and women of great density that dwell on the eternal things and understand the eternal significance of this life. So, that is what the Bible is going to confront us on this morning. That's what the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 9 is going to confront us on as we look at the mission that God has called His church into.
So, as we walk through this, we're going to see three very simple, clear things that we need to see, we need to pray, and we need to go. So let me read it and then we'll pray and jump in. Verse 35, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few.
Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out labors into His harvest. Let me pray and then we'll jump in. Father, I thank You. I thank You for everything You're doing in the life of our two churches that have become one in this season. Amen. I'm so thankful for where we get to go, but God, I pray that You would confront us this morning, and that You would teach us and mold us and shape us into the church that You want us to be.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so, in order for us to understand the mission that God has called us to, we need to see. We need to have the vision, the eyes of Christ, and see the world the way that He sees it. So, verse 35, And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and every disease, and healing every disease and every affliction. So, this is where we left Matthew in the fall.
Jesus traveling around the region of Galilee, healing the sick, performing miracles, casting out demons, flexing His divinity, showing this is someone different, a great prophet even more so. Someone has risen amongst us. He, this is the Lord. So, this is who He reveals Himself to be, and how He heals, and how He does these miracles. But then we get a glimpse of how He actually sees the world.
In verse 36, He says, When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed, and helpless sheep, like sheep without a shepherd. That's the first thing we need to see, and how we are looking to see the way Jesus sees the world. He sees harassed and helpless sheep. Now, sheep are cute. They're lovable. But they're not very bright.
They're not. It's kind of universally understood. They're like the Joey Tribbiani of the animal world. Or Patsy from Happy Days. Whatever is your flavor, right? They're cute.
They're lovable. But they're not very bright. I mean, they'll wander into terrain where it is dangerous. They'll get picked off by wolves and coyotes. They'll eat whatever's in front of them. So they'll starve if they're not led by a good shepherd.
That's sheep. And what Jesus just did was He compared the crowds, and by extension, humanity, to sheep. All of humans. I mean, we have value and worth. We're made in the image of God. We're cute.
We're lovable. Because of sin, and because of the fall, we have been marred in such a way that we are not very spiritually bright. We are easily picked off by the enemy. Led in temptation by the evil one. That we wander into dangerous spiritual terrain. We will eat whatever's in front of us spiritually when it is bad for us, when it starves us.
We are all like sheep. And this is why this is incredibly important for us to understand. In order for us to see the lost and see the way that Jesus needs us to see it, we have to clearly understand this. Everyone is at one point lost, harassed, and helpless. And if you don't understand that, what will end up happening is that you will see the lost as an opponent or as an enemy. And this happens in, goodness, in politics.
This is a political year, which means it's going to be so much fun. But what happens is you'll see lost, the lost in a different political party, and what you'll do is instead of seeing them the way that Jesus does, you'll see them as an opponent, as a threat, as someone that needs to be taken down. You've got to own the lives. That's what they say online. Right? Like it's, you'll see them as an opponent.
This happened with morality in the last 50 years in our culture. Back in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s as a kind of a moral shift happened. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. What happened with the church is they saw it as a threat. As a threat. And they saw the lost and helpless sheep amongst the people that were pushing that.
They saw them as a threat, as an opponent, and not actually who they are. This happens culturally today. And the cultural shifts that have happened on sexuality, on gender identity, and everything down the line, they are seen as opponents and not lost, harassed. Helpless. In need of a good shepherd. They're not seeing the way that Jesus sees them.
And this is why this is so incredibly important. Because all of us were once lost and harassed and helpless. All of us. Which means that none of us has a moral high ground to stand on. We were all once enemies of God. We were all once harassed and helpless.
Colossians 1 says, we were alienated and hostile in mind. Easily picked off by the enemy. Wandering in dangerous terrain. Not knowing the good spiritual food that a good shepherd brings. That was all of us. There's a song that we sing called In Tenderness.
It's by a band called Citizens. It is based off the hymn, In Tenderness, He Sought Me, by W. Spencer Walton. Which, with a name like that, you know it's good. But I love this song that we sing for three different reasons.
I love it because it's probably one of the loudest songs we sing as a church. And every time we sing it, the whole church collectively amps up a little bit. I love it also because we usually have a cajon with it. And Isaac usually plays it. And Isaac, if you've ever seen, he leads our Kid City stuff. If you've ever seen his hands, they're abnormally large and strong.
And he, like, abuses the cajon in such a poetic, beautiful way. But the real, honestly, the real deep down reason I love this song is because of the message that it brings. And it applies so much to what we're talking about this morning. It says, this is how the song goes, In tenderness, He sought me, weary and sick with sin. And on His shoulders, brought me back to His fold again. That's us.
We were all once harassed and helpless sheep. We were sick and weary with sin. But Jesus in His love, the Good Shepherd, comes from heaven and He seeks us. He finds us in our lostness. He picks us up as a lost and wavered sheep. He puts us on His shoulder and He brings us back into the fold of God through faith in Him.
It goes on, While angels in His presence sang, Until the courts of heaven rang, Oh, the love that sought me. Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold of God. Grace that brought me to the fold of God. That's the gospel. That His love, out of His deep love, because He loved us, He seeks us, because of His blood, He brings us into the family of God.
And by His grace, nothing good in us of ourselves, but because of His grace, He brings us into the family of God. And we get to dwell with a good shepherd for eternity. Which means, there was nothing good in us that He came for us. He came for us because He is a God of infinite love and compassion and mercy. That is why He saves us. And He brings us into the family of God.
Which means, we don't have a moral leg to stand on. You cannot look at the lost and think anything other than the way that Jesus calls us to. That they are harassed. That they are helpless. That should lead us to an intense urgency and compassion that we would go and take the gospel that they might come into the fold of God. You know who gets this?
New conference. People who just recently placed their faith in Jesus. I've seen this over the years. Someone places their faith in Jesus and they start following God and here's what happens. They're the closest to this vivid reality of what they were just redeemed out of. And they see the lost.
They see friends and family members who were lost. And they remember how bad that was. How hopeless that was. They're like, no, no, no. You have to understand. He's a good shepherd.
He is better than everything else. They're the ones that get it the most because they were so... It wasn't just that long ago that that's exactly where they were. May we as a church never lose sight of the vivid reality of what we were redeemed out of. That we were lost, that we were helpless and we were harassed. That God in His great mercy, this good shepherd, He came for us.
That is the first thing we need to clearly see. Here's the next thing. Verse 37. Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So He shifts metaphors on us.
He moves from sheep herding to farming. The harvest is plentiful. So if in South Carolina we have a harvest of peaches and there's a lot of peaches on the trees and we don't have enough workers to harvest them, that's a problem. That's what He's trying to help them picture. The harvest is plentiful. I mean, He's picking our eyes up.
Look, do you see the crowds? Do you see how harassed and helpless they are? Do you see how plentiful they are? This shows us that our God is generous to redeem. Our God is generous to save. There's a harvest waiting for us.
And He wants to see that. And I thought this morning I would pause and I would try to help us see the harvest that is right before us. specifically, I want to start here with Casey. There's a group called Insight. They're a ministry that does demographic studies, extensive surveying all across the country. They want churches to help see the mission field that is right before them. So, I spent some time studying a bunch of reports this week.
I got really excited and I brought all my information to our teaching team which Chet and Dr. Kent sit on and I spewed it all and their eyes glazed over and they died inside. So, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give you the highlights for the five of you that would have gotten really excited about that. Come to my office this week. We'll geek out about missiology.
It's great. Alright, so here's Casey. The population in Casey is a little over 14,000 people. Alright, it's about 68% white, 25% African American, 4% Hispanic. The highest age status demographic for this area is young and single. So, young professionals and that's a growing demographic for this area and this part of the city.
The next couple are young families and aging community. We have a lot of young professionals that have moved in this area. Alright, so they do some demo studies like that but then they also do a ton of surveying. A couple years ago they asked, they sent a ton of surveys out, they asked questions about people's beliefs, their practices, their opinions on the church, their opinions on religion, a whole wide spectrum of responses and I read through all the data and as to summarize it for us, here's what I found. About half of Casey does not believe in Jesus by their own responses in these surveys.
Either they're atheist, they're agnostic, they don't care, or they're just non-religious, that's the biggest growing denomination in America, it's just non-religious, no affiliation, or they have a different belief system altogether that doesn't line up with the gospel at all. About half of the people that responded, that's 7,000 people in the immediate area. 7,000 right around our church. Now, if you dig a little deeper, you look at some more statistics, here's what you will find. In Lexington County, about 44% of people either have membership somewhere or say they're actively involved in a gospel-centered church.
About 44%. Now, I think that is an incredibly optimistic number because there are plenty of people that have church membership somewhere but do not know who Jesus is and are actively involved in any gospel-centered church. And just because you say something like, yeah, I'm evangelical, I go to a church regularly, doesn't actually mean you understand the gospel and you have an active relationship with Jesus and you're actively involved in a gospel-centered church. So, in order to just be a little bit optimistic, let's just say that 40% of Casey is actively involved in a gospel-centered church and believes the gospel.
That means there are about 8,000 to 9,000 people right around here that are harassed and helpless and do not know the Good Shepherd. We have to see this. I want to actually visualize this. I have some people, you'll bring these tables up. I want to help us see and understand how many 8,000 to 9,000 people are in this area. I chose Skittles because they're like the best candy and our group leader is going to take these home because we're going to, as we walk through mission over the next few weeks, I want these Skittles to be out as a snack but also a visual reminder of what we face.
Now, each one of these represents someone down the street, someone in our neighborhoods right around here that currently does not know Jesus, doesn't even have Him Him on their radar. That is the people that live on the avenues, that is in the surrounding neighborhoods right around our church, that is all the people that live near the river walk, that is single moms that do not have the hope of Christ, that is people that are struggling with addiction, that is University of South Carolina students, we have student housing right down the street that currently are enjoying the world but actually don't know who Jesus is. That is people battling depression, that is people battling mental illness, that is people that we see if you're out here during the week at places like Peace Wise Coffee, there's a street, there's a restaurant down the street I love, Reggae Grill, that is people all over the city of Casey that do not believe in Jesus, that do not have the hope of Christ, that are currently walking into an eternity of destruction apart from God, from our Good Shepherd. That's the harvest in Casey and here's the deal.
If you looked at all the places that our church touches, downtown, West Columbia, Irmo, Red Bank, Lexington, Gilbert, there are at least 28 more of these that need to come up here. at least. That's the optimistic view. That is the harvest. That is the people that Jesus looks on our area with a broken heart because they currently don't know Him. That is the harvest that we need to clearly see. The incredible amount of harassed and helpless sheep that do not know this Good Shepherd, that have not tasted and seen how good He is.
We have to see the harvest. and we've got to see it clearly. And once we've seen that, we need to see the next part. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. The laborers are few. This is why we exist as a church, as a gospel-centered community on mission. Not to be just Christians, but to be laborers.
I did a Greek word study so I could further understand what the Greek means for that word. And here's what I found this week. It means laborer. It means worker. Shocking. Our English translations are great.
It means someone who labors, who actively works, not just someone who believes, but that belief takes the form of action and goes and labors to see the lost come and taste and see that He is good. That is what we're called to be. We're called to labor for the harassed and helpless sheep. I've got a buddy of mine. He's a buddy. He's also a mentor.
His name is Matt Friend. And I texted him the morning that we all got to worship together a couple weeks ago. We all got to... If you're new here, two churches came to emerge as one and two weeks ago was our first time worshiping together. And I got here early as I do every morning ready to set stuff up and there wasn't a whole lot to do. We've been set up and tearing down for years.
I mean, as a church and even before I was a part of Mill City since 2011 as a part of another church back when I was in seminary that was also a meeting in a school that also had to set up and tear down. So for the last eight, nine years this is what I've done. Got here early. Set up. And I texted my buddy Matt because he was a part of the church in Louisville as well. And I said, man, I'm here early at seven o'clock and I ain't got nothing to do. man, this is great.
And he texted back and he said, that's awesome, man. I'm so happy for you guys. He said, but don't get fat. And I knew exactly what he was getting at. I knew exactly what he was getting at because he left the church that I was a part of and he went to be the pastor of a pretty sizable church in West Virginia with a big old building. and he said, don't get fat because the reality is is that we can have kind of a field of dreams kind of mindset. If we build it, they will come.
And that is not the case. We cannot lose our hustle. I get it. It's exciting. We should absolutely be excited about what happened. For those of us who have been set up and tearing down every week in, week out to have a permanent place where we can mobilize mission from, that's incredible.
We should be happy. And I know that some of you that have been worshiping in this building for years are so happy to see it filled up again. We should be ever joyed. But we ain't getting fat. We got work to do. We got stuff that we need to do.
We got to gain our hustle. We have to go out and make disciples. We are called to be laborers. Now, this insight group did a specific survey and I'll share with you. They surveyed and asked, what are the three top things, just asking the area of cases, what are the three top things that you're looking for in a church? If you're going to visit, what are you actually looking for?
You need the three top responses. The first was warm and friendly encounters. That was the top thing. They're looking to be welcomed, to be a part of something, to be warm and inviting. That is why so often we have talked about as a church to get here on time, to get here early and to welcome people. That's why our host team is so important.
Do you know how much nerve you got to build up to actually visit a church if you haven't been a part of a church in years? Do you know how much nerve you got to build up if you've never been to a church before? It's scary. I remember when I was in high school when I wasn't a Christian, my life really was going downhill and I knew that something had to change and I felt like maybe I needed to check out a church, maybe I needed to check out a specific youth group. It took me like three or four or five months to actually gain up the nerve to go and that was kind of because somebody forced me to. It takes a lot of nerve to get here on a Sunday morning for someone to show up and no one to talk to them, no one to welcome them, no one to experience the familiness and the love that we get to experience week in, week out, in groups and on Sundays.
That's a huge miss, guys. I know we got friends and church family here that we love dearly, but you can see them other times in the first ten minutes. Welcome somebody. Get to know them. Invite them. Show them the love that we have so much in our church family.
That is hugely important. Second thing they're looking for is quality sermons. Check. Like half the time, which in baseball that's a 500 batting average. All right.
Third, adult social activities. Translation, community groups. Y'all, do you see what just happened there? We are primed and set up to reach the people of this area, to be warm and inviting, to preach quality sermons, to have community groups planted all over Casey in the city of Columbia. That's it. We are primed and ready.
And the reality is is that we have about a hundred ish members. Committed members of our church. But do we have a hundred plus committed laborers? That's the reality. The reality is the laborers are few. And we need to respond.
We need to grow in what it means to be a laborer. Which means doing the things that we've consistently talked about for years and actually laboring. It means being an everyday missionary. We talk about that in our church. Being an everyday missionary means being a missionary where you live, where you work, where you enjoy and live life. It means being an everyday missionary in your neighborhood, being a good neighbor, getting to know your neighbors, having parties, inviting people over, being a good neighbor and inviting them in to experience who Jesus is.
It means being a good co-worker, a good employee, a good employer, to spend time getting to know your co-workers, to take them out to lunch, to intentionally get to know them, to listen to them when they vomit all of their life problems instead of getting annoyed. To love your co-workers and to get to know them and share the gospel with them and invite them in to know who Jesus is in community groups and here on Sunday. It means being an everyday missionary in the parts of life that we enjoy. Maybe you've got kids that play sports or do dance competitions or whatever. It's a mission field. All their parents, that's a mission field.
A lot of them don't know Jesus. Maybe some of the ones that scream at umps. I'm just kidding. Christians are pretty bad at that too. If you don't have kids, whatever you do, bowling leagues, I haven't had a social life for years, so whatever the things extensively that you would fill in the blank that you do, wherever you live and enjoy life, you're called to be an everyday missionary right there. To invite them into knowing who Jesus is.
We need to labor as groups on mission. That's one of the things we talk about. That our community groups are not just for family and loving one another. They are and caring for one another. But they are groups on mission.
We are sent out as groups in the city every single week. And here's the reality. I think we've only had one group multiply in the last three years. And I'm so thankful for what Jesus is doing in our church. I'm so thankful for all the ways that He's working. But the reality is is that our groups are meant to multiply because more groups means more opportunities across the city for people to taste and see that our Good Shepherd is actually good.
So we've got to regain our hustle here and we've got to multiply some groups so that we can be groups on mission in this city. And it means laboring here on Sundays. It means coming here with a missional mindset that there are people that are going to come through this door that do not know Him. It means serving in different areas like host team where we need top-notch hospitality as we welcome people in. It means serving and volunteering in Kid City. Y'all, there's a harvest down there in the basement right now.
And they need the gospel. We need volunteers because they are thin and they are killing it with smaller Numbers. But how beautiful would it be if you committed yourself to volunteer once a month to be in Kid City and for the next three months, the next six months, the next two years to walk our kids through the gospel. I love seeing stories in our church when the baptism waters are filled with a child, their parent, and somebody else who's serving Kid City. Man, the harvest is plentiful even downstairs. It means doing the things that we need to do to be a gospel-centered community on mission on Sundays to see the loss be found.
So let's not get fat. Let's work. Let's labor. Let's be the laborers that God has called us to be. We need to see the loss is harassed and helpless. We need to see the harvest is plentiful.
We need to see that we are called to be laborers and then we need to respond and pray. That is the next thing that Jesus teaches. We are called to pray. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly, earnestly, vigorously, consistently, unendingly. Pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
The reason we pray is because God is the one who ultimately goes and works in our lives and the lives of unbelievers. God is the one who ultimately brings people to faith. We need to pray. We need to be a church that prays earnestly for the lost. There was a French Quaker pastor in the 19th century named Stephen Grellett. He was considering some of the things that we are talking about this morning and he was praying.
He was like, Lord, who do you want me to reach? And a French Quaker, God put on his heart American woodcutters. Now, woodcutters is a 19th century term for lumberjacks. And basically, back then, they were like people who worked on oil rigs. I mean, it's blue-collar workers isolated from the rest of the world. Pretty rowdy crew.
So God put American woodcutters on his heart. So he prayed and he planned and then he got on a ship and he crossed the Atlantic and he showed up in America. And he's a French Quaker, so there's one site where these American woodcutters are known to be found. So he travels his way through the wilderness and he shows up and there's been months of anticipation and buildup and he shows up at this site where they were known to be and it's empty. It was just recently deserted. And again, he's a French Quaker.
He's not a tracker. It's not Bear Grylls. He's not about to go find where these guys are. So he's there and it's empty. Imagine the amount of disappointment after all this time that God prays, he responds, he goes and there's no one there and he prays. He said, God, what do you want?
He says, it's my message. You came here. I want you to preach it. So he finds this shanty. It's a temporary housing setup. He goes inside.
He opens his Bible and he preaches the gospel. He just obeys Jesus. He preaches the gospel. He preaches the message that our Lord came from heaven and he sought us. He preaches of his blood and how we need covering for sin and forgiveness for sins. He preaches of the hope of new life in him, of the resurrection.
He preaches the gospel and then he shuts his Bible and he packs up his stuff and he goes home. And I can imagine that that trip home was a very frustrating one, was a very disappointing one. What was the point? God, why did you bring me all this way to preach to the empty, open air? I know I'm being obedient, but what was the point of what actually happened? Fast forward a few years.
A few years later, he runs into an American. The American sees him, hears him and recognizes him and he says, you don't know me, but I was an American woodcutter and years ago, we left our site, but I left some tools behind and when I came back to the site, I heard someone preaching from a shanty and I caught a glimpse of you preaching a message that absolutely confronted me in my sin. And it cut him to his core and he placed his faith in Jesus and he gathered his tools and he went on to the new campsite of where they were at and he said, I led a few more to Christ with that message who led a few more and by the time it was all said and done, over a thousand people tasted and saw that God was good. Now, I love that story for a few different reasons.
I love what it illustrates. I love that it illustrates that God is sovereign in salvation. He's the one who saves. He just was being obedient, but God had it all set up. God is the one that goes to work and brings people in to faith. I love it because of what it illustrates, the danger and the power of prayer.
That when you pray and you pray for the harvest and you pray for laborers to go out, what will often happen is God will raise you up and send you out. That might be across the Atlantic, that might be across the street. Both can be unnerving for different reasons. But when you pray, God goes to work and I love that it illustrates what it means to be a laborer. I think we should dream big. I think we should absolutely see the loss.
I think we should think about mission in such a big picture that is so big and so bold that Jesus calls us to. But oftentimes, it's the very simple making of disciples. Jesus called a few, 12, to impact the world. And he went across the Atlantic to impact one and through one, a thousand plus and a legacy of faith came out of it. We are called to labor. Once we see the need, the harassed and helpless sheep, once we see the harvest is plentiful, once we see the need for laboring, once we pray, ultimately, we need to go.
Verse 38 says, Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. To send, which means we need to go. We need to get on our knees. We need to pray. But man, we need to absolutely own this and go.
We will focus so much of our time and so much of our energy and so much wasted time and affection on frivolous pursuits that do not matter in a million years. This is the grand scheme of eternity. It does not matter. And if we do that, we will be a shadow of the men and women of great density that God has called us to be. We need to go. What would 2021 look like in the life of our church if we actually said, no, this year, I'm going to go.
I'm actually going to labor for the lost. What would it look like if we committed in 2020 to actually do this? What would the city of Casey look like in just a few years? If we said, no, we're going to intentionally reach this part of the city. We're going to plant community groups all across Casey so that people can experience who God is. What would our city look like?
What would downtown in Oralwood? What would, in West Columbia where our Riverbanks group meets, what would Irmo in Lexington in Gilbert, what would all of Columbia look like if we owned this mission and we actually went? we need to go. We got work to do. We got people to reach. We need to go. And for some of you, that may mean across the street.
That may mean across the cubicle. But for others, cubicle, but for others, that means across the world. We want to be a church that has everyday missionaries here that intentionally reaches this area. But we want to be a church that sends laborers across the world into the harvest. Into places like Egypt that we have been partnering in. In places like Columbia, South America that we have been partnering in.
And reaching unreached people groups all across the world. Some of you need to finally respond to that calling and you need to go. Here's what I love as we are going to walk through Matthew in the next few weeks. And really the rest of our time in this wonderful gospel. Next week, He is going to raise up the disciples, Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Thaddeus, Lot. He is going to send them out to get a taste of what mission looks like, what He is calling to.
But ultimately, as the gospel of Matthew closes out, He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. The way it ends is, Behold, I will be with you always to the end of the age. Which means, as we go out into Casey, as we go out into Columbia, as we go out into the world, we are not alone. The God of the universe is in His church working inside of us. And we get the thrill of laboring with God to see a harvest happen in this city. But we got to go.
We got to go across the cubicle. We got to go into our neighborhoods. We got to go into Kid City. We got to go and have tough conversations with our skeptic friends. And here is the picture of what it could be. If you committed to this, if we committed to this, how beautiful it would be if later this year, someone who doesn't have Jesus even on their radar steps in the baptism waters because you declared the goodness of our God.
And they say that Jesus is Lord. That's the picture. But we got to go out and get Him. Lindsay's going to come up and she's going to play. And in lieu of taking the Lord's Supper, instead of taking the Lord's Supper, I want us to pray. If you're new here, we're so glad you're here this morning.
This may feel a little bit different. We've got a few moments where we can silently pray together for the things that God is calling us into. If you do not believe in Jesus, if you've not experienced how good this gospel is, our hope this morning is that you would, that you would actually place your faith in Him. He's worth your life. He's such a good shepherd. You're harassed and you're helpless.
But He will bring you into the family of God. He's worth it. Would you believe? So right now, our hope is that you would pray, that you would ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. But for everyone else, I want to take a few moments and pray for three things.
I want to pray for Casey, all the parts of this city that need the gospel. Pray for Casey, that we're going to pray for Columbia and the greater Columbia area. I want you to think of people that you know, that need Jesus. I want you to think of people in your work, in your neighborhood. And then lastly, we're going to pray for the ends of the earth. So let's pray.
First for Casey. Jos hablar. Pai. vec giga close chasekel si escuch si se pedals si se, Lord, may you go to work in this city. May our church be a beacon of light and salt all across Casey. That they would experience how good you are. Amen.
I want to pray for Columbia. Lord, may you send our church out all across this city. May you send us back into our neighborhoods, into our places of work. May we labor for the lost all over Columbia, all over Lexington, all over Red Bank, all over West Columbia, all over Irma. May we go. Amen.
Lastly, let's pray for the ends of the earth. Pray for unreached people groups. Pray for places that you would love to see the Lord's sin labors into that harvest. Lord, would you raise up men and women in our church that would fearlessly go to the ends of the earth, that would make disciples in the darkest corners of the globe. May you reap a harvest amongst unreached people groups, amongst nations that desperately need the gospel. May we sin and may we go.
In Jesus' name, amen. May we as laborers go into the harvest. Amen.
2020 Vision: Community
Transcript
Good to see each of you here today. It's so wonderful to look out and see this congregation, so many people here. I was talking to one of the ladies from Casey First before this started. Fall a year ago, fall of 18, our church spent 100 days in prayer and we had different prayer groups. She was telling me that her prayer group came over here and prayer walked this building and came in the sanctuary and prayed that God would fill it. And she came in this morning and looked around and said, my prayer's been answered.
Isn't that fantastic? Fantastic. Thank you. Greenville, when I was only about the eighth grade, felt like that God was calling me to be a pastor. And I worked toward that, went to North Greenville, to Furman and the Southern Seminary. And I got married.
My wife's Joy, see here at the front. We've been married for 49 years. We have two grown children. We have a son and a daughter. Our daughter has three sons. I mean, our son has three sons and our daughter has two girls.
And so we've got five grandchildren. And I had my first church. I started my first church when I was in seminary, and that was in 1971. So I've been a pastor for a little while. And keep learning. And it's just been exciting to serve God all these years.
Of course, there's been ups and downs and lean times and blessed times. Let me share with you how I ended up here at Casey First. After I retired full-time, I'd been at First Baptist Church at Newberry for 30 years. I retired full-time from there and wasn't ready to quit completely preaching. So I'd taken transitional pastor training.
And I'd done a couple of transitional pastor churches. One of them was Holland Avenue over here. And then after two, I was out for several months, and I began to like being out. You know, not having to get up and work and do all the things you've got to do. And we were attending church one Sunday morning. It was in August of 2018.
And the preacher that morning preached on what do you need to sacrifice to God? What do you just need to turn over to him and let him be in control of it? And you surrender that to him. And I thought to myself, or really the Spirit said to me, You're a retirement. You let God decide about that. And I said, Okay, Lord, I'll turn that over to you.
And committed to that in prayer during that service. The next morning, I got a call from Johnny Rumbaugh, our director of missions here in this association. He said that Dr. Pete Cassidy, who had been at this church for six years, had died suddenly. And would I come and fill in for him? And so I came the next Sunday, and the Sunday after that, and the Sunday after that, and after three or four Sundays, they called me to be their interim pastor.
And so I was here, you know, during that time, or since that time. And we began working on, Okay, what does God want us to do now? Considering what our resources are, and we've got tons of building resources. Considering our people resources, and we didn't have many, we began praying, Lord, what do you want us to do? And then we began looking at the options. And to make a long story short, in the process, we got connected with Mill City Church.
And Mill City Church had been praying, Lord, show us where you want us to, you know, buy land, pay for a building, whatever. Guess what? God has answered both of our prayers. He brought you to us, and we opened our arms to you. And one of the most exciting things in my ministry since 1971 has been the opportunity to see two churches come together and begin to get to know one another and work together and plan together and serve God together in this building and in this community. And I've just seen in so many ways something amazing happen.
This doesn't happen often for two churches to come together like this. And it's just so evident to me that God is in the midst of this. And I am just real excited to get to work with your pastors and with you and with our people who have been here at what we call Casey First. And it's just been a really exciting thing for me. And I'm glad that God gave me the chance to be a part of this. It's been a real blessing for me personally.
We are seeking to work together now. And Chet preached last Sunday on the gospel. And what that means is we begin to work together here in this community. Next week, Spencer will come and tell us some of the hows that we can work to carry out the mission he's given us. This morning, I want to speak about how we can better come together as one church family. And the purpose of all of these sermons is to give us some idea.
OK, what does it mean for us to be a gospel centered community on mission? And that's what we're all working toward. So we're going to think about that a little bit this morning. Now, have you ever noticed how humanity easily divides itself into different groups? We do that with nations. We do that with races.
We do that along economic lines. We do that with religions. We can even do that with trying to worship God. When I was in Newberry, Lewis Rich, the big turkey processing plant there, began hiring a lot of Hispanic people. And so the population grew very much in Newberry. And we thought they need a gospel witness.
And so our church started a Hispanic church. And they began to grow. And they started meeting in our church. And then just completely by the grace of God, they were given a church building. The congregation had completely died out. And they were just given this nice church building.
And they continued to grow. They had their own pastor. It was going really well. And then they split. They split over the different worship styles between the Mexican Christians and the Guatemalan Christians that were in that church. It's easy for us to divide ourselves into different groups.
That was true in New Testament times. In New Testament times, the Jewish people knew that they were the chosen people of God, that God had a special mission for them. They just kind of didn't grasp all of the ramifications of that. And so they looked at themselves as God's special people, the Jews. And everybody else, everybody else in the whole world was a Gentile. And they thought that they were pretty special.
And the Gentiles looked at the Jews and thought, these people are a bunch of prideful nobodies. And so there was a lot of contention between the two. Let me give you an illustration of that contention. The temple that was there in Jerusalem. By this time, it had been built into an elaborate structure. And there was the place, the building proper, where only the priests could go in.
Outside of that was the court of the Jewish men. And outside of that was the court of the Jewish women. And outside of that was the court for the Gentiles. They could come and worship God, just not real close. They had to keep their distance. Now, there were walls dividing these open areas.
And on the walls between the court of the Gentiles and the court of the women, there were signs on the gates in those walls. And they're mainly more like fences. And the sign said, if you're a Gentile and come any further, you'll be responsible for your own death, which will result. In other words, they couldn't come close to God. They had to keep their distance. Now, think about that and that scripture that we read a little earlier from Ephesians 2.
And you might want to look in your Bibles. Some of you can look at Ephesians 2 and find that all right. In the Pew Bibles, that's page 568. And this passage begins to tell some of the things that how the Gentiles were in reality before they became Christians. And the reason this is being addressed is because as the gospel began to spread after Jesus' death and resurrection, then the gospel went to the Jews and then it spread beyond the Jews and Gentiles began to be Christians. And so you had a whole lot of Gentiles coming into the church.
And Jews were in the church. And, oh, how were they going to get together? There had been such a divide there. So this letter of Ephesians was written primarily to Gentile Christians to help them understand, you know, what could be done to help them accept the Jews and as a corollary of what Jews could do to accept the Gentiles. So we're going to look at some of these verses that were read a little bit earlier first before we get down to the actual verses that I'm going to read a little bit later.
But if you would look at verse 12 of Ephesians chapter 2, it says this, Remember, and he's primarily addressing Gentiles here, Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now, look at this, separated from Christ. It's hard to be separated from Christ. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have a Savior. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have a Lord who can rule your life and give you the assurance that he's the one that's going to be in charge for all of eternity.
And if you belong to him, then you're going to be taken care of. If you don't have Jesus, you don't have the one that called himself the good shepherd who watches over his people and keeps them in his care and laid down his life for them. And no one can snatch them out of his hand. They were without Christ. And then it says they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. In other words, Israel was the people of God.
And they weren't part of the people of God. They were alienated from them. When this was written, if you could have Roman citizenship, then it meant something. Some people were born into Roman citizenship. Some people bought it. But if you had it for whatever reason, and most people didn't, you had certain privileges and response.
You had certain privileges and things that came to you that the normal person didn't have. And when we're a part of God's people, there are certain things that are a blessing to us. And we have those things, but the Gentiles didn't have those things. They were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. And then strangers from the covenants of promise. God gave his people in the Old Testament several different covenants.
One of the ones was with Moses. Remember when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in the land of Egypt? And on the way to the promised land, they went to Sinai. And God gave them the Ten Commandments and his laws. And he said, you let me be your God and follow my laws. And I will be your God and let you be my people.
That was the covenant that he made with them. There was the covenant with David. God went to David and said, I am going to make of your offspring one who will have an eternal kingdom. And of course, that was fulfilled in Jesus. Remember when the angel went to Mary and was announcing that she was going to bear the Messiah? And the angel said to her, of his kingdom there will be no end.
That's God's promise. God's covenant. In the book of Hebrews, the writer picks up on something that Jeremiah said from the Old Testament. And listen to this. Man, that's a neat sounding covenant, isn't it? Our sins to be remembered by God himself no more.
So many blessings for being part of the people of God. And yet the Gentiles were away from that. But it goes on. And it says, having no hope. No hope. They probably hoped in some things.
A lot of people hope in things today. A lot of our hope is, in essence, just wishful thinking. We hope something will come true. But we have no guarantee that that will happen. But biblical hope is different.
It's based on the promises of God. And we know they're going to happen. When he made those promises, they happened. When he makes the promise that he'll forgive us our sin. When he'll give us eternal life. When he'll take us to heaven when we die.
We know. Because it's based on the promise of our faithful God. But the Gentiles didn't have that kind of hope. Their hope was just wishful thinking. And then, without God in the world. Man, that's hard.
Now, they didn't design the existence of God. In fact, the Gentiles worshipped a whole lot of different gods. If you ever read Greek or Roman mythology. You read about all of those gods that they worshipped. Nothing like the true and living God. The eternal God.
The creator God. If you're without that God. Then you are without hope. They had no knowledge of the one true God. They had religion. But they didn't have a relationship with the living God.
Isn't this one of the saddest verses in the Bible? You were at that time. Separated from Christ. Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of promise. Having no hope.
And without God in the world. Guess what? That wasn't just the Gentiles then. That's us today. Before we had Jesus. That's the way we were.
So. Praise the Lord. In that kind of state. God came to us. He said Jesus. And we're going to see what Jesus did.
He did some amazing things for us. Look at verse 13. It says, but now. I like it when the Bible says, but now. It usually means that, you know. There's something in bed.
But God's doing something. This is going to be better. So he says, but now in Christ Jesus. You who were once far off. Have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We were far off from God.
We were separated from God because of our sins. And we have been brought near. Because Jesus died on the cross. Because he was willing to hang there. And shed his blood. So that our sins might be forgiven.
So that we might be given eternal life. Jesus did that. He opened the way for us to have forgiveness. He brought us near. You know, Jesus was always bringing people near. When you think about Jesus' ministry.
You realize that he was always bringing people near. You think in John chapter 4. About the woman at the well. She was a pretty immoral woman. She was a woman who was confused about religion. She was a woman who was evidently shunned.
By most of the people in her little town. And yet Jesus came to her. Talked to her. Told her the truth. He changed the whole trajectory of her life. He brought her near to God.
And she was living for a new purpose from then on. Jesus is bringing people near. Jesus brought Zacchaeus near. Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19. Zacchaeus was a short man. And he was a tax collector.
Don't you hate April the 15th coming? Oh no. Oh goodness. We still don't much like tax collectors. Did you hear about the man that walked into a restaurant. With an alligator on a leash.
And he went over and sat out at a table. And the waitress came. And he said. Will you serve tax collectors here? And she said. Oh yes sir.
We'll do that. He said. Good. I'll have a steak. And bring my gator a tax collector. Well.
Back in New Testament times. Where Zacchaeus lived. In Palestine. They hated tax collectors more than we did. Because see. That tax collector.
Was. Collecting taxes. For the Roman government. Not the Jewish people. They were paying taxes. To a foreign nation.
And for him. As a Jewish man. To collect taxes. For the invaders. He was considered to be a traitor. And the way that system was set up.
It was easy to be a tax collector. Who cheated people. And got rich yourself. And so. Zacchaeus. Was away from his people.
And probably because of that. He was away from God too. And when he heard that Jesus. Was coming to town. Because he was such a short guy. And couldn't see what was going on.
Because of the press. He climbed up in a tree. So we could see Jesus. And Jesus saw him up in the tree. Told him to come down. And somewhere.
Beside the time. That he was up in those branches. By the time he hit the ground. Jesus had changed him. And he said. Lord.
That's a pretty good title. To call it for Jesus. If I have cheated anybody. I will pay it back. And Jesus said. This one too.
Has become a son of Abraham. A son of the people of God. He was one. That Jesus brought near. The man who read this scripture. We were reading this morning.
Was the. Apostle Paul. And Paul. Was once. A very religious man. A Jewish man.
Who kept the law. And was zealous for God. To the point of persecuting Christians. Because he thought they were completely wrong. And yet Jesus appeared to him. On the road to Damascus.
When he was going to have Christians. Arrested and persecuted. And changed him. And brought him near. Jesus is in the business. Of bringing people near.
We were separated. But Jesus. Brings us. Near. We've been brought near. By his.
Cross. By his shedding. His blood. Blood. Jesus. Also.
Is the one. Who brings us peace. Jesus comes. And preaches. Peace. I believe it's here.
In. Verse 17. It says. And he came. And preached. Peace.
To you who are far off. And peace. To those who were near. Jesus brings peace. Scripture says. That we who have been justified.
That we who have been justified. By faith. Have peace with God. Through the Lord Jesus Christ. Before we accept Jesus. It's like we're at war with God.
You know. We don't want to submit to him. We don't want to. Don't want to. Obey his commands. We want.
We don't want to. Accept the fact. That we are sinners. And don't deserve. Really anything good. And yet.
When we accept Jesus. Then Jesus. Makes us at peace. With God. And. We don't look at God.
As an enemy anymore. As a tyrant. As somebody. Who's out to get us. We see God. As a heavenly father.
As one who loves us. Who cares for us. Who's going to help us. Who's going to guide us. In the right way. And this is not something.
We earn by ourselves. Or. Or make up by ourselves. Or search for peace. Or finding it another way. It comes through Jesus.
If you. Look at the. Part in verse 14. He says. For he himself. Is our peace.
And. In the. Last part of verse 15. He said. That he might create it himself. One new man.
In place of the two. So making peace. In other words. He gives us peace with God. And he gives us peace. With all.
Other believers. If you've accepted Jesus. And accepted the peace. That he's given. Then. Not only do you have peace.
With God. But you're going to do your best. To stay at peace. With other believers. He brings us together. That way.
Reconciling us. To those. And then. He does one other thing. He gives us. Access.
To God. In verse. 18. He says. For through him. We both have access.
In one spirit. To the father. In. Verse 12. Of chapter 3. He says.
In whom. We have boldness. And access. With confidence. Through our faith. In him.
Because Jesus. Has become our high priest. Then. We are able. To go into the presence of God. That's what Chet preached on.
Last Sunday. That. That we have access. To God. Because. Of Jesus.
And we can go to God. In prayer. We can go to God. For help. We can go to God. For direction.
We can go for God. For power. To live the Christian life. We have access. To him. And he blesses us.
In these ways. Makes tremendous difference. In our lives. One of the churches. Where my wife and I. Were attending.
When I was. In between. Some of these transitional. Churches. There was a young woman there. Who was a vibrant Christian.
Outgoing. Fully accepted. By the congregation. Just. Just a. A.
B. A. A. A. A. A.
A. A. A. herself and then was in a bad car wreck. And she was in the hospital for several days. And while she was in the hospital, her house was burglarized. And it was just like her whole world was falling apart.
And she remembered a little bit of what she'd learned when she was a little girl about Jesus. And she called out to him and invited him into her life. And she became that Christian who was, I described her as so vibrant and excited about the faith and was fully accepted by that church. You know, she had been brought near, given peace and had access to God and other believers as well. Jesus does these things for us. He brings us near.
He gives us peace. He gives us access to God. Now, on the basis of that, what are we supposed to be as his people? What are we supposed to be as a church? Let's look and see what the scripture says that we are so that we can begin to leave it out.
Ephesians chapter two, beginning with verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by his spirit. So what are we now? First part of verse 19, no longer strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints. Saints means Christians.
You're a fellow citizen. You have citizenship in the kingdom of God. And remember, that's an everlasting kingdom. Now, I imagine that most of you are probably citizens of the United States. And because you're a citizen of the United States, then you have certain privileges. You have freedom of speech.
You have freedom of religion. You have freedom of assembly and a whole bunch of other freedoms as well. You also have some responsibilities. You have the responsibility to pay those taxes we were talking about earlier. You have the responsibility to obey the law. You should vote and be involved in the political process.
Those should be, you know, responsibilities we gladly accept because we are so blessed to be citizens of our country. Kingdom of God works the same way because we who are believers are part of the kingdom of God. Then we have certain privileges. We have the privilege to go to God. We have the privilege to have our sins forgiven. We have the privilege of God's direction.
We have the privilege in the church of having people, people who care for us and who work with us and help us in ways when we need help. And we have responsibilities. You know, we care for one another. We were concerned for one another. We help one another. We, we build each other up.
We keep each other going in the right direction in the faith. We, we bring the encouragement that people need. Amen. Now, let me speak to those of you who were members of Casey first before. Yeah. We have got a lot of young people in here.
They are so enthusiastic. They do so much work around this place. Isn't it amazing how it's been transformed in such a short time? Just the building itself. It just, I can't get over it. It's just fantastic.
But let me tell you something, just because they're here doing this kind of work doesn't mean you can kick your feet up and do nothing from now on. Okay. You still need to give your encouragement. You've got wisdom. You've got skill. You've got experience.
That's going to be a blessing for them. You can still volunteer to do things. You, you can volunteer to help. You could, you could volunteer to help maybe with childcare sometime, give some parents. I guess I got a lot amens on that, huh? We're glad to do that.
But remember, most of us are old. Not too many at once, please. But you get the idea, you know, we're together. Yeah, we, we, we could share one another with these responsibilities because you see verse 19, he says, you're members of the household of God. In other words, we are part of the same family. We all belong to the same God.
We all have the same Jesus as our savior. God is our father. If you're a Christian, God is your father. You know, he said that in verse 18, he said, for we have our access in one spirit to the father. When Jesus gave us the model prayer, he taught us to pray our father. So if we've got one father, what are we?
We're brothers and sisters of the Lord. God's our father. We're related to one another. We're brothers and sisters of the Lord in a good family, in a good family, there's acceptance. There's affirmation. There's the, the imparting of values.
There's correction. There's encouragement and guidance and all of those things. And you know, we value one another. We support one another. We encourage one another. That's part of being a family.
And as the church, we're a family and we ought to be doing those things for each other. Give me a personal illustration of how valuable a family can, a church family can be. 1997, my wife had breast cancer, did the surgery, found out that it had spread. It was in the lymph nodes. She was going to need regular treatment. She was also going to need a stem cell transplant.
They were doing those over at Richland at the time. So through the summer, she had the regular treatments, you know, that knocks your immune system down. So she was in the hospital a couple of times from that. Then she went in from the stem cell transplant. Basically what they do is they harvest your stem cells out of your blood, put them aside, and then zap you with so much chemotherapy, you know, kills all the cancer supposedly, but you know, it wipes out your whole immune system. So you have no resistance to anything.
So she was in the hospital in isolation for five and a half weeks. So, you know, then they, you know, they re-infuse your stem cells and you get your immune system back, but it takes a while. So even after she got home, she couldn't be around people and she certainly couldn't get out and go to church. And so on Sunday morning when I would go to preach, she would sit down in front of the TV, get on her hymnal, turn on First Baptist Church of Columbia and worship with them. And when they would sing, she would sing the hymns with them with tears, gorsing down her cheeks. Because she missed her church family and couldn't worship with them.
You get that close in a family. And then she had to have 30 radiation treatments. And the church had let me be out while she was in the hospital. And so I needed to be at work every day. Somebody from the church would come by, pick her up, bring her to Columbia for a radiation treatment. You can get them Newberry now, but you couldn't then.
And so every day there was somebody helping, supporting. And in the meantime, so many people praying. And such a blessing our church family was to us that it's hard to put it into words. That's our dream. That's our dream. That's our dream that all of us together, all ages, all backgrounds, all of us together will become that kind of family.
And as we become that kind of family, what are we? That's what Jesus is seeking to do. Let's look at verse 20. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together as a dwelling place, Christ Jesus, the spirit. We're the temple of God.
And Jesus is the cornerstone. Now today, when we have a cornerstone, you know, in a building, it's kind of a decorative stone. It may have a cavity in it and you place, you know, mementos in it or something historical in it or something like that. New Testament times, that wasn't the cornerstone. Cornerstone was the main foundational stone is the building. It carried a lot of its weight, supported the way the building was going to be built and grow and shaped.
You know, the cornerstone was the very foundation. Jesus is the very foundation of our lives together as a congregation. He's the cornerstone. We are being built on him. And we become God's temple. You know, you ask the average person today and you say to them, what's the meaning of the word church?
And most people are going to say to you a building. That's not the way it is. You who were members of the former Mill City were a church before you had a building. When I was a boy, he used to have this little thing that get us to do as children. You know, they'd say, here is the church and here is the steeple. Open the door and there's all the people.
Well, guess what? That's not right. This is not the church. This is the church. The people are the church. You are the church.
And God is building us into a holy temple. He puts us together. Each one of us of stone. And God's purpose is not to have a lot of individual stones laying around on the ground, not associating with one another. He builds us together in the church to make a building for his purposes, a building for his glory. It's God's work.
I guess most of you probably, you know, it's all about Notre Dame burning this past summer, that great cathedral in Paris, you know, hundreds of years old, took decades and decades to build, you know, and then saw a report the other day that there's probably only a 50-50 chance that thing can be restored. Well, it's kind of sad to lose a building with that historical importance and to lose a cathedral in that sense. But, you know, the greatest cathedral doesn't compare with a group of people who have turned from their sins, accepted Jesus as their Savior, have come together in faith and worship and serve Him together. That's the church.
That's what makes a difference. Man can build pyramids. Man can build the Parthenon. Man can build skyscrapers. But God builds the church and He builds it out of people just like you and I.
He's the one that builds the church. He makes a difference. And, you know, we are being built together to a dwelling place for God by His Spirit. We're being joined together in a holy temple. Now, one of the reasons that they made those old cathedrals so great, and one of the reasons people for hundreds of years have built church buildings with steeples and things all the time, was to give God glory so that people would recognize there is a God and glorify Him. Well, guess what?
That thought was right. But the idea, biblically, is that we, the people who make up the church, have a purpose, and our purpose is to glorify God. We glorify Him through working with one another, through accepting one another, through serving together, through ministering together, through impacting our community together, through loving one another. That's what we're supposed to be about. That's what we're supposed to be doing. When we do that, we will set an example for this community so that people will look and say, hey, what's going on over there?
Maybe we need to check that out. And they'll have the opportunity to come to find out about Jesus. You know, something else. If we make this work, and I think God's already shown us that this is going to work, this bringing of ourselves together, that provides an example for a lot of other churches in our state who are dying, or a lot of other new starts who need some method to move forward. Now, I'm not saying that's what every one of those needs. Everybody doesn't need to do the same thing.
But there's some that can look at what's been done here and think, hey, it's possible. God did it there. Maybe He can do it with us. We have a chance to bring glory to God as we come together. Let God bring us near. Give us His peace.
Give us access to God and we use it. And then turn us into a family, a temple of people who bring glory and honor to God. Isn't it great to be part of a church family? Our dream this coming year for 2020 is that all of us together will use this opportunity to become one family who glorifies the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Amen.
2020 Vision: Gospel
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We have both our church been studying the Gospel of Matthew. We'll pick that up in a few weeks, but we're going to start this year doing a series we've called 2020 Vision. And when it's the year 2020, you have to.
You have to call it 2020 Vision. We don't make the rules. We're just following up. But we're going to spend a few weeks talking through prayers and some hopes for our church family as we join together this year. Try to be gospel-centered, community on mission in Casey. Learning to love one another, learning to love this area of the city, learning to grow together in our love for Jesus.
We just want to take a few weeks to say, hey, let's look at some things that we're praying God will be at work in for us as we try to follow Him together. This is an exciting morning. It's exciting that we get to come together. There were a lot of reasons to say no to doing this. The biggest one being, I don't like change. I mean, you could sum up most of the reasons under that heading.
Change is annoying. No, thank you. But we prayed about it. Our congregations kept seeking the Lord on it, and we kept coming back until we felt like this is something the Lord would want us to do, that He would work in this. And even in the midst of things that will be difficult, isn't it good to be a part of something that God's doing? Isn't it good to be involved in something that He's leading in?
And doesn't He usually lead us in things that cause us to see our own sin, to see our need for repentance, that cause us to see our need for Him? And won't it be a joy and a blessing as we get to walk together in this? So I'm excited. I'm going to pray. We'll pray together, and then we'll go to the text we're going to be in this morning. God, we thank you for the grace that brought every one of us here, and we ask for grace to carry us forward.
And we pray that your name will be praised, and that we would enjoy the glory of the name of Jesus, that you would empower us through your Spirit to love and follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. Grab your Bibles, go to Hebrews chapter 10. Can you turn me down a little bit? Because I'm afraid to get excited at this point. Grab your Bibles, go to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11.
If you have a blue Bible, you're on page 584. If you have one of the black Bibles, you'll be able to read the words, but we're not going to tell you what page it's on. We are going to start in verse 11. And what the author of Hebrews is doing is been walking through and explaining to a largely Jewish audience how Jesus is the fulfillment of much of what happened in the Old Testament. Much of what God had set and established in the Old Testament. And that he's not just the fulfillment, that he's better.
That he's better than the angels. He's higher than the angels. He's a better priest. He's a better sacrifice. That he is to be exalted above everything. And so we're picking up in Hebrews 10 where we're looking at that kind of a pattern where he's been lifting Jesus up.
And then he's been saying, OK, because of that, here's how we respond. And because of that, here's what we look like. And so as we kind of culturally. Am I cutting in and out? OK. Hello.
OK, I will do my best with a handheld mic. Sometimes I do. And then it comes back. And that's all you needed to know to follow Jesus and be happy. So I will try.
I'll try to keep my arm here. I've worked on it because my wife mocked me incessantly. She's like, you know which end picks up sound, right? You know how microphones work. All right.
This time of year. We're trained to start setting up some goals. Most of us kind of look into the beginning of the year. We're coming out of the Christmas season where I don't know if you're like me. You were like, you know what? It's cold.
I'm going to eat 5,000 calories a day and just sit in my house. And then you hit January and you're like, you know what? Why don't we arbitrarily decide it's January and let's get our act together again. And so some of us, that's kind of what you do. But there's this pursuit of I want to get better.
I want to work towards something. I want to achieve something. And so we as a church are just saying, hey, let's look at what the Bible says. Let's set some hopes and dreams and prayers for our church family. And let's set them in a way that mirrors what is good in the gospel. Hebrews 11 and every Hebrews 10 verse 11.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. So they had high priests. They had this priestly service and they had the high priest and they had other priests that would offer sacrifices for your sins. So you would sin and then you would need to go get atoned for by the blood of a sacrificial animal, your sin. And they did this daily, which was good because we sin daily. I don't know about y'all.
I'm not just like nights and weekends. Like I need, you know, need atonement all the time. And so people would constantly have to come and have sacrifices for their sins. So they, but it says it never actually took it away. It would atone for it, but it was all short term. It never took it away.
And then it says this, but when Christ had offered for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. So he said a priest stands daily, but Christ offered one sacrifice. And then he went and sat down that he died on the cross to atone for sin, a full sacrifice that would, that would work for all time. And he's a, the high priest who did not come back the next day to stand up at his service again, but he went and sat down because it has been covered forever. It says he sat down at the right hand of God. Verse 13, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
Could you imagine that? Going to meeting someone in power and they kick back in a really big chair and they put their feet on top of someone. And maybe you work up the courage to say, what is that? And they go, someone who opposed me. I would become real agreeable. I would just be like, whatever you say, but that's what Jesus is going to do.
He's going to crush his enemies so that they are his footstool. Verse 14, for by a single offering, he has perfected for all time. Those who are being sanctified. Now you may be the type of person who really has some good goals for this year. And there are some good goals to set. And maybe you're actively working to try to grow and be better.
There's some habits and some sin that you're trying to kill and grow into. And that's beautiful and good. And the Bible is for growth and it's for diligence. But let me explain something to you. If you are trying to atone for your sin, you will do that daily. You will fail constantly and you will not be made perfect.
If your goal with this year is I'm going to fix myself, I'll finally feel okay. I won't have shame and guilt anymore. I'm going to make sure that I'm all right. If you're working from this place of I've got to accomplish this, you will fail. But if you belong to Jesus, you get to start this year perfected for all time.
Sure. Set some goals. It's fine to exercise. You can quit smoking or cut down from two packs to one or whatever. Go back from vaping to smoking. Whatever.
You can set your goal. That's fine. But know that in Christ you have been perfected for all time. And that is what is at work in your soul and where it matters you are perfect. And that is our starting place in Christ. That if you belong to him, that is what he has done.
That's what it says. That by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That means those who are being set apart to belong to Jesus. Those who have placed faith in him and those who he has at work in to change. He keeps going. Verse 15.
Do you know how good that is? You see he wrote them on stone and he proclaimed them. And they were supposed to put them on their hand and their forehead in little boxes that they would remember the law so that they might behave. But it was all outside in. So that's the way most of us approach life.
And that's the way many of us approach Jesus. Let me learn your rules and then I'll start to behave. Just tell me what I'm supposed to do. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to not to do? Is there a certain way I'm supposed to dress?
Is there a certain way I'm supposed to talk? Let me learn the rules. And we go to war on ourselves to make ourselves better. And it is exhausting for anyone who's ever tried. But he says that's not how it works.
That he's going to redeem those. He's going to forgive. He's going to make perfect all those that would come to him. And then he's going to work from your mind and your heart. He's going to work inside out. And for those of you who have met Jesus.
Some of you maybe it's the last year. Maybe it's the last six months. Maybe it's 10, 15, 20 years ago. Isn't that how that worked? You placed your faith in Jesus. And then suddenly you started changing.
And it wasn't this insane amount of effort. It was just coming out of you. And yes, it hurt. And yes, there were times where you were having to struggle to grow. But in so many ways it was at work.
Almost like a force that was coming inside out. That was not something you were going to be able to control one way or the other. And that's good news. And this is where we begin. As we start this year. And as we start together as a church.
And then he says this. Which blessed my soul this week as I was thinking about it. Verse 17. Then he adds. I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. The reason that blessed my soul was that I fail to remember things constantly.
The more you're around me and the closer you are to me, the more frustrating this is. So my wife's at the front of the line and then everybody else can follow in behind her. She could have me wrap my own Christmas gifts. I'd still be surprised on Christmas. Like. I just.
If I don't work real hard to put it in my brain, it's not going to stay there. I could never be a waiter. Like it just wouldn't work. I would. There's no way to do it. And it's not that when you remind me, I'm like, oh yeah, I remember.
It's people will talk to me about things and I'm like, nope. I got nothing. Matt Freeman figured this out. We worked together. As we started this church a couple years ago. The Mill City Church.
And we. Working together. He started realizing that I didn't remember stuff. Which I think he's taking advantage of. Because sometimes I'm pretty sure he's just made up that he told me something. But that's fine.
I forgive him. But there are times where he would mess with me. Like I would say, hey, where are you? And he'd be like, I'm Elizabeth Siddiquet meeting this person. And I'd be like, oh, okay. And then he'd text.
Are you not coming? Sheer panic. What am I supposed to be? And he's like, I'm just messing with you. And I was like, why would you do that? But like, I mean, I've shown up to high school before about to walk into class.
And everybody's carrying a giant poster board. And I'm like, what are those? They're like, our project that's due. And I'm like, okay. I'm going to go see the school nurse. Suddenly got real sick.
He remembers them no more. It's not that when he looks at you in Christ, he looks past your sin. It's not that when he looks at you in Christ, he sees your sin, but he's willing to let it go. It's not that he remembers it no more. That you have been perfected for all time in Christ. And he does not remember your sin and your lawless deeds.
Now, I don't know about you, but that makes me want to take a praise lap because I got some sin and some lawless deeds. And I'm glad that when he looks at me, he sees Christ and nothing else. I'm glad that he sees the blood of Jesus who sacrificed himself once and then went and sat down. The reason Jesus is sitting is because there's no more work to be done. That if you were in Christ, you have been made perfect. He sees your sin no more.
Verse 18. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. So we've been forgiven. There was an offering through Christ once for all. And those of us who are in Christ, this is our reality. And what's beautiful is that if you're in Christ, you're going to sin tomorrow.
And you're going to sin again later this month. And you're going to fail and you're going to fall. And at no point did you take it back from him. You've been made perfect for all time. And he has set you aside. That's what sanctified means.
He set you aside. If you place faith in Jesus, he set you aside. His law is in your mind. It's in your heart. He will remember your sins no more. Verse 19 starts with therefore.
And then over the next few verses, it's going to say since, since. What he's saying is because of this reality, because the gospel is true and it is good, let's work from there. Let's have that be our foundation. Let that be the starting blocks for us. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. All right.
When he says holy places and he says curtain, he's referring to something he's been talking about. And he's referring to something that the Jewish people would have understood very well. See, they had the tabernacle and then they had the temple. And the way it worked was there was a holy place where only priests could go. And then there was a big curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. Separated the holy place from the most holy place.
And the most holy place, only one person could enter and only one time a year. The high priest could enter the holy of holies once. There was separation. That was where the presence of God was. That was where his footstool was. That's where the Ark of the Covenant was.
When you entered in there, you were entering the very presence of God. And so one person could do it once a year. And only if they had had a certain number of sacrifices on their behalf and only if they had done everything correct, could they go in there. Jewish history is sitting in the Bible, but Jewish history tells us they started tying a rope to the high priest. Because if he went into the presence of God and God killed him, will we draw on straws to see who goes and gets him out? So they came up with the idea, we'll just tie a rope to you.
You don't come out after a while, we'll just pull you out. That was their plan. A little grotesque, maybe functional though. But we're separate from God. He's holy. We sang that a minute ago.
Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy. Which means you're set apart. You're glorious. You're big. You're beyond us.
But then it says that curtain was torn. See, when Jesus died on the cross, that veil was torn from top to bottom. And the holy of holies is now open. That the presence of God is now open. That those who place faith in Jesus get to enter into. That's what he says.
Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. By the new and living way that has been opened to us through the curtain. That is, through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God. Okay. So if you are making some, if we're making some New Year's resolutions.
Some prayers. Some hopes for our church family. That's what we're writing at the top. Since we have confidence to draw near to God by the blood of Jesus. And since we have a great high priest. Now.
Let's make some plans. Because that's who we are in Christ. Boldness, confidence, forgiveness. Let's make some plans to follow Jesus. First one. We're going to do three.
He gives us three. He says, let us, let us, let us. And then let us not. Let us draw near with a true heart. Full of assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.
And our bodies washed with pure water. Let us draw near to God. That's the first one. That's our prayer. That we would draw near to God. That through our hope in him.
That through our hope in him. Because we have access. Because we have confidence to walk in. Being made perfect by Jesus. Let us take advantage of that. And enjoy the glorious and good presence of God.
Do you know how wonderful he is? How beautiful and terrifying and glorious. And we have access to him. We think about silly things. Like wouldn't it be nice to have access to the mayor? Wouldn't it be nice to have access to the person who owned Best Buy?
And then maybe they could just give us some stuff. Like if I was friends with Jeff Bezos. Maybe he would make it where I didn't have to pay my Amazon yearly fee or whatever. Like we think about silly things. We have access to the glorious God of the universe. Through the blood of Jesus.
For this year. As we grow together. Let's grow in our love for Jesus. Let's enjoy him together. If we don't do anything else this year as a church family. Let's draw near to God.
Let that be what happens when we gather here. Let that be what happens anywhere on this facility. Let that be what happens when we are in our community groups. Let it be that we draw near to God. Because he has opened a way for us to do that. Let's be people of prayer.
This is why we talk about being gospel centered community on mission. There's a reason why gospel centered comes first. Because if we don't. If we're not centered around the gospel. If we're not enjoying Jesus. If we're not engulfed and enraptured by the glory of God.
I don't really want to be a part of your community. And I think your mission is stupid. So we want to be people who draw near. Who enjoy and are overwhelmed by the glory of God. And we get to because Jesus has paid the way for us to walk in. So sometime this year.
You're going to fail. Sometime this year you're going to fall short. And the natural sinful inclination of our heart. Is to run. But we've been washed.
We've been perfected. Let's draw near. There are times where my son. Has done something he ought not to do. And you can see it on him. His face looks different.
He looks. And he just. There are times where I'll pick him up. Hug him. He gets disciplined. Because I care about him.
But I'll pick him up. And I'll hug him. And I'll hold him. I'll tell him I love him. And you can feel after a while. He just relaxes.
What if this year when you failed. And fell short. And you felt shame and guilt creeping up your neck. And you felt overwhelmed by it. You ran to God. And let him wrap you up in the perfection of Christ.
You just got to rest. In the fact that. You are not in charge. Of receiving and earning glory on your own. You are not in charge of saving yourself. You are not in charge of earning this.
You cannot. And if you try. You will fail. And my prayer is you'll fail quickly. And run to Jesus. Because the gospel is good news.
So let us be people who draw near to God. The next one. Let us. Verse 23. Hold fast the confession of our hope. Without wavering.
For he who promised is faithful. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Without wavering. So what's the confession of our hope? Well our hope. Is Jesus.
And his work on our behalf. The confession of our hope. Is us saying out loud. Jesus and his work on our behalf. Like I've trusted in Jesus. The confession.
I'm making the confession. That Jesus Christ paid for my sin. That I am not good. That he is. That I am not holy. That he is.
That I didn't save myself. That he did. That's our confession. That we believe in our heart. And we confess with our mouth. So he says hold fast to that.
Let that be something that you do not let go of. Your belief and trust and hope in the gospel. When I grew up in church. I would have people say sometimes. That you couldn't do certain behaviors. Because you would ruin your witness.
Can't act like that. Can't talk like that. Can't do that. You will ruin your witness. Meaning that you won't be able to then tell people about Jesus. Because you will be acting just like the world.
Now. They were right. In a lot of the behaviors they said we shouldn't do. But the reason we shouldn't do them is obedience. And joy. But I want to step in here and fix something.
My witness is not that I am well behaved. My witness is not. Hey look at Chet. He is great. That's terrible. My witness is Jesus saves sinners.
So when I mess up I get to repent. I get to say hey guys. I shouldn't have acted like that. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. And then I get to say I trust Jesus who forgives sinners.
My hope. My confession is him. Then it says let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. He pushes it again to Jesus. Because he's the one who promised.
He's the one who said this is going to work. He's the one who's faithful. Our hope is in him. I grew up playing sports. I remember I was playing little league baseball. And I had a coach that yelled at me a lot.
And I was afraid of him. Because he was an adult. And I figured if it came down to it he could take me. So I told my dad. He keeps yelling at me. I'm scared.
I don't like this. So my dad sat me down. He said okay. I said I'll tell you what. He said he's just fussing. And some coaches are like that.
They're a little more stern. They're going to be loud. They're going to play sports. This is going to happen. They're going to yell at you. Some of them are trying to motivate you.
He can yell at you. And we're okay. And you're okay. But I'll make a deal with you. If he touches you trying to harm you. I'll break every bone in his body.
And I said yes sir. Fair deal. And I went to practice. No longer afraid. Because he who promised was faithful. He meant it.
And how much more beautiful. Are the promises of God. And how much more faithful is he. To be our defender. And to be our hope. So that when we fall into sin.
And we fall into guilt. And we fall into shame. And we fail. And we set our mind to do something good. And we fall short of it. That we can run to him.
And we can hold fast. To the confession of our hope. Which was not. That we would be able to do this well. And if you became a Christian. In the hope.
That you would be able to do this well. And if you became a Christian. Because you are going to be moral. And behave. You are not a Christian. But I have really good news for you.
That was never going to work. But Jesus Christ. Saves. All who hope in him. And none who hope in his name. Will be put to shame.
And I have to say that to myself sometimes. When I feel very down. And like I haven't done what I'm supposed to do. And I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. And the outlook doesn't look bright. It doesn't look like I'm about to turn it around tomorrow.
I will remind myself. None who hope in Jesus will be put to shame. We have been made perfect for all time. So hold on to that. As we go through this year. Let us end the year.
Being people who drew near to God. And held firmly to the gospel. 2020 will be a good year if we do that. If you're holding firmly and unwaveringly to the gospel. At the end of this year. And we drew near to God.
Because the way has been opened to us through Christ. This is a good year. And God has blessed this church. Here's the third one. Let us consider. How to stir up one another.
To love. And good works. I love that. So he starts with the gospel. He says. This is what's real.
And since that's real. And since Jesus has saved us. Let us draw near to God. Let us hold firmly to the gospel. Let's hold firmly to our confession of our hope.
And. Let us consider how to stir up one another. Towards love. And good works. I like the phrase stir up. Because you usually think about stirring up trouble.
Some of you. Became very adept at this. Probably around middle school. You started your mouth early enough in the day. You could have two people broken up. Or two people fighting behind the gym by the end of the day.
Some of you had friends like this. You know what I'm talking about. You could stir something up. You could just whisper something over here. You could whisper something over there. You learned how to phrase it.
You learned how to walk over and say. You know. I don't think you look funny. I don't know why they said that. See that sounded kind of nice. It was sneaky.
Like. We know how to stir trouble up. We've seen it happen. But he says. Let us consider. Meaning plot on.
How we might stir up one another to love. And good works. The reality is. Many of us will stir people up. Towards negative things. Without having to consider.
Isn't it easier to talk about stuff you don't like. Than stuff you do like. Isn't it easier to tear something down. Than it is to build something up. Isn't it easier to say something cutting to someone. Than to compliment someone.
Some of us don't have to consider how to do that. And let me tell you something. Church family. If you want to find something to be upset about. If you want to find something to be frustrated about. This is a wonderful church to be a part of right now.
We could all leave here today. With things that we want to talk about. And chew on. You could leave here today. Saying. Why was the volume turned all the way up.
You could leave here today. Saying. Why were all the lights on. Some of you could leave here. And say. I didn't know that song.
And other of you could leave. After singing. Holy. Holy. Holy. And say.
What does thou wert and art mean. Art. I know. Like I took that in school. But what is wert.
There is going to be plenty of things for you to be frustrated about. For you to have questions about. Plenty of things that are changing around you. The hope being at the end of the year. We are holding on to the gospel. And some other things we are going to have to have let go of.
But let us consider. How to stir one another up. Towards love. Plot on it. What if you started showing up here next week. And you were like.
I am about to stir up some love. What if when you got to know something good about somebody. Or got to know somebody. You helped them introduce them to somebody else. You started whispering good things about people. Do you know who has been serving here like crazy.
What if you went over and said kind things. Not flattery. Real things. Real encouragement. What if when you were going to hang out with your community group. Or when you were showing up to Sunday school.
You were thinking. How can I stir up love. How can I stir up good works. How blessed would we be. And at the end of this year. What if you spent all the time.
That might would have normally been spent. Stirring up something that was negative. Pointing out something negative. And actually considered. How to stir people up towards love. And good works.
How much more blessed is our church. How much more joy is there. Oh let us do that. Let us consider how. Let's plot on each other.
If you know somebody. Ask them to go get lunch. And then invite someone else to show up. It's a secret friendship date. And then help them get to know each other. That's one of the most beautiful things.
That happens in churches. Is you invite one of your friends to come hang out. And they become better friends with somebody else. Isn't that good? That's a real thing. You're like.
Bye. See you in heaven. Bye. Let us consider how to do this. Let us fight for this.
Now he's going to say not. So he says let us, let us, let us, and then he's going to say not. He's giving a caveat to this last one that I think is very helpful. Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. Now, he's saying that some people in the early church, when the church was getting together, just wouldn't come. Cephas would be like, hey, we're having a board game night.
Somebody would be like, hey, we're going to do a meal at my house. And Tychicus would just be like, not coming. We were going to make a list and read out the people in our church family who do this, but they're not here, so it wouldn't help. Y'all can tell them when you see them. Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. Here's the thing.
We're meant to stir one another up, and you have been gifted by the Holy Spirit for the edification of the church. If you're not around the church, you can't do that. And if you're not around the church, you can't stir up and you can't be stirred up. Not to love and good works. Not to something that's helpful. Not to something that's long-lasting.
Not to something that's eternal. How often do non-believers stir you up? Church, fear? Criticalness? Depression? And how often do we need to gather and make it a point to gather together and not neglect gathering together that we might be stirred up towards things that matter and towards things that are good and towards things that are valuable?
I didn't tell them I was going to do this, but I'm going to talk a little bit about the people in my group. I mentioned earlier that I forget things. So if I don't mention you, it's just because my brain doesn't work. But I was thinking about my group and how they stir me up towards love and good works. How I love other people more because of my community group. I was thinking about Dawn and how she encourages me to obey and to follow Jesus even when I don't understand why or why I'm frustrated.
I get around her for a little while. We talk about Jesus for a little while and I just want to follow Jesus more. Emily Teagle makes me want to be considerate. She remembers everybody, cares about everybody, is so thoughtful. And it's like, man, I want to do that. Around John and Faye and this desire to obey Jesus and to just do what he says because that's what he said to do.
And the simpleness to it and this helpfulness to it. It's like, it's right, do it. It's like, that's true. I wanted to argue it out, but you're right. I probably should just follow. Brad and Jackie who helped me believe and trust in grace.
There's so many times our group's talking about stuff and they're just like, hey guys, calm down. We're okay. Jesus loves us. And it's like, that's a good point. Mary Beth makes me want to follow Jesus in real life and get to know real people, be a genuine Christian. The Toast, Chris Rocky, make me want to serve people.
Danielle Rocky makes us hang out together. And that's good. Russ makes me want to genuinely be family. And every time we get together, this is what happens. Scott Montgomery makes me want to be diligent, follow Jesus. Like every time.
Sean Carey makes me want to continue to hope in Jesus. To look forward to my happiness. They stir me up. And there's joy and there's hope in it. And we have to be together to do it. There's so many times.
I got a four-year-old and a two-year-old. The two-year-old usually goes to bed around seven, which has been wonderful. When the time changed, it was amazing at my house. It was like, it's dark, bedtime. Jesus put the sun down, you better go to sleep. Our community group meets at seven.
So there are times where my little one is grabbing his blanket and telling people goodnight. And we're like, no, Bo, put your shoes on. We've got to get in the truck. Like, we're about to go hang out with people. You're not going to sleep yet. There are times when we're all riding over there and everybody in the car is crying.
And frustrated. We're going to go hang out with our group. And we show up. And then we're stirred up for love and good works. In simple ways. It's good.
Same thing with Sundays. One of the biggest blessings of my life was God calling me to be a pastor so that I don't have to wake up on Sundays and decide whether or not I want to be here. It's been so good for me. Because this is so good. So don't neglect it.
Don't miss out. There are times where you're going to be around somebody and they're going to be hurting and they're going to be in need. And the Holy Spirit is going to work through you to bless them. And it's going to bless you in the process. Where he's going to call out of you something you didn't know was there. There are going to be some time that you're going to be around church family and suddenly you're going to be sending money every month to somebody to help them out with something.
And you haven't planned on that, but you're doing it because it's helpful. There are going to be times where you suddenly help somebody who's depressed or something. You're going over there and spending time with them and you're sharing some of your happiness with them. And you're buoying them. And it's draining you, but you're believing and trusting in the gospel and Jesus is at work. And there are going to be times where you need to be stirred up, where you need to be reminded and someone else is going to do it.
And God blesses us when we gather together. Don't neglect that. This year. Let's bring glory to God. Let's draw near to him for he is good and glorious and beautiful and beyond compare.
Let's hold fast to the gospel. And let's not neglect to gather to do that so that we might stir one another up towards things that matter. He says this. But encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. One year closer. A decade closer.
To the day. When Jesus Christ. Makes his enemy his footstool. And calls his church home. When the God of creation. Settles accounts.
Ushers in his kingdom. Where there is joy and delight beyond compare. And fear and misery. That's incomprehensible. We're one year closer. We're one year closer to the day.
And all of us have a day when we'll meet Jesus. Some of you are a year closer. From the time you met Jesus you're a year closer. Some of you are five years. Some of you are 20. Some of you are 30.
Some of you are 50, 60 years closer to the day. All the more. Let's encourage one another. All the more let's run the race that he's putting forth in front of us. All the more let us encourage one another to be about and to care about and to fight for things that ultimately eternally matter. May Jesus bless his church and may he bless this church.
Let's pray. God we ask that you would receive glory. That we would be people who draw near to you this year. That we would hold fast to the gospel. And every time we have the opportunity to stir up something. Let it be love and good works.
May you bless this church for the glory of your name. And the delight of your people. In Jesus name. Amen.
Genealogy of Jesus: From Fall to Redemption
Transcript
Good evening. Man, what a way to close out the evening. What a way to close out our time here at Glen Forest. I'm so thankful for our worship team and how they lead us. We're going to be celebrating Christmas tonight by looking at Matthew 1, the genealogy of Jesus. And here's why.
Jesus was born into a family. He was born into a family history, a family tree. And that matters. So we're going to take a look at that. A few years ago, I got interested in our family tree. And I learned something.
We moved, my family moved from Germany in the 1600s to Pillion. And for the last 400 years, we've kind of stayed in the same spot. Pillion, Lexington, West Columbia for like 300 plus years. This is where we've been. And I've looked at our family history because it's pretty extensive. And there are some people in it that are admirable.
Like I look at my grandfather who was a titan of a man. He's such a bright spot in our family's history. And there's some other people that do some kind of crazy things. It's a mixed bag because when you're born into a family history, there's good, there's bad, there's moments of brokenness, there's moments of hope. But that's family histories.
And Jesus was no different. He was born into a family. And what we're going to see as we walk through his genealogy, we're going to see as we walk through his background, we're going to see hope and how it meets brokenness. And that really is the story of Christmas. Christmas is a season where we celebrate that hope entered into a broken world. So we're going to be in Matthew 1.
You don't have to follow along because we don't have Bibles out at night, but we'll have it on the screen. So you can follow along there. Verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Okay, that is a heading. This is not Ancestry.com. He's not about to go this person and this person and this person.
Matthew is retelling the genealogy of Jesus differently. He's telling it thematically. He's sending a bunch of 14 groups of names and he's skipping generations because he's trying to tell a story. By telling Jesus his history. And he starts off by saying, son of David. And that's significant.
David was the king in Jewish history. Everyone looks back to the time of David. That was the glory days. He was the savior type king who brought the nation together and established them as a people. This is the king that slaughtered Goliath as a boy. That helped defeat the surrounding enemies.
That made Israel a light to the surrounding nations. Everyone looks back to David. So when you say son of David, that says something. In the same way that if I said I was the son of George Washington, which I'm not. We're in pillion, y'all. If I said I was the son of George Washington, that would say something.
That would speak volumes about my history. So it says son of David. But what we're about to see is he doesn't just highlight the good moments, the moments of hope, the moments of the bright spots. Matthew's going to go out of his way to highlight the brokenness in the line of Jesus. So he starts off with son of David.
Verse 2. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob. These are the patriarchs. These are where the people of God come from. The Israelites look back to father Abraham.
They look at their three patriarchs with joy looking at their history. This is the formation of their people. They look back at this with so much hope. And then it fades into brokenness fairly quickly. It says Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Now, we walked through Genesis in the past year plus.
It was a long time in Genesis, y'all, but it was good. When we got to Judah, I just kind of said, y'all, God could have chosen any of the twelve brothers to bring about the Savior of the world. But he chooses Judah. Who I'd argue is the worst. His stories are not great. Judah sold his brother into slavery.
Pretty much all the highlights we get of him aren't great. And Matthew doesn't skip over this. He says, Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah. And he could have just kept going. But he says, Ba-Tamar, which highlights the brokenness of his past.
That's the worst moments of Judah when his daughter-in-law, Tamar, her husband dies. And he doesn't make sure that she's taken care of. So she, when he is drunk, they sleep together. It's incestuous. It gets weird. And he wants to have her burnt alive.
It's a messed up story. It's a broken story. And Matthew doesn't skip over it. No, he leans into it and says, no, Ba-Tamar. Keeps going. And Perez, the father of Hezron.
Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Aminadab. Aminadab, the father of Nahshon. Nahshon, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. And again, he could have just mentioned Boaz, but he mentions Rahab.
Rahab is a bright spot in one respect. She was of the people of Jericho and helped the people of God enter the Promised Land. She was a hero in that regard, but also she was a prostitute. And he doesn't skip over that. No, he mentions the brokenness and the hope that is in this line. He keeps going.
And Boaz, the father of Obed. Obed by Ruth, which is a beautiful story in the Old Testament. If you have not read it, go to the book of Ruth. And Obed, the father of Jesse. And Jesse, the father of David, the king. Now, that's the first set.
The first set of names. Leading up to David. And then we get to David. The bright spot. The king that everyone looks back to with joy. And he gets to David and he says, And David was the father of Solomon.
And he could have stopped there, but he doesn't. And he says, of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And what he just did, was he referenced the worst part of David's history. The moment that he looked at Bathsheba, Uriah's wife. And he took her. And he slept with her.
And they conceived. And to cover it up, he had Uriah sent to the front lines and killed. He highlights David, not just as king, but also as adulterer and a murderer. Keeps going. And Solomon, Solomon, the father of Rehoboam, which could not be two different types of kings. Solomon, the philosopher king.
The wise one. Wrote the book of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes. Everyone looks back to his wisdom. And then you get to his son, Rehoboam, who was a fool. Who, when setting up the kingdom at a very touchy time, listens to his young friends for counsel.
Rejects the counsel of older, wiser men. And the kingdom breaks into two. And it is never the same. Then we get a mixed bag of kings of people, good and bad. Rehoboam, the father of Abijah. Abijah, the father of Asaph.
Asaph, the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram. Joram, the father of Uzziah. Uzziah, the father of Jotham. Jotham, the father of Ahaz. Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah.
By the time you get to Hezekiah, this is a good example of a king in their history. A good example in the line. Took down Adosh. All kinds of things. But his son could not be any different.
Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the most insidious and evil king in the history of the people of God. He sacrificed his own son, burnt him on an altar to a foreign God. This is who the Savior of the world comes through. Manasseh. Manasseh, the father of Amos.
Amos, the father of Josiah. Josiah, the father of Jehoshaphat and his brothers at the time of the deportation of Babylon. Now, I'm not going to read the last ones. I'm just going to give you the highlights of what happened. They spread across the Babylonian empire because of their sin, because of the rebellion. Eventually get back.
They establish themselves again in the land. And there's a 400 plus year period of waiting. A 400 plus year period of darkness. Waiting for someone to come. Waiting for a Savior to bring them out of their situation. As one nation at the other rules over them.
Just as the people of God waited 400 plus years in darkness in Egypt. Waiting for a Savior to come and rescue them. They are waiting. And then finally, finally, on a night in a small town in Bethlehem. Skip down to verse 16. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
Finally, on a dark night, hope enters the broken world. What I love about the genealogy of Jesus is that He comes from a broken line of messed up people. Because He comes for a broken, messed up people. This world is broken and marred by sin. But the God of the universe doesn't look at the world and say, I'm going to destroy you.
He doesn't look at the world and say, I don't care about it. He comes and He rescues us. He loves us so much that He comes in the form of a babe on a night in Bethlehem. The God of the universe humbles Himself of becoming a baby. And He grows up. And He obeys the Father perfectly.
And He takes that perfect record with Him to the cross. Where our brokenness and our rebellion and our sin is paid for on the cross. And when He steps out of the tomb on Resurrection Sunday, hope, eternal, beautiful, unending, unfading hope is born and is offered to anyone who would believe. That is why I love the story of Jesus. He comes from a broken people for broken sinners like you and me. And that is the hope of Christmas.
That is what we celebrate every single year. We pause and remember that God loved us so much that He came from heaven and He sought us. That's the good news of the Gospel. And as we go through the next few days of celebrating, whatever traditions you do as you exchange gifts, as you listen to your uncle talk about politics ad nauseum, whatever it is that happens in your family, may we not forget this. May we not forget while we sing these songs, while we gather here. Because there's a loving God who came for us.
May we remember that He comes for the broken. I know that some of you, that this is a difficult season. Some of you have been wrestling with some serious suffering. Maybe some serious sin. Maybe this year brings up all kinds of painful memories. I want to say very clearly to you that this season is because God loves you.
He loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you. So that you would believe in Him. And for eternity experience this hope. For eternity you would taste and see and Savior this King.
The Three Wise Men
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Ben Johnson, and I'm a member here and a leader in training here at Mill City. And I'm so thankful for this opportunity to speak to you today. And we're so excited about the new year, the beginning of the year. I'll be co-leading our community group with Patrick Harding. And we are so thankful for that opportunity and looking forward to that.
And for those of you who don't know me, I would just like to talk a little bit about who I am. I'm originally from Augusta, Georgia, born and raised. And I am a Georgia fan, unfortunately. We can't clinch any championships, but we're still pretty good. And we're going to get to go to a bowl game. But when you think about it, the one game we lost this past regular season was to the Gamecocks.
I mean, how does that happen? I was in Lebanon when Spencer told me. And I was like, is the world turned upside down? What is going on? But unfortunately, it did happen.
But I know y'all were happy about that. When I was 23, God called me to move to the Middle East. But before I made that move, I would take several short-term trips, a few to South America, a couple to Africa. And when I got back from Brazil in 2008, my grandmother called my mom and asked, well, where's Ben planning to go on his next missions trip? And my mom goes, well, he's thinking about moving to the Middle East. And my grandma goes, well, where's that at?
And my mom goes, you know, where all the crazy people are, shooting everybody. And my grandma goes, well, why does he want to go there? Tell him to come to my house and I'll shoot him if that's what he wants. My grandma really did say that. She was a blessed person. I loved her so much.
But before I moved to Beirut, and I have a picture of where Lebanon is. Beirut's the capital of Lebanon, north of Israel, surrounded by Syria. I started 1040 Hope Missions with the vision and purpose to reach the 6,000 unreached people groups in the 1040 window. The 1040 window is a part of the world where the least amount of missionaries, the least amount of churches, the least amount of resources are sent. And I went with the mission to do something, to help resource churches, to train leaders, send new leaders, send out new laborers. Because we have to do something, because that's 3.5 million people who would die and spend an eternity without Christ.
So I was there for 10 years and doing this mission, doing that work. And during that time, I met my beautiful wife, Patricia, where most of my friends, when they saw her, said, Ben got an upgrade. And I did. And God gave us beautiful children. But towards our 10th year, we started to realize we made all these connections, all these networks, got all these leaders trained and ready to go.
But we have no resources to help them. So that's when the Lord put on our heart last year to make a move back to the States to begin working towards this. To getting more people on board, getting more churches as partners, doing what we can do to make the awareness of the needs of the 1040 window known. And getting more resources so we can send more laborers into the harvest to reach the unreached. And that's what we are all about. And I'm so thankful for this church.
You are our home church. And you guys have met such a need in our lives. But I'm so thankful that we're partnering together on one of these projects in 1040 Hope to reach the unreached, the unlovable, the outcast in Egypt. And I'm so thankful that we're doing this together. And when I think about how God brought us together, it just it blows my mind because God loves to use small events or strange events or insignificant moments in our lives to bring about his sovereign and holy will. And that's what we're going to be talking about today in Matthew chapter 2.
God is going to use an event, a star, appearing of a star to bring foreigners from the east, unexpected people to come and be the first ones to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's an uninteresting story. We're going to talk more about that. But it makes me think about how even he connected us because I was working on my computer one day and it crashed. And if you know anything about me, I hate buying a new computer. I don't know why.
It's just it's something in me. I don't want to pay the money to buy a new computer. So I do what I do best. I take my wife's computer and start using it for work. And she loves when I use her stuff for work. But guys, I kid you not.
Two days later, it crashed. I'm like, what is going on? Do I need to rebuke some kind of computer demon? What's going on? So then what do we do?
We go to Best Buy and we're at Best Buy on Sunset Boulevard and we're taught we meet Josh and Josh starts showing his computers. And he talks about how this computer was used by his wife at their church. They go, oh, you go to church. So he told us about Josh Church. And then we start talking about how we're missionaries. We started talking and then Josh starts giving his testimony.
And then Josh starts giving some real deep details of his testimony. And we're like, bro, it's OK. You don't have to share all this stuff right now. We just met. But you know what?
We really weren't weirded out. We actually just he left a good impression on us. And even though he did not make any commission off me because I still walked out of there without buying a computer. Because he talked me into doing their total tech program and fixing my old one, which actually it did last till just this past week. It crashed this past week and I took my wife's computer again. So though he didn't make any commission, he has a spiritual ward because we came to the church and here we are.
And you guys have been our home church and we are so thankful. And y'all have been such a blessing to our lives. But this is what God does. He takes small, insignificant events, things that seem strange and bring about his will and his purpose. And this is what he does with the wise men. He brings foreigners, outcasters, outsiders to the covenant to be the first ones to come and worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
And give him the worship that he is due. And this story is so important because here at the beginning, Matthew is revealing the heart of God for all nations. Not just his people, but for all nations. And the mission of God. That this message of good news would go out to every corner of the earth. So that's what we're going to talk about now.
So let's go to Matthew chapter 2 in your blue Bibles. Verse 1, Matthew chapter 2. And I'm going to pray before we start. Father, I just thank you so much for this opportunity to be here with my church. And I thank you that we're partnered together. Because we're able to accomplish things that we couldn't on our own.
But together we're able to do so much more. And fulfilling your mission. Fulfilling your purposes. And bringing that those who are outside of the covenant. Those who have no hope of salvation. Into the fold.
Into your fold. And into your covenant, Lord. So I thank you together. We're partnered in this mission. Help us now, Lord. See this from this text.
Your heart for everyone. In Jesus' mighty name I pray. Amen. Verse 1. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem and Judea.
In the days of Herod the king. Behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Saying, where is he who is born? King of the Jews. Matthew is purposely using this phrase. Wise men from the east.
And we as readers have to stop and ask. Who were these wise men? Why does Matthew make known of them? Well, we know that they were spiritual advisors. To the kingdoms and palaces they came from. Most likely from Syria, Iraq, or Iran.
Somewhere from that region. We have an old song about singing the three kings of Orientar. They were not kings. They were religious leaders from their courts. So they were very prestigious men.
We know that they were astrologers. So as religious leaders, they studied the stars and studied the heavens, studied the signs. They were Gentiles. Meaning they were outsiders to the covenant people of God. They were not part of the covenant. But yet, they did have some knowledge of a Jewish Messiah.
Western tradition tells us there were three. Three wise men brought three gifts. Eastern tradition tells us there could have been up to twelve. Regardless, we just know it's a large caravan, a large party, coming from the east to pay respect to this new born king. King of the Jews, Matthew says. And he's being so strategic in this phrase.
Because just as Chet and Spencer have been walking us through this book this past couple of months. And showing us that the whole purpose of Matthew writing his book is to show who the king of the Jews is. What this kingdom is going to be like. And how different it is from what they expected. And the current king is ruling. And this is what Matthew is telling us.
So let's keep reading in verse two. So the wise men said, For we saw his star when it rose. And we have come to worship him. Now the church for the last two thousand years has not come to an agreement exactly on what this star was. Some say that it was a star, just as the text says. And that God being God can do whatever he wants.
Uses this star in a miraculous way to lead the wise men from the east directly to the place where Jesus is. Others say, because the Bible has been known to call angels stars. That this star is actually an angel who has appeared to the wise men. Just like in the occasions with Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. Regardless of how it really is. God is miraculously using this event to bring unexpected outsiders to the place where Jesus is.
So that they can worship him. And the phrase worship him is so important here. Because these wise men are doing something that's common in their day. Coming to pay respect to a king that has been born. And we know because of the Old Testament. And because the Jews have been scattered all over the ancient world.
That there formed a rumor that was circulating during that time. That a great king would rise from the Jews and rule and establish an empire. So we know that this was circulating. And the wise men have heard of this rumor. And they believe with the showing of this star that this king has been born. So they leave everything.
They pack up. And they come to pay him respect and worship. Even if they fully don't understand who he is. They are coming to pay worship to this new born king of the Jews. I'm sorry. Oh.
I thought, where did it go? I'm missing a page. Did not see it. Thank you guys. Y'all are helpful. So Matthew is clearly making the point here by this phrase worship.
Is that Jesus, who is God incarnate. Who is Emmanuel, God with us. Is the one who can rightfully receive worship. For he is worthy. And in reading in verse 3. When King Herod heard this, he was troubled.
As all Jerusalem with him. Because they thought they might die too. Because he never knew what Herod was going to do. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they told him.
In Bethlehem of Judea. For so it is written by the prophet. 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. Matthew is quoting the scribes telling Herod from the prophecy of Micah chapter 2.
They are using the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So if you were to go to Micah chapter 2. It is not a word for word translation. But the point of the prophecy is made clear in this translation here given in Matthew. That the promised king of the Jews would come from Bethlehem. Though a small city it is not least.
And he would be the shepherd king of Israel. And Matthew is clearly pointing a contrast here. Because Herod. As Chet told us. Caesar said it is better to be his pig than his son. Would kill his own sons.
To cling to his power. Matthew is making sure we know that Jesus will be the shepherd king. That was promised from the Old Testament. Who will lay his life down for his subjects. As a shepherd would lay his life down for his sheep. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly.
And learned from them what time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem saying. Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him. Bring me word. That I may come and worship him too.
Now Herod clearly has crafty and evil intentions here. But I laugh when I read this. Because it is such a Middle Eastern thing to do. Say one thing but mean another. Chet told you the story when I went into a restaurant one time. And I order my sandwich.
And I eat the sandwich. And I walk out. And I did not pay. And I am halfway down the street. Like oh my goodness. I did not pay.
So I run back. And I talk to the man. I am so sorry. He is like Habibi. Which is my friend. What is ten dollars between you and me and friends?
What is ten dollars? He did not mean it. As soon as I took out my money. He took my money. And there were many times like that. Where somebody would tell me something like that.
And I have to look at my wife. Do they mean that? She is like nope. I was like okay. I remember one time one of my good friends told me. He said I learned with Ben Johnson.
Not to ask him anything. Unless I really want to give it. Because he will take it right away. I did not know. Nobody told me you are supposed to ask three times. Say no.
Ask three times. I did not learn that until about a year after. I offended a lot of people. But they forgave me. 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. Now put yourself in their shoes for a minute.
You're. Imagine yourself in that time. You're of an average family. Average income. Average house. Nothing spectacular.
And all of a sudden. A large motorcade shows up. And president advisors get out. And come into your house. You'd be shocked. Right?
Yeah. This is what's happening here. I imagine they are very surprised. Now their culture is already very hospitable. And they. They will give you anything.
If you are a guest. And I remember this would happen to me. When I would go into the. The Syrian refugee camps. When the war just broke out. And we knew ISIS was there.
And we had to be careful. We worked with our leaders. And when our leaders would say. That guy's ISIS. We'd go the other way. But the army.
Lebanese army protected us. But when we'd go into these camps. And we'd sit on their floor. And they were very very poor. But what they had.
They gave to us. One. Because it's just in their culture. To be hospitable. But two.
I'm an American. That has come into their tent. And has taken the time. To sit with them. So they gave up what they had.
So I imagine Mary and Joseph. Are probably trying to do the same. Like what do we give these. Prestigious men. But they did not come to be honored.
They did not come to be served. But to serve. And to honor. The king of the Jews. That has been born. So I imagine.
They are very taken back. By this event. And then it says in verse 11. Then opening. I'm sorry. Then I was talking about.
When they saw the child. They fell down. And worshipped him. And we know. That later on. By the story.
That Herod. Learned from their time. Of when he told them. The star appeared. That the baby. Was either one or two.
Years old. So the wise men. When they come. And worship baby Jesus. He's not a baby. He hasn't just been born.
At the stable. But he's either one or two. Somewhere. Somewhere around there. So. But unless you're like.
My family. We still worship. With a nice. Nativity. Nativity scenes. You know.
We put it up. In front of the Christmas tree. And we have the wise men. Present with the sheep. And the shepherds. And Mary and Joseph.
But then maybe you're like. Patrick Hardy. Who he decides to come. To my house. A couple weeks ago. He sees a nice little.
Wooden nativity scene. Nativity scene. That we have. That my children. Love to play with. And he starts taking out.
The wise men. From my nativity scene. Because he says. They were not historically there. And I'm like. Really?
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe you're like Patrick. And the suggestion. I have for you. Is take your wise men.
From your nativity. Find the corner. Far. Western corner. Of your house. Eastern corner.
I'm sorry. Because Jesus is in the west. The wise men are in the east. So go to the far corner. Of your house. Place the wise men there.
Make sure they're facing west. Because that's where Jesus was. And you'll be like Patrick Harden. And be historically accurate. So yeah.
So he's around. Two years old. When they come. To worship him. And when they worship him. In verse 11.
They open treasures. They offer him gifts. Gold. And frankincense. And myrrh. And being warned in a dream.
Not to return to Herod. They departed to their own country. By another way. These gifts that they present in worship. Were gifts fit for a king. Gold was the currency of kings.
Frankincense was not used by normal everyday people. They were used in palaces. By expensive people who had a lot of money. They were very expensive. It was. Myrrh was also used to embalm those who had died.
It was not a regular thing that was used. Not very common. These foreigners. These outsiders to the covenant. To the covenant people of God. Bring gifts fit for a king.
Bow down. And worship baby Jesus. But then they are warned by a dream. Of Herod's evil intentions. And they choose to go by another way. Which I imagine would have been very difficult for them.
Because they are a large caravan. And we know Herod had roots all over his kingdom. And outposts. But it seems that they are obedient. To the heavenly dream they are given. And they escape.
And we know from the rest of the story. That Jesus will escape to Egypt. And here we are at the end of the story. And we as readers must pause and ask. Why? What is the purpose of the story?
Why has Matthew. Who is the only gospel writer. To give us this story. To give us this information. Why has he chosen this story? Because think about it for a moment.
John the apostle said. If all the things that Jesus did. Were written down in books. Not all the books of the world. Can contain them. Imagine that.
Wow. So Matthew. Is purposeful. In choosing this story. And we as readers. Have to ask.
Why? And the reason is. Here at the very beginning of his book. Matthew is revealing. The heart. And the mission.
Of God. Not only for his own people. The Jews. But for foreigners. Outsiders. Men from the east.
Who have no hope of salvation. No hope of being part of the covenant. But God draws them. With this miraculous sign. To the place where Jesus is. And even if they fully don't understand.
What they are doing. They give him worship. And express that through the gifts. That they bring. And this shows that God desires. All men.
To have relationship. And fellowship. With him. And Matthew. This is what his whole book is about. About the kingdom of God.
Jesus. God longs for all people. To be in part of his kingdom. And Matthew. All the way. Is going to be talking about this kingdom.
And what it looks like. Up to the very end of his book. Where he. This risen Lord. The Lord that. Died for our sins.
This God. Who became flesh. And died for our sins. And resurrected. So that me and you.
Could no longer. Be outsiders. Because unless you were born Jewish. We had no hope. Unless you had a Jewish ethnicity. Sorry.
We are outsiders. To the kingdom of God. But he came specifically. So that you. And I. Could be grafted in.
And become insiders. Of the covenant people of God. And that. Is good news. And so Matthew. At the end of the book.
Has this risen Lord. Telling us. Now go out into all the world. And take this good news. Take this message. To the ends of the earth.
Until I return. And that. Now we are co-laborers with God. Co-laborers with Christ. Co-laborers in this mission. Of spreading the good news.
And the gospel message. Of Jesus Christ. That those who are outsiders. Can now. Be insiders. No matter what your background.
No matter what you come from. No matter what's happened. You can now be an insider. If you. Answer. Answer.
The invitation. So how do we respond today? Let us respond. As the wise men did. That they may not fully understand. Even who Jesus was.
But they left everything. And they came to where he was. And they bow down. In reverence and respect. And give him expensive gifts. Today we know who he is.
He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. He is. Jesus is the word. Who became flesh. So let us leave all.
The distractions. And all the things of life. That grab our attention. And let us bring our lives. And lay them down. At his feet.
Because it is the least that he deserves. Because he gave up everything for us. For God so loved the world. He gave his son. I can't even imagine. Giving one of my children up.
For someone that I don't even know. But God did that. For me and you. So that we can no longer be outsiders. But insiders.
And part of his kingdom. So let's take that message. Whatever we do. Whatever we have to do. Let's get this message out.
And that's going to play out. In different ways. For different people. Because we all have different gifts. And talents. But we need to respond.
And I've got some examples. I think. And how we can respond. And maybe some of those. God's going to call you. To pray a little bit more.
Jesus said. Pray for the labors. To be sent to the harvest. For the harvest is huge. But the labors are so few.
I have seen this. We don't have all the labors we need. We need more labors. Pray for the labors. Pray for the labors. That we do have.
For their safety. They give up so much. For the gospel. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters. Around the world. The bible tells us.
That are being persecuted. Or that are sitting in prison today. Because they are believing in the hope. Of the good news. Some of you. May need to respond more.
Are called to respond more. By giving. Paul said. Those who have more. Should give more. To further the kingdom of the gospel.
Don't give to where you put yourself in a bind. But if you can give. There's no guilt or pressure here. Give. To further the gospel. Do exactly what you are doing.
As we are doing as a church. As participating in this gift project. Giving to Citizens Church in North Carolina. So that people here. In the United States of America. Can hear about the good news.
Because we still need more churches. In this country. Continue giving. To this gift project. As we're partnering with Pastor Georges. And his ministry.
This ministry. That is reaching out to the nine million people. In his country. That are disabled. Or handicapped. And seen as a curse by God.
Because of their handicap. But they're going to them. Saying no. You're not cursed. You're not an outcast. God did everything.
So you could be an insider. So that you can be loved. And you as a church. Are helping make that possible. Because supporting one of these events. These events.
Where they go out. And proclaim this message. To the multitudes. You are allowing for people to come. And know that they can. They are loved.
And that they are not cursed. Or outcast by God. And I'm actually going to show a video. Of one of the events. That you're going to be help sponsoring. And there's going to be some.
It's a three minute clip. And there's going to be some parts. Where he speaks in Arabic. And I'm just going to give a slight translation. During those points. But let's go ahead.
And watch that video now. And there's going to be some. With our hearts set on glorifying God. We can stand against oppression. And force failure to stand down. We can introduce and bring hope.
Back into our world. Jesus is going to give happiness. To everyone that is present here today. We thank you Lord. For being over this work. And completing it.
We thank you Lord. For always letting us feel your presence. In every second of every day. We thank you Lord. For touching everybody. That called on your name today.
By giving $4,500. You are helping. Make one of these events possible. And reaching people. That feel cursed. And outcast.
And unloved by God. Because we found people in Egypt. That were put in a room for 40 years. Because they were handicapped. And the family didn't want. Other people in the community.
To know. That they had a handicapped person. In their family. For fear. That they would not give their sons. Or daughters.
Into Mary. And into their family. Which is a big deal. In their culture. So people who have been in rooms.
For 40 years. Can you imagine. Thinking that they are unloved. Outcast. Outsider. Jesus died.
For those people. And you by giving. Are partnering with them. So when you get to heaven. People will come to you. And say thank you.
Because the sower and the giver. The reaper. Are one and the same. In Christ. We work. In Christ Jesus.
And all the glory goes to him. You are making this possible. Some of you. May be called to respond by going. First going. And being an everyday missionary.
In your community. Going to your work. To those in your family. To those in your neighborhood. To those all around us. And when possible.
Going. To those who are far. I remember when I was 20 years old. Sitting in my Bible ministry class. And the teacher started walking through the book of Genesis. And he got to the place of Ishmael.
And he stopped. And he looked up. And he said. Ishmael. Who has 300 million descendants. Who are deceived.
And dying. And going to hell. And no one is going to them. And that just pierced my heart. Because I came from Georgia. Like my grandma said.
Just come over here. I'll shoot you. If that's what you want. I heard from Georgia. Everybody say. Blow them all up.
Why do we need to send our troops over there? So I never even thought about going. Or even thought about saving the Arabs. Until this moment. That God pierced my heart so bad. That I could not stop weeping in that moment.
And I knew God had called me. That I had to do something. And he actually specifically called me. And told me to go. It took me three years to get on the field. And I lived there for ten years with them.
But I knew I had to do something. And that may. That's not going to happen with everybody. Practically that. That just can't happen. We can't all go.
We need people to pray. We need people to say and give. We need people who can go. But there might be some here today. Who the Lord might actually put on your heart. To pack it all up.
Like the wise men did. And go to another land. To worship him. In that way. Of going and taking the message. Of good news.
So it's going to look different for each of us. Some of us are going to pray more. Some of us need to give more. Some of us might need to go more. And as the band comes up. In this moment.
We're going to pray. And we're going to take communion. And I want the Lord. You want. I want you to ask the Lord. Lord what part can I play?
In helping bring outsiders. Like these wise men. Into your kingdom. With the message of good news. So that they become insiders.
Because you allowed me to become an insider. And now I'm a co-worker. And laborer with you. So ask the Lord. What specifically part. That you can play.
In fulfilling his great commission. So that all people can hear. The gospel of good news. And have a chance. Of salvation. And entering this kingdom.
That Matthew. Is talking about. Let us pray. Father I thank you for this church. I thank you for my family Lord. And I thank you that we're partnering together.
And bringing your gospel. And your message. To outsiders. People who seem. To be outcasts. And unlovable.
But Lord they're not. You gave up everything for them. So Lord pray. I just pray you speak to everyone's heart. Right now in this moment. Of Lord.
What part they can play. There's no guilt here. There's no pressure. Father we do it. Because we love you. We do it.
Because we were outsiders. And we had no hope of salvation. We had no hope of being a part of your kingdom. But you left up the glory. And the riches of heaven. For me.
For us. So that is our motivation God. We love you. With all our hearts. With all our mind. With all our soul.
We desire you. And to make you known. So reveal to each and every one of us Lord. What can we do? What part can we play? You know.
By ourselves. We can't do that much. But together. As one people. As one voice. We can accomplish a lot.
So I thank you Lord. Use us. Use this body here in Columbia. South Carolina Lord. To do your kingdom work. To spread your name.
And to go after those that are outsiders. And outcasts. And unlovable. And bring them in. And make them insiders in the kingdom of God. We give you all the praise.
And all the glory. In Jesus name. Amen.
Obedience Like Joseph
Transcript
Well, good morning. How are we doing this morning? Yeah, it is good to be with you guys. I love that song. I got the privilege last week of getting to preach at our church that I'm at right now, Midtown, Downtown. And we played that right before I walked out.
And so to get to walk out and preach following that song again is just such good. Good for my heart. Hopefully good for your hearts. That beautiful mystery of the gospel, right? That Jesus, the Savior of the world, the Lord of all creation, would humble himself and come as a child. So we celebrate in this season.
Excited to be opening God's Word with you this morning. If you have a Bible, go ahead and get to Matthew 1. We're going to be in Matthew 1 and 2 a little bit today. Like Chet said at the very beginning, my name is Tim. I'm currently on staff over at a church downtown called Midtown Fellowship. And they are sending myself and my wife and a team of about 40 individuals out to the east side of Charlotte, North Carolina, to plant a church called Citizens Church next summer.
And so we're really excited, really grateful. Some of them are sitting front and center this morning. So I'm trusting they'll bring the amens for me. But really, really glad, really grateful for you guys for making us one of your Give projects, for caring about us, for wanting us to see us be launched out well as a brand new church. But more than anything, I'm excited to open up God's Word with you this morning.
Now we just prayed, but let me pray one more time for us before we dive in. Father God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for Jesus as a baby in the manger, helpless, clinging to Mary and to Joseph. God, thank you for Jesus on the cross, who appears helpless, but in the same moment is claiming victory over Satan's sin and death. Thank you that we worship that King.
That we serve and give our lives away for that King who first gave his life away for us. Would you be with us this morning as we open your Word? Would you help us to see what it is that you have for us, to apply what it is we need to apply, to know what it is we need to know, to love what it is we need to love. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
So we're in the second Sunday of Advent, the middle of this Advent season. The season where we look back and we remember and celebrate Christ's first coming. And we look ahead. We look forward to and anticipate the second coming of Christ. This time not as a baby in a manger, but as a King. A risen and ruling and reigning King for all eternity.
And so to do that this year, you guys are looking at different themes from the Gospel of Matthew in the Christmas narrative. And so I have the privilege this morning of talking to you about Joseph. Not colorful coat Joseph, but standing next to Mary in all of your scenes of nativity, Joseph. That's who we're talking about this morning in Matthew chapter 1. So growing up, my family had a tradition where every other Friday night, we would sit down and watch movies together.
So we would order pizza and we would sit down, usually watch some kind of great American film or great American classic. On the other hand, my wife's family was not really big into movies. So they just didn't really watch TV a whole lot. That wasn't their thing growing up. Didn't watch a whole lot of movies. And so when we got married, I found out pretty early on that she had never seen some of the American classics.
I mean, just the films you need to watch if you are going to be a part of this culture and this society. Films like Star Wars. Films like Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings, which I'm told are also books, can neither confirm nor deny if they're books or not. But she'd never seen the movies and that's what I cared about.
And so being the spiritual leader of our family that I was, I decided this had to change, right? And so we sat down over the first year or so of our marriage and we watched through every single one of these movies. And what happens is when you watch through these movies back to back to back to back to back to back to back is that you notice two things. Number one, you notice that all of the plots are basically the same. Hot take. You can argue about it later.
All the stories are the same. They all tell the same story. Hero, villain, kill the villain, you win, right? That's how the story goes. But the second thing you notice in all of these movies is that there is always some secondary or third, some other character that seems like they're not really that important.
They're kind of in the background, kind of off. You're wondering what their deal is, but then you get to the end of the movie and you realize, hey, this person played a pivotal role in the story of the lead character. They're not the lead. They're not the main character. They're not the one that the story is about, but they do something, some sacrifice, some act that helps serve the purposes of the lead character. So in Harry Potter, you have Hagrid, right?
In Star Wars, you have Han Solo. In Lord of the Rings, you have Samwise Gamgee, right? In Chronicles of Narnia, you have Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. I mean, even Anna has her Olaf, right? There's this secondary character that is helping serve the purposes of the lead.
Well, this morning in Matthew 1 and 2, that's what we see with the person of Joseph. So we get when we get to Joseph. Joseph, this man who is not the lead character. The Christmas narrative is not about Joseph. We don't sing all these songs about the risen Joseph. He's not the one in the manger.
He is just a secondary character, but he plays a hugely vital role in the Christmas story. His Acts of sacrifice and obedience to God are huge. He is set to protect Jesus. Baby Jesus, helpless newborn Jesus. And so he has a vital, crucial, wildly important role to play, but he's not the lead character. And that's what we're going to see in the story of Joseph.
We're going to start in verse 18, Matthew chapter 1. And what I want to show us this morning is a pattern. So we're going to look at three different little stories from Matthew 1 and 2. And I want to show you a pattern from the life of Joseph. We're going to start in verse 18, Matthew chapter 1. Here we go.
Scripture reads, Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. So reading this story, there might be some confusion, right? Are they married? Are they engaged?
If they're just engaged, why does he have to divorce her? What is, what's going on? So in verse 18, it says that Joseph and Mary were betrothed. So betrothal in this time period is a part of the Jewish custom called kiddushin. And kiddushin means that what would happen is a man and a woman would get legally married. So they would be bound together.
And then they would enter a period, usually a year, of what was called betrothal, where they were set up to be married. By all legal circumstances, they were married, but they weren't married yet. So what would happen is a groom's family, in order to arrange a marriage, that's how it worked in that custom, they would pay a large amount of money to a bride's family for the right for their daughter to marry their son. And so they would pay this large amount of money. And so what they would do is they would enter a betrothal period, a year, a period of about a year, basically to wait and make sure that this woman, who they paid a lot of money for, was morally pure, that she wasn't pregnant, that she was fit to marry in their culture, fit to marry their son.
And so what would happen is they would be set up for this year period, where they were legally married, but they weren't allowed to live together, they weren't allowed to be alone together, and they weren't allowed to sleep together, which my opinion is no thank you to that tradition. Right? So they were married, though. And so in order to break it off, they had to be divorced. So what happens is during this betrothal year, Mary shows up pregnant.
Whereas the text says before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And I don't know how that conversation goes between Mary and Joseph. Right? Would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that one. Right? Mary, who in Luke 1, we know that she was told by an angel, you're going to conceive, and you're going to give birth to a son.
This is God's son. You're going to call him Jesus. So it's found that she is pregnant. She's pregnant by the Holy Spirit. And so she maybe rolls up to Joseph and is like, hey, Joseph, by the way, I'm pregnant. And Joseph's response is, what?
Say it again. And she says, don't worry. Don't freak out. Be calm. It's God's baby. Which if you're Joseph, you shouldn't believe her.
Right? So we think, oh, yeah, people in that custom, people in that culture, they're so superstitious. Of course, he believes her totally. He doesn't believe her. Right? He believes in the supernatural, but he doesn't believe in the superstitious.
He's not just some blind, oh, yeah, totally. God got you pregnant. Totally. Yes. He doesn't believe her. He's thinking clearly.
Verse 19. And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. So here's what I want you to notice. Joseph is both just and gracious. Right? So he's just.
He can't just say, Mary, it's not a big deal. He can't just say, you know what? Let's slide it under the rug. No big deal. Let's move past it.
Let's move forward. He can't overlook Mary's sin. He's a just man, but he's also gracious. So he doesn't want to put her to public ridicule, to public shame. Legally, in that time, Joseph has the right to have Mary killed. If he really believed that she was guilty of idolatry, of having this sexual relationship, he could have her killed.
But he's gracious. So he wants to send her away quietly. He's just and gracious. We actually get a beautiful little picture into the character of God here through Joseph. Right? God is both just and gracious.
Right? He's just. He can't let sin go unpunished. He can't go. He can't let sin be swept under the rug or ignored or pushed aside. But he's also gracious.
He doesn't treat us as we deserve. He treats us as he treats Christ based on what Christ has done for us. So Joseph is a just man and a gracious man. And so he resolves to divorce Mary quietly. Verse 20. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
So I don't want us to move past this. Right? One of the dangers of preaching or hearing stories that we're so familiar with from Christmas is that we kind of put this Christmas filter on it. Right? We kind of know, okay, this is what happens. The angel shows up, tells Mary she's going to get pregnant, going to have a baby.
Of course, then the angel shows up to Joseph. He believes her. They go to Bethlehem happily ever after. Right? Let's sing some Christmas carols.
Let's light some candles and have some hot chocolate. Right? That's kind of what we do with Christmas stories. So I want to help you just for a second try to put yourself into the story. So imagine this is happening in 2019.
Right? Imagine this is happening today. Right? Here's this teenage couple from out in the woods, out in this backcountry town, out in the sticks, in the boonies. If I was preaching this at Midtown, I would say, imagine they're from West Columbia. It's a joke.
All right? It's a joke. It's a joke. Imagine they're from Shira, right? Or maybe Gaston or, I don't know, Edgefield. Right?
So imagine there's this teenage couple and they come up to be pregnant. Right? The woman is pregnant. And she has a dream. And she says, guys, don't worry. It's not Joseph's baby.
It's God's baby. And you're like, okay, that's kind of weird. And Joseph, her fiance, doesn't believe her. And so he's like, no, we're not getting married. No way. This is done.
But then he goes to sleep. And he has a dream. And an angel shows up and says, Joseph, you should marry this girl. You should marry her because this is my baby. This is from the Holy Spirit. And so he goes around town and he's like, we're having the wedding.
The wedding is on. This is God's baby. We're doing it. So imagine you're hanging out Friday morning at, I don't know, Hardee's. Right? Getting your bacon, egg, and cheese.
And you hear these people at a table next to you talking about this couple. Mary and Joseph. Joseph, right, these teenagers, right? She's pregnant. She says it's God's baby. What?
He believes her. He says he had a dream where an angel showed up. And what is going on here? Now, take a step further. Imagine you're Joseph. Think about it.
Take a second. Think about it. Imagine you're Joseph. Here's this woman who you're waiting a year of betrothal, of waiting time to enter into marriage together, and then she ends up being pregnant. What's going through your mind? What hopes and dreams of a life that you've built up for yourself with this woman alongside of you?
What pictures of that? What glimpses of that? What dreams of a future that you have for yourself are suddenly shattered in an instant? Every story you had written? Every scenario you had played out in your head? Here's this woman.
You're waiting. You're anticipating this season. And if any of you have been engaged before, you know that season of waiting towards marriage is agonizing in some senses. Right? You're waiting to be united together with this person. And here is Joseph.
And she winds up being pregnant? And she says it's God's child. And I don't believe her. But now I've had this dream. And this angel has showed up to me and said, No, this is from the Holy Spirit. What does he do?
What step does he take? What agony and turmoil is he going through? No wonder the angel shows up. And in verse 20, he says this, Joseph, son of David, do not fear. I love that. Do not fear to take Mary as your wife.
There's so much for Joseph to be afraid of here, right? There's so much at stake. His reputation is on the line, right? Even if he believes her, even if he believes the angel, who believes him? Who believes Joseph, right? Either he's a liar and he's making up this whole it's God's baby thing to get himself out of trouble, to get himself out of the circumstances he's caused, or he's a fool.
And everyone says, how could you marry this woman even after she betrayed you? Even after she was found to be pregnant? If he believes her, if he believes God, who believes him? His good standing in the community. Any good name that he has is on the line. His relationships are at stake.
Rejection from those in his family. Rejection from those in his hometown. His hopes and his dreams are at stake. This life that he has written for himself, whatever that looks like, is totally thrown out the window. He is signing up. If this is true, if this is real, he is signing up to be the stand-in father of God's baby.
His life is never going to look the same. He's giving up his hopes. He's giving up his dreams. He's giving up his reputation and his relationships. But the angel tells him, do not fear.
Do not fear. Have faith that what you're being invited into is from God. It's an invitation for him to step out in obedient faith. Keep reading verse 21. Angel continues. She will bear a son.
And you shall call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins. This is important. I want to make sure you don't miss it. For Joseph, naming Jesus would give him legal rights to being Jesus' father. So that's how it worked in this culture.
The one who names the child is the one who claims legal rights, legal fatherhood, legal authority over this child. And so what the angel is saying is you are to name him. And in other words, for Joseph to name Jesus is for Joseph to claim Jesus. So what the angel is saying is you don't get partial obedience here. That's not an option for you in this scenario. You don't get to just kind of play fill-in.
You don't get to have one foot in to this whole fatherhood of Jesus thing and one foot out. You don't get to just be Mary's husband. You have to jump all in. Obedience requires you saying, no, I'm here. I'm in. You have to step in fully.
For him to name Jesus is for him to claim Jesus. He has to step into full obedience. Verse 22. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. They shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. So here's the pattern I want you to see. God shows up to Joseph. He calls him to do something costly and weighty and that might not make a whole lot of sense.
He invites him into obedience. Joseph obeys and a prophecy is fulfilled. Meaning the purposes and plans that God has move forward. Meaning what God has designed for the world to go, what he has orchestrated, what he has said should happen, does happen. God shows up, calls Joseph to obey. Joseph obeys and God's plan moves forward.
That's the pattern of Joseph's life. I want to show you two other areas, Matthew 2, two other ways we see this playing out. God calling Joseph, Joseph obeying, God's plan moving forward. So the first one is in Matthew 2, verse 13. So Chet talked about this last week.
Jesus is born in Bethlehem and King Herod, King of the Jews, hears there's this child who has been born who is supposed to be King of the Jews. And so obviously he wants to protect his kingdom. He wants to protect his throne. So he's going to have him killed. Wise men show up. We three kings bring the gifts, yada, yada, yada.
Keep going. Verse 13. That's where we pick it up here. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph 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. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remain 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. Same pattern. God shows up to Joseph, right? Calls him to do something costly and weighty. Tells him, Herod's trying to destroy this child.
He's trying to kill your child. So take Mary, take Jesus, flee to Egypt, which is about 90 miles or so away. So it would have been about a five to seven day journey by foot and by donkey. So let's stay on the Imagine You're Joseph train, right? Keep yourself in this moment, right? God shows up.
He tells you that this woman who you are about to marry is pregnant, but not to worry. It's his child. Do not fear. Take Mary as your wife. Raise Jesus. This is from God.
Right? So if you, imagine you say yes to this. You're like, all right, God, this is changing my whole life, but I'm going to be obedient to you. And so I'm going to step in and I'm going to go for it. If you're anything like me, you would imagine that your life is going to be good from here on out. Right?
After all, you signed up to be the stand-in father for Jesus. Right? You signed up to take this role, to obey God. You said yes to God's plan. He should work everything else out, right? Right?
If I'm going to be the adoptive father of Jesus, I need a couple mil in the bank. I need a big house. Right? I need the latest whatever. I need everything in my life to be good. Right?
I'm taking care of Jesus. We should be protected. We should have angels flying all around all the time. Like, we should be okay. And here you are now finding out, hey, I said yes to God. I said yes to being obedient to him.
And now somebody wants to kill him? Somebody wants to kill my son? Wait a minute. I said yes to God's plan. Why is my life not getting any better? You ever think that way?
You ever have those kind of thoughts? Wait. Wait. Hold on. Hold on a minute. I said yes to you, God.
Like, I obeyed you. Why are you not working things out how I want them to work out? Wait. God, I said yes to your mission. I stood out in faith. I took a chance because I felt like you were calling me to do it.
Why are my circumstances not getting better? In fact, why are they getting worse? We think back on those decisions. Why would I do it again? God, why would I obey you when last time I obeyed you, you didn't turn things out the way I wanted them to turn out. I said yes to you and you made this happen.
You let this happen. You let that person get sick. You let us lose how much money? We do this, right? We think, okay, yes, if I say yes to God, he should just work everything out for me. Joseph says yes to God and now they're on the run.
Right? Somebody's trying to take out Jesus. But Joseph obeys. God's plan moves forward. Let me give you one more. So if they flee to Egypt, Herod has every male child in Bethlehem and the surrounding region under the age of two killed.
Then we get to verse 19. Matthew 2, verse 19. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. When he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.
And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. Same pattern. Right? God shows up to Joseph, calls him to take Jesus and Mary to Israel. All right.
They get to go home. Right? Finally, maybe they get to settle in. They get to have a life. He obeys. They start heading that way.
God shows up again and says, nope, not Israel. You've got to go to Galilee. Really? Galilee? So they head to Galilee.
They end up in a city called Nazareth. We notice again God's plan moves forward so that his plan would move forward so that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. And this is really the last we see of Joseph in the story of Matthew. This is kind of it. We get a little glimpse of him in chapter 13 where it's kind of a little quick reference. But that's it.
This is Joseph. Right? This massively, wildly important character in the story of God who serves God, obeys God, sacrifices so much to protect the baby Jesus. Right? Wildly important. And yet he's there for two chapters.
That's it. He plays his role. He plays his part. And then he steps out of the way and Jesus gets put into the forefront. The actual lead. The actual one that we worship and serve and give our lives away for.
And so what I want to show us this morning with our last little bit of time, what I want to show us is that Joseph is not just a character with great historical influence. But he's not someone we just put in our nativity scenes. He's not someone we just mention in a few Christmas carols. He is actually a wildly important example for you and for I of what obedience to God looks like. He's a great example of what obedience to God looks like. And I want to show you three ways.
Three ways. His obedience is an example to us. Three ways. Joseph is an incredible example of faithful obedience to God. See what we can learn from this. Three ways.
Number one, obedience when it doesn't make sense. Obedience when it doesn't make sense. Mary's pregnant with God's baby. What? Flee to Egypt? To Galilee?
Where? What do you want from us? It doesn't make sense. An angel showing up, right? Telling Joseph this stuff doesn't make sense. Doesn't it feel that way sometimes when God calls us to obey him?
Like, hold up. Wait. God, I'm reading your word. And I'm praying. And you want me to do what? You want me to say yes to what?
You want me to say no to what? Now, chances are, right, none of us are going to go home tonight and go to bed. And none of us are going to have a dream where an angel shows up and says, Hey, the woman you're engaged to is pregnant with a baby from the Holy Spirit. Marry her. Call him Jesus. That's not going to happen.
Right? If it does, go back to sleep. You heard it wrong. All right? That's not going to happen. But there are going to be times in our lives where God calls us to step out in faith, to step out in obedience.
And it's not going to make sense. It's not going to make sense. So maybe for some of you, that looks like God calling you to give up that promotion. Or to say no to that raise so that you can actually stay in this city and build deep roots with your church family. For others of you, sacrifice that doesn't make sense looks like, hey, I'm really tired tonight and I would much rather watch Disney Plus or Netflix. But instead, I'm going to go and I'm going to invest in my community group.
I'm going to open up God's word with them. I'm going to love them. I'm going to serve them. For some of us, it looks like, all right, this doesn't make sense to give away money with zero financial return on my investment. But God's kingdom is bigger than me.
So I'm going to use what he has given me. For some of us, it looks like, wait, I'm supposed to parent my kid that way? I'm supposed to make that sacrifice for my family? I don't get it. I don't understand. And for some of us, obedience, when it doesn't make sense, looks like finally opening up and sharing that deep part of us that we would never tell anyone about ever.
Because we know God invites us into freedom. He invites us to be fully known and fully loved by him and by his people. Obedience doesn't always make sense. God calls us to do stuff that our rational minds would butt up so hardly against. Right? And say, why would I do that?
Why would I say yes to those things? Why would I say no to those things? God, why would you ask me to do that? Why would you ask me to step in in that way? Because this is how obedience so often works. I've been getting a firsthand glimpse of this with our Citizens Church core team.
This is not a story to set us up as the hero. I would rather talk about Jesus the whole time, but I feel the need to talk about it. So our team, our team with Citizens is a group of about 40 or so individuals. And they are the most normal folks. We are the most normal folks you've ever met in your entire life. You can meet them.
A lot of them are sitting on the second row. And you'll know, yeah, they're really normal. Like they're really average. We have baristas. We have some college students. We have some future pharmacists, some future nurses.
We have people that work in insurance. It doesn't get any more normal than working in insurance, right? It just doesn't. And there are people that believe that God has called them to something. That God has said, hey, would you step out in faith? And for most of them, 99% of them, it doesn't make sense.
Right? So in our culture, in our society, we move somewhere new for one of three reasons. We move for family. We move for a new job. Or we move for cheaper cost of living, right? That's generally the three reasons why we move.
A lot of the people on our team are actually moving away from family to go to Charlotte. They're giving up jobs that they like with no guarantee of a job. None of them have jobs right now. And for a lot of them, they're going to move into more expensive apartments and more expensive houses because Charlotte is way more expensive than Columbia. It doesn't make sense. It makes zero sense.
And yet they believe that God has called them to something. So they're trying to step out in faith. They're trying to be obedient to the mission of God. And what we see with Joseph is that faithful obedience to God doesn't always make sense. Secondly, obedience when it's costly. Obedience when it's costly.
Joseph ruins his reputation. Just ruins it. Totally derails any plans he probably had for his life. Any hopes and dreams he had. Just totally goes off the rail. Right?
He is signing up to be the stand-in father of God's son. Life is not going to look the same. And Joseph willingly steps into the sacrifice. His reputation, his relationships, his hopes and dreams. He steps out even when it's costly. Here's the reality.
And if you've been following Jesus for any amount of time, you probably feel this. Obedience to God is going to cost you. Just is. Right? Matthew 16. Jesus says, if you want to be my disciple, if you want to follow me, take up your cross and be willing to die.
That's what it means to be a Christian. It means to follow the way of our Savior, which the way of our Savior is one of continual sacrifice upon sacrifice upon sacrifice all the way to the cross. So to follow Jesus is to have sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. The call of obedience from Christ is one that is going to cost you. It's going to hurt. It's not always going to feel pleasant.
And that rubs against us because we think, God, I'm following you and you control all things. Why isn't my life getting better? Why aren't things magically just working out for me now? Because the call to obedience is the call to come and die. To give up our lives. To give up what's easy and what's normal.
To sacrifice for the mission of God going forward. Gets us to number three. Number three. Obedience when you don't know the outcome. Obedience when you don't know the outcome. We know the whole story of this, right?
We know the whole Christmas narrative. We're on this side of the Bible. We know who Jesus is. We know the miracles that he does. We know that he goes to the cross. We know he dies but doesn't stay dead.
But he gets up out of the grave. We know all that. Joseph doesn't. When Joseph says yes to the angel in the dream. When Joseph says yes to marrying Mary. He doesn't know how it all works out.
He doesn't know the miracles that Jesus is going to perform. He doesn't know feeding the 5,000. He doesn't know the walking on water. He doesn't know the cross. He doesn't know the empty tomb. Joseph doesn't know any of that.
He is just a dad. Trying to be faithful to the call of God on his life. He's just trying to take one step at a time. Little step by little step by little step. He's just trying to be obedient. He doesn't know how it all works.
And if you're anything like me, that could be one of the most frustrating parts of obedience to God. Right? Because I'll be reading God's word or I'll be praying and I feel like God's called me to something and I want to know, all right, I'll totally say yes. God, I am in on the plan as long as you tell me what the next five steps are. Right? As long as you tell me where we're going when we get there.
Give me the ending. Tell me how this all works out and I'm totally in on your plan. Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, I'm going, all right, let me make sure I like it first. Let me make sure if I say yes here that it's going to work out how I want it to work out. Let me make sure that everything's going to be okay. God, show me the whole plan.
And I'm about as type A as type A comes. So God, I need 50 step by step. Do this, do this, do this. And an invitation for me and my Christian growth is, no, Tim, little step. Little step. Take a little step.
Take a little step. I tell our core team all the time that we don't know if this is going to work. I tell them all the time, like we're going to Charlotte. We're trying to plant this church. We think God's called us to do it. I don't know if we're going to fail or not.
We have a process that we take our people through before they join our core team, our first group of members. And I tell every single one of them, I'm not a salesman, I'm a pastor. So I tell every single one, I don't know. We could have a thousand people and plant 50 churches or we could have 10 people and not be able to pay our bills and close our doors within a year. I don't know. And for a lot of these conversations, I actually go back to a conversation I had with Chet, one of your pastors back, I think 2012, 2013, something like that.
We were hanging out at Cafe Strudel. And I remember that because he taught me about all you can drink coffee, which is wonderful. Glad for that. And so we're sitting down at Cafe Strudel and Mill City's just kind of really starting to get rolling at that point. I think we were kind of talking church planting. He knew that's what I wanted to do eventually.
And so I remember him asking me this question and it still stuck with me today and I still share it with our core team all the time. But he asked me, he said, Tim, how do we know if Mill City is a failure? Like, how do we know if we failed? Then he asked me some, I think, rhetorical questions, but I might have answered them. He said, Tim, if 10 years from now, if we're huge, if we've blown up, but we've never planted another church, we've never reproduced ourselves as a church, have we failed? I'm like, all right, I don't think so.
It doesn't feel like failure. He said, all right, let me give you another one. If three years from now, we've reached 500 people and we're huge and we've blown up, but we haven't baptized a single person or a single person hasn't come to faith. Not a single person's met Jesus. Are we a failure? Maybe, I don't know.
These are tricky questions, Chad, I don't know. All right, let me ask you one more. If in a year from now, we have zero money in the bank, nobody comes. We close our doors and come crawling back to Midtown. It's what seems like failure. Are we a failure?
All right, this one I know. Yes, yes, you're a failure. Got it. I know this answer. And he looked at me and I still remember this to this day. He looked me in the face and he said, Tim, we are stepping out in faith to what we feel like God has called us to do.
So it actually doesn't matter. We're already successful. It doesn't matter. 100 people come to know Jesus. Nobody comes to know Jesus. We have stepped out in faith and what matters in the kingdom of God is faithful obedience.
So I tell my team all the time, I don't know. I don't know. This could be the worst thing we've ever done. This could be a terrible decision, but we feel like God has called us to do it. And so we're just going to be faithful. We're going to work really hard.
We're going to evangelize like crazy. We're going to serve the poor. We're going to love our neighbors. We're going to do semi-decent gatherings and sing and preach God's word. And we're going to talk about Jesus and we're going to invite people to respond. But God does all of it.
And we just try to be faithful. So the invitation for all of us this morning, Mill City Church, all of us this morning is God is inviting you into faithful obedience. And I don't know if for you, it's one specific thing. Maybe that one thing in all of your prayer time, you just keep wrestling with God about that. He just keeps saying, do this, do this, do this. And you keep, I don't want to.
That feels scary. That feels weightier. Maybe it's that one thing he keeps calling you to give up, to say no to, to push away. Maybe for you, it's just a general call towards maturity, a general call towards, you know that when you read scripture and you look at your life, they don't match up and you don't care. So maybe for you, the invitation to obedience is to love God's word and to ask the Holy Spirit to bring conviction over your life, to step in, to speak.
So I don't know, I don't know if it's a specific thing, I don't know if it's a general thing, but here's the good news for us this morning and here's where I want to, I want to land us. Here's the good news for all of us. What God invites us into, Christ has already done. What God invites us into, Christ has already done. That's the story of Christmas. Right?
God himself stepping out into humanity. Right? Taking on flesh, becoming a child, born of a woman, born in a manger, willingly stepping and lowering himself all the way to go lower, even still to the cross. And that doesn't make sense. Right? That doesn't make sense.
On a surface level, that does not make sense. No other worldview or world religion has God stepping down to man. Every single other one has man trying to get themselves to God. But here's God, God himself, creator and controller and ruler of the universe, taking on flesh and lowering himself to become a man. It doesn't make sense. It's costly.
Right? It's costly. Jesus gives up his life, faces an agonizing, brutal, torturous death, physically, emotionally, spiritually, being forsaken by the Father. He experiences such a cost. Grace is free, salvation is free, but it was costly. It cost Jesus his life.
But here's the difference between him and us. Jesus knew the outcome. Right? Jesus knew the outcome. Jesus knew that the cross was not the end of his story. Jesus knew the cross was not the end for him.
He knew three days later he was going to get up out of the grave and be risen and ruling and reigning forever. So what that means for us, church, what that means for us is that every act of faithful obedience, every step of faith, every act of sacrifice actually makes perfect sense in the kingdom of God. Right? Because as we think about, as we learn to fall in love with, as we are changed by the power of the Holy Spirit in light of the person and work of Jesus, it actually makes every sacrifice in light of his ultimate sacrifice make perfect sense. So why wouldn't we give our lives away?
Why wouldn't we step out in faith? Why wouldn't we obey? It actually makes it all not that costly. It hurts. It's weighty in the moment, but we know we anticipate and we expect an eternal reward. Right?
That one day Christ is going to return and he's going to make all things new. That is a guarantee. And we know that. We know the outcome. We might not know it here. We might not know how this specific scenario or this specific circumstance turns out, but we know that one day Christ is going to return and make all things new.
And we get to worship him and celebrate him forever. Here's where I want to end us. None of us are the heroes of the story. So that's the beginning. Mill City, you're not the heroes. Citizens Church Corps team, not the heroes.
I'm not the hero. None of us are the hero. Joseph's not the hero. Jesus is the hero of the story. He's the one we sing about. He's the one we worship.
He's the one we proclaim. He's the one who gave it all away. And so in response, we give it all away in return. He is the one who is worth it. All we're called to do is to step in and play our role of faithful obedience, however small it might be in the kingdom of God. We're called to step out in faith because he's worth it.
He's worth it. He makes it all worth it. Let me pray for us. God, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the manger, for him lowering himself, taking on flesh, becoming a human. Thank you that, and in one sense, it doesn't make sense at all.
Why would you lower yourself? Why would you take on flesh? Why would you go to the cross, the cross that we deserved? And on the other hand, we see the bigger picture, that you are accomplishing our salvation. that through the sacrifice of Christ, through his life, death, and resurrection, we have been given a way to know you and to love you and to walk with you, to celebrate you forever. God, so would you help us every step of obedience you're calling us into, every act of faith you're calling us into, big or small, in every way that it feels uncertain, in every way that it doesn't make sense, in every way that it feels costly, and that it hurts and that it's burdensome.
God, would you help us? Would you help us remember, and not only remember cognitively in our minds, not only remember as a fact, but remember deep inside of our souls that love of Christ that took him to the cross, that makes every sacrifice, makes every act of faith, makes every act of obedience totally worth it, and make total sense. God, we only love because you loved us first. We only follow you because you sent Jesus first. God, it's all you. We're just responding.
I was to remember this Christmas, this season of Advent, how beautiful and wonderful and crazy it was that Jesus came. that never ceased to be good news for us today, in this season, and every day. We love you. Praise things in Jesus' name. Amen. As the band's coming back up, we're going to move into a time of communion. This is a time of response where we actually get to celebrate each and every Sunday what Christ has done for us, to remember his ultimate sacrifice on the cross, on our behalf.
And so, take a piece of bread, which represents his body, we dip it in juice, which represents his blood, remembering and celebrating that if you are in Christ, if you are a believer, if you trust him, that this is for you, that he has died to make a way for you to be ransomed to himself. If you're not a believer, instead of taking communion, we invite you to take Christ, to believe and trust in his sacrifice for your forgiveness of sins that you can live forever with him. So let's take a second and we're going to pray and then we're going to respond through singing and communion. Matthew Chouclette Buckingham