Wisdom and Anger

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Wisdom and Anger

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He is great. He can throw well.

He can even hit. It was very exciting up until about a month ago. He finally had a bad outing and he left the mound pretty angry and did what no pitcher should ever do. He got to the dugout and decided to use his fists in his anchor and he punched the dugout benches. And I don't know if you've ever punched something like a bench or a wall. It does not go well for your hand.

And he broke his hand and he's out for like the next, he's out a month, he's like two more months that he's out, which hurts us. He learned a valuable lesson. When you get angry, kick things. If you're a pitcher, do not use your hands. They are very valuable for your career. But no, he felt embarrassed.

The coach came out and just said he's super embarrassed, super frustrated and super mad at kind of how he went about himself and making a fool of himself. The reality is, is that that happens to us, right? In our anger, we do foolish things, not as public as his mistake, but the reality is, is that we mess up in a lot of different ways that are more private. Maybe you've lost your temper and you've acted harshly towards your spouse behind closed doors. Maybe you're the kind of person that you've snapped at your kids when they don't react the way that you want them to. Maybe you are the kind of person that has sent passive aggressive emails to co-workers in your anger and made a fool of yourself.

Maybe you've even given your friends when they have treated you not the way that you've wanted to be treated. You've given them a cold shoulder, right? You've just been angry towards them. The reality is, is we do this on a regular basis in a lot of different ways. Anger is both self-destructive and it hurts and harms others. So we're going to look at the Proverbs today and see what it has to say, what kind of wisdom it has to give for the subject matter of wrath.

So as we move through this today, we're going to look at it from three different angles. We are first going to look at the danger of anger. Why anger is dangerous. Then we're going to look secondly at the fulfillment of wrath. How this shows up throughout the whole of the scriptures. And then lastly, we're going to get real practical in how to rule our anger.

How to rule our anger. How to control our wrath. So let me pray and then we'll jump into the text. Father, we thank you for your word. That it is a gift. That you have spoken.

And we get to open it up. We get to let it go to work on our hearts. And I pray this morning that you would soften our hearts. That you would move us towards repentance. And ultimately sing the wisdom that you have to say about anger. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Alright, so. Proverbs 15, 18. A hot-tempered man stirs up strife. But he who is slow to anger quiets contention.

Alright, so that's one idea we're going to see throughout this. An uncontrolled man stirs up strife. They stir up mess. And their life and the life around them. And the ideal that is holed up is being slow to anger. That's the ideal that we would be.

Slow to anger. And then kind of the anchor passage for our morning is Proverbs 16, 32. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. That's what's upheld for us to strive after this morning. Is that we would be slow to anger.

In a way that it says that if you are slow to anger. You are mightier than one that takes down cities. Is what it's getting at. You're mightier than a conqueror. And that's difficult. That's what's being upheld here.

It's difficult to rule your spirit. It's easy to take down a city in comparison to being able to control your anger. So that's how hard it pictures for us. Controlling your anger. So I have three kids.

My youngest. She still looks like a baby because she doesn't have a lot of hair. But she is very firmly a toddler. She is in that stage. And when she gets angry. She gets beat right in the face.

And she throws her hands in the air. And she just screams. She yells across the house. Ah! And then she finds the couch. It's kind of her favorite spot.

And she just collapses into the couch. And just screams into the couch. And it's a little bit humorous. Our oldest. She sees it in laughs. We can't laugh at this.

It's going to reinforce the behavior. But it's. She has no. Listen. She's a toddler. She has no ability to be able to control what's happening inside her.

She hasn't gotten there yet. And there's a lot of really physical things that are happening inside of her when she gets angry. There's some physiological things that happen when you get angry. There's a nervous tension that starts to run through your body. Right? Your adrenaline spikes.

And your blood starts pumping. And you're on edge. You get alert. The muscles in your face and your chest start to tighten. Sometimes for some people their stomach starts to churn. And then blood starts to flow throughout your muscles.

For some people it flows to their face. That's why they get hot. Red. And face. There's a lot of physical things that are happening. They've done brain scans that show that part of your brain just lights up when you get angry.

It's a very physical. Natural. Response. And it happens. All in a matter of seconds. And for the one who cannot control their anger.

The physical takes over. And they act foolishly. Anger manifests itself physically. But it's also an emotion. And specifically it's the emotion of judgment. It's an emotion that arises out of a feeling of being wronged.

And the Bible has two kind of broad categories in how it speaks about anger. There is righteous anger that mirrors the Lord. And then there's unrighteous, uncontrolled anger that is sinful. Now, the Proverbs doesn't say a whole lot about the righteous anger category. It just doesn't. But I do want to highlight it here so we don't get confused.

Because there is an idea that there is this righteous anger. When it perfectly reflects God's anger, His wrath, that it's actually holy. Even though the Proverbs doesn't spend a lot of time on it. So let me quickly just highlight this for us. Righteous anger is a judgment that says this is not right. Righteous anger is a judgment that says this isn't right.

When Jesus is in the temple in John 2. And He sees the temple being used as a marketplace for greedy and corrupt places. He sees the house of worship being tainted with this kind of greed and corruption. There's a righteous anger, a zeal that rises up within Him. And it says in John 2, And making a whip of cords, which I don't know if you've ever made a whip of cords. I don't know if that's one of your hobbies.

But that takes some time. Right? He's making this whip of cords. They're slow to anger as He's getting ready to make action from His judgment. It says, So He's slow to anger. But He sees something that is not wrong.

And for righteousness' sake, He goes and He clears out the temple. So we see that anger in and of itself actually isn't sin. You can go to Ephesians 4, 26, which says, Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. It says, Be angry, but don't sin in your anger. So, if anger is an emotion, Alright?

And if it actually slowly rises out of a heart for justice or for God's righteousness, or for godly correction, for some categories that have to do with righteous anger, then you are in the clear. That you actually are honoring God. The problem is, is that 99% of the time, that's not how we get angry. It's just not us. And the Proverbs is basically speaking about uncontrolled anger. And they're capturing that idea.

So that is what we're going to spend the majority of our time this morning. It's how the Proverbs talks about this uncontrolled, sinful anger that is within us. And I'm going to walk through three different dangerous aspects of anger that the Proverbs upholds for us. So three different dangerous aspects. The first is uncontrolled anger is foolish. Uncontrolled anger is foolish.

Proverbs 14, verse 17 says, A man of quick temper Acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated. Verse 29, it says, Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. So, you may not be a person that throws their hands in the air and starts screaming across the house like a crazy person when you get angry. Right? Some of you may. We may need to talk after this.

But the majority of us, we don't act like a toddler when we get angry. But there are things that provoke in us anger. Maybe you're the kind of person that when you are driving and you get cut off in traffic, that there are colorful words and gestures that just flow from you when you get angry, all while repping a Mill City bumper sticker, which, thank you for being a bad witness. If you struggle with getting very angry, maybe take it off for a season, work on your anger, and then put it back on. Right? Maybe that's you.

Maybe when you are angry, you're the kind of person that hurls the cruelest insults you can. You hurl cruel insults at your wife, at your friends, at your roommates. There's this thing, this physical thing that takes over, and all of a sudden you would describe yourself maybe as, or others would describe you as hot-headed. The reality is that this is you. If you are hot-headed, if you act rashly when you get upset, if you have this category of uncontrolled anger that exhibits itself in flashbang fashion, it says you are foolish. The Bible has a category of foolishness and sin.

It says you're undisciplined. You lack self-control. You're unpredictable. You are dangerous in your words and actions. And the Proverbs and the rest of the Bible are going to uphold this ideal, this being slow to anger. And the reality is that being slow to anger is not natural to us.

It's not human. Actually, being slow to anger is godly. It's an attribute of the Lord. You see, when Moses is on the mountain in Mount Sinai, God comes and speaks to him. It's one of the more foundational passages about the character of God in the Old Testament. So God is surrounding the mountain, and he calls out to Moses.

It says in Exodus 34, The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. This idea that God describes himself is slow to anger. The rest of the scriptures uphold this. You can see it in Numbers 14, in 2 Chronicles 30, Nehemiah 9, Psalm 86. Actually, there's multiple places throughout the Psalms that uphold this idea that God is slow to anger. The God who knows the future and can see our sin and our rebellion thousands of years before we commit it is slow to anger and forbearing with us.

He is not hasty in his judgment. He is not quick to get angry. He is not quick to judge. Unlike us, his judgment is always sound. It is always perfect. We, on the other hand, are hasty in our judgment.

That is one of the core reasons that we get angry. We are quick to get angry because we believe that our judgment is sound. We believe we're right. Uncontrolled, sinful anger is ultimately our displeasure at how things are happening, at how we're treated at a more base level. We get angry when things don't go our way. And what happens in a moment is you basically have a kangaroo court for a mind.

When something makes you mad, in a moment's notice, you play judge, jury, executioner, like that. You have made the judgment. Someone has wronged you. Someone has done something that is wrong. And you are going to respond accordingly. We are hasty in our judgment.

And when we do this, when we make hasty judgments, when we respond in uncontrolled anger, we harm others. A few months back, one of my children was using our upstairs toilet and put too much toilet paper in and it overflowed. And when I found out about this, I responded with some uncontrolled anger. Just responded harshly to the situation. And it was foolishness for two different reasons. Firstly, my children are five, three, and one.

And goodness gracious, they make mistakes. But the reason that I was getting so upset was that when it overflowed, the water flowed into the subflooring and it went into the ceiling above our kitchen. And the reason why it was foolish is not just because I have young children, and it's understandable, but that might happen every now and then. We've been in the process. The second reason, we've been remodeling a house for the last year. And bit by bit, this has been a complete remodel.

And in that upstairs bathroom, like an idiot, I never sealed the toilet when we reset it. It was my fault. It was my fault that the water flowed under the toilet and into the ceiling. But I went up there, and in a hasty judgment, I overreacted. Not realizing that my children are going to make mistakes. Not realizing that it's actually my fault that the ceiling has a spot in it now.

We do this. And what happened out of that was, is that my child was afraid to flush the toilet for quite a while after that. It harms people around us when we make these hasty judgments. And if you're honest with yourself, you've been there. You've lived some version of that story where you saw a situation unfold, you reacted poorly in your anger, and out of your poor reaction, out of your sinful, hasty judgment, you harmed others. And the hope is, is that you have the humility enough to realize that, and can repent when it happens.

Hasty judgment. Hasty, quick to anger. This is foolishness. It says it's foolishness. Also dangerous anger. This uncontrolled anger.

The second thing is that it causes sin. Uncontrolled anger causes sin. Proverbs 29, 22. It says, A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression. It says, A man of wrath stirs up conflict. They stir up strife, and they cause sin.

That dangerous anger causes sin and stirs up strife in those around it. And the reality is, is we need to be able to picture this, what types of anger do this. I read in preparation for this this week, a book by David Pallison. He is a helpful counseling pastor. He was. He died a couple of years ago.

But he has a lot of very helpful books when it comes to Christian counseling. He has one on anger called Good and Angry. And if you struggle with anger, I encourage you to get on Amazon today and order it. Because it's a very helpful book. But he has some of these different categories of destructive anger, and how these categories harm and hurt others and those around you.

So I just want to walk through a few of them so we can see some of these destructive categories of anger. The first one is arguing. Maybe you're the type of person, when you get angry, you are going to argue. You are going to use your words as a weapon. You will out-argue anyone to win your way. So my wife and I get in arguments.

If I want to, I can win pretty much everyone. Before I was called to ministry, I thought about being a lawyer. So I can be pretty decent at arguments. My wife is not a wordsmith. She's just not. When she tries to get arguments sometimes, she says the wrong thing, and I find it very cute.

But the problem is, is that I can use that against her. I can win every argument. I can be domineering and go after it. But the reality is, is that that violates so many of the commands of Scripture. 1 Peter 3, 7 comes to mind. Live with your wife in an understanding way.

Showing honor to her. So at what cost, right? For those of you that argue, at what cost is it worth it to get one more dig in, to get one more argument in? At what cost to your roommates? At what cost to your friends? At what cost to your co-workers?

Is it worth it in your anger to lash out and argue? Maybe it's not arguing. Maybe it's irritability. It's the second category of anger that he gives. Now this can be, irritability can show up in a lot of different ways.

There's kind of two kind of spectrums of anger sometimes where it's hot anger or cold anger. Hot anger is the one that we're most familiar with, right? You get heated. It's, you know, it gets pretty quick, pretty fast. The other one's cold. It's subtle.

It's more of a, you give the cold shoulder. But you can be both of those when you're irritable. Maybe you're angry all the time and you're just irritable. You're grumpy. You're touchy. And everyone around you walks on eggshells.

Y'all, we've all known the relative that around Thanksgiving and Christmas time everyone's walking on eggshells around them trying not to say the wrong thing, making sure that they're okay, right? Maybe you're like, no, I don't have any relatives like that. All my relatives are annoying and cheerful. You found him. It's you. Look in the mirror.

But everyone is walking on eggshells around you because you're irritable and you're angry all the time. Maybe it's not irritability. Maybe it's bitterness. It's another category of anger. And this category actually does more destruction to yourself. That you've let grievances and grudges from years past just sit with you.

And like a cancer, bitterness is grown in your soul. And that anger has just eaten away at you. I mean, I've seen families. I've seen friendships. I've seen people that are just bitter. And they're not reconciled to their family or friends.

They've stayed mad for years. And it's just eaten away at their soul. As the proverb says, it causes much transgression. And it stirs up strife. Maybe it's not bitterness. Maybe it's this type of violent anger, violence.

Maybe when you're the type of person you get angry, you get violent. You are going to absolutely inflict pain on those who hurt you. You're going to get even. And that doesn't always have to be with your fist. But you have angry outbursts.

You're harsh, verbally abusive in your speech. It's violent. I remember the first time I slammed a door in our marriage. It was the first year of our marriage. Got an argument, slammed the door. my wife, who is loving and is sensitive. It hurt her.

Not realizing that this kind of violent outbursts, it harms those around you. Hear what the proverb we read earlier says. It is easier to conquer a city. It is much harder to control your anger. If you're the type of person that has violent outbursts, you need to grow in this. Your anger hurts those around you.

Give you one more category of destructive anger. Self-righteous anger. Maybe if this is the type of anger that you swim in, maybe you're the kind of person that loves to say, I told you so. I told you. You should listen to me. And it comes out in this really angry, vindictive speech.

Maybe the kind of person that when you get angry at those who don't follow the rules and you're sniping at those who don't follow the rules. Maybe you're the kind of person that gets angry that people don't dress a certain way, they don't look a certain way. Maybe the kind of person that gets angry when people don't use the same kind of politically correct updated phrasing. Maybe the kind of person that gets mad on Facebook and you troll Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, whatever you use just to get in arguments with people because there's this self-righteousness within you that makes you want to lash out at others.

These are just a few different categories of destructive anger. And the reality is is when you engage in this type of anger that comes from these quick hasty judgments, you hurt people. You hurt those around you. You hurt the people that you love most around you. Destructive anger causes sin, but also the third aspect I want us to see from the Proverbs is that uncontrolled anger spreads. Uncontrolled anger spreads.

Proverbs 22, 24, through 25 says, Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. It says the ways of a wrathful man are both infectious and they're deadly. They ensnare those around them. You set traps for those around you that they might fall into anger with you. A few months back, I saw my son. He's my middle child.

And he got angry and he growled. He went, Arr! And I was like, Man, must have gotten that from his mama. I was like, No. No, that's definitely learned behavior. That kid gets a lot of things honestly from me.

A lot of things honestly. Looks like me, has mannerisms like me, but that was learned behavior because he's seen me do house projects. He's seen me realizing that I'm going to have to go back to Lowe's for a fourth time. He's seen that. I'm just like, Arr! And when I saw it happen, I went, Oh.

Oh, yeah. He picked that up from me. What type of destructive anger are you imparting to your children for those of you that have kids? What kind of patterns are they seeing? Right? This is a classic excuse where it's like, Oh, I grew up in an Italian family.

We're just, Wow, that's what we do. Sure. That's generations of uncontrolled anger. You could just accept that as a reality and impart that to your kid and your kid one day will be an angry, sometimes violent, sometimes abusive, husband, wife, friend, co-worker. Or you can decide to break the cycle and be different. You can decide to impart some wisdom to your child by learning how to control your anger yourself and not impart that to your kids.

It's infectious in so many ways. Maybe you've been in a community group before where someone's just angry about something. And they're angry and then all of a sudden what happens? They stir up more anger, right? Sin begets sin, right? Sin spreads.

It grows. And then all of a sudden someone else is angry about something. And then you just got an angry group. Maybe you're in a household where you have roommates that they're just angry. And what happens? They get angry about something and someone else gets angry and then all of a sudden you have a household that's just cold.

And it's not fun at all. Anger, it just, it spreads amongst us. So uncontrolled anger is foolish. It causes sin. And that sin spreads. We have to absorb that this destructive, uncontrolled anger is dangerous.

It harms us and it harms those around us. And we have to stop. We have to repent. We have to change. But the reality is is that you won't repent.

You won't change until you understand that our sinful, uncontrolled anger, until you understand that in light of the righteous anger of God. The second thing I want us to see this morning is the fulfillment of wrath. We will not fully understand how destructive and how fallen our anger is until we understand it in light of the righteous wrath of God. which I know is a subject matter that is not popular. But the Bible upholds it and for good reason. First off, we need to understand that God is a perfect and righteous judge. Read that passage from Exodus 34 that talks about the character of God?

It continues in verse 7. It says, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. We have to see this. You have to see the just and patient anger and wrath of God. You have to understand this from the Bible, that God has anger towards injustice. God has anger towards sin.

We are creation and He is the Creator. And as creation, we rebel against Him. We reject His good design for this world. We choose and run after our own sin, our own idolatry, and we shake our fist at God. I mean, if you could create something out of nothing and that creation rebelled against you, hated you, turned its back on you, you would be just in your righteous judgment to bring judgment, to bring wrath. The Bible upholds this very clearly.

And you want this. You don't want a God that turns a blind eye to injustice. You don't want a God that turns a blind eye to the more extreme, which would be genocide. You don't want that. But you don't want a God who turns a blind eye to the husband who beats his wife.

No, we want a God of justice. As Westerners, we don't like this. The rest of the world that experiences injustice on a much more grand scale, as Christians, they long for the justice of God. They wouldn't worship a God who does not bring wrath towards injustice, who does not right every wrong. We have to believe this. You have to fully know this, that in his righteous judgment he brings wrath.

But he's slow to do it. He's slow to anger. We don't understand this because sometimes when we read the Bible you see someone sins against God then God strikes them down. But we don't realize that God is eternal. He sees this coming for thousands of years in advance. And he forbears with us still.

He is slow to anger. We don't understand the scope of how God's wrath works. How long it is. How forbearing it is. We are not God. We are unable to judge like him.

He is a righteous judge. But we also get to see that he is a merciful and gracious judge. And how he overlooks offenses. And that finally makes so much beautiful and perfect sense when you get to the cross. When you get to the cross and you realize that that cross was meant for us. That that judgment was meant for us.

But Jesus absorbs that. He goes to the cross for us. That God takes our place on the cross for our sins and absorbs the wrath that was diverted from us to him. Once you see that you understand he fulfills what Proverbs 19 teaches. Proverbs 19 says good sense makes one slow to anger and it is as glory to overlook an offense. Proverbs 10 says hatred stirs up strife but love covers all offenses.

Jesus perfectly fulfills this. The only one that does not deserve judgment. He takes it in our place and by his blood and by his love it covers our offenses. It covers our transgressions. When you understand the cost of what it took with Jesus on the cross in our place. When you understand that we deserve wrath and then when you flip to the end of the story and you get to the book of Revelation and you read that one day Jesus will come back as the righteous judge and he will right every wrong then you can really begin to absorb this.

There's a Croatian theologian. His name is Miroslav Volf. He says this the certainty of God's just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it. That's pretty jam-packed as a phrase. But what he's getting at is that the certainty that one day Jesus will come back and he will judge all things.

That forms the basis by which we who are in the middle of the story respond. That we don't have to result to violence in the middle of the story because one day Jesus comes back and he's going to judge all things. Once you firmly believe that that Jesus will come back and he will judge all things that we in our anger don't have to sin. We don't have to be the ones who judge others. We don't have to bring this hasty judgment. We can rest in the fact that one day the judge will come back and he will right every wrong.

That is a comfort to those who are hurting. That our judge will come back and when you firmly believe this it is then that you can actually not just control your anger but you can show mercy and you can show forgiveness. So you have to understand the fulfillment of wrath. You have to understand that we deserve wrath that God has wrath towards injustice towards sin. You have to understand that Jesus died in our place on the cross and that one day he is going to come back and wrath will be fulfilled when all things are made new. Once you understand that then you can begin to get practical and learn how to rule your anger.

And that is the last thing I want us to see today. To learn how to practically rule our anger. Proverbs 16.32 says whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. That's the ideal. That we would be slow to anger having all that theological back where we just went through. Having that in the back of your mind.

We'd be slow to anger and in our anger that we would be slow and that we would rule ultimately our spirit. That's the ideal. That you would rule that you would control your spirit your anger. Now how do you practically do that? I have a very practical first step to physically slow yourself down. There's a lot of physiological things that are happening when you get angry.

One of the things I've taught before I think I've taught on a Sunday I know I teach this in counseling is the idea of breathing. Alright? Of deep breathing. When the physical anger is starting to rise within you you need to learn how to slow yourself down. How to practically calm yourself down. Because all that theology, all the philosophy, all the things you have in the back of your mind is going to be really hard when you get worked up and your adrenaline spikes.

So I teach people when they're getting worked up to put their hand on their diaphragm right here and to learn to slowly deep breathe. What happens when you do that is it slows your pulse down which was spiked from adrenaline. It floods your brain with oxygen which helps you be a more sound judge. It makes you be more rational. To actually slow yourself down that is an easy first step to rule your spirit. You've got to understand the physical nature of what happens when you get angry and then slow yourself down.

After you've slowed yourself down I have some questions for you to think through. Now these questions are best in the moment. It's best to think about these when you're slow to anger not after you've gotten angry and done something that's foolish. But if you're like me and you step into trouble and you've acted foolishly in your anger you can do an anger autopsy after the fact. It's important and I'm dead serious to actually think through why is it that I got so angry. So I have some questions and this is important.

There are times when I'm angry and my wife and I get in some type of argument and she's like why are you so mad? And I'm like I don't know but I need some time to figure this out and I'll get back to you. And she does. She's loving it. She gives me the space. It's helpful to have space to be able to figure this out.

So I have some questions for you to think through. And I'm going to give you a case study for how to think through this. I found one very easily this week on Tuesday when I was taking my oldest to school. So my oldest has been late, I don't know, like five times the last two weeks of school. For various reasons she's been late. And I was like no, we're finishing up the school year, she's not going to be late.

And all of a sudden on Tuesday one thing led to another. We got out the house and we were late. And on the way to driving her to school, I'm just gripping the steering wheel and I'm mad, I'm flying down the road in a Prius y'all, just all the way down Highway 1. I'm like why, and then I was like why am I so mad about this? Why am I so angry? So I didn't, I obviously didn't win the battle beforehand, had to do an angry autopsy afterwards.

So here are three questions I had to work through this week for when you get angry or after the fact that you need to process. All right, first question. When you got upset, what did you want? What did you want? Why does the thing that you're angry about matter so much? What did you want?

I had to ask myself that this week. So I'm thinking about why did I get so angry because we're late to school. A few different reasons popped up. It's like well I'm a scheduled person. I'm a routine person. I like things to go in, you know, I like things to be in order.

This is out of order. It's frustrating. And it's like also I don't want to get an email from her teacher this week about her being late to school. And I was like okay, that's why I'm upset. All right, second question.

What are you afraid of? You're building off these questions together. What are you afraid of? And it's like ugh, I don't know. I don't like my schedule to be off kilter. That's a thing.

I also, I really don't like the shame of someone saying hey, you're parenting bad. Get your kid to school on time. You know? I don't like the eyes of someone who's like oh yeah, your child's in here for the fifth time in two weeks. Right? I was like okay, that's what I'm afraid of.

All right. Third question. What does that reveal about where your hope is? That is the big one. That's going to get the sin beneath the sin. And it's like okay, what does that reveal about where my hope is?

What do I truly want? What's going on underneath the surface? And I was like oh, okay. I know myself. I know I have control idolatry. It's a deep idol for me.

I know I have approval idolatry. That's also a deep idol for me. So part of this is I'm controlling and I like to have my schedule work out. And when things get out of whack, it's not going well for me. But that's part of the reason.

Here's the core reason. I have some approval idolatry. And I ultimately want to be a parent that has a child who shows up on time. I grew up all the time and was late to everything. I want to be different. I want to be able to present my child as we're a responsible family.

I'm a responsible parent. Approve of me. And ultimately, it's not about her at all. It's not about being on time at all. Ultimately, it's about me. And once you get to the sin beneath the sin, you've worked through these questions, you can start to understand why you are angry.

It is best to stop in the moment, slow yourself down, to do some deep breathing, and to pause in the moment and figure it out. But at the fact, you need to be able to ask these questions. When you've understood, understood, when you've understood how our sin works, and how we are just bad Judges, and how we're quick to this uncontrolled anger, when you've examined the hidden motives underneath the surface, you've done the tough work, with the backdrop of the fulfillment of wrath and what we know about God, and how our unrighteous, uncontrolled wrath looks in light of the wrath of God. When you do the tough, soul work of working through this, it is then that you can begin to believe the gospel.

It is then you can apply the gospel to yourself, it is when you can apply it to others, it is then you can be the kind of person that the Proverbs describes you. You can be one who is mightier than those who conquer cities. You can do the most difficult thing and rule your spirit. You can be the kind of person that your friends need, who's not flying off the handle, who's not cold and bitter. You can be the kind of person that your roommates need, you can be the kind of person that your wife and kids need, that your husband and children need. You can be the kind of person that rules his or her spirit because you've done the tough work, you've learned to be a self-controlled man or woman, and you've sought to honor God and the way that you go about life, not being hasty to judge, not being quick to be angry, but being a self-controlled man or woman that honors God and the way that you live your life, for the glory of God and for the good of others.

Wisdom and Words

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Wisdom and Words

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Coincidentally, when the talent started to run out, it didn't go so well.

The tearing down, the consistently eating at us, it didn't build us up as a team. And when the talent kind of finally ran dry, things began to fell apart. You had to see kind of two different philosophies on how you talk to players and how you speak. And they were very different. The Proverbs has lots to say on this type of speech. On speech that builds up and speech that tears down.

Proverbs 8, 2 and 21 says, death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruits. So the idea is, is that our speech is powerful in a way that can bring death. It can tear down or a way that builds up, that brings life. And this makes sense in light of the God who created us. Like God could have made the earth in any way, in any form or fashion.

But he chooses to speak the world into existence. To speak the universe into existence. And we're made in the image of that God. And we, unlike any other aspect of creation, bear his image in this way. That speech is powerful in a way that it can build up and tear down. When you think of people who have given speeches in the past.

You think of Martin Luther King who gave speeches that helped a nation begin to repent of its racism. There was power in his words and his message. And then you look at someone like Adolf Hitler. Who was also gifted in speaking but used his for destruction. To inspire and encourage a nation to indulge in its racism. Like speech is powerful.

Words are powerful. And the tongue is very powerful. It shapes ideas. It shapes cultures. It shapes families. It shapes individuals.

So, if speech is this powerful. If words are this important. How foolish are we to think that the way that we communicate in everyday life doesn't have consequences. How foolish are we to think that the way we talk to our spouse. Or to people in our group. Or to co-workers.

That it's not a big deal. That it doesn't matter. Speech absolutely matters. The way you use your tongue. The way that you speak. Matters a lot.

And when you look at Proverbs it says those who understand this will eat of its fruit. If you understand this. You will have a life that goes better for you. Because you'll be the kind of person that builds up as opposed to tears down. That is what we're going to look at today. How the Proverbs counsel us as a people.

In how we speech. My hope is. Is that as we sit under this this morning. That we would be corrected. That we would see the power. Of power of speech that builds up.

But often times the Proverbs spends a whole lot more time on the dangers of destructive speech. And that we'd see that in our own hearts. And we'd respond together collectively as a church. In seeking to grow as people of God. Who understand the power of speech in words. And would speak wisely.

That's the hope. So. Let me pray for us. And then we will dive into the scriptures. Lord we love you. And we thank you.

That we get to come together to. Sit under the authority of your word. That we get to be molded and shaped into your image. And this morning as we look at the wisdom of words. My hope is that we would be corrected. My hope is that we'd be inspired to use.

Speech for the glory of God and the good of others. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Alright so. We're first going to look at words that build up. Building words.

There's a couple of Proverbs I want us to look at. That capture this. The first is Proverbs 10. 11. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

I want to focus on that first part. The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life. Alright. So in this context. It's written. These Proverbs are written in the Middle Eastern context.

Right. So Middle Eastern context has not as much water. So if you're in the desert. And you stumble upon a well. That means life. Life.

Water means life. We take it for granted. Because you can just go to a faucet. But in their time. It was hard to find wells. It was hard to find good water.

And if you found one. It meant life to you. It refreshed you. That's the picture here. Like in an arid desert. You find water.

In a culture that's so toxic and negative in how we talk to one another. That you would stand out as a fountain that gave life to one another. That's the picture here. That's what the Proverbs is calling us to. Is to be a person who's righteous. Who is like a fountain of life.

Every year. The four elders. We pastors. We have an elder retreat. Where we get away. It's a time for us to regroup.

To break away from the normal schedule of what we do. And to pray. And to plan. And to strategize. And to also. To fellowship.

And to encourage one another. We throughout the year. We've gotten better at this over the years. But we really just kind of get our jobs done. Our areas of oversight. We just.

We make sure that we're doing it. And we don't. We're not overly positive encouraging to one another. It just. So we have to schedule that.

We have to make sure that once a year. We've got to end the schedule. We're actually going to encourage one another. So every year at elder retreat. We have a time where we actually do some competitive encouragement. We think about it ahead of time.

We encourage what we see. How Jesus has been working in one another. And it's. Every year we're just reminded. Man. That's really good.

We really knew that. All the sarcasm. Cutting jokes all year. Kind of. Started to weigh you down. It's good to actually say something positive.

And mean it. We love that. And it's. And it's timely. Bruce Waltke has some commentary on this. He says.

The right word. Spoken at the right time. In the right way. Supports or corrects a community. In a way that promotes life. Timely words.

Spoken in the right way. In the right manner. They bring life. Wouldn't you like to be the kind of person. That when you die. And people are remembering you at your funeral.

That they would think. Man. That person. They were like a fountain of life. When they. When you were around them.

They. They. They. They gave life to you. The way they spoke. Was just so.

Encouraging. That's the picture. That the Proverbs holds out. Proverbs. 10. 21.

Says. The lips. Of the righteous. Feed many. But fools die.

For lack of sense. So I'm going to focus on the first half. Of this proverb. You're going to see that the. The way that this is spoken of. Is the mouth.

The tongue. The lips. The idea is that you use this. Use this organ. That the God. That God has given you.

For the glory of. Him. And for the good of others. And here it says. The lips. Of the righteous.

Feed many. Now the word for feed there. Is. Is the language. Of shepherds. Feeding sheep.

It's. It's that word. So the idea here. Is that. Someone who is righteous. In their speech.

Would be like a shepherd. Who feeds sheep. That you'd have shepherd type. Lips. That it would. Feed.

Those around you. Would build those up. Around you. At the church. I was at previously. One of our pastors.

He had this gift. He had shepherd type lips. This. I mean he. When he spoke. He absolutely.

You just felt loved. You felt cared for. Part of it was because he had a voice. That was like a radio voice. And it just sounded very nice. But the other part of it was.

Because he genuinely cared. And it just. It built you up. That. That. We should want that.

We should want to be the kind of person. That builds up those around you. So. Like I said. The Proverbs has a few places. That speaks positively.

About the. About how words can build others up. It has a lot more to say. About destructive words. And for the bulk of our time. We're going to look at.

Different categories. Of destructive words. And I think this is very timely. And important for us. Because as a culture. Even.

Even. As American Christians. We don't tend to think about. Destructive words. As being. One of.

The most divisive. And one of the ways. To actually destroy. Yourself. And one another. We don't.

We don't. We don't pedestal this. As one of the. Worst subsets of sins. We'll think about sexual sin. And how destructive that is.

And we'll go hard after that. But we don't think about. The destructive nature of words. And how. How easily. It divides.

Whole churches. That how often. Gossip. And slandering. And whispering. And.

And what we're about to walk through. How often that divides. Whole communities of Christians. Divides community groups. It is. Very important.

That we understand. The power of words. And how destructive. They can be. It only takes two people. To divide a church.

One to speak. And someone else. To let them speak. So. I mean. It's.

It's. It's true. Like. We need to be mindful of this. So. I want to walk through.

The Proverbs has. A lot of different things to say. So. As I was walking through the Proverbs. There are three broad categories. Of destructive speech.

That I want. Us to look at. This morning. And I want you to think of this. As kind of the ship of fools. Alright.

Three different types of fools. If pirates helps you. That's fine. But just. This is the ship of fools. It's the babbler.

It is the hammer. And it is the whisper. Alright. The babbler. The hammer. The whisper.

Three different types. Of destructive speech. That we're going to walk through. And see from the Proverbs. So we're going to tackle first.

The babbler. The one who speaks. Way too much. Alright. So listen.

I don't talk about politics. Broadly with people. I'm a pastor. I talk about faith. That is divisive enough. For some people.

So I don't like to talk about it. But if you do want to have a private conversation. Get me started on something. Get me started on free speech. Because I think free speech is amazing. It's an amazing western American value.

It's the bedrock of our society. In so many ways. And as much as I love American free speech. What I've realized in reading the Proverbs this week. Is that as Christians. We are called to limit our speech.

We don't have the freedom to say anything that we would like. In fact. The Proverbs instructs us and pushes us on. No. You should be someone who restricts your speech. That minds your tongue.

And in steps. The babbler. The one who speaks far too often. And far too much. And there are multiple Proverbs. That go after this.

Look at Proverbs 21. 23. It says. Whoever keeps his mouth. And his tongue. Keeps himself out of trouble.

Fairly self-explanatory. If you mind your tongue. It will keep yourself out of trouble. There was a few years back. My wife and I. We bought a house.

When we moved back here. And. So I'm meeting. Talking with a neighbor one day. And across the fence. Having our fence conversation.

And I was like. Yeah. I'm so excited. We got this house. I couldn't believe we got it. For the price that we got it at.

I couldn't believe that the. The real estate agent. Let those pictures. Stay online. I mean. It did not do this house justice at all.

What were they thinking? Man. I'm really glad we got this house. Fast forward a few years. Exact same spot. This is where we talk at the fence.

And. He's like. Yeah. I'm getting ready to sell my house. I said. That's awesome.

And I. I don't practice real estate as much anymore. I'm transitioning out of real estate. Into being full time here. My wife's taking over. But.

Back then. I was doing a lot more real estate. And I said. Oh man. So. My ears perked up.

I'm like. Pick up a client here. This should be good. He said. Yeah. I'm going to price it on how I priced your house.

And I went. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh no. Oh no.

And my face turned beet red. I was like. I. Insulted this guy to his face. And he saw it. He looked at me in the face.

And I. He said. Yep. I said. I am so. Sorry.

I am such an idiot. I was like. I insult you to your face. He said. Yeah. I made my broker.

Had a good laugh about that. He said. I tried to convince my clients. To not keep those pictures. She was dead set. I'm keeping them.

But. You're going to see a lot of examples today. Are me. Because I. I get myself into trouble a lot. In how I speech.

I speak. But man. I just. I. Talk too much. You get to talk.

Get to talk. Get to talk. I'm not mindful of your tongue. It gets yourself into trouble. Proverbs 13. 3 says.

Whoever guards his mouth. Preserves his life. He who opens his. Opens wide his lips. Comes to ruin. There's a saying in the British military.

And also in the American military. Back in World War 2. And it was. Loose lips sink ships. The idea was. If you spoke too much.

If you babbled. A spy might hear you. And it might cost lives. If you. Do not guard your mouth. You do not preserve your life.

Think about the. The musical Hamilton. And even Alexander Hamilton. Historically. Was an individual. Who was a babbler.

He. Spoke. Way too much. He. Wrote. Way too much.

He got himself into trouble. A lot. Because he made far too many enemies. Because he could not restrain his tongue. And when you listen to the musical. What's funny is.

Is that's kind of upheld as. Ha ha. You know. Look at Alexander Hamilton. Look at this guy. He talks a lot.

But man. Look at all the good stuff he did. And then Aaron Burr. The one who eventually kills him. Because he ran his mouth off too much. He's upheld as.

Kind of a snake. Which he is. But the. The. The tagline that comes from. That is applied to him.

Is he says. Talk less. Smile more. And. And. And.

And they're pitted against one another. Now. There's a political element of that. That he is a snake. But what's funny is.

Is when you look at the Proverbs. And how it speaks about talking too much. It kind of sides with Aaron Burr. It. It does. It.

You. Should talk less. It does get you into trouble. And. So. And.

And. And. And. And. And. And.

And. it would have gone well for you. This is what happens as we get to talking and ruin comes upon us. I'll give you two Proverbs back to back. The heart of Proverbs 15, 28. The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. Similar Proverbs 29, 20 says, Do you see a man who is hasty in his words?

There's more hope for a fool than for him. And both of those illustrate the same thing. If you are in a hurry to speak, and you do not consider your words, if you do not ponder how to answer, it will not go well for you. You know why? Because wickedness will pour from your mouth. James 1, 19 captures this.

It says, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. The idea is that you would be slow to speak. Because if you don't, there are things that could come out of you that will reveal your heart. Part of believing this and applying this proverb is believing that our hearts are deceitful. That our hearts are stained with sin and wickedness. Jesus taught this in Matthew 15.

He said, From out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. The reality is, is that we have deceitful, sinful hearts. Why wouldn't we seek to be mindful of how we speak? If the mouth is so connected to the heart, why wouldn't we be mindful to restrain how we speak in a way that sin would not come forth and harm others? That's what Proverbs is getting at. Proverbs 18, 6-7 says, A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.

A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul. So two things were true before I became a Christian when I was 17. One, I was like five feet tall. I did not hit my growth spurt until I was 17. And the second thing was true is I loved to talk some smack. I, oh man.

And I don't ever do that anymore. But I did a lot of that back then. And, you know, in my heart, I was like, I can take anybody. I can back this up. But in my mind, I was like, nah, I'm going to need some backup.

So I made sure when I talked smack that some of my friends who were bigger, some of my friends who knew some karate, were with me. Because I knew if I talked too much and it got real, I'm going to need some backup. It may not go well for me. The Proverbs would have counseled my friends to ditch me because I was a fool. But they didn't.

So they stuck with me. And sometimes things got a little heated. That's the physical picture here. If you run your mouth, it can get you in the physical trouble. The reality is that most of you are not going to get into physical altercations because of your mouth. But you will take an emotional beating.

Right? Keep talking. Keep arguing with your wife. Keep arguing with your husband. Another dig. Another comment.

I'm going to win this argument. How is winning an argument in marriage ever gone? Right? It doesn't bode well for you. It invites hurt. You can get in an argument with your roommates.

And you keep arguing. You keep arguing. You keep arguing. You keep getting the last word. You won't stop talking. And it makes what?

It makes the house miserable for you and for everyone else who lives there. You have to be mindful of how we speak. All right. That is some of the Proverbs and how it speaks about the babblers. So, what is the blunt counsel? Because the Proverbs, I don't know if you've noticed this far, is fairly blunt.

What is the Proverbs and how does it counsel us as those who might be babblers? It's fairly simple. Shut your mouth. It is fairly straightforward. Restrain your tongue. Talk less.

You know the old teaching that you've got two ears and one mouth? Listen twice as much as you talk. It's true. Listen more. Talk less. Yes.

You absolutely should do that. Francis Schaeffer, the Christian apologist and philosopher, he said, if I have an hour with somebody to counsel them, I'm going to listen for 55 minutes and then I'm going to talk for five. Because if you let someone talk, they will reveal themselves and then you'll be able to give wise counsel. Talk less. That also means, Christians, that means post less. Man alive.

On Instagram, on Facebook, on Snapchat, or Twitter, or whatever it is that you do. Post less. I know some folks like to post a lot. I'm not saying posting a lot in and of itself is bad. But for some people, Facebook, Instagram, whatever you use, it's like a cathartic experience.

It's like a cleansing experience for you to be able to work out your emotions in front of people, work out your soul in public. I'm not saying vulnerability is always a bad thing. I am saying that you are running the danger of being a babbler. Of being foolish by posting way too much. We need to be mindful. If you claim to be a Christian, you represent Christ.

You're an ambassador of the Lord Jesus. Does your Facebook reflect that? Does your Twitter, does your online presence reflect that? Alright, that is the babbler. The next destructive category of speech is the hammer. This is the one who is blunt, who is harsh, who brings the hammer down on those around them with their words.

Alright, so let's look at the hammer. Proverbs 51. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Anger. Alright. Being considerate in your words is important.

And how you speak matters. It matters immensely. In surgery, you would prefer that your surgeon operates with a scalpel and not a hunting knife. Both will cut you open. One is going to be more precise. The other is going to cause far more damage than you'd like.

You're called to be precise in your speech. You're called to be mindful and considerate of how you talk. And the manner in which you talk. A soft answer turns away wrath. If you come in guns blazing on those around you, it doesn't usually work. Right?

Let's just say you've got someone in your group and they come to you and they say, oh man, I just... I'll be honest guys, I fell. I looked at pornography again this week and I just... I've been stressed at work and I just... I was on my phone late at night and just one thing led to another. And if you just came in and said, no!

No! You need to stop looking at pornography. Have you read Matthew? Put it to death. Pluck out your eye. Cut off your hand.

What are you doing? I'm sick and tired of you coming here every week confessing the same sin. Give me your phone. Does that go well? Right? You feel assaulted just by that, right?

Someone comes in and says, I'm struggling with anxiety and I've just been... This week has been so hard and I just... I can't sleep and I just... I can't... My mind is racing all the time and you just said, no! That's enough.

Just believe the gospel. Can't you trust in Jesus? Are you running to control idolatry? No! What are you doing? Give me your phone!

Which, I don't know why the hammer brings the phone every time. But... But it's like that doesn't help, y'all. A soft answer turns away wrath. It's to be mindful. Your tone matters.

How you speak, it matters. Proverbs 12, 18 says, There's one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Rash words are words that are spoken without consideration. They're rash. They're spoken very quickly. Ray Ortlund, a pastor in Tennessee, says, words do not even have to be intentional to be deadly.

They can be careless. Your careless words can cause pain to others. Your rash words when they're not spoken with consideration and care, when you're not mindful of this, it hurts. I mean, words are cutting. I mean, in a positive way, the word of God is compared to a sword, right? Hebrews 4, 12, the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.

Right? Piercing division of soul and spirit of bone and mirror. In Revelation, the sword that comes out of Jesus' mouth, it's the word of God. It's sharp. It's cutting. But it's done it precisely.

But a lot of times we wield it like a shiv. And it's just, our words, we're just rash and we're just absolutely maiming each other by how we speak. I mean, that is online, right? It's just one shiv after the next. No, we need to be mindful of how we speak. When I was in college, one of my buddies, we were at an FCA meeting and the guy who was teaching, to call it a train wreck, was polite.

It was the worst teaching I'd ever heard. He basically was doing, he was doing therapy in front of everybody and it was a mess. And my buddy just stood up and just started correcting him in the middle of his teaching. And I just was like, I don't know if that's the best play. I still don't know if that's the best play. But I got a hold of him afterwards and I came down so hard on him.

I was so harsh. And I had another friend who was sitting there watching it. And I just was, man, I just went hard after him. And my buddy took me aside later and said, dude, that's too much. And he was capturing this right here. It was rash.

It wasn't considerate. The tone was off. Sometimes we bring the hammer down and we'll excuse it as that's just the way I am. I'm blunt. I'm just being honest. I'm just being real.

And it's like, no, you're just being foolish. You're wielding a hammer as opposed to being mindful in the way that you speak. If you want a proverb on this, Proverbs 29, 11 says, a fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds back. So, this is incredibly important for us to believe. Because in our culture, venting is socially acceptable. And it's not even socially acceptable.

It's encouraged. Therapists will encourage people to vent. And it's like, no. No, a fool gives full vent to his spirit. Right? Like, for you to just go off and talk to somebody and say, I need to vent.

I just need a few minutes. And you absolutely just unload on somebody. That's foolishness. And that's sin, you guys. You know how you're supposed to vent? To the Lord.

Read the Proverbs. The Psalms. The Psalms, over and over again, is this venting to the Lord. It's David working out his emotions. The Psalmist working out their fears and their anxieties. You need to first, when you are upset, go to the Lord in prayer.

Humble yourself before the Lord. And pour out your heart to them. And if you need counsel from somebody else, and as a person who is an external processor, external processors are people that process their thoughts out loud with somebody else. You give me a whiteboard and a couple of people and I can start to really work out my thoughts. I get it. Sometimes you won't counsel.

But I would encourage you to actually go to the Lord first and then with restraint and with self-control, which is what's being conveyed here, then you can seek counsel. But even before that, after you've gotten the Lord, and I really skipped a step, after you've actually talked to the person who's harmed you, who's hurt you. And if you need counsel, bring somebody in. But man, this idea that we can just vent our emotions, vent our... The Bible does not support them. It is not on board with that.

All right, so... What is the very blunt counsel to those who embody the hammer? It is to be mindful and considerate of your words. It is to act like a... To speak like a surgeon. It is to be precise.

It is to be considerate. It is to be mindful. As Galatians 6.1 teaches, it is to be kind and gentle. Galatians 6.1 says, Brothers, if any of you is caught in transgression, you who are spiritual should restore them in a spirit of gentleness. The idea is that you would be gentle and kind in your speech. Not someone who is consistently harming those around them and excusing it because, well, it's just the way I am.

No. That's foolishness. That's the hammer. All right. Last category of destructive speech is the whisperer. The whisperer.

Vince Foster was the deputy White House counsel for the first six months of the Clinton administration. And then he committed suicide. And in his resignation slash suicide letter, he said, Here, talking about D.C., Here, ruining people is considered sport. That's D.C. Right? I mean, it is an evil and wicked place when it comes to speech.

Slander. Gossip. Whispering. People seem to enjoy tearing others apart in that town. But that's not the only place.

No. I mean, you just got to be in middle school and live life after middle school to know that the whisperer, this kind of destructive speech, this category, runs throughout the rest of your life. Proverbs 16, 27 to 28. This is a worthless man plots evil and his speech is like a scorching fire. A dishonest man spreads strife and a whisperer separates close friends. There are those who are bent on destroying others with their tongues.

Right? It's like a spark that lights a forest fire. That's here, but it's also in James 3. That the way you speak can cause massive amounts of damage. It says that a dishonest man spreads strife, which we'll talk about integrity in the Proverbs at a later date, but that is a major category of harmful speech. We'll cover that later.

But it spreads hurt and pain and a whisperer separates close friends. And the picture of a whisperer, it's pretty, if you just even picture it, it's easy to see, right? If you've ever been at a coffee shop where two people are talking very loudly, they're just catching up, and then all of a sudden they get real quiet and they just start whispering. They say, well, so and so, I heard they did this. Oh, you won't believe what I heard. It's the literal picture of those who would whisper, those who would gossip, those who would slander those around them.

That's the picture that's happening here. Proverbs 17, 9, says whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. You hurt others when you repeat matters that you've heard, when you gossip, or when someone even hurts you, and you're not willing to go and talk to them first. You're not willing to let love cover a multitude of offenses. And you repeat the matter to someone else, and it gets repeated to someone else. It can divide friendships.

Y'all, it takes years to build friendships. Really solid friendships. It takes years of trust to build friendships. It only takes a few sentences to undermine all of it. You need to be mindful of this, of how whispering tears people apart. A few years ago, when I was representing some clients in real estate, and I don't make all kinds of mistakes in real estate, but I've made a few.

And I was representing some clients a while back. They were not the most fun people to represent. And they were really frustrated me. And I reached out to my mom, who was my partner at the time, and I was just like, goodness gracious, these people are driving me nuts. And I sent it. And I went back and looked at my phone, and I texted them.

A fool gets what he deserves. If you've got a problem with them, talk to them first. Don't talk about them. Man, man, and we ended up finding them a house that ain't repeat clients. I don't blame them. Because that's foolishness.

If you're the kind of person that's always checking your text message, make sure you don't text the wrong person. If that's you, you might be someone who whispers. You might fall into this category. The words, Proverbs 18, 8, the words of a whisper are like delicious morsels. They go down into the inner parts of the body. There's an episode of The Office, which is a comedy TV show.

We use him a lot, Michael Scott, the boss from The Office, because he is a fool. He's the embodiment of it. So he shows up a lot, especially in the Proverbs. You'll probably see him again. But there's this episode in The Office.

It's called The Gossip Episode. And Michael Scott is mad because he isn't in on The Office gossip. He finds the last one to find out about somebody having a relationship. And he's mad about it. But then he stumbles upon some gossip.

He finds out one of his employees is having an affair. And it's painful. And some of y'all know this. It's cringeworthy to watch sometimes. Because he jumps from cubicle to cubicle, all excited, skipping around, spreading this gossip. And you're watching, cringing, because it's like, what a fool!

He's about to absolutely upend this guy's life, which he does. And you watch that, and you're like, how foolish is that? And yet we do this. We like to be a part of the inside discussion. We like to hear things by other people. The entire industry is built on gossip.

You know why? Because we consume it. We like it. It goes down like delicious morsels, but it goes into the inner parts of our body and it corrupts us to our core. Gossip, whispering, it destroys us and others. Proverbs 25, 9-10 says, Argue your case with your neighbor himself and do not reveal another's secret, lest he who hears you bring shame upon you and your ill repute have no end.

Talking about others and not to them. It destroys relationships. And ultimately, when it gets back around to you, you look like a fool. So it's pretty self-explanatory. Don't talk about others. Go and talk to them.

Otherwise, you run the risk of bringing shame upon yourself and wrecking others. I'm going to give you another proverb. Proverbs 26, 20-21. For lack of wood, the fire goes out. And where there is no whisper, quarreling ceases. As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

I've been a part of churches and ministries long enough to know that for the person that is a whisper, for the person that loves drama, for the person that stirs up things, when they finally leave or when they are removed, quarreling ceases. Fighting ceases. It's terrible. You ever been whispered about? You ever felt that? It makes you question reality.

It makes you question who you can trust. It's painful. It's very divisive and it's very harmful. And the Proverbs is very harsh in its language towards it. As it should be. So, what is the blunt counsel for the whisperer?

I want to take a moment and I want to read from our membership commitment. We have 14 different membership commitments. When you commit to be a member of our church, this is one of them. I expect relational difficulty as I seek genuine relationships with other sinners saved by grace. And we tell people, listen, you are about to commit to life together with a church family full of sinners. You're going to get harmed.

If you're going to be a part of a group, you're going to get sinned against. I tell people all the time, I'm going to sin against you. It's going to happen. Expect relational conflict. Expect it. Expect difficulty.

It's going to happen. But, but we'll actively fight against gossip, drama, bitterness, and relational weirdness. That is our catch-all category for it. I mean, you know it when you see it. You know it when you feel it. When there's relational weirdness between you and somebody else and you're kind of not talking and it's awkward around, we actively combat against this.

And it says, I will work towards reconciliation in all conflict, seeking always to live at peace with others and the Middle City Church family. We take this very seriously in our church because harmful speech like this hurts people. Y'all, entire churches, you've heard stories. If you've been around churches, you know it. They, they, they divide all the time. Baptist churches are very well known for it.

Someone says, like mitosis, man, they divide and ultimately they end up growing stronger later on. But it's so painful to watch. Dividing over the color of the carpet. Dividing over two families that fought. Dividing over two people that went head to head and ultimately there's factions that joined in because there was whispering, because there was gossip, because there was slandering. The scripture has forceful language against this and so do we.

We don't want our church, we don't want our groups to ever be a safe place for this type of destructive speech. We don't leave any room for it. We don't want it. Someone in your group says to you, I probably shouldn't share this with you. You need to say, then don't. Don't.

If you feel like it's gossip, if you're going to slander somebody, then don't. One of the things that we say regularly is when somebody gets hurt or somebody, someone says something that hurt them and they come to us and they talk to us, our go-to phrase is, okay, well, what do they say when you talk to them? The expectation is that you've already talked to them and if you haven't, we want you to go and talk to them first, not about them, talk to them. Have you ever been in a, hopefully not in a group, but I know it does happen, in a group or in your office or whatever and all of a sudden everyone's piling on somebody else?

Man, that Mike guy is the worst. Mike is so obnoxious. He's so annoying. Mike this, Mike that. We want you to be the person that says, you know what I actually like, Mike? This is what I actually appreciate about him.

You do that, you'll make it awkward immediately because you'll say this is not a safe place to be able to talk about somebody else like this. And I don't ever want our groups to be a place where you would talk about somebody else in your church family in a way that would be harmful and hateful and cruel and mean. No, we want to be those who build one another up, not those who tear each other apart. It takes two people to split a church. One to talk one to let them talk. And I'll just give one more piece of counsel on this as it specifically applies to online.

We have to be Christians. We have to be more discerning. We cannot be the kind of Christians that engage in this type of whispering online, this type of destructive speech online, this type of slandering online. When you share a false story online, there is somebody else on the other end of that. We feel like we are so disconnected online that it doesn't really matter what you post. It does.

People have committed suicide because they have been slandered online and everyone mounts on them and shames on them. And then the words you share online, the way you post online, the things you share online, it matters. We of all people should understand that because the Proverbs teaches about it. We of all people should understand that we are called to be salt and light in a culture that is so jacked up in darkness when it comes to how people speak. We should stand out and we should be different. Alright, so, that's a whole lot.

And I understand that's a lot. I understand that's a whole lot of difficult Proverbs, a whole lot of difficult teaching to receive. And it's very corrective. I want to give you one more difficult Proverbs that makes this even harder. Proverbs 10, 18 says, The one who conceals hatred has lying lips and whoever utters slander is a fool. And when you read that, you go, Wait, what?

It says, Whoever conceals hatred has lying lips. It's like, Wait, you mean if you concealed the hatred in your heart, if you concealed how mad you are at somebody, you're a hypocrite? But then if you go and talk about it, you're a slander, you're a fool? That's a catch, that's a no-win situation. What are you talking about? How does that even work?

What are you supposed to do with that? And when you finally come to that conclusion, you understand how hard this is. And ultimately, you understand that wisdom in and of itself is not enough. That wisdom, while good, and wisdom, while we want you to pursue it wholeheartedly, and the way that you speak, it is not enough. Because ultimately, your tongue is not the problem. It is your heart.

It's our hearts. That's ultimately what is wrong here. That's what Jesus captured when he taught in Matthew 15, which we read earlier. It's what he says in Luke 6, 45, out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. That our hearts are connected to our mouths. And the problem, ultimately, is our hearts.

And you can apply all the wisdom strategies in the world. You can go and write these down. You can tattoo, babbler, hammer, whisper, and say, I'm not going to be these things. You can try to remind yourself not to do this, and there will be moments of weakness where you're tired, where you're weary, where you stumble, where you say something to your kids that causes harm for years, where you say something to a friend that changes the very makeup of your friendship, where you hurt somebody in your group in a way that makes them not want to come back. The reality is is that it's not the tongue and it's not the striving for wisdom that ultimately is going to save us from this, save us from destruction.

We need more than wise counsel. We need a cure. And that cure is Christ. We need wholeheartedly to believe in the gospel, to believe that the finished work of Jesus, that His blood was shed for us, that He conquered death in the grave, so that we wouldn't become people who have better strategies for wisdom, so that we'd be people that have our hearts exchanged for new hearts. As Ezekiel 36 says, that we have a heart of stone that we'd be exchanged for a heart of flesh. The reality is is that some of you have spent your entire lives speaking destructively, harming those around you.

And you can try to take these to heart, and you can try to apply these all the more, but some of you have never trusted in the finished work of Christ. And if you try to do this, it's just a bunch of good works that you try to follow that you have no shot at actually accomplishing, because you've never trusted in the finished work of Christ on your behalf. You've never believed Jesus died in your place. You've never admitted your sin, that you are destructive in the way that you speak, and that you need a Savior to die in your place. You need the one who spoke perfectly. You need His righteousness and not your own.

And my hope this morning is that some of you would trust in Christ, and that you would have a heart of flesh. Some of you have hardened your hearts. You're following Jesus, but when you look at these categories, I mean, if you're honest, it's like, I'm a babbler. I talk way too much, and I hurt others all the time because I talk way too much. Some of you are hammers. I mean, you've excused it your entire lives.

It's just me. It's just my personality. And you cause blunt force trauma to everyone around you because you don't consider your words, and it hurts people. Sticks and stones may break my bones is a lie. That is such a farce that you've brought the hammer on others in how you speak. Some of you have engaged in whispers and are whispers, and you're consistently sharing things you should not share and dividing community groups and dividing people, and you've hardened your heart because you're like, it's not that big of a deal, and I want to plead with you from the Scriptures.

It absolutely is. It is rotting your soul, and it's harming those around you. My hope is that we would respond in repentance. We need the heart of our Savior. We need our hearts to be cured. And my hope is is that in our repentance with changed hearts, we would be master builders of those around us.

Like, who wants that? Who wants that picture to be someone who builds those up around them? Who wants to be the kind of person that's like a surgeon that heals those around them? That's like a fountain of life in this arid, toxic desert that is our culture. How many of us want changed hearts, that we want to strive for this, that we would grow daily into the image of Christ, conforming to His image in the way that we speak, that we might build others up and repent of tearing those around us down? That's the hope that the Proverbs gives us.

That's the hope that the Gospel gives us. And my hope is that we respond in faith and repentance today. The band is going to come up, and I want us to sit in that for a moment. I want us to be honest with ourselves. I want you to think about how you speak to your spouse, how you speak to your roommates, how you talk to people at your work, how you talk to people in your group. I want you to think about what you post online.

I want you to think about all the areas of your life where your speech and the ways that you communicate have harmed others. And then as you think about this and the destructive nature of your tongue, I want you to quickly run to the cross. And I want you to see that the finished work of our Savior on the cross was for your sin, it was for your rebellion, it was for your corrupted tongue. That ultimately, there's forgiveness and there's grace. Yes, you have destroyed others. Yes, you have failed miserably in your speech.

But the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus dies for sinners like you and me. And that in our repentance, He receives us and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we get to change. That is offered out before you today, the choice is yours. And my hope is that you would take it. My hope is that you would go to your groups this week and you would be honest and open. My hope is that you would have phone calls with people this week where you would confess sin and you would ask for forgiveness.

My hope is that Jesus would conform our church into a beacon of light, into a fountain in the wilderness of our culture. Let me pray. Lord, we love you and we thank you. The Proverbs has been beating our souls up. It has been beating mine up as well. And I just pray that you would help me and those in this room receive grace.

I pray if there's anyone here that has not trusted in you that they would absolutely be convicted of their sin and they would place faith in you. and I pray that we would grow as Christians to be the kind of people that embody the hearts and the tongues that you desire. We ask Jesus, in the name of you. Amen.

Wisdom and Friendship

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Wisdom and Friendship

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Those are the friends that you'll make for a lifetime, so I have my backpack on, ready to go, meet all my new friends.

You're going to be my best friend for life. You're going to be my best friend for life. Excited. And there's some truth to that, right? That there are some friends you make in college that you keep for the rest of life. Some, not so much.

There are even some people in college that you don't even like. And they don't even like you. And by God's twist of irony, later on in life, you end up becoming good friends. Like Chet, Matt, and I. I didn't like them, and they didn't like me in college. But God brought us together, and now we are close friends, and we pastor a church together.

But that happens. People change over time. Your friends change over time. You change over time. You learn about yourself. You learn more about your friends.

Friendship can be complicated. You go through seasons sometimes where either friendships are too much or they're not enough, where you're disappointed by friends or that you feel defeated because you can't be the friend that you want to be. And yet, in spite of all the complexities of friendship, we still long for it. We long for good friends. Friendship can be made in the image of a communal God. And we're designed for friendship.

That's why half of all the TV shows, they center around a group of friends. It's because friends are very important to us. We're designed in the image of a God who is communal. We long for friendships that give life, that make it joyful and fun and good. So, in order for us to understand friendship well and how God designed it, we need to go to the Bible. We need to look at what the Bible says about friendship.

And the Proverbs have various bits of wisdom about friendship. So, we're going to look at the Proverbs on this today. And we're going to move this through this in three different parts. We're going to look at first, wise friendship. Second, we're going to look at true friendship. And then lastly, we're going to look at friendship redeemed.

So, wise friendship, true friendship, friendship redeemed. Let me pray and then we'll jump in. Lord, we love you and we thank you. And we thank you that you give us your word and that your word shapes us and molds us. That it pierces us to the heart. God, I pray right now that you would go to work in our hearts.

So that we can see the wisdom of friendship and the friends that we are called to be. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so first, we're going to look at wise friendship. Alright, we're going to look at wise friendship. There are a few different aspects of wise friendship that we're going to see.

And we're going to start out with one of the bigger passages in Proverbs on friendship. Starting in Proverbs 27, verses 9 through 10. Oil and perfume make the heart glad. And the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend. And do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity.

Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. So it starts off, how sweet it is to have a friend that gives you earnest, heartfelt counsel. Now, there's something important to know as we walk through the Proverbs. Friend, the word friend, and neighbor. However, those two words have the same range of meaning in the Proverbs. Alright, when we hear that in the English language, we go, Friend, somebody you're friends with, neighbor is somebody you live beside.

Alright? And Proverbs has the same range of meaning. So they kind of get used a little bit interchangeably. So you're going to see friend, neighbor. It's our concept of those whom you call friends. And it says, What we're going to see first is that the Bible upholds sincerity as a quality of friendship.

Wise friends are sincere. Life is better when your friends are sincere. When they are genuine. When they are real. When they give you earnest, heartfelt counsel. This is how it starts off.

Wise friends are sincere. Proverbs 28, 23. Gives another picture of sincerity. Whoever rebukes a man will afterward found more favor than he who flatters with his tongue. So it goes after sincerity.

And the opposite of that being flattery. When I was in the 8th grade, I loved the 8th grade so much that I said I wanted to do it again. So I had an encore experience where I did the 8th grade twice. And I transferred to a new school. And I showed up, you know, a little bit nervous. New school.

Same grade. And I got there. And I met two friends out the gate. Now one of them was just like me. Transferred in from Wagner. And, you know, we're both filling out the school together.

Nice guy. You know, not overly nice. But nice guy. And the other one was overly nice. Like aggressively nice. Invited me to his house very quickly.

And was very nice out the gate. And what I began to learn about these two friends is that one of them was genuine. One of them was real. The other one flattered. All right.

He said nice things to you. I always say nice things about you when you weren't there. One friend, I went to, we went through high school together. We were actually going to college together. We were roommates in college. We're still friends this day.

The other one later in high school cheated with my girlfriend. Just two different types of friends. But one was flattering. It took some time to actually realize that. Because flattery is the enemy of sincerity. Flattery is the enemy of sincerity.

What's worse is that it sets people up for failure. Proverbs 29.5 says, A man who flatters his neighbor, again, here, friend, a man who flatters his neighbor, spreads a net for his feet. You know the kind of parents that really build their children up with a false sense of self-worth and value? They like really say lots of really overly not true but kind things to them. And then they go into the real world not set up for success. My parents never did that.

They were very genuine. When I was in the fourth grade, I did chorus. And I loved chorus. I loved to sing. And I thought, Man, this is fun. I'm going to sing in front of people.

And at the end of fourth grade chorus, I talked about wanting to continue doing it. My parents said, Well... And they were just like, You know, you like other... You're good at baseball. Like you... You like other things.

You know, it's good to see. It's good to see. And they were very kindly trying to help me see, You like singing. It may not be a gifting of yours. And I'm thankful for that because I didn't end up on American Idol. Y'all remember those people?

They get in front of... They get in front of millions of people on camera thinking that they were great. And they'd sing their hearts out. And then they would get absolutely destroyed. And no one ever loved them enough to sit them down and tell them, No, you should not sing in front of people like this. One o'clock in the morning at karaoke, in the shower, fair game.

But not in a performance setting. It sets you up for failure. When you are insincere with flattery and you are not earnest, you set them up for a trap. It is easy to flatter somebody. It's easy to say nice words. It's easy to say, Hey, you got a nice shirt.

Huh, you know what? That was a really good sermon today. Hey, you drive a really cool Prius. Like, it's easy to say nice things even when they're not true. It's easy. Because we like that.

We like saying nice things to people. Right? We like how it makes us feel. But hear this. If it doesn't fit into the biblical category of encouragement, which is based in reality, which is true. Encouraging words are true.

If it's not based in that, then the nice words you have to say aren't about your friend. They are for you. They're so you can be liked. They're so you can get a smile. You're not actually loving your friend. You are loving yourself.

Wise friends have candor and honesty. They don't shout, You go, girl, while you blow up your life and try to spend your life savings on a squirrel sanctuary or whatever you would do. Like they, they, they're not going to let you do that. In fact, when the time comes, they're going to rebuke you. Proverbs 27, 6 says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

So plentiful are the kisses of an enemy. It takes a true friend, someone who loves you enough to risk your friendship, to risk awkwardness, to rebuke you. This is huge because this is the reality. Many of us will measure friendships by how often our friends kiss us as opposed to wounding us. It's metaphorically, Proverbs is speaking metaphorically, kiss being nice things said to you as opposed to the rebuking, the wounds that come with rebuking. I have a friend.

I won't mention his name, but he is Australian. And he's really good at wounding me. He's what the Proverbs calls a very faithful friend. If you don't know that joke, it's Raz Bradley, one of our pastors, who is Australian. Now, he's not always tactful. We'll get to that in a moment.

But he is faithful to wound. A few years ago, I handled something poorly. I handled something. I did not lead well in a specific area. And there are many people that could have looked at what I did and could have made tons of excuses. Right?

Could have made excuse after excuse for why I failed in this area. But he didn't. He looked at me and he pointed exactly how I failed, where I needed to grow in leadership. And it hurt. It hurt. But it didn't kill me.

It wounded me. It did not kill me. It did not destroy me. And I've used that experience as a filter for my leadership in many decisions since and going forward. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. When a friend shares hard truths, they wound you.

And it is painful. But that pain is ultimately for your good. They are willing to risk painting the ones they love. They're not going to cheer you on and say, You go, girl. Go for it, dude. And not say, Man, we've got to sit down.

They're going to sit you down. They're going to rebuke you because they care about you. You need friends like this. You need friends who will stand in the way of you in self-destruction. You need friends who will stand in the way of you blowing up your life because they risked awkwardness. They risked friction enough to be able to sit you down and tell you truth.

We need people that sharpen us like that. Proverbs 27, 17 says, Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. Good friends make each other better. As iron sharpens iron. Would you have ever seen iron sharpening iron? Have you ever seen someone sharpen a knife?

It's gritty. It's metal on metal. Sometimes sparks are flying. But it's ultimately friction for the betterment of the instrument. That's what it is. That's what the Proverbs is getting at.

It's friction for our good. That someone would sharpen you. We need this. Because the reality is that you are shaped by the community around you. Your parents raise you. They put as many morals and values into you as possible.

Then you're off into the world. And for the rest of your life, you are shaped by the people around you. And we need people in our lives that sharpen us. Otherwise, we become dull. There's a pastor, Ray Ortman in Tennessee. He says, By ourselves, we become dull and blunted and lose our edge.

We need friends who will do that. Who will absolutely show and display this type of sincerity. All right. So, that's a few different areas that we see where the Proverbs calls us to be sincere friends. The next aspect of friendship you see in the Proverbs of wise friendship is tactfulness. We need friends that are wise.

Wise friends that have tact. That are thoughtful. The Proverbs calls us to be tactful in friendship. Which requires knowing your friends. All right.

It requires understanding boundaries. It requires understanding how to interact with them. You need to know your friends and be tactful with them. We get a few different pictures of tactfulness in the Proverbs. Proverbs 25, 17 says, Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you. Boundaries matter.

Boundaries matter. When I was a kid, one of my best friends lived about a mile away. We ride bikes to each other's house all the time. In the summertime, we spent a lot of time together. And I remember this one time, he was over at my house for like three days in a row. And I didn't understand what was happening, but I was getting agitated and frustrated.

And he was getting agitated and frustrated. And finally my mom said, Look, he's got to go home. He's been here for three straight days. You're getting on each other's nerves. It's too much. He's got to go home.

That's displaying this wisdom. That's what Ben Franklin says when he says, guests like fish begin to smell after three days. It's this idea that it's too much. Now, this is very important to know if you are an extrovert. If you don't understand the difference between extroverts and introverts, let me quickly explain. Extroverts, like myself, are fueled by people.

I can go from conversation to conversation. I can hang out with people three days in a row, three nights in a row. I can have all kinds of people in my life and I'm fueled by them. That's why extroverts are fueled by people. Introverts, not so much. Alright?

They're not fueled by people. They need time alone. They need time by themselves. It's a little bit of a continuum. It's a little bit of a scale. But introverts aren't fueled by people.

It doesn't mean they're not good with people. It just means they're not fueled by people. So, for those of you that are extroverts, you need to understand that boundaries matter. The Proverbs describes suffocating someone with your friendship like eating too much of the same food. It's like going to the same restaurant five times in a week and then saying, you know what? I've had enough.

I'll be back in three months. It's too much. You will get your fill and you will dislike it. So, if you're an extrovert, you might think, I could hang out with this person every day and it would never get old. No. It will get old.

It will probably get old faster for the other person but it will get old. We need to understand this, that boundaries matter. So, as extroverts, we need to know this and if you are more introverted, you need to love your extroverted friends enough to let them know that you need some space, that you need some boundaries and let it not be weird and let it not be something that offends you or gets insulted. We need to be able to understand and know one another, have the tact to know one another, to be able to navigate those situations. Some of our friends, our closest friends are the Freemans. So, Matt plays, he's a pastor over worship.

He's the guy playing up here on the guitar. They come over sometimes and about two hours into the night when they come over, I will, it's almost like clockwork. Matt is eventually going to start drifting away. Alright? He's going, and we laughed one time he ended up in front of the TV watching Frozen and we couldn't find him and all of a sudden he's staring up at Elsa singing and we're like, what are you doing? He drifts.

And what I've learned over the years is that after a couple of hours he just needs like ten minutes to himself. Alright? Because he's introverted. You may not know that about him because he's very good with people but he's actually introverted. He's not fueled by people. So, when that time in the evening comes where he drifts away to get on his phone for a moment to just be away, I don't go over and say, hey buddy, what you doing?

Can I get you a drink? Is there anything I can help you with? Come on, what's he going to come back and talk to us? I give him his space and I don't take it personal because I know that he just needs ten minutes and he's going to rally and come back. Alright? It takes tact, you guys.

It takes understanding that friends need boundaries. It's another aspect of tact. Proverbs 25, 20 gives us a second picture. It gives us the tactfulness to know how to read the room. How to read the room. Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day and like vinegar on soda.

Wise friends know how to read the room. They know how to not sing songs to a heavy heart. And that is something that's increasingly difficult for our culture because our culture is very obsessed with self. And tactfulness is not being obsessed with self, it's understanding the people around you. So, when your roommate bursts through the door and starts just joyfully, maybe not singing, but just saying, I love my job. My job is so great while the other roommate is on the couch in tears because they've been passed up for yet another Job after another bad interview.

That's the equivalent of taking a coat off of somebody on a cold winter day. It says, it's like vinegar on soda which in the Hebrew is a complicated saying but it essentially means pouring vinegar in the wound or as we use, probably the best paraphrase of this is salt in the wound. It's not loving. We have to understand and grow in Romans 12, 15, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And that takes understanding your friends and knowing how to read the room and see when they're sad and what to say and what not to say. Demetri Martin, a comedian, he has a joke.

He says, I'm sorry is the same thing as saying I apologize except at a funeral. There you go. It'll sink in later. But context matters. Knowing what to say matters and how to say things matters. It takes being tactful enough to know when to say the right things.

Know how to read the room. Proverbs 26, 18-19 gives us a different aspect of tactfulness. Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, I am only joking. It's like a madman is the one who fires away jokes like this and says, I'm only joking. Let me talk to let me talk to my fellow sarcastic sarcastic brothers and sisters. Those who appreciate the art of sarcasm and joking.

I love sarcasm. I do. And the Bible sometimes reads sarcastically and ironically in certain places. So I think that God appreciates sarcasm. At least on some level. However, you need to receive this proverb for the friend who is always joking in a way that makes you question reality.

I don't know if he's kidding. For the friend who passive-aggressively hides what they want to say in sarcastic digs. Alright? For the friend who qualifies their barbs, qualifies their digs, and says, just kidding, this is a joke, when their eyes are saying, but seriously, for the friend who doesn't know how to shift into serious mode when the time calls forth. It says, you are like a madman who gleefully launches flaming arrows into the hearts of your friends. It's like, ha ha!

I'll just point out your insecurity in front of everybody. It's hilarious. I'm just kidding. It's just a joke. That's what it's getting at. Here's the deal.

If everyone around you can't take a joke, it's very possible you don't know how to deliver one. And you need to receive this proverb. You've got to learn when it's appropriate to joke and when not to joke. And you need to know your friends well enough to know what type of jokes they receive. Chet Phillips and I are brutal towards one another. More brutal than I am with anybody else than he is with anybody else.

We are brutal towards one another. We feed off it and we love it. It's just our personalities is how we mix. That's our brand of humor. We're very brutal towards one another. It would be unloving to apply that type of humor to other people.

There are times where we're in the office and Ben Johnson who leads a community group in our church he also works for 1040 Hope they have space in our office. Every now and then Chet and I are going back and forth and Ben gets caught in the crossfire. And it's just so unkind because Ben doesn't understand sarcasm very well. Part of how he's raised is part of how he spent 10 years in the Middle East. He just doesn't understand it very well. And it's just mean.

It's just like no. You've got to learn to downshift. You've got to learn to know which friends to press in with a joke and pull out of a joke. It takes tactfulness to know our friends and to know what they receive well. I've got you one more proverb on the subject matter of tactfulness. I won't spend a lot of time on this.

Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing. Which is pretty self-explanatory. Don't yell joyfully at your neighbor in the morning and be counted as cursing. The only thing I have to say on that is that my wife is not a morning person. And sometimes when she comes in here after she's, you know, Sunday morning she's brought all three kids by herself and she's not a morning person. I'm thankful that we have so many people who greet and greet well.

Continue to do it. Just don't take it personal when she has a blank stare in her face because she has no poker face and she just came in with three children and mornings are difficult for her. Alright, that proverb is self-explanatory. I'm going to move on from that. Wise friends have tact. And also, lastly, wise friends are reliable.

Wise friends are reliable. Proverbs 17, 7 says, A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity. You've heard said that you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family. And that kind of rolls a little bit into some of these Proverbs. The idea is that brothers, family, they're born for adversity. Meaning, they're going to be there.

There's a familial obligation that they have to be with you when times get difficult. But your friends don't have to be. They don't have to be there. But good friends choose to be there. Good friends choose to love you at all times. Even in the midst of adversity, they are reliable.

Are you the kind of friend who will sacrifice your schedule for another when they're in trouble? Are you the kind of friend who will stay long into the night if that's what it takes? It's getting at reliability here. Loving at all times. I like to think of myself as a good friend. And then on this subject matter right here, I feel my selfishness in this.

When I see something and want to help somebody, I'll network a need. I'm fairly good at that. I say, hey, yeah, let me see if I can help. And sometimes it's good. Yesterday, I was supposed to help with something and I'm behind on work right now, so I came to the building and I worked in the morning and the afternoon to get some stuff done. And I networked a need and be able to get something done.

But there are times where I feel my own selfishness. I want to guard my time and guard my schedule and not love at all times. I want to be the reliable friend of the Proverbs, the Bible calls me to be. We need to be reliable friends. And we need reliable friends. Proverbs 18.24 says, a man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Now the Hebrew word for friend here is a little bit different. It's a little bit stronger of a word. This word is the word ocheb and it is the idea of deep love for one. It's a deep pure affection for someone. It's the kind of sacrificial love that we see in 1 Samuel between Jonathan and David. I don't have time to get in that story today, but I would encourage you to go read 1 Samuel.

Go to 1 Samuel 18 and read about one of the most powerful friendships in the Bible. That Jonathan had this ocheb type of love for David. And it was at his own cost. Because Jonathan was the son of the king. He was the son of King Saul. And David was the next anointed king.

And he loved David at his own cost because loving and helping and serving David meant he was not going to be king. That's the type of sacrificial loving ocheb type of friendship that it's talking about here. The friend who sticks closer than a brother. It means that the bond is powerful. It's more powerful even than family. Because you are choosing to be there.

You are choosing to be a friend. It's deep. There's depth in this type of friendship. And that's pitted against having lots of companions. If you have lots of companions, if you have lots of people that you call friends, but you don't let them into your life, they don't know your junk, they don't, they're not, they're, you keep yourself private and fenced off. You don't have friends.

You get a lot of companions. And when it all hits the fan, when life gets difficult, you need friends. You don't need companions because they won't stick around. You need friends. Go back to the Proverbs 27 that we stated at the beginning. Verse 9, Oil and perfume make the heart glad and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.

That's getting at the sincerity piece. That you would give sincere, earnest, heartfelt counsel. But verse 10, it says, Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. And the point that it's getting at is that you don't go to family who may not be in it with you, who may be distant in the day of calamity. You need friends in the day of trouble.

You need people that know you, that love you, that are reliable when the day of trouble comes near. So, wise friends are sincere, wise friends are tactful, and wise friends are reliable. These are the types of friends, of wise friends that you need. Now, I don't know if you see what I did there, but I did the most Baptist thing I think I've ever done outside of baptizing believers. I gave you an acronym. Be a star friend.

There we go. Sincere, tactful, and reliable. Nailed it. There's a professor in Louisville, one of my Baptist professors, who's shedding a tear right now, because I finally did an acronym after 12 plus years of being a Baptist. Be a star friend. Sincere, tactful, and reliable.

You are not going to forget that soon. Alright, that is wise friendship. Let's talk about true friendship. friendship. Anyone feel like they're missing those type of friends? Star friends, sincere, tactful, reliable? Anyone feel, if they're honest, like they're not really crushing being a star friend themselves?

You're not being as sincere as you need to be, as tactful as you need to be, as reliable as you need to be? when you read the Proverbs and what it has to say about friendship, you either leave a little bit disappointed or if you're convicted, like you should be, a little bit defeated. Defeated because you realize how selfish we are, how self-centered we are, that we've got, you know, schedules and lives and busyness and all kinds of things that pile up or if you really start to be honest with yourself, sometimes realize that so many of our friendships are just based in utility, they're based in, it's just for your use and your gain and not for the benefit of someone else. You realize how selfish you are, and some of you are introverted like, I ain't never going to be a star friend, this is very hard, or you feel a little bit disappointed because you're left longing, because you realize your current friends, while good, they don't satisfy, and life is consistently shifting, and the good friends that you make, they move away, or you move away, I mean, even TV shows like Friends and How I Met Your Mother Get This, they end with the friend groups are changing because life moves on, I mean, life can be an endless string of disappointments when it comes to friendships, and many of us are left longing for friendships in this world, for comfort that comes from them, if you feel defeated, if you feel disappointed, I have good news for you, there are no perfect friendships in this world, it is a pipe dream to think that any friend in this world could ever satisfy your soul, and that is because true friendship is found in Christ, true friendship is found in Christ, Christ the friend of sinners and tax collectors, the true friendship is found in and flows from Christ, John 15, 13, we read this earlier, greater love has no one than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends, and who was it that laid down his life for his friends? Christ ultimately fulfills that, he is the only one that personifies perfectly this type of love, this type of friendship, he is the only one that is perfectly sincere, perfectly tactful, perfectly reliable, he is the only friend who does not abandon us, who never lets us down, that type of friendship is found in Christ, John Newton wrote a hymn, the hymn is called A Friend That Sticketh Closer Than a Brother, it is based on Proverbs 18, 24, in the hymn he says this and reflected upon friendship and how Christ fulfills it, he says, could we bear from one another and what he daily bears from us, yet this glorious friend and brother loves us, though we treat him thus, though for good we render ill, he accounts us brethren still, how good is that?

That Christ, our perfect friend, loves us in spite of how bad we are towards him, in spite of how of a bad friend we are towards Christ, that he loves us and counts us as friends, counts us as family, how good it is that we have a perfect true form of friendship that's found in Christ. That type of friendship only comes from the acceptance and forgiveness that is not of this world. That no matter what, Jesus doesn't walk away from those whom he counts as friends. And we need to believe that. We need to absorb that. Because friends will fail us.

They're sinful. They will. Friends will absolutely let us down. They will abandon us. They will forsake us. They will forget us.

They will move on. Paul felt this. Paul, at the end of his life, when he's writing 2 Timothy, just before he was going to be executed, he wrote in chapter 4, he described how he was abandoned by one man who fell in love with the world. He had other friends who left and went to help with other churches. And he was basically left alone with the exception of Luke who was nearby. And in the midst of all of this, in verse 16, he says, at first my defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me.

May it not be charged against them. Anybody feel that? You've been deserted? You've been hurt by friends? You've been stabbed in the back? And he goes on to say, verse 17, the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.

He gets it. That friends, they're going to fail you. But we have a true friend in Christ that does not fail. That he was strengthened by Christ. Remember Proverbs 18, 24, the one who sticks closer than a brother, that Oheb type of love that we're longing for, that we desire, that friendship is ultimately found and offered in Christ. Jesus, deeply, and hear this, deeply loves you.

Y'all, he's a friend that doesn't grow tired of hearing about your problems. You've been in a situation where you're talking to a friend, you're telling him about your issues, and you've got a lot going on after like 15, 20, 30, I don't know how long it takes, but you just look at their eyes and they're just a little bit tired, and they're kind of done. You've shared a lot. Jesus never grows tired of hearing your problems. Never. You can go to him at any point.

He's inexhaustible, guys. You can go to him over and over. He actually will take it. He wants it. He desires to hear from us. How good is that?

You ever feel like you're a burden to any of your friends? Jesus, you are not a burden to him. You can never be a burden to Christ. In fact, he wants your burdens. He wants you to bring them to him. He wants to hear from you.

You know how you long for a friend that understands you, that gets you? You know, frustrating that is, that you feel like people don't understand you? Jesus understands you and gets you better than anyone else, including yourself. That is the friend we have in Christ, the friend who never abandons us. There is no friend in this world that matches that of Christ. And yet, we're a bad friend back to Jesus, that we treat him illfully, as John Newton wrote.

That we aren't good friends back to him, and yet, he's there. And Paul got this. That's why he was strengthened by Christ in the lowest moments of his life. He found his strength and the friend that we have in Jesus. Will you do the same? Will you see the friend that we have in Christ?

Will you see the true friend that we have in Christ? Because true friendship comes from him, and ultimately, true friendship flows from him. And that is how friendship is redeemed. That's the last aspect I want us to see, that friendship can be redeemed. None of us can be the friend that Jesus calls us to be, but ultimately, that friendship, that true friendship that Jesus provides, it flows from him, and ultimately flows through us. 1 John 4.19 says, We love because he first loved us, meaning the ability to love others with an internal type of love, that comes from Christ.

It comes from Christ, because he first loved us. The ability to be the true and wise friend that we are called to be, it comes from Christ. It's ultimately encountering him as our one true, perfect friend, so that we can befriend others in the way that God calls us to. So, I have some questions for us to think through. And we're not going to resolve these right now, but I want you to receive these, and these are actually going to be in your group content this week for community groups. You'll be able to walk through these questions again.

But I want you to, maybe if you want to jot these down, if you want to take a picture of any of this, again, it will show up later this week. But I want you to work through some of these questions, because we need friendship to be redeemed. First question, are you willing to give earnest counsel, earnest, heartfelt, heartfelt counsel, as it's described in Proverbs 27, 9? Are we willing to do that? Which, by the way, takes a lot of work, you guys. When Jesus tells us to give counsel, it's the first thing he tells us to do.

Check the log in your eye, make sure that's out, take that out, look at the speck in your brothers, then you've got to use some tactfulness and realize that maybe you don't need to give counsel that's all at once, maybe you need to spread that out over multiple conversations because it might be too much to receive. It takes a lot of work to give earnest, heartfelt counsel. Are you doing this? Are you giving earnest counsel to those who need it, to those whom you call friends? Second, are you willing to risk your friendship enough to wound them even if it does not go well? Even if it doesn't go well?

Are you willing to take that type of risk? or are you holding back on a difficult conversation because it is going to be very uncomfortable for you because it is going to be very difficult for you because if you're doing that, you're doing it for your benefit and not for theirs. You're thinking of yourself and you're not thinking of your friend. Are you willing to risk your friendship enough to wound them even if it might not go well? Are you sincere enough to talk to your friends and not about them? Are you sincere enough to talk to them and not about them with others? To love them enough to go and talk to them?

We say that all the time in our church family. We say have you talked to them first and not about them? Are you sincere? Do you flatter instead of encourage? Do you flatter instead of encourage? Are the kind words that you have to say to somebody about you so that you can feel good?

Is it just flattery? Or does it fit in the biblical category of encouragement? Do you sharpen those around you or do you complain only about not being sharpened yourself? Are you seeking to sharpen those around you or is your consistent complaint well I'm not being sharpened enough, I'm not being loved enough, I'm not being poured into enough? Do you overwhelm, actually let's skip one, are you so blunt that you lacked tact? Are you so blunt that you lacked tact?

That maybe you even just excuse your bluntness as oh I'm just being real, I'm just being honest, if they can't handle that, no, are you striving to be tactful or are you too blunt for your friends to receive what you have to say? do you overwhelm your friends because you are looking for fulfillment from them and not Christ? Are you running to friends thinking that they're the one that's going to bring you fulfillment, they're the ones that are going to bring you comfort, they're the ones that are going to bring you joy? That applies also to your spouse. Are you looking to others for fulfillment instead of finding your comfort in Christ?

Is your joking or sarcasm hurtful? or joy filled? Is your joking, is your sarcasm, is it painful to others? Have you even considered that? That maybe the ways in which you joke actually cause pain? Are you a friend who loves at all times or is friendship about your good? Meaning are friendships just utility and for your benefit?

Let me have one qualification to this. For those of you that are out of sight and out of mind? Right? The kind of person that if someone in your life isn't directly in your line of sight, if they're not in your life immediately, then they're completely out of your mind. I want you to wrestle with that question about loving at all times. I'm not arguing, listen, I'm not arguing that you have to have endless capacity for friendships and that all the friendships you have that you maintain over life, I'm not saying that.

But you need to ask yourself the really tough question, are friendships about my enjoyment, about my good and my benefit, and when they're not in my community group anymore, I forget them. When they're not in my immediate life anymore, I forget them, I'm not reliable, I won't be there for them. That's a question you need to wrestle with. Do you love at all times, or is your friendship ultimately for your utility, your benefit, your use, and your good? Those are just a few questions that I want you to consider. And we'll have some time to talk through them in group this week.

You may need to have some conversations today, or later this week, as you absorb some of these. And here's the deal. You may hear all of this, you may feel a little bit defeated, you may feel a little bit longing. I want you to know and believe this, that Christ ultimately comforts us as the one true friend. He comforts us in our failures to be the friends that we need to be. and that he goes to work on our hearts, softens them, so that we might display the kind of love that is needed for friendship in order to be redeemed as the friends that we need to be. Christ, our true friend, can redeem our friendships for his glory and for our good.

Matt's going to come up, and I want us to take some time and maybe just reflect on any of these questions that stuck out to you.

Wisdom and Womanhood (Proverbs 31:1-31)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Wisdom and Womanhood

Matt Freeman

Transcript

Thank you. Who's man enough to teach on womanhood? Go ahead and grab a Bible.

If you grab one of the blue ones, we're going to be Proverbs 31. That's page 318. If you need a Bible that's large print, the black ones in the rows are large print Bibles. Just ask your neighbor, say, I need one of those. If you don't have a Bible, would love for you to take one of those blue ones with you. That's our gift to you.

And especially as we walk through the Proverbs. The Proverbs talk a ton about wisdom. And having a Bible and reading the Bible is kind of step one. But what the Proverbs present to us is how to live a life of wisdom and to avoid a life of folly or a life of foolishness. And the Proverbs are going to talk about manhood and womanhood. And the passage we're looking at today is kind of the quintessential passage on biblical womanhood.

So go ahead and take a look. We'll look at verse 1. The words of King Lemuel, an oracle, an oracle being a teaching or a saying. We don't really use that word a whole lot. But an oracle that his mother taught him.

The words of King Lemuel, an oracle that his mother taught him. Now, we don't know that much about King Lemuel. He wasn't one of the kings of Israel. It's possible that he was a king from the surrounding area. But what we do know is that when Lemuel was asked about wisdom, what he shared were things that his mom taught him.

That he actually lived a life that was shaped by the wisdom sayings from his mother. And the truth is I resonate with that. My whole life has been shaped by godly biblical women. When I think about my grandmothers, my mom's mom isn't with us anymore. But she was a wonderful person, had a wonderful personality, was always smiling, had a song in her mouth, singing hymns.

Like some of my favorite memories are at her house. My dad's mom loves the Lord. I was just talking with Louise before we got started today. My grandmother is 83, and she just kind of stopped being a volunteer secretary at her church. My mom raised me to love the Lord, discipled me, taught me how to follow Jesus. I am married to a godly biblical woman who loves the Lord.

When I first met her, I was blown away by that, how much she loved the Lord. And I think about the women in my community group. I think about the women in our church. My life has been shaped by godly women. And when you look at King Lemuel, when he shares wisdom, it's coming from his mother. And so if you've been around the church, you have probably heard Proverbs 31 talked about in some form or fashion.

It is kind of that quintessential passage on biblical womanhood. But when I talk to females, a lot of times they look at Proverbs 31 with a mixture of both awe and anxiety. Like, how amazing is this woman and what on earth? In fact, some of you got antsy this morning when you realized that's what we were talking about. You're going, oh, not again. I don't want to do that.

But how you read Proverbs 31 has everything to do with how you understand it and how you live in light of it. So I want to put two things against each other. You can't read Proverbs 31 like it's a women's blog. This is not a mom blog. Every once in a while, Katie shows me some of the things she finds on the Internet. It's like 12 ways to be a mom and still slay in the business world.

Like 43 ways to know whether you're a good mom or not. Like, ladies, when you read those, are they ever really all that helpful? Don't you just kind of get to the end and you're just depressed? They're mostly written by people who are just really good at this one little thing. And they wrote about it and you get to the end of it and it wasn't helpful. And they just kind of wanted to brag on themselves.

That's not how you read Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31 is not a checklist. It's not a scoreboard. The way we look at Proverbs 31 has got to be way more like an adventure story. It's got to be way more like an adventure story. When I was growing up, my mom would read to me at night.

She'd read me all kinds of stories. But some of my favorite ones were the adventure stories. You know the type. It's about the knight in shining armor. And there's this mission that someone has to go on. And he volunteers for it.

And he goes off by himself. And he meets people along the way. He befriends the lonely. They become his band of travelers. They come across a village that's on fire. And they all rush in and rescue all the people.

And along the journey, they come under attack by marauders. And he takes an arrow in the chest. He just like breaks it off. And he doesn't have food for 43 days. Gets to the castle and still slays the dragon and gets the princess. It's an adventure story.

The point of the story is not that you would take an arrow to the chest and break it off. The reason we love those stories is because of the values they highlight. Courage. Sacrifice. Bravery. Friendship.

Love. That's what we get in Proverbs 31. There are a lot of specific examples that are brought up in Proverbs 31. But it's not a checklist. It's not a scoreboard. The reason it's talked about as an ideal is that it's an ideal.

No one woman could ever possibly do all of the things that are talked about here. So our goal today is going to be walk through the specific examples. And we're going to see some values rise to the top. And we're going to look at those and see how we might respond to it. And then we're going to see how the gospel is good news to every woman who chooses to pursue a wise life of following Jesus. Okay?

So that's how we're going to look at it today. And men. Men. Don't tune out. You've got to learn how to support your wives as they try to work through this. Some of you are raising daughters.

Some of you guys are single guys and you're looking for what kind of woman do I want to pursue. Men. You exist in community groups with women who are trying to chase after this. So today is actually very important for our church family to understand what is scripture calling us to here. Okay? So let's pray before we hop into the bulk of this text.

God, we need your help. God, we need you to show us how the good news of the gospel brings hope to women as they pursue you, as they pursue wisdom, so that all of us might respond to this incredibly well. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so let's kind of get back to the beginning again. Proverbs 31 is broken up into two sections. The first one isn't specific to womanhood, but it does have some wise things that King Luke's name is.

Lemuel's mother shares with him. And then the back half is where the stuff on womanhood comes from. And so we're going to blitz through this a little bit quickly, but go ahead and look at chapter 31, verse 1. It says this. The words of King Lemuel, an oracle that his mother taught him. What are you doing, my son?

What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? So what's the first thing King Lemuel remembers? What are you doing? Any moms or parents resonate with that? Like the next time that just flows out of your mouth to your child, like, remember, that's biblical.

Maybe like give yourself a pat on the back. One of the commentaries I read called this affectionately reproachful. It's like, son, I love you, but what on earth? I'll be honest. That's a lot of how wisdom came to me as a child. But it is.

It's this mother talking to her son. And then verse 3, we begin to see some of the wisdom that she shares. Verse 3. Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel. It is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to take strong drink.

Lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to the one who is perishing and wine to those in bitter distress. Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth. Judge righteously.

Defend the rights of the poor and needy. So the mother of the king says, don't chase women and don't chase drunkenness. That's a good word, right? So basically she says, don't be the kind of person that is driven by lust or by desire. She says, don't chase women. Listen, we get a king in scripture who needed to hear that, right?

That's the story of King David. King David didn't go to war with his troop. He's back home. He goes up on the roof. He sees Bathsheba and the rest of that story goes terribly. He needed that wisdom.

Don't pursue drunkenness. Don't use it to put away your misery or to get things from your mind. Treat alcohol appropriately. Why? Because you've got God-given responsibilities that you've been called to. Judge righteously.

Defend the weak. Defend the poor. And so while this isn't specific to womanhood, what we do get a picture of here is a woman who had huge impact on her son. When I think about the ladies in our church, the women all across this room, and the impact that you guys have in all kinds of different spheres, you have the ability to have this kind of effect, this kind of impact. It helps shape King Lemuel. Now we're going to transition again into the passage that is specifically about being a woman of wisdom.

And I want to say this again. The point of this is not to get all hung up in the nitpicky details. I think there are parts of the details that are helpful depending on your situation and depending on your context. But what we're hoping to do is walk through these verses and hope that values begin to rise to the top because values can be applied in a whole wealth of context. And then we're going to post up and say, okay, what did we learn? What did we learn about those values?

Okay? Verse 10. An excellent wife who can find. She is far more precious than jewels. An excellent wife who can find. Or an excellent woman.

See, this whole passage is framed by the idea of showing us the excellent life or woman. And the way he ends is he addresses women. It's the same word in Hebrew. He says they are far more precious, far more valuable than wealth. Men, see that. See the wealth of a godly biblical woman.

Women, see the intrinsic wealth and value. That you have given to you by God. Far more precious than jewels. Verse 11. The heart of her husband trusts in her. And he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good and not harm all the days of her life. The heart of her husband trusts in her. She's trustworthy. He feels safe and secure around her. There's no need for hiding. There's no need for pretense.

Her words and her actions are honest. She's reliable. She comes through. And it says she does him good and not harm. I like that it says both. It's not just that she does him good.

She also intentionally tries not to harm him. That's a good thing. But what this basically could say is that she does him all good all the time. It says all the days. When I think about all the days, that reminds me of wedding vows. I've had the opportunity to preach some of the weddings of the couples in this room.

And when you think about the vows they make to each other, maybe the traditional vows, for richer or poorer in sickness and in health, till death do us part. She's in. She's steadfast. He is secure in her. Verse 13. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands.

She's like the ships of the merchant. She brings her food from afar. Now, that's a little bit lost on us because not many of us, not many of you women are making clothes at home. Like you don't just have a pile of flax in a closet. If you do, that's cool. If that's your thing, you know, into DIY and making clothes.

But what I want to emphasize here is the value. This isn't, it's not just about the contextual point. It says that she works with willing hands. So whatever she's been given, whatever she's doing, she's working with willing hands. This isn't begrudging submission. She's taking the opportunity that she's been given and she's working hard.

And she's willing to go to great lengths. It compares her to ships of the merchant. The merchant ships would go out and they would cross the seas and they'd have to fight against waves and weather. And they would go get the goods and they would risk themselves to bring back goods for the people. So it shows us a woman who is willing to work with willing hands and to go to great lengths for those that are entrusted to her.

Those that she cares about. You see that? See how beautiful that is? Verse 15. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She's diligent.

It says she gets up early. Like super early. It says while it is yet night. Like she wakes the rooster up. This woman is working hard. She is diligent and she's doing so so that she can provide food for her house and maidens.

And again, don't get wrapped up in the thing that she's doing. See her willingness to sacrifice for the good of those around her. You see that? She's willing to sacrifice and get up super early so that she can love and care for those around her. Verse 16. She considers a field and buys it.

With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. Y'all, we're like, I don't know, six verses in. And she's hustling. Right? She's making clothes. She's working with her hands.

She's getting up early. She's providing food for her house. Here's the point I want to make, though. She's not a prisoner in her own home. You see that? She's out considering a field and buying it.

She's entrusted. She has authority. She has leadership to make some decisions and to execute some plans. And so I want to pause for a second. This isn't a main point of this passage, but I do think it's helpful to point out. When you look at the totality of Scripture, Scripture talks a ton about how women are well-suited as image bearers of God to nurture children and to care for the home.

They're well-suited for it. It's part of how God created them. It's part of what He poured into them. And y'all know that's true. If you had to put women and men beside each other, you know who's more nurturing and caring. It's a beautiful aspect of the way that they get to bear God's image to the world.

It's modeled after Jesus. They get to serve like Jesus. And so we yes and amen where Scripture talks about that. But this verse shows that that's not all she's doing. She bought a field and she planted a vineyard. And so when King Lemuel's mom is describing a woman of wisdom, she doesn't choose between a housewife and a woman working outside the home.

She holds up both as beautiful and valid. And so what I want to say to husbands and wives in the room is that this is something you've got to talk about and work at together. Each family is different. Every couple is different. Your life, the things that you have to do, you have different seasons in life that are going to require different things of husbands and wives. Sometimes one is going to be diminished while the other takes greater weight in terms of responsibility.

And this is something that Katie and I worked at together. So for those of you who know my wife, know she is brilliant. She is unbelievably talented and gifted. She got her bachelor's degree and then she went and got a master's in middle level science. And so when we moved to Plant Mill City Church, she was able to get a job as a middle school teacher. She was able to get a master's degree and did incredibly successful, did a great job.

But when she got pregnant with Emmy, we sat down at the table and discussed and talked about how do we want to do this. And she said, Matt, I want to stay home. I want to stay home with our children. I want to care for them. I want to serve and sacrifice and be a blessing to our family. And honestly, it was a sacrifice for our whole family because I don't know if y'all know this, but church planting is not a lucrative adventure.

But we looked at it and saw it as something that is good and valuable. And it's been a blessing. She's continued to work. She's done part time jobs. And we've talked about when the time comes, when the girls are in school, that that she's she's got opportunities in front of her. But but husbands and wives, we talked about it.

Every family is different. Talk about it. Pray about it. Wrestle with what Scripture says and then live in light of it. Let's keep going.

Verse 17. Says she dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. Dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. Basically, that means she does CrossFit. Not really. If she did CrossFit, it would be written here because you're legally required to tell people if you do CrossFit.

Have I have I mentioned that I did CrossFit? OK, here's literally what it means is that she's gotten herself physically prepared for what's ahead. This is not about curls and planks, though maybe. But it means that she's gotten herself physically prepared for what's ahead. Verse 18. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.

Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. She's still working, making clothes, buying fields, planting vineyards, selling merchandise. It says her lamp does not go out at night. So not only does she get up while it's night, she lights the lamp and stays up at night.

That's terrifying. Because you read that and you go, OK, so to be a wise woman, I have to burn the candle at both ends, right? Again, this is one of the pictures that should show us this is an ideal. If you get up super early and go to bed super late every night, you actually can't accomplish what verse 17 calls you to. That you would be physically prepared for what's in front of you. See that?

In fact, the value being held up here is a woman who works hard and makes sacrifices to do that. But don't get hung up on those details. Verse 20. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. Two things I want to point out here.

One is that she's generous. She's a generous lady. I think about the women in this room. This room is full of generous women. And so the reason she can do that is that she's worked hard. She's taken care of things.

And so she's not only generous to her loved ones. She has eyes for those that are needy around her. She sees the poor and she is generous towards them. The other thing is that she's prepared. She's not afraid of snow for her household. Obviously, she's up in the third watch of the night making scarves.

She's not worried about the snow. But because of her preparations, everyone around her is secure. Good news for you ladies is that you live in the south. This really isn't a skill you've got to worry about. Except for like once every ten years, the skill you need to be worried about is like how to shank someone when you're going to get bread and milk at the grocery store. So like up in your room at night, like working on your skills.

Not necessarily making warm clothes. But she's generous. And because of her preparations, people around her are secure. Verse 22. She makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

She makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Does this mean she makes bed coverings and fine linen clothes for herself? Yes. Is it possibly highlighting something more? Also yes.

Talking about bed coverings and fine linen. And you may feel uncomfortable. Just imagine Lemuel having this conversation with his mom about bed coverings and fine linen. Oh mom, stop. Gross. Ew.

But the point here is that a woman of wisdom pursues her husband. Now, everything we've talked about so far is pursuit of her husband. The way that she loves. The way that she serves. The way that she gives of her time. But also, part of that is pursuing her husband intimately.

So that they can be connected. So that there can be oneness and love and joy in their house. Verse 23. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. That's awesome. This wife's hard work and her character are so on display that when people connect her husband to her, it boosts his reputation.

That his reputation is better because she is his wife. And so ladies, that's I think the thread to draw through there is when someone connects you to someone else. Whether that's your siblings or your parents or your children or the people in your community group. And they go, oh, oh, they know each other. Does that lift that person in their eyes? Do they think well of them because they're acquainted with you?

Verse 24. She makes linen garments and sells them. She delivers sashes to the merchant. I've lost count of jobs at this point. I mean, she's doing a good job. She's got lots of side hustles.

She's on it. Verse 25. Strength and dignity are her clothing. And she laughs at the time to come. I love this one. Strength and dignity are her clothing.

Not talking about her actual appearance. Not her actual clothing. But strength and dignity are so much a part of her character and conduct that they seem to her as clothing. To a watching world. She laughs at the time to come because she's prepared. Verse 26.

She opens her mouth with wisdom. And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. A woman of wisdom speaks wisdom. A woman of wisdom speaks wisdom. Well, where does wisdom come from? Wisdom comes from the Lord.

Wisdom comes from His Word. A girl knows her Bible. She knows how to teach it. And how to use it to build others up and to teach and to correct. A woman whose mouth is filled with wisdom so that she can be helpful and gracious. Verse 27.

She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. If there was a verse that could have just been left out, it's that one. Like, she's not lazy. You know. Like, she is working hard. There's no one who's arguing that this lady is being idle.

Her children rise up and call her blessed. And her husband also. And he praises her. Love that. Listen. I love to hear my daughters talk about their mom.

I love it. I love to hear them tell her that they love her. That when they sit at our kitchen table and they're drawing pictures, they're drawing pictures of mom and for mom. When we sit down to eat dinner, they want to sit beside their mom. When it comes time for bed, they want mom to put them to bed. They love their mom.

And that's a beautiful thing. And Spencer said this out the gate. And I just want to second it. If you have a relationship with your mom. It's Mother's Day. If there's one thing that you can call and thank your mom for and praise her for, please do that.

Do that. It says her children rise up and call her blessed. Husbands. I want to challenge you. Because the way that children love to rise up and call their mom blessed is that they have first seen that modeled. They have heard you blessing and praising your wife.

Men. They have heard you in your community group talking in a good way about the women in your group. It also says her husband praises her. So husbands. Take that as a challenge. Like how are your words gracious towards your wife?

Are you pointing out the good things in her? Are you only pointing out the things that you wish were different? So as we walk through this list today, don't have a scorecard in your mind either that like on the car ride home you're going to be like, well, it talked about. First of all, the Father's Day sermon is coming. So don't.

I mean. But men, let's be men of character who see the women in our church for who they are and how hard they work and how much they give themselves. Verse 29. This is kind of the ending here. It's getting to the end. It's in quotes.

It says, Many women have done excellently, but you surpassed them all. Right? Right? The ideal woman that is described here. Amazing characteristics. It is excellent.

But again, the picture, what we need to remember here is that the picture of the ideal woman is just that. It's an ideal. Women. You cannot perfectly embody this. That is not the point of it. But I hope that even as we walk through, you could see a theme.

Again, you saw different values that were beginning to rise to the top. And there's a lot that you can pull out of this passage, but I just want to highlight four. Okay? I want to highlight four for us that are beautiful. And I want to say this. I want to keep saying it.

I see these four characteristics in the women in our church. This is beautiful. I see these. I think you're going to see it too. First one is this. It says, Now, she takes care of the poor.

Her posture is to be focused on others. She sacrifices. She gets up early. She does all these things because she's learned the joy of living a life focused on others. And again, don't get focused on the specifics. Don't get wrapped up in the little nitpicky details.

You could really put anything in here that's focused on other people, and it computes. It gives evidence to this. Here's just a few. A woman of wisdom gives up time in her schedule to talk to you on the phone when you're struggling. A woman of wisdom looks at you and says, Hey, can I watch your kids for you? You seem tired.

A woman of wisdom claps when she sees another woman succeeding or getting opportunities rather than being jealous. You can stretch this line across every aspect of our life because it's a value. And so ladies, I think one of the, and really for all of us, but ladies specifically, I think you can think about what do my thought patterns look like? The words that I say, the things that I do. Am I thinking about myself most of the time? Or do I have a concern in my mind for the needs of others?

When I speak, am I just talking about myself or for my own gain? Or am I building others up? How I use my social media stuff? My actions, are they focused on others or are they just self-serving? And the truth is we see this modeled in Jesus. When Jesus is asked, what's the greatest commandment?

He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. So Jesus tells us right there that the key to a wise life, a full life, is that we would love God and love other people. And there's a ton of joy there. And I'll be honest, guys, this was modeled for me. My mom embodied this through and through. My mom embodied this.

So by the time I was born, my mom had graduated from Clemson. She was, which tells you how wise she is. She was teaching. My brother had already been born. They had found someone to watch my brother. But when it came time for me to be born, her and my dad made the decision for her to stay at home.

My mom was a good teacher. And so her job became getting us to ball practices and getting us to school and taking care of us and taking care of our home. And you might think that she had put her teaching on the back burner. But no, she was selfless. She was others focused. That became teaching Sunday school.

That became teaching VBS. That became teaching and counseling and caring for women. As she taught with other ladies in our church on the phone. As she volunteered as a part of our senior adult ministry. As she took pictures at my wrestling matches and gave them away for free. My mom embodied a selfless, others focused life.

And I want to say this. My mom's value did not come from her being focused on others. It was evidence of the value she knew she had in Jesus. Which gave her the heart and the example to follow how to serve and love others. Second thing. A woman of wisdom cares more about her character than her beauty.

A woman of wisdom cares more about her character than her beauty. We've already seen that this woman is generous. That she's not known for the things that she wears. She's clothed with dignity. The way she holds herself and carries herself. The way she spends her time.

The way she gives of her heart and her service. When she opens her mouth to share wisdom. It says it's kind. There's kindness. And there's a difference between kindness and niceness. Niceness just tells people what they want to hear.

To make them feel good. Kindness knows when wisdom is appropriate for building up. And when wisdom is appropriate to help correct. But you see this embodied in her character. One of the ones I love here is that in verse 12 it says. Remember it says the heart of her husband trusts in her.

This is my wife. I trust my wife. I can be wide open with her. I'll tell you all this story. Katie and I met each other. We were working at a church together.

And you know sparks were flying. You could tell. Like we liked each other. But we weren't dating yet. But one Sunday morning after church service.

We decided to go eat lunch together. So we went to Subway. That's right. We went to Subway. There's not that much in Clinton. Okay.

Clinton, South Carolina. But we went to Subway. And I don't know what happened. But we sat there for hours. And I just felt so comfortable with her. That I just opened up.

I shared stuff from my past. I shared my insecurities. I talked about sin struggles. Things I wasn't proud of in my past. I talked about where I was currently struggling. And since that day.

My heart has not stopped trusting in my wife. I love that. I feel safe with her. I don't have to hide. There's no room for pretense. She makes me feel safe.

Now dating advice. Guys. That worked out well for me. Don't do that. Don't do that. Might not work out good for you.

God was gracious. God is good. Number three. A woman of wisdom finds joy in all situations. A woman of wisdom finds joy in all situations. Now this one's a little bit harder to see.

But it's evident. You see it in adjectives like. She works with willing hands. At no point do you see her slacking or being idle. You don't see any contempt in the things that she does. She's come to find the joy in all situations.

And whether she's at home or planting a field or making food. She finds joy in all situations. She finds joy in all situations. Because. She has learned that obedience. In the tasks that God has called her to.

That's where joy can actually exist. Because when the Bible talks about joy. It's not talking about happiness. It talks. It's more reflective of a deep seated satisfaction. In knowing who God is.

And what he's done. In knowing who you are. And who God's called you to be. That whether things are good. Or things are bad. Or you're doing things you want to.

Or not doing things. Or doing things you don't want to do. You find your joy. In the Lord. That doesn't mean. That.

You might not have to check your heart sometimes. That your motivations. Might not be great. That you might not want to work with willing hands. You might not want to be kind. Or generous.

But what I want to point out here is that. In those moments. The woman who. Repents. Of that heart. Repents of those attitudes.

Gets the joy of the Lord restored to her. Because she's going. I want to choose something better. I'm going to choose. Joy. I repent of my heart.

My action. My attitude. I'm going to choose to find joy. In all of these situations. The fourth thing is this. And this one.

It's the easiest. It's why I put it last. A woman of wisdom. Works hard. No doubt. No doubt.

We've seen it all over the place. It's working with willing hands. It's going to great lengths. It's rising early. Going to bed late. Considering a field.

Buying it. Planting it. Selling stuff. Making stuff. I mean. She contributes to the world.

But. Ladies. I think it's helpful. Again. It's. Regardless of context.

I think a helpful question to ask is. What has God given you to do? And are you doing it to the best of your ability? What has God given you to do? And are you doing it to the best of your ability? Are you.

Being lazy. Or jealous. Or disorganized. And I. I'll be honest. There's not a whole lot of correcting being done right here.

I look across this room. The women in this church work hard. And I'm thankful for it. It is a beautiful gift. You look at these values. And they're.

That. That's amazing. That's beautiful. And I see that. All across this room. And now we get to figure out.

How do we apply that. Into the lives that God has called us to. But I still. I still get worried. That when we read a passage like Proverbs 31. You're still thinking scoreboard.

You're still thinking checklist. Even though I said don't worry about specifics. You've already. Even though we're just looking at values. And so I think there's room. For different kinds of responses to this.

I think you could look at this and respond. I'm actually crushing that. I'm doing. I'm doing pretty good. It may not be perfect. But I'm doing pretty good.

I'm at least doing better. Than all the other women in my community group. That's dangerous. You might be thinking. Well okay. I'm.

I'm. I'm not. I'm not doing great. But I. I'm. I'm trying.

You know. If I just got up a little bit earlier. And I went to bed a little bit later. And I just. Spent some more time with my kids. And I just made some more scarves.

I mean. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not doing it. But. But I.

I can. I can. If I white knuckle. And I. If I just do better. And try harder.

I can. I can do this. It's possible that some of you look at this. And you think. Who cares? You may think I'm my own person.

You might think. Actually. This is a little bit backwoods. This is a little bit oppressive. Haven't we moved beyond this? We really got to talk about.

Ladies serving others. With. The weight of world history behind that. Are you serious? You see this is. Narrow minded.

The one I fear the most. Is the person who says. I'm crushed by this. Not a one of those things am I doing. None of this is present. I am an utter failure.

And what I want to say. Is that all four of those responses. Miss the point. They miss the point. I've got good news. Verse 30.

Charm is deceitful. And beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord. Is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands. And let her works praise her.

In the gates. A woman who fears. The Lord. Is to be praised. This. Is the woman of wisdom.

Ladies. It says that charm. Is deceitful. Living your life. And doing things. For the sole motivation.

Of gaining the approval of others. Or so that they might. Like you. Or see you as good. And valuable. Is deceitful.

It's a lie. You will never be able to do enough. Or say enough. To actually feel. Accepted. And approved of.

If you look at life that way. Beauty is vain. We are all getting older. We are. It's all. It's falling.

I had to get a. A steroid shot. In my shoulder. This week. We are. We are getting older.

It is. Fleeting. It is. Vanity. But what this passage.

Ends with. Is the pinnacle. A woman. Who fears. The Lord. Is to be praised.

That's the woman of wisdom. That's what. Everything else. Hinges on. Is that. Truth.

A woman who fears. The Lord. Is to be praised. You know. We talked about. The different ways.

You can read this passage. A mom blog. Versus. Versus. An adventure story. Here's.

Here's the good news. Jesus comes. As the fulfillment. Of the adventure story. He actually comes. And is that sacrificial.

He comes. And is that loving. He comes. And is that generous. He goes hard. He goes.

Hard. All the way to the cross. So that he might die. For every area. That you fall short. Ladies.

Turn your eyes. To Jesus. Turn your eyes. And fix your eyes. On Jesus. Jesus himself.

Said beautiful things like. Seek first. The kingdom of God. And his righteousness. And all these things. Will be added to you.

Ladies. Seek him first. Above all else. And then let him go to work. On your heart. And on your soul.

Jesus says. Come to me. Come to me. All you. Who are weary. And heavy laden.

And I will give you rest. Ladies. Are some of you tired? Lord. He gives rest. He gives rest.

The good news of the gospel. For you ladies. And for all of us. Is that we run. To Jesus. The Proverbs say this.

Over and over and over again. The woman. The man. The person who fears the Lord. Is the wise person. We make Jesus.

The sole focus. Of our lives. And then he takes care of the rest. So that when we do good. When we work hard. And when we accomplish these things.

It's to his praise. And when we. Struggle. And we. Repent. And we ask for his forgiveness.

It's to his praise. So the band's going to come back up. And we're going to respond. In a second. By standing and singing. But I just want to return.

To those. Four different perspectives. That might be here in the room. For the lady. Who maybe looks at this. And says.

I'm crushing this. You know. I. I'm at least doing better. Than all the other women. Around me.

I would say. Don't go that way. If you function. As your own savior. Who picks you up. When you fall.

Look. Look to a better savior. For the woman. Who says. I'm not. I'm not doing this.

If I just do a little bit better. And if I just. Try a little bit harder. I. Absolutely.

Sister. Strive. And work hard. Grace. Is not. Opposed.

To effort. But it. Is opposed. To earning. Look to Jesus. For the one who says.

Who cares. You know. This is. Backwoods. It's oppressive. See.

The son. Of God. Become a human. The son of man. Came to serve. Not to be served.

And to give his life. As a ransom. For many. And see. The joy. It's not always easy.

But it's better. And for the person. Who says. I am. Crushed. By this.

I have failed. I have fallen. Short. Know that he was. Crushed. For you.

Let's pray. God. I pray. That we would see. The wisdom. In fear of you.

Reverence of you. All of you. Would be the key. To wisdom. In our lives. And that is.

Perfectly displayed. In Jesus. Who. Who embodied all of this. And gave himself for us. So that we might.

Be forgiven. And might have life. And might. Chase after you. So Lord.

Help us to remember. Just how far. You are willing to go. So that we might have joy. And salvation. In you.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Wisdom and Parenting (Proverbs 3:1-8, 11-12)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Wisdom and Parenting

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Of the gospel. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, good morning. It's good to see you. Good to see you all this morning.

Grab your Bibles. Go to Proverbs chapter 3. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are working our way through the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs is a bit different from other books in the scriptures.

It is a lot of proverbial sayings, a lot of collections of wisdom. And as we go through this, we're going to take some things topically where we just kind of say, okay, what does the Proverbs have to say about this subject? Because they're all over the place. So usually when we work through a book, we're working through verse by verse, line by line. If you did that in the Proverbs, you'd be all over the place. And so we're trying to collect some wisdom together to look at it.

It's also a very practical book. Rather than just dealing with the theology of who God is and what he's done or kind of telling us history of God in the world, it's saying in general, this is how God has designed the world to work. It's dealing with what is most likely to happen. There are always exceptions to the rule, but the book of Proverbs is giving the general rules in a lot of ways. It's saying this is kind of how life is meant to work. And most often, this is how it will play out.

And therefore, it's a very practical book. It says in light of who God is, here's what we do. So this morning, we're going to talk about parenting. We're going to see what the book of Proverbs has to say about parenting. Now, even as we begin that, I need to address some different people in the room. Some of you are parents.

You're parents of children of all different ages. We have parents who have adult children that have moved out. And as we talk through this, there may be some areas where you feel pride or shame. And I would encourage you to continue to believe the gospel, which is that your shame is real. Your pride is real. And both of them are to be taken to the cross.

And so that we would walk away from our pride and trust the Lord. And we would walk away from shame and guilt that we feel and trust the Lord. Some of you don't have children. You might be tempted to check out. But as we see this, as we walk through this, we're actually going to see that looking at parenting gives us a good understanding of how God treats us.

And how God interacts with those who belong to him. And so it's helpful for all of us. Some of you are parents. And so I would encourage you to listen and to listen well and to humble yourselves to try to hear what the Proverbs have to say. And all of us may be tempted to go, I'm so glad these other people are here. So that they can learn about how to raise their children.

And just so you know, that will be a temptation throughout the book of Proverbs for you to go, good. Look around the room. Are we talking about women? Okay, yeah, here we go. Good. Like, that's bad for your soul.

That's what Pharisees do. Pharisees hear the word of God and think about how it applies to other people rather than how it applies to them. And so I would encourage you to fight that. But we're going to look at parenting today from the Proverbs. We're going to spend most of our time in chapter 3, but we will jump around and we'll put those on the screen. I remember my first son was born six years ago.

You go to the hospital. You have the baby. I mean, I don't. But I was there. Still traumatizing experience for me. Then they just give you the baby and send you home like you're ready to take care of this thing.

There's no real instructions other than don't shake it. And that's it. They make you watch a video, sign a certificate, and they just send you home. And it's stressful. I remember going to the grocery store and just feeling overwhelmed that we had to take this thing and keep it safe and help it grow. And I just was in the grocery store and I just remember walking around and being like, I don't know if I can handle this.

And then I just began to look at the people around me and I thought, well, they all used to be babies. And they made it. I looked at one guy and I was like, I bet his parents were idiots. Wasn't really based off of what he looked like, but I was really tired. I was just making myself feel better. But the truth is, children grow up.

And that's part of what the Proverbs wants us to see. That you are training and equipping and helping them grow into something. And whether you're doing this intentionally or unintentionally, you're doing this. You're training, equipping them, turning them into something. And so the Proverbs is going to help us know how to go about this. What we're supposed to train them into.

What we're supposed to pull them into. And then some basic practical tips on as we do this. Some tools to help us do it. So let's pray and then we'll look at this together. God, we thank you that your word gives us wisdom here. There are a lot of competing bits of wisdom when it comes to how to raise children.

From what we read to what people have told us. To what we see other families doing. To what our moms and dads and grandparents tell us that we ought to do. Or that they did with us. And we just pray, Lord, as we study the word. That we would grow in practical wisdom on how to parent.

And that we would grow in a gracious understanding of how you treat us. Through Christ. Through Christ. In love. As you father us. And so we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Proverbs 3 says, My son, do not forget my teaching. But let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. So we're kind of looking sideways at this.

There are going to be some direct commands to parents. But right now we're just looking at a parent addressing a son and saying, Don't forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments. And there's a basic assumption here that I think we need to address. The Proverbs believe that children have parents for a reason. I watched a bit of a nature documentary.

And there were these eggs that hatched and these lizards popped out. And they had like 10 seconds to orient themselves to the world before snakes were trying to eat them. That was it. 10 seconds. Hope you like the world. Put your big boy pants on.

Time to go. I told you this a second ago. But I have a child that we've had for 6 years. He's not even remotely close to ready. That lizard had 10 seconds. But the reason God gives children to parents on purpose.

Children need parents. They need teaching and commandment. They need training. There's this current philosophy that you have an inner child. That you were born pure and good. And that the world messed you up.

Your parents messed you up. Society messed you up. People imposed things on you. And so that the role of parents now is to protect the child. But then to stay out of the child's way.

To help the child find themselves. And blossom into whatever they're going to be. Well Proverbs tells us what they're going to be. Fools. Proverbs 22 15 says. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child.

But the rod of discipline drives it far from him. Proverbs 29 15 says. The rod and reproof. To a form of corporal punishment. And we'll get to that later. And reproof.

Which is verbal correction. Give wisdom. But a child left to himself. Bring shame to his mother. That we are to train and equip. Proverbs 22 6 says.

Train up a child. In the way he should go. Even when he's old. He will not depart from it. That we're to train children. That we're to be taking them somewhere.

That we're to be equipping them. And moving them in a direction. That they need help to get there. And then it says this. We're to train them. We're to help develop them.

And send them out. That they need parents for a reason. And then it says that they may go. That part of the purpose behind parenting. Is that your children would go. And some of you have teenagers.

And you're like yes and amen. Go. My mom said the Lord made teenagers annoying on purpose. So that you'd be ready for them to leave. No need for amens on that. Just keep it to yourself.

But that part of what we're doing in parenting. Is equipping and training them to go. We're helping them grow. I went with my dad to his. He was in his garden. And he was showing me what he had planted.

And he said. This is lettuce. Those tomatoes. Those cucumbers. He didn't say. That's a little green thing.

That's a little. Some sort of leafy green thing. That's a leafy green thing. They were. There was no cucumbers or tomatoes there. There was going to be cucumbers and tomatoes there.

But he knew. What he was growing. And so some of us need to realize. I have. I have a three-year-old. And a six-year-old.

Little boys. I'm not raising little boys. I have little boys. I'm raising men. I'm helping equip and train them. To send them out into the world.

So there's a little chart that. I drew up. I hope this is helpful. This chart is not a joke. You have responsibility on this side. The blue line is the parent.

The red line is the child. And this is time. At the very beginning of life. The parent has all the responsibility. Or 90% of the responsibility. Like when they're first born.

The parent is solely responsible for the life of this child. I have a. I have a two and a half year old. Three year old. He every once in a while go. Ma.

Milk. Okay. He cannot go to the store and purchase milk. He cannot. Once we've done this. Get it out of the refrigerator.

If I got the thing out of the refrigerator. And handed it to him. He could not pour it into a cup. Most of the responsibility is on us. The one bit of responsibility we've given him. Is repeat after me.

May I please. Have some milk. Because ma. Milk. Isn't getting milk. But then.

We keep going. The child gets a little bit older. And you start. The child has more responsibility. More ability to make decisions. Maybe they still have a bedtime.

And maybe. They get to choose kind of their haircut. But it's inside of a range. They get to choose. Kind of how they're going to dress. But.

No young lady. You are not leaving the house in that outfit. She found a guard rail. There was something you'd put up. That was like. No.

We've reached the level. Where my responsibility comes back in. And no thank you. Go back upstairs. Like. But you're equipping.

And training them. So that when they become. When it's time to send them out. It keeps going. But by the time it's time to send them out.

They're ready. They have the responsibility. To handle going out. Now some of you. You've been in life. You've seen this.

You watched parents. Who gave way too much responsibility. To the child. Way too early. 10 and 11 year olds. Getting to make.

Too many decisions. And there's foolishness. In their heart. And so they're making. The decisions. That a 10 and 11 year old.

Would make. And we've also seen. Parents who. Held on to this. Way too long. So that they had someone.

That they had been. Completely responsible for. Until it was like. 17, 18. And they sent him out. Into the world.

And that person. Had never had. The ability to make. All these decisions. And it was. It was too much.

Another way to think about this. Is. You're always walking. The tension between. Safe and strong. Am I making my child safe.

Or am I making my child strong. You start off. Leaning real hard. On safe. But by the time.

You're sending them out. You need to have made them strong. And so this is. General. We're training them up. So that they might.

Go. It keeps going. He says. Verse 3. Let not steadfast love. And faithfulness.

Forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor. And good success. In the sight of God.

And man. I love verse 4. So that you will find favor. And good success. In the sight of God. And man.

He started off with. Remember my teaching. And my commandment. Remember the coaching I gave you. The things that I taught you. About the world.

And remember the rules I gave you. The commandments I gave you. The structure we put around you. And then he gets to here and says. Or she does. We don't know.

It just says my son. So you will find favor. And good success. In the sight of God and man. Oh I hope that's true. For how I raise my sons.

I hope I can look at them. And say hey. If you follow what I told you. If you listen to me. And the rules. And the commands I gave you.

And the wisdom I gave you. You'll find favor. And good success. In the sight of God. And man. That the purpose behind parenting.

As we train and equip them. Is for their good. Parents this is important. It's not for your good. It's not for what's easiest right now. That often is in direct contradiction.

To what is good for the child. It's not for what I most like. So whether or not they're embarrassing me. Or getting on my nerves. It's what is good for them. That if they follow this.

They'll have favor with God. And man. Let's look. At the favor with God part. The favor with man part first. The favor with God comes first.

We're going to spend a little more time on it. But we're going to do the favor with man first. There's this idea. That you would go and have favor with man. Part of the reason you're raising your children. Is you want them to be able to go keep a job.

Have relationships. Communicate clearly to people. Have boundaries. Be able to have real friendships. That can last through something. Learn how to argue.

Learn how to control their anger. You want them to have favor. And good success with humanity. This does not mean. That they would base their whole life off. Of whether or not people like them.

You're not teaching them. That the approval of people around them. Is what they set their hope on. But you are teaching them. To live around other humans. That's part of what we're supposed to do.

There's a clinical psychiatrist. We're going to read two quotes from him today. His name is Jordan Peterson. And he's just approaching this. Very practical. His philosophy behind parenting.

Is you help them fit into society. And I think this quote is helpful. He says this. He says. You shouldn't have a ton of rules for your children. But here are some suggestions on things you should teach them.

Do not bite. Kick. Or hit. Except in self-defense. Do not torture and bully other children. So you don't end up in jail.

Eat in a civilized and thankful manner. So that people are happy to have you at their house. And pleased to feed you. Learn to share. So other kids will play with you.

Pay attention when spoken to by adults. So that they don't hate you. And might therefore deign to teach you something. Go to sleep properly and peaceably. So that your parents can have a private life.

And not resent your existence. Take care of your belongings. Because you need to learn how. And because you're lucky to have them. Be good company when something fun is happening. So you're invited for the fun.

Act or behave. So that other people are happy you're around. So that people will want you around. He says a child who knows these rules. Will be welcome everywhere. Now the responsibility of that.

Is on the parent. Not the child. And part of the way you're gracious to your child. Is that you train them. So that the rest of the world smiles at them.

And enjoys them. Because it's not a child's fault. If everybody in their life looks at them like this. Because they hadn't been taught. You want to send them out into the world. Where you've equipped them.

To be able to fit in. Now that's not the sole goal. But that's a helpful thought. That you would help move them. Into a world where they can have favor with God. And man as they get older.

This is learning how to keep a job. Learning how to work. Learning how to labor. Learning how to keep your mouth shut. Learning when to speak. When not to speak.

Learning not to domineer a conversation. You're helping train and equip them. Which takes constant teaching. And correction. It takes commandments and wisdom. Which means you need to know wisdom.

As parents we need to grow. So that what we're teaching our children. Makes sense and is helpful. Is biblical and godly. He says this. He says that you'd have favor with God.

And man. He keeps going. He says trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him. And he will make your.

Make straight your path. This idea that you would have favor with God. That you would know God. That you would enjoy God. That he would bless and work in your life. And he says trust in him.

With all your heart. See as parents. You need to know the Lord. So that this just pours out of you. So that you can say with credibility.

Trust in the Lord. Lean not on your own understanding. Because they've seen this. Enacted and lived out. That's what Deuteronomy 6 gets at. Where it says that.

When you rise in the morning. When you sit down to eat. When you walk in the way. When you go to bed. That you would teach your children. About the Lord.

That it would be the normal part of life. That it wouldn't be set aside. For a certain part of the day. Yes you can have intentional time. Where you set aside. We're going to read a Bible story.

We're going to talk. We're going to pray together. But that you would so know the Lord. That this pours out of you. As you walk in life with them. That you would train them.

To trust in the Lord. With all their heart. That they might grow to love the Lord. And isn't this what you would want. As a Christian parent. That you would walk with your children.

And help easily transition them. Into walking with the Lord. That that would be the hope. Now again. This doesn't always work out. The way we want it.

That train of the child. And the way they should go. And when they're old. They won't depart from it. As a general rule. It's something to be aimed at.

But it doesn't necessarily work out that way. We also get in the Proverbs. That fools don't listen to their parents. So the parent was saying stuff. The father was giving instruction. But they wouldn't hear it.

But this is the hope. It says. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord. And turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh.

And refreshment to your bones. Do you model that for your children? That you're not wise in your own eyes. That you fear the Lord. And that you turn away from evil. That you turn away from sin.

That you repent in your sin. And that you help walk them towards the Lord. Jump down to verse 11. It says. My son. Do not despise the Lord's discipline.

Or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him whom he loves. As the father, the son, in whom he delights. There's this picture of the way God treats us. And the way parents are to treat their children. I don't know if you know this.

But parents. You work as a functional stand in for God. Your children cannot understand the concept of God. When they are young. They are growing. You are trying to teach them.

But you are functionally standing in that place. So that they can understand this. And if you have grown older. And you have begun to follow the Lord. You know this. Because some of you had very distant.

Cold. Aggressive fathers. Distant. Cold. Aggressive mothers. And it was hard to pray to the Lord.

It was hard to understand how he would react to you in your sin. Some of you had overly encouraging parents. And it was hard to see how God could be strict against sin. When you had been taught that freedom was the primary goal of life. And we had to grow in this. But the hope as parents is that we would walk with the Lord.

And walk with our children. That we would hold their hand until it was time to hand their hand to Jesus. And then we'd be able to say like this one says. Go. And if you follow the Lord this will be good. But it says the Lord reproves those whom he loves.

The way a father does a son he delights in. God's correction of you. Don't miss this. God's correction and conviction of you is because he loves you. Thank God he loves you enough. To not let you feel okay with your sin.

To press you on it. To tell you to repent. And to when you won't repent. Get you caught. Because he loves and pursues delight. So he says don't despise the Lord's discipline.

Or be weary of his reproof. And those are two tools. This idea of correction and guidance. That parents have an idea of where they're taking their children. And that we're walking with them in correction and guidance. And so I want to see.

That's our goal. To have children that grow up. Love the Lord. And exist in the world well. That's a good basic goal. That they have favor and good success with God and man.

That you're taking them to that place. Where they're ready to do that. And the way that you get there. Is discipline and reproof. Correction. Teaching.

Commandment. Discipline does not just mean the negative side of it. It does not just mean. A switch. It also means the general guardrails. And the general structure of life.

That helps pull somebody in the right direction. So we're going to spend the next little bit of our time. If that's the goal. We're going to look at some of the tools. And some of the ways that this is supposed to work. So godly discipline has direction.

We've been talking about this. But that's a general rule that you need to understand. If you're going to raise children with godly discipline. You have direction. You have something you're working them towards. And you have things you're working them away from.

And in some ways. There's a map towards good relationship to the Lord. Good relationship in the world. Able to exist and function in the world. And you're trying to cut off certain avenues. To help get them that way.

It's intentional for their good. This is what God's doing. Where he corrects us and pulls us towards good. And so you need to have a general idea. If you have daughters. Of what a godly woman looks like.

A general picture in your mind. Of what life should look like for them. What they need to be prepared for in the world. How they need to act. And you need to gain a lot of this from scripture. And you can gain this from wisdom from people around you.

But then you help. This is where I'm trying to take you. If you have sons. What do godly men look like? What do they need to be prepared to do? And to handle?

Where are we going? And you can do short term ones. One of the basic. Very basic beginning steps here. Is that good behavior gets good results. And bad behavior gets bad results.

That's how life works. But that's a really good simple rule. For your understanding of how to interact with your children. Especially small children. But on up.

Good behavior gets good results. Bad behavior gets bad results. I want my family to be able to go eat in restaurants. Which means. The first three to five times. You take a child to a restaurant.

It is no fun at all. Not fun for anybody. But we're going to get to where we can go eat in a restaurant. So let me give you an example. Good behavior gets good results. Bad behavior gets bad results.

You have a child that's functioning like a terrorist. In a high chair. It's really what they're doing. They're going to see who's going to win. And just so you all know. And this just gives you encouragement.

Parents with young children. 30 minutes to you. Is like a week and a half to a toddler. You can win. They're going to give out eventually. And they may just fall asleep.

But you can win this. But if you have a child that's in a high chair. And they're throwing a fit. And they're screaming and hollering or whatever. And you're getting embarrassed. Because you brought a child here to now.

Not only terrorize your family. But everybody who's in this restaurant. Which I would encourage you to start out at McDonald's. Because you're getting what you pay for at McDonald's. Go to McDonald's. Go to Taco Bell.

Teach a kid how to sit in a high chair. Don't go to, you know. Downtown to like Ruth's Chris or something. If I take the child out of the high chair. And outside while they're screaming. And then set them down.

And let them run around in the grass. That is a reward. I just taught the child. If you're in a high chair. And you don't want to be. Scream.

And you'll get a reward. So if I pick a child up. And we're going outside. That's going to be unpleasant for that child. I want them to learn. The high chair is better.

And I talk to them. And explain that we're going back in there. They're going to sit back down. They're going to calm themselves down. And we're going to enjoy our meal. And yes.

You talk to children that can't talk. They understand way more of what's going on. Before they're able to articulate things. So you explain to them. You go back in. You set them back in the chair.

And I do this over and over again. Until finally they learn. There's never a time where I go out there. And it gets delightful. And so that's a sample. But you do this.

You have a picture of where you're going. I can remember being young. I was like 11 or something. And I think it was a roller coaster. I know I was freaking out about something. I didn't want to do.

And I had gotten scared. And I was just like. I can't. I don't know. I can't. I can't do this.

And my dad. He didn't grab me and say. Roller coasters are fun. You need to be able to learn how to ride a roller coaster. He didn't look at me and say. This is fine.

If you're scared. You can stop. Now I'm sure some parents have done that. And I'm not saying this is wrong. I'm saying my dad had a picture in his head. Of where he was taking me.

And he did this my entire life. He grabbed me and looked at me. And said. Let me explain something to you. Are you scared? Yes.

Okay. Well you have to learn how to control yourself. In the midst of your fear. Because one day. You're going to have a family. And you're going to have children.

You're going to wake up in the middle of the night. And your house is going to be on fire. And you're going to be scared. Now are you going to freak out. And say I can't handle this. Or are you going to go save your children?

I rode that roller coaster. I rode that roller coaster. To save my future unborn children. Now am I a hero? Maybe. He did this in all earnestness.

He was not trying to manipulate me. He had in his picture of a place that he was taking me. And he did this all the time with us. He had in his head. I want you to be able to control your fear. And be able to move and act.

He wanted me to grow up. And I've learned at some point. If I follow this man and keep doing what he's doing. If I listen to him and obey. Eventually I'll be able to hold down a job. I'll be able to fight a dog.

I'll be able to handle. Like he's going to train me. Be able to pick up a snake. Whatever. Like he's going to coach me up on things to do in life. Do you need a picture in your head?

And you need to help your children get there. So godly discipline has direction. Godly discipline is loving. Godly discipline is loving. That you do this because you love your children. Proverbs 13 24 says.

Whoever spares the rod hates his son. But he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. Now culturally this feels backwards to us. So we've got to take just a second to talk this out. Whoever spares the rod hates his son. But whoever loves him is diligent to discipline him.

And that word rod means rod. But there's a caveat. I'm going to explain in a second. But it does mean rod. Proverbs 26 3 says. A whip for the horse.

A bridle for the donkey. And a rod for the back of fools. They came to people. They didn't do as much with jails. You did something. They hit you with a stick.

It says that it helps. The Proverbs tells us this is good for people. It also functions in the way that the New Testament talks about the government has the sword. This is a helpful thing to understand. The government has the sword. Which means the government has the military.

The government has the ability to enforce the regulations that it gives us. It does not mean that the government always uses the sword. Yeah I was late on my taxes. So the IRS stabbed me. That's not how it works. But I know that if I keep pressing I can get to the sword.

And so when it talks about that parenting has the rod. It means this rod of discipline is up to and including a rod. Whatever is necessary until you get there. Some of you have very well mannered calm children. A stern look works. Snapping your finger works.

They sit right back down. They didn't want to disappoint you. I have two sons. One of them. A little bit of aggression towards him. Just like sit down.

It works. My older son growled at me on a regular basis. It didn't work. He's like oh you're going to snap your finger? Fine. I can throw a train.

Now what? So it means do what works. Now there's this tendency to say well we've seen studies. Studies show that this is harmful. Studies show that if parents spank their children it makes them aggressive. I spent some time researching this.

If this is a thing that you want to talk about I'd love to talk with you more about it. I can't give it a ton of time. I will tell you this. There is disagreement about that. Both in how the studies were handled. And in general whether or not this is helpful.

Amongst professionals. There's a lot of articles that go back and forth. And if you get on like the American Association of Psychology. Psychology there's a bunch of information going back and forth about how this should be handled. Some of the things is that there's a correlation versus causation when they do these studies. So correlation versus causation.

Causation means you do this therefore this happens. Correlation means we see these two things held together. So if you said there's a link between sadness and alcohol abuse. That does not tell us whether or not alcohol abuse makes you sad. Or being sad makes you abuse alcohol. Like I just said I have two sons.

I've done my own study. There is a link between aggression and being spanked. There just there is in my house. It's not necessarily that spanking made one aggressive. It just is. It doesn't necessarily prove that.

Now it could. But there's some. The studies are still out on this. There's also a thing about magnitude. Which is how big of a deal. I read an article that said that studies show that corporal punishment increases the rate of when children grow up in mental disorders and abuse of different substances.

And so I clicked on the links and went all the way through. And the study when it said corporal punishment included it was children who had on a regular basis had been slapped, pinched, pushed, jerked, shaken, spanked. And it was like that's a huge category. That's a whole different thing than just what the Proverbs is talking about here. If you think for one second after reading the book of Proverbs which calls us to be thoughtful. Be measured.

Be wise. Be calm. Control your anger. Keep your mouth shut when you're upset. Think things through. If you think for a second that it all of a sudden went oh wait wait wait wait wait.

Not when you're parenting. Get a stick and go to town. Shout, shake, slap, pinch. Whatever you got to do. Beat the snot out of those children. You've missed probably.

It's not saying that. It is saying reasoned, measured, gracious discipline for the sake of joy and life and hope for them. I want to read a quote quickly from Jordan Peterson about this. When he talks about magnitude he says, What about the idea, he's a clinical psychiatrist, that hitting a child merely teaches them to hit? First, no, wrong. Too simple.

For starters, hitting is a very unsophisticated word to describe the disciplinary act of an effective parent. If hitting accurately described the entire range of physical force, then there would be no difference between rain droplets and atom bombs. Magnitude matters. So does context. If we're not being willfully blind and naive about the issue. How hard someone is hit, why they are hit, cannot merely be ignored when speaking of hitting.

Timing, which is part of context, is also of crucial importance. If you flick your two-year-old with your finger just after he smacks the baby on the head with a wooden block, he will get the connection and be at least somewhat less willing to smack her again in the future. That seems like a good outcome. He certainly won't conclude that he should hit her more using the flick of his mother's finger as an example. He's not stupid. He's just jealous, impulsive, and not very sophisticated.

And how else are you going to protect his younger sibling? If you discipline ineffectively, the baby will suffer, maybe for years. I'm not saying every child needs to get spanked. I'm not saying every child needs to get spanked every time. I think there are spankable offenses and non-spankable offenses. And I think the way you go about it needs to be calm and reasoned and in the envelope of love because that's the point.

And so if you'll go with me for a second that it's not necessarily harmful, the next question is how is it loving? The reason it's loving is that there are real-world consequences for sin and foolishness. And they are often delayed, especially for children. Real-world consequences for sin and foolishness often delayed, especially for children. There are times when some amount of physical force now is helpful to prevent what was going to happen. We were hanging out with my group.

My son, who was two at the time, started running headlong towards a fire pit. I was too far away to help. Another lady jumped up, knocked him to the ground. Under normal circumstances, if my son had just been playing and she had jumped up and knocked my son to the ground, seems inappropriate. Under these circumstances, I was like, good looking out, thanks. She could have gone Cobra Kai on him and swept the leg.

I'd have been fine with it. He was headed towards something worse. And this is what parenting is. It's bringing in consequences to help train and equip because the future gets worse. If you have a child, it starts young. It goes on.

But most of my examples are young because I only have a six-year-old. We'll talk again in a minute about some older kids. But if you have a child who wants a cookie, they start by pouting. We don't want to encourage that behavior. So if a dog bites you and then you give it a treat, you teach it to bite you.

So it's pouting, so it's not going to get a cookie. Tries whining. We're correcting that as well. Suddenly just decides, let's try domineering. Let's see how this works.

So my son would just yell, Give me a cookie. Pause. He's a child. He's trying all the things that he can try to get what he wants. It's not unreasonable. But I can see the future.

I know what happens. Long term, short term, what's going to happen if this works? Short term, he doesn't get to go to the zoo. And that's not a natural consequence. That's not a punishment. What I'm saying is there will be a day when his mom has some time off and thinks maybe we should go to the zoo.

And then she will consider the behavior of her child. And she will think, getting him in a car seat, getting him into the zoo, getting him to come to me when I call, getting him to sit still, getting him to not throw a fit when he sees ice cream, getting him to leave when it's time to leave, getting him back in the car seat. No, thank you. And she might grow to resent him or have to fight the fact that she's resenting him. It's not his fault. It's our fault.

It's not just that. When he's 10, if we keep this going, his granddaddy won't want to take him fishing. Same reasons. It's not just that. He'll have a harder time in school. He'll have a harder time with friends.

When he grows up, he might become a really nice domineering husband if he was able to domineer his mom his entire life. Now, I can see that he can't. There might be a time where he grows to need to hear the discipline of the Lord, but he can't. He won't. He rejects it. He does not learn to love discipline.

He has not seen how it would benefit him or grow fruit in his life. And so he cannot repent. He cannot follow the Lord well. He can't see that I can. And so what we do is we bring consequences closer that are smaller so that we never get to the ones that are further away and bigger. That's why it's loving.

So it says, 23, 13, do not withhold discipline from a child. If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. The purpose of parental discipline is not just for this life, but it is for helping them grow to hate sin, to love correction, to love discipline, to see it's good in their life so that they might one day follow and submit to the Lord in obedience. It is loving to do the hard work of keeping your children away from sin and difficulty. Godly discipline is loving.

Godly discipline requires diligence. That's what it says, that a father who loves his child is diligent to discipline him. Having children is a lot of work. That's why the Lord graciously made them very sleepy so that you can take a break. There's a lot of work and it takes consistency. And it takes consistency.

Parents of young children, it takes consistency in places where it matters. Where it doesn't matter so that it will be consistent where it does matter. Your life with your children should have guardrails, not booby traps. Some of us, you only put the booby trap out in public. But at home, they get to do whatever they want.

They get out in public and suddenly it matters because we're near roads or we're embarrassed because people are around. And all of a sudden, you're just like a pit of vipers attacking your child who's very surprised by this because it's never happened before. One of the reasons why my children have to... When I start off with little kids, I need come when I call you, sit, stay, roll over. The last one's a joke, but the first one are real. Close your mouth because there's going to come a time when I need all of those.

You're going to be running towards the road and I need you to know come when I call you. We're going to be out in public. Your mom is going to be trying to get you. I'm going to need you to know come when I call. I'm going to need you to know sit, stay. I'm going to need you to know how to do these things.

That it requires diligence though because when we're at the house and I'm sitting on the couch and I tell my son to come to me and he takes off running down the hall because he doesn't want to. Oh my goodness, it's so much easier. I kind of wanted him to leave anyway. Okay. But the rules have to be the same.

Next time you're in a grocery store and you see a mom counting down for her child, I can tell you on second two or three whether or not there's going to be anything that happens at five or whatever. One. Two. Kid doesn't even recognize this. You watch a mom count up to five. All right, I'm going to count again.

What does that do? You watch a kid when their mom says one and they go two, their little hands are like, ah, it's like, okay, something happens at three. That kid doesn't want to see it. I'm not sure I want to see it. It takes diligence. Parents with older children, this takes more work.

You have to be more creative. It works better if you start sooner, but it takes more work. You have to be more creative. You have a daughter who lies to you. She said she was going to be somewhere. She went somewhere else.

She's misusing how she's handling her cell phone. Well, you know that lying causes consequences. You know that sin causes consequences. You know that if we keep going down this path, things get worse. You've lived longer than they have. So now you've got to bring some consequences closer.

But you've got to do things that you're willing to follow through with. You will never own a cell phone again. It's probably not an appropriate, like, are you going to follow through with that? They'll know. But maybe you say, for the next week, you're not allowed out of my sight.

Your world's going to get a lot smaller because that's what happens if you lie. Where there's trust, your world's very big. Where there's a lack of trust, your world's very small. So if I'm in the bathroom or you're in the bathroom, you don't have to be in my sight. Otherwise, we're best friends. But you have to pick things you want to follow through with.

If you're a parent of little kids and they're acting up at a place, don't yell, we will never return to a park ever again. Is that true? If you don't want to leave the park, don't say, I'll get you in the car right now. Only do that one if you want to leave. Otherwise, sit on your hands next to that tree. Watch other kids have fun.

Learn that if you control how you act, you get to have fun too. All right. Godly discipline requires diligence. You have to work really hard at it constantly. They have to be the same all the time. It can't be based off of whether or not you're tired, whether or not you've had a bad day, whether or not you're frustrated, whether or not they've pushed you to the limit.

And the truth is consistent discipline on the front end keeps you from being meaner to your children on the back end. You suddenly jump up and go, I'm sick of you. Oh, my goodness. No, for real. It's a four year old. And they're just doing whatever you're letting them do.

Don't let them get to where you're sick of them. Correct them on the front end so that it's enjoyable. That's the next point. Godly discipline fosters delight. Discipline your son and he will give you rest. He will give delight to your heart.

But part of the reason you do this is so that there will be joy. And some of you are disciplinarians. I lean that way. I don't know if you could tell. Some of you are disciplinarians. You've been eating this up.

You're like, yeah, say the rod again. Does your house have delight? Because there's a real temptation for you to be the type of boss. You ever had the boss that would just fuss at you when you were doing poorly and then leave you alone if you were doing fine? Do you like that boss? Do your children need to live in that household?

Be quiet. Sit down. And on days when they're being quiet and sitting down, cool. No, this is to foster delight. This is to foster joy. There's a consistent amount of times where I walk in my house.

I don't know where my boys are and kind of hear them down the hall and I go like this. I don't do that when I'm out here with them because it's weird, you guys. But I do it at the house. I chase them down. We wrestle. We roll on the floor.

We play games. I'm teaching them how to behave so that we can have more fun. You behave. You learn how to control yourself. We get to play more games. We get to do more things.

I help explain this to them the whole time. You don't just correct to the bad behavior, but you tell them what good behavior gets and you help model it. You help get them there. There are times where I have to spank my son and I explain to him, you're going to get spanked. Then I'm going to hug you because I love you.

And then we're going to go back out and play. The fun is going to start right back up. You couldn't do the behavior that you did, but we're going to get back out there. This isn't going to mess up our whole day. I'm not mad at you. We're going to move on.

There's got to be delight. That's what you're pursuing with your children, that they would be enjoyed. And that they would enjoy life with you. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights. God corrects us, convicts us, pursues us so that we might have love and delight.

Do not reject his discipline. And parents, do not reject this call for you to help your children live in this kind of life as well. Do not hate your children. Love them. Be diligent to discipline them and pursue delight with them so that they might understand how God works. And some of you had very bad fathers and some of you had very bad mothers.

And I want you to know this is God's approach to you. He is not mad at you, trying to crush you, trying to get you to keep you from being on his nerves. He's trying to invite you into delight. And we know this because of Christ. Christ came, the first words out of his mouth were not, I love you. They were repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He comes to us and corrects us in our sin and then goes to the cross to pay for our sin and to invite us into joy and delight and love for all of eternity. Oh, praise God that he stands in the way of us in hell. Praise God that he corrects us in our sin. There's a, in the Pinocchio, the little kid's cartoon, I don't know about the real one, but the, all the kids go to a little, like a park and they get to do everything they've ever wanted to. And then they turn into donkeys. Wink, wink, donkeys.

And Pinocchio is teaching us something. That the people who are leading them that way do not love them. God keeps you from going to the park. God pops your hand. God pulls you back. God corrects you.

God puts you on restriction. God puts up boundaries. Why? Because he loves you. And he wants to delight for you. And he wants to delight with you.

And by his grace, we will parent the same way. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing and we're going to praise this God who corrects us in our sin because he loves us. We're going to sing and we're going to praise this God who loved us so much and pursued our delight so much that he was willing to die that we might have it rather than what we wanted. We're going to praise God in Christ because he is the one who redeems and loves and pursues. And by God's grace, we're going to grow as parents to love our children with the discipline and the diligence and the grace and the teaching that it takes and the effort that it takes to train them well to be able to live in the world God created and to enjoy him.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for your grace. We ask you for your help. We thank you that you correct us in our sin and may we not hate it, but may we love it so that we might have love and delight and joy with you. Help us to grow as parents, to walk in grace where we fail, and to put forth effort to train and equip our children well. In Jesus' name, amen.

Would you guys sing and sing with us? Amen.

Wisdom's Guide to Folly (Proverbs 1:20-33)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Wisdom's Guide to Folly

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. We're walking through entire books of the Bible verse by verse. Proverbs is arranged differently, so we're going to approach it a little bit differently. Last week and this week are going to kind of set the series up for us, and then we'll go topic by topic because the Proverbs may say 30 sayings about wealth, but they're not going to be together, or 30 sayings about relationships, but they won't be together, but we're going to kind of approach them topic by topic as we continue. But this morning, we're going to do our best to listen to the Proverbs, listen to Lady Wisdom as she's personified in chapter 1, and get out of our own way to change our attitude so that the book of Proverbs might actually be helpful to us.

If you'll look in Proverbs chapter 1, we're going to pick up in verse 20, and we're going to see that Lady Wisdom's calling out to us, and we're approaching these Proverbs where we're getting godly insight in how to live and how to pursue what is ultimately good, but this part in chapter 1, verse 20, begins as a warning. So we read the first seven verses last week, and we looked at the general theme of Proverbs, that we would fear the Lord, that we would submit to Him, that we would humble ourselves, and this kind of idea continues in chapter 1, and so let's pray, and then we'll pick up in verse 20 together. God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Christ, who is the ultimate wisdom of God who came to pursue us, so that as we're invited to pursue wisdom in the Proverbs, we know that ultimately in Your wisdom You pursued us, and so we pray that we would walk in those two truths well together as we study the book of Proverbs, that we needed You to pursue us, but You call us to grow in wisdom as we follow You.

We love You, and we praise You in Jesus' name. Amen. So verse 20 says, Wisdom cries aloud in the street. In the markets, she raises her voice. At the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. At the entrance of the city gates, she speaks.

I find this extremely encouraging because Lady Wisdom goes out in public and yells. We need that. It doesn't say wisdom is in a mountain cave. Best of luck to you. Go hide from society and find it. No, she's come out into the world, and she's calling to anyone who will listen.

She's seeking us. It's very helpful. Verse 22, How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge? This, again, is encouraging. She comes out, and she begins to yell it for the simple ones and the scoffers and the fools to listen.

What's encouraging about this is that in the next verse, and we're going to spend most of our time in verse 22, but in the next verse, she says, If you'll just turn, if you'll just listen to me, that wisdom and our rejection of wisdom is based off of our attitude and our outlook rather than our mental ability. Amen. Praise the Lord. That's good news. Because you have control over your attitude. You have control over your outlook.

We don't have control over our mental ability. We said this last week, that there are people who are brilliant, and the Proverbs would call them foolish. And there are people who are uneducated, but they're wise. And it's not about our mental ability, but our approach, because those who are simple, those who are scoffers, and those who are fools are invited to change. They're invited to turn. And so that's good news for us.

Much of the Proverbs work like this. This is just, says, that's bad. That's good. Here's a picture. That's a lot of the way the Proverbs work. This is what a fool does.

This is what a wise person does. Pick one. Fools wake up with their backs hurting in the morning. Wise people look goofy, but walk fine. That's the way the Proverbs work. There's much of the Proverbs that are just going to say, this is what a fool does.

This is what a wise person does. And it invites us to learn that and to act accordingly. There was a groundbreaking documentary that was done some years back on the American workplace. It was called The Office. If you're not familiar, that's a sitcom. But in The Office, there's a character named Dwight, and he loves his boss.

And one of the earliest interactions with him in the show is his boss looks at him and says, what's the best piece of advice I ever gave you? And Dwight, in all earnestness, looks at him and says, don't be an idiot. Changed my life. And then it shows him talking to the camera, and he goes, whenever I'm about to do something, I ask myself, would an idiot do that? And if they would, I do not do that thing. That's how the Proverbs work.

They say, idiots do this. Wise people do this. And they're giving us a gauge. Rather than us trying to figure that out on our own, using our own wisdom to discern what's wise and good, the Proverbs help us. They coach us up. And then we get to know when you're about to respond to someone.

Would a fool do that? Would a wise person do that? How would a wise person handle the situation? And you get to change and model after it. It's very encouraging and helpful. And so we're going to look at these three people, the simple, the scoffer, and the fool, and try to understand how we can get in our way.

It's in verse 22. How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and the fools hate knowledge? We're going to spend our time looking at those three this morning and trying to see pictures of what do simple people look like, what do scoffers look like, and what do fools look like. And this does not mean if you fit into one of these categories, it doesn't mean that you're unintelligent. But any one of us at any time can join the ranks of the simple.

Any one of us at any time can join the ranks of the scoffer. And we can only do it in certain areas. You might be brilliant when it comes to work. And a complete fool when it comes to parenting. You might be brilliant when it comes to handling your personal finances, but you're a fool in relationships. And so we want to understand what the simple, what the fool, and what the scoffer look like so that we might change our behavior.

We might turn. Because that's the invitation that Lady Wisdom is giving. Okay. The simple. We'll start there. How long?

Meaning, when will you stop this? How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? The simple, chapter 14, verse 15, says this. The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thoughts to his steps. So the simple and the prudent are held up against each other.

The primary distinction is thoughtfulness or thoughtlessness. Do you give consideration? Do you give thought to what you're doing? Or do you just roll along, believing whatever you're told, believing whatever you see? The simple love being simple. Because being simple is easy.

It's not difficult to be simple. It's actually kind of nice. You don't have to labor over things. We can hear something and say, well, that sounds good. Okay. And we listen to something else and go, well, that sounds good.

Okay. And some of us change positions all the time based off of the last thing we heard, but we never take the time to really consider what's in front of us. Recently, we had the COVID vaccine. We still have the COVID vaccine. And there's a lot of things that people had to say about the COVID vaccine. Was it good?

Was it bad? Was it helpful? Was it a government conspiracy? I saw a thing that said, you know, COVID vaccine is how the government's going to track you. Now, somebody said, don't say that with a straight face if you have a cell phone in your pocket. But there was a lot to be said about it.

And then there was a lot to be said about each one. And I postponed even considering it. I just was too tired. I didn't want to think about it. I had other things to think about. So I just didn't think about it and didn't get one.

I just waited because I didn't want to think. And that's simple. To just say, I don't want to think. Another way to be simple would just be, well, what does this person say? Hey, cool, I'll go with what they said. This person's kind of thoughtful.

They thought through something for me. I'll go with what they said. Now, it's foolish, and we'll get there later, to never listen to the thoughts of others and never listen to the correction of others. But to just go with whatever you hear, to believe whatever you hear, is simple. That idea rolls into this next verse. It says, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets.

Therefore, do not associate with a simple babbler. Just talking. Just saying whatever's in your head. Just saying whatever you've heard. In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, one of the pirates looks at Johnny Depp's character and says, that ship's the Black Pearl, and it's piloted by ghosts, and they come into places and they kill everyone. They always leave no survivors.

And Johnny Depp looks back at him and says, no survivors. I wonder where the stories come from. I love that part of that movie because I had flashbacks about me in middle school and high school repeating something to my dad and him immediately just poking a hole in it because I had given it no consideration. That he would just say something. It was like, oh, I hadn't thought about that at all. I'm just repeating what I've heard.

And guys, this matters. Because how tempted are we to do this when it comes to political things that we hear about the other party? How tempted are we to do this on Facebook where you see something and it enrages you? And rather than looking into it to see whether or not it's true, you just repost it. How often are we to just be a simple, slanderous babbler because we're just repeating what is said? And this matters for Christians.

Because I don't know if you know this, but much of the world already thinks we're simple. Let's not promote that idea further by not considering the things that we repeat and looking into whether or not things are true. Truth matters to us. It should matter to us. And so we should learn to not just repeat what we hear, but to consider our ways. And it says this, the prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

So the simple don't think ahead. They don't like to think. The prudent thinks ahead. The prudent gives thought to what's going on. But the simple in general is just an avoidance of thought.

Going along with the crowd. Truth is, if you're simple and you're in a good crowd, that'll work out okay for you. If you're simple and you're in a bad crowd, that won't work out very well for you. But the invitation from Lady Wisdom is to stop being simple and begin giving consideration and thought to what you are doing. The next one that we'll look at is the scoffer. It says, how long will scoffers delight in their scoffing?

Chapter 21, verse 24 and 29.8 tell us this about scoffers. Scoffer is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who Acts with arrogant pride. And scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away from wrath. That word scoffer, another word for that is mocker. It's to be derisive. It's a false form of wisdom.

Because it makes you seem smart. By just poking holes in things. This is a current... You see this all over the place right now. The internet promotes this. We have whole fields of study now that are basically just scoffing.

If they're not handled correctly. We have deconstructionism, which is just taking things apart. Tearing things down. We have critical theory. And I'm not just being critical race theory. Critical theory, they have critical theory in all kinds of things.

But critical theory is just poking holes in things. And the reality is, some things need to be deconstructed. Some things need to be criticized. But if all we do is that, we just destroy, we never build back. There's a quote from Tim Keller. He says, we live in a post-modern age that encourages deconstruction.

And in an internet age that makes mocking and scoffing easy. And reasoned discourse difficult. Isn't that the truth? How often do we watch a news program and they just yell at each other? I watched a debate from the 1960s. It was delightful.

One person had a microphone at a time. The other person didn't have a microphone. The one person stood up and said, this is the point I'm going to prove. This is what I'm not trying to prove. And sat down. The other person walked up and said, this is the point I want to prove.

This is what I'm not trying to prove. And sat down. Then they went back and forth with arguments. And they attacked each other's arguments. Not each other's character. Or faces.

Or relations. Or whatever. They talked about the ideas. And it was not good television. But it was helpful if you wanted to understand what they were talking about.

But we don't promote that. If you'll scroll through your news feed. How many articles do you see that are 25 tweets that show how mad everybody's at Disney? This politician blasts that politician. Did you know that blasting someone is not an official thing that you can do in Congress? It just means said mean words about.

Well, neat. Did they do anything? Did they put forth any legislature? Are they moving forward with anything? We have these arguments all the time that we see things where it's this person puts this person in place with three scathing words. What are the words?

I love scoffing. Let me read this article. But isn't this the truth? It's easier to tear things down. It's easier to poke a hole in a person rather than an argument. And it's more enjoyable to participate in.

It says this in chapter 22, verse 10, 11, 12. It says, Drive out a scoffer and strife will go out. Quarreling and abuse will cease. Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent. Scoffing is like when you learned in middle school that one of the best ways to be cool was just to say that everything else was lame. Super easy.

Didn't have to take any positions. Didn't have to own anything. Didn't have to have any risk. Just say everything was dorky and lame and you became cool. Scoffing is the adult version of that. No real ideas.

Just mocking. It's a good way to seem smart. It's a false sense of pride. It's a shortcut to looking wise. Sorry, false sense of wisdom, not a false sense of pride. It's a straight up good sense of pride.

Shortcuts to looking wise. The cynical air. The inside joke. The size and feigned sadness about how stupid everyone is. This is Tim Keller again talking about this idea of being a scoffer. So here's the thing.

They delight in scoffing. Scoffing feels good. It does. It feels better than just having a position, than saying something positive. Announcing that you like vanilla ice cream. It's my favorite.

I don't have, Baskin Robbins doesn't need however many flavors. I walk in, I get vanilla. Vanilla in a cone. Sugar is my favorite. Any cone will work. They don't have cones, they have cups.

I'm fine. I just want vanilla. I don't even, I look at the stuff sometimes. Sometimes I don't. I just am like vanilla. I know what I want.

Beans, no beans. It's fine. Vanilla is good. Now, I don't feel particularly great saying that. But if you responded to me with vanilla, I bet you look so good in your pleated khakis eating your vanilla ice cream.

You would feel wonderful. There's some sense of just tearing something down that makes you feel better than just holding a position. Announcing what kind of music you like doesn't feel as good as looking at someone going, really? Well, there's some cats that fight each other in my neighborhood. I'll record that for you since that's the kind of music you like. There's something about delighting and scoffing that makes things more interesting or more heated or more whatever.

And it's foolishness. It does not help. We lack sense when we just tear people down and tear arguments down. I tear people down rather than engaging with actual arguments. It's also easier. It's easier to just shoot darts at something than to try to hold a position.

But it's unhelpful and it doesn't build up. Chapter 13, verse 1 and 15, 12 says, A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. A scoffer does not like to be reproved. He will not go to the wise. I love that. We'll look a little more at that when we look at the fools.

But I want to point out two things about scoffers. A scoffer does not listen to rebuke. A wise son hears his father's instruction. You ever been corrected or someone's arguing with you and you don't even listen to their argument? You just come up with your scathing retort? You don't even respond to their argument.

Someone points something out about you and you say, Yeah, well, I bet you handle everything in your life perfectly. I saw how you and you just bring up something completely unrelated. That's scoffing. Rather than listening to the point they made and considering, Is this true? Should I take this? The other thing is they don't like to be reproved, So they will not go to the wise.

Have you ever said, I would talk to them, But I already know what they're going to say? I bring this up in my group, But I know what they're going to say. Probably some really helpful things. That you probably need to hear. And just knowing what they're going to say versus hearing what they're going to say is very different. And it's a scoffing position to reject potential help and guidance.

Rather than to receive it. And it's unwise. And Lady Wisdom invites us to turn. All right. Let's look at fools.

Verse 22. And fools hate knowledge. Okay. So the simple enjoy being simple. The scoffers delight in scoffing. Fools just hate knowledge.

They just don't want to hear it. That's the primary thing that sets them apart. Is that they just, They don't want to participate in knowledge. That's foolish. And the fool gets a lot more treatment in the Proverbs. It's a broader category.

That kind of encompasses these others. But again, It's further down the line than being just simple. It's a position against learning. It's a position against growing. But the Proverbs give us kind of a full picture of the fool.

One of my favorite types of cartoons growing up was the Goofy cartoons. The Goofy cartoons, Goofy would teach you something. He'd teach you how to play baseball. He'd teach you how to ski. And there was always a voiceover, A very good soothing voice, Explaining it. And then Goofy was messing it up.

So the voice would be like, How to fish. The angler or fisherman chooses his bait and tackle wisely. And then you'd watch Goofy just, I mean, Destroying it. And it was excellent. I love those. That's a lot of the way the Proverbs work.

When it talks about the fool, It says, Here's what it should look like, But here's what a fool does with that. And it gives you those pictures. And it gives us this full profile of a fool. But fools cause trouble for themselves. They cause trouble for everyone near them. They cause trouble for their families, Their moms, Their dads, Their friends.

They choose sin. But one of the primary marks of a fool in the Proverbs Is that they trust themselves rather than others. This is chapter 28, 26, and 12, 15. Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, But he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man listens to advice. One of the misconceptions we have about wisdom Was if I was wise, I would know what to do right now.

Wise people talk to other people And listen to them. Fools know what to do right now. It's a fool who knows everything, How to handle every situation, Who is perfectly equipped for all things. It's a wise person who understands, I have limitations, I have things that I'm good at, And things I'm not good at, And I need some help. It's a wise person who goes and asks counsel From four or five different people, And considers it, And weighs it, And then makes a decision. It's a fool who, Even while people are trying to give them counsel, You can almost watch it bounce off their forehead.

And I know I've been that before. Someone's talking to me, And I'm like, And then I'm choosing to do something That is absolutely foolish. But the wise listen, They accept rebuke. The wise change and seek guidance. And I want you to know how encouraging that is. I think this is encouraging for everybody, But I see it specifically in young men, Who think one of the ways to be a man, And a real man is just to know what to do, And how to handle every situation.

That's foolish. Seek guidance. Ask for help. Get counsel. Find some people who you've seen in life, They've made wise decisions. Ask them questions.

That's the other thing. Ask people questions who are ahead of you. If you're 18, Don't ask all your 18 year old friends, How to do things. Ask someone who has already been 18, And done some good things, And some bad things. That's one of the reasons why we have community groups, That are mixed ages, And mixed genders, And all across the spectrum. So that we have some life, And some youth, And some wisdom, All packed in together, And we can grow together.

It says this, The wise of heart will receive commandments, But a babbling fool will come to ruin. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, But only in expressing his opinion. You ever had someone come ask you for advice, And then they talk to the whole time? Have you ever done that? Hey, I really need your help with this situation. And then you just run your mouth for 30 minutes.

Thanks, that was really helpful. Was it? I think you left with the information you already had. That's not a problem I have. I've never talked too much in a situation. But I'm sure it's caused some of you problems.

Honestly, one of the good first steps towards wisdom, Is to shut your mouth. Proverbs are going to say that over and over again. Just close your mouth. Just listen. Ask a question. Listen.

Ask more questions. Listen. Chapter 12, verse 15, verse 5. It says, Whoever loves discipline, Loves knowledge. But he who hates reproof is stupid.

A fool despises his father's instruction. But whoever heeds reproof is prudent. Again, Stupidity is not a state. You're not a victim of it. You choose it. So you can choose to be stupid, Or you can choose to be wise.

But you're the one who gets to pull that lever. But read that. Whoever loves discipline, Loves knowledge. Do we love discipline? Someone corrects us. Do you leave like, That was wonderful.

You have to train your soul to appreciate. That. We're inclined to hate reproof. That's correction or rebuke. That's someone calling us out. That's someone pointing us out.

That we did something poorly. Or that we failed. So the question here, For us to grow in wisdom, Is how do we handle critique, And correction, And rebuke? Do we grow from it? Or do we defend ourselves against it? Some of you will say, Well, They went about that all wrong.

You know, I don't mind taking correction, But the way they came at me, They attacked me. They were just mean about it. Maybe, Maybe, I would invite you to consider, Have you ever considered someone's correction, Done really, really well? They corrected me on a thing I was wrong about, And it just felt so good. Usually, Even if done well, It stings a little bit. It's just good for us.

The reality is, Many of you, Have people who have tried to coach you, Or people in life who are trying to coach you, And you treat them like critics, And dismiss them. But someone who is wise, Can take even a critic, And turn them into a coach. If you're going to grow, If your purpose is to grow in wisdom, And to change, And to be more healthy, And someone critiques you, Even if they go about it wrong, What does that matter? Are they right? Here's a good chance to grow. What does their tone matter?

Yeah, Maybe it made it a little worse, Maybe a little harder to heal, But sit and consider. Do you love correction? That's one of the, Proverbs says that, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, And profuse are the kisses of an enemy. But some of us, Our gauge is just, Are they, Are these wounds or kisses? Not who's it coming from? And what's their intent?

An enemy that kisses you, Is not kissing you for your own good. And a friend that is wounding you, Is not wounding you for your harm. But if your only gauge is, Did this hurt? Or did this feel nice? You are on your way towards foolishness. We have this idea that, Any criticism is bad.

If we disagree, You're toxic. You're bad for me. I need people who are going to uplift me. I need people who are going to, Co-sign whatever I do. I need people who are going to, Appreciate me and accept me. Yeah.

You need people who are going to love you. You need people who will celebrate, Things that are worth celebrating. You also need people who will grab you, And say that is wrong and bad. Stop it. Who love you enough to do that. Some of you, Have fought critique and criticism, And coaching so much, The people who love you won't do it anymore.

Oh bless your soul. If the people around you, Who care about you, Are not willing to risk anymore, Correcting you, Because you handle it so poorly, That is bad for you. Some of us today, The way we respond, Is we go back to the last few people, Who corrected us and coached us up, And say, I didn't listen and I am sorry. I just fought you. I just personally attacked you. That was foolish.

I need people around me, Who care enough about me, To tell me I am wrong. And if you have no one who will do that, You are not with people who love you. And if you are with friends, And you think that your only position, Is just to clap for whatever they do, You can clap, But you can't call that love. Because just supporting foolish things, Is not loving. But wisdom, Helps us learn from rebuke, And appreciate it.

And this is very important, As we start a series on Proverbs, Because it is going to say some things, You don't like. You know how much you like it, When someone comes and corrects you, On how you handle your money. You know how much you like it, When someone comes and says, I think you are parenting wrong. You know how good that is felt. Someone comes over to you, Your parents, A friend, And says, Hey, I want to talk to you about your children, I think you are bad at this. Do you know how much you thought, I was hoping someone would say this.

Thank you. Do you know how immediately defensive we get? Do you know how much we want to guard ourselves, Justify ourselves, Protect ourselves. And what we are protecting ourselves, Is our pride, Not our growth. But see, The Proverbs are going to come along, And say, You are bad at relationships.

You don't know how to close your mouth. You don't know how to handle your money. You don't know how to handle parenting. We are going to read that, Then we are going to get in groups, And we are going to try to walk together, And growing for this. And if we don't learn how to love discipline, We are going to come out more foolish, On the other end of this series. You will actually be better, At practicing foolishness, If you just reject all the correction that is coming.

You will have better bone density, And muscle mass, When it comes to swatting off people, Trying to correct you. And it will be bad for you. Rather than growing in humility, And learning how to take corrections, So that we might move towards life. That is the invitation. So it says this, Verse 23, If you turn at my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit to you, And I will make my words known to you.

That is a promise from wisdom. Wisdom will fill you with wisdom, And make words of wisdom known to you. This is also a promise, That is fulfilled ultimately in Christ. That if we will turn to him, And turn to his rebuke, And see our sin, Not just our foolishness, But our foolishness that leads to destruction. That Jesus will give us his spirit, And his words will be with us, And that we will actually move out of eternal foolishness. As he is the perfect picture of true wisdom.

True wisdom. But we see this invitation made both by wisdom, And by Christ. He says, Verse 24, Because I have called, And you have refused to listen, And have stretched out my hand, And no one has heeded. Because you have ignored all my counsel, And would have none of my reproof. Just so you know, Wisdom has tried with you already. Has already hollered at you, Stood out in front of you, People in your life have stood out in front of you, And done this.

And some of us have heeded, And some of us haven't. And sometimes you heeded, And sometimes you didn't. But this is already taking place. Because you ignored all my counsel, And would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity, And I will mock when terror strikes you. I told you there was an appropriate time to mock, Wisdom knows when.

There are times that it's okay for us to have satire, And for us to poke fun at things, And for us to deconstruct things. And like I said, It's just, Is it a pattern of life, Where it's used to defend ourselves, Is it a pattern of life, Where it's used to promote our pride, Is it a pattern of life, That is just, In contrary to wisdom, But wisdom at times, Knows when to do this. We don't always, But wisdom does. And it's when you, Get what you asked for. 27, When terror strikes you like a storm, And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you, Then will you call upon me, But I will not answer.

Then, They will seek me diligently, But I will not find, But will not find me. And if we reject wisdom all along, There's going to come a time when we really need it, And at that moment it will be too late. We will need people around us, Who will counsel us, And we will have already run all of them off. We will need to know how to make tough decisions, And think through things, And we will not know how. And wisdom will laugh at us. Because they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of the Lord.

That's humility and submission, To someone who is wiser than us. Would have none of my counsel, And despised all my reproof. Therefore, They shall eat the fruit of their way, And have their fill of their own devices. One of the ways that God puts judgment on us, And shows his wrath to us, Is by letting us have what we want. God in his grace, Stands between us in trouble. God in his grace, Stands between us in sin.

God in his grace, Stands between us in foolishness. And eventually God says, Fine. That's what Romans 1 says. That God gave them over, To their desires. He handed them over to their lusts. He handed them over to their wickedness.

He got out of their way, So that they might have the full extent, Of their foolishness. C.S. Lewis puts it this way. He says, There are only two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God, Thy will be done. And those to whom God says in the end, Thy will be done.

You can choose foolishness. You can choose sin. You can choose destruction. God in his grace, In the book of Proverbs, Is standing in the way, Crying out in the streets, Hollering at us to stop. God in his grace, Even more so in the person and work of Christ, Has come literally into the streets, To cry out, That we might have hope, That we might have life, To take our place. He doesn't just correct fools, But he takes the place of fools, So that we might have hope in him, But we can eventually get what we want.

Proverbs 19.3 says, When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, His heart rages against the Lord. How often is that true? We choose a path, We fight the Lord off, We get what we deserve, And then we say, Look at how unjust, And unfair, And uncaring, And unloving he is, That he would let this happen. When all along the way, He called us to repentance, He called us to wisdom, He called us to stop, Had people around us, Who stood in the way, We jumped every hurdle in the way, And then we got to eat, The full measure, Of what we had prepared for ourselves, And then we act as if God is unjust. Do you want to know what's beautiful, In this?

The Call to Wisdom (Proverbs 1:1-7)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Call to Wisdom

Chet Phillips

Transcript

I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles and go to the book of Proverbs. We're going to be starting in Proverbs chapter 1. If you have one of these blue Bibles, the page number is up there for you. If not, just open your Bible to the middle and you'll be very close. And you're on your own from there.

But Proverbs is a book that is wisdom literature. And so we just finished up a series in the book of Matthew. And we try to teach in the New Testament and the Old Testament. We think that all of God's word is profitable and helpful and points us towards Christ and the glory of his salvation. And so we are starting to study the book of Proverbs. And we'll spend the summer here growing in wisdom.

So the Old Testament has the books of the lawless, the first five books. And then it has history books. And then it has the wisdom literature. And then it has the prophets. And so we're going to be in the book of Proverbs, which is wisdom literature. And we're going to be working and seeking as a church family to grow in wisdom.

So you have a job. You're working your job. And it's fine. You're not, you know, your alarm goes off. You don't hit the button and hop out of bed with like a huge smile on your face. It's fine.

Your job is fine. It pays bills. You need a job. You're an adult. You have a job. And then a friend of yours starts talking to you about a career change.

Starts talking to you about joining them and what they're doing. They start talking to you about the exciting work they're in. And some of it does sound kind of exciting to you. You start considering should you move careers. You have mouths to feed. You have bills to pay.

You have some responsibility. But this sounds exciting. But you start looking at it and trying to figure out, is it okay for me to move into this? Is this a good idea? And in that moment, you need wisdom. You're not going to be able to find in the Old Testament law and the Ten Commandments, thou shalt start a business with your buddy or thou shalt not.

There's going to be some laws, some things that tell us, yes, you can do this. No, you can't do that. There's going to be some times where the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom and clarity. And then there's going to be a whole lot of life where you're expected to make some choices. You're going to need some wisdom. You have a precious little baby.

And it's mostly just like a head with a little body attached. And all it does is it cries when it needs something. Whee! Whee! And then it gets a little older. The reason it cried when it was little is because it didn't have words to articulate what it needed.

It gets older and has words and still cries. Cries a lot. Has a little attitude. Starts acting a lot like your spouse. Now the Bible teaches us that we're to train our children, that we're to build them up.

But you're going to need some wisdom. And how do I do this? Practically, how do I help this grow into a functioning member of society? Because if I send it out right now, it's not ready. How do I help it live in a way that people will be able to interact and like this child? And this child will be able to like others and live in the world.

You're going to need wisdom. You have a classmate or a co-worker who's antagonistic. Mouthy. Frustrating. Difficult. We live in a society that frowns upon you just striking them in the face.

So you have to come up with a better plan. You're going to need wisdom. You have adult children and they're struggling in their marriage and you want to help. You want to give some guidance. You want to give some counsel. You also don't want to be all up in their business.

You're going to need some wisdom. My goal today is to introduce this series, to introduce Proverbs to us, to help us understand Proverbs and help sell us on the fact that we need this book. There are places in the Bible that tell us things that we can or can't do. There are places where the Holy Spirit is going to give us some specific guidance. But most of life is going to need wisdom.

The Bible is not going to tell you who to marry and who not to marry. It gives some guardrails, but it's not going to pick the specific person for you. They're not going to be flipping through Galatians and it's going to be like, Jeff's a winner. It's not going to happen. We need wisdom. It's not going to tell you what Job to take.

It's not going to tell you when to retire or what to do with your retirement. It's not going to tell you about where to invest your money or how to invest your money or how to invest your time or who to develop friendships with. We need wisdom. And so the book of Proverbs steps in and helps us. It gives us wisdom. It steps into the gray area of life and offers us some coaching.

And in that way, it's kind of a different book. So we're going to pray and we're going to start reading in Proverbs 1, chapter 1, verse 1. And we're going to start talking about what the book of Proverbs is as we seek to grow our desire to grow in wisdom. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your word.

We thank you that you give us direct commands that we are to obey. We thank you that through your spirit you give us guidance, clarity in difficult situations, words to speak. And Lord, we thank you that you give us coaching and guidance and direction in all the gray areas of life that you help us grow in wisdom and help us learn how to think. And so we pray that we would grow in wisdom this summer as we study your word and as we grow closer to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Proverbs, chapter 1, verse 1.

The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. Solomon gets top billing in the book of Proverbs. He's the wisest king who ever lived. He's the wisest person who ever lived. First Kings chapters 3 and 4 tell us that God comes to Solomon as he becomes king. He's David's son.

God comes to him and says, what do you want? Ask of me anything. And Solomon says, I need wisdom. I need guidance. I don't know how to go in or come out. I need help.

And God says, you didn't ask for money. You didn't ask for peace. You didn't ask for the heads of your enemies. You asked for wisdom and therefore I'm going to give you all of these. I'm going to give you peace. I'm going to give you money and I'm going to give you wisdom.

And then we're told that he was wiser than anyone in his day, that people would flock to him to hear his wisdom. We're told that he was wiser than anyone who came before him or after him. And so most of this book is attributed to Solomon. Now he's not the only one who writes in this, in the book of Proverbs. We are, we have 30 sayings of the wise. We have some sayings from Agur.

We have a section that's attributed King Lemuel, which I think is a little unfair because it just says the words of King Lemuel or Lemuel. And then he says, here's what my mama said. So it really should be King Lemuel's mama gives us some wisdom. I don't know why he gets credit. He just repeats what she told him, but okay. But it's a collection of writings that help us grow in wisdom and call us to grow in wisdom.

So this is not the same level as direct commands or direct promises that we have in scripture. That this is a different genre of scripture, biblical literature. It's true, but it's true in a different way because it's going to say some things. It's going to coach us up and it calls us to think and to think deeply and to grow so that we're able to handle and navigate situations. So if the rest of scripture says that everything happens for a purpose.

Everything happens for a reason. The book of Proverbs comes along that and says, yes. And sometimes the reason is that you're dumb and make bad choices. The book of Proverbs is going to step in and help us make wise decisions, step in and help us understand wisdom. And so at times it will seem contradictory. Proverbs 26, four says this.

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. That's a helpful piece of wisdom. If a fool tries to invite you into an argument, if a fool tries to invite you into his stupidity and you accept the invitation, you're a fool too. That's Proverbs 26, four. The next verse, Proverbs 26, five says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Answer him or don't answer him.

You just told me not to. Now you're telling me that I should. And Proverbs is inviting us. Both of those are true. If you join a fool in his folly, you become a fool. If nobody ever engages in his folly, he doesn't ever stop being a fool.

And we're called to have some wisdom. We're called to know both of those and to understand what's the situation. Are we on the Internet? Maybe don't engage. Is this fool your coworker or are they in your community group? Maybe engage.

But we're called to have some wisdom that we're called to see as we read the book of Proverbs. It's going to function a little bit different. Some of these are truisms. They're in general how this works. And this is why the Bible has a whole section of wisdom literature. You have the book of Job.

You have Ecclesiastes. Proverbs comes along and says this is in general how the world works. And Ecclesiastes stands behind and goes, sometimes not so much. And Job gives a real specific instance of that. And there are all three calling us to wisdom. But we're going to look in Proverbs and we're going to see that in general this is good, helpful, godly guidance to life.

So verse 2. This is the point of the book of Proverbs. It says to know wisdom and instruction. To understand words of insight. So the point of Proverbs is that we would read it and that we would know wisdom.

That we would grow in instruction. We would understand insight. That word for wisdom is the Hebrew word chokmah. And that word does not just mean, sometimes I think when we think of someone as wise, they're like a sage. They're on a mountaintop. Or you come to them and they're able to give you answers and they work out riddles.

But that word chokmah in the Hebrew is used for other things and other places to help us understand what this means. That in Exodus 35 and verse 31, it's used for the men that God called to build the tabernacle. It says that he put his chokmah in them. And his skill that they might know how to design and build. It's used in Jeremiah 10.9 for goldsmiths. So they have chokmah.

They have skill in working with gold. It's used in Psalm 107.27 for sailors who have chokmah. They have wisdom. They have skill to navigate the sea. So that in some ways this invitation into wisdom is that you might have skill, ability to navigate life.

The skill or ability it takes to build into life. That word instruction is that it's going to help us know what to do. It's going to coach us to understand words of insight. That it would help us see behind the scenes of what's really going on. And so in some ways it works like this. You have what we can see.

What's above the surface. Our decisions. Our options. What's clear to everybody. You took the job or you didn't take the job. But the reality is every time we go to make decisions, there's stuff underneath that where we're actually having to answer questions about what is ultimately valuable.

What is ultimately good. Your kid comes home and they throw their stuff down and they go, that's it. Never playing baseball again. Or I'm never playing clarinet again. Whatever your kid is into. All right.

So you're going to engage in this. And you're going to have to start asking some questions and coaching them up. And you maybe have all this noise about what people are going to think, what you think, your general desire for them to be a concert clarinetist. Clarineter. You have a desire for them to grow in this. But you're also having to answer questions when you get into this as to what's good in life.

What values do we most uphold? What's the purpose of life? How do we get there? You start answering those questions even if you don't know it. And so some of what Proverbs is doing is God is giving us insight into how the world works so that we might see things the way he sees them. So wisdom isn't just the application of knowledge.

It is. It's not just skill. It is those. But it's not just those. It's more. It's bigger than that.

It's godly insight into how to live and how to pursue what is good. It's godly insight into how to live and how to pursue what is good. That God at times is going to call us into things that make sense because he designed the world that are counterintuitive to worldly wisdom. I try to bring this man up every so often, usually about once a year. I want to talk to you for a moment about Nicholas Cage. Nick Cage has a movie called National Treasure, which if you've seen it, it itself is a national treasure.

In it, though, he's going to steal the Declaration of Independence because Benjamin Franklin put a secret map on there because he was part of the Masons. And Nicholas Cage has Benjamin Franklin's special spectacles that he can slide down. And when he puts the certain glasses on, he can see what's really there that no one else can see. And in some ways, the wisdom of the scriptures, the wisdom of the Proverbs, the wisdom that we're invited into is God saying, I want to help you see the world and see some things that you would not have discerned on your own. You would not have been able to see on your own.

I want to help you see below. So it's going to give us some practical coaching. And then there are times where it's going to tell us deep-rooted how that's connected to God's good world. And it says some things that seem counterintuitive. When we talk about money, it's going to talk about how generosity leads to greater wealth. One of the things the Proverbs is going to tell you is if you want to grow in wealth, give money away.

That only works if God has a rule at work in the world that he accomplishes through his power because that's not usually how things seem to work. It says that those who hoard everything, who are stingy, end up lacking. It doesn't work out for them. So there's these things where it's going to talk about top-level wisdom and it's also going to say, you know, there's some things going on behind here that you need to see. So it's worth us growing in this.

Verse 3. So the point of the Proverbs is that we would receive instruction in wise dealing. Don't you need that? Don't you need some wisdom in how to deal with people? How to deal with people well? How to make wise decisions in business and life and investing?

Don't you want some wisdom in wise dealing? It says in righteousness, justice, and equity. Isn't that something that we need to know? What is right? What is just? What is fair?

These words we've heard repeated over and over again these past years. I think everybody's been thinking through what is justice? What is equity? What is actually fair? And don't we need to grow in understanding how God defines that and what that looks like and how we can apply that in life? Isn't this helpful?

Verse 4. To give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Oh, I know some hearts just started beating fast. Y'all came in here and you thought, I hope we get to grow in some prudence. I was just saying that. I wrote that in my diary this morning.

Amen. That word doesn't, we don't use it often and it doesn't seem to be a very exciting thing that you'd want to grow in. What it means is shrewdness, cleverness. The Proverbs say that a prudent person sees trouble and gets out of the way. Oh, I want some of that. I want to be able to have some foresight into some trouble and get out of the way.

I want to have some ability to see that coming. And what's beautiful about this promise is that it's to give prudence to the simple. Hallelujah. Weren't there times when you were in school and you just thought, nah, my brain's done. I will not be able to move further in this subject. You looked around the class and you were like, oh, they all understand this?

Oh, I'm in trouble. There was a place I hit in math where I just thought, that's enough math for me. I will not be mathing anymore. Thank you. I told someone the other day that when I worked as a cashier, I was the one that when I rang you up, if right at the end after I'd pressed the button, you said, oh, here's the 15 cents. I'm the guy who went.

Hold on, hold on. I had people before just go, I'll take it back. And I was like, that's going to be best for everybody. I can't do that that quickly. I don't know. This is an invitation.

Wisdom is not kept from you because you are not naturally intelligent. And that's a beautiful promise. Intelligence is a different thing. There's a lady somewhere who can barely read, barely write, has hardly a high school education. She knows the Lord. She reads his words.

She follows him. She's got more wisdom than Elon Musk. She has a better handle on how the world works, has a better way to deal with people, has a better way of walking through life. And she's got wisdom because we're invited to grow in it. And it says it will give discretion, ability to make good decisions to the youth. Some of you are like, I'm going to get my children here.

I need some discretion. I got some youth. I'm bringing them. Verse five. Let the wise hear and increase in learning. And let the one who understands obtain guidance.

That's a beautiful invitation as well. You don't reach a limit. You don't hit a spot where you go, I'm wise enough. I'm good. It says, no, if you're wise, you'll keep growing in wisdom. If you have knowledge, you'll continue to get some guidance.

Don't coast. Don't say, I've gotten enough wisdom. I'm good. I'm full up on it. I'll handle everything perfectly from here on out. It says, no, if you're wise, you'll continue to grow.

So that's the invitation of the Proverbs. It says, and understand a proverb, a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. See, the Proverbs are an invitation to think. That's why there's going to be some in here that are riddles. You have to work them out. You have to sit and think on them.

In some ways, they're like hard candy. If you just bite down on them, you might break a tooth. If you just try to swallow them, you might choke. You have to sit with them for a while. There'll be some places where you need to work this out, where you need to grow in wisdom. The invitation of the Proverbs is that we might learn and then live.

So we say in our culture that, you know, live and learn. This is one of the best ways to learn. It's only you're just going to have to live and learn. Somebody's talking to you and you don't want to listen. They'll say, well, you'll live and learn. The idea is that you need to go out there, you need to make some mistakes, and then you'll get wiser.

And the reality is, yeah. Now, hopefully, the Proverbs say there's some people who don't even get wiser that way. Hopefully, if you live through something, you'll learn. But there's a beautiful invitation to learn and then live that's offered to you in the Proverbs. That you can be simple and you can grow in wisdom beyond those who have more years on you and have more experience on you because you'll listen and you'll learn and then live. My older brother went through high school living and learning as he related to my parents.

He was older. He was the only one. He hadn't had anybody go in front of him. I was able to watch. I got to learn and live. I took notes.

I paid attention. Mental note. If my dad says to you, how many times have I told you this? Don't say, I don't know, a million. I got to learn and then live. I got to see someone else make decisions in front of me.

That's one of my favorite jokes is three men walk into a bar, the fourth one ducks. The ability to see people go in front of us. At this point, don't laugh because... Just laugh when you get in your car. Don't laugh three minutes from now. But the ability to see people go in front of us and make decisions based off of that and the Proverbs are inviting us into that.

Verse 7. This is the theme of the book of Proverbs. And we'll see it throughout. This phrasing shows up a bunch, but this is where everything hangs on this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Just so you know, if you've been sitting here this whole time thinking, I don't need any of this. You just showed up in the Bible in the back half of verse 7. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is the theme of the book of Proverbs. That we would see the Lord.

That's where we start. That if you're going to grow, if you're going to understand, if you're going to approach wisdom in the way that we're supposed to, we exist in His world. We're going to listen to Him. I bought some furniture from Ikea before. And I got it home and I unboxed it. I did not pull the instructions out and say, what do Swedish people know about furniture that I don't know?

And throw it away. USA. I didn't do that. I need their help to build the Pyongyang or whatever the name of that chair is. I need their guidance. And the reality is God created the world.

And one of the ways we grow in wisdom is we listen to Him when He tells us how it works. We come to Him seeking to understand Him. We approach Him and we have to see Him clearly in order to see ourselves clearly. So this verse that shows up again in chapter 9, verse 10, it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is insight. And we begin by understanding Him.

We begin by approaching Him, listening to Him, knowing Him. That helps us understand the true wisdom of the world. That we know God. Or chapter 15, verse 33 says, The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom. And humility comes before honor. One of the reasons that we have to know the Lord first and see the Lord first is that we have to rightly see ourselves.

We have to rightly see Him so that we'll rightly listen. That we have to have humility if we're going to grow in wisdom. I have a quote from C.S. Lewis that I think is helpful. He says, As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people.

And of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. So that we approach in growing in wisdom, we have to see the Lord. We have to see Him as big. We have to see Him as glorious. And we have to have an appropriate fear, reverence for Him that we would submit to Him. I have a six-year-old son.

He's pretty smart as far as six-year-olds go. He's a fool. And that's not being mean. We're going to get there in Proverbs. But that's what it says about your children.

They're foolish. They're ignorant. Even if they're intelligent for their age, if they have decent functioning brains, they're foolish because they don't know how the world works. I was recently trying to teach him how to swim. I'm trying to explain to him how to swim. And he's just talking and talking.

He's cutting me off to tell me things. And I had to say, Archer, stop. Stop talking. Shut your mouth. I said, Son, do you know how to swim? No, sir.

Do I know how to swim? Yes, sir. Why are you talking? Are you going to just coach yourself into swimming? I said, When you went to kindergarten, did you know how to read? No, sir.

Did your teacher know how to read? Yes, sir. Who taught you how to read? Your teacher or you? My teacher. Okay.

A lot of us approach God, approach scripture. Even in this series, you're going to approach the Proverbs and you're going to be talking the whole time. And you're going to hit passages that you go, Don't like that. Don't agree with that. Don't agree with that. And in that moment, you've stumbled upon a place where you need to grow in wisdom.

And you can reject it or you can say, Hold on a second. If God's saying something I don't agree with, maybe I ought to fear him. Maybe I ought to humble myself. Maybe I ought to listen. Maybe he has something better to say. And the Proverbs is going to say, One of those responses is wise and one of those is foolish.

But it's inviting us to make the wise response to a glorious God who has good wisdom for us. So, as the Proverbs go, there's a lot of introduction in the first nine chapters. We're going to cover some of that again. A lot of it, though, is trying to sell you on You Need Wisdom. It's one of the reasons why we want to start this series because this is this way, because this is how Proverbs starts. You need this.

It's good for you. It leads to life. It leads to joy. It's better than gold. It's better than silver. If you've got to choose between money or wisdom, pick money.

If you ever meet a genie and they give you grant you wishes, choose wisdom. That's the point of this. It's better to pursue. Just for the record, for some of y'all who aren't part of church and this is your first time, Christians don't actually believe in genies. Just throw that out there. There are some things we believe in that you probably don't, but genies isn't one of them.

All right. Chapter 9, verse 1. It says, This is what they say. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. To him who lacks sense, she says, Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight.

Lady Wisdom goes out into the crowded places and calls. Come learn. To the simple. Come learn. Come partake in the goodness of wisdom. And she's got good stuff.

Her table is set with good stuff. Come. Come get life. That's an invitation to you. That's an invitation to everyone in this room that you can come to the Proverbs. You can come to the Lord.

You can submit and you can get wisdom. Verse 13. The woman folly is loud. She is seductive and knows nothing. I appreciate that description. Lady Wisdom is not ever said to be seductive.

She's got good stuff. She has her table set. She's made good choices. Lady Folly looks better on the outside. Has nothing. Has nothing to offer.

So there's even places in the Proverbs where it says there's a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death. There are moments where you go this feels good. This seems right. The Proverbs acknowledges that and says no, no, no. You need wisdom. You don't need to just follow your intuition.

You need to grow in a way that helps you counteract your intuition which is sinful and bad. Because the woman folly is loud. She is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house. She takes a seat on the highest places of the town. So she goes to some of the same places calling to those who pass by who are going straight on their way whoever is simple let him turn in here and to him who lacks sense she says.

That's verbatim what verse 4 was. Lady folly makes the same cry calls to the same people as lady wisdom. The invitation is laid out for you to go one way or the other. Verse 17 stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but he does not know that the dead are there that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. One is an invitation to life one is an invitation to death. Wisdom offers you life.

Wisdom has a table set with good food mixed wine. The lady folly says water is nice let's eat bread in secret. She has less to offer and ultimately leads to death but the reality is you are headed in one direction or the other. Time does not let you sit still. You are progressing one way or the other. You are growing to be more wise or more foolish.

The invitation is that you would respond to lady wisdom that you would seek this that you would begin to read this you would begin to study this that you would stick this out that you would where the Bible contradicts you submit in humility knowing that the Lord has more sense than you do. That you would receive the call of wisdom. Choose wisely. Now I got some good news and I got some bad news. Let's talk about Solomon for a second.

We'll go bad news first. Solomon wisest man who ever lived. You will not outwise Solomon. 1 Kings chapters 3 and 4 tell us wisest man who ever lived. 1 Kings chapter 11 you just follow his life out and he derails it. Quits following the Lord. runs into sin pursues sin pursues foolishness wrecks God's good plan for their kingdom that ultimately the next sons that he has they split the kingdom in half that he runs after idols.

Wisdom is good and you need it. Wisdom is insufficient to fix you. Wisdom is insufficient to fix your sin problem. That ultimately we have a sin issue that we need wisdom and guidance from the Lord. We need his teaching so that we might navigate life well but it will ultimately not satisfy our soul or fix our sin. Wisdom is good but it is insufficient. that is the bad news.

I have some good news. I do not know if you are familiar with the gospel of Matthew but in Matthew chapter 12 Jesus says this he says the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment that is the queen of Sheba she came up to listen to Solomon she was like I want to see if he is actually this wise she showed up and she was like yep and then she gave him a bunch of spices and left will rise up with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon behold something greater than Solomon is here. Jesus came to do for us what Solomon could not do. Jesus did not come because we lacked in wisdom Jesus came because we needed a savior.

He did not come because you need more coaching and you need more counseling and if you just had the right bit of information you could fix the problem no he came because you can't fix the problem but he's good and he came to redeem those who are in sin so that we might have hope. That's why Jesus' primary work was accomplished on the cross not when he sat and taught. He sat and taught so that we might understand the cross so that we might believe in the cross so we might hope in the cross he healed so that we might believe that he was who he said he was but he rose from the grave died for our sins conquered death and hell in our place so that we might have hope and he is greater than Solomon and the scriptures tell us that he is the wisdom of God that if you understand the wisdom of God if you understand how he works and what he's come to accomplish in the world you need Jesus. That's what 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says it says it in verse 24 and verse 30 we'll read both it says but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Corinthians 1 30 says because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God righteousness sanctification redemption Colossians tells us that all of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ so we're going to grow in wisdom but we're going to do it as those who are submitting to Christ and who see him as the ultimate Revelation of the wisdom of God that came to redeem sinners that did not come to put the weight on you for you to accomplish your salvation but came to rescue us so that we might follow behind him in obedience and joy you're going to make some terrible choices that's why we praise Jesus because he redeems he became for us redemption was that last verse it's not up there anymore he came for us redemption that he fixes our brokenness so we're going to listen to Solomon knowing that we have the greater Solomon in Christ the band is going to come back up as we go through this this summer we will get to spend different times talking about different we're going to walk through this and we're going to take it topically we're going to see what it says about money we're going to see what it says about parenting we're going to see what it says about truth about words we're going to grow in wisdom but as we do that we're going to consistently point ourselves back to Christ who gives us hope and who shows us what the ultimate wisdom of God is that he would redeem sinners now in a moment we're going to take communion communion is set up in places all around the room it is for believers it is us celebrating the literal physical work of Christ on our behalf that he died for our sin that he shed his blood that his body was broken that he was placed in a tomb that he rose from the grave and that in this work we have hope that your hope today is not that you would learn enough to be good enough to handle this on your own but your hope is that Jesus has already come and we have hope in him if you are a believer we invite you to take communion we want you to consider yourself we want you to consider your sin we want you to repent acknowledge where you need the grace of God and then celebrate that it is finished and the grace of God is for you in Christ who is the wisdom and power of God in our place on our behalf if you are not a Christian this is not for you we would love for you to come to know Christ in his salvation we would love for you to submit to him and to receive humbly the wisdom and grace that is offered to you through the cross to repent of your sin and to be redeemed by him so in a moment we will begin to play and sing you pray when you are ready go to the tables take two of the cups return to your seat and as you are ready partake in communion stack your cups and just take them out with you when you leave let's pray God we thank you for your grace we thank you for the hope of the wisdom the invitation into life ultimately fulfilled in the work of Christ who invites us into the finished work of wisdom salvation through your son and so we pray that we would grow in our love for Jesus and that we would grow in wisdom that we who are simple would gain prudence and that those among us who are wise they would continue to grow in wisdom as they walk in humility that they might unlike Solomon make it to the end of their days loving praising and worshiping you in Jesus

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20)

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Thank you. Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. It's the last time you're going to see that bumper, you guys. This is the last sermon in the Matthew series.

We're at the end, the final verses of the Gospel of Matthew. We have been in this book for 58 weeks over the last year and a half. Now, I know some of you were like, I want 80 weeks. No. No. No, most of you guys are tired.

The reason why we teach through books of the Bible is the Bible has a ton of depth. When you search the Scriptures, you can read a lot and you will miss a lot. And you can sit in a passage and go deeper and deeper. And the well goes deeper and deeper. And we like to sit in passages of the Bible, slowly work through books. We think it is good for our souls to patiently journey through a Gospel like this.

So thank you for being patient. Thank you for riding the journey with us. We will be starting the book of Proverbs next week. Over the next few months, we'll be walking through the Proverbs. But today is the final sermon for the Gospel of Matthew.

These are the final words of Jesus to His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew. He's getting ready to ascend into heaven. These final words have importance. What He's about to say is heightened because it is the last few words that He's going to say. If someone is on their deathbed, some of the things they have to say towards the end, it heightens the importance. It elevates the importance of what they're going to say.

When the coach goes into halftime on the title game and he has his team, the speech that he gives, the final words before they go out to play one last time together, it matters. It heightens how important the message of what He's about to say. And the church has called these final few words the Great Commission. For hundreds of years, we refer to this as the Great Commission. What I want us to see this morning is two things. I want us to see why.

By looking at the authority that is in Christ as He's commissioning out the church. And then I want us to sit in the details of the Great Commission and be molded and shaped by this. So let me pray for us. And then we will jump into this final passage in Matthew. Lord, we love You. We thank You for Your Word.

We thank You that we get to open it and read it. That we get to sing songs about it. That we get to read Scripture. And that we get to sit under the authority of Your Word and be molded and shaped into Your image. Because Your Word is powerful. It is like a sword that pierces the heart.

It is like a hammer that breaks the rocks to pieces. God, I pray that right now that You would instruct us. You would teach us. That You would train us. And You would send us out as a church that is obedient to Your Great Commission. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Alright, let me read through it and then we'll walk through it. Verse 16. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

Now here comes the commissioning. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Alright, so. Like I said, we're going to look at this in two parts. Really the set up to the Great Commission itself.

And then we're going to walk through the Great Commission piece by piece. Alright, so. Those first two verses. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped, but some doubted. Alright, so let's give some context for where we are.

Just a few days before this, the disciples abandoned Jesus. When He was arrested, they fled. And Peter, who stuck around, well, he denied Jesus three times. So, their head's spinning a little bit. Then all of a sudden, on Sunday morning, Mary bursts into the room and says, He's risen!

He's alive! And we've got to go to Galilee, because He's going to be just there. Now, from Jerusalem to Galilee is a few days' journey. Alright? And on that walk back to Galilee, I can assume that a lot of doubts are starting to creep in. There's some shame and some guilt, because they abandoned Jesus.

What is He going to say to them? Right? Maybe some doubts on it. Is He really risen? Is He really alive? Their faith is being questioned.

Their doubts are arising. And they finally get to Galilee. Verse 18, Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus answers their doubt by displaying His power. His fully resurrected, glorified body. And He tells them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

So I want us to look at this from two different ways. The first part that I want us to see what is bound up in this statement is that this is the ultimate flex of His power on Satan. This shows dominance over the powers of evil. Because of what happened at the cross and the empty tomb, He is flexing His power. If you go back to Matthew 4, when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, there was a final temptation that He gave. And He said in verse 8, Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And He said to them, All these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship Me. He understood what Jesus was doing in part. He understood His arrival meant. And He's trying to keep the mission from happening. He says, If you will just bow down and worship Me now, I'll give you some of My power. You want some kingdoms here on earth?

I'll give it to you. And Jesus says, No. He's obedient to the will of the Father because He wants to save sinners like you and me. But it's not just that. He didn't just come for the earth. Look what He says.

He says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. He is the sovereign king and ruler over all existence. From the heavens, that is this galaxy, in all galaxies, that is the invisible heaven where God rules and reigns from all the way down to earth and in the earth and everything on the earth and under the earth. Everything is under the authority of Jesus. He has won the war against sin and death. He has disarmed the rulers and authorities.

I think even the geography is a flex on Satan. I mean, think about it. Satan takes Him to a very high mountain to show Him the kingdoms. And Jesus goes to a very high mountain and says, No, no, no. I didn't just come for the earth. I came for everything.

I'm the king over all of it. Now, the text doesn't say this. Alright? And this may have never happened. But I like to imagine a little bit that Jesus is almost just kind of winking at Satan and the rulers of evil.

I think he's just saying, Oh, the same setting? Alright? All of this is mine. This is important for you to know as a Christian. Because the reality is is that as you are sent out, you will face forces of evil. As you are obedient to the will of God in your life, you will face evil.

You will face demonic activity. We believe this. And the reality is is you don't have to be scared. You don't have to be fearful. You get to remember who is in control over all things. It is Christ.

And that power over all things is a comfort when we face evil. The second thing that's being demonstrated here is he's answering the doubt of the disciples. Jesus and his supremacy and his rule and his reign over all things is the authority for mission. It's the authority for how we are sent out. For how we obey his marching orders. I finally, last year, it was my bucket list to watch Band of Brothers.

I've been wanting to watch it for a very long time. And I finally got to watch it. It's an HBO series that follows the Easy Company. It's a famous company from a battalion paratroopers in World War II. And it follows them from when they're training and getting ready for D-Day in France. And they drop over France all the way to the end of the war.

I finally got to watch it. And just seeing them get ready for this jump in a D-Day. I mean, there had to have been a lot of nerves. A lot of nervousness. Because this was before the days of halo jumps. So halo jumps is how everyone jumps now in the military.

It's a high altitude, low opening jump. It's when you jump out of a plane, you don't pull your chute to the very last second and then you pull your chute. I mean, if you want to get shot out of the sky, if you want to be detected, that's how you do it. They didn't have that in World War II. So, as they're flying into D-Day, into the darkness of the night, there are bullets flying, shooting planes down. They're having to jump out as bullets are flying by.

And they jump out immediately and their chutes are opened. And they're slowly descending into the darkness as bullets are flying by. Some of them are getting shot out of the air. And then below, the German army is waiting for them. Some of them are being arrested, some of them are being shot on sight. And you look at that and the bravery it took and it's like, why?

What motivated them to be so courageous and to do this? And it's because it was the calling. It was World War II. They had to defeat the Nazis, the axis of evil, all of it. They had to do this. It was the only way.

And I think about this as Christians. How much more boldly do we get to go into the darkness? Because the reality is is that the paratroopers are jumping into enemy territory that is controlled by the German army. That's not us. That ain't us. Wherever we are called to go, Jesus is sovereign over every aspect of where we go.

He is the one who is in control. As bullets are flying, as opposition, as we're facing it, He is the one who is in control. There's a 19th century Dutch prime minister. He's the father of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper. I love what he says. He says, There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine.

I love that. Every single place you could go to declare the Gospel, whether it's the most hostile places to the Gospel in the world, or it's the most hostile work environment that does not love Jesus. Jesus says, Mine. He is sovereign over all of it. And that is so incredibly important for us to remember. It's incredibly important for us to remember that the end is written.

Flip to the end of Revelation. Jesus wins. And we get to celebrate with Him for all of eternity. Jesus and His authority. That is the God who sends us out. You have to remember that the disciples needed to hear that because He's about to give this commission and it's going to say, Go therefore.

That therefore is linked to the authority of Christ, the God who's sovereign over all things. So that is the God who sends you. That is the setup of the Great Commission. Then He gets into the commissioning itself. Verse 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now, over the last decade plus, I've spent a lot of time on this passage. In college, I had a thesis. My college thesis was on this passage.

In seminary, I studied the Gospel of Matthew in Greek syntax. I've spent a lot of time in this passage and I want to make something very clear. There's one main verb, one main command, one main instruction in this passage and it is make disciples. That's it. That's the main command. Make.

It says go therefore. Make disciples. You've got to see that. And then, there's some participles in the Greek. There's some further explaining. Think of it as make disciples as the hub and there's some spokes that come out of it.

And you've got go, you've got baptizing, and you've got teaching. Those three aspects help explain the command to make disciples. And that's where we spend the majority of our time today. Is walking through what it means to make disciples by looking at go, baptizing, teaching. So first, let's look at that first part.

Go. Now, some of you may have heard that you can look at this and translate this as you go. That it means as you go, make disciples. And I just want to say, no. Absolutely not. That was my college thesis.

I got really excited about it. I just started studying Greek and I was like, oh, look at this. It means as you go. And I got some claps, I got some pats on my back, and I said, good Job. And then, I got to seminary and it took five minutes for my Greek professor to absolutely just dismantle it. There's a reason why every translation says, go.

Go. That's why the disciples went. So the force is, I know there's part of us that wants to water this down and say, well, it's just kind of, as you're going in life, you can kind of make disciples. No. It is go, therefore, make disciples. Now, you put this against some of the other commissionings in the New Testament.

Look at the book of Acts. And there is the idea that some are called to go to Jerusalem, some are called to go to Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. That's why we use the language. Go across the street and make disciples with your neighbors. Or go across the world. But I actually want to give a caveat to that statement.

I want to say, go into the workplace. Go across the street and make disciples. And be involved in going across the world. Do all of it. Be involved in all of it. John Piper has a quote.

He says, go, send, or disobey. Real simple. He says, go, I would actually mean that go, slash, send, or disobey. That's it. That's the calling. And that is why we want you to be everyday missionaries where you are.

So that you'll go and make disciples. Then some of you are going to receive the call and you need to go further. It is the reason why we got excited. We rallied around the Rockies this last fall. Chris and Daniel Rockies, we sent them to Honduras. They sold everything.

And they left to make disciples in Honduras. It is the reason why a few years ago a team of us went to Egypt and we did some training and equipping with some churches and ministries in Egypt. Because we want to be a part of sending and making disciples across the earth. We want to see every, the word is all nations, every ethnos, which is every people group. Every tribe, every tongue is what's built into that. We want to do it all.

It's the reason why there's three of our members that are going to Lebanon in just a few weeks. We partnered with 1040 Hope. We actually give 1040 Hope office space here to be able to work out of here as they are raising money for church plants all across the Middle East. And three of them are going to Lebanon in just a few weeks. So we want to be a part of all of it.

We want to go and make disciples in our neighborhoods. We want to send. We want to do it all. And if we don't, we are being disobedient. We are not obeying the command to go. So we want to embody this as a church to do it all.

Go. Alright, next one. Baptizing. The next aspect is baptizing. Built into this is not just the literal act of baptizing, but it is conversion. That's what's being taught here.

Now as good Baptists, we believe, converting them to faith in Jesus and then baptizing them. But the force of what's built in here is converting them. And I want to be very explicit about that. It is converting them. A couple of years ago, something clicked for me and I found this so incredibly helpful for my soul. I was watching a movie that came out a few years ago.

It's called 1970. It's a World War I movie and it's incredible. It became one of my favorite movies. It's just, it's awesome. And it's artistically done. It's shot all in one take.

It's a good war movie. I loved it. I mean, it's just, if you haven't seen it, you're not bothered by war violence. It's incredible. And I got really excited about it. And I was like, man, this is obviously the best picture of the year.

This is definitely going to win best picture. And there was a lot of excitement because of how well it was done. And then all of a sudden there was some major criticisms that came. And the main criticisms that came were people were saying, well, you know what? This movie actually isn't doing anything. It's not trying to say anything.

It's just about, it's just a story. And guess what? It didn't win best picture that year. Because the main criticism that was against it was, is it wasn't actually, they wouldn't use this word, it wasn't preaching. And that's why you see every Oscar movie is just super sad or has some cause that arrives behind. They're preaching.

And it clicked for me. I listened to this late night comedian who was talking about culture wars. And he's like, politicians, they've got to stay out of the culture wars. He's like, because we're the ones that win them. He's like, let Hollywood take care of that. We are the ones who will win people over.

And it finally just clicked for me. Everyone is preaching. Everyone has an angle. Everyone has a message. Go on Facebook. Everyone wants you to join their political movement, to buy their product.

Everyone is preaching. And the reason that was so good for me to just finally, for it to sink in fully in my soul is because when I became a Christian, I was very wary of being the kind of Christian that, you know, a big critique from skeptics is, oh, Christians are always trying to convert you. They always have, they always have got an angle. They're always trying to convert you. And I was always sensitive to that. I was like, I don't want to seem like I'm just trying to convert you.

I'm done with that. Yes, I am trying to convert you. Absolutely. Unapologetically. I am trying to convert you. Everyone's preaching and I'm getting on this.

You know why? Because worldviews have consequences. Eternal consequences. I'm absolutely, unapologetically, I want to convert you to the worship of the one true God. I want you to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I want you to know the triune God.

John Piper also says that missions exist because worship doesn't. There are people that do not worship Christ. They don't know Him. They don't love Him. They don't know the perfection of beauty, the author of goodness, and love, and joy. They don't know the glory of Christ.

They are dead in sin. Absolutely, I'm trying to convert you. I want you to know the one true God. I don't want you to miss out on who this God is. There's an atheist comedian named Penn Jillette. We've mentioned this quote before.

It's just really helpful to hear his perspective. He's talking about how Christians try to convert him sometimes and how much he appreciates it because he's like, if you believe in heaven and hell, I mean, why aren't you trying to convert me? He says, how much do you have to hate someone not to proselytize? That's evangelize. How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? And it's just, to hear an atheist say that, I mean, it's refreshing and it's so convicting.

How much do you have to hate somebody? How much do you have to not love somebody to say, I don't want to make it weird? Like, I don't want to make our workplace weird. I don't want to make them uncomfortable. You know, faith is a personal matter. I don't, you know, I don't really want to push it too far.

If we love Christ and we trust His word and if you love other people, your heart will say, absolutely, I want you to know Christ and you will look for every opportunity that God presents for you to demonstrate the gospel, share the gospel and help them believe. Now listen, we fail. Alright? I look at this in my own selfishness, my own fears sometimes. I feel that. Alright?

Here's good news. Jesus' grace covers your lack of obedience to this great commission. He covers it. Our failures, our fears, it's been paid for at the cross. So know that.

Yes, you fail in this area. But His grace covers it. And then once you realize that, in repentance, see that Jesus is holding the door open and He's saying, get in. Join me in mission. You don't know what you're missing. There's so much joy found in partnering with our God to see sinners taste and see that the Lord is good.

There's a quote by a famous missionary, C.T. Stubb. He says, I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted almost all the pleasures that this world can give. I do not suppose that there is one I have not experienced, but I can tell you that those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that saving of that one soul gave me. no hobby, nothing in this world compares to the joy of joining our God and mission to see people believe in Jesus. It's beautiful and it is good.

We get to join with our God and mission to seek and save the lost. There are times where my son wants to help around the house. We're doing yesterday and he's helping me and he's three and he's not the most helpful at times. He's just little and he doesn't have a lot of attention. But he loves it.

He gets really excited. He'll go grab his toy tool kit. He's got a little plastic camera and plastic screwdriver. Every now and then he's nearby and I'll actually give him something to do. Hey, can you hold this? And his face just lights up because he gets to help his dad out.

And I love that it's a picture that we get to partner with our father. Our God is inviting us into mission. Listen, hear this clearly. When someone is saved, by the blood of Jesus, that is God at work. It is not us. Right?

God is the one that brings about redemption. He's the one that brings dead people to life in Christ. It's his work. But we get to be a part of that. We're invited into that. How joyful it is that we get to partner with our God.

That he gets to use us to bring about his kingdom. There's a lot of joy filled in that and I don't want us to miss out on bringing people to Jesus. The third aspect. Is to teach them. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. If you want to make disciples, and hear this, if you want to make disciples that last, you need to teach them.

You need to help them know the Bible. You need to help them know God. That's why we say all the time, read your Bible. We're fighting against, there's a big swing on the pendulum to this, it's over simplicity just to help people to read their Bibles. Yes, it can be. But also, read your Bibles.

Like, absolutely know God through His Word. It will shape you and mold you into His image. Read your Bible. We absolutely want to know God by observing His teachings, by observing His commands, and this is why I love Matthew's Gospel. It's just, he's brilliant. Because what He does right here, is honestly, He's also tagging back a lot of Jesus' former teachings, a lot of His former commands.

Observe all that I've commanded. That goes back, I mean, just think about where we've been in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 4, He talked about making fishers of men. Come, I will make you fishers of men. That's the kind of kingdom that He calls us into. In Matthew 5-7, we get to see this kingdom of a higher ethical teaching, a higher ethical living, that ultimately we want to live out, but have no shot of fulfilling ourselves, which is why Christ came to fulfill it Himself.

In Matthew 8-10, we get to see how our Lord is a missionary, that He cares, that He heals people, that He mends the broken, and that He sends us out as missionaries to go and proclaim the good news of His kingdom, even in the midst of persecution. In Matthew 11-12, we get to see a kingdom where the King offers true less against the backdrop of horrible, bad religion. In Matthew 13-17, we get to see parable after parable, teaching after teaching, that has so much wisdom that for thousands of years the church has come together to study and mind for its wisdom. In Matthew 18-20, we get to see the church and how He calls us to care for one another, to hold one another accountable, and how to pursue good together.

In Matthew 21-25, we get to see all these teachings where He's in the final week, He's instructing us, He's teaching the disciples, He's giving some prophecy of what is to come, He's showing down with the religious leaders, again, showing us how bad religion is not what we're called to, and then in Matthew 26-28, the King goes to the cross, and He conquers death and the resurrection, and then He comes to this mountain in Galilee, and He says, observe all that I've taught you. All of it. And listen, the good news is, is we don't just have the Gospel of Matthew, we've got the whole Bible, and the whole Bible is filled with teaching, and filled with commands, and filled with so much goodness that we get to search and discover. So absolutely, teach others to know God.

Not just to read the Word, and to know facts. Not just to be hearers of the Word, but be doers also. We want to know the Scriptures. So He walks through these three, go, baptize, teaching. These are the three main aspects of what it looks like to make disciples. The whole universe is Christ.

And He calls us to make disciples. To go out and get them, to lead them to faith, and to teach them the message of Christ. Those are the marching orders. Out of all the marching orders, out of all the commands, in all of human history, there's none more important and none more profound. And it is given by our God. Now, it is also a command that, let's be honest, can be difficult.

And at times, can be scary. And it's so sure and guaranteed to bring us pain at times. From the foreign missionary on the mission field that faces intense persecution for sharing their faith, to the everyday missionary who is in her office when she's sharing the gospel and her co-workers are mocking her and making fun of her and her faith, it's hard. It invites pain and discomfort. When you obey this, it absolutely invites hardship. And that's why I love how Jesus ends all of it.

He says, And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Our King promises. Hear this. He promises to be with us all the way to the finish line. All the way to the end. If you obey the call to make disciples, it will take you to places you never expected.

If you obey the call of God, it may call you to do things you never thought you would do. And you're going to face opposition. You're going to enter spiritual warfare. You might lose friends. It is difficult. But God is with us.

He gets to be a comfort with us along the way wherever He sends us. There are times where I'm downstairs with my kids and I have time. Hey, go upstairs. Go grab that toy. Go grab something. I tell them to go upstairs.

And I hear them kind of walk to the bottom of the stairs and then I don't hear the pitter-patter of feet going upstairs. And I'm going to corner them. I'm like, Hey, what are y'all doing? And they're like, We're scared. It's dark. And I try to reason with them because reasoning with a three or five-year-old is usually effective.

And they're just like, Guys, I don't want to know. I'm like, okay. So I come up behind them and we walk up the stairs. Together. And we turn on the lights. And they're not scared anymore because their dad is with them.

And there's nothing to be scared of when their dad is with them. And that's us, guys. God calls us to go into the darkness. He calls us to go and make disciples. He calls us to do some pretty extreme and radical things. But He's not going to abandon us.

He's with us every step of the way. It is the sovereign King who declares, Mine over every inch of existence who's behind us and who's with us and is never going to let us go. If you surrendered your life to this calling, He'll be with you even in the midst of great loss. The famous missionary Hudson Taylor was married to his wife for 12 years and she died on the mission field. And I will celebrate my 10th anniversary next month. I cannot imagine losing my wife right now.

And in the midst of all of it, He writes this letter. He says, At times He, God, He allows me to realize all that I had in her but have no longer. And then He who will soon come and wipe away every tear comes and takes all bitterness from my tears and fills my heart with deep, true, unutterable gladness. How good is that? In the midst of unbelievable, unbelievable loss. He feels the comfort of God.

Our God does not abandon us in the midst of suffering, in the midst of the calling to make disciples. The reality is that many of you have entrusted your life to Jesus. And some of you are seeking to obey the Great Commission. And in your obedience of Jesus, you face some pain and hardship. Some of you all have lost friends. Right?

I felt this when I became a Christian. And Jesus started to change me. And all of a sudden, your friends are like, I don't know if I want to be a part of this anymore. And they just kind of abandoned you. That hurts. You feel that.

Some of you have multiplied community groups. We're going to get to celebrate that in a moment. That we're multiplying a new group. And that's hard. To journey with someone for two or three years, and all of a sudden, the reason we multiply groups is we want to make room for mission. Our groups are how we make disciples.

And we want people to experience Jesus. And groups, when they get big enough, it's time for them to multiply so that we can create more room for others to know Christ. But that's hard. When you've journeyed with someone for two or three years, and you go and you multiply a new group, sure, you're going to see them on Sunday. The gathering of the saints right now, every Sunday is good. And you might hang out with them a little bit outside of the group.

But be honest. The reality is, is you won't see them as much as you used to. You won't see them that one time a week that was guaranteed every week. You won't hear the words of comfort that you've got to hear on a regular basis. That's hard. That is loss.

It is loss for the sake of gain. We experience all kinds of hurt on the mission. The Rockies, who right now, are you either listening to this right now or I know you're going to listen to it later because you listen to all our sermons online. You gave up everything. You left everything behind. It wasn't just the stuff.

It was the people. It was your friends. It was your family. It was this church family. And that's hard when you give up that kind of loss. We experience loss in so many ways in the mission.

Some of you, in obedience to the gospel, in obedience to the teachings of Christ, you've had to have really difficult conversations with other Christians. You've had to call them out in sin. And it has not gone well. And it's blown up in your face. That hurts. This can be incredibly difficult.

There's a lot of risk in obeying the Great Commission. There's a lot of risk in following Jesus. I love this quote that comes out of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia. Or whatever you, people who nerd out about it might be the first book. There's a debate on that. It's not important.

Still want to speak untruthfully. For the three of you that care about that. There's a part where Susan, who's one of the main characters, is about to meet Aslan, the Lion. And she's nervous. She starts talking to one of the other characters, Mr. Beaver.

She's nervous when she finds out he's a Lion. Mr. Beaver says, Aslan is a Lion. The Lion. The Great Lion. Oh, said Susan.

I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a Lion. Safe, said Mr. Beaver. Who said anything about safe?

Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you. I love that. That's a picture of our God. Of course he isn't safe.

Read the Gospels. We've already walked through. You follow Jesus, persecution will come. Family might turn on you. You will face opposition. You will face the powers of evil.

You absolutely will. There's no safety in following Jesus. That's not guaranteed at all. But he's good. He's the king. He's sovereign over every inch of existence.

And he promises to be with you every step of the way. If you go where the Lord is calling you, if you're obedient and you go, I want you to know something. Some of you, that might be across the world. And some of you, that might be more missional in your neighborhood and your workplace. But if you go, there are people, hear this, there are people right now that do not know Jesus, that currently walk, as the Bible says, as enemies of the cross, of Christ.

They don't know Him. They are journeying towards hell. But if you go and you proclaim the gospel, some of them are going to believe. And some of them right now who are destined to destruction will have their eternity diverted. And a thousand years from now, when you're worshiping God and we have perfect fellowship with one another, they're going to be in the kingdom with you. How good is that?

That's worth the risk to hear the call and go. Some of you need to leverage your life to make disciples. There's so much joy in converting people to help them see that God is good. It's so joyful when you share the gospel and they realize, I don't have to earn God's favor. I can trust the finished work of Jesus. Yes, I want Him.

And then the end of the baptism water is with you. It's beautiful and it's good. Some of you need to teach. Some of you need to commit to discipling and teaching others the scriptures and giving your time and your energy and your wisdom and your experience. Some of you need to lead groups. Some of you, listen, if you obey the calling and you do this, you will lead groups.

And your groups, there's going to be some mess because we're all sinners and we bring our mess in it. And sometimes you're going to come across a marriage that is on the rocks. And because you committed to teach them and to show them the scriptures, you'll get to watch marriages be restored and reconciliation happen. You'll get to spend time with Christians who've been bitter towards family or friends or other Christians for years. And you get to open up the scriptures and watch their hearts be softened. And you'll see families be restored.

Friendships be restored. You'll see God go to work. But you've got to obey the command to do it. We've got to do it. We've got to obey the Great Commission. That we want to see this happen.

My hope is we'd hear these words and we would participate in work that lasts and resounds for eternity. The sovereign King over all things, the resurrecting King that we just joyfully sing about stands and says all authority, it's all mine. Now go out and get them. Go out and make disciples. Teach them to observe my commands. And I will be with you every step of the way all the way to finish.

Let's receive that and let's do it.

Easter (Matthew 27:55-28:15)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Easter

Chet Philips

Transcript

Apparently, I had it on the whole time I was singing, so if you thought things sounded particularly good today, you're welcome. 1 Corinthians 15, 17 says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Jesus Christ was crucified. He was dead. He was buried. If he stayed that way.

You're dressed up. You look nice. This is a waste of time. I mean, I think you look good. Take your picture. Grab a cupcake on the way out.

But this is a waste of time. This is futile. You are in your sins. That's the primary thing that Jesus came to do is to rescue sinners. To redeem us from our sin. And if he did not rise, he does not redeem.

He does not save. You have no hope. You are in your sin. But if he does rise, then our faith isn't futile. And we are not in our sin. And we have gathered this morning because he does rise.

He did rise. And we have hope. And we have good hope and certain hope. My family are Carolina fans. South Carolina fans. We grew up.

I grew up. We didn't pay any attention to sports whatsoever. We played sports. We did not watch them. We did not talk about them. I knew no one who played.

I knew no scores. I knew nothing. My friends would talk about them at school. I was like, yeah, I don't know anything to what you're talking about. I was playing linebacker in high school. Somebody said something to me about Urlacher.

I responded, who? And that's a mortal sin for a white linebacker. You're supposed to know who Brian Urlacher is. I had to go Google it later. Probably still on dial-up. I had to look it up, try to find out who this person was we were talking about.

But my younger brother, when he was in middle school, he decided that this was a problem for our family. And that we needed to pick a team to pull for. And so he decided that we should pull for the South Carolina Gamecocks. And he brought us all in on it. And he chose in middle school, and he got excited about it. And he had us join him.

And sometimes, when everything's still and quiet, I find myself imagining what it would have been like if he had picked better. I think it was inevitable. My older brother ended up going there. My wife went to USC. We moved here and started the church. So I think at some point it was meant to be for me to be a South Carolina fan.

But South Carolina fans have hope. Because that's all they have. And it's, we say, well, you know, maybe next year. We'll put a whole season. Well, next year. We'll get it together next year.

Based off of absolutely nothing. One of the things South Carolina fans will do is tell you bad players from this year that will be returning next year. This person will be back. We've got 11 seniors coming back. What does that matter? They didn't do anything this year.

Let's go find some new ones. Do you think our coaches are going to get them better in the offseason? Because I've never seen that happen. We'll do it. We'll do for a whole season. We'll do for a game.

You'll hear South Carolina fans say things like, all right. All we got to do is score. Stop them. Score. Stop them. Get the onside kick.

Score. And we're right back in this thing. And they mean down by three or seven or whatever. And there's no reason. Have you been watching the game to assume that we will a score or be stop them. That's not the type of hope that Christians have.

It's not hopeful, wishful, good thoughts about a potential future based off of nothing. Christians have certain hope in finished work accomplished by Christ on our behalf. When we talk about hope, we don't mean I think it will be good later. We mean he has accomplished this. And therefore we have rock solid, unending, unyielding future hope. And that's why we've gathered this morning.

Grab your Bibles. Go to Matthew chapter 27. We are going to look at the resurrection of Jesus. That the resurrection is real. And because it is real, everything Jesus taught, everything Jesus claimed to be, everything Jesus said he was going to do is vindicated and validated. It has a seal on it of certainty and truth.

So when he says he forgives sins, he means it. When he says that there will be hope in his name and salvation in his name, he means it. When he says he's the son of God and we'll see him in power, he means it. Because it's real. So let's pray and then we'll begin to read this text together.

God, we thank you for the certain hope of the resurrection. We pray that as we read this, you would help it come alive to us. That we might see it. That you might captivate our hearts. And for those in this room who have not placed their faith in you, Lord, we pray that they would leave with a certain hope. And forgiveness of sins.

Future salvation. To reign with you for eternity. In Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew chapter 27 verse 55. There were also many women there looking on from a distance.

So they're watching Jesus be crucified. Who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him. I love that it says that the women were there. They stayed. They didn't run off like the men. And that it specifies that when they followed him, they ministered to him.

And that sounds very true. He asked the men, what are they doing? Like, we're ministering with Jesus. We're here to do some stuff. But they didn't help him.

And the women came and they're like, no, we love Jesus. We're going to serve Jesus. They ministered to Jesus. They've been ministering to him. And among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. When it was evening, this is Jesus is dead.

This was Good Friday. There came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. So Joseph of Arimathea gets the body, cleans Jesus's body. They lay Jesus's dead body in Joseph's tomb. We're told that it's a new tomb because they would have and it's cut in rocks. So they would have gone in these limestone rocks.

They would have cut out tombs and they would have shelves in there and you would bury your whole family potentially in there. Your whole household would be buried in the same tomb. We're told it's a new tomb. There was only one body in there. It was Jesus's. And they rolled a stone and we're told that this is a big stone.

Rolled a stone in front of the hole cut out in the rock. And this stone would have been basically like a millstone. It had been fairly flat, rounded and sat in a little trench and rolled over the hole. And that was to keep grave robbers out. It was to keep animals out. And so they close the tomb.

And they were told that the Marys know where the tomb is. They've seen it. They saw him buried. That's important. The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive. After three days, I will rise.

Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away. And and the last fraud will be worse than the first. Oh, steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead and the last fraud will be worse than the first. So the chief priests go and they say, hey, this guy kept telling people he was going to die and he was going to rise again. So it's possible that his disciples will steal the body and then be like, he rose.

Yeah. And that'll be bad. He's an imposter. And that'll make the last fraud worse than the first. And I want you to know that if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, they're right. He's an imposter and a fraud.

He's not a good man. He's not a good moral teacher. He's an imposter and a fraud because he said that he was the son of God. He said that he could forgive sins. He said that his blood was going to be poured out as a sacrifice in a new covenant to forgive sins for all who would believe in him. And he said he was going to rise from the grave.

So if he doesn't. He's an imposter and a fraud. They're vindicated. The chief priests and the Pharisees are right. They should have killed him if he doesn't rise. And I want you all to know that's the chief point of Christianity.

Christianity, everything hangs on this. Does Jesus rise from the grave or not? Every once in a while I'll be talking to somebody and they'll be like, I don't know if I can be a Christian. I just don't. I just don't know if you can get that many animals on a boat. And it's like, let's not start there.

That's not that's not. The disciples aren't like I need to tell you some good news. The boat was real. It is real. But that's not the point to debate over first.

You've got to understand. You've got to look at. Did Jesus rise from the grave? Because if he did, then he's king and he's God and we obey. Then we look at the rest of it.

Every once in a while people say, I don't know if I can be a Christian. There's just some stuff in there I don't agree with. Right. Of course. Bible says we're sinners. He's God.

He's going to say some stuff we don't like, you guys. I'd be like you assumed a married couple had been married for 50 years and you just thought, well, they must agree on everything. No. They just learned they had some other things more important that helped them overcome their disagreements. I'd be like you growing up in your house and be like, I'm not sure they're really my parents because I don't like some of their rules. Check your birth certificate.

Have they raised you since you were little? Look at some old family photos. I'm pretty sure you're their kid. That's a bad test. God doesn't think like me. I'm not sure he's real.

I don't think that's a good test. The question is that Jesus arrived from the grave and if he did, then he's king. We obey. We submit. We know he loves us. We know he's good.

We know he's for our good. And we're willing to, where we disagree, understand that we're wrong, that he saved sinners and that we obey and follow. This is the question. Is he an imposter? Or did he rise? So it says this.

Pilate said to them, you have a guard of soldiers. Go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. So the stone's been rolled over the hole. They go seal it. We don't know exactly how they did this.

They could have done wax seals that actually had like an insignia in them. There's reports that it was seven wax seals. There's others that say that it was a rope. The scriptures don't tell us. They just tell it's sealed. It was a rope that they put against the wall in some clay.

But they put something on there to show this door has not moved. And they set a guard. Now in my head, and I'm thinking maybe this has to do with like growing up in Sunday school, I always picture two men. That doesn't make any sense. It would have been more than two. It would have been a guard.

They would have set a group there because they were going to have to sleep. They were going to have to watch this for a couple of days. It's probably five to ten. Some sort of a detachment with some kind of leader. They set guards around the tomb. Now this wasn't going to be that difficult of a job.

They're mostly a deterrent. They're here to keep people from stealing the body. Maybe they thought it's possible they'll try to fight us and take it. But that would kind of ruin their plan because they can't steal the body and sneak away and claim he rose if all of us have a big fight out here. But they've got guards.

They've sealed the tomb. They're guarding him. Chapter 28. Now, after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day. So the Sabbath was Saturday.

Jesus was crucified on Friday, Sabbath, Saturday, Sunday morning. Toward the dawn of the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. Though they know where it is. There's also guards there and it's sealed. It's pretty clear which tomb was Jesus's.

And behold, there was a great earthquake for the for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. I love that. It wasn't just an earthquake. Like, you know how someone tells you, hey, we had an earthquake earlier. And you're like, really? I did feel like maybe I shook earlier.

But you don't really remember it. This was a great one. This is a serious earthquake. And the angel rolls the stone back and sits on it. Which I just appreciate that that was his attitude. Rolls the stone back and it sits on it.

And it says his appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. He is bright, dazzling. It's not just like sun brightness. It's like lightning brightness. He was, dare I say, striking. Y'all may not be proud of me.

I'm very proud of me. Verse four. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. Yeah. Seems fair. They're here to be a deterrent to fishermen and tax collectors.

Not angels. He shows up. There's an earthquake, which shook him anyway. And then there's an angel who looks like lightning. He's rolled the tomb back. The thing they were supposed to do is keep that door closed.

Job's already over. Like, oh, oops. He's already done what we were supposed to stop people from doing. And he's just sitting on the stone like what? And it says they trembled and became like dead men. They look like cartoon characters or like Don Knotts in anything you ever played in.

They see this angel. They shake. I like to imagine two of them grabbed each other. And then they just fall out. They're supposed to be tough, strong. And they were.

These were soldiers in the Roman army. But they see this angel. It's over. They just nope out. They fall over. Which is fair.

Because that's not really what they were hired to do. I help manage a firework store twice a year. And on our busiest days, we have security guards. And they're there as a deterrent. Keep kids from pocketing our fireworks. Keep drunk people from fighting in our gravel parking lot.

You know, stuff like that. Help people not smoke inside the building. They're there as a deterrent. But if there's an earthquake and a shining lightning angel rips the front of the store off and steps in, I don't think our security guard is going to be like, now it's my moment. This is what they pay me for. I think he's going to be like, now.

And that's fair. I'm going to do it too. You can have all the fireworks you want. I don't know why you're here. That's what they do. They fall out.

Then it says, the angel, this is verse 5. But the angel said to the women, do not be afraid. Which again, if you meet an angel, that's what you want to hear. You notice he doesn't say it to the guards. It's possible it's because they were unconscious. It's possible because he came specifically to make them be afraid.

He says, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Jesus Christ rose from the grave just like he said he was going to. He keeps his promises. We can hope in the certainty of the resurrection of Christ that he is not dead and buried any longer, that he is alive. And therefore, when he says that he forgives sinners, he does.

Come, see the place where he lay. Tell them, go look. That's why it matters. There's only one body in there. They go in. There's no bodies.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So he says, come, look, he's not here anymore.

Go tell his disciples. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. That is the appropriate response to the risen Christ. Worship.

They come up, they fall down, they grab his feet and they worship. And there's a few things that I think we need to point out here that are helpful. One is, Jesus had feet. Because it was common knowledge to them that ghosts don't. Y'all have seen a picture of Casper. You know it's true.

He's not an apparition. He's not a vision. He is physically, literally there. Also, there is a thing called the swoon theory of the atonement. Or the swoon theory of the crucifixion. That Jesus had his back ripped open by whips.

That he was mocked, spit on, slapped, nailed to a cross. That he was hung on a cross for several hours, stabbed in the side with a spear. And he swooned, which means fainted. And that he didn't actually die. And so they wrapped him up, thought he was dead. They put him in the tomb.

Three days later, he came out because he wasn't dead. There's some problems with that. One is, they did all the things that it takes to kill a person. It's very hard to just pass out from that and not be dead. They also were professional executioners. They knew what they were doing.

They also had people that cared about him, who buried him. Because they were used to having to bury and they knew what a dead person was like. They buried him. But the other thing that I want to point out, if that were true, when they saw him, they would not fall down and worship him. They would have helped him. Even if he could have lasted for three days, wrapped up by himself in the tomb, enough to stay alive, which again, doesn't make any sense.

But if they saw him, he would have looked terrible. They would have run to his aid. But when they see him, he is alive. Gloriously, beautifully, healthy, alive. And they worship him because he has conquered death. And so we worship him.

Verse 10. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. Okay. We had just been told that they went with fear and great joy. Jesus shows up and says, I'm going to take one of those emotions away.

Do not be afraid. He just leaves them with great joy. That's the result of the resurrection that you are given great joy. Some of you are here this morning. And in your approach to God, you're afraid. Maybe you haven't been in church in a while.

Maybe you felt like it's Easter. I need to get back over there. Maybe you had to work yourself up and psych yourself up. Maybe you stood out in the parking lot and chain smoked three cigarettes before you came in here this morning. Just to get the nerve to come in here and gather with the church. And Jesus says, do not be afraid.

He did not come to die, to be brutally murdered so that you could have a half-hearted, shaky salvation. He did not come and die and rise and conquer the grave so that you might approach him fearfully. He takes punishment on your behalf so that you might have great joy. Do not be afraid. It says, while they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

And if this comes to the governor's ears, that would be pilot, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. The guards show back up and say, an angel showed up and Jesus left. And they take counsel not to say, hey guys, maybe we were wrong about Jesus. I wonder if anybody raised their hand at the council and was like, have we thought about just like repenting?

Maybe asking him to forgive us? They just are like, let's get enough money together. Let's come up with this lie. They pay them to go lie and say that his body was stolen. They specifically tell them, look, if the governor finds out, which y'all will be very much in trouble for this, we'll cover for you. Now, that lie doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Because the disciples don't benefit much from pretending that Jesus rose from the grave. He was a fraud. He doesn't actually save from sin. If they went and stole his body and then just pretended he rose from the grave, the only thing they get out of it is persecution. They are beaten, murdered for 30 years. They're chased from place to place, put in prison.

And then after 30 years, it gets worse. They're executed. They're tortured. All of them, not just the disciples, but the people who believe their word. They hold to this story. There's a man named Chuck Colson or Charles Colson who was Nixon's hatchet man.

So President Nixon in the Watergate scandal had a lawyer who they called him the hatchet man. Sounds like a nice guy. If you're not familiar with the Watergate scandal, some of you are very familiar. Some of you lived through that. Some of you don't really. You're like, oh, yeah, no, I kind of remember that.

Some of you are like, what? Just know it's so important that from then on, Americans have stuck gate behind everything that has ever happened. Deflate gate. You can go look it up online. There's a fajita gate. There's a very long list of all the things that we just stuck gate behind because of Watergate.

We're like, oh, it's a scandal. Stick gate next to it. But Chuck Colson gets arrested. He was one of the first ones to be arrested. He becomes a Christian in jail or prison. And he says this.

He says, I know the resurrection is a fact. And Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead. Then they proclaim that truth for 40 years, never once denying it.

Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn't keep alive for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep alive for 40 years? Absolutely impossible. Jesus Christ literally, physically rose from the dead.

And we have a literal, physical, certain, eternal hope because of it. First Corinthians 15, 17 says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Three verses later, he says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. Faith isn't futile. You're not in your sins. We have a certain hope.

When I was in high school, I took an AP English class. AP classes, you study, you take a test. If you do well enough on the test, you don't have to. You can place out of college stuff. My high school wasn't excellent, but we did have this class, so I took it. Some places, like 30 of these things.

We had this one. I took it. I test well. I placed out of English in college. Do you know what I didn't do after I took that test? Study English ever again.

Didn't have to study it in college. The work was done. It was accomplished. I was free. Well, until seminary when I had to learn how grammar works. But that's not part of the illustration.

The part of the illustration is that Jesus accomplished this for us. We are free. You are not here to take a test. You are not here to be moral enough. You are not here to be one of the good ones. You are not here to learn from all of us how to behave well.

If you are, you have chosen a bad group of people to hang out with. We want you to join a group so that you can all learn to love Jesus more. Not so that you can be a good morals club. We want you to repent of sin. We want you to obey. But the purpose of this is not let's come together and take the test well enough so that God will love us.

It's let's come together and praise Jesus who has already taken and passed and accomplished everything for us. It is finished. He has risen. We have hope. Now, everybody in here is placing hope in something. You're looking at something and saying, if I can just have you, I'll be okay.

If I can just accomplish this, I'll be okay. If I can just make enough money. If I can just have the right relationship. If my marriage can just be good. If I can just get out of this marriage. I'll be happy.

I'll be free. If I can just have children. Then you have children. You're like, well, if they can just behave. And then you're like, if they can just move out. But we pick something to say, if I can just have this, if this will just work.

We say, if I can just make enough money. And then you find out that people on the internet can just decide to buy certain stocks and mess everything up. If I can just have enough money. If I can just control this right. And then there's a man who's just doing his job. And then he realizes he left his garage door open.

So he takes his cargo ship and does a three point turn. And he gets stuck. And the supply chain for the whole world is messed up. These things are not certain. They are not controllable. You're hoping in something that is.

Look, the truth is, and I hate to break it to some of you. We're all Gamecock fans. In something. We've all picked something that we're just wishfully thinking it'll get better one day. That sometime it's going to finally work. And the reality is, even if we get it, how long does it have to last?

Does it have to stay stable? Can you peak and stop? Or does it have to keep getting better over time? Can you sustain it? Some of you have picked something that's always out in front of you. But the reality is, if you ever get it, you'll realize that now you've got to keep it.

You do. Some of you right now are running from your past decisions. Just waiting for your past mistakes to catch up with you. This is uncertain hope. That is to be accomplished by you and kept by you. So I want us to look.

I want you to think about what is it that you keep placing your hope in. That it will fix you. That it will save you. I want us to look at 1 Peter 1, 3, 4, and 5. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That our hope, if you are in Christ, is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Not through your good works. Not through your intelligence. Not through your good behavior in the past or your ability to promise to be better in the future. Not through you.

Praise Jesus not through you. Praise Jesus not through me. It's not even that he gives us a clean slate and says, keep it together. He takes it. And he keeps it. Which is good.

I don't want it back. I can't do it. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Verse 4. To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Kept in heaven for you.

Who? You. Who? By God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. Now look at that.

What else passes that test? Is your money imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept eternally for you? Is it guarded by God's power? Is it ready to be revealed? Is your health and good looks and muscles, are they imperishable? Undefiled, unfading?

Unfading? Are they kept for you eternally? Are they guarded by God's power? Is your marriage? Your relationships? Your children?

Your good morals? Your ability to not be found out? See a lot of us start off on the I'm going to behave really well. And then that turns into I'm going to hide really well. And I'm going to behave really well in the future. But it's not.

It's not imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. It's not guarded by God's power. If your hope isn't in Christ, may I suggest you get a better hope. If your hope isn't sealed. If your hope isn't certain. If your hope doesn't make you free.

If your hope does not remove fear and leave you with joy. May I suggest you get a better hope. And may I tell you that you can find it in Christ and you can find it in Christ right now. That he can save to the uttermost all those who will call on him for salvation. That we come to him in repentance. Meaning that all you bring is the stuff that makes you insufficient to save yourself.

You come with your sin. That's what qualifies you for salvation is that you need it. And you come and you say, Lord, I can't save myself. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not strong enough.

I can't keep it. I can't maintain it. By the grace of God, save me. And he does. He loves us enough to die for our sins. And he rises so that we might have certain hope.

That we come to him in faith. We trust that he does it. We give him praise and glory. That's why we gather. To worship his name because he's the one who redeems. To praise his name because he's the one who saves.

And if your hope isn't this certain. Might I suggest that you place your faith in Jesus. And you get your fear taken away. You get it replaced with great joy. And you have a certain hope. The band's going to come back up.

And we're going to praise Jesus. And Christians in this room, we're going to get loud. And we're going to celebrate. Because it's not up to us. It's not left on our shoulders. And if you have not placed your faith in Christ, you can.

I know that you're qualified. I know that you're qualified because all you need is sin. All you need is shortcoming. All you need is weakness. That you can come to him right now. And I know that he has qualified us through his finished work on the cross.

So all you have to do is say, please forgive me of my sins. Change me. Help me to follow you. And he will. Don't hesitate. We have this tendency to fight this.

Don't fight this. Lay your fear down. Leave with joy. Be redeemed by Christ. Let's pray.

God, we thank you that we have a certain hope through the resurrection of Christ. That we are guarded by your power, not ours. And Lord, for the person in here who's had these moments right now where the Holy Spirit is pulling on them to believe. Pressing on them and saying, let this go. Turn from this. Trust in me.

Lord, may you break them so that they will not fight you any longer. By your grace will you claim them. May they lay their sin down and ask for salvation to the one who loves and freely gives. Forgiveness without regret. Hope that is certain. May you take fear away and leave in its wake great joy accomplished by the finished work of Christ.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Good Friday

Good Friday

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good evening. It is good Friday, you guys. I'm excited that we get to worship and look at the cross of Christ. We are going to jump straight into Matthew this evening as we follow Jesus, picking up the readings that we just finished, as we follow Jesus up the hill to be crucified. And as we walk through it, I want you to visualize the different scenes of Jesus going to the cross and on the cross. I want you to picture it.

There are moments where you have to close your eyes to do this. I invite you to do it. And the more that we picture and visualize what happened at the cross, the more we will begin to understand why we call this Good Friday. Let me pray and then we'll jump into the text. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the work that you have done. May we see it so clearly with open eyes.

And may we respond in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Verse 32. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.

All right. So where we left off on Sunday, Jesus was being brutally tortured and beaten. He is physically unable to take the cross up the hill. Now, there's a man named Simon of Cyrene who's passing through. He's from the region of Cyrene, which is in modern day Libya. He's probably here on pilgrimage to see to be a part of the Passover feast.

And they grab him and they say, help Jesus take this cross up the hill. So they come up the hill where Jesus will be crucified. Verse 33. It says, when they found when they came to the place called Golgotha, which means which means place of a skull. They offered him wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he tasted it, he would not drink it.

All right. So they move to a place called Golgotha, which is right outside the city walls. It's called place of a skull. This is where Jesus will be executed in Latin. It's where we get the term Calvary. He's taken up the hill of Calvary and he's given a drink of wine mixed with gall.

Now, it's debated whether this is an act of kindness or if this is further mockery. You can go back and forth on this. Gall is a bitter drink. It's mixed with the wine. And I would argue from the context of Matthew that it's probably a little bit of mockery. Mocking him.

This is what we're going to see, a lot of theme of Jesus' humiliation and mocking as you walk through these scenes in Matthew. He refuses to drink it. And then they nail his hands to the cross and nail his feet to the cross and raise him up. Verse 35 says, when they crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. And they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head, they put the charge against him, which read, this is Jesus, the king.

The king of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. So when he's raised up, there are men below him casting lots, gambling over his clothes. Which means either they're gambling over the clothes that will come off of him when he comes down from the cross or they have raised him up naked. This is deeply humiliating. This is deeply humiliating.

The crucifixion was meant to be humiliating. They are gambling over his clothes and they put a sign over his head to further mock our Savior. It said, this is Jesus, king of the Jews. Mocking him. Not realizing the irony of the king they're actually crucifying and killing. And then it tells us that he was crucified between two robbers.

Now the same word in the original language for robber is where we get the word insurrectionist, rebel. It's what we saw Sunday when we walked through Barabbas being exchanged. It's possible these men are also rebels, not just thieves, being crucified to the left and right of Jesus. And then the mocking continues. Verse 39, it says, and those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. They're mocking him.

Not realizing he was speaking of his own body when he made that statement. They continue to mock him. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying, he saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel.

Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now if he desires him. For he said, I am the son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. I want you to see what type of mockery this is.

They are belittling. They are mocking Jesus' relationship with his own heavenly father. They are making fun of his relationship with his father. So much so that the robbers to this left and right start to join in on this. We know one of them finally repents in the end before time ends. But everyone here is mocking Jesus.

And this is an especially painful dig. Because right now, God the Father is pouring out his wrath on his son. But right now, Jesus longs to hear the loving voice of his father. And all he hears is silence and wrath. It says, verse 45, Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lay my sabachthani.

That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus has enjoyed eternal, joy-filled, loving fellowship with the Father. And in one of the darkest moments of all of history, he cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is a verbatim, that is an exact quote from Psalm 22.1. And if I had more time, I'd help you see that this entire section is fulfilling Psalm 22. The only answer he gets in this moment is wrath and silence.

And this moment is so dark that literally creation embodies it. This is a darkness hovers over all the land. Jesus is in physical agony. He is slowly suffocating. His flesh has been ripped to shreds. And for the first time ever, this perfect fellowship he's had with his Father is broken as God's wrath is poured out on him.

And it says in verse 47, Some bystanders hearing it said, This man is calling Elijah, which in the Aramaic would have sounded similar from the ground. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. Further mocking Jesus on the cross. Slowly suffocating and dying. Verse 50 says, And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Now, the wording of that is very intentional. I don't want us to miss this. Jesus is in control of all of this. Jesus is in control of all of this. He willingly submits to the will of the Father in the garden. He willingly journeys towards the cross.

He willingly allows sinful men to try him. To torture him. To beat him. To mock him. He willingly does this. And when it's getting ready to all be finished, he cries out with a loud cry and willingly yields his spirit.

And it is finished. And the work is finally done. And creation immediately feels the effects of this. Verse 51, it says, And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, Truly, this was the Son of God. So when Jesus breathes his last breath, an earthquake occurs. In the Old Testament, earthquakes come about alongside mighty Acts of God. And when the mighty work of Christ is complete, miraculous things start to happen. The first thing it says is that the curtain was torn in two. Now, it doesn't say which curtain that was, but from the context.

It looks like this is the curtain in the innermost part of the temple. The innermost part of the temple was called the Holy of Holies. This is where God's presence resided in. This is where He ruled and reigned from. And there was this thick curtain that separated this part of the temple from the rest. This part of the temple from the people of God.

Because God is so holy and He's so perfect, sin cannot be in the presence of a holy and perfect God. And when Jesus breathes His last breath, that curtain is torn in two. From top to bottom, when it is finished, there is no longer any separation between God and man through Christ. Through Christ, we get access to the Father. So the curtain is torn in two, and then it says that an earthquake happens.

Now, this is one of the strangest and most debated passages in the Gospels. And I don't have the space to really walk us through all the ins and outs of how this can be interpreted because there's a lot of different takes on it. But I'll give you the cleanest, what I think is the best way to understand this, that when Jesus dies, an earthquake happens, that there are tombs that are opened. And some of these tombs belong to recent followers of Jesus. And that when He rises as the first fruit of the resurrection on Easter Sunday, there are some saints that come to life. Again, that is debated.

If you want to debate that later, we can. But we're not going to spend a lot of time on that as we're working through this passage. As creation continues to react to the death of Christ, there's a Roman soldier, a Roman centurion, who sees all of this. And he says, truly, this was the Son of God. And that is pointing forward to the day, for the next 2,000 years, when Gentiles like you and me will make the same conclusion when we believe in Jesus. Truly, this was the Son of God.

Now, we could spend months walking through each of these pictures step by step. But we've been in the Gospel of Matthew for over a year, and I know that some of you are kind of tired at this point. So, but there's so much packed in here, and there's just a few things I want to focus on as we close out this evening. Matthew focuses on the humiliation of Christ. I mean, from when he's tried by the Sanhedrin, from the religious rulers, when he's mocked, when he's beaten, when they're putting the robe on him and treating him, mocking him as a king, all the way to all the parts that we see right here where Jesus is being humiliated, in the midst of all of it is a phrase.

And it's subtle. When they're mocking him, it says, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. There's something deeper happening in that challenge. If you are the Son of God. You see, in Matthew 4, the exact same phrase, I mean, in the original language, is the exact same phrase is uttered by Satan as Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. If you are the Son of God, he says, turn these stones into bread.

If you are the Son of God, cast yourself off the temple. Don't you know that angels will come and save you? If you are the Son of God. You see, in that moment in Matthew 4, Satan is trying to divert the mission of God. He's trying to stop Satan. He's trying to stop Jesus right then and tempting Him.

If you are the Son of God. And Satan is still at work as he's on the cross and they're mocking him with the same phrase. If you are the Son of God. God should come and help you right now. If you are the Son of God. Come down off that cross.

We read the Jesus Storybook Bible to our kids regularly. And I love how they tackle this story. I love what it says. It says, it wasn't the nails that held Him there. Because in this moment, He could call a whole legion of angels. And in a moment, He could call down, He could flex His power, and all of His enemies would be silenced. in a moment.

It says, it wasn't the nails that held Him there. It was His love. It was His deep love for us. Jesus is derided with the same temptation of Satan. Abandon the mission. You don't have to go through with this.

You can leave now. You can flex your power. If you are the Son of God. It's not the nails that keep Him there. It is His love for us. Jesus could have taken the easy road.

He could have walked away at any moment. But praise Jesus that He did not abandon our hope at the cross. Praise Jesus that as He's on the cross, God has us in mind. For those of us who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, who have trusted in Jesus as our only hope, He had you in mind on the cross. His love for you is what kept Him there. This is our only hope.

That's why we call this Good Friday. Jesus is our only hope. If Jesus doesn't submit to the will of the Father, if He defends Himself at the trial, if He listens to the echoes of Satan, if He doesn't go through with this all the way to the bloody end, we're hopeless. We have no shot at redemption. We are sprinting towards hell without any hope. But because of His great love for us, we call this Good Friday.

We're going to sing the next song that we're going to sing. It's beautiful. I love the first verse of it. It says, Man of sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came. ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

What a Savior. We were ruined, hopeless sinners that God reclaimed by His blood. We call it Good because God so loved ruined sinners like you and me that He gave up His only Son to be crushed, to be crucified, and to die for our rebellion, for our sins. The band's going to come up and as they sing this next song, we are going to take the Lord's Supper. If you are a Christian, we invite you to take part in this meal. And as you take this meal, I want you to picture Jesus on the cross.

I want you to think about the suffering. I want you to think about the wrath of God, the Father being poured out on Him. That was meant towards us because of our rebellion, because of our sin. We have earned death, but Jesus died in our place. So Christian, whatever guilt you're wrestling with right now, whatever sin you're wrestling with right now, whatever shame you feel, I want you to know something.

That as you take this bread, which is symbolic of His body that was torn to shreds, when you take this cup, which reminds us of the blood as you take part in this meal, I want you to remember that when Jesus, when God the Father sees you, He doesn't see your shame, He doesn't see your sin, He doesn't see your guilt, He sees the blood of Christ who has covered it and His perfect standing in our place. So I want you to take part in this meal. I want you to remember why we call this Good Friday. And then when we get done, I want you to worship. I want you to sing. I want you to praise our Savior because He's worthy of it because He went to the cross for us.

And if you are not a Christian, I don't want you to take part in this meal. I want you to take part in Christ. I want you to see how much God loves you. How much He loves you that His love held Him there on the cross for you that you might believe. That you don't have to earn God's favor. He lovingly poured it out on the cross for you.

I want you to not take part in this meal. I want you to sit and reflect and take part in Christ and believe in Him. Don't miss this Good Friday. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Let me pray. God, I pray right now that for those of us that are in Christ, we would worship.

We would see You as so beautiful and good and glorious. As we take this meal, we'd be reminded of the gospel that saved us. Lord, lead us into worship and praise of You. God, if there's anyone here that has not trusted in You as their only hope, God, I pray that You would break through their heart right now. I pray that You'd be so overwhelming that their only response would be belief. We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The Suffering Substitute

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Suffering Substitute

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. As I said before, my name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew 27, verses 11 through 31. You can follow along on the screen. You can also grab one of those blue Bibles around you.

It's going to be on page 486. If you don't have a Bible at home, please take that Bible. That is a gift to you once you have a Bible that you can read at home. So, one of my friends from Louisville, Kentucky, when I lived there for five years, he was a church planner and was a pastor. And over the last few years, I've kind of watched, really online, he has kind of developed a following as he's stopped being a pastor. He's kind of moved into more being a motivational speaker.

He's done a TED Talk. And it's been kind of sad. I've watched him kind of depart from kind of the core teachings of our faith and really, really departing from the gospel. And about a month ago, he posted this graphic right there. If divine forgiveness requires payment, then it's not really forgiveness, the restitution. And I saw that and I was blown away.

I just was like, oh, okay. Now, my personal policy when somebody posts something on Facebook that's meant to be a discussion starter, that's meant to really be a little bit controversial, is don't comment. Just don't do it. Facebook is not a place for discussion. It's an angry place now. There's no nuance.

Like, it's just not, you know, it's not worth the bet. And I should say that that's probably the policy that all of you should have. It's when somebody posts something on Facebook, don't comment. Right? You're not going to have a discussion. You're not going to convince anybody of your position.

It's just going to devolve into a lot of angry ranting. It's just not the most helpful place to have discussions. It's much better to do it in person. So, having said that, I commented on that post. I reasoned in my head. I was like, you know what?

We don't have a lot of friends that overlap on Facebook. And I don't know. Like, it's kind of out on the Internet somewhere. I was like, I just want to respond. So I did.

And we had, I mean, we're friends. So, you know, we had a civil discussion. The big following that he has amassed, they were not happy with my take on this statement. So, I looked at that and I was like, that's insane. What it's saying is, is that if divine forgiveness, if God's forgiveness requires payment, then it's not really forgiveness, but restitution. Restitution being a payment for something that is wrong.

And a lot of people looked at that like, oh, that's really deep. That's profound. And I thought, only in a Western culture like ours could you divorce forgiveness from restitution. As if they were two completely different ideas and not two sides of the same coin. As only in our culture that is largely insulated from major injustices. Now, we have injustices.

We absolutely do. But in other cultures across the world where they face genocide, where there are people that are going into villages and hurting women and stealing children. That are going through major injustices. They would look at that and think that how in the world could you divorce forgiveness from payment? As if they're two completely different options. So I tried to have this discussion.

And I thought more about it over the last month. And the reality is, it's not based in the Bible. And one of the people that really like this idea, they don't like the idea of God's wrath. They don't like the idea of sin. They don't like those ideas at all. So it's not based in the Bible.

It's also not based in reality. I mean, for example, if I devised a scheme to steal your mother or your grandmother's retirement. Everything she's worked for her entire life. I stole every penny. And then I got caught. There's one of two options of how that really plays out.

It's either I pay restitution. I pay for the wrong that was done. Or she says, no, you know what? He obviously needs the money. I forgive him. But even in both of those examples, somebody is paying restitution.

Either I'm doing it or she's absorbing the debt herself. In her forgiveness, she's the one that's actually making the payment. There is no biblical reality. There is no reality in general. It separates the idea of forgiveness from payment. And that is because forgiveness is not free.

It costs something. Tim Keller, a pastor that we love and look up to, says the only way God can pardon us and not judge us is to go to the cross and absorb it himself. To make the payment himself. And today that's what we're going to look at. Today we're going to walk through that reality. As we see it very clearly.

We've been following Jesus as he's preparing for the cross. And now he is leading up to the cross. And we're going to follow him all the way up to before he walks up the hill. And as we walk through this today, we're going to see over and over again that forgiveness is not free. That it has a cost that Jesus paid. And my hope is, is for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, my hope is that that would lead us to a deeper affection and love for Christ.

And my hope for those of you that have not trusted in Jesus as your only hope. For those of you that do not know him. My hope is that you would see how much our God loves you. That he sent his son to die for you. So that's, that's the goal.

That's what we're going to walk through this morning. Let me pray for us as we walk through this passage. Lord, we love you. And we are thankful for what you have done for us. God, I pray that you would help us see that so clearly. You would become so beautiful to us.

And that you would work on our hearts and we would respond. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, so. Verse 11. Chapter 27.

Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said, you have said so. All right, so context from last week. Chet walked us all the way up to the trial at the Sanhedrin. So, Jesus is arrested.

He's brought before the Sanhedrin. That's the religious leadership. And they put him on trial. And they're looking for a charge that they can, that they can charge him with under their law. Under the Old Testament law. And the charge they come up with is blasphemy.

Which is ironic because Jesus is God. And they charge him of this. But that's not enough to have him killed. All right? That they need the Romans to carry this out legally. Legally.

And the Romans don't care about Jewish law. So they're going to find a different charge to bring him to Pilate with. They're going to work on the charge of kingship. And they claim to be king. That he's an insurrectionist. That he's trying to lead a rebellion.

That's what they're going to bring to Pilate. Pontius Pilate is the governor of this region. He's the prefect of the region of Judea. He is a politician. He's a politician assigned with the assignment of ruling in Judea over the Jews. And in the Roman Empire.

That's not a glorious post. No one volunteers and gets excited about that post. It's not Greece. Right? He could have been in different parts of Greece. With deep into the Greco-Roman culture.

He could have been in places like Alexandria, Egypt. Lots of places he could have gone to. Been assigned to. That would have been good. But he has been given the task of being governor over the region of Judea.

And it is not a fun place to rule as a Roman governor. Because the Jews hate the Romans. They don't like the Romans. And the feeling is mutual. The Romans look down on the Jewish people. See one of the brilliant parts of Roman rule.

Is that when they conquered you. You liked it. It was nice. Once they conquered you. They brought their culture. And a lot of other places assimilated to.

They grew into being Roman. This Greco-Roman. They call it Hellenistic culture. They liked it. They liked what it had to offer. The taxes were high.

But they had roads and infrastructure. And all kinds of things. And they were kind of fine with being ruled. The Jews were not. They rebelled over and over again. They had a different faith.

A different religion that the Romans looked down upon. They didn't have a lot of shared values when it came to that. And so there is that kind of history between the Romans and the Jewish people. But there is also personal history between Pontius Pilate and the Jewish people. You see when he first came to rule in Judea. One of the first things he did was he took the Roman shields.

Which bore a graven image. And he set them up all around Jerusalem. And that is a violation of the second command. Of having a graven image. In the holy city. The Sanhedrin.

The religious leaders. They protested this. And they led a major protest against Pontius Pilate. Against the Romans. And you can look at two different historical sources. You can look at a historian named Philo.

Another named Josephus. When you piece them together. It looks like this was a major protest. That King Herod had to get involved. And it made Pontius Pilate look bad before Caesar. He got a slap on the wrist.

So there is that kind of tension. Also at one point Pontius Pilate went into the temple. Took some of the money from the temple. And built some water systems in the city. So the Sanhedrin.

And Pontius Pilate. Have some cultural history and differences. And some personal beef with one another. Now you might be wondering. That's great. You love history.

Why does that matter here? First off. History is nice. Gives you some context. But secondly.

It's important to understand what's happening right here. Because these two have to work together. Together. The religious leaders and Pilate have to work together. See Pilate needs the religious leadership. Because they help keep the people in check.

They make sure they don't rebel. And as we've seen with the religious leadership. They love power. They're in bed with the Romans. And they like the power that comes with that. So they have to work together.

All of that history comes into this moment. All of that division between these two political rivals. It comes into this moment. Where they bring Jesus to get authority. So that he can be executed.

So Pilate asks. He says. Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus does not hesitate. He says. You have said so.

Yes. He confirms. He is the king of the Jews. You might be thinking. Alright. Isn't that the charge that does it?

It's not. The reason why. Is because Pilate does not really care. Over who the self-proclaimed king of the Jews is. He didn't care about that. That's not something that's really important.

There is a king. Herod. He's got a weird spot in the Roman Empire. And he doesn't even like Herod at this point. So that's not enough to actually get him crucified.

He doesn't care about the customs. He doesn't care about the law. The Jewish people have. But what the religious leadership is trying to do. Is they're trying to mount a case. They're trying to help him see.

That the Messiah from the Old Testament. The king. Who Jesus is claimed to be. Is going to have a global reign. He is going to have a global reign. And that is going to put him at odds with Caesar.

We see that in John's gospel. When they say. You are no friend to Caesar. If you don't deal with this. So they're going to try to make a political maneuver against him.

Before his hand. And in the midst of this. Jesus confirms his kingship. To Pontius Pilate. But then he doesn't defend himself.

Verse 12. But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders. He gave no answer. Verse 13. And Pilate said to him. Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?

But he gave him no answer. Not even to a single charge. So the governor was greatly amazed. So at this point. The religious leadership. Starts mounting their case.

Against Jesus. And Jesus is silent. He doesn't say. A word. And this stuns Pilate. He's like.

Can you hear what they're saying? Can you hear. What. What. What. The things.

The accusations. They're letting against you. He doesn't say. A word. And this is shocking. The pilot.

But this is to fulfill. What was spoken of in the prophet. Isaiah. Isaiah 53. He was oppressed. And he was afflicted.

Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And like a sheep that before its shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. He does not defend himself. They keep making this case against them.

He is silent. Like a lamb that is being led to the slaughter. Because Jesus knows. He knows what the father wants. He knows what needs to happen. Our sin needs to be paid for.

And forgiveness is not free. He will not defend himself. This is a part of the plan. And if he wanted to at this moment. Remember what Chet said last week. He said he could appeal to a legion of angels.

In this moment. At this moment angels could come down by his command. And they would absolutely destroy his enemies. But he remains silent. Because forgiveness is not free. Verse 15.

It says now at the feast. The governor was accustomed to release for the crowd. Any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had been a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Alright. So now around this time.

Pilate had instituted really a political gesture. That around the Passover feast time. They would release to them one of the prisoners that they had. And it was kind of genius. Because the fear was around Passover. Is that this is the perfect time for rebellion to happen.

It's when everyone is coming in to the city. From all over the region. And they are celebrating the Passover feast. Which remember. Is the festival. That they helped celebrate.

To remember that God helped free them. From an oppressive regime. And the Egyptians. What better time. To start a rebellion. Against an oppressive regime.

At the yearly festival. Where they remember this. So this is a political gesture. Give them one of the prisoners. An act of goodwill. And see all of this is a political exchange.

And at this time. There is a prisoner named Barabbas. Now Mark's gospel tells us a little bit about who Barabbas is. He is an insurrectionist. Meaning that he is someone who has left. Had a rebellion.

And he is a murderer. He has killed at least one person. He is completely guilty. And the ones who were put on crosses. Were rebels. Were insurrectionists.

You can look at Jewish history. At the time when these rebellions would happen. The Romans would quickly put them down. And very forcefully. They would line the roads. Out of the city with crosses.

And they would put rebels. It was a brutal. It was a brutal form of torture and death. For those who would rebel. So it is fair to say.

That this day. Barabbas was set to be crucified. That Barabbas woke up that morning. Ready to face death. There is something called the death row phenomenon. It is the psychological building up.

That happens with prisoners on death row. And it is pretty intense. I was listening to a pastor. He had interviewed a chaplain. Who was a chaplain on death row. And he said that some of these prisoners.

Would build themselves up. If they were going to face the gas chamber. For example. That they would. Days leading up. Would have moments of just really heavy breathing.

And intense breathing. And really simulating what it is like to be in the gas chamber. Gasping for breath. That those who had been hung before. That they would have this preparation. Where they almost could feel the rope around their neck.

In the days leading up to execution. That there is this. There is this weight to being executed. And Barabbas wakes up this morning. And is feeling and sensing. Maybe even possibly sensing what it is like to be on the cross.

You have to lift up your chest. As you are slowly gasping for breath. As you are slowly suffocating. He is in the cell. Awaiting a grim fate. But then something happens.

Verse 17. So when they had gathered. Pilate said to them. Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas. Or Jesus.

Who is called Christ. For he knew that it was out of envy. That they had delivered him up. So Barabbas is waiting in his cell. And there is commotioning happening out in the courtyard. There is political maneuvering that is happening out there.

You see Pilate offers up two different people. And he could have chosen anyone else besides Jesus. He could have chosen a less notorious criminal. It is his choosing. But he chooses the notorious Barabbas.

You see the politics at play here? He presents both of them. Because he understands the motives of the religious leaders. He understands they are envious. They are jealous. And if he can put Jesus alongside Barabbas.

Then it makes it a tough choice for the crowds. All right. The notorious prisoner. Or the Jesus who he knows about. This is the first time that Pontius has heard of Jesus. Jesus.

For three years he has been a celebrity in the land. This traveling sage. This prophet. Who thousands of people have traveled out to hear preach. Who have gone to be healed. It is his job to know what is happening in Judea.

When Jesus comes in and out. When he comes in this very week. Just a few days before. And the people are chanting. Hosanna. Hosanna.

He knows about Jesus. He is this good prophet. That the crowds love. So he puts Jesus alongside Barabbas. Understanding what is at play here. What the religious leaders are doing.

Thinking. That he can get past this. With this political play. But while this is happening. Matthew adds a wrinkle. That the other gospel writers don't include.

Verse 19 says. Besides. While he was sitting on the judgment seat. His wife sent word to him. Have nothing to do with that righteous man. For I have suffered much because of him today.

And a dream. So even more so. While he is on the judgment seat. His wife sends word to him. And says. Don't have anything to do with Jesus.

I have had dreams. I have had nightmares. I have been afflicted because of him. We don't know what the content of those dreams were. But it is enough to scare her.

In this moment. To send word to him. To say. Don't have anything to do with Jesus. Jesus. And while this is going on.

The religious leaders are making political moves of their own. Verse 20. Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd. To ask for Barabbas. And destroy. Jesus.

So the crowds. Are there. And the religious leaders are working their way through the crowds. Now crowds can turn very quickly into a mob mentality. Very fast. When I was traveling years ago.

And study abroad. I was in India. And one of the travel warnings we had for India. Was when you were there. If you see a crowd form. They form very quickly.

And a lot of people. Get out. Because they have a lot of protests. And those protests are violent. Very quickly. With mob mentality.

We saw that. And we've seen that here. In our own country. That when a crowd gets together. It just takes a little bit stirring up. And all of a sudden.

It can turn to violence. And that is exactly what is happening here. And the religious leadership. They know how to work a crowd. Working their way through the crowd. Whispering lies.

They probably. It's possible they've even stacked the deck a little bit. Put people in the crowd. Said we're going to free Barabbas. Barabbas. We're going to chant for Barabbas.

We don't need this Jesus. He's going to bring problems for us. Barabbas. Start the chant. Barabbas. Barabbas.

They're building up the chant. Verse 21. Then the governor again said to them. Which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said. Barabbas.

So they've won the crowds. They've got them stirred up. Barabbas. Barabbas. They're chanting for the notorious criminal. Verse 22.

Pilate said to them. Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? So Pilate has lost this political game. He tried it. Presenting two different options. They want to free Barabbas.

Okay. So what do you want? What do you want me to do with Jesus? So they all said. Let him be crucified. And he said.

Why? What evil has he done? I want you to see the shock that's in Pilate there. He says. What evil has he done? You see.

The crucifixion was a Roman punishment. It was not a Jewish punishment. They had a great disdain for this punishment. They didn't like it. And it is shocking to him. That they would ask for crucifixion.

That's overkill. Right? That's something that's reserved for rebels. Who have rebelled against the Roman Empire. That is a step too far. It doesn't make sense.

That a beloved prophet. That they would make a move on him like this. He does not deserve the cross. But it says. But they shouted all the more.

Let him be crucified. All the more. Let him be crucified. It intensifies. They want him on a cross. The Sadducees.

The religious leadership. The Pharisees. They have won the crowd. Pilate has lost control. As it intensifies. As they want crucifixion.

Pilate is shocked. Jesus is not. This is a part of the plan. This is part of the plan. Forgiveness is not free. It has to be paid for.

Verse 24. So. When Pilate saw. That he was gaining nothing. But rather that a riot was beginning.

He took water and washed his hands before the crowd. Saying. I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves. And all the people answered. His blood be on us.

And on our children. Pilate is a politician. And he is a coward. But it is better for one man to die. Than to have a riot. That he has to answer for later.

Because. Having riots. Not being able to control. Your region. Would get you removed. It eventually does.

For him. Because he cannot control this region. So the coward. The coward washes his hands. Which actually doesn't absolve him of guilt. But in his mind it does.

And the people foolishly in the crowd say. Let Jesus' blood. Be on us. And our children. Verse 26. Then he released for them Barabbas.

And having scourged. Jesus delivered him to be crucified. So Barabbas. Is released. He gets to go home. And Jesus is scourged.

Which is a horrific punishment. Scourging. It's called flagellation. Flogging. Was a brutal form. Of torment.

One commentator. Describes this. He says. A Roman scourging. Was a terrifying punishment. The delinquent was stripped.

Bound to a post. Or a pillar. Or sometimes. Simply thrown to the ground. And was beaten. By a number of guards.

Until his flesh hung. In bleeding. Shreds. Hear that. Hung in bleeding. Shreds.

The instrument. Indicated by the Markan text. That would be Mark's gospel. The dreaded flagellum. Was a scourging. Consisting of leather straps.

Plated. With several pieces of bone. Or lead. So as to form. A chain. So.

It's an illustration. Of what this is. The flagellum. Was a tool. It wasn't just a whip. It had.

Bits of bone. Or lead in it. And the goal. Was that. As you whipped the person. That it would latch.

Into their flesh. And rip out. Chunks of skin. And they would do this. Over and over again. Their backs.

Their legs. It was meant to. Absolutely. Fillet. And mangle the flesh. Of the person.

Who was being punished. He goes on to say. No maximum number. Of strokes. Was prescribed. By Roman law.

Unlike Jewish law. That kept it at 39. So we see. In the book of Acts. That. That they.

They get a flogging. Like this. And the Jewish law. Says. Nope. Not more than 39.

40 Might kill you. 39 is enough. The Romans did not have that. They did not have mercy. They were some of the most brutal. The most brutal.

People. That would. That. Their torture methods. Were. Were unreal.

They. They. They wouldn't stop. At 39. They. They would.

To the point of almost. Killing people. It says. And men condemned to flagellation. Frequently collapsed. Then died from flogging.

Josephus. Who's a historian. He records that. He himself. Had some of his opponents. In Galilee.

Scourged. Until their entrails. Were visible. That they. They would be. Scourged so.

Badly. That so much. Flesh. And muscle. Would be ripped out. That their entrails.

Would be. Exposed. The torture itself. Was enough to kill. Somebody. And then.

They're going to put a cross. On his mangled. And bloodied. And ripped apart. Back. But not yet.

Because they're going to humiliate him first. Verse 27. Then the soldiers. Of the governor. Took. Jesus.

Into the governor's headquarters. And they gathered. The whole battalion. Before him. I've pictured this in the past. I've missed that part.

The whole battalion piece. I've imagined. I don't know. It's because. This is from the scene. Of the passion of Christ.

Or whatever. But I. I've imagined. It's just a few people. But it's not.

It's a battalion. Of soldiers. Six hundred. To a thousand. Soldiers. Are going to mock him.

And his. Bloodied. And mangled body. Is brought before him. And they're going. To make fun.

Of his kingship. It says. And they stripped him. And put a scarlet robe on him. And twisting together. A crown of thorns.

They put. It on his head. And put a reed. In his right hand. And kneeling before him. They mocked him.

Saying. Hail. King of the Jews. And they spit on him. And took the reed. And struck him on the head.

And when they had mocked him. And they stripped him. Of the robe. And put. His own clothes on him. And led him away.

To crucify him. So these Roman soldiers. They also have heard of Jesus. And they see the charge. He's going to be charged. As a king.

Okay. Let's make fun of his kingship. So they take a scarlet robe. And they put it. On his back. Now.

Mark's gospel. And John's gospel. They call this a purple robe. Which means either. They're describing the same color. Which happens in some cultures.

They don't have a whole lot of differentiation. Between certain colors. Or it's two robes. The purple one. On his back. Ripped off.

And these are. These would have been. Not smooth. Robes. These would have been rough. Blending into.

His mangled flesh. Being ripped off. And they're. They're mocking him. They're mocking him. As a king.

And they take. A crown of thorns. And don't think. Like rose thorns. These would have been. Thorns.

Native to that region. These are longer thorns. And they take. A crown of thorns. And they force it. On his head.

To mock him. They take a reed. Stick. Made it look like a king's scepter. They put it in his hand. And they bow down to him.

Hail. King of the Jews. Hundreds of soldiers. Laughing. Mocking. The king.

Of the universe. And they spit on him. And they. They take the reed stick. And they hit him. On the head.

It is a brutal. Mocking. A brutal. Torture. But this is to fulfill Isaiah 53.

It says. But. Isaiah prophesied about this. He said. But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed. For our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement. That brought us. Peace. And with his wounds.

We are healed. Peace. Does not come. Without a cost. Forgiveness. Is not free.

And we see that so clearly. And we will pick this up. On good Friday this week. As we continue. As he goes up the hill. Now.

One of the things. That sticks out about this. Is how absolutely. How absolutely. Injust. This is.

How absolutely. Unfair. This is. How corrupt. And how evil. This is.

I mean. This situation. Is gross. I mean. Jesus. Is completely innocent.

Of all of these charges. He's only displayed. Kindness. And goodness. Towards. The people.

And then he gets arrested. By these religious leaders. And then he becomes. A political pinball. Between two. Godless.

Groups. The religious leaders. And Pilate. And the Romans. And then. These weak.

Feckless. Cowards. Debate. Over the God. Who made them. Over the God.

Who thought them. Into existence. They debate. Over his life. And then they plan. To murder him.

To murder the ruler. Over all things. And Pilate. In his political maneuvering. He presents. Two different options.

You can have. Barabbas. Or. Jesus. You can have. Jesus.

The prophet. Whom all the crowds love. Let me think. Guys. We've been in the gospel of Matthew. For over a year now.

Think of all. Of the beautiful displays. Of our savior. Of how good he is. Of how righteous he is. Of how kind he is.

You can have this. Jesus. Or you can have. Barabbas. You can have this. Notorious.

Criminal. This. Murderer. And the religious leadership. The ones. Who are supposed.

To uphold. Justice. And mercy. And righteousness. They start a chant. To free.

Barabbas. And they take Barabbas. When you look. At all of it. It's not fair. It's not fair.

That Barabbas. Avoids the cross. That was meant for him. And Jesus takes his place. And when you come to that conclusion. And when you fully absorb that.

As the reality of this situation. It is then. That you can begin to appreciate. That Jesus died in our place. It is then. That you can begin to appreciate.

And fully understand. That the reality is. Is that we have sinned. Against a holy and perfect God. That our sin. Over and over.

Is a violation. Of his good will for us. That we rebel. Against the God. Of the universe. That we are insurrectionists.

With our lives. That we hurt. Other people. Over. And over. And over.

And over again. That we are. We are prisoners. In a cell. Awaiting our sentencing. Our just.

Sentencing. Against. For sending against the God of the universe. And we are brought up. Out of. The cell.

And there is an exchange. That happens. For those who trust in Jesus. We point to him. And we avoid the cross. And he goes to the cross.

For us. That is what theologians call. Penal substitutionary atonement. Theologians like to use big words. All that means. Is that.

There is a penalty for sin. That's the penal part. For the wages of sin is death. Romans 6. 23. That we deserve death.

Because of our sin. But God. In his rich mercy. Provides for us. A suffering. Substitute.

That Jesus takes. Our place. My buddy from Louisville. Has lost the thread. On the gospel. There is no reality.

Where forgiveness does not cost. That there is no. There is no. Reality. Where our sin. And rebellion.

Does not cost. And here is the deal. We may not. Play out that same thought exercise. We may not. Come to that same.

Intellectual. Conclusion. But the reality is. Is that for many of us. Practically. We live that way.

Practically. Our lives. Show that we believe that. Because over and over again. We just don't think. Our sin costs.

We don't think. Our sins. That big. Of a deal. We dismiss it. We rather live our lives.

On our terms. And we'll justify it. And we won't think. It's that big of a deal. So much.

Of southern Christianity. Is just. Claiming. To be a Christian. And living your life. On your terms.

And it's this. This thought process. That because God is good. And because God. Is loving. That it'll all just work out.

In the end. That it's forgiveness. Doesn't have this real cost. And we can live our lives. On our terms. And that is an eternally fatal.

Belief. No. Our forgiveness. Costs. Rebellion. Costs.

Paul. In Colossians says. In Colossians 2. He says. In you. Who are dead.

In your trespasses. In the uncircumcision. Of your flesh. That's the sinful nature. Of your flesh. God.

Made alive. Together with him. That's through. Faith. God made alive. Together with him.

Having forgiven us. All our. Trespasses. All of our sins. By canceling. The record.

Of debt. The record of debt. We have an endless. Record. Of sins. That stands.

That stands against us. With its. Legal. Demands. The legal demands. His death.

This he set aside. Nailing it. To a cross. That is the heart. Of the gospel. That in our sin.

That in our rebellion. That we have. Rebelled against God's. Good design. That we are waiting. In the cells.

In the prison cells. Of our sin. And death. Awaiting to be sentenced. And God loves us so. Much.

That he doesn't leave us there. That he steps in. That he steps down. From heaven. That he comes to live the perfect life. That we could not live.

And that he comes before us. And we are brought out of the cell. And all we have to do. Is say. I believe in you Jesus. My life belongs to you.

I trust you. And he says. Good. Take my perfect record. And I will take your place. And he goes to the cross for us.

It is not fair. That God in his rich kindness. Redeems. Sinners. And man. It has a cost.

And I want us to sit in that. This morning. If you are. If you are a Christian. This morning. If you have trusted.

In Jesus. As your only hope. I want you to sit. In this painful. Beautiful. Reality.

I don't want us to stare. To stare away from. The cross. And the brutality of it. It teaches us. Grace.

When we look at the cross. When we think about what they did. To Jesus. It reminds us. That we can never earn that. We can never do what Jesus did.

And praise God. That we could not. That we don't have to earn his favor. That no amount of good works. Could make this right. That we look to the cross.

And we say. Praise God. It teaches us repentance. It motivates us to repentance. That there are moments. When we become so tempted.

When the lusts of our flesh. When our sinful selfish desires. Arise. And present to us. The option of sin. We get to in that moment.

Remember. No. No. We get to literally just picture the cross. And say. No.

No. No. My life was bought with a price. It was too costly. And I'm not going to run. To sin.

I want Jesus. It leads us to worship. Y'all. It's. It's. It's all over the songs.

That we sing. That we respond. And we sing. About the blood of our savior. About what Jesus has done for us. It motivates us.

And it inspires us. To love God. That he's so loving towards us. That he came to die on a cross for us. If you're a Christian. I want you to sit in that reality this morning.

And I want you to see Jesus as beautiful. In worship. If you are not a Christian. If you have not trusted in Jesus. That's your only hope. My hope this morning.

Is that you would see. That God loves you so much. That he did not leave you. In sin and brokenness. We all have sin. All of us have our junk.

We've all rebelled against God. And this morning. He has you here. And he wants you to see. I love you. Can't you see.

That two thousand years ago. I came for you. I died for you. I bled for you. So that you might believe.

My hope this morning. Is that you would see. That his arms are open. And he wants you. And that you would believe. That you stop running.

And sin. That you stop trying to earn. Your salvation. By your own good works. By your own merit. My hope is that you would trust.

Only in the finished work of Christ. He wants you. My hope is that you believe. Because forgiveness is not free. But he wants to give it to you.

Freely. The band is going to come up. And I want us to sit. In these truths. As we prepare to respond. If you are not a Christian.

Please. Do not delay. Don't walk away from this. Don't walk away from conviction. My hope. Is that you would trust.

In Christ. That right now. As we sing songs. You would take a moment in your seat. And you would pray. Pray for God to reveal himself.

Ask Jesus to forgive you. Of your sins. And give your life. And trust. In him. If you are a Christian.

I want you to take a few moments. And just be reminded. Of how good your Savior is. About how beautiful his blood is. About how much our sin costs. And it doesn't lead us to shame.

It doesn't lead us to guilt. It leads us to praise. Because we get to look at our sin. And then we immediately. Get to look to our Savior. Let me pray.

Let me pray. Lord. Your kindness. And your mercy. And your goodness. Are so profound.

And so beautiful. God. I pray. That you would help us. In this moment. See it.

Clearly. Don't let us run away from it. Don't let us hide from it. God. I pray. You've got to work in our hearts.

Right now. If there's anyone here. That's not trusted in you. God. I pray. That you would become so beautiful.

So good. That you would win their hearts. And they would believe. God. I pray. For those of us that are Christians.

Lord. We love you. Help us see. The brutality of the cross. As beautiful. And may it lead us to worship and praise.

In Jesus name. Amen.

When the Rooster Crows (Matthew 26:46-27:10)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

When the Rooster Crows

Chet Phillips

Transcript

You Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I'm excited to be here with y'all this morning. Grab your Bibles. Go to Matthew chapter 26.

If you have one of the blue Bibles, it looks like this. It'll be page 486. And if you do not own a Bible, take this one home with you. That's our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible. We want you to read it often.

We are walking through the Gospel of Matthew, and we are coming into the end of Matthew. And so these next few weeks, we're going to spend looking at the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion of Christ. And in what we're going to look at today, we're going to cover a decent amount of ground this morning. We're going to work through this story, and we're just going to walk through the story and talk about it. We'll make some observations as we go. And then at the end, we're going to look at Peter and Judas and the religious leaders, and we're going to look at their response to sin, their response to shame, their response to their guilt.

The truth is, in life, there are times where we come face-to-face with ourselves. We come face-to-face with our own sin, that we cease to be able to hide who we really are. Often we're very good at deceiving ourselves, but there are times where we finally see it. And so we're going to ask the question as we walk through this text, what do we do in those moments? How do we respond to our own sin and guilt? So let's pray, and then we'll walk through this story together.

God, we ask for you to bless this time. We pray that you would help us to love your word, to trust your word, and to see clearly Christ in his glory, in his greatness towards us. And may we see our sin, so that we might run to a savior. In Jesus' name, amen. Matthew chapter 26, starting in verse 46. Jesus has just been in the garden.

He's been with his disciples. He had the last supper. He said, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood that's shed for you, and a new covenant in my blood. And he says, as often as you do this, you declare my death until I come. He tells his disciples that one of you is going to betray me.

They go through and they ask, is it me? Is it me? Eventually Judas leaves. He goes out with his disciples to the garden, and he tells them, wait and pray and keep an eye out. He takes Peter, James, and John with him a little further in. He falls on his face.

He begins to ask the Lord, if this cup can pass from me, let it. He's stressed. He's troubled. He tells them he's sorrowful to the point of death. He goes back. The disciples are sleeping.

He wakes them up and says, you couldn't stay awake for an hour. Keep an eye out. Pray for yourselves. Pray for me. He goes back. He does this three times, and eventually he says this.

Rise. Let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. At some time in the middle of the night, Jesus hasn't slept. The disciples have slept some because they're exhausted. But he wakes them up and says, see, my betrayer is at hand.

And while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the elders of the people. So Judas has agreed to betray Jesus. He knows where he is. He comes to him in the garden. And he's got a great crowd with him with swords and clubs. Other gospels tell us they had torches and lanterns.

And that some of these are Roman soldiers. Some of these are soldiers that belong to the Sanhedrin that are actually part of the temple group of soldiers. But they've come to arrest Jesus to try to have a trial, to try to pin something on him so that they might kill him. So Jesus wakes up the disciples. He's been praying that this would pass, but now he's facing it. The disciples are waking up.

And you know, immediately, if you've ever jumped out of a kind of a groggy sleep, but maybe you heard a noise or something, their hearts are beating. They're looking. They're suddenly, adrenaline's pumping because there's this large crowd of armed men coming towards them in the darkness. Torches and lanterns, and they're surrounded. And Judas, it says one of the twelve. So one of the men that had been closest to Jesus, had spent the most time with Jesus, had professed that he believed and would follow Jesus, has come to betray him.

Verse 48. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, The one I will kiss is the man sees him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said, Greetings, Rabbi. And he kissed him. Now, for Americans, that's weird. And often Americans have read this and tried to read things into it and tried to understand what's going on here.

But this is a, for Middle Easterners, this is not an odd greeting. He's basically saying, The one I go greet, the one I go say hey to, this is the man. Ben Johnson, who's one of our group leaders, was a missionary in Lebanon for ten years. And they greet each other with kisses. They greet, they do three kisses. Just on the cheeks.

They get good at it. They know how to do it. He came traveling back. His home church was in Georgia. He was jet lagged. He was tired.

But he had to run by the, his church building before he could run to his house and try to get some rest. He showed up. He ran into the custodian there who he knew. The custodian said, Hey Ben. Ben said hey and grabbed him and went to kiss him. And it goes over different in Georgia than it does in the Middle East.

And so we read this and we're going, What's going on here? But really all that Judas has said is, It's going to be dark. These people would not have recognized Jesus. Maybe some of them have seen him. It's not like they had wanted posters up for him. It wasn't like us where we get to see famous people.

We get to see them on TV that you might could actually run into a famous person at Walmart and recognize them. They would have heard about Jesus. They might have seen him in the temple, but the ability to recognize him in the darkness is not much of a chance. But they wanted to go under cover of darkness and arrest him. And so that's how they worked out with Judas. Judas will identify him.

Judas has been with him for three years. I bet Judas in the dark, just seeing the disciples silhouetted, could probably tell you by the way they carried themselves who was who. And so he says, I'm going to identify him for you. The one I go greet, that's the one. So he walks over and he says, Greetings, Rabbi.

Would you know that had to sound weird? Too hard trying to sound normal, a little too loud for some reason, a little too quiet. There's no way this came out right because he shows up with this band of people with swords and clubs. Hey, Jesus. Greetings. But he grabs him.

He kisses him. Jesus said to him, this is verse 50, friend, do what you came to do. Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. So these military soldiers knew as soon as he, whoever he greets, that's Jesus. That's who we're arresting. They come in.

They grab him. They rough hands clamp down on him to hold him. Verse 51. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus, and that's Peter. We find out one of the other gospels. One of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

So Peter, as soon as they grabbed Jesus, it's go time. He pulls his sword out. He said, I'll go with you even to death. And he meant it. He pulls his sword out and he cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. The reason he cut off his ear was because he missed.

He was aiming to kill him. You don't swing a sword at someone's head unless you think this is it. Let's go. He missed. I'm assuming he came something like this. The high priest's servant went something like that.

He caught his ear. Cut it off. It would have been a bloody mess. Peter would have. I don't know if you've ever fought multiple people at once. But if you do.

You attack one, you back up and keep your eye on the other one. So Peter doesn't follow that up with more strikes. He swings at that guy. I'm assuming he backs up and looks. And in that that moment, that brief pause when everything got much more intense because they've got swords, they've got clubs, they've got the disciples surrounded. We know at least there's 11 disciples.

There's potentially more here. And they've come armed because they want to show have a show of force to try to a keep there from being violence or be when if there is violence. I don't know if you fought multiple people at once. If you're actually going to get in a fight, it's better to be on the multiple people side. That's what they showed up with. We're going to make this go well for us.

But Jesus, I mean, Peter cuts the ear off and then this is what happens next. Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? So Peter attacks.

And in that breath in between when everything could have broken loose, Jesus says, put it up. That's not what this is about. How else would the scriptures be fulfilled? But Jesus says something very interesting here that I think we need to see. He says, do you not think that I could at once appeal to my father and he would not send me more than 12 legions of angels? A legion is a thousand.

He says, I have at my disposal at this moment over 12,000 angels. We see in the Old Testament where one angel kills 185,000 Assyrians in one night. So if Jesus calls on more than 12,000 angels, Jesus says, if I want to just let the angels do it, we can kill the entire population of the earth in less than 30 minutes. If I want them to do it rather than me do it. I want us to see something here. We just last week read where Jesus prays in the garden, Lord, if this cup can be moved from me.

If we can go another way, let's do that. But not my will. Your will be done. But even in that, Jesus says, Peter, if I want to stop this, I can. You see, it would show great bravery for Jesus to walk into this and to hand himself over and to then it be outside of his control and him have to face torture and death. But the reality is it was moment by moment inside of Jesus's control to stop this.

He could have moment by moment chosen. To not save us. He could have moment by moment chosen to let us receive the wrath we deserve. He could have moment by moment, lash by lash. Strike by strike. Hammer hit by hammer hit.

He could have moment by moment chosen to stop this. If he had just uttered the words he had at his disposal, more than 12,000 angels. He looks at Peter and he says, no, how else will it be fulfilled? How else will salvation come? How else will the rescue happen if I don't do this? And so Jesus isn't caught up in something that is beyond him.

And faces it bravely. Which we would honor a man if they did that. But Jesus isn't caught up in something beyond himself. He is caught up in something that is under his control at all times. But willingly, humbly, graciously submits himself to it for the sake of those whom he loves.

Don't miss that. Verse 55. At that hour, Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching. And you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

Then all the disciples left him and fled. So the disciples now facing, we're not going to fight. This isn't going to be done in hot-blooded anger. This isn't going to be done with adrenaline pumping. What's coming now is going to be dealt out in a cold manner. What's coming now is going to be calculated.

What's coming now is going to be us humbly submitting to arrest. They flee. And Jesus says all this has been done to fulfill the scriptures. That this was God's ultimate plan. That one day Christ would come. That he would die for sin.

That he would die for sinners. That he would save a people for himself. This is something that God had intended all along. Verse 57. Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest.

Where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest. And going inside he sat with the guards to see the inn. Now that's a bold move. Peter just cuts somebody's ear off. Runs.

Catches his breath. Starts sneaking back. To see what happens. Joins the crowd. It had to be a pretty big crowd. For him to just start walking with them.

And kind of keep up with them. It had to be a large group of people that had come out. And he goes. And then he sits with the guards. The guards of the high priest's headquarters. His area.

He sits outside of where the trial is going to take place. But it does seem like he would have been able to see all this taking place. But he sits and he just wants to see what's going to happen. Probably trying not to make a lot of eye contact. But make enough eye contact to not be suspicious.

If you've ever been on the run. You know what I'm talking about. That's what Peter's doing. Verse 59. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus.

That they might put him to death. Okay. This is a sham trial. This isn't a real trial. They've arrested him so that they can find somebody to give just enough on him that they can kill it. They're looking for false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death.

I want you all to see that Jesus submits to, in order to undo, in order to redeem, he submits to wicked justice. Perverted justice. Perverted justice. Perverted justice. That he's caught up in this moment being small and having those who should be handling this well and honestly and appropriately. Those in power using their power for their own gain.

And Jesus steps into that so that he might undo that. Verse 60. That's a testimony to the righteousness of Christ. That even with liars they couldn't get anything to stick to him. That Jesus is sinless. By a human court would have been acquitted.

And we're told that by a heavenly court would be acquitted. That he has no sin. That he's a perfect spotless lamb. But they're trying to lie about him and they can't find anything. And then it says, and though many witnesses came forward, at last two came forward and said, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. Okay.

That's true. He did say that. We're told that he said that and that he was talking about the temple of his body. That he was saying that the temple was the place where God meets earth. And then he uses that term for himself saying that I am where God meets earth. I'm where humans are going to now be relating to God and connect to God and find sacrifice.

He refers to himself as the temple. And he says, this temple will be destroyed and I'll raise it in three days. But they, misunderstanding what he meant, are like, I'm pretty sure he's a terrorist. He said he's going to blow the temple up. He did say he would build it back in three days, which seems unlikely. But we know that he said he was going to destroy it.

That's the accusation. Verse 62. And the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? See, one of the things that Jesus is doing here is he's not trying to defend himself. He knows how this is playing out.

He's not in the hands of the religious leaders. He's in the hands of God. The reality is Jesus is more in control of the situation than they are. So he's walking through this process. He's not there to defend himself. He's there to head to a cross.

The high priest stands up and yells at him. He says, if you know answer to make, what is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God. And Jesus said to him, you have said so.

That phrase seems a little cryptic to us. You have said so. But we have phrases like it. We have phrases like, yep, you guessed it. You called it. Bet.

Bingo. We got phrases like it. That's what he's saying. Nailed it. That's the phrase there. You have said so.

Is that kind of a phrase? He's not trying to just defer. He's saying, yeah, like you finally said an appropriate. We're now in the place that we need to be talking. You've called it. You have said so.

But I tell you, from now on, you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. I tell you that from now on, you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. He doesn't just say. You called it. He doubles down on it. He makes it more.

He quotes Daniel to the religious leaders. They're going to freak out. They understood exactly what he meant. But let's look at Daniel so that we can see this. Daniel chapter seven. This is what he's talking about.

The son of man seated at the right hand of power. He says, I'm not just the son of God. I'm the son of man. The one that you've read about in Daniel. I'm the fulfillment of this prophecy. Daniel 7, 13 says, I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man.

And he came to the ancient of days. That's God. And was presented before him. And to him, the son of man, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. He says, are you the Christ, the son of God?

And he says, oh, I'm the one presented to the ancient of days. I'm the one who's given dominion and glory and a kingdom. I'm the one that all peoples, nations and languages should serve. I'm the one who has a dominion that's an everlasting dominion. I'm the one that will not. My dominion will not pass away and my kingdom shall not be destroyed.

Oh, you finally. You finally found it. I am the Christ, the son of God, who has an everlasting dominion. I will be presented to the ancient of days. The next time you see me, I'll be riding on the clouds of heaven. Verse 65.

Then the high priest tore his robes and said, he has uttered blasphemy. What further witness do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? And they answered, he deserves death. The high priest tears his robes.

It's an aggressive response to this. The only place we see that is like WWE or something. This is not a muted response. Now, it's possible that this is a bit of a put on because they've heard Jesus say things like this before out in the open and they did not respond this way. But in this trial, this is what they've been waiting for.

This moment when Jesus says something, they can finally pin on him and he stands up and says, what else do you need? He's claimed to be the Christ. The problem with the high priest's question is that he allowed no room for Jesus to actually be the Christ. Jesus actually is the Christ. Caiaphas has since passed away and Caiaphas has since seen the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power. At this moment, they respond and they say he deserves death.

I want you to know that Jesus does go to his death and I want you to know that he is the Son of Man who is seated at the right hand of power. That the humility here, the grace here, the love here that is shown for sinners is beyond understanding. Then they spit in his face and struck him and some slapped him saying, prophesy to us, you Christ, who is it that struck you? They show him great dishonor. They slap him. Men slap other men, open hand slap other men when they feel that they are in complete power over them.

This is why I would be much more offended if you slapped me than if you punched me in the face. If you punched me, you're showing me some amount of respect. If you slap me, you don't think there's going to be any return fire from my side. It's very hurtful. They show him great disrespect. They spit on him.

They strike him. They slap him. We're told in the other gospels that they blindfold him. That's why they ask, prophesy to us. Who slapped you? They line him up.

They slap him. Jesus takes this. At any moment, he could stop this. But he submits to the will of the Father and he loves sinners. Verse 69. Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.

And a servant girl came up to him and said, you also were with Jesus the Galilean. Well, that's a startling moment for Peter. He's sitting in the courtyard. He's paying attention to what's going on. He's heartbroken. He's probably trying to keep that together.

The servant girl walks by and says, hey, you're with Jesus. You're on his team. I don't know if you've ever been trying to hide something and someone pinpoints it. I don't know if you've been in class hoping the teacher wouldn't call on you because you had no clue what the answer was. And it's almost like they could see it in your eyes. So they called on you.

I don't know if you've been in the middle of a lie and someone asked the exact right question they needed to ask to make you have to lie perfectly in that moment. This would have felt like a lightning strike. But he denied it before them all saying, I don't know what you mean. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like I'm one of the arrestor guys. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him.

I'm assuming he waited an appropriate amount of time. Maybe he just started like, well, I was heading this way anyway. But he tries to move away from those people in that situation. He goes out to the entrance. He moves a little bit further out. He thinks maybe if this is going to keep happening, I need to be close to the exit.

Another servant girl saw him and she said to the bystanders, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. Doesn't even talk to him this time. Just starts telling other people. And again, he denied it with an oath. I do not know the man. This time he promises.

I swear on the temple, I don't know him. He starts doing things that Jesus expressly said not to do. For the record, he lied last time. He's also not supposed to do that. But now he's lying with an oath.

After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, certainly you too are one of them for your accent betrays you. He sounds like he's from Galilee. Not like he's from Jerusalem. He's from Hicktown. He's like, dadgum, I don't know him at all. They were like, I live here all my life.

No. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear. I do not know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed. So this time he calls a curse.

He swears. Last time it was an oath. This time it's may God strike me if I know him. I've never seen him before. Peter remembered the saying of Jesus. Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

And he went out and wept bitterly. Peter had told Jesus, I'll go with you to the bitter end. I'll go with you to imprisonment and death. Jesus says, you're going to deny me this very night. And he says, even if everybody else falls away, even if everybody does, I won't. And Jesus says, this night you're going to deny me three times.

Before the rooster crows, you'll deny that you know me three times. Peter says, no, I won't. And Peter does. The rooster crows. And what Jesus had said was true. And it breaks him.

And there are moments where who we want to be and who we think we are and who we tell ourselves we are is crushed by who we are. There are moments where the rooster crows and we wake up to who we are. Not who we think we are. Not who we say we are. Not who we are willing to pretend we are. But who we actually are.

The decisions that we've actually made. And Peter got here quickly. He was doing fairly well. But when it came down to it and he suddenly had this moment where he'd have to profess Christ and face the consequences, he decides not to. And the truth is that some of us have done pretty well until we got into some tight spots. And then we quickly made several decisions that put us in a place where we suddenly realized we were someone we did not think we were.

We made some decisions pretty quickly and in some tight spots that suddenly told us that we weren't exactly as good as we were, as honest as we thought we were, as good of a husband, as good of a businessman, as good of a mom, as good of a friend, as good of a student. That what we had been telling ourselves about ourselves wasn't actually true. Peter goes out and he wept bitterly. Chapter 27. When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to the death. And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.

We'll see more of this later. But the Sanhedrin decides that Jesus deserves death. They're not allowed to perform capital punishment. The Romans gave them some soldiers, let them have some of their own soldiers, let them have some Roman soldiers that they oversaw. But they weren't allowed to do capital punishment.

Every once in a while, mobs would come together and stone people. But it wasn't the Sanhedrin wasn't allowed to oversee that kind of stuff. And so they decide they want to put Jesus to death and the charge against him is blasphemy. But they've got to come together and talk because the Romans don't care about blasphemy. They do it all the time. They're not going to that's not going to work.

So they're going to have to have a discussion about what they're going to accuse him of. We'll see later. They what they accuse him of is sedition. Treason against the Roman Empire. But that's why they take counsel and they decide to deliver him over to Pilate.

Because they're. Let's figure out how to put him to death. Verse three. Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and he brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. So Judas is going through a similar thing.

He's seeing the outcome of the decisions that he's made. When he sees that Jesus is condemned, he realizes this. I shouldn't have done this. He changes his mind. The phrase there in the Greek is short of repentance. But it does mean he changed his mind.

He decided this shouldn't have gone down this way. He shouldn't have done this. He changed his mind. He brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See to it yourself.

And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed. And he went and hanged himself. I want you all to see for just a second the absolute failure of the chief priests and the elders. We've been seeing that Jesus has said this, that the temple is done, that they have failed, that this has not worked, that they have not responded the way they ought to. Judas comes to them and says, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. But in the chief priests, priests, the ones who are supposed to stand between the people and God, the ones who are supposed to oversee the sacrificial system, say, what is that to us?

We have nothing to do with helping people get past sin. That's on you. What is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury since it is blood money.

So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a piece, a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel. And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. Some of that phrase also comes from Malachi. He just ascribes it to Jeremiah because he was the more well-known of the prophet.

They do that a couple of times where they're just saying this has been fulfilled and highlights the main prophet. But he's just showing that Jesus did come to fulfill scripture and that these events do fulfill scripture. So what do we do when we come face to face with our own son? What do we do when we fail to live up to who we think we are, who we want to be? If you're much past high school, you've already begun to do that. You've already begun to see that.

If you're in high school, in middle school, you're doing that, but you're not seeing it. Ask your parents. They might can help you out. But as you get older, you begin to realize that this isn't exactly working out how I thought it was. You begin to see your sin. You begin to see your failures.

You begin to have what you wanted to be and who you hoped you were and how you thought life was going to go. And that begins to fall short. And then we also begin to do things that we wish we could take back, that have consequences. And once you're past it, you're looking back going, how did I ever get there? How did I ever get here? How did I ever make these decisions?

How on earth could I have been a person who did that? What do we do? What do we do in our sin and shame when it clings to us? When it threatens to destroy us? Let's look first at the chief priests.

Verse 5, it says, In throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money. Y'all, this is insane. He says, I've betrayed innocent blood. He throws the coins back to them. They say, we don't have anything to do with that.

That's on you. He leaves. They go scoop the money up. And they go, we can't put this in the treasury because it's blood money. And we don't want to break the law. The religious law.

Y'all, they paid the blood money. Potentially out of that treasury. This is where Jesus told them, Y'all strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. You're worried about all these little fine points of the law, and you're just blind. They don't see their sin. They know it's blood money, but they don't see how that's on them.

Even though they're the ones who paid the blood money. And then they have the audacity to stand there and have a discussion about caring about applying the law. We've got to do this in a lawful way. Whenever you commit murder, you shouldn't murder on the Sabbath. And if someone pays you to murder, you need to tithe on the earnings. It's like, what?

What? This would be somebody who's saying, man, I know that divorce is wrong, so I'll kill my spouse. What? It's that level of insane. And for us to think that for one second, we're not capable of this. Like we haven't shown up to a community group and discussed minute little parts of the Scriptures and failed to acknowledge our sin.

Like we hadn't discussed what it would be like if I did actually, you know, maybe, you know, I think Christians need to repent. We need to understand that God... But we're not... Like we haven't highlighted the parts of our lives where we're obeying pretty well that I give money and I do this and I'm generous here and I'm generous with my time so I don't have to do that. Or I'm... I mean, yeah, okay, I may be falling into some sexual sin, but I'm showing up to my group more than I ever have.

We don't do this. One of the ways that we deal with our sin and our shame is absolute blind denial. God help us. This is one of the reasons why we want to be in community groups. This is one of the reasons why we show each other love by being in life with one another so that we can point out each other's blind spots. Not to make ourselves better, but to help us by God's grace see our sin so that we'll run from it.

But they don't see it. And they head to destruction. Let's look at Judas, verses 3, 4, and 5. It says, Then Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned and he changed his mind. And he brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. And he's saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.

And they said, What is that to us? Let's look at this part first. See to it yourself. He sees what he did was wrong. He brings the money back. His hope is that he can talk to the chief priests and he can somehow maybe undo this.

His hope is that maybe he can somehow atone for this. And they give them, give him the response that religion gives you. And I don't mean religion in the general sense that Christianity is a religion. I mean the process by which humans do good things to make God love them. How we do what's right and don't do what's bad so that we might be on good terms with God. They give him the same answer.

What does your sin have to do with me? See to it yourself. That's the answer that religion gives you. That's on you. If you're good enough you'll be fine. But it's on you to go be good, to go do what's right, to go be moral, to handle your affairs well.

And that works if A, you're too blind to your sin or B, you see your sin but you minimize it to the point that you feel like you're probably not that bad. But that falls completely apart when you see your sin clearly. Because the idea that I'll be moral enough or I'll be good enough and that'll fix it falls apart because we can't fix it. Our good works cannot atone for our sin. Our good works, our good behaviors, our self-made righteousness cannot atone for our sin. It cannot handle our shame.

It's about as good as a spider web is at catching a rock. It can't do it. It falls apart. And you know this. Some of you are in this process right now. You've done some things that were terrible that you're ashamed to mention, that you feel shame creep up on you when you think about it.

You've made some choices that make you, if you really look at it, make you into a person that you don't want to be. And if you admit that that's who you are, it's crippling. So some of you are in the process right now of doing good religious behavior. As if somehow good religious behavior on this side will offset your wickedness on that side, but that's not how judgment works. This is the example I use. I've used it to try to help explain this to people at different jobs I've had, try to help walk them out.

But if you had a doctor who is an excellent doctor, like a real world doctor house, but nicer, and he was the reason why people's lives got saved. They were going to die. Nobody could figure it out. And this person would figure it out. And let's say he saves two lives a month, sometimes more, 50 lives a year, and then three, four times a year, three or four times, sneaks into someone's house and murders them. When he gets to court, he doesn't get to have a chalkboard and go, I've saved 50 lives this year, killed four people that y'all know about.

I'm a plus 46. I rest my case. He didn't get to do that. Because that's not how justice works. And some of y'all are figuring that out. I've been trying.

I've been trying to show up. I've been trying to do good. I've been trying to... And it's not fixing this. It's not fixing what's wrong with me. It's not fixing what I did.

It's not restoring what was broken. He gave the money back, but it didn't fix it. Some of you are figuring that out, and the truth is you're way, way, way further off than a plus 46. So he moves on to the next thing that happens. What happens when religion begins to fail us? Verse 5.

Throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. What happens when we have to carry the weight of our sin and our guilt and our shame and we have no religious ability to cover it up is we begin to hate ourselves. We begin to destroy ourselves. Some of you walk around daily, mentally, undercutting everything you do. You're wicked. You're terrible.

You're evil. You're broken. In your group, when someone says they love you, you go, not if you knew the real me. You don't say that out loud, but that's what you say in your head. You end up destroying all the relationships you have. This can move on down the line to where you're destroying your body because you care so little about yourself because you know that you deserve destruction.

Even if on most days you're not willing to fully admit it in those terms, that's what you're doing. So you're destroying yourself through guilt, through shame, through pain. Some of you eventually move into cutting. But it's this, this I deserve punishment and the truth is you do. You're not wrong. Some of you look back at what you've done, the way you've used people, the way you've treated people, the way you've treated your spouse.

Some of you, if you would just look at how you treated the people you love most dearly and you still hurt them. Those are the people you're giving your best effort to. And your best effort is at times pathetic. And if you stare at that, it's crushing. And you feel like I don't deserve anything. I just deserve pain and destruction.

And Judas jumps to the end of that line very quickly. He goes out and hangs himself. And some people work themselves to that eventually in life, trying to bear the weight of their sin and shame. And others do it daily, slowly. For years and years and years. Punishing themselves for their guilt.

Trying to atone for their sin. Chapter 26, verse 75. Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. Through the words of Jesus, Peter sees his sin. Through the words of Jesus, Peter sees his failure.

Peter weeps. He's broken over his sin. Y'all, the next time Peter shows up in the Gospel of Matthew, he's showing up to see Jesus, to listen to him and follow him after the resurrection. We see that Peter moves on into the church that he leads in the church. Peter saw his sin, saw his shame, saw his shame, and took it to Jesus. Peter saw his sin, saw his shame, was broken over it, and ran to the only one who could fix it.

You see, Judas and Peter saw the same thing, that they had failed, that they had shame. Judas knew of no way to fix it, and Peter knew Jesus. Judas proves that he doesn't know Jesus. As if Jesus wouldn't accept him, as Jesus wouldn't give him an opportunity, as Jesus wouldn't accept repentance. He just takes the weight of his sin and shame and is destroyed by it, and Peter runs to Jesus with it. And that's what 2 Corinthians 7.10 says.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. We talk about repentance all the time, that we would see our sin, that we would repent, that we would turn from it. The truth is, we want to be grieved by our sin. I think so many people, though, who only understand the worldly approach to this, think that the church gathers so that we can feel bad about ourselves, and that by feeling bad about ourselves, we can go out into the world and be motivated by guilt so much that we'll be good people. No. And if that's what you're trying to do, welcome.

Let me explain this. It's so much better. The truth is, we do want to grieve. We do want to be called to repentance because we want salvation without regret. Somebody say, without regret. Now, the people who really need to say without regret, say without regret.

How on earth is that possible? Jesus Christ bears the sin of the world for all those who believe in Him. He takes your sin. He becomes your sin. He dies to your sin. We are buried with Him in baptism.

We are raised with Him in a new life. We are washed clean and we have no regrets. Why? Why can we have sin and no regret? Because we have a Savior that washed us clean and my sin only magnifies His glorious grace. my sin only works in me to produce praise. My sin only works in me to help me see, yes, how small and wicked I was.

Yes, how much of deserving of destruction I am. When the enemy comes along and he begins that, let me tell you, he's preaching the first half of a good sermon. When the enemy comes to you and says, you are wicked, you are a sinner, let me drag up behind what you have done in the past. Let me tell you what you've done. Let me tell you how you've hurt people. Let me tell you what you did in high school.

Let me remind you of your sin and your wickedness and your brokenness. Our response, if you belong to Jesus, is come on, get to the end. Get to the end. Tell me about Christ. Tell me about when He went to the cross. Tell me about how His blood was shed.

Tell me about how He died. Tell me about how He was in a tomb and everything seemed dark. Tell me about when life came back into Him. Tell me about how He saved me from my sin. Tell me about how I'm free. Tell me about how I have a salvation without regret.

That is what is for you in repentance. We want you to grieve. We want you to hate your sin so that you will repent so that you will find Christ. Worldly grief just feels bad and destroys you. Grief, when Jesus enters the picture, dies and rises again. We have a salvation without regret.

Thomas Watson says, till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. For some of us the first step is to hate our sin, to grieve over it, to have the rooster crow to stare face to face with our wickedness so that we can see how glorious Jesus is that He dies for sinners. The band's going to come back up. My prayer for you is that you will respond like Peter. The truth is you are responding to your guilt. You are responding to your shame.

Some of you are trying to cover it up. Some of you are trying to deny it. Some of you are trying to hide it. Some of you are trying to just muscle through. Some of you are destroying yourself slowly over time and feeling terrible about it as if somehow tearing yourself up, tearing your body up, tearing your mental state up, will atone for your wickedness. And the reality is Jesus atones for sin and Jesus alone.

Only He sets us free. Only He provides salvation without regret. Some of you are Christians. You've placed your faith in Jesus and you are still in the middle of your sin, not getting to the part of salvation, just grieving, just trying to atone for it by feeling bad. Stop. Do not rob the Lord Jesus of His glorious grace.

Praise Him that He saves wicked sinners like you. When you see your sin, turn from it and run to the one who saves. Some of you right now are trying to deny this. You're trying to hide from your sin. You're trying to cover it up through religious good works and the reality is religion says to you, what has this got to do with me? See to it yourself.

And Jesus says, I'll see to it myself because your sin has everything to do with me because I'm going to cover it for you. May we hope in Christ, in Christ alone. We're about to sing a song called Nothing But the Blood and I want that truth to sink into your head. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing else will fix it.

No amount of good work, no amount of shame, no amount of feeling bad will fix this. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you're good. Thank you that you save sinners and we pray that in the middle of our shame and our doubt that we would move from grief to repentance and from repentance to salvation without regret that we would walk in the freedom provided by the cross that we might proclaim the glorious grace of Jesus. Lord, may we repent of our religion that stands in the way of us loving you.

May we repent of all of our self-righteousness. May we repent of our wickedness in the places that we failed. Help us to see ourselves clearly so that we may love you fully. In Jesus' name, amen.

Jesus in the Garden (Matthew 26:30-46)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Jesus in the Garden

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew 26 verses 30 through 46. That's on page 486 in a blue Bible that is around you. If you don't have a Bible at home, we encourage you to take that blue Bible with you.

That is our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible that you can read on a regular basis. There are moments in life that absolutely punch you deep in your soul. There are moments where you endure an immense amount of suffering and loss and grief. There are moments in life where you feel so overwhelmed by life itself, by the moment, by the things that you face. This has happened a few times in my life.

One that sticks out the most was my freshman year of college. My freshman year of college, I remember I was in my dorm room. I was taking a nap. I woke up to a bunch of missed calls. I called my father back and found out that my brother-in-law had passed away. I called my brother after that.

He confirmed that he had passed away, that he had actually taken his own life. And when all of that hit, I just felt completely overwhelmed and grief. I remember getting in the car and driving to my sister's house and walking in and seeing her and just the agony of that moment, embracing her and all of the pain that came with that was so surreal. And I also remember in that moment, I remember questioning God from a place of frustration and anger that was just, why? Why would you let this happen? Why would you let this happen to my sister, to my niece, to my nephew?

Why? And this frustration, this anger and this questioning the character of God that just said, why? Why? There are moments that all of us will walk through in life where we endure suffering and loss and grief and pain. And some of you may have been through this and even gone through that and questioning the character of God and asking, why? The reality is, is that you will face moments like this.

If you have not suffered, you will. It is a guarantee in life. Everyone suffers. It is as sure as death and taxes, you will suffer. That is a part of the reality, this side of the fall. You will face situations in your life that absolutely just throw gut punches at your soul.

But as Christians, we have a different approach to this. We have a different understanding. The Bible says a lot about this. Therefore, we have a different response that we are called to in those moments. And my hope is, is that this morning, as we walk through what is a very heavy passage, that we would watch Jesus as He prepares for the moment of the cross. As He prepares for suffering.

And my hope is that we would learn and that we would glean from Him so that we would be able to suffer well. Which is the hope for any Christian in the midst of suffering. So it is heavy. Let me pray. And then we will jump into this passage. God, I pray that you would help us be present this morning.

I have no doubt that there is an immense amount of suffering, even right now in this room, that people are walking through, that people are facing. God, I pray that we would be able to learn. I pray that we would listen. And I pray that you would mold us and shape us to be a people that suffer well by the power that you give us. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, verse 30.

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Okay, so this is the transition from last week. Last week, the past two weeks, we're at the Passover meal. And then Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper. We walked through that last week. And at the end of this meal, they sing a hymn.

They sing. And I just want to point that out. That Jesus leads the disciples in singing. That singing is good for your soul. It sings truth deep into your soul. So maybe the person that doesn't like to sing when we're together on Sundays, whether it's for your self-conscious, or maybe it's prideful reasons, or you're a dude and you're like, I don't sing.

It's just not what I do. It's just not manly. Which if you think that, one day you can meet the King of Kings and tell him he was effeminate for leading the people in singing. No, it's good for us to sing. And he sings as they close out this moment. And they head to the Mount of Olives, which is a hillside that sits just above the city of Jerusalem.

So it's a hillside that a lot of pilgrims who were coming in for Passover would have camped out. And he takes them to the Mount of Olives. It's verse 31. Then Jesus told them, this very night you will fall away on account of me, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. So again, we've been seeing this.

Jesus is making it clear. This is going to happen. I am going to suffer. I am going to the cross. And he says, and you are going to abandon me. Which had to be a little bit of a shock for the disciples.

Thinking, no, this can't be possible. But he quotes, this is not just going to happen. It's been prophesied. Zechariah 13, 7 from the Old Testament is this prophecy that says that the shepherd is going to be struck. And when the shepherd is struck, the sheep will scatter. Fearfully scatter and abandon him.

He says, but 32, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. Now there's two things. One of them is very obvious from this. He is declaring that he's going to rise. He's saying that his death is not the end. That resurrection is going to happen.

So that's the clear thing that we see on the surface. But what I love buried in this is a picture of how good our great shepherd is. That in this moment, he just said, you are going to abandon me. You are going to leave me. And he says, but don't worry. When I rise, I will meet you in Galilee.

That I am going to. It's this picture of he sees their failures and still he restores them. I love that we have a good shepherd that restores those even when they are faithless. So, verse 33, Peter hears this and he disagrees. Peter replied, even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Which that's Peter.

We've seen it over and over again. He's all in. Like he's just full hearted. Doesn't even realize he just put the other disciples down. If they fail and fall away, I won't leave you, Jesus. I'm in.

And then Jesus says, truly, I tell you. Jesus answered this very night before the rooster crows, you will diseminate me three times. That when the sheep scatter and they abandon him, Peter will have even a more tragic abandonment. He's going to deny him three times what you're going to see in the next few verses. He's going to abandon him. Verse 35, but Peter declared, even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.

He's defiant. And all the other disciples said the same. So, Peter, bold in his stance, I'm not going anywhere. The other disciples were like, no, we would not abandon you, even though it's going to happen in just a few hours. Now, what happens next is one of my favorite moments in all the Gospels. It's one of the most powerful moments in the Gospels.

And it's unbelievably helpful for us to look at and examine and to see what happens next. Because it gives us incredible insight in how to be people who respond well and prepare well for suffering. So if you've ever been in a situation where you have suffered, if you've ever grieved the loss of someone or death, if you've ever wrestled with deep sin, if you've ever faced adversity, if you've ever felt overwhelmed by life in general, this is a helpful passage for us to pay attention to and examine. Verse 36. Then Jesus went to them to a place.

Went to them to a place called Gethsemane. This is the Garden of Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. So with the reality of the cross setting in, gets his disciples together. And he takes them a little further into the garden. He says, I need to get away to pray.

And then verse 37 says, And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. That's Peter and James and John. The three that he spent more time with. He takes them in further into the garden. He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death.

Remain here and watch with me. Jesus is sorrowful. He is troubled. He is in deep distress. To the point of sorrow and anguish. That it's the point of death.

And he tells them, Stay here. Stay near him. I'm going to go further into the garden. And what he is going to do is, he's going to have some solitude before his heavenly Father. Verse 39. And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And this is where we get to see the why behind why he is so sorrowful, even to the point of death. Why he's in such deep distress. It has to do with the cup that he just mentioned. What is the cup that Jesus speaks of? Well, first off, you've got to take it in the context of what he just quoted.

He quoted Zechariah 13.7, which is a prophecy where God is speaking. It is God speaking, saying that He is the one who will strike the good shepherd. Zechariah 13.7 says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me, declares the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. I will turn my hand against the little ones. That is God the Father saying, I will strike the Son.

That God and His sovereign plan brings this about to where Jesus is the one who will be struck. And it is God the Father's plan to do so. The cup that is mentioned here is the cup of suffering that has been prepared for Christ. It is a cup of suffering. The cup was referenced in Matthew 20, just a few chapters back. In Matthew 20, James and John are having an argument over who is going to sit at the left and right hand of Jesus in what they thought was going to be this political movement.

Their mom gets involved and tries to argue on their behalf. And then finally we get to a response where Jesus answered. He said, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? They said to Him, We are able. He said to them, You will drink my cup.

But sit at my right hand on my left. It is not mine to grant. The cup is the cup of suffering. He says, You will drink my cup. James later on in Acts 12 is beheaded for his faith. John is the only disciple that is not martyred.

But later on, history tells us that he was thrown into oil to be boiled alive. He somehow survives that. We don't know how. And then ends up in exile on the island of Patmos where he dies. It is the cup of suffering that God prepares. It is also, not just the cup of suffering, it is the cup of God's wrath.

When the cup is spoken of in the Old Testament in passages like Isaiah 51, 17 and Jeremiah 25, 15. It is God's wrath, the cup of wrath that is poured out. And that is what's being referenced here. It is the cup of God's wrath and it is an immense amount of suffering. And that is what Jesus is about to drink. An immense amount of suffering for the sins of man.

He will, in the next few hours, be beaten. He will be tortured. He will be nailed to a cross. And there is a crazy amount of physical agony and suffering that is involved in this. But it is not just that.

It is that He is going to be bearing our sin on the cross. And it is not even just that. It is that this perfect fellowship that He has had with God the Father for eternity is going to change in this moment. Because on the cross, He says, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He calls out to the Father in agony. The physical and spiritual suffering.

He calls out and He hears nothing but the wrath of God poured out on Him. He has had this fellowship with the Father that will change in this moment. All of that is what He is preparing for. That is the cup that awaits Him. That is what He is trying to get ready for. And then it says, as He is anticipating this and going a little further, He fell on His face and prayed saying, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me.

If it is possible, Jesus says, take it. He doesn't want to suffer. He doesn't want that there is a part of Him that is very human. He doesn't want to suffer in this way. He doesn't want all the pain and suffering that awaits. But physically and spiritually that awaits Him, He doesn't want to go that route.

But He prays one of the most helpful prayers in all of the Scriptures. He says, Yet not as I will, but as you will. Not as I will, but as you will. in this moment of deep distress, He prays what He taught in the Sermon on the Mount. That Your will would be done. This isn't what I want for myself, but Father, this is what You want. Not my will, but Your will.

I don't want to suffer in this way. But God the Father does because He wants to rescue wayward sinners. And our only hope is Jesus to take steps in faithfulness and to take steps towards the cross. So, Jesus, anticipating all of this, falls on His face before the Father in deep distress. And He doesn't just do it once. He does this repeatedly.

Verse 40 says, Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. Couldn't you men keep watch with Me for one hour? He asked Peter. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It's not just prayer.

It's persistent prayer that Jesus models for us. That He needs to keep going back. And He's telling the disciples, No, you need to prepare yourself. You're not going to be ready when temptation comes. What a self-aware thought that the flesh is weak. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

It's something that we need to have so clearly in our own minds. Sometimes the Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. Therefore, we need to go back to the well of God's strength in prayer. He gets away again. 42, He went away a second time and prayed, My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done. Praise again.

It's not possible. May Your will be done. Pray some more. Verse 43, When He came back, He again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time saying the same thing.

And we're on into the night. He keeps going back. He keeps praying, preparing to face what He is about to face. And through prayer, He is going to find the strength to take steps forward in faithfulness. And He is going to bear the sins of humanity and take on a punishment that no one has ever endured or will endure. Verse 45, Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting?

Look, the hour has come and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer. It is time. Jesus will be arrested and He will be taken towards the cross. The disciples will abandon Him in fear as Jesus steps forward in faith.

Now, how does this help prepare us for suffering? What can we learn from this that would help us be better sufferers? I think there are five things that we can learn from this, from Jesus in the garden praying. And the first is that God ordains and purposes suffering. That God ordains. He chooses that we would suffer.

It is an uncomfortable truth that we don't like as Western American Christians. We don't like this idea that God and His sovereign plan allows and ordains suffering to happen. It's something that we just rather ignore because just generally in our culture, we don't like the idea of suffering in any form or fashion. I was reading an article by Tim Keller. He's a pastor that we look up to immensely. He wrote it in the Atlantic this week.

Tim Keller is, he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and I follow him a lot and just reading and listening to him and it just, it doesn't sound very hopeful. And he wrote this article on facing death and suffering and he, in one part, quotes a memoir from a doctor. This doctor practiced medicine in India and in America and he's comparing the two different systems of medicine, the two different people groups and the two, how we respond differently to suffering. And he quotes this doctor in his memoir. He writes, in the United States, I encountered a society that seeks to avoid pain at all costs.

He wrote in a recent memoir. Patients lived at a greater comfort level than I had previously treated when he was in India. But they seem far less equipped to handle suffering and far more traumatized by it. He's making an observation that in India where they have more suffering, they seem to be better prepared for it. That in America we're more insulated from, we're more guarded against, we don't like to think about the aspects of suffering and death. And when it hits us, we're far more traumatized by it.

And then Tim Keller diagnoses this with his own thoughts. He says, our beliefs about God in an afterlife, if we have them, are often abstractions as well. If we don't accept the reality of death, if we, we don't need these beliefs to be anything other than mental assents. He says, for us, it really just becomes mental agreements with the idea of suffering. That we can hear about it, read about it, absorb that idea, but it's just, it's more of an abstract concept for us. It's not something that's concrete.

Because we're so guarded, our culture doesn't like to look at suffering, doesn't like to face the aspects of death. We insulate ourselves from it. It's a downer. Death and suffering, it's just something we don't want to look at. Like I start the sermon off with a heavy story and it's like, oh man, this is one of those days. We don't like to deal with this.

It's just an abstract concept. And what this passage calls us to do is to stare deep into it and reckon with this idea of suffering. And not just suffering itself, but the purposes that are behind suffering, the mysterious purposes. Now when we look at Jesus and why He suffers on the cross, why does Jesus take the full cup of God's wrath? Why does God purpose that His Son would take on the greatest suffering that anyone ever knew or will know that skeptics will call this is divine child abuse? Why is this?

It is because our world is marred by sin. It is broken. It is because we are broken. It is because we hurt one another. It is because we hurt ourselves. It is because we rage against God in our own rebellion.

We spit on His good will, on His good pleasure. We wreck one another. We wreck this world. And that type of rebellion has a cost. And we are not able to pay that cost. So God in His deep love comes.

He comes to pay the cost for us and to pay the penalty to rescue us and redeem this world. That is why Jesus had to suffer in the garden. That is why He had to suffer. And that is what He is preparing for in the garden. So why does God allow us to get sick?

Our loved ones to die? Why do we suffer? We get some answers. We live in a fallen world. We live this side of the fall and sin and death are a reality. And sometimes we get more answers behind why Jesus suffers than we do at times.

Maybe it is to prepare us for greater things. That is a little bit of what 1 Peter is getting at. There is some sanctifying aspects of suffering that prepares us for greater things. Maybe it is that our suffering gets to be the comfort to somebody else. When you go through something that is difficult and you come through the other side that you get to be a comfort to someone else who is walking through it. Sometimes we get those answers.

Through prayer, discernment, the scriptures. Sometimes we just don't know. We don't get all the whys behind why we suffer. But there is one clear thing that we see. There is some very good news in the midst of this. The good news that comforts us in the midst of suffering is that God is not distant.

God is not distant. Jesus sympathizes with our suffering. That is the second thing I think this passage helps highlight. Jesus sympathizes with our suffering. He is not unable to understand what you are going through. We don't pray to a God who is distant and removed from the aspects of suffering.

Look at 37. It says, In taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful. Even to death, remain here to watch with me. He knows what it means to suffer. He is able to empathize with the struggle.

He has been here. He has lived it. You have been in a situation where somebody, you endured a loss of some type. Somebody died. People just feel like they have to say something. They will be like, I am so sorry.

A couple years ago, I lost my dog. It is like, oh no. this isn't going to go well. You cannot relate in this moment. I want to as quickly and awkwardly end this conversation because it is just not helpful. You have people that try to commiserate. It is like, no, you don't get this.

You don't know what I am going through. Jesus doesn't have a dog story. He chose to come to this world and endure suffering on a regular basis and then suffering on a way that we will never comprehend. him. That is what the book of Hebrews gets at in Hebrews 4. We don't have a high priest who is unable to empathize us but one who is able to sympathize us in every way. He has come.

He has endured suffering so that we pray to God. It is not that we are praying to someone who is distant, who doesn't understand. No, he chose to. He chose to come into this broken world. He can sympathize with our suffering. That is one thing that we see absolutely here.

Third, we see that we don't need to be alone in the midst of suffering. Jesus could have, after the Passover meal said, guys, I'm going to go. I'm going to go to the Mount of Olives. Y'all stay here. He could have done that. He takes the disciples with him.

He takes them with him into the garden. He takes three that are close and nearby. And yes, he absolutely has solitude, which he does regularly, but they're right nearby. He could have chosen to do this alone, but he doesn't, because we're made in the image of a communal God. We are designed to be around one another. So you don't need to be alone in the midst of suffering.

It's not good for your soul. I've said this over the years, that when someone is suffering, when someone has endured loss, you don't always have to say something. You don't have to feel the void of silence. You can just be there. It's called a ministry of presence. You're just there.

You can cry with them. You can sit with them for hours in silence. A lot of times, they don't remember what anyone said, but they remember who was there. And that matters. The third thing we learn is we don't need to be alone in the midst of suffering. The fourth is that we are not sufficient to handle our own distress and suffering.

We are not sufficient in and of ourselves to handle our distress, to handle our sorrows and suffering. Jesus models this by praying. There are passages like this where we're trying to reconcile, which we can't because it's a mystery, that God is fully God. Jesus is fully God and he's fully man. The fact that he is in this moment in need, it's hard for us to wrap our minds around, that he's fully human in this moment. He needs the Father in his humanity.

He comes to him in deep distress, in deep sorrow, that the weight of the full cup of God's wrath that is waiting for him in just a few hours, it's right there. It weighs heavy on him physically. It shows up. So much so that in Luke's gospel, it adds that as he's praying humbly to the Father, an angel comes and ministers to him. He's in need in this moment. He models that we are not sufficient to handle this on our own.

We're not sufficient to handle our own distress, our own troubles, our own sorrows. Here's the deal. Many of us have a category for this, that we're not sufficient, we're not, we can't handle this all ourselves when it comes to the bigger moments of life, when it comes to being overwhelmed and huge, watershed, life-changing moments of suffering. But I want to speak to those of you that feel that sense of distress and overwhelming in everyday aspects of life. I just want to speak to you for a moment. For those of you that struggle with the general category that we have today, it's called general anxiety.

I just want to speak to you for a moment, because I think this passage also has a helpful way to think through this, that is actually good for you to process and think through. There is a categorical difference between distress that Jesus is enduring in the garden, and the category of anxiousness that is a spiritual mistrust of God that doesn't trust in His sovereignty, a need for control. Those are two different things. The Bible has different categories for those. Go back to verse 37. It says, In taking with them Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

The word for troubled there means deep distress. It is a different word than what we see for anxious that's used in the scriptures. So Philippians 4, Do not be anxious in anything but through prayer and supplication, make your request unto the Lord. That's a different word. When Jesus says, Don't be anxious about this life. That's a different word than this word for distress.

And here's the deal. If you looked at Jesus in this moment with our modern kind of psychological lens, you see Him praying in the garden. Probably, we don't know, probably, He's sweating immensely. Luke's gospel either says that He's praying and there's sweat that's like droplets of blood, meaning it's thick amounts of sweat, or He's so deeply distressed distressed. There's a rare medical condition where blood shows up in your sweat. It's hard to tell from the text.

Both of those means He's in deep distress. And with modern psychological lens, you look at that and say, oh no, maybe Jesus is actually anxious. But He's not. He's in deep distress. And here's why that's so incredibly important for you to understand. You have a physiological response, all of us.

I mean, if you saw a snake in a path, you would have physiological changes. If you saw a car slam on brakes in front of you, you'd have physiological changes that would happen. You would start to breathe heavier. Your heart would start to race. Adrenaline would spike. You would feel a cold sweat.

That's a physical response that you have to something that is difficult. Some of you have a more sensitive response to that in lots of things. You see your kid on top of a play set. They don't text or call like they were supposed to. You have a presentation that's due at work. You have an assignment that you've got to present.

And you feel that you wake up and you feel this feeling. This isn't the gray area here. But you feel this feeling of distress. And here's why this is so incredibly important for you to understand. When you read passages that say don't be anxious about anything, what you translate that is don't feel the feeling that I feel so regularly. And you've got to know yourself.

There's a difference between a feeling of distress, which is a physical, very human response that Jesus feels, and not trusting the Lord that leads to anxiety. What stands in the middle of that is the recognition and understanding that you are not sufficient to handle your own troubles. It is the fifth thing that we see from this. Choose the God who can handle your troubles and sorrows. That is what we see so clearly here. Jesus feels this distress in the garden.

But you know why does it lead to sin? Because He stops in that moment and He gets on His face and He prays. There's a difference whether you feel this on a regular basis or you feel this in the most difficult moments of suffering in life. what stands in the way between that being just distress and leading to an anxiety that does not trust the Lord is prayer. It's getting on our face in faith and praying, acknowledging that we can't handle this ourselves, but God can. So you have one of two options in this moment.

You can trust God or you can say that I'm sufficient in and of myself, that I can handle this myself. I was talking to Scott Hill about this this week. He's one of our older members. And he says really two responses. It's either this vertical response where you are praying to the Lord or it's more of a circular response. And I love that because I know exactly what he's getting at.

It's a circular response of just crazy. You feel this deep distress. You feel it coming on and then all of a sudden you don't go to the Lord. You want to deal with it yourself and you choose to deal with yourself and then all of a sudden it leads into this anxiety where you're not trusting the Lord. Your thoughts are consumed. But then that physically affects you, right?

And then you feel it and then it causes more distress. And it's this cycle where you feel distress and you try to handle it yourself and it leads to more anxiety and it goes on and on. And what God is trying to teach us to do is to break through that and humble ourselves before the Lord and pray from a desperate place. I mean, Jesus falls on the ground and prays desperately as a physical posture of deep prayer in the midst of distress. That sometimes you've got to fall on your face. In the most difficult moments of life, you've got to get on your face and pray.

That if you are overwhelmed at work, sometimes you need to pause, get on your knees at your desk and pray. Scott was talking about sometimes he just holds his hands out, that physically gets in a posture of prayer. Jesus in John 17 looks up to the Father and prays. One of the things I teach in counseling is deep breathing and I'll do deep breathing exercises, which I always tell people. It's very awkward to breathe with somebody deeply for two or three minutes. It feels very new agey, but I'm sold on it.

I think it is very helpful that there are moments whether you're tempted to look at pornography or you're tempted to fall more into a spiral of anxiety to just in those moments regulate your breathing. Because when you breathe a lot and you get more and more stirred up, your adrenaline spikes, your heart starts pumping and you can't think clearly. And I teach now, pause and just deep breathe. Learn to breathe deeply. And when you do this, it regulates your heart rate, starts to decrease, it floods your brain with oxygen, there's physical changes that happen within you so that you can think clearly.

And then I say, get on your knees and pray. And remember the gospel and rehearse truth and pray. There's some physical things you can do to get to a posture of humility before the Lord. Life is going to throw a lot at you. It is going to throw haymakers at your soul, which in boxing is a huge punch. That it's going to absolutely come at you.

And you have a fork in the road in all of these circumstances. If you are a Christian, you can, in that moment, come to the Father humbly in prayer. Or you can see that you are sufficient to handle yourself. And if you see yourself as sufficient, you will physically bear the weight of that, which will affect you physically. You will, like I've done in the past, question the character and the goodness of God. Or you can come to him humbly in prayer.

You can get on your face and cry out to him. And you can echo the same prayer of Jesus. Not my will, God, but your will be done. I don't want to lose this battle of cancer. I don't want to lose my job. I don't want to wreck my career.

I don't want to fail this test. I don't want to lose this child. I don't want to lose this parent. But not my will, God. Yours be done. That's the model that Jesus gives us.

That we get to come to the Father and pray. In the midst of distress, in the midst of trouble, in the midst of all the swirling suffering that surrounds us. We get to choose the path of Christ and fall in the same line that he did. And I thank Jesus that he chose the path that he chose. I thank Jesus that in that garden as he's praying and he's overwhelmed and he's sweating and he's physically weak that he chose to get up and go to the cross. Because that's the only hope that we have.

The only hope we have is Jesus on the cross. And my hope for us as Christians is we'd see what Jesus did. And that we'd follow the same path in prayer. Matt's going to come up. And I want us for a moment to reflect upon the things that are happening in our life. The things that that are heavy for us.

That are burdensome for us. The troubles that we face. The suffering that's in front of us. And I just want us to do that. I want us to pray. Maybe you need to get on your knees in front of your chair.

Maybe you hold your hands out. But I want us to pray. If you are not a Christian, I want you to see that the God of the universe did not leave you in a world that is so filled with brokenness and sin. He didn't leave you. He came for you. He loved you so much that he got up out of the garden and he went to the cross for you.

So that you don't have to be alone. So that you would have a God who stands in the heavens and hears your prayers and knows what you are feeling. We don't always get the responses we want. There are times we will pray and God says, no. But the path of faith is acknowledging that ultimately God's will is best.

So if you are a Christian, I pray that you would, that would be so clear for you this morning as you pray. If you are not a Christian, I pray you would be so overwhelmed by the love of Christ that you give in to him and believe. Let me lead us in prayer and then take a few moments in silence before we respond in singing. Lord, this world is so painful. we feel sin deep within us. We see it all around us. We see the hurt.

We see the pain of death and suffering and loss. And it is overwhelming. And that is okay. Because you are able to handle it. God, I pray right now that the Christians in this room who are struggling that they would respond in prayer not just now but for a lifetime they would respond in choosing the path of faith and trusting you and they would lay their burdens before you. And you would comfort them.

You would comfort us. You'd be near to us. You'd be gracious to us. And God, I pray if there's anyone here that does not believe this that has not trusted in you may your overwhelming love be so clear right now in this moment that they would believe. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

The Lord's Supper (Matthew 26:1-26-29)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Lord's Supper

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew 26, verses 26 through 29 today. Today we are going to look at the moment that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.

So we call this an ordinance. All right, this is something that God has ordained, that Jesus has ordained for us to practice as the church. So we have taught this a few times over the last few years. And we've come at it really hitting it, really the most important parts of it as we've walked through it. Today we're going to walk through this a little bit differently. We're going to give a little more background on this.

So if you love taking notes, today is your day. So we are going to look at this. There's a lot of significance and a lot of debate over the Lord's Supper. So I want to walk through the text in Matthew today and see what the Bible teaches us. Then I want to walk through historically how the Lord's Supper has come about.

The reality is that y'all have opinions on communion or the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, even how you call it. You have opinions, you don't even know that you do, but that comes from a historical progression and how the church has approached this over the last 2,000 years. So we're going to walk through that. And then I want us to just get real practical at the end and show what we believe about the Lord's Supper and how we practice it. So let me pray and then we'll jump straight in.

And God, I thank you that you've given us this tangible, beautiful practice that we get to keep and remember what the gospel means to us. God, I pray that you'd help us understand this more deeply this morning. You'd help us be present. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so verse 26.

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Okay, so this part of the meal really builds off of what we were talking about last week. And I hinted at this. This is the Passover meal.

So he has the disciples together in a room to take the Passover meal. So in order to understand the significance of the Lord's Supper, we need to understand Passover and what that means. All right, so Passover comes from the book of Exodus. This is something that was at the forefront of the Jewish calendar. So the Jewish calendar, right at the beginning, you celebrate Passover.

This is a meal of remembrance. It's their Independence Day. It celebrates the biggest redemptive moment of the history of the Israelites, really the formation of the covenant people of God. So, go back to Exodus. You remember Prince of Egypt, the movie? Take your mind there.

It's a classic. You should see it. Go back to Exodus. The Israelites have been slaves for over 400 years in Egypt. 400 years they've been slaves. And God says, no more.

He raises up Moses. He sends Moses to Pharaoh. And Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, no. And then one by one, God starts to enact judgment on the land in the form of plagues. So he turns the Nile River into blood.

He sends gnats and locusts and boils and all kinds of things. And at every turn, Pharaoh says, no. I'm not going to let your people go. Then finally comes the last plague. And Moses comes to him and says, if you do not let the people go, he will take the firstborn son of every house in the land. He will kill every firstborn son.

And Pharaoh says, no. So God tells Moses to go and tell the people. He tells the people that they need to take a lamb and slaughter the lamb. So he tells the Israelites, slaughter a lamb and take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorpost and the lintel, the very top doorpost. Put it all over the door. And when I come through to enact my judgment, I will pass over your house.

Meaning he will not take the firstborn son of the house that has the blood of the lamb on it. So they do this. They slaughter lambs without blemish. They take the blood. They put it on the doorposts. The Lord comes through at night.

And he takes the firstborn son of every house of Egypt. All the Egyptians lose their firstborn son, including Pharaoh. And at that point, Pharaoh says, get out. And they're free. After 400 years of being slaves, they are finally free. He tells them to prepare a meal.

It's of unleavened bread. It's a quick meal for them. And then he says, remember this. You're going to have a celebration. It's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That every year at the beginning of your calendar, you're going to remember what I did.

That I saved you. That I redeemed you from being slaves in Egypt. That I saved you. The blood of the lamb saved you. All of that. And then what comes out of that throughout the rest of Exodus is God really forming his covenant people.

All of that history. All of that theology. All of that significance is packed into this meal. Jesus takes that and then says, all right. This is a new meal for my new people. Established on a new covenant.

All of that significance rolls up into this meal. Because in just a few hours after Jesus does this, he is going to the cross. And what is significant about this is that Jesus is going to become the Passover lamb. That the bread and the wine that he has out for them will be his body and his blood. His body will be given just as the lamb was sacrificed. His blood will be shed so that they will no longer be slaves to sin.

They won't feel the power of death through belief in him. That's the significance. Jesus becomes the Passover lamb. And he's holding this meal out for them to remember this. In fact, Luke adds this. He says, do this in remembrance of me.

That the church is commanded to remember the work of Christ. Not just that happens at the cross. But also, he says, he will not drink of this again until they are with him in his father's kingdom. The picture is when all things are made new. This is between the cross and the final wedding feast. When God, when Jesus returns, it makes all things new.

So this meal, we've taught this before. It's a meal of tension for a people in tension. Between the work of Christ on the cross and his blood that was shed for us so that we'd have faith in him. And also, the day when he comes back and makes all things new. That when we take the Lord's Supper, we remember his death. And we remember that sin will no longer remain.

That that is what we get to celebrate as the people of God. As we take part in the Lord's Supper. It is a practice for us to remember that we live in a kingdom that has come, but has not yet been consummated. Has not yet been finished. Alright, so. That's what's packed into the significance of this meal.

And he says, do this in remembrance of me. And the church did this. We see this very early on in the book of Acts. It's in Acts 2. After Peter preaches the Sermon of Pentecost. And 3,000 plus people come to know Jesus.

And place faith in Jesus. It says, and they devote themselves to the apostles' teaching. And the fellowship. To the breaking of bread and prayers. Now, the breaking of bread is significant. It just said they're taking part in meals together.

But that's not just what's being taught here. The breaking of bread is language for taking part in the Lord's Supper. So we kind of see in the New Testament that they would have had a meal together. And they would have taken part in the Lord's Supper. We see it again in Acts 20. In Acts 20 verse 7.

It says, on the first day of the week. When we gather together to break bread. That's not just eating a meal together. That is significant. They gather together on the first day of the week. Which is Sunday.

That's why we gather together on Sundays for worship. And they broke bread. They took part in the Lord's Supper. We're going to see a little bit later. And walk through 1 Corinthians 11. To see some more biblical.

How we should practice this. How we should not practice this. But that's how it begins. And then from there. It's really a 2,000 year history. Of the church developing this.

And thinking more thoughtfully about it. And trying to figure out how to practice it. So that's where we are. That I want to move to now. The reality is. Is that we have opinions on this.

We have opinions on this. Because history has an impact. On the way that we think about the Lord's Supper. First. This may seem tedious. If you don't like history.

Just bear with me for a few moments. But the reason that we. If you have any church background at all. There's a reason you have an opinion on this. My dad reminds me regularly. That I was Christian Lutheran.

He's a very proud Lutheran. He says you're a Christian Lutheran. I said yes I know. You've told me. 10,000 times. So.

I was Christian Lutheran. And the Lutherans. The Lutheran church. Has a different take on this. Than others. Eventually landed in a Presbyterian church.

And I walked through. Confirmation. In a Presbyterian church. So Presbyterians. Methodists. Catholics.

They'll go through something called confirmation. That it prepares them. It confirms their faith. So that. They can take. So that we can take the Lord's Supper.

And Presbyterians have a take on this. That is different. And then one time. I was with a buddy of mine. Who's Catholic. I went to mass with him.

And. I just followed him up there. And they called the Eucharist. So I followed him up there. I took part in the Eucharist. They served real wine.

And drank that. And thought. Oh this is. This is different. And then. Later on the ride home with him.

His mom is the sweetest lady. And she looked at me and said. Don't ever do that again. She said. You are not Catholic. You don't.

You know. Come with us. But don't ever do that again. And I was a little offended. And thrown off. But I appreciate that.

Because she understands. That the way they practice it. Is different. And I should not have taken part of it. And I never will take part in it. Ever again.

Fast forward a little bit later. I became a Christian. In a Methodist church. That's where I came to know Jesus. Methodists have a different take on this. And now I'm a Baptist pastor.

And we have a different take on this. So maybe you didn't follow me. Through the tour to denominations. But. If you have any background. At all.

There's a reason. If you have any opinions. There's a reason. So. Alright. Much of the debate.

Over how to practice the Lord's Supper. Hinges on one word. One very big word. Take. Eat. This.

Is. My body. Tens of thousands. Of pages. Have thought. Of thought.

Have been spent on. That word is. What does is mean? Is it. Jesus is saying. This is literally.

My body. Which has a different weight to it. Or. Is it. No. This.

It's figuratively. This. This is my body. And there's some. Some metaphorical usage here. That's where the.

The range of debate happens. Is on that. Word. And denominations. Are very. Very.

Very. Very. Much split. On what is. Means. So.

I'm going to walk through. Quickly as possible. From the early church. To today. So. The early church fathers.

Alright. This is second. Third. Fourth. Fifth century. All had.

Pretty vague notions. And understandings. Of what that word meant. At least that's what their writing says. They were. Basically.

To summarize it. They thought. That Jesus. Was somewhat. Spiritually. Present.

In. The bread. And the wine. Kind of. It just. It was.

General. Fuzziness. Augustine. One of the early church fathers. Who. When I googled.

A picture of Augustine. I could not resist putting a picture of Kanye up there with him. Augustine. For the five of you that appreciate Kanye. Even when he's crazy. Augustine.

Had. Had a lot to say about it. And still. In all of his writings. Was just. Real fuzzy on it.

Just yet. Jesus is present. In. Kind of. The bread. And the one.

So. The early church fathers. Had things to say about it. It was real mysterious. It wasn't real. Well defined.

Then. Fast forward. Seven hundred years. The Catholic church. Started to develop this. Further.

And further. And further. Until you get to. 1215. The year 1215. In 1215.

The church. The Catholic church. At the fourth. Lateran council. Finally had a position on this. They said.

This is what we believe. We believe in. Transubstantiation. That is a big word. Okay. But just transubstance.

Is what you need to see out of that. That when. This is what Catholics believe. That when you take the body. And the bread. And the wine.

It literally becomes. The body. And the blood. Of Christ. Literally. It.

Transubstances. I say transforms. But they would. Take issue with that. That it becomes. As they're drinking.

And as they're eating. The literal body. And blood. Of Christ. That was their position. They cemented finally.

After years of thinking about it. And if you want to nerd out. About how that came to be. With Aristotelian philosophy. We can do that later. I'm not going to bore.

The rest of you. But. That's the reasoning. That they came to. And they got really aggressive. About it.

Very quickly. Very quickly. They started to. They forced this. On the western church. This understanding.

That if you. As you're handling. The bread. And the wine. You are getting ready. To handle the literal.

Body. And blood. Of. Christ. To the point where. They started.

Stopped giving it. The wine. To lay people. Because they thought. If it got spilled. Oh no.

We're going to mess this up. Completely. And it just got crazy. And guess what? Some people. Did not like this.

Some people. You could say. Protested this. Some of those protesters. Were called. Protestants.

So if you're wondering. Why we're called Protestants. It's because we're the OG protesters. Okay. That. That is what they began to do.

One of them's name. Was John Wycliffe. John Wycliffe said. The church has. Lost its mind. This is crazy.

The Bible does not teach this. The early church fathers. Do not agree with this. What are we doing? He taught a lot of things. He's one of the reasons why.

Bible translation came into being. We have so much to be thankful for. From John Wycliffe. And the Catholic church. Appreciated him so much. That when he died.

They unearthed his body. And they burned his bones. We had Twitter. They had unearthing and desecrating bodies. That is what they did. They were very mad at his teachings.

So. This began to turn to a movement. Of protesters. Of Protestants. And one of them was a very ornery. German monk.

Who really was the biggest protester of all. And his name was Martin Luther. Martin Luther comes along. And we have so much to be thankful for. About Martin Luther. Luther.

He taught things like. Sola Scriptura. Which is Latin for. Scripture alone. It is the reason why we go. The Bible.

That's our understanding. That's our authority. Of how God has spoken. The Catholic church looks to. Doctrines and teachings. Of the church.

And we say. No. The Bible. What does the Bible say? He's the reason why we believe in faith alone. Which is sola fide.

It's the idea that we're not saved. By our works. You hear that all the time here. We're saved by. Faith in Jesus. It's not faith and works.

No. Faith. There's so many things we're thankful for. That Luther helped shape us. The reason that we're here. In this room today.

By God's sovereign plan. Is bringing about people like Luther. He said. No. However. Luther didn't get very far from the Catholic church.

On the teaching that comes with the Lord's Supper. That's why Lutherans are kind of seen a little bit. As diet Catholic. Catholic light. They look very similar. In a lot of ways.

Which would make Luther roll in his grave. But that's the reality. I found out. Like a month ago. That my grandmother. On my dad's side.

Was Catholic. Never knew this. And I was like. That's crazy. He said. Yeah.

So when she married your grandfather. And. And. And. And. She wanted.

You know. It was easy for her to become a Protestant. Because he was Lutheran. It was the easy jump. And I was like. Oh.

That makes a lot of sense. And the. The reason it does. Is because of his teaching. On the Lord's Supper. And that is consubstantiation.

Big word. Consubstantiation. Which answers the question. Does the bread. And the wine. Become the literal.

Body. And blood. Of Christ. And the answer is. Yes. Maybe.

No. Kind of. Sort of. General position. Of the Lutheran church. On this.

So literally what they say is. It teaches that the body. And the blood of Christ. Are present. In. With.

And under. The elements. Under. And with. The bread. And.

The wine. Is that. Is that. Is that clear. Clear. Clear as mud.

I mean. Like I said. Did you put cyanide in the punch. You said. No. No.

I didn't. It's not. It's not. It's not cyanide in it. It's just. In.

With. Under it. It's just. We're fine. You go. Wait.

What? Exactly. And that is what the Protestant movement said. They said. No. You did not go far enough.

We are. We are. We are completely ditching this. And the Protestant movement. Went even further. And one of those men that came along.

That. That fought that. Was named. Zwingli. Zwingli. I will not pronounce his first name.

Because it is Swiss. And I'm not going to try. But. Zwingli came along. And he debated Luther on this. He agreed with Luther on all these other things.

But not this. He said no. He presented something called the memorial view. The memorial view. And that view. Is that the.

The bread and the wine. Is a sign. It is a symbol. That when Jesus said. Do this in remembrance of me. That's all it was meant to be.

Was a sign. Was a symbol. To remember what Jesus has done. That Jesus. After his death. Ascended to.

The right hand of God. That is where he is. He is not. All up in the elements. Around it. With it.

Transformed. No. It is a sign. That helps us remember. What Jesus has done. So after that.

I'll give you one more. Along came a man named John Calvin. And the fact that none of you. Jumped that joke. Means. This is the wrong room.

Maybe later. All right. Calvin. Came along. And he said no. It was kind of a middle ground.

Between Lutherans. And Zwingli. He said no. He called the spiritual. Presence view. All right.

The spiritual. Presence view. This was. Saying no. It's not just a sign. It's not just a sign.

But also. No. It's not this in with around. No. Jesus is present. Really in a mysterious way.

My professor summarized the position this way. He said the bread and the wine are still symbols. But not empty symbols. Although the elements do not become the body and blood of Christ. They are a sign that Christ himself is really present. He would say things like no.

Jesus is divine. He's not just confined to being at the right hand of the Father of God. He's omnipresent. It means he's everywhere. So no.

He absolutely can be present. But ultimately I appreciate this one thing that Calvin said. He said it is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And to speak more plainly. I'd rather experience than understand it. So he just left a lot of mystery.

That Jesus is somehow present in it. But we just don't know fully. Now okay. That's a lot of history all at once. And that's a lot of taking all at once. But the reality is that if you're Catholic.

Or Catholic background. Or Baptist. Or Anglican. Or Presbyterian. Or Methodist. Or any of that background.

It flows from that long progression of history. The reason you have opinions on it. Comes from this. So. Given all of that. And given how we walk through the scriptures.

And the importance of it. We're going to see in a moment. We want to handle this meal carefully. And reverently. And thoughtfully. Like we want to understand this.

And as good Baptists. Our approach is. Yes. History is nice. What does the Bible say about this? That's the drum we beat.

What does the Bible teach on this? So. I wanted to. Give us just six very practical. This is. We as a church.

What we believe about the Lord's Supper. And how we practice it. Just these are questions that we've gotten over the years. And I just want to be able to walk through this together. And how the Bible approaches this. Alright.

So. So. Six things that we believe about the Lord's Supper. Alright. So. And all those positions that I gave.

And all the different views on the Lord's Supper. And how you believe what it is. We are. Memorialists. And. Jesus is present in the moment.

So. We. We as a church. Our approach is. Is a little bit in a squishy middle ground. Between believing.

What Zwingli taught. Which is a classical Baptist position. That it is a sign that helps us remember. And. But we're not as far as the spiritual presence.

That. That. That. That. That Calvin taught. Either.

We're somewhere in the middle. We believe. That when Jesus said. This is my body. He did not mean that literally. You know how we know this?

Because he said. I am the door. I am the vine. And I don't look at doors in our church and go. Maybe. Maybe he's present.

We don't do that. It was clearly a metaphor. I mean Jesus is giving the bread and the wine. Literally. It's. It.

It. He's detached from it. The experience itself. When he instituted this. He gives it away. He is not saying.

I am literally. This bread. And this wine. I don't know how you get to that. Biblically. And we don't.

Believe that. But also. We believe the Holy Spirit. Is doing something. Very unique. Very mysterious.

There's a lot of gravity. Given to the moment of communion. We believe that Jesus. Absolutely. Is present in the moment. I agree with Calvin.

We don't. Think he's just confined to the right hand. The Father of God. He's with us. When we're. When we're.

Worshipping. He's with us. As we're sitting with the authority of God's word. He's with us. As we take. The Lord's Supper.

And remember. What he has done for us. So we're in the middle ground. Between the two. Realizing this helps us. Remember the work of Christ.

And he is with us. As we take. The Lord's Supper. All right. So. The next two big questions we get.

Is on who can take the Lord's Supper. And. Who can administer it. Who can actually give. The Lord's Supper. And in order to understand.

Those questions. We have to go. To what the Bible teaches on this. And the case study that we get. That teaches us. How to take the Lord's Supper.

How not to take the Lord's Supper. Is. First Corinthians 11. First Corinthians 11. Gives us that case study. Of how this went terribly wrong.

In the church. Of Corinth. So. First Corinthians 11. Verse. 20.

You guys are doing great. I know there's a lot. When you come together. It is not the Lord's Supper. That you eat. For in eating.

Each one goes ahead. With his own meal. One goes hungry. Another gets drunk. What. Do you not have houses.

To eat. And drink in. Or do you despise. The church of God. And humiliate. Those who have.

Nothing. What shall I say to you. Shall I commend you in this. No. I will not. All right.

So what is he getting at there. Because we just jumped into. A situation. One of the fruits. Of the gospel. Is.

Unity. Unity. Unity in the body of Christ. It shows up again. And again. In the New Testament letters.

It is why. That we wrote a song about it. As a church. We care. About. Unity.

Because God. Cares. About. Unity. Unity matters. And here is what the church of Corinth.

Was doing. They met in homes. For worship gatherings. Homes of richer. Christians. The richer Christians.

Would start. The meal. Would start. The part of the Lord's Supper. And they would eat. And be filled.

And they would drink. So much. That they got drunk. That when the poor Christians. Showed up. There was.

Nothing. They had nothing. To take part in. They used. Hear this. They used the Lord's Supper.

As a way. To divide. People. In the church. Brothers and sisters. Based on their socioeconomic class.

Based on who had money. And who did not. It's absolutely. Wicked. That not only. That Christians.

Would be separated. In different classes. When it comes to who has money. And who has not. But that they would use.

The Lord's Supper. To do that. God. Was not pleased. At all. Fast forward.

Down to verse 27. Whoever. Therefore. Eats. The bread. And drinks.

The cup. Of the Lord. In an unworthy manner. Will be guilty. Concerning the body. And the blood.

Of. The Lord. And that is a warning. That applies directly. To that church. And how they were misusing it.

That applies broadly. To the. To the rest. Of the church. That if you. Do this.

In an unworthy manner. That's the heart. Why people debated this. For so long. That's the heart. To do this.

In an unworthy manner. You just have to understand. The context. Of what he's getting at. You do this. In an unworthy manner.

You will be guilty. Verse 28. Let a person. Examine. Himself. That is why.

When we. Present the Lord's Supper. We say. Take a moment. Don't just come up here. Flippantly.

Don't just come up here. Just because it's part of the process. It's what we do. No. Take some time. And reflect.

To think upon your own sin. To remember what your sin. Cost. Remember how good the gospel is. That Jesus. Died for our sins.

To remember your sin. And remember your. Savior. That's what we say. Examine yourself. To check your own heart.

To understand. The gravity of this moment. When we come and take the Lord's Supper. Let a person examine himself then. And so eat. Of the bread.

And drink. Of the cup. For if anyone who eats. And drinks. Without discerning the body. Eats.

And drinks. Judgment. On himself. That if you do this. Not reverently. If you don't discern.

Your own heart. If you don't do this. In a way that honors this. You'll bring judgment on yourself. Verse 30. That is why many of you are weak and ill.

And some have died. And catch what he said there. Weak. Ill. Some of you have died. Some people would be like.

You know. I don't like the Old Testament God. Because he's really violent. And people get struck down. I like the New Testament God. Because I like.

I like Jesus. Because he's. He's loving. He never would do any of this. And it's like. I don't think you've read the Old.

Or the New Testament. That God is abundantly loving. And gracious in the Old Testament. And also. God brings the hammer down. In judgment.

In the New Testament. That the New Testament church. Did this. Some got weak. Some got sick. And some.

Died. There's a lot of. That. This is why the church. Has been so. Paranoid.

In a good way. Sometimes not. In trying to understand this. Because this. Matters. Immensely.

We don't want judgment. To be brought upon us. In how we take this. So. When you understand that. And walking through.

Kind of all that. And understanding. Of how to take part. In the Lord's Supper. To do this reverently. To understand.

When you. When you get there. Then you can answer the question. Who can take part in this. And who can. Administer this.

So the second one. Who can take part in this. Christians. Walking in faith. And repentance. Can participate.

In the Lord's Supper. So. The Protestant church. Has largely taught. This meal. Is a meal.

For. Christians. It is a meal. For Christians. If you are not a Christian. We even say this.

When we do it. When we present it. Well if you are not a Christian. Well we do not want you. To take part in this. Part of it is.

Is we don't want you. To bring judgment. Upon yourself. But other part of it is. Is why would you take something. And miss the meaning completely.

This is a meal. For the people of God. To remember. And understand. What it means. So.

Protestants. Of largely greed. No. This is a meal. For Christians. Baptists.

Well we have some. Even more positions. On this. You might be thinking. Seriously. There are more.

Positions on this. Yes. There are. I don't know if you know this. Baptists have a lot of positions. On a lot of things.

From drinking. To dancing. We have lots of positions. We are like the SEC. Of denominations. It just means more.

For those who watch the SEC network. All right. Baptists. Real quick. Three different positions. The first position is.

Something called. Closed. With a D. Communion. And that idea is. Is that for anyone.

To come and take part. In this Lord's Supper. You have to. Be a baptized. And when we say baptized. We mean.

That you must. Believe in Jesus. And then be baptized. Which is the. Bad position. Position of baptism.

That you must be. Baptized as a believer. And be a member. Of this exact. Local church. That is closed communion.

Nope. That's not us. That's. That's. That is. That is a minority position.

But that does exist. The next position. Is called. Closed. Without a D. Closed.

Communion. And that is. The idea. That you can be a Baptist. At another church. As long as you've been.

Baptized after belief. Come. Take part in the Lord's Supper. That is who can take it alone. We also. Do not agree.

With that position. If you want to talk more about that. And why we believe that. We can. We don't have the space for it now. We do not agree.

With that position. The last position for Baptists. Is called. Open communion. And that is what we believe. Open communion.

Says that if you are a Christian. If you believe in Jesus. If you are not. We had a caveat. If you're not. Under church discipline somewhere.

Meaning you're in good standing. You're not running away from Jesus. That if you believe in Jesus. I don't care what your position is on baptism. Come and take part in this meal. Because that.

Listen. I'm not going to disunify you. Because you have a different take on baptism. That would be treating you like you are not a Christian. And that's not what we're going to do. If you believe in Jesus.

Come. Take part in this meal. And if you want to talk about that later. We can. That is our position as a church. If you're a Christian.

Come. Take part. Third. It deals with who can administer it. We believe it is wise. For pastors and those under our authority.

To administer the Lord's Supper. So. We believe it is wise. I use that word intentionally. Wise. Not mandating.

This is how things have to be done everywhere. For our church. We believe it's wise. The Catholic Church. Placed. A very heavy emphasis.

On clergy only. Clergy. The only ones that can handle it. And that makes sense. If you understand their theology on it. You're handling the literal body and blood of Christ.

So. Protestants have rejected that notion. And there's disagreements. On who can actually handle it. Some believe. No.

It only has to be a pastor. Others will say. No. It can be. It can be a deacon. Others can say.

No. Whatever. Two or three are gathered. It doesn't matter. We can take it. We wouldn't hold to that.

Either. Some believe. It can only be done on Sundays. As we gather for worship. Others would say. No.

It can be done in homes. Which is what the early church did. They would have a meal together. Because we do see the Lord's Supper. Was. You know.

Attached to. A fellowship. Meal event. And they would take the Lord's Supper. Here's what we believe. We believe.

That the normative. The normal pattern. Of how we practice the Lord's Supper. Is us as pastors. Presenting the Lord's Supper. And then us taking this together.

But we also believe. It is very special. And y'all. It is very good. When this happens. Occasionally.

In our groups. That we authorize our group leaders. Our group leaders are deacons. That we trust them. That we trust them. To correctly handle.

The Lord's Supper. There's a lot of beautiful. Gospel. Forgiveness. And repenting of sin. After a fellowship meal together.

When it happens in. The home. So we authorize our community. Group leaders who are deacons. Yes. On occasion.

Do this in. Your home. But the normative pattern. Is us coming together. And presenting this. Because we want to make sure.

That we are doing this. In a way that honors. And gives reverence to that. If you want to talk more about that later. Also. I'll be around to talk about that as well.

All right. The next question is. How often do we do it? That's the fourth thing we'll get into. We believe. It is.

We believe in regular. Regular observance. Of the Lord's Supper. We believe in regular. And I would add. Almost weekly.

Observance. Of the Lord's Supper. Now. There are a lot of churches. Lots of churches. Even.

Lots of Baptist churches. That do it quarterly. And some of the heart behind that. Is. Everything we just talked about. And revering it.

In a way that we won't want to do it. So often. That we would lose. The value. And the meaning. So.

So. If you do it too much. Then you'll. You'll miss out on. All the. All the.

It's supposed to mean. You'll just. It'll just be this ritual. That you go through. And I understand. I understand that critique.

But we look at passages. Like 1 Corinthians 11. When it says. When you come together. Which gives. The.

This is happening regularly. We look at the book of Acts. Where it seems they came together regularly. And see. This is actually a regular part of worship. And y'all.

We need. The gospel. Every week. To be reminded. Of the gospel. When we come and worship together.

And this is a very tangible. Reminder. Of how much we need Jesus. Of how much we need. Repentance of sins. Of how good.

His grace is. So we shoot for. Regular observance. We have. You know. Reasons that we haven't done it regularly.

One being. A global pandemic. We haven't done it. In a year. Actually. Like a year.

Maybe. I think this week. Or next week. Because we just said. No. It's not wise for us.

In this period of time. To be doing this. But as the pandemic. Is waning. We're going to. To be.

Starting to bring this back in. Around. A monthly ish. Over the coming months. We'll be doing this. Until we get back to.

Regular. Weekly. Doing this. And then other times. We'll have prayer. Instead of this.

Sometimes we'll do baptism. Instead of this. But we want to. Regularly come. And take part. In the Lord's Supper together.

All right. Two more you guys. Should it be juice. Or should it be wine. That's a question we get sometimes. We believe it's wise.

For our church. To use juice. Now. Some people believe. That Jesus. Only drank.

Grape juice. That what they're actually drinking. In the New Testament. Is not wine. That is not true. It's not historically true.

Not even close. Thomas Welch. Invented grape juice. In the 1800s. That is why we have. Welch's grape juice.

He figured out. Literally. That's why. Welch's came from. Welch's came from. Thomas Welch.

Who was a Methodist. Who said. I want to have. Something that. That alcoholics. That wouldn't be able to take part in.

That we can serve. At our churches. And he figured out. The process. Of how to make grape juice. Without alcohol.

In it. Some on the other hand. Will say. No. Jesus used wine. Therefore.

We have to use wine. I came from a church. Before. Our church. Where they gave two cups. Someone was holding juice.

And wine. And it was your conscience. Whatever you wanted. You took part in either. Here's the deal. We believe as Baptists.

That it's a sign. It's a sign. That Jesus is present in the moment. But it is a sign. Therefore. We think juice is a very acceptable sign.

And we're not going to serve wine. Because it would. It would. It would violate the consciousness. Of some of the people in our church. And we're not going to do that.

Why. Why would we create disunity. In how we take this. We're not going to do that. Juice is completely. Acceptable.

And for the ones who serve only wine. I don't think you're thinking about those. Who may be addicted to alcohol. And your presence. So we believe.

No. Juice is absolutely acceptable. And if you want to have a discussion about. If it's bread. If it should be unleavened. Like pita.

Or should it be leavened bread. We can have that later. The church has had some things to say. But not a ton to say about that. We believe it's a sign. So it's fine.

Some people will go. Well can you do Oreos and Mountain Dew? No. That's dumb. We believe juice. Bread.

Alright. All of that. All 37 and 20. 37 minutes and 26 seconds. Of all of that background. Okay.

I think it's helpful. Have it in the back of your head. Okay. Because I think it's helpful to understand. Why you approach the Lord's Supper. Here's where we've preached entire sermons on.

And is the most important aspect of the Lord's Supper. It is this right here. The Lord's Supper. Is a unique act of worship. That gives us a tangible reminder of the gospel. That's it.

That's where we post up. Most of our time. Most of our thought. Is right there. It is a unique act of worship. That gives us a tangible reminder.

To remember the gospel. Every week we present it. Is an opportunity for you to think about. The sin. Maybe the sin that you fell into this week. And the sin that you feel shame over.

The sin struggles that are plaguing you. And we say remember. Remember that Christ died for your sins. That He loves you so much. That He didn't leave you in your sin. And your brokenness.

That He came and His blood was spilt. And poured out for you. So that you could have fellowship. And faith with Jesus. For the long haul. And it's not just that.

It is a reminder that. We live between the cross. And when all things are made new. And for those of you that are struggling right now. And your sin. It is a reminder for you to remember.

That this is not the end. That the sin that you feel so heavy. On your soul. That's not the final picture. One day Jesus comes back. And all things will be made new.

And when that day comes. Sin will be a distant memory. Your broken and failing body. Will be a distant memory. All we will have. Is beautiful.

Wonderful. Fellowship with the King. That is what this meal. Gives me a reminder of. And we get to come. Every week that we take it.

And remember. How good Jesus is. I'm going to close. With one reading. It's from the Heidelberg Catechism. It's like a 400 year old catechism.

Catechism is a question and answer style. It helps you understand. Truth. And I'm just going to read. From the Heidelberg Catechism. Because I think this is a great word.

To set us up. The question. That is presented. In the Heidelberg Catechism. Is this. How does.

The Lord's Supper. Remind you. And assure you. That you shared. Christ's one sacrifice. On the cross.

And in all. His gifts. Hear this. Here's the answer. In this way. Christ has commanded me.

And all believers. To eat this broken bread. And to drink this cup. With this command. He gave the promise. First.

As surely. Hear this. As I see. As I see. With my eyes. The bread of the Lord.

Broken for me. And the cup. Given to me. Y'all look. Upstairs. Look back there.

Look. Look at it. As you see it. With your eyes. As you visualize. His body broken.

His blood shed. So surely. His body was offered. And broken for me. And his blood poured out for me. On the cross.

Second. As surely. As I receive. From the hand of him. Who serves. Verse.

And hear this. Taste with my mouth. The bread. And the cup of the Lord. That as you eat. And drink this.

As you are literally. Tasting it. It is a. It is a. It is a way for you to remember. His body.

Was broken for my sin. That his blood was poured out. For my sin. How good. Is my God. Taste with my mouth.

The bread. And the cup of the Lord. Given me. As sure signs. Of Christ's body. And blood.

So surely. He nourishes. And refreshes. My soul. For eternal life. With his crucified body.

And poured out blood. Amen. The band is going to come up. We are going to take. The Lord's Supper. For the first time.

In a year. Now. Before I present this. Let me just give you. Some logistics on it. Because it is a little bit different.

If you have been here. With us before. We usually have. A bowl. Or basket. Of bread.

That you choose from. And a cup. That you can dip in. And right now. We are not going that route. By the end of the year.

God willing. We will get back there. But for right now. We have individual cups. Those individual cups. Were prepared by people.

Who washed their hands. I think they wore gloves. I wasn't here. Because I was doing something else. Were they wearing gloves. Chet?

Yes. They were wearing gloves. They had masks on. They put them very carefully. And those cups. They are clean.

They are sanitized. What I want you to do logistically. Is to come up as you are ready. Give some distance. Between the person. You and the next person.

Alright. Give some feet of distance. Grab two of those. Go back to your seat. Take part in the Lord's Supper. Put the cup underneath your seat.

When you are done. And when we leave for today. There will be a trash can out there. Please put it in the trash can. When you leave. Alright.

That is the logistics. Let me present this for us. On the night that Jesus betrayed. He took bread. And he broke it. He said.

This is my body. It 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. And that is what we get to do right now.

Some of you came into here. With burdens on your soul. Some of you have been dealing with sin. Some of you. Some of you. Some of you.

You have disunity with another Christian. Right now. That you have resentment with them. That you are struggling with them. I would actually. Invite you to not take part in this right now.

I would ask you right now. To remember the unity of the gospel. And maybe you need to leave this room. And make a phone call before. Before. But before you can take this meal.

I want you to be unified. With another brother and sister in Christ. But Christian. Come. Joyfully to the table. And remember.

That Jesus died for our sins. And how good is it. That by grace. We have been saved through faith. We don't have to earn his favor. But this reminds us.

Of how good he is towards us. If you are not a Christian. Please. Do not take part in this meal. I want you right now. To take part.

In Christ. I want you to believe in him. I want you to understand. That the God of the universe. Loves you so much. That he gave his life for you.

So believe. In him. For those of you who are Christians. Come forward. There are tables in the back as well. And for those in the back.

There are tables up there. Take part in the Lord's summer. Remember how good our Savior is. Let me pray. God I pray. That you would.

Help us see. Help us taste. And see. Right now. That you are good. That your steadfast love.

Was shown so beautifully on the cross. For our sins. That we come in repentance. That right now. We sit. In a moment of reflection.

That we come. To the table. God I pray. That you would help us. Understand this. And the gravity of this moment.

That you be with us. God I pray. There is anyone here. That has not trusted in you. Lord. May you help them.

See. You are worth it. We believe you are better than everything else. And may they believe it too. And may they trust. And believe in you.

In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

From Plot to Passover (Matthew 26:1-25)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

From Plot to Passover

Spencer Cary

Transcript

To be continued... Good morning. I'm so thankful for those who volunteer and serve with our worship week in, week out. They are all volunteers, and I'm thankful for the work they put in in leading us every Sunday to respond to the goodness of the gospel in praise. So there's something I'm thankful for.

My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew 26 this week, the first 25 verses, so you can go ahead and flip there. We do have physical Bibles, a sign of good things, as the pandemic is where it is. But we have Bibles now.

We have Connect cards. It's nice. If you want to grab a Bible, you can go ahead and turn to page 485. That's where it will be. The text will also be on the screen. I had a friend a few years back.

She was a vocal woman of faith. She led Bible studies. She was zealous. I mean zealous in the good way that zealous is used biblically. Zealous for what was good. We were a part of the same ministry.

I thought that she was going to be a leader in women's ministry in the church. I thought that she was going to be a missionary, lots of things. And then she started dating one of our other good friends, and they fell into some sin. They had a horrible breakup. And I don't say this to be funny at all. It was a little bit of a Britney Spears moment.

She cut her hair in pretty dramatic fashion. She lost an unhealthy amount of weight. And then she moved away. And over the next few years, I watched online as she became a subtle critic of the faith she once stood for, and then a very vocal, aggressive critic of the gospel she once proclaimed. And I won't pretend to know her heart, because I don't have to. And I won't pretend to autopsy her once vocal faith with any precision.

That's not my job. But something changed in her. I don't personally know what was happening in her heart, but there's a general pattern for how these things go. And what happens is that someone ultimately treasures something above Christ. And when something happens, when trials come, eventually what they're treasuring over Christ, what resembles faith, begins to crumble completely. And this story has played out in tragic fashion over and over and over again.

And today we're going to be in a series of a bunch of different stories. And in these stories today, we're going to see one of the most tragic stories of all time of someone who put their faith in something else and eventually turned their back on Jesus. So we're going to watch that play out. But alongside this really tragic story of someone turning their back and betraying Jesus, we get to see a second example of someone whose heart so loves Christ, it's two just different approaches, two different hearts, two different mindsets with Jesus. And we're going to see them kind of side by side today.

And I hope that as we walk through this, we'd be reflective of our own hearts. We'd be honest with ourselves that we wouldn't be prideful. We'd humble ourselves. We'd let the Spirit speak to us. And we'd respond. So let me pray.

And then we will jump into these stories. Father, you are good. What we said earlier, your steadfast love endures forever is so true. It endures in the fact that we get to open up your word and we get to hear you speak. God, I pray that you'd help us listen. And that we respond.

In Jesus' name, amen. Like I said, we're moving through a bunch of different stories. So it's going to be one scene, the next, the next, the next, starting off verse 1. When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. So all these sayings really captures what he just spent, what Chet just spent the last three weeks on.

All right, that was the final discourse, the final teaching of Jesus. There's no more teachings. We're shifting completely towards the cross. Every step right now is moving towards the cross. And he's been hinting at this, right? He's been saying that he's going to die.

He's been saying that he's going to be crucified. Now he's saying it's happening. It's happening in the next couple of days. When Passover is done, he will be delivered. He is being very explicit about what is about to happen. All right, it says that, shifts.

Different scene, verse 3. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. All right, so while this is going on, there's a group of religious leaders who are meeting in the shadows. And their leader is named Caiaphas. This is the first time we see him.

We're going to see him later on as well. He is the high priest. And the leader of what we're going to see throughout chapter 26 is called a council. But the literal Greek word for that is Sanhedrin. So we know what council this is.

It's the Sanhedrin council. The Sanhedrin council was a religious and also political group of religious leaders that came together for two purposes. They wanted to make sure that the people followed the law while also working with the Roman government to keep the people in check. And there are two main parties in the Sanhedrin, two political parties. You have the Pharisees, we've seen over and over again, and the Sadducees that we've seen a little bit of as well. They function a little bit like our U.S.

Congress. They have two different theologies, just like we have two different political philosophies, two different ways of governing, but they have to work together, and power shifts depending on who's in power. The Sadducees at the time of Jesus had the power in the Sanhedrin, and their leader, Caiaphas, believed to be a Sadducee, has them all together. We're going to see them working together throughout 26, plotting against Jesus together to kill him. So, this plot is happening. And then we shift again.

Like I said, a lot of quick stories. Verse 6. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. All right, so Jesus now goes to Bethany. He goes to a specific house, the house of Simon the leper. Now, this is the only time that we see Simon.

He does not currently have leprosy. He couldn't host this gathering if he did, because if you have leprosy, you have to be completely apart from the people. So, we can read into the context here and make a pretty educated guess that Jesus actually healed him of leprosy. At one point, he had leprosy. Now, he is healed. And somehow, Simon the leper, the nickname has stuck, which is not the most endearing of nicknames.

I mean, we wouldn't call someone, I don't know, chafing Chet because of a problem they had in college. Like, that's, we're adults. We wouldn't do that. That nickname wouldn't stick, right? Like, Simon went and got healed of leprosy. That guy went to the doctor.

It's fine. We're adults. We move on. I don't know why Matthew decided, I want to keep this name. Maybe they were friends and he wanted to mess with him for the next 2,000 plus years of this gospel being read. Regardless, that's who he is.

Simon the leper. And they're at his house. All right, here's what happens at his house. Verse 7. A woman came up to him with an alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment. And she poured it out on his head as he reclined at the table.

All right, so, let me pause. There's a lot of debate about this. It's gone back and forth. Some version of this story shows up in all four gospels. After spending some time with it, Chet and I looking at it this week, looking at different commentators, it seems that this story shows up in three of them and then one of them is separate. So, Matthew, Mark, and John seem to be describing this story that happened in Bethany.

All right? This happens in the gospel sometimes. They take different, they focus on different details of stories. They're told a little bit differently because these stories are being told thematically. They focus on different things. Luke has a different story of a woman coming to anoint Jesus.

That one seems to be a completely different situation altogether, which happens. You have a feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000. You have some overlap and differences and similarities between stories. But when you look at this and you piece together Matthew, Mark, and John's accounts, you get a more full picture of what's happening here. So, John's gospel tells us that this woman is one of the Marys. All right?

There's a bunch of different Marys in the New Testament. It's confusing to keep up with who's who. This is one of the Marys. And Mark and John's gospel tell us what type of ointment this is. It's nard oil. So, nard oil, if you know it today as spike nard.

It's a very precious oil imported from India. It's very expensive. The amount that she brings to him is worth about an annual, a year's salary. I mean, it's a very expensive oil that she brings to him. And Mark's gospel doesn't say, I mean, it gives us more of a picture that she didn't use a little bit. She broke the jar open and she anointed his entire, all over him.

Matthew focuses on the head because there's a little bit of Matthew, what he does with David, some comparisons to David and kingship, anointing of the head. There's some Old Testament pictures there. Mark just talks about he's being covered with this oil. John goes with a different picture, focuses on the fact that she took her hair and she was scrubbing his feet with this oil. This is a deeply humbling admiration for Jesus because she could have grabbed some cheaper oils. Right?

There are cheaper oils out there. She could have gone and gotten something different. But no, she goes and she grabs what's probably the most expensive, most valuable thing that she has. And she goes and she grabs it. She looks at it and says, I know who deserves this. I know who's worthy of this.

Probably would have just sat in her house like fine china that's never used just to look at. She's like, I know who's getting this. And she brings it to Jesus. Jesus taught in Matthew 6.21. He says, For where your treasure is, your heart will be also. And it is clear.

This woman treasures Christ. Which shows the first heart posture that I want us to see this morning. And that is this. If Jesus is your treasure, you'll trade everything for Him. If Jesus is your treasure, you'll trade everything for Him. She treasures Christ.

And out of the overflow of her affection, her admiration, her really worship of Jesus, she devotes the most valuable thing for Him. She goes and she gets it and devotes it to Him. If you treasure Christ, you'll trade everything for Him. And we see that clearly in her actions. It's almost childlike. You get your child something for Christmas or for a birthday.

And they run upstairs and they go and they find the most valuable toy they have and they get excited and they come down and they bring it. I got you this. I mean, she treasures Christ. Her heart belongs to Him. I want you to picture the room and just smell it as she breaks in and she breaks the alabaster, beautiful alabaster jar. She breaks it and starts to anoint Him.

Just think of the smell that would just overwhelm you. Have you ever been to somebody's house that's been diffusing oils? And you walk in and it just knocks you back? That was a few drops of oil they put into a diffuser. And I know that they're the most essential, most precious, most well-sourced, purest oils in the world. But listen, that's a few drops.

This is a pound of expensive, fragrant oil and she just, she completely just anoints Him. I mean, it's a powerful display. It would knock you back to see this. And the disciples see this and they respond. Verse 8, and when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.

So, the disciples are indignant. They're angry. They are not happy at this. They break up the moment with a, well, actually, Jesus. Which I've, I've learned through personal experience that, well, actually, moments aren't received well. They're not appreciated by others.

I get excited and I bring in a well, actually, fact. They're like, oh, I actually just died inside. So, that's what this is. Well, actually, Jesus, this is really expensive oil. We just did the math. That's a year's worth of salary you just taught on, right?

To help the least of these among us. That could have helped a lot of least of these. So, they do this. John's gospel tells us that Judas, who we're going to learn more about in a moment, was leading the charge. But it says, and when the disciples saw it, they were indignant.

This is a collective mindset that this woman has come and she's wasted a lot of precious oil that could have been sold and helped a lot of people. To their credit, minimal credit, it's a jarring moment. She walks in. I mean, it's a lot to handle at once. And that is a very expensive gift. Right now, the elders and our toast team, that's our treasury and oversight sustainability team, they're the ones that oversee our finances.

We work together to put a budget together and that's what we're doing right now. We're putting together a budget because our annual budget runs from second quarter to first quarter so it'll start in April. So we're going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth because we care about stewarding our gifts and offerings well. So we're getting at the end of setting this budget and if someone just piped up and said, you know what, I think we should get Matt Freeman a gift. Let's get him a $40,000 guitar.

We'd go, no, that's insane. That's over the top. But Matt isn't Jesus and Jesus has a completely different take on this. Verse 10. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman?

For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Jesus does not see it as a waste. He sees it as beautiful.

Y'all, He knows the value of the ointment. He knows how to math. You know how we know this? He created math. He knows how to add. He knows what's happening here.

He sees the value. And He sees that it's beautiful. Because this comes at a very specific moment. There's two reasons why this is a beautiful display of affection and worship of Jesus. The first is very clearly seen in the text. This comes at one of the most pivotal moments in all of history.

Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross where He's going to be crucified for the sins of humanity. And then He'll be buried. And when they buried people back then, they anointed their bodies with oil. Whether she knows it or not, it's foreshadowing. It's just pointing forward. He's about to die.

He's about to be buried. It's a beautiful display. And it's foreshadowing. I love just in the details of how God works all of this together. That someone in India sourced this oil. They put it in a beautiful alabaster jar.

It was shipped and it made its way all the way to Israel. It ended up in a marketplace where she or someone else bought this for her and she put it on display for years for everyone to see. And then one day she encountered Jesus and He absolutely changed her world. And then later on she said, you know what? That belongs to Him. I will anoint His body because in God's sovereign plan this was to anoint His body in preparation for what's about to happen in just a few days. that's what's clearly on display but also it shows her heart that if you treasure if Jesus is your treasure you'll trade everything for Him.

She sees Jesus is worthy of this and Jesus says that is wonderful. That is good. This act of devotion will be remembered. He says, write it down. This is going John says of all the stories that be told about Jesus would fill all the books he's saying which means they had to choose which stories they wanted to focus on he says this one gets in. She will be remembered for her act.

So, story shifts again. Verse 14 Then one of the twelve whose name was Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said what will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him thirty pieces of silver and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Jesus had twelve disciples twelve men that he poured into for three years twelve men that were his friends they ate countless meals together they camped out together they got to do ministry with Jesus see him perform miracles they got to perform miracles they got to be on the inside track of some of the most profound teaching that's ever been taught or ever will be taught for three years the twelve got to spend time with Jesus and then one of them says he's worth thirty pieces of silver he's worth it trade him out take the silver and I'll run thirty pieces of silver is about four months of wages so it is a little bit it is quite a bit of money but Judas says that's worth it we don't know much about actually let me say this for for group leaders those who have led groups I want you to hear me so clearly I know there have been moments where you've watched people turn their back on you stab you in the back where you've watched people walk away from Jesus and you've questioned yourself over and over and over again and I just want to say very clearly to you to lead groups and have led groups Jesus spent three years with twelve and one of them abandoned him and stabbed him in the back and sold him out and you're not better than Jesus so just receive some grace we don't know much about Judas we know that he was one of the twelve we know that he had the same experiences that the other disciples did we know from John's gospel he was the one that led the charge on why is this woman wasting this oil because what was happening was he was the treasurer okay he kept the money bags he wasn't concerned about helping the poor because he was actually helping himself to the money that came from that was given to Jesus' ministry so we know that he's greedy we know he's a thief you know he's deceptive but what we know most about him is really this act of betrayal that I mean I mean Judas that's you call someone a Judas you know you can be a hard atheist you know exactly what that means you're a backstabber you're a traitor you're a betrayer so no one names their kid Judas y'all know anybody named Judas?

You can be a hard atheist you know exactly what that means you're a backstabber you're a traitor you're a betrayer so no one names their kid Judas y'all know anybody named Judas? I don't that's on the black list of names you'd never name your kid that because we know what that means he's a traitor we don't know why Judas did this alright I mean we see that he's greedy

Some have theorized that it's possible that the religious leadership is closing in turning against Jesus we know from the context of the gospels that they assumed some type of political movement was going to happen in Jesus and they were very surprised when it didn't so maybe he just thought I need to get out while I can and get some money we don't know it's possible

It's a decent theory we don't know but you can see very clearly that ultimately one of the reasons why he did this is because he cared about himself and that really presents the second approach to Jesus second heart towards him if something else is your treasure you'll trade Jesus for it if something else is your treasure you will absolutely trade Jesus for it whether it was money

Or power or whatever Judas said it's worth it I'll trade Jesus for that so he sells Jesus out story shifts again verse 17 now on the first day of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus saying where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover he said go into the city to a certain man

And say to him the teacher says my time is at hand I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples and the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover alright so can't spend a lot of time here today we will spend some time next week because in this meal at the very end of it Jesus is going to institute the Lord's Supper communion so we'll spend time on that next week

But you at least need to know what the Passover meal is generally the Passover meal was basically a meal of remembrance it was like celebrating Independence Day it was a joyous meal it remembered that God saved his people from the Egyptians it's a joyous celebration so like every Passover meal that all of them have been in before the expectation is this is a joyous occasion and it turns very quickly into something very serious verse 20 when it was evening he reclined at the table

He reclined at table with the twelve and as they were eating he said truly I say to you one of you will betray me and they were very sorrowful and began to say to him to one another is it I Lord it says they were very sorrowful now that word sorrowful doesn't quite capture the emotions that are involved in this is deep sorrow shock

Confusion they are utterly confused and shocked that anyone amongst them would betray Jesus that can't be is it I Lord is it I Lord one by one is it I Lord they want to know is it me verse 23 he answered he who has dipped his hand in the dish will with me will betray me

The son of man goes as it is written of him but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed it would have been better for that man if he had not been born Judas who would betray him answered is it I Rabbi he said to him you have said so he says is it I Rabbi he doesn't say is it I Lord he didn't see

Jesus as Lord he sees him as Rabbi a great teacher but not God is it I Rabbi Jesus confirms it yes it is you and shock had to set in and it says that they were greatly they were sorrowed couldn't believe this shock sets in in that moment and ultimately Judas made a decision that he thought was best for him

And it says it had been better had he never been born which is where we get that phrasing from there are two central figures in this series of stories this series of stories there is the woman Mary and there is Judas and there is two different heart approaches to Jesus the first if Jesus is your treasure you'll trade everything for him

That was her heart the second if something else is your treasure you'll trade Jesus for it the problem is is that when we see those two approaches it's very easy for us to distance ourselves from Judas we don't want to be like him we don't want to think of ourselves as anything remotely close to him but the reality

Is is that Judas Judas didn't always look like this Judas spent three he was a disciple he was more of an insider than a woman he looked the part he performed miracles he did good works he helped the poor he taught he was sent out by Jesus as a missionary he looked

Every bit the part so much so that when the eleven found out that one of them was going to betray him they couldn't believe it it's not possible they were greatly sorrowed at this it's hard for it's hard for me to wrap my mind around anyone who can walk away from Jesus I've witnessed over the years and I know it's going to continue to happen people that look

So much like a follower of Jesus people that seem like they were so deeply in love with him and they walk away and then I look at my own heart and I look at my life and how much of my own life is wrapped up in my own self-interest in my own idolatry and I look at this story and I just tremble and I plead

For repentance there's a song by a band called King's Kaleidoscope it's called What Have We Done in that song they say Judas sold you for thirty I'd have done it for less and that may seem to some as melodramatic but I would invite you to check your own heart and examine your own

Heart and realize the things that you treasure over Christ name your price if there's something else that you treasure you ultimately will trade Jesus for it so what are you trading right now what are you trading valuing above

Jesus is it success that's a big one in our culture people will go after success with everything in them a lot of times when we sort this out we talk about deep idols we talk about how power power idolatry is underneath this that it's pushing someone to pursue success at all

Costs they'll steamroll anybody that gets in their way sacrifice their energy their time their effort their money their identity in order to get it because that's the thing they value over Christ at all costs we'll get it and then someone tries to point out hey man I haven't seen you at group a lot lately I haven't seen you on Sundays and it's like

No I'm busy I'm working I've got this I'm doing that and people try to point hey man I think you're valuing this too much you're like no you start boxing people out you've treasured something above Christ if something else is your treasure you will trade Jesus for for others that's sex maybe that's living with your boyfriend or your girlfriend or sleeping

Around and ultimately what comes out of that is this is what makes me happy this person makes me happy and a lot of times when we're working through deep idols like that there might be some approval idolatry that's happening there that you give yourself away to someone because that that means you feel loved like no Jesus is actually

Better don't do this this happens with sexuality someone will say well pedestal this and say no this is the most important thing I could possibly pursue and we're trying to say no this is what the Bible says and someone says I don't care what the Bible says if you treasure something else

Above him you will trade Jesus for it in the end we do this with comfort talk about that as an idol a deep idol beneath all the rest it's the reason why people pursue pleasure that if I can just get comfort in this world whether that's drunkenness whether that's drugs whether that's sensuality

Whether that's pornography if I can just fill up this void life is hard it's full of pain and misery if I can just cover up the pain with a little more pleasure I'll be okay and then someone comes in and says no that's not good that won't actually bring you hope you keep going back to it

It will not satisfy it never brings comfort maybe the kind of person that doesn't like to ever be disturbed doesn't like anyone point out anything in your life everyone bends their will towards you because they don't want to make you angry because your life is about comfort and at the end of the day

You just want to do you and nobody is going to tell you how to live your life if you treasure that above Christ you will trade him for it or maybe it's just you worship yourself it's very clear that's part of what Judas was doing he worshiped himself

Maybe you're so obsessed with your own image to others I feel this there's some control idolatry in this that you got to be all things to different people you got to make sure that you're putting on the best face you got to put on different

Masks you got to control your image you got to control all the things in front of you ultimately you're worshiping yourself this happens with self righteousness ultimately in self righteousness you do a bunch of good works I got to make sure I

Check every box I got to make sure I'm doing all the good things if I don't do all the good things everything's going to fall apart you're not worshiping Jesus you're worshiping yourself maybe the kind of person that values your

Time above others that if anyone infringes upon your time you're not happy maybe it's production I got to get stuff done and it doesn't matter who gets in the way as long as I get the tasks done I go on and on and on I just I want us

To be honest what are you clinging to right now I want you to think about it I want the spirit to go to work on your heart what are you treasuring what are you clinging to above Christ think of it I want you to heed the warning you are already on your way

To the council you are already on your way to collect the silver you are already on your way to trade out Jesus for it and it will destroy you listen Jesus is on a collision course with your idolatry he is on a collision course with my idolatry with my sin and my

Hope this morning is that we see this woman we see her heart and we say I want that I mean that's when I look at the story I want that heart I want to be so deeply in love with Jesus that no as he starts pointing out things

That I'm like that's fine it's yours point it out whatever I find most valuable whatever idolatry that I'm so clinging to I'll go and I'll get it and I will break it before your feet take it that I want the heart of this woman Jesus you want my time you want my money you want my

Future you want my identity point it out I will take it and I will bring it and I will break it before your feet you are worth it I want this heart and for our church I want us to have this heart that we would lay anything that we're clinging to above him anything that we're treasuring above him we lay it at his feet because he's better that's why we say it every week Jesus is better than everything else

Because if you don't believe that if we don't treasure Christ with everything in us you won't make it you will walk away and my hope is that we wouldn't be Judas but we'd be this woman and we come to Jesus in repentance and in worship Matt's going to come up and he is going to sing a song over us it's a song that you're not

Familiar with and I just I want you to just listen to the words and I want you to let the spirit go to work on your heart some of you have actually never treasured Christ you've never actually treasured him and I want this morning for you to finally see that he's better than whatever you're clinging to

I want you to believe I want you right now to come to him to lay your life down completely before him and I want you to respond and believe for the rest of us I want us to if you love if you follow Jesus I want you to to sit in this moment

And ask the Holy Spirit to go to work on your heart it's not if you cling to things you do it's not if you treasure other things you do and I want you to let him go to work on your heart

And I want you to bring it to him I want you to go to find the idols in your heart the things you're treasuring and worship above him and bring it to him it's a daily pursuit of Jesus where we do this y'all this sounds

Familiar for a reason because we have to keep dying to our own self and to our own sin and bringing our idols and bringing the things we treasure to him this week in groups I want you to go to your groups

And I want you to be vulnerable I want you to bring your sin and bring your idolatry I want you to let others call you out and I want us to respond in repentance I want us to have the heart of this woman I want us to come in our brokenness and our weakness because the

Spirit's power is made perfect in our weakness and we are a weak and needy people but we have a sufficient and glorious God who's worthy of our worship so in this moment may we be a people who see a need for Jesus and repent

And behold Jesus like this woman is

The Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Sheep and the Goats

Chet Phillips

Transcript

SYSTEMukan Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I think one of the mistakes we often make in reading the Bible is that we read it as if it is about us. And so you'll see that people read the scriptures and they're just looking for where do I show up in here? How is this about me?

How ought I to respond that it's somehow just a book of morals? And the reality is that the Bible is primarily not about you, but it's about Christ. It's about what God has done in the world on your behalf. And that is extremely good news. That having been said, today we're going to read a Bible story that has you in it. That you're in here.

And what we're going to look at is Jesus prophesies in his last kind of major discourse in the Gospel of Matthew. As he's going to tell us about the end and we're there. And this prophecy will either be a joyous, glorious occasion for you or it will be terrible. And Jesus in his last major teaching in the Gospel of Matthew really goes hard after trying to declare to his disciples that you ought to be ready when he returns. And that you ought to live in such a way that you know that the end will come. That Christ will judge and inaugurate his reign and that we ought to be prepared for that day.

So let's pray together as we then turn to Matthew chapter 25 to study the word together. God, I pray that you would in this moment this morning that you would help us to see ourselves clearly. Lord, I pray that you would help us to see you even more clearly. That we might fix our eyes on you. That we might see what you have done and what you will do and that we might respond accordingly. So we ask for your grace.

We ask for the powerful work of your spirit. We pray that you'd bless this time we have together this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. So we're in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew has 28 chapters. So we're coming on the tail end of this. And it's taken us almost no time at all. We've breezed right through this. Matthew chapter 25. We're going to pick up in verse 31.

So in this section, Jesus is answering a question that his disciples had asked him. They said, he had prophesied the destruction of the temple. And they said, when will this be? When will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And so Jesus is answering that question.

And this is the last part of that answer. And he says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations. And he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Jesus refers to himself as the son of man. This whole time he's been referring to the coming of the son of man.

So they ask, when is your coming? And he refers to it as the coming of the son of man. And so he's clearly saying that when I return, when I, Jesus return, I will sit in glory, all my angels with me. So he's very definitively declaring himself to be king and judge of the whole world. I think it's silly sometimes when you hear people say, well, you know, Jesus was a good teacher, but he never really claimed to be God. Oh, yeah, he did.

Just read it. He aggressively claims that he's going to return with all of his angels, that he's going to sit on a throne, that he's going to judge the world. He says he will sit on a glorious throne and before him will be gathered all the nations. That's you. You're there. The word nations there means it's not our word nation like nation states.

It's not USA and Canada. We're not going to be sitting there chanting USA. It's not that's not going to happen. Or Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, whatever you might chant. It's not that it means all people groups, all tribes, all tongues, all languages. Everyone is there.

And then he says he he makes a distinction one from another. Meaning that this is a personal distinction. You will be there as an individual and you as an individual will go one direction or another. He will separate us one from another. And it says as a shepherd might separate sheep and goats. I am not a shepherd.

I don't think you are either. But we can tell the difference between sheep and goats. The distinction on that day for Christ will be very clear. He will be able to see clearly which is which. And so he separates as he Judges all peoples. Verse 33.

And he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on the left. And we'll find out later that you want to be on the right. You want to be among the sheep. And that's a metaphor that Jesus uses on a regular basis. Is that those who belong to him are sheep. That he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

That his sheep know him. They know his voice and they follow him. That he has a pasture. He has a fold that belong to him. And so his sheep are his church. Those who belong to Christ.

Those for whom he has died. And he separates them. And he puts the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And again that's just a picture. These are people. Verse 34.

Then the king will say to those on his right. Come you who are blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. From the foundation of the world. Oh what a beautiful day to be on the right hand of Christ. That he will come with all of his angels.

In all of his glory. That he will seat himself on a throne. As king and eternal ruler. That he will have all peoples gathered in front of him. Who have ever lived. We're all going to be there.

And then through his power. Or through the work of his angels or something. He's going to begin to separate us. And there's no at that point being like. I think I'm on the wrong side. I want to be.

Like you do what you're told. And we're going to be separated. And we're going to be before this glorious throne. And then he's going to turn and look. To those on his right. And he's going to say.

Come. You blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom. Prepared for you. From the foundation of the world. What a beautiful day.

Can you see that? Can you feel what that would be like. For just a moment. To be in front of King Jesus. In all of his glory. And him to welcome you.

And to call you blessed. And to say that there's a kingdom. That's been prepared for you. Since the foundation of the world. That's what Ephesians tells us. That he chose us in him.

Before the foundation of the world. That he's preparing this place for us. That his original design. Was that we would live with him in Eden. That we would belong to him. That we would be his people.

And that got broken. And that got lost. Through sin. But that Christ has come to redeem a people. That might belong to him again. That might get to live in his kingdom.

That he's been preparing. His ultimate desire this entire time. That awaits those who know him. And love him. And have been redeemed by him. Verse 35.

He says. For I was hungry. And you gave me food. I was thirsty. And you gave me drink. I was a stranger.

And you welcomed me. I was naked. And you clothed me. I was sick. And you visited me. I was in prison.

And you came to me. Then the righteous. This is the first time we're told this. But those on his right. Are righteous. They are holy.

They are good. Then the righteous will answer him. Saying. Lord. When did we see you hungry. And feed you.

Or thirsty. And give you drink. And when did we see you a stranger. And welcome you. Or naked. And clothe you.

And when do we see you sick. Or in prison. And visit you. Now Jesus is prophesying. I don't know. It seems really bold.

To say that. Like if I'm on his right. In that day. And he says. You're blessed. You've done all these things.

I'm not going to go. I don't think I did. I don't want to call you out. But I should be on the other side. Just be blessed guys. Like just.

But there. There's this response. That they have. It's like. I don't know. When did.

When did this happen? When did we see you. And respond. This way. And the king. Will answer them.

Truly I say to you. As you did it. To one of the least of these. My brothers. You did it. To me.

Now that phrase. My brothers. Is. Very important. To understanding this passage. This is often taught.

That the least of these. Just means. Everybody who is. Hungry or hurting. Or. Poor or destitute.

But. That phrase. My brothers. And some translations. Will say. That you did.

To my brothers. Or sisters. Even the least of them. Even the smallest of them. You did to me. That phrase.

My brothers. That's only used. In the gospel of Matthew. For two types. Of brothers and sisters. Physical bloodline.

Brothers and sisters. Or. Disciples. Those who belong. To Christ. So.

There's even a place. Matthew 12. It says. That they. Come to him. And they say.

Your mother. And brothers. And sisters. Are here. And he says. Who is my brother.

My mother. And who are my brothers. And stretching out his hands. Toward his disciples. He said. Here.

Are my mother. And my brothers. For whoever does the will. Of my father in heaven. Is my brother. And sister.

And mother. In Matthew 28. After his resurrection. He says. Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers.

To go to Galilee. And they will see me. This picture of the church. Being brothers and sisters. Being a family in Christ. Is the predominant picture.

Given to us. In the New Testament. And it seems as if. Jesus is. Clarifying. That this was done.

Not specifically to. Not in general. To anyone who was destitute. But specifically to those. Who belong to him. And he's reiterating an idea.

That we see in Matthew 10. Where Jesus is sending out his disciples. And he says. Whoever receives you. Receives me. And whoever receives me.

Receives him who sent me. So he's telling his disciples. If they will receive you. If they'll accept you. They receive me. And as he keeps going.

In verse 42. He says. And whoever gives one of these little ones. Even a cup of cold water. Because he is a disciple. Truly I say to you.

He will by no means. Lose his reward. So it seems as if. Jesus is pulling that same idea. To here. And saying.

That these are the people. Who loved and received. Those who belong to Christ. That they loved and received. The church. That this is not.

Just being nice to everyone. In general. There's a couple of things. To say about that. One. You are supposed to be nice.

To everyone in general. Jesus tells us. Specifically. Pointedly. There are three groups of people. We're supposed to love.

We're supposed to love. The brothers. We're supposed to love. Those who belong to Christ. And specifically. To do things for them.

Because they belong to Christ. We're supposed to love. Our neighbors. And his story. The good Samaritan says. Everyone's your neighbor.

And we're supposed to love. Our enemies. Those who belong to Jesus. Those who you come in contact with. Those who are your enemies. That's who we're called to love.

You don't know anyone. Who's not in one of those categories. So this. Highlighting. And specifying. That he is talking to those.

About those who belong to Christ. Is not. To say. That we don't have to. Oh good. We don't have to help other people.

But it is to help us understand. What he's saying. In this. Passage. That's what he says. In John 13 34.

He says. A new commandment. I give to you. That you love. One another. Just as I have loved you.

You are also to love. One another. By this. This love for one another. All people will know. That you are my disciples.

If you have love. For one. Another. That there is a distinct. And special. Love.

In the church. For those who belong to Christ. I was a. When I was in college. I was an intern. At a church.

In Lawrence. South Carolina. The pastor was. Out one Sunday. There was a guest. Pastor coming to preach.

And I was his handler. I was to show up early. And help him get his microphone. And show him where things were. Be his friend. So I did that.

He was an older gentleman. Big old guy. Real country. And after everything got started. And you know. I just went and sat down.

I was in the front. First or second row. Sitting next to my wife. And she takes notes. She has real pretty handwriting. And she.

When someone is preaching. She will write down the date. She will write down who it is. If she knows her name. She will put. If they have a sermon title.

She will put that in quotations. At the top. Or she will start writing. Real kind of pretty writing. The kind of the passage. That they are coming from that day.

And that morning. He. He was going to preach from this. John 13 34. And he says. He says.

Now God. Says. That we are supposed to love. One another. And we are supposed to love our enemies. And we are supposed to love our neighbors.

But I am here today. To tell you. Who we supposed. To love. Special. I was paying attention.

And then I glanced over at her notes. And she had written in parenthesis. Who we supposed to love special. Y'all. I lost it. I'm on the second row.

It's just. I was like. That's an excellent title for a sermon. Who we supposed to love special. And I'm going. It's bad.

You can't let me and my wife hang out with each other. We cause trouble. But. It wasn't a good look. It's not my best day. But I did sit and laugh.

For a full like seven minutes. Because I couldn't get it together. If I could have just laughed a little bit out loud. It would have been fine. But I had to.

But Jesus here. I think is saying the same thing. That there is a. Who we supposed to love special. That we are supposed to have a specific. Reception.

And love. And grace. Towards those who belong to Christ. And there is something in that idea. Of who those who receive you. Receive me.

And those who receive me. Receive him who sent me. That same idea. That if we. Love and receive the church. And those who will love.

And receive those who belong to Christ. Will ultimately love and receive Christ. And will ultimately get the father. That's why he. We want to be good missionaries. And that's why we talk about.

We've been sent out as the church. Because if people will receive us. They'll eventually receive Christ. And if they'll get Christ. They get the father. So he says.

That to those. On his right. Verse 41. Then he will say. To those on his left. Depart from me.

You cursed. Into the eternal fire. Prepared for the devil. And his angels. Depart. From me.

You cursed. Into the eternal fire. Prepared for the devil. And his angels. The kingdom. You will be here.

On that day. We will be in front of a glorious. And fearful king. And he will look at some. And say. Welcome.

You blessed. Come inherit the kingdom. And he will look at others. And say. Depart from me. You cursed.

Into the eternal fire. You are. Prepared for the devil. And his angels. The kingdom. Is prepared for those.

Who will receive it. Those who end up. In hell. Have joined. The enemy. Hell was not prepared.

For you. Hell was prepared. For the devil. And his angels. And it is a place. Of eternal punishment.

For him. I don't know. What you have seen. On cartoons. Or TV shows. Or movies.

Satan does not hang out. In hell. And he does not enjoy it. When he eventually goes there. He is not the ruler. Of hell.

Christ. Is the ruler of hell. And he has prepared it. For the devil. And his angels. But those who do not.

Submit to Christ. Do not love Christ. Do not follow Christ. Have not been redeemed. By Christ. Will join.

The enemy. In his punishment. And it is a place. Of eternal fire. There is a glorious kingdom. Prepared.

From the beginning. Of the world. And there is a place. Of eternal punishment. And everyone. On that day.

Will be sent. One way or the other. And if you. Have not considered this. I plead with you. To consider this.

If you have not. Wrapped your mind around. There will be a day. When you see. Jesus. And that will be.

A beautiful. Glorious day. Or that will be. A terrible. Frightening. Awful day.

I ask you to see this. And he'll say. For I was hungry. And you gave me no food. I was thirsty. And you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger. And you did not. Welcome me. Naked. And you did not clothe me. Sick.

And in prison. And you did not visit me. Then they also. Will answer. Saying. Lord.

When did we see you hungry. Or thirsty. Or a stranger. Or naked. Or sick. Or in prison.

And did not. Minister to you. Then he will answer them. Saying. Truly. I say to you.

As you did. Not do it. To one of the least of these. You did not. Do it. To me.

And these will go away. Into eternal punishment. But the righteous. Into eternal life. Your soul. Was meant.

To live for eternity. And your soul. Will. Live. Beyond your body. All of our bodies.

Are failing. All of them. And they fail more. And more. Over time. And the older you get.

The more you have discussions. With people your age. About how your body. Is failing you. It's just how it is. Little kids.

Heal up. Like magic. Overnight. They heal right up. High school. You heal up pretty quick.

College. You heal up pretty quick. Then you start getting injuries. And you're like. I rolled my ankle. Fifteen years ago.

And it is somehow. Still rolled. It has not unrolled itself. And the older you get. The more you will sit around. And discuss with people.

All the things that are wrong with you. Your body is failing you. This is God's grace. A simple. A simple. A simple.

Gracious reminder. That you will one day meet him. That your body will not last forever. But your soul will. And I want you to see. That these two locations are eternal.

Eternal punishment. Or eternal life. That you will be sent. Somewhere that is. Terrible. Or somewhere that is.

Glorious. And I think it's. A very valid question. For us to try to understand. What is this passage saying. And how might I end up.

On the right. Oh. If this is true. I want to be among the sheep. First thing I want us to see. We ought to take away from this passage.

Is that Jesus will return. To judge the world. There is a day. When everything will be called to account. When you will stand before him. Final judgment will be passed.

And it will be done. Based off of. King Jesus's desires. Not ours. Not our method for fairness. Not what we think ought to happen.

There will be no. Appeal court. I know we're Americans. And we don't like. Monarchies. But Jesus is a king.

And there is no overruling him. He will return. To judge the world. And you need to see that clearly. Secondly. The thing we have to understand.

From this passage. Because this passage. Taken on its own. Removed from it. The context of the rest. Of scripture.

Can lead us. In an odd direction. So the second thing. We're going to spend our time on. This morning. Is that we do not earn.

Righteousness. But we do display it. If you are in Christ. We do not earn righteousness. But we do display it.

The righteous. Will dwell. With Christ. For eternity. So another way of saying that.

Is we do not earn. Our salvation. But we do. Display it. If you took. Just this passage.

On its own. You better run outside. And feed some hungry people. Because all he's going to do. Is keep up with. Whether or not you've done that.

But that would be. To negate the rest of scripture. That says that you do not. Earn salvation. I want to show my work. Romans.

Chapter 3. Paul says. What then? Are we Jews. Any better off? No.

Not at all. He's reading. He's talking about Jews. They've been given the law. They've been told. How they ought to act.

But he says. For we have already charged. That all. Both Jews and Greeks. Are under sin. As it is written.

None is righteous. Okay. So now we have a contradiction. Because he says. You righteous. Welcome to the kingdom.

But the scriptures also say. None is righteous. So it's as if. Jesus is saying. On that day. I will separate the sheep.

From the goats. Oh. No sheep. It says. None is righteous. No.

Not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good.

Not even one. Sound like you and your family? Sounds like mine. For by works of the law. No human being will be justified. That means made right.

In his sight. So those who are justified. Are righteous. But he says. No one will be. Not by works of the law.

Since through the law. Comes knowledge of sin. So that if you learn all the rules. All it does. Is show you your wickedness. But then Jesus says.

In the very next sentence. The very next thing. That he comes out of his mouth. In chapter 26. If we look at that in Matthew. It says.

When Jesus had finished. When Jesus had finished. All these sayings. He said to his disciples. You know that after two days. The Passover is coming.

And the son of man. Will be delivered up. To be crucified. So Jesus says. In Matthew chapter 25. Something that seems as if.

He's declaring to us. That we ought to go out. And earn our salvation. And then the next words. Out of his mouth. Are I'm going to the cross.

And then. As we see this carried out. Into the rest of the New Testament. We begin to understand. What's going on. Galatians 2 21.

Also Paul. He says. I do not nullify. The grace of God. Meaning unearned favor. That's what grace is.

For if righteousness. Were through the law. It's good behavior. Good actions. Then Christ died.

For no purpose. So whatever. Anybody says. What God wants from us. Is to be a good person. That's what Jesus came.

To teach us how to be moral. The question I always ask them. Is then why did he die? What is the purpose of the cross? Because if he just wants. You to be a good person.

And that's all it takes. What was the purpose of the cross? Paul says. No purpose at all. If the point is for you. To be moral.

We would nullify grace. And Christ would die. For no purpose. Titus 3 5. He saved us. Not because of works.

Done by us. In righteousness. But according to his own mercy. By the washing of regeneration. And the renewal of the Holy Spirit. Or Philippians 3.

I have suffered the loss of all things. And count them as rubbish. In order that I may gain Christ. And be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own. That comes from the law.

But that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness of God. That depends on faith. So if we're to read this. With the rest of the New Testament in mind. We would look and say.

Those who are on his right. Those who are his sheep. Are those who have the righteousness of Christ. Applied to their account. Through faith. By grace.

Through the work of Jesus. But they have not earned this on their own. But Jesus says. He'll look at them and say. Welcome. You've done good things.

You see. Jesus in this passage. These things are not in contradiction with one another. Jesus in this passage. If you understand the rest of the New Testament. Is talking about the fruit of salvation.

Not the root of salvation. He's talking about what the root of salvation. Eventually leads to. Which is fruit. That those who have been made righteous by Christ. Display righteousness.

So we do not earn our righteousness. But we do display it. This is what he says in Matthew 7. Beware of false prophets. Who come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will recognize them. By their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes. Or figs from thistles. So every healthy tree bears good fruit.

But the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit. Nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit. Is cut down. And thrown into the fire.

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. So Jesus can look at those on his right. Call them righteous. And declare. And refer to their good works. Because they are the outworking.

Of his righteous work in them. 1 John 3.10 By this it is evident. Who are the children of God. Okay. So there is evidence.

Someone says I belong to Jesus. There ought to be evidence. You ought to be able to watch their life. And go yeah. Seems like it. This is one of the reasons.

Why we do membership through community groups. Some of the reasons we do membership through community groups. Is that we want to care for you. And if you are not in a group. We don't really have a way to do that. But some of the reasons we do membership through community groups.

When we do membership class. We just tell you things. And then we send you off to your group. And your group has to co-sign whether or not you are a member. Because in membership class. In our membership commitment.

You are saying I believe these things. And if you go back to your group. And say I want to be a member. And your group can go. You don't believe those things. We love you.

No. We want you to believe those things. But we know you well enough to know. That this isn't showing up in your life. We want to walk this out with you. We want to help hold you to this.

It says by this it is evident. Who are the children of God. And who are the children of the devil. Okay. So those who belong to Christ.

And those who belong to the enemy. Whoever does not practice righteousness. Is not of God. Nor is the one who does not love his brother. If it doesn't show up. You don't belong to him.

Verse 14. As he continues. He says we know that we have passed out of death. Into life. Because we love the brothers. Do you love the church?

He says we know that we belong to Jesus. Because we love the brothers. Do you? Whoever does not love. Abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother.

Is a murderer. And you know that no murderer. Has eternal life abiding in him. Meaning that if you do not care. For the church. You do not love those who belong to Jesus.

That you hate them. They bother you. They frustrate you. And you don't overcome that with forgiveness and grace. But you just turn from them.

He says that you've got death abiding in you. By this we know love. That he laid down his life for us. Oh he gives us a picture of love. Full sacrifice. That he laid down his life for us.

Some of you say I would love the church. But it's really hard. And they're very aggravating. Yes. It's going to feel a lot like dying. To love the church.

That's how we know love. That he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods. And sees his brother in need. Yet closes his heart against him.

How does God's love abide in him? Well that's a sentence. Just pulled directly from what Jesus just said. That he's going to look at. Those who belong to him and say. I know you belong to me.

Because of look at what you did. Look at how you responded to those in need. And that's why. John can say. If you have the world's goods. And you see a brother in need.

And you don't respond. How do you have love in you? If you can see them. And just turn. And don't care. How do you have love in you?

How is it there? If you don't care. And those who abide in Christ. Abide in love. So James 2.

What good is it my brothers. If someone says he has faith. But does not have works. Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed. And lacking in daily food.

And one of you says to them. Go in peace. Be warmed and filled. Without giving them the things needed for the body. What good is that? So also.

Faith by itself. If it does not have works. Is dead. One of the things we talk about in this church. Is that we want to be gospel centered. We want to be gospel fluent.

We want to know how the gospel applies to life. And we want to point each other back to Christ. In all things. And I think there's a danger for us sometimes. To someone struggling in our group. Someone's in need in our group.

And we just encourage them. Just know that the Lord cares for you. He loves you. He'll provide for you. We know that. Because Jesus came.

And he died. And he provided everything for us. And you leave. And you're like. I blessed them. Because I gave them the gospel.

And James says. Yeah. Did you help him pay the bill? Did you help him pay the bill? Or did you just tell him Jesus was good? Because if he's not good in you.

To help you be the church. So they might receive you. So they might receive him. So they might know the father. If he's not in you. What faith is that?

Oh it's dead. Oh it's dead. And so if you are saying. I belong to Christ. I've been made righteous by Christ. My tree is renewed.

I have the root of salvation. Then Christ can look at you and say. Yes. Show me the fruit of salvation. Do you love? Do you care?

Do you sacrifice? Do you welcome? Do you welcome? Do you pay attention? Do you listen? Do you pray?

Do you give? Has the root of salvation. If you're saying it's the root. It means it's the absolute core of you. And if it's the absolute core of you. If he's gone to work on the inside of you.

To make you righteous. Now it'll be a mess sometimes. And there are seasons. That's why I love that it's fruit. There are seasons where it takes a while. There are seasons where it doesn't show up.

The way you want it to. But long enough. It's going to show up. And so if you say. This is the core of me. That I belong to Jesus.

One of the questions is. Okay. Is that reflected in the outer part of you? Is it reflected in your wallet? Is it reflected in your time? Is it reflected in how you love and care for the church?

Do you have time for those who are in need? Do you? Do you? Do you? Do you? Do you?

Do you? Do you? If not. John says. The love of God does not abide in you. James says.

Your faith is dead. And Christ says. Depart from me you cursed. I think too often. We have pitched Christianity. We have understood Christianity.

We have understood being a Christian. And being a faithful Christian. As all the things we do not do. Depending on your age group. What church you grew up in. Christians don't dance.

They don't watch movies. Christians don't dress a certain way. Christians don't talk a certain way. The joke I always had growing up. Was they don't drink smoke or chew. Or date girls that do.

Christians don't sleep around. Well. Okay. I have heard a pastor say. That he. Had a friend.

Who had a dog. That was. 15 years old. And that dog. Laid on the floor. In his friend's house.

And he said. Often it seemed like. The way we describe Christianity. My friend's dog. Was a. A beautiful.

Wonderful picture. Of a good Christian. Because he didn't do. Do anything. And if all Christians. Are.

People who don't do things. Then that dog. Was excellent. But Christ says. He's going to look at the church. And say.

You did. Do. Things. I think. Too often. We've thought of Christianity.

As not only the things. That I don't do. But a bunch of little. Personal activities. That we do. Read my Bible.

I pray. Those are excellent. They're good. The reason you need to read your Bible. Is so you'll read stuff like this. And if you just read it.

And go. Hmm. Good point. Thanks Jesus. And close your Bible. Or turn your little phone app off.

And move on. Without. Doing the things. James says. It's like someone who looks in a mirror. Sees that their hair is messed up.

Sees they have mustard on their face. And then walks away. And doesn't do anything. With what they saw. The reason we pray. The reason we read the Bible.

Is so that we might be the people. That have been sent out in the world. To display Christ. To have righteousness. Dwell in us. And exude from us.

And all the things that Christ lists us here. Are relational. Do you love? Do you care? Oh. Do you care?

Oh. And it's a beautiful picture. He says. I was hungry. And you gave me food. I was thirsty.

And you gave me drink. Christians provide physical needs. Pay for groceries. Buy meals. And when we do that. We're displaying the gospel at work.

In our heart. Because Jesus says. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That he'll satisfy. And so that we know. We've been satisfied.

Of our deepest longest. Deepest longing of our hearts. Our hunger and our thirst. To be made right. And so therefore. We respond.

In caring for others. Physical short term needs. He says. I was a stranger. And you welcomed me. That we're supposed to be hospitable.

That we're supposed to open our houses. For people to stay with us. And to eat with us. I was thinking yesterday. I know sometimes people are like. Yeah but what if.

Like what if I pick up a hitchhiker. Or what if I have someone to come in the house. And they hurt me. This is much easier for me to think through. Personally. Than for my family.

So I'm just going to think through it personally. But I was thinking. If I was by myself. And I picked up a hitchhiker. And he killed me. That's kind of a good way to meet the Lord y'all.

That's what I thought yesterday. There's a real good chance. I'm going to be doing something stupid. When I die. This one felt pretty good. Be like.

Yeah Lord. I was just doing that hospitality stuff. You talked about. But that we would. Welcome people. This is.

People who come down. And do summer internships with us. This is missionaries. This is refugees. This is orphans. That we would have strangers.

Who belong to Jesus. And we would welcome them. Just because they belong to Jesus. And we'd say. Hey. We're all going to share a big table.

In eternity. Come share my table with me right now. He says. I was naked. And you clothed me. They were exposed.

They lacked. Everything. Everything. That they needed. He said. You clothed me.

Do we care when we hear about. Tragedies in other countries. Do we care when we hear about it in other states. Do we care that there are people in our city. Who are wearing the same thing over and over again. That we.

That they need. Clothing. We were exposed. We were naked. We were uncovered in our shame. And Christ came.

And he was stripped naked. And exposed. So that he might take our shame. So that we might be clothed in his righteousness. You absolutely better believe that Christ. That Christians respond.

To soul level clothing. By simple. Earthly. Caring about the needs of others. There's a beautiful picture of the gospel. It says.

I was sick. And you visited me. I've been so blessed in this church. When I've seen some of our older members. There's two ladies in our church. Who at different times.

Would gather up gift bags. And gift baskets. And they would go travel around. And they would visit every single person. That's homebound or shut in. Just to care for them.

I mean there have been days. Where I heard that story. And I went and just sat in my office. And I thanked Jesus. That he was good. That he works in people.

That their hearts so love him. That they so love each other. There have been pictures of people. Who have been hurt. And gotten to go live. With another church family member.

There have been pictures of people. Who have run out of money. And church families come together. To pay for hospital bills. Medical bills. Buy vehicles.

And it's this beautiful picture. Of these people actually believe. They actually belong to Christ. That's why he says. The world will know. That you're my disciples.

By the way you love. One another. He says. I was in prison. And you came to me. There are a lot of inmates.

Who have placed their faith in Christ. This is also. It's weird. I don't really want people in my house. Yeah. But we had Christ go to a cross for us.

He died so that we might be redeemed. So that we might live out a picture of that. So yeah. Christians do a bunch of stuff they don't want to do. And yes. There's also a bunch of stuff we'd like to do.

That we don't do. But that's not our primary marker. They were meant to be people who love. And who so. Are so in love with Christ. And so see what he's done for us.

That we respond. You see. We do not earn our righteousness. But we do display it. And that means there's a very important distinction here. As you consider this.

And I would call on you to consider this. I'm calling you to consider this today. I'm calling you to consider it this week. I'm calling you to read this passage. And look over it. Because the reality is.

You want to be among the sheep. But if you look at your life. If you look in the mirror. And you see that there is no fruit of righteousness. The response is not. I better do better.

Oh I better start serving. I better get it together. If there is no fruit of righteousness. Then your faith is dead. There is no love in your heart. And you need Christ.

And you need his righteousness. To go to work on the root. So that then the fruit might be displayed. Now some of you are going. I see where the Lord is at work here. And I see where the Lord is at work here.

And I really do grow in hospitality. I really do need to add some of this to my life. And I need to be repentant. And asking the Lord to help me see this. But if you're looking at this.

And you walk out of here. And your only response is. I'm going to do better. I'm going to try harder. And then I will earn my salvation. And my righteousness.

That is not how it works. You are a sinner. In need of a savior. Who redeems you. And then righteousness. Blooms out.

Like fruit. Fruit. But if you have a tree. That doesn't grow fruit. You don't go to the spots. Where fruit should be.

And try to fix it there. The root's got to be okay. It's got to have water. It's got to have all these. Actual nutrients. Before it can.

Grow up and do what it's supposed to. The band is going to come back up. My hope is that we would hear well. The words of Christ. In his last major teaching. That you would know that a judgment is coming.

That an eternity is coming. That it is real. That it is coming for all of us. Sooner than we think. That's one of the primary things. That he goes after in this.

When will it come? Sooner than you think. And oh may we respond. In repentance. Receiving the grace that is offered. And then by Christ's righteousness.

A work in us. May we look like these people. And grow in our love for each other. And for our neighbors. And for our enemies. But I pray the Lord would help us.

To love each other special. Let's pray. God we thank you for your grace. Lord we will all see you on that day. And we eagerly await. For you to arrive as our glorious king.

But Lord may we be ready. For those here this morning. That have no love. Who would say they have faith. But by their life it is displayed as dead.

We pray that they would come to you. To be made new. That they would plead with you. To redeem them. To be righteous. In their place.

That you would forgive them of their sins. And make them whole. We pray that we would all grow. In displaying the fruit of righteousness. Which is a genuine love. For those around us.

May we see you. And your love. And may it empower us. To sacrifice. To give. To care.

To be put out. For the sake of others. As you were put out. Cast out. And destroyed. For our sake.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Ready or Not (Matthew 24:36-25:30)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Ready or Not

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Transcription by CastingWords Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I'm glad to be with you all this morning. If you'll grab your Bibles, go to Matthew chapter 24. We are working through the Gospel of Matthew.

We went all the way through chapter 24 last week. I don't know if your brain hurt at the end of that, but mine did. And we went through, it's a dense passage where Jesus is answering the question about future events. He was answering the question about the destruction of the temple, which was future to them, past to us, and his return and the end of the age. And so he answers through and gives some signs and some things to look for. And it's easy for us to want to spend a lot of time trying to really understand exactly what each of those signs means and exactly what he's pointing towards.

But Jesus, in his answer, gets to the end and he starts saying, you don't know when I will return, so be ready. And that's his primary point. And so I think it is worth studying and trying to figure out what exactly he means and exactly what sign lines up with what and what historical event. But Jesus' conclusion is wrong. You guessed wrong. You're not going to know exactly.

His conclusion isn't wrong, just to be clear in my sentence there. He tells us that we ultimately aren't going to narrow it down and make it perfect and know exactly when he's returning and exactly what lines up with what. He says we can know the season, we can look for the signs, but ultimately we need to be ready. And then he tells three parables back to back to the effect that we would be ready. And that's what we're going to look at today. So this is where he goes in verse 36 of chapter 4.

He says, But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. And then verse 44 as he keeps talking about it, he says, Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. And so then he tells three parables to help press that into our mind. So the parable is a story that has one primary point to help us understand exactly what he's talking about, to help us picture it. And we're going to run through those parables this morning. We'll spend less time on the first one because we read it last week, but we're going to keep working through those.

And we ought to be ready. We ought to be ready to meet the Lord. He says he will return at a time we do not expect, meaning that we ought to be ready for his return. We believe in a literal, physical death of Jesus, a literal, physical resurrection of Christ, that he ascended into heaven, and we believe in a literal, physical return of Christ, at which point time ends, and all of our choices in how we respond to Jesus is set. It is final, and we ought to be ready. But if you do not make it to the return of Christ, you will make it to your death.

And I was looking at the statistics, and the most recent stats show that 100% of people die, and that was before COVID, so I'm sure it's worse now. That ultimately all of us will meet the Lord, and we ought to be ready. And so the question for us today is, what does readiness look like? When he says you need to be ready, what does he have in mind? Is there a certain sort of clothes we're supposed to wear? Should we sell all of our stuff?

Wear white? Sit on a mountain? Stare at the clouds? What does he want us to do? What does readiness look like? And so as we look through these, we're going to see what readiness ought to look like.

We're going to see some temptations towards being unprepared. And finally, as we finish up today, we'll talk through the consequences of either. The results of being ready, or the results of being found unprepared. And so let's pray for our time this morning, and then we'll move into the main portion of the text we're going to look at. God, we ask for your grace. Pray that you would help us as we study your word, that no one in this room, that no one who is watching online, would be found unprepared.

That we would make it to the end. That we would stand before you ready, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, joyfully awaiting the day of your return. And not in that moment begin to beg for more time, or for a second chance. We ask by your grace that we would hear this. In Jesus' name, amen. This is Jesus' final discourse in Matthew.

He talks some more, but this is the final section where he's really teaching, and it's aggressive. It's heavy. Because what is at stake, that Jesus felt so important that he would come and die for it, is our literal, eternal state. And so Jesus wants us to be ready for his return. Verse 45. Chapter 24, verse 45.

He says, Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant, whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. So the first picture Jesus gives is, as a master leaves, he puts one of his servants in charge of the other servants, to care for them, to give them their food at the proper time. And he says, That servant will be blessed. It will be good and glorious and joyful, if when the master returns, that servant is doing what he's supposed to.

And so the first picture of readiness, is that you want to be found doing what he called you to do, when he returns. You want to be found following through with what he's called you to. To be found faithfully at work. But then verse 48, he says, But if that wicked servant says to himself, My master is delayed, and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So he says, He'll be blessed if he's found working, but he says, But if he thinks, I got time, he's not coming yet, and begins to abuse the position he's put in. And the two kind of abuses he shows, is one is abuse of his fellow servants, that he's beating them. He was there, his authority given to this servant, was for the good of his fellow servants. He was to feed them at the proper time, he was to care for them, to make sure that they were well taken care of. And what happens is, in this position of authority, he begins to use it, he begins to Lord it over them, he begins to oppress them, and then he eats and drinks with gluttons and drunkards.

He begins to party. And those are two temptations, that would lead us from being ready, from the return of Christ. One is, a desire for power, a desire to have other people serve us, for things to work out well for us, at the expense of others. Have y'all ever noticed, how quickly, a small amount of power, can go to somebody's head? Like, petty amounts of power, can go to people's heads. You can put a child in the front of a line, and it's arbitrary, but they're the front of the line, and all of a sudden, it's like, I'm captain of the world.

And that, we don't grow out of that. We do this in, homeowners associations, and PTAs. We can do it in, in Bible studies, where somebody has a little bit of authority, and they Lord it over other people. They're no longer there to serve, they're no longer there to, to help others do better, to, to give up of themselves, for the sake of others, but they're there for others, to make things better for them, and that's a real danger, that we would at some point, lose the fact, that we have a master, who will return, and we can actually begin to live, in such a way that, we just want the power, to benefit us.

Inside of, the US, there are some different power imbalances. Inside your household, there may be some different power imbalances. Globally, there's some different power imbalances. Just being a citizen of the United States, puts us in a relative position of power, with relative wealth, security. And do we allow, every situation, where we have some, some authority, to just benefit us, or do we see and look, and go, okay, where can I use this, to the benefit of others? And blessed will we be, if we're following through, with what the master's called us to do, and if we're giving up, and serving others, when he comes.

The second one is this, that he begins to drink, and party, celebrate. That he thinks that, part of the, the good life for him, is that the master's not going to come, so I can just do what I want. He, he Acts as if it all belongs to him, and that his point is, the point of life, and goodness is indulgence. And that's a real temptation. To just spend life, trying to enjoy, the good things that are around us, the good food that is around us, the good drink that is around us. I, I don't mean to brag, but I, I manage a firework store, twice a year.

So, yeah, I'm a bit of a businessman. And, there was a guy, who was working for me, and he, he was 19, somewhere around in there, and he was going into, I think his sophomore year, at USC. And I was just talking to him, he was working, he lived in Aiken, and he was home for the summer, and then he was coming up, to go here. And I said, hey, when you, when you get up to school, come, come by and hang out with us, and I'd love for you to, you know, join our church, and be around at least, you know, check it out. And he said, he's like, yeah, man, I, I mean, my family's Christians and stuff, and I know, like I know that Jesus is God, and I need to follow him, and I know he died for us, but I just, right now, just want to have some fun.

I just don't, he said, I'm young, I got time, and when I get a little bit older, I'll, I'll get it together, you know, I'll follow him, and I'll do all that stuff, but right now, I just don't want to, I just, I'm going to try to join a fraternity, and that's really what I want to do. He's confused about a few things. One, if he thinks a fraternity is better than Jesus, he's very confused, both about fraternities and Jesus. He's also confused about how much time he has, because that is not certain. And this is a real temptation for us to feel like, now's my best opportunity to have, quote unquote, fun, and I'll, I'll follow Jesus later.

But the point of this parable is that, later comes upon us very quickly. It can catch up with us when we don't expect it. Jesus actually says, that's what it will happen. So that's the first parable. That we might be found working when he comes, that we might use what authority we have, to follow through with what he has called us to do, which is to serve others, and that we might not be led astray, into self-indulgence, and sin, tricking ourselves into thinking, we have plenty of time. Chapter 25, verse 1.

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went to meet the bridegroom. There's a, there's a country song, by Kenny Chesney. One of the lines is, that one of the things that's good in life, is the way that she looks, with rice in her hair. And when you hear that song, it takes a second, you go, oh, okay, what does wife look like, when they got married? The way that she looked, with rice in her hair. Got it.

They threw rice, that's in her hair. Got it. That's the way this statement works, for not us. If you didn't know, that people threw rice, at the end of weddings, the way that she looks, with rice in her hair, is a really weird sentence. One of the good things in life, is how your wife looks, with rice in her hair. Okay, buddy.

Sounds good. That's what this sentence works like. Then the kingdom of heaven, will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went to meet the bridegroom. Okay, what is going on? Well, virgins here, means unmarried, women. This is, all the single ladies.

And they're going to meet the bridegroom, they're not the bride. The bride, the bridegroom has left, to go get the bride. They would have had, a small ceremony there, and he's coming back, and when he comes back, the party starts. There's a ceremony, people join him, to walk, and to march, and people yell in the streets, and there's a big ceremony, and depending on how well off, this groom is, it'll be a party, that lasts for a day. It could be a party, that lasts for a week. And so they're awaiting, the party, and they love the groom.

They know the groom, they're part of his hometown, his family, so he goes to marry the bride, but they're awaiting the groom, they're excited to celebrate with him. And, I just want to point out, it's a beautiful marriage illustration. Happy Valentine's Day. We did it. You thought we were just working through Matthew, but we intentionally put, no, okay, anyway, sorry. So they're waiting, for the bridegroom to come, and then it says, five of them were foolish, and five were wise.

So that's the distinction here, we're about to find out, what makes one foolish, and what makes one wise. It says, for when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil, with their lamps. Okay. Their lamps, had a little hole in the top, you put oil in, it had a wick, that would go down this little tube. If you picture like, Aladdin lamp, kind of what it looked like, and then they would light this section, of the wick, that would soak up the oil. The foolish ones, grabbed their lamp, hit the door.

The wise ones, grabbed their lamp, and extra oil, and hit the door. The wise ones assuming, this may take longer, than I think. The foolish, thinking the groom will return, at a time, that is convenient for me. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy, and slept. So they're waiting for the party to start, he's taking forever, and so they just, are sitting and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and eventually they fall asleep.

All of them, both wise and foolish, fall asleep. So sleeping here, isn't foolish. It's normal. They're just tired. Verse 6. But at midnight, there was a cry, here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

So the party's starting, at midnight. Some of y'all, you're like, yeah, that's a good party. Others of you are like, I would not be attending, that party. Good party start at 6, end at 8.30. Alright. So the party's starting, at midnight.

Come out to meet him. Then all those virgins, rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, since there will not be enough for us, and for you, go rather to the dealers, and buy for yourself. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready, went in with him, to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came, also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you.

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day, nor the hour. Verse 13 tells us the main point of that parable. To watch, to be ready, to be wise in our preparation, because we know neither the day, nor the hour. But there are a few things that are helpful to learn, from this parable, as he's beginning to push on us still, that what you want to do, is be ready when he returns, and you will not know, so you have to stay ready. You need to be ready today, and you need to be ready tomorrow, and you have to stay ready, because you do not know. And being unprepared, when he returns, is terrible.

And so there are a few things that I think are worth noting from this passage. One, in this parable, all of them had lamps. All of them were waiting the groom. All of them were together. But when he showed up, only some of them, had oil.

I think this is a helpful thing for us to picture. I don't think it's the main point of this, but I think it's helpful for us to see this. Just because you have the appearance, of faithfulness, does not mean you have, true faith. Just because they looked good on the outside, they were not actually, true on the inside. They had the appearance of godliness, but denied its power. They had the form, but no substance.

They were around a local church, but they did not belong to the church. They were in a community group, but they weren't in Christ. And being near faithful people, will not count. The point of this, when they ask to share oil, is not that you should be selfish. The point of this, is that that's not how it works. That when Jesus returns, you cannot lean into the faithfulness, of those around you, to make you okay.

You will seek in vain, for faith, for repentance, in that day, and it will not be found. And so just because you're around believers, just because your parents were believers, just because you grew up in a church, just because you're in a community group, just because you're best friend, just because just being near somebody, who belongs to Jesus, does not make you belong to Jesus. And the question is, do you truly have him at work in you? Secondly, a thing that I think is helpful, to learn from this parable, is this is a call to endurance. Christians endure. We trust that the Lord, by his grace, will bring us to the finish line.

But that means that Christians, take the steps necessary to endure. Leaning into the fact, that we believe that Jesus, will get us to the finish line, so that we do none of the things, to get us to the finish line, is a good indication, that we don't belong to Jesus. But some of us right now, are saying we belong to Jesus, and have taken none of the simple steps, it takes to help us, make it to the end. Like daily reading our Bibles. Some of you, are just busting out into the world. Walking in the flesh, trusting your own wisdom, to get you to the end.

I don't have enough sense for that. I don't trust myself enough for that. And for us to lean into our flesh, and to think we don't need the scriptures, and we don't need the daily empowerment of the spirit, and we don't need to walk in prayer, but we'll just make it to the end, we'll just endure, is like grabbing a lamp, and thinking, this will be enough to get me there. To not be in community, with people who know you, that you share sin struggles, and weaknesses with, that know the things that you're running from, and running to, to help guard rail around you. I'm not saying fake community, where you have some friends, who know the amount of stuff, that you're willing to tell them, but people who actually know you, that you confess sin, that you walk in life with, that are going to help you get to the end.

I was reminded of the importance, of being prepared to endure this week, as I was reading reports about Robbie Zacharias. Robbie Zacharias was a powerful speaker, evangelist, apologist, very well known, had a large organization. When he died in 2020, people spoke about how he was a good example, of faithfulness and endurance. And then, lady after lady came forward, with abuse, and allegations, and it turns out he'd been lying, and using his position of power, for his own personal gain, for some time. And if I'm to think, that I'm somehow better than Robbie Zacharias, that I'm on a trajectory, that will get me to 74, and utter faithfulness, without ever investigating, the little things, that I'm starting to let grow now, without ever repenting, without putting the things around me, that will help me make to the end, I'm grabbing a lamp, and walking outside, and hoping for the best.

And I'm hoping that he returns, in a timeline that suits me, and it's foolish. And some of you right now, are in a little spurt, of good faithfulness, and if he shows up, in a good timeline, then it might work out for you. But Christianity is endurance, and walking in faithfulness, daily, not little spurts of energy, and we need to put the things in place, that help us to endure. Because we do not know, when he will come. Third parable. Verse 14.

For it will be like a man, going on a journey. Hold on one second. Some of you right now, have things in place, that if they continue to grow, you will not love Jesus, 10 years from now. 20 years from now. Some of you right now, have things that are small, that you are allowing to grow, and if they continue to grow, you will not be here, you will not belong to the Lord, and you will not be prepared. And it is important, and weighty, that we make decisions now, that help us make it long term.

And that is repenting of certain things, getting rid of certain things, changing some of our lifestyle, so that we do not think, that I'm okay right now, but I'm on the edge, and that we would let something, continue to grow, that would lead us astray. Verse 14. For it will be like a man, going on a journey, who called his servants, and entrusted to them, his property. So he calls his servants, and he hands over to them, his stuff. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability, then he went away. Okay, so talents, is not the English word talent.

Like if someone plays the violin, you're like, wow, they're really talented. It's a weight. It'd be like saying, he gave one five pounds, another 15 pounds, whatever. Like it's just a weight. But, this passage, is where we get the English word, talent. Because it was a gift, given to them, based off of their ability.

And so we use the English word, talent, because of this. It informed our definition, of this word. To not just be a weight, but to be understood, as things that God gives you. Like Shaquille O'Neal, is talented. Because he can dunk the ball, without jumping. He can.

He can stand under it, and dunk. And I probably could have done okay, in the NBA, if I could do that. But I have to jump, and not very high. He's talented. He was gifted something, that he then used. And so that's where we get that word.

But in this picture, just at the beginning, don't use that. Just understand that he had servants. One was good. One was okay. One not so much. And he gave them, weights of gold.

Bags of weighted gold. We find out it's gold later. It's an insane amount of money, that he gives them. And he says, hey, I'm going on a journey. Tend to my stuff well. And he disperses it among them, and he leaves.

He who had received, the five talents, went at once, and traded with them. And he made, five talents more. So also, he who had the two talents, made two talents more. But he who had received, the one talent, went and dug in the ground, and hid his master's money. Okay. So the first two guys, the one who was solid, one pretty solid, one not so much.

First two guys, immediately go, and go, I've got to get to work. I've got to put this money to work. I've got to make some trades. I've got to make some business deals. I've got to do some stuff. They get to work with it, and they both double the investment, the master gave them.

The third guy goes, I've got to dig a hole. And probably draw a map. That's my plan. So the third guy does. Goes, digs a hole, buries it. I'm guessing, draws a treasure map.

That was his plan. Okay. Verse 19. Now, after a long time, do y'all see this? Do y'all pick up on this? There's a long time here.

The groom was delayed last time. He's telling us, be ready. You don't know, but be ready for a long time. Be ready to endure. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents.

Here, I have made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also, who had two talents, came forward, saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents.

Here, I have made two talents more. And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. enter into the joy of your master. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground.

Here, have what is yours. Okay. First guy comes back and he's got this gold measured out. So he brings in five talents worth of gold and then five talents more and he says, here's the five talents, here's five talents more. It's a significant amount of gold that he lays out in front of him. The second guy comes in with two talents and two talents more.

The third guy walks in with a really dirty bag. Have y'all ever dug something up that's been buried for a long time? It's gross. He just plops it down. He says, here, have what's yours. I don't think very highly of you.

That's really what he says. You're a hard man. You reap where you don't sow. I just buried your stuff. There, get off my back. He says, but his master answered in verse 26, you wicked and slothful servant.

Slothful means lazy. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scatter no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. I like to imagine this guy going, a bank. Oh, a bank would have made way more sense.

Wouldn't have even had to dig. Verse 28, So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus will return and we will be as those who have to give an account for things that did not belong to us.

I don't know if you understand this, but you live and move and breathe at his discretion. You have the intelligence you have, you have the wealth you have as a steward. You have the energy you have, the physical ability you have, the mental ability you have as a steward. A steward means this does not belong to you. It belongs to the master. And he returns, he'll have questions about how you handled it and what you did with it.

Your mama ever give you some money and send you to the store? Did you return with a Nintendo or the milk she asked you to buy? You understood that money didn't belong to you. You were a steward. And the reality is that's how our money, our intelligence, our physical ability, everything that we have is on loan to us from the Lord and when he returns we will give an account. Did we love him?

Did we work as if we were laboring for his kingdom and his name and his glory? You see, these are servants. If they lose the money, they're on the hook for it. If they gain money, they don't get to keep it. They just hand it over to the master and the first two servants are faithful and they get invited into the joy of the master and it reads as if he enjoys them and they enjoy him and they longed for his return. They wanted to please him.

The third servant does not seem to like the master very much. Doesn't think very highly of him. Wants to do exactly what he needs to do to get the master to leave him alone. And he's confused about how that works. Look, I'll do my thing, you do your thing. Leave me alone.

And the master says, that's not how it works. And when Jesus returns, if we have sat and thought that we can just do what we want and that he, when he returns, will leave us alone, he will ultimately do that. But to be cast out of his presence into outer darkness is not a place of joy and hope and delight. It's a place of utter destruction. C.S. Lewis is a theologian who always said that people get what they want.

If you want Jesus, you'll get him. And if you don't want him, if you want to stand on your own, if you want to be held accountable for your own stuff, if you want to be king over your own little world, you'll get that. But that is hell. And I think it's fair to see that this steward, this servant, misunderstood what was going to happen when he gave an account. Jesus, Jesus, the gracious, loving Jesus, the son of God who came to die in place for sinners to redeem them, wants you to be ready. Hear that.

They say, when are you going to return? And he says, be ready. When matters less, be ready. I want you to see the pictures of what happens when he returns and they're ready. The first one, he says this, verse 45, chapter 24, it's on screen. He says, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time?

Blessed is the servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Oh, it will be joyous and good. Can you imagine that? The servant's at work, the master shows up, see him and do exactly what he's supposed to do. The smile that cracks over his face, the joy that the servant feels that, yes, I was doing what I was supposed to do and also, yes, the master's back. Life is better now.

He's blessed. Or in verse 10, it says, those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut. Can you imagine that day? When the groom comes and the party starts and we get to go into the feast, picture it's midnight, it's pitch black. The door opens, smells, music, light, warmth, all pour out into the dark night. And they walk in, smiles on every face, dancing, singing, delight, pleasure, and the door shuts.

And oh, we should long for the day when the door is shut behind us. Oh, praise Jesus that one day the door will be shut behind us. One day we'll be so secure and so kept and so warm and in such delight and there will be no ability for us to mess it up. Oh, praise Jesus that he shuts the door. And for those who are ready and longing for his return that we walk into a feast. or in the third parable, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Greater responsibility, greater weight, and greater joy. Come to light with the master. The results of being ready at the return of Christ are glorious just as the consequences are grave for those who are unready when he returns. 51, chapter 24, it says, we'll cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Or in chapter, verse 10, chapter 24, those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. When the door shuts, all the joy, all the light, all the music is shut out and it's just darkness. And there will be those on the other side of the door who are banging on the door and saying, let us in.

And he shifts. He does this a lot in his parables where he's telling the story and then he shifts into a bigger picture and they're saying, Lord, Lord. And he says, depart from me, I do not know you. You see, it matters that Christ knows us, that he indwells us, that we are in him. Not just that we know him or know about him but that he knows us. And the question is, do you belong to Christ or do you just know about him?

Have you surrendered to Christ or do you just know about him? Have you just heard about him or the people around you know Christ? Do you know Christ? And more importantly, does he know you? Verse 30 of chapter 25, it says, And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We do not like to hear about hell. We do not like to talk about hell. We've been told, if you've grown up in the church, that we ought to talk about nice things. We ought to talk about loving things. We ought to talk about gracious things. We ought to tell people how much Jesus loves them, not how horrible hell is.

But the reality is, Jesus loves us enough to tell us how horrible hell is. This is the sixth time in the Gospel of Matthew that he says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I want you to picture that. You ever watch a courtroom scene? When they walk back in to give the verdict and everybody holds their breath. And they say, will you find the defendant guilty?

And people scream. And people flop on the ground. People yell, no! And that there's sorrow. And there's mourning with broken weeping. Or there's gnashing of teeth in pain and hurt and anger and fury.

And Jesus says over and over again, six times, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And I think there's some of us who still haven't pictured that. The utter despair and brokenness of an eternity without Christ. That we might on that day be found unprepared. and we might at that moment begin begging, Lord, more time and time's up. That there will be people around us who do not know Christ, that on that day the door will shut in their face and those who should have been telling them about Christ will wish that we had had more time or that we had handled our time better. The door will be closed in their face. That some of you in here, the door will be closed in your face and you will be cast into outer darkness in a place where there is eternal torment, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And that is the result of all those who have a Christless eternity. And here's what you need to know. Jesus loves you so much that he does not want that for you, that he came to save you from that. And he came to die for you that you might have hope. 2 Peter says this. He says, in the future they will say, where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Peter says people are going to start saying, Jesus isn't coming back. Everything's the same. And Peter says in verse 8, do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. All right, that math doesn't work.

At least on our side, it's like we can't be both, Peter. It's not a, that's not a, you can't carry that out. But what Peter's saying is, time doesn't work the same for him. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Oh, he's not slow.

He's kind. He's not slow. He's patient. He wants you to reach repentance. He wants you to see your sin and hate it. He wants you to see him as a risen savior.

He wants you to be redeemed by his blood. He came that he might die, that we might have life. He wants you. He gets no joy from the people that he has to cast out. He wants to say welcome, come into the joy of the master. He wants as many to fill his house and to close the door and to celebrate.

And he wants you to reach repentance. Praise God he's patient. I saw a stat that said, in the last 150 years, more people have placed faith in Christ than in the first 1800 after Christ. Praise God he's patient. Oh, he's filling up his banquet hall. Oh, he's gathering more that will belong to him that will celebrate his glory.

So are you ready? That's the only question. When is he coming back? Are you ready? John 6, 28 says, they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent.

Do you belong to Christ? Have you repented? Have you surrendered? Because if you haven't, if we do not await his coming with eager joy, consistent faithfulness, filled by his spirit and carried to that last day, we will not be ready. And God have mercy. Wait a little longer. that we might be ready.

The band's going to come back up. And you need to ask this question. Are you ready? Are you ready to stand before him? Have you been living in such a way that you might endure? Do you have the form of faithfulness but no substance?

Are you just around those who believe but are not prepared for his coming? It matters. The consequences are great. He has done all that he needs to do that you might be redeemed. He has paid for your sin with his own blood. He is not calling you to be good.

He is calling you to repent. He's calling you to surrender. He's calling you to life. This is not a call to come and make yourself perfect and beautiful. He does that through his own grace and his own work on your behalf. That's why the work that is given to us is that we might believe in him and therefore we might love him.

That's why we long for his return because he is so good. And he brings joy and delight and forgiveness and love and life with him. May we be ready on that day. Do not leave this place if you have that and need doubt in your mind as to whether or not you're ready. It's utter foolishness that you would leave something as weighty as eternity up to chance. He's gracious to bring you here.

He's gracious to have waited this long. He desires your repentance. Please turn from your sin and trust in Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, may we be wise. Lord, may we see your love poured out for us on the cross and may we be ready.

Lord, would you lead us by your grace to repentance that we might have hope and life in you and we might hate our sin and love your sacrifice. And Lord, for the Christians in this room, for those who say they belong to you, but that are on a trajectory that will lead them far from you. May we take the simple steps now to be ready then. We ask this in your name, by your grace, and through your spirit. Amen.

The End of the Age (Matthew 24)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The End of the Age

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Excited to gather with y'all this morning and open the Bible together. If you'll grab your Bibles, I'm going to Matthew chapter 24. If you use one of the blue Bibles on the row, that's page 484.

If you use one of the black Bibles on the row, I don't know what page that's on, but your print is bigger, so that's what you get. You can find it on your own. It's easier to find. We are going to work through the entire chapter of Matthew chapter 24 today, and it is dense, and we have our work cut out for us, and that's one of the reasons why we decided it was time to go ahead and put the Bibles back on the rows because we're going to need to be able to look at this together pretty well until we wanted you to have a Bible in your hands. We are going to read. We're going to jump right in here in a second, and we're going to see that the disciples ask Jesus a question, and that's going to kind of drive this entire chapter.

So we're just going to start in. We're going to see the question that they ask, and then at that point, we'll kind of talk through where we're headed. But right now, let's jump right in. So Matthew chapter 24, verse 1. Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, you see all these, do you not?

Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. Okay, that's a bold statement. That's crazy for the disciples to hear. So Jesus has just been in the temple. We were seeing in Matthew chapter 23, chapter 22, that he was teaching in the temple, and this is the first time we've seen him teach in the temple. And now he's leaving the temple, and he's leaving the temple for good.

He has visited the temple. The Lord has visited the temple, and it has not gone well. He is leaving in judgment over the temple. That his last, his sermon that he just preached there was, woe to the scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. That we see in the Old Testament there's times where it's God's spirit would come over the temple, or God's spirit would leave the temple. And now God himself has entered the temple, spoken woe against the temple, and is leaving.

And when he's leaving, his disciples, who are all Galileans, so they're from kind of a rural area of Jerusalem, they would have been to the temple before, most likely. I know they went with Jesus some, and they probably went growing up on a fairly regular basis. But they never got over it, because the temple was magnificent. It was huge and beautiful. Josephus, who was a Jewish Roman historian, he said, if you never saw the temple, you've never seen a pretty building. That was your one shot at it.

The temple's the most glorious building, and if you hadn't seen it, you hadn't seen anything. And so they're walking, looking at it, and just being in awe of it. It feels a little bit like the way I feel every time I'm in downtown Columbia, because I grew up in Edgefield. And I'm just like, whoa. And people are like, you know this isn't a real city. And I'm like, yeah it is.

Look at how tall that building is. Almost six stories. Look at that. And so that's what they're doing. They're walking around and going, oh, can you believe this? And Jesus says this whole place is getting destroyed.

And that, as the center of their faith, the place where God meets the earth, where all of Judaism, this is not even just where God meets, at the center of the world is the temple. And for Jesus to say this is going to be destroyed, that's cataclysmic language. And so that prompts what happens next. It says, verse 3, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came. He came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

I think it's important to note that the Mount of Olives is mentioned in Zechariah as the place where God will, where Christ will return and set up his kingdom. Where when he ultimately comes, he will judge Jerusalem and he will set up his kingdom. And so Jesus, from that spot where it says that he will return in Zechariah, is sharing this with them. And so they ask him three questions. Tell us when will these things be? When is the destruction of the temple going to happen?

And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? What will be the sign of your coming and the sign of the end of the age? And his coming and the end of the age are closely linked. And in their mind, the destruction of the temple would have to be closely linked with that. There's no way the temple is destroyed. And that's not the end of the world.

So if you're saying you're going to destroy this, when is all that going to happen? And it's as they ask these three questions and they understand that this would all go together. They want to know when the destruction of the temple will happen. When is the sign of the coming and of the end of the age? Jesus gives an answer throughout the rest of Matthew chapter 24. And it's not perfectly clear to us what part he's answering when.

Because we stand in a different time of history. The temple was destroyed in A.D. 70. Jesus has not come. The age has not ended. We're in the age, you guys.

So the end of the age hasn't happened. And so we stand between these two points of their questions. And Jesus gives an answer that we now, as we read this, are trying to sort out what's what. And he didn't number it for us. And he didn't say, well, ask you your first question. I will give 15 verses.

And then picking up in verse 16, we'll move on to questions 2 and 3. He doesn't do that. He just answers. And so we've got to try to understand what applies to what. And so as we approach this, we have to approach it with some level of humility. Because a lot of this does deal with the end of the age.

It deals with a lot of questions about future events that we only get prophetic speaking towards. But we don't know exactly what's going to happen. And the more I got into this, the more confused I got. And the more intense I got. And I started calling people in our church who studied some of this and talking with them about it. And I was really close to showing up looking like this today, just ready to go.

I was going to make a chart. I was going to get serious. I resisted the temptation. I didn't make a chart. And we're going to walk through this as best we can. But something that we need to understand.

We need to approach this with some level of humility, knowing that there are some of these questions we don't know exactly. We can have some good guesses at. We can have some good thoughts on. We can try to connect other passages in Scripture. But we don't know exactly.

Because it hasn't all been fulfilled yet. And so we want to approach it with some humility, understanding that there are people who love Jesus, who see some of this differently. We also, there's a lot of really interesting things in here that we don't need to miss the main things that Jesus says very, very clearly. Sometimes I think people come to Matthew chapter 24 and they get so focused in on words and certain things and little aspects and they start trying to build this out so perfectly that they miss that he said some things very aggressively, clearly that are the main points of this. It would be like if I came home and my wife had a pizza box and some cupcakes and I said, what was going on?

She said, we're celebrating. I just found out I'm pregnant. And I said, oh my goodness, this is amazing. Does it have pepperoni? You'd be like, bro, you missed what? No.

That's like a boat. That's what? And that's kind of what's happening here. Sometimes I think we get so zoomed in that there's some things that Jesus said very clearly that we should take home that we can miss. So real quick, a couple of things that we need to know as we get into this that add into our humility.

One, some of the things Jesus says may only speak to one of the answers, but sometimes it's unclear as to which one. Some people will look at this and say that some of them have dual fulfillment, meaning that there's like a lowercase f fulfillment that it was kind of fulfilled in AD 70, but that's a picture or a type of what he's going to do more big, more real, more aggressively later. We do see some of this in the Old Testament. There's some ground for that. Isaiah 7 says that a virgin will give birth and they will call his name Emmanuel. And then he goes on to say that that's going to be a sign to a king that was currently living, meaning there's going to be a young girl.

She's eventually going to get married. She's going to get pregnant. She's going to have a baby. And by the time that baby can, I think he's weaned, this will happen. So he gives like a seven-year timeline or a five-year timeline, just kind of says this is going to happen.

Then the New Testament authors pick up. They say, wait, wait, no, no. A virgin gives birth. And he's not just named Emmanuel. He is Emmanuel. He's God with us.

And this is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. And so it had a lowercase f fulfillment and an uppercase f fulfillment. There's other prophecies like that, but that's one of the cleanest examples. And so some people will say that's kind of what's happening here. Jesus is giving some stuff that will be fulfilled then and then really fulfilled then. That's a thing.

The other thing that is in here is the idea of telescoping, which is that prophets often would speak about something that was really close to them and something that was really far off altogether without telling us they were doing that. We see that throughout the Old Testament. It's as if God gave them some binoculars and showed them a mountain range and they just described this mountain and then this mountain and then this mountain and then this mountain. But if you were to travel through the mountains, you would see that it was actually two mountain ranges, one here and one way back over here.

But from their perspective, they're just seeing all of it together and saying about all of it together. And it's possible Jesus is doing some of that. That he's just speaking about things from their point in time, around AD 30, AD 33, and he's looking past AD 70 and he's looking to the end of time and he's just talking about them as he wishes. I don't know if y'all can tell, I'm not going to perfectly answer all these questions for you. I'm giving you some options. I will try to point them out as we go through.

I will give you some of my opinions on, I think this has a little more weight, but some of this stuff we have to hold with an open hand. And then we'll end with, don't miss the main things. Yes, it has pepperoni, possibly. Could be meatlovers. We haven't opened the box yet. You missed the main thing.

So we're going to get there. Okay, let's pray, ask for help, for you and for me, and this is going to be fun. God, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that you do answer this question, even though some of it is unclear to us at this time. We pray that we would walk in wisdom as we study your word together, and that we would hear clearly the main things. Help us to be gracious to one another where there's some disagreement.

Help us to all be driven to study more, to read more, to know more of you, because to know more of you is to delight more in you, because you are good. And towards that end, we ask for your grace and your help through your spirit. Amen. All right. And Jesus answered them. Verse 4.

See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. So for them, he's saying, don't be led astray by other false Christs, by people saying that, Christ that I've returned after he's gone, he's saying, make sure you aren't led astray. And this is one of the main things that he comes back to. That's one of his main points.

Do not follow any other Christ. And for us, that would hold true as well. There are a lot that have come in the name of Christ, in the name of a Savior. Certainly some people say that their Jesus returned. Most people dismiss that. But there are a lot of other prophets and people who've come and said, I'm the one who's going to lead you to the good life.

I'm going to lead you to heaven. That Jehovah's Witnesses, that Mormons, that Islam, are all following Christ's. That are leading them. And he says, don't be led astray. See to it that you are not led astray. And then he says, they will lead many astray.

Verse 6, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place. But the end is not yet. I appreciate that verse. Every once in a while, you get to talking to someone, and they'll say, hey, did you hear what's going on? I think we're getting close to the end.

We're starting to hear of wars and rumors of wars. And it's like, hmm, did you read the back half of that verse? It says, see that you are not alarmed. The end is not yet. I'm glad you told me, reminded me to not be alarmed. But that happens.

Like, since their time, there were wars and rumors of wars. And since our time, there's been wars and rumors of wars. We walked into the 1900s, and globally announced, we've arrived. We're good people now. We've had the enlightenment. We're out of the Middle Ages, where they were all dark and dirty and mean to each other, which isn't all that true if you go back and read it.

A lot of them were Christians, and they didn't have technology, but they were doing okay. We hit the 1900s, and we're like, we've arrived. We're great. We're going to usher in peace. And we had 100 years of the most killing that's ever taken place on the face of the earth. Our nation has been in war, at war, since 2001.

And we sometimes forget that. We have a lot of rumors of wars. We might go to war with Syria, or Russia, or China, or each other. Heard any of those recently? If you're in the military, you might have five or six more people we might go to war with that you're not supposed to tell us about. But seeing how things have run since 2001, we'd be fine with it.

They'd sign us up for it, and we'd just be like, cool, as long as it doesn't get over here. But there's wars and rumors of wars, and this is globally happening. And so he says, be not alarmed. And he keeps going, for nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

So, some will read that as only speaking towards what happened before AD 70. Some would say that's ongoing. Some would say that's future. And we'll get into an area where we try to walk through those three more fully. But these are the beginning of birth pains.

So I know, my wife was first pregnant. She got about nine months. We were getting close. She did anything. I was like, ooh. I was like, is it go time?

Can we get the bags? Let's go. She called me on the phone. Is it go time? It was never go time. We had to schedule a C-section.

I was just stressed out for a week and a half for no reason. They put it on the clock. It wasn't go time until 9.10 one day because that was the time they assigned it. But that's what he's saying. Some of this stuff is the beginning of birth pains. It's global, eschatological, which means end time stuff, Braxton Hicks, which is fake labor pains.

Okay. Verse 9. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death. And you will be hated by all nations for my namesake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Again, prior to A.D.

70, They were in the Roman Empire, which covered a lot of nations, meaning ethnicities, peoples, and none of them liked Christians. Christians were actually called atheists because they were some of the only ones who wouldn't go along with every God is a God. So a lot of them were like, oh, you got gods? We got gods. It's cool. And Christians were like, it's not cool.

There's one God. He's better than yours. People didn't like that. You had to, in guilds, to certain work and certain jobs, you had to come in and sacrifice to that guild God. And Christians were like, no, I'm not doing it. They're like, well, you can't be in the guild.

And it's like, that's fine. But you all need to repent. Like, they didn't get along. And prior to A.D. 70, we had Nero who hated Christians, murdered Christians, used them as street lamps. Wicked, wicked stuff.

But also, as it's gone through history and as we stand right now, there are a lot of nations. We live in the West. We've been relatively untouched by persecution. We've had a long period for us, short globally, but long for us, that we've had some peace where we can gather and worship. We're not arrested. We don't have to hide.

That's not the case around the globe. We support a ministry that's 1040 Hope, where they're trying to reach people in the 1040 window. They send missionaries to places. We're not allowed to say their names. We're not allowed to know where they are. They have a hard time getting money to them.

If they've found out that they're Christians, they can get in some serious trouble. There's a lot of unreached people groups on earth, and the reason they're unreached is they're hard to get to. Or when you get to them, they don't want to hear it. And so there is persecution globally, and he says that'll happen, and that as that happens, people will turn on one another, will betray one another. Verse 11, And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. Again, pushing on that idea that only follow him.

He's the only Christ, but many will lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. Lawlessness is willful sin. So there's sin that's missing the Mark. There's sin where you were trying to do something, and you didn't do it well. You didn't handle it well.

Lawlessness is, I don't care. I want to do what I want to do. I see that it says that, but I disagree. That happens all over the place, and it seems like it's happening increasingly. And one of the ways that we've seen it begin to infect the U.S. and even our churches is where Christians have started saying, that section of the Bible is outdated. It doesn't really mean what it says it means.

Or if it means that, I will not be following Jesus. I think we've probably seen people in your own life who have certain sections of the Bible who just say, I'm above that. I'm not going to follow that. I'm not going to surrender to that. I'm not going to submit to that. And they're choosing lawlessness, and then we're seeing their love grow cold, specifically for the Lord.

But there's also an increasing amount of difficulty and frustration that happens in the world, and there's a love that grows cold where people, the more things are bad, the less we care. Have you noticed that? And I think one of the weird things that happens is the more we see globally things are bad, and this issue is huge, and it's going on, and this is going on, and this is huge, we become desensitized to it. We care less, and we also care less for the things that are right in front of us that we actually have control over. To love our neighbors, to care for our neighbors, to tend to the things, the people that we know.

Sometimes it's almost like there's this big global thing going on that I'm supposed to have some good ideas on, some good thoughts on, and as long as I can tweet about it or put something on Facebook about it, fine, but the reality is it actually hasn't touched my heart. I actually don't love, I just want to be seen as okay, and because that's going on, I've lost the fact that I'm in a neighborhood around real people with actual people in front of me, and I have actual friendships and actual colleagues and actual coworkers, actual people I go to class with that I care nothing about. So be warned that the more lawlessness increases, the less likely you are to love. He says, because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Now you buy a vehicle and they say 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Okay. That's if you die or Jesus returns, whichever comes first. The one who endures to the end will be saved. Your end or everybody's end all at once, endure. The gospel and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come.

So some will look at that and say that it means the whole world as they understood it, the Roman Empire, that this was proclaimed prior to AD 70, which there's some good arguments for, that that's what they were talking about. The whole world is that. Some will say, no, the whole world is the whole world so all these unreached people groups, Jesus didn't come back until we can reach them. And some people say, yeah, little F, fulfillment, big F, fulfillment. So he meant the end before the temple and this is the big end.

And because Jesus doesn't make it super clear, there is some room for debate there. But we do have a call placed on us to reach the unreached. So don't lose that. Verse 15. So, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. A little bit of encouragement in there.

Figure this out. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. So the abomination of desolation or the abomination that causes desolation is spoken of in the prophet Daniel in chapters 11 and 12. Most, if you just read Daniel, most would say, some say it's all future stuff but they probably wouldn't say it if they were just reading Daniel. Most would say that's Antiochus the first time the temple is sacked, taken over during the intertestamental period which is last book in the Old Testament before the Gospels pick up there was some time past, there were the Maccabees, there was a Maccabean revolt.

During that time period Antiochus takes over the temple, ceases the daily sacrifice, something that Daniel talks about and he sacrifices a pig on the altar which was an unclean animal and they say that's the abomination that causes desolation. And that's nice and that works fine until Jesus said verse 15. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place let the reader understand he's saying that Antiochus was either a picture of something that is to come or Antiochus was not the fulfillment of this because that has already happened and he's speaking about a future event. So some will say yes, multiple fulfillments.

Others say not Antiochus, it's some future thing. And so when he says this many people would read this as the, oh sorry, Luke specifically ties this to Jerusalem being surrounded by armies. So that when the Romans came in AD 70 there was a rebellion of the Jewish people from the Romans. They hated them. That's why all these questions about taxes and stuff are so loaded that we were just reading about in chapter 22. They hated the Romans.

They hated being occupied. They rebelled. In AD 66, AD 70 the Romans have broken the will of Jerusalem. They storm in. They burn everything down. They destroy the temple.

Many would say that that's them surrounding this and that they were the Christians were told to flee and many did because of this. That when they saw armies surrounding Jerusalem as Luke said and they understood this as the abomination that causes desolation they left. One of the interesting things that I learned as I was reading through this was that the Roman ensign which was an idol was not used in Jerusalem because it would cause too much trouble. So they didn't have their idol with them on all their banners and all their stuff because they were trying to not cause as much trouble with the people who were really upset by idolatry in the city of Jerusalem.

But when they showed back up after Jerusalem had rebelled they burned the temple down. They stuck one in the temple. They put ensigns all around Jerusalem. And so many people would say that's when the abomination of desolation came back and was set up in Jerusalem. But Luke specifically ties it to the army showing up which makes sense because that would give time for the people to actually escape because this is what he says verse 16 Then let those who are in Judea so it's specific to that area to Jerusalem flee to the mountains.

Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in the house meaning as soon as you see it it's time to go and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. If you see the Romans marching in if you see those ensigns and you're in your field head to the mountains don't head to your house you could get stuck. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath for then there will be great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world till now no and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short no human being would be saved but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

I want to read a little bit from Josephus who wrote this about seven years after the fall of the temple talking about the fall of the temple. At that time 1.1 million Jews were killed. The Romans surrounded Jerusalem starved them out many died from famine. The fighting at the beginning had been pretty hard until they were all too weak and had not eaten and many had already died from famine and then the Romans broke in. It says so the Romans being now become masters of the wars this is quoting Josephus they placed their ensigns upon the towers and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained.

And then they went in Numbers into the lanes of the cities with their swords drawn they slew those whom they overtook without mercy and set fire to the houses where the Jews fled and burnt every soul in them and laid waste a great many of the rest. And when they were come to the houses to plunder them they found in them entire families of dead men in the upper rooms full of dead corpses that had died by famine. They stood in horror at the sight and went out without touching anything. And although they had shown some respect to those dead bodies they had not the same for those who were still alive.

They ran everyone through meaning they stabbed them with a sword whom they met and obstructed the very lanes with dead bodies and made the whole city run down with blood to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. And then the whole city burned for quite a while. It was a horrific time. That's why Jesus says escape. And if the Lord hadn't stopped it no human being would have made it. they end up taking about 97,000 into slavery. That's for them.

Some would still see that as a future thing as that would be a potential thing that has happened there a partial fulfillment and a future fulfillment and again as we read through here I'm going to try to walk through that pretty quickly show you kind of our options on that but it was certainly a terrible time at the destruction of the temple. Verse 23 Then if anyone says to you look here is the Christ or there he is do not believe it for false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray if possible even the elect those who belong to Jesus. See I have told you beforehand. So he's saying when everything gets bad even though people are going to show up and they're going to have great signs and great power do not follow them.

So if this happens if there's a future fulfillment of this that we're participating in understand that some people are going to come up and they're going to say that they have that they are the Christ that they are the Savior and they have some ability and some power and he says see I told you beforehand that's a sign to us not to follow them when they have great power and great authority do not follow. And he was telling them do not follow and do you see that he's repeated this three times? Do not follow any other Christ. So if they say to you look he is in the wilderness do not go out if they say look he is in the inner rooms do not believe it for as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west so will be the coming of the Son of Man where the corpse is there the vultures will gather.

We'll take a second and talk through that. So he says you know how you can see lightning from really far off? That's what it's going to be like when I return. I sat in my backyard one time and I was watching some heat lightning and every once in a while when there's lightning going on I'll pull out the lightning map which is on the internet that shows you where lightning is striking. I want to see how far away that was. I was sitting in my backyard and I would watch lightning strike and I would look at the map and it was off the coast of Charleston.

That's what it's going to be like when I return. I sat in my backyard one time and I was watching some heat lightning and every once in a while when there's lightning going on I'll pull out the lightning map which is on the internet that shows you where lightning is striking. I want to see how far away that was. I was sitting in my backyard and I would watch lightning strike and I would look at the map and it was off the coast of Charleston. I was like no. So I pulled up Google Maps and I turned it to where I was pointing I pulled up a compass figured out which way

I was looking then I pulled up Google Maps and I turned it to it was pointing the same way and it was Charleston and I was like hmm and then I went back to the lightning map and I watched it and it would strike and I would look and it would show up on the map. So I'm so confident that's actually what was happening that I was willing to share that with you all today. You can see lightning really far away. And so what Jesus is saying is if anyone says to you he's come back say no he hadn't

Because you had to whisper it to me and when he comes back we're all going to go oh there he is it's going to be obvious he's not returning in secret he came one time quietly he came one time meekly he came one time wrapped in swaddling bands and we celebrate that but the next time he comes he rolls the sky up he splits the earth it's like lightning striking and he will return so he says then he says wherever the corpse is there the vultures will gather there's some debate about what he actually means there I think he means the same thing

As lightning meaning that it'll be obvious if you're hunting and you shoot a deer and you shoot it poorly and then you track poorly and you can't find it and you spend a long time looking for it and you go home sad you can go back the next day or a day after that and see if you see any vultures and then wherever they are is where that deer is I think that's all he's saying vultures only circle around things that are dead it's very obvious that something's dead out there if you see a bunch of vultures or if you see them all on the ground

Around something so I think that's all he's saying there's some debate there but I think he's making the same point in a colorful way verse 29 immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken then there will appear in heaven the sign of the son of man and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn

And they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other verse 32 from the fig tree learn its lesson as soon as its branches become tender and it puts out its leaves you know that summer is near so also when you see

All these things you know that he is near at the very gates truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away okay now we have to walk through some of our options because they run into each other in that section there starts being some conflict in trying to interpret this passage and understand

Where is he answering what question so let's look at the past view if you think all of everything prior to verse 36 and this is where they would say it everything prior to verse 36 where Jesus starts talking about his return more fully they would say all of that happened in AD 70 that's called the preterist view if you say everything's going to happen in the future that's called the futurist view the preterist

Based their term off of the latin word for past so it's the pastist view but pastist sounds stupid and if you were going to base futurist off of the latin word for future you'd come up with futurist because we already stole that word from latin so it works preterist view let's talk through it real quick I got some notes I'm going to try to move through this quickly

If anybody gets really geeked out about this and wants to talk more about it there are more things that I learned that did not make it to this moment all right preterist they say everything prior to verse 36 happens in AD 70 and then in verse 36 it moves on to the return of Jesus where he says no one knows that day or hour they say obviously this is referring

To the destruction of the temple and they have some weight there because Luke ties the abomination of desolation to when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies they say those days that are found in verses 19, 22 twice and in verse 29 where it says immediately after the tribulation of those days they say those days refers to

The fall of Jerusalem that great tribulation when 1.1 million Jews died and that when it says that no human being would have stayed alive it means no human being in Jerusalem they say that immediately in verse 29 means immediately those days immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened the moon the moon will not give its light

And the stars will fall from heaven and they say that this generation from verse 34 truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place means this generation which is the way Jesus has used it throughout the gospel the only time we start trying to redefine what this generation means is here when it confuses us but we've read it a bunch in Matthew 11

Three times in Matthew 12 and just last week in Matthew 23 where he says truly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation and every time we read it we thought he meant that group of people on earth they say that's what he means that group of people on earth and that's why they tie everything back in AD 70 there's some merit to that the biggest problem

Is when it says verse 29 immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened the moon will not give its light the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will be shaken that's first problem is that they then just say that's imagery they have some weight for that because Isaiah uses it as imagery Ezekiel uses it

As imagery and Joel uses it as imagery in talking about the destruction of different nations throughout the Old Testament but Joel also uses it as the end time and Isaiah also uses it as the end time when God sets up his kingdom but they say it's just imagery it means I'm going to turn your whole world upside down so if you were you know in an argument with somebody and you said

I'm about to come at you like a thunderstorm that's kind of what it means I'm going to mess everything up everything you're used to everything that you base your life on the sun's not even going to shine when I'm done with you and that's what they're saying that's what that means the other thing that they have to try to explain is then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man then all the tribes of earth will mourn

And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from the end of heaven to the other they say that happened Jesus ascended into heaven he's at the right hand of the throne of God

That's how we see him now in power in great glory and him sending out his angels is his messengers that he's sending out to share the gospel with the world that all seems a little weak to me it's an argument and you can make some of those arguments but it seems like he means this as a very big aggressive picture also

2 Peter 3 reads the sun not giving its light as literal and Paul seems to in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1 to read the gathering of the elect and the blowing of a trumpet as literal when he actually calls us to it so the preterists have some arguments for why that's AD 70 but I think there are some

Things that are weak the futurists just saying nuh-uh it's all in the future maybe a few little ways that it was kind of fulfilled there it's like a sneak peek appetizer but it's all really up here and so they would say the abomination of desolation is the same as the 2nd Thessalonian man of lawlessness the beast from the book

Of Revelation and the antichrist that John mentions in his letters and that's all to come they would say that he's actually going to come to the temple which is going to have to get rebuilt now because they destroyed it in AD 70 so they're going to rebuild the temple so that he can do this that great tribulation where it says

No human being will be saved doesn't mean human beings in Jerusalem but means all the human beings everywhere they have a very literal reading of 29 verses 33 verses 30 which is immediately after tribulation of those days meaning the great tribulation in the future Jesus returns and then they say it's literal

Sun won't give its light which they have some weight from Joel and Isaiah and from Peter to say that means it's literally going to happen that Jesus will be the son that we will enter into his eternal kingdom and that so preterists would say when it says all the tribes of earth will mourn that means

Repent as in see that things are bad and be sad futurists say no it means weeping and gnashing of teeth mourning the king has returned and I was not ready they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory he'll blow his trumpet he'll call his people home

They say that all happens in the future it's aggressive it's obvious like a lightning strike that's all that and they read this generation as the generation who sees all the end time tribulation stuff so they change the way we would have understood this generation as always being there they just say well he means it differently

Here which is a weakness to their argument because it you're changing the way you've understood it the whole time or they say this generation means all humans or all sinners or they also if you're a futurist some of the weaknesses with that argument

Is that Jesus basically does not answer their first question when will the destruction of the temple happen he only talks about future things that are past us in the future which seems odd given the context he specifically told them about the destruction of the temple

They ask about the destruction of the temple Luke seems to tie some of this to the destruction of the temple and futurists are just like no it's in the future it feels like a very us reading of it non-Jewish western don't care

Much about the temple are well removed from this and looking into the head of the future and it is a more recent interpretation of this to just say it's all future also many of the people who say this is all future then begin

When it says concerning that day and hour no one knows we haven't read this yet verse 36 not even the angels of heaven nor the son but the father only when they talk about his actual return they'll get

Really caught up in looking for all the signs to be fulfilled so that we can know when he's coming back and Jesus ends this by saying be ready because you don't know a lot of the people who push everything into the future say well this hadn't happened yet

This hadn't happened yet this hadn't happened yet and they basically go against Jesus' main argument and they kind of tell you you don't have to be ready yet that's a weakness because it contradicts his main thing

Or they get super excited about it and they start telling you they know exactly when he's coming back they write a book they get everybody together 88 reasons he's coming back in 1988 89 reasons why we were wrong last year but it's for real this time

They start doing that kind of stuff that's something that goes along with this futurist stuff double fulfillment people go well I'm with you fellas they listen to the preterists and they go seems good they listen to the futurists and go that's a good point too probably both I'm gonna go get a snack that's a little mean to the

Double fulfillment people but that is kind of how they read some of that which is just a yes it happened then yes it's gonna happen we can't fully know exactly how clean that's gonna be but let's take the main gist of what he's saying which is let's be ready and there's kind of this ongoing which means that the tribulation the end of the age

Was inaugurated when Christ rose and ascended into the heavens and he tells the Pharisees the Sanhedrin in Matthew chapter 26 he says from now on you will see the son of man seated at the right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven so that it is a from now on he did ascend he has inaugurated his reign and he

Will return and that is how we will see him that the tribulation began at the destruction of the temple so they had to prepare for these signs but it began and now we're in it this is why John well after this writes your brother in the tribulation your brother and partner in the tribulation when he writes his letter meaning that the tribulation is now happening this is

Why the New Testament writers will refer to this as the last days or the end of the ages they refer to that is the last days and the end of the ages in last days Acts to Hebrews 1 first Timothy 3 second Peter 3 into the ages as first Corinthians 10 and Hebrews 9 that we are in the end and so therefore they would read that those days

Continues and that when we see these things we know that he's near at the very gates not that he's here that he's near and that he can return at any moment that when this stuff has taken place he can now turn the latch and come through at any moment which makes sense with the rest of 36 where Jesus says you'll know that the time has come but we don't know exact moment that it'll happen I lean that way one of you might

Could corner me after this and talk me out of it because I've been reading a bunch of this but that that seems to make a lot of sense that Jesus it breaks at the moment he rises and ascends into heaven and then it's ongoing we are in the tribulation we're a brother in the tribulation with John we're in the last days we are at the end of the ages what has needed to happen to fulfill and prepare us to know that the summer is coming has happened and he is

Near the very gates but he's patient and gracious and he will return as soon as the father gives him the nod verse 36 but concerning that day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven nor the son but the father only that is a great mystery that the son does not know but the father does but the Jesus in humility submits himself to the father's timing for as were the days of Noah so will be the coming of the son of man for as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying

And giving in marriage until the flood came and swept them all away so will be the coming of the son of man then two men will be in the field one will be taken and one left two women will be grinding at the mill one will be taken and one left therefore stay awake for you do not know what day your Lord is coming I have a very hard time standing here telling you all this stuff would take place in the future and that we're waiting on a bunch of future signs and then read that and tell you to stay awake because you don't know when he's

Coming we await his coming with eager expectancy and he says a lot of things will seem really normal there will be some people who have just thrown what you can't throw rice anymore confetti at a wedding and he'll come there will be some people who have just punched the clock and gotten to work and he'll come there was some people that are working together chatting over their work and he'll come and one of them will be called one of them will hear the trumpet one of them will ascend to meet him in the air the other will not that he could come at any moment so stay awake but know this that if the

Master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into therefore you must also you also must be ready for the son of man is coming in an hour you do not expect I watched a documentary recently about a young boy who got left home by himself and he found out some people were going to break into his house he knew the hour they were coming and he got ready that's he's making a very simple point if you knew when someone was going to break in your house if I knew when someone was going to break in my house it would be an uncomfortable meeting when they showed up for them not for me he wants us to wait with eager expectancy every once in a while

Hear a noise at night and I'll get up and walk around my house and check everything and check out my windows and then I don't walk and lay back in bed and just fall asleep I lay back in bed and I hear every noise that happens in my house because I'm thinking maybe something is going on maybe I miss something and I lay and I know that it's my job to protect us because Ellis Archer and Anna aren't going to do the best I'm the best one we got my wife all the times like just go to sleep I'm like you want me awake this is my Job but if you knew you'd be ready and he says you don't know so stay ready stay awake he's coming when you do not expect verse 45 who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time meaning master's left he

Put his servants in charge they have a Job to do blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes truly I say to you he will set him over all his possessions but if that wicked servant says to himself my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards meaning that he doesn't care about the other servants around him he doesn't care about the other people he's supposed to care for he doesn't care and he wants to pursue personal pleasure to great temptations for us and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth we do not get all the answers we want but Jesus drives a few things home

Very clearly there is only one Christ his name is Jesus he will return and when he does it will be over will you be ready will you be found working and diligent and faithful and believing and loving when he comes back because he will show up like a thief in the night he will come at an hour you do not expect and at that moment those who are faithful will be welcomed into the most glorious home coming that has ever happened and those who are unfaithful and those who have run after sin and those who have ceased to love the Lord and cease to follow him will be cut into pieces and cast into darkness with hypocrites where there is weeping gnashing of teeth they asked him when will the destruction of the temple be and he says there's a few things you need to know about that but don't follow another Christ know that I'm coming back and be ready when I do and we're going to spend next week looking at a few pictures where he pushes on that even further

That's his main point in this whole answer he gives a few things that we love to get bogged down in but his main point is be ready when I come and if you have not placed your faith in Christ and you are not trusting in him to redeem your soul to save you from your sin you are not ready and if you say that you've done that but you've ceased to love and you've ceased to care and you're chasing after temporal pleasures and you don't care about the people around you and you don't care about the mission of God you are not ready who's the faithful servant who'll be ready when he comes blessed is he that is and we pray that he will return and he will return soon in power and glory and we pray that we'll be ready when he does let's pray God we thank you for your grace we thank you for the hope that we have in the gospel that you forgive sinners and we pray that we would keep our eyes on you and you alone that we would not trust in

Anything else to save us or to redeem us or to fulfill us that we would not walk into lawlessness choosing this world over you we pray Lord that we would be found diligent and serving and at work until the end comes whether that's the end of our lives the end of our days or the end of days Lord we pray that we'd be diligent in this day as we await that day we ask for your grace and your help and Lord we praise you that you will return that you will judge sin that you will save your church that it will be obvious and glorious and that we will see you coming on the clouds of heaven in power and glory and we await for the sound of the trumpet and may we stay ready in Jesus name amen you you you you you you you

You you

Woe to the Pharisees (Matthew 23)

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Due to a recording issue the audio for the first 9 minutes of the sermon is distorted. We apologize for this error.

Woe to the Pharisees

Spencer Cary

Jesus -v- The Religious Leaders (Matthew 22:15-46)

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Jesus v The Religious Leaders

Spencer Cary