Jesus poses two questions tonight as he gets at an issue so important for our spiritual health. The topic we’re digging into is: being neither hypocritical in action, nor paralyzed into inaction. Take a listen. Jesus tells us:

Matthew 7:3-5
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Do you agree with this statement? “Hypocritical actions are one of the great damaging forces in our world.” I’m thinking especially of damaging to relationships, like friendships. Do you agree? Any disagreement?

Okay, now let me focus the statement in a little further: “Hypocritical actions are one of the great damaging forces in our world …and within churches.” If they are present, if they are allowed to go unchecked, do you agree? Yes.

We might be led to ponder adopting the minimalist approach that is popular in our culture today, namely “I’ll just keep myself from commenting on anything that anyone else does, to avoid the impression of being unlovingly hypocritical.” But before you go there, or if you’ve bought into that thinking to some degree, I’ve got an additional statement for us to consider:

“Inaction is also a great damaging force in our culture in our age.” Make the statement specific to when someone else with whom you are connected – family or close friend – is involved in something harmful. Adopting an “I’ll do nothing, say nothing, in order to avoid the impression of being unloving or hypocritical” approach, results many times in a great deal of damage impacting lives. Do you agree?

Let’s pinpoint the type of toxic effects for relationships that are in play with either one of the problematic approaches we’ve identified: being hypocritical in action, as well as being paralyzed into inaction.  And keep in view there is more than our relationships with one another involved here. There is also the relationship for each one of us, as Christians, with our God that is connected here.

If we see someone in our family in Christ doing something harmful, if we do nothing we allow something toxic to go on working its damaging effects. Think about that proposition. It sounds silly! I’m sure you see the disconnect in that. We, as a family in Christ, want to help one another with identifying whatever is causing hurt or harm.

Doing that is important. And how we go at that goal is equally critical. If any “holier-than-thou” / any pride or self-righteous attitude is in the offering, the “help” being offered is actually likely to multiply the harm, rather than help remove it. Why? For starters, any correction offered with such an attitude is harmful to the one offering it. Pride or a self-righteous spirit would indicate some spiritual infection in thoughts and actions of that individual. And in many cases, the recipient of the correction too will experience additional hurt or harm. How so? Either they’ll see the self-righteous attitude for the hypocrisy that it really is, and be understandably turned off by it…. Or, there is this possibility: they can be potentially misled by the appeal of self-righteousness and pride. They may pursue the corrected behavior being offered, but if they do that with the wrong motivation of self-righteousness themselves, it is still spiritually harmful.

One word helps us guard against the immensely damaging attitude of hypocrisy when we step in to help someone else. It’s Jesus word: “first.” Matthew 7:5 - "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Now as you see Jesus’ “first,” I want you to look at 1 Timothy 1:15, and see the apostle Paul use this “first” for himself:

This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” of whom I am the first."

That “first” is a literal rendering where many English translations say “worst.”

As we place Jesus’ “first” in Matthew 7:5 beside the “first” here in Paul’s statement, we can each see a personal perspective for us to make our own. As we view ourselves - and everyone else in relation to us - I’m “first” among the sinners. If you’re standing “first” in line, seeing your sin, and then being on the receiving end of Jesus’ full and fully undeserved forgiveness and peace, - got it? - think of how that affects every interaction you have as you turn back to everyone else you face and encounter in your relationships.

Then you and I are not coming from any attitude of “holier than thou” or pride, but from an awareness of “here is a sinner who has received Jesus’ healing.” “Then” also “here is someone happy to share the healing medicine of God’s truth and love.”

Just think how different that is than if I were to be turning around to the people around me, without first standing before Jesus with the issue of my sin addressed… If I came to someone else to talk to them about their problem, but I go about that thinking I don’t have any problems myself or my problems are minor compared theirs… how much help am I going to be? That’s a recipe for turning them off (to disregard anything I offer), or tempting them to join in hypocrisy / pride themselves.

You could find example after example of harm done by those trying to correct others when they themselves have spiritual planks unaddressed.

Notice I say, unaddressed.  But once addressed, don’t leave Jesus’ “then” undone. Jesus gives a 2nd part to his answer to the questions he poses here: “First… then.” How important is this “then”?

I’ve got another statement I want you to evaluate: “The opposite of love isn’t always hateful action. It is, maybe even sometimes more powerfully, felt in apathy.” Do you agree? Can lack of action cause such a negative impact in lives? Can it cause such negative kind of impact in a church, a Christian family?
 
Our Savior knows what He is talking about when he teaches us this “first… then” truth.

Hypocritical actions do harm in churches. Think of the conclusion people are likely to draw if such actions are left unaddressed.

• “If I want to be around people looking down on me, thinking of themselves as better, I get plenty of that in the world. Why would I want more of that? Why would I want to be at a church where that is the MO?”

And on the other side of this truth tonight, lack of action does harm in churches.

• “If I want to be where no one steps in to address when something is wrong / hurtful, I can find that all over in the wider culture and society around me.”

If the church is no different than that, why would we be surprised if people said, “No thanks” or even offer the commentary that church is a place for hypocrites?
Let’s follow Jesus’ direction. When we see / hear something wrong from someone in our group, let’s lovingly, humbly act.

• The role of correcting one another, rebuking – teaching – spurring – etc., is an often stated goal / service that we are called on to provide for one another. That’s not being hypocritical, as long as the “first” Jesus instructs is always prior to the help offered to others.
• And the goal isn’t to end with the person left wallowing in rebuke or weighed down by guilt, but to walk together to hear the verdict of “forgiven,” and “not guilty” as we stand at foot of Jesus’ cross together as we enjoy the peace that we have through faith in Him.
  

Pastor Earle Treptow wrote an article entitled “Judge Me, Please!” I’m going to wrap up our topic with a few of his encouragements [2015/05/31/in FIC Features, Forward in Christ - Judge me, please! Earle D. Treptow].
While standing in line to board a plane, I noticed her tattoo. “No one can judge me,” it said. What struck me later about her tattoo was its placement. It was on the back of her neck, a place she probably didn’t see all that often. The words of the tattoo, then, weren’t really intended as words of comfort or encouragement for her. The tattoo meant to sound a warning to others. “You are going to judge me? Please! Who are you to talk to me about my attitude or my words or my actions? You’re no better than I am.”

We know exactly where she’s coming from! We don’t particularly care to have people question our attitudes or confront us about our actions. If they want to praise us for what we do, we are willing to listen. But should they wish to address some failing, we definitely don’t want to hear it.

That, however, is not the community in which the Lord wants his people to live. He brought us into his church and gave us our fellow believers for our benefit. Because he wants you to live with him forever, the Lord puts fellow believers into your life. He moves them to love you enough to judge you, to confront you with your sinful attitudes, and to rebuke your sinful actions. He does so for your everlasting good, to lead you to repentance and rescue you from death. Knowing our Savior’s love for our souls, we humbly ask our brothers and sisters in Christ, “Judge me, please!”

Or, to put that in terms of Jesus’ encouragement from Matthew 7… As we turn to one another after walking to the foot of our Savior, we say, “Please, help me see the ‘specks’ in my life.” May God grant this for His glory and for our good! Amen.

We are four weeks into our Fighting Temptation series.

Question: How is it going with that?

Are you on a hot streak against temptation like never before?
Have you been sinless for three weeks?
Are you a perfect, 1,567-0 against every temptation in the month of March?

Hmmm…
Maybe a better question is:
Have you won any temptation battles?

Today we’re going to talk about what to do when you have failed at fighting temptation. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Two Different Reactions
 
The lesson we are going to look at is from the book of James 4. James is a letter written by James, a pastor in the early Christian church to Christians everywhere. In his letter, James gives all kinds of guidance to FIGHT temptation. He tells them to not be prideful (1:11), to be slow to anger (1:19), to get rid of moral filth (1:20), to watch their tongues (1:24), to not show favoritism (2:1), to care for others (2:15), to not curse (3:10), to not be envious (3:14), to be peace-loving (3:17), to not fight amongst each other (4:1), to not covet (4:3), and to not be romantic with someone that isn’t your spouse (4:4).

That’s a lot of commands.
That’s a lot of opportunity for temptation.

But about midway through chapter 4, James begins to talk about what to do if you find yourself falling to temptation. He identifies two completely different approaches to losing: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (4:6)

Have any of you been watching the NCAA Tournament? Teams win and teams lose. It’s interesting to listen to teams when they lose – whether it’s in an interview or Twitter – there’s really two different reactions to losing:

Some say, “We lost. We didn’t play well. We didn’t deserve to win. We failed.”
Others say, “It was the refs’ fault.” “My teammate didn’t play up to his potential.” “I read a mean tweet and I wasn’t able to focus like I should.”

Two different reactions:
Humility and Pride.


It’s the same thing when we fail at temptation.
We can respond in humility or pride.
 
God opposes the proud.
God gives grace to the humble.
Be humble.

Amen?

II. Types of Pride

But it’s not necessarily that easy.
 
One of the trickiest things about pride is that pride tends to be very good at disguising itself.
It’s very good at not realizing its own sinfulness.
It’s very good at making you think – that it’s not prideful at all.

Because of that – I would submit that each and every one of us -- even long time Christians – struggle with some version of pride when we fail to temptation.   
Here’s a list of a few different prideful ways that we respond when we fall to temptation. Which one are you?
 
1. The Bar-lower-er
 
It’s like the high jump. Did any of you have to do the high jump back in high school gym class? It isn’t easy. You have to time your run, time your approach, plant off the back foot while arching your back in the air, throwing your feet back and then jack-knifing over the top.

If you aren’t very good at it, what happens? The coach lowers the bar. From 5 foot to 4 foot 6 inches to 4 foot to…maybe let’s try laying the bar on the ground.

Bar-lower-ers do the same thing with the bar of conduct that God has set:

“God, I know you said to love my spouse – but marriage is hard. You should be happy! I wasn’t that rude.”
“I know the Bible says, ‘Don’t lust,’ but that’s unrealistic. God’s probably happy that I didn’t actually sleep with her…for long.”
“I know the Bible says, ‘Love your neighbor,’ but have you met my neighbors? I’ll tolerate them. What more can you really ask for?”
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the bar-lower-er makes it over the fake bar that he set up – while ignoring the divine bar that God set up way over his head.
 
2. The Fixer
 
That name comes from politics. A fixer is the person on your political team who has the ability to fix any negative, dirty laundry news story and make you into the hero of the narrative. If you’ve ever watched Scandal, this is Olivia Pope’s job. She finds out the bad story that’s going to hurt her client, she reworks it, and feeds that story out instead in order to make her client look good.
 
The Spiritual Fixer responds to sin the same way.
 
Bitter and angry at work? No. I was just standing my ground against all the bitter and angry people who were challenging my ideas!
Cheated on my wife? Nope. I’m just a romantic. A fan of true love. I’m the good guy in the story.
Said something racist? Nope. I was baited into it…by some other friends…who knew it would happen. They’re the real racists.
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the fixer imagines himself the hero of his story --- even when God says he’s clearly not.
 
3. The Accountant
 
Kudos to actual accountants. They do impressive work. They take numbers. They take receipts. They take line items and mistakes and put them all together to try and make the numbers balance – no matter how it is.

This is hard work. It’s why Kevin from The Office developed a “Keleven” It’s a made up, magic number he uses to balance the numbers when he can’t figure out the mistake.
 
The Spiritual Accountant does the same thing. They try to take the seeming “good” that they’ve done and balance it against the bad that they just committed. Like some kind of magic number, they try to make it balance.
 
Sure. I was grumpy this morning. But I was nice from like 1:15-3:30p yesterday afternoon so…
I have been gossiping a lot lately. But I did go to church Sunday and Wednesday for the Meditation service.
I know I told a lie there. But this morning I told like 4 truths. Things like “Good morning” and “I had an egg for breakfast.” It all balances out.

And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the Spiritual Accountant thinks they’ve made up for their wrongdoing – even when God says the only way to make up for sinful wrongdoing is death.
 
4. The Bootstrapper
 
This type of person “Pulls themselves up by their Bootstraps.” Have you heard that phrase? Apparently, it means to be lying on the ground with your boots on and then, to grab ahold of the strap at the top of the boot until you are standing. This isn’t actually that possible. It’s really, really, really hard. Hence the phrase, “Pulling yourself up by your bootsteps” being an exemplary thing. If you can do that, then people will forget all about the fact that you fell – they’ll be way too impressed by the fact that you pulled yourself up by the bootstraps.

Spiritual Bootstrappers think they can do the same thing. They focus on how they’ll get themselves out of sin to distract themselves – and God – from the fact that they have sinned.
 
I know. I know. I got drunk for the 8th day in a row You might even call me addicted. No worries. When I get out of this, it’ll be that much more impressive.
Yes, I lost it on my kids again. But I’m gonna keep improving, keep working harder, and I’ll figure out how to deal with 4 whining kids all by myself.
And…I said things that made my spouse mad at me. But I’ll fix it. I’ll buy flowers. I’ll buy a nice card. I’ll send her a cutesy emoji. I’ll pull myself out of the pit I dug.
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the Bootstrapper distracts himself from his severe sin by looking at his half-hearted, sin-tainted, feeble efforts at righting it.
 
5. The Humble Looking
 
This seems a bit like an oxymoron. Because this type of response to sinning doesn’t seem prideful at all. In fact, they sound humble. They say things like, “I am a miserable sinner.” “I did an awful job.” “I am a horrible, no good, very bad person – God!”

It sounds humble.
But then…
 
God, I have so much sin, that it’s too much for you to handle on your own. I’ll try to help.
God, I’ve done so much wrong. I don’t think your blood can cover it all.
God, I really messed up. I can’t ask you to help. I don’t belong in church. That wouldn’t be right.
 
There’s false sorrow.
There’s false humility.
And there’s this strange clinging to a tiny ounce of sinful dignity, because “I’ll feel better about myself if I can help God out with getting rid of my sins.”
 
Here’s the truth:
All five of these responses to sin are prideful.
All five of these responses to sin set oneself up against God.

The Bar-lower-er says, “God, your bar wasn’t good enough. I’ll make my own.”
The Fixer says, “God, you don’t know the whole story. You’re wrong for rebuking me.”
The Accountant says, “God, if you don’t accept all the good I do for you, you’re the one who isn’t any good.”
The Bootstrapper says, “God, don’t patronize me. I don’t need your help. Even if you tell me I do need your help.”
The Humble Looking says, “God, you can’t do this on your own. You need my help.”

All five of these responses to falling at sin will leave you…imagining that you’re up and on your feet again.
 
When in reality…
You’re still lying on the ground.
You’re still beaten.
You. Aren’t. Getting. Up.
 
God opposes the proud…
But…
God gives grace to the humble. (v.6)
 
III. Blessings of Humility

Our Old Testament lesson was from the book of Judges. Have you ever read the book of Judges? It fits in really well with today’s lesson, because it is filled with a very repetitive theme:
Repeated, repetitive failures to temptation.
 
It’s a cycle.

Israel falls to temptation.
God warns them to stop.
Israel has too much pride to listen.
God warns them again.
Israel still doesn’t listen and…
God is against them.
God sends a foreign nation to overtake them.
Israel is overrun by the Assyrians, the Moabites, the Philistines.

The once proud people of Israel are defeated – lying flat on their backs.
 
But then…
As they are on their backs…
They realize that they cannot get themselves out of the predicament.

Their story changes.
They ask God for mercy.
And…
 
WHAM!
 
God acts.
He sends a conqueror.
He sends a hero.
He fights for his people and gives them the victory!
 
Friends, there is blessing in humility. Look at what James says:
 
1. The Devil Flees
 
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (v.7)
 
Which seems strange. Because you would expect your best chance at beating the devil to involve puffing your chest out, getting really big, really prideful. Like scaring off a grizzly bear. You act as impressive as possible so as to scare him off.
But…
Newsflash:
The devil is not scared of you.
Not one bit.

On the other hand, when you are humble…
When you admit that you can’t do it alone…
When you call out for help…

The devil…?
He’s absolutely terrified!
 
2. God Comes Near
 
This is the reason the devil is terrified. Look at what James writes, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”  (v.8)
Because God is a God of mercy.
He is a God of compassion.
He is a God who helps those who need help.

Also?
 
He erupts volcanos.
He flicks his wrists to send hurricane like winds.
He pours out rushing flood waters.
He is the undisputed, undefeated, champion against temptation – and there is no love lost between him and the devil.

God shows up and the devil runs.
Nope…
Sprints.
Nope…
He does one of those things that the Roadrunner used to do in Looney Tunes and leaves a cloud of dust behind.
 
3. Purification
 
James writes, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (v.8b)

Because the reality is that falling to temptation can feel awfully icky.
It can feel like the end of a long day working outside.

There’s dried sweat on your forehead.
Dirt under your finger nails.
And this…stench that just seems to be deeply entrenched in your skin.
But Jesus?

He washes us cleans.
He washes away your guilt.
He washes away your shame.
He washes away the stink and the stench.

And replaces it with the beautiful perfume of the phrase: “Forgiven.”

4. Uplifting to the Highest Heights
 
James writes, “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (v. 9-10)

The truth is the humbling yourself means that you will be lowering yourself.
There’s a moment when you say, “I am a sinner.”
A moment when you say, “I failed, again.”
A moment when you say, “I can’t do this on my own.”

During that time, you can feel really low.

But…then?

God forgives you.
God uplifts you.
God lifts you up beyond where you were before – and places you up beside Him – in His kingdom!
Do you get it? If you fall and a friend picks you up, your feet are back on solid ground.
But if you fall and God picks you up…your feet are on heavenly ground.

IV.  What Now?

The one WHAT NOW? It’s pretty simple:
Be Humble.

When you fail against temptation…

Humbly confess.
Humbly seek God’s help.
Humbly hear his promise of forgiveness.

No matter how many times you’ve fallen to temptation.

Like the son in the story that Jesus told.

Remember what he did?
He came up to his dad – long before his dad was dead – and said, “Give me my inheritance! I’ve had enough of living under your roof. I’m sick and tired of doing what you tell me to do. I’m sick of being here. There’s a whole world full of life out there. Give my money. Give my money so I can leave and never have to look at your ugly face again.”

And his dad was sad.
But he gave him the inheritance.
A couple hundred thousand dollars.

And the son takes the money.
He heads to the city.
He goes downtown.
He rents a high-rise $4,000 a month apartment.
Every night he goes to the finest steak restaurants.
He drinks top notch scotch after drinking top shelf vodka after drinking a $25 dollar shot of whiskey.
And he buys for his friends.
And he buys illegal drugs for him and his friends.
And he buys women for him and his friends.
And he wakes up around 2 pm the next day.
And does it all over again.

Until…

The money’s out.
No one will hire him.
He gets evicted.
His “friends” ignore his text messages.
He pretends to have enough cash for an Uber out of the city – only to pretend like he left his wallet in the other pants when he gets to a local pig farm that’s hiring.

And he gets a job.
Feeding the pigs.

He gives them slimy old applesauce.
He gives them moldy old cheese.
He gives them this greenish, brownish muck that he’s not sure – isn’t snot.

But…

It looks so good.
He’s so hungry.
He’s so…pathetic.

And he says to himself, “I should never have done it. I should never have left my dad. I had it good in my dad’s house. I was fed. I was clothed. I was…home.”

I sinned.
I don’t deserve to be his son.
But…maybe he’ll let me clean the outhouse. And gives me a few pieces of bread for supper.

And so…
He returns.
He makes his way to his dad’s house.

And…
When he reaches the dirt road, the long dirt road that leads to his Father’s house…
He takes a deep breath…before he walks up.

But before he can get far, way off in the distance…his dad. He sees him! And he takes off down the dirt road.

And the son thinks, “Here he comes. He’s going to give it to me. He’s going to scream at me. He’s going to tell me how awful and terrible I messed up and that I should buzz off and never be around again.”

And as his dad approaches.
He lifts up his hand.
And his son braces himself to be smacked on the cheek.

But.
His hand doesn’t hit his face.
Instead?
It embraces him.

But the son shrugs him off! “Seriously, Dad! I sinned. I did wrong. I don’t deserve to be your son! Let me work my way back. Let me do my own thing. Let me be a worker on the lowest run in your farm.”

But the dad…isn’t listening.
“Hey Walter! My son’s back!! Run; tell the cooks to get the steaks from the freezer. Go grab some of my finest wines. And text everyone that I know. There’s a party at my house tonight.”

Because…This son of mine is lost; but NOW? is found.

Friends, this is God’s reaction to you.
When you fail against temptation, humbly return.
And you’ll be welcomed home.

Amen.

We’re in the middle of a sermon series called FRESH. This week our topic is refreshing friendships. We want to learn how to seek refreshing friendships and how to be refreshing friends. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. Friendship and Its Blessings

To start – a bit of a study on the Greek word for friendship: “Philia”. Philia is actually one of four Greek words for “love”:

Storge is the word used for parental love. In parental love, love develops downward between the parent and their child. The parent loves the child because he sees the child’s need for love. The child loves the parent because of their providing.
 
Eros is the word for romantic love. In romantic love, love develops between two people that are facing each other. Picture them looking into each other’s eyes romantically. This is a back and forth relationship. The man loves the woman because she is gorgeous. The woman loves the man because he is studly.
 
Philia is a bit different. Rather than a love that involves people looking at each other, friendship love develops between two people that are standing side by side. They are side by side as they face something together.

To put it another way, friendship develops as you go through life together:

Friendship develops as you cheer for your favorite football team together.
Friendship develops as you talk about being a mom together.
Friendship develops as you watch The Bachelor together.
Friendship develops as you pretend to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles together.

Unlike the other two types of love which point the people at each other, philia love points people at their shared goal.
Friendship is a love between two people who share a common goal.

For me, some of my best friends have come from my time playing football. I shared some common experiences with those guys. I remember sweating with them. I remember getting bruised with them. I remember waking up at 5am to go and run sprints around the football field with them. I remember rolling around in the mud in the middle of a torrential downpour with them. I remember practicing in 10-degree weather, snow falling everywhere, wearing these big yellow, football coats in order to stay warm with them.

I remember winning with them.
I remember losing with them.
I remember sharing the common goal of playing football with them.

And here’s the thing – I can call up some of those friends even today and instantly get into an argument about whose fault it is that in round 2 of State tournament. We gave up a 65-yard TD run to lose the game in the closing minutes (Spoiler: It wasn’t me. My assignment was the fullback)

Maybe you have a few friends like that, too. The Bible describes the blessings of friendship:  

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. (Ecclesiastes 4:9) This is like that old Math problem. If I can paint a house in 45 hours and you can paint it in 40 hours, how fast do we paint it together? The answer is – that it’s faster. Two people with the shared goal of work, have the blessings of doing that work together.  
 
If one falls down, one can help the other up. (v.10) You get the picture of two friends whose shared goal is running a Tough Mudder. If one of them falls down into the mud, the friend will stop to help them up. Their shared goal develops a bond where it is mutually beneficial to help each other along the goal.

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. (v.11) This is the blessing of protection. Remember – this is written at a time when people walked dangerous ancient roads from city to city – where bandits could easily attack a solo travel. Two people? That increases your eyes on attack; it increases your hands in the fight; it increases the muscle power on your team. Modernly speaking, two sets of thumbs increase your chances of defeating other teams in Fortnite.

Friendship is a Biblical concept. The Bible agrees that it is a blessing for people go through life together with other people.  
 
II. Where to Avoid Friendship

But…

The Bible also has something say about where to find our friendships.
It has something to say about the difference between a beneficial friendship and a not so beneficial friendship.
 
Take a look at James 4:4-5 -
Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who choose to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  

The Bible is not saying, “Don’t be friends with anyone in this world.” Nope.  If that were the case, we’d have to pay closer attention to NASA’s trips searching for life on other planets. Chewbacca or ALF might be the only options.

But the Bible is telling us to be careful that earthly friendships do not lead us to loving the world – and worldly things – more than God.   
Specifically – I think it warns against two types of friendships:

1) Sin Based Friendships.

This may seem obvious… at least…theoretically.
Friendships that lead you into sin are not refreshing. 
Again – obviously, in theory; but oblivious in practicality.

It’s so easy for friendship to revolve around sin:

The friend with whom you share the goal of getting drunk – and the guilt of having done stupid things.  
The friends with whom you share the joy of gossiping about others – and the insecurity that they’re probably doing that about you in some other group.
The friends with whom you share the goal of getting together and bad mouthing the government – and lack giving of attention to my own inadequacies and failures.

Friendships that revolve around sin also revolve around guilt.
Around shame.
Around sadness.

There’s nothing refreshing about guilt.
 
2) Material Things. 
 
This is more challenging to see, because material things are not inherently sinful.

It isn’t wrong to have money.
It isn’t wrong to like politics.
It isn’t wrong to enjoy the sandwiches at Chick-fil-A.
And it isn’t wrong to have friendship that are based on these things.

But…what happens when material things are your focus?
 
Let me tell you about the Corinthian congregation. The Corinthian congregation was a group of believers that lived in a very materially focused society. Corinth was a trading area. Corinth had a big marketplace. Corinth was about money, money, money, money. The here. The now. The everyday. The material.

And some of the Corinthians had a lot of friends that were very focused on material things.

So…the Corinthian believers had a bit of a disconnect going on in their lives.
On Sundays, they’d gather for worship and be reminded: “It’s all about Jesus! He is our Savior. He leads to eternal life.”
The rest of the week? “Jesus doesn’t matter. He isn’t real. Worry about money. That’s real.”  

The end result? Quite a few of the Corinthian believers stopped believing in the resurrection.  

That’s why Paul writes this: “You know that bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Cor. 15:54)
It’s like adding one rotten, fuzzy, moldy apple to the apple cider mixture. As soon as that apple’s is a part of the mixture, the whole thing gets disgusting.
The Corinthians were believers, but you have so many friendships based on non-believing things – Christianity started to fall away.  
 
This is a big deal question -- Do you have friends like that?
Friends who threaten to take away your faith?  
Understand -- the Bible isn’t telling us to drop all of those friends. Nope.

But it is telling us this:

The more time you spend on friendships that have little to no focus on the spiritual, the less you will be focused on the spiritual.
The less you are focused on the spiritual, the less you are focused on your Savior.
The less you are focused on your Savior, the more your faith will weaken.
The more your faith weakens, the closer you are to drifting away from faith forever.

III. Where to Seek Friendship

But if that’s where we should avoid seeking friendships,
What kind of friendships should we seek?
 
The Centurion paced back and forth in his office.
If ever he needed friends, it was right now.
 
You see – one of his trusted associates, a comrade, a friend, a coworker was very ill.
Deathly ill.
Incurably ill.

He was in need of a friend…
 
…But not just any friend.

He didn’t need a friend who could express platitudes and offer his “thoughts” being with them.  
He was in need of a friend who could help.
A friend who could heal.

Because of his high position in the Roman government, he had plenty of places to look for that friend.
He could ask his higher ups for access to Caesar’s doctors.
He could ask his wealthy friends for contact in upcoming medicine.
He could ask his well-travelled commanders if they knew anyone from their travels who might be able to help.

But he didn’t turn to them.

Instead, he turned to the country he had conquered.
Instead, he turned to someone who wasn’t a doctor.
Instead, he turned to a lowly carpenter’s apprentice that he had never met.

Jesus.

And he said, “Heal my servant, but Lord, don’t trouble yourself (to come here), for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (v.6-7)

Jesus, I don’t deserve your help.
I might be a Roman centurion that commands a myriad of soldiers that enforce their rules of the country that you are but a lowly traveling minister of, but…I know, full well…that I don’t deserve your friendship.

Because you are more than a lowly carpenter.
You. Are. God Himself.

Help.

And…
Jesus didn’t ignore Him.
Jesus didn’t say, “I have other friends.”
Jesus didn’t say, “And…who are you?”
Nope.

He simply healed his servant.

1. Jesus

There is no better friend than Jesus.
There is no friend more helpful.
There is no friend more worthy of being sought.
No friend more kind.
No friend more powerful.
No friend more merciful.
No friend more forgiving.
No friend who loves you more than Jesus Christ himself.

In fact, John 15 says this: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Understand – that’s what Jesus did for you. He not only said, “I’ll be your friend…even when you’ve sinned against me.”
He’ll said, “I’ll be your friend. And as my first act of friendship, I will die for you.”

And then, look at what Jesus says in John 15, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
 
Jesus calls you His friend.
And it means – you can call him YOURS.

And it means – there is no greater friendship that you can seek than your friendship with your Lord.
 
2. People who Point You to Jesus

If your friendship with Jesus is the number one friendship to seek, then a secondary type of friendship is people who point you to Jesus.

Maybe you’ve got a friend like that.
A friend who points you to Jesus.
A friend who reminds you of your Savior.
A friend who encourages you in the faith.

If you you’re having trouble thinking, look around. Do you see all these people? That’s why they exist.
You need them.
They need you.

In fact, Hebrews 10 says this, “Let us not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
The point? Find friends who point you to Jesus.
Be a friend who points people to Jesus.

IV. WHAT NOW?

1) Meetup with Church Friends
 
This is essentially the writer’s point in Hebrews when he says, “Do not give up meeting together.” The reason is twofold: (1) Don’t give up meeting with those who can refresh your faith. (2) Don’t give up meeting with those whose faith you can refresh.

And this isn’t just a Sunday thing.
It’s not just friends that you see for one hour a week each Sunday.

Nope.

These are friends that God’s Word tells us to uplift throughout the week.

Question – You ever hung out with anyone at church during the week before? You should do it.
Are you nervous to ask them? Don’t worry they’re nervous, too.

Grab a coffee.
Send a Facebook message.
Have them over to your house.

And don’t just make a text message group. Is there any wonder that we are more connected now than ever before? Social media apps, 15 different ways to stay connected all within the palm of our hand – and yet – suicide rates are higher than ever in the U.S. Depression rates are high. Loneliness is high.

Because even though this is a blessing, if it is our only form of communication – we are missing something.

Actual. Physical. Interaction.

A high five.
A hug.
A fist bump.

The Bible says, “Meet together.” Christians at the time of writing Hebrews, would have longed for a safe place to meet together, without the Roman government that wanted to KILL them.

We have the ability to meet together.
Let’s do so.

2) Encourage Each Other

Then, when we do meet together, look at what we’re to do:  Encourage one another.

Notice it doesn’t say: “Let us not give up complaining to each other.”
Nor does it say: “Let us not give up gossip with one another.”
Nor does it even say: “Let us not give up getting together to fight.”

Nope.  

Meet together and encourage each other.
May I dare say that if you’re looking for something encouraging to say – there is nothing more encouraging than the message of Jesus.

3) Bring God into the Friendship

Because God doesn’t want you to only associate with believers.  Look at Matthew 5, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before people that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.”

If your light is going to shine before people who are in darkness, it necessitates that you interact with those in darkness.
Make friends in the world. Make friends with people who don’t believe. Make friends with those who aren’t focused on Jesus.

But…
Then…
Quietly…
Patiently.
Kindly.

Tell them about Jesus.
Bring them the light of the world.
And I’ll tell you this – you will be the most REFRESHING friend they’ve ever met!

Because…

Do you remember earlier? We mentioned there were four types of love.  I only talked about three. The fourth type of love is called AGAPE. Agape love is different than all the other loves. Because all the other loves are conditional.

I’ll love my child; if he acts like my child.
I’ll love my spouse; if she loves me.
I’ll love my friend; if we have things in common.

But Agape LOVE? It’s unconditional.
It’s one sided.  
It’s love that just loves because that’s what this kind of love does.

That’s a kind of love that humans aren’t very good at.
But it is a kind of love that GOD specializes in.

And now, think about this: The God who has undeserved, constant, undisputed love for you – is the same God who is your friend!
The God with Agape love is your God of your Philia love.

That’s Refreshing.
And that’s the same refreshing message that God has called you to prepare for others.
Because the hearts of a REFRESHING friendship is none other than Jesus.
 
Amen.

Today we are finishing up our series called the Kingdom of God is Like. Throughout this series we have looked at a variety of parables that teach us a variety of things about the Kingdom of God. Do you remember them all? There should be 10.

We learned that God’s kingdom is like…
 
A sower that throws seed on the ground because sometimes faith grows; sometimes it doesn’t.
A growing seed because faith grows through repeated, repetitive, consistent and persistent use of God’s Word.
A mustard seed because it is seemingly insignificant work that is of eternal significance.
A homeless fox because it is greater than any material wealth.
An abandoned burial plot because it is greater than any earthly task.
A plow because it is greater than any human relationship.
A treasure because it is worth giving up everything to make sure it’s yours.
A net because it collects all sorts of people on this earth – people that will be sorted when the kingdom work is over.
A banquet because the party will be so awesome in heaven there won’t be any regrets about unaccomplished earthly work here.
 
One thing that all of those parables have in common is that they focused on future fulfillment. Jesus was teaching his disciples about something that would happen later on.
Today’s parable deals with immediate fulfillment. As in – as soon as Jesus gets done telling it – the exact things he had just predicted to happen began to happen.

Intrigued? This is the parable of the Vineyard Crime Scene. Before we begin, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. The Parable of the Vineyard Crime Scene
 
This parable comes from Matthew 21:33. The timeline of this parable is important. It takes place at the end of Jesus’ three years of ministry.

For three years he has preached the good news of God.
For three years he has proclaimed forgiveness to ‘sinners.’
For three years he has befriended the lowly, scum of society.

And…
For three years….
He has infuriated the religious leaders of the day.
 
In fact, they hated Jesus!
In fact, it would not have been a stretch to say: They hated Jesus!
Crowds had stopped following them and started following Jesus. They hated that.
Crowds had stopped listening to them and started listening to Jesus. They hated that.
Jesus called them “sinners” lumping them in with the scum of society – ‘regular, common, disgusting people.’ They hated that most of all.
 
And Jesus knows this.
He knows they hate him.
He knows they want to kill him.

So…
He tells the following parable to them:

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He does a lot of the hard work to get the place up and running. He tills the ground. He plants the seeds. He builds an irrigation system. He installs that fence-like apparatus up and down the rows so that the grape vines can grow onto it.

Then, when he has the winery up and running, he realizes – I could make a decent amount of money on this. After all, winery tourism is a huge deal. He builds a wall around it, installs a wine press, adds a watch tower, maybe even a nice patio for visitors to enjoy sipping on a Merlot while the sun sets on the chateau in the distance.

Then, when it’s ready to make some money: He rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. (v.33b) Not that he didn’t still have some involvement. (Our guy is smarter than that) He makes a deal with the farmers to pay him his share of the profits that they make on his winery. Maybe, 25%? (It’s one of those royalty deals that Mr. Wonderful loves to do on Shark Tank.) As long as they are making money on it, he’s making money on it too.

It’s fair.
It's legal.
It’s his land and it’s nice they are able to use it at a low price and make some money too.
 
But…
 
The time comes for him to pick up his money.

He checks the mail – nothing there.
He looks at his Google Money Request – no dice.
He searches his email for ‘winery royalty’ and there are ZERO search results.

He sends one of his trusted servants. “Could you go to my winery tomorrow and pick up the royalty payment for me? Here’s some spending cash and a first-class airline ticket. Thanks!”

And the servant goes.
And the man waits for him to return.
And he never comes back.

So he says to a second servant: “Maybe Bob wasn’t the most trustworthy. Maybe he took the spending money and went gambling or something? I don’t know. Here. You go to that winery and bring me the royalty check.”

And that servant goes.
And the man waits for his return.
And he never comes.

This goes on for three, four, five servants – until finally, one of them makes his way back to his master.
He in a cast.
He’s bruised.
He’s bloodied.
He’s beaten.

The farmers did this to me. I introduced myself politely as your representative. I reminded them that this was your land and it was a kind thing for you to let them use it. And then, they smiled—and sucker punched me. They started kicking me. One of them grabbed a vine to strangle me. If it wasn’t for the pepper spray that I packed on my key chain, I would never have gotten out of there.

Worse. Some of the other servants weren’t so lucky.
I saw a company vehicle that had been torched.
I came across Bob’s blood-stained company jacket.
I hacked into some security footage that shows one of our guys being murdered because he asked for the money.
 
These aren’t farmers! They’re murderers! Let’s get ‘em.
 
But the entrepreneur doesn’t get angry.
He doesn’t call the police.
He doesn’t seek revenge…yet.

He says, “Let’s send my son.” They will respect my son. (v.37)  

And…
So…
Entrepreneur Jr. gets called into the office.
They explain the situation to him.
They figure – he’s so well-known and so heavily photographed by paparazzi, surely the farmers won’t harm him because such a crime would result in obvious retribution.

But when his son gets there.
And steps out of the company limousine.
And he greets them with a smile and a hearty handshake:
“Gentlemen, I know you’ve had some differences in the past, but I am not here to take everything away from you. I’m just here to collect the portion of rent that is rightfully, legally my dad’s. If you can hand me that check, I’ll be on my way and you can go back to working this vineyard – my Father’s vineyard – in peace. Does that sound like a deal?”
 
He holds out his hand for the check.
And he smiles.
And the farmers smile.
And they reach in their back pockets.

But not for their wallets,
For their weapons:
“This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.” So they took him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (v.39)

II. The Reality of God’s Kingdom
 
Hmmm…
This may be the darkest of the parables.
It seems like it belongs on HBO programming and not in the Bible.

But remember – every parable is an earthly story that teaches us about God’s kingdom.
And Jesus told this parable to teach the angry, hate-filled religious leaders something about God’s kingdom.

When he gets done with the parable he asked them:
When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? (v.40)

And they respond correctly.
He’ll bring those wretches to a wretched end. (v.41)
He’ll get revenge.
He’ll avenge the death of his son.
He’ll get the police involved and all of those murders will be arrested!
Then, he’ll get some new tenants – some better tenants – and rent out the vineyard to them.

Look at Jesus’ response to their answer:
Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…” (v.42)
 
It’s one more mini parable. This one is about construction. Because in construction, when you are building a house – especially in the ancient world of stone built, brick by brick walls, one of the most important parts of building was the cornerstone.

A cornerstone needs to be a perfectly right angle. The 90-degree bend ensures that every other wall is aligned perfectly in the square. If it’s 89.9 degrees? The whole building will be off. If it’s 90.01 degrees, the building will be off.

It needs to be perfectly straight.
Perfectly beautiful.
And perfectly hefty as it is foundational for the whole house.

Well, apparently when the builders were looking for the cornerstone – they came across a pretty ugly stone.
It’s not square.
It’s not straight.
It’s just a rock that doesn’t deserve a place anywhere really.

It’s unimpressive.
And uninspiring.
They pick it up and toss it into the construction dumpster.
They don’t need it.

Do you get it yet?
Do you understand the parables?

Because the religious leaders did.
In fact, mark it down!
This is the only parable that they ever understood perfectly. Look:
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. (v.45)
 
They were the ones who had rejected Jesus, the cornerstone.
They were the ones who kept rejecting God’s servants.
In fact, they were the ones who were literally plotting the death of God’s only Son!
 
And instead of repenting when they hear Jesus call them out…
Instead of asking forgiveness…
Instead of seeking compassion…what do they do?
They bring the parable to fulfillment:
They looked for a way to arrest Jesus. (v.45)
They looked for a way to arrest the Vineyard owners’ son.
They looked for a way to dispose of the rejected stone.
 
III. A Familiar Crime Scene…
 
Why? Why did the Religious leaders do it?
Why did they reject Jesus as Savior and plot his death?

Simple.

They wanted to steal God’s glory.
PROBLEM: They wanted God’s kingdom to be about their glory.

They didn’t want to depend on someone else, they wanted the glory of depending on themselves.
They didn’t want to have to trust in someone else, they wanted to trust in their own awesomeness.
They didn’t want to have faith in some carpenter from Galilee, they wanted trust in their own sinful selves from Idiotville.

And they were so confident that they wanted no part of Jesus – they were willing to KILL him and fulfill the parable that he just told about them – forever etching themselves in the annals as wretched wretches…

…just to steal some of God’s glory for themselves.

But that’s the part where the crime feels eerily familiar.
 
It’s kinda like a calling card left by a serial criminal.
The Joker in Batman leaves behind a Joker card.
The local gang leaves behind their brand of graffiti.
The Wet Bandits in Home Alone leave behind a flooded sink.

This “STEALING GOD’S GLORY” thing is a calling card of a very familiar criminal:
Self-Righteousness.
 
Did ya’ll have a good Thanksgiving dinner? Maybe you had some delicious potatoes and some of those green beans with the crispy onions sprinkled on top. Maybe you had some delicious oven roasted turkey with gravy.

And maybe you were involved in making that meal happen!
You spent hours putting it together.
You have blisters from holding the French Chef knife.
Your wallet has a burn hole from the money you spent on the food.

You’re tired.
You’re hungry.
You’re ready to enjoy the meal that you have earned.
And then, right before that first bite of potatoes and gravy, someone inevitably says : “Let’s all take turns saying one thing we’re thankful for.”

And someone thanks God.
And someone else thanks Jesus.
And someone else thanks this God guy again.
And finally, it’s your turn and you get your chance to speak and say: I’m thankful that…I didn’t get too tired this year to make the meal. I mean, I was, but I pulled through. I just buckled down and made the meal. You know – the one that you’re all eating! I did that. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Thank you! I mean – Thank me for making this a great year for me”

Friends, watch out for self-righteousness.
He resides in each of us.
He wants us to steal God’s glory.

“Sure, God loves you. It’s because you’re so lovable.”
“You don’t need Jesus. You’re a pretty good person on your own.”
“OK! Fine, Jesus died for you! But YOU’RE the one who believed in Him so…who’s the real hero here anyway?”

Today, God approaches you like that vineyard owner and asks that you give him what is rightfully his – HIS GLORY!
And the warning from Jesus’ parable is this:

Don’t boot God from God’s kingdom.
Because without God? It’s not God’s kingdom.
And without God’s kingdom… well?

That’s just you. Facing God’s vengeance.
Alone.

IV. The Cornerstone

Do you remember the rejected stone?
The one with all the bumps.
The one that looked like a terrible choice for any kind of stone, so the builders threw it into the dumpster?

This isn’t in the parable, but I imagine that before they left work for that day the workers went to clock out And as they left, they told their boss that the stone he recommended, didn’t work out! So, they threw it away.

And the boss apologizes. “No worries guys. I’ll work on it. I’ll find the perfect cornerstone and have it in by the morning.

So…
The next day…
As they are drinking their coffee and preparing for another day of work, they come to the construction site and…WHOA! There in the corner – where the best of the best – the visually perfect and totally right stone should be – is that stone that they, the builders, had rejected.

It has become the cornerstone.
 
And despite the Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus!
And despite their dumping of him into the rejection heap of the cross
And throwing him into a make shift dumpster –called a grave…

Three days later.
Three days later…

Three days later, he comes back to life.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone. The LORD has done this and it is marvelous in his eyes.” (v.42b)

Because no one else could have done this!
No one else could remove our sins.
No one else could win our forgiveness.
No one else could rise form the dead and then promise us eternal life as well.

Except God himself.

Here’s the truth: God’s kingdom is ALL about GOD’S glory.

It’s not about you achieving some kind of glory on your own.
It’s not about you getting enough glory so that God might like you.
It’s not about you earning your way to heaven.

It’s about his grace.
it’s about his forgiveness.
It’s about his glory.

But here’s the thing! Wouldn’t it have been much easier for God to win glory if he just put on some really cool laser light show?
Why didn’t he just stick to making a beautiful sunset?
Why did he go through with all of this awful, suffering and death…he obviously knew it was coming and went through with it anyway?

Answer.
You.

God went through with this suffering and death in order to bring you into his glory.
Because while God’s kingdom is all about God’s glory…, it’s also true that God’s kingdom is about YOU sharing in God’s GLORY.

That’s why Jesus did what he did.
He loved you that much.

In fact, that’s really the point of all these parables. Whether it’s about planting faith in our heart or preparing a banquet in heaven, whether it’s collecting us in the net of his kingdom work or being the cornerstone to build our eternal lives upon…It’s all about God’s glory and it’s all about YOU sharing in God’s glory.

Glory be to God!
God’s kingdom is marvelous in His eyes!
And…I hope…it’s marvelous in yours too. Amen.

For Humbling Us
Of all the things that get in our own way, pride is our own biggest obstacle. Why? Because it’s entirely unjustified. We are not good. We have nothing good in ourselves. We can produce nothing objectively good. Only God can do that. Only God can make us good. Only God can help us. Only God and his blessings are worth being proud of. When we start to have pride in ourselves, we need to be humbled.

Like Joseph. Joseph had gotten a bit of a big head. Dad liked him best of all his brothers. He had dreams that his family would bow down to him someday, and he was a little too happy to talk about that. And so, God humbled him. God took Joseph from his cushy place as Dad’s darling and sold him into slavery to remind him that he had no power of his own, that everything worth anything comes from God alone.

And so when we get too proud of ourselves, too confident in ourselves, we thank God that he takes the effort to humble us again, to take our power away, to show us how little we have on our own, so that we can return to the source of our real strength, God alone.

Genesis 37:19-28
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” 21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. 25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
 
For His Own Timing
In an age of microwaves, the internet, smartphones, and other marvels, life has not gotten easier because of the conveniences, it has gotten more hectic. We expect everything immediately. I sent you a message an hour ago! I can’t believe it’ll take a full day before this is ready! These expectations only make life harder on us, we only contribute to it when we expect the same of others. And even moreso when we expect it of our God.

But God has his own timetable. With a perspective of time that we can’t match and wisdom beyond our understanding, God knows exactly when the right time to act is. And despite our best efforts to advise God, the time is not always what we think it should be, which would usually be “now”. God says be patient, I have better in mind for you.

Joseph had to understand this. He probably had hopes that he could be released from prison after helping one of Pharaoh’s own. But the time was not right. We’ll see shortly, he needed to stay where he was for now so that he could be in the right place to deliver a message from God to Pharaoh and in doing so save entire nations starvation.

For Daily Bread
The land of Egypt and surrounding nations were about to be in trouble. There would be seven very good years of harvest, but they would be followed by seven years of drought and famine. Imagine being lulled into the security of seven years of abundance, growing wasteful, and suddenly it’s all taken away from you. Maybe you don’t have to imagine. Maybe you’ve had that moment in your life where it felt like all was lost. But the God of grace and mercy promises to provide. Even to people who did not know him or worship him as God. So God put Joseph in the right place at the right time to warn Pharaoh of what was coming.

We thank God for providing. We are utterly dependent on our God in all ways, but sometimes we forget just how much we depend on him daily, even hourly. We need food and drink. Shelter and clothes. And our God provides daily. We don’t earn it. We don’t deserve it, but our God gives it to us all the same. It doesn’t always come in the way we expect, but our God never lets us down. And for that we give thanks. And we show our thanks by offering part of his gifts back to him.

For Forgiveness
For Joseph, things seemed to turn out alright. Yes, he had difficulty, but now he was second in command of Egypt. Not bad for starting as a slave. Joseph could have let the power and authority go to his head, but instead he recognized that he was only where he was by God’s hand and that God had only given him this honor in order to serve a greater good, the saving of lives.

It was this attitude that allowed him to face another challenge with a godly attitude; the reunion with his brothers. He had it within his authority to have them jailed the moment he saw them, even executed if he saw fit. But he didn’t. He recognized that he was as much a sinner as they each were. He recognized that through their sinful actions God had worked a greater good as he always does. Such understanding allowed him to face his brothers without anger and instead with forgiveness.

We give thanks to God that he allows the same in us. That by his spirit he creates hearts within us that are able to forgive just as he forgave us. We give great thanks that we are pardoned by the blood of Jesus, but we also give thanks that by his power we are able to release old hurts and grudges and live at peace with those who have wronged us. What a great gift to not need to be burdened and burned up from within by anger and rage but rather to be at peace, knowing that our God worked good for us even through the hurts, and knowing that the blood of Jesus paid for the crimes against us even as it paid for the crimes we ourselves committed. We give thanks that we are able to forgive.

For Our True Home
Despite all the good that happened with Joseph’s life, there was still a problem at the end of it. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Egypt was fine, and his family was provided for, but this wasn’t the place that God promised his great-grandfather. As fine as the living was, Joseph knew they wouldn’t stay. And he didn’t want them to stay, it wasn’t what God had in mind for them. Sure enough, down the road that would become very clear when the time came for Moses to lead the people out.

Despite everything that we have to be thankful for here and now, all the blessings God gives us, it is not perfect. It is far from it. Every day has its own pains and heartaches and troubles. Sometimes they pile on so deep and so quickly it could lead a person to despair. And so, we give thanks to our God that we are not staying here. This is not our true home, that is still to come.

There is much to be thankful for here and reasons to be happy while here. But we give thanks that God keeps our eyes down the path, in good times and bad, looking ahead to our true home that he has promised us. It is our greatest encouragement in all parts of life, that by the blood of Jesus we have an eternity with God to look forward to.

For the Savior
You might be surprised to hear that for as much attention as Joseph gets in the Bible, he’s not actually part of the line of the savior. That was his brother, Judah. Still, his life did serve one very important purpose. His actions and intervention during the Egyptian famine ensured that his family did not starve. His brothers lived, and their families lived. And through Judah, down through the line, was eventually born David the King and through David’s line was the ancestry of both Joseph and Mary, and from them, Jesus.

God made a promise in Eden, that someone would come to crush the serpent’s head. Jesus has done this for us. By Jesus we are saved. By Jesus are sins forgiven. By Jesus is the eternal home opened to us. Without him, this would all be meaningless. All the other things we might be thankful for are just dust in the wind, here and gone. Without Jesus the eternal gifts would not exist. Without Jesus we would have pale comforts for a short time until an eternal death.

And so more than anything this evening and every day, we give thanks for the Savior. We could lose everything, have all our earthly possessions taken from us, our family dead or gone, our health destroyed and be in pain every moment the rest of our lives and we could STILL be thankful, because it will end and Jesus will take us home. Above everything and at every moment, we give thanks for the savior Jesus.

​Last week, we heard about how the Apostle Peter brought the Gospel to the Jews that lived in Lydda and Joppa. Today we’re going to hear about the first time that Peter brought the Gospel to people that weren’t Jews at all. As we study God’s Word, we’re going to delve into some very important and timely truths about the Gospel and Race. Before we do that, a prayer:

Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. The Story

The lesson picks up right where we left off last week. Peter is still in Joppa. He’s still ministering to Tabitha. He’s still sharing the message of Jesus with people who were quite interested in hearing him, since he just brought a dead woman back to life. 
 
But eventually, Peter needs a break. Acts 10:9 says, “About noon...Peter went up on the roof to pray.”
 
Now, you don’t need to picture Peter trying to balance on a 45-pitch roof. (OSHA is not involved with this story). At that time, roofs were mostly flat. Since homes were commonly built in close proximity to each other to maximize space – it was used like a porch. It was relaxing and quiet, a good place for uninterrupted prayer.

And there must have been a lot of exciting things on Peter’s mind:   

He’s thankful the Outreach initiatives that have taken place in Lydda and Joppa.
He’s starting to brainstorm for a new group – a Jews for Jesus – outreach group for Jews about Jesus.
He’s thinking it might be wise to plan a church outing to the local Jewish Carpenter’s Baseball game.
He’s brainstorming how to take my favorite Jewish songs and melodies – and transform them into songs about Jesus.
 
In short, Peter is excited.
He’s thrilled.
He’s happy to see God work on the hearts of his Jewish compatriots.
And he heads to the roof for guidance from God!
 
While he’s up there, praying and praying and praying, he starts to get hungry.
But before he can head downstairs to the kitchen, he sees some food….
…Coming down from the sky.
 
Peter saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners…. like a picnic cloth… It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” (10:12-13)
 
And Peter looks at the animals on the sheet.
And Peter’s tummy rumbled.
And Peter was hungry.
And Peter said:
“Surely not Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” (v.14)
 
A bit of an explanation.

In the Old Testament, God revealed himself through the people of Israel. He chose to interact with them, do miracles on their behalf when they followed him, and against them when they didn’t. God did this – not because he loved the people of Israel more than other people – but because…He needed to choose some group of people to reveal Himself as the true God, lest all worship the sun, the moon, the stars, a pile of rocks, some dead scorpion, or some really bad abstract art.
 
It's essentially the Krispy Kreme Principle. Krispy Kreme lights up its sign to let you know when there are fresh, hot donuts available. The point of the sign is to get you to pay attention to the doughy goodness’ availability.  
 
To get the attention of the other nations, God did miracles among the nation of Israel. (He split the Red Sea. He sent bread from heaven. He made the walls of Jericho come tumbling down).
God did miracles in the Israelite nation so that people of any nation might see that he is the true God of all nations.
 
When God has the attention of the other nations, what does he want to teach them? Key truth #1: God is HOLY. He is a God who hated sin. A God who loved purity.
 
Why is this God’s number one truth? Because if we don’t realize that truth, we’ll just remain in our sin, blissfully unaware of how far short from perfection we have fallen. When we realize that God is HOLY and he demands HOLINESS and we aren’t HOLY and have zero HOLINESS, we fall to the ground and ask God for mercy – and he granted that mercy in sending a Savior – Jesus Christ.
 
Knowing God is HOLY is important in understanding the need for the Gospel.  
One way God taught his HOLINESS to other nations was through the Israelite diet.

Leviticus 11. It’s probably not a section of Scripture that any of you have memorized. It isn’t a part of Scripture that makes its way to Social Media posts. It doesn’t make for very good Scripture art around your home. But within Leviticus 11, God reveals strict dietary restrictions for the people of Israel. His goal? Make their diet so drastically different from that of other nations that people take notice, ask about the diet, and learn that God is HOLY.
 
Some of the restrictions were as follows:

Only finned sea creatures. This allowed for fish. But it meant that you couldn’t have lobster, crab or any kind of sushi.
Only domestic birds. Chicken and turkey were cool; pheasant, owl, vulture? Not so much.
Only animals that have a divided hoof and chew the cud. Again, beef and lamb are fine, but not camels and (the biggest tragedy of all) pigs. (Understand: NO BACON!)
 
When Peter looked at the picnic blanket from heaven, there were some animals there that would make fine cuisine: Oysters Rockefeller. Buttered crab. Stuffed Pheasant. Bacon Wrapped Bacon! He was hungry, but every animal on the blanket was one of the Old Testament forbidden animals and Peter didn’t want to disobey God’s Old Testament laws, so he replied to God: Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean!

And Peter must have felt pretty good about his answer.
He had just listened to God’s voice in the Old Testament;
He just ignored God’s voice that had just spoken to him in order to do so…but…
 
God responds:
“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (v.15)
 
At the end of the vision, while Peter was standing there – a bit dumbfounded– and deeply pondering the meaning: Is bacon OK now? Should I stop by the local BBQ shop? A knock came from the downstairs door. Being on the roof, Peter scooted to the ridgeline and peeked over at the visitors. From the third floor he could make out the unmistakable insignia of Roman soldiers. Gentiles. Non-Jews. Non-Jews that currently were enforcing an unwanted rule on their kingdom.
 
Peter’s first thought was to hide.
His second thought was “those lousy good for nothing Romans.”
His third thought was “I want nothing to do with their kind.”

Then, God spoke again:
“Simon…Get up. Go downstairs. Go with these men.” (v.19)
 
Remember I mentioned the Old Testament dietary law? It was one of the ways that God impressed his holiness upon Old Testament Israel. There were other ways. They wore certain clothing. They made certain altars. They sacrificed certain sacrifices. And – they worshipped with certain people.

To impress His holiness on all people – Old Testament Israelites circumcised their male children. That was different in ancient times. No other nation did it. God had Israel do it, as a symbol of cutting off the sinful nature and being made new in God’s mercy.
 
Since the Jews were circumcised and every other race of people wasn’t, this meant that oftentimes the Israelites did things by themselves.
In fact, over time Jewish leadership developed rules that helped to keep people obeying God. They made a rule that you could not eat with anyone who wasn’t a Jew. That you could not have someone who wasn’t a Jew enter your home; that you could not enter the house of someone who wasn’t Jewish, because you dare not spend time with people who were “impure.”

All Israel knew that.
All Israel practiced that.
Peter knew that.
Peter practiced that.

But God just said, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
And God had just told him to follow these men to their home so…

Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. (v.23)
Peter started out with them the next day (v.23b)
Peter arrived at the house of a Roman centurion named Cornelius and he entered the home. (v.25)

Did you hear that? Peter just broke hundreds of years of Jewish tradition to follow the voice of God.
 
Then, Peter gets to talking with Cornelius and it turns out Cornelius had a vision, too. God had come to Cornelius and given him specific instructions to send a group of men to Joppa to the exact house that Peter was at and to ask for a guy named Peter.

This was no coincidence.

So… Peter says this:
“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.” (v.34-35)
 
And Peter went on to tell these non-Jews people about Jesus.
He told them about how Jesus died for them.
He told them about how Jesus rose for them.
He told them about how Jesus fulfilled God’s plan to save them.
He told them about how anyone who believes in Jesus – any Jew – and even any non-Jew – receives forgiveness of sins in His name. (v.36-43)

He told them this because Peter now understood this important (and still relevant) truth: 
God does not have a favorite “race” of people.
In God’s eyes, people are people.
 
There’s not a racist bone in God’s body.
There’s not a racist tweet in the Bible.
There’s not an ounce of racism in His way of thinking.

God created every race of people.
God loved every race of people.
God saw that every race of people had fallen into sin.
God sent a Savior for every race of people.
God’s blood covered the sins of every person of every race of people.

In short, no matter who you are; no matter what race you are; no matter what culture you are:
Jesus loves you.
Jesus died for you.

And no matter who your neighbor is, no matter what race they are, no matter what culture they are:
Jesus loved them.
Jesus died for them.

II. What Now?  

The point of all this is still relevant today. It means not feeling guilty about a BLT sandwich. Guilty about bacon-wrapped, deep fried, pork chops? Maybe – but the guilt is for other reasons! 
The deeper truth isn’t about food; but people.

(1) Identify Your Own Prejudice (and Fight Against it)
 
Granted. You might be saying:
“But pastor! I don’t have any prejudice. I love all people. I love all cultures. I love all races of people.”

Fair enough.
I would hope that none of you openly confess to hating a certain race of people.
If you do openly confess that certain races of people are better than others, repent! That’s sinful. 
 
But even if you don’t openly confess it, be careful:
Our prejudices can be trickier than that.

For example, what if I had started preaching today in a turban?
Or what if I had planned for worship only Gospel songs? The ones with lots of clapping and plenty of “Amens.”
Or what if the snacks afterwards were nothing but sushi?
 
You might not love it.
You might complain about it.
You might say, “That’s not what we do.”
 
Friends, that’s prejudice.

And we shouldn’t be surprised that all of us suffer from prejudice, because that’s what sin does.
Sin selfishly, egotistically focuses inward and says, “I am the best. My culture is the best. My people are the best. God loves how we do it best.”

Repent. This is not Godly.

Thankfully God doesn’t have prejudice. (not even against people who are prejudiced – aka – all of us).

Jesus battled those sins of prejudice for us.
Jesus took them to the cross.
Jesus died for us and our subtle racism and all of our prejudices.
 
Thanks be to Jesus.
Now he asks us to lay them at his go out to fight against them.
And we do that by #2:
 
(2)  Obey God’s Call
 
The voice from heaven was not the first time Peter learned the less that God doesn’t play favorites. Jesus had taught that, too! He spent time with Samaritans. He spoke to a woman at the well who was a Samaritan. He healed the servant of a Roman soldier. Jesus even ordered Peter directly: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
 
Up to this point, Peter had been thinking that “Go and make disciples of all nations” meant, “Go and make disciples of the Jews living in all nations.”
He was wrong.

And to his credit, when he realizes this, he obeys God right away. He takes the men into his home. He follows them to their home. He enters and shares the Gospel with them.

Do the same thing.

God didn’t say, “Go and make disciples of all the white people in Raleigh.”
He didn’t say, “Go and make disciples of all the Midwestern transplants in Raleigh.”
He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

Here’s the thing – when we do that – that kind of love reaches out past racial lines and unites people.
Honestly, it’s just like those Old Testament dietary restrictions. Only instead of watching what we eat, we watch how we act towards those who are different.

Because the truth is that America is divided by race. Racist pride is touted as desirable trait that leads to more and more divisiveness.

The Cross of Jesus is different.
The Cross of Jesus unites.
The blood of Jesus covers us all.

The church (our church) is to be a place where God has brought people of all languages, cultures and backgrounds – together.  That’s different. If done correctly, it will stick out like an Old Testament Jew ordering the lamb at a Pork BBQ place.

It’ll stick out in a good way.

How do we do this?
We love one another.
We reach out to those that are different from us.
We are willing to say, “My desires and my culture are different than yours. And that’s ok. In fact, my desires and culture will take a back seat for the sake of you, my friend, and your culture.”
 
Conclusion:
 
When you do this…
When we go to work on the sharing of God’s Gospel with all nations…

God blesses it.

Look what happened with Peter. In the middle of his speech, The Holy Spirit came upon all who heard his message. (v.44) It was God’s way of saying: “Yes! I approved. I don’t show favoritism. I love all people. And I am bringing this people into my kingdom at the same level as – and at the same equality as – you Jews who are also a part of my kingdom.”

God is behind the sharing of his Gospel message.
God is behind the sharing of his Gospel message to all people.
Let’s go to work.
Let’s share the Gospel with all people.

Amen.  

Review of last week’s lesson. Philip and Simon.

The Unstoppable Gospel does not make its way only to cities. Sometimes it heads to much less populated areas.  

Today we are going to be following the Unstoppable Gospel on its next stop. But this time, it doesn’t head to a big, populated area like Samaria, but somewhere a little less so. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. The Story

Account starts in Acts 8:26: An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
 
A couple of notes:
 
“An angel of the Lord.” Incredible messenger! Angels glow. Angels are bathed in clean white. Angels shine like the sun. When an angel appears, it is obvious. Obvious it’s an angel and obvious it is from God. The appearance of an angel teaches us that this is not a feeling. Not a hunch. Not some weird dream. It’s a very clear directive from the angel of the Lord.
 
Go South…towards Gaza. Remember Philip was in Samaria. That was to the North of Judea. Gaza is south of Judea. This is a long journey. 150-mile foot journey to be exact. There would have to be a very impressive destination if I was going to walk 150 miles. (Doritos factory? Super Bowl? Something like that…)
 
Go…to the desert road.  A few things make this request a bit strange. The last place Philip went was a city in Samaria. Cities have lots of people. Cities have a lot of opportunities to share the Gospel.  Here? The Spirit wants Philip to head to “some desert road.”

Isn’t this a strange request? The Holy Spirit wants Philip to walk hundreds of miles in order to get to some unnamed desert road where very few people are traveling.

Who would follow such a request?

Answer:
Philip.

He trusts God.
He trusts God’s plan.
He trusts that if God wants him to walk 150 miles to some unnamed desert road, he should walk 150 miles to some unnamed desert road.
 
As Philip gets to walking. It becomes clear to him why God wanted him to on that unnamed desert road:
 
As he’s walking.
As he’s thinking.
As he wiping the sweat away from his brow.
As he stops to rub his feet – 70 plus miles completed.

He hears some noise in the distance.
It’s a low rumbling. Maybe it’s thunder.
Philip looks and sees a cloud of dust coming his way with a silvery, glistening metal in front.

It’s a chariot.
The kind of ride ridden by only the wealthiest.

As the chariot approaches, Philip notices the insignia on the side of the chariot.
It’s a royal chariot.
It’s a royal chariot from the country of Ethiopia.

The man sitting in the chariot – not the driver – but the passenger in back – looks very impressive.
He has royal insignia on his clothing.
He has royal insignia on his headgear.
He has royal insignia on his jewelry.

He’s royalty.

Philip steps out of the way.
It’s nice to see some other signs of life on this road, but…he’s royalty. I’m not. He won’t want anything to do with me.
And…right about the time Philip is ready to let him pass by without so much as a head nod…
 
The Holy Spirit speaks:
“Go to that chariot and stay near it.” (v.29)
 
Really? I’m just me. Just Philip. I’m dirty. I’m dusty. I’m a commoner. I am hardly dressed for a meeting with nobility.

But…
Then again…
You are the Holy Spirit so…
 
Philip approaches the chariot. And as he does so, he notices that the man is reading something.
He squints at the back of the scroll and notices a title on the seal – to help identify the scroll --
It says, “Isaias.”

Isaiah.
 
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” the Ethiopian ruler said, “Unless someone explains it to me.” (v.30)

And the Ethiopian ruler commands the driver to slow down.
He swings open the door to the chariot.
He holds out his jewel studded hand to Philip.

“Join me. Teach me. Please.”

And Philip did.
He taught him about the Scripture in question.
He taught him that Jesus was the man the Scripture was talking about.
He told him how Jesus was like a lamb who was sent to slaughter.
About how Jesus was silent and willingly went.
About how he had his glory cut off.
About how he was shaved of his joy.
About how he was deprived of justice.
And about how Jesus did this for the Ethiopian eunuch.
About how Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood for his sins.
About how the Scriptures prophesied and predicted this.
About how the Scripture from Isaiah isn’t the end.
About how three days later…Jesus came back to life!
About how God loved that Ethiopian Eunuch very much.
About how the wealth and jewels and status of this world would mean nothing compared to the incredible riches of God’s forgiveness, eternal life, and peace with God that lasts forever.
About how royalty on earth does not translate to royalty in God’s kingdom.
About how…faith in Jesus does.
 
And the ruler?
He believes. And he says:
Look! There is some water. What can stand in the way of me getting baptized? (v.36)
 
And they stopped the chariot.
And they got into the water.
And Philip poured water into his head and said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
And the Ethiopian smiled.

He had been a part of nobility.
He had been a part of royalty.
He had been a part of the Ethiopian government.

But now…
Now he was a part of God’s kingdom.
 
II. The Gospel is Status-Less 

This lesson is very important to our understanding of the Gospel, because it teaches us a very important lesson about status and the Gospel.

If you are successful by this world’s standards,
If you think you got there by yourself,
If you think you’re super impressive,

Do not forget:
You still need Jesus.

Because all the money in the world,
All the accolades at a company,
All the trophies from your peers will not stop God from judging your sins.

Here’s the truth then:
The Gospel is Status-less. No one is above the Gospel  

Not your boss.
Not being cool.
Not being popular.
Not the president.
Not the guy with 2,000 Facebook friends.

Everyone needs the Gospel.
Everyone needs a Savior.

And if you aren’t the boss,
If you don’t feel cool,
If you aren’t popular,
And barely have 50 Facebook friends…

You need the same Savior.
And have the same Savior.
 
The Gospel is Status-less. No one is below the Gospel 

Thankfully.
When you realize that.
When you humble yourself.
When you seek God’s mercy, the Gospel bestows on you a status higher than anything you could imagine:

You are given the status of God’s eternal child.

The Ethiopian eunuch was high ranking. He was used to people doing whatever he told them to do. But…when he hears what God did for him. And what God wants him to do. He listens. He gets out of the chariot. He goes into the mucky, dirty, ‘’some water.” To be baptized.

He doesn’t wait for a big celebration.
Some impressive looking river.
A chance to make a royal show of it.

He knows he’s a sinner.
He knows he needs a Savior.
He humbles himself, believes and is baptized.

As a believer, you have that same status.
As an unbeliever, God wants to give that status to you.
Believe.
Believe that the status God gives is the only status that matters!
 
III. What Now? 

1. Avoid Same Status Sharing

Because our world is very status oriented.
Ever play apps like Bejeweled? Or Words with Friends? Or Subway Surfers? They’re just fun little games on your phone – but they have been enabled with the ability to share your status! The ability to put your ranking on Facebook. The ability to let everyone know that – HEY! You might be a C.E.O. at Lenovo, but I just added 12 chickens to my farm on Farmville!
Status is so important to this world.
And the devil will use this to play tricks on the way we perceive status that will affect the way we share the Gospel. He’ll make us think that person is too far above us or too far below us.

Especially in a few areas:
Financial Status.  This was an issue at Jesus time, before Jesus’ time and it’s still an issue today!

It leads people to think things like: It looks like they have a lot of money, don’t bother them. There must be a rich church they can go to.
It looks like they are too poor, don’t bother them – they wouldn’t fit in here. UGH!

Financial status has nothing to do with whom we share the Gospel with.
Jesus told a story about a wedding banquet and how the one who threw the party invited rich and poor alike to his party. The point? Jesus invites all to his party.
There is no cover charge.
There is no required dress.
There is no down payment necessary.

Jesus paid our way in.
Jesus paid for others too.
Jesus wants us to share the Gospel with them regardless of status.
Age Status. Sometimes we think: “My kid doesn’t have the status of adult. They don’t have the status of ready. They don’t have the status of old enough to hear God’s Word.”

But…
Jesus said, “Make disciples of all nations.”
Notice there aren’t status qualifications.
Are your kids a part of all nations?
Yes.

Then share the Gospel with them.
Tell them of their Savior.
Bring them to church.
Teach them to be in church.
Have them baptized.

Give them Jesus and give them the status of being a member in God’s kingdom.
Christian Status.  This is the most foolish of all. But I think it’s way too real.
Because we tend to think about adding to this church – and I know it, I’ve heard it.

It’s as if we have this checklist:
Are they WELS? I’ll totally invite them to church. Are they Christian? I’ll consider inviting them to church.
Are they unbelieving? No way am I inviting them to church.

Aren’t we missing the POINT when we think like that?
Jesus didn’t say go and hang out with the people that are already my disciples.
He said, “Go and make disciples…”

The implications? Make disciples of non-disciples.
Share the Gospel with those who don’t know the Gospel.  The Status of Gospel believer is not a requirement for hearing the Gospel.
In fact, the status of unbeliever is all the more reason for sharing the Gospel.
 
2. Be Confident in Your Status

Because you might say, “I’m not impressive like Philip. I don’t have a high paying job. I don’t make a lot of money. I don’t have fancy clothes. I don’t own a 3-piece suit with one of those skinny ties and fancy scarves that you put in the right breast pocket. I can’t share the Gospel!”

But you’d be wrong.
What qualifies you for sharing the Gospel is not some kind of outward status.
It’s the inward promise of status as God’s child.
 
You have that. You have that status as God’s child. You are qualified to share the Gospel.
 
Your status is not what brings people into God’s kingdom.
God’s Word does.
God’s Word is God’s Word – there is no higher status.

You’ve got God’s Word? Then you are qualified to share in the work of the Gospel.

That’s what Philip did. He unleashed the Unstoppable Gospel and the Holy Spirit brought the Rich, Ethiopian Ruler to faith.  
That same Gospel works for you. Amen. 

Everybody loves a good conspiracy theory.

That we never landed on the moon.
That Area 51 houses all kinds of aliens.
That JFK was murdered by members of his own cabinet.

Did you know the NT Church was not without conspiracy?

Today we are going to read about a conspiracy that took place in the early church, learn a thing or two about our own hearts and see why God is the ultimate detective of truth. Before we begin, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. The Conspiracy

The conspiracy starts in Acts 5. But to really understand it well, we need to get some of the context from Acts 4:32-35. It says this:
 
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet and it was distributed to anyone who had need. (4:32-35)
 
Did you follow what was going on? The Early Church took care of each other. When they noticed someone in need, they not only gave money to help that person out, but they sold property to get money to help that person out.
 
Verse 36 identifies one specific instance of that. It says, “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought he money and put it as the apostles’ feet.”
 
And I love that his nickname becomes “Son of Encouragement.” Because it is super encouraging when you are out of a job, when you don’t have enough money to feed your family, when you are running out of money to keep the lights on at church, for someone to give you a gift to help out. Now imagine if someone sells their property and gives all of the money to the work of the Lord!

What Barnabas did encouraged the Early Church:  People said: 

Look at what God did!
Look at what he worked in Barnabas’ heart!
Look at God’s grace to his people.
 
Segue to chapter 5 and there’s a guy named Ananias.
 
He has a wife named Sapphira.
Ananias was a part of the early church and had heard all about Barnabas’ awesome gift.
He heard his church friends talk about: “What an awesome gift that Barnabas gave!”
He saw it in the monthly report: “Thanks to Barnabas for his gift.”
He saw the Facebook post from the Early Church with Barnabas’ smiling face attached to the caption: “Thanks to Barnabas for his incredible gift – we helped 5 widows!”

Ananias saw all of this.
And he wanted in.

He wanted in, but he didn’t want to give up what Barnabas did to get in order to get it. So…
He came up with a plan:

Ananias together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. (5:1-2)

Did you follow what he did?

Say Ananias had a beach house (because beach houses are pretty awesome). He put that beach house on Zillow.com and ended up selling it for $500,000. Ananias took $250,000 of that beach house sale and put in the bank. Then, he took the rest -- $250,0000 and gave it to the Early Church. Only back then it wasn’t in a checkbook, but a big old bag filled with coins – copper, bronze and gold. (I imagine he looked kind of like the Monopoly guy as he came in and placed that bag before the disciples).

Ananias was expecting to hear the same kind of praise that was lavished on Barnabas to be lavished on him:

This is amazing Ananias!
You are wonderful Ananias.
I can’t wait to tell everyone, Ananias, about how you are such a wonderful man.

But that’s not what he got:
 
Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings, but to God.” (v.3-4)

When Ananias heard this, he fell down…and died. (v.5)

Let that sink in.
He sold a field.
He brought ½ the money and gifted it to the church.
He was rebuked.
And he died.

And that’s not the end of the story. Look at what happened next. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened, Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” Did you really give all the money to the church?

And Sapphira – who knows full well that it isn’t – has no problem smiling, and saying, “Yep. That’s the full price. We gave it all to the church.”
 
And Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also.”  (v.9)
 
And at that moment, she fell down at his feet and died. (v.10)

WHAT HAPPENED?

This might be one of the most shocking deaths in the Bible. It seems to come out of nowhere and when our imperfect, human nature reads this it seems to put God in a bad light! As a result, there are three main ways that scholars interpret this parable.

(1) It’s a propaganda myth – a propaganda story used to scare people into giving money to the church.
 
But if it were a mere propaganda myth, I think it would be a terrible choice. If I started telling people at Bible Basics, “After you’re a member, you’d better give about $1000 per month or God will give you a heart attack,” I’m not so sure our membership would be trending upward.

The point is that if the disciples made this up, it seems like a terrible advertising choice. If their goal was to make up and start a religious movement, this would be a fairly foolish and strange story to include in its origin story.
 
(2) It’s a weird coincidence -- a weird one at that. They were shocked at having been discovered so their blood pressure increased, genetic problems surfaced and…death.
 
But to believe, you have to believe that husband and wife both have that condition.
That husband and wife both die from that same condition within hours of each other.
That husband and wife both die right after Peter calls them out for their deception.

Not likely? It only leaves option 3.

(3) It’s the truth. While this is the least popular theory, it’s the only one that makes sense. People knew Ananias and Sapphira. They were a part of the church. People knew that they died – in fact a group of church people was there when Ananias brought the funds and died at Peter’s rebuke!

This is real.
This is truth.
This story circulated at a time when people said, “Oh yeah. I remember that…”
 
But IF IT’S TRUTH. What does it mean?

Is God a big meanie for doing this? That’s always our sinful, imperfect response and I’m asking you right now to fight it. Remember – we are imperfect. We are sinners. We are the ones whose hearts have been affected by evil. Before you bite on this, consider for just a moment the alternate perspective that God is not the bad guy in the story. That what happens is a good God fighting evil.

Ok. Ananias did evil. But what was his evil? Does it mean that our good God wants us to give 100% of your paycheck to him? No. In the Old Testament, God demanded 10% as an offering. In the NT, God demands that we give our first fruits, that we give cheerfully and that we give generously. God doesn’t demand 100% of our money. (Although if he did – he is the One who gives us all things, so it wouldn’t be unfair for him to ask for what he already owns.)

What’s the real problem?
Look at a few key phrases:
 
“You have lied to the Holy Spirit…” (v.3)
“You have not lied to human beings, but to God.” (v.4)
“How could you conspire to test the Spirit?” (v.9)

The problem wasn’t that they kept ½ the money, but that they pretended to give it all.
The problem wasn’t that he wanted to keep some cash, but that he wanted the label of super godly without being super godly. 
The problem wasn’t that they stole God’s money, but that they wanted to steal God’s glory.

II. Conspiracy within Us

What about you?
Do you belong to a conspiracy?
Do you conspire to steal God’s glory?
 
Of course, as any good, conspirator your first response will be to deny it.
But…examine your life…if you’re involved in spiritual conspiracy to steal God’s glory…the clues are there.

Telling your friend “I give 10% of my money to church.” When you know by 10% you meant 10 % of 10% of your spending money which is 10% of your take home pay.
Spending more time getting the right filter for the photo of you studying the Bible to post on Instagram, than actually studying the Bible.
Making sure everyone here knows you as a devoted follower of Jesus, while your secret internet history shows you are a devoted follower of XXX.com.  
Telling your coworker “I belong to Gethsemane Church,” and by belong you mean, “I show up and barely pay attention for about an hour every month.”
 
Stop stealing God’s glory as an individual.

But what really strikes me in this text is the word “conspire” in verse 9. Because conspire involves more than one person. Ananias and Sapphira conspired together.

Our goal as a church is to aim towards God’s glory. But…
We need to be oh so careful that don’t let this place become a secret hideout for conspirators against God.

A place where we high five each other and talk about how awesome we are at following God…and forget all about the God we are following.
A place where we build a state of the art Early Childhood Center and remind everyone about how hard we worked at making the ECC --- with no mention of the One who empowered us to do so.
A place where you tell me how great I am for coming here and I tell you how great I am for coming here – and we talk about how awesome we are at ministry without actually participating in any ministry.

We can’t be a church of lies.
We can’t be a church of deception.
Because…
 
Even though we might fool each other.
Even though we might fool others.
We can’t fool God.  
 
Ananias and Sapphira couldn’t hide the truth from God.
God knows all things.
God sees all things.
God knew their sin.
God knew their heart.
And our good God judged their evil sin.

They died.

And you can’t hide the truth from God.
God knows all things.
God sees all things.
God knew their sin.
God knew their heart.
And our good God will judge your evil sins.
 
Repent.

III. Good News in a Conviction Text?

As Christian preachers, we believe that the ultimate end to the story of the Bible is good. That a good sermon convicts people of sin, but then offers the solution for their sin in Jesus their Savior. Good news. It’s not hard to find the convicting part in this text. Don’t conspire, don’t lie to, don’t try to deceive the Holy Spirit! And we have, and we are convicted. Forgive us Lord.

But what about the good news?!?
Do you see it?

The good news in this text is simply this:
You aren’t dead yet.
Neither am I

God has mercifully, patiently, kindly continued to grant us life in spite of our deceptions and lies.
God has mercifully, patiently, kindly continued to reach out to us and call for truth.
God is mercifully, patiently, kindly reaching out to you with the truth right now.

And the truth about every human heart is this –
We are sinful.
We need a Savior.
We have a Savior.

Our Savior Jesus came to this world without a deceptive bone in his body.
And he died at the hands of men who conspired to steal God’s glory.
And when he died – he died far apart from any glory!
Yet – three days later – he rose and attained all glory.
But that glory, rightfully His, he offers up to you and to me.
 
That’s truth.  It’s no conspiracy. It’s truth. God loves you dearly.

IV. What Now? 
1. Be Truth-Filled

It always seems easier to lie.

It might seem easier to talk a big game.
To tell everyone you’ve got it all together.
To save face and make sure everyone knows “you’re a good Christian.”

But that’s not truthful.

1 John says this:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar and his word is not in us. If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 1:8-2:1)

Isn’t that crazy? When we deceive and try to steal God’s glory, all glory is removed from us. People will find out. Your glory façade will fall. (That’s what happened to Ananias).

But when we confess our sins and are truthful about our utter lack of glory, God gives us His own divine glory in Christ.

The glory of Jesus means that when God our Father examines with his divine-magnifying glass every aspect of our lives – our hearts, our thoughts, our hidden longings – the only thing that He finds – is righteousness. Sinlessness. Perfection.

Be truthful. Receive REAL glory.
 
2. Inspire Each Other 

We do not want to be a church conspiring together to steal God’s glory.
But how awesome to be a church known for inspiring each other with God’s glory!

To inspire with the message that Jesus died for us!
To inspire with the message that Jesus rose for us!
To inspire with the message that Jesus forgives us.
To inspire with the message that His heavenly riches are ours!

The other day I met lady at a coffee shop while I was working on this very sermon. She found out that I was a pastor and she asked if she could give me some advice. She told me that I needed to stop mentioning the word sin. That I needed to stop mentioning the need for some Savior. That I needed to tell people they could do it and they were alright, and they were generally doing pretty well.

And I thought…
So…you want me to lie?

Because with all the love in my heart and motivated by the love in my heart, God tells us that is not true. 
Things are not alright.

Helping each other pretend that things are alright might give the gift of momentary, phony, human glory.
But telling the truth and seeking the true Savior – gives eternal, real, lasting, divine glory.
 
CONCLUSION:

God wants us to live in truth.
God wants to heal you.

In fact, if you continue Acts 5, right after the account of Ananias and Sapphira, the text returns to telling of God’s incredible healing power. It tells of how God made the lame walk, the sick healed and the injured well.

That’s the truth.
That’s what God wants for us.
That’s what God wants for you.
Be truthful about who you are. And you will be truth-filled with who Jesus made you to be. Amen. 

Over the past couple of weeks, we have heard some amazing stories. About the Jordan River splitting in half, the walls of Jericho tumbling down, God’s grace in keeping the prostitute Rahab safe, his wrath against the greedy Achan and his incredible power that extended the daylight for 24 extra hours!

Today’s sermon is a bit different. Because we are getting to the part of Joshua that isn’t so jammed packed with action. The literature switches from narrative to a legal listing; from storytelling to atlas. It’s one of those parts of the Bible that might not seem like it’s got a lot to do with you.

You’d be wrong.

Today we’re going to take our first of two looks at the non-narrative parts of Joshua. This is from Joshua 13-21. Our goal is to discover a couple of different ways these listings are a blessing for 21st century Raleighians.

Before we do that, let’s pray: Strengthen us this morning by the truth, O God. Your word is truth. Open our eyes to see what YOU want us to see. Open our ears to hear what YOU want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what YOU would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. The Temptation to Grow Tired
 
Chapter 13 starts right after Israel has finished conquering a vast majority of the land.  Joshua 13:1. When Joshua had grown old and was well along in years, the LORD said to him, “You are now very old…”

Notice that there seems to be a repetitive theme. The Bible calls Joshua “old” and then, it rephrases it so that we don’t get confused, “well along in years.” Finally, the LORD himself approaches Joshua and the very first thing he says to him is, “You are…very old!”
 
Sheesh, God. Thanks a lot.


I doubt Joshua needed the reminder. The white hairs, the creaky knees and the wrinkles probably told him enough. In fact, if you jump forward in the book – Caleb, Joshua’s contemporary, is identified as 85 years old. Joshua, probably a bit older, might be around 90.

That means – things were not as easy as they used to be.


Each morning he would stand and straighten his back very slowly.
He would grab his pair of glasses and squint in order to read the 14-point font of Moses’ OT Writings.
Soldiers would pretend not to notice his inability to remember any of their names. Marty? Abimelech?
 
Joshua was no spring chicken.

So, what does God want?
Is this the talk where he tells him to slow things down?
Is this the talk where he told Joshua he probably shouldn’t drive anymore?
Is this the talk where he told Joshua about the new retirement village they had set up in the confines of Ai?

Nope.

Joshua…there are still large areas of land to be taken over. (v.1b)

The implication?
I still have plans for you.
I still have work for you.
You are not too old to serve me.
 
That’s a key truth I want to focus on for a moment. You are never too old to serve God.

I was sitting down next to a friend for coffee the other day. And in the midst of our conversation, the man began to tell me about his children. How he had fallen away from church and wasn’t a believer anymore.

And then…he sighed:  But...what am I going to do? I’m old.

Is that really how it works?  
Is Jesus just for young kids?
Is Jesus not for adults?
Do you get to a point where you’re so old that even God can’t use you?
 
Look at these Scriptures:

Matthew 28 says, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
Galatians 5 says, “Serve one another in love.”
Matthew 5, “Let your light shine.”

Notice Scripture does not say, “Go and make disciples – unless you have arthritis.”
It doesn’t say, “Serve one another in love…unless you are over 73. Then, serve in grouchiness.”
It doesn’t say, “Let your light shine…unless you live in a retirement community.”

There are no qualifiers.
These commands are all inclusive.
These commands are for you – no matter how old you are.
Because you are never too old to serve God!
 
Joshua was 90 years old and God still called on him to lead the Israelite army throughout the rest of Canaan!
But Joshua wasn’t alone.

Moses was 80 years old when God used him to get Israel out of Egypt.
Daniel was 87 when he was thrown into the lion’s den for confessing faith in Jesus.
Sarah was 99 when she gave birth to Isaac – forefather of Jesus.
Noah was 600 when God used him to build an ark and save humanity!

How old are you?
How will God use?
Don’t listen to the devil:
You are never too old to serve God.  
 
II. The Temptation to Give Up  
 
That’s what God wanted Joshua to do. Listen to his command: There are still very large areas of land to be taken over…be sure to allocate this land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have instructed you. (v.1b, 6) Because up to this point Israel hasn’t conquered everything. They only possess about 2/3 of the Promised Land. They had won many battles and driven out many armies, but they still needed to win victories up in the North kingdom and they still needed to drive out armies in the southwest.


The temptation might be to call it good.
The temptation might be to say close enough.
The temptation might be to grab a PBR and relax.

God doesn’t want them to quit.
God wants them to finish it.
And with good reason.


My initial favorite sports teams were based in Minnesota. Did you know this? I was 2 when I moved there from Baton Rouge, LA and I was 4 when I watched my first baseball and football games. The Twins and the Vikings. Then, in first grade I moved to Wisconsin. And in week one of the NFL season I was one of the only kids wearing Viking purple – while everyone else wore green and gold.
And there was polite joking.
And there was polite ribbing.
And…there was the time in fourth grade when Brett Favre led the Packers deep into the playoffs – and the Vikings were not so deep in the playoffs – that I finally switched allegiances.

People influence you. In sports teams, favorite restaurants, binge worthy TV shows and religion.

This is one of the main reasons for God driving out the Canaanites. He doesn’t want the Canaanites’ idol worship to influence the Israelites God worship. He doesn’t want the Canaanite unbelievers to lead Israelite believers to unbelief…

…and hell.  
 
And Joshua gets it.  He sends out each tribe into its particular region of the Promised Land in order to drive out all the nations. That’s exactly what chapters 11-19 entail. Numbers, places and results of their victories. But…hidden in the midst of these victories – in the midst of this long historical commentary on how they followed through on God’s commands – are a few verses which show that…they didn’t.
 
13:13 The Israelites did not drive out the people of Geshur and Maacah so they continue to live among Israel to this day.
15:53 Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites.
16:10 They did not dislodge the Canaanites in Gezer.
17:11-12 They were not able to occupy Beth Shan, Ibleam, Dor, Endor, Taanach and Megiddo...for the Canaanites lived in their region.
19:47 But the Danites had difficulty taking possession of their territory…so they moved up to Leshem.
 
Perhaps this seems like no big deal. Perhaps this seems like “at least they tried hard.”
Perhaps you can understand them being tired and saying – “Good enough. We don’t bother you and you don’t bother us.”
And everything seems fine.  

Jump forward with me:

After Joshua died…another generation grew up who neither knew the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…they followed and worshiped various gods of the people around them. So…the hand of the LORD was against them…and he sold them into the hand of their enemies all around them. (Judges 2:8-13)
 
Do you see the problem?
They didn’t listen to God.
They didn’t drive out the Canaanites.
And the Canaanites led them to worshipping false gods.  

Just. Like. God. Said.

God has not asked us to conquer any kind of land or people in any kind of way. But God does tell us to fight against sin and drive it out of our lives – completely!
However – I wonder if sometimes we don’t do the same thing Israel does. Go about 90% of the way and call it good.  I don’t commit adultery. Especially when it comes to something I like to call Peripheral Sins.

What’s a Peripheral Sin? Peripheral vision describes the vision to the right and the left of what you are focusing on. For example, if you look straight at the cross right now and I stand over here --- peripheral vision is me. Maybe you can tell that I’m there, but I’m not clear. I’m fuzzy. (Try and guess how many fingers I am holding up. Not easy)

Peripheral sins are the sins that we don’t focus on. Sins that we refuse to focus on. Sins that we can maybe kind of see in our life – but they aren’t big and clear like murder OR cheating on your wife so…we just kind of let those be.

For example – three common Peripheral Sins: 

(1) Lust.  
 
Granted, if you’ve struggled with lust, there may have been a moment when this wasn’t in the peripheral. And you fought pornography. And you stopped seeing that person who was threatening your marriage.

But at some point, the devil loves to get us to stop the fight.

I’m not looking at porn anymore; so, I’ll just look around at the gym. That should be ok.
I’m not planning on sleeping with that guy at work; I’m just flirting. My husband would be cool with it.
This right here? It’s just the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. I only read it for the articles…on sports.
 
Lust is not a small thing. It’s always a big thing. Drive it out.
 
(2) Sinful Anger.
 
Because for whatever the reason, anger is one of those sins that people say, “Well everyone gets angry.” (Which is true) and “Anger isn’t necessarily a sin.” (also, true) and “Anyways…it’s probably not a big deal the way I showed my anger there.” (Which is a bald-faced lie.)

Humans aren’t God.
Humans are sinful.
Human anger – even ‘righteous sounding anger’ will be tainted by sin.
And oftentimes is acted out sinfully.

Anger cannot be ignored.
It kills relationships at home.
It kills relationships at work.
It kills relationships at church.
It kills your relationship with God.

Anger is not a small thing. It’s a big thing. Drive it out.
 
(3) Racism.
 
After recent events in Virginia, this deserves to be revisited. Because I think the common sentiment is:  I’m not a member of the KKK. I’m not a Neo-Nazi. I’m good. Stop telling me I’m racist.

But Jesus calls us to look deeper.
Jesus tells us sin affect us.
Jesus tells us that sinful selfishness easily affects the way that we think and act.

And when we see the problems – even small problems – drive them out.


If I befriend that guy who looks like me, but don’t even try to befriend that guy because…he doesn’t.  There’s a problem. Drive the racism out.
If I make a joke here and a comment there, and say…but “it’s just a funny stereotype that’s all.” There’s a problem. Drive the racism out.
If I dismiss the struggles of my friend (who looks different) because I never had to deal with those kinds of struggles (since I look different) and it would make me uncomfortable to consider that people who do look like me might be part of the reason this friend who doesn’t look like you is struggling. There’s a problem. Drive the racism out.
 
 
In fact, drive all of these peripheral sins out. Because the reality is that they are sin. And sin destroys.

Lust destroys marriage.
Anger destroys churches.
Racism destroys society.
 
Drive it out before the destruction takes place!

III. God Finishes What He Started
 
Here’s the good news for Israel. In spite of their failure to completely drive out their enemies, God still blessed Israel. He gave them the Promised Land. He kept that in their possession. He made sure that Israelites were in that land when he finally sent the Savior from there.


God finished what he started.

In Bethlehem, Jesus was born.
In Nazareth, Jesus grew up.
In Cana, he turned water into wine.
At the Jordan, he revealed himself as Lord.
In Jericho, he healed a blind man.
Just outside Jerusalem he died…and just outside Jerusalem he rose from the dead.  
 
God finished what he started.


And he was complete about it! Scripture says, “The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.”

Please note the all. It doesn’t say “some.” It doesn’t say “a few.” It doesn’t say, “Just the obvious big ones.”
His blood purifies you from peripheral lust. 
His blood purifies you from seeping anger.
His blood purifies you from that hidden racism.

Jesus died and his blood completely purifies you from all sin.
 
It’s like a water purification system. If you put that on your faucet, the water goes through the first filter and the big sediment it blocked. Then, it goes through the secondary system and the little sediment it blocked. Finally, it goes through a laser purification process and even the hidden particles are destroyed.

Jesus purifies us from all sin.
And that empowers us to drive out all sin.
 

That’s exactly what God tells Joshua. Right after he tells Joshua about all of the nations that he still needs to drive out – God says this in verse 6: I myself will drive out the nations. He was still fighting with them. Even if they didn’t see gigantic miracles like the river splitting in half or the walls tumbling down or the sun sitting in the sky for an extra 24 hours – God was still with them and would not withdraw his support.

And God is still with you.
 
He’s not like some big athletic sponsorship that withdraws their sponsorship because the athlete tweets something they don’t agree with or posts a picture of something that they shouldn’t.

In spite of our sins – for the sake of Jesus – God will not withdraw his support. He is in your corner.

When you are old.
When you are young.
Whether you’re fighting lust, holding back anger or working against subtle racism, God is in your corner.
God has your back.

Amen.

My wife and I like to have fun with our dog. Sometimes when we come home (and discover that he has an obnoxious amount of energy) my wife will head up stairs and I'll head outside. Then, I'll call to him, "Come Clay!" and he'll run real fast to come find me. Then, as soon as he gets to me, my wife calls from the upstairs window, "Clay come!" He leaves and runs to her. This goes on for awhile until he get tired and finds himself running back and forth -- unsure of whose voice to listen to. 

(The same phenomenon occurs when a bunch of guests come over at once. He runs around the room -- looking to be petted -- but unsure who the best option might be.)

It's hard to be a dog.

Then again, it's also hard to be a human.  
 
If you’re a Christian in modern America, maybe you’ve faced situations similar. You know Jesus is calling you. But – there are lots of voices out there telling you to stop following him and start following them! These voices are tricky. Because when you don’t listen to them, they can get violent. They mock. They yell. They make you ‘uncool’ at school. They post angry messages on your blog.

And you start to think -- Is it worth it?
Whose voice should I follow?  

We’re going to John 10 today– to listen to Jesus’ words as to why to follow his voice – the voice of the Good Shepherd. Before we look at his treatise, let’s say a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
 
 
I.               The Danger of the Thief
 
 
The illustration Jesus uses in this section is one that would have been very common to ancient Israel – an agrarian community. Listen to the illustration:


Very truly I tell you, Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. (John 10:1-5)

Notice to whom the illustration is given. It’s given to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a group of people who hated Jesus. They didn't believe in him. In fact, their mission during Jesus' life seemed to be intimidating people into not following Jesus. 

In the chapter right before John 10, Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth. Instead of being amazed, the Pharisees arrest the blind man and charge him to badmouth Jesus. They insist there must have been foul play in this healing. (A satanic ritual or illegal drugs -- something!) But the man refuses. As a result, they throw him out of the synagogue because he is a 'no good follower of Jesus.' 

It’s really interesting that this illustration begins with the illustration of the thief. “Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” (v.1) If the guy isn’t coming through the gate, then he isn’t the shepherd. He goes to the side, because doesn’t have the key – or (if you live in a fancy, uppity shepherding neighborhood) he doesn’t have the keycode to open the gate.

And since he can’t get through the gate, he has to wait until night. He has to sneak.in. He has to climb over the fence. He grabs one of the sheep, jumps back out and the sheep are never to be heard from again.

If you haven’t guessed already, you are the sheep in this parable. I’m a sheep too. Jesus isn’t the thief; he’s the shepherd.

Who’s the spiritual thief then? The spiritual thief is the one who doesn’t come in from the gate. I think this is pretty interesting. If you jump forward to verse 7 Jesus defines the gate. He says, “I am the gate for the sheep.” That means the spiritual thief is the one who enters the sheep pen apart from the message of Jesus.

Do you get it?
 
Jesus was calling out the Pharisees! They weren’t leading people to the Gate! They weren't leading people to Jesus. In fact, they were intimidating people like the formerly blind man into denouncing the real shepherd.

They were the thieves. 


 
The Pharisees as an organized group that are not around today. Are spiritual thieves still a problem today? Oh yeah. Here are a few common ones;

False Teachers. This is essentially what the Pharisees were. Instead of pointing people to salvation by faith in Jesus alone, they pointed people to salvation by doing Jewish thing...Lots of Jewish things...Jewish things that they were probably not going to be able to accomplish because they weren't awesome like the Pharisees

False teachers are still around today.  You might find them on the radio, online or on TV. Listen to their message. All the fine sounding sermons and well dressed speakers in the world cannot make up for a lack of Jesus Christ. If they don't point you to Jesus, they aren't going through the Gate. They are robbers. Watch out!


Political Movements. Because Political movements have somehow become more important than following Jesus. Political movements (democrats, republicans and any other political movement) have plenty of non-Jesus like aspects to them. When these things enter through the side gate and steal you away from following Jesus – taking up all of your time reading blogs, posting things on the internet, and ignoring your Bible. You’re in danger; the thief has ahold of you.  

 
Sexual Liberation Movement. Don’t get me wrong – sex is a good thing! God is not a prude. God simply wants to protect your heart and the hearts of others. That’s why God wants sexual relations practiced within the marriage covenant. But this movement proclaim “It’s your body. If it feels good, do it – Who cares about the consequences and who cares who I harm and who cares if I don’t follow God!”

But that line of thinking isn’t a Jesus line of thinking.  Jesus cared whom he harmed. Jesus cared about following God. Meaning this current of thinking doesn’t come through the gate. It comes from hopping the fence!  IT’S A THIEF! And if you’ve been finding yourself listen to that current of thought lately. You’re in danger; the thief has a hold of you.
 
 
Your friends. That’s a hard one to hear. But think about it. If your friend is making fun of Jesus…If your friend is making you question your faith…If your friend is leading you to do things outside of your…If your friend is ridiculing you and giving the impression that unless you give up your faith, the ridicule will only increase. YOU’RE IN DANGER! Your friend is a thief.  Knowingly or unknowingly…they are leading you away from the only one who offers salvation.



Here’s the thing. The thief doesn’t actually care about you. The thief only cares for himself. He only cares about the money they’ll get from the wool or the tasty meat that’ll fill his belly later.


As for the sheep? Well…
 
He doesn’t care if he hurts the sheep.
He doesn’t care if the sheep bleat in terror as he loads them in the back of his truck.
He doesn’t care if the sheep get bruised as he stuffs them into the back of his truck and peels out of there not to get caught.
He doesn’t care if the sheep is absolutely miserable.

And the reality? These spiritual thieves do not care about you and your eternal good.




II.           About the Shepherd
 
 
(1) He Owns the Sheep

But the shepherd isn’t a thief. The shepherd is a caretaker. The shepherd goes through the gate. Verse 2 says, “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the Sheep.” He’s got the keys. This is his field. He belongs here. In fact, the gatekeeper opens the gate for him.  “Good to see you Frank! Things are going pretty well in the field over there. Do you want a cuppa Joe before you head in?” Everyone’s friendly to the shepherd because he belongs there. He belongs there because the field is his.

And the sheep are at ease. He’s there to check on them. To feed them. To give them water. To fix that break in the fence. To scratch the hard to reach spot behind their ears.

The motives of the shepherd are entirely different from the motives of the thief.
The motives of Jesus are entirely different from the motives of spiritual thieves.

The thief cares about himself.
The shepherd cares about the sheep. 

The spiritual thief cares about himself.
The Good Shepherd, Jesus, cares about you.


 
 
(2) He Calls You by Name

And yes… I said you. That’s not a generic – “Pastor-is-talking-to-a-lot-of-people-here-but-probably-specifically-didn’t-mean-me” you.

It’s a You – specifically you – you. Look at verse 3 He calls his own sheep by name. He doesn’t shout “Here Sheepy, Sheepy, Sheepy!” like the thief trying to get you into the big burlap sack so he can run off to you. He calls out your name – specifically – because he means you – specifically - and he loves you – specifically!

That’s so different from the spiritual thief. The spiritual thief doesn’t care about your name. They think of you as a dollar bill. As a vote. As a notch in the belt. As a like on Facebook. As a building block to their own pride.

But your shepherd? He knows you intimately. He knows your name. He knows your middle name. He knows your last name – and how to pronounce it correctly. He knows your nick name; your pet name; and the super hero name you gave yourself when you were 7.

He knows all about you.
And he loves you:

He loved you enough to die for you.

 
(3) He Lays Down His Life for the Sheep

In John 10:11 Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep."

Because the reality is that we sheep got ourselves into trouble. Thieve, wolves, terrorists, and all kinds of awful were attacking. You might know them as sin, death, and the devil. 

But Jesus picked up his staff. It looked stunningly like a cross. 

He lived perfectly when you couldn't.
He died innocently in your place. 
He rose triumphantly for the forgiveness of all of your sins. 

He died for the sheep!

But unlike any other shepherd in history, the Good Shepherd also rose from the dead. He came back to life on Easter. That means he's not done with us. That means he has good places to lead us: 





​ 
(4) He Leads the Sheep to Wonderful Places
 
That’s the final part of following this shepherd. Verse 4 says, He calls his sheep by name and he leads them…He goes on ahead of them.
 
Take Psalm 23 – it’s well known; we read it earlier says this:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me besides quiet waters.
He restores my soul.
 
Our shepherd does that for us. He makes us lie down in the nourishing greens of his word. He leads us to the trickling brook of his promises. He quiets our souls with the gentle words of his love.

This is key because sometimes life leads you to scary places. Places only described as “The valley of the shadow of death.” Places like financial barrenness. Places like cancer wards. Places like a turbulent workplace.

Yet…

I will fear no evil. Your rod and your staff – they comfort me.


As in, your shepherd is with you.
As in, your shepherd he won’t leave you.
As in, your shepherd will lead you out of that valley of death and into the banquet of heaven.
In fact, that’s how Psalm 23 ends:

He spreads a table before me…goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.


Jesus is an awesome shepherd. 



III. How Do His Sheep Respond?


(1) Listen to His Voice
​
Because sheep are used to the voice of the shepherd. They hear it call them for food. They hear his voice tell them where water is. They hear his voice call them and soothe them when they are afraid.  
 
The sheep of the shepherd listen to the shepherd because it’s a voice they recognize.
The same is Jesus’ sheep. They recognize his voice.

It’s a voice that knows your name.
It’s a voice that loves you.
A voice that cried out in agony on the cross for you.
A voice that stopped working…and then 3 days later worked again.
 
When you don’t know where to go in life – how to act in a certain situation, listen for his voice!

You’ll find it in Scripture. You’ll find it in his Word. Find his voice. Find a section of Scripture that speaks to your life right now. Listen to it!
 
 
(2) Run from the Thieves

Verse 5 says this, The sheep will never follow a stranger in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize him.

It’s similar to a stranger at the mall with a scratchy, raspy, obviously bad news voice opening up his big white van and saying, “Hey kid – want some candy!” The sheep of the shepherd do not run to him; the sheep of the shepherd run away!

What’s that look like in your life?   It means running away from the spiritual thieves!

Cut out the porn! In fact, get a filter on your computer and give a friend the password.
Stop sleeping with the person you aren’t married to.
Turn off the politics!
Get away from the negative comments and get off of Facebook. It’s ok. You’ll live.
 
Run away from these spiritual thieves. They steal your soul; lead you to sin.

And if you follow the spiritual thief long enough, suddenly you start to trust them.
You follow them willingly.
You wake up and realize that you don’t have any idea where the Shepherd is and you don’t know how to get back to him!
You’re lost.
 
Maybe you’ve been lost.
Maybe you are lost.
Take heart.

Because the shepherd doesn’t let his sheep stay lost.
 

(3). Follow Him
 
In fact, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who owns 100 sheep (that’s a lot of sheep). But unfortunately, he wakes up one morning, goes out and counts the sheep and realizes that he is down 1. There’s only 99. He counts them again. He starts to panic.

And he tells the gatekeeper to watch the sheep while he puts on his coat and puts on his boots to go out in the rain and find the sheep.


You’ve got 99 sheep sir! Why do you need to go get that one?

The shepherd answers – Because. I love her.
 
He goes out in the storm. He walks over hills. He chills his body to the bone. He walks through mud and thistles and searches and panics until: The sheep! Over there in the bramble. Bleeding. Unable to move.

He swoops in – tears in his eyes. He hates to see this sheep in pain. He takes out some snips. He cuts the sheep free. He grabs her in his arms and brings her home.

What was lost is found.

That’s your shepherd. That’s Jesus.
That’s someone worth following. 

Amen.