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Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve learned a lot about IDOLATRY.
Idolatry is placing something that isn’t GOD in God’s PLACE. Our idols are that we FEAR, LOVE or TRUST more than God. Church is a place where idolatry can creep in and take God’s place in our worship Jesus has FREED us from slavery to idolatry. As a result, God wants the FREE to FLEE idolatry & SERVE others. Putting these truths into practice means we are to approach each day like a battle. One of the things that I legitimately struggle with is eating too much junk food. The whole Doritos thing. It’s real. I can go through an entire bag in a sitting which will cause me to feel “wonderful” in the morning. I was talking to some pastor brothers earlier this week and we discussed how this is a stressful situation as pastors and how the devil will use this stressful situation to try and get us to turn to our vices for comfort. Like Doritos. Now I was feeling pretty pumped up. I was excited to try and not eat Doritos at the end of the day. I was confident that I’d do well. But… When Julianna texted me to go to the store to see if I could pick up some supplies… And I happened by the Dorito aisle because it was next to the contact solution (like 5 aisles to the right, but…) And I saw that delicious bag taunting me. I made the healthy choice. I bought Cool Ranch. Cause… I think there’s veggies in it. Ever feel like that? That the idols you struggle with are just too powerful? As if they’ll always win? Are you ready to give up? This message from God’s Word is for you. 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; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. I. A Dire Situation To learn more about how to battle idolatry, we’re going to look at one of the most prolific times of idolatry in the Bible. It revolves around a king named Ahab. Listen to the Bible’s brief description of him: Ahab committed more evil in the eyes of the Lord than all those who had gone before him. (1 Kings 16:30) How so? He considered it a trivial thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam. (v.31a) Jeroboam was a king who brought back the worship of golden calves. That’s the sin from back at the time of Moses. It had returned. And Ahab? He kept it going. But to him, it was just child’ s play. Ahab served Baal and bowed down to him. (v.31b) Baal was a bit more hardcore. He was a statue of a half man and half bull. Baal was more hardcore than the golden calf because, Baal required child sacrifices. Something that the REAL GOD was and is absolutely against. But Ahab, the king of the people of Israel, the REAL GOD’s people, didn’t fight Baal worship. Nope. Ahab erected an altar to Baal in the house of Baal. (v.32) Ahab spent government money on a house for Baal. Ahab spent tax money on a monument to this “Baal”. Ahab placed a tiny golden plate at the entrance that said, “Temple to Baal – Built by Ahab.” Ahab did more than that! He erected Asherah poles around Israel. He commanded festivals for people to worship these false gods. He gave positions to over 450 Baal-ian clergy He murdered the prophets of the REAL God. There is no wonder that the Bible summarizes Ahab like this: Ahab did even more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who had gone before him. (v.33) He was terrible. Because of his terrible leadership, the situation in Israel was spiritually terrible. Notice I said spiritually terrible. Because economically things seemed to be going well. There was plenty of food. There were buildings going up. People were wealthy. Everything seemed wonderful. Though it was a spiritual disaster. So… God reacted. Elijah… said to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord lives, the God of Israel before whom I stand, there will be no dew or rain during the coming years.” (1 Kings 17:1) The skies closed. The rain stopped. The crops dried up. No rainstorms. No morning dew. No afternoon showers. Not even a “sprinkling.” Just dry. For three whole years. Hmmm… Cataclysmic event? On a seemingly good economy? Friends, I’m not Elijah. I don’t have a special verbal revelation from God. I can’t tell you exactly why the Pandemic is happening. But I do have God’s Word and I can say this. TRUTH: God works through CALAMITY to return people to the REAL GOD. During this calamity, I can say confidently that God wants you to RETURN to Him. To turn from your idols. To turn from things. To turn from stuff. To turn from your social media. To turn from your own agenda. To turn from selfishness. To turn from pride. To turn from anything that is not the REAL GOD And turn back to Him, the REAL GOD. II. The Challenge At the end of the three years of drought, God sent the prophet Elijah to King Ahab. As he approached, Ahab said this to Elijah, ““Is that you, the one who brings trouble on Israel?” (v.17) Not a repentant bone in his body. Not a bit of humility in his heart. Not an inkling of thought that ‘Maybe this has something to with the fact that I slaughtered all of God’s prophets, erected false idols in God’s temple, sacrificed children to piece of stone and generally led hundreds of thousands of people away from the true God onto the road to hell.” “This is all God’s fault.” TRUTH: Idol worshipers tend to blame GOD for problems caused by their own IDOLATRY. Elijah calls him on it: He says, “Dude, it isn’t I who have brought trouble on Israel. It was you. You abandoned the real God. You stopped obeying his commands. You started bowing down to a statue. You have been single handedly leading a nation of people away from their Savior. “But… “You and me? Let’s not fight. Let’s have our Gods fight.” They made a plan. A notice was sent to all the people of Israel. Thousands gathered on a local hilltop. Ahab gathered all 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah, the only prophet of God left, gathered himself. Then Elijah said to all the people, “How long will you stagger around on two crutches?” “I can’t follow God. All of my friends like Baal.” “Oh no! I’m sick. Better return to God.” “OK. I’m better. Just in time to join my friends in THINGS & STUFF.” “Uh oh. There’s a recession. I’d better get back into my Bible.” “Crud. The girl I like doesn’t like Jesus. I’d better stop name dropping him.” “Well, since she dumped me. I guess it’s ok to go back to worship.” Stop staggering on two crutches. If the Lord is God, follow him. If Baal is God, follow him.” (v.21) And the people, well… …You know how at work…when the boss asks if anyone is interested in doing extra hours over the weekend…and it wouldn’t be an increase in pay, just something you do because “blah blah blah” you “love the company? And no one says anything. That’s how the people responded to Elijah. With awkward silence. III. The Showdown Elijah continued: “I am the only one left of the Lord’s prophets, but the prophets of Baal total four hundred fifty men. Provide two bulls for us. Let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it up and place it on the firewood, but they are not to light the fire. I will prepare the other bull and place it on the firewood, but I will not light the fire. Then you will call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers with fire, he is God.” (v.22-24) Sound fair? The people nodded. Elijah let prophets of Baal go first. They carefully examine both bull carcasses. Between the 450 of them, they would have been able to select the one that burned more quickly. Then, they took their carcass. They placed it on some firewood. And they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon. (v.26) Oh Great, wonderful Baal! Send fire upon us your servants. Baal, Baal, amazing and magnificent. Showcase your power right now! Baal, Baal, he’s our half man, half bull, if he can’t do it no one can! Baal, Baal, please… At noon, Elijah began to mock them. “Shout louder! He is a god, isn’t he? He may be deep in thought…you know. Trying to figure out how to light the fire without matches. Or busy…The word in Hebrew means “busy using the restroom.” Or on a journey…visiting his cousin in Newark. So… The prophets shouted louder. They screamed at the top of their lungs. They danced as fast as their feet could move them. They cut themselves thinking – that if they bled, maybe Baal would care enough to send one little spark. They kept up a prophetic frenzy until the time of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound. No one answered. There was no response. (v.29) After eight long hours, Elijah stood up. Calmly, he took twelve stones and made an altar. He dug around the altar until there was trench. Then, he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the sacrifice and on the wood.” (v.33) The servants looked at one another oddly. Because that’s not usually the best way to prepare a sacrifice. But…it was Elijah’s turn now, so… They poured the four jars of water onto the sacrificed. Not once. Not twice. Three times. Until the sacrifice was soaked. The water was drenched. There was even a little river flowing in the trench. Then, Elijah walked to the altar. He looked up. And prayed: “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things by your word. Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back to you.” (v.36-37) And… As soon as he finished. As soon as he put the “n” sound on the “Amen…” Fire from the Lord fell on the sacrifice and on the wood, the stones, and the dirt. (v.37) It burned up the water-soaked carcass. It consumed the drenched firewood. It burned up the stones. And even licked up the water in the trench. (v.37) When all the people saw this, they fell on their knees and said, “The Lord, he is God! The Lord, he is God!” (v.39) Friends, here’s a truth that remains true to this day: God UTTERLY DEMOLISHES any idol he’s up against. It doesn’t matter what idol you put up against the REAL GOD, the LORD, Jesus Christ, in a one-on-one battle, God wins. God versus Baal? God wins. God versus Asherah? God wins. God versus Dagon? God wins.. God versus Zeus. God wins.. God versus Aphrodite. God wins. God versus Poseidon. God wins. God versus Vishnu. God wins. God versus Buddha. God wins. God versus Allah. God wins. God versus Entertainment. God wins. God versus Social Media. God wins. God versus A Booming Economy. God wins. God versus Science. God wins. God versus Politicians. God wins. God versus Society. God wins. God versus Greed. God wins. God versus Lust. God wins. God versus Pride. God wins. God versus yourself? God wins. God utterly demolishes any idol he’s up against. And God utterly demolishes any idol worshipers he’s up against. So… Elijah’s words seem appropriate: Stop staggering on two crutches. If the Lord is God, follow him. (v.21) Turn to God. But don’t do so in fear. Even if you’ve been staggering between idol worship and God. Don’t be afraid. Because… God UTTERLY DEMOLISHED our SIN of idolatry. The title of this sermon is the Great Idolatry showdown. But…I wasn’t talking about this incredible public event on Mount Carmel. I was talking about the quiet private event in the garden of Gethsemane. Because there, the devil used every idol he could think of. Comfort. Hatred. Self-interest. To tell Jesus, “Stop listening to your Father. Don’t go through with the plan. None of these people are worth it. None of them matter. They’ve gone after their own idols. They haven’t worshipped the true God. They’ve sinned. Let them the fire of God consume them.” But Jesus. Bowed to the ground. He looked up to heaven. He said, “Father…not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) Then, Jesus got up. He went to be arrested. He allowed himself to be sacrificed on the cross. In doing so… Jesus utterly destroyed all your sins. He utterly destroyed all the times you’ve staggered between idols. He consumed with raging fire all the times you’ve worshipped things other than him. He burned to ash every last one of your sins. Friends, take heart. Jesus, the True God, is on your side. IV. What Now? All that being said, idols are a part of life. The devil will do everything he can to make you lose battle after battle against idolatry. How do we fight back? A few ideas: (1) Lift Up Your Eyes Because that’s what Elijah did. Instead of looking forward at some stupid statue, he looked up to the true God. Right now, God calls you to the same. Colossians 3:1-3 says this, “Because you were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.” During the Coronavirus crisis, it’s tempting to look around. To look at your bank account, to look at doctor’s recommendations, to look at social media post after social media post to try and find answers. And it’s not wrong to do that. But if we’re not LOOKING UP, we’re not looking to the true God. Because when you look to the true God. When you see that he burns up water drenched sacrifices with a giant fireball from heaven… When you see that he defeats sin with his death and resurrection… There’s confidence. He’s the One you need. (2) Remember your Identify That’s what the people of Israel had forgotten. They had forgotten that they were God’s children. They had forgotten all of God’s incredible miracles. They had forgotten God’s merciful promise of the Savior. They had begun to believe – they belonged to Baal. It’s easy when Idolatry attacks to feel like that’s your identity: I’m a drunkard. I’m an addict. I’m a grump. I’m a failure. But… That’s not who you are. I was watching a show called 100 humans on Netflix. It does experiments on a variety of humans to gain input on the human psyche. One experiment had humans learn to twirl plates on a stick. They had two hours of guidance and instruction from a professional plate spinner. Then, they would come and perform for judges. But before they performed the judges would blindly pull out a ping pong ball from a hat. If the ball was blue, they would give positive reinforcement no matter how terrible they were. If the ball was red, they would give negative reinforcement, no matter how good it was. Then, after receiving the judge’s reaction, the humans would be allowed two more hours of practice. Then, they’d re-perform. The result? Everyone who was told that they did terribly? Their time of plate in the air went down. One guy didn’t even attempt because he believed what the judge’s said: “I’m worse than a dog.” But everyone who was encouraged? They improved. One lady who hadn’t actually gotten the plate to spin the first time said, “You told me I doing great. So I kept trying.” Here’s what God says about you: For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (v.3-4) You are his child. You are forgiven. You are a GOD worshiper. No matter what idols you have worshipped in the past, that identity is dead because of Jesus. (3) Put to Death Your Idols Did you know that’s what Elijah did at the end of the section? God had Elijah and the people put to death the 450 prophets of Baal. That might sound harsh to you. But remember – these prophets had been involved in the murder of God’s prophets, the murder of young children, and leading an entire nation to eternal destruction in hell. Do the same with your idols: Put to death whatever is worldly in you: sexual immorality, uncleanness, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. (v.6) Understand – that does NOT mean harm any person in any way at all. But it does mean REMOVE the idols that you fall to. Put a filter on the computer that leads to Internet porn. Install an app that limits access to social media. Pour your booze down the drain. Cut off the friendship that’s leading you away from Jesus. (4) Be Confident Because GOD wins! Despite the disadvantages it appears that God has. Think of the account of Elijah. Baal has 450 prophets; GOD only had 1. Baal had first pick of the sacrifices; GOD got the leftover. Baal had a dry altar area; GOD’s was drenched. Baal had 8 hours to set it on fire; GOD had a few minutes. But GOD won. It might look like the idols in your life will always win. With the help of the virus, it might seem impossible. But you’re wrong. GOD always wins. Even when it looks like he’s at a disadvantage, he’s not. Because… He’s the only TRUE GOD. And the true GOD always wins. Amen.
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We are in the middle of our IDOLATRY sermon series. This week we want to learn about living how to BE FREE and how to LIVE FREE. Before that, 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; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
I. Proof that You’re Free Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve learned a lot about IDOLATRY. Idolatry is placing something that isn’t God in God’s place. Our idols are the things that lead us to fear, love, and trust in them more than God. Church is a place where subtle idols can creep up and take God’s place in or hearts. All of this awareness of idolatry has begun to make me think it’s a lot like Coronavirus It feels like it’s everywhere. You can’t see it coming. It can make you do all kind of things that you don’t normally do. Like a slave. Jesus agrees. Look at John 8:34 “Everyone who keeps committing sin is a slave to sin.” Since sin happens when you don’t treat God as your true god, it follows that, “Everyone who keeps committing sin is a slave to idolatry.” If you keep lusting after photos of your gym mates online, you’re a slave to the idol of your sex drive. If you keep getting hammered on Jack Daniel’s, you’re a slave to the idol of alcohol. If you keep spending hours upon hours on Facebook checking how many likes your post received, you’re a slave to the idol of your pride. If you keep telling lies about your struggles to your church family, you’re a slave to the idol of reputation. If you keep being lazy around the house, you’re a slave to the idol of sloth. If you keep getting angry with your family, you’re a slave to the idol of “It’s my way or the highway.” If you keep SINNING, idolatry is ENSLAVING you. That’s terrifying. So…how does one break free? Jesus said, “A slave does not remain in the family forever. A son does remain forever.” Jesus is referencing the ancient system of servanthood. In that system, you would sign on to work as a “slave” or a “servant” to pay off a debt or to borrow money for a mortgage. For our sakes, imagine you took a job at a local pig farm and were contracted to work until the end of summer. You live on the farm. You’re greeted as a family member. You get to eat at the big family-style table for BBQ and greens every evening. But when your time was up, you leave. And you don’t get to be at the farm anymore. On the other hand, if you were a child of that family? You would always be a part of the family. You’d be greeted as part of the family. You’d have a bed waiting for you on the farm. Even if you were away for a long period of time, when you returned mom would make sure there’s a spot at the table with your favorite, Lemon Meringue Pie, waiting for you. Brothers and sisters, you are God’s child. You are a part of his family. And always will be. You ARE NOT a slave. But you are free. In fact, Jesus says, “If the Son sets you free, you really will be free. (John 8:34-36) Did you hear that? If Jesus sets your free, you’ll be free indeed. And…. Jesus did set you free. He died. He rose. You’re free. Here’s the truth then: You are FREE from idolatry because JESUS set you FREE. Because Jesus doesn’t do anything half way. He didn’t get you some of the way free. He didn’t attempt at freeing you and fail. He doesn’t say, “You free yourself.” He set you FREE. You are not a SLAVE to idolatry. You are FREE! II. “The Free” Flee The Corinthians were a group of believers who lived in Corinth. Corinth was a city filled with idol worship. There was a large temple to Aphrodite the goddess of love, another impressive temple to Poseidon, the god of the sea, and various miniature temples to Apollo, Isis, Venus and Demeter. Some of the believers in the Corinthians church had formerly been practicing idol worshippers. But Jesus had set them free. In his letter to this group of former slaves to idol worship, Paul encourages them in how to LIVE Free. He says, “Therefore, my dear friends, FLEE from idolatry.” (1 Cor. 10:14) Flee means get out of there. It means “run.” It means “sprint.” It means be like my dog Frankie. Frankie hates… (that probably isn’t a strong enough word)… Frankie loathes laundry baskets. I don’t know why. Maybe a laundry basket bullied her for days on end before she came to our family. Regardless, when she sees a laundry basket near her, she cowers in the corner with her tail between her legs and as soon as there’s a space for her to get out of the room, she sprints outside and goes to the corner farthest from the basket. “Flee” means to run out of the room as fast your four legs can carry you and get as far away from idolatry as possible! But the thing about humans is that we tend to be more like my cat, Minnie. The other day Minnie found a bunch of string and played with it until she was tangled up within it. She started meowing. I let her out. No more than about 5 minutes later, she was meowing again, because she was back in the string. “Flee” does not mean getting entangled in the idolatry that you were just released from. The FREE from idolatry FLEE from idolatry In Corinth, there were often feasts for the different idols. (Think about it like Lenten meals…just…dedicated to a false god.) Zesty Chicken Sunday dedicated to Zeus. Apple Pie-Apple Turnovers dedicated to Apollo. Doritos Dinner dedicated to Demeter. These meals would allow the community to gather for FREE food in the name of the idol. Now remember the people of Corinth had been freed from idol worship by the message of Christ. Yet when they were walking by the local idol temple and saw that there was FREE FOOD? They joined in. Would you consider that “FLEEING” from idolatry? Paul didn’t. Allow him to explain. “Judge for yourselves what I am saying. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? (v.15-16) The answer to both questions is YES. When we eat the bread of Lord’s Supper, we are intimately connected with Jesus’ body that was broken so we might have life. When we drink the wine at Lord’s Supper, we are intimately connected with the blood Jesus shed for our forgiveness. When we sit at the Lord’s Table, we are intimately connected with the REAL GOD. More than that we are connected to God’s people. Paul writes, “Because there is one bread, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (v.17) This is a simple principle: If you’re connected to Jesus in Lord’s Supper… And I’m connected to Jesus in Lord’s Supper… Then we are connected. This is an awesome truth. But if that’s true about the Lord’s table, then it’s true about an idol’s table too! Paul writes, “Those who eat the sacrifices are partners of [that] altar, aren’t they? (v.18) He adds, “What am I saying? That food from idol sacrifices is anything, or that an idol is anything? No. (v.19) It’s not. An idol is nothing more than some wood, some paints, and a bunch of glitter. An idol isn’t real. Therefore, you can’t be united with an idol, because an idol isn’t anything. But this wasn’t a harmless offense. Because while idols aren’t real, the demons that make you believe that idols are real… …are real. “What [these idol worshippers] sacrifice, “they sacrifice to demons, and not to God” and I do not want you to become partners of demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.” (v.20) Because here’s the truth: Continuing in idolatry connects you with DEMONS. Using the internet to worship God on a Sunday morning, partners you with GOD! But using that same internet to look up dirty pictures on a Sunday night, partners you with demons. Typing “Praise Jesus” on social media now, partners you with God! But typing “curse this person” later, partners you with demons. Tuning in for the family devotion now, partners you with GOD! But getting the popcorn ready for the R-rated horror flick later, partners you with demons. Giving online to the church now, partners you with GOD! But giving the rest of our funds to internet gambling later, partners you with demons. If Paul still hasn’t convinced you to FLEE from idolatry, look at verse 21. Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is? (v.21) It’s a call back to the 1st Commandment: “You shall have no other gods” Why? “Because the LORD your God is a jealous God, punishing those who hate him.” (Exodus 20:5) Because the truth is that GOD wants you badly. That’s why he invites you to his altar. Consider this: At an idols’ altar, people want the idol’s help so badly they would shed blood for the idol. At God’s altar, God wants you in his family so badly, GOD gives his blood for you. At his altar, God speaks to you and says: You are FREE. Live FREE & FLEE. III. “The Free” Serve This is not all God has to say about how the FREE, live FREELY. He writes, “Everything is permitted”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permitted”—but not everything builds up. Let no one seek his own good, but that of others. The concept in Greek culture was, “do whatever you want, because who cares!?!” For Greeks, this way of thinking revolved around their moral law. It’s the reason that GREEK culture is the culture that later is associated with frat house party. Paul pits that logic against God’s logic. Because… There are some things in life that are permissible. They are neither commanded nor forbidden by God. Let’s call those “Free-to-Choose Things” “Free-to-choose things” include… …what kind of socks you’re wearing right now. …what kind of donut you had for breakfast. …how much cream you put in your coffee. …whether you should eat turkey bacon or pig bacon. All of these things are neutral. We are “Free-to-choose.” Yet, in these “free-to-choose” things, the FREE, must be careful of making these neutral things into an idol. The FREE must be careful not to use these “Free-to-choose” items to serve themselves. Rather, The FREE use their freedom to SERVE others. Besides meals dedicated to idols which Paul already identified as something believers should not participate in, there was the issue of “food that had formerly been sacrificed to idols, but was now being sold at the local farmer’s market for a value menu price.” Leftovers were often sold by the pagan priests to the merchant, who in turn would sell it to the people. Capitalism, right? Now Paul had just told the believers to never eat at the table of the idol worshipping feasts. What about this formerly sacrificed to idols meat? The answer? It depends. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without asking questions for the sake of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” (v.26) That includes this chicken and asparagus plate. It is from God, so go ahead. Just don’t ask questions. Otherwise, the devil will make your conscience over sensitive and you’ll think you’re doing wrong. If one of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat whatever you are served without asking questions for the sake of conscience. (v.27) Again, don’t ask. Eat! Enjoy. Make friends with unbelievers in the hopes that you can share the Gospel with them. But if someone says to you, “This is from a sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. I mean the other person’s conscience, not your own. (v.29) Because imagine you are with a recent believer, who had just stopped worshipping Aphrodite. They just learned the 1st Commandment in Starting Point class. And now, you are about to eat piece of Tiramisu that had been sacrificed to a false god? Best case scenario? You’ll leave them really confused. Worst case? They’ll head to the next Aphrodite fest, participate in the things of demons, and be pulled away from faith. Sometimes serving others means we DON’T. You don’t have a beer, even though you can, because you’re sitting next to a former alcoholic. You don’t call Peter a saint, even though it’s Biblical, because you’re talking with someone who occasionally prays to saints. You don’t watch a movie in the basement with the lights off, alone, with your girlfriend – even though it’s not wrong to do so – because you’re both trying to be pure. And this is counterproductive. But Paul continues, “I mean the other person’s conscience, not your own. Why is my freedom judged by someone else’s conscience? If I eat the food with thankfulness, why am I criticized for something for which I give thanks?” I think this is included because of one particular group that Paul knew would read this letter and totally abuse his words. The Judaizers. The Judaizers were a group of believers who believed that people were saved by faith in Jesus and by adhering to Old Testament Jewish customs. The Judaizers didn’t struggle with whether idols were real. They struggled with humility. Meaning they could take what Paul just said and respond: You’re right. This is just food. It’s not wrong to eat, but we won’t because we’re better than you. And you better not… …or you’ll be sinning against our conscience. In this instance? Paul recommends you take a big old bite. Because… You’re not dealing with a young in faith believer struggling with a lack of knowledge. You’re dealing with a “mature” in faith believer struggling with a lack of humility. Sometimes serving others means we DO. For instance, baptism. We baptize at Gethsemane church by pouring water over people’s heads. This is because the word Jesus when he tells us to “baptize” simply means to “wash with water.” That means, however you wash with water, is baptism. But some church groups confess, “You must put someone completely under the water or it isn’t baptism.” Now… We could capitulate. We could get a baptismal tank and only dunk people. Or… After talking and explaining and showing from God’s Word what God actually says, We could “serve them by DOING.” By pouring water, our action speaks to them, “This is permissible. Stop making YOUR WAY into an idol.” Sometimes serving others means we DO; sometimes serving others means we DON’T. How do we know when to do what? Paul gives us 2 questions to apply to any situation. (1) Is it for God’s Glory? That’s our goal as Christians to bring God glory as we freely serve him. Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink, or do anything else, do everything to the glory of God.” (v.31) Because ultimately, that’s what we’re here for. God’s glory. This is an important question our leadership asked this week. Does refraining from in-person worship and going online give glory to God? Yes. It obeys the Fourth Commandment by honoring our government. It obeys the Fifth Commandment by honoring the lives of others. It obeys the Third Commandment by bringing God’s Word to God’s people. A question for you to reflect these coming weeks will be -- Is the way I’m worshipping giving glory to God? Should I watch in front of Netflix? Or in a quiet area of the room? Should I scroll on my phone? Or set my phone aside? Should I sing along with the music? Or not even click on them? Do everything to the glory of God. (2) Does it lead others to Jesus? The ultimate way that God has glory is when someone comes to faith in him as their Savior. We are God’s church, so that’s our goal too. Paul writes, “Do not give offense to Jews, or Greeks, or God’s church, just as I also try to please all people in all things, by not seeking what is best for me but for the many, so that they may be saved.” (v.32) If eating that exotic food dish gives me an opportunity to discuss Jesus’ love with my Hindu friends? I do. If throwing that BLT away, allows me a chance to talk to my Jewish friends and share Jesus with them? I do. If worshipping with an organ causes someone to check out of church before we can share Jesus with them, we don’t. If worshipping with a drum set causes someone to walk out of church before we can share Jesus with them, we don’t. If using hand sanitizer soothe someone’s worries so that they might listen to me calm their fears about Jesus, even if I just hand sanitized out in my car and I’ve already sanitized about 15 times today and I’m not even planning on high fiving them anyways? Hand sanitizer it is. Because our goal as the FREE is to live FREE that others might also be FREE. Amen. We are in the middle of our IDOLATRY sermon series. So far, we have…
(1) defined idolatry as PLACING anything in God’s PLACE. (2) identified personal idols as those things that we FEAR, LOVE or TRUST more than God. (3) marveled as Jesus loved US more than himself by going to the cross to win forgiveness for our idolatry. (4) been empowered to discover our own idols and get rid of them In order to do this, I think it’s helpful to consider the places you visit each week and identify the idols that tempt you in each location. For example… …work, where your boss sends you email reminders to worship idols of money and career every five minutes on the five minutes. …the local bar, where you go every Thursday to practice some Thirsty Thursday Theology. …your gym, where bowing down to do burpees quickly becomes bowing down to your bodacious body. …your couch, here you have a nice little altar set up to the Netflix God. … the bedroom down the hall from yours, where this tiny little 5-year-old God that demands all of your time and energy be spent pretending to be a Paw Patrol Character with them. But, as you consider places where idols tempt you to worship them, how many of you thought of… …Church? If we were playing Family Feud and the topic was “Place You’d Find an Idol in Modern America”, giving the answer “Church” is something that would cause Steve Harvey to do a double take. Today we will be warned from God’s Word not to be deceived: church can absolutely be a place where idolatry lays hold of our hearts. We’ll consider if any idols have taken their way into our hearts and ask God’s help exposing and removing those idols. Before we do that, 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; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. I. Background of Ezekiel The lesson for this morning comes from Ezekiel 8. A bit of background: In 597 B.C. the Babylonian Empire defeated the people of Israel and carried many people back into Babylon as exiles. These people were apart from their country, apart from where they grew up, and apart from their families. But the truth was that God had ordained this exile. For years, God had been warning the people of Israel through prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, that this would unless they stopped worshipping idols and returned to worshipping the true God. They didn’t listen. So, God allowed the exile. One might expect the exile to be what finally caused the people to change their ways, right? Enter Ezekiel. Ezekiel is one of the priests of God who had been carried off with the exiles to Babylon. In Babylon, God transforms Ezekiel from a priest that brings requests from the people to God to a prophet that brings messages from God to the people. God had Ezekiel present these messages to the people in strange ways. Once, God had Ezekiel go the city square and lie down on his side for 390 days. This was to represent how the 390 years that the people had been engaged in the sin of idolatry. (Ezekiel 4:5) Another time, God had Ezekiel build a miniature model of Jerusalem. Then, he took an iron pan and placed it as a wall against the model, representing a Babylonian siege that God would send against the people of Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 4:3) Yet one more time, God had Ezekiel shave off his beard. Then, he took a third of the beard shavings and burned them (to represent the third of Jerusalem that would be set on fire), a third of his beard shavings he threw into the wind (to represent the third that would flee the city and be scattered), and a third of the beard shavings he threw into the air and slashed with his sword (to represent the third of Jerusalem that would die by the sword). All these things would happen if the people didn’t return from idols to the true God. These action prophecies led to Ezekiel garnering quite a following. Many of the elders in the city spent time with Ezekiel hoping to be present for another strange prophecy. Well… On the fifth day of the sixth month, in the sixth year of the exile, Ezekiel is chilling in his house with some of the elders. (I imagine they’re drinking some wine and watching the latest episode of the Bachelor). When suddenly, Ezekiel goes into a trance. He sees the figure of a man. Chest of blazing fire. Legs of glowing metal. It’s the LORD. And the LORD reaches out his hands, Grabs Ezekiel by the hair, And lifts him into the air. He soars with Ezekiel out of the walls of Babylon. He skyrockets him past the desert plains. He lifts him up past the mountains. And sets him down in Jerusalem. Right in front of God’s temple. I’m sure Ezekiel was filled with excitement: This is my home! This is my temple. This is where I worked! That is where I carved my name into a rock. Over there is where little Suzy Lou gave me a kiss on the cheek in grade school! But… As Ezekiel’s looked around his home… He saw something… Different. II. Church Idols (1) The Idol of JEALOUSY The Spirit…brought me to the entrance of the north gate into the inner courtyard of the Temple, where the idolatrous image of jealousy, which provokes jealousy, was located. (8:3) Can you imagine that? This is God’s holy temple. The place where you worship God and only God. And yet, there at the entrance welcoming you as you come in, is an idol. At the entrance of our church, we’ve got some flowers. We’ve got a bench. We’ve got a sign that says, “worship this way.” How would you feel if next week there was a big old statue of Buddha out front? The idol that was in front of the temple is simply identified as jealousy. While churches today might not have an actual, statue like idol at the entrance to their church, the IDOL OF JEALOUSY is absolutely a threat. A while back, I noticed a young child that was in tears throughout the worship service. Crying. Wailing. Having a hard time. Afterwards, he was still having a difficult time, so I asked him, “What’s wrong?” “My brother ate the last goldfish. I didn’t get as many!” Mom said, “Yep. That’s pretty much all we cared about throughout worship.” Jealousy is a threat to take over your time of worship and craft an idol in your heart. “Would you look at that person? He’s got so many friends. I wish I was more like him.” “Really? She’s engaged and I’m not? How is that even possible? I’m way better looking.” “That musician is very talented. So…it’s kinda cool they just made a mistake…Knock them down a peg or two.” “That guy shouldn’t be on church leadership. I’d do a much a better job than him.” “Look! There’s pastor capitulating to the new people again. When he’s gonna spend more time talking to me!?!” The thing about the idol of jealousy is that it provokes jealousy. Remember the first sermon in this series? God said, “You shall have no other Gods… for I am a jealous God visiting punishment on those who hate me.” (Exodus 20:3) You might be consuming with jealousy for other people. That leaves God jealous for you. And Ezekiel was in shock. And God tapped him on the shoulder. And said, “You will see even great abominations than these.” (v.6) (2) The Idol of REPUTATION Next, he brought me to the entrance to the courtyard, and I looked and saw that there was a hole in the wall. (v.7) Instead of telling Ezekiel to get out his spackle and a trowel to fix it, God tells him, “to dig through the wall.” So, Ezekiel does. I don’t know that he had some kind of Ancient Hebraic shovel, but he dug until he had a space big enough for his body to fit through. Then, God told him, “Look around at the abominations in this room.” (v.8) As Ezekiel enters, he notices the walls are engraved with “Every form of creeping creature and every kind of detestable animal and all the filthy idols.” (v.10) This is most likely a reference to the Gods of the Egyptians. Hieroglyphics – that glorified hawks, cats, and beetles as Gods. But Ezekiel hadn’t discovered ancient room that no one knew existed. People knew about it Temple people knew about it. In fact, inside the room was a group of about 70 Israelite elders, burning incense and praying to the carvings. But what’s interesting is that these men were hidden! From the outside, the room looked like a temple of God, but hidden deep within the inside? Idolatry. Why? They wanted to protect their REPUTATION. It’s the only reason that they kept up appearances as “priests” of God. They craved the REPUTATION of God followers even though their hearts were far from him. REPUTATION is just as much an idol today. “I don’t want to be at worship today. But I better go so that it looks good to others.” “Lots of prayers on social media for the Coronavirus. I’d better post one too so I look like a good Christian.” “I can’t confess my secret sin of pornography to the elders, because they might look at me funny. I’ll just put on a smile, act like everything’s ok, and keep sinning.” Want to know the ironic part of this? REPUTATION worshippers think that everyone is fooled. According to verse 12, the worshippers in the secret room were saying: ‘The Lord does not see us.’ (v.12) Ironic. Because the one that was seeing them do this, was the very one they claimed didn’t see them. And God sees it when reputation becomes our idols. And he hates it. But God wasn’t done yet. God grabbed him by the hand. And said, “You will see even greater abominations...” (v.13) (3) The Idol of PROSPERITY Next, God brought Ezekiel to the entrance of the gateway of the House of the Lord that is on the north side, and right there (he) saw women sitting and wailing for Tammuz. (v.14) Tammuz was the ancient Mesopotamian God of fertility. According to religious myth, when Tammuz was healthy then the land would be fertile. He’d bless the farmer with healthy crops. He’d give them an abundance of grain. He’d make sure that there was a BULL market in ancient crops. But when things went poorly, perhaps during winter or a famine, Tammuz had died. Then, it was up to the worshippers of Tammuz to bring Tammuz back to life through mourning and crying. (Sounds like some kind of Disney movie: “If you shed a tear of true love for your idol, then Tammuz will come back to life.”) But really, it wasn’t Tammuz they loved. It wasn’t Tammuz they were sad that died. It was their PROSPERITY. PROSPERITY is a big idol in the modern church. People that worship just to get a better job. People that worship just to get more money. People that worship just to find themselves a happily family. Not that any of those things are bad on their own. But LOVING them more than God is. Even right now. There’s a pandemic of COVID-19. And we’re praying to God to get us through this. To keep us from illness. To keep our jobs strong. To keep our economy prosperous. But… Are we doing so because we LOVE God? Or because we LOVE prosperity? Because we TRUST God to take care of us… Or we don’t TRUST life without stuff? Because we FEAR God and know he’s in control… Or because we FEAR the virus and think it is? Worship is not a means for you to get PROSPERITY. It’s a way to show trust in God when there isn’t PROSPERITY. Because think about this. You don’t have to mourn to bring the real God back from the dead. He did that on his own. And… God turned Ezekiel around. And led him away from the entrance. And said, “You will see even greater abominations than these.” (v.15) (4) The Idol of REBELLION Finally, God brought (Ezekiel) to the inner courtyard of the House of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the vestibule and the altar. This is the main event. It’s the place where priests would offer sacrifices to God. It’s the place where priests would offer prayers to God. It’s the place where priests would sing worship songs to God. Usually that was done facing the altar (not that God was the altar), but it was a visual reminder that all of their worship was directed to God. But… These men weren’t facing the altar. Their backs were. There were twenty-five men, showing their backsides to the temple of the Lord with their faces toward the east, and they were bowing down to the sun. (v.16) Open. Brazen. REBELLION. They didn’t care what God wanted. They did what they wanted. And what they wanted was to be like all the other nations. Newsflash. Worship isn’t about you. It isn’t about what you want. It isn’t about what you like. It isn’t about what you desire. It’s about God. And here’s the warning, if you are making worship all about YOU, then it’s as if your back is turned to the altar. As if you’re worshipping the sun. As if you’re stinking a branch up God’s nose. Look at that figure of speech in verse 17, “They are even sticking the branch up my nose!” It’s the Old Testament equivalent to thumbing your nose at God. Only the phrase is usually “stick a branch to my nose.” God says that this open rebellion isn’t just a branch to his nose, but a branch up his nose. This seems like a TERRIBLE idea. III. The Church’s Real God Because… How does the REAL God feel about all this idolatry among his people? Verse 18: “I also will act in wrath. My eye will not show pity, and I will have no compassion. They will call out to my ears with a loud cry, but I will not hear them.” This segues directly into the very next chapter. Where God tells his servants to go through out Jerusalem and bring destruction to all who worship idols. And the messenger is about to go. But before he does, he gives the messenger one last instruction: The Lord said, “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a TAV on the foreheads of those who moan and lament over the abominations being committed in her.” (v.4) Those were the ones that God wouldn’t destroy. Those who heard his message and repented. But we need to talk about this “tav”. It’s a Hebrew letter that makes the sound of a “t”. In the modern world, it looks similar to a lower case “n” just with a rocking chair like foot to the bottom left and a crossing between the two strokes at the top. But… If you trace the history of the tav back to the time of Ezekiel? + It’s a cross. Not that anyone who read this at Ezekiel’s time said, “There is a savior who will come and die on the cross to remove our sins of idolatry in God’s temple…” But as we look back and see what Ezekiel was saying, “Isn’t this amazing?” Jesus has covered your sins. His death on the cross has covered. He has covered your idolatry of jealousy. He has covered your idolatry of reputation. he has covered your idolatry of prosperity. He has covered your idolatry of rebellion. He has covered you with his blood, called you his child, and made you his church. Rejoice! You are forgiven! IV. What Now? (1) Honor God in Church This is the main principle of worship. We want everything we do to be Christ centered. It’s why Jesus comes up so much throughout the service: In the songs. In the prayers. In the lessons. In the kids’ lesson. In the artwork. In the bulletin. On the powerpoint. in the sermon, etc. That’s absolutely what God has called us as church leadership to do. But God also calls you to honor God in worship. To throw out your jealousies. To throw out your worries about reputation. To throw out your desires for prosperity. To throw out your own sinful wants and desires. Instead? To worship God. (2) Honor God AS Church The Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that “you are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives in you.” God loved you. He bought you. He threw out your idols. And made your heart his temple. In your heart, there’s a sign outside that says, “God is worshipped here.” Remember that. Because when you do, this whole thing about idolatry in church flips. Instead of idols entering God’s domain of the church, God’s church enters the idol’s domain of the world. Last week we defined IDOLATRY. It is worshipping something that is NOT GOD as GOD. In the Old Testament, idolatry was very OPEN. People crafted statues, bowed to them, and offered sacrifices to them.
If that were the only version of idolatry, then today’s sermon on identifying idols would be pretty simple. Step One. Go to your house. Step Two. Identify any statues that you regularly pray to. Step Three. Use a Sharpie and write on that statues – THIS IS AN IDOL. Step Four. Throw those statues in the garbage. But there’s a second definition of idolatry that we looked at last week. It happens when people unknowingly place something or someone in God’s place. We call this HIDDEN idolatry. So… How does one identify hidden idols? Today we will learn from God’s Word how to identify idols in our hearts. Before we do that, 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; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. I. A “Gotcha” Question The Scripture we’re searching today comes from Matthew 22:32-40. It takes place on the Tuesday before Jesus died. Tensions were between Jesus and the religious leaders of the city. So, that day was filled with theological showdowns. With a large crowd of people watching, the various religious groups asked Jesus questions in order to make him look like a fool. It was GOTCHA journalism. Their questions were designed to make Jesus look like a fool or heretic in front of the public. If Jesus answered the wrong way, they were able to tell everyone that Jesus was a fool or a heretic. If this would have happened in in 2020, social media would have jumped down Jesus’ throat. There would have been ads on Facebook that said, “Expert in the Law EXPOSES Jesus” CLICK HERE. Instagram memes making fun of what Jesus said. Hashtags on Twitter: #JesusGetsOwned Look at the question that one expert in the law comes up with: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” (v.36) Now, understand… All of God’s commands are important. All of God’s commands are good. But… If they can get Jesus to pick one over the other… If Jesus says, “Honor your Father and Mother” is most important, then can respond by saying, “So it’s not that big of a deal to kill someone?” If Jesus says, “You shall not commit adultery” is most important, they can spread the word, “Jesus says stealing isn’t really that bad.” If Jesus says, “You shall remember the Sabbath Day” is most important, they can tell others that “Jesus support coveting!” If they could get Jesus to seemingly contradict what Scripture says, He’d be an easy target for a smear campaign. But… It’s not wise to try and pull one over on Jesus. Look at Jesus’ response: Jesus said to him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments.” (v.38-40) Notice that Jesus answers the questions about the singular greatest commandment by giving two. The first command he lists is a version of the first commandment that God had written down on the two tables of stone given to Moses. (We talked about that story last week). That command is, “You shall have no other gods.” Jesus’ version is similar. “Love God more than anything.” But then Jesus continues and mentions a second command in conjunction with the first: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This command isn’t labelled as second in importance or value. Just as the second command he’s going to list. Jesus means that there is a link between the two: One can’t love a neighbor as himself without loving God above all things. One can’t love God above all things without loving their neighbor as themselves In other words, all God’s commands are great, because all God’s commands are about love for God. TRUTH: Love for GOD is the HEART of all commands. Just like a heart needs to be pumping in order to send blood into all the area of the body so that your fingers pinch, your knees bend, and your tongue blows raspberries, so love for God pumps love throughout spiritual veins that we follow his commands. Think about it: Love for God leads to keeping the 3rd commandment in worship of God. Love for God leads to keeping the 4th commandment and honoring the parents God gave you. Love for God leads to keeping the 5th commandment and not harboring hatred for people God loves. Love for God leads to keeping the 6th commandment and not viewing a soul that God created as being there for your pleasure. Love for God leads to keeping the 7th commandments and not stealing what God has provided for his people. Love for God leads to keeping the 8th commandment and not gossiping about people that God says he cares deeply about. Love for God leads to keeping the 9th & 10th commandments and totally trusting that God has given you exactly what you need. II. Identifying Idols Jesus wins the battle of wits with the Pharisees. But that’s not all Jesus does. In his words, Jesus provides a blueprint for identifying idols in our lives. How? Look at Jesus’ words again. (1) Your Idols are things that vie for YOUR HEART The heart has always been used as a symbol for love. Although the actual human heart doesn’t exactly like the Valentine’s Day shape (there aren’t four ventricles), it is what keeps your blood pumping. As a result, the ancient world began to use the heart as a symbol to describe what “got your blood pumping.” Therefore, we want to LOVE the Lord our God with all our heart! But… Imagine for a moment that you were happily married. Your heart was completely and absolutely in love with your spouse. In fact, you were celebrating your anniversary down at Sullivan’s steakhouse. And… You decide to reveal to your spouse that for your anniversary, you signed both of you up for a dating app. Good idea? Of course not, you’d be putting your marriage in jeopardy by allowing others who aren’t your spouse to attempt to vie for your heart with text message, with photos, with flirty, heart shaped emojis! It’s the same with idols. Your idols are the things that are vying for God’s place in your heart. Could be your career. Your bank account. Your reputation. Your boyfriend. Your spouse. Your kids. Your health. Your physique. Your vanity. Your emotions. Your traditions. Your innovations. Your desires. Your hopes. Careful. The things you love will try to crowd God out of your heart. (2) Your Idols are things that vie for YOUR SOUL The soul is a word used to describe the miraculous life within each of us. Our soul is who we are. In the Bible, the soul is often in need of rest. Psalm 62 says, “My soul rests in God.” Psalm 116 says, “Return to rest my soul, for God has been good to you.” In Matthew 11, Jesus says, “In Me…You will find rest for your souls.” If you’re resting, you’re doing so because you have faith everything will be ok while you’re sleeping. If you’re awake, you’re not confident. You’re staying up late at the campfire watching for bobcats to attack. GOD is the one we are to trust in. So, idols are the things that vie for the TRUST of your soul. I remember a Starting Point class that I did once. We were on lesson two – the lesson that really focuses in on sin and God’s grace. It’s the Gospel – the truth that we are sinner in need of a savior and we have a Savior in Jesus, trust him. And this one guy said -- Nah. There’s gotta be more. I just don’t trust that Jesus did it all. I’m a pretty good person. I give a couple thousand dollars each year to charity. I volunteered at the homeless shelter recently. I think I TRUST that way more than some guy who died 2000 years ago. Did you see what happened? “Good things that he did” had become an idol. It was crowded God out of his soul. Careful. Things you trust will try to do the same. (3) Your Idols are things that vie for YOUR MIND The mind is a rational place. It is the place that looks as a situation and determines how scary it is. For instance, your mind is the thing that says, “Wow. There is an angry gorilla on the loose. I think I’ll stay in my locked house out of respect for the mad gorilla.” Your mind houses FEAR. Honestly, there is no being that should induce more FEAR than GOD! God is all powerful. God controls lighting God controls thunder. God controls tornados, volcanoes and hurricanes. God is not to be crossed! Yet… Your idols will try to convince you that they are scarier than God. “I know God says this and it’d be scary to face him, but…it’s probably scarier to face the ridicule of society.” “I know God hates sin and he threatens to exclude sinners from heaven, but…if you don’t do this sin you might be excluded from your friend group.” “I know God says it’d be better for those who don’t teach their kids about God to be thrown into a lake with a millstone around their neck, but if you don’t take your kids to that birthday party, the other parents will *GASP* think you’re a bad parent.” Careful. Things you fear will try to crowd God out of your mind. Here’s the concluding truth to all of this: Idolatry occurs when we FEAR, LOVE, or TRUST anything more than GOD. So… Have you been practicing hidden idolatry? If you go back to the connection between the two commandments though, there’s a foolproof test to determine this. Because Because if love for God leads to an ability to keep the commandments. Then an inability to keep the commandments is indicative of loving something other than God. It means there another something else in my heart. Pumping out its own agenda. It means: Idolatry. Shouting at the parents that GOD gave you because YOU don’t like what they did? Idolatry. Holding a grudge against the church people that GOD loves because YOU don’t want to give them the satisfaction of forgiveness? Idolatry. Staring down that blouse of the coworker that GOD created because YOU like the way it excites YOU? Idolatry. Stealing that dollar bill from the billfold of your friend that GOD gave you, because YOU want it? Idolatry. Badmouthing a friend via text message, a friend that God loves and died for and calls his beloved child, because her success makes YOU feel bad? Idolatry. If you didn’t catch the point, idolatry happens whenever we sin. And God hates idolatry. III. The Only Non-Idolater Thankfully there is good news. Thankfully there is one who lived his whole life as a non-idolater. In fact, he’s the only person in the history of humanity who never, ever committed idolatry. Jesus. (1) Jesus FEARED, LOVED, and TRUSTED God above All. Jesus was in heaven. Jesus never had to deal with anything difficult. He could have chosen to sit up there in a divine heavenly hammock eating a heavenly four course meals! But he didn’t. He loved God more than his divine existence, so he came into this sin filled earth. He feared God more than he feared what might happen to him, so he became a mortal being. He trusted God more than he trusted the devil’s plan to “bow down and worship him”, so he followed God’s plan. He loved God more than his own body, so he allowed humans to arrest him. He feared God more than his captors, so he allowed them to lead him to the courtroom. He trusted God more than his disciples’ plan to destroy all those awful Pharisees, and he allowed himself to die. But God’s love wasn’t the only reason that Jesus did this. (2) Jesus loved YOU as himself. In fact, we might even say, “more than himself.” Because… When things got bad. When he saw the back of the last prisoner to be whipped… When he saw the sharp point of the nails… When he saw the blood-stained wood of the cross… When he saw the gravestones of those who had been crucified… Jesus said, “OK.” Because he loved you. He loved you more than his breath. He loved you more than his life. He loved you as himself. As his brother. As his sister. As his dear friend. And the result? Because of Jesus death, you are forgiven of all your idolatry. For all the times you feared other things more than God, you are forgiven. For all the times you trusted other things more than God, you are forgiven. For all the times you loved other things more than God, you are forgiven. There’s a reason you want GOD to fill your hearts, Because GOD filled his heart with YOU. IV. What Now? (1) Identify Your Idols Take advantage of the fact that God has forgiven you. He has made you a part of his kingdom. He has equipped you with guidance on identifying your idols. I want you to take a moment and think about it. What are the things you fear, love and trust more than GOD? You can NOT do that. But if that’s your choice, understand it’ll be as if you had the choice between God on high and the Mr. Potato head idol from last week and for some reason you said to God – I think I need both. You don’t. You need only God. So… Work on identifying your idols. Write them down. And then? (2) Throw them Out Sometimes, the idol is inherently sinful, and you absolutely should throw it out. Got a bottle of booze that you love more than God? Toss it. Got a prescription drug that you trust more than God? Stop abusing it. Got a group of friends that you fear more than God? Stop hanging around them. Granted. Sometimes, the idol isn’t something you can simply throw out. In that case, spend some time each day identifying these things for what they are: Idols. This is my spouse. I love her, but she’s not God. This is my job. I appreciate it, but it’s not my job. This is a dollar bill. It’s helpful, but it’s not my God. While you might not be able to throw them out in an actual garbage can, God calls us to throw them out of his place in your heart. (3) Fill Your Heart with God. Because here’s the truth about your heart. When it’s filled with God, there isn’t room for any idols to get in. It’s like a glass of water. If you fill it with God, there’s no room for anything else. And how do you fill your heart with God? By spending time with him. A personal bible study. A group bible study. A worship service. A midweek service. A morning devotion. A bible reading. A lunchtime devotion. A devotion with your spouse. Baptism. Lord’s supper. Just having a conversation with your family about your savior. The result? God’s Word fills us with the message of Jesus. We see how much he loves us. And God convinces us… We don’t need any phony idols. We have the real GOD. Amen. Today we’re beginning a new series called IDOLATRY. We’re going to examine the Scriptures and our hearts that we might be more devoted to our Savior. Today our goal is to get a definition for what idolatry is. To do that, we’re going to deeply examine the very first commandment. Before we do that, 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; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
I. Defining “god” and “God” The Ten Commandments are recorded in Exodus 20. But it might be helpful to set the scene for these commandments. Nowadays we are used to laws being made by a bunch of people in suits. They argue on CSPAN, campaign with voters, enter a board room, and, after months of discussion, come back with 47 pages of rules that aren’t that much different from the last set of rules. This isn’t that. A man named Moses and a group of people called the Israelites are at the foot of a mountain called Sinai. They have been told that God will soon be giving them the Ten Commandments. Suddenly, they begin to hear thunder. Flashes of lightning streak the sky. The mountain itself begins to quake. And a thick cloud of smoke begins to come from the top of the mountain. Then, a booming voice calls MOSES to join him at the summit. But to leave everyone else at the foot of the mountain. And Moses turns to the people, “You guys cool with staying down here?” They nod. Moses makes his way up the mountain and it becomes very clear. He will only be a messenger. There will be no discussion. There will be no campaigning. There will be give and take. There will be only Moses listening to this powerful voice. And then, the voice introduces itself: I am the Lord your God. (Exodus 20:2) The book of Exodus was written down by Moses in the Hebrew language, because that is what the people of Israel spoke. As we examine that Hebrew, we grasp a better understand of exactly what is meant. The Hebrew word for God is Elohim. It is a noun that is formed from a verb roof “eleh” that means “to adore.” That means… You might “eleh” your newborn child. You might “eleh” your spouse. You might “eleh” tiramisu. The noun, “Elohim”, is really a participle form of the verb “to adore.” The literal root meaning is “an adored one”. When “eleh” is used with “eloyhim” the word has a higher level than simple adoration. It means “worship.” According to the Hebrew language, then… A “god” is something or someone that is ADORED or WORSHIPED. The being that is speaking identifies himself as the one that Moses worships. But for Moses’ sake, and for ours, he lists his credentials for being worshiped. (1) He is the LORD. That’s the name of the Divine Being that first spoke to ancestor of Israelite people. It is the name of the One that promised to make them into a great nation. It is the name of the One that promised to send a Savior for all of humanity through their genealogy. (2) He is the One who brought them out of Egypt where they were slaves. And he did it in a powerful way! When the King of Egypt wouldn’t listen to his plan to set the Israelites free from slavery, The LORD turned all the water of Egypt into blood. He sent plagues of flies, gnats, frogs, and locusts. He turned the daylight into darkness. He destroyed all the Egyptian crops with hail. He infected the Egyptian’s skin with boils. He warned the Egyptian King, but when he didn’t listen. He put to death every firstborn son in all of Egypt. He split a sea of water into two walls for the Israelites to escape. He had that sea of water come crashing down onto the Egyptians that were giving chase. He fed them with bread from above. And…he just caused the thunder, lightning, earthquake, and smoke spectacle on Mount Sinai. And this One with all the credentials, has one simple, starting command for the people of Israel. “You shall have no other gods before me.” (v.3) The reason? There are no other beings, things, people, or stuff that are more worthy of being praised than me! TRUTH: GOD is the One WORTHY of being MOST adored. It’s like the MVP award in ACC basketball. There might be a lot of players who are valuable players, but they don’t give out 47 Valuable Player awards at the end of the season. They give only one. They give out one Most Valuable Player Award for Most Valuable Player. GOD is the Most Valuable “god” because there is no being more worthy of worship than Him. II. Defining “Idolatry” But our sermon series is called “idolatry”, not “God.” So…what exactly is idolatry and what does that have to do with God? Read the next part of God’s command: You shall not make any carved image for yourself or a likeness of anything in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them or be subservient to them. (v.5a) What GOD is describing here is the ancient practice of IDOLATRY. This was actually a very common practice among many nations in the world. A people group would create a piece of art from wood or stone. They’d set it up in their homes and then, they would bow down to it. They’d pray to it. They’d give it gifts. They’d adore it and make it their “god.” To be fair, they often took their inspiration from some of the things that GOD created. From the heavens. The Egyptian people had worshipped the sun god, named Ra! The theory was that the sun was big. It was amazing. It kept people warm. It was responsible for photosynthesis and if you didn’t respect it, you’d get sunburn. Surely, the SUN was worthy of worship. From the Earth below. Another popular “god” was Baal! Baal was a large bull-like creature. The thought was that bull were muscular. Bulls were strong. Bulls would destroy you if you wore red. Bulls were not to be trifled with, so…worship a BULL! From the waters under the earth. “Dagon” was a big fish-like god. It was worshipped in Ancient Babylonian culture. Again – the thought was that the sea was big. The sea was strong. The sea provided all kinds of food. If you didn’t respect the sea, then you’d be drowned. And what better to represent the sea than a giant fish man! So…worship giant fish man. TRUTH: An idol is something CREATED to be most ADORED. Wouldn’t THAT be an art project to do with your child? Go to Michael’s. Grab some markers, feathers, glitter, a variety of beads, and then you go home and take time gluing them into a rock. Viola! We have something to worship. That just doesn’t seem to make any sense, does it? Especially if you are the people of Israel and you have been firsthand witnesses to God’s glorious acts. Right? Fast forward a bit -- Moses had been on the mountain top for days. God had just finished up writing down all his commands on two large pieces of stone. They were literally written by the finger of the LORD GOD himself. Moses must have been excited to get down the mountain and show the people of Israel. To show them what their great, incredible God had told him. To show them, tell them about the very first command: “It says, ‘You shall have no other gods.’ It means that we just shouldn’t make one of those idols like the other nations. We’ve got that one down, right?” But as Moses made his way down the mountain. He heard singing. He heard partying. He heard laughter. As he made his way around the corner of a rock, the camp came into view. There were the people. And this large golden statue. One they had just freshly made. A statue of a golden calf. An idol. That they were worshipping. TRUTH: Idolatry is WORSHIPPING something NOT-GOD, as GOD. In anger, Moses lifts the stone tablets and slams them to the ground. They shatter. A metaphor for how the Israelite people had shattered the very first commandment. So… Is it that simple? Just don’t make yourself an arts & craft IDOL and you’re in the clear on this commandment? It still seems like an ancient command for ancient people, doesn’t it? My high school senior year I was HONORABLE MENTION in the now defunct, Parkland Football conference as a linebacker. It came with a certificate and everything. Shortly afterwards, I received an offer letter from the University of Wisconsin -Whitewater to try out for their football program. (Granted – all my other Senior Teammates received the same letter, but I digress.) I remember feeling so good about that. I immediately envisioned myself becoming a starter and most valuable player for the Martin Luther College football team. (A small ministry college in Minnesota.) Over summer, I spent the summer in the weight room, running hills, and perfecting my high knees so that I could make this dream come true. The very first game of my college career was on the road. Since we were a small Division 3 school, we could only take so many players. I was cut. And I was so angry. I remember going back to my dorm room and packing some things up in a duffel bag! I thought my world was over. I didn’t know if I’d ever be happy again. I was angry. I thought, “If I didn’t make the football team, then what is the purpose going to this college designed at training you to go serve Jesus?” If I could talk to 19-year-old me, I would say… I don’t know. Perhaps going into the ministry… … and serving Jesus. Did you see what I did? I placed FOOTBALL in place of GOD. I placed HONORABLE MENTION CERTIFICATE in place of GOD. I placed FAME & FORTUNE (division 3 fame and fortune) in place of our SAVIOR. I created an idol. That leads to a more modern definition of idolatry. TRUTH: Idolatry is PLACING something in GOD’S PLACE. God said it this way, “You shall have no other gods BESIDES me.” The word translated in English “beside” is sometimes translated “in front of.” This makes for an excellent visual. All you need is a few Duplos (or any child’s size block will do.) Take one Duplos and write on it, “GOD” in all caps. That represents our Lord. Then, take some others and write on them “IDOLS.” These represents anything that gets in the way. What happens when you place these idols IN FRONT OF the LORD GOD. God is important. But FOOTBALL is too. It’s only a small thing. I’ll just place it right here. God is important. I still see that. But MY BANK ACCOUNT is. Can’t survive without money. God is important. But so is a RELATIONSHIP. Even if I must compromise a few of my beliefs, God…well…you understand. God is important…I think...But so is SOCIETY. Even God tells me to do something, I better check and see if society is ok with it. And I’m an adult now. so…God I’ll get to you. After I take care of my CHILDREN. God is kind of valuable…but so is my POPULARLITY. I’ll have to skip church while I check my social media likes. God is ok I guess…but this BEER tastes really good. God is fine…unless he gets in the way of my relationship. Because that’s the person whose approval I really want. God is… Is… Where…is he? I guess. These things. Are God. This is idolatry. And idolatry is a big deal. III. Why such a BIG Deal? (1). God is JEALOUS. …for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. (v.5b) Sometimes people read that phrase and they think, “Jealousy?” Isn’t that a sin? Is God being sinful? Nope. There’s an extreme difference between HOLY God jealousy and SINFUL human jealousy. If you were up for an Employee of the Month award at Burger King and in that month you worked overtime every week, you sold more burgers than anyone else and you got there earlier than anyone else to scrub more grease on the floor than anyone else. You even came in at your manager’s request when that one guy was “sick”, the one whose Facebook status said, “Playing hooky today. Pity the fool that had to take my place.” And at the employee meeting, the Boss reveals the employee of the month. And it’s that guy. Not you. When you are giving all your LOVE to something that doesn’t love you like God does. When you are giving all your RESPECT to something that isn’t as powerful as God. When you are giving all your TRUST to something that isn’t God. God is jealous. (2). God is VENGEFUL. I follow up on the guilt of the fathers with their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren, if they also hate me, but I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments (v.5c) The phrase “follow up” comes from a Hebrew word that means “to make an official visit to bring punishment” upon someone. Think of it like the cops showing up at a house to arrest someone during a domestic dispute. Or the principal coming to your classroom to take someone to his office. Or your mom coming to the toy room, to grab you by the ear and take you upstairs. GOD is a just God. GOD is a holy God. It is unjust to call something GOD that isn’t GOD. It is just to punish the injustice of calling something GOD that isn’t GOD. In simple language, idolatry is a sin. it deserves God’s punishment. And… Considering GOD makes thunder. And the lightning strike. And the mountain tremble. And the smoke simmer. GOD isn’t someone you want to cross. But why is God so angry? It’s deeper than simply God is jealous that you aren’t giving him the glory due him. (3). God is SAVIOR. Fast forward thousands of years from Moses. The Law of Moses is still in place. And a group of men have caught a woman in the act of adultery. They grab her. They bring her outside. They throw her to the ground. And, passing by at the time, Jesus. He’s a righteous teacher. Jesus! Join us. She committed sin. She committed adultery and by doing so she committed idolatry. She has made SEX her God. She has made INTIMACY her God. She’d rather obey her urges then the one who created her. Let’s help God out and FOLLOW UP on her guilt. Jesus replied, “OK. Sounds good. Let’s let the one without sin throw the first stone.” And the woman was in tears. They were right. She had sinned. She had made something God that wasn’t God. And that “god” couldn’t save her. Surely, she had broken the first commandment. She deserved to have God “follow up on her guilt.” By leading these men in hurling stone at her. She waited. She braced herself. And heard a rock hit something. But it wasn’t her skin. It was the ground. In fact, piles and piles of rocks hit the ground. And all the men left. Except, Jesus. And Jesus said this, “I do not condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin.” Do you get it? Jesus gave mercy. Jesus gave forgiveness. Jesus loved her. And this is the reason that GOD wants us to keep him as our number one God! Because he is the Savior. He lived perfectly. He died innocently. He rose triumphantly. To save us. Look at the end of verse 6. But I show mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments. (v.6) When we turn to IDOLs that fail miserably at saving us from sin, it fills him with eternal frustration. Because they can’t show mercy, Only the real GOD can. And he did. And he does. Do you get it? The number one reason for you to ADORE God above all else, The reason that God gets angry when IDOLS take your attention away from him. Is because God ADORED you above all else. Even his own life, breath, and heartbeat. The God we serve is the one who served us. The God we adored is the one who adored us. The God we worship is the only one who saves. Amen. We are finishing up our sermon series by looking at one of the most visually incredible miracles in the Bible. Before we begin, a prayer: O 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. Peter’s Problem The miracle itself is recorded in Matthew 17. But for a bit of context, we’ll start at the end of Matthew 16. At this point, the disciples had seen Jesus do a plethora of miracles. As they sat down near a campfire, I wonder if they didn’t imagine the next ones: What if Jesus suddenly made these rocks into delicious Steak dinners? Do you think I should ask him? How about if he turns all the Roman soldiers into a bunch of chicken? Speaking of the Roman empire, maybe he could take us to Pontius Pilate’s palace, and he could make it disappear! I’ve got a better idea than that! Maybe he could make, you, Andrew, disappear! Whatever they thought Jesus might be planning to do, it’s doubtful any of them considered what Jesus had planned: Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (v.21) Wait…What!?! You can cure leprosy. You can banish demons. You stopped the weather! Why would you let these humans beat you up? Why not give them leprosy? Why not send the demons after them? Why not cause a storm to take place within the walls of the Pharisee’s hideout!?! But Peter was the boldest. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” (v.22) The disciples didn’t get it. It didn’t make sense. Jesus did all those miracles… …so he could die? TRUTH: To human reason, Jesus’ use of his power can seem ODD. It’d be like going to a magic show where the magician has already levitated, sawed someone in half, and then, escaped a hyperbolic chamber filled with water while he was strapped into a strait jacket and then .for his final act, he pulls a quarter from a little girl’s ear. How could death be Jesus’ final act? I was talking to a friend the other day who whose aunt was very sick with cancer. The test results weren’t positive. The doctor’s predictions weren’t good. So, the believer said this: Isn’t this what Jesus is for? Isn’t the point of his POWER to help his people? I wish I could talk to God. I’d set him straight on how he should be using his POWER. I’d tell him, “NEVER Jesus! This shall NEVER happen.” You know… Like Peter. You ever thought something similar: Jesus you’ve got power. Here’s what you should do with it. You should heal my aunt’s cancer. You should fix my marriage. You should end my job hunt. You should give me more friends. You should give me a child. You should give me a husband. God, if you don’t do that, you’re not doing a very good job with your power. But do you know how Jesus responded to Peter’s rebuke? He didn’t say, “Goodness, Peter. You’re right. Your sinful, imperfect, incomplete human reason has bested my sinless, perfect, all knowing divine reason.” Nope. “Get behind me Satan! You don’t have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (v.23) TRUTH: REBUKING Jesus’ use of power leads to Jesus’ REBUKE. Because rebuking Jesus’ use of power is sin. It’s like being a back-seat driver. If your spouse is driving, you may find yourself on occasion telling them where they are driving incorrectly: Turn on your blinker sooner. Speed Limit is 65. Your hands aren’t at 10 & 2. But can you imagine doing that to a professional race car driver? Like 2019 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Kyle Busch? Excuse me, Mr. Busch. But…I think you’re taking the turns a smidge tighter than you should. Kyle Busch is better at driving than you. And God is infinitely better at using his power than you. It’s why he’s God and you’re not. And if you’re telling him what to do, don’t be surprised if his response is simply: Get behind me Satan. II. The Miracle Six days later… Six days of Jesus’ words echoing in Peter’s ears. Six days of cooling off. Six days of thinking about what Jesus had said about his “death.” Then, …Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John…and led them up onto a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured in front of them. (17:1) The Greek word for “Transfigured” is “morphe.” It’s where we get the word Metamorphosis. It refers to a transformation or a change in one’s essence. (Like a butterfly, the Animorphs, or even the Mighty MORPHIN Power Rangers.) Jesus’ metamorphosis beats them all. His face was shining like the sun. (v.2a) Not just reflecting some morning sunlight off it. His skin was luminescent. It was shining so brightly that the disciples must have had to squint to look in his direction. His clothing became as white as the light. (v2b) A bit odd, since Jesus’ desert clothing would have contained a bit of desert dirt stains on it. A yellow or light brown. But instantly it transformed to a bleach white that was so bleach white it twinkled – like the light. And as the disciples squinted in Jesus’ general direction, they noticed two other figures standing there with him. Moses. A prophet through whom God did incredible miracles: 10 plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, and bread from heaven. Elijah. Another prophet through whom God did incredible miracles: fire raining from heaven, birds delivering food, a young man brought back to life. Two incredible miracles performers standing at the beckoning call of Jesus. Also… …they had both been dead. For years. Now they stood…alive. And as Peter stood there looking at this ethereal, incredible, amazing sight, I think he came to one conclusion TRUTH: Jesus’ miracles were only a HINT of his power. The healing of incurable leprosy? Only a hint. Jesus could cure all disease with just a snap of his finger. The enabling of the paralytic? Only a hint. Jesus could remove all paralysis with just a clap of his hands. The resurrection of Jairus’ daughter? Only a hint. Jesus could bring all dead back to life, with only a whisper. It’s like playing basketball, as a dad, with your 4th grade son. At first, you play easy. You let him score on you. You pretend to trip up. You only shoot three pointers. But then, when your son gets a little cocky and starts to trash talk: “Your game stinks so much, you need a shower.” So, the next time he goes for a layup, you swat it out of the air like Dikembe Mutumbo. Just a HINT. Jesus’ miracles were powerful. But they were only a hint of his power. Peter was so amazed. He had seen snippets of Jesus’ power before, but now? He was in full view of his glory. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, I will make three shelters here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (v.4) Because… This whole face shine thing is pretty amazing And I wouldn’t want it to go out because of a gust of wind and a bit of rain. I’ll get some sticks. I’ll get some leaves. I’ll get you some protection from the elements… ..that… …you… ….control. While he was still speaking, the elements started to be controlled. A bright cloud overshadowed them. It surrounded him. It covered everyone else. Till all Peter saw was bright cloud. Then, a voice… “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” (v.5) TRUTH: Jesus is GOD’S own SON. That’s been the point of the miracles this whole time. They were SIGNS pointing to the fact that Jesus was God! Curing the incurable? Only God could do that. Jesus did that. Jesus is God. Eliminating paralysis? Only God could do that. Jesus did that. Jesus is God. Banishing a legion of demons? Only God could do that. Jesus did, so Jesus is God. Walking on water? Only God could do that. Jesus did that. Jesus is God. Developing bread out of thin air? Only God could do that. Jesus did that. Jesus is God. Raising the dead? Only God could do that. Jesus did that. Jesus is God. III. A Two-Fold Reaction All of this was overwhelming to Peter and the other disciples. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down and were terrified. (v.6) They were trapped in the middle of a Divine cloud. They were in the presence of God himself. God was POWERFUL. They were WEAK. God was DIVINE. They were HUMAN. God was HOLY. They were SINNERS. So… They hit the floor. Hoping that God wouldn’t be able to distinguish between them and the dirt. TRUTH: Jesus’ power leads to FALLING DOWN in TERROR. Yet, I don’t know that this happens all the time in church. When you get ready for church in the morning, what do you think about? I hope that one guy is there that I like to give high fives. I hope that we can get in and get out in an hour. I hope that the cookies are pretty good after worship. I’m starving. Those are common things. Things that I’ve thought of myself. But… How often do you think? I’m about to encounter, the face shining, clothing glowing, surrounded by dead prophets and a brilliant cloud, God. Because it’s true. You are. In fact, the disciples were encountering that God long before being on the mountain. Peter and the disciples had been walking with the divine Holy God himself for the last two years. When they stopped for breakfast? It was God who stopped with them. When they needed a break from walking? It was God who took a break with them. When he complained out loud about not trusting God? It was the God whom he was complaining about that was in earshot. And you encounter God, too. You encounter ALL POWERFUL God when you gather to worship. You encounter SIN HATING GOD, when you approach the Lord’s Table. You encounter the ONE WHO CONTROLS THE CLOUDS, when you pick up a devotional book and spend 5 minutes reading God’s Word. Honestly… That’s terrifying. It’s why the disciples were lying face first on the ground. Eyes closed. waiting for the inevitable lightning bolt. But instead, They felt a hand. Jesus approached and as he touched them, he said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” They opened their eyes. No cloud. No Moses. No Elijah. No brilliant light. Only Jesus. TRUTH: Jesus’ mercy leads to STANDING UP in CONFIDENCE. Yes, you are standing in the presence of ALL HOLY, SIN HATING GOD. But you are also standing in the presence of your ALL MERCIFUL Jesus. Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world. But to save the world. He didn’t come into the world to condemn us. But to save us. He didn’t come into the world to condemn you. But he came to save you. He is the Savior. IV. The Aftermaths As they disciples were walking down the mountain, they began to conclude that Jesus was the Savior after all. But one prophecy didn’t add up. It was a prophecy from Malachi that said Elijah would come before the Messiah. And since, they had just stood in the face of all holy God and not been destroyed, they were confident enough to ask about it: Jesus explained. Elijah is coming. (v.11) In fact, he already did. (v.12) They didn’t recognize him. And instead killed him. Just like they’ll kill me. (v.11-12) There’s one more note about this interaction. It said that the disciples realized “Elijah” was a reference to John the Baptist. Who had to come. Who had to be killed for prophecy to come true. But they were still missing one point. Jesus had to suffer. Jesus had to die. For prophecy to come to true. TRUTH: Jesus’ impending death was NECESSARY. This was the whole purpose of Jesus’ coming to earth. Not to do miracles. Not to heal everyone. Not to defeat the Romans. Not to do impressive feats of strength. He came to suffer and die for your sins. To conquer guilt. To conquer shame. To conquer death itself. In fact, this Mount of Transfiguration, it’s pretty glorious. But it isn’t the mountain on which God showcased his greatest glory. That mountain? Calvary. Because on Calvary, Jesus suffered. On Calvary, Jesus died. On Calvary, Jesus displayed his greatest glory… …and saved you. So…LISTEN TO JESUS. You’ve got to imagine that plagued Peter for a bit. He hadn’t listened to Jesus. He had rebuked the Divine God, to HIS FACE. And now that thundering cloud’s voice rang in his ears. “Listen to Him.” Do the same. Even when it looks silly. Even when it looks odd. Even when it looks like God is calling you to do something that doesn’t make sense… Be baptized? Listen to him. Take and eat? Listen to him. Worship an invisible God? Listen to him. Stay faithful? Listen to him. Amen. This morning, we will begin our miracle series, by examining God’s incredible power of sickness. But before we do that, a prayer: O 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. Defining Miracle I think it’s important to start a study on miracles by defining the word “miracle.” So, here it is: A miracle is an occurrence outside the NATURAL laws of the Universe. Because miracle can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. Over time, I think we’ve “dumbed down” the phrase. For instance, we use it at childbirth. A baby is born and people post on Instagram: “Check out my child! #Miracle” Is childbirth amazing? Yes. Is it a miracle though? Not really. That’s how God set up the universe. We even use it in sports. “I can’t believe my favorite football team made the playoffs. It’s a miracle!” Might it have been impressive? Sure. But is it a miracle? Not so much. But when the New Testament uses the word miracle it actually is talking about events that occur outside the natural order of things. Seawater standing up like drywall? That’s not how water usually works. A heavy rock wall tumbling because of trumpet noise? Not normal. Three men being thrown into a fiery furnace and coming out unsinged? Let’s not test it. A virgin giving birth to a child? Miracle. In the New Testament, the number one miracle doer is Jesus. But did you know that Jesus miracles aren’t often called miracles as much as they are called signs. That’s interesting. Because a sign functions by pointing you in the right direction. We have signs in our hallways that say “Restrooms” with a little arrow putting in a certain direction. The point of the sign? To direct you to the restrooms. Even a traffic light. GREEN means “GO”, red means “STOP, and yellow means, “hurry up it’s about to turn red.” Jesus’ miracles were SIGNS pointing people to his DIVINITY. Think about it: If God’s the one that set the laws of the universe into motion, then he is the only one able to act outside of those laws. It’s like STAYING UP LATE. If the rule of your house is that kids need to be in bed by 9 pm, the kids need to go to bed, but the adult can stay up. (Granted, they might not. They might be in bed on the couch around 7:15 pm, but you get the point.) Your kids can’t. You can. You set up the law; you can act outside of it. Jesus acts outside of the laws of the universe set up by God, in all of his miracles. Why? Because he is God himself. II. The Man with Leprosy But it enough talking about it. Let me show you. When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Just then, a leper came to him and bowed down to him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” (Mt. 8:1-2) Notice. There are large crowds of people with Jesus. They had just heard Jesus give the Sermon on the Mount, a very famous sermon. They were all drawn in by Jesus’ speech and his ideas. But someone that hadn’t made it up to the mountain was waiting as they came down. He was a leper which means that he had the disease known as leprosy. It was a flesh-eating disease that slow dried out your cartilage and cause the tips of your fingers, your toes, your nose, and your ears to (brace yourself) fall off. Leprosy was awful. Still is! If you want to know how awful, do a Google image search. (But not if you’re faint of heart.) Besides being awful… Leprosy was INCURABLE. This isn’t true anymore. There is a cure. But at the time, there weren’t any medicines, any acupuncture, any essential oil, any healthy diet, or any operation that anyone knew about in order to cure it. That means that if you were diagnosed with leprosy you had to quickly resign yourself to the fact that you would not be healed. Leprosy was CONTAGIOUS. It was so contagious that if you were diagnosed with leprosy, you were sent into quarantine. Only the quarantine wasn’t a room in your house. You were sent outside the city walls, into the desert to live in what they called “leper colonies”. Leprosy was FATAL. The end result, 100 percent of the time was death. All these truths about leprosy left this man was without hope. He had heard doctor after doctor tell him there was no cure. He was alone, banished outside the city. He knew what had happened to other friends – they died. This meant - He wouldn’t get to see his family again. He wouldn’t get to hold his children again. He wouldn’t get to kiss his wife again. He wouldn’t feel better. He wouldn’t regain strength. He wouldn’t go back to his job. He’d be by himself. Outside the city walls. Slowly dying. Yet… Did you notice something about this man? He approached Jesus with confidence. He didn’t say: “If you are able…” Or, “If you have the strength…” Or, “If you have the right medicine…” He said, “If you are willing…” And… Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean.” And after Jesus says that, there aren’t months of radiation. There aren’t weeks of chemo. There aren’t even 15 minutes to allow the medicine to take effect. Jesus simply speaks and… IMMEDIATELY he was healed of his leprosy. And if you’re thinking, “That’s impossible.” Remember – there’s a crowd of people present. It wasn’t Jesus by himself. There were hundreds of witnesses to this miracle. Many who had undoubtedly seen that man sitting around outside the city gates day after day after day. In fact, Jesus has professionals corroborate the healing. He tells him to “Go, show (himself) to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (v.4) The priests at this time were similar to doctors. They were able to pronounce people as diseased or not. They were probably the same people who once told the man, “You are diseased, away from us!” Now? They were saying to him, “You’re healed! Celebrate with us.” And remember – while this is 2000 years after the fact, this book is not. These words that we are reading right now were written down at a time when the majority of the people who witnessed this would have still been alive. TRUTH: Jesus is able to CURE the INCURABLE. Here’s where this is important: You might know someone who has been diagnosed with disease. You may have been diagnosed with disease. AIDS. Cancer. Leukemia. And internet articles might not give you a chance. Social media anecdotes might not give you a chance. Doctors might not give you a chance. But… You have Jesus. And Jesus can cure the incurable. Do you want a second instance of this? How about sin!?! It’s CONTAGIOUS – passed down from parents to children. It’s INCURABLE – nothing we can do will ever remove it. It’s FATAL – “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) But Jesus cured the incurable! He lived perfectly when we couldn’t. He died innocently on the cross. He rose triumphantly and cured you of all sin, guilt and shame! By faith in Jesus, you are forgiven. Incurable guilt – CURED! This means that whatever you’re dealing with, as long as you have Jesus, you have hope. Because Jesus provides HOPE in any ILLNESS. He cured the incurable disease of leprosy with his hand. He cured the incurable disease of sin with his death. There is nothing that Jesus can’t do. There is no disease too incurable. There is no disease too contagious. There is no disease too fatal for Jesus. III. The Centurion’s Servant Word of this miracle got around. In fact, it made its way outside the Jewish community to a Roman centurion whose servant was deathly ill. He must have heard stories of Jesus. Yet he had a lot working against him. In fact, I’m sure his advisors gave him a host of reasons not to waste his time: “Jesus is Jewish. You’re Roman. There’s too big a racial divide. He won’t help you.” “You’re a high ranking official. What will it look like for a Roman elite to go looking for help from a homeless carpenter?” “You’re a sinner. From what I’ve heard, this man is a holy man. He won’t give you the time of day.” But… For some reason… He trusted Jesus. And as he looked at his servant growing pale, soaked in sweat, and approaching death. [the] centurion came to [Jesus] and pleaded with him, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed and suffering terribly.” (v.5) And… Despite the racial difference… Despite the social difference... Despite the man’s sin… Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” (v.6) But the man, thought this was too much. He was a high ranking official and he didn’t make house visits. And Jesus was higher ranking than him. He didn’t need to do a house visit. And so, the high-ranking government official said, “Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.” I’m a sinful man. You’re holy. I don’t deserve anything from you. But only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am also a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” (v. 8-9) You have authority too. You tell diseases to leave and they do. You tell health to return and it does. You tell bodies to be healed and they listen, because you have authority over them. When Jesus heard this, he marveled. He said to those who were following him, “Truly, I tell you: I have not found such great faith in anyone in Israel… Go. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” (v.10) Here’s where it gets extra amazing. Because when the man turned to leave, he made note of the position of the sun. Maybe just to the right of the west of the cloud. And when he returned home, he found the servant well. But that’s not the amazing part. After rejoicing. After giving him a hug. After doing the “happy dance.” He asked one of the other servants. When did this happen? “At the time the sun was right to the west of the clouds! I remember. Because I was so excited, I ran outside to tell the others.” Make no mistake. Again. This was a miracle. This was Jesus. TRUTH: Jesus provides HOPE even when he’s not VISIBLY PRESENT. Because you won’t be able to see Jesus. Go ahead. Google search. Look for Dr. Jesus. He doesn’t work at Duke. He doesn’t work at UNC. He doesn’t work at Rex. He doesn’t work at Wake Med. And yet… He grants healing to those within those walls. You can’t see Jesus. But that doesn’t he isn’t with you. And it doesn’t mean he won’t provide healing. He’s all powerful. ‘ His power goes beyond physical, tangible presence. Again – just like sin. You and I weren’t physically there when Jesus died on the cross. And yet Jesus didn’t have to come to 2020 in order to die in our physical presence. His death and resurrection cross physical, temporal boundaries to bring healing and forgiveness. His same healing power gives us hope in the face of illness. IV. When Healing Doesn’t Happen And yet…? People die all the time from disease. Some are even believers. What’s the deal? To answer that question – I want you to remember two significant things that these the two men in today’s accounts said. (1) Lesson from the Centurion Remember what the centurion said to Jesus? “I’m not worthy…” That’s a strange statement, because this centurion was a high ranking, Roman official. He oversaw hundreds of soldiers. (Hence the name “Century-on”) He had a good career. Plenty of people who looked up to him. And yet he didn’t say, “Jesus. I demand this, because I deserve it.” Nope. He knew he was a sinner. He knew he only deserved death. He knew that any healing Jesus could grant was out of his mercy. We need to remember the same thing. I remember that I got sick for one of my birthday’s awhile back. And I thought…. “This isn’t fair! I work hard. I serve God. I serve God’s people. And now I get a day off to celebrate my birthday and I’m sick? God I deserve to be healed.” Is that actually true? Did I deserve healing? Remember – the Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” It’s easy to think: I deserve healing. I’ve done nice things. I’ve been a good parent. I’m worthy of being healed. Honestly? None of us are. If God heals us physically, it’s not because we deserve it. It’s because of his mercy. But in God’s mercy is real hope. Because unlike human ‘goodness’ which isn’t nearly as good as we think it is. God’s mercy? Is a mercy that caused him to die on a cross for our sins. Mercy that saved us to eternal life – where there won’t be any sickness. And mercy that sometimes heals us from sickness. (2) Lesson from the Leper Remember what the leper said to Jesus? “If you are willing…” It wasn’t a question of whether healing was possible, But whether it was God’s will. In this man’s instance? It was. But sometimes God’s will is that the sickness won’t be cured. Why? Is it because he loved that person less? If you are suffering a sickness and you haven’t been healed yet, is it because God loves you less than the healthy? Nope. He died on the cross for you. He doesn’t love you less. He loves you the same as those who are health. In fact, it’s because of his LOVE combined with his incredible wisdom, that God sometimes allows a disease to run its course. Why? Because… Sickness has a way of driving people towards Jesus. Meaning… Sickness can be God’s way of Bringing you to faith… Or strengthening your faith… Or working through you to be a witness to our friends and family of our faith in Jesus. Or … Simply… Bringing you ultimate healing in heaven. In heaven, there isn’t any leprosy. In heaven, there isn’t any cancer. In heaven, there isn’t any sickness. In heaven, there is only health. Perfect health. Forever. Amen.
When I was in Seattle, WA, I had the goal to get to the top of the highest point in the lower 48 states, Mt. Rainier. I bought the right gear. I went into training. I learned from a woman who had been up Mount Everest three separate times.
On the day of the climb, we hiked up to Camp Muir, a base camp about 10,000 feet up. From there, we slept in a tiny wooden cabin to acclimate to the altitude and rest up for the final ascent. We went to bed at 6pm and woke up around Midnight. (You have to leave early in order to cross the ice bridges before the daylight gets too hot, the bridge melts and you fall to your death.) It was about eight hours up when a blizzard kicked in. The air was sparse. The wind was frigid. My fingers were frozen. And it was only getting nastier. Some of the other climb groups had already turned around and gone back. About an hour from the top, the lead expeditions said: “This is getting pretty bad. I haven’t seen it this bad before. What do you think? We could go to the top and see the marvelous views, but… If we don’t turn around, we could get frostbite or die. So we thought about it and said: “I’m sure Google images probably has some might fine photos of the top. So... Sometimes suffering isn’t worth it. Today we are continuing our series called Dear Church. It’s a series based on letters from Jesus to seven different churches. The letter for today looks at a church that was dealing with suffering…even suffering because they were believers. Our goal today is to understand what kind of suffering believers have to deal with and whether it’s worth that suffering. Before we begin, a prayer: O 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 One who Knows Suffering This letter starts in Revelation 2:8: “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty —yet you are rich!” A few notes: The letter is again written to the angel. We said that’s most likely referencing their pastoral leadership which, in turn, means it’s a letter written to the church in Smyrna. Smyrna was an ancient Greek city at a central point on the Aegean coast. Because its positioning allowed for advantageous port conditions and an easily defendable city, Smyrna was full of people. In other words, it was a great place to start a church. And someone had. We don’t know the exact apostle or disciple that founded it, which shows that the Gospel was spreading beyond the work rate of the apostles alone. This church was probably not started by one of the 12 apostles, yet Jesus considers it a church. Similarly, our church wasn’t started by one of the Apostles, yet Jesus would call it a real church. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was at work in the word. In Smyrna. Here in Raleigh. So, both are churches. Finally, the speaker is Jesus. This is his letter. And since this is a letter to a church that is suffering, he offers his credentials on the subject: (1) Jesus Existed before SUFFERING These are the words of him who is the First (v.8) Jesus existed eternally long before suffering ever existed. He created a world that was perfect, apart from suffering. Then, he watched as humans foolishly were led by the devil into suffering. Don’t think that Jesus’ main goal is to end suffering? To bring life back to the way that it once was? It’d be like cleaning your living room, putting all the toys in their place and removing all the crumbs from the floor – making the place a gorgeous Better Homes and Gardens style living area. Then, your kids happen. And you’d like to see it back to the way it was when you were finished cleaning. The same is true for God. He has on his heart a desire to bring things back to the way they were long before suffering happened. And here’s the good news about that: (2) Jesus will OUTLAST Suffering These are the words of him who is the Last. (v.8) As in, he will last beyond all suffering. He will outlast cancer. He will outlast financial difficulties. He will outlast persecutions. He will outlast terrorism. He will outlast racism. He will outlast the little angry emojis that people put upon Christian content on Social Media. He will outlast every form of suffering. But… That doesn’t mean he hasn’t suffered. (3) Jesus is FAMILIAR with suffering These are the words of him who died. (v.8) Do you know how Jesus died? He was arrested by a mob. He was beaten by that mob. He was smacked and slapped till the early hours of the morning. He was whipped thirty times with a 7 stranded leather whip that had metal shards on the end. (Also known as flogged) He had a crown of thorns smashed down onto his head. He was hit with a staff. He was laid down upon two giant pieces of wood. He had one nail driven through his right hand. He had another nail driven through his left hand. He had one more nail driven through his feet. He hung on that cross as his lungs slowly collapsed. He was abandoned by his friends. He was betrayed by his disciples. He was crucified by his people. He had our sin and guilt and shame plaguing his soul. He was familiar with suffering. Suffering even to death! And yet-- Now – he lives. He lives and walks among his churches. And… (4) Jesus Knows YOUR suffering Pause and reflect on that truth. Because it’s easy to think: No one knows my suffering. No one understands. No one gets this sadness I feel. No one grasps the loneliness that I go through. No one truly gets the depths of my depression. Jesus does. He knows. He understands. Jesus is speaking to you. He says: “I know. I know it feels like no one knows, but I know. I know what it’s like to suffer. I know that you are suffering. I know what it is you’re suffering: I know that you feel so poor because you are suffering. But… In the midst of suffering… Never forget… You are rich. (5) Jesus Gives Eternal RICHES to the Suffering Wait, what? You are rich. Rich in my love. Rich in forgiveness. Rich in the promise of eternal life. You have a place in my family that all of the money in the world would be unable to buy. You may be suffering, but you are not suffering from a lack of my promises. II. Truths about Our Suffering After giving his credentials as to why he is an expert in suffering, Jesus has a few things to say about the suffering that the people of Smyrna were going through. He says: I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. (v.9) Apparently there was a group that was slandering the church. It was a group that claimed to be Jewish but wasn’t. This isn’t genealogical. Jesus is referring to people who were did not have a faith that matched the Old Testament faith, but pretended they did. Because the Old Testament Jewish faith was that God would send a Messiah to save us from our sins. Overtime some Jews abandoned that faith and replaced it as, “God doesn’t need to save us from our sins, because I am Jewish and do Jewish things.” When Jesus showed up, a “phony” Jewish faith is exactly what the Pharisees had. Jesus was the Messiah. The real Jewish faith would have believed in him. Instead, the “phony” Jewish faith rejected Jesus as Messiah because “they were good enough Jewish people on their own.” Now after Jesus, this group was persecuting the church in Smyrna and it was bad enough to be called “suffering”: Maybe they were calling them names. Maybe some of them worked on the local tax board and were taxing their church building heavily. Maybe some of them paid of the Roman soldiers to throw church members in prison. Regardless, the church was suffering. What did Jesus say about this suffering? A few things: (1) Believers WILL Suffer for their Faith Look at what Jesus says in Verse 10: Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. At first glance, this seems comforting. But if you are a Smyrnian, don’t you think they read this and responded by saying: What? About to suffer? You mean this isn’t even done yet? Yes. That’s the truth. For the Smyrnian people. And for us: The truth is that believers in Jesus will suffer. Some suffering will happen because we’re on a sinful world where sinful people hurt one another. (Gossip, racism, and unfaithfulness) Some suffering will happen because we’re in an imperfect world. (Cancer, pollution, and natural disasters) Some suffering will happen because we’re believers in Jesus. (Things like angry comments on your Christian blog, being excluded from parties because you’re “That lousy Christian,” being yelled at by your spouse because “I’m not into that Jesus junk.”) Jesus said this: Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me. (Luke 10:16) Just like you might not like a football team and, as a result, you don’t like fans of a certain football team. Or you don’t like a politician and, as a result, you don’t like followers of that politician. It’s the same thing with Jesus: If someone doesn’t like Jesus. They don’t like his followers. If sinners made Jesus suffer, They will make his followers suffer too. (2) The Real Villain is the DEVIL Because if it was just a bunch of humans making us suffer, you might think: I can take them, Jesus. I took a few defense classes once, so…I got this. But these people aren’t the real ones behind it. Look at what Jesus says about who was really behind the Smyrnian suffering: I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you. (v.10b) Now it wasn’t as if the devil showed up with a red pitchfork in his hands and pointy ears like some kind of Halloween costume. But he influenced. He tempted. He gave people ideas like: You should tell that Jesus supporter that he’s an idiot. You should tell that Roman guard that Christian is breaking law by praying in public. You should break up with your wife because the amount of Bible talk she has is crazy. The same is true today. The real villain isn’t whoever is persecuting you. It’s the devil himself. (3) Suffering Lasts for AWHILE Because look at what Jesus says next: You will suffer persecution for ten days.” (v.10c) That doesn’t sound awful. It’s the reason I sign up for ten days at a fitness camp. I figure – that’s not too long. I can handle it. Or maybe you sign up for a ten day visit to your in-laws. You figure – that’s just over a week. I got this. 10 days of persecution? That’s doable. But here’s the thing about numbers in revelation. They are metaphoric: The number 3 represents God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The number 4 represents humans. Humans were created in God’s image, but aren’t God. The number 7 represents the church. It’s 3 plus 4, where God connects with humans. The number 10? It represents completeness. Meaning the church at Smyrna would suffer until the suffering was completed. In other words, for a while. And the reality is that Christians will suffer…until their suffering on earth is completed. Suffering will be a part of your life when you’re 5. When you’re a teenager. When you’re middle aged. When you’re a senior. Suffering… Even suffering for your faith… …will be a part of your life for a while. But… Only for a while. Not… Forever. (4) The faithful will receive the CROWN of LIFE Look at what Jesus says at the end of verse 10: Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. Back at this time, the victor’s crown was associated with the Olympics. It was made of olive branches and given to the winner. To the winner of the 100-meter dash: Victor’s crown. To the winner of the 1600-meter run: Victor’s crown. To the winner of the pole vault: Victor’s crown To the winner of the steeple chase (whatever a steeple chase is): Victor’s crown. After all the training. After all the sweating. After all the suffering. A victor’s crown. Look at what Jesus promises to those who are victorious. Who go through suffering in this life. But hold on to Jesus: A victor’s crown. But not just any victor’s crown. This isn’t made from olive branches. It’s made of life. Do you get it? If you hold to Jesus despite the suffering this life brings, you will have eternal life. Death won’t win. You will defeat it. Just like Jesus defeated death, you will defeat death too. You will live. And about this life… It won’t be one of suffering. Because… (5) The Faithful’s SUFFERING will END Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death. (v.11) Second death? That’s sounds awful. First death is bad enough. Second death? That’s terrible. It’s nothing but suffering. Nothing but awful. Nothing but hell… …because it is hell. But dear believers, that’s not anything you have to be worried about. The faithful will not be hurt even in the slightest by hell. Because in heaven? There is no hell. In heaven? There is no death. In heaven? There is NO suffering. No suffering for faith. No cancer. No loneliness. No sadness. No diseases. No arguments with spouses. No rebellious kids. No ostracization from friends. No racism. No sexism. No terrorism. No violence. No suffering of any amount, variety or kind. In heaven, SUFFERING is done. Because you’re with the one that defeated suffering. You’re with Jesus. III. WHAT NOW? Jesus’ words are simple: Be Faithful. Because when being a believer gets hard, it’s tempting to not be faithful. “I became a believer and I still get sick. I still have work problems. I still have financial difficulties. Only now people ridicule me for my faith.” It might seem easier to stop being faithful so that you won’t have this momentary suffering. But… If you stay faithful, in the midst of the momentary suffering, you will have eternal blessings. Not might. Not could. Not possibly. Will. Because God is faithful. That won’t change. He sent his Son Jesus for you. And through faith in him you will be removed from suffering…forever. Amen.  Have you ever gotten an unidentified stain on your shirt?
You’re getting along. You’re minding your only business. Suddenly, you look down and… What is that? Coffee? Chocolate? Some kind of pinecone residue? (I don’t remember cuddling pinecones.) It’s important to identify stains so that you know how to treat it correctly. Today we’re continuing our sermon series called MESSY. Last week we talked about sin…what it is and how it messes up our relationship with God. Today we want to discover the origins of sin. By identifying where it comes from, we will better be able to battle it in our own lives. But before we begin, a prayer: O 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. Influencers, not Origins The Scripture today is from Mark 7. It says, “The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed...So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” (v.1-5, Jesus and his disciples were eating food. This is interesting thing to think about. Usually, I think of Jesus as a divine, miracle-performing being. He is. But he was also a true human. As true God, he was all powerful, energizing the universe, but as true man, he needed his calories. Since some of the Pharisees were able to gather around Jesus, it meant that they were in a public place. Usually there was a common type area in the middle of town where you could set up a picnic and do some eating. Picture it like an ancient food court: Matthew stopped at Chick-Fi-A. James went to the Ragin’ Cajun. Peter’s just walking around and getting as many free samples of chicken on a little toothpick as he can. The Pharisee’s issue is that the disciples were eating with defiled hands. It was a ceremonial tradition amongst the elders in Jerusalem to give a ceremonial washing before they ate any food. They’d wash up. They’d wash down. They’d wash all around. The issue wasn’t that they were germaphobes. The was ceremonial. Throughout the Old Testament God had placed certain restrictions on the food that was eaten and the cleanliness of their ceremonies in order to impress on the Israelites the fact that God was holy. The Pharisees had simply taken it a step farther and added extra hand washings and ceremonial cleansings in order to really make themselves holy. That’s why they were so upset with Jesus. Wasn’t he supposed to be a godly Teacher? Why would he let his disciples eat without the ceremonial washing? By doing so, wasn’t he teaching them to defile their bodies with sin? Do you see the problem? The Pharisees thought that unclean hands… Would somehow contain sin… That would make its way into the body… And create a sinful heart. Truth: It is faulty to assume that sin originates from exterior sources. Now understand what that’s saying: Exterior sources can absolutely nfluence us to sin. They can tempt us to sin. But it is NOT the place of origin. I think that’s important to remember. Because as Christians we might want to cut down on sin. In doing so, we might look to cut out some exterior sources. But while that might be helpful, it wouldn’t be the origin. For example: (1) Food and Drink The wrong kind of food and drink can make you feel gross. And if you feel gross, it can make it easy to be gross towards others. It might be wise to stay away from that unhealthy food so you don’t feel so sluggish and aren’t so easily a slug. So, you back away from greasy hamburgers, stop drinking coffee and throw away (sigh) all the Doritos. To be fair, those might be wise decisions. Food and drink can absolutely influence the way we act. But be careful that you don’t think it’s the origin of sin. As if, all we need to do is be eat healthy, throw on some Essential Oils on it, and we’ll take care of the sin problem. Because even if you are Crossfit gym levels of physical fitness, guess what? You might still be a jerk to your coworkers. You might still fight with your wife. You might start lusting after that person at the gym. You might start trusting your oil collection to keep your healthy, more than your God. In short, sin would still be around. Food and drank are only influencers, not the origin of sin. (2) Media This is another big influencer towards sin. If you’re watching TV shows with all kinds of swear words, don’t be surprised if you’re Preschooler repeats those swear words in front of your in-laws at the fancy restaurant. There have been Precious Lambs kids who are quoting characters that are a part of Games of Thrones. That might not be the wisest… With social media, YouTube, the internet making it so easy to consume some downright awful content, we have to be diligent to keep our families safe from evil influences. It’s good to install filters on internet. It’s good to have a parental code on the TV. I think it’d be pretty fun to watch nothing but Veggietales, all the time, all the time, all the time. But even if we severely cut down on our sinful media intake, there would still be sin. Case in point? All of human history before media existed. There was no TV, but still sin. No YouTube, still sin. No smartphones and still sin. Media is an influencer. It can lead us to sin, but it isn’t the origin. (3) Stress Nobody wants stress. Stress at work. Stress at the home. Stress in relationships. Stress makes you high strung, on edge, and ready to jump down people’s throats. Stress is an influencer of sin. The more stress there is the tougher it is to not be sinfully unpleasant. It’s why people try to destress: If I go get a full body massage… If I surround myself with nature… If I just listen to some Enya… My stress will fade away. And so will sin. Again, stress is an influencer. So removing yourself from stressful situations will be helpful in our battle against being sinfully unpleasant. But… Stress isn’t the origin of sin. I remember a while back being on vacation. It was nice because I was away from some of the stress that comes from being a pastor. I felt like I was a bit more low-key. I was feeling good. I was feeling pleasant. I was feeling like I was doing a better job managing being sinfully short with Julianna. Then, she asked if I wanted to get up and workout. “Nah!” She asked if I wanted to help with food. “I’m good.” She asked if I wanted to do a devotion: “I’m too busy resting right now.” Less stress had caused me to be less sinfully unpleasant and more sinfully lazy. Stress is an influencer, but it isn’t the origin of sin. II. Sin is Messy This is Jesus’ point. Particularly because the Pharisees were focusing on washing hands which barely had any effect on sin at all. Listen to his response to the Pharisees: Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. (Mark 7:18-22) Do you get it? Sin doesn’t originate from exterior sources. Sin originates from interior sources. Before you punch someone in the face, you have to think: “I want to punch him in the face.” Before you commit adultery, you have to think: “I want to commit adultery with that person.” Before you steal, you have to think: “I want to steal that.” Before you lie, you have to think: “I need to hide the truth.” Before you gossip, you have to think: “I want to hurt that person.” Before you act selfishly, you have to think: “I think my way is best.” Sin comes from interior sources. And one of those sources we are all too familiar with. (1) From Your Heart In the medical field, there are many different devices to help you get a better glimpse at what’s going inside the body: the X-Ray, the MRI, the CAT scan, the thing they do where you drink the neon liquid stuff and it appears on the machine as a bring neon color. The Bible functions as a spiritual X-ray. It tells us that the problem with sin lies in our hearts. Within you. Within me. You might not like that truth, but just like the X-Ray isn’t lying, neither is God’s Word. The problem with sin is within our hearts. (2) From Your Parents’ Heart Because they are people too and the Bible describes the sinful hearts of ALL people. In fact, this answers the question: How did this sin get into my heart? Jesus said John 3:5, “Flesh gives birth to flesh.” Just like alligators gives birth to alligators. Hedgehogs gives birth to hedgehogs. Spiders give birth to…thousands of disgusting little spiders. So, humans give birth to humans. Even, sinful humans give birth to humans. It means that your dad gave you your eyes, your nose, your male pattern baldness… …and a sinful heart. (3) From Adam Before you get super mad at your parents, remember they got it from theirs. And before you get super mad at your grandparents, remember they got it from theirs. In fact, you’d have to trace all humans back to the very first humans. A guy named Adam. A woman named Eve. They are two of only three people in the history of the world that were blessed to be born without sin. Because God made them without sin. And God said: “Here’s a beautiful world that I made for you. Beautiful flowers. Beautiful trees. Delicious fruits. Amazing animals. It’s yours. I love you. One way to show you love me? Just don’t eat from that one tree in the middle of the garden. Consider it your form of worship. Don’t eat of it and you’ll never bring sin into the world.” And what did they choose to do? Sin. They eat the fruit. And immediately, sin infects their hearts: For the first time ever, they feel shame: They put on some leaf clothing because, “Adam, stop looking at my body like that.” For the first time ever, they blame: “Eve, this is all your fault!” For the first time ever, they feel terrified: “God’s coming. He’ll be mad. We better hide.” This is why the Bible says this: Sin entered the world through one man. (Romans 5:12) Are you a part of the world? Here’s the harsh truth: Sin is in you. III. The Non-Origin Of course, right about now, your sinful heart might want to go a bit farther back in the origin story. But…wasn’t there a devil? A talking snake? Wasn’t it his fault? And honestly, wasn’t it God’s? Because in the beginning was God. Only God. He’s the one who created this world. Why create the devil? Why create the tree? Why create Adam and Eve with the ability to sin? Isn’t it God’s fault? Check out Genesis 1:31. It’s a description of what happens at the end of creation. Look at what it says: God saw all that he had made and it was very good. (1:31) It had to be. God doesn’t make stuff that is “Meh.” God doesn’t do things that are “Ok.” God doesn’t create things that are “imperfect.” Meaning – Sin did not originate from GOD. It can’t. He’s only good. And his creation was only good. The devil? He was an angel! An angel who freely chose to oppose his good Creator. The tree? It was an altar. A way for people to freely chose to love their good Creator. Adam and Eve? They were his perfect creation. And part of perfection was the ability to freely choose to love their Creator. It’s like Google Maps. Google maps will listen to you. You can tell it to get you directions to the next city, to avoid tolls, to stop and find the local Taco Bell. Google Maps will listen to you. But it doesn’t love you. God in his perfection made people to love. He gave them freedom. They chose to freely oppose him. Sin isn’t on God; It’s on us. IV. The Exterminator But that’s good news. Because that means God is still good. Sin didn’t infect him. God isn’t the one who originated sin; but God is the one who exterminates it. Look at how Romans describes it: Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19) Adam’s one act of sin is juxtaposed with God’s perfect act of rescue. Adam did one sin; all people were brought into sinfulness. That includes you. God did one righteous act; all people are brought into justification. That includes you. And what is justification? It’s a court room term. It means: “a not guilty verdict.” This means that in spite of your sinful heart, God’s righteous actions declare you “Not guilty.” “Not filthy.” “Not defiled.” How? (1) Through Jesus’ Perfect Life Do you remember earlier I mentioned three people who entered the world without sin? One was Adam. One was Eve. They both chose to leave perfection and enter sin. But the third one? He chose to stay perfect. The third one? He was God himself. The third option? He was Jesus. In Jesus, God became man. In Jesus, God lived on this earth. In Jesus, God lived under the law. And then, just like Adam, He had a choice. He could choose to fail miserably just like Adam… Or… “Through the obedience of the one man…” (v.19) Jesus chose not to sin. That means: Jesus’ heart didn’t have any sin on it. Jesus’ heart didn’t have any hate in it. Jesus’ heart didn’t have any greed, any lust, any pride, any selfishness, any envy, any laziness, any sin of any kind at all. Jesus’ heart was pure. It obeyed God… Even to death. (2) Through Jesus’ Innocent Death. Think back to the stain on the shirt illustration. If you had a stain on a shirt, one way you can get it out is by taking a clean rag. You get it wet. You blot it until the stain is out. Of course, once you do that the stain might be out of the shirt, but it is now all over the sponge. That’s what happened with Jesus. Like a sponge, he soaked up all the dirt of your sin. All the guilt of your past. All the shame of this past week. Jesus’ soaked it all up into his heart. And died. And so did your sin. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead. But your sins did not. It was exterminated. …So also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. (v.18) “All people” includes you. …So also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (v.19) “The many” includes you. Jesus has exterminated your sin. V. What Now? This affects the way we deal with sin in our life. Take a look at the passages from James 1:19-21. It says this, “Take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” (1) Pause. Because a good part of our actions are determined by our emotions. The example given in James is the emotion of anger. We get angry. Our anger tells us to do. We listen even if it is a sin. You might say: “Anger is an emotion. How can I help it?” The problem isn’t necessarily anger. God gets angry. He gets righteously angry against sin. The problem isn’t emotion, it’s emotion coming from a sin infected heart. It can be any emotion: Sin infected happiness. Sin infected fear. Sin infected sadness. Knowing that we can’t simply say: “I feel this way so I should do it.” Nope. Pause. Pause and consider this emotional reaction is influenced by sin, simply because of my sinful heart. Maybe, I shouldn’t do it. (2) Listen to the Planted Word Because… Sin isn’t the only thing in our hearts. By God’s grace, we have the Gospel in our hearts. God planted it there through the message of the Gospel. He planted knowledge of our Savior. He planted knowledge of our saving. He planted knowledge of what sin is and motivation for getting rid of it. He planted knowledge of what’s God pleasing and motivation for doing it. It’s like a pile of trash, stinky, dirty, disgusting… …And yet, by God’s grace, a flower grows. It’s the same in our hearts. They are sin filled. But by God’s grace, a flower grows. By God’s Word, sin is defeated. By God’s power, we bloom for him. Amen.  We have a leak on our roof. The rain comes down through a circular vent that was installed through the shingles and OSB without a line of caulk to protect the space surrounding it. My first attempt at fixing it (cover the area with tin foil) only worked until the tin toil blew off the roof. (About 2 days) On my second attempt, I went up to the roof with a caulking gun that I had loaded with roofing tar. I took that tar and did a nice circle around the opening. Case closed. (Julianna, man do you have handy husband.)
But that wasn’t it. It was still leaky. I went back to the roof, but couldn’t find an opening, so I decided to approach it from the other side. I went up into our crawl space attic, maneuvered around the insulation and shined a tiny flashlight up to the hole from the other direction. Sure enough! There were a few tiny little holes that were still allowing water into our place. So, I picked up the caulking gun, pressed it against the holes and… …Nothing. I tried again. …Nothing. I pumped it a solid 7 or 8 times more until… Well… Apparently, I had forgotten to open up the top of the caulking tube. As a result, it busted out the back and all over my hands. That tar was messy. I scrubbed. I used soap. I used a second kind of soap. I used a third kind of soap. It was messy. Today we’re starting our sermon series called MESSY. It’s all about something that’s the spiritual equivalent of tar all over your hands: something called sin. Something that can get all over your life, all over your relationships, and all over your relationship with God. Today we just wanted to identify what sin is and how we deal with it. But before we begin, a prayer: O 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. What is Sin? The Scripture that we’re looking at today is from the book of Mark. Mark is a guy who was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life. So, it’s likely that he was there for the event that we’re taking a look at today. Listen to what happens: As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17) This story is actually recorded in two other places of Scripture. In Matthew’s version, we learn that he was a young man. (Mt. 19:20) In Luke’s version, we learn that he was a ruler. (Lk. 18:18) In all of the stories, we learn that he was rich. So, here’s what you need to understand… This guy was impressive. He was the kind of guy who worked hard throughout his life. Maybe he was first chair trumpet, captain of the soccer team and the homecoming king all while graduating Cum Laude with three sets of honor cords. The kind of guy that was no stranger to inheritance. His grandpa’s 401k. His dad’s H&R Block business. He was…. The kind of guy with a family boat house on Lake Gaston. The kind of guy who’d gotten on Shark Tank and received a royalty deal from Mr. Wonderful. The kind of guy who’d be an Instagram influencer – literally paid by companies — just to include a shot of himself drinking a Coca-Cola on his next social media post. He was successful. But… He also knew that none of this stuff was eternal life. The assets would eventually run out. The Lexus would stop running. The six pack of abs would eventually fade to fat…then dust. But he had earned everything else in his life. Hence the question: Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus responds: Why do you call me good? There is no one good, but God alone. (v.18) Understand what Jesus is saying: God is good. And eternal life is God’s. Then eternal life must be good. And since God is good. And his commands are God’s. Then, his commands are good. And since eternal life is good. And God’s commands are good. To get to eternal life, one simply needs to do the good that your good God commands you to do: Do not murder. Murder bad. It isn’t good. Don’t do it. Do not commit adultery. Unfaithfulness is bad. It isn’t good. Don’t do it. Do not steal. Theft is bad. It isn’t good. Don’t do it. Do not give false testimony. Lying is bad. It isn’t good. Don’t do it. Do not defraud. Gossip is bad. It isn’t good. Don’t do it. Honor your Father and Mother. Disrespect is bad. It isn’t good. Don’t do it. Do the good things. You inherit eternal life. Do the bad things. You won’t. TRUTH: Sin is the MESSINESS of OPPOSING God. It’s like eating healthy. If you’re trying to eat healthy, then food is either good for your body or good for your taste buds. For instance… Carrot mush. Good for your body, not for taste. Deep friend Carrot Cake. Good for taste, not for body. Bran Flakes. Good for body. Frosted Flakes. Good for taste. Kombucha. Good for body. Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Good for taste. Brussel sprouts. Good for body. Doritos. Good for taste. Brussel sprout flavored Doritos? Not good for either. Let’s make sure that it’ll never happen. Sin and God are like that. They are in opposition. What’s good for sin is not good for God. What’s good for God is not good for sin. II. Sin is Messy And one of the reasons that God has assigned the sinful things as sin is because sin causes all kinds of messiness in our lives. Thinks about it: (1) Sin Messes up Relationships Just consider some of the sins that Jesus mentions here. Stealing? It messes up your relationship with the friend you stole 20 bucks from. Gossip? It messes up your relationship with the person who finds out you have been gossiping about them. Adultery? It messes up your relationship with your spouse, with the person you’re commit adultery with, with the spouse of the person you’re committing adultery with, with your parents, with your spouse’s parents, with your parents of the person you’ve committed adultery with, with the parents of the spouse of the persons you’ve committed adultery with, with your siblings, with your siblings in law, with their friends, with your friends, and, God forbid, any children that are in the mix. Now you might say: Only if I get caught! Is that really true? Because even if you don’t get caught stealing, the relationship with your friend is affected because now you have to think of ways to lie to your friend and remember the lies that you said in order not to get caught. And even if you don’t get caught by the person you’re gossiping about, the people you’re gossiping to hear what you’re saying, recognize what you’re doing, and are making mental notes to keep you at a distance. And even if you don’t get caught in adultery, you quickly find yourself nitpicking and complaining about any minor offense from your spouse because you need to soothe your conscience and come up with tangible reasons to tell yourself: “It’s ok what I’m doing.” Sin messes up relationships with others. (2) Sin Messes Up Self Image Because what happens when you sin? You don’t usually feel good about you it. You feel anxious. You feel sad. You feel guilty. And here’s the thing, when people say things like “You’re such a good person.” You nod and accept, but deep down there’s this little voice that says: “If they only knew…” They wouldn’t call me good. They’d call me -- unfaithful. Liar. Addict. Jerkface. Sinner. Which leads to our next issue… (3) Sin Messes Up Your Relationship with God It’s Back to Church Sunday. One thing I’ve been doing this week is reaching out to people who used to worship here but haven’t in a while. Just a simple message telling them that we missed them and would love for them to return. In the process, I invited one friend of mine. And the person responded: “I’ll think about it.” So, I followed up yesterday and asked if they might make it? They said they didn’t have a car. I said, “We could give a ride.” They responded: “I don’t think I can get up that early.” I said: “The last service is at 11 am.” Finally, they said: “Pastor, I can’t come, because life is mess right now. I need to get it together first. I can’t let God see me like this. I’m too guilty.” How sad. Sin drives people apart from God. It causes us to distance ourselves from him. We miss out on knowing we have his protection. We miss out on being uplifted by his love. We miss out on hearing about his incredible plan for us. We just kind of drift…away. But none of this worries our impressive young man. When he hears Jesus’ answer, he’s feeling pretty good. Because Jesus mentioned a bunch of commands, that he hasn’t broken. He hasn’t murdered. He hasn’t committed adultery. He hasn’t lied. He’s done good. He says to Jesus: All these I have kept since I was a boy. (v.20) Jesus looked at him. Jesus loved him. Jesus spoke to his heart: One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have. Sell your 401k. Sell your internet business. Sell your stock in Disney. Sell your 70” HD TV. Sell your XBOX. Sell your Coach Handbag. Sell your Air Jordans. Sell your season tickets. Sell everything. And give to the poor. To the homeless. To the impoverished. To the elderly man who can’t afford healthcare. To the guy at the I-540 on ramp asking for change. To the immigrant who can’t get a job because of the way he looks. And you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come follow me. (v.21) But the young man didn’t follow Jesus. His face fell. He grew sad. He turned and left. Because you see, Jesus had exposed his sin. Did you catch it? He loved earthly treasure more than heavenly treasure. He loved STUFF more than the CREATOR of stuff. He broke the 1st Commandment: You shall have no other gods. He did bad. He wasn’t good. But more intriguing than the young man’s response, is what Jesus says next. How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!... It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (v.23,24) Have you ever seen a camel before? It’s a big old animal. The average camel is 6 feet tall at the shoulder, 7 feet tall at the hump. It weighs about 1500 pounds. The eye of a needle? It’s much tinier. It’s so tiny because it is designed for only a thread to pass through it. I don’t have a camel with me. (The Greensboro Zoo wouldn’t get back to my request to borrow one) But I do have this stuffed camel. And this needle. Note: No matter how hard I smush it. No matter how hard I jam it. No matter how hard I push it. It is impossible for this stuffed camel to go through the eye of this needle. It is impossible for a real camel to go through the eye of a needle. And it is impossible for a rich young man earn his way through the gates of heaven. In fact, it is impossible for anyone to earn their way into the gates of heaven. Because…Sin. (4) Sin Messes Up Our Entrance into Heaven Heaven is a good place. Heaven is a divinely good place. It is a place without any sin. And if you’ve got sin on you… If you’ve got a big sin… If you’ve got a little sin… If you’ve got any sin… Then… …it is impossible for you to earn your way into heaven. III. The Solution Jesus’ disciples are shocked all this. Because this impressive young gentleman, who had earned all varieties of accolades in his lifetime, wasn’t able to earn the accolade of heaven. If he wasn’t getting in, then… What about us? Because he’s got it together, we don’t. He’s impressive; we’re not. He’s got everything going for him; not us. He was the Bill Gates, the Mark Zuckerberg, the Elon Musk. If he wasn’t getting in, then… Who can be saved? (v.26) Listen to Jesus’ response: With humans, this is impossible. But not with God; with God all things are possible. (v.27) Do you get it? Heaven is impossible for any being with sin to earn. But God? He doesn’t have any sin. God? He doesn’t struggle with wrong. God? He isn’t messy…at all. (1) Sin hasn’t MESSED UP God Unlike all of the rest of us, God is sinless. He’s still good. He doesn’t do wrong. He doesn’t have any mess on his eternal being. He remains pure. You won’t catch God in the fellowship area after church gossiping about that one guy. You can’t Google for God’s criminal record because he doesn’t have any. You won’t find photos of God from 2011 on Social Media in which he’s engaged in lewd activity. You won’t find any racists tweets that have been deleted from God’s account. God is incorruptible. God is perfect. God is sinless. Sin hasn’t messed up God. And it never will. Which is big news. HUGE news. Because it means (2) God is the ONE to Clean the Mess Up Think about it: When I had that tar all over my hands, one of the worst things that could have done would be to try and wipe it off by rubbing my dirty hands together. (It’s what I did), but it failed miserably. Messy hands cannot clean up messy hands. Sinful hands cannot clean up sinful hands. But God’s hands aren’t dirty. God’s hands aren’t messy. God’s hands are holy. God’s hands are pure. God’s hands are divine. God is the one to clean the mess up. God is the one to clean YOUR mess up. He is the ONLY one to clean your mess up. He had to act. And he did. Back to the story. Peter is the name of one of Jesus’ disciples and he is having a hard time believing that he can’t earn heaven. So, he says to Jesus this: “WE have left everything to follow you.” (v.28) Remember? That’s what you told the young man to do. That’s what we did. Granted, we didn’t have as much as he did, but we still left it. We are following you. Does that count for something? Look at Jesus’ response: Truly I tell you…no one who has left home for me and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age…and in the age to come eternal life. (v.29-30) Isn’t that strange? Jesus just promised Peter eternal life. Why? It wasn’t because Peter could earn it. He couldn’t. It wasn’t because Peter was perfect. He was a sinner. It was because Peter followed Jesus. But why would that work? Because… Jesus is God. (3) The MESSINESS of Sin is Removed by Jesus He is God come into this messy world. He is God dealing with the messiness of humanity. He is God who suffered a messy, bloody death at the hands of humans on the cross. But when he died. He took the messiness of your sins with him. He took the messiness of your guilt to the cross. He through the messiness of your sins into the grave…and the stone door was slammed shut. And there they remained. Jesus and our sins in the grave. One day. Two days. Three days. And… On the third day? Jesus came out alive. But our sins? They stayed there…dead. Understand: Jesus has removed the messiness of your sins. In Jesus you are clean. In Jesus you are messiness-less. In Jesus, you are forgiven. It’s amazing. It’s incredible. You might think - It’s impossible. All the sins I have. All the ways I’ve made a mess of it. All the messiness in my heart. It’s impossible. For humans… But not for God. God specializes in the impossible. Like rising from the dead. He did the visually impossible to prove the invisibly impossible He did the visually impossible: rising from the dead, to prove the invisible impossible: removal of all the messiness of your sins. IV. What Now? Follow Jesus. It’s what the rich young man didn’t do. Follow Jesus. It’s what the poor disciples did do. Follow Jesus. And it’s what God is calling you to do: Follow Jesus. It’s the way out of your sinful mess. Follow Jesus. It’s the way out of your messy guilt. Follow Jesus. It’s the way out of this messy world to place where there’s never any mess… I was once called to a hospital room late at night. The elderly man I went to see was in grave condition. He was hooked up to a breathing machine. He was unable to move. His eyes were red and there were purple splotches creeping up his neck. But when I got there…whatever brightness could come to his eyes, did. Pastor, I’m so glad you’re here. Pastor, I’m not gonna last much longer. Pastor, I’ve been thinking about my life. About how I messed things up with my wife. About how I messed things up with my children. About how I messed…things…up. But…as big of a mess up as I was… I know it’s not too big of a mess for Jesus. Because ain’t nothing too big of a mess for Jesus. He was right. And he is right with Jesus. Follow your Savior friends. He’ll fix your eternal mess and bring you to eternal life. Amen. |
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October 2022
Pastor Phil Kiecker
and his wife, Julianna love serving the community of North Raleigh.
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