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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.  Last we left the Apostle Paul, he was in the city of Ephesus preaching the message that Jesus is the Savior. He stayed there for two years. During that time frame, a congregation had developed in Ephesus. A decent crowd of people would gather together each week to hear Paul’s sermons, sing hymns, say prayers, and high-five each other in the fellowship hall.
But this church crowd wasn’t the only kind of crowd that developed in Ephesus. Today we’re going to learn about a crowd that developed in direct opposition to the Gospel. Our goal is get some guidance about the dangers of crowd-following in 2019 Raleigh. 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. A Crowd Forms The lesson comes from Acts 19. It says, “There arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there.” (v.23) A couple of notes: Demetrius is a Greek name. It means, “servant of Demeter.” Demeter was the Greek goddess in charge of crops. She made sure that the grains grew. She made sure the oats grew. She made sure the corn grew. She made sure that they were golden and delicious. She made sure that they were a part of a daily balanced breakfast. (Something tells me that Demeter looked something like a breakfast food character). But Demetrius wasn’t only worshipping deities around the food pyramid. He worked for the temple of Artemis. Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting (meat). The story was that you could call on her and give gifts at her temple to increase your likelihood of bagging a quail on the morning hunt. In Ephesus was the Temple to Artemis. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The temple was 425 feet long by 200 feet wide. It was tall and ornate with beautiful marble columns. People came from across the ancient world in order to visit this incredible wonder. And while the tourists were visiting the temple, they could pick up a souvenir! That’s where Demetrius came into play. He was a silversmith. His job was to build replica temples and replica statues of Artemis that he would sell on the corner right outside the monument. The little silver statue would become a keepsake or a household idol that people would pray to and hold close for protection. But business had been down recently. It wasn’t related to the economy. It wasn’t related to a lack of work. It wasn’t due to the weather keeping people from going outside. It was because of Paul. Paul had been preaching against idols. Paul had been telling people that Artemis wasn’t a real god. Paul had been telling people that Jesus was the only real God. People were believing him and subsequently buying fewer idols. So…Demetrius called together a meeting of all the people involved with the temple. Silversmiths, store owners, gift shop employees, temple janitors, even Amazon Prime drivers who delivered the statues across town… Demetrius gathered together everyone involved with the trade and said: You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. (v.25b-27) Do you see the issue? Paul is ruining Demetrius’ fine way of living. Before you know it, Demetrius might not be able to go the Angus Barn. He might not be able to afford his fancy jewelry and fine cheese. He might not be able to buy Grey Poupon at the local grocery store. Demetrius was upset because he was losing money. You can almost hear him: Sure, these people get forgiveness. They get joy. They get the promise of heaven. But I won’t be able to make my payment on the second Lexus I bought, so… Paul must be stopped! Here’s the truth: Crowds led by SINFUL HUMANS are opposed to HOLY GOD. That was Demetrius. He was a sinful human. He was leading a crowd against God’s message. But this will be true in any situation. Why? 1) Because Sin opposes God. God is good. Sin is bad. God is against sin. Sin is against God. God doesn’t say to sin: “You’re awesome.” Sin doesn’t say to God: “Let’s be best friends.” They are drastically opposed to one another. It’s like UNC and Duke. When they are playing one another in their next basketball showdown, every time one team makes a basket those points are good for one side and bad for the other. Duke can’t throw an alley-oop slam dunk and divide the points evenly among both squads. UNC can’t hit a three pointer and have it appear on the other team’s scoreboard. By the very nature of a game with opposing teams, good news for one team means bad news for the other. By the very nature of reality, when something godly happens that’s good news for God’s side and bad news for crowds led by sin. When a sinful leader is the leader of the crowd, that crowd will inevitably clash with God. 2) Because the Perspective is different. Humans live on a timeline. We are born. We grow. We live 30, 40, 50 years. Everything we do is on a timeline: I need a report in by Friday. I need to finish schooling by December. I need to make enough money for my son’s inheritance before I die. God is different. God is eternal. He is off the timeline. He is concerned with eternity. Because the temporal perspective is so different from the eternal perspective, there’s a contradiction. Case in point: God wanted people to stop worshipping idols so that they could know the Savior and have eternal life. Demetrius wanted people to stop worshipping Jesus so that he could have more money and buy himself a nice steak dinner. The perspective is different. The result? Crowds led by SINFUL HUMANS are opposed to HOLY GOD. This is still true today. In 2018 in rural Mexico, Pastor Eduardo Garcia served at local country church. One of the struggles in Mexico is drug addiction. Crystal meth has taken over in the area. It’s ruined health, finances, and family. Pastor Eduardo Garcia preached against the danger of Meth. He taught that Meth couldn’t save you; only Jesus could. He taught that Meth didn’t remove guilt; only Jesus did. He taught that Meth eventually brought death; and Jesus brought life. And a few drug addicts listened. He got them help. They got off the drugs. Great news, right? Except for the Drug Cartel. They were losing money. So… The Drug Cartel had Pastor Eduardo Garcia gunned down in the streets. Crowds led by SINFUL HUMANS are opposed to HOLY GOD. Beware. II. The Crowd Rages Back to the story. When the crowd heard Demetrius’ speech, “They were furious and began shouting: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ ”(v.28) They rushed into the city. They shouted. They screamed. They pumped their fists. They motioned for others to join them. People joined the crowd who agreed with their cause. People joined the crowd who loved Artemis. People joined the crowd who enjoyed shouting. People joined the crowd who didn’t want others to get mad at them for not joining the crowd. People joined the crowd because they didn’t want to miss out on whatever was about to happen. Regardless, the crowd grew in number. They grabbed two men – Gaius and Aristarchus – two church members that worked with Paul. They dragged them through the streets. Eventually, the streets were so narrow – and the crowd was so big – that they had to make their way to the local theater. It was the only building big enough to house the large crowd that had gathered. As they gathered and shouted, they threw a guy named Alexander to the front in order to explain this message of Jesus. But – thing was – Alexander wasn’t even a believer. He just looked like he might be. When he tried to explain that, the crowd got angrier. They didn’t want to listen. And then it started. Two hours. Two straight hours of shouting: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! She’s the greatest god of all time. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! This guy named Jesus is costing us money. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! I really, really hate the Jews. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! I just drank a bunch of booze. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! I don’t know what I’m doing. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! That plane in the sky? Is that a Boeing? Two hours of screaming. Screaming from people who don’t even know why they’re screaming in the first place. Here’s the warning: Crowd following can be a MINDLESS activity. Maybe you’ve fallen victim. Peer pressure in high school, “It’s what the cool kids are doing.” Friends egging you on at a bar, “Come on. Just say it.” Your family, “Hate those people. It’s what we do.” Comments on your social media profile, “If you don’t believe this, you are despicable.” Society, “If you want to fit in, get rid of the god stuff. That’s the way the crowd is going.” It’s so easy to follow the crowd. Even mindlessly. But MINDLESS crowd following is NEEDLESLY dangerous. Jesus is loving. Jesu is our Savior. You trust him, right? He died for you. He rose for you. He loves you. There’s no one more trustworthy than Jesus, right? Look at what your trustworthy Savior said in the Gospel for today: Do not be afraid of the one who can kill the body, but be afraid of the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell. (Mark 10:28) Do you hear what Jesus is saying? Don’t fear a dislike on Facebook more than holy hellfire. Don’t fear the loss of a friend more than the loss of your God. Don’t fear society calling you a name more than your Lord calling you DAMNED. Don’t fear anything more than your God. III. The Crowd is Defeated Because no crowd can OVERPOWER God. Back to Ephesus. The shouting had been going on for a solid two hours. Finally, the city clerk, who is a high-ranking individual in Ephesians society, made his way to the front of the steps. After motioning for them to be quiet, they finally chilled. He said to them: “Calm down; don’t do anything rash.” (v.36) Guys, we need to stop. Artemis is still known around the world. We’re still rich. Tourists are still visiting. These two church members haven’t done anything illegal. The reality is that if Caesar hears about this riot – we’re the ones who did something illegal. And we’ll be the ones getting into trouble. Chill. Relax. Go home. Then, he dismissed them. And the crowd went home. Because sometimes God protects his people through people that aren’t even his people. TRUTH: No crowd can OVERPOWER God. Take one more example from Jesus. He was arrested by a crowd of angry men. They brought him to the Assembly. They shouted for hours, not ‘Great is Artemis!’, but “Crucify Him!” They dragged him through the narrow streets. They hung him on a cross…all the while jeering, mocking, and spitting. He took his last breath and it looked like the crowd had won. But… Three days later. Three days later… Jesus came back to life. And that wasn’t the only crowd against him! Because Jesus went to the cross with a crowd of your sins on his back. The sins of rebelling against his Word. The sins of bowing to peer pressure. The sins of following the crowd opposed to God. But those sins didn’t overpower Jesus. He overpowered them. Through faith in him, those sins won’t overpower you. You are forgiven. You are victorious. Christ will bring you home to heaven. Because… Christ following ALWAYS leads to ETERNAL life. No other crowd will do that. Not a crowd of your friends. Not a crowd of your coworkers. Not a crowd of social media followers. Only Jesus can. And does. Only Jesus will. IV. What Now? 1) Identify the Leader. Have you ever driven cross-country in a caravan? That’s when a bunch of cars all follow one another. If you’re going to do that, suddenly it becomes very important that you know who you’re following. Because if you don’t pay very good attention. Well… I remember one time I was following a red van. I was supposed to follow it to a place in Durham. But after it was taking awhile, I looked up at the road signs and saw that I was approaching Greenville. Turns out? I had been following a red van that wasn’t the one my friend was driving. It’s important to identify the leaders in your crowds of people. Because that will tell you where you’re going. Is the leader a sinful human? Is it a sinful human who doesn’t care about Jesus? Is it a sinful human who is led by Jesus? That’s the crowd you want. 2) Unfollow the Sinful Crowd. Unfortunately, this is a lot harder than simply going onto Facebook and hitting “UNFOLLOW.” (Although that might be part of this.) If it’s a crowd that you’ve been following for a while, you might have acquaintances, friendships, and good friends in that crowd. Those relationships, emotions, and feelings will make it hard to unfollow that crowd. But… If that crowd is leading you away from your Savior… Don’t be Demetrius. Don’t forfeit the Christ in exchange for money, for fame, for fortune, for good times, for a momentary pleasure…for stuff that doesn’t last. 3) Follow the Christ. Because Christ is not overpowered by any crowd. And if you’re following him, neither will you. Because Christ always leads to eternal life. If you’re following him, that’s where you’ll be. Check out Revelation 7. It describes a different kind of crowd. A bigger crowd. A more diverse crowd. A crowd shouting louder than that Ephesus crowd. A crowd shouting longer than that Ephesus crowd. A crowd shouting about a being greater than the Ephesus crowd was shouting about. A crowd shouting in heaven: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Friends, that’s the crowd you want to be in.  We are in the middle of our sermon series on Acts. In this series we have been to a lot of different places and learned a different lesson in each place. Today we’re getting a potpourri of lessons from one place and all on hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy comes from the Greek word “hypokrusis.” The word was used in Greek theater. It meant: “to play a part,” which, in Greek theater, often meant “wearing a mask.” It’s a part of theater still today – specifically known as the Marvel Big Screen. Chris Evans dons a mask and becomes Captain America. Chadwick Boseman dons a mask and becomes Black Panther. Evangeline Lilly dons a mask and becomes The Wasp. Hypocrisy, then, is when someone claims to be one thing, when they are not. Before we begin our study of hypocrisy, 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. One Kind of Hypocrisy The lesson from Acts 19 is the first big stop on Paul’s 3rd missionary journey. Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. (19:1a) Ephesus was the Capital of the Ancient province of Asia and a bustling commercial center. Paul had briefly been there at the end of the 2nd missionary journey. Before he left, he promised to return if God allowed. Paul’s appearance in chapter 19 is a fulfillment of that promise. When Paul arrives, he finds some disciples. (v.1b) These men claimed to be followers of the Christ. Paul greets them pleasantly. (Maybe with some high fives, jokes about not having rocks thrown at him, and an invitation to go grab lunch at the local Smashburger). As they are hanging out, Paul asks them some conversational questions: What’s your favorite worship song? What do you do to serve at the church? Do you like your coffee dark or light roast? And… Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? (v.2) Some explanation: The Holy Spirit is absolutely in the heart of all believers. 1 Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.” It’s simple. It’s clear. If you believe in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit, because you need the Holy Spirit in order to believe. But what Paul is talking about here is something different. Early in the history of the Christian church, during key faith-filled events, the Holy Spirit would visibly manifest his presence within a group of believers. This would serve to prove the truthfulness of the Gospel through miraculous signs. It happened at Pentecost (Acts 2) when tongues of fire appeared on the Apostles’ heads as they spoke in languages that they had never learned. It happened again in the house of the Roman Centurion Cornelius (Acts 10). In both instances, God was making it clear that this faith – and the message that this faith was placed in – was a very real and very divine message. Paul’s question was about whether that had happened with them. Did you get to speak in tongues? Did fire appear on your heads? Did you open your mouth and rainbows started shooting out? The answer was a bit surprising: “We hadn’t heard there was a Holy Spirit…” (v.3) Paul responded, “Wait. What!?! You don’t know the Holy Spirit? He’s a key part of our teachings. He’s the one who brings us to faith. He’s the one who came down on Jesus like a dove. And Baptism! Haven’t you been baptized? Into whose name were you baptized? Because as far as I know…believers are baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the HOLY SPIRIT.” The men responded, “We were baptized into John’s Baptism, into the name of the Christ who is going to come in the future.” “OK… The Christ. Good. Did you know he has already come? Did you know he already did his Christ work? Did you know his name?” And the men looked on at another, shrugged, and replied, “I don’t know…maybe…Bob?” Divine forehead slap. Here’s the truth: Sometimes hypocrisy comes from IGNORANCE. It’s like the time I was at Buffalo Wild Wings and a lady near me was decked out in Tarheel gear as she watched them battle on the football field. A while later, the Tarheels had their quarterback sacked in the end zone. The woman stood up, clapped, and shouted, “Great job! Way to go.” Until, her friends (also in Tarheel gear) motioned for her to sit down: “Stop cheering. That was a safety. That means its two points for the other team.” Sometimes hypocrisy comes from IGNORANCE. Yes, I’m a believer in Jesus…and I believe you can sleep with whomever you want. Does the Bible say differently? Yes, my social profile says: “Christian”; I like all kinds of quotes from the Bible. Also quotes from the KKK. Is there something wrong? Yes, I’m a Christian. I’ve been my whole life. But what do you mean when you are talking about salvation by grace? Never heard of it? I thought I’d get to heaven, simply because I was good enough…. Before you say, “But if someone doesn’t know, it’s no big deal.” Remember that ignorant hypocrisy is still hypocrisy. It’s still wrong. If your son winds up and punches your little daughter in the face, you don’t say, “It’s ok. He didn’t know. Let him be.” No! You course correct immediately! In the same way, it’s still wrong when we say we are followers of Jesus, but then do the opposite of followers of Jesus, even if we simply didn’t know followers of Jesus don’t do that. There’s a simple cure for this kind of hypocrisy. It’s called knowledge. That’s what Paul gave these men. He said to them in verse 4, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” Jesus is the Christ. He lived perfectly when you couldn’t. He died innocently in your place. He rose triumphantly for the forgiveness of your sins. I saw it with my own eyes! And the group believes. They are baptized into Jesus’ name. And that Holy Spirit that they didn’t know about? He makes himself visibly known. They began to speak in tongues, and they prophesied. (v.6) Visual proof of the invisible truth that their faith in Jesus wasn’t fake; it was real. The same is true for you. Repent of your any hypocrisy of ignorance. To do that, look at the truth. The truth may be that what you’ve been doing is sin. But the truth also is that you have a Savior. And in Jesus, you are forgiven. II. Another Kind of Hypocrisy But not all hypocrisy is caused by ignorance. Next Paul entered the synagogue, a place where they studied God’s Word. He went and spoke boldly there for three months. (v.9a) You would expect this to produce real believers. These people wore religious jewelry. They went to worship. They knew lots of the Bible. They knew all the words to all their favorite religious songs. They knew prayers. They knew religious logos. They knew God’s Word. And yet…when Paul was done speaking… Some of them were obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. (v.9b) And think about the hypocrisy of it all: They studied God’s Word. They knew God’s Word. Then, they refused to believe God’s Word. And even openly mocked God’s Word. Only to sit around congratulating each other for following that Word that they were mocking. It’s would be like sitting in the Fellowship Hall after worship and gossiping about another believer not being a very good believer and then congratulating yourselves on being such good believers even though you’re doing things that believers aren’t supposed to do. Take note: Sometimes hypocrisy comes from ignorance; but sometimes hypocrisy comes from obstinance. In fact, the Greek word there means “hardened.” Tough, rough, impenetrable. Like a rock. There’s nothing getting through the exterior into the heart of the rock. Try it. You can punch the rock. You can hit the rock with a blow dart. You could try karate chopping the rock. Nothing. Even if you took a hammer to it - that rock isn’t splitting. The same can happen with people’s hearts. Even the hearts of long-time Christians. I know racism is wrong. God is for all people. You should go tell it to those people over there. They’re the racist ones. In fact, that’s how all people like them are! I know it says that sex outside of marriage is wrong. And I haven’t had it! Look at my purity ring! Now excuse me…the adult film. I uploaded on my iPhone is coming after it’s done buffering. I know it! Pride is wrong. Preach it pastor! Especially at that guy over there. But don’t you preach it at humble me. There’s nobody humbler than I am. And God’s Word connects with the heart. And the heart hardens. And hypocrisy ensues. Take warning. If you are a long-time church goer, take extra warning! Don’t harden your heart to God’s Word. And then sit around congratulating yourself for following God’s Word. Instead of hardening your heart, look at God’s heart. Because God’s heart was not hard. His heart was filled with compassion. His heart was filled with love for you…even when you repeatedly hardened your heart against him. His heart was not hardened like a rock. Want proof? When he hung on that cross… Bleeding… Dying… For you… The soldiers reached up with a spear. They plunged it into his him. Blood. Not hardened. But softened with love for you. Even now. Even if you’ve hardened your heart before, listen to his heart for you. Repent of your hypocrisy. And do it quickly. III. All Kinds of Hypocrisy As Paul continued his ministry, God continued to bless Paul. In fact, look at the amazing things that God did through Paul: Even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured, and the evil spirits left them. (v.12) That’s amazing! Paul’s handkerchiefs cured from the flu and his aprons drove out evil spirits. But look at what happened, “Seven sons of Sceva (Which…Listen to the name. It sounds shady. Almost like an evil muppet or something) they went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” (v.12-13) To be fair, this doesn’t look hypocritical. It looks like they are trying to help. They aren’t ignorant of Jesus’ name. They use it. They aren’t obstinately opposed to Jesus. God is against demons, too. Yet, look at what happened. One day an evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. (v.15) Do you see the problem? I can’t. But God could. Maybe they weren’t doing this out of love for Jesus. But out of love for power. Maybe they weren’t doing this out of love for others. But out of love for themselves. They were hypocrites. Good ones too! It was hard to tell that they were doing anything wrong. But here’s the truth: Sometimes hypocrisy comes from ignorance. Sometimes hypocrisy comes from obstinance. But hypocrisy is always exposed. A family member finds out. A pastor discovers the truth. Your spouse learns about what you were trying to hide. Always hypocrisy is exposed. Even if you successfully hide it from all other human beings, God knows. God knows and he will expose it. At the end of time, you won’t be able to hide it. And he won’t be able to hide his displeasure. He’ll simply say: Jesus, I know… And Paul I know… But…You? Who are you? IV. What Now? Therefore, God calls us to repent. To turn from hypocrisy. To turn to our Savior. And the way to do that is to: (1). Switch Your Mask We said that hypocrisy is putting on a mask. Covering up our sins with a nice looking, “Christian” façade. Make me think of Halloween. That’s a time for masks. There’s a wide variety of them at Precious Lambs. I remember there was one kid who made his own mask. It was made of string and paper. The paper covered up…one of his eyebrows. He said: “You don’t know who I am.” And I said: “Uh-huh.” Hypocrisy? That’s like hiding behind the paper eyebrow mask. We think it hides our sinfulness from God. It doesn’t. Instead, check out Galatians 3:27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Christ’s clothing? It’s righteousness. It’s purity. It’s impenetrable. Just like a full-fledged mask, it fully and completely covers up all your sins. Jesus covers up your obstinance. Jesus covers up your ignorance. Jesus covers up your sin so much so that when God looks at you, He only sees – His child. That’s comforting. That’s empowering. So much so that God calls us to our second WHAT NOW: (2). Go Public Look at the reaction of the people to what had occurred. Many who believed came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. (v.18) Think about that: Believers gathered in the middle of the city with their arms filled of books that they had been storing in their homes. Books that weren’t about the Bible. Books that were about Satan, witchcraft, and sexual immorality. It’d be like someone coming to the front of church and making a pile of a raunchy racist DVDs, two illegal drug baggies, and an iPhone loaded with pornographic content. That’s take courage to do in front of everyone, right? But they had the courage. Why? Because Jesus. Because they were covered in Christ’s righteousness. Because they knew they were God’s children. Because they knew God’s children were serious about getting rid of sin. Because they knew God’s other children wouldn’t ridicule them, but support them. And so… They went public with it. Do the same. Examine your heart. Find your hypocrisy And Go public with it. Go public with a friend, a pastor, or a family member! And if someone trusts you enough to publicly confess a secret sin to you, don’t say: “Just a second while I share what you did on social media.” Nope. Help them. Share the Gospel. Remind them of Christ’s mask. Help them incinerate whatever it is they are struggling with! Because in that, God’s Word is spread. Conclusion: In fact, look at the last verse: In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely. (v.20) Because when God’s Word gets us to stop being hypocrites and start being real, then God’s Word really spreads. If we’re real -- real with God and real with each other -- then the community will notice.  Xanthe Pajarillo.
Have you heard of that name? She’s very famous in Santa Clara, CA. For an entire year she spent time organizing marches, leading Facebook groups, making YouTube videos to get people aware of her cause, getting petition after petition signed, meeting with the city council and protesting for the betterment of the Santa Clara community. Her cause? To bring the McRib back to Santa Clara. This isn’t a joke. This actually happened. And her protest was contagious. Check out some pictures of her supporters. The signs say, “Make McRib not McWar.” “Down with Breakfast, up with the McRib” and “Eat McRib” Good news! After the protesting, Santa Clara’s McDonald’s chain – brought the McRib back. There are a lot of protests in America today. Most have much more serious tone. There are protests for racial equality, for gun laws, and babies in the womb. But…what about Christians? Should we protest? If so, what? Where? How? Today we are continuing our disciple series and taking a look at a time that Jesus protested. We’re discuss what that means for Christians today, but before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen. 2. Jesus’ Protest Before we get going, I think it’s important that we have a working definition of the word “protest,” because the word means different things to different people. Some think of marches. Some think of picket signs. Some think of peaceful sit ins; others of violence. But those are different types of protests. They deal with the “how” of protesting now the “what.” The simple dictionary definition for protesting is this: “an expression of disapproval for something.” Take a moment and write that down, because it’s important so that we are all on the same page for the rest of this. Then, I want to take us to a very Biblical protest – one that’s led by Jesus himself. Look at John 2: When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves and others sitting at tables exchanging money. (v.13-14) A couple of points: Jerusalem was the center of Jewish culture. It was the largest city in Judea and it was home to the Temple – a beautiful, ornate building dedicated to worshipping God. It was lined with gold, studded with stones and decorated by gorgeous etchings in wood and stone. And it was around the Passover. The Passover was a celebration of when God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Since the Passover was a religious festival, many wanted to go to the epicenter of Jewish religion for the festival – hence Jerusalem being very crowded. (It might be similar to many people making their way to New Orleans for Mardi Gras or an Irish bar to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day). And when you’re in Jerusalem and you go the temple, you are going to want to bring a sacrifice. That’s because Old Testament Jewish religion demanded animals sacrifices for sin. Not that the animals blood actually took away sins, but (1) it taught how serious sin really is and (2) it foreshadowed the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God, as a sacrifice to actually take away the sins of the world. Practically speaking – if you want to bring a sacrifice to Jerusalem from a couple hundred miles away, it’s not very easy. It’s like taking a dog on a road trip only without a minivan and aq less domesticated version of a pet. This was a challenge. So…a new kind of industry developed. Situated in the temple courtyard – right before you made your way into the sanctuary portion of the temple – were a bunch of vendors. Each vendor offered animals for sacrifice – oxen, sheep and doves – whatever you needed. The idea was that this was a service – so that you didn’t have to take the animals on the long trek, you could just buy when you got there. Can you picture the advertising? Like a Good Neighbor Sheep farm is there. Open range, organic, cage free doves. Because God doesn’t like additives. Or my personal favorite: Got Oxen? But that’s not the only kind of temple vendor. There were moneychangers there too. This is because Jews would come to Jerusalem from various countries. Each of these countries had various coinage with various worth in the world market. Money changers at the temple did the same thing that money changers do at international airports – they exchange your foreign dollar for a domestic one. This is what was happening at the first table in the temple courtyard – it would get the money you need to buy the animals you need at a small percentage of the price. And you know what? People liked it! It was convenient, nice and easy. That’s why when the disciples made their way into the temple, they probably paid little attention to the sellers. This was common. This was ordinary. This was the way things were. But…for Jesus…something was off. Maybe it was the: The bleating of sheep as opposed to singing. Or the coins going into the merchant’s pockets as opposed to the offering boxes. Or the smell of the animals masking the incense of prayers. Whatever it was – Jesus had had enough. He walked over to a nearby vendor, grabbed a few cords used for animal transport and tied them together. Then, he moved to the nearest oxen stall. He threw open the gate. And… CRACK!!!! Immediately he started corralling the oxen out of the pen. The oxen grunting and snorting as their hooves hit the ground. People started looking. The vendor started shouting. But Jesus didn’t stop. He went to the next gate. He did the same. He made it to the sheep gate – same treatment – new noises: BAAAING and BLEEETING and SHOUTING! He ran over to the dove table and he thew open their cage doors. People started screaming as birds fluttered overhead. Some sought shelter under the archways. Jesus made his way to the money table… And scattered the coins on the floor – the talents, the kophers, the Roman coins with Caesar’s image on them…Clinking everywhere! He flipped the table over and shouted in anger: “Stop turning my father’s house into a market!” And…after many of the animals had been removed. As the bleeting of sheep grew faint. And the feathers of the birds slowly settled to the ground. A man – an angry man – an angry, angry man approached: What gives you the authority to do all of this? Jesus looked him straight in the eye. He didn’t stutter: “Destroy this temple and I will raise it in 3 days.” 2. Christian Protest And there it is. Protest. “An expression of disapproval of something.” Jesus did it. He publicly expressed his disapproval for something. But…what does his protest mean for 21st century disciples? Let’s take it one question at a time: (1) Should We Protest? This isn’t as easy as a commandment that says, “Thou shalt not protest,” or “thou shalt protest often.” But if you head back to that initial definition of protest: “to express disapproval of something,” there’s a few Bible passages that essentially say the same thing: Speak what is right. (Isaiah 33:15) If someone sins, rebuke them. (Mt. 18) Do not do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. (2 Cor. 13:8) That’s what Jesus was doing! The truth was that the temple was for communing with God – not making money. The truth was that their current practices were at best distracting, at worst soul condemning. The truth was that what was going on was wrong – and Jesus spoke. He protested. But this isn’t the only example of protest in the Bible: A guy named Daniel refused to pray to the King and he protested by continuing to pray to God. (Daniel 6) Three friends refused to bow down and worship a golden statue and instead continued to worship God. (Daniel 3) Peter and James would be told to stop teaching about Jesus or risk death – they protested by walking back outside and teaching about Jesus anyway. (Acts 4) Yes. Protesting – expressing disapproval of something – is something that Christians should do. In fact, it’s something that Christians are commanded to do. (2) Protest Where? Should we head to downtown Raleigh? Downtown Durham? A march all the way to the White House? I think it’s interesting to consider where Jesus protested. He protested in the temple. The temple was the epicenter of Jewish religious thought. The temple is where people would have gone to learn about the Messiah! NOTE: He did not go to the Roman governor’s mansion. He did not go to the Pilate’s palace. He did not organize a march to Caesar’s palace. In fact, when people asked him to –he refused. Jesus was focused on the spiritual not the physical. Jesus was focused on the spiritual not the political. There’s a lesson there for us: Before we protest out there, we’ve got to protest in here. We’ve got to protest in our temple. And where is our temple? Is it this church? Well – we do commune with God here. That’s true. It is a spiritual place that’s true too. But before you go tearing down the greeting cards free will offering stand in the hallway – consider this passage: “Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…who you received from God.” (1 Cor. 16: 19) In other words – before we protest out there, we NEED to protest in here. This is a similar concept to the plank in the eye story. You’ve probably heard that one before. Jesus said, “Before you tell someone to take the speck out of their eye, take the plank out of your own eye.” Have you ever thought about how foolish it would look to see this passage played out? To see some guy with a giant, 2’x4” coming at you, trying to avoid hitting you with the plank and leaning in to say with a very concerned voice, “There’s some sawdust in your eye.” Foolish! And it’s just as foolish to go protesting all of the ‘sins that go on out there’ when there’s plenty of sins that go on in here. It’d be like the guy protesting the XXX club going in next door, when he’s up late watching porn every night. Or the woman protesting racial inequality, when she won’t converse with her neighbor because, “She’s different than me.” Or the guy that protests on Facebook the way that America has lost sight of religion and doesn’t have any relationship with God --- even though he hasn’t been to worship in about 6 ½ months. Friends – start your protest right here. Protest lust. Protest hate. Protest racism. Protest anger. Protest greed. Protest apathy. Protest the very things that threaten to ruin your temple! Because Jesus did. In fact, he protested your sins so much that he took a stand against them. A stand that ended as sometimes protests do with violent pushback from opposition. It was a stand that ended with both feet on a little block of wood and a nail was driven through the bones of his metatarsals. Jesus stood against your sin. And he won! Your sins are no more because Jesus stood against them. Your sins are no more because Jesus transformed your temple. Your sins are no more and Jesus calls you to protest against their return. Protest starts here (in our hearts) before it goes out there (in the world). (3) Protest What? And when we do take our protest to the world – what do we protest? Here’s a simple thought: Protest what God protests. Express disapproval of what God expresses disapproval of. Otherwise, you’re protesting against God. And that’s seems unwise. Pre protesting should be less about “what do I want” and more about “what does God want.” If you follow that rule, you’ll take your stand accordingly. But not all issues are so clear: Like Gun Control. It’s been on people’s minds and rightfully so. It was horrific and awful what happened to those kids in Parkland, FL. But over the past week, I’ve seen Christians friends say things that are going a bit farther than the Bible says: “It’s in the Bible God said we should have AR17s. Don’t you take that right from me.” “It’s in the Bible – God said, “if you own a gun, you’re going straight to hell.” Neither of those are Bible passages. (It’s easy to find that out too…just Google it!) Gun control like many issues in the social realm is a grey area issue. (The Bible doesn’t speak specifically about it). The Bible does say that God gave us life. The Bible does say that God wants us to protect life. How we do that is open for debate. But when Christians are dealing with grey area issues, the Bible has two things for us to keep in mind: 3. Think of others more than yourself. Because a lot of times people protest against things that they don’t like. “I am protesting this tax because I don’t like that I have to pay more.” “I am protesting this person in government because I don’t like that party.” “I am protesting the price of Doritos because I wish they were cheaper!” But the Bible says this: “Be humble…Become the servant of all.” In other words, think of others first. Not yourself. Fight the sinful, selfish urge to say, “Here’s what’s best for me,” and say, “I’m going to listen and learn what’s best for others.” It’s what Jesus did. Because having nails hammered into his hands was probably NOT what felt best to him. But it was what was best for us. Think the same way. 4. Think of spiritual more than physical. God is always more concerned with the spiritual than the physical. Yes, Jesus healed the sick, but only so he could tell them about salvation. Yes, Jesus spoke about this life – but only as a means to get to the next life. Yes, Jesus told his disciples to help other’s physical needs, but only after he gave the mission statement of going and making disciples of all nations by baptizing them and teaching them God’s Word. --- a very, spiritual task. Even in the temple the reason Jesus protested was against the physical: making money, saving the hassle, making the temple trip an easy thing…. And it was for the spiritual: an atmosphere focused on God’s Word – a temple dedicated to connecting with God spiritually that they might hear the message of the Savior – and be saved. (4) Protest How? Because once we have taken our stand against our own sins, God does call us to stand against sin out there. But how do we do that? Do we go downtown and start destroying things? Do we knock on our neighbor’s door and punch him tin the face? (I am offended by your lawn gnomes!) No. The Bible says this, “Be Kind.” It means (wait for it), “Be kind.” Even in protest. We don’t vandalize. We aren’t violent. We speak the truth in love. We speak the truth peacefully. But Pastor… Jesus wasn’t so kind! He knocked things over. He caused chaos. He was a bit of a vandal. But friend…Jesus is God! Simply put: He does what he wants. If God wants to violently oppose sin, He can – that fits within the job description of God. As for us, we are humans. We let God to be the judge. We remain peaceful. But...also we remain confident. We mentioned it earlier – at the end of his protest, the Pharisees approached and asked him, “What was his authority to do all this? What was his authority to free the animals? What was his authority to knock over the table? What was his authority to do all of this?” And Jesus’ answer was: “Destroy this temple and 3 days later I will raise it.” Only he wasn’t talking about the building temple. He was talking about his body temple. In other words – Jesus’ authority was based on his resurrection. And your authority is based on his resurrection. When you stand up for truth, When you stand up for God’s Word, When you stand up for what God has declared right, You stand with great authority. The authority of the resurrected Lord himself. May his power give us strength to protest the evil in our lives. Amen.  Over the past couple of weeks, we have heard some amazing stories. About the Jordan River splitting in half, the walls of Jericho tumbling down, God’s grace in keeping the prostitute Rahab safe, his wrath against the greedy Achan and his incredible power that extended the daylight for 24 extra hours!
Today’s sermon is a bit different. Because we are getting to the part of Joshua that isn’t so jammed packed with action. The literature switches from narrative to a legal listing; from storytelling to atlas. It’s one of those parts of the Bible that might not seem like it’s got a lot to do with you. You’d be wrong. Today we’re going to take our first of two looks at the non-narrative parts of Joshua. This is from Joshua 13-21. Our goal is to discover a couple of different ways these listings are a blessing for 21st century Raleighians. Before we do that, let’s pray: Strengthen us this morning by the truth, O God. Your word is truth. Open our eyes to see what YOU want us to see. Open our ears to hear what YOU want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what YOU would have us believe. Amen. I. The Temptation to Grow Tired Chapter 13 starts right after Israel has finished conquering a vast majority of the land. Joshua 13:1. When Joshua had grown old and was well along in years, the LORD said to him, “You are now very old…” Notice that there seems to be a repetitive theme. The Bible calls Joshua “old” and then, it rephrases it so that we don’t get confused, “well along in years.” Finally, the LORD himself approaches Joshua and the very first thing he says to him is, “You are…very old!” Sheesh, God. Thanks a lot. I doubt Joshua needed the reminder. The white hairs, the creaky knees and the wrinkles probably told him enough. In fact, if you jump forward in the book – Caleb, Joshua’s contemporary, is identified as 85 years old. Joshua, probably a bit older, might be around 90. That means – things were not as easy as they used to be. Each morning he would stand and straighten his back very slowly. He would grab his pair of glasses and squint in order to read the 14-point font of Moses’ OT Writings. Soldiers would pretend not to notice his inability to remember any of their names. Marty? Abimelech? Joshua was no spring chicken. So, what does God want? Is this the talk where he tells him to slow things down? Is this the talk where he told Joshua he probably shouldn’t drive anymore? Is this the talk where he told Joshua about the new retirement village they had set up in the confines of Ai? Nope. Joshua…there are still large areas of land to be taken over. (v.1b) The implication? I still have plans for you. I still have work for you. You are not too old to serve me. That’s a key truth I want to focus on for a moment. You are never too old to serve God. I was sitting down next to a friend for coffee the other day. And in the midst of our conversation, the man began to tell me about his children. How he had fallen away from church and wasn’t a believer anymore. And then…he sighed: But...what am I going to do? I’m old. Is that really how it works? Is Jesus just for young kids? Is Jesus not for adults? Do you get to a point where you’re so old that even God can’t use you? Look at these Scriptures: Matthew 28 says, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Galatians 5 says, “Serve one another in love.” Matthew 5, “Let your light shine.” Notice Scripture does not say, “Go and make disciples – unless you have arthritis.” It doesn’t say, “Serve one another in love…unless you are over 73. Then, serve in grouchiness.” It doesn’t say, “Let your light shine…unless you live in a retirement community.” There are no qualifiers. These commands are all inclusive. These commands are for you – no matter how old you are. Because you are never too old to serve God! Joshua was 90 years old and God still called on him to lead the Israelite army throughout the rest of Canaan! But Joshua wasn’t alone. Moses was 80 years old when God used him to get Israel out of Egypt. Daniel was 87 when he was thrown into the lion’s den for confessing faith in Jesus. Sarah was 99 when she gave birth to Isaac – forefather of Jesus. Noah was 600 when God used him to build an ark and save humanity! How old are you? How will God use? Don’t listen to the devil: You are never too old to serve God. II. The Temptation to Give Up That’s what God wanted Joshua to do. Listen to his command: There are still very large areas of land to be taken over…be sure to allocate this land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have instructed you. (v.1b, 6) Because up to this point Israel hasn’t conquered everything. They only possess about 2/3 of the Promised Land. They had won many battles and driven out many armies, but they still needed to win victories up in the North kingdom and they still needed to drive out armies in the southwest. The temptation might be to call it good. The temptation might be to say close enough. The temptation might be to grab a PBR and relax. God doesn’t want them to quit. God wants them to finish it. And with good reason. My initial favorite sports teams were based in Minnesota. Did you know this? I was 2 when I moved there from Baton Rouge, LA and I was 4 when I watched my first baseball and football games. The Twins and the Vikings. Then, in first grade I moved to Wisconsin. And in week one of the NFL season I was one of the only kids wearing Viking purple – while everyone else wore green and gold. And there was polite joking. And there was polite ribbing. And…there was the time in fourth grade when Brett Favre led the Packers deep into the playoffs – and the Vikings were not so deep in the playoffs – that I finally switched allegiances. People influence you. In sports teams, favorite restaurants, binge worthy TV shows and religion. This is one of the main reasons for God driving out the Canaanites. He doesn’t want the Canaanites’ idol worship to influence the Israelites God worship. He doesn’t want the Canaanite unbelievers to lead Israelite believers to unbelief… …and hell. And Joshua gets it. He sends out each tribe into its particular region of the Promised Land in order to drive out all the nations. That’s exactly what chapters 11-19 entail. Numbers, places and results of their victories. But…hidden in the midst of these victories – in the midst of this long historical commentary on how they followed through on God’s commands – are a few verses which show that…they didn’t. 13:13 The Israelites did not drive out the people of Geshur and Maacah so they continue to live among Israel to this day. 15:53 Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites. 16:10 They did not dislodge the Canaanites in Gezer. 17:11-12 They were not able to occupy Beth Shan, Ibleam, Dor, Endor, Taanach and Megiddo...for the Canaanites lived in their region. 19:47 But the Danites had difficulty taking possession of their territory…so they moved up to Leshem. Perhaps this seems like no big deal. Perhaps this seems like “at least they tried hard.” Perhaps you can understand them being tired and saying – “Good enough. We don’t bother you and you don’t bother us.” And everything seems fine. Jump forward with me: After Joshua died…another generation grew up who neither knew the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…they followed and worshiped various gods of the people around them. So…the hand of the LORD was against them…and he sold them into the hand of their enemies all around them. (Judges 2:8-13) Do you see the problem? They didn’t listen to God. They didn’t drive out the Canaanites. And the Canaanites led them to worshipping false gods. Just. Like. God. Said. God has not asked us to conquer any kind of land or people in any kind of way. But God does tell us to fight against sin and drive it out of our lives – completely! However – I wonder if sometimes we don’t do the same thing Israel does. Go about 90% of the way and call it good. I don’t commit adultery. Especially when it comes to something I like to call Peripheral Sins. What’s a Peripheral Sin? Peripheral vision describes the vision to the right and the left of what you are focusing on. For example, if you look straight at the cross right now and I stand over here --- peripheral vision is me. Maybe you can tell that I’m there, but I’m not clear. I’m fuzzy. (Try and guess how many fingers I am holding up. Not easy) Peripheral sins are the sins that we don’t focus on. Sins that we refuse to focus on. Sins that we can maybe kind of see in our life – but they aren’t big and clear like murder OR cheating on your wife so…we just kind of let those be. For example – three common Peripheral Sins: (1) Lust. Granted, if you’ve struggled with lust, there may have been a moment when this wasn’t in the peripheral. And you fought pornography. And you stopped seeing that person who was threatening your marriage. But at some point, the devil loves to get us to stop the fight. I’m not looking at porn anymore; so, I’ll just look around at the gym. That should be ok. I’m not planning on sleeping with that guy at work; I’m just flirting. My husband would be cool with it. This right here? It’s just the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. I only read it for the articles…on sports. Lust is not a small thing. It’s always a big thing. Drive it out. (2) Sinful Anger. Because for whatever the reason, anger is one of those sins that people say, “Well everyone gets angry.” (Which is true) and “Anger isn’t necessarily a sin.” (also, true) and “Anyways…it’s probably not a big deal the way I showed my anger there.” (Which is a bald-faced lie.) Humans aren’t God. Humans are sinful. Human anger – even ‘righteous sounding anger’ will be tainted by sin. And oftentimes is acted out sinfully. Anger cannot be ignored. It kills relationships at home. It kills relationships at work. It kills relationships at church. It kills your relationship with God. Anger is not a small thing. It’s a big thing. Drive it out. (3) Racism. After recent events in Virginia, this deserves to be revisited. Because I think the common sentiment is: I’m not a member of the KKK. I’m not a Neo-Nazi. I’m good. Stop telling me I’m racist. But Jesus calls us to look deeper. Jesus tells us sin affect us. Jesus tells us that sinful selfishness easily affects the way that we think and act. And when we see the problems – even small problems – drive them out. If I befriend that guy who looks like me, but don’t even try to befriend that guy because…he doesn’t. There’s a problem. Drive the racism out. If I make a joke here and a comment there, and say…but “it’s just a funny stereotype that’s all.” There’s a problem. Drive the racism out. If I dismiss the struggles of my friend (who looks different) because I never had to deal with those kinds of struggles (since I look different) and it would make me uncomfortable to consider that people who do look like me might be part of the reason this friend who doesn’t look like you is struggling. There’s a problem. Drive the racism out. In fact, drive all of these peripheral sins out. Because the reality is that they are sin. And sin destroys. Lust destroys marriage. Anger destroys churches. Racism destroys society. Drive it out before the destruction takes place! III. God Finishes What He Started Here’s the good news for Israel. In spite of their failure to completely drive out their enemies, God still blessed Israel. He gave them the Promised Land. He kept that in their possession. He made sure that Israelites were in that land when he finally sent the Savior from there. God finished what he started. In Bethlehem, Jesus was born. In Nazareth, Jesus grew up. In Cana, he turned water into wine. At the Jordan, he revealed himself as Lord. In Jericho, he healed a blind man. Just outside Jerusalem he died…and just outside Jerusalem he rose from the dead. God finished what he started. And he was complete about it! Scripture says, “The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.” Please note the all. It doesn’t say “some.” It doesn’t say “a few.” It doesn’t say, “Just the obvious big ones.” His blood purifies you from peripheral lust. His blood purifies you from seeping anger. His blood purifies you from that hidden racism. Jesus died and his blood completely purifies you from all sin. It’s like a water purification system. If you put that on your faucet, the water goes through the first filter and the big sediment it blocked. Then, it goes through the secondary system and the little sediment it blocked. Finally, it goes through a laser purification process and even the hidden particles are destroyed. Jesus purifies us from all sin. And that empowers us to drive out all sin. That’s exactly what God tells Joshua. Right after he tells Joshua about all of the nations that he still needs to drive out – God says this in verse 6: I myself will drive out the nations. He was still fighting with them. Even if they didn’t see gigantic miracles like the river splitting in half or the walls tumbling down or the sun sitting in the sky for an extra 24 hours – God was still with them and would not withdraw his support. And God is still with you. He’s not like some big athletic sponsorship that withdraws their sponsorship because the athlete tweets something they don’t agree with or posts a picture of something that they shouldn’t. In spite of our sins – for the sake of Jesus – God will not withdraw his support. He is in your corner. When you are old. When you are young. Whether you’re fighting lust, holding back anger or working against subtle racism, God is in your corner. God has your back. Amen.  For our sermon, we are continuing the story of the Promised Land conquest and we will be looking at Joshua 10. Joshua 10 is interesting – because it’s kind of like the climax. A group of nations join forces to fight off the Israelites. That’s one of their toughest challenges to date.
Will they win the battle? Can God win the battle? Can God beat 5 nations at the same time? We are going to look at the answer this morning and I know it’s going to be a very encouraging story for you. But before we begin, let us pray: Strengthen us this morning by the truth, O God. Your word is truth. Open our eyes to see what YOU want us to see. Open our ears to hear what YOU want us to hear. Open our hearts to believe what YOU would have us believe. Amen. I. The Coalition Adoni Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, and Japhia king of Lachish and Debir king of Eglon, “Come up and help me attack Gibeon, because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.” (10:1-4) Now I don’t know exactly how this look. For some reason, I picture them all around the table (kinda like a 1920s mobster movie). A few are smoking cigarettes and others are twirling their knives on the table – just to show that they have some skills. Then Adoni-Zedek speaks, “Listen. I don’t like you guys. You don’t get along with me; I don’t get along with you; and you don’t get along with each other. But I ain’t asking us to be best friends. I’m asking us to get each other’s backs. There’s a bigger threat out there. Those Israelites – need to be defeated. They crossed the raging Jordan River. They knocked down the walls of Jericho. They routed Ai. Soon – they’re coming for us. I say…We don’t let ‘em. I say…We get ‘em. I say…We fight this “LORD” and shut him up once and for all. And they glare at each other. And they nod at each other. And they spit in their hands and shake on it. It’s an alliance. An alliance against God. To be fair there are getting some pretty, nasty characters. Adoni-Zedek. He’s the mastermind of the plans and the king of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was always a very rich city which would have allowed him to fund the upcoming battle. Hoham of Hebron was the king of giants. That was the area that the Israelite spies had visited 40 years earlier and after seeing the men of Hebron decided, “These guys are like giants. We are like grasshoppers. We are gonna get destroyed.” Those same intimidating gigantic men were now a part of this coalition. Piram and Debir were the kings of Jarmuth and Eglon. These cities were both located a hill. That allowed them a tactical vantage point. Like two fighter jets nose diving onto the playing field – their armies could bull doze down on their enemies and strike. Not to mention – that being on the top of the mountain – they likely had many skilled archers in their ranks. Finally, there was Japhia, king of Lachish. Lachish at that time was under the control of the Egyptian empire. They would have had access to Egyptian technology and weaponry. Chariots. Horses. Javelins. And fine military training. Together they were similar to any group of super villains. The Injustice League. The Legion of Doom. They wanted to ban together for the sake of their common enemy: The LORD. II. God Fights Back So, the Fearsome Five make their plan. They decide to attack Gibeon. It’s smaller than Israel and it doesn’t have a history of God helping them out like Israel does. So, it makes good sense. They come down. They attack. They put the city under siege. But not before Gibeon gets a messenger sent out. He takes the back roads. He heads through the forests. He makes his way into the camp of Israel and deliver a message to Joshua. I suppose it sounded something like this: Hi. Remember us? We are the guys who totally deceived and tricked you a couple of weeks ago. You were kinda angry. Sorry about that. Anyways…will you…and God…um…honor that treaty? Help us!!! And Joshua crumbles up the message. He summons his army, but gets a bit nervous. This was bigger than anything they’d faced. 5 nations – all at once? Could they handle that? Could they defeat the Fearsome Five? Would they be victorious? And perhaps – right about then – Joshua remembered something that someone had said to him at the start of all this. “Do not be afraid; Do not be discouraged. I the LORD you God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1) Only…he wasn’t remembering it. God was repeating it: Do not be afraid…I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you. (10:8) So, Joshua nods. God approves of the rescue. There may be five nations against them; but they had God on their side. And God is full of surprises. (1) All Night March Joshua summons his army and he takes the best fighting men marching through the night. It’s a 20-mile journey from Gilgal – where Israel was camped – to the battle scene at Gibeon. Think about that – the armies of the Fearsome Five sleep in their tents with complete confidence, but wake up to see the army of Israel approaching in the distance. It’s not a pleasant sight while you’re drinking your morning coffee. But that’s God’s swift hand! When we need rescue, God acts swiftly to save us. (2) Confusion And I do mean God. Because the second surprise is found in verse 10. The LORD threw the Canaanite armies into confusion before Israel. Now I’m not exactly sure what confusion means – but I’ve noticed that just about every iteration of confusion that I can think of doesn’t serve an army very well. Whether it’s dizziness so they can’t see where they are going. Or color blindness so they can’t tell which army is on which side. Or that kind of weird haze that you get after a nap where you aren’t really sure if you’re awake or not – and whether the dog is licking your hand or not…. Whatever the confusion was – it is not something that an army wants to deal with while fighting. And look who causes the confusion. Notice the subject. It’s not the well water. It’s not the bourbon from last night. It’s not something that a group of soldiers were smoking close by. It’s God. God is the one causing the confusion. God is the one fighting the war. Which leads to the next surprise: (3) Victory for the Underdog Verse 10 continues, “Joshua and the Israelites defeated the Canaanites completely at Gibeon.” Even though they are only one army – they easily dispatch the 5 armies they are fighting against. Because they’ve got one God on their side. One God is stronger than 5 armies. He’s stronger than 10 armies. He’s stronger than all the armies of the world armed with swords, daggers, spears, machine guns, F-150s, tanks and an ocean liner of nuclear bombs. God is undefeated. But God isn’t done. (4) Hailstones Because look at what happens next – as the armies of the Kings flee and retreat. The Israelites pursue. They try to overtake them. But the armies have a head start and Israel is having a hard time cutting them off. So... Verse 11: As they fled before Israel, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them. Have you ever seen hail before? To be fair – you don’t want to be trapped in a hailstorm. It smarts to have a marble sized piece of hail hit you in the right spot. And golf ball sized hail is the kind of hail that will dent your car --- even ruin your roof – where hopefully your hailstorm insurance will take care of the damage. How big are these stones? Big. How big? More of the Canaanites died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. (v.11b) Wow. That’s miraculous. That’s God. (5) The Day Lengthens But still. There were a lot of soldiers. There were a lot of nations. And as Joshua is watching this battle take place he’s smiling. He’s happy. But as he watches from a hill to the south, he looks at the horizon. In the distance, he can see the sun about to set in the west and the moon is already making its appearance to the east. It’s about to be dark. It’s about to be impossible to battle. It’s about to be time for this incredible day to end. Too bad. God was on a roll too. It’s too bad it had to end. Unless… Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. (v.12) What happens next is another incredibly puzzling and yet amazing event. One that contradicts everything that we can observe in day to day science. One that we take incredible cosmic powers to accomplish: the ability to manipulate gravity and the fortitude to hold giant rotating rocks in their exact place in the universe. The sun stopped…and delayed going down about a full day. (v.13) Think about that. No night. The sun doesn’t move. Or rather – the earth stops rotating to allow day to continue. That’s amazing. That’s incredible. That’s God. III. What Now? The author of Joshua – who wrote well after these events were finished wrote this in verse 14, “There has never been a day like that day before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a human being.” He literally did that incredible, amazing thing that Joshua asked of him. And it was an awesome day. But how does that awesome day affect today for you? (1) Be Confident in Your Savior Because that’s the God that is on your side. He sends his enemies into confusion. He protects his people with hailstones. He literally controls the solar system in order to save his people from their enemies. And this wasn’t the only time. Because…Do you know what happened 1500 some odd years later? God controlled the solar system again. It was midday and God blocked out the sun. There was pitch black darkness all over the land from Noon to 3 pm. Around the time that Jesus was hanging on a cross. Then, three days later – early in the morning – God put his hands around the sides of the earth. He lifted it up. He shook it. He shook it hard. He shook it hard until the stone that was sealing off Jesus’ tomb was rolled back. That’s God. And as the dust clears, he sends the devil into confusion. He sends hailstones of his righteousness to crush our sins. He raises his SON to STAND firm that day…and always. Be confident in your Savior. Be confident in his Victory. (2) Be Bold Because Joshua prayed a pretty bold prayer, wouldn’t you say? He prayed for God to break the regular rules of time and space in order to keep the fight going. That’s crazy! But God listened. Be bold in your prayers, too. Pray for healing from your sickness. Pray for help finding a job. Pray for your marriage to be repaired. Pray for full forgiveness from your Lord. Prayer for peace with your heavenly Father. Prayer God to take you home to heaven. No matter the prayer – how big OR how small – prayer it to your incredible God! Conclusion: Because God answers prayer. God doesn’t answer halfheartedly. God doesn’t answer a bit. God doesn’t answer but act sometime next week. God comes to fight. In fact, that’s how this section of God’s Word ends: The LORD was fighting for Israel. (v.14b) Here’s the truth -- The LORD not only fought for Israel. The LORD is fighting for you. 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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