icon__search

Introducing Jesus: Week 13

Luke 6:27-36

July 15, 2018 • Shane Sikkema • Luke 6:27–36

In a world that teaches us to fear and hate our enemies and to treat people the way they treat us, Jesus commands us to love our enemies and treat people the way we would want to be treated by them. It’s a radical idea, but He wants the lives of His disciples to not only be marked with holiness and devotion to God, but also by mercy and grace toward others (even enemies).

Introducing Jesus: Week 32

August 30, 2020 • Luke 11:14–27

Audio Transcript: Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here at Mosaic along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. And if you're new or if you're visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the digital connection cart which you can find in the app, or on our website or if you're watching online in the comment section below. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word? Oh, holy God, I pray that you today open our eyes to the reality that is all around us, a reality of holy war, of spiritual warfare, the reality that there are two kingdoms with two kings both vying for the same throne, the throne of our hearts for now. And I pray today, Lord, that you show us that when we come to you, Jesus, when we ask for you to forgive us of our sins, to liberate us from sin, to liberate us from the shackles of sin that you also call us to submit our wills to yours for you are the great King of Kings. Lord, I pray that you give us discernment to discern truth from lies, to discern your voice from the enemies, to discern your will from that of Satan. And I pray, Lord, that you make us a people who are fearless as lions because we have the Lion of Judah with us. You are with us. And yes, Satan does come like a roaring lion seeking whom to devour, but when you are with us, you give us victory and in you, we are more than conquerors. I pray, give everyone listening now ears to hear and eyes to see this reality. And I pray, Lord, regenerate so many, transfer so many from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and Savior and King, and whose name we pray, amen. The title of the sermon today is Holy War. We're finishing our sermon series in Luke for now. We're starting a brand new series for eight weeks, next week through the Psalms, an incredible series, praying for the Lord to bless each one of us. The title of the sermon is Holy War. We are at war with an invisible enemy, an unseen enemy intent on destroying each one of us and destroying the human race. And you will never understand the events going on around you. You will never understand world history. You will never understand the world unless you understand that the world is at war, between God and Satan, good and evil, truth and error, faith and unbelief, life and death itself. It's not a physical war. Ephesians 6:12, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Do you believe in this? How can you not? We can prove that God exists by pointing to his creation, his good creation, his beautiful creation. It's pointing at love in the world and goodness, and kindness, and humanity, pointing to sacrifice and service, pointing to those who are generous in heart. We see goodness. Proof of the creator is visible in the creation. Satan is not a creator, he's a counterfeiter at best and he counterfeits in order to destroy. So, how do we prove the existence of the destroyer? We point to the destruction. It's all around us. It's all around us. We can start with world history. We can start with World War I and World War II and nuclear warfare. We can start with the Holocaust. We can do that. Or we can just look around and see the destruction around us. By the way, the tactics of the enemy of destruction have not changed. You read the Old Testament. Everyone who worshiped Baal, everyone who worshiped the idols, every single one of those societies had a pattern of child sacrifice. Why did God destroyed Jericho completely? Why did he call for the annihilation of Jericho? Because the walls of Jericho were built on the skeletons of babies. Let's point out the destruction around us, destruction of unborn humans, death-inducing destruction. The leading cause of death worldwide in 2019 that killed 42 million human beings was abortion. 8.2 million died from cancer, 13 million from other disease. How many people have died of COVID? We're told around 842,000, let's say a million. 42 million compared to 1 million. The invisible enemy is not COVID, it's Satan. And then if the baby isn't killed in the womb, he tries to destroy children as early as possible, and there's a pandemic of this. Just go to FBI's National Crime Information Center and just research how many children go missing in this country a year. Just this week, the US marshals found 39 missing children in Georgia under Operation Not Forgotten. Most likely, you haven't heard of that. There's a major police operation also this week in Western Australia about 140 underage victims with 11 arrests. Why are children going missing and what's happening to them? Demonic, it's demonic. We can all agree with that. And then if he doesn't destroy children there, he tries to destroy children with lies about food, lies about sexuality, with pornography, lies about marriage, lies about families, lies about sin in general which leads to generational sin and you get the families' destruction of churches, destruction of cities, destruction of society and ultimately, Satan's goal is the destruction of the human race. Study evil. Open your eyes to the evil around us, the evil that is not shown us, but it's there. And if you visited other countries, if you're from another country, you know it's there because it's more visible than it is here. Study evil and you will never be more sure that God exists. So, our only hope is Jesus Christ. 1 John 3:8, "Whoever makes the practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil," to destroy the destroyer. That's why Christ came and that's why it's so important to understand in Christ ministry, how he fought with Satan and demons and how that applies to our life today. I want to look at Luke 11:14. We'll begin with 14 through 23. Luke 11:14, "Now he, Jesus, was casting out a demon that was mute. And when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,' while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.'" "But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? And if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.'" This is the reading of God's holy, inherent, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points, first we look at Jesus versus Satan, then we look at Satan versus people, and then three, hearing keep the word, those are weapons. First of all, Jesus versus Satan, we see in verse 14 that Jesus cast out a demon that was mute. So, this demon was causing physical pain, physical ailment to the person, to this man and the person couldn't speak and the people marveled. So, Jesus is the Son of God. That's clear from the gospels and he was sent to deliver us from Satan. And the battle with the demon exposes another battle, a battle between truth and lies, between the religious authorities and Jesus. The demon submits to Jesus Christ, the religious authorities do not, because they understand if one greater than them has come, if one who has power over the demonic has come, they need to relinquish their authority and submit to him. They do not, so they begin to question him. They don't have teachable open minds. They're closed, they're accusatory. They don't question the fact of the casting out of the exorcism. That's undeniable. They question the source of his power. They just got a sign but they want another sign. They're asking for more evidence and there's never enough evidence for the rebellious heart, not even enough evidence for them that he's reading their minds. Even that's not enough. Verse 17, "But he knowing their thoughts said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.'" That's the famous line that Abraham Lincoln used in a speech before the Civil War. It was from scripture. Verse 18, "'And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.'" Incredible logic. Jesus cast out demon, and then his enemies, the authorities say, "He's doing it by the power of Satan," that's Beelzebul. And Jesus just says, "If Satan goes to war with Satan, how can his kingdom stand?" And he says, "Your sons, by whose authority do your sons cast out demons?" He's talking about the 72 disciples in chapter 10 where Jesus gives them authority to cast out demons and they come back and they said, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name." And Jesus says, "Don't rejoice that the demons obey you, but rejoice instead that your names are written in the book of life." And Jesus sees through the stratagem, he sees through the Pharisees or the religious authorities and he sees Satan's strategy. So Satan, sometimes he goes to war by possessing people. Sometimes Jesus goes to war by possessing ideologies and he sees with the Pharisees, though they're not possessed by Satan, they are being influenced by Satan through a demonic idea and he sees the third temptation of Satan in the desert. Remember in the desert, Jesus goes, he's tempted after fasting for 40 days. And the third temptation was, "Jesus, go to the pinnacle of the temple and jump down." Jump down. Reveal your power for show. And Jesus doesn't. They've already seen a miracle. The question is will they continue to rebel or submit. And the reprobate mind is perpetually stuck in this debate mode. I need a little more evidence. I need to study this a little more. I need to read a few more books. I need to ask a few more questions and you're always stuck in this limbo of debating and you never pick a side. And that's why Jesus, this text, he lands it with verse 23, "Whoever is not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters." What he's saying is there's only two sides, there's only two kingdoms. It's the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan. Satan is a real spiritual being, not just some impersonal force for evil. He was an angel created by God who rebelled against God and he commands a host of evil spirits. Those are called demons, and here Satan is called Beelzebul. Beelzebul was a derivation that goes back to Baal worship. We see this in 2 Kings 1 where King Ahaziah, he falls. He's hurt and he wants to know what's going to happen with him. Is he going to die? Instead of going and asking the prophets or asking God himself, he sends people to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, the lord of the flies. Why was Beelzebub called the lord of the flies because this was a Hebrew idiom that was derogatory to show that if you worship this lord of the flies, if you worship this false idol, everything in your life will be turned to destruction where the lord of the flies, what does that mean? What are flies attracted to? They're attracted to dung in the King James version, D-U-N-G. If you worship this person, if you worship this idol, if you worship Satan who is actually behind this idol, he will make everything in your life go to that. That's the name of Beelzebul. Jesus talks about the fact that Satan's agenda is to come to steal, kill and destroy when Jesus' plan for us is to give us life and give us life to the fullest. Then here we see the religious authorities, they're slandering the son of God. Instead of submitting to the evidence and following the evidence, they find self-justifying explanations and they're slandering, blaspheming the son of God. What's Satan's agenda? It's to harm us. Satan hates God. So when he sees human beings created in the image of God, he wants to destroy them as much as he can in order to recreate them in his own image, in his own defiled, degraded, perverted image. Since the fall of the human race into sin, every person's born under Satan's dominion, Jesus called him the ruler of this world. Paul called him the God of this world who has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. In this case, the demon causes the man to be unable to speak, unable to speak to God, unable to worship God, to praise God. He causes him to be mute. He mutes him. Other cases, he blinds people. You can study the legion and the thousand demons and the psychological physical effects that they bring. He harms. He mutes. He blinds. He's sneaky. He doesn't do that in the west as much because he does just enough to keep you asleep. If he does too much, you're going to wake up to it. He doesn't want to jolt you awake to just how awful, just how egregious the evil is. He's sneaky, and how do we wage war? We wage war in the same way that Jesus wage war. How is Jesus waging war here? He speaks to the demons, speaks the word of God. Be gone in the name of Jesus Christ. He speaks to the Pharisees. He's doing spiritual warfare. He's speaking the word of God. The truth of God, the word of God, that is our weapon, trust about us, humanity. Truth about sin, truth about reality, salvation, the gospel. And by speaking truth, that's why it's so important to speak the faith, speak the word of God, speak the gospel to those around us. We're liberating captives. We, the church of Jesus Christ, we are charging the gates of hell with the flaming sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That's why Satan wants to mute us. That's why Satan wants us to be bashful about our faith, to be embarrassed to say, "This is good, and this is evil. This is diabolical. This is demonic. That's from the pit of hell." Why is it so uncomfortable in here now? Why? Why are we so afraid to speak the word of God? Because we've been muted. The volume is down on us in the church of Jesus Christ, and Satan continues to spew his BS, the lord of the flies. Luke 11:20-22, Jesus says, "But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." If I do this by the power of God, by the finger of God, and this is an allusion to Exodus 8:19, where the Egyptians understood that they had sorcery, they had power. When Moses came, he had the finger of God with him. If I'm doing this by the finger of God, if I'm casting out these demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. If the kingdom of God has come upon you, then the king is here. "And when a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace," he's talking about Satan here, "his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he," if someone is stronger than Satan comes, "it overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil." The kingdom of God is upon us. It's the initial face of the kingdom manifested in the presence of the king who rules in our lives, who rules on the thrones of our hearts and also anticipates the day when Jesus will reign not only in our hearts, but on the throne of King David. Satan will be bound from his powerful influence on earth, and Jesus will put his feet on the necks of his enemy. His enemies will be a footstool for his feet. Satan will be bound because Jesus is stronger, Jesus is fully armed, Jesus attacks, Jesus overcomes and he takes away the armor and takes away the spoil that's been stolen by the enemy. That's Jesus versus Satan. Jesus wins. He wins every time. But we need to decide, are we going to allow the fullness of Jesus Christ to fill our hearts? And that's point two, Satan versus people. And here are the objection that's raised in the west is, I don't hate God. I don't hate the idea of God. I just don't want to be fanatic for God. I don't want to be an extremist. I don't want to be a fundamentalist for God. Do I love God? I wouldn't go that far. Let's just say I don't hate him. Or I don't hate the idea of him in general. Is he my king? No. But Satan isn't my king either. Satan isn't my master either. And that's how we want to just remain neutral. Yeah, a kind of Jesus. Yeah, I don't want to go all the way. And this is how Satan blinds us in the west. I'm not your master. You don't need God to be your master. You are your own master. Do as you please. You define morality as long as you're not hurting anybody publicly. That's how he lulls us to sleep. And how he blinds our minds and our eyes. And then we don't see reality from what it is. We just say everything just exists. Everything around us, it just happened. Morality, yeah, not that big of a deal although it's written in our hearts. Then, we still feel shame, we still feel guilt, we still feel regret even though we've transgressed laws that we don't even believe in and then we go down the cycle of anxiety and depression and shame and destruction, and then we numb ourselves with substances to get rid of that. And then little by little by little by little, the Satan says, "You are your own master," and little by little, he enslaves us. And here, Jesus illustrates what happens when we try to play the neutral card. It never works because you can't control you. You can't master your own desires. You can't master your own heart. How often have you done something and you say, "How in the world could I have gone so far? I don't even recognize myself." He takes our sin and uses it as a foothold to exacerbate it, to create further destruction in our lives. And Jesus illustrates it with a story. Verse 24, "When the unclean spirit," or just cast out of demon and he's speaking to this person. "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest. And finding none it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. And then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first." So perhaps, you have had a demon that you were battling and you overcome it. You overcome this one thing that had been enslaving you. Perhaps you did it with moral reformation, willpower, determination and Satan at that moment, he tells his troops to retreat temporarily to give you reprieve so that you start thinking that you defeated this thing by yourself. You clean your heart for a little bit. You swept your heart. You put your heart, your life in order, perhaps to show you Satan retreats, perhaps to show you, "Hey, I don't exist. Hey, you can overcome this." Perhaps to show you that you can be saved without Jesus and he does this all the time with therapy, with rehab, with Alcoholic Anonymous or other religions. And the end goal ... This is what Jesus is saying. "I've cast out this demon but the end goal is for you to welcome God the fullness of the Holy Spirit into your life. You either have one spirit or you have the Holy Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit fully indwell the presence of Christ in your heart." If not, Satan doesn't rest. He will send more demons. This demon, he's restless. He doesn't like being in the desert. He wants a home. And the spiritual world, like the natural world, abhors a vacuum. So you see that seven more evil. Here, we see that there are different degrees in evil of the demonic. Seven more evil move in, eight demonic roommates in this person's heart. Scripture talks about don't let the sun set on your anger, lest you give Satan a foothold in your heart. Sometimes through our own sin that we have not mortified. We give Satan a foothold. Once he gets his foot in the door, he wants to knock it down. I wonder if there's a foothold in your ... We all have it. We all have these footholds. The question is to what degree. To what degree have you not repented of clear sin? To what degree has this sin been pulling you away from the presence of God, from the holiness of God, from the purposes of God for you? Jesus is saying it's all of Jesus or none of Jesus. You can't just have a little Jesus. It's all or nothing. And this principle, it applies individually but also applies collectively to churches and applies collectively to communities and applies collectively to nations. Jesus was applying this principle here to this one person but also to Israel. The worship of idols had been exorcized from Israel when they were freed from Babylonian captivity. That demon was gone. But now there are new demons, the worship of the letter of the law, legalism, formalism, covetousness, pride, greed. Public religious life was worse than ever, so much worse they were on the brink of crucifying the son of God, and they didn't see it. How could they be so blind? Because they see the evidence of the work of God and they attribute it to Satan. They're literally pawns of the evil one because they have not allowed Jesus Christ to cast out the demons of sin and pride and selfishness and folly and gluttony and the rest of them. So, how do we battle the demonic? How do we battle the influence of Satan in our lives? How do we wage holy warfare? Jesus ends this text with a really curious passage, Luke 11:27-28. "And as he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!' But he said, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'" Why is this text added right after a text about the demonic and exorcism? Why? And this woman is well-meaning though little misguided, so Jesus just corrects her thinking a little. She said, "Your mother must be so proud for raising a son like you." And of course, this is true. Mary certainly was blessed. We've got The Magnificat and Jesus doesn't deny that Mary is blessed though he does correct the direction of this lady's thoughts. This lady thought just being connected to Jesus physically, relationally, just being connected to him was enough to be saved. She thought, "Oh, you're so ... You're the messiah. And just by virtue of your mom, her connection with you, you're saved." And Jesus says, "That's not what saves." Familiarity with Jesus Christ is not what saves. That's not the way to blessing. The way to blessing is faith in Jesus Christ. And the work on the cross that Jesus Christ took the penalty for our sin, that Jesus Christ on the cross died because of our sin. Jesus Christ on the cross was ... He was putting his heel into the head of Satan, into the head of the serpent, giving him the deathblow. That's what Jesus was doing on the cross as he absorbed our curse for us in order to give us this blessing. And what's the blessing? Once we become a Christian, once we're saved by grace through faith, once we repent of our sins, that's all you need to do. All you need to do to be transferred from the domain of darkness to the domain of light no matter how dark your darkness has been is to say, "God, I repent of my sins. I repent of my evil. I repent of my dark works. And Jesus, thank you for bearing the penalty for my darkness on the cross. You're enshrouded in darkness in order to transfer me into the kingdom of light." That's all you need to do. And once you do, this is the emphasis here. You are in a kingdom where you are to submit to the king and that's why you need to hear the word of God and keep it. When Jesus becomes your savior, he also becomes your king. So, are you hearing the word of God? Not just listening to it but hearing it ... And are you keeping the word of God because we fight the good fight of faith with faithfulness, by worshiping God with our lips. That's why worship is so important. That's why if you're coming to a service, come on time. Come 10 minutes early, 15 minutes, because worship isn't just a warm-up for the sermon. And we have an incredible worship team. But worship is we are proclaiming with our being that God is holy and a savior, and that's what prepares us to hear the word of God. So, no more late people next week, or just watch online. Just watch online so I don't see you walking in late. That's why I stand in the back, by the way. I'm like ... Here's the other thing I'll say. When you're faithful to the Lord and you are public about your faithfulness to the Lord, people will hate you. When you are public about what you believe about God, the true God of Holy Scripture, when you're public about what he teaches, about the most private areas of life, when you proclaim that, you will be opposed today like never before. I've preached this before, and I've kind of like ... I haven't even noticed how the temperature has increased exponentially so fast. The hatred that's coming that's being directed at people who are faithful to the Lord, who stand on this truth. 1 Peter 5:8-11, "Be sober-minded. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." How does he do it in this context? "Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering ..." He wants to devour by suffering. "The same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." Are Christians being persecuted for the faith around the world? Yeah, by the millions. "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen." So Satan, prowling lion, wants to devour sometimes through temptation, sometimes through lies, sometimes through false theology. In this context, through suffering to get Christians to back down. And they don't stand for the truth because it's painful or it's costly. It's not starting physically yet, but we're beginning to see the financial costs. I'll just give one example from my ... It's kind of a silly example but it happened and kind of blindsided me. So, my brother and a few guys from the church had been working on a startup over the pandemic called ToolBelt home services pros with customers. Customers post a project and home service pros send their price. And I grew up painting with my dad. My dad, Vlad, he started a painting business. If your house looks bad, don't get mad, call Vlad. So, I did that every summer since I was eight. Every summer afternoons, weekends, I am a tremendous painter. Humbly, I will tell you I am probably the best painter you've ever met. The lines, come on. And so my brother and I, it was a Friday, and this gentleman posted "I need my shelves painted." And my brother and I ... I was preaching then on Thursday. So Friday, Saturday, that was my weekend. So, Saturday, I was like, "Yeah, let's go. Let's go paint some shelves." And I was like how much you want to make, how much if we did the thing, okay, 500 bucks. And I submitted the price and the guy said, "Okay, great. When can you come?" I said, "Tomorrow." He said, "You got the tools?" I was like, "I got everything. I got everything. I'll take care of you, Steven." He said, "Okay, great." I submit my bid. Two hours past and I was like, "Yeah, something is weird." And then he messages me. This is what he messaged me. He says, "Hi, Jan, sorry. I can't accept your bid. I found an article you posted through your church in which you labeled being gay as a sin titled 'Lust kills love. Love kills lust.' I will not hire someone who believes that to do work in the home I've built with my husband of 10 years and our two children," period. That did not feel good, and never feels good. So, I prayed. I want to going to come back with a link to that sermon. Did you even listen to it? Where I talk about grace, it begins with grace. We're all sinners. He didn't listen to it, I don't know. I said, "Hi, Steven, no problem. I was just trying to serve you as a Christian and pastor. I'm called to love and serve everyone, trying my best as a sinner myself. By God's grace, I wish you and your husband and your two children all the very best. All love good, sir," heart emoji. Stuff like this happens privately all the time. You don't want to know it because I'm not going to be like, "Oh, Steven, you weren't nice to me." Pray about Steven. We're called to love those who persecute us, but the persecution is only going to increase. And the more you look like Christ, the more your life reflects Christ, the more of this you will get. The more public you are with what you truly believe, the more of this you'll get, especially in this political climate. Matthew 6:10-12, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." So, I missed out on $500 but my spiritual Venmo went cha-ching. The gospel, they demanded a sign. People today demand a sign. The greatest sign that God has ever shown the world of his existence and of his character is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ conquered Satan and sin and death on the cross, came back on the third day. And when we believe in him, we are saved. Colossians 2:13-15, "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him." He did what no person could. He defeated Satan, and Satan now is a defeated foe, although he's allowed to reign until being finally bound at the second coming of Christ. Satan is on a leash. He's still here. He's still causing havoc, but Jesus alone has enough strength to save our soul from his demonic clutch. We're saved by grace through faith, that faith always leads to obedience. Saving faith leads to obedient faith. If Jesus Christ, if what he taught was false, he's the greatest blasphemer that ever lived. And if what he taught is true, then he is greatest king. So, you can't stay in the middle. There is no middle. Either you fully accept or you fully reject. Either you are in the army of Christ in his kingdom or you're in the army of Satan. You're being used by him. Here's what I found after 11 years in ministry in Boston. The number one things that gets in the way of people accepting this truth no matter how much evidence you give them, the number one thing that gets in the way is pride. Because it's painful to admit that you are have been wrong. As smart as you are, as educated as you are, as connected as you are, as successful as you are, you have been wrong about the most important issue in the universe. And to admit that, it's so, so painful. So, repentance is a form of suffering which does humble us. But if you don't submit to Jesus as king, you are not just in the wrong side. You're not just in the wrong side of history, you're on the wrong side of the greatest war being waged. So, join Christ. Join the army of the Lord. Stop grasping at straws to justify unbelief and sin. Seek the truth. And Jesus said if you seek the truth, you will find the truth and the truth will set you free. I'm going to close with Paul Harvey's ... He wrote a short little essay in 1965, which reading it now seems so prophetic. And I like to read it every single election cycle just so we see the work of the enemy in our culture and how it's progressing. He says this: If I were the devil, if I were the prince of darkness, I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I'd have a third of its real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn't be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, thee. So I'd set about however necessary to take over the United States. I'd subvert the churches first. I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve, "Do as you please." To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good, what's good is square. And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, "Our father, which art in Washington ..." And then I'd get organized. I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I'd pedal narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I'd tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I'd soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. And if I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions. Just let those run wild until before you knew it, you'd have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade, I'd have prisons overflowing. I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I would evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. And if I were the devil, I'd make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the devil, I'd take from those who have and give to those who want until I'd kill the incentive of the ambitious. And what do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes and hard work in patriotism, in moral conduct. And I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, and that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public and I could lure you into bed with diseases from which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil, I'd just keep right on doing what he's doing. There is good and evil, there is God and Satan. Question is, are you with him or are you against him? Those are the only options that Jesus gives us in your life, and your whole eternity depends on it. The choice is clear as day. And then once you submit to Jesus Christ, take up the whole armor of God, especially the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and be praying at all times in the spirit for that is how we stand firm in the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your Holy Scripture. We thank you, Lord, that you are with us, that you are the ferocious lion who is by our side, the Holy Spirit that you are with. Lord, I pray that you fill us like never before. And whatever closets or little crevices in our souls, in our hearts, that we are keeping close from you because we're so enjoying that darkness in the inside, I pray today knock down those doors. Knock down those closets and fill, overwhelm us with your presence. Overwhelm us with your power and make us a people who unabashedly proclaim the whole counsel of God, who never shy away from the truth, no matter what the consequences are. And we thank you for that in advance and we pray all these in Christ's holy name, amen.

Introducing Jesus: Week 31

August 23, 2020 • Luke 10:38—11:13

Audio Transcript: We're back. Hallelujah. Praise you Jesus. I've gotten a lot more charismatic over the past six months. Praising God. Hallelujah. Praise you Jesus. I'm so glad we're back. Welcome if you're new to Mosaic, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through a digital card and either on the website or in the app. We are still in our sermon series in the book of Luke transitioning soon. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word. Heavenly father what a good father you are, you're a father to us corporately and you're a father to us individually. And we thank you for adopting us into your family because of the work of your son, Jesus Christ. Jesus you are our older brother. You are our Lord and savior. You paved the path for us. You made the way for us to follow you and follow you into the presence of God the father by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit we pray today, we ask for more of you. Jesus, you promised that when we ask more of the Holy Spirit from the father that you love to give good gifts to your children. The greatest gift you can give us is the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit fill us now. Holy Spirit, I pray that you convict us of sin, whatever sin that has beguiled us. Whatever sin that is controlling us. I pray today remove it. Give us a glimpse of the holiness of God. Show us God how immense your holiness is. How much higher you are than us. I pray today that you deepen our reverence for you, a fear of you, a good healthy fear that keeps us from sin, keeps us from doing anything that would hurt our relationship with you. I pray, Lord, bless our time the Holly Spirit and the holy scriptures by the spirit and Holy Spirit continue to protect us from the evil one, from the demonic we live in a true spiritual war. And I pray remind us of that. Remind us that prayer is actually the way that we fight. Sometimes we think that prayer is a waste of time, that prayer doesn't accomplish anything. It accomplishes everything. So we appeal to you Holy Spirits today come and today remind us that there's nothing more important than sitting at the feet of Jesus, taking your word in, being transformed by your word, and then going out and living in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ and continuing to preach the gospel. Share the good news with those who are still captive. And I pray release many in this next season and we pray all this in Christ holy name, amen. The title of the sermon today is rest at his feet. We'll be looking at the story of Martha and Mary. And usually the story is presented in such way that Mary is sat at the feet of Jesus. Martha was too busy. Don't be like Martha, be more like Mary. And I think it's a little deeper than that. There's more layers than that. I share the story about my dad often. I'll share a story by my mom. My mom... So I come from Slavic family, in Slavic families hospitality is all important. And if you have guests over, you have to present all of your food, not just a little food, all the food you have. The store, the table has to be and the rest of the phrase is, it has to be breaking. It has to be almost collapsing under the weight. And my mom is tremendous at this. She's so good at this. She's not good at just creating the food and making the dishes and a lot of salads, a lot of meat, a lot of potatoes, but she's also really good at presenting it beautifully. So with the salads, like she'll cut up the cucumber or the radish or something and she'll make a flower out of it. Just sprinkled parsley, just perfectly. It's always incredible. And one of the things that I noticed even growing up it's you'd would never sit down with us. She would cook and she's running around just to make sure that everyone has enough and they've had seconds and thirds and fourths, and she would never sit down. And then when the guests would leave, she would just crash and then get mad at us. What do we do? She's like, "Oh, you should've helped." I'm like, "We are..." And I didn't really understand that frustration until we had kids. And now we have a family of six. We have four kids, my wife and I. I know what it takes to just feed my kids to the magical restaurant table for six, please. I know how hard that is. And then you got more people. And that's kind of what's going on with Martha. She wants to serve Jesus. She wants to please Jesus. She wants to show Jesus how much he loves her. And food is her love language. Hospitality is the way that she thinks and Jesus stomach's is the way to get his heart. And she kind of misses the point where Jesus is at the end of his life. And he knows that his time on earth is limited and he just wants to spend time with her. He just wants to sit there. So that's what the text is. It shows us, reminds us what's most important. It reprioritizes things in our life. So today we are in Luke 10:38 through Luke 11:13. Would you look at the text with me. Luke 10:38, now, as they went on their way Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her. "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished one of his disciples said to him, "Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples." And he said to them, "When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation." And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him friend lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him." And he will answer from within, "Do not bother me the door's now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything." I tell you though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you, for everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you if his son asks for a fish will instead of a fish, give him a serpent. Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, listen to God intently. Second, talk to God relationally, and third ask of God audaciously. First of all, listened to God intently. Luke 10:38. Now, as they went on their way Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. So the family is Mary, Martha. We don't know where their parents are. Most likely they passed away that's why they haven't been mentioned. It's Martha's house. Most likely Martha is the oldest. Martha then there's Mary and they have a brother named Lazarus. So that's the family. Jesus was friends with them. He's friends with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. And this is really important because in the age old question is can men and women be friends. And I would submit to you that apart from Jesus Christ, there's always going to be some weird tension where it's never like too many... But with Jesus Christ, we're not just friends we're siblings. We're siblings, we're brothers and sisters. So we can have sibling relationships in the faith because Jesus Christ comes and he takes away our sin and gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome our sins. So Jesus did not have a home. He actually said, the son of man doesn't have a place to rest his head. So he would be blessed, receive blessings from gospel, patrons or people who were blessed financially. And they opened up their home to him. So Martha welcomes him and the disciples. How many disciples of did Jesus have? 13 or 12? So with Jesus, 13. 13 grown men just rolled into your house. You are not expecting, did they call? Of course not, text message at least? No, nothing. Mail pigeon? No, nothing, nothing. They roll in and they're hungry. They just ministered all day. Now, I'll tell you this. Has anyone had 13 men over their house to eat? Am kind of afraid when my brother comes to my house. One grown man, like I need to go shopping just for him. Just for that little, we had burgers this week, he down three burgers gone, and then he was looking at the last one. I'm like, "Come on, man. You can't do that. That's my second one." So just do the math. So they come to his house and Mary loves to serve. Mary loves to care. This is her love language. She wanted to create a feast for Jesus. She wants to practice hospitality. It takes time. It's hard. Cooking back then was so much harder than is cooking today. You couldn't just go to the Stop & Shop at Trader Joe's. You don't have a gas stove. It's so much harder. She feels all this pressure. So she's doing that and what's her sister doing? Luke 10:39. And she has a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. And usually at this point in the sermon, you say, okay, don't be like Martha, be like Mary. But I don't think that's what's going on here. Because scripture talks about faith and works. We're saved by grace through faith. When there is sin in our lives and the Lord draws us to himself we repent of our sin, of our righteousness, of our bad works, of our good works, that we try to do in order to gain salvation. We repent of all that by grace through faith, we're saved because of the work of Jesus Christ. Now, we're called the good works. It's faith and works. It's like two paddles of a rowboat. It's like two pedals on a bike. They're together. We are to worship and we are to work, we are to take God's word and translate that into work. So that's not what's going on here. What's going on here is something deeper. It's a re-prioritization. Martha you invited me into your home and you didn't ask me how I am. You didn't even ask me how I'm doing. Perhaps Mary was better at the EQ emotional intelligence. She saw that Jesus was burdened. She saw that Jesus had set his face to Jerusalem. He knew these were his last day. So Jesus started teaching. He started teaching. She sits at his feet. Most likely he's standing. And by the way, this is interesting. Judaism didn't forbid explicitly that wouldn't be instructed in the Torah, but it was unheard of for a rabbi to allow a woman to sit at his feet, because that meant that she is one of his disciples and she's sitting there. She's listening. Later Rabbinic tradition includes quotations such as may the words of the Torah be burned, they should not be handed over to women. So they're saying rather than teach a woman the Torah, we prefer burning it. And Jesus rejected these outright unbiblical attitudes. And you see Mary's posture here. It expresses her desire to learn. She's sitting at his feet intently listening. There's also an aspect of worship, of adoration. She's absorbing the words. Soaking in the information, this focus, this rapt attention. She loves the teacher, therefore she loves the content, therefore she's absorbing it. There's an incredible connection between love and learning. In particular when it comes to God. This has to do with any subject. I'll just give you an example, if you're a musician and you love the song, you don't have to sit there and memorize the lyrics. They just stick to your brain. You know what I'm saying? I can give you lots of examples of songs that I've memorized, but they shouldn't have been memorized. That was a long time ago, I'm redeemed. But you know what I'm saying? And with children, you see this with children, children come into the world with all. And because they have all their minds are open. They absorb information. This week we found out that our youngest daughter Milana... We speak Russian at home. We found out that she knows English. And my second daughter, Elizabeth, she started asking her questions in English, she said, "Touch your nose." She was like. "Touch your ear." "Give me a cookie." They just absorb the information? And I say this because love and learning about God, they're so intertwined. Last week we talked about the great commandment. There are two great commandments. One is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. There's a way to love God with your mind. When you love God, you love what he teaches. You love his word and his word sticks to your mind. I had a conversation recently with a sister who said, I get bored reading the Bible. I have a hard time reading. I fall asleep and I said, "When you're dating someone and you receive a text message or you receive an email or even a voicemail, you listen to that voicemail, no other voicemails." There's something about love and learning. And she's sitting there. She loves the subject because she loves the God who's speaking this word. But Martha verse 40 was distracted with much serving, she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." Fascinating, fascinating. She's distracted. She hears perhaps a little bit of what Jesus is teaching. And this is probably going on for hours. And she's distracted by the serving. She wants to please God. She wants to please Jesus. She wants to show him how much she loves him. And she's distracted scripture says so much so she actually gets irritated. And what does she do? She goes to Jesus. And she says, "Lord, do you not care? Do you not care? I'm slaving away in this kitchen. And my sister sitting there listening to you talk, do you not care?" I wonder if in this season you've asked the Lord that question. Lord, I'm serving you so much in the season. And I'm kind of out of fuel, do you not care. It's kind of accusatory. She's known Jesus. She's known his teaching. She's seen his miracles. She's accusing him and so much so that she says, "Lord, tell her, tell her then to help me, tell her." She's telling God what to do. There's a lot to unpack here. First of all, I'm going to say that Martha is... I think Martha's from New England. She's very blunt, from Boston. I get this from this text in John 11 where Jesus is about to resurrect Lazarus. And then Martha is like, "Hold on Jesus. Don't roll the rockaway yet, he's been there in there four days, I've done the math. It's going be a foul odor" In the King James it says, "I think he stinketh. My brother's stinketh." She's absolutely blunt, this is what's on her heart. And I love this part about, she goes to Jesus with her aggravation, with her anxiety, with her doubt. "Do you not care?" I'm sure you've been in the situation where you're working hard and you see someone who isn't and it's hard for a person who's working to understand the person who's not in particular when it comes to studying scripture and prayer. And you're like, hold on. Because when you're doing work for God, you think that's the most important thing. When you're studying God's word and praying you think that's the most important thing, but the scripture isn't pitting them against each other. It's re-organizing, re-prioritizing, what comes first? Above everything seek first the kingdom of God. The first thing you got to do is pray. The first thing you got to do is listen to God's word. God doesn't want our leftovers, he wants our first fruits. Before our work for him he wants the adoration of our heart. The other thing I will just point out here, Martha took herself too seriously. She thought if I do not be feed Jesus, Jesus will not be fed. If I do not feed Jesus' disciples, Jesus' disciples will not be fed. I am very important. My work is very important. I am actually indispensable to Jesus in his ministry. If I were not here, they would all die. So I'm going to go back to work. And there's a lesson here. The lesson is thinking like that, that I am indispensable, that's prideful. God does not need any of us. It's a miracle he would use any of us. And that should humble us that we get to serve the Lord. She overestimated her importance. And when you do that, then your work becomes burdensome. And this applies to every single aspect of life. Being a spouse can be a burdensome ministry. If it's not done in the power of the spirit. Being a parent could be a burdensome ministry. Being a friend can be a burdensome ministry where you're like, I need to save this person. No, you don't. Jesus can save that person. My job is to point this person to Jesus. There's stuff going on, her heart's not in the right place. And Jesus just needs to reorder a few things. And that's really what salvation is. Salvation is God reordering loves in our life. You might be loving a good thing more than the greatest thing which is Jesus and that pulls you away from him. Luke 10:41 and 42, but the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion of which will not be taken away from her." I love this answer. If you study Hebrew and Aramaic and then Jesus spoke, he was in the world of all three languages, including Greek. Whenever a name is repeated twice, it's for emphasis and it's for affection. You see this as King David talking about his son, "Absalom, Absalom." When his son had betrayed him. And here Jesus say, "Oh, Mary, Mary." I use this to my kids when I want to emphasize my love for them but also they've done something that they shouldn't have. "Sophia, Sophia." That's what I do, "Liza Liza. Katia, Katia. Milana Milana." And they're smart kids. And whenever I mess up or do something stupid, Sophia, her favorite thing is, "Oh Papa, Papa" Same thing. That's what he's doing. There's affection here, but it's like, I want to correct you, speaking truth in love. And he repeats her name and what did he say? He says, you're anxious and troubled about too many things. You've allowed secondary things to push out the primary thing. And that primary thing is actually the thing that gives you energy to do the secondary things. And that's why you're so anxious. And you're so distressed and troubled. So come back to the one thing that's necessary. It's the only thing that's truly necessary. You can just strip everything else away. But the only thing that's truly necessary is God. It's spending time in his word. It's nourishing our souls with his word. It's listening to him and speaking to him. There's nothing more important. That's the highest priority for Christ's servants, that's highest priority for all of us. And we forget this. Sometimes you get to the point... And my wife and I we have this conversation. I'm like, "Baby, I see you're stressed out. When's the last time did you spend time in the scripture state?" "I don't have time to spend time in the scriptures. I've got to feed them breakfast." We have that conversation. And then I say, "Why don't you wake up earlier?" And that never goes well. So I got to feed them breakfast. But there is that time I got way too much to do to read scripture. I got way too much to do is spend time in prayer. I got too many other things and we actually lose the fuels source. We lose the power of the spirit. So dear believers sit at the feet of Jesus. Sit at his feet, this is not less than scripture, we have to read scripture, but it's more than scripture. So the God that wrote his word, we read it, we study it, we meditate, we listen to his cadence and Jesus said, my sheep know my voice. And then when you know his voice from the scriptures, you hear him speaking in life by the power of the spirit. Sometimes he speaks through people. Sometimes he speaks through event, but he's with us, he's always with us. We can sit at his feet and rest in him. The only thing that's truly necessary, it's necessary in sickness, in health, adversity, prosperity, in life and death here and eternity. I wonder if Martha listened to this rebuke. By the way, hearing a rebuke from the Lord, hearing a rebuke from anyone, it does not feel good. You think Martha, after serving, slaving away for hours like to be rebuked. I wonder if she even sat down for the meal. It's like here, you can finish roasting the lamb yourself. But I think she took it to heart. How do I know this? Remember when her brother Lazarus died and Jesus delayed coming on purpose so that he could glorify himself by resurrecting Lazarus. And Martha comes to him with the same blunt straight to the point voice. John 11:21-27. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise is again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die, do you believe this?" And she said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ the son of God who was coming into the world." Why is this important? It's one of only two great confessions of the identity of Jesus Christ in all of the new Testament. The first came through lifts of Peter. He says, "I know who you are. You are Christ the son of the living God." And then on the lifts of Martha, you are the Messiah. You're the son of God. You're the Christ. She got it. Because she realized that the only one thing is necessary. She made that her good portion. God blessed her with this great revelation, the great confession. And then Mary, of course, she kept to the one thing to the end. John 12:1-2, six days before the Passover Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So this is immediately after. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, again, she's serving and what's Lazarus doing? Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Here, I'd be like, "Lazarus why aren’t you helping your sister." But he just died. He just came back from the dead. That takes a lot out of you. So Martha is working, hopefully Mary's helping. Then Mary puts everything down. She walks, she took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And that house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. She realized by this point, not only is this the only thing that's necessary this is also the most precious thing there is. This is the most precious one there is. She knows she's in the presence of treasure and she wants to give her greatest treasure. Something that's probably worth tens of thousands of dollars, a family heirloom. And she wants to pour out her devotion on Christ. Therefore preparing him for burial. And John 12:4-8, how did the disciples react? Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him said, "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denari and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, "Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial for the poor you always have with you but you did not always have me." And you see the juxtaposition in the text that one of the disciples Judas does not see Jesus for who he is, though he heard all of his teaching, saw the miracles and he doesn't realize that this is the greatest treasure in the world. Instead, the treasurer is stealing from the treasure Treasure because adultery, because of money, because of greed. And that's what led him to betray Christ. Instead, you've got these two sisters. One gives the great confession. The other one gives a great, great anointing. And it's all because they kept the main thing the main thing. Second of all, talk to God relationally. So listen to God intently and then talk to God relationally. Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples." What's fascinating here is why do they wait until Luke chapter 11 to ask Jesus how to pray? This is the end of Jesus' ministry. This is probably the third year, for two years nobody asked, why. I think partially because they just assumed they knew how to pray. They grew up in Hebrew culture. They grew up going into the temple. They grew up going to synagogues, but they realized that Jesus prayed in a categorically different way than everyone else around them. Everyone else chanted or recited or just had these wrote memorized prayers. Jesus prayed intensely fervently, relationally. And why do they ask? On the one hand, prayer is easy. A child can pray. When you're at your wit's end, when you've got nothing, no other strength you pray. But also prayer's hard, prayer is strenuous. It's taxing of energy, of power, of focus, of emotion physically. And then you leave prayer filled spiritual. There's something there, it's so natural, it doesn't need to be taught or you can spend your whole life studying it. Why do they ask here, because they understand that the spiritual warfare is just dialing up as Jesus is about to go to the cross as this hostility coming at him. And they realized that Jesus prayers are more and more fervent he's spending more and more time in prayer because Jesus knows he's about to enter the most cosmic battle there ever was on the cross with Satan. John Piper said, you don't know what prayer is for until you know that life is war. That's why they got ask. They're like, I don't think I'm doing it right. I don't think I'm really struggling in prayer. So Jesus does pray. He teaches them. And then he talks about how to do audaciously. And he said to them, verse two, when you pray, say father hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. Perhaps you're like this isn't the Lord's prayer that I've had memorized because the one you have memorized is probably from Matthew six, The Sermon on the Mount. The reason why Jesus gives two different ones is to show us it's not about the magic formula of saying these words about the content, it's about the framework. It begins with father. In The Sermon on the Mount Jesus says our father to emphasize the God his father of all Christians here is just father to emphasize that God is father of people individually because by grace through faith, because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we are adopted into the family of God. So we can come to God on our own. You don't need to pray to God through another person. You don't need someone to mediate through. You can pray on you. You can go to God the father on your own. Yes, he's King. Yes, he's great. But he's also father, dear father. Galatians and Romans calls him Father abba, abba father, dearest father. Some people say daddy, I'm like, ah, I'm just going to add a little more reverence to that. Dearest father, you're my dearest father to begin prayer with that it's relational. Though it's relational, though he's a personal father he's still God. He's still God, hallowed be your name. May your name be holy. It is holy, but may your name be holy in my life, on my lips, in my heart. May your name be holy, maybe revered and feared and worshiped in this city, in my family, in my community. I think a lot of Christians are missing this. They're missing the holiness of God. For a lot of people, God is a buddy. God he's just a friend. God is someone who will always forgive your sin. So it doesn't matter how you live. Now, it doesn't matter how you live. God so much hate sin that he... Look at the cross. Look what it takes to get sin forgiven. Takes a son dying on the cross for us. And I think our generation is missing this reverence. This awe that the God who created everything and in him all things hold together. We sin against him on a daily basis. We forget him. We've got a spiritual amnesia. We do things that he told us not to do. We don't do the things that he told us to. I think part of it is in an attempt to share God's love with people we try to hide the true nature of God. We try to hide what he's really taught. What he's really taught about gender. What he's really taught about sexuality. What he's really taught about family. What he's really taught about the most important things in life. I'll just give you an example. This just happened this week, Lifeway, which is usually their great publisher, they publish a lot of great stuff, devotionals, and Bibles. They came up with the Bible Devo, which is a Bible devotional, but it's called a Bible Devo for generation Z. And this is how they translate John 1:1. John, 1:1 goes like this, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Okay, that's John 1:1. This is how they translate. Since day uno, there was cap G, big Jay was chilling with cap G and big J was cap G. Someone made an executive decision that that's a good idea. Some read that and like, yeah. Okay, generation D, let's go get them. First of all it was blasphemous. This is just bad theology. I don't know anyone gen Z who calls God cap G, big J. It's all to say that God is still God. And in prayer we need to know, yes hollowed be your name, may your name be holy. Your name is holy. So remind us to pursue holiness. Your kingdom come. Jesus rule in my heart. Jesus I submit everything to you. I yield everything to you. May your kingdom come in my life. May your kingdom come into my relationships, in my decision, in everything. And as you pray that you got to say is Jesus King over this decision, is Jesus King over this relationship, is Jesus King over my desires, over my affection, over my thoughts, over my thoughts, over my entertainment choices. Is Jesus King right now, as he's sitting on his throne over what I am doing is he's reigning over everything. So the prayer begins with God. It's vertical then we begin to ask for what we need. Give us each day our daily bread, everything comes from God. We're fully dependent. Relying, he's talking about physical bread and spiritual bread, and you're not just praying for bread for yourself, but for others. Not just give me my bread, give me our bread. So you're cognizant of other's needs and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Give me bread. Forgive me, give me grace and give me grace to extend grace to others and lead us not into temptation. What an interesting turn of phrase. Have you ever meditated on that? Why should we ask God not to lead us into temptation? Why would we have to ask God not lead us into temptation? Does God tempt us? No, of course not. James 1:13-14. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire. So God doesn't tempt us and God doesn't lead us to temptation to leave us in temptation. But there is a sense in which God allows temptation to happen. And he actually leads us through that temptation. Because God is with us we're sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is in us. Sometimes God does to test us, lead us to temptation and through temptation. And the way that he leads us through temptation is for us to cling to him, to hold onto him, to recognize that he will never give us temptation without giving us an exit strategy. That's first Corinthians 10:13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Now, I've always understood that like, okay, you're in temptation, God has allowed this temptation in your life and he will give you an exit. And you have to take that exit by yourself. That's not what's going on because a Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit in him. So God is always with us. So when he's giving us the exit strategy, he's leading us to it and through it, this is really important. This is how I think of it. I think of it temptation comes. I'm tied to a chair in a warehouse building and the Lord comes like a navy seal. Repels onto the roof from a helicopter, comes down and he's rescuing me. I don't know if for some reason the image that comes as Jack Ryan. I like it so much because the transformation from Jim Jack Ryan will happen with that. So he's leading me out, but he's saying stay close, stay close, stay close. I know where the exit is, stay close. Now, that metaphor doesn't work. Like most metaphors don't work. So got to broaden it. It's not bullets there. They don't look like bullets. They don't look like bullets. Temptation never comes in the form of a bullet. It comes in the form of something tasty, something attractive. There's a seductive siren song of voices around us pulling us away from the one who says, I know where the exit is. Follow me, stay close to me. Don't stay here. Don't give into that temptation because you're going to come out stronger. And when you come out stronger, you'll be able to lead others out of that temptation. Just like what happened when Jesus started his ministry, he got baptized and what happened? The Holy Spirit. It says, ekballō in the Greek, cast him out, throws him into the desert in order for the enemy to tempt him. Why did Jesus Christ fast for 40 days? Why he tempted by the evil one? Why did God allow that for Jesus to conquer that so then to show us how we can be more than conquerors. The other thing I want to point out from first Corinthians 10:3, it doesn't say, God won't give you more than you can handle. He often does give us more than we can handle so that we run to him. But it says that you won't give us more temptation than we can bare. So when you feel tempted by the evil one, when you feel tempted by sin, by the flesh, run to Christ, run to Christ and he will show you the exit strategy to get out by the power of the spirit. Look what happens, I'll just mention this and then point 3. We sin and then we pray. Pray before you sin. Pray when you're tempted. In that moment of temptation, pray. Call someone, text someone, "Hey, I'm being tempted right now, please, please pray for me, please." And the other thing I'll say is if you have time for temptation, you have too much time on your hands. Go serve someone, go babysit someone's kids. I know lots of families who actually struggled over Covid. Go babysit. Number three, ask of God audaciously, ask of God. And this is shocking. And I read it before. But the story is in Luke 11:5-8 Jesus telling a story. He's like that prayer happened. Now, I'm going to show you the war aspect of prayer, the struggle aspect, the battle aspect, where you wrestle with God. And he tells a story of a guy who has a friend come to his house at midnight. He doesn't have any food. And the rule of hospitality in middle Eastern culture was that you had to provide shelter and food. So this guy doesn't have anything. So he goes to his friend's house and he starts knocking. And it says his friend doesn't give him the loaves of bread because they're friends. Because if you wake me up at midnight and you wake up my kids, we are no longer friends. That's what's going on, but he'll give it to him because of his impudence that's what the text says. His persistent, audacity, tenacity, his shamelessness, he's almost reckless, persisting in the face of all that seems reasonable. And Jesus says, that's how to pray. That's how to pray. You wrestle with God. You beg God. You keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Verse nine and I will tell you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be open, it's the holy boldness. You're knocking, you're insistently asking, you're searching and you refuse to stop, it's battle, it's a holy struggle, that's what's going on. A story goes of Alexander the Great had a general, his daughter was getting married and Alexander the Great tells that general, "Hey, I'll pay for that wedding, just tell me how much." And then the general writes this letter with the amount. The treasurer reads letter and tells Alexander, "Hey, you're probably going to behead him because this is just absurd." And Alexander the Great asked for the number. And he says, "Give it to him." By such an outlandish request he shows that he believes that I am both rich and generous. And he was flattered by it. In some sense, God says, I want you to know how great of a God I am. John Newman wrote that we're coming to a King, large petitions with the bring for his grace and power are such none can ever ask too much. So there is a sense in Martin Lloyd Jones, the great British preacher he wrote about this. He said, I commend to you the reading of biographies of men who have been used by God in the church throughout the centuries especially in revival. And you will find the same holy boldness, this argumentation, this reasoning, this putting the case to God, pleading his own promises. All of that, that is the whole secret of prayer. I sometimes think Thomas Goodwin uses a wonderful term. He says, sue him for it, sue him for it. Do not leave him alone. Pester him as it were with his own promises, quote the scriptures to him and you know God delights to hear us doing it. As a father likes to see this element in his own child who has obviously been listening to what his father has been saying. It's true, it's true, about kids pestering their parents. You were listening and you know that I do not lie. I shall give you that ice cream cone, just don't tell your mom, happens all the time. Do you wrestle with God? As Jacob wrestles with God says, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." As Abraham haggles with God. I love that story. Abraham haggles with God, God comes to him and says, "I got to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, they're so sinful." And he says, "What if there are 50 righteous people in the town." God said, "Okay, I'll relent if there's 50." And then Abraham's like, "How about 45?" And then at that point, he's like, "How about 40?" And God's like, "Okay." And then he comes back to him and he's like, "How about 30?" Now, he's going down by tens. "How about 20?" "Fine." "How about 10?" And he should have kept going because they weren't even 10. But he does say a lot. There's this wrestling. There's this proximity to God, verse 11-13. What father among you if a son asks for a fish will instead of a fish give him a serpent. Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion. If you then who are evil you at your best, feeding your children, giving your kids good gifts, even at your best you're still evil. You still need Jesus. Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. So like ask, seek, knock on the door, you shall get. When we think of that, we think of physical things. The story of Alexander the Great. Yeah, okay is God going to give us bank? Maybe, maybe not. The greatest gift that God can give us, what's the punchline. How does Jesus land this text, will not the heavenly father give more of the Holy Spirit, give more of himself, give more of his presence, give more of your holiness. If that's what you're asking for God, I want you to be hallowed. I want you to be holy in my life. God forgive me for my sins. Do not lead me into temptation. I pray that you provide for me both materially and then also grace for forgiveness of sins and to continue to forgive others. How do we deepen a passion for the Lord like this? Revelation chapter two, he talks about you've lost your first love. He's talking to a church. How do we get it back? We go back to the foot of the cross. We go back to the feet of Jesus, in all of Jesus' prayers he always called God father. He called him abba. The only time he does not call him abba is when he cries out in Matthew 27:46, about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?" That is, "My God, my God." Twice, with all of his heart, the one that he loves has turned his face from him. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God, doesn't answer that prayer, why? Just like he didn't answer the prayer in Gethsemane, "Let this cup pass from me." Why? Because this is what it took. It took Jesus' prayer, not being answered so that we can be adopted into the family of God so that we could have our prayers answered. What's fascinating is Jesus reverts back to abba. After he absorbs the wrath of God on the cross he reverts back to abba and his final words, Luke 23:46, Jesus calling out the loud voice, said, "Father into your hands, abba into your hands I commit my spirit." And having said this, he breathed his last. He breathed his last so that we could receive the breath of life. Receive it. Why wouldn't you receive the breadth of life, receive the Holy Spirit, receive forgiveness of sins. Come to his feet, his nail pierced feet, receive, listen, talk, ask, and continue to live the life he's called us to live. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your word. What a tremendous word it is, a blessed word. Lord, we thank you for giving us access to yourself. We thank you for reminding us that the most important thing, the one thing that's necessary in this world is our relationship with you. And we deepen it by listening to you attentively, by talking to you relationally, by asking audaciously, in particular for things that you've already promised. You've promised to build your church. You've told us you don't want to see the death of a sinner. You want people to be converted. You promised us that when we are close to you will bring us flourishing and the flourishing not just of ourselves and our families, but our communities, our city, our state, our nation. So we pray Lord that you continue to pour out your spirit and give us victory over Satan, sin, and death. And we thank you in advance and we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Introducing Jesus: Week 30

August 16, 2020 • Luke 10:25–37

Audio Transcript: Good morning Mosaic, most of you, some of you. It's a foretaste of next Sunday. So glad to see every single one of your eyes, and glad you're here. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word? Heavenly Father, we thank You for this blessing it is. What a blessing it is to gather as your people. It's so good to come together in the House of the Lord. Jesus, You are here amongst us. We feel Your presence and we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit, minister to us today. Speak a powerful word to us and show us how desperately we need the only good Samaritan, the only truly ultimately good Samaritan. Jesus, You offer us mercy. And some of us are too self-righteous and blinded by our self-righteousness to accept the grace and mercy, the compassion that you so long to pour out into our lives. Then once we receive that mercy, make us a people who extend mercy to others. It's hard, it's costly, it's emotionally taxing, but you're always there to refill our resources in a supernatural way, and I pray do that with us today. Lord, continue to bless this church, continue to bless this body of believers, continue adding to it, and we pray this in Christ's holy name, amen. The title of the sermon today is, The Only Good Samaritan. We are in Luke 10:25-37. There's a lot of important questions going through our minds rapidly now. What is the most important question on the top of your mind, even this week? Is it a question of finances? Is it question of how's the economy going to go? Is it question of, are my kids going to school? Is it a question of housing? Is it a question of, am I going to get married? Is it a question of, am I going to stay married? Hopefully yes, you should. Is it a question of how are we going to get through this season? How should I provide for my family? All important questions. The most important question that each one of us needs to find an answer to is a question that a gentleman asked Jesus in our text today. And what he'd asked is, “What must I do to inherit eternal life? Is my eternity secure? When I die, that's for sure, am I going to a place of paradise, a place called Heaven, a place of God's presence or not?” And then once we get an answer to that question, the second most important question that we need to find an answer to, and then orient our lives around is, how can I help others? How can I extend the greatest amount of compassion to another person, which isn't just to meet their physical needs, it's to meet their spiritual and eternal needs? That's what the text is about today, Luke 10:25-37. That is the fastest introduction in the Pastor Jan's sermon in the history of Pastor Jan's sermons. Luke 10:25, “And behold, the lawyers stood up to put him to the test saying ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it?’ And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You've answered correctly. Do this and you will live.’. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him, whatever you spend. I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go and do likewise.’”. This is the reading of God's holy inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time together, the impossibility of self-salvation, the impossibility of selfless love, and the only good Samaritan. First of all, the impossibility of self-salvation. Many of us are used to this parable. We've heard this parable, probably not dozens of times, but probably hundreds of times. We already know what it means. It's one of these you know, in staff meeting, we go through the text prior to it being preached as a devotional, as a Bible study. When we got to the very end after reading it, and we're like, “What are your thoughts?” And everyone's like, “You know, we kind of kind of get it. We've heard it. Okay, show mercy to people.” Because we're so familiar with it, we kind of lose sight of the point. We kind of lose sight of the outrage, how provocative this story is, especially set in the context that it's set in. Yes, we know it's a nice ideal to help people. And many of us have devoted, oriented our lives around helping as many people as possible. And perhaps you read this and there's an element of cynicism because of ministry fatigue, where you've been ministering to people in this season over and over and over and over. And you're like, “How many more people will need help on my path?” And you get to this place where you feel a callus, you feel a numbing, desensitization words where it's like, “Yeah, I kind of understand that priest and the Levite. I kind of understand going to the other side and just walking by. That's on the one hand. And on the other hand, there's just so many people to help, and I can't help everyone like this.” So you get to a point where you start asking, “Why should I help anyone like this?”. And what Jesus is ... And this is the radical point and I'm going to bring in the gospel at the very beginning. Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't have to show mercy to get mercy. I don't have to show mercy to get mercy. I get to show mercy because I got mercy. It changes everything. I got mercy from God. This morning, I woke up and I repented of my sin, why? Because I'm a sinner. And every single one of us, we need to repent of sin. And God extends grace. When he extends grace, it changes everything. And now, it melts that numbness, that desensitization, and then we can continue to serve. We don't show mercy to earn mercy. We've been given mercy therefore, we show mercy. So the context is in Luke 10:25, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” This isn't just a lawyer like real estate lawyer, this is a lawyer of God's law. This is a lawyer that knows the Old Testament law. Not just the 10 laws, but all the ceremonial laws and all the institutional laws. He knew the law. He devoted himself to this noble tradition and he comes to Jesus and he asks a good question, but he asks it with a very questioning posture of heart. Right question, wrong heart. Here's the thing, whenever anyone comes to you and says, “How shall I inherit eternal life?” What's your answer. I know my answer is, trust in Jesus, repent of your sin, and submit to God. Receive God's grace and you get saved. Jesus doesn't go there. And then you got to ask the question, why doesn't he go there? Well, he doesn't go there because this guy thinks that he's already got it. This guy thinks he's done enough. This guy thinks that he has kept the law. He's never missed a Jewish feast or sacrifice. He's devoted himself to the study of law and traditions. He's got all the bases covered. Kept the Sabbath, tithed from his spice rack. He thinks he's got it. He thinks he's in. And what he wants to do is he wants to undermine Jesus' ministry of telling people, you need to repent and turn in faith back to God. He's not a pagan. He's not a Samaritan, people you look down on, and he's testing Jesus in front of a crowd. And what does Jesus do? Jesus responds to his question with a question, verse 26, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”. This guy knows the law and he knows what's at the heart of the law. And the heart of the law is summarized with love God and love people. That's verses 27, 28. The first commandment, love God with all of your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all of your mind, with every fiber of your being. Love God completely, 100%, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, as much as you care for your own needs, as much as you work to provide for your own needs. As much as you think of yourself, think of your neighbor, be a good neighbor. And those who dislike your neighbor, love your neighbor. That's the law. And we see that he did say the right thing. Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” The story should end there. Why doesn't the story end there? It doesn't end there because this gentleman felt uncomfortable. In the same way when you read passages like the Good Samaritan and you feel a little discomfort because you feel like you're falling short, that you're not living a life full of compassion, he feels it. And instead of going to the Lord and saying, “Lord, something's wrong in my heart. Love my neighbor as myself? I despise my neighbors. My neighbors are awful.” Not my neighbors in particular, some of them. Most of my neighbors are great. So that's why he does what he does in verse 29. And look at the text. This is really important. “He, desiring to justify himself said, ‘Who is my neighbor?’” Why does he justify himself? Because he feels something. What is he feeling at that moment? What is he trying to cover? He feels that he hasn't done enough. He feels that he's fallen short. He feels a tinge of shame or guilt or regret. The context of this parable is a question of salvation, the context isn't what should I do to be a good Christian? How should I live my life? The context is, how do I become a Christian? And Jesus answers, you can save yourself theoretically. You just have to look love God with everything you got and your neighbor as yourself. And then Jesus tells him the story, which exposes that not only does he not love his neighbor, he actually despises his neighbor. Who does Jesus put at the very center of the story? It's called the Parable of the Good, what? Samaritan. The history between the Jews and Samaritans. You can just look into it. They hated each other. The Jews thought that the Samaritans were half-breed. They wouldn't even dine together. So Jesus is saying, “You think you're saved?” I'm not only going to answer your question of salvation. I'm also going to expose how much hate is in your heart. Like think of the person that you hate the most, and there is that person. Every Michael Scott has a Toby. Imagine this parable. This is Michael Scott coming to Jesus and saying, “What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus is like, “Let me tell you a story about this man walking from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he got mugged. And Jim walked by and Pam walked by, but Toby stopped.” That's a humorous way to think about it. Now, it's about to get real. Let me tell you a story of the good, whatever the opposite political party that you're voting for. Let me tell you a story of the good Trump supporter with a MAGA hat and a Trump bumper sticker on his donkey. Let me tell you that story. That just got uncomfortable. Let me tell you a story of the Biden supporter who got down and showed compassion. Now, that got really uncomfortable. That's what's going on in this guy's heart. I'm professing that I love my neighbor. What if my neighbor's different than me? What if deep in my heart, I despise my neighbor? I don't say it out loud, but that's exactly what's going on in the text. Why is he trying to justify himself? Because he's trying to cover that shape, that regret, that hate. He doesn't like what he sees in his own heart. There's a cognitive dissonance. It's not lining up with what he said. His heart isn't lining up with what he professes with his mouth. Jesus said, “They profess to love me with their mouth, but their hearts are far from me.”. It's the same thing that happened with Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sinned, the very first thing that they did before going into hiding from God, what's the very first thing they did? They realized that they were naked and ashamed. So they covered themselves. They justified themselves with fig leaves. That's exactly what this guy is trying to do. Gregory of Nazianzus said, “Why? What changed? What changed? Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed and then all of a sudden they sin and they have to cover themselves, what changed?” He says, “Well, before the sin, before the fall, they were ensconced, clothed in the love and acceptance of God so their nakedness didn't bother them. And through sin, they strip themselves of God's love and acceptance and we're left with a sense of exposure, fear, shame, and guilt.”. The Jews looked down on these people. The Jews claim this lawyer claimed to love people in theory, but people in reality are difficult to love. And that's why we need to exercise and grow in compassion. Luke 10:33, “A Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.” There's a Greek word splagchnizomai. It's to feel pity in the inner most being. It's the deepest form of empathy. It's actually the most common descriptive, emotive word of Jesus Christ's heart or what was happening in Jesus' heart. He felt compassion. That's why he came to die for our sins. In the story of a prodigal son, the father, when he sees his son running to him, he said he had pity, he had compassion on him and ran toward his son. Luke 10:34 and 35 shows us that it's costly to show this compassion. Not just feel it, but to actually act on it. “He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, ‘Take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back’” It's costly. He shows compassion. This is holistic care. He's showing that it was unexpected, but he's willing to take his own resources, his own funds in order to help this person. And then at the end, Luke 10:36-37, “Jesus says, ‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’” The lawyer still doesn't get it. And he can't even say, the Samaritan. He can't bring himself to say, the Samaritan. He can't bring himself to say that my enemy is actually better than me in a hypothetical story. He says, “The third one.” The one who showed him mercy, Jesus said, “You go and do likewise.” So what's the standard to inherit eternal life? Love God with everything you got and be a good neighbor and love your neighbor as much as yourself. Basically what he's saying is, help anyone and everyone that God brings into your path. This is why I said the impossibility of self-salvation. Because in our culture, when you say, “Every single one, we need to repent of sin because not one of us is good enough.” And then everyone in our culture pushes back with the self-righteousness, “I am a good person. I've never hurt anybody.” That's not the standard. The standard is help everybody. Not just don't hurt anybody, help everybody. That's the standard. You want to earn your way to heaven, that's the standard. And what's Jesus trying to do? He's trying to get him to this place where he says, “That's impossible. Jesus, how can you expect that?” And Jesus is like, “That's the whole point. That's why I'm here.”. And so that brings me to point two is the impossibility of selfless love. So it's impossible to save yourself and this selfless love is impossible. It's to get us to a place where we know the world will be a better place if this were true, but it's impossible to do. But what's fascinating is we do long for it. We long for utopia where people are loving, where people are good and generous and kind and serve one another and extend compassion and mercy. Here's a really interesting thing. Apart from a worldview that God is, that God exists, that God is love, altruism and selfless love does not make any sense. John Lehrer writing about altruism he says, “It's always been a sticky subject for evolutionary biology. And altruism is the act of helping someone else at a steep, personal cost.” Charles Darwin wrote about this and he said that altruism was a potentially fatal challenge to his theory of natural selection. And in the descent of man, he writes, “He who was ready to sacrifice his life, as many a savage has been, rather than betray his comrades would often leave no offspring to inherit his noble nature.” It's been a paradox for many. In the 1950s, the biologist J. B. S. Haldane, someone asked him, “How far would you go to save the life of another person?” He said this, he said, “I would jump into a river to save two brothers, not one.” He said, “I would save eight cousins, but not seven.” So I'm willing to sacrifice my life for another, as long as it's on my terms of multiple people, et cetera. This moral arithmetic that he used. The famous example of this is Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese in New York city. She was stabbed to death in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of the borough New York City, March 13th, 1964. And that led to the Genovese syndrome, especially diffusion of responsibility. Why didn't anybody help her? They thought, “Why should I?” People saw this happen, they'd say “Why should I help, risk myself? Someone else should do it.” And everybody was morally outraged by that. Why are we morally outraged by that? Why are we morally outraged that you had a chance to help this person and you didn't? Why are we morally outraged by that? Because we know it's written on our hearts. You can't find an explanation of why that moral outrage exists, why we know that we should help when we have an opportunity to help. It only makes sense if there is a true God, a living God, the teaching of Jesus, this is what makes it so awesome. The world would be a better place. Not just for you, it would be a better place for absolutely everybody. Nietzsche wrote in The Will to Power, he says, “Another Christian concept no less crazy, the concept of equality of souls before God. This concept furnishes the prototype of all theories of equal rights.” Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, what does he write? “All men are created equal. This is a self-evident truth.” Is this self-evident? That everybody is created equal. Equal in what sense? If you just look at the facts and the face of it, it's almost absurd to claim that everybody is equal. Equal in what? We're not equal in height. We're not equal in weight. We're not equal in strength, intelligence, stamina, truthfulness. There's inequality all around us. How can we say we are all created equal? In what sense? In the most valuable sense, that every human soul, every human life is valuable to God. That you'd remove that foundation and now you're building a house of morality on sin. And the preciousness and equal worth of every human life is a Christian idea. You just see that Christian idea when it's actually put into practice. And that's what did change the Roman empire. Christians have always believed that God places infinite value on each human life. The pagan emperor, Julian wrote this, “The Impious Galileans ... ” That's how he call Christians, “ ... they relieve both their own poor and ours. It is shameful that ours should be so destitute of our assistance.” Look at world history, Christians when faithful to the gospel, when faithful to the scriptures, they've been a huge blessing to the world. Prior to Christianity, the Greeks and the Romans had little to no interest in the poor. For example, the first ecumenical council was in the Nicaea, 325. That's when bishops were directed to build hospices next to cathedrals. There was never such a thing as hospices. The elderly and the sick were left to fend for themselves. The first hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea in 369. By the middle age, hospitals covered all of Europe and even beyond. In fact, Christian hospitals were the world's first voluntary charitable institutions. Care for mentally ill, that was a Christian idea. Florence Nightingale formed the Red Cross in order to love his enemies in times of war and genocide. The vast majority of hospitals were started by Christians, by Catholics, Presbyterians, Protestants, and even their names reflect this. We know that loving people selflessly is good. It's written on our hearts. We're outraged when it's not done. And we ourselves aren't consistent with what we know we should do. So what do we do with this gap? We know we should love selflessly. If we don't, we're outraged when other people don't, we're not outraged when we don't. So what do we need? What solves this? This is what I said in the beginning. I can't guilt you into loving people. I try with my daughters, if one of them isn't loving another one like, “You need to love your sister. If you don't, there's like this punishment, like no iPad for you. You got to love your sister.” You can't force someone into loving another person. You can try to guilt them into it, you can try to shame them into it. It's always temporary` and it's always on the surface. What's the only way to get people to love other people? It's only in the gospel. It's only the good news. And this is point three, the only good Samaritan. It's awesome to think about this utopia, where everyone loves each other, but it's impossible. And this is what Jesus is doing. He's trying to get the lawyer to a point of desperation where he says, “If that's the standard for eternal life, then definitely I haven't gotten it. Before Jesus saves that guy, he's trying to get that guy lost. Before he gets him saved, he wants to get him lost. He's presenting God's standards. And he wants this guy to see how far he's fallen short, that his heart is actually full of hate. God requires this love, a love that can't be required. But he doesn't just command love, he compels love by showing us how much he loved us. That Jesus Christ is the only true good Samaritan. In the story of The Good Samaritan, we are not the good Samaritan, we're the guy on the ground. He's trying to get the lawyer to see himself, “I'm on the ground and I'm being offered help by a Samaritan. I'm on the ground and I'm being offered help by my enemy. Will I accept that help?” That's what's going on. And Jesus is saying, you actually, like you say you've fulfilled the first commandment, you haven't even come close because the second commandment is easier and your terrible. So you need to accept the grace from this Samaritan, the Samaritan who at his own cost comes to help you. This Samaritan, who doesn't pour out oil and wine, but he pours out his blood and his body is broken in order to extend us mercy, in order to give us compassion, in order to say, “Look, I'm dying on a cross for your law breaking, and I'm going to give you the blessing of my law keeping. And on the cross. I'm going to take your penalty of law breaking in order to do that through the double amputation.” This is how we experienced the grace of God. And when you see that Jesus did that for you, for me, despite our wickedness, despite all our sin. Everything that he knows, we know, we know what's deep inside and we try to hide it. He knows. So don't justify it. Don't don't let yourself righteousness keep you from accepting the grace of God. And when you know that you're saved by grace, when you know that God extends mercy to you, compassion to you, that then begins to melt your he art in order to extend compassion to others. So here's a word for us, for Bostonians, especially for ... We need to repent not just of our sins, our bad works, we also need to repent of our good works. We need to repent of thinking that our good works are what's going to get us into Heaven. We need to repent of our self-righteousness. And by the way, every one of us struggles with this. I struggle with this all the time. The longer I'm in the ministry, the more sacrifices that I make for the Lord. I'm like, “I've given years to you, God, where's my blessing?” I don't know if anyone else has ever done that. The more sacrifices you make, the more you're like I should be getting more. And God's like, self-righteousness, you deserve nothing, you deserve hell. And you're lucky that you're even alive. That's what grace does, it, like, “You deserve nothing. You're lucky your heart is beating today. Now, keep doing what I called you to do.” And everything else is icing on the cake. So we are to repent of our sins and self-righteousness. Galatians 3:11-14, “Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not a faith rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.”. Jesus did it all and there's no better reason to love than love. Jesus loved this for no reason, whatever in ourselves. He love us not because we're lovely, but because he's loving. And unconditional love frees us to love. And this parable isn't about getting us to be people who act once in a while with mercy, it's to get us to a point where we live a life of compassion, a life of mercy. Why does Jesus start with the law? He starts with the law to get this gentleman lost. He gets into a point where he sees, I haven't even come close. Then Jesus pays for our sin. Now what happens with the law? Does the law disappear? No, we're still called to love God with all of our being and love our neighbor as ourselves and to grow in both of those. The law is always a mirror of how you're doing. There's some mirrors that just make you look better. I don't know what it is, it must be the lighting or something. My brother, Vlad], in his apartment, that mirror makes me look so good. Every time I'm like, “Vlad, I just need to go to the bathroom real quick. Oh yeah, that looks great.” And that's why people take selfies in restaurant bathrooms, I don't know what it is, restaurant bathroom, maybe dimly lit or something. Nobody ever takes selfies at the doctor's office or the dental. Nobody does that. Because the light's different. It exposes more of your imperfections. God starts with the law to expose our imperfections, to show us, this is what you got to work on. And the Apostle James said, when you read the holy scriptures it's like a mirror. The Look gaze deep into, where do I need to change? And then God extends grace and fuels us with the Holy Spirit in order to change. Who is my neighbor? The answer isn't who is my neighbor, but am I a good neighbor? That's what Jesus tells him at the end. Am I a good neighbor? Am I a good neighbor to whom? Literally any human being with a legitimate need, literally any human being with a legitimate need. And obviously, we can't help everybody, but I like Andy Stanley's comment where he says, “Do for one, what you would like to do for all.”. 1 John 3:17-18, “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth.” And the other thing I just want to point out here at the end. When we talk about mercy and when we talk of compassion, usually we think of those things as just doing things for people, helping people with food and helping people with rent and helping people with their car, helping them with whatever physical needs that they have. But one of the interesting things that Jesus Christ here is doing, he's actually in a story using a story about a good Samaritan, he is extending compassion to this gentlemen by telling the gentleman the truth. Jesus is being a good Samaritan for this gentleman and Jesus is trying to meet his greatest need. And his greatest need is to see that he's blinded by his self-righteousness. It doesn't feel like help to the gentlemen at that moment. Sometimes compassion doesn't feel like compassion. Sometimes compassion feels like you just got roasted by Jesus and you walk away in front of a crowd. But sometimes that's what we need. We need that truth to break the hardness of our hearts. Jesus is doing, he's embodying the compassion and telling this man the truth. So love is discerning. You need to discern, how can I extend compassion? What is this person's greatest need at this moment. Sometimes it's an act of love and sometimes it's a word of truth. And in this text, Jesus twice points out, go and do it. Oh, you know the law? Go and do it. And at the very end, he shows him, you didn't know the law and you need Jesus, the gospel. And then he says, “Go and do it again.” Meaning that works always follow salvation, mercy follows mercy. What the law demands, the gospel produces. So we're saved by grace through faith for works that God has predestined before the foundation of the world. And I'll close with Romans 8:1-4, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.”. Everything that God calls us to do, he's already done in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Receive that grace, then he gives us the Holy Spirit to live out and do what he's called us to do. Can you imagine a world without grace? Can you imagine a world without Christ? Can you imagine a world without love? It's almost impossible to. Now, can you imagine a world with true selfless love? Where people aren't just talking about racial divides and financial divides and political divides. People are just talking about how they're serving one another, how they're caring for one another, how they're extending grace to one another. That's what Jesus Christ does and it starts with us. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for not just giving us the law, but fulfilling the law. And we thank you that you often speak a hard truth into our hearts in order to soften our hearts and we need that. We need that on a daily basis. Lord, we do repent of sin and we do receive your mercy. And we thank you for your compassion. We praise you for the gracious and loving God that you are and we thank you for being that God, and we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen.