Ross Tenneson

Connection (me)

As I grow older, I still imagine what my life will look like one day when I am truly “set up,” when I have the things that I believe will make me happy. They are often things that others would see and celebrate whether or not they are Christians (the right friends, family, and fun). Yet, when I compare the things I dream about to the things Jesus speaks about, I find that there is quite a difference.[1] If you are anything like me, you may need to re-calibrate your values. 

Tension (We)

How do you think Jesus would define the good life?

In this passage, we will how an ideal life would look according to Jesus.

Revelation (God)

New Moses and New Law

Last week, we heard Daniel’s helpful sermon about how God began a new people through his twelve Apostles. Now Jesus will preach his first sermon to this newly formed people. Luke 6:12 says Jesus went up on a “mountain” to meet with God and choose the twelve and verse 17 says, “he came down with them and stood on a level place” among a great crowd.

At this point, Jesus will preach one of his most extensive sermons we have written down (this sermon goes through the end of this chapter 6 of Luke). It is likely the same sermon as the sermon on the mount from Matthew or else an iteration of it (assuming he preached the sermon many times).[2]

But was this all Jesus said after people travelled many hours (possibly days) to come and see him, about a two minute sermon?

Likely, we have a condensed form of this sermon that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to record in this way.[3] Yet, Jesus’s teaching is so rich, that we will preach four sermons on his one sermon, and we could have preached many more (so we are entering into a mini-series within Luke on the sermon on the plain).

I cannot overemphasize the significance of this sermon. Here we have some of the most basic, foundational, and early teaching of the New Covenant.[4] We should not overlook the imagery before us. Jesus’s coming down the mountain to the people with new teaching parallels Moses’s role in the Old Covenant.  Jesus is a new Moses coming down from a mountain (think Mount Sinai) with a new law for his people to live in a relationship with God[5]. 

The Beatitudes

Luke describes how this moment begins in verse 20:

20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Jesus’s sermon starts out with the “Beatitudes.” I have typically thought that “beatitudes” means that I am supposed to “be these attitudes.” Although this is not far from the truth, “beatitude” is a word from Latin meaning “blessed.”[6] You can see that our text will contain four statements of “blessing” and four statements of “woe,” the opposite of blessing. Jesus means to teach here: who is the person whom God has truly blessed.

Before we go any further, we should each ask ourselves: do I know what the word “blessed” means?

Like many words in the Bible, we read and use it often yet may have a tough time explaining exactly what it means. There is actually more than one word from Greek that our Bible’s translate “blessed.” In this case, this word means “happy.”[7] You could replace the word “blessed” with the word “happy” in your mind if that helps you understand the passage. We should make one distinction:  Our word “happy” tends to mean a temporary emotional state that is usually a response to present circumstances (find). However, Jesus is not proclaiming that his people will have just a heightened emotional state, but a deep joy that will endure even in suffering. We will see what reasons we have for such joy shortly. 

Now I have already read the first beatitude, “blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.”

Strikingly, Jesus begins his sermon by stating that the person who is happy is “poor.” (this is the precise opposite of what kids want to be when they grow up!) Here we see the first of four ironic reversals in which Jesus comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. Those whom the world pities and despises, are actually blessed. Jesus presents an “upside down” kingdom that does not only deviate from typical human expectation, but is actually the polar opposite. By “upside down,” I mean the kingdom Jesus brings defies natural expectations.

It is not immediately evident who this group of people are, however. Think for a moment: who are these “poor,” “hungry,” “weeping, “rejected” blessed ones?

First, we should not think of these blessed ones as four different groups (as in there are some who are poor, some who are hungry, and some who are weeping). Rather, these four images together portray one group of people for whom God has favor.[8] Therefore, when we combine them with the woes, we have two contrasting groups. On one hand, we have the poor, hungry, weeping, rejected whom God blesses. On the other, we have the rich, full, laughing, popular whom God rejects. The idea of just two alternatives, those with blessing and those with woe, is consistent with what we see revealed in other places in Scripture, as we will see shortly.

Second, we should consider the biblical back ground of these words. Our best tool at understanding the teachings of the New Testament is the Old Testament. Our passage today has the most grammatical connections with the books of Psalms:[9] the authors use a lot of the same words showing a literary connection. I’m going to turn to the first Psalm to help us understand our passage.

Can anyone think of a connection between Psalm 1 and our passage today?

It is the word “blessed” (the word Psalm 1 begins with)— Psalm 1 is one long beatitude describing the righteous man as opposed to the wicked man.[10] Psalm 1 sets up a contrast that will reoccur throughout the Psalms and that we see at the center of our passage: there is one type of person God blesses and another type of person on whom he brings judgement.[11] In so many psalms David represents the blessed man whom God makes happy.

We should ask ourselves then, does David or other Psalmists talk about the experience of being poor?

David uses a phrase repeatedly in the Psalms and uses it to refer to himself: “poor and needy.” Here is an example:

      17       As for me, I am poor and needy,

      but the Lord takes thought for me.

                  You are my help and my deliverer;

      do not delay, O my God!

We can see from this Psalm that “poor” does not primarily mean a material lack of resources, but rather an intense awareness of one’s need of God’s help. Elsewhere in this same psalm David clarifies this point in the form of another beatitude. Verse 4 says:

            Blessed is the man who makes

      the LORD his trust,

What does this teach us about being blessed by God?

That whether or not God will bless us comes down to how we perceive ourselves. Here is what I mean: to see yourself as self-sufficient and not in need of God’s help will keep you from crying out to God like David. God says that the “poor” are blessed because they recognize their need for him, and God responds only to those who recognize their need for him.[12]

Do you see yourself as having nothing to offer to God, no good dead that can buy his acceptance, nothing in yourself that is pleasing to him, and you come to him in expectation of receiving help? If so, then blessed are you![13]

Yet, if you see yourself as self-sufficient and not needing to make God your trust, Jesus warns:

24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

You will have no comfort from God when this life ends, but will face his judgement.

Am I just dismissing then the idea that Jesus is referring to those who are poor in the world’s eyes and do not have wealth or belongings?

Not at all. We see time and again that Luke has a special focus on the poor in his gospel, especially in highlighting Jesus’s ministry to those who are outcasts and have few material resources.[14] Yet, it is not so simple to say that those who have the status of outcasts and who have few resources have the favor of God and those who are rich will suffer.[15] The teaching of the Psalms and the teaching of Luke does not allow us to make that conclusion. Here is a better explanation: poverty is a parable (or a visual image) of something deeper. That “something deeper” is our intense need for God’s help to receive forgiveness of sins and to receive his validation and love as our true father.

The poor villagers who came to hear Jesus would have understood these terms so well. They would live in small dwellings among animals and labor most of their lives. They would frequently suffer from hunger and probably did so as they heard Jesus teaching.[16] God does not love someone more because they are poor, but Jesus go first to the poor and needy because their circumstances have humbled them, and God often uses this humility to make them open to the message of the gospel.

We Americans should take heed; we are rich compared to most of human history and the world today. While the way of life is open to us through Jesus, it is difficult for us to walk through it because our wealth makes us feel so self-sufficient and like we don’t need God.    

Next in our verse we see the reason why the “poor toward God” are happy. It says, “because yours is the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God expresses (among other things) the future time when Jesus reigns as king and dwells with his people. For Jesus to state it in the present tense (“yours is the kingdom of heaven”) shows that it belongs to God’s people with certainty.

As we continue to walk through the beatitudes, they are going to further explain this kingdom and show us who is truly blessed.

The next beatitude is in verse 21,

21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

Here Jesus gives another description of the blessed person. Like the other beatitudes to come, it is a great reversal that flips conventional wisdom on its head. He says the blessed are “hungry.”  Luke helps us greatly by including the word “now” and then adds that the blessed man will receive his satisfaction in the future.

Does a feast in the future remind anyone of a particular event in the Bible?

The prophets in the Bible look forward to a great feast at the end of time that Jesus will enjoy with his people:[17] Jesus seems here to reference this feast.

The blessed person is not one who is hungering for the things of this world: the pleasures and treasures we can find now. Jesus’s definition of the blessed life here undermines so much of our thinking when we think of the category of “blessed” (often people use that language to describe themselves when they have a nice house, a nice spouse, and a nice car). Yet Jesus warns that if that is the case, if you define your blessedness based off of what you have in this life rather than what you have coming in the next, then you are the opposite of blessed. He says in verse 25:

25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

The next beatitude has almost the same grammatical structure as this one and is very similar. Jesus says:

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

Again, Jesus contrasts the present and the future. He uses the word “now” to distinguish the present age and then the future tense to refer to the one to come. “Laughter” was an image in the Psalms of when God restored the fortunes of his people after their enemies had ruined them. “Weeping” was their response when God has brought judgement on them through their enemies. You can look at Psalm 126 to see this contrast.[18]

Again, the blessed person is not the person who is banking on success in this life. Instead, his hope and happiness consists not in this life, but when Jesus comes and makes all things right.

Ironically, the blessed life is not one that is focused on this life, but on the next. The future hope of entering God’s kingdom, and receiving care from Jesus himself, creates a happiness and contentment in your heart beyond any worldly blessing. Hope for a future with God creates happiness in the present. That, my friends, is the blessed life.  If your hope is in God’s future kingdom rather than your present circumstances, blessed are you!

On the other hand, those who rest their happiness on what they have achieved or could achieve in this life are setting themselves up for eternal disappointment. To live for this life means you will face judgment in the next. Jesus warns in verse 25:

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

These beatitudes call us to reorient the entire way we perceive reality and life. During a sermon prep discussion, Pastor Sam made the great point: how many times do we look at a rich celebrity who feels no need for Christ, and rather than envying them, we pity them and think: woe is you!?

And how often when we see an ordinary person, who trusts in Christ, is going through great trials and loss, and is still obeying God and enjoying his presence, and instead of just feeling sorry for them (which we should), also think to ourselves: blessed are you!? I want more of what that person has.

The last beatitude is the longest and seems to be the climax: Jesus says,

22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Sticking with the pattern, Jesus speaks again of future reward that follows unpleasant circumstances in this life. He says “your reward is great in heaven.” Well, for whom? He says that there is a great reward in heaven for those who suffer rejection. Yet, it is not anyone who suffers rejection, but for those who suffer rejection “on account of the Son of Man!” “The Son of Man” is a title Jesus uses to refer to himself.

So, in other words, those who love Jesus (and love other like Jesus commanded them to), and suffer hatred and rejection for it, should not pout and complain, but should “leap for joy!”

Why should God’s people leap for joy when they experience this rejection?

They should leap for joy because the rejection is a strong confirmation that you are leading the blessed life! You are walking in the path that leads to everlasting reward (just like the prophets in the Old Testament who faced rejection and even death yet now live with the Lord).

And yet, if your love for Jesus is so hidden, others never reject you for it (or the acceptance of people is more important to you than the acceptance of God). You, like the false prophets from Israel’s past will likely receive acceptance from the world.

Yet, constantly receiving acceptance is not a blessing but a sign of judgment because it shows that you are oriented around this life instead of God and the life to come. So, Jesus says in verse 26, 

26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

And just to be clear: this beatitude alarms me. I don’t face a whole lot of rejection for following Jesus! In fact, I experience acceptance from most people I know. This is a sign I have oriented my life in many ways around this life instead of around God. The lack of rejection from others in my life likely means that I am not telling very many people about their need for Jesus and that he is the only one that can help them get into a right relationship with God.

Do you experience widespread acceptance from others like me?

On one hand, this is a sign that we are living too much for this life (rather than the next and we need to change to be like Jesus). And on the other, it is a sign that I need the hope of the gospel, which we will get to shortly.

Application (You)

Yet, these beatitudes challenge us to reorient the way we live to focus on the next life instead of this one.

Okay, what should change about my lifestyle now if this is the case?

We cannot say I am blessed by God and also at the same time spending our lives chasing the world’s values: wealth, comfort, pleasure, and acceptance from others.[19] We can’t choose both the American dream and Jesus’s upside down kingdom.[20] This new value system of Jesus’s kingdom will lead you to live with sacrifice so that others can be blessed by God too. If you have more questions about what this will look like in day to day life, Jesus is going to fill out what this kind of life looks like in the sermons we will preach in the next few weeks as his sermon continues.

In anticipation of this, I want us to each ask ourselves two questions to help us reorient our values to the blessed life.

1. Have you ever made a decision that only made sense in light of eternity and does not make sense in the world’s eyes?

2. What decision could God be calling you to make in the near future that makes sense only in the next life when Jesus will complete these great reversals?

A great example of living for the next life instead of this one, that we will see later in Luke (in Luke 14), is whom do you spend time with?  Does your time go into people who can repay you in this life, or do you also open up your life to spending time with people who cannot give you anything in return in this life? This could include difficult friends and people, the materially poor, not yet Christians who don’t love you back.

Glorification (Jesus)

At this point, you may feel as if I have laid a burden on your shoulders with the challenge to live according to these kingdom values. Yet, I want to remind you of a stunning reality about this new law that Jesus delivered to us:

This new law does not begin with what you must do (or what you bring to the table), it begins with what you lack: the first principle of Jesus’s new law is that you come to him as a needy person: he calls those who are “poor” toward him “blessed.” They don’t start with what we bring to the table; they start with what he brings to the table.

The beatitudes are not first and foremost a to-do list (although they challenge the way they live), they are primarily good news.[21] Jesus does not expect you to come to him with your life perfectly in line with these kingdom values.

Jesus knows that he is the only one who has lived who perfectly embodies these beatitudes: he is perfect where I fail everyday. And in the greatest reversal of all, the king of the world humbled himself to die in the place of sinners like me.

Later in the gospel, after Jesus rises from the dead, he is explaining these events to the disciples. He says in chapter 24,

46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

The death of Jesus was planned by God to pay for the sins of his people so that anyone who comes to him as poor and in need of God’s forgiveness could receive acceptance from God.[22] If Jesus did not die, there would be no hope for any of us because of our sins before a holy God. Yet, because Jesus did die, there is hope for anyone who will turn to him in trust and faith.

That’s why Jesus can say, “blessed are the poor.” In other words, blessed is anyone who knows they need God to forgive their sins.

So, Christian, if you feel burdened and crushed that you are living too much for this life and not enough for the next, you are the poor and Jesus has mercy and forgiveness for you (and invites you to come to him in faith and repentance).

Also, if you are not yet a follower of Jesus, and would like to receive this forgiveness and future from Jesus (or have any  more questions), please reach out to me or any of our members, we would love to answer your questions.

[1] Cf. Cf. Calvin, John. Harmony of Matthew, Mark, Luke. Translated by David W. Rev. William Pringle. Vol. 1. Calvin’s Commentaries 23 Volume Set. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2009, 259.

[2] Bock, D. L. (1996). Luke (p. 186). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[3] John Macarthur, The Character of a True Christian, Part 1, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-84/the-character-of-a-true-christian-part-1.

[4] Cf. Calvin, John. Harmony of Matthew, Mark, Luke. Translated by David W. Rev. William Pringle. Vol. 1. Calvin’s Commentaries 23 Volume Set. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2009, 258.

[5] Cf. Pao, D. W., & Schnabel, E. J. (2007). Luke. In Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament (p. 295). Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos; The Bible Project Podcast, https://bibleproject.com/podcasts/the-bible-project-podcast/.

[6] Harden, J. M. (1921). Dictionary of the Vulgate New Testament (p. 13). London; New York: Society of Promoting Christian Knowledge; The Macmillan Co.

[7] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 610). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[8] Bock, D. L. (1996). Luke (p. 187). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[9] Scaer, D. P. (1996). Beatitudes. In Evangelical dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 53). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

[10]  Scaer, D. P. (1996). Beatitudes. In Evangelical dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 53). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

[11] Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 249). Exeter: Paternoster Press.

[12]  Schreiner, T. R. (2008). New Testament theology: magnifying God in Christ (p. 547). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

[13] Mark Driscoll inspired me to use this refrain in his sermon on this same text, https://markdriscoll.org/sermons/the-beatitudes-part-1/. 

[14] Scaer, D. P. (1996). Beatitudes. In Evangelical dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 54). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

[15] Cf.  Scaer, D. P. (1996). Beatitudes. In Evangelical dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 54). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

[16] Mark Discoll, The Beatitudes Part 1, https://markdriscoll.org/sermons/the-beatitudes-part-1/. 

[17] Bovon, F., & Koester, H. (2002). Luke 1: a commentary on the Gospel of Luke 1:1–9:50 (p. 225). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

[18] Green, J. B. (1997). The Gospel of Luke (pp. 267–268). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

[19] Mark Discoll, The Beatitudes Part 1, https://markdriscoll.org/sermons/the-beatitudes-part-1/. 

[20] Inspired by remarks made by Sam Choi.

[21] Wilson, Jared C. Imperfect Disciple. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2017, 42.

[22] Cf. Scaer, D. P. (1996). Beatitudes. In Evangelical dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 54). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Daniel Simmons

Exegetical Main Point:

Jesus called and trained twelve Apostles to spread his Kingdom in the world. The calling of these new leaders is a judgment on Israel and the creation of a new people of God. 

Sermon Main Point: Jesus called twelve ordinary men upon which he would build his church.  

Intro

Do you ever struggle to believe that God could use someone like you? I do, quite often. 

In fact, I’m seeing more clearly that not just a few of us, but many, have a hard time believing that God could use us. Our lives our too messy. We believe that God only calls the qualified, those with good pasts, the ones who seem to have it all together. 

Sure, God saving us is one thing, but using us as effective evangelists, leaders, or for any other noteworthy kingdom building activity is another thing.  

If you feel unqualified, you’re in good company, and God has good news for you.

Today’s passage shows us that the Kingdom of God is much different than the kingdom of this world. Jesus’s kingdom building strategy is rather surprising. He didn’t choose who you would expect to be his leaders, he called twelve very ordinary men. 

My prayer today is that you will see and believe in the God who makes the most unworthy sinners into beautiful and incredibly important in his kingdom. 

Let’s get into the text. Verse 12:

12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 

The first three words, “in these days”, call us to consider the context. Jesus’s influence was growing. Everywhere he went he preached powerfully and power for healing came from him. 

The Messiah had come to release Israel’s burdens and bring them into his rest. But the religious leaders were too distracted by their own influence and power to see that the Kingdom of God had dawned on them in Jesus. Instead, they wanted Jesus dead and they conspired his murder together. 

The pressures of ministry were building. How did Jesus respond?  

Look again at verse 12. 

First, Jesus got alone and prayed…all night. Before doing anything, he spent time with his Father. He did the thing that seems so unnatural to us, the thing that often feels like you are doing nothing at all. He didn’t worry. He didn’t sin out of anger at those who were rejecting him. He put his faith in God and talked to him. 

Prayer is nothing more than a conversation with God. God started the conversation by speaking to us first through his word, and now we make our requests known to him because he welcomes it. 

Notice that Jesus went out to a mountain. Jesus got alone. He found a place where he could get away from the craziness of life, ministry, and worries, like some of us need to do today, and sought God for direction. 

Jesus prayed all night. He didn’t whisper a five second prayer in this moment of need, though I’m sure he also did that regularly. He didn’t give up when he got tired, bored, or felt like God wasn’t listening. No, he waited on God.

What about you? Think about the last big decision you had to make, the last time you were under pressure. Moving? A relationship? Job? Something that would significantly affect your time and money. How long did you wait on God in prayer? Pause. 

I’m not good at this. In fact, I don’t think people in our circles are very good at this. Some of us don’t know how to pray for more than five minutes, let alone all night! We want the quick fix, check the box and move forward kind of prayer life. But Jesus models for us a relationship with God that wrestles and waits and deliberates with God over hard decisions.[1]

As you’ll see, God’s plans are not always in line with what would make most sense to us in this world. His wisdom is different than man’s wisdom. For this reason, we must seek him and wait on him in prayer.  

Some of us go to the opposite extreme and we are crippled by hard decisions. Some of us simply need to get up and do something. 

But I think, for the majority of us, we could grow in sitting with God, with his Word open in front of us, letting him guide our thoughts and decisions about important things.

Do not overlook this, friends. 

Jesus’s kingdom strategy was always birthed out of a place of communion with his Father in prayer. In fact, Jesus tells his disciples that he only did what he saw his Father doing” (Jn 5:19). 

We must follow our master in this way. We must not be a prayerless church who makes our own strategy while never approaching our master for direction. 

Let’s look at verse 13:

 “When day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles.”

Jesus didn’t go to bed after staying up all night. He had plans from God to fulfill. It is implied here that Jesus received direction from God in this night of prayer who he would appoint as apostles. 

Jesus evidently had many disciples following him at this point and on this day he called them all together and chose from them twelve. Can you imagine having your name called that day. Everyone standing together and Jesus calling out one after another up to twelve. 

Jesus wanted these particular men near him. These men would be Jesus’s closest friends, those with whom he would share his last meal; he would wash their feet. He would even be betrayed by one of them. 

And he named them Apostles.  

What does it mean that Jesus “named” them Apostles? This word Apostle simply means “one who is sent”. There are others in Scripture who are called apostles but this group was unique, and everybody knew it. They are an exclusive group referred to as “the Twelve” in the rest of the Scriptures. 

Jesus had a particular purpose and mission in mind for these men. These twelve, in fact, would be the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20). They would witness Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection and instruct the church in all that they had seen and been taught.

Why twelve? Do you remember where else this number shows up in Scripture? 

Just as there were twelve tribes in Israel, Jesus appointed twelve apostles.  

Jesus’ choice of twelvewas a deliberate move with a deliberate message. 

This act was, in part, a judgment on Israel, who had long been unfaithful to God in their purpose of multiplying and spreading his name and kingdom over all the earth. 

So, God was doing something new. The Kingdom would no longer spread through the expansion of Israel’s borders or through access to the temple. 

People would no longer belong to God on the basis of their ethnic identity or adherence to the Law, but rather on the basis of their relationship with Jesus. Through him they would live faithful lives. I will unpack this more later in this sermon. 

In fact, Luke hints at this in verse 17 where the crowds were made up of both Jews from Judea and Jerusalem and Gentilesfrom Tyre and Sidon. This New Covenant people would be made up of both Jew and Gentile. 

In calling the twelve Jesus was showing that he was creating a New Covenant people of God through Jesus, a people who would spread his kingdom over all the earth. 

Now let’s discuss what men Jesus chose to found this new people. They were probably highly skilled and successful people right? 

Let’s look at verse 14 and meet the team. I will highlight a few of them.  

There’s little known about this group of men, but of all of them Simon Peter the Galilean fisherman, whom Luke has already introduced to us in chapter 5 is most well-known. In every list of the twelve Peter is mentioned first as he seems to be a first among equals on this team. 

Andrew was Peter’s brother. James and John were also fishermen and perhaps business partners with Peter and would make up Jesus’s inner circle along with Peter. 

Matthew, who was also called Levi, is the tax collector we read about in the last chapter. He would end up writing the Gospel of Matthew. 

Thomas, who is called “the twin” is best known for being the doubter of Jesus’ resurrection. Sad to be caught with that reputation! 

Simon the zealot was a part of a revolutionary group that hated the Romans and looked for opportunities to murder and overthrow them. He and “Judas the son of James” who is also called Thaddeus in other lists is mentioned just four times.[2]

Judas Iscariot, apparently the only one from outside of Galilee, finishes every list because of the fact that he is known as the traitor who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. 

What do these men have in common? At least two things: 1) They are incredibly ordinary men and 2) they have very little in common. 

They aren’t who you’d expect God to choose as the core leaders of his church. This was a weird bunch, an extremely ordinary bunch. Not the priests. Not the politicians. Not the famous. Fishermen and tax collectors!

This was a bold move! It was downright dangerous to have Matthew, the tax collector, who worked for the Romans anywhere near Simon the zealot. I wonder if Jesus often caught the two eyeing each other suspiciously. 

You’ve got blue-collar fishermen, a city boy, married guys with kids along with young singles. 

What was Jesus thinking?!Jesus wanted to start a new team and change the world and this was the team he picked? Jesus had a short time to train them and then he would be killed. There was no plan b, guys. Everything rested on these guys! 

Ultimately, the one thing that brought this rag tag bunch together was Jesus, the one who transforms lowly sinners and big mouths like Peter, into Apostles who would be used to write Scripture, establish the church, and turn the world upside down!   

Don’t you see? This is our humble beginning, a foretaste of what the Church would be like, a complicated mess of people who would be empowered by God’s Spirit to change the world. This would be a church made up of All Peoples. All Peoples Church. 

So Jesus had his team. Now what is the first step Jesus takes in preparing these men for their work? Verse 17:  17And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

We’re told that after Jesus called the twelve he came down “with them” and immediately began ministering to the crowds. 

Notice the words “with them”. Jesus brought the twelve along in his ministry. This, friends, is discipleship. Jesus had the twelve “with him” so that he could demonstrate the kingdom through miracle working and to teach what the kingdom was like. 

Jesus didn’t buy a building and invite the twelve to come on Sunday’s at 5pm each week for a lesson. No, he brought them out into real life ministry and let them see how it works. Jesus spent nearly every waking moment with these men, equipping, empowering, and sending them to do what he did and teach what he taught. 

But this was only the beginning of the training. They would not be spectators for long as Jesus would soon give the same authority to these men to heal, cast out demons, and proclaim the kingdom. In Acts, Luke even describes the Apostles as having the same sort of power coming out from them for healing! 

This is why we believe and teach that discipleship is best done in the context of everyday life where we can be with each other and see the gospel incarnate into the everyday stuff of life. 

Jesus shows us that discipleship is better caught than merely taught. 

This is Jesus’s idea of disciple-making, and it lasted for three short years until his death. 

And it would continue by the Spirit after he ascended. 

God’s strategy is not like ours. In the incarnation, he became an ordinary man so that he could call ordinary men to watch him and see him live. He didn’t try to convert the world powers. He chose to raise up a small group of ordinary men to train and send as his messengers. 

This is where you and me fit in. 

This was our start, church. It begins here. We exist today as a church through the Apostle’s Spirit-empowered witness. The Gospel has come down from one generation to the next through other faithful disciple-makers.   

And we who are trusting Jesus are the people of God! 

We’re a weird bunch like the Apostles, made up of sinners from every background, ethnicity, and social class, but transformed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

Most of us are not the elite of society, the rich, or powerful, but God has chosen us and filled us with his Holy Spirit for the cause of his kingdom advancement on earth. 

Don’t you see? God loves to call the ordinary to do his work. 

Why? Because it shows off his glory!  When God uses ordinary people to transform the world, there is no confusion about who gets the credit for it. 

The Apostle Paul calls God the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist (Rom 4:17). There’s no boasting if you were dead and someone made you alive is there? 

You may be ordinary, even unqualified, but in Christ and by the Holy Spirit, you have become an indispensable part of the team.

Man looks at outward appearances. But God is not partial and will use anyone who puts their faith in him. I hope you’re not still wondering if he wants to use you.  

So how should we live if this is who we are? 

Know your place and rejoice in it.God doesn’t make mistakes. God chooses particular people and leaders in particular times and places for the advance of his kingdom. Some of you are going to be like Peter who was a well-known prominent leader, and some of you will be like Bartholomew who was mentioned only once in Scripture but historically went on to accomplish great things for God. If you are named in the Lamb’s book of life, you have a reason to rejoice!

Pray and pick a team to train up. Before Jesus ascended, he spoke the mission statement of the church, in which is given the chief command, to make disciples. This is Jesus’s strategy! If you want to change the world, replicate Christ by calling and training others to go and do the same. 

Jesus came down “with them”. He modeled the kingdom for them. 

In our circles we think discipleship means 1) giving a book for someone to read 2) or just talking it out. There’s a lot of information dumping. 

But the reality is most people don’t learn like that. Most people through history learned through apprenticeship. They watched someone model for them how to live and work and play and rest. 

Yes, books are helpful. Yes, talking will be weaved throughout the process, but we need to rethink our discipleship strategy based on Jesus’ model. 

We need to showour disciples how to fight, forgive, and reconcile. We need to showour disciples how to share the Gospel, how to pray, how to study and apply the Bible. We need to have people live with us, have people in our homes and around us so that we can show others how to rejoice in victories and take big hits. 

I want to challenge you this week to consider who God is calling you to disciple? I want each of you to spend some time in prayer this week and let God show you who you could walk with in this kind of way. Consider journaling out what God is showing you and share it with your DNA groups so that they can help you be faithful to what God is calling you to. 

Who has God given you a voice in their life? Speaking of DNA’s, this is the perfect place to put this in action. In fact, this is the whole purpose of that ministry structure! We’re trying to replicate Jesus’s model in our context. 

Perhaps there are a few in your Missional Community who you could invite into more of what you are doing, that you could spend more time in prayer and word together. 

How about outside of the church? Are their neighbors or co-workers who you have influence over? Maybe it’s time to invite them into your life in a new way for discipleship. 

If you don’t know who to disciple, find someone who knows just a little less about the Bible than you do and just ask them to spend some time with you. 

But discipleship doesn’t stop there. Not only are you called to make disciples. You are a disciple! Who in the church do you know that lives out the kingdom? 

Follow them. Don’t make this weird. But simply look for ways to get around these individuals and ask a lot of good questions. Let them model it for you – even if that’s over zoom!

Are you taking seriously Jesus’s call to make disciples? 

Let’s realign our strategy with Jesus’s strategy. It seems to have been effective. 

This is God’s plan to transform the world. There is no plan b. He chose to change the world through ordinary men and women who train up other ordinary men and women to follow Jesus in the same way. 

Follow him. Maybe you’re not yet a disciple of Jesus.In the same way Jesus called these men to come and follow him, Jesus is calling you today to come follow him, to lay down your old life and find new life in him. On the cross Jesus paid the way for you to be his and to join his team. He rose from death proving that his team will be victorious, so you must repent so that you won’t have to die and face his judgment for rebelling against his kingdom. Every sinner who calls on Jesus gets to join the team as an essential member. Lay down your doubts and fears about your inadequacies and let him define your value and purpose.  

[1]For a helpful resource on extended prayer see http://www.stmichaelsnc.org.au/The%20Hour%20That%20Changes%20the%20World.pdf

[2]https://markdriscoll.org/sermons/jesus-calls-the-twelve/

Sam Choi

Main Point of the Sermon:

As the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus redeems the practice from burden to blessing.

Intro

For much of my life, people called me driven.

Driven is a funny word. Because we think its a positive word. And it can be.

But you have to ask yourself, what or who is driving you?

For many years, I was driven by a sense of approval. I needed to be good enough. Talented enough. Funny enough. I needed to prove myself. So this inward sense drove me to work hard.

Even after I became a Christian I was still driven to perform. Driven to be better than other Christians. Seeking approval from God and especially others.

I was given an impression early on that there are “Good Christians.” And those who aren’t. I wanted to be good.

For the last 10 years, God has been liberating me from my need to be good enough because Jesus was good enough for me. I am being liberated from my need to accomplish. I am slowly learning how to rest in Jesus’ life, death, and love for me.

Do you struggle with feeling like you’re never doing enough? Measuring enough? Working enough? Holy enough?

Maybe you’re sick and tired of not being good enough. Constantly under a burden and feel like God is unhappy with you.

I have good news for you!

Passages like the one we are looking at today are helpful. 

This is a hard text. But with some work, it really can be a liberator for many of us.

›    Before we jump in, we’re going to be looking at the context. ALWAYS!

Then we will look at two different scenes occurring on the Sabbath.

Context

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

“Liberty to the oppressed”

We have seen Jesus liberate people from demonic oppression, physical affliction, and cultural rejection over and over since his announcement in chapter 4.

Now, we will see Jesus liberate those who were oppressed by what the Jewish leaders turned the law into.

Jesus is giving an example of this new paradigm, the new covenant that Jesus introduced in our last passage regarding the wineskins and garments.

The First Sabbath: Luke 6:1

Lk 6:1

“On a Sabbath”Let’s stop here and do a quick study on what the Sabbath is.

The Sabbath is very foreign for those who are not familiar with the Bible and even for those who grew up in the Church can be deeply confused about it.

What’s the Sabbath?

Deut 5:12-14

12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…

And then he lists every person and animal in a community.

This was a radical law, unheard of in that time for God to call a whole nation to rest one day  a week!

This was not normal to give people a day of rest especially everyone: man, woman, child, servant, and animal.

It was supposed to a blessing to the whole community!

If we continue reading,

15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

The Sabbath is a weekly reminder of their liberation, they are no longer slaves and God, He had redeemed them!

What the Sabbath Became

If you want to jot down Ezekiel 20:12-13 we see that Israel ended up ignoring the Sabbath and perverting the original design. This was one of the significant reasons why they were exiled from their land.

The Sabbath was such an important domino habit.

I’ve talked about it before. Domino habits are those habits that when you do them well, they domino into many other habits and other blessings in your life.

A weekly ceasing of work, to remember who they were, who God was, and what he had done was a game changer. If they lost that, then they would find themselves slipping in many other areas.

The Jews, once returned to their land, knowing how important Sabbath was made a commitment to make sure they never mess up on it again.

The Pharisees were one of the most influential groups in Israel and they believed that Israel was impure. Many believed if they followed God’s commands well enough, the Messiah would come and bring the kingdom!

But instead of focusing on the heart, which is much harder, they focused on creating  more rules around the law so that they wouldn’t even come near to breaking the law. They did something some call hedging.

For example, let’s say you struggle avoiding porn, which is breaking a straight up commandment of not lusting. You could create an additional law to never use electronics. This would almost guarantee you would never look at porn. However, it wouldn’t address the heart. Then, in your zeal. you could condemn anyone who uses a computer because your man-made law was being violated. Hedging is not a problem, but imposing your hedge on others is.

Thus, by the time Jesus steps into the scene, the Sabbath was no longer a blessing and was hardly recognizable.

Here are some rules they created:

•    Fires could not be lit.

•    Fires could not be put out.

•    You could only walk a certain distance from your house.

•    You couldn’t take a bath because the water could flow off of you and wash the floor.

•    Women couldn’t look in a mirror or put on any jewelry.

•    If you were to find a white hair, you would have to wait till the Sabbath is over to pluck it out.

•    They had about 39 rules on the kind of work that was forbidden on the Sabbath.

Sounds like a restful day, huh?

Instead of being THE highlight of the week, they learned to dread it.

It became like Monday's are to many workers.

It was a duty not a delight.

It wasn’t a weekly sign of their liberation but their slavery to traditions and cultural expectations.

Eventually, these traditions became as important if not more important than the actual God-given law for many Jews.

And based on how well you fulfilled the law gained a sense of social acceptance and for many, acceptance towards God.

They made the rules more important than people and more important than God.

They focused on outward appearances rather than the heart.

›    So now that we understand their context, back to our passage,

1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”

God commanded farmers to leave the edges of their fields unplowed so travelers and the poor could pluck some with their hands and eat (Deut 23:25).

However, the stalker Pharisees have a problem with this because they’re doing this on the Sabbath.

A sub-theme I will trace throughout this sermon is different characteristics of Pharisees. It’s important to take note since its something we all can struggle with in different ways.

The Pharisees already dislike Jesus since he’s calling filthy tax collectors and traitors like Levi to follow him. There’s no way he can be the messiah!

Notice what the Pharisee accuse them of doing?

What is not LAWFUL!

They didn’t say, “You know, some people say… or one teacher thinks.” They called it law!

It was absolutely fine to walk through and eat grain.

So why did the Pharisees think what they were doing was against the law?

Scholar, Leon Morris helps us understand their issue:

When the disciples picked some heads of grain, the Pharisees thought they were reaping.

When they rubbed them in their hands to separate the wheat from the chaff, they considered this threshing and winnowing.

And when they started to eat the grain, they were guilty of preparing food on the Sabbath. So with every mouthful, the disciples were violating the law four different ways.

›    Jesus responds

Jesus’ Response: Luke 6:3–5

3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?”

“Have you not read” is Jesus’ implicit rebuke that they have read it but they’re totally missed the point.

The story is recorded in 1 Samuel 21:1–6, which you don’t have to turn to.

So David is fleeing from King Saul as he’s a jealous mess and wants to kill David. David and his company are hungry so the priest gives him and his men the bread of the presence. However, this bread was only supposed to be eaten by the priests at the end of the week. These 12 loaves represented the 12 tribes of Israel and would be place on the altar in the house of God. At the end of the week, the bread would be replaced with fresh loaves.

It seems like David’s arrival was on the Sabbath since the old loaves were available.

On this one occasion, the high priest gave this special bread to David and his men to eat as they were fleeing from Saul. Although the priests were the only ones allowed to eat this bread, God never punishes David or his men for this act.

Why was it ok since he wasn’t a priest?

David and the priest understood the heart of God which was later expressed in Hosea 6:6.

6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

It seems like David’s understanding and Jesus’ point is that, at least in this case, the ceremonial law which stated only priests could eat the bread, bowed to the law of love in human survival.

David understood the heart of the Sabbath was for the good of man. It was supposed to be a life-giving blessing. And his men were starving and in danger so they ate the bread.

Jesus’ question has the Pharisees in a dilemma.

•    David was the hero king of all Israelites.

•    They wouldn’t dare charge David of sin.

•    And yet, David breaks a god-given law on the sabbath.

Jesus is calling out their hypocrisy and their inconsistency.

The logic of Jesus’ point is this:

If David could be allowed by a priest to violate a God-given law on the Sabbath, then the disciples could certainly be allowed by the Son of Man to violate a man-made law on the Sabbath!

(Inspired by John MacArthur)

5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Whoah!

For those who knew the Scriptures, Jesus was making a huge claim here. He’s identifying himself as the Son of Man which he just did in the last chapter,

24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

So the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins!

Pastor Ross unpacked Daniel 7 as the most significant Old Testament reference for the Son of Man but basically, the emphasis is that he’s a king and has all authority and all peoples will serve him forever. 

He’s explaining to all that who would have ears to hear,

The Jews were longing for the Messiah to come, and yet, Jesus’ reference to 1 Samuel is dripping with connections that he is the son of David longed for:

•    Jesus is from the line of David.

•    David goes into the house of God. Jesus is ultimately the house of God.

•    Jesus is the high priest.

•    They eat the bread of the presence. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us and is the bread of life.

•    David takes the bread and passes it with those with him.

•    Jesus will do the same at the Last supper, foreshadowing his death.

•    David was betrayed by his father-in-law, Saul.

•    Jesus is betrayed by one of his friends.

I’m the one you are searching for and yet they can’t see it or perhaps, don’t want to see it!

›    Jesus is going to further reverse the Sabbath back to blessing from burden.

Another Sabbath: Luke 6:6-7

6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.

So this is a small enough town where everyone knew everyone.

This man was known by all.

And he had an issue with his right hand, which is a big deal.

The Jewish tradition was that you could heal others on the Sabbath, only if it would save their life.

This guy had this issue for a long time probably. And could go another day.

The Pharisees are learning that Jesus cares about people and is able to heal. So they are looking for to catch Jesus in the wrong to accuse him.

Jesus has a big issue with their mindset. So he’s going to right at them. He doesn’t avoid the controversy and wait for the next day, lest they misunderstand him. He believes that the Pharisees’ legalism is hurting people so he’s going to go at them!

Let me show you the heart of legalism.

Turn to Luke 18. Jesus describes a Pharisee and a tax collector both going to the temple and their different attitudes.

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:

Legalism is one of the greatest enemies so Jesus is using their understanding of the Sabbath to expose and destroy it.

8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored.

So Jesus sets them up and exposes them.

He asks them a question they can’t answer without contradicting themselves. They can’t say, “Do harm or destroy life.” So they stay quiet.

He shows them the heart of the law.

The Sabbath was supposed to be a blessing, not a burden.

It wasn’t as much of what you CAN’T  do but what you CAN do.

It was supposed to be for the good of people.

Which is one of the biggest misconceptions of our culture. Christianity is all about rules. God is the ultimate kill-joy.

However, the Law is supposed to give life!

There is good reason behind EVERYTHING God commands us to do.

Our problem is that we naturally love the things that harm us and ultimately spiritually kill us!

Jesus looks them down and calls the man to do what he cannot do, stretch out his hand.

Marvel at the authority! No dance, no chanting, no hoping. Just commanded and the man is miraculously healed.

The Pharisees’ response: 6:11

11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

What is wrong with these guys?

Instead of bowing in worship after seeing someone they knew delivered from a debilitating disability, they are filled with fury.

Their power is threatened and their whole system and life is challenged.

They don’t want the messiah. They want their power and their way!

The text says literally, “They were filled with madness.” They begin their process of plotting his murder according to Matthew’s account.

So apparently, you can’t heal and pick up grain on the Sabbath but you can begin to plot murder???

A natural question you may be wondering is if Christians have to observe the Sabbath?

Last April, I preached a whole sermon on Sabbath for the Christian titled: 24/6: A Way to a Vibrant Life

I’m not going to give you the answer here because I won’t have the proper amount of time to unpack how we understand our relationship with the Old Testament law.

If you didn’t hear it or need a refresher, please check it out this week.

Good News for the Weary

›    The actual weekly practice of a Sabbath was not the main heart of this passage though.

Jesus is waging war against legalism. Against perverting God’s good and holy law. Making God’s ways a burden, rather than a blessing.

A way to earn, rather than a way to live.

The specific battle in our Text today was the Sabbath.

So let’s go back to the heart of what Jesus is trying to accomplish.

Are you tired of not being holy enough, not loving people enough, not killing sin enough, no reading enough?

Or perhaps:

not working enough, not earning enough, not accomplishing enough, not advancing enough, not traveling enough, not experiencing enough?

And even if you do enough, work enough, and accomplish enough, it’s never enough. There’s always tomorrow. You’re never satisfied, there’s always more work to do then there’s time in the day.

Jesus has good news for us!

Jesus wants to set free those who are bondage to sin.

And also those who are in bondage of always trying to be good enough.

We have all failed at to keep the God’s law. The most basic law of loving him with all of our being.

The law requires that we die for that failure. But Jesus has come to perfectly fulfill the law.

But Jesus died for our sins and took our punishment he cried out,

IT IS FINISHED!!!

So the Law says, “DO” but Christ says, “Done!”

So Jesus finished the work we could never accomplish so now we can rest in him.

It’s like if you go to work on Monday after totally screwing up the previous week, and you expect the boss to tear you to shreds. Instead, she says, “You can go home. Someone else did all your work for you this week. In fact that they did it much better than you could ever do it. And they want you to have the paycheck plus a bonus. Enjoy the week off!”

Except in our case, it’s a life-time. And it’s spiritual. Jesus lived the life we should have lived and so now we are counted as if we lived the life he did!

For unbelievers

Maybe you say, “I will come to Jesus but I need to clean my act up a little first.”

You will never be clean enough unless you simply come in your mess and let Jesus wash you.

Jesus was clean so that we who are unclean might be clean.

We don’t need to work our way to God, for Jesus already worked on our behalf!

And when we trust him, he puts his spirit in us and performs powerful works through us!

Our works don’t earn his love or acceptance, they flow from his love and acceptance.

So turn from your control, your attempts of being good enough, and put your trust and allegiance in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

For Christians

You may need to repent for pushing your man-made laws onto others. Condemning them. Judging them. Putting your preferences and personal convictions as equal to or greater than God’s law.

Maybe you need to lay down your works again and freshly put your trust in Christ’s work for you. Perhaps you’re a follower of Jesus but you have subtly fallen into the trap of trying to earn your approval again. Pray enough. Read enough. Do good enough.

You feel a persistent anxiety and sense God is not pleased with you.

Lay it down and receive the Father’s love through the perfect work of his Son.

Amen!

Benediction and Commission?

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Pastor Ross preaches on Revelation 21. 

Easter 2020

Ross Tenneson / General

Easter / Resurrection; Garden of Eden / Revelation 21:10

Summary

Sermon Main Point: Jesus’s resurrection opens the way for us to reach home.

Connection (me)

All of us desire to find true home. Home is the place where you feel complete acceptance, security, and hope for the future (most of us have experienced these things at some point in our lives, even if it was short lived). Inevitably, no matter how good your life gets, we feel a lack of those things: we feel alienation from others and a sense of discontentment or dread. Our COVID 19 situation has likely increased this sense as we feel a greater sense of isolation and less certainty about the future. 

We can try to cope with that feeling in a number of ways. I for one am a very nostalgic person. Often my thoughts will drift to a blue lake cottage in Northern Minnesota with the nicest grandparents you could picture and great friends next door and a seemingly endless stretch of summer days. Yet, there is no getting back there and dreaming of bygone days does not heal my heart in the present.

Others of you may not have good days to be nostalgic about; maybe it would be a long stretch to call the house you grew up in a “home.”  Perhaps you imagine how your past could be different or picture a future day where you finally have the family, the job, or the retirement you are looking for and will be able to be secure.

All of us are on a common quest to find our true home, and the desire in our heart is the evidence of this truth. 

Tension (we)

What does the Bible have to say about our desire to find true home and our difficult experience of not reaching it? What does the resurrection of Jesus have to do, if anything, with our desire for a place where we belong and are secure and happy?

Revelation (God)

The Garden

In order to answer these questions, I want to tell you a story.[1] This story will span the entire length of the Bible and cover many thousands of years. As a result, it will be a universal, cosmic story that will appeal and relate to anyone from any background. In this story, I will draw connections with biblical imagery and focus on the pattern of finding home.

The Bible begins with the story of God creating the world. He creates the first being Adam and places him in the home he made for him.

What kind of home is it?

Here is what Genesis 2:8-10 says,

8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches.

Eden is apparently the name of the region God put the man because God planted the garden in Eden. The word “Eden”  means “delight.” The verse says that “a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.” Here is one important detail I want to share about the text even though it is not stated clearly here: Scripture suggests that Eden was a mountain. So, there is a river flowing down the mountain to water the garden that was upon it. The mountain is called “Eden” and the “Garden of Eden” sits upon it.

Why would I make the point that I think Eden is a mountain?

As the story progresses, we will see more mountain imagery that will point to Eden being a mountain and connect what God is doing in the future to Eden. Also, there is a verse  in the the book of Ezekiel that suggests Eden was a mountain. It’s kind of a mysterious passage that we can’t fully explain right now, but I want to read part of chapter 28, verses 13 and 14:

“You were in Eden, that garden of God..I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God.”[2]

Did you catch that in verse 14? Ezekiel refers to Eden as “the holy mountain of God.” So, we have good reason to believe that Eden was a mountain. Now, there is another important piece of information I want to share. Gen 3:8 says,

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

This leaps a little ahead in the story, so don’t worry, we will catch up soon. I want us instead to focus on the verse describing “the Lord God walking in the garden.” His walking represents his “presence.” This exact language will describe the Temple later in the Scriptures. 

 The author of Genesis is tipping his hat that the garden of Eden is the first temple. In the Bible, a temple is where God especially reveals his presence and makes himself known. This means that the highest purpose of this mountain garden is so that mankind could share a relationship with maker. 

 If we put all of this together (I know this is going to sound a little weird), we find that the home God prepared for his first people was a garden... mountain... temple. This garden mountain temple was true home for humanity: it contained everything people could ever want or need.

First, it is a garden. The garden shows that Eden was a place of abundant provision. God gave Adam everything he needed. The most spectacular moment of God’s provision is when he creates Eve in the garden and gives her to Adam. They would get to cultivate and rule over this delightful land God had created for them. There would be perfect smells, perfect taste, perfect sights all around.

Second, it is a mountain. The mountain could show that Adam and Eve will encounter the greatness of God in this place. The height of the mountain points to this.

Third, it is a temple. Adam and Eve will share intimacy with God in this place.

On top of this, there was the complete absence of pain and death. God’s imagination and goodness is so great in creating this place for people! I could never come up with the idea of a garden mountain temple on my own. Yet God devised this place to meet everyone’s needs completely (most of all by sharing himself with people in this place). There was no possibility of lack or want in the garden of Eden; no one could create a better place than this for people to live.

I know it can be a struggle to believe that God is good when our situation is painful. Yet, I just want to remind you that this was God’s original plan for our world: to give us the greatest home our imaginations can conceive of. After Adam and Eve sin and destroy our access to this place, God continues to act in the Scriptures to bring us back to it. How could a being who creates such a place and faithfully acts to bring undeserving people back to it be a bad person? It’s impossible; he could only be good.

Yet, sadly we know that Adam and Eve did not remain in their true home long. God said in Gen 2:16, 17 that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree in the garden except for the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” He warned that “in the day they would eat of it, they would surely die.”

God had surrounded them with a world of “yes’s”— they could eat from any tree. He commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were to trust him to define what was good and evil instead of seizing that role for themselves. Yet, after the devil, a fallen angel, tempts them to take the fruit from that tree, they made the worst decision in history. They commit treason against God by disobeying his commandment. God responds by banishing them from Eden, since his holy presence was there and God cannot dwell with anything unholy. He sets two angels to guard the way back into the garden, called “Cherubim.” I want you to try to remember the word “Cherubim” because it is going to come up again. Since then, all of the human race has been born, lived, and died outside of the true home God had originally created for us.

Did you remember what God said would happen to Adam and Eve in the day they ate of the tree of knowledge?

He says, “in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” Now Adam and Eve’s bodies didn’t die in that very same day like we might expect. Instead, they were cast out of the garden and out of God’s presence. Here is the point: the author depicts their removal from the garden, their separation from God’s presence and true home, as part of death. In other words, death is about more than just your body dying in the Scriptures, it also includes humanity losing access to the place you were designed to live.  And if losing our home is part of death, then getting it back is part of resurrection.

Jerusalem

As the story of the Bible unfolds, we see generations pass who are looking for a return to true home and for the one who (unlike Adam and Eve) will be obedient and be able to open the way back into Eden. Yet, the sinful failings we see in each successive generation shows that they are not the one. One character named Abraham captures this sense of disappointment when he says in Genesis 23, “I am a foreigner and a stranger.” 

Do those words capture how you feel about this world, which, although it is so good in some ways, is also so broken in others?

David and Solomon

Expectation and hope in the Old Testament that God will restore his original design for creation reach their height in King David and his son Solomon.  David becomes king in Israel which the Bible describes as “flowing with milk and honey,” which means that it is an Eden-like place where God will provide for his people. As part of his military conquest, he captures Jerusalem, a city situated on five hills. David rules over his kingdom from his mountain-city and his people flourish. His son Solomon builds a temple on the mountain of Jersualem.

Is anyone making some connections here?

Moreover, 1 Kings 6 describes some of the features of the temple:

It should have engraved “Cherubim” and “Palm trees” and “open flowers”

God had Solomon fill the temple with garden imagery. So, the city of Jerusalem is another garden mountain temple. It’s all pointing back to the true home that Adam and Eve forfeited and God means to restore. Yet, David and Solomon both failed their tests: Like Adam, they give into temptation rather than trusting God. They also could not be the ones who would restore true home.

What do we learn from these stories?

(1) By the repeated use of the imagery of a garden mountain temple, God is showing that even though his people are faithless, he is faithfully working to restore our access to true home. Jerusalem is not this true home, but the symbolism shows that God is taking steps toward it.

(2) If you feel out of place, scared or alone, or like this world cannot fulfill the longings in your heart, your story confirms exactly what the story of the Bible is teaching us: you are not home; you are aching and longing for it.

Jesus

If none of these figures are able to open the way back to true home, who can?

One person describes the Bible this way: “the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus.”

Can we see clues in the story of Jesus that he is the one who will open the way for us to find home?

(1) In the story of Jesus, unlike David and unlike Adam, there is no sin or flaw in Jesus’s life that prevents him from opening the way back into Eden. He is the exact opposite of Adam (in fact, he is a new and better Adam): Adam had all he ever wanted and still sinned against God. Christ lost everything, even his life, and never sinned against God.

(2) In the gospel of John, he describes Jesus as a human temple. I know that sounds a little strange, but a temple was where God especially revealed his presence, and since Jesus was God in the flesh (and therefore bringing God’s presence where he went), he was a human temple.

(3) In the night before Jesus dies for the sins of the world, the gospel author John points out a detail we should notice. John 18:1 says,

18 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.

Jesus, the night before he suffers and dies, spends his time in a garden. I’ve been to that garden when I visited Israel. You souldn’t be surprised to learn, at this point, that it sits on a mountain. The next day, Jesus dies an excruciating death by hanging on a cross (which is actually a tree). Just think about this: God provides Adam and Eve with trees that give them life, Jesus willingly hangs on a tree that gave him only suffering and death in order to give us life.  

After he dies, his disciples lay him in a tomb. It looks like Jesus, like all who had come before him, had failed. Death had conquered him. However, there is a detail about where is tomb is we should pay attention to. John 19:41 says,

41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

Now on the third day, death does not have the final word: Jesus does. He rose from the dead and now lives forever! 

In light of what we have seen so far, what is one thing the resurrection teaches us?

Think about it! You can put the pieces together!

(1) When he comes back to life from the dead, he is in the midst of the garden.

(2) He died and was buried in Jerusalem, so he is on a mountain.

(3) Since Jesus was God in the flesh, God’s presence was with him where ever he was: he was a human temple.

Jesus came back to life in the midst of a garden mountain temple. Jesus’s resurrection from the dead shows that he passed the test that so many before him had failed so that he is the one who is able to make a way for humans to return to their true home.

Here is my main point in this sermon: Jesus’s death and resurrection opens the way for us to return home.

Do you think I am stretching the meaning here and looking too much into these details?

Let’s take a look at the book of Revelation that looks forward to the day Jesus returns to Earth. Toward the end of Revelation, John describes the home Jesus will create for his people. Here is what John writes in Revelation 21:10,

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,

We can all see that John stands on a mountain and there is a city called “Jerusalem” descending to the earth.

Okay, so we see the mountain, but what about the garden and the temple, Ross?

Let’s see what else Revelation has to say about this city:

Revelation 21:22 says,

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

So, there is no temple structure in this city, but there is a temple: it is the very presence of God and Jesus.

And is there a garden in this city?

Chapter 22:1-3 says,

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Yes, we can see that there is the tree of life, which is from the garden of Eden. Everything that was in the Garden of Eden is here, only it’s better now: in fact, the garden mountain temple has progressed into a garden mountain temple city. It will be a place without tears, disease, loneliness, or fear. Instead, God’s people will find perfect provision,  peace with nature, whole relationships, and a face-to-face relationship with the God who made them. This place will be so wonderful, that it escapes our ability to imagine it (although the Scriptures gives us these symbols as an invitation to try).

This is the true home that God originally designed us for and that our hearts longs to enjoy again. The resurrection of Jesus is about restoring his people to their home.

Application (you)

How can someone receive access to reach this home?

If you are listening to this sermon right now, and are not yet a follower of Jesus, as good as this home sounds, as of right now, it won’t be yours. Since you are a sinner like me, when you die you will not reach true home, but instead the Bible is clear that God will not allow in this city and you will face judgement. Friend, I want more than anything for you to reach this home when you die. I need to make something clear: reaching home with God does not come down to what you do; it comes down to what Jesus has done for you and how you respond to him.

Jesus said in John 14:6

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the way to reach home. He says he is “the way” and no one “comes to the Father except through him.” When he died in the cross, he was receiving the punishment his people deserved. Someone becomes part of Jesus’s people when they put their trust in him as their savior and surrenders to him as Lord. This is the precise opposite of what Adam and Eve did in that garden. They refused to trust God and instead tried to do it their own way. Now, through Jesus, God is inviting us to trust him and promising that if we do, he will restore everything we lost.

 If you desire to go to be with him in a place of provision and rest forever, then please turn from your sin and from trusting in yourself (or whatever else you have placed your trust in). Instead, place all of your trust and hope in him. Trust that God will welcome and accept you not an account of anything you have done, but only on account of what Jesus has already done in you place.

I want to answer one final question: can we experience true home even though we have not yet arrived?

One of the most amazing things of believing in Jesus is that even though we do not yet live in a world that God has restored yet, we already get the most important aspect of it that will mark it as true home. When you place your trust in Jesus, you get a new experience of his presence and intimacy with him that is the most important aspect of feeling like you are home. My best moments of joy and happiness are when I am experiencing Jesus’s presence. Even if my life is in shambles, or I am feeling lost or lonely, when God reminds me of his nearness and I seek him, I feel deep, enduring joy. In one sense, I am waiting for my home. In another sense, since I have Jesus’s companionship, I am already home.

One of the best parts of believing in Jesus is that you don’t have to wait to experience him till after the resurrection when the world is made new. You get to have him now! Friend, please don’t go to bed tonight without having put all of your trust in him. I urge you now to receive him as your lord and savior.

And now brothers and sisters, let’s join several billion other Christians around the world who will worship Jesus for opening the way for us to reach true home with him forever.

[1] I was inspired especially by the following two resources for much of this sermon: (1) The BibleProject Podcast, especially their series on the biblical imagery of trees and their episode on the cosmic mountain (https://bibleproject.com/podcast/series/tree-life-podcast/). I especially borrowed the idea of Eden as representative of “true home” from the latter episode I mention (https://bibleproject.com/podcast/exile-cosmic-mountain/)

(2) Beale, G. K. The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. IVP Academic, 2014.

                

[2] G.K. Beale, “Adam as the First Priest in Eden as the Garden Temple,” SBJT 23/1 (2019): 11.

Exegetical Main Point:

Jesus brought a kingdom founded on a New Covenant that could not fit with old. The religious leaders would reject Jesus for the Old. 

Sermon Main Point: We must submit to Jesus and let him create our normal. 

Intro

About twelve years ago Jesus came and rearranged my life so thoroughly that it would never look the same. My mind was set on a career in music – a dream that I had worked at for almost a decade – but then Jesus came near and everything changed. 

When Jesus calls men to follow him, he calls them to come and die. He taught that the old life must go to the cross, with every passion and dream, so that the dying sinner can find new life in him. 

But as one year goes by, five, ten, I’ve found that it’s very easy to slip back into the same patterns of life I once walked in. Life generally looks different, but it often feels more like I’m just going through the motions. I’m doing what I know I’m supposed to do, but there’s little passion for God in it like there was at first. 

Maybe this is your experience also.

As I’ve been trying to find my new normal under the Covid-19 situation, it seems like the Holy Spirit has been shining a spotlight on this part of my life and calling me to let him create my new normal. 

This text challenged me greatly this week, showing me the reason why we so easily slip into old patterns. I believe it has something for you also. 

Here’s where we are going: 

1) 5:33 The Pharisees Question About Fasting

2) 5:34-35 Jesus Response

3) 5:36-39 A Parable

When you’re reading your Bibles and you aren’t quite sure who or what’s being talked about, context is key. These first two words “and they” are connecting us back to the previous passages, where the scribes and Pharisees have an issue with Jesus’s behavior. Not only did they think Jesus was hanging out with the wrong crowd, apparently they thought Jesus and his disciples looked more like hedonists than chaste spiritual leaders. When everyone else was fasting, Jesus and his followers were feasting. 

Fasting was common in the time of Jesus. Not only were there a nationwide corporate fasts (Zc. 7:3, 5; 8:19),[1]the Pharisees developed the practice of fasting twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays in intercession for the nation as a whole.[2] You can observe this in Luke 18:12, where the Pharisee prays: “ I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get’ (Luke 18:12).

We know from Luke 4 that Jesus also fasted, so he wasn’t condemning the practice. But in this moment, he and his disciples had a reason not to be fasting, and the Pharisees questioned why. 

This is not friendly questioning. Jesus was attracting great crowds because of his miracle working and dynamic teaching, so when he didn’t follow their rules he was threatening their power. 

Some historical context is important to understand their behavior.

If you look back at Israel’s history, after the exile to Babylon, Israel swung from one end of the pendulum, living in licentiousness and idolatry to the other, into something called legalism, which was just as deadly, if not more. 

In an effort to keep Israel from breaking any of the 613 commands in the Torah, Israel’s leaders interpreted and added thousands of additional commands that must be followed so as to not come close to breaking the Law. They expanded the Law and demanded everyone to adhere to it. 

Let me illustrate this with a story. As a young, but maturing Christian in my twenties, I struggled a lot with vanity. So I decided to stop looking in the mirror. I set up a fence around the thing that often brought temptation. But despite my new rule, I found over and over again that my heart was just as vain. A mentor eventually helped me see my problem. I had started to put faith in my ability to not look in a mirror more than in the God who is able to kill the sin in my heart. 

Fences can be helpful in the fight against sin, but they can also subtly create the illusion that you don’t need God anymore to keep you from sinning. Eventually, it gets hard to see your sin. You feel like you’re practically perfect. You’ve begun to inch towards a salvation by works. Reaching heaven or keeping your land, like Israel wanted, then, has little to do with God and everything to do with you. 

The Pharisees were beginning to believe that if they kept the nation from sinning by enforcing the Law AND their traditions, then God would have to bless them. Eventually, fasting and prayer is not a cry for the Messiah to come save them from their sins, but another checkmark in the rule book. Their hearts grew hard and proud. Sin festered within while they whitewashed the outside. 

Let’s look at Jesus’s response.

What is Jesus saying? Jesus is asking a rhetorical question, with the obvious answer being no. 

Yes, it was fitting for people to fast in the waiting and longing for the coming of the Messiah, and yes, Jesus prophetically reminds them that there would be a time that would come again when fasting would be appropriate, but now was not a time for mournful fasting. Something worth celebrating was here!  

Joel and Carly got married a few months back. It was such a happy day and they had a nice spread of food and dessert. Imagine how inappropriate it would have been for me to withhold from feasting with everyone because it was Tuesday fast day. Even more, imagine me scowling at the other pastors who fast with me on that day because they chose to feast instead of fast. The same principle was true in that day. It was actually forbidden to fast at a wedding![3]

Jesus is making a comparison. In the same way, his presence makes fasting totally inappropriate. His presence gave reason for joy, not mourning.  He’s saying “Don’t you understand? Can’t you see the moment we’re in? Can’t you see who I am? 

Jesus is comparing himself to a bridegroom

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah 62. There God prophesies over Israel the day of her salvation. This bridegroom metaphor is actually applied to God as Israel’s rescuer. Starting in verse 4:

4 No longer will they call you Deserted,

    or name your land Desolate.

But you will be called My Delight Is In Her,[a]

    and your land Married[b];

for the Lord will take delight in you,

    and your land will be married.

5 As a young man marries a young woman,

    so will your Builder marry you;

as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,

    so will your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah prophesied a coming day when God would rescue his adulterous bride and again rejoice over her. 

This was the day! Jesus is the bridegroom king coming to save his bride like the prophets had foretold (cf. 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25–27; Rev. 19:7–10).[4]This was not a time for fasting, but for joy! 

This was everything Israel needed and was waiting for, everything we need, but not everyone was rejoicing. The Pharisees couldn’t see beyond the fact that their rules were being broken and their power was challenged. 

Let’s continue in verse 36, where Jesus continues his response in parable form. 

Let me unpack this historically challenging parable for you. Here Jesus gives two separate metaphors that make the same point – you cannot mix the old with the new – and then in verse 39 he offers a sort of challenge. 

The first metaphor uses a new and an old garment. Imagine I have an old pair of jeans with a whole in the knee. It would be silly for me to buy a new pair of jeans to patch the old. First, the new would be wrecked. Second, the piece from the new garment would not match the old and when you washed it the new would potentially shrink and tear the old. The point is this: you cannot mix the old with the new.

The second metaphor is a little more complicated because most of us are not familiar with 1stcentury winery’s. This is where a good commentary or book on historical context is helpful. Jesus is saying that in the same way you wouldn’t try to fix an old garment with a new, nobody puts new wine in old wineskins. New wine needed to be placed in new elastic skins which were made of goat’s skin or some other skin sewn together, because during the fermentation process the skins would expand and stretch. Old hardened wine skins would burst from the pressure of the new wine and destroy both skin and wine.[5]

Again, the old is incompatible, unfitting with the new. You cannot mix the two. 

Now, in verse 39, Jesus offers a challenge that goes along with the second metaphor. He says, “No one wants the new wine after they have had the new. They say the old is better.”This most of us can understand. Old wine is better than new like vintage guitars are better than new ones. Once you’ve played the old guitar or had the old bottle of good wine, no one wants the new. 

Jesus, here, is basically saying, “I get it, you will ultimately reject me because you would rather have the old than the new.” 

You see, Jesus was bringing a kingdom founded on a New Covenant, in which faith in him would be central to justification before God, not obedience to the Law. Under the Old Covenant favor with God was contingent on how well you kept God’s commandments. 

But the Law only proved that no one was capable of the kind of holiness that God demanded. Even under the Law substitutionary blood sacrifices were necessary for the sin the people would most certainly commit. The Law had its purpose, but it was never sufficient in itself for salvation. The point was always to bring us to God, who alone can save. 

So, why would they reject what he was bringing? Because it didn’t taste as good. It was easier. It didn’t threaten their power. 

But in so doing, they were rejecting God. A rejection of Christ is a rejection of God. 

Jesus’s parable exposes the religious leaders’ hypocrisy. Even in there strict rule following they were not worshipping God, but their own system. They had instead twisted God’s Law into something that they could control. If you are already righteous on your own, what need do you have for God.

But Jesus doesn’t give us that option. We don’t get to mix a little bit of our righteousness in with his.  We must lay all down at his feet, acknowledging the inadequacy of our good works and our man-made systems. 

The bride of Christ must choose whom she will marry! You don’t get the old with the new.

If you’re tuning in today and you’ve never truly submitted all to Jesus and let him rearrange your life path, then hear his call today, “Repent of your old life and come and find new life in me. It will cost you everything, but by it you will gain everything!” If that’s you today please reach out to us so that we can help you on this journey.  

For the rest of us, it’s easy to look at the Pharisees and scoff. But you need to remember that Jesus’s challenge is even for us. It’s not just Pharisees who have a hard time humbling themselves, but the human race. We are all proud. There is a little bit of Pharisee, a little bit of legalism, in all of us. 

Where in your life are you trying to make the old compatible with the new? Don’t you see that it can’t work that way? You don’t get to stand at the altar and say your vows to Jesus while holding the hand of another behind your back. Where have you subtly snuffed out relationship with God by trying to have things your way? 

I was helped by Christian psychologist Dr. Ed Welch, who identifies another subtle strand of legalism, namely, narrowing of the Law. In the narrowing of the law, we still keep the Law, but we only do as much as is necessary and no more.  

Both expanding and narrowing of the law are deadly. In each case, the legalist obeys the law while the heart is not be submitted to God at all. The heart wants control in either direction. 

When I think about you, All Peoples Church, and the temptations we face in this age in this nation, I think about how easy it is to find our normal and sit in it. I know from experience. I think many of us tend towards the legalism that narrows the law. 

Maybe you’ve had a radical encounter with Jesus that rearranged your life at one time, but now things have settled down. The Christian life feels pretty normal. Even easy. I read the Bible. I pray. I go to church. I’ve kept myself for marriage. Sometimes I even talk to co-workers about Jesus. We think we’re good. But then Jesus calls you deeper? He asks you to do something that is costly, and so often we resist.  

My fear for myself and for you is that we are being lulled to sleep under the American dream. I’m afraid that our Christianity has gotten too easy. We’re too comfortable in America, where everybody is a little messed up, but still pretty good. But as it gets harder to be a Christian in our society, as we are challenged for being intolerant bigots, we are extremely slow to follow Jesus into confrontation, into bold witness, and persecution.

In a documentary called Sheep Among Wolves,

After living in America for a matter of months, a Christian Iranian couple decided to move back to Iran. The wife told her husband: “There is a satanic lullaby here. All the Christians are sleepy and I’m feeling sleepy.”

What is disturbing is that the woman found the threat to her faith in America was far greater than the kind of persecution that was happening in Iran. 

I’m afraid that for many of us we do just enough to not turn any heads or break our own conscience, while at the same time we disobey some of Christ’s fundamental commandments of making disciples, interceding for the lost, living holy lives, giving and serving generously. We’re unwilling to let Jesus disrupt our comfort.

Please understand me. The American dream is not all bad. Scripture doesn’t condemn having nice things, or living a long life or being comfortable. 

But All Peoples Church, today Jesus is calling us to let him redefine our normal – daily. We must submit to him. 

When you spend money, is Jesus at the center of the decision? 

When you watch something on Netflix, is he at the center?

Is he at the center of how you use your time, or how you make your plans? 

What if everyone one of us were willing to drop our plans for the day to minister to someone? What if everyone of us were willing to drop everything here to take the Gospel abroad? I think our church would look a little different. 

I am jealous for you, that we would be a pure bride on the day of his return, that we would not be judged for living our lives like the man who buried his talent in the ground and was cast out of God’s presence.

The man who buried his talent didn’t waste it in sinful living. He buried it. He built a fence around it so that he could live how he wanted rather than being required to live in faith. Why are we so prone to this ditch? Because we would rather be comfortable. The old tastes better than the new. 

Sometimes following Jesus disrupts our lives and it’s hard. But we must repent. We must let him define normal behavior in this world. We must submit to him.  

Jesus confronts this sort of thinking because it hinders people from a true relationship with God. Legalism in the form of expansion or narrowing keeps us from daily dependence on God. It keeps us from fruitful living. 

But I have Good News for you. Jesus came to save us from this proud and unfruitful behavior. 

Jesus lived his life in perfect submission to the Father, and then laid down his life for his bride on the cross so that even when we are erring, he doesn’t leave us. He won’t divorce us. He’s sealed us with his Spirit and he is coming soon to marry us. He calls us back to faithfully follow him, and empowers us with his Spirit to do so. 

So, I challenge you today. By the Spirit, lay down your pride, come and follow him, and let him redefine your normal. Please do not resist him and prove with your actions that you are still given to another and not betrothed to Jesus Christ.  

He has proven to us that he is worthy of following. 

Oh church, let’s be willing to let our bridegroom king disrupt our lives if he wants. Let’s let Jesus create our new normal so that we can have eternal life in him. 

What if this crazy time under COVID-19 was God’s call to us to reset and let him redefine our practices and life? Have your way, Lord. 

[1]Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: a commentary on the Greek text(p. 221). Exeter: Paternoster Press.

[2]Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: a commentary on the Greek text(p. 221). Exeter: Paternoster Press.

[3]Pao, D. W., & Schnabel, E. J. (2007). Luke. In Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament(p. 293). Grand Rapids, MI;  Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic;  Apollos.

[4]Pao, D. W., & Schnabel, E. J. (2007). Luke. In Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament(p. 293). Grand Rapids, MI;  Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic;  Apollos.

[5]Butler, T. C. (2000). Luke(Vol. 3, p. 82). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Daniel Simmons

Exegetical Main Point:

Jesus brought a kingdom founded on a New Covenant that could not fit with old. The religious leaders would reject Jesus for the Old. 

Sermon Main Point: We must submit to Jesus and let him create our normal. 

Intro

About twelve years ago Jesus came and rearranged my life so thoroughly that it would never look the same. My mind was set on a career in music – a dream that I had worked at for almost a decade – but then Jesus came near and everything changed. 

When Jesus calls men to follow him, he calls them to come and die. He taught that the old life must go to the cross, with every passion and dream, so that the dying sinner can find new life in him. 

But as one year goes by, five, ten, I’ve found that it’s very easy to slip back into the same patterns of life I once walked in. Life generally looks different, but it often feels more like I’m just going through the motions. I’m doing what I know I’m supposed to do, but there’s little passion for God in it like there was at first. 

Maybe this is your experience also.

As I’ve been trying to find my new normal under the Covid-19 situation, it seems like the Holy Spirit has been shining a spotlight on this part of my life and calling me to let him create my new normal. 

This text challenged me greatly this week, showing me the reason why we so easily slip into old patterns. I believe it has something for you also. 

Here’s where we are going: 

1) 5:33 The Pharisees Question About Fasting

2) 5:34-35 Jesus Response

3) 5:36-39 A Parable

When you’re reading your Bibles and you aren’t quite sure who or what’s being talked about, context is key. These first two words “and they” are connecting us back to the previous passages, where the scribes and Pharisees have an issue with Jesus’s behavior. Not only did they think Jesus was hanging out with the wrong crowd, apparently they thought Jesus and his disciples looked more like hedonists than chaste spiritual leaders. When everyone else was fasting, Jesus and his followers were feasting. 

Fasting was common in the time of Jesus. Not only were there a nationwide corporate fasts (Zc. 7:3, 5; 8:19),[1]the Pharisees developed the practice of fasting twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays in intercession for the nation as a whole.[2] You can observe this in Luke 18:12, where the Pharisee prays: “ I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get’ (Luke 18:12).

We know from Luke 4 that Jesus also fasted, so he wasn’t condemning the practice. But in this moment, he and his disciples had a reason not to be fasting, and the Pharisees questioned why. 

This is not friendly questioning. Jesus was attracting great crowds because of his miracle working and dynamic teaching, so when he didn’t follow their rules he was threatening their power. 

Some historical context is important to understand their behavior.

If you look back at Israel’s history, after the exile to Babylon, Israel swung from one end of the pendulum, living in licentiousness and idolatry to the other, into something called legalism, which was just as deadly, if not more. 

In an effort to keep Israel from breaking any of the 613 commands in the Torah, Israel’s leaders interpreted and added thousands of additional commands that must be followed so as to not come close to breaking the Law. They expanded the Law and demanded everyone to adhere to it. 

Let me illustrate this with a story. As a young, but maturing Christian in my twenties, I struggled a lot with vanity. So I decided to stop looking in the mirror. I set up a fence around the thing that often brought temptation. But despite my new rule, I found over and over again that my heart was just as vain. A mentor eventually helped me see my problem. I had started to put faith in my ability to not look in a mirror more than in the God who is able to kill the sin in my heart. 

Fences can be helpful in the fight against sin, but they can also subtly create the illusion that you don’t need God anymore to keep you from sinning. Eventually, it gets hard to see your sin. You feel like you’re practically perfect. You’ve begun to inch towards a salvation by works. Reaching heaven or keeping your land, like Israel wanted, then, has little to do with God and everything to do with you. 

The Pharisees were beginning to believe that if they kept the nation from sinning by enforcing the Law AND their traditions, then God would have to bless them. Eventually, fasting and prayer is not a cry for the Messiah to come save them from their sins, but another checkmark in the rule book. Their hearts grew hard and proud. Sin festered within while they whitewashed the outside. 

Let’s look at Jesus’s response.

What is Jesus saying? Jesus is asking a rhetorical question, with the obvious answer being no. 

Yes, it was fitting for people to fast in the waiting and longing for the coming of the Messiah, and yes, Jesus prophetically reminds them that there would be a time that would come again when fasting would be appropriate, but now was not a time for mournful fasting. Something worth celebrating was here!  

Joel and Carly got married a few months back. It was such a happy day and they had a nice spread of food and dessert. Imagine how inappropriate it would have been for me to withhold from feasting with everyone because it was Tuesday fast day. Even more, imagine me scowling at the other pastors who fast with me on that day because they chose to feast instead of fast. The same principle was true in that day. It was actually forbidden to fast at a wedding![3]

Jesus is making a comparison. In the same way, his presence makes fasting totally inappropriate. His presence gave reason for joy, not mourning.  He’s saying “Don’t you understand? Can’t you see the moment we’re in? Can’t you see who I am? 

Jesus is comparing himself to a bridegroom

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah 62. There God prophesies over Israel the day of her salvation. This bridegroom metaphor is actually applied to God as Israel’s rescuer. Starting in verse 4:

4 No longer will they call you Deserted,

    or name your land Desolate.

But you will be called My Delight Is In Her,[a]

    and your land Married[b];

for the Lord will take delight in you,

    and your land will be married.

5 As a young man marries a young woman,

    so will your Builder marry you;

as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,

    so will your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah prophesied a coming day when God would rescue his adulterous bride and again rejoice over her. 

This was the day! Jesus is the bridegroom king coming to save his bride like the prophets had foretold (cf. 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25–27; Rev. 19:7–10).[4]This was not a time for fasting, but for joy! 

This was everything Israel needed and was waiting for, everything we need, but not everyone was rejoicing. The Pharisees couldn’t see beyond the fact that their rules were being broken and their power was challenged. 

Let’s continue in verse 36, where Jesus continues his response in parable form. 

Let me unpack this historically challenging parable for you. Here Jesus gives two separate metaphors that make the same point – you cannot mix the old with the new – and then in verse 39 he offers a sort of challenge. 

The first metaphor uses a new and an old garment. Imagine I have an old pair of jeans with a whole in the knee. It would be silly for me to buy a new pair of jeans to patch the old. First, the new would be wrecked. Second, the piece from the new garment would not match the old and when you washed it the new would potentially shrink and tear the old. The point is this: you cannot mix the old with the new.

The second metaphor is a little more complicated because most of us are not familiar with 1stcentury winery’s. This is where a good commentary or book on historical context is helpful. Jesus is saying that in the same way you wouldn’t try to fix an old garment with a new, nobody puts new wine in old wineskins. New wine needed to be placed in new elastic skins which were made of goat’s skin or some other skin sewn together, because during the fermentation process the skins would expand and stretch. Old hardened wine skins would burst from the pressure of the new wine and destroy both skin and wine.[5]

Again, the old is incompatible, unfitting with the new. You cannot mix the two. 

Now, in verse 39, Jesus offers a challenge that goes along with the second metaphor. He says, “No one wants the new wine after they have had the new. They say the old is better.”This most of us can understand. Old wine is better than new like vintage guitars are better than new ones. Once you’ve played the old guitar or had the old bottle of good wine, no one wants the new. 

Jesus, here, is basically saying, “I get it, you will ultimately reject me because you would rather have the old than the new.” 

You see, Jesus was bringing a kingdom founded on a New Covenant, in which faith in him would be central to justification before God, not obedience to the Law. Under the Old Covenant favor with God was contingent on how well you kept God’s commandments. 

But the Law only proved that no one was capable of the kind of holiness that God demanded. Even under the Law substitutionary blood sacrifices were necessary for the sin the people would most certainly commit. The Law had its purpose, but it was never sufficient in itself for salvation. The point was always to bring us to God, who alone can save. 

So, why would they reject what he was bringing? Because it didn’t taste as good. It was easier. It didn’t threaten their power. 

But in so doing, they were rejecting God. A rejection of Christ is a rejection of God. 

Jesus’s parable exposes the religious leaders’ hypocrisy. Even in there strict rule following they were not worshipping God, but their own system. They had instead twisted God’s Law into something that they could control. If you are already righteous on your own, what need do you have for God.

But Jesus doesn’t give us that option. We don’t get to mix a little bit of our righteousness in with his.  We must lay all down at his feet, acknowledging the inadequacy of our good works and our man-made systems. 

The bride of Christ must choose whom she will marry! You don’t get the old with the new.

If you’re tuning in today and you’ve never truly submitted all to Jesus and let him rearrange your life path, then hear his call today, “Repent of your old life and come and find new life in me. It will cost you everything, but by it you will gain everything!” If that’s you today please reach out to us so that we can help you on this journey.  

For the rest of us, it’s easy to look at the Pharisees and scoff. But you need to remember that Jesus’s challenge is even for us. It’s not just Pharisees who have a hard time humbling themselves, but the human race. We are all proud. There is a little bit of Pharisee, a little bit of legalism, in all of us. 

Where in your life are you trying to make the old compatible with the new? Don’t you see that it can’t work that way? You don’t get to stand at the altar and say your vows to Jesus while holding the hand of another behind your back. Where have you subtly snuffed out relationship with God by trying to have things your way? 

I was helped by Christian psychologist Dr. Ed Welch, who identifies another subtle strand of legalism, namely, narrowing of the Law. In the narrowing of the law, we still keep the Law, but we only do as much as is necessary and no more.  

Both expanding and narrowing of the law are deadly. In each case, the legalist obeys the law while the heart is not be submitted to God at all. The heart wants control in either direction. 

When I think about you, All Peoples Church, and the temptations we face in this age in this nation, I think about how easy it is to find our normal and sit in it. I know from experience. I think many of us tend towards the legalism that narrows the law. 

Maybe you’ve had a radical encounter with Jesus that rearranged your life at one time, but now things have settled down. The Christian life feels pretty normal. Even easy. I read the Bible. I pray. I go to church. I’ve kept myself for marriage. Sometimes I even talk to co-workers about Jesus. We think we’re good. But then Jesus calls you deeper? He asks you to do something that is costly, and so often we resist.  

My fear for myself and for you is that we are being lulled to sleep under the American dream. I’m afraid that our Christianity has gotten too easy. We’re too comfortable in America, where everybody is a little messed up, but still pretty good. But as it gets harder to be a Christian in our society, as we are challenged for being intolerant bigots, we are extremely slow to follow Jesus into confrontation, into bold witness, and persecution.

In a documentary called Sheep Among Wolves,

After living in America for a matter of months, a Christian Iranian couple decided to move back to Iran. The wife told her husband: “There is a satanic lullaby here. All the Christians are sleepy and I’m feeling sleepy.”

What is disturbing is that the woman found the threat to her faith in America was far greater than the kind of persecution that was happening in Iran. 

I’m afraid that for many of us we do just enough to not turn any heads or break our own conscience, while at the same time we disobey some of Christ’s fundamental commandments of making disciples, interceding for the lost, living holy lives, giving and serving generously. We’re unwilling to let Jesus disrupt our comfort.

Please understand me. The American dream is not all bad. Scripture doesn’t condemn having nice things, or living a long life or being comfortable. 

But All Peoples Church, today Jesus is calling us to let him redefine our normal – daily. We must submit to him. 

When you spend money, is Jesus at the center of the decision? 

When you watch something on Netflix, is he at the center?

Is he at the center of how you use your time, or how you make your plans? 

What if everyone one of us were willing to drop our plans for the day to minister to someone? What if everyone of us were willing to drop everything here to take the Gospel abroad? I think our church would look a little different. 

I am jealous for you, that we would be a pure bride on the day of his return, that we would not be judged for living our lives like the man who buried his talent in the ground and was cast out of God’s presence.

The man who buried his talent didn’t waste it in sinful living. He buried it. He built a fence around it so that he could live how he wanted rather than being required to live in faith. Why are we so prone to this ditch? Because we would rather be comfortable. The old tastes better than the new. 

Sometimes following Jesus disrupts our lives and it’s hard. But we must repent. We must let him define normal behavior in this world. We must submit to him.  

Jesus confronts this sort of thinking because it hinders people from a true relationship with God. Legalism in the form of expansion or narrowing keeps us from daily dependence on God. It keeps us from fruitful living. 

But I have Good News for you. Jesus came to save us from this proud and unfruitful behavior. 

Jesus lived his life in perfect submission to the Father, and then laid down his life for his bride on the cross so that even when we are erring, he doesn’t leave us. He won’t divorce us. He’s sealed us with his Spirit and he is coming soon to marry us. He calls us back to faithfully follow him, and empowers us with his Spirit to do so. 

So, I challenge you today. By the Spirit, lay down your pride, come and follow him, and let him redefine your normal. Please do not resist him and prove with your actions that you are still given to another and not betrothed to Jesus Christ.  

He has proven to us that he is worthy of following. 

Oh church, let’s be willing to let our bridegroom king disrupt our lives if he wants. Let’s let Jesus create our new normal so that we can have eternal life in him. 

What if this crazy time under COVID-19 was God’s call to us to reset and let him redefine our practices and life? Have your way, Lord. 

[1]Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: a commentary on the Greek text(p. 221). Exeter: Paternoster Press.

[2]Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: a commentary on the Greek text(p. 221). Exeter: Paternoster Press.

[3]Pao, D. W., & Schnabel, E. J. (2007). Luke. In Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament(p. 293). Grand Rapids, MI;  Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic;  Apollos.

[4]Pao, D. W., & Schnabel, E. J. (2007). Luke. In Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament(p. 293). Grand Rapids, MI;  Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic;  Apollos.

[5]Butler, T. C. (2000). Luke(Vol. 3, p. 82). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.