Jesus: Judge and Savior

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan. Our desire is to help you draw near to God by growing in faith, community, and service.

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This message is by Pastor of Teaching and Vision, Don Filsack, and is a part of a series entitled

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Not Your Average Savior, a study of the book of Matthew. Thanks for listening. Good morning.

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Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsack. I'm the Pastor of Vision and Teaching here, and I just want to welcome you.

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Glad that you're here. A couple of reminders. You received a worship folder when you walked in. There's different announcements and activities and events that are highlighted in there.

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Take advantage of that. Read it. You also received a connection card. If you'd be willing to fill that out and turn that in in the black box back there, that's the place where connection cards and offering goes if you want to use that envelope that you received for offering.

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We don't pass an offering plate, so that all goes in the black box back there. Remember to put any prayer requests that you have on the connection card, and if it's your first time with us, filling it in and turning it in, then please do us a favor and take one of those coffee mugs that's back there as well.

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Just a free gift. Our way of just saying thank you for joining us in worship, and glad that you are here.

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Just a reminder that next week is Thanksgiving. I'm wondering if that was a help to you for me to say that Thanksgiving, you probably already knew that.

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But next Sunday is our

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Thanksgiving service, which is something that we've done for the last couple of years, and it's really been one of the highlights of my year.

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An opportunity for us to get up and share what we are thankful for, and that's really going to be the focus.

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I'm not going to be preaching a sermon next week, so I'll leave that up to you to decide whether that's good or bad.

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But we are all going to be preaching a sermon of sorts. I mean, in essence, it's going to be people from the church getting up at a microphone and just sharing what

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God has done in your life that you are thankful for this past year. I recognize that just me mentioning a microphone and getting up to speak, some of your knees just started to shake a little bit.

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I don't want that to stop you from coming, and I mean, nobody's going to be called out, nobody's going to be asked to come up, and it's just going to be a general call for anybody who would like to share, but I would encourage you to take some time this week, just in the busyness of your life, even if it's just out driving from one meeting to another, or walking from one building to another, or whatever you do, just to take some time to think throughout your week of what has

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God done in your life this past year that you are grateful for. And then come here, it's just an awesome time,

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I really, really love this, the last couple of years, the chance to just hear what God is doing in people's lives, and ultimately it's just awesome to just hear gratitude, just thankfulness being poured out to Him.

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So that's next Sunday here, both services are going to be doing the same thing. On another note, around the holiday season the last couple of years, we have tried to help out our community, one of our desires is to be a genuine blessing to the

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Matawan area, one of the things that we've done over the last three and a half years is help get a food pantry started here in the community, and Recast is a part of that,

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I've been sitting on the board of that for the past three years now. And one of the things that we've done is serve through the food pantry, last year we provided personal care products for people who are going to come through, there's only one distribution in December, on December 15th, so there's two ways that you could be involved.

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First of all, at the Welcome Center there's a sign -up sheet with all different kinds of time slots for all different kinds of things, even if it's just, you might say, you know,

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I really, I've got a bad back, I can't stand, I can't lift, I can't really help with that, but I could sit and pray with somebody.

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A large percentage of the people who come through there would love for somebody to pray with them. We're going to have about 200 families come through from the

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Matawan area in need, they receive groceries and food, they also receive clothing, there's a huge layout of clothes, and then also all of the new toys from Toys for Tots for them to be able to provide gifts for their children and things like that, so there's all kinds of opportunities.

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The second way you can be involved is there's two Rubbermaid totes just right here by the Welcome Center on the floor for people who would be willing to provide personal care products, soap, shampoo, shaving cream, razors, just whatever it might be that God might lay on your heart to bring in.

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Last year we had kind of a quota and it got to be a little bit dicey and confusing about how many people brought what and too much shampoo, too much of this.

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The pantry can use whatever we provide and if we get too much shampoo, it'll be given throughout the year and it's useful to them.

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That's one of the things, by the way, that food stamps can't obtain, and so the things that we can provide there are just a really tangible benefit to our community for those who are going through a hard time right now and struggling, so again, anybody can be involved in that.

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Some of the kids that are sitting here, if you get an allowance, you ask your parents to take you over to Dollar General or Family Dollar and buy some shampoo for somebody to help them out that are in need, so regardless of where you're at financially, if you can provide a crate of shampoo, awesome.

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If you can provide two bottles or a bottle, that's awesome, too, so everybody can be involved. This week we're going to be jumping back into really seeking to encounter

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Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew and I like to turn to the Gospels, particularly over the holidays because they snap into focus the reason that Jesus came over 2 ,000 years ago.

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Now, we're not over the holiday, we're not studying the actual birth of Jesus, just covering that first couple chapters, but I've been going through the

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Gospel of Matthew bit by bit since we started three years ago and we're picking up here in Matthew chapter 11, the second half, but I'd like to turn our attention to Jesus and the reasons that he came and I think that if we look at the lifestyle of Jesus, we know that he didn't do anything unintentionally.

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Everything he did was with purpose and it ultimately showed the focus of where his heart was. I don't think it's quite sufficient to say that Jesus is the reason for the season because that misses the point,

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I mean, it rhymes and it sounds kind of cliche and catchy, right? I mean, Jesus is the reason for the season, well, he is, but he's, how many of you would admit that maybe he's a little bit more than that?

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Just a little bit more than the reason for the season, as a matter of fact, he's the creator of seasons. He's the one who gave the earth the tilt so that it produces seasons.

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He's the one, so it's a little bit more than that, like the whole phrase, keep Christ in Christmas, I got some information, he's already there.

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Like it's not up to us to keep him in Christmas, Christmas is all about him, that's the point.

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It's not enough to worship a little baby once a year, I think our culture kind of goes down to, oh baby Jesus, he's cute, he's in the manger.

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That baby grew up, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death on the cross to cover our sins and the sins of any who would believe and then rose again three days later.

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He is not just a baby, Jesus Christ is Savior, Jesus Christ is Lord, he is

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King, he is God in flesh, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

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And not only that, but we're going to see an aspect of Jesus in our text that can tend to make us a little bit uncomfortable at times because Matthew is going to reveal in the second half of Matthew chapter 11 that Jesus is also the rightful judge.

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He is the standard upon which judgment is based and that might not be a real popular

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Christmas message, but it is an aspect of Jesus Christ that we need to hear nonetheless. So I want you to open your

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Bibles to Matthew chapter 11, we're going to read verses 20 through 30, that's page 695 in the

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Bible that is in the seat back in front of you, so if you pull that out, turn to 695 and it's

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Matthew 11 starting at verse 20 in the 11 verses through the end of the chapter.

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Follow along as I read the very words of God to us through the Gospel of Matthew from Jesus Christ.

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Then He, that is Jesus, then He began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

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Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

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But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you,

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Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

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But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.

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At that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

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Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my

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Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the

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Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

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For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Let's pray as the band comes to prepare to lead us in worship this morning.

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Father, I am so grateful for this message that brings together two aspects in our

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Savior that are just really central and essential, and that is that he is the standard.

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What we do with him matters most. How we interact with him and what we do with the trust that's been given us, with the privilege that has been given us regarding knowing

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Jesus, and that ultimately judgment comes based on him, but then equally that he is not just judge, but he is

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Savior. He is the one who is made a way. And so, Father, I ask that you would help us to worship you as you truly are, as revealed through your

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Son, Jesus Christ, to us, Father, that we would see you high and exalted and lifted up and that the songs that we sing would flow from hearts of gratitude for salvation, and that we would heed this call to come to Jesus.

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He says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. He provides rest. And, Father, I am convinced that many of us in this room are weary.

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Many of us in this room are burned down with weights. So, Father, I ask that you would help us to come as we worship you in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Well, I want to just offer a big thanks to Rob Knoll for filling in.

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And Dave called this morning and was ill, and so he was not able to lead us in worship, so Rob jumped right in, and so I appreciate his willingness to do that.

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Thanks a lot. Go ahead and make sure your Bibles are open to Matthew chapter 11, verses 20 through 30 is where we're going to be at.

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Again, that's 695 in the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you, in case you weren't here when we read that.

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Just to set the context, last week we were earlier in the book of, earlier in chapter 11 of Matthew, and Jesus was on a tour, has been on a tour of Galilee, the northern part of Israel, touring various cities, preaching and teaching, the text told us last week.

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All along the 12 disciples, he sent them out, and they're doing the same thing. So they're not necessarily together, but they're going out in groups of two,

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Jesus is out among the cities, and he made clear that he had a unique ministry among the down and out.

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And then last week, we saw him take his generation to task, they said, they were saying,

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Jesus, you're not the kind of Messiah we were looking for. We were looking for somebody who was a little bit more religious, we were a little uncomfortable with the way that you hang out with tax collectors and sinners, we want to play the flute and have you dance to our tune, his generation said.

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And I think that maybe we can reflect a little bit of that, unfortunately, in our own hearts, and maybe you've dealt with that this past week, of relating how we desire a

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Jesus that fits our mold, and we tend to make him in our own image, and that is not appropriate.

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He is the Messiah, he is the king, he is the one who was sent, and we need to let him be who he is, and even this text might challenge us that way as we contemplate and consider the way he's going to address a couple of cities here in a pretty dramatic fashion.

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In verses 20 through 24, we see Jesus showing himself ultimately as the standard. He is the standard upon which everything is judged, and as a matter of fact, he is in essence the judge himself.

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And in this section, Jesus is going to bend our pretty picture of himself once again, the nice, kind, tame

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Jesus picks up where we left off last week, but even takes it up a notch. He's going to ratchet, you know, turn the temperature up on those he's speaking to in the crowds by denouncing the cities around him.

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Now, how many of you used the word denounce sometime this past week in just routine conversation? Like, I denounce you.

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We don't really use that word, and so it can be kind of devoid of meaning in one sense. How many of you at least knew, like, when

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I say the word denounce, it's got a negative meaning to it? Did you already know that? It's a little bit of a negative flavor to the word denounce, but a picturesque way of understanding this

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Greek word is even to the extent of it can be used for insult or reproach or revile.

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What he's going to say is not nice, and it's very clear, I mean, the nature of this is denouncing them to ultimately revile them.

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Maybe a modern paraphrase should read that Jesus began to let them have it, okay? He begins to diss them, and he picks out three particular cities to hold up as a negative example, and he's picking them intentionally.

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As a matter of fact, we see in the text, he chose these three cities because they are the places where the majority of his mighty works occurred.

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Now we talked last week about how the word works can be a very generic term just for every deed that you did yesterday, you could call those your works.

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But how many of you know that when you put, when you're talking about Jesus and you use the word mighty in front of his works, what do you think is an appropriate understanding of that?

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His miracles, okay? So he did the majority of his mighty works in that place, and of course, we're really super familiar with these three cities,

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Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, right? I mean, you guys all know right where those are, you can find them on a map, right?

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You remember that from Sunday school. Maybe this is potentially the first time you've ever heard the city Chorazin, for example.

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I mean, it's not really mentioned a lot, it's only mentioned twice in the gospels, and yet it was one of the areas, one of the districts where Jesus performed the majority of his miracles.

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Now we might be, I mean, I think if we're honest, we're probably fairly familiar with some of the miracles that Jesus did, like say feeding, how many of you knew that Jesus fed 5 ,000 people with the little boy's lunch?

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Okay, did you know that he did that? How many of you can tell me, like you have a picture in your mind of where in Israel that happened?

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Okay, not so good, right? This is called by some scholars, if you were to draw a line between these three cities, it's called the

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Triangle of Miracles. The majority of the miracles that Jesus did occurred north of the

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Sea of Galilee, way up in the north of Israel, between these cities, Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.

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And so what are these cities? Capernaum is on the north shore of the

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Sea of Galilee, it's the bottom of the Triangle. It was really the center of Jesus' ministry.

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Now imagine like you're raised in Kalamazoo, or maybe you were raised in Jackson and you went off to college at Western.

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So Western ends up kind of, Kalamazoo ends up being, coming a home away of home of sorts for you. Jesus was raised, he was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, leaves

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Nazareth, and the majority of his ministry takes place near Capernaum, and if there's any place that could actually be called, kind of like the place where he laid his head, it was in Capernaum.

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Now he didn't own a home there, as far as we can tell, but he spent most of his nights in Capernaum.

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It was kind of like the place to go back to, to reset at the end of the day. And so Capernaum was kind of a base of operations, if you will, for the ministry of Jesus there on the north shore of the

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Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida is northeast of that location, and then

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Chorazin is north and west, almost equal distance. So we have a triangle that's formed here.

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And within that triangle, the dead were raised, the feeding of the 5 ,000 occurred, just south of that point where the triangle touches the water is where Jesus walked on water.

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Demons were cast out, blindness was healed, the deaf received hearing. All of this stuff happened right in that area.

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And so he says, I pick out these cities, and I'm going to denounce them because the majority of the mighty miracles that I've done, the mighty stuff that Jesus did, happened in this area.

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I want you to know, awesome stuff went down there. Can you imagine going to a funeral, you're wearing black, you're crying, you're mourning for your friend or your loved one, and Jesus comes in and says, hold up just a second, come out of the casket.

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And the person gets up. You know, would that just like blow your brain,

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I mean it would just be like, what in the world is going on here? And these people were privileged at seeing that routinely.

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Now what we need to get out of our mind is the notion that there's a miracle every five minutes in biblical times.

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This was supposed to be awe -inspiring to them. There was not the general expectation that miracles were just going to happen routinely all the time.

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This was a surprise to them. Like Jesus walking in here and healing people and doing miraculous things. This would be like, whoa, what is going on here?

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And it's interesting to note that it's clear from this context that one of the primary reasons Jesus performed miracles was that people would repent.

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That it would have an actual impact on people's hearts and in their lives. So that the notion of repenting is that I'm living my own way,

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I'm doing my own thing, I'm heading on this pathway, living for myself, and I encounter Jesus and he picks me up and sets me in a different direction.

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That's repentance. Repentance is turning from this way of life, turning from the very structure, the way that I live, and now living for God and going his way and my feet are on his path.

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Do you understand that? So repentance is like a 180 degree turn. I'm heading this way, I'm heading towards destruction, the end of this path is destruction, living for myself,

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I'm all that matters in my life, boom, I encounter Jesus and my trajectory is changed through repentance and I change direction.

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And he said, my miracles should have produced repentance in you. How? Well, that they would encounter, have this awesome encounter with God and realize how powerful he is, how awesome he is, how worthy he is, and in essence, the expectation on Jesus' part is that they would see the mighty works of God he was performing, recognize him as the king that has now arrived, and turn from their sinful ways.

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Does that make sense? That's the expectation. But Jesus in his omniscience says in verse 21, that if the miracles done in Chorazin, if the miracles done in Bethsaida had been done in the

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Gentile wicked cities of Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago.

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Now Tyre and Sidon, just a really brief history lesson, there was a lot of conflict between Tyre and Sidon and Israel proper, that's north of Israel, but really from where Jesus is stating this, it's probably the closest completely non -Jewish city that is in proximity to the district of Galilee.

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These two cities were known for their wickedness and opposing the people of God at every turn throughout the

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Old Testament, so they were a bit of a picture, if you will, a bit of a paragon or held up as an example of wickedness.

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And he says, what he's saying here is pretty extreme. The pagan cities who worship idols would have repented before you have repented.

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Long ago, if they had seen the things that Jesus has done in Israel, they would have turned their lives over to God and walked away from self -serving lives focused on themselves.

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And he even says, long ago they would have done this. And they would have repented, not just repented internally, but in sackcloth and ashes, just an external demonstration of a heart change, a very biblical, cultural example.

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They would have put on itchy, scratchy clothing that symbolizes humility and sorrow and dejection and, in a sense, poverty.

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They would have put ashes on their head and their skin to symbolize lowliness in their hearts. So Tyrone Sidon would have done that.

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Now how many of you know that he's actually saying, he's predicting some things. He's basically showing he has the right and the full knowledge of how things would have gone down had his ministry been in Tyrone Sidon.

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Do you see what I'm saying? He's actually claiming to know some things that are quite intense and miraculous.

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He's saying, I know how the outcome would have been had my ministry been in Tyrone Sidon. And now in verse 22,

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Jesus, the righteous judge, makes his point. He says this, maybe just this rattles some of us, it will be more bearable, it will be, he's making a declaration of reality.

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This is really the way it's going to go down, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyrone Sidon than for you,

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Bethsaida and Chorazin. Now let's take the main point first before we get misdirected into another angle of the verse, and there's a little bit of a side note here.

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But the main point here is that to whom much is given, much is required. Do you get that from the text? Those who were privileged to encounter

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Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry, those who were privileged to see these mighty miracles. In other words, with great privilege comes great responsibility.

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And that is what's going on here. Those who have come close to the Savior. Now listen to this, you can listen to this in two ways.

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You can listen to this and judge Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum, or you can listen to this and think about your own privilege.

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Think about these things. Those who have come close to the Savior. Those who have grown up near to the

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King. Those who have been around the living word of God and have seen his life transforming power.

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And if they have seen these things and experienced these things only to reject him in their hearts, they are going to incur a greater judgment, the text tells us.

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They are not my words, these are the words of Jesus. Now are you getting that?

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Is that making sense to you? That with proximity to the truth comes greater responsibility and equally comes greater judgment.

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The words bearable and judgment in the same sentence probably rattles some of us. Would you, would you, bearable, more bearable, judgment,

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I thought that, I think sometimes we think in such black and white terms that it's either in or out and those who are out are all going to receive the same equal judgment and that's not the case according to this passage and it requires a lot more study for us to understand how judgment actually comes down but it's right here in the text and it's clear that a day of judgment is coming and it's equally clear that judgment will be based upon how privileged we have been with the truth.

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There's a part of that, there's an aspect of that. Now there's much that we don't know about the way that the final judgment is going to go down.

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There's some things that we do and there are two things that we do know that I think should be sufficient to move us, that should be significant in our hearts and in our lives.

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The first is just to genuinely grab a hold of the reality that a day of reckoning is coming.

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There is going to be a day of judgment, do you agree with that? Would you agree that that has significance in our lives, or should have significance in the way we live our lives and the way that we walk and the things that we think about and all of that?

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There's a reality to that, but second of all, and this is,

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I think, the first leads to the second in its importance, and that is that there is a day of reckoning coming but the second is simply this, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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He is the judge and the one who is the judge is going to be equally the one who is offering salvation.

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He has offered it to us freely, to any, and we're going to see that by the end of our text.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What is the way that we come out from underneath the righteous wrath and righteous judgment of a holy and perfect God?

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It is Jesus Christ. He alone is our hope. The one who will be handing out the sentences on that day is the way of pardon.

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In verses 23 through 24, Jesus equally takes on Capernaum. They apparently thought that they would be exalted to heaven.

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Now think about if, it's biblical times in modern times, and Jesus has chosen

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Matawan to be his base of operations, okay? Sure, he goes out in the countryside, he heads out to Goebbels once in a while, does some miracles out there, does some things, teaches over towards the lake, walks across Lake Michigan a couple times, does some miraculous things.

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But at the end of the day, he comes back to Matawan. What do you think is kind of the feel, the sense of Matawan?

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We are awesome. We are awesome. God is doing miraculous things in our midst.

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We must be highly favored, we are highly privileged according to the text. He must like us quite a bit.

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And I think Capernaum had that thought because Jesus is going to attack that notion. They apparently thought that they would be exalted to heaven.

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I think part of it was because Jesus' ministry was going on there, so they just assumed they were in with God. God likes us because look, he's doing these miracles here.

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So they took what was supposed to be repentance on their part for their sin and actually took those miracles and made them their own and thought that they were all worth that.

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It showed how super cool they were. Are you getting that? Jesus says they will not be exalted to heaven, but he declares that instead they will be brought down to Hades, to the grave.

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Not necessarily a word for hell, but a place of death, the place where all souls go, to the grave, to Hades.

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And then he says this pretty dramatic statement. If the very works that had been done in Capernaum had been done in, look at the text, what city does he hold up as an example?

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Sodom. He says, if the very works that had been done in Capernaum had been done in Sodom, even

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Sodom would have repented and remains to this day. Sodom, again, an Old Testament image of a city that was literally physically judged.

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Fire came down from heaven and consumed them. They went down to Hades.

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He says, if the mighty works, if the miracles that I do here in Capernaum had been done in Sodom, they would have repented, turned from their wickedness, and they would still exist today.

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Is that a pretty extreme statement for a Jew to grab a hold of? Absolutely, especially when you consider all the

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Old Testament references that hold up Sodom as one of the epitomes of wickedness. So then a question, how significant is the rejection of the

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Son of God? To have Him drawn near, to stand at the outer reaches of the crowd and listen in and hear

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His teaching and be privileged to see the miracles and to take it in, to eat the bread that He multiplied and to be numbered among the 5 ,000 and to not repent and not embrace

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Him in a significant and unique way, to not come to Him, but to just kind of be satisfied in your own way of life and doing your own thing, but coming just that close to the

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Kingdom. How significant is that? It will be more tolerable for Sodom than for Capernaum on the

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Day of Judgment, he says. To have seen the glory and then to go on living for ourselves is the greatest offense.

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To come in contact with the Son of God and reject Him, that will incur the greatest judgment.

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The second section deals with the authority of Jesus to declare such things. It's kind of a little bit of a downer to start the message here.

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It's pretty serious and Jesus is getting serious. And if we're not taking it serious, then we ought to consider why not.

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But in verses 23, I'm sorry, moving on 25 through 27, on what authority does

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Jesus declare these things? Why does He have the authority to do this? One might challenge Jesus at this point and say, who gives you the right to judge

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Chorazin? Who gives you the right to judge Bethsaida? How do you know

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Sodom would have repented? How do you know these things? And so, verses 25 through 27,

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Jesus talks directly about His intimate relationship with His Father. Understanding the inner workings of salvation and understanding even the very mind of God the

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Father Himself. He's going to make some radical statements in verses 25. But notice that He basically takes this next part, takes the form of a prayer.

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So at that time, in that context, in issuing these woes to the cities, at that time

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Jesus declared, I thank you, Father. Jesus thanks the Father ultimately. If you go through the entire text of His prayer,

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He's ultimately thanking the Father for the plan of salvation. Jesus is glad that one need not be highly educated or wise, but that the little child can receive this revelation as well.

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As a matter of fact, one needs to become like a little child in order to understand this by faith.

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I do not believe that Jesus is here implying that the educated cannot repent. That if you have a

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Ph .D., all of a sudden you're in trouble and you can't come into the kingdom. But what He is saying is that if you have a

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Ph .D. and you refuse to come to Jesus with humility like a child, then you really won't come at all.

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If we remain solely in our own wisdom, solely in our own understanding, then we will not come to Jesus as He is.

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Another way to state this, to clarify it, is that our brains can indeed get in the way of faith.

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Do you agree with that? Our minds can get in the way. Jesus is not calling everyone to stupidity.

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He's not calling everyone to ignorance, get dumb so you can get in the kingdom. He's calling people to a simple, innocent, childlike faith.

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And notice that it's not that we obtain this faith by actively pursuing intellectual facts. Oh, I was smart enough to get in,

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I was smart enough to get a hold of this, I got enough study and eventually I got in because I'm so smart.

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But truth comes to us through revelation. The Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, reveals it to us according to the text.

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Consider the response of Jesus when He asked His disciples who they thought He was. A biblical model, a biblical example of this concept that faith ultimately comes by a revelation from the

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Father. So Jesus asked His disciples, who do you say that I am? And Peter, brash, always the first one to answer, can't keep his mouth shut, sometimes

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I relate to Peter in the text, interjects, you are the Christ, the

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Son of the living God. And he gets one right for once. You are the

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Christ. And so you might think that Jesus goes, good job Peter, boy you've been studying me, you've learned so much, you've, you must have been,

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I know, you've been staying up late at night with a candle reading more and studying more and getting more and, is that how

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Jesus replies? No, He says, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my

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Father in heaven has made this clear to you. How did Peter come to the realization, the recognition that Jesus Christ is indeed

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Messiah? The Father has revealed it. Salvation is according to the gracious will of the

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Father. My personal testimony can be summarized in just a couple of facts. Jesus gave me,

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I mean, the Father gave me eyes to see spiritual reality. He gave me ears to hear spiritual truth.

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He gave me the strength of will to believe and to be saved. My salvation is from God, from first to last.

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It is a work of the Father, through the Son, sealed by the Spirit. But it's also clear that those who come to the end of themselves are closer to the kingdom.

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Now, that might rattle some of us, like, wait, those who are in poverty, those who are in poverty of soul, those who are in a place of weakness, are struggling in life, are closer to the kingdom?

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And that was one of the radical things that the Pharisees struggled with. They were intelligent, they were educated, they were wise in the law.

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And Jesus goes and hangs out with prostitutes and says, these people are closer to the kingdom than you educated people because you're not willing to humble yourself.

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It's not that they've made themselves closer. And I don't think many people get down and out on purpose, you know, it's not their intention to set out and make themselves lowly.

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But the down and out, those who have very little self -sufficiency left, those who have experienced the rough side of life, they are in a place of spiritual advantage.

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Jesus even said these words earlier in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 5, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

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Blessed are those who are weak in their spirit, who are struggling and wrestling and are hurting inside.

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. And I've never found anybody who hungers and thirsts for righteousness that has not first come in contact with their own sinfulness and identified their own depravity, that weakness of soul and kind of going,

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I come to you with nothing, God. I need, I hunger and thirst for righteousness that isn't of my own.

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I can't do this anymore. So Jesus is glad for the grace of his

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Father that is in the process of saving any who would come to him in humility.

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And Jesus has the right to talk this way. He has the right to talk that way in judgment of both the wicked and even judging the plan of salvation.

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I mean, there's some weird things that Jesus is kind of getting at here. He's like, God, Father, I approve.

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I like the plan of salvation that you've put together. Now, how many of you think that just for me as a pastor to get,

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God, good job, I appreciate the way that you, Father, I'm glad for the way that you've set up salvation. Come across a little arrogant for a man to say that, but Jesus is saying this to his

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Father, well done, Dad, good job. I like this plan. Thank you for this plan.

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This is good. And here in the next two verses, we see why he can talk that way, why he's the rightful judge of Chorazin, why he's the rightful judge of Bethsaida and why he is ultimately the standard and why he can judge even the plan of salvation.

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Because in the next two verses, we encounter one of the most radical statements about the deity of Christ found outside of the gospel of John.

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If you're struggling with the deity of Christ, you're kind of like, I'm not sure, was he God? Was he not God? You know, wrestle with that. I encourage you to start with John 1 and read all the way to John 21 and tell me by the end that you're not convinced that at least

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John believed that Jesus was God and that Jesus believed he was God. At least you're going to come to that conclusion by the end of reading

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John. But outside of the book of John, this is one of the most clear statements. He says this. Jesus says this statement.

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Just let this sink in. All things have been given by the Father to the

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Son! All things. Now, how many of you like to give gifts to your kids?

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Any of you enjoy like that, like you look forward to Christmas just for the chance. I mean, so raise your hand if you have kids.

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Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then only two of you like to give gifts. Raise your hand if you like to give gifts to your kids.

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I thought that probably more of you than that. This is a pretty big gift. Okay.

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Would you agree with me on that? Like all things. Okay. Yeah. Here you go, son. Here. Just have some, have a little bit of all things.

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Jesus is quite literally the King over all things.

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And he is in relationship to the Father in such a way, it says in the text, that only the Father really fully knows the

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Son. And only the Son really knows the Father, except for one little caveat, one little exception.

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The Son has the right to choose to reveal the Father to anyone. He says, by the way, only the

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Father really gets me, and I'm the only human who really gets the Father, but I'm also equally a conduit.

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I'm equally, I can choose to reveal the Father to others by His sovereign choosing.

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Without question, this is one of the most offensive aspects of Christianity in the modern world. That is that Jesus is, is the gateway to a relationship with the

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Father. Jesus says that multiple times in His ministry. And yet the exclusive claims of Jesus are fundamental, regardless of how offensive that can strike people.

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Now, try that in your workplace, go to, you know, if you were to just picture walking into work tomorrow morning, your office place, wherever you work, and just say,

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Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, how's that going to strike people? What kind of interactions are you going to have with other people over that conversation?

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Is that going to turn ugly, do you think? Do you think people are going to be frustrated with you? What are they going to think about you?

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Arrogant, just egocentric, ethnocentric, whatever, religiocentric, is that a word?

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It's all about you, you're the conduit, right? Your religion is the right way, oh.

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Jesus says in no uncertain terms that one must come to Him first if they want an audience with God, if they want an audience with the

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Father. He is the mediator between God and man. There is only one mediator between God and man, the man,

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Christ Jesus. He is our high priest. We don't have priests at Recast Church.

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Every once in a while somebody makes a mistake and I kind of chuckle inside, they call me priest, or they'll think of it that way, or they just ask, are you the priest?

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You know, somebody out in the community, are you the priest of Recast? No, Jesus is the priest of Recast, but I'm the pastor.

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My goal is to bring the word of God. Anybody can do what I do. I hope that you're doing this on a regular basis, that you're studying the word of God.

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I just get more time to do it every week, so that's why I'm standing up here, because this is my job. But you can do this.

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You can dig into the word of God and grow, because the spirit of God is alive in you just like He's alive in me.

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But I'm not a priest. I'm not the go -between. I don't have some special hand on God that I can bring

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Him down into your life. That's what is implied by priest. But Jesus is.

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Jesus is the high priest. A very firm grip on the Father, as He says here,

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I know the Father. Nobody knows the Father like I know the Father. But He also knows humanity, because He was one of us.

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God in flesh, the God -man. That's why that's so central and important. He is our high priest.

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He is the gate. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And He goes on to say, no one comes to the

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Father except through Him. Now, it would be offensive.

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I confess this. I genuinely believe it would be utterly and completely offensive if we made this up.

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Would you agree with me on that? If we invented this notion that Christianity, and ultimately through Jesus Christ, He's the only door.

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He's the only gateway. I can understand why a culture and a society, without understanding the word of God, might go, you're just saying that because you want a monopoly on religious expression.

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You want a monopoly. You want to declare that your way is the right way. I just want to declare

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God's way. I just want to be found telling the truth. And if it's true, then the most horrible thing that anyone in the church, that the church itself, the church being you, the people, one of the most horrendous things that we could do for our culture, ever, is to preach that there are many ways to heaven.

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That's one of the worst things we can do when Jesus issues woes and judgments to those who know of Jesus and refuse to repent and submit to Him.

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He's offering judgment to them earlier in this text, isn't He? So one of the worst things we could do in our culture is to say, yeah, all roads lead to the same mountaintop.

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All roads lead to heaven. No, there is one gate. And it's by God's sovereign choice that He made this one way.

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Not my decision. Not your decision. Not your choice. This is the way

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He made it. And it's very clear that this is what Jesus taught.

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And Jesus here then, what we've heard so far, a little bit down, primarily about judgment.

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But I love it that Jesus doesn't end here. In all honesty, originally as I set down kind of what

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I'm going to preach a year in advance, so I kind of know what text I'm going to look at next week and what text, and I had to edit my schedule this past week.

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Because as I got in and I was digging into this text, I was like, I can't end right here. I can't end right here.

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I would not be practicing what I preach. I've told our children's workers, those who are down teaching your kids, to never end a lesson with judgment.

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Never allow it to rest there. Because in reality, we're trying to preach the gospel to you. Those of you who have kids down there, they're hearing the gospel.

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And the gospel doesn't have a pretty beginning. Did you know that? The beginning of the gospel is our depravity, is our fall.

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Is that we're sinners and we can't do it on our own. We're not trying to teach your kids to be more moral. We're not trying to teach your kids to be good, upstanding

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American citizens. We're trying to get the gospel in there. That we are, the first part, we are depraved.

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We are sinners. We break mommy and daddy's rules. We break God's rules. We enjoy breaking those rules sometimes, don't we, little children?

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But guess what? God has made a way to not preach the first half without preaching the good news.

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Because otherwise, we're teaching our kids bad news, right? And this would be a bad news message if I just ended right here.

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Okay, well, there's judgment and Jesus is the judge and he's the standard. Go in peace. Jesus here issues a beautiful, compassionate call to all.

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And I'm convinced that this call, as you listen to the remainder of this message, I want you to think that there are some in here who might not be believers.

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You maybe have never repented for the first time. But there are others here who have been walking with God for a long time.

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And this call still remains to you the same. Looking over the crowds, looking down over the ages to this very place here in Matawan, Michigan, Jesus declares, come to me.

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The one who's just issued judgment is now saying, come to me. I am the solution, come to me.

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In the words of a shepherd calling together his flock for protection, he says, come to me.

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In the words of a lover calling to his beloved, come to me. In the words of a father searching for his lost son in the storm, he pleads, come to me.

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For what? For rest. Who does he call?

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Who is he calling out to? He's calling to all who labor and are heavy laden.

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Anybody here willing to admit that you've had some times of labor in your life?

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Of hard toil, of hard work, of slugging it out, whether that's with sin, whether that's with circumstances, with situations, with bosses, with work, with whatever.

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You have labored. How many would admit that maybe you feel a little bit of a burden on your shoulders?

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You have felt that heavy load. I do not think that this is an exclusive statement that Jesus is saying, well, there's a category of humans here who labor and are heavy laden, and over here are all those who do not labor and are heavy laden, and I want you guys on my team over here.

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I think Jesus is defining humanity. I think he's ultimately declaring that you all are, and so the call is out to all who labor and are heavy laden, and I would say every human.

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You pass somebody in the grocery store, you see them going for a jog in your neighborhood, you see them out driving a car.

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There's one thing that you can know about that individual. They're heavy laden. They've got burdens.

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They've got things on their shoulders. I think he's defining humanity at its core.

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We could rightly be called a race, a species that labors and is heavy laden, that could define humanity.

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Wasn't that ultimately one of the very punishments that we received in the fall, that we would toil and work our entire lives and not get much accomplished?

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Jesus is here calling broken people to give up their striving. He's here, and he's calling people to lay down their burdens.

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He is, in one sense, seeking to reverse the effects of the fall in people's lives, to give them rest, to come to the one who can carry their load for them.

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Are you weary? Are you loaded with a heavy burden? Come to Jesus.

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And he promises to us rest. I'm convinced this is both a rest from toiling for our own salvation.

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We can't. And he says, come to me and rest in me. Your hope should be in me, not in your toil, not in your labor, but also a promise of ultimate rest.

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I'm going to be looking forward to that ultimate rest, that place where the sin is gone and the crud that's between us and others and all the messiness of relationship and the brokenness is fixed in our relationship and our brokenness before God is taken care of.

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I look forward to that. So there's two aspects to that rest. There is a soul rest that we can experience now, but there's a day of ultimate rest coming.

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Does rest sound good to you? Are you tired of striving in your own effort to get right with God?

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What Jesus is doing here is issuing a call that was very common for rabbis in his day and age. A rabbi, a teacher, would stand in the marketplace calling disciples, calling life students to himself, and he would ask them to take his yoke upon them and to learn from him.

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And this was a common thing. It would not be that crazy for some other rabbi to say the same thing that Jesus is saying here, but the unique thing is when another rabbi would stand up, he would often talk about the weight of the burden that he was ready to shoulder you with.

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It was often, I follow the law in this way and this way. I will teach you to obey this and teach you to do this and teach you to do this.

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And Jesus is saying, come to me because my burden is light. To yoke ourselves to Jesus.

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You have a picture in your mind of what a yoke is? I mentioned it a few weeks ago in a sermon, but it's basically a wooden block that you would lay across the shoulders of animals, think oxen, that you want to plow a field and you need double the strength.

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You don't just want one ox to plow the field, you need two. And so you would put a beam between them resting on their shoulders attached to the harness and enable those animals to stay an equal distance apart no matter where they moved and they had to move together.

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Think like the three -legged race where you're yoked to the other person's foot and if you don't work together you're not going to get any place.

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So these two ox need to work together. And that is what

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Jesus is asking. So what does it mean, what does it look like for us to yoke ourselves to Jesus? It is to join him in the harness.

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To be yoked to Jesus is to follow him, to go in his direction, to work in his field, but also equally to acknowledge that he will bear the load.

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He is the one who ultimately is inviting us to join in his yoke.

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He declares something direct about his very nature in verse 9, something that we see into the heart of Jesus for just a moment.

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He says, for I am gentle and lowly of heart. Jesus didn't act gentle.

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He was gentle. It's a part of his nature. He is gentle in his heart.

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He is lowly in his heart. After these woes that he's issued, after these criticisms towards those too intelligent and too educated for him, he says, but my invitation stands.

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Come to me, anyone who is ready to give up your burden to him. Jesus is not a slave driver.

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He is not a taskmaster. He is not a killjoy. And what do we have to gain by coming to Jesus?

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Rest for your souls. He doesn't necessarily promise rest for your bodies, not promising you a good night's sleep tonight.

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He's not promising wealth. He's not promising health. He's not promising freedom from the effects of sin, but he is promising rest for your soul, for your heart.

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And there is no rest quite like knowing that your eternity is settled in heaven, paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.

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And there is no more condemnation awaiting in the final judgment of God. That is true and real rest for your souls.

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Jesus is the rightful judge. He's the standard upon which judgment will be meted out.

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And everybody in this room has come in contact with him in some way. And the question is, what have you done with this revelation you have been given?

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We live in a privileged country where we have the opportunity with many churches to hear the word of God, to have access to the word of God, to take it home and to read it and to be in contact with it.

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But Jesus is not just the judge. He is also the Savior, offering peace and rest to anyone who would repent in humility and allow him to change the trajectory of our lives, heading for ourselves or knocked off of our own trajectory to God's trajectory, repenting and turning to him.

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There are two types of people. This is not a two types of people joke. You've heard those before. There are two types of people.

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There are those who would keep Jesus at arm's length. They might hide out in the crowd.

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They might be on the outskirts. They might hang out in the back row. No offense to anybody in the back row. Just get what

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I'm saying. They listen in. They check out what

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Jesus has to say. But in the end, they never come to him. They never take his yoke upon them.

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They never connect their lives to Jesus in any real and meaningful way. They are like Chorazin.

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They are like Bethsaida and Capernaum. But then there are those who would heed the call to come to Jesus and they let him carry their burdens for them.

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One is the path of pride, and the other is the path of humility. One is the path of judgment, and the other is the path to new life.

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One is marked by toil, struggle, and heavy burdens, and the other is marked by a peaceful rest.

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Recast, my call to you this morning, my desperate plea to you, each one of you, is come to Jesus, all of you, every single one of you.

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Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus, you who are striving to please

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God by your good works. Come to Jesus, you who are under siege by your own sins, and that is many of us.

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Come to Jesus, you who feel worthless. Come to Jesus, you who feel hopeless.

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Come to Jesus, you who feel forgotten. You who feel abandoned.

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Come to Jesus. Please, come to Jesus.

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His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. And this call goes out to everyone.

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If you've walked with Jesus for years, you may be here and you say, well, I came to Jesus.

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It's a different call, and I'm still suggesting that once again, come to Jesus.

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Let's pray. Father, what we need most can only be found in your

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Son. And Father, if there's anybody here who is wrestling with this notion of coming to you through your

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Son, God, I ask that you would break the chains that have bound them, that you would break the darkness that can so easily come over our lives and wave upon wave of frustration and burden and heaviness and carrying our own load.

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Father, would you help us to bring those things to the foot of the cross this morning? Would you help us by your grace to release the burdens that we hold?

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Father, it's foolish for us to go on in our lives thinking that we have to carry this alone when you have provided a way through Jesus Christ.

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Father, I ask that you would let peace, real, true peace and joy permeate our souls, that we might experience rest over our eternal destiny this morning.

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Father, if there's any here who maybe for the first time need to come to Jesus, I ask that you would work in their hearts to bring them to Christ and give them the strength to come and talk with me or somebody about that decision.

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And then as Kyle comes to lead us in communion, I ask that you would be honored and glorified in this remembrance service in Jesus' name.

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Amen. This morning as we come to communion,

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I wanted to read for you what the 1677 and 1689

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London Baptist Confession says about the Lord's Supper. And this is no theological tie to them, but I think they got it right here.

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And this also reminds us that we are a part of a long legacy of Christ followers, and we carry on this tradition.

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They say, The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him, the same night wherein he was betrayed, to be observed in his churches unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing forth the sacrifice of himself in his death, confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto him, and to be a bond and a pledge of their communion with him and with each other.

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At communion, when we take that cracker and we take that little cup of juice, we come to Jesus.

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And in him we find community and fellowship and safety.

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In him and in each other. In communion, we all come to Jesus.

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Not just those who need to come for the first time and be saved, but those of us who were saved, and day by day are being saved, and who look forward to the yet -to -be -saved moment, the final rest that is promised to us as children of God.

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So if you have come to Jesus as an act of faith in him, please come to the table, take the cracker and the juice, and if you aren't ready yet to rest, then we ask that you refrain, but that you think about committing yourself to Christ.