Result of Rejection Luke 11:29-36

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October 22, 2023 - Morning Worship Service Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, California Message "Result of Rejection" Luke 11:29-36

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It's nice to be family, isn't it? And if you know the Lord you are family, and we're glad to have you as family.
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So Welcome to Faith Bible Church. We're glad you are all here today we look forward to a blessing from the
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Lord and hope that you are blessed by the Word today and by the singing
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If you take your bulletin There are a few changes that you need to put in your calendar for this coming
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Days and months and again tonight we meet for our prayer time at 6 p .m.
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It's a time of joy at a time of praying and bringing our requests to the
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Lord Again, put this in your calendar. We are changing the meeting frequency of the
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Bible study to twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month starting
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October the 25th at 530 p .m. We'll be starting in the book of Ruth and all are welcome
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Our biblical counseling course is on Saturday, October the 28th at 11 a .m
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There will be no biblical counseling course during November due to the holidays
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You December the 9th will change the meeting time on Saturdays from 9 a .m.
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And note to 930 the first Saturday in November is we're going to have the men's
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Breakfast and Bible study and all the men are welcome So let's go to the
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Lord in prayer We come to you
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Heavenly Father this morning and would ask that you would Deal with each one of us and that we might say today.
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It's been good to be here in your house Good to fellowship with each other Good to fellowship with you
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Lord through your word through prayer we uphold pastor as he brings your word and again, we would pray for liberty as he
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Speaks the things that you have laid on his heart. May it touch our hearts as we see your word and we would thank you we pray for our time of Singing and praising you
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May it be a blessing to each one of us encourage our hearts we think of our country and our world and we see a world in turmoil and We would you've asked us to pray for our leaders and we do pray for our president pray for our leader of our state
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And we would ask Heavenly Father as you said we pray for the peace of Jerusalem We pray and look forward to the time
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Lord when you will rule and reign and there will be peace even coming from that area We would remember our missionary of the month
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Jack and Bev McMahon and we would uphold them and thank you Lord for the ministry. They've had many years in New Zealand and we would pray that you would continue to give them a fruitful ministry there and now as they are at home and Making contacts with their churches and so forth.
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We would thank you Lord that you would give them The rest that they need even as they travel and have meetings and pray these things in Jesus name.
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Amen Stand together with me if you would Today's scripture readings and come out of Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 4
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Again that is Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 verse 1
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God who at various times in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the
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Prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed hair of all things through whom
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Also, he made the world's Who being the brightness of his glory in the express image of his person and Upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself
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Purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high having become so much better than the angels as he has by Inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they this is the word of the
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Lord and all of you children my age have to stand and do the motions and All of you children that are here
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We're going to sing three verses and the first verse is this little light of mine We as Christians are sure to show forth the light of Christ in our life.
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So here's my little light Today I would like to read from Luke chapter 11 verses 29 through 36
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Luke chapter 11 verses 29 through 36 and While the crowds were thickly gathered together he began to say
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I am the Lord and I am the King and I am the Lord and I am the King "'This is an evil generation. "'It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it "'except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
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"'For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, "'so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.
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"'The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment "'with the men of this generation and condemn them.
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"'And she came from the ends of the earth "'to hear the wisdom of Solomon. "'And indeed, a greater than Solomon is here.
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"'The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment "'with this generation and condemn it. "'For they repented as the preaching of Jonah, "'and indeed, a greater than Jonah is here.
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"'No one, when he has lit a lamp, "'puts it in a secret place or under a basket, "'put on a lampstand, "'that those who come in may see the light.
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"'The lamp of the body is the eye. "'Therefore, when your eye is good, "'your whole body also is full of light.
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"'But when your eye is bad, "'your body also is full of darkness. "'Therefore, take heed that the light "'which is in you is not darkness.
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"'If then your whole body is full of light, "'having no part dark, "'the whole body will be full of light "'as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.'"
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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that you have sent
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Jesus to reveal to us who you are and what you have done to save us.
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Thank you that your son Jesus has died for our sin so that we would be forgiven and be adopted into your family.
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Thank you that his light shines brightly, that the gospel is public, that the gospel is clear.
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And Father, we pray that those of us who have not responded to the gospel would respond to it. In Jesus' name, amen.
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All right. So this passage actually continues on from the last passage, which talked about responding to Jesus' work.
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As you've seen, starting with chapter 11, Jesus goes on a journey to Jerusalem.
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And during this journey, he teaches his disciples, and not only his disciples, but anyone who has gathered around him, the truth about the gospel, the truth about the
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Messiah, and the truth about how to respond to this Messiah. And while last week's passage was on the true blessing that comes with responding to Christ, today's passage focuses on the result of rejecting
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Jesus' revelation, the result of rejecting who Jesus is and what he has come to do.
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And this is important, especially in this nation, because we have been blessed with the impact of the biblical worldview and also the gospel.
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This nation has been really founded on these
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Christian values. Now, I'm not saying all the founding fathers were Christians, but this idea of the value of human and also the value of each person's freedom comes from the
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Bible. And we have had the blessing of hearing from great men of God, and God has used them to share the gospel with this nation.
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Even before the founding of this nation, we had people like Jonathan Edwards, who has seen two revivals, right?
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Oh, this nation, the land itself, has actually witnessed people like George Whitefield, who preached the gospel to the most amount of people in history until that day, right?
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His voice actually carried out in the public and thousands of people heard him preach the gospel, clearly, over and over again.
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And same thing with the Wesley brothers, too. They also set foot on this land, this continent, to preach the gospel.
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And what's really crazy is this country and even this land has been exposed to the gospel and great preachings of the
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Bible over and over again, almost every century. And what's really sad is nowadays, when we look, there's a huge lack of response.
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There's really no response to the preaching of the gospel. We have so many resources available regarding the
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Bible and theological studies, so many seminaries, so many Bible colleges,
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Bible schools, and so many churches, too. Yet, our nation has been lacking in response to God's revelation.
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So the main point of this text is, while greater condemnation awaits for those who reject
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God's revelation, those who receive God's revelation in faith reflect
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His light. While greater condemnation awaits those who reject
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God's revelation, those who receive God's revelation in faith reflect His light.
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First, greater condemnation comes to those who reject the greater revelation from God.
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Greater condemnation comes to those who reject the greater revelation from God. So this event follows a series of passages on the importance of responding to Jesus.
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So verse 29 starts with the background. And while the crowds were thickly gathered together,
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He began to say. So the context of this teaching is when His ministry appeared to be successful.
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When people see a ministry with a great crowd, and not only a great crowd, it's growing, people think, oh wow, it looks like there are more followers.
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It seems like Christ's ministry is growing. However, Jesus knew their hearts. He knew their devotion was only temporary.
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He knew their attention would be short -lived. So hence, Jesus rebukes them.
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This is an evil generation. When He opens His mouth at the sight of the growing crowd,
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He rebukes, right, this is an evil generation. Jesus knew the heart of His audience.
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Their response was not in faith, right? Now what makes them evil? He continues, it seeks a sign.
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Seeking a sign is actually a recollection from verse 16 of chapter 11, right?
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Others testing Him sought from Him a sign from heaven. So it is not that Jesus was claiming to be the
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Messiah and has not done anything so far, right? As if He's just claiming with empty words, right?
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No, Jesus has performed numerous miracles, right? Casting out multiple demons, calming the storm, healing the sick, and raising the dead, right?
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And many of the crowds have seen that. Seeking signs despite seeing many of the miracles already was an arrogant way to respond to Christ, right?
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It's actually testing Jesus as if He is a lab rat, right? Yes, He's done this miracle, but let's see if He can do it again.
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Let me see it again, then I will believe, right? It completely reverses the creator and creation order, right?
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All of a sudden, the created attempt to judge the creator, right, and this is what we call evil.
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It is wicked. And this is why Jesus calls them an evil generation. Therefore, this is what the evil generation will receive.
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And no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet.
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The sign of Jonah, the prophet, means actually precisely no sign at all. For those of you who have read the four short chapters of Jonah, right, in the
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Old Testament, he is a prophet who's sent to the Ninevites of Assyria to preach to them that the judgment is coming.
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And what Jonah does is that he runs the opposite direction. And only when
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Jonah is brought to Nineveh by God's work, by making the fish throw him up on the ground of Nineveh, and he starts preaching, and surprisingly, these
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Ninevites respond. Now, one thing about the Assyrians is that they were a wicked, wicked people.
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They were a powerful empire, for sure. And what's important to know is that they weren't powerful.
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They weren't winning battles because they were the most numerous. They were winning battles because they were terrorizing.
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One Old Testament professor actually said, he was an expert of the
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Ninevites, and he would say, so they didn't win battles because they had the most number of people.
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What they would do is, if a city that they were trying to conquer did not forfeit, did not surrender, they would take all the men and then pierce them with a large, sharp, wooden material and then parade them in front of the city.
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And those people who did not surrender would actually surrender because of the terror of facing the same fate.
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Those were the Ninevites. They were not good people at all. Now, what's surprising is when
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Jonah does go to Nineveh, he does not perform any signs. He does not do any miracles.
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Unlike Elijah or Elisha, he does none of that. Yet, Jonah alone was the sign of the future judgment coming.
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It was him preaching to the Ninevites that this city would be overturned in 40 days.
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It was enough for the Ninevites to respond. Now, verse 30 connects
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Jonah to Jesus, right? For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the
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Son of Man will be to this generation. Son of Man is Jesus here, right? Just as Jonah only preached
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God's Word alone to the Ninevites without any signs, Jesus will only give the audience
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God's Word. Don't expect any signs from Him. Just listen.
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Now, after comparing His audience with the Ninevites, Jesus switches to another Gentilic response, right?
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The Ninevites were Gentiles, and they responded to God's Word. Now, we're gonna see another Gentile response.
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The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.
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For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed are greater than Solomon is here.
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The Queen of the South is the Queen of Sheba from 1 Kings 10 or 2 Chronicles 9.
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She is portrayed in both books, right? So, this is really an important story.
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She is a Gentile queen from a southern Arabian nation, so somewhere down south. And she takes a long journey with a huge caravan of treasures just to meet
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Solomon. And what she is responding on is just a rumor that Solomon has been gifted with wisdom from God.
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She has never met Solomon before. She just wants to hear Solomon. And now, why would this generation be judged by her?
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There are three reasons why this queen will rise up in the judgment day to condemn this generation.
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First, a Gentile queen responded to God's wisdom better than the Jews of the generation living in Jesus' time.
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Right, this is a Gentile queen. She's not out worshipping the Lord. She's not worshipping Yahweh. She doesn't have the
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Bible. She doesn't have the law. She just heard that Solomon is gifted, that he has the wisdom from heaven.
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And she and her whole caravan, right, traveled all the way up to Jerusalem to hear
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Solomon speak, yet the Jews did not. Second, a
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Gentile queen made a tremendously arduous trip to witness God's wisdom in person, yet the
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Jews rejected God's wisdom who came to them in person, right? None of these
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Jews made an arduous trip like this queen, but Jesus came to them.
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Jesus came to them, yet they reject Jesus because he's not giving them any signs, while the queen of Sheba made hundreds of miles of journey just to hear
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Solomon speak. And third, Solomon was merely gifted with the divine wisdom, but Jesus is the very source of God's wisdom, right?
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Paul says in the letters to the Corinthian, Jesus is the wisdom of God. So, contrary to what the
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Jews assumed back in the day, a Gentile queen will be more favored than the very chosen people of God because of how they responded to Jesus Christ.
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A Gentile queen responded better to a glimpse of what the
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Jews of Jesus' days got from Jesus, right? That's a great judgment because in the
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Old Testament, it's actually the Jews who are favored in the judgment day, right?
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It's they're the people of God, and it's the nations who are trembling and judged, right, by God.
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Now, all of a sudden, because they rejected Jesus, that has flipped. Because of the
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Galileans who rejected Jesus, right? Now, Jesus then returns to the
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Ninevites. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed, a greater than Jonah is here.
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Now, what was the preaching of Jonah like? For those of you who grew up in the
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VeggieTale tradition, right, of Jonah, I do apologize for shattering your childhood memory of Jonah.
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This was Jonah's... What I'm going to explain to you is Jonah's ministry, right? I had the privilege of studying the book of Jonah, just four chapters for one whole class of semester.
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And after that class, I couldn't really look at Jonah and think of him as, wow, he's a great prophet, right?
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So, this is what Jonah's preaching ministry was like. So, Jonah's preaching ministry was short in span and message.
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First, Jonah hurries through the great city of Nineveh in a day, which the narrator tells us is a three -day's journey in breath, right?
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So, second, Jonah's preaching was not intricate nor gut -wrenching.
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It was only a part of one verse from the whole book. This is from Jonah 3, verse 4, the last half.
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Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And that's what he preached in that one -day breath, which normally would have taken three days to go across.
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And you think that's a short sermon. The Hebrew text only has five words out of Jonah's mouth in Nineveh.
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And unlike the other prophets of the Old Testament, Jonah does not talk about who the
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Lord is, right? His justice, yet His mercy, right? The other prophets actually do mention who the
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Lord is. And unlike the other prophets, he did not talk about what kind of judgment is coming.
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We don't know. Just in 40 days, it will be overturned. Unlike the other prophets, he did not talk about how the
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Ninevites actually need to respond in faith to avert God's wrath. If you read the other prophets, after the pronouncement of judgment, it usually follows what they need to do in order to avert
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God's wrath that's coming, that they need to return, that they need to repent. But Jonah, for some reason, does not mention any of that.
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Now, needless to say, Jonah was not the best prophet of the Old Testament. But that's precisely the point why the
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Book of Jonah exists, that the Gentiles responded in faith and repentance to a lackluster, totally deficient prophet's preaching, right?
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In fact, this is why on the Day of the Atonement, the Jews actually read the Book of Jonah so that they can remember, wow,
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God is merciful and how much they lack in repentance compared to the
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Ninevites. So, now, let's look at how the Ninevites responded in the following of the subpar prophet.
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Compared to Jonah's terse message, the response of the Ninevites was actually comprehensive. From the king to the livestock, they humbled themselves.
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While Jonah's sermon covered less than a verse, the
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Ninevites' response spans five verses. Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on a sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.
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When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his robe from himself, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the dust.
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And he issued a proclamation, and it said, in Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, no person, animal, herd, or flock is to taste anything.
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They are not to eat or drink water. But every person and animal must be covered with sackcloth, and people are to call on God vehemently, and they are to turn, each one from his evil way and from the violence which is in their hands.
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Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his burning anger so that we may not perish.
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They don't even know how to repent properly, so they're doing everything they can so that God's wrath might turn away.
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They're doing this because Jonah didn't tell them. And if you look at this response by a wicked city of Nineveh, what you will notice is that the northern kingdom of Israel where Jonah comes from has never repented in any of this sort.
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They even got worse and worse. So what we need to ask is how much more did this generation of Jews receive in the person of Jesus Christ unlike the past gentile nation of Nineveh, yet they responded in unbelief, right?
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They got way more than what Jonah offered to the Ninevites, yet the Ninevites completely humbled themselves without knowing what to do, and they were just hoping, maybe this
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God will have mercy on us. Yet the people, very people of God, the
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Jews, they see Jesus, who is more than a prophet. He's the
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God himself who has come to them, and they did not repent like these Ninevites, right?
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So what Jesus is saying, greater judgment is coming for those who reject a greater person, greater condemnation for the failure to respond to the greater revelation of God, right?
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Jonah just gave them 5 words from God. Jesus was the very
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Word of God. He was the full revelation of who
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God is. If you wanted to see God and you looked at Jesus, you saw God, yet they did not repent.
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And this does not bode well for those who grow up in a Christian home and do not respond to Jesus.
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This does not bode well for those false teachers who call themselves pastors and don't preach the gospel of Jesus, but preach the gospel of health and wealth and prosperity, right?
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If you just gave more to the church, you will be blessed by God. This does not bode well for those people because they have the access to the
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Bible, yet they're preaching the total opposite of what the Bible says. And this does not bode well for, actually,
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Americans and Europeans. These nations have some of the richest Christian pasts and heritage, right?
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Europe is the continent in which Martin Luther walked and translated the Bible in the language that the
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Germans could read. England is a nation in which Charles Spurgeon preached to the thousands, right?
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Martin Lloyd -Jones preached the whole book of Romans in multiple years.
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That's the nation. And America, too. We have some of the best seminaries in history.
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We have the best theological books. We have apps for Christians.
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We have schools beyond what the world has ever seen. Yet the rejection of the gospel is alarmingly high in these nations, in Europe and America.
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The gospel is more palpable and clearer than ever. Yet we do not respond to Jesus in faith.
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A similar comparison would be if Jesus were to say the Iranians and North Korean Christians would rise up in the judgment against the people of our generation because they converted and remained faithful unto death despite having maybe only one copy of the
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Bible. They might not even have a copy of the Bible. They might just hear from one person who has read it.
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Yet they repented and they remained faithful despite the persecution of their wicked, evil governments.
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How much more theological resources do we have, and yet our hearts remain cold and unresponsive to Christ?
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Right? This passage does not bode well for all the nations that have been blessed by the abundant resources of Christian faith and the
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Bible. Yet they're rejecting Christ now. Now, what does the faithful respond to God's revelation look like?
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Those who respond faithfully to God's revelation fill themselves with and reflect God's light.
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Those who respond faithfully to God's revelation fill themselves with and reflect
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God's light. So after explaining the greater judgment that's coming for those who are rejecting
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Jesus' revelation, Jesus uses light as the imagery for God's revelation.
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Verse 33, No one when he has lit a lamp puts it in a secret place or under a basket but on a lampstand that those who come in may see the light.
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So verse 33 actually clarifies that rejecting God's revelation is not because the light is hidden.
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Right? In fact, just as the lamp is lit and it's put on a lampstand, his revelation is publicly visible.
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So hence, people who reject God's revelation cannot say, we didn't know that.
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And the song that we sang about, This Little Light of Mine, portrays that well.
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It's not hidden under a basket. It's shining. Then Jesus explains how a person responds to God's revelation.
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The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light.
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But when your eye is bad or unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. So our response to God's Word depends on how we perceive and receive
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God's Word. The eye here is how we perceive
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God's revelation. So if our eye is good or healthy, it means our spiritual perception is moral and sharply discerning.
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We are able to fully receive God's revelation. Hence, our body is actually filled with light because the revelation fills our heart.
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God's revelation, when it received well, is not just empty revelation or empty facts or information that's useless.
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It actually fills the person's internal self. Now, the opposite is also true.
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If our eye is unhealthy or bad, as in undiscerning or spiritually blind, our body is filled with darkness.
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That's because God's revelation is the only source of light. And if that is rejected, then it never fills the person's heart.
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Right? So this is because when we reject God's revelation, God's light,
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His light does not fill us. And rejecting God's Word means choosing darkness.
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Avoiding God's light means refusing all source of light. So considering this reality, verse 35 leads us to the exhortation.
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Therefore, take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. What that means is don't saturate your mind with the wrong substance.
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Make sure the material that you're putting into your mind and heart is not darkness.
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Make sure it's the right source of light, the only source of light. And finally, verse 36 shows the full implication of rejecting
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Jesus. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.
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So how you respond to Jesus defines what light you are emitting.
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If you receive the lamp, Jesus' revelation, then your whole body will be filled with light.
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But not only that, it will be publicly proclaiming His light. His light doesn't just stay inside you.
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It's obvious. It's evident. Because it comes out. Receiving the light leads to emitting
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His light. Right? Believing in Jesus means your life will reflect
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Christ. Believing in Jesus is not a private internal decision that remains hidden.
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Believing in Jesus changes your whole life, and it becomes publicly obvious whose light you're shining.
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And, in fact, this is an important test for true believers of Christ. True believers of Christ are not those who claim to be
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Christians. In fact, when I meet someone who claims to be Christian, I keep the guard up just as much as I would meet a non -Christian.
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I don't know. I've met way too many people who claim to be
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Christians and have proven that they're not. True believers of Christ are not those who have been members of a local church for decades.
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The Bible makes clear that there are wolves in sheep's clothing, which means wolves look like the sheep, and they may be part of the sheep flock for a while.
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True believers of Christ are actually those who reflect Christ. That's the only way.
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True believers of Christ are those who emit the light of Christ and I don't mean to be like a new -age concept here, right?
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This is not some new -age concept or looking for some positive vibe or the right feeling, right?
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It's about an evident change in a person's heart which is publicly revealed, right?
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Only people who believe that Jesus died for their sin by suffering God's wrath on the cross and rising from the dead, only those people are transformed both internally and externally.
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The light fills them inside and shines forth outside. That's how the true light fills the person.
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It is by the faith in the gospel, and it is possible to temporarily fake the external light without believing in Christ.
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The world has tried to fight against sin without Christ, right?
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They do drugs, their programs, and their false religions, more regulations, right?
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They try to make sinful people into good people through those means.
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Yet, we have never seen lasting changes in human hearts aside from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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People who go on drugs to fight addiction, their desire for those addictive substances do not actually change.
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In fact, without those drugs, they'll go back because that's what they desire. People who go under programs to fight against certain sins like alcoholism or other drug addictions, pornography, it's not a lasting change.
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Usually, less than 1 % of those people actually deprive... they reject those sinful things for their life.
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They usually go back. If not, they will find something else to idolize, something that might be legal like coffee, sugar.
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But it's still changing idols. It's not actually removal of idols. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ removes the idols from the heart.
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Only the belief in Jesus can change a person's will, desire, and intention.
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And that's permanent. Christ does not threaten to stop our sinfulness like the man -made rules of all the false religions.
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Christ actually renews a person's heart permanently to start to despise sin, which we once longed for and sought after.
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And when that desire is gone, that's when that external light is emitted.
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It's a heart change, and then the action changes. It's never the behavioral modification hoping for the heart change.
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The gospel is not a behavioral modification program, but a soul -renewing message that leads us to a life -transforming relationship with God.
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That's the only way that the light of Christ emits from us because we have received
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Christ by faith. And only then that light shines forth.
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And that's what Jesus tells us, how a person belongs to Christ.
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They first receive Christ, and then their lives are changed. And people who claim to have received
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Christ but their lives aren't changing, we need to be more skeptical because that's how the true light comes forth.
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This is not to say that Christians become perfect the moment they believe. No, but the process of sanctification is exactly that.
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It's a process, not an instant moment of transformation.
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The process of transformation starts the moment we receive the light of Christ. Let us pray.
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Father, we're thankful that we can change, not by rules, not through programs, not through drugs, but we can change by believing in Jesus Christ who died for our sin and has risen from the dead.
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Thank you that his light fills us so that we may reflect the light of Christ to the world.
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And we pray that we would all go out bearing this fruit. And Father, we pray that you would give us the discernment to fill ourselves with the light from Christ rather than the light from the world which is darkness.