The Greatest Preacher of All Time

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. There's a very famous TV show right now that is all the rage with evangelicals. It's called The Chosen.

That show has some real problems. They say they represent the authentic Jesus. I would question that, and if you want to know why, come and talk to me later on. Is a lot of it true? Sure, but some of it, I don't know.

So, when people think of Jesus, here's the problem, one problem, whether it's that show or some movie or some representation of Jesus. When people think of Jesus, they think of that guy. Well, that guy is not Jesus.

Or that famous painting that we've all seen. Remember, you know, the man with the long brown hair and a beard and he's kind of staring off into the distance. When people think of Jesus, they think of that guy.

That guy's not Jesus. Here's the thing, you need to get your knowledge and understanding about Jesus from where? From the Bible. If you're getting ideas that are not here in scripture, that's a different Jesus.

It's not the Jesus of scripture. So, none of those are the real Christ. And just one other thing, I'm almost certain Jesus didn't have long brown hair. Okay, that's a whole other sermon for another day.

First Corinthians 11 would tell us this, but you know, the hippie Jesus, and I know especially around here, and I mean no disrespect, but a lot of people, when they think of Jesus, it's the hippie version of Jesus, and I'm pretty sure that's totally wrong.

But seriously, how, and I am being serious, but how do people view Jesus? Some people view Jesus as the softer side of God. You know, the father, he's pretty mean and wrathful, and Jesus is just so compassionate.

Like, you know that's true. That's how a lot of people see Christ. Others view Jesus, other end of the spectrum, they view Jesus as like a stern judge who's looking down on them with disapproval. Others view Jesus as their buddy.

You know, he's always there, willing to listen to me. And there might be a little bit of truth to all of this, but if you've never done it before, I challenge you this morning, view Jesus as a preacher.

That's what he was. Jesus was a preacher and a teacher. If you take notes, write this down. Matthew chapter four, when Jesus began his ministry, it says, Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

What was Jesus doing? Teaching and preaching. In Luke chapter four, when Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach, to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to proclaim or to preach liberty to the captives. And what did Jesus, what do people call him? His disciples and the multitudes, they called him teacher. Rabbi, which means teacher.

So here's the thing. His reign as king is coming. The judgment seat of Christ is in the future. Jesus is Lord, but not everyone recognizes him as Lord. But everybody does or should, throughout history, everyone recognizes him as a preacher.

You know, even the Muslims regard Jesus as a prophet. Did you know that? They don't believe he's the son of God, but they will recognize he was a prophet. The Jews say a false prophet, but even they recognize that he was a preacher.

So, everyone throughout history recognizes this. Here's the point, for the past few months we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount. What do preachers do? When you think of a preacher, you think of someone who preaches sermons.

So, some people go to school. You know, here's the thing. Jesus, the sermon, this is what I'm noticing about the Sermon on the Mount. It's unlike any sermons I'm hearing today. Who is the best preacher?

This is not a trick question. You know who the best preacher is. So, this is the most famous sermon ever preached. Every evangelical pastor, scholar I know, they'll say this. The Sermon on the Mount was the best sermon ever preached.

Jesus is the greatest preacher. Can I get an amen on that? Jesus is the greatest preacher who ever lived. It's Jesus, after all. You kind of have to say that if you're a Christian. You should say that.

Yet, the sermon, really, it's like no other sermon you hear. You don't get any self-help or motivational speaking from Christ. You notice that's missing? Today, people, when they expect a sermon or what they think a sermon should be like, you know, has an introduction, the scripture passage, an outline, maybe three points in a poem.

It's alliterated, you know, even better. People go to school and take what is called a homiletics class. And they're taught how to structure a sermon. I don't know if there's much structure in Jesus' sermon.

I don't know.

Maybe there is, but I'm not seeing it. But the sermons you hear today, there's supposed to be one overarching point to the message. And you build up to it, and then you end with the application. Jesus doesn't follow any of these rules.

He does end with an application. That's true because he says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, you know, the whole man, the man who built his house on the rock versus building his house on the sand.

It's like if you hear my teachings and you don't follow them, if you don't apply them, then it's meaningless. So he does end with an application, but totally unlike the sermons today. But again, Jesus, some things he says, they seem totally out of nowhere, totally disconnected from the statement prior.

Then you can see other times there's a logical train of thought. But Jesus, he's preaching from the Spirit. This is coming from the Spirit, and it's coming out as the Spirit wanted him to say it. So Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount.

And preachers today, what are we doing? We're preaching sermons about Jesus' sermons. I was thinking about this. You know, that's how you know your sermon is good when other preachers preach sermons about how great your sermon was.

Let's turn to Luke chapter 11. But all of that to say this, Jesus was a preacher. View him as a preacher. And I know that's not what the world wants. The world would prefer something like a TED Talk. You know, give some interesting information, encourage people, pat them on the back, and send them on their way.

That's what people want. What do people need, though? They need preaching. They need some conviction. People need to be challenged. Even a good teacher, you're not really going to learn something from a teacher unless the teacher challenges you.

Now, do people want to be challenged? Sometimes they don't, but that's what's needed. So Jesus, all of a sudden, he moves from the negative, the dogs and the swine, to the positive, kind of out of nowhere.

He goes from preaching against the scribes and the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites, and now he's giving this positive encouragement for us to pray and to seek God. Again, the three words, ask, seek, and knock.

Three different ways of getting across the same point. And we know that Jesus is talking about prayer because additional context. This is good. When you see something in Matthew, look at what Luke says.

There's often a parallel passage. So you're in Luke 11. All right, so here's some additional context. Luke 11, 5 through 8, Jesus gives the parable of the friend who comes at midnight. And he said to them, Luke 11, 5 through 8, Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves.

Now, if somebody showed up at your house at midnight and knocked on the door, or they called your phone at midnight and wanted you to give me some bread. What are you doing? Come back in the morning, right?

Don't come back. Verse 6, For a friend of mine, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within. This is what you would say.

Do not trouble me. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give it to you. But Jesus says, I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

So, what's Jesus talking about? Being persistent, right? When we pray to God and seek God, we need to be persistent. I remember there was this preacher on TV when I was young. I saw him and he said, you know, you only need to pray to God once for something.

You know, God heard you the first time. If you pray a second time or pray for it every day, that just shows you lack faith. And I thought, this is totally wrong. No, we want persistent prayer. So, the teaching of Jesus.

Teaching is what? Giving the information. The preaching of Jesus. Preaching is telling people what they should do with the information. Not all teaching contains preaching, but all preaching does contain teaching.

But the exhortation of Jesus to his followers is to pray. And to pray without ceasing.

Right?

1 Thessalonians 5 .17. You know what it says. You want to memorize a Bible verse this morning? 1 Thessalonians 5 .17. What does it say? Pray without ceasing. Why do preachers emphasize this? Because they know it's an issue.

Not everybody does it. Commentator Matthew Henry says this. Prayer is the appointed means for obtaining what we need.

Pray.

Pray often. Make a business of prayer. And be serious and earnest in it. Ask as a beggar. Ask for alms. And ask as a traveler.

Ask the way.

When you're on a trip, do you ask for directions? You know, this is kind of the joke about men. That men refuse to ask for directions. So when a traveler is lost and they refuse to ask for directions, what happens oftentimes?

They get more lost. So it is with prayer. You have not because you ask not. Or maybe you just asked that one time and you didn't ask again. And God sees you're not really all that serious about it. So we don't have what we need, maybe, because we're not asking for it.

That's one thing to consider. Here's the thing about prayer. It is the God-ordained method where we talk to God. We express to Him our needs. And He provides our needs. He does that, and it's all done through prayer.

Persistent prayer. And God, like a good parent would, He provides exactly what we need. He doesn't always provide what we want.

Right?

This is another thing, like I was talking about, with parents and fathers. A father who gives their child everything they want, everything they ask for, that's not good. I think we all recognize that.

But a good parent gives a child what they need. Look at Luke 11, 9 through 13. So we've got some additional context. This is a parallel passage from Matthew 7. Jesus says, So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you.

Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. And this is a little different, but same idea as Matthew 7.

If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

If you then, being evil, and that just mankind is flawed, man is sinful, but you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask of Him?

So you see a little difference there of God giving the Holy Spirit, which may talk about salvation, not just God providing for your needs. All right, let's go back to Matthew 7, and we'll start to bring this to a close, try to bring it together and give some application.

So ask, seek, and knock. If you go to someone's house, and you just stand at the door, and you just expect them to know that you're there, and you're just standing there, standing, it would be unreasonable to think that they're just going to open the door without you knocking, right?

We recognize the necessity of knocking. So it is with God. If we want things from God, if we want God to bless us, we want to do a work for the Lord,.

We have to ask.

We have to ask again, and again, and be persistent about it, and show the Lord that we actually mean it, that we care. Matthew 7, verse 7, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.