Sermon:Jesus Heals the Unclean - Part 2

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

Calvinism Sermon: Unconditional Election (Part 3 in series)

00:00

All right, you can open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 8, Gospel according to Matthew chapter 8.

00:08

We're in a series right now called the Kingdom of God. I chose that title very carefully because, really, in the

00:15

Gospel according to Matthew, he uses Kingdom of Heaven. But we wanted to communicate to everybody that Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God are really synonymous in the

00:26

New Testament. Matthew's being very careful with the first century audience, and he's saying heaven, replacing the word

00:33

God for heaven because of Jewish sensitivities. And so, really, it's about the rule of Messiah, the rule of the

00:40

Messiah. Now, as you guys are getting there in your Bibles, just a background for a moment. Remember that the Old Testament Scriptures, the

00:47

Jews of the first century, the Christians in the first century, understood what the Old Testament was.

00:53

It's very, very important in a day like today where people deny that, really, we can know the

00:58

Scriptures or what really is in the Word of God, what actually the Word of God is that's been handed down to us.

01:06

And so the New Testament church, the first century Jews, knew what the

01:11

Old Testament Scriptures were. 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, the apostle Paul says to Timothy that since he was a child, he's known the

01:24

Scriptures. Which Scriptures is he referring to? The Old Testament Scriptures.

01:29

He's known them since he was a child, and they were able to make him wise unto salvation. And so they know what those books were.

01:36

And, in particular, in the first century, Jewish temple, Second Temple Judaism, had a temple.

01:44

And in that temple, they had the books laid up in the temple that they knew were from God, divinely inspired.

01:52

And what books were those? Well, those were the 39 books of our Old Testament canon.

01:58

They did not contain the Apocrypha. They did not contain any of those other writings. They knew what was sacred

02:03

Scripture, and they were laid up in the temple. Now, why am I bringing that up right now? I'm bringing it up for a reason. These Christians understood that God had given them the plan of history.

02:15

That God had actually told us what he's going to do in history to bring salvation to the world.

02:22

That all the... And there's one of the expressions in the Old Testament, in Psalm 22, was that all the families of the earth were going to return to worship the

02:29

Lord. Another example is Isaiah chapter 2, that the nations were going to stream up to the mountain of God to worship

02:35

God. The law, the Torah, would go forth from Zion, from the center place of God's people.

02:41

But here's what they knew. Messiah, the son of David, the seed of Abraham, was coming into the world to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

02:50

But he was going to come to rule the world. That he was actually going to, Psalm 1101, sit on his throne and put all of God's enemies under his feet in victory.

03:03

Okay? That's what they understood. And so that's the background. That's the floor, the ground underneath which they stood to tell this story of Jesus.

03:12

The rule of the Messiah, the kingdom of God, is broken in history. And so we are there now in the Gospel According to Matthew.

03:18

It's called the Kingdom of God series. It's an expositional look at the Gospel According to Matthew. Now here's what you need to know as we open up today.

03:26

We're going to pray. Here's what you need to know. Matthew is not coming up with a novel story about the

03:33

Messiah. Nothing in the New Testament speaks about, well, God tried something before, and it just didn't work out well for God.

03:42

And so God now has a plan B working in history, which is, well, now it's the message of Jesus. That's not the story.

03:47

The story is that God has spoken through his prophets and the law and the prophets, all testifying about Jesus Christ, Jesus Mashiach, Jesus the

03:57

Messiah, the ruler of the world, the ruler of the kings of the earth, as the book of Revelation says.

04:04

This is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And so Matthew is expressing to us in this Gospel that Jesus fulfills all the

04:11

Old Testament prophecies that were anticipated in Mashiach, in the Messiah. And so now we move out of Jesus speaking in the

04:19

Sermon on the Mount, teaching, didactic teaching, systematic teaching, point by point by point, to now

04:26

Jesus in the historical narrative walking around and performing miracles. Okay?

04:32

I want to say this. There is more going on in the text than simply

04:37

Jesus being some wonder worker. He's not merely doing magic tricks.

04:43

He's not simply going around with a ministry of miracles, and that's really what separates

04:48

Jesus from, like, all the other religious leaders in the world, that he does miracles. I mean, people throughout the centuries have tried to perform miracles to really testify towards their ministry and their calling, but Jesus isn't simply a wonder worker.

05:02

Matthew's not telling us this story simply so that we see, oh, Jesus can perform miracles. There's more going on.

05:09

So I'm going to read the text, and then we're going to open it today, and I want to focus really in upon two major points today.

05:15

There's more I'll say, but two major points I want you to walk away with today, sort of to meditate on, okay?

05:21

So if you would, rise together as a church as we read the word of the living God. I'm reading from the

05:28

HCSB. It's a fine translation. We like the

05:34

ESV, NASB, and the HCSB at Apologia Church. Those are great translations.

05:41

Hear now the words of the living and true God. When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.

05:50

Right away, a man with a serious skin disease came up and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

05:58

Reaching on his hand, he touched him, saying, I am willing, be made clean. Immediately his disease was healed.

06:05

Then Jesus told him, see that you don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priests, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed as a testimony to them.

06:15

When he entered into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, pleading with him, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed in terrible agony.

06:24

I will come and heal him, he told him. Lord, the centurion replied, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be cured.

06:34

For I, too, am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes.

06:42

And to my slave, do this, and he does it. Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him,

06:50

I assure you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith.

06:57

I tell you that many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

07:05

But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

07:12

Then Jesus told the centurion, go as you have believed, let it be done for you. And his servant was cured that very moment.

07:21

When Jesus went into Peter's house, he saw his mother -in -law lying in bed with a fever. So he touched her hand, and the fever left her.

07:29

Then she got up and began to serve him. When evening came, they brought to him many who were demon -possessed.

07:36

He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick, so that what was spoken through the prophet

07:41

Isaiah might be fulfilled. He himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.

07:48

As far as the reading of God's word, let's pray. Father, get me out of the way.

07:55

Father, please. Please, Lord, teach your church by your spirit. Lord, we all recognize right now and submit to you,

08:03

God, that if you don't teach through your word and spirit, Lord, we cannot understand.

08:11

We have no ability to see. We have no ability to be challenged and convicted.

08:17

Lord, if you don't work, Lord, I pray that it's not my words that are remembered but yours, that I would be out of the way, and your word would shine and change us, transform us.

08:31

Please, God, form us together as the church around your word. Let us have understanding,

08:37

God. Guard my lips today from error and teach from your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

08:44

You guys can be seated. So here's the opener, Matthew 8.

08:51

Again, the background is that Jesus does the didactic, systematic teaching in the

08:56

Sermon on the Mount. That's done now. Matthew presents Jesus as the promised Mashiach, the Messiah, the anticipated one.

09:03

He teaches. This is the one. He has a genealogy that matches. Matthew starts bringing in some verses from the

09:10

Old Testament, starts quoting from Isaiah, thinking in Isaiah, goes to Hosea.

09:15

He's now showing you that Jesus actually fits the bill. This is the Messiah, the one we waited for.

09:21

He's finally arrived. Here's proof, right? He shows that Jesus is the story that God had promised.

09:29

He is the substance, the summary of the whole story, of all of creation, of God's glory and redemption.

09:35

But now we move again from that didactic teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Now we're going into the public miracle ministry of Jesus, his public ministry.

09:45

So we've gone from his teaching to showing that he has authority. Jesus tells a story about two people with two different foundations, with two destinations.

09:54

In life, listen, you hear the words of Jesus. Right now in this room, we talked about this. In this room right now, there are two kinds of people, because you've heard his word.

10:04

You've heard his sayings. And Jesus says people are going to hear his word, and you're going to be in one of two positions.

10:10

You're going to be a fool, or you're going to be a wise person.

10:16

And the fool, Jesus says, builds their life upon sand, and the wise one digs deep, lays a foundation.

10:25

And that foundation, Jesus says, that person is the one who builds their life upon the rock.

10:31

Christ, his word, his revelation. And Jesus says the two destinations, the one on the rock, the one who dug deep, the one who went down and took the time to contemplate the future, and to prepare that one,

10:45

Jesus says, digs deep and is on a rock, and they make it through the storm.

10:51

And the issues of life come, and they will come for all of us. They beat on both houses.

10:57

The one on the rock weathers the storm. They make it through. They're there to see the sun rise the next day.

11:03

They're there to live another day. They're there, and they can experience peace, solace the next day.

11:09

And Jesus says the fool is the one who doesn't build their life upon his word, and the fool ends in desolation.

11:16

And what is their response in Matthew 7 near the end? What do they say? When they hear Jesus, they say what about his teaching?

11:23

They say that he speaks as one having what? Authority, and not as our scribes.

11:29

Jesus doesn't appeal to any other rabbi, any other teacher. He only appeals at times to the

11:36

Father's authority or his own authority. Jesus receives worship. Jesus reads their thoughts.

11:43

He speaks to them in response to what they're thinking. Jesus forgives sins. You're going to see that in the text.

11:48

He receives worship. Jesus receives worship. And Jesus appeals to his own self, listen, attesting authority.

11:58

And Matthew shows you. He has the authority. It's self -attesting. He doesn't need anybody to corroborate his story.

12:04

He's the boss. He's in charge. And Matthew's going to show you that here in just a moment with the centurion also, showing that the centurion recognized that Jesus was the one with authority.

12:16

That's the point of him saying I have authority. I tell him to go this way and him to go that way. Jesus, you're the one with authority.

12:24

Above me, I see it. So Matthew goes from Jesus' teaching ministry. He talks about his authority.

12:31

And now we see his mighty deeds. Now, here's what you need to see in the text. It's kind of bookends.

12:36

Matthew does this on purpose, I believe. If you take notes, Matthew 4, verse 23 is the first step in this bookend.

12:46

And then Matthew 9, 35 is the other bookend. And what is that? That is where you have the repetition of the primary ministry of Jesus.

12:56

What is it? That Jesus was teaching in the synagogues. He was preaching the gospel of the kingdom and he was healing.

13:05

There's the ministry of Jesus and it's repeated, Matthew 4, Matthew 9. Teaching, preaching, and miracles.

13:13

That was Jesus' primary ministry. Now, what do you have? If Matthew 8 opens up and you start moving through, you have

13:20

Matthew, start to list here, about, depending on how you count him, about 10 miracles, about 10 miracles, okay?

13:26

And those miracles I said at the beginning, listen, this is vitally important to get. If you wanna walk away remembering something

13:32

I said, remember this, that there is more going on in the text than Jesus being a wonder worker.

13:39

He's not just doing that, going, look, I can heal blind people. Look, I can give someone who's paralyzed their legs back again.

13:45

I can heal a leper. Jesus is doing much, much more. Watch, the miracles are signposts, okay?

13:56

The miracles themselves that you're gonna see in the text, they are signposts that point to a greater reality, all right?

14:04

When you see a school crossing sign, the signpost is merely declaring to you a greater truth, right?

14:16

There are children here, lives at stake, right? Children are crossing.

14:22

It's a sign pointing to a greater reality that there are children here that need our protection.

14:28

Be careful, lives are at stake. That's what's going on with the signs.

14:34

These signs are pointing to a deeper meaning and truth. It's not just wonder working. You gotta grab hold of that.

14:40

Now watch, it's been suggested I told you last week. This is part two. If you wanna see part one, go on YouTube and watch the first one if you missed it.

14:48

It's been suggested that really you can break these miracles up into three sections, three sections.

14:53

Three are healing miracles. Three are power miracles displaying the power of Jesus, say, over the demons.

15:03

And three are restorative miracles, restoration. That's how you can really break up these miracles into sections, okay?

15:11

Now let's talk for a moment about miracles. Again, I'm not gonna reiterate the whole first section again today to unpack what we did last week.

15:18

But let me just talk about miracles for a second. This is really important. First point I want you to get a hold of is this, is that the miracles, again, are signposts to a greater truth and reality about Jesus.

15:31

Example, Jesus gives sight to the blind. Do you get it? Jesus gives hearing to deaf people.

15:41

Do you get it? You see, what happens, watch. What happened to the blind girl or blind boy? What happened to them?

15:47

When Jesus gave them their sight back, what happened? They died. Not that moment, but eventually they died.

15:55

And their eyes didn't work again. How about the deaf people? They got their hearing back, but it was only temporary, right?

16:02

They eventually died and heard nothing in their physical body.

16:08

When Jesus raised a little girl from the dead, he says, little girl arise. One of the most precious things

16:13

I can even imagine. Jesus saying, little girl arise. And then when she's alive from the dead, right? What's the first thing he says?

16:19

He says, get her something to eat. She's probably hungry, right? I love that. Little incidental detail that historians look for to show you that the story is a real account of a witness.

16:29

It's a little incidental, like he says, make sure you give her something to eat, right? Because she's been dead for a while, right? That's just like amazing, right?

16:35

But it's there in the story. But watch, when the little girl died, and then Jesus says, little girl arise, she died again.

16:44

So is Jesus just working wonders, right? Just performing miracles, right? Blind, deaf, raising from the dead.

16:51

Like, is that the point? No, because Jesus is pointing to a greater reality. Watch that he gives people eyes to see and ears that can hear now.

17:01

What's Jesus say to people? He says, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.

17:06

Kind of a weird thing to say. I mean, was he speaking to crowds of people that were just like bald heads with no ears?

17:13

That is super creepy, right? Is that really, is that what it was? He just, certain people had ears in the first century?

17:20

Like, is that, no, Jesus, we know what he's saying. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.

17:26

Why? Because ultimately, it is only by the grace of God that any of us hear, and the message of the gospel goes out to the world, and some people don't listen.

17:35

And some people do, and Jesus is speaking to the elect of God who are under the grace and mercy of God that God gives eyes and ears to.

17:44

The fact that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus died again.

17:51

What is this supposed to tell you about Jesus? When he raises somebody from the dead, he's showing the world two things.

17:58

One, he has the power to raise you from death, and he says he has the power to raise himself from the dead.

18:07

He is the one that has life in his very word. All he has to do is speak it.

18:13

What's he say in the beginning of the world when he creates everything? Jesus does what? He says, let there be what?

18:21

Light. And there's light. And then Jesus says to dead people, he says,

18:27

Lazarus, come forth. And he comes hopping out of the tomb. That's our savior, and Jesus doing these miracles is not merely a wonder worker.

18:37

So when atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and critics of the Bible look at these miracles, and they say, oh, just another religious charlatan walking around performing miracles.

18:49

It's just common fare among religions. Miracles, right? Believe me, the testimony of Jesus Christ is that the miracles were not the thing.

19:00

Proof? Watch. As Matthew 8 opens up, what does he tell the leper?

19:06

What does he say? When he heals him of his leprosy, he says, don't what?

19:12

Tell anybody. You see these charlatans on television today, on Christian television, performing what are miracles.

19:21

It isn't interesting. They perform miracles and do things that you couldn't possibly see. Like he says he had

19:27

HIV, and I've healed him of his HIV. Can you see that? He said he had a brain tumor, and I've healed him of his brain tumor.

19:35

Can you see that? Where are all the paralyzed people that come out up on stage at these events?

19:41

And what do these charlatans want? They want you to see their miracle ministry so that you can know they're truly from God.

19:47

And Jesus has several examples, listen, where he heals someone, and he says to them, now shut up about it.

19:54

Don't say a word to anybody, because the real meaning was deeper than that moment and that little miracle.

20:01

Jesus' ministry is much more powerful than wonder working. Now, this is what

20:06

I want you to hear about miracles. We have to come face -to -face with unbelievers in our world today.

20:15

You have hostile and militant atheists today that attack the Christian faith on the basis, oddly, of miracles.

20:23

And I'll give you a good example, and we'll have Greg just go ahead and pull this up here. But one of the primary forms of attack that Christopher Hitchens, my favorite atheist, who is now a creationist, he died.

20:37

One of the primary forms of his attack and methods of attack that he made against the

20:43

Christian faith was on the basis of the miracles. And he often uses that as, it's just so absurd, and I'll let you see it right here.

20:50

Here's a famous scene of Hitchens. Sound?

20:57

Do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? Yes. Do you believe he was resurrected from the dead?

21:04

Yes. I rest my case. He's just made it very plain to you. Science has nothing to do with his beliefs.

21:10

Okay. Look at that baby face. Oh. Go ahead and X that out.

21:17

There's a red button over there. There you go. No, just don't really do that.

21:23

Sorry. But you can move that picture. That's just going to distract everyone for the rest of the time.

21:29

There you go. Okay. So here's what you need to know. Christopher Hitchens often used that as a tactic against Christians when he was debating them.

21:37

He would say, how absurd is it? How silly are you? Wait, wait. Here's my response.

21:43

Jesus raised from the dead? I rest my case. Stupidity. Unscientific.

21:49

Irrational. You silly Christians believing in your miracles. And he walks away from it as though it was some sort of devastating argument against Christianity.

21:57

What does it display? Nothing except that he has a pre -commitment to his naturalism and materialism.

22:05

When an unbeliever attacks our faith because the miracles in the New Testament, first and foremost, they say nothing about truth.

22:13

All they show is that they are firming up their commitments to their naturalistic, materialist worldview.

22:20

Now hang on. Those words right now confuse you. Hang on. Watch. Watch.

22:26

Miracles in the New Testament should only be wow to Christians.

22:34

And let me tell you why. Think for a moment about two positions. Pay attention. This is important. Once you grab hold of this, you are going to love it.

22:43

So that when an atheist attacks you on the basis of miracles in the Bible, you will know exactly how to reach them.

22:50

Two positions. One, the Christian position. What do we believe about the universe? We believe that God governs the universe.

22:59

That God, listen, He spoke and He particularly, very personally, created the world with a purpose.

23:08

He grants the world its existence. He carries it along, Hebrews 1, to its intended destination.

23:16

God is the one who is governing right now Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, still a planet, okay?

23:26

He is the one who is spinning them in motion. Right now the Earth is doing its revolution around our star.

23:36

And we're spinning in the process, moving throughout this galaxy, which is in a universe that is full of so many galaxies it is impossible to even comprehend.

23:47

And what do we believe? We believe that God is the one who governs it personally so that we believe as Christians we can depend upon, listen, the uniformity in nature.

24:00

That nature can be studied. As a matter of fact, when Christians gave the world universities on the level that we have today, when we gave the world science on the level that we have it today, we did so on the basis of the biblical worldview.

24:18

Why did we believe that we could study the world? Because we believed in a sovereign

24:23

God who personally governs and orders it. How come we believed in history that we should study this creation?

24:31

Because we believe there's such a thing as beauty, truth, goodness, that we could observe

24:36

God's good creation and make sense of it. We believe that there are invisible laws of mathematics, arithmetic, that hold the entire system together.

24:48

Did you know that? That if, watch, if the math in the universe was off, life is impossible.

24:55

That right now you are being held to your seat right now by the laws of math. Thank Jesus.

25:03

We believe as Christians that God orders creation and governs it so we can, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, so that we can depend upon the principle of induction.

25:13

That Christians believe, watch, that the future will be like the past. What we observed in past experience in God's world, whether it be laws, whether it be how things function, experimentation, walking our dogs, brushing our teeth, pouring glasses of milk, we believe the universe is governed and orderly and it's not chaos so that we believe science is possible.

25:39

We gave the world its pop in modern science, the

25:44

Christian worldview did, not atheism. Now watch, that's the one position. The second position is the unbelieving worldview, say, the

25:51

Christopher Hitchens. Naturalistic materialism, naturalism, no supernatural activity whatsoever, no supernatural, only natural processes, materialism.

26:02

All that exists is matter, matter in motion, stuff. All it is is stuff.

26:09

Nothing spiritual, nothing immaterial. The unbeliever, like Hitchens, believes, watch, that nothing, nothing, nothing, made something.

26:20

You gotta try that really slowly. Ready? No thing, no thing, made some thing.

26:28

No thing made some thing. And he's laughing at miracles? The unbeliever believes that the universe, the way that we see it today, all came about through ungoverned, unpurposed, unpersonal, non -personal forces.

26:45

That, watch, there was an explosion, and through time and chance and chaos, we got babies, baboons, giraffes, pandas.

26:59

We got all these amazing things, watch, through time and chance, acting on matter, chaos. And the unbeliever, like Lawrence Krauss today, physicist at ASU, buddies with Richard Dawkins, the unbelieving physicist, like, like Lawrence Krauss, says about the universe, that the physical laws we see, listen, came about by accident.

27:23

Now, I have to ask, pray tell, how do we do physics if we live in a universe that came about by accident with laws that cannot be trusted?

27:33

In an unbelieving universe, they believe that fish became philosophers.

27:40

They believe that inorganic matter became, through a magical configuration, organic.

27:49

Non -living became living. It's really miraculous.

27:54

It's an amazing thing. And the unbeliever believes we live in a universe that's chaos. Chaos. Time and chance cannot be dependent upon because you have no guarantee the future will be like the past.

28:06

Now stop. You've got two positions here. One believes in an orderly universe that it's actually possible.

28:14

Who's that? The Christian. Why? Because we know the personal God who governs it and orders it.

28:22

And the unbeliever believes in a universe that's time and chance acting on matter, it's just chaos, unpurposed and ungoverned.

28:28

Anything's possible in their universe. Now watch. Which worldview should be most surprised by miracles?

28:43

The Christian. Why? Because we believe in an orderly universe that's governed.

28:50

There are laws. It works a certain way. We have a God who's ordered it that way.

28:56

It is law -like, not accidental, not unpurposed, not ungoverned. So when we see a man dead and then alive again, what do we say?

29:08

That's a miracle! God has fed some sort of redemptive act into his creation.

29:14

You see, here's why. Dead men don't rise from the dead in this orderly governed universe.

29:22

Do you get it? And then the unbeliever comes along. He borrows from Christianity, snatches up ideas and things that only work as themes within Christianity, and he says, silly

29:35

Christians, you believe that in this orderly governed universe miracles happen? Did you catch it?

29:42

The unbeliever has to borrow from the Christian worldview in order to make fun of the

29:47

Christian worldview for miracles. Watch. It's not strange in Christopher Hitchens' view of the universe that a dead man rises.

29:58

Dead man rises. It's not strange in his universe that a man walked on water. It's not strange in his universe that a man gave sight to blind people.

30:07

It's not strange in his universe that a man gave hearing to deaf people. You know why? In the unbeliever's world, anything's possible.

30:17

Anything. In the Christian worldview, we have a basis to look at a redemptive act like resurrection and say, what in the world is going on?

30:27

Those sort of things don't happen in God's universe because it's orderly. So when God does a miracle like parts a

30:33

Red Sea, feeds thousands of people, raises people from the dead, we're supposed to take notice as Christians and go, wait, those sort of things don't just happen.

30:45

And so for Christians, we see miracles and say, wow, what's going on?

30:50

The unbeliever has no basis whatsoever in any coherent way to mock the

30:56

Christian worldview for miracles because in their worldview, anything's possible.

31:01

There are no laws, no justification for laws, and that's what you need to hear.

31:07

Does that make sense? Silly atheist.

31:15

Miracles are for Christians. Now, I want to say one more thing about miracles today.

31:22

Where do we put this? Again, for an exposition of the verses that came here about what Jesus did here in these miracles, go to last week's message.

31:29

I want to unpack a little more today. Now, this is really important. I'm about to show you something that's one of the most moving things

31:35

I have honestly ever seen in my entire life, and I really, really mean that. I've listened to it this week probably 20 times.

31:43

It is so moving, and I researched it to see about its authenticity, and I can report to you that I believe it is 100 % authentic, and I think you're going to hear it yourself.

31:53

So go ahead and get this ready for us, Greg. I want to talk for a moment about miracles today because we're talking about miracles now.

32:02

It's in the text. Jesus performed it. So does that mean now that miracles are normative for the New Testament church?

32:08

Well, I want to point something out to all of us. If you read Joel 2, which is quoted by the apostle

32:16

Peter at Pentecost, he quotes Joel 2, and he says that in the last days, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, they will dream dreams, they will prophesy, see visions.

32:29

They pointed to that generation as the generation of the signs before the coming judgment of God.

32:37

And so watch. From about 30 A .D. to 70 A .D., you see some miraculous stuff happening in that first century.

32:45

Here's why. God was displaying, I believe, to the covenant breakers that he was in fact with the church.

32:51

This was the people of God. Jesus is the Messiah. So there were miracles of resurrection, miracles of healing.

32:58

There were tongues and all these amazing things. Does that mean that now in the post -fall of Jerusalem that miracles are normative?

33:06

No. Does it mean now because Jesus died for our sins that now anybody can be healed?

33:14

No. God may give you your cancer for his glory in a fallen world.

33:25

He may allow that to take place for his own purpose. When John Piper got cancer, one of the most amazing stories

33:32

I've heard about a response to disease, when Piper got cancer, diagnosed with cancer, he doesn't get miffed at God, angry with God.

33:45

He doesn't walk out of the doctor's office and demand from God a divine healing. What does he say?

33:53

He walks out of the doctor's office after his diagnosis and he says this,

33:58

God, please don't let me waste my cancer. Recognizing the sovereign

34:05

God that in his providence he may allow you and I in this fallen world to experience the brokenness of this world for his own glory, our good, and the good of his people.

34:21

Yes, God can heal today. No, there is nothing in the New Testament that says that God is bound somehow, that he cannot give gifts today, that he cannot heal today.

34:32

Yes, he can. And we believe him for healing. And if you're sick in this church, we're going to pray over you.

34:39

We're going to anoint you with oil. We're going to pray for God to heal you. We believe that he does heal today. I know stories of people being healed by God in the

34:47

New Testament church in the last 10 years. We believe that God heals. Is it normative for today for people to have ministries of miracles where they go and they just heal people on the spot?

34:58

That is not normative for the church today. That is a special sign ministry in the first century.

35:04

But God does still heal today. And sometimes he gives us a glimpse. So this is a story,

35:09

I'm not going to give you all of it. It's a Baptist pastor. This is not him, by the way. He's telling his story.

35:15

You're going to hear the audio. It's a Baptist pastor who gets the flu.

35:21

And he's preaching on a Sunday, three services. After the first service, he loses his voice.

35:28

Second service, can barely speak. The third service, his throat is hurting so bad he doesn't have a voice left.

35:34

He basically is told to go home. His church prays for him. Time goes on.

35:39

His flu goes away. Two weeks later, no more flu. But his throat is still killing him and he still can't talk.

35:47

So he sees doctors. Doctors say, your throat looks like it's basically shut. Here's some medication.

35:53

They said six weeks, no talking. That'd be hard for pastors to do, right?

35:59

It'd be really hard for me to do. I'd be dying, right? Six weeks, shut up. Don't say a thing, right?

36:04

Let your voice rest for six weeks. After six weeks, nothing. It's still the same. He can't talk.

36:10

So he sees dozens upon dozens, literally. This is true. I researched it. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of doctors and specialists, some of the best in the nation.

36:21

And they take a look at his voice box and basically they say, your vocal cords are permanently damaged. That wrecked your ability to speak.

36:29

And they said it is permanently damaged, permanently. And they said this, it's a better chance that you are going to permanently lose your voice and not even be able to make sounds like you are now.

36:40

Because right now you're just using the pieces of fat that are above the vocal cords. That's what's making the noise right now.

36:46

And eventually those are going to give way. And you're not going to be able to speak. And so what did he have to do? After one year, he had to give up being a pastor.

36:54

Years of ministry, he had to give it up because his church needed a pastor and he couldn't talk anymore. And so he had to leave the ministry and his wife had to go back to getting another job as being an x -ray technician, which was her previous job.

37:07

After 15 years of raising children, she went back to being an x -ray tech and he was done. Ministry over.

37:13

His whole identity is gone. Gone. Can't talk.

37:19

And so somehow through circumstances that God allows three years to the

37:24

Sunday. Three years to the Sunday. He's asked by the same church.

37:32

He comes back to it. He's asked by the same church, will you preach the message in our

37:39

Sunday school? And he says, basically, I can't talk. I can't, you don't want to hear this.

37:45

And say, so no, don't worry. We'll rig something up to your mouth and put the microphone against your mouth so that we can hear you. And we'll just, we'll get what we can get from you.

37:53

And it just so happens, watch, that the Southern Baptist Church has a specific curriculum they have for all their churches,

38:01

I guess around the world, for Sunday school, that they gave for that morning on Sunday, really across the nation,

38:09

I suppose. And guess what the message is on? Healing. And this

38:15

Baptist pastor in a solid church, doctrinally solid, I got to make sure I specify that, doctrinally solid, who is now out of the ministry, cannot talk, decides to go ahead and go for it and to teach this message on healing.

38:28

He does a fantastic job. And I want you to hear what happens in the middle of him preaching on God healing.

38:38

Listen to what happens. Go ahead, Greg, make sure you turn it up nice and loud, please. He doesn't always heal our diseases. And I want you to listen to this audio tape.

38:46

Pastor Dwayne Miller. So when the psalmist writes, and he heals all of my diseases, let me say to you that I believe

38:57

God still heals. That hasn't ended. That is not over. Now you have to be careful on how you do this.

39:05

Because there are folks who carry things to an excess and it becomes a show. And God has never intended that that be what it is.

39:13

God heals in His sovereign will. I don't know why

39:18

God does things that He does. But I know that He does.

39:24

And the only thing He requires of me is to allow Him to be God and me to be me.

39:30

And let it be. To say that every single person will always be healed because Jesus died on the cross is a misinterpretation of scripture.

39:43

Not true. Won't work. Isaiah 53 doesn't talk about physical healing.

39:48

I'm sorry. That's just not the context. And to impress that there causes a misinterpretation of scripture.

39:56

That's wrong. On the other hand, to say that since we don't have anything after the book of Acts that miracles ended at the book of Acts and they never happen again is equally as wrong.

40:08

Because you have put God in a box both ways. And He doesn't want to be in the box. So the psalmist says,

40:14

I'm excited. Bless the Lord, O my soul. One of His benefits is He heals all of my diseases.

40:22

And then in verse 4 he says, And He redeems my life from the pit. Now I like that verse just a whole lot.

40:31

I have had and you have had in times past pit experiences.

40:41

We've both had, we've all had times when our life seemed to be in a pit, in a grave.

40:55

And we didn't have an answer for the pit we find ourselves in.

41:13

And I don't understand this right now. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

41:32

I'm not quite sure what to say or do. I'm overwhelmed.

41:56

It sounds funny to sit at a loss for words. Thank you,

42:15

Lord. I thank you. He redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion.

42:30

He satisfies my desires with good things so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's.

42:39

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. The Lord is compassionate and gracious.

42:48

The Lord is slow to anger. The Lord is abounding in love. The Lord will not accuse nor will

42:56

He harbor His anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve.

43:01

That's mercy. Or repay us according to our iniquities. That's mercy. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is

43:14

His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west so far has

43:21

He removed our transgressions from us. All right.

43:28

Powerful, right? Absolutely incredible. So I wanted to show that because I thought as a pastor when we start talking about miracles how do we view this now?

43:41

The new covenant now. Jerusalem. The temple is gone. The priesthood is gone. We're in the new covenant now.

43:48

God's law written within us now. Christ, our mediator, seated now as our high priest for all eternity.

43:54

What do we do about miracles now in the New Testament church? Do we say that's not possible? Of course not.

44:01

God still can perform miracles and obviously He does. And I think what I love the most about that is just how utterly surprised

44:09

He is by it all, right? He's reaching a message. And by the way, that was solid, right? That was exactly the way that I would say it, right?

44:17

And in the midst of it God takes him completely by surprise and heals him. He doesn't call

44:22

God down and say God, you do as I say and let me tell you, God, how to be better at what you do.

44:29

God, you need to heal right now. You need to give what I say. This is a man who obviously was completely humbled by God.

44:37

God took away his voice and at God's time God gave it back. I can report to you that after he left the ministry because of the permanent damage to his vocal cords and as the doctors told him he would probably lose his voice permanently he is now back in the ministry and he's pastoring and it's really an amazing, amazing story.

44:57

God truly healed him. Yes, God can perform miracles but we don't call God down and tell him how to run his universe.

45:04

Sometimes God allows us to have things in our lives that really look like they're not redeemable but the truth is

45:15

God is doing something. He's always doing something and we know because of his word and his covenant faithfulness in the scriptures we know

45:23

Romans 8, 28 all things work together for good. For those who love God those who are called according to his purpose sometimes

45:30

God does heal and we believe him for that but when he doesn't heal we also praise him in the same way that Job does.

45:39

When God removes everything from Job Job blesses God, not curse him.

45:45

He blesses him in the midst of his brokenness in the midst of the disharmony in the midst of his disease in the midst of decay he blesses

45:54

God. He blesses him, he doesn't curse him. Yes, Jesus still performs miracles today.

46:02

Next point I'm going to point to today and I want you guys to leave with us today because it's so beautiful. Read the text with me now.

46:07

Look at the text now. Back in Matthew again. Matthew chapter 8. I'm going to go to the part now again if you want the full exposition go back to last week's message.

46:18

After Jesus heals an unclean Jew of leprosy he then moves to an unclean

46:24

Gentile the centurion that asks him to heal his servant Jesus is being approached by a

46:31

Gentile which in that day was a no -no. Right? They couldn't stand that. Not Jesus, but it was just their

46:38

MO. And now you have an unclean Gentile coming to Jesus asking Jesus, the Jewish Messiah to actually heal an unclean

46:46

Gentile my servant, my slave. And he acknowledges to Jesus Jesus, you're the one with authority I've got authority but I don't have your authority.

46:54

I'm not even worthy to have you come into my house but Jesus, I know if you just simply say the word you can speak it into existence you can actually make it happen,

47:02

Jesus. You have the authority, the power to do it. And notice in both cases the unclean

47:08

Jew and the unclean Gentile it says that as soon as Jesus heals it says immediately immediately they're cleansed or healed.

47:21

The leper is clean, cleansed and the Gentile is healed.

47:28

Now watch Jesus' response to the Gentile might take you by surprise.

47:35

Because watch, when you first read the text when you don't really think about the background of what Matthew is doing you read Jesus' response be honest,

47:42

I will I'll be honest when I first, I remember reading it for the first time I remember thinking why is

47:48

Jesus so impressed? Why is he so impressed with this Gentile? The Gentile, in response to Jesus Jesus, I'll go and his response is no, no,

47:57

I'm not even worthy to have my roof and I say to this guy, go and that guy, do this and this guy, jump and he jumps and this guy, do this and he does it and then

48:05

Jesus goes wow, I haven't seen such great faith in all of Israel and I remember thinking what's so special about that?

48:13

And here's the truth the centurion is acknowledging as a Roman his power and authority to command anything he wishes to those who are in his command but he's coming to Jesus as a

48:25

Gentile recognizing, one his unworthiness to have Jesus come to him and two the fact that Jesus has all authority to heal that's why

48:37

Jesus says I haven't seen this in all of Israel you know you're unworthy you know who

48:42

I am you know I have the authority to do it and you said if you just speak a word a word he knows

48:50

Jesus can say it he doesn't even need to touch him and that's why Jesus says so great a faith but watch in this period of time you gotta get this because you'll understand so much of the conflict in the

49:05

New Testament and the conflict here in Matthew between Jew and Gentile in the first century

49:11

Jesus first came to the Jews salvation is of the

49:17

Jews God made covenant promises to the Jews and if you read Daniel chapter 9 you know that there's a specific space of time allotted 70 weeks of years 490 years of time that's basically decreed for the

49:32

Jewish people to make an end of sin to make atonement for iniquity to bring an everlasting righteousness to anoint the most holy all these things had to take place so God had a covenant plan for the people of Israel and Jesus comes now he comes to Israel but the

49:49

Gentiles would come too and Jesus still took care of them during that time because his primary emphasis was on the

49:55

Jews and now you have a Gentile coming in to receive the blessings of Messiah which is foreshadowed in Matthew when it's the pagan

50:03

Magi that come to first worship Jesus the King unbelievers,

50:09

Gentiles, not Jews and now you have a Gentile coming to Jesus saying heal my Gentile slave

50:14

I love him dearly, please he's in agony and so what happens is amazing Jesus says, watch hearing this, verse 10

50:22

Jesus was amazed and said to those following him I assure you I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith

50:29

I tell you that many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven but the sons of the kingdom look, the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth then he says go to the centurion and he was cured at that very moment watch got to grab hold of this theme because it is everywhere in the

50:53

New Testament you are going to see over and over and over and over and over and over and over again judgment texts of the soon coming judgment on that generation it is everywhere you cannot get around it over a hundred times there are texts that specifically say before that generation passes away there is going to be a serious coming of judgment on them the covenant breaking

51:21

Jews and this is one of those moments where Jesus is telling them to repent because they think because they are

51:30

Jews and simply because they are descendants of Abraham that that makes them saved or truly heirs of the kingdom and Jesus is showing that the

51:39

Messiah's kingdom includes Jews and Gentiles God is going to bring the nations to himself in this new covenant but watch the theme are you guys ready?

51:51

fingers ready? follow me now I want you to see something I am going to try to go quickly but I want you to have these texts if you understand these you will understand so very much of the judgment text in the

52:07

New Testament they will fit their proper place you will understand the context better and so let's do it together

52:14

I can't give you all, I can give you a smattering so first thing is you are in Matthew right? just flip a few pages back just a couple to the last book of the

52:24

Old Testament, what book is that? of the Old Testament Malachi did

52:30

I say New Testament? Malachi of the Old Testament, here is what I want you to see go to Malachi chapter 3 you want to write these down this is really really important to get

52:42

Malachi chapter 3, last book of the Old Testament Revelation, there is a space of about 400 years between the writing of the last

52:49

Old Testament book and the Gospel according to Matthew in our text or the

52:55

New Testament I should say generally now watch, go to Malachi 3 see

53:00

I am going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me then the

53:06

Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple the messenger of the covenant you desire, see he is coming says the

53:16

Lord of hosts stop, what does it say? first is a messenger coming before Messiah who is it?

53:24

come on now, who is it? John the Baptist first the messenger, then he is the forerunner, then

53:30

Jesus the Messiah, but did you notice what it says? hundreds of years before Jesus did you notice what it says?

53:37

it says the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple that is the second temple it says the

53:46

Lord you seek will come to his temple first the forerunner and then the

53:54

Messiah the Lord will come to his temple question real fast, what should they have seen in this?

54:01

you got to get this whose temple was it? God's temple it says the

54:09

Messiah is coming after the forerunner and it is the Messiah's temple and yet it is

54:15

God's temple and God himself is coming to his temple now watch, there is more so pay attention it says this, verse 2 but who can endure the day of his coming?

54:26

and who will be able to stand when he appears for he will be like a refiner's fire and like a cleansing lie he will be like a refiner and a purifier of silver he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver then they will present offerings to the

54:41

Lord in righteousness, stop what is that? first forerunner, then

54:47

Messiah comes to his temple and then what takes place? refining, purification that's ultimately salvation now hang on to that next, verse 5

55:02

I will come to you in judgment and I will be I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers against markets those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless and cheat the wage earner and against those who deny justice to the foreigner, they do not fear me now gotta get this, stay with me now, forerunner,

55:28

Messiah comes to his temple, then his coming is twofold, one purification, two judgments there are people he's gonna purify with his coming and people he is just going to judge did you get it?

55:45

now follow it, ready? now move over one page to Malachi 5 however it's written in your

55:50

Bible, Malachi 5 my fault 4, I can't believe

55:55

I did that, you guys are like wait, wait, what translation is he using, right? oh my gosh ok,

56:00

Malachi 4, sorry verse 1, for indeed the day is coming, burning like a furnace when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble, the day will consume them, says the

56:15

Lord of hosts, not leaving them root or branches, but for you who fear my name the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall you will trample the wicked and there will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day

56:32

I am preparing, says the Lord of hosts remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances

56:39

I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel, look I am going to send you

56:45

Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, otherwise

56:56

I will come and strike the land with a curse ok now stay with me because this is amazing watch forerunner the

57:07

Messiah comes to his temple, what's his coming going to be like well, there's going to be purification, salvation and there's going to be judgment on the covenant breakers and then

57:17

God reiterates it, Elijah is coming before Messiah and he's going to turn people back to God, repentance now flip your page

57:29

Matthew chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 in those days

57:40

John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying repent because the kingdom of heaven has come near at hand for he is the one speaking through the prophet

57:52

Isaiah who said a voice of one crying out in the wilderness prepare the way for the

57:57

Lord make his path straight, watch verse 7 when he saw many of the

58:05

Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the place of his baptism he said to them brood of vipers who warns you to flee from the wrath about to come, the

58:15

Greek word is mellow it means about to come therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance and don't presume to say to yourselves we have

58:26

Abraham as our father for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones, even now the axe is ready to strike through to the trees, therefore every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire,

58:39

I baptize you with water for repentance but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I you just read in Malachi that the forerunner is going to come before Messiah and that forerunner is

58:52

Elijah Jesus says he was the Elijah who is to come, what did Elijah tell people to do?

58:59

Repent Malachi 4 says that this one who is coming is going to preach repentance to turn people's hearts back to God before what?

59:09

Judgment Now Matthew opens up, what's

59:14

John the Baptist doing? Repent, repent, repent, don't think your children have Abraham because you have

59:20

Abraham as your father God can do it to these rocks, repent the axe is already laid at the root of the trees, it was already swung, its teeth have met the edges, it's about to be cut down and then lo and behold here's

59:33

Jesus, Matthew chapter 8 and what's he say? Here's a Gentile and what's he say?

59:39

Greater faith, no one in Israel and what's he say? The sons of the kingdom will be cast out and many will come from east and west to recline a table but Abraham, Isaac and Jacob what's that saying?

59:52

Messiah's kingdom has entered into history the Gentiles are also going to come but you

59:57

Jews who are covenant breakers you Jews who are part of the people of God quote on quote people of God you will actually be cast out into hell and I want you to see it with your own eyes and we're going to end here today but I want you to have it to go home and to work through over the next week

01:00:21

I want you to see it go now to Matthew chapter 10 just move over from Matthew 8 to Matthew chapter 10 and I want you to see

01:00:28

Jesus now sending out the disciples I'm not going to read all of it I'm just going to show you a piece in Matthew chapter 10 starting in verse 5

01:00:36

Jesus tells them how to go out tells them what to bring and then he says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 14 if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words shake the dust off your feet when you leave that house or town

01:00:54

I assure you it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town this is specific instructions he gives to his disciples to shake off their feet in that generation if they go to a town and preach repentance and they don't repent they're just walk away shake it off because guess what's coming for that town judgment now watch you might say well when remember what

01:01:25

Malachi says the Messiah is coming is two fold purification and judgment right look what

01:01:31

Jesus says in Matthew 10 starting in verse 22 he says to his disciples you will be hated by everyone because of my name but the one who endures to the end will be delivered when they persecute you in one town escape to another pause get ready to pay close attention to the text for I assure you you will not have covered the towns of Israel before the son of man comes now brothers and sisters

01:02:06

Jesus is talking to first century audience to his disciples giving them a specific instruction of what they're supposed to do in that generation to preach repentance and what does he say in Matthew 10 that they won't even finish going through the towns of Israel before he comes back in judgment you're not even going to finish before I come back in judgment

01:02:30

Malachi forerunner Messiah comes to his temple purification and judgment

01:02:38

Jesus heals a centurion a gentile and he says look look people are going to come from east and west gentiles too to be a part of the kingdom of heaven but the sons of the kingdom are going to be cast out into hell and in Matthew 10

01:02:55

Jesus now escalates it he says here's how you're to go out you preach repentance if they won't listen shake the dust off your feet you're not even going to finish going through the cities of Israel before I return in judgment there's more move the text to Matthew 16 end of Matthew 16 verse 28

01:03:22

I assure you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom what was going to happen the old kingdom destroyed and the new covenant kingdom

01:03:39

Christ's rule was going to arrive in history with power before they all died they were going to see it the temple was going to be destroyed the old covenant order swept away and that made way for the new

01:03:52

Jerusalem the bride of Christ to break into history because it was all about to be demolished keep going ready

01:03:59

Matthew chapter 21 Matthew 21

01:04:06

Jesus tells them famous story the parable of the vineyard owner in verse 33 21 33 follow this watch listen to another parable there was a man a land owner who planted a vineyard put a fence around it dug a wine press in it and built a watchtower he leased it to ten farmers and went away when the grape harvest drew near he sent slaves to the farmers to collect his fruit but the farmers took his slaves beat one killed another and stoned a third again he sent on other slaves more than the first group and they did the same to them finally he sent his son to them they will respect my son he said what's the story what happens they see the son what do they say in the story they say look here's the heir let's kill him and take his inheritance now watch

01:04:51

Jesus tells the story and they go kill the son and watch what Jesus asks them verse 40 therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes look how

01:05:01

Jesus asks him he says when the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those farmers what's their response he will completely destroy those terrible men they told him and lease his vineyard look to other farmers who will give him his produce at the harvest

01:05:19

Jesus said to them have you never read in the scriptures the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone this came from the

01:05:27

Lord and this is wonderful in our eyes and is wonderful in our eyes therefore I tell you who's he talking to the

01:05:36

Jews of his day the covenant breakers those who wouldn't come to him he says therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits do you see the story do you see it escalating now watch there's one more

01:05:53

I'm going to show you today move over now to Matthew chapter 23

01:06:00

I'm not going to read all of this you can go to it later this is the famous scene where Jesus cleanses the temple this is the one where he actually declares woes upon the religious establishment of his day and I want you to hear what he says to them because it is really really amazing remember what you read in Malachi a second ago remember chapter 3 what did

01:06:17

Jesus what's it say forerunner and then the Messiah comes to his temple there's purification and then judgment

01:06:24

I stressed something do you remember what I stressed I stressed a particular condemnation that's in Malachi chapter 3 sorcerers and those who swear what falsely judgment's going to come upon those who break the covenant with God those who swear falsely and now watch

01:06:45

Jesus now where is he where is he Matthew 23 say it guys he's at the temple the

01:06:54

Lord whom you seek will come to his temple and what does he say

01:07:02

Matthew chapter 23 verse 16 woe to you blind guides who say whoever takes an oath by the sanctuary it means nothing but whoever takes an oath by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by his oath blind fools for which is greater the gold or the sanctuary that sanctified the gold also whoever takes an oath by the altar it means nothing but whoever takes an oath by the gift that is on it is bound by that oath blind people for which is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift therefore the one who takes an oath by the altar takes an oath by it and everything and by everything on it the one who takes an oath by the sanctuary takes an oath by it and by him who dwells in it and the one who takes an oath by heaven takes an oath by God's throne by him who sits on it what does he condemn them for swearing falsely if you read

01:08:04

Matthew 23 and then you line it up with Malachi chapter 3 you will see that the judgment

01:08:11

God promises in Malachi 3 by the Messiah that's the very judgments that God is that Jesus is pronouncing upon them at the temple on his generation what should you learn from this here's what

01:08:22

I wanted you to get from this this little moment where Jesus says the sons of the kingdom are going to be cast out to make way now for these

01:08:31

Gentiles to come into the kingdom of God with Abraham Isaac and Jacob don't you understand that that is what the whole story was about the promise in the

01:08:41

Old Testament was that watch the nations were going to come to God to return and worship God that they were going to stream up to the mountain of God that Jews and Gentiles were going to come together into one people of God God was going to bring redemption to the ends of the earth and in the first century

01:08:58

Jesus heals a dirty Gentile he heals a dirty

01:09:03

Gentile and his dirty slave and it made him sick it made him sick to think that these dirty

01:09:10

Gentiles could actually be a part of the kingdom of God and saved and Jesus actually says to them guys people are going to come from east and west and they're going to recline at a table with Abraham Jew and Gentile together in one people of God at the same table has nothing to do with race it has to do with his faith he is unworthy he recognizes who

01:09:34

Jesus is and he trusts in Jesus and Jesus tells those Jews of his first century generation he says they're going to come from east and west to receive the benefits of salvation and the sons of the kingdom are going to be cast out and there's a parable there's a vineyard owner he's got a son they kill his son what's he going to do to them and they say oh he's going to destroy them right he is going to destroy you that's exactly right and he's going to give the kingdom to other people that will produce its fruits and then

01:10:00

Jesus tells them in Matthew 24 he says all these things are going to be upon this generation this temple is going to be taken apart not one stone upon another you're going to persecute my people flee when you see

01:10:15

Jerusalem surrounded by armies Christians flee get out of the city don't even go back to get your coats and what do we know about the first century brothers and sisters what happened those covenant breakers experienced the judgment of God in the way they did not anticipate first century records tell us that one of the greatest earthquakes in the history of the world happened in Pompeii in the sixties of the first century the records we have

01:10:44

Josephus records for us he was an eyewitness a Pharisee and a general in a Jewish army against the

01:10:50

Romans he was part of the Jewish revolt he was given the task to write a history of the

01:10:56

Jews including the destruction of Jerusalem we have eyewitness testimony to the judgment of Jesus Christ upon that temple and he says that the famine was so bad at that time he says that people were eating feces people he says one woman was recorded well he recorded killing her own child this is awful but it's what happened cooking it and then feeding it to people that were passing by on the street just to survive

01:11:29

Josephus records that at that time out of nowhere after the peace of Rome the Pax Romana after the peace of Rome it was so terrible it was as though every nation was fighting against every nation

01:11:43

Josephus records that at one point this is his testimony there was a great earthquake the temple doors this is not in your bible the temple doors blew open and a loud voice came booming out of the temple and the voice was let us remove hence essentially let us leave now that's just Josephus testimony that's not in your bibles it's what he says they heard coming out of the temple let us leave you ever hear anybody else in the bible referring to let us do something let us create man in our own image let us go down and confound their language

01:12:27

Josephus records in the first century the temple doors blew open and a loud voice boomed out and said let us remove hence they recorded in the first century that God stopped accepting the animal sacrifices for some odd reason after 30

01:12:41

AD I don't know maybe some significant event and then the

01:12:48

Romans came to sack the temple and they came and they surrounded Jerusalem and Rome after they surrounded

01:12:55

Jerusalem Rome fell apart and all the Roman armies turned around and left to go back to Rome and when they did guess what

01:13:06

Josephus records the Christians did they fled Jerusalem to a town called

01:13:12

Pella and as soon as the Christians escaped Jerusalem guess what the Roman armies did they turned back around and re -sacked the city again so who were the only people that were actually able to escape the judgment on Jerusalem the

01:13:27

Christians it's a matter of historical record the promise in the old testament was that God was going to send

01:13:34

Messiah who would rule the world bring all the nations to God conquer the world with his good news and salvation change everything bring it back to its

01:13:43

Eden state essentially but when he arrived he was going to bring salvation to his people and he was going to judge the covenant breakers it was a two -fold thing happening at the

01:13:55

Messiah's coming judgment salvation John the Baptist Jesus salvation judgment on Jerusalem the whole story hangs together it's really amazing isn't it it's fascinating it's glorious but here's what

01:14:16

I'm going to get across Jesus is truly Messiah he's truly the king of kings and listen this is the last thing

01:14:25

I want to point to us here watch to us today we are so jaded we're indifferent to it you look around today at people who love

01:14:35

Jesus in this room you look at the person next to you you see a brown person a white person a black person you see all these people of different colors an

01:14:43

Asian person you see all these different ethnicities and backgrounds that love Jesus and trust him and we're saved and we love

01:14:53

God and we worship the Lord God of Israel because of Jesus and we're just jaded to it like no big deal but in the first century the fact that Jesus would talk to a dirty

01:15:03

Gentile that offended them and when Jesus told them this Gentile this kind of Gentile is going to be at table with Abraham in the kingdom of God and you're not it was radical revolutionary but not so much and why because that was the plan all along it was not a plan

01:15:27

B it was the entire story that's who Jesus is here's what you need to know from that there's a real hell a real hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth do

01:15:40

I know what hell is really like no do we have any idea really what hell is like no we don't here's what we know it is eternal it is conscious torment and agony forever separation from God is the worst part of it no longer experiencing his grace no longer experiencing his love no longer experiencing his mercy but actually released by God to gnash your teeth and weep for eternity apart from God and God said to them it's going to happen to you and they didn't believe him and so they went about their business they went about mocking

01:16:26

Jesus they rejected the calls to repentance and that generation was judged by Jesus exactly as he promised what should that speak to you and I today here's what it needs to speak to you and I today that this

01:16:38

Jesus is truly the king of glory he's truly the one who has all authority and power and he is a force to be reckoned with you do not play with your soul

01:16:50

Jesus when he speaks to them he warned them of the judgment about to come they didn't buy it some did by his grace they did and some didn't and they continued to rebel against God and they experienced in that generation watch judgment that was so mighty

01:17:05

Josephus records that the streets were pouring like rivers of blood people destroyed lives destroyed communities erased gone and watch that judgment in Jerusalem wasn't even the worst part for those who rejected

01:17:23

Jesus in the first century and were cast out they are to this day to this very second right now the people that I'm referring to are right now suffering and weeping and gnashing their teeth in a place of torment and the worst is yet to come because at the end of time that is where God will officially inaugurate hell right now it's temporary it will get worse do

01:17:59

I believe that you should turn to Jesus to avoid hell not merely if you come to Jesus simply to escape hell

01:18:08

I do not think you understand the Christian message I don't think you understand the gospel you don't come to Jesus to avoid hell you come to Jesus for Jesus you come to Jesus for salvation for him not to avoid hell when you hear this message of Jesus promising them you're about to be judged and you're going to go to hell they didn't buy it and they thought they had more time and now they're in hell for all eternity, city destroyed, temple destroyed forever so what does that speak to you today the message is salvation, the message is faith, the message is

01:18:42

Christ is king, his rule is now broken into history you can experience his salvation he was righteous and died and rose again to purchase his people the call is to repent and believe the gospel listen here's the deal look, in my life especially as a minister it's become more real to me, just how little time we have, oh my goodness, oh my goodness,

01:19:06

I think about it often now don't you, when you get to like I'm like 22 and I can't even I can't even, no you think about it often don't you you get older you start thinking oh my goodness my son is almost 18,

01:19:20

I'm going to actually be able to say next year I have an adult child and I'm noticing something as a minister of the gospel that there are people who like embrace their sins and love them and continue to live in them and they act as though they have forever to do it and Jesus told them in this context he tells people in that context who thought they had it together they thought they knew

01:19:48

God and Jesus warned them and he told them in the coming judgment they didn't buy it, they didn't repent and they are paying for it and I recognize in my ministry how many people

01:20:00

I've seen when I preach the gospel to them or I call them to turn from a particular sin

01:20:05

I recognize how many people just treat it like well I'll get to that but don't we all realize that Jesus says what he means and does what he says he'll do and when the call of mercy and grace and compassion and forgiveness comes into our lives the only thing we can do is to fall before him and receive that offer of mercy and grace and forgiveness, don't you know that today is the day of salvation you don't wait till tomorrow because you don't have tomorrow promised to you or a week from now, today could be the day where God requires your soul of you and here's what

01:20:49

I want to get across to you and me, we are living on borrowed time from God each and every one of us is living on time given to you by God in this moment to live for his glory and here's what he says today all of creation must bow the knee to my son every knee bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

01:21:12

Lord to the glory of God, that's where history is going where do you stand with Jesus today who is he to you?

01:21:23

no I don't believe in this time that if you don't repent I should shake the dust off my feet, that's a specific command to the disciples at that time,

01:21:34

I believe that was what that was for but I am pleading with those in this room today to hear the message of Jesus and come to him for life and forgiveness and peace because watch, this is glorious Jesus has taken

01:21:49

Gentiles, people on the outside that everyone thought was dirty and unworthy of anything, Jesus took us and he brought us into the fold he took, watch, he says this in John 10

01:21:59

I love it, I love it, he says I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep and he says this

01:22:06

I have other sheep which are not of this fold them I must also bring and he says they will become one flock with one shepherd

01:22:16

Jew and Gentile into one body one people of God under Messiah saved, forgiven with the gift of eternal life, have you repented and believed the gospel, are you trusting in Jesus Christ right now for forgiveness and salvation if so you should worship

01:22:34

God in these next few moments we have together receive the table with joy but if you are not in Christ today what you have ahead of you, you have to know it,

01:22:43

I got to say it, you might think this is a hell fire and brimstone, hell stones hell stones, okay, hell fire and brimstone preaching, you might think that, right but I can't ignore the text it's popular in modern day

01:22:57

Christianity in the west to ignore the text and things that are uncomfortable, let me say this, if you're not in Christ today, if you don't know

01:23:03

Jesus, if you don't trust in him you will spend eternity in a place where there is torment weeping and gnashing of teeth, it is conscience, conscious, eternal torment for all eternity separated from God the only hope is in Jesus Christ and he calls you and I, he bids us to come and die and rise again with him and experience his peace where are you at with Jesus?

01:23:27

they thought they had time do you think you have time? where are you at with Jesus? they thought they knew

01:23:33

God, do you know God? where are you at with Jesus? who is he to you?

01:23:40

he's already Lord, but do you submit to him as Lord? do you trust in him as Lord?

01:23:45

because he gives the gift of life, repent and believe the gospel, let's pray, Father bless,

01:23:52

Lord the message please bless it, God I know in myself my own inability at times to communicate,

01:24:06

Lord what I so desire and long to communicate and so I plead with you

01:24:11

God, please please act now and move in the hearts of these people to Lord, transform them, bless them with peace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ and I pray

01:24:23

Lord, if there's anyone in this room, Lord, that has thought for so long that they can keep you at bay, that they can keep you at arms distance,