The Divine Credentials of Jesus (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

Matthew 8 as a Go-To Passage for Comfort and Worship

My name is Mike Abendroth. I don�t know why I always do the same thing. I always grab the microphone just like this and I say, �Welcome to No Compromise Radio. I�m just looking at the Facebook thing that we have live now and it was saying, �Trying to reconnect.

So, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church�s podcast called No Compromise Radio. Just a quick update. Looks like Israel 2021 is canceled. I hated to do it. Pat Abendroth, my brother from Omaha Bible Church and I, we�re going to lead a group.

It has been postponed to February 2022. We have the dates. We have the guide. We have the hotel. We just need some folks to come. I just looked up. Jerry is online. Jerry, good to see you on Facebook.

I can�t see the picture. What do you look like? I don�t know if you have, you Jerry or anybody else, passages in the Bible that are your go-to�s. Something has gone wrong and you regularly turn back to that particular passage.

Or you�re, you know, blessed and excited and full of joy and therefore you celebrate with a certain familiar chapter or book of the Bible. For me, I have a passage that I don�t know how often I go to it, but pretty often I regularly read it and I regularly listen to it for encouragement, for comfort.

And so today on No Compromise Radio, I�m going to try to convince you that the passage that I love, you should love, and regularly when things go badly or things go goodly, things go well, you say, �Oh, I remember that guy on No Compromise Radio and he said he regularly reads Matthew chapter 8.

And so Matthew chapter 8, we�re going to talk about that a little bit today, a passage about the Lord Jesus that is bound to help you think about Him rightly, the Lord Jesus rightly. I remember years ago Tozer said, and some people don�t like it if I quote Tozer, I know he�s not some Calvinist, etc., but this is true, �It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the 20th century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.

If I could write like that, I wouldn�t be here today. Oh, my arm is killing me, by the way. I hate to get so personal, but for two weeks it�s been awful and I don�t know, I�ve got some kind of weird blood numbers, so I had to take all these vaccinations and pneumonia vaccination and shingles vaccination and flu vaccinations, and I�m kind of against vaccinations and I normally don�t get them.

I don�t know if it was allergic reaction or something or it went someplace wrongly and I�ve taken all this medicine and pills and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, oh, man, but when you can�t do a radio show, I think you�re really hurt.

So when I was in New York City last week, it wasn�t preaching the word, it was grimacing the word, and so we�ll hopefully make it through. Can you imagine living to be 969 years with some bad back or something like that, some kind of nerve damage?

Psalm 78, they did not remember his power the day he redeemed them from the adversary. Psalm 62, once God has spoken, twice I have heard this, that power belongs to the Lord, to God. So in Matthew, he is describing Jesus as the king, and in Matthew chapter 8, it talks about the power of the king, credentials of the king.

I mean, the way I think about it is this way. Imagine 2 ,000 years ago, there was a human on earth, and of course, Jesus was more than human, perfectly God, perfectly man, but when you looked at him, of course, you would see a man.

What would cause you to go up to a man and get down on your face and worship him? What would cause you, if you were that lady who would take the perfume and break it all over Jesus�s, in one particular case, his hair, another particular case, on his feet and wipe his feet with her hair?

What would cause you to do something like that? I mean, who would you meet? What would they have to do in order for you to think, �He is God, and I will get down on my face and worship him in front of other people.

And so what Matthew does is he gives the credentials for the king, and that�s why I like to look at this passage. This is one of my go-to passages because it�s about Jesus, right, and I need to get my focus off of me.

That�s my default, is me, myself, and I, as one man called the unholy trinity. Oh, Vicki�s watching. Vicki, we hope to see you soon in Beloit, Ohio. And I think to myself, I�d also like to be reminded of Jesus� attributes, and that is he is omnipotent, he�s all-powerful, he�s almighty.

I�d like to be reminded that he�s compassionate and kind, especially when I turn to this passage when I need some encouragement or I�m hurting or I�ve got nerve damage in my back. And this passage, Matthew 8, has all that.

It shows the credentials of the king, he�s powerful, he�s compassionate, and he is one that deserves your worship. And so if you�re a Christian today, this is a good passage for you to say, �Do you I understand he�s faithful and good and compassionate

If you ask the question that was asked by Jesus, �Who do people say the Son of Man is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets, that�s what some people say. �But who do you say that I am

Simon Peter replied, �You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And that�s what we see in Matthew 8. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there or you can just listen along as I talk a little bit about the credentials of the king.

Terry, he had his vaccinations and his soreness went away after four days. Well, I think I�m at 24 and it�s not just local, it�s like this nerve thing. Who knows? I even went to the health food store the other day and I said, �What do you do for kind of nerve damage and arm pain and all that

And they gave me St. John�s wort liquid, red liquid. She said, �Put it on liberally. I did, and it just made me really calm. Susan is watching, hi Susan. If you ever think about a king when you come to the book of Matthew before we get into chapter 8, it�s fascinating because just think about old shows about kings and what might go on in the king�s court and the drama and everything else.

If you think about the king has to have the right lineage, he has to have the right background, and that�s what Matthew chapter 1 does. You have this genealogy because you have to have the right king.

When there�s a king, there�s usually treachery involved because people are trying to take over for that king and royalty is a dangerous business and you see that treachery involved with Herod in chapter 2.

Normally if you have a king, there�ll be a forerunner that�ll go announce the king, hence John the Baptist. There are other challengers to the throne once that king has grown up and we see Satan in Matthew chapter 4 challenging Jesus.

And then the king actually talks, that�s the Sermon on the Mount. This is the manifesto of the king. And now we come to the power of the king. Later we�ll see the king�s coronation, the king�s passion, the king�s resurrection credentials.

But here we have the power of the king. He has the credentials of the Almighty. And you say, �Well, why is that important Well, it�s important for a lot of reasons. Here�s one. Jesus just got done giving the Sermon on the Mount and here�s how Jesus talks, right?

So think about it. We�re looking through the lens of Scripture in 2 ,000 years later, but Jesus is there and Jesus is talking and he�s saying things like this, �You have heard it said, but I say to you.

�You have heard it said, but I say to you. Remember that regularly in Matthew chapter 5? That�s how Jesus talks. Who talks like that? Who�s able to talk like that? I guess if you�re crazy, you can talk that way.

If you�re David Koresh or Jim Jones or somebody. By the way, did you know Jim Jones was a social gospel preacher? That was his shtick. I�m not saying every social gospel preacher is a cult leader, I�m just saying every social gospel preacher shouldn�t be preaching that because the social gospel isn�t the gospel.

It�s law. It�s bad news. But that�s just for free. Jesus said in Matthew 7, �Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. So Jesus, this man, perfectly man, again, more than that, perfectly God.

But this man is saying, �Listen, these are my words. If you do my words, that is, you believe in them, you�ll go to heaven. Now just imagine if you met somebody like that today and you�re like, �Well, why should I believe you

You know? I�d be thinking in my mind, �You�re a kook, right I�d be thinking, �Henno. But now we come to this passage and we go, �Oh, when he says, �You have heard it said, but I say to you I realize now he has the authority to say those things because of not only who he is, but what he does.

And that comes to Matthew 8, �Credentials of the King. So anyway, my name is Mike Cabin, brought to you by No Compromise Radio. It�s a long 10-minute introduction to Matthew 8, but this is one of my go-to passages.

I read Matthew 8 a lot, a lot. And in my mind, I just like to say, �Okay, this is who Jesus is, and I can rehearse his power in my mind. And I think I have the outline right, Lee, set up where he�s dealing with the leper, he�s dealing with the centurion�s servant, he�s dealing with Peter�s mother-in-law and a few other folks there, he�s dealing with people, his power over people, his power over the water, ocean, sea, lake, and he has power over demons.

And so as I watch Jesus and his power, I�m assured, yes, I�m worshiping the right Savior. I don�t know if you�re like me, but once in a while I think, �Am I worshiping the right person I�m getting older, I�m going to die one day and stand before God.

I want to make sure that I�m believing in the right mediator. And Matthew 8 helps remind me, yes, of course, this is the right mediator. And then it�s just good for me to think, do you know what? In the middle of all my troubles and circumstances and everybody else�s circumstances and troubles that I�m involved in as a pastor and as a friend, I realize Jesus is powerful.

And everything about Jesus that I�m not, I�m weak, I�m frail, I�m getting older, I have all these issues, et cetera, et cetera. The good news is Jesus is immutably powerful and his credentials have been confirmed.

If you look forward a little bit to the resurrection, everything will be confirmed by the Father as he raises him from the dead. So Matthew 8, my goal today on No Compromise Radio is for you to regularly look at the Lord Jesus.

And also, when you�re teaching the Bible to your children, when you are teaching the Bible at Sunday school, when we have those back after COVID, when you�re evangelizing, the focus needs to be on Jesus.

When Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John write, they are writing about Jesus. By the way, whenever you teach Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about the good news of the Lord Jesus, guess what your message is about?

Health, wealth, and prosperity. Obviously not. How can people take the Gospels and turn it into something about themselves? When I teach preaching classes, and I�m teaching a preaching class here for pastors and leaders and anybody else that wants to come in gospel ministry, November 7th from nine to four here at Bethlehem Bible Church for the New England Shepherds Fellowship.

I was deemed the leader for that. It was a hasty decision. It's basically pastors in New England to try to be encouraged, and I guess I happen to be here the longest time, and I�m in the middle of Massachusetts, so teaching a preaching class.

In that preaching class, I will remind people how to teach and preach Christ Jesus from the Gospels. Now, most students want to say, �Well, how do you preach Jesus from Proverbs? How do you preach Jesus from Song of Solomon?

How do you preach Jesus from Ecclesiastes or Job or Micah or Obadiah They ask those questions or Exodus, and those are good questions, but I have to start with making sure you preach Jesus from the Gospels, because all too often we just invert and turn upside down the Gospels and they end up being about us, right?

You go to the temptation account, and it's, �How do I overcome temptation? I need a timeless principle so I can learn from that. It's not about our temptation and overcoming temptation. It's about the Lord Jesus.

Can you imagine what scenario has more weight or gravitas? Jesus used the word, �Deuteronomy, overcome satanic temptation and so you use Deuteronomy and other passages to hide God's word in your heart so you can overcome temptation.

That's option one. Okay. There's some truth, actually, in some of that, but that's not what Matthew's talking about. What's the other option? Adam in the garden failed. Eve, obviously, in the garden failed as well.

Israel in the wilderness failed. David on a rooftop fails. We always fail. There has to be one person who gets tempted and doesn't fail or we're all going to hell. We need a representative who, when tempted, will not fail.

So your eternal destiny rides on Matthew 4 and Jesus overcoming temptation. I know our temptation is a big deal, but when you look at those two things, I mean, come on. That's how we need to make sure we read the Gospels.

And so when we come to Matthew 8, I like it because it's hard to torque anything besides Jesus is powerful, he has their credentials, he's the king, he's compassionate, and you can trust him. There's kind of no wiggle room, right?

I mean, like Luke 17, 10 lepers healed, one comes back to say thank you. What's the message? Be careful before you answer. Stop laughing. Be thankful. Okay. It's Thanksgiving. This is everybody ought to be thankful.

Obviously, first Thessalonians, it says in light of who Jesus is to show thanks, right? It's God's will for you to be thankful, duh. But Luke 17 has nothing to do with that. If you want to make it as a side note, fine.

How do you know the Messiah? How can you recognize him? Answer earlier in chapter seven, he'll heal lepers. What's the point of the passage? Jesus is the Messiah. Oh yeah. Okay. Back to Matthew chapter eight.

So what we're going to do in Matthew chapter eight, I'm going to try to convince you that it's a go-to passage that you could regularly read. Here's my challenge for you, for the five people watching, including Jeremy, who's now watching, is for you to read Matthew eight every day for the next 30 days.

That's what I'm after. That's my go-to. That's my practical exhortation. That's my timeless principle. I laugh about this because I think for so long I did the exact wrong thing. We have a tape ministry, a cassette ministry, right?

Now it's audio. And the guys put up all the sermons and stuff like that. And years ago, I think I was preaching through a book of the Bible and they lost one of the messages, right? It wasn't recorded.

I mean, come on. I put 20, 30 hours into that message. And this is Mike Ebendroth's message and it needs to be posted for the world to hear. And I cannot believe you guys could not push the record button so that the world could hear my message.

I'm such an idiot. I was nicer. I was more humble when I was talking about that, but it's just important, right? There are people that are bound to home and they need to hear the message. Anyway, I'm glad that wasn't published.

I think about my old messages from Mark. I'm just like, oh brother, what did I preach? But you know what? Pastors learn too. Pastors grow. Pastors, as one man said, we want to grow in grace and not groan in disgrace, but I'm groaning from those old sermons.

Just think if you had to get to heaven by preaching perfect sermons or evangelizing perfectly. Why do we talk about the Lord Jesus so often? Because I want you to get rid of the enough theology. God will love me if I pray enough.

This is Christians, right? If I pray enough, God loves me. If I evangelize enough, if I read enough, if I encourage enough, if I parent enough, if I husband enough, if I do the one another's enough, if I go to church enough, if I, I mean, there's all this enough theology.

And I always say enough of the enough theology because the focus is all wrong. To be technical, why are you putting yourself back underneath the covenant of works? You stand before God as complete and holy and righteous because of the Lord Jesus' work.

Because Jesus prayed enough. Jesus evangelized enough. I mean, how could you say he didn't like, well, I don't think Jesus evangelized enough. But if you're in the enough theology, maybe, maybe you'd be tempted to think that.

Jesus honored his father enough. Jesus loved other people enough. Jesus did the one another's enough. And so then once everything's turned rightly, then you think, okay, I stand before God in the stead of Jesus and he is not mad at me.

He is not angry with me. We are on good terms. Of course, I might be disciplined for sin or for things that I have done as a Christian, as a child of God, but our relationship is firm. I have said this many times and I'll say it again now with emphasis.

We, you, me, other people in evangelical circles have a higher view, a more compassionate view of our own fathers than we do of God the father. I mean that. And you say, well, what do you mean? We would realize that when our own children, okay, I'm a father, a human father, how often must my kids obey for me to show them that I am pleased with them and that they're part of the family?

I mean, do they need to do that enough? Or don't I just say, I love you and you're special to me and we've prayed for you and this is what the Lord has done. We realize that we're not going to get kicked out of the family if we sin against our dad and we aren't perfectly obedient, our human fathers.

But when it comes to the divine thinking, we don't do that. We're like, you know what? I'm good with God as long as I obey. And you know, that translates into communion services as well. I've got to clean up my life this week in order for me to be worthy to take communion.

It's just all wrong. Everything's focused wrongly. Jesus, he eats with sinners. This is a meal. The only way you can be unworthy is to think you're worthy. The unworthy may come, right? And we confess our sins and then we come and we have a meal, as it were, a foretaste of the great banquet because Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.

And then now if you're his brother by faith in the Lord Jesus, and now you're a child of God and adopted in the family, well, you're welcome to come. So anyway, we are digressing some and it's a good digression.

My main point for today is if you regularly need a good dose of anything and everyone and anybody but yourself, like I do, Matthew 8 is a good passage to go to. The dire need for Christianity today is the exaltation of the Lord Jesus, both personally and in church.

Church has become self-help, therapeutic. I've got to have five practical ways to get through such and such. I need four easy steps, three different opportunities, two different ways, and one singular thing to do.

And it is gross. It is grotesque to take the Bible about Jesus and turn it into a self-help manual. It really, that's what it is. It's gross. And so stop doing that if you're a pastor. Stop doing that if you're a mom or a dad teaching the Bible in any way, shape, or form.

Stop doing that when you evangelize. And just, you know, the word is repent and you just think differently and do the opposite. And then exalt the Lord Jesus and talk about Him. So we're going to do the next show, we'll do the Facebook thing here in just about a minute or so.

I'll redo it. But that's why I love Matthew 8. Matthew 8 is one of those, you take your hand, if you have a real Bible, a paper Bible, and you crease, you put a big crease right there in Matthew chapter 8, so you go, oh, regularly my Bible opens up there because Jesus has the credentials of the King.

Ministry Sign-Off and Church Information

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.