Matthew 7:28-29 "Shock and Awe" (Part 1)

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Dr. Mike Evendroff. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse by verse with no compromise.

It's a sad day in my life today. We say goodbye to an old friend, the Sermon on the

Mount. Take your Bibles please to Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7.

I think this is maybe message 68 or 69 on the Sermon on the Mount, over 100 verses. And Lord willing, we'll finish today.

I'll go on vacation tomorrow, so this is a good ending point. Matthew chapter 7, today we'll be looking at verses 28 and 29.

I don't know if you get amazed very easily. We live in a culture where not much shocks us anymore.

When you have the internet into your home and TV blaring, news is instantaneous.

Something that happens 3 ,000 miles away can be in our homes and we've kind of seen it all.

Nothing really shocks us, nothing amazes us that much. My question to you this morning would be, when was the last time you were struck out of your senses by something?

When was the last time, let's push a little bit, that someone gave a sermon or a talk or shared and you sat there and you thought, that just strikes me and I am astounded.

I am in awe. I am amazed by what I just heard. It's a rare thing these days to sit there and say, that message knocked the wind out of me.

I'm speechless. I don't know how to respond. And we'll find out today that that's exactly how they responded to the preaching of Jesus Christ.

As you know, just with a little wrap up, Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7, since Augustine's day has been known as the

Sermon on the Mount. Very obvious, because it's a sermon and it was on a mountain.

If you look at Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, Jesus saw the crowds. He went up on the mountain.

Lots of mountaintop experiences in the Gospel of Matthew. The third temptation on a mountain.

The transfiguration on a mountain. The very commission on a mountain. And Jesus, almost with deliberation, goes up the mountain like Moses would go up to Sinai to get the word of God and then deliver it.

Here now, Jesus, the new prophet, the Deuteronomy 18 prophet that Moses proclaimed would come, now gives

God's word. Quite the parallel. And here we have this sermon where Jesus just amazes the people.

Summarized with one word. You had to summarize the Sermon on the Mount with one word. You would summarize it with the word, righteousness.

Here comes the new king that has been prophesied of old. And the king comes and he proclaims a kingdom of righteousness.

Not just external righteousness like the scribes and Pharisees had, but internal as well. And I just love this sermon.

I hate to say goodbye to it. Sadly, not everyone loves the sermon. Nikita Khrushchev, while in the

United States, said, I tell you what the difference between Christians and me is.

And that is if you slap me on the face, I'll hit you so hard your head will fall off.

Quite different than Jesus' words about turning the other cheek. Not everybody likes this sermon and is amazed by it.

Harry Elmer Barnes said, Once we make the candid examination of the actual teachings of Jesus, in so far as we know them, it must be admitted that they are not only archaic, but even destructive of any advanced civilization.

If the teachings of Jesus as they exist were applied to contemporary society, nothing less than anarchy and the destruction of the civilized order would inevitably follow.

But we love the Sermon on the Mount. Why? Because God has given us a heart for the words of Christ, for his apostolic messengers.

I love this sermon. Jesus preaches the sermon, chapter 5, 6, and 7.

And then the last four weeks we've seen him apply it. And he applies it this way. Verses 13 and 14 of chapter 7.

Enter. You've got to enter. You can't just coast in. And then he gives a second application.

You remember that in verses 15 to 20 of chapter 7. He says, beware. There are some false teachers that stand there and say, don't enter.

Or the false teachers say, enter by the broad gate. Then Jesus gives more application.

He says in verses 21 to 23 what? You could be self -deceived. Be careful.

Many people will stand and say on Judgment Day, Lord, Lord. And we did all kinds of things. And they'll say, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And then last week we saw the final warning that Jesus gives.

It's like his sermon's over and then he gives the final application. The takeaways, the walkaways in verses 13 and following.

Fourthly, he says in verses 24 through 27. You can't just hear and walk away.

You have to hear and what? Obey. You have to hear and obey.

It reminds me of a very liberal Christian theologian who had a little parable talking about Matthew chapter 7 towards the end.

And his parable was an animal parable called Duck Land. It was Sunday morning and all the ducks dutifully came to church, waddling through the doors and down the aisle into their pews where they comfortably squatted.

When all were well settled, the hymns were sung, the duck minister waddled to his pulpit, opened the duck

Bible and read, Ducks, you have wings. And with wings you can fly like eagles.

You can soar into the sky. Use your wings. It was a marvelous, elevating duck scripture.

And thus all the ducks. I've got to finish now.

From this response, I don't want to finish, but I will. It was a marvelous, elevating duck scripture.

And thus all the ducks quacked their assent with a hearty amen. And now we won't laugh.

And then they plopped down from their pews and waddled. In other words, to do nothing about the sermon.

Jesus says at the very end, As the Father has already said to me on the Mount Transfiguration, This is my beloved

Son. Listen to Him. We've got to listen to the words of Jesus and obey them.

Certainly by the grace of God. Certainly by the Spirit's power. But Jesus says you must believe.

Now we come to chapter 7, verses 28. Let's read it together, or I'll read it, you follow along. Matthew 7, 28.

If you have a Bible with Jesus' words in red, you notice these aren't red anymore. The sermon's over.

But Matthew, underneath the inspiration of the Spirit of God, tells us the reaction to Jesus' sermon.

When Jesus had finished these words, what words are those? Those are the sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

The crowds were amazed at His teaching. They were struck in their mind, is what the

Greek says. They were dumbfounded. They were amazed. They were astonished. They were struck out of their senses.

And I'm going to teach you a new Greek word today. So we can have the same kind of idea of what was going on.

Never did a man speak like this. And the response was astonishment. The Greek word for astonishment is ekplasso.

Ekplasso. And to get you to memorize it, and to get you to remember it, I'm going to say it's close to another word, and that other word is espresso.

Ekplasso, espresso. If you can't remember the Greek word ekplasso, then remember espresso.

It's this astonishment. And by the way, the Greek text is, it was an ongoing.

It's imperfect tense for those of you that have studied the language. It was over and over and over and over.

The implication is, as Jesus would give a point in chapter 5, they were dumbstruck. He'd give a point in chapter 6, they were bewildered.

You can almost tell there's this buzz of that look on their face when they just think, I've never heard anything like this in my life.

Astonishment. Sometimes the Bible punctuates itself with astonishment.

How about this? You'll remember this. Romans 11 .33. Oh! O -H.

The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments, and how unfathomable

His ways. It means to expel by a blow.

It's all like getting hit in the gut. Have you ever got hit in the stomach right up here and you just...

The figurative response to Jesus' words were... Who talks like that?

By the way, the English word for astonish means to strike with thunder. That's a great picture of what happened when people heard

Jesus preach. Thirteen times in the New Testament, this word is used to describe the reaction of people who listen to Jesus.

Overwhelmed. Matthew 13 .54. Don't turn there, just listen. And coming to His hometown,

He began teaching them in their synagogue so that they became epleso and said,

Where did this man get the wisdom and these miracles? Matthew 19 .25.

And when the disciples heard this, talking about the eye of the camel, eye of the camel, that would have been an interesting expresso, the eye of a needle and the camel going through it, they were very astonished, epleso, and said,

Who then could be saved? And the last use in Matthew is found in chapter 22, verse 33.

When the multitudes heard this, where He's talking about, I am the God of Abraham, I am the

God of Jacob, I am the God of Isaac. He is not the God of the dead, but the living Jesus had said,

They were epleso at His teaching. Here's a good set of words with a dash in between, spellbound.

They were spellbound. And it's not a momentary deal. Driven out of their senses by sudden shock.

So here's what I'd like to do today. Let me remind you of some of the reasons why you should be shocked at the teachings of Jesus Christ.

So we respond to Revelation. The first reason, or the first point, if you will, for this outline.

I have five, but I probably won't get through them all, so just to say that up front, we'll see what happens.

The first reason why you should be eplesoed at the teaching of Jesus is you should be amazed at His authority.

The way He taught with authority. And by the way, that's what the text says. Look at verse 29. You should be amazed at the preaching of Jesus because He preached with authority.

Verse 29. For He was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. He didn't come along and say the

Bible says, the rabbi said, the rabbi who quoted so -and -so, rabbi who quoted so -and -so scribe, who quoted so -and -so

Sadducee, who quoted so -and -so Pharisee. He spoke in first person.

I don't even find a thus saith the Lord in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, do you? Some speak by authority.

Jesus speaks with authority. Do you know the difference? Of course you do. By the way, if I ever give you a quote,

Arthur Pink said, John MacArthur said, why do I do that? Because I want to show you that I'm well -read?

No. Lots of times I do it because people can say things better than I can. But often I say it because if you don't believe me, there's an authority that you might recognize.

Oh, John Calvin said this, Tozer said that. At least it's not Abendroth's weird idea.

Other scholars say the same thing. But Jesus isn't doing that. He doesn't need to quote an external source.

Rabbi Shammai said such -and -such. Because Jesus is authority incarnate.

He preaches with authority. And show me someone who preaches with authority, and I'll show you someone that preaches such a message that people respond with conviction.

Stott always told about those preachers these days that are like Chinese jugglers. You have one person kind of stand against the wall like that, and the art of the

Chinese knife thrower is how far he can come to you, throwing the knife straight at your head, and then miss.

All around your body, so when you step away, you see the silhouette of the person. And Stott says some preachers are so like that, they preach without authority.

They preach around the person and never preach right to the conscience. We don't want to preach like some

Chinese knife juggler. Jesus didn't preach that way. These people were used to the fodder of dry, boring, sharing kind of talks.

And here Jesus comes, and he demands a verdict, and they're shocked. No more dry, boring kind of sermons, quoting rabbi after quoting rabbi, footnote after bibliography.

No. He speaks with power, with conviction. And by the way, true or false,

Jesus didn't go to seminary. Jesus didn't have Hebrew language school. Jesus did what his father did, and he was called a what?

A carpenter. Here is the carpenter. But he's the divine

God himself. He's the divine lawgiver. And by comparison, these other preachers that they had heard were sniveling, driveling, boring teachers who had no authority.

If you teach a Sunday school, by the way, if you teach a Bible study, if you preach from the pulpit, if you teach at VBS, I think it might be good if we would preach with authority and teach with authority as well.

Or why teach at all? This kind of preaching would get most pastors kicked out of most churches today.

I don't mean this kind, me. I mean this kind, Jesus. Because people want to kind of share.

Who are you, one person, standing there telling us all these things? We like to have a conversation.

Can you hear this around Jesus' words? They were dumbstruck. Maybe they wanted Socratic method of learning.

Maybe they wanted a conversation. Maybe they wanted that. But that's not what Jesus gave them because he thundered forth the word of God with authority, which means with conviction.

Today, when you preach at people, they're like, Who do you think you are? Don't throw stones in glass houses.

Let's have chats, quiet talks, sharing, storytelling, some skits.

I've read of mime ministry. We'd hate to have a mime ministry. That wouldn't last very long.

You step on a mime, that was the end of the ministry. But I'm talking about maybe some churches need a mime ministry.

But mime ministries? Show me a church with mime ministry, and I'll show you a church that doesn't think

Jesus' teaching with the apostles has any authority at all. Our sufficiency. I've heard of churches with poker ministries.

Jesus preaches with authority. Robert Shuler, Jr.

just said for his new church, I'll probably have five to ten -minute messages throughout the program.

But it won't be sitting down with three points and a poem. People are interested in other ways to communicate the message, such as interviews as opposed to a talking head.

You ought to be amazed that Jesus preached with authority and conviction followed. I'm not amazed by other kind of ten -minute story preaching.

Number two, be amazed at Jesus' insistence that before salvation is offered, sin must be owned.

Now, the first one, be amazed that Jesus preached with authority, is right from the text, 729. These are now derived from the

Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere. First one straight from the text. But there are other times people were amazed at Jesus' teaching and other ways you ought to be amazed at the preaching of Jesus.

By the way, this presupposes that you have begun my summer homework assignment to you. What was my summer homework assignment?

Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So you can see the words of Jesus so you might respond to them.

Be amazed at Jesus' insistence that before salvation is offered, sin must be owned.

Reformers used to say guilt, grace, gratitude. That order. Creation, fall, redemption.

Go back to Matthew 5 .3 and look at how Jesus starts the sermon. You want to be amazed at something?

Nobody starts a sermon like this except Jesus. People kind of say, well, I've got to warm up the crowd a little bit.

First impressions. It takes, you know, I'm going to try to get everybody to kind of like me and then I'll lay the hammer down later.

There's a lot of different strategies. But I am amazed. I am applessoed that Jesus doesn't start with, hey, we're all in this together, kind of all sharing.

He comes and the first thing he talks about is what? Sin. It has to be addressed.

Show me someone that knows the depths of sin. I'll show you someone that greatly appreciates the salvation that Christ provides.

Look at how he starts, Matthew 5 .3. I'm shocked by this. I'm dumbfounded. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus starts off at the very beginning and says, blessed, not the poor financially, but blessed are those who are spiritually in rags, spiritually have their ribs showing, and spiritually are beggars, crouching down, will not lift their eye to even look up to the person who's giving them the money and saying,

I am spiritually bankrupt. Who preaches like that? People preach today,

I've got to somehow get your self -esteem up. That's not how

Jesus preaches. That doesn't amaze me. Jesus says, here are the blessed approved ones by God.

Those that know they have no spiritual worth. That is amazing.

They know chapter 11 is written over their spiritual bank account. They know nothing in them is good.

And Jesus is saying this with a backdrop of all the Pharisees. No righteousness, no religion, but a personal acknowledgement of spiritual bankruptcy.

Who talks this way anymore? Maybe that's why we're not that amazed.

No hedging, no bargaining chips, no God, if you do this, then

I'll do that. But it is, I don't believe in myself, I can't trust in myself, I'm a sinner, and God, I'm coming to you, and if it's not based on your own good pleasure to give me righteousness,

I can't get it on my own. Lloyd -Jones says, a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self -assurance and of self -reliance.

Jesus doesn't start the sermon with, God loves you. He doesn't start the sermon with, God's crazy about you.

He doesn't start the sermon with, God unconditionally loves you. Did you remember what Dan said? Dan said he heard that when he was a drug addict.

Why change if God loves me now? We're great. Jesus says, we're going to deal with sin first.

No resources to pay a monumental debt. And you think, oh, he'll let us up for relief, verse 4.

Here comes the comforting part. Here comes the kind of part that we yearn for.

But I'm amazed. I'm eclipsed because he doesn't stop.

He doesn't let up. He doesn't let you up for air. Remember when I used to dunk my daughter, that must be a bad thing, dunk my sister.

And you dunk them underwater. Take that off the tape.

Dunk my sister and my younger brother. And you knew there's a spot you have to let them up if you were holding them underwater.

Because you can kind of see the bubbles and you can see their eyes through the water. Like, it's time to let me up.

Let me up. I need some breath. Here Jesus comes on the scene.

And you'd think he'd say, Father Abraham had many sons. You're covenant people.

You've got people who study the Bible all day. You're good to go. And he said, you want to be approved by God?

Blessed are the poor in spirit. And verse 4, I'm amazed at Jesus' preaching because he says, secondly, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

In a world that yucks it up, laughs it up, entertainment, people are lusting for hedonism.

Pack up your troubles. Drown out your troubles. Pleasure people, pleasure crazy people.

It's like the American dream. Who wants some kind of mourner? D .A.

Carson said, the mourners, we just throw a wet blanket on them. They just spoil our fun. Happy are the unhappy.

Blessed are the mourners. Far cry from laughing ministry revivals, don't you think?

What's the mourning over? The mourning is over an acknowledgment of personal sin.

I'm mourning because I know I've broken God's righteous commands. I'm grieving. There are nine words for the

Greek word mourn. And this is the most extreme. This is the most extreme, and it's used for the mourning that people have when you are burying a loved one.

Crying. Howling. It's the kind of mourning that you say,

I don't really want to cry right now, but I can't stop. I remember when

Cheryl Farrar's mother died, Virginia Rowe, and I went to the funeral, and I would look over at Cheryl, and I just had buried my own mom four months before.

I couldn't stop crying as I looked at Cheryl. This is the kind of grief that takes possession over your whole body, and you just bawl.

Jesus amazes me. I hope He amazes you. Because He doesn't come along and give people the wrong diagnosis, because then the solution would be wrong.

But He says the issue is sin. Remember the rich young ruler? He runs up to Jesus. He kneels down before Jesus.

And what does Jesus say? Great! You want eternal life? I give it to you. No, He says, you call me good, but there's only one person who's good, and that's me.

And if I'm good, and I'm God, that means you're not good, and you're not God, and that means you're a sinner.

And then He gives him the law, because He wants to realize that He needs salvation.

That sinner did not run up to Him like Peter did when Peter ran to Jesus and said, Depart from me,

I'm a sinful man, O Lord. 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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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