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Sermon: God’s Majesty in a Faithless Generation Date: November 12, 2023, Morning Text: Luke 9:37–45 Series: Luke Preacher: Brian Garcia Audio: https://storage.googleapis.com/pbc-ca-sermons/2023/231112-GodsMajestyInAFaithlessGeneration.aac
Well, good morning church, if you could please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 9.
We will be examining
verses 37 to 45.
Again, Luke chapter 9, starting verse 37.
If you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's word.
Hear ye this morning the word of the Lord.
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.
And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he
is my only child.
And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out, and it convulses him, that he foams at the mouth and
shatters him, and will hardly leave him.
And I begged your disciples to cast him out, but they could not.
Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with.
You?
Bring your son here.
While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him.
But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.
And all were astonished at the majesty of God.
While they were marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, Let these words sink into
your ears.
The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.
But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive
it.
And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
This is the word of the Lord.
You may be seated.
Let's pray.
Father, we do come before you thankful for your provision of this week.
Thankful that despite the challenges of our week, of our lives, things that were seen
and unseen, you have brought us faithfully to this place of worship on this Lord's Day.
We pray now, Lord, that these hearts of thankfulness would overflow into gratitude for thy word.
We ask, Lord, that you would now allow us to set this time apart as holy unto you
so that our hearts may receive with anticipation the implanted word of God, which is able to make us
strong unto salvation.
Father, we pray that you would remove all distractions from our hearts and minds and help us to look this morning at
the author and perfecter of our faith, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who for the joy that was said before him endured the
shaming scorn of the cross.
May we now, in turn, give thanks to you for all things, in Jesus' name, amen.
God's majesty in a faithless generation.
Certainly the times in which we are living in are difficult, are they not?
We see the things that are transpiring on the world stage.
We may see things in our own lives that may be of great challenge and great difficulty.
And we may even find ourselves asking ourselves, where is God in the midst of all these
challenges?
Where is God in my personal circumstances?
Where is God in the world stage?
It almost seems as if the naysayers are right.
Where is God?
Is there even a God?
Was the old philosopher Nietzsche right when he said, God is dead?
I would propose to you this morning that God is not dead, he's very much alive.
And the God that we know and we serve in Jesus Christ is still at work, and his
majesty is still to be seen even amongst a perverse,
twisted, and faithless generation.
We find ourselves in the text of scripture today in Luke chapter 9, just after seeing the transfiguration last week,
where the Lord Jesus is transfigured.
His majesty, his power, his authority, his divinity is put on display for the disciples.
To see.
They had seen him on that beautiful Mount, Mount Hermon, where they see the Lord Jesus changed.
And in that revealing of his glory and majesty on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus
is quickly greeted by a needed and anxious crowd.
Look again what it says on verse 37, on the next day, this is after the transfiguration,
when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.
And what does this crowd immediately want and anticipate of Jesus?
It says, and behold, in verse 38, a man from the crowd cried out, teacher, I beg
you to look at my son, for he is my only child.
Jesus is quickly greeted by a needed and anxious crowd, and among them there's a father who
is desperate to have his son delivered from an evil spirit.
What Jesus had just demonstrated the day before on the Mount of Transfiguration is that the spiritual
world is very much real, that the spiritual unseen
reality affects the world in which we live in.
Jesus was operating not just in the world that we see, but in the world that is unseen, which is
why on that amazing Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples got to see a
glimpse of his glory, also seeing the law and the prophets represented in Elijah
and Moses.
These men who were long dead, long past, were seen very much alive and
vibrant because Jesus is the one who has authority even over the grave.
And Jesus was able to demonstrate that the spiritual world and that the physical world
do sometimes bleed together, and sometimes there is a
overlapping of those realms.
In fact, what is it that we have to look forward to for the future,
eschatologically speaking?
Are we, as Christians, just waiting to die so that our bodies may be put in a grave, so that it may
decompose, and that our spirits may be alive with Christ?
I would submit to you that that is only half of the story.
Yes, we believe that it is better to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
We believe that when a believer dies, he goes into the presence of majesty of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
But we are waiting for something even better, and that is the redemption of the body, the resurrection
of the dead, which is when our bodies, these lowly bodies, the Bible says in 1
Corinthians 15, are transformed to become spiritual bodies.
Not that it is the void of that which is physical, but that truly the physical and the spiritual shall be married
and intertwined forevermore.
Just as Jesus is truly man and truly God, that which is physical and that which is
truly spiritual, now one, we too, will also share in a nature that is
truly physical, but also truly spiritual.
Jesus is demonstrating this reality even through the Mount of Transfiguration, and
also with the challenges that he now faces as he comes down from that mountain, that his
troubles, that his challenges in ministry are not just that which deals with the physical as we saw in
the previous couple of verses when he feeds the multitudes.
Those were physical needs.
They were hungry, and he was able to meet those physical needs.
But now the needs that he's facing among the anxious crowds are that which are spiritual.
Notice again what this anxious father says in verse 38, "'Teacher, I beg you to
look at my son, for he is my only child.
And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out.
It convulses him so that he falls at the mouth and shatters him, and it will hardly leave.
Him.'".
This man was dealing with the realities of spiritual attacks and
spiritual trials.
His son, his only son, was being attacked by spiritual powers
of darkness, by the evil principalities that are at work in this world, most likely by
demonic spirits and forces.
You see, Jesus knew that the spiritual world is real.
It's in fact kind of almost a parallel to our own reality, both in the good and the evil that's
around us.
And Jesus was able to see beyond what the physical eyes allow, giving us again insight into the
reality of this unseen realm.
The Bible many times makes claims that oppression and possession by evil spirits are oftentimes
accompanied by physical ailments.
As you see this young man who is being seized by spirits, it is convulsing him, it is causing him to fall at the mouth, it is
shattering him so that this oppression hardly leaves.
Him.
There is a physicality to this spiritual attack that's happening in the life of this young.
Boy.
Jesus, no doubt hearing this, hearing this man beg for his son, for his only son,
finds pity and looks at this man and finds a man who desires
freedom from spiritual oppression for him and his son.
And notice what this man says in verse 40.
He says, and I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.
But they could not.
I want you, if you're writing this in the notes, coming down from the mountain, a man begs Jesus to deliver his son from a
spirit.
Again, we live in a real spiritual world.
We don't always see it, but know this for sure, brothers and sisters, that our world is very
much spiritual.
The trials, the tribulations that we face are often spiritual, not just physical,
not just emotional, not just financial.
There are oftentimes spiritual realities behind the trials that we face in this world.
And this is why we're called in every circumstance to pray.
Why does Paul tell us to pray in all circumstances and at all times?
Because at all times we are to be in touch with our Father who is in heaven.
Because the answer to our problems are not always physical, but they are always spiritual.
Because when the spiritual is addressed, the physical usually follows.
Again, what's of interest here is that in verse 40,
the man says, I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.
They could not.
I want you to keep your finger in Luke, but I want you to turn to Mark chapter 9, and
this is the parallel count that's found in Luke's and Mark's gospel, in Mark
chapter 9, in verse 28 and 29, and we see the same.
This is part of the synoptic gospels, the first three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are what's called the synoptic
gospels, meaning that they share in the same style, rhythm, stories, are all
mostly parallel, and they only change to varying degrees.
And here you have again in Mark chapter 9, in verse 28, it says this,
and when He had entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, why
could we not cast it out?
So referring to the child who's about to be delivered, and He said to them, this
kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer, but prayer.
See how the Lord Jesus addresses the shortcomings of His disciples, the disciples hearing and seeing what
Jesus accomplishes, and then asking Him, why couldn't we do that?
Why couldn't we do that?
Don't we ask ourselves sometimes the same thing as Christians?
When we look at other Christians or we look at even the example of Jesus Christ in Scripture, we say,
why can't I be like that?
Why can't I do that?
And the answer usually comes down to a very simple thing, it's prayer.
Why are we called to pray in all circumstances, brothers and sisters?
Because the answer is usually found therein.
The answers that we seek are found on our knees as we pray
to our Lord and to our Master.
In Luke chapter 9, verse 40, again, the man who the father who is desperate sees
that his son is in need of deliverance, and yet his disciples, the disciples of Christ, could not cast out this demon,
this unclean spirit from this child.
I want you to write this in a note to disciples.
They'll give an authority, remember that Jesus gave His disciples great authority, even over
the forces of darkness, and gave them authority over spirits.
These particular disciples were unable to cast it out because of a lack of prayer.
Again, earlier in Luke chapter 9, the disciples are given kingdom authority over the forces of darkness, and
even find success, and they return rejoicing.
Yet in this instance, they were unable to expel the unclean spirit.
Why?
Again, in Mark chapter 9, we saw the parallel count, and it reveals that it was for a lack.
Of prayer.
I want you to know this, beloved.
Prayer is our greatest weapon in our arsenal of spiritual
warfare.
Prayer is amongst the greatest of weapons in our spiritual arsenal, as we
understand that this world is indeed spiritual.
Like the disciples, we oftentimes underestimate the power of prayer because of the,
maybe the monotonous nature of our own prayer lives.
You know, as good Christians, we should pray often.
We tend to find rituals in which we pray, so maybe it's when we start our day,
maybe it's before our meals, maybe it's when we gather for family worship.
We pray, we pray, and it almost becomes a ritual.
And sometimes as things become ritualistic, they become a little bit monotonous, and our prayers
almost begin to sound very much the same in all circumstances.
Lord, thank you for this, thank you for that, Lord, help me with this, and then we go on to the next part of our day.
But I want you to know this, that there's a greater power to prayer that can be achieved, that can
be unlocked when we understand the nature of prayer.
You know, it could be that also that when we pray, like my oldest son says, when he prays, he says,
I can't see anything.
And he also says this, well, I prayed and nothing happened, right?
I want you to know this, prayer can and does affect the physical and unseen realm
around you.
And you know what else prayer is meant to do?
What prayer is meant to induce is also a change, not just around you, but
in you.
And that's the beauty and the power of prayer.
It's not that just we're trying to move heaven when we pray, but rather that when we pray,
we should be allowing heaven to move us.
That's the power, that's the beauty.
And the disciples did not grasp this truth.
Although they were given a great authority in Luke chapter 9 to expel demons and to cast out unclean
spirits, here they're unable to do so because they lost sight of where the true power lies.
It's not in themselves, but rather in the one who can truly
deliver from satanic oppression, God the Father.
And because they lost sight of this, they lost sight of the power and the importance of prayer, their ministry life was
ineffective.
Beloved, ask yourself this question, have I become ineffective in my life?
Have I become ineffective in my relationships?
Have I become ineffective in my Christian ministry?
And if you feel like there's something lacking, we can almost always trace it back to
one thing, maybe two things, personal devotion, scripture reading, and prayer.
These are where we find our strength from day to day.
Isn't it a beautiful thing when we gather in the Lord's day and we hear a message that encourages us, that strengthens us,
and we go out about our days and we feel good?
But then comes Monday, dreaded Monday, and the alarm clock goes off and we got to get ready for work, we got to
get ready for school, we got to get ready for our responsibilities.
And the things that we were rejoicing in the day before begin to wane, which is why, beloved,
personal devotion is so important for the Christian so that you can be daily encouraged in
your walk, so you can be daily empowered as you go about day to day life.
Even the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ had to be reminded of these truths.
I also want you to know this, beloved, prayer is more powerful than you'll ever know on
this side of heaven.
Because it is divine warfare.
It is divine power.
It is divine communication and prayer is divine proclamation.
We are communing with the great divine, with the Holy Trinity, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This is powerful stuff.
Therefore, we should not treat prayer as something trivial.
Maybe you've recognized that in the order of service that we have here in this church, we pray
quite often.
There's a prayer in the beginning, there's a prayer in between, there's a prayer before the message, there's a prayer at the end, and then
we devote our afternoon to even more time of prayer.
Why do we do that?
This isn't so we can just check a box in Scripture or check a box in our church liturgy, but rather
because we know and want you to comprehend this truth that prayer is powerful
and prayer affects the space around you and the space within you.
Prayer is powerful stuff here.
Notice that how Jesus treats this, this circumstance, this situation in Luke chapter 9
verse 41.
Jesus answered after hearing the need for this young man to be delivered
from his oppression and hearing that the disciples could not handle the situation.
He says, "'O faithless and twisted generation!
How long am I to be with you and bear with you?
Bring your son here.'".
Jesus rebukes them.
He rebukes his disciples and this generation by calling them
faithless.
I want you to write this in notes.
Jesus rebukes them by calling them faithless and twisted
due to their lack of what?
Faith.
Due to their lack of faith.
Now I would go so far as to venture that no one here has faith as they ought.
No one here has faith as they ought.
Why and what do I mean by that?
Picture redemptive history for a moment.
Think of yourself maybe as an Israelite on the cusp of being destroyed by the Egyptian army
that's approaching as they were leaving Egypt and between you
and the Egyptians there's nothing but certain death.
You have an army approaching you, on the other side there's an ocean, there's a sea.
There's nothing that can deliver you except Yahweh.
And what does the Lord do?
He calls his people to stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah.
And through Moses, he's able to part the seas.
And as they part the seas, God gives them rest.
God gives them ability to cross over and to be delivered for the approaching army.
God delivered his people.
And what do they do next?
As they enter into the wilderness, they begin to murmur, they begin to curse,
they begin to tell God that he's not good enough, that it was better back in Egypt where they were just delivered
from.
And I want you to consider this for a moment.
I think all of us have a little bit of a wandering Israelite inside of us.
Every single one of us.
Because have we not seen the fabulous, marvelous, majestic hand of the Lord in our
own lives?
Maybe on a day -to -day basis, maybe even when we just recall where the Lord has delivered us from
and then what do we do?
As the Israelites so quickly did, is we forget.
We forget.
We as a people are so forgetful.
We're so forgetful.
And yet, God is merciful.
God is still majestic.
God is still good, even to a forgetful people.
And so, beloved, we too sometimes act faithless.
We too sometimes partake in the faithless acts of a twisted generation.
And I think what's fascinating about this rebuke is that I almost didn't know at first, who is Jesus referring to when He's
talking, when He calls out this faithless and twisted generation?
Is He talking about the man who's approaching Him with this need?
Is He talking about the crowds that were gathering around at the foot of this mountain?
Is He talking about His disciples who could not cast out these demons?
And I think the answer is yes.
I think the answer is yes.
I think He's talking about them all.
Even His disciples.
Because His disciples were faithless.
They could not see how it is that they could overcome this spiritual oppression.
That it was through prayer and not simply through the authority that they were granted earlier in chapter 9.
Also faithless and twisted generation in that these people are just coming
to the feet of Jesus and as it is often the reality today, are often coming to
Jesus for what He can do for them and not simply because He is Himself the majestic God
made flesh.
Sometimes we want what Jesus offers and not who Jesus is.
And what a mistake that is and what a mistake that would be for us, beloved.
We must not be like those who are faithless and twisted due to a lack of faith.
You see, the Bible says this about faith.
Faith according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 2 is not a possession
of all men.
Not everyone has faith.
In this world that we live in, it's becoming more so the case that people lack
faith.
In fact, here in Silicon Valley, in the heart of the technological capital of the world, people put
more faith in their technology and their wealth and their status than
in the living God.
What a mistake that is as well.
Oftentimes I find that as I have conversations with the people of the world, especially young people, they have a
misconception of what faith actually is.
And if you have a conversation with a worldly person, they'll tell you more or less that faith is something like this.
Faith is believing in something you have no evidence for.
Sound familiar?
It's just about what the world tells you that faith is, but is that what the Bible says.
That faith is?
No, by no means.
According to Scripture in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, faith is the assurance
of the things unseen.
You see what we were just talking about earlier, the world is spiritual.
There are things that we cannot see, yet we have eyes of faith.
We have eyes of faith, beloved, where we can get a glimmer of the things that truly are.
We don't have the eyes to always see the things that are before us, spiritually speaking, but this is why
prayer is so important, because prayer gives us more insight
into the things that God is doing around us.
And so, beloved, faith is not a possession of all men, which is why, again, so many cannot accept
what they cannot see.
And Jesus rebuked them, He rebuked that generation in particular, as faithless and twisted,
because if you live life apart from faith, you're only seeing half the picture,
half the reality.
Faith is not just believing in something that you have no evidence for, rather, it is weighing the
evidence and accepting that which your eyes cannot truly see.
That's the beauty of faith, not that you always have to see that which is physical, but rather
understanding that behind the physical, there are spiritual truths and realities.
That's the power of faith.
Truly, it is an acceptance of a greater knowledge, not just a limited
physical knowledge or natural knowledge, but it also leads us to a spiritual
knowledge.
Without faith, you cannot see nor receive the
majesty of God, the beauty of God, the
transfiguration of Christ.
Notice again what the Scripture tells us here in verse 41, Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation,
how long am I to be with you and bear with you?
Jesus was almost getting fed up.
He's like, how long do I have to be around you guys?
Have you ever felt that way?
Maybe it's just me, but I've felt that way all the time, especially when I worked in a secular context and I see how
people interact and how they talk, and I'm like, how much longer am I going to have to put up with this?
I just want to be in God's kingdom, I just want to be amongst God's people.
This is what I look forward to.
Jesus, almost fed up, says, how long am I to bear with you?
And he says, bring your son here.
Yet frustrated but also lovingly says, I will do this for you, I will deliver your son.
I have the power, I have the authority, I have the ability to do so.
In verse 42, we see the outcome, while he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him.
But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to
his father.
What we see here is that the Lord Jesus has the power and the authority to
cast out unclean spirits.
Because Jesus is the one who has true communion with the Father.
Jesus is demonstrating what true communion with God looks like.
He has access to his Father, and his Father gives him access to
this power and this authority.
Jesus, as the God -man, is able to do these miraculous works and powers by the
power of the Godhead.
And in verse 43, it says, and all were astonished at the majesty of
God.
All were astonished at the majesty of God.
Think about that for a moment.
Earlier, Jesus revealed his divinity and majesty on the Mount of Transfiguration,
and as he revealed this glimpse into his glory, and at the healing and casting out
of this unclean spirit, Jesus again gives a glimpse into his majesty as God,
demonstrating total authority over evil, unclean spirits, and
sickness itself.
Have you ever been awestruck before?
Maybe you've met someone famous and you were awestruck.
I've met several famous people.
I've never been awestruck.
Maybe the closest was I did meet President Bill Clinton once, I think in 2009,
and that was pretty cool.
Don't agree with him.
They don't agree with his politics.
But it's pretty impressive when you meet someone of such stature, someone who commanded
such authority, such weight, and yet it doesn't even
come close in comparison to coming to know Jesus, who has all
authority in heaven and on earth.
Have you taken the time to just marvel at the excellence, the
glory, and majesty of.
Jesus?
Think about that word, what it means to marvel.
It means to be filled with wonder and awe.
Jesus is truly awe -inspiring and deserves to be marveled
at, does he not?
Doesn't he?
Think about this word that's also used here in the text, majesty.
They were all astonished at the majesty of God, the
majesty of God in Jesus Christ by what he had just done and accomplished.
This majesty, majesty meaning, this word in the Latin and the Greek is where we get the word major,
comes from majesty, major, and it means to have an abundance, to be
overwhelming to be beautiful, to be excellent.
That's what the word majesty means.
They were astonished at the excellence, the beauty of God
in Jesus Christ.
Do you take time to marvel at Jesus?
I would go so far as to say that this ought to be part of our worship daily, whether it's here in
church or with our families, during family worship, we should be daily marveling.
At Jesus.
There's nothing normal about him.
We sometimes as Christians, because we're so familiar with the scriptures and this is just kind of normal to us,
there's nothing normal about it.
There's nothing normal about prayer, you need to hear that.
There's nothing normal about prayer.
There's nothing normal about having communion with the God of the universe.
Are you hearing this?
Like you can speak, fellowship, and worship the one who made
all things?
There's nothing normal about that.
This is all inspiring stuff.
This is truly the face of majesty, of true beauty, of true
excellence before you.
There's nothing normal about this worship service.
You may be accustomed to it, but I assure you there's nothing normal.
Because the Bible says there's unseen things happening right now.
The spirit through the proclamation of the word is stirring the hearts of believers.
Amongst us is not just a congregation that we see with our eyes, but rather there's also a congregation of
angels that are also gathered in festal gathering.
There is nothing normal about this.
Truly I want you to marvel at this, marvel at this
Jesus, marvel at the majesty of God in Jesus when he accomplishes great
things and great things he has accomplished, amen?
Amen.
Great things he's accomplished.
Notice what it goes on to say in that same verse, in verse 43.
But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his
disciples, this is fascinating, he says, let these words sink
into your ears.
The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of
men.
This is fascinating.
I didn't think I got the last part of the notes, but if you're following along, when the boy was delivered, everyone marveled at the
majesty of God in Jesus Christ.
And why this next part is just so interesting is as they were astonishing, marveling
at what Jesus was doing, marveling at the works of Christ, Jesus delivers
this very stark warning and this very stark word.
He says, let these words sink into your ears.
You ever had that conversation with mom and dad, right, when he says, I want you to hear me and I want you to
hear me good.
That's kind of what Jesus is doing.
I want this to sink into your ears, I don't want you to miss this.
After seeing all what Jesus has done, the mount of transfiguration, casting out this unclean spirit, feeding
the multitudes, healing the sick, raising the dead, what does he do,.
What does he say?
He says, I want you to hear these words, let it sink into your ears.
The son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.
This is not what they were expecting.
This is not what the disciples had in mind.
This was not what they had in their preconceived notion of who the victorious Messiah would be and
what he would do.
Surely this would have come as a shock to them.
What does it mean?
You just delivered a demon out of this young boy and now you are going to be
delivered into the hands of men?
How can this be?
How can this work?
How can this operate?
Jesus is demonstrating total authority here and yet he's saying, I'm going to be subject to
men in just a little while.
And not only that, but I'm going to be delivered unto death.
In verse 45 it says, but they did not understand this saying.
It was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it and they were
afraid to ask him about this saying.
Fascinating statements here.
Jesus reminds his disciples that he would be betrayed, I want you to write this in a note,
and that he would be delivered to the cross.
Define the expectations of his disciples here.
Jesus reminds his disciples that his greatest act would be to be
delivered into the hands of sinners, to be beaten, to be flogged, and
that in his greatest act he would be then even raised up onto a Roman
cross to provide atonement for sin and to bring everlasting righteousness and
salvation.
And in just a short time, the disciples would go from marveling at his miraculous works
to marveling at his bruised and broken body on the cross.
Marvel at this Christ, marvel, truly marvel at him.
That this Christ, he would come, he would feed the multitudes, be transfigured, give authority to
his disciples, then even heal the sick, even deliver the oppressed.
But his greatest act of marveling would come as he's betrayed, as his body is bruised
and beaten on our behalf, and as it is hoist upon a Roman cross to be marveled at by all the
crowds as they mock him, flog him, spit at him, and so that he
becomes an open spectacle by his enemies.
But beloved, what those men who delivered Jesus to the cross
did not know, could not possibly comprehend because they lacked faith, was that what
seemed to be Christ's greatest defeat was actually his greatest victory, amen?
It was his greatest victory, why?
Because on that cross, the Bible says this, that as his body came on that cross,
Colossians 2, verse 15 says, he disarmed the spiritual powers of
darkness.
He disarmed Satan, our enemy, and he made a public spectacle over them
by triumphing over them in the cross.
So that what seemed to be his greatest defeat was actually his greatest victory.
What seemed to be his death was only to lead to his resurrection.
Beloved, marvel at this Jesus.
Truly, the majesty of God is on full display in the person
and work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ truly is marvelous, and he is greatly to be marveled
at and to be worshiped.
So that later today, later this service, as we open our hearts to
song, that we would marvel at him, that we would worship him, understand the gravity of what he
has done and accomplished for God's people, that we would not be like the wandering Israelites who so quickly forgot what God
has done for us in salvation, but rather that we would truly marvel at Jesus, not just by the
miraculous works that he has done in the past, not only by the miraculous works that he is doing even now in our
lives, but because of who he is intrinsically, he is God, he is
worthy.
So much so that one of the climaxes of the book of Revelation, as you see
this great throne room procession, it says that there was silence in
heaven because there were scrolls that were presented that no one was worthy to open.
And so much so that the heaven itself went into mourning and silence until one came who
was worthy, and this one was Jesus, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, comes
into the scene, and he is judged worthy by the Father.
It says this in Philippians chapter two concerning this Jesus.
It says that though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality of God as a thing to be held on to or
grasped, but he emptied himself and humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant
and by taking and being fashioned by human form and flesh.
It says that this Jesus was obedient even so far as to be obedient to
die on a cross.
That's why the scripture then says, therefore God has highly exalted this Jesus and given him the
name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every tongue should confess and every heart bow that
he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
This Jesus is truly glorious, and he's the one who we worship, and he's the one who we
get to approach today, and he's the one who we even get to remember and celebrate here at the Lord's table.
So as a result of this, beloved, may you make much of Christ, and if you've not come to know this
Jesus, if you've only marveled at him from afar, we invite you even today to
marvel at him as a new creature in Christ.
The Bible tells us this, that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation.
You can have a new life today, can start right now if you've not done so already.
Bible tells us that you must repent of your sins, that's a turning away from sin, acknowledge that you are indeed a sinner,
that you've made great offenses towards this holy God, yet he is gracious
and he offers you everlasting life and salvation today while it is still called today.
Therefore, it says, not harden your hearts as in the days of rebellion, speaking of the rebellion of the ancient Israelites,
but that if you hear his voice through this message, through the word that's been spoken to you today, don't harden
your hearts, rather give yourself over to the one who loved you and died for you.
Even this Jesus who we proclaim, repent, trust in the Savior, believe,
and be baptized for remission of sins.
And the Bible says, you'll be turned from death to life, you'll have everlasting life if you trust in
Jesus today, may you do so, may you be found in him, not having a righteousness of your own, but a
righteousness that comes through knowing and having Jesus.
May you marvel at him, may we all marvel at this Christ, let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we do indeed marvel that you are our good Savior,
that you are marvelous in all ways.
Your majesty is beyond comprehension, which is why, Lord, I feel sometimes it's
one of the reasons why we just can't relate, we just can't put these things in right
terms, Lord, because we just don't have the eyes to see.
Lord, help us in our unbelief, help us to receive eyes that truly see,
eyes that truly receive, eyes that can truly behold your glory.
Lord, time after time in your word, you tell us that word, you give us that word, look, behold, behold.
Lord, indeed, help us to behold your beauty, your majesty, your greatness, your awe
-inspiringness, Lord, for we who often forget your majesty, who
forget your glory, we make little of you.
And what a great sin that is, oh Lord, to make little of the God who
gave us everything.
And so, Lord, help us in our unbelief, help us to repent of our unbelief, to repent
of not seeing you for who you truly are, for what you truly are, and what you have done for your people.
Help us to not just marvel at your works, but to marvel at your very essence and being.
Help us to marvel at the cross where our sins were completely paid
for, where the work was finished, and where we find,
in such a gruesome and hideous and violent place,
where we can find our peace, and we can have this peace with God through the shed blood of Jesus on the
cross, through whom we can now receive reconciliation.
Help us, oh Lord, in our unbelief.
Help those who have not made that commitment to Jesus to do so now, while it is still called today, for life is
but a fleeting moment.
It's here one moment and gone the next.
Even the young die in this twisted and fallen world.
Help us, Lord, to have eyes that are looking towards eternity,
eyes that are looking forward to you, and eyes that will behold you one day truly as you are.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.