We Go: Faith - Great Expectations

We Go: Faith - Great Expectations

Focus Statement: To have great faith is to have great expectations of what God can do when we go out in faith to the lost.

Setting the Scene:

We are continuing our “We Go” series today and focusing on the subject of faith, or what it means to “go in faith.” Naturally, if we are to “go” we want to go in great faith but first it is apt to consider what faith is in the first place! So today we are going to look at what faith is, what it means to have great vs. little faith, what it looks like to apply that, and consider examples from scripture and Christian history that demonstrate going out in the mission field in faith.

What is Faith?

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

In the context of this verse, assurance is knowing things that are yet to happen and conviction is knowing things or drawing conclusions based on things that have already happened. For the Christian, it is an all-in-bet of our eternity on the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To place our faith in Christ is ostensibly to bet our souls on Him, but it’s not a foolhardy gamble, but rather a decision based on conviction and assurance.

For example, if you could bet $10 billion that Lebron James could make an open layup you might think twice - that’s too much money that none of us have even if it is a high-probability event. But, if you could make that same bet and give Lebron 100 chances in an open gym at the prime of his career, you would be silly not to take it. I would! I have assurance (a looking forward to) that Lebron can make that shot. I have conviction (a conclusion made on past events) that he’s the GOAT and he’s gonna drop at least one in the bread basket, though I haven’t seen it happen yet in that specific scenario.

That is how I view my faith in Christ, though the stakes are much higher. It is because of the facts:

Fact: Jesus Christ was a historical figure who lived 2,000 years ago.

Fact: Jesus Christ died on a cross and was buried in a tomb.

Fact: The tomb of Jesus Christ was found to be empty.

Fact: Over 500 people claimed to have seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion. Many of those people were brutally murdered for holding to that claim, though tempted to escape pain and death with a simple renouncement of it.

Fact: The body of Jesus Christ has never been unearthed.

You don’t need faith to believe those things - they have been verified by a mountain of historical, scholarly, and biblical evidence. Where faith steps in is within the most important question every person needs to answer: Why was the tomb of Jesus Christ empty?

The Christian’s conviction is that Jesus did not simply faint on the cross, though He was beaten beyond recognition and pronounced dead (and stabbed) by a Roman soldier who was trained in the art of death. Jesus did not then wake up in a tomb, roll a boulder out of the way, fight off more soldiers, somehow heal to the point of recognition, and then reveal Himself to 500 people. That’s not a good bet.

The Christian’s conviction is not that the disciples, who were so afraid that they ran away during Jesus’ trial and execution, suddenly gathered courage and strength to steal His body and then die horrible deaths based on a lie that Christ resurrected. That’s not a good bet.

Our conviction is that the tomb of Jesus Christ was empty because what Jesus said about Himself is true - He is God and He rose again from the dead to defeat death for all who believe in His saving power. There is no other explanation that makes sense, that is what we bet our eternity on.

That is our faith. It is the first step of faith that every Christian makes.

But What is Great Faith?

In Matthew 8 we read two stories in which Jesus comments on someone’s faith - the faith of the Roman Centurion and the faith of His very own disciples. One is great, one is little.

Matthew 8:5-13

When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

Matthew 8:23-27

23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

What was the difference between these faiths? The answer lies in how both subjects reacted to Jesus. The centurion recognized who Jesus was and what Jesus could do. Thus, his reaction to Jesus offering to come to his home was that Jesus didn’t need to do that; Jesus had authority over the ailment of the centurion’s servant, so he simply asked Jesus to say the word and his servant would be healed. The disciples, on the other hand, did not understand who Jesus was and thus reacted in great amazement that Jesus had authority over the wind and the waves. Their expectations were far lesser than that of the centurion.

But we as Christians cannot simply choose how we react to Jesus. It is something we develop through experience, practice, and increasing our understanding of the God we serve.

For example, when you sit down in a chair you are not constantly surprised that it holds your weight, that it does what it’s supposed to do. You understand what a chair is and what it does and very likely, you’ve had a lot of experience sitting in chairs. Thus, when you approach a chair you don’t hold your breath and pensively sit down in it. Through your life experience, you know it is something that can be trusted! In a similar but far more profound way, when Jesus moves in our lives we should be appropriately amazed at His power and goodness, but not surprised that He, the God of the Universe, can move in such powerful ways.

What Does Great Faith Look Like Practically?

Hebrews 11:8-12

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Martin Luther captures the bold nature of Abraham’s faith when he said, 

“This is the glory of faith, namely, not to know where you are going, what you are doing, what you are suffering, and, after taking everything captive – perception and understanding, strength and will – to follow the bare voice of God. Abraham was prepared to take God at his word because he knew it was a word of unrivaled authority, immense power, and complete reliability.”

When we “go” to our family, neighborhood, city, and the nations, we can have great faith and great expectation that God will do wondrous things through that calling - just like Abraham and Sarah demonstrated.

Boniface in the 8th century was called to Germany where paganism ran rampant. He and his companions went and chopped down a tree called “Thor’s Oak” that was dedicated to the God of Thunder. Despite curses and threats of Thor’s wrath, the tree came down and the pagans were dealt a humbling blow, leading many to repentance and faith in Christ.

Wolfi and Ali Eckleben felt called to London from South Africa to establish a church and Bible school. One year later they had a handful of participants, no school, and a return ticket home. Every logical reason from the world was telling them to return back to South Africa, but they had been called by God, so they tore up their tickets home and pressed on. Their ministry eventually expanded to over a thousand graduates from their Bible school in the first decade, fifty vocational ministers sent out from London, six additional church plants, and they played crucial roles in planting churches in over 6 other countries.

But with great faith and expectation, sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned or hoped for…

In 2016 the Pals family was weeks away from uprooting their family of five from their home in America to join a Christian mission in Japan. Jamison, the father, had prayed, waited, and worked for years, seeking an opportunity to serve in Japan. His wife, Kathryne, had waited faithfully along with him, enduring the delivery of a third child and cancer surgery during their preparations to begin service. They had just finished raising support and were on their way to Colorado for their last required training before Japan — finally. They hoped for a long tenure of service. Sitting in traffic, a semi-truck crashed into their car and Jamison, Kathryne, Ezra, Violet, and Calvin were killed.

What do we do with this? The Pals family had great faith and expectation that they would be used to reach Japan. But just weeks before they were to set foot in that country, their lives were ended. 

However, in the aftermath of this great loss, their great faith and expectation was not in vain. Brett Rayl, a pastor in Nagoya, Japan wrote this in a blog 10 years after the event:

The Pals family did not pass from this world unnoticed. Their story deeply impacted many, and God has used it to establish a legacy of ministry over the past decade. New missionaries were motivated and mobilized after hearing their story. Many mission-goers and mission-senders have been blessed reading the thoughtful reflections on missions that Jamison wrote on their blog, “Joy of Japan.” The blog has been translated into Japanese, inspiring believers from other cultures. A new ministry for church planting and revitalization — the Joy of Japan Center for Church Planting and Development — was founded in Japan in their honor. The center serves to train new church planters and strengthen existing pastors across Japan.

What was the Pals’ faith in? What was their great expectation? They no doubt wanted to be physically on the mission field in Japan, but their greater faith was gaining more of Christ by responding to His call. Jamison captures this in a “second proposal” that he wrote to Kathryne, inviting her to pursue missions in Japan together,

Kathryne, I am asking you to go with me. Let’s go . . . or at least let us do everything in our power to go. The Lord may see fit to keep us here, but if he does not, let’s go. It may cost us much, but would you have it any other way? Whatever we lose will be worth it if we gain more of Christ.

It did cost them much. Some might argue that they lost it all, their family’s lives. But was it worth it? Did they gain more of Christ? Absolutely. And then some. To die was to gain, they are in glory now and the Joy of Japan has expanded far past what they likely ever dreamed it would.

There is a thing about faith that Christians like me are too quick to forget. I opened this sermon by describing a Christian’s first act of faith, a total all-in bet of our souls into the hands of the savior. Yet I fall into the trap of thinking that type of faith is reserved for my salvation, and everything else I do is up to my power and perseverance. 

In reality, the same faith that we have when we come to Christ is the same faith we ought to have when we do anything else, the same faith we need to implement when we go.

It’s not up to us how our lives will turn out or who we will help turn to Christ. That’s God’s territory. There is a great relief in realizing that as we go in faith to the lost, we can put every effort and every encounter at the foot of the cross – an all-in bet to the one who is in charge of the fruit of our labor. 

So should we go? Is it worth it? Samuel Rutherford writes,

How soon will some few years pass away, and then when the day is ended, and this life’s lease expired, what have men of the world’s glory, but dreams and thoughts? O happy soul forevermore, who can rightly compare this life with that long-lasting life to come, and can balance the weighty glory of the one with the light golden vanity of the other.

Brett Rayle continues in his blog about the Pals family,

Meanwhile, [God] has reminded me that amid the mystery there are “precious and very great promises” we do get to know (2 Peter 1:4), and he rejoices to proclaim them to us through his word. He delivers new mercies every morning that demonstrate his steadfast love and faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22–23); he assures us that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). But the details of our particular sufferings and his particular mercies are not for us to choose. In the mystery, I am both kindly invited and firmly reminded to take God at his word — to trust.

And I’ll add: to have faith. To have a great expectation that God will move, that He will change us and those around us if we simply respond to the call to go, and go.

Go and Be Changed.

Mark 5:21-34

21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him.

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

What was it about the woman that caused power to go out of Jesus? Why did He recognize that she touched Him when everyone around Him was pressing in on all sides? The difference is that the woman came to Jesus with an expectation to be changed, and changed she was. No one else in this story received power from Jesus, yet the woman did because she came in faith and expectation.

My challenge to you is this – if you have not yet placed your faith in Christ, do you want to be changed? If you do, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

If you have placed your faith in Christ already, respond to His call to go. Don’t just mindlessly bump into Jesus throughout your walk, but instead approach him in every instance, every day, and proverbially touch even just his garment with that great faith, that great expectation that you will be changed and in so doing, others around you will as well.

That should be our faith, that should be our assurance, that should be our conviction. So let’s go, place every effort in the hands of Jesus our Savior, and watch as we and the nations are changed in His name.

We Go: Church Planting - Go With Purpose

We Go: Church Planting - Go With Purpose 

What happens when disciples are made?

We plant churches

• Jesus is Building His Church

• The Launchpad for Mission

• The Result of Mission

Jesus is Building His Church

‭‭Acts‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.”

The text above is just one example of how apostolic mission started in the church and resulted in new churches. 

As the church at Antioch gathered together for worship, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 

The work involved apostolic preachers going from island to island, city to city, ethnos to ethnos, preaching the gospel, strengthening disciples, empowering leaders, and establishing churches. 

Everywhere they went, new churches emerged.

Jesus is building his church

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭13‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Jesus asked his disciples the most important discipleship question: "Who do you say that I am?" 

It didn't matter who the experts and influencers said he was. 

Jesus only cared who his disciples said he was. 

When Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus blessed him and renamed him "The Rock." 

He then changed the subject to the church. 

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

If Jesus is building his church and we want to be part of his mission, then when we go, new churches should be established and existing churches should be strengthened. 

Knowing that Jesus is building his church removes pressure from those who go. 

Our job is to preach the gospel and make disciples. 

Jesus then takes those disciples and builds his church. 

So, if the church is small or large, don't fret; just keep preaching the gospel and making disciples, trusting that Jesus will build his church.

Any Bible teaching, Christ-centered church of which you have ever been a part has never been eternal (meaning it always existed), but each one started in some seed form when there was nothing but a small group of people committed to preaching the gospel, making disciples and building God’s church.

The Launchpad for Mission

The local church is a launchpad for mission.

Barnabas and Saul were not self-sent. 

They didn't go on their own. 

The scripture says that after fasting and prayer, the Antioch leaders laid their hands on them and sent them off. 

The text continues: "So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus." 

Barnabas and Saul were sent by the church and by the Holy Spirit. 

This dual sending resulted in a new church planted in almost every city and town they visited.

To be a mission-sending church, there must be a willingness to send those who are called. 

Too many church leaders are reluctant to send their modern versions of Barnabas and Saul, fearing a leadership shortage. 

Other churches have no vision beyond their local community.

Neither scenario is acceptable. 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭42‬-‭44‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

This also changes how everyday believers view how they live.  

Most detach their life transitions and environment from the purposes of God.  

God does not.  

**If God is the one who has truly called you to leave one thing, it is for a sending into his (not our self-derived) Kingdom purposes in the next.  

You are and your family are to be arrows in the hand of the Lord. 

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭127‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”

Do not just leave a place arbitrarily.

Have a sense of being sent by the Holy Spirit and the church into your next Kingdom post.  

This means you ask the question: 

What is God sending me to do to help establish and strengthen his church?

There are all sorts of reasons people initiate life transition on their own.  

Yet instead of just leaving a place because of boredom, difficulty, disconnection, disappointment, a desire to be closer to blood family, the search for ease or simple economic opportunity, understand that when we seek Jesus, if God is truly the one saying to go, he is sending us with his Kingdom purpose. 

And if God does not say to go, we stay and understand that we’ve been sent to our present job, city and church for his Kingdom purposes there.   

But if God does send you elsewhere, it is to be by the Holy Spirit, through and as a part of his family, the church. 

‭‭Mark‬ ‭3‬:‭31‬-‭35‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.””

This elevates our sense of purpose and fulfillment in the places we are and those which we are called to go.  

When the Holy Spirit speaks, our only option is to do what he says to do and to send who he says to send. 

*When churches send those who are called on mission, more leaders emerge locally to take their place.

The Result of Mission

Local churches are the result of mission.

When Barnabas and Saul (a.k.a. Paul) went on mission, they planted churches wherever they went. 

They made new converts and new communities. 

In Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, and throughout Asia Minor, Barnabas, Saul, and other apostolic leaders preached the gospel and started new churches. 

They didn't plant and forget but regularly circled back to strengthen the new churches. 

Acts‬ ‭15‬:‭36‬, ‭41‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 

And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.”

Apostolic mission in Acts included preaching the gospel, strengthening disciples, empowering leaders, and establishing new church communities.

Increasingly, many modern mission organizations are beginning to recognize the need to plant churches along with preaching the gospel and serving the communities.

Acts 29’s position statement on the Great Commission states:

“The church is at the center of the Great Commission. Church planting is simply what missionaries do as they faithfully proclaim the gospel and make disciples.  Our goal in proclaiming the gospel and making disciples is healthy church formation.  Any effort in missions ought to be connected to the goal of reproducing local bodies of believers through the declaration and demonstration of the gospel.”

The Gospel Coalition’s essay on the mission of the church says:

“Evangelism, discipleship, church planting - that's what the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to do, and these should be the goals of all mission work.”

Every Nation agrees that church planting is at the core of global mission, describing itself as "a global family of churches that exists to honor God by establishing Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, socially responsible churches and campus ministries in every nation."

It is difficult to overstate the church's importance in God's mission. 

It is central to his kingdom and how he carries out his divine purposes. 

He has guided it through the centuries as the primary vehicle of making himself known among the nations.

Jesus promised to build his church so the gates of hell could not prevail against it. 

Paul said it was the pillar and support of the truth. 

I Timothy 3:14-15

“I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”

Paul would also say that God's manifold wisdom would be made known through the church. 

Ephesians 3:8-10

“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

Therefore, our purpose in missions is to make disciples in the local church and send them to make new disciples and new church communities.

We Go: Discipleship - Go Make Disciples

We Go: Discipleship - Go Make Disciples  

Focus: Jesus came to make disciples of every people group on earth reconciling them to the worship of the one true God through the cross. 

• What do we do when the lost are found through the gospel?

• We make disciples.  

• Making Disciples

• Making Jesus Known Amongst the Nations

• Monotheism Matters

Making Disciples

We go to make disciples.

This is why we go on mission - to make disciples. 

The Great Commission is a call to go and tell people about the love of God and to show people the power of God. 

Each gospel account ends with a version of what Christians call the Great Commission.

In Mark, Jesus said, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel" and expect supernatural signs and wonders. 

‭‭Mark‬ ‭16‬:‭15‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.]]”

"Go and make disciples" is a mandate for every believer in every nation for all time. 

Preaching the gospel is part of the Great Commission, but not all of it. 

Responding to the gospel is a first step in a lifelong discipleship journey.

Jesus alone saves lost people, but he delegates discipleship to humans. 

Discipleship is not a course, a class, or a program. 

It is a relationship on three levels: a relationship with Jesus, with other believers, and with people far from Jesus. 

In the Bible relational discipleship was always a group activity.

Making Jesus Known Amongst the Nations

We go to all nations.

This is where we go on mission - to all nations. 

All of the Great Commission accounts include 1) a call to go on a mission, 2) a message to take to the nations, and 3) the promise of supernatural Holy Spirit empowerment.

In Luke, he told the disciples to go on mission, but not until they were "clothed with power from on high".

‭‭Luke‬ ‭24‬:‭45‬-‭49‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Yes, we make disciples locally, but also globally. 

We go to our neighbors, to our campuses, and to our cities. 

We also go to the nations - not just those that are open to the gospel but also those that are hostile.

The Great Commission is a call to make disciples in all nations. 

Today, when we think of nations, we think of flags representing a nation - states and maps representing geographic boundaries. 

But the word that Matthew uses for "nations" is the Greek word "ethnos," which is a body of persons united by kinship, culture, and shared traditions. 

It is related to the English word ethnicity. 

When Jesus called his disciples to go to all nations, he called them not only to specific geographic regions but also to different ethnolinguistic groups of people.

Monotheism Matters

We go exalting the one true God with his Word and the promise of his presence.

This is how we go on mission - with God’s truth and a promise of his presence. 

Jesus' strategy for his global mission is discipleship. 

Matthew's is the most famous of the four Great Commission accounts and has a similar three-fold focus of mission, message and the promise of Holy Spirit empowerment.

Matthew 28:18-20

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Discipleship comes with a message found in God’s word, breathed out by the Holy Spirit.  

Discipleship begins with teaching people the truth about the one true Creator God - and in doing so to obey all that he has commanded. 

Amongst a pluralistic and relativistic global society, the message of the singular worship of Yahweh, the one true God of the Jews, who is revealed fully in the person of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, is of utmost importance.  

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭48‬:‭1‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name. “The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’ “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel. “For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”

It is not enough to just be spiritual.  

God is looking for those who will worship him and him alone in Spirit and in truth (John 4). 

The power of the Holy Spirit through the administration of spiritual gifts, signs and wonders testify to the person and truth of Jesus’ own life, miracles, death, burial and resurrection found in his Word. 

*Discipleship means that we learn how to put God’s word into practice.  

It means that you embrace your new identity in Christ, cultivating your relationship with God, and the world through his eyes.  

It means that you learn how to be a godly family member, neighbor, co-worker and citizen, speaking and doing all things to the glory of Jesus.  

It means that you engage new patterns of how you use your time, talents and resources for God’s kingdom ends.  

It means that you embrace your new community, the church, and commit to being an active participant in the family of God.

In doing so you find the strength and grace to live as a disciple.  

God is calling people to something greater than a TiK-Tok spirituality, where they give no more than a passing emotional thought to what they approve or disapprove based on their most recent amusement, dopamine hit and the violent roar of the masses.  

So, what are some of the ways in which we need to learn to put God’s word into practice - in our present climate and applying his word to present issues?

Though not an exhaustive list, here are some examples that bold men and women of God have addressed in love:

We are to worship the Creator not created things. 

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

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Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬-‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭8‬:‭4‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “Lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.”

All other presentations of deities come in the name of a god but represent a different person or entity with a different character representing demons, not God. 

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”

‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭19‬:‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

““Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭8‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”

In Scripture and in history, many who go to the nations on mission with such a message are met with persecution, prison, and sometimes death. 

Suffering and sacrifice are part of the mission mandate. 

But Jesus calls us to go anyway. 

While Jesus never promised that the mission would be easy, he did promise his presence to those who go. 

"I am with you always, to the end of the age." 

What a promise! 

When we go on mission, he promises to go with us no matter where we go or what we face as we do.

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭2‬:‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

But Jesus did die for a purpose.  

Jesus is God in the flesh who came to live perfectly for us, take the punishment on the cross that we deserve for our rebellion against his life-giving commands and rise three days later according to his promise for the forgiveness of our sins.  

As we turn away from man-made philosophies, demonic ideologies and rebellious living, we can not only be reconciled with God through faith in Christ’s finished work, but have the guaranteed hope of eternal life in him as he restores creation and makes all things new!

We Go: Evangelism - Go In Love

We Go: Evangelism - Go In Love 

Focus: We go because while people are lost and in desperate need of a savior - Jesus came to seek and save the lost.  

• People are Lost

• People Need a Savior

• Jesus Came to Seek and Save the Lost 

People are Lost

We go because people are lost 

We will start by examining two instances in which Jesus revealed both his mission and his motives.  

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

-Jesus speaking to Nicodemus

‭‭Luke‬ ‭19‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭19‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Mission and motive both matter. 

It is possible to have a pure motive but a paltry mission. 

Likewise, it is possible to have a compelling mission and a compromised motive. 

Luke 19:10 captures the divine mission of Jesus: to seek and to save the lost.

John 3:16 captures his motive: love.

Luke 19 contains the story of the wealthy tax collector Zacchaeus, who sought to see Jesus. 

Zaccheaus was not only a tax collector; he was the chief tax collector. 

In that culture, it was bad enough to be a tax collector, but being the chief tax collector was doubly bad. 

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, "Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." 

This was a shocking statement to many of his Jewish followers who assumed all tax collectors, especially the chief, were far from God. 

But Jesus is speaking kindly to Zaccchaeus, even inviting himself to his house. 

The disciples and the onlookers were appalled, because they didn't really understand Jesus' mission to seek and save the lost. 

If anyone was lost, it was the chief tax collector.

We see the same misunderstanding of Jesus' mission when the religious elite complained, saying, 

about Jesus’ activities:

"This man [Jesus] receives sinners and eats with them" (Luke 15:1-2).

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Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

John 3 contains the story of Nicodemus, a respected religious leader who did not seem lost, but in reality was just as lost as the chief taxman. 

As Jesus interacted with Nicodemus, the motive for seeking and saving the lost was clearly stated: For God so loved the world, that he sent his Son. 

Whether a person is seemingly godly or ungodly, Jesus loves them and seeks to save them.

It is true that gospel stories present Jesus as a friend of the poor and oppressed. 

But the story of Zacchaeus shows that Jesus was also a friend of rich oppressors. 

In Luke's gospel, Jesus is not one who vindicates the poor and condemns the rich, but one who brings good news to all who are lost!

Without Jesus, all people are lost. 

"Amazing Grace," the still popular hymn written in 1772 by Englishman John Newton, poignantly describes the human condition as wretched, blind, and lost. 

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me / I once was lost, but now am found / Was blind, but now I see." 

Newton was certainly a lost, blind, and truly wretched human - the captain of a slave ship - until he encountered the transformative grace of God during a violent storm while at sea.

He eventually became an ardent abolitionist, prolific hymn writer, and ordained gospel minister. 

Like Newton, all humans are morally wretched, spiritually blind, and eternally lost. 

But God loves wretched, blind and lost people, so much that he sent Jesus to seek and save them.

“If I had a thousand lives, China should have them. No! Not China, but Christ. Can we do too much for Him? Can we do enough for such a precious Savior?!!”

-Hudson Taylor

People Need a Savior

We go because lost people need a savior. 

Lost people need a savior - whether they realize it or not. 

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

The fact that the divine solution to the universal human condition was for Jesus to seek and to save the lost implies that lost people will not seek God and cannot save themselves. 

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”

The prophet Isaiah described human lostness and divine salvation: 

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Salvation does not happen because lost humans figure out a way to deal with sin and iniquity. 

Salvation is available because our Savior has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. 

Salvation happens because our Savior was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 

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Isaiah‬ ‭53‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Lost people need Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Jesus Came to Seek and Save the Lost 

We go because Jesus seeks and saves lost people.  

Jesus told three parables to explain his love for lost people. 

First, there was a shepherd who had 100 sheep and lost one. 

‭‭

Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭3‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV

“So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”‬‬

He left the 99 to seek and save his lost sheep. 

When he returned home with his previously lost sheep, he threw a party with his friends to celebrate. 

The second parable was about a woman who lost a valuable coin. 

‭‭

Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

She stopped everything she was doing to seek and search for her lost coin.

The third and longer parable was about a father and his two sons. 

The younger son took an early inheritance, squandered it, and decided to return home, unsure how his father would react. 

Would he forgive and welcome his lost son or reject him as the young man had rejected his father and family? 

The surprising end of the story is a picture of the love of God for the lost. 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

The shepherd seeking his lost sheep, the woman searching for her lost coin, and the father running toward his lost son are poignant metaphors of Jesus seeking and saving the lost people who may or may not be seeking him. 

In fact, many are doing the opposite of seeking him. 

They are running and hiding from him. 

But he seeks them anyway.

The motivation of love is central to our evangelism and mission activity. 

As J.I. Packer said in his book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God,

“It must never be forgotten that the enterprise required of us in evangelism is the enterprise of love: an enterprise that springs from a genuine interest in those whom we seek to win and a genuine care for their well-being.  If love prompts and rules our evangelistic work, we shall approach other people in a different spirit.  And this spirit of friendship and concern will shine through all that we say to them.”

Jesus left glory in eternity to humble himself in love on a rescue mission for lost humanity.  

Having suffered the same temptations that we experience, Jesus endured and exemplified love for the Father by living sinlessly, dying sacrificially for us on the cross to pay for our wrongdoing and three days later rose from the dead that we might have the opportunity for eternal life.  

As we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus, we who were once lost are not only forgiven, but given the opportunity to join the rescue mission of Jesus to see lost family members, co-workers, neighbors and friends experience the life transforming love of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Wherever we are in our journey, let us respond appropriately in faith and obedience to that call from God today.  

We Go: Sacrifice - Go No Matter the Cost

 We Go: Sacrifice - Go No Matter the Cost 

Imagine that your introduction to the faith came with these words. 

Acts‬ ‭9‬:‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.””

This is the message that Christ spoke to Ananias before he prayed for Paul to have the scales removed from his eyes after blinding Paul on the road to Damascus.  

This is how the apostle Paul was introduced to Christ and Paul stood throughout his life, despite intense suffering, because of the truth that is found in Jesus.  

It gives us a picture of the lives we should be ready to lead in Jesus.  

Focus: Jesus sacrificed everything to save our lives - it is now our call, joy and hope of eternal reward to follow him in doing the same. 

• Called To Sacrifice

• Why We Sacrifice

• What We Sacrifice

• Jesus - the Ultimate Sacrifice

Called to Sacrifice

When following God, we are called to count the cost.  

Philippians 2:17

“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.”

II Timothy 4:6

“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.”

Acts 20:22-24

“And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

II Corinthians 1:8-9

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

Just as God calls people to go, God also calls people to stay in the place and in the relationships which he has assigned you.  

Both require sacrifice and a sense of sacrifice to be and do all he’s required you to do there.  

God’s highest is not to get a word to go when he’s called you to stay. 

You need to obey God, whatever His desire.  

Challenges don’t mean you need a word to go.  

The call also gives you the grace and ability to sacrifice and stay. 

***The call may not be about a new place but how you are living in that place where you’ve always been.  

Luke 14:27-33

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

“The missionary must seek nothing for himself, no seat of honor or hope of fame. You must be content to suffer, to die, and to be forgotten.” -Nikolas Von Zinzendorf

‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭34‬-‭38‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.””

Why We Sacrifice

When following God, we are called to count it all joy, the things that we suffer for Christ’s name sake.  

This is the way 

Whether we like it or not, suffering is often the furnace through which God forges the image of Christ in and through us.  

James 1:2-4

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

What We Sacrifice 

When following God, we are called to be willing to sacrifice everything for Christ’s eternal glory and what God determines to be good.  

Matthew 5:11-12

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Hebrews 11:6

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

I Corinthians 9:24-27

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬-‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.””

What is the “one thing” that Jesus would put his finger on your life?   

Jesus - the Ultimate Sacrifice

When following God, we are to point people to the one who made the ultimate sacrifice - Jesus Christ. 

*Jesus doesn’t call us to do anything that he hasn’t in some form already done himself.  

‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭11‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

It is through the sinless life of Jesus, and his sacrifice at the cross to pay the penalty for our rebellion against God that we have the opportunity for forgiveness, reconciliation with God and eternal life in him.  

As we repent of our sins and selfish living, putting our faith in Jesus’ triumphant resurrection, we too are called to live a life of sacrifice that was modeled by our Lord and savior, looking forward to our eternal reward in him. ‭‭

John‬ ‭15‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

We Go: Lordship

We Go: Lordship

Alive in Christ

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

— Colossians 2:6-10 (ESV)

Introduction: Savior-Lord Experience

Do you remember the prayer you prayed when you became a Christian? Do you remember what brought you to that moment?

For many of us, the journey began with a deep awareness of need. We needed forgiveness. We needed freedom from guilt and shame. We needed rescue from patterns we could not overcome and reconciliation with the God from whom our sin had separated us. 

We came to Jesus because we needed a Savior. And Jesus truly is our Savior. 

He receives sinners, forgives sins, restores the broken, and delivers us from the power and consequences of sin. But as we grow in our firsthand knowledge of his grace and mercy, we begin to understand more fully who this Savior actually is: the One who saves us is also the Lord who reigns over us.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,  and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

—Colossians 1:15-20 ESV

In our experience, we may become aware of Jesus as Savior before we fully comprehend what it means for him to be Lord. 

In fact, if you grew up in the 80s, the general rhetoric of the Christian faith during the height of the revivals was primarily, “accept Jesus as the savior, and go to heaven. One and done.” (listen to this sermon by John F. MacArthur in 1988 sharing his sentiment about the general culmination of the messaging diluting the gospel).

The modern gospel is vague.  The modern gospel holds out false hope to sinners who have a moment where they want to cash in on forgiveness, when they want to tie up Heaven in the future while continuing to live any way they like.  Maybe later they’ll worry about Christ as Lord if they even know about that and they shouldn’t know about it because nobody’s supposed to tell them.  

—John F. MacArthur

Presenting the gospel while obscuring the lordship of Christ is fundamentally inconsistent. Scripture affirms that salvation is for those who confess Jesus as Lord and yield their lives to his authority. To suggest that we should remain silent on this—as if faith were merely an intellectual assent to his sacrifice—fails to capture the full reality of what it means to follow him.

We may first come seeking rescue and only gradually discover the extent of his rightful authority over every part of our lives. Learning to surrender our relationships, ambitions, habits, possessions, desires, and decisions to Christ is often a lifelong process. 

But although our understanding and obedience develop over time, the identity of Jesus does not. He does not begin as Savior and later become Lord. We do not receive one part of Christ at conversion and decide whether to accept the rest of him afterward. Paul presents him as one undivided person: 

 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

—Acts 2:36 (ESV)

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we humans “make Him Lord”. Unlike of course how we elect government officials, and as we just went through the last series, how ancient Israel picked their kings and rulers.

The focus today is not whether Jesus is Lord, but whether our lives increasingly acknowledge the Lord He already is. 

We are not saved because our surrender is already complete. It’s Jesus who “completes that work in us”. None of us comes to Christ with perfect obedience or a fully undivided heart. Jesus is the only human who had perfect obedience to God.

We are saved entirely by grace through faith. Yet the grace that forgives us also begins to transform us, and the faith that receives Christ as Savior necessarily turns toward him as Lord.

The Christian life, therefore, is not the gradual process of making Jesus Lord. Jesus is Lord already. The Christian life is the gradual awakening of every part of our lives to the reality of his lordship.

We’ll look at the principles and then the practice. This allows us to go wherever He says so - as Pastor Rollan said last week, to a specific place, people, and purpose.

Part 1: Principles: 

1: Jesus is fully God

The authority of Christ resides in his nature as fully God. This sovereignty is not a status we bestow upon him, nor is it a product of our belief or restricted by our following. He holds total dominion over all existence and every facet of our being. We do not "make him Lord"; instead, we acknowledge, profess, and yield to the authority that is inherently his. Jesus is Lord already.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God—fully and truly God. Therefore, he is Lord by nature, identity, and divine right.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
—John 1:1, 14 (ESV)

Jesus did not become Lord when people began to believe in him. We do not make Jesus Lord by surrendering our lives to him. Our surrender does not establish his authority; it simply acknowledges the authority he has always possessed.

The New Testament declares his deity directly:

• “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

• Thomas addresses the risen Christ as, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

• The Father says concerning the Son, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8).

It also reveals his deity through the works, titles, and honors that belong to God alone. Jesus is the Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16), the Savior of the world (Luke 2:11), the Judge before whom everyone will appear (2 Corinthians 5:10), and the one who rightly receives worship (Matthew 14:33; Luke 24:52). 

Because Jesus is divine, he has a rightful claim upon our entire lives: he is the Sovereign Lord before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

2: Jesus is Lord and Savior

Because Jesus is fully God, we do not just receive Jesus as Savior and then, at some later stage, receive him as Lord. Our Christian faith holds both of these together. When we receive Christ, we receive the whole Christ—Savior, Lord, King, Priest, Prophet, Shepherd, and Counselor. Jesus becomes everything.

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
—Romans 10:9

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.”
—Colossians 2:6

Saving faith is not merely agreeing with some facts about Jesus or believing that he can forgive us while rejecting his right to govern us. 

This does not mean that a person understands every implication of Christ’s lordship at conversion. No Christian does. It means that the direction of the heart has changed. The believer no longer fundamentally claims the right to rule himself but confesses, however imperfectly, “Jesus is Lord.”

This is why the grace of God does more than pardon us. Grace also teaches us how to live under the loving rule of Jesus.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
—John 14:15

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
—James 2:17

Obedience does not purchase salvation; it reveals the “living and active” character of saving faith. Genuine faith produces repentance, love, holiness, endurance, and a growing desire to obey Jesus.

3. Jesus rules in love

Jesus does not rule us as a distant monarch or a demanding tyrant. He rules as the Lord who loved us, sought us, and gave himself to save us. 

His authority is not opposed to his grace and mercy; his authority is the form his grace and mercy take in our lives. 

Because he loves us, he refuses to leave us captive to sin, disordered desires, or the exhausting burden of ruling ourselves. We were not created to be our own lords. Left to ourselves, we cannot rightly order our loves, govern our desires, or lead ourselves into life. Jesus says:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

—John 15:5, ESV

Likewise, Jesus does not rescue us and then leave us to manage our lives alone. The Lord who saves us remains with us to lead, correct, restore, and transform us. We do not submit to him so that he will begin loving us. We submit because he has already loved us.

“We love because he first loved us.”

—1 John 4:19, ESV

This is the order of grace: Christ loves first. Christ saves first. Christ gives himself first. Our obedience is our answering response to the love we have received.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

—John 15:9–10, ESV

Jesus connects love and obedience, but he does not present obedience as the price of his love. His commands show us how to remain within the life his love has opened to us. He rules us because he knows what leads to freedom, holiness, joy, and communion with the Father. His commandments are not arbitrary restrictions; they are the ordering wisdom of the One who created us and gave himself for us.

His love is also a jealous love. It is not the insecure jealousy of human possessiveness. It is the holy jealousy of the Father—the covenant love that refuses to surrender his people to idols that enslave, diminish, and destroy them.

Christ’s jealous love means that he wants all of us—not because he is deficient and needs something from us, but because divided allegiance destroys us. He will not peacefully coexist with the idols competing for our bodies, souls, minds, time, desires, and loyalties. His lordship lovingly confronts whatever keeps us from the life of God.

The evidence of Christ’s lordship is not sinless perfection but a new direction. This is where the question of Christ’s lordship becomes so important. 

Is submission to Jesus merely an advanced stage of Christianity—something for especially committed believers? Or is the call to follow, obey, and surrender to him present from the very beginning of genuine faith?

In this series, we feature one historical figure who demonstrates the topic. This week it’s Francis Asbury. Let’s take a quick look at how he viewed Lordship as he obeyed God’s call.

Francis Asbury was an English-born Methodist preacher who arrived in the American colonies in 1771, just a few years before the American Revolution, and became one of the first bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the historic Christmas Conference of 1784. 

For nearly five decades, he traveled across the expanding American frontier, preaching, establishing churches, and training itinerant ministers. His demanding life of sacrifice, discipline, and obedience reflected his conviction that Jesus is Lord over the believer’s body, mind, time, possessions, and calling.

Asbury would not say that surrender earns salvation. Rather, salvation is the work of grace that lays claim to the entire person. Total surrender is not the price we pay to purchase salvation; it is the shape salvation takes when Jesus becomes Lord.

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

—Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV)

Francis Asbury understood surrender in this deeply personal and daily way. He did not speak as though one dramatic decision had completed the work of submission. He wrote, 

“I feel it necessary daily to give up my own will.” 

Elsewhere, he expressed his desire “to be given up to God, body, soul, time, and talents, far more than heretofore.”

For Asbury, surrender was not a heroic act of self-salvation. It was a continuing response to grace. His journals reveal a man repeatedly confessing weakness, depending on divine mercy, and returning every part of himself to God. He did not believe that he had mastered himself. He believed that he continually needed to be ruled, sustained, and reordered by Christ.

—————

Part 2: Practice: 

“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”
—Romans 14:7–9

“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
—1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Daily reorder our lives. 

Lordship is not instant. Reading through Francis Asbury’s journals, as much as you can witness extraordinary devotion, it also records incompleteness, temptation, weariness, distraction, and repeated recommitment. He does not present surrender as a single heroic moment. It must be renewed.

 

Submit to discipleship

The lordship of Jesus begins to shape us at conversion, but our surrender to him deepens throughout the Christian life. Following Christ involves daily self-denial and a continuing willingness to place our lives beneath his authority.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
—Luke 9:23

The word daily is important. Submission to Jesus is not merely a past experience. It must be renewed through thousands of decisions, temptations, acts of repentance, and moments of trust.

Every temptation presents the question of lordship again: Will I obey my desires, my fears, the approval of others, the values of the world—or the word of Jesus?

A Christian may stumble, resist, misunderstand, and need repeated moments of surrender. But the Christian cannot permanently and knowingly reject Christ’s right to rule while claiming to belong to him.

Commit everything to His keeping

To live under Christ’s lordship is also to entrust our whole lives to him—our plans, possessions, relationships, anxieties, health, future, ministry, suffering, and unanswered questions.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”
—Psalm 37:5

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”
—1 Peter 5:6–7

The one who insists on controlling everything must also carry the anxiety of keeping everything. But when we commit our lives to Christ, we place them in the hands of the One who is faithful and able to keep what has been entrusted to him.

Lordship therefore includes both surrender and rest. We surrender because Christ has the right to rule us. We rest because the Lord who rules us also loves us, cares for us, and keeps us.

 

Submit plans to His will

We do not merely ask Jesus to protect our plans; we yield our plans to his will. We place the clay in the Potter’s hands and remain beneath those hands as he shapes us.

Submission means trusting Christ not only when his direction agrees with our desires but also when his way is painful, confusing, or different from what we would have chosen.

This trust rests on his character. The Lord who commands us is the same Lord who loved us and gave himself for us. His authority is not separated from his sacrificial love. The hands that govern our lives are the hands that were pierced for our salvation.

Because his love is limitless, he is worthy of limitless trust.

Conclusion: 

His Grace Enables and Preserves Our Obedience

Christ’s lordship brings both a demand and a promise. The demand is that we renounce the illusion that we belong to ourselves. The promise is that the King who commands us is also the Shepherd who keeps us.

His grace is not only pardon for our disobedience; it is also power for obedience.

“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
—Philippians 2:13

“He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:24

Jesus does not merely forgive his people and then leave them to transform themselves. He works within them, strengthens their faith, disciplines their desires, produces holiness, and preserves them to the end.

Our confidence is therefore not in the perfection of our surrender but in the faithfulness of our Lord.

The lordship of Jesus Christ is the saving reign of all that Christ is over the whole person. It means receiving Jesus by faith as the Lord he already is, belonging to him completely, submitting every part of life to his loving authority, and learning throughout life to trust, obey, and follow him.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, but the faith that saves never leaves us alone. It brings us beneath the rule of Jesus and begins a lifelong transformation in which we increasingly confess through both our words and our lives:

Jesus Christ is Lord.

We Go: Calling - Go Wherever God Calls

We Go: Calling - Go Wherever God Calls

Focus: When you follow Jesus, you are called to a place and a people for God’s purposes. 

• Called to a Place

• Called to a People

• Called for a Purpose 

Called to a Place

God calls you to a place to advance his kingdom. 

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.”

Called to a People

God calls you to a people whom you are to serve and with whom you are to serve for the advance of God’s kingdom. 

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭78‬:‭70‬-‭72‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.”

“In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”

-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves 

Called for a Purpose 

God calls you to his purposes to see Christ formed in you and his gospel proclaimed through you.  

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

“True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.”

-William Penn in No Cross, No Crown

Royals: The Return of the King

Royals: The Return of the King

Focus statement: Jesus Christ’s Second Coming crystalizes that Jesus is the final and best Royal the world will ever see. Prepare for His return by serving Him today.

Setting the Scene:

This is our last sermon in our “Royals” series! We have surveyed many royal figures in the Old and New Testament: Pharaoh, Moses (or the Law of Moses), Saul, David, Solomon, Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Hezekiah, Josiah, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Zerubbabel, Herod, Pilate, and the Antichrist. They all have painted a picture of what a “royal” can be and while some were good and some were bad, they all emphasize this point: Jesus is better.

All of these royals are essentially bad metaphors or “types” of Jesus and leave us wanting more. They leave us saying, “we need a better king.” Jesus was, is, and will be that King. He came 2,000 years ago to conquer sin and death but left earthly establishments in place. Now, we look forward to the day when He will come back and overthrow every earthly power and establish His eternal reign. When that happens, no king or kings will succeed Him and we will reign with Him for all eternity!

Let’s recap!

Here is a “brief” overview of our entire sermon series to catch us up to the final coming of the King:

Pharaoh:

Pharaoh was the most powerful ruler in the world during Israel's captivity. Rather than recognizing the Lord's authority, he hardened his heart repeatedly, enslaving God's people until God demonstrated His supremacy through the plagues and the Exodus.

Pharaoh is:

1. a king who enslaved God’s people,

2. a ruler who hardened his heart against God,

3. one who demanded others serve him.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Frees people from slavery to sin (John 8:34-36, Romans 6:17-18)

2. Has a perfectly obedient heart toward the Father (John 6:38; 8:29)

3. Came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

So instead of:

A king who keeps people in bondage

We get:

The King who sets captives free.

Jesus is better.

Moses or the Law of Moses:

Moses wrote the Torah, the first five books of the Bible and the law, sent down by God through him. He became Israel’s God-appointed leader, delivering them from Egypt, mediating God's covenant, and shepherding the nation through the wilderness.

Moses is:

1. A faithful yet flawed mediator between God and Israel

2. One who delivers God’s people from physical slavery

3. A prophet who points people to God’s covenant

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is the perfect mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 8:6)

2. Delivers us from slavery to sin and death (Colossians 1:13-14)

3. Establishes the New Covenant by His own blood (Luke 22:20, Hebrews 9:15)

So instead of:

A servant who points the way

We get:

The Son who is the Way.

Jesus is better.

Saul:

Saul was Israel's first king, chosen after the people demanded to have a king "like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8). He began with humility and great promise, but over time his insecurity, fear of people, and repeated disobedience led to his rejection by God. Saul spent much of his reign trying to preserve a kingdom that God had already declared would belong to another.

Saul is:

1. A king chosen according to the people’s expectations rather than God’s ultimate plan.

2. A ruler who valued the approval of people over obedience to God.

3. One who desperately clung to a kingdom he could not keep.

4. A king who repeatedly tried to destroy God’s anointed.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is God’s chosen and beloved King, appointed by the Father from eternity (Psalm 2:6-7, Matthew 3:17)

2. Always sought the Father’s will rather than human approval (John 5:30, 8:29)

3. Freely laid down His life, knowing His kingdom could never be taken from Him (John 10:17-18, 18:36-37)

4. Is Himself the Lord’s Anointed, who was rejected, persecuted, and yet ultimately enthroned (Acts 2:36, Hebrews 1:3)

So instead of:

A king who grasped for a throne he could not keep.

We get:

The king who willingly laid down His life and received an everlasting throne.

Jesus is better.

David:

David was Israel's greatest king - a shepherd chosen by God whose reign became the standard against which future kings were measured. Yet despite his remarkable faith, David's adultery and murder revealed that even the best earthly king still needed a Savior.

David is:

1. A shepherd who becomes king.

2. A man after God’s own heart.

3. A king who still falls into grievous sin.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is the Good Shepherd and eternal King (John 10:11, Luke 1:32-33)

2. Perfectly fulfills the Father’s will (John 4:34; 8:29)

3. Is completely without sin (Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 2:22)

So instead of:

A great king who needed forgiveness

We get:

The perfect King who offers forgiveness.

Jesus is better.

Solomon:

Solomon inherited a united kingdom, built the Temple, and became famous for wisdom and wealth. Yet his divided heart eventually led Israel toward idolatry, proving that wisdom without wholehearted devotion is not enough.

Solomon is:

1. The wisest king of Israel.

2. A builder of the Temple.

3. A ruler whose heart is eventually divided.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30)

2. Builds God’s eternal temple, His Church (Matthew 16:18, 1 Peter 2:5)

3. Loves the Father with perfect obedience (John 14:31)

So instead of:

A wise king whose heart wandered

We get:

Wisdom personified in a King whose love never fails.

Jesus is better.

Jeroboam and Rehoboam:
The pride of Rehoboam and the idolatry of Jeroboam split Israel into two kingdoms. Rather than leading God's people toward unity and faithfulness, both kings accelerated the nation's spiritual decline.

They are:

1. Kings whose pride and foolishness divide God’s people.

2. Leaders who placed politics above faithfulness.

3. Rulers whose decisions fracture the kingdom.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Unites God’s people into one body (Ephesians 2:14-16)

2. Leads with humility (Philippians 2:5-6)

3. Establishes an everlasting kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28, Luke 1:33)

So instead of:

Kings who divided God’s people

We get:

The King who makes us one.

Jesus is better.

Hezekiah:

Hezekiah was one of Judah's most faithful kings, trusting God during the Assyrian invasion and leading important reforms. Yet even he later succumbed to pride, reminding us that even good kings remain flawed.

Hezekiah is:

1. A faithful king who trusted in God in crisis.

2. One who experienced miraculous deliverance.

3. A ruler whose pride eventually resurfaced.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Trusts the Father perfectly – not just in crisis (John 11:41-42, Luke 22:42)

2. Defeats sin, death, and Satan forever (Hebrews 2:14-15, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

3. Remains perfectly humble (Philippians 2:8)

So instead of:

A faithful king who stumbled.

We get:

A faithful King who never fails.

Jesus is better.

Josiah:

Josiah rediscovered the Book of the Law and led one of Judah's greatest revivals. Yet despite sweeping reforms, the people's hearts remained unchanged, and judgment still came.

Josiah is:

1. A reforming king.

2. One who restored God’s laws.

3. A leader who cannot change hearts.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Perfectly fulfills the law (Matthew 5:17)

2. Writes God’s Laws on our hearts through the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 10:16)

3. Makes us new creations by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ezekiel 36:26-27)

So instead of:

A good king who cannot reform behavior

We get:

The good King who transforms hearts.

Jesus is better.

Nebuchadnezzar:

Nebuchadnezzar was Babylon's mighty emperor who conquered Jerusalem and carried Judah into exile. His pride led God to humble him dramatically until he finally acknowledged that the Most High rules over all kingdoms.

Nebuchadnezzar is:

1. A king who grasped at glory.

2. One who acknowledged God in word only.

3. A ruler who must be humbled to submit to God.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Did not grasp at equality with God but emptied Himself (Philippians 2:5-8)

2. Humbly submitted Himself to the Father’s will (John 6:38, Luke 22:42)

3. Is perfectly obedient from eternity (Hebrews 10:5-10)

So instead of:

A king forced into submission

We get:

The King of Kings who embodies perfect submission.

Jesus is better.

Cyrus:

Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon and unexpectedly became God's instrument for sending the Jewish exiles home. Though he did not belong to Israel, God sovereignly used him to accomplish His purposes.

Cyrus is:

1. A pagan king used by God.

2. One who frees Israel from exile.

3. A ruler who unknowingly fulfills God’s purposes.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is God’s eternal Son (Hebrews 1:1-3)

2. Frees us from sin and death (Romans 8:1-2)

3. Perfectly accomplishes the Father’s mission (John 17:4)

So instead of:

A king used by God.

We get:

The King who is God.

Jesus is better.

Zerubbabel:

Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, led the first wave of exiles back to Jerusalem and oversaw the rebuilding of the Temple. His work was vital, but it was only a partial restoration that pointed forward to something greater.

Zerubbabel is:

1. A Davidic leader.

2. A rebuilder of the Temple.

3. One who begins restoration but cannot complete it.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is the promised Son of David (Matthew 1:1, Luke 1:32-33)

2. Builds His Church as God’s dwelling place (Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 2:19-22)

3. Brings restoration to completion (Hebrews 12:2, John 19:30)

So instead of:

A builder of a restored temple

We get:

The King who builds an eternal Kingdom.

Jesus is better.

Herod:

Herod the Great sought to preserve his throne by attempting to kill the infant Jesus, revealing the insecurity and brutality that often characterize earthly power.

Herod is:

1. A king threatened by Jesus’ birth.

2. One who clings to power through fear.

3. A ruler who kills to preserve his throne.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Freely lays aside his heavenly glory (Philippians 2:6-8)

2. Rules through sacrificial love (John 13:1, 15:13)

3. Gives His own life for His people (John 10:11,18)

So instead of:

A king who kills to keep his throne

We get:

The King who dies to establish His throne and people.

Jesus is better.

Pilate:

Pilate held the authority to release Jesus but surrendered justice to political pressure. This earthly judge condemned the only truly innocent man who has ever lived.

Pilate is:

1. A ruler with authority but little courage.

2. One who knows Jesus is innocent and true.

3. A governor who compromises justice.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is the righteous Judge (John 5:22-27, Acts 17:31)

2. Is Truth itself (John 14:6)

3. Bears our condemnation so justice and mercy uncompromisingly meet (Romans 3:25-26, 2 Corinthians 5:21)

So instead of:

A ruler who condemns the innocent

We get:

The righteous King who is condemned for the guilty.

Jesus is better.

The Antichrist:

The Antichrist represents the culmination of humanity's rebellion against God - a counterfeit ruler who exalts himself, deceives the nations, and demands the worship that belongs to God alone. He is the final imitation king before Christ's victorious return.

The Antichrist is:

1. A counterfeit king.

2. One who exalts himself above God.

3. A ruler who deceives the nations and demands worship.

In contrast, Jesus Christ:

1. Is the true King of Kings (Revelation 19:16)

2. Glorifies the Father rather than Himself (John 8:50, 54, 17:1-5)

3. Alone is worthy of the worship of every nation (Philippians 2:9-11, Revelation 5:11-14)

So instead of:

A false king who steals worship

We get:

A true King who alone deserves worship.

Jesus is better.

Every throne in scripture points to one throne.

Every crown points to one crown.

Every kingdom points to one Kingdom.

Jesus isn’t merely another royal in the story, He is the King to whom every royal was pointing to all along.

A flawed Expectation.

In the Gospel of Mark we see a disconnect between the Messiah who had arrived (Jesus!) and the expectation of the Messiah among the first-century Jews. They expected the Messiah to arrive and overthrow the government, receive all nations, and put an end to evil once and for all (Isaiah 9, Psalm 2, Daniel 7, Zechariah 14). However, those prophecies speak of the Second Coming of the Messiah. The first coming of the Messiah was prophesied about in Zechariah 9 and 12 and Isaiah 53 (among others) and they described a Messiah who would come humbly on a donkey, would be rejected, pierced, and who would die for our sins.

We see this disconnect in Mark 8:27-33 when Peter correctly identifies Jesus as the Messiah but then rebukes Jesus for saying He was going to die. Peter expected the Messiah to be a political leader, but instead He was a suffering servant.

Again we see this disconnect when the religious leaders mock Jesus on the cross in Mark 15:31-32. They say, “if you are the Messiah, come down from the cross and conquer.” But what they didn’t realize was that Jesus was conquering. He was conquering sin, death, and Satan himself.

But now that Jesus has returned to Heaven, we know that His return will be the way He predicted in the same Gospel: Mark 8:38

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

The Lamb.

Revelation 19:6-21

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God

    the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult

    and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

    and his Bride has made herself ready;

it was granted her to clothe herself

    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Jesus will return as many things - a ruler, a conqueror, a leader of armies… but my favorite way that Jesus returns as is the Lamb.

In the Old Testament, we read about sin sacrifices that were offered to God to cover one’s sins. The ritual was that a lamb was to be brought before the priests and the priests would inspect the lamb to determine whether it was without blemish before the lamb would then be killed in place of the person, the sinner.

I can provide you exactly ZERO passages in scripture where the priest would inspect the sinner, where the sinner had to come and be deemed acceptable to receive forgiveness through their offering. No, it was always the lamb that was inspected. It had nothing to do with the sinner, it was all about the lamb.

Jesus is that Lamb. He is THE Lamb. When we believe in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, God no longer inspects us for blemishes, He inspects the Lamb of God and the Lamb of God, Jesus, is perfect. Whether or not we are worthy to be in God’s presence has never depended on our own goodness or perfection, but rather it depends on Jesus’ perfection. Hallelujah!

That is the Lamb that is coming back for us. We have no reason to dread His return because we know that when Jesus comes to bring God’s judgment on the earth, God will not inspect us, He will inspect Jesus, who has already covered our sins.

Our Great Hope:

Revelation 19 paints a picture of everything that is wrong with the world right now being set right by a conquering King. There is a thousand-year period described in Revelation 20 where Christ reigns, then the devil is released once again and dealt a final blow. 

All war, all disease, natural disasters, corrupt systems, they will be dealt with swiftly and righteously. That is what our great hope is. Our final victory is described in Revelation 21:4,

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

He is the only one worth worshipping. He is the only one worth putting our hope in. 

Nothing, not political victories, not new legislation, not sports trophies, new purchases, homes, healing, life extensions, nothing will have a genuine lasting effect on our happiness and ultimate satisfaction in this life. Nothing, well… except Jesus.

It doesn’t matter what it is that promises security in this life – it will eventually and usually very quickly let us down or cease to matter.

That is not an argument for nihilism. If by believing this the conclusion is “Since Jesus is coming back to set everything right, nothing matters” that would be incorrect. Instead, this is an argument for perspective. We look forward to our King returning, setting everything right, a King who is a better version of any royal figure we experience today, and a King that we don’t have to solely look forward to serving for all eternity, but a King that we can serve today.

That means that since Jesus is coming back to set everything right, everything matters.

If you have not placed your faith in the King, don’t you want that perspective?

If you have, don’t you want others to have that perspective?

How we prepare the way for Jesus’ return is the same way John the Baptist did during Christ’s first arrival on earth. We tell others about His Gospel and urge them to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Jesus is better. He is the best. He is the only King worth serving, worth putting our hope and satisfaction in. And thus, we can look forward with hope and joy, not fear and dread, to the Return of the King.

Royals: The Anti-Christ and the Only Christ

Royals: The Anti-Christ and the Only Christ

Focus: The anti-Christ is closer than we think, but so is the only Christ - so make yourself ready. 

• The Anti-Christ 

• Many Anti-Christs

• The Only Christ

Last week we spoke about how Jesus was crucified for his identity - one that had clear connection to Daniel 7.  

Both in the book of Daniel and Revelation there is imagery that must be interpreted and can refer to the anti-Christ. 

What is evident is that the Apostle John was given a clear link to the apocalyptic revelations that came through Daniel as the prophet predicted the rise and fall of several verified kingdoms throughout history.  

*At least one application that we can take from this for our lives is that if there is one constant, it is change and if there is to be a sure thing, it is the eternal Kingdom of our Lord Jesus who is coming to rule the nations. 

*Finding our place as a part of His story (history) is the way we anchor our souls in God in the midst of uncertain times because the future is both stable and secure in Christ. 

In the midst of this, we are today going to focus on some of the more clear statements made about the ant-Christ and how to make ourselves ready for the coming of Jesus - the only Christ.  

The Anti-Christ

There is an Antichrist who will be a part of the judgment that comes at the end of the age. 

‭‭2 Thessalonians‬ ‭2‬:‭3‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Many Anti-Christs 

There are many who live by the spirit of the anti-Christ.  

‭‭

1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭18‬-‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.”

Those who do not acknowledge Jesus, the Son of God, coming in the flesh or his salvific work at the cross when he did so, are promoting deceit and are operating in the manner of the antichrist. 

‭‭

2 John‬ ‭1‬:‭7‬-‭9 ‭ESV‬‬

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”

John was here and in his letters warning the church against a prevalent form of spirituality at the time called Gnosticism.  

*It attempted to acknowledge the teachings of Jesus but reject the truth of the gospel that Jesus had to come in the flesh to, despite the temptation that we all face, live sinlessly, die physically and sacrificially on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and rise from the dead bodily (not metaphorically) to provide the way to a real resurrection for those who would repent of their sins and believe the good news.  

People do the same today with contrived spirituality where they pick and choose what they will embrace about both the history and teachings of Jesus and the Scripture.  

This is what it means to live in deceit and be called an antichrist. 

The Only Christ

There is only one Christ and Jesus told us what to look for when he comes - so make yourself ready.  

Matthew 24:1-51

“Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” “As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place ( let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Royals: People Pleasing Pilate

Royals: People Pleasing Pilate 

Focus: Understanding the deepest longings of your heart will always lead to the Creator, to Jesus.  

• Airtight Alibi

• Already Had an Inkling

• Available King and Savior

Airtight Alibi

Over and over again, people were trying to figure out who Jesus was, but Christ continually tells us who he is - God in the flesh who came to be the savior of the world.  

‭‭

Mark‬ ‭14‬:‭55‬-‭64‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death.”

They were condemning Jesus to death because Jesus accepted the identity of deity, making reference to the prophet Daniel’s prediction of the Son of Man who would come to be worshiped by the nations:

‭‭Daniel‬ ‭7‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

Central to our Christian faith is what is known as the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
      creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
  who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
  and born of the virgin Mary.
  He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
  was crucified, died, and was buried;
  he descended to hell.
  The third day he rose again from the dead.
  He ascended to heaven
  and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
  From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
  the holy catholic* church,
  the communion of saints,
  the forgiveness of sins,
  the resurrection of the body,
  and the life everlasting. Amen.

*that is, the true Christian church of all times and all places

Central to that confession was a ruler whom Jesus encountered named Pontius Pilate.  

Who was Pilate and what can we learn from him today?

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭27‬:‭15‬-‭26‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.”

*Pilate had an inclination of Jesus’ innocence, but allowed the crowd to dictate his interaction with Christ. 

Pilate’s allegiance with Herod over scrutinizing Jesus shows the mixed motivations we often contend with in coming to the truth.  

Why did Pilate eventually turn Jesus over to be crucified?

Answer: To maintain position, power and a false sense of stability. 

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.

-Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means 

Already Had an Inkling

Pilate had the desire to publicly side with Jesus but buckled to the will of the people against his better judgement. 

“Man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, in other respect is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. The Existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. He will never agree that a sweeping passion is a ravaging torrent which fatally leads a man to certain acts and is therefore an excuse. He thinks that man is responsible for his passion.

-Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions 

We need to make sure that in our freedoms we don’t make the same mistake as Pilate. 

‭‭

John‬ ‭18‬:‭33‬-‭38‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”

Jesus had already answered that question when he said:

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬-‭11 ‭ESV‬‬

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

So truth is not just an idea or philosophy, but a person. 

Why would no one come except through him? 

Because of Christ’s identity and his cross.  

God created us, but we chose to rebel against him and his ways in sin. 

Sin is missing the mark and living in things that destroy our lives. 

As the Apostle Paul wrote:

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬-‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

That sin leads to death and hell as the just punishment for those who’ve chosen to separate themselves from their loving Creator destroying both their own lives, the lives of others and the world in which they live.  

Jesus lived sinlessly, went to the cross to die sacrificially to pay the price for our sin, through his resurrection delivered us from the power of sin and with his imminent return offers us a future free from the presence of sin.  

‭‭Luke‬ ‭23‬:‭1‬-‭16‬, ‭18‬-‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.” But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.” When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other. Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.” But they all cried out together, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.” But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.”

What happens when we buckle to the voice of the crowd against our better judgment?

When you reject Jesus, the insurrectionist is the only other option - we choose rebellion and death. 

“It’s strange. I felt less lonely when I didn’t know you.”

-Jean-Paul Sartre

Jesus is the better and only way. 

Available King and Savior

When Jesus tells you who he is, believe him. 

There is a saying by which we shouldn’t be surprised at the interactions that we have with people when they clearly demonstrate who they are by their actions.  

This is true of Jesus as well. 

So the question was and still is - who is this Jesus?

I’ve quoted John Ortberg before from his book, Who is This Man?

“Who is Jesus?  He is the hinge of history.  He is the hope of the oppressed.  He is the inspiration to the despairing.  He is the King of Kings.  He is the Lord of Lords.  He is the greatest teacher who ever lived.  His is the greatest mind that ever thought.  He sparked the greatest movement that has ever spread.  He offered the greatest gift that has ever been given.  He alone mastered life.  He alone conquered death. He alone overcame sin. He alone grows more present with each passing year.  He is the Son of God. He is the Savior of the world.  That’s who this man is!”

-John Ortberg, Who is This Man?

Said another way, others have described Jesus this way:

“He’s the greatest man in history.  He had no servants, yet they called him Master.  He had no degree, yet they called him Teacher.  He had no medicines, yet they called him Healer.  He had no army, yet kings feared Him.  He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world.  He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.  His name is Jesus.”

-unknown author 

This is why the Apostle Peter, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples said after seeing a lame man healed by the power of God:

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

The story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is the perfect picture of God’s heart towards you - whether you find yourself the older son or the younger.  

What is it that Jesus is offering and why does it matter?

Eternal life

Life abundant now

Forgiveness

Physical and Emotional Healing

Purity

A Fresh Start 

Purpose

A People 

Salvation 

A New Father - Adoption by the living God 

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

*So knowing this about Jesus, what is it that you are trading him for today?

How has that worked for you?

What will you choose to do with him today?

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John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Will you repent and believe the good news today?

Royals: The Set-Up

Royals: The Set-Up

Happy Father’s Day!

Encouragement - Good job to all of the dads who are in the game, making their best efforts and pointing the way to Jesus as they grow!

Focus: Joseph was an earthly father who set up Jesus to show the world the Heavenly Father.  

• To Serve and to Protect

• Fading into the Background

• So Jesus Can Shine

To Serve and to Protect 

Joseph led in being a responsible husband and father, and in doing so, helped fulfill prophecy by God’s sovereign hand. 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

Though separated by time and prominence,  Joseph was of the royal line of King David.  

So Jesus was set up to be the prophesied Messiah by being from the royal lineage through Joseph.  

Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit. 

But in the gospel of Matthew and Luke, Joseph is described as the legal and adoptive father of Jesus.  

This allowed the prophecy to be fulfilled that the Messiah would be of the Davidic line while honoring the theological truth of the Virgin birth so that Jesus would be both fully man and fully God.  

This is a concept known as the hypostatic union. 

Through study of God’s revelation in Scripture, this core Christian doctrine was fleshed out in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.  

It forever acknowledged how Jesus could be both man and God, the reality of his two natures perfectly united without confusion, change, division or separation.  

This reality explained how Jesus could relate with us by experiencing true human weakness such as hunger, fatigue and temptation, while maintaining his divine attributes like performing miracles and forgiving sin. 

So what role did Joseph play and how is that a model to both fathers and all believers today?  

Joseph led in carrying “his cross” - before Jesus ever did. 

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Matthew‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬, ‭16‬-‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,…and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

Joseph modeled following the Scripture and the voice of the Lord  

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.””

Joseph served, protected and provided 

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭2‬:‭19‬-‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.”

Fading into the Background 

Joseph led in putting the Word of God into practice by purifying his family

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭22‬-‭33‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.”

Joseph led in being a disciple, leading his family to obey the commands of God, being faithful in obscurity 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭39‬-‭40‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”

So Jesus Can Shine

Joseph led in spiritual consistency and development 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭41‬-‭52‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

We don’t really hear of Joseph after this point except being referenced by his trade that according to custom, he more than likely taught Jesus.  

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭53‬-‭58‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.”

We do not hear of Joseph during Jesus’ earthly ministry.  

Scholars believe he passed away before Jesus began his public ministry.  

Yet Joseph’s impact was felt long after he was gone.  

*Key Truth:  Just like in the life of Joseph, at the end of our days we want people to see and remember Jesus.  

All the life that we live should be to prop Jesus up and fade into the background, having provided strong examples by life, word and deed - through faith, obedience and sacrifice what it means to follow God and build a life around Jesus.  

Conclusion:

Besides those that know and love us, we will all be forgotten, but need to point to the one who never will - whose Kingdom never ends.  

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭103‬:‭15‬-‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”

The gospel is the means by which our Heavenly Father from whom we were estranged makes himself known and brings us back into the inheritance of those he loves.  

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭103‬:‭8‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

Jesus lived sinlessly and was the perfect representation of the Heavenly Father here on earth.  

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John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬-‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

God the Father’s heart, his character and his mission were perfectly displayed in Jesus, who was God in the flesh.  

As Joseph before him, Jesus, after being the only one to ever live sinlessly, would eventually carry his own cross to take the wrath of God for the sins of humanity.  

Jesus would sacrifice his reputation, comforts and life to be the substitute to pay the penalty for our wrongdoing.  

And in doing so, Jesus opened the way to eternal life.  

‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Jesus made a way for us to be brought back into an unbroken relationship with the Father through his resurrection from the dead, providing reconciliation with God to all who would turn from their sins and trust in Christ’s work at the cross. 

Let’s all run to the Heavenly Father today who stands waiting to envelope us in his salvation, forgiveness, healing and love!

Royals: Herod - Not so Great

Royals: Herod - Not so Great

Focus: Whether or not Jesus is Lord of our lives will always be brought to the surface.  

• Terribly Sorry, Not So Sorry

• True Colors

• The Philosopher King

Malachi was a rebuke to the people of Israel after the rebuilding of the Second Temple and walls of Jerusalem. 

After Malachi, we enter into the historic 400 years of silence. 

This is the intertestamental period (between the Old and New Testament) that brings us to the Roman Empire and Herod the Great.  

Who was Herod the Great?

What did he do for Israel?

What Herod also did?

What Herod did for the temple and the people of God was detached from God - it could have been any other city improvement, artistic endeavor or cultural project.  

‭‭Luke‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”

Terribly Sorry, Not So Sorry

Jesus comes as Lord and nothing less.  

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Matthew‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.”

Herod acted like he wanted to worship Jesus but was concerned with remaining king - in charge of his own life.  

Are your inquiries regarding Jesus meant to truly grow your devotion to and submission to the Lord or are they attempts for you to find ways for the Lord to fit into what you already want to do with your life?

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

True Colors

The decisions that we make, the things that we do, not our lip service, show our true colors.  

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭2‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

When we are crossed, what are our true colors that come to the surface?

What comes out when you are crossed?

How does Jesus want to change and heal this?

“Give me all of you!I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU! ALL OF YOU. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me,give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self—in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart.”

― ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The Philosopher King

Jesus is the great philosopher king who is near to all who call on him in truth.  

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Psalm‬ ‭145‬:‭17‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.”

Salvation is obtained by grace through faith.  

That faith is expressed as we relate to Jesus as Lord.  

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭8‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Because of the cross we can repent of our sin to be both forgiven and healed.  

“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils.”

 – Plato, The Republic, 4th century B.C.

Unlike Herod, Jesus is the perfect ruler who is both wise and noble.   

He is the king we’ve been searching for throughout history who laid down his own life to save those whom he would call both subjects and friends.  

‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭12‬-‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

Royals: Wonder as We Wander

Royals: Wonder as We Wander

Focus: The goal of God through his people is to revitalize the priority of worship in the earth through Jesus Christ.   

• I Wonder As I Wander

• Worship As a Priority

• The Wonder of Jesus

I Wonder As I Wander

We wander and go astray when we think God has given us this life solely for personal pleasure, achievement and gain.  

The Israelites returning to Jerusalem would have had to sort through this as they sought to  reestablish their identity and purpose on their return from Babylon.  

When we arrive at this place in history, we know that Israel was once a great nation so revered that the surrounding peoples would send delegates like Queen Sheba from modern day Yemen to marvel at the glory of God within Israel’s borders.  

Yet this would pose the challenge of orientation - was God and his purposes the focus of worship or were the people to simply be cul de sacs of Yahweh’s blessings?

Prior to the deportation, in King Hezekiah’s time, envoys came to inquire of the miraculous hand of God at work in his land.  

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭20‬:‭12‬-‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.” Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

Rather than use that fame to give glory to Yahweh, King Hezekiah used the opportunity to boast concerning his personal treasures and possessions.  

It was a reflection of the pride that is in the heart of every man and woman - to turn what was meant to evoke praise, testimony and service to God into an opportunity for mere self-centered living.  

Hezekiah had forgotten the meaning of worship and was being driven by self-indulgent pride. 

“Pride is essentially competitive. It gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”

-CS Lewis 

We are all tempted to become a cul de sac for God’s blessings rather than using God’s blessings to worship.  

Even as Isaiah the prophet spoke about the impending judgment and exile to the very same Babylon to whom Hezekiah had boasted, Hezekiah reflected the unregenerate heart that was satisfied with the discipline as long as it affected future generations and not his own. 

Return from the deportation 

We then fast forward to Cyrus. 

By the time we get to the Persian empire, which would conquer Babylon, Israel was a shadow of the people they used to be.  

Though their homeland was plundered by the Babylonians, by God’s miraculous hand, even in the midst of the exile, they were able to maintain their national and spiritual identity.  

Returning to their homeland, without the prominence of the days of King David, Solomon or the following kings of Judah or Israel, the people of Israel would have to reestablish their sense of identity and purpose.  

Zerubbabel was to be their leader.  

Zerubbabel would have to reestablish a sense of identity and purpose. 

Our challenge living as aliens and strangers in this world is answering the question of the ambiguous existence - “What are we really doing here?”

God takes what is ambiguous and makes both our identity and purpose clear in him.   

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Ezra‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.”

*So it is ironic that King Cyrus who did not know the Lord had a better understanding of his purpose in establishing God-centered worship than the kings of Israel who went before him. 

God would reestablish this life of focus on worship through Zerubabbel. 

Who was Zerubbabel?

Born from the line of King David, Zerubbabel was one of the Israelites born in Babylonian captivity who was appointed to lead a wave of Israelites back to Jerusalem after King Cyrus’ decree. 

He was the grandson of King Jehaoichin, the second to last king of Judah before the Babylonian conquest and Israeli exile.

King Cyrus II appointed him to be governor of those returning to Jerusalem. 

‭‭Ezra‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:”

The Israelites had lived off of their hopes of a better day that would be ushered in through their prophesied Messiah. 

After the return from exile, would Zerubbabel be the promised Messianic king from the line of David?

Though he did not turn out to be the Messiah, Zerubbabel was a descendent in the direct line of the true Savior, Jesus.  

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬-‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

Zerubbabel’s name meant “planted in Babylon”. 

He was a man who had been defined by his people’s exile in Babylon. 

He was now called to return and make a difference in a world that neither remembered nor respected the former glory of the dynasty from which he had come.  

Yet because God had moved on the heart of Cyrus to allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild, Zerubbabel was given a life of purpose again. 

His identity was restored as a chosen son of the most High God to reestablish worship in the land.  

Zerrubabel would have to rethink the importance of his identity in the Lord and how he spent his days. 

In Babylon, he could find himself obscured in the midst of “good enough” living.  

He could plant vineyards, build houses and settle down as Jeremiah had instructed in Jeremiah 29 without any direct connection to worship. 

But now, Zerubbabel had a commission from God to reestablish worship in the land. 

Are we that different?

*How often do we try to fly under the radar of life undetected?

What happens when it is not as obvious in the eyes of the world that you are part of the royal line of Christ and should have his prescribed impact on the world? 

Why does God intend on making worship the mark of our existence?  

It is because true Biblical worship is the basis for our reconciliation with God through Christ and the avenue to all human flourishing in life. 

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him (Jesus) then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

We will come back to this. 

Worship As a Priority

Worship is not just about song or, though important, simply maintaining a set of doctrinal beliefs - rather it is building Christ and his kingdom into the place of priority in your life.  

This affects your pursuits, how you spend your time, talents and resources. 

As God reestablishes the priority of worship in our lives, all other tasks, commitments and opportunities make sense in the light of Christ. 

‭‭

Ezra‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.”

The returning Israelites had to ask this question as they followed Zerubbabel: 

What do you do when it is not as obvious what God is doing in and through your life?

Answer: You build the place of worship

Why the focus on rebuilding the temple?

God understood that worship is the foundation of our lives. 

God was intent on resuming worship. 

Worship is the rudder of our lives - not just in song, but in life, sacrifice and service.  

Whatever we intentionally choose to sacrifice for and serve will determine the trajectory of our lives - it is where our heart, energy, sense of significance and purpose will be.  

These are meant to be found in God, and through gathered, intentional, ritual worship, he forms and shapes our hearts for his glory, ours and humanity’s good.  

Why was it important for Zerubbabel to rebuild the altar and the temple?

As the Gospel Coalition recounts:

The physical restoration of the city was a crucial component in the development of God’s unfailing purpose of redemption in preparing the way for the coming Christ. According to prophecy, there had to be a Jerusalem and temple in place when the Messiah came (Mal 3:1). Therefore, the first order of business for Zerubbabel and the hopeful remnant was to rebuild the fallen temple. The book of Ezra records that at first progress on the project was good. The people were excited, unified, and hopeful. But soon there was external opposition, beginning with misunderstandings, and escalating to rumors, accusations, and threats. The opposition became so intense that the work ceased. That led to internal problems as apathy and carelessness replaced the initial enthusiasm and diligence. The work had ceased, and worse yet, nobody seemed to care. Involvement with the issues of life took precedence over work for God’s kingdom.

*When we are discouraged by the inevitable spiritual pushback, it is easy to want to resign to the way things used to be.  

It is easy to begin living like everyone else - living for the weekend, excursions and an existence wrapped around pleasure.  

And the things that begin to mark our identity, happiness and pursuits outside of God begin to come with a cost.  

Even the unbelieving philosopher David Foster Wallace, who met a tragic end, had an understanding of the importance of worship, though not the right foundation for it - which is the truth found in Jesus Christ. 

What happens when we don’t worship the right thing?

"Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship... is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive."

-David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest in his 2005 Kenyon College address entitled This is Water 

What is it that you’ve been giving yourself to outside of God that has been trying to “eat you alive”?

Again, building had stopped on the temple, on cultivating the priority of worship, and this is when God sent the prophet Haggai to remind Zerubbabel and the people of their purpose. 

Haggai 1:1-16

“In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.” Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.”

The lesson: Build God’s house before your own 

“A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn’t a hint of that in Psalm 126.”

Eugene H. Peterson, -Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society 

We need to understand in the present why the life of worship and sacrifice is better. 

People say, “I don’t want to be bound by the constraints of faith and religion.”

Yet as Timothy Keller would recognize:

“You are always bound to something.  Freedom is not the absence or presence of restrictions, but the presence of the right restrictions.”

-Timothy Keller

And again being driven by pride outside of the worship of God, Keller further elaborated upon CS Lewis’ earlier thoughts regarding the emptiness of that to which we give ourselves in worship other than God:

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.  They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others.”

-Timothy Keller 

And thus, this is how pride disorients us. 

And it is why only through the recalibration of worship do we once again come into contact with God’s plumbline of righteousness that leads to true freedom and peace in Christ. 

But we need to understand that worship is not touch and go.  

It is a life of daily devotion and ongoing consistency in Christ.  

This is that to which the prophet Zechariah spoke to Zerubbabel in his attempt to build the place of worship.

Construction began on the temple around 536 BC. 

Yet opposition came to the work and caused it to stall. 

Understand that opposition always comes to the work of God:

‭‭Ezra‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.”

Seventeen years after Zerubbabel began the work, it was unfinished and God gave this word through the prophet Zechariah:

‭‭

Zechariah‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my Lord.” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.””

The temple was completed twenty years after its beginning in 516 BC. 

God intends to complete the work he has started in and through us. 

He does not intend for our life and work in God to be left unfinished. 

To what has God called you to give yourself over a similar period of time and what has it produced?

Was there a place where you quit in the middle because of opposition, accusations, discouragements or misunderstandings?

For example:

What relationships in your life have been neglected or are deteriorating? 

Is it your marriage?

Have you slipped in your childrearing?

What aspect of ministry to which you were called have you laid down?

What do you need to pick back up to complete by the Word of the Lord? 

These are all important considerations as we walk with Jesus.  

But some would say, “I don’t really have a heart for worship.”

Regarding this, God also wants to set us free. 

He wants to do a supernatural work in our affections as we yield to Jesus, by the person and filling of the Holy Spirit.  

And once he’s done so, he matures us through a pragmatic reality: 

“We live in what one writer has called the "age of sensation."' We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”

-Eugene H. Peterson, -Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society 

*How do we build these altars to God in our life today?

*We make a log of where we place our affections, where we spend our time, talent and treasure - to offer on the altar that which belongs to God and sacrifice anything that comes before him.  

What is it that needs to be offered by you today?

What wasn’t completed by Zerubbabel in the Second Temple was completed by the true returning king, Jesus Christ.  

The Wonder of Christ

As the light of the world, Jesus takes those who are lost, confused and tormented, and gives them meaning, purpose and most importantly, salvation, through worship.  

Sin is defined as missing the mark. 

One of the fruits of the flesh Paul described in Galatians 5 in which if we choose to live, the Holy Spirit had Paul indicate that we would not inherit the kingdom of God, is selfish ambition. 

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

It is interesting that in the NIV the sin is translated as selfish ambition and in the ESV the word rivalries was utilized.  

We saw so much of this in Luxembourg and it fills our culture in Chicago. 

Whenever we live according to the selfish ambition of the flesh, we are disorienting our person and purpose. 

Jesus did things differently. 

He lived a life focused on glorifying and fulfilling the purpose of his Heavenly Father.  

Jesus knew who he was.  

Jesus knew what he was sent to do.  

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.”

Jesus anticipated the trials, opposition and betrayals. 

Jesus knew how to persevere because he remained in unbroken fellowship with the Father and worked by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Jesus did this because he was on an undeterred mission to seek and save the lost. 

‭‭

Luke‬ ‭13‬:‭31‬-‭35‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Like Zerubbabel, we too are called to do a work reestablishing worship to God.  

We need to first repent of our sins and be reconciled to God through the sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. 

We then need to choose to build a life of worship.  

We need to stop defining the wins by how many moments of self-indulgent pleasure we can attain and instead become ambitious towards the sacrifices we’re offering to bring worship in the earth. 

We too can face discouragements and a temptation to resign to “good enough living”.

Yet God calls us to more. 

He calls us to relationship with himself and to live lives of worship.  

Jesus went to the cross to pay for our sins, to reconcile us to God and reestablish worship in our hearts and in the places in which we live.    

Jesus left nothing undone, but at the cross, with his dying breath said, 

‭‭

John‬ ‭19‬:‭30‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

There is nothing more we need to do to be reconciled to God.  

Jesus has fulfilled Yahweh’s covenant promises by making a way for us to have a new heart and a new spirit, truly becoming a temple of worship in Christ.  

‭‭

Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭24‬-‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

We experience this individually, but only walk in it fully as we are an active participant amongst  God’s people of worship - the church. 

As the Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul write:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭ESV‬‬

What we need to do is repent of our sins, put our faith in the love of God poured out for us at the cross and complete the altars in our lives that are meant to be our daily orientation in Jesus. 

This is what Zerubbabel was charged to do.  

It is how we are to live by the power of the Holy Spirit today!  

It is how we are useful in the hand of God in establishing worship of Jesus in our city and in the nations.  

I Wonder As I Wander by John Jacob Niles

I wonder as I wander out under the sky

How Jesus, the savior, had come for to die

For poor on'ry people, like you and like I.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

When mary birthed Jesus, t'was in a cow's stall

With wisemen and farmers and shepherds and all,

But high in god's heaven a star's light did fall,

And the promise of ages, it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing

A star in the sky or a bird on the wing

Or all of god's angels in heaven for to sing

He surely could have it, for he was the king!

I wonder as I wander out under the sky

How Jesus, the savior, had come for to die

For poor on'ry people like you and like I.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

Royals: Cyrus, Exile and Longing for Home

Cyrus, Exile and Longing for Home

There are some characters in the Bible who appear for only a moment, but when they appear, the whole story turns.

Cyrus is one of them.

He is not a prophet. He is not a priest. He is not a son of David. He is not even part of Israel. He is a Persian king, a ruler of nations, a man of empire. Historically, he is remembered as Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire and the conqueror of Babylon. But Scripture remembers him for something even more surprising: Cyrus is the king God used to bring His people home.

Cyrus’ story tells us something about God’s sovereignty. But his appearance also becomes the crux, if not the defining moment, of something even larger: the theme of exile.

So our word today has two parts:

1. Who was Cyrus? What can we learn about his role in God moving the plot forward?

2. What does it mean to be an elect exile? Was it just one theme of this plot or is it actually the bigger picture that we Christians share with the Israelites as we await the final enthronement of Jesus our King on earth?

   1. The Theme

   2. The Experience

   3. The Instruction

Part 1: Who is Cyrus

1.1 Overview

Cyrus the Great was the Persian king whom God raised up to conquer Babylon and bring an end to the Jewish exile, fulfilling prophecies spoken through Isaiah more than a century before Cyrus was born. Though he did not know the God of Israel, and worshipped several pagan gods, Scripture uniquely calls him God's "shepherd" and "anointed," highlighting God's sovereignty over nations and rulers. 

After capturing Babylon in 539 B.C., Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem, rebuild the temple, and restore covenant worship. His life demonstrates God's faithfulness to His promises in Isaiah 40–45 and serves as a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ—the greater Deliverer who would lead God's people out of spiritual exile and into ultimate redemption.

—

Why do you say, O Jacob,

    and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

    and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

    his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

    and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

    and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

    they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:27-31 ESV

—

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,

    whose right hand I have grasped,

to subdue nations before him

    and to loose the belts of kings,

to open doors before him

    that gates may not be closed:

“I will go before you

    and level the exalted places,

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze

    and cut through the bars of iron, 

I will give you the treasures of darkness

    and the hoards in secret places,

that you may know that it is I, the Lord,

    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

For the sake of my servant Jacob,

    and Israel my chosen,

I call you by your name,

    I name you, though you do not know me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other,

    besides me there is no God;

    I equip you, though you do not know me,

that people may know, from the rising of the sun

    and from the west, that there is none besides me;

    I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form light and create darkness;

    I make well-being and create calamity;

    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Isaiah 45:1-7 ESV

—

1.2 Timeline Snapshot

The timeline between the reign of King Solomon and the Babylonian Exile spans roughly 350 years, transitioning from Israel’s golden age of unity to a devastating national fracture and eventual conquest. Key milestones in this history include:

• c. 970–931 BC: Reign of King Solomon
  Israel reaches its peak wealth and power. Solomon builds the First Temple in Jerusalem.

• c. 931 BC: The Divided Kingdom
  Following Solomon's death, the nation splits into two:

  • The Northern Kingdom (Israel): 10 tribes, capital initially in Samaria.

  • The Southern Kingdom (Judah): 2 tribes (Judah and Benjamin), capital in Jerusalem.

• c. 875–797 BC: Ministries of Elijah and Elisha
  Prophets emerge in the Northern Kingdom to combat idolatry and call the nation back to the covenant.

• 722 BC: Fall of the Northern Kingdom
  The Assyrian Empire conquers Israel, exiling the 10 tribes (often called the "Lost Tribes") and resettling the area with foreigners.

• 605–586 BC: The Fall of Judah and the Exile
  The Babylonian Empire, led by King Nebuchadnezzar II, conquers the Southern Kingdom in stages:

  • 605 BC: First wave of exiles is taken, including Daniel.

  • 597 BC: Second wave of exiles is taken, including King Jehoiachin and Ezekiel.

  • 586 BC: Jerusalem is besieged, the First Temple is destroyed, and a final wave of captives is deported to Babylon, fulfilling the 70-year exile. 

1.3 Setting Up the Big Picture: Key Moments and Lessons

Warnings of exile in Isaiah and Jeremiah point to the people’s empty religiosity: their hearts were ultimately not turned to God completely. Isaiah ministered during the Assyrian crisis, but he prophetically saw beyond his own generation. He warned that Judah’s sin would eventually lead to Babylonian exile. 

Isaiah confronts the heart of Judah’s problem: they still practiced religion outwardly, but inwardly had abandoned God.

Isaiah 1:4 (ESV)

“Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.”

More than a century later, Jeremiah ministers during Judah’s final decline as Babylon begins rising to power. He warns that Judah’s greatest danger is not Babylon — it is their refusal to repent.

 

Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)

“for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Jeremiah especially attacks Judah’s false confidence in the Temple itself:

Jeremiah 7:4 (ESV)

“Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’”

The people believed Jerusalem could never fall because God’s Temple was there. Jeremiah warns that covenant disobedience has made judgment inevitable.

Jeremiah 25:11 (ESV)

“This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

—

Although we will never fully know why God chose exile as His verdict for His people then, we also know that as much as it was a prophesied “punishment” we can’t say it was all bad. 

God’s admonishment is always for our good. And we’ll see this even more in part 2.

Walter Breggueman in his book, “Out of Babylon” further elaborates, as he cites numerous renowned scholars of Judaism that…

“Within the Old Testament, Babylon occupies a central position in what it means to be Jewish. In the Old Testament, the imagining of Babylon is inescapably from the perspective of Jewishness. To start with, Jews perceive Babylon as threat, but then Babylon is also recognized as a viable venue for faithfulness over a long period of time.”

More than a decade before the Temple was destroyed, Nebuchadnezzar deported about 10,000 of Judah’s leaders to Babylon to weaken the nation and prevent rebellion. But God used even this painful exile to preserve His people and prepare their future through leaders like Ezekiel and Daniel. Jewish scholars even note that their traditions and ways of life were codified and preserved under the resources that the Babylonian empire provide.

Part 2: Elect Exiles

We contemporary Christians experience a spiritual exile that mirrors biblical patterns before Cyrus came into the scene. The entire biblical narrative from Genesis 3 through Revelation 21 unfolds within exile—humanity’s alienation from God—until God’s reconciliation restores the original creation design. 

Modern believers, like our spiritual ancestors Abraham, Noah, Jacob…all occupy the status of strangers and exiles in this world—the true diaspora scattered among the nations. 

C.S. Lewis famously put words to something every Christian has experienced.

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

2.1 The Theme: Exile didn’t begin in Babylon

Exile began in Eden.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were sent out from the garden. Humanity was driven from the place of God’s presence. The world became, in the deepest sense, a place away from home. From that moment forward, the Bible becomes the story of God pursuing His people in the far country.

That is why exile keeps appearing throughout Scripture. 

We repeatedly understand God’s people as pilgrims and sojourners. Abraham wandered in tents. Moses named his son Gershom:

“I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
— Exodus 18:3 (ESV)

David confessed:

“For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.”

1 Chronicles 29:15 (ESV)

Even Israel’s memory of Egypt shaped their ethics:

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 22:21 (ESV)

“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 23:9 (ESV)

Again and again, God’s people know what it means to be displaced.

Do you  feel this yourself? In a big city like Chicago, it’s almost natural to start out feeling disconnected as you get established. But perhaps this theme for Christians runs much deeper.

Exile is never only geographical. It is spiritual. It is theological. It is the condition of being made for God and yet living in a world estranged from Him. It is the ache of being created for communion and yet experiencing distance, loss, judgment, and longing.

That is why even after Cyrus allows the people to return, the story still feels unfinished. The people come back to the land. The temple was rebuilt. Jerusalem begins to rise from the ruins. But something is still missing. The glory has not fully returned. The throne of David is not restored in its fullness. The people are back in the land, but they are still under the shadow of foreign powers. They have returned from Babylon, but the deeper exile remains.

And this is where the story of Israel becomes the story of all of us.

The New Testament does not treat exile as a theme that ended when the Jews returned from Babylon. It takes up the language of exile and applies it to the Church. Peter writes to believers and calls them “elect exiles.” That phrase is both beautiful and unsettling:

Elect exiles.

Chosen, yet scattered.

2.2 Jesus as Our Final Liberator King

The story of Israel’s exile becomes one of the clearest biblical pictures for understanding the Christian life. After Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried Judah into Babylon, Israel came to understand exile not merely as political defeat, but as God’s verdict against generations of covenant compromise and divided worship. 

The New Testament takes this exile language and applies it directly to Christians. The church is presented as the continuation of the covenant people of God—the “New Israel”—not defined by ethnicity or geography, but by faith in Christ. 

Peter opens his letter:

“To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion…”

 1 Peter 1:1 (ESV)

And later:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” 

1 Peter 2:11 (ESV)

The language is unmistakable. Christians are now described using Israel’s exile identity. Believers live in the world, but do not ultimately belong to it. The church exists spiritually where Israel once existed primarily geographically: dwelling among foreign powers while awaiting full restoration.

This theme stretches across the New Testament. Paul writes:

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 3:20 (ESV)

The writer of Hebrews says of the faithful:

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar… having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Hebrews 11:13 (ESV)

And again:

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”

Hebrews 13:14 (ESV)

Cyrus brought the exiles back to Jerusalem, but he could not end the deeper exile. He could send people home to the land, but he could not bring humanity home to God. He could issue a decree, but he could not cleanse the human heart. He could overthrow Babylon, but he could not overthrow sin and death.

For that, we need a greater King.

Jesus is the greater Cyrus.

Cyrus was called God’s anointed in a limited and temporary sense. Jesus is the true Anointed One, the Christ. Cyrus opened the way for captives to return from Babylon. Jesus opens the way for sinners to return to God. Cyrus helped rebuild a temple made with stones. Jesus builds a people in whom God’s Spirit dwells. Cyrus defeated an earthly empire. Jesus defeats the powers of sin, death, and the devil.

And the power of the gospel: God doesn't merely send a deliverer. He enters exile Himself. Jesus ends our exile by entering it Himself.

The Son of God left the glory of heaven and came into the far country. He took on flesh. He entered our sorrow, our weakness, our grief, and our alienation. He was rejected by His own. He was cast outside the city. He bore the judgment we deserved. On the cross, He experienced the ultimate exile so that we could be brought home.

And then He rose.

The resurrection is the beginning of the new creation. It is the declaration that death will not have the last word, that exile will not be permanent, that the King has been enthroned and His kingdom is coming in fullness.

But we still wait.

2.3 The Experience: “No Place Like Home”

So what does this feel like existentially?

We are home, and we are not home yet.

We belong to God, but we live as strangers.

We have hope, but we still lament.

We are citizens of heaven, but we seek the good of the city where God has placed us.

We are elect exiles.

That is the Christian life in two words. 

We are elect because God has set His love on us in Christ. We belong to Him. We have been chosen by grace, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and born again to a living hope. But we are also exiles because we still live in a world that does not fully recognize the King we serve.

“Exiles means we are not home. We are on our way home, but we are not home. And this is extraordinarily important for you to know, because it is right of us to stress the great things that happen when you become a Christian. The minute you become a Christian, you know that you are wholly pardoned, completely accepted and loved. But once you become a Christian, ultimately you haven’t arrived. You have just begun. The Christian life, when we talk about Christians being exiles, means your Christian life will never be all that completely satisfying. Things will never be just right. There will be struggles all during your Christian life. You know why? Because even though you’re a Christian, even though you’re loved, you are not home.”

- Tim Keller

Psalm 90:1 (ESV)

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

Philippians 3:20 (ESV)

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What does home feel like to you? It bears the weight of who we fully are: furniture arranged to how we live, memories all over the walls and shelves, our deepest secrets (not to mention actual dirt and mess and filth!) all around…

We know that our longing for physical homes is matchless. So our longing for our spiritual homes- our souls’ final home- is ever deeper.

2.4 The Instruction: Live with Intention, In Tension

So the Christian life is a life of holy tension. We are not home yet, but this does not mean Christians should despise the world or withdraw from it. 

Jeremiah told the exiles:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

Jeremiah 29:4-7

Peter therefore calls believers not to assimilate into the surrounding culture:

“Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable…”

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV)

The church’s task mirrors Israel’s task in Babylon:

• preserve holiness,

• resist assimilation,

• seek the welfare of the surrounding city,

• and remain faithful while awaiting restoration.

—

If Christians forget the theme of exile, we lose the framework that helps us understand where we are in the story.

We begin to expect the world to feel like our final home.

And when the world does not feel like home, we either grow bitter toward it, or we start bending ourselves to fit inside it.

That is the danger.

The exile theme teaches Christians that we are not abandoned, but we are also not home yet. We are “elect exiles”—chosen by God, loved in Christ, filled with the Spirit, but still living in a world that has not yet been fully renewed. If we forget that, several things happen.

First, we mistake comfort for faithfulness.

We begin to assume that the Christian life should be easy, secure, respected, and upwardly mobile. We expect obedience to produce immediate visible blessing. So when suffering comes, or when faithfulness makes us feel strange, costly, or misunderstood, we feel shocked. We think something has gone wrong.

But exile tells us: this tension is normal.

It is not strange that Christians feel out of place. It is strange when Christians feel too at home in Babylon.

Second, we become vulnerable to assimilation.

Babylon rarely begins by asking God’s people to stop believing. It simply asks them to belong somewhere else first.

It gives them new names, new ambitions, new measures of success, new stories of identity, new definitions of the good life. And slowly, without realizing it, Christians can begin to measure their lives by the same standards as everyone else: comfort, status, influence, romance, wealth, security, achievement, self-expression.

We may still believe Christian truths, but our imagination becomes Babylonian.

We still confess Jesus as Lord, but we live as if Babylon gets to define what matters.

Third, we lose our ability to lament.

If we forget exile, we will not know what to do with sorrow. We will either deny it with shallow optimism or drown in it with despair.

But exile gives Christians a language for grief. It lets us say, “This is not how the world is supposed to be,” without concluding, “God has failed.” It teaches us to weep over sin, death, injustice, and loss while still believing that God is moving the plot forward.

Without exile, suffering feels like a contradiction.

With exile, suffering becomes part of the waiting.

Fourth, we confuse America, success, family, career, or cultural influence with the kingdom of God.

This is one of the greatest dangers.

When Christians forget that they are exiles, they can start trying to make a permanent home out of temporary things. Even good things become ultimate things. A nation becomes Zion. A political movement becomes salvation. A career becomes identity. A family becomes heaven. A church platform becomes the kingdom.

But exile keeps us sober.

It reminds us that no earthly city, no earthly ruler, no earthly success, and no earthly belonging can bear the weight of our final hope.

We seek the good of the city, but we do not worship the city.

We love our neighbors, but we do not need their approval to know who we are.

We work for justice, beauty, and mercy, but we know the final restoration comes only when the King returns.

This brings us to the fifth danger: we forget how to hope.

Exile is not only about displacement. It is about longing. Hope, through this lens, is rooted in knowing all of this isn’t final.

Christians are not merely people who believe the right things. We are people waiting for a home. We are waiting for the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, the renewal of creation, and the day when God dwells with His people forever.

If we forget exile, our hope shrinks.

We stop longing for the new creation and settle for a manageable life now. We stop praying “Your kingdom come” with urgency. We stop aching for the final enthronement of Jesus our King on earth.

And when hope shrinks, discipleship shrinks with it.

So the danger is not merely that Christians misunderstand one biblical theme.

The danger is that we misunderstand our entire location in the story.

We will either over-love the world because we think it is home, or over-hate the world because we forget God still loves it.

But the exile theme keeps us faithful.

It tells us: you are chosen, but you are scattered. You are loved, but you are waiting. You are not home, but you are not lost. Babylon is real, but it is not final. The King has come, and the King is coming again.

So we live with patience, courage, holiness, and hope.

We seek the good of the city.

But we keep our hearts set on the city that is to come.

Conclusion:

The Bible ultimately ends where exile ends. Revelation portrays “Babylon” not simply as an ancient empire, but as the symbol of the world’s rebellion against God. Yet Babylon finally falls, and the people of God receive a greater homeland:

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.”
— Revelation 21:3 (ESV)

This is the final restoration Israel’s exile always pointed toward. Cyrus was a shadow. Jesus is the substance. Cyrus opened the road back to Jerusalem; Christ opens the way into the New Creation. And so Christians live now as exiles with hope—already rescued by the greater Cyrus, yet still awaiting the day when heavenly citizenship becomes eternal reality

Let’s pray through Jesus’ own words:

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."

 — John 17 (ESV)

THE HARVEST OF REDEMPTION

THE HARVEST OF REDEMPTION 

Modified notes prepared by: Every Nation Churches

Focus: God poured out his Holy Spirit that his church might be empowered to bring in his harvest of redemption.  

• The Beginning of the Harvest 

• The Harvest in Progress 

• The Final Harvest 

The Beginning of the Harvest 

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

Let’s start by discussing the historical and theological backdrop to Pentecost. 

The Day of Pentecost changed everything; it was a turning point in redemption history. 

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit fulfilled ancient promises, inaugurated the Church, and initiated her mission.

To fully understand Acts 2, we have to understand the role of Pentecost in the story of redemption. 

The Hebrew calendar was based on three vital events in the harvest cycle. 

Each of these three events was celebrated with harvest feasts in Israel’s calendar. 

The first was Passover (which includes the Feast of Firstfruits - Leviticus 23:9-14). 

‭‭

Leviticus‬ ‭23‬:‭9‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.”

The second harvest feast was Pentecost. 

And the third was the Feast of Tabernacles. 

Each event has a New Testament application and fulfillment.

Firstfruits had its prophetic fulfillment in Jesus and his resurrection — we will call this the beginning of harvest. 

Pentecost had its prophetic fulfillment in our Acts 2 text — we will call this the harvest in progress. 

Tabernacles will have its prophetic fulfillment at the end of the age, when there is the final ingathering of souls — we will call this the final harvest.

It may be difficult to comprehend the all-consuming nature of the harvest in an ancient agrarian society. 

The following illustrations will help you visualize the importance of the harvest.

A City Without Trucks

Imagine waking up tomorrow and every delivery truck in your city stops moving. 

No produce arrives at grocery stores. 

No bread is baked because no flour comes in. 

Restaurants shut down by noon. 

By day three, shelves are empty, tempers run high, and the city begins to feel fragile. 

That’s how deeply our lives depend on a harvest we never see.

In ancient Israel, people did see it. 

They planted, waited, prayed, and depended on God for rain, grain, and life itself. 

That dependence is what the harvest festivals celebrated: gratitude, provision, and trust in God’s faithfulness. 

Pentecost was not just a date — it was a declaration: “We live because God gives.”

Payday Meets Thanksgiving

In American cities, people celebrate payday with relief, and Thanksgiving with gratitude.

Canada, Liberia, Germany/Austria/Switzerland, South Korea, Ethiopia, China and other East Asian locations have similar thanksgiving festivals.

Imagine if your biggest payday and your biggest Thanksgiving happened on the same day — and the whole nation stopped to thank God together.

T

hat’s what the harvest festivals were. 

They were “payday” for the farmer — the grain harvest was finally in — and “Thanksgiving” for the nation, because God had once again proven faithful. 

Pentecost celebrated work, provision, dependence, and worship together.

The Rooftop Garden

Picture a skyscraper with a rooftop garden. 

The building is filled with people typing at computers, selling products, fixing elevators, and writing code. 

But the garden is what keeps them alive — it produces the food they need but never think about.

The ancient Israelites lived in that garden reality every day. 

They knew life was not built on human hustle but on God’s provision. 

Every harvest feast reminded them that God — not their effort — was the source of life.

Pentecost brought that truth into worship.

Leviticus 23:9-11

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 

Understanding Christ in the Firstfruits: 

The First Sheaf in an Ancient Field

In ancient Israel, farmers would walk their fields before the full harvest arrived. 

The very first ripened stalk of grain was not eaten, sold, or stored. 

It was cut, bundled, and brought to the priest. 

That single sheaf represented the entire field. 

If the first sheaf was good, the farmer knew the rest of the crop was coming.

One sheaf waved before the Lord meant the whole harvest was guaranteed.

The First Domino:

When the first domino falls, the entire chain is set in motion. 

The first movement guarantees the final outcome. 

The resurrection of Jesus is the first domino in the chain of redemption. 

Because he rose, the rest will follow. 

His empty tomb is not the end of the story — it is the beginning of the harvest.

The Down Payment:

When someone places a down payment on a house, it is not the full payment, but it guarantees the full purchase is coming. 

Christ’s resurrection is God’s down payment on the resurrection of all who belong to him. 

God has already made the first installment in history. 

He will not abandon the rest of the transaction.

1 Corinthians 15:20

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Jesus’ resurrection is that offering — the guarantee of more to come. 

His victory over death is not an isolated miracle but the beginning of the full harvest to come.

Key truth: God will complete what he started in Christ — in his plan of redemption and in our individual lives.

The Harvest in Progress 

Acts 2:1

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 

•Fifty days after Firstfruits came the Feast of Pentecost — the end of the grain harvest. 

The Holy Spirit is poured out on Pentecost in Acts 2, and 3,000 souls are saved and gathered to become the church on the same day.

•This is the church’s season — the time of the Spirit-empowered harvest.

Understanding the importance of the Holy Spirit in mission

The Wind Filling the Sails:

Imagine a ship stuck in harbor with full cargo but no wind. 

The destination is clear, the crew is ready, but there is no movement. 

Then suddenly, the wind comes. 

The sails fill. 

The ship moves with power it does not generate itself. 

That is Pentecost. 

The Spirit came like wind, and suddenly three thousand souls were saved and gathered to be the church in a single day (Acts 2:41). 

‭‭

Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭41‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

The harvest is not driven by human strength, but by the Holy Spirit’s power.

The Holy Spirit allows you to stand boldly for Christ and his truth in the midst of reviling, persecution, and false accusation that the gospel might continue forward in the love of God to the glory of God. 

Jesus said:

Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

He also said:

Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭26‬ ‭ESV

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

‭‭‬‬

Acts 4 is a clear example of how the church was able to stand by the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of persecution:

Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭23‬-‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

The Great Awakenings:

During the Great Awakenings, preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached to crowds numbering in the thousands. 

Entire towns were transformed, not by clever strategies but by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. 

Observers often wrote that it felt as though the Spirit himself was sweeping through communities. 

Pentecost is not a one-day event in Acts — it is the ongoing season of Spirit-empowered harvest throughout church history.

Key Truth: The Spirit given at Pentecost is God’s power for the Church to bring in the harvest.

The Final Harvest 

Jesus taught about the final harvest. 

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭24‬-‭30‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭36‬-‭43‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

•The Feast of Tabernacles celebrated the year’s final harvest. 

Israel gathered all crops, and God’s people rejoiced in his provision.

•The final “harvest” is the gathering of the redeemed of all nations into God’s eternal kingdom. 

The Final Gathering of the Crops:

At the Feast of Tabernacles, Israel gathered the last fruits, olives and grapes. 

The barns were full. 

The fields were cleared. 

The entire harvest had been brought in. 

It was a celebration of completion. 

Revelation 7 shows the ultimate Tabernacles moment — not of crops, but of people. 

Not from one field, but from every nation. 

Not from one village, but people from the entire world gathered before the Lamb.

The Olympic Opening Ceremony:

At the Olympic opening ceremony, nations from across the world enter the stadium one by one. 

Different languages, different cultures, different flags — but all gathered in one place. 

Revelation 7:9–10 is the eternal version of that scene.

The Great Reunion:

Imagine a massive family reunion where relatives arrive from every continent — some you have never met, some you thought were lost, some you never knew existed. 

That is the final harvest. 

God is not gathering a small group. 

He is gathering a redeemed humanity.

Revelation 7 pictures a great multitude from every nation, tribe and tongue standing before the throne.

Revelation 7:9-10

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 

Key Truth: The final chapter of redemption is for the redeemed of all nations to be gathered before God.

Conclusion

We live in the “in-between time” - between Pentecost and Tabernacles.  

The Feast of Firstfruits has already happened — Christ is risen. 

God has promised the final harvest where he will gather the redeemed of every nation to himself. 

But now we live in the Pentecost season where we are to be on mission as the church, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. 

Jesus is the Firstfruits — He is our risen Lord, the guarantee of the harvest.

We are Pentecost people — Spirit-filled, sent into the harvest fields.

Our hope is Tabernacles — the final ingathering of the redeemed of all nations into God’s presence.

Key Truth: God has given Pentecost power to reach the nations.

The Time Between Sunrise and Sunset

Christ’s resurrection is the sunrise. 

The final harvest is sunset. 

We live in the daylight hours — when the work must be done.

‭‭

John‬ ‭9‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

The Relay Race:

In a relay race, the first runner begins the race, but the victory requires multiple runners passing the baton until the finish line. 

Christ ran the first leg (Firstfruits). 

The Spirit empowers the church to run the middle leg (Pentecost). 

The final runner crosses the finish line (Final Harvest). 

We are the middle runners in God’s redemptive relay.

The Fields Are Already White

A missionary once described flying over a rural region during harvest season. 

From the air, the fields were golden and ready, but many remained unharvested because there were not enough workers. 

He said, “The problem was not the crop. The problem was the labor force.”

May we not be part of the problem, but God’s willing, joyful, thankful servants who by all means make Christ, his cross and his redemption known in the nations!

Appendix:

So again, there is an Historical and Theological Backdrop to Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost changed everything; it was a turning point in redemption history. 

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit fulfilled ancient promises, inaugurated the Church, and initiated her mission.

Pentecost in the Old Testament

Pentecost was one of three major Jewish pilgrimage festivals, celebrated fifty days from the first Sabbath after Passover (Exodus 23:16). 

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭23‬:‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.”

Pilgrims came from every corner of the known world to Jerusalem. 

They remembered Mount Sinai, where God gave the Law, and read Ruth, a story of redemption for the nations.

The Prophets Saw It Coming

Joel saw the day that would be described in Acts 2: God pouring his Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28–32). 

‭‭Joel‬ ‭2‬:‭28‬-‭32‬ ‭ESV‬‬

““And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.”

Ezekiel promised a new heart and Spirit for restoration (Ezekiel 36:25–27). 

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Isaiah likened it to water reviving scorched earth (Isaiah 44:3). 

‭‭

Isaiah‬ ‭44‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”

Pentecost didn’t arrive unannounced—it was promised.

Jesus Prepared Them

John the Baptist spoke of the One who would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Jesus promised to send us a Helper and a Guide (John 14:15–17). 

‭‭

John‬ ‭14‬:‭15‬-‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

Before his ascension, he instructed his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for power to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:4–8).

‭‭Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭4‬-‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

A New Covenant Sealed

There can be no Pentecost without Christ’s salvific work. 

Through his death and resurrection, he inaugurated the New Covenant and enabled the Spirit’s outpouring (John 7:39; Hebrews 9:15). 

‭‭John‬ ‭7‬:‭39‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭9‬:‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

At Sinai, God gave the Law on stone; at Pentecost, the Spirit inscribed his law on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31–34; 2 Corinthians 3:3). 

‭‭John‬ ‭7‬:‭39‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭9‬:‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

This empowers us to live as Christ’s witnesses.

The Mission Begins

Pentecost was not just an event but a commission—a climactic moment in redemption. 

It fulfilled prophecy, confirmed Christ’s work, and began the Spirit’s empowerment of the Church. 

The Spirit enabled us to overcome barriers, proclaim the gospel, and fulfill God’s mission to redeem all nations. 

What started in that upper room surged outward, reaching nations and reshaped human history.

Royals: Always Give Up, Always Surrender to the King of Kings

Royals: Always Give Up, Always Surrender to the King of Kings

Focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late. 

Setting the Scene:

The Israelites have been exiled to Babylon! After the Southern Kingdom (Judah) and Northern Kingdom (Israel) split due to dueling factions of King Rehoboam and King Jeroboam, the kingdoms each experienced a series of kings (and one queen) that led them down a path of self-destruction. Israel had all bad kings, but Judah (whose kingdom we will focus on today) had a few kings who did right in the sight of the LORD. However, this ebb and flow of evil, somewhat compromised, and good kings could not stop Judah’s steady drift towards judgment. When King Jehoiakim takes the throne, he is besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire and Judah is taken into captivity. This is where our story begins.

We will now shift our focus from Kings of Judah to the King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s story is covered in the first four chapters of Daniel and it will mirror many of the themes of the Kings of Judah. In his story we will see that he consistently acknowledges God but also consistently lives in the way he wants to live and rebels against God’s sovereignty. It is not until he is forcefully humbled and broken that he truly turns to God at the end of his story.

We will consider his story and our focus statement in four sections: The Diet, the Dream, the Furnace, and the Beast.

The Diet:

In the beginning of the Israelites’ captivity four faithful characters emerge: Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar) and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (whom were called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). They are brought into the king’s palace along with others to be educated about the kingdom’s culture and laws and will eventually stand before the king.

These four young men refuse to eat the king’s food because it is against the law of God. They strike a deal with the steward of the king to eat the food sanctioned by God for 10 days and then they will compare with the other men. At the end of the 10 days, they are proven to be in far better condition than their counterparts and the steward orders their diet to replace the king’s. Finally, they are brought before the king and are found to be 10 times better than all of the king’s current advisors and are raised up to prominent positions in the kingdom. (Daniel 1:8-21)

Through this story, King Nebuchadnezzar is given a taste of this fact: God’s ways are better. It is his first of many encounters with this truth.

The Dream:

In Daniel 2:1-16, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that troubles him and keeps him up at night. He summons his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans and commands them not only to interpret his dream, but he challenges them to reveal his dream without him telling them. They cannot do this and try to extrapolate the dream so they can make up an interpretation.

“Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.” (Daniel 2:4-5 ESV)

Seeing that their fate is all but decided, the wise men seek our Daniel, whom they know possesses the gift of interpretation. Daniel stops their execution and comes before the king. He then reveals the dream and interprets it thus: God has a plan to raise up kingdom after kingdom, all of them rising and falling until a kingdom rises up that is not made by human hands that will rule supreme over all of the previous kingdoms. 

(Daniel 2:24-45)

The dream is an illustration of God’s sovereignty to all kingdoms and kings, including the kingdom of Babylon and the great king Nebuchadnezzar. It is a stark statement that God is ultimately in control despite the successes of Babylon over Judah.

To this, King Nebuchadnezzar falls on his face and declares a seemingly complete acknowledgment of Daniel’s God, our God:

The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king's court. (Daniel 2:47-49)

It would seem that Nebuchadnezzar has learned and retained a valuable lesson. But the very next verse in chapter 3 tells a different story, which emphasizes the first part of our focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully.

The Furnace:

Daniel 3:1a opens with this statement:

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold…

But the king had acknowledged God fully in the previous story, didn’t he? And yet, he constructs an image of gold for all to bow down to and worship in complete contradiction with the laws of the “God of gods and Lord of kings.”

Ultimately, an acknowledgment of the One True God is meaningless if it does not result in full submission to Him.

The story continues. Nebuchadnezzar constructs a 90ft golden idol that is placed in the middle of Dura, which was in the province of Babylon. He commands that whenever the residents of Babylon (including the captive Jews) hear the distinct sound of instruments, they are to respond by bowing down and worshiping the golden image. If they do not, they will be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse. They are brought before the king and when asked to do it they respond thus:

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” 

(Daniel 3:16-18)

The king then heats the furnace up 7x more than it was originally, to really make sure he takes care of these fools, and has some of the mighty men of his army bind the three men and throw them in. The fire is so hot that the men who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in die.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

 (Daniel 3:24-30)

Nebuchadnezzar not only saw this miracle but he saw the One who performed it in the fourth man of the fire. Many interpret this individual to be Jesus Christ Himself, standing with and protecting those who refused to bow down to anyone but Him. This is a stark exhortation to Nebuchadnezzar that the only One worthy of full submission, of worship, of bending the knee to is Jesus – the One True God. Not a golden idol, not himself, but only God deserves such praise and honor. The king proclaims:

King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. 

How great are his signs,

    how mighty his wonders!

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

    and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

(Daniel 4:1-3)

Nebuchadnezzar has seen three wonders, each one better than the next, and he has acknowledged the superiority of God every time and especially this last time. But… our story will continue in Daniel 4:4-27.

The Beast:

After the story of the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar is given a second dream. When Daniel interprets it, it is found to be a warning to the king that if he does not break off from his sins by practicing righteousness and all of his iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, he will experience a humbling so harsh that he will literally live like a beast of the field. (Daniel 4:4-27)

Once again, Nebuchadnezzar receives a mercy from God in the form of a miracle and he chooses to acknowledge it, then ignore it. We see him walking on the roof of his palace and praising himself: 

At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:29-30)

Let’s Talk About It!

Let’s revisit our focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late.

Nebuchadnezzar over and over again pays grandiose lip service to God, statements that when read seem like he is turning the corner. He has fully acknowledged God and said all the right things one should say when encountering God’s wonders and God Himself, but ultimately his words are empty because they are followed by Nebuchadnezzar’s insistence to live the way he wants to live. His faith in God has stopped at mere acknowledgement and has not followed through with obedience and submission.

Have you ever done this? Do you know someone who has?

It is an all-too-common thing to customize our belief system to fit with our preferences. If you don’t like the idea that homosexual acts are sinful, you can find a belief system that doesn’t teach that. Don’t like the idea that some people go to hell? There are plenty of belief stystems that deny its existence.

Nebuchadnezzar essentially did this. He did not like that a belief in the Most High God would make him submit and obey God, so he decided he would praise God, yes, but then make a golden idol, attempt to kill the servants of God, and praise himself, his actual god, when observing his perceived greatness. It was a belief system that included the One True God but precluded any disruption in his preferred lifestyle. He made up his own belief system.

But we should not believe in Christianity simply because it is our preferred belief system. In fact, for anyone who is intellectually honest, Christianity is a harsh pill to swallow: loved ones will go to Hell if they do not repent and believe, we are called to lay down our lives and take up our crosses to follow Jesus, we are promised hate, persecution, and even death for our beliefs, it’s not all roses! 

But the reason we should believe in Christianity, in Christ, is because it is true.

It is a fact that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead on the third day. Since that is true, Jesus is who He said He is: He is God, the God of gods and Lord of kings. If we do not submit fully to that reality then we would deny reality itself.

But the reality of Jesus is also that Jesus is love, that He died for us so that we might live through Him, that He wants our best and desires to walk alongside us through this life and the next. It is a beautiful reality not just to be acknowledged, but to be submitted to fully. Don’t you want to place the outcome of your eternity on the truth?

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

But, the wrath of God remains on those who do not submit to God:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)

We don’t get to acknowledge reality without submitting to it and think that everything will work out in the end. If you believe in the reality of gravity yet deny it by jumping off the Sears Tower in attempts to fly, guess what will happen?

So here is the challenge: Seek that which is true.

Start with the empty tomb. Seek and find the truth as to why Jesus Christ’s tomb was empty. Every theory falls flat, like it leapt off the Sears Tower, except for the truth that Jesus Christ said He would rise from the dead and He did. Since that is true, what does it demand of your life? Will it be simply nodding to this truth or will it be a transformative recognition that Jesus loves you and that Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is the only one who can save you from the wrath of God?

So we need to make a decision. If Christ did not rise from the dead then Christianity is pure evil. It would demand complete submission and self-sacrifice for nothing and Christians will waste their life and are to be pitied among all (1 Corinthians 15:12-19) But if He did rise from the dead, He is worth it all.

The Beast (cont.)

Let’s finish our story. Remember the focus statement, especially the last part: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late. 

Nebuchadnezzar has received a warning from his second dream to break off from his sin, practice righteousness, and show mercy to the oppressed or he will become like a beast of the field.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws. 

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

    and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;

 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

    and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

    and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand

    or say to him, “What have you done?”

At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

(Daniel 4:28-37)

We see in this final passage that Nebuchadnezzar was able to “successfully” customize and limit his submission to God until God literally humbled him by making him a beast of the field. Then, and only then, did Nebuchadnezzar truly submit.

Jesus promises that this submission will happen within all of our lives, whether we like it or not.

By myself I have sworn;

    from my mouth has gone out in righteousness

    a word that shall not return:

‘To me every knee shall bow,

    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

(Isaiah 45:23)

…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

(Philippians 2:10b-11)

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

(Revelation 5:13)

So this is the truth: you will submit to Jesus and proclaim that He is Lord. But your choice is whether to do it on this side of glory or the next. Nebuchadnezzar was fortunate enough to have God intervene in his life and humble him to the point of submission before he died. That is not a promise God makes to all, but a merciful choice He makes to few. 

What he promises is that if you bow to him now, He has a way that is better for you as exemplified in Daniel’s diet, He has truth and revelation for you in His Word as modeled in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and that He will protect and walk alongside you as shown in the fiery furnace. 

Don’t be like Nebuchadnezzar and pick, choose, and customize your relationship with God’s truth until God humbles you, likely when it is too late. Instead, choose Jesus. Choose truth. Bask in the security that His death, burial, and resurrection provide to your eternal soul and live a life dedicated to honoring Him and leading others home. It is the best God has for you in this life.

So if you do not yet believe or if you have lived your life on the fence, come home. Come home to Jesus. He is true, He is the God of gods and Lord of kings, He is so, so good.

Royals: Raising the Next Generation

Royals: Raising the Next Generation

Happy Mother’s Day! 

Focus: Natural and spiritual are appointed by God to help form the next generation for Christ.  

• Project Hail Mary

• Prophetess and a King 

• Our Passover Lamb

Project Hail Jesus

Mothers are appointed by God to help call out the purposes of God. 

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭22‬:‭1‬-10 ‭ESV‬‬

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.” And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.”

God already has in his heart and mind what he desires for each person to be and do.  

King David would have this revelation when he said:

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭139‬:‭13‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”

Josiah and who he would be in the Lord was spoken about generations before. 

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’”

Project Hail Mary told the story the story that is true of all of our lives:

We are trying to figure out who we are 

When called to mission we think, “It can’t be me!”

Natural mothers and spiritual mothers in the faith help call the purposes of God out of people. 

Natural and spiritual mothers help us remember that life isn’t just about us, but it’s about Christ, his gospel and his Kingdom.  

“Family is a gift to enjoy, but it makes a terrible god. And it can become a god whether one is married with kids, married and childless, or single. The church itself is rightly family-oriented, and the desire to have a family is a wonderful, God-given desire, but family does not belong on the throne of our hearts. The throne of our heart is reserved for Christ alone. The family is not the good news we need; it is not our gospel message, however many put all their hope in parents, grandparents, siblings, and children. 

If we aren’t careful, family can impede the gospel, instead of drawing us further into the gospel. The family was designed by God to reflect him and the love within the Trinity, the love we are brought into through the good news. Family must point us to God and his gospel. We must love our family through Christ, and for Christ. 

The family is God’s means for us to drive upward into a far more important relationship and a far greater love. As Paul says in Romans 11:36, “For from him and through him and to him are all things,” so the family obviously falls inside these lines. 

Family is from him, family is through him, and family is to him.”

….

“The alternative to worshiping family as god is to worship God through our family. Family is not meant to impede the gospel, but to further it — to secure our hearts for God, not distract us from him.”

-Liz Wann.  She is the author of The End of Me: Finding Resurrection Life in the Daily Sacrifices of Motherhood.

‭‭

2 Kings‬ ‭22‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.””

*Natural and spiritual mothers help our worldview be shaped by the word of God. 

Prophetess and a King 

Mothers are appointed by God to help affirm the word of God. 

Huldah the prophetess helped shape King Josiah’s worldview with the word of the Lord.  

‭‭

2 Kings‬ ‭22‬:‭14‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.”

Both natural and spiritual mothers in the Lord are important for helping build lives on the word of God.  

As Josiah was influenced by natural and spiritual mothers, he rose up to be a national reformer, notable in the eyes of the Lord.  

“NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE THAN BEING ONE OF GOD'S TOOLS TO FORM A HUMAN SOUL.”

-Paul David Tripp

What were Josiah’s reforms when he heard the Book of the Law (I Kings 23)?

• No more privatized spirituality - Josiah brought worship back to the Temple in Jerusalem 

• An outright attack on idolatry - Josiah burned the items devoted to the false gods Baal, Asherah and astral deities found in Yahweh’s Temple, and destroyed those used for child sacrifice.

• Went to the root - Josiah ventured into the former Northern Kingdom and destroyed the altar at Bethel built by Jeroboam. 

• According to his Word - Following the discovery of the Law, Josiah would have the people of God renew their covenant with Yahweh. 

All of Josiah’s reforms culminated with the restoration of the Passover celebration - the first since the time of Judges. 

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭23‬:‭21‬-‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.”

*Scholars estimate this would have been 300 to over 400 years where a central festival and expectation of worship that Yahweh ordained was unseen amongst the people of God. 

What things are we neglecting in Scripture because it has been generations since these truths have been upheld?

i.e. - the person and power of the Holy Spirit was unfamiliar to me until I read I Corinthians 12-14. 

*This implies how long elements of Scripture can remain neglected, yet still important to God, while we suffer all the while because of our willful ignorance and disobedience.   

Our Passover Lamb

Mothers are appointed by God to help lead us to the Lamb of God. 

Jesus is our Passover lamb that is central to all of our worship. 

Whereas Josiah’s reforms were built on the word of God, that word all leads to Jesus, the Lamb of God and the truth found in his gospel.  

So what should a mother let their natural and spiritual children know to call out the truths and purposes of God in their lives?

Paul would later say in the New Testament to the people of God:

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Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Christ our sinless, unblemished Passover lamb was sacrificed on the cross to take the punishment for our sins.  

Jesus died but rose three days later so that as we turn from our willful ignorance and disobedience, we might not only see Jesus reform our lives, but our families, our cities and the nations in which we live. 

Just as we celebrate mothers today, let’s even more importantly celebrate Jesus who came to redeem all of our broken lives from Hell.  

The Break-Up: New Family Dynamics

The Break-Up: New Family Dynamics

Focus: In every family line, there are patterns that Jesus comes to break to the glory of God. 

Where you started is not where you will end, nor is today meant to be your destiny - let Christ break the chains.  

• What Needs to Change?

• How is it Going to Change?

• Faith for change
  
  

What Needs to Change?

Before we can see the glory of God in our families, we need to identify what needs to change. 

This is a story that begins with David, is sidetracked by Solomon, his son, continues to go astray under David’s grandson Abijam and is finally turned with Asa, David’s great-grandson. 

So let it not be missed that this is a family that had exposure to God and should have known the Lord.  

The point is that no matter where we begin, we all need the salvation that can only come through Jesus.  

So we know about the curse of control in the northern kingdom of Samaria under Jeroboam. 

What was happening in the southern kingdom of Judah under Rehoboam? 

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬-‭31 ‭ESV‬‬

“Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house. He took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made, and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard carried them and brought them back to the guardroom. Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.  And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. And Abijam his son reigned in his place.”

Now we begin to see the generational effects of Solomon’s sin. 

*Just because you can quote the Scripture doesn’t mean you’re living in the reality or benefit of it - you need to obey it by faith. 

Solomon wrote proverbs but didn’t obey the words God inspired him to write.  

Among his many wives was a woman named Naamah the Ammonite.  

Remember that as Solomon’s heart clung to these foreign women, his heart drifted from Yahweh and was turned to the worship of false gods introduced by his wives.  

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.”

Ammonite worship involved high places, burnt offerings, and sometimes child sacrifices, which were strongly condemned by Yahweh.

According to 1 Kings 11:5, 33 and archaeological finds, Milcom was the chief deity of Ammon. 

Milcom is an epithet likely related to the Canaanite supreme god El or meant "great king".

Several scholars believe Milcom and Molech are either the same deity or that Molech was a title for the sacrificial aspect of their worship, which is strongly associated with child sacrifice by fire.

Scripture records that King Solomon was influenced by his Ammonite wives to build high places for Milcom in Jerusalem, leading to severe judgement by Yahweh.

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬-‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless, for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem, because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. The rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. And Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his place.”

Abijam would follow in the sins of his father Rehoboam. 

Some sins of the family are obvious and rejected - no one wants anything to do with them because of the pain that they’ve caused.  

*Other sins have so deceptively woven themselves into the ethos and story of the family that they have found acceptance, and therefore don’t even register as candidates for change. 

The sins of Solomon were passed down to his son Rehoboam who continued the family patterns of sin without realizing things needed to change.  

Solomon had been judged, Rehoboam had had ten of the tribes removed from him, but Abijam would still continue in their error. 

How often is it the case that we don’t have the discernment to identify the sins that God has resisted in our lineage, considering them normal because to us, they are simply a part of what defines our family?

We feel the effects of the sin and judgement, but don’t know what to do.  

These are destructive patterns and cycles that Jesus comes to break. 

*What are those patterns and cycles in your family that are not congruent with the word of God?

Is it how you communicate with one another?

Is there a critical, cynical or sarcastic pattern that squeezes out the fruit of kindness?
Has there been a pattern of infidelity or violence?

Is there a self-absorption that crushes considering others' needs above your own?

Have money, status and success been your family’s God?

What about keeping up appearances at all costs?  

Is there a comparison to others that has you living under a weight of judgment that is not the Lord?

In the midst of the Israelites erecting false gods, we see the enemy’s plan to bring division amongst the people of God. 

Remember, the nation of Israel was one big family. 

However, when the family wasn’t right with Yahweh, choosing to disobey his commandments and choosing to worship other gods, the Israelites turned on one another and were at war with each other rather than their enemies.  

*When we are not fighting our true enemy, the devil, and like Christ, looking to destroy the devil’s works, the people of God instead turn on one another.  

Writing from prison, chained in persecution for the gospel, the apostle Paul would exhort the church in Philippi this way:

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.”

We don’t have time to fight when we are doing the Lord’s work together. 

This is true in our church family as well. 

How is it Going to Change?

We need to see through the eyes of the Lord if we are going to see a change. 

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭15‬:‭9‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah, and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done. He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days. And he brought into the house of the Lord the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels.”

The change we need comes when we see through the eyes of the Lord, not our own, and get a heavenly vision for our lives.  

Asa did what was right by looking to do what was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord above what was pleasing to his family.

He couldn’t just do what his family had always done and be right with God. 

Asa had to make changes. 

These changes more than likely cost him a momentary sense of identity, belonging and security - but he would ultimately find these in Yahweh.  

King Asa would lead his family and people to do the same. 

There was love in the family, or at least respect - enough to keep grandma Maacah around.  

However, her influence had to go because she was causing the family, and as a result, the people of Israel to sin by introducing the Asherah image to the people of Israel.  

Jesus said that a sign of his work in our lives is that we begin to love people as he does.    

However, Jesus also stated that any other love must pale in comparison to him as he also said:

‭‭Luke‬ ‭14‬:‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭ESV‬‬

““If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

King Asa started the change by removing the male cult prostitutes and idols that his grandfather Rehoboam had allowed to enter the land.  

Removing Maacah from her place of influence was next. 

“We forget that God’s primary goal is not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we can be holy.”

-Paul David Tripp 

For some of you on the precipice of or just getting married, it will be about establishing a new, Christ-ordained and gospel-centered vision for your family.  

You can honor that which was godly from your 

family line, but make sure to invite Christ in to develop new patterns around that which was not God-honoring, that you might see Jesus write a different story, for his glory, going forward.   

This is also important for those who have been married for years or have families that have already been ravaged by years without the Lord at the helm. 

There is still hope for you as you invite Jesus to be the Lord of your present and future. 

And may I suggest to you that this is where we find the true grace of God, and unlock a supernatural joy that can not be taken because it is both authored and preserved by the Holy Spirit?

May I suggest to you that this is when our families are put in God’s right order and are truly blessed?

Faith for Change

Jesus, the miracle working God, tells us to repent and believe the good news that through his power alone, our families have the ability to change and be saved.  

‭‭Mark‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

‭‭Mark‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!””

We can have faith for ourselves and for our families.  

Our families should be some of the first people for whom we pray and make efforts to introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Many of our own people have taken the time to do the One to One and Purple Book with family members, seeing them come to Christ and be baptized! 

Going back to Philippi, we see the conversion of the hardened jailer who would be saved by Jesus and open the door for salvation to his entire household:

‭‭Acts‬ ‭16‬:‭29‬-‭33‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.”

Because of Jesus’ sinless life and substitutionary death on the cross for humanity’s sins, we all have an opportunity to see family curses broken and the hope for new patterns of worship unto Christ.  

Through Jesus, we have the hope of true forgiveness and eternal life.  

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

Remember that the apostle Peter was writing this as an Israelite himself, who had empty ways of life handed down to him from those who should have known better.  

Let’s respond to that which God wants to change and come into the fullness of the freedom and transformation that Jesus wants to bring to our family lines through repentance and faith.  

The Break-Up: The Curse of Control

The Break-Up: The Curse of Control 

Focus: The blessing of God comes through faith and obedience. 

Jeroboam, desiring to control his own destiny,  contrived his own version of spirituality and directly short-circuited the blessing God would have brought through faith and obedience.  We need to make sure not to do the same.  

• God’s Initiative 

• Golden Ticket

• God to the Rescue

God’s Initiative 

Trying to control your life will forever be at odds with serving Jesus Christ.  

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭11‬:‭26‬-‭34‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the breach of the city of David his father. The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. And at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had dressed himself in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the open country. Then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes (but he shall have one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel), because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my rules, as David his father did. Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes.”

The call of God on our lives can begin in the midst of turmoil and tragedy. 

How we interpret and respond to those circumstances is of utmost importance to our walk with God.  

Jeroboam came to the throne of Israel as a result of non-ideal circumstances. 

Because of King Solomon’s sin, God divided the nation of Israel into the northern and southern kingdoms. 

The northern Kingdom would consist of the ten tribes of Israel and come to be known as Samaria, after its capital city.  

The southern kingdom would still be ruled by Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son, and King David’s descendants.  

The southern kingdom would be known as Judah and Jerusalem would be its capital, found in the territory of Benjamin.  

God used Rehoboam’s lack of esteem for the counsel of the older men who had served his father Solomon to tear the kingdom from his hands and turn it over to Jeroboam, who Yahweh chose to lead the northern ten tribes (I Kings 12:1-20). 

What Jeroboam should have understood from this is:

• God had chosen him, was for him and appointed him for successful rulership, service and blessing.  

• All Jeroboam had to do was trust God, love him and serve him in his ways.  

It is the same for us.  

We often try to forge our own way with our own wisdom, but God’s blessings are directly wrapped up in his grace released through faith and obedience to his commands.  

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”

This simply means learn to pray about things before you do them.  

God has thoughts on how you spend your life - your time, talents, resources and pursuits.  

Don’t presume, pray. 

Don’t decide for yourself, determine what the Word of God has to say. 

Following Jesus always has God’s Kingdom as the centerpiece and our blessings as a benefit of being a part of that kingdom (Matthew 6:33).  

However, his kingdom is an eternal one and eternity is the place where God’s rewards will be fully realized.  

In the meantime, there is a daily cross to bear as we honor Jesus and participate in his great commission to make disciples of all the nations. 

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭11‬:‭38‬-‭40‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. And I will afflict the offspring of David because of this, but not forever.’” Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.”

Jesus' life instruction to the disciples was summarized in this statement - FOLLOW ME.

But what does that truly mean?

What is it that causes us to go astray when God has set his people up for nothing but eternal good?

• The momentary cost

• Fear that God won’t come through on his promises. 

• Thinking we have a better plan or could get a better result. 

*The truth is God is always trying to set us up for what will be best for us and to his glory in the long run - though we often buckle because we are too short-sighted to see it.  

This is where Jeroboam would fall short.  

Golden Ticket

The things that we fear often try to control us at the expense of choosing to trust Christ whom we serve. 

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭12‬:‭26‬-‭32‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their Lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.”

When you attempt to maintain control in your life, you erect false gods to replace Christ that will inevitably give you what you think you want rather than what God ordains. 

How was Jeroboam responding to his fears?

Jeroboam was creating a spirituality of his own making - one that Yahweh would ultimately reject. 

Though the levitical tribes held cities all throughout Israel, they would eventually migrate to the southern Kingdom of Judah after King Jeroboam established golden calf worship to the abhorrence of Yahweh. 

‭‭2 Chronicles‬ ‭11‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him from all places where they lived. For the Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the Lord, and he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for the calves that he had made.”

By placing one golden calf in Bethel and one in Dan, Jeroboam was reinforcing the boundaries of his new northern kingdom.  

In essence Jeroboam was saying, “I will worship God as long as it fits into my life plan with the goals and boundaries I have placed in life for myself.”

The problem with making these declarations is that Jesus says unless we deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him, we can not be his disciple.  

What many people desire is their own version of controlled, sanitized Christianity. 

How we know what we are gravitating to such a false faith is how we respond when someone comes near to, threatens or touches what has functionally become our idols. 

*Just as in the time of Aaron when he erected a golden calf for the wayward Israelites, so any bull we attempt to substitute for God and his ways will ultimately disappoint and be judged. 

This was seen in the fictionalized life of Madame Bovary.   

“But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands.”

-Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary

The same was dramatized in the Brad Pitt movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. 

So the question is:

Who or what are you really serving?

An article from the Gospel Coalition reminds us of an historic parallel:

In 1534, Henry VIII—whom the Pope dubbed “Defender of the Faith” because of his work opposing Luther’s teaching—broke from Rome and established himself as the head of the newly formed Church of England. What caused the change? Henry wanted to retain his grip on power, and to do that, he needed the male heir his wife couldn’t provide him—yet the Vatican wouldn’t grant his divorce.

Henry didn’t break from Rome because he held to the doctrine of justification by faith alone but because he held political power as his ultimate good. Politics, not religion, motivated his nefarious deeds. That’s why he put to death both Catholics like Thomas More and Protestants like Thomas Cromwell.

Esteem power and control above personal piety, and you’ll invariably follow a similar course. That’s exactly what happens in 1 Kings 12 to the first king of Samaria.

*What happens when God tells you to do something that cuts against your comfort, will or plans?

*Many of us can’t think of such an instance because we don’t acknowledge him to ask how we are making decisions in our lives - whether we are on his trajectory for us or our own.  

How are you strategizing and building your life without God, his Word or his counsel? 

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭12‬:‭33‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.”

*Where do you try to control the outcomes of your life and make decisions that put you at odds with God’s commands? 

1 Kings‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’” And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before.”

‭‭

*Why do we opt to try to maintain control in our lives, even when God’s ways are different and better?

*Possibly because of his need to escape to Egypt until the death of Solomon, Jeroboam had developed a survival mentality rather than a sanctified mentality (understanding that he was called to live in faith, set apart to Yahweh).  

We often do the same because of:

Past disappointments 

Trauma

Fear of the future 

Etc. 

*We all have choices to make when we are hurt, disillusioned or disappointed in life - with our relational status, with our careers, our health, with our marriages, with our children, with our station in life.  

*Will we trust God and continue to sow the seeds of faith and obedience to his Word or will we get disgruntled, bitter and take life into our own hands to our own detriment.  

It was ironic that Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam as Jeroboam was a threat to Solomon’s kingdom, just as Saul had tried to kill Solomon’s father, David, when God anointed David to be Saul’s successor.  

When Solomon’s heart drifted from the Lord, so did his ability to see similar destructive patterns. 

*Unlike King David, in his hurt, Jeroboam did not trust the Lord, but attempted to take his fate into his own hands and ended up rejecting the God who had called him to the good things Jeroboam desired. 

The truth is that people are often forgotten by others in suffering, but God does not forget you.

The prophet Isaiah would later write around 559-539 BC, during Israel’s Babylonian exile:  

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭49‬:‭14‬-‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you. Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the Lord, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does. “Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land— surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.’ Then you will say in your heart: ‘Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?’” Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.””

Jeroboam wanted to seize the man of God that confronted him so that the man of God would not interrupt his plans or his vision of how his world should function. 

However, God was not having it.   

When we resist God’s instructions to try to maintain control, it always comes back to bite us - but as with Jeroboam’s dried up hand, in turning back to God, there is restoration.  

*Even in the discipline, God was giving Jeroboam a chance to turn by restoring his hand to health.  

This is always the heart of God, but it’s like the modern news cycle - our proclivity is that if it isn’t directly in our face, we forget about it.  

The problem with Jeroboam, much like Pharaoh of Egypt, is that when his hand was restored, he returned to his hardness of heart and sin.  

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭13‬:‭33‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places.”

*Where have you been hard-hearted, refusing to turn to the commands of God despite repeated warnings from those who would share the word of God with you?

God to the Rescue

Jesus perfectly fulfilled the commands of God and therefore became both our perfect king and perfect savior.  

How was Jesus different?

Jesus didn’t look to sidestep the commands of God - he looked to fulfill them.  

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus understood that life and peace were found in following the ways of God and did so as a perfect example for us.  

‭‭

Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Because Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law of God, he could be a perfect substitute, taking our punishment for sin on the cross. 

Because he was perfectly innocent, Jesus rose from the dead to give forgiveness and eternal life to all who would turn from their sin, choosing to follow him in faith and obedience.

Let’s turn back to the God of grace today who, through Jesus, gives us the hope of a good inheritance as we turn from our own ways to his benevolent future as we trust and obey him. 

The King We Long For… The Life We Want

 The King We Long For… The Life We Want

—and Why Neither Is Enough

Part 1: Introduction— Royals, a Lookback

Part 2: Solomon in 3 Acts

Part 3: Conclusion— Jesus, King of the Universe, King of our Hearts

OPENING TEXT

Jeremiah 2:1-13 ESV

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, 

“I remember the devotion of your youth,
    your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
    in a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the firstfruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it incurred guilt;
    disaster came upon them,
declares the Lord.” 

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord:

“What wrong did your fathers find in me
    that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord
    who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
    in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
    in a land that none passes through,
    where no man dwells?’

And I brought you into a plentiful land
    to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in, you defiled my land
    and made my heritage an abomination.

The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
    Those who handle the law did not know me;
the shepherds transgressed against me;
    the prophets prophesied by Baal
    and went after things that do not profit.

“Therefore I still contend with you,
declares the Lord,
    and with your children's children I will contend. 

For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see,
    or send to Kedar and examine with care;
    see if there has been such a thing.

Has a nation changed its gods,
    even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
    for that which does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
    be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,

for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
    the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
    broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Part 1 - Introduction: A Recap of Royals

Over the past several Months, since we started our Royals series in February, we’ve been asking one central question:
 

What kind of King is Jesus—and will we recognize Him when He returns?

And along the way, we’ve uncovered three defining truths:

Revelation → Jesus is the true King (Chosen One)

Reframing → His kingship is not what you expect (suffering → glory)

Response → You must choose who rules your life

Comparing Jesus with all the Royals so far, we’ve seen the identity of the true King—that Jesus was not driven by ambition, is not self-appointed or culturally constructed, but God’s chosen King. 

The one who not only perfectly embodies justice, mercy, and righteousness, but ultimately satisfies our deepest longings. 

He’s our shepherd, our light, our daily bread… our very life. Everything that He claims in the Gospel of John, pointed to what the Israelites- like us- continually long for.

As if directly addressing Jeremiah’s admonition that the Israelites “dug their own cisterns” after being provided for, in John 7, during the Pouring of Water ritual at the Festival of Tabernacles (or Sukkot), a major week-long Jewish harvest festival (the 15th-21st of the seventh month) celebrating God's provision and wilderness protection, Jesus offers Himself as the "living water":

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

John 7:37-39 ESV

Secondly: We’ve seen the inversion of kingship—that Jesus doesn’t rule the way we expect. He doesn’t dominate; He serves humly. He doesn’t grasp for power; He lays it down. He is the King who is crucified before He is crowned.

Several passages in Isaiah point to Jesus being a different King, more so, as the King who truly offers what we desire:

Isaiah 11:1-5

 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

    the Spirit of counsel and might,

    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,

    and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

Isaiah 12:3-5

 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  And you will say in that day:

“Give thanks to the Lord,

    call upon his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples,

    proclaim that his name is exalted.

“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;

    let this be made known in all the earth.

 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

    for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

There it is again: wells, water, everlasting quenching…

Doesn’t this resonate? Because we always wrestle with the rival kings of the heart—that every one of us is ruled by something that we thirst for like water. Power, success, approval, control—these things compete for the throne. The question is not if you have a king, but who that king is.

And here’s what ties all of this together:

The kind of king we long for reveals the kind of life we want for ourselves.

What we desire in a king—security, influence, success, peace, significance—those aren’t just abstract ideals. They’re deeply personal. They reflect the life we would choose… if we could.

And that’s why Solomon is so compelling.

Because Solomon doesn’t just look like the king we want— he looks like the life we want.

He stands at the pinnacle of human achievement:

• Unmatched wisdom

• Unimaginable wealth

• Global influence

• Political peace

• Cultural brilliance

If you could design a life marked by success, stability, and significance—it would look a lot like Solomon’s. And for a moment, it seems like it works.

The kingdom flourishes. The temple is built. The promises of God feel close—almost within reach. But Solomon’s story doesn’t just show us the height of what we can become.

It reveals the limits of everything we long for.

Because the same things that make Solomon great… become the very things that lead him away from God.

• The wisdom that should have anchored him… becomes detached from obedience

• The success that should have pointed to God… becomes centered on himself

• The blessings he received… become rival kings that capture his heart

Solomon reflects our longing for a true King—but he cannot fulfill it. He embodies the kind of life we think will satisfy us— but ultimately shows that it won’t.

And that’s why his story doesn’t end with him. It points beyond him.

To a better King.
A truer King.

A King who would not just possess wisdom—but be wisdom.
 

A King who would not accumulate power—but lay it down.
 

A King who would not be divided by rival loves—but remain perfectly faithful.

Solomon shows us the life we want. Jesus shows us the life we need.

And today, as we walk through Solomon’s story, we’re going to see both:

• The height of human kingship

• And the deep need for a greater one

Because in the end, this isn’t just about Solomon.

It’s about the same longings—and the same competing kings—that still fight for our hearts today.

Part 2 - Solomon in Three Acts

• Act 1: A Divided Heart

• Act 2: A Distracted Heart

• Act 3: A Decayed Heart

Act 1: A Divided Heart

1 Kings 3:3 (ESV)

“Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.”

Solomon begins well. He loves the Lord, he walks in David’s ways, and when God invites him to ask for anything, he asks for wisdom. At this point, he looks like the fulfillment of everything Israel hoped for in a king.

It’s hard to not imagine Solomon not knowing what an undivided heart looks like when we read this passage from one of the books he himself wrote:

Song of Solomon 2:1-6, 2:16

As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,

so is my beloved among the young men.

With great delight I sat in his shadow,

 and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house,

and his banner over me was love.

Sustain me with raisins;

refresh me with apples,

for I am sick with love.

His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me!

My beloved is mine, and I am his;

he grazes among the lilies.

So we know that Solomon was very much aware of what it looks like to be fully and intimately captivated by our true love. Yet, sadly, because He seems to have forgotten, many years later, we also see him writing in Ecclesiastes, another book he wrote:

Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

So after many years, Solomon goes back to “remembering God”. Note that the final chapter of Ecclesiastes begins with what is echoed by Jeremiah after the exile: Remember God in your Youth / I remember the devotion of your youth.

In this passage in 1 Kings, the narrator, Jeremiah, introduces a tension immediately: “only.” That word signals that something is already misaligned. His devotion is real, but it is not exclusive. Worship at the high places reflects a tolerated compromise.

The narrative of Kings consistently evaluates rulers not by their achievements but by their covenant fidelity. Solomon’s story is no exception. From the beginning, the issue is not capacity nor competency—it is consistency of heart.

This is where decline begins. Not in open rebellion, but in divided allegiance. What appears minor early becomes determinative later.

Act 2: A Distracted Heart

1 Kings 6:12-13 (ESV)

“Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”

By chapters 6–10, Solomon’s reign reaches its peak. The temple is built, Israel prospers, and Solomon’s wisdom is internationally recognized. This is the high point of the monarchy.

Yet right at the center of this success comes a conditional word from God: “if.”

This reflects a central theme that reads like it was intentionally emphasized by Jeremiah in the passages before Solomon— that God’s promises to the king are covenantal, not unconditional. The presence of the temple does not replace the necessity of obedience.

At the same time, Solomon begins to accumulate what Deuteronomy 17 explicitly warned against: wealth, military strength, and many wives. These are not presented as neutral developments. They represent a gradual reorientation of the heart.

Deuteronomy 17

 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. 1And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Solomon embodies both the ideal and the failure of kingship—he builds the central symbol of Israel’s worship while simultaneously undermining its theological foundation.

In fact, interestingly enough, there are two details to point out:

• The passage clearly states not to acquire horses from Egypt, but what does Solomon do? He marries Phaoroah’s daughter

• It also states not to accumulate wealth. Yet, you also see throughout 1 Kings through 11, that the palace he built for himself was actually bigger than the temple.

This is the stage of distraction. God is not rejected, but He is no longer central. The heart becomes occupied with success, stability, and expansion. Outwardly, nothing appears wrong. But inwardly, devotion is being displaced.

Act 3: A Decayed Heart

1 Kings 11:4 (ESV)

“For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God…”

By chapter 11, the evaluation becomes explicit. What was once partial is now decisive: Solomon’s heart is no longer wholly true to the Lord.

This is not a sudden fall. It is the outcome of a trajectory. The divided heart of chapter 3 and the distracted heart of chapters 6–10 have now become a decayed heart.

The author of Kings makes the theological conclusion unavoidable: this failure is the turning point that leads to the division of the kingdom and, ultimately, to exile.

As D.A. Carson often emphasizes in his treatment of biblical theology, the greatest dangers in the life of faith are rarely abrupt—they are the result of slow, incremental drift. Solomon is a clear example of this pattern.

Even more striking is that Solomon retains his wisdom, influence, and accomplishments. What he loses is his devotional center. And in the theology of Kings, that loss outweighs everything else.

Part 3 - Conclusion: 

The King We Long For… The Life We Want—and Why Neither Is Enough

When you step back and look at Solomon’s life fully, it’s not just a story of sudden decline— it’s a slow progression.

• Divided — loving God, but not exclusively

• Distracted — succeeding, but slowly shifting

• Decayed — turned away, and no longer whole

And if we’re honest, that progression doesn’t feel distant. It feels familiar. As Pastor Rollan said in one of our Royals sermons:

Because it rarely starts with rejection.
 

It starts with division—small compromises we learn to live with.
 

Then comes distraction—good things that slowly take God’s place.
 

And over time, it leads to decay—a heart that drifts further than we ever intended.

Solomon’s decline echoes 1 John 2:15-17: 

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

And here’s what makes Solomon’s story even more sobering:

God spoke at every stage.

• In the beginning → inviting devotion

• In the middle → warning with conditions

• Before the end → clearly naming the danger

Solomon did not lack:

• wisdom

• opportunity

• or warning

He lacked a whole heart.

And that’s where this becomes deeply personal.

Because Solomon shows us that it’s possible to:

• Love God… and still drift

• Receive wisdom from God… and still wander

• Experience success under God… and still fall

It’s possible to build a life that looks full on the outside…
and still be quietly divided on the inside.

And that’s the tension we’ve been sitting in all series:

The king we long for reveals the life we want.

We long for security, influence, success, peace—
and we spend our lives trying to build those things.

But Solomon shows us something we don’t want to admit:

Even when you get that life… it’s not enough.

It cannot hold your heart together.
It cannot keep you faithful.
It cannot satisfy your soul.

Which is why Solomon doesn’t resolve our longing—
he deepens it.

Because what Israel needed—and what we need—
is not just a wise king,
and not just a successful life—

but a King who is perfectly faithful.

A King who will not drift.
A King who will not be divided.
A King who will not be pulled away by lesser loves.

And where Solomon failed, Jesus stands.

Because God is not ultimately after:

• your insight

• your achievements

• or your legacy

He is after your heart—
undivided, anchored, and wholly His.

And only one King can lead you there.

Not the king we would choose.
Not the life we would build.

But the King we truly need.