Seeing Jesus - The Gospel that Divides

Oh, good morning, everybody. Thanks for being here.

Hello to everybody online and the many people who are sick. This thing, this whatever this is that everyone's getting sick with is relentless. But at some point, we'll all have had it. So, so it's coming. I think it's it's ending soon. Hopefully. Well, you guys are just so chit chatty.

Two more that's it do it again do the clock again no we're gonna we're gonna go for it i'm gonna just talk louder okay so good morning so glad to have you here oh wait this is how it always works watch this let's pray silence let's do it lord thank you so much thank you so much for this day for us to gather together and yeah we want to quiet our hearts quiet our minds we want to listen to you lord i mean so we're not listening to me we're listening to you so holy

spirit would you come and would you speak to us lord would you bring conviction would you bring clarity would you bring hope? Would you build us up as a church, Lord? Because we anticipate that you're good and you're gracious, and we want to meet you this morning and know your graciousness and your kindness and your mercy and your word, which is sometimes challenging to us, Lord. We know it's also always, it builds us up, Lord, and it gives us greater confidence.

So, Lord, fill us with hope, fill us with faith, fill us with confidence in who you are. We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So we are continuing on to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 10. We have best been plowing along and we're just going to like jump right into it this morning. Matthew chapter 10, you can turn there. We're going to actually be doing some like really legit Bible study. We're going to be jumping around some different passages this morning.

But yeah, we're making our way through Matthew chapter by chapter. We're going to get to the end of this chapter next week and then we'll pause and we'll do something else. But yeah, I think it's been like eight weeks or something so far, going through this section after chapter 7 into chapter 10. So just in this scene, in this little bit of narrative, what Jesus is doing, and we looked at it last week, is he's sending out his disciples for the first time.

Up to this point, the disciples have been following Jesus. Their callings, their individual callings has been recorded in the book of Matthew, But now all 12, the 12 apostles, the 12 disciples are here. They're all under Jesus's care. They're learning from him. He's traveling around all over Galilee and northern Israel. And wherever he goes, they go and they're just learning from him. This is what disciples did. They were like apprentices to their teacher, to their rabbi.

It was a very normal thing in their culture for people to do this. And so he's been close to Jesus, apprenticing under him, but now what Jesus is doing is he's, having them take the next step. He's actually sending them out on their own. He's saying, okay, you've been watching me. You've been learning from me. Now I want you to go and learn by doing. I want you to kind of just expose yourself and put yourself out there. So he's sending them out on their own.

Although actually, if we look at Mark 6, 7, that sort of records the same thing, we see that they weren't actually on their own. They were sent out in pairs. He sent them out in pairs. So he didn't just send out 12 individual disciples. He sent out six groups of two each, right? So they weren't alone, sent out in pairs, but with a particular purpose. And we talked about that last week. He sends them out. He gives them authority.

He gives them the same kind of authority that he has over the spiritual world. And he says, I'm giving you authority to heal, to cast out demons, to claim leprosy, you know, all these things, right? So he sends them out. He tells them to do that. And he gives them authority, right? He's teaching them and he charges them to proclaim the gospel. The same, because Jesus would do this thing. He like had a message, but he also had just the works. He did the stuff.

His works, the casting out of demons, the healing of people was meant to validate the message. And the message is the kingdom of heaven has come near. In Matthew and in all the gospels, it's very clear that that was like Jesus's line. If he was to summarize his sermons, it's if chat GPT, you know, were asked, give us a rundown of Jesus' sermons, and it got it down to one sentence. It would be this, the kingdom of heaven has come near.

So he says, go out, proclaim that message, the kingdom of heaven has come near, my gospel, and then go with my authority and heal people. And we talked about all of that last week, but he's in this process of chapter 10. He's giving some instructions and readying them for this mission that he's sending them on. And this is what, so picking up in verse nine, right? Because it's the whole chapter's instructions. He tells them this. He says, so go out, do this thing, heal, proclaim this message.

And don't acquire gold, silver, or copper for your money belts. Don't take a traveling bag for the road or an extra shirt, sandals, or staff. For the worker is worthy of his food. When you enter any town or village, find out who is worthy and stay there until you leave. Greet a household when you enter it. And if the household is worthy, let your peace be on it. And if it's unworthy, let your peace return to you.

If anyone does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust of your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.". So Jesus sends out his disciples, but he doesn't just say, oh yeah, go have at it, have fun. He actually puts some limitations, some very deliberate limitations on them, which will actually probably make their task a little bit harder.

He tells them, he sends them out really in a vulnerable state. He says, don't bring any money with you. Don't bring any provisions. Don't bring any food. Just go. Don't take anything extra. He tells them to just go into each town. Do what I tell you to do. Proclaim the gospel. Talk about the kingdom of heaven. Talk about how, you know, this is what Jesus' message is. And, you know, go ahead and do the things I told you to do. Bless the people who receive you.

Encourage them. You know, ask them to bring them your sick. Like, you're going to pray for them. They're going to be healed. You just go out and do the works. But the most important thing, what Jesus is telling them, is just that as you do that, you just need to rely entirely, not on yourselves, but on these other people to care for you, and on God. Like he's sending them out to really just be vulnerable and develop trust in God. And I think that's what he's up to.

I mean, this is not an arbitrary restriction. It's not that Jesus wants to just make things harder for them. I believe that what he does, what he's doing is he understands that sending them out in this way is an exercise in faith for them. It's an exercise in faith. See, Jesus knows that there will be times when these disciples will be sent out. Future times, after his death and resurrection, these disciples are going to be sent out.

And the only way they're going to be equipped and able to continue on the mission, which is like their calling and their purpose after Jesus' ascension into heaven. The only way they're going to do that is if they learn what it really means to trust in the Lord. To really believe and have confidence that not only does God love you in the abstract, but in the particulars of your life. You know, God cares about your need for food. He knows that you need food.

So he's gonna provide that for you. He knows you need shelter. He knows you need someone to watch out for you. And so he's preparing them and developing this muscle of trust. It's an exercise. And we tend to think of like an exercise, like we do at school, like it's just busy work, right? When a teacher assigns you an exercise, you say, right? But it's more than that. I mean, he's doing something. This is faith building. This is character building.

This is intended to shape the kind of people they are and the way that they go through the world and the way they see the world, that they would go out in vulnerability and find an experience that God cares for them and that he looks out for them, even in the midst of adverse circumstances. And Jesus is priming them for challenging circumstances, for difficulty. And it's still something that we need to learn as disciples today.

If you're going to be a disciple, you need to learn this lesson well. You need to learn what it looks like to walk by faith and not by sight, to believe in and trust in the Lord. You know, here at I-90, for those of you who've been around, you know that we have our kind of become practices, right? And some of you might say, well, these are just exercises and busy work, and I don't have time for that.

But the truth is, these are like six habits that I'm encouraging you guys all to work into your life. And the intention is not the outcomes. It's not about the deliverables of these things. It's about what these things will do to you in terms of building up faith and trust in your life. So we ask you to bless a follower of Jesus and not a follower of Jesus.

We ask you to eat with someone you wouldn't normally eat with, to confess your sins to God and to others, to open your mouth and talk about Jesus with someone, to meet with God every day, to have a prayer life and to examine your life every day, which I really define as looking at your life and understanding where God is showing up and where he's being gracious and where he's being kind for you, counting your blessings, honestly. That's what it involves.

And those are not just exercises. They're not just things that, oh, well, I'm just such an authoritarian. I'm known for that, you know? And so I just want you to be this way and to do these things. No, they're things that I know, if you practice them, they will bring about good fruit in your life. Like Jesus is saying, like, yeah, it's one thing for you to do the deliverables. To you be the sort of people who learn what it is to proclaim the gospel,

right? And to be the sort of people who pray for people and that they get healed. Like how beautiful and nice that is. But what I actually intend for you disciples is I want you to become the kinds of people who expect God everywhere you go.

It's not just about the outcomes. Jesus isn't just pursuing healing because for the healing sake, he's saying, I want you to be the sorts of people who go into the world and you know what it is and you experience the care and love of God when he shows up in your everyday life. And if you're just providing for yourself everything, then God can't provide for you, right? If you're just in control of everything all the time, then he can't be in control of everything.

So he's doing this exercise, But it's for a purpose to develop confidence and hope, a kind of like dogged and sharpened expectation that God is going to look out for you in every circumstance. And Jesus anticipates, as he sends them out, that this is not going to be an easy venture.

He understands that there's going to be people Who are, when they walk into this town These towns in Israel They're going to be proclaiming this message And those people are going to say No thanks, not interested We don't want that in this town We're just fine, Like the mayor from Footloose. I don't know That's just what came to mind Paint that picture for you If you're young, I'm sorry. And then Jesus says something pretty intense. I mean, this is like, oh, a nice little exercise in faith.

And then Jesus says, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. And you're like, oh, okay, Jesus. I mean, that is pretty intense. But this is actually really, it's really an interesting reference. If you're not familiar with the reference, Sodom and Gomorrah, you can find that in Genesis 19. Actually, you go ahead and do that. Genesis is the first book of the Bible,

easy to find. Okay, so go to Genesis 19 and let's look at it for a second, okay? So just a quick kind of overview catching you up. Genesis 19 is focusing on Lot. Lot is Abraham's nephew. He's traveled with Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, this kind of place probably down in Kuwait, essentially that part of the world. And he's come out over into what is now modern day Israel, into the promised land.

And Abraham has gone one way and Lot has gone the other and they're just kind of like living there and living in the promised land and Lot eventually sets up his home in the city of Sodom in an existing city that was there. And so he's just living in this town and then this is what happens. Genesis 19 verse one, two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in Sodom's gateway and when Lot saw them, he got up to meet them.

He bowed with his face to the ground and said, my lords, turn aside to your servant's house. Wash your feet. Spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way. No, they said, we would rather spend the night in the square. But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. And he prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them. And they ate. So in Genesis 19, God sends a pair of angels.

The word for angels is just the same word for messengers. So they're messengers of God. They're angels. They're sent out to proclaim a message from God. And they're going to visit the town of Sodom. And Lot sees them coming, probably on whatever mode of transport. I don't know if they're walking or whatever. But he sees them. He knows they're not from there. I guess angels look like they're not from here. And he sees them and he says, just come. Just come and stay at my place tonight.

Really, really urges. And he welcomes them. He insists that they not sleep in the square. He says, I don't want you to sleep in the square. I want you to sleep in my house. And there's a reason for that, because as the story goes on, we see that the square would not be a safe place for them to be. And here's where the Bible gets really weird, right? So just prepare yourself for weirdness. Are you ready for weirdness?

Okay, let's read. Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population surrounded the house. They called out Lot and said, where are the men who came to you tonight So that we can have sex with them. The Bible is weird. Don't let your kids read it. No, I'm joking. You should let your kids read the Bible, but you should be prepared for questions, right? Because there is a lot that's going on here. So what's happening here? Angels have come to the town.

They show up. They're met by lot, welcomed in, but they are not welcomed by the rest of the town. In fact, a mob forms with the intention of abusing these men because they're vulnerable and they just have this kind of attitude that they can take advantage of whoever just comes into this place because we're in charge of this city.

And the story ends. We're just going to skip ahead a little bit because it gets even weirder and I don't have time to talk about all that weirdness, but it ends with the angels like destroying the city after warning Lot and his family to leave. We read about that in 19 verse 13. It says, get out of this place. The angel is speaking to Lot for we are about to destroy this place because of the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.

And as Lot and his family flee from the fire from heaven that comes down and destroys these cities, the pair of cities right next to each other, Sodom and Gomorrah.

So listen, Jesus' reference to Sodom and Gomorrah Isn't just a passing reference Like, oh, a bad place, He actually really sees the disciples as he's sending them out Like that they're going to be kind of reliving the angels' story There's so many parallels between what he's sending out the disciples to do And what the angels had come to do He sends out his disciples in pairs To each town in Israel, He tells them, rely on the hospitality of people there.

And just like the angels that God sent out to Sodom, they're going to be vulnerable as they go out. And the question is, the question is, the determinative question is, how will they be received? If they're welcomed, then they're just saying, man, we're just going to bless you.

Like if you go into these towns and people are going to hear this good news that you're proclaiming, and if people say, that's great, like come, like heal my grandma just go for it if they're welcome in then the disciples are called to just bless them. But if they're kicked out, if they're left hungry and alone and maybe even a little bit bloodied, well, those that do that to you, Jesus says,

are going to be judged. It's going to be worse for them on the day of judgment than for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is destroyed by fire. And we'll talk about judgment in a minute because I realize that judgment makes us all a little bit uncomfortable, right? And we're like, what do we do with that, particularly in our culture? But I'll just leave you this with this one thought. I think the only thing worse than the idea that God judges is that he doesn't.

Because if God doesn't call evil evil, if he doesn't oppose it, if he has not created the world to not function according to wickedness, then what hope do we have? What is the guiding North Star for ethics and for being a person in the world? If God doesn't call wickedness, wickedness and say, I'm actually going to judge it one day, like what hope do we have?

I understand that in our culture, we don't like, and there's a lot of legitimate questions around the questions of, well, on the basis of what can you judge and who's to say one way of seeing the world is better or worse than another way of seeing the world. And yet everyone could read this story and say, probably sexually assaulting visitors from outside of town is not good. We can all agree on that, right?

So there is a basis on which we judge the world. And I don't want you to go too far down that way, because we're going to get some clarity around what judgment looks like. But honestly, the fact that God cares about what goes on in this world is good news. It's good news. And it matters for us to know that. But let's keep going. Keep going in Matthew 10, picking up in verse 16, it says, Look, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.

Beware of them because they will hand you over to local courts and flog you in their synagogues. You will even be brought before governors and kings because of me to bear witness to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, Don't worry about how or what you are to speak, for you will be given what to say at that hour, because it isn't you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you.

So Jesus understands. He understands as they go out, they should anticipate that there will be opposition. And not just that they will be opposed, but that there are going to be people who Jesus describes as wolves, who are going to try to do what wolves do to sheep, right? To eat them, to devour them, to kill them. He says they're even going to manipulate the justice system. Of the day to punish them for going out, sharing the gospel, and proclaiming what Jesus has sent them out to do.

But Jesus makes it clear it's actually for good that that would happen. Because these people, as they twist justice and try to get rid of these disciples, they'll actually have to give you a chance to defend yourself in front of whatever the courts were. If it's an elder system, oftentimes in the ancient world, elders were gathered together in individual towns and they would pass judgment. Or if there's a Roman governor, the Roman governor could do that.

But even in a show trial, there will be an opportunity for them to speak. And Jesus says, that's good. Because when they let you speak to defend yourself, he guarantees them the spirit of your father is going to come down and I'm going to speak through you. And you don't even have to make a plan about the great speech you're going to deliver. He says, just like I'm going to show up and care for your needs.

I'm going to show up in the midst of that trial and in the midst of that persecution and that difficulty.

And you are going to have the. Letting them know of their great sin, not for the sake of condemnation, right? But for the sake that they might turn and welcome in the Lord. And what will they speak? Well, it's the message that they're sent out to proclaim. The kingdom of heaven has come. I'm in the context of Israel, because these are Jews we're talking about. He's only going to Israelites at this point.

He's telling them the whole system that you're built around, this whole idea of expectation that God is going to send a Messiah. He says, that one is here. He's going to be proclaiming that to these people. This is not like an out of left field kind of message for these people. He's going to tell them, and God has been, he cares about you. And he is fulfilling his mission in the person of Jesus Christ. And he's testifying to it by all the things that are going on here.

He's telling you all this good news, right? And so he says, that's the message you're going to be proclaiming. And God is going to move with you in power as you go out and just speak those things. Honestly, just an aside, I know a lot of people are nervous about talking about Jesus. I'm nervous about talking about Jesus, by the way. It doesn't go away.

And we think that if only we knew the right technique, we talked about this last week, if only we knew the right technique, the right words to say, then evangelism would be easy. There's no technique. You just talk about Jesus with people. You listen to what the Holy Spirit has to say. You love them with the love of Christ. You serve them with the gospel. And sometimes that means calling out their own misery and their own sin and their own difficulty.

In Acts 7, we get a picture of Stephen's sermon, right? So this kind of wolves among sheep, they're going to put you on trial. The biggest example of that in the narrative of scripture is in Acts 7, and Stephen is the first Christian martyr. So he stands before the Sanhedrin. I'm pretty sure it's the Sanhedrin. It might've been a local council. Sorry, I don't remember off the top of my head. But he gets called before this group of people. They're putting him on trial.

And I don't think he's reading from a manuscript. I don't think he's got notes. But he just starts talking to them about their shared history, right? And their own story. Because again, these are Jewish people. And he starts right at the beginning of how God called Abraham. and how he tells the story of Israel's life and how God has been continually faithful to them.

How at every point of their history, all the hinge moments, God has been there and God has been like kind and gracious and he's always provided for them. And then he tells their response has continually been just sinfulness. And they're always just turning against God, right? To the point where at the height of his sermon and right before it ends, it ends because they start to throw rocks at him. He says this, you stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears.

You're always resisting the Holy Spirit as your ancestors did also. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You receive the law under the direction of angels, and yet you've not kept it. See, Jesus sends out his disciples into these towns of Israel. He's sending them out to the people who have been given all this grace and kindness.

They've been given the word of God. They've been told what it looks like to worship him. They're going out and saying, yeah, you guys have failed. You received the law under the direction of angels, but you've not kept it. But they don't say that. They don't go out saying that like, so get ready because fire and brimstone is coming down from heaven. They don't get, that's not a threat to them. That's just a reality that they go out proclaiming and they say, but there's great news.

And that's that the kingdom of heaven has come near. There's great news. Like you've been so resistant to the Holy Spirit throughout your whole history. You killed the prophets. But now the Messiah has come and he's actually not angry. He's actually come in mercy and he's come with forgiveness. And he's saying, look, just give it up. Just stop. Just stop it with all the resistance. Stop being stiff-necked. Stop being so prideful and so full of yourselves.

Stop being just like totally cut off from God. Just open yourself up. That's all it takes. Repentance is just this saying, all right, we really messed it up. We realize that all of our best efforts have come to nothing. And on our worst day, we realize, Jesus, you have loved us all the more. You've sent your son to die on our behalf so that we will not have to bear the pain and the punishment for our suffering. We don't have to bear those things anymore.

That's what he sends them out saying. He's begging them, not threatening them. He's begging them to just see the kindness of God right set before them. Open their eyes to the faithfulness and mercy of God. The gospel, it's funny, like. The gospel is not, and it shouldn't be, and honestly, the church needs to be very careful and cautious that we never present it this way. The gospel is not like a power play. It's not Jesus coming to the world and just saying, I'm in charge.

You better crack the whip. You guys better get it together and do what I tell you to do. The gospel is not an arrogant message. It is like a better image is like a table being set for all of humanity to just come in and know God. It's a message of hospitality, right? Where Jesus just says, I want to invite you guys into my life and into my kingdom and into my power and into my peace. Not because you're great, but just because I love you and I am going to die to forgive your sin.

And if you would just trust me and work by faith, then I can work with that instead of what they've normally done. I mean, Ezekiel, it's crazy. Ezekiel tells us what the sin of Sodom was in Ezekiel 16, 49. It's not just these things that they did. Actually, there's some underlying stuff. Ezekiel 16, 49 says, This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but did not support the poor and the needy.

They were haughty and did detestable acts before me. So I removed them when I saw this. Judgment came to Sodom, not because God just loves to punish and he's really, he's just a hard man, right? But because God has created us for righteousness. God has called us to be people who are partnering with him to bring about good and peace and hope in the world. God has created you with a purpose. He's created me with a purpose.

He's called us to righteousness, but sin Sin always keeps us from our purpose. Sin is us just doubling down over and over and over again in our own version of righteousness that actually just ends up telling us that we're okay. I'm good enough. I can have all the pride. I know what's best for my life and for your life. And it actually ends up looking just like me having more and more and you having less and less.

And it looks just like these people did taking advantage of vulnerable people so that I could have all the stuff and I could have all the comfort and I'm right to do it. So that's the kind of pride and arrogance that Jesus comes and says, no, that is stupid and wrong and wicked. And I find it detestable to the point where in Sodom, like it's just crying out before me the injustice of these people. And so Jesus says, so we're gonna come down and we're gonna do something about it.

The kingdom of heaven is going to come near, not to wipe you off the face of the earth, but to show you something so much better. To break you of your pride, to break you of your arrogance, people of the world, my people called by my name. Would you just turn and would you understand that there's some way that is so much better? It's a way of trust. It's a way of hope. It's a way of humility.

I mean, can you imagine what it would look like? Okay, just situationally, think about you're in a town in Israel and these disciples show up and they say, hey, we're disciples of Jesus. At this point, that's a familiar name all out over Israel, even though Jesus has mostly been up in the north. His fame has gone out through the whole region, including into Gentile parts of town. We see that early on. It's like people are coming from Syria and other nations bringing people to Jesus.

Everyone knows who Jesus is at this point. His disciples would show up. They know what he's about. They would know his message. They would know that Jesus is a miracle worker. And so they show up in the town and they begin to proclaim the gospel. They say the kingdom of heaven has come near and they don't say that as a threat, like watch out, the kingdom of heaven has come near. It's an invitation. The kingdom of heaven has come near and you get to be participants in it.

You get to be a part of it. Like God has opened the kingdom to anyone who wants to step in by faith. So they go and they proclaim that message. It's an invitation for Israel to see and know the love of God to turn from their pride and their frustration and their futility, which has plagued them generation after generation, and to receive the Messiah that God is sending right now, who he said is always going to come. He's going to be one who teaches you what true righteousness looks like.

And they're invited to just like, man, just trust in God. I know Rome is this big problem, but if you would just trust in God, I will take care of it. And proclaiming the year of favor, right? And we read about this last week, how it's an announcement of good news to the poor, healing to the sick, hope for the broken. So they show up, they're proclaiming this message. You're primed for it. It's culturally, it makes sense to you. They're saying this stuff.

And they don't just say that stuff and then say, oh, so you should believe it. He says, just so you know that you should believe it, we're going to heal people because God loves you and cares about people. And God cares about your wholeness, right? And so bring me your demon-possessed people and bring me your lepers and bring me all your sick people and we're going to pray for them. And you're going to see how much God loves you.

So they go in with that message, proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom, inviting people in to know the love of God. Who on earth would be so closed off to that kind of message that they actually run them out of town? He's saying they're going to be people who are so, immersed in their own power and their own control and their own way of doing things that when God comes down with all kindness and all mercy to hurting and broken people they're going to say no way, we don't want that here.

And they're going to do everything that they can do to oppose you. And it's because they're just so invested in the status quo and in their own comfort that they just don't care about anything or anyone else. And Jesus understands that to be worthy of judgment. We don't like judgment, but Jesus understands it to be worthy of judgment.

He goes on. He describes what the disciples are walking into in greater detail because he understands. It doesn't make any sense to me, but he understands that as the gospel goes out and is proclaimed, it is a divisive message. This message of the kindness of God, his mercy for all people is divisive somehow. He says it right here in verse 21, brother will betray brother, father his child, children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.

And you'll be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. For truly, I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher or a slave above his master. It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master.

If they called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household? So Jesus is preparing his disciples for a rude awakening. They're going to go out here and he's basically saying, look, they're calling me all these names. They're saying that I'm healing by the power of the king of demons, Beelzebub. They are opposing me at every step. Not everybody, but some leaders, people who are invested in the status quo. And he says, you guys aren't any better than me.

You're my disciples. And so if that's what they're doing to me, then you should expect as much from them as well. And he's preparing them. And look, I am not the sort of Christian and I hate this thing in Christian where Christians are like, oh, the world is so evil. And they're always, they're always going to hate you. You know, like the truth is that like. We can care for the world, but not care about the world. They can do what they want.

Like, I want to serve people who don't know Jesus. I want to desperately let them know. But honestly, like, I don't really care what people do to me in the end. It's like, we can have that kind of freedom because I know that God can take care of me. So he's not advising, right? He's not saying these things to tell them to be super closed off. He's actually just telling them to just be realistic about kind of the reception

you might be getting, right? Because this message, this love, somehow is divisive to the point where it's going to divide families and siblings. And some of you guys know that very well. Some of you guys know how it is to be a Christian and then be a part of a family where your parents or your siblings, they don't want to hear anything about it. In fact, they think that you're the worst because you believe this Jesus guy who actually calls something evil a certain thing.

And they don't like it. How can you call anything a certain way and judge anything? And that's, oh, that's awful. But Jesus understands this is what's going to happen. He's preparing them for what it looks like to be people who are sharing the gospel into the world. This good news, this incomparably wonderful good news that God loves people. And he loves them so much that he dies on their behalf. He will take their sin away.

He adopts them into his family. And he just pours out his love and grace and kindness on anyone who would have it. But he makes it clear that if you won't have it, you won't have it. If you don't want it, you don't get it. It's freely offered, freely given, but it has to be freely received. It's something that we go around proclaiming like the love and kindness of God, not on the basis of works, not on the basis of performance, only on the basis of just saying, okay, God, sure.

I realize that my way of doing things has been rough, but now I want to turn and I want to receive from you kindness. and, The thing is, anyone who says something is ultimately true and something that is true for all people, like if you go up to anyone in the world and you tell them, hey, this is the meaning of your life. If they don't like that, then they're going to think that you're being judgy to them. And, you know, the truth is that you just have to prepare yourself for that.

Some people are going to think you're judgmental because you tell them, no, white is white and black is black and green is green. and things are a certain way and ethics are not plastic. And the world is a certain way and certain things are good and certain things are bad. And actually know the purpose of your life is not to feel good all the time. Actually, if you pursue that, you'll be miserable. Have you ever tried to feel good all the time? I have. I did not feel good all the time.

I was drunk for a whole semester in college. It didn't feel good. Every morning I woke up feeling worse than the morning before. You know, and then I realized, oh, wait, feeling good all the time is not an option. Being so consumed by my own desires and my own purposes actually doesn't satisfy them. It's crazy because you think it should. It's logical that it should. And yet that's not how the world works. We are not made to be people who have this infinite supply of self-affirmation and care.

Instead, we are meant to be people who have a relationship with God, who loves us and cares for us. And we rely on him for our purpose and him for our hope and him for our provision. He's the generous giver of life. And our life is just leaning against his. We don't have legs to stand on. That's the message of the gospel. You don't have a leg to stand on. You are not righteous enough. You are not smart enough. You are not good enough on your own.

The only hope you have is that you can be carried into the love of God by the grace of Jesus Christ. And it's such a good news. It's such good news when you finally get to say, okay, God, I'm just going to stop on this treadmill and not all at once. Because, of course, even in my best intentions, I don't know how to stop. But to say that I can. Eventually, God, you can train me up into this life of faith, this life of trust.

And so little by little, I'm going to know your grace and your kindness more and more. And I'm going to be confident that, like it says in 1 Thessalonians 5, I think, the God who began a good work in us will bring it to completion for the day of Christ Jesus. And so I don't come and I don't stand on Jesus. I don't even get to have a relationship with Jesus because I trust him so much. That's not it. It's not the performance level of trust. It's minimal degree

of trust, which is just openness to him. And that's it. Salvation is that kind of orientation of trust. And then he brings about your faithfulness. You don't even have to worry about that part. You continue to trust him and you continue to rely on him. And that's where the good comes from. That's where the freedom comes from. That's where the hope of the Christian life comes from. It's learning to live by faith and confident that God is going to take care of the details.

And that is like a judgy statement. It's saying the world is this way and not that way. The world is this way for all people. Because Jesus tells us the world is this way for all people. He created it. He gets to dictate the terms of it. And he says the terms of it are you need forgiveness, you need a savior, you need grace, and it is freely offered. In John 3, 19 through 21, Jesus says this about judgment. Oh, actually, John says this about judgment, right?

He says, this is the judgment. This is the nature of judgment that comes along with the gospel. Light has come into the world and people of darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth and comes to the light so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.

It's interesting here. The gospel's message is not that there are bad people who will get found out for all their badness. And so you better not be a bad person. You better be a good person and do good things so that when God comes and judges you, you'll be on the right side of judgment. That's not the gospel. That's the anti-gospel. That's the message of self-righteousness. The gospel's message, this is the nature of the judgment that comes with the gospel.

Everyone's a bad person some people when they get exposed and convicted of their sin they want to just say that's not true i'm just fine i'm doing the best i can my life is fine who are you to judge me i'm gonna hide i'm gonna work harder i'm gonna try harder i'm gonna clean up my life i'm gonna meet my standard of righteousness on my own terms by my own strength by my own skill. They're going to hide from anyone who would tell them that actually that's not the way of peace and hope.

And so there's a standard of judgment which just says, no, I'm going to try to perform better and you can't judge me. Who are you to judge me? And so there's people like that. And then there's not on the other side of that good people. There's actually just people who know that they failed, that their own righteousness could never be enough and who have just come into the light of the gospel, Jesus being the light. And Jesus says, hey, look at all your sin and all your brokenness.

Look at how when you are on your own and doing your own thing, how messed up your life has become. And Jesus says to those people, well, just admit it and then walk in the light. And then I'm going to take care of the performance side of things. Like I'm going to bring about righteousness and transformation. The gospel is, yeah, we're all so broken, and I don't need to measure up to a standard. Instead, I just need to look at Jesus who tells me what my problem is.

And my problem is, is I am on my own, just so obsessed with my own power and my own strength, and I try to do everything according to my own levels and skills, and it's always a failure. And so I can just come to Jesus and just say, Jesus, I'm failing at life. And Jesus just says, yeah, you are. And he says, but I'm going to take you and all your brokenness and I'm going to remake you and I'm going to embrace you. I'm going to pour out love and grace and kindness.

And that will be the secure basis for everything from here on out. And so you'll step out into the world as a weak, broken person who doesn't have a leg to stand on. You say, but I'm just, I get to be carried by grace. And that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter what you do with your life. It actually means how much more it should matter that we just continue to rely on God, right? That we continue to rely on God.

I mean, that's what the Paul says in Galatians 3, you know, he's reminding the Galatians who just sort of forgotten about the kindness and grace of God. He says, yo, you foolish Galatians, having been saved by the spirit, are you now being made perfect by your flesh, right? We don't get to some point where we have this relationship with Jesus and all of a sudden, all right, you better shape up. You better get going. You better do things better and perform better and go to church more often and

give more often and serve more often, right? Those are all good things. They're all good. All of them. So, right, those are all good things, but those are not the basis of your salvation. Those are not the things that like, oh, all of a sudden you're going to do those things and then you're going to be on the right side of things. No, the judgment comes down to this. Am I open to, when God shows up in my life, am I open to hearing him or am I not? Am I closed off?

Am I setting myself up to this kind of relationship of adverse, an adversarial relationship with God where I'm just saying, I have my life figured out, God, I don't need you. Or am I being the sort of person who's just like, has this openness to what God has to tell me. And what he has to tell me is that he loves me and he cares for me and that I can trust my life with him. It was crazy thing. Okay. Worship team can come up here. I went so long last

week. I'm trying to go extra short this time. I'm sorry. It was embarrassingly long. Sometimes that happens. I blame daylight savings time. I was very tired. Or I could just blame myself. The thing about Jesus, okay, look, think about Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you know who is a terrible moral person? Lot. Lot, who gets saved by this angel. He was a terrible, you read the rest of Genesis 19, if you want to be grossed out by somebody, go ahead and read that.

Lot was not a good person. He is not lifted up as a moral example. But why was he saved? Because he saw the angel and he said, I guess I should listen. I guess we should do something. I guess we should receive this person, right? He is not saved because he's such a good guy. No one is saved because they are good people. They're saved because Jesus forgives. He sees all of our failures. He knows our weaknesses and he carries us through those things and he loves us despite them.

And yeah, that's a little bit judgy of Jesus, but it's a good kind of judgment. It's a kind of judgment, honestly, like I can't remember who said this. It was a magician, I think. A magician who talked about, I think it was like Penn and Teller, like one of those guys. They were talking about how They never understand why Christians won't tell them. They believe that they're, because they're atheists, right? That they're going to go to hell.

He's like, if you believe that, you should tell me that. If you believe that the world is a certain way and that there's a right way to do life, and you actually believe that, how are you not telling me that? Do you love me so little that you wouldn't tell me? Did you have a message that involves me and that's relevant to me? Do you love me so little that you won't tell me that? Or do you just not believe it?

And we, I think, are in a culture that, again, is very sensitive towards judgment, right? And I get it. There's a lot of reasons for that that we could talk about pretty extensively. We are sensitive to judgment. But honestly, the fact that God judges in this way, it's such good news. Because otherwise, you're just leaving people to just have this burden of measuring up.

This endless burden of performance, this endless burden of trying to say, okay, well, if I do this, then I can think of myself as a good person and I can have peace. And that will always fail them. So many people are so filled with guilt. And even the people, particularly the people who are so sanctimonious and so like out there about, oh, this is the right thing. And these people are the bad people and these are the good people.

Those people are so filled with guilt about who they are and what they're up to. The gospel, which is the good kind of judgment, is like, hey, yeah, you're right. There are bad people in the world. There are good people in the world. But God invites people to just be transformed by his grace and his love.

So I would just want to let us, to just challenge us as we're thinking about, some of these hard words of Jesus to understand why this kind of judgment, the judgment of, hey, things are bad, but there's hope in Jesus Christ is really, really, really good news.

That we should not be afraid to tell people about and to tell them the true thing, right? I get it. We have in our heads, you know, maybe some fire and brimstone preacher, some movie we watch. Maybe we grew up in a culture and like, ew, it was icky and it was rude and it wasn't actually the gospel. It was all, it was actually all, it was the false gospel of you better perform better. That's, don't tell people like that because that's not the gospel.

But the gospel, man, that Jesus loves you so much that he's willing to take your life and your pride and your performance and just take that from your hands so that you don't have to bear that burden anymore. He's seen your sin. He's seen your brokenness and he's not icked out by it. He just sees it's a real big problem. Like a cancer doctor isn't grossed out by tumors. They understand those are things that need to just come out of the body because they're killing you.

And Jesus in that way, he doesn't come out and he just says, like, you know, like cancer doctor isn't just like driven by a hatred of cancer. They're probably driven by a love for people who need help. Jesus, likewise, I mean, he's driven not by a desire to be dictatorial or to judge the world. He's driven by the reality that, oh man, if they don't see, like, what hope is there for them? If they don't see my love and my kindness, what hope is there for them? We can be people of hope.

So go and be people of hope. That's my call to you. Let's worship the Lord. Yeah. Stay into this. we are going to spend some time in worship.