The Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew Week 4
January 17, 2021 • Matthew 4:12–25
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you sent your son Jesus Christ to be amongst us to live a human life. We thank you, Jesus, that you promised that you will build your church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. Pray today, show us from the holy Scriptures of how you build the church, what the building blocks of your church are, what the basics are, what the fundamentals are, and make us a people who are focused on the fundamentals of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who don't know you, calling people to repentance as we repent ourselves. Remind us that we are called to make disciples who make disciples, that we are to commit our lives to that, orient our lives around the great commission, and remind us that we are to serve people in deed and in word. Send us the Holy Spirit to speak to us to prepare our hearts, our minds, and our wills to continue to live for the glory of God. We pray this, in Jesus' name. Amen. If you're new, we are in the Gospel of Matthew for the foreseeable future, but probably until Easter. Next week, we're starting the greatest sermon that has ever been preached. We'll expose it through that. It's the Sermon on the Mount preached by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as he just called his disciples. Today, the text right before the Sermon on the Mount, we see Jesus Christ making disciples. This is how Jesus Christ transformed the world. The most influential person in the history of the world was Jesus Christ. We know that, and that's to be expected because he's the God man. If God comes, becomes a person who lives amongst us, obviously, he's going to be the most influential person who ever lived. That's not a miracle. We understand that. What is a miracle? Is that after Jesus Christ leaves, the church grows, the church grows, so much so that the church transforms the world. This morning, millions, dare I say, billions of people are worshiping Jesus Christ around the world. He transformed the world, not just through his own work, but through the work of his followers by the power of the Spirit. One of my favorite quotes about the radical influence of Jesus Christ in the world is by the Emperor Napoleon who, at the end of his life in exile, he came to the following conclusion about the King of kings. He said, "I know man and I tell you, Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial mind see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires. On what did we rest? On what did we rest the creations of our genius upon sheer force? Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love." At this hour, millions of men will die for him. Every other existence, but that of Christ, how many imperfections? From the first day to the last, he is the same, majestic and simple, infinitely firm and infinitely gentle. He proposes to our faith, a series of mysteries and commands with authority that we should believe them, giving no other reason than those tremendous words, I am God. Clearly, Jesus influenced the world, changed the world, transformed the world. The greater miracle is, how did his followers do it? How do we, today, continue to do it? How do we bring that radical life transforming force into the lives of our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues, into the lives of the people in this city and beyond? That's what we're going to talk about today. Matthew 4:12 through 25, would you look at the text with me? Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the city, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there he saw two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. His name spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. Great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame of our time. First, repent and preach the gospel. Second, follow Jesus and make disciples. Third, serve people in word and deed, the basics, the fundamentals of Christianity, of our faith. All too often, we complicate things in life, including our own faith. We forget about the basics, the fundamentals on which everything is built. Even professionals in sports, they need to get back to the fundamentals every once in a while. That's why you need spring training for baseball. That's why you need a preseason in football. We didn't get a preseason this year in the NFL, and that's why the Patriots stunk. That's the only excuse. That's the only reason. Tom Brady had nothing to do with it. We're going to get back to the fundamentals. Last week, I had to write a check. First of all, I haven't written a check in months, maybe a year. I had to write a check. I had to go find the checkbook. I had to find the payment. I take the pen and I start writing. I realized, I haven't written with my hand in a very long time. It felt foreign. It felt like, what am I doing? I don't even know how to write. I feel like I'm in kindergarten. I feel like my daughter, Milana, has better writing than I am. Get about the fundamentals. We need the fundamentals. We need the fundamentals in the Christian faith. That's why we need this text, which is the text preceding the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus here makes disciples and then he teaches his disciples. We need to learn how to make disciples, just like Jesus did. The first point is repent and preach the gospel. Some time has elapsed between verse 11 and verse 12. Verse 11, Jesus Christ was in the desert and he was getting tempted by the evil one. He resisted the evil one. The angels then came and ministered to him, most likely with food. Some time passes between verses 11 and 12. Jesus continues his ministry in Judea, Jerusalem, concurrently with John the Baptizer, whose ministries reported in the Gospel of John. Then in Matthew 4:12, it says, now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. John, who? This is John, Jesus' beloved cousin, who was only six months older than Jesus. John's ministry was predicted in the book of Isaiah, seven years before he was born. In the book of Malachi, 500 years before he's born. Centuries before, prophesied. He will come. He will prepare the way for the Lord by proclaiming the gospel, the gospel of repentance. Then his ministry lasts only 18 months. Fascinating. It's kind of weird point. I've been meditating on this week. We never know how much longer God will give us. Yes, in our lives, but also in our ministry. John serves and he serves and he serves. It's grace of God to be used by God. Whenever we get tired of ministry, tired of serving God, we can never forget that it's a gift to be used by God. That gift can be taken away at any moment, just like it was with John. What happened with John, he was arrested. What was he arrested for? He was arrested for speaking truth to power, not just truth to power, we hear that phrase all the time. God's truth to power, truth about morality to power. He spoke to King Herod and he said, "No, it is not right for you to take your brother's wife." He speaks God's moral truth to those in politics, to those in influence, which obviously destroys the argument that says, no, no, no, you can't talk moral truth to non-Christians. Moral truth, the 10 commandments only has to do with Christians. No, it's God's law for everybody. God is king over everybody. John the Baptizer, he speaks truth, God's truth to power. He's beheaded. First arrested, then beheaded. As Jesus learns that John has been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He goes to Galilee. Galilee was a very important place because it was a crossroads. There are lots of roads going through Galilee. Judea, one commentator said, is on the road to nowhere, Galilee is on the way to everywhere. Jesus chooses a place to do ministry, started his ministry, a place where people come and go, a place of transfer of ideas. He doesn't go to Jerusalem, which is to be expected. He defies expectation and goes to a place where people come and go. In Verse 13, leaving Nazareth, that's his hometown, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. Nazareth, small, insignificant town, Capernaum, which is part of the Sea of Galilee, bustling town, sea in the region of Galilee. That's where he goes. Why did he leave Nazareth? He leaves Nazareth because he was rejected in his hometown. In Luke Chapter 4, it's recorded that he preaches in the synagogue, takes the scroll of Isaiah, and says, today, this prophecy is fulfilled in your midst. They pick him up and then carry him to the edge of a cliff and they want to kill him for proclaiming himself to be the Messiah. Did Jesus have a hard time doing evangelism? Yeah. Jesus had a hard time doing evangelism in his hometown. No one believed him. He then goes to Capernaum, spend significant amount of time in Capernaum. It becomes his home base, base of operations. Then by Matthew 11, Jesus brings down a woe on Capernaum, woe on you, Capernaum, woe on you, Chorazin. For if the work is done and you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have believed and repented a long time ago. They rejected him as well. He brings the light. They reject the light, because it doesn't matter how great the light if you're blind. That's what the people were, blinded by their own sin, by their own pride, by their own selfishness, and rejected the Messiah. Matthew 4:14, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. He goes to Galilee, Zebulun, Naphtali. He goes not because King Herod had arrested John, but because Jesus need to fulfill the prophecy. In verse 15, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here." Zebulun and Naphtali, the 2 of the 12 tribes of Israel, they're the smaller tribes. They were given land that was farther away from Jerusalem. That's why it's called Galilee of the Gentiles, because it had a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. Because of the mixture of Jews and Gentiles, people from Jerusalem looked down on people from Galilee. Once again, the Lord is choosing to associate himself with the lowly, the despised, not the high, not the mighty. He goes to a place where it's absolutely clear that the Messiah is the Messiah, not just for the Jews. God has sent the Savior not just for one ethnicity, but for absolutely everybody. Every single person alive, no matter your ethnicity, no matter your skin color, no matter your country of origin, no matter your socioeconomic status, no matter where you're from, who you are, what you've done, we all need. Jesus. Doesn't matter if you're from the United States, you need Jesus. Doesn't matter if you're from Canada, you definitely need Jesus. Doesn't matter if you're from Russia, you definitely need Jesus. Everybody needs Jesus Christ. This is the point of him going to Galilee, not Jerusalem. Jesus hasn't come as a Messiah just for the Jews. He's come as a Messiah, as a King of the world. This is what Matthew was telling us, the magi coming, the magi of the Gentiles. They're coming to worship the king. This is why Matthew ends with the great commission, the last verses of the book, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the light. He is the Savior. He's come to seek and save that which is lost, the light that shines in the darkness. How does Jesus Christ shine the light? This shows us how do we shine the light into our world. How can we shine the light of Christ? We are the salt. We are the light. How do we shine the light? That's a tremendous question. I'm glad you asked. Jesus answers that in verse 17. This is how he shines the light. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." You hear that and you're like, that doesn't sound very lightful. That doesn't sound like full of light. A message of repentance. Well, it is because sin is darkness. Sin pulls us away from the source of light, which is God. Proclaiming this gospel of, hey, you can repent. You can return to God is a message of light. This message sounds familiar. Who else preached this message? John the Baptizer, Matthew 3:1 through 3. In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Verbatim. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight." John the Baptizer preached this message. Jesus preached this message. Jesus, when he sent His disciples on the first preaching tour, told them, Matthew 10:17, proclaim as you go, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Meaning the king is here, therefore repent. St. Peter, this is after Jesus' ascension, on the day of Pentecost, as he's filled the Holy Spirit, proclaims the gospel, preaches a powerful sermon, that people are deeply affected, and they cry out, "What shall we do?" This is what Peter said in Acts 2:38, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. St. Paul, speaking to the elders in Ephesus after finishing his ministry there, he said, he summarizes the ministry by saying, in Acts 20:21, testifying both to Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Later in his defense before Agrippa, Paul summarized his preaching in Acts 26:20, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. Performing deeds with keeping with their repentance, fascinating. Because many of us, when we think of the gospel, we think I repent, I believe in Jesus Christ, period. I'm saved. That's it. I don't have to do anything. St. Paul preached, no, are you bringing deeds, performing deeds keeping with your repentance? John the Baptist preached the same thing. Matthew 3:8, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. That's fascinating. He's saying prove that you're saved, prove that you have repented. Make your election and calling sure says St. Peter. Prove it. This is why we don't do ... You know how some churches do? By the way, this is how I think I got saved. I don't know. We don't do the walking down the aisle thing. Raise your hand if you're from a church where they did the walking down the aisle if you want to get saved. You know what I'm talking about it. I went to a youth conference at 13 and they said, "This is how you get saved." By the way, Russians, they know how to manipulate. They had a girl with a violin and there was someone playing in Oregon. They're singing a song about like, what's going to happen if you die today? Are you really going to go to hell? I'm like, ah, I don't want to go to hell, 13, and I walked down the aisle like, I'm saved, I'm saved. I walked down with my best friend. We walked down together. Afterwards, I'm like, "How do you feel, man?" He's like, "I feel saved." I was like, "I feel saved too, man. That's great." We don't do that. We don't do that. You know what I say? When someone's like, "I think I've trusted in Jesus," I'm like, "We'll see." We'll see. A week will pass, two weeks will pass, are you growing in the faith? Are you bearing fruit with repentance? Tremendous. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? We need to see some kind of track record, if you're saved by the Savior. This is how Jesus Christ talks about repentance, that there is transformation. We repent and believe in the Gospel because the kingdom is at hand, meaning the king is now the one whom you follow. There's life change. The centrality of repentance also stated negatively by Jesus in Matthew 11:20 through 21. Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Meaning if you do not repent, there are consequences. Matthew 12:41, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. A lot of people misunderstand repentance. They think repentance is either remorse or reformation. I will submit to you that it's not just remorse and it's not just reformation, it's actually returning to God. A lot of people think repentance is remorse, that you feel sorry, you feel deeply sorry for your sin, most likely, because you're sorry of the consequences of your sin. There are consequences. A lot of people think it's just self-reproach, it's self-loathing. This is what Martin Luther, before finally reading the book of Romans and seeing the gospel in the book of Romans, he suffered from what he called navel-gazing, where he would just focus on his own sin, on sinning against God. He was focused on himself. That remorse never led him to Christ, never led him to God. It was actually very selfish. It's a self-concentration. I feel so bad that I did X, Y, and Z because it's impacting me in the following ways. Paul says that remorse or worldly sorrow left by itself and leads to death. Judas. Did Judas repent after selling Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver? Did Judas repent? He was remorseful. He brought the money back and he threw it at the feet of the Pharisees. He did not repent. Committed suicide. Others said repentance is just moral reformation, that you just change your life. Well, you go to Christianity and change your life. I go to AA to change my life. I go to rehab to change my life. I go to therapy to change my life. Repentance is more than just turning over a new leaf. Reformation is changing your behavior. It's on the behavior level. People can do that without God. Repentance is on the heart level. Repentance is when you realize that you have sinned, not just against yourself and not just against people. Repentance is when you realize that you have sinned against a holy God, God who has created you, God who has given you everything that you have and continues to give and sustain, starting with the very breath that you take. In the Hebrew, the word repentance means to turn. In the Greek, it's to change one's mind. It's a returning to God, a turning to him, turning away from sin, and turning to God. There's two parts, recognition of sin, God, I see how sinful, odious, filthy my sin is against you. I turn away from it and I turned to you. It's a godly sorrow for sinning against God, of offending the God who loves you, of offending the Christ who has made a terrible sacrifice for you, of offending and grieving the Holy Spirit who has shown you the way of eternal life. It's a fear of God mixed with a love of God that turns you from sin to him. That's why Jesus says, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here. It's the establishment of God's rule. The king is here. His will is clear. We are to live according to it. What does fruit of repentance look like? I'm glad you asked. In Chapter 5, Jesus Christ sits down and he begins to teach his disciples. This is what fruit of repentance looks like, and he gives us the Sermon on the Mount. Definitely come back for that as we start the Sermon on the Mount next week. It's the transcript of the life of repentance to repent is to live a new life. It's a new way of life. Repentance is how you grow in the faith. It's the means by which you become a Christian. It's the means by which you continue to be a Christian. It's the means by which one is always a Christian. Humorously, I tell people that I get saved every day. When did you get saved? This morning. I was saved this morning. I say that tongue in cheek, but it's true. Because I mean I repent every day of being a sinner before a holy God. I need God's grace every day. Yes, my salvation began with justification. There was one day when that's the beginning of it. You continue in sanctification with repentance on a daily basis. Our Christian walk begins with repentance, continues with repentance. We are also then called to preach the gospel to others. That's the second point. We preach the gospel to others by making disciples, by being fishers of men. In terms of your own life, if you look at your own repentance, repentance has to do with life change. Are you repenting because the kingdom of God has drawn near? Is repentance a characteristic of your life? Are you changing in direction of Christ's example teaching commandments? Are you markedly different from a year ago? The world definitely is, but are you? Are you different from a year ago in your spiritual walk? Are you different from two years ago? To be a Christian means you are alive and you're growing and you're thriving in repentance. Point two is follow Jesus and make disciples. Verse 18, While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there he saw two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. A few comments here. Sea of Galilee is actually a lake. The Galilee and industry was actually very prosperous. A lot of us, when we think of Peter, Andrew, James, and John as fishermen, we think that they're poor. Not necessarily. They probably did actually really well. They had a small business and the two families, Peter and Andrew's family and the family Zebedee, James and John, they had a partnership. They worked together. Fishermen were not educated according to the pharisaical teachings in Jerusalem. They weren't educated. A lot of people, when they read scriptures like, oh, fishermen, that means you guys are idiots. Being not educated does not mean you're dumb. Because education does not add IQ points. A lot of people have bought into the lie, that you need formal education for intelligence. Those two are very different. That's why a lot of people, when they read the epistles of Peter, I remember in seminary, reading liberal theologian commentator, they're like, "There's no way that Peter could have written this because a fisherman can't write this well." Well, how do you know? How do you know? Maybe he was a very intelligent fisherman. He didn't have to get a PhD from a school to confirm his intelligence. He was just gifted with intelligence from the Lord. Then there's the Holy Spirit that actually adds IQ points, praise God. They were fishermen. What do we know about fishermen? It was actually a very dangerous profession. People die all the time. These are people who are familiar with hard work. They're familiar with hardships. Jesus sees them. As he sees them, two of the brothers are fishing, two of the brothers are mending nets. Jesus chooses these guys who are industrious. They know hard work. They know hardships. They know what it means to be on the brink of death. He picks these brothers who have known each other, they love each other already. They've been working together. There's a camaraderie. What else do we know? Simon is a Hebrew name. It's a Jewish name. Peter is his Greek nickname. There's a mixture of the cultures there. Andrew had a Greek name. That reflects the mixture of the cultures as well. Jesus Christ calls them. Twice we see the word immediately. They left everything immediately. Was this the very first time that they met Jesus Christ? Probably not, as we see in the Gospel of Luke. They had met with Jesus in the gospel of John. Andrew is actually a follower, a disciple of John the Baptist. Then he met with Jesus. He went to check things out, and then finally called Peter. They knew about Jesus. They had time to consider the teaching of Jesus. They had time to consider the mission of Jesus. They had time to count the cost. Then finally, Jesus comes to them at a moment, he says, "Now is the time you make a decision." Today, right now, follow me. Follow me. This is what it means. This text is right after the text where he says, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Now he's giving us an illustration. This is what repentance looks like. When Jesus Christ comes to you and says, follow me, follow me. This is what it means to be a Christian. This is what it means to be a disciple. This is what it means to bear fruit, keeping with repentance. Follow me. Follow Jesus Christ. You see that they leave everything immediately. They had jobs. They had family responsibilities, people that depended on them. They leave everything. We know for certain that Peter was married. He had a wife and he had a mother-in-law. He didn't leave them forever, but his priorities changed. Now his greatest priority in life is Jesus Christ and His mission. There's definitely a disruption in their lives. Then also now, they're on a path. Follow me. Means I'm putting you on a brand new path. Did James imagine that he, at this moment, is exchanging a peaceful life as a fisherman for dying brutally, way too young? Did Peter imagine he was taking his first fateful step to being crucified upside down 35 years later? No, they had no idea. St. Paul, when he was called to Jesus, he says, "I suffer the loss of all things for the sake of Christ." What did St. Paul lose? He lost a family. To study Gamaliel, you have to be at least 35 and married. Most likely, Paul was married at some point. Most likely, when he followed Christ, his wife refused to follow. Then he endured stonings and shipwrecks and beatings. He left a career where he was enjoying incredible rise to fame. Instead, he traded in for becoming a laughingstock of his former world, although, by the grace of God, he becomes the most influential, the greatest mere man who ever lived because they understood what it means to follow Jesus. To follow Jesus, yes, it begins with information. You're a disciple. You're learning things, but it also entails obedience. I'm not just following a rabbi, I'm following a king. The king tells me what to do. That's what it means to follow him. It's to live like he lived, to follow in his footsteps. 1 Peter 2:21, to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. The phrase follow me is used 25 times in the Gospel of Matthew, because that's the essence of Christianity. Are you a Christian? I don't want to hear, yes, because I go to church, yes, because I watched church online, yes, because I read scripture. No, no, no, no. Yes, because I follow Jesus Christ. Right now, today, I am following Jesus Christ. I'm following his commandments. I'm doing what he taught me to do. What he teach us to do at the very moment that he calls these guys to himself, he calls them to his mission. It's a double invitation. It's not just follow me and enjoy the perks of being a Christian. It's follow me and I'm going to make you fishers of men. Drop everything. I'm going to make you disciple makers. You follow me, you abide in me. As you do, you are transformed to be a fisherman, a missionary. You're transformed to be a person that summons others to God. The phrase fisher is used in Jeremiah 16:16 where God says, behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they will catch them. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will catch them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. In Jeremiah, God speaks of fishing for people as God's judgment. The nets were God's judgment. When Jesus Christ comes, he talks about being fishers of men as God's salvation from judgment. That Jesus Christ came and he himself was caught up in the nets of God's wrath for our sin on the cross. Jesus Christ was hunted by the wrath of God for our sin. He dies on the cross, so that he can extend to us now nets of salvation to pull us out of the sea of the wrath of God that we deserve for our law breaking. That's why God says, repent, return to me, so that you are now not under the wrath of God, but under the love and mercy of God. That's what it means to make fishers of men, is to call people to God, to call people to grace, to call people to faith in Jesus through repentance. This is how Jesus Christ changed the world. Jesus Christ, did he write any books? The only thing I think Jesus wrote that we know of, is one time he wrote in his finger in the sand. Did Jesus Christ build institutions? Were there any monuments created to his life and work in his lifetime or immediately thereafter? No. How did Jesus change the world? He chose 12 men, poured his life into them, taught them to be disciples of him who make disciples. That's what discipleship is. A lot of people think discipleship is we're going to sit together and read a nice Christian book and talk about it and that's discipleship. No, that's a book club. Discipleship is when you make other disciples of Jesus Christ. That's the ultimate goal of discipleship. Discipleship isn't just reading the Bible. It's not just memorizing scripture. All of that is important, but to culminate in sharing the gospel with someone else and they become believers in Jesus Christ. This is the whole goal of the church. This is why I want to talk about like the basics, the fundamentals. We can't forget, this is our job. This is why we're here. If you move from here, your job stays the same. Just the location has changed. We're called to be fishers of men. We're called to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The question here at the end of point two is, am I following Jesus? Am I making disciples? Am I a hard worker and making disciples? Am I bold in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ? We should be. Did Jesus Christ proclaim the gospel boldly? Did everyone gets saved when he preached? No. Nazareth, his hometown, rejected him. Capernaum rejected them. He said, all right, great. I'm just going to go to the next town. I'm just going to go to the next city. You proclaim the gospel. When you do, the elect will come to faith. That's what we trust in, is in the sovereignty of God. Point three is serve people in word and deed. That's what Jesus does ministry, not just of serving them in deed and not just the word, but it's both. Matthew 4:23 and 25, and he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. His fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. Great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. First, Syria here is not the modern country of Syria, but an area north of Galilee. People are traveling to see Jesus as his fame grew. What did he do? It says, he spends time teaching in the synagogues. That's the religious centers for Jewish people, preaching the good news of the kingdom to everybody, and healing people of their sickness, of their affliction, of their demon possession. Jesus Christ is the second person of the trinity of the triune Almighty God. It's inevitable that Jesus performs miracles. He's the maker of the world. He's the Savior of the world. He's the one who created sight, therefore he can give it to the blind. He created the hearing so he can give it to the deaf, et cetera. Jesus is the God man, the maker of heaven and earth. We should not be surprised that he does miracles. We should expect it. We should expect it. It's more of a surprise that Jesus died, then that he rose again. The resurrection should not be a surprise. He's the God man. Of course, he comes back from the dead. Surprise that he dies. You expect creation from the creator, that he has creative power, the one who gives life can restore and resurrect. Perhaps, that's why the gospel writers, they present the miracles very nonchalantly. Yeah, Jesus walked around and he resurrected this guy and gave sight to this guy. Yeah, because he's the God man. That shouldn't be an issue. The question is, why did God give us these miracles? The scripture says that they are signs. Acts 2:22, men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. They're wonders and signs, meaning God gives them to point to a greater truth and a greater reality. Nicodemus, when he came to Jesus by night in John Chapter 3 says, "Rabbi, we know that you are sent from God, because no one can perform the miraculous signs that you were doing." For Jesus, the miracles weren't the point. Because miracles do not change hearts. That's why in Matthew 11, he says, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For signs done in you had been done." They saw signs, they didn't get saved. That's why Jesus, whenever he did signs, the miracles were given to bolster faith, not to create faith. Faith is only given to us as a gift from God. Mark 1:32 through 39, incredible passages where Jesus heals people and then stops. That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. The whole city was gathered together at the door. He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, "Everyone is looking for you." He said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns." Everyone is looking for you to get healed again. More people want to get healed. "Everyone is looking for you." He said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. What's Jesus saying? He's saying, I can heal you of your sickness. If you do not repent of your sin, you are desperately sick. What's the point of you physically getting healed? Then time passes and you die, and you are spiritually sick for all of eternity in a place called hell. What's the point? Jesus focuses on the gospel, that this is the greatest news. This is the only hope for the world. This is the only thing that can transform us. He does do miracles. There are miracles that point to the greater miracle. The greatest miracle of all, is that God resurrects people from spiritual death, that God gives the gift of repentance, gives the gift of faith, gives the gift of obedience, the gift of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus feeds the 15,000, it's a sign that he is the bread of life. When he heals sick, it's a picture of him delivering us from the sickness of sin and death. When he drives out demons out of the possessed, it's to show that he has power over Satan. When he speaks to a paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, now pick up your bed and walk, he's showing that the greatest paralysis that you have is that of sin. The second is the physical paralysis. Physical healing is a sign. Forgiveness is a reality. We live in a world where more than ever, in this season, we've been thinking about death and people getting sick. That's why it's more important than ever for us to not forget our job. A lot of Christians, I think, have taken a little vacation from the great commission. Why? Pandemic. That's an excuse for everything, pandemic. No. We still have a job to do, which is the great commission of Jesus Christ, to go and make disciples. Let us not forget that. So that when people do die, which is inevitable, we're all going to die. We go to a better place because of your faith in Jesus Christ, because of repentance, because you are a disciple, because you follow him. Think of Lazarus, I always think of Lazarus. Lazarus came back from the dead. That's awesome. Comes back. Live in life. New lease on life. You ever have a near death experience and then for a week, you're a much better human being. It's awesome. Lazarus comes back. Oh, this is incredible. Life again. Wow! Then years go by, I don't know how many years, a decade, maybe two. Then he's on his deathbed again. Tell me how he feels. Most likely, he's pumped. I'm so glad to be done with this dump. Mission accomplished. I'm going to heaven. I'm spending eternity with Jesus. I can't wait. That's how I feel about it. I tell my wife all the time. She's not enthused by that. I was like, "I can't wait to go to Jesus. Jobs done. I'm going to heaven." She's like, "You still got four kids to raise." I'm like, "Yeah, that's right." That's why I'm here. It's better for me to stay for a little while longer. When you believe in Jesus Christ, that's the assurance you have, that's the truth you have, that Jesus Christ brings light and life to the whole person. He can forgive anyone and everyone of all sins. He can heal any emotional heartache. He can free from any deep addiction. He can heal any physical disease, any broken heart, any struggling families. If you're not a Christian, come to Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, come to Jesus Christ as well. If you missed any of the points, repent and preach the gospel, follow Jesus, make disciples, serve people in word and in deed. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time in the Holy Scriptures. We love the scriptures. They don't just teach us and illuminate our minds, but they feed our souls. We thank you for the reminder, that we are to repent of sins and follow you and to make disciples and to serve people on a daily basis in both word and deed. We pray, continue to send us the Holy Spirit, continue to embolden us to speak the truth of the gospel. Continue to give us opportunities to speak the gospel and call people to repentance because they've offended a holy God, but he's also a merciful God who sent us Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. For that, we thank you. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen.
The Gospel of Matthew Week 3
January 10, 2021 • Matthew 4:1–11
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning welcome to Mosaic. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new or visiting, we'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card. Either the physical one the worship guide, or the one online. Or in the app if you fill it out, we will get in touch with you over the course of the week. That said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a good God. And you created this world to be a good place and we rejected your goodwill. We gave into the temptation of the evil one. When he doubted your goodness, he sowed the doubt in our minds. And we began to doubt your goodness. As if your commands are in place to keep us from that which is truly good, which is false. It's a lie. Jesus, we thank you that you came and you taught us that Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. But you came to give life and give life to the fullest. And you came to dismantle the corrupt works of the evil one. And we thank You, Jesus that you came and that you took on Satan and head on. And as he tempted you over and over and over. You vanquished his temptations with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We thank you for doing that for us. We thank you that your substitutionary atonement on the cross was perfect. It was blameless that sacrifice was without blemish because you never gave into sin And we have Lord and we repent of our sin. We repent that all too often we have given into the temptations of the evil one. To find satisfaction apart from you, to find significance apart for you, success apart from you. And your Word tells us that there is nothing good apart from You. Lord, we ask for forgiveness. And we thank you for the grace that you offer to us. And we pray that you send us the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, we thank you that you have given us the Holy Scriptures. And that we are filled with the Spirit when we are filled with the scriptures. And I pray that you show us that we can be more than conquerors in Christ no matter what temptations that the enemy brings before us. I pray that you bless our time in the Holy Scriptures. And that you give us a love for the Holy Scriptures, a desire, a longing for the Holy Scriptures. Because your Word tells us that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We need it for our souls, for our famished souls. I pray satiate us today and we pray all this in Christ's Holy Name. Amen. Well, Happy New Year, everyone. All of our problems just disappeared. You just flipped the page, they're just gone. Unfortunately, that's not how it works. Actually feels like December 41st 2020. That's what it feels like. But we're still here, God is still on the throne. We still have a mission. He still has a Holy Spirit for us. Just to give you in a timeline what we're doing. We're going to be in the Gospel of Matthew. We started Matthew for Advent. We did that for four weeks. And we celebrated Matthew, and then we continued in Matthew three and today we're in Matthew four. We're going to continue through Matthew up until Easter. So that means we'll finish chapter four next week and then we are going to begin the Sermon on the Mount. The greatest sermon that has ever been preached. By the greatest preacher that ever preached and that was Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, himself. Today we are in chapter 4:1-11. The title of sermon is When Satan Tempts Me. And the context is that Jesus Christ is beginning his ministry. Last week we studied, Tyler did a great job studying the text where Jesus Christ comes and he is baptized by john the baptizer. Did he need to get baptized because of his own sins? No, of course not. He was blameless, he gets baptized to identify with us and to fulfill all of righteousness. And as he is baptized with water, he's also baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit descends from heaven upon him, as if like a dove. So you see the Holy Spirit, you see the Son of God, you see the two members of the Holy Trinity. And then the third member of the Holy Trinity, which is the first member of the Holy Trinity is God the Father and He speaks and what does he say? He says, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." These are the words that every single child longs to hear from their parents. This is my beloved I love you. This is my child, and I'm pleased with you. And God the Father speaks that to God the Son in that it shows us that's what our souls long for. That's what true satisfaction is, true success, true significance is to be a child of God by grace through faith. And when God looks at us through the work of Jesus Christ, he's pleased with us His Beloved. John Milton wrote a phenomenal work called Paradise Lost. It's considered one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It masterfully tells the story of the fall in poetry of Adam and Eve as they're tempted by the evil one. And as they succumb to the temptation and they sin and the fall. And the darkness and the brokenness and the corruption all that's unleashed when they reject the Word of God. John Milton then followed up with a sequel, a brilliant sequel. Who knows the title, AP English anyone? The title of the sequel? It begins with paradise. Paradise not lost paradise... Found? Close, that'd be smart, oh so smart Adam. Regained, paradise regained. So if you are John Milton, and you wanted to create a sequel, beautiful poetry, etc. What story in scripture would you go to, to say this is where paradise was regained? Would you go to the beautiful Christmas story, the nativity scene where this is God and incarnate. He is here. There's angels, there's shepherds, there's the Magi, there's Joseph, there's Mary. Is that where you would go? Or would you go to Jesus beginning his ministry. Teaching the gospel, he's healing people he's feeding people, he's ministering to people. Is that where you would go? Or would you go to the gospel itself? Would you go to Gethsemane? Would you go to the cross? Would you go to Jesus suffering for our sins? Then he's laid in the tomb resurrected on the third day? Is that where you would go? That's not where John Milton went for Paradise Regained. He goes here to Matthew four. He goes here to a desert. Paradise was lost in a garden. It's regained in a desert, where Jesus goes to war against Satan. Why does he go here? Well, because ruin came in the garden. When temptation was given into. And redemption comes in the desert, where Jesus does not give into temptation. He fights tooth and nail when he's physically weakest. After being emaciated, famished for 40 days. After 40 days of fasting, this is where victory is provided. The entryway into regaining paradise in this conquest. The regaining of paradise is assured. This text is like D-day in Normandy. This is the allies in World War Two landing on the beach head. And if they take this beach head, the war is over. There's still another year of war coming. Bloodshed for another year battles to come. But if we can take this beachhead, if we can overcome evil here, victory is guaranteed. That's what Matthew four is like. So today, we're in Matthew 4:1-11. Would you look at this incredible text with me? "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting, 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you. And on their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone." And Jesus said to him again, "Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you if you fall down and worship me." And Jesus said to him, "Be gone Satan, for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." And the devil left him and behold angels came, and we're ministering to him." This is the reading of God's Holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The main idea of this text is not how we overcome our temptations. Although we can glean those truths from this text. The main idea of the text is that Jesus Christ did not give into temptation, so that he could remain a sinless sacrifice for our sins, for us. Meaning when we give in to temptation and we can go to Christ who forgives us. When we ask for forgiveness, when we repent of sins because he never sinned. But we will look at Satan's top three temptations from the text. First temptation is satisfaction without God. Then he offers us success without God and third significance without God. Another way to think about this is he offers us food, wrong forbidden food. And he offers us fame, forbidden fame. And he offers us forbidden force or power. 1 John 2:16 says, "For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh. The desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. Is not from the Father, but is from the world." The world, scripture says is under the authority of the evil one. And this is how he tempts us with the desires or hypothermia in the Greek which is lust. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. And we see all three temptations here. The first is he offers us satisfaction without God is lust of the flesh. In Matthew 4:1-4, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry and the tempter came. He's the devil. The, there's a definite article, diablas, he is the one. He is the personification of evil, he is the arch enemy of God. And there's the devil and then he's also called the tempter. That's what he does by his nature. He tempts us with things to pull us away from God. And the context is that Jesus has been baptized with the Spirit and now there's a Spiritual battle. There was a voice from heaven and now there's a voice from hell. The voice from heaven spoke love, truth, reassurance spoke once. Satan comes and he speaks over and over and over in a sinister whispered. Pulling Jesus away from God attempting to. And there was comfort now there's conflict, there was refreshment and now there's famishment. And the gall of Satan even to attempt to take to tempt Jesus Christ. He's trying to tempt the Son of God. He's so hates God, he's so hates the Holy Trinity. And he's so hates us. He wants to destroy the plan of the gospel and redemption from the very beginning. One thing I do want to say here, a lot of people when they're tempted. Oh it's Satan. Famous phrase says, "Not today, Satan. Not today." When you're tempted with like a second slice of cheesecake. That's probably not Satan, statistically speaking. Why do I say that? Because Satan is not omnipresent. He's not everywhere at the same time. His resources are limited. He's tempting Jesus here because Jesus is on his radar. Why? Because Jesus is doing the work of God. Does Satan himself tempt us? Maybe. Are you on his radar? Are you doing so much effective gospel work for God that you're on Satan's radar? If not, he'll send just his minions, his demons to come and do his work. That's first of all. Second of all, is Satan real? In past sermons, I would sit back and I would prove to you that Satan is real. How do you explain Auschwitz? It's not just people. Like the idea of we're going to put human beings in ovens. That idea is so evil. It's so diabolical. And we're going to do so systematically 6 million people. How do you explain the gulags? How do you explain all the worst parts of human history? And usually the same camp that says, I don't believe in Satan. Is actually a Satan camp that says, I believe that human beings are basically good. You can't have it both ways. If you don't believe in Satan, and then all of the evil that's ever been done is just on people. So then you have to believe in a total depravity. People are so evil that it was scare John Calvin himself. So is there evil in the world? Yes, of course. But then I don't even have to do... My new apologetic for just Satan exists is 2020. 2020 happened, yes Satan does exist. Yes, of course Satan exists. If Satan didn't exist, then Jesus Christ wouldn't need to come down to this world. Jesus Christ would not need to fulfill the commandments of God. Jesus Christ would not need to die on a cross in order to destroy the works of Satan, sin and death. But Jesus did all that. Jesus is God. He knows everything. Does Jesus know that Satan exists? Yes, of course. I saw this comedian named Sarah Silverman who was not very funny. She had this quote where, this was just recent, where she wanted to convince people that hell doesn't exist. And it was on her podcast and she gets out and she says, "For all of those listening to me who believe in hell I just want to release you from that. I promise you." she says, "I promise you this, hell does not exist. I believe it with my whole heart that hell doesn't exist." What is that based on? Am I going to base my eternity on your feelings? Just feelings. It's a faith statement based on your feelings. Yes, I do believe Satan exists. It's not based on feelings. It's based on the Son of God that came into this world as a historic figure. Lived a perfect life died on a cross and comes back on the third day. That's how Christianity started. 500 people saw Christ come back from the dead. To prove that everything he had said in all of his life was actually truth. Did Jesus believe in Satan? Yeah, he went to war against Satan. Look how crafty Satan is in the text. He waits until Jesus that is at His weakest. That's a Matthew 4:2. He waits until Jesus is potentially at His weakest, Spiritually because Jesus came from the highest high. He comes from this baptism. And Satan knows that when people at the very top they're most tempted. Scripture says, "Whoever thinks they stand be careful lest you fall." So Spiritually, Jesus at the very top. Physically, Jesus is at the very bottom. He's absolutely weakest. Matthew 4:2 said He fasted for 40 days, and 40 nights, he was hungry. Now, if you've ever fasted for an extended period of time, I'm not talking about four hours. I'm talking about days you know, after day two or three, hunger dissipates. And you don't need to eat, you feel satisfied. But then after a while, the longer you keep going at some point, your body just says I don't have enough fat stores. And hunger comes back, and it's ravenous. And it takes over you feel like... You almost feel like an animal. You can't think about anything other than food. And that's exactly where Satan catches Jesus and he comes to him. Verse three, the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God command the stones to become loaves of bread." Why does he come in with that question? What's the last thing that Jesus heard? He heard God the Father speak, "You are my beloved son." Satan comes in with a question. If, you are the Son of God. His questioning his identity. That's number one. And then he tempts him with something very basic command these stones to become loaves of bread. Aren't you the Son of God, you can do anything right? And God could Jesus do it? Of course he could do it. And as he's looking at these stones obviously, the temptation is there. Nice loaf, another nice loaf, another nice loaf Jesus could do it. My daughter asked me what's your favorite miracle in the whole Bible? I was like, you have to ask me? Canaan Galilee Jesus at a wedding. Give me all the water bottles. Give me all the water *foom, foom, foom* Cabernet, sauvignon. What kind of... Whatever you want. Pinot Grigio I'll give you that. Jesus could do that he had the power to do that. Is it a sin for him to do that? Well, apparently yes if this was a temptation. Most likely God the Father gave Jesus a job to do. Jesus you will fast for 40 days. You will fast until I tell you to stop. And it's to show that you have power over the physical body. It's to show that your desire for God is greater than your desire for food. Satan comes in and he comes in with this question. He turns the fact into a question and he makes a basis for sinful action. What do I mean? He's saying well, aren't you the Son of God? Then why you suffering? If God is a good father, and he cares for his son, why is he allowing his son to suffer? Why is he allowing his son to hunger? Sons shouldn't suffer? That's the implication here. Is that true? That's not true. God allows his children often to suffer and go through extended periods of suffering, prolonged suffering in order to strengthen us. In order to draw us near to Him in order to refine us. But Satan comes in and says well, God's not meeting your needs, maybe he's not good. Maybe he's not loving. So meet your own needs, satisfy yourself. You don't need God to... Obviously he's not he's not doing it. So satisfy yourself, get around God. And by the way, that was the very first temptation. The very first temptation was, Satan comes to Eve and says, is God good? I think God's keeping something from you. God's keeping God likeness from you. This is Genesis 3:4-5 "And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil." He's saying, God's been lying to you don't trust me. He's keeping good from you. And by the way, it always starts with physical appetites. Temptations always come with physical appetites of something that's forbidden. Might be food. But usually, it's something else, like lust. Oh, God's keeping this good thing from you. Get rid of God. You don't need God. Take, eat. I'm allowing, God's forbidding you? I'm allowing you. That's what's going on in Genesis 3:6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food. And that it was delight to the eyes get lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes. Here, you got to take a step back and say, how did Jesus end up in the desert? Did Jesus Himself choose to go into the desert for this fast. You see, in verse one, it says Jesus was led up by the Spirit. Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Who led him into the desert it was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lead Jesus into a place where Jesus can be tempted. Does God tempt us? He does not. He does not. But he does test us. And that's what the Greek word peirasmós actually can be translate either way, temptation or testing. So something that Satan uses for temptation God uses for testing. So God the Father initiates this by the power of the Spirit, for Jesus to go to be tempted by the evil one, why? First of all, overcome Satan. But second of all, so that he can help us in our temptations. So that he can sympathize with us and that he can help us perfectly. Hebrews 2:18, "For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted." And I say this because a lot of Christians are great at repenting after they've sinned. You're tempted you give in, oh Jesus, please forgive me. Please forgive me. We need to get better at turning to Jesus before you give in. When you are tempted when in the thick of the temptation. Turn to Jesus Christ say Jesus helped me and he's able to help. Hebrews 4:15, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." Jesus was led into the desert to be tempted. This was a temptation that he could not avoid. One of the ways that we grow in the Spiritual faith is by growing in Spiritual wisdom. And one of the ways we do that is to avoid situations where we are tempted. Scripture says don't make provision for the flesh. We need to know ourselves. What causes us to be tempted? What places or situations and avoid those. We can avoid watching things that cause us to be tempted. Listening things that cause us to be tempted. Job said I made a covenant with my eyes, not to look lustfully at a girl. We can refuse places and situations of temptation. But there are some temptations that we cannot avoid. And this is a lesson here. And the lesson is that we need to know that when we're brought to a situation that can't be avoided. That God does provide a way out for us. We're taught in the Lord's Prayer to pray the following. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Does that mean that God will never lead you into a place of temptation? No, that's not what that means. What that means is, Lord don't lead me to a place of such temptation that I will give in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man." God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure. Why does God lead us into ways of temptation? Number one, to strengthen our faith. Number two to destroy our pride. As you grow in the faith as you get stronger, you might begin to think, oh I've overcome this temptation. And that one, and that one, and then God surprises you. That no, we actually need God more than we think. It teaches us to wage Spiritual warfare to treasure, the help that Christ alone can give us. The other thing I want to talk about real quick here is that temptation for satisfaction, is strongest in isolation. When we are by ourselves. Why is Jesus in the wilderness by himself? Why did this occasion happen before he chose his 12 disciples, why? It's to teach us that no one else can believe for you. No one else can fight the good fight of faith for you. No one else can resist your temptations. Someone once said that who we are, who we truly are Spiritually. It's when we are alone with God, and with Satan. That's who we truly are. Moses fasted twice for 40 days. Elijah once for 40 days. Paul spent three years alone by himself in the desert in preparation. And we know that community is important. Jesus needed James, John and Peter to pray for him in the garden in Gethsemane. Pray for me pray for me He pleaded with them. And they kept falling asleep. We need others to pray for us, to hold us accountable, to spur us on. To show sympathy, understanding, share lessons of past experiences. But at the end of the day, no one can be faithful for you. No one can obey for you. No one can trust for you. No one can wage Spiritual warfare for you. We must battle our own sin. Sin of the flesh, sin of the world and sin of Satan. So yes, Christianity there's a social aspect. But yes, there's also a solitary aspect. And in our hectic lives, and with our relationships. Lives full of people, husbands, wives, children, sisters, brothers, friends, workmates, solitude's missing. And one of the reasons why we're not growing as we should be in the faith is because we don't spend enough time alone with God. Just you, God, Holy Scripture and prayer and meditating. Praying, being with God developing a conscious awareness of the presence of God. The thick presence of God. That His Spirit is in the room. His Spirit is ministering to us. Matthew 26:41, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." How does Jesus respond to the tempter, to this temptation? Verse four, "But He answered, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." He responds with the Word of God. Everything Jesus spoke was the word of God. But Jesus specifically takes verses from Deuteronomy that he's been meditating on. And he speaks it as the Word of God. Did Jesus believe that Deuteronomy was the word of God, that the Old Testament is the word of God? Yes. So why do we believe the Word of God is the word of God? Because Jesus believed the Word of God is the word of God. And what does he say? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This is what he's saying. As important as food is, as important as bread is carbs, very important. As important as that is to our physical nourishment. God's word is even more important for us to live. Now, do you believe that? Do you believe that with your life? Just think about how much time you spent thinking about food. I love food. I'm such a big fan of food. I have a love love relationship with food. I could spend all day thinking about food, all my favorite foods. And the way that I want to prepare them, or the way that I want someone else to prepare them. And think about how much time we think about food, meditating on food. Going to the grocery store. Coming home, packing everything in the fridge. And then cooking and then eating, enjoying it and then cleaning up. And we do that multiple times a day. Food is important. What God here says is, God's word is more important. For the life of our soul. And God's word isn't just information. It's nutrition for our soul. Do you want to be healthy as a Christian, healthy Spiritually? You need God's Word to take in God's word, study God's word, love God's word. God's word is an extension of Him. This is how we fellowship with God. When he speaks, His Word is an extension of him. When we obey his word, we obey Him, and when we trust his word, we trust him. When we love his word, we love him. John 14:23, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word." Its power, its food. And this is how Jesus overcomes the evil one. Point two, Satan comes and tempts Jesus with success without God. And this is verses five through seven. Then the devil took him to the holy city. And setting him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, again, question, throw yourself down for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone." And Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." So what's going on here? What's going on is that Satan's very intelligent, he's brilliant. He saw that Jesus quoted scripture to rebuke him with the first temptation. Satan comes in second temptation with Scripture. He comes in and quotes Psalm 91. Calvin said that Satan is a cute theologian. Jonathan Edwards said Satan was trained in the best divinity school in the universe. He comes in with a blatant misuse of Psalm 91. Psalm 91 is incredible. It says, if you trust in the Lord, if you take your refuge in Him. He will care for you provide for you, he will protect you. No matter what situations you find yourself in. Satan takes that and says, Jesus put yourself in a situation where God has to protect you by sending angels. And he tempts him actually with suicide. To takes him to the Pinnacle 300 feet up, says jump. You're the Son of God, right? So God's going to protect you. So jump down, and then the angels will come. And now all of a sudden, everyone realizes that you're amazing. You're the son of God. And now you have this incredible following of people who recognize you for who you are. You have fame. What he's offering Jesus Christ is the crown without the cross. Could Jesus have done this and gain a following? Yeah. But Jesus doesn't want a following a fans. He wants to wants a following of worshipers. And that's a completely different way. That's a completely different method. So just Satan here is enticing Jesus Christ with a defiance of God. That's why Jesus responds to verse seven, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Don't presume on God's goodness that God has to protect you, when you put yourself in a situation that actually contradicted his law. When you do something that he forbid. When you're attempting to force God to act. He's offering Jesus Christ success as defined by the world. How does the world define success? Fame, notoriety, money. Jesus Christ says, no that's not the path that I'm choosing. I'm not choosing the path of the crown. I'm choosing the path of the cross. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching. For reproof, for correction for training and righteousness. That the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work. What's true success? True success isn't when people say we're successful. It's when God says well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. Jesus didn't care what people thought. Jesus doesn't care about success as defined by Satan. He cares about success is defined by God. 2 Peter 1:21 for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along from the Holy Spirit. We need a robust definition of success in every area of life as defined by God. What does God think about my work? Is my work successful? Well, do you do your work to the glory of God not as to men, but from the heart? What does God think about my family? And what does God think about how I treat money, and generosity etc. And we look to Scripture not to Satan for definition of success. Joshua 1:8 the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success. And then finally, Satan tempts Jesus with significance without God. Matthew 4:8-11 again the devil took him to a very high mountain. And showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give you if you fall down, and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. What has Jesus called the devil here? He's been the devil, he's been the tempter. What does he call him? Satan, the adversary. Satan you are the enemy, you're coming, in order to draw me away from God? First question you got to deal with here is. Does Satan have authority over the kingdoms of the world. Does Satan have authority over those in political power? Well, in some sense he has a derived sovereign authority. It's under the authority of God. But in a sense, he does have authority over the nations. Jesus calls him the prince of this world. He calls him the ruler of the kingdom of the air. St. Paul calls him the god of this age. And Satan is offering Jesus Christ a shallow political salvation. You can be king over everything under me. So fall down, and worship me. And Jesus says, no be gone, Satan. For it is written you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. It's fascinating Jesus could have said, no, I don't need all of that from you it's all mine anyway. He doesn't do that. And he could have said, the worship you? You should be worshiping me. He doesn't say that either. He goes to the Word of God. He goes to the very first commandment, he goes to the Holy Scripture. And he says, no you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Genesis 3:5 this is what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open. And you will be like God, knowing good and evil. You can be like God, you can be ruler over your own Little Kingdom. Just don't worship God worship me. And that's what Satan wants for each one. God creates us in His own image. Satan wants to create us in his own image, where Satan doesn't obey God, he worships himself. So he offers to us, hey, you don't need to worship God, you can worship yourself. And I will give you everything that you want. And it's always a lie, and always leads to destruction. So Jesus rejects Satan with the Word of God. And what's fascinating here is, Satan said in the second temptation jump off the pinnacle. Angels will come into minister to you, he doesn't do that. And here he rejects Satan, and what happens? The angels come and they begin ministering to him. I always wondered what how do they minister? And if you study a long fast, there's a very particular way of breaking a fast. So I wonder if the... Angels obviously know that. So I wonder if there's an angel that shows up with bone broth. For like one bowl and a second bowl. You could do that for a couple days. And then you bring in some vegetables and a little rice and then finally a little meat. And you got all these angels ministering to Jesus. And it's not just angels in Mark 1:12 and 13 talks about animals. The Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness 40 days, and being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him. So he wasn't completely alone. He had company with animals on all kinds of animals. And then he has angels. But the main truth of this last text is that Satan tempts us with worship. He tries to pull our heart away from worshiping God. And it's just a question of desires. What do we love more than anything else? That's what worship is. It's when our hearts begin to become attached to things or people or experiences. And they get pulled away from God and that's why we need God's word. God's word helps us discern. Well, what is it I'm loving? What is it I'm coveting? What is it I'm thinking about meditating on more than God himself? Is it money, is it career, is it a person? Is it relationships? What is it? That's why we need God's Word to do Spiritual surgery. Hebrews 4:12-13, "For the Spirit of God is living an active sharper than any two edged sword. Piercing to the division of soul and Spirit. Of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." So as we read Holy Scripture, it's reading us. It's discerning us, it's cutting through the thoughts and tensions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight. But all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give an account. So as we read God's word, we need to allow God's Word to read us. What is it saying to me? What is the saying about me? Scripture says that our hearts are confused. They're anxious, they're restless, they're rash, deluded, troubled, they're broken by sin. Jeremiah 79, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand it?" So we need God's Word to discern. What am I worshiping? What am I desiring? Where are the affections of my heart? Matthew 15:8-9, Jesus said, "These people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me." Teaching his doctrines the commandments of men. So where is our worship? Is my heart connected to the heart of God? Or is it straying from the heart of God? And is my worship just lip service to God? Or is it from the heart and this is something we need to train ourselves in. To do the hard Spiritual work as we read Scripture. In 1 Timothy 4:7-8 says, "Have nothing to do with irreverence, silly myths, rather train yourself for godliness. For a while bodily training is of some value. Godliness is a value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life, and also for the life to come." So just practically, how did Jesus overcome the temptation? He knew God's word. He studied God's word. And I'm not talking about he just read Bible verses to Satan. He knew exactly the tactic that Satan was taking. He knew the idea that Satan was bringing before Jesus. And Jesus could discern the idea, and counter that idea, with ideas from the Word of God. 1 John says, "Test the Spirits to see whether they are true." So meaning test ideas to see what kind of Spirits or demons are behind them. Is this idea from God? Or is it from Satan? Satan is the master of disinformation, of false narrative of propaganda. And he comes to us with false narratives. False worldviews, and we need to know Holy Scripture so well. That we have the gift of discernment as can counter these ideas from the Word of God. So how do you do that? Honestly, the best way to do that is read your your Bible. Study Holy Scripture, make a plan to read Holy Scripture. I've never met a Spiritual person who's growing Spiritually, who does not know their Bible inside and out. And who does not read Holy Scripture in a systematic way. Not just you pick it up oh, what am I reading today? It's, I have a plan. I know exactly how many chapters a day in the Old Testament in the book of Psalms. In the Book of Proverbs in the New Testament, you need a plan. There's a million plans out there grab a plan, grab some brothers and sisters from community group read Holy Scripture together. That's important. And also whenever I start talking about reading scripture in a planned way, methodically. People are like ah, it's not very Spiritual. False, let me show you from Holy Scripture. To be Spirit filled means to be scripture filled. They're one and the same. The Holy Spirit wrote the Holy Scriptures. It's one and the same. So if you want to grow and being Spirit filled, Spirit lead, Spirit empowered. You got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you this, in conclusion. Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit, be filled with the Spirit." It's imperative, you got to do it. But it's a passive, I can't do it. So you got to put yourself in a position where you are filled. And then you go to the parallel passage in Colossians 3:16. Instead of saying, be filled with the Spirit it says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." So do you want to fill the Holy Spirit, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It's in you, you know it, you're studying, you're meditating upon it. And this is how we can overcome the evil one. Here at the end, I want to read Matthew 27. I'll tell you why. The fall happened where? In the garden. And then paradise was regained where? In the wilderness. But then there was another garden, and then there was another wilderness. The second garden that we see is the garden of Gethsemane. Where Jesus Christ in that garden, he goes to war with Satan again. That's why he asked his brothers Pray for me, as he's under such anxiety. That the capillaries in his face are bursting, and he's sweating blood. He's at war with Satan. And then from that garden, Jesus Christ goes to another wilderness. Outside of Jerusalem, what's that wilderness? It's Golgotha. It's where he's on the cross. And Jesus Christ goes to the cross. And finally he destroys evil. He destroys Satan for once and for all. By dying, by being buried, by being raised again. Why does he do that? He did that for all those times when we gave into our temptations. When we sinned against God. When we sought satisfaction apart from God. When we sought success or significance apart from God. When we sinned. So when we go to Jesus Christ, and we asked for forgiveness. We know we will be forgiven. How do we know that? Because he didn't come off the cross. Satan comes with the same exact temptations with which he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He comes to him Matthew 27. And see if you don't notice them, verse 32. "And as they went out they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means a place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with Gall. And when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified Him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head, they put the charge against him which read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." "And two robbers are crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You would destroy the template and rebuild it in three days. Save yourself." If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests and the scribes and the elders mocked him saying, "He saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross. And we will believe in him. He trusts and God let God deliver him now if he desires him. For he said, I am the Son of God." And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way." "Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?." Which that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And some of the bystanders hearing it said, This man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge filled it with sour wine and put on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, wait till we see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his Spirit." "And behold the curtains of the temple were torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook and the rocks were split. And the tombs were also opened. And many bodies of the saints would fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection. He went to the holy city and appeared to many. And when the centurion those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake, and what took place. They were filled with on said, "Truly, this was the son God." The reason that we know that when we come to Jesus Christ and ask for forgiveness of our sins. And he does forgive the reason we can be assured of that. It's because he didn't give into the ultimate temptations when he was hanging on the cross. To come down, and to save himself from the wrath of God that he was to bear for our sins. But Jesus went through all of that in order to save us. So if you're not a Christian, we welcome you today to turn to Jesus Christ. To turn from sin, to turn from the ways of Satan. And to turn to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You can do that now, with a prayer of repentance. And as we turn to Holy Communion, we remember what Jesus Christ did and what he did for us. That his body was broken, so that we can be healed and that his blood was shed so that we can be cleansed from our sin. So if you take your little cup, we welcome everyone who is a repentant believer to partake in this. If you are not a Christian, or if you are living in unrepentant sin. We ask that you refrain from this part of the service. Instead, just focus on everything you've heard. If you are a repentant believer, you're welcome to partake. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread. After breaking, he said, "This is my body broken for you. Take, eat and do this in remembrance of me." (Silence) He then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is the cup of the New Covenant, my blood was poured out for the sins of many. Take, drink and do this in remembrance of me." Holy Father, we thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you for bearing the penalty for our sin on the cross. After living a perfect life where you never gave in temptation. Holy Spirit, we thank you that you are with us today. Focusing our attention on the Holy One. And we do take this time to repent of sin. To repent of any time that we've given into temptation. I pray that you make us the people who fight the good fight of faith. Who take up the sword of the Spirit on daily basis. And wage war against the evil one against our sin and flesh and the sin of the world. Continue to bless us and lead us and guide us and we pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
The Gospel of Matthew Week 2
January 3, 2021 • Tyler Burns • Matthew 3:13–17
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning church. Welcome to Mosaic Boston. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Tyler Burns, I'm the teen's director here and it is an honor and a privilege to be worshiping with you this morning and to be proclaiming God's word to all of us today. And we are going to be continuing our series through the book of Matthew in Chapter 3:13-17. You heard that right, it's only five verses. And as I started to prepare and see, okay, what is this text going to reveal? What are we going to be preaching on today? As I was studying, God revealed the depths of the greatness in these short five verses and I just got excited. So I am really glad to be worshiping with you all today. And this text is a text that I'm sure most of us have heard before. It's the story of the baptism of Jesus. Many of us have heard this story before, but what I want us to think about today is what is at the heart of this story. At its heart this is not a story about baptism, at its heart it's not a how to baptize people, at its heart this is a story about identity. And the thing about identity is that we all understand what it's like to want an identity, to struggle with our identity. To see maybe I want something a little bit different about myself, or maybe I want something affirmed about myself. We all know what it's like to think about our identity. And I remember growing up, the biggest part about my identity was sports. Not because I was any talented, but because I love to play and I worked hard at it. And I remember that part of my identity in sports was, I'm going to outwork anyone on the basketball court or anyone on the soccer field. And that was who I said I was. Now just think about it, if I go up to you today or in any context, and I say, "Hey, I'm a harder worker than you," or "I'm going to work harder than you today." What would you think of me? You'd be like, man, that guy's an arrogant jerk, I want nothing to do with that guy. But the thing is I still wanted it to be true. And so I remember a specific day, my senior year of high school. I was on the varsity soccer team. That's right, backup goalie. And as the backup goalie you know you never get to play. And so we were having this one game, it was awful, we were losing miserably. It wasn't good. And the second half my coach says, "Tyler, you're going in." So I go, I grab my gloves and I go up and my coach says, "No, no, you're going in at striker." Now, if you know anything about goalies deep down inside, the heart’s desire of every goalie is to score a goal themselves. They spend their entire time blocking shots, defending the goal to just have one opportunity to make a goal yourself. Oh, there's no greater joy. And so I was excited. I said, "Coach, I'm ready to go." And he says, "Tyler, what I want you to do, is I want you to go and run around like crazy." He said, "I want you to tire out the defenders that they are so tired they can't run anymore because they're chasing you everywhere." So I go, "All right coach, I can do that." So guess what? I go out, I run around like crazy, like a chicken with my head cut off. And if you know anything about soccer as well, you also know that's not how to play soccer. And so I go and we don't score a single goal. Nothing good happens. We lose the game miserably by like six goals or something like that. It was bad. And so my coach sits down the team after the game and he starts yelling at us and I'll never forget what he said. He said, "Tyler's out there running around, working so hard and he's not even any good." I had never been so offended and proud at the same time in my life. You see, something about my identity, I wanted people to recognize was that, I was the hardest worker there. And my coach recognized that, but what he was really saying was, you all have talent. If you even try, you're going to do better than what Tyler did. And so it was offensive, but I will still remember this fondly because he gave me an identity that I wanted it to be true. He said that Tyler is the hardest worker. It wasn't my mom who said that. It wasn't my mom who's probably watching this, "Hi mom," in her high heels and pompom saying, "Tyler is the hardest worker, yay." No, it was my coach. It was the coach who saw how I worked and saw how my teammates worked and said he is the hardest worker on the field today. And the reason why I share this story is because there's something inherent about all of us, where we distrust what people say about themselves and we want to have it affirmed by others. Like it's one thing for you to say something is true about you, but you're biased about you, to someone who knows you say the same thing about you. And so as we're reading our text today, what I want you to be thinking about is that this is a story of people, of those in the know identifying who Jesus truly is. But then having an understanding that once we know who Jesus truly is, that inherently changes our identity. We have a new identity. So with that, will you pray with me for the preaching of God's word. Heavenly Father, Lord, we praise you and we thank you that we are able to come together to gather, to worship you, to praise your name and to study your word. We ask that in this time, your spirit is moving, is using your word, is using me to proclaim the truth of your word, that you can convict all of us, challenge us, strengthen our hearts to love you more and to see our true identity, our value and our purpose in you. Lord, we praise you and we thank you through Jesus name we pray, amen. So again as I mentioned, our text for today is Matthew chapter 3:13-17. And it says, "Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying, "I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water and behold the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased." To frame up our time today, we have four points, that's right, five versus four points. I wanted to go the perfect five for five but God said, "Have mercy on you all." So we're only doing four points. And so the first point for today is that John, John the Baptist identifies Jesus. Then we see the Father identify Jesus. And once those identifications are made, Jesus chooses to identify with us. And because of the work of Christ, the Father then identifies us. And so on this first point that John identifies Jesus, this is the first two verses, 13 and 14, specifically where John says that he's going to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him saying, I need to be baptized by you. Now you might be like, well, he didn't say who Jesus is there, how was this John identifying? If you remember from the text from last week that Pastor Andy had preached on, it said that John the Baptist is the one coming to prepare the way for the Lord. This is his purpose. This is why John is alive on earth, to prepare the way for the Lord. But that he specifically prophesied that there's one coming after him who is greater than he, who is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And when we study biblically, John, these are the only two baptisms that are ever associated with him. The baptism John does, water for repentance and this one who is coming after him who's greater than him that is baptizing with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So by John saying, Jesus, I don't need to baptize you, you need to baptize me. He's clearly identifying to everyone, Jesus is the one I was saying is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. That is the only other baptism that John would need. But if you're like me and you're skeptical and you're like, well, that's us reading back at the text and having all the context. And so that's good. But what did the people that were there that day think? What did they hear when this was spoken? They heard the same thing. And how do we know this? The gospel of John, John the apostle wrote a more detailed account of the events at the baptism of Jesus and in the gospel of John chapter 1:29, it said, "The next day he, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and said, "Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me because He was before me, I myself did not know him, but for this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel." What do we see here? John explicitly stated to those who were there that day, this is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world. There was no ambiguity about what John was saying who Jesus was, it was explicit. It was clear, but also there's a really important detail in that first part of that verse where it says the next day. Why is that important? Well, because what it's saying is that John the Baptist prophesied, gave the greatest sermon of his life so much so that it's written down in scripture saying there is one coming after me who is greater than I, who is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, going to take away the sins of the world. And the people who were there and they're like, wow, this guy is good. I want to hear him again. You see the thing was, where was John preaching? It was in the wilderness. You don't just go to the wilderness for an afternoon, you go there to hear him and you stay there. And actually there's archeological evidences and sites that show that camps were built around where John was baptizing so that people could stay and hear him preach. So what we know is that the majority of people who heard John prophesy, there's one who is coming who is greater than I, were there the very next day when John said, "It's Him. This is that man." And this is powerful and I don't want us to underestimate how powerful it is specifically that John makes this identification. When I was thinking about this, I immediately thought of the movie, The Matrix. If you haven't seen it, it's a 20 year old movie, come on, what are you doing? Spoilers are coming. I'm a little sorry, but not that sorry. To be very general in the movie, The Matrix, the premise is that all of humanity is under control of the system called the matrix. And everyone, well, not everyone, the people who understand that they are enslaved to the system want to break free from the system. There's a group of people called Zion. She's trying to make sure you understand, there's biblical references here. And it's saying we're trying to break free. And they're following a guy named Morpheus because Morpheus has heard that there's a prophecy that there's the one, the one who is to come to set the people free from enslavement to the matrix. And Morpheus's right-hand woman, the Trent named Trinity is there as well. Really just beating us over the head, pay attention. There's biblical references here. But the movie is following a man named Neo to see is he the one who is going to save humanity from the matrix? Spoiler alert, he's the one. His name is an anagram for one, Neo, one. It's the same anyway. So Neo is the one, but when is the first time that he is identified as the one? Who identifies him as the one? I watched a clip to make sure I had this right because when I was like, it's Morpheus. No, it's actually not. It's Trinity, Trinity identifies it first, but there's a reason why in my mind and in probably most of your minds, you're like yeah, Morpheus is the one who identifies Neo as the one. I think I had a Freudian slip where I said Jesus, instead of Neo, but anyway. Morpheus doesn't identify in first, the Trinity does. And why does she identify him as the one? Because she knows, but no one cares. The movie itself doesn't care. I don't remember it. The movie stays exactly the same. Nothing happens. Nothing changes after she says, "This is the one." But then a minute after she says it, Morpheus is standing over here and he does a dramatic turn just almost to the camera and says, "He is the one." And as those words flow out of Morpheus's mouth, the instrumentals crescendo, they pick up, the drum beat is going, your heart gets pumping and Neo starts doing all the crazy stuff that you expect in The Matrix movie, stopping bullets with his mind. Well, why does it happen then? He has already been identified as the one. Why now? Because Morpheus was the one in the know. And Morpheus was the one who had gained a following, giving this message of hope that one is to come. And so the people were following Morpheus saying, "Who are you going to say it is? Morpheus, who is it going to be?" And he says, "Finally, it's Neo," and the people rejoice. And that's in a movie. This is the same thing that is happening when John identifies Jesus, our hearts should be stirred to excitement and joy should overflow from us because John is the one in the know. John is the one who has gained a following by promising there's one coming. There's a message of hope. He is coming to take away the sins of the world and it's him, he's here now, this is who Jesus is. John identifies Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and it should cause us joy. But if you don't want to take the word of one man, God's like, "I'm going to make it abundantly clear to you who He is." The Father then chooses himself to identify who Jesus is. And this is the second part of our texts in verses 16-17, it says, "And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were open to Him and He saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased." Explicit language. Jesus, He is the beloved son of God. That's who He is. There's no doubt that's who He is. But this language and this imagery actually calls to mind a different text. It calls to mind when the angel came to Mary and prophesied to her that she was going to have a son. I want to read it for us. And then I want to see if you guys recognize the similarities. In Luke chapter 1:35, it says, "And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God." Two really important things here. First our text, the baptism of Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy, right? Yes, Mary has already had a son Jesus and that part of the prophecy was true. However, it says that He will be called the Son of God. Where is Jesus called the Son of God? Here, the Father proclaiming, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. That is the fulfillment of the prophecy given before Jesus's birth. But also, both cases are making identifications of who Jesus is, right? The text when the angel came to prophesy to Mary was also the fulfillment of Isaiah 7, the prophecy that he will be Emmanuel, God with us. What we have been talking about in the advent series. And both times at the identification of Jesus as Emmanuel, as God with us, as the Son of God, we see the whole Trinity and I love this part. At the baptism of Jesus, we hear the voice of the Father proclaiming who Jesus is. We see the Holy Spirit descending and we see Jesus the Son rising out of the water. We see all of the Trinity here in the baptism. But also at the identification in the story that the angel gives, we see the Trinity as well. We see the power of the Most High and the Holy Spirit coming upon her so that she could give birth to a son Jesus, who is the Son of God. And I love this because what it's to show us is that yes, Jesus is the Son of God. But his identity is inherently unified with the Godhead as a whole. He is not just a man. He is God, He is divine. It is imperative and it's amazing that at both moments of identification of Jesus, we see the Trinity. And so we see John the Baptist identify Jesus as the lamb who comes to take away the sins of the world. God the Father identified Jesus as His Son, God divine, and Jesus doesn't stand there and say, "Well, they said it, take it or leave it." Instead, Jesus chooses out of love to identify himself to us by identifying with us. And this is actually my favorite verse in this passage. It's only five verses. I do have a favorite verse and I do genuinely like this versus. It's not just like the one of the five that I had to pick, I love this verse because when I read this verse I get excited. You could ask my wife when I was practicing this sermon, I came out of the office limping because when I was practicing this part, I was bouncing up and down so much I strained my hamstring. Literally no joke. Ask her. Here's my favorite verse. You guys ready? Matthew 3:13, "Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him." You guys feel it? You feel that excitement that's in that verse? No. The look on most of your faces are the same look when I talk about any sport to my wife besides football, like what are you talking about? This verse, I love it and I want to show you why. And in order to understand why we actually need to look at a map. I'm a visual learner, I love maps. I love pictures. So I hope that this will help you guys. But if you look at this map at that top section, there's a red square that says Galilee, right? The text says, "Jesus came from Galilee." That's where he was from. And that red circle up there is Nazareth. That's where Jesus was from, so most likely Jesus was traveling from His home in Nazareth to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Well, the Jordan is a long river, where was He getting baptized? That little red circle down there. Again, there's archeological evidence that shows that this is where it was. But also we know that John was in the wilderness, which is in that green Perea area just south by the Dead Sea. And so the closest place for the Jordan and the wilderness to me, it's right there. So it just makes sense. That's where John was baptizing. And so what this verse is saying is that Jesus left his home in Nazareth to go down to the wilderness to be baptized by John, to reveal his identity as the Lamb who has come to take away the sins of the world. In this verse, this one verse is a historical fact, it is truth. It is just documenting what has happened, but it shows God's sovereignty and His providence that this historical movement and journey of Jesus actually points us to the greatest journey of Christ. I don't know if you caught it in there. Jesus left his home, not in Nazareth, in heaven. And He left His home in heaven and came down to the wilderness of the sinful broken world we call earth, why? To show to us, to reveal to us that He is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world. This one verse just parallels that so perfectly. It brings this to mind. It shows us that Jesus identifies with us by coming and living among us to save us. And if you're here today and you're not a Christian, or you're wondering what Christianity is about, the Apostle's creed, I didn't know we were reading that, but that was perfect and that explains it. But this whole first part of the sermon, this is what Christianity is. We believe truthfully, objectively, Jesus is the Son of God, Emmanuel, who has come to take away our sins. That is truth. It is fact. It is reality. That is who Jesus is. And Jesus then, just base it on the words of others, even though others did affirm it about Him, He proved it to us. But Jesus doesn't just identify with us in the sense that He came and was a human because as you know, there are human beings that identify with us and there's other human beings that were like, they know nothing about what my life is like, right? Jesus identifies with us in all things and this is why I really love verse 15 in this text where Jesus says to John, "Let it be so now for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." What is Jesus saying? Saying, "John, I don't need to be baptized by you. You're doing baptism by water for repentance. I'm God, I have no need to be repented of anything, but I'm going to do it to fulfill all righteousness." Why? Because it was the will of the Father for Jesus to be baptized because this is how God wanted to reveal and affirm the identity of Christ to John the Baptist and to those there and to us reading the scripture today. Jesus was striving to be obedient to God in every single step of the way. And as human beings, we're called to do the same. As human beings, we are called to be obedient to the Lord in our lives. And it's once we are Christians that we are given the heart and the desire to truly be obedient to God. And Jesus identifies with us in that life of striving to be obedient to God. And while Jesus was perfect in doing so, he identifies with us in our weakness and our temptation as well. This is why in Hebrews chapter 4:14-16 it says, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need." Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted. Spoiler alert for next week sermon, Jesus goes to the wilderness and is tempted. Jesus knows what it's like to have that struggle. And while He was perfect, when we are tempted to sin and to go against God, He knows what it's like. And what this text tells us is that we can hold fast to our confession that Jesus is the Messiah who saved us from our sins. Even while we are being tempted, because when we do so we run to Christ, we go to His throne and say, "Jesus, I need grace. I need your strength. I need your help to come out of this. Whatever the temptation is, Jesus, I need you to get me through this." But it's not just in temptation when we are successful in overcoming it, it's temptation when we fail as well. What is our response to be when we are tempted and we sin. It's the same exact thing. When we are tempted and we sin against God and we fall short, our confession still holds fast that Jesus saved us from our sins. And so when we sin, we still run to His throne and ask God, "God, I need grace. I repent. I know that you have died to save me from my sins and I need your grace now." And it also says in our weakness, not just temptation, in our weakness. And I love this one because Jesus came to reconcile the sins of the world, not just in us but also around us. Have you ever felt weakened just by the weight of the sin in the world around you? I don't know if I've ever felt that more than in this past year, that just so many things going on around us, it wears us down. Whether it's loss of a job of a loved one, loss of a life of a loved one. Whatever it might be, struggling with job yourself, struggling with how to have community while things are online, and whatever it might be and you're just overwhelmed and weakened by the world around us. Jesus knows what it's like to be tired, to be burdened. Jesus died on the cross a gruesome death, but before that, He was in the garden on his knees praying through the night. "God, if there's any other way, take this cup from me." And in our lives, when we're at the same point, when we feel weak and we feel burdened and we're at the point of saying, "God, please, if there's any other way, please make it happen." We have the same response that Christ had then, "But not my will, but yours be done." Why? Because we know who Jesus is. We know He is the Lamb who has taken our sins away. We know that He has promised to give us grace in our need. We know that He is with us through our pain and suffering. We can rely on Him. He is dependable. He is trustworthy. It's who He is. And as much as I said this text is not about baptism, it's about identity, it is also about baptism. And so I'd be remiss to not talk about how Jesus identifies with us in baptism. And the clearest place we see this as from Romans chapter 6, where the apostle Paul says, "What then shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means, how can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like His." This is one of the reasons, one of the scriptures that supports why we do believers baptism by submersion here at Mosaic. But the reason is because baptism is symbolic of this. When we are dumped under the water in baptism, it is symbolic saying that Jesus, I'm giving over my sinful, my fleshly desires, my old self, who I used to be. I'm giving it over to you. And I know that the penalty for my sins has been taken when you died on the cross. And when we are raised out of the water, it is symbolic of the spiritual reality of, Jesus has made us new. That the penalty of our sin has been taken away in that just as Christ was raised, we will be raised with Him in heaven. And He gives us a new identity. We're washed clean. We have a new identity. Well, what is that identity? Because of Christ, the Father now identifies and tells us who we are. This comes from Galatians chapter three. It says, "For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female, and you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." Who are we? We're sons and daughters of God. That same phrase that was used by the Father to identify who Jesus is, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased." What it's saying is when we are baptized into Christ, the Father says the same to us, "That is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. That is my beloved daughter with whom I'm well pleased." And I need to be clear here what I mean when I say this. Baptism is not magical. It does not save us from our sins. It's not like you could go downstairs, fill up the baptismal, do a cannonball, pop on one and be like, "Cool. I'm good, son, daughter, let's go." No. What it's saying is that baptism is the natural following, the natural process of salvation. That's why it starts off through faith. We are sons of God through faith, and then talking about baptism. It's like if you have a good meal, the natural process is to post a picture of it to Instagram. It's just what you do. There's no other option really, right? It's the same thing. And when you are saved, the only rightful response is to be baptized. And so if you are here today and you're a Christian, what this text is saying is that your new identity is son and daughter of God. There's no more Jew or Greek. There's no more racial divide. Your identity is not in your ethnicity, it's a part of who you are, sure. Every single human being is fearfully and wonderfully made, but that's not who you are. Your identity, your value, your purpose comes in the fact that God says, "I loved you enough to adopt you into my family to say you are my son, you are my daughter." We have gone from sinners in identification to sons in identification. We have gone from delinquents in identification to daughters in identification. We have a new identity, this is who we are. And I love the last part. "We are heirs according to the promise." We got an inheritance. What is that inheritance? It's in the kingdom of God. We get to have an inheritance in His kingdom, but we need to be clear that just because we are sons and daughters and we have an inheritance, doesn't mean we are stereotypical trust fund babies. What do I mean by that? We don't go around saying, "Well, God's my Father so I can do whatever I want." We don't go around saying, "Well, God's my Father. He's given me the greatest inheritance of all times, I don't need to do anything, I've got an inheritance." No inherently in our new identity as sons and daughter is also the identity of missionary. Where do I get this from? Why am I throwing missionary? Churches love to use the word missionary, pastors love missionary. It's a trigger word. So that's why, I mean, no, it's true. Why? Culturally speaking and especially at the time of Christ, fathers trained their sons in the work that they were doing, right? Joseph was a carpenter. He trained his son, Jesus, to be a carpenter. Peter's father was a fisherman, he trained his son to be a fisherman. This is just how it went and what happens. And in the same way, our God the Father has a work that He is doing. He has a work of bringing reconciliation and His kingdom here to earth. And so we now, as sons and daughters are being trained in the work of our Father. This is why the great commission is the thing. Matthew 28:19, it says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." See, the natural progress from baptism then is teaching to follow all that Christ has commanded. Why? Well, because Jesus is the Son of God. He knows perfectly the will and work of the Father. And so He has given us commandments. He has given us his word so that we can follow his instruction to do the work of the Father here on earth. And this is our greatest purpose now. Our identity, who we are as sons and daughters of God and our purpose is to do the work of the Father. We are missionaries. Now, I want to be clear. When I say missionaries, I don't mean you all need to start working for a church or go to another country. Those are your options, pick one. No. We are all missionaries wherever we are at. And what I mean is, I was a missionary before I worked for Mosaic. I love being on a mission at Mosaic. It's a great opportunity, and I'm honored to be used by God here. But I was a missionary and called to be a missionary before I started working here. Before I worked here, I was at the New England aquarium, fun job. Penguin husbandry unit. If you ever been to the New England aquarium, you look down and you see the people playing with penguins, they're not actually playing with them, but that was me. And I remember that at this job for a long time, no one knew that I was a Christian. And then one day we were prepping food for the penguins. I remember distinctly it was smelt because you could get fried smelt outside of the aquarium. And one of my coworkers ate it every day and I was like, "How can you eat it? We just fed it to the penguins." But anyway, I remember something came up about like God and science and evolution and the penguins. And I just threw out casually, I'm a Christian. And as everyone in Boston does when they find out you're a Christian, they get awkward, they don't know what to do. So they just kind of became quiet. And I went through the rest of the day cleaning the islands, feeding the penguins, cleaning, feeding, cleaning, feeding. And when you're done, you're dirty and you're gross. And so you pop out and you go, you go shower. And there were three showers. And I remember as I'm showering, the guy in the shower next to me, he says, "Hey, you're a Christian?" I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "What does that mean?" And all that I can remember thinking is, really God, right here, right now? Like, this is where we're going to do this? Like all right. And so I shared the gospel with him and I don't bring this story up to be like, look at how great this story is. I bring this story up to say what it means to be on mission the majority of the time is being willing to be used by God wherever you're at when He gives you opportunities and seeking those opportunities. The biggest way for opportunities to share the gospel and the love of Christ with those around us is simply do people know that we're Christians. It was not a coincidence that I identified myself as a Christian to those around me, that then they started to ask questions. Because how were they going to ask if they didn't know? But also when I think about this, I think about my wife. Any chance that I can get to brag on her, I will. My wife, if you don't know, she is a missionary. And by that, I mean, she is a lawyer. She's a good lawyer. And by that I mean, she does a good job with her job, but also she's a good person. You have to clarify with lawyers. It's a biblical thing to clarify and my wife hates this joke. But what does it mean for her to be a missionary at her law firm? It means that her primary purpose in life is not to win cases for her firm, her primary purpose in life is not to make money or to be the best boss lady that there ever has been. Those are her words. Her primary purpose in life is to bring the kingdom of God, to make disciples in her office but everywhere that she goes. And she's working on it, she's doing it. And I remember this past year one atheist lawyer's goal was to go to church once. That's a huge win in my book. I don't know about you guys, but that, praise God, hallelujah, that someone was like, I'm going to go to church once. And then COVID happened. And then they watched online and they actually really enjoyed, and they had a conversation about it. And so even still God is working, but she is on missions. That's what her purpose is. No matter what our job description is, if you're a doctor, your primary purpose isn't your patients. Take care of your patients. Let me be abundantly clear, do that. That is one way to honor God. But your primary purpose is to be used by God where you're at. What does this look like? Do your coworkers know you're a Christian? Do you pray for your patients, understanding that yes, you do your job, but there's a God who's greater than me? I can pray for those that I work with. If you're a student, if you're in high school, did you know that your primary purpose is not to go to college? Did you know that if you're a college student, your primary purpose in life is not to go to grad school or get a job? And if you're in grad school, did you know that your primary purpose is not to write that paper or get a job? Your primary purpose wherever you're at is to be used by God on missions to proclaim the gospel to those around us. And again, it looks different for each situation and each person. It's a willingness to be used by God. I remember a year ago, a teen messaged me and was like, "Hey, I have a friend, he's really struggling with an eating disorder, how can I encourage them?" And as sad and as heartbroken I was for that individual, I was still joyful that one of our teens got it. They understood, my purpose isn't grades, I need to be used here by God to be an encouragement to this person who is broken, who is weak, who is hurting? How can I do that? Wherever we're at, we need to be looking for ways that we can be by God for His kingdom. And I understand it's difficult now, especially with COVID, everything's online now and you're like, how can I do this if I'm not seeing people in person? You still can. It takes a little bit more creativity, but it's still possible. I know people that have started Bible studies with their friends being like, "Hey, you don't get to see anyone. I don't get to see anyone. At least this way we can see someone, it's a reason to meet. Let's do it." It's as simple as that sometimes, not always, but sometimes it's an example. But I say all of this to point out that we have a new identity. We are sons and daughters. And with that comes this purpose of doing the work of the Father and it's vital that we do it. It's vital that we do it. I had a teen ask me a couple of months ago, how important is it for us to live out the Christian walk. If we're saved, isn't that enough? How important, how important, lets quantify it. And it's vital. And there's a verse that I was challenged with that day by my wife. Again, she's a missionary, even to me. She challenged me with a verse, Luke chapter 9:23-26. It says, "And He, Jesus said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him, will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." The reason I bring up this versus to challenge us. We have a new identity. We are sons and daughters. This is the most valuable thing that we could have in life. Why would we sacrifice it for anything this world has to offer? Why would we be ashamed of our identity as sons and daughters when it is the greatest gift we have ever received? Don't be ashamed. Don't sacrifice your identity for things of this world. Know the truth of who you are. You are loved, because if Jesus loved you enough to die on the cross to save you from your sins, you are sons and daughters. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we praise you and we thank you that you have given us a new identity. That we are no longer who we used to be, but now we have been put in a place of honor as your sons and as your daughters, because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Lord, give us firmness and security in our identity as your children and give us the strength and the wisdom and the understanding to do your work here on earth. In Jesus name, your son we pray, amen.
The Gospel of Matthew Week 1
December 27, 2020 • Andy Hoot • Matthew 3:1–12
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston in our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Well, good morning. Welcome everybody who's here, everybody who is chiming in online. My name is Andy, I'm one of the pastors here along with Pastor Jan and Pastor Shane. If you are new, we do want to connect with you. We have the connection card for that. We have some in the lobby here in person. If you fill one out and just give us something for your information, ask us any questions we'll get back to you. And if you do fill it out and you're a first time attendee, we would be happy to send you a gift online, you can fill out that card on our website on the Facebook stream, probably. And you can fill it out on our phone app, so we want to connect with you. We know that we might have some people chiming in around the Christmas season for the first time in a while. Today, we are going to continue in the book of Matthew. We have been in Matthew the last four weeks for our Advent series and we're going to continue in Matthew for the next several weeks. And Matthew, this section Matthew is really relevant at this time of year. Matthew is setting the stage for what life is like in Christ's new kingdom. He has come he has been born, the Word became flesh at Christmas and it's a changing of the age. It's the time of the New Covenant for the Kingdom of God and with that comes changes with Christ's kingdom. And so, in the beginning parts of Matthew, Matthew is laying the framework for what life in Christ's kingdom is like. So, as we turn into the New Year, this is a great book, great section of scripture to just refocus ourselves on the Word of God and get some redirection, realignment to His direction. So today, I have the privilege of preaching through Matthew 3:1 through 12, and this is about John, the Baptist coming and preparing the way for Jesus Christ. I wish I could say I grew my hair out in honor of his bohemian nature, but I just have not been able to get a haircut yet, in this busy season. But we're going to read from Matthew 3:1 through 12 as our word from scripture today. In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'" Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Thus sayeth the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for this day. We praise you for this season of Christmas that reminds us of you're coming into the world, man, us, we by our own power, we have tried to justify our being. We've sought righteousness on our own accord and we've received, we've landed in nothing but darkness. But you Lord, you came, you broke through the darkness and into the light, you revealed your power, and Lord, for those of us in Christ, we are free from the darkness in which we once lived. Lord, we praise you for the hope that we have in this message, but today, Lord, let your power be made clear to us, Lord, shake us to the core by your power and remind us of the power that is working within us as we march forward as your servants in your kingdom in this life. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen. So, what a lovely Christmas passage. There's just enough fire and brimstone in here to scare anybody away who's in this Advent, in this Christmas season, just been inspired to come back to church after maybe a hiatus. I'm joking, I'm joking. We can derive a lot of encouragement and edification from this passage and it's hard to see through, just to read this text. There's a lot of intense details, but I think what Matthew is getting straight at is he's asking, "What are you seeking?" That's what he's asking you in this little section of scriptures. Still at the beginning of his chapter, what are you seeking in Christ in His Kingdom? If it could be put more plain, "It's why are you here today? Why are you viewing today right now?" If you're seeking anything other than the true and good King, the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to lead a lifestyle that is glorifying to His name, His kingdom, if you're not doing that, your motives are wrong, you're coming with the wrong heart. So, why is this important to Matthew? Matthew's writing in the decade or two after the ascension, the life, the ministry and ascension of Christ into heaven and Matthew has seen people fall away at this point. Matthew is a Jew. His gospel is primarily to Jews of his day. That's his target audience. He's seen a lot of them come with the wrong motives. He's seen some thinking that the Messiah would come and we can keep our traditions. We can keep our temple life, our worship life, just add a little bit of Jesus, here and there, incorporate those hard teachings only when it's convenient. And when the gospel is pushed against the lives of these people, he has seen them fall away. He's seen those false motives come out. And Matthew at the beginning of the gospel, he's putting John right here to call us, take this seriously. So, again, I ask, "What are you seeking?" That's what Matthew's asking. That's what I'm asking you today. "Why are you here today?" I have to start with this intensity, too because it fits the nature of the text. That's what John, "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He's an intense guy, so I have to begin with the tone of the text. Are you coming to continue to live a life of clean religion and only incorporate the hard teachings of Jesus particularly to repent? Matthew gives us this imagery of Christ's kingdom being ushered in by a bohemian in the wilderness. He dresses in wool and animal skins, eats bugs and honey to tell us that you are not in the right place. Gone are the days where worship is centered at the beautiful ornate temple. And now, the means by which God is going to do his work, the way he's going to get his message out, takes new form in the preaching of the gospel by simple men, not priests. Are you coming here simply to dabble into Christianity? See what all the hype has been about through history. Maybe like the Pharisees and Sadducees. You heard there's a good preacher here? I'm sorry, Pastor Jan is not preaching today, but you want to come and see what the hype is about. Maybe you're thinking as many teachings have been helpful to me in my life, maybe Christianity provides something it's had quite a track record in history, maybe you'll pick it up like your yoga or CrossFit phase. Matthew communicates clearly that through John's message, he calls them brood of vipers of these evil snakes. Just even sometimes the babies will kill their mother, I've read in my research. Now, this insult, these are evil intentions. And then he takes at the end of this section, he takes him to the eternal stakes that are involved when one considers Christianity. Its eternity with life with Christ or its unquenchable fire. Christianity isn't just something you dabble into. We get a lot of international students that come in and out throughout the year. It's like taking up the arts. It's like taking up a new course of study to them. No. Christ wants your worship. He wants you to acknowledge him as King with every era of your life. Are you here because of Christianity or Judaism or even both are in your family heritage? And you really just want to retain that heritage of that part of your family's history. I mean, at Christmas, that's the perfect time to chime into a sermon to experience the nostalgia of life. With those in your life who are actually real Christians. You miss them, but God doesn't want just empty worship. He doesn't need his self-esteem build up. He's altogether sufficient, satisfied in himself. The text says, "If He really wants worshipers, he can turn stones, raise them up into worshipers." God doesn't need you. He wants a relationship with you because He loves you. If He really is the all holy, all powerful, all knowledgeable, unchangeable, eternal being of the universe, the best thing he can do is give us to him. Maybe you're here because you simply want help. You want help with your problems but you don't really want the teachings of God or God Himself. Maybe you're just attending to avoid hell. This seems a little more innocent, but Matthew gives the second half of verse seven. He says, "Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He's saying that sarcastically to the Sadducees and Pharisees, the perennial opponents of Christ and the New Testament. They're not coming out with the right motives. They're seeing, "Can this be something that I add to my life." They're not really thinking about their sin, their need for a Savior, a Messiah, a King to come to bear the burden further sin and God just crushes that down. So, we're not to come to Christianity. John and Matthew, they make it clear, we're not to come to Christianity for the sake of tradition, to try to improve our lives, to carry on aspects of our religious or family heritage or even escape hell. What's the point then? Why consider Christianity why consider a lifestyle with repentance from sin at the center? There certainly seems to be a lot of opportunity costs. We might be missing out a lot in life by taking this path. Why take this path of repentance that John, the Baptist that Jesus Christ called his followers to? And that's exactly what I want to talk to you about today. That's the last few verses of the section of the Scripture. One to nine call readers to really evaluate their motives of what they're bringing to Christ and 10 through 12, there's a second emphasis. Verse 10, there's talk of a chopping axe. There's talk of the might of Christ. There's talk of the Holy Spirit and fire that believers received from Christ. Verse 12, there's talk of the winnowing fork and unquenchable fire. This is talk of the power of God. I want to talk about the power of God today because heading into 2021, sorry. Heading into 2021, this is a topic that we need. Passing on rightly preached on the hope that we have and through our faith in Christ alone on Christmas Eve, but I want to remind us that as Christians, we have access to the power of God. One of the great tragedies about Christianity is that people don't know Christianity is powerful. There's a lot of believers that are limping through life. Just, they're afraid to even talk about this topic for appearing too charismatic or crazy, but a lot of people in the church, we don't really see other believers exhibit this knowledge of the power at work within them and outsiders. They certainly don't see that from us, but the reality is that any of us here who know the power of God personally know that that is the distinguishing feature the selling point of Christianity. It's what makes it unique. It's what gives us the ability to not just persevere, but to thrive in all seasons of life. It gives us joy to lead lives of repentance while living for the glory of our king. Like John, it gives us the courage to go before others, to call them to repentance, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So today, I want to talk about the power of Christianity. I'm going to ask two questions, what is the source of Christianity's power? What does the power of Christ actually bring to our lives? So, what is the source of Christianity's power? And so, notice in our passage, how John has described. It really does not tell us about his personality. Yes, we can read into it, we can apply like he's this mystical guy with this unique dress, but that doesn't really talk about it. We just know that he preached, "Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is near." Furthermore, we find that he had a good following. People from all Judah, and Jerusalem and the Jordan River. People flocked to him. Some modern theologians think he had a following that tapped into six figures. There was something powerful about his ministry. He was the first prophet that entered into the course of redemptive history in 400 years for the people of God. So, people were thirsty. They were starving, but we should read that he's a simple man and really the one thing that we have, the description of him that really we should be focusing on is John is a voice crying in the wilderness. Mark and Luke, they talk about John, the Baptist. They give us a little more background information. Matthew intentionally keeps it plain. He's a voice crying in the wilderness. Sorry, Boston life is getting the best of me. Matthew has shown us throughout John's ministry, the power of Christianity is not in the messenger, not in the mastery of the teachings by a person, not in the complexity of words, but with which the message is delivered, not in the location in which it is delivered. The power of Christianity is in the message of Christianity itself. I've heard it said before, Christianity says it's not what you do, but the gospel does to you. It's not something that I take up, it takes me up. Romans 1:16. We rarely go week without talking about this here at Mosaic. The gospel is the power of God and to righteousness to the Jew first and also the Greek. What's the gospel? It's the Greek word evangelion, it means "Good news." It's not the message. It's that I must muster up strength and save myself. That's not good news. Okay. How many of you tried that for years? I did that years, 23 years of my life, just got nothing, but despair and exhaustion. How many of you tried that in 2020 over and over? Lord, how am I going to have the strength to do this? What's the message? God has done something about my salvation. In his infinite glory and holiness with full knowledge of every rebellious deed that I've done, every prideful thought that I've had, He has chosen to do something to save me. That's why we celebrate Christmas, that's why we make such a big deal about it every year. God has visited his people. Despite man's failure, his tendency to lean on of all his own wisdom, He has come. All of man's sin and efforts and failure to find God on his own, they bring him to darkness, but he enters into creation, he brings the light he brings the power. The Bible is often misunderstood. It's often depicted as a chronicle of man's pursuit of God. That is wrong. That is not Christianity. That's not why we take up this pursuit. That's not the Christian message. The central message is that man has sinned against God as Adam did in the garden, so we all do and God comes after us, seeks us, as He did with Adam and Eve. He covers our sin. When we get physically baptized, we're participating in something that does not show the end product of our pursuit of God, but reveals that God has pursued us. It's an outward sign of an inward change that was completely initiated and carried out by the Holy Spirit of God, simply because God chose to love us. Christianity, the power is in that God always makes the move to save man. It's in believing in this message that we may know the power of resurrection in our own lives. Like just by faith, we get access to this power, this knowledge that God saves us. Scripture says that before Christ, it's a life of powerlessness, Ephesians 2:1 through 4. I think I forgot this in the slides. "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 body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." Life apart from Christ, we are powerless. We're just following. Satan is labeled as the prince of the power of the air. We're just following the course of the wind and the world. Whatever is thrown at us without the ability to discern what is right and wrong, without the ability to truly love what is of God, but that is us no more. We have lives of power. Paul, in Ephesians 1:16 through 20, he wants readers to grasp the power that has come to us in our salvation. "I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places." Let's meditate. Do you know this power, the same power that rose Jesus from the grave is what caught us out of the darkness, the death to our sins in which we once walked. We have newness of life. We don't just get it at salvation. It continues. The gospel is the power of God. It seems too simple. It seems too simple to believe. I was watching a movie, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, on Netflix. It's really out of character as a Netflix release, very wholesome entertainment. And just the boy, he goes to school his whole life while his family are farmers in Malawi, probably age 12, 13, and a severe drought comes to the land and he has to stop going to school, but he still gets access to the library and he reads about power. He reads about windmills with the drought, as famine starts lots of rioting in the land. And he goes to his dad and he says, "Dad, if we build this windmill, I can power a pump that will pump water from our well constantly. We won't be dependent on the seasonal rains." And the tension of the movie is that the dad because he's not educated, he just can't understand that this power from the wind can be transformed into electrical power that powers the pump. And that's just the view of a lot of people with Christianity. It's the simple message: Salvation in the life, death, resurrection, ascension and return of Jesus Christ that is offered in Christianity is can give us power, can give us peace that we don't know apart from it. It can give us full knowledge of ourselves. It can give us freedom from the sins that have weighed us down all of our lives. It's too good to be true to simple, but it's the Word of God itself. So, we need to just meditate. The gospel is the power of God. If you are saved in Christ, you have, you know this power. But I want to say, what does the power of God do? More specifically, how does it work? What does the power of Christ actually bring to our lives? Verse 10, through 12, again, it taps into it's like an axe laid to the root of the trees, it chops down. We are baptized by the Holy Spirit and fire. It's like it burns with unquenchable fire. From this text today, it says, "The Power of God chops things down. It burns things up." Matthew 9:16 through 17, Caleb prayed this text, tapped into it. There was no talk between us. Jesus talked about the effect of the power of God, the power of gospel as it interacts with something. Matthew 9:16 to 17, "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved." The power of God rips. It blows up everything that it mixes with. You can't put new wine into old wineskins. The power of God represented here by the fermentation. It's going to burst. The power of God is a destructive power. If a person, a spirit, an idea, a law goes or stands against it, ultimately, the Lord is going to burn it up like chaff. Why? This is what John said, "Christ alone is Savior and King." There's only one way to God, one way to salvation, that's the King Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah of all the Old Testament prophets, the one who fulfilled the law. He alone conquers and reigns over everything in his path. Nothing in the world has blown up things like the gospel. Jesus came and even the law of God comes to an end. He doesn't abolish it, but he is the only person in history who had the power to fulfill it. Paul, I tapped into this a couple of weeks ago, the wisdom of the world can't stand against the power of God. I preached about this two weeks ago. It's blown up. It's proven foolish. I talked about how the birth of Christ. God shows man's foolishness in sending his King to be born in a small town like Bethlehem. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18 to 20, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" Jesus ultimately chops down, smashes everything working against him. Take His power seriously. This is what John is saying, "Anyone coming to baptism with the right motives, anyone coming to salvation in the Lord knows this." John says, "He is mightier than me. I am not worthy to carry the sandals of his feet." In those days a student might carry the sandals of his rabbi or his teacher. They were basically lower than a slave. John says, "I am not even worthy to do that when you consider the power of this King, Jesus Christ." and Jesus tells John, says that John is the greatest of men at one point in Scripture when he affirms John's ministry. The power of God destructs everything that opposes it, but even as Christians, we know this, we know this destructive power of God. If you don't know anything about the destructive power of Christ personally, you don't know anything about the power of the gospel at all. Every true Christian knows that when Christ comes into your life, He immediately starts burning up all of the infirmities, the remnants of you, the remnants of the old man that are left from your old life. You're declared righteous upon salvation, but we're not fully holy. That won't come until Jesus Christ returns until we die, until Jesus Christ returns in a spiritual sense and in a physical sense, upon his re-establishment of creation. Jesus Christ, He burns up these remnants of our old selves and as we're spiritually reborn, just like Adam and Eve experienced in the garden, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, leaves us guilty and hopeless, clung to cover up our shame, all knowledge that we based our lives off of, our wisdom of the world that we're rooted in and it explodes, our understanding of our own goodness thrown out the door. What does Paul say about his own righteousness? The most holy, the Jew of Jews, the Pharisee of Pharisees. He considers all of his goodness as dung, skubula. But the Spirit of God doesn't stop there. Having burned us, smashed us, God begins creating us anew, like the new wine fermented in the new bottles. We're convicted of sin, stripped of our pride, proven weak, unable to help ourselves, and then the Son of God takes hold of us. We finally see our need for him to be our Savior. He needed to go to the cross for us. We need it to be given his righteousness, we need in return to make him Lord and honor Him as God. We begin to see life in a new way. We see God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, life, death, everybody else in this world anew. And that's the work the text talks about. We receive the Holy Spirit upon our baptism, but the fire continues after our salvation. It's a purifying fire for the rest of our lives. It's this power that separates Christianity from all other religions. We actually experience it. We actually can change in this life. We actually can thrive in not just the peaks of life, but in the valleys. When we experience the resurrection power of Christ in one season, we know that we will have it as we march on. Like I am so tired from 2020. It's been in this situation with kids at home most of the time. We have COVID still continuing, we have just who knows what's going to happen with the election results, just lots of other tensions, and by God's grace, I haven't had to deal with a lot of the troubles that a lot of people have dealt with in this year, but I'm tired. Like where do we derive strength? Where do I get it? Where do all of us get it to march forward and in a faithful manner that honors our Lord and Savior? Like we have it already. It's this power that John called the Pharisees and Sadducees out about, he knew they didn't have it when they came to see him. How can someone have it? In verse eight, John provides the answer. Bear in mind with keeping with repentance. What is repentance? Metanoia, the Greek terms it means to change one's mind. It can be from the right thought to the wrong thought. In Scripture, it takes on a new aspect. It's a complete change in one's ways. It means to forsake evil, prideful, sinful ways in order to live rightly to God, out of thanksgiving for what he has done for you in Jesus Christ. Just more formally, I just love this, the Westminster shorter catechism says, repentance unto life as a saving grace. We can only do it because of God's help. Whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God and Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. There's a change in mind, which leads to a change in heart, which leads to a renewed and vigorous commitment to the ways of God. I've rebelled against Jesus as Lord over my life, but now I receive his reign over my life. Lord, let your kingdom come, let your will be done in my life. Why must we keep with repentance? In keeping with repentance, we're saying, "God, I trust you, as I always should have. I trust your ways. You are my King. You are my Lord. You are my Savior. You make my path straight. I will even say no to things that I desire in the flesh, things that the old man still wants, apart from you, because I trust that following your way is better for me, and more glorifying to you. I was made to function in this way." Repentance is the enactment of faith in one's life. "Christian, do you repent? Is repentance, the posture of your life?" I was talking to a person recently, grew up in the church their whole life and they're telling me that the only time they think of the gospel, that Jesus Christ came and lived the life that they could not, that the death that they deserve, that rose from the dead, conquering sin once and for all, ascended to the right hand of God the Father and will come again, this humbling, humbling story that I said, it's God coming to us, pulling us out of the darkness. They said, they only think of that when they commit a sin. As Christians, this can't be the case, it has to be our daily meditation. "Lord, I am saved by your grace. Apart from you, I was a child of wrath pursuing my own way, yet you stepped in and saved me." And when we have that posture constantly, we want to please God, we want to live under his commandments, we have compassion for those people in our lives who don't know this grace, who don't know this power, who are walking into 2021 dead and have no reserves. Is this the posture of your life? It needs to be constant? Wake up and say, "Lord, I'm your child. I don't deserve this. Help me to live in a way that is honoring to your name and acknowledges your grace to me." Nonbelievers, what do you think about Christianity? Why are you listening? Why are you here? Going into a New Year, do you think turning a new leaf, turning a new page is sufficient for the change that you want in your life? Are you still looking at your own weakness and yet trusting in your own power? Are you still looking at Christianity as a means to add to your repertoire for tools of self-improvement? "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." You don't have to face that you can trust in Christ. That's really what John is communicating through the intensity. Imagine a life filled with the power of God. If you're a Christian, and you've forgotten the taste of that power, upon your salvation, upon being reborn in Christ. Imagine the power of God not working against you, but for you. Let the power of God destroy you. Let it make you anew and keep with repentance. Let me pray. Lord, we are humbled that by your grace, we are your children. We have rebelled against your rule in our lives. We can look to the heavens. We can look within ourselves and know that there is a creator. Yet, we've suppressed that truth in our lives. Even those of us who you have saved already, Lord, we still rebelled against your power. Lord, you are gracious to us. You are long suffering with your love toward us. You are steadfast in ways that we are not steadfast. Lord, help us to lead lives of true thanksgiving for what you have done for us. Let us enjoy the freedom Let us enjoy the burn of the sanctification that we have. And Lord, just let us have true compassion in this coming year for those of us, those neighbors around us who are hurting, who are hopeless, who are fighting the sin in their heart, who are weighed down by the guilt, embarrassed by the shame of their sin and don't know how to deal with it. Lord, let us be the means by which you introduce others to your power. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.