Lion and Lamb

Revelation 5

September 15, 2019 • Revelation 5

Summary:

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus said, "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." Jesus often mixed metaphors to describe the nuanced profundity of the Truth. Jesus calls Christians to live like sheep who follow the Good Shepherd, which in turn, makes us a special sort of sheep. Sheep are proverbially stupid, yet Jesus calls us to be wise as serpents. Christians are to develop a dove-like innocence, and snake-like intelligence. What kind of sheep is this? We are to be sheep like Jesus, the Lamb of God, who is also the Lion of Judah.

Jesus is a Lion-like Lamb, and by worshipping Him, we begin to resemble Him, because as G.K. Beale writes, "What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration."

Worshipping Jesus is the key to becoming like Jesus, the Lion-like Lamb.

Transcript:

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Lord, we thank you that you have created us in your image, and show us today that that image, because of sin and our rebellion, because of our pride, it has been splintered. It has been fractured. Show us that Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God, the perfect human being who had the perfect mixture of lion and lamblike qualities, that he is the perfect image. When we realize what Christ did on the cross for us, that he died for our sins, that that's what it took to save us, that humbles us, and he was willing to take it. That gives us incredible confidence that we can be clothed in the love of Christ. I pray that you'd make us a people who'd now worship Christ. As we worship him, that we are conformed to this image of perfect humility and confidence, both lion and lamblike qualities. Holy Spirit, come to this place. Prepare us to hear from you, hear your words, apply it to our lives. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

We're really excited. We're starting a brand new sermon series today that we are calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. Why resilience? Life is hard. I don't need to make the case of why life is hard. As you grow older, it just gets harder. I was always under the impression that if I just graduated, if I get this degree, if I get into this next stage of life, it just gets easier and gets easier. It does not, especially if you have kids and especially if you keep having kids. Life is hard. Life in this area is hard. Being a Christian is hard. Now can you take one of two paths. You can have one of two responses. It's either you grow harder, tougher, just toughen up. You just grit your teeth, white-knuckle it, and you get through. You power through or you soften up. You're just overwhelmed with everything. There's a victimhood mentality. Then, you turn to coping mechanisms, maybe substance abuse.

Sometimes you're tough all day in public, and then you come home, and you're in a fetal position. That's the softness. It's one of two ways. There's got to be another way. There's got to be a way that's not just too hard, not just too soft. If you're too soft, you can't make it in life. If you're too hard, you can't enjoy life. You truncate your emotion. You don't feel anything. You just keep going. That's not how we're created to live. We need a third way, and that third way is the path of resilience. What does resilience mean? It means you're looking at life eyes wide open. You realize that life is hard, but you realize there is suffering, but you adapt. You bounce back. You roll with the punches. You're knocked down. You come back stronger. Nothing can crush your spirit. You're resilient. No accident. No misstep. No trauma. You don't succumb to stress. You surmount it. There's resilience.

How do we develop resilience? I'll give you this phrase, and this is a powerful phrase. It's called humble confidence. Actually, there's a lot of literature out there, secular literature, that's realized that there is power in this. This is one of the keys to success in life, developing humble confidence. The problem is, in the secular world, they can't figure out how to give you both. They'll teach you how to be humble or at least pretend to be, and they'll teach you how to be confident or at least pretend to be, pose, posture, but often they can't do both at the same time. What do we need? We need someone who's done it, someone who's the epitome of humble confidence, someone who is both a lion, fierce and toughness, and a lamb, soft and tenderness. That's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is both lion and lamb. He's both strong and compassionate. He's meek, which is not weakness. Meekness is strength under control. He's both.

Humble confidence, it's not a paradox to be resolved. It's a tension to be embraced. It's the opposite to prideful insecurity, where you present this confidence, but deep inside you're deeply insecure. It's confidence that's balanced with humility, so it doesn't turn into arrogance, and it's humility that's balanced with confidence, so it doesn't turn into self-deprecation. This is what CS Lewis talked about in Mere Christianity. His famous quote is that true humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's actually thinking of yourself less. It's a powerful, powerful idea, where humility isn't, "Oh, I'm so terrible. I'm so terrible. I'm so terrible," and you stay there, and it just turns into this self-deprecation. It actually gives you incredible confidence when you truly understand what it is.

His quote is, "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble person that he will be what most people call humble nowadays. He will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person who is always telling you that, of course, he's a nobody. Probably all you'll think about when you meet him is that he seemed cheerful and intelligent. He took a real interest in what you said. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of someone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility. He will not be thinking about himself at all." True humility is knowing who you are. It's knowing who God created you to be because you know whose you are. It's both humility and confidence. It's a powerful, powerful combination.

To frame up our time in this study, today I'm going to do a lot of theology to present who Christ is as both lion and lamb. The reason why I'm going to do that, someone came up to me after the service, and they're like, "I wish there was some more practical application." It's coming for the next 10 weeks. Today I just want to frame up the theology of who Christ is, perfect mixture of lion and lamb, and how do we develop practically? That's a mixture by worshiping him. Then, for the next 10 or so weeks, up until Advent, we're going to talk about how this applies in every single most important area of our lives. Today, we're in Revelation five. I love the book of Revelation. Today the chapter's a glimpse into heaven. It's a glimpse into the supernatural realm. We get a picture of heaven, and heaven is real because Jesus is real. The historical Jesus is proof that this is real.

Today we're in Revelation chapter five. Would you please look at the text with me? Revelation five, "Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.'

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they began a new song, saying, 'Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.'

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.' And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. What a text.

I preached this once, and after, I'm like, "I just didn't do this thing justice. We need like a full-blown sermon series just on Revelation." One day. One day we'll get there. Three points to frame up our time together. We'll look at our longing for the lion, our need for the lamb, and then our need to worship the lion-like lamb. First of all, our longing for the lion. Revelation five, we get a glimpse of the revelation that God has given to John, the apostle John, as he's exiled on the island of Patmos. This is what John sees. He said, "I saw on the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals." What's the scroll? The scroll is a record of God's plan for the world. It's a plan that includes salvation and restoration but also judgment of the wicked. Everyone who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be saved by grace through faith. Those who reject that grace will be judged. Judgment, salvation, restoration, we see that as the scroll is opened up, history is coming to consummation.

It's sealed with seven seals. Why seven? Seven is the number of completeness. The contents are completely hidden. No one has access to it. Breaking of the seals, which happens in chapter six and chapter eight and so on, brings to pass the events, meaning they don't just reveal what God's will is. It's not just a disclosure. It actually sets God's will in motion to accomplish his purposes. The scroll is written on both front and back. This is important, meaning that no one can add anything to it. God's plan is completely written. The same takes place in Ezekiel two when God gives a scroll to Ezekiel with his word, with his plan. It's written on both sides. Verse two, "And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?'" Who in all of the created order has the sovereign authority to open up God's plan of judgment and redemption?

Verse three, "And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it." Why isn't anyone found to do it? Who has the sovereign authority to open up the scroll? Well, there's only one. It's God himself. Well, why doesn't God himself open the scroll? Why is he asking someone else to do it? Because as we see the scroll opened up later on, we see that God's plan for the redeemed, for the elect, for the saints, God's plan is full of such incredible blessing and privilege and bliss and happiness and rewards that it would make God unrighteous to give that level of blessing and bliss to sinners. This is what heaven is asking. God, how can you give that to them, to sinners?

The end of history is so incredible, so astounding that it would be unrighteous for God to bring it to pass by himself. It's as if he doesn't care that we have trampled his glory. It's as if he doesn't care that we have swept our sin under the rug of the universe. Someone has to open it. Something has to demonstrate the righteousness of God and his justice and his mercy simultaneously. If God were to open it without a mediator, without a go-between and deal directly with sinful men, it would make him unjust, and we would be consumed by his holiness. No one can open it. That's why John is weeping. He's longing for a lion. He's longing for someone to stand between us and the justice of God, the judgment that we deserve, condemnation.

Verse five, "And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.'" The Lion of Judah, this is the Messiah, messianic title from Genesis 49. He's also the Root of David, another messianic title from Isaiah 11 and Jeremiah 23. This is the Messiah King will arise from the seed of David, and he has triumphed. He has conquered. Conquered what? Satan, sin, and death, our greatest enemies. He stood in the gap. He is the mediator between us and God's wrath. We're looking for that great, mighty King. The elder says, "John, weep no more. The lion is here. Look to the lion." Throughout scripture, lions are portrayed as ferociously terrifying, 600 pounds of muscle and ferocity, utterly fearless and merciless. They never retreat. They're always advancing. They dominate everything that surrounds them. They tear victims limb from limb. Their roar can be heard five miles away.

Isaiah talks about a lion approaching a group of shepherds and prowling. It's just waiting for the right moment to attack. The shepherds are trying to make noise, and they can't save themselves from this lion. Jesus Christ is presented as this lion, attacking our greatest enemies, sin and death. John, stop weeping. Look to the throne. The lion is right there, the Lion of Judah, so John looks. Verse six, "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." He said, "Look to the lion. Weep no more." He looks, and the lion is actually a lamb.

Eugene Boring commentated on this text. He says, "This is the most mind-wrenching rebirth of images in all of literature. The reader is set up to see an image of power and might, a lion. Instead, the reader discovers a lamb that was slain." It brings us to point two, our need for the lamb. If you study a holy scripture, the cannon of scripture, the lamb is the most beloved and the most pervasive symbol of atonement, of sacrifice, mentioned about 750 times all throughout the Bible in a variety of terms. You remember Abraham and Isaac. God promises a son to Abraham. It's the son of the promise. Finally, he's given a son, and God comes to him and says, "Take your son, your only son, your beloved son, and sacrifice him." Abraham goes three days journey. He's about to do it, and the angel stops him. What does the angel say? "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering."

The whole Passover holiday, you take a lamb, a lamb without blemish, and sacrifice. You paint your doorway with its blood so that the angel of death passes over. Isaiah 53, the servant of the Lord, he was a lamb led to the slaughter. John 1:29, John the Baptist said, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." It's important to note that the word used here for lamb, and I don't do this often. I don't throw in Greek in sermons because I remember John Piper, the patron saint of the Protestant church, John Piper said, he's like, "Don't pull rank." That's what he said, but this is really important about the Greek. The word used here is the word arnion. It's a special word for lamb. It's only used one time outside the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation, it's used 29 times. One time outside, and it's used in John 21:15 where Jesus comes to Peter and said, "Feed my lambs," arnion. The resurrected Christ used that.

In the book of Revelation 28 times this word is used to describe Jesus Christ. This is important. The only other time that it's not used to describe Christ, it's used to describe Satan who comes as if he's an arnion lamb, but he's actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. This is Revelation 13:11, "Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon." Arnion. 29 times the book of Revelation. 28 times it's used to describe Jesus Christ. Peculiar choice for lamb since it's not used outside of Revelation except for once. John could have used more appropriate words like paschal. 1 Corinthians 5:7, the Saint Paul uses the word paschal, which from the Old Testament, "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb," paschal, "has been sacrificed."

John 1:29 uses amnos, which is a different word, "Behold, the Lamb of God," amnos of God, "who takes away the sin of the world." Amnos is also used in Acts 8:32, where Philip quotes Isaiah 53, "Like a sheep," probaton, "he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb," amnos, "before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth." That seems like a more appropriate fit. Amnos, you're talking about a lamb that was slain. That's the context in Isaiah. 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 uses the same word, "Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb," amnos, "without blemish or spot." Luke 10:3 uses a different word, aren, "Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs," aren, "in the midst of wolves." Any of these choices, paschal, amnos, or aren, could have been used. Obvious choices, but they're not used. Why? Because Jesus here isn't just presented as a typical lamb.

This is crucial. He's presented as a lion who is the lamb. It's such a revolutionary idea they had to coin a new word. They had to bring a completely different word to explain what's going on. This is a lamb, not as a victim. He's standing. There's something different about him too. He says in Revelation 5:6, we look at this lamb standing as though it had been slain. It had been slain, but it's not crumpled over. It's standing because it had been resurrected, he, Christ, and seven horns. Seven is perfection. Horns is omnipotence, strength. It's perfect strength. He's omnipotent, and he's seven eyes. Perfect, sees everything, he's omniscience, and there's seven spirits of God sent out into the earth, the Holy Spirit here. It's John's way of speaking about the fullness of the Holy Spirit that works at the behest of this lamblike lion, lion-like lamb.

1 Corinthians 1:24, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." He's a lamb. There's humility. He's humiliated because he was slain, but the marks of death, though visible, are not debilitating. He's come back from the dead. John hears a lion, sees a lamb, hears strength, sees weakness, hears a conqueror, sees the quintessential victim, but he's not just a victim. He's the lamb who has conquered, the lamb that destined for sacrifice but actually triumphs. This is also important, that the lion isn't temporarily a lamb. All throughout the book of Revelation now, Christ is just referred to as the lamb. When the new heavens and the new earth descend in Revelation 19, the lamb is the light of the city. When he's talking about the marriage supper, it's the marriage supper not of the lion but of the lamb. He's never again called the lion in the book of Revelation.

Even when he goes to war against God's enemies, he goes to war as this omnipotent, omniscience lamb. This is Revelation 6:15, "Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves, among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us. Hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?'" It's a lamb who brings the wrath of God for all those who reject his sacrifice. It's a lamb who leads in Revelation seven. It's a lamb who's actually a general in Revelation 12 and 17. Revelation 17:14, "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful."

To the enemies, he comes as a lamb with wrath. He comes like a lion, a lamb that acts like a lion, but to the elect, to the children of God, to those who accept his sacrifice by grace through faith, he's tenderhearted. He's merciful. He's lowly. He's meek in everything he does. CS Lewis, in The Lamb... Sorry. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I ruined my punchline. The punchline is it's the only thing that I think CS Lewis ever got wrong. I was about to call him out, but you get the point. Aslan, who's actually Jesus, like he's the lion, and he's the tenderhearted, he acts like a lamb. In Revelation, it's vice versa. He comes as a lamb who's got the horns, and he conquers. It should be called The Lamb, the Witch, and the... Keep going. He's both. It's the lion and the lamb. Jesus is both.

This is why I say this, because Jesus is the quintessential human being. Jesus is the perfect image of God. He's the perfect representation of God. When God says, "I want you to be perfect," he's saying, "I want you to be the perfect human being that I've created you to be." Do we have an example? Yes. It's Christ. In his personality, it's both. He's lion and lamb. There's glory, and there's humility. There's transcendence, and there's condescension. There's justice, and there's mercy. There's majesty, and there's meekness. Equality with God and yet deep reverence for God. He's all-sufficient and completely relying. He's good and yet patient when he endures evil, sovereign and yet submits, calmed the storm but would refuse to get off that cross. Infinite holiness, and he takes our sin, becomes our sin. He's the mighty captain, the tender lover. He's the rock and the pearl. He's both tough and tender.

He is the conqueror because the Lion of Judah was willing to be killed as a lamb. He entered Jerusalem as a king on Palm Sunday, and then on Good Friday he was slaughtered as a lamb. He drove out the robbers from the temple like a lion, and then he gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Augustine said, "Who is this, both lamb and lion? He endured death as a lamb. He devoured it as a lion. Who is this, both lamb and lion, gentle and strong, lovable and terrifying, innocent and mighty, silent when he was being judged, roaring when he comes to judge?" Here's why this is important, to understand that Jesus is the fusion of both perfect harmony of this paradox, of this tension. The reason is because sometimes we lean naturally one way or the other. I naturally lean lion. I naturally, like I lean hardness. I lean truncate my emotion, keep going. I come from a Russian background, and I grew up in New England. That's why. It's a miracle I can smile ever.

Some of us naturally are more tender. We're naturally more lamblike. What happens is when we read holy scripture, we sometimes read our own personalities into Christ. Someone once said, "God created us in his own image, and ever since, we've been trying to return the favor," meaning that's what we do with Christ. For me, I'm naturally drawn to lion Jesus, when Jesus walks into the temple and just starts tossing stuff. I love that Jesus. I call that a thug life Jesus. There's hug life Jesus and thug life Jesus. He actually, you read the text, he's sitting there, and he's making the whip, just cold, calculating, just making it as robust as possible with his carpenter hands. Then, he just goes in and just goes ham. I like that Jesus. I'm naturally drawn to Jesus debating, throwing it down with the Pharisees, making them look like idiots. I love that.

I love Jesus coming back in Revelation at the very end where Jesus comes back in white clothing. He's about to go to war with white clothing. If you go to war, and you're dressed in white, you already know what the result's going to be. You're pretty sure of yourself. I like that Jesus, got a flaming sword. I can worship a God that can kill me. I'll worship that guy. I'll sing songs. Then, there's the tender Jesus, where he's tender with children. I think this the reason why God's given me all daughters. I've got four daughters. He's like, "You got to work on the tenderness part, more lamb." He's tender. When sinners come to him, he's gracious. He's tender. The woman caught in adultery was brought to him. He's tender with her. It's the lamblike Jesus. He meets people's practical needs. He's both. When he calls us to come to him, he calls us to become like him.

Now, practically, how does that happen? It happens through worship, and this is really important. This is point three. Worship the lion-like lamb. What does the world do? What does everyone in the scene do as soon as they see the lamb who is a lion, the lion who is lamb? Revelation 5:8, "When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." After witnessing this transfer of power, that this scroll is given to the Son of God, all heaven breaks out in song. They've got musical instruments, the harpist traditionally used to praise God, and they're worshiping with song. They're worshiping with prayer. The incense is assembled for prayer. The heavenly choir breaks out in joyful song. They start worshiping him. The angels, everything in existence starts worshiping.

If you're new to Christianity, some of you might be uncomfortable with the singing part of our service. The band is great, and the music is loud, and it's on purpose. Part of why, because it's very good, and we want everyone to sing, but also for those of you who can't sing that well, we just drown you out. I'm putting myself in. There's a reason why we sing. People sing when they celebrate. Even people who are not Christians, song is such an important part of being a human being. Karaoke is a thing. People go to places where they're given a mic, and they can't sing, but everyone cheers them on anyway. The Red Sox stink this year, and everyone's still singing during the seventh inning stretch. People sing. When your song comes on, your jam comes on, you sing. You go to concerts to sing. That's why we sing at church.

We sing at church to celebrate God. We sing to worship God. He's worthy of our worship. We sing because God himself sings. God is a singing God. Zephaniah 3:17 says that God sings over his beloved. We're created in the image of a singing God. Therefore, we sing. You see all of heaven singing. What are they doing? They're worshiping. What does it mean to worship? Verse nine, they sing this new song, and they're saying, "Worthy are you." It's not just emotion. It's truth. It's not just a feeling. This is truth. This is what we know, not just what we feel. You're worthy. "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God." It's a done deal.

You have ransomed so that people that do repent, that do follow Jesus, that do become Christians, they do so because the effective work of his ransom, of his salvific act of substitutionary atonement, ransomed people for God. What kind of people? From every tribe, every language, every people, every nation, a true mosaic, and they become a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. They're worshiping. What is worship? It's to ascribe worth. It's the first word, and they say that multiple times. Worthy is the lamb. The lamb has worth, and I'm just agree... Yes, you have worth. You are precious. You are a treasure. That's what it means to worship. The word worship comes from the word worth, to ascribe worth to something. Even if you're not a Christianity, you're still worshiping. We can't but worship. We're created by God to worship.

"The opposite of Christianity is not atheism," Peter Kreeft said, "The opposite of Christianity isn't atheism. It's idolatry." What he means is that every single person alive is driven by something that they find precious. Whatever you find most precious, whatever you find most valuable, whatever you ascribe most worth to, that's what you're driven by. That's what dominates your thoughts. This is what your dreams are filled with. It can be all kinds of things, from sex, money, power, jobs, career, things, houses, parking spots, whatever it is, worship. I'll just give you a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 13. He tells this parable, and he's like, "This is what the kingdom of God is like." He says a guy who sees a field, and it looks like an ordinary field to everyone, but this guy gets a treasure map. He understands that someone hid their treasure in this field. Whoever owns the field owns the treasure.

No one sees the treasure, but this guy sees the treasure. He goes. He sells everything he has to buy this field. Everyone thinks he's crazy, "You're crazy. You're going to pay $90,000 for a parking spot. You're crazy," but he knows that underneath that parking spot is a suitcase with $1 million cash. Now he's not so crazy. Jesus says that's what it means to become a Christian. No one sees the treasure, but you see the treasure because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to your heart. You see that Christ is worthy, worthy of your life, worthy of your time, worthy of your treasure and talent, everything, because of what he has done. Why is he worthy? Because of his sacrifice, and the saints are made into a kingdom of priests. We'll get into what that means at the end here.

Here's why it's important to focus on worshiping Jesus. Remember what we started with? Jesus is the lamb, and he's the lion. Together, humble confidence. How do we develop both humble confidence? Here's how. It's worship. Why? Because whatever we worship we begin to reflect, resemble. I get this from GK Beale who wrote this phenomenal work, by the way, called We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry. Phenomenal work. This is his thesis. He says, "What people revere they resemble either for ruin or for restoration." Whatever you worship, you become like that. Small example like celebrities. You don't use the word, but celebrities that you admire, and you're following them, and you're like, "I wonder what they eat. I wonder what their workout regimen is like. I wonder where do they get their clothes." Whoever you follow you begin to resemble.

It starts like an early age. How many kids today in New England are named Brady? Like every other kid I meet, Brady, Brady, Brady. Why not Tom? I don't know. Brady. Back in the day, it was Michael Jordan. There's a family on my street. They had two sons, Michael and Jordan. How does that work itself out in our lives? Whatever you're driven by, you begin to look like that. Now, back to humble confidence. We want to develop humble confidence. We do that by worshiping the one who is ultimately, quintessentially humble and confident at the same time, Jesus Christ. The theology behind all this, I'll just summarize GK Beale's argument real quick. He says we're created in the image of God. Sin has splintered the image of God because we worship creature instead of creator. When we worship that, we become conformed to the image of whatever we worship. That's Romans 1:21. It's the word for image is eikṓn or icon. We get the word icon from it. "Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."

You start to resemble, he's saying, you start to resemble whatever it is that you worship. How do we counter that? We start worshiping Christ, the ultimate object of our worship, and that's how we grow into being the person that we're created to be. Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed," or transformed, "conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among brothers." God's going to work all things together for the good of those who what? Love him, are called to be his, love him. As we love him, what happens? We're conformed into his image. Loving Christ is how we conform to his image. 2 Corinthians 3:18, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

How do we become transformed? We behold his glory. How do we do that? By looking at the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ, that's what shapes us to become more like Christ. It's all about the gospel. Humility and confidence. Humility, I look at the cross of Jesus Christ, and I realize the only way for God to forgive my sins, the only way for God to save me, I am so wicked that the only way for me to be redeemed is for the Son of God to die on the cross. That can't but humble you, but I'm also so loved at the same time that the Son of God was willing to take it. He's willing to go to the cross. If that doesn't give you confidence, nothing will. You are clothed in the love and acceptance and approval of God. It's both. That's what leads us to worship. How do you know that you're worshiping? I'll give you two just really practical things.

Number one, you give up control. You're willing to give up control to God, who is lion. Jesus, you are my lion. I'm going to follow you. You know how you see people on the street sometimes, and they just have this massive dog, just walking around? Those people, they walk around like bosses. You got a mini horse next to you just walking. Imagine if you had a lion. You're just walking down the street, down Beacon Street, here's my lion, my pet lion. You want to start something? No, you can't not... Why wouldn't you give up control to God who is omnipotent? He is good, and he is great. Now, relinquish control. Sometimes we're like, "Yeah, God. I agree with your plans. I'm not happy with it." Relinquish control. This is what we see in Revelation 4:19.

This is what they do when they see Christ, "Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 'Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.'" We give him control. You're kings. This is incredible. He says, "You're my kings. I give you authority. I confer authority to you." What do the kings do? They humble themselves before Christ. They do the same thing that Christ did, the kingdom of the universe who humbles himself. Once in all of the scripture Jesus points to one guy, and he says, "That's the greatest guy who ever lived. That's the GOAT, the greatest of all time. That's him." He said that about John the Baptist.

This is in Luke 7:28, "I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John," not one. What made John so great? His whole ministry revolved around deferring glory to Christ. John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." This is incredible. He must increase. I must decrease. As we do that, what does Jesus say? That's the greatest guy ever. That's the greatest one who ever lived. In Christ's eyes, Christ esteems him as great because of his humility. This is the way that God works. Old Testament, Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, they're barren, and God uses them powerfully. David was the youngest. Moses was fearful. Jonah was hesitant. Ruth and Naomi, sorrowful. Gideon was cowardly, and God uses them powerfully because of their humility. They were humble enough to say, "God, you are in control, and I surrender myself, and I humbly surrender myself to you."

Then, how does this work this work itself practically? You relinquish control, but you also begin to live as a priest and a king. This is incredible. You become a priest and a king. Priests, humble. Kings, confident. Revelation five, you get this in verse nine and 10. What does he do after he redeems them? "You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God." So much there I can't unpack it all. That's why you got to come back next week and the week after that, but you're a priest. That means you are bringing, you're ministering with the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people around you. What do priests do? They pray for people. They serve people. They care for people. They think of other people. You're priests. Incredible job, but also you're a king. What does it mean to be a king? That means you are helping submit things in the universe that have not been submitted yet to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is Lord over everything, but there's still chaos in the universe. We do this through our jobs. We do this through our professions. What are we doing? We're submitting every square inch of the universe to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. We're priests and kings. You can't but be confident knowing that this is the purpose of God for you. You're so humbled that God would choose you to do this. Submitting to Jesus, the lion, makes you a lamb. Accepting Jesus the lamb makes you a lion. It's both humility and confidence, and your heart is full of joy because the gospel transforms prideful insecurity into humble confidence. If you're not yet a Christian today, we welcome you. We welcome you to come to the throne of Jesus Christ. You could do that with confidence. Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Come with confidence, accepting the mercy, accepting the grace with humility, and the Lord gives it to you. If you are a Christian, ask the Lord, even today and through these next couple months as we study what it means to apply humble confidence in every single area of our life, ask the Holy Spirit, "Lord, where do I need to grow? Where in my life do I need to grow in being more of a lion and being more of a lamb? Where in my life do I need to grow and be more Christlike?" The Lord will give you grace to do that. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this time that you've given us in the holy scriptures. Lord, we love the holy scriptures. They reveal who you are, they reveal your plan, they reveal the future, and they reveal our great need for you. We thank you for nourishing our souls with the word. We pray, Holy Spirit, help us to grow into the image of Christ. Give us more grace to do that. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Leaving A Legacy

December 1, 2019 • 2 Timothy 4:1–8

Summary: When's the last time you've seriously thought about your funeral? How do you want to be remembered by those you leave behind? If you were to write a eulogy for your own funeral, would what you say? What would you like to be included in your obituary? What would you choose for your epitaph? These are seemingly morbid questions, especially in a culture desperately bent on sheltering itself from the realities of death. However, every sober-minded person needs to meditate on the inevitability of death. The inevitability of death should guide our life. We will die. We will be remembered. Everyone leaves a legacy. What kind of legacy are you working to leave? Does your desired legacy shape your current life? Audio Transcript: You're listening to audio from 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. Heavenly Father, oh God who is everlasting before time and now and forever more, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that you, the living word of God, came and poured yourself out. You fought the good fight, you ran your race, and you kept the faith. And you did all of that, taking your life as a sacrifice to the cross, poured out your blood in order to pour out your love into our hearts. And I pray, Lord, that you today show us that a salvation isn't achieved, it's received. And after we receive it, we are then to go and to pour ourselves out for the faith of others into their lives for their eternal souls. Lord, I pray that you make us a people who care about leaving an eternal legacy. A legacy that will transcend our lifetimes, that through us, your word will be proclaimed into this generation and beyond. And that many, Lord, a myriad of eternal souls will be converted, and will spend eternity with us in your presence in heaven. And I pray that you give us the power of the Holy Spirit. Even now we welcome your Holy Spirit. We love you and we love your presence, come and minister to us, plant within each one of us a vision for living lives that will impact eternity. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen. Today we are finishing our sermon series that we've been going through this fall called Tough and Tender: Developing A Resilience for Life. And I hope the series has been a blessing to you. Today we're talking about leaving an eternal legacy. Living to leave an eternal legacy. And by legacy, we mean how do you want to be remembered after you're gone? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? And it's a strange question to ask in our present-minded culture. We rarely acknowledge the legacy that we have inherited. For example, what are your great grandparents' names? And we rarely acknowledge that we will leave a legacy as well. Also, we live in a youth obsessed culture. We idolize youth and do everything we can to stay young. And there's nothing wrong with being healthy, but there is something wrong in staving off the reality of death, finality of death. We forget about the fragility of life. And if the Lord tarries, every single one of us will die. So do you want to be remembered for perhaps your intelligence or education? No one takes out their resume at a funeral, that's not part of your eulogy. We want to be remembered for the impact we made on our friends, on our family, on the impact that we made in the world. Early on in my life, at very formative seasons in my life, I lost three really close friends. The first of which was my friend, Pete. We grew up together. We were both bi-cultural. He was from the country of Georgia, I was from Estonia. We actually went to the same public school in Cranston, Rhode Island, in middle school and high school. And we also went to the same church, and we were just best friends and understood each other in a way that few could because of our bi-cultural past. And he was just a great guy to be around. And Pete was driving with his brother, Dmitri, to my house in January of 2004 for a Bible study. And his brother was driving, and they hit a patch of black ice, and they went off the road and Pete died on impact. His brother was in a coma for three months, came out from that. That shook me to the core, and by God's orchestration, two weeks after that, I had pre-planned a study abroad in Moscow, so God took me out of my environment in Rhode Island, out of college and I went to do the study abroad in Moscow. My first Sunday in Moscow, I went to this church, Moscow Bible Church, and it was a little church, a church plant in a basement, and I connected with a few people and I was invited to a prayer meeting that Wednesday. I show up to the prayer meeting and there were three wonderful elderly women of God, and there was this guy named Constantine, my age, who was also there to do a study abroad from another part of Russia, and we became fast friends. Fast forward after I come back to the United States, graduate, I met my wife Tanya. We got married and we went to seminary, got called by God to go into ministry. Then we moved to Boston to plant a church. While in seminary, my best friend was a guy named Rowland. Rowland and I were prayer partners. Actually, I went into my Google, into my Gmail, and searched for his name, and I saw the prayer thread email, the thread that we had going. We just encouraged one another. He was a great guy, we took a lot of classes together, and then moved to Boston in July, 2009. August, 2009 I get news that Rowland died tragically. We plant Mosaic in October of 2011. December of 2011, my friend Constantine from Moscow dies with his wife in a car accident. At very pivotal times in my life, the Lord reminded me that life is fragile, that every single one of us, we have a mission given to us by God, and when we're done, when that mission's fulfilled, we're taken. And every single one of us leave a legacy, either good or ill, it's a legacy that grows into the future. And here's a thought experiment that perhaps is on the front end, seemingly morbid, but it's actually very sobering. What do you want, if you were to encapsulate what your life was all about, what do you want on your tombstone? The inscription, the epitaph, what do you want that to say? This is really ... Honestly, come up with an answer. If you were to write your own obituary, what would you want included in that? If you were to speak at your funeral, if you were to write out a message for what your life was all about, what do you want included in that? Then is your current life lived in light of the legacy that you want to leave? This is what we're talking about today. To frame up our time, we're going to look at the last words of St. Paul. St. Paul is the second most influential person on world history, after Jesus Christ. Whenever anyone speaks a final word before they pass or write a final word, those words are really important. And today, we're going to read the final words that St. Paul ever wrote. It's in 2nd Timothy 4:1-8. And just to set the context, St. Paul is in prison. He's awaiting execution by beheading. He's in the Mamertine Prison in Rome. Our prisons today are like the Hilton compared to the prisons in Rome. His cell is actually a damp, cold dungeon, more of a hole than anything else. The prisoner would be brought down on a rope from a hole up top. He would be brought down, the rope would be taken away, and this is a bucket for human excrement. He's there in the dark, and he is meditating on the final words that he wants to write to his disciple, Timothy. St. Paul is clearly at rest. He's confident in the life that he has lived. He has poured his life out for Christ, poured it into disciples, and he's made a difference eternally. He's poured his life into the next generation, passes this torch. And this is what he writes to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 4:1-8. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Five points to frame up our time. We'll focus most of our attention on points one and two and then close off with the last three in rapid fire fashion. First of all, love God's word, pour yourself out, fight the good fight, finish your race and keep the faith. This is St. Paul's recipe for living a life to leave an eternal legacy. First of all, love God's word. There are only two things that are eternal in this world other than God himself: His word, which is an extension of himself and eternal souls created in the image of God. Therefore, St. Paul says, "Timothy focus on these two things. Give your life to these two things. Preach the word. Proclaim the word. And do the work of an evangelist. Meaning speak the word into people's live who are far from the Lord so they can be reconciled with God so that their souls are regenerated, so they spend eternity in the presence of God." He said, "Devote yourselves to these things, things that will outlast you." And what does he mean by this word? The very text right before our text today, if you take away the chapter divider in 2nd Timothy, 3:16 and 17, all scriptures breath 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. He's saying eternal souls were breathed out by God and the eternal word was also breathed out by God, therefore they last for eternity. Isaiah 40:6-8, All flesh is grass. All its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. Preach the word. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. By evangelist, he gets the word from evangelion, which means the gospel. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. That Christ has done everything that is needed for salvation to be achieved. So we are not saved by anything that we do, we're saved by what Christ has done. Salvation isn't achieved, it's received. All we need to do is accept God's gift of grace. We all need grace. He says, "Doing the work of evangelism is sharing God's grace." Everybody needs it and everyone is offered the same grace. Just receive it. That's what it means to be an evangelist, is sharing the good news. That's what it means to preach God's word, is sharing God's word. That's what it means to fulfill your ministry. So we as Christians are to love God's word, study, meditate upon it, ruminate on the word within the word, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So much so that it's so in us, it's embodied in us, that it just flows out of us naturally. And we talk about whatever we love. And then practically, it's sharing with the people around us, in our circles of influence. It's devoting yourself to the local church where God's word is proclaimed and to church planning, where God's word will be proclaimed. And we've received it for free, we are to share the gift of grace in the same way. An illustration just to help us grasp the eternal importance of sharing the gospel. Imagine if you contracted Ebola in a village in Africa, and there's a doctor who comes in there, offers medicine you know about, and the doctor says, "Go and tell anyone else who has the same virus that they can have healing if they come to this place." Obviously, you would go and tell absolutely everyone. It would be of first importance in our lives. Now, dear Christian, obviously we do other things in our lives other than share the gospel, but everything we do must be a means to the end of glorifying God, sharing the gospel so that other people may acquire, receive eternal life. Martin Luther King Jr. was asked, "If you were to die tomorrow, what would you do today?" And he said, "I would plant a tree." Meaning, he wanted to do something that would outlive him, and that's how he lived his life. Holy scripture says that we are not just plant physical things, we are to plant ourselves, devote ourselves to eternal things. And St. Paul understood this. He didn't have children that we know of, Jesus Christ didn't have children, but they affected the world. They influenced the world in a way that will impact not just the world, but all of eternity through the gospel of Jesus Christ, loving God's word. Proverbs 11:30 says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. And the idea here is, that we've received the gospel, God has freed us from captivity and the kingdom and the domain of darkness, and we're transferred to the kingdom of God's eternal light. And then we go and through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we are to then capture souls. Daniel 12:3 says, and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. He's saying this is the impact that we can have for all of eternity to help people turn to righteousness. That star, he says will shine forever. St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 has this incredible train of thought that a lot of Christians miss. A lot of Christians think that, okay, I receive grace and then I just wait until I go to heaven. St. Paul says, "No, you've received grace. Now, God has made you into an ambassador of the kingdom of God, of the King. You are not your own, you're sent as a representative to a foreign land with a message that is not your own, with resources that are not your own," and then we are to fulfill the mission that he has for us. This is 2 Corinthians 5:16, from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. And this is incredible. He says, "This is the message you've received. This is how you have become new creation in Christ." The message is the double imputation, the transfer of our sin to Christ, his righteousness to us. How does it happen? By grace through faith. Now, through us, the Holy Spirit reconciles many to himself. What's our message? Our message is, Jesus in my place. Our message is, Jesus got what I deserved for my sin against a Holy God. There was hostility between me and God, Jesus Christ absorbed the penalty for that hostility on the cross, in his body, in his flesh, in his soul, and now I'm reconciled with God just by grace, through faith. And God now implores others through our lives, "Please be reconciled. Accept this peace treaty that God offers through the gospel of Jesus Christ." So dear Christian, know this message, love this message, proclaim this message, share this message, and in our growing secular age, be able to defend the message. Take a course in apologetics. Read a few books to answer the questions that people have for why we believe what we believe. Tim Keller, The Reason for God or anything by Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig. 2 Peter 3:15 says, in your hearts, honor Christ, the Lord as Holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. And even so, we don't rely on our words, on our articulation, our eloquence, we don't rely on our apologetics. What do we rely on? The gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes, and we rely on the Holy Spirit. I remember when Tanya and I, my wife, we were in seminary and we were talking about building partnerships with people to help us plant a church in Boston. I remember talking to this one gentleman, very affluent in North Carolina. And one of the things he said, we were over his house for dinner, and he said, "Nah, don't go to Boston. Anywhere but Boston." He's like, "Boston's lost." He's like "Way too many pagans up there. You can't preach the gospel there, too hard. Hardscrabble ground. Don't do it." And I remember driving home from that meeting, and it was like, thanks for the encouragement, first of all. Second of all, if I were to rely on myself, on my own resources, I wouldn't be up here. I can't save anybody. You can't save anybody. I didn't save myself, you didn't save yourself. If you're a Christian, you're a Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit, and whoever becomes a Christian becomes a Christian because God saved them, and I believe that. And we've seen that over the course of these eight years here in Boston, God has been saving people. God continues to save people, and I trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what he says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, Therefore we are ambassadors for God. But ambassadors don't go by their own resources. God making his appeal through us. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that convicts, the one that regenerates, the one that draws people to God. And finally, ambassadors. If you continue with this metaphor. Ambassadors do have to give an account. How do you represent the King of Kings? King David lived a phenomenal life, faithful to the Lord for a long time. And then he got to this place of complacency in his life, committed adultery, and then ultimately murder. And then the prophet comes to David, and speaks the word of God. And the word of God was, "You have blasphemed the name of God. You misrepresented the glorious God that you were commissioned by, whose name you are carrying." Dear Christian, every single one of us, we will give an account to God for how we lived our lives. And one of the things that a lot of Christians miss in their theology is that there will be two judgments. The first judgment is the great white throne of judgment where we stand before God, and God says, "What did you do with my son, Jesus Christ?" If you rejected Christ in your life, you rejected grace, the gospel, you go to the left. And scripture says, "Consigned to eternal punishment in a place called hell, a place of eternal darkness." Why? Because you are separated from the God of the universe who is the source of love, light, truth, goodness and beauty. If you accept Jesus Christ, and if you're not a Christian, we plead with you, accept Jesus Christ today. If you do you, you are now brought to a second judgment. And that's the judgment seat of Christ, where we stand before God, and Christ will say, "What did you do with all of the talents, treasures, time, opportunities that I gave you." And St. Paul says, "This reality that I will be judged for everything God has given me, this reality, and it's not judgment of salvation, I'm saved by grace through faith, it's a judgment for rewards." He says, "This is one of my great motivators. This motivates me that I will spend eternity with God, and God will judge me for what I did with everything he's allotted to me." 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. And then verse 11, Therefore, knowing the fear of God, we persuade others for what we are is known to God, and that hope it is known also to your conscience. And yes, this is difficult. Evangelism is difficult. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in greater Boston is difficult. And that's why he says, "Fulfill your mission, endure suffering." And our suffering isn't physical, not in our culture, our suffering is more emotional, psychological, social. Yes, people might look down on us. Yes, your reputation might suffer. Yes, people might mock, but we are to do this, and we are to share God's love. And one of the things I hear is, "Evangelism's is not my gift. It's not my thing. I have other gifts, this isn't my thing. Let the people who have the great gift of evangelism do that." And yes, God does give exceptional, extraordinary gifts to people in terms of evangelism, in terms of prophecy, and in terms of service, even generosity and faith, but their great gifts should not eclipse the fact that we have been given a responsibility. Every Christian is called to believe, every Christian is called to serve, to be generous, and every Christian has been given the great commission. How do we do this? And this is point two. We do this primarily by pouring ourselves out. In 2 Timothy 4:6, this is the metaphor that St. Paul used to talk about his life ending. He says, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come." It's a vivid image that he pulls from the Old Testament, an image that was used in the context of the ritual of the sacrifice of the lamb, where a chalice of wine was taken and poured out at the base of the altar. St. Paul takes this metaphor and he says, "This is what my life is. My life is fluid, and I need to channel my life. I need a pour my life out." And this is really incredible. What does he mean? He means his time, the greatest commodity that any one of us have is time, that any one of us has is time. And time, our life as in time, and time is in our attention. And he says, "I pour my life, I pour my time, I pour my attention into others." It's a fascinating metaphor because it can be used either way, like our life drips by, our life is like this river that keeps passing. But St. Paul uses this metaphor to talk about life that is invested by pouring into something, and the opposite of this is a life that is wasted by pouring it into things that ultimately pass. And he uses this metaphor to talk about pouring himself, his time, energy, emotions, everything he has into the faith of others. Philippians 2:17, even if I'm to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad and rejoice with you all because I sacrifice the most valuable thing I have for the faith of other people to impact eternity. Why could St. Paul's so freely, generously pour himself into other people? Because he knew his life was not his own and he knew that this life was not all there is. He understood that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain because I get more of Christ. He understood that death wasn't the end, death is just a door into life with God. He understood that death is not cessation, death is separation. When we die and our body turns into a corpse, our soul is separated from the body. Death is separation, and our eternal soul lives for eternity either with God or apart from God. This is why we can freely pour ourselves into other people, do everything we can so that they spend eternity in the presence of God. And he says, and by the way, everybody knows this. Everybody knows that the good life isn't about things. It's not about pouring yourself into things because we brought nothing into this world, we'll take nothing out of it. We are not to be like the Egyptians who would bury themselves with their wealth thing like they can transfer that into eternity. We can't take material things with us. So St. Paul invested his life, poured his life out into eternal things, eternal souls. He says, "My departure has come," and this is another very vivid Greek word that he uses here. It's a word that can be used in the context of unyoking or loosening. Unyoking in the context of a farm animal. And he says, "I'm unyoked," meaning my labors and toils are done, I fulfilled my ministry. In the context of loosening, my departure has come, my loosening has come. It's used in the context of the bonds of a prisoner being unshackled. He's saying, "I'm unshackled from this body of flesh, from this corruptible body, loosening of ropes of a soldier." 10 he's saying, "My job as a soldier of Christ's done. The battle is over. I'm headed home. The victory is won." And this word is used in the context of loosening the mowing ropes of a ship. And he said, "I'm now leaving the stormy shores of earth and I'm putting into the calm pool of heaven. He's pouring himself out because he knows that his life is a sacrifice, the sacrificial offering. Romans 12:1, I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, because of the gospel, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, Holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. He says, we don't pour ourselves into the lives of other people because we earn salvation. We do it as a sacrificial offering, thanksgiving to God because we are saved. Different if you are a Christian and whom are you pouring yourself, in whom are you pouring your life? Perhaps if you have children, it's your children and the next generation, you're pouring yourself out and that's what it means to parent children in the faith. Perhaps it's your spouse, perhaps it's your colleagues, your friends, your family, it's the people around us. We pour ourselves into them. Why? Because our life is in our own. Acts 20:24, I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I've received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 12:15, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. Dear Christian, can you say that? Can you say, "I spend myself, I'm being spent for the souls of the people around me?" One of the things that secular stories have a really hard time understanding, they grapple with this, "Why did Christianity grow as it did in the context in which it was started? We understand why Islam grew by the sword convert or else, Christianity grew despite the sword, reject Christ or else." And one of the reasons why Christianity grew in the way it did was because Christians poured themselves out to the death to love others. They poured their love into people even at the cost of their own life. I'll give you two examples. In Rome, first century and second century, there were two plagues that swept the Roman empire. And first century is the Antonine Plague. The second century is the Plague of Cyprian. These plagues were so bad, thousands of people were dying per day in this Plague of Cyprian, there were a million people living in Rome, 5,000 were dying per day. At the first signs of the symptoms of this plague, streets would be emptied. People would leave their loved ones in homes on beds and run from the sickness. And everybody ran except for Christians. Christians stayed and they loved and they bandaged and they watered the sick and they fed them and they loved them and they encouraged them. They shared the gospel. People were dumbfounded, "Why are you doing this at the risk of your own life?" And many Christians died and they shared the gospel that this life is not all there is, that we have eternal life. And all you need to do is put your trust in Jesus Christ who has conquered death. Do you pour yourself out for the salvation of others? And this is by the way, the most effective way of sharing the gospel is by pouring your love into other people. Sacrifice your time, your talent, your treasure for other people. We understand that the most effective way of doing evangelism is personal relationships, where people know you and you have a relationship with them through hospitality, generosity, and sacrifice. I believe this is one of the most effective ways of doing evangelism today and sharing the gospel. Why? Because as Ravi Zacharias says, "We live in day and age where people think with their feelings and they hear with their eyes." People think with their feelings and hear with their eyes. Therefore, just proclaiming is not enough for many people, they don't want to see just proclamation, they want to feel your love. They don't want just the truth, they want the truth and love, and God tells us to do both 2 Corinthians 3: 14-15, for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised. How do we do this practically? It's got to be absolutely natural in the environment of love. I'll give you a couple of cross sticks here to think about, to think through when you think about sharing the gospel. The first one was just ABC of sharing the gospel, ABC. The first, the A stands for, do you ask the Lord for opportunities to share the gospel? Even St. Paul did this in the Colossians, he says, "Pray for me that the Lord would give me a door to share the gospel." Opportunity. Do you ask God, "God, please send me someone to share the gospel. Give me an opportunity today to share the gospel with someone of the good news to share the grace of God." If you're not asking for those opportunities in prayer, do you even really want them? So ask. The second one is belief. Believe that God can save anybody. Believe that God can save your roommate, believe that God can... Just think of the most lost person that you know, the most antagonistic person to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that God can save them? Of course he can. There's nothing impossible for God. God's saved Saul, and converted him into Paul. My goodness, God saved Kanye West. If God can save Kanye West, he can save anybody. I found out that Manny Ramirez, Manny being Manny, like 2004 Reds, Manny Ramirez has been converted. He's actually been trained. He's been in seminary for five years, he's been training to be a pastor. My goodness, what a miracle that is. God can save anybody, and if you're a Christian, the greatest miracle of salvation is your own. I still can't believe God saved me. I definitely I wouldn't. And this is the posture of heart. It's like, "I can't believe, God, thank you for saving." And then C is connect with people. Just connect naturally. Connect, and if you have a hard time connecting, a lot of people are super introverts in Boston. Here's another acrostic, FIRE, Family, Interests, Religion and just Experiences. Family, Interest, Religion, Experiences, ask about those things. Get a person talking about their favorite subject in the world. What's everybody's favorite subject in the world? Themselves. Everyone loves talking about themselves. It's just like, why? Because we're all selfish. It's like whenever you get tagged on Facebook in a group picture and you go and you look at it, who's the first person that you look at? Yourself? It's just like whenever you're FaceTiming with someone or Skyping, 95% of the time, you're looking at the small window, every single time, "I need to change the lighting." Every time. Get people talking about their favorite subject, and as they do, connect with them on universal human experiences, purpose, morality, hope, family. Two on-ramps for sharing the gospel that I like to use is beauty and death. I think beauty is one of the greatest apologetics for the existence of God and that God is beautiful. Why is it that though we live in a secular materialistic culture where we're told that material is all there is, why is it that we're so moved on like a deep soul level by creation, by the sunset, by an incredible work of music or art or film? Why is it that we're moved by the smile of a loved one and we look at them and we say, "You are so beautiful"? We're not saying, "I prefer your collection of Adams to any other collection of Adams. And it's not even my preference, it's the neurons firing in my brain, so it's not even me." No. Of course, nobody is a committed materialist. It's almost unthinkable to live like that. And the Christian explanation is that true beauty exists. A beauty that transcends the material. You look at a painting and all it is is canvas and wood and some paint. If you look at it and there's something that transcends it. Same thing with music, same thing with something that impacts your soul. And the Christian explanation is that, all that's true, all that's good, all that's beautiful is a manifestation of God. Image's God. God created everything beautiful for us to delight in and enjoy. And we understand that beauty exists in a fallen marred world, therefore we hunger for a restoration of beauty and it's coming in its perfect state. C. S. Lewis and his wonderful work, Till We Have Faces, expresses this yearning through a character. He says, "It was when I was the happiest that I longed the most, when I was the happiest I longed the most and because it was beautiful, it set me longing, always longing, somewhere else there must be more of it." And there is. The other on-ramp, and everyone can connect with this is the reality of death. This is a terror that haunts every single one of us. The anthropologist, Ernest Becker says, "We try our best to ignore mortality, but it's there, underlying everything." The current answer in our culture according to a materialist world views is that when we die, we just cease to exist. Yes, we say this, no one believes it. That's why at a funeral, you don't look at casket with your friend Joey. No one says, "And Joey, poof, cease to exist." No one says that. You know what they say, "Well, Joey's in a better place." Why do we say that? Why do we say that? Atheist philosopher, Luc Ferry says, "The question of death far from being something that we can easily dismiss, lies at the heart of our distinctiveness as humans. This is what sets us apart from all the other animals." He says, "As distinct from animals, a human being is the only creature who is aware of his limits. He knows that he will die and that his near ones, those he loves will also die. Consequently, he cannot prevent himself from thinking about the state of affairs, which is disturbing and absurd, almost unimaginable." Why is it that we even know that we're going to die? And why is it that we're so disturbed by it and we can't shrug off the existential way of this? Our greatest desire's to be loved, to be known, to be understood, and our greatest fear's being separated from our loved ones. In a word, our greatest fear is dying. And at this point, when I have conversations, you know what I say, "Wouldn't you want this to be true? Doesn't your soul want to live forever? Why do we long for this so much?" Perhaps it is true, and in the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is Jesus Christ lived and Jesus Christ died. He came back from the dead and in Christ death, we see the death of death itself. And when we believe in Jesus Christ, at that very moment, we're given eternal life. And I understand in my conversations with friends, when I share the gospel, I understand that I'm probably not going to close the deal right then and there, but you know what I try to do? I try to awaken them just a little bit from their spiritual slumber, and little by little, this is how the Lord wakes us up. So we have to know the tough truths of the gospel and present them in with humble confidence and love. And then points three, four, and five here at the end, how do we do this? We fight the good fight, we run our race and we keep our faith. Why? This is what I've seen in sharing the gospel in high school, with my wrestling friends, and with my football friends, and in college, with my rugby friends, share the gospel and they're like, "Yeah, not for me." But we're still connected. We still see each other. We're still connected on social media and you know what they want to know? Do I really believe this? And where do they get evidence to understand, do I really believe? Are you living it? See, our lives are our greatest sermons. That's why St. Paul at the very end says, "I fought, I didn't just preach the word, I didn't just do the work of evangelist, I didn't just fulfill the ministry. I fought the good fight." He said, in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I fought the good fight," the wrestling metaphor, and what he's saying is there's spiritual warfare. We're fighting on a daily basis and we're standing again. We're not wrestling with flesh and blood, but we're standing against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. And our righteousness is not our own, it's the breastplate of righteousness that Christ has given us. We have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. We stand through prayer. 2 Corinthians 6:7, with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. See, the enemy wants to hate... He hates our legacy, he wants to taint our legacy and he does that by stealing, killing, and destroying our legacy. He wants to get us to stumble so that people look and they say, "Yeah, you don't really believe this." So we are to fight the good fight. Four is, the St. Paul says, "I've finished the race." 2 Timothy 4:7, I've finished the race. Starting stuff is easy, starting a race as easy, finishing it is much harder. Starting a diet is easy, day one super easy and you're like, "I can do this." Day two, three, four, so much harder. Starting a relationship, easy, you're in love. Flirtation, wonderful. Continuing, sustaining, much harder. Having a baby, easy, the man. Raising a child in the faith is difficult. The Christian life begins... Honestly, you come to faith, it's as if the Lord, God, the father's carrying you as a spiritual infant in his arms. It's incredible. And after a while you grow, and the enemy begins to attack, temptation comes from within, from with out, and you got to run your race. Galatians 5:7, you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? If you were the enemy, if you are saying, "How would you try to dissuade yourself from finishing the race?" Perhaps through distractions of entertainment or money or power or comfort. Perhaps through discouragements, "It's too hard, I should quit." Perhaps through divisions between you and God, between you and other Christians or deception that your life is for yourself, live any way you want. God wants the most pleasures possible for you. All lies. And the five is keep the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7 he says, "I've kept the faith. I've guarded my faith. I've cultivated my faith. I've grown my faith. I didn't bury my faith," and we are to hold onto our faith tenaciously. Why? Because your life is your greatest sermon. Your life is your greatest plausibility structure that when you speak, your words are plausible. Are you living your life in such a way that people want to hear your words, that you words carry weight? And part of that is just don't underestimate the power of living a joyful life, a loving life, a kind life, a generous sacrificial life. And verse A in 2 Timothy, St. Paul says, "Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to those who have loved his appearing." He's not talking about a crown or award of salvation, he's talking about the reward that we get by living faithfully in our life after we've been given salvation. He's talking about reward for service. 1 Corinthians 3:10 and five talks about that. We can't do this on our own. Perhaps you look at your life and you're like, "If I died today, my legacy isn't what it should be." Perhaps there have been seasons in life where you've squandered your life, where you've wasted it, and this is where the gospel Jesus Christ is our only hope, that Jesus Christ left the greatest legacy that there was. His death on the cross, he poured himself out. He loved God's word, poured himself out, fought the good fight. He ran his race, he kept the faith in order to give us faith. And the way that the gospel impacts our legacy is through course correction. If you look at your life, you say, "Mm, I went off course here." At that moment, we need the gospel through repentance. We receive God's grace through repentance. And do you know what repentance is? In the Greek, the word repentance means, just turning around. It means, I have been running the wrong way and Jesus turned me around. I'm turning to you, I want to follow you. At that moment, he corrects us and continues to sustain us on our path. Galatians 2:20, St. Paul says, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." It's his legacy. It's not mine. He's living in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith and the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Back to our question at the very beginning and we'll close with this before we go into communion. Do you have an answer for the question? What do you want your epitaph to be? That inscription on your tombstone, what do you want to say? Some of the most famous epitaphs in the world history, Alexander the Great was, "A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough." Ludolph van Ceulen, the gentleman, the German Dutch mathematician who calculated pi to 35 numbers. Guess what his epitaph was? 3.1415926 etc, all the way to 35. Wanted everyone to know. Martin Luther King Jr, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty. I'm free at last." Frank Sinatra, "The best is yet to come." We don't know what St. Paul's was because we don't have his tombstone. We don't know where his grave is. But you know what I think an appropriate one would be, "Fought the good fight, finish the race, kept the faith." As we transitioned to Holy communion, we remember the words of Jesus Christ, he gave us Holy communion to do on a regular basis and he says, "Do this," why? "In remembrance of me." We remember his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection because this is what sustains our walk with the Lord. The way that we celebrate Holy communion at mosaic is, the usher are going to hand out the elements, the bread and the cup. We ask that you hold on to them until everyone's received them. Here's what we're doing in Holy communion. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ broken for us and the cup symbolizes the blood of Christ poured out for us. And we eat and we drink, and what we're doing is we're internalizing these elements as a symbol for how we are saved, for how we're sanctify. We internalize by faith that Jesus Christ died for me. Who is welcome to take part? 1 Corinthians 11 says that, "Holy communion is for the converted and the repentant." For people who have repented, initially have become Christians and continue to repent. That's what it means to be a Christian. So if you today, repent of your sins. If you today turn to Christ, trust in him, you're welcome to partake. If not, we ask that you just spend this time meditating on what you've heard. After the ushers handout the elements, please hold onto them and they will partake. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. We thank you for offering up your body and your blood, and I pray as we receive your sacrifice and your offering, I pray that you forgive us for our sins. Forgive us for our pride, forgive us for our selfishness, forgive us for living as if our life is our own. It's not. And I pray that you make this time a truly meaningful for each of us, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Authority

November 24, 2019 • Matthew 20:20–28

Audio Transcript: Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name's Jan, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new, if you're visiting, welcome. We're so glad you're here. By the way, congratulations for making it out. Whenever it rains, I already know the Navy SEALS are going to show up. It's like that meme, I don't know if you saw this meme going around, where the lady is screaming and then there's the white cat. And the screaming lady goes, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" And then the cat says, "Well, you can't even show up to church when it rains." And the cat is spot on. So, congratulations. The Lord sees your sacrifice. We'd love to connect with you if you're new, we do that through the Connection Crowd, the worship guide, if you fill it out legibly, you can either toss it in the offering basket after or redeem it at the Welcome Center for a gift, or you can download the app, the Mosaic Boston app in the App Store or Google Play. All the announcements are in the worship guide. There's a type in one of the announcements that the members meeting, it's not December 7th, which is a Sunday, it's actually December 6th. So, if you are a member or if you've been notified that you are becoming a member, please plan to come. With that said, will you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word? Heavenly Father, we confess that you are a good Father, and that you have given us your Word for our good, for our flourishing, for our shalom, for our peace. And your Word, often, is in the affirmative, yes, you want us to live lives that are glorifying to you and then also beneficial to ourselves and the people around us. And in order to keep shalom, you often tell us no. And Lord, I pray that you, through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the Gospel, show us that our hearts are rebellious to your authority naturally. We viscerally reject your authority, and we repent of that, and we turn to you, and I pray that you give us tender hearts to your loving authority, tender hearts to even tough truth. And as we submit to your truths, as we submit to your authority, I pray that you show us that your authority, kingdom authority, Godly authority is an upside down authority, that you give authority not for us to be served by those under us, but to serve them. You call us to be servant leaders, sacrificial leaders to mirror you, to image you. And I pray you give us strength to do that. Lord, if anyone is not yet a Christian, if anyone has not yet submitted their lives to you, if someone has not yielded control of their lives to you, I pray today show Jesus how much you've sacrificed, how much you've done in order to redeem them, and I pray, draw their hearts to you. And I pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ. Amen. So, we're in a sermon series that we are calling Tough and Tender, Developing a Resilience for Life. This is week 10. Next week we're finishing it with a sermon on living in a way that we leave a Godly legacy. So, that's next week. And after that, we roll into advent. Today, we are talking about tough and tender authority, lion and lamb authority. The Holy Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is the Lion of Judah who submits like a lamb to the will of God, and he shows us that truth and that authority are upside down, that God gives us authority, gives us truth, in order to transform us, in order to get us to serve others because one of the greatest blessings in the world is to give rather than to receive. So, as we talk about authority and as we talk about truth, I understand how counter-cultural this topic is, how counter-cultural this idea is. We are a [people who don't like sermons on authority, we don't like authority in general. Fight the power, stick it to the man, it's the Land of the Free. The last time we had a king was King George III, didn't work out for him. And not only do we live in the United States, the Land of the Free, we're also in Boston, Massachusetts. You going to tax us? We're going to get rid of all your tea. We do not like ... Live Free or Die, that's the motto of New England. So, with that to say, I know you want to hear a sermon on authority like you want to hear a sermon on a root canal. But it's important. Scripture talks about the authority of God, and talks about the authority of God's Word. One of the texts that's really important to understand both authority and truth was Jesus subjugated to the authority to Pilate, standing before Pilate. And Pilate says, "Why are you answering me? Don't you understand that I have authority either to execute you or to release you?" And Jesus says, "You would have no authority over me at all if it were not given to you from above." And then Pilate scoffs at this, and Jesus says, "Those who are of the truth hear my truth." And then Pilate scoffs at it and says, "What is truth?" And that sentiment is the milieu of our culture. This is the ethos of our culture. What is truth? Presupposition, "Truth is not knowable." Or we can't known truth. And obviously, that is a truth statement that crumbles under its own weight. There is no such thing as absolute truth. Are you absolutely sure? That is a truth statement. We can't know about God. How do you know that? Or, when people like Peter Berger say things like, "Truth isn't objective, it's culturally conditioned. You believe what people around you believe. In particular, when it comes to faith." Well, that itself is a culturally conditioned truth statement. Agnosticism, we can't know about God. How do you know that you can't know about God? No one should proselytize. At the very moment that you say no one should proselytize, no one should convert, no one should recruit people to their religion, you're actually doing proselytizing. You're converting people to your position of non-proselytization. So you can't get around truth statements. Everyone is making truth statements. What we need to understand is what is truth in order to understand authority. The other problem that we have in our culture, when people talk about truth, they think it's proud or arrogant to say, "No, this is true." It seems proud and arrogant to say, "This is true." And it seems humble to say there is no truth. We can't know truth. But actually, that's reversed. To say there is no truth, you're putting yourself in a position of arrogance over all truth. On the flip side, Jesus comes in and said, "I am truth, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." It's a tough truth when we tenderly submit to it, that truth frees us to be the people that God has called us to be. The other problem that we have with authority is that it has been abused so much. So, we talk about getting rid of authority. You can't get rid of authority. As soon as you start talking about getting rid of authority, be very ... Question anyone who says get rid of authority because those people then want to ... They get into authority. This was the historical lesson of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, the Communists, come to power and they said, "Let's get rid of the king." And everyone is like, "Yes! The workers of the world unite." And as soon as they get rid of the king, who comes into power? It's the communists. That vacuum was always going to be filled so you can't just get rid of authority. We need to redeem authority. And that's what Jesus Christ has come to do. Today, we're going to look at Matthew 20:20-27, in which Jesus tells his disciples, "You have a worldly understanding of authority. You have a flipped understanding of authority." And Jesus Christ came not just to give us the upside kingdom, but the right side up kingdom, and he wants to turn our understanding of authority right side up. So, this is Matthew 20:20, "Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, 'What do you want?' She said to him, 'Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.' And Jesus answered, 'You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?' And they said to him, 'We are able.' He said to them, 'You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.'" "And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, and even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'" This is the reading of God's Holy, inerrant, infallible authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Four points to frame up our time so you know where we're going. First, authority rejected, then authority corrupted, authority redeemed, and finally authority exercised. First of all, authority rejected. What is authority? It's rightful power. A power that is used rightly and only God has ultimate authority, only God uses authority rightly. He is the rightful owner of authority. He created everything so authority belongs ultimately to the Creator. And the story of Holy Scripture begins in Genesis, the Book of Beginnings, that God, in authority, creates everything. And His authority is good. It's a blessed authority. It's for our benefit, for our flourishing, for our prosperity. And He gives it to us generously. He gives it to everything, for life, and for spiritual life. And submission to His authority is the place in which we are free to be the people we've been designed to be. We're free to prosper. God has intrinsic authority and He creates us and delegates authority to us. And He tells us, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, create civilization, create culture and have dominion over all things." He creates Adam, puts him in the Garden, to work it and to keep it. There's authority. Work it, there's authority over the world. And then keep it, protect it from the evil and authority over Satan. God entrusts them with everything, including His Word. He gives His Word to Adam and He says, "Keep it. This is my authority over you, ensconced in my Word. It's within my Word." And then in Genesis 3, Satan comes. And Satan has a conversation with Eve, and the very first thing that he attacks in an attempt to attack God's authority, what does he do? He attacks God's Word. He attacks God's truth. And he says, "Did God really say?" And Eve says, "God said we can eat of every tree except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." And he says, "No, no, no. You will not die. You will become like Gods, knowing good and evil." And Eve looks at the tree, looks at the forbidden fruit, and says that it was the light to her eyes, the desire to make her wise. She rejects God's authority. Adam rejects God's authority. Because Satan had planted a lie in their minds that God's authority was bad, that God was keeping us from something good. And they eat. They trust in their feelings over God's Word. Adam doesn't exercise authority in protecting the Garden from evil, and he doesn't exercise authority to protect his wife from the lies, and he doesn't serve by leading and protecting. Fast forward to today. What is our stance in culture at authority? We live in a culture averse to authority. There's no respect to authority because we have long ago gotten rid of even the idea of truth. Even to talk about objective truth about God is so counter-cultural that we even have a hard time even grasping the idea that when we talk about God, we're talking about facts. We're not talking about preference. We're talking about facts about God, truths about God as true as gravity, as true as life, as death, as the laws of thermodynamics. And we live in a culture where it's we who create truth. The things that we believe become truths instead of taking truths and believing in them. Scripture begins with the unapologetic truth that God is sovereign, that God rules over the universe. Psalm 115:3 says, "Our God is in the Heavens. He does all that He pleases." Ultimate authority. He's like a potter, we are like the clay. All authority among humans is derived, and it's all from God. Romans 13:1, "For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." So, Adam and Even reject God's authority and, in place, they get a corrupted authority under the authority of the enemy. So, when we reject God's authority, we don't destroy authority, we corrupt it. And even the disciples of Jesus Christ, before the Gospel, have this corrupted understanding of authority. It's in their heart. On this point too, authority corrupted, we see in our text that John and James, part of Jesus' inner circle, Jesus had the 12 disciples, then he had the three disciples: John, James, and Peter, Jesus' closest friends. Now, one of the things that a lot of people don't understand is that James and John, they're brothers, but they're actually Jesus' cousins. They're the sons of Zebedee's. Zebedee is married to Salome. Salome is the sister of Mary, Jesus' mom. So, these are his cousins. So, his cousins, what are they doing? In Matthew 19, Jesus promised that he would give them authority. They will sit on 12 thrones to rule over Israel. And so, they're jockeying for position. They send their mom to Jesus in order for her to ask that they get the thrones closest to Jesus. And they think that Jesus will listen to his aunt, so she comes, she kneels, she asks. Why are they doing all this? Why are they jockeying? This is politics. Why are they politicking? The reason is because they think in their mind, the closer I am to Jesus on the throne, the higher rank I have, the more authority I have, to rule over people. And that's why Jesus, to correct their thinking, where does he go? This is verse 25, Matthew 20: "Jesus called them to him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.'" What's he doing? He's canceling their wrong presupposition. Wrong presupposition, get as much power as you can, as much control, as much authority so that people serve you. You rule over, they serve you. Jesus says, "No, that's false." That's an ungodly mentality and that's rooted in selfish ambition. And this is our culture, get as much power as you can. Get the highest rank in your organization. Why? So that people serve you. And that's why we have abuse of authority in our culture because authority has a corrupting over every single one of us. You've heard that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, we know this. And that's why in scripture, as people reject God, God then has to come in and control our abuse of power. And you see examples in scripture where employers abuse employees. So, you have texts like Leviticus 25:43, where God says, "You shall not rule over them ruthlessly, but shall fear your God." Or Deuteronomy 24:14, "You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor or needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your town." Why does God have to give this Word? Because of our corrupt understanding of authority. There's fathers who abuse their authority over children. Ephesians 6:4 tells us, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." There's abuse of power of authority with husbands over wives, that's why Colossians 3:19 says, "Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them." There's abuse of pastors or elders over churches, that's why 1 Peter 5:2-3 says, "Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsions, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock." You see over and over and over this upside down view of authority, whether it was mistreating foreigners or immigrants. Exodus 23:9, "You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Those in power, in terms of finances, taking advantage of the helpless or poor. Zechariah 7:10, "Do not oppose the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart." James 2:6, "But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?" And then just abuse of power to oppress in general. Jeremiah 22:17, "But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood and for practicing oppression and violence." We have a corrupt understanding of authority. So, we can't just reject authority because it gets replaced with corrupt authority. So, what do we need to do? We need redeemed authority. And this is point three. Jesus Christ comes as the God of the universe. And he comes and he shows us a servant leadership. He shows us authority in order to serve instead of authority to get others to serve you. This is Matthew 20:26-27, he says, "It shall not be so among you." Among Christians. "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." So, from the beginning we said that God has intrinsic authority, He delegates authority to us. Those are the only two kinds of authority. Jesus has both. Jesus has intrinsic authority as co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, and he also has intrinsic authority because he's the co-creator with the Father. But he submits to the Father. Though he has his own authority, he submits to the will of God, and then God delegates an authority to Christ. He has both. So, Jesus comes and he holds the office of prophet, priest, and king, and wields that authority well. He serves those underneath his authority. He has the authority to forgive sins. He has the authority to exorcize demons. He has the authority to control nature, to raise the dead. He teaches with authority. He could have demanded submission, he could have commanded submission. Instead, he compels our submission through our hearts by pouring himself out for us. So, how does Jesus lead? How does Jesus wield his authority? By submitting, by suffering, and by serving. By submitting, by suffering, and by serving. I'm going to give you three images right now that show us, that give us a picture of Jesus' authority. It's the yoke. It's the cup and the towel. So, if I lost you somewhere, come back. This is a good part of the sermon. I really enjoyed this part. This is my second time preaching, this is my favorite part. Yoke, cup, towel. Yoke, cup, towel. Submission, suffering, and service. What's the yoke? Jesus submits to the yoke of God the Father, meaning he submits to His will. Co-equal. Father and the Son, they're co-equal. This is the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. They're equally God. Three persons in the Holy Trinity. Three persons, one essence, they're equally God. Jesus comes and he submits to the yoke of the Father. Where do I see this in particular? Look at Matthew 11:28-30. "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." A yoke was a harness to attack a plow to farm animals, to oxen or to horses, and Jesus Christ says, "I have submitted myself to the harness of God's will." And he says, "I've done it gently. I've done it tenderly. I tenderly submit to the tough will of God, the Father." And this is the area, the submission, this is the area where true freedom is found. So, Satan's lie in the very beginning was, "Reject God's authority so that you can live lives of freedom." And Jesus says, "No. We reject God's authority ..." You don't get rid of authority ... Or, submit to corrupted authority, the enemy's authority, and then finally enslaved by sin and selfishness. He says, "No, true rest is found in submission to the Word of God, to the truth of God." He says, "Join me under this harness. I'm baring most of the weight. Come and take my yoke upon you. You will find rest for your souls." And by the way, this is what Jesus meant when he said, "You will know the truth and the truth will," what? Set you free. It's not freedom when we reject truth, it's freedom when we submit to God's truth. And it's tough to do, but when we do that, it tenderizes our hearts to God and we begin to understand that his authority is actually the best thing for us. So, Jesus shows us that his authority begins with taking a yoke and then it continues with taking a cup. Yoke and cup. Where did I get the cup? From our text. Jesus answered, "You do not know what you're asking." They asked for influence. He says, "'You don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?' And they said to him, 'We are able.' He said to them, 'You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and not my left is not mine to grant but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." What is this cup? This is the cup of God's wrath. This is the cup of suffering. And Jesus Christ comes and he knows that he has to drink this cup down to the very last drop. Why is this a cup of suffering? Because in order for God to forgive us, he can't just say, "I forgive." Somebody needs to pay the penalty for our sin. There's always sacrifice. There's always suffering when forgiveness is given. If someone has treated you unjustly, committed egregious sin against you and you've been sinned against, for you to forgive that person, it always takes suffering. It's always painful. The greater the level of sin, the greater the level of suffering. Jesus is looking at this cup, he says, this is the only way that people can be redeemed, that we can be restored in a rightful relationship with us, and Jesus knows exactly how much this cup is going to cost, how painful it will be. And Matthew 26:39, this is the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is on his face, sweating blood, the capillaries on his face are bursting, he's under such immense pressure. And he prays to the Father, and he says, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." True authority always includes suffering, it always includes a cup. And he tells James and John, do you think you can drink my cup? And they say, "Yeah." And they did. James was the first apostle to be martyred for the faith. We get that in the Book of Acts. John was exiled at the end of his life on Patmos. They suffered partially just because of martyrdom and exile, and then also, because as the closest people in their lives, they were separated in the very beginning of the ministry, they drank the cup. So, when we think about authority it's not getting others to serve and getting others to suffer for me, it's I'm serving people even when I need to suffer to do it. So, there's the yoke, there's the cup, and then there's the towel. Where do I get this? Jesus, on the Last Supper, he gets up from the table, lays aside his outer garments, takes a towel, ties it to his waist, takes a basin, fills it with water and begins to wash the feet of his disciples. Says, "This is true greatness." God, on his knees, God kneeling to get the grime and the gunk off the feet of his own disciples. This is true leadership. This is servant leadership. This is godly authority. It's the towel. And then John 13:12-16, Jesus explains to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him." So, if we are to have a rightful understanding of authority, we'd first go to Christ and repent. And say, "Lord, forgive me for misusing authority. Forgive me for not submitting to your authority. I take that yoke under which I find rest for my soul. Lord, I accept the fact that you suffered for me, you drank that cup. And I accept the foot washing that you give me. I accept the yoke, I accept the cup, and I accept the towel. I accept that Lord. We thank you for grace." That's how we're saved, by grace through faith, and then that begins to redeem and redefine our understanding of authority so now we can begin to exercise authority as designed by God. And that's point four. Exercise authority. Authority exercised with the yoke, the cup and the towel. So, this is Christ-like authority. It shows us that true greatness doesn't come in being served, but in serving, being blessed but in actually blessing. It's not in getting people ministered to, but actually ministering to others. So, it begins with submitting to the yoke of the Gospel. Repent and believe. What's repentant? It's yielding your will to God. Not my will, but yours be done. You accept grace. You accept God's sacrifice. You accept His love and you accept His Word. You cannot accept God without accepting His Word, His truth. The thing that separated Jesus when he came, and people took note of this. They said, "You don't teach like the Rabbis do. You teach as someone who has authority." The Rabbis would say, "This is what the scripture say," or "Thus says the Lord." Jesus Christ doesn't appeal to a higher ... He says, "Truly, truly, I say unto you." He's not appealing to a delegated authority, he's appealing to his own intrinsic authority. So, Jesus has both kinds of authority. You're going to have to use your brain for the next couple minutes. Okay? You with me? This is stake upon stake. Jesus has intrinsic authority and delegated authority. It's in him and it's given to him. Same with the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Scriptures have an intrinsic authority, in and of themselves, an ontological authority, and they're given a delegated authority, a bestowed authority. It's not a borrowed authority, it's a given authority, and it's within, and it's given from without. How do we know? The theology is that God's Word is an extension of Himself, when God speaks, God is in that Word. And this is really important, because this is what separates us from other flavors of so-called Christianity. People ask me all the time, "What kind of church is Mosaic? What kind of Christianity are you?" And I've got a brand new answer, it came to me this week. I used to say, "Historical Orthodox Christianity," just because no one knows what that means and they're like, "Oh, okay." Now I say "What kind of Christianity?" I go, "The original. From the very beginning. That's who we are. The original." We believe what the Church has believed about Christ, about God, about God's Word. And this is where we're different from other historic churches that have accepted a liberal theology of God's Word. This camp rejects the intrinsic power of God, the intrinsic authority of God's Word. And they said, "Yeah, when scripture agrees with me, then I'll accept it. But scripture is relegated to my authority, it's relegated to my reason." And I push back to that and say, "Have you never made any mistakes in your life?" Just look at your high school picture. You are fallible. Every single one is us is fallible. So, you're taking your fallible mind, your fallible reason, and you're standing in judgment over scripture, over God's Word. And then people push back and they say, "Well, how do you know it's God's Word." And then my response is, "God's Word tells me that it's God's Word." And then people are like, "Ha! That's circular reasoning. Got you!" And I always respond and say, "We're all doing circular reasoning." When your reasoning with your mind, how do you know that your mind is being reasonable? That's circular reasoning, number one. Number two, we are not primarily intellectual beings. How many of our decisions are made because of our desires not because of our minds? And our desires override our minds? So, we need a word from outside, we need a truth from outside, a transcendent truth. And where do we get that? We get that from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came and he taught the way of God. He taught that the Old Testament was God's Word. He lived a perfect life. He's crucified, dies, is buried, and comes back from the dead. That, right there, the resurrection, validates everything else that he taught. Do we believe that Jesus physically came back from the dead? Yes, we've done sermons on that. You can find them online. If you want more evidence for the historicity of the resurrection, a couple great resources: N.T. Wright is probably the best one. N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God. I think it's over 1,000 pages. If you're like, "I'm not reading 1,000 pages," go to the very end. You know what he says? "Jesus comes back from the dead." There. Spoiler alert. Geza Vermes wrote a book called The Resurrection, V-E-R-M-E-S. Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus, phenomenal work. But ultimately, we believe in the authority of scripture because we believe in Jesus Christ. How can you accept Jesus Christ as savior if you think you're smarter than him, if you think you're wiser than him? John Stott has this great book called The Authority of the Bible, and he says, "Why should people believe that the Bible is God's Word written, inspired by His Spirit and authoritative over their lives? The overriding reason for accepting the divine inspiration and authority of scripture is plain loyalty to Jesus. Our understanding of everything is conditioned by what Jesus taught, and that includes his teaching about the Bible. We have no liberty to exclude anything from Jesus' teaching and say, 'I believe what he taught about this but not what he taught about that.' What possible right do we have to be selective?" What did Jesus believe about the Bible? Matthew 5:17-18, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." He's talking about the Hebrew scriptures. He's says the smallest details of the Hebrew scriptures would all come to pass. John 10:35, "Scripture cannot be broken." So, Jesus believed in the Old Testament, referred to it as God's Word, then Jesus taught and gives authority, delegated authority, to his apostles who are filled with the Holy Spirit and then the New Testament, the books in the New Testament canon were either written by an apostle or connected to an apostle, every single one of them. And then I get the pushback, "Well, didn't the church give us the New Testament? Didn't they compile the canon? Well, how can we trust them?" And my response is, the church gave us the books of the New Testament as much as Sir Isaac Newton gave us gravity. He did not give us gravity, he recognized gravity. The spirit in them authenticated the spirit in the books, it was a recognition not a giving. It's like Tom Brady. I've been good. All football season, I have no mentioned the GOAT. Why is Tom Brady the GOAT? And this might connect with you, but it's okay. Why is Tom Brady the GOAT? Because a lot of people said that he's the GOAT? No, he's the GOAT and everyone recognizes that he's the GOAT. If you know, you know. You're welcome. And then Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding." Why trust in the Lord with all your heart? Why this combination of trust and the heart? Do you trust the Lord whole-heartedly? Well, if you do, do you let the scriptures override your thoughts and feelings? A lot of people think that God wants you to agree with Him. And we agree with the scriptures when our feelings coincide, when our ideas coincide, and then when our ideas don't coincide with scripture, we just get rid of it. God doesn't say, "Agree with me." God says, "Obey me." Meaning, there are times when God says no. And that, right there, it challenges the most cherished thoughts and feelings that we have. And do you submit to the good will of God, to His good authority? 2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." Now, scripture talks about different spheres of authority, so I'm going to talk about the different spheres of authority. Authority in the church, authority in marriage, authority with children, and authority with the civil government, and look at every single one of those spheres through the prism of yoke, cup, and towel, and that's how you understand Godly authority. So, authority in the church. Scripture teaches that Jesus is the head of the church and that Jesus rules over the church through his Word, and God sends the Holy Spirit. The Holy Scripture talks about under-shepherds that are given to the church, called by God to teach and care for the flock. So, if you, and here, I'm speaking to myself, I'm speaking to the leaders in the church. If we are to wield this authority rightly, there is a yoke of submission to God's Word, there's a cup of suffering. If you want to lead in the church, if you want to do ministry, there's always suffering. If you want to minister to people on the soul level, there's always suffering. There's always opposition from Satan and the demonic. And then there's the towel, where you care for the practical needs of your brothers and sisters, that's how Godly authority is to be wielded. Hebrews 13:17, "Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." As a pastor, Pastor Shane Pastor and Andy, we take this seriously. We will stand before God and given an account for how we do ministry. And it's frightening, and that's why we want to do ministry God's way. God's work, God's way. There's authority in marriage and the family. Scripture talks about God's design for family, God's design for marriage, that husbands are an authority over wives, to love, to honor, to serve, to sacrifice. 1 Corinthians 11:3, God grounds this idea of headship and the Trinity. "But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God." And this is important because St. Paul doesn't ground this in culture, he grounds this in the Trinity, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are equal in power. They're equal in divinity. And yet, Jesus submits to the headship of God the Father, and we see that pattern that Jesus is the head of the church, and that Jesus is the head of the man, and then the husband is supposed to be in this godly, sacrificial headship over the wife. Ephesians 5:22-25, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." St. Paul grounds it in the Trinity, he grounds it in the church that Jesus is head over the church, and he grounds it in God's created order. 1 Corinthians 11:8-9, "For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man." And I say that the Trinity, the church, and creation are the foundation for the doctrine of headship because a lot of people reject this and they say, "It was cultural." It wasn't cultural. St. Paul wasn't wearing cultural goggles as he was writing this. He was pointing to things that are eternal. So, practically, how does this work itself out practically? Sacrifice. Who should be sacrificing most in a marriage? It's the husband. You lead with sacrifice. Just practically, how does this work out? When you're eating a delicious meal together, husbands and wives, who gets the last piece? This week, my wife and I, we buy this delicious salami from Trader Joe's. It's wrapped in paper. It's so good. And my wife and I, we wait until our kids are asleep, and we're just downing this thing. It is so good. And out of nowhere, we're on the last piece. We just demolished this thing, just inhaled it. And the last piece, and my wife is eyeing it, and I'm eyeing it. And I was meditating on this text, and I was like ahh, I was like, "Baby, here you go." And she's like, "No, I don't want it." And I know she's lying. And then she takes it and I'm like ... And I thought she was going to take a bite and give the rest back to me. That's the pattern. No! Gone! Gone! Sacrifice, sacrifice. Parents over children, there's authority to teach, to command, to discipline. Ephesians 6:1-4, "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother, this is the first commandments with a promise, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children with anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." So, parents are to be authoritative, not authoritarian. So, not leading in a way that provokes the child, but leading the heart, shepherding the heart. And yes, we are to tell our children yes and no. The fact that he says, "Children obey," means that there is an act of guidance, act of discipleship over our children. This week, my daughter, Ekaterina, she's four. She's number three in the order. Ekaterina, driving home from preschool with my wife. She says, "Mom, there's a boy at school today who stole chocolate and he put it in his pocket." And they're driving home from the store. And my wife is like, "Huh." Come home, and she's like, "Come here. Let me check your pocket." Chocolate bunny in her pocket. Stole it! What do we do? What do we do? You got to discipline, but it's got to be a loving discipline. So, my wife unwraps it, and being the wise, Godly sage she is, broke off the bunny's head and gave it to her. "Don't do this anymore." And then she ate the rest. So, it was just this incredible mix of ... You're welcome. It's got to be both. And authority of the civil government. Scripture talks about the fact that we are to honor and pray for those in authority over us. Romans 13:1-2, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." Who's he ... He's writing in a culture where Caesar is the emperor. Unrighteous, ungodly leader, and St. Paul says that there needs to be a respect for authorities, and obviously, not when those authorities contradict the Word of God. So, Acts 5:29, Peter gives the example, "We must obey God rather than men." In 1 Timothy 2:1-2 says, "First of all then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, Godly and dignified in every way." Some Christians sin in their utter disrespect for those in authority. Yet, there's got to be this balance where I don't agree with the person, I don't agree with the policies, but there is a respect for the office, for the authorities. We are told to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and give unto God what is God's. We will never give to Caesar what is God's, but we are called to honor, to respect, and to pray for. I'll close with this. Philippians 2:5-11, this is the ancient hymn about Christ coming to serve, showing us true Godly authority: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Jesus Christ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Every single knee will bow. Either we bow in this life, humbly accepting the Grace of God, or we will bow the knee in the next life under judgment and condemnation. So, we call you, if you're not yet a Christian, bow your knee to Jesus Christ in repentance. Submit to his good authority, and on the day that we humble ourselves, he raises us up. Let's pray. Lord, we do start with repenting of the fact that our pride gets in the way of submitting to your authority all too often. We all too often think that our way is the right way, that our truth is the ultimate truth. We repent of all that. And I pray Lord that you give us grace to submit ourselves, to yield ourselves, yield our wills to the will of God the Father. We thank you Jesus that you took the yoke, you took the cup, and you took the towel. And I pray that you give us grace to do the same. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Facing Opposition with Grace

November 17, 2019 • 1 Peter 4:7–19

Summary: Satan hates God. However, he can't hurt God directly. So he does everything he can to hurt God indirectly, and he does so by attacking God's children. Holy Scripture promises us that "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12). Jesus promised his followers that they will be hated just for being Christians (John 15:18-20). Christian, if you follow Jesus faithfully, you will have enemies. These too are God's promises. Jesus calls us to withstand hate with love, but how do we withstand opposition like lions, while loving those who oppose us, like lambs? Audio Transcript: You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston church. 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 And God, we thank you for the blessing and privilege it is to gather safely, in peace, to worship your Holy name, to meditate upon your Holy scriptures as your church, as your people. We recognize that this blessing isn't afforded to many in the world, that many do not have this freedom, this Liberty, this privilege to gather in peace that many are actively and violently opposed and persecuted and we pray for our brotherhood and we pray for our sisterhood. We pray for those who are suffering just because they name the name of Jesus Christ. We pray that you strengthen them. We pray that you also remind us today that when you call us to yourself, you call us to a path of sacrifice. That we worship a God who gave himself. Jesus, you were nailed to a cross and like a lion, you tenaciously and ferociously overcame Satan, sin, and death and still as you hung in that cross, you extended your generous, lavish embrace to your enemies. I pray that you make us tough as nails and tender as lambs that when we are persecuted, when we are slandered, when we experience the opposition that you have promised us. We pray that we recognize that often that is your will in order to refine us in order to give us a perspective that is eternal. I pray Holy spirit come and strengthen us, give us a resolve that we will not just live for you, but we would be willing to even die for you if that's what you choose for us. We pray that you bless our time, the Holy scriptures. Now we pray all this in the name of the father, of the son, of the Holy spirit. Amen. So we're in a sermon series that we are calling "Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life." And the topic of the message today is opposition. This sphere, this area will strengthen your toughness and will soften your tender heart like nothing else that we have covered. Today, we are talking about opposition that the way of following Christ is a path of opposition. Why? Because at the center of Christianity, at the crux of Christianity, is a crucified savior who has given himself for us and he calls us to take up our cross and follow him daily. Thus, we shouldn't be surprised that Christians have been persecuted and continue to be persecuted, have been opposed, and continue to be opposed. Christians are the most persecuted group on the planet. It's the least reported and the most overlooked truth. The secular society called International Society for Human Rights says the worst persecution of Christians in all of human history is actually happening in our lifetime. 70 million Christians have died for their faith from the beginning of the church. The founding of the church by Christ. 70 million have died, 35 million in the past 100 years. Every 10 minutes at least two Christians die for their faith. John L. Allen Jr wrote "The Global War on Christians" in which he documents today's stories of people who are dying for their faith. The Christian Perspective Review of 2019 says that one third of the world's population suffers from religious persecution, 80% of which are Christians and spreading not just geographically, but it's growing in severity. In some regions, the level and nature of persecution is coming close to international definitions of genocide. Open Doors 2019 Worldwide Watch List Report says that in 2018, 215 million Christians have been persecuted. This year alone, it's been 245. This year alone, 2,625 Christians have been detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and in prison, 1,266 churches, church buildings have been attacked. In the last five years, the number of countries classified as extreme and persecuting Christians has grown from one, North Korea, to 11 countries. That's increasing and the persecution is coming from aggressive nationalism or ultra nationalism in countries like China and India and from Islamist militia groups. How about in Boston, 2019. Well, it's different here. Might not be an active violent oppression, but it's definitely a silent repression. It's a polite persecution. There's ridicule when people can't respond with reason. Laughter. "I can't believe you believe that, you bigot" laughter as substitute for logic. We might not be persecuted, but certainly we are pressured. You might not get that promotion just because you're a Christian. You might not get into that program, not get into that school. Just because you're a Christian. People might look down on you as antiquated or unintelligent because you are a Christian. Be silent, shut up, blend in, conform. Do not share your faith. Do not proselytize. I can't believe that you are on the wrong side of history. Well, for Christians it's more important not just to be on the right side of history, but to be on the right side and that side is the side of Jesus Christ. And he said, I am the way, the truth and the life and there's no other way to the father, but through me. If you claim that, if you believe that if you live that out, you will be opposed. Jesus Christ said, count the cost before you come and follow me. There is a cost to following Jesus. What does it cost you to follow Christ? Would you die for the name of Christ? Statistically, some of you might. And if you're willing to die for Christ, are you willing to live for him? If being a Christian ever became illegal in the United States, would there be enough evidence against you for claiming Christian, confessing Christian, to convict you? These are some of the things that we are talking about today. To set up our time, we're going to look at first Peter chapter four, seven through 19. First, Peter suffered for the faith to the point that he died. He was crucified upside down. He knew about suffering. He knew about beatings. When you talk about suffering, you just talk about verbal suffering. You talk, not just emotional suffering but physical suffering for the faith. So he writes this letter to Christians who are suffering in Asia Minor and he reminds them over and over refers to them that you are sojourners, you are exiles. This is not your home. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are resident aliens. This is all temporary. We might suffer, but from the point of view of eternity, this is just a blip on the radar and is worth it. First Peter four seven through 19 would you please look at the text with me? The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks Oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. This is the reading of God's Holy and infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Seven practical points to frame up our time. Point one is welcome to the club. Point two is lead with repentance. Three, rejoice at the honor. Four shame with glory. Five, love your enemies. Six, trust God as you do good and seven, extend hope gently. First of all, welcome to the club. This is what he begins with. So what did you expect if you follow a crucified savior? And Jesus said, "Come and follow me." What did you expect? So don't be surprised. He says in verse 12, beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. For them, they understood what it meant to follow Christ in that Roman culture. Christ was crucified. Therefore, he calls us to a path of suffering. Don't be surprised, it's not unusual. You're probably doing something right. It is surprising to the church in the United States. To many, it's surprising because many present the gospel as a bait-and-switch. We do not do that at Mosaic. When we talk about coming to the Lord, repenting of sin and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we talk about counting the cost. There is a cost. Jesus said, before you build a tower, you got to sit down and first figure out how much it's going to cost or else you won't have the resource. There is a cost to following Jesus Christ. And as our culture becomes more antagonistic to the gospel and the implications of the gospel in particular when it comes to gender and sexuality, there's going to be more and more of a cost. Don't be surprised. It's not unusual. It's not new. It's not strange. He says it's normal. It's necessary. It's refining. Life is hard. God is good. Glory is coming. The fiery trial here he's talking about is persecution, is to be expected. In Peter's mind, it wasn't just insults, it wasn't just maligning or slander or reviling, it was beatings and sufferings and crucifixion and being tossed to the lions. 2 Timothy 3:12, indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. God promises this. Acts 14:22 talking about the apostles, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Through many tribulations. Many of us have developed a theology of prosperity, not many of us have a theology of adversity. And we need a theology of adversity to recognize how to meet these trials head on. It's guaranteed trials will come, expect it. 1 Peter 5:6-9, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. There's a humility that needs to come with becoming a Christian. And Lord I repent of my sins. I'm a wretch, please save me. But then there's also a humility of following Christ and on a daily basis. God is sovereign and often sovereignly ordains trials, opposition, persecution, and there's a humility that needs to come. Lord, I humble myself under this chosen path that you have for me, that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Now, Peter, how can you write this as God's timeless word and have it still relevant today as we're reading it? Because this fact has not changed. Satan hates Christians because Satan hates the church, Satan opposes the faithful. And I understand that our opposition is first world opposition. It's micro-suffering, but still it's suffering, it's persecution. And unlike on a daily basis, you need to count the cost of following Christ. My oldest daughter Sophia is 11 and she was telling me that she just wishes there were more Christians in her church. Sorry, that too. Amen. In her school. I wish I had a Christian friend in my class. Maybe that's why we're here. We're not here because it's comfortable, we're here to get the gospel to those who do not have eternal hope in Christ. That's why we're here. It's difficult. Hebrews 13:3, remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated since you are in the body. That we are a body of bleeds, we're the body of Christ and parts of the body and other parts of the world are suffering for the faith. We are to remember them, we are to pray for them. Many of us hearing a sermon on suffering and persecution for the faith is brand new. If you come from other parts of the world, you know about this. You know about this, not theologically, you know about this experientially. My family is in the United States because they were persecuted for their faith. That's how we got to the United States, in religious refugee asylum in the late 80s because in the Soviet Union was illegal to be a Christian. It was illegal... typically the gospel. We have family members who spent decades in prison for their faith. This isn't new. This is part of following Christ. John 15:18-20 Jesus said, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. Jesus was persecuted. Jesus was the most opposed figure in all of world history, so it makes sense that his followers will too, be opposed. Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold." Now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, we love that promise, with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. Don't be surprised. So welcome to the club. It's part of being a Christian too, is lead with repentance. This is important. 1 Peter, Peter, when he talks about persecution, he's very careful to qualify that you are being persecuted for the name of Christ, not because of your own sin. That you're not using persecution as a cover for sin. 1 Peter 3:17, it's better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil. And in our text, 1 Peter 4:15, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. What's he talking about? Saying some people are persecuted for being Christians, some people are being persecuted just for being obnoxious. That's what the word meddler means. So meaning, you've got to hold this imbalance. If you are always persecuted for everything. If any kind of criticism, any kind of negativity for anything from anybody is persecution. He said, "Be careful it's not for your own sin." If you are never persecuted for anything ever as a Christian, then you've got to ask, "Am I living faithfully following Christ?" And by meddler here he's talking about being the type of obnoxious Christian that hold any conversation with absolutely anybody. You're always Jesus juking. You're always trying to talk about hell and condemnation and fire and brimstone. Don't be that person. Don't be the person, and I've got to qualify this a little, who at work instead of doing your job, you're evangelizing. It's important to evangelize to coworkers and it's important for them to know. And I say this because I went through a season where I call this the cage stage. I think every Christian goes through this cage stage. I found out about reformed theology and I wanted everyone in the world to know about it. And instead of working on my Excel spreadsheets at work, I would read Bible studies. Don't be that person. Don't be, this is what he's saying, the meddler. So you might get fired for being a person like this. But you got to do a spiritual inventory. Hey, is there hypocrisy in my life? Is there sin in my life? Is there opposition in my life just because there's a carnal nature coming out or is it truly for the faith? And it happens with personal judgment. That's why 1 Peter 4:17 he says, for it's time for judgment to begin at the household of God, meaning we judge ourselves. We're doing this spiritual inventory ourselves. It begins with us and what will become of those who do not obey the gospel of God and if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? So lead with repentance. If there is sin, we repent of that sin in the context of persecution as well. Three, is rejoice at the honor. And this is incredible that he uses the word rejoice in verse 13, rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and if God rests upon you, is it comfortable? No. But there's something greater than comfort. There's development of character, and God cares infinitely more about our character than our comfort. We choose to rejoice. It's a choice to rejoice even in suffering, and this is absolutely nonsensical to the unbelieving world. The unbelieving world finds this unbelievable. The world doesn't understand that there's a source of joy, a joy that's greater than happiness, that's greater than pleasure. He says, "Rejoice at this." Congratulations, it's a confirmation, it's a compliment from God that when we suffer, when we are insulted for the name of Christ, it is to bring us joy, because God's name is glorified. Matthew 5:10-12, Jesus, this is in the Beatitudes talking about blessing, and the word for bless here is the highest level of happiness, the highest level of joy. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Rejoice, great is the reward. And this only makes sense from the perspective of eternity, the eternity... that our life compared to eternity is just a little blip on the radar. St. Peter, after he was beaten with the other apostles in the book of Acts as the very beginning of the inauguration of the church, Acts 5:41, "And they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." They were dishonored, they were persecuted, and they rejoice. They rejoice not despite the persecution, but because of it, because of the persecution. The persecution gave them this perspective of eternity's perspective on what really matters, and they rejoice. Scripture often talks about suffering as a path that God chooses for us to strengthen us and to increase our joy. Romans 5:3-4, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." James 1:2-3, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." Nothing tests our faith as genuine like persecution. God often sends persecution in order to purify the church. Who's truly a Christian, who's a genuine believer? There's a testing. Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Hebrews 12 talks about Moses, who leaves the comforts of the palace, of Pharaoh's palace in Egypt, and it says he, Moses, "choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward." Fleeting pleasures that you can't keep or an eternal reward that you can never lose. He does the cost-benefit analysis, he said, "Yes, the cost is worth it." God wants to prosper us. He wants to give us an enduring prosperity, a long-term prosperity that often comes at the cost of short-term adversity. Opposition also strengthens our faith. This is another reason to rejoice, that we are getting stronger. Every athlete knows, if you work out, you know that strength is developed under pressure. It's time under tension, and you go through that suffering because you have an end goal, and you're willing to endure because of the strength that's coming. 1 Peter 1:6-7, "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." He talks about this testing as a fire. What does a fire do? It burns off the impurities, the dross, and leaves the substance, leaves the goal. And what the fire and the testing does, it reveals our true allegiances, what we truly love. If the idol in your life is comfort, then you can't begin to understand suffering, you can't begin to understand pain. But if God is at the center of your life, if God is the most precious thing in your life and the greatest treasure that you have, then you will cling on to God despite suffering. It's no secret that adversity makes us stronger. A couple secular studies I'll quote here, Alyssa Croft in 2013 surveyed 15,000 adults, and she's entitled the study From Tribulations to Appreciation: Experiencing Adversity in the Past Predicts Greater Savoring in the Present, and this is what... She found people who had experienced major trauma in the past, and she said that people who have overcome adversity in the past are better at savoring life's small pleasures, which in turn could promote greater life satisfaction. This is how Scripture talks about it, that adversity, opposition, persecution, suffering, it's a blessing if it's from the Lord, and this blessing allows us to truly savor his other blessings. There's a negative blessing that leads to a depth of savoring the positive blessings. She noted that people who emotionally overcome a negative event, it leads to this greater appreciation later in life and makes them more resilient. And this is what fiery trials do. They make us stronger. They make us a courageous people. Scripture often talks about Christians as needing to be courageous. Would you describe yourself as being courageous? Are you a courageous Christian? And the way that we strengthen our courage is going through that suffering. Jesus is the great shepherd; we are the sheep. Sometimes he brings us to green pastures, sometimes he brings us to nice bucolic rivers. Other times, he takes us through the valley of the shadow of death, and I trust him, he got me this far, he'll get me through, and that strengthens us. A study by Stanley J. Rachman, he researched Fear and Courage: A Psychological Perspective, and here's how... This is secular work. Here's how he talks about growing from courage to fearlessness. He says, "Situational demands and confidence are thought to be important contributors to fearless behavior. The successful practice of courageous behavior leads to a decrease in subjective fear and finally to a state of fearlessness." How? "Courage grows into fearlessness. People who are learning to parachute from an aircraft display courage when they persevere with their jumps despite subjective fear. Veteran parachutists, who have been successfully habituated to the situation, no longer experience fear when jumping; they have moved from courage to fearlessness." Subjective fear, you overcome it with courage. The more you do that, the more you string these wins together, the more fearless you become. Courage just becomes part of who you are. This is why we are to rejoice when God allows us to be opposed for his fight, shame with glory. Jesus often talks about those who are ashamed of his name. Mark 8:38, "For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Have you ever felt shame for being a Christian? Have you ever felt shame for believing the words of Christ, words that our culture rejects? 1 Peter 4:16, "Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name." Don't be ashamed, but glorify. Why is he bringing these two together? What ashamed, what is shame? The human ego hates shame. The human ego hates to be embarrassed. So Scripture says, what do we do with this shame? We are to follow the example of Christ, who despised the shame. Hebrews 12:2, "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." He despised the shame. Jesus despised what kind of shame? At the center of Christianity is a shamed Christ, Christ who was mocked, he was rejected, he was spat on, he was stripped, he was scourged, and ultimately he was crucified. And the crucifixion was developed by the Romans not just to increase the level of pain as much as possible, it was to increase the level of humiliation, but Jesus went through it because he despised the shame. There's something greater motivating him than his own honor, and that was to bring glory to God the father. Don't be ashamed. What is shame? It's our name not being glorified. It's our name not being honored. Our reputation tarnished. We are not as approved or accepted by the people around us. That's shame. My wife and I we have four daughters, and I get this question all the time, and I just got to remind everyone to stop asking this question, "Are you guys going to go for the fifth? Are you guys going to try to get a boy?" Stop asking that question. In particular, I get it from my Slavic brethren, from people from a Slavic/Russian background. "Don't you want a boy? And what about your name? Don't you want your name to continue past?" Like the name is so important. And my response every single time, "I don't care." Vezikov that's not a good last name. Like who cares? That's number one. Number two, theologically it's wrong. Who cares about my name? Seriously, if I'm dead and rotten and forgotten, who cares? As long as the name of Jesus Christ magnified through my life. I believe that theologically. Experientially? And I struggle with this all the time describe for people, "What do you do?" "I'm a pastor." Just having that conversation, or like, "What kind of Christian are you?" Just having that conversation. "Oh, you guys really believe in The Bible? Isn't that antiquated?" And like, "Yeah, we do." There is a shame, but you know what? It's not about my name being glorified it's about the name Jesus Christ being glorified even at the expense of my name, of my disrepute because we worship a Christ who despised that shame. Luke 6:26, "Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets." If you're never opposed for being a Christian, if you're never dishonored for being a Christian are you standing for the truth? Are you public with your faith? And why do people hate the truth, why do people oppose the truth? Because there is an element of the truth showing the darkness for what it is, exposing the evil. This is John 3:19, this is the judgment, "The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil." The way that we fight shame is by glorifying God. A God who deserves all glory. Five is love your enemies. This is so counter intuitive, it's so counter cultural. The preached opposition here is that there will be enemies. We do have enemies. There are people who are defiantly opposed to the Christian truth. Luke 6:27 through 31, "But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies," then act of agape love. "Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, to the one who strikes you on the cheek offer the other one also, and from the one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from the one who takes away your goods do not demand them back, and as you wish that others would do to you do so to them." Refuse to retaliate that's what he's... Refuse to respond to hate with hate. Refuse to allow other people to control your emotions, to control your reaction. The way that we oppose our enemies is not with hate, but with love. Romans 12:17 through 21, "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay,' says the Lord. To the contrary, if you're enemy is hungry feed him, if he is thirsty give him something to drink for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, and overcome evil with goods." It's so hard. It's not just hard this is impossible. It does take supernatural strength, it does take a filling of the Holy Spirit to respond to our enemies in the same way that Christ responded to us. Jesus Christ died for us not because we were lovely, but because he was loving, and he died for us when we were still his enemies. First Peter 4:89, "Above all keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sin, show hospitality to one another without grumbling." It's a practical love. There are enemies in your life, those who oppose you practically seek to show them love. And this perfect love casts out fear. First Peter 3:9, "Do not repay evil for evil, or reviling with reviling, but on the contrary bless. For to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing." So, we bless our enemies in the name of Jesus Christ we bless them, and we do that by praying for them. And what are we praying for? We're praying for them to come to an eternal relationship, into an eternal life with Jesus Christ. And the only way you can do this practically is if you understand theologically the source of opposition. It's not us against them, it's not Christians against non-Christians. It's every single one of us against God, and God comes, gives himself, is crucified in order to redeem us. And the real source of the opposition is not the person who is opposing you. The real source of opposition is Satan. It's the demonic realm. First Peter 5:89, "Be so reminded, be watchful your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world." Satan hates God. Satan wants to do everything he can to oppose God, but Satan can't hurt God. Jesus promised that he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. The book of Revelation promises us that Jesus wins. We know how the story ends. Satan does as well. He can't hurt God, so he tries to hurt God by means of hurting God's children. And this is what opposition is. This is what persecution is. Ephesians 6:12, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." So, when we are opposed we need to know who's behind the opposition, it's Satan, and that's why we pray for the person who is in front of us. It seems like if the person is embodying the persecution, embodying the opposition, but we need to pray for this persons eternal soul. We need to pray for the Lord to release this person from the entanglement of the evil one. Six is trust God as you do good, and the word for trust here is more than just intellectual assent it's entrusting yourself to the good will of God. This is First Peter 4:9, "Therefor let those who suffer, according to God's will, entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good." We entrust ourselves to the sovereignty of God. "God, if you have allowed suffering, and opposition, and persecution in my life this is your will, and I will humble myself underneath your will, under your good sovereign will. Let your will be done in my life." We entrust our souls to him. It's the the same word that Jesus Christ uses when he's on the cross in Luke 23:46, "Jesus calling out with a loud voice says, 'Father into your hands I commit my spirit.' And having said this he breathed his last." It's the same word that's used in first Peter 2:21, 25, "For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you. Leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin, and live to righteousness by his wounds. You have been healed for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." Sometimes suffering is God's will for your life. First Peter 2:15, "For this is the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people." First Peter 5:10 through 11, "After you have suffered a little while the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen." And then point seven to extend hope gently. What do I mean? Suffering exposes what we truly hope in. Where is our hope? What is the anchor of our souls? When we're tough under oppression, and we tenderly share hope this is one of the greatest apologetics for the Christian faith. And this is why this suffering grew the Christian faith like nothing else. Historians are puzzled by how quickly Christianity grew despite opposition and persecution. Despite martyrdom, Christianity grew at a clip of 40% per decade. Up to the point where in the 4th century, Constantine comes to power and realizes that the only way to consolidate all of the empire is by claiming to be a Christian. How? It was through oppression. It was through persecution. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church, and this is why. In 1 Peter 3:14-15, the famous verse is, "Always be ready to give a defense for the hope that you have." That is given in the context of suffering. Verse 14, 1 Peter 3. "But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them nor be troubled. But in your hearts, honor Christ. The Lord is Holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. The world understands. If you become a Christian to prosper and be healthy and wealthy, the world understands that. That's your ticket to prosperity. We have other tickets to prosperity. The world does not understand when Christ is your greatest treasure, despite suffering. That makes no sense. You still love Christ. You didn't get the prosperity. You got adversities. You still love him. Makes zero sense. People begin to wonder, what is this thing that you believe? Hold onto Christ in the midst of suffering. Be prepared to make a defense, to explain why Christ is your treasure. So when you suffer, don't panic. Pray. Don't worry, worship. Don't focus on the pain, on the opposition. Focus on God. We extend the gospel with gentleness and respect. This is 1 Timothy 2:23-26, "Have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies." And he wrote this before online evangelists and comments section and Facebook evangelists. He wrote this way before any of that. Don't get into debate on Facebook about Jesus. It's never helpful. Ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone. Able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. This is our goal. This is our hope. We have received this hope and Christ. It was not of our doing. We're saved by grace through faith, and we're willing to go through the persecution and opposition in order to testify to this grace, to those who are far from the Lord. My short term comfort, I'm willing to sacrifice it for someone else's eternal comfort in the presence of Christ. Titus 3:2-7, I'll close with this. "Speak evil of no one to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, lead astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration, renewal of the Holy spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior. So that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. If you're not a Christian today, cry out to God. God, save me. God, repent my sin. God, I entrust myself to you. But do so knowing the path that Jesus Christ might potentially have for you, a path of opposition, persecution, and suffering. But it's worth it. The seven points, just in case you missed any. Welcome to the club, lead with repentance, rejoice at the honor, fight shame with glory, love your enemies, trust God as you do good, extend hope gently. And we'll close with the words of Christ on the cross, Luke 23:34. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do." Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for grace we didn't deserve. But Jesus, through your suffering, we are saved. And we understand, Lord, that you might ordain suffering for us so that we may be strengthened, and for others to be saved through our witness. And I pray that you strengthen us in those moments. Make us a bold people, a courageous people, people who proclaim your truth. And we do it unapologetically, unflinchingly, and we do it with tenderness of heart. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.