Arcade Church Service - 10-18-20

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning arcade church happy sunday everyone it's so great to see you all here in the courtyard and welcome to those of you online as well we're just so grateful that you've taken time out of your day to join us to worship and be in community in person and virtually my name is shelby glass i am the weeknd worship director here at arcade church and it is just such a privilege to be here together together this morning i wanted to start with a brief reflection can you hear me good morning sorry sounds like we're having some uh technical difficulties here good morning everyone thanks for bearing with us here god is good even in technical difficulties right i want to just start um briefly looking at a passage of scripture um kind of to set our hearts on the lord before we worship i'm looking at psalm 95 really just the first seven verses or so um i'm going to read this all right it says oh come let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods in his hand are the depths of the earth the heights of the mountain are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand and you know a couple things that i just draw from that it's a pretty familiar passage but a couple things that you know my i'm just kind of drawn to um is that god is good we're told this we've experienced that and it really calls us to worship right that's the very beginning of the chapter come let us worship and bow down it says multiple times in there and also i i can't help but notice that when he talks about as verse 4 says in his hand or the depths of the earth and i can't help but just feel like he is so present with us and we were told that in his word we're told that in his word um but it just reminds me that he invites us into that intimate relationship with him and that really calls my heart to worship and i hope it does the same with you his word is true and we believe that by faith and then he calls us his people we are his people we are the sheep of his passion and it just reminds me that we truly are made to worship amen we're made to worship and so i want to invite you this morning whether you're home on your couch your dining room at a coffee shop in the courtyard here i want to invite you to stand to your feet this morning as we lift high the name of jesus who is worthy of all praise [Music] you are [Music] the truth [Music] [Music] every breathtaking [Music] i believe you are the way [Music] i believe you are it [Music] on is and you meet me here today with [Music] they mercies stay alone when i'm here today [Music] because they can't stay long and i believe [Music] i [Music] believe [Music] is [Music] with all my come to fears because they can't say it wrong i believe [Music] [Music] there's a reason why the curse of sin is broken there's a reason why the darkness runs from the light there's a reason why we stand here now forgive jesus let's continue to sing of our savior and there's a reason why we are not overtaken there's a reason why we sing on through the night there's a reason why our hope remains eternal jesus [Music] praise the king he's alive every voice sing it praise [Music] there's a reason why our hearts can be courageous there's a reason why the dead are made alive there's a reason why we share his resurrection jesus is alive oh he's alive [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah he's alive [Music] the great could not ignore it when all of heaven's roaring in hell where is your victory death where is your sting the world could not ignore it when all the saints are already [Music] [Applause] [Music] where is [Music] praise the king he is praise the king he's alive [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen we continue to celebrate in his resurrection and the power of life that we have and the peace and knowing him sing this with me how great the chasm that lay between us how high the mountain that i could not climb in desperation i turned to heaven spoke your name into the night then through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is written jesus christ who could imagine so great a mercy one heart could fathom such boundless of grace step down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame the cross has spoken i am forgiven the king of kings calls me his own a beautiful savior i'm yours forever jesus christ [Music] their salvation in your name jesus [Applause] the christ who set me free hallelujah your day jesus christ and then came the morning that sealed the promise your buried body began to breathe out of the silence the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me you believe that singing again then came the morning that [Music] the roaring [Music] yours is [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah jesus christ [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] jesus christ jesus christ let's continue [Music] storms storms [Music] jesus jesus you make me silence fear jesus jesus you make the darkness jesus [Music] [Music] you make the darkness triple jesus silence fear jesus [Music] jesus jesus jesus silence jesus you make the darkness tremble jesus jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] you make the darkness [Music] jesus you jesus the darkness jesus [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] you make the darkness [Music] jesus you make the darkness [Music] and you silence fear lord we've sung about how you are the way [Music] you silence fear you are living hope and we have reason to praise you because you are our king thank you that you invite us into relationship and intimate peace with you because of the sacrifice of your son lord may we be reminded of that reality this morning and as we go about our days lord that it will change us you change us [Music] thank you for your sovereignty and your invitation lord to give us great purpose regardless of our circumstances and we've continued to say that lord and we continue to look to you because we need you lord we need you your name is a light that the shadow is tonight you will not be overcome thank you lord for the truth of your word and as pastor craig brings your word lord [Music] thank you be present with him may you give him wisdom and insight lord that only you can we love you and we're so so thankful we pray of all this in your son's precious name amen amen you can be seated hey man i want to want to take just a moment to welcome you all here those of you in the courtyard we're so glad that you're here and if you're watching with us online worshiping with us online we want to give a big welcome to you say that we miss those of you who have not been able to come to the courtyard yet and if you're new to arcade watching us online we hope one day you'll make it here we would really love to meet you and one way that everybody can help us do that if you are new to arcade is by letting us know that and you can do that so we can just simply say hello to you help us out by texting the word arcade guest to the number 484848 and also something else for all of us um our our staff loves to pray together and uh we we want to know if there's some way that we can pray for you and if there is you can go to arcade.arcadechurch.com prayer there's a form there you can fill out that goes right into the hands of our staff and we immediately begin to pray with you but another part of our ministry that we're excited about is you see a lot of kids getting up and moving all of a sudden if you're new to arcade and you've got kids we want to invite you to take part in arcade kids that's going on right now you can check your kids in back there at the check-in station and they will help you get your kids to their venue but we're so thankful for arcade kids and one more thing that i want to let you know about this morning before we continue on i do want to remind us of one more housekeeping thing in addition to arcade kids is that the building behind me is still currently closed so if you need to use the restroom or any facilities you can do that right back there by the 500 building sign we've got restrooms open for you to use now a few weeks ago we announced that we that the elders have are ready to present to you a candidate for adults ministry pastor and we said that he would be here today preaching for us and you would get the opportunity to affirm that well unfortunately he had an unfortunate incident with a ladder and crushed his heel and had to have surgery on it so uh he is his surgery was great went well he's healing but uh because of that we've had to push that back by seven days so cole harper and his family are going to be here with us in person lord willing next sunday morning all right and you will get the opportunity to to hear him preach also earlier in the week this thursday we're going to do kind of a virtual town hall where pastor craig and i sit down with cole and we ask him some questions just as a way for you to be able to get to know him you'll be able to view that on our facebook and youtube pages just like if you're watching right now on either one of those platforms you'll be able to watch that town hall since we won't be able to be in person for that but if you've got a question that you would love to hear cole answer as him coming on board as one of our pastors you can do that and you'll see that in the coming days through our social media pages and our web page we're going to have a number you can text that you can text in your question and we'll be sure that cole answers as many as we can get to in that time frame much like our platform when we do ask me anything sunday with pastor craig you'll be able to again text your question and we'll ask it of cole but next sunday we want you to be here because we're asking for you to affirm cole as a pastor at arcade church which means that our members are going to vote by ballot if you're not going to be able to be here we have a way for you to do that you can call into the church office or email info arcadechurch.com to do that as well and a couple of other things that we just we really want you to know about instead of waiting to get information from from one of our team here on platform on sundays or by tuning in with us you can do that by going to arcadechurch.com and on a home page you can find a sign up for our digital bulletin we send all this info to you guys every friday as well as you can click on the arcade news page where you'll get a lot of this info in a more real time than waiting here all right so please do that it's a great way to stay informed and to stay connected to what is going on at arcade church uh in just a moment we're going to get ready to dive into the word together but before i do that i want to say thank you to those of you who are who are giving and who are doing that sacrificially we we do it one because we know that our god has asked his children to do that and to do it in faith knowing that our god will be able to do far beyond what we could ever do with our resources and so we give back to him in faith seeing him do that and that's why as a result we're seeing ministry like arcade kids happen we're seeing ministry like students in our community receiving free tutoring in this weird time we're seeing marriages experience healing through our biblical counseling ministry and so i just want to say thank you to those of you who are giving if you would like to give and you're not sure how you can go to arcadechurch.com give and you will see all the ways that you can take part in giving so before we before we move on this morning i just want to want to take a time and thank god for what he is doing uh through our giving and the ministry that we're seeing go down but also pray as we get ready to move into into looking at the word together so would you pray with me this morning and then we'll continue god you ask us to give faithfully to you and it is just that it is an attitude of faith it's a step of faith but it's also it's also a declaration of dependence uh a releasing of all the things that we could depend upon in this life and a declaration of saying we depend upon you if we want to see things move if we want to see things change if we want to see life change in other people we depend upon you to do it uh and so this morning i just pray that you would bless those who are doing that this morning would you encourage the heart of those who are still unsure of whether or not you you are faithful to what you promise and you do what you say you're going to do encourage our hearts with that this morning we look forward to the many great things that you're going to do but we just pause to say thank you god for the ministry that we're seeing thank you for the healing of marriages that we're seeing happening thank you for those that are coming into your kingdom for the first time thank you for those community members who are who are experiencing help in a hopeless time and we ask for more of it would you show us new opportunity opportunities to show your love show us new opportunities to spread the joy and the peace that you offer through your son christ jesus would you do that work in us we pray in jesus precious name amen amen well i'm so glad that you're all here and that you're joining us online but it's time for us to get ready for the message and so i want to encourage you to pull out your copy of the scriptures this morning and your sermon notes either in print or through the arcade app and let's get our hearts ready to hear from the lord good morning everyone i hope that you are well and before bailey reads to us from god's word i just want to make a couple of comments to you about this um especially for those of you at home and you've never been with us we we welcome you we're so glad that you're with us and then also if you've never been with us in the courtyard and you're new to arcade we want to welcome you as well and let you know what's kind of going on we really do believe that there is power in the reading of god's word and i say that because before bailey reads matthew 3 get your bibles out if you want turn to matthew 3. before she reads to us the reason why we're having scripture read is not just so we can get young people up on the platform so that you can see them it's it's because the word of god needs to be read and what our sister is going to be doing here in a couple of minutes is reading the word of god over the people of god i think sometimes we miss that dynamic we miss the reality that the word of god is audibly being read over the people of god and so our task today and your task in mind even as we read scripture is that we want to read it so that we know what it says and then we want to know what it means and that's kind of the task of every sermon every bible study every every gather group that you're in what does the word say and what does it mean and what bailey is going to do here in a moment is just simply tell us what it says and read to us out of the gospel of matthew and the reason why i mention this is because i think i think everyone here wants to be closer to jesus christ but the obstacle many times is the word of god itself is the bible not because it's the bible but because we're so intimidated by it that we don't really want to know what it says because we're just confused we tend to think that that the bible is this literary rubik's cube that we have to get just right before we can ever truly understand it and that's just not the case at all so the desire is if you want to know christ we need to know his word if we don't know his word we can't know and trust and love christ it'd be like me saying i i want to love my wife i just don't want to know her and we would think that's kind of ridiculous the same thing is true the bible is god's revealed word on how we can be able to draw near to christ and love him and enjoy the love from him so that we can trust him and so what bailey is about to do is huge it's huge because the word of god is being read over us and whether we know it or not it is strengthening us it's giving us strength so that's a lot of pressure bailey okay all right matthew chapter 3 verses 13 through 17 go ahead our scripture reading today is matthew 3 13-17 the baptism of jesus then jesus came from galilee to the jordan to john to be baptized by him john would have prevented him saying i need to be baptized by you and do you come to me but jesus answered him let it be so now for thus it is fading for us to fulfill all righteousness then he consented and when jesus was baptized immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were opened to him and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased this is the word of the lord thank you very much bailey let's pray father we have just read the word of god heard the word of god read over us and we recognize it is the word of god these are not just fine literature this is your word and so we thank you that even in the reading of your word you bring transformation to us we need that father right now it seems that this world is filled with trouble no matter what website we go to no matter who we listen to we see trouble everywhere around us but yet father we also recognize there's trouble at the core of our own soul there are things that we have been wrestling with even before covet ever hit even before a politician made a promise even before any hearings came about or any fires were lit there's simply turmoil and trouble inside of us and so father we simply come to you somewhat empty asking you to fill us with the power of your spirit we thank you that we can come to you and like this song we just got through singing says fear goes away as we draw near to jesus so we humbly ask that you do so right now in your son's holy and precious name jesus and all god's people said amen all right matthew chapter 3 verses 13 through 17 we're going to go ahead and get after a little bit and you've got your notes there on the app if you are with us at home but then also hard copy if you're here in the courtyard and i just want to get after this because this is one of those passages that we can walk away thinking i i'm kind of intimidated by this only because i don't know how to apply this and i'm a little confused we have baptist roots here at arcade church and so is is this kind of where that comes from because after all john was called the what the baptist and so therefore it must be from the word of god right that we're doing these things and so we have a lot of questions when it comes to a very simple act that jesus engaged with so i'm hoping that we can be able to address some of those things and answer and respond to any of your questions the first the very first verse that bailey read to us verse 13 then jesus came from galilee to the jordan to john to be baptized by him now just to re rewind a little bit especially if you weren't with us last week online or in the courtyard we talked about this john the baptist how he's gone into the wilderness and he's preaching a very simple message and the message is repent for the kingdom of heaven is near and we unpacked that last sunday and talked about it that is a very simple message and yet what was happening is that people by the droves were coming from all over the region to be baptized that was an expression of the repentance it wasn't just saying i'm sorry god but rather they needed to do something in their own hearts and so john says well we got this river here how about if you get baptized something that gentiles have to do but now how about you jews because you have found out that you too are unclean they have found out that they too or as far more wicked than they ever dared think and they're far more loved than they ever dared hope and the expression of their repentance of their confession was i need to be baptized so john bapti and people are coming from everywhere we also talked last sunday that between chapter 2 and chapter 3 of matthew is about 28 maybe 29 years and this is the first glimpse that we have in matthew's gospel of adult jesus all right matthew 2 we see baby jesus fleeing to egypt and winding up in nazareth and now all of a sudden in chapter 3 verse 13 this adult jesus has now he's now coming out he's coming out with everybody else he's not coming out by himself he's not hovering six inches off the ground he's walking out with everybody else and this was not just a day trip where he's gonna show up at the river then go be back home in nazareth this took several days to get where john was baptizing so jesus is good so i just want you to picture and i'm going to ask you to do this every once in a while this morning just picture that you've heard about this message from this really strange guy who eats bugs and lives in gamble here and he just shouts and he's calling people and all kinds of people are going to so you decide to go too you make the trip to the jordan river and along the way you meet this guy named yeshua jesus it's a very common name a lot of people were called jesus or yeshua at that time and so you're going and you get to know him he's a great guy he's very interested in you very he cares about your story wants to hear everything and you hear about his story as well he's a carpenter's son from nazareth nazareth but i mean you're delighting all these things and you're just getting to know him and you get to the river and you hear john's sermon and it's very important in verse 13 because there's purpose behind what's going on then jesus came from galilee to the jordan to john to be baptized he wasn't there on a fact-finding trip he went there specifically to get baptized by john that was his mission verse 14. john would have prevented him saying i need to be baptized by you and do you come to me now we learned last week that john and jesus were probably second cousins they were cousins probably second cousins they probably grew up with each other they had gone to the temple every year of their life and they played together played duck duck goose jewish style they'd done all these things growing up together and john knew who jesus was and he knew what kind of a person jesus was and john's putting two together in fact back up to verse 11 of chapter three john is saying i bet he's talking to the multitudes i baptize you with water for repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than i whose sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire so here's john he's in the river and dozens maybe even hundreds of people are coming into the river they're probably not waiting single file they're in the river and john is waiting over here and he's baptizing this person then he's waiting over here this is me waiting by the way and he's baptizing people and then he's waiting over here and he's baptizing people and then he comes to jesus and looks up and says hold on here i i don't i don't think i need to baptize you because this is a baptism for people who are confessing their sins who are repenting of their sins you have nothing to repent of you have nothing to confess i should be baptized by you you i want i want the holy spirit and fire that you're offering you do not need my water baptism of repentance jesus not only are you not bad you are all good not only have you avoided bad sins but you have obeyed perfectly the law of god this this water is not for you this water is for people like me and people like these you're you're in a river full of sinners jesus you shouldn't be here you should be the one baptizing us the thing i love about this and just in a very quick illustration john jesus has spoken of john elsewhere in the gospels that there is no one greater born to women than john this is a great man a great man and yet here he is he knows enough about jesus to know he does not deserve to be baptized he knows this but he doesn't know everything and how about you but i i receive applicational hope from that because in this world in which we live we just don't know stuff it's like this let's just pretend that this book here is your life it's the story of your life the page one is your birth and page whatever it is 500 419 is your death and everything in this book is you it's your story it's my story in this book each one of us has a book like this and every day that we wake up we tear out a page it's okay i got this out of past from mark's office so i'll just i'll tape it back it's looks looks expensive so uh and so this is what we get and so if i read this if i read this page i can i can get i can get some characters maybe uh i can i can i can learn a little bit about the plot line i can flip it over and learn a little bit about that but i don't have a clue as to what this is about and so many times this is how we live out our lives as we every day there's a page in our story and it's exciting or it's boring or it's it's suffering or it's grief or it's happiness or it's sadness we don't know and yet it's a page and i find soulless in in john here because he's saying to us i don't know everything i'm missing something here i don't know jesus why you need to be in this river full of sinners i don't understand and i i find that encouraging in my own life because there are many things that are going on in my life right now not even related to covet or the election or the hearings or the fires but just in my own soul there's stuff going on i just don't know but the beautiful thing is we can trust the author of the book we can trust that we will get to the end of the book and he will be glorified and we will take great joy in that that's a that's a very very quick application of what i i can take away from john so but we still don't know why jesus is there if this is a river full of sinners if it's a river for those who are confessing their sins and repenting why is jesus there and this is where we've got number two jesus allows himself to be baptized if you're following along with the notes verse 15 but jesus answered him let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness and then he consented okay all right jesus it seems like it's a waste of good water because you've got nothing to be cleansed from you're holy and you're pure and you're good and and folks what we can learn from this is when people and every once in a while people will ask you who are not christians boil the christian message down boil this gospel message down to a bumper sticker or to one line what would you say and most of us myself included would probably go to jesus died jesus rose and those things are they true yes or no yes those two things are true is that the gospel yes or no absolutely it's the gospel some of it not all of it because there's one more component that many times we miss out and i miss out too it's jesus lived jesus died jesus lives again you see the life of jesus is just as vital as the death and burial of jesus it is important for us to know that jesus christ is pure and good and holy and sinless we have to know that because just imagine this if jesus had just sinned one time if he had just sinned one time and i'm not saying he did something bad maybe he didn't do something good if he had just sinned one time and everything that he did on the cross was nolan void because there he would be paying for his own sins not yours not mine and this answers the question that maybe you've asked before i've had college students ask me this he says why couldn't why couldn't jesus just come to earth and save us from our sins over a long weekend why why couldn't he do that why couldn't he show up on friday as a man just appear in the flesh he's god he could do that why doesn't he just show up on friday preach the sermon of the mount which would not have taken very long perform a few miracles die on the cross be dead friday night saturday and arise sunday morning show some people he's alive and be gone by monday why didn't he just do that and the response is because he loves you because he wants to show you that he too lived in the same kind of sick filled slime ridden sinful world that you and i live in and he was able to do in a contaminated world what adam and eve could not do in a perfect paradise and so jesus came into this world you know what this says for us especially if you're not a christian or if you're here in the court you're not a believer i want this to drive because a lot of times we tend to think that we live in this slime-ridden sin-filled world and we're just in this and god is on the outside and saying yeah do that and you guys do that oh that's filthy don't do that but the gospel is jesus christ has come into our mess he has come into our filth and now he is wading along with us it's almost as if he's in a river full of sinners and he loves us that much that he has come into our world so imagine for a moment you're you're one of the ones that you've walked from the region and you got to know this yeshua this jesus and you're walking to the river and you hear john's message and you're overwhelmed by your own sin and so you need to confess this and john says bear fruit in keeping with repentance by being baptized so you go into the water and you see jesus goes into your new friend and you go in and you look and and john is baptizing people and you see jesus in the rock in the water what is your assumption your assumption is well he seemed like a nice guy but apparently he's got some sins he's got to confess too because he's right there with me and and and so john baptizes you and and you're just you feel so wonderful because you were able to unveil all of these sins that you've kept dark for so long and then you see jesus and john goes over to jesus and apparently they know each other i've heard that they're cousins oh good that's really great but they have this conversation and then jesus gets baptized too apparently jesus was confessing his sins to john maybe that's what was going on that's what you're thinking but what is so important for us to understand the bible is very consistent about this in fact i've got some verses that i want to read out loud i just want to read these over you they're in a different place on your notes i moved them this morning but just some some verses that i think are so powerful that point to the purity and the cleanliness and the holiness of jesus second corinthians 5 21 for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of god hebrews 4 15 for we do not have a high priest referring to jesus who was unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin hebrews 7 26 for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest holy innocent unstained separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens first peter chapter 2 verse 22 he committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth and then jesus himself he asks his accusers in john 8 46 which one of you convicts me of sin crickets and yet here is jesus the one person who had the right to stand on the shore of the jordan river and say everybody else get in he is the one who walks in in a river full of sinners and he too identifies with them by being baptized i just think that's extremely powerful why did jesus go into the water because that's where the sinners were that's where the outcasts were that's where the unclean word that's where the broken word that's where the weak were the self-righteous ones they were on the shore that's why john calls them a nest of snakes jesus was not going to stand with the self-righteous although he had every right to he wanted to be with the unrighteous in the river that's why a couple of lines that we say every once in a while here at rk church and and they're not original with me i don't know i don't know where i heard them i would be glad to give credit but i didn't make them up but i love to tell people this is that jesus listen to this if you're not a christian jesus lived the life you and i should have lived but couldn't maybe that's why you're online this morning maybe that's why you're in the courtyard is that you have come to the end of yourself and you recognize i am trying trying trying i've tried i've tried 12 steps i've tried 16 steps i'll try 55 steps i've tried everything i've tried books i've tried self-help i've tried therapy i've tried everything and i want to live this good life i just can't that's because jesus christ came to live the life you should have lived and you can't live that kind of life you can't i can't but the other half of that is that jesus christ died the death you and i should have died but didn't it should have been us that paid for our sins and yet it was jesus who could pay for our sins why because he was sin less he was pure he was good he was holy i think about this it's interesting because this is the beginning of jesus public ministry and i find it interesting that jesus began his public ministry and he ended his public ministry surrounded by guilty sinners his public ministry in essence ended at the cross i know it continued afterwards but what was he surrounded by on his right and on his left were guilty sinners he begins how does he begin his public ministry in a river full of guilty sinners everywhere that jesus went he was identifying with us in our weaknesses he was loving us where we were he was guiding us through all of our weaknesses all of our blemishes all of our sins all of our wishes that have never been met all of the things that we've done wrong and all the things all the right things that we've never done he identifies with us completely and absolutely in every aspect of that that's why he got baptized it's not because he needed it it's because we needed him we needed someone to come into the river with us and to live life with us that's the gospel along with his death and resurrection well then we've got when the trinity shows up number three on your outline now again pause and picture this you you're in the river and jesus is in the river and along with dozens maybe even hundreds of people just waiting for john or one of his disciples to baptize them and you get baptized for repentance of sins and you're celebrating that and then you see jesus get baptized and your assumption is he probably is a sinner he's got some things to confess he's got some things to repent of but then all of a sudden when jesus gets baptized stuff happens stuff happens that is inexplicable i mean it didn't happen when you got baptized it happened when he got baptized and what were those things though three or three things happened when jesus got baptized first of all heaven is made accessible verse 16. and when jesus was baptized immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were opened to him this is huge because this is the first time when the heavens have been opened since the heavens were separated when in the garden heaven and earth were combined what that looked like i don't have a clue someday we will know but heaven and earth were combined and god fellowship with humanity and the moment that humanity says we'd rather live life without you god god separate himself from earth and so heaven and earth and so what's happening here is with the baptism of jesus heaven is now accessible heaven opens up it opens up and then power is made available not only heaven accessible power is made available 16 the last part and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and coming to rest on him i just want to make a couple of comments on this one because it seems like matthew there's a there's a there's a an ornery side to matthew kind of a gotcha side and whenev whatever he could matthew would do everything he could to cause our minds to go elsewhere in scripture and the word that he uses there this is for those of you who are bible nerds or who aspire to be bible nerds okay all right this is for you the word there rest in the greek it means hover and it's used another time in scripture does anybody know where that might be if you're looking at your notes you already know it's very for page one of your bible page one of your bible it's in your notes there genesis one verses one and two in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters was resting over the face it's the same exact word that matthew chooses to use and he's saying do you see where i'm going with this do you see where i'm going with this do you see what's happening here remember what was the last time you saw the spirit rest or hover back at creation what was it hovering over darkness and and and blackness and it was no good and nothing was happening as formless and now all of a sudden you see the baptism of jesus the same spirit hovering resting in the same way over jesus what's happening he's hovering over the light of the world he's hovering over the light of the world has come in this dark place he's hovering he's resting over the son of god is that cool apparently not i'll do better i'll try i'll try better next week okay cole cole will bring you out of that all right but then also i think that matthew wants us to see isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 and 2. there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit we've read that part in previous weeks verse 2 and the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the lord and matthew i i just choose to believe that matthew's saying you see you see where we're going with this you see the connection matthew or genesis 1 isaiah 11 you see that i think he wants us to do that here's here's if that doesn't blow you away i hope this does the same spirit that's debbie driving home uh the same spirit the same spirit that hovered in genesis 1 the same spirit that rested upon jesus in matthew 3 is the same spirit that has rested on you and in you same spirit are you a believer in jesus christ have you trusted him as your lord and savior that spirit it would have been cool if it was like a dove but there was a point when you did not believe and maybe that point is right now there was a point when you did not believe and then all of a sudden why is it that all of a sudden i believe the spirit of god was hovering and is now in dwell to you and is now inside of you living out through you that is the power of god for the salvation of all who believe i i just want to pause do you want that if you're not a christian do you do you want that do you want the spirit of christ to hover over you and rest inside of you then by faith believe in the lord jesus christ believe in his life believe in his death believe in his resurrection understand that this means that you follow christ now it is a gift and all you need to bring is your need what did the people need to bring into the jordan river their need of repentance the same thing as you bring to your savior is you bring this need you can do that right now at home in your living room you can do that right now in this courtyard and maybe you came today either at home or in this courtyard you came with resistance no matter what's said no matter what sun no matter what's red no matter what's prayed i will not believe i'm not going to do that and could it be that even right now as we look at the words of jesus you're thinking oh man what's happening to me i have all of these really great reasons to not believe and they seem to be crumbling like a house of cards so what is happening spirit of christ is hovering over you the spirit of christ is speaking to you so he makes power available and then he makes the father's love tangible verse 17 and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased was this for jesus sake did jesus need to hear this did he need the affirmation of the father i'm thinking not jesus knew exactly who he was he knew what he was about he knew what needed to happen this is for our sake this is god's endorsement on jesus and for all of those people with an earshot says this is the one this is the messiah that's been spoken of all the way back at the gate of the garden this is the one that was spoken to the snake in the garden he is going you will bruise him he will crush you this is that one this is my son in whom i'm well pleased this was for our sake this is this is who just got baptized this is the person that was baptized for repentance and confession of sin to identify with those of us who are doing this is god in the flesh identifying with us and then god the father identifying with his son don't i i know that that's going to be hard for us to walk away thinking oh i can really apply this but if this does not happen we walk away scratching our heads that maybe jesus is good enough to have a monday holiday after but is he good enough is he strong enough for me to actually die to myself and live for him but then can i also bring this home just as i mentioned that for every believer in jesus christ heaven and earth has combined there is this heaven and earth that is combined in our souls because the spirit of christ has rested upon us can i just say this for every believer in jesus christ you also have the delight of the father because the father has said over you this is my daughter this is my son in whom i'm well pleased no matter what you've done even if it was a very difficult week sin wise and you didn't feel very close to jesus and you don't right now and god is saying how dare you sing the songs that the team just left how dare you bow your head how dare you that is not from god that is from the snake in the garden what god is saying over you right now believer in jesus christ i delight in you i delight in you i know that might be difficult for people who had a difficult father growing up you're thinking i can't i can't stand thinking of god as my father because my earthly father stunk he was awful he was abusive the fact that you know that your earthly father was abusive and not a good father is proof that you know what a good father is and your heavenly father is that christian are you listening that god no matter how you think your performance has been this god that delights in you is also the god that came into the river for you and he identified with you that's good news to me that puts a spring in my step even if i might be apathetic towards jesus to know that no matter what my performance is the father the heavenly father delights in me not because i've been good not because i've read my bible religiously not because i sang at the best my voice during the worship time but because jesus is good because jesus is holy because jesus is pure the delight of the father is upon me because my sin was upon jesus at the cross well what do we do with this christian i want to talk to you first have you been baptized had you been baptist i was i came to christ at the age of nine i wasn't baptized get this i wasn't baptized until i was a pastor of a baptist church figure that one out i was 22. so there was this gap or i didn't feel the conviction of baptism and i was convicted by that because how many times have we heard people and maybe you've said this yeah i want to get baptized i'm just not ready can i just say this with a shepherd's heart it's not a matter of being ready it's a matter of being obedient jesus christ went into the water of baptism granted it's a different baptism but jesus went into the waters of baptism y to identify with you is it possible that he now wants you to go into the waters of baptism to identify with him all right so it's not a matter of being ready it's a matter of being obedient you see no one expects anyone to stand in the water tank and say look how committed i am look how i sing the songs look how i read my bible look i've managed to defeat all of the sins at least that you can see look how good i am no one expects that the whole point of bad believer baptism is that we identify with christ as he has identified with us that's the whole point so christian have you been baptized if you haven't what a coincidink we're having a baptismal service november 8th is it going to be indoors or outdoors come and find out because we don't know either but by god's grace we're going to have a baptismal service and if you'd like to follow the lord and believer baptism you can even right now if you get your smartphones out is email baptism at arcadechurch.com baptism at arcadechurch.com that's baptism arcadechurch.com okay and someone will call you and talk to you about this incredible step of faith where you are identifying with jesus as he has identified with you and now to the non-christians whether you're at home or in this courtyard you're not a believer yet can i just ask you to do this consider jesus think about him think about what he has done think see him in your picture in your mind's picture of walking into the water a water that he did not need to walk into and yet he chose to identify with you and he did not stop there he lived out his life and then he went to the cross so that he could be able to die and pay for the sins that you are destined to pay for he is offering you that kind of life and if it had just stopped there then we really would have a monday holiday after him but he rose from the grave did you hear the tone of the songs that we just got through singing this morning that he is alive that seems to be pretty significant yes it is because if he's not alive and it doesn't matter how he lived his life it doesn't matter how he died he's dead but he is alive and somehow could it be that the spirit of christ is hovering over you right now validating that affirming that saying whatever that guy is saying about jesus is true and so consider him think about him and my prayer is ultimately that you come to him that you believe in him that you follow him and trust him if you want to talk more about that uh staff uh elders you're all over the place if you just stand quickly uh before everybody else stands just stand up if you would like to talk to one of the pastors or one of the staff or one of the elders they would be more than happy to talk with you talk to the person that brought you if if someone invited you or at home if you're sitting with someone that invited you to a watch party then talk to them about that openly and just see what jesus christ can do for you let's stand together okay lord god uh today is yours you own it it's just a page we we have an idea of what's gone before we have no clue as to what's going to happen next but father we trust you you have been good to us father i do pray for the christians in this courtyard and at home father that it's been forever since they've connected with you because they they just want to avoid you it's it's not been good i pray that your love and your delight will pour over them even now before amen is said that your love and your delight is poured over them but they may love you and draw near to you i pray for those that are not christians lord there's a lot of stuff going on and you have you have brought them online or in this courtyard for such a time as this and this may be where the story of their life the story of their book changes and there is a shift there is a plotline move that all of a sudden moves in a completely different direction lord god we thank you we love you in your son's holy and precious name amen may the god of endurance encouragement grain to live in harmony with one another that together with one voice you may glorify the god and the father of our lord jesus christ therefore welcome one another as christ has welcomed you and we say together for the glory of god hey we love you at home thanks for coming i love you bye [Music] [Music] do 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Channel: Arcade Church

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Length: 91min 45sec (5505 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2020