Dane Ortlund | Gentle Savior, Gentle Shepherd | TGC Podcast

our father in heaven we ask that you would do simply nothing other than what you most love doing by your spirit comforting consoling healing helping delivering your blood-bought children by giving us the experience job talked about at the end of his life when he said i had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye has seen you that's what we want so that's what we pray for now in this brief time together and for this week together in christ's name amen if you have a bible nearby you're going to want to keep that handy and we're going to flip around look at a couple of passages together the verse i want to remind you of as we begin here is john 14 9. jesus said to him have i been with you so long and you still do not know me philip wow jesus said to him have i been with you so long and you still don't know me philip that's a frightening verse three years listening to him watching him heal people raise the dead feed the thousands and jesus looks him in the eye at the end of that three year period and says you don't know me yet not really you're still fundamentally misguided i wonder you guys if we can make the same mistake today i think we can i think i have be a faithful born-again church involved praying bible reading leading christian and jesus comes to us at the end of many years and says have i been with you so long and you still don't know me actually i think that was true of me many perhaps in many ways it still is the nature of blind spots is you don't know what they are but if i go back say 10 years i'm 42. if i go back think about the 32 year old dane a year out of phd books and articles seminary trained i could pass a nicene orthodoxy exam in my sleep but in terms of jesus himself who he really is most deeply my darts were all over the dartboard except on the bull's eye you could pick your metaphor a decaffeinated christ a junior varsity christ a shell of the actual a d glorified jesus christ a jesus on my terms that i was projecting out as a bigger nicer smilier version of me not a jesus for whom my ongoing sins and sufferings draw him in all the deeper i didn't know about that and the whole purpose of this breakout is might there be regions vast tracts of land so to speak to the real bible new testament currently living jesus christ that we haven't discovered seen yet when columbus showed up he called the caribbean islands the indies thinking he had gotten to asia not knowing there was this entire continent between him and where he thought he had arrived might we make the same mistake with regard to the living christ vast tracts of land vast regions to discover and here's the one thing that i want to say to you today i have one point we're gonna look at a few bible passages but let me just tell you right up front here's what i want to commend to you i would ask you to wrestle with and ask do you believe this is this if we don't know jesus christ as gentle and lowly his own claim if we don't know him supremely centrally as gentle and lowly we don't know him at all because he said that's what his heart is if i knew my wife is as she is five foot four esfp wheaton grad math major mother of five grew up in connecticut but i didn't know her heart you could justly say to me i don't know my wife at all i know her only at the bearish surface level the way i know elon musk by reading his wikipedia page just the raw data what i'm not saying to you is that we need to integrate matthew 11 29 gentle and lowly christ into our pre-existing view of jesus i'm saying all else we know about him emanates from that nuclear core gentle lowliness in the same way that your heart and mine is a fountain for everything you and i are doing if your heart was set on playing in the nfl an outsider might see all your workouts your strict diet your protein shakes your daily weigh-in your calls with the agent your time spent on espn.com your workouts on the field you're studying tape but all of that would be cosmetic to what your heart is which is directing it all and jesus said in the one place in all four gospels about 90 chapters of the bible in the one place he tells us what his heart is directing all that he did gentle and lowly if you don't know jesus christ as the most tender non-abrasive non-manipulative person in the universe you don't know him at all gentle if you don't know him as the most accessible approachable person in the universe you don't know him at all lowly you don't have to take a ticket and get in line you're never put on hold you don't have to do what i tell my kids to do when it's dentist day go into the bathroom and scrub your teeth really good to make it look like they're cleaner than they are when you approach him so what i'd like to do is just very briefly oh we don't have time to go into these like we need to but we're going to look very briefly at four passages in the old testament and then i just want to close with a little application what does this mean for us at this kind of event in ministry leadership as we go back to our homes and churches but before we get to those old testament texts let me just remind you of that one glorious controlling passage of the book that i was asked to come and talk to you all about matthew 11 28 through 30. this is the we we will die one day never having exhausted this 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 crestos my yoke is kind is how that word is at times translated in the new testament and my burden is light as i say spurgeon reminds us this is the only place jesus opens up himself and says this is what his heart is and we know from the bible old testament and new your heart isn't just the frothy part of you the just emotional part it's not less than that but it's more it's your motivation headquarters it's why you do what you do it's what gets you out of bed in the morning it's what you're daydreaming about it's what you're thinking about as you drift off to sleep at night your heart and if right off the bat friends you are objecting and saying either in the book or in this talk then you're taking one verse and putting way too much weight on it is one verse you're cherry picking selective my answer would be if we had matthew 11 29 and the rest of the four gospels were a jesus who was like an aloof seminary prof dispensing wisdom dispassionately or a celebrity preacher whisked away to the green room untouchable or a politician that you had to go through layers of security to get to and i built a book on this one verse yes you have a valid objection but what he says in matthew 11 he is on every page of the four gospels reaching out touching embracing weeping defending restoring dignifying forgiving healing making broken people whole giving the shamed back their god-imaging glory so i reject your objection that i'm cherry-picking matthew 11 is simply the the visible didactic wordy tip of this whole iceberg of his heart that we see in every chapter of matthew mark luke and john and another answer to that objection that i'm cherry-picking would be this text matthew 11 is flowing right out of major currents in the old testament so let's briefly crisply just walk through four of them if we may exodus chapter 34 and i'm deliberately you guys going to the old testament to debunk and fight against the stereotype that god is less grouchy in the new testament but rather the old testament is flowing naturally cleanly with a perfect fitness right into matthew 11 29 the old testament is rolling out the red carpet and constructing a perfectly fitted throne and in the new testament the king comes and sits down in a perfectly fitting hymn throne exodus 34 5-8 the lord descended in the cloud exodus 34 5 and stood with him moses there and proclaimed the name of the lord the lord passed before him and proclaimed the lord the lord a god merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation and moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped that text and echoes of the language that is given there occurs about a dozen times throughout the old testament as you keep reading it is the basic self-description of god in the old testament it's his heart and the first thing out of god's mouth him setting the terms is merciful and gracious he says slow to anger not trigger happy abounding in steadfast love it boils up and it can't be contained forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin control shift a delete but who will by no means clear the guilty so he forgives sin but this is not because he's morally mushy this is not a moral spinelessness over evenness and then well maybe is really perplexing as we read this visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the children's children to the third and fourth generation and we wonder is that god taking back everything that he just said about abounding in mercy is this like a divine bait and switch here's who i am just kidding no he is the kind of god apparently whose judgment rolls down four generations and whose mercy rolls down a thousand generations which is how that phrase there in verse seven could be translated where you see keeping steadfast love for thousands in deuteronomy in at least two places we hear of god steadfast love rolling down to the thousandth generation which doesn't mean when he gets generation 1001 you're out of luck it's a way of saying this is who he most deeply is judgment rolls down a couple of generations mercy never stops rolling down that's the kind of god he is he's not the god who goes into relationship with us with a prenup with an off-ramp perfect divine commitment now you might say dane you're just starting with this one passage here in the old testament uh slow to anger sure it says that here but you could point me to many passages where that god doesn't seem to be that way and i would just remind you of this little insight that was pointed out to me where we are told 42 times throughout the old testament in deuteronomy and kings and chronicles mainly and a few other places 42 times that god is provoked to anger and never are we told he was provoked to love his anger is there but it requires provocation we fallen people are the photo negative of that we need to be hebrews 10 provoking one another to love whereas anger is very natural to us it's certainly natural to me god is the photo negative of that what is pent up what is gorged ready to burst forth is mercy as for anger he is slow to anger passage number two isaiah 55 5 6 through 9 isaiah 55 very just briefly quickly seek the lord while he may be found isaiah 55 6 call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return to the lord that he may have compassion on him and to our god for he will abundantly pardon why for my thoughts that hebrew word means devices plans intentions purposes it's not just a passing little mental cerebral thing it's what is in his heart really my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways declares the lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts and friends just notice as we pass through this passage verses 8 and 9 have you not had people in your church maybe you have done it i have quote you verses eight and nine to explain god's mysterious providential working in your life or in the life of your church his ways are not our ways his thoughts are not our thoughts who knows what he's doing but actually in the place where that text occurs the whole point is to tell us that his compassion is on another plane god's ways and thoughts are not ours in that we are so deeply subtly pervasively profoundly intractably score keeping law-ish galatians 3 10 for all who esv rely on the works of the law literally the text says for all who are of works our of-ness level god's heart is on another plane he says in that passage isaiah 55 come to me because i'm not like you my ways are not your ways my ways are ways of compassion passage number three lamentations chapter three lamentations chapter three i'll pick it up at verse 27 but it's verses 32 and 33 that i just want to briefly draw your attention to it is good lamentations 3 27 for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him let him put his mouth in the dust that there may be hope let him give his cheek to the one who strikes and let him be filled with insults four the lord will not cast off forever but though he cause grief he will have compassion according to the abundance that's three for three in having this abounding or abundance language according to the abundance of his steadfast love now get a load of this for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men just very briefly uh you know the the the verse numbers and chapter numbers in our bibles are for the most part unhelpful once in a while they're very helpful and in lamentations if you just look through look there in your text you can see that it's five chapters long this hebrew poem 22 verses 22 verses 66 verses 22 22. a very carefully put together poem and at the very high point of that poem chapter 3 verse 33 the highest peak the midpoint of this book we have he does not afflict from his heart the hebrew poets were intensely careful in how they constructed their writings and i think this is materially significant that that's the middle verse of the book you say dane you're being a little weird did you know in the psalter halfway through 150 psalms halfway through if you count up all the hebrew letters halfway through it's talking about uh a bore you know the vine psalm 80 is where it is the vine that god took out of egypt and planted and a bore from the forest from the yahar has been ravaging the vine and that word yahar is the middle word in the book of psalms and the hebrew scribes from earliest times would raise the little iron that's the middle letter of that three-letter letter word forest to signify you are right now exactly halfway through this altar they were highly highly attuned to how these books of the bible were put together so what's at the high point of lamentations he afflicts you but he doesn't do it from his heart what does he do from his heart previous verse verse 32 he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love passage number four hosea chapter 11. verse 1 when israel was a child it's verses 8 and 9 we're driving at here hosea 11 when israel was a child i loved him and out of egypt i called my son the more they were called the more they went away true verse of my life they kept sacrificing to the bales and burning offerings to idols yet it was i who just get a look at the language here yet it was i who taught ephraim when god wants to speak in very doting maybe that's not quite the right word a deeply affectionate terms of his people he calls them ephraim it was i who taught ephraim to walk what an image i took them up by their arms but they did not know that i healed them i led them with cords of kindness with the bands of love and i became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws the opposite of how we naturally instinctively in our fallen ways think of god he was one who eases the yoke on their jaws and i bent down to them and fed them they shall not return to the land of egypt but assyria shall be their king because they have refused to return to me the sword shall rage against their cities consume the bars of their gates and devour them because of their own councils my people so now it sounds like it's moving a different direction here hang on my people are bent they're just settled hardness they're bent on turning away from me he led them he picked them up he bent down and fed them they didn't know it was him who was healing them they're bent on turning away from me and though they call out to the most high he shall not raise them up at all everything in us expects that to be the end of the story verse 8 how can i give you up o ephraim how can i hand you over o israel how can i make you like odd ma how can i treat you like zeboyem you might say ah ma zeb what in the world do you remember back in genesis 14 when the four kings go out against the five and defeat them the four kings are sodom gomorrah admah zeboyem that's the kind of evil we're talking about how can i make you like admiral how can i treat you like zeb here it is my heart recoils within me my compassion grows warm and tender conclusion i will not execute my burning anger i will not again destroy ephraim for i am god and not a man the holy one in your midst and i will not come in wrath one little observation what does god's holiness what does god's being god and not a man result in him doing not what i would expect i am god and not a man like isaiah 55 my ways are not yours i'm not like you if i were like you the end of verse 7 would be the end of the story but i'm not like you i am god and not a man the holy one the holy one in your midst and i will and i would not expect to see the word not right there would you i will not i'm god not man i'm the holy one therefore i will not come in wrath that's pretty astonishing so i just want to remind you friends of those four old testament passages which are major rivers flowing into this lake matthew 11 28 through 30. so what i'd like to do now is simply turn and pivot to ask the question what does this mean for us who are in ministry who are involved in our churches who cares and what i'd like to say is the way a ministry leader approaches others is how he believes or she believes god approaches them when you see a harsh leader when you see a harsh pastor i'm not talking about what they say but the way they comport themselves what their posture is towards other people which you can smell pretty quickly when you see a harsh pastor you are seeing what he believes god is most deeply like towards him and when you see a gentle pastor you are seeing what he believes god is most deeply like toward him this is all over the new testament the parable of the unforgiving servant in matthew 18 treating others or not treating others the way we've been treated uh the account of the woman who in luke 7 wipes jesus's feet with her hair and the punchline is he who is forgiven little loves little or the constant rhythm throughout ephesians how we are treated as how we treat others the book length defense of that we treat others the way god treats us we turn into actually we become the way we think god is toward us is greg beal we become what we worship it's a biblical theology of idolatry and there's not really any pastoral appropriation for how we act as leaders but that's the biblical theological foundation for this comment i'm making that your comportment towards sinners towards messy fickle failing up and down people in your church and mine is the x-ray that shows everyone around us how we believe god comports himself god approaches us we are not only preaching and teaching what god is with what we say but also how god is with how we say it if you preach christ angrily in a scolding way in an impatient way you can try to hide it but if you are impatient people see it then you unsay with your tone what you have said with your words and the cause would be better off if you didn't say anything at all your person is more powerful than your words i don't remember anything really my seminary profs said i do remember the kind of men they were and i am still drawing strength from that 14 years after graduating ephesians 4 after all that glorious gospel deep lofty theology in ephesians one through three what is paul's immediate punchline conclusion or takeaway or application after this glorious high theology in ephesians one through three it's glorious he says i therefore a prisoner for the lord ephesians 4 1 urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness wow that's the equivalent of gentleness and lowliness this is why george whitefield and john newton wrote multiple letters that we have today telling their fellow calvinistic brothers to calm down and act according to their theology namely gently is there anything more beautiful than a gentle calvinist sinclair ferguson in his book the holy christ you know this book that crossway did uh within the last couple years sinclair ferguson the whole christ towards the end of that book he's talking about pastors and how we are how we carry ourselves before our people and how we preach he says the way you are speaking about christ you don't realize it you're actually giving your people a picture of what jesus is like they might not even think this way but actually they're constructing in their little mental universe what christ is actually like towards them based on how you are towards the people sinclair ferguson uses the word tincture you're giving them a tincture for what jesus is like now you might say uh dane gentleness gentleness is fine maybe some people are wired in that direction but if i have to get on a horse i can either gently whisper in its ear giddy up or i can dig the spurs into the side of it and get that thing moving and i got to tell you i've only been a pastor six months and a week so i'm totally trying to figure this out but my instinct is to stick the spurs into the side of my elders and my church and say come on but maybe actually gentleness is a power far beyond me prodding and poking and exhorting martin luther if anyone was wired in a not gentle way it seems it would be luther 15 28 writing to duke frederick god has promised great mercy to those who seek peace and endure guile when he says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth war does not gain much but loses much and risks everything here's the sentence gentleness however luther says gentleness however loses nothing risks little and gains everything wow i'd like to build that into my life jonathan edwards preached and this was very typical for him to say a lamb-like lamb l-a-m-b a lamb-like dove-like spirit is the distinguishing mark of the christian so friends let me propose something for your consideration maybe the mark of divine power that would accelerate your life and ministry and leadership into the glory that you long for it to have isn't tongues or who invites you to speak or what you write or what degree you get or the number of conversions you see or how much bible you know or your level of passion and zeal but a life soaked in gentleness maybe what is going to take your life from natural to supernatural is a surprising gentleness that arrests the world around you because they do not expect it it is of heaven and if you're doubtful about the power of a gentle and lowly pastor who's been melted and has been in the crock pot marinating out of a sight and being loved by a gentle and lowly savior if you're doubtful let me just ask you what kind of person are you drawn to what kind of pastor do you feel safe with who do you want to confess your sins to what kind of author do you want to read what kind of friends do you want to have do you not find gentleness irresistible i do and i suspect gentleness is the most neglected of those nine fruits of the spirit in galatians 5. and if you're objecting in your mind right now and you're saying dane you know i find take the point but what i really need to grow in is boldness audacity courage cranking up the volume i would answer you by saying you don't have to choose because in galatians in galatians 2 paul publicly it's a national tgc event equivalent publicly upgrades peter confronts him in front of everyone and that's the guy who three chapters later says love joy peace patience kindness gentleness so apparently we don't have to choose and francis schaefer said you can either be bold and direct in the flesh or you can be patient and soft and gentle in the flesh but you can only be both in the spirit i believe that so if we don't know christ as gentle and lowly i believe and i'm commending to you we don't know him at all and as we do know that christ we will be gentle eyes and therefore supernaturalized you

Channel: The Gospel Coalition

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Id: -PDoZu0-VqM

Length: 38min 15sec (2295 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 26 2021