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Open your Bibles to Matthew 11. We're
going to look at the whole chapter of Matthew 11. I want to
highlight one verse in particular. But I'd like to
read; normally I don't read the text all the way through. I'd
like to read it, especially for those, benefitting those who are
maybe not reading out of the King James. And I'll get to that
in a minute, because so many people still ask, “What Bible
should I get? And what Bible should I read?” And I'm just
carrying on what was done here before through the King James
Bible, but I tell you I don't rely on this
as a source. Some people say, “This is the absolute word
of God.” Well, it's the word of God, but it's been translated
into English, so at times we run into these terrible situations
where no one has done justice, unfortunately, taking from a
language, specifically the New Testament Greek, and trying to
bring it into an English language frame, which is not as
precise, can be quite taxing. So, we're going to read through
this. Chapter 11, “It came to pass when Jesus had made and end
of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to
teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John had heard
in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples, And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or
do we look for another?” Now, a sidebar for a minute, because,
you know, we can get so familiar with reading the Bible that we
forget that there are some issues going on here. call to
your remembrance; it just says that he is in prison. He sends
two of his disciples and says; those disciples have a message
from John, “Are you the one that we're waiting for, or should we
look for another?” The same man, by the way, who said, “Behold
the Lamb of God,” the same man who baptized Christ and saw the
dove descending upon Him, the very same one that said,
“Another one is coming after me whose shoes I'm not worthy to
tie.” And he sends word, “Are you the one? or should we look
for another?” You don't think that's strange? You can read
right over something because we're so familiar and not stop
to ask why would he ask that? Why would he ask this type of
question? ow, I like the fact that Jesus could have said,
“Yes,” and said not another word, but He didn't. He didn't
say, “Yes,” or He didn't say, “No.” This is what's fascinating
about Christ. This is why I love this word, because if it was up
to us, we would just put a “Ye”" and a period, and move on.
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again
those things which ye do hear and see.” “You go back and
report to John,” who's in prison, “The blind receive their
sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached unto
them.” “You go report that. I'm not telling you anything, except
you go report what you've seen and what you've heard.” And, oh,
a little footnote, “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in me. They departed.” Now, before I move on through
this chapter, I just want to point this out because it's so
noteworthy. The heralder, the one that the prophets pointed
to; in fact, he's the only prophet, John the Baptist is the
only prophet who was prophesied of. In other words, Malachi 3
tells about John the Baptist coming to herald Jesus' arrival.
So, it's even more perplexing that he would ask this question.
I went through this in my mind. This is not my message; these
are footnotes. Was being in the prison affecting his mind? Was
the environment he was in affecting his faith? I mean,
these are all maybe rhetorical and ridiculous questions, but
you have to ask them. If you're going to explore the word, you
have to ask. But then, careful investigation says, no, the more
important thing is that what John the Baptist had heard did
not match up to his expectancies of what he had heralded. If you
remember, John the Baptist said some pretty magnificent things
concerning Christ. He said some pretty magnificent things, such
as the axe that would fell the trees, the winnowing fork. When
John the Baptist stood and preached, he spoke of judgment.
And the Christ that was being reported to him was a nurturing
Christ, was a healing Christ, was a compassionate Christ.
These things did not match up. I said this is not my message, but
I'm going through the chapter to point a few things out, because
here's a very big lesson, by the way. Sometimes our idea of
Christ, who He should be in our eyes, varies greatly from the
Christ revealed in Scriptures. You ever notice that? Even in
art, even art lent itself through the centuries to morph
Christ into what they desired Christ to be and to look like.
Christ went from, at one point, a very jagged, very rough-faced,
dark skinned to almost a cherubic-looking, pink cheeks,
almost effeminate looking Christ as the centuries moved on. So,
it's important that we get a right view of Christ. Now, I'm
not saying that John the Baptist did not have a right view; his
expectancies that Jesus should mete out judgment immediately.
If you read Malachi 3, you read this is the prophecy foretelling
of Jesus, the one where it says He will be as a refiner's fuel;
as soap, He will be that purging fire. John the Baptist is
saying, “Yeah, I heard about this guy, the one I baptized,
the one where the dove was descending; that guy. 'Behold
the Lamb,' but where's the judgment?” There are people
today, by the way, who I've had discussions with who are not of
the Christian faith; and especially, I have one friend in
particular who's of the Jewish faith. And the ideology is that
essentially because you see there is no peace; their
expectancy is Messiah will usher in peace; that because there is
no peace in the world, Messiah could not have come. And
therefore, here, we have John the Baptist saying, “It's not
meeting what I heralded. We have a problem here.” So, I like the
fact that I'm addressing this because in passing, it's
possible for each and every one of us to have ebbs and flows in
our faith. You know, we can learn concepts, we can come to
church, we can listen; but there's only one man in history
who never wavered from that dimension. That is Christ, never
wavering. But we're humans, just like John the Baptist was human,
and there are ebbs and flows. There are times when we have
doubt, there are times that we may go back a
little bit on what we once believed. That's a
possibility. And John the Baptist, this record here is
pretty staggering, because he saw with his own eyes. Now, this
whole chapter is a heralding of the kingdom. And I'd put a
footnote: and who will come into the kingdom? Who will come in? I
believe what the Scripture says. We are saved by grace. We are
His workmanship. We are not saved by works. So be careful
when you listen to what I'm saying to not read in, well, am
I saying some other method? No. But understand that there are a
lot of people who will be exposed to the teaching, they
will see things, and yet they will never come to take hold
of Christ in their life. They'll never come to that point. Now, I
say that because this chapter has juxtaposed, if you will,
John the Baptist who saw, who baptized, who heralded, who
preached, and at a later time the cities, the cities that
Jesus will condemn who saw all the great works, all the mighty
miracles and yet they did not believe. So, there's a sandwich
right here. Don't think that the Scriptures just independent
collages of words. They all fit together as a beautiful
tapestry, if we'll take the time to see it from a bird's eye
view. Now, after these disciples of John are gone and depart,
“Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John,”
this is interesting. You see, they came to ask Jesus, this is
John's question, “Are you the one or should we wait for
another?” Jesus says, “You see all these things; all these
healings, all these miracles; go back and tell John what you've
seen.” Now, when these disciples leave, these disciples of John,
“Jesus says,” and I love this, He says to the multitudes now,
“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken
in the wind? What, you mass multitude of people, what did
you go out to see? When you heard John was out there
preaching, what did you go out to see?” Put some flesh and
blood on this and think of what reeds look like, usually
standing tall, but when the wind blows, they are swayed. “Did you
come out to hear another doctrine to persuade you in the
new fad of today?” This is the meat underneath this. “Did you
go out to see a reed shaken in the wind? Did you go out to see
some weak guy dressed in some crazy skin suit, preaching some
message of the day, a new fad? Did you go out to see that?”
“But what went ye out for to see? What did you go out to see?
A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft
clothing are in king's houses,” they're in palaces. This man was
out in the wilderness; he was dressed rough, he looked rough,
he was; we'll label him esthetic, because he was not
someone who wore fancy, shiny suits. Today, if you don't have
one of those, you can't be in the “in” crowd of preachers,
by the way. What did you go out to see?
A man dressed in soft clothing? But what did
you go out to see? A prophet?” Now, Jesus is; it's this
engaging in almost rhetorical conversation. You notice no
one can get a word in edgewise. He's doing all the talking here,
“Did you go out to see a prophet? yea, I say unto you,
and more than a prophet.” See, this is the interest to me. In
the world, you meet people and they say, “Hi, it's so nice to
meet you,” and when you turn around, hack! Right?
That's what they do. Jesus does the opposite. He does
the complete opposite of what we'd do. He didn't, He didn't
send some good eulogy, but He's not tearing John down, either.
He's not saying, “You know, they came to ask who I was, and I'm
insulted. I'm absolutely devastated that they'd come to
ask.” No. He gives His response, and actually, He's building John
up. He's giving him a place of prominence in this whole
discourse. It's amazing. It's actually praise of John, “Did
you come out to see a prophet? And far more than a prophet.”
I said, and here it is in verse 10,
referring to what was written in Malachi 3, “For this
is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger
Before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women
there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he.” And Christ is making an important point here.
I've got to go through the whole text to make my point, and then
lift it out. So bear with me, because it's a long way to get
to the text. In Christ's eyes, greatness is nearness to Him. In
Christ's eyes, greatness is understanding His kingship and
His kingdom, which most of these people, in the day that Jesus
spoke could not apprehend. They could not take to themselves.
They refused. He came to His own; His own received Him not.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now,” this is my
text, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent take it by force.” Now, this is an interesting
translation; hmm, really interesting. Okay, the handy
Contemporary Parallel New Testament, because my text is
verse 12, although I'll keep reading in a minute. Your King
James says, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,” and
“take it by force.” And I'm going, oh boy, are you ready for
this folks? Because some of these translations will lead you
to say, “Well, what does it mean then? This is really confusing”"
Even for me, a linguist person, it was somewhat confusing to
look at this. We're reading from the King James. The, let's see,
The New Century Version, “Since the time John the Baptist came
until now the kingdom of heaven has been going forward in
strength and the people have been trying to take it by
force.” We're going to; it's going to morph its meaning,
that's why when I tell you I translate things for a reason.
Now you know why I do it, because if you depended only on
all these English translations, some of you would have pulled
your hair out a long time ago. I took the liberty to write a few
of these that are not in here. Oh, by the way, did I just read
from the New Century Version? I did. Let me just tell you that
version was done, aimed at young readers and those with low
reading skills, those of fifth grade reading skills. So I ask
you the question, if you were of a fifth grade reading skill,
would you still make sense of that? The answer is, “No.” At
least I couldn't and I have some sense here that it's a difficult
verse. Contemporary English Version of that 12th verse,
“From the time of John the Baptist until now violent people
have been trying to take over the kingdom of heaven by force”"
Violent people; people that are violent. Okay. Are you conjuring
up any ideas of what that means, like augh! Augh! Like that?
Violence like that? Violence like that? Yeah? No. New
International Version, “From the days of John the Baptist until
now the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing; the
forceful men lay hold of it.” Oh, boy, wait. I've got some
better ones here. No, I'm not going to read The Message Bible
to you. No, you don't want to hear it. Let's see. So, I'm
going to shed some light on this quickly so we don't camp out too
long on trying to indentify. Two versions that
actually come close to it. One is The Amplified Bible. The
Amplified Bible says, “That the kingdom of heaven has endured
violent assault and violent men seize it by force,” and in the
brackets, which is The Amplified Bible, “As a precious prize, a
share in the heavenly kingdom is sought for with most ardent zeal
and intense exertion.” And then Moffatt's translation, or if
you're like me, you'd say, “Mo'fatt.” “They are pressing
into the realm of heaven; these eager souls are storming it.”
So, it's important to understand this verse, because this verse
actually is the glue that keeps everything together. Forgive me,
because I'm going to do a really quick little bit of language
here, and we'll use my tablet, so all can see what I'm going to
do. I will write out quickly for you just the important parts,
which the King James is translating; oh, I have it right
here. I put it on a Post-it. The King James translating,
“suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force,”
which, in the Greek looks like this. And the reason why I'm
doing this is because this is the language of the New
Testament, not English, as some would suppose. And therefore, in
translation, some things do get lost. I think that was a movie,
wasn't it? Okay. So, here's the
Greek of that verse 12, less all the markings that are needed.
And it's strange, because you can see two words, biazetai kai
biastai harpazousin autan, which is; and it's very difficult. Now
you can understand and have some sympathy, by the way. I don't
chide or condemn the translators, because this is
difficult. This word does not occur often in the Greek. It
does not occur in too many places, so we're limited as to
how to interpret it, but I will give you this, so you can
understand. The first one of these is a verb; the second one
is a noun. One of them is an action word and one of them is a
state of mind. These words are both the same. They come from
the root of bia, which, if you keep going in the Greek, you get
the word, bio, which is cognate to our word for, say, “biology”"
the bia-logos, biologia, so, bio or bios, which is “life; life,
life force,” the driving force and energy within a person. So,
I'd like you to see that the life force, biazetai is a verb,
it's an action word, and it's also in the present, which means
it's continuous. It's not a onetime event. We're not trying
to press in, if you will, to the kingdom in a onetime event, but
it is on; the grammar tells us, it's ongoing. You keep pressing
into the kingdom. And here it is in the middle voice. Some
people; there's a split down the middle amongst scholars. I read
it as middle voice. That means it is reflexive; it means you
are pressing into the kingdom with all your life force and
vitality for yourselves. No one else can do it for you. This is
why I love language, because it really makes it clear. When
people say, “Well, you ought to do this or you ought to do
that,” my source is going to be the scriptures and the oldest,
best manuscripts and the best translation we can get, which is
here. So, I see, if you will, one other place where I get a
picture of this word that is being translated, “suffereth
violence,” you see two words in English, one word in the Greek,
is where it says of waves after the ship was crashed in Paul's
chronicles. And it says, “The waves came violently,” they were
moving in with great force. And that's what I want you as a
pictorial image; I want you to capture that, because it's very
difficult to make a precise definition. But, imagine as
waves, which cannot be; they cannot be hindered, waves that
are pushing in, they are coming into shore. They are going to
hit up against something, and the force that they bring, and
there's more force and more force and more force behind that
first wave. Think of that when you look to this word, so when
you come back to “suffereth violence” and “the violent take
it by force, I want you to think of you and I as pressing in. I
don't want to call us waves, but pressing in or being pressed in,
but we're doing it for ourselves. And it is a continual
act of pressing in. There is no let up. Some people think that
you can come and you can respond to something that's said, and
then I just, I walk away and I don't have to do anything. Now,
listen carefully. There'll be those people that will say,
“Well, are you preaching works now?” And the answer is, “No.”
I'm preaching faith. It is required that every single
person whom God has called; and He called you and He chose you
to respond, to respond to the one who called you. And the
response mechanism is one acting on His word, trusting His word,
taking hold of His word; and therefore, when I say I'm going
to put this in a capsule, each person who is pressing in
continues to press in. Yesterday's faith will not carry
you into the kingdom. Some people think, “Well, I claimed a
promise. You know, 'As thy day, so shall thy strength be.' I
claimed that one, one time last year. 'The Lord is my provider.'
I also claimed that one last year, too. Last year was a good
year for claiming the promises of God.” It's active. Now I have
a hard time communicating with people sometimes on this wise.
That our diet, much like food that we ingest, we need food to
survive; we need this word to thrive as Christians. Many
people are very indolent about the fact that if they cannot be
fed from this word, something close to it will do, and this is
the error I've been preaching and trying to say. This word
rightly divided is a sharp, two-edged sword. It will bring
life to some and death to others. There will; some people
will hear me today and say, “Wow! I never knew that was
there. I'm illuminated by something,” and they'll walk
away saying, “This is fascinating. I need more. I need
to get more into the word,” and there's other people just,
“When's this going to be over? Get me out of here,” because
this is the effect of God's word upon the soul of man. So when I
read this and I rightly interpret it, I see a picture
being painted out of the mouth of Christ. It seems strange, but
it is not. First, imagine that John the Baptist; I'm reaching
back into my text now; John the Baptist had actually said, “He's
the one; behold the Lamb of God.” He is the one who saw the
dove descending. He's the one who baptized Jesus. You would
think that this would be an automatic slam-dunk for him to
be pressing in to the kingdom of God, to be pressing in and
actively pressing in, but he's in prison now and doubts are
sinking in, because Jesus doesn't quite make the cut of
his expectations of what he had expected Jesus to be. This is
not my message either, but I want you to put a footnote
there, because we do that sometimes. When our life is not
meeting up to what we think it should be in God's plan, we
start sometimes going backwards on what we've known to be true,
because it's something so disturbing that maybe our
conceptions of what our ideas, our imaginings of what God; who
He is, are maybe slightly warped. You know, some people
err on the side; you've heard those preachers. All they do is
they come at you with the stick, “The judgment of God and the
wrath of God, and it's going to rain down fire,” and they go at
you and they scare the people. “Oh!” And then there are other
people on the other side of the; oh, I'm giving you two sides of
the coin. Somebody on the other side here will stand here and,
you know, they give you a little wink, “Don't worry about those
sins. Don't worry about sinning. Don't worry about anything,
because God, He's over that one. He's cool about that.” Somewhere
right in the middle is a great picture of Christ, if you'll
take both sides, both sides of the equation. That's why I have
no tolerance for the ones that come and they condemn. These
poor people aren't even in the door of the church and here they
are beating them over the head, “Well, you know you're not
living a good life.” You've heard me tell the story about
the lady. She just got saved. She went to some meeting
somewhere and they had a testimony service, and they
invited her to stand up and give her testimony. And she wasn't
even two minutes into her testimony and all the people in
the church were shushing her, “Shh! Shh! Shhh!” Well, you
asked to hear her story and now you're going to shut her up?
“Well, oh, it's just too indecent. We don't want to hear
about that.” This is the insanity of the church world,
“See, we'll pick the sins we'd like to hear about, and the ones
we don't, just keep them to yourself, please.” So, I'm
telling you this is the method that Christ is declaring to us.
And what's fascinating if you keep reading this, you see
something pretty cool. John, who was witness to these things, and
yet it seems, in prison he's no longer pressing in. He's not; he
hasn't stopped, but he's no longer heralding. We're at a
stop point here with John. Now we address; come back to Jesus'
words, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
And if ye will receive it,” if you will accept John,
essentially: he is Elijah. This is the way it reads in the
Greek, “He is Elijah, which was for to come,” in the Greek,
“before me. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Why?
Because there would be people in that day that would absolutely
refuse to hear John and refuse to hear Jesus. If you think it's
mad enough that John was in the wilderness calling people to
repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and now here,
the kingdom is in flesh and they still won't listen. He says,
“What should I liken this generation to?” I like this,
“What should I compare you to, this generation? It's like,” I
like this, “unto children sitting in the markets, and
calling unto their fellows, And saying, We have piped unto you,
and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have
not lamented.” “We wanted you to do a certain thing and you
didn't do it. We wanted John, by the way, to do something and he
didn't do it. Now, we want you to do something, and you won't
do it.” Remember what Paul said, “If I seek yet to please men, I
should not be the apostle of the Lord Jesus.” I love the fact
that right here, right in this very passage, it becomes clear
to me that men-pleasing or women-pleasing or
people-pleasing is not on the agenda; but rather what pleases
God. The Scripture says, “Without faith it is impossible
to please God.” See, there's a pattern coming out here, which
is as we begin to look at how you enter into the kingdom, how
you press in to the kingdom, how you keep pressing faith becomes
preeminent in Christ's teaching to the people. “For John came
neither eating nor drinking, and you said, He's got a devil. And
Me, I came and I'm sitting down with tax collectors, publicans
and sinners, and you call Me a glutton and winebibber.” You
cannot please anybody. If you don't, if you avoid this, they
rail at you. And if you participate, they rail at you.
You know, you just can't please some people. I wish it was just
very colloquial, I wish Jesus would have just said, “You just
can't please people.” “But wisdom is justified of her
children.” Now watch as I pointed out, John, who saw, who
is now asking the question, “Are you He, or should we wait for
another one,” and compare John to the cities that Jesus will
denounce, Choazin, Bethsaida; all of these where they saw
mighty works. They saw mighty miracles and they could not
believe, they could not follow, they could not faithe in Him.
And then move on to the last. It's the strangest order of a
chapter, but move on to the last where all of the sudden, right
in the middle of this discourse, it says, “At that time Jesus
answered and said,” and He's going to begin to thank God the
Father. Now, if you were reading this, you may say, “Wow! This is
a jumbled bunch of stuff put together,” but it's really not.
When you stand back, you see how clearly Jesus is aiming for one
thing. And this verse 12 will become illuminated by it. Jesus
now saying, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things for the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” You've just
revealed them unto mere children, not those that were
schooled in the law, not those who were scribes, not those who
were Pharisees, not those who had wisdom; just folks, just
plain folk. You've revealed it to them. “Even so, Father: for
it so seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me
of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him.” And here is His invitation, “Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: ye shall find rest for your souls. My
yoke is easy, my burden is light.” Now, I've just given you
the whole chapter, and I want you to see, one,
what is preeminently the focus of Christ.
As we focus on verse 12 and the pressing in to the
kingdom, which is continuous and you must do it for yourself, He
says it's not the wisdom of the world that will get you into the
kingdom; it's not your great intellect; it's not deciding
whether the sermon sounds technically right. But rather,
what Jesus said somewhere else, “Except you become as these,”
little children; except you open your heart to receive, and by
that method you begin to press in just as a child gets its
sustenance at the mother's breast. And never would we see a
child, a young baby refusing, unless there was something wrong
with the child, refusing the sufficiency of the mother's
breast. Jesus is saying, “This is the method by which you are
to be drawn to Me. The sufficiency that I offer
you as you labor to press in, and
paradoxically, at the same time, as you press in, you will
receive rest.” It's a paradox. It's the most interesting
paradox, because as you labor and as you press by faith to
enter in, rest occurs. Now, I've given you all of this. Let me
put all of these into place. Take the woman with the issue of
blood. She saw Jesus, she saw Him. She could have just stood
where she was, very much like John the Baptist, saying,
“Behold the Lamb,” and said, “Jesus Christ, son of David,
heal me.” But it wasn't enough for her. She pressed in like
that wave, like that life force, she pressed in to Christ, going
to touch the hem of His garment. Do you see now the whole text
becomes full when you begin to see it's not sufficient to just
stand and say, “I see,” but rather as you begin to see, you
press in. And as you press in, rest comes. Why? Because as she
pressed in, she was healed; and you begin to see this is the
operation of faith. Now, you can take all the examples you want.
Blind Bartimaeus, we just looked at him recently. He's sitting
there and he's screaming out, “Son of David, have mercy on
me!” It would have been enough perhaps, because he had
knowledge of who Christ was to just simply sit there, and as
Christ passed by, he could have been sitting there blind and
just waiting as Jesus passed by, and thinking in his heart, “I
hear and I know Jesus is coming. He will open my eyes and they
will be opened. It should have been sufficient; why should I
open my mouth?” But rather, he cried out to the Lord. He cried
out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And He healed his eyes.
So, the picture here is very important. The lesson is
crucial. It not only applies to sick people, if you will; sick
as in sickness and diseases that need to be healed. It applies to
the sick in spirit. Zacchaeus. He had this desire
to go up and see as Jesus came by, climb up in
the tree. The Scripture says he was a small man, short in
stature; climbed up the tree to be able to see. There was some
method that he had to see what was going to go on. Jesus looks
up and He says, “Come on down here, and come inside the
house.” We don't know what the conversation was except that
when he came out, there was a pressing in that had occurred
that brought peace that brought rest. Now I hope you see the
illustration, because through the whole Bible; this is just
one chapter; through the whole Bible God has been saying the
same thing. Do you believe me? Well, that was only about ten of
you. Let me give you a picture from the Old Testament then so
you can see how God does not change. In Numbers
33, we have the recap of the children of
Israel as they leave Egypt. This is what is miraculous to me. The
chronicle of every place that they stopped and then it says
this. Earlier on they were told they were going to enter into
the Promise Land; it would be theirs. And in Numbers
33 it says, “Now Moses”; Aaron's gone
up in the hill and 123 years old, he's dead; “Moses, you keep
going, but you tell these children of Israel they're going
to go into the land.” And you know the story. Do you know the
story of that passage? Because it's not handed to them. God
doesn't say to Moses, “Now, you just tell them when they enter
in, it's turnkey, it's valet; all they have to do it enter in
and there you go.” He says, “You're going to get into the
land that I promised you, but you're going to fight the
Amalekites, you're going to fight every single enemy of God;
the Philistines, the Canaanites. You're going to fight them all
to claim that land and make it yours.” There is your connection
from the New Testament to the Old. Through and through, God's
been saying the same thing, “I give you my promise. I'm asking
you,” God speaking, “to seize it with force.” I'm back to my
text. Too much of Christianity peddles some idea that if we'll
just think it in our minds. What we've said here many times; what
is faith? Faith is what? Action, based upon belief sustained by
confidence. At some point the pressing and the pressing and
the continuous; and I'm calling it pressing, but it's, it is a
seizing life force appropriation of God's word that says, “I will
not stop until I reach what has been promised to me.” Now, there
are many people who would like to tell you that if you just sit
back a little while and get comfortable, God will go to
work. God's got a lot of children to take care of, and I
think there are times when we think, “Well, I'll just sit
there quietly and He knows just what I need, so I don't even
have to bring it to Him in prayer. Right, God?” That's not
what His word says. Now, I'm telling you from this text today
something that became very clear to me as I read this. If one as
great as John the Baptist who heralded the forerunner, could
be swayed in his concept of Christ, who could be perhaps,
oh, maybe let down a little bit that Christ wasn't who he
expected Him to be. How much more do we have the capacity to
do that? And how much more do we need the instruction that daily;
that daily force of pressing in that you must do for you? Don't
expect me to try and push you into the kingdom. I tried that
for a little while; it doesn't work. I tried to push people
into the kingdom; it does not work. I'll like to be more
spiritual about it. I'd like to say I really prayed; I have; I
really prayed for some people, prayed night and day; prayed
around the clock, fasted, did everything I could possibly do.
And then finally I just said, “Okay, God, this person's your
problem. We love them, but that's your child. I'm just
supposedly watching and trying to help out here.” And at some
point you learn you cannot do God's work. God's got to do this
work. For each individual who has been called, the activity of
faith must occur. Now, you might say to me, “Well this is; this
is kind of simple,” but it's a difficult message to keep people
constantly going back to. Once more I take you back to the
preaching of John the Baptist. What did he say when he preached
to the people? Did he say, “Oh, you precious and sweet people,
and how good you are?” Did he say that? He called them a
generation of vipers. He insulted the people. He didn't
say, “Oh religious universe and&.” I mean, he came at them
with some nasty stuff actually. And we have a; we have our
Anglicized version which I don't really think conveys the truest
sense of what may have been articulated, but “generation of
vipers,” and he was looking at them, too. It wasn't internet
where he posted and he ran away. You got to think about these
things. And I think how, how amazing that people heard that
preaching and how many stayed after John the Baptist' death;
his head gets cut off; how many stayed faithful to John? And he
was preaching for the forerunner Christ. Now, I'm telling you the
instruction is because we have this word. How comforting it is
to me to know we are not without instruction. That it's almost
like a daily diet. And people say, “Well what, what should I
begin to do, or how should I do it?” I've said, you work that
out with God, but there are a few things that give me
certainty to instruct you, and that is to keep pressing in, to
keep seizing, to keep grabbing. That means being in the word of
God, studying the word of God, being in a place; you know, some
people get so caught up with, they go on these sidebars.
They're going to study something that has no relevance to build
up your faith. And in fact, I like the fact that the last
year, I look at the last year of this ministry has been more
practical application, taking things and making practical
application to our daily lives, because at some point a sermon
is just a sermon is just a sermon and words are just words.
At some point you have to take these and actually put them into
action. “Well, okay, how do I start pressing in?” You know,
it's a good question. When does the pastor ask you as a
congregation the rhetorical question, “Well, how do I press
in, then?” Follow closely to those who are following Him. If
you begin there, you're at least surrounded by people who are of
a like mind pressing in, in the same direction. You still must
do it for yourself. The second most important thing is don't
think because you've been reading the word of God, and
because you've been studying your whole life that somehow
your pressing mechanism is on autopilot. It isn't. We all have
this. We wake up and I have to force myself; I'm telling you as
an honest person, I have to force myself in the morning,
because I'd just as soon swing my legs over the bed, walk in
somewhere half awake, press the coffee button on. And the coffee
starts going, and then I'm not even awake yet. I'd just as
soon, you know, walk around for five or ten minutes rather than
letting my first thought before the legs even hit the floor of
beginning to press in for that day. Now you might say, “Well, I
know the lesson.” And the illustration again, once more
out of Bunyan's work; and this I read and I smiled and I thought;
Bunyan had it right. I don't care what anybody says, if
you're anti-Puritan, I don't care. He had it right in his
Pilgrim's Progress, he writes of when Christian Pilgrim gets to
the door. It is obviously the door to heaven, but he gets to
the door. A man walks up and he says to the man at the desk
who's got a pen and ink, and he says, “Put my name there. Sign
me up.” And he began to put on his helmet. Some of you who've
read that and know what I'm talking about. But he began to
put his helmet on, took his sword and began to fight the
armed men that guarded the door until he pierced through and
entered in, understanding that the process of getting into
the door is a battle. I preached a message very similar to that
out of 1 Timothy: fight the good
fight of faith, agonize the good agony. It is a push, because
why? The temptations come at you. Do you know how easy it is
for people to not recognize what temptation really is? Temptation
really isn't; you know people say, “Oh, it's the bar. It's the
drink. It's the women. It's the men.” No! Those are the obvious
ones. Don't go; the temptation is “Instead of focusing on
Christ today, I'm going to do something else. I prefer to&,”
and you fill in the blanks. That's the danger. That's the
silent danger. Not the obvious ones. The obvious ones are so
obvious that Satan doesn't need to work at that. It's the ones
that are not so obvious, the ones that can lure you away. For
some people it's their obsession for entertainment, or whatever
it is; you put it; you fill in the blanks. Until the space that
should be given to Christ, that should be given to God daily is
filled up with something else. And by the time the end of the
day comes you may say, “Wow, I really wanted to spend time
studying or reading the Bible, but I'm just too tired. I'm
going to go to bed.” So when I speak of pressing in, it really
means it is an agonizing pressing; there is no let up.
There is no let up back there for Mary. There is no let up.
You're not going to give up. You're not going to let up.
There's no let up. You've got to cross the finish line. And you
have been agonizing the good agony. You've been fighting. How
many years now you've been wrestling this fight?
Four or five years. Now, there's one; I can point at the few here
that I know that have had these constant fights. It's your
health breaks and then it's real easy to do what John did in
prison which is to start asking the questions that presume here
comes the doubt. Rather, get your helmet of salvation back
on; get all your full armor of God and you begin to press
afresh. That is your life force being pressed in by prayer, by
Scripture, by listening. And faith will come if you stay
connected. This is why I always refer to it, Romans
12, the renewing of your mind daily with
the word of God. Now, if it was important enough for Christ to
make mention of this, it's important enough for us today to
take note. There is no stopping point down here. There is no
resting point. Even athletes; you know, look at the Olympics.
Did they get there with ease? Did they get there because they
winked at the fact that you have to put in a lot of time to get
good at what you do? Or did they keep pressing in? And that's
just flesh. You keep pressing and you keep pressing and you
keep pressing. And that faith, we've said many times, I've
quoted it so many times; faith does come by hearing the word of
God. And at some point it is the supreme inspiration of the soul
that rises up to say, “Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I'm going to
start pressing again.” This is not works, this is not
will-worship, this is not the volition movement that says, “I
think I can,” like the train, “I think I can, I think I can, I
think I can,” but rather God said it. I'm taking that word.
I'm taking this promise. So, I'm; I don't know what your
needs are. If you're like the women with the issue of blood,
press in once more for healing. Press in once more for healing.
You know what that's like. Press in once more for healing.
Whatever it is, you begin to press afresh; you begin to act
in faith. And I cannot tell you the most disturbing thing is
that periodically I will see people say, “I've been waiting
so long for this promise. You have no...; you have no idea
of how long I've been waiting, and therefore I just can't do it
anymore. I can't wait. God's not going to do this for me.” And I
think to myself where is the pressing? Where is the warrior
on the battlefield? Are you a quitter? You know, it's easy
to quit, by the way. You know how easy it is to quit? Anybody
have any idea of how easy it is to quit? Oh, I have one, two; I
have a couple of hands back there. It's real easy. It's real
easy to say, “This is just too tough. I can't do this anymore”"
And the very act of opening your mouth and saying that
contradicts what Jesus tells us to do. Now, today, I'm
asking you today; this isn't a call for anyone to come forward,
this isn't a call for anyone to stand up and say a prayer; I'm
asking you today if you haven't been pressing close, today's a
good day to start. If you haven't been pressing in and
saying, “This is an activity I must do for me
and I must do it daily,” believe me, the minute
you start pressing, your marriage will come together if
it has drifted. Your life; the pieces may not look golden right
now, but as you begin to press a little bit more; I've always
said this, everything begins to come unraveled when God is no
longer the center of your life. The minute you begin to press
and press in; and for some of you who are not well versed in
the word, stick around a while. This is a teaching ministry. I
don't have entertainment. I don't have gifts. I don't have
anything else to give you except the word of God rightly divided;
instruction in a practical way that you may take it, apply it,
understand it and then come back to it again and say, “This is
where I have put my anchor on this particular word of God;
this promise.” Today, maybe it's strength. We might anchor
ourselves right there and say, “Lord, we need strength.” God
promises to be our Strength, certainly our Deliverer, our
Healer; I could go down the list, but I'm telling you
whatever it is you keep pressing, and you press on. Now,
our last picture I would say to you is this, because there's
nobody in the New Testament, I believe, that embodies the
pressing into the kingdom more than the apostle Paul. You can
talk about all the other folks in the New Testament, but when
you come to Paul, I think here's a man who if there was anybody
who should have quit it should have been him. Think about
everything he went through. We know, we're familiar with it,
but don't make this a cardboard cutout on a Sunday morning where
you say, “Yes, I know, but&.” Put flesh and blood on the man
ostracized by his community, of course now, because he's a
trader amongst these, his brethren. Proclaiming Christ has
gotten him arrested, has gotten him thrown in prison, has gotten
him beaten, has gotten him; everything you could possibly
imagine. And now he's ship wrecked. Now he's in some prison
somewhere waiting for someone to bring him scrolls. It's cold;
winter's coming; alone. If anybody had license to give up
and quit pressing in it should have been Paul, so, I close this
message by looking at him as one who not only pressed in through
the course of his ministry, but his last instructions, his last
words essentially, “I have fought the good fight of faith.
I have finished my course. The time of my departure is at hand.
And as I go,” I'm adding in my words, “I have pressed in. I
have fought the good fight. I have pressed in with much
pressing. I have not let go of the plow. I've not looked back.
I've pressed daily and I'm now ready to receive my crown.” I'm
asking you as a congregation as individuals as life presses in
on you that you turn that pressing factor around and you
begin to press in to the kingdom of heaven. We are told in
Matthew 6 to seek first the
kingdom of heaven. We're told to pray His kingdom come, His will
be done. Well, I'm telling you right now the factor of pressing
in daily and the knowledge that behind that promise is a victory
obtained, not yet done, but by faith obtained. Those who may
come back to the text and say, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence and the violent take it by force,” you might put your
name there or put some note of the fact that it is your life
force, your life existence daily that presses into that kingdom;
taking it, seizing it, and making it yours. For you are
children of a heavenly Father. That's my message. You have been watching me,
Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith
Center. If you would like to attend the service with us,
Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive
your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to
go straight to our website, the address is
www.PastorMelissaScott.com
