Sermons - Matt Chandler - Equal With God

hi pastor Matt here thank you so much for either streaming or downloading this sermon I pray that every week you're challenged by the Word of God you're built up in his love the Word of God kind of gets in you and rearranges things and draws your affections of to the person and work of Jesus Christ I want to remind you as always that although men I'm I'm so glad that that you want to hear what what I've got to say this week or we've got to say this week that this is never meant to substitute God's good plan for you to be in a community of faith where the Word of God has preached and proclaimed and so I want to encourage you to use this like a vitamin not like a meal so that you belong to a community of faith where you're being shaped by being known by using your gifts by receiving the word but partaking in the sacraments and by walking faithfully in accordance with the scriptures and then this is something men you're listening to while you run or you're watching when you have a few minutes and so just want to make sure we we frame what this is and what it should not be now but with that said one of the things that the village church wants to do is the things that are created here by the grace of God man we want to give those away that's podcasts and podcast that's family discipleship curriculum that's Bible study curriculum like what we've tried to do for over a decade is just whatever we create here we want to give away and so to do that though we rely on the donations and generosity of those who believe in what we're doing and who have benefited from the things that have been created here and so here before you dive into what I'm sure is gonna be a 4550 minute sermon I just wanted to encourage you if you have grown if you have benefited from our resources would you consider being a part of the team that helps this engine continue to produce and create biblical creative and practical discipleship curriculum for men and women of all ages and all stations and so man if you'd pray about that and consider that that would that would be amazing thank you so much enjoy the Word of God proclaimed [Music] [Music] well good morning it's good to see you if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those we are back in the Gospel of John and so if you were with us through the fall we tackled the first four chapters most of the four first four chapters in our fall and now we're going to be back into our study of the book of John and so if you have your Bibles we're gonna start in John 4 verse 46 but while you turn there let me just catch you up real quick I've had like many I've been sick this past week like I've had an up arrest so if i black out at some point up here Michael will you just the notes are right here brother just come give it a whirl while you're turning there to chapter 4 starting in verse 46 I just want to recapture for a second what's going on in the Gospel of John now we don't have to kind of wonder what John is up to because he clearly tells us the purpose in writing the book and he tells us that purpose in verses 30 and 31 of John chapter 20 this is what that text says now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name so the book of John is wrought by the Holy Spirit given to the church for these three reasons that you and I might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Promised One the Messiah that all that the Old Testament has prophesied about in the fulfillment of God's big plan of redemption and reconciliation with his creation is gonna happen in the person and work of Jesus he's writing to convince us of that that he is not just the Christ but that he is the son of God now this is a sticking point with a lot of people as we'll see as we work our way through today's text that Jesus is the Son of God the Son of God Co with the father has always been will always be unlike any other that has ever been that Jesus although in flesh fully human is also fully God he is not just some moral philosopher he's not just some teacher because if that's what he was maybe we could listen to what he said or maybe we didn't have to listen to his there's a lot of teachers out there but he's God and and that that is what John is after commences that he is the Christ that he is the son of God and lastly so that we may have life in his name now that little word in there we did a lot of work around that the idea of being in Christ is a massive the the concept of union with Christ is a massive massive theological doctrinal study in the New Testament I would encourage you to study on union with Christ and what that means to be in Christ it is to be in the righteousness of Christ in the life of Christ in the power of Christ in the like us being in Christ is where life is found not off on our own with Jesus is kind of an add-on but to be in Christ is significant so one of the ways that we talked about that early on and maybe you'll remember this is that you were made by Jesus for Jesus which is why ultimately life in Christ is the only place we actually fully experience what God designed life to be you have not been made by your spouse for your spouse by your kids for your kids by your work for your work right these things cannot fulfill you because they did not make you Christ has made you and therefore life is found in Christ you've been made by Jesus for Jesus and so that that's just chapter one and then from there we begin to watch Jesus become the better than Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world no longer will we need to make sacrifices because Christ will be our sacrifice once and for all we saw that Jesus is bringing the new wine of the kingdom of God over old Jewish purification laws we then saw that Jesus is God with us not in a physical temple but in dwelling hours via the Holy Spirit making us the temple of God we don't have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem we are the temple this is huge and other than compared to any other religious system where does God dwell in his people it's Christians alone that believe this we are the Temple of the Living God we then saw that there's new life offered to us not born of flesh and blood not born of our own effort not born of our family lineage but given freely by Jesus through the Holy Spirit right so that that our newness of life isn't tied to the fact that our parents were Christians our newness of life isn't tied to the fact that man we're trying really hard to be good know that that's not how you're born again you're born again by the free gift of God's grace through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit unto salvation right and then lastly we saw that the offer was living water bursting forth unto eternal life and and and that the way Jesus goes about that is almost always through our wound through our shame through our brokenness through that place that we want to hide right through that place we want to hide and so this is what the Gospel of John is all about this is kind of at a cursory level all that we covered in September October November and so you can go back listen to those if you need to but but here's here's the invitation that's happening in the book of John this is a Friedrich Brunner quote here's the invitation that's for you today come into union with the word who made you and you will come to life you came from him please come back to him you were made for him the result of this reunion will be more than human existence it will be human life so that's the invitation for you today that's the invitation for me today now I have said yes to this invitation and I woke up early this morning said yes to it again this is what you're invited into not necessarily moral betterment not Bessus that like this is what you're called to union with cry reconciliation with your Creator not just human existence life if the word over your life right now and maybe be the word bland empty in vain this is the invitation come past human experience unto life I don't know if anybody saw the suicide letter that was posted in the New York Post this past week from the dietitian in Manhattan young beautiful woman everything going for and she wrote a letter just of the emptiness of life and the things that she would miss like a wine and cheese board or a man that she would miss those things but she's found him ultimately all to be vain human existence versus life well you're being invited into is life blandness removed life infused not ease not comfort life and so we get another front-row seat today the front-row seat we have to all of this happening in the Gospel of John is gonna revolve around the authority of Jesus and we're gonna see the authority of Jesus over human categories we're gonna see the authority of Jesus over let's call it human fragility and then we're just gonna look at how Authority lands on us and how it can be a real struggle for us and so with that said we're gonna start in John chapter 4 verse 46 so here's what it says so he came again into Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine and at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill and when this man heard that Jesus had come from Judah Judea to Galilee he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death so jesus said to him unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe so he rebukes this man kind of and then look what happens and the official said to him sir come down before my child dies and Jesus said to him go your son will live and the man believed the word that Jesus had spoke to him and went on his way and as he was going down his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering so he asked them the hour when he began to get better and they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him the father knew that this was the hour that Jesus had said to him your son will live and he himself believed in all his household this was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda which has five Ruth colonnades and in these lay a multitude of invalids blind lame and paralyzed one man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time he said to him do you want to be healed and the sick man answered sir I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and while I'm going down or going another steps down before me and jesus said to him get up take your bed and walk and at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked now that day was the Sabbath so the Jews said to the man who had been healed it is Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed you want to talk about adventures and missing the point I'd be careful about giggling that's gonna be us in a moment they asked him oh well but he answered them the man who healed me that man said to me take up your bed and walk so they asked him who is the man who said to you take up your bed and walk now the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place afterwards Jesus found him literally Jesus sought him out in the temple and said to him see you are well sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you and the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him and this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing things on the Sabbath but jesus answered them my father is working until now and I am working this is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making himself equal to God and so again I said there are two things in particular that are happening here around the authority of Jesus one you're seeing the authority of Jesus over human categories let me kind of explain that if we followed the flow the narrative arc in the Gospel of John Jesus is engaging across the social spectrum and so if you remember back to the fall the the first kind of interaction we see is with Jesus and Nicodemus who is this ruling religious elite and Jesus calls him unto this life calls him to to surrender to his authority as the Son of God as the Christ and then from Nicodemus who is this high religious official we see the invitation to the low Samaritan woman in cast out cast to come into this life and then now early on in this story you you see another high secular official come and Jesus invites him into this life and now you've got an invalid of thirty-eight years being called into this life he is deconstructing the human category that all of us whether were aware of it or not make decisions around which is ultimately who actually matters and look at me I know nobody in this room thinks they actually do that look I don't think I'd do that I mean I teach on the imago day I think everybody matters equally but if you watched my life you'd probably see something a little different like what strikes me as fascinating is that when Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the festival he doesn't start at the temple he doesn't start at these places in Jerusalem I mean you just got a/c he went to the colonnades where all the invalids were were the blind and the lame I can't even if you've traveled the world there are places in cities that smell so bad that they'll burn your eyes and nose and you won't be able to forget the smell and that's where Jesus went years ago when I was doing college ministry we took a spring break trip every year and I took these kids to the Dream Center in Los Angeles right and the Dream Center is tied to the Assembly of God and they bought the old queen of Mary's Hospital in LA and and each floor they have a ministry that does outreach to the least of these and so they take a group down to skid row they go out at night and they minister to the prostitutes male and female product they bring them white roses and invite them into and you don't at any point when you're at the dream Center go down to Hollywood Boulevard you go to skid row you don't see the sights you go where the most broken where the least of these were the most broken were the most hopelessness is to carry the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and when Jesus shows up at Jerusalem he doesn't go to the temple he goes to skid row he starts there he's he's deconstructing the human category of who ultimately matters now we're all guilty of this if you've got a background in church then we get really geeked up when like somebody famous as a Christian like I remember after my conversion like any time there was somebody even just maybe said something spiritual in a song I would tell my mom oh my gosh they're they're Christians mom guy can have that CD there they're believers look going up to the spirit in the sky they obviously love Jesus Christ I mean this is these are there's a Christian band and listen huh I watch my own kids do that now right like we've got parameters that are meant to guard their minds and hearts it's not uncommon going oh look I think I think they might love to you I mean I don't know I know there's a couple f-bombs in this record but I think they might actually love Jesus right we we so want some famous beautiful person to validate us but but Jesus Jesus shows up at the colonnades he's deconstructing this question of who matters in fact I think one of the things you're seeing about the authority of Jesus over human categories is that he sends T tends to transcends okay so he'll socioeconomics gifts and abilities ethnicity background current reality Jesus is bigger than all of that ah geez just bigger than all of that so I tried to highlight this over and over and over again for 16 years the people God uses most profoundly in the Bible are not people anyone here is gonna hire to work with them I mean you just pick whoever you want to pick out of the Bible you got I mean there let maybe for people that would pass muster with Christ being one of those I mean it's broken human rejects with significant issues whether that issue be anger whether I should be lust whether that issue be greed whether that issue whatever it is they're humans and they're on the fringes and Jesus brings them into the kingdom gives them life and uses them profoundly and I just wonder how many of you are still spectators in this great call because you think you're not good enough yet I want to love you well enough to say you won't be ever because it's his goodness that we lean into not our own it's his power not ours Jesus is Authority it transcends our categories he shatters them he he goes and picks in the invalid of 38 years invalid you know those two words invalid doesn't matter can't contribute and yet this is where Jesus chooses to go it's not just his authority over human categories it's also and then I the Lord was sweet to me this week to let me be in this text in this season of my own life for a variety of reasons some of which you know some of which you don't know is that we see the authority of Jesus over human fragility so first of all let's just talk about the two healings that the two healings are spectacular in and of themselves so so this dad he comes from Capernaum to Canaan that's 20 miles by foot and he comes to ask Jesus to heal a son it's obvious now that his sons not going to make it so in a great deal of desperation this man with money and title and power feels a universal human experience which is powerlessness and in desperation he walks 20 miles 40 miles round-trip in the hope that Jesus this man that he has heard about might heal his son and so he approaches Jesus and Jesus rebukes him will you heal my son and Jesus says ah you you guys you just always need a sign you won't just believe you always want magic and and the father and desperation is undeterred II yes again sir heal my son and jesus heals his son from 20 miles away go your son as well right and there's this fascinating story here but the thing that I want to kind of highlight on this and then also like I say this all the time I just want to keep saying it the more significant things that Jesus accomplishes in your life are gonna take place over a long period of time right in a way that you don't even recognize this happening we grow spiritually oftentimes like we grow physically right so if you've had children or you've been around children you know you can stare at them all you want you never watch them like pop up an inch they just come downstairs one day like good lower you I mean how much you weigh now bro like my son right now he's like a freak like I don't know when that happened but he went from like baby boy to like little shadow on his lip I mean like overnight and it wasn't overnight it's just that but that's how we grow spiritually and and although we're gonna see powerful instantaneous healing I don't want you to miss the fact that this brother's been an invalid for 38 years that's a long time to wait on the Lord in it like man I've had to wait a couple years and got antsy 38 years praying wanting to be healed being unable to move towards your healing being stuck before breakthrough happens we need that category we need the expectation of breakthrough and the patience to wait on the Lord you with me okay the thing I want to highlight in in this authority over human fragility is the fact that powerlessness is a universal human experience if you live long enough you will eventually feel powerless and this brother 38 years an invalid is powerless to get to the water and this official son a secular official son with all his wealth with all his authority and with all his power cannot heal his son now now here's here's part of the invitation around Jesus's Authority you and I are limited in our authority all right I have some authority I have a staff I have people that answer to me I have right I have some authority I'm an elder at this church I'm the lead pastor of that I have some authority but my authority is fragile and my authority is limited and what can happen to me I'm not projecting on you I'm just talking about me I think you're probably further along than I am when I feel powerless a couple of things happen I double down on control and I get angry anybody else anybody else so if I feel powerless like I kind of shift up I power up my gifts my intuitive gift that God wove into me for his glory and and my gladness and I will try to control a situation almost always making it worse I will feel fear because of my powerlessness and fear makes me angry and then instead of resting in the one with all the power instead of resting in the one that's able instead of resting in the Son of God Christ the sovereign king of everything I will put the weight on me and an anger and exhaustion try to fight my way forward to my own shame and to the hurt of everybody around me and one of the things you're seeing Jesus do right here is go no huh I've got power over human fragility you don't at your strongest your weak you at your best is not enough it's funny that Jesus and you're gonna see him start to hold hands as we work through the the Gospel of John here II he he's like you when your most desperate your most powerless your most needy that's you at your most powerful how upside down is that right you when you've got no more cards to play that's when you're gonna see my hand we just have a real talk real quick I'd I'd rather see his hand when I got a lot of energy and things are awesome am I like that's like if I could rewrite this which nobody wants but like there's so many texts in the Bible that are trying to teach us and disciple us in the opposite direction that we're trying to be discipled by the day in which we live namely that meekness and weakness and desperation and brokenness is a launching pad for power Jesus is power now part of that means I need to continually be aware of my own tendency to want to control situations when I feel powerless as a husband as a daddy as a pastor as a leader as a I want to control I am a gifted man in several areas I'm I'm getting just horrific weaknesses you want me add and stuff you want me anywhere in your numbers but I've got some intuitive gifts they translate well across the domains that God's called me into so it's easy for me to rely on those and when I feel powerless to power up to try to overcompensate for my weakness and the authority of Jesus beckons me to rest in his authority and not try to flex my own because if I can do that then I'm trusting one who is not powerless and never will be powerless and so that's one of the things we're seeing here Jesus's authority over physical fragility but it's not just physical fragility in fact I want to argue that there's a double healing that happens in both of these stories let me show you this look back at verse 53 you've got this physical healing of the Sun 20 miles away and then this is what you read in verse 53 the father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him your son will live and he believed and all his household and so you got this double healing you got the physical healing that then leads to the deep spiritual healing there was not belief and now there is belief there there is desperation that now gives way to faith in the one who actually holds the power this man is not just saved physically his whole household is healed spiritually and then there's this really strange I wish I had more time to teach on this but this is Jesus's authority or spiritual fragility look now in chapter 5 verses 14 through 16 Jesus is healed the envelope the amulet doesn't know who healed him and and Jesus then in turn seeks him out because the healing is not complete afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him see you are well sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you so the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him now I wish I could get into fifteen and how dumb that makes this man knowing that the Pharisees were seeking to persecute Jesus but neither here nor there there there's something Jesus is doing here I just want to touch on warn you against and then I want us to move on into Jesus is making something that you and I should not be too bold to make he is making a connection between sin and sickness did you see that like he's making a connection between sin and sickness we're gonna find out in John 9 that Jesus clearly says that there is sickness that is not due to sin right that you haven't personally sinned and that's why you're sick so if you you're bent that way if you're bent that way hear me John 9 reading alright is this man blind because of his sin or his parents neither but so that God might be glorified alright but in this individual case something in this man's life that was sinful was connected to him being an invalid for thirty-eight years and so jesus heals him and then warns him not to sin so that something worse might not happen to him and we see echoes of this in the Bible let me show you psalm 32 3 through 5 this is for when I kept silent about my sin my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as the heat of summer Sayla which means think about that and then he goes on and says I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin and healed me Sayla again now if we just stopped at this point this is a Jesus almost everybody would get on board for right like like if hey Jesus is all-powerful where you are powerless walk with Jesus everybody's like oh he's got power that uh oh I'm all in on that Jesus can physically heal he can spiritually here and anybody with depression or anxiety or emptiness or blandness is like yeah yeah I want some of that and so what what's happen in this passage around the authority of Jesus is if we're not careful we begin to believe that we can harness as jesus' authority like a genie in a bottle for us but you actually see the authority of jesus landing on men and women in a way that leads them to persecute Jesus hate Jesus and ultimately want to kill Jesus look there in verse 16 and this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath that's gonna be 0.1 under this authority of Jesus in question but jesus answered them my father is working until now and I am working that's a little play on words the I am if you were here in Exodus you'll understand it this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him why because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making himself equal to God two things about the authority of Jesus number one the authority of Jesus is going to confront strongly held belief in our lives in this passage that strongly held belief is around the Sabbath and Jesus in his life and with his authority is confronting a strongly held belief and it has created anger and animosity towards the authority of Jesus so much so that they couldn't celebrate the healing power over a 38 year crippled because Jesus was confronting them in his authority strongly held beliefs around the Sabbath now because we're in 2019 most of us don't have strong conviction around the Sabbath I mean some of us have strong conviction around the Sabbath and that we're trying to practice a Sabbath but I'm guessing that many of us aren't gonna turn our back on Jesus because of Sabbath teaching but Jesus will confront you and confront me over and over and over again with his authority he is not just a teacher he's God Jesus is gonna confront us he's gonna confront our culture around issues of sexuality around issues of marriage around issues of holiness he's gonna confront us and when that confrontation happens we will say the authority of Jesus wins or my preference wins and Jesus is meant to serve my preference in my desire and what I want what I think's best for me and although very few of you in this room think that collision is coming it's coming but the Word of God the Spirit of Christ dwelling inside of you will confront a compulsion that you have and in that moment you'll say I'm gonna submit to the one with the power I'm gonna submit to the king of kings and Lord of lords or I will choose that I am the king that I am the Lord of my life and I I would just testify to you that I would love it if Jesus and I just got in that skirmish once but twenty-something years into trying to fully surrender to him and I'm a couple times a month this pops up the the righteous path is oftentimes a difficult path it's not easy always to follow the Lord even with all the promises that we know that are true with all of them there are things that Jesus asks us to step into and he asks us to step into him because he knows what's best for us far more than we do right now to talk about this all the time like I am smarter than my nine year old and I don't have to do with intellect alone it has to do with the fact that I'm about to be 45 and she's 9 which means I've seen the world in a way that she is not so if God is infinite and has always been won't him and I disagree surely and is he not the one that should be trusted over my own compulsions and impulses yeah Jesus's Authority is going to confront you what you do with that at the time kind of lays before you whether you're gonna step into life or choose existence and then the other thing you see here and why this is so important is that Jesus is claiming to be God see if Jesus is just a man if he's just a good teacher then maybe you listen to him maybe you don't listen to her there's a thousand teachers out there but because Jesus is God his teachings aren't suggestions right in fact let me give you my favorite CS lewis quote then i want to land this this is from CS Lewis's book Mere Christianity if you haven't read that I would just commend you read mere Christianity I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher but I don't accept his claim to be God that is the one thing we must not say a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher he would either be a lunatic on the level of a man who says that he is a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell you must make your choice either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse you can shut him up for a fool you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher he has not left that open to us he did not intend to if Jesus is God then his commands on our life are authoritative in a way that no other teaching and no other command is but thou shalt nots and the thou shouts become on a level of importance beyond anything in our imagination if ever been in your car and looked in your rearview mirror and saw that there was a police officer behind you you immediately whether you're speeding or not will tap your brakes real quick won't you am I making this up is this just me you might not even speak whoa oh gosh I was going 20 you know and and then you will you will and everybody's you've done this and you've seen people do it then you will go like below the speed limit Justin you don't know what kind of mood that brother is in right you you kind of back up why because he has the kind of authority that flips on lights and and and next thing you know you're funding a road or something around here if look at me if something as small as a couple hundred bucks and maybe an insurance hike if you've already done deferred education if something is small makes you so anxious that you pop your brakes the second you see why doesn't the authority of Jesus as God creating us a quick reaction to pop the brake real quick and go oh I got is clearly asking me to do this I clearly don't want to do this there's a collision of wills here there's a collision of authority here and and am I gonna be the authority am I gonna submit to his authority this is why people don't follow Jesus they love the idea of his healing power you you'll hear people talk about God is love and Jesus is love and but but love right love is weighty it's not just an emotive thing it puts parameters and guards I love my children therefore there are rules not to crush them for their safety for their well-being for their joy where are you with the authority of Jesus he cannot just be a magic healer spirit sprinkle all about what you ultimately wants Savior he is our Lord rightfully demanding full submission it's a process to get there but it's one that we will make over and over and over again the decision of this is my compulsion this is relationship with you I'm gonna choose relationship with you it is better than let's pray father thank you for these men and women your grace and mercy on our lives we just play praise you lift you high thank you for your grace and it's for your beautiful name that I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 10,224

Rating: 4.8888888 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Equal with God, The Gospel of John, Heaven on Earth

Id: cWib4kF285k

Length: 40min 57sec (2457 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 04 2019