The King Who Walked With Men - Tom Wacaster - 9/12/21 am

[Music] in 1966 i was beginning my senior year at w.w samuel high school in dallas texas lbj was serving out the last years of john f kennedy's presidency he having been assassinated two years earlier than that i was in the rotc i was a young man i weighed 119 pounds i could turn sideways and stick my tongue out and pass as a zipper but for some reason they decided that i had the ability to be on the drill team the rotc drill team and so i enrolled and we developed a rather fantastic drill team and we were asked to appear at the opening ceremonies of the state fair of texas and lyndon baines johnson was going to be the speaker at that ceremony we split our drill core into two parts one on the right side of the stage one on the left we marched upon the stage the colors were presented l b johnson came walking in from the right took his seat he was introduced and then he gave his speech and we were told after he was finished with his speech and the audience was dismissed that we would be at ease to mingle with the crowd on the stage and as lbj made his way toward the right to exit he passed within 20 feet of me secret service agents all around and i'm sitting there i'm within 20 feet of the president of the united states and i was sticking out my hand like this he never even saw me in fact i never got any closer than the secret service men who were there he was a king he was a president and generally kings and presidents do not dwell with men for whatever reason their importance their power their prestige maybe there's a danger or a threat and it could be that the higher they rise in power the more exclusive they become and it's harder to get in touch with them personally i want you to turn to matthew chapter four jesus has been tempted and he's about to enter into his ministry i want you to start reading with verse 23 and here's what matthew records for us jesus went about in all galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the people and the report of him went forth into all syria they brought unto him all that were sick holding with divers diseases and torments possessed with demons and epileptic and palsy and he healed them and there followed him great multitudes from galilee and decapolis and jerusalem and judea and from beyond the jordan turn over to matthew chapter 8. he's in the midst of the galilean ministry and we see the same picture here but here is a king in fact he is the king of kings and the potentate of potentates and he is walking among men and when i listen to the scriptures i see that his walk with men is an invitation he is inviting us to enter into a quest that would reach lost mankind and it begins with us he walks with us and from that great invitation in matthew chapter 11 come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest to the closing book in the new testament where in the third chapter we read that jesus is standing at the door and he's knocking he wants to walk with men and i think maybe david had that feeling when he penned that eighth psalm and he starts that psalm in verse one and then later in verse eight with exactly the same words he says how great how magnified is thy name and then in the midst of that psalm david says what is man that thou art mindful of him you ever find yourself asking that question what is man that god is mindful of him who am i that god is so mindful of me of all the people in the world god still cares for you as he does all precious souls but he is a king who walks with men i see jesus on the mountaintop on various occasions when he gave the sermon on the mount when he was in the mount of transfiguration and always he would come down out of the mountain into the marketplace he could have stayed on the mountain but he chose to dwell among men to walk among men and to bring them the wonderful story of the gospel of jesus christ all kinds of people from the pharisees to the publicans from the rich to the poor from those who were healthy to those who were sick from those who walked the normal walks of life to those who were plagued with leprosy and who were blind jesus walks with men in matthew chapters 8 and 9 you have a total of ten miracles and each one of these i think are designed not only to show me the power of christ but to help me understand that jesus walks with different kinds of men in different kinds of situations and it may very well be as we go through these and select some of these you may find yourself in the same category as some of these whom jesus walked with let's take a closer look matthew chapter 8 verses 1 through 4 i see a leper a leper a man who was so plagued with diseases he had to stand to far off and he had to cover his face and cry unclean a man who was ostracized a man who knew he was clean and had to warn others that he was unclean a man who recognized that he was an outcast and yet when this leper cried out he believed in the power of jesus to heal for he said if thou wilt it was not a question of power it was a question of will this leper was saying will you cleanse me and i learn from this that jesus is willing to walk with the unclean not to encourage their uncleanliness spiritually but to bring them out of that uncleanness and with a touch just a touch he healed this leper of his disease he walked with great men who also recognized that they were in need of forgiveness think of paul if you will as he prayed the night before ananias came to him think if you will of peter when jesus appeared on that beach after his resurrection and peter recognized that was jesus and he said depart from me for i am a sinner and what about isaiah in isaiah chapter 6 when he said i'm a man of unclean lips you wonder who god walks with he walks with those who recognize that they are in need of salvation and perhaps that is what jesus was talking about and the beatitudes when he said blessed are those who are poor in spirit they recognize their need for a savior if you would have the king of kings walk with you you've got to realize you're unclean and you need to take the proper steps to correct that let's move to the next miracle the miracle of the centurion in verses 5 and following it was a man who had a servant a servant you could buy slaves and servants on the local market for about what you paid for an oxen or a cow or perhaps some chickens but this was a servant and here was a centurion when you look at verse five he cries out to the lord in verse six my servant is in need of healing it was a man who had compassion on others i suggest to you that jesus walks with those who have compassion jesus taught in the parable of the samaritan the good samaritan that here was a man who was compassionate upon others and he was a samaritan he showed compassion when i look at the history of the first century church they carried the gospel from one end of the roman empire to the next and they were known for their compassion for people who cared for others and throughout the centuries christianity has gone across this world and everywhere that christianity is gone the standard of living has risen and men have built hospitals and orphan homes why because they have compassion on others i suggest to you that our king of all the kings in this world is one who walks with men who have compassion on others and desire to see their betterment not only in a physical way but more importantly even in a spiritual way i've seen this congregation demonstrate that kind of compassion for those who have lost loved ones and those who have tried to go had to go through trials and tribulations in life you see jesus our king walks with men who have compassion upon others here's another one look at matthew chapter 8 14-16 this is the healing of peter's mother-in-law and after peter's mother-in-law was healed was it by a word by touch we don't know but she was healed and she immediately arose and what does she do she serves i suggest to you that our king walks with people who are servants in fact he demonstrated that in john chapter 13 when he goes into the upper room and here are the disciples gathering together for this last supper and jesus takes a towel and he girds himself with that towel and he takes a basin of water and he washes the disciples feet that was unbecoming for a host much less unbecoming of the son of god to wash the feet of his disciples that was the task that was reserved for the one who was a slave or a servant in the household but jesus takes the water and he washes the feet of those men it's not what jesus did it is what he was his very character was one of servitude in fact paul told us about that in philippians chapter 2 when he said have this mind in you which was also in christ jesus who humbled himself unto death even to the death of of the cross that was one who was a servant and you and i have the task of serving others this world thinks differently than we do the critic will look at jesus and he will say is that your king we want a king who's powerful we want a king with flair we want a king that flashes his sword we want a king that's eloquent one that speaks well one that serves well in the capacity of being a king and you've heard this phrase when somebody says of another he's just not presidential that's what the world looks for and the critic will say there is your king a king who rides on a donkey and drags his sandals in the dirt how many people do you think are going to follow that kind of a king and history tells us that multitudes followed jesus by the hundreds by the thousands and now after 20 centuries by the millions he won the hearts of men because he was a servant and god is saying to us i serve a king who walks with men who like him serve others let's move on into the text look if you will at chapter 8 23-27 he enters into a boat his disciples follow him there arise there arose a great tempest in verse 24 and then jesus even though he's asleep on a cushion in the ship they cry out that god might be able to deliver them that christ might deliver them i suggest to you that our king walks with men even in times of peril in great distress i came across this interesting quote it's by r.c ryle there's nothing which shows our ignorance so much as our impatience under trouble we forget that every cross is a message from god and intended to do us good in the end trials are intended to make us think to wean us from the world to send us to the bible to drive us to our knees health is a good thing but sickness is far better if it leads us to god prosperity is a great mercy but adversity is a greater one it brings us to christ anything anything is better than living in carelessness and dying in sin unfortunately when we enter into suffering sometimes we can only see one end of the two bookcases that exist i'm going to talk about that more tonight how to endure suffering and come out victorious on the other side but so often we enter in and all we see is the suffering but there's an end to that and there's a purpose to it james said in james chapter 1 and verse 2 counted all joy when you enter into manifold temptations trials may be the better word there count it joy you're asking me god to count it joy when i enter into trials and tribulations so james adds this statement he says if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god yes we ask of god for wisdom in general but in the context he's saying if you're suffering how can you count suffering as something to be joyful over if you lack wisdom you ask of god to get who gives to all liberally and upbraideth not he's there to give me that wisdom i'm telling you god walks our king walks with men who are in peril and he offers hope in the midst of that peril let's move further into the text look if you will at chapter 8 28-34 there's a similar miracle over in chapter nine but both of these have to do with casting out of demons here was a man who was controlled by demons we don't see that today i think the age of the miraculous had a purpose in allowing the miracles to exist to show that jesus had the power to even reach into the realm of satan himself and to bind him but i want you to look at this man now when you look at others who were possessed by demons and so often they're described as being uncontrollable out of their mind unclothed people who were wild men here were individuals who were facing serious perils and who were in the darkness of sin and the captivity of sin and our king would walk with those men to heal them and to give them life lot when he was vexed by sin says he cried out jude verses six and seven and when i think about lord and his vexation and i look at our generation sometimes my eyes fill with tears because we have people living from one end of this country to the other and even beyond the shores of our country who are so captivated by sin and controlled by sin they've given up the hope of living and we as god's people are walking with a king that even when evil and darkness surrounds us we recognize there's hope john said the whole world lies in the wicked one sometimes we isolate ourselves we're protected we're hedged about by god we need to realize that our king walks with us evil when evil even when evil surrounds us and he holds out hope move a little bit further into the text look at matthew chapter 9 verses 18 through 26 here is a man who had a daughter who was dying in fact when jesus finally arrives on the scene she is dead and for a brief period of time this man who luke tells us his name was jairus this man's 12 year old daughter was at the point of death and when jesus arrived she had already entered into the sleep of death jesus walks with us when we are in the depth of sorrow and sometimes we look at our lives and we think well i've escaped it it may be that you're young enough to have escaped adversity and sorrow but if we live long enough you remember that david said moses said in the 90th psalm that if by reason you managed to make even 90 or beyond that life is filled with sorrow and trouble and i realize when i read this that here was a man who was he had a broken heart and yet jesus walked with him he walks with men who are sorrowful we have a song in our song book that says no one walks alone and in the first stanza it stresses the fact there's nothing quite as lonely as being alone and yet in the midst of all of our sorrows when nobody else seems to care jesus is there i want you to move to the next one if you will you have the healing of the woman with the issue of blood and this is very close to the same point but matthew chapter 9 verse 20. this is what we sometimes call a parenthetical miracle he heads to jairus's house the woman with the issue of blood approaches and then he finishes the miracle at jairus's house by raising that young daughter but here is a woman who's been ostracized from society not because of choice but out of necessity she's got an issue of blood she's unclean she can't mingle with the crowds she's by herself and i learned that our king walks with men when nobody else will stand with us sometimes that loneliness and that isolation may arise as a result of our stand for christianity it may be that sometimes it's by loss of a loved one but god simply tells me my king my christ walks with me and even when i'm lonely let's move to one last one matthew chapter 9 27-31 this is the case of the blind two blind men and here were two men who i don't get the indication that they were born blind there is an incident of someone who was born blind in john chapter nine and the disciples had never seen in fact no one had ever seen somebody healed being born blind but i like to imagine that these men had seen that they had the opportunity to look upon the faces of their loved ones to look at the beauties of god's creation to see the things around them and for some reason unknown they became blind and here are these men sitting by the side of the road crying out in despair give us sight give us heal our sight our blindness they long to see things that they had not seen in a long time i suggest to you that our king walks with men who long for sight in fact the bible teaches spiritually speaking i have to hunger and thirst after righteousness matthew chapter 5 and verse 9. if you've ever studied that passage you know that jesus beatitude when he said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness that the terminology there and the tense of the verbs indicates they're not asking for just a something temporary they're asking for all there is if i were to tell you i'm hungry for pizza today i'm not telling you i'm hungry for all the pizza there is in the world i'm just telling you i want to taste some pizza but if i were to say as jesus said hungering and thirsting for righteousness i want all there is i want everything that god has to offer i want to see the things that are spiritually true and in john chapter 3 and verse 16 in that passage where jesus pronounced that great golden text if you follow that text to the conclusion of the chapter you'll see that jesus talks about those who do not come to the light because they don't like the light they're like the little creatures under the rocks that when you remove the rock they scurry to find darkness there are men that way spiritually speaking our king walks with men who long to see the light and so jesus pronounces in the last part of that chapter he said he that cometh to the light he has a desire for that that his sins his his wrongdoings might be made manifest let me ask you a question do you long for the light are you like these two blind men who want to see and long for that light that's the kind of people that jesus walks with our king walks with men and in all these miracles and even others that are listed throughout the scriptures you're going to find our lord mixing with people reaching out to people and instead of becoming isolated like some earthly king he intermingles with those who he creates he intermingles with them because he loves men i want to suggest to you that christianity the great strength of christianity is found in these character traits christianity and the value of christianity is not always found in the assembly i came across this interesting article a number of years ago i don't know who wrote this i never wrote the author down it's entitled the midnight hour that time when feeble eyes cannot penetrate the darkness when the oil of our christian lamp is low or maybe life is almost snuffed it out midnight midnight when we find ourselves chained bound and beaten and even death itself would be a welcomed visitor the lasting beauty of christianity is not witnessed in the lives of people who have been sheltered from the storms or untouched by the world the real worth of christianity is not captured in a sunday morning worship service with every man in his pew singing amazing grace the lasting weight of christianity is not felt when all is well if we would comprehend the real weight and worth and beauty of christianity we must view it at the midnight hour when tragedy strikes and triumph is fled when darkness hangs about us like a burial shroud and the silence of grief is deafening when oceans of tears have been shed and all our hopes lie buried in a lonely grave in a garden of memories when life has dashed our most cherished dreams to the ground for some of us it's now 11 59 and midnight approaches our king walks with men and he walks with us in some of the most unusual circumstances with the desire to draw us unto him are you walking with the king this hour are you crying out recognition that you need a savior are you like that leper recognizes he's unclean but needs to make a change our lord will walk with you are you like the blind men who long for sight our king will walk with you and even though i did not come to within a handshake of l b johnson i can tell you that i have been embraced by the savior the king of kings who walks with me our lord stands at the door and he's knocking and he will continue to knock as long as he can but the time will come when he'll cease he's knocking that time will come when your heart becomes so hardened that you won't respond if your heart is tender this morning won't you believe the gospel believe that he is the son of god will you not repent of your sins and confess the good name of christ before men will you not then be buried in that watery grave of baptism to rise to walk in newness of life he's knocking at the door he wants to walk with you if you will but walk with him as together we stand and as we sing

Channel: Forest Hill church of Christ

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Length: 25min 30sec (1530 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021