The Way of Jesus

hi Pastor Matt listen thank you for downloading or streaming this sermon pray that it blesses your heart two quick things that I want to lay before you before we get started in the proclamation of God's Word the first is and I love that you're dialing in to hear what the Lord's put on our heart here at TVC but I ask that you would only consume these messages as supplemental and in no way replacing your commitment and your listening to your local church pastor these are good gifts of God's grace for the people of God to grow in and yet they are not to replace ever meant to replace our belonging to a covenant community of faith where we are the the second thing want to lay before you is is that there are a lot of man-hours that men and women here at the village church put behind not just the creation of this but the creation of all kinds of resources that are meant to help you grow and develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ and so if this blesses you or the other resources that have been created have blessed you would you consider giving back to the village church to support not just these things but the creation of even more resources for you and really for anyone who wants to indulge in them now I pray that God stirs your affections for Jesus Christ as you listen now to the proclamation of God's Word [Music] the kingdom of God is as multifaceted and mysterious as our Creator a kingdom we only see now through a glass darkly though we can't picture it fully God's kingdom is the story told in Scripture from the garden to the city and in the middle of the story God chose to reveal his kingdom in a new way the gospel is not only Jesus coming and dying to save us from our sins it's also the story of God establishing his dwelling Dominion and dynasty in the world we live as both citizens and strangers prisoners of hope in this shadow kingdom all while knowing it's not our true home that something better is coming that God's perfect Kingdom is come [Music] well good morning if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab those were gonna be a Matthew chapter 13 I have been a Christian now for 23 24 years and upon my conversion it was wildly popular at that point in Christian history for Christians to be wearing one of two different bracelets or maybe both if you really really love the Lord and the first bracelet had a series of beads and it was meant to help you share the gospel with people and so people like hey what's up with your bracelet and you were like this black bead here this this is like it stands for your sin and it's what separated you from the Lord but don't the good news is see this next bead it's red and it's for the blood of Jesus that look at the next bead now is white because your sins have been changed from red to white and now you are clean before God and because we were Baptist we had the blue bead not everybody had the blue bead the Church of Christ kids did and the Baptist did right we had the blue bead for baptism and then the last bead there was a gold bead that was for the streets of gold in heaven and it was this real kind of it seems kitschy in 2018 but man it it was something I liked our old kitchen doing things better than a more modern way of not doing things right and so man it was just kind of this unique little way to share the gospel and then if you didn't have on that bracelet maybe you had one that just simply said WWJD which stood for what what would he do right I mean how how easy is that question to answer like will he spit in mud and wipe it on somebody's eyes to heal them from blindness will they flip over a table at church and kick everybody out right will they curse a fig tree and make it shrivel will you I mean that's not an easy question but but the heart of it is hey we want to be people that look like Jesus that walk like Jesus that consider Jesus and all we do so WWJD now this is week three of our series citizens and strangers on the kingdom of God and I don't have time to go back over all that we've covered but what I do want to point out is that what we want to look at today is what Jesus thought of the kingdom of God did Jesus come preaching something different or did Jesus come not only fulfilling but expanding on the people of God's view of an understanding of the kingdom so so far we've looked at the king glish the kingdom I'm struggling that the the kingdom born and the kingdom fallen that was week one I thought JT did a masterful job last week of tying together the covenants and how that is all a part of the kingdom through the one sentence in matthew's genealogy Jesus Christ the son of Abraham the son of David in fact one of my hopes in this series is for you to see and understand all the more the beauty of the unity of the Bible that Abraham and Isaac Jacob and Noah and Moses and Elijah and Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel those are not encapsulated stories unto themselves but actually are chapters in a larger story and it's by seeing that larger story that I believe we become emboldened to be the kind of people that God has called us to be and so I want us to look at and marvel at Jesus and the way of Jesus concerning the kingdom in our time together if you're still a little bit confused about what we're talking about when we're talking about the kingdom here's what we're talking about right three DS the first thing we're talking about is dwelling and what we mean when we talk about dwelling is that you and I have been designed to be in the presence of God in fact the entire Bible can be summed up in three words God with us when you look at Eden in Genesis 1 and 2 you have God with us when you see the people of God led out of slavery in the Exodus and the tabernacle set up you have the presence of God among his pea people in the coming of Jesus Christ the Incarnation that is said that Jesus came and dwelt or tabernacled with humankind God's presence with us when we see the incoming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost you have the indwelling power of God with his people when we look at the end of the Bible and in Revelation new heavens and new earth and God is with his people the kingdom of God is about the presence of God among the people of God that's what we're talking about we're talking about the kingdom but we're also then talking about Dominion and here's what I mean by Dominion look right at me you have not been saved by grace through faith for navel-gazing morality listen to me you have not been saved by grace through faith for navel-gazing morality you have like Adam and Eve in the garden and like the disciples at the Mount of Ascension been given the task of the kingdom Adam and Eve are told take the order of Eden take the light of Eden and bring order and light to chaos and darkness and then Jesus at his ascension says to the disciples go into all the nations and make disciples right step into chaos and bring order step into darkness and bring light and it's no wonder to me that so many Christians are bored with their faith because we've turned our faith into navel-gazing moral betterment rather than the mission of God to restrain evil to push it back in to establish light in darkness no wonder we're bored God how boring is that I don't want to do bad I don't want to do bad so I want to give my life to not doing bad I want to give my life over to the purposes of God the kingdom of God and then lastly dynasty so there the Apostle Paul just one of the most frustrating humans ever if you if you're trying to get him to stop talking about Jesus right like hey shut up about this Jesus guy will throw you in prison great I'll convert your guards okay will torture you well then I don't I don't really consider these light and momentary affliction x' as worthy to compare to future glory okay then we'll kill you two dies game all right we'll leave you alone to live as Christ I mean you you just couldn't do anything to him but that little line there in the midst of horrific suffering a kind of suffering that is um foreign to most of us he literally says that these light and momentary afflictions are not worthy to be compared to future glory so how do we make sense of that well if you and I believe the Bible and we are a royal priesthood we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ then our dynasty is one of a royal lineage that has no end which means we see the trinkets toys and temptations of 2018 through the lens of that dynasty this is why Paul thought thought said he counted everything as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ right called it rubbish right like at all the kind of earthly accolades I could gather all the kind of religious check marks I get it's all rubbish next to the dynasty that I'm in in Jesus Christ and so we see the temptations trinkets and toys of this modern age through the lenses of dynasty and we walk in the Royal line as ministers of reconciliation viceroys of the kingdom dwelling in the presence of God exercising light and order into chaos and darkness and this is what life's about at every level there's what your jobs about what your families about it's what's money is about what vacations about what everything's about the kingdom now now that we fully understand the kingdom that was a joke let's answer the question WWJD in mark chapter 1 starting in verse 14 you say there Matthew 13 will be there in just a second here's what the Bible says now after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled so JT covered that last week right the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel and so Jesus shows up and what's his message his message is the kingdom of God is at hand what's the good news of God that the time is fulfilled the kingdom is breaking through now if you think back to the brokenness that accompanied the fall Jesus showing up is an invasion of what can only be called enemy occupied territory and when Jesus shows up he starts reorienting his people's minds and hearts to the hope of what would come at the kingdom and then he began to live in a kind of power that showed that the kingdom of God was at hand so here's my outline I want to show you the reorientation of Hope I want to show you the power of the end breaking of the kingdom and then when I lay before you the invitation to be a part of it that that's my outline I wish I could do some alliteration there but just didn't work out let's look at this Matthew 13 we really could cover this entire chapter but until our services can be two hours long I've got to pick and choose Matthew 13 picking it up in verse 24 he put another parable before them saying the kingdom of heaven which is synonymous with kingdom of God may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field but while his men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away so when the plants came up and bore grain then the weeds appeared also and the servants of the master of the house came and said to him master did you not sow good seed in your field how then does it have weeds and he said to them an enemy has done this so the servant said to the master then do you want us to go and gather but the master said no less than gathering the weeds you root up the wheat among with them let both grow together until harvest and at harvest time I will tell the Reapers gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn and then he put another parable before them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field it is the smallest of all seeds but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches he told them another parable the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened and so it's important for us to note that that this teaching on the kingdom from Jesus would have been extremely disorienting to first century Jewish ears right they have a view of the kingdom that is geopolitical they have a view of the kingdom that is about military might and force they have a view of the kingdom that if the coming of the Messiah the coming of the Christ Rome would be turned to chaff they would be blown away by the wind and Jerusalem would become the epicenter of the world and the nations would come and worship God in Jerusalem and every enemy of God would be destroyed that was their view of the Messiah now in 2018 we kind of look back on that and go gosh idiots did you not read Isaiah do not have the scroll of Isaiah did you not read about the suffering servant is like one of those texts that Old Testament rabbis avoided like some evangelicals avoid Romans 9 through 11 you just kind of avoid those scary difficult chapters did you not touch that button oh he they the idea that the coming of Christ would have this kind of crushing violent force - it wasn't formed in a vacuum it was actually formed by a reading of the Old Testament I mean we're gonna I'm gonna read Daniel to to you because this is specifically where it came from in Daniel chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that wigs him out right he's the king of the known world at that point as far as the eye could see Nebuchadnezzar owned it and he has this dream that really freaks him out like it terrifies him and then he wakes up and he can't get on afraid right it's kind of a dream that that's haunting him all day long maybe some of you have had dreams like that but that so Nebuchadnezzar calls together his diviners his witches his wizards and he says hey I had this dream it really wycked me out like I've got no peace in my heart I've got no peace in my mind I need you to tell me the dream and interpret it for me to which the diviner said well tell us the dream and will interpret it Nebuchadnezzar's not bite he's like well if you're diviners you tell me the dream and interpret it oh and by the way not to put too much pressure on you but do it soon or I'm gonna kill all of you a little on-the-job pressure right and they can do it but they don't get killed because Daniel shows up and when Daniel shows up Daniel not only tells him the dream but he interprets the dream for him and it's that dream and its interpretation the first century Jews would have read studied and built their hope on as they sat under the oppression of Rome let's I'll put it on the screen and we can read it Daniel chapter 2 starting in verse 31 if you're wondering what happened in the first 31 verses I that's what I was doing I was filling in that gap here's Daniels telling him the dream you saw Oh King and behold a great image this image mighty and exceeding brightness stood before you and its appearance was frightening the head of this image was fine gold its chest and arms of silver its middle and thighs of bronze its legs of iron its feet partly of iron and partly of clay and as you looked a stone was cut out by no human hand and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them into pieces then the iron the clay the bronze the silver and the gold all together were broken or shattered or crushed in pieces and became like chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found but the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth this was the dream now for stopping that dream would wig me out I mean you've got this massive image you're feeling small and then I don't know where a stone shows up and it just smashes it all to pieces and then it's blown away so that there's nothing left and then the rock grows into a mountain and then the mountain fills the old earth I mean that's just a tough night and then Daniel interprets this was the dream now we will tell the King its interpretation I love that because it's just annular who's the we I think you know you O king the King of Kings to whom the god of heaven has given the kingdom the power and the might and the glory and into whose hand he has given wherever they dwell the children of man the beasts of the field the birds of the heavens making you rule over them all you are the head of gold another Kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you and yet a third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over all the earth then there shall be a fourth kingdom strong as iron because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things and like iron that crushes it shall break and crush all things and as you saw the feet and toes partly of potters clay and partly of iron it shall be a divided Kingdom but some of the firmness of the iron shall be in it just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay and as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay so the kingdom will be partly strong but partly brittle and as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay so they will mix with one another in marriage but they will not hold together just as iron does not mix with clay and in the days of those Kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed nor shall the King to be left to another people it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it shall stand forever just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain by no human hand and that it broke in pieces the iron the bronze the clay the silver and the gold a great God has made known to the king what shall be after this this dream is certain and its interpretation is sure you see where they're getting that when the Messiah comes it's gonna be violent I mean you've got this prophecy that the Empire of iron which they thought was Rome and the bronze before it was the Greeks you've got this idea that when Christ comes he's gonna wants him for all rid the world of the pagans and he's gonna establish a kingdom of holiness with the sword because house do you crush an empire of iron so so this is now keep in mind these are people under the oppression of Rome they have been slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands they have been crucified they have been tortured their stuff has been plundered and where's their hope in the Christ when the Christ comes Rome will get theirs and then Jesus shows up and there's this kind of whirlwind of excitement about the kingdom of God is at hand and and what does he start to do the kingdom of God is like it's like a farmer who goes out and he sews wheat and his enemy kind of drops in some weeds and they both grow up together so what the Jews are thinking is that the pagans are gonna be destroyed and they'll be the ones that are left and it's gonna happen quickly it's gonna be a geopolitical military event and Jesus says no no you're going to grow as my people but the weeds will grow with you and as righteousness increases so will evil and as my kingdom expands the weeds will be there also and and they're thinking Jesus is gonna call down legions of angels to destroy the Empire and he says no no the kingdoms gonna play out like a mustard seed it's gonna start tiny in fact he's teaching this to a couple hundred people on the other side of the earth it's gonna go into the ground like a mustard seed and it's gonna grow and grow and grow until it it's bigger than any other shrub in the garden in fact the birds of the air will build homes in the kingdom once it's grown in fact the kingdom of God is like a little bit 11 put in a large lump of dough give it time and it rises in the leaven works its way through every part of the dough that's what the kingdom of God is like now this should for you and I in 2018 bring about great encouragement for two reasons let me point them out to you I say one of them to you often here's the one I say to you often look right at me you're in Dallas you understand what I'm talking about they're like Jesus saying you know what the kingdom of God looks like the kingdom of God looks like this over a long period of time it's gonna grow to epic proportions it's gonna fill the earth like a mountain to a couple hundred peasants in the Galilee area of the Middle East look at me and you're in Dallas in 2018 we get to see that Christ's words are true otherwise why are you and I here how'd that happen it seems like that little mustard seed that went in the ground has grown and grown and grown and our brother Luke Bob let's hear this weekend from Berlin and we've got friends in Dubai and churches being planted in Iraq and in May I'm flying to Serbia to preach to about a thousand pastors from all over Europe that are seeing the kingdom of God continuing to expand it's exploding in South America it's exploding in North America I'm telling you the propaganda we are a dying breed is over-exaggerated the kingdom of God is growing and it's large enough now that bird's nest in our branches and then the second thing is to not be dismayed by the weeds in the same way that this passage should bring us hope because we can see that it's happening it also should remind us that even in our darkest hours the kingdom of God grows we shouldn't be surprised at the weeds we shouldn't be surprised at how long this seems to be taking Jesus corrected they're falsely placed hope in military power and political might and put it instead in the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside Kingdom citizens over a long period of time all over the world until it filled the earth and and then on top of Jesus just reorienting our hearts with this hope he then actively begins to live out the power of the kingdom and we see that I think in three primary ways but remember this when the kingdom was established what we had was order with no chaos light with no dark there was no death there was no disease the Bible said that humankind was naked and unashamed there was no such thing as shame no such thing as brokenness there was no death there was no cancer there was no illness there was no shame no depression no anxiety there was light no dark order no chaos and so when Jesus comes he not only preaches that the kingdom of God is at hand he shows the power of the kingdom over the fallenness and brokenness of sin and death and he we do that we see that in three different ways the first is that we see the power of the kingdom breaking through death and sickness via Jesus's power to heal all diseases he heals the lane he heals the blind he heals the leprous he heals present he heals people that aren't even in his presence on more than one occasion healed we didn't show up and anoint with oil and hay he just goes go home there he told one got to stop being dead is that not the ultimate healing right hey get up nope you're not dead like he even like there were people that mocked and laughed at Jesus on two separate occasions tried to correct Jesus is telling death that death had no power we see the kingdom of God breaking through and that power is available to citizens of the kingdom of let's chat about that for a second when you get into Kingdom theology the stuff that we're talking about one of the errors that many Christians will make is what's called and I'll define this I don't usually use terms like this it's called over realized eschatology all right so let me chat about that eschatology is is what ultimately occurs in the end times right it's how this whole thing ends and what people will do when we get into truths like this where the power to heal sickness and diseases is a part of the kingdom of God breaking through the fall of humankind is they'll take that and they'll over realize the eschatology and say hey everybody's going to get healed that's an over realized eschatology it's not true here are a couple of reasons why that's not true one there are things that God has promised me and that Jesus has bought with his blood that I will not get until all things have been made new I am promised in 1st Corinthians 15 a resurrected body that feels no pain that will not die that is not limited and that will live forever and the presence of God and this ain't it is a 43-year old dadbod that injures easily right if this is the resurrection body let's scrap it all inez tweak trying to have no idea what I did I just slept right so I've got that coming for me but I don't get it right now Jesus can he every one but even while he's on earth he doesn't he doesn't heal everybody on earth and so I want you to know what you can expect from me the rest of our elders and our pastors we're gonna pray bold faith-filled prayers asking God to heal without any outs and caveats like you get sick and you're in the hospital they've told you that there's nothing else we can do I will not protect my prayers with heal this person if you will the will of God will be done he hasn't asked me to pray that way he's asked me to pray bold faith-filled prayers in the name of Jesus and by the blood of Jesus and then hold the results with open hands so I'm gonna pray for you on that day I'm gonna put my hands on you I'm gonna in the name of Jesus Christ and by his blood I pray that this brother of mine this sister of mine be healed completely right now miraculously in the name of Jesus Christ and I'm just gonna hold it with open hands because he is not a genie in a bottle that does my bidding he is the sovereign king of glory and how could I know what he knows and sees right so we see it in his power to heal we also see the breakthrough of the kingdom and this one will be weird for us but let's play it's fun over its power over demonic powers and principalities if you want to read through the Gospels pay attention to how Jesus interacts with demons and demonic forces there's never an argument nary an argument like Jesus just talks to them and they obey in fact sometimes they speak first and they're terrified so one of my favorites is we know who you are we know who you are the Holy One of God have you come to destroy us before the appointed time you want to talk about an emasculated enemy are you gonna kill us now I mean we know you're eventually gonna kill us is it now because we thought man we had like another couple thousand years like there's never backed up there's never any confusion about who has authority now the breakthrough of the its power over demonic principalities and forces and that's weird for us because many of us have no understanding of these things and and honestly like to categorize struggles and sins in other ways than hey maybe this is demonic and yet the Bible is rich with teaching on and explanations on the demonic powers and principalities of this present age that one of the things that can torment us one of the things that can oppress us one of the things that can break us is demonic oppression and spiritual powers and principalities I think a theology of powers and principalities missing in modern evangelical understandings of the kingdom really jams us up and oftentimes has a swinging our fists at the air an understanding of powers and principalities helps us understand the Supra human nature of evil you track it with me on that that the nature of evil will not be defeated be a human means that you with all your discipline with all your creatine monohydrate with all your peloton rides with all your whatever's is not going to be enough to overcome the darkness that is Satan and his demonic powers don't care how good of a shot you are what kind of collection you haven't that gun safe you are outgunned out manned and it will not work with human fleshly power you'll need the power of the Holy Spirit and if you try to play in this space via fleshly means what we see in the Bible is bad things the book of Acts the seven sons of sceva see Paul cast out demons and they decide they want to try that so they go find a demon-possessed guy and say in the name of Jesus Christ Paul's God come out the demon manifests and speaks I know Jesus I've heard of Paul who are you and then the Bible says that the demonic demonized man turns on the seven sons of sceva and beats them all bloody and naked that's how you know you lost the fight right if you came in with pants and you left without them you lost doesn't matter if you've got a good shot in doesn't matter of you DDT team wants right if you wouldn't you when the fight started you had pants on and when it was over you were no longer when you got drove right there's no let's check the cards Alex you lost this is what happens when we with our flesh begin to engage in spiritual realities it's a good way to get whipped on top of that there's some real complexities here that should create humility and dependency here's what I mean by complexities this is so piqued my curiosity of my own personal study lately in mark chapter nine Jesus is coming down from the mountain and this father comes up to him and says hey my son is demonized he keeps he'll turn him to stone throw himself into a fire and your disciples have been trying to cast this demon out and they're unable to do it now the disciples aren't rookies at this the disciples have been given the power by Jesus to heal diseases and cast out demons and actually I've gone and done this so they've got reps in fact if you remember they actually had to be rebuked for because they came back all gave me like even the spirits obey us and she was like well I mean that's cool and all but what you should rejoice in is that your names written in the Lamb's Book of Life that's great that you have power over the spirits but that's not what you should rejoice and you should rejoice in me knowing you and loving you and you being secure in my love and so these aren't guys that this is new to like for many of us if a demon manifested we might even wet ourselves like we'd have no idea what to do probably just get out Bible and start reading and have no clue right these are not those men they have played in this space and they can get this demon out so Jesus shows up the father comes and says hey you're you guys can't do it can you help me and Jesus said do you believe and he said I do believe help my unbelief which is one of my favorite sentences in the Bible I do believe help my unbelief so Jesus okay comes over and then there's this weird interview that takes place where Jesus asks the Father how long has he been like this father says since birth okay how does it play out well when the demon manifests my son turns into stone and he throws the demon throws him into the fire or into water trying to destroy him and and it's like that clued in Jesus - what kind of spirit this is so he drives out the demon there's not a lot of fanfares no screeching Jesus you like get out and then the kids normal and then the disciples they come up to him afterwards and say hey why couldn't we cast out that demon listen to Jesus's response that kind only comes out through prayer and fasting it's like all right my mind's blow k there are kinds now are they big and strong are they fast and slow like how how does the demonic realm work that there are these kinds that the disciples on the authority of Christ can just say leave and they leave and then they're the others where he's like leaving that no leave no leave no cake it Oh pray and bath and then come like how does this all work there's a complexity here but Jesus is showing the power of the kingdom and his absolute authority over all kinds of spiritual principalities and powers and then lastly we see the breakthrough of the kingdom not just in healings not just in exorcisms but also in just natural miracles God turns Jesus turns water into wine he walks on the water he rebukes a storm and it listens he curses a fig tree and it shrivels remember how God had originally ordered the kingdom in Eden chaos unleashed as the kingdom fell and the Kingdom now inaugurated controls the natural order back into the Peace of the God who created it so we see the kingdom breaking through now who who gets to get in to this kingdom here's this is the stuff that I get really geeked up about here's who doesn't get in right and and this answer might surprise you you will not get into the kingdom of God based on your works and good look right at you will not get into the kingdom of God with your good works and your good deeds it doesn't work that way and I know you're hearing me but I have to wonder if you're actually hearing me you will not earn your way into the kingdom because getting into the kingdom cannot be earned in fact the more self-righteous you are and the more confident you are in your own righteousness the more difficult it is to get into the kingdom if not impossible to get into the kingdom the Pharisees the ruling religious elite of the day look right at me they're better than you they're better than me they're more serious about their Bible than we are they're more serious about holiness than we are they're more serious about living the way they think God has asked them to live than we are they're in every way more disciplined than you and I are and here's a conversation Jesus has with them in Matthew 21 what do you think he asked them a man had two sons and he went to the first and said son go work in the vineyard today and the son answered I will not but afterward he changed his mind and went and he went to the other son and said the same and he answered I'll go sir but he did not go which of the two did the will of his father they said the first listen to Jesus's response to this Jesus said to them truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you do that a terrifying sentence and man if your life is filled with failure and brokenness and regret in that one of the best sentences ever who's going into the kingdom not those who feel like they can earn their way and only those who go in by the free gift of God's grace now hear me I think there's just one of those things that can set you free all your religious activity outside of a relationship with God and dwelling in the presence of God look at me is for naught Jesus looks at the most elite disciplined religious group that I know of and says the prostitutes and the tax collectors are going in before you are so if that's true who gets in and if you're a church kid I'm guessing you're especially going okay who gets in okay so Jesus in two places explicitly says here's how you get in right the first ones found in mark 10:14 you get into the kingdom by entering as a child let me show you this text mark 10:14 but when Jesus saw it he was indignant so what made Jesus so angry the the Bible tells us that children loved to be around Jesus which that if you'll just stop for a second think about what kind of personality Jesus must have if children want to be around him you don't have a furrowed brow he's not just super serious about everything and a little bit frustrated with everybody I don't know if you've been around children children don't really like to be around that oh you're a furrowed brow crusty grump you're my kind of people kids want to avoid that type of adult but children they want to end it such a problem but the disciples have decided that Jesus doesn't have that kind of time you know that children that's like that's JV work right you get away from Jesus he's only got a few years here he's gonna give himself the things that matter and this enraged Jesus he grew indignant at this why well he explains why let the children come to me do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God the kingdom belongs to those with childlike faith look I mean not childish faith childlike faith there's a huge difference between being childish and mean childlike if you don't know the difference childishness is what you try to discipline out of your children and it's never delighted in when it exists in an adult child likeness is celebrated odd loved in children and can even then be celebrated in adults if by the grace of God we can hold fast to our childlike faith so what does it mean to have childlike faith one there's an admission of neediness there's an admission of neediness there is an admission of dependency we are needy and we are dependent and that concept in 2018 is revolutionary mom's let me talk to you for a second tell me you don't feel the weight of trying to be a perfect mother tell me you don't in this environment go oh my gosh my six month old isn't reading Hammett they're not going to college they're probably gonna end up strung out on drugs and a murderer and then God forgive me I gave them non-organic goldfish so it's only a mount of time until their brains are rotted I have failed I have failed I have failed listen to what the kingdom does the kingdom goes oh no parenting is impossible get in here and let me love you through it dad's tell me you don't feel the weight in 2018 of having it all together making it all work making sure everybody's happy and everything's done what a crushing foolish thing we are far more dependent and needy than we can imagine every once in a while in God's grace he'll cut you and let you see it we're far more dependent brothers which one of you can love your wife like Christ loved the church without the power of the Holy Spirit I'm not a I'm not saying because here's what people get I'm sure you can manage your wife you know what management looks like management looks like I better clean this thing because if I don't clean this thing she's gonna freak out and make my life hell for like two weeks so let me manage her let me do this so she won't do that that's management that's not loving her like Christ loved the church and sisters which one of you might respect your husband without the power of the Holy Spirit I know about managing him I'm talking about respecting him and building him up in affirmation and love being an expert in his strengths you're gonna need the spirit for that singles which one of yous gonna be able to live holy righteous moral lives for the glory of God without the power of the Spirit you are far more dependent and needy than you think the kingdom belongs to those who see this and know this and we can melt into our weakness rejoicing that he never grows tired and weary and he is not weak and then lastly you know want to spend just a moment here I don't want to go long the king that belongs to those with childlike faith and the kingdom belongs to those who repent and believe we already covered this text let me read it again this is mark 1:15 the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand so the kingdom of God is here it's breaking through you see this in the miracles of Jesus he's reorienting our hopes around what the gospel moving through the earth is gonna look like so what should we do with childlike faith now you repent and believe so repentance is a word that's kind of falling out of favor with evangelicalism and falling out of favor with Christians as we try to be cool enough for the world try to soften what it means to follow Jesus if you you picked up on that it's kind of lower the bar of what it looks like to be a man or a woman of God and just create an easy believe ISM that doesn't cost us our lives so the best way to do that just get rid of the word repent and and and therapeutic therapeutic I don't even that's not even a word I'm going with it so let's take sin and repentance and let's throw that word out and let's just replace it all with the word struggle oh you struggle with oh you struggle with that now hear me there are legitimate struggles that are not tied to sin but a lot of times we're taking sin and naming it a struggle so we can make it our pet and not repent you tracking with me and the way into the kingdom is not struggle but repentance alright so for so many of us we've kind of made this thing that the Bible clearly calls a sin we've changed the title to struggle and then what happens is because it's a struggle and not a sin we never feel the weight of meaning to repent of it so we manage the struggle rather than putting to death the sand be a repentance no wonder we're not walking in power in victory where there is struggle let us faithfully love support and pray for one another where there is sin let us repent and seek to put to death this is the path of life this is life in the kingdom and the invitation is laid out to all who will hear and come in why does Jesus come remember we talk about this all the time Jesus come not to pronounce judgment on the world but save the world from condemnation how does he do that by saying the kingdom of God is at hand get in here you've been invited into the safety of the Kings strength you've been invited into the presence of ultimate power you've been invited into melt in your humaneness in the supra human God of all creation even if you're a tax collector and a prostitute that's unreal that's the kingdom in the same way it would be bad for you to encapsulate David and Goliath Noah and the flood Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac Jacob and his dreams right Isaiah and Jeremiah the mistake of encapsulating those and not seeing them as kind of the parts of the same story so it's a pretty big error for you to encapsulate your own life as though you're an encapsulated story unto yourself brother/sister I'm gonna say something hard I know I'm saying it and I know it's a hard saying but I'm going to just hope that the weight of it will serve you well when all is said and done no one in this room or on earth will have a choice at whether or not their lives bring glory to God you will bring glory to God as an object of His grace and mercy repenting and with childlike faith walking in the kingdom or you will bring glory to God as you shake your fist in treachery against his kindness and become an object of his just right wrath despite a lifetime of him pursuing you wooing you you being here today it's seen in the heaviness God knows you have heard and so even the most hardened atheist that'll shake his fist at the heavens simply becomes God help them an object of God's right just wrath in that he has their whole lives invited them into the mercy of the kingdom only for them to continue in their treachery your life is caught up in these cosmic realities if you like I don't really like that I'm sorry you're here today and you're hearing this good news an invitation into the kingdom I've prayed all week that when we talk about childlike faith that you'll feel today for whatever reason this season of your life you just felt men I am in need and I'm so exhausted pretending that I'm not in need with all this need or man I'm so desperate right now and I've just prayed all week that this word would fall on ears and hearts that find themselves in that space in the hopes that you might hear and receive the good news of the gospel that the kingdom of God is at hand let's pray father just ask in your mercy that you would build us up and encourage us with your love pray for many of us that have read to find sin as struggle and have not been serious about putting those things to death but actually have kind of taken on the identity of that thing and you would strengthen us and help us to see sin for sin and longed to put it to death pray that you bring clarity to our hearts even now about the difference between struggle and sin we might not feel over overweighted with oh man is this struggle sin but that you would provide clarity in that space pray that you'd lead us into repentance and lives of victory pray that give us hope even as many of us in this room they weren't seasons of hopelessness we thank you that the wheat grows and the tares grow alongside of it thank you that in 2018 we can look around at the size of the mustard tree and marvel thank you that all over the world today men and women like us have gathered in different languages with different instruments with the same word and the same holy spirit to make much of the name and renowned of Jesus Christ I love you help us it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 26,833

Rating: 4.8290596 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, The Way of Jesus, Lent, Citizens and Strangers

Id: u-d8wdOBQ7Y

Length: 52min 26sec (3146 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 19 2018