Week of prayer with David Asscherick- HOPE CHANNEL 4

well it is a great privilege to be here at the General Conference this is only my second visit here so I've made the Hajj twice now and all is well the pilgrimage for those of you yeah the story with me being here in New Zealand is actually from New Zealand it's quite a fascinating one that I wish I had time to tell the whole story but I'll give you the short version earthquakes are very scary probably no doubt most of you have heard that New Zealand just experienced a very serious devastating deadly earthquake and it wasn't particularly strong in terms of the actual magnitude of the earthquake just a 6.3 chuckle but by way of contrast on September 4th New Zealand experienced a 7.1 earthquake significantly stronger in terms of its magnitude but the earlier earthquake the September 4th earthquake was at a depth this is what the geologists say at a depth of say sort of 30 ish or 35 kilometers so it's very deep into the ground and so apparently the residents etc sort of makes it a the bell curve on the quake sort of makes it more it builds up to it and then it sort of builds down to it where this most recent quake February 22 was very shallow apparently just about 5 kilometers deep and when they're shallower apparently they're very lateral and their movements and more violence in their movements and I can confirm the lateral 'no sand the violence of those movements i was actually right downtown in the very heart of where the earthquake was taking place it was 1251 on february 22 and i was preparing my notes for that evening in fact i had just gone to the bible text in john 7 where it says that his brothers did not believe in him and no sooner had I read that text than the building that I was in I was in a three-story building I was on the third story just began to shake in the most terrifying and violent way the building immediately adjacent to ours fell and traps people and was not a good place to be three storey building as well and when it happened my immediate instinct active response was I've got to get out of this building and by the grace of God I was able to sort of make my way down the stairs and then the second flight of stairs and and it happened very rapidly sort of about 25 seconds it was done it was my first ever earthquake even though I live in California I've had little rumbles I suppose but it was nothing more than like someone slamming a door but this was totally different and when I opened the door to look outside I instantaneously appreciated the magnitude of what had just taken place there were people spilling out on to the streets car alarms are going off the building immediately across the street had fallen there was just panic in the streets and I grabbed my camera instinctively ran outside and the streets just began to sort of buckle right before our eyes it was almost like like a waterbed it was just sort of the ground even with the cement and the concrete just became like liquid and immediately right through the the seams of the of the new cracks that were created by the buckling streets was something I'd not heard of before but called liquefaction and Christchurch is built largely on an estuary or at least its estrine around there and just this sort of silty sandy milky fluid just came seeping up it was just the most amazing thing and it felt exceedingly apocalyptic and I made my way down away from the buildings because that's when everybody was thinking it was it was just so instinctive and so responsive to just get away from these buildings and I made my way down the street and came to a square called Lattimer square named after Hugh Latimer and there were already all I supposed 2,000 people that were just piling into the square and before long there would be several thousand people and the looks of sheer terror is the only way really to communicate a need even that it's ineffable to try and communicate the impossible to try and communicate the whole world it just felt like was collapsing around these people and I had the privilege of sort of wandering around and and helping here and there but you just feel so powerless so defenseless and I just happen to be right close to the building where the greatest death was experienced the CTV building at the Canterbury television building some 36 or 37 people were rescued out of there and I've not heard the final numbers but it would have been close to 75 or a hundred that were killed there six story building gone just absolutely eviscerated so it was a very sobering experience to put it mildly and then living sort of in christchurch in the wake of this the whole city shut down the sewer systems the power we we sometimes think and maybe not all of us here but I tend to think of these sort of disasters is happening always over there they're always on television it's always you know it's in Iran or it's in China or it's some other place Pakistan but it was a very fascinating experience and a very sobering experience it reminded me of Hebrews 12 or it says that everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that only those things which cannot be shaken will remain and through a series of Providence's it looked as though I would not be able to come because frankly we just felt impressed to stay in New Zealand and minister to the people there it's a very unique opportunity to be in that situation with a country in a city that is just absolutely reeling from pain and devastation but in the Providence of God as he would have it we were able to secure our original meeting hall which had been taken over by civil defense and the hall is not available to us until March 15th and prior to the earthquake coming we had about a hundred and twenty-five non-adventist visitors coming now at least several hundred people coming which if you know anything about New Zealand or Christchurch this is an exceedingly wonderful thing and my hope and my prayer is that in the wake of this terrible disaster that our momentum and the momentum of the message of God will not diminish but actually increase when we return and I would solicit your prayers very seriously for that city and for the meetings that we're trying to conduct there so it's a great privilege for me to be here and frankly it's a great privilege for me to be alive right now and it it's just wonderful well one more thing I just want to say here I don't know many of you but I look out and I see a few familiar faces but I see one face in particular that is exceedingly familiar to me and I would be remiss if I did not let you know who he is and the significance that he has had in my life I'm just gonna invite you to come up Josh I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was gonna do that but I thought you'd I thought you would know better than you know get up here anyway this is just how many of you know Josh does anyone here and he works in your building down in archives okay this man is the man that Jesus used to bring me to Christ and to the Adventist message and I just thought I'd just bring him up here and sort of tell you the brief brief story we're both from South Dakota I've not seen him since I've married him I see well I didn't marry you but I married you and I escaped your reception but Josh and I are both from South Dakota and the the short version is is that I was a purple haired blue haired pink haired yellow haired tattooed pierced punk rocker and from Rapid City South Dakota and the town that we live in is just right really in the heart of the beef Belt and a friend of ours a mutual friend a very close friend of Joshua's at the time opened a restaurant called veggies and a very imaginative name for a vegetarian restaurant isn't it and she opened up this restaurant a vegetarian vegan restaurant well in addition to being a purple haired punk rocker I was a vegan strict vegan and all of our punk rock community and our punk rock culture and and cohorts would go into this restaurant and eat and all they were just the weirdest people in the world we thought they were and they'd be like oh look it's brother David you know I just couldn't believe it but anyway in the in the process of time I came to be friends with Joshua because he and I were both rock climbers and I actually arranged to have Bible studies with the lady that owned the restaurant her name is Mary and she sort of sabotaged me and that she angel said he's with me but then she said it's like a blind date she set me up with Josh and Josh and I few know anything about Josh we're like polar opposites just in terms of well for example the cadence with which we speak and so so we would get together for these Bible studies and you know here's Joshua sitting down with his Bible lessons and he would you know give the lessons and I would participate and I'm gonna I'm not going to only stream well it's true it's true that I was very strange as well I just told them my purple here and think here but in the in the in the course of time as the Lord Jesus would have it the great controversy book was placed in my hand and I went away away from the restaurant to University of Wyoming I was studying pre-medicine there and through a series of wonderful providential glorious events I in tragedy at the time but glorious in retrospect I was able to read that book and it was a book that Joshua had given to me and so today I stand before you fifteen years of seventh-day Adventist fifteen years of follower of Jesus because somebody who was studying engineering at a local he wasn't a pastor it wasn't an evangelist wasn't charismatic okay in his own idiosyncratic way we're all of course beautiful in the eyes of God but in other words he wasn't all I'm saying is is that he just wasn't like this you know it wasn't this fast talking you know super amazing dynamic Peter in preacher he was he was just an ordinary person we're all ordinary of course in the size of side of God and extraordinary as well but so anyway it's just a privilege to be here to see Josh there and God has brought us through 15 years of it's just been amazing our friendship has grown such that I can speak to him this way in front of hundreds of people and suffer the consequences later so anyway I just want you to know that the ordinary efforts of ordinary people can bring extraordinary results so thank you so much amen let's say let's just pray briefly together father in heaven I do want to thank you for Joshua and for the work that you have done in his life and the burden that you have put on his heart for Souls father I thank you that by your grace I can be one of those souls that have been one to you and one to the scriptural message and I just pray father that over the course of this week that something that I might say some little crumb of bread that might fall from my lips from the bakery of heaven might be a blessing to someone here and so please father be with us now as we open your word the prayer of our hearts is that you would open us in Jesus name Amen well I decided that what I'd like to be able to speak on what I plan to speak on this week and I hope it's going to scratch where you're itching it's very much scratching where I'm itching and so I just feel like there's there's what's the best way of saying this there is a temptation for me to try and preach some amazing dynamic global encompassing grand you know message but but the message that is really on my heart lately and that I want to share with you is a message that's very simple and yet I believe very profound and it's found in the Sermon on the mountain so go with me to Matthew chapter 5 if you have your Bibles hopefully you do and in the fifth chapter of Matthew of course five six and seven we find the Sermon on the Mount and what I'd like to try and do here is set a little bit of a context now it can be very difficult for us in fact it can be one of the most difficult things for us in the 21st century reading the Bible an ancient book a wonderful book but a book that is very in very many ways sort of cast in ancient language in ancient terms and ancient idioms things that we are not perfectly familiar with now the truths are timeless but often a difficulty for us is that we read the Bible through 21st century eyes that we we view it knowing the end of the story and what I want to try and do if possible this morning is sort of set the context for the Sermon on the Mount scholars more erudite and more capable than I have demonstrated in the Gospel of Matthew Matthew writing to a largely Jewish audience is sort of setting forth in Matthew chapters 1 2 3 and 4 that Jesus is recapitulating or retracing the history of national Israel it's it's it's a well documented reality that there's this sort of correspondence this concurrence between Jesus going through the waters of baptism in Matthew chapter 3 a man named Joseph has dreams and Jesus goes into Egypt in Matthew chapter 2 Matthew chapter 4 Jesus goes through the wilderness experience it quotes three times from the book of Deuteronomy that there's this correspondence between the experience of national his Israel and Jesus own experience as the new Israel well if this motif is correct and I think that there's good reason to believe it is scholars have suggested that what we encounter in Matthew five six and seven the Sermon on the Mount is in many ways a new covenant Sinai in many ways is the lawgiver not changing the law not altering the law but certainly x+ the law explaining the law explicate Allah and we find Jesus here in Matthew 5 6 and 7 atop the mountain and we read it again here with 21st century years 21st century eyes and because we know the end of the story we Accord the words of Jesus a greater significance then probably would have been afforded to him by the people that were originally listening to what he had to say let's let's try try and think let's just try and think here who Jesus would have been and what he would have looked like standing there on or sitting rather on atop this mountain some unnamed mountain hillside is probably more appropriate and speaking to the people of that day well first of all we know that Jesus was a young man we don't know precisely how old but approximately 30 the Bible says he was about thirty and there is an expectation in the air among some that there is something unusual about this rabbi something has set him apart some have heard rumors that water was turned at a certain wedding feast others have heard rumors that at his baptism that there was a some almost discernible voice from heaven something like this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased others denied these basic things but there was a sort of air of electricity and expectancy surrounding this this young man now when Jesus stands before the people he does not have the training he does not have the resume that you would expect him to have to say the kinds of things that he does when Jesus stands before the people here on the new covenant Sinai if we can employ that motif he says some of the most audacious things imaginable in fact there was a particular refrain that comes up in Matthew 5 and it's a refrain that's repeated six times and the refrain will be familiar to those of you who have read it it says you have heard but I say you have heard for example you have heard that it was said by them of old thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever lusteth on a woman looketh on a woman to lust if after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Jesus employs this refrain this this refrain some some six times you have heard but I say you have been hearing you have been hearing from your religious teachers and instructors and but I have something different I want to say to you and so what Jesus does here in in the use of this refrain is he is effectively setting himself over and against the theological expectations and the theological popularity of his day he is setting himself in contre distinction to the people's expectations you have been hearing but I say something different now as 21st century listeners who know that how the story ends we know the death we know the burial we know the resurrection we know the Ascension we can Accord these words a significance that is appropriate but but let's try and hear what these words would have sounded like through first century to first century listeners you have heard but I say what do you imagine might have been the response of some of the people who are hearing that kind of language what might they have thought what is that exactly precisely exactly that their response would have been something like who does this guy think he is I mean really who who is this in fact in the Gospel of Matthew Matthew actually records right there go to chapter 7 look at the last two verses of chapter 7 Matthew actually records the response the basic response of the people to the sayings of Jesus these initial sort of inaugural New Covenant sinai statements of Jesus and in Matthew chapter 7 verses 28 and 29 it says and so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were what does your Bible say the people were astonished at his teaching now what are some synonyms for astonished they were what they were they were amazed they were shocked right were they surprised they were amazed they were surprised they were shocked they were incredulous they couldn't believe what they were hearing now what was the nature of their incredulity what was the nature of their astonishment why were they astonished what what precisely was it that Jesus said or what was the way that he conducted himself that caused this astonishment and this incredulity the very next verse lets us know verse 29 it says for or because he taught them as one what does your Bible say having authority and then he , and puts in in contrast and not as the scribes so the source of astonishment for the people that we're listening there I know we're here General Conference Silver Spring Maryland 21st century but for the people that were on that mountainside that day several hundred no doubt perhaps as many as a thousand or more sitting on that mountainside there was there was something unique there was something special there was something different about the teaching of Jesus and Matthew wants you to know that the response the general response was one of astonishment one of incredulity one of surprise and then he wants you to know that the reason was is because the way that he spoke the way that he taught was as having authority if you and I had been sitting there on that mountainside that day we might have thought something like this we might have thought to ourselves who does this guy think he is I mean seriously who does this guy think he is he talks almost like he's God are you with me now again I remind you that in Jesus cultural situation he's young he's 28 he's 29 years old he is basically a no-name he's he's not gone through the various schools of the scribes and the Pharisees and so he presents himself here in direct contrast through the religious leaders and the religious establishment of his day now let's set a little bit more context here Jesus father Joseph his earthly father was a while what was his vocation he was a carpenter and so we infer I believe accurately and logically that Jesus likely was a carpenter as well okay so we sort of have this mental picture of Jesus now I've often wondered no doubt many of you have as well why the Bible is so so nondescript and and frankly so silent on the time of Jesus life as a young adult as an adolescent there's just very little there we get a little cameo glimpse in Luke where he goes to the temple at the age of 12 but but with that singular exception we basically go from Jesus as a baby Jesus as a boy a very young child rather and all of a sudden we're at Jesus presenting himself in Matthew chapter 3 he's being baptized and there's just this great big vacancy there that we are left to try and put the pieces together well as we put those pieces together in a sanctified weight of course there's a beautiful chapter in desire of Ages that helps to fill in the pieces a little bit more but even that's not exactly explicit I mean there's just a few things there are a few elements there but but we can imagine without too much use of our imagination that Jesus is there and he is sawing at the carpenter's bench we can see him hammering we can see him measuring we can see him stacking wood and so day in and day out we can just sort of imagine Jesus and he's going through the role of being a carpenter all the while knowing from the age of 12 and again this is inferred and Luke - but communicated expressly in the desire of Ages that it was that visits it was that visit when Jesus goes to the temple twelve-year-old boy 12 year old Jewish boy going through the rite of passage here right of maturation he goes to the temple and he sees the lamb being slain and Ellen White says expressly what Luke infers and that is that it was at this visit that he became aware that he was the Paschal Lamb right do we know that so now I want you to think about that for just a moment here here's Jesus at the age of 12 and he suddenly has at some level an awareness that he is the Lamb that he is the Messiah and that it's some in some degree to some extent the destiny of humankind and certainly of the Jewish nation hinges on him he's 12 are we together on this who think that one through so he's a 12 year old boy he returns back of course to the carpenter's bench and so all the while here's Jesus get him in your mind's eye here's Jesus he's sawing he's hammering he's measuring he knows that God has not put him on earth only to be a carpenter that at some point he is going to have to put the saw down he's going to have to put the hammer down he's going to have to put the tape measure down and he's going to have to stack the wood not for the weekend not Friday afternoon for the Sabbath but for good at some point he's going to put those instruments down he's going to take off the garb of a carpenter hang it up and put on some would say audaciously some would say inappropriately the garb of a rabbi and he's going to present himself to Israel as none other than the promised Messiah now I I can imagine in my sanctified imagination here and I'm sure you can imagine with me that Jesus between the age of 12 and about 30 so we'll give him 17 or 18 years would have been thinking about how he would present himself to the people to Israel is that a fair inference in other words it wasn't just a willy-nilly situation hey you know I'm gonna go out and stand in front of the people and tell them you know that I'm no no Jesus would have thought Jesus would have observed Jesus would have been preparing exactly how he would present himself to the nation of Israel as not just an ordinary rabbi but it's none other than the promised messiah so when Jesus comes he's in a bit of a difficult situation because the expectation of the Messiah for first century Jews was an expectation that was entirely incorrect what were they anticipating or what were the Jews hoping for anticipating first century as they looked for the Messiah what what kinds of things would they have thought the Messiah would do anybody want to hazard a guess there an answer okay Romans I heard that what was it liberation primarily an earthly liberation they're looking for an earthly Kingdom they they they have these this sort of expectation that among other things the Messiah will be largely a political militaristic leader who will deliver them from you know this interesting the history of the Jews is basically an uninterrupted succession of being in subjection to other powers whether it's Egypt or Assyria or the the Greeks or now the Romans or the Babylonians and so there's this sort of ethos that's just part of the Jewish psyche first century and I suppose to some degree perhaps even today that that we need a deliverer and this deliverer will come and in first century context he will deliver us from from the bondage and the oppression that we experience under Rome's yoke and so there's this expectation it's a popular expectation but it's it's not a correct expectation and here comes Jesus and he has to walk and I think we sometimes be able to appreciate Jesus as a man and the very difficult tightrope that he would have had to walk to be a blessing and to actually represent his father aright and his mission aright but not be caught up in the expectations of the people now so further set the context here the the sort of groups of people that historians and scholars and others have have identified as being the primary groups of people in first century Jew some ancient Palestine that had these various expectations two of them would be very familiar with because we encounter them frequently in the New Testament they would be the Pharisees and the Sadducees for for very simplistic overly simplistic perhaps but sort of the religious conservatives the isolationists and then the religious liberals the sort of more familiar with and comfortable with the Roman rule and the Roman hierarchical situation and then we would have that these two groups would be very familiar with in the New Testament of course they both though enemies of one another theologically philosophically even socially they would lead together because they both were threatened by Jesus for different reasons we don't have time to develop that I wish we did but then over here we have two other groups that we would have heard of probably before but which don't really feature in the New Testament with one small exception they would be the Essenes and the zealots the Essenes and the zealots the the zealots we'll take them first the Bible mentions Simon the zealot and so some have suggested that he was part of the zealots proper and may well have been he certainly was zealous and then we have the Essenes and the Essenes were sort of the religiously distinct not I'm not just interested but certainly jaded they were sort of the hippies of first century Palestine they moved off in their various you know communes and they lived out the Quranic community of which the Dead Sea Scrolls have come to us were in a scenic community and so that everybody had an expectation though they were all of them each of these different groups the Pharisees the Sadducees these scenes and the zealots each of them are frankly trying to deal they're trying to cope with the cognitive dissonance that comes from believing in your heart of hearts that we are the chosen people of God and yet looking at your actual history that the picture that emerges from what you believe and what you see is an incongruous picture and anytime the human mind doesn't like discontinuity it's just a well-established psychological even sociological effect so what the human mind does is he the human mind tries to bring coherency and koujun see and consistency into things that are otherwise in or disparate and each of these four entities and of course then you have the outside of these groups you would have the Gentiles both God fears and the sort of run-of-the-mill Gentiles but just dealing with the Jewish expectation of the Messiah every one of them is more or less dealing philosophically theological II and even culturally and socially as well as psychologically with their actual history and what they believe in their hearts probably not unlike what we sometimes wrestle with if I could be so bold we are the chosen people of God we we believe we're the remnant Church and we have all of these things but then we sort of look we think ma'am you know lots of people I meet don't even know what a seventh-day Adventist is that's a little tricky and though our history wouldn't be exactly analogous to theirs but at least at some point there'd be a point of connectivity where what we see is very different with what we believe so the Pharisees they sort of internalize they become sort of isolationist and they find comfort and theological and psychological sort of I don't know word iComfort I guess is the word here by looking inward ly they become increasingly isolationist increasingly insular and they really dive into the guts of Jewishness and isolate themselves increasingly from those around them this is Pharisee ISM the Sadducees deal with this cognitive dissonance in a very different way denial of certain elements of Scripture and a currying favor with the Romans in a sort of worldly wise way so they basically say you can't beat them join them these are the Sadducees and the Romans of course look with favor upon the Sadducees because of this sort of relationship that they have they were the kind of cultural elite they would have been the fashionistas and the the academics of their day in many ways then the Essenes they're just so jaded by the whole thing they've just moved out into the bush their way of dealing with the absence of the Messiah and the coming of the Messiah and the historical and contemporary situation of Judaism is just to get away they've just moved out into the bush so to speak and then the zealots of course are going to try and do through militaristic means not unlike Maccabees and the Maccabee revolt they're going to try and bring about the the the reign of God and usher in the Messiah as it were through militaristic means and so this is the sort of cauldron of cultural theological psychological confusion that Jesus comes into and so to use the analogy again of of the tightrope Jesus is in a very difficult situation here we can understand why he didn't go to the various schools of the scribes and the Pharisees because even his language would have become their language his ideas would have become their ideas Jesus had to choose the language that he used with such precision and such care that he didn't understood clearly illogically then he's a Pharisee if he could be linked in with the said people were trying to put him in a place they were trying to put them in a box who is this guy so there's Jesus in your mind's eye hopefully you can see him hopefully the picture painted here is giving us some some taste some feel for what Jesus would have been encountering as he stood there on the new covenant Sinai preparing to address his people with full conviction of heart that he is the Messiah and that he has been sent to bring the true message of God to a people who through a variety of psychological social and theological means are trying to cope with this cognitive dissonance of what we see and what we believe what will he say can you imagine a more difficult charged fraught with with potential disaster situation than this so Jesus stands there on the new new Sinai and he opens his mouth what will he say what will he say flatter the prideful hopes of incidentally almost all of these groups with the possible exception of the Sadducees had the same view of the Messiah in terms of a militaristic governmental leader all of them they all had the same expectation so what will Jesus say what's he going to say what cauldron of cultural and Theological confusion into which he's called to speak Jesus would have thought about this for years Jesus would have been very observant of the of the situation of first century Judaism and and yes he's sawing but he's thinking and yes he's measuring but he's thinking and yes he's hammering but he's thinking because one day the carpenter garb will go off and in an audacious act he will put on the garb of a rabbi and he will stand before the people on the new Sinai and he will say something but what will he say the Bible says and he opened his mouth and taught them saying and here we go 20 years in preparation this wasn't a fly by the seat of the pants sort of serendipitous hey let's just let's roll with it no no no no no this is 20 years in preparation and he stands before the people these words are perfectly calculated to do a variety of things which we'll talk about briefly he says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now we hear those words and they're very nice they're very almost innocuous they're just they're nice they're sweet they're the kinds of words to use an illustration that I've employed before they're the kinds of words that the ladies might be inclined and maybe men as well to cross-stitch oh that's so nice I like it's so quaint it's so oh so lapidary I just I will just cross stitch that blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and there's a little blue bird here in the corner and here's a little sunshine and and and then we're gonna sort of put that nice cross stitch with a beautiful frame in pink and lavender tones and we're going to put it over the toilet in the guest bathroom right so it's just so nice it's Hershey Kisses it's it's sweet it's always in that nice blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven um beloved it would not be an under it would not be an overstatement to say that these words were an atomic bomb in first century Judaism in the words of Ellen White the inimitable words of Ellen White here she says that these words there you are listening right there you are you're sitting on the mountainside waiting and there's a hush there's a quiet there's a sort of expectancy in the crowd and you're waiting you're listening you're climbing there perhaps on your blanket and you have an expectation and Jesus first words his calculated words eight twenty years in preparation are blessed are the poor in spirit Ellen White says that these words fell as something strange and new on the ears of the people so for us you know they're hanging above the toilet in the guest bathroom but for first-century hears she says it was like something that it was like it was like nothing that they had ever heard before from the rabbis blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven to use an analogy it's like a bomb kaboom totally up ending in a very non flattering way the various expectations that people had about Jewishness about the Messiah and about God in general and the words of D Martin lloyd-jones many of you would know who that is he says that this this single beatitude this is somebody who dedicated the years of his life preaching the the book of Romans I have that set in my library some 16 volumes of about 300 to 500 pages each I mean dedicated his whole life in fact to preaching the the various truths of righteousness by faith and and a set about that big on the book of Romans Romans the great epistle the great righteousness by faith queen of the epistles and and D Martyn lloyd-jones says that in this single beatitude we have the single greatest articulation of the truth of righteousness by faith in all of Scripture blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Jesus has said one sentence and already the whole theological establishment of the Pharisees the Sadducees the Essenes and the zealots is crumbling he's just getting started he has literally we think of Jesus as being radical because he went into the temple and all he turned over tables well that was a radical act beloved let me tell you before he ever turned over tables he was overturning ideas overturning tables was was was it just incidental to the much larger thing that Jesus was doing and that was overturning the tables in the minds of people walking that very precarious very difficult very awkward tightrope between the expectations of the people in the expectation of God and he opens his mouth and he says heaven is for sinners whoa What did he say strange and new totally unanticipated and frankly totally not understood they've already tuned out Jesus they're listening oh this is so now what a beautiful day blessed are the poor in spirit static noise white noise the whole thing is just gone it's just it's just collapsing all but Jesus continues now what I'd like to hone in on here very simply is this everybody's spiritual journey whether you're at the General Conference or you're sitting under a tree in Africa everybody's spiritual journey begins at the same place a recognition of total spiritual impoverishment and that's where Jesus began that is where Jesus began Jesus began at that place and notice the very first thing that he speaks about is the issue of the kingdom which we'll talk about tomorrow he deals with the issue of the kingdom because there was a certain expectation of the kingdom and the first thing out of Jesus mouth here it has to do with the kingdom listen to the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven this is this is a matthew term and that's a in term the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of heaven mark doesn't lose use it Luke doesn't use it John doesn't use it this is Matthew's term the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of heaven the expectation surrounding the kingdom would have been totally radically in contradiction to what Jesus is saying Jesus begins where we all have to begin with a recognition of our total spiritual poverty everybody begins there everybody begins there Isaiah goes into the temple right Isaiah goes into the temple this is Isaiah the prophet Isaiah the prophet you go read the first 1 2 3 4 5 chapters of Isaiah and Isaiah has a favorite word right his favorite word is whoa he says it over and over again you go read it and I say 1 2 3 4 and 5 woe to the sinners woe to you who join house to house woe to you Jerusalem you like Sodom and Gomorrah woe to all of you just over and over again it's his favorite word he uses it like eight times woe to the sinners but then something very interesting happens that same Isiah woe to you he goes in in Isaiah chapter 6 and he sees the Lord of Hosts high and lifted up and you know what he says now yeah he says woe is me because I am undone literally naked ruined what was me because I am undone and I am a man of unclean lips and lo and behold I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips the admission here that Isaiah sees himself on the very same ground as everyone else is a radical admission in the words of Illinois Isiah imagined himself in a righteous state before God she says it before he saw God he Isaiah's spiritual journey had to begin right here his true walk to Jesus is his authentic journey not his pretended journey not his imaginary journey not the artificial convention that he invented in his mind many of us have this in our mind your journey begins when you see that you are a man of unclean lips and you dwell amongst the people of unclean lips that you are a sinner in need of a savior all of the fish come pouring into the boat of G Peter all of the fish come pouring in and Peter's response is is identical to the response of every person who has an authentic encounter with the Living Christ to depart from me Lord because I am a do you remember what is it I am am sinful man depart from me Lord I am a sinful man the love of the message today is so simple it's just so amazing where there are thousands perhaps even hundreds of thousands of words in the Bible I've never counted them but it's it's amazing to think that in a single verse in a single verse the whole essence of the the inauguration the beginning of everyone's spiritual journey is in those words blessed are the poor in spirit and allow me a little Liberty here for heaven is their home the message this morning is a very simple one and I hope a very profound one tomorrow we're going to walk our way through the Beatitudes but today today beloved every one of us people asked me if I was nervous about coming to the General Conference are you nervous why should I be nervous you put your pants on the same way that I do why should I I'm confused why should I be nervous you're a person just like me yeah you have to brush your teeth right you have to take showers you're a part you're just like me why should I be nervous your love at the point is this everyone everyone whether we help and many times as Ministers people like myself and others many of you we get a free pass we get of a free a bit of a free pass people have the expectation that we are connected with God that we are spiritual after all we're paid to be spiritual this is our job is to be spiritual and and we sometimes have the expectation of ourselves that we are spiritual but but the reality is is that every single one of us needs an encounter with the Living Christ we all need an encounter with Jesus and so from from the the the the person just sitting under the young boy sitting under the tree in Africa to to the very uppermost echelons of the seventh-day Adventist Church and everybody in between Jesus I think he would say something very similar to us today he would stand before us today as we sit on this mountainside and he would say blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those that recognise their spiritual poverty because heaven is made for people like them this morning the message that I want to communicate and it's so clear it's not as though it needs to be reviewed here but it's just very simple that for me this week and in my life this is the message that I'm resonating with this is where I'm at is that that I'm a sinner a redeemed sinner and as yet unclarified Center but a sinner who needs the grace of Christ in my daily experience I might get a free pass for the people that I preach to because hey I'm the preacher hey I'm the preacher look at how spiritual I am look at that huh I might get a free pass but you see in the morning I still got to come to Jesus I get a free pass with people but I got to come to my Savior he knows I'm a sinner he knows that I have needs and I have weaknesses and I have inconsistencies that I have hypocrisy that I have failures that I have frustrations with my children and with my wife and with my with my family and he knows so I got to come to Jesus and when I come to Jesus in the morning when I come to Jesus at the beginning of this week of spiritual emphasis I have to hear those words before I can progress I have to hear those words David heaven is for people just like you blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven beloved let's begin this week of spiritual emphasis let's begin the rest of our lives by recognizing our total spiritual impoverishment before God because that's where everybody's journey has to begin growth is only possible from here from this place Amen father in heaven it is the morning and we would ask that you would be faithful and answering the prayer that Matt and Josie have sung but we all have sung in our hearts with them show us your mercy father we are not righteous and this puts us in a place to recognize as Isaiah did that you are righteous that you are the Lord of hosts father the Seraphim around you covering their own eyes their own feet father what posture should we take so this morning we come before you many of us preachers and teachers and scholars all of us working in some spiritual capacity father what a privilege it is to be in ministry and father I just pray that you would remind us again this morning afresh that sinners though we be poor in spirit though we be spiritually impoverished though we be that heaven was made with people like us in mind father thank you for the words of Jesus thank you that our spiritual journey does not end here but it certainly begins here father bring us every day to the foot of the cross and to the feet of him who hung on the cross worthy worthy is the lamb in jesus name amen

Channel: Normandie Ave SDA Church

Views: 8,455

Rating: 4.7073169 out of 5

Keywords: David, Asscherick, HOPE, CHANNEL, Prayer, SDA, Seventh, Day, Adventist, Christian, Sermon

Id: L5srRx-MkRk

Length: 48min 46sec (2926 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2011