A guest preacher that y'all may know or you may not know. His name is john king. But before, before I speak, we're gonna pray for Carrie and we want to pray for Kerry broke his arm up his left his left arm up high, right. And they they're talking about possibly doing shoulder reconstruction? Have they decided to not do that? Or? No, no. Okay. They won't know anything at all, if you didn't hear that till Tuesday afternoon. So let's just pray. Let's just pray for carry together. Father. Jesus, thank you that what Nathan just said, Thank you so much, Lord, that, that you died so that we don't have to be alone, that wherever we're at, we can just say, Father, and you're there, and you're listening to us, God. Just thank you for that. That's just that's so powerful Lord. And Lord, whenever we come to you for carry, we recognize that you are father, you're not far away. You're not some distant God. You love Carrie more than any of us. And so Lord, we just ask for complete and total healing and restoration father, now that every bit of pain, Lord will subside, and that Lord, that your kingdom, your glorious kingdom, the power of your kingdom, would just rest upon Carrie Lord, and I pray that you would give him Lord joy, even though it's probably really annoying being there and being there by yourself an awful lot, Lord, but I just pray that he would draw even closer to you that you would give him joy, even in the heart, the hard time that he's in father. And I just pray just for complete restoration. Because you're restoring God, that's who you are. So we just speak that truth over his body in Jesus name, amen. So I'll give a round of applause for Mr. Kane.
Back when john was had scheduled his vacation, he said, Would you preach for me one of the Sundays, and he said, I'll be there the second Sunday. So I'd really like it if you just wait. And he gave the last week to David and wanted me to preach so he could hear it. I don't know what that says David, other than he wanted to hear it. But there have been some things that have happened since then that have impacted today and the topic and I'm thankful that the John's able to be here. Today's my brother, Mark and I are here, our first Father's Day Without her dad. We're thankful they live to be 91. And we had him for so many years, a lot of influence on us, most of it good. And I really do mean that. But he did have some moments like we all do that.
We took with a grain of salt and with grace, and recognized his heart was good. Even when he said things that we didn't necessarily agree with.
Today, I want to look at three passages from Matthew's Gospel. The first one comes from the second part of his gospel, I think Matthew's Gospel is divided by Matthew into three sections by the use of a phrase that he repeats twice. The first time he says it is in chapter four, verse 17, the second time in chapter 16, verse 21. And in the nrv, that phrase is translated from that time on Jesus began to the first section, his character, his nature, his identity, as a man, the son of man, his own favorite self reference. Who is this man? He's a son of David. So he's fully man. But he's also revealed to be the Son of God. Now, that's hard to wrap my feeble brain around. But that's Matthew's declaration, in his revealing the story of Jesus in His gospel then in chapter For verse 17, from that time on Jesus began to he moves into his ministry. And it's according to Matthew threefold preaching or proclamation, teaching, explaining, showing us the depth of the kingdom and healing the sick. That's Matthew's threefold summary statement of what Jesus ministry focuses on. Proclamation. The kingdom is at hand, teaching about the nature of the kingdom, pervasive, invasive, transformative nature of the kingdom, and healing as a physical demonstration, of his role of setting the captives free, he and Luke reveal that information about Jesus but they do it from different ways. Luke starts in chapter four with that declaration out of Isaiah that he's calm to set the captives free. Personally, I'm thankful for Juneteenth being declared a national holiday. It's a tragic, historical event. Slavery is one of our great national tragedies. And that a full two years after the emancipation Declaration was signed, that proclamation was signed, soldiers go to Texas, and hundreds of 1000s of slaves are finally set free. That's what June 19 is set up to remind us of and I think as Jesus following people, setting the captives free ought to be something we celebrate.
Matthew reveals this character of the kingdom through healing stories, where he addresses the physical bondage of spiritual dynamics, being overcome by the power of the kingdom. And Jesus doesn't heal in just one way he does it in all kinds of ways. There are times he sits on the ground, make some mud rubs it on the guys, I tell him to go wash. You know, following Jesus in this matter of healing is a little more complicated than sometimes we give it credit for. If we're following closely with Matthew, that's not to say we shouldn't be about that business. If we're going to follow Jesus, proclamation, teaching, healing, those are things we're going to look at, we're going to evaluate, we're going to consider how do they apply to our lives?
chapter four, verse 17, through chapter 16, verse 20, this ministry threefold ministry, preaching, teaching, healing. And then in 1621, that's that famous passage right after the part we usually quote where Jesus asked who do people say I am? And some said, well, you're one of the prophets come back from the dead, Elijah, you know, one of the others. And then he says, well, who do you say I am? And Peter steps forward, as the spokesman for the 12 and says, You are the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one that we've been looking for. And Jesus said, bless it, are you son of Simon, Simon, Jonah, son of Jonah, bar, Jonah, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven, and that's a major theme throughout Matthew's Gospel, who you're listening to. Who are you receiving your information from? Who is this man? What is his ministry? What is his mission? And rot in that critical point of the profession of faith from Peter. Matthew says, From that time on, Jesus began to tell them that he was going to go to Jerusalem suffer and die there. And it's at that very moment right after he's been praised. That Peter says you're Wow, Jesus, St. john king paraphrase.
And Peter, Jesus speaks those thinking words get Get behind Me, Satan. You don't have in mind the things of God. Who are you following? Who are you listening to. And then that third section Jesus opens up and declares ahead of time the mission. And because the 12 don't get it, all the way up to the end, there the strange passages in Matthew's Gospel where he tells them Don't tell anybody about this Mount of Transfiguration, one of the most incredible encounters from a spiritual revelation point and on the way down, he's saying, don't tell anybody. Because you see, they'll miss us the identity of Jesus and this opening that they've received, because they don't have room for his mission. The idea of a suffering servant was foreign, to the 12, all the way up to the cross. And beyond to the point of his resurrection, and their own personal encounter with the resurrected Lord, the Anointed One dying as a common criminal. What an outrage. What an impossibility. With probably too long an introduction, and that's what it really was an overview of some of Matthew's Gospel, I want us to drop in on three passages, the first in that teaching section. And the second two in that last missional section. If you have your Bibles, you want to turn Matthew 13. One following is where I'll be reading. Actually, I'm not going to start in verse one. But that's that's where this section, there are seven parables recorded in Matthew chapter 13. There's the parable that we often refer to as the sower. That's chapter 13, verses one through 23, the parable and its explanation. Then there's the parable, the weeds in chapter 13, beginning of verse 24. And going up to verse 30. And then later, there's an explanation of that parable also. It's verses 36 through 43. And in between, there's the parable of the mustard seed, and the parable of the yeast. And the explanation of the weeds is followed by the hidden treasure in the pearl. And at the end is there is this parable of the net? I want to focus on the parable of the weeds. And there's one section that I want to especially draw your attention to. Hopefully, I'm not making too much of this. But it's relevant to the context for my sermon today. And no, I haven't revealed what that is yet. Matthew 13 verse 24, Jesus told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away when the wheat sprouted and formed heads. Then the weeds also appeared. The owner servants came to him and said, Sir, didn't you sow good seed?
in your field, where the hindered the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered. Because while you're pulling the weeds, you may route up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest at that time, I will tell the harvesters first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn. Okay, usually at this point, preacher start expounding. But beautiful thing is Matthew gives us Jesus own expounding a section later, verse 36. He left the crowd and went into the house so the crowd doesn't get Jesus expounding. This is insider information. Being close to Jesus is significant. You get some extra insight. Will you stay close enough to not miss it? He left the crowds went into the house, his disciples came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. He answered the one who sowed the good seed is the son of man. Okay, geez saying what about this? He's saying, I'm talking about myself. I have been sowing good seed. The field is the world. And the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. God's children, God's heirs, the weeds are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sews them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age. And the harvesters are angels, as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age, the Son of Man will send out his angels, they will weed out his kingdom, out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears?
Let him hear when you raise the question the problem of evil. I think this is a passage that needs to be
pondered at least a bit. In our modern rationalistic world, we often lose sight the spiritual dynamic that we live in. Because we're so focused on the physical. We live much of our life with little or no recognition that there is an evil one. Let me propose something for you. I'm not going to give you a test on this and I'm not going to require it and you may go out of here scratching your head and saying what in the world is he talking about? A little bit of an aside. But the phrase God is love? What does that mean biblically? Now what I hear a lot and what I read a lot, especially in social media, which I know isn't the best place to go for your theological insights. Great. Greg's like his eyes, you know? Surely you got a better place to go john and this.
what that says is, God does things that qualify in my book of love.
God never goes beyond anything that I couldn't imagine being loving.
Love is bigger than God. In that cultural uses of the phrase God is love. God is always measured by something external to himself.
And that is an affront to Biblical theology. In my studied opinion, God gives us the definition of love from within his own character. And if I encounter episodes within his word that are shocking to my modern sensibilities,
maybe I need to reconsider my modern sensibilities. As much as I consider my vision of God. You can't start with an external definition of love. And judge God by that and get away with it biblically. It's an affront to His sovereignty. It's an affront to His grace, it's an affront to His Holiness that we were singing about.
I set a 35 minute alarm, so I'm gonna have to pick up the pace. I don't want to be here all day. And I know you don't. There are other folks have this building schedule for later on the teams this evening. And, you know, I want to get you to turn with me hold you place there and Matthew and let's go over to Isaiah 45. And notice a few verses. I suspect pretty much everybody knows that I'm attempting to turn wood bowls. And this passage sort of makes me chuckle sometimes, when I'm turning a bowl, the different picture is it's a potter and the clay and a conversation going on between the clay and the potter is sort of the the picture verse nine as a 45, Woe to him who quarrels with his maker. To him who is but up potsherd among the pot shirts on the ground. If you ever go to Israel, one of the things you're going to see if you go to a dig site is there going to be piles of potsherds those a little broken pieces. Now, the archaeologists will analyze those to see if they have any writing on them. Because after a pots broken, sometimes poor people write important stuff down on it's their note paper. You know, the scraps of paper that some of you folks Save, and you meticulously cut it and you make your notepads out of some of you're looking at me like there's nobody that really does that. There are some people in here who do that I know them by name.
God says of some of the people who are questioning him, you're a broken pot. sure you're a scrap of pot, a pottery and any raises this rhetorical question, does the clay say to the potter? What are you making? Can you imagine a beautiful piece of black walnut saying I don't want to be a bow. I want to be a vase. So they'll put me on a shelf high in the living room, and nobody will ever pour something into me. You know, if I'm a bowl, some kid might grab me and put his milk and cereal in there. And that would just be so beneath my dignity. Okay, some of your chuckling I think you're hearing this passage. In something of it's an original intent. This this is a ludicrous idea. That's the clay say. The Potter has no hands. You don't get pottery if there's no hands on the potter. And notice when it goes a little further woe to him who says to his father, what have you gotten?
Or to his mother? What have you brought to birth? This is what y'all would He says the Holy One of Israel and its maker concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands. It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens are marshaled their story host. And then he goes on to talk about the actual point of this word picture. I will raise up Cyrus, in my righteousness. If you dig into Cyrus, there's a whole lot about him that he's not a real good guy. He's not the guy you want for your king. But he's a significant God, Israel's history because he's the one that God's going to use to bring Israel back out of captivity into the promised land. And they'll be able to rebuild the temple. God's sovereignty is on display. Where does evil come from? It's not from God. It's not the work of his hands. Jesus, the Son of God, God in flesh says there's an enemy who's sowing seed in the world. Don't blame me, don't blame the Father. That's my paraphrase of the implication of this passage. When you look at our world, and you grieve deeply because of sin that you see. Remember, there's a spiritual warfare going on. Jesus Himself gives us this insight in this section of teaching. Well, then turn with me to Matthew 18. We're going to spend the least amount of time with this passage of the three. But I think it's important for me to call attention to it. I personally believe it's the most disobeyed passage in all of the church's history, from Jesus on mouth. That's a big statement from such a limited life. But if my experience is any indication of it, we don't like listening to Jesus in this chapter. Matthew 1815, if your brother sins against you, go tell the whole church whispered around town. Make sure everybody knows it before you ever have a conversation with him. Now you know that passage better than that. If your brother sins against you go and show him his fall just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you've won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen to even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth, will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you asked for it will be done for you by my Father in heaven, for where two or three come together in my name. There I am with them. Now, those last two verses often get disconnected from their immediate context. And I'm concerned that there are things that are said that aren't true. If they're not what Jesus was addressing. He's talking about the dynamic of relationship being close enough within a faith community. That two or three coming to me and pointing out my sin after one of them has pointed out my sin should be
significant enough that it makes a change. But I know experientially when you reverse the order. It doesn't go well. So, starting towards something of a pragmatic. So what answer to this first two passages. If If I'm observing things that I think are coming from the enemy rather than from Jesus, I'm going to be careful in my dealings with them that I don't damage. Wheat. I spent enough years as a professional weed puller. A lot of my training in Bible college was geared toward identifying sin and rebellion and pointing it out and taking it to task. And living up to my name. JOHN, one of those Sons of Thunder. Some of you say I can't imagine you being that way, john, you just haven't seen me my best moments, my worst moments. Some of those early years. I have four brothers six years from the oldest to the youngest. I'm number two in the list marks. Number four, we joke about being the evens, the others of the odds. But that's an inside family joke. None of the others are here.
We did what boys often do lots of wrestling, lots of scrapping lots of arguing lots of shouting each other down. I'm, I've got years of experience at it. I know how to do it. I know how to take the cheap shots. I know how to punch below the belt. But I can't do those things that good conscious and follow Jesus. And then here in this chapter, Jesus says, john, if you've got a problem with a brother start with a face to face conversation with just him and you. Lot of the brokenness in our world, I'm convinced would be reduced in its magnitude. If we could find ways to do that. Nuff said. Look in chapter 19. Beginning verse one, that third passage, it's the second in this missional section. Matthew 19 verse one. When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee. So a lot of this teaching 1314 1516 1718 is up in the region, the northern region around the Sea of Galilee, the backwaters, he's now transitioning to the power base for Judaism. In the first century. He left Galilee went to the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. He hadn't crossed back over he's avoided some area on this trip. Unlike some other trips, we know he takes large crowds followed him and he healed them there. Notice I said this is in the third section, he doesn't stop doing the preaching, teaching and healing. In the third section, he adds on to it. This explaining his mission. It's an additional element of the revelation. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They ask Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?
In my early days of trying out for ministries, this was a question I expected to be asked. In all honesty, some of you look at me like what you see when we pulling is the mark of faithfulness. Their responsibility is to check you out on all the big issues, divorce and remarriage
Discussions within churches was the rage. We're not going to talk about divorce today. I'm going to read a little bit about it. But I want you to know where Jesus goes to answer a question when he's tested.
Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife or any and every reason? Haven't you read, he replied, that at the beginning, the creator made them male and female. And said, For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they're no longer two, but one, therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate.
Jesus goes all the way back to the beginning, the creation. Now, let me get you that give you the context for this sermon.
Some of you have already heard and others this is new news for you. A few weeks ago, someone who I will leave unnamed, posted on someone else's Facebook wall that I will leave unnamed. A question about stones, rivers leadership, where do we stand on gay pride.
And there were some who felt like one of the shepherds or maybe all of the shepherds ought to step up and write a response and post it on Facebook, even though Facebook's not the place for this discussion.
So here's the dilemma. What do you do when you're being tested? If you're following Jesus, I find it insightful where he went, he went back to the beginning.
And in this topic, I would have to go back to the beginning. God created male and female. I'm not going to rant I'm not going to rave, I'm not going to holler I'm not going to castigate. But I can't let go of that reality. Every single human body has 23 pairs of chromosomes 46 total. And the last pair is either x x or x, y. And that determines sexuality. And Jesus says in this passage God created male and female. There's a lot of confusion in our world on this topic.
But if you're going to hold on to God's word, you're going to have to grapple with that passage. And its implications on this subject matter. Very much in agreement with David last week, hatred is not the way forward. It doesn't model Jesus. hateful words. Don't model Jesus. Our grandmother who helped raise us sometimes would point out to us when we were being pretty biting in our comments with each other boys, you'll get a lot more flies with honey than you will with vinegar.
You want to have a meaningful interaction with a person who's very different from you who approaches some of these topics very differently from you. You don't start at the point of conflict. Invest enough time to find the places that we Cherian. in overtime, you build a foundation that allows you to address you're going to have to eventually address these matters if that relationship is to proceed. That's my studied conviction on the basis of trying to follow Jesus. He's my exemplar, he's the one that I want to look to, and listen to, and try to follow to the best of my feeble abilities.
But I want to be a little bit more personal. This This topic is painful for me on a number of fronts, but there's one I've never shared here.
As a matter of fact, I've only shared it twice. On the other side of Rutherford County, 50 years ago, I was sexually molested by a sexual predator.
I blocked it out of my memory as much as I could. I grappled with the shame of it. I was never tempted toward homosexual behavior. I was so repulsed, that my temptation was heterosexual. I'll be transparent. That's that's probably enough details. There's some kiddos in here.
But I cannot celebrate gay pride. And I'm concerned, deeply personally concerned that our culture is precariously close to the point where pedophilia will be defined as a protected lifestyle choice. Because the same defense is used for it. As is used for many of these other things that are being celebrated. I was born this way. Or going even further, God made me this way. I care deeply about people out there. But I care even more about you, your sheep that I'm responsible to help Shepherd I beg you from the depths of my heart, do not let go of God's Word in this discussion. dig in to the harder parts. Explore, discuss, seek counsel. Don't give up on what God's word says. want to close with one last verse, john, chapter one. If the praise team the band wants to come on up. now's a good time. I really am going to stop. Yeah, I know I've run will pass my alarm. It's less than 45 minutes probably at this point. I don't know. Don't want to look.
Speaking of john the baptist, the apostle john records, john testifies. This is john first. This is john the gospel, chapter one. Verse 15. JOHN testifies concerning him Jesus, he cries out saying, this was he of whom I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. From the fullness of His grace. We've all received one blessing after another, for the law was given through Moses. What a what a good thing it was for Israel. The law was given through Moses. grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. To hold on to grace, extend grace, practice grace. But don't let go of truth. Whatever your answers to these thorny questions become, don't let go of either one of these.
This guitar you know where the weakest point is on a guitar.
This joint right in under here there are hundreds of pounds of pressure on those six strings. And if that joint is weak it'll snap. Or worse yet, it just won't ever be able to be held in the proper tension to produce the music It was designed for grace and truth sometimes feel like there's a lot of tension on these and I'd really like to let go of one of them and go to the other please, please don't do it. Father you know how broken we are, you know, our hidden places of trauma. You know, our triggers, you know, the, the hurts and the fears and the anks we bring to these things. We praise you for your Holy Spirit. That you've not left us alone. And oh, Lord Jesus, we praise you that you hold grace and truth together. And we want to run hard after you to learn both better and to hold them in perfect harmony. Jesus I pray amen.
