back to index2018-12-02 Summary of the Gospel Part 1
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If you could turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 16, we're going to be wrapping up 00:00:08.560 |
the book of Romans in the next four or five months. 00:00:20.520 |
So we're going to be wrapping up this week and then next week, and then we're going to 00:00:24.280 |
be taking a short break from the systematic study, and we're going to be jumping into 00:00:28.440 |
the book of Hebrews, probably after we come back from India. 00:00:34.520 |
And again, if there's just to kind of give you a plug, you know, Hebrews is a book that 00:00:40.160 |
kind of connects the Old Testament with the New Testament. 00:00:42.340 |
And since we've just studied the book of Leviticus, and it will be a tremendous help for us to 00:00:47.680 |
see how that is applied and fulfilled in Christ in the book of Hebrews. 00:00:51.480 |
So we're going to start that in in February, but we're going to be wrapping this up and 00:00:56.560 |
preparing ourselves for Christmas season after this. 00:01:01.960 |
Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, 00:01:07.520 |
according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, 00:01:12.240 |
but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment 00:01:15.680 |
of the eternal life has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith 00:01:20.600 |
to the only wise God through Jesus Christ be glory forever. 00:01:35.500 |
We thank you, Father God, for opening our eyes to see that you are real. 00:01:41.480 |
We thank you, Father God, for allowing us and causing us to put our trust in you. 00:01:48.120 |
I pray, Father, that your living water is what we are coming and continue to seek. 00:01:58.480 |
Help us to be satisfied, Lord God, with the bread of Christ. 00:02:03.720 |
We ask that our communion service, Lord, would be honorable to you and that Christ's name 00:02:08.440 |
and what he has done may be exalted as a result. 00:02:15.000 |
So, as you guys know, we've been in the book of Romans for about three and a half years. 00:02:19.380 |
If you looked at some of the questions that I posted up yesterday on Facebook, I asked 00:02:23.720 |
you to go and look at Romans chapter 1, 1 through 17 and compare it with the way that 00:02:30.120 |
And the reason why I asked you to do that is because Paul basically is ending the letter 00:02:36.560 |
So, you know, most of Paul's letters are written systematically. 00:02:42.400 |
And then he has maybe, you know, four or five points he wants to make and then he concludes. 00:02:47.840 |
Even though it's a long letter and it's been three and a half years since we started the 00:02:51.920 |
letter, if you look at the beginning of the letter, he kind of outlines that this is what 00:02:57.720 |
And then at the end of it, you have very similar things that he says and then he kind of concludes 00:03:04.840 |
So, if you look at it, if you took a look at it, you'll see that Paul begins Romans 00:03:09.560 |
chapter 1 through 17 about how the gospel is the power of God, how through the prophets 00:03:15.160 |
and the holy scriptures he made the gospel known, how he was going to bring the obedience 00:03:21.500 |
And as a result of that, the gospel is to be proclaimed and then ultimately it establishes 00:03:27.720 |
And so you'll see all the themes that are mentioned in chapter 1 repeated here in these 00:03:34.400 |
What I want to do for the next couple of weeks is go through the list that I've just mentioned 00:03:38.760 |
that is repeated here, these five things that he says about the gospel. 00:03:43.120 |
So today I'm going to be looking at the first two and then next week we'll be looking at 00:03:49.200 |
The first thing he's talking about, the gospel is the outworking of God's power. 00:03:57.360 |
The gospel is the mystery to be preached and the gospel is the mystery to be obeyed. 00:04:02.160 |
So the last three we'll be dealing with next week. 00:04:07.700 |
This part that we're looking at, the theologians typically call that a doxology. 00:04:12.280 |
And what doxology basically is a short theological statement that is set in repetition or maybe 00:04:19.160 |
a concise form because it was important enough for the early church to memorize. 00:04:23.240 |
So a doxology oftentimes you'll find it in hymns. 00:04:26.720 |
You'll find the exact same wording in other letters and it's repeated. 00:04:30.280 |
So the reason why we know that it's a doxology is because we know these phrases are used 00:04:38.640 |
In other words, it is a condensed version of theology. 00:04:43.520 |
So every part of what he says, he says meaningfully. 00:04:46.580 |
Not that any other part of Book of Romans, anything else he says, he says randomly. 00:04:50.080 |
But in particular, this part of it was probably put to memory and maybe even sung in certain 00:04:59.480 |
Kind of like, you know, when we first go to school, everybody learned their ABCs through 00:05:08.360 |
So if you don't know how to sing that song, you don't speak English. 00:05:12.480 |
So everybody who speaks English, at some point in your education system, you learn the ABCs 00:05:19.840 |
If you've ever learned Greek, we did the same thing. 00:05:23.120 |
Our professors and I realized it wasn't unique to our school. 00:05:26.440 |
And everybody that I talked to who learned Greek learned the Greek song. 00:05:30.240 |
Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, beta, eta, theta, una, kappa, lambda, minute, c, 00:05:37.120 |
omicron, pi, rho, sigma, ti, epsilon, p, q, c, omega. 00:05:43.120 |
So I learned that everybody who learned Greek, at least most people that I know that learned 00:05:49.160 |
Because by putting it in that form, I still remember. 00:05:51.080 |
I have bad memory, but I still remember it because of that. 00:05:57.120 |
It's written because every part of this is significant. 00:05:59.480 |
And that's why it's important for us to take our time to dissect and remember. 00:06:04.160 |
This is kind of a repetition or a summary of what Paul was saying throughout the whole 00:06:11.600 |
First and most important part of the gospel that Paul was talking about is that God is 00:06:22.120 |
The first thing that we need to learn, one, that gospel is the outworking of God's power. 00:06:29.560 |
We can study all about what he has done and the intricacies of that atonement and sacrifice, 00:06:35.860 |
but behind all of that, it is a revelation of who God is. 00:06:40.720 |
And that was the whole point of the revelation of the Old Testament and the New Testament 00:06:45.020 |
If you learn all the secrets about what it means to be saved, what Christ accomplished 00:06:50.200 |
on the cross, and at the end result of that, you don't have a clear vision of who God is. 00:06:57.640 |
First and foremost, we need to recognize that the gospel is the power of God. 00:07:01.080 |
Romans chapter 1, verse 16, it says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power 00:07:12.480 |
Think about when we think about the power of God, there's a whole bunch of things that 00:07:18.320 |
His very creation in the beginning, it was a demonstration of God's power. 00:07:22.520 |
All that you and I know about the universe, it says, by his words, he says, "Let it be," 00:07:29.480 |
I mean, if that isn't the demonstration of God's power, I don't know what is. 00:07:34.800 |
All throughout redemptive history, we see God delivering the nation of Israel from the 00:07:41.120 |
superpower of the Egyptians through these 10 plagues, these miracles. 00:07:48.120 |
Even the superpower couldn't do anything against him. 00:07:50.800 |
As they were escaping, they run into a body of water and he just splits it and causes 00:07:57.680 |
There are periods when we see God stopping the sun for a period. 00:08:02.680 |
So when we think about the power of God, there's all kinds of things that we can choose from. 00:08:07.440 |
And even in Jesus' ministry, he walks on water, he calms a storm, he catches fish, you know, 00:08:16.040 |
So we can think of all types of things that Jesus himself has done to demonstrate his 00:08:20.760 |
power, and yet in Romans 1:16, he says, "It is the gospel that is the power of God for 00:08:29.340 |
We know that in the book of Matthew 9, and I refer to this passage quite a bit because 00:08:34.240 |
when I understood what Jesus was saying and all that was attached to this passage, it 00:08:40.700 |
In Matthew 9, 2-5, that's a passage where the paralytics are taken in front of Jesus, 00:08:48.960 |
So they rip open the house, they drop him below because there's too many people in the 00:08:52.940 |
room, and then this is what Jesus says, "And they brought to him a paralytic lying in a 00:08:58.180 |
bed, seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'Take courage, son, your sins are 00:09:04.700 |
Now, you have to put yourself in their shoes. 00:09:13.460 |
Their problem was they had a friend, a brother or son that couldn't walk. 00:09:21.360 |
So what problem could have been bigger than that? 00:09:25.660 |
If he couldn't walk, I mean, we're not talking about a period of time when there's all kinds 00:09:31.620 |
If you couldn't physically walk, you were basically forced to be out on the street and 00:09:37.860 |
beg, and oftentimes they equate it with some sort of spiritual sin. 00:09:41.660 |
Maybe you or your parents or ancestor did something and you must have deserved this. 00:09:46.260 |
So they didn't really receive much compassion. 00:09:48.960 |
So you can understand why they went through all that trouble to put him in front of Jesus, 00:09:53.820 |
hoping that he would heal him, and instead Jesus says, "Take courage, your sins are forgiven." 00:10:00.680 |
Some of the scribes said to themselves, "This fellow blasphemes. 00:10:06.200 |
We know that you have power to heal, so if you heal him, it's great. 00:10:11.660 |
But how dare you say your sins are forgiven?" 00:10:14.660 |
Jesus knowing this, in verse 4, their thoughts and said, "Why are you thinking evil in your 00:10:21.400 |
Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or say, 'Get up and walk.'" 00:10:26.960 |
Think about who it is that we are talking about. 00:10:30.100 |
The scripture says all things were made by him and for him. 00:10:32.800 |
Not only did he create all things, all things are sustained because of him. 00:10:37.340 |
The very reason why we have enough breath is because Jesus is allowing it. 00:10:43.900 |
When he asked this question, "Which is easier to say, 'Get up and walk,' or say, 'Your 00:10:49.560 |
For Jesus, I mean, what would it take for him to just heal this man? 00:11:01.620 |
He had blind people and just touched them and he would get healed. 00:11:04.620 |
He had a woman who was hemorrhaging for years and all she did was reach out to him and then 00:11:11.980 |
A lame man who couldn't walk and all he did was pick him up and then he is healed. 00:11:17.820 |
So for Jesus to heal this man, all it took for him was to just say the word. 00:11:25.660 |
He asked, "Which is easier, to say, 'Get up,' or to say, 'Your sins are forgiven?'" 00:11:37.940 |
Humanly speaking, when we think of the power of God, we don't necessarily think about 00:11:44.260 |
the gospel and what he has accomplished and what we already have in Christ. 00:11:48.220 |
In fact, you and I are constantly looking for evidence of his power. 00:11:53.420 |
We want him to answer our prayer, we want something miraculous to happen, or we have 00:11:56.900 |
disasters happen and we're praying for God to supernaturally stop and demonstrate his 00:12:01.860 |
But the scripture says the primary demonstration of his power was the gospel. 00:12:09.100 |
You have to understand what it meant for him to say, "Your sins are forgiven." 00:12:13.300 |
That the God of the universe became nothing, humiliated, was crucified on the cross, resurrected 00:12:29.620 |
You have any idea, and I'm sure some of you do, how difficult it is to not to strike somebody 00:12:38.460 |
I don't know if you've ever experienced that. 00:12:42.880 |
Or maybe even slandered you, how hard it is to just not to say anything when somebody 00:12:49.620 |
So when the scripture says, "Turn to your other cheek," I mean, that's not human. 00:12:55.900 |
They'll think you're crazy if somebody hits you and you turn to your other cheek. 00:13:00.300 |
I remember years back, Pastor Peter Chong, he took a group of pastors and we went out 00:13:08.420 |
And when I came back, I shared this story with the church before. 00:13:12.260 |
But I remember very vividly being in the elevator with this old man. 00:13:17.840 |
And we noticed after about two days at this nice fancy hotel that we were at, a lot of 00:13:23.020 |
12, 13, 14 year old, 15 year old young girls running around. 00:13:28.540 |
And what was interesting was they were all connected to some old man. 00:13:36.520 |
And they were just having fun and the girls were there. 00:13:39.180 |
And you could tell that they didn't want to be there, but they were there because that's 00:13:44.020 |
So there was sex trafficking that was happening right in front of us. 00:13:48.260 |
And once we realized what was going on, obviously we were disgusted. 00:13:52.080 |
And even as we were eating, we could see them in the corners coming in and out of the restaurants 00:13:57.220 |
And one day, about five of us were headed up to our rooms and that guy and a young girl 00:14:04.260 |
And the elevator could fit maybe about 15 and there was about six of us and then two 00:14:10.580 |
Some of the guys in the room were pretty big guys, are in the elevator. 00:14:17.100 |
This guy was taking advantage of this young girl because he has money. 00:14:23.100 |
Then he turned around, looked at us and said, "Hey, you guys want to join us? 00:14:26.740 |
We're going to have a party, we're going to have fun." 00:14:28.220 |
You could tell the awkwardness in that girl in that elevator. 00:14:31.100 |
And the whole time, all of us were looking at each other, just restraining ourselves. 00:14:37.100 |
Because we were just one second away from just grabbing this guy. 00:14:42.580 |
And every single one of us, we knew exactly what we were thinking. 00:14:48.660 |
I mean, our natural instinct was to grab him and just choke him. 00:14:57.540 |
And we were just holding back, understanding that that wasn't going to fix the problem. 00:15:12.700 |
So we strained ourselves and then he walked out. 00:15:15.300 |
And as soon as he walked out, we all just kind of sigh of relief. 00:15:21.100 |
And we knew exactly what everyone was thinking. 00:15:24.260 |
We were so disgusted to be in that elevator with this person. 00:15:37.580 |
Seeing his son being brutalized by the very people that he came to die for. 00:15:48.140 |
Watching him getting beaten and then mocked and then nailed on the cross. 00:15:54.900 |
All the while the Father is planning to come and put their sins upon him. 00:16:00.620 |
What power, what restraint did God show for not coming and just whack and just be done 00:16:12.060 |
I know I promised Noah that I would not destroy the world in this way. 00:16:20.340 |
How many times do I need to forgive these people before they listen? 00:16:27.380 |
When we think about the power of God, we think of trivial things in the light of who he is. 00:16:35.860 |
But in order for him to restrain himself from just squashing us, from finishing this earth, 00:16:43.540 |
just destroying the universe and say, "You know what? 00:16:52.780 |
How much power and restraint that he must have shown not to simply end it then. 00:16:59.700 |
But not only did he not end it, he purposed it. 00:17:06.020 |
He drew near to his son and he placed their sins, my sins, upon the son and raises him 00:17:13.900 |
up from the dead and then he reverses the curse. 00:17:19.380 |
And the curse is not reversed for people who are going to live the rest of eternity saying, 00:17:25.660 |
You and I received this salvation by his power and we're constantly forgetting what we have 00:17:32.220 |
So it wasn't that, "Well, he saved us and then wow, the great reward for our God is 00:17:41.100 |
But meanwhile, we're constantly, constantly forgetting what he has done. 00:17:46.500 |
And that's whose sin he died for, mine and yours. 00:17:52.620 |
So when the Bible says that he is able, the greatest demonstration of God's power is in 00:18:02.820 |
We're constantly looking for trivial things, some magical tricks for God to show who he 00:18:09.540 |
But beyond the cross, everything else is trivial if you really understand what happened. 00:18:14.940 |
In 2 Corinthians 9, 8, not only does he save us, the Bible says that he is able to sustain 00:18:21.180 |
He didn't just start this and then save us and say, "You know what? 00:18:26.180 |
In 2 Corinthians 9, 8, it says, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you so 00:18:31.900 |
that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." 00:18:38.020 |
How often do we waste time wondering, "Only if, only if God would give me this, only if 00:18:47.980 |
he would answer my prayer in that, then I would have sufficiency." 00:18:53.700 |
The scripture says, "God is able to make all grace abound to you." 00:18:58.500 |
Any Christian who genuinely believes what it is that he has in Christ and has genuinely 00:19:04.420 |
met him and is living day to day in want, either has severely forgotten who it is that 00:19:17.660 |
A Christian can never come before God and say, "God, I am the way I am because you 00:19:24.060 |
He says, "God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency 00:19:29.100 |
in everything," just in case we missed it, "everything that we need is sufficiently 00:19:49.220 |
What we lack is faith to recognize what it is that we have in God already. 00:19:55.540 |
What we lack is faith because if God is the God that we truly believe, then all the resources, 00:20:03.820 |
everything that you and I could possibly imagine is found in him. 00:20:07.020 |
The reason why we are living day to day in want is because we lack faith to believe that. 00:20:14.260 |
Ephesians 3, 16-20 says that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, 00:20:20.100 |
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man. 00:20:24.780 |
We're always looking for external things to answer our questions. 00:20:29.140 |
We're always looking for circumstances, for people, for opportunities. 00:20:34.820 |
He says, "No, I'm praying that your inner man be strengthened so that Christ may dwell 00:20:45.460 |
If you believe, again Ephesians 1-3 describing about what God has done, if you believe that, 00:20:55.140 |
If you believe in a God who predestined you, elected you, pursued you, and you believe 00:20:59.820 |
in that love, if you believe that, you will be strengthened. 00:21:05.700 |
That you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints 00:21:09.820 |
what is the breadth and length and height and depth and know the love of Christ which 00:21:16.380 |
Any kind of knowledge or study or pursuit, he says, it surpasses all of that, that you 00:21:28.100 |
"Now to him who is able to do far abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according 00:21:42.260 |
If he is able, why do we live our lives in want, constantly thinking only if? 00:21:49.300 |
If I just had this, if we just tweaked that, if I just worked harder, if I just did this. 00:21:56.900 |
If you've been raised in the church and you've been a Christian for a while, if we ask the 00:22:03.100 |
The obvious answer to that knee-jerk reaction is, "Of course I believe. 00:22:11.380 |
I've never been an atheist, so of course I believe." 00:22:15.940 |
But the fundamental question about the gospel is that very question. 00:22:32.660 |
The question is much more profound than that. 00:22:35.940 |
The question is not, "Do you believe that God exists?" 00:22:47.020 |
That he is able to forgive your sins and that he is able to sustain you until glorification? 00:22:52.440 |
Do you believe that he is able or do you think your boss is able? 00:23:02.340 |
Where have you put your confidence outside of God? 00:23:05.380 |
So the fundamental question in our walk with God is, "Do you believe that he is able?" 00:23:14.420 |
Before we make a knee-jerk reaction and say, "Of course we believe." 00:23:25.380 |
Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.12, "For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, 00:23:29.940 |
for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I 00:23:39.340 |
Paul has been beaten, he's sitting in prison, possibly waiting for a death sentence, and 00:23:46.340 |
I know whom I have believed, and I know he is able to guard whatever it is I've given 00:23:56.540 |
Timothy was a, humanly speaking, young, inexperienced, timid, weak guy. 00:24:04.300 |
That's not where his confidence was coming from. 00:24:05.700 |
He says, "I'm confident that what I've entrusted to him, if you entrust it to him, he is able 00:24:13.140 |
He says the same thing in Philippians 1.6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that 00:24:17.660 |
he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." 00:24:25.540 |
Philippians was a great model church, but he says the confidence is not with the Philippians. 00:24:29.180 |
He says, "I am confident that he who began a good work, he will carry it unto completion 00:24:38.220 |
He begins it, he sustains it, and he's the one who ends it. 00:24:43.620 |
That's why, again, this benediction, this doxology in Jude 24, 25, "Now to him who is 00:24:49.180 |
able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless 00:24:55.400 |
To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, 00:24:58.740 |
authority before all time and now and forever." 00:25:00.700 |
Again, in this doxology, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling." 00:25:14.620 |
Our grumblings come because we don't believe there's an answer. 00:25:26.760 |
We want you, we want them, we want this, we want those things to change. 00:25:31.280 |
But if we believe he's able, why do we not go to him first? 00:25:36.600 |
Why do we seek counselors and friends and small groups and accountability? 00:25:40.960 |
Why do we seek all of these things first before we go to the God who is able? 00:25:47.360 |
The whole purpose of all of these things are simply a conduit to get us to God. 00:25:53.300 |
The whole purpose of worship and the whole purpose of fellowship is simply to point us 00:26:02.380 |
And so the fundamental question that we have to ask ourselves every single day, and sometimes 00:26:07.560 |
God squeezes us and forces us to ask this question, "Do you believe that he is able?" 00:26:20.320 |
And that's the first and the most important part of this gospel, because if you don't 00:26:23.480 |
believe he is able, all he becomes is a security blanket. 00:26:31.620 |
Security blankets don't have any power, but it makes you feel good. 00:26:37.080 |
When the boogeyman comes, you grab the security blanket, it just makes you feel good. 00:26:41.000 |
Because the boogeyman is not real, so the protection is not real. 00:26:49.920 |
But if you believe he is able, it changes our pursuit. 00:27:04.740 |
Because we believe he is able to forgive my sins? 00:27:08.160 |
And the reason why he is able to forgive my sins is because of what he has done? 00:27:16.160 |
The second point is related to this because he says, "Now to him who is able to establish 00:27:21.120 |
you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ." 00:27:24.480 |
So if you look at the second line, preaching of the gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ 00:27:35.200 |
Jesus himself, not only is he the end goal of the gospel, it says he is the gospel. 00:27:39.560 |
Colossians 1:16, "For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, 00:27:43.920 |
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things 00:27:52.640 |
So the point of the gospel is to bring us to God, to bring us to him. 00:27:58.760 |
First Peter 3.18, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, 00:28:11.160 |
Coming to church and missing this, this is not just one of many important things. 00:28:22.520 |
Have you ever met anybody that loves the Lakers but hates basketball? 00:28:43.000 |
They're interested in what kind of shoes they wear. 00:28:46.680 |
They love the experience of going to the stadium. 00:28:54.120 |
$13 hot dogs, $8 Coke, that whole experience, you know. 00:29:00.800 |
But then when the basketball game is turned on, they're not interested. 00:29:05.880 |
And I always wondered, like, why would they do that? 00:29:08.560 |
Why would they go through all of that trouble? 00:29:11.800 |
And I realized the reason why they do that is because they're trying to please somebody. 00:29:16.360 |
They have a group of friends that really love Lakers, and they're trying to love the Lakers. 00:29:22.560 |
They don't like basketball, but they're just trying to fit in. 00:29:25.480 |
So they're trying to get all the benefits of being a Lakers fan without liking basketball. 00:29:31.040 |
I've seen some good wives do that, or girlfriends. 00:29:35.320 |
Once they become wives, it's like, there's no need, right? 00:29:43.760 |
They try so hard because this guy's a diehard Lakers fan, and she's just trying to be a 00:29:51.360 |
So she goes to the games, and she gets the jersey, and when he gets excited, she doesn't 00:30:02.080 |
But she's trying really hard, and when their friends get together and play basketball, 00:30:06.400 |
she sits with them, she chits with them, she yells with them, and wears the jerseys and 00:30:10.640 |
shoes and all of that, but she has no interest in basketball. 00:30:16.920 |
And she's doing all of that because she wants to be a part of the game. 00:30:20.960 |
She wants to appease her boyfriend or her husband. 00:30:28.960 |
Christianity without Christ looks exactly the same. 00:30:37.360 |
We're trying so hard to get the benefits of Christianity, benefits of being a follower 00:30:44.320 |
of Christ and being around other people who love Christ because you want to be a part 00:30:49.400 |
You want to appease somebody, your leader, your brother, your sister, your parents, or 00:30:52.840 |
your small group leaders, but there is no affection for Christ. 00:31:01.200 |
You can talk about church and small group and missions. 00:31:04.280 |
You can talk about hermeneutics and theological systems, and you can talk about everything 00:31:08.640 |
except when you talk about the beauty of Christ, there's a blank look because that's not their 00:31:21.760 |
Trying so hard to get the benefits of Christianity without Christ, you miss the whole point. 00:31:26.800 |
You can live your whole life and then to not to know Christ. 00:31:34.400 |
You can preach, you can miss the gospel, you can even go to foreign lands, you can be generous, 00:31:41.200 |
you can serve, you can sacrifice, you can be generous, all with a deep affection for 00:31:53.760 |
That's why Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." 00:31:59.960 |
He's talking to a group of people who are coming because they were fed and he said they 00:32:02.960 |
want more and Jesus says, "Do you not know I am the bread of life? 00:32:06.040 |
I give you this bread to teach you that I am the bread of life." 00:32:12.640 |
He's talking to a group of people who are waiting for the Messiah to come and be the 00:32:18.720 |
John 10, he's talking to a group of people who are being shunned from the synagogue if 00:32:24.760 |
he didn't submit to the leaders and Jesus says, "I am the door. 00:32:32.440 |
He's talking to a group of people who are sad because Lazarus died and Jesus says to 00:32:39.920 |
John 14, 6, as people are staggering, "Where should we go? 00:32:49.400 |
And then he tells his disciples, John 15, as he is about to depart, he says, "I am the 00:32:58.600 |
Everything that I have said to you, you continue even when I am gone. 00:33:06.600 |
Without faith it is impossible to please God. 00:33:08.320 |
He who comes to God must first believe that he is. 00:33:16.040 |
That's the introduction of the whole book of Hebrews. 00:33:19.320 |
We're going to spend probably another two, three years going over he is because that's 00:33:26.200 |
the summary of the theme of the book of Hebrews. 00:33:29.520 |
Until we recognize he is, there is no reward for good works in the church. 00:33:37.580 |
There is no reward for generosity until we are connected to Christ in faith. 00:33:46.700 |
Colossians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 22 to 24, "For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search 00:33:59.420 |
To the Jews a stumbling block and Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, 00:34:02.940 |
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 00:34:10.980 |
Years ago, every year we go out to China for mission work and one year we couldn't go because 00:34:17.140 |
So last minute we were directed by our denomination to go to Romania and we were in Bucharest 00:34:22.820 |
in Romania and in that area we found this one church and it was a very majestic church. 00:34:29.180 |
It's the kind of church that you don't normally see today because it would just cost way too 00:34:33.300 |
You know, you could tell the stones that the walls are made out of was just like two feet 00:34:39.060 |
And what was interesting was it was built in somewhere around 1490 something, so about 00:34:43.820 |
10 or 15 years before the Reformation took place. 00:34:47.560 |
So it was a Catholic church that was created and at the early stage of the church it went 00:34:54.620 |
So you can still see it in the building, all over the building where you have little Catholic 00:34:58.180 |
figures of Mary and the saints and all over that the Catholics were praying to and they 00:35:06.580 |
And it said this church went through a transformation and went through the Reformation and it says 00:35:11.420 |
on one of the plaques in the walls it says that Martin Luther visited this church. 00:35:16.860 |
And it was a very, very majestic church because it would fit maybe about 1500 people on the 00:35:21.860 |
seats and I've always wondered how the church at that time would preach in that kind of 00:35:26.540 |
a setting because they didn't have a mic system. 00:35:29.380 |
And I have a pretty loud voice but even in this room I'd have to yell pretty loud for 00:35:37.140 |
Well it made a lot of sense because when I entered everything was made out of marble 00:35:40.460 |
so I could just snap my finger and it would ring everywhere. 00:35:43.500 |
I can speak to you softly and the person in the front, the person in the back would have 00:35:48.300 |
So the way that they had it was they would have whoever was preaching, not preaching 00:35:53.180 |
like this, they would have the person, it would be a long row so you can imagine how 00:35:58.420 |
big this place was for about 1700 people to fit into this long row. 00:36:02.420 |
And then the pastor, whoever is giving the sermon, would actually preach in the middle, 00:36:07.940 |
So if you're sitting in the front you would have to turn back to listen to the preacher. 00:36:12.220 |
And so the preacher is elevated literally to the second floor. 00:36:19.980 |
And so you can see why they did that because without the mic system it was for everybody 00:36:25.620 |
And so it became a place where everybody visited. 00:36:27.940 |
In fact they said that Martin Luther possibly could have preached on that pulpit. 00:36:32.780 |
And so I tried to sneak up there to see and of course I got yelled at. 00:36:38.620 |
But it was just the history behind this church. 00:36:42.180 |
And then I asked the people who were basically taking care of this, "Does a church actually 00:36:47.980 |
And you kind of have to think for a little bit and say, "Well, there are people that 00:36:53.940 |
There's maybe a group of maybe about 15 to 20 people who are here to take care of the 00:37:00.100 |
So they make sure that it's clean, they make sure that people like me don't go up to the 00:37:04.660 |
pulpit and so they kind of take care of the facility. 00:37:09.140 |
And they do gather but I don't know if I would call it a church." 00:37:14.700 |
And I remember just when they told me that it's like, "Wow, you have a historic church 00:37:19.540 |
where Martin Luther may have preached on the pulpit. 00:37:24.060 |
It was one of the first churches that went through the Reformation and you can actually 00:37:27.380 |
even see it in the building but God is not being worshipped in this room." 00:37:34.100 |
And I remember how sad it was just to have the remnant, just a building of somewhere, 00:37:44.140 |
And yet what it was created for was being ignored. 00:37:48.780 |
Sad to say, so many Christians can relate that we have all the forms of religiosity 00:38:01.060 |
but do not know the power of God because they don't know Jesus. 00:38:09.620 |
To me, you could think about hunger for the orphans and so many horrible things that are 00:38:19.540 |
going on in the world and all of these things deserve our compassion. 00:38:26.140 |
But to me, the saddest thing is being so close to the power of God and living your whole 00:38:35.700 |
life, whole life giving, serving, pretending and not knowing Him. 00:38:49.980 |
It's like being at a buffet and being so hungry and starving to death and you never eat. 00:38:57.460 |
Until you meet Christ, all of this is for nothing. 00:39:15.140 |
There is no reward for being active at church. 00:39:37.940 |
And until we meet Christ, all is for nothing. 00:39:50.460 |
So I want to ask you the fundamental question, do you believe Him? 00:39:56.140 |
I'm not asking you, are you a theist versus an atheist? 00:40:27.980 |
A man cannot confess the gospel in reality and not be changed. 00:40:34.340 |
You cannot be in the presence and have seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and 00:40:39.420 |
then look at the world and say, "You know what? 00:40:48.220 |
If you look at the world, it is more tempting to you to go that direction than to want Christ. 00:40:54.540 |
Because that's the only way I can understand how somebody can confess and still run to 00:41:03.620 |
It is not possible to see the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:41:08.060 |
It is not possible for a man to confront this living God and then turn the other way and 00:41:19.980 |
That's why in Romans chapter 12 it says, "It is a reasonable response to give our bodies 00:41:25.300 |
as a living sacrifice in light of the mercy that we have heard." 00:41:35.660 |
This morning as we participate in the communion, He says that's the reason why we have the 00:41:40.020 |
communion, to proclaim His death and resurrection, to remind us again what it is that we have 00:41:44.260 |
in Christ, that maybe all of our frustrations, all of our hopes and desires have been placed 00:41:49.420 |
on something that is only going to disappoint, and to remind us again that our hope is found 00:41:56.260 |
So as we open up the communion table, I'm going to ask you guys to take some time to 00:42:02.980 |
If you're a baptized believer, we ask you to come up, again, from the sides and go down 00:42:07.380 |
the middle so that we don't create traffic here. 00:42:10.180 |
Then if you are visiting us or you have not been properly baptized, we ask that you would 00:42:19.260 |
So when you are ready, we ask that one by one that you would come up. 00:42:22.700 |
Let me open up the communion table by reading 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 00:42:36.820 |
For I received from the Lord that which I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus in 00:42:41.420 |
the night in which He was betrayed took bread. 00:42:44.740 |
And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you. 00:42:50.660 |
In the same way, He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is a new covenant 00:42:55.940 |
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." 00:43:00.700 |
Heavenly Father, you know our sins of our hearts. 00:43:08.580 |
You know, Father God, how often we struggle, Lord God, because we take our eyes off of 00:43:14.420 |
I pray that this communion table would help us to fix our eyes upon Christ, the author 00:43:21.380 |
I pray, Father God, if we have been given you worship externally but internally, filled 00:43:27.180 |
with pride, with coveting, with lust, with guilt. 00:43:34.340 |
I pray, Father God, that breaking of your body, breaking of drinking of the blood, would 00:43:41.740 |
cause us, Lord God, to be renewed in our dedication. 00:43:45.260 |
We pray, Father God, that you would anoint this sacred time.