back to index2019-02-24 Jesus is Better Than the Angels Part 2
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>> All right. Good morning. Welcome to Bering Community Church. Again, if you are visiting 00:00:08.160 |
us for the first time, please see us at our welcome table in the back corner. And if you 00:00:11.800 |
have any questions or you need any help with anything, our welcome team will be able to 00:00:15.600 |
help you with that. Today there is a new members' luncheon that's taking place in the cafe area. 00:00:21.320 |
So if you happen to be in that area and you're not part of that, we ask you guys to kind 00:00:26.840 |
of be on the side. But that area is going to be reserved for the new members' luncheon. 00:00:32.080 |
So please keep that in mind. I want to highlight a few announcements before we get started. 00:00:36.600 |
First of all, the family ministry group is having a bi-monthly lunch, community groups 00:00:41.520 |
that are taking place starting from March. So if you haven't signed up for that, again, 00:00:45.480 |
this is part of the family ministry. So if you haven't signed up for that, and all the 00:00:51.360 |
homes from what I understand is going to be taking place in Irvine area. So please sign 00:00:56.600 |
up for that and they'll give you assignments of which home to go to starting from March. 00:01:01.040 |
So if you haven't signed up, please sign up for that. 00:01:03.600 |
Let's see. Again, the women's conference coming up. If you haven't signed up, you can do that. 00:01:10.200 |
VBS for 2019. And I know it's a bit away, July 15th through July 19th. But if you can 00:01:16.880 |
sign up, if you are willing to help out, please let them know. And our sister Jane is heading 00:01:21.880 |
there. So let her know and she'll give you more information for that. 00:01:25.000 |
All right. If you can turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1. Peter read all the way 00:01:31.320 |
to 14, but I'm going to be mainly focused on verse 7, 8, and 9 today. So let me read 00:01:36.360 |
that passage. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 7, 8, and 9. "And of the angels," he says, "who 00:01:45.680 |
makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire? But of the son," he says, "your 00:01:51.120 |
throne, O God, is forever and ever. And the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. 00:01:56.640 |
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you 00:02:01.200 |
with the oil of gladness above your companions." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you 00:02:12.960 |
for the privilege to be able to call you our Abba Father. We pray that your word would 00:02:19.040 |
have its effect on our hearts. May it bear fruit, may it convict, may it encourage and 00:02:26.080 |
strengthen. I pray that your intent, your very breath, would have its effect, that our 00:02:33.800 |
church may be strengthened, and to be better worshipers as a result. I pray for your blessing, 00:02:40.000 |
Lord God, over this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:02:45.840 |
As we've been talking about in the book of Hebrews, the author begins by saying, "Pay 00:02:52.000 |
attention to Jesus. He's better than the prophets." We've been talking about how he's better than 00:02:55.960 |
the angels, and all of it to conclude in chapter 2, where he says, "Therefore, we must pay 00:03:00.560 |
very close attention so we do not drift." We've been talking last week that this is 00:03:06.920 |
part two of this same text in verse 4 to verse 14, how Jesus is superior to the angels, how 00:03:13.040 |
he is above them. He's not just slightly above, it says, the first thing that he says, he 00:03:19.520 |
narrated a much more excellent name than the angels, that's very nature of who he is, is 00:03:27.680 |
much higher than any other name. And then in verse 6 he says the angels were actually 00:03:32.640 |
called to worship Jesus. Today we're going to be looking at third and fourth argument, 00:03:39.200 |
and next week we're going to be looking at the fifth and sixth argument. But this question 00:03:45.160 |
of, "Is Jesus better?" is a question that every Christian has to ask repeatedly over 00:03:52.280 |
and over again in different periods of our life. I remember when I first decided and 00:03:58.960 |
was wrestling with the idea of going into ministry, one of the first things that I wrestled 00:04:02.500 |
with was I had to let go of all the promises that I made to my parents. My dad was a pastor 00:04:10.940 |
and we moved around a lot, and financially it was always tough. I can't remember a single 00:04:16.260 |
year after coming to the United States where it wasn't tough financially. So I remember 00:04:20.560 |
growing up thinking, "When I get older, I'm going to be a successful businessman," and 00:04:26.240 |
we would make promises like a lot of young kids do, say, "We're going to buy you a limousine, 00:04:31.880 |
we're going to buy you a house. Once we get older, we're going to take care of you," and 00:04:36.920 |
we would make these promises. And I really meant it in my heart that once I got older 00:04:41.980 |
and got a job that I was going to provide. So when I decided to go into ministry, that 00:04:48.240 |
was the first thing that I had to wrestle with. "Is Jesus better than my parents?" Because 00:04:54.320 |
I had to let that go. Few years later, back inside, when we were in college ministry, 00:05:01.880 |
it was the first time in Biola I ever felt like I belonged anywhere as a Christian, and 00:05:06.920 |
even as a non-Christian, because we moved around somewhere so much. And so when I had 00:05:11.680 |
a group of friends that we were doing ministry together in this campus ministry, again, that 00:05:17.080 |
was the first time I ever felt like I was part of a community. About seven, eight months 00:05:22.160 |
into it, something happened in the ministry and all of my friends, I mean, I'm talking 00:05:25.480 |
about every single one of them, all of my peers ended up leaving the ministry. And that's 00:05:30.080 |
why even to this day, my former roommates are all 10 plus years older than me, because 00:05:34.600 |
all of my peers left. And I remember at that time wrestling with the idea that I wanted 00:05:40.320 |
to go too, because there's nobody my age here. And I was wrestling with that, and said, "If 00:05:46.120 |
I move because they moved, if I do things because they did it, then I will always be 00:05:52.320 |
bound to whatever my peers are doing." And I had to ask that question again. Is Jesus 00:05:58.600 |
better than your friends? Is he better than your peers? Different stages in life, we have 00:06:05.880 |
different questions that we have to answer. You get married, you fall in love, and a lot 00:06:11.400 |
of people get distracted during that period, and then they were doing fine while they were 00:06:15.120 |
single, but once they get married, they begin to drift away. And that's another question 00:06:19.640 |
I had to ask. Is Jesus better than your wife? After having children, I never was tempted, 00:06:29.120 |
again, about like, I don't have elaborate taste, I mean, there's not a single name brand 00:06:34.920 |
on my body, and I don't have any desire for that kind of stuff. But when I had kids, it 00:06:41.520 |
was first time I felt tempted, like I wanted some money. And it wasn't to buy a big house, 00:06:46.160 |
it was just I wanted a car with air conditioning, because I was driving a pickup truck and had 00:06:51.480 |
no air conditioning, and my first kid, we're in the car and he was sweating bullets driving 00:06:56.720 |
to LA, and it was the first time I thought to myself, "I wish I had more money, so I 00:07:01.200 |
can get a better car, so that my baby could be in an air-conditioned car." And I remember 00:07:08.320 |
wrestling with that, with those thoughts and temptation, asking myself, "Is Jesus better 00:07:13.040 |
than your kids?" Whatever stage of life that you're in, that's a question that you will 00:07:20.160 |
have to answer repeatedly. Is he better than your career? Is he better than the bank account? 00:07:28.280 |
Is Jesus better than your wife? Is he better than your kids? Is he better than your safety? 00:07:35.120 |
Whatever it is, if at any point in your life that question comes up, and you answer, "No. 00:07:42.520 |
No, these are better. Jesus means a lot to me, but my wife means more to me. Jesus means 00:07:48.400 |
a lot to me, but my kids mean more to me." At some point, whatever is better than Jesus 00:07:52.960 |
is gonna cause you to drift. You're gonna first drift in your thinking, and then you're 00:07:59.040 |
gonna start drifting with your heart, and then eventually you're gonna drift with your 00:08:02.800 |
feet. 'Cause that's usually how it works. A lot of times, again, if we were living in 00:08:10.360 |
a persecuted country, if you start drifting, you have no need to come to church. But because 00:08:15.560 |
we live in Orange County, you can drift and be so far away and still be active in the 00:08:22.280 |
church. Maybe become Sunday school teachers. But you know in your heart, Christ hasn't 00:08:29.600 |
been at the center of your heart for a very long time. That you've drifted. Christ is 00:08:37.000 |
no longer your pursuit. And you no longer even ask that question, "Is Jesus better?" 00:08:44.360 |
Because you've compromised that many, many years ago, and you've drifted. See, this whole 00:08:48.840 |
letter of Book of Hebrews is written to address that issue. They are drifting. At one point, 00:08:55.560 |
they were passionate. At one point, they were sacrificial. But eventually, the persecution 00:09:00.400 |
got to them. By the time the gospel got to the second, third generation, they were beginning 00:09:04.960 |
to drift back into their old life, which to them happened to be Judaism. To us, it's just 00:09:11.320 |
whatever pattern of life that is around us. Is Jesus better? So he's been talking about 00:09:20.240 |
how he's better than the prophets, so therefore we need to pay close attention. He's better 00:09:23.880 |
than the angels, and he starts from the very top. The third argument that he will give 00:09:29.800 |
is Jesus is better than angels because he's the creator. And the angels are just servants. 00:09:35.880 |
In other words, it wouldn't make any sense to be tempted to worship angels or to honor 00:09:43.400 |
them while you're drifting away from Christ. In verse 7, "And of the angels," he says, 00:09:50.440 |
"who makes his angels' winds and his ministers a flame of fire?" In other words, that means 00:09:57.160 |
a rhetorical question. Of course God. God is the one who does this. But it can also 00:10:03.120 |
be asked as an actual question. Who? Who makes them? The word for "make," if you guys remember 00:10:10.040 |
last week, there's two separate words for "make." One is "poieo." Another one is "genomai." 00:10:15.040 |
The word "poieo" basically means to make something out of nothing. It's to create something. 00:10:20.840 |
The word "genomai" is to have some form and be transformed to another form. So when you 00:10:26.200 |
and I become Christians, we weren't made into a Christian. We became Christians. We were 00:10:32.640 |
not Christians, and we became Christians. That's the word that is used to describe Jesus, 00:10:37.760 |
who humbled himself but became exalted. He wasn't created, but he was exalted. The word 00:10:44.600 |
that is used here of the angels is "poieo," to create. So the natural question is, if 00:10:52.840 |
they were made, they were created, who created them? And the answer is obvious. In Colossians 00:11:00.520 |
1:16 it says, "For by him," speaking of Jesus, "all things were created both in heaven and 00:11:06.400 |
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All 00:11:10.880 |
things have been made, have been created through him and for him." Not only did he create them, 00:11:18.400 |
he created them for himself. Hebrews chapter 1 10, "And you Lord, in the beginning, laid 00:11:25.720 |
the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands." Now, the reason 00:11:31.160 |
why he starts with the angels is because even the angels, even the angels were created by 00:11:37.520 |
him and for him. They are ministers for Jesus. They are servants and messengers for Jesus. 00:11:47.280 |
And whenever we thwart that authority, it is a rebellion against the Creator. Let me 00:11:54.200 |
give you an example, okay, to help us understand lordship of Christ and what he is trying to 00:12:00.360 |
say here. Those of you guys who are with us at the other building, not this building but 00:12:05.480 |
the other building, it was maybe about seven years ago, we were all excited and we were 00:12:10.760 |
building a new building. First time our church, we were nomads wandering and then we finally 00:12:16.400 |
had a place that's going to have our own. And we were all excited and it took us maybe 00:12:20.640 |
about eight to nine months for the construction. And at the end of the construction, after 00:12:25.600 |
all the structural things were done, they were making the stage, but the stage wasn't 00:12:30.360 |
necessarily drawn out. So one day I showed up to the building while the contractors were 00:12:35.800 |
working and he said, "Hey, Pastor Peter, you need to get involved." And I said, "What 00:12:41.120 |
do I need to get involved in?" He said, "The architect has very specific things that he 00:12:45.440 |
wants on the stage and we're wondering if you agree with that." And I looked at it and 00:12:50.600 |
he said, "No, I mean, this is very strange." So he didn't have the actual, like the drawing 00:12:55.320 |
of the, he has just a structural part of it. And then I looked at what he wanted to do 00:12:59.440 |
and he was making a stage into this weird oval shape where it was protruding on one 00:13:05.580 |
side and then going deep on the other side. It's kind of like the Korean flag. You know 00:13:10.000 |
what I mean? And I don't know why, he wasn't even Korean, but he was making this half wave. 00:13:16.160 |
And even the contractors were thinking like, "This is kind of strange." And he said they 00:13:20.840 |
were going back and forth and the architect obviously has authority over the contractor 00:13:24.880 |
and he says, "No, this is what I want." And so I show up and he said, "Hey, you're the 00:13:29.320 |
contractor here, can you talk to the contractor?" So I found out what was going on and I started 00:13:33.280 |
talking to the contractor and I said, "You know, this is kind of weird." And I said, 00:13:39.080 |
"Where would I be preaching on this?" And he said, "You should be preaching in the corner 00:13:42.920 |
over there on the side." And those of you who know me, I'm very particular about being 00:13:49.120 |
symmetrical. Okay? That's something that's weird, but if something is not centered, it 00:13:57.000 |
bothers me. So some of you guys may notice that if I see the pulpit a little bit crooked, 00:14:01.080 |
I'll come and fix it before I come up here. Or even this mat, if it's not centered, I'll 00:14:05.720 |
fix the mat before I start preaching because it bothers me. So whenever we set up the chairs, 00:14:10.640 |
I make sure that it's centered. Anyway, it's weird, but that bothers me. But he had me 00:14:16.200 |
preaching on the side and he never asked me about it and I said, "I can't do that. I need 00:14:21.280 |
to preach in the middle." And then he was arguing with me and he said, "You're a young 00:14:26.040 |
church." Young church, that's how the old churches have it. He said, "Young church needs 00:14:31.000 |
to be hip and I know your church is young, so young church wants this." And I said, "No. 00:14:38.000 |
Our church may be young, but we don't want that." And I was telling him, "I need to be 00:14:44.200 |
in the middle." And I was just going back and forth with him and I could tell he was 00:14:48.160 |
really being annoyed. And one thing that I learned through the years just working with 00:14:52.960 |
architects and kind of artsy people, right? Some of you guys are really artsy. You're 00:14:58.240 |
very particular about whatever work you did. You don't want anybody to change the color 00:15:04.320 |
or you don't want anybody to change the design. This is your thing. This is your creation 00:15:09.920 |
and you don't want anybody to touch it. I realize architects are engineers who really 00:15:15.960 |
have a bent toward art. So they're very particular about their design. So I understood that. 00:15:22.960 |
This is like his imprint on this church. And he was well-meaning. He wanted to help us, 00:15:29.720 |
but he insisted that it had to be this way. And then obviously because he was coming out 00:15:34.080 |
so strong, I said, "No, we're not going to have it this way. I'm not going to stand on 00:15:38.640 |
the side on the top of the wave every week just being distracted. That's just not going 00:15:42.920 |
to happen." So he ended up changing the design, just kicking and screaming pretty much. And 00:15:49.720 |
then he got annoyed. The leaders know about this. And then everything was done. He redid 00:15:56.720 |
the design and it was all centered. Some of you guys remember what that building looked 00:16:01.720 |
like. But after about two, three months, somebody pointed out to me that the stage was not centered. 00:16:08.160 |
Some of you guys did not know that. And the stage was skewed maybe about two feet to the 00:16:13.880 |
left. So every Sunday it bothered me. Every Sunday. Because I know I was centered, but 00:16:20.880 |
I knew the stage was not. So the whole room was symmetrical, but I was always standing 00:16:26.760 |
on the side and always like I knew it in the back of my mind. And I never got to ask him 00:16:31.240 |
why he did that. In my mind I think maybe he was angry. He was just being spiteful. 00:16:38.200 |
Or maybe it was just a mistake. But for whatever the reason, he insisted that it had to be 00:16:43.520 |
a certain way. Now the reason why I tell you this story is because we're the owners. We 00:16:49.080 |
hired you. And yes, you have an opinion, but we hired you to make certain things because 00:16:54.560 |
we're going to be using it. We paid you to work for us. It doesn't make sense for you 00:17:00.760 |
to demand your preference on us. What the author here is saying is God is the creator. 00:17:07.760 |
Jesus is the creator and he made the angels. If he made the angels to serve him, of course 00:17:14.960 |
he made us to serve him. And it is no different than the creation basically telling the creator, 00:17:21.880 |
this is my opinion. This is what I think. I know what you want, but this is what I want. 00:17:29.880 |
And it is a royal rebellion for us who have been created for the purpose of his glory 00:17:36.880 |
to say, no, I don't think that's what I want. And the scripture says all have sinned and 00:17:42.400 |
fall short of the glory of God because we were all in rebellion giving our opinion to 00:17:47.360 |
the creator. I want this, but I don't want that. And he's saying Jesus is above even 00:17:54.720 |
the angels. Of course he created us for the same purpose. See, scripture says clearly 00:18:01.720 |
that the angels were created and even the word angel means a messenger. The word gospel 00:18:11.000 |
in itself basically means good message. The same word, root word for angel, angelos, is 00:18:18.160 |
the end word for evangelion, good message. Ultimately all for the purpose of serving 00:18:25.160 |
our creator. Not only were we created for that, he says he himself in verse 8, he's 00:18:33.760 |
the king who sits on the throne where all of us are under his throne, his subjects. 00:18:39.080 |
Look with me in verse 8 what he says. Remember I told you chapter 1 of the book of Hebrews 00:18:44.080 |
is the chapter that caused me to open my eyes toward the trinity? Well in the chapter, verse 00:18:49.520 |
8 is the key verse. Verse 8 it says, "But of the son he says, 'Your throne, O God, is 00:18:56.200 |
forever and ever and the righteous scepter, the scepter of his kingdom.'" Who is speaking 00:19:01.640 |
here? Look at that verse. Who's speaking? When he says, "But of the son he says," who's 00:19:10.560 |
the he? Some of your Bibles already kind of highlighted it for you, right? Who's the he? 00:19:17.560 |
Yes, God the Father. God the Father is the one who's speaking because the previous verse 00:19:24.320 |
and the of the angels he says, he's talking about again God the Father because God the 00:19:29.320 |
Father is saying, made you, but he says of the son. So God the Father is speaking of 00:19:35.280 |
the son and what does he say? "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever." God the Father 00:19:42.280 |
is speaking about his son and he addresses him as God who's on the throne forever. And 00:19:51.000 |
I remember reading this for the first time, like how can anybody read this and think that 00:19:55.840 |
Jesus is anything but equal to God? This is the verse that I usually turn to when I talk 00:20:03.200 |
to Jehovah's Witnesses because if you open up their New Kingdom translation, this is 00:20:07.960 |
what it says in the New World Translation. I think I have it over here in the bottom. 00:20:13.200 |
But about the son he says, "God is your throne forever and ever and the scepter of your kingdom 00:20:19.080 |
is the scepter of uprightness." It was deliberately mistranslated so that it doesn't say the same 00:20:26.080 |
thing that our translation says. So whether you have the NASB, NIV, ESV, or King James, 00:20:31.160 |
whatever translations you have, it will all say, "God the Father speaking of his son, 00:20:36.080 |
your throne, O God, is forever and ever." But in the New World Translation it says, 00:20:40.800 |
"Of the son he says, God is your throne." So the subject is no longer God speaking to 00:20:46.640 |
God, but God speaking to someone lesser and saying, "God is your throne." Now I've had 00:20:51.560 |
so many conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses about this. I've been on campus talking to 00:20:56.680 |
them, opening up the scriptures and saying, "You know what?" Because they claim that they 00:21:01.320 |
translated their Bible out of the same Greek manuscript as the NIV. So I said, "How can 00:21:08.000 |
this be the same translation?" So either you got it wrong or we got it wrong. And I would 00:21:13.920 |
usually have the conversation, "So if we can prove an independent Greek scholar come and 00:21:20.480 |
says that your translation is wrong, will you admit that your Bible is unreliable?" 00:21:25.960 |
Because it was deliberately translated wrong. I've never had anybody say to me, "Yes." Because 00:21:31.920 |
they know what that means. It means that everything that they're basing their faith on is unreliable. 00:21:38.920 |
And I said, "I'm willing. If you can prove that my translation was deliberately butchered, 00:21:42.880 |
I will admit that everything I confess to you because it's coming out of this book is 00:21:47.240 |
suspect. Are you willing to admit that? And if we admit that, let's go do some research." 00:21:53.720 |
I've never had anybody say, "Yes." Because it's not the truth that is founded upon. The 00:22:04.040 |
group mentality is so powerful. And you don't want to question the group because it means 00:22:10.040 |
there's consequences that comes from questioning the group. And so if we're not careful, what 00:22:14.160 |
ends up happening is we pursue the community and we work hard to belong. But at some point, 00:22:20.700 |
we stop pursuing truth. Scripture clearly says, "Christ is God." Jesus himself said 00:22:31.080 |
this in John 10.30, "I and the Father are one." John 10.33, "The Jews answered him, 00:22:37.960 |
'For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you being a man, 00:22:43.220 |
make yourself out to be God.'" It was clearly stated by Christ. It's clearly stated in the 00:22:49.560 |
Hebrews. It's clearly stated in the Gospels. And even the Jews heard clearly that Jesus 00:22:54.640 |
was not simply saying, "I am like God." "You being a mere man are claiming to be God himself." 00:23:03.640 |
So why would you drift toward anything else? And as fundamental as that question is, that 00:23:11.320 |
is the question that we wrestle with in different stages in life. Is Jesus better? Is Jesus 00:23:19.800 |
better than your career? Is Jesus better than your bride? Is Jesus better than your wife? 00:23:27.600 |
Is Jesus better than your future? Is Jesus better than your retirement? Whatever it is 00:23:31.720 |
that we hang our comfort in, is Jesus better? And obviously, the answer is, of course not. 00:23:38.440 |
Jesus is God. Fourthly, he said, "Jesus is greater than the angels because Jesus was 00:23:47.160 |
anointed above the angels, because he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness." I mean, 00:23:53.000 |
he's talking about Jesus' humanity. When he was humbled, God exalted him to the highest 00:23:58.200 |
place because he says he loved righteousness and he hated lawlessness. Before we move 00:24:05.960 |
on about this, it's like, "Yeah, I see he loved righteousness." But I want to take a 00:24:10.120 |
few minutes to talk about what this means. Because righteousness sounds very different 00:24:16.440 |
to different people and different culture and different times. What seemed righteous 00:24:20.600 |
in the previous generation seems unrighteous in this generation. What seems righteous in 00:24:24.760 |
one culture seems unrighteous in another culture. So we have to be careful that our understanding 00:24:30.440 |
of righteousness is biblical, not because of where we grew up. Let me give you an example 00:24:40.040 |
of that. Obviously, I'm bicultural. I was born in Korea, I came when I was young, and 00:24:45.960 |
so I'm kind of between two cultures like I know many of you are. But when I was serving 00:24:51.600 |
in the Korean... By culture, by nature, I'm more Westernized because I spent the majority 00:24:56.360 |
of my life in the West. But I understand the Korean culture, the Asian culture. But I didn't 00:25:02.560 |
realize how Westernized I was until I was serving in the Korean church. And I had a 00:25:09.560 |
youth... I was the EM pastor and one of our youth pastors were giving a message to our 00:25:14.000 |
youth group students. And one of the older deacons of the church, and he must have been 00:25:18.380 |
probably maybe in his 70s, he walked in right in the middle of the service and he grabbed 00:25:25.940 |
the music stand that the youth pastor was preaching off of and he started walking out 00:25:31.320 |
of the room. And so obviously I said, "What is he doing?" And so I grabbed the pulpit, 00:25:38.280 |
I put it back and I told him, "Hey, just keep going, I'll deal with this." And I took him 00:25:42.000 |
outside and I started scolding him. And I said, "Deacon so-and-so, you can't do this. 00:25:50.480 |
This is a worship just because they're kids. It's not less of a worship. And if you come 00:25:56.480 |
in here and you take a pulpit, on a pulpit that the pastor is preaching out of, what 00:26:01.880 |
message do you think that gives the kids? That they're not valuable, their worship isn't 00:26:07.940 |
as good as the older people just because they're young." And I was just scolding him, I was 00:26:13.680 |
upset and I said, "You shouldn't be doing this and no wonder why Korean American kids 00:26:18.500 |
are leaving church because you don't respect them and you're ruining the worship." And 00:26:24.400 |
this whole thing is like, "Because I'm righteous. I'm speaking on God's behalf. He needs to 00:26:29.520 |
be rebuked." And as I was scolding him, and he didn't fight back, he knew what he did 00:26:35.000 |
was wrong. And as I was scolding him, I was trying to calm myself down. And then the adult 00:26:39.860 |
service just finished. And they didn't know the context, they didn't know what happened. 00:26:44.120 |
All they saw was this young punk, hot-headed EM pastor scolding this old man. And so they 00:26:53.360 |
go, "What is going on?" So they pulled me aside, "Pastor Peter, what happened?" And 00:26:56.520 |
I explained to them the situation. And the response that they gave me was, "Yeah, you 00:27:02.840 |
know, he shouldn't have done that. That's not right. But what you did was worse." And 00:27:08.000 |
I go, "What are you talking about? I'm speaking for God. This is worship. I'm protecting our 00:27:14.880 |
kids." But I realized that in the Korean culture, that's a greater sin to dishonor the older 00:27:23.840 |
people. And so whatever mistake that he made, they acknowledged that, but he said, "What 00:27:28.200 |
you did was far worse because you embarrassed him in front of the church." It took me a 00:27:33.600 |
long time to digest that. It took me a long time to digest that. Like, why would... Because 00:27:39.800 |
my mindset is Western. And so in the Western culture, we have a tendency to rely on contracts, 00:27:46.960 |
right? And what is right and what is wrong. And when somebody breaks that, that's unrighteous 00:27:51.360 |
and we need to deal with that. And that's why we go on the streets, we protest, we shame 00:27:55.320 |
people who break laws and we do all of this stuff. But in the Eastern culture, it is a 00:28:00.480 |
greater sin. And universally, they will look at that as a greater sin. That's why in the 00:28:07.840 |
Asian culture, they don't consider you mature when you become independent. They consider 00:28:13.980 |
you mature when you become mature enough to acknowledge your elders. You know what I'm 00:28:19.480 |
talking about? If you don't, it's because you're Western. And I realized that in these 00:28:27.640 |
two separate cultures, what offends one culture is honored in another culture, and what is 00:28:34.880 |
honored in one culture is offended in another culture. So we have to be very careful that 00:28:40.520 |
we don't project what you and I think of righteousness, and that we are careful that what we consider 00:28:47.040 |
to be righteous is based upon scripture. Jesus himself rebukes the Pharisees. Matthew 23, 00:28:52.520 |
23 says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill 00:28:58.200 |
cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. 00:29:05.940 |
These you ought to have done without neglecting the other, you blind guys, straining out the 00:29:09.480 |
gnat and swallowing a camel." It's not one or the other. He says you need to obey the 00:29:16.840 |
law without neglecting the what? The weightier matter. And what was the weightier matter? 00:29:24.040 |
See, compassion, faithfulness, mercy, justice, these are not tangible things. These are intangible 00:29:32.580 |
things of our heart. And he says, you think you're righteous because you are tithing these, 00:29:39.520 |
even the smallest of these things, but when it comes to weightier things, you are blind. 00:29:46.500 |
When we think of righteousness, majority of Christians automatically feel burdened. We 00:29:53.240 |
respect it from a distance, but because when we think of righteousness, we automatically 00:29:57.320 |
in the Western world think of what we should do and what we shouldn't do. What did Jesus 00:30:03.300 |
do and what he did not do? Because that's our frame of mind. And so automatically, when 00:30:10.200 |
we think of righteousness, like what do I have to do? What do I have to sacrifice? Or 00:30:14.840 |
here's some things that I really like to do, but I can't do that. I shouldn't do that. 00:30:20.740 |
But the Bible describes righteousness in a far broader picture. In 1 Timothy 6, 5-6, 00:30:25.840 |
it says, "In constant friction between men and depraved mind and deprived of truth, who 00:30:31.240 |
suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great 00:30:36.680 |
gain when accompanied by contentment." In other words, he said he's rebuking that generation 00:30:45.680 |
and saying, "You know, some of these people are practicing righteousness because if they 00:30:49.160 |
practice, if they do the right thing and avoid the wrong thing, that God's going to reward 00:30:53.600 |
them." What Paul is saying is godliness in and of itself is the reward. If you understand 00:31:01.080 |
what godliness is, if you understand what righteousness is, righteousness in and of 00:31:05.280 |
itself is the reward because that's what we lost at the fall. His glory was lost at the 00:31:12.360 |
fall. He's trying to restore us to be righteous. But in the Western world, if we're not careful, 00:31:17.980 |
we practice righteousness so that we can get a reward. We practice righteousness because 00:31:23.200 |
we think it's a means of gain. But Paul is saying, "No. When you understand what righteousness 00:31:28.440 |
is with contentment, it is great gain." 1 John 5, 2-3, "By this we know that we love 00:31:35.400 |
the children of God when we love God and observe his commandments. For this is the love of 00:31:39.880 |
God, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome." His commandments 00:31:45.720 |
are not burdensome. Is this true? Is that what you actually think? Again, if we think 00:31:54.160 |
of righteousness as simply as something we do and certain things that we don't do, of 00:31:58.120 |
course it's burdensome. Because you naturally want to do certain things and God's law prevents 00:32:04.360 |
you. There are certain things that you don't want to do and God commands you to do it. 00:32:09.480 |
Of course it's burdensome. But what does he mean? If you love God, you obey his commands 00:32:16.400 |
and his commands are not burdensome. Let me give you another example. Are people easy 00:32:24.840 |
to love or hard to love? Don't answer that. I don't want you getting in trouble with your 00:32:29.240 |
neighbors. Okay? Are people easy to love or hard to love? It's hard to answer that question 00:32:38.100 |
because it's too broad. I have to ask the question in more detail. Maybe if I gave you 00:32:44.480 |
a specific name. Is this person hard to love or easy to love? You say, "He's easy to love." 00:32:53.160 |
Why is he easy to love? Because he's always looking out for me, he's always encouraging 00:32:58.240 |
me, he's always doing things for me. You can list all these things. When I think of that 00:33:03.640 |
person, it's easy to love. And then there's, "What about her?" I say, "Well, she's hard 00:33:08.800 |
to love because whenever I'm around her, she makes me feel guilty and she's always ripping 00:33:15.660 |
on me and saying all of these things and so I have to love her." So it's burdensome to 00:33:21.460 |
love her. When he says to love God means to obey his commandments, it is not burdensome, 00:33:31.420 |
not because the commandment in itself is not burdensome, but because of who is giving the 00:33:37.340 |
command. I can honestly tell you, for me, in my life, the person that's easiest to love 00:33:44.300 |
is my wife. It doesn't require a lot of work, to be honest. And the reason why is because 00:33:51.420 |
nobody has my back like my wife. Nobody supports me and encourages me and takes care of me. 00:33:58.080 |
And of course, when I was younger, my mom played that role, but as a grown man, it's 00:34:02.620 |
my wife. So it's not hard to love my wife. It's not hard to sacrifice for her. It's not. 00:34:08.980 |
It's just because of who she is to me. When he says his commandment is not burdensome, 00:34:15.940 |
he's not saying the commandment in itself is not burdensome, it's not burdensome because 00:34:19.540 |
of the one who's giving the command. Righteousness is being right with God. Righteousness is 00:34:28.840 |
loving God himself. And because it is God who gives the command, it is no longer burdensome. 00:34:35.360 |
When you don't know God, when you don't have this affection for God, when God is just this 00:34:41.520 |
figurehead in heaven, everything he commands is going to be burdensome. But when you love 00:34:47.960 |
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, all of a sudden, you desire 00:34:52.000 |
it. And you know, every single one of us knows exactly how that feels. You can drive to L.A. 00:34:58.720 |
for work and it is two hours of trudging through the traffic. But all of a sudden, you have 00:35:05.600 |
some girl that you fell in love with and she happens to be living in L.A. And your friends 00:35:12.180 |
are telling you, can you stop going to L.A.? Can you just stay in Irvine for a period? 00:35:19.880 |
You can't help yourself. And that drive is not burdensome. It's the reason why you're 00:35:26.320 |
driving that makes that drive burdensome. Righteousness isn't simply doing what's right 00:35:34.200 |
and avoiding what is wrong. That's why he says if you love me, obey my commands. Obeying 00:35:41.400 |
me is loving me. But at the core of it is Christ. At the core of it, it's Christ who 00:35:49.080 |
is exalted. So if Christ is not the center, if Christ is not our pursuit, if Christ is 00:35:55.280 |
not our goal, if Christ is not our love, it just becomes things to do. You missed the 00:36:02.240 |
whole point. That's why he keeps saying that the end conclusion of all of this is chapter 00:36:07.520 |
12. Fix your eyes upon Jesus. And that's what he's doing. We're at the beginning of it. 00:36:13.080 |
We're going to spend 11 chapters where he says, listen to Jesus. Look at Jesus. Listen 00:36:18.520 |
to Jesus. Look at Jesus. Because everything that we do hinges upon this. He loved righteousness, 00:36:28.160 |
but he also hated lawlessness. James chapter 4, 4, he said, you adulterous, do you not 00:36:34.640 |
know that the friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes 00:36:39.440 |
to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. There is no in between. Because 00:36:45.800 |
the world is in rebellion against God, you cannot be friends with the enemy of the one 00:36:50.560 |
that we love. He says he hates lawlessness. John 15, 19, if you were of the world, the 00:36:56.280 |
world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out 00:37:00.460 |
of the world because of this world, because of this the world hates you. The more you 00:37:06.680 |
love something, the more you end up loving what they love. The more you love someone, 00:37:12.000 |
the more you begin to hate the things that they hate. He loved righteousness, hated lawlessness. 00:37:24.040 |
Therefore it says, Jesus was anointed with all of Godness above his companions. Now I 00:37:29.880 |
want to conclude today's message with this. His throne and his anointing is described 00:37:36.240 |
as anointing of oil of gladness, of joy. This is at the center. This is at the center of 00:37:47.240 |
what Christ has given us. Because the Bible says that he came to give life and to give 00:37:50.960 |
us life abundantly. He didn't give us, he didn't say I came to give you directions. 00:37:56.440 |
He didn't say I came to point you to the right direction. He didn't say I came so that I 00:38:02.160 |
can just deliver you from hell. All of these are benefits. All of these are byproducts. 00:38:08.600 |
But he said I came to restore what? Life. Because life was what was lost because of 00:38:14.600 |
sin. So life is what is restored because of his righteousness. But this life is Zoe. It's 00:38:22.520 |
another way of describing joy. And Jesus says I have come to restore this life, this joy. 00:38:32.160 |
And that's why over and over again the Bible describes the fruit of our salvation as joy. 00:38:38.320 |
Romans 4, 14, 17. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness, 00:38:42.400 |
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5, 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, 00:38:48.680 |
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness. You know how we can tell if 00:38:53.080 |
somebody's going to persevere in their faith? You know, now that I've been a Christian for 00:38:56.600 |
35 plus years, I've seen so many Christians who were on fire for God at one point and 00:39:03.360 |
just kind of walking away in their faith. Now I've seen people saying that they're going 00:39:07.760 |
to become full-time missionaries and are no longer even going to church today. You know, 00:39:13.200 |
made their confession, was active at church, and after five years, ten years, they disappeared. 00:39:17.160 |
And there's one thing that I noticed that is consistent with people who endure. They 00:39:23.240 |
do what they do because they're happy. The gospel did not come to us through 2,000 years 00:39:34.120 |
of suffering and persecution because men and women were determined to do the right thing. 00:39:39.440 |
You know the difference between hardworking people who are determined and resolved? They'll 00:39:45.200 |
give up their weekend. They'll give up some of their money. They'll help when they can, 00:39:51.160 |
when they have abundance. But they will never give up their life. It is not hard work and 00:39:58.880 |
determination that brought the gospel through 2,000 years of chaos. It's men and women who 00:40:05.400 |
have been affected by the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they found joy in serving 00:40:11.840 |
and dying for Christ more than anything else in this world. That's what brought the gospel 00:40:17.800 |
here. And it is joy and life that is infectious to the world. It is not our hard work and 00:40:24.720 |
righteousness and good deeds that the world looks at and says, "I want some of that." 00:40:29.800 |
It is worship that they are not able to do. It is worship that has been squashed because 00:40:40.640 |
of their unrighteousness. So are there moral people outside the church? Yes. Are there 00:40:46.840 |
good, honest people outside the church? Yes. That is not unique to us. What is unique to 00:40:53.960 |
us is the righteousness of Christ, which is perfect, that covers us, that causes us to 00:41:04.560 |
worship him in spirit and in truth. That's what the world does not have. And so if the 00:41:13.760 |
fruit of our life isn't joy, eventually your mind, your heart, and your feet will eventually 00:41:19.520 |
take you to whatever brings you joy. If you find joy in making money, that's where eventually 00:41:27.000 |
your body is going to take you. Whatever pleasure, wherever you find comfort, wherever you find 00:41:33.520 |
life, eventually that's where it will take you. But those who are under the dominion 00:41:42.600 |
of the Son, the fruit is gladness. Because he was anointed with gladness, that is what 00:41:50.600 |
we get. Colossians 1:11, "Be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might 00:41:55.220 |
for the attaining of all the steadfastness and patience joyously." 1 Peter 1.8, "And 00:42:00.240 |
though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe 00:42:03.760 |
in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible, full of glory." Finally John 10, 10 and 11, 00:42:12.160 |
"The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I came that they may have 00:42:17.600 |
life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd." The good shepherd laid down his 00:42:23.600 |
life for his sheep. Let's fix our eyes upon Christ. The temptation in this world is just 00:42:31.480 |
too great. The distractions, all the little trinkets, all the little things, all the anxieties 00:42:39.400 |
and fears of, "If I don't do this, what if tomorrow?" All of that. You can't combat that 00:42:44.280 |
by determination. Only when you see the beauty of Christ, then all these other things will 00:42:52.840 |
become rubbish. Let's take some time to pray as we ask our worship team to come lead us. 00:43:04.560 |
This morning, as we pray, and I know this is a broken record, but I'm going to keep 00:43:12.600 |
saying it as long as I'm in the pulpit. There is nothing better than Christ. I told you 00:43:21.200 |
how easy it is to love my wife. She makes it easy. But even my wife does not compare 00:43:29.240 |
to the love of Christ, because she's human. She's incomplete. She's a sinner like me. 00:43:36.960 |
There's only one perfect being who's all-powerful, all-knowing, who's capable of providing for 00:43:44.420 |
all our needs, loves us as perfectly as Jesus does. Why would we be tempted to go anywhere 00:43:52.240 |
else? Let's take some time to pray and work hard to answer this rest. Let's pray.