back to index2019-06-02 Freedom In Christ
00:00:00.000 |
Okay, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 2, I'll be reading from 00:00:07.640 |
verse 14 to 18. Our main focus this morning is going to be on the two verses, 14 and 15. 00:00:17.320 |
But I'll be reading all the way down to verse 18. "Therefore, since the children share in 00:00:21.800 |
the flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he 00:00:25.960 |
might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free 00:00:30.860 |
those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For surely he 00:00:35.700 |
does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, 00:00:40.160 |
he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful 00:00:44.560 |
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins 00:00:49.460 |
of people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able 00:00:54.440 |
to come to the aid of those who are tempted." Let's pray. Gracious Father, we want to thank 00:01:04.840 |
you again for opening our eyes to see what it is that we have in you, to regenerate our 00:01:13.480 |
hearts, allowing us to see the hope that we have in Christ, to know, Father, that this 00:01:19.540 |
life isn't final, that all our hopes, Lord, will come into fruition when Christ come in 00:01:26.640 |
full glory. Help us, Lord God, to look to your word with a renewed perspective, renewed 00:01:32.800 |
mind, not simply to make this life better, but that our hope in Christ may be more solidified, 00:01:41.440 |
our understanding of your grace deepened, that our life, Lord God, would bear fruit 00:01:46.440 |
in every way. Help us, Lord, to look into your word without prejudice and to apply it, 00:01:52.440 |
Lord, willingly and obediently. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. You 00:01:59.320 |
know, if I was to ask you, like, what your opinion is and how many people do you think 00:02:05.720 |
in this world are atheists? I'm not going to, for the sake of time, I'm not going to 00:02:10.960 |
actually ask you to raise your hand, but most likely the number that you are thinking is 00:02:16.360 |
probably a lot higher than the reality, especially because of where we live, and especially because 00:02:22.840 |
many of us have experienced life on the university campus, and as a result of that, you kind 00:02:28.960 |
of have, we kind of have a skewed view of the world and thinking that, you know, we're 00:02:33.360 |
surrounded by atheists. That is not the actuality. The actual number of people who claim to believe 00:02:41.680 |
in something supernatural, whether that's God or something else outside of that, more 00:02:46.240 |
than 84% of the world consider themselves religious. They believe something happens 00:02:52.880 |
after life and there is a higher being, higher power. It doesn't mean that 16% are atheists. 00:02:58.600 |
Out of the 16% who do not claim to be religious, only 7% say that they are atheists, and the 00:03:06.760 |
other 9% say that they are agnostic. Agnostic meaning that they haven't decided one way 00:03:12.720 |
or the other. That they wouldn't be surprised if there was God and they wouldn't be surprised 00:03:17.080 |
if there wasn't, but if there is a God, we don't know. We don't have any way to get to 00:03:22.080 |
him. That's what an agnostic is. So in actuality, the number of committed atheists are 7%. Now, 00:03:29.080 |
if you had any conversation with a committed atheist, you'll find that among the 7% who 00:03:34.880 |
are atheists, a huge chunk of them are not atheists because of science or reason. Many 00:03:41.120 |
of the atheists are atheists because they had a problem with the church, or they were 00:03:45.200 |
burned, or they had bad experiences. So in actuality, what we think of an atheist are 00:03:51.760 |
very small percentage of the world. Of the 84% who say that they believe in something, 00:04:01.040 |
60% of that are monotheists, meaning there's two main religions, Christianity and Muslim. 00:04:08.520 |
Over 60%. Out of the 60%, about 36% will say that they are Christians, and they're lumping 00:04:14.800 |
Protestant and Catholics together. And then the others are the different Muslim sects 00:04:19.240 |
that they have. If we're not careful, we can automatically think when somebody, you know, 00:04:27.320 |
whether it's a movie star or basketball star, they come up and they get a reward and I want 00:04:31.080 |
to thank my God. They say, "Oh, he's a Christian. He's like us." Or they would mention something 00:04:37.680 |
about some supernatural power and how they prayed, and automatically we think, "Oh, they 00:04:42.080 |
must be like us." The distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian is not a belief 00:04:47.960 |
in God or not believing in God. That is not a distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian. 00:04:53.960 |
A distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian is how do we view Jesus Christ? Who is he? 00:05:01.720 |
What is his identity and what did he do? That's the distinction. So if we make that the distinction 00:05:07.080 |
between a believer and an unbeliever, what is the actual percentage? Now, years ago, 00:05:14.840 |
in order to distinguish between the liberal Christians or Christians who reject the inerrancy 00:05:19.320 |
of the Bible, anything supernatural, resurrection of Christ, and the evangelical Christians 00:05:24.480 |
who confess the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, we started using the term "evangelical Christian," 00:05:31.040 |
where we believe in the fundamental doctrines. So whether you are a Baptist or a Presbyterian 00:05:35.680 |
or whatever denomination, if you believe in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity 00:05:39.720 |
about Jesus, life, death, resurrection, the gifts, the eternal kingdom that's coming, 00:05:48.280 |
that would make us evangelical, no matter how your church may look like. In today's 00:05:54.440 |
circles, even that term "evangelical" has become watered down, and there are people 00:05:59.200 |
who are claiming to be evangelical who are dismissing the identity of Christ. It doesn't 00:06:03.800 |
matter what you believe who Jesus is as long as it works for you, and that has penetrated 00:06:08.960 |
even into the evangelical church. Now, why the identity of Christ is so important, why 00:06:15.680 |
that's the dividing line between a Christian and a non-Christian, is because from the very 00:06:20.400 |
get-go that's spelled out for us in the scripture. Today, very few people deny the existence 00:06:30.160 |
of the human Jesus Christ, because there's too many historical evidences. Whether it 00:06:35.400 |
is a Jewish scholar or a secular scholar, there's nobody who denies that the human being 00:06:40.880 |
Jesus Christ actually existed. The question today that's being debated, outside of the 00:06:45.560 |
church, is "Was that Jesus God?" In the early church, that was not an issue. In the 00:06:52.520 |
early church, they didn't discuss about Jesus' deity because they had people who 00:06:58.960 |
were eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ. They had disciples who actually walked with him. 500 00:07:03.720 |
people saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They saw the miracles. He raised people from 00:07:08.320 |
the dead. So, in the early church, the main struggle was not "Is Jesus God?" The main 00:07:15.160 |
struggle was "Was Jesus really human?" And you see that in the authors of the New Testament, 00:07:23.080 |
that how can this God, who was able to do these fantastic things, that he even laid 00:07:29.400 |
down his life and then raised it up again, how can that be a human being? In 1 John 4 00:07:35.120 |
2-3, John wrestles with this false doctrine. "By this you know the Spirit of God. Every 00:07:41.560 |
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit 00:07:47.520 |
that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist." Now, 00:07:51.640 |
obviously, John is not saying comprehensively that if you confess Jesus' humanity, that 00:07:57.960 |
that makes you a Christian. He's dealing with a very specific false doctrine that was 00:08:02.320 |
beginning to spread in the early church. That Jesus came, he appeared to be human, but how 00:08:08.280 |
can the God of the universe, who created all things, take on finite man's body? Why would 00:08:15.440 |
he do that? Well, the author of the book of Hebrews is dealing with that in this text. 00:08:21.240 |
In verse 14 and verse 18, he gives two specific reasons why Jesus had to be a man. There's 00:08:29.320 |
two things that he mentions. In verse 14, he mentions that he had to be flesh in order 00:08:34.520 |
for him to experience death. He had to be human being, because only a human being experiences 00:08:40.920 |
death. God does not experience death. He's immutable, He's eternal, He's all-powerful. 00:08:46.120 |
So in order for Him to taste death on our behalf, He had to become a human being. Not 00:08:50.720 |
an appearance of a human being, not something that looked like a human being, but a human 00:08:55.200 |
being. Second thing he says in verse 17, he became a human being in order to be a sympathetic 00:09:01.880 |
high priest. He could have been a high priest from a distance, but he didn't want to become 00:09:07.120 |
just a high priest. His intention was to bring us to Him. In order to do that, he had to 00:09:13.520 |
experience everything that you and I experience in order for him to be a sympathetic, that 00:09:19.120 |
he can relate to us. Now, I'm going to get to the second part next week, verse 17. Today 00:09:23.400 |
I'm going to be primarily looking at verse 14 and 15. I started this week thinking I'm 00:09:29.240 |
going to cover it all, but I don't want to skim through any of this. So the first thing 00:09:34.360 |
that he says in verse 14, and I want to look at these two lines in verse 14 and 15 and 00:09:39.880 |
really understand in depth what he is saying. Verse 14, "That though death, that through 00:09:46.880 |
death he might render powerless him who had the power of death." He had to become a human 00:09:52.640 |
being in order to make powerless him who had the power of death. So who has the power of 00:09:58.040 |
death here? I mean, it's right here. It's in English. Satan, right? That's what it says. 00:10:05.040 |
Wait a second. Doesn't the Bible say that God is the author of life? How did death come 00:10:13.220 |
into humanity? As a penalty of sin. God is the one who said, "If you eat of this tree 00:10:20.360 |
of knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die." So he's the one who cursed mankind. 00:10:26.440 |
So when he says that Satan has the power of death, what does that mean? If you read this 00:10:32.420 |
outside of the context of all of scripture, you can mistakenly think that the spiritual 00:10:38.680 |
battle is between God who has the power of life, Satan who has the power of death, and 00:10:43.600 |
that we are in this struggle to fight Satan. And then if we are strong, the church is strong, 00:10:50.320 |
God wins. And then if the church is not strong, we don't evangelize, share the gospel, Satan 00:10:54.880 |
wins. If you see demonic movies, like horror movies, that's kind of how it gets presented, 00:11:02.680 |
right? You have the cross and the Bible and then it hisses and then Satan would come and 00:11:08.000 |
the devil would overpower the priest and they go back and forth. And obviously this is Hollywood, 00:11:13.280 |
so typically the demons win. Scary movies won't be scary if at the end the demons die 00:11:18.760 |
and then they disappear because they need to make money. It's sad to say so many people's 00:11:23.920 |
understanding of demonology is not from scripture but from Hollywood. And so our fear of the 00:11:31.080 |
demonic world, the mystery of the demonic world, oftentimes when I hear people to think 00:11:36.880 |
an emotional attachment to this demonology, is oftentimes coming from false understanding 00:11:42.720 |
of what the scripture says. And it's coming from Hollywood, outside of reality. So what 00:11:48.480 |
does it mean then? If that is not what the scripture says, if Satan is not the ultimate 00:11:53.160 |
authority of death, what does that mean? Just like Jesus has many titles, and every one 00:12:00.120 |
of these titles kind of explains his identity and his work, Satan also has many titles. 00:12:06.040 |
The first title that we are given of Satan is Lucifer. Lucifer literally means the morning 00:12:13.600 |
star. That sounds like a beautiful name for Satan, right? And typically when you think 00:12:19.720 |
of the idea of the devil that you see on, you know, he's sharp, he's ugly, his face 00:12:25.560 |
is melting off, and it's like, my name is morning star. It doesn't fit his name. But 00:12:31.600 |
the reason why his name is first Lucifer is because that's how God created him. God created 00:12:37.720 |
him to be a beautiful creature. He was chief among the angels. We see Archangel Michael, 00:12:45.200 |
Gabriel, all of them were under the authority of Satan. The Bible describes when he rebelled 00:12:52.000 |
against God that he was so influential he took a third of the angels with him, and so 00:12:56.340 |
a third of the demons are in rebellion against this God. So his first name that we know is 00:13:02.400 |
Lucifer. We know him as Satan. The word Satan literally means an adversary. When he rebelled 00:13:08.700 |
against God, his intent was to go against whatever God is pushing. God is seeking his 00:13:14.800 |
glory and he's seeking it through the salvation of mankind, and he's working day and night 00:13:20.160 |
to oppose that. He's the adversary. Jesus refers to Satan as the ruler of the world 00:13:26.860 |
in John 12 31. Paul calls him the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2 2. John 00:13:34.400 |
also says in 1 John, the whole world is in the power of the evil one. But ultimately 00:13:40.580 |
in 2 Corinthians 4 4 it says the God of this age is Satan. So we know two things about 00:13:47.980 |
Satan. One, he's extremely powerful. He is very, very powerful. He is the most powerful 00:13:55.420 |
angel outside of God. Second, his whole work is to oppose God, is to go against God. The 00:14:07.140 |
word that is used here to describe Satan is not any of the words. The word that is used 00:14:12.660 |
to describe Satan, the word that is translated devil here is Diabolos. You probably, some 00:14:17.860 |
of you guys who know Spanish, you can already tell Diablo, the devil. In Greek, Diabolos 00:14:22.980 |
means the accuser. He's the prosecutor. In other words, when he says that Satan has the 00:14:30.260 |
power over death, what he is saying is, as the accuser, anyone who is guilty, he is the 00:14:37.300 |
one who stands before God, accusing him of his sin, that leads to death. So when the 00:14:44.100 |
Bible describes Satan as having power over death, it means that the accuser has the power 00:14:50.580 |
over the guilty one. And so when Christ comes and he dies and he resurrects and he covers 00:14:55.580 |
us, we are no longer guilty. So he has taken the power of death out of his hands. So we 00:15:02.740 |
are free. In Colossians 2, verse 15, it says, "When he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, 00:15:08.140 |
he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him." He disarmed him, because 00:15:16.300 |
there's nothing to accuse anymore. Because when God sees us, he no longer sees the guilty. 00:15:22.580 |
So the devil, the accuser, the prosecutor, has no authority over our lives. If you watch 00:15:30.900 |
too many scary movies, you know, typically it creates fear of the demons. Now, there 00:15:37.420 |
should be a healthy respect, because they're powerful. The Bible describes them as powerful. 00:15:43.820 |
They're more powerful than any angel we know, at least Satan is. But Satan has no power 00:15:49.900 |
over a man or a woman who has been cleansed by the blood of Christ. We belong to God. 00:15:56.340 |
The Holy Spirit makes his indwelling in us. So what you see on the Hollywood movie screens 00:16:02.780 |
is not, not only is it not accurate, it is blasphemous. He does not have that kind of 00:16:08.260 |
authority. In fact, every time we see Satan in the Bible, he is under the umbrella of 00:16:12.580 |
the authority of God. Remember when Lot, in the beginning of the book of Job, he comes 00:16:18.540 |
and he wants to test Lot, and he has to ask permission. The only reason why Lot is a man 00:16:24.100 |
of faith is because you protected him. Take that hedge away from him and let me at him 00:16:28.940 |
and see what happens. He had to get permission, and God permitted him. When Jesus was headed 00:16:34.060 |
to the cross, Jesus, Jesus says to Peter, "Satan has asked permission to sift you like 00:16:40.420 |
wheat, but I have prayed for you so that your faith would not fail." So even when he wanted 00:16:44.140 |
to attack Peter, he didn't have any authority. He had to ask permission. Every instance where 00:16:50.540 |
we see the demons in front of Jesus, they're not sharpening their knives and saying, "Let's 00:16:55.660 |
get at our enemy." They bow down on their knees in terror. "Son of God, why have you 00:17:02.980 |
come before your time to torment us?" And they knew that the God who had the authority 00:17:09.620 |
over their souls was standing before them. They stood in terror, just like all the other 00:17:14.860 |
angels and seraphims and all the elders of the vision that we see in heaven, and they 00:17:19.780 |
are bowed down in worship before this holy, holy, holy God. We see the same terror among 00:17:25.820 |
these demons. When Jesus Christ came, took on human form, he died and was resurrected 00:17:33.280 |
for those who believe we have been set free from that power. Only people who have truly 00:17:42.480 |
been set free from that power really understands what it means to be a follower of Christ. 00:17:49.160 |
You know, I've been mentioning, I've been posting up what's going on in India. Modi, 00:17:54.520 |
who became the second election for to be a prime minister in India. During his reign, 00:18:03.640 |
if you want to call it, or his rule, persecution, violent persecution against Christian has 00:18:09.660 |
risen 450%. And we're not talking about people making fun of Christian names. We're not talking 00:18:16.840 |
about going to work and Hindus not inviting Christians to their lunch parties. We're talking 00:18:23.320 |
about people literally getting stoned, beaten, some of them put to death. That has risen 00:18:29.280 |
450%. And that's why they were very concerned that if he gets re-elected, that that militant 00:18:36.200 |
Hindu party, that which BJP, that which Modi is from, is going to be even more emboldened. 00:18:42.360 |
So they're concerned if in six years it rose that bad, how much more violent are they going 00:18:47.440 |
to get once they know that he's starting a new reign. Not only did he win the second 00:18:51.520 |
election, he said it was a landslide. The general consensus in India is that what was 00:18:58.120 |
happening in the last six years, they want it multiplied going forward. So the Christians 00:19:02.040 |
are very concerned. But in the midst of this, there's good news. And the good news is, about 00:19:11.320 |
10 years ago, when they did a survey of the number of Christians in India, it came out 00:19:15.800 |
to about 2.6%, which is a very small percent, considering that it's considered an open country, 00:19:22.640 |
where missionaries have been there for hundreds of years. In the last 10 years, the percentage 00:19:28.600 |
of Christians has risen from 2.6 to over 5% in the midst of this intense persecution. 00:19:37.220 |
You guys know, those of you who've been with us in China back and forth, that when we first 00:19:41.460 |
went into China, the openness to the gospel, not the government, but the people. But every 00:19:46.740 |
year that we've been in China, it's gotten harder and harder and harder, not because 00:19:50.340 |
of the pressure of the government, but because people have been exposed to wealth and freedom. 00:19:54.740 |
And so lukewarmness began to come in to the Chinese church. 10 years ago, we were hearing 00:19:59.840 |
about the multiplication of the underground church just spreading like wildfire. But in 00:20:05.960 |
recent years, especially after the Beijing Olympics, that that hunger began to just die. 00:20:10.900 |
And even the churches that were established, they're having problems with nominal Christianity. 00:20:17.260 |
Only recently in the last couple years where the persecution has been revamped, we're also 00:20:22.140 |
hearing with the intense persecution that the underground church is starting to get 00:20:26.460 |
remobilized. And we're hearing horrible news of persecution, but along with that, a revival 00:20:32.620 |
of the underground church. The reason why I share this is that throughout history and 00:20:40.260 |
throughout history in scripture, the truth of the gospel has always spread from a few 00:20:49.340 |
who genuinely believe bearing a lot of fruit. And very rarely is it a lot of people bearing 00:20:56.500 |
a little fruit. Because the power of the gospel is not in us. It's not in us. It is not our 00:21:04.820 |
effort. It is not our talent. It is not our organization. It is when we surrender our 00:21:10.060 |
life to the truth of what we see in the scripture. If we genuinely believe that the Son of God 00:21:15.340 |
came and lived among us all for the purpose of rescuing us from the one who had the power 00:21:22.500 |
over death, and that belief, that true belief, that genuine faith changes genuine Christians. 00:21:32.340 |
And true fruit come from that. Charles Wesley, in his hymn "And Can It Be" writes about that 00:21:40.860 |
truth. "And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for 00:21:47.300 |
me who caused his pain for me. Who him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be 00:21:53.940 |
that thou my God shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that thou my God shouldst 00:21:58.860 |
die for me?" And then the second part goes, "Tis mystery all, the immortal dies." He's 00:22:06.900 |
talking about the incarnation of Christ. It's a mystery. Like why would God come? He's reiterating 00:22:14.240 |
what the early church had a problem with. Why would the immortal take on human form? 00:22:21.340 |
Why would the infinite become finite? "Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. Who can explore 00:22:28.660 |
his strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depth of love divine. 00:22:34.540 |
Tis mercy all, let earth adore. Let angel minds inquire no more." "Tis mercy all, let 00:22:40.660 |
earth adore. Let angel minds inquire no more." The beginning of sanctification is wrapped 00:22:48.580 |
up in this song. It's when the mystery of the gospel begins to make sense to us. And 00:22:56.620 |
we are impacted by this truth. That's the beginning of sanctification. Not determination, 00:23:03.180 |
not organization, not money, not education, but this truth, this mystery. And trying to 00:23:11.940 |
figure out, why would he do this for me? What is man that you are so mindful of him? Why 00:23:19.120 |
did he come? Second part of it is, I think it kind of points us even further into this 00:23:28.100 |
mystery. Verse 15, "And might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery 00:23:34.660 |
all their lives." Before we just skim through it, let's ask a practical question. How many 00:23:41.180 |
of you came this morning aware of death? Especially at a young church. How many of you are gripped 00:23:51.580 |
by this fear of death? And you felt this bondage because you're afraid to die? Maybe a few, 00:23:59.780 |
maybe a few, but you don't think about that. Let alone feel being bound by it. What does 00:24:07.460 |
he mean by this? Well, here's something interesting. The Greek word for death is thanatos. Think 00:24:22.500 |
about it. The Greek word for death is thanatos. Now why are you giggling? So anybody who's 00:24:32.880 |
watched Endgames, right? Or he was on another one too, right? His name is thanatos. And 00:24:41.180 |
the word is a Greek word for death. Right? Spoiler. So that's where they get the name, 00:24:51.140 |
thanatos. His name means death. But what does he mean? What does the Bible mean when he 00:24:57.540 |
says that the power of death, the fear of death has subjected all of us to slavery? 00:25:03.500 |
Well, the word for life, because death is the absence of life, just like darkness is 00:25:11.060 |
the absence of light, death is the absence of life. Life in the New Testament is primarily 00:25:17.160 |
described as zoe. Not you have 75 years to live, but the life, right? And the best way 00:25:24.520 |
to describe it if somebody goes bungee jumping or roller coaster or they go somewhere, man, 00:25:28.960 |
I feel alive. Right? Zoe, described in Vine's Expository Dictionary says this, "Zoe is used 00:25:36.800 |
in the New Testament of life as a principle." Life in the absolute sense. Life as God has 00:25:42.200 |
it. "That which the Father has in himself and which he gave to the incarnate Son to 00:25:47.760 |
have in himself." In John 5.26, "And which the Son manifested in the world," 1 John 1.2, 00:25:54.040 |
"from this life man has become alienated in consequence of the fall." In other words, 00:25:59.400 |
death is the absence of this zoe. It's the separation from the author of life. Life gripped 00:26:10.120 |
by fear of death is described for us in Ephesians 4, 18-19. "Being darkened in their understanding, 00:26:19.800 |
excluded from the zoe of God," life of God, "because of the ignorance that is in them, 00:26:25.240 |
because of the hardness of their hearts, they having become callous, having given themselves 00:26:30.480 |
over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness." Okay, let 00:26:36.560 |
me wrap this up and what he's saying. That all this desire of greediness, sensuality, 00:26:43.000 |
impurity, all of this is wrapped up because they have become excluded from zoe. And I've 00:26:51.160 |
mentioned this before, I think maybe end of last year I mentioned this. A quick and easy 00:26:57.400 |
way to understand this is FOMO, fear of missing out. Because mankind has been separated from 00:27:06.600 |
the life of God, we are trying to live because naturally, our natural instinct from the moment 00:27:12.480 |
that we are born is to live. We learn how to suck. We didn't go through school to learn 00:27:18.160 |
how to suck. All of a sudden, the mom produces milk and the baby comes and they know he needs 00:27:25.560 |
to eat. And so the moment he is born, instinctively he is kicking to live and that's why he's 00:27:31.320 |
crying. And all our life, instinctively we want to live. That's why we avoid danger, 00:27:38.000 |
that's why we pursue certain things, because we want to feel alive. But the problem is, 00:27:45.000 |
because we have become alienated from this life, this fear of dying, fear of missing 00:27:49.840 |
out causes us to pursue things that have nothing to do with God. Ray Stedman, in his commentary 00:27:57.360 |
on Hebrews, in this particular verse, he says this, "Since death is the absence of life, 00:28:04.840 |
spiritual death is already present in human affairs, appearing as depression, fear, boredom, 00:28:11.080 |
despair, waste, limitation, and defeat. The devil's lie is to convince many that they 00:28:18.040 |
can avoid such experiences by amassing wealth, maintaining youth by strenuous exercise, or 00:28:24.120 |
expensive treatments, searching for adventure, falling in and out of love, gaining the marks 00:28:31.560 |
of success, indulging in widespread travel, satisfying every whim, and so forth." In other 00:28:40.240 |
words, this is how Pastor Ray Stedman describes what he is saying here. People who are gripped 00:28:47.400 |
by fear of death are enslaved because of their fear of missing out. Isn't that the reason 00:28:54.320 |
why we want to get a better job? Why we look forward to the weekend? And why many people 00:28:59.520 |
stay off of Facebook? Because they look at Facebook and they see all the great things 00:29:04.680 |
that everybody else is experiencing and then it produces in them a coveting, and this coveting 00:29:09.960 |
causes them to pursue things that they don't need or may not have even wanted? Because 00:29:15.160 |
they're afraid that if I make this decision for Christ, I'm afraid that I'm not going 00:29:19.440 |
to get that. If I don't give enough money, if I don't get this job, if I don't put enough 00:29:25.880 |
money away, there is this fear. None of that is sin in and of itself. But mankind is described 00:29:35.080 |
as people who have been gripped with this fear of death. Some of the most famous words 00:29:44.280 |
in the Constitution that describes the principle behind the U.S. Constitution. You know this, 00:29:51.600 |
we learned it in school. It says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 00:29:56.760 |
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 00:30:01.640 |
rights, that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness." Life, liberty, 00:30:10.200 |
and pursuit of happiness. None of these things. Nobody reads that and says, "Oh my gosh, what 00:30:14.800 |
kind of a lousy country is this?" It's a great country because of this. That we have the 00:30:20.360 |
freedom to pursue things that we believe is going to produce life, produce joy, and produce 00:30:27.360 |
liberty. But in a fallen world, people who are filled with, are gripped with fear of 00:30:36.280 |
death, this pursuit of life leads to death. This pursuit of liberty in our fallen nature 00:30:46.840 |
produces bondage. This pursuit of happiness produces greater sorrow. And that's why Jesus 00:30:55.320 |
says in Matthew 10, 39, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life 00:31:01.160 |
for my sake will find it." Because our natural instinct to want to live causes us to pursue 00:31:07.320 |
things that produces death. That's what he means. When Christ came and he was crucified 00:31:14.080 |
on the cross, and he says, "We have also been crucified along with him." So all this rat 00:31:19.840 |
race that we're tied up in, that causes so much pain and sorrow, broken marriages, broken 00:31:27.800 |
relationships, all this desire to be somebody, is producing death, and bondage, and sorrow. 00:31:36.800 |
Jesus says, "Come, pick up your cross, and follow me." He who loses his life because 00:31:44.240 |
he finds his life in me, will truly find life. Galatians 5, 13, "For you are called to freedom, 00:31:53.240 |
brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through 00:31:57.000 |
love serve one another." That's why if we're not careful, religiousness can cause more 00:32:02.240 |
bondage if we're not careful. Because what God called us to is freedom. Why do we worship 00:32:08.880 |
God? Because it produces greater joy. Why do we follow Christ? Because I find life there. 00:32:19.280 |
Why do we submit ourselves? Because I find liberty. You know what the preamble of the 00:32:26.840 |
satanic church is? There are many things that they believe, but the primary thing that they 00:32:35.160 |
describe at the center of the satanic church, it says this. The founder of the satanic church 00:32:41.000 |
that was established in 1969, in Hotel California, and I mentioned this a while back, the song 00:32:46.960 |
Hotel California is describing the satanic church. And Anton LaVey says of his church, 00:32:53.000 |
"Nothing is to be gained by denying oneself pleasure. Religious calls for abstinence most 00:32:58.720 |
often come from faith that view the physical world and its pleasures as spiritually dangerous. 00:33:04.720 |
Satanism is a world affirming, not world denying religion." You know what was interesting? 00:33:09.280 |
I was reading this week about Anton LaVey and what his beliefs were about satanism. 00:33:14.560 |
And even though he's considered the father of satanism in the modern generation, he said 00:33:18.880 |
he himself doesn't believe in satan. He says he's an atheist. The only reason why he created 00:33:25.680 |
this church was to give freedom to those who are bound by religion so they can just live 00:33:31.520 |
any way they want. He said he doesn't believe in satan. He says people who believe in satanism 00:33:37.120 |
are idiots. Those are his exact words. Yet he established this church and he said the 00:33:43.560 |
primary reason is to give freedom. There is no such thing as sin. Just do whatever you 00:33:51.040 |
want. The Bible describes the fall of mankind, the grips that satan has on mankind in 1 John 00:33:59.680 |
2, 16. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and 00:34:04.360 |
the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but from the world." Christ came to 00:34:11.280 |
set us free. In fact, his very first words when he began his public ministry, he went 00:34:16.920 |
into the synagogue and he quoted Isaiah 61, verse 1, which was a messianic promise that 00:34:23.760 |
when the Messiah comes, that this is what he was going to fulfill. And he read this, 00:34:27.560 |
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news 00:34:32.920 |
to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim the liberty 00:34:37.320 |
to captives and freedom to prisoners." That's how he described why he came. He described 00:34:45.480 |
his human life and human death to free us from the bondage of sin. Again in John 8, 00:34:55.360 |
31 and 32, it says, "If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine 00:34:59.800 |
and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." And then verse 36, "So 00:35:05.680 |
if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Because in our Constitution, we 00:35:13.560 |
have the liberty to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. You know, one of the chief 00:35:19.680 |
things about living in this country, it's free. And I think that's awesome that we have 00:35:24.800 |
religious freedom. We don't have to worry about the government coming down on us, at 00:35:28.280 |
least not yet. But in this liberty, the Bible describes liberty as being freed from this 00:35:37.280 |
bondage of sin so that we can find true life in Christ. Until we find liberty in Christ, 00:35:45.840 |
we will automatically be bound by the things of this world. Because we live in fear that 00:35:53.360 |
if we give too much to God, that we will lose our liberty. That if we pick up our cross, 00:36:01.920 |
that we will lose our joy. That if we give all that God demands, that we will nullify 00:36:09.440 |
our life. And that is a deception of the devil. And that's why Jesus says, "If you find life 00:36:18.480 |
in me, come follow me." You know the perfect example of a man who was truly set free was 00:36:28.080 |
Apostle Paul sitting in prison, ready to die. And he writes in Philippians 121, "For to 00:36:35.080 |
me to live is Christ and to die is gain." How do you destroy a joy of a man who has 00:36:43.360 |
already been crucified? Death to him is released from this bondage and being set free. People 00:36:54.600 |
wonder why so many people around the world sacrifice everything, go to weird parts of 00:37:00.320 |
the world, eating strange food, putting their kids in danger, simply to spread this doctrine 00:37:08.440 |
about Jesus' incarnation and resurrection. Why do they do that? Someone who is not set 00:37:14.480 |
free will never understand. We'll always look at that, maybe in admiration. If you grew 00:37:19.280 |
up in the church, I admire that from a distance. And our testimony is always secondhand. We 00:37:25.040 |
read something, we heard something. You know, we put the two and two together, we exposited 00:37:29.360 |
the text, and we look at that and say, "Well, I heard these great things of testimonies 00:37:33.200 |
and I share this with you." And we're always regurgitating other people's testimonies, 00:37:37.760 |
but we ourselves do not know. Why do we come to church? Are we trying to appease God? Do 00:37:50.000 |
we think that if we give enough and serve enough that God's going to bless our family 00:37:55.160 |
and our business is going to get better? Is that why we're here? And you do not realize 00:38:01.120 |
that that's the reason why you're here. You are still under bondage. He came to set us 00:38:08.880 |
free. We come here because this is where we experience freedom. Why do we worship God? 00:38:18.600 |
Because I feel the most alive when I am worshiping God. More than NBA finals, more than anything 00:38:27.560 |
else, I feel the most alive when I am near Christ. That's why I come. And that's why 00:38:36.440 |
you come. And if for any other reason, you are in bondage and you know it. That's what 00:38:44.160 |
He means. His incarnation, He came, He took on flesh, and He suffered for our sake. And 00:38:51.840 |
He tells us to come. Until this world becomes nothing, it will become too much. Why are 00:39:02.760 |
these Indian pastors? They're not old men, they're not young men. You know the average 00:39:07.200 |
age of these Indian pastors that we've been ministering to or trying to support? The average 00:39:11.560 |
of these, age of these people are somewhere between 28 and 44. That's exactly where we 00:39:17.640 |
are as a church. Average. Some of us are a little bit higher, some of us are a little 00:39:22.240 |
bit lower. But that's the average age of the pastors. They look a lot older. When I first 00:39:26.800 |
went there, I thought these guys were at least in their 60s, but found out the majority of 00:39:30.640 |
them were somewhere right around there, 28 to 43. So out of the 45, 50 pastors that we 00:39:37.680 |
support, only about one or two of them are not married. Majority of them have very young 00:39:43.560 |
children at home. Infants, two-year-old, five-year-olds. If they're old, maybe about 10 or 11, 12-year-olds. 00:39:51.520 |
So they're right in the thick of things, like many of our church families. And yet, they 00:39:57.280 |
leave them behind for periods, and they walk into dangerous places, risking their life 00:40:04.360 |
to share this strange doctrine of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. An individual who 00:40:13.580 |
does not know the life of Christ will never understand that. Why would you risk your life? 00:40:19.120 |
Why would you risk your young children? When the whole world, every decision they make 00:40:26.260 |
is to protect their children, why would you risk that? Until you understand, until you 00:40:34.180 |
are freed from the bondage of this world, you'll never really fully understand that 00:40:39.600 |
there's more life in death in Christ than all the success that you can muster up in 00:40:46.280 |
this world. They go because the worst tragedy in life is not dying early. The worst tragedy 00:40:54.480 |
in life is not getting sick and not having food on the table. That is not the worst tragedy 00:40:59.680 |
in life. If you believe what you and I profess to believe in Scripture, the worst tragedy 00:41:04.440 |
in life is dying without Christ. That's not me. That's not my interpretation. That's not 00:41:13.800 |
breeding community church. That's what all Christians believe and profess. The problem 00:41:20.560 |
is our life and doctrines don't match up. And that's what we're trying to do. That's 00:41:27.760 |
what discipleship is, is trying to match up our life and our confession so that it would 00:41:32.840 |
be consistent. My prayer this morning as we come to the communion table, that we would, 00:41:40.080 |
again, deeply consider what does his broken body symbolize by the bread and his shed blood 00:41:48.960 |
symbolized by the grape juice? What kind of impact should that have? How consistent is 00:41:55.920 |
my profession in my life? Do I truly believe in the incarnation of Christ, that God himself 00:42:04.640 |
walked in my shoes to set me free? Are you truly free? Have you been set free? Are you 00:42:13.680 |
declaring freedom with your mouth but in your life are living in bondage? So as we open 00:42:19.240 |
up the communion table, I invite you to take some time to seriously reflect and consider. 00:42:25.040 |
Lord, help me. Open my eyes to see. I believe. I have weak faith. And so through the communion 00:42:34.400 |
table, when you are ready, one by one, we ask you to come. And again, if you're on the 00:42:38.000 |
side, come through the side and go down the middle so that we don't create traffic here. 00:42:42.160 |
And again, we want to remind you that the communion table are for those who have been 00:42:44.960 |
baptized. If you made a profession of faith and Christ has covered you through his blood, 00:42:50.800 |
then you are welcome to come because it's, the communion table is more like an anniversary 00:42:55.240 |
of someone who has been united with Christ. If you don't know that you have been united 00:42:59.560 |
with Christ and you haven't done so, we ask that you would remain in your seat. And if 00:43:04.920 |
God is speaking to you and that maybe you've been at the church all your life and you just 00:43:10.260 |
assume that you're a Christian, but now that the gospel is becoming more clear and you 00:43:15.840 |
realize that that's not it, I really want to encourage you to seek out leaders, seek 00:43:23.320 |
out brothers and sisters in Christ. Ask them, how do I become a Christian? How do I get 00:43:30.280 |
forgiven of my sins? So if you haven't done so, we ask that you guys would sit, just continue 00:43:36.960 |
to pray and seek and then again, come and talk to us so that we can help you out. And 00:43:41.000 |
for those of you who are coming to the table, please come with reverence. In fact, in Corinthians, 00:43:46.680 |
it says, "Those who eat and drink of the blood and of his flesh in an irreverent manner, 00:43:53.680 |
eats and drinks judgment upon himself." In other words, this is sacred. So as you come 00:43:59.120 |
up, again, it's not, nobody earns their way up to the communion table. We humble ourselves 00:44:05.720 |
by acknowledging that we are sinners and that the only hope that we have is the blood of 00:44:10.040 |
Christ. And so as we confess our sins to come up and to celebrate what he has done for us. 00:44:16.120 |
So let me read the passage for us before we open up the table. And then as you are ready, 00:44:22.560 |
we invite you to come one by one. First Corinthians 11, 23 says, "For I received from the Lord 00:44:32.960 |
that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed 00:44:37.840 |
took bread. And when he had given things, he broke it and said, this is my body, which 00:44:42.040 |
is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after 00:44:47.440 |
supper saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink 00:44:52.040 |
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim 00:44:57.320 |
the Lord's death until he comes." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that as we participate 00:45:06.240 |
in this sacred event, that you would sanctify our minds, our thoughts, and our lives. Help 00:45:13.160 |
us Lord God to celebrate your grace. Help us to remember that we live because Christ 00:45:19.440 |
died for us. Help us Lord God to have an attitude of genuine gratitude in our hearts, that everything 00:45:27.880 |
that we do will be an overflow of that mercy you've given us. So I pray that you would 00:45:33.280 |
anoint this time, may it be a time of blessing to your church. In Jesus name we pray, amen.