back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 12.18.2022
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I'm not used to people responding back, but hello. 00:16:34.000 |
Okay. Let me again remind you of the Christmas service that's happening next Sunday. 00:16:40.000 |
Obviously, as those guys know, we have a big choir that's been preparing, 00:16:51.000 |
Okay, so if you've gotten this, again, please take as much as you can 00:16:55.000 |
and use this as an opportunity to, you know, initiate conversation, whether they come or not. 00:17:02.000 |
And then again, a reminder that next Sunday we are having our Lottie Moon Christmas offering, 00:17:09.000 |
Pastor Alex's family and Jen, they're actually scheduled to go out to Taiwan January -- no, December 27th. 00:17:20.000 |
Yeah, sorry, yeah, 27th, they're going out of Ontario Airport. 00:17:23.000 |
And so anyway, just keep them in mind in the prayer. 00:17:26.000 |
They are going out to Taiwan where they -- Kaohsiung is the area that they're going to be doing ministry in. 00:17:33.000 |
And so next -- again, our next Sunday when we do have worship, 00:17:38.000 |
we are going to ask you to give to that cause. 00:17:41.000 |
And then when you do give, make sure you make a clear note that that's for the missions offering 00:17:46.000 |
so that we can make sure that all of that is going to go to support our missionaries. 00:17:51.000 |
Again, if you haven't signed up for the ping pong tournament on the 31st at 5.30 p.m. and New Year's lunch, 00:17:58.000 |
we are having lunch only after the second service, not after first service, correct? 00:18:06.000 |
And again, just emphasize the reason why we're asking you to pay $1 is so that -- 00:18:12.000 |
make sure that if you sign up that you're going to eat. 00:18:15.000 |
We don't want to make all this food and then not being able to use it. 00:18:22.000 |
If you go outside and there's a table outside for the sign-ups. 00:18:25.000 |
If you haven't signed up, just go and let them know, and then they'll sign you up, okay? 00:18:30.000 |
So it's a table that has nothing other than two young ladies sitting there. 00:18:33.000 |
So that's the table you want to go visit, okay? 00:18:36.000 |
Again, Bible study, sign up for Jude, 2nd, 3rd John, Philemon. 00:18:41.000 |
If you haven't signed up for that, please sign up for it. 00:18:44.000 |
And this is also for the home groups and also bring in membership class. 00:18:49.000 |
A new session of membership class is on January 15th, and so that's from 9 to 1030. 00:18:54.000 |
If you haven't signed up for that, please sign up for that, okay? 00:19:02.000 |
And again, just a reminder, if you're visiting us, we have our offering physical box over there. 00:19:08.000 |
But for the rest of us, we'll give you a minute to give your offering electronically. 00:19:28.000 |
Thank you for persevering and enduring, Lord God, through our ups and downs. 00:19:33.000 |
Lord, you know our sins, both the things that we are aware of, things that we are blind to. 00:19:41.000 |
Help us, Lord, that our vision of your glory would grow each day. 00:19:47.000 |
That as we change from one glory to another, that we may be able to see who you are, 00:19:54.000 |
and as a result, to serve you, to love you, to honor you, to worship you. 00:19:58.000 |
I pray, Lord, that the offering that it may be given with a cheerful heart, with a generous heart, 00:20:05.000 |
it may be multiplied 30, 60, and 100-fold for the sake of your kingdom. 00:21:34.000 |
And though the storms may come, I am holding on. 00:22:11.000 |
I know I am loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing. 00:22:40.000 |
And I will walk with Him, knowing You're singing through. 00:23:16.000 |
I know I am loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing. 00:23:35.000 |
I can sing when I lose my step and fall down again. 00:23:49.000 |
I can sing 'cause You keep me, Lord, when I call to You in prayer. 00:24:02.000 |
Sing for I know that I'll sing with the angels, the saints around the throne. 00:24:34.000 |
I know I am loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing. 00:24:42.000 |
I am loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing. 00:24:50.000 |
I am loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing. 00:25:18.000 |
For my waking, for my waking breath, for my daily breath, 00:25:32.000 |
I depend on You, I depend on You for the servant to rise. 00:25:47.000 |
For my sleep, I depend on You, I depend on You. 00:26:41.000 |
I depend on You, I depend on You for the victor is still in front of me. 00:29:48.000 |
All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter four. 00:29:51.000 |
If I can ask one of the leaders to do me a favor, if the heater is on here, if you can just turn that off. 00:30:12.000 |
I don't think you need to go there, because they'll do it remotely. 00:30:18.000 |
All right, if you can look with me to Luke chapter four, we're looking at verse 14 to 21. 00:30:30.000 |
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. 00:30:33.000 |
News about Him spread through all the surrounding district, and He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. 00:30:40.000 |
And He came to Nazareth where He has been brought up, and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. 00:30:47.000 |
In a book of prophet, Isaiah was handed to Him, and He opened the book and found a place where it was written. 00:30:53.000 |
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. 00:30:57.000 |
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, 00:31:01.000 |
to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable ear of the Lord. 00:31:06.000 |
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all the synagogues were fixed on Him. 00:31:12.000 |
And He began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 00:31:18.000 |
Gracious Father, we come before You corporately because we desire to hear from You and You alone. 00:31:36.000 |
And will and life that is eager to apply all that You have to teach us. 00:31:40.000 |
May Your Word come alive, illuminate us according to the power of Your Holy Spirit. 00:31:47.000 |
You know, I can't believe that next Sunday is actually our last Sunday of the year, 2022 going to 2023. 00:31:57.000 |
I don't know about you, but I feel like I just adjusted, got used to writing 2022. 00:32:03.000 |
You know, it took me a while, at least like six months. 00:32:05.000 |
I kept on writing 2021, and then now it's like habit 2022, now I gotta adjust. 00:32:12.000 |
You know, now that we're at the Christmas season, next Sunday, obviously we have Christmas service. 00:32:18.000 |
And I'm pretty sure many of you are busy, right? 00:32:21.000 |
Some of you guys are on top of things, so you're all done with your Christmas shopping, and you know what you're gonna get. 00:32:27.000 |
You already got everybody that you're gonna get, and so you're done. 00:32:32.000 |
And then there's a lot of you who are still, you know, wondering, "I gotta go shopping, I gotta get this." 00:32:37.000 |
And so you're probably in the midst of busyness. 00:32:44.000 |
If you had unlimited resources, right, what would you get the people that you're shopping for? 00:32:53.000 |
Like unlimited resources, like the money is not an issue. 00:32:56.000 |
Anything that the people that you're shopping for, what would you get them? 00:33:01.000 |
Maybe on the flip side of that, if you had unlimited resource, what would you get? 00:33:10.000 |
Well, before we answer that question, we have to know the need of that person, right? 00:33:17.000 |
Because simply money isn't gonna fix everything, right? 00:33:19.000 |
Well, if you're poor, and you had unlimited resources, obviously you would give them money, right? 00:33:27.000 |
So that they can pay off their bills, and they don't have to struggle financially if you happen to be poor. 00:33:31.000 |
But if you're in jail, you give that person a billion dollars, it means nothing. 00:33:38.000 |
You can buy them a brand new car, brand new house that you can't live in. 00:33:42.000 |
So somebody in jail, giving them a brand new house, giving them all the money in the world, is not necessarily good news, right? 00:33:59.000 |
If they're blind, the greatest gift that you could think of, if you had all the resources in the world, is to give them sight. 00:34:06.000 |
Give them a brand new car, or fancy clothes, and a nice watch. 00:34:11.000 |
To a blind person, it may not mean as much, right? 00:34:14.000 |
If you're oppressed, the greatest gift that you could think of, if you had unlimited resources, would be to deliver them from that oppression, whatever that may be. 00:34:26.000 |
So whatever is the need that you have, or the person that you love has, the gift, the greatest gift that you can give them is at that very thing that they are suffering from the most. 00:34:39.000 |
The text that we're looking at this morning, Jesus reads a text in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, 00:34:49.000 |
and he opens up the scroll to Isaiah 61, and he reads this declaration of what the Messiah is going to do when he comes. 00:35:01.000 |
And so if you look at that text in verse 18, he opens it up, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. 00:35:10.000 |
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and set free those who are oppressed to proclaim the favorable ear of the Lord." 00:35:19.000 |
Now that's not the only text where there's a messianic promise. 00:35:25.000 |
In fact, there's over 2,000 different prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming of Christ. 00:35:31.000 |
It's just that this one probably was one of the most clearest, and this is one of those prophecies that almost everybody knew. 00:35:39.000 |
So as soon as Jesus read this, and then he told them that today it is fulfilled in you, they knew exactly what he was talking about. 00:35:47.000 |
He ends that text by saying he came to declare the favorable ear of the Lord. 00:35:55.000 |
It's the ear of salvation, and this is a direct reference to the year of Jubilee. 00:36:01.000 |
Those of you who are 50 and older, and you attended the Jubilee Fellowship now, that's called, right? 00:36:08.000 |
Elder Philip did a presentation of the year of Jubilee, and he bought a little horn to blow just to kind of give us an illustration. 00:36:14.000 |
So some of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:36:17.000 |
But if you look at the declaration of the year of the Jubilee, basically it's restoration of property, freeing people from debt. 00:36:28.000 |
And if you were a slave, basically you're going to be set free. 00:36:32.000 |
And even the land that you are harvesting, you don't touch it, and you're giving it rest. 00:36:37.000 |
So the animals, even the animals benefit from this. 00:36:40.000 |
Jesus is clearly declaring that the year of Jubilee is going to... that Jesus is going to bring the year of Jubilee. 00:36:49.000 |
Because everything he said is related to what it says in Leviticus 25. 00:36:53.000 |
If you were with us when we were studying the year of Jubilee, if on the 49th year, at the end of the 49th year, all your debts are paid, 00:37:04.000 |
and if you happen to become a slave prior to that, you get set free, and your land doesn't get tilled, so basically no one has to work, right? 00:37:14.000 |
It sounds great, except if you're the master. 00:37:20.000 |
If you're the one who, you know, gave the money. 00:37:24.000 |
If you really think about it, like, how is that going to work? 00:37:31.000 |
Right? The economy is going to fall apart. I mean, it sounds great if you're in debt, but let's say if you, you know, gave out money, 00:37:38.000 |
and then maybe you forgot the year of Jubilee is coming, and then it's like, "Ah, we're clean!" Right? 00:37:44.000 |
A lot of Christians who get into a lot of debt because they think Jesus is coming next year. 00:37:48.000 |
You know what I mean? It's like, "Ah, we don't have to worry about debt!" 00:37:51.000 |
So how is this going to actually work? Is this going to ruin the economy? 00:37:58.000 |
Who's going to ever loan money if they're not going to pay them back in six months or a year from now? 00:38:02.000 |
When you carefully look at the year of Jubilee, in fact, not only the year of Jubilee, everything that he says, 00:38:10.000 |
all of this ultimately wasn't about economics. 00:38:15.000 |
Ultimately, it wasn't about just freeing debt. 00:38:22.000 |
It's like, remember when we were looking at the cities of refuge? 00:38:26.000 |
Right? The whole purpose of these major cities, and all the roads, like mountains and valleys being filled 00:38:32.000 |
so that the best roads led to these six cities all across Israel. 00:38:36.000 |
And the city was dedicated for somebody who accidentally kills somebody. 00:38:41.000 |
Accidentally, not deliberately. He accidentally kills somebody. 00:38:45.000 |
And the avenger of blood is somebody who's a relative, gets angry and wants to kill that person, 00:38:50.000 |
and it's for that individual to run to that city and find refuge. 00:38:55.000 |
That's what the city of refuge was designed for. Right? 00:39:00.000 |
How many people who killed accidentally needed the best roads to get to the cities of refuge? 00:39:05.000 |
Why was so much money, time, and effort made so that these six cities? 00:39:10.000 |
I would say, "Oh, that's not a good use of resources." 00:39:14.000 |
There must have been plenty of other ways to take care of the people in Israel, 00:39:19.000 |
but it was specifically designed for that particular person who had to run for his life. 00:39:25.000 |
We know that as we take a careful look at the fulfillment of that, 00:39:31.000 |
all of that, all of that was to prepare for the coming of Christ. 00:39:35.000 |
If what he's declaring here is a call for the church for social justice, 00:39:44.000 |
there's a lot of things here that doesn't really make a lot of sense. 00:39:50.000 |
A lot of people have taken these passages to say the primary call of a Christian 00:39:55.000 |
is to feed the poor, to speak for those who don't have a voice, 00:39:59.000 |
to fight for injustice, that that is the primary call. 00:40:02.000 |
And don't get me wrong, the Bible makes it very clear 00:40:06.000 |
that a Christian should be the first ones to be compassionate, 00:40:10.000 |
first ones to be generous, first ones to speak when there's injustice. 00:40:14.000 |
Don't get me wrong, the Bible does call and tells us that that is the character 00:40:19.000 |
of a Christian, because we have received much, we are able to give, 00:40:23.000 |
more than any other people, but that is not the gospel. 00:40:27.000 |
That is not the gospel, that is not the good news that he preaches. 00:40:32.000 |
So, this morning I want to look at the text that we're looking at, 00:40:36.000 |
and there's four groups of people that he identifies, 00:40:43.000 |
The first group of people, he said he's going to preach the gospel to the poor. 00:40:50.000 |
Now, when you and I hear the word gospel, because we have been so well theologized, 00:40:56.000 |
like the gospel is, God created the earth, we rebelled against him, 00:41:01.000 |
as a result, death reigned, right, curse came upon us, 00:41:06.000 |
the law was given to expose our sins, and then Christ comes and delivers us, 00:41:10.000 |
and then he's resurrected, and we have eternal hope in Christ, 00:41:13.000 |
and so that's the gospel, and that's what we think, that that's the gospel. 00:41:16.000 |
But the word gospel is much more simpler than that. 00:41:26.000 |
everybody sitting in there would have just heard good news, 00:41:39.000 |
He must say that he's going to come and feed us and take care of us. 00:41:45.000 |
But is that what happened in Jesus' ministry? 00:41:48.000 |
Did he set up soup kitchens, and did he go up to the mountains 00:41:52.000 |
and ask all the hungry, hungry people to come to him, so that he can feed them? 00:41:56.000 |
No. Even the feeding of the 5,000 is because they forgot to bring food. 00:42:01.000 |
And he said he had compassion on them, so he fed them. 00:42:04.000 |
In fact, he rebuked them for coming to him wanting more food. 00:42:11.000 |
What he was stating here is much more than simply finances. 00:42:16.000 |
In fact, the word that he uses here for poor, 00:42:20.000 |
there's two words in the Greek that is used for poor in the New Testament. 00:42:29.000 |
And the word pentecost basically means you're kind of in the lower part of the economic status. 00:42:35.000 |
Some people are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, 00:42:40.000 |
and then maybe you're making minimum wage, or you're just barely getting by. 00:42:44.000 |
But you're not homeless, you have food to eat, 00:42:47.000 |
you just compare to other people, you're not as rich. 00:42:52.000 |
But the word that he uses here for the poor is tachos, 00:42:55.000 |
which means abject poverty, a beggar, someone who is destitute. 00:43:00.000 |
He's talking about somebody who is homeless, who is outside, 00:43:05.000 |
He's hungry, he's going to die if somebody doesn't feed him. 00:43:09.000 |
He's talking about somebody who is in a very desperate position. 00:43:12.000 |
That's the word he uses in Matthew 5, 3, when he says, 00:43:16.000 |
"Blessed are the tachos," the poor, the destitute. 00:43:19.000 |
But he qualifies that by saying that he's not referring to financial, but the spirit. 00:43:25.000 |
"Blessed are those who are desperate in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 00:43:34.000 |
"Blessed are you who recognize the desperateness of your spiritual situation." 00:43:39.000 |
It says in Romans 7, 13, the whole reason, all the drama of giving of the law, 00:43:48.000 |
as we study Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Numbers, 00:43:54.000 |
and then we see the history of that being played out all throughout the Old Testament, 00:43:58.000 |
he says in Romans 7, 13, "Therefore did that which was good become a cause of death for me," the law. 00:44:03.000 |
"May it never be, rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, 00:44:08.000 |
by effecting my death through that which is good, 00:44:11.000 |
so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful." 00:44:15.000 |
We're not talking about one passage, we're not talking about one book. 00:44:20.000 |
All of Old Testament history, all the law that was given to the Israelites, 00:44:26.000 |
he said the whole purpose is to reveal sin, to be utterly sinful. 00:44:33.000 |
So if the law becomes a source of pride and righteousness, you've missed the whole point. 00:44:39.000 |
He says the whole purpose of the Old Testament drama, 00:44:43.000 |
the whole purpose of the book of Leviticus, the whole purpose of the giving of the law, 00:44:46.000 |
the whole purpose of the tablets, he says the primary purpose, 00:44:50.000 |
it's not that the law is evil, but the purpose that it was given, 00:44:57.000 |
Now, when he says sin become utterly sinful, he's not talking about a theological position, 00:45:01.000 |
that you take a test, right, at the end of membership, 00:45:04.000 |
it's like, what is the purpose of the law? Sin would become utterly sinful, check. 00:45:09.000 |
Is that what he's talking about? So that you can have a correct theological position of the law? 00:45:18.000 |
He's talking about me and you, and why did sin have to be utterly sinful? 00:45:34.000 |
Because a proud man will not open the door for Christ. 00:45:40.000 |
All of that was to prepare for the coming of Christ, 00:45:46.000 |
so that when Christ came, that we would all be in a position of desperateness, 00:46:00.000 |
So the whole purpose of the law was to bring us down, 00:46:20.000 |
In Luke chapter 7, 47, you know the story of that young lady 00:46:27.000 |
who breaks the jar of oil that cost, you know, tens of thousands of dollars. 00:46:32.000 |
It was worth the whole year's pay for somebody. 00:46:36.000 |
And one of the disciples said, "How can she do that? We have so many poor that we need to feed." 00:46:46.000 |
"For this reason I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much, 00:46:56.000 |
Now, is he saying that if you were a murderer, 00:47:00.000 |
you're naturally going to love Jesus more because your sins are many and you've been forgiven, 00:47:05.000 |
because you've done some horrible crime, you were a drug dealer, 00:47:09.000 |
and so the benefit of that is that you were forgiven a lot. 00:47:14.000 |
But if you happen to be raised in a good Christian home, 00:47:17.000 |
and you never strayed, and you were a good student, 00:47:23.000 |
no benefit to you, because you weren't forgiven much, 00:47:26.000 |
because you weren't as bad as the murderers, you weren't as bad as these other people. 00:47:30.000 |
Is he saying that? She's blessed because she had a hard life and she committed more sins. 00:47:42.000 |
The only difference between her and a prostitute or a tax collector and a Pharisee 00:47:48.000 |
is that Pharisee does not recognize his poverty. 00:47:52.000 |
He doesn't recognize his poverty because he used the law to bring himself up. 00:48:00.000 |
And so when he came to God, he said, "Thank God I'm not like them." 00:48:08.000 |
He recognizes her poverty, but he doesn't recognize his poverty. 00:48:13.000 |
So he says, "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is a kingdom of heaven." 00:48:21.000 |
If Jesus was offering better financial situation, 00:48:30.000 |
I mean, here's a man who was a Roman citizen. 00:48:34.000 |
You know, in the book of Acts, you know when they martyred Stephen, 00:48:39.000 |
do you know why everybody took off their cloak and put it in front of Paul? 00:48:44.000 |
He was a Roman citizen, so they wouldn't treat him like they would treat the Israelites, the Jews. 00:48:50.000 |
So he was a man of authority. He came from a prominent home. 00:48:53.000 |
His direct disciple was Gamaliel, who is known even among the secular world 00:48:58.000 |
as the best scholar of that time, and Paul was a direct disciple of Gamaliel. 00:49:03.000 |
He was a rich man. He was socially already known. 00:49:07.000 |
He was a Roman citizen, and yet because he met Christ, 00:49:16.000 |
He had to learn how to make tents for a man in his stature. 00:49:20.000 |
And it wasn't simply something that happened. It was because he met Christ. 00:49:25.000 |
In fact, some people think that the apostles were poor, and they met Christ, and then they were elevated. 00:49:32.000 |
You know, most scholars believe that Peter and John and Andrew and James, they weren't poor. 00:49:46.000 |
If you have your own house, you have equity in the house, right? 00:49:49.000 |
You may be poor, meaning like maybe you don't have a lot of money in the bank account, 00:49:53.000 |
but you wouldn't be poor. You'd be at least a middle class. 00:49:56.000 |
The fact that they had their own boat, most likely most people at that time did not have their own boat, 00:50:03.000 |
meaning that they were pretty successful fishermen. 00:50:06.000 |
In fact, remember that story of where they have the layman, 00:50:11.000 |
they break the house open, and they bring him down? 00:50:14.000 |
Most people believe that that was Peter's house. 00:50:15.000 |
So every time I read that, I always picture Peter on the side looking like, "What are you doing?" 00:50:23.000 |
And it must have been a big house because they had a large crowd in there. 00:50:26.000 |
So Peter, they believe that Peter's maybe parents' house or Peter's house was used as the base 00:50:33.000 |
for them to go around to ministry in that area. 00:50:35.000 |
So Peter and John were not necessarily poor people. 00:50:44.000 |
So if he's, this is referring to financial stability, 00:50:51.000 |
The ones who were the closest to him suffered the most. 00:50:59.000 |
First and foremost, to recognize our poverty, our own poverty, 00:51:09.000 |
that when we come before this holy God, that we're beating our chest. 00:51:13.000 |
You know, the greatest hindrance to meeting Christ is our own pride. 00:51:23.000 |
And the second greatest, which is related, is other people's sins. 00:51:32.000 |
We're so consumed with other people's sins that we don't recognize our own stink. 00:51:44.000 |
So we're always complaining about the B.O. of other people. 00:51:55.000 |
You've gotten accustomed, you walk into your room and you don't smell the smell 00:52:01.000 |
until you have a guest come into your room, it's like, "Something smells in here." 00:52:04.000 |
It's like, "I don't smell anything. It smells like old socks." 00:52:10.000 |
We have cats in our house, now people come in, it's like, "We can smell the cat." 00:52:17.000 |
"It's because my nose has gotten used to it." 00:52:20.000 |
We, the Pharisees, spend all their time being offended by the stink of others. 00:52:33.000 |
So when they stood before a holy God, their prayer was, "Thank God that I'm not like them." 00:52:39.000 |
He says, "He came to bring good news to the poor." 00:52:47.000 |
But it's not good news if you don't recognize your poverty. 00:52:53.000 |
If you live your life thinking, "I have a billion dollars in the bank account," 00:52:58.000 |
and somebody says, "I'll give you a million," it's like, "Thank you." 00:53:17.000 |
Secondly, "He came to proclaim release to the captives." 00:53:23.000 |
Every single one of the disciples became prisoners because of Jesus. 00:53:28.000 |
What part of the gospel did you read where Jesus was going around visiting jails and just releasing them? 00:53:38.000 |
Jesus says, "He who has done it to the least of my children has done it unto me." 00:53:43.000 |
He calls us to be generous. He calls us to have compassion. 00:53:46.000 |
He calls us to fight for those who don't have a voice. 00:53:52.000 |
He said, "Come follow me. I will make you an individual who releases people from jail." 00:54:01.000 |
He said, "No. I will make you fishers of men." 00:54:04.000 |
He wasn't simply talking about physical captivity. 00:54:11.000 |
In fact, the word for release here can also be translated "forgiven." 00:54:18.000 |
So he's not simply talking about going to jail and opening the doors and saying, "Hey, everybody get out." 00:54:22.000 |
He's talking about pardoning somebody who is guilty, who is trapped in his sins. 00:54:27.000 |
That's why in John 8, 31-36, if you know that text well, 00:54:35.000 |
the previous text, Jesus is arguing with the Jews about his identity, who he is, and how he came. 00:54:42.000 |
In fact, the whole gospel of John is about declaring who he is. 00:54:47.000 |
I am the vine. I am the light. I am the bread. 00:54:50.000 |
So by the time we get to John 8, it says, verse 31, 00:54:55.000 |
"So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him." 00:55:04.000 |
So we would think that if a passage starts that way, "To those who had believed him," 00:55:10.000 |
you said, "Okay, so he said persevere and then make it to the end." 00:55:16.000 |
"To those Jews who had believed his identity, he said, 'If you continue in my word, 00:55:20.000 |
then you are truly my disciples, disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, 00:55:31.000 |
The Messiah was going to deliver us from Rome. 00:55:45.000 |
And they were offended because the lowliest thing that you can be at that time 00:55:50.000 |
So in other words, they heard exactly what Jesus was saying. 00:55:53.000 |
You're calling us slaves, and they're offended. 00:55:56.000 |
And they say, in verse 33, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. 00:56:01.000 |
How is it that you say you will become free?" 00:56:04.000 |
"Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 00:56:11.000 |
The slave does not remain in the house forever, and the son does not remain forever. 00:56:15.000 |
So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed.'" 00:56:26.000 |
It seems like with all the miracles and everything that you're saying, 00:56:28.000 |
that you're in line with everything that a Messiah ought to be, 00:56:33.000 |
Because by saying this, you're indicting us that we're captive. 00:56:44.000 |
for the sake of time, I didn't put it up here, 00:56:48.000 |
"You do not know me because you do not know the Father. 00:56:51.000 |
You do not know me because your Father is the devil." 00:56:56.000 |
He calls them children of the devil, people who believed him. 00:57:06.000 |
These are the ones who have been separated from those who didn't believe him. 00:57:12.000 |
These are the ones who acknowledged who he is. 00:57:15.000 |
And he says, "You do not know me because your Father is not God." 00:57:23.000 |
What was the distinguishing mark between a follower of Christ 00:57:34.000 |
That was the distinction between a believer professing 00:57:43.000 |
He's not simply talking about releasing you from jail. 00:57:50.000 |
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 00:57:53.000 |
has set you free from the law of sin and of death." 00:58:01.000 |
"For where the Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, 00:58:05.000 |
Galatians 5.1, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free. 00:58:08.000 |
Therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again 00:58:24.000 |
and live their life as if they've never been set free. 00:58:35.000 |
I'm not going to read the whole thing because I've read this 00:58:39.000 |
But it says, "You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains, 00:58:50.000 |
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. 00:58:53.000 |
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for." 00:59:21.000 |
but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. 00:59:42.000 |
are those who recognize and they come to Christ." 01:00:54.000 |
and we can't enjoy the gift because of the package, 01:01:06.000 |
and what we want more than anything else is Christ, 01:01:24.000 |
That little that you get from a child's mouth 01:02:05.000 |
but that's exactly how I felt when I met Christ. 01:02:19.000 |
Why did we have to come to the United States? 01:02:26.000 |
I had so much bitterness and anger in my heart. 01:02:41.000 |
Peter, if you do this, you're going to go to jail. 01:02:43.000 |
Or Peter, if you do this, you're going to die. 01:02:48.000 |
If I die, because I hated the situation that I was in. 01:03:04.000 |
I don't think I would have made it out of high school. 01:03:08.000 |
I mean, not because I was planning anything bad. 01:03:10.000 |
It was just I was just so filled with bitterness and anger. 01:03:52.000 |
He did it to bring me to this point so that I could meet him. 01:04:04.000 |
I think many of you know exactly what I'm talking about 01:04:09.000 |
And maybe because of the struggles of trying to do this 01:04:15.000 |
You forgot the freedom that you have in Christ. 01:05:07.000 |
My life's not going to change because of you. 01:05:10.000 |
I'm not going to say something different because of you. 01:05:49.000 |
And Jesus, that's what the Jubilee was about. 01:05:56.000 |
Thirdly, he says, to give recovery of sight to the blind. 01:06:08.000 |
"so that they may not see the light of the gospel 01:06:11.000 |
"and the glory of Christ, who is the image of God?" 01:06:13.000 |
He says, "The difference between Christian and non-Christian 01:06:16.000 |
"is one who sees and the one who does not see." 01:06:19.000 |
Blindness is the inability of the eyes to process light. 01:06:35.000 |
so if you challenge me, you're challenging Google. 01:06:41.000 |
You're challenging all the doctors who went before you. 01:06:46.000 |
Blindness is when the photoreceptors in our eyes 01:06:52.000 |
are damaged somehow because of diabetes, glaucoma, 01:07:09.000 |
So when he says to give recovery of sight to the blind, 01:07:13.000 |
yes, he did open the eyes of those who are blind. 01:07:36.000 |
Spiritually, we become blind because of our own sins. 01:08:20.000 |
"He came as a witness to testify about light, 01:08:24.000 |
He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 01:08:27.000 |
There was a true light which, coming into the world, 01:08:34.000 |
"For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' 01:08:39.000 |
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 01:08:50.000 |
Psalm 36, 9, "For with you is the fountain of life. 01:09:07.000 |
He says, "In his light we see everything else." 01:09:13.000 |
to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 01:09:26.000 |
It's your own imagination. It's your own lust. 01:09:36.000 |
That's why the Bible says to fix your eyes upon Christ, 01:09:41.000 |
because the moment we take our eyes off of Christ, 01:09:57.000 |
because we don't see through the lens of Christ. 01:10:02.000 |
because we are blinded to the eternal things, 01:10:05.000 |
because the light of Christ is not bringing light 01:10:21.000 |
Again, the word "set free" is to be forgiven. 01:10:39.000 |
People recognize the damage that sin has done. 01:10:42.000 |
Our own sin, and the sins that have been committed against us. 01:11:00.000 |
"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." 01:11:08.000 |
I've had opportunities to travel to different countries. 01:11:12.000 |
I haven't traveled anywhere near what Pastor Peter Chung traveled, 01:11:17.000 |
but I've traveled enough to see what a lot of the world looks like. 01:11:28.000 |
You go to the Philippines, and you'll go to the resorts. 01:11:35.000 |
You go to Korea, and you'll go to the fancy places 01:11:39.000 |
where they have nice shopping and nice hotels. 01:11:42.000 |
You go to China, you see the Great Wall, you see the Silk Road. 01:11:53.000 |
In China, I remember all these years that we were doing ministry there, 01:12:00.000 |
I remember in the late '90s, in 1999, when we first started going in there, 01:12:09.000 |
I would just sit at McDonald's with my Bible open. 01:12:12.000 |
People would come just sit and ask me, "What is that?" 01:12:16.000 |
We saw the effect of money coming into this country. 01:12:23.000 |
All of a sudden, everybody had to make money. 01:12:28.000 |
And they were literally abandoning their kids. 01:12:33.000 |
and then mom and dad would fly all across the country and then the world 01:12:39.000 |
And some of them haven't seen their kids in like 8, 9, 10 years. 01:12:46.000 |
so they sacrifice their kids in order to make the money. 01:12:50.000 |
And so the kids are growing up with grandparents or aunts or uncles, 01:12:59.000 |
and all they're doing is popping money over there, 01:13:01.000 |
you can imagine what's going to happen to those kids. 01:13:05.000 |
So as much as money is buying them things that they want, 01:13:22.000 |
They thought out everything, vending machine to sidewalks to subways. 01:13:28.000 |
During the soccer matches, you know, they said, 01:13:36.000 |
But you know, those of you who went there to do ministry, 01:13:49.000 |
We laugh about it, but young people are marrying robots, 01:13:59.000 |
So all that facade was created by all this stuff 01:14:06.000 |
And say, "Oh, we need to follow what they're doing." 01:14:21.000 |
Korea recently, because of K-pop and K-drama, 01:14:27.000 |
It's become, it's kind of like the name is kind of got on the map, 01:14:39.000 |
There's a sense of despair in the young people, 01:14:53.000 |
just like the inner cities play sports as a way of out, 01:15:13.000 |
I can tell you about what I saw in Philippines, 01:15:45.000 |
but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. 01:15:48.000 |
Jesus says, "Blessed are you who recognize your poverty. 01:16:08.000 |
Those of you who are suffering in silence at home, 01:16:27.000 |
because in your loneliness, Christ will find you. 01:16:39.000 |
blessed are you when your family's falling apart, 01:16:42.000 |
blessed are you because the Lord is near you, 01:17:10.000 |
I believe, I believe, but I still haven't found what you're looking for, 01:17:13.000 |
because what you're looking for should have always been Christ. 01:17:17.000 |
All these other means, the church, the fellowship, whatever it is, 01:17:23.000 |
poverty, whatever it is, they're all means to get to Christ. 01:17:27.000 |
So sometimes, sometimes you may be living in peace as a means to come to Christ. 01:17:34.000 |
Sometimes God will give us the greatest trouble, 01:17:39.000 |
Sometimes you will have many friends, and that will lead you to Christ. 01:17:43.000 |
Sometimes you will be lonelier than ever, and that will lead to Christ. 01:17:48.000 |
Because the end prize of all of this is Christ. 01:17:54.000 |
And when we recognize that, that's when we are set free. 01:18:02.000 |
There's a reason why, here it says in verse 20, 01:18:06.000 |
"He closed the book, gave it back to the attendants, and sat down, 01:18:09.000 |
and the eyes of all in the synagogues were fixed on him. 01:18:12.000 |
And he began to say to them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" 01:18:16.000 |
You notice how he uses the past tense? It's fulfilled. 01:18:19.000 |
Shouldn't he have said, "It will be fulfilled"? 01:18:28.000 |
Because Jubilee wasn't about what he was going to do. 01:18:36.000 |
Jesus didn't simply say, "I will show you life." 01:18:42.000 |
He didn't simply say, "I will give you the bread." 01:18:47.000 |
He didn't simply say, "I will give you the water." 01:19:01.000 |
Because that was never the gift. The gift is not the church. 01:19:12.000 |
That's why he says, "This Jubilee is fulfilled in your presence." 01:19:21.000 |
I pray that as we, in the midst of our busy schedule preparing for Christmas, 01:19:25.000 |
that we recognize what is decoration and what is the gift. 01:19:30.000 |
With all the external things that are going on, none of that is sinful in and of itself, 01:19:44.000 |
so that when the sun sets us free, that we would be free indeed. 01:19:51.000 |
Again, as our worship team comes up, let's take a few minutes 01:20:00.000 |
to take this busy season and come before the Lord 01:20:11.000 |
All the other distractions that you would put aside, 01:20:21.000 |
Let's take some time to pray again as our worship team leads us. 01:27:18.000 |
and eternal love, the deep, deep love of God the Father, 01:27:28.000 |
forgive us, feed us, challenge us, and move us. 01:27:35.000 |
That we all may worship You in spirit and in truth.