back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 4/27/2025
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Praise God, praise God, praise God who saved my soul. 00:07:50.000 |
Praise God, praise God, praise God from whom all blessings flow. 00:08:00.960 |
Praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God who saved my soul. 00:08:12.940 |
Praise God, praise God, praise God from whom all blessings flow. 00:08:28.920 |
Good morning and welcome to Bryn Community Church. 00:08:38.920 |
We have quite a few announcements to get through. 00:08:41.920 |
First of all, next Sunday is members meeting. 00:08:44.920 |
And so we will be having fundraiser lunch that's going to be given by the Korea Mission team. 00:08:52.920 |
And then our members meeting is going to start right at 2 o'clock. 00:08:55.920 |
So if you can't make it, please give us a heads up and let us know ahead of time. 00:08:59.920 |
On May 18th, that's in two Sundays, two or three Sundays. 00:09:04.920 |
On 11 through 3 p.m., there's going to be a family ministry picnic. 00:09:08.920 |
So this is open for anyone who's part of the family ministry from 11 to 3. 00:09:17.920 |
And we'll be eating together and just visiting with other family members to get to know them. 00:09:26.920 |
During the summer, we have a spiritual development classes. 00:09:29.920 |
So we've shortened our regular Bible study that we have. 00:09:33.920 |
Usually this session would last all the way up to June. 00:09:36.920 |
But then the reason why we shortened it to 10 weeks is because we're trying to cover certain topics 00:09:41.920 |
that we believe will be helpful to the church. 00:09:43.920 |
So there's three topics that are going to be covered, 00:09:46.920 |
Bible study sessions that are going to be offered during the summertime. 00:09:50.920 |
And all three of them are at different times and at different lengths. 00:09:53.920 |
So you're going to have to look that up when you go see it. 00:09:59.920 |
So if you are engaged and you need to take marriage class, this is a requirement for you. 00:10:05.920 |
And then for everybody else, this is open to you as well. 00:10:08.920 |
Whether you've been married for two years or 15 years or 30 years, 00:10:14.920 |
The foundations of marriage is going to be taught by all the pastors. 00:10:19.920 |
And then in between, we're going to be pairing you up with other couples 00:10:23.920 |
to kind of practice and fellowship with other people based on the things that you've learned. 00:10:27.920 |
So if you are part of the family ministry, you're invited to that. 00:10:33.920 |
You feel like this is going to benefit you, you can also sign up. 00:10:38.920 |
There will be child care provided, and it will start sometime in May, sometime at the end of May. 00:10:42.920 |
And then the second class are fourfold disciplines of the Christian life. 00:10:46.920 |
So this is for daily devotions, prayer, evangelism, fellowship. 00:10:53.920 |
There's going to be brief teaching, and then we're going to be practicing 00:10:56.920 |
based upon whichever groups that you get placed in. 00:10:59.920 |
It's not like a small group, but there will be different places throughout the city. 00:11:02.920 |
Different parts where you'll be gathered together to practice the things that we're going over. 00:11:07.920 |
And that will take place on Wednesday nights. 00:11:10.920 |
No child care is provided for that, and it will be on campus on Wednesday nights at the end. 00:11:18.920 |
Child care is provided for foundation of marriage, just a heads up. 00:11:21.920 |
And then another class, parenting class, that's going to be sometime in July. 00:11:26.920 |
So if you want to take that class, that child care is provided for that as well. 00:11:33.920 |
So Wednesday nights are fourfold disciplines of Christian life. 00:11:44.920 |
If you feel like this is going to be beneficial for you, we ask that you would sign up. 00:11:48.920 |
And so this is the reason why we shortened our regular Bible study, 00:11:52.920 |
so that we can address certain topics that we feel like were beneficial to the church. 00:12:01.920 |
On Wednesday nights, starting from May 28th, there's going to be a seeker's group. 00:12:06.920 |
So if you are interested and you have questions about the gospel, 00:12:10.920 |
you want to interact with Pastor Mark or different people in the outreach team, 00:12:16.920 |
they're going to be doing a Bible study going over fundamental understanding of Christianity and the gospel. 00:12:21.920 |
So if you think that will benefit you, or you know somebody that you think will benefit, 00:12:25.920 |
please sign up for that, and the first class is happening on May 28th at 7 p.m. 00:12:31.920 |
Berean Men's and Women's Softball Tournament, or Mission Softball Tournament, 00:12:39.920 |
So if you already signed up, you probably got an email. 00:12:42.920 |
There is a -- I think there is a practice happening starting today. 00:12:46.920 |
I don't know -- is Tim in this room somewhere? 00:12:54.920 |
So if you signed up and you got an email, please show up. 00:12:56.920 |
And even if you didn't and you want to play, please sign up for that, 00:13:04.920 |
So if you are interested in playing and your skill level for that team needs to be higher than normal, okay, 00:13:13.920 |
meaning like if you play softball and you feel like you've played co-ed softball before 00:13:17.920 |
because we don't want our sisters getting hurt in that tournament. 00:13:20.920 |
And so there are a few other churches that are coming with that. 00:13:23.920 |
There's not a lot of space, so if you're interested in playing, please let Tim know, 00:13:29.920 |
For the men, your skill level doesn't matter. 00:13:32.920 |
So we have all the way from advanced to beginners. 00:13:36.920 |
So you'll be placed on -- distributed accordingly. 00:13:38.920 |
So if you want to play, you can come out to that. 00:13:47.920 |
All right, so let me pray for us for the offering. 00:13:50.920 |
And then if you did bring a physical offering, there is an offering box in the back. 00:13:54.920 |
And then after our main worship, Luke Chow, our brother, is going to come give his testimony 00:14:04.920 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. 00:14:12.920 |
Thank you, Father God, for the tremendous patience and grace that you show us every day. 00:14:22.920 |
I pray that each time we gather together that you'd open our eyes to see just what a treasure we have in you, 00:14:29.920 |
so that our response may simply be a reasonable response to what you've given us. 00:14:35.920 |
I pray that you would bless this time, bless our worship, bless the giving that we give. 00:14:41.920 |
May it be used wisely, prudently for the sake of your kingdom. 00:15:30.920 |
Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us before we continue. 00:24:41.920 |
My name is Luke Chau, and this is my testimony. 00:24:47.920 |
I never had any formulated opinions of God or any higher power, 00:24:53.920 |
or if we disappeared into nothing when we died. 00:24:59.920 |
In high school, I was arrogant and self-absorbed. 00:25:03.920 |
I believed that I was more important than those around me, 00:25:05.920 |
thinking that I had more interesting things to say than my peers. 00:25:10.920 |
In my arrogance, I thought that I was better than everyone else. 00:25:13.920 |
Oftentimes, I would compare myself to my classmates 00:25:16.920 |
and view myself as either physically or intellectually superior. 00:25:25.920 |
thinking I was better because my schedule was harder 00:25:29.920 |
I looked down on those around me who would struggle in my classes, 00:25:33.920 |
scoffing at how much work they had to put into passing their class. 00:25:38.920 |
Furthermore, I started believing and saying that I was always right. 00:25:43.920 |
I was quick to believe that those around me were wrong 00:25:46.920 |
and that I was correct whenever an issue occurred. 00:25:55.920 |
Hearing that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to save us 00:25:58.920 |
sparked a curiosity in me to hear more about our Savior. 00:26:02.920 |
I started attending church regularly and made my way to Berean a few months later. 00:26:09.920 |
and a message of repentance and why we needed a Savior. 00:26:12.920 |
I also learned that we need to turn away from our sins in order to follow Christ. 00:26:17.920 |
At this point, I started to form head knowledge of the gospel and who God was, 00:26:22.920 |
but I was not ready to surrender my will to God. 00:26:25.920 |
I still didn't understand my desperate need for a Savior. 00:26:29.920 |
At the end of the summer, I was getting ready to go to Cal Poly SLO. 00:26:33.920 |
However, my mom was still uneasy about sending me to college, 00:26:39.920 |
Back and forth we went on deciding whether or not I was going to go. 00:26:43.920 |
I would push more and more, trying to convince my mom 00:26:48.920 |
and to find a church where I could grow in faith. 00:26:50.920 |
I would work hard for a degree and to find a church where I could grow in faith. 00:26:55.920 |
I truly wanted to believe that I would grow more in faith in college, 00:26:59.920 |
but deep down I knew that I wanted to go to Cal Poly SLO for worldly desires. 00:27:04.920 |
I wanted to find a girl, party, have fun, and be away from my family without supervision. 00:27:09.920 |
It was at this point when I started to feel that I had in one hand church 00:27:13.920 |
and in the other hand the college experience. 00:27:16.920 |
A few weeks before my final deadline of rescinding my admission, 00:27:25.920 |
who knew immediately that I had been drinking. 00:27:33.920 |
I tried to deny it, saying that I still wanted to go for my degree and to go in godliness. 00:27:37.920 |
However, the more I told this lie, the less I believed it. 00:27:41.920 |
After a week or so, my family sat me down and asked me why I wanted to go to college. 00:27:45.920 |
I repeated this lie one more time before my sister, who normally doesn't get too mad, 00:27:52.920 |
She told me that I was being extremely selfish in my actions 00:27:55.920 |
and that I would disobey my parents so blatantly after how much they do for me. 00:28:00.920 |
At the moment, I was so angry with my sister for confronting me. 00:28:03.920 |
I wanted so much to hit back and retort back at her with my own. 00:28:09.920 |
It was then that I realized my selfishness and my pursuit for my own desires. 00:28:17.920 |
but my actions showed that I wanted to do it on my own without their help. 00:28:29.920 |
I depend on the Lord for everything in my life, 00:28:36.920 |
I am telling Him I deny Him and that I don't want to depend on Him, 00:28:43.920 |
And when He extends His grace to me, I slap it away with my sin. 00:28:48.920 |
How could I do this to the one that loves me most? 00:28:51.920 |
I couldn't see how my own selfishness was hurting my family 00:28:58.920 |
James 4:6 states that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. 00:29:03.920 |
How could I, a richest sinner, hold so much pride in my heart 00:29:07.920 |
when Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, humbled Himself to come down to save us? 00:29:12.920 |
I was finally able to see my depravity and my deep and desperate need for a Savior. 00:29:17.920 |
I could not do anything on my own or rely on my own power to save me. 00:29:21.920 |
I needed Christ to take away my sins to wash me anew. 00:29:34.920 |
I no longer live in my sin, struggling to fight it every day. 00:29:38.920 |
I surrender my will to the Father that I deny myself, 00:29:41.920 |
pick up my cross, and follow Him wherever He leads me. 00:30:32.920 |
And we really praise God for what God is doing in the Chao family. 00:30:37.920 |
They broke the record, all three siblings that are being baptized here. 00:30:43.920 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 11. 00:30:47.920 |
I'm going to be reading from verse 11 all the way to verse 23. 00:31:03.920 |
"He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. 00:31:05.920 |
When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed. 00:31:09.920 |
But some of them said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.' 00:31:14.920 |
Others to test him were demanding of him a sign from heaven. 00:31:20.920 |
'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself, false. 00:31:25.920 |
If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? 00:31:29.920 |
For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 00:31:33.920 |
And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? 00:31:40.920 |
But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 00:31:44.920 |
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 00:31:50.920 |
But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, 00:31:54.920 |
he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied on, and distributes his plunder. 00:32:00.920 |
He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." 00:32:09.920 |
Father, we pray that your word would speak to us powerfully. 00:32:15.920 |
I pray that your word that you have ordained to go forth 00:32:19.920 |
and to not return until it has accomplished its purpose 00:32:22.920 |
would cause your children to hear the voice of Christ and to follow him. 00:32:29.920 |
I pray that your word would come alive in us, mold us, guide us, revive us. 00:32:38.920 |
So some of you guys may know this and some of you guys may not. 00:32:40.920 |
But if you look at--if you can put up the art. 00:32:49.920 |
I don't know how many of you guys are UCI students, but have you ever asked why? 00:32:55.920 |
Of all the things that they could have chosen as their mascot. 00:32:59.920 |
Zot, zot, zot. Like this is your--you know what I mean? 00:33:03.920 |
So I've always been curious, and I looked it up, 00:33:06.920 |
and it said 1965 was when they voted for this, when the school was pretty young. 00:33:10.920 |
And the competing animals were eagles, unicorns, seahawks, roadrunner, 00:33:19.920 |
And why? Why did this win of all the things that you could have? 00:33:23.920 |
And those of you who are UCI students, how many of you know the back story behind this? 00:33:38.920 |
The back story behind this is when they were--when UCI-- 00:33:43.920 |
when they were kind of voting for this in the early stages was known as like the boonie school. 00:33:48.920 |
You know, I remember visiting UCI in 1985 to visit some of my friends 00:33:55.920 |
and I remember thinking, getting off the freeway, I said, "Where is this?" 00:33:58.920 |
So I remember, if you lived in Orange County, anything after Anaheim was considered boonies. 00:34:04.920 |
I know now it's like, you know, there's a bunch of stuff, 00:34:07.920 |
and Irvine is the destination place for a lot of people, 00:34:10.920 |
but anything beyond Disneyland was kind of like, "What good thing comes out of here?" 00:34:15.920 |
You know what I mean? It was kind of like Nazareth. 00:34:20.920 |
So imagine if it was like that in 1980, '85, what it was like in 1965. 00:34:26.920 |
So, you know, it was kind of like a school that people didn't know much about, 00:34:30.920 |
and the reasoning behind it, at least from the students, 00:34:34.920 |
is that an anteater seems pretty innocuous, pretty, like, tame on the surface until it is cornered. 00:34:41.920 |
And they said that when it is cornered and it decides to fight, it's actually very ferocious, 00:34:50.920 |
They have--at the end of it, the picture doesn't show it, but it has claws at the end, 00:34:54.920 |
and they said that thing is so dangerous that if you corner it and it comes out swinging, 00:35:01.920 |
And I didn't know that it actually has a name, Peter. 00:35:09.920 |
It reminds me of my childhood memories of Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife, a kitten keeper. 00:35:15.920 |
That's--that was kind of like, you know, I just--but the name behind it is Peter the Anteater. 00:35:20.920 |
And again, why I share this is because we don't know--you know, I was just curious all these years 00:35:27.920 |
And the reason why they go "zot," it's the noise that they make when they attack. 00:35:38.920 |
It's not the noise that they make when they eat ants. 00:35:40.920 |
This is the noise that they make when they decide, okay, I'm going to become ferocious. 00:35:46.920 |
The reason why I share that this morning is because Jesus is--in Jesus' ministry, 00:35:52.920 |
as he is heading toward the cross, the leaders of Israel are starting to feel cornered 00:36:02.920 |
And so you see that Jesus' words become much more direct and harsher when he says, 00:36:11.920 |
You're like a dead man's tomb, and you're always dressing on the outside, 00:36:20.920 |
And so the leaders of Israel are starting to feel his reputation is getting stronger and stronger, 00:36:26.920 |
and we need to do something about this man, so they're coming out with their claws now. 00:36:30.920 |
And so Jesus actually warns us in John 16, 2-3, 00:36:35.920 |
"They will make you outcasts from the synagogue," "they" meaning the Jewish leaders, 00:36:40.920 |
"but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. 00:36:47.920 |
These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me." 00:36:52.920 |
The greatest opposition to the cause of Christ, he says, 00:36:56.920 |
is going to come from who you might think are the spiritual leaders. 00:37:02.920 |
And so this text is a warning to us, an encouragement to us to stay sober. 00:37:11.920 |
And again, the outline of where he's at is he's heading toward the cross. 00:37:16.920 |
He's got maybe about six months to possibly, depending on your timeline, 00:37:19.920 |
to about nine months before he gets to the cross. 00:37:24.920 |
They reject him, so now he's focused on his attention upon the disciples, 00:37:29.920 |
and it, first of all, tells us about the miracle. 00:37:32.920 |
And the miracle itself is, again, is a spectacular miracle in and of itself, 00:37:39.920 |
It just says a demon-possessed man was healed, and he began to talk. 00:37:45.920 |
The Bible records about nine different instances where Jesus actually casts out a demon. 00:37:51.920 |
So if you were to point out what miracle did Jesus perform the most, 00:37:56.920 |
at least that is recorded, it's the demon possession. 00:38:00.920 |
Nine times, up to 12 times if you include when Jesus gives the authority to the disciples 00:38:05.920 |
to go out and cast out demons, and they come back and say, "Hey, the demons were even subject to us." 00:38:09.920 |
So if you include all of that, there's 12 different instances that are recorded 00:38:13.920 |
of a power encounter with the demonic world, and they come back. 00:38:17.920 |
And the reason why this is so important is because nothing highlights more tangibly why Jesus came. 00:38:24.920 |
It says in Colossians 1:3, it says, "He rescued us from the power of darkness 00:38:32.920 |
and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son." 00:38:37.920 |
So the whole purpose of why Christ was going to go to the cross and be resurrected 00:38:42.920 |
was to deliver people who were under the bondage of Satan, 00:38:45.920 |
so that we may be delivered into the kingdom of his Son. 00:38:49.920 |
So nothing illustrates that more tangibly than the encounter with Satan. 00:38:54.920 |
In this text, it's not simply about the miracle, because we've seen numerous accounts of this before. 00:39:04.920 |
He encounters a demon-possessed man, casts it out, and he begins to speak. 00:39:07.920 |
And then the first response from the crowd is amazement, which is a natural response. 00:39:14.920 |
In fact, the early church in Acts 2.43 tells us, "Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, 00:39:19.920 |
and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles." 00:39:23.920 |
And we often talk about how we need to be like the early church. 00:39:30.920 |
That's not something that the early church was filled with awe because they gathered together 00:39:34.920 |
and the teaching was so fantastic, and so there was a sense of amazement in the early church. 00:39:40.920 |
Amazement happened because they encountered God. 00:39:44.920 |
It's not something that happens just because you put the small groups together, 00:39:47.920 |
and if you disciple people correctly, there's going to be a sense of awe that comes in them. 00:39:51.920 |
True worship is something that happens when people encounter God. 00:39:57.920 |
We see that all throughout Scripture, whether it is Moses, after God delivers them from Egypt, 00:40:04.920 |
whether it's Deborah, where God brings revival through her, or Hannah because God answered prayer, 00:40:10.920 |
or David because he's delivered from his enemies, or Ezra, or Mary, or Zechariah. 00:40:15.920 |
Every instance in the Scripture where they just impromptu breaks out into song is after they encounter God. 00:40:27.920 |
We don't simply worship because we stood up and we know the songs and we sang these songs. 00:40:33.920 |
Worship is something, obviously, that comes out of us 00:40:37.920 |
because there's a sense of awe of what it is that we are worshiping. 00:40:46.920 |
"It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. 00:40:52.920 |
We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition 00:40:56.920 |
when infinite joy is offered us. We are far too easily pleased." 00:41:03.920 |
I think the greatest struggle, again, in our generation is the sense of awe, 00:41:08.920 |
which creates worship, which causes fellowship, sacrifice. 00:41:16.920 |
2,000 years removed from Christ walking on this earth, what causes awe in us? 00:41:22.920 |
If the sense of amazement and awe is something that naturally happened 00:41:26.920 |
because they encountered God and his power, how do we sense that? 00:41:30.920 |
How do people 2,000 years removed, just working 9 to 5, taking care of children, 00:41:35.920 |
then coming to church, and this is something that we've done for years and years and years, 00:41:47.920 |
There are times in your life when you've been praying so diligently for something 00:41:50.920 |
and God answers it, and that causes a sense of awe, and your worship is different that Sunday. 00:41:57.920 |
Or maybe you've shared the gospel with somebody, and you see somebody coming to Christ. 00:42:03.920 |
Like Luke was sharing this morning about his pride and what can cause a young man's pride to break. 00:42:13.920 |
When you hear other people's testimony, maybe God used you to share the gospel 00:42:18.920 |
and see someone's life changing because of that, and you say, "Wow, that's amazing." 00:42:27.920 |
I believe that the greatest place where we encounter God that causes amazement is His Word. 00:42:33.920 |
The Bible tells us that when He created Adam, the distinction between Adam and all the other animals 00:42:39.920 |
is that He says He put His breath in him, and it is His breath that gave him life. 00:42:44.920 |
It is His breath that caused him to be distinguished between all other creation. 00:42:49.920 |
As the Bible says, because of our sins, we've been separated from Him, and the Bible says that we died. 00:42:54.920 |
And that's how we check if somebody is living or if they're dead, if they're breathing or not. 00:42:59.920 |
So we come to the New Testament, the whole purpose of Christ's suffering and His resurrection 00:43:07.920 |
And He says that He has put His breath into the Word of God. 00:43:17.920 |
So the very breath that He put into man, that was squashed because of our sins, 00:43:23.920 |
He is now causing us to encounter Him through the Word of God. 00:43:28.920 |
So when we study the Bible just for history, for knowledge, 00:43:32.920 |
you can study and never encounter God, but the more you come before God to know who He is 00:43:37.920 |
and God is revealed to us because this is His primary way He reveals Himself to us, 00:43:44.920 |
When you begin to see the real author, not Paul, not Peter, not Mark, not John, 00:43:49.920 |
and you begin to encounter God of the Bible, you begin to see a sense of awe 00:44:01.920 |
You begin to see how the roots are all connected and how the God who wrote the Leviticus, 00:44:05.920 |
the same God who wrote Revelation, and God of Genesis, the same God that was in the New Testament. 00:44:12.920 |
And when you begin to actually see that and encounter that, 00:44:16.920 |
I believe that that's the primary way that we sense awe and amazement in the presence of God. 00:44:22.920 |
You see, a Christian who is not engaging in these things can regurgitate information. 00:44:29.920 |
They can tell other people about someone else's testimony, but it's never yours. 00:44:35.920 |
You can read the books, and you can study, and you can memorize Scripture, 00:44:38.920 |
but it's all information that's being transferred from one person to another person to another person 00:44:52.920 |
But the rest of this morning, I want to look at how did these people, 00:44:58.920 |
where the Son of God is standing before them performing these miracles, 00:45:02.920 |
possibly accuse Jesus of being a demon himself. 00:45:09.920 |
This text doesn't tell us who it is, but the parallel account in Matthew 12, 20-24 00:45:14.920 |
tells us that it was the Pharisees, the leaders of Israel, 00:45:17.920 |
who were accusing Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub. 00:45:21.920 |
Beelzebub, basically, at the time of Christ, was used interchangeably with Satan. 00:45:30.920 |
Clearly, they can't deny a miracle is taking place because they're eyewitnesses of this. 00:45:36.920 |
So either this is from God, and the only other power that they know is satanic power, 00:45:41.920 |
so they have already determined he can't be from God, 00:45:44.920 |
so he must be doing these miracles with satanic power. 00:45:48.920 |
And this is not the only place where this happens. 00:45:54.920 |
Repeatedly, they say they can't deny his power and miracles. 00:46:00.920 |
It cannot be from God, so therefore, it must be from Satan. 00:46:04.920 |
Do you know how crazy that is, that the Son of God, performing all these miracles, 00:46:09.920 |
standing before them, the God that they supposedly worship, 00:46:13.920 |
not only do they not recognize him, they accuse him of being satanic. 00:46:19.920 |
If you're into sports, especially basketball, you know that there's a constant debate, 00:46:30.920 |
Michael Jordan, like, no debate. Michael Jordan is the GOAT. 00:46:33.920 |
But it's like telling Michael Jordan, "Not only are you not the GOAT, you ruin basketball. 00:46:38.920 |
You're the worst player that has ever played basketball." 00:46:43.920 |
The difference between him not being the GOAT versus him being the worst player ever, 00:46:49.920 |
Here's the Son of God standing before them, and they're saying that he's from Satan. 00:46:55.920 |
How can the leaders of Israel be this far from the truth? 00:47:00.920 |
They knew the Bible better than anybody else. 00:47:10.920 |
If you ask any Jew in the first century who were the spiritual leaders, 00:47:14.920 |
who knew more than anybody else, it was the Pharisees. 00:47:18.920 |
No, they're not like the Sadducees. They already went liberal. 00:47:21.920 |
They already denied supernatural power. They denied the resurrection. 00:47:25.920 |
And they were chumming up with Rome because they wanted power. 00:47:30.920 |
So nobody really respected the Sadducees, even though they were the ones in power. 00:47:37.920 |
They were closer to God, at least in their view. 00:47:40.920 |
And yet these people, not every single one of them, but as a group, 00:47:54.920 |
We don't have to guess because the Bible records for us. 00:47:57.920 |
In John 11, 47-50, after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, 00:48:04.920 |
they're concerned about Jesus' popularity, and this is what they say. 00:48:08.920 |
"Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, 00:48:12.920 |
and were saying, 'What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs.'" 00:48:19.920 |
"If we let him go on like this, all men will believe in him, 00:48:23.920 |
and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. 00:48:28.920 |
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was a high priest that year, said to them, 00:48:32.920 |
'You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you 00:48:36.920 |
that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.'" 00:48:42.920 |
First of all, the reason why they were calling him Satan is because 00:48:46.920 |
they were setting up the theological basis why they needed to crucify him. 00:48:53.920 |
They can't crucify the Messiah. They can't crucify the king. 00:48:58.920 |
So they were basically setting out and beginning to spread the word that he is Satanic. 00:49:05.920 |
So they were setting out a theological basis for what they've already planned to do. 00:49:13.920 |
"If this man keeps getting popular, it's going to take away our place." 00:49:23.920 |
That they've established their place in this religious order, 00:49:27.920 |
and they've connected their power with the well-being of the nation. 00:49:33.920 |
And so if Jesus begins to gain in power, it's threatening their position. 00:49:44.920 |
I don't know about you, but that sounds a lot like what's happening in politics today. 00:49:49.920 |
I don't need to mention it, but you know what I'm talking about. 00:49:52.920 |
People who are in power, who are being threatened, 00:49:55.920 |
are going to use their power to protect themselves, and that's exactly what they're doing. 00:49:58.920 |
And in John 12.10 it says, "But the chief priests in the plan planned to put Lazarus to death also, 00:50:04.920 |
because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus." 00:50:14.920 |
They acknowledged that a miracle happened, that he was risen from the dead, 00:50:23.920 |
But instead of seeing that as a miracle of God, they said, "They're threatening us." 00:50:30.920 |
It was their desire for self-preservation that caused them to be this blind. 00:50:37.920 |
As much as we want to look at this and say, "Thank God I'm not dead." 00:50:42.920 |
If I was in the first century, I would have been like the disciples. 00:50:44.920 |
Maybe I wouldn't have been perfect, but I think I would have recognized it. 00:50:49.920 |
But what caused them to be this blind was self-preservation. 00:50:59.920 |
They wanted to hold on to what they worked so hard to gain. 00:51:02.920 |
That's why Jesus said, "If you want to follow after me, you must deny yourself and pick up your cross." 00:51:10.920 |
You can serve God, preach the gospel, study theology, all for self-glory. 00:51:22.920 |
Just like Jesus said, "These leaders, when they kill you, they're going to say, 'We're doing it for God. 00:51:28.920 |
It's for God. It's for righteousness that we're doing this.'" 00:51:35.920 |
In Psalm chapter 1, verse 1, it says, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, 00:51:41.920 |
nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers." 00:51:49.920 |
As somebody was walking according to the principle of this world, 00:51:54.920 |
he's going to eventually be numbered with the sinners. 00:52:01.920 |
And then eventually, he says, he's going to sit in the seat of scoffers. 00:52:07.920 |
Their progression against Christ did not happen overnight. 00:52:16.920 |
Eyes of the blind and all of that. You know, that must be satanic. 00:52:19.920 |
It was a gradual progression because they were unwilling to humble themselves. 00:52:25.920 |
They were unwilling to let go of their own glory. 00:52:28.920 |
And as a result of that, the more popular he became, the more threatened they became, 00:52:32.920 |
and the more threatened they became, the more they had to put him in the other category. 00:52:38.920 |
Because he's from God, that means everything that we built up was wrong. 00:52:47.920 |
Not just Sundays, not just my theology, everything was wrong. 00:52:53.920 |
Where I find hope, where I find peace, where I find life, my desire for popularity, 00:52:58.920 |
my desire to be recognized, all of it was wrong. 00:53:04.920 |
The irony of all of this is that the Bible says when Satan, when the demons see Jesus, 00:53:15.920 |
Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, "You are the Son of God." 00:53:19.920 |
But rebuking them, he would not allow them to speak because they knew him to be the Christ. 00:53:25.920 |
The leaders of Israel, the people who were studying the Bible, 00:53:32.920 |
people were proselytizing, saying that he's satanic. 00:53:37.920 |
And yet the demons were afraid because they knew for a fact he was the Christ, the Son of God. 00:53:45.920 |
Luke 8, 28, seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before him and said in a loud voice, 00:53:50.920 |
"What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? 00:53:57.920 |
Because they recognized who Jesus was, they were terrified. 00:54:02.920 |
Yet the leaders of Israel, leaders of Israel who were constantly memorizing the Torah, were so blind. 00:54:13.920 |
As much as we would like to look at this and say, "Man, thank God I'm not a Pharisee. 00:54:19.920 |
Thank God I'm not like the Pharisees. Thank God I'm not blind like them. 00:54:24.920 |
Thank God I have the Scriptures. Thank God that's not me." 00:54:30.920 |
Do you think the Pharisees knew that they were Pharisees? 00:54:35.920 |
No, they convinced themselves that they were right. 00:54:39.920 |
And the root cause of this is self-preservation. 00:54:45.920 |
Who's going to blame you for self-preservation? 00:54:48.920 |
It seems like of all the sins that you can commit, 00:54:52.920 |
all the rebellion and idolatry that we would be guilty of, 00:54:58.920 |
they were just trying to preserve themselves. 00:55:06.920 |
After I take care of myself, after I pay my bills, after my children are taken care of, 00:55:10.920 |
after our safety is up, after enough money is in the retirement, 00:55:13.920 |
after, after, after, self-preservation is at the core of where we're at. 00:55:18.920 |
But the Scripture says their primary deceit was they were afraid to lose their power. 00:55:29.920 |
And because Jesus kept them calling them out, they decided that he must go. 00:55:41.920 |
They weren't outright saying, "You're of the devil." 00:55:47.920 |
On the surface, it looks like, didn't Jesus himself say that we should ask, seek, and knock? 00:55:52.920 |
Even Thomas, when he doubted the resurrected Christ, he said, "Let me see your scars." 00:55:57.920 |
And then he showed it to them. He didn't rebuke them for that. 00:56:00.920 |
But you notice here, by the language, that they're not asking serious questions. 00:56:05.920 |
They're not saying, "If you would just give me enough proof. 00:56:07.920 |
I really want to obey you. I really want to follow you." 00:56:16.920 |
This is two plus years of showing miracles, sign after sign after sign after sign. 00:56:23.920 |
And basically, they're saying it's not enough. 00:56:36.920 |
In Luke 11.29, Jesus responds to them by saying, "The crowds were increasing. 00:56:41.920 |
He began to say, 'This generation is a wicked generation. 00:56:44.920 |
It seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.'" 00:56:50.920 |
He said, "If you are shaky, and if you're genuinely not certain," 00:56:56.920 |
he said, "I left enough signs for you to know, if you really want to know." 00:57:03.920 |
He said he's going to leave the sign of his resurrection. 00:57:07.920 |
We just came off of Resurrection Sunday, and I mentioned a few. 00:57:11.920 |
The thing that really stood out to me when I was a young Christian is there was a Harvard law professor 00:57:18.920 |
named Simon Greenleaf, and he was a professor of evidence, 00:57:23.920 |
and he was one of the founding professors of Harvard Law School. 00:57:27.920 |
One of the students challenged him, "Because you are an expert of evidence, 00:57:32.920 |
use your knowledge and know-how of the legal structure, and can you disprove the resurrection?" 00:57:39.920 |
So he, in his arrogance, thought, "You know what? I'm going to finally put this to rest, 00:57:43.920 |
and I'm going to show them that this is a ridiculous premise." 00:57:47.920 |
So he spent years gathering evidence like he would take it to the court of law, 00:57:51.920 |
thinking that he was going to disprove legally that this couldn't have happened. 00:57:57.920 |
At the end of his study, he becomes a Christian. 00:58:01.920 |
Not only does he become a Christian, he becomes an evangelist. 00:58:06.920 |
He writes a book called The Testimony of the Evangelist, and he says, 00:58:10.920 |
"If any unbiased – again, any unbiased – jury in the world could examine carefully the evidence 00:58:16.920 |
upon which the claims of Christianity rest, the result would be an undoubting conviction of their truth." 00:58:26.920 |
Jesus left enough evidence. If you would just search, if you are willing, 00:58:29.920 |
if you would just ask the right questions, and if you would search, 00:58:33.920 |
that you would come to this conclusion and conviction. 00:58:37.920 |
But part of the reason why we remain kind of cloudy with our convictions, 00:58:44.920 |
for many of us, is because we're afraid of the conclusion that it's going to lead to. 00:58:50.920 |
Because if Jesus really resurrected from the dead, and he is who he says he is, 00:58:55.920 |
that the whole world is under the judgment of God, 00:58:59.920 |
and that real life is coming when Jesus comes in glory, 00:59:09.920 |
That's the logical conclusion, that we're on a boat that's going to go over the fall. 00:59:16.920 |
And we're concerned about whether we're in first class or second class or third class, 00:59:20.920 |
whether we're going to have a good meal or not, 00:59:22.920 |
that we have a bucket list of what we want to experience on this boat before it goes over the cliff. 00:59:32.920 |
But many people don't go that far. They'll ask questions, 00:59:36.920 |
but they don't take the time to examine because they're concerned 00:59:40.920 |
that if they come to the final conclusion that this is absolutely true, 00:59:52.920 |
The logical conclusion of the early Christians is as they are being burned at the stake, 00:59:56.920 |
crucified upside down, that they went to their graves saying, "No, this is true." 01:00:07.920 |
They were just people who were convicted of this truth. 01:00:11.920 |
So how much of our doubt is willful doubting? 01:00:17.920 |
We remain ignorant because we're afraid an absolutely convicted person 01:00:25.920 |
the conclusion of that, where that's going to lead me, I'm not willing. 01:00:29.920 |
What if I am so convicted that this house that I'm trying to buy is just no longer necessary? 01:00:35.920 |
I'm trying so hard to take care of my kids, but in the light of eternity, it doesn't really matter. 01:00:42.920 |
What if I get convicted? I'm going to sell everything and follow Christ. 01:00:49.920 |
But because we have committed to nominal Christianity, we will go as far as we can, 01:00:55.920 |
maintaining a comfortable, peaceful life while not denying Christ. 01:01:08.920 |
Don't get me wrong. God did not call everybody to martyrdom. 01:01:11.920 |
God did not call everybody out to the mission field. 01:01:24.920 |
We're afraid of the conclusion, where it's going to lead to. 01:01:28.920 |
See, these skeptics don't sound as bad as the Pharisees. 01:01:37.920 |
They will be under the same judgment as the Pharisees. 01:01:47.920 |
"But he knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, 01:01:54.920 |
If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? 01:01:57.920 |
For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. 01:02:00.920 |
And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out, so they will be your judges?'" 01:02:08.920 |
Now, the logical conclusion is, and he's just using deductive reasoning, 01:02:13.920 |
"If I'm casting out demons by the power of Satan, how can that power stand?" 01:02:19.920 |
That's just logical. That doesn't make any sense. 01:02:22.920 |
Why would Satan want to destroy his own house? 01:02:29.920 |
But the natural conclusion from this is Satan is not concerned about his own household. 01:02:37.920 |
We're asked questions repeatedly, especially in the West. 01:02:41.920 |
We travel around the world and we see persecution. 01:02:43.920 |
We see Christians who are risking their lives just to get together. 01:02:46.920 |
And we say, "How come we don't experience persecution?" 01:02:48.920 |
And when Jesus says, "Everyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted, but I'm not." 01:03:05.920 |
The state of the church is exactly where Satan wants it to be. 01:03:11.920 |
What if the condition of the church is exactly where Satan wants the church to be? 01:03:18.920 |
Because a lukewarm church does more damage for the witness of Christ than the atheists. 01:03:30.920 |
I think you will testify from my experience, I've met more people who have left the church in bitterness. 01:03:35.920 |
Now, they will be accountable for their own faith. 01:03:39.920 |
But I've met more people, far more people, who at one point knew something about the church. 01:03:47.920 |
They said, "I don't want to be numbered among them." 01:03:54.920 |
Jesus says, "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me is scattered." 01:04:04.920 |
Either we are with him gathering, or we're part of the people that are scattering. 01:04:11.920 |
Why would Satan be concerned about lukewarm Christianity if lukewarm Christianity is doing more damage than the atheists? 01:04:20.920 |
Why would Satan be concerned if the Hindus are coming and bashing the church, and that's bringing revival to the church? 01:04:30.920 |
Why would he do that here if the lives of his Christians are exactly where Satan wants us to be? 01:04:46.920 |
Let that sink in, and I'm not saying every single individual is the same. 01:04:52.920 |
But that's a common question that we ask, but we never really answer. 01:04:56.920 |
Why, if Jesus said, "Anybody who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted," and we don't see any? 01:05:12.920 |
And if you look at the cause of why these people are so hardened in their heart, it's simply self-preservation. 01:05:29.920 |
We're willing to put up with all kinds of things, all kinds of doctrines, all kinds of people for self-preservation. 01:05:42.920 |
We'll become timid if it somehow threatens us. 01:05:52.920 |
He says Satan's not going to attack himself. That's ridiculous. 01:05:56.920 |
And then he concludes by saying, in verse 20, "But I cast out demons by the finger of God." 01:06:05.920 |
And then he gives an illustration. He says, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 01:06:11.920 |
But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. 01:06:21.920 |
He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." 01:06:29.920 |
They couldn't understand, like, clearly he has power, and they couldn't do anything with this demon-possessed man. 01:06:37.920 |
And yet Jesus comes and says, "Get out," and he gets out, and it's done. 01:06:40.920 |
And he says, basically he's saying, "I'm casting out demons by the finger of God." 01:06:45.920 |
Not fist of God, arm of God, power of God, just the finger of God. It's nothing. 01:06:50.920 |
It's nothing that what he is doing in light of who God is. 01:06:55.920 |
Can you imagine the restraint that Jesus had to show that with that flick he could have just flicked them? 01:07:10.920 |
People died for lingering in the Holy of Holies. 01:07:17.920 |
People died for touching sacred things that belonged to him because it belonged to him. 01:07:24.920 |
People died because they put up strange fires. 01:07:29.920 |
People died because they were in his presence. They couldn't even look at him. 01:07:34.920 |
God had to protect Moses from just his back going passing, just a glimpse of him. 01:07:40.920 |
And that reflection of his glory scared the people to death, asked Moses to get in the tent. 01:07:49.920 |
And these guys are standing in his presence calling him Satan. 01:07:56.920 |
Imagine the restraint that Jesus must have practiced to not to flick them. 01:08:04.920 |
For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. 01:08:12.920 |
It is incredible how blind and how offensive this statement is. 01:08:19.920 |
And yet Jesus restrains himself. He warns others. 01:08:34.920 |
He says either you are with me or you are against me. 01:08:44.920 |
He who wants to follow after me, he must deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. 01:08:54.920 |
I pray that this encounter will be sobering to us. 01:08:59.920 |
That we would not look upon the Pharisees and the skeptics and say that's not me. 01:09:04.920 |
That would examine and come before the Lord and say search me and know me, see if there's any hurtful ways in me. 01:09:17.920 |
It is my pride, it is my arrogance, it is my self-preservation that causes me to be blind. 01:09:24.920 |
Lord, open my eyes that I may see you as you are. 01:09:31.920 |
That I may say, like Paul, that in light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ, that everything else will become rubbish. 01:09:54.920 |
Father, open our eyes that we may see a greater and greater glimpse of your glory. 01:10:14.920 |
That we may see a greater and greater glimpse of your glory. 01:10:38.920 |
For the precious souls, Lord God, that you have come to save. 01:10:46.920 |
That we may be the light and the salt that you called us to be. 01:10:50.920 |
Lord, bring revival in our church, a revival in my life, revival in our generation. 01:10:57.920 |
That for our inheritance that you would give us the lost. 01:11:28.920 |
What is our hope? What is our hope in life and death? 01:11:40.920 |
What is our only confidence? That our souls to Him belong. 01:11:49.920 |
What holds our days within His hand? What comes apart from His command? 01:11:59.920 |
What will lead us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand. 01:12:11.920 |
Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal. 01:12:23.920 |
Hallelujah, now and ever we profess. Christ, our hope in life and death. 01:12:39.920 |
What truth, what truth can call the troubled soul? 01:12:45.920 |
God is good, God is good. Where is His grace and goodness known? 01:12:54.920 |
In our brave Redeemer's blood. Who floods our faith when fears arise. 01:13:03.920 |
Who stands above the stormy drought? Who sets the waves that bring us down? 01:13:18.920 |
Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal. 01:13:27.920 |
Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Now and ever we profess. 01:13:47.920 |
Unto the grave, what will we see? Christ, He lives, Christ, He lives. 01:13:56.920 |
And what reward will heaven bring? Everlasting life within. 01:14:06.920 |
There we will rise to meet the Lord. When sin and death will be destroyed. 01:14:15.920 |
We will feast and end this role. When Christ is ours forevermore. 01:14:27.920 |
Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal. 01:14:37.920 |
Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Now and ever we profess. 01:14:49.920 |
Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal. 01:14:59.920 |
Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Now and ever we profess. 01:15:11.920 |
Now and ever we profess. Christ, our hope in life and death. 01:15:29.920 |
Let's pray. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, 01:15:38.920 |
eternal love of God the Father, rest, restore, strengthen all those who have been called 01:15:45.920 |
according to your purpose, that we may live up to the gospel that we have been given. 01:15:50.920 |
May Christ's name be magnified. May the souls of the lost hear that there is hope in His name. 01:15:58.920 |
I pray that your children will live to shine your light brightly wherever you send us. Amen. 01:16:07.920 |
God sent His Son. They called Him Jesus. He came to love. Heal and forgive. He lived and died. 01:16:34.920 |
To buy my pardon, an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. 01:16:51.920 |
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. 01:17:14.920 |
Because I know He holds the future. And life is worth the living just because He lives. Amen. 01:17:54.920 |
What is our hope in life and death? Christ alone. What is our only confidence? 01:18:09.920 |
That our souls to Him belong. Who holds our days within His hand? 01:18:18.920 |
What comes apart from His command? And what will keep us to the end?