(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - Church family, Happy Lord's Day.

We will now begin our service. ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise him all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Praise him above ye heavenly hosts ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ Let earth ♪ ♪ Let earth and heavenly saints proclaim ♪ ♪ The power and might of his great name ♪ ♪ Let us exalt on bended knee ♪ ♪ Praise God the Holy Trinity ♪ ♪ Praise God the Holy Trinity ♪ - Sing praise God.

♪ Praise God ♪ ♪ Praise God ♪ ♪ Praise God who saved my soul ♪ ♪ Praise God ♪ ♪ Praise God ♪ ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ (soft music) - Praise to the King. ♪ Praise to the King ♪ ♪ His throne transcends ♪ ♪ His crown and kingdom never end ♪ ♪ Now and throughout eternity ♪ I'll praise the one who died for me.

Praise God, praise God, praise God who saved my soul. Praise God, praise God, praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God who saved my soul. Praise God, praise God, praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Good morning and welcome to Bryn Community Church. We have quite a few announcements to get through. First of all, next Sunday is members meeting. And so we will be having fundraiser lunch that's going to be given by the Korea Mission team. So please stick around for that. And then our members meeting is going to start right at 2 o'clock.

So if you can't make it, please give us a heads up and let us know ahead of time. On May 18th, that's in two Sundays, two or three Sundays. On 11 through 3 p.m., there's going to be a family ministry picnic. So this is open for anyone who's part of the family ministry from 11 to 3.

It's going to be a casual gathering. Just grab your own lunch and go there. And we'll be eating together and just visiting with other family members to get to know them. So again, it's on May 18th from 11 to 3 p.m. During the summer, we have a spiritual development classes.

So we've shortened our regular Bible study that we have. Usually this session would last all the way up to June. But then the reason why we shortened it to 10 weeks is because we're trying to cover certain topics that we believe will be helpful to the church. So there's three topics that are going to be covered, Bible study sessions that are going to be offered during the summertime.

And all three of them are at different times and at different lengths. So you're going to have to look that up when you go see it. There's three classes that are offered. One is foundation of marriage class. So if you are engaged and you need to take marriage class, this is a requirement for you.

And then for everybody else, this is open to you as well. Whether you've been married for two years or 15 years or 30 years, you feel like this will be a benefit to you. The foundations of marriage is going to be taught by all the pastors. We're going to be taking turns.

And then in between, we're going to be pairing you up with other couples to kind of practice and fellowship with other people based on the things that you've learned. So if you are part of the family ministry, you're invited to that. You don't necessarily have to be married. You feel like this is going to benefit you, you can also sign up.

So we don't have any limit for that. There will be child care provided, and it will start sometime in May, sometime at the end of May. And then the second class are fourfold disciplines of the Christian life. So this is for daily devotions, prayer, evangelism, fellowship. And so it's going to be more of a practice.

There's going to be brief teaching, and then we're going to be practicing based upon whichever groups that you get placed in. It's not like a small group, but there will be different places throughout the city. Different parts where you'll be gathered together to practice the things that we're going over.

And that will take place on Wednesday nights. No child care is provided for that, and it will be on campus on Wednesday nights at the end. I think the first date is at the end of May. Child care is provided for foundation of marriage, just a heads up. And then another class, parenting class, that's going to be sometime in July.

So if you want to take that class, that child care is provided for that as well. That's going on on Thursday nights. So Wednesday nights are fourfold disciplines of Christian life. Foundations of marriage will be on Thursday. And then parenting will also be on Thursday. But again, the times are different.

So this is not mandatory. If you feel like this is going to be beneficial for you, we ask that you would sign up. And so this is the reason why we shortened our regular Bible study, so that we can address certain topics that we feel like were beneficial to the church.

So please sign up for that. Along with that, a summer seeker group. On Wednesday nights, starting from May 28th, there's going to be a seeker's group. So if you are interested and you have questions about the gospel, you want to interact with Pastor Mark or different people in the outreach team, they're going to be doing a Bible study going over fundamental understanding of Christianity and the gospel.

So if you think that will benefit you, or you know somebody that you think will benefit, please sign up for that, and the first class is happening on May 28th at 7 p.m. Okay? Berean Men's and Women's Softball Tournament, or Mission Softball Tournament, is happening on May 24th. So if you already signed up, you probably got an email.

There is a -- I think there is a practice happening starting today. I don't know -- is Tim in this room somewhere? Okay, he's not in this service. Oh, there you are. So there is practice today? Okay, so there is practice today. So if you signed up and you got an email, please show up.

And even if you didn't and you want to play, please sign up for that, and then they'll put you into various teams. There may be a team that is co-ed. So if you are interested in playing and your skill level for that team needs to be higher than normal, okay, meaning like if you play softball and you feel like you've played co-ed softball before because we don't want our sisters getting hurt in that tournament.

And so there are a few other churches that are coming with that. There's not a lot of space, so if you're interested in playing, please let Tim know, and then they'll place you in that. For the men, your skill level doesn't matter. So we have all the way from advanced to beginners.

So you'll be placed on -- distributed accordingly. So if you want to play, you can come out to that. And then finally -- no, actually that's it. All right, that was it. All right, so let me pray for us for the offering. And then if you did bring a physical offering, there is an offering box in the back.

And then after our main worship, Luke Chow, our brother, is going to come give his testimony and be baptized this morning. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. Thank you for the love that we understand. Thank you, Father God, for the tremendous patience and grace that you show us every day.

Often that we are unaware of. I pray that each time we gather together that you'd open our eyes to see just what a treasure we have in you, so that our response may simply be a reasonable response to what you've given us. I pray that you would bless this time, bless our worship, bless the giving that we give.

May it be used wisely, prudently for the sake of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us before we continue. Amen. Give me a seat. Good morning, Church family. My name is Luke Chau, and this is my testimony.

I never grew up in the Church. I never had any formulated opinions of God or any higher power, not knowing if when we went to heaven or if we disappeared into nothing when we died. Growing up, I was living deeply in sin. In high school, I was arrogant and self-absorbed.

I believed that I was more important than those around me, thinking that I had more interesting things to say than my peers. In my arrogance, I thought that I was better than everyone else. Oftentimes, I would compare myself to my classmates and view myself as either physically or intellectually superior.

Believing it to be such an achievement, I took so much pride in taking so many APs, thinking I was better because my schedule was harder than everyone else in my class. I looked down on those around me who would struggle in my classes, scoffing at how much work they had to put into passing their class.

Furthermore, I started believing and saying that I was always right. I was quick to believe that those around me were wrong and that I was correct whenever an issue occurred. In my senior year of high school, I started going to church with my family. It was here that I first heard the gospel.

Hearing that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to save us sparked a curiosity in me to hear more about our Savior. I started attending church regularly and made my way to Berean a few months later. I heard about our total depravity from God and a message of repentance and why we needed a Savior.

I also learned that we need to turn away from our sins in order to follow Christ. At this point, I started to form head knowledge of the gospel and who God was, but I was not ready to surrender my will to God. I still didn't understand my desperate need for a Savior.

At the end of the summer, I was getting ready to go to Cal Poly SLO. However, my mom was still uneasy about sending me to college, worried for my well-being. Back and forth we went on deciding whether or not I was going to go. I would push more and more, trying to convince my mom that I would work hard for a good degree and to find a church where I could grow in faith.

I would work hard for a degree and to find a church where I could grow in faith. I truly wanted to believe that I would grow more in faith in college, but deep down I knew that I wanted to go to Cal Poly SLO for worldly desires. I wanted to find a girl, party, have fun, and be away from my family without supervision.

It was at this point when I started to feel that I had in one hand church and in the other hand the college experience. A few weeks before my final deadline of rescinding my admission, I went to a party with my friends. When I got home, I was confronted by my mom, who knew immediately that I had been drinking.

She told me if I was going to drink at home, I was going to drink and party at college. I tried to deny it, saying that I still wanted to go for my degree and to go in godliness. However, the more I told this lie, the less I believed it.

After a week or so, my family sat me down and asked me why I wanted to go to college. I repeated this lie one more time before my sister, who normally doesn't get too mad, got very angry at me. She told me that I was being extremely selfish in my actions and that I would disobey my parents so blatantly after how much they do for me.

At the moment, I was so angry with my sister for confronting me. I wanted so much to hit back and retort back at her with my own. It was then that I realized my selfishness and my pursuit for my own desires. My parents provided everything for me, but my actions showed that I wanted to do it on my own without their help.

But however much my parents do, my Heavenly Father does infinitely more, and my sins offend Him infinitely more. I depend on the Lord for everything in my life, yet I just disobey Him. When I sin against His holy name, I am telling Him I deny Him and that I don't want to depend on Him, even though I know His way is best.

And when He extends His grace to me, I slap it away with my sin. How could I do this to the one that loves me most? I couldn't see how my own selfishness was hurting my family and how much I was sinning against the Lord. James 4:6 states that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.

How could I, a richest sinner, hold so much pride in my heart when Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, humbled Himself to come down to save us? I was finally able to see my depravity and my deep and desperate need for a Savior. I could not do anything on my own or rely on my own power to save me.

I needed Christ to take away my sins to wash me anew. This led me to repent to the Almighty Father after seeing my sin laid out before my eyes. And God is all-satisfying. I no longer live in my sin, struggling to fight it every day. I surrender my will to the Father that I deny myself, pick up my cross, and follow Him wherever He leads me.

Thank you. All right, thank you, Luke. And we really praise God for what God is doing in the Chao family. They broke the record, all three siblings that are being baptized here. So we're very thankful. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 11. I'm going to be reading from verse 11 all the way to verse 23.

Luke 11, verse 14 to 23. Reading out of the NASB. "He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.' Others to test him were demanding of him a sign from heaven.

But he knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself, false. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?

So they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied on, and distributes his plunder.

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." Let's pray. Father, we pray that your word would speak to us powerfully. I pray that your word that you have ordained to go forth and to not return until it has accomplished its purpose would cause your children to hear the voice of Christ and to follow him.

I pray that your word would come alive in us, mold us, guide us, revive us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So some of you guys may know this and some of you guys may not. But if you look at--if you can put up the art. Yeah, there you go.

All right. You guys know what this is already. I don't know how many of you guys are UCI students, but have you ever asked why? Why that? You know what I mean? Of all the things that they could have chosen as their mascot. Zot, zot, zot. Like this is your--you know what I mean?

So I've always been curious, and I looked it up, and it said 1965 was when they voted for this, when the school was pretty young. And the competing animals were eagles, unicorns, seahawks, roadrunner, and they won by 51%, right? And why? Why did this win of all the things that you could have?

And those of you who are UCI students, how many of you know the back story behind this? Yeah, almost nobody. You just accepted this. Like so scary. Zot, zot, zot, right? The back story behind this is when they were--when UCI-- when they were kind of voting for this in the early stages was known as like the boonie school.

You know, I remember visiting UCI in 1985 to visit some of my friends who were already in college at that time, and I remember thinking, getting off the freeway, I said, "Where is this?" So I remember, if you lived in Orange County, anything after Anaheim was considered boonies. I know now it's like, you know, there's a bunch of stuff, and Irvine is the destination place for a lot of people, but anything beyond Disneyland was kind of like, "What good thing comes out of here?" You know what I mean?

It was kind of like Nazareth. So imagine if it was like that in 1980, '85, what it was like in 1965. So, you know, it was kind of like a school that people didn't know much about, and the reasoning behind it, at least from the students, is that an anteater seems pretty innocuous, pretty, like, tame on the surface until it is cornered.

And they said that when it is cornered and it decides to fight, it's actually very ferocious, and you can look that up in the Google. You know, they don't just eat ants. They have--at the end of it, the picture doesn't show it, but it has claws at the end, and they said that thing is so dangerous that if you corner it and it comes out swinging, it can actually be very fatal.

And I didn't know that it actually has a name, Peter. Did you know that? It's Peter the Anteater. It reminds me of my childhood memories of Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife, a kitten keeper. That's--that was kind of like, you know, I just--but the name behind it is Peter the Anteater.

And again, why I share this is because we don't know--you know, I was just curious all these years that I've been at Irvine, why the anteater? And the reason why they go "zot," it's the noise that they make when they attack. Now you know, okay? You've been doing this for no reason.

Like, that's "zot, zot, zot," right? It's not the noise that they make when they eat ants. This is the noise that they make when they decide, okay, I'm going to become ferocious. The reason why I share that this morning is because Jesus is--in Jesus' ministry, as he is heading toward the cross, the leaders of Israel are starting to feel cornered because his popularity is growing.

And so you see that Jesus' words become much more direct and harsher when he says, "You brood of vipers. You're like a dead man's tomb, and you're always dressing on the outside, but inside is filled with dead men's bones." And so the leaders of Israel are starting to feel his reputation is getting stronger and stronger, and we need to do something about this man, so they're coming out with their claws now.

And so Jesus actually warns us in John 16, 2-3, "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue," "they" meaning the Jewish leaders, "but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me." The greatest opposition to the cause of Christ, he says, is going to come from who you might think are the spiritual leaders.

And so this text is a warning to us, an encouragement to us to stay sober. We're going to look at the context of this. And again, the outline of where he's at is he's heading toward the cross. He's got maybe about six months to possibly, depending on your timeline, to about nine months before he gets to the cross.

He's already fed the 5,000. They reject him, so now he's focused on his attention upon the disciples, and it, first of all, tells us about the miracle. And the miracle itself is, again, is a spectacular miracle in and of itself, but there's not a lot written about it. It just says a demon-possessed man was healed, and he began to talk.

The Bible records about nine different instances where Jesus actually casts out a demon. So if you were to point out what miracle did Jesus perform the most, at least that is recorded, it's the demon possession. Nine times, up to 12 times if you include when Jesus gives the authority to the disciples to go out and cast out demons, and they come back and say, "Hey, the demons were even subject to us." So if you include all of that, there's 12 different instances that are recorded of a power encounter with the demonic world, and they come back.

And the reason why this is so important is because nothing highlights more tangibly why Jesus came. It says in Colossians 1:3, it says, "He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son." So the whole purpose of why Christ was going to go to the cross and be resurrected was to deliver people who were under the bondage of Satan, so that we may be delivered into the kingdom of his Son.

So nothing illustrates that more tangibly than the encounter with Satan. In this text, it's not simply about the miracle, because we've seen numerous accounts of this before. And it just tells us, this is what happened. He encounters a demon-possessed man, casts it out, and he begins to speak. And then the first response from the crowd is amazement, which is a natural response.

In fact, the early church in Acts 2.43 tells us, "Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles." And we often talk about how we need to be like the early church. But early church can't be manufactured. That's not something that the early church was filled with awe because they gathered together and the teaching was so fantastic, and so there was a sense of amazement in the early church.

Amazement happened because they encountered God. It's not something that happens just because you put the small groups together, and if you disciple people correctly, there's going to be a sense of awe that comes in them. True worship is something that happens when people encounter God. We see that all throughout Scripture, whether it is Moses, after God delivers them from Egypt, whether it's Deborah, where God brings revival through her, or Hannah because God answered prayer, or David because he's delivered from his enemies, or Ezra, or Mary, or Zechariah.

Every instance in the Scripture where they just impromptu breaks out into song is after they encounter God. And so worship just happens. We don't simply worship because we stood up and we know the songs and we sang these songs. Worship is something, obviously, that comes out of us because there's a sense of awe of what it is that we are worshiping.

C.S. Lewis says in his book Weight of Glory, "It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. We are far too easily pleased." I think the greatest struggle, again, in our generation is the sense of awe, which creates worship, which causes fellowship, sacrifice.

But it's a natural dilemma. 2,000 years removed from Christ walking on this earth, what causes awe in us? If the sense of amazement and awe is something that naturally happened because they encountered God and his power, how do we sense that? How do people 2,000 years removed, just working 9 to 5, taking care of children, then coming to church, and this is something that we've done for years and years and years, how do we worship God with a sense of awe?

What causes awe in your life? Maybe it's an answered prayer. There are times in your life when you've been praying so diligently for something and God answers it, and that causes a sense of awe, and your worship is different that Sunday. Or maybe you've shared the gospel with somebody, and you see somebody coming to Christ.

Like Luke was sharing this morning about his pride and what can cause a young man's pride to break. That really is a miracle of God. When you hear other people's testimony, maybe God used you to share the gospel and see someone's life changing because of that, and you say, "Wow, that's amazing." Even the heavens rejoice.

I believe that the greatest place where we encounter God that causes amazement is His Word. The Bible tells us that when He created Adam, the distinction between Adam and all the other animals is that He says He put His breath in him, and it is His breath that gave him life.

It is His breath that caused him to be distinguished between all other creation. As the Bible says, because of our sins, we've been separated from Him, and the Bible says that we died. And that's how we check if somebody is living or if they're dead, if they're breathing or not.

So we come to the New Testament, the whole purpose of Christ's suffering and His resurrection is to revive dead souls. And He says that He has put His breath into the Word of God. All scripture is God-breathed. So the very breath that He put into man, that was squashed because of our sins, He is now causing us to encounter Him through the Word of God.

So when we study the Bible just for history, for knowledge, you can study and never encounter God, but the more you come before God to know who He is and God is revealed to us because this is His primary way He reveals Himself to us, there's a sense of awe.

When you begin to see the real author, not Paul, not Peter, not Mark, not John, and you begin to encounter God of the Bible, you begin to see a sense of awe that this was not written by man. This was not just--this is not just history. You begin to see how the roots are all connected and how the God who wrote the Leviticus, the same God who wrote Revelation, and God of Genesis, the same God that was in the New Testament.

And when you begin to actually see that and encounter that, I believe that that's the primary way that we sense awe and amazement in the presence of God. You see, a Christian who is not engaging in these things can regurgitate information. They can tell other people about someone else's testimony, but it's never yours.

You can read the books, and you can study, and you can memorize Scripture, but it's all information that's being transferred from one person to another person to another person without a sense of awe and amazement. The first response is a natural response. But the rest of this morning, I want to look at how did these people, where the Son of God is standing before them performing these miracles, possibly accuse Jesus of being a demon himself.

This text doesn't tell us who it is, but the parallel account in Matthew 12, 20-24 tells us that it was the Pharisees, the leaders of Israel, who were accusing Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub. Beelzebub, basically, at the time of Christ, was used interchangeably with Satan. In other words, it's the power of Satan.

Clearly, they can't deny a miracle is taking place because they're eyewitnesses of this. So either this is from God, and the only other power that they know is satanic power, so they have already determined he can't be from God, so he must be doing these miracles with satanic power.

And this is not the only place where this happens. John 7, 20; John 8, 48; John 10, 20. Repeatedly, they say they can't deny his power and miracles. It cannot be from God, so therefore, it must be from Satan. Do you know how crazy that is, that the Son of God, performing all these miracles, standing before them, the God that they supposedly worship, not only do they not recognize him, they accuse him of being satanic.

If you're into sports, especially basketball, you know that there's a constant debate, "Who's the GOAT? Who's the GOAT?" And clearly, it's Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan, like, no debate. Michael Jordan is the GOAT. But it's like telling Michael Jordan, "Not only are you not the GOAT, you ruin basketball. You're the worst player that has ever played basketball." The difference between him not being the GOAT versus him being the worst player ever, that's the distinction that we're seeing.

Here's the Son of God standing before them, and they're saying that he's from Satan. How can the leaders of Israel be this far from the truth? They knew the Bible better than anybody else. They prayed more than anybody else. They even evangelized. They kept the Sabbath holy. If you ask any Jew in the first century who were the spiritual leaders, who knew more than anybody else, it was the Pharisees.

No, they're not like the Sadducees. They already went liberal. They already denied supernatural power. They denied the resurrection. And they were chumming up with Rome because they wanted power. So nobody really respected the Sadducees, even though they were the ones in power. But the Pharisees, they knew the Bible.

They were closer to God, at least in their view. And yet these people, not every single one of them, but as a group, decided that Jesus must be Satanic. How did they get this far from him? We don't have to guess because the Bible records for us. In John 11, 47-50, after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, they're concerned about Jesus' popularity, and this is what they say.

"Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, 'What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs.'" In other words, they can't deny these signs. "If we let him go on like this, all men will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was a high priest that year, said to them, 'You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.'" First of all, the reason why they were calling him Satan is because they were setting up the theological basis why they needed to crucify him.

They can't crucify the Messiah. They can't crucify the king. So they were basically setting out and beginning to spread the word that he is Satanic. So they're doing the nation a favor. So they were setting out a theological basis for what they've already planned to do. But the reasoning behind that, it says, "If this man keeps getting popular, it's going to take away our place." It was much more personal than theological.

That they've established their place in this religious order, and they've connected their power with the well-being of the nation. And so if Jesus begins to gain in power, it's threatening their position. So they have to get rid of him at all costs. I don't know about you, but that sounds a lot like what's happening in politics today.

I don't need to mention it, but you know what I'm talking about. People who are in power, who are being threatened, are going to use their power to protect themselves, and that's exactly what they're doing. And in John 12.10 it says, "But the chief priests in the plan planned to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus." They actually wanted to kill Lazarus.

They acknowledged that a miracle happened, that he was risen from the dead, and Jesus is the one that did it. And they couldn't deny it. But instead of seeing that as a miracle of God, they said, "They're threatening us." It was their desire for self-preservation that caused them to be this blind.

As much as we want to look at this and say, "Thank God I'm not dead." If I was in the first century, I would have been like the disciples. Maybe I wouldn't have been perfect, but I think I would have recognized it. But what caused them to be this blind was self-preservation.

Self-preservation. Because they wanted to stay in power. They wanted acknowledgment. They wanted to hold on to what they worked so hard to gain. That's why Jesus said, "If you want to follow after me, you must deny yourself and pick up your cross." You can serve God, preach the gospel, study theology, all for self-glory.

And become completely blinded to God. All in the name of God. Just like Jesus said, "These leaders, when they kill you, they're going to say, 'We're doing it for God. It's for God. It's for righteousness that we're doing this.'" It was for self-preservation. In Psalm chapter 1, verse 1, it says, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers." You see the progression of their sin?

As somebody was walking according to the principle of this world, he's going to eventually be numbered with the sinners. He's going to be just like everybody else. And then eventually, he says, he's going to sit in the seat of scoffers. Their progression against Christ did not happen overnight. They didn't see his power.

They didn't see him opening the blind. Eyes of the blind and all of that. You know, that must be satanic. It was a gradual progression because they were unwilling to humble themselves. They were unwilling to let go of their own glory. And as a result of that, the more popular he became, the more threatened they became, and the more threatened they became, the more they had to put him in the other category.

Because he's from God, that means everything that we built up was wrong. Everything that we were pursuing was wrong. Not just Sundays, not just my theology, everything was wrong. Where I find hope, where I find peace, where I find life, my desire for popularity, my desire to be recognized, all of it was wrong.

The irony of all of this is that the Bible says when Satan, when the demons see Jesus, they recognize him, Luke 4, 41. Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, "You are the Son of God." But rebuking them, he would not allow them to speak because they knew him to be the Christ.

The leaders of Israel, the people who were studying the Bible, people were proselytizing, saying that he's satanic. And yet the demons were afraid because they knew for a fact he was the Christ, the Son of God. Luke 8, 28, seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before him and said in a loud voice, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I beg you, do not torment me." Because they recognized who Jesus was, they were terrified. Yet the leaders of Israel, leaders of Israel who were constantly memorizing the Torah, were so blind. As much as we would like to look at this and say, "Man, thank God I'm not a Pharisee.

Thank God I'm not like the Pharisees. Thank God I'm not blind like them. Thank God I have the Scriptures. Thank God that's not me." Do you think the Pharisees knew that they were Pharisees? No, they convinced themselves that they were right. And the root cause of this is self-preservation.

Who's going to blame you for self-preservation? It seems like of all the sins that you can commit, all the rebellion and idolatry that we would be guilty of, they were just trying to preserve themselves. Which we all struggle with. After I take care of myself, after I pay my bills, after my children are taken care of, after our safety is up, after enough money is in the retirement, after, after, after, self-preservation is at the core of where we're at.

But the Scripture says their primary deceit was they were afraid to lose their power. And as a result, they became blind. And because Jesus kept them calling them out, they decided that he must go. The second group of people were skeptics. They weren't outright saying, "You're of the devil." But they were demanding that he give proof.

On the surface, it looks like, didn't Jesus himself say that we should ask, seek, and knock? Even Thomas, when he doubted the resurrected Christ, he said, "Let me see your scars." And then he showed it to them. He didn't rebuke them for that. But you notice here, by the language, that they're not asking serious questions.

They're not saying, "If you would just give me enough proof. I really want to obey you. I really want to follow you." No, he's saying they're demanding proof. Think about all Christ has done. This is two plus years of showing miracles, sign after sign after sign after sign. And basically, they're saying it's not enough.

We need more. They're not asking for signs. They're questioning him. This was willful ignorance. In Luke 11.29, Jesus responds to them by saying, "The crowds were increasing. He began to say, 'This generation is a wicked generation. It seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.'" He said, "If you are shaky, and if you're genuinely not certain," he said, "I left enough signs for you to know, if you really want to know." He said he's going to leave the sign of his resurrection.

We just came off of Resurrection Sunday, and I mentioned a few. The thing that really stood out to me when I was a young Christian is there was a Harvard law professor named Simon Greenleaf, and he was a professor of evidence, and he was one of the founding professors of Harvard Law School.

One of the students challenged him, "Because you are an expert of evidence, use your knowledge and know-how of the legal structure, and can you disprove the resurrection?" So he, in his arrogance, thought, "You know what? I'm going to finally put this to rest, and I'm going to show them that this is a ridiculous premise." So he spent years gathering evidence like he would take it to the court of law, thinking that he was going to disprove legally that this couldn't have happened.

At the end of his study, he becomes a Christian. Not only does he become a Christian, he becomes an evangelist. He writes a book called The Testimony of the Evangelist, and he says, "If any unbiased – again, any unbiased – jury in the world could examine carefully the evidence upon which the claims of Christianity rest, the result would be an undoubting conviction of their truth." Jesus left enough evidence.

If you would just search, if you are willing, if you would just ask the right questions, and if you would search, that you would come to this conclusion and conviction. But part of the reason why we remain kind of cloudy with our convictions, for many of us, is because we're afraid of the conclusion that it's going to lead to.

Because if Jesus really resurrected from the dead, and he is who he says he is, that the whole world is under the judgment of God, and that real life is coming when Jesus comes in glory, nothing in this world matters. That's the logical conclusion, that we're on a boat that's going to go over the fall.

And we're concerned about whether we're in first class or second class or third class, whether we're going to have a good meal or not, that we have a bucket list of what we want to experience on this boat before it goes over the cliff. That's what that means. But many people don't go that far.

They'll ask questions, but they don't take the time to examine because they're concerned that if they come to the final conclusion that this is absolutely true, the logical conclusion is what Paul did. The logical conclusion is what Peter did. The logical conclusion of the early Christians is as they are being burned at the stake, crucified upside down, that they went to their graves saying, "No, this is true." They were not special people.

They were just people who were convicted of this truth. So how much of our doubt is willful doubting? We remain ignorant because we're afraid an absolutely convicted person the conclusion of that, where that's going to lead me, I'm not willing. What if I am so convicted that this house that I'm trying to buy is just no longer necessary?

I'm trying so hard to take care of my kids, but in the light of eternity, it doesn't really matter. What if I get convicted? I'm going to sell everything and follow Christ. What if that's the natural conclusion? But because we have committed to nominal Christianity, we will go as far as we can, maintaining a comfortable, peaceful life while not denying Christ.

And we willfully stay there. Don't get me wrong. God did not call everybody to martyrdom. God did not call everybody out to the mission field. But how much of our skepticism is willful? Because we're afraid. We're afraid of the conclusion, where it's going to lead to. See, these skeptics don't sound as bad as the Pharisees.

But they were just as sinful. They will be under the same judgment as the Pharisees. Jesus' response in Luke 11, 17, 19, he says, "But he knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself, false. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?

For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out, so they will be your judges?'" Now, the logical conclusion is, and he's just using deductive reasoning, "If I'm casting out demons by the power of Satan, how can that power stand?" That's just logical.

That doesn't make any sense. Why would Satan want to destroy his own house? That doesn't make any sense. But the natural conclusion from this is Satan is not concerned about his own household. We're asked questions repeatedly, especially in the West. We travel around the world and we see persecution.

We see Christians who are risking their lives just to get together. And we say, "How come we don't experience persecution?" And when Jesus says, "Everyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted, but I'm not." Why? What if? What if? The state of the church is exactly where Satan wants it to be.

What if the condition of the church is exactly where Satan wants the church to be? Because a lukewarm church does more damage for the witness of Christ than the atheists. I think you will testify from my experience, I've met more people who have left the church in bitterness. Now, they will be accountable for their own faith.

But I've met more people, far more people, who at one point knew something about the church. They said, "I don't want to be numbered among them." So they walked away. Jesus says, "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me is scattered." There is no third category.

Either we are with him gathering, or we're part of the people that are scattering. Why would Satan be concerned about lukewarm Christianity if lukewarm Christianity is doing more damage than the atheists? Why would Satan be concerned if the Hindus are coming and bashing the church, and that's bringing revival to the church?

Why would he do that here if the lives of his Christians are exactly where Satan wants us to be? Let that sink in. Let that sink in, and I'm not saying every single individual is the same. But that's a common question that we ask, but we never really answer.

Why, if Jesus said, "Anybody who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted," and we don't see any? Why is it so easy? What is this producing? And if you look at the cause of why these people are so hardened in their heart, it's simply self-preservation. Don't you and I struggle with that?

It's our self-preservation. We're willing to put up with all kinds of things, all kinds of doctrines, all kinds of people for self-preservation. We're bold when it doesn't cost us anything. We'll become timid if it somehow threatens us. And that's what caused them to be blind. He says Satan's not going to attack himself.

That's ridiculous. And then he concludes by saying, in verse 20, "But I cast out demons by the finger of God." Then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And then he gives an illustration. He says, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed.

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. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." He says, "By the finger of God." They couldn't understand, like, clearly he has power, and they couldn't do anything with this demon-possessed man.

And yet Jesus comes and says, "Get out," and he gets out, and it's done. And he says, basically he's saying, "I'm casting out demons by the finger of God." Not fist of God, arm of God, power of God, just the finger of God. It's nothing. It's nothing that what he is doing in light of who God is.

Can you imagine the restraint that Jesus had to show that with that flick he could have just flicked them? How dare you? How dare you? People died for lingering in the Holy of Holies. People died for touching sacred things that belonged to him because it belonged to him. People died because they put up strange fires.

People died because they were in his presence. They couldn't even look at him. God had to protect Moses from just his back going passing, just a glimpse of him. And that reflection of his glory scared the people to death, asked Moses to get in the tent. And these guys are standing in his presence calling him Satan.

Imagine the restraint that Jesus must have practiced to not to flick them. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. It is incredible how blind and how offensive this statement is. And yet Jesus restrains himself.

He warns others. Open your eyes. Open your eyes. There are no three categories. He says either you are with me or you are against me. Which is it? He who wants to follow after me, he must deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. I pray that this encounter will be sobering to us.

That we would not look upon the Pharisees and the skeptics and say that's not me. That would examine and come before the Lord and say search me and know me, see if there's any hurtful ways in me. It's me. I'm my greatest hindrance. I'm my greatest blind spot. It is my pride, it is my arrogance, it is my self-preservation that causes me to be blind.

Lord, open my eyes that I may see you as you are. That I may say, like Paul, that in light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ, that everything else will become rubbish. Let's pray. Father, open our eyes that we may see a greater and greater glimpse of your glory.

That we may see a greater and greater glimpse of your glory. Help us to live our lives for the eternal. For the precious souls, Lord God, that you have come to save. That we may be co-workers of Christ. That we may be the light and the salt that you called us to be.

Lord, bring revival in our church, a revival in my life, revival in our generation. That for our inheritance that you would give us the lost. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. What is our hope? What is our hope in life and death?

Christ alone, Christ alone. What is our only confidence? That our souls to Him belong. What holds our days within His hand? What comes apart from His command? What will lead us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand. Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal.

Hallelujah, now and ever we profess. Christ, our hope in life and death. What truth, what truth can call the troubled soul? God is good, God is good. Where is His grace and goodness known? In our brave Redeemer's blood. Who floods our faith when fears arise. Who stands above the stormy drought?

Who sets the waves that bring us down? But to the shore, the rock of Christ. Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal. Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Now and ever we profess. Christ, our hope in life and death. Unto the grave, what will we see? Christ, He lives, Christ, He lives.

And what reward will heaven bring? Everlasting life within. There we will rise to meet the Lord. When sin and death will be destroyed. We will feast and end this role. When Christ is ours forevermore. Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal. Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Now and ever we profess.

Christ, our hope in life and death. Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Our hope is free, is eternal. Oh, we'll sing hallelujah. Now and ever we profess. Christ, our hope in life and death. Now and ever we profess. Christ, our hope in life and death. Let's pray. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, eternal love of God the Father, rest, restore, strengthen all those who have been called according to your purpose, that we may live up to the gospel that we have been given.

May Christ's name be magnified. May the souls of the lost hear that there is hope in His name. I pray that your children will live to shine your light brightly wherever you send us. Amen. God sent His Son. They called Him Jesus. He came to love. Heal and forgive.

He lived and died. To buy my pardon, an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future. And life is worth the living just because He lives. Amen. What is our hope in life and death?

Christ alone. What is our only confidence? That our souls to Him belong. Who holds our days within His hand? What comes apart from His command? And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand.