Greatest Love of All

Guest Speaker: Eric Posteluk

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK

• Audio Transcript

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:00-00:15

  speaker today. This is Pastor Eric Posteluk. He has been a dear brother, a friend, encourager in the Lord. He is from Harvest Bible Chapel, Joliet. How many people know where Joliet is?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:16-00:57

  How many people know where Joliet is because of the Blues Brothers? Okay, I appreciate your honesty. And I actually interned with Pastor Eric after I graduated from the Harvest Training Center to train to plant the Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North because Joliet is very similar to Pittsburgh in the demographic and and the people and just had a real privilege to serve with him. And Eric is He is a man of humility, and a man of prayer, and a man of really deep spiritual insight because he walks with the Lord.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:57-01:09

  And this past January at the pastor retreat in Orlando, we got to talking about some things that the Lord was teaching him in his personal walk.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:11-01:17

  And I said, "Man, I would love to have you come and share those things with our church." And he graciously accepted our invitation.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:17-01:21

  So let's give a warm Pittsburgh welcome to Eric Posteluk.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:29-01:30

  Good morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:30-01:30

  Good morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:32-01:36

  Go ahead and open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 15.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:37-01:38

  Mark Chapter 15.

  Pastor Eric:

  01:39-03:25

  And while you're doing that, I just want to let you know that I really appreciate your pastor, Pastor Jeff. When I think of your pastor, I really think about a man who is very patient. I'm sure if you know him, you know he's a very patient guy, very humble, teachable. And the thing that has been abundantly clear to me as I've been out here and I've talked to him in the past is how much he loves each and every one of you. He said, "I can't imagine being anywhere else than right here and these are the people that I love these are the people that I want to do life with so and I just I've heard about the way that you all have sacrificed and you're serving the Lord and I just I want you to be encouraged that your labor is not in vain God sees what you do the Bible says that every good deed will be rewarded by God Ephesians 6 8 just know the Lord sees what you're doing blessing upon blessing is coming and greater and greater fruitfulness is going to come in and through this church so be encouraged but I'm glad to be here and I want to ask you all to bow your heads with me I know that this is a different setting than normal but God doesn't he's not restricted by rules if God wants to show up he's gonna show up and I want nothing more this morning than for God himself to show up so the best way to usher in his presence is to begin by prayer so bow your heads with me and let's pray.

  Pastor Eric:

  03:29-03:33

  Father each and every one of us want to humble ourselves before you right now.

  Pastor Eric:

  03:35-03:43

  We acknowledge God that you're great and we are not. You are holy, holy, holy.

  Pastor Eric:

  03:47-04:02

  Father, we pray that you would remove every distraction. Father, I pray for humble hearts. I pray for focused minds. I pray for pliable wills.

  Pastor Eric:

  04:03-04:16

  And God, I ask that you would speak specifically to each and every individual here this morning. And Lord I ask that you would use me as your vessel of blessing.

  Pastor Eric:

  04:17-04:30

  Encourage this church God. Get their eyes on you like never before. We pray this in Jesus name and all of God's people said amen.

  Pastor Eric:

  04:32-05:27

  In my experience there's a huge percentage of people that think the Bible is mainly about what you do. What you do for God, what you do for other people, what you do for yourself. The Bible is mainly about what you do. And I'm going to tell you this morning that is completely wrong. The Bible is not mainly about what you do. In fact, if you approach the Bible thinking that it's mainly about what you do, it's going to lead you to two places. It's going to lead you to despair over your failure or it's going to lead you to arrogance as you deceive yourself into thinking you're actually living it out because nobody lives it out. Only God is perfect, not us.

  Pastor Eric:

  05:28-08:13

  The Bible is not mainly about what you do. The Bible is mainly about what's been done for you. The entire Bible has one central message. It's the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. I want you to think of the Bible as like there's a lot of commandments in the Bible. Do this, don't do this, do this, do it this way, don't do it this way. Those are like spokes on a wheel. A lot of people have a bunch of spokes in their hands. But unless you have the hubcap of the gospel that connects all the spokes together, you're not going to have a functioning wheel and it's not going to take you where you need to go. You need to understand that the central message of the entire Bible is the gospel. What Jesus Christ has done for you. Now the gospel centralizes on the crucifixion, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It's interesting that the whole Bible is leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. We're going to be looking at the book of Mark. We're at the very end of Mark and the whole book of Mark has been leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus this is the main event Jesus told us it was the main event Mark chapter 10 verse 45 Jesus says for even a son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many I want you to understand something this morning the more clearly you see what Jesus has done for you on the cross The more clearly you'll see God's love for you and the more passionately you'll want to live for Jesus. You see when you see what Jesus has done for you on the cross it changes everything. You might be here this morning and you're half here. You're yawning on the inside. You're thinking okay I'm gonna hear a little more about the Bible and then I got whatever's going on in the afternoon. The reason why that's your attitude is because you don't see the cross. When you see the cross, when you are gripped by the crucifixion of Jesus, changes everything. Your whole life will be changed. You will never be the same and you can't live the same. You don't just come to church to hear a few nice things about the Bible to learn how to be a nicer person. No, no, no, no. When you see the cross everything changes.

  Pastor Eric:

  08:15-09:07

  Now the passage that we're going to look at this morning is in the book of Mark and I want to help put it into context so you can understand where it is. Right now Jewish people from around the ancient Near East have all taken a pilgrimage into the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They came to celebrate the Passover and there's thousands upon thousands upon thousands of extra people in the ancient city of Jerusalem. It's kind of a carnival atmosphere. Extra people, extra food, people lodging and camped out all over the place. And along with these thousands and thousands of Jews is Jesus and his 12 disciples. They came to celebrate the Passover as well.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:09-09:30

  Now while Jesus is celebrating the Passover he's betrayed by Judas and then he's seized by a mob. He's condemned by the religious leaders of the nation and And then he's sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:31-09:41

  There were three primary sins that literally put Jesus on the cross. The greed of Judas, he wanted money.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:43-09:50

  The envy of the religious leaders, they were jealous of Jesus. He was taking away their popularity.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:50-09:53

  They wanted the attention. Look at me, not him.

  Pastor Eric:

  09:54-10:24

  Kill him and there was the fear of others by Pontius Pilate He didn't want to kill Jesus, but he was afraid of the mobs. And so he submitted to their wicked pleas So Pontius Pilate Says send him away to crucify him, but before Jesus was crucified Pilot had him scourged or flogged.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:25-10:27

  Now what was flogging?

  Pastor Eric:

  10:28-10:40

  Flogging in the ancient world was such a horrific event that it was illegal for a woman to witness it. All women had to go. A man's about to be flogged.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:41-10:44

  All females out of the entire area.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:45-10:45

  Why?

  Pastor Eric:

  10:47-10:53

  Absolutely horrific, gruesome, torturous, what Jesus is about to go through.

  Pastor Eric:

  10:54-10:59

  When someone was flogged, they would take off all of their clothing.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:01-11:04

  So Jesus would have had all of his clothing completely removed.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:05-11:08

  And then they would tie their arms around a post.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:08-11:13

  What that would do is it would stretch the skin on your back tight and your muscles.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:14-11:19

  But what made flogging so horrific was the whips that were used.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:20-11:23

  These whips had multiple throngs on them.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:24-11:29

  And on the throngs, there were metal balls and sharp pieces of bone.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:31-11:42

  And the trained Roman soldiers would begin to whip Jesus and they would get him across the back and the buttocks and the back of his thighs.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:42-11:46

  And the metal balls would act like meat tenderizers.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:47-11:54

  they would begin to cause bruising and deep bruising all the way into the back of Jesus, even popping through the skin.

  Pastor Eric:

  11:54-12:02

  And then the sharp bone would literally shred through his skin, his muscle, all the way down to his skeletal muscles.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:02-12:05

  This is what Jesus was experiencing.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:05-12:08

  It was absolutely horrific.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:10-12:20

  Now, after they got done flogging Jesus, he would have gone into what's known as hypovolemic shock because of all of the blood he would have lost.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:21-12:26

  What happens is when you lose that much blood, your heart begins to beat rapidly.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:27-12:36

  And this would have caused Jesus to be faint and dizzy, and it would have ravaged him with thirst, and his kidneys would have begun to fail.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:37-12:40

  Now, he's been flawed.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:41-12:47

  The most horrific thing we could probably imagine a person going through.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:47-12:55

  None of us have probably suffered anywhere close to that, but that's just the beginning of the pain Jesus is going to go through.

  Pastor Eric:

  12:56-13:00

  Right after being flogged, they send him away to be crucified.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:02-13:14

  Jesus was led out of the city of Jerusalem to a place called Golgotha by four Roman soldiers and one centurion. That was what was called an execution squad.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:14-13:20

  Five of them, one being a centurion, who normally oversaw 100 soldiers.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:21-13:25

  Now you need to understand something about crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:26-13:53

  In the ancient world, it was widely believed to be the worst possible way a human being could die. And when you understand the purpose of it, that makes a lot more sense. You see, crucifixion was designed to be that way. The Roman government had one purpose with crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:54-13:56

  They wanted to terrorize.

  Pastor Eric:

  13:57-13:59

  They wanted to horrify.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:01-14:12

  They wanted to terrorize the victim being crucified, and they wanted to terrorize every other person who observed the crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:12-14:21

  In fact, you may not be aware of this, they purposely crucified people in public places so as many people as possible could see them.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:23-14:29

  It was common for a person who'd been crucified to live in that state for two to three days.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:30-14:31

  Common practice crucifixion.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:32-14:40

  Because they wanted to terrorize you, they not only wanted to do it physically, but they wanted to do it emotionally, so they took off all of your clothing.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:41-14:50

  They wanted you to be humiliated in front of everyone, and what's more humiliating than being chilled without clothing?

  Pastor Eric:

  14:50-14:53

  So most likely, that's what they did to Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:55-14:57

  They laid him on the cross beam.

  Pastor Eric:

  14:58-15:06

  They stretched out his arms, and they would have taken spikes that were like railroad spikes, five to seven inches long, and they would have driven them through his wrist.

  Pastor Eric:

  15:06-15:14

  You see a lot of paintings where the spikes in the hand, it wouldn't have worked that way because the spike would tear right through the hand.

  Pastor Eric:

  15:14-15:20

  In the wrist, there's bones that would lock the spike into place so that it could not get out.

  Pastor Eric:

  15:20-17:10

  they would drive one spike through both of the feet. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, one of the first things that would have happened to him while they propped up is both of his shoulders would have dislocated. Now I want you to hear what Wayne Graham says as he describes the process of how you actually died on the cross. A criminal who is crucified was essentially forced to inflict upon himself a very slow death by suffocation. When a criminal's arms were outstretched and fastened by nails to the cross, he had to support most of the weight of his body with his arms. The chest cavity would be pulled upward and outward, making it difficult to exhale in order to be able to draw a fresh breath. But when the victim's longing for oxygen became unbearable, he would have to push up with his feet thus giving more natural support to the weight of his body releasing some of the weight from his arms and enabling his chest cavity to contract more normally by pushing himself upward in this way the criminal could fend off suffocation but it was extremely painful because it required putting the body's weight on the nails holding the feet and bending the elbows and pulling upward on the nails driven through the wrists the criminals back which had been torn open repeatedly by the previous flogging would scrape against the wooden cross with each breath now I want you to understand as we open up the passage this morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:12-17:15

  This is where Jesus is at right now.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:16-17:27

  If you just open the Bible and you didn't have that background, you wouldn't begin to see the cross as clearly as you could now.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:27-17:29

  This is what he's experiencing right now.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:30-17:32

  Look in your Bibles, Chapter 15, verse 33.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:34-17:41

  And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:42-17:45

  You see it says the sixth hour had come.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:46-17:54

  The sixth hour was noon, because according to those days, your day began at 6 a.m.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:55-17:58

  So the sixth hour is 12 noon.

  Pastor Eric:

  17:58-18:01

  So from 12 noon until the ninth hour, which would be what?

  Pastor Eric:

  18:02-18:05

  3 p.m. 12 noon to 3 p.m.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:05-18:07

  there was darkness across the whole land.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:09-18:15

  Now darkness in scripture represents grieving over sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:16-18:19

  Amos chapter 8 verses 9 and 10 point that out.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:20-18:29

  I think the darkness that's occurring here is representing God's displeasure with what's happening to his beloved son.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:31-18:41

  God sees the sin of humanity, killing the only innocent person who's ever lived on earth, and he hates it.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:42-18:47

  He despises what's happening, and so darkness covers the land.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:47-18:51

  But darkness in scripture also represents the wrath of God.

  Pastor Eric:

  18:53-19:17

  You remember Moses and Aaron, and God called Moses to lead the people out of slavery and into the promised land. Pharaoh would not listen. He hardened his heart and God began to pour out his wrath on the Egyptians. And one of the judgments from God was that darkness would cover the land for three days.

  Pastor Eric:

  19:18-19:31

  I want you to understand something that you've maybe probably never pondered all that deeply and I want to help you ponder it more deeply than you may have ever before.

  Pastor Eric:

  19:32-20:07

  The most horrifying thing about Jesus being on the cross was not that he had been flogged, beaten, spit upon, mocked, repeatedly striked in the head, hit with reeds, and nailed to a cross, humiliated, as terrible as all of those things were, none of that was the most horrific thing. The most horrific thing for Jesus was that he had to face the wrath of God himself on the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  20:11-21:49

  In verse 34 we see Jesus verbally responding to this. Look at verse 34, "And And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lemme se bakthani," which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Now as we study the Gospel of Mark, we understand that just the day before this happened, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, before Judas came and betrayed him to the mob. While Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, the Bible tells us that he repeatedly pleaded with God. He said, "God, if there's any other way, please take this cup from me. I don't want to have to face the cross. If there's any other way your work can be done, please don't make me go to the cross." The Bible says that Jesus was so distressed, he was in such anguish that in the garden of Gethsemane that while he was pleading blood literally dripped from his face and lest you think that that is ancient people trying to be poetic it's a medical condition that you can look up on the internet when you are in tremendous distress and anguish the blood vessels begin to thin and your blood literally can sweat out of the pores of your face.

  Pastor Eric:

  21:53-21:57

  Why was Jesus so horrified?

  Pastor Eric:

  21:59-22:07

  Why was he at a point that he pleaded, "Oh God, please, not the cross!" Why would he sweat blood from his face?

  Pastor Eric:

  22:08-22:12

  He wasn't so horrified because of facing the wrath of man.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:14-22:20

  He was so horrified because he had to face the wrath of God himself.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:22-22:24

  Why did he have to face the wrath of God himself?

  Pastor Eric:

  22:25-22:29

  Because he had to bear the sins of the world.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:31-22:33

  Now many people, you've been hearing that your whole life.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:34-22:36

  Jesus died on the cross for my sins.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:36-22:38

  He died on the cross for my sins.

  Pastor Eric:

  22:38-23:26

  knows that. A lot of people don't even understand what that means. What does it mean that he had to bear the sins of the world? Listen, when Jesus was on the cross and he had to bear the wrath of God for the sins of the world, he was being treated by God as though he was the worst liar, the worst thief, the worst gossip, the worst adulterer, the worst child molester, the worst murderer that the world had ever known. The wrath of God was being poured out on him as though he had committed all of those sins himself.

  Pastor Eric:

  23:28-25:19

  Now we all know what it's like to feel guilty. We all know what it's like to be caught doing something we shouldn't have been doing. I've been caught but it's even worse when you're doing something you're not supposed to do and you're caught by the very person you're sitting against. I remember when I was a young boy I had a cousin named Richie I was really close to him and I was with some friends and Richie wasn't there and I decided to start making fun of him behind his back and I was backstabbing him and getting everybody to mock him and laugh at him and while I was talking about my cousin he walked in behind me he heard everything I was saying and when I turned around and saw him I was immediately filled with guilt in shame. It felt like somebody took poison and injected every vein of my body with it. I just, I could, I could feel how guilty I was in that moment. You understand what I mean? God gave all of us a conscience and we understand what it's like to feel guilty. You can know you're guilty, but there's an actual physical feeling of feeling guilty. Now when Jesus is bearing the wrath of God on the cross, he's not feeling the guilt for one person's sins.

  Pastor Eric:

  25:19-25:41

  He's feeling the guilt for the sins of the whole world on him emotionally and he's not just feeling the guilt for sinning against another person he's feeling the guilt for sinning against God himself.

  Pastor Eric:

  25:43-27:05

  You see when Jesus is on the God is literally relating to him as though he personally committed all of these sins and it's emotionally terrorizing him because the holy pure fiery eyes of God are peering deep into his soul and he's laid bare before God with no excuse, no way to justify anything. He just feels horrible. One commentator describes this, "Jesus became the object of intense hatred of sin and vengeance against sin which God had patiently stored up since the beginning of the world. God had not simply forgiven sin and forgotten about the punishment in generations past. He had forgiven sins and stored up his righteous anger against those sins. But at the cross, the fury of all that stored up wrath against sin was unleashed against God's own Son.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:08-27:20

  As God's own Son, Jesus had lived for all eternity in constant intimacy and love with God the Father.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:23-27:30

  God the Son had never even experienced an ounce of displeasure from God the Father.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:33-27:43

  But on the cross, Jesus' best friend, in a moment, became his worst enemy.

  Pastor Eric:

  27:49-27:59

  Imagine, back to when you were seven years old, if you had a friend who had invited you to spend the night at their home.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:02-28:09

  And in the morning you got up, they gave you some food, and you got in the car and began to drive back to your home.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:10-28:16

  While your friend's mother was driving you, they were in a terrible car accident.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:18-28:18

  The mother died.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:19-28:23

  Your friend was severely injured and you're severely injured as well.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:23-28:25

  You're only seven years old.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:25-28:27

  You don't even know what hit you at the moment.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:30-28:37

  Now imagine waiting there, seeing all the sirens, the broken glass, the terror that you would feel at that moment.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:39-28:55

  Imagine they called your mother and your mom walks up to the car and looks in your eyes filled with terror and she looks at you and says, I hate you.

  Pastor Eric:

  28:57-28:59

  I can't stand you.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:00-29:02

  You disgust me.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:02-29:05

  I wish you were never born.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:12-29:26

  If you can feel the emotional terror A seven-year-old would feel at that moment to be told by his or her mother that they hate him.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:27-29:44

  In that moment of greatest vulnerability, you are getting just a tiny glimmer of what it feels like for Jesus to have God the Father hate him for the sins of the world.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:50-29:56

  He's bearing the sins of the world and he's being forsaken by God the Father.

  Pastor Eric:

  29:57-30:01

  His best friend is now his worst enemy.

  Pastor Eric:

  30:03-30:08

  After bearing the wrath of God longer and longer, Jesus quotes Psalm 22.

  Pastor Eric:

  30:09-30:39

  He says in Aramaic, "Iloi, iloi, lemme se bakthani." Which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Now Jesus clearly knew that he was gonna be forsaken by God, but in his humanity, he probably didn't understand how long he would have to endure being forsaken by God.

  Pastor Eric:

  30:39-30:53

  And if you understand the context of Psalm 22, it's as though Jesus is saying, "How long is it going to last?

  Pastor Eric:

  30:55-31:19

  God, how long is your wrath going to continue to be poured out on me?" You see, when Jesus was on the cross, millions upon millions upon millions upon millions sins were on his shoulders and he was being treated as though he committed all of those facing the wrath of God.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:21-31:28

  I remember when I was a little boy, I saw an electric fence.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:30-31:31

  I think I was five.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:31-31:42

  And I grabbed a hold of that electric fence and I could still to this day feel the electricity shooting through my whole body.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:43-31:47

  And I held on to it maybe for two, three seconds max.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:47-31:50

  It gave me a jolt that I can feel to this day.

  Pastor Eric:

  31:53-32:43

  what it would be like to face the wrath of God for the sins of the whole world for just one minute. And Jesus is facing the wrath of God longer and longer and and longer and longer to the point that he cries out, "God, how long? How long?" Now everyone here knows what it feels like to go through a valley, to enter into a time of great sadness or darkness, a time where you feel lonely and isolated, a time where you're tremendously discouraged and you're battling with depression.

  Pastor Eric:

  32:44-32:46

  Everyone here has faced heartaches.

  Pastor Eric:

  32:48-33:00

  But even in those moments, even in your darkest valleys that you'll ever face, you will never be abandoned by God.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:03-33:08

  God will always be there for you if you know Jesus by faith.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:10-33:13

  And at the end of the day, God will be enough.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:15-33:17

  But it's not the same for Jesus here.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:18-33:25

  He is going through the greatest crisis a human has ever experienced.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:26-33:31

  And he doesn't have God and his comfort at all.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:32-33:46

  In fact, not only is he devoid of God's comfort, God is actively pouring out his hatred on him for the sins of the world.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:48-33:52

  And Jesus did this for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  33:56-34:00

  We face the wrath of God because that's how terrible your sin is.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:03-34:08

  Isaiah 53, 6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:10-34:13

  We have turned everyone to his own way.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:15-34:25

  And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Look at verse 36, chapter 15.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:27-34:44

  And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:46-34:50

  John 19, verse 30 tells us what Jesus said when he cried out.

  Pastor Eric:

  34:52-34:52

  You know what he said?

  Pastor Eric:

  34:53-35:01

  He said, "It is finished." Jesus is dying on the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  35:01-35:09

  Before he dies, he cries out, "It is finished!" It says he cried out with a loud voice.

  Pastor Eric:

  35:10-35:11

  What was finished?

  Pastor Eric:

  35:12-36:12

  had paid the full price of the wrath of God for your sins. He paid the price for all of your past sins, for all of your present sins, for all of your future sins, so that if you come to Him there is no condemnation, there is no judgment, There is no wrath for you whatsoever. That's what Jesus meant. It is finished. You will never ever ever be condemned Because I paid it all if you come to me Verse 38 and the curtain of the temple was torn in two From top to bottom Now the curtain in the temple had a significant role.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:13-36:18

  It was 30 feet wide, 60 feet high, 2 to 3 inches thick.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:20-36:27

  And the curtain blocked off anyone from entering into the Most Holy Place.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:28-36:32

  The Most Holy Place is also referred to as the Holy of Holies.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:34-36:43

  The Most Holy Place was the part of the Temple that everyone was separated from except one individual, the High Priest.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:44-36:55

  And the High Priest could only enter into the Most Holy Place one time a year, on the Day of Atonement, which is still celebrated to this day.

  Pastor Eric:

  36:55-37:50

  you know Jewish people, they still celebrate the day of Yom Kippur. That was the day when the high priest would enter in to the most holy place. Now look at what it says, "And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." The curtain was not torn in two from bottom to top. That's how man would have done it. The curtain was torn in two from top to bottom because that's how God did it. God tore the curtain in two as a symbol to show everyone that there will no longer be any separation between me and humans if you come to my son Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  37:51-38:43

  You understand that when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden and they said, "God we don't want to do things your way, we want to do things our way," that at that moment a separation occurred from every human being and God. Every single person who's born is born separated from God. That's what it means to be a sinner. The Bible refers to us without Jesus as being spiritually dead, as being in darkness, as being blind. It's separated from the life of God, not having a relationship with God. And that doesn't mean that everybody in this room has a relationship with God. You may be here this morning and you are still separated from God. God would need to show you that.

  Pastor Eric:

  38:44-40:00

  But just because you're at church, just because you've gone to church, just because you find Jesus somewhat interesting doesn't mean that you're still not separated from God himself. Something radical has to occur for that to change. But when God tore the temple from top to bottom, he was saying this, "Every person can enter into my presence and experience an intimate relationship with me that's more real than anything you've ever experienced. And if you know Jesus this morning, I want to encourage you and remind you God has opened up the most holy place for you. He promises that if you would seek him, if you would draw near to him, he'll draw near to you. There are no barriers keeping you from enjoying the presence of God. Jesus has paid for your sins. He has ended the separation. He came to lead you out of darkness and into the light. And you can take full advantage of that. Are you?

  Pastor Eric:

  40:00-40:33

  Are you enjoying the God who paid for all of your sins. Verse 39, "When the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God.' And there were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and marry the mother of James the younger and of Joses and Salome.

  Pastor Eric:

  40:35-40:37

  When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him.

  Pastor Eric:

  40:38-40:42

  And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

  Pastor Eric:

  40:43-41:02

  And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:04-41:06

  Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have died already.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:07-41:11

  And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:12-41:17

  And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:19-41:28

  And Joseph bought a linen shroud and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:29-41:32

  And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:33-41:44

  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid." I want to give you two takeaways from this message today.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:47-41:52

  Number one, recognize how terrible your sin is.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:56-41:57

  That's a takeaway.

  Pastor Eric:

  41:59-42:12

  Let the terribleness of Jesus suffering on the cross make you face the terribleness of sin that remains in your heart.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:16-42:30

  If you're here this morning and you have never come to Jesus to deal with your sin, I plead with you on behalf of God, come to Him today.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:31-42:35

  There will come a day when you will have to face the wrath of God.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:36-42:39

  It doesn't matter how nice everyone else thinks you are.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:39-42:43

  It doesn't matter how professional you appear to be on the outside.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:43-42:48

  It doesn't matter how much success in this world you feel like you have.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:49-42:51

  All of that is going to go away.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:52-42:53

  You are going to die.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:54-42:56

  You cannot avoid your death.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:56-42:58

  It is inevitable.

  Pastor Eric:

  42:59-43:01

  I don't care how healthy you are.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:01-43:03

  I don't care how safe you are in life.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:03-43:05

  You will die.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:07-43:18

  And when you die, you are going to meet your Creator face to face, and His holy eyes will peer into your soul, and you will have no excuse for your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:20-43:27

  It's easy now to blame your sins on other people, but when you're before God, there will be no excuse.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:28-43:31

  God will see right through every justification.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:32-43:39

  He will show you all the times that you mocked and ridiculed and looked down on people who do the same things you do.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:40-43:48

  He'll show you all the times you felt superior to other people who do the same things you do in private and in your own mind.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:49-43:55

  He will rid you of all your pride and arrogance and bring you low and you'll say, "I have no excuse.

  Pastor Eric:

  43:56-44:07

  I am condemned." You will have to face the wrath of God yourself if you don't come to Jesus to face the wrath of God for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:10-44:12

  You don't have to face His wrath though.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:14-44:18

  Jesus paid for all of your sins so that you could be forgiven.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:19-44:22

  Today is the day of salvation, the Bible says.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:22-44:26

  If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:27-44:28

  I don't know what's going on in your hearts.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:29-44:33

  I have no clue what you're thinking right now, what you're feeling, but God knows.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:34-44:37

  God hears your thoughts as clearly as you hear my words.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:39-44:43

  The Bible says man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:44-44:51

  And if God is convicting you right now that you're not right with him, today is the day to come to him.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:52-44:53

  Don't put it off.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:53-44:55

  Tomorrow is not guaranteed to you.

  Pastor Eric:

  44:57-44:59

  You do not know if you will live another day.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:00-45:04

  People say, "Pastor, are you trying to scare us?" I'm trying to tell you reality.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:05-45:10

  Not too long ago at my church, I was talking to a guy right after the service.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:12-45:14

  And as far as I know, he did not know Jesus.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:14-45:16

  He was far from God.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:16-45:18

  It was the first time he had come to our church.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:18-45:20

  The next week I found out he was dead.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:22-45:30

  We were praying, "God, bring this man to you." I had a friend named Jeff in his late 20s, working on his sermon.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:31-45:35

  Late at night, his wife woke up in the morning, he was dead on the floor.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:36-45:38

  He died of a brain aneurysm.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:38-45:39

  Nobody saw it coming.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:40-45:41

  Very healthy.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:41-45:44

  When it's your time to go, that's it.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:44-45:49

  You understand that the only reason why your heart is beating right now is because God is making it beat.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:50-45:52

  You are not generating your life.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:53-45:57

  You do not have the ability to make yourself live.

  Pastor Eric:

  45:57-46:00

  You are utterly contingent upon God.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:03-46:09

  So today, if you don't know Jesus, cry out to him because his grace is coming to you.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:09-46:15

  Receive the forgiveness of sins and be cleansed by his death.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:17-46:22

  And if you're here this morning and you know, Jesus, I have a word for you as well.

  Pastor Eric:

  46:24-46:26

  Are you dealing with your sin Christian?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:30-46:36

  Has God been pointing out some things in your life and have you been ignoring those things?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:38-46:40

  Have you been trying to justify those things?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:40-46:43

  Have you been telling lies to get around it?

  Pastor Eric:

  46:44-47:01

  When you look at Jesus and you see the terribleness of his suffering, it should make you think about the terribleness of your sin. Why would I want to play around with sin when Jesus had to go through all of that for me? How can I take any sin lightly?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:02-47:25

  How can I allow my mind to be bitter toward another person and hate them? How can I gossip and slander against other people? How can I click on that website and give in to lust? How can I flirt with that person and play around with an adulterous relationship is God putting things on your heart?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:27-47:27

  You know if he is.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:28-47:28

  That's not me.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:28-47:29

  That's God.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:29-47:31

  Is he bringing things to mind right now?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:33-47:34

  Are you willing to deal with it?

  Pastor Eric:

  47:35-47:40

  When you look at the cross, when you really see the cross, you'll deal with it.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:43-47:45

  Because Jesus had to be killed for your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:46-47:48

  You should be willing to kill all of your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:50-47:57

  Number two, recognize how great God's love is for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  47:59-48:01

  I wonder if you see it this morning.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:03-48:05

  Do you see how great God's love is for you?

  Pastor Eric:

  48:09-48:14

  Don't say, "I wonder if God loves me." Don't say, "I'm not sure does God loves me.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:14-48:18

  I wonder if he loves me." Don't say that.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:18-48:19

  Here's what I want to encourage you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:20-48:21

  Look at the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:22-48:23

  Look at the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:24-48:26

  He showed you how much he loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:27-48:36

  He not only was beat and whipped and mocked and ridiculed and nailed to the cross, he bore the wrath of God for you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:37-48:38

  He loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:39-48:39

  Do you see?

  Pastor Eric:

  48:40-48:47

  He's paid the full price so that you can be with him forever and ever and ever.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:48-48:51

  So you don't have to question if God loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:51-48:52

  Of course He loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:53-48:54

  It's the cross.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:54-48:58

  That's why the cross is central in all of Christianity.

  Pastor Eric:

  48:58-48:59

  That's why people wear crosses.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:00-49:02

  That's why we have crosses in churches.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:02-49:08

  We want you to be reminded that God loves you in spite of your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:09-49:12

  He loves you in spite of your sin.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:13-49:16

  He didn't expect you to clean your life up and get it all perfect.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:16-49:53

  No, he came and sought after you when your life was dirty and filthy and he paid for it all So that you could have his love in the fullest The cross is a window into the heart of God Where you see his love most vividly you don't see the love of God any more clearly than on the cross the crucifixion of Jesus shouts with the loudest voice through the loudest speakers in the universe.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:54-49:57

  God loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  49:59-50:02

  God loves you.

  Pastor Eric:

  50:04-50:04

  Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 15:33-41

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

The Power of the Resurrection

What NO Resurrection of Jesus Means to Me...

1. NO Resurrection = NO Reason for FFAITH (1 Cor 15:13-15a)


2. NO Resurrection = NO Victory over DEATH (1 Cor 15:15b-16)


3. NO Resurrection = NO Forgiveness of SIN (1 Cor 15:17)


4. NO Resurrection = NO REUNION with deceased loved ones (1 Cor 15:18)


5. NO Resurrection = NO HOPE (1 Cor 15:19)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:15

  It says, verse 1, "When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Siloam brought spices so that they might go and anoint him." At this point Jesus was crucified and he was laid in a tomb and the tomb was sealed with a rock.

  00:18-00:23

  Verse 2 says, "And very early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

  00:26-00:39

  And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back.

  00:39-00:40

  It was very large.

  00:40-00:47

  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.

  00:49-00:51

  And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed.

  00:51-00:54

  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.

  00:55-01:00

  He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid Him?

  01:01-01:08

  But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee.

  01:09-01:19

  There you will see Him, just as He told you.' And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them.

  01:20-01:37

  And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Understand that the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just part of our message.

  01:40-01:43

  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very heart of the gospel.

  01:46-01:47

  Look at these verses with me.

  01:47-01:57

  Romans 1, 4, the Apostle Paul says, "Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness," how so Paul?

  01:57-02:06

  "By his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." It was the message of the early disciples.

  02:07-02:20

  Acts chapter 4 says, "And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching to people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

  02:24-02:46

  And again, Romans 10, 9, the Apostle Paul says, "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." And you know, several years ago, I had a man come into my office.

  02:47-02:53

  He had this enormously large tan satchel.

  02:55-02:57

  And quite honestly, I wondered if there was a body in it.

  02:59-03:13

  But he came into my office and he said, "I need to talk to you." I said, "Great, sit down." We sat down and the man proceeded to tell me that he was the king of Africa.

  03:16-03:25

  His parents, the former king and queen of Africa, which I didn't even know continents had kings and queens.

  03:26-03:26

  Did you know that?

  03:29-05:03

  parents, the former king and queen of Africa, were murdered. And now he's the king of Africa and he went into great detail about the circumstances surrounding their murder. And he told me this story for over an hour. And when he was done, he stood up, picked up his bag, and threw it on his shoulder and walked out the door. And I'm sitting in my office thinking the same thing you'd be thinking, which is what? Why did you tell me that story? Right? Like, what does that have to do with me? But understand, that happens every Easter. There are people that come to church and they hear this incredibly interesting story about a man who was crucified, a man who was buried in a tomb, and they put guards in front of the tomb, and he rose from the dead, and there are people that'll walk out the door and say, "Well, that was an interesting story." But like me sitting in office, they think, "But what does that have to do with me?" Well, the answer is what? The answer is everything. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

  05:05-05:35

  1 Corinthians chapter 15. In this portion of Scripture, Paul is focusing on the gospel. He said, "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved." And the heart of the message of the gospel is the death, verse 3, and the resurrection, in verse 4, of Jesus Christ.

  05:38-05:40

  Paul says this is in accordance with the Scriptures.

  05:43-05:48

  The Old Testament tells us that God's Holy One would not see decay.

  05:51-06:00

  The Old Testament tells us that the Messiah would suffer on behalf of His people, and that He would raise from the dead.

  06:01-06:06

  And Paul also tells us, as we read earlier, that this was witnessed by several hundred people.

  06:08-06:19

  But I want us to focus on verses 12 through 19 because in this passage Paul plays the "what if" game concerning the resurrection, meaning this.

  06:20-06:21

  What if the resurrection didn't happen?

  06:23-06:28

  Now, I read for you out of Mark's account what happened when the ladies showed up at the tomb.

  06:31-06:36

  And here in this passage, what we're going to look at is Paul saying, "What if that story went a little differently?

  06:38-06:49

  What if those ladies showed up carrying their spices, and those guards are still standing there?

  06:52-06:55

  And the rock is still in front of the tomb.

  07:00-07:02

  The guards sort of shush them away.

  07:02-07:03

  On your way.

  07:03-07:04

  Keep moving.

  07:08-07:14

  Then they leave, completely hopeless.

  07:17-07:24

  Paul says, "What if the resurrection didn't happen?" So in your outline, I want you to write these notes down.

  07:26-07:28

  What no resurrection of Jesus means to me.

  07:30-07:32

  What no resurrection of Jesus means to me.

  07:34-07:34

  Look at verse 12.

  07:35-07:45

  Paul says, "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?" Now he gets into this "what if" game.

  07:46-08:01

  He says, "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised." And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.

  08:03-08:11

  We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ.

  08:12-08:13

  Let's stop there.

  08:13-08:25

  I jot this down first of all in your outline, "No resurrection equals no reason for faith." No resurrection equals no reason for faith.

  08:25-08:26

  Do you see what Paul said there?

  08:30-08:31

  We are wasting our time.

  08:32-08:49

  This morning, you got up and got dressed and drove to a middle school auditorium, and I'm here to announce that you have completely wasted your morning if Jesus didn't raise from the dead.

  08:50-08:55

  All the time you spend praying, meaningless.

  08:56-09:16

  The time you spend reading the Word, the time you spend studying and listening to preaching of the gospel, all the church attendance, all the Christian books, all the seminars and conferences you've been to, waste of time, waste of money, if Jesus didn't raise from the dead.

  09:17-09:22

  And some would say, "Well, we'd still have the wonderful teachings of Jesus." Really?

  09:24-09:33

  You'd have the wonderful teachings of some martyr who clearly proclaimed that he would die and raise from the dead, and he didn't do it.

  09:33-09:35

  And that's the guy you're following, right?

  09:36-09:44

  This guy who all through his ministry, "I'm going to die, I'm going to be raised from the dead, I'm going to die, I'm going to be raised from the dead," and he died and he didn't raise from the dead, and you're still following that guy?

  09:47-09:50

  No resurrection means no reason for faith.

  09:52-09:54

  So foolish that we would be here this morning.

  09:57-10:01

  Secondly, write this down, no resurrection means no victory over death.

  10:03-10:21

  Looking up in verse 15, he says, "We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

  10:21-10:37

  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised." victory over death. No resurrection means Jesus hasn't been raised, you won't be raised.

  10:38-11:04

  There's no victory over death. So here's what's going to happen to you. You're going to live a few hard, miserable years in this evil, miserable place. And then you're going to die and they're going to stick you in a box.

  11:06-11:11

  Hopefully somebody has something nice to say about you at your memorial service.

  11:13-11:13

  And that is it.

  11:15-11:16

  That's as good as it gets.

  11:18-11:22

  Because no resurrection means there's no victory over death.

  11:26-11:32

  And number three, drop this down, no resurrection means no forgiveness of sin.

  11:35-11:42

  Verse 17 says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

  11:44-12:06

  You still stand condemned." Someday, you're going to have to stand before God, and you're going to have to give an account for every single wrong thing that you've done.

  12:08-12:47

  Standing before a holy, perfect God, who will judge you for every single sin that you have committed and cast you out of his presence into hell forever. Because no resurrection means no forgiveness of sin. Number four, no resurrection means no reunion with deceased loved ones. Look at verse 18. He says, "Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished?

  12:52-12:56

  What about those who have put their faith in this Jesus Christ and they died?

  13:00-13:06

  Paul says if there is no resurrection, it's over for them too.

  13:07-13:08

  This one really hits home, doesn't it?

  13:10-13:10

  Think about Grandma.

  13:13-13:18

  Think about your mother who had passed away, or your father.

  13:21-13:27

  For some of you, think about your spouse who has left this earth before you.

  13:29-13:39

  Anyone have a close friend who died tragically in an accident or to cancer?

  13:42-13:44

  no resurrection, that means you're never going to see them again.

  13:46-13:48

  They are gone and it is all over.

  13:52-13:57

  No resurrection means no reunion with deceased loved ones.

  13:59-14:04

  And finally, number five, this sort of sums it up.

  14:04-14:06

  No resurrection equals no hope.

  14:09-14:10

  No resurrection equals no hope.

  14:12-14:36

  Then those, I'm sorry, verse 19 rather, "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." No resurrection means no hope.

  14:37-14:38

  Even our present lives are changed.

  14:41-14:47

  We are miserable, pathetic people, devoting our lives to what?

  14:49-14:50

  Devoting our lives to what?

  14:52-14:53

  A lie.

  14:54-14:56

  So what are you drinking Kool-Aid?

  14:56-14:58

  You waiting for the mothership to come and pick you up?

  15:00-15:09

  And if people joke and laugh, but if there's no resurrection, you're just like those people.

  15:10-15:11

  You're just like those people.

  15:13-15:15

  Drink the Kool-Aid, wait for the mothership.

  15:15-15:27

  You're like those people that maybe dedicate their entire lives to Star Wars or Dungeons and Dragons or some kind of fantasy thing.

  15:29-15:40

  That's why Paul says, "If there's no resurrection, we are of all people most to be pitied." Did you catch a load of those people?

  15:40-15:56

  They actually pay money to rent a school auditorium, and they sing all their little songs, and they get up and talk about this guy who died like 2,000 years ago.

  15:56-15:57

  Those people are pathetic.

  15:59-16:00

  Those people are so lame.

  16:08-16:15

  Well, as we walk down the dark path of these verses, look at verse 20.

  16:17-16:28

  Paul says, "But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead." That statement makes all the difference because here's the reality.

  16:28-16:30

  Christ did rise from the dead.

  16:33-16:36

  So I would say enough of the hypothetical "what if" statements.

  16:38-16:48

  Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an actual historic event, we can confidently go back through and state the opposite of all of these statements.

  16:50-16:51

  Right?

  16:53-16:55

  Paul's saying, "If there's no resurrection, this is true.

  16:55-17:02

  And if there's no resurrection, this is true." Well, because there is a resurrection, that changes everything that we just said.

  17:05-17:23

  So why don't you go back, why don't you take your pen or your pencil, and you're going to cross out the word "no." So what "no resurrection of Jesus" means to me, cross out the word "no." And write the word "the." What the resurrection of Jesus means to me.

  17:26-17:27

  I want to go through this list again.

  17:33-17:43

  I'll be honest with you, I wasn't the greatest at math, but something I do remember is when you are balancing these equations, like when you take something off of one side, you're supposed to take it off the other side.

  17:43-17:45

  Right? Is that right? Is that still true, Carrie?

  17:46-17:46

  Okay.

  17:47-17:47

  All right.

  17:50-17:51

  So here's what I want you to do.

  17:53-17:55

  Paul says Christ did raise from the dead.

  17:57-18:07

  And when you look at the opposites of all these statements, then you can really grasp how the resurrection of Jesus Christ hits you.

  18:09-18:16

  With every single thing that your heart needs and every single thing that your heart longs for, the resurrection means everything.

  18:16-18:20

  So number one, we had said no resurrection equals no reason for faith.

  18:21-18:25

  Cross out both of those no's and what do you have?

  18:28-18:31

  Resurrection equals reason for faith.

  18:34-18:36

  And church, you have reason to believe.

  18:38-18:40

  You have reason to believe.

  18:42-18:50

  If Jesus Christ didn't raise from the dead these men who testified that Paul had already mentioned, these men all knew that.

  18:52-18:55

  And do you know every single one of them died?

  18:57-19:08

  All of the apostles died for the testimony of Jesus Christ, with the exception of John who was exiled to the island of Patmos, imprisoned for the gospel of Christ.

  19:09-19:24

  So you mean to tell me that all of these men knew that Jesus didn't raise from the dead, but at threat of death wouldn't say, "Ok, you know what, it was all a big lie.

  19:24-19:33

  We just made it up." These men were willing to lay their life down because they knew that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a reality.

  19:34-19:35

  Who would die for a lie?

  19:36-19:43

  So this isn't mythology or fairy tale theology, this is a real faith that's rooted in real history.

  19:46-19:49

  Jesus is different than every other religious leader who ever lived.

  19:49-19:50

  You can line them all up.

  19:50-19:57

  You can line up the Buddha and Confucius and Mohammed and Charles Taze Russell and Mary Baker Eddy and Joseph Smith.

  19:58-20:02

  You can line up all of these religious leaders beside Jesus.

  20:03-20:09

  And there's only one who's ever risen from the dead, and that is Jesus of Nazareth.

  20:12-20:15

  So because Jesus resurrected, that means we have a reason for our faith.

  20:18-20:26

  That empty tomb stands as a testimony throughout all of history that our faith is in something.

  20:27-20:29

  Our faith is in a reality.

  20:31-20:35

  Number two, we said no resurrection means no victory over death.

  20:35-20:41

  Well, Paul said, "But in fact Christ did raise from the dead." So when we change our equation, what do we have?

  20:43-20:45

  Resurrection equals victory over death.

  20:48-20:50

  Resurrection equals victory over death.

  20:53-21:02

  Jesus Christ did not come into the world to turn bad people into good people.

  21:04-21:10

  Jesus Christ came into the world to turn dead people into alive people.

  21:13-21:18

  The Bible says that you are, by nature, you are dead in your sins.

  21:18-21:27

  And that's not some kind of a poetic metaphor, some kind of flowery language to talk about our existence.

  21:27-21:32

  Literally, it's "You're dead in your sins.

  21:34-21:40

  That is your natural state." What does a dead person need?

  21:43-21:44

  What does a dead person need?

  21:48-21:50

  A dead person doesn't need more information.

  21:52-21:54

  A dead person doesn't need a pep talk.

  21:57-22:05

  The next time you're driving by a funeral home, crash the funeral, you have my permission, but just walk in and go to that dead person and try to give them a pep talk.

  22:08-22:09

  Come on, you're not really dead.

  22:09-22:11

  You just have a negative self-image.

  22:16-22:17

  You're not really dead, you're just ignorant.

  22:17-22:19

  I'm going to tell you a bunch of stuff.

  22:20-22:21

  What does a dead person need?

  22:23-22:25

  A dead person needs life, right?

  22:26-22:27

  A dead person needs life.

  22:31-22:34

  Look down at verses 21 and 22.

  22:35-23:09

  We're just going to look at the first part of these verses quickly. Paul says, "For as by a man came death." What man? What are you talking about? Look at verse 22. "For as in Adam all die." Death, according to the Bible, is connected with Adam's sin. You remember the story? God, when He created the world, He created this place of paradise and And He put man in the Garden of Eden, and out of man He created woman.

  23:10-23:11

  And God had one rule.

  23:11-23:12

  Do you remember what the rule was?

  23:14-23:42

  Genesis 2, 16 and 17 says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the Garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it you will surely die.'" You know, I always wondered, if God didn't want man to eat off of that tree, then why did he put the tree there in the first place?

  23:42-23:43

  Anybody else ever wonder that?

  23:44-23:46

  Why did he put that tree there in the first place?

  23:47-23:49

  I believe that was to give man the choice.

  23:52-24:00

  You see, without that option, it would be real easy for Satan to come along and say, "Yeah, of course, of course they follow you.

  24:00-24:01

  There's no alternative.

  24:02-24:08

  You put them in a place of perfection and they don't have a choice to embrace you or to reject you.

  24:08-24:18

  All they can do is just embrace you." And I believe that's why God gave man the choice, just as He gives every one of us a choice in what we're going to do with this message.

  24:21-24:31

  But God told Adam, "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Now when you read this story, it's not like Adam and Eve like ate from the fruit and it was like BOOM!

  24:31-24:34

  Dropped over dead the minute they took the bite.

  24:35-24:36

  It's like, well what does that mean?

  24:36-25:08

  Well if you actually study this passage in the original Hebrew, when he says "you will surely die," literally what that phrase says, God says "dying, you will die." this, spiritually they died. Spiritually when they rebelled, when they disobeyed God, they were separated from God and physically a process started. They started to wear out.

  25:12-25:22

  Ultimately dying. Yes, God gave them a grace period to continue to live on in the flesh, But ultimately, they would die.

  25:27-25:40

  That's why, you're like, "Okay, King of Africa thing, what does this have to do with me?" Well, Adam brought sin and death into the world.

  25:47-25:50

  I've had so many people tell me, "You know, I don't really like that.

  25:51-25:54

  I think I should get the choice." Anybody else with me on that?

  25:54-25:55

  "I think I should get the choice.

  25:55-25:56

  I get an idea.

  25:56-26:06

  How about God creates like this Garden of Eden for me, and He puts me in it, and He gives me one rule, and things will turn out differently if I'm in Adam's shoes.

  26:06-26:40

  I should get the chance." Well, whether you think that's fair or not, that's how it is, you know. I should have been seven feet tall and extremely good-looking and athletic. It didn't happen. Strike one, two and three on those. It didn't happen. I don't think that's fair. Here's the reality.

  26:42-26:54

  That's just what I inherited. That's just what was passed down to me. And when it comes to sin, we're all in that boat. We got what was passed down to us from Adam.

  26:57-27:00

  But look at verses 21 and 22 again.

  27:00-27:15

  It says, "For as by man came death," look at this next phrase, "by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead." So Adam brought sin and death into the world, and when Jesus Christ came, you know the Bible actually calls him the second Adam?

  27:18-27:21

  He brought resurrection.

  27:22-27:36

  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." The life of Christ and the life of His people are inseparably tied together.

  27:37-27:39

  That's why this message is so crucial.

  27:39-27:42

  This is how Jesus said it in John 14, 19.

  27:42-27:48

  Jesus said, "Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me." Listen to this phrase.

  27:48-28:12

  Jesus said, "Because I live, you also will live." Jesus said, "Because I will resurrect from the dead, that will provide a glorious resurrection for you as well." We have life because Jesus rose from the dead.

  28:13-28:18

  So resurrection means we have a reason for our faith and resurrection means we have victory over death.

  28:18-28:23

  Thirdly, we said no resurrection equals no forgiveness of sin.

  28:24-28:29

  Well again, scratch out the word "no" on both sides of the equation and what do you have?

  28:33-28:35

  Resurrection means forgiveness of sin.

  28:38-28:41

  Without the resurrection, we would have no confidence in standing before God.

  28:42-28:52

  If He hadn't risen from the dead, then we would know that the Father was not pleased with His sacrifice.

  28:53-28:55

  Jesus' sacrifice was not successful.

  28:55-28:56

  It didn't work.

  28:56-29:05

  It didn't atone for our sins, and therefore the Father did not exalt Him and did not take Him into glory because Jesus did not do what He was supposed to do if He didn't rise from the dead.

  29:08-29:21

  But on the other hand, if Jesus was raised from the dead, He was taken to the right hand of God, He was seated at the throne of God on His right hand, affirmed by God as having perfectly accomplished our redemption.

  29:24-29:26

  That means there is forgiveness of sins.

  29:28-29:35

  On the cross, do you remember Jesus cried out, "It is finished." is.

  29:39-29:51

  Some would say, "Well, his life was over and Jesus was crying out, basically, in essence, 'They got me!'" But that's not what he was saying at all.

  29:53-29:55

  Do you realize that word "it" is finished in the Greek?

  29:56-30:03

  It's one word and it's "tetelestai." And do you know archaeologists found ancient receipts, like, you know, your Walmart receipts?

  30:03-30:08

  They found ancient receipts that had the word "Tetelestai" stamped on them.

  30:09-30:16

  Because what that word literally means is "paid in full." That's what Jesus was crying out from the cross.

  30:16-30:17

  Paid in full.

  30:19-30:27

  And understand that the resurrection is what validated the sacrifice.

  30:29-30:40

  You see, if Jesus just died and stayed in the tomb, then today we'd be saying, "Well, He was a good man with good teaching and he laid his life down, but that was kind of it.

  30:41-30:47

  His resurrection proved that yes, he defeated death, but he also defeated sin.

  30:52-30:55

  And because of Jesus, your sin is forgiven.

  30:59-31:00

  Listen, all of it.

  31:02-31:02

  Okay?

  31:02-31:03

  All of it.

  31:04-31:14

  There are people that believe that you ask God for forgiveness and He forgives you, but then you sin and now all of a sudden you're not forgiven.

  31:14-31:23

  You're out of fellowship with God and until you ask for forgiveness again, you and God are in a bad place with each other.

  31:25-31:26

  That is not what the Bible teaches.

  31:30-31:32

  And the Bible says that you are forgiven.

  31:34-31:36

  That is all of your sins past.

  31:38-31:45

  Those are all of the sins that you're going to commit today, and those are all of the sins that you're going to commit tomorrow, if God gives you tomorrow.

  31:45-31:46

  They're all forgiven.

  31:48-32:05

  You're going to go, "Pastor Jeff, I'm not sure I understand that." Well, when Jesus died on the cross and He rose from the dead, how many of your sins that moment in time were yet future?" The answer was all of them, right?

  32:05-32:07

  All of your sins were yet future.

  32:08-32:18

  So isn't it a glorious thing to know that I'm going to screw up tomorrow, but God has already forgiven me for that.

  32:20-32:25

  And I don't have to walk this tightrope of fear like, "As long as I do the right thing, God's happy with me.

  32:25-32:30

  I mess up, he's mad at me." That's not the gospel.

  32:33-32:40

  The gospel says that you are forgiven and you are adopted as a child of God.

  32:44-33:00

  And just like nothing will ever keep my sons from being my sons, even walking out of a sermon will not keep Him from being my Son.

  33:02-33:08

  No matter how bad He acts in church, He will always be my Son.

  33:11-33:14

  If you're a child of God, you have to understand that's how secure you are.

  33:15-33:16

  You are His child.

  33:17-33:19

  There is nothing that can separate you from His love.

  33:21-33:29

  And yes, there are times, great sermon illustration, there are times that God corrects us with His discipline.

  33:30-33:34

  But that doesn't mean He's mad at us, and that doesn't mean we've lost our forgiveness.

  33:35-33:37

  That means that we're a child that He loves.

  33:41-33:42

  But we are forgiven.

  33:45-34:03

  There's no ceremony, there's no special prayers, there's nothing else that we can bring to the table to sort of fire up God for the forgiveness thing one more time because I blew it last week when Jesus died and when He rose from the dead.

  34:05-34:06

  And you received that.

  34:08-34:09

  You are forgiven.

  34:12-34:12

  You are forgiven.

  34:13-34:19

  Number four, we said no resurrection equals no reunion with deceased loved ones.

  34:22-34:28

  You can cross out the word "no" on both sides of that equation, because Paul said that Jesus did raise from the dead.

  34:31-34:44

  So instead of saying, "Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished," the opposite of that is true, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ will never perish.

  34:47-34:51

  I love that he uses the expression "fallen asleep." You know why he uses that expression?

  34:52-34:54

  Because that's used of someone that's about to get back up.

  34:58-35:03

  You know, when I take a nap at home, Aaron doesn't go to the kids and say, "Well, your father's fallen asleep.

  35:03-35:07

  You're never going to see him again." He's going to get back up.

  35:10-35:13

  There's going to be a glorious reunion in heaven.

  35:15-35:20

  And yes, the biggest glory is going to be face to face with my Savior.

  35:21-35:27

  The biggest glory is going to be in the presence of God, worshiping Him.

  35:29-35:34

  But it is also true that there's going to be a glorious reunion.

  35:34-35:37

  I want you to think of all those who have gone ahead of us.

  35:40-35:55

  Think of all of those who have gone ahead, all your family and friends that have left this earth before you, waiting for the mother of all reunion parties and the joy of never parting ways again.

  35:57-36:00

  Resurrection means reunion with deceased loved ones.

  36:02-36:04

  Number five, we said no resurrection equals no hope.

  36:08-36:11

  I'm pleased to report that you can scratch out the word no on both sides of that equation.

  36:13-36:14

  Resurrection means hope.

  36:18-36:23

  He says. If in Christ we have hope in this life only.

  36:25-36:27

  We are of all people most to be pitied.

  36:29-36:42

  I want to say this as humbly as I can so you understand what Paul is saying, but there is a sense in which Christians shouldn't be pitied, but Christians really should be envied.

  36:43-36:46

  I do not mean that in an arrogant way at all.

  36:46-36:46

  Please hear me.

  36:47-36:57

  But you understand, Christians are the only people walking the planet that live in a win-win situation.

  36:58-36:58

  Do you know that?

  37:00-37:01

  The only people.

  37:03-37:21

  You can take your celebrities, your athletes, your businessmen, your multi-millionaires that seem like they have everything, and if they don't have Christ, it might be win here, but it's going to be tremendous loss after death.

  37:26-37:31

  But for the born again believer in Christ, we have eternal life now.

  37:31-37:33

  We have fellowship in the church now.

  37:34-37:35

  We have the joy of the Lord now.

  37:35-37:39

  We have His strength and His grace through a hard world now.

  37:43-37:50

  And then when we die, we get to be in His presence.

  37:53-38:05

  That's why Paul said in Philippians 1, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." He said, "I can't lose.

  38:06-38:08

  Flip a coin, heads I win, tails I win.

  38:08-38:13

  If I stay here, I get to serve the Lord." And that is so awesome.

  38:13-38:17

  I get to serve Jesus and I get to see Jesus transform people's lives.

  38:19-38:25

  Yeah, Paul, but what if they show up tomorrow and give you the haircut at the shoulders?

  38:28-38:29

  Paul's like, "That's even better!

  38:31-38:32

  Because then I'll get to be with Jesus.

  38:33-38:36

  So I either get to serve Him or I get to be with Him.

  38:40-38:45

  I'm going to win-win." Resurrection means hope.

  38:47-39:10

  means hope. I want you to jump down to verse 54 and 55. We had read this earlier. But Paul, he goes on and he just says so much in this chapter about the resurrection. He just like, he just like breaks into this taunt. He says, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, Where is your victory, O death?

  39:11-39:12

  Where is your sting?

  39:16-39:21

  Paul is taunting death because God gave us the victory through Jesus Christ.

  39:23-39:24

  What victory?

  39:25-39:29

  He defeated death by raising from the dead.

  39:31-39:41

  He says, "Oh death, where is your sting?" You know how to take the sting from a bee?

  39:44-39:45

  You let it sting you, right?

  39:49-39:53

  Once a bee stings you, certain kinds of bees, don't experiment with this by the way.

  39:54-39:58

  Don't go home and like kick beehives thinking you're going to, okay.

  39:58-40:01

  But certain bees, once they sting you, right, that's it.

  40:01-40:02

  They're done.

  40:04-40:11

  And that's why Paul says, "Death, where's your sting?" Because Jesus Christ stepped in and He took the sting on Himself.

  40:11-40:14

  And now death, like the honeybee, it doesn't have a sting.

  40:15-40:26

  So Paul's like, "Where's your sting, death?" "You got nothing!" Because Jesus took it.

  40:28-40:33

  So do you want to have a meaningful faith?

  40:34-40:36

  Do you want victory over death?

  40:36-40:37

  Do you want forgiveness of sin?

  40:39-40:41

  Do you want a reunion with your loved ones?

  40:42-40:43

  And do you want a living hope?

  40:45-40:51

  And I would remind you the Bible says that you need to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

  40:52-40:55

  Confess means literally to agree with God.

  40:56-41:27

  says Jesus is Lord and confession means you're agreeing with God. Yes, God. I see Jesus is Lord. I agree with you. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. That's really the heart of the matter. Believing that Jesus Christ took your sin on himself to pay the penalty and rose from the dead to eternal life.

  41:30-41:34

  If you've never done that, today's the day.

  41:35-41:36

  And I'd like you to bow your heads with me.

  41:40-41:48

  I'd like you to bow your heads because today, if you've never taken that step, today can be the greatest day of your life.

  41:50-42:09

  Today can be the day that you say something like, "Father, I knew this message, but I never really understood what it had to do with me.

  42:19-42:37

  Father, I realize that the only hope that I have in this life and when I leave this earth, the only hope that I have rests in the person of Jesus Christ and in the work that He already accomplished.

  42:44-42:48

  The Bible says that we need to first of all acknowledge that we are sinners.

  42:50-42:55

  There's not a person in this room, myself included, myself especially, that deserves anything from God.

  42:58-43:04

  The Bible says that God chooses to love us.

  43:04-43:09

  God has poured out His grace by offering this gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

  43:10-43:12

  You need to acknowledge that you're a sinner.

  43:14-43:18

  You need to acknowledge that you too have rebelled against God.

  43:28-43:31

  You need to embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

  43:33-43:37

  You need to cry out to Him to say, "Jesus, You are my only hope.

  43:41-43:43

  There is no forgiveness anywhere else.

  43:45-43:52

  There is no other philosophy that carries the truth of God like you do, Jesus.

  43:53-43:57

  There is no other religious leader that has risen from the dead like you did, Jesus.

  44:08-44:17

  that you are a sinner and come to Jesus Christ for life because He is the only one that can give it.

  44:20-44:29

  And Father, with our heads bowed, we rest in your sovereignty, Father, because we know that you are looking into every heart right now.

  44:30-44:33

  I don't know what's going on in each heart, God, but you do.

  44:35-44:53

  And you know God that there are people in this room that walked in here that maybe knew the message but have never received the message, that knew about Jesus but have never allowed His life to reign in their lives.

  44:55-45:01

  Have never embraced this resurrection from the dead that He offers because He accomplished it.

  45:02-45:11

  Father, I pray that today is the day that people would wrestle with this message.

  45:16-45:18

  You've given us one opportunity.

  45:19-45:26

  You've given us one life where we can accept you or we can reject you.

  45:28-45:36

  And I pray, Father, for the person that's been playing games, or the person that's just been blatantly saying no to you.

  45:38-45:41

  I pray that today is the day of new things.

  45:41-45:44

  I pray that today is the day of starting over.

  45:47-45:50

  And Father, we thank you for that empty tomb.

  45:52-46:10

  And Father, we believe that that stone was rolled away, not to let Jesus out, but to let us look in to see that He is alive forevermore.

  46:13-46:18

  We praise You in the glorious name of Your Son, forever and ever.

  46:19-46:20

  Amen.

  46:21-46:22

  Thank you.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

1. Why is the resurrection of Jesus the heart of the Gospel message?
    

2. What would it mean if He didn’t raise from the dead?
    

3. What does it mean to you that He did?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!

Defiled: From Within, Not Without

SIN is from WITHIN .

• The Illustration (Mk 7:14-16)



• The Explanation (Mk 7:17-19)



• The Solution (Mk 7:20-23)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:01

  Mark chapter 7.

  00:02-00:04

  Let's turn there nice and loud.

  00:06-00:11

  While you're turning there, I want you to imagine, I want you to imagine that you're having some car problem.

  00:13-00:33

  For some of you, you're like, "Imagine?" Let's imagine that you're having car problems, and you put the key in and it won't start, and you get your car towed to the garage, and you say to the mechanic, I don't know if it's the starter or the alternator or the battery.

  00:33-00:35

  When I turn the key nothing happens.

  00:37-00:43

  Anybody else like me when you go to the mechanic you just feel like a complete idiot? Anybody else?

  00:44-00:46

  Everybody but Ben Moll probably.

  00:48-00:51

  Mike Gates is probably in there too, right? But no?

  00:53-00:56

  I feel like a complete idiot when I go to the mechanic.

  00:56-00:58

  Because the mechanic is always like, what do you think is wrong with it?

  01:01-01:15

  It doesn't move. That was my first diagnosis. I notice it's not doing the down the road thing that it usually does. What do you think is wrong with it? And then you try to imitate the sound. How many people have done that?

  01:17-01:25

  It's like I'm going down the road and I'm like, sounds like you have a cat stuck in your fan belt.

  01:26-01:51

  I feel like a complete idiot when I go to the mechanic. I'm like, I don't know what's...I'm at the point now I'm just shameless. I'm like, unless I pop the hood and there's like a hammerhead shark crammed into the engine somehow that's stopping it from running, the problem has to be that obvious for me.

  01:53-01:55

  to know that there's something wrong with the car.

  01:55-01:59

  But if it involves anything less obvious, I have no idea.

  02:00-02:02

  I'm just like, I don't know.

  02:02-02:03

  I just-- I don't know.

  02:04-02:06

  So imagine you take your car to the garage.

  02:08-02:10

  I don't know what the problem is.

  02:11-02:13

  I turn the key and nothing happens.

  02:14-02:17

  The mechanic says to you, come back tomorrow.

  02:18-02:19

  You show up the next day.

  02:21-02:31

  The mechanic goes, "Come on in here, I want to show you." Check it out, you walk in, and your car is gleaming!

  02:32-02:36

  And you say, "Well, what did you do?" The mechanic says, "Well, here's what I did.

  02:38-02:42

  You had this little rust spot right around the passenger side, a wheel well on the back.

  02:43-02:45

  We patched that rust spot up for you.

  02:46-02:49

  And then we gave it a wash, a wax on the outside.

  02:49-02:53

  did all the glass, completely detailed the inside.

  02:54-03:07

  I mean, we vacuumed and we took our little toothbrushes and got all the grime out from your gear shifter and we armor all the hole insides and we even treated the tires with that stuff that makes them real shiny.

  03:08-03:11

  And you're like, is it fixed?

  03:12-03:14

  And your mechanic says, look at it.

  03:16-03:17

  It's never looked better.

  03:19-03:21

  We did everything that we could to make it look great.

  03:23-03:27

  You jump in, you turn the key, and nothing happens.

  03:28-03:32

  You say to the mechanic, I thought I brought this to you to fix.

  03:34-03:38

  And his response is, look, we made it look good.

  03:39-03:40

  Isn't that what you wanted?

  03:41-03:42

  Is that what you wanted?

  03:44-03:46

  Your reply would be, I don't want it to look good.

  03:47-03:48

  I want it to move.

  03:49-03:57

  And as ridiculous as that story sounds, many people fall into that trap in regards to Jesus Christ.

  03:58-04:01

  All they're concerned about is looking good on the outside.

  04:02-04:03

  "Look at me give.

  04:04-04:05

  Look, I don't drink.

  04:06-04:07

  Look, I don't smoke.

  04:07-04:08

  Look at how I dress.

  04:08-04:10

  I dress perfectly for church.

  04:10-04:11

  Shirt, tie, suit coat.

  04:13-04:15

  Look, I don't swear.

  04:17-04:26

  Look, I don't dance, and I don't play cards, and I don't this, and I don't that, and look at how great I look, and the outside does look good.

  04:28-04:30

  But you know deep down that this isn't working.

  04:32-04:38

  Just as that car isn't moving with a dead battery, you aren't living for Christ with a dead heart.

  04:39-04:56

  Remember chapter 7, we've been talking about legalism and how blasphemous, blasphemous it is to reject God's work and insist on trusting your own work.

  04:58-05:01

  Yes, legalism is blasphemous.

  05:02-05:04

  Here's something else you need to know about legalism.

  05:05-05:06

  It just doesn't work.

  05:08-05:10

  It just doesn't work.

  05:11-05:18

  Keeping the rules, thinking that that is what makes you clean, that's what makes you holy, it doesn't work.

  05:19-05:20

  Because it can't fix heart problems.

  05:22-05:25

  So this passage we're going to look at today, we just have one point.

  05:26-05:27

  I want you to write this down.

  05:27-05:28

  This is it. One point.

  05:31-05:33

  Sin is from within.

  05:35-05:37

  The sin is from within.

  05:40-05:41

  A little pastoral insight for you.

  05:41-05:54

  You know, every week I sit down and open the Bible and try to understand what is God wanting me to know about Him, and what does God want me to communicate about Him.

  05:54-05:57

  And some weeks are a lot easier than others to do that.

  05:59-06:05

  And getting to the heart of this message this week probably the easiest it's ever been for me.

  06:05-06:15

  Because, you know, in this one passage we're going to look at today, Jesus Christ said the same thing five times in this passage.

  06:16-06:22

  If you think I'm repetitive, and I am for a reason, you think I'm repetitive sometimes.

  06:22-06:27

  Jesus said the same thing five times in this passage.

  06:27-06:28

  And do you know what He said?

  06:30-06:30

  Tell me.

  06:31-06:34

  within is from within.

  06:36-06:37

  He says it in verse 15.

  06:37-06:38

  He says it in verse 20.

  06:38-06:40

  He says it in verse 21 twice.

  06:40-06:42

  And he says it in verse 23.

  06:44-06:47

  If Jesus says something once, do you think you should pay attention?

  06:48-06:53

  If Jesus says something twice, do you think maybe you should sit up and listen a little closer?

  06:55-07:01

  If Jesus says something three times, do you think He's putting the stamp how important it is what He's communicating.

  07:03-07:16

  So, when Jesus says something five times in the same teaching, is it possible for us to underscore how important this teaching must be?

  07:17-07:28

  This has to be something so incredibly important for Jesus to keep hammering this nail over and over and over in just one passage.

  07:30-07:31

  And this is the sermon.

  07:33-07:35

  Sin is from within.

  07:36-07:38

  Let's look at the illustration first of all.

  07:38-07:39

  That's the sermon.

  07:39-07:40

  Here's the illustration.

  07:41-07:42

  Verses 14-16.

  07:44-07:55

  It says that He called the people to Him again and said to them, "Hear Me, all of you, I don't understand.

  07:57-08:02

  Okay, so last week we saw previously what Jesus was dealing with was legalism.

  08:04-08:08

  And if the repetition doesn't underscore the importance, how about this?

  08:09-08:11

  Over and over and over throughout the Gospels, we see what?

  08:11-08:13

  People flocking to Jesus.

  08:13-08:14

  People coming after Jesus.

  08:14-08:15

  What do we see here?

  08:15-08:18

  Jesus was calling to people, "Listen! Come here!

  08:19-08:21

  I've got to tell you something." He called the people back to Him.

  08:24-08:24

  Hear me!

  08:26-08:27

  All of you!

  08:28-08:28

  See?

  08:29-08:40

  He says, "And understand." What we're going to look at here, verse 17 actually tells us this next statement we're about to look at is actually a parable.

  08:40-08:43

  This is a physical illustration and you can't miss that.

  08:45-08:47

  Jesus teaches a one-line parable here.

  08:49-08:54

  He says, "I want you to listen to this and I want you to get it down." Here it is, verse 15.

  08:54-09:01

  "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.

  09:03-09:12

  But the things that come out of a person are what defile him." What does it mean to defile?

  09:13-09:18

  Well, the Greek word means to pollute or to make unclean.

  09:21-09:29

  This parable is the most graphic sermon illustration that Jesus ever used.

  09:31-09:52

  What he said here in this parable was, "What goes in doesn't make you dirty, it's what comes out." And you're like, "Pastor Jeff, that sounds like a bathroom story." Well, it is. Let's all be mature.

  09:53-09:59

  I'm not going to give you any potty humor. These are the words of Jesus. This is what Jesus literally said, okay?

  09:59-10:02

  So let's be mature about this.

  10:03-10:23

  Jesus was using a bathroom illustration. You're like, "Well, surely that's not what he was talking about." Well, just in case you're not convinced, we see in verses 18 and 19 Jesus was explaining this to the disciples because they didn't get it either.

  10:24-10:32

  Even the disciples when Jesus taught this were like, "What's with the potty story?" Look at verses 18-19.

  10:32-10:33

  We're going to come back to this.

  10:35-10:51

  Jesus said, "Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled?" The Greek word for expelled refers to the place where you sit.

  10:53-10:53

  Okay?

  10:55-11:01

  So Jesus' sermon is, "What goes into you isn't what pollutes you, or makes you dirty.

  11:01-11:10

  It's what comes out." And this is a truth about people, physically and spiritually.

  11:12-11:14

  Look at verses 17-19 again.

  11:16-11:18

  He entered the house and left the people.

  11:18-11:19

  His disciples asked him about the parable.

  11:20-11:23

  Like, where were you going there, Jesus?

  11:24-11:25

  What was that all about?

  11:26-11:27

  They knew what He was saying.

  11:29-11:33

  He said to them, "Are you also without understanding?

  11:35-11:39

  Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?

  11:41-11:46

  Since it enters not his heart, on his stomach and is expelled.

  11:47-11:54

  Thus, he declared, "All foods clean." This is the explanation.

  11:55-11:58

  And this gets literally to the heart of the matter.

  12:01-12:02

  That is this.

  12:02-12:03

  Down with the externals.

  12:05-12:07

  Down with the externals.

  12:08-12:14

  Notice that with one statement, Jesus lifted all of the Old Testament dietary restrictions.

  12:17-12:22

  Mark inserted that here parenthetically in verse 19.

  12:22-12:24

  He declared all foods clean.

  12:26-12:33

  The Pharisees taught that avoiding certain things was what kept you ceremonially clean or holy.

  12:36-12:47

  We talked about this last week, And we can't emphasize how important the statement of Jesus really is because of the prevalent teaching of Jesus' day.

  12:48-12:56

  In Jesus' day, all of their rabbis, all the Pharisees, all of the scribes, all of they teachers that were revealed all had the same sermon.

  12:57-13:07

  And it was this, "Avoid this if you want to be holy." "Avoid this if you want to be holy." "Avoid this if you want to be holy." "Don't eat this." Don't touch this. Don't go near this.

  13:07-13:08

  Don't consume this.

  13:09-13:09

  Don't walk here.

  13:10-13:12

  Don't wear this." That was their sermon.

  13:13-13:15

  Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

  13:17-13:20

  Pigs are unclean animals, so don't eat bacon or you're unclean.

  13:22-13:24

  Remember last week we talked about the Talmud.

  13:25-13:38

  They wrote all these rules to help you keep the Levitical law, and then they wrote a commentary about their own rules, Their rules and the commentary about the rules are collected in this volume called the Talmud.

  13:38-13:40

  And part of that was the washings.

  13:42-13:50

  How many volumes and chapters about washings, washing your hands, washing the cups, washing the pots and pans, washing the sippy cups.

  13:52-13:56

  Over and over and over, what the people in Jesus' day heard was this sermon.

  13:57-13:59

  Defilement comes from the outside.

  14:00-14:02

  That's what they always heard.

  14:02-14:04

  being impure.

  14:04-14:07

  It comes from what you touch and what you consume.

  14:08-14:10

  That's how you get unclean.

  14:12-14:14

  That was the sermon everybody heard.

  14:15-14:17

  They said the inside's fine.

  14:17-14:18

  What's going on in here? This is okay.

  14:20-14:25

  We run into problems when we break the rules.

  14:26-14:28

  We touch things that we shouldn't touch.

  14:29-14:30

  that in here we're good.

  14:32-14:46

  There was a day, even in recent history, and I don't think I'm that old, but I remember that there was a day that people thought that man was basically good.

  14:47-14:48

  Even though the Bible says otherwise.

  14:51-14:59

  There was a sort of an understanding amongst us in this culture I think deep down people were basically good.

  15:01-15:02

  Those days are gone.

  15:03-15:05

  Even the secular people don't believe that anymore.

  15:05-15:05

  Did you know that?

  15:06-15:14

  Even the secular people are like, "Yeah, people are messed up." Everyone now agrees that man has some problems going on in here.

  15:16-15:18

  So now the question is, where did it come from?

  15:20-15:22

  How did man get evil?

  15:23-15:34

  A man by the name of Philip Zimbardo a book that was published in 2007 called "The Lucifer Effect." And this is the gist of his book.

  15:35-15:37

  Evil is environmental.

  15:39-15:40

  Does that sound familiar?

  15:42-15:45

  Just like the people in Jesus' days said, "Evil is what's out here and comes in here.

  15:46-15:56

  Evil is out here and comes in here." We have a guy that just wrote a book a few years ago, and that's his whole...he put some psychological labels on it. He's revered for this.

  15:56-16:23

  But that's the thesis of his book, "Evil is Environmental." I want to read a short quote for you. This is from the website. You can look this up, The Lucifer Effect. This is straight from the website. It says, "The Lucifer Effect raises a fundamental question about the nature of human nature. How is it to become perpetrators of evil.

  16:25-16:42

  In trying to understand unusual or aberrant behavior, listen, we often err in focusing exclusively on the inner determinants of genes, personality, and character.

  16:45-16:45

  You catch that?

  16:47-16:57

  When we're trying to understand why people do evil things, "Do you know a mistake that we make, people? Do you know a mistake that's common that we make?" It's looking at a person's heart.

  16:57-17:01

  That's a common mistake. That's rookie. They should have covered that in 101.

  17:01-17:02

  Looking at the heart.

  17:03-17:22

  He says, "We also tend to ignore what may be the critical catalyst for behavior change" - here it is - "in the external situation, or in the system that creates and maintains such situations.

  17:24-17:25

  What makes people evil?

  17:26-17:28

  He says, "Here's the thing we're overlooking. It's out here.

  17:29-17:32

  It's the situations that people find themselves in.

  17:33-17:46

  It's the system." He says, "I challenge readers to reflect on how well they really know themselves and how much confidence they have in what they would or would not ever do and put into new behavioral settings.

  17:48-17:48

  That's his book.

  17:48-17:55

  He's like, being in the wrong environment can turn you into Hitler.

  17:56-17:57

  It's all about the environment.

  17:59-18:10

  And this fundamentally backwards philosophy about man, about the origin of evil, and about what causes evil things to happen, it's still being promoted.

  18:12-18:14

  You have to understand this, people. This is in your face.

  18:15-18:19

  Literally, in our day, this is in your face every day.

  18:20-18:21

  What do you mean?

  18:23-18:31

  Anytime there is a mass shooting, for example, you know how tragic for one of those to happen.

  18:31-18:38

  But how frequent has it become for somebody to show up, whether it's at a school or a military base, and just start shooting people.

  18:39-18:51

  theater, they start shooting people. What do you always hear on the news when there's a shooting? All the politicians lobbying for what?

  18:53-18:57

  Yeah, I heard somebody say gun control, right? Because what's the problem?

  18:58-19:01

  If somebody's shooting other people, what's the problem?

  19:01-19:03

  The problem is obviously the gun, right?

  19:04-19:04

  It's the gun.

  19:05-19:12

  It's the gun's fault. Because if If that person didn't have access to a gun, they wouldn't have done such a thing, would they?

  19:13-19:14

  Would they?

  19:15-19:15

  Would they?

  19:18-19:20

  Will gun control stop murder? Yes or no?

  19:22-19:23

  It will not.

  19:24-19:27

  Now look, this isn't a political platform here, okay?

  19:28-19:29

  Gun control will not stop murder.

  19:31-19:32

  It won't.

  19:33-19:34

  Remember the first murder in the Bible?

  19:36-19:37

  You didn't kill Abel, right?

  19:38-19:39

  You didn't have a gun.

  19:40-19:44

  What was the problem? Gun control is not going to do it.

  19:45-19:50

  No amount of gun legislation can even touch the real problem because that's not going to the source.

  19:52-20:03

  If there were a way, and we know that we are so far beyond this, but let's say hypothetically there was a way to physically remove every gun from the planet, would that stop murder?

  20:05-20:07

  It would not. It absolutely would not.

  20:09-20:11

  Every time there's a shooting, it's the gun's fault.

  20:12-20:13

  Where do we place the blame?

  20:13-20:14

  What makes people do this stuff?

  20:15-20:17

  Secular psychology, by the way, has made this a science.

  20:18-20:20

  You're always going to find someone to blame for your problem.

  20:21-20:23

  Why do I sin?

  20:24-20:26

  Well, it's because of how I was raised.

  20:26-20:28

  My parents never loved me.

  20:28-20:31

  I never had a swimming pool or a pony.

  20:32-20:36

  And I got hooked on drugs because it was my friend's fault.

  20:38-20:39

  It was my wife's fault.

  20:41-20:43

  It's the economy's fault.

  20:43-20:45

  It was President Bush's fault.

  20:46-20:50

  We live in a society where it's just constantly, it's everybody else's fault.

  20:50-20:51

  Who can we blame?

  20:51-20:52

  Who can we blame?

  20:52-20:53

  Who can we blame?

  20:53-20:55

  I have a problem, but it's not my problem.

  20:55-20:56

  You're causing my problem.

  20:56-20:57

  Who can I blame?

  20:57-20:58

  Better yet, who can I sue?

  21:00-21:03

  Psychologists say that we live in a toxic environment.

  21:05-21:06

  How about a toxic heart?

  21:07-21:09

  Anybody think that that might be part of the problem?

  21:10-21:12

  Anybody think that the problem might not be a toxic environment?

  21:13-21:17

  Anybody think that there's a possibility that the problem's in here?

  21:19-21:20

  Now listen, you've got to hear this.

  21:21-21:26

  I am not discounting the effect that outside influences can have.

  21:26-21:27

  I'm not discounting that.

  21:28-21:36

  I realize that some people have been affected by some outside influences, but we are always looking for someone else to blame.

  21:37-21:38

  It's never your fault.

  21:40-21:41

  By the way, that's not a fad.

  21:42-21:44

  Remember back in Genesis chapter 3 when Adam sinned?

  21:46-21:57

  God's like, "Adam, where are you?" "I'm naked, so I hid myself." Like, "Confession time, Adam." Do you remember what Adam said?

  21:59-22:03

  Adam literally blamed everyone that he knew.

  22:05-22:06

  True or false?

  22:07-22:10

  At this point in history, Adam knew two people.

  22:11-22:13

  And what did he say to God?

  22:13-22:18

  "The woman that you gave me." True or false?

  22:19-22:24

  "The woman that you gave me." It's like, you know what, God?

  22:24-22:27

  Things were pretty hunky-dory when it was just me and the animals.

  22:30-22:37

  I'm not saying I'm just saying that when you put me in the sleeper hold and brought Eve and you did that whole thing.

  22:37-22:38

  I'm just saying.

  22:40-22:41

  I'm just saying, there were no problems before that.

  22:42-22:42

  That's all I'm saying.

  22:43-22:45

  He believed every single person that he knew.

  22:47-22:48

  And we do the same.

  22:50-23:01

  Ok, so secular psychology says, just like the first century Pharisees said, your problem is environmental, toxic environment.

  23:03-23:04

  You've got to avoid things.

  23:05-23:06

  What's the Bible's answer?

  23:06-23:07

  You know what the Bible's answer is?

  23:07-23:21

  James 1.14 says, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." That's one of the most manly verses in the Bible because lured and enticed - hunting, trapping, fishing turtles.

  23:24-23:38

  James says, "You're tempted when your own heart sets the trap for you." So Jesus' simple explanation of the problem completely went against the current of all the teaching in His day.

  23:38-23:44

  And for me to stand and say the same thing today goes completely against the current of what's being taught today.

  23:45-23:51

  But it's so urgent and it's so clear, And the message is this, sin is from within.

  23:52-23:53

  So what's the solution?

  23:53-23:55

  Look at verses 20-23.

  23:57-24:02

  And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

  24:05-24:31

  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile a person.

  24:32-24:34

  You know, the Pharisees, they loved their list.

  24:34-24:36

  They loved their list, right?

  24:37-24:40

  Don't do this, don't touch this, don't do this, don't touch this, don't do this, don't touch this.

  24:43-24:45

  And Jesus said, "You like lists?

  24:45-25:16

  list for you. This is a legitimate list though. And there's 13 things on the list here. By the way, this isn't like FYI that Jesus was just like, "Here's a little factoid for you." What Jesus was saying was, "The problems from within, so the work needs to happen in your heart and only God can do that." Every one of these could be an entire sermon. We're We're not going to do that.

  25:18-25:19

  Because we just want to look at the main point.

  25:20-25:21

  And this was Jesus' point.

  25:21-25:24

  All of this sin is from within.

  25:25-25:29

  Looking through the list quickly, the first several on the list are actually in the Greek.

  25:29-25:30

  They're plural.

  25:31-25:37

  The words are in the plural indicating that these are more of the action type things.

  25:38-25:40

  The first thing it says is evil thoughts.

  25:42-25:47

  that's intentions or ideas.

  25:47-25:47

  That's what that means.

  25:48-25:49

  You have evil intentions.

  25:50-25:53

  You're inclined to do wrong things.

  25:54-25:56

  That's not your mama's fault.

  25:56-25:57

  That comes from within.

  25:58-25:59

  That's a problem in your heart.

  26:00-26:01

  It is from within.

  26:02-26:04

  Next on the list is sexual immorality.

  26:05-26:11

  We live in a day that the only thing that's considered immoral Marriage and sex the way God intended.

  26:13-26:15

  I read an article just last night.

  26:16-26:18

  You know the actress Kirsten Dunst?

  26:18-26:19

  You know that actress?

  26:19-26:26

  She was I'll put it in our context - she was Mary Jane in the Spider-Man movie.

  26:27-26:29

  She came under heavy criticism.

  26:30-26:30

  Go home and look this up.

  26:30-26:31

  Did you hear about this?

  26:31-26:42

  She came under heavy criticism for her controversial talk, for her controversial opinion marriage. You want to know what she said?

  26:43-26:45

  I'm going to paraphrase. You can look up the quote.

  26:46-27:06

  I didn't like print out the article or memorize it. Paraphrase it. What she said was, "I think there's something to be said for a woman who is a homemaker and takes care of things at home and wants that knight in shining armor to take care of her." And the feminists were like, Where is the panic button?

  27:07-27:10

  "Eee! Eee!" "I can't believe you would say something like that!

  27:10-27:15

  You've just set us back a thousand years!" That was the controversial thing.

  27:16-27:25

  And you know, you know, that if she would have come out yesterday and said, "I'm in love with another woman," you know everybody would have been applauding that.

  27:26-27:31

  And you'd see it on the Today Show, and you'd hear about it on the news, and it'd be on every website.

  27:33-27:35

  She was so proud of the courage that she showed.

  27:36-27:45

  But because her opinion of marriage and sexuality kind of echoes concepts from the Bible, it's really sad.

  27:46-27:47

  Next on the list is theft.

  27:49-27:50

  You know why you steal things?

  27:51-27:52

  Because you're a thief in your heart.

  27:52-27:53

  That's why.

  27:54-27:55

  That's the reason.

  27:56-27:57

  It's not an external thing.

  27:57-27:59

  It's because you're a thief in your heart.

  28:01-28:01

  Murder.

  28:03-28:07

  We know that Jesus said murder was if you hate someone.

  28:08-28:10

  If you hate someone, that's the same as murder.

  28:11-28:22

  That comes from your heart. Adultery. If you lust, that's committing adultery. That comes from the heart. Sin is from within. Coveting, that's just literally greediness.

  28:22-28:30

  You can never have enough. Sin is from within. Then wickedness. Wickedness.

  28:30-28:31

  It is from within.

  28:32-28:34

  The problem is not out there, it's in here.

  28:36-28:37

  The next part of the list is singular.

  28:38-28:38

  These are attitudes.

  28:39-28:40

  Deceit.

  28:41-28:45

  What would you do if you were put in a situation where you had to lie for someone?

  28:46-28:49

  There again, well, deceit is environmental, right?

  28:50-28:51

  Well, not according to Jesus, if that matters.

  28:52-28:54

  Jesus said it stems from within.

  28:57-28:57

  Sensuality.

  28:58-28:59

  What's sensuality?

  28:59-29:01

  That's just having a dirty mind.

  29:01-29:03

  Everything's an anatomy joke.

  29:04-29:11

  Everything's a joke about private parts and double meaning in everything you say.

  29:12-29:14

  Dirty mind - what's the expression we use?

  29:14-29:15

  Your mind's in the gutter.

  29:17-29:18

  That's from within.

  29:20-29:22

  Envy - literally, that's evil eye.

  29:23-29:24

  Having an evil eye.

  29:27-29:27

  It's from within.

  29:28-29:30

  That's abuse of speech.

  29:32-29:32

  Sin is from within.

  29:33-29:33

  Pride.

  29:35-29:37

  That's really like the grandfather of all sin.

  29:39-29:39

  Me first.

  29:39-29:41

  It's all about me, my wants, my preferences.

  29:42-29:45

  What's good for me, what's in it for me, what's best for me.

  29:46-29:47

  You weren't raised that way.

  29:48-29:48

  Sin is from within.

  29:49-29:51

  And last is foolishness.

  29:52-29:55

  That's just unthinking or senseless.

  29:57-29:59

  It's interesting that that's on a list.

  30:00-30:01

  That's on a list with sin.

  30:01-30:05

  I don't think that's just like a person with a lower IQ than the average person.

  30:05-30:10

  It's just somebody that chooses to not think.

  30:12-30:14

  Chooses to not apply wisdom.

  30:14-30:20

  Chooses to not accurately or earnestly receive God's Word.

  30:22-30:22

  Sin is from within.

  30:23-30:45

  All of these things - point, they're in the heart. Pharisees and America 2014, the message is just as controversial, it still rings true, the pollution doesn't come in, pollution comes out.

  30:47-30:52

  The question is where does change need to happen? Where does the change need to happen?

  30:53-30:54

  It needs to It's in here, doesn't it?

  30:55-31:04

  We've convinced ourselves by going to the right therapist, the right counselors, and we can put all this external scaffolding.

  31:04-31:05

  This is going to fix my addiction.

  31:06-31:07

  This is going to fix my marriage.

  31:07-31:11

  Now listen, I'm not talking about getting biblical spiritual counsel.

  31:11-31:12

  We all need that. Amen?

  31:13-31:15

  The Bible says we all need that.

  31:15-31:26

  What I'm talking about is going to this secular guy who's trying to blame all your problems on these external things and try to use other external things to fix.

  31:27-31:28

  You are wasting your money.

  31:29-31:30

  You are wasting your time.

  31:31-31:32

  The sin is from within.

  31:34-31:38

  You have to acknowledge that you are the problem.

  31:40-31:44

  And you have to acknowledge that you can't fix the problem.

  31:46-31:47

  Here's the good news.

  31:49-31:52

  provided exactly what you need.

  31:53-31:56

  If our ushers would come forward, we're going to receive the Lord's Supper.

  31:58-32:00

  If our worship team would make their way up.

  32:01-32:04

  What a perfect opportunity to receive the Lord's Supper.

  32:05-32:11

  As we gather around His table, we remember the provision that Jesus made.

  32:12-32:23

  Listen, church, as we're entering into this season especially, I'd like to remind you that Jesus' death and resurrection is so much more than just forgiveness.

  32:25-32:27

  Jesus' death and resurrection is so much more than forgiveness.

  32:28-32:31

  When I was a kid, I went through confirmation classes in the Methodist church.

  32:34-32:35

  Do you know what they did in this class?

  32:36-32:42

  One by one, the pastor would pull you into the auditorium for a one-on-one talk.

  32:42-32:44

  This was the talk that he gave me.

  32:45-32:55

  He's like, "Jeff, you don't want to go to hell, do you?" Twelve years old, I was like, "Do you mean today?

  32:56-33:03

  Do you have a sign up? Are you getting a bus today?" He's like, "You don't want to go to hell, do you?" I was seriously freaked out.

  33:03-33:30

  I'm like, "No, I don't want to go to hell!" He's like, "Then you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, right?" I was like, "I guess." And every time that pastor saw me after that, he would say, "I remember the day you gave your life to Jesus." And I would just be like, "Yeah, it was a good day." Church, some people look at Jesus that way like He's just a ticket to heaven.

  33:31-33:33

  Jesus died on the cross and He's my ticket to heaven.

  33:35-33:36

  That is not the Gospel.

  33:37-33:38

  That is not the Gospel.

  33:41-33:46

  Jesus isn't just about getting you free past the heavens, He is about transforming you.

  33:48-33:52

  God's goal for you is to conform you into the image of His Son.

  33:54-33:58

  The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, here's what this is about.

  33:58-34:00

  His death was to forgive you of your sins.

  34:01-34:06

  He took the wrath of God on Himself in our place.

  34:07-34:10

  But He arose from the dead so that we might have eternal life.

  34:12-34:17

  You understand, God doesn't just want to save you and say, "Hey, I'll see you when you get to heaven.

  34:17-34:22

  Best of luck to you in the meantime." The Bible says He gives you a new heart.

  34:23-34:42

  His Spirit comes and indwells you and He changes your heart of stone, your cold, dead, calloused to the things of God heart of stone, and He gives you a heart of flesh, a heart that is alive, and your appetites are changed, and you want to live for Him, and you want to please Him, You want to serve Him.

  34:43-34:45

  He wants to change you.

  34:46-34:47

  And you can't miss this, people.

  34:49-34:50

  Sin is from within.

  34:51-34:53

  That's exactly where God wants to rest.

  34:55-35:00

  He wants to do the business in here that only He can do.

  35:01-35:04

  You're never going to fix the problem from the outside in.

  35:06-35:10

  But if you're willing to receive, God will fix the problem for me.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 7:14-23

1. What was the point of Jesus' teaching? How would you restate it in your own words?
    

2. What are ways people think they are "defiled from the outside" today? i.e. What are some things you have blamed YOUR sin on?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another!

Legalism: When Tradition Trumps the Bible

Legalism is:


Legalism is NOT:


4 Reasons I Don't Want to be Trapped in Legalism:

1. I don't want to be a CRITICAL person. (Mk 7:1-5)


2. I don't want a MEANINGLESS religion. (Mk 7:6-7a)


3. I don't want to dishonor God's WORD . (Mk 7:7b-8)


4. I don't want to MISREPRESENT God. (Mk 7:9-13)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-01:19

  Open up your Bibles to the gospel according to Mark and we are going to be in chapter 7. How many people here have been to Idyllwild? Everybody! Looks like everybody here for the most part has been to Idyllwild. Well last summer they were having Marvel Comics Days at Idyllwild. So guess who wanted to go? Me, Right. I had to like pull my kids aside, like look, they're having Marvel characters in Idlewild, we've got to talk mom into this. Alright? United front. So we talked Aaron into taking us all to Idlewild to see the superheroes. And as we are walking in, we're walking in with this guy who had short dark hair, dark stubble, very thin man. He looked like he weighed about a buck twenty. We get talking to this guy just as we're walking into the park and I said, "Do you work here?" He got this little grin on his face and he said, "Yeah." I said, "Do you run one of the rides or what do you do here?" He's like, No, it's not that.

  01:20-01:27

  He said, I'm part of the entertainment that we do here.

  01:28-01:30

  And I'm like, are you one of the characters?

  01:32-01:35

  And he's like, oh, I can't say.

  01:36-01:39

  Later on in the day, and I have pictures if you want to see.

  01:40-01:44

  But later on in the day, it was meet the Marvel heroes.

  01:46-01:51

  Of course, Kate and I were like first in line to get autographs.

  01:51-02:01

  You're like, "Pastor Jeff, you're a big nerd." And I'm like, "Yeah, tell me something I don't know." But we're in line to meet these heroes, meet the mighty Thor.

  02:01-02:02

  Now, do you know who Thor is?

  02:03-02:04

  Anybody seen that Thor movie?

  02:04-02:14

  We're talking tall, blonde, huge, muscular, mythological god character with his big hammer.

  02:16-02:17

  Guess who Thor was?

  02:18-02:19

  That guy!

  02:20-02:29

  He had on all this stuff, and he had on all this armor, and all these pads, and buckles, and all this stuff.

  02:30-02:33

  And he had on this blonde Barbie wig.

  02:34-02:35

  I'm like, you're not Thor?

  02:37-02:38

  No joke.

  02:39-02:43

  I told Aaron at the time, I said, how funny would it be?

  02:45-02:47

  with all these kids in line to see these superheroes.

  02:47-02:49

  'Cause I knew this guy was like a buck 20.

  02:50-02:59

  Like how funny would it be if I just ran up on that stage, grabbed him by the seat of the pants and the scruff of the neck, and threw him about five rows into the seats.

  03:00-03:02

  You're like, why would that be funny?

  03:02-03:08

  Because think of the story that those kids in line are going to tell for the rest of their lives.

  03:08-03:13

  Mom took me to Idlewild this one day and this guy like beat Thor up.

  03:13-03:14

  And it was so awesome!

  03:15-03:19

  And, uh, like, where are you going with this story?

  03:19-03:23

  Well, Cade wasn't disappointed, but I was.

  03:24-03:26

  Because I'm like, man, that guy just wasn't Thor.

  03:28-03:34

  And he put a lot of work into making himself look like Thor.

  03:36-03:40

  He put a lot of work into making himself look like Thor.

  03:42-03:43

  He wasn't Thor.

  03:45-03:50

  And I wasn't interested because nobody likes a fake, right?

  03:50-03:52

  Nobody likes a fake.

  03:53-03:54

  Phonies let you down.

  03:55-04:03

  And this morning as we turn to Mark 7, we're going to see that the same can be said of God Himself.

  04:04-04:06

  That He's not interested in a fake.

  04:08-04:10

  God is after authenticity.

  04:12-04:25

  See, as we talked about last week, faith is to be this personal, internal, inside-out relationship because you embrace the truth that Jesus Christ loves you and He cares for you.

  04:27-04:28

  But there's a fake version.

  04:30-04:32

  The fake version is impersonal.

  04:32-04:34

  The fake version is external.

  04:34-04:37

  The fake version is about the outside-in stuff.

  04:39-04:48

  This fake version of faith, of religion, of spirituality, it's not just bad, okay?

  04:50-04:50

  It's dangerous.

  04:52-05:11

  And I stand before you ready to share a passage that frankly is extremely scary in my mind because I'm wondering, can I accurately convey how destructive and dangerous this subject matter is?

  05:13-05:17

  This fake version of faith can destroy a church.

  05:18-05:20

  It almost destroyed ours.

  05:21-05:27

  This fake version of faith can make your children hate the church.

  05:28-05:36

  This fake version can send someone to hell when they think that they're going to heaven.

  05:38-05:40

  Today we're going to be talking about legalism.

  05:42-05:52

  We're going to be talking about a religion that's based on tradition and ceremony and ritual and keeping the rules without heart transformation.

  05:54-06:14

  One of the things that is so scary about legalism, one of the reasons it is so hard to preach about legalism, is because inherently there is an appeal, a sinful, excuse me, a sinful fleshly appeal when it comes to legalism.

  06:16-06:17

  There is an appeal there.

  06:18-06:24

  There's something that our flesh likes about legalism.

  06:26-06:28

  What is that? I was thinking about that a lot this week.

  06:29-06:31

  The appeal is you want to look good to other people.

  06:32-06:34

  And you want to feel good about yourself.

  06:36-06:43

  But when you're trapped in legalism, you're just like that guy who was playing the role of Thor at Idlewild.

  06:44-06:48

  You kind of look like one thing, but deep down, You're something completely different.

  06:50-06:52

  Like, well, you've mentioned legalism.

  06:52-06:53

  What do you mean by legalism?

  06:55-06:56

  Well, jot this down.

  06:58-07:07

  Legalism is the belief that adhering to rules or traditions...

  07:07-07:08

  We'll pause.

  07:08-07:18

  It's this belief that when you adhere to rules or traditions, It, first of all, makes you righteous.

  07:20-07:21

  What must I do to get saved?

  07:22-07:24

  What must I do to get saved?

  07:25-07:26

  Here's the list...

  07:26-07:30

  You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this, You got to do this...

  07:30-07:31

  It's belief that...

  07:31-07:37

  "Keeping these rules makes me right before God." But legalism isn't just that.

  07:37-07:38

  Legalism is also...

  07:38-07:42

  The belief that adhering to rules or traditions keeps you righteous.

  07:44-07:45

  Church...

  07:45-07:57

  There are many Christians that will stand and say, "I believe that Jesus Christ saved me by grace." But then they have this belief that it's up to them to maintain their salvation.

  07:58-08:13

  Now that I am saved, I have to do all these things, and when I do these things, God's happy with me, and if I don't do these things, God's mad at me, and I've got to start doing these things again, so God's happy with me again, and it's never enough.

  08:14-08:15

  It is never enough.

  08:17-08:22

  No matter how many rules or what kind of rules you make for yourself, you can't even keep your own rules.

  08:23-08:30

  The legalism is the belief that adhering to rules or traditions, one, makes you righteous or and/or two, keeps you righteous.

  08:30-08:36

  By the way, the difference between the gospel of Jesus Christ and every other religion in the world, do you know what it is?

  08:38-08:40

  You can look at every other religion in the world.

  08:42-08:50

  They all teach that there are some things that you have to do to make God happy, or the gods, or whoever the divine being is up there.

  08:51-08:53

  "I've got to do this stuff to make Him happy.

  08:54-09:01

  I've got to say these prayers, or I've got to whip my back, or I've got to…" Every other religion teaches that.

  09:01-09:04

  What can I do to make God happy?

  09:04-09:06

  What can I do to be made right with God?

  09:07-09:10

  The gospel of Jesus Christ is completely opposite of that.

  09:10-09:19

  The gospel of Jesus Christ is God has done the work on your behalf to make you right with Him.

  09:20-09:25

  So it's either the religion of human accomplishment or it's the religion of divine achievements.

  09:26-09:30

  And both of them are mutually exclusive.

  09:32-09:33

  I'm going to put it this way.

  09:35-09:37

  How would you fill in this little math equation?

  09:37-09:42

  Jesus plus blank makes me righteous.

  09:44-09:49

  Whatever you put after the plus, whatever you put in that blank puts you in the realm of legalism.

  09:51-09:55

  Because the truth is Jesus plus nothing makes me righteous.

  09:55-09:57

  You bring nothing to the table when it comes to your salvation.

  09:58-09:59

  That's what legalism is.

  10:02-10:02

  Drop this down.

  10:02-10:04

  Legalism is not.

  10:04-10:05

  Okay, legalism is not.

  10:05-11:27

  going to get this clear too. Legalism is not personal convictions, okay? Legalism is not "I have a personal conviction about this, this is what I choose to do for myself." That's not legalism, until that's enforced upon other people. If I said to you, "I have this conviction that I like to spend the first half hour of my day praying before I eat breakfast or anything else, that's a personal conviction. But if I start enforcing that on you to say, "Darren, I can't believe that you don't do what I do. I'm really praying for your salvation. You don't do what I do. If you want to be spiritual, you have to do what I do." That's when it gets into legalism. But having personal convictions, that's not legalism. Enforcing it among others is. Secondly, legalism is not obedience to Jesus' commands. When you come to Jesus Christ, He changes your appetites. You used to love sin and hate righteousness. But coming to Christ, He transforms you and now you love righteousness and you hate sin.

  11:29-11:31

  Part of that change is you want to honor Him.

  11:33-11:47

  In the Great Commission, Jesus said, "Go and make disciples, teaching them, baptizing them, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." And for the born-again believer, there is something, that something is the Holy Spirit.

  11:48-11:53

  He gives you that, "I want to be obedient to Jesus Christ.

  11:54-12:01

  I want to do what Christ wants me to do, even when I don't want to do it." What do you mean by that?

  12:01-12:08

  I've got to tell you, a few weeks ago, about three or four weeks ago, this matter hit home really personal for me.

  12:11-13:28

  Because there was someone who you could say would consider themselves my enemy, and they were going through some hard times and they were asking for prayer. I was up all night wrestling over that. I've got to confess to you, with permission to speak freely, I was up all night. I don't want to pray for them. And I was bouncing back and forth. I was telling God, "God, I lift this person up to you in this situation and I'm praying for this, but I'm really struggling because I don't even want to be praying this right now. I just brought that to God She that's where the wrestling was I believe the Holy Spirit just would not let me sleep because that was an area of obedience to Christ that I didn't want to wrestle with But the Holy Spirit made me Because Jesus said to do what for your enemies Pray for them All night. I just kept hearing that in my in my head and in my heart, you know Pray for your enemies pray for your enemies and I don't want to God pray for your enemies I'm like, "Okay, I'll try." And legalism is not, "I want to obey Jesus' commands." But that becomes legalism when you believe that that's what keeps you saved.

  13:29-13:35

  Because it doesn't keep you saved. You're saved by grace, and your salvation is maintained by grace.

  13:37-13:40

  And finally, legalism is not personal disciplines.

  13:42-14:05

  As I mentioned earlier, if you have personal discipline, "I routinely fast to seek the Lord, here's my Bible reading plan, here's the time of the day that I like to spend time praying, these are just part of my personal walk with the Lord." That's not legalism, until you believe that that's what makes God happy with you.

  14:07-14:11

  "I miss my morning Bible reading time, so God must be mad at me.

  14:11-14:13

  Now we're entering into the realm of legalism.

  14:14-14:16

  That's what it is, that's what it's not.

  14:17-14:21

  As we go through the text today, I want you to see here's four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.

  14:23-14:25

  Four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.

  14:26-14:27

  Mark chapter 7.

  14:29-14:30

  Let's look at the first five verses.

  14:30-14:55

  It says, "Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of the disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed." Then Mark inserts this parenthetical thing, like a little commentary here.

  14:55-15:02

  He says, "For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders.

  15:03-15:06

  they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.

  15:07-15:14

  There are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.

  15:16-15:28

  And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, asked Jesus, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" Let's stop there.

  15:29-15:30

  Four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.

  15:31-15:33

  Number one, I don't want to be a critical person.

  15:35-15:37

  Verse one tells us where they came from.

  15:37-15:38

  They came from Jerusalem.

  15:39-15:40

  Verse two tells us why they came.

  15:41-15:45

  These were people coming that wanted to discredit Jesus Christ.

  15:48-15:57

  Now this parenthetical statement that Mark makes, you're probably wondering like I was, what's up with this hand washing, cup washing, pots and pans washing thing?

  15:59-16:04

  Some of you might even be like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I'm kind of with the Pharisees on this one, like, shouldn't you wash your hands before you eat?" Right?

  16:05-16:10

  We have to understand that this wasn't a hygiene issue.

  16:12-16:12

  Okay?

  16:13-16:14

  This wasn't a hygiene issue.

  16:14-16:26

  This was tradition that came from ancient rabbis who created rules to put a fence around the law.

  16:28-16:30

  They had all these rules.

  16:30-16:35

  If you keep these rabbinical rules, keeping these rules will help you to keep the Mosaic Law.

  16:36-16:39

  And they collected all these rules into a volume called the Mishnah.

  16:41-16:42

  And that wasn't enough.

  16:42-16:48

  They actually wrote a commentary on the Mishnah called the Gemara.

  16:50-16:54

  And then they combined these into a book called the Talmud.

  16:55-16:57

  How many of you have heard of the Talmud?

  16:57-16:59

  Okay, that's what that is.

  17:00-17:14

  Okay, you got that? There's all these rabbinical traditions, and then there's a commentary on the traditions, and I go, "Let's put them all together into the Talmud and many other writings." Even during Jesus' day, these were still happening.

  17:15-17:17

  Here's an interesting quote from the Talmud.

  17:18-17:53

  The Talmud actually says, quote, attend to the words of the scribes more than the words of the law." It was this belief that, "Look, here's what God's Word says, and if you're going to obey God's Word, we're going to give you rules that will keep you very far from transgressing God's Word." Did you know, in the Talmud, there are 30 chapters, 30 chapters about washing pans.

  17:55-17:57

  30 chapters about washing pans.

  17:57-17:58

  How does that happen in your house?

  17:59-18:01

  You know how washing pans happens in my house?

  18:03-18:04

  Step 1, open the dishwasher.

  18:05-18:06

  Step 2, throw the pan in.

  18:07-18:09

  Step 3, close the dishwasher.

  18:10-18:13

  Step 4, open the dishwasher back up and put soap in.

  18:14-18:17

  Step 5, close the dishwasher.

  18:18-18:20

  Come on, how many other people, right?

  18:20-18:22

  And then step six, like push the button.

  18:24-18:27

  I can tell you how to wash a pan in under 10 seconds.

  18:27-18:30

  30 chapters, here's how you wash your pans.

  18:30-18:31

  If you're going to wash your pans...

  18:31-18:36

  They were so afraid of this defilement, of being ceremonially unclean.

  18:38-18:39

  If you'd like a copy of that, I can get you.

  18:39-18:41

  It has to make for some fascinating reading.

  18:42-18:49

  They had an entire volume, an entire volume on how to wash your hands.

  18:51-18:52

  An entire volume.

  18:53-19:01

  I thought, I always thought it was extreme that the blow dryer, you know, in the public restroom has instructions on it.

  19:02-19:04

  There's one button on that thing.

  19:04-19:07

  And when you push that one button, that thing does one thing.

  19:08-19:12

  It's got like this whole list of, "Here's how you do it." I'm like, "Really?

  19:12-19:13

  That seems a little overkill.

  19:14-19:21

  How about an entire book on how to wash your hands?" So do you get the mindset that these people were coming from?

  19:22-19:36

  They come down and they're like, "We have all of our rules about what's proper for a good God-fearing Jew to do, and oh, your disciples aren't washing their hands the way we think that they should." But sadly, we do the same thing.

  19:37-19:38

  We put up fences.

  19:39-19:44

  We make up rules that make us think that we're following the Bible.

  19:44-19:45

  We do the same thing.

  19:47-19:48

  Let's get controversial.

  19:50-19:51

  What does the Bible say about drinking?

  19:53-19:58

  The Bible warns of the dangers of alcoholism.

  19:59-20:03

  The Bible warns of the addiction.

  20:05-20:08

  The Bible certainly tells you not to get drunk.

  20:10-20:18

  So the church looks at this warning, and by the way, it's about excess, right?

  20:19-20:34

  I think it's so funny sometimes, the person that wants to condemn alcoholism is the same person that is gluttonous with food and dangers in the excess.

  20:36-21:51

  So the Bible warns against the addictive nature of alcohol and the drunkenness. So you have some people that say, "Don't touch it. Don't touch it." Whereas the drummer from Guns N' Moses says, "The pastors here hide the beer." Okay, like, "Don't touch it." I know a guy that actually took that a step further. He had this little soapbox all the time. He said, "I can't believe that there are some Christians, I can't believe that there are some people that are a part of that church that actually eat at Pizza Hut." Like, why? They should serve beer at Pizza Hut. I can't believe that we have Christians that eat at Pizza Hut because they serve beer. I mean he was dead serious and that was like his sermon. They serve beer at Pizza Hut. How dare Christians eat there? Like you know what else they serve at Pizza Hut? Pizza. That's why I'm there, right? But do you You see how the fences become legalistic and frankly they become silly.

  21:52-22:23

  So the first sign of legalism we see here in verse 2, "They saw some of the disciples ate with hands that were defiled." I have a friend from high school that it was always a running gag that when guys would come out of the bathroom, if one of the guys did not wash his hands, as soon as we'd come out of the bathroom, this friend of mine would say to everybody in earshot, this man right here did not wash his hands.

  22:24-22:25

  And embarrass everybody.

  22:26-22:28

  So we were always making sure that he saw us washing.

  22:28-22:34

  But seriously, aside from that guy, how many of you actually notice when people wash their hands or not?

  22:34-22:36

  You're not really taking notes, right?

  22:36-22:38

  You don't walk into the restroom with a clipboard.

  22:39-22:40

  Did you wash your hands?

  22:40-22:43

  Did you use soap? Did you run your hands under there for at least 30 seconds?

  22:44-22:48

  I have a feeling that these guys were looking for problems, don't you?

  22:49-22:49

  They saw.

  22:51-22:52

  They were watching.

  22:53-22:53

  They were watching.

  22:55-23:00

  And church, that's a sign that you're entering into legalism, is when you start being the lookout.

  23:01-23:02

  I'm watching.

  23:03-23:05

  I'm watching to see if you keep my rules.

  23:05-23:06

  Are you keeping my rules?

  23:07-23:07

  Because I'm watching.

  23:10-23:11

  Why don't you wear a tie?

  23:12-23:13

  Why don't you get a haircut?

  23:14-23:16

  Why don't you shave that thing off your face?

  23:18-23:19

  Keep my rules.

  23:21-23:27

  We had a guy, rest his soul, he's in heaven right now, he's with the Lord.

  23:28-23:29

  And he's having a great day.

  23:31-23:32

  We had a guy at my old church.

  23:33-23:39

  Usually at my old church I would wear, you know, like, dress pants, dress shirt and tie, no jacket.

  23:40-23:44

  This guy, almost every Sunday, would get in my face.

  23:45-23:52

  Like, you know, back when I was an elder at this church, shirt, tie, suit coat.

  23:54-23:56

  Shirt, tie, suit coat.

  23:57-23:57

  Like, yeah.

  23:58-24:05

  Shirt, tie, and he would just, I don't know what he wanted me to say, but he'd get in my face and just keep saying that over and over and over.

  24:05-24:06

  Shirt, tie, suit coat.

  24:07-24:26

  We were laughing the one day, Aaron knows exactly what I'm going to say, but it was like right after worship and it was like right in the, like how do you do time, shake hands, meet and greet, and he turned around, we were sitting behind this guy, he goes, "You know Jeff, when I was an elder, shirt, tie, suit coat.

  24:27-24:28

  Yep, every week that was him.

  24:28-24:37

  "Church, tie, shoe coat." Like, "Yeah, yeah, you've mentioned that before, thank you." And then we sat down and the senior pastor started preaching.

  24:37-24:54

  And as soon as the senior pastor said, "Open your Bibles," this guy was out snoring, like... (snoring) And Erin leans over, she's like, "I wonder what the elders in his day said about sleeping in church." Did you see how legalism works?

  24:55-25:00

  This guy was looking. This guy was always on my case for the dress code.

  25:02-25:03

  Another instance came to mind.

  25:04-25:09

  Back when I was in Bible college, I was doing a carry out for someone at Walmart.

  25:10-25:15

  I wasn't smart enough to run the cash register, but I was strong enough to carry the heavy stuff.

  25:18-25:19

  I'll never forget this one lady.

  25:19-25:22

  I carried this piece of furniture out for her, whatever, put it in her car.

  25:22-25:53

  And she turned to me, she goes, she was an older woman, she turned to me, she goes, "Are you married?" I said, "No." And she said, "If you were, would you let your wife wear pants to church?" And I said, "Versus going to church without pants on?" She's like, "No, a skirt." I'm just like, topping the list of things I've never thought about.

  25:54-25:59

  I don't know, I guess I wouldn't care what she wore.

  26:00-26:08

  And she like gave me this big lecture, but I'm like, "Wow, you're criticizing a wife that I don't even have yet." Have you ever been around a critical person?

  26:08-26:19

  You're like, "I don't want to be around that guy." And I would say, "You don't want to be that guy." Harvest Bible Chapel, if you come to church And your focus is all out here.

  26:22-26:23

  And your focus is not in here.

  26:25-26:26

  And you're missing it.

  26:26-26:27

  You're missing it.

  26:27-26:37

  If you're coming to church to look at what so and so is wearing, or how they combed their hair this week, you're totally missing it.

  26:38-26:40

  There are four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism.

  26:40-26:42

  Number one, I don't want to be a critical person.

  26:43-26:45

  Number two, I don't want a meaningless religion.

  26:46-26:48

  I don't want a meaningless religion.

  26:50-26:52

  Look at verses 6 and 7, the first part of verse 7.

  26:54-26:56

  Okay, so the Pharisees, the scribes, they come to Jesus.

  26:56-27:05

  "Why do your disciples not walk in according with the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" What do you think about that, Jesus?

  27:06-27:21

  Verse 6, "And He said to them, 'Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.

  27:23-27:28

  In vain do they worship Me." Let's stop there.

  27:29-27:31

  Number two, I don't want a meaningless religion.

  27:33-27:42

  "In vain do they worship Me." All of the ritual, all of the ceremony, all of the recited prayers, all of the rules, it's all according to Jesus.

  27:42-27:45

  All of that stuff is a big waste of time.

  27:46-27:48

  It doesn't mean anything to God.

  27:48-27:59

  And did you know God would rather that you not go to worship than for you to go to worship and just go through the motions?

  27:59-27:59

  Did you know that?

  28:01-28:07

  Like, "I could go pretend to worship today, or I could just stay home." Do you know what God would pick?

  28:08-28:12

  God's like, "Just stay home." A little homework for you. Read Isaiah chapter 1.

  28:12-28:14

  That's exactly what God told Israel.

  28:15-28:19

  God told Israel, "Just stop. Stop. Stop your worship. Just stop it.

  28:20-28:24

  God says, 'I just can't take it anymore because you're a bunch of phonies.

  28:25-28:36

  You're going through the motions. You're all external, but you're no internal.'" Isaiah chapter 1, among other places in Scripture.

  28:37-28:55

  We're going to get to this down the road, But Jesus was asked, "What's the greatest commandment?" You know, these people that have all these rules, and they're looking at the Mosaic Law, and they're looking at the Talmud, and they're looking at all these pharisaical writings, and Jesus, of all these laws and commandments we have, which one is the greatest?

  28:55-28:57

  And do you remember what Jesus answered?

  28:58-29:00

  His answer came from Deuteronomy chapter 6.

  29:02-29:07

  He said, "The greatest commandment is to love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor as yourself.

  29:07-29:08

  That's the greatest commandment.

  29:10-29:20

  In church, you can go all through the Old Testament and the New Testament, and you will see the resounding testimony that God has never been about putting on a show.

  29:20-29:21

  God is about the heart.

  29:23-29:24

  God is about the heart.

  29:25-30:05

  And I can tell you it would not work in my marriage if I said, "Aaron, my alarm just went off on my phone to remind me that this is the time of the day that I am scheduled to say the things that I think you want to hear. How fired up is Aaron going to get about that? Like, "I am so smitten." She'd be like, "Just don't bother. If that's what it is to you, don't bother." So do you think God is impressed with just trying to say the right things, Trying to look the part when our hearts are far from Him.

  30:06-30:08

  I don't want a meaningless religion.

  30:09-30:19

  I don't want to go through life trying to keep all of these rules and then find out at the end that God was like, "That stuff didn't mean anything to me, ever.

  30:21-30:23

  In vain do they worship me.

  30:24-30:25

  I don't want a meaningless religion.

  30:27-30:32

  Number three, I don't want to dishonor God's Word. I don't want to dishonor God's Word.

  30:35-31:02

  Second part of verse 7 and then verse 8, Jesus said, "In vain do they worship me." Here's the key, "Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." You take your little rules and you preach them as if they They came from God, leaving what God actually said in the rear view mirror.

  31:04-31:06

  That's why you see it throughout this passage.

  31:07-31:08

  Legalism is rooted in tradition.

  31:09-31:12

  Six times in this passage, tradition, tradition, tradition.

  31:13-31:14

  That is not the Bible.

  31:16-31:20

  We are not talking about biblical standards and convictions.

  31:23-31:26

  The Bible says that Jesus Christ has set us free from the Old Testament law.

  31:27-31:29

  Romans chapter 3 talks all about that.

  31:29-31:31

  We couldn't keep the law in the first place.

  31:31-31:32

  So what has the church done?

  31:35-31:39

  We replaced the Old Testament law with a new law, man-made unbiblical rules.

  31:40-31:47

  If you want to be holy, you don't play cards, you don't dance, your hair can only be this long, guys, and you have to wear these kinds of clothes.

  31:48-32:05

  And I had a friend of mine this past week tell me that he attended a church where the pastor's wife actually told my friend's wife, "I can't be friends with you because I've seen you wearing shorts when you're out in your yard.

  32:06-32:21

  I can't be friends with you." Meanwhile, that lady's husband, the pastor, was having an affair with five other women at the time, but she was on top of the dress code. So what is legalism and what is not?

  32:23-32:27

  I don't want to dishonor God's word. Do you want to dishonor God's word? I sure don't.

  32:28-32:33

  I thought, you know what would be fun? You know what people really love? This is universal.

  32:34-32:39

  I've been all over the world. You know what people really love? Taking tests. So we're going to take a test.

  32:40-32:41

  All right?

  32:41-32:43

  I'm not going to collect these.

  32:43-32:45

  Everybody keep your eyes on your own paper.

  32:47-32:48

  It's a simple test.

  32:48-32:49

  This is the legalism test.

  32:50-32:51

  I'm going to be the preacher.

  32:52-32:55

  And I'm going-- this is a stretch for me in this role.

  32:55-32:57

  But I'm going to say some things.

  32:57-33:00

  And you're going to tell me if it's legalism or not legalism, OK?

  33:00-33:01

  You don't have to shout it out.

  33:01-33:02

  I'm not going to pressure you.

  33:03-33:03

  Write it down.

  33:05-33:05

  OK?

  33:05-33:06

  Everybody ready?

  33:07-33:07

  Anybody need a pencil?

  33:09-33:09

  All right.

  33:10-33:11

  Legalism test.

  33:12-33:18

  Number one, I choose not to drink beer because I have a personal conviction about that.

  33:19-33:20

  What is that?

  33:22-33:23

  That is not legalism.

  33:24-33:26

  I am expressing a personal conviction.

  33:28-33:29

  All right, did you get that one?

  33:31-33:32

  I'm expressing a personal conviction.

  33:34-33:40

  Number two, if you are a Christian, it is a sin for you to have a beer.

  33:42-33:46

  If you are a Christian it is a sin for you to ever have a beer.

  33:48-33:49

  Is that legalism or non-legalism?

  33:50-33:51

  The answer?

  33:51-33:52

  That's legalism.

  33:53-33:54

  That is a matter of conviction.

  33:55-33:56

  Okay?

  33:56-33:57

  That is a matter of conviction.

  33:58-33:59

  That is not a command from Jesus.

  34:01-34:04

  Number three, you should get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

  34:04-34:07

  when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

  34:08-34:12

  You should get baptized when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

  34:13-34:16

  And the answer? That is not legalism.

  34:17-34:18

  That's straight from the Bible, right?

  34:19-34:24

  The Bible says when you receive Christ, you outward display of the inward commitment.

  34:24-34:26

  You identify with His death, burial, and resurrection.

  34:26-34:27

  That's not legalism.

  34:28-34:30

  Okay, next. Dancing is sinful.

  34:32-34:37

  Christians should never dance. Is that legalism or not legalism?

  34:38-34:41

  Answer? That's legalism. That's not in the Bible.

  34:42-34:49

  A better way to say this is, "Pastor Jeff, you shouldn't dance." You're right. That is just called truth.

  34:50-34:51

  In fact, that might even be in the Bible.

  34:53-34:57

  No, it's not. It's not. And I do dance.

  34:58-35:00

  In the privacy of my own home.

  35:01-35:10

  Next, "When I sin, I have to say a certain type and a certain amount of prayers to be right with God." Is that legalism or not legalism?

  35:12-35:12

  Answer?

  35:13-35:14

  That is legalism.

  35:14-35:19

  Jesus made the way for you to be and to stay right with God.

  35:20-35:31

  Next, "You should prayerfully decide how much money to give your local church to support the ministry." Is that legalism or not legalism?

  35:32-35:33

  That is not legalism.

  35:35-35:37

  That comes straight from 2 Corinthians 9.7.

  35:38-35:43

  Next, "Give all of your money to me." What is this?

  35:44-35:45

  This is a stick-up.

  35:46-35:47

  Just seeing who's still paying attention.

  35:49-35:55

  Next, "It is wrong to eat meat on Fridays during Lent." Here's a very timely one.

  35:56-35:57

  Is that legalism or not legalism?

  35:59-36:05

  If I stood up before you and said, "Church, it is wrong for you to eat meat on Fridays during Lent," the answer is what?

  36:06-36:08

  That's legalism. That is not in the Bible.

  36:09-36:10

  That is not in the Bible.

  36:11-36:19

  Next, "It is a sin for you to wash your car on Sunday." It is a sin for you to wash your car on Sunday.

  36:20-36:22

  Is that legalism or not legalism?

  36:23-36:25

  That is legalism. That is not in the Bible.

  36:26-36:27

  That is not in the Bible.

  36:29-36:29

  How about this?

  36:30-36:36

  "I choose not to wash my car on Sundays, but rather just relax with my family." Is that legalism or not legalism?

  36:37-36:38

  That's not legalism.

  36:39-36:41

  Again, that's expressing a personal conviction.

  36:42-36:49

  And finally, "You should look for ways to help those less fortunate than you." Is that legalism or not legalism?

  36:50-36:52

  The answer is that's not legalism.

  36:53-36:54

  That comes straight from the Bible.

  36:57-37:00

  "But Pastor Jeff, I kind of see a pattern through that." There is a pattern.

  37:01-37:05

  If it comes from the Bible, we heed the Word.

  37:06-37:12

  When it's some man-made rule that's not in the Bible, we ignore it.

  37:13-37:19

  Because Jesus warned that we can teach as doctrines the commandments of men.

  37:20-37:21

  How'd you do on the test?

  37:22-37:25

  Finally, number four, I don't want to misrepresent God.

  37:26-37:35

  The four reasons I don't want to be trapped in legalism, I don't want to be a critical person, I don't want a meaningless religion, I don't want to dishonor God's Word, finally, I don't want to misrepresent God.

  37:36-37:42

  This is the life application of holding on to unbiblical rules or tradition, and Jesus illustrates.

  37:44-37:46

  Jesus illustrates here.

  37:47-37:56

  He said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.

  37:58-38:33

  For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles his father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever you have gained from me is Corban," that is, given to God, "then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother." Thus, making void the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

  38:35-38:38

  The Jesus illustration comes from Exodus 20 and 21.

  38:40-38:49

  Old Testament Israel was commanded, "Honor your parents." And certainly part of honoring your parents is meeting your parents' needs, right?

  38:51-38:57

  Your parents raised you, and your parents age, and you see that your parents have need.

  38:58-39:02

  It is your job to help take care of your own parents.

  39:04-39:08

  But what Jesus was talking about here was this little loophole that they did.

  39:10-39:12

  He says, "Here's how destructive legalism is.

  39:12-39:16

  The Bible says you should honor your parents, and here's what you do.

  39:17-39:26

  What's this Corbin thing about?" Well, Corbin was this idea that this thing is dedicated to God.

  39:27-39:31

  And it was a loophole for not sharing your stuff with someone else.

  39:31-39:32

  You see that?

  39:33-39:40

  You know, so I see that Ken doesn't have a coat, and he's very cold, and I have three coats in my closet.

  39:42-39:44

  And Ken's like, "Can I have one of your coats?

  39:46-39:50

  I'm freezing." And I'm like, "You know what, Ken, I'd love to help you, but that's Corbin.

  39:51-39:51

  Those are God's coats.

  39:52-39:53

  I just can't give them to you.

  39:54-40:10

  They're God's, sorry." You stop over at my house and you're like, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, what are you doing?" And there's like a bag of Doritos sitting on the table and like, "Oh, Doritos." And I'm like, "Dad, Corbin, sorry, you can't have those.

  40:11-40:12

  Those are God's.

  40:12-40:18

  It wouldn't be right for me to give you God's Doritos." Well, that's what was happening here.

  40:18-40:25

  People instead of taking care of their parents were like, "Sorry, Mom and Dad, this is all God's stuff, so I really can't give it to you.

  40:28-41:08

  Corbin, sorry." And Jesus is like, "You have a fine way." ignoring something clear that God said to be self-serving. We are Christ's ambassadors and legalism is a blasphemous misrepresentation of who He is. Is God about rules or is God about loving people? This is part of your test. Is God about rules or is God about loving people? He's about loving people, amen. That's why legalism is misrepresenting, it's damning and it blocks the very thing that God cares about most, and that's relationships.

  41:09-41:14

  Your relationship with him and your relationship with other people, legalism will destroy that.

  41:16-41:18

  Finally, note this, verse 13.

  41:19-41:20

  Just jot this down.

  41:20-41:23

  Here's one of the biggest dangers with legalism.

  41:24-41:24

  It becomes a lifestyle.

  41:26-41:32

  Look at the last thing Jesus said, "And many such things you do." Jesus was like, "That's just one example.

  41:33-41:35

  Many such things you do.

  41:36-41:38

  What lifestyle do you want?

  41:39-41:44

  Do you want freedom and this love relationship with the God who created you and saved you?

  41:46-41:50

  Or endlessly and vainly keeping a list of rules that God never commanded?

  41:52-41:54

  Do you want the real inside out thing?

  41:55-41:57

  Or do you want the fake external thing?

  41:58-42:03

  On the back of your insert that you're taking notes on, I want to flip that over.

  42:06-42:07

  I want this to be your prayer this week.

  42:09-42:14

  And if you think just reading this counts as praying, that's legalism.

  42:15-42:17

  I said my prayers today God, I read this paragraph to you.

  42:20-42:22

  The content of what's in this prayer, you need to personalize.

  42:23-42:25

  You need to personalize this.

  42:26-42:33

  And I would encourage you to take these concepts and make this the prayer of your own heart this week.

  42:34-42:35

  What about your heads?

  42:36-42:38

  We'll start this right now.

Personal Reflection Questions:
Read Mark 7:1-13

A simple prayer for you to pray this week. Personalize this, and bring this before God:

Father, I want to hunger for you more, I want to thirst for You and the things that You are about. Show me any areas of hypocrisy in my life, and let me have a genuine walk, a living and powerful relationship with You that comes from the heart. I know that there is nothing I can do to earn Your love and forgiveness, because You have already provided it in Jesus Christ. Please give me the faith to embrace all that He says He is.

Storms: When Jesus Becomes Personal

Jesus cares for ME.

• He PRAYS for Me. (Mk 6:46)

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25

• He WATCHES over me. (Mk 6:48a)

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. Psalm 139:1-4

• He STAYS with me. (Mk 6:48b)

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20

• He COMFORTS me. (Mk 6:50)

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:06

  Grab your Bibles and open up to the Gospel of Mark, and chapter 6.

  00:08-00:20

  I don't know if you know this, but every March at the school here, they have an Irish jig dance group that meets down in the auditorium.

  00:21-00:27

  Did you know that? Some of you are shaking your heads yes, some of you are like no. True. Nobody get up and leave, okay?

  00:28-00:29

  I want to check that out.

  00:29-00:31

  I want to check it out too, but not right now.

  00:32-00:38

  But they have an Irish jig dance group that meets down in the auditorium, and I always have the same thought.

  00:39-00:58

  Like, how funny would it be for the person that comes to the school thinking they're going to Harvest Bible Chapel, and they show up at the Irish dance jig thing, and they're like, "This church is really weird." I'm going to be getting a call from Chicago, James McDonald.

  00:58-01:00

  "Yeah, what are you guys doing at your church again?

  01:01-01:10

  The Irish jig?" And I'm like, "Jealous?" All right, one point today in our message.

  01:10-01:13

  We have one point, and that is this.

  01:13-01:14

  Are you ready?

  01:15-01:17

  One point so we can't miss this.

  01:18-01:22

  Jesus cares for me.

  01:24-01:24

  Write that down.

  01:25-01:27

  Not like Jesus cares for Pastor Jeff.

  01:27-01:28

  He does.

  01:29-01:31

  But when I say me, I mean you.

  01:32-01:33

  When I say me, I mean me.

  01:33-01:36

  But when you say me, you say you.

  01:40-01:41

  One point today.

  01:41-01:42

  Jesus cares for me.

  01:44-01:45

  That's the point today.

  01:46-01:50

  Right now, several of you are like, "Oh, I see what's going on here.

  01:51-01:53

  Pastor Jeff took the week off.

  01:54-01:56

  That's what you got for us today.

  01:56-01:58

  You're phoning it in today.

  02:00-02:02

  That's your big point today.

  02:02-02:25

  Jesus cares for me." But listen, this is the message that gets missed more than any other message preached in any church when the church gathers. This is the message that gets missed. Do people know that Jesus cares for them?

  02:28-02:46

  The answer is yes. But in a detached and impersonal way, you know, in a few weeks, we're going to be celebrating Easter and what happens in Easter? All of the CEOs come out, right? You What CEO stands for?

  02:47-02:48

  Christmas and Easter only.

  02:50-02:52

  Churches all over are going to see a spike in attendance.

  02:54-02:57

  I'm sorry, do I need to give you a minute on that one?

  02:59-03:00

  Take another run at that.

  03:01-03:03

  Every Easter the CEOs come out.

  03:04-03:06

  They're like, "I know what that means.

  03:07-03:17

  Churches are going to see a spike in attendance." And the people that go, the CEOs that go, they know the message.

  03:18-03:24

  And they even like the message, but they seem largely unaffected by the message.

  03:25-03:27

  And the question is, what makes the difference?

  03:28-03:39

  What makes the difference between the people that are, the people that are sitting there fired up about the message and the people that agree with the message?

  03:41-03:42

  but it doesn't really seem to affect them.

  03:43-03:44

  What makes the difference?

  03:45-03:46

  What makes the difference here?

  03:47-03:52

  If you call harvest your home, that you come here every week, but you're not really fired up about the gospel.

  03:53-03:54

  Here's the point.

  03:56-04:01

  The gospel doesn't affect you until you make it personal.

  04:03-04:09

  The gospel doesn't affect you until you make it personal.

  04:11-04:17

  For me to say, "Jesus loves people," everybody's like, "Yeah, he does.

  04:17-04:17

  He does.

  04:17-04:18

  Jesus loves people." Yeah.

  04:20-04:23

  But to make it personal to say, "Jesus loves me.

  04:23-04:40

  He loves me." Not this general, over-encompassing, broad-stroke, detached idea, but making it so personal to say that Jesus personally cares for me.

  04:41-04:47

  Just as a review before we get into the text, you remember last week we talked about the granddaddy of miracles.

  04:50-04:52

  And how do we know it's the granddaddy of miracles?

  04:52-04:58

  Well did you know there are only two miracles in the Bible that are actually recorded in all four Gospels?

  04:59-05:31

  And one of them is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the other one, first person to answer the email questions Sean Ingram give him a round of applause you're like how do I get on that email list the answers in your bulletin but there were two miracles his resurrection and what feeding the multitude the feeding of the 5,000 men Matthew says plus women and children with he fed them with five biscuits and two fish, basically.

  05:32-05:36

  Look at Mark 6, we're going to be picking up in verse 45.

  05:37-05:47

  It says, "Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida.

  05:48-05:54

  While he dismissed the crowd, and after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

  05:56-06:07

  evening came the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land." Okay, so this is sort of giving you the setting here.

  06:10-06:16

  Jesus feeds the somewhere between 15 and 25,000 people total.

  06:16-06:23

  There are 5,000 men, who knows how many total, the Bible doesn't say, but the Bible does say there were more than just men there.

  06:24-06:29

  So immediately, the Bible says he made his disciples get into the boat.

  06:30-06:40

  Like, "We're not sticking around here, don't hang out, okay, we're not having a picnic here, get going, get in the boat." And it says he dismissed the crowd.

  06:43-06:47

  Verse 46 says that he went up on the mountain to pray.

  06:47-07:05

  Look at verse 48. It says, "And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against him." This is why it's great to slow down when you read your Bible.

  07:06-07:17

  What was the setting again? The disciples were where? Where were the disciples? Okay, So they're in like the boat.

  07:18-07:19

  And where was Jesus again?

  07:21-07:22

  Jesus was on the mountain.

  07:24-07:27

  And it says he saw, how far out were they?

  07:27-07:33

  Well, according to John 6, 19, the boat was about three or four miles out.

  07:34-07:39

  Okay, so it wasn't like they were 15 feet from shore and Jesus just happened to look over.

  07:40-07:44

  He was on the mountain and they were three or four miles out.

  07:46-07:51

  And it says, "And about the fourth watch of the night," like when is that?

  07:51-07:54

  That's like 3 to 6 a .m.

  07:55-08:03

  Okay, so about six or nine hours have passed since he dismissed them and he went up to pray and they made it out into the sea and ran into some problems again.

  08:05-09:10

  "And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea." on the sea you know I read this goofy stuff throughout the week as I study and it's just it's silly all the explanations Jesus walking on the sea you know there was this out of Florida State University they said well here's what was really happening it's only happened a handful of times in history but the temperature can drop suddenly and form ice and Jesus was walking across on the ice. Or, Jesus wasn't really walking on the sea, the disciples saw him on the shore and got confused. Or my favorite, Jesus wasn't really walking on the sea, he was standing on the shore and he was projecting an image of himself to make it look like he was walking. That's what these scholars, and I use that term loosely, that's what these scholars say is going on here?

  09:12-09:13

  You know what I think is going on here?

  09:14-09:16

  I think Jesus was walking on the sea.

  09:17-09:23

  I think Jesus was literally walking on top of the water.

  09:25-09:28

  This next phrase just completely threw me for a loop.

  09:29-09:31

  Okay, so he came to them walking on the sea.

  09:33-09:34

  He meant to pass by them.

  09:35-09:36

  Is anybody like me?

  09:37-09:40

  And when you read that, I know when I first read that, here's the picture I had in mind.

  09:41-09:52

  Okay, there's like disciples in the boat, and they're like, you know, trying to get, no, we can't get, and like, here comes Jesus, and it says, "He meant to pass by them." You know the picture that I had?

  09:52-09:55

  It was like Jesus was walking in the sea, like, "Wanna race?"

  09:56-09:57

  (audience laughing)

  09:58-10:04

  Look how fast I am, I'm walking, and you can't make, like, "He meant to pass by them," like it was some kind of a race.

  10:05-10:09

  And then they like see him and Jesus is like, "Oh, you got me.

  10:09-10:09

  You found me.

  10:10-10:17

  Might as well get on the boat now because that trick's kind of over." Did anybody else think that when they read that?

  10:19-10:19

  Just me?

  10:20-10:21

  Just me?

  10:22-10:24

  All right, Amanda, you're up next week.

  10:27-10:43

  Amanda's been working on this great Justin Timberlake sermon because my pop culture references are too dated. You're older than you look, Pastor Jeff. I'm not bitter or anything.

  10:46-10:56

  But when I read that, I'm like, "What is going on there? He meant to pass by them?" Like if you're going to sneak around the boat, Jesus, like, this is why we study the Bible.

  10:57-11:08

  For the two of us here that maybe had that wrong picture, understand that when it says, "He meant to pass by them," that's not really what it says.

  11:09-11:17

  In fact, it could be better said this way, "He meant to pass by them." See the difference?

  11:18-11:23

  The Greek literally means to come alongside, meaning this.

  11:23-11:37

  Jesus, to stretch it out, to amplify it, What this is saying is Jesus' intention was to cross the sea, and his intention was to cross the sea beside the boat.

  11:38-11:45

  So he meant to pass by them, not pass by them.

  11:45-11:49

  He meant to pass by walking beside them.

  11:51-12:00

  And verse 49 says, "But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out.

  12:02-12:11

  For they all saw him and were terrified, but immediately he spoke to them and said, 'Take heart, it is I.

  12:12-12:34

  Do not be afraid.' And he got into the boat with them, And the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened." Okay, so get the picture here.

  12:34-12:45

  The disciples see Jesus walking on the water, and they think it's a ghost, and much like the Scooby-Doo characters, it says they cried out, okay?

  12:45-12:48

  Now literally that's screaming in terror.

  12:49-12:50

  Anybody want to illustrate that for us?

  12:52-12:53

  You get the picture, right?

  12:55-13:07

  It wasn't as if the disciples saw Jesus and they were like, "Oh golly." I'm slightly taken aback by the visage of a man walking upon the...

  13:08-13:09

  It was, "Ahh!

  13:09-13:13

  Look, there's a ghost out there!" They all saw that and that was the conclusion they all came up with.

  13:14-13:16

  What's going on out there?

  13:17-13:20

  We all definitely see a guy walking on the water.

  13:22-13:33

  And then Jesus shows up and says, "Do not be afraid." You know that phrase, "Do not be afraid," it shows up eight times in the New Testament and it's always said by Jesus.

  13:35-13:36

  And it literally means get a grip.

  13:37-13:39

  Get a hold of yourself, that's what he's saying.

  13:40-13:41

  Do not be afraid.

  13:42-13:52

  And verse 53 says, "When they had crossed over, they came to land at Genesaret, and they moored on the shore.

  13:53-14:03

  And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.

  14:04-14:17

  And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.

  14:18-14:22

  And as many as touched it were made well.

  14:23-14:32

  The word gets out and people are like, "Hey, if you can just touch the fringe of his garment, you'll be healed." Who do you think started that craze?

  14:33-14:34

  Any idea?

  14:35-14:36

  Right, exactly.

  14:36-14:39

  You remember the woman in chapter 5 verse 27?

  14:40-14:49

  "If I can just touch the fringe of his garment, I'll be healed." And you think she told people about it?

  14:50-14:51

  It like started the craze.

  14:52-14:53

  Jesus is in town.

  14:54-14:55

  All we've got to do is touch his clothes.

  14:55-14:56

  We'll be healed.

  14:57-14:59

  That is a crazy story.

  14:59-15:01

  And I'm gonna be honest with you.

  15:02-15:09

  I used to read over this thinking, "Is there any real purpose to this miracle?" Now hear me out.

  15:10-15:11

  Put your stones down and hear me out.

  15:12-15:17

  When I read the stories about Jesus feeding people, I'm there, right?

  15:17-15:19

  Like people were hungry and Jesus loved them and he fed them.

  15:20-15:20

  Like that makes sense.

  15:21-15:25

  And like, okay, here's a guy with a demon and Jesus cast the demon out and that makes sense.

  15:26-15:28

  Jesus was always doing things that benefited people, right?

  15:29-15:42

  And healing people, resurrecting the dead, even turning the water into wine was a miracle that really benefited people.

  15:42-15:51

  But this miracle seems unusual because, like, he calmed the storm before, right?

  15:51-15:52

  We saw that.

  15:54-15:58

  But this walking on water thing, I always just kind of glossed over that.

  15:59-16:02

  That's almost like, what was the purpose of that?

  16:04-16:06

  Why did he walk on the water?

  16:06-16:09

  Is this just some sort of an extra miracle?

  16:11-16:17

  After doing a little studying this week, I found that this is one of the most significant events in the entire New Testament.

  16:20-16:25

  Because this event changed the disciples.

  16:27-16:35

  You know these people that Jesus was pouring into and teaching and equipping that were going to turn the world upside down with the message about him?

  16:37-16:38

  This was the event that changed them.

  16:40-16:41

  Like where do you come up with that?

  16:42-17:03

  Well, you know, with the four gospel writers, each of them are telling the story about Jesus from different vantage points, and there's going to be some overlap, but you're also going to have some of the events that took place, you're going to find them in one place in the gospels, but not in another.

  17:04-17:07

  For example, do you know what is missing from this story?

  17:08-17:11

  You remember something else happened here in the middle of this.

  17:12-17:13

  Right, Peter.

  17:14-17:20

  The whole thing where Peter is like, "Hey, if it's you, command me to come out with you." Peter walks on water for a while.

  17:20-17:20

  You know that story.

  17:20-17:22

  He takes his eyes off Jesus and he sinks.

  17:23-17:25

  Mark doesn't include that.

  17:26-17:26

  Why?

  17:27-17:28

  I don't know.

  17:29-17:32

  We know that Mark got his gospel material from Peter.

  17:33-17:41

  Maybe Peter was just like, "Hey, leave that part out." like, "And then Peter began to sink." And Peter's like, "What are you writing over there?

  17:42-17:47

  Leave that." No, "Inspired by the Holy Spirit." He left it out.

  17:48-17:58

  But there's something even bigger going on here that Mark sort of alludes to, but that Matthew says explicitly.

  17:59-18:01

  I've got this reference down, Matthew 14, 33.

  18:03-18:39

  After this event took place, Jesus walking on the water and coming into the boat with them, Matthew says, "And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.'" So, church, it was this event that made the disciples see Jesus for who he is, because this was the first time that your Bible tells you that the disciples worshipped Jesus.

  18:41-18:43

  So this is huge.

  18:46-18:54

  This is the first time that they truly understood that Jesus is the Son of God, yes, but what does that mean to me?

  18:56-19:01

  And you're like, okay, they weren't convinced by the feeding of the 5,000 men.

  19:02-19:03

  That didn't convince them?

  19:04-19:07

  You mean they were sort of on the fence about the Son of God thing?

  19:08-19:10

  Even through the feeding of the 5,000 and that didn't convince them?

  19:11-19:15

  Actually, that's exactly what Mark said.

  19:15-19:16

  Do you see that?

  19:16-19:21

  It says, "For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened." That's exactly what he's saying.

  19:23-19:29

  They didn't watch Jesus feed the multitudes and say, "We've got to worship him." That point their hearts were still hardened.

  19:30-19:32

  Their previously, yes, they were amazed at the miracle worker.

  19:33-19:41

  They were astonished at the teacher and they marveled at the one who evicts demons and they wowed at the healer.

  19:42-19:48

  But up to this point, they were, you could say, impressed at the supernatural power of the God-man.

  19:49-19:56

  But that wasn't enough, because church, it's not enough to be impressed with Jesus.

  19:59-20:01

  It's not enough to be impressed with Jesus.

  20:03-20:04

  "Wow, he was nice.

  20:04-20:06

  Wow, he was moral.

  20:06-20:08

  Wow, he told some great stories.

  20:08-20:12

  Wow, he did some powerful things." This is the point of this whole story.

  20:13-20:15

  It's not enough to be impressed.

  20:17-20:21

  finds its substance in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

  20:22-20:28

  But there are people who don't deny the gospel.

  20:29-20:31

  They agree with the claims of Jesus.

  20:32-20:33

  They're not opposed to going to church.

  20:34-20:40

  They're okay with somebody having a prayer before a meal, but there's no vibrant relationship with Jesus.

  20:40-20:41

  Do you know people like that?

  20:42-20:43

  You know people like that?

  20:45-21:16

  like these people that are on fire for Jesus and talk about Jesus and love Jesus and worship, walk and work. Then you have these people that hate Jesus and don't want anything to do with Jesus. But you've got to admit, there's this whole big category in the middle of the spectrum of people that are like, "Yeah, Jesus was pretty cool." And they're not against Jesus. In fact, they would tell you that they're for him. You know, people like that. Or maybe are a person like that.

  21:18-21:23

  So getting back to where we started, the question here is what makes the difference?

  21:24-21:25

  What makes the difference?

  21:26-21:35

  What turns the corner from, I believe Jesus is God, to I believe Jesus is my God?

  21:37-21:46

  What turns the corner from Jesus is my Sunday morning hobby to Jesus Christ is the center of everything in my life?

  21:48-21:54

  What turns a corner from "Jesus is my religion" to "I have a relationship with Jesus Christ"?

  21:54-22:01

  What turns a corner from "I have an awareness of Jesus" to "a personal walk with Jesus"?

  22:02-22:03

  And here it is.

  22:05-22:26

  Faith becomes personal, appropriated ; faith becomes a reality; faith gets from your head to your heart when you get to the point where you say, "Jesus is God and he cares for me." Because you have to see, that was the difference.

  22:27-22:28

  Jesus calmed the storm before, right?

  22:28-22:32

  Didn't we see what was that Mark 4, verses 35 through 41?

  22:32-22:33

  Remember Jesus calmed the storm?

  22:34-22:34

  Do you remember that story?

  22:36-22:38

  I can preach that again if you don't, but remember?

  22:40-22:41

  You're like, "Now?" No, not now.

  22:43-22:44

  Ben has it on our website.

  22:46-22:48

  But do you remember what the disciples said to Jesus?

  22:49-22:56

  Storm, Jesus sleeping, do you remember? Bonus points. Who remembers what they said to Jesus? Yes, Pam.

  22:57-23:01

  Don't you care. Remember that? Don't you care?

  23:02-23:05

  Don't you care? And what did Jesus say? Oh, you of little faith.

  23:07-23:18

  And we spent some time talking about that. The accusation made that obviously they knew he was powerful, but at this point in their minds they weren't really sold on the fact that he cared about them.

  23:20-23:40

  But we see something quite different in this passage. And the truth is for you that your faith is not going to be a vibrant walk until you get to the place where you understand that Jesus cares for you personally.

  23:41-23:42

  Not generically.

  23:45-23:48

  Well, Jesus loves people, and I'm a person, so I guess it follows.

  23:50-23:51

  He cares for you personally.

  23:53-23:54

  So what made the difference?

  23:55-23:57

  Here it is, jot these things down as we wrap up.

  23:58-23:59

  What made the difference?

  23:59-24:00

  You see it right in the text.

  24:00-24:01

  Write these things down.

  24:02-24:03

  all, he prays for me.

  24:05-24:08

  It says that Jesus, verse 46, went up to the mountain to pray.

  24:09-24:10

  What was he praying for?

  24:12-24:22

  We don't have the prayer recorded for us, but we do see a steady pattern throughout the life of Jesus, of him praying for his people.

  24:22-24:24

  And I really believe that's what Jesus was praying for here.

  24:25-24:29

  You look at John 17, Jesus' high priestly prayer, praying for his people.

  24:29-24:31

  Before he chose the twelve, What was he doing?

  24:32-24:33

  Up all night praying.

  24:36-24:38

  "Peter, Satan has asked to stiff you as wheat, but I have" what?

  24:39-24:44

  "I have prayed for you." Did you know that Jesus is praying for you?

  24:44-24:45

  Did you know that?

  24:46-24:48

  Not just that, but Jesus is praying for you always.

  24:50-24:52

  I brought my prayer book here with me this morning.

  24:52-24:56

  And when you fill out your friendship register and put a prayer request, it goes in here.

  24:58-25:04

  You know, when we talk or email back and forth and you're concerned about something, you're in here.

  25:06-25:14

  And I can look around the room, you know, so many of you, your names are in here, because I'm praying for you.

  25:15-25:25

  Whether it's a health issue or a marriage issue or a relationship issue of some type, you have to know that I'm praying for you.

  25:26-25:31

  But infinitely greater, you have to know this, Jesus is praying for you.

  25:32-25:37

  I don't know about you, but to me that's like the best thing anybody can say to me.

  25:37-25:49

  I have people come up to me, like my brother Mark for example, he's just like, "Hey man, I'm praying for you." I feel like an inch taller, like somebody is seeking the Lord on my behalf.

  25:50-25:53

  Here's a reminder, Jesus is praying for you.

  25:55-25:57

  Hebrews 7.25, I have it on your outline.

  25:59-26:06

  "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him." Look at this next phrase.

  26:06-26:07

  This will blow your mind.

  26:07-26:16

  It says, "Since he always lives to make intercession for them." You're like, "Well, isn't it like Jesus' seed to throw him to the Father?

  26:17-26:26

  What does prayer look like?" Well, this word for intercession means somebody who takes a petition before a king on behalf of someone else.

  26:26-26:27

  That's what that literally means.

  26:28-26:30

  And that's what Jesus is doing for you right now.

  26:30-26:31

  Did you know that?

  26:31-26:37

  Jesus is going before his Father, bringing petitions on your behalf.

  26:39-26:43

  According to Hebrews 7.25, he's always doing this.

  26:43-26:45

  He always lives for what purpose?

  26:46-26:48

  Many purposes, but here's one.

  26:48-26:50

  He is making intercession.

  26:51-26:54

  Secondly, you have to personalize this.

  26:54-26:55

  Do you know that Jesus is praying for you?

  26:57-27:00

  How much would it shake you to your core if He spoke that to you?

  27:01-27:03

  This afternoon, He just spoke that to you.

  27:04-27:06

  He's like, "Jeff, I'm praying for you." Wow!

  27:07-27:09

  Secondly, He watches over me.

  27:10-27:11

  He watches over me.

  27:11-27:13

  That's another miracle here.

  27:14-27:17

  How many miles away was Jesus from the boat praying?

  27:19-27:21

  But what was He doing while He was praying?

  27:22-27:22

  He was watching.

  27:24-27:25

  Parents confession.

  27:25-27:35

  How many times, parents, did you sneak a peek at your children and watch them play or whatever when they didn't know you were watching?

  27:35-27:36

  Anybody else do that?

  27:38-27:43

  Bob Brown's like, "I still do that." And Taylor's like, "He does."

  27:44-27:45

  [ laughter ]

  27:47-27:49

  Okay, it's usually cuter when your kids are smaller than Taylor.

  27:52-27:54

  You're always going to be his little boy.

  27:55-27:59

  And it's okay. He loves you. Your mom loves you.

  27:59-28:01

  It's okay. He knows that.

  28:03-28:24

  He knows that. I need to record when I do it, because there will be times he'll be playing with his superhero action figures inside the Batcave, and some of these scenarios and stuff he comes up with are just absolutely funnier than anything you'll see on TV.

  28:24-28:32

  But the point is, if you're a parent, you know what it's like to kinda watch your kids when they don't know that you're watching them.

  28:33-28:36

  You know Jesus is doing that to you all the time?

  28:36-28:37

  You know that?

  28:38-28:47

  Or like, "Yo, I know Jesus is watching me." And there are times when we don't actively realize that He is intently watching over you.

  28:49-28:56

  Jesus is like that parent, you know, head around the bedroom door watching you go about your business.

  28:57-28:59

  He's watching over you.

  29:00-29:05

  Psalm 139 talks about the Lord's attentive care.

  29:05-29:07

  "O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

  29:08-29:16

  You know when I sit down, when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar, you search out my path, my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

  29:16-29:19

  Even before word is on my tongue, behold it, Lord, you know it all together.

  29:21-29:24

  He loves you, that he is constantly watching over you.

  29:25-29:28

  Thirdly, even deeper, he stays with me.

  29:29-29:30

  He stays with me.

  29:31-29:36

  To me, that's the whole beautiful portrait of Jesus walking on water.

  29:37-29:38

  He meant that.

  29:38-30:07

  to pass by them. What does that mean? Jesus said, not only am I going to calm the storm eventually, I'm going to walk beside them. Did Jesus have the power to just calm the storm from the mountain? Like I'm praying, the storm comes up and he's like, "Shh, quiet, pray." And it would have worked. Trust me, it would have worked. But what did Jesus do Instead, he wanted to show them how much he cared.

  30:07-30:10

  That's why your Bible says he meant to pass by them.

  30:10-30:19

  I'm going to walk beside the boat, kind of like a parent walking beside their child on a two-wheeled bike for the first time.

  30:20-30:22

  I'm going to make sure that you don't hurt yourself.

  30:24-30:30

  Jesus never promised life would be easy, but he did promise to never leave you, even when it's hard.

  30:30-30:32

  You know the 23rd Psalm?

  30:32-30:36

  Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

  30:36-30:36

  Why?

  30:38-30:39

  For you are with me.

  30:40-30:41

  You're with me.

  30:42-30:44

  And finally, he comforts me.

  30:45-30:46

  He comforts me.

  30:47-30:48

  Just love the words.

  30:49-30:51

  Not a rebuke.

  30:51-30:52

  He of little faith.

  30:52-30:56

  Not a chewing the mouth for not connecting the dots sooner.

  30:56-30:57

  Do you see what Jesus says?

  30:57-30:58

  Just these words of comfort.

  30:59-31:00

  Take heart of his eye.

  31:00-31:01

  Do not be afraid.

  31:02-31:03

  He comforts me.

  31:03-31:15

  Philippians 4, 7 says, "The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And I mean, it follows, doesn't it?

  31:15-31:25

  When you know that Jesus is praying for you, when you know that he's watching over you, and when you know that he's actively walking with you, you're going to have comfort and peace.

  31:28-31:28

  So do you know?

  31:30-31:31

  Do you know that Jesus cares?

  31:33-31:34

  Do you know that Jesus cares?

  31:36-31:41

  What's going to make the difference is knowing that He cares for you.

  31:43-31:45

  I know that was what changed my life.

  31:45-31:46

  I grew up in the church.

  31:47-31:49

  I heard these stories all the time.

  31:50-31:52

  Jesus did this, Jesus did that.

  31:52-31:54

  Jesus was pretty incredible.

  31:55-31:59

  But it wasn't until somebody said these words to me changed my life forever.

  31:59-32:07

  said, "Do you have any idea how much God loves you?" Because it brought it home.

  32:08-32:10

  Do you have any idea how much God loves you?

  32:12-32:15

  He's praying for you, he's watching over you, he's staying with you.

  32:17-32:17

  Don't come to me.

  32:19-32:19

  Bow your heads.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 6:45­-56

1. Jesus walking on water was the event that made the “lights come on” for the disciples that Jesus was not only God, but He loved them and cared for them. (Mark 6:35-41) What was it that made the “lights come on” for you? What made you realize that Jesus has a personal love for you? Take turns sharing!

Breakout Questions:

Pray for the love of Christ to control you, your Small Group, and your church! (2 Cor 5:14)