Taylor Brown

April 18, 2025

What is Finished?

Redemption: The Price is Paid

Taylor Brown

April 18, 2025

What is Finished?

Introduction:

1 Peter 1:18-19 - ...knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of ua lamb vwithout blemish or spot.

What is Redemption?

Jesus Christ Paid the Ultimate price to Purchase my freedom and salvation.

What Does Christ Redeem Me From?

An Empty life of bondage to sin that leads to an Excruciating eternity in hell.

What Does Christ Redeem Me With?

His Own life which is worth more than anyone or anything that this world has to offer.

Psalm 49:7-8 – Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice.

What Does Christ’s Redemption Require of Me?

Acknowledging that I Cannot Work Off My Debt to God.
Isaiah 64:6 – We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Trusting that Christ has Paid my Debt In Full .
Colossians 2:13-14 – And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Living for the One who Gave Himself for me.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

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

00:00-00:15
If you have a Bible, please turn to 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 18 through 19 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 18 through 19 You know, we live in a time when everything is expensive. Am I right?
00:16-00:49
Every single time you go to the grocery store Every time you go to the gas station, you're in a state of shock over how much money you had to spend We all leave our house expecting to spend this amount of money and we always end up spending even more than we hoped It can be difficult to keep track of ever-changing prices But I want to help you have a heartbeat on how much things truly cost in April 2025 I'm gonna do a quick game with you to make that happen. Who's excited for a game?
00:50-00:52
All right, way more excited than I expected.
00:52-00:58
This is our first official Harvest game show called Guess That Price.
00:59-01:02
So imagine I'm Bob Barker, and you're the excitable crowd.
01:02-01:04
Everyone say, guess that price.
01:05-01:06
Guess that price.
01:07-01:09
Oh man, this is really exciting.
01:10-01:18
So I'm going to ask four questions, and you will win amazing and imaginary prizes if you guess the answers correctly.
01:18-01:22
And most of the answers were found on Google, which we know is never wrong.
01:23-01:24
So first question on the board.
01:25-01:27
Is that a pretty good talk show voice?
01:27-01:27
Game show voice?
01:27-01:28
Okay, good.
01:28-01:29
First question on the board.
01:30-01:34
What is the median listing price for a house in Pittsburgh?
01:36-01:36
What do we think?
01:39-01:40
Janelle got it right.
01:41-01:42
$250,000.
01:44-01:47
Come see me afterwards for your imaginary prize.
02:08-02:09
$42,220.
02:11-02:13
No one wins a prize for that one, I guess.
02:13-02:17
Third question-- what is the average price of a baseline base model?
02:17-02:17
$42,220.
02:17-02:20
All right, next question-- what is the average price Disney World vacation for a family of four?
02:22-02:22
(audience shouting)
02:23-02:24
My mom has an answer.
02:25-02:26
10,000?
02:28-02:30
Janelle, once again, is very, very close.
02:31-02:31
$7,093.
02:33-02:36
I guess Janelle is the winner of this game for the most part.
02:39-02:44
Well, it's time for the final and most important question of the game.
02:45-02:47
And for this question, you don't have to shout out your answer.
02:48-02:51
Instead, silently consider it in your heart and mind.
02:52-03:01
What price did Jesus Christ have to pay to rescue lost and undeserving sinners like you and me?
03:02-03:04
That's very true, Cody, his own life.
03:04-03:08
Spoil the sermon, but we're gonna talk the rest of the time about that.
03:09-03:14
So this is the third message in our latest series, What is Finished?
03:15-03:28
But our goal is to unpack what Jesus truly accomplished on that cross 2,000 years ago and why he victoriously declared it is finished with his dying breath.
03:30-03:37
Over the past two weeks, we've studied the doctrine of salvation like a diamond and examined it from different angles and aspects.
03:37-03:43
First, we focused on justification, our guilt before God is gone.
03:44-03:52
Last week we talked about the glorious truth of reconciliation, our broken relationship with God has been restored.
03:53-03:58
And tonight we will examine another facet of the salvation diamond, redemption.
03:58-04:01
The price has been paid.
04:02-04:09
During the Easter season you were bombarded with crosses, on bumper stickers, road signs, even in chocolate form.
04:10-04:17
Without even realizing it, you can become numb to the meaning and magnitude of the cross of Christ.
04:17-04:31
So on this Good Friday, I want each and every one of you in this room and watching online to be overwhelmed with the weight of your sin and the depth of your debt before a holy God.
04:33-04:41
Some of you in this room need to come to the realization that you have an outstanding balance on your spiritual account.
04:42-04:52
that will not affect your credit score or your financial portfolio, but it will affect your eternal destiny unless it is dealt with before it is too late.
04:54-05:07
And for the rest of you whose balance has been taken care of and wound down to zero, I want you to truly count the cost of your salvation and calculate the immensity of what was sacrificed for you.
05:08-05:13
Because if you have a cheap view of grace, you will have a weak walk with Christ.
05:14-05:21
But if you have a costly view of grace, you will have a rock-solid relationship with your Lord and Savior.
05:22-05:24
So let's spend a moment in prayer.
05:25-05:31
Please pray for me, that I will faithfully proclaim God's word, and I will pray for you that you faithfully receive it.
05:39-05:51
Father, I am completely I'm completely overwhelmed by my inability to properly communicate the price that has been paid and what your son has sacrificed for me.
05:55-05:57
What he has sacrificed for everyone in this room.
05:59-06:07
Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would preach a much better message in our hearts than I ever could with my mouth.
06:08-06:11
May you watch over your word to perform it this evening.
06:11-06:13
May you do a great and mighty work.
06:13-06:16
We ask all this in Jesus' mighty name, amen.
06:18-06:29
So our text for this evening is 1 Peter 1, verses 18 through 19, but before we dive into these verses, we need to understand the purpose of this letter and who Peter is writing to.
06:29-06:41
Throughout chapter one, Peter makes it crystal clear that he is writing to struggling and suffering Christians do not feel at home in this fallen and ungodly world.
06:41-06:51
He describes these believers as refugees, exiles, aliens, and pilgrims who stick out like sore thumbs in a culture that hates God.
06:53-07:01
And Peter doesn't want his brothers and sisters in Christ to feel discouraged that they're being persecuted and are suffering.
07:02-07:11
Instead, he wants them to be encouraged that they are experiencing the results of standing apart from everyone else and acting different.
07:12-07:17
In the verses leading up to our passage, Peter gives a list of important commands.
07:17-07:20
He says, "Prepare your minds for action.
07:20-07:21
"Be sober-minded.
07:21-07:24
"Do not be conformed to the passions "of your former ignorance.
07:25-07:42
"Be holy in all your conduct "and conduct yourself with fear "throughout the time of your exile." Simply put, imitate your perfect and holy God by being who he has called you to be and doing what he has called you to do.
07:44-07:46
Okay, but why?
07:47-07:53
Why should these Christians choose to act differently from the world around them?
07:53-07:54
What is the motivation?
07:55-08:00
Well, Peter gives the motivation in verses 18 through 19 of chapter one.
08:00-08:29
He says, "Knowing that you were ransomed, "redeemed from the futile ways "inherited from your forefathers, "not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, "but with the precious blood of Christ, "like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." So to fully unpack these verses and what redemption actually is, we need to ask and answer four what questions this evening.
08:29-08:33
And the first what question on your outline is, what is redemption?
08:34-08:36
What is redemption?
08:37-08:44
Redemption, Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price to purchase my freedom and salvation.
08:45-08:50
Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price to purchase my freedom and salvation.
08:51-08:57
You know, redemption was a common concept 2,000 years ago when it came to slavery and captivity.
08:57-09:02
Prisoners of war were not released until their ransom was delivered.
09:03-09:07
Slaves were not set free until their debt was paid in full.
09:08-09:16
And it's essential for you to understand that apart from Christ, you have a sin debt hanging over your head.
09:17-09:20
You are a sinner by nature and by choice.
09:20-09:25
And you have no one to blame for your spiritual bankruptcy besides yourself.
09:27-09:30
and this debt will not magically go away.
09:30-09:35
It must be paid by someone, and there are only two options.
09:36-09:37
Option one is a payment plan.
09:38-09:41
You pay the penalty in hell forever.
09:43-09:47
The second option is much better, and it's the one I hope you will choose.
09:47-09:55
Jesus Christ settles your debt once and for all through his death on the cross that you can be set free.
09:57-10:01
You know, as a pastor, I'm asked a lot of theological questions on a weekly basis.
10:02-10:18
And one of the questions I receive almost more than any other, almost even more than do my pets go to heaven, which will always be the uncontested champion of theological questions, I've lost count of how many people have asked me, why did Jesus have to die?
10:19-10:21
Why did Jesus have to pay a price?
10:21-10:28
Why couldn't God just look past our sin, snap his divine fingers and say, "You know what, just forget about it.
10:29-10:34
"Go on, go home, don't worry, you're all forgiven." Have you ever wondered that?
10:35-10:36
Have you ever asked that question?
10:38-10:40
Well, to answer that question, let me walk you through a few scenarios.
10:41-10:44
Imagine with me after service, you punch me in the face.
10:45-10:46
First of all, please don't do that.
10:47-10:48
Please, please.
10:49-10:53
Second of all, would there be consequences for your assault?
10:54-10:57
There's a lot of police officers here, so I guess they could arrest you.
10:58-10:59
I could press charges.
11:01-11:05
What if you punch your boss in the face on Monday?
11:07-11:08
Would there be even worse consequences?
11:10-11:14
Yeah, on top of going to jail, you'd also be fired from your job.
11:15-11:21
Imagine you were pulled over by a cop after service today and you punched that cop in the face.
11:23-11:24
There's serious consequences for that.
11:26-11:30
You would be in prison for a long time for assaulting an officer.
11:32-11:36
What if you punched the President of the United States or another world leader in the face?
11:37-11:39
Would there be even worse consequences for that?
11:40-11:43
You can maybe be charged with an assassination attempt.
11:45-11:50
Last question, what is the penalty for slapping the creator of the universe in the face?
11:53-11:57
Sinning against the eternal God demands eternal punishment.
11:57-11:59
The punishment has to fit the crime.
12:00-12:04
An infinite debt only makes sense for offending an infinite God.
12:05-12:07
Once again, someone has to pay your debt.
12:08-12:14
It cannot just be forgotten without someone covering the bill that you owe to the Lord.
12:15-12:22
So we answer the first what question of what is redemption, which leads into our second question, which we touched on a bit.
12:23-12:24
What does Christ redeem me from?
12:25-12:28
What does Christ redeem me from?
12:30-12:31
And Peter makes it crystal clear in verse 18.
12:32-12:39
He says, "You were ransomed from the futile ways "inherited from your forefathers." So what does Christ redeem me from?
12:39-12:46
on your outline an empty life of bondage to sin that leads to an excruciating eternity in hell.
12:49-12:52
You know, Peter says that we have all inherited futile ways from our forefathers.
12:54-12:55
What does that even mean?
12:55-12:56
Well, it's very simple.
12:57-13:01
We all have been taught worthless ideas that lead to meaningless living.
13:03-13:13
You have been served an endless amount of lies throughout your entire life that are nice and candy coated and look great on the outside, but on the inside are hollow.
13:15-13:21
So many people have no idea who created them, why they exist, and what their purpose even is.
13:22-13:29
Instead of submitting to the perfect revelation of God, they make up their own pointless answers to the question.
13:30-13:33
There is the you do you way of living.
13:33-13:36
You are the bright and shining star of your own universe.
13:36-13:38
Just do whatever you want to do.
13:40-13:43
There's the close your eyes mentality and don't think about God.
13:44-13:46
Don't think about life and its meaning.
13:46-13:48
Don't think about death.
13:48-13:50
Don't think about what happens after death.
13:50-13:53
Just enjoy your life as long as it lasts.
13:55-13:56
There's the American dream.
13:58-14:08
You work really hard to get into a good college so you can get a good job, so you can marry the right person, You have a bunch of kids who then repeat that same cycle.
14:09-14:15
Impressive degrees, a high-paying job, successful children are the measures of success.
14:16-14:19
There's the empty religion school of thought.
14:20-14:23
Just pick whatever religious path seems good to you.
14:23-14:25
They all lead to the same destination.
14:27-14:29
You know, that sentiment is almost true.
14:30-14:39
Every single spiritual path but one leads to the same destination, but that destination is not a place you wanna end up.
14:39-14:50
Every path but one that is laid out in God's word leads to an excruciating eternity away from the loving and caring presence of Almighty God.
14:52-15:07
But whoever turns to Christ and walks by his way of salvation is redeemed and is rescued from a life of dead-end streets that go nowhere, and a destiny of eternal suffering.
15:09-15:11
So we know what redemption is.
15:12-15:14
We also know what Christ redeems us from.
15:15-15:18
Our third what question, what does Christ redeem me with?
15:20-15:22
And Peter gives us the answer in verses 18 through 19.
15:23-15:36
He says, "Not with perishable things such as silver or gold, "but with the precious blood of Christ, "like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." So what does Christ redeem me with?
15:36-15:42
His own life, which is worth more than anyone or anything that this world has to offer.
15:45-15:56
You know, according to the Old Testament law, the Israelites were commanded to only sacrifice animals that were free of deformities, rashes, and other obvious issues.
15:57-16:02
They were to only sacrifice animals that were clear of disease and imperfections.
16:03-16:12
This trend first pops up in Exodus 12 as God tells the Israelites to spread the blood of spotless lambs over their doorposts to be spared from death.
16:13-16:33
And these spotless lambs, in every single Old Testament sacrifice, point forward to the perfect and spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who came into this world to lay down his own life and pour out his own blood so that anyone who trusts in him will be washed of all their sinful stains.
16:35-16:41
You know, Psalm 49, verses seven through eight talks about the unimaginable cost of a human soul.
16:43-16:52
Truly, no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice.
16:54-17:02
God cannot be bribed with gold, silver, a briefcase full of cash or Bitcoin, because he already owns it all.
17:03-17:09
No mere human being can take the place of another or pay off the debt of someone else.
17:09-17:16
Only Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man, can bridge that gap and pay that price.
17:17-17:20
The blood of Christ is the only currency of redemption.
17:22-17:27
It is the only thing of true value that God the Father can or will accept.
17:28-17:33
Nothing more precious could ever be offered and nothing less will even be considered.
17:35-17:37
So we've answered three what questions.
17:38-17:38
What is redemption?
17:39-17:41
What does Christ redeem me from?
17:42-17:43
And what does Christ redeem me with?
17:44-17:46
We've talked about the theology of redemption.
17:47-17:52
Now let's close by talking about the application of redemption with our final question.
17:53-17:56
What does Christ's redemption require of me?
17:56-17:59
What does Christ's redemption require of me?
18:00-18:03
Well, firstly, acknowledging that I cannot work off my debt to God.
18:04-18:07
Acknowledging that I cannot work off my debt to God.
18:10-18:13
You know, my five-year-old son, Sam, loves Legos.
18:14-18:20
Now imagine with me that I take him to the Ross Park Mall to buy a very small and inexpensive Lego set.
18:22-18:28
In the process, he knocks over and destroys five of their most expensive displays.
18:29-18:34
All told, I'm on the hook for $3,000 in damage.
18:35-18:38
And Sam hysterically says to me, "Dad, I promise I'll pay you back.
18:39-18:42
"I don't have any money in my piggy bank right now, "but here's what I'll do.
18:42-18:46
"I'll go around the neighborhood "and pull weeds for a penny a weed.
18:46-18:58
"I promise I'll pay you back soon." I'm not great at math, but $3,000, a penny a weed, how many weeds would he have to pull to cover that debt?
19:00-19:01
How much?
19:03-19:05
300,000 weeds.
19:07-19:08
But come on, let's be realistic.
19:09-19:10
Is that ever gonna happen?
19:12-19:16
No way, that is way too high a sum for a five-year-old to handle on his own.
19:18-19:22
In the same way, your sinful sum is way too high for you to handle on your own.
19:24-19:33
Thinking that you can pay it off and work it back to God is as foolish as Sam thinking that he can pull hundreds of thousands of weeds to pay off his debt to me.
19:35-19:36
You can never be good enough.
19:37-19:41
You can never do enough to earn your way back into God's good graces.
19:43-19:49
Isaiah 64, six gives us an important insight about all the things that we think are righteous deeds.
19:50-19:56
He says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, "and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
19:56-20:11
"We all shrivel up like a leaf, "and like the wind, our sin sweeps us away." The first step in receiving redemption is acknowledging your need for it, and admitting that you can never earn it or buy it for yourself.
20:13-20:14
So what does Christ's redemption require of me?
20:15-20:19
Secondly, trusting that Christ has paid my debt in full.
20:20-20:24
Trusting that Christ has paid my debt in full.
20:26-20:38
While you are spiritually destitute and delinquent, Christ has an infinite amount of riches that he will give to you if you come to him in humility and faith.
20:38-20:47
Your debt to God will now and forever be wiped away in an instant if you turn from your sin and trust in Christ.
20:48-20:59
You must believe that he is your savior and that the incomparable gift of his blood is more than enough to cover your bill to the Lord.
21:01-21:08
And I know what some of you are thinking, but Taylor, you have no idea how long and detailed my sinful bill really is.
21:08-21:10
It's like a CVS receipt on steroids.
21:11-21:15
There's no way that God could forgive that.
21:17-21:20
You know, I don't know the horrible things you've done.
21:21-21:26
I don't know all the things that are written on your debt to the Lord.
21:27-21:27
But do you know who does?
21:29-21:29
Jesus Christ.
21:31-21:32
He knows how broken you are.
21:33-21:39
He knows not just every single sin that you've committed, but every sin that you have yet to commit.
21:39-21:42
Yet he offers you redemption anyway.
21:43-21:52
If you were to pull me aside for service to share your deepest, darkest secret with me, I would have the same exact response to every single one of you.
21:52-21:57
There is no debt that the blood of Christ cannot pay, even yours.
21:58-22:05
So please, stop making excuses for why Jesus can't forgive you and just ask him to forgive you.
22:05-22:07
And he will, because the Bible says so.
22:08-22:09
It's that simple.
22:11-22:14
Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes those who were saved.
22:15-22:26
And you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses.
22:27-22:29
Not just some, not just most, all.
22:30-22:37
By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
22:39-22:46
Those verses can be true of you right now if you simply repent and turn to Christ.
22:47-22:53
I beg you, please don't leave tonight without making the most important transaction of your life.
22:53-23:00
Submit your sinful bill to Christ so that he will pay every last penny and then rip it up, never to be seen again.
23:03-23:06
Finally, what does Christ's redemption require of me?
23:08-23:22
"Living for the one who gave himself for me." "Living for the one who gave himself for me." You will not live for Christ until you are truly thankful for what he has done for you.
23:23-23:31
And your level of thankfulness to Christ will only reach as high as your genuine grasp of what he has sacrificed for you.
23:32-23:34
Let me prove it to you with a few examples.
23:35-23:39
Would you be thankful if I let you borrow my hoodie because you were chilly during service?
23:40-23:41
Pastor Jeff, would you be thankful?
23:43-23:45
But Pastor Jeff wouldn't break his hand patting me on the back for that, right?
23:47-23:52
How thankful would you be if I lent you my car for a whole week while yours was getting worked on?
23:54-23:58
You would repeatedly express your gratitude, maybe even send me a thank you note.
23:59-24:04
What if I found out you were homeless I let you move into my house rent free.
24:05-24:06
How thankful would you be?
24:07-24:14
You would go out of your way to express your gratitude by cleaning up around the house, doing all the chores outside that I don't like to do.
24:16-24:20
How thankful would you be if I pushed you out of the way of a moving car and died in your place?
24:23-24:30
You wouldn't even know where to begin with expressing your gratitude and honoring my memory and helping my family.
24:32-24:39
magnified that made up example times a billion and describing how grateful you should be as a redeemed sinner.
24:39-24:46
The eternal Son of God died in your place so that you could have eternal life.
24:48-24:50
We hear that so much, but do you really think about it?
24:51-24:54
Do you think about how unbelievable that is?
24:55-24:58
Praise him for what he has done because he deserves it.
24:59-25:02
Thank Him for all that He has given to you.
25:02-25:10
Instead of complaining about all the things that you don't have, stop living for yourself and start living for Him.
25:13-25:18
You need to be thankful to Christ, but you also need to recognize that you belong to Christ.
25:20-25:25
Once your debt is scratched out of God's heavenly ledger, you can't just say, "Hey, God, thanks.
25:25-25:26
"I'll see you later when I get to heaven.
25:27-25:28
I'm off to do whatever I want to do now.
25:29-25:35
Now Paul tells us why that doesn't make sense in 1 Corinthians chapter six, verses 19 through 20.
25:35-25:40
He says, "You are not your own, "for you were bought with a what?
25:41-25:46
"With a price." Your life is not your life.
25:47-25:52
Since Jesus gave you his life, your life is now his life.
25:54-26:00
Christ ransomed you from slavery to sin so that he could make you his own personal slave.
26:02-26:10
That may sound bad, but it's actually the greatest news imaginable because everyone is enslaved to something and someone.
26:12-26:19
Money, stuff, possessions, status, these are all harsh dictators that care nothing for you.
26:20-26:27
And Satan has dibs on every single person who rejects Christ and he hates everyone who is enslaved to him.
26:28-26:41
But the Christian slave has the freest life of all because you belong to the only master who truly loves you, who calls you his friend and wants what is best for you.
26:42-26:48
And what is best for you is giving everything you have for Jesus, his glory, and his kingdom.
26:50-26:52
This means that you look and act different.
26:53-26:56
How you spend your time should look different than everyone else.
26:56-27:01
More than anything, you wanna meet with God and his word and in prayer every single day.
27:02-27:05
How you view your relationships should be different.
27:06-27:11
You want to be with your brothers and sisters in Christ, worshiping, fellowshipping, and serving together.
27:11-27:18
You wanna reach out to unbelievers in your life so that they can experience the redemption that you've experienced.
27:19-27:20
You view your resources differently.
27:21-27:26
Your gifts, talents, and resources are not to be used to get ahead and advance your own plans.
27:28-27:31
And you may be thinking, wow, this sounds really inconvenient.
27:32-27:33
You still don't get it.
27:34-27:43
True Christians are those who happily rearrange their lives around Christ because they realize they belong to him and not themselves.
27:44-27:48
Turning your life upside down is not an annoying inconvenience.
27:48-27:57
It is an absolute pleasure because Jesus Christ is more than worthy and his redemptive rewards are more than worthwhile.
28:00-28:07
You know at Harvest, some choose to designate their financial giving towards certain ministries and missions.
28:07-28:16
And you can designate your giving to the building fund, the general missions fund, or to Thailand to go to Barnabas and his band of missionaries and evangelists.
28:17-28:22
And I promise you, if you ever designate your giving, the finance team honors your wishes.
28:23-28:26
If you designate your giving to the building fund, it goes to the building fund.
28:26-28:29
If you designate your giving to go to Thailand, it goes directly to Thailand.
28:31-28:34
Do you know that the Lord Jesus designates his giving?
28:36-28:46
He paid an infinite price, but his giving is geared towards one specific purpose, redeeming and recruiting genuine worshipers.
28:46-28:51
Jesus only purchases selfless givers, not selfish consumers.
28:52-28:55
He only purchases loyal friends, not flaky acquaintances.
28:56-29:01
He only purchases faithful servants, not lazy slackers.
29:02-29:09
Do not belittle the price Jesus paid by choosing to be the exact opposite of what he paid for.
29:10-29:14
Do not undermine his sacrifice by choosing to act like everyone else.
29:16-29:21
Do not dishonor the Lord of your life by acting as if you are the Lord of your life.
29:23-29:25
Our worship team and communion servers can make their way forward.
29:27-29:36
You know, we spent a lot of time tonight talking about redemption, but now we're actually gonna look at a physical picture of it as we turn to the Lord's Supper.
29:38-29:46
Communion forces us to count the cost of salvation and focus our attention upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
29:47-30:01
When we eat the bread and drink of the cup, we are reminded that Jesus gave His own body and shed His own priceless blood to ransom us from captivity to sin and give us His eternal riches.
30:02-30:10
And to be clear, you don't have to be a member of harvest to take part in communion, but you do need to be a member of the family of God.
30:11-30:20
So if you have not yet turned to Christ, I wanna ask you to stay seated and contemplate the meaning and message of the cross.
30:22-30:28
Once again, I wanna call you to not leave this room without making the most important decision of your life.
30:29-30:32
Please stop, Pastor Jeff, myself, and one of the other elders.
30:33-30:36
We have Justin over here, we have Brian right here, and Pastor Rich in the back.
30:37-30:42
We would love nothing more than to talk to you about Jesus and what next steps with him look like.
30:43-30:48
And for those who are born again believers in this room, we're gonna do something a bit different tonight for communion.
30:49-30:54
In a few moments, you will leave your seats, come down the center aisles to receive the elements.
30:54-30:59
You'll go back to your seat using the outer aisles and you'll be taking communion on your own.
31:00-31:06
I ask you to eat the bread and drink of the cup, not quickly or flippantly, but prayerfully.
31:07-31:10
Take time to confess to the Lord.
31:11-31:16
Take time to thank him for all that he has done for you through the life and death of his son.
31:18-31:21
And after you're done, we ask that you please leave respectfully and quietly.
31:22-31:32
We want you to feel the weight of the cross upon your shoulders so that you can come ready to celebrate the resurrection of the empty tomb on Sunday.
31:32-31:35
So you can make your way forward as you are ready.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Peter 1:18-19

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Do you ever take your redemption for granted? How can you protect yourself from this indifference?
Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - According to Paul, why can’t you just live however you want to live? How is your Heavenly Master calling you to change and serve Him more faithfully right now?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

April 13, 2025

What is Finished?

Reconciliation: The Relationship is Restored

Jeff Miller

April 13, 2025

What is Finished?

Introduction:

John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

What the Cross Proves About God's Love for You.
(Romans 5:6-11)

God's Love for You is an Unconditional Love. (Romans 5:6-8)
God's Love for You is a Rescuing Love. (Romans 5:9)
God's Love for You is a Committed Love. (Romans 5:10)
John 1:12 – But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Philippians 1:6 – And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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

00:00-00:06
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Romans and chapter five.
00:07-00:14
You know, there's that old saying, it's not how you start, it's how you finish, right?
00:15-00:24
I was thinking a lot about that concept this week and I realized that's really true, like in everything, isn't it?
00:25-00:28
Like, have you ever taken an airplane flight?
00:29-00:29
(laughs)
00:31-00:34
What determines if it's a good flight?
00:37-00:38
How you land, right?
00:40-00:41
And I was thinking about that also.
00:42-00:50
Have you ever watched a movie that you're like, oh, this movie is so good, and then it has this completely idiotic ending?
00:50-00:51
Have you ever seen a movie like that?
00:51-00:54
Do you walk away saying that was a good movie?
00:55-00:59
No, you say, oh, that movie was terrible because it didn't finish well.
01:00-01:08
And I don't think we ever feel this as deeply as we do being Pittsburgh sports fans.
01:14-01:17
Heavens to Mercatroid, how many pirate games have I sat through?
01:17-01:19
Like, oh, this is awesome.
01:19-01:21
And then we blow it in the ninth inning.
01:22-01:24
And we say, oh, that game was terrible.
01:24-01:26
Or all of Penguin fans.
01:27-01:28
How many times?
01:28-01:29
Oh, this is such a good game!
01:29-01:33
And then we lose in overtime.
01:36-01:41
But you know, the Son of God came to do some work.
01:43-01:46
And He finished perfectly.
01:49-01:50
John 19.
01:52-01:54
Jesus on the cross.
01:55-02:10
"After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, "said to fulfill the scripture, 'I thirst.' "A jar full of sour wine stood there.
02:10-02:16
"So they put a sponge full of the sour wine "on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
02:17-02:24
"When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said. It is finished.
02:26-02:27
And he bowed his head.
02:29-02:30
And gave up his spirit.
02:32-02:37
And in this four week series, we're going to be answering the question, what what is finished?
02:38-02:40
Jesus cried out, it is finished.
02:40-02:41
Well, what is?
02:43-02:54
Well, today, today we are going to be looking at the glorious reality that the work of reconciliation is finished.
02:55-03:00
The relationship with God is restored.
03:03-03:07
Would you bow your heads, please, and I'm going to ask you just take a moment and pray for me.
03:10-03:25
I was telling Pastor Taylor in my office before we came in here, like, you always feel this like, "Man, I can't possibly communicate the gravity of this passage." You always feel that, but sometimes you feel it a lot more.
03:26-03:28
And today we're going to be looking at the love of God.
03:29-03:39
And I feel so inadequate to communicate it the way it needs to, but we're going to take a swing at it.
03:39-03:41
All right, so pray for me, I'll pray for you.
03:53-04:01
Father in heaven, we're about to go after a topic that hits us in the heart, probably more than anything.
04:02-04:04
Should we talk about your great love?
04:07-04:22
So once again, I just pray against any preconceived notions any of us might have going into this, and we would honestly just take a look at what your word actually says.
04:25-04:33
Father, transform us as only you can, we pray in Jesus' name.
04:34-04:41
All of God's people said, "Amen, Amen." It is finished.
04:41-04:45
The relationship with God is restored.
04:46-04:47
We started this last week.
04:48-04:57
That the Bible says in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God was demonstrating some things.
04:57-04:59
He was showing us some things.
04:59-05:03
He was, a better word, proving some things.
05:04-05:11
And in Romans 3.25, we saw that God demonstrated his righteousness.
05:13-05:19
Jesus died to fulfill the demands of God's law.
05:20-05:23
The guilt is gone.
05:24-05:28
Well, here, in this passage, just look at verse 8.
05:30-05:38
It says, "But God shows," again, better word, "proves," but God shows His love for us.
05:39-05:44
And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
05:46-05:53
You see, it's this love of God, He tells us in verses 10 and 11, that reconciled us.
05:54-05:58
The relationship is restored.
06:00-06:14
Look, this is one of the greatest doctrines in all of God's Word, because God is not some cold detached judge.
06:15-06:37
And you would wrongly take that away from Romans chapter 3 to say, "Well, God's just this judge and we're guilty." and he did this judicial thing and he pardoned us, but he's not this cold judge in the sense of now God's looking down from heaven saying, turn or burn, I don't care.
06:38-06:39
Right?
06:39-06:40
Get right or get left.
06:41-06:52
Look, I made provision, accept Jesus or don't, makes no difference to me whatsoever.
06:55-07:01
The glorious truth of God's Word is that He loves you.
07:03-07:11
I mean, He actually, really, infinitely loves you.
07:13-08:29
And last week we talked about one of the greatest struggles we have people struggling with guilt am I really forgiven but you know there's another question that we struggle with as people and it's this one does God really love me does God really love me oh yeah yeah I know John 316 everybody knows John 3 16 for God so loved the world but maybe maybe that's just like a general statement about God's disposition towards like people as a whole but but but does he love me you know there are two things that make people question God's love. And one is the awareness of my sin. Some people question God's love because you're like, "You know what? I just feel unworthy." The other thing that makes you question God's love is going through hardship.
08:30-08:49
You're like, "If God really loved me, why would He let this, allow this, cause this horrible trial in my life to happen?" But this is the question on the table today.
08:50-08:52
Am I loved by God?
08:55-09:00
In other words, am I accepted by God?
09:04-09:05
Is God on my side?
09:09-09:10
Will that ever change?
09:13-09:16
Well, I got some great news for you.
09:17-09:23
God settled all of this with the death of Jesus Christ.
09:25-09:39
So on your outline, the relationship is restored, and we're focusing on the cross as we head into Resurrection Day next Sunday, and Good Friday this Friday.
09:40-09:41
We're focused on the cross.
09:42-09:46
Today, what the cross proves about God's love for you.
09:49-09:50
Does God love me?
09:52-09:53
Look at the cross.
09:55-09:56
That answers all of it.
09:57-09:58
Let's unpack that a little bit.
09:58-10:02
Number one, the Bible tells us that God's love for you is an unconditional love.
10:04-10:06
It's an unconditional love.
10:10-10:35
I'm going to pause here. People say, especially in circles like ours, they're like, "Well, you know, it's not about religion. It's about what? Relationship. Oh, you travel in those circles. It's not about religion. It's about relationship." Okay, that's true, but technically, Everyone has a relationship with Jesus.
10:39-10:42
The question is, do you have a good relationship with him?
10:43-10:45
Or do you have a bad relationship with him?
10:46-10:48
Because biblically, there's no neutral.
10:49-11:09
It's not like there's these on fire, born again, Bible-believing Christians, and these evil, wicked, nasty, violent, hurtful people who hate God, and then somewhere in the middle is just a really nice person, and not a Christian, but not, there's no neutral.
11:12-11:22
And in this passage, you're going to see that unsaved people, people alienated from God, are described in four ways.
11:23-11:35
They're described as weak, in verse six, as ungodly in verse six, as sinners in verse eight, and as enemies in verse 10.
11:36-11:38
And we have to understand that going in.
11:40-11:45
Looking at these four weak means you're powerless to save yourself.
11:45-11:49
There is not a thing you can do to get right with God on your own.
11:50-11:57
You're weak, you're ungodly, You are nothing like God intended you to be by birth.
11:59-12:00
You're a sinner.
12:00-12:03
That means in the eyes of God, you are rebellious.
12:06-12:10
And then verse 10, as I said, he uses the word enemy.
12:13-12:16
And that means you're hostile towards God.
12:17-12:22
But really, this enemy concept, It's really a two-way street.
12:25-12:30
Because you see, by nature, we resent God's authority.
12:31-12:33
I don't want somebody telling me what to do.
12:34-12:37
I don't want somebody telling me the things that I want to do are wrong.
12:38-12:40
So that's hostility towards God.
12:41-12:43
But you know, it goes the other way too.
12:43-12:46
God has a holy hatred of sin.
12:49-12:57
So we could say that we have a wicked opposition towards God, and God has a holy opposition towards us.
12:58-13:00
It's a dual opposition.
13:01-13:13
So something major has to happen if there's going to be any kind of reconciliation between these two parties that have such hostility towards one another.
13:15-13:17
Something huge has to happen.
13:19-13:21
Look at verse six.
13:21-13:38
It says, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Let's not fly through this too quickly, shall we?
13:38-13:50
Can we just pause for a moment and as much as we can, try to get the weight of God's love in this statement?
13:53-14:10
He said, "Christ died for the ungodly." Who does that?
14:13-14:20
Who dies for rebellious, wicked, evil people?
14:20-14:21
Who does that?
14:22-14:24
It's a shocking statement.
14:26-14:28
But Paul illustrates it.
14:28-14:32
Look at verses seven and eight, how he illustrates this incredible truth.
14:32-14:42
He says, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, "that perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.
14:45-14:53
"But God shows his love for us "in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
14:57-14:58
I love Paul's illustration.
15:01-15:07
Look at verse seven again, he says, one will scarcely die for a righteous person like what was he mean by a righteous person?
15:07-15:21
Well, a righteous person is just like, it's like somebody who's upright and a good, holy person, but maybe you sort of have a detached relationship from them.
15:22-15:29
Like, for example, your favorite preacher that you listen to on a podcast.
15:31-15:40
Right? Maybe there's somebody that you follow their podcast, you listen to them, and they're preaching really blesses you, but you don't know that guy, right?
15:42-15:56
That's Paul's point here is, like your favorite podcast preacher, besides me, but your favorite podcast preacher, I had to clarify that, but you're like, Jeff, you're not even in the top 15.
15:57-16:11
Moving on, but that favorite podcast preacher of yours, "If you had an opportunity to die so that he could live, "would you do that?" Probably not.
16:12-16:13
That's why he says scarcely.
16:13-16:25
There might be one or two of you like, "Yeah, I would do it." But Paul's like, "Yeah, that's pretty scarce "that somebody would die for a good person "you don't really know." But then he dials it up a notch.
16:25-16:38
He goes, "Perhaps for a good person "one would dare even to die." And now he's talking about maybe that holy, upright, good Christian person that we know and love.
16:40-16:44
All right, so if I were to ask, okay, forget about your podcast guy, would you die for Pastor Taylor?
16:47-16:50
You're like, wow, that really ups the ante.
16:50-16:55
I'd really, I would really strongly consider that one.
16:59-17:27
And now we get the weight of verse 8, when he says, "But God, but God, on the other hand, "shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, "Christ died for us." See, Paul says maybe somebody would die for a good man, but no one would die for an evil man.
17:29-17:35
But that's exactly how God showed his love for you.
17:37-17:42
God loved you when you were a wooze.
17:44-17:46
You're like, "A what?" A wooze.
17:46-17:48
I just made that word up.
17:51-17:52
W-S-E.
17:54-17:56
A weak, ungodly, sinful enemy.
17:58-17:59
That's just in the text.
18:00-18:02
I just paraphrased it.
18:04-18:05
God loved you as a wooz.
18:08-18:15
And God didn't say, look, when you get your act together, then we'll talk about salvation.
18:18-18:23
God didn't say, when you start living a certain way, then I'm going to love you.
18:26-18:31
It says, "While we were still sinners," what God says is, "Look, I love you.
18:31-18:33
I sent my son to die for you.
18:34-18:44
You come to me and then we'll get your act together." See, God knows you better than you know yourself.
18:45-18:48
And he loves you at your worst.
18:52-18:53
So that's where Paul starts.
18:53-18:56
God's love for you is unconditional.
18:59-19:04
Secondly, what does the cross prove about God's love for you?
19:05-19:08
God's love for you is a rescuing love.
19:10-19:11
It's a rescuing love.
19:11-19:12
Look at v. 9.
19:15-19:31
He says, "Since therefore, have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
19:33-19:34
I love this.
19:34-19:38
You're gonna see this a couple of times in this passage, much more, much more.
19:38-19:49
What he's saying is if Jesus' death could do this, then much more Jesus' life can do this.
19:50-20:03
So here, Jesus' blood justified us, made us righteous before God, which is, I tried so hard to think of a way to describe that, and I wrote down infinitely enormous.
20:03-20:04
I don't know.
20:05-20:26
If Jesus' blood could make us righteous before God, which is infinitely enormous, even way bigger, he says, "We will be saved from the wrath of God." And that is a profound thing in the cross of Jesus Christ, that God was saving you from himself.
20:27-20:29
He was saving you from his own wrath.
20:33-20:46
But you know, as a pastor, bless you, as a pastor, oftentimes I hear people say, in wanting to argue certain doctrines, people will say, you know, you're talking about God's wrath.
20:46-20:50
Yeah, a loving God wouldn't send someone to hell.
20:51-20:56
I believe that God is love and a loving God wouldn't send somebody to hell.
20:56-20:57
Have you ever heard that?
20:58-21:00
Pastor Taylor, I'm sure you've heard that a lot.
21:00-21:03
A loving God wouldn't send someone to hell.
21:05-21:07
Well, there's a lot of problems with that statement.
21:09-21:14
One, it ignores what the Bible actually says about hell.
21:15-21:17
You know, Jesus talked about hell more than anybody.
21:18-21:20
Something like twice as much as he talked about heaven.
21:23-21:27
So not only does it ignore what the Bible actually says about hell, it also ignores God's holiness.
21:29-21:31
Like a holy God can't tolerate sin.
21:35-21:45
So help me understand, if you're somebody that doesn't believe in hell, if you're somebody that still subscribes to the loving God wouldn't send somebody to hell.
21:46-21:55
Are you saying that somebody can live their entire life at rejecting their creator, living in flagrant sin and rebellion.
21:55-22:00
They want nothing to do with God and they want nothing to do with God's gifts.
22:00-22:06
And someday when they die, God's going to be like, "Hey, that's okay.
22:06-22:12
Come on into heaven, let me show you around." Like, how does that work?
22:13-22:23
Oh, and by the way, an unsaved person would be miserable in heaven.
22:23-22:24
Do you know that?
22:26-22:30
An unsaved person would be absolutely miserable in heaven.
22:31-23:35
You're like, "Why?" Well, that unsaved person has spent their life saying, "I don't want anything to do with God, God's truth, God's people, worship. I don't want anything to do with that. You know what heaven is? God, His truth, His people, and worship. That would be absolutely miserable to spend an eternity with the God you want nothing to do with. So you're ignoring God's holiness when you're selecting which doctrine you want to adhere to. Oh, and here's one. A loving God wouldn't send someone to hell. I like to quickly remind people that God's love is not in question. What more could God have possibly done to save you? You know, the Bible says, Romans chapter 8, "God and spared not his own son.
23:35-23:39
God was willing to kill his son so that you could be saved.
23:40-23:41
I wouldn't do that.
23:43-23:47
If your salvation meant that I had to kill my son, you'd all be gone to hell.
23:47-23:49
And I wouldn't think twice about it.
23:52-24:02
What more could God have possibly done to demonstrate his love than by giving the most precious thing that exists, the life of his son?
24:04-24:10
So don't, please, don't come at me with this, a loving God wouldn't send someone to hell.
24:11-24:13
God's love is not in question here.
24:15-24:26
But church, if we brush off God's wrath, we're also brushing off the impact of the cross.
24:27-24:32
And brushing off the impact of the cross is minimizing the greatest act of God's love.
24:34-24:36
But let's get real personal.
24:40-24:46
Like I said at the beginning, one of the biggest reasons we doubt God's love is because we endure hardship.
24:48-24:54
And I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but I imagine it would be high 90% of you.
24:55-25:00
If I said, "Raise your hand if you've ever questioned God's love because of a trial that you're going through.
25:01-25:03
I bet most of those hands would go up.
25:08-25:23
And I just want to lovingly encourage you, you know, when we get in that mindset where we're doubting God's love in a hardship, what we're assuming is the way that God shows love is keeping me from trials.
25:25-25:49
already attached that love language to God when His Word does not. And we think, "Okay, so God shows me love by making my life easy and trouble-free. So if God doesn't do that, Then he must not love me.
25:53-25:55
We studied the book of Job last fall.
25:56-26:04
If we learned anything, it's that God loves me through hardships.
26:05-26:05
No, no, no, no.
26:06-26:10
God loves me with hardships.
26:14-26:48
chose the greatness of his love by meeting our greatest need, which is to be rescued from sin and hell. And if that's all God's love ever did for you is to rescue you from hell, if that was all he ever did, you should be eternally grateful, but like the goofy guy in the infomercial, but wait, there's more.
26:50-26:51
Number three, write this down.
26:53-26:54
God's love for you is a committed love.
26:56-26:58
What does the cross prove about God's love?
26:58-27:05
Well, it proves it's unconditional, and it proves it's rescuing, and thirdly, it proves that God's love for you is a committed love.
27:06-27:07
Look at verse 10.
27:11-27:29
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
27:32-29:27
similar to verse 9 with the much more thing, but there's a different emphasis here. In verse 9 he says we will be saved from his coming wrath and here he's saying God will keep us saved in the meantime. In other words, he's saying if God could reconcile us by the death of his Son, much more, He can keep us saved by the life of His Son. Or, to put it another way, if God loved you when you were His enemy, how do you think He's going to love you now that you're His child. That's why he uses that word here, that's the word of the day, "reconcile." He uses it twice in verse 10, telling us this, "God is committed to a restored relationship with you. How committed? How committed is God? How committed? He adopted you as his child. Talk to somebody here that's adopted someone and ask that parent of the adopted kid. How committed are you? They're committed. John 1 12 says, "But to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in His name, He gave the the right to become children of God.
29:29-29:35
In Christ, we are God's children, and He is our Heavenly Father.
29:36-29:47
And as you parents know, your kids will always be your kids, And nothing can ever change that.
29:50-30:00
No matter how bad your kids are, no matter what bad thing they've done, nothing will ever change that kid from being your kid.
30:03-31:10
You know, when we planted this church back in 2011, we were meeting at Marshall Middle school, which is right beside Covenant Community Church. And you know, I was friends with the pastor John Price, who was pastoring there, and he invited our church over to, they had a like a church picnic on their property. He says, "Hey, why don't you guys come over, invite your church, come over, we're gonna get the bouncy houses and have a big thing, have a bunch of kids, and why don't you bring your family over, I'd like to introduce you, kind of like welcome to the neighborhood kind of thing. I'm like, "Oh, that sounds like a great time." Well, so our family went, and Aaron and I were in the pavilion talking to some of these wonderful people at this church. And our kids were much littler at the time. And "Dad, dad!" I look over.
31:11-31:25
Cade and Owen are standing in the yard, in the green space in Covenant Community with their pants around their ankles, urinating on the lawn.
31:27-31:35
And I look over and Cade hollers, "Look, dad, we made a pea cross!"
31:35-31:37
(congregation laughing)
31:44-31:50
And these dear sweet people we were talking to said, "Are those your children?"
31:50-31:52
(congregation laughing)
31:54-32:02
I said, "I've never seen those kids." Somebody really needs to reign them in, you know what I'm saying?
32:13-32:25
You know, as badly as I wanted to put them on eBay that day, I didn't.
32:30-32:31
And Kate will tell you.
32:31-32:54
He'll tell you something I've told him over and over throughout his life is, "Look, I love you on your best day and on your worst." And I've told him, "Nothing will ever change that because you're my son." And it's the same with God's kids.
32:58-33:31
been adopted, and you know, I've been reading the Bible for a long time. There is zero biblical language about being unadopted. We touched on this last week. You know, people often ask, "Can I lose my salvation?" And the answer to that question is, well, you know, if I could lose my salvation, then I definitely would.
33:33-33:35
But thankfully, it's not up to me.
33:38-33:44
Because what Paul's teaching here is it's not really about how tightly I'm holding on to Jesus.
33:46-33:48
It's how tightly he's holding on to me.
33:52-33:59
So, if you've ever struggled with can I lose my salvation?
33:59-34:00
Here's a great verse.
34:01-34:02
You're gonna help me out here.
34:02-34:03
Philippians 1.6.
34:03-34:04
Can we get that on the screen?
34:05-34:07
Let's do a little Bible study here, shall we?
34:07-34:21
Paul says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." That means to the very end.
34:21-34:22
All right, so help me out here.
34:25-34:27
Did God begin a good work in you?
34:27-34:31
Well, if you're a follower of Jesus, then the answer to that is yes.
34:33-34:34
Okay, next question.
34:36-34:41
If God began a good work in you, is he gonna finish it?
34:43-34:45
Yeah, he is.
34:46-34:47
Oh, one more question.
34:49-34:49
Are you sure?
34:54-35:05
Paul said he was. I am sure of this, that when Jesus starts something, He finishes it.
35:06-35:20
True of the cross and the atonement. True of His death. Yes, true of that, but also true of adopting you and raising you and getting you to the finish line of heaven.
35:23-35:28
Look, God didn't save you and say, "You know what, kid?
35:28-35:28
Good luck.
35:28-35:29
You're on your own.
35:30-35:31
Don't mess this up.
35:31-35:38
I hope to see you in heaven." Paul makes it very clear here that God's love for you is a committed love.
35:42-35:45
We have the worship team join us back up here.
35:49-35:54
Church, God loves you.
35:57-36:03
And as we said, and can't emphasize enough, that is not in question.
36:05-36:11
He showed us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, we are rescued from his wrath.
36:11-36:14
He is committed to keeping us all the way to heaven.
36:16-36:27
The real question that we have to ask is, not does God love us, but do you love God?
36:32-36:35
God demonstrated His love for you.
36:37-36:39
Are you willing to demonstrate your love for Him?
36:41-36:46
You're like, "How do I do that?" Well, let's look at what the passage says.
36:46-36:47
Look at verse 11.
36:48-36:53
He says, "More than that," which is a hilarious statement.
36:53-36:55
More than all of this.
36:57-37:12
He says, "We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. I just want to ask you, Church, will you rejoice?
37:14-37:36
Rejoicing is the natural emotional result of being reconciled, and your worship should be an overflow of love and joy and gratitude for Jesus Christ, for all He is, and for all He's done, and for all He's promised that He will do.
37:39-37:50
Let your worship be an expression of love. Would you stand and lift up your voices and demonstrate love for Jesus Christ?

Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 5:6-11

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Have you ever questioned God’s love for you? Why? What is God’s response, based on this passage?
What 4 words are used to describe lost people in this passage? How does this speak to the idea that “deep down, man is basically good”?
Read John 1:12 and Philippians 1:6. What do these verses teach us about God’s love being a committed love?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

April 6, 2025

What is Finished?

Justification: The Guilt is Gone

Jeff Miller

April 6, 2025

What is Finished?

Introduction:

3 Things to Remind Yourself When You Feel Guilty: (Romans 3:21-28)

You Are. (Romans 3:21-23)
But God is Totally Satisfied by the Cross. (Romans 3:24-26)
Proverbs 17:15 – He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.

Exodus 23:7 – Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.

Acts 17:30 – The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
And Justification is a Gift to Be Received By Faith. (Romans 3:27-28)

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

00:00-00:16
Our next four messages, including Good Friday, which I just found out is on a Friday, we'll be talking about one of the most profound statements Jesus Christ ever made.
00:16-00:21
And it was on the cross when he cried out, it is finished.
00:22-00:28
So we're going to be examining the question, what is finished?
00:29-00:32
You think about finishing things, right?
00:32-00:39
From a very early age, hopefully we've all been taught the importance of finishing things, right?
00:40-00:41
Didn't you hear that growing up?
00:41-00:44
And maybe some of you now parents are saying that to your kids.
00:44-00:47
Hey, finish your supper.
00:48-00:50
Finish your chores, right?
00:50-00:51
Finish your homework.
00:53-00:58
And we're taught that there are consequences when we don't finish.
00:59-01:15
Well, the glorious reality that we're going to be looking at over these next four messages is this, the Son of God came to this earth to do something and he finished it.
01:17-01:22
So the question is, what is finished?
01:22-01:27
Well, let's go to the scene, John 19:28-30.
01:29-01:48
It says, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scriptures, "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
01:49-01:58
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished." And he bowed his head.
01:59-02:00
and gave up his spirit.
02:03-02:03
What?
02:04-02:05
What was finished?
02:07-02:13
Well, today we're going to look at one thing of many that was finished.
02:13-02:17
Today we're going to talk about the work of justification.
02:18-02:23
Meaning, our guilt is gone.
02:24-02:27
So I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please, and I just want to take a moment.
02:27-02:42
if you would please pray for me to accurately communicate the Word of God as I should, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us today from His Word, all right?
02:43-02:43
Let's pray.
02:49-03:17
Father in heaven, as we turn to your Word, it's a thought that makes us tremble that right now we are about to talk about the most important thing anyone will ever hear for their entire lives. And Father, we recognize that as no overstatement whatsoever. We can't begin to fathom how important this message is.
03:19-04:16
This message is, it's just been so distorted and twisted and changed, and we just want to get back to what your Word actually says. See what you said, God, and we want to not align our lives with our concept of you, God, but we want to align our lives with what you actually said. So I'm asking, Father, you would open our hearts up this morning and that you would bring much glory to yourself through the straightforward understanding of your word. We pray in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, "Amen!" What is finished? The work of justification that guilt is gone. Do I have to sell anybody on guilt?
04:17-04:25
We've all struggled with guilt and some of us might be struggling with guilt right now.
04:27-04:37
What is guilt? Well guilt is just that bad feeling that we get when what I did was wrong.
04:38-04:42
And yeah, there's another word that's often connected to guilt, and it's the word shame.
04:42-04:44
And shame's a little different.
04:45-04:52
See, shame is the feeling of guilt that I have when people know what I did wrong.
04:52-04:53
You know what I mean?
04:54-05:02
Like you can have a secret sin that nobody knows about, and you might feel guilt over that, but you don't feel shame 'cause nobody knows.
05:02-05:14
But if that secret sin gets made known, If people know about it, now all of a sudden, it's people must think of me differently.
05:15-05:16
That's what shame is.
05:17-05:19
How I think people think of me now.
05:21-05:22
Because of my guilt.
05:23-05:28
The point is this, my friends, we have both of those before God.
05:29-05:30
We have guilt.
05:30-05:31
I disobeyed.
05:32-05:32
We have shame.
05:33-05:35
God is surely disappointed in me.
05:39-05:40
I want you to look at verse 24.
05:40-05:46
We're gonna back up here and get the context, but I just want you to look at this first phrase in verse 24.
05:49-05:51
It says, and this is Romans chapter three, right?
05:51-06:03
He says, "We are justified "by His grace as a gift." That's what we're talking about today.
06:03-06:05
Justification, what is that?
06:07-06:09
It's the most important thing you will ever hear.
06:11-06:24
Justification is God pronouncing a guilty sinner as not only being not guilty, but being perfectly righteous instead.
06:25-06:27
So it's a legal term.
06:28-06:31
It's the opposite of condemnation.
06:32-06:36
But listen, it's more than pardoned.
06:37-06:45
You know, when you pardon someone, you're just taking away the penalty of what they did, penalty for, excuse me, what they did wrong.
06:47-06:49
Justification's so much more than that.
06:49-06:53
It's not just canceling the penalty, but actually making righteous.
06:55-06:56
Think of it this way.
06:57-07:02
In God's justification, it's not just you won't be punished.
07:04-07:14
God says you can't be punished because there are no grounds whatsoever for punishment anymore.
07:15-07:16
Do you see the difference?
07:20-07:25
But even as Christians, we still wrestle with guilt, don't we?
07:28-07:36
I mean, look, if you've done something wrong to somebody else, you need to take steps to make that right.
07:38-07:42
And Pastor Taylor did an amazing job last Wednesday at our latest workshop.
07:43-07:45
So we're not talking about that today.
07:45-07:47
Well, today we're talking about guilt before God.
07:50-07:53
Am I really forgiven?
07:55-07:56
Have you ever wrestled with that?
07:59-08:03
Am I really a child of God?
08:05-08:07
Or is God disappointed in me?
08:10-08:14
Well, from God's word today, I want you to jot some things down.
08:14-08:17
Here's three things to remind yourself when you feel guilty.
08:18-08:20
And if you don't feel guilty now, you will.
08:24-08:26
I mean like eventually, I didn't mean like.
08:29-08:32
In 30 seconds, you're all gonna be bowing your heads.
08:34-08:36
We all struggle with it from time to time, don't we?
08:37-08:38
Is it just me?
08:39-08:39
Okay, all right.
08:42-08:43
All right.
08:44-08:49
Three things, look, we're not trying to pile on here, okay?
08:49-08:53
But here are three things to remind yourself when you feel guilty.
08:54-08:56
Number one, you are.
08:59-09:00
Like, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait.
09:01-09:03
I came here to feel good, Pastor Jeff.
09:05-09:09
Look, listen, it has to start here.
09:10-09:17
Because if you don't really think that you're guilty before God, Jesus won't really mean anything to you.
09:18-09:19
Look at verse 21.
09:20-09:34
And he says, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it." Stop there.
09:34-09:40
The Old Testament law was to teach us that we are sinners.
09:40-09:42
That was the purpose of the Old Testament law.
09:42-09:46
It was to teach us that we have broken the law of God.
09:46-09:57
And even if you just reduce the Old Testament law to the 10 commandments, just looking at those shows us adequately that we are really lost sinners.
09:59-10:11
I mean, let me ask you, have you always made the worship of God and your walk with God the absolute most important thing in your life?
10:11-10:12
Has it always been number one?
10:14-10:14
No.
10:15-10:19
Well, if not, then you've broken the first couple of commandments.
10:21-10:25
You should only have one God, you shouldn't worship anything else other than God.
10:26-10:26
You're guilty.
10:28-10:30
Have you always honored your parents perfectly?
10:32-10:34
You're like, no, there are times I haven't.
10:34-10:37
Well, you've broken the fifth commandment, which says honor your father and mother.
10:38-10:39
Have you ever hated someone?
10:42-10:46
According to Jesus, you've broken the sixth commandment, which says you shouldn't murder, because it starts in here.
10:47-10:47
You ever lusted?
10:50-10:54
Jesus said that's the same thing as committing adultery and you've broken the seventh commandment.
10:55-10:56
You ever stolen anything?
10:56-10:57
That's breaking the eighth commandment.
10:58-10:58
How we doing?
10:59-10:59
How we doing?
11:00-11:01
You're like, I'm doing pretty good.
11:02-11:03
Okay, have you ever told a lie?
11:04-11:06
You're like, I think maybe I just did.
11:07-11:14
Well, if you've ever known the truth and intentionally said something else, then you've broken the ninth commandment.
11:15-11:17
Have you ever wanted something that God gave somebody else?
11:19-11:20
Like, what's the big deal?
11:20-11:20
I'll tell you the big deal.
11:20-11:22
That's breaking the 10th commandment.
11:22-11:23
That's called coveting.
11:25-11:33
So you see, that's the purpose of the law was to show us, oh, I'm not a righteous person on my own.
11:36-11:42
We need to be made right with God, but the law shows us that we're sinners.
11:42-11:44
It can't make us not guilty.
11:45-11:46
The Old Testament law can't do that.
11:46-11:47
Look at verse 22.
11:47-12:06
He goes on, he says, "The righteousness of God "through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Stop there for a second, because we have to make a key distinction here, because if you miss this, you're gonna be really lost here in a second.
12:07-12:09
He's talking about the righteousness of God.
12:09-12:10
He says it twice.
12:12-12:13
That's the theme of this passage.
12:14-12:15
What is the righteousness of God?
12:15-12:18
Hang on, there's a distinction.
12:19-12:25
In verses 25 and 26, he talks about God's righteousness.
12:26-12:33
Listen, God's righteousness is different than the righteousness of God.
12:33-12:35
Those are two different things.
12:36-12:42
And it's going to be crystal clear in the context, so long as you stay tuned in to what God is saying here.
12:42-12:43
Like, what's the difference?
12:43-12:44
Here's the difference, listen.
12:44-12:49
God's righteousness is the righteousness that God owns.
12:50-12:56
The righteousness of God is the righteousness God gives to believers.
13:00-13:08
So he's saying, another run at that one, God's righteousness is the righteousness that God owns.
13:09-13:11
That's just another way of saying God's holiness.
13:11-13:12
God is holy, he's perfect.
13:14-13:16
That's what God's righteousness is.
13:16-13:23
But when the Bible talks about here, the righteousness of God, it's talking about the righteousness that God gives to believers.
13:23-13:28
And again, that's gonna be very clear in the context, but I don't want us to get tripped up on the terms.
13:30-13:45
So, Paul is claiming here that God makes us righteous through faith, implying that we need to be made righteous, implying that we're guilty.
13:47-13:47
You see that?
13:49-13:50
Look at verse 22, he goes on.
13:51-14:05
He says, "For there is no distinction, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Look, when we talk about being guilty before God, he says there's no distinction.
14:06-14:16
It doesn't matter if you grew up in a Christian home, or if you grew up in a home that didn't even have a Bible in it.
14:17-14:17
It doesn't matter.
14:20-14:32
It doesn't matter if you're the most rebellious sinner in the world, or if you're just a pretty good person.
14:33-14:42
He says, "We all have fallen short of the glory of God." Like what glory of God, what is that?
14:43-14:44
That's God's image.
14:46-14:48
That's God's intention for man.
14:49-14:56
We all failed to live up to being the people that God has created us to be.
14:58-14:59
We've all fallen short.
15:04-15:11
Listen, it doesn't matter how short we've fallen, because we've all fallen short.
15:14-15:33
You know, imagine we're standing on the shore of New Jersey facing the Atlantic Ocean, and There's me, and there's my man Max, and there's the Steelers quarterback.
15:34-15:35
Who's the quarterback for the Steelers now?
15:40-15:44
Oh, I'm sorry, I pushed a hot button.
15:46-15:48
Let's just say Ben Roethlisberger.
15:51-15:54
So let's say we're all standing on the shore of New Jersey.
15:55-15:57
All right, me, Max, and Ben Roethlisberger.
15:58-16:03
And we're each given a football, and we're told that we need to throw that football and hit England.
16:06-16:08
Like, I can do that, I mean, how far is England?
16:10-16:17
And I, everything that I got, I throw it, and it goes 10 feet into the ocean.
16:20-16:31
And Max was like, "Pastor Jeff, step aside." Whew, tight spiral, 100 feet, whoop, into the ocean.
16:32-16:44
Ben Roethlisberger steps up and he's like, "I'm gonna show you I still got it." And whew, he throws it 200 feet, whoop, into the ocean.
16:46-16:47
Which one of us hit England?
16:50-16:53
Right, we all fell short, didn't we?
16:54-16:57
You're like, "Well, Jeff, you fell way shorter than Ben." Okay.
17:00-17:03
But we all fell short, do you see the point?
17:04-17:09
Doesn't matter how short you've fallen, you fell short of God's glory, and that's a big deal.
17:10-17:25
Listen, church, we can't minimize that by saying, "I'm not really that guilty." We can't compare to say, "Well, I'm not as guilty as other people." And we can't trivialize it to say, "Yeah, okay, I'm guilty, so what?" We need to confess it.
17:27-17:38
I, and by that I mean me, I am guilty of breaking God's law by my disobedience.
17:40-17:46
So if you're struggling with guilt, this is just your friendly reminder that you are guilty.
17:49-17:57
But number two, but God is totally satisfied by the cross.
18:01-18:05
You are guilty, but God is totally satisfied by the cross.
18:05-18:08
Look at verse 24 through the first part of 25.
18:09-18:15
He says, "For all sin and fall short of the glory of God." A lot of us probably have that verse memorized, right?
18:15-18:46
But he says, "And are justified by His grace as a gift to the redemption it is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." Look, the cross of Jesus Christ is God's means of making sinners righteous.
18:49-18:53
Now there's a word here in these verses we just read you need to underline in your Bible right now.
18:54-18:59
And we're gonna have people at the door handing you an Easter devotional and checking your Bibles to make sure that you underline this.
19:00-19:03
But it's one of the most beautiful words in the entire Bible.
19:04-19:06
And it's the word propitiation.
19:08-19:12
I think John uses it in 1 John as well.
19:14-19:15
It's a beautiful word.
19:15-19:18
Like, well, what is propitiation?
19:19-19:22
Propitiation literally means to placate anger.
19:22-19:30
I know some theologians try to dance around that, like almost to soften the blow, but no, that's what it means.
19:30-19:34
It means God is furious over sin.
19:36-19:39
Propitiation means he's not angry anymore.
19:40-19:46
It means that Jesus' death satisfied God.
19:50-19:57
Because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, God saw that and he said, "The full penalty has been paid.
19:58-20:00
My wrath has been fully poured out.
20:00-20:27
Punishment has been fully doled out." God says, "I am satisfied." You know, when we talk about salvation, sometimes we say, we get in our evangelism mindset, we say, "How do we get men to accept God?" And that's really not the question we need to ask.
20:28-20:36
The question is, "How do we get God to accept men?" Because listen, God was the one who was offended, not me.
20:37-20:48
was offended. So any talk about salvation and being righteous and any talk of that has to satisfy God.
20:50-21:26
And you see that's where every other religion in the world besides Christianity as presented in God's Word straightforwardly, every other religion teaches that there are things that we have to do to satisfy God. There are religious works or some kind of action that we have to take to make God satisfied. The Bible says we can't do it. Nothing we do can satisfy My God.
21:28-21:30
Look at verse 25 again.
21:31-21:43
It says, "Whom God," talking about Jesus, "put forward as a propitiation by his blood "to be received by faith." Look at that.
21:43-21:48
The Bible says, "God put Jesus forward." Do you see what's happening here?
21:49-21:51
We sinned against God.
21:51-21:53
We deserve God's wrath.
21:53-21:56
and God took his son and put him forward.
21:56-21:59
That means he demonstrated some things.
22:00-22:02
He put Jesus on display.
22:04-22:07
God showed us something on the cross.
22:09-22:11
You're like, what did God show us on the cross?
22:12-22:23
Well, later in Romans 5, verse eight, it says that God demonstrated his love on the cross.
22:23-22:37
So love for sure, but here specifically, he's saying that on the cross, God showed that his son fully paid the penalty that the law demanded.
22:39-22:48
So now God says, because of my son, look, I'm showing you this, I'm showing you.
22:51-22:56
This is what my son did, so now I'm satisfied.
23:01-23:02
Perpetuation, perpetuation.
23:03-23:05
This is where theology is important, my friends.
23:06-23:07
Christian, listen.
23:08-23:09
I want you to listen real close, Christian.
23:11-23:12
God is not mad at you.
23:13-23:14
He's not.
23:16-23:23
Because of Jesus, God has no wrath left for you.
23:25-23:34
And to think that he does is to minimize what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
23:35-23:43
But some Christians think that God poured out his wrath on Jesus, they believe that, but they think that God's still mad at them.
23:43-23:50
Like God is just like, yeah, I know that you received my son, but I'm so upset with you for what you did.
23:50-23:51
He's not.
23:53-23:56
That's what that word propitiation means.
23:57-24:01
There's no wrath left for the one in Christ Jesus.
24:03-24:04
God is satisfied.
24:08-24:09
Look at the end of verse 25.
24:14-24:16
This gets a little technical, so look, tune in.
24:22-24:37
It says, "This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.
24:38-24:51
It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
24:55-25:07
We defined this term in the outset, but two times here, He says that the cross was to show God's righteousness.
25:07-25:08
Do you know what he's saying?
25:09-25:16
The cross proved that God is righteous.
25:20-25:22
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out, time out.
25:23-25:23
Time out.
25:24-25:24
Hang on.
25:26-25:31
Why would anyone accuse God of not being holy?
25:31-25:33
What do you mean?
25:33-25:41
What possible grounds would someone have to point to God and say, "God, you messed up here.
25:41-25:46
"God, what you did or what you didn't do here, "that's not holy, God.
25:47-25:51
"That's not righteous." What grounds would somebody have for that?
25:53-25:58
Listen very closely because this is what, this is what Paul's talking about.
25:59-26:04
I want you to, we're gonna do a little theology here for a couple minutes, and I know, what's the point?
26:05-26:12
You're gonna see here in a couple minutes this will change your life if you really understand this.
26:16-26:16
So here we go.
26:18-26:19
What's Paul talking about here?
26:20-26:26
When he talks about his divine forbearance passing over former sins, what's he mean?
26:26-26:32
Listen, in the Old Testament times, which was before the cross, right?
26:35-26:36
God justified wicked people.
26:38-26:42
And that is controversial.
26:43-26:44
You're like, why?
26:46-26:50
Why is it controversial that God would justify the wicked in Old Testament times?
26:50-26:52
Oh, I'm so glad you asked, I'll tell you why.
26:55-26:58
One reason is he forbid us to do that.
27:00-27:01
Look at Proverbs 17, 15.
27:02-27:08
Look, he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous like an abomination to the Lord.
27:09-27:10
Do you see that?
27:11-27:12
Do you know what abomination is?
27:13-27:17
In my Bible, I put a little exclamation point in the margin every time I see that word.
27:17-27:22
That's like something that is so wicked, it like makes God sick.
27:22-27:24
God's like, I hate that.
27:24-27:31
And here, God says, I can't stomach when the wicked are justified.
27:31-27:33
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
27:33-27:37
You're saying that we can't do that, but you did that God before the cross.
27:41-27:41
Hmm.
27:43-27:44
Is that righteous?
27:46-28:00
Well, actually, it gets even worse if we're barking up this tree because earlier in your Old Testament, God actually said that he would never justify the wicked.
28:02-28:07
Exodus 23, seven, it's pretty self-explanatory.
28:07-28:16
And then God says, "I will not acquit the wicked." You see the problem?
28:18-28:25
Somebody would say God in the Old Testament times did what he forbid us to do, what he swore he would never do, but he did it anyways.
28:26-28:27
So how can we say God's righteous?
28:28-28:30
We're talking about God being holy, God being perfect, God so righteous.
28:31-28:32
How can we say that?
28:36-28:41
Paul doesn't, I love this, because he doesn't shy away from that.
28:42-28:56
He runs right at it when he says, this was to show God's righteousness because, look at this again, in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.
28:57-29:00
Again, it was to show his righteousness.
29:02-29:06
In other words, he's saying in the Old Testament times, God tolerated sin.
29:09-29:11
Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, how can we say God's righteous?
29:11-29:14
I mean, in the Old Testament, there was no propitiation.
29:14-29:17
There was no cross of Jesus Christ yet.
29:17-29:26
So when somebody sinned in the Old Testament, if God is the holy judge that you say that he is, why didn't he immediately just judge sinners?
29:28-29:33
They didn't have the blood of Jesus Christ to proclaim.
29:37-29:44
I mean, you look at the guys in the Old Testament, Abraham, Moses, David, I mean, pick one, all sinners.
29:46-29:55
And yet when you read God's interaction with them over and over, we see God giving them the promise of eternal life.
29:57-30:05
Was that really a righteous thing to do for people that couldn't put their faith in Jesus Christ since he hadn't come yet?
30:09-30:10
How could God give them that promise?
30:11-30:16
Somebody would say, well, oh, that was, that was the Old Testament sacrifices.
30:16-30:18
Eh, couldn't do it.
30:20-30:24
They covered sin, but they didn't take away sin.
30:25-30:33
And somebody else might say, "Well, it was their good works, it was their good works." That's how God was able to, no.
30:34-30:37
Nowhere does the Bible say you can earn your salvation.
30:39-30:40
So what's he saying?
30:43-30:52
He's saying in verses 25 and 26 here, that in God's forbearance, that's another word for patience, he passed over former sins.
30:52-30:55
And that word Passover doesn't mean forgive.
30:56-30:58
It literally means he overlooked their sin.
31:00-31:09
God's patience caused God to not punish their sin immediately.
31:11-31:12
This is exactly what Paul was talking about.
31:13-31:18
Very curious verse in Acts 17:30 on Mars Hill.
31:18-31:20
Exact same thing he's talking about.
31:20-31:27
The times of ignorance God overlooked, and now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
31:30-31:32
So how was God able to do that?
31:34-31:36
See, this is what Paul's talking about here.
31:38-31:44
It was still, even in Old Testament times, it was still because of Jesus Christ.
31:46-31:52
You're like, well, how can they believe in Jesus If they weren't, they don't know about the cross.
31:53-31:57
Look, God is outside of time.
31:58-32:06
And if you study your Bibles like Revelation 13, eight, Jesus Christ was always the Lamb of God.
32:07-32:13
That wasn't some radical idea that God dreamed up one day about 2000 years ago, like, oh, I got an idea.
32:13-32:15
That was always the plan.
32:18-32:20
So here it is, listen close.
32:21-32:31
Even before the cross happened, God overlooked sin based on what was already determined that his son was going to do.
32:33-32:41
So what he's saying is this, the cross of Jesus Christ reaches back to the Old Testament saints.
32:43-32:54
They were pronounced righteous because of what Jesus was going to do, just as we are pronounced righteous looking back based on what Jesus did in our past.
32:57-33:09
And kids that haven't even been born yet, that eventually will receive Jesus Christ, their sins are already forgiven in Christ.
33:11-33:12
You're like, "What?
33:13-33:18
Like, okay, so what's the point?" What's the point?
33:19-33:21
Well, there's two points actually.
33:22-33:28
Number one, it answers one of the most commonly asked questions that I get as a pastor.
33:28-33:31
People ask me all the time, how are the people saved in the Old Testament?
33:32-33:38
Because if Jesus is the only means of salvation, and I believe that, then how were they saved in the Old Testament?
33:38-33:39
The answer is still Jesus.
33:40-33:42
Their faith was based on what God was going to do.
33:43-33:47
That's why God was overlooking their sin, so to speak.
33:51-33:55
But listen, here's why this theology is so important for you.
33:57-33:59
What were we talking about today?
34:01-34:02
Guilt, right?
34:03-34:05
See, this answers the guilt question.
34:09-34:12
as a Christian, when I sin?
34:14-34:15
And I will.
34:17-34:19
Is God mad at me?
34:21-34:21
No.
34:23-34:26
Do I have to ask for forgiveness?
34:26-34:33
Do I have to plead the blood of Jesus over my sin every time that I sin as a Christian?
34:34-34:35
The answer is no.
34:39-34:40
Or how about this one?
34:40-34:45
What if I sin and then I die?
34:46-34:52
Can I go to heaven since I sinned and I didn't ask for forgiveness for that particular sin?
34:52-35:00
I have known, listen, pastors, I've known pastors that have taught that, that you better die on a good day.
35:01-35:05
Because let's say you're living this perfect Walk with Jesus' life.
35:06-35:22
And let's say you have a blowup with your wife on the way out the door, and you sinfully speak to her, and you get in the car and go to work, and you die in a car accident, you're going to hell, because that sin wasn't confessed and repented of and covered under the blood of Christ.
35:22-35:27
I know pastors that teach that, and that is completely wrong.
35:29-35:31
That's why this theology is so important.
35:31-35:43
Listen, when Jesus Christ was on the cross, do you realize all of your sins were yet future?
35:44-35:45
Do you realize that?
35:47-35:54
All of your sins were paid for, even the sins that you haven't committed yet.
35:59-36:15
So if you are in Christ, and if you sin, and you will, you don't need to ask for forgiveness because you already have it.
36:16-36:19
So listen, don't, somebody's gonna misconstrue this.
36:20-36:26
So just grab the shoulder of the person next to you and shake them and tell them to pay attention.
36:28-36:29
Thank you.
36:29-36:31
Because somebody's gonna misconstrue this.
36:32-36:38
Listen, when you sin, church, you need to confess your sin.
36:40-36:46
Then you need to thank God that He has forgiven you in Jesus Christ.
36:47-36:55
And you need to turn from your sin because you don't wanna do anything in your life that would dishonor the name of your Lord.
36:58-37:03
But it's not as if God just keeps forgiving you over and over.
37:03-37:10
He forgave you once when you received Jesus Christ, and that lasts for all of eternity.
37:12-37:14
Do you see the security in that?
37:17-37:37
Now listen, whether it was Moses' sin or a sin that you're going to commit tomorrow, sins have been taken away, God is satisfied because of the one-time sacrifice of Jesus that covers all sins of all believers." There's incredible freedom in that.
37:41-37:51
Three things to remind yourself when you feel guilty. Number one, you are. Number two, but God is totally satisfied by the cross. Number three, and justification is a gift to be received by faith.
37:51-37:51
(chuckles)
37:58-38:00
Look at verses 27 and 28.
38:00-38:01
He says, "Then what becomes of our boasting?
38:04-38:07
"It is excluded by what kind of law?
38:09-38:10
"By a law of works?
38:11-38:15
"No, by the law of faith.
38:16-38:31
"For we hold that one is justified by faith "apart from works of the law." In this passage, faith has come up, have you been counting?
38:31-38:32
Six times.
38:34-38:38
And yes, I'm counting when he used the word believe 'cause that's what he meant.
38:38-38:42
Six times, verse 22, including the word believe, he says it twice.
38:43-38:47
Verse 25, 26, 27, 28, faith, faith, faith.
38:48-38:53
And then he's like, so what does that do for our boasting?
38:57-38:58
Pretty dumb, right?
39:00-39:05
To have the audacity to think that you have anything to contribute to your salvation at all?
39:07-39:09
What could you possibly boast about?
39:10-39:14
What do your works have to do with the death of Jesus?
39:14-39:22
You realize when Jesus was on the cross, when Jesus was actually on the cross, most of you weren't even born yet.
39:28-39:33
I was gonna say all, but I don't know how old all y'all are.
39:36-39:45
So I think it's safe to say when Jesus died, Most of you weren't born yet, so what did you contribute to that exactly?
39:47-39:54
See, the cross of Jesus Christ eliminates even the very possibility of salvation by human works.
39:55-39:58
Faith, faith is the only way.
40:00-40:03
Faith isn't one way to be saved, it's the only way.
40:03-40:12
And don't think that faith is some sort of merit, Like, okay, God did his part in salvation, and now I get to do my part in salvation.
40:13-40:23
It's not even really like that, because earlier he was talking about grace in verse 24, and grace by its very definition is non-contributory.
40:23-40:24
Do you know what that means?
40:24-40:30
If you put forth anything to contribute towards it, it's no longer grace at all.
40:33-40:34
You're like, so what is faith?
40:36-40:37
I like how one writer put it.
40:37-41:02
He says, "Faith is simply the eye that sees." He said, "Faith is simply the mouth that drinks from the living water." And he said, "Faith is the hand that receives the gift." I like that because by the way, in verse 24, he calls it a gift.
41:03-41:05
It is a gift.
41:10-41:15
You know, imagine that it's my birthday today.
41:17-41:17
It's not.
41:19-41:20
My birthday's September 23rd.
41:25-41:27
I don't see a lot of you writing that down.
41:31-41:32
I can wait.
41:33-41:34
September 23rd.
41:36-41:42
But for today, we're pretending that it's my birthday.
41:43-41:49
And imagine this afternoon, you showed up at my house and you had a gift for me.
41:50-41:57
Something you went out and you bought and you wrapped it and you were so excited to give me this gift.
41:57-42:07
And you come to my house and you ring the doorbell and I open it up and you say, "Happy birthday." There's four ways that I can respond to that.
42:10-42:10
Right?
42:11-42:18
First way is I could slam the door in your face and say, "I don't want your stupid gifts." I wouldn't do that.
42:21-42:22
But that's an option, right?
42:22-42:23
I mean, I could do that.
42:26-42:37
Second option is you bring the doorbell, open it up, "Happy birthday." And I look at the gift and I say, "That's awesome.
42:38-42:40
"Where's my wallet?" Like, "How much do I owe you for that?
42:41-42:42
"Let me see how much cash I have.
42:42-42:44
"I can probably pay you for that right now.
42:45-42:46
"Or can I write you a check?
42:48-42:53
"How would you feel if I offered to buy "the gift that you got me?
42:55-42:59
"Pretty lousy, huh?" Well, that's another option.
42:59-43:08
Or a third option is you ring the doorbell, I open it up, "Happy birthday," and I take the gift, and I'm like, "Wow, this, you know what?
43:09-43:11
This looks great.
43:13-43:16
Thank you, this looks fantastic." And I set it down by the door.
43:17-43:24
And then you come to my house six months later, and that gift is still sitting there, except now it has an inch of dust on it.
43:25-43:34
And you would think to yourself, you know, Jeff actually seemed excited when I handed it to him, but he didn't really receive it, did he?
43:36-43:38
He didn't really do anything with it, he just kind of set it aside.
43:41-43:47
Or the fourth option, did you ring the doorbell, happy birthday, I got you a gift.
43:47-43:50
The fourth option is, I take the gift and I say thank you.
43:52-43:53
Thank you so much for this.
43:53-43:56
And I receive it and I use it.
43:58-44:03
And you realize those are the same four ways that you can respond to God's gift in Jesus Christ.
44:03-44:05
You have those same four options.
44:08-44:10
That God says, I am satisfied.
44:11-44:15
I have paid the price of your sin with the blood of my son.
44:16-44:16
Here is a gift.
44:17-44:18
And for some people, they take the first option.
44:19-44:23
They slam the door and say, no, God, I'm not interested in your stupid gift.
44:24-44:25
Some people take that option.
44:29-44:32
Some people take option two and they think they can buy it.
44:32-44:35
Say, oh God, that's so wonderful what you did for me in Jesus.
44:36-44:38
Now, let me earn that.
44:39-44:45
And I'm gonna start doing this at the church and I'm gonna work at the soup kitchen and I'm gonna do, and they think that they have to earn the gift.
44:46-44:55
And I would suggest to you that God is probably just as insulted at that notion as I would be, or as you would be rather, if I tried to pay you for the gift that you got me.
44:57-44:59
It's insulting to try to buy a gift.
45:02-45:14
The third option, and I think this is the most taken option in churches, honestly, I think that's what most people do with the gift of Jesus Christ.
45:15-45:23
They like, yeah, that you're sitting here and word, and like you're just like all into it, you're like, "Yeah, yeah, I need this!
45:24-45:31
Yeah, that's fantastic!" And you set them aside, and you never really receive them.
45:36-46:04
You've just sort of discarded them. Oh, not flagrant rejection, but shall we say practical rejection. The option that the Lord wants you to take is that you receive the gift, that you understand why you need it, and you thank God that He gave it.
46:06-46:23
That Jesus bore God's wrath on the cross. God is satisfied with what Jesus did, the guilt is gone by the gift of God.
46:25-46:32
Did you receive that? As our worship team makes their way back up, I'd just like you to bow your heads.
46:43-46:54
And I'm sure sitting here today, there's some Christians that have wrestled with guilt that have needed to take a fresh look at what exactly Jesus accomplished on the cross.
46:54-46:59
He didn't accomplish opportunity for us to earn favor with God.
47:00-47:07
Jesus accomplished our salvation in full.
47:08-47:14
Jesus accomplished the full removal of our guilt and shame by bearing God's wrath on our behalf.
47:15-47:26
But there might be somebody here that's really hearing this for the first time, whether it's somebody sitting here, listening to this podcast or watching the stream.
47:31-47:40
Today's the day that you need to stop setting the gift aside and receive what it is that God has for you.
47:44-47:45
Father in heaven.
47:50-47:57
Father, this to me is the most mind blowing concept in the entirety of your word.
47:57-48:05
God, I've never really wrestled with creation or the Trinity or eternity, things like that.
48:05-48:10
But God, the fact that you can pronounce a sinner righteous is mind blowing.
48:11-48:16
And God, we thank you for the work that you accomplished on our behalf through the death of your son.
48:18-48:54
And Father, if there's anyone here who needs to take that step, who needs to receive Christ, who needs to make their public profession of faith in baptism here in a few weeks, Father, I pray that you would give them the faith to not put it off, to not talk themselves out of it, but to see the value, the incomparable value of Jesus Christ, what He's done, and in so doing, Father, they would run to you.
48:56-49:11
So just now, Father, we're going to, we've heard from you, and now we're going to express back to you love and thanksgiving for what you've done on our behalf.
49:12-49:28
So Father, might this worship be a pleasing aroma, may it be a sweet sound in your ear as we revel in your love and grace.
49:28-49:31
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 3:21-28

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think many Christians still struggle with guilt and shame?
Explain the term “propitiation” (Rom 3:25). Why is this such an important aspect of the Gospel? What does it mean for a Christian in practical terms?
What does it mean that God “passed over former sins” (Rom 3:25)? How could a Holy God just overlook sin (see also Acts 17:30)?

Breakout
Pray for one another to be salty and bright.

Jeff Miller

March 30, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

You Are God's Influencers

Jeff Miller

March 30, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Introduction:

Influencer = Social media professional who has built a sizable following around a relevant topic, and can therefore influence their followers to take an action, thanks to their credibility and authority.

  
    As Salt and Light, I Am God's Influencer 
(Matthew 5:13-16)

My Influence is Expected.
My Influence Comes from Me Being Different.
My Influence Is for God's Glory.

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

00:00-00:06
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Matthew and chapter five.
00:08-00:12
Today, we are going to talk about influencers.
00:17-00:29
Now, the young people here already know something about this, but those of us who are older, I'm in that category too.
00:29-00:34
This might be a new concept to some of this.
00:35-00:36
But what is an influencer?
00:36-00:37
We have a definition here.
00:37-00:39
Can we get the definition up on the screen?
00:40-00:43
This is what an influencer is, okay?
00:44-01:10
It's a social media professional who has built a sizable following around a relevant topic and can therefore influence their followers to take an action thanks to their credibility and authority.
01:11-01:18
That's what a social media influencer or an influencer, that's what that is.
01:19-01:22
And those relevant topics, it's a lot of different things, right?
01:22-01:26
It's food, health, fashion, pop culture, travel, gaming, beauty.
01:26-01:31
You name it, there's somebody out there that is an influencer.
01:34-01:37
They are internet celebrities.
01:39-01:46
And by that, some of them were already celebrities and they got online.
01:48-01:57
And some of them are people who became celebrities because of their online presence.
01:59-02:01
There's lists of the top ones.
02:01-02:12
I was looking up all these lists and you can do this sometime, not now, but I was looking up lists of who were the biggest influencers of our day.
02:13-02:16
And for sake of time today, I'm just gonna share top five.
02:16-02:20
Here's the top five, according to this one list for whatever that's worth.
02:21-02:26
The number one biggest influencer, Cristiano Ronaldo.
02:28-02:30
I don't even know who she is.
02:30-02:31
Does anybody?
02:33-02:37
A soccer player, not football.
02:38-02:40
That is a different sport.
02:41-02:43
We call it soccer like good Americans.
02:45-02:49
Okay, so apparently Cristiano Ronaldo is a soccer player.
02:49-02:52
on this list, the biggest influencer in the world currently.
02:53-02:55
Number two, I think I heard of her.
02:55-02:56
It's a Selena Gomez.
02:57-02:58
Isn't she like a, is she an actor or something?
02:59-03:00
Okay, actor, singer.
03:00-03:01
Okay, all right.
03:03-03:05
Number three is Mr. Beast.
03:07-03:08
Probably not his real name.
03:11-03:14
Number four is Lionel Messi, Messi?
03:16-03:17
Another soccer player.
03:18-03:19
(congregation laughing)
03:22-03:26
I played soccer in high school and college and it was not popular back then.
03:27-03:30
Now two of the top five so far, oh, number five, I know number five.
03:31-03:37
Number five is the Biebs, as his followers like to call him, Justin Bieber.
03:38-03:39
That's number five.
03:41-03:46
Did you know God has a face for his brand?
03:48-03:50
God has a spokesman.
03:50-03:55
God has someone to endorse his relevant topic.
03:55-03:56
Do you know who that is?
03:58-03:58
It's you.
03:59-04:00
It's you.
04:03-04:14
Lick it by your heads with me, and I want you to pray for me as we turn to God's word, that I'll be faithful to communicate it, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what God has for us today.
04:15-04:15
Let's pray.
04:22-04:25
Father, Your Word tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.
04:27-04:33
The only transformation that can happen is supernatural transformation.
04:33-04:34
It has to come from You.
04:36-04:45
I pray, Father, that as we encounter Your Word, as we encounter You, we are profoundly changed.
04:45-04:47
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
04:48-04:51
And all of God's people said, amen.
04:52-04:55
We just finished what was like an eight week series on the Beatitudes.
04:56-05:00
And the Beatitudes describe what a follower of Jesus is like.
05:02-05:10
Verses 13 through 16 describe the function of the believer in the world.
05:11-05:15
You are God's influencer.
05:16-05:16
You are.
05:18-05:31
When you live as described in the Beatitudes, you influence the world.
05:33-05:34
Like, well, how does that happen?
05:34-05:35
Well, let's see what our Lord says.
05:36-05:38
Matthew 5, verse 13.
05:38-05:42
He says, "You are the salt of the earth.
05:45-05:49
"But if salt has lost its taste, "how shall its saltiness be restored?
05:50-05:56
"It is no longer good for anything, "except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
05:58-06:00
"You are the light of the world.
06:01-06:11
"A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, "nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, But on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
06:12-06:13
In the same way.
06:15-06:24
Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.
06:27-06:29
Jesus here is saying, OK, here's the short version.
06:30-06:33
The world is decaying.
06:35-06:35
And it's dark.
06:37-06:43
Have you noticed what it needs is salt and light?
06:45-06:48
Let's talk about salt and light for a second, shall we?
06:48-06:53
When it comes to salt, look, in our day, we kind of take salt for granted.
06:54-06:55
It's everywhere.
06:55-06:58
It's on every table, it's in your cabinet, it's everywhere.
07:00-07:01
And it's cheap.
07:03-07:08
But the people that lived in Jesus' day they would have had a different view of salt.
07:08-07:11
To the Greeks, they considered salt divine.
07:12-07:21
The Romans said that there is nothing more valuable than two things, sun and salt.
07:22-07:28
In fact, Roman soldiers were actually paid in salt.
07:28-07:30
Do you ever hear that expression?
07:31-07:32
He's not worth his salt?
07:33-07:33
That's where that comes from.
07:36-07:37
True story.
07:38-07:40
It was so important in so many ways.
07:41-07:43
People would use salt in making covenants.
07:43-07:46
Salt was used in Old Testament sacrifices.
07:46-07:48
Salt was used for flavor, obviously.
07:49-07:50
Salt is an antiseptic.
07:51-07:54
Like, well, how did Jesus mean it?
07:56-08:02
I believe the main primary focus of Jesus' teaching here is salt as a preservative.
08:05-08:06
Salt prevents corruption.
08:06-08:09
You see, in Jesus' day, they didn't have refrigerators.
08:09-08:14
They didn't have a deep freeze chest in the garage like we do.
08:15-08:23
So in order to preserve meat, you would literally have to rub salt into the meat to keep it from spoiling.
08:25-08:31
And in the same way, Jesus followers are the salt in the meat of the world.
08:32-08:37
We are what's preventing the world from totally rotting right now.
08:38-08:51
But the Bible says, 2 Thessalonians 2, the book of Revelation, when the church is removed from the world in the rapture, the world is going to go to hell.
08:52-08:58
It's going to get horrific because the salt's been removed.
08:59-09:00
It's gonna rot.
09:01-09:13
So the implication here of salt is that the world is polluted and corrupt and it has this tendency to rot like meat.
09:14-09:18
And what it needs is your influence.
09:19-09:20
It needs salt.
09:23-09:25
So let's talk about light for a second.
09:27-09:35
Also much more valuable in Jesus' day because again, we kind of take it for granted, don't we?
09:37-09:44
We're so used to having electricity and flicking the lights on, but don't we just lose our minds when a storm takes the power out and there's no light?
09:46-09:51
I know our house does, but see, they didn't have that electricity.
09:52-09:56
So light would have been a much more valuable thing to them.
09:56-10:04
But you know, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," back in John 8, verse 12.
10:04-10:09
And here, Jesus says, "You are the light of the world." So which is it?
10:09-10:11
And the answer is both.
10:13-10:14
It's both.
10:15-10:16
It's His light through us.
10:17-10:25
Just as the moon doesn't produce its own light, but reflects the light of the sun, that's how it is for followers of Christ.
10:25-10:30
We are to reflect the light of Jesus Christ in our lives.
10:34-10:41
Now, when the Bible talks about light, it's talking about revealing God's truth.
10:41-10:46
This is what the Bible refers to talking about light, right?
10:46-11:00
Psalm 119, 105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet "and a light unto my path." So light has to do with the revelation of God's word.
11:00-11:03
It is the light that tells us the cause of the darkness.
11:04-11:14
It is the light that shows us that our problem is we're separated from God, but it's also the light that shows us the way out of darkness.
11:15-11:20
It's the light of God's word that says there is a way to get back to God.
11:20-11:26
And that is through Jesus Christ, who died for your sins, who rose from the dead to give you eternal life.
11:26-11:27
It's through faith in him.
11:27-11:29
That's how you get back to God.
11:29-11:33
And that is only revealed in the light of God's word.
11:35-11:41
So the implication when Jesus talks about light is this.
11:43-12:24
The world is dark. Sin has made this world a very dark place. What it needs is light. It needs your influence. So on your outline, I encourage you to take some notes here. Here's the sermon. As salt and light, I am God's influencer. I am. And if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you are an influencer for God.
12:25-12:33
You are. Let's unpack this a little bit, shall we? Number one, write this down, "My My influence is expected.
12:37-12:39
My influence is expected.
12:40-12:44
Interestingly, in the Greek, we talked about this in the Beatitudes, it's here too.
12:44-12:48
You know, you is emphatic in the Greek.
12:49-12:55
So literally, you could translate this, Jesus is saying, you are the only light in the world.
12:56-12:59
You are the only salt in the world.
13:02-13:04
I was thinking about salt this week.
13:04-13:12
You know, something really interesting about salt, as valuable as it is, it's really no good on its own, is it?
13:16-13:17
It's not good by itself.
13:18-13:23
I mean, when was the last time you went to Pantera Bread and you said, "Yeah, you know what?
13:23-13:24
I'm not really that hungry.
13:24-13:29
I'm just going to have a bowl of salt." Like, who does that?
13:31-13:33
It's no good on its own.
13:34-13:37
Salt is always used for something else.
13:39-13:44
And you know, thinking about that further, light is the same, isn't it?
13:45-13:48
Light is always used for something else.
13:49-13:56
Meaning this, when you turn on the lights, you don't do it because you're like, You know what, man, I just really like light.
13:58-14:00
Nobody just really likes light.
14:00-14:01
Why do you turn it on?
14:01-14:07
Because it's light that illuminates what's in the room.
14:10-14:12
Light has no other purpose.
14:16-14:21
So salt and light, always used for something else.
14:22-14:25
always used for something else.
14:25-14:26
You know what?
14:27-14:31
You, you are so valuable.
14:32-14:33
You are.
14:35-14:42
But like salt, you're not valuable for yourself.
14:47-14:48
Here's what I mean.
14:48-14:58
If all God wanted was for you to be saved, then the moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God would just take you to heaven.
14:59-14:59
Like, we're done.
15:01-15:01
Good job.
15:01-15:02
I wanted you to be saved.
15:03-15:05
But he doesn't do that.
15:07-15:11
God, when you're saved, God keeps you on this earth for one reason.
15:15-15:15
It's influence.
15:17-15:21
He keeps you here to be salt and light.
15:24-15:27
You see, that's what Jesus is saying here.
15:27-15:37
There is no salt and light except from a Christ follower who is going to show and tell the people around you about Jesus.
15:40-15:42
You're like, "Well, you're the pastor.
15:42-15:43
Isn't that your job?" No.
15:45-15:46
Look, it can't be.
15:48-15:53
You're going to encounter people just through the course of your every day that I'm never going to meet.
15:54-15:59
You're going to work with people, and there's people in your family that Pastor Taylor is never going to meet.
15:59-16:04
So whose job is it to let them know about Jesus Christ?
16:05-16:06
That's yours.
16:07-16:08
So why God has you there?
16:11-16:12
There's no alternative.
16:14-16:15
There's just not another option.
16:17-16:22
But you know, side note, it's an interesting paradox.
16:22-16:25
Last week we were talking about persecution, right?
16:25-16:27
And people hating you because of Jesus.
16:27-16:36
Isn't it an interesting paradox that the world hates us so much, but the world needs us so desperately?
16:40-16:42
Look, you're expected.
16:44-16:46
You are expected to be salt and light.
16:48-16:50
That is so clear from Jesus' words.
16:50-16:52
It is just an expectation.
16:52-16:55
That's why Jesus gives warnings of being useless.
16:55-16:56
Did you see that?
16:56-17:14
He says, verse 13, "If the salt has lost its taste," and then over in verse 15, he says, "Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket." What's the point?
17:15-17:21
Well, the point is this, if salt isn't salty, it's useless, right?
17:21-17:27
And if light doesn't shine, it's useless.
17:30-17:38
What Jesus is saying here is when salt isn't salty and when light isn't bright, what that means is you've lost your influence.
17:41-17:43
You've lost your influence.
17:45-17:52
It's a terrible place to be when you lose your ability to be salt and light for Jesus Christ.
17:53-17:54
You're like, "Well, how does that happen?
17:55-17:56
How do you lose your influence?
17:56-17:58
How does salt lose its taste?
17:58-18:02
How do you hide your light?" Well, it happens through sin.
18:03-18:04
That's how it happens.
18:08-18:12
complaining, you're losing your saltiness.
18:13-18:16
Gossiping, you're losing your saltiness.
18:16-18:19
Do you have a hair trigger temper?
18:21-18:24
You're losing your saltiness when that erupts.
18:27-18:30
Inappropriate with the opposite sex in any way.
18:33-18:38
Flirtation, direct messages to full on affection.
18:38-18:53
affairs. You're losing your saltiness when you're involved in sin. Jesus gives a hard warning about that here. He says you're not good for anything when that happens.
18:54-19:05
I can just speak personally. You know, over the years there have been several pastors who have been a big influence, influence.
19:05-19:07
Several pastors have been a big influence on me.
19:09-19:12
Some local guys, some national names.
19:15-19:20
People who have disqualified themselves from ministry because of flagrant sin.
19:21-19:23
And in a lot of the cases, it was affairs.
19:24-19:36
Whether it was emotional or physical, that seems to be the predominant disqualifier And look, right, wrong, or indifferent, you can reach your conviction on this.
19:37-19:49
But I've got to tell you, I've thrown away a lot of books, and a lot of sermons, and a lot of materials from ministries because those pastors lost their influence.
19:49-19:57
How can you preach this and for years secretly live a completely different way?
19:57-19:59
How can you do that?
20:01-20:09
don't have audience with me anymore." You're like, "Yeah, that's terrible." Well, what about you?
20:10-20:19
What about your influence with your unsaved family, with your friends, with your coworkers, when they know that you're a Christian?
20:20-20:22
And by the way, they absolutely should.
20:25-20:28
Look, when they know you named the name of Christ, they're watching you.
20:30-20:33
They are watching everything you do.
20:35-20:36
They're watching your attitudes.
20:38-20:43
They're listening to every word that you say and how you say it and what you talk about.
20:43-20:44
They're listening.
20:48-20:48
They're watching.
20:49-20:52
I have to ask you, when they do, do they see sin?
20:57-21:06
Or maybe you just try to tone down the salt a little bit when you're around them.
21:06-21:11
Maybe when you're around them, you don't wanna be the weird religious wackadoo.
21:11-21:14
So let's just dim the lights a little bit.
21:14-21:16
Can we just dim the lights a little bit?
21:21-21:26
Jesus says, if that's the case, he says, you're not good for anything.
21:28-21:31
Like, Jesus is saying, "Why do I have you here?
21:32-21:34
Why do I have you here if you're not going to be salt and light?
21:34-21:38
You're no good." It's a hard warning.
21:41-21:53
But notice Jesus didn't say, after the Beatitudes, "Okay now, would you pretty please be salt and light?" He said, "You are.
21:56-22:00
You are." The question is, how salty are you?
22:01-22:02
How bright are you?
22:04-22:06
Because you're gonna influence people one way or the other.
22:09-22:17
And Jesus is expecting his influence on this world to happen through you.
22:19-22:24
So your influence is expected, number one.
22:26-22:31
Number two, right this time my influence comes from me being different.
22:32-22:34
My influence comes from me being different.
22:37-22:39
That's something else about salt and light.
22:41-22:47
It has to actually be touching what it's going to affect.
22:47-22:48
Did you know that?
22:52-22:55
If the salt's gonna be of any use, It has to be on the food.
22:58-22:59
I know that's profound, right?
23:00-23:01
What'd you learn in church today?
23:02-23:07
He said something about the salt's no good unless it's on the food, right, right.
23:10-23:14
The light must be mingled with the darkness, right?
23:15-23:19
But at the same time that it's touching, it's also distinct.
23:20-23:24
What I mean is salt and light are unlike the medium on which they're placed.
23:29-23:33
So the point is we are to be different from the world.
23:35-23:39
We're to be as different as the salt is from the meat.
23:41-23:44
We're to be as different as the light is from the darkness.
23:47-23:50
And that means, my friends, we're not self-serving.
23:50-23:52
We're not materialistic.
23:52-23:53
We're not worldly.
23:53-23:59
The influence happens when we're different from the world.
24:01-24:08
And somehow, we have a hard time as Christians remembering that.
24:12-24:20
We think, we think that we are going to attract the world by imitating them.
24:22-24:34
We have this game in our minds where we say, well, I'm going to show them that I'm no different than them and they're gonna see that I'm cool and I'm relevant and then I'm gonna be able to give them the gospel.
24:35-24:37
We think being like them is going to attract them.
24:44-24:49
Just imagine you have this coworker and you have an exchange like this.
24:50-25:16
Your co-worker says, "Hey, you want to hear a dirty joke?" And your reply is, "Yes, and then I will tell you one, because I'm cool." Or your co-worker says, "Hey, did you check out that new lady that they hired?
25:17-25:32
She is fine." "Fine!" And your reply to that is, "Yes, I also think she is smoking as you do.
25:35-26:07
"Because you and me are the same." Your coworker says, "Hey, "do you wanna have too much beer later?" And your reply is, "I sure would because that would be relevant to my relationship with you, because I'm just like you. And then maybe after our beers I will tell you how Jesus changed me."
26:09-26:09
(congregation laughing)
26:13-26:15
Changed you, from what?
26:21-26:31
Even in the church, even in the church, there's this tendency, we wanna attract unsaved people so we think we've gotta be just like them.
26:31-26:34
Let's put on a show, let's make it like a secular concert.
26:34-26:39
Let's get the laser lights and the smoke machine on a big theatrical production here.
26:40-26:41
Let's be like the world.
26:41-26:42
That'll win the world, won't it?
26:44-26:45
Because don't we want people to be comfortable?
26:47-26:50
We hate that, don't we, when churches are like, we want you to come and be comfortable.
26:51-26:53
Church is the last place you should be comfortable.
26:55-26:59
Standing in the face of the word of God is the last place you should feel comfortable.
27:04-27:13
The churches, you know, let's be like the world, And what that means is we're going to have to not take such a hard stand on the truth of God's Word.
27:16-27:18
Because we want to win the world, right?
27:18-27:21
And in order to do that, we've got to be like the world.
27:24-27:31
I was shown a church recently, online was advertising, you can get baptized there.
27:32-27:36
But the interesting kicker was, they said you can get baptized any way you want.
27:37-27:38
Any way you want.
27:38-27:39
You want to get dunked, we'll dunk you.
27:40-27:42
You want to get sprinkled, we'll splash you.
27:43-27:47
You want us to dip our hands in water and touch your forehead, we'll do that.
27:48-27:53
You name the way you want to get the water on you, we'll get the water on you.
27:55-28:01
As our Lord would say, what is going on?
28:02-28:05
I heard this quote one time that always stuck with me.
28:05-28:22
Somebody said, regarding the church, they said, "Just when the world needs us the most, we become just like them." And look, if we're just the same, we got nothing to offer them, right?
28:22-28:26
And if we learn anything from the Beatitudes, it's this.
28:27-28:30
Kingdom of heaven people live different than kingdom of earth people.
28:32-28:33
We are not the same.
28:34-28:40
We are not made out of the same stuff that the world is made out of.
28:40-28:44
We are salt and light.
28:46-28:49
My influence comes from being different, right?
28:50-28:55
And finally, number three, my influence is for God's glory.
28:58-29:01
My influence is for God's glory.
29:03-29:04
Look at verse 16 again.
29:07-29:22
Jesus says, "In the same way, "let your light shine before others, "so that they may see your good works "and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Good works, good works.
29:22-29:23
You do good works?
29:23-29:27
Well, you have to check your motives for that, right?
29:28-29:35
Because it's not about what people think about me as much as what they think about God.
29:37-29:48
But Jesus said, "They'll see our good works "and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Meaning this, I do what I do because I love Jesus.
29:49-29:58
And people are going to see that, and that is going to give me the opportunity to share the gospel with them, to invite them to church where they're going to hear the gospel.
29:59-30:09
And our hope is that they receive Jesus Christ Lord and Savior, because that is the ultimate way that God is glorified.
30:15-30:26
But if we're going to be influencers, we have to be salt and light both.
30:30-30:34
You could read this passage and be like, isn't Jesus kinda saying the same thing with the salt and the light?
30:35-30:37
Like, why did he use two pictures?
30:37-30:40
Why didn't he just keep it short and use one?
30:44-30:49
Because there's some key differences between salt and light.
30:56-30:58
The one I wanna focus on is this.
30:59-31:01
We could spend so much time on this, we don't have it.
31:02-31:03
But I wanna say this.
31:05-31:09
Jesus is saying you have to have godly conduct.
31:10-31:11
That's salt.
31:14-31:17
And you have to have the gospel message.
31:19-31:20
That's light.
31:21-31:22
You have to have both.
31:27-31:36
Meaning this, you can't just walk away from this message and focus on one of these aspects, but not the other.
31:40-31:44
Meaning, let's just say you're only gonna focus on being salt, okay?
31:44-31:45
You're like, you know what?
31:46-31:48
He's right about the salt, you know what?
31:48-31:49
I gotta work on that.
31:49-31:52
I'm just only gonna focus on being salt.
31:53-32:00
I'm just gonna focus on my walk with Christ, but you never actually share the gospel with anyone.
32:03-32:11
Well, the question is, how is anybody gonna glorify the Father if you never tell them the gospel?
32:14-32:29
Do you think people are going to see your good works and just automatically, somehow, miraculously understand the content of the gospel just because you're doing good works?
32:36-33:00
There was a saying that was thrown around years ago. You know those sayings that sometimes creeps into the church that Christians use that sound, they sound so like magnanimously spiritual, but they're really, when you think about it, really kind of empty.
33:01-33:14
This is one that kind of drove me nuts. Years ago people would say, "Preach the gospel and use words if necessary." Remember that one? "Preach the gospel and and use words if necessary.
33:16-33:19
Look, words are necessary.
33:21-33:22
Words are necessary.
33:23-33:34
No one hears the truth just by watching somebody's character but on the other hand, if you're like, you know what, you're right, I'm not gonna worry so much about the salt.
33:35-33:39
I'm not gonna monitor my salt content so much.
33:39-33:41
I'm gonna focus on being light.
33:45-34:01
But look, if you're just running around telling everyone John 3:16, but you're not personally walking with Christ, there's no good works backing up this message that you're preaching, you're going to leave people asking, "Why should I listen to his message?
34:01-34:08
Because he doesn't seem any different than me." You got to have salt and light both.
34:09-34:12
See, salt refers to your general conduct.
34:12-34:14
Light is the specific word.
34:14-34:16
Salt talks about who you are.
34:16-34:18
Light speaks to what you do.
34:20-34:22
Salt is being the example.
34:23-34:26
Light is carrying out the work of evangelism.
34:28-34:29
Salt is living it.
34:31-34:33
Light is telling it.
34:35-34:37
See, that salt can't save anyone.
34:39-34:41
Salt holds back the corruption.
34:41-34:52
You need the light of God's truth to lead to salvation, but the light has to be backed up by the salt of godly character and good works.
34:53-34:55
That's Jesus' point here.
34:56-34:57
And the end game?
34:58-35:05
The end game is the same end game for literally everything in the universe.
35:07-35:08
The glory of God.
35:13-35:15
Can we get that definition of the influencer back up here?
35:17-35:19
I looked at a few definitions here.
35:22-35:35
But I thought, "Wow, doesn't this definition really speak to the same kind of stuff Jesus was talking about here?" Look, here's what I mean.
35:38-35:40
Has our Lord built a sizable following?
35:45-35:45
A little bit.
35:46-35:47
You may have heard of Him.
35:48-35:49
He built a sizable following.
35:50-35:51
Does He have a relevant topic?
35:57-36:03
I would argue the most relevant topic ever, eternal life.
36:06-36:09
Is our Lord interesting in influencing His followers to take action?
36:13-36:14
That's why we're here.
36:16-36:19
Like, well, how does that happen?
36:20-36:22
Those last two words jumped out to me then.
36:23-36:24
Credibility and authority.
36:25-36:26
What's credibility?
36:28-36:29
That's salt.
36:30-36:31
And what's authority?
36:35-36:36
That's light.
36:39-36:48
Look, God has given us a new mission field to reach at Harvest Bible Chapel.
36:50-36:56
God has given us a community without a church where we can be salt and light.
36:58-37:01
So there's an exciting new chapter ahead for Harvest Bible Chapel.
37:02-37:10
And just now we're going to have our town hall meeting, getting an update on how God is moving.
37:12-37:19
And my friends, you were in the presence of a miracle today because I got done early.
37:20-37:20
(congregation laughing)
37:24-37:24
(congregation applauding)
37:31-37:33
We'll do the director's cut in the next service.
37:35-37:38
So why don't you just, what, we're gonna take a couple minutes.
37:39-37:41
We're gonna start at 10 promptly, Pastor Rich.
37:41-37:46
So why don't you take a couple minutes if you need to check on little Joey or use the restroom.
37:46-37:56
And then at 10 o'clock, sharply, Pastor Rich is gonna come up here and we have an amazing update for you on what the Lord's doing.
37:56-38:00
So let me pray real quick and then we'll reconvene here at 10.
38:01-38:11
Father in heaven, I just wanna close this time in your word by asking you to empower us to be what you've already pronounced us to be.
38:12-38:20
You've said we're salt and light, and God, we need the wisdom of your word and the power of your spirit so that we can carry out that function in a way that glorifies your name.
38:22-38:24
Thank you, Father, for all that you've done.
38:24-38:26
We're excited at what you're going to do.
38:27-38:29
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:13-16

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
In what ways are disciples of Jesus like salt? Like light?
How does salt lose flavor (the believer lose their influence)? In what ways do we put our lamps under a basket? Why does Jesus say someone in that state is “no longer good for anything”?
Why is it important to both salt AND light? Why not just focus on one or the other?
How do you really know if you are doing good works for other people’s attention or God’s glory?

Breakout
Pray for one another to be salty and bright.

Jeff Miller

March 23, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Congratulations to the Hated

Jeff Miller

March 23, 2025

The Heart of the Disciple

Introduction:

The Heart of the Disciple: Congratulations to the Hated! (Matthew 5:10-12)

Who Are “Those Who Are Persecuted”?

1 Peter 4:3-4 – For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you...

Luke 9:23 – And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

2 Timothy 3:12 – Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…

Why Are We Congratulating Those Who Are Persecuted?

Acts 5:40-41 – And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

How Do I Respond to Being Persecuted?

Three Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution:

Persecution Proves I Belong to Jesus!
1 Peter 1:6-7 – In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
I Have a Reward in Heaven!
2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
I'm in Good Company!
John 15:20 – Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

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

00:00-00:04
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Matthew chapter five.
00:08-00:28
Matthew chapter five, as we are coming at the end of an eight-week-long congratulations party, as we look at the Beatitudes, this is the introduction to the greatest sermon ever preached.
00:30-00:36
And every beatitude begins with the word blessed.
00:37-00:41
And the word blessed means congratulations.
00:44-00:49
And if I asked you, what is a Christian?
00:53-01:01
We could probably go around the room and get dozens and dozens and dozens of different responses to that.
01:01-01:02
What is a Christian?
01:02-01:04
What does a Christian do?
01:04-01:06
What does a Christian look like?
01:06-01:07
How does a Christian act?
01:10-01:19
As we go through the Beatitudes, understand from the mouth of our Lord, this is what a Christian is.
01:20-01:30
So it really doesn't matter what I think a Christian is or what you think a follower of Jesus is, this is what Jesus said a follower of him looks like.
01:32-01:34
This is what Christians are meant to be.
01:35-01:41
And as we've said through this whole series, there's a spiritually logical flow in the Beatitudes.
01:42-01:45
Jesus wasn't just pulling out these random sayings.
01:46-01:47
There's a flow here.
01:47-01:49
It's like a staircase.
01:50-01:51
It's like steps on a ladder.
01:53-01:54
Let's look at them again.
01:56-02:00
Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
02:01-02:05
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
02:06-02:10
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
02:11-02:16
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
02:17-02:29
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
02:30-02:34
"Blessed are the peacemakers, "for they shall be called sons of God.
02:35-02:47
"Blessed are those who are persecuted "for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Look at this flow here.
02:48-02:54
What I want you to see here, The first three beatitudes address our need.
02:57-03:00
We're poor in spirit and we should mourn over that.
03:02-03:09
And we need to stop thinking of ourselves first and live a life of complete unselfishness.
03:09-03:10
That's meekness.
03:11-03:13
That's the need that we have.
03:13-03:18
And then the need is satisfied as we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
03:20-03:24
And then the next three Beatitudes show the result.
03:26-03:27
We become merciful.
03:29-03:31
We become pure in heart.
03:33-03:34
We become peacemakers.
03:37-03:41
Today, this last one, this is the outcome.
03:43-04:03
If you are sincerely following Jesus Christ, If Christ is alive in you and he is changing you, I gotta tell you, this is kind of a shocking statement.
04:05-04:10
That Jesus says, you know you made it when people hate you.
04:13-04:13
Wow.
04:15-04:17
Before we dive into this, let's just pause for a moment.
04:18-04:23
I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word.
04:24-04:30
And at the same time, I will pray for you to receive what it is the Lord wants to tell us in his word today.
04:31-04:32
All right, let's just take a moment.
04:33-04:34
Please pray for me.
04:41-04:50
Father in heaven, as we come to your word, This is a hard one, but we're not cherry picking.
04:54-04:59
Just trying to cover the parts of your word that might be easier on our ears, Father.
04:59-05:02
We want to hear everything that you had to say.
05:03-05:04
This is a hard one.
05:06-05:18
So I pray, Father, for all of us, you would open our hearts for a time of self-examination maybe a change of perspective.
05:22-05:27
To your glory and honor, Father, let your word take root in our hearts.
05:29-05:38
To make us the people that you've called us to be, to make us the people that Jesus described his followers would be.
05:40-05:42
I pray these things in Jesus' name.
05:42-05:45
All of God's people said, amen.
05:45-05:47
All right, we're in week eight of the party.
05:48-05:50
Anybody else have like party fatigue?
05:50-05:51
You're like, all right, you know what?
05:51-05:54
In any other party, I would have gone home long before this.
05:55-05:57
But look, we got one more week of party, all right?
05:57-05:58
So are you ready?
05:58-06:04
Today, we wanna wish a hearty congratulations to the hated.
06:05-06:05
You ready?
06:05-06:06
Let's do it.
06:07-06:08
(congregation applauding)
06:11-06:12
(congregation applauding)
06:21-06:23
I gotta tell you, it feels strange.
06:23-06:24
You're hated.
06:25-06:25
Congratulations.
06:26-06:27
I'm so happy for you.
06:27-06:28
You're hated?
06:28-06:29
Wow, that's awesome.
06:32-06:34
Like, man, you're gonna have to explain that one.
06:36-06:37
Well, let's look at what our Lord says.
06:38-06:45
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
06:46-06:49
So the first question we have to ask is, who are we congratulating here?
06:49-06:51
Who are the persecuted?
06:53-06:58
Well, the Greek word persecuted means pursue.
07:02-07:07
The word we would use in our day is harass.
07:09-07:20
In this verb tense, talks about somebody who continually allows themselves to be put in this position, the persecuted.
07:21-07:25
You're like, well, persecuted like how?
07:26-07:28
Well, Jesus tells us, look at verse 11.
07:30-07:45
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." So you see this persecution, there's two sides of the coin here.
07:46-07:47
There's reviling.
07:49-07:50
That's face to face.
07:51-07:58
That's I'm assaulting you with words in your face, or we would just call that insulting you.
08:01-08:01
Right?
08:02-08:09
But then he says, "Utter evil falsely." That's not in your face.
08:09-08:12
That's behind your back.
08:13-08:15
That's slandering you.
08:15-08:18
That's, "I want to ruin your reputation.
08:18-08:21
"I want people to think lesser of you.
08:21-08:24
"So I'm going to say things about you behind your back.
08:25-08:36
"And what I don't know, I'm just gonna make up "because I want people to think of you "in a negative light." But you have to notice here, Jesus says persecuted.
08:40-08:49
Look, you gotta get this because if you miss this, there's somebody gonna be walking out of here, strutting like a rooster because you missed it.
08:50-08:52
Jesus says it's for righteousness sake.
08:53-08:59
Verse 11, he says, "It's on account of him." And that's so important when we talk about persecution.
08:59-09:03
It's not persecution because you're obnoxious, okay?
09:04-09:07
It's not persecution because you're a jerk to everyone.
09:09-09:16
And you wear your religion like some kind of an honor badge that you think it's your job to slap everybody in place.
09:19-09:25
If people treat you negatively because you're a jerk, that's called consequences.
09:27-09:30
That's called you're reaping what you're sowing there.
09:30-09:32
So he's not talking about that.
09:32-09:35
He's also not talking about putting on a show, right?
09:36-09:47
It's not trying to be as over the top, self-righteous as you can be so that you get people's attention so that they say something about you.
09:47-09:49
So you can be like, oh, I'm so persecuted.
09:50-09:52
He's not talking about that either.
09:52-09:53
Look at Daniel.
09:54-09:57
Daniel quietly sought the Lord and he was persecuted.
09:59-10:00
Right?
10:01-10:08
Jesus isn't talking about getting a rise out of people on social media by trolling them.
10:09-10:22
You know exactly what to post, exactly what to comment, and you know it's gonna get a rise out of people and people are gonna say things and you're gonna be like, "Oh, I'm so persecuted." No, you're not.
10:23-10:26
You're being a jerk, okay?
10:26-10:29
That's not what Jesus is talking about at all.
10:29-10:31
He clarifies that twice here.
10:33-10:39
It's being hated, being persecuted because of Jesus.
10:39-10:41
It's because of his righteousness.
10:42-10:45
It's because you strive to be like Jesus.
10:45-10:56
Or in the context of this sermon, It's you're just striving to live out these beatitudes that he laid out.
10:56-10:59
You're just striving to be that kind of person.
11:03-11:03
And you're hated.
11:06-11:08
Isn't it sort of ironic?
11:08-11:10
What did Pastor Taylor preach about last week?
11:11-11:13
The previous beatitude.
11:13-11:14
What was that one?
11:15-11:16
Okay, two of you were here.
11:16-11:18
There were more of you here than that.
11:18-11:19
(congregation laughing)
11:21-11:23
What was the previous beatitude?
11:25-11:27
Peacemakers, isn't that interesting?
11:29-11:35
Blessed are the peacemakers and then, blessed are the persecuted.
11:36-11:37
Like what's going on there?
11:37-11:45
Well, it is very simply this, Christians strive for peace with all men, but all men don't return the favor.
11:48-11:51
And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second, man.
11:52-11:53
Why all the hatred, man?
11:54-11:55
Like why the hatred?
11:56-11:59
Why can't we just live and let live, man?
11:59-12:00
You know what I'm saying?
12:03-12:11
Why do they hate?" Well Peter tells us that.
12:12-12:13
Peter answers that very question.
12:13-12:16
Why do people hate you for trying to follow Jesus?
12:17-12:21
Look at 1 Peter 4, verses three through four.
12:21-12:32
He says, "For the time that has passed suffices "for doing what the Gentiles want to do." And in this context, the Gentiles is sort of a figure of speech for unbelievers.
12:34-12:49
He says, "Living in sensuality, passions, "drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, "and lawless idolatry." Do you see that Peter says, "Hey, listen, Christians, we're done living life like it's one long beer commercial." All right?
12:49-13:03
He says, "With respect to this, they are surprised, the unbelievers are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you." Do you see that?
13:04-13:10
He's saying that people are going to slander you, malign you because you're different.
13:12-13:14
You live as a citizen of heaven.
13:15-13:17
You don't live a sinful lifestyle.
13:17-13:23
And lost people view that somehow as you condemning their sin.
13:27-13:38
Lost people feel like when you try to follow Jesus, and even if you don't say a word, they feel like you're calling them out.
13:40-13:43
"Oh, oh, oh, you think you're better than me?
13:45-13:46
Oh, you don't do that stuff.
13:46-13:49
Oh, oh, Mr. Holier-than-thou, huh?
13:50-14:00
Whatever happened to thou shall not judge, huh?" And you're like, well, I'm not judging.
14:00-14:05
I just don't live that way because of my faith in Jesus Christ.
14:09-14:11
They're gonna hate you for that.
14:13-14:23
And maybe you're like, well, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I wouldn't say anything to anyone, because I believe, I believe in keep your religion to yourself.
14:26-14:29
And I would say, that ain't good either.
14:30-14:31
According to Jesus.
14:33-14:41
In Luke 9 23, Jesus said, look at this, "For whoever is ashamed of me." Oh, look at that.
14:42-14:52
"And of my words." "Of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and of the holy angels." Do you see that?
14:52-14:56
"And of my words." It's not just ashamed of Jesus.
15:00-15:02
It's also being ashamed of what he said.
15:03-15:05
It's being ashamed of what he taught.
15:07-15:08
So what do we do?
15:08-15:15
We try to avoid persecution by making the gospel tolerable.
15:18-15:22
And we say things like, "Well, now there's not just one way to heaven.
15:23-15:24
We're all kind of on our path.
15:24-15:28
And as long as you're sincere, I think God sees that.
15:28-15:31
and there's not just one way to heaven.
15:31-15:35
And I don't really think there's a hell.
15:36-15:44
I know there's some Christians that believe that, but I don't really think that's, I don't really think a loving God would send somebody to hell.
15:44-15:47
And you know what, man, love is love, right?
15:47-15:55
And we're ashamed of what Jesus said when we talk like that.
16:00-16:19
When you're with your family, your unsaved family member specifically, when you're with your unsafe friends, when you're at the workplace, the sort of just kind of hide your faith. You're ashamed of Jesus' words. It's a problem.
16:22-16:37
Try this, try saying things like, "I believe that marriage is for a man and a woman "because that's what God said." Say things like, "I believe that the unborn are people "who deserve to live." Try that one.
16:38-16:48
Try, "I believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven "because he's the only one who died for my sin "and rose from the dead to promise eternal life.
16:48-16:51
"He's the only one that did that, "So I believe he's the only way to heaven." Say that.
16:55-16:56
People will hate you.
16:58-17:02
And you're going to be persecuted for righteousness sake.
17:05-17:07
And you're like, "You know what, pastor?
17:07-17:10
You have to, the world is rough, man.
17:10-17:11
The world's rough.
17:13-17:14
It's rough out there."
17:16-17:17
(sighs)
17:20-17:21
It's not just the world.
17:25-17:28
Some of the worst persecution of Christians happens in the church.
17:35-17:35
Think about this.
17:38-17:39
Jesus' ministry.
17:41-17:43
Who gave Jesus the most problems?
17:44-17:45
Was it the unsaved pagans?
17:48-17:51
It was the hardcore religious people, wasn't it?
17:53-17:54
What about the book of Acts?
17:55-18:03
The book of Acts, the first four chapters, it's attacks from the outside, still from religious people, but it was attacks outside the church.
18:04-18:05
And the church was standing strong.
18:06-18:09
And then what happened in Acts chapter five and chapter six?
18:10-18:13
All the problems came from within the church.
18:14-18:16
and things really got hard then.
18:18-18:34
And church, I gotta tell ya, the worst insults that I've ever received, the worst slander about me that's ever been spoken, the worst accusations that I've ever experienced have come from church people.
18:39-18:40
It shouldn't be that way.
18:42-18:43
That's how it is.
18:48-19:01
And maybe there's some people sitting here and if we're being honest, some of the ways that you're talking about people and the leadership of the church, you're being divisive.
19:04-19:06
And maybe you're not the persecuted.
19:08-19:09
Maybe you're the persecutors.
19:12-19:18
And you're like, "Well, why would church people do that?" Same reason.
19:19-19:35
You take a stand on what the Bible says, you stand for righteousness, fleshly, worldly-minded people in the church are going to attack you.
19:38-19:40
Oh, and by the way, look at verse 11 again.
19:41-19:51
Jesus says, "Blessed are you when others revile you." Notice he didn't say if.
19:52-19:56
Like, this is gonna apply to some of my followers.
19:57-19:58
No, he didn't say that.
19:58-20:02
If you're, listen, if you're a true follower of Jesus, it's when.
20:03-20:05
It's gonna happen to you.
20:06-20:18
"You are going to be persecuted in some way, shape, or form to some degree for your faith." This is for all true disciples.
20:18-20:31
And if you're not getting any kind of backlash because of your faith in Jesus Christ, that's actually a bigger problem than if you're facing persecution.
20:34-20:35
This is for all true followers.
20:35-20:39
Paul says this in 2 Timothy 3, 12, in case it's unclear.
20:40-20:48
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
20:52-20:58
So you think you're gonna stand for Jesus and Satan's kids aren't gonna hate you?
21:00-21:01
Let's not be so naive.
21:05-21:07
That's who the persecuted are.
21:09-21:15
You're like, wow, so why are we congratulating them?
21:16-21:18
Well, let's look at the text.
21:19-21:24
Verse 10, why would we congratulate people that are hated, persecuted for righteousness sake?
21:24-21:31
Well, look what Jesus says, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The kingdom of heaven.
21:31-21:33
We talked about this, didn't we?
21:33-21:37
It's the place where Jesus is ruling.
21:38-21:39
Like where is the kingdom of heaven?
21:40-21:43
Right now, it's in the heart of every believer.
21:47-21:49
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
21:49-21:53
The first and last Beatitudes are bookended by this statement.
21:54-22:08
That was the very first thing Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And what Jesus is saying is the first thing and the last thing you need to know is when you receive him, you get his kingdom.
22:11-22:30
Oh, and by the way, with all these beatitudes, all of these results, all of these things we've been congratulating people for, you realize every single promise, every congratulation of every beatitude are all facets of a diamond called salvation.
22:32-22:36
These are all just figures of speech describing salvation.
22:37-22:39
Receiving the kingdom of heaven, that's salvation.
22:40-22:43
Being comforted by God, that's from salvation.
22:44-22:46
Inheriting the earth, salvation.
22:47-22:49
Being satisfied, only in salvation.
22:50-22:52
Receiving mercy, that's salvation.
22:52-22:56
being able to see God, that's salvation.
22:57-23:02
Being called a son of God, that's adoption, which is, tell me, salvation, right?
23:03-23:06
Receiving the kingdom of God is salvation.
23:08-23:11
So why are we congratulating those hated because of Jesus?
23:11-23:14
Because it proves that Christ is in you.
23:17-23:23
Wait, wait, you mean people who would hate Jesus We were here.
23:25-23:29
Hate you instead because you remind them of Jesus.
23:32-23:34
That, that is a high honor.
23:36-23:37
That is a really high honor.
23:39-23:46
And somebody right now is like, "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I don't think we should think that way." And I would say, "Why not?
23:46-24:09
The early disciples did." Acts chapter five says, "When the council had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go." Now, I would think the next statement would be, "And the apostles left cursing them under their breath.
24:09-24:16
The apostles left crying, 'Why God, why did you let this happen to me?'" That's what I would think the next line would be.
24:17-24:18
But you see what the next line is?
24:18-24:39
It says, "Then they left a present to the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." See that the early apostles, they weren't waiting for Harvest Bible Chapel to have our little congratulations party before they started celebrating.
24:41-24:43
They were congratulating themselves.
24:46-24:53
What an honor, what an honor to so act like Jesus that sinners treat you like Jesus.
24:55-24:56
That's an honor.
24:56-25:02
And that is why we're congratulating those who were persecuted.
25:03-25:09
So, there's one more question that we have to answer today.
25:13-25:18
The third question on your outline, how do I respond to being persecuted?
25:21-25:23
How do I respond to being persecuted?
25:23-25:30
You know, this beatitude is obviously very different than the rest.
25:34-25:46
The other beatitudes are about what happens in me, But this beatitude is about what happens to me, right?
25:47-25:53
But you know another difference is this is the only beatitude that Jesus elaborates on right here.
25:56-26:01
And you're like, wait a minute, is this the part of the sermon where you tell me how to be persecuted?
26:01-26:04
No, I don't need to tell you how to be persecuted.
26:04-26:06
You follow Jesus Christ, you will be.
26:07-26:07
That's the point.
26:08-26:12
You strive to live this kind of a life, you will be.
26:12-26:17
The question that we need to answer is, how do I respond to that?
26:19-26:20
That's the question.
26:23-26:28
And the answer is not retaliate.
26:29-26:30
I'll get you for this.
26:32-26:33
It's not that.
26:34-26:41
It's not resenting people like, "I hate you for this!" It's not that.
26:43-26:48
And it's not even becoming depressed or sorrowful.
26:49-26:52
Like, "I hate this!" It's not that either.
26:55-27:02
Look at verse 12, because Jesus actually tells us how to react.
27:03-27:04
Look at this.
27:06-27:10
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.
27:11-27:15
For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
27:18-27:20
Jesus says, here's how you react.
27:21-27:23
People hate you because you follow him.
27:23-27:24
Jesus says, rejoice.
27:26-27:28
And you're like, really?
27:30-27:30
Yeah.
27:31-27:33
Jesus actually doubles down on that, doesn't he?
27:34-27:47
He says, "Rejoice and be glad." Why should I rejoice and be glad when people are against me because of Jesus?
27:47-27:49
Why would I do that?
27:51-27:55
How in the world is that an occasion for happiness?
27:58-28:00
Well, Jesus tells us that too.
28:01-28:02
We don't have to guess.
28:02-28:03
He tells us right here.
28:05-28:07
So three reasons to rejoice in persecution.
28:07-28:08
Drop these down.
28:08-28:09
I'm gonna go through these quickly.
28:11-28:13
These are the three reasons Jesus gives right here.
28:13-28:17
Number one, persecution proves I belong to Jesus.
28:18-28:20
We already touched on this briefly already.
28:23-28:27
But like the rest of the Beatitudes, there's a congratulations on what results.
28:29-28:34
He says, "Yours is the kingdom of heaven." meaning you belong to Jesus.
28:38-28:40
Do you wanna know if your faith is real?
28:43-28:52
Or would you just rather stumble through life wondering, do I really believe?
28:52-28:56
I mean, do I really believe in Jesus Christ?
28:57-29:03
Is my faith a real thing, or is it just kind of in my head Have I deceived myself?
29:03-29:05
Is my faith real?
29:08-29:12
Well, your faith needs tested, and there's only one way that happens.
29:14-29:16
See what Peter says again, 1 Peter 1.
29:18-29:23
He says, "And this you rejoice." Oh, there's rejoice again.
29:24-29:25
For what, Peter?
29:25-29:32
"Now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials, Persecution being a big one.
29:34-29:54
"So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Here's the point.
29:56-30:03
Anyone can say that they believe in Jesus Christ at a prayer meeting.
30:05-30:11
Or go to small group and say, "I just want you to know I believe in Jesus Christ.
30:11-30:14
Do you think there's gonna be any pushback there?" No, there's not.
30:15-30:16
It's easy to say it there.
30:20-30:22
But do you still believe when it's not so popular?
30:25-30:27
Do you still believe when you're insulted for it?
30:27-30:29
When you're rejected for it?
30:29-30:32
When you're falsely accused because of it?
30:32-30:36
Do you still believe when your faith costs you something?
30:39-30:53
You see, when following Jesus is painful, but you refuse to walk away because his promises are so glorious and his ways are so right, and Jesus himself is so worthy!
30:56-31:16
You don't really prove to Jesus what your faith is made out of as much as you've proven to yourself what your faith is made out of, because I got a feeling Jesus already knows. That's reason to rejoice.
31:19-31:21
Persecution proves I belong to Jesus.
31:21-31:24
Number two, will I rejoice?
31:25-31:26
I have a reward in heaven.
31:28-31:29
Look at verse 12 again.
31:29-31:33
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.
31:35-31:36
You're like, well, what's the reward?
31:37-31:37
What's the reward?
31:38-31:40
Well, there's all kinds of rewards in heaven.
31:41-31:45
Actually, you could kind of look at heaven as one big reward, right?
31:46-31:55
And I mean, you got this, there's no sickness war, there's no unhappiness, oh how about the best thing in heaven? Jesus himself.
31:58-32:23
All of that's true. And at the same time, the Bible says that each individual gets special individual rewards. And how much of these you get is based on how you facing persecution because of Jesus.
32:27-32:53
2 Corinthians 5.10, Paul says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due," what is due, excuse me, "for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." There's different levels of rewards based on your faithfulness now, based on your faithfulness in the face of persecution.
32:56-32:58
Like, all right, well, what are those rewards then?
33:01-33:02
I don't know.
33:04-33:06
Here's something I do know.
33:10-33:13
Jesus says they're great.
33:16-33:24
And if Jesus says something is great, that's what I was thinking.
33:26-33:30
If Jesus says it's great, then it must be pretty great.
33:30-33:39
If God himself refers to something as being great, then it must be spectacular.
33:42-33:50
So church, can we just believe Jesus and like wait 15 minutes and find out what it is?
33:53-34:04
Because I got to tell you, all the stupid insults and slander are going to look pretty petty in light of whatever Jesus has for you.
34:06-34:08
And that's a reason to rejoice.
34:11-34:12
I have a reward in heaven.
34:15-34:19
Number three, a third reason to rejoice.
34:20-34:25
And if face persecution is I'm in good company, I'm in good company.
34:27-34:28
Look again, verse 12.
34:30-34:38
Jesus says, "Your reward is great in heaven." But then he talks on this statement too.
34:38-35:04
He says, "For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Are you being persecuted for your faith to some degree in some way? And if you follow Christ, you should be. Well, Jesus reminds us here you're in good company. I mean, man, think of the people in the Old Testament.
35:06-35:15
Abel, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel.
35:17-35:19
You're in some pretty good company.
35:20-35:24
Oh, how about Jesus himself?
35:26-35:36
You know, Jesus spoke of this in John 15, when he said, "Remember the word that I said to you, "A servant is not greater than his master.
35:37-35:44
"If they persecuted me, "they will also persecute you.
35:46-35:53
"If they kept my word, "they will also keep yours." Okay, hang on.
35:57-35:59
How is this a motivation to rejoice?
36:03-36:08
Okay, so you're saying I should be motivated by the fact that other people were persecuted too?
36:09-36:11
Like, how is that a motivation?
36:19-36:24
You know, we love the name drop, don't we?
36:26-36:27
Oh, you say you don't.
36:28-36:30
You say you don't.
36:30-36:33
You run into somebody famous at the airport and keep your mouth shut.
36:33-36:34
(congregation laughing)
36:35-36:36
You won't.
36:38-36:43
I ran into Jerome Bettis at the airport one time, literally ran into him.
36:45-36:46
Like physically ran into him.
36:46-36:48
I knocked him back about five yards.
36:49-36:51
No, okay, I made that part up.
36:52-36:54
I did make that part up.
36:55-36:57
We love to name drop.
36:57-36:58
I felt good telling that story.
37:01-37:02
Why do we do that?
37:03-37:04
Why do we name drop?
37:06-37:11
Because there's something in us that we're kind of proud of our associations.
37:11-37:12
You know what I mean?
37:13-37:16
There's something in us that we like that.
37:19-37:28
Several years ago, Aaron and I were at a church conference in Orlando and we were having breakfast.
37:29-37:31
It was this big dining room.
37:31-37:32
Aaron and I are having breakfast.
37:33-37:37
And this stranger comes and sits at our table.
37:38-37:40
He just sits down literally right beside me.
37:43-37:45
And dude was so weird.
37:46-37:48
Now, listen, I am not criticizing.
37:50-37:51
I'm weird.
37:52-37:54
My wife married weird, all right?
37:55-37:56
I'm not criticizing.
37:57-37:59
The dude was just strange.
37:59-38:00
He just sat down with us.
38:01-38:07
He had these giant like plastic rim glasses, like really big, and he had this enormous mustache.
38:07-38:09
He looked like a cartoon character.
38:10-38:14
And if you know me, I was like so fascinated by him.
38:14-38:19
I think people are so fascinating, but when like this cartoon character sits down, he was so strange.
38:20-38:24
And he was going on and on and on about some exercise bike that he bought.
38:24-38:27
I'm like, they're still making exercise bikes?
38:28-38:29
Like people are still doing that?
38:30-38:34
You can buy a bike with two wheels and take it on the road.
38:36-38:45
Like, he was so strange, but he sat there and talked to Aaron and I the whole breakfast about his exercise bike.
38:46-39:31
And then he gets up and leaves, and Aaron and I are like, "Who was that?" Well, then we go into the auditorium for the conference, and Aaron and I take our seats, and there's a time of worship and then somebody gets up and announces, they're like, "We'd like to introduce, "you know, our main speaker for the event, Paul Tripp." He came out on the stage and Aaron and I are like, "That's him, that's the guy we had breakfast with." I walked around the rest of the conference like, I don't wanna brag or anything, but, I had breakfast with Paul Tritt.
39:33-39:38
You know, it's just kind of a thing we do once.
39:42-39:44
Yeah, oh, it was great.
39:44-39:47
We were talking mustaches and exercise bikes.
39:53-39:55
Are you being persecuted because of your faith?
39:55-40:22
Do you realize that's the occasion for the ultimate name-drop? You're like, "I get to be hated because of Jesus." Do you realize what that means? I'm in company with the Lord of the universe! They can't get Him, so they come after me! Isn't that awesome?
40:22-40:28
How much Jesus? Way cooler than Paul Tritt, by the way.
40:34-42:04
When you feel like your faith has made you an outcast, hey, hey, that's just for now. Someday you're going to be walking around heaven with the prophets who came before us who were persecuted for their faith and you're gonna look around these people in heaven and say, "You know what? It was rough at times being insulted and being slandered, but now I see that I'm in good company. And that is a reason to rejoice. So as our worship team makes their way back up to the platform here, I have to ask you, has being a Christian resulted in people reviling you as being a Christian resulted in people insulting you and lying about you? Do people hate you just because you follow Jesus? Well then, on behalf of the elders, the ministry team, and all of the nursery workers at Harvest Bible Chapel, we would like to wish you a truly heartfelt congratulations.
42:06-42:07
(congregation applauding)
42:19-42:26
Yours, yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:10-12

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are different ways persecution is carried out? Have you ever personally been persecuted because of your faith, on some level? If not, why not?
Read 1 Peter 4:3-4. What exactly motivates nonbelievers to slander Christians who refuse to live a sinful lifestyle?
Why do you think Christians aren’t persecuted in America the way Christians are persecuted in other countries?
In your opinion, which of Jesus’ reasons for rejoicing in persecution is the most compelling / motivating? Proof of salvation, reward in heaven, or being in good company?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Redemption: The Price is Paid

Introduction:

What is Redemption?

What Does Christ Redeem Me From?

What Does Christ Redeem Me With?

What Does Christ’s Redemption Require of Me?

Reconciliation: The Relationship is Restored

Introduction:

What the Cross Proves About God's Love for You.
(Romans 5:6-11)

Justification: The Guilt is Gone

Introduction:

3 Things to Remind Yourself When You Feel Guilty: (Romans 3:21-28)

You Are God's Influencers

Introduction:

As Salt and Light, I Am God's Influencer (Matthew 5:13-16)

Congratulations to the Hated

Introduction:

The Heart of the Disciple: Congratulations to the Hated! (Matthew 5:10-12)

Who Are “Those Who Are Persecuted”?

Why Are We Congratulating Those Who Are Persecuted?

How Do I Respond to Being Persecuted?

Three Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution:

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

What is Redemption?

What Does Christ Redeem Me From?

What Does Christ Redeem Me With?

What Does Christ’s Redemption Require of Me?

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

What the Cross Proves About God's Love for You. (Romans 5:6-11)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

3 Things to Remind Yourself When You Feel Guilty: (Romans 3:21-28)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

As Salt and Light, I Am God's Influencer (Matthew 5:13-16)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

The Heart of the Disciple: Congratulations to the Hated! (Matthew 5:10-12)

Who Are “Those Who Are Persecuted”?

Why Are We Congratulating Those Who Are Persecuted?

How Do I Respond to Being Persecuted?

Three Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution:

Audio Transcript

What the Cross Proves About God's Love for You.
(Romans 5:6-11)