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Speaker 3Alright. Good morning. Good morning on this, world championship snow hill climb snowmobile retreat weekend. We're glad you guys are here. I'm glad we have places in our parking lot for you to park.
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Let's stand up together and we'll worship. We're gonna start out with a hymn. And since our tech is down right now, it's on page one forty seven in your hymnals if you'd like. It's How Great Thou Are. You may be seated.
3:57
Speaker 1Good morning. Am I alive? Yes. There we go. It's good to have you all here this morning.
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It is Palm Sunday and we're going to sing a little bit of Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord in a minute but I'm just glad to see you out this this weekend has been freezing tail cold. We've had the ladies who are going to Africa and is that not a verb? I mean, an adjective around here, freezing tail? Sorry.
4:25
We've had the ladies who are going to Africa in August out in the parking lot all week selling parking spaces or for donations. And they did a great job sitting out here in the cold and spreading a little good cheer and it's just good to see faces out here this morning. I also want to go through a couple of announcements but the announcements this week are more knots than ours. We are not doing Monday night. We're not doing the Awanas on Monday nights because it's spring break and we are going through still not up, So we're going through the week.
5:07
We don't have those regular activities, but we do have next week a pancake breakfast. I I need to announce that we're not going to be a part of the community sunrise service not because we're rebelling against all the churches in town but because we're not having one this year. Up at Snow King, they're remodeling the building that the Sunrise Service is usually held in. So, there's not a community sunrise service but next, resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday. We will be doing the traditional annual sourdough pancake breakfast here, right, Dave?
5:40
Correct. There we go. So, that'll be between services. If you normally come to this service, you can hang around after and eat and probably continue eating into the next service that starts at eleven. So, at 10:00 next week, pancake breakfast.
5:57
Other than that, I'm glad y'all are here. Would y'all just stand up and greet one another and kinda let each other know you're glad you're here? I like my slides.
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Speaker 2Alright. Let's sing together. Day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come. Still my soul will sing your praise on ending. Ten thousand years and then forevermore.
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Bless the Lord, oh my I worship your name. Yes. I worship your holy name. Lord, I worship your holy I see the king of glory riding on the clouds with fire. The whole I see a gender ration rising up to take their place for selfless faith, for selfless faith.
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I see a near revival stirring as we pray and see. All on every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise when the darkness closes in You may be seated.
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Speaker 1We come to the time now where we take up an offering to give back just a portion of what God has given to us and let's join me with me if you would and pray. God, thank you for all the gifts that you've given lord. As we look today into your word, we're going to see that you are bigger. You are greater. You understand.
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You're omnipotent. You're omniscient. And you're benevolent. Lord, you're good to us. Lord, as we get through the struggles of life, sometimes we fail to notice that and God, we want to just come before you confessing right now that you are good.
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That every blessing you pour out will turn back to praise. God, I ask that you would, though there's pain in the offering sometimes, lord. That you would bless it, that you would spread your kingdom, that your kingdom would advance because of the part that you've given us that we put back in these plates, lord. Just ask you that you would multiply. It's in Jesus name, lord and for his sake, that we live, breathe, and have our being.
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Amen. Children are dismissed to go down to children's church. I think the journey and teenagers are welcome to stay up here. Alright. Can you all hear me?
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Nothing. There we go. How about that? Alright. I have no slides today.
22:18
This is interesting. I've kinda gotten used to having that up there but the more I considered what I was gonna say today and the more I tried to boil it down into three points and make it really really simple and easy to to understand and remember, the more I thought this is bigger than that. So, that's not an apology. I think that you'll get a lot out of it but you're gonna have to stick with me. We are gonna go through tons and tons of scripture today.
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I want you to see a picture from basically the whole Bible. Just the whole Bible. 66 books. You know, no big deal. I want you to see something.
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Last week, the message was pretty heavy. It was John 17 and it was about Jesus praying for himself and then those original disciples and then for those who would come to be believers and so that in that, I said a lot of the verbs that he used and a lot of the things that he was talking about were really dependent upon our choice whether to listen to that prayer and go for it or not and the last charge out the door was to reconcile because he prayed for unity, to seek after God's glory, doing that and Jesus asked that the father would sanctify us by his truth and his word is truth that we would get into this. So, this week, I've had songs coming back to me all week. Last week, it was a cubist painting. This week, it's songs.
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So, I'm going to talk about several different songs. Some of em are songs like Psalms from the Bible. Some of em are songs that you know from modern life. But that's where we're going to go is through several songs today. Today, it's crisp.
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There's a blue sky outside. It's a little chill in the air and this week as I've been considering that, I've had this song come back over and over because of the subject matter and I think you'll start seeing it emerge. We're going to talk about last week, it was about your choice. So, free will of man to do what God has asked him to do or not and this week, we're going to talk about the sovereignty of God specifically as it has to do with suffering. So, this is a full Bible sketch.
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We're going to get up to John eighteen and nineteen but by the time we get there, it's going to be just a narration. So, where were you when the world stopped turning? On that September day, out in the yard with your wife and children or working on some stage in LA. Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke rising against that blue sky? Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor, or did you just sit down and cry?
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That song, the first time that I heard that, I was blown away by it because September 11 happened in 2001 and within two months, less than two months, he had written this song and it crystallized for me exactly. You know, it didn't say exactly what he was feeling. It just asked what you were feeling. It opened it up to you for your interpretation. Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones?
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And pray for the ones who don't know? Did you rejoice for the people who walk from the rubble and sob for the ones left below? Did you burst out in pride for the red, white, and blue? And the heroes who died just doing what they do. Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer and look at yourself and what really matters?
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It was written just right after. It was what was going through his head. Alan Jackson's from just not far from where I'm from in Georgia. So his accent is exactly like mine. He he was a forklift driver at a Kmart warehouse, you know.
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You don't get much more country than that. He but he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened just like none of us could. It was just a part of who he was then and he was trying to get it and he woke up on Sunday morning and he had been thinking about, I gotta do something. I gotta get this down on paper. I gotta write this.
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Something is motivating and driving me to write this and he said that he thought of the melody and the chorus in the morning before he got out of bed. He jumped out of bed in his underwear and finished the rest of the song while his little girls and his wife were at church in Sunday school. Later on, when somebody said it, it was almost prophetic. It was almost prophetic. That song captured so many people's heart.
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And he had in the song wrote, I'm just a singer of simple songs, not a real political man. I watched CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran but I know Jesus. And I talked to God and I remember this from when I was young for all you Awana people. He had had the word put into his life when he was young. And he knows Jesus and he talks to God.
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He quotes Paul, kind of paraphrases Paul. Living translation. Faith, hope, and love are some good things he gave us but the greatest is love. That was the proper response for that terrorist action. That was the right thing.
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He said, I didn't want to be vengeful and there are a lot of songs afterwards that were or proud or whatever and they all resonate with us but that one was one that just captured us all. Yesterday, Paschal study in a history timeline that starts with creation and the one of the last events on this timeline that she's studying is the towers falling and so she's got on the back of the card what happened and she's studying about this and I said, this song will tell you what happened in everybody's hearts around better than that and I started singing it and it just killed me. I mean, was just too much. Where were you in the world stopped turning that September day? Were you teaching a class full of innocent children?
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Driving down some cold interstate? Did you feel guilty because you're a survivor? In a crowded room, did you feel alone? Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her? Did you dust off that Bible at home?
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It's too much. Too much. Songs get us that way. They get us that way when nothing else can. That one keeps on going.
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Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow or did you go out and buy a gun? You turn off that violent old movie you're watching or turn on, I love Lucy reruns. Did you go to church? Hold hands with some strangers? Just stand in line, give your own blood, to just stay home and cling tight to your family and thank God you had somebody to love.
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If I ask every single person in here who was cognizant on 09/11/2001, you remember exactly what you were and what you were doing. Carl says he was in a liquor store. He was working as an electrician wiring a warehouse at a liquor store. Tanya and I were in Mexico and I had a this first time I'd ever heard the word twin in Spanish was Torres Jimela Se Callero. The twin towers have fallen.
29:42
Okay. Now, if I can get over that emotion and get to the rest of the sermon. Last week, what I was talking about about the choice and what Jesus was praying about, I tried to crystallize down what I preached last week was about your competence and your character. That's what you have a choice about is your competence and your character. Jesus says, sanctify them by your truth.
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This your word is truth. So knowing the word of God, being able to articulate and defend your faith gives you competence. Knowing and articulating your faith gives you competence. Living it out. Living it out gives you character.
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What's the one thing that people get upset about more than anything else when they talk about organized religion or church? It's full of hypocrites. They always say, oh, it's just full of hypocrites. Everybody there is just hypocrite. They don't live out what they believe.
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Well, no, none of us live out what we believe perfectly but you know, what's one more? If there's a hypocrites, come on in. You can add to the number. Find the perfect church, never join it. It'll ruin it.
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You understand? So, competence and character is what I talked about last week and if you have both competence, you can know, articulate, and defend your faith and you live it out, then you have credibility. Almost every week at some point during the sermon, we hear, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father who's in heaven. It gives you credibility if you live out what you believe. There's one more thing to that though.
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Up under the umbrella of the sovereignty of God is your free choice but there's one more thing and this is from this point forward, I'm gonna do a whole lot of reading scripture. It is suffering. Suffering under the sovereignty of God. The song that we sang just a minute ago, the blessed be your name. Do y'all like that song?
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I love that song. You know what book of the Bible that comes from? Job. Job. Very good.
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Job. It's so upbeat. How can it be from Job? Blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful where the streams of abundance flow. Blessed be your name.
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You just sing that and go, oh, it's every blessing you pour out. Everything's wonderful but the next line says, blessed be your name when I'm found in the desert place when it's dry. Though I walk through the wilderness, lost, feeling like I'm lost. Blessed be your name. Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise and when the darkness closes in, what?
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Still, I will say, blessed be the name of the Lord. You know where we get that? Job. Job one one says, Job was an upright man in all his ways. He tells where he's from, tells a little about him.
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He was an upright man in all his ways. He loved God and he eschewed evil. He shunned evil. So, does that sound like a pretty good dude? Yes.
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What happened to Job? Oh my goodness. The calamity. In the first 20 verses, he loses his whole family, all of his livestock, all kinds of stuff. It's before the boils and stuff started on his body but in verse 20 or 21, he says, naked I came into this world and naked I will leave.
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Still I will say, blessed be the name of the Lord. He's not blaming God. He doesn't hold God. Let me find it. Excuse me.
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It's the only one I didn't write down. Need an Awana person here to show me exactly where it is. Job. Job one twenty one. Naked, I came from my mother's womb.
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Naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Oh, that bridge. I love the bridge. You give and take away.
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You give and take away. We don't think about the taking away. We think about the giving. You give. Oh, yeah and you take away.
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When we lose a dear loved one like Alan Jackson says, oh my goodness. You give and you take away. In all this, oh blessed be the name of the Lord. So, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord and verse 22 says, in all this, Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
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God is bigger than that. Do you all know the oldest book that we believe, the oldest book in the Bible? Genesis is the obvious answer but it's wrong. I wouldn't be asking it. Genesis was written after Job.
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It's about stuff that happened before Job but the oldest book that we have in the Bible is Job. So, I'm illustrating that from the very beginning before we had in the beginning. We knew that God sometimes does things we don't understand or allows things to happen that we don't understand. Some of that is by the free choice of someone else. They can inflict upon us pain but it's under God's sovereign hand.
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We say from our systematic theology and understanding and from the Bible's explicit teaching that God is omniscient, he is omnipotent, and he is benevolent. He is all knowing, all powerful, and good but when we in our human finite minds try to understand how God can be all knowing and all powerful and still good when we see evil around us or all good and all knowing but he can't be all powerful if he doesn't fix this. He is fixing this. That goes way forward. Romans eight twenty eight and twenty nine says, he's working all things together for the good of those who love him or called according to his purposes.
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You know, another song that we sing often these days is indescribable. It's a Chris Tomlin song. It's written by a gal that went to seminary at the same seminary I went. From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea, creations revealing your majesty from the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring. Every creature unique in the song that it sings, all exclaiming, indescribable, uncontainable.
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You place the stars in the sky. This comes from Job too. This is when Job finally breaks down after all that bad advice his friends have given him. He breaks down and gives the, why me, God, eventually and God answers him. He says, where were you when I stung the heart, hung the stars in place?
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You place the stars in the sky, you know him by name, you're an amazing God, all powerful, untamable, awestruck, we fall to our knees, and we humbly proclaim you, our amazing God. Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go? Seen heavenly snow houses laden with snow. Who imagine the sun and give source to its light yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night. Indescribable, uncontainable.
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You are amazing God. I want to get up to the subject at hand. Today is Palm Sunday. After all, we've got palms all around us. Today, we actually in that study in John, we have actually gotten to this point and we've already covered the triumphal entry and I told you that that was kind of a fickle crowd and they were nationalistic.
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When I sang a little bit of the Allen Jackson song, I said, you burst out in pride for the red, white, and blue. These to the ancient ancient near easterners were like Nash, this like raven, waving the red, white, and blue. When you're doing this, it was a nationalistic symbol and so when they're waving these and they say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. What they're saying is, we won't forgive this, hope, and change. That's what we want.
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We want hope and we won't change and in Psalm one eighteen, this is what they're saying. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. I told you a few weeks back. It's it's actually in chapter 12.
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So, we've had this many chapters of conference. We're up to eighteen and nineteen today. In chapter 12 is the triumphal entry when he comes in on the Sunday before the crucifixion but they're quoting from Psalms which was written. This Psalm was written somewhere between a 900 before. And where it says, Hosanna, it's translated in my version, New King James.
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It says, save now, I pray. That's what Hosanna means. Save us now, I pray, oh Lord. Oh Lord, I pray and now, prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
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Why was the crowd fickle? Y'all can answer. This is more like a conversation than a sermon anyway. Why was the crowd fickle? They thought he could do for them what they could not do for themselves.
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Rome had overtaken them. He had the best chance of anybody else. The best chance for hope and change around was gonna be Jesus. So, when he came in, Hosanna, save us now from this Roman oppression. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and that's why and then during that week, it changed and it changed to what?
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Give us Barabbas. Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him. How?
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I've always been just bumfuzzled by how this can be. How can it be? Completely. That's not a word here either, is it? Bumfuzzle.
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Sorry. Sorry. Y'all need a translator for me. Luke nine, Luke nine twenty one through 24. How can this be that it goes from blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord to crucify him in the space of a week.
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Listen to what Jesus says in in Luke nine twenty one through 24 he says, actually this is right after Peter's confession. When he asked the disciples, who do people say that I am? Some say Elijah, some say this, some say that. He says, but who do you say that I am? Peter, the leader, steps up and says, you are the Christ.
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Son of God. You are the Christ of God in Luke he says and he strictly warned and commanded them at this time to tell this to no one saying, the son of man, Jesus's favorite name for himself, the son of man must suffer many things and must be rejected by the elders and the chief priest and the scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. Jesus said, the son of man must suffer. So, that's great. We hear that and we think, well, of course, as Christians, we know that he suffered for our sins.
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So, that's fine. I'm glad he suffered. So, I don't have to according to the health and wealth gospel. He suffered. I don't have to but Jesus doesn't say that.
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Keep on going. Right there, then he said to them all, everybody within his hearing, if anyone desires to come after me or follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Does that say we're going to suffer in this life? Without doubt.
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Absolutely, if you are doing what Christ has commanded, you will suffer. You can take joy as Paul says, you can rejoice during it but you will suffer. So, Jesus, how it could go from, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, save us now, lay in the palm branches of his feet, spreading their cloaks so that he can ride in that Zechariah nine nine reference on the foal of a donkey. But then, crucify him later. I'm going to go back since we're already, we're all over the Bible.
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We're in Job. We're in Psalms. We're in Luke. Let's go back to Psalms and go to Psalm 22. I wish I knew the tune of this.
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It says, Psalm 22, the suffering, praise, and posterity of the Messiah. I'm going to read the suffering and praise part, just the first two sections. It's split pretty neatly into three sections and I wish I knew the tune of the deer of dawn but I don't and I'm not gonna sing it to, you know, stairway to heaven or anything, Alan Jackson song. So, but just imagine that this is a song. It is very, it's a very, very moving song especially since Christ quoted this from the cross.
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This is without a doubt, a prophetic prediction about Christ. Now, when David wrote it, I'm sure he was feeling the same things but in God's sovereignty, he's able to have one life mirror another, poetic, hyperbole. What's what's the fun in poetry if you can't be a little bit grand with it, you know? So, this is when David wrote it, poetic hyperbole. For Jesus, it was reality.
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Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime but you do not hear and in the night season and I am not silent but you are holy. Enthroned in the praises of Israel. He had been taught when he was younger too.
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He remembered what it was that he was taught, David. You are holy. You're enthroned on the praises of your people, Israel. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them.
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They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed but I I am a worm and not a man. A reproach of men, despised by the people, all the people who see me ridicule me, they shoot out their lips, they make mouths. That's what it says at me. Y'all don't do that here and we don't do it in the South but in Costa Rica, when somebody doesn't like you, they go, I don't know why but they're making mouths at you.
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It's a fairly common thing in different cultures around the world but to shoot out the lip is is like that. It's it's a hatred. It's it expresses insult or hatred. So, where was I? Shooting out the lip.
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They shoot out the lip and they shake their head saying, he trusted in the Lord. Let him rescue him. Let him deliver him. Since he delights in him. Does that sound familiar?
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But you, God, this is David speaking and it appears a thousand years ahead of time, Jesus speaking but you are he who took me out of the womb, caused me to be brought forth out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breast. I was cast upon you from birth, from my mother's womb, you have been my God. All of the other Psalms of David where he's feeling like he's a worm and not a man or like God has forsaken him. Every single other Psalm, David mentioned some sin in his life and it is a purging effect that God has him on the backside of an issue so that he gets to the place where he mentions his sin and when he mentions his sin, usually, the clouds part, he has agreed with God about his sin and God brings him through it and he begins to praise him again.
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In this one, Psalm 22, there is no mention of his sin. Why do you think that is? Jesus had no sin. He felt exactly all of these things. He had people shooting out the lip.
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He had people making fun of him. He had known God and had been brought forth from the mother's womb. You know, there's a reference to the mother there but there's no reference to an earthly father. In the Bible, there's no reference ever to the earthly father of the Messiah in the whole Old Testament. There are tons of em to the mother.
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That points toward a virgin birth. Isaiah says it flat out that it will be a virgin birth. The the Targums are the Jewish rabbinical literature that explains the Psalm that explains the Old Testament and they did not know what to do with Psalm 22. They did not know what to do with Psalm 53. We're getting to that.
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I mean, Isaiah 53. So, Psalm 22. But you are he who took me out of the womb. You made my me trust while on my mother's breast. I was cast upon you from birth.
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My mother's womb, you have been my God. Be not far from me for trouble is near and there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. Bashan is the Golan Heights region of Israel and it is 24 inches a year is the most fruitful place in the whole in the in all of Israel.
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So, it's known for its strength of livestock and trees and whatnot. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint.
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One of the worst things about crucifixion is the shoulders popping out of joint while you're leaning forward. The ribs, the sternum, all of the stress that that puts on your interior organs and usually they put em just far enough that they could stand up occasionally and get some relief and their shoulders pop back in the joint. And then come out again. Where was I? I'm poured out like wax.
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All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted with melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, a broken piece of pottery, and my tongue clings to my jaws. What did Christ say on the cross?
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I thirst. You have brought me to the dust of death for dogs, typical Israeli way of saying Gentiles. Dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.
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Crucifixion was not even a form of punishment a thousand years before Jesus. They divide my garments among them and for my closing, they cast lots. They shot craps for my clothing but you, oh Lord, do not be far from me. Oh, my strength hasten to help me, deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog, save me from the lion's mouth, and from the horns of the wild oxen. I'm going to skip verses 22 to 31 for now and come back to em.
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But I want to go from that. I want to skip forward about two hundred, maybe two fifty years to Isaiah 53 if you're reading along. This is another song. This is called the song of the suffering servant. So, that one was Psalm 22 is a song of lament.
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Isaiah 53, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. There's actually a pun right there for y'all who are pun grammar people. I am. I think it's funny. There's a Hebrew pun right there.
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The root out of dry ground. Jesus of Nazareth is Netzer is how you say branch or root in Hebrew and so it's like saying from Branchville. There's a dude that's going to grow up from Branchville. It's a dude that's going to grow up. It's a root, Netzer, Nazareth.
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Root out of dry ground. Think about the dry ground. It has been at the time of Jesus since the Israel Israelites have heard from God. It has been four fifty years since Malachi's prophecy. That's dry ground.
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That's dry ground. He has no form or comeliness and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire. He's just a plain old guy. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Seven hundred and something years before Christ.
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Despised and rejected by men, man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely, he, capital H, has born our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him as stricken, cursed, smitten by God, and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes, we are healed.
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All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Each to his own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. So, he opened not his mouth.
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He was taken from prison and from judgement and who will declare his generation for he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken and they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death. He was crucified outside the city wall, cut off from the land of the living, killed with the wicked between two thieves. But with the rich at his death, that sounds so strange to say that. We'll get to that in John.
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Remind me, Tanya. She says a lot of times I say, I'll get to that and then I don't. So, if I don't, please remind me. Yet, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief.
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When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. I wish I knew the tune. It would be a lot easier to keep going. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities.
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This is the song of the suffering servant. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. What do we believe about where Jesus is right now? I know it's a baptist church and we don't have a creed that we say every week but what's Jesus doing right now? Joe Sycamore is the only one I know that knows this creed.
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So, he's seated at the right hand of the father making intercession for us. So, that's what that last verse says. That last little stand that says, and he was numbered among the transgressors. He bore the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors. So, we're in this prolonged series on the gospel of John.
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We're talking about competence and character and credibility. Competence and character are great but when you add to that suffering, you get great credibility. The fact that Jesus had just 11 guys left. And he told them all that they would suffer and he had been instructing them to give him confidence and they had been living it out in front of him. He had been coaching them through their mistakes to give him the credibility but the suffering, all of them were murdered.
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All of them. When we start looking around for for the health and wealth gospel in the Bible, it's really hard to find unless it's right up against somebody else that's having lots and lots of trouble. If you'll consider Joseph in the Old Testament, Carl talked about him this past week. Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers out of a pit, literally threw him in a pit to die and then decided, no, we can make some money off of. Lift him up, sell him into slavery.
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Going into Egypt. He gets all the way up and he's entrusted in somebody's house. Oh, then he's accused wrongly of sexual assault. That's hard. So, he goes to prison.
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People who say that they're going to remember him to the king, forget about him. That's hard. Nineteen years in prison. When he gets out and he does come to be the second command in all of Egypt, then, his brothers come back to him. What does he do?
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Is it revenge? No. He recognizes that it was evil. What they did was evil and he says to them, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. Is God sovereign?
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Absolutely. Is he sovereign even in the free choice of man? Absolutely. Whatever anybody else decides to do to us, the horrible, horrible things that people do to each other. God still can bring good out of the backside of those.
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God is omnipotent. He is omniscient and he is benevolent. If you don't have already a theology of suffering, you need to start to develop one. It is part of the Christian life. Jesus says it flatly.
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In John 16 and up around thirty, thirty one, 33, somewhere in there. He says, that in this life, you will have tribulations but take heart. I've overcome the world. So, it is a part of what's going on. If you think about John, the writer of this gospel, he's exiled onto the Isle Of Patmos.
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All of the disciples eventually murdered Paul. Oh my goodness. How many times does he give the list? Shipwrecked three times. Snake bit.
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Lower down over a wall. Stoned. Given, you know, 40 lashes minus one repeatedly. It is part of what God is doing. I have lost my place and my notes.
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If it's not obvious, I'm telling you so that I can find them. Isaiah 53 Jesus said in Luke that the son of man must suffer many things. It was looking really good up until the middle of that week and things started to turn. Let's go straight to John. I'm not going to do a whole lot of additions to this.
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Maybe one and two here but John eighteen and nineteen, it's a lot of scripture. We still got a few minutes. When Jesus spoken these words, he went out with the disciples over the Brook Kidron where there was a garden which he and his disciples entered and Judas who betrayed him also knew the place. For Jesus often met there with his disciples. Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops and officials from the chief priests and Pharisees came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
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Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon him, went forward and said to them, whom are you seeking? And they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus said to them, I am he and Jesus and Judas who betrayed him also stood with them. Now, when he said, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. Just the spoken word of the almighty God and the man of Jesus Christ, just his spoken word knocked these guys to the ground. He could have taken over right there.
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He could have been the hope and change overthrown the whole Roman government starting right there but he knew that the son of man must suffer. So, he said to them, I'm he. When and then Jesus said to them again, whom are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus said, I've told you that I'm he. Therefore, if you seek me, let these guys go their way.
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He was protecting him and John tells us that that the saying might be fulfilled which he spoke of those whom you gave me, I've lost none. Then, Simon Peter having a sword, drew it back, instruct the high priest servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malcus. So, Jesus said to Peter, put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup my father has given me?
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Did he understand that suffering was part of it? Absolutely. Knew what he was doing. It was completely cognizant but he was protecting his guys. Even Peter cutting off the ear.
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The other gospels tell us and Jesus healed the guy. He picked his ear back up and put it back on and healed his ear. Then, the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers and Jews arrested Jesus and bound him and they led him away to Annas first and he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was a high preset year. Now, it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. Is that not the sovereignty of God right now?
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Right there? This guy being high priest says, well, it's better that one man dies for all the people. He didn't even know what he was saying was the absolute truth and plan of God. And Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple. John calls himself appears another disciple.
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Now, that disciple was known to the high priest and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest but Peter stood at the door outside. Then, the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to her who kept the door and brought Peter in and the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, you're not also one of this man's disciples, are you? And he's, she said it like that, you're not, are you? Expecting a no answer. And Peter said, I'm not.
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No. Jesus had just predicted in the last chapter or two chapters ago that Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed. Now, the servants and officers who made a fire of coal stood there for it was cold and they warmed themselves and Peter stood with them and warmed himself. The high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. Jesus answered, I spoke openly to the world.
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I always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always meet and in secret, I've said nothing. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Indeed, they know what I said and when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand. Saying, do you answer the high priest like that?
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And Jesus answered him, if I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why do you strike me? Then Anna sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now, Simon Peter stood and said to him, you're not also one of the disciples, are you? And he denied it and said, I'm not.
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Again, the question was asked with a no answer expected. You're not, are you? No. It's easier to say no to a question that they expect you to say no to. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of him who whose ear Peter cut off said, didn't I see you in the garden with him?
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So and so's cousin, Malcus's cousin. And Peter then denied again and others say, with a curse, violently, he denied and then immediately, a rooster crowed. Then, they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium and it was early morning but they themselves did not go into the Praetorium lest they should be defiled. Their religious tradition would not allow him to go in. Pilate then went out to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man?
1:00:17
They answered and said to them, if he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. They didn't answer the question. They did not answer the question. Then, Pilate said to them, you take him and judge him according to your law and therefore, the Jews said to him, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death. All they wanted out of it was the death penalty.
1:00:36
They knew what they were looking for and they knew the only one that could give it to him was the Roman guy, Pilate. That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled by signifying what death he would die. Then, Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Are you speaking for yourself about this? Or did others tell you this concerning me?
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Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now, my kingdom is not from here.
1:01:15
Pilate, therefore, said to him, are you a king then? Jesus answered, you say rightly than I am a king. For this cause I was born, for this cause I've come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth and everyone who's of the truth, hears my voice. And Pilate said to him, what is truth? Truth is the word of God, lasting since forever and it is about this.
1:01:39
Jesus called himself truth. But you have a custom that I should release some so Pilate said to him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and he said to them, I find no fault in him at all. Over and over, I'm not going to read the rest of 19. Over and over, Pilate comes to him and ask him and finds no fault and goes back out and says he's innocent.
1:02:02
There are six different times where Jesus is declared innocent. Is it God's sovereignty that he was still crucified? He's innocent. Over and over and over and the law says he's innocent but whatever. You're no friend of Caesar.
1:02:18
If you're a friend of this guy. Oh, we'll crucify him anyway. What's one more dead Jew to me? But he was a smarty pants and before he crucified him, he hung up Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, on a sign on the cross. Oh, it made them so mad.
1:02:39
It made them so angry because he said, king of the Jews. No, change that. Change that. Put up there. He says, he's the king of the Jews and Pilate says, what I've written, I've written.
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Was he writing for God right there? No doubt about it. Let this be heard in Latin, in Hebrew, and Aramaic. This is the king of the Jews. This is the one.
1:02:58
You know the reason the Targums didn't know what to do with Isaiah 53? Because they wanted a Messiah who was gonna whoop everybody else. They did not know or want the suffering servant. We are to be followers of Christ. We are to pick up our cross daily and follow him.
1:03:17
I have a poem that I wanna end with. All of those were actually songs. Maybe Luke couldn't be considered a song but this poem is really really good to me and I know we're running a little long. We are to be imitators of God. We're to be imitators Christ.
1:03:35
If we're to follow him, we're to pick up our cross daily. Whatever that is, whatever he gives us, the work he gives us to do. Sometimes by the suffering that you've been through, you'll be able to help others. Because you have competence, because you have character, but because you have suffering, you have great credibility. Some of the best counselors for the turning point are those who have been through the pain of abortion themselves, firsthand.
1:03:59
Some of the best counselors for drug and alcohol rehabilitation are those who have been through it themselves. Because people can look at you if you've never had, you know, a drop to drink and say, you don't know what it's like. Oh, but if you have, you do. Here's the poem. It's anonymous.
1:04:18
I don't know who wrote it. When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man and you can say woman too. When God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man, when God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part when he yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world shall praise, watch his methods, watch his ways. How he ruthlessly perfects, whom he royally elects, how he hammers him and hurts him, and with mighty blows converts him into frail shapes of clay that only God understands. How his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands.
1:05:01
How he bends but never breaks. When it's good, he undertakes. How he uses, whom he chooses with every purpose fuses him by every art induces him to try his splendor out. God knows what he's about. When God wants to take a man and shake a man and wake a man when God wants to make a man to do, the future's will, he tries with all his skill.
1:05:28
When he yearns with all his soul to create him large and whole with what cunning he prepares him. How he goads and never spares him. How he wets him and he frets him and in poverty begets him. How often he disappoints whom he sacredly anoints. With what wisdom he will hide him, never minding what betide him, though his genius sob with sliding, and his pride may not forget.
1:05:55
Bids him struggle harder yet. Makes him lonely so that only God's high messages shall reach him. So that he may surely teach him what the hierarchy planned and though he may not understand, gives him passions to command. How remorselessly he spurs him with terrific ardor stirs him when he poignantly prefers him. God is completely sovereign.
1:06:23
The things that you're going through that you feel God is either lacking the knowledge of or the goodness of or the power to change. That's not true. He is able to change that what needs to be changed. You can look at this from the perspective that he knows better than we know and he knows what is necessary in our life to bring us to the point of brokenness and surrender so that we can say with Job, still I will say, blessed be the name of the Lord. Job's wife said, curse God and die for crying out loud.
1:06:57
He says, no. God is good. His love endures forever. Still I will say, blessed be the name of the Lord. We're going to sing another song about blessing.
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You are so good to me. It is true. You are so good to me. You heal my broken heart. He offers that but sometimes we do have to go through fire.
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Sometimes, we do have to go through hell to get there. Let's sing.
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Speaker 3Let's stand together.
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Speaker 2You are so good to me. You heal my broken heart. You are my father in heaven. You are so good to me. You heal my broken heart.
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You are my father in heaven. You sweet, sweet zone. You are beautiful, my sweet, sweet zone. You are beautiful, my sweet, sweet zone. Forever.
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You poured out all your blood. You died upon the cross. You are my Jesus who loved me. You poured out all your blood. You died
1:11:29
Speaker 1I want you to look over this week. I did stop reading in 19 right there about where Pilate wrote Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. I want you to look through chapter 19 and see all the places we heard in these songs today. The dividing the garments, the temple, I mean, the the tomb of the rich man. Yeah.
1:11:49
I knew I was going to forget. I knew she would remind me. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man and he asked that they he could take the body of Jesus and bury him in his grave. There is no way that anybody could have sought out to hit all of the prophecies about Jesus. It's one after another after another after another.
1:12:06
He is the truth. He did suffer greatly for you. If you feel the invitation today is after the service. I'm gonna give you all the blessing and go. But if you feel like God is trying to get you, he's getting your attention by the suffering that you're going through.
1:12:19
Would you please come speak to me or one of the elders? For the rest of you, I ask you to read John 19 this week and contemplate the dark hour of the cross. And in light of that, our struggles, I think, will lift. And next week, we'll have that hopeful and joy ful resurrection Sunday, Easter morning message. So, it's dark right now and I know that.
1:12:44
We don't do a Maundy Thursday or Good Friday service. So, next Sunday, be looking forward to resurrection where he is risen. He is risen indeed. Go with God. Amen.
