At Home with jesus

Introduction

Good morning and Happy mothers day. I know the prayers at both campus where sweet.

Whether you are here downtown, watching online or at cove it’s a joy to be with you

If you have your Bibles go ahead and open up to Matthew chapter 12 and in a moment we will look at verse 38-50

Over the last few weeks we’ve been walking through Matthews gospel

we started with jesus healing on the sabbatah reminding us people are more important then things

then we saw the extenet of the forgivness of God in our lives

last week Ross talked about inside out living and how when we get this backwards it’s damgaing to our own souls

and this all lays the foundation for the final sermon in chapter 12 of matthew.

This morning I want to talk to you about being at home with Jesus.

My desire for you is by the end of this sermon you would consider the death of Jesus, on the cross, how he shed his blood for us

you would consider his reserction and the new life he builds

and as you consider those things again you would allow the Lord to build your lives around those things.

It’s what Jesus is doing in this passage. and it’s what he’d love to do in our lives today. Let’s read the passage together

Matthew 12:38–50 ESV

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

As we look in this seciton of scripture there seems to be three seperate things Jesus address here

First we see the phariesses asking Jesus for a sign

Then we see Jesus teaching on unclean spirits

and final we see Jesus with his family

These can seem really disconnected but they are not

Jesus is teaching what inside out living really looks like

He is teaching about what being his true disciple looks like

and he is allowing those listening to see the work he is doing

in verse 38 the pharisees demand Jesus does a sign for them

They’ve seen and heard about his miricales but the demand more. They want more then what they think a magicin can do.

When they are asking for a sign they are asking for something from above. Something From heaven

that’s not so different from how people relate to Jesus today. The idea of bargining with God is something we have in common from the people of Jesus day

I’ve done this from time to time in my life

My earliest recalection of bargining with God was 7th grade. At best I was agnostic meaing i belived in a God but wasn’t sure he wanted to anything to do with my life

but then things changed. There was the most beutiful girl in the whole world in my 7th grade history class

and I can remember vividly praying in my room one night before bed “God if you are real you will show me when I ask this girl out and if she says yes I’ll bleive in you. I’ll do anything for you”

that’s so silly

so the next day I got to school with flowers and a movie and a card. I ask her to be my girlfriend and as I asked

the words felt like they moved slowly through the air. Knowing this was the pivotal moment in my life

I would have the prettiest girl as my girlfrend and I would have a new found faith in God with her respnoe

as as my words hit her ears instantousnly she said NO WAY

and I was crushed.

and this bargining with God idea is something we are familiar with. Maybe you have a story similar to me. Maybe it’s something silly or small.

but maybe it’s more. Maybe it’s if you keep my family together God

it’s if you heal the sickness

If you allow me to have X

and we have the same script we run. We are asking God for a sign

and as the pharisees ask for there sign look at what Jesus says

He says first of all there is evil and adutlry in your heart becasue you are seeking this

but if you want a sign there is only one you are getting. It’s the sign of the prophet Jonah

He was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights

and just like that I’ll be in the heart of the earth for 3 days and 3 nights

They would have been familiar with Jonah

He was a prophet of God who was called to go to a people who were far from God and wicked

yet he didn’t he went his own way he disobeyed

but god is his grace and mercy allowed a gaitn fish to swallow him. It’s out of the expierence he goes and does Gods will

Jesus is different than Joanh. He didn’t sin. he was without sin

but the sign he is talking about is his death and reseruction

Jesus knew he would be killed on a criminals cross

that he would shed his blood for the forgivness of sins

he would go into the earth and 3 days later he would rise from the grave showing both vicotry over death and sin

Jesus said that’s the sign. Instead of giving you what your hearts think they want I will give you what your hearts need the most

I’ve come to clean the house up. To sweep in of all sin and unrighoutsness and chagne lives

God was making a way for all of us to have a reltionship with him through the work of Jesus on the cross

God has always brought those from the outside in. And if they would repent and believve God at his word he would save them

that’s why Jesus says Nineveh would rise up agaisnt the sign seeking generation and judge it.

Ninevah was the place Jonah went. The place he preached. and they were as wicked as could be.

and yet God saved them because they repeneted at the preaching of Jonah.

they didn’t have a sign. they had the word of God and that was enough to convict them and cause change to come

but not only them Jesus talks about the queen of sheba comign to judge also

because as great as the wisdom from King solomon was Jesus was greater then solmen

Jesus is declaring,

I am the greater prophet

I am the Wiser king

and I am the only true priest

and in order to see real transformation in my life look at the sign of Jonah. Look to my death, burial and resurection

it’s what the writer of hebrews had in mind in

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

and then Jesus leans in here with what he says next

he talks about this house that an unclean spirit enters

Jesus says this evil spirit is looking for rest in waterless places and can’t find it

but then remembers this house. It was empty, sweipt and put in order. When the spirit finds this kind of house it brings more evil to dwell there.

and the state of the house is worse then before

Jesus is using this story to go right to the heart of the issue the phariees were dealing with

Isreal was the empty house

Isreal as a nation at this time in history had done a lot.

They had taken back the temple during the macbeen revoluiton(think star wars rebels)

they had a new temple built

and as beutiful and amazing as the temple was Gods presnce was empty. It had been swept and clean but God was absent

but not only was it this way with the temple

it was this way with those people Jesus was talking to that day

they had it reveresed. They had the outside clean but they were going to waterless places to find rest.

Why the living water was in front of them they missed it

sure they had swept up their lives and put everthying in order but it was empty

in other words there was no real life inside of them

About 13 months ago we had a moment in our lives that was not fun. The downstairs of our house flooded

this lead to insurance claims, working with a construction companies and living in a hotel for a season

when it was all said and done we found out the house would be ready to move back in during the month of august

the crews had finished the job

They swept the house, they did a deep clean and everything was put in order

How strange would it have been if we just held an open house on Sunday from 2-4 the day it was ready to live in. If we staged it but didn’t live in it

that would be a house but not a home

We love an open hosue

and some of you have been having an open house expierencew with Jesus. You've been going thorugh the motions but HE WANTS more for you then that. He wants to move in with you.

what made our house on hastings a home was we moved back in. That’s where life came

and we know that’s true. We can clean our houses from top to bottom making sure they are spotless but what makes our house a home

The pharisees and relgious people of Jesus day were empty house but Jesus wanted them to be a home. A home in which he was invited to live in.

that’s where real life happens

It’s why his teaching on the evil spirit makes so much sense

Moralism and relgion lead to maybe a temporty peace but can’t bring the change we need the most

It’s why his teaching on the evil spirit makes so much sense

if you go back to the open house example. If a house is just staged but never really lived in it just gets worse.

No one is there to take care of it. To make sure it stays clean. To make sure no one else moves in.

and Jesus desires to make our house a home in which he lives

Christinayt is utterly different then religion

I didn’t get that at first. There was a momnent for me I was considering becoming relgious. I was considering beliveing in God. I heard the gospel and thought ok. Time to clean myself up

I read the bible

I prayed someitmes

I gave to a church offering

I attended church like crazy

and stopped cussing sometimes

and I was becoming a really great home. I think I got voted as the youth group president

but I wasn’t a christian. I was still empty inside. I didn’t realize Christinity was differnt then all of that stuff

Tim Keller said it this way

“Don’t mistake Christiany for going to worship, praying, and givine to the poor. Don’t mistake christinty for that. You can do all that and be posion, on your way to destruction, a house on sand.”

Keller

and if that scares you that’s ok. you don’t want the people of Ninevah or the queen of sheba to rise up in judgement agaisnt you.

let the gospel take root in your life and allow Jesus to do something more

Jesus wants to do more then that

there is a gospel goodness that he wants to do in all our lives.

C.S idea has always been helpful to me here. It’s one of my favorite qoutes and something I think on often

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

and that’s my hope for you this moring. you would see just how good the gospel is.

that Jesus is willing to do more then give you a sign from heaven. He is willing to give you his very self

and he is so faithful. Even though we may try to sweep up our lives and put everything in order

he is so much better at that. He is so much more faithful. He is willing to come in and sweep all things in all palces that we might really know him. that we might expierence real life

and the great thing about this real life Jesus wants us to expierence is not just life as friends, or followers but what he is actually teaching in this passage is real life comes by doing Gods will and if we are able to do Gods will it makes us family

I love this. IN the last part of this text Jesus brings purpose to his teaching and our lives.

he is still speaking and Matthew tells us his mother and brothers stood their asking to speak to him.

in marks gospel we are told they thought Jesus was a lunatic but in matthews gospel matthew is highligthing a different perspective for us

as Jesus is asked to be spoken to he asy

Jesus’ mother and brothers are described as “standing outside.” Both words spell “indecision.” They were not “sitting inside” at Jesus’ feet as Mark tells us the disciples were arranged (Mark 3:34); they were “standing—outside.” Standing (when Jesus is teaching and his disciples are sitting) is a posture of half-heartedness and of reserve; it is a position from which one can readily walk away. It represents the spirit of indecision warned against in the previous story.

The word “outside” indicates that Jesus’ family was deliberately outside the orbit of Jesus’ intimate teaching ministry. They are outsiders, near to, but not insiders, within

(This position is exactly the “emptiness” warned of in the preceding story.) According to Mark’s bolder account, Jesus’ family even thought Jesus had lost his mind, and they had come to take him into their custody

Right now, Jesus’ mother and brothers are the empty, clean, and all-fixed-up house of the prior story

They are “clean and all fixed up” because Jesus is around; but they are “empty” because they are outside his circle of seated disciples and even think they can tell Jesus what to do;

Who is my morther and who are my brothers?

and in a really really special moment he streatches out his hadns to his disciples

and says here is my family

and why where they part of his family? Because of the work he had done in their own hearts and lives.

what an awesome moment and a great reminder on who get’s in the kingdom of God

Jesus is saying. It’s not the relgious people who get in just becasue they look clean on the outside.

and it’s not the people who are related to me who get in becasue they are part of my earlthy family

in other words it’s not those who go to the right church, and look the part

it’s not those born to the correct family

i’ts those who do my fathers will. That’s who I’m bringning into the family

what a sweet sweet promise

The story invites us to come inside, to sit down

it’s what the disciples did. They weren’t doing anything really special to deserve to be part of the family of Jesus.

They were just sitting around him

but that’s how it always is with Jesus. He is better then we deserve and mroe then we deserve

and it’s what I long for, for each of you this morning. To come in. To hear the story and respond to it.

maybe if you were to think of your own life as the hosue you would be willing this morning to let the cross be the support beams for life.

and that you and I would allow the blood, the precious blood of Jesus to be what has cleansed us

and the resurection of Jesus is the very thing that brings life and makes our house a home

and home Jesus is glad to take up residence in.

Let’s pray.