The Foolishness of God
Pastor James Bryson
The Spirit of Grace • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Prayer: It is not I who speaks but your Holy Spirit speaks. Minister to us from your Holy Word.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.
Do not suppose, or presume that “I came.”
Have you ever presumed against God? You thought God was doing one thing but He is doing something totally different.
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
David is making distinctions from hidden sins/ secret faults and presumptuous sins.
He prays and ask God to cleanse him from secret faults.
But from presumptuous he ask God to keep him away from it.
We think that our lives should be a curtain way, we think that we are entitled to curtain things.
“There is a natural proneness to sin in the best of men, and they must be held back as a horse is held back by the bit or they will run into it.” Charles Spurgeon.
In the OT there wasn’t a sacrifice for presumption.
“But the soul that sinneth presumptuously shall have no atonement; it shall be cut off from the midst of my people.”
There was no humility is presumption, theres no faith in presumption, its just me margainizing God and the things of God.
Theres no care for what God cares about its just my wants my presuppositions.
“That I came” speaks of Christ preexistence. This speaks of Christ pre-incarnation.
But then Jesus says something interesting “I did not come to bring peace but a sword”
This verse sounds like a seeming contradiction. This sounds contradictory to everything I’ve known to be true about why Christ came.
This is where the pacifist and the liberal theologians have problems.
Those that believe war and violence is under justifiable, this is complete against that idea.
John 14:27 (NKJV)
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Jesus is call the Prince of Peace in Isaiah 9:6, In Isaiah 9:7, His government will be of peace, and there will be know end.
Isaiah 9:7 (NKJV)
Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Even Phil. 4:7.
Philippians 4:7 (NKJV)
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
So why would Jesus say He did not come to bring peace but a sword?
I believe Jesus is actually talking about the highest form of peace here.
Jesus is talking about war that makes way for peace.
In order for peace to happen war has to take place.
In order for the cancer to stop spreading you have to cut the tumor.
This is peace: when the cancer is cut away. Only with such radical surgery is it possible for heaven to be reunited to earth.
The peace that Jesus is talking about is harmony. A set of favorable circumstances. Do not think “that I came to bring you harmony or earth.”
This is the worlds ambition. Is harmony.
But the peace He came to bring is not simply the absence of strife; or the absence from pain, or suffering. But the peace He gives is the overcoming of sin and bringing in salvation.
The sword here isn’t literally, but its a symbol used for conflict.
So Christ coming could lead to war and hostility to those who oppose Christ and His righteousness.
Matthew 10:35 (NKJV)
For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’;
“I have come” once again is speaking about His preexistence.
and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
This isn’t referring to “Family Feud”!
This isn’t referring to families debating and quarreling against one another.
Or pity back and forth between family members.
Daughter in-law against mother in-law . whether you’re saved or not this is a problem in every family haha.
Jesus coming may divide families.
For son dishonors father, Daughter rises against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
There possibly will come a time when you will have to loose the weight of culture and follow after Christ.
Jesus is attacking one of the most deep seated convictions of the day. Father and son should never be put at odds. Mother and son should never be put at odds The same with a mother and daughter and a mother in law and and a daughter.
Do we not understand that the fundamental union between family and friends would possibly be damaged by a growing relationship with Christ.
“Jesus said I came to bring a sword, A sword divides; so does the truth which Jesus came to bring. It is more important than family unity”
This is a idiom of speech. He’s not saying you will hate your family, but compared to the love we should have for Him it would seem like hate.
We are not governed by the same principles of the world. Though we live in the world.
“Set a man against” means “to cause family members to rebel against each.”
Some who follow Christ with there whole heart are often hated by there family. Thats with a religious family or not.
Families prefer nominal Christianity. Celebrity Christianity.
It grieve to see how sometimes we can be more of a fam with a tv pastor then a Pastor that you see everyday who is praying and loving you.
Following Christ could be a lonely business.
They will reject each others authority.
This understanding is completely counter cultural!
Curtain countries the family is all that there is!
In Jewish culture of the father was the head of his household, the loyalty owed to him was above most loyalties, perhaps above all.
He who has an affection for father or mother above that which he has for me, is not worthy of me.
Jesus knew what it was like to face rejection from His own family. And not to believe in Him.
For even His brothers did not believe in Him.
Also that thought He was mad.
Mark 3:21 (NKJV)
But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”
- They thought Jesus had a mental illness. Imagine your family thinking you have a mental illness.
Matthew 10:38 (NKJV)
And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Theres a demand for loyalty that is lost in nominal Christianity.
Taking up the cross was a very clear message to the disciples.
They knew that when one was to take up there cross they would be escorted by Romans Soldiers, and that one was on a one way journey.
Taking up ones cross means renunciation of the claims of self.
That means not only Jesus being the Lord of our salvation but also our rabbi. We trust Jesus to be our sin bearer but we don’t trust Him to teach us. We leave that for the experts.
Although we may speak glibly today of “our cross” as the need to put up with Aunt Molly or a leaky roof, “taking up the cross” in Jesus’ day meant being forced to bear the instrument of one’s execution past a jeering mob to the site of one’s imminent death as a condemned criminal (see Hengel 1977).
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
The cost of discipleship is real! Discipleship used to be something that was longed for.
It was actually a high honor to be a disciple.
Not you practically have to beg people to be discipled unto Jesus Christ.
why is discipleship so important because on the other side of discipleship you see Christ.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,
The message of the cross is absurd to those who are perishing.
The reason why those who are perishing see it as a absurdity. or Foolishness. Because the message of the cross cut to the heart of self-centeredness.
What kind progressive thinking man or women would reject themselves. Thats foolish.
Jesus said that if you love your life you will lose it.
A well-known graffito in Rome depicts a worshipper standing before a crucified figure with the body of a man and the head of an ass and the inscription ‘Alexamenos worships his god’.
But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
we lose our lives by following Him.
Galatians 6:12–14 (NKJV)
As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
We were deceived by the wisdom of the serpent, but we are freed by the foolishness of God.
Saint Augustine of Hippo
