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Wednesday Nights Through the Rest of the School Year.

We Believe we are here to A Place to Belong, A Church for the Whole Family.

When I Speak of this I am not talking about a building for the whole family.......I am speaking of a Body of Believers for the Whole Family.

I believe if we are going to truly become that Body of Believers we are going to have to begin looking like the Church described in Acts Chapter 2

Acts 2:41–47 CSB

41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

I believe we will continue to see our numbers added to if we as a church body focus on the outline laid out by the Early Church.

1. They Devoted Themselves to the Teaching of the Leadership.

2. They Devoted Themselves to Fellowship and Breaking Bread.

3. They Devoted Themselves to Prayer.

4. The Devoted Themselves to Contributing to the Cause.

These subjects and more we are going to be learning and discussing on Wednesday Nights through the rest of the school year.

Becoming Apprentices of Jesus and the Apostles

Now for Today’s Message.

As we continue through our series in Matthew, I want to remind everyone why we teach how we teach here.

For those who are new we practice a form of preaching here called expository preaching. Simply explained we take a book of the Bible and break it down verse by verse chapter by chapter. I honestly believe this is the best way to study the Word of God.

Apologist Wes Huff puts it this way, “The Bible was written for Us but not two Us. Therefore we must understand who it was written too and how they would have understood it in their contexts it can better help us a millinea later to apply it properly, consistently, and applicably.”

As we have studied Matthew we have come to learn that Matthew’s Audience is a group of Jewish Converts who after great persucusion are now questioning if Jesus was truly the Messiah and whether or not they should turn back to their old religious customs and denounce Jesus.

Matthew is laying out a case showing that Jesus is the Messiah and has fulfilled all the check marks which bring us to Chapter 11.

Matthew 11:1–3 CSB

1 When Jesus had finished giving instructions to his twelve disciples, he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns. 2 Now when John heard in prison what the Christ was doing, he sent a message through his disciples 3 and asked him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Rustan did a great Job of laying this out for us last week.

I believe that we need to linger here a little longer though so I am going to retrace those steps again.

We have the luxury of having a birds eye view of Scripture. If you remember back to our Christmas series we talked about reading the scripture backwards. We use the old testament to prove our New Testament ideas. But the early church did not have that luxury because they were living through what prophesy was predicting.

I want to put it this way. I believe we are living in now what was Prophesied that would happen before Jesus’ Return. Revelation and 1 and 2 Thessalonians Stuff. Matthew 24 stuff. Since it is Prophesy all of us are trying to piece it together and figure out what’s going on.

We have Famines, Droughts, Earth Quakes, Fires, Volcanoes erupting and Wars and Rumors of Wars.

The same thing was going on here.

There were so many prophesies being fulfilled and those who are paying attention are seeing it happen before their eyes.

and There are two descriptions of the Messiah in Prophesy.

Mashiach Ben David

Messiah Son of David

Isaiah 2:12–18 CSB

12 For a day belonging to the Lord of Armies is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—it will be humbled— 13 against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, 14 against all the high mountains, against all the lofty hills, 15 against every high tower, against every fortified wall, 16 against every ship of Tarshish, and against every splendid sea vessel. 17 The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. 18 The worthless idols will vanish completely.

and

Mashiach ben Yosef

Messiah Son of Joseph

Isaiah 53:4–6 CSB

4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Now lets look at John the Baptist a minute.

This is the guy who went into the wilderness ate locust, wore clothing that was probably less than comfortable. He has procaimed the coming Messiah and said these words.

Matthew 3:4–12 (CSB)

4 Now John had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

5 Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were going out to him,

6 and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.

9 And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.

10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

12 His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”

Then we learn in Chapter 4 that John gets Arrested.

John has now spent some time in chains yet much like Paul was able to have visitors, I believe John’s Disciples have still been allowed to visit him.

While I was praying this week something powerful came to me.

This Word Disciples as we have been studying means Talmidim.

So just like Jesus John had apprentices whom he was preparing and sending out with a message To Repent.

John is struggling because He is in Jail and has been Shown that Jesus is the Son of God. Yet from what he is hearing There is no Winnowing fork in Jesus’ hand and No Chaff is being burned.

This is perfectly natural to doubt. When you are expecting the Son of David but you are Getting the Son of Joseph.

This is no different then those of us who are looking for the Rapture and Not caring about the lost that will be left behind.

When your in prison for Persecution you don’t want Suffering Jesus, You want Warrior Jesus.

So John sends out the ones he is about to send out to proclaim the message to find out if He is proclaiming the right Guy.

Matthew 11:3 CSB

3 and asked him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Then Jesus answers:

Matthew 11:4–6 CSB

4 Jesus replied to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, 6 and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”

Here Jesus is Telling John I and both.

and he is pointing John to Prophesy Isaiah 8:14-17

Isaiah 8:14–17 CSB

14 He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured. 16 Bind up the testimony. Seal up the instruction among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will wait for him.

Jesus is telling John and His Apprentices.

I am the one you have been looking for don’t stumble because of me

Wait on Me.

Church I believe that troubling times are in the world to come..... Prophecy has promised it Jesus has too.

Let us be a people who keeps our eyes on Jesus.

When was the last time you Doubted your Doubts?

When was the last time you Leaned into Faith and Trusted what is True?

Matthew 13:18–23 CSB

18 “So listen to the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path. 20 And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 But the one sown on the good ground—this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”

This is why we break down scripture like we do............So that we can be good ground, produce fruit, and reap a Harvest for the Kingdom until Jesus Returns.

Stand with Me.