Untitled Sermon (10)

Introduction

Our business is words. We live and die by the words we write and speak. Words are important. So important that God chose to reveal himself and his will through words. Some of the best words God has chosen to reveal himself and his plan are verbs. Verbs are words that convey action or state of being.

There is a small Greek verb that God has chosen to use to reveal something significant about his plan. The Greek verb dei, just three letters, is used 101 times in the NT. This small word package carries a powerful punch. The word can be rendered as must, ought, or should or it is necessary. I want to highlight several musts.

The Inevitable Must

In Physics, what goes up (within the earth’s gravitational field) must come down. Physiologically, one must breathe to live. If you stop breathing, you will inevitably die. Theologically, according to

2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

we will all be evaluated for what we did and the motives we had when we did it. This is inevitable. It will happen no matter what. So, in light of this must, how then should we live? How should we live, knowing that our lives will be evaluated by God?

Missional Must

There is a second use of must - missional must. This is a divine must, a redemptive must. In order for the gospel to advance, these are things that must occur. It is necessary that they do happen.

1. When Jesus was 12 years old and his parents went to Jerusalem to observe the Feast of the Passover () and when they became frustrated and frightened that he wasn’t with the caravan. They went back and found him with religious dignitaries. Where were you, and Jesus responded:

Luke 2:49 NIV

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

This was not external compulsion. Jesus whole life yearned to serve and obey his Father, voluntarily. This was part of his mission.

2. The ministry of John the Baptist

John was wildly popular. Everyone came out to him. He was not attempting to usurp Jesus authority. He was a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for Messiah. Therefore, John said:

John 3:30 NIV

He must become greater; I must become less.”

The mission of Jesus cannot go forward if we are making ourselves greater and Jesus lesser. We must decrease and he must increase.

3. The normal Jewish route from Judea to Galilee was to go eastward beyond the Jordan and thus detour the despised foreign country known as Samaria. But, Jesus does something different.

John 4

John 4:4 NIV

Now he had to go through Samaria.

This was not a geographical must. He could have gone a different route. Being Jewish, it was expected. But God’s plan drove him to go through Samaria. The mission made it necessary for him to go through Samaria. It was part of God’s plan. While there, he met a woman at a well and that encounter changed an entire village:

John

John 4:39–42 NIV

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Acts 5:

Acts 8:5–6 NIV

Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.

Acts 8:12 NIV

But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

,

Universal Must - this must acknowledges human freedom yet invites submission in view of consequences.

John 3:7 NIV

You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

Salvation

The early days of the church were fraught with controversy. In Jerusalem apostolic preaching stirred the wrath of the Jewish authorities, who charged the apostles to cease preaching in the name of Christ (). But compromise was no option for the servants of the Lord. Peter declared: “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved”:

Acts 4:12 NIV

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

In an age in which it is popular to claim there is religious validity to all theological systems; that their differences are merely cultural, the Christian must contend otherwise. With love in his heart for all souls, he must insist that Jesus Christ and Christianity are the exclusive depositories of sacred truth (cf. also “must” in ).

Hebrews 11:6 NIV

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

In an age in which it is popular to claim there is religious validity to all theological systems; that their differences are merely cultural, the Christian must contend otherwise. With love in his heart for all souls, he must insist that Jesus Christ and Christianity are the exclusive depositories of sacred truth (cf. also “must” in ).

Worship

We live in a world of modern Nadab and Abihus who think nothing of offering “strange” worship to God (). Autocratic Jeroboams construct worship systems “devised” after their own hearts (). Like the heretics of Colossae, they are “will-worshipers” who have no reservations about concocting worship arrangements that either are “forbidden” or “unbidden,” manifested in an arrogant “self-ordered” piety (; cf. Vine 1991, 881; Kittel 1985, 337; Thayer 1958, 168).

By way of vivid contrast, Jesus Christ emphatically declared: “God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (). The method of one’s worship is not one of culture, personal taste, or religious preference. It must accord to truth, as authorized by the word of Christ through his New Testament revelation (cf. ).

We are called to be dei walkers.

We are called to win the day with dei.

How will you live in light of the inevitable must?

What is your missional must?

Will you use your freedom to voluntarily submit to God in proclaiming salvation by no other name and worshiping in spirit and truth.