Untitled Sermon (2)

Indifference

Me & We – 7 minutes

Mark ladder story.

I remember one fine day when I was working as School Chaplain at Riverside Adventist College in Townsville – North Queensland, I was walking around the school, I was probably visiting class rooms or something like that. Anyway, at the time the school was doing some renovations – they had gutted a couple of classrooms and they were fixing them up, giving them a fresh look. The guy who was doing the renovations was the Father of one the teachers from the school – his name was Mark. He was a Church member, a local builder, awesome guy. Anyways, I walked past the building and I seen Mark lying on the ground on his back with his eyes shut. Now, it was a funny thing, you see – in my mind what happened was – I went back to my Dad, also a builder, on the worksite, lying down at lunch time having a rest. My Dad is Italian – Thomaso Peirino Gigliotti. If anybody here is Italian, you will know that at lunch time, the thing to do is to eat Pasta and olives and lie down for 20 minutes for a rest before you get up and get back into it again. So, here I am, I walk past see him lying there and I think, “Oh, how awesome, Mark is like my Dad. He’s resting at lunch time.”

Later that day, or it might have even been the next day. Here is what I found out. I found out that Mark had actually fallen off the ladder and knocked himself out. He wasn’t resting, he was knocked out.

Shame on me right. It’s like the good Samaritan story, the school Chaplain walks past and sees a guy knocked out and he doesn’t do anything. Ok, not really, if I knew I would have done something, I would have done something.

Here’s the crazy thing though. Sometimes, when something is not quite as it should be, and I do notice, I am aware, I don’t do anything. Maybe you are feeling me on this one.

- You know, sometimes in marriage, we know we shouldn’t niggle at each other the way we do. We know we shouldn’t say things that we say, and put down like we put down, but we do it anyway.

- Sometimes with our money, we know we don’t really need that extra pair of shoes, or that extra accessory on our car, and we really should take that money and put it somewhere else, but we buy that thing anyway.

- Sometimes with the little chats that we have with each-other, or with people at our work, we know that we shouldn’t be saying the things that we are saying about the people we are talking about, but for some reason we do it anyway.

Now, problem is this. When you start to pile these things together. It really doesn’t paint the greatest picture. I mean here is that Christian – Seventh -Day Adventist who is invested in Castle Hill Church, who puts down their spouse, is hooked by the consumer culture, and likes a little bit of gossip.

You know, when you pile some of the things that we do together, it starts to paint a picture that doesn’t look so great. It starts to paint a picture of a person who by word adheres to the values of Christianity, but in action is living some-thing else. It paints a picture of a Christian who has become, or is becoming “indifferent”.

Indifference – that’s what we are talking about today. Have we become, or are we slipping into a place where we are living indifferently. Here’s a few words that come out when you search the term indifference.

Mediocre, Unconcerned, Apathetic, Oblivious to..

Indifference, this isn’t a place or space we want to end up in. And it’s definitely not a place or space that God wants us to end up in – and so we see Jesus speaking into this. .

God – 15 minutes

We are going to go to today, but before we do that, let’s set some context. I want to set some context to . In we have a picture of Jesus…verse 13 - 17 the text says –

“Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

John is baptising in the Jordan, Jesus comes now, and says hey, my turn. John recognizing Him as the Messiah, says no no – I don’t baptise you, you baptize me. Jesus responds and says – no John this is how it needs to happen to fulfil all righteousness. In other words, this is the divine expectation of the Father. This is an act that will see my ministry blessed with the Power of heaven... John responds and says – hey no worries. Check the text.

Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Many of us have seen this text, many times, but it’s significant to what’s happening here.

Jesus is baptised, the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and the text says it lighted on Jesus, or in other words – it moved on Jesus. The Father then looks down and says – “Yes, this is my Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus here, is anointed with the Holy Spirit, to begin Ministry.

In 4 verse 1 then - the text says – that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted – Jesus has been anointed with the Holy Spirit, now He is led by the Holy Spirit.

There is a whole lot of Holy Spirit in here. Mark says that Jesus was impelled or driven by the Holy Spirit to Go into the wilderness. The picture we have here is that immediately after the Baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit has got a hold on Jesus. The fulfillment of righteousness has happened, the anointing of Jesus to begin the greatest task humanity has ever seen has taken place, and now the Spirit grabs Jesus and drives Him into the Wilderness.

Now, there’s something that I need to say about Jesus in the Wilderness.

- For all those who think God has lost it and tried to bring Jesus unstuck by leading Him into temptation in the wilderness, don’t worry God is still with us. There are three things here we need to notice.

- 1. The word ‘tempt’ in Greek – peirazein - actually carries the idea of being tested. So, you could actually say that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be ‘tested’ by the Devil. Now, I know that still sounds crazy, that brings us to number 2.

- 2. God does test us out. God doesn’t tempt us to sin, He doesn’t seek to seduce us into evil, but he does allow our spirituality to be tested. Think of Abraham and His son Isaac in . God says to Abraham “hey go up to Mount Moriah and offer your son as a burnt offering.” Abraham goes all the way up and is willing to go through with it. Just as Abraham prepares to go through with-it God says – no Abraham, no need to offer your son – Jesus will take care of that. God was just testing Him. Why does God test us? I like what William Barclay says on this – “Just as metal has to be tested far beyond any stress and strain that it will ever be called upon to bear, before it can be put to any useful purpose, so a man has to be tested before God can use Him for his purposes”. Before Jesus begins His Ministry, the greatest ministry anyone will ever undertake, His loyalty to God and commitment to God’s Kingdom is tested. Was God worried about Jesus failing? Probably not. Was Jesus to be our example? Yes indeed. God will allow the circumstances of life to test His people out. He wants to see if we are loyal to Him and His Kingdom. Question for us is, how are we doing with those tests? Let’s go to three now.

- 3. The third thing we need notice here is that - Jesus had 40 days of Spirit filled fasting to think about his test before it happened. Filled with the Spirit at Baptism, led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and now Jesus meditates in the Spirit for 40 days, preparing Himself for not only the test, before Him, but for the mission before Him. The Spirit immediately drove Jesus into the Wilderness to give Him plenty of time to prepare for the test, and even more so the mission before Him. The Father never planned on throwing Jesus over the deep end. The same as He doesn’t plan on doing that to us, God builds us to our tests.

Jesus, we know, passes with flying colours and e He then in 4 verse 17 – we are moving along now, the text says – “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” From that time Jesus says – let’s get this thing done! I’m anointed in the Spirit, I’m led by the Spirit, I’ve fasted in the Spirit, I’ve been tried and tested… Let’s get this thing done.

Notice Jesus in action now. Filled with the Spirit. Verse 23-24 –

“Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.”

Jesus is proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, healing diseases and sickness, casting out demons, healing paralytics and epileptics.

Jesus is absolutely filled with the Spirit, and then, in this condition, Jesus begins to teach.

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“When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,”

Why did I set the context for the teachings of Jesus in ? Here’s the reason, in Jesus makes some radical calls around what our life ought to look like as His disciples. In Jesus doesn’t leave room for ‘indifference’.

No sir – In Jesus says – “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden”.

There is no room to apathetically half play Christianity in the teachings of Jesus outlined in . shows us what it means to live as ‘salt and light’ in this world. Before we dive into these radical teachings that Jesus gives, I want us to understand that they are radical for a reason - They are the teachings of the Spirit anointed, Spirit Led, Spirit filled, tested and tried Son of God.

Is your heart ready for some radical stuff? Straight from the lips of Jesus to His Disciples…

. – here we go.

“When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

What’s Jesus saying here?

This is where we start. We are going to do something weird here.

We are going to go to . This is where the Sermon on the mount winds down… This is where this radical set of teachings starts to wind up. It’s like reading a book right, you get the first bit and the last bit and the rest makes sense.

Notice what the text says –

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

, the Sermon on the mount - Jesus begins by saying that the poor in Spirit will enter the Kingdom of heaven and finishes by saying that many who do Christian like stuff, will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Are you ready?

Indifference. Jesus has something on indifference in this text.

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“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”

This is where Jesus starts.

7:21-23 – Not everyone who says to me will enter the Kingdom of heaven.

The difference is in the detail.

In Jesus talks about ….

What does a person who does the will of God look like, a person who comes to the place where they realise they need Jesus...then as 5:6 says – a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness..that person will live this out.

The ppor in spirit will enter, those who don’t do the will of Jesus, will not enter.

You – 15 minutes

We – 7 minutes