40 Forward Last Week
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
I want to again welcome you to our Wednesday night online prayer service.
As I prayed and thought about what I would share with you tonight, I decided to maybe
As I prayed about what I would share with you tonight, what kept coming to mind was our current circumstances. Because to be honest, never in a 100 years would I have imagined that a few days before Easter, our sanctuary would be empty and I would be preaching to a couple of cameras.
Which to be honest with you, has taken some getting used too.
And if I’m being totally transparent, our current circumstance has really messed with my plans and vision for the future.
Because the truth is, I had big plans for Easter. I had all kinds of ideas of how we were going to connect with new people. How we were going to lead people to Jesus. How we were going to follow up with them and help them get started on their faith journey. In fact, I’d go as far to say that I have never been so excited for Easter.
But in the past few weeks, those plans have all had to change as our current circumstances have forced us to rethink and approach church and Easter in an entirely different way.
And if I’m being honest, there have been a couple of moments in the last few weeks where it’s really bothered me, especially on Sunday mornings as I walk around an empty quiet and look at empty chairs. Moments, where I’ve found myself upset, discouraged, and even angry.
Moments where I found myself asking God, “God, what’s going on? Why are you allowing this? God, things were going so well here at MCF. We had great attendance. We had amazing fellowship. We had great plans for a Men’s Conference, for Easter, for Mother’s Day, and for Father’s Day. We had invite cards. We had mailers. God why have you thrown a monkey wrench in our plans.”
If I’m being honest, I’ve had some moments.
Maybe you’ve had some of those moments as well.
Maybe you have a great paying job, but now there’s uncertainty for its future.
Maybe you’re a business owner, and your business was thriving, but now customers are few or your doors are closed.
Maybe you’re an athlete and you were looking forward to your best season ever, but now your season has been canceled.
Or maybe you were thinking you had a few months until the kids would be home for the summer, but instead, they’re home now, and your home has become a school house of chaos.
And in the midst of your plans being messed up, your job having uncertainty, your kids driving you nuts, your business losing business, and trying to find yeast, flour, and toilet paper, you’ve had some moments. Moments where you’ve lost your cool, become discouraged, or maybe even questioned God.
The reality is, our current circumstances have affected all of us, and unless I miss my guess, has created some moments where you’ve lost your cool, become discouraged, or maybe even questioned God.
I think we’ve all been there, or it could be, you’re even there right now.
So, what do we do in those moments? How do we keep ourselves from getting discouraged, becoming angry, and questioning God?
Those are great questions. And I hope I can give you some direction on that tonight. And to do that, I want to share two insights with you.
The first insight comes from something I felt like the Lord spoke to me the last time I was having one of those moments.
It was simply a thought He placed in my head.
The second insight comes from Scripture and represents what I believe God may doing in and through our church, and maybe even in your life during this time.
So, let’s start with what I felt like the Lord recently showed me.
A couple of weeks ago I was having a down day. It wasn’t long after Governor Kelly issued the Stay at home order and it became very apparent that Easter as we know it wasn’t going to happen.
And as I sat there getting frustrated and angry, I felt like the Lord spoke to me, and in essence here’s what He said to me:
“Brad, I didn’t give my life so you would have an easy life with no worries. I didn’t give my life so you could have your best life now and live in Christian utopia.
I came because you live in a sin stained world. I came because this world that is in a state of death and decay.
And Brad, this virus is meant to serve as a wake up call and reminder that you’re not home yet. It’s a reminder that in order to reach more people, it’s going to require you to get out of your comfort controlled environment and trust me in ways you haven’t before. Because I didn’t call you to be comfortable. I called you to follow me no matter where it takes you.”
Little bit of a rebuke, right?
Now, here’s the scriptural insight.
Because as I thought about that, I was reminded of the disciples. And I started thinking about the three years they spent with Jesus. Three years walking around with the Son of God.
Can you imagine what that must have been like?
I mean just think about it. Everyday they got to sit and listen to Jesus talk and teach.
Everyday, they witnessed some sort of miracle, weather it be a healing, a demonic deliverance, or somebody getting raised from the dead.
Everyday, they had no concerns about what they would eat or drink, because on two occasions they watched Jesus take a few loaves and a few fish, and feed thousands.
Everyday, they were able to ask Jesus questions and pick his brain on spiritual matters and challenges they were facing.
Everyday, they watched him debate and make the religous leaders and those who opposed Him look like fools.
I mean if you think about it, these guys were living in Christian Utopia. They were on a path for success. Because as Jesus’s popularity grew their excitement for what could be grew with it.
In fact, two of them were so excited about the prospects of what Jesus would do, that they had their mom ask Jesus an unbelievable question. In listen to what the Mother of James and John asks Jesus:
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”
That’s quite an ask, right? But that’s how the disciples were thinking. Because as Jesus’s ministry grew, as thousands of people started following Him, they started imagining Jesus as the new King of Israel and what that would mean for them. .
Honestly, it reminds me of how Americans and even the American churches tend to think.
Because we are a goal oriented and success driven culture.
As a result, we have great aspirations of what could be as we imagine ourselves on a path to attain a certain education, attend a certain school, obtain a certain kind of job, live in a certain type of house, drive a certain car, and make a certain amount money. But we don’t stop there. We continue to look to the future as we build our 401k, plan retirement, and look forward to the day we can move to a warm place and live on the beach. It’s the American dream.
That’s where the disciples were at. Their eyes were set on what could be. They were living the Jesus dream.
But then all of a sudden it all came to a screeching halt as what they thought could be melted right in front of them.
It all started in a garden called Gethsemane as a group of soldiers arrived and arrested Jesus. Matthew describes that moment like this:
“Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.” (ESV)
It was a shocking moment as their master, their teacher, their friend, was arrested.
But the shock didn’t end there as only a few hours later Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin as a trial was held and a verdict was given.
Matthew describes it like this:
66 What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.” 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, 68 saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”
For the disciples, this was unbelievable. How could this be happening?
Matthew 26:66
But it only got worse from there, as Jesus was condemned, whipped, and taken out to be crucified.
Matthew writes:
33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.
Can you imagine how the disciples must have felt in that moment. The moment everything they had hoped for. Everything they had dreamed they would do with Jesus suddenly was ripped from them. And not just ripped, but actually put to death as in the final moments of his life, Jesus cries out, “My God, my god, why have you forsaken me?” And then he breathed his last, and he died.
At this point there are no words. Nothing that could have prepared them for this. I mean in a 100 years they would have ever imagined this would happen on passover weekend.
And then he breathed his last, and he died.
Kind of sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Because isn’t that where some of us are right now. We’ve been living the American dream. We’ve been doing life the American way. We’ve even been doing church the American way. It’s been nothing but blue skies. For a long time we’ve been making the church and America great again!
But then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, as we were going about our comfortable daily routines, the Corona Virus showed up. And before we knew it, the stock market took a turn. Before we knew it, schools and sports were canceled. Before we knew it business’s were told to shut their doors. Before we knew it, people were getting laid off. Before we knew it the church wasn’t allowed to gather. Before we knew it, people were scrambling to find toilet paper. Before we knew it, everything we’d been planing in the days, weeks and months to come was undone. Something we didn’t see coming. Something we never expected. Something that maybe even causes some of us to cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken us.
That’s exactly where the disciples were on passover weekend, and ironically, in a way, it’s where we find ourselves as we approach the same weekend as we try to wrap our minds around what has happened.
So, what did the disciples do in response to all of this. Well, the gospel writer John tell us. In he writes:
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
John says in response to all of this, the disciples gathered together in a group of 11, locked the doors, and hid in fear.
Again, kind of sounds famialir, doesn’t it?
Now, you might be wondering, “Pastor, where are you going with this. Because this kind of depressing.”
Here’s where I’m going with this.
What the disciples the disciples didn’t initially understand, is that Jesus didn’t come to establish an earthly kingdom that they would rule and reign with Him in. Jesus didn’t come so they could live the Jesus dream. Jesus didn’t some so they could live in a utopia world.
No. Jesus came to prepare them. To prepare them for ministry. To prepare them to reach a lost and dying world.
But part of the preparation required them to go through some challenges. Part of the preparation required them to rethink what following Jesus was all about. Part of the preparation was for them to stop following their dream and aspirations and embrace God’s plan.
Because the fact is, in order for them to accomplish what God had called them to do, it would require an entirely different way of thinking. It would require them to rely on God in a way they never had before. It would require them to face some discomfort they never imagined they would face. But on the other end of it, they would be better prepared and more able to accomplish what Jesus had called them to do.
In fact, Jesus said it would be that way. Listen to how Jesus puts it has he describes a day to them when he wouldn’t physically be with them:
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Jesus actually says in his absence the disciples will do greater works. So, how does that work? How could they possibly do greater works than Jesus?
What Jesus was referring to was the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that would come upon them in his absence. An empowerment that wouldn’t be limited to one person, but to thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Christians, who in the power of the Spirit would do the works of Jesus.
But prior to the cross, the disciples couldn’t imagine that. All they could see and envision was their own plan and their own idea of what Jesus had come to do.
In away, I think that’s what Jesus is trying to show us. Because prior to the virus, we had our way for reaching people. We had our way of doing church. We had our way of doing life. We had our way for paying the bills. We had our way of planning for the future. We had our way of accomplishing our goals and dreams for tomorrow. We had our way, our plan, and our vision.
But the Corona Virus has changed all that. And now, it’s forcing us to rethink. It’s forcing us to reconsider. It’s forcing us to face some discomfort. it’s forcing us to consider that maybe God is trying to prepare us for something.
And what I’d like to suggest to you, is that it’s preparing you for something that God wants to do in and through you. It’s preparing you to trust Him in ways you’ve never trusted Him. It’s preparing you to accomplish something you could have never imagined. It’s preparing you to be positioned in ways you never could have positioned yourself.
For what? I don’t know. Maybe for a new job that’s better than the one you have. Maybe for a new opportunity that going out for a sport or going to a certain school wouldn’t have provided. Maybe it’s a new way of doing business that you would have never considered. I’m not sure what it is. But what I can tell you is it’s a bigger plan and better plan than you would have ever had dreamed up on your own had nothing changed. Had the corona virus not rocked your world. It’s a God sized plan that for now requires some discomfort.
And for our church, I believe it’s preparing us to reap a harvest of souls we never could have imagined possible had we done Easter as we had planned. Because I believe through this virus, that Jesus is going to make His church stronger, more affective, and more able to reach more people with the gospel.
Because at the end of the day, Jesus didn’t come to make our lives comfortable. He didn’t come so we could have our best life now and live in a utopia world. He came to save a sin stained world.
And in the process he’s called you and me to be a part of His solution. A solution that may not go as we planned. A solution that may cause some discomfort. A solution that is preparing us for great works in ways we never thought possible.
Because just like the first disciples, Jesus hasn’t left us empty handed. He’s given us the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit hasn’t left the building. The Holy Spirit doesn’t limit himself to groups of 10. The Holy Spirit doesn’t have to keep a 6 foot distance. No, the Holy Spirit is at work, and He wants to work through you and me to accomplish a plan that God has put in play, a plan that I believe will lead to a victory we never though possible.
Because who would have ever thought, that the cross wan’t the end, but the beginning. The beginning of something miraculous. The beginning of something supernatural. Be beginning of a movement called the church that would literally take the world by storm.
And it’s the same with the corona virus. Because on this side of the virus, it seems rather bleak. On this side, it appears all is lost. But there’s another side. A side where God’s people step out of the locked rooms and accomplish something that nobody could have ever imagined.
Let’s Pray