From Crowd to Church
Notes
Transcript
English Standard Version Chapter 15
29 Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them
Here he is healing people and what you can see is he is against the stuff that holds us down and he is trying to free us from some of it. We believe that he still does physical healing today.. we don’t think this is something that just happened in the Old Testament. And there are some of you that have disease and are afraid of what is coming and he says come to me with that… sometimes it is emotional spiritual healing....
And what you see back then and today when he heals people he is pointing back to the Garden before there was pain and sickness and evil and he is also pointing forward to a new creation a new heaven and new earth… and he is coming and showing that he is bringing restoration, and there are some of you in the middle of misery in this pandemic and you are wondering what Jesus is saying and he wants to restore people… not just change their thoughts.
English Standard Version Chapter 15
31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.
They thought look at what he does… he's pointing back and he is raising this question about his own identity… he wasn’t pointing to some other deity… he is pointing to himself…and right off the bat, we are confronted with this crisis of what are you going to do with Jesus… he wasn’t claiming to be a teacher or philosopher… thats what people teach today… he was just a good guy.... and Jesus says I am not another guy, I am God… and thats who he says he was… and the question is what are you going to do with that...
Bono… Christianity is close to lunacy.... son of God isn’t that farfetched.,,,,
No, it's not farfetched to me.
Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook.
Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate...”
...So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson....The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched …
We all need to figure out this confrontation with Jesus… he’s not just a dude… hes either a liar or lunatic or Lord says C.S. Lewis
Are you willing to move from crowd to church… from observer to a place where you want to give something to him? Lots of people want to attribute wisdom to him but not follow him.. .and thats not what we want for you.
Judas at the last supper there is this contrast that takes place...
20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.
21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”
All of them.. is it I Lord, they call him Lord..... then vs 25… is it I.... Rabbi? Teacher? Judas… he didn’t get it… this is the thing that has worked its way through culture… I relate to him as Good guy but not Lord… and this says make sure you recognize him as your Lord and not just Rabbi.
You have to be able to relate to him as Lord… o how do you relate to him… Thats why when you see me heal you worship God because I am him in carnate.
Eschaton… when it would come… Israel would be restored… this text reads like Isaiah 35, this time has already happened… He wants to restore you emotionally and physically… he is saying this is the time for forgiveness of sins… and sometimes he gets a bad rap because he allows for evil and suffering… but here we see him doing something about it… why do you think all these people gather around him.... next story will tell you almost 15,000 people hanging around him… why… because he is giving them hope.
Hope keeps people going… and here he says I am for you… I am WITH you...
What do you need as a leader… encouragement… that once in a while I do an okay job… some of you know what that is like… If I am going to be a good leader and dad I need to klnow that once in a while what I am doing is alright. You are not defined by the thing that is crippling… he says I know you have messed up.. but that isnt defining you. If you trust in him he makes you fully new in him....
30 says he healed them… and he is alive and well and can do the same for you today… you have to come around him as Lord… not just rabbi..
English Standard Version Chapter 15
32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”
Unless they faint, he cared about them
33 And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”
And just one chapter ago he fed the 5000 and they asked the same question. And the disciples try to send them away to get their own food...
and here they are saying we cant do this… do you not remember… Next chapter....
5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”
8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
THey get in their own boat and they keep forgetting who they are with… why are you doing this? do you not understand what is going on? You and I tend to be really slow at comprehending discipleship… we are really slow at obedience… not in school..why is it that something can be so clear and precise and we still push back… I know the Bible says this but I just dont know. WE say we didnt hear it straight from Jesus so maybe it isnt exactly true...
And we are slow at learning… and we do this on both sides of the political debate as Christians. Moment of conception he loved us whether we were intended or not… maybe the Bible doesn’t really mean that… we rethink it… we are slow to understand and learn...
Jesus calls out and warns of the risk of riches… the more you have the more you can drift from me so be very careful...
Sodom and gomorah to the conservative christian.,.. it was more about riches and consumerism… tells us in Ezekiel.... we find it very hard to surrender our lives if it doesnt line up with our lives...
WE are slow to learn. WE are slow to respond to him, slow to go, maybe I should readjust everything about my life. Sometimes its an issue about hearing and just choosing to obey. Other times it might just be an issue of hearing and listening to his voice and getting into a rhythm of life where we can actually hear him and know.
Thats why in John he said, my sheep hear my voice… we need to slow down and listen long enough to hear him…can you hear him?
Dallas Willard said, hearing God as a reliable day to day reality is for those who are devoted to the glory of GOd and the advancement of his kingdom. It is for the disciple of Jesus Christ who has no higher preference than to be like him. Perhaps we do not hear the voice because we do not expect to hear it. Then again, perhaps we do not expect it because we know that we fully intend to run our lives on our own and have never seriously considered anything else anyway.”
Powerful and scary, why do we know what he wants to do and not get it… ask your heart that question. Ask yourself why. What are the things that are keeping you from hearing.
THe last thing, if we are not finding ourselves in places where it is going to fail utterly unless God follows through we may not be truly following him. WE are supposed to get to a place where we have to actually need him so we dont fail miserably.
FUCC… growth didnt know what we were doing… we baptized 25 kids in a year… because we were leaning in on him...
When we experience him that is when we grow the most
English Standard Version Chapter 16
16 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
THey want him to prove himself.. we are the only country that looks at suffering and thinks there must not be a god… every other culture looks at it and thinks we must not be smart enough to understand what is going on.... one writer says it is our worship of our own intellect that makes us think if suffering no god..
And they say prove it… and he is saying… I am not working for you.. and he answers them...
English Standard Version Chapter 16
2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
You know what he is saying… red sky at night sailors delight.. Jesus looks at them and they have started wanting to play games with him… and he is saying I dont have time for this.... and he calls us to stuff and we try to get him to change it… He is saying I am giving you the sign of jonah… the cross and the resurrection of myself… if you want to play games with me, you arent going to get what you want...
He is saying look at what I did.... I just healed people fed 4000 and you are asking for a sign… do you not see it already.... and I am going to give you one more… so if you still dont get it what is it going to take.... I am going to show you the cross… that is what I am going to give you… his point is that you are so in touch with nature experientially that you know how the sun works,,, that you will be so in touch with me spiritually that you wont need signs around you because you are so tight with me you see it all around you… that hte scripture is so in your mind that you hear my voice. That you see the cross and resurrection and be able to experience me.
That you and I are exchanging and you see it llike the sun that is rising and setting in your life and you arent just praying and going away… I defeated it for you...
