When Truth is a Threat

Father, we give you thanks and praise that as we gather as your people in your presence

to sing your praises, to pray to you, and to hear your word, we give you thanks and

praise that you desire us to have a true and accurate knowledge of ourselves in the context

of the gospel and the context of hope.

We thank you, Father, that you want us to know ourselves in the context of hope, that

you can and will work within us to make us more whole, more free, more at one with truth

and goodness and justice.

So we ask, Father, that you would do that gentle but deep and powerful work in our midst as

we enter into thinking about your word.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

I've shared this with you before.

It's one of my character flaws, of which I have many.

And I'm not very good at telling people off.

When they've been doing something which is wrong and it needs to be corrected, I'm just

not very good at it.

I think I'm better at it than I was 10 years ago and better at it than I was 20 years ago,

but it's just never been something that I've been very good at.

And those times when I do finally confront a person about what they've done wrong that

needs to be corrected.

I can usually tell within, I was going to say a minute, but really it's probably within

less than 30 seconds.

I can tell within less than 30 seconds whether this is going to go really well or really bad.

You can tell just by the way the person starts to receive it, whether they're going to be

sort of penitent, whether they're going to acknowledge that they've done something wrong.

And it's often, you can almost see them, if you were to videotape it, you can almost see

them not slumping, but almost like puffing up their chest and moving forward and almost

clenching their hands because they're going to fight you over this.

They're going to point the finger at you and, or me I should say, and really be aggressive.

And I can tell fairly quickly in a conversation whether it's going to go bad or not.

Why is this?

Not that why am I bad at confronting people?

That's a whole, you know, that's a whole other topic of conversation.

But why is it that, why is it that sometimes, not just others, but us, when we're confronted

of something that we do wrong, why is it that we don't feel guilty, or maybe we do feel guilty,

but our response isn't to say that we're sorry.

Our response is to lash out, to get angry, to push back in a very, very hard way.

And why is it at the same time, like in a bit of a similar type of thing, why is it that

sometimes if we've been having a discussion with somebody, a friend or a family member,

and we've made certain types of claims about things being true, and then maybe the next

day you see it, that you see, you know, some really, really solid evidence that what you

said was true is wrong.

And what the other person was saying was true was correct.

And when you see that, it doesn't make you happy.

It makes you sad.

And in fact, actually, not only might it make you sad that you've been incorrect and they're

correct, but it might make you want to do things to try to, well, to make it look like

either you didn't say it, or they didn't say it, or they're still wrong, or whatever.

Like, why is it that that goes on in us as individuals?

And of course, we can then extend it to what we see in politics and in culture and in the

media and everything like that.

But why is it that those two types of things is part of the human experience?

The Bible text that we have today, the two texts, the two stories or incidents that we

have in, we're going to look at today in the Gospel of Mark, is actually a very interesting

meditation upon these two questions.

And it's a meditation that actually has, it both is quite confronting, but it's actually

also very deeply filled with hope.

Hope that we can be better than that, or a way to be a little bit, or be a lot more better

than that.

So let's have a look at it.

If you're following along in these, which we've given out, if you don't have one, there's

still a few left, you can pick it up either now or after the service.

It's Mark chapter 11, verse 27.

Mark 11:27

And if you're following along in this booklet, it's page 70, at the very bottom of the page.

And just a reminder, Mark, it looks all fancy now, but it's an ancient eyewitness biography,

eyewitness-based biography of Jesus.

It's one of four ancient eyewitness-based biographies of Jesus written, while literally thousands

of eyewitnesses were still alive and could have refuted it.

And in terms of, he tells it like a story, and in the story, sort of a bit of a climax

or a low mat, depending on how you look at it, as a climax, or maybe it's like a bit of

a pit, that he announces he's going to go to Jerusalem and he's going to be captured,

he's going to be killed.

And that's in chapter 8.

And now, just we looked at last week, he's finally come to Jerusalem.

And we now know, but the people in the stories don't know, that within a couple of days, he'll

be dying on a cross, and then he'll be buried.

And so this story is written within that context.

We know that, maybe some of you don't, but we know it.

But Jesus has predicted that he's going to die in Jerusalem.

And it didn't maybe look at that at first because of the triumphal entry, but we know

that he's predicted it.

So what happens?

Look here, verse...

Oh yeah, the other thing here that is important, just to know if you don't know the Bible very

well, is that what's just happened before this is what's called the cleansing of the

temple, where there were a whole pile of merchants taking up the area where pagans were supposed

to be allowed to come and worship God.

And Jesus has driven them all out.

He's caused chaos and driven them all out of the temple area with just overturning tables

and everything like that.

And that's just sort of happened the day or two before this.

And now we have this incident.

Verse 27.

And they, that's Jesus and his disciples, came again to Jerusalem.

And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came

to him.

And they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things or who gave you this

authority to do them?

Now just sort of pause here for a second.

This is, I've said this many times, but it's an important thing to remember.

However, we live in a, unless you're a conspiracy theorist and think the World Economic Forum

or, you know, Jewish people or, I don't know, Davos people or whatever, or, you know, is controlling

all of the different groups in society.

Apart from that, what we have in our day and age is we have very, we have separate types

of elites.

But that didn't exist at the time of Jesus.

So when it talks about chief priests and scribes and elders, it's not talking about sort of

like a Roman Catholic priest, a scribe being like a writer of a newspaper or a writer of

novels and an elder being an old person.

What it is, it's actually describing what's called the Sanhedrin.

So Jerusalem, Israel, the Jewish people are under Roman occupation.

And the Romans, they actually gave a lot of leeway for local management.

And as long as the peace was kept and as long as tax dollars kept going up to the Romans,

they allowed the Jewish people to basically govern themselves.

And so what we have here is we have the three leading groups all together.

It's called the Sanhedrin.

And what you need to think of, it would be as if the spiritual elite, the literary elite,

the political elite, the cultural elite, the intellectual elite, the commercial elite,

the legal elite, the educational elite, that all of those elites are just one body.

Like in our culture, there's lots of different groups.

But in that time, there was just this one group that was all unified.

And so that's the representatives of that one unified group.

So in our days and age, it's Amazon and Apple and the Globe and Mail and the University of Toronto

and McGill, the representatives of that one group all coming and saying to Jesus,

by what authority are you doing these things?

And it's a very interesting question because just to remind us,

there's a difference between authority and power.

Like a little bit of an illustration and maybe make why they're bothered.

You know, the last little while, there's been odd things going on in England.

People throwing tomato soup, cans of tomato soup or mashed potatoes on works of art.

And then after they've done that, they glue themselves to the seat or the wall or whatever.

And we might say, by what authority are you?

But you don't ask them by what power you do it because they just did it.

Like you don't ask Jesus by what power did you drive them all?

Well, we know you did it.

Authority is a different type of question.

Like what justifies it?

What gives you the right to be able to do something like that?

You know, and I don't want to get you on the sideline as to what the climate change people would say,

but that's the same type of thing.

Like you just did this, caused this huge, huge big mess.

Like what gives you the right?

What gives you the authority to do that?

That's the question which they ask.

So how does Jesus answer the question?

Well, let's look.

Verse 29.

Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question.

Answer me.

And I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Here's the question.

Was the baptism of John the Baptist from heaven or from human beings?

Answer me.

Now, this is not an evasion.

This is not him cloaking.

This isn't trying to deflect the question.

This isn't him trying to buy time.

He's actually doing something which is very profound that we can learn from.

One of the problems that we have often is that we just merely answer questions,

but we don't answer the questioner, the person.

And I don't mean in a bad way, like going after the questioner,

because Jesus isn't at all threatening here.

But it's very important in life that you don't just think of the question.

You think of the person asking the question.

And you don't want to just merely answer a question.

You want to answer the person who's asking the question.

And that's what Jesus is modeling here.

And his question is a way to help the questioner, the person,

come to a certain degree of self-knowledge,

and also actually for Jesus to learn a little bit more about the questioner

so that there can be, in fact, a really good answer

that not only answers the question, but the person.

So this is an evasion.

And some of you might be thinking,

what exactly is it that John the Baptist said?

So if you just flip in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1,

Mark 1 · chapter mention

and if you're using this, it's actually the page doesn't have a number.

It's at the very beginning, obviously, page 6.

And this will help to refresh our memories

as to why it is that Jesus says to them,

the baptism of John the Baptist,

was it from heaven or was it from...

And heaven means from God.

And here's how Mark begins his story of Jesus,

his biography of Jesus.

The beginning of the gospel, which means good news,

the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And Mark quotes Isaiah,

as it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

the voice of one crying in the wilderness,

prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

So just pause.

What Mark is saying here is that

as you're going to read the rest of the gospel,

we're going to meet John the Baptist,

and John the Baptist is fulfilling this prophecy

from 600 years earlier.

John the Baptist is that messenger who's come

to prepare the way of the Lord.

And, you know, to our Muslim friends,

I would say this is one of many texts in the Bible

which is showing you that the Mark

and the Christians in the Bible

teaches that Jesus is God.

John the Baptist has come to prepare the way of the Lord.

What exactly did John the Baptist say?

Look at verse 4.

John appeared baptizing in the wilderness

and proclaiming a baptism of repentance

for the forgiveness of sin.

And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem

were going out to him

and were being baptized by him in the River Jordan,

confessing their sins.

Now, John the Baptist was clothed with camel's hair

and wore a leather belt around his waist

and ate locusts and wild honey.

He was a bit of a hippie.

And he preached, saying,

after me comes he who is mightier than I,

the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy

to stoop down and untie.

I have baptized you with water,

but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

And so what he's saying here is that

this person he's about to introduce,

we're going to see that in the next few verses,

is vastly greater than him.

And John the Baptist is a prophet.

And only God can send...

The baptism of the Holy Spirit

is this idea that the Holy Spirit

can actually flood you.

You can be immersed in God the Holy Spirit.

And only God can do that,

not a human being.

And now look at the next page,

the actual baptism of Jesus.

So part of what we've just seen

is the message of John the Baptist

and his baptisms.

And then we see the actual baptism of Jesus

and John the Baptist,

who's going to be bearing witness

to what happened.

Verse 9,

In those days,

Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee

and was baptized by John in the Jordan River.

And when Jesus came up out of the water,

immediately,

and now actually the he,

it's not clear in the original language

whether it means Jesus

or whether it means John the Baptist,

or it could mean both,

immediately he saw the heavens being torn open

and the Holy Spirit descending on him.

That's now Jesus like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven,

You are my beloved son.

With you, I am well pleased.

Now, every one of my children

has the same nature as me.

We're both human beings.

And if a dog has puppies,

those puppies have the same nature

as the mother and the father.

And so here we have another very clear claim

that Jesus is actually God.

He's God the Son.

God the Father

and God the Holy Spirit

bearing witness

that Jesus is God's Son.

Now, let's go back to our text

now that we've sort of been reminded

about what it is that John the Baptist said.

If you turn back to Mark chapter 11,

Mark 11:30

verse 30, 31.

And by the way, just so you know,

one of the things which is so interesting

about the time of Jesus

is that John the Baptist

was well-known to historians.

The Jewish historian Josephus

has a lot of information

about the life of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist really was viewed as a prophet.

He really was wildly popular.

He really is known to history

outside of the New Testament.

And so Jesus says,

you know, back to what the question is,

okay, John the Baptist,

you've asked me by what authority

I've done these things.

I'm going to ask you the,

you know, the question is,

does the baptism of John from heaven,

in other words, from God

or from human beings answer me?

So verse 31,

we get what goes on

now in the questioners, right?

Jesus isn't just going to answer the question.

He's answering the questioner.

Verse 31,

and they, the elite,

discuss it with one another,

saying, hmm,

if we say from heaven,

he will say then,

why did he not believe John the Baptist?

But if we say from human beings,

they were afraid of the people,

for they all held that John the Baptist

really was a prophet.

So, they answered Jesus,

we do not know.

And Jesus said to them,

neither will I tell you

by what authority I do these things.

Now,

there's several things in here,

of course, which is very important.

John the Baptist is really telling us

that when we see Jesus dying on the cross,

we're seeing God die on the cross.

But what's really going on here,

just for now, very briefly,

is that it's not that they don't know.

Right?

It's not that the questioners don't know.

What is it?

The questioners don't want to know.

They don't want to know.

And that means they cannot know.

And if they cannot know,

there's no answer that Jesus can give them

that would allow them to know,

other than to puzzle over

how he asked them a question

which revealed,

if they're at all attentive,

that the problem is inside of them.

They don't want to know.

So, here's part of the thing,

which, remember I said,

this is a profound meditation.

It's opening to us something

which the Bible teaches in many places,

is that there is a part of you

that finds the truth a threat.

There is a part of you

that finds the truth a threat.

And that part can grow and grow and grow.

In fact, that's what we're going to see here

with these particular people.

They find the truth a threat,

and it's going to grow.

And it's going to grow to the point

that they killed Jesus.

But it's not just saying that,

it's not just saying this

about how bad these guys were.

It's making a far more basic comment

about every single one of us,

that if we're honest,

remember I gave you that opening thing,

why is it that sometimes if we hear,

we've been in a conversation,

maybe even an argument with somebody

about what actually happened

or what was true,

and then we discover later on

that we're wrong and they're right.

And that fills us not with happiness

that we know the truth,

but with sadness

that we're wrong.

And all of us have had experiences,

and probably if we were a married couple here,

we could each look at the other,

because we can all think of a time

when they did that,

and they're looking back at us

and thinking of a time

that we did that,

where some type of truth is given,

and it's obvious that it's the truth,

but we fight back against it.

We reject it.

We push it away.

We try to use our cleverness

to reinterpret it

or give a different lens

or just insult the person

that they're too stupid

to possibly know.

And this text is not saying,

like if you say,

George,

are you saying that Christians

then are sort of better

than other people,

that we're immune to that,

that we've been able

to figure out the truth,

and no,

that's not what Christians,

I mean,

some Christians say that.

And all I can say

is that the Bible says

that Christians who say that

and think that

are deceiving themselves.

The Bible here

is revealing a human problem,

and it's revealing

a human problem

that helps us to know

why it is that

I need a Savior,

because there is a part of me

that will reject the truth

and find the truth a threat.

And that's why,

one of the many reasons

that I need a Savior.

And it's an invitation

for us to look at this

and say,

Lord, how much is this true of me?

Like, am I not even aware

of the fact that

when certain things come my way

that I react in such a way

and I push it away?

Like, is it me, Lord?

Help me to understand

that it's me

and help me to not be like that,

to be changed.

I don't want that

to be the story of my life.

In fact, actually,

what the Bible is telling us

is another thing

which is very,

even, you see,

part of the thing

is this truth itself

is going to be offensive

to many,

because for many of us,

our identity is that

we're not like those naive people.

We're people who suspend judgment.

We're not like those naive people.

We're a skeptic.

We're not like those simple-minded people.

We're too intelligent

to actually believe such simple things.

We're not like those simple people.

We're open-minded.

But these are just actual ways

that we flatter ourselves

and deceive ourselves

that we find the truth a threat

at times.

Not all the time, obviously,

but at times.

And that that part can grow.

See, by the way,

just a bit of an aside,

that's one of the reasons

why science

is a moral project,

not just a technical project.

Engineering.

There has to be the desire

to know the truth

and to not be threatened by it.

Now, the Bible here is very wise.

It doesn't just say

this is an intellectual problem,

but it also is actually

a problem connected

to how we relate

to what is right and wrong

and how we relate

to justice.

That the Bible is very wise

and it connects things

which we separate.

Because we tend to separate

as if we have like the mind

and intellectual things.

And then there's the

how we know right and wrong.

And then we know

how there's justice

and injustice.

And we tend to keep

these two things,

the right and wrong

and justice and injustice.

We might connect those.

But often we think

that right and wrong

is just sort of over here

and not really connected to this.

But the Bible

constantly pushes us

to understand

that how our mind

and how our conscience

and how our will

and our emotions

and our appreciation

of beauty

and our understanding

of justice,

that those all ultimately

come down to one central

fundamental root

which the Bible

calls the heart.

And that these things

aren't different,

but they're all

in a sense

co-inhere with each other.

They're all connected

to each other.

And you can't put them

in separate bubbles

at water-type bubbles

or areas.

That they're all

connected to each other.

And the Bible shows this

not by just describing

it the way I do,

but just by the flow

of the story

because the very next story

touches on how we relate

to right and wrong

and how we relate

to justice and injustice.

Look what happens

in chapter 12, verse 1.

And Jesus began

to speak to them

in parables.

Now what's going

to happen here

is he's going

to give a parable

and then he's going

to ask a question.

He's going to give

the answer

and he's going

to give the Bible

passage.

And the Bible

passage is the hope.

And then we're going

to see how

the original questioners

who are still there

and their moral,

their intellectual,

in a sense,

refusal,

their feeling threatened

by the truth

is also now connected

to these being threatened

by justice

and by goodness.

So let's see the story.

It goes like this.

Verse 1 again.

And he began to speak

to them in parables.

A man planted a vineyard

and put a fence around it

and dug a pit

for the wine press

and built a tower

and leased it

to tenants

and went into

another country.

And just pause.

The commentaries tell me

this was very,

very common

economic arrangement

at the time

that Jesus was speaking.

Like we might look

at it a bit off.

It was very common,

very, very common.

Verse 2.

When the season came,

that is the harvest,

he,

that is the man,

the owner,

he sent a servant

to the tenants

to get from them

some of the fruit

of the vineyard.

In other words,

they have to,

they've leased it,

now they have to

make their lease payments.

And,

but how did the people,

the tenants react?

Well,

should they pay

the lease payments?

No.

Verse 3.

They took the messenger

and beat him

and sent him away

handed.

So the owner,

verse 4,

sent to them

another servant.

And the tenants

struck that fellow

on the head,

treated him shamefully.

Don't give him

any money.

So the owner,

verse 5,

sends another.

And this person

they kill.

And it goes on

and on and on.

So,

verse 4.

And so with many others.

The owner keeps

sending people

and the people

that he sends,

some of them

they beat

and some of them

they kill.

So verse 8,

he thinks to himself,

okay,

I still have one other

that I can send.

It's my,

look at this,

a beloved son.

Remember chapter 1?

This is my beloved son.

And if you go back

and you look at

Mark chapter 9

Mark 9 · chapter mention

where God speaks again

at the transfiguration,

Jesus is described

as my beloved son.

And so now we have here

for us who are reading this,

a beloved son is sent.

Finally he sent him,

he sent him,

the beloved son,

to them,

the tenants,

saying,

they will respect my son

like surely,

good grief,

they'll respect my son.

But those tenants,

verse 7,

said to one another,

this is the heir,

the only heir.

Come,

let us kill him

and the inheritance

will be ours.

and they took

the beloved son

and killed him

and threw him

out of the vineyard.

Now that's the story.

And by the way,

what Jesus is doing

is in some ways,

this is one way

to summarize

almost all

of the Old Testament.

What our Jewish friends

call the Torah

or the Tanakh,

where God sends,

I mean,

the whole fall

begins because

Adam and Eve

want to dethrone God

and become,

in a sense,

the owner

of the garden.

And time after time,

prophet is sent.

Some of them

they ignore,

some of them

they listen to,

but most often

they ignore them,

they beat them,

and some of them

they even kill them.

And Jesus is saying

he's the end

of that process,

the beloved son.

So what's the question?

Jesus asks them,

what will the owner

of the vineyard do?

Then he gives an answer.

What's the just answer?

Now we as Canadians

don't like capital punishment,

but the answer is

he will come

and destroy the tenants

and give the vineyard

to others.

And we would ultimately

all say

that that's the right thing.

Like, I mean,

if one of us

owned a house

and we were leasing

it out to somebody

and the people

never were paying,

we would want

eventually the police

to go and

arrest those people

and sue them

and we'd want

to get their money

and even if it means

that every last penny

of theirs is taken away,

we'd want to get

what was ours.

That's just and right

in terms of the story.

And now Jesus quotes

the Bible

and here's what he says,

verse 10,

have you not read

this scripture?

And he quotes

from Psalm 118,

which was recognized

in Jesus' day

as a Messianic psalm.

And here it is,

the stone

that the builders

rejected

has become

the cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing

and it is marvelous

in our eyes.

And I'm going to explain

in a moment

what this means.

But notice here

how it is

that the same people

who found truth

a threat,

how they hear

this description

of right and wrong

and justice

a threat.

Verse 12,

what's their response?

Their response is,

and they were seeking

to arrest Jesus

but feared the people

for they perceived

that he had told

the parable against them.

So they left him

and went away.

Now,

the fact of the matter is,

Jesus is predicting here

that he's going to die.

And in fact,

he's correct.

Within a couple of days,

those very same people

will have figured out

a way to conspire

with Rome,

pressure Rome

and conspire

with Judas

to have Jesus

isolated,

falsely accused,

falsely condemned,

killed unjustly

for political expedience

reasons

of the Roman imperial power,

crucified,

and die.

That's all going to come true

in a couple of days.

It's very interesting

that their response

to recognizing

that this story

is against them,

that they're plotting

to kill him.

It doesn't go,

good grief,

is that me?

Like,

am I really

so blind

to what's right?

Am I really

so blind

to injustice

that I would respond

with anger at this?

Is that me?

me?

No,

the fact of the matter

is there is a part

of you

that finds justice

and finds the good

a threat.

And me.

I'm not just saying

you and me.

There is a part of me

that finds at times

justice

a threat,

that finds the good

a threat,

and that part

can grow.

There are some

very important

thoughts here

that are

captured in this

whole story.

If your center,

if a person's

center,

or if a

significant part

of your personality,

if a significant

part of your

thinking,

if you're

centered on

your personal

power,

or the power

of your group,

your center

isn't really

on what's true,

your center

isn't really

on what's good,

your center

isn't really

on what is just,

but the fact

of the matter

is your center

is deeply

connected

to personal

power.

What the Bible

is suggesting

to us

is that you

will always

be anxious.

You will

always

be fragile.

You will

always

be insecure.

You will

always

feel

threatened.

And you

will never

find

peace.

Never.

Because if

it's all about

your power,

you're always

under threat.

Like good grief,

it's all about

your personal

power,

you'll notice

every,

you know,

it's all about

your beauty,

and that personal

power from beauty,

you'll notice

every zit,

you'll notice

every wrinkle,

you'll notice

every little

bulge.

It's always

about you

being,

not just

knowing the

truth,

but being

the smartest.

You're always

going to be

threatened by

some little,

you know,

irk,

some 12-year-old

who's way

smarter than

you,

or some new

hire that's

way smarter

than you.

You will

always be

insecure and

anxious.

You will

always be.

But you

know the

thing is,

and we all

know this

at a very,

very deep

level,

you see,

because the

very nature

of my

personal power

is that

others are

now going

to be a

threat,

but the

truth is

shareable.

Goodness is

shareable.

Justice is

shareable.

And the

truth doesn't

make you

anxious.

I mean,

it does when

it's threatening

your power,

but when you

actually just,

well, that's

just the

truth.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah,

I'm not going

to be very

popular if I

say that.

I'm not

going to be

very popular

that I

believe,

but it's

just the

truth.

It's just

true.

And why

is it that?

Why is it

that power

makes you

anxious,

but truth,

and knowing

what's right,

and walking

with what's

right, and

walking with

what's just,

and walking

with what's

true, why

is it that

those things

don't create

anxiety?

It's because

you were

made for

it.

You were

made for

truth.

You were

made for

justice.

You were

made for

goodness.

Augustine,

many years

ago, said,

you have

made us

for yourself,

and our

hearts are

restless till

they rest

in you.

You see,

Christians,

once again,

aren't saying

that we don't

have any of

these problems.

No,

Christians are

saying we

need a

Savior.

It's proof

that we

need a

Savior,

and it's

an invitation

for it to

say,

Lord,

in what

ways is

this me?

But why

is this

all set

in the

context of

hope?

Look again,

if Claire

can put it

up,

look again

what verse

10 and

11,

the Bible

passage that

Jesus shares,

that they

don't listen

to because

they're

threatened by

what's right

and wrong.

They're

threatened by

justice,

and they

respond by

anger.

But listen

to what

Jesus says.

He quotes

the psalm,

the stone

that the

builders

rejected.

You know

they're

looking for

stones.

There's a stone,

throw it out.

But it's

actually the

cornerstone of

something that

God wants

to build.

And this

thing,

which was

rejected,

and it

looks like a

tragedy,

and it

looks like a

defeat,

but it's

actually the

Lord's doing.

And it's

marvelous in

our eyes.

This act of

rejection,

this act of

evil,

God uses for

good to

build something

new,

and strong,

and stable.

Because on

one level,

every single

person would

want to say,

I want to

be a person

of the

truth,

not a

person of

the lie.

I want to

be a person

of the

good,

not a

person of

the evil.

I want to

be a person

of the

just,

not the

unjust.

That's

where I

want to

live.

I want

to live

in that

country,

in that

land,

where truth

is what

we feed

on,

and what

we live

out of.

I want

to live

in that

place where

goodness is

what I

live on,

and what

I feed

on,

and where

I live,

and justice,

and beauty,

that's where

I want to

live.

And Jesus

is saying,

you know,

when you

see me

dying on

the cross,

you see me

being rejected,

but actually

what you

really need

to see is

that I'm

doing something,

God is doing

something marvelous,

and is building

something different

and marvelous.

You're seeing

truth,

truth itself

dying for

lies,

so that we

might be

one with

the truth.

You're seeing

justice dying,

in a sense,

for the unjust,

so that we,

by accepting it,

can enter into

his justice.

We see goodness

dying for evil,

so that when we

trust in him,

we enter into

goodness,

because he desires

to build a

people,

a kingdom,

through faith

in Christ,

that is

characterized

by the good,

the true,

the just,

and the beautiful.

people.

And it's not

just ideas,

because he

really did

die,

and he really

did rise,

and he is

really coming

again.

So it's not

just these

ideas,

but it's his

presence,

and his

power,

and an

invitation to

be a member

of his

people.

That is the

gospel.

one of the

reasons why

church is so

important,

and I just

want to

encourage you,

first of all,

I want to

encourage you,

if you haven't

given your

life to Christ,

there's no

time better

than right now

to say,

you know,

I understand

that there's

part of me

that finds

these things

a threat,

and now I

need a

Savior,

and a call

out to Jesus

to be your

Savior.

He is your

hope,

the only

hope,

and he

will move

you and me

as we

draw closer

to him,

and he

draws closer

to us,

to feel

more

uncomfortable

when we

find the

truth a

threat,

and to

want to

repent,

and more

uncomfortable

when we

find goodness

a threat,

and want

to repent,

and find

when we're

uncomfortable

by justice,

to want to

repent of

that.

He will

come into

our lives

and begin

to rebuild

you in

the context

of his

people,

into one

who,

well,

he wants

to invite

you into

his kingdom

of truth

and justice

and goodness

and beauty,

and he's

asking you

to say,

let me

in,

let me

in,

be my

Savior.

One of the

wonderful

things about

coming to

church is

the church

is not

where we

pound our

chest and

wave our

fists because

we're always

right and we

always love

the truth and

we always love

justice and we

always love

goodness.

It's time for

us to be

refreshed by

God's word

and the power

of the Holy

Spirit and

the presence

of Jesus

to win the

creed,

to say,

you know,

Lord,

this week

it's not

always been a

good week,

maybe it's

been a terrible

week,

but I once

again,

it's like the

pledge of

allegiance,

I pledge

my allegiance,

I believe

there's just

one God,

I believe in

the Father

and the Son

and the Holy

Spirit and

it's time for

us to get on

our knees

and remember

and to

recommit

ourselves in

a sense by

a covenant,

renewing the

covenant,

remembering that

Jesus said,

I'm going to

die on the

cross for you,

I'm going to

break my body

and shed my

blood for you

and I want you

to feed on me

and to remember

that it's me

who makes you

right with God

and we can

come together

in the midst of

our failures,

in the midst of

our successes

and recommit

and to know

his favor

to face

the rest of

the week

and it's so

important that

you're able to

come here and

be part of

that,

it really is,

you and I

need it

and I'm very

thankful for

this technology

and the fact

that for some

who are old

and ill

and maybe even

incarcerated

and there's no

other opportunity

and I'm really

thankful we can

do that but

there is something

about being

together.

And eating

the bread

and drinking

the wine

and hearing

the beautiful

children

and helping

with Sunday

school and

making a

difference in

people's lives

and being part

of the women's

ministry and

the men's

ministry and

small groups

and we need

each other.

We need to be

together in the

presence of

Jesus as he

builds not just

us as a person

of the truth

but a people

of the truth.

I invite you

to stand.

Please stand.

We close in

prayer.

Let's bow

our heads in

prayer.

Father, thank

you so much.

Father, thank

you so much

that you are

the truth.

You are true.

You are good.

You are just.

You are beautiful.

Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit, three

persons, one God.

Thank you, Father,

that you love us.

Thank you that you

sent Jesus to die

on the cross for us.

Thank you, Father,

that you know how

conflicted we can be

about the truth

and we don't want

the truth to be

true sometimes.

We don't want

justice to be

just sometimes.

We don't want

goodness to be

good sometimes.

Father, you know

how that can be

so conflicted

within us and

you know, Father,

the ways that we

can allow those

things to grow

and grow within

us.

Father, we give

you thanks and

praise that

seen us,

still you love

us, that your

son died for us,

that we might be

made one with you.

We ask, Father,

that your Holy

Spirit would bring

your word home to

us in a deep

way and bring

the gospel home

to us in a deep

way, that we

might know that

sense of security

in the gospel,

so that we might

hear texts like

this and say,

Lord, is this me?

Show me those

times it's me,

and Jesus, please

come and help me

and use your

people to help me

to repent of

that, so that

each of us can

grow more and

more day by day

as a person of

the truth, not a

person of the lie,

of a person of the

good.

Not the evil, of

justice, not of

injustice.

And we ask all

these things in the

sweet and precious

name of Jesus, your

Son and our

Savior.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.