Jesus Outlines His Teaching

Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire and lighten with celestial fire.

Father, we ask that you would pour out the Holy Spirit upon us

with might and power and deep conviction,

that we might, Father, know that Jesus is Savior and Lord,

that we might trust him more,

that we might be willing, Father, to be in your presence

and receive from you so that we can follow you

in ever greater depths of who we are.

And in the full extent of our life.

And so, Father, only your Holy Spirit can help us to do these things.

And so we ask that the Holy Spirit would move.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

Last week I began talking about Mark's Gospel.

We're going to be looking at chapter 1, verses 14 to 20.

And I said that it's a very common thing for people to say

that the Bible is filled with contradictions.

And often this is...

People think this in particular when they look at the Gospels.

And I shared one particular way to look at it.

And I want to share a bit of a different way to look at it this morning.

Yesterday I was watching online a lecture that had been given about seven years ago

on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

And part of the lecture was to...

The person giving the lecture wanted to summarize

basically key themes in the life of...

In the writings of C.S. Lewis.

And he wanted to summarize the key themes of the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.

And then he was going to sort of compare and contrast them a little bit.

Now, one of the things about that particular lecture,

which he said,

was that there's lots of different ways to summarize

some of the themes in C.S. Lewis's writings.

And, you know, partly it would be whether you wanted to have seven themes

or nine themes or two themes or one theme.

But there's different sort of ways to put all the things together

if you're a communicator.

You're trying to communicate all the books,

all the things that C.S. Lewis wrote in his fiction,

especially in his fiction, but also in his other writings.

There'd be different ways to summarize them.

And I mention this because if you read the four different Gospels,

you'll see that there's different ways that Jesus...

That each of the writers try to have a time early on in the book

where they summarize or have Jesus summarize

how he's...

what it is that he's going to be saying

and what he is that he's going to be doing.

And they all look a little bit different.

But that doesn't really matter

because just as in this particular lecture

that three different C.S. Lewis scholars

could get up and summarize his writings

and sort of put them together in a bit of a different way

to help communicate it.

Like as long as one of the Gospels summaries

isn't God hates you

and another one is that God loves you,

well then that's fine.

That would be a big contradiction.

We'd really have to deal with it.

If one summary of Jesus' teaching was

you should eat as much as you want,

drink as much as you want

because tomorrow you're going to die

and your life is meaningless,

and another summary is completely different,

then that would be a problem.

But if one person wants to summarize it

with more a bit of a, you know,

very, very short or others a bit longer,

that's just...

I mean, it might very well have been

that many, many times throughout Jesus' ministry

he would try to summarize to his disciples

different ways for them to understand things.

For instance, in John's Gospel

it seems as if a lot of the summary

of Jesus' teaching is around the theme of light

and around the theme of life.

And if you go look throughout John's Gospel,

all that keeps coming up.

It's just sort of the way

that Jesus sometimes talked.

Today we're going to look at one of the ways

that Jesus summarizes his message,

or outlines his message.

So if you turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1,

Mark 1 · chapter mention

first of all we'll look at the summary,

and then we'll look at sort of the first Jesus story,

where Jesus...

I guess we've already looked at one

with the baptism and the temptation,

but the story that comes immediately after it.

And here's how it goes.

We'll just read through it so it's familiar to you

before we try to unpack it a bit.

Now after this, John...

Verse 14.

Now after this...

After John was...

Now after John was arrested,

Jesus came into Galilee

proclaiming the Gospel of God.

And just sort of pause there for a second,

just so you sort of understand what's going on.

There's two primary Johns

that are mentioned in the New Testament.

And one of the things is that

in the Gospels often they'll just use

John, John, John, John, John,

all the way through.

And you need to know the context

to try to figure out

which one of the two it's talking about.

Because in fact we have one John

and then later on we have a different John

it's talking about.

This John is John the Baptist,

who by the way,

I didn't mention this last week,

but historians know that John the Baptist

actually existed.

Josephus, a Jewish historian,

who was writing at roughly the time

of the early church.

He has a variety of stories

about John the Baptist.

So historians know

there really was a true John the Baptist.

And in fact a lot of what is said

in the Gospels is also said

in this Jewish,

non-Christian Jewish historian.

So John the Baptist is arrested.

And later on there's going to be

a time in Mark's Gospel

it sort of goes back

and looks retroactively

at what happens to John the Baptist.

But after John's arrested

Jesus came into Galilee

proclaiming the Gospel of God.

Just another thing here,

two other little things.

The first one is

going into Galilee.

This doesn't sort of mean

very much to us

and we sort of have

very, very fond, romantic

Christian thoughts about Galilee.

But if you wanted to become

good to have you here.

If you wanted to become famous

so what's going on

when he says Galilee?

What you need to do

is put yourself in the...

Because this is very important.

It reveals a lot about Jesus.

If you met somebody

at church

and they said,

by the way,

I really think

I'm going to be like the next...

I'm going to be the next

Dwayne Johnson.

I'm going to be the next

The Rock.

Or I'm going to be, you know,

the next Tom Cruise

or something like that.

I think I really have

a future in movies.

And you say,

well, I mean,

you might think that's sort of

a weird thing to say.

But then if they say,

and so I've decided

I'm going to move

to South Porcupine

to pursue my career.

And you'd go,

what?

Like nobody goes

to South Porcupine

if they want to be

a famous Hollywood actor.

You'd say,

well, they should be moving

to L.A.

or New York City

or maybe Toronto

or Vancouver,

but not South Porcupine.

Galilee is an unimportant area.

It's a completely

and utterly unimportant area.

It's not where you go

if you want to become famous.

It's not where you go

if you want to make an impact.

I mean, really,

if God wanted to make

a big impact,

you'd say he should have

sent somebody to Rome.

If not Rome,

maybe Alexandria

or maybe Ephesus.

And if not one of those places,

at least it should be Jerusalem,

but not Galilee.

That's the sticks.

That's the South Porcupine,

which I think is a suburb

of Sudbury, by the way.

So in case you're wondering

where it is.

So that's a very significant thing.

Here we have

that the gospel opens

with Jesus as the Son of God,

that all of the Old Testament

is being fulfilled.

And then you see

when we're going to get talking

about Jesus' teaching

and ministry

that he's not going to Jerusalem,

he's not going to Rome,

he's not going to Alexandria,

he goes to Galilee,

which is a mixed area

of Jewish and non-Jewish people,

and it's definitely

not a very important place.

So once again,

you look at it,

it says,

after John the Baptist

was arrested,

Jesus came into Galilee

proclaiming the gospel of God.

And what that means

is that there's,

we'll unpack it more in a moment,

that God has good news.

The source of the good news

is God.

And this is what Jesus says,

verse 15,

and saying,

the time is fulfilled

and the kingdom of God

is at hand,

repent and believe

in the gospel.

And we're going to circle back

in a moment,

but it's a very, very sort of a,

like,

if you're studying the gospel

for yourself,

one of the things

that you can ask yourself

all the time is,

how is this particular story

showing that the time

is fulfilled,

or does it show repentance,

or does it show something

about the kingdom of God,

or does it show something

about the gospel,

or about what it means

to believe.

But Jesus here gives

a bit of a simple outline

of how you understand

the rest of the book.

How, in a sense,

Mark has put it in,

the words of Jesus

to help you understand

the rest of the book.

And just one thing

before we move on

from that is

that the word time

is very significant.

The Greek,

which is what this is written in,

there are two principal words

that are used for time.

One is chronos,

and one is kairos.

I'm probably not

pronouncing them correctly.

And chronos means

one dang thing after another.

It's like a lot of your work days.

You know,

it starts with this,

then it does this,

then you do this,

then you do this,

then you do this,

then you do this,

then you do this,

then you do this,

then you can unplug,

and time is your own.

It's just chronos.

It's one thing after another.

The other word,

kairos,

isn't the same at all.

It talks about time

being significant.

It talks about

significant time,

time that in a sense

is thick with meaning,

with purpose.

Like,

if you think about it,

in our culture,

there's this constant struggle

at a high end

of philosophy

of seriousness

is this understanding

that basically

all there is

is chronos.

There's just one thing

after another,

after another,

after another.

But at a more popular level,

there is this sense

that there must be

some type of meaning

to life.

There must be some sense

or purpose to life.

We are encouraged

to try to find some meaning

or make our lives

more meaningful.

And this is sort of

embedded in the very,

very language

of the text.

And what it's saying is

that the kairos

is fulfilled.

Now,

this also is important

in another way.

And this has to do

with trying to understand

how the different Gospels

can put together.

One of the things

that you might not notice

when you read the Gospels

is that there's actually

very few

time markers.

You know how

in the newspapers

sometimes

there may be

a terrorist attack

or some other

big event

that goes on.

And so they

talk about it

but then maybe

they'll have somebody

who gives you

a little bit

of a timeline

for it.

That at this time

this happened

sometimes with a map.

You know,

they were here

at this moment

then they were here,

here,

here,

here.

And there's a brief

description

so you can get

a bit of a sense

of what happened

one thing after another.

And that in a sense

is all kronos.

They're all trying

to get the timeline right.

What happened,

then what happened,

then what happened,

then what happened,

then what happened.

But one of the things

about the Gospels

is that they're not

very interested

in kronos.

They're interested

in kairos.

They're interested

in meaning

and significance.

And so one of the things

then is that a lot

of times,

like if you look at it,

look again at how

it goes from verse 15

to verse 16.

In verse 15 it says

the time is fulfilled

and the kingdom of God

is at hand.

Repent and believe

in the Gospel.

Then the very next verse

is passing alongside

the Sea of Galilee.

Well,

so some of you say,

and by the way,

if you read

academic commentaries,

they pull their hair

out at this type of stuff

because it's as if

a lot of academics

in the modern academy,

when they write things,

they're addicted

to kronos.

They're addicted

to trying to figure out

when one thing happens

and then another thing

and then another thing

and then another thing.

They love that.

And so

they'd say to themselves,

well,

is Mark saying

that this happened

like immediately

after this

or did it happen

like six months later

or three months later?

And the different Gospels

will sometimes put

some of these things

in different places

and people assume

that because it goes

from one thing

to the next in the story

that Mark is trying

to write something

from the perspective

of kronos,

of one thing

happening after another.

But

they're not really

interested in that as much.

They're interested

in meaning.

They're interested

in significance.

Like,

if you went back

in time,

they'd probably say,

oh yeah,

okay,

well,

sure.

And then,

you know,

you'd get Peter

and James

and Andrew

and John

and they could

all sit together

and say,

no,

no,

that happened

on this date

and then that

and that.

They could tell you that.

They're not trying

to mess with your head.

But even the way

it begins

is we're interested

in meaning.

And so sometimes

what they do

is they connect

different stories

that aren't necessarily

one thing

after another

in time

and then they go

to another few things

but they're trying

to show us

how things are linked

in terms of you

getting a sense.

Here's another way

to explain it.

Those of you

who like reading

mystery novels

where there's a murder,

one of the things

that happens

in a mystery novel

when there's a murder,

so, you know,

they have the dead body

and some of the detectives

and the police officers

sort of examining

the body

and the crime scene

and others go

and start trying

to figure out

a little bit

about who the person was.

And that's actually

literally what they're doing.

They're trying to figure out

who is this person.

And so often

what happens

in that part

of the novel

or that part

of the movie

is they start

asking questions

because they want

to get a feel

of who the person is,

right?

Who is this woman

whose body

we've just found

who's been murdered

because we want

to find the murderer?

And so they just

start to ask a little bit,

well, tell us

about the person.

You know,

like, does she have

a boyfriend?

Does she work out?

Like, you know,

what's her job?

How does she spend

her time?

Like, what's she like

as a person?

But then at some point

in time

they start to say,

oh, okay,

now, okay,

that's interesting.

So she's like this

and she's like this,

like this.

Okay, but what about

the chronos?

And then all of a sudden

they go in

and they try to get

the little time details right.

But first what they want

to do is they want

to get a sense

of the person.

And that's what Mark,

that's what all

of the apostles,

all of the gospel writers

are doing.

They're trying to give you

a sense of the person

and the meaning

and significance

of what's going on.

So,

back to verse 15,

the time is fulfilled,

kairos.

There really is,

there is in fact

the possibility,

you know,

we all know

that people can ruin

their lives.

And some of us

here today

might actually be

sort of sitting here

and on one level

amidst the rubble

of their lives.

I remember

when I was training

to be a minister,

there was a,

one of the people

I had to talk with

was a person

who was in a drug

rehabilitation program,

a halfway house.

And it's always

sort of struck me.

It's been one of those

conversations

that stuck with me

for all of these years,

all of these decades.

And he'd lived

his entire life

in such a way

that,

you know,

because of his addiction

he'd stolen

from family,

stolen from friends,

lied to family,

lied to friends,

lied to people

who tried to help him.

Just,

he had made his life

a complete and utter ruin.

And he said,

it's,

you don't know

what it's like

when you have free time

and you leave the house

and you come to a corner

and it makes absolutely

no difference to you

or anybody else

whether you turn

left or right.

You have nowhere to go,

no one to see,

nothing to do.

So the Bible here

isn't saying

that each individual

is guaranteed

that their life

has meaning.

It is possible

to miss out

on the meaning

of life.

It's possible

that your life

is a tragedy.

But what the Bible

is saying

with this word

kairos

is that in fact

there is a meaning

that does exist

and part of the good news

is that whatever it is

that's gone on

in your life

and you might,

from a human point of view,

your life might be

in fact just

rubbles

and shards

and ruins

of what you've made of it.

But that there is good news

that in Jesus,

no matter what has gone on

in your life,

that your life

can begin again

in a sense,

that there can be meaning

and purpose

in your life.

I've jumped way ahead.

The time is fulfilled

and the kingdom of God

is hand.

Repent and believe

in the gospel.

Now we have

the very first story

that Mark chooses

to put right after it.

He says,

Passing alongside

the Sea of Galilee,

Jesus saw Simon

and Andrew,

the brother of Simon,

casting it in

into the sea

for they were fishermen.

Now just for those of you

who aren't that familiar

with the Bible,

Simon is later on

renamed

and Jesus gives him

a new name

and that new name

is Peter.

So most people

are familiar

with the apostle Peter

if they're a bit familiar

with the gospel story.

And so this person,

Simon,

who will be renamed

as Peter later on,

he's the same one

if you go and you look

in your Bibles

and you see 1 and 2 Peter,

he's the one

who wrote that.

And in fact,

in much of the early church

it was believed

that when you're reading

Mark's gospel,

you're really reading

Peter's gospel.

that Mark was Peter's friend,

his young confidant,

his young disciple,

and that Mark hung around

with Peter

and basically

when you're reading

Mark's gospel,

you're reading Peter's gospel.

So in some ways,

Peter puts himself

in the story right here

and Andrew's his brother.

And Jesus said,

verse 17,

Jesus says to them,

follow me

and I will make you

become fishers

of men and women.

And this has

evangelistic overtones

and that's what

my blog is about.

I'm not going to say

anything about it

in my sermon,

but if you're curious

about that,

you can read the blog

that I wrote this week.

And immediately

they left their nets

and followed him.

So you just notice

that bit.

Jesus comes up to them.

He says,

follow me

and I will make you

become fishers

of men and women.

The heart of it is

to follow me.

And immediately,

verse 18,

they left their nets

and followed him.

And going on

a little farther,

he saw James,

the son of Zebedee,

and John,

his brother,

who were in their boat

mending the nets.

Now just pause here

for a second.

There's three different

James in the New Testament.

It's easy to get

them confused.

This James

is the first

of the twelve apostles.

Well,

the first apostle

of the twelve apostles

to die,

of course,

is Judas,

who betrays Jesus

and commits suicide.

But the first

of the twelve apostles

who die

as a martyr,

they die

maintaining

saying that

Jesus

had died,

was buried,

that the body

was gone,

that they didn't

steal the body,

that nobody

stole the body,

and that they

saw Jesus

risen from the dead.

And the very,

very first one

to die for that

is this James

who's mentioned here.

After the death

and resurrection

of Jesus,

James is to become

one of the most

important people

in the Jerusalem church,

and he becomes

the first of the apostles

to be martyred.

And going on a little,

verse 19 again,

going on a little further,

he saw James,

the son of Zebedee,

and John,

his brother,

who were in their boat

mending the nets.

And John

is the same one

who wrote the gospel

of John,

first and second

and third John,

and the book

of Revelation.

And by

most

people's understanding,

he was the only

one of the

eleven

non-betraying

apostles

who didn't

die a martyr's death.

So it's very interesting,

his brother

is the first

to die

a martyr's death,

and John

is the only one

who didn't die

a martyr's death,

but he died

in exile.

In a sense,

he was sent

to the equivalent

of Australia

back in those days,

how the British Empire

used to send

some of their criminals

to Australia.

He died in that case,

once again,

maintaining

who Jesus was.

Verse 20,

and immediately

he called them

and they left

their net,

they left

their father Zebedee

in the boat

with the hired servants

and followed him.

If you,

Claire,

could switch

back up

to verse 15.

Here it is,

the summary,

the outline

of Jesus' teaching.

The time is fulfilled

and the kingdom

of God

is at hand.

Repent

and believe

in the gospel.

So we'll look

at it a little bit

from the backwards

going,

from the end

going to the beginning.

gospel just means

good news.

It was a common word

in the ancient world.

It was often used

to announce

the birth

of a new,

or that a new emperor

had taken a throne,

or that some,

Rome had won

some mighty victory,

and it would be,

there would be a herald

who would go out

and proclaim

to everyone

this particular

good news.

And that's

what this word means.

And this actually

is one of those things

that we can't remember

enough that it says

good news.

It doesn't say

good advice,

it doesn't say

good rituals,

it doesn't say

good therapy,

it doesn't say

good,

you know,

good yoga,

like,

good diet,

like,

it doesn't,

it's not rules,

it's what,

it's the very thing,

one of the very things

that makes Christianity

different from

all other religions,

is that all other religions,

these are the rituals

you need to follow,

these are the practices

you need to follow,

this is the,

these,

this is the yoga

that you need to follow,

this is the diet

you need to follow,

this is the dress

that you need to have,

and that's,

in a sense,

you know,

Buddhism will say

something different

than,

different types of Buddhism

will say different things

and will be a little bit

different from Hinduism,

which will be a little bit

different from Islam,

which will be different

from Judaism,

and which will be different

to different ways

that Christians have tried

to turn the gospel

as if it's not about news

but about rules,

and the advice

and the commands

and the therapies

and all will all

be very,

very different,

but they all have

this pattern

of,

they're saying

these are the things

that you need to do,

you need to pray this way,

you need to dress this way,

you need to spend

your time this way,

you need to spend

your money this way,

you need to do this,

and if you do these things,

then God will accept you,

you need to do these things

if you're going to have

the right type of kids,

you're going to have

the right type of marriage,

you're going to have

the right type of job,

like even in our own society.

Our society might say that they've rejected religion and spirituality,

but what they've rejected is just they might have rejected the triune God,

but they're completely and utterly addicted to advice and to rules.

Wear your mask.

Wear your mask this particular way.

Get your vaccines.

This is how you invest this way if you want to make a lot of money.

Listen to my advice about how to have a better marriage.

Listen to my advice about how to have a less stress-free life.

We're completely and utterly surrounded all of the time by people telling us what to do.

And frankly, there's different times in our life when we're really, you know,

people and the diet's really working and the weight's going off,

and you say, whoa, and they like it.

But at some point in time, doesn't it just get tired?

Don't you just get tired?

I mean, that's what happens to everybody.

They cheat or they just give up.

You see somebody and they've lost the pounds and they're really happy about it.

And then either one of two types of things.

I was just talking to a fellow that,

I just had a long talk with a fellow the other day,

and he had a daughter who was sort of quite overweight,

and then she lost a lot of weight.

She really got down on diets and on positive thinking and exercise.

She lost a ton of weight.

But now she lives in terror that she's going to fall off of that and put the weight on.

Like she literally lives in deep fear of it.

She literally is struggling regularly with bulimia.

I don't know if I pronounced that correctly.

Because she gives up.

She just gets so tired and she just wants to eat.

And then she feels terrified that she's going to put the weight on.

And so she makes herself throw up.

And with that, all of the feelings of despair,

and in some cases it goes along with cutting to numb the pain.

And so in a world which is addicted to having people tell you what to do,

Jesus shows up and says,

I have news for you.

And how you have to understand this news,

years ago when my kids were all young,

I was never very good at telling my kids stories,

but occasionally they wanted me to tell them a story

that I would make up out of my own head.

And usually it would just be,

I would take some movie theme or some other type of thing

and I'd plagiarize it terribly

and put their names into it or something like that.

Maybe as an animal or maybe as a person.

And so what I would do is,

okay, I'll tell you a story, I'll tell you a story.

But sometimes what I would do is I would tell you,

I would tell them a Bible story just from my memory.

And every time I did that, I'd always tell them,

okay, I'm telling you a true story.

This is a true story.

All the other stories I'd tell you weren't true.

This is a true story.

And then I would tell them a story about,

you know, whatever, something in the New Testament,

something about Jesus.

So what is going on here is that,

remember Mark,

most of the early church thought that when you're reading Mark,

you're hearing Peter speak.

And Peter died a martyr's death,

maintaining the truth of what he said.

And Matthew, who wrote the Gospel of Matthew,

he died a martyr's death

because he maintained that what he'd written was true.

And it would be a lie if he said that it was wrong.

And he died because this was true.

And so what Mark has Jesus saying is,

I want to tell you good news.

And part of the good news is that it's not more advice.

It's not more therapy.

It's not more rituals.

It's not putting more heavy burdens on you.

Because you see, that's the problem with advice, isn't it?

The advice doesn't feel very heavy

when you're very good at following it.

But when you start to mess up in following,

it just feels heavier and heavier and heavier.

And it makes you feel more and more guilty

and more ashamed

and more like a failure.

Because somehow or another,

either you did it and it wasn't working,

or you just got tired of it,

or you worry that you'll stop doing it.

And then you'd be like that dad

who was telling me about his daughter

who lost the weight

and now she's terrified of putting the weight back on again.

and it's just messing up her life.

And so Jesus says,

the good news is about me.

And the good news is

that in a world where you

have to justify yourself,

you have to make your family proud,

you have to make your mom and dad proud

by your accomplishments,

you have to make yourself proud,

you have to have friends,

and you have to have the money,

and you have to have whatever it is

that our culture,

you know,

you have to follow the right rituals,

you have to do all of this.

And in a world

that is always telling you

of all of the things you have to do,

I have this profound good news for you,

is that

I

came to die for you

because I love you.

And that,

that's,

you see,

that's,

that's the good news,

is that you can't justify yourself,

you can't be good enough

for a holy God.

Even the attempt to be good enough

for a holy God,

I mean,

often what eats people up

is that inside themselves

they know that that's not true.

that they,

they're very good at putting on

a good face,

and they're very good at,

at looking the part,

but at night they

can't sleep.

And they're maybe bolstering

the way they want to appear

to the world

with,

with drugs

or some other type of thing

to numb.

And,

and they,

they worry that they're going to get caught out.

They,

they worry that people will figure out

they don't belong.

that they're

not really like that

if you saw beneath the mask

and you saw it beneath the face

and you saw it beneath the facade,

that,

that inside there

you'd see that there's

this stuff

just boiling

and rumbling

and cracking

and falling apart

and you're desperately

trying to hold it together.

either,

either that

or you,

you just become

so completely

and utterly

dead to all of those things

within yourself,

just so completely narcissistic

and filled with pride.

But,

but when you do that

it,

it means you can't love people.

It,

it means you can't just be vulnerable

and let another person

into your life

and,

and if,

if you just always

are just holding together

and keeping that pride

to,

to keep your life together

then,

I mean,

that never works well

with loving another person

because you end up feeling

indifferent to them

and,

or you're not really

sensing what's going on

in them

because you're just always

looking into yourself

to try to hold yourself

together

and it,

it seems as if

there's just these

two different things

and,

and neither of them

really work,

they all work in the short run

but they don't work

in the long run

that either,

either you're trying to numb

and you're worried

about people

actually piercing into you

and getting to know

who you really are

and realizing that

you're not as successful,

you're not as kind,

you're not as nice,

you're not as gentle

or,

or else you hold on

to all that stuff

with pride

but then that makes you

numb to other people

so why is it

that all you can do

is either numb yourself

or numb yourself

with other people

and that's life

and in a life like that

Jesus comes and says

I have good news,

I know every single thing

about you,

I know everything about you,

this is why it's so significant

that it's the son of God,

I,

I,

I'm closer to you

than your very breath,

I,

I know the dreams

you have at night

that you don't remember

when you wake up,

I know the nightmares

that you have,

I know how many fronts

and faces that you have

and I know how you can shift

from one front

to another front

to another front

to another front,

I know your secret drinking,

I know your cutting,

I know your bulimia,

I know,

I know all of that about you,

I know every single thing

about you

and knowing every single thing

about you,

I've never stopped loving you,

I mean the one thing

we can truly say,

not just because

it's therapeutic moral,

moralism,

is that for every human being

there has never been

a time in their life

that they have been unloved

by the triune God,

I mean they,

they might,

you might go to your grave

not knowing,

not wanting that to be true

or ignoring it

or just throwing it away

but in fact,

Jesus knew every single thing

about you

and he knows every single thing

about your future

and yet knowing all of those things,

his response was,

I will go to them.

God,

the son of God,

knowing every single thing

about you

and seeing everything

there is about you,

seeing the different ways

you either use your pride

to hold yourself together

and use your masks

or,

and the ways you sort of

either hold yourself together

so perfectly

that now you can't love

because you're numb

to other people

and he sees everything

about you and says,

I will go to them,

that's what he says,

I will go to them

and he comes to us

and the news is

that he sets aside

his glory

and his splendor

and his prerogatives of God

he takes into himself

our human nature

and as I talked about

last week a little bit

he identifies with us

as human beings.

He lives amongst us

and knows what it's like

on the inside as well

about what it's like

to be a human being

and experiences

the temptations

that we experience

only rather than succumbing

to them

and giving in to them

he is able

to withstand

the temptation

until the temptation

has lost

all of its power

that in a sense

he knows the depth

of your human experience

as well as he knows

the depth of your sin

and who you really are

down to the very very core

of who you are

deeper than you will

ever know yourself

until you die

and appear before

the face of God

and he reveals it to you

and knowing all of this

he still loves you

and the good news

is that he loves you

so much

that he

he dies

in your place

and that what you see

upon his life

is you're seeing

the perfect life

you're going to see

in the different miracles

you're going to see

a man who can walk

on water

if a man could walk

on water

how could that man

ever allow himself

to die

you're going to see

Jesus raise dead

people to life

and if Jesus is able

to raise dead people

to life

then how could he

ever die upon the cross

and you're going to see

Jesus be able to

control the wind

and the waves

and you say to yourself

if Jesus can control

the wind and the waves

how is it that he

would ever die

upon the cross

and you're going

to see Jesus

have profound insight

into human beings

and you'd say to yourself

if he has profound insight

into human beings

does that mean

he has a profound insight

into me

but if that's the case

why would he die for me

you see because

the whole gospel

is going to continue

to reveal who Jesus is

and reveal who he is

leaving it

as the only way

to understand

why it is

that he dies

upon the cross

is because he loves you

and not the you

that you like to put

as a face

but right underneath

everything

in terms of

who you really are

and the depths

of who you are

and the secrets

of who you are

not only the secrets

that you're ashamed of

but your secret glories

and the secret longings

and yearnings

that he knows you

and still he dies

for you

and in his death

upon the cross

what you see

is that he is going

to take your place

it's as if he says

George

George

if I was just

to show everybody

in this room

all of the thoughts

that went through

your mind

in the last week

and the things

that you've done

and the things

that you've said

and your emotional

responses to how

you've reacted

to things you've heard

and if I was to put

those all up

in front of everyone

they would wonder

why you could still

be a priest

and the fact

of the matter

is

I might be worse

than a lot of you

but he could do that

for every single one

of you

and put it up

on the screen

and we would just

be horrified

there would be no

crack too small

for us to crawl into

because we would never

be able to look

another person in the eye

again ever again

for the rest of our lives

we would be so

completely and utterly

humiliated

and Jesus says

to me

and to you

you can't

withstand

that

and so

George

I'm going to offer

you this exchange

this is the news

I'm going to offer

you this exchange

if you put your hand

in mine

if you hear me

when I call you

to follow me

and you

turn from all the

things that you've

been following

and you turn to me

and you believe

this news

that I will die

for you

and I will make

you right with God

and I will never

leave you

and I will never

forsake you

and I

that I will

take you

into myself

and take you

into my person

and I

I will

George

I will

I'll make

this trade

it's as if

all of the

things that you

are

and all of the

things that you

have done

you take my

hand

George

and when you

take my hand

it all

all of that

goes to me

and all

all of the

punishment

that people

would think

I deserve

and all of the

shame that they

think I would

have

and I

will take

that all

on me

and I

will die

in your

place

and George

not only will

I die

in your

place

but when you

put your

hand in mine

and I

I take

your hand

not only

is in a

sense

all of those

secrets

and all

that shame

does that

get laid

on me

and I

bear the

consequences

of that

and if

and that's

why you see

when if I

if you were

to know all

of those

things about

me there'd

be no

crack too

tiny for

me to go

into

to hide

from you

and that's

why later on

in the Bible

it will talk

about how Jesus

tastes all

there is to

taste of

death

he goes

into that

tiny crack

for you

in his

death upon

the cross

but when you

put your

hand in

Jesus

this is

the news

I who

have never

sinned

I who

have enjoyed

unbroken

fellowship

with the

Father

I who

am the

beloved

son

I

the one

that God

the Father

has just

said

with you

I am

well

pleased

I will

take your

sin and

shame

upon

myself

and

me

being

the

beloved

that will

clothe

you

that will

stand

for you

I will

take your

place

and you

see that's

the news

that's

the news

that's

the news

of what

Jesus

who he

is and

what he's

done and

what he's

accomplished

that's

the news

and the

news isn't

just sort

of news

that you

can now

say well

George

that's

alright

George

that's

alright

for you

but the

wonder of

the gospel

is and

that's

why the

next

story

is so

important

and if

you're

either here

and listening

in or if

you're here

and listening

in is that

Jesus

is calling

you

you see

that's

the

there is

no person

so bad

there is

no person

so broken

there is

no person

so much

a failure

there is

no person

so filled

with shame

that Jesus

doesn't love

them

and that

Jesus

isn't

calling

you

to follow

him

and be

his

disciple

there's

no one

and that's

the news

listen to

myself

I'm not

good enough

to tell you

that

all I can

do is

tell you

this is

what Jesus

says right

here

that's what

gospel means

it comes

from God

himself

and so

what does

it mean

it means

you turn

repent

doesn't

mean

necessarily

feeling

anything

it just

means you

hear him

call

and rather

than ignoring

his voice

ignoring his

voice

I know

when I

became a

Christian

it was

as if

I knew

that Jesus

was calling

me

and was

calling

me

and calling

me

and I

kept

not wanting

to hear

him

and I

finally

turned

to him

and believe

doesn't

necessarily

believe

as a

person

word

just

believe

that

Jesus

is

who

he

says

he

is

and that

he

wants

to do

that

for you

and for

me

and that

he

justifies

me

he

makes

me

right

with

God

he

knows

everything

about

and still

he

does

it

and for

me

to

believe

and trust

that

and put

my

hand

in

his

and then

I

learned to

follow him

but I

learned to

follow him

in the

context

of the

fact

that

everything

he

knows

everything

he

knows

everything

he

has

done

everything

he