Summer with Jesus Sunday Gathering

Well, good morning, Church at the Grove, and all of you that are here with us.

Maybe for the first or second time, we want to say welcome.

We're excited you're all here.

Always excited for everybody to be here, but if it's your first or second time, we especially want to say welcome to you.

Hopefully, you were greeted warmly when you came in.

Our heartbeat is to um is to show that warmth, but more than that, we want you to experience an encounter with Jesus.

That's our heartbeat.

And so we want to be.

We want to be a church that loves people, loves our community.

But we, and I will say this as a pastor, we are going to be a church that is built on the word of God and Jesus Christ as the foundation.

And so, amen.

Amen.

There's no doubt about that.

And so here we are.

We're at the end of the summer.

And so we we've been in this series called Summer with Jesus, and we've been walking through the Gospel of Matthew.

And so today is the last week of this series.

And so if you want to uh open up, you can kind of be prepared to jump in in Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

Um we we obviously won't hit every single verse.

As a matter of fact, we have a uh there's kind of a different perspective, maybe than what you would expect this morning, as far as what what we're really gonna focus on as we look at the end of the story, the end, or not the end of the story, but the end of this particular account of the gospel of Jesus, account of Jesus' life.

And and let me say this: we we believe the gospel is the life of Jesus, it's the death of Jesus, and it's the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

But the gospel is more than just saying those three things.

We have just spent a summer in the gospel of Matthew.

The word of God is the gospel.

It is the gospel.

All that we studied this summer, it is the gospel, it is the good news of Jesus.

And so um I I I uh I've got I'm I'm married, my wife's name's Jill, and uh so she's probably not in the building yet.

She's um she's more of an 11 o'clock uh type person.

She'll probably show up during this service, and and uh, and and she loves to be here to greet um for the next service, and um, and so pray for her.

She's probably still asleep right now, but um uh I'm kidding, uh kinda.

So so I'm married to Jill, and we've got we've got three kids, and and here it feels kind of weird because some a lot of you don't know all my kids.

Um Josiah's 25, and um he uh lives in the Chattanooga, Cleveland, Tennessee area, and he's got a great job, loves his job.

Um we're you know he's he he just I'm proud of him and how how hard he works, and and and so then we have a daughter named Abigail, and Abigail is 22, and Abigail is getting married this September 30th.

She gets married September 30th.

Some of you might know Abigail, you might not even know she's my daughter, but she leads worship on occasion.

She she's here.

Um she's been here several times this summer.

Um she fills in for us sometimes.

She has a church that where she leads worship on a regular basis in in um Cleveland, Tennessee.

She lives in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Her fiance also lives up there, and he he is he has gotten an apartment for them, and he is living in that apartment in preparation for them to get married.

And then we have a son named Caleb.

Caleb uh just graduated high school, he's 18.

Caleb is visiting his brother and his um sister.

He's staying with his brother.

Pray for them, because a lot of times when when boys get together, um you never know what's gonna happen.

And all the parents with boys said, yeah, so so they are they are no, they're they're pretty good.

So so so here's a there's a list of movies, and I I I kind of like movies.

I'm a movie guy.

There's a list of movies that I I that I've made over my life that I wanted all my sons to watch, that I wanted both of my sons to watch.

And then there's uh a few movies that I wanted all of my kids to watch.

And so one of those movies is a movie called Saving Private Ryan.

I don't know if you've seen the movie, but but um it's uh it's a World War II movie.

They say it's the most accurate depiction of the events that took place when the Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on what we call D-Day.

And so I wanted all my kids to watch that movie, and here's why.

I read a book years ago, a few years back, a number of years ago, by Tom Brokow called The Greatest Generation.

And it basically talks about the sacrifice that the great that generation is.

The generation really of my dad was in the Korean War, my dad was in the Navy, and so he is really folks that were just a little older, but he it was part of that generation called the Greatest Generation.

But the reason Brokaw calls them the greatest generation is because they understood the necessity of sacrifice individually and as a community and as a nation for the whole.

And I think we've lost a bit of that.

How many of you would say, man, we I think we've lost that?

We've lost that.

And so I wanted to, I one reason I want my kids to sit down and watch this movie.

And and if you've, how many, I'm not gonna ask you how many have watched it, and I and I'm I'm not I'm not endorsing movies.

I'm not endorsing you to go watch a movie.

You don't, if you don't, you don't ever have to watch a movie if you don't want to.

I'm not endorsing movies, but I wanted my kids to watch it because I wanted them to know what men, what, what happened and what men were willing to sacrifice for our freedom.

And so my daughter at that time was like 18 years old.

And so I tried to explain, this is gonna be tough.

And so we get into the opening scene of the movie, and then let me guess.

Anybody, how many of you seen how many of y'all seen the movie?

It ought to be watched, it ought to be something we watch on regular occasion.

And so she, in the opening scene, I mean, it is so gruesome and so rough.

She said, Daddy, and she started crying.

And she said, Daddy, I don't think I can make it.

And I kept saying, honey, we're gonna get past this scene.

She said, I think I'm gonna throw up.

I think I'm gonna throw up.

I think I'm gonna throw up.

And it and it's kind of funny, but but how she, but but I but I said, okay, if you need to walk out, come back in, it'll be okay.

But I wanted her, I wanted her to be able to see.

I wanted all my kids to be able to understand what that generation paid for our freedom.

Now let me shift gears a little bit.

Here we are at the end of the gospel of Matthew.

And I would never compare, I would never compare anything earthly to the price and the sacrifice that Jesus made.

There is no comparison for what He what he provided for.

And so, so there's there's this this here's the focus for this morning.

As we look at this this last part of the gospel of Matthew is this the big idea for the morning is that there is power in the presence.

There is power in the presence.

What am I talking about?

The presence of Jesus, the presence of God, what Jesus provided for.

And so this summer we've been in the Gospel of Matthew.

We have, we have obviously in ten weeks, so you can't go into great detail throughout the whole book, but we've tried to focus on some of the highlights and some of the encounters that Jesus had with people.

But here we are in chapter 7, and I want to kind of summarize a little bit about uh about what we see in chapter 7, chapter 27, chapter 27, Matthew recounts the events that lead up to the crucifixion of Jesus and the brutal way in which he is tortured.

We're told repeatedly in this gospel that Jesus did nothing wrong.

He never sinned, he never disobeyed.

He didn't deserve the torture and the punishment.

But we see in this chapter where the crowds cheered for his death.

They called for his death.

As a matter of fact, one of the rituals of the Passover, all of these events took place during the week of Passover, which was a Jewish celebration, remembering how the Jewish people had been delivered out of Egypt.

And it was customary at the Passover for them to have two particular people that had been sentenced to death, and for them to release one.

And the two that are presented by the governor named Pilate, the two that are presented are named Barabbas.

One is named Barabbas, and the other is named Jesus, and certainly they would want to release Jesus.

Pilate even says, I find no fault in this man, but which one do you want?

And they started yelling, Barabbas, Barabbas.

We want Barabbas.

Crucify Jesus.

Crucify Jesus.

Crucify Jesus.

And we see the descriptive depiction of Jesus being stripped down, and he is, has a crown of thorns placed upon his head, and they put a scarlet robe on his back and around his shoulders, and they mocked him.

The soldiers mocked him as being the king of the Jews.

They put a scepter in his hand that would represent royalty.

And they mocked him.

They put that crown of thorns on his head.

And if you've ever seen a crown that came out of the Middle East, it had these huge briars on it, and they put it upon his head, and they took that scepter back out of his hand and they hit him on the head over, over and over until those thorns were buried farther and farther into his head.

And he bled.

I mean, I could go into even more of the painful and humiliating death that you could imagine that we could imagine.

One of the movies that I that I asked my family to watch really on a yearly basis is The Passion of the Christ.

I want us to understand.

I'll never forget being in the movie theater the very first time I saw that, and I could feel all of the seats on the row that I was sitting in shaking as people were weeping and crying out as they watched the events that took place as Jesus was crucified.

Crucifixion was invented by the Persians probably around 500 BC and it was perfected by the Romans in the early days of Jesus, and it wasn't outlawed until the fourth century.

And that is what our Jesus went through.

And we wear a cross around our neck and we have them hanging on the wall of our house, and I hope that it's a reminder.

It's not just a decoration, it's a reminder.

Here's what Jesus did for me.

Here's what Jesus did for us.

And so he hung on the cross, he hangs on the cross.

And here's the words I want you to focus on.

Matthew 27, 46.

He says, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Your translation might say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why would he say that?

Jesus is in the moment, in this moment.

The Heavenly Father, who will never turn his back on you if you are in Christ.

If you were in Christ, he will never turn his back on you.

He will never forsake you.

If you were in Christ, he will never forsake you.

He died for those who would put their faith in Jesus.

Those outside of Jesus would would will end up facing a wretched eternity in a place called hell that is very real.

But in this moment, the heavenly father turns his back on his son.

And he quotes the scripture out of Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The Heavenly Father turns his back upon Jesus.

Why would he forsake Jesus?

Because in that moment he takes upon himself all of the wickedness, all of the sin of those who would call upon the name of Jesus, you and me, and I don't know about all of your life.

I know some of your testimonies.

I don't know all the details of every one of you.

But I can just tell you, if if he took my sin upon him, it was a lot of sin and it was a lot of pain.

The Father turned his back on Jesus.

And in doing so, Jesus suffered and paid for every bit of my sin, my disobedience, my wickedness, every thought, every action, every omission.

There's sins of commission, there's sins of omission, things that we have that we don't do, that we should do, people that we pass by that we should stop to help or to share our faith with.

Every bit of that sin, you think about it, every look at pornography, every bit of your gossip, every bit of the sin that you can think of, you can name, you could list, it was put on Jesus.

The apostle Paul says it in Romans 5.

He says that even while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us.

That's my memory.

I memorize out of mostly out of the English Standard Version.

But it says in the New Living Translation, but God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us, even while we were still sinners.

And so here's here's what we're going to pick up and move forward.

Matthew 27, verses 50 and 51.

Matthew 27:50

Verses 50 and 51.

It says, then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit.

At that moment, the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth shook, rocks split apart.

This is a significant verse for us to pause at.

See, the temple was the place where the presence of God resided for the Jewish people.

But the temple, there's one word that can sum up the temple.

Barriers.

Barriers.

If you look at the diagram of the temple, and this is this is a diagram that we are able to have that that we're um we we know fairly certain that the temple was something like this.

We don't have any eyewitness accounts.

But based on what we see in Scripture, this is an idea of what the temple looked like.

And all I can say is there are barriers because there was a courtyard strictly for women.

There was a courtyard for Gentiles.

Now, Gentile simply means anyone who was non-Jewish.

Anyone from outside of the race, outside of the Jewish race.

So you and I would be in the courtyard of the Gentiles.

Unless you were a woman, you would be in the courtyard of the women.

And then there was a courtyard for Jewish males, and then there was an area for the priest as you move farther into that taller part that contained the Holy of Holies.

There was an area for the priest, and in the Holy of Holies, there was a place there that was consecrated only for one high priest to enter once a year.

And he had to go through a significant process to make sure that he was holy to go into that area.

Now, this doesn't say this in the Bible, but it's a legend, and there they there's some pretty good certainty about it, but they would tie a rope around the high priest that went into the Holy of Holies.

Why would they tie a rope around his ankle?

In case he did something that would make him less than acceptable, and he just fell over dead, who's going in to get him?

I'm not.

And so they they tied a rope around his ankle so they could pull him out.

Now here's a picture I want you to see.

This is the curtain.

There's no access to the presence of the Lord.

Here's what I'm here's here's what I'm getting at.

Is that the average person, listen, you and me were never allowed to have access to the actual presence of God.

We weren't.

There were all these barriers.

Barrier after barrier after barrier.

And so the so Matthew speaks of this curtain that divides the outer area from the inner area.

And it's a picture of the that eludes.

2 Chronicles 3.14 says, across the entrance of the most holy place, he hung a curtain made of fine linen decorated with blue and purple and scarlet thread, embroidered with figures of cherubim, angels.

And so it alludes to the very beginning of the story of God, the story of the Bible, Genesis 3.24 says, after sending them out, Adam and Eve disobeyed, they sinned against God, they were not allowed into the presence of God.

They were not allowed to be in the presence of God.

They weren't allowed to be in the garden with God.

And they were sent out.

After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden.

And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life, their separation from the presence of God and humanity.

And so the veil represents the barrier between God and man.

And when Jesus died, can I go back to Matthew 27, 50 and 51?

Then Jesus shouted out again and he released his spirit.

At that moment, the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth shook, rocks split apart.

Hallelujah.

No more barriers.

And this is why we can read Hebrews that says, and so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place because of the blood of Jesus.

There are no more barriers.

By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the most holy place.

And since we have a great high priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting Him.

For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

This is for you who have put your faith in Christ.

This is for the elect.

This is for the ecclesia, the church.

This is for those who are called out.

This is for those who have heard the gospel.

And the Holy Spirit has moved and we but repent and we believe.

Repent is to turn away from the old way of life.

I don't have to sin anymore.

I don't want to sin anymore.

I now have power over sin.

I don't have to sin.

I can say no to sin.

But even when I struggle with sin, I'm covered in the blood.

I'm covered in the blood.

There's power in the presence.

I have full access to the presence of God because of what Jesus did in his death and his willingness to be a substitute for me.

Yes.

Hallelujah.

Man, I'm telling you, I'm reading this.

I'm studying this, and I imagine myself in a Pentecostal church where somebody gets excited.

And I know that's not some of you, but sometimes it's not about your personality, it's about the person of Jesus.

And so there's power in his presence.

He's made himself available.

The curtain is torn.

We have full access to the presence of God.

And then Matthew 28, this is Jesus is dies on the cross.

After he breathed his last breath, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a Pharisee, who had turned and put his faith in Jesus, he comes and takes Jesus' body along with his mother and some of the women that were following him, and they prepared him and they put his body in a tomb.

And on the third day, the Holy Spirit comes in power and breathes life back into his body.

And they come and they discover him.

And we know these events that take place, and Jesus is with his disciples.

We see a picture of a resurrected body that's not limited to time and space.

The same way we are, he shows up over here, and then in the next moment he's over here.

He just walks through walls and doors, and it's a picture of what I think we all have to look forward to in our resurrected state.

But he spends, he spends fifty days preaching and teaching up until Pentecost about the kingdom of God.

And then he's about to ascend, and he says in Matthew 28, Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.

That's all nations.

That word is ethne, ethnicities.

Go and make disciples of all ethnicities, all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands that I have given you.

And be sure of this.

Be sure of this.

Remember, here's the big idea.

There's power in the presence.

There's power in the presence.

Here's the last sentence.

Be sure of this.

I am with you always, even until the end of the age.

I'm with you always until the end of the age.

Jesus is with us.

Jesus is with us.

And as I said last week, I believe that we're coming to the end.

I believe we don't know the day nor the hour, but we look at the signs and the seasons.

And we look at things that are happening geopolitically in relationships all over the world.

And I believe it could be today.

I believe it could be tomorrow.

And the question is: are we prepared?

Are we ready?

Are we spiritually where we need to be?

He says, I am with you even to the end of the age.

We're not supposed to be afraid.

We're supposed to be excited.

We're not supposed to be afraid as the culture changes, as the culture moves toward more and more chaos and more and more wickedness.

God's desire is the church that would have boldness and raise up that we would, yes, we would have compassion and we would love people and we would meet needs.

But there's times that we've got to stand up and be bold.

And stand for the truth.

And stand for righteousness.

Stand up.

You don't have to cringe when it comes to talking about certain topics that are controversial.

You know what?

I'm going to stand up and I'm going to speak out.

I'm willing to stand.

Marriage is between a man and a woman.

And you can clap, but you know what?

You need to clap when I say that we all need to reach lost people too, right?

Stand up.

Can we read this scripture together?

2 Corinthians 5, 21.

Let's just read it together.

We'll close it out this morning.

If you're watching online with us, just just right where you are.

Just say this, say this scripture out loud.

Let's read it together.

Let's read it out loud together.

One, two, three.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Can we read it one more time louder?

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

There's power in the presence of God.

Some of us have felt, we've settled, we've settled for a excuse my wording, but it's the only kind of word that I can think of.

We've settled for a neutered view of a relationship with Jesus.

We are, yes, we are, we have the fruit of the Spirit.

Love, joy, patience, kindness.

I can't let me help me out here.

Love, joy, peace.

Patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

Thank you.

It kicks in.

It kicks in.

The old brain kicks in.

Yes, we are.

But we're also to walk in the power of the presence of God.

Sometimes we we we are in the presence of wickedness, and we don't need to shrink back.

We need to lean into it.

Sometimes, sometimes we've got to speak truth.

Some of you are hurting.

Some of you here, the idea of being bold is just a foreign thought.

Because you yourself are hurting.

You're hurting.

You say, Russ, I want to be bold.

But I'm hurting.

My heart.

My heart is is hurting.

I've been wounded.

I've been hurt.

You've come out of a marriage where you've been wounded.

You've come out of a relationship.

You've got issues.

You've experienced hurt in a church.

You're wounded.

And I want to tell you, there's power in the presence of Jesus to heal you.

To heal you.

So can we spend a moment in prayer?

Our team is gonna close this time.

Just just bow your heads.

Let's bow your heads for a second.

Father.

God, I pray that you would you would work in our hearts and our lives.

God, I pray for people that are here this morning, that are hurting, maybe that have never put their faith in Jesus.

That this would be the day that they would say yes to Jesus, they would repent, they would believe.

That's you, if that's you this morning.

I want to encourage you.

Encourage you simply to call out to Jesus right where you are.

You can do it in your mind and your heart, and then let one of us know.

Let somebody know.

Let the person that brought you let them know.

We want to encourage you.

We want to help you.

I just I have teachers and uh educators on my mind this morning as we look to the beginning of school.

I have I just uh I have parents on my heart.

I have kids on my heart.

God, I just pray that you would empower children as they go into schools and and potentially, God, just uh trying to find their place and and and and trying to find the kind of friendships that really can encourage them.

God, I pray that you would lead them and you would guide them.

I pray for uh teachers.

I pray for teachers.

God, uh I thought I think about this all the time that as a pastor, I've got, I I might have I might have a few hours with people.

I might have um a couple of hours on a Sunday, or I might have a few hours during a week.

One of us, youth pastors, children, children's pastors, um, we might have just a few hours.

Educators have seven, eight hours a day.

And so I pray for believing educators, God, you empower them.

God, give them compassion, give them boldness.

God, give them strength.

God, we pray that you would come.

You would come and you would show up in our lives in a way that we would know that you are with us.

You will never forsake us, never leave us.

You will be with us until the end of the age.

And so, Father, we pray for your power and your presence.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Would you stand with me as we close?