Learn the Meaning | Ps. Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

So thankful for you, Sam.

I had a spiel for groups about how I was going to convince you to join them.

But Sam did the work for me, so amazing, right?

Amazing, right?

Hey, let me get an amen if you got a work off tomorrow, if you're not going to work.

All right.

Some of you guys were like, I totally forgot.

And isn't that the best feeling?

Uh, if you are uh joining us this morning online, I want to extend a special welcome to you.

Uh my name's Nate.

I'm one of the pastors here, so thankful that you're here.

Uh especially if it's your first time uh online or in person.

Uh, welcome.

I'm so glad that you're here this morning.

Uh, I'd love to meet you after the service.

I'd love to shake your hand and uh hear a little bit about your story.

Uh, hear a little bit about how you found uh Celebration Church Orlando.

Uh, if Celebration Church is your home, welcome home.

This is my home.

Uh, I love it here.

I'm so thankful that God has uh placed me here.

And uh yeah, the groups at this church, the community at this church has been truly transformational for me.

And uh I have lifelong friends because I decided to become a part of the groups and the serving uh culture here.

Uh if you have been around in 2023 at all here at Celebration Church Orlando, uh we have been going through a theme this year called My Life, God's Way.

My life, God's Way.

There we go, that's right.

Uh and the premise for that was really to look at the life of Jesus because we want to look more like him, right?

Like that's that's the goal, to be conformed to the image of God's Son.

And uh in order to do that, we need to adopt the lifestyle that Jesus had, and so it's our life, it's his way, but collectively that forms a story.

And so we decided uh over the last four weeks that we would look at stories and accounts and narratives that uh happened at the table.

Jesus had magnificent and incredible encounters that transformed the people around him, and it was at the table, and so that's the series that we've been in.

Uh, and we're gonna conclude our teaching on that series today.

Uh the first week we talked about family and how important family is, and uh letting us a reminder to all of us that we are all invited at God's table.

When grace is involved, we're we're all invited.

Uh, we are welcomed there.

Then the next week we talked about hospitality and the power that that has, and how Jesus displayed perfect hospitality, and it's a way for us to emulate and mirror his behavior in that aspect.

And then last week, a powerful message on reconciliation and what it means to reconcile with those who perhaps there's a barrier between us, loved ones, friends, whatever that may be, offering forgiveness, receiving forgiveness.

And today we're gonna be talking about a very simple and easy topic, which is sacrifice.

You know, Pastor Keith talks about hospitality and family, and I talk about sacrifice, so it's gonna be amazing.

Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

This morning is where we're gonna be.

Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

Hopefully, you brought your Bible with you.

Uh, it may be in your pocket or your purse, and uh you can go ahead and open the Bible app up to Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

If you didn't bring your Bible with you, if you don't have a Bible, you don't even know what that is, we have one for you.

It's out in the courtyard at the uh at the tent.

We would love to give that to you on your way out this morning.

Matthew 9, we're gonna be beginning in verse number 9.

Here's the word of the Lord.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth.

Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him.

So Matthew got up and followed him.

Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with such scum?

When Jesus heard this, he said, Healthy people don't need a doctor.

Sick people do.

Then he added, Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture.

I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices, for I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know that they are sinners.

Father, we thank you for your word.

God, we thank you that you've kept it, you've preserved it.

It's accessible, Lord.

We thank you for uh the way that you speak to us through it.

Lord, we need that same interaction today.

We need to uh encounter your Holy Spirit and encounter the living word, Lord.

We thank you for the ability to gather here.

Uh, and we ask that you just be with us, that you speak to us uh both individually and collectively.

And Lord, uh, we want to walk out here uh transformed, we want to walk out here changed and better uh than we arrived.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, and everybody said, Amen.

Today uh the title of the message is Learn the Meaning.

And although peculiar and maybe even barbaric to the modern man and woman, sacrifice in the ancient time was a common practice, a ritual, not isolated to the people of God, each culture having their unique expressions of the formality, but with common themes running through.

You don't get far in the Old Testament narrative before you encounter sacrifice.

In fact, the very first person to perform the act was the creator God.

Upon the discovery of Adam and Eve's rebellion, God took the life of an animal, fashioned clothing, and it covered Adam and Eve's nakedness and the shame that they had acquired for their transgression against him.

The very next chapter, we encounter the first sacrifice that was presented by man to God.

You may be familiar with the narrative of Cain and Abel.

God is receiving, is accepting of Abel's sacrifice, but Cain's he rejects.

When the flood waters receded, Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice.

Abraham was instructed, as we heard earlier, to sacrifice his son.

But before Abraham struck his son, the Lord halted his hand and provided a ram in Isaac's place.

And then famously, Moses goes to Pharaoh on behalf of the Lord and requests that Pharaoh release his people so they can do what?

Go into the wilderness and offer sacrifices.

It's not until later that the offering of sacrifices became formalized and systematized.

You know, we see five categories of sacrifice in the Old Testament.

The burnt offering, which was to make amends for sin and show devotion to God.

The grain offering, which also shows devotion to God and expresses thankfulness for his goodness and his providence.

The third is a peace offering.

It was a sacred meal that displayed solidarity between two or more parties.

Fourth, we have the sin offering, or as some would describe, the purification offering, a ritual meant to purify oneself before entering the presence of God.

And finally, the guilt offering or trespass offering, which made reparations for an offense or pays off a debt.

Centuries after the initiation of these sacred rituals, we find Jesus roaming the streets of his home.

While on his expedition, he comes across a tax collector.

And as we learned in week two of this series, this is the type of person that Jesus should shun.

A traitor, an oppressor, a person who is only concerned with himself and has no problem trampling over people on his way to the top.

Instead of ignoring Matthew, he invites him to take a walk.

A walk that would evolve into the journey of a lifetime.

Well, what was so magnetic about Jesus?

So attractive about him?

What would possess someone to walk away from their lucrative livelihood and become a student to a teacher with no classroom?

What was so captivating about the man from Galilee?

Perhaps the allure was the invitation itself.

Matthew sits at his booth all day and watches people walk by with disgust.

Or they approach with reluctance, doing their best to avoid eye contact, in hopes that they would hurry their taxpaying process along.

And then seemingly, out of nowhere, Jesus beseeches the outcast to become a pupil.

According to our reading today, there's no further exchange needed.

Matthew gets up and follows Jesus.

The gesture of invitation is reciprocated by Matthew, and we find the two of them at the table, along with what our version of the Bible reading today describes as other disreputable sinners.

However, those are not the only parties in attendance, are they?

In the background, we have the Pharisees, the religious elite, whose piety was unmatched by any other class.

Their fervor for the law isolated them from anyone who was not of their stature.

The term Pharisee is most likely a derivative of a Hebrew word that means separate.

Hence they were known as the separate ones.

Seeing what's taking place at a distance, they approach Jesus' disciples, no doubt avoiding close contact with the rest of the crowd so that they don't, so that they aren't contaminated by those who are outside their inner circle of purity.

And they proceed to ask, why does your teacher eat with such scum?

This inquiry condemns not only the sinners that Jesus is eating with, but it's also meant to degrade the disciples with whom the question is posed.

And of course, Jesus, the focal point of the party.

For all intents and purposes, the judgment has been rendered by these Pharisees, the verdict handed down, guilty.

Though the Pharisees' distance is kept, their words are within earshot of Jesus.

Perhaps they are banking on the fact that Jesus hears the question but forgoes responding so as to leave the conversation at the table uninterrupted.

Or, maybe, the intent was to solicit a response from the teacher without providing him the dignity of having it being asked directly to him.

Regardless, the religious elite have cast the first stone.

Jesus responds with the self-evident and obvious remark that healthy people don't need a doctor.

Sick people do.

Then Jesus proceeds to offer an invitation to the Pharisees.

But unlike the invitation extended to Matthew, the Lord invites the Pharisees to discover the truth in his word.

The truth of their self-proclaimed expertise.

I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.

Jesus' referral to the prophet Hosea is just one of many instances where God displays disdain for his people's religious practices.

Isaiah, Malachi, the Psalms, they all contain loathing of the Lord over these rituals.

Rituals that the Lord Himself instituted.

And on the surface, they this may depict God as erratic and unreasonable, commanding his people to cease the very sacrifices he initiated.

However, Jesus' words provide revelation and clarity, the clarity we so desperately need.

Learn the meaning.

Learn the meaning.

These sacred sacrificial symbols are just that.

They're symbols.

They're tangible expressions of intangible truths.

Paintings of a picture that are still in process.

These sacrifices were explicit representations of a reality that reaches beyond what we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands.

And it's the reality of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom being depicted and indeed personified in Matthew chapter 9, in the person of Jesus.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

What Matthew and those other disreputable sinners would soon realize is that the person sitting at their table was the only person to ever walk the earth that had the right to render judgment.

He is the only one with whom they are unworthy to share a meal with.

He is the one with whom they have cheated, mistreated, and rebelled against.

And instead of standing off in the distance, hurling insults, he shows the most unfathomable act of mercy one could ever imagine, and he sits at the table and shares a meal.

Because of the immediate nature in which Matthew responds to the invitation of Jesus, we can draw the conclusion that this tax collector had self-awareness.

The self-awareness to realize that something was seriously wrong.

The reason he was oppressor of so many was because he himself was oppressed by the powers of this world.

Greed, selfishness, pride, envy.

I can only imagine how often Matthew made the trek to his tax collector booth, thinking to himself, there's got to be more.

Is this it?

There has to be more than this.

There has to be a better way.

And then one day, that better way, the one who is the way, shows up and tells us to leave it all behind.

And the oppressor is set free from oppressing others.

Do we see how this works?

Do you feel like you're unworthy?

Are you making the commute to work every morning, asking yourself, is this really it?

If so, you are the perfect candidate for an encounter with the living God.

Because that God came to look for people who know they need him.

Not the ones who think that they don't.

Jesus shows us in Matthew 9 that the sacrifice that changes lives is the offering of mercy.

It's the extension of grace.

It's compassion, kindness, humility.

Rules, regulations, customs, traditions, they all have their place.

But they have no power to change the human heart and mind.

Full disclosure, this past month has been one of internal strife for me personally.

I found myself weary by the numerous responsibilities and activities of life, all things that I deem to be worthy pursuits.

However, I find myself frustrated, unsatisfied, and weighed down.

Maybe looking at the people around me thinking, don't you see everything I'm doing?

Talking to God, don't you see my sacrifice?

One may think that for someone who dedicates the majority of their time to the church, it would be difficult to lose sight of what really matters.

But lest we forget the Pharisees.

Upon preparation for this message, I was struck with the reality that I have lost the meaning and instead have been going through the motions, losing sight of the greatest commandment to love the Lord with everything that I have, and to love my neighbor as much as I love myself.

It's only by the grace of God and this passage in Matthew 9 that I've been able to rediscover the beauty, the simplicity of the gospel.

The gospel that says Jesus came to call a sinner like me.

You see, Jesus invites me to revisit the meaning of his word.

He prompts me to put an end to my ritualistic tendencies, and he invites me to his table.

There I can be transfixed on his glory and transformed by his grace.

The true sacrifice.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable.

This is truly the way to worship him.

This is truly the way to worship him.

Don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Then you will learn to know God's will for your life, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: don't think you're better than you really are.

Be honest in your evaluation.

Measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Just as our bodies have many parts, and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body.

We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

The sacrifice God requires is the life you live.

A life lived in response to the ultimate sacrifice of his son Jesus.

The behaviors and customs of this world, and yes, that includes going through the motions of religion will weigh you down.

They'll degrade you and rob you of your God-given identity and purpose.

An identity and purpose that can only be realized when you let God transform you and change the way you think.

It is only then that we can offer a true sacrifice.

A sacrifice of mercy, of reconciliation, a sacrifice of hospitality.

And the sacrifice that says, though we may have many distinctions, we can sit as a family at the table of Jesus.

As we've seen throughout this series, the encounters Jesus had around the table were significant.

However, there's one momentous occasion at the table that stands out.

And that's what is commonly referred to as the Lord's Supper.

Luke 22 recounts the scene with Jesus and his disciples.

They sit down to share the Passover meal during the festival of unleavened bread, and we pick up our reading here in verse number 14.

When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table.

Jesus said, I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.

For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Then he took a cup of wine, he gave thanks to God for it, and he said, Take this, share it among yourselves, for I will not drink wine again until the kingdom of God has come.

Then he took some bread, he gave thanks to God for it, and he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

After supper, he took another cup of wine and said, This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.

Would you grab your communion elements with me now?

If you didn't get one, just raise a hand, somebody would be happy to serve you that.

When you get it, you can open up the bread.

Unleavened bread refers to bread with no yeast.

This recounts God's command to bake bread and don't put yeast in it because there's no time to waste.

Didn't have time for the bread to rise.

They must be quick in their response for the Exodus.

Yeast can also be a metaphor for a contaminant.

You may be familiar with the words of Jesus to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees, or the Apostle Paul's warning that false teaching is like a little yeast that quickly spreads throughout.

As Jesus gave thanks for the unleavened bread in his hand, he held a bread that represented his body, untainted by sin.

He held a bread that represented the bread of life.

And he said, This is my body given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the bread, church.

Go ahead and open the cup.

The Passover meal recalls the time when Israel was instructed to sacrifice a lamb and place the blood of the lamb on their doorpost as a substitutionary symbol signifying that death would not enter the home.

When Jesus was holding the cup of wine in his hand, he held a representation of the last sacrifice ever needed.

He held in his hand a symbol of the lifeblood that said, Death does not have the final say.

His sacrifice is the fulfillment of all five sacrifices we talked about earlier.

It atones for sin, shows devotion to God, expresses solidarity and harmony between God and man.

It purifies and it pays off our debt.

This is the new covenant between God and His people.

The true meaning of sacrifice.

Let's do this in remembrance of Him.

Walk humbly, love mercy.

This is sacrifice.

Lord, we thank you.

We thank you for the cross.

We thank you for the resurrection.

We thank you that because of your son, death does not have to enter our home.

It doesn't have the final say, for we will rise on the last day.

We love you, Lord.

Will you guys stand to your feet?

We're going to spend some really intentional time here in this room worshiping the King of Kings.

Let's worship God together.

Thanks again for listening.

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We hope you join us next time.