The Audacity of Jesus

We started a series last Sunday called Boiling Point.

And if you've been here for a while, we've been going through the entire book of Matthew all year long, just following Jesus along with his journey, trying to learn everything we can learn about Jesus.

And don't worry if you haven't been here yet, each Sunday stands on its own.

The reason this is called Boiling Point is because we're actually in the last week of Jesus' life leading up to the cross.

A lot happened in that week.

And Jesus has decided to raise the temperature.

He's already been on the radar of the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the actual rulers of the area because Jesus caused the stir.

Everywhere that Jesus went, thousands of people came and the powers that be in Jesus' world, they didn't like that.

They wanted things to stay the way they were because they had control.

Jesus was a threat.

And he's sort of been flirting with with disaster, so to speak.

He's sort of been flirting with being on their bad side.

He's definitely challenged them.

There have been moments, but it's at this point in his ministry, almost three years since he was baptized and went public, that Jesus decides to just turn the temperature up.

It's almost like if you're at your oven, you're at your stove, and you know it's set to simmer, and you're like, we're just gonna crank this all the way.

That's what Jesus does.

And I'm so excited about what we're gonna study this week, next week, and in the weeks to come, because it's in this season of Jesus' life that we see a side of Jesus that we don't see in other in other moments, at least not as clearly.

It gives us a chance to have a more full picture of Jesus, a more full understanding of Jesus, because we have this tendency to do to Jesus what we do to everyone, which is often to boil people down to one aspect of who they are and sort of sum them up in that way.

And when we do that, we always miss out on the whole person.

Like we've all experienced that.

You've always, I'm sure all of us have had someone that says, Oh, I know what you're about.

Somebody that comes to you and says, Oh, you remind me of so-and-so, or this is who you are, and they they nail a certain aspect of you, of your personality, but they don't get the whole thing.

Give you an example for my life.

Fifteen or so years ago, someone here at his hands came up to me.

I was the youth pastor at the time, this was a good bit before I was in this role, and they said, Oh, you remind us of this person named Chris Pratt.

Now, context.

They didn't say Chris Pratt, they said the character that Chris Pratt played on a show, because at this point in time, 15 years ago, Chris Pratt was not Chris Pratt.

Like, if you know who Chris Pratt is, you can Google it later.

But like Chris Pratt today is movie star in like Hollywood heartthrob.

He's been in Marvel movies, he's been like a superhero.

He's Chris Pratt.

No, no.

This was before that.

15 years ago, the context I had is it was actually, hey, you remind us of this guy uh on a show called Parson Wreck.

The character's name is Andy Dwyer, and you are just like him.

Okay?

Now, some of you who know that show know where this is going.

Well, I'd never watched the show.

And I was like, oh, I've heard of it, you know, and I've seen you know promos for it and whatnot, but I just never watched it.

And so I was like, oh, okay, you know, they're like, you gotta check it out because I'm serious.

It's like looking in a mirror, like you are this person.

And I was like, all right, cool.

And uh then a few years later, we started to watch it.

And first of all, the first time he stepped onto the screen, I was like, oh, this is the guy that I'm supposedly like a spitting image of.

You know, first few moments wasn't flattered, I'm gonna be honest.

Because like Chris Pratt today is chiseled and strong, and I don't get compared to Chris Pratt anymore.

That hasn't happened since then.

This Chris Pratt is kind of fat.

And that's me, and I'll admit it, I'm kind of fat.

Now, here's what kind of fat means for those of you, I'm just being honest.

Kind of fat means you don't look fat with your shirt on, but if you happen to take your shirt off, people be like, oh, you're kind of fat.

Uh and I've been kind of fat my whole life.

I've always been that dude.

Okay?

You look at me now, you're like, no, Justin, you're not fat, I promise you, I can prove it.

You don't need me to.

Just trust me.

So Chris Pratt and I had that in common at that time.

Like I said, I don't get compared to him anymore because he's not kind of fat anymore.

But but it wasn't the appearance.

I can live with that.

I'm I am who I am.

This is this is what I got to work with.

But it was like, if you've seen Parson Rec, he's an idiot.

He's like a giant seven-year-old child, and everything he does is just ridiculous and stupid, and that's his character.

And I I mean, obviously it's a caricature.

I don't think they were insulting me.

They didn't seem like they were when they made the comparison.

But I kind of got it.

I do have this sort of loud, gregarious personality, and I often lean into self-deprecating humor.

I'm fine with that, I'm super comfortable with myself, so I can do that and go there.

And the character's kind of like that.

He's just sort of, here's who I am, and haha.

And I like to be funny.

I'm pretty I'm pretty funny.

Would you guys, I mean, pretty funny.

Yeah.

I didn't need that.

I was confident already.

So I was like, okay, he's funny and all this stuff, but man, I was sitting there like, that's who these people think I am.

That's they saw him and they were like, that's just like Justin.

And even though I wasn't offended or hurt, it did get me to think, like, is that what I put out there?

Is that and Megan helped talk me off the ledge because she's a great wife.

She's like, no, no, no, they were just saying you're funny.

That's all they were saying, is you're funny and kind of fat, but you're funny.

Um but that's what we we tend to do to people all the time, right?

We see someone and we notice one aspect of their personality, and we sort of go, Oh, that's who you are.

We do that with Jesus too.

And anytime we do that, whether it's with another person or with Jesus, we miss the whole picture.

Jesus is layered, Jesus is deep.

There are sides to Jesus that we often just don't talk about very much.

We like to look at Jesus and say, Jesus is love, and he is.

Jesus is absolutely love incarnate, and Jesus is compassion.

We see the compassion of Jesus in so many situations, but there are other aspects of Jesus too.

And if we really want to know Jesus, which has been the entire point of this year, let's really understand Jesus better.

Let's know him.

We've got to see the full Jesus.

And there are parts of his personality that are about to shine through today, next week, and in the weeks to come.

We're gonna see how clever Jesus is.

We're gonna see how bold Jesus is.

We're gonna see how willing Jesus is to confront people that no one else would dare confront.

We're gonna see how comfortable Jesus is with conflict.

We're gonna see aspects of Jesus that frankly need to be talked about because it's part of who he is.

And we don't want to miss anything with Jesus.

Specifically today, we're going to explore the audacity of Jesus.

Jesus is audacious.

There's something about Jesus where he will say things and do things.

And if we're honest with ourselves, the only genuine response to what Jesus says and does is for someone to go, who do you think you are?

That's what you have to do with audacious people.

When they say things and do things that you just shouldn't do or say, the only real response to that is who do you think you are?

But what we're gonna find is that that's actually the right question to ask Jesus.

But if you ask that question, you've got to be prepared for the right answer.

There's an audacity to Jesus that I can't wait to explore today.

And it's part of his whole picture.

So, with that said, before we jump into the scripture, let's kind of get caught up on where we are.

We've been tracking with Jesus last week.

Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem.

We'll bring up a map to show you he was at this town called Bethphage.

I know I'm pronouncing that wrong.

Uh it's hard to say that.

He went from Bethphage into the city of Jerusalem and he goes right to the temple.

Immediately the temple, everyone is shouting Hosanna, they put palm branches down, they're like, You're amazing, save us.

They recognize that he's the Messiah, they want him to be the Messiah, but instead of Jesus going and kicking out the Romans or going and kicking out Pilate, he goes to the temple, he starts flipping tables over, he starts driving out the religious leaders and all the things that they've got going on in the temple, all the money they were making, it was crazy.

It's a commotion, it's not what people expected.

They're like, Jesus, you're supposed to deal with them, not with us.

We have a tendency to be like that as people.

We always think the problem is them, right?

It's it's whoever they are.

If they would go, if they would stop, if they would lose, everything would be great because obviously we're right, they're wrong.

And Jesus sometimes avoids them and comes straight to us.

And that's challenging.

So he doesn't go to Rome.

He doesn't go to the Roman uh fortress that was right by the temple with soldiers.

He doesn't go to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor's home, and he goes right to the temple and he deals with it there.

Now, after that, he causes all this commotion.

Jesus leaves the temple and he goes right outside of Jerusalem to stay with some friends at a town called Bethany.

Bethany is where his friends uh Lazarus, Martha, and Mary lived.

If you're familiar with the story of Jesus, they lived right outside of Bethany, right by the Mount of Olives.

And then today, Jesus is going right back from Bethany to the temple.

He's just going here, there, and here.

And this number one, in and of itself, this journey is audacious.

I want to start with that before we even read Scripture.

After what he did the day before, going into the temple, flipping over the tables, John's gospel says that he fashioned a whip out of leather and starts going after the money changers, the people who are profiting in sick ways over the people trying to worship.

He chases them out.

I mean, it wasn't just like a polite, hey guys, I think you should leave.

He's flipping over tables.

He's got a whip.

The audacity to show up there the next day.

Like, who does he think he is?

Matthew chapter 21.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

It says, When Jesus returned to the temple and began teaching, not only did he go back, he goes back to the temple, just starts teaching people again.

Ooh.

The leading priests and elders came up to him.

They demanded, by what authority are you doing all these things?

Who gave you the right?

In other words, who do you think you are to come back here and teach after what you did yesterday?

And Jesus responds, I'll tell you by what authority I do these things.

If you answer one question, did John, he's talking about John the Baptist, who they opposed, did John's authority to baptize come from heaven or was it merely human?

They talked it over among themselves and they said, if we say it was from heaven, he'll ask why we didn't believe John.

But if we say it was merely human, we'll be mobbed because the people believe John was a prophet.

So they finally replied, we don't know.

And Jesus responded, Then I won't tell you by what authority I do these things.

I told you, you're gonna see aspects of Jesus, he's so clever.

He's a genius.

He's clever.

Wow.

It's an interesting interaction.

Because, see, here's the thing we're gonna see right now.

Jesus knows exactly who he is.

He knows exactly who he is.

He doesn't question himself.

We all do that.

Like, do I have authority?

Do I, you know, do they think I'm funny?

Like, do they?

Like, we all have those things.

We all have those insecurities that we have to battle through.

And sometimes when we're at work with our family, we're trying to lead our children, we're trying to, you know, be among our friends and whatever.

We just fake it.

Deep down inside, we're like, I don't feel comfortable with myself, and I really don't want to be here.

But outwardly, we're like, I know exactly what to do, and listen to me.

Jesus, he is not insecure, he knows exactly who he is.

Meaning that when people challenge Jesus, it doesn't stir up within him this, oh no, what if I'm wrong type of fear.

So he has the ability to withstand challenges from very powerful people that would melt most.

So they go to him, and I love that they demand, like they think they can demand something of Jesus.

They think they have authority over Jesus, and they do not.

They think that Jesus is on their territory because he's in the temple.

They have no idea who they're dealing with.

They are in his territory, they are under his authority.

Not because they're in a temple, because they're on the earth.

Like they don't know who they're talking to.

And up to this point, Jesus has sort of humored the Pharisees, he's humored the religious leaders because he's loving and he's gentle.

Again, he's multi-layered.

We want to see all of him in his complexity.

He's gentle, he's loving, he's kind.

So he's sort of gone along to get along to a certain degree.

He's had moments where he's challenged them.

There have been lots of moments of confrontation, but at any moment in his life, he could have walked into the temple and done exactly what he did just a few moments before.

He's always had that authority.

He could have done it when he was 12 years old.

But he's patient, he waited, he was wise, but now he's at the point where he said, I'm not playing along anymore.

I know who I am, and it's time for you guys to recognize that and deal with it.

So they demand of Jesus, and it doesn't go well for them.

I love that the day before he flipped their tables over.

Today he's just turning the tables on them.

They come to him and they're like, You tell us this, and he turns the tables.

Yesterday he flipped the tables, today he turns the tables.

And he's like, hey, why don't you tell me that?

Like, dang it.

Um and he exposes right here their cowardice.

He really does expose the Pharisees here for just how little authority they actually have.

He's not insecure, but they are.

They're terrified of the people.

If we say that John didn't come from heaven, the people all think he's a prophet, they'll mob us.

So he's just shown them who they really are.

Let's keep reading.

This is an interesting exchange.

Jesus continues, Matthew 21, verse 28.

Matthew 21:28

But what do you think about this?

A man with two sons told the older boy, son, go out and work in the vineyard today.

The son answered, No, I won't go.

But later he changed his mind and went anyway.

Then the father told the other son, You go.

And he said, Yes, sir, I'll go.

But then he didn't.

Which of the two obeyed his father?

They replied, the first.

Then Jesus explained his meaning.

I tell you the truth.

Corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you do.

For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn't believe him.

While tax collectors and prostitutes did.

But even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.

Ooh.

Again, the audacity.

Who does he think he is?

To say that to the Pharisees, to the religious leaders, the ones who run the temple, they run the show.

He says, Look, you guys have missed it completely.

You spent your whole lives studying scripture.

That's what the Pharisees did.

It is commonly understood that the average Pharisee could have quoted to you the majority of the Old Testament by memory.

You could have said, Hey, bring me the scroll of Isaiah, and they could be like, Okay, Isaiah, from memory.

They spent their whole lives studying the scriptures.

Jesus actually says this in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me.

Yet you refuse to come to me and receive this life.

He says to the Pharisees, essentially, you guys, you spent your whole life studying it, and yet you've missed it completely.

You're like someone who's studied hard for the test.

You've been in the library all week long, and then the teacher comes and hands over the exam and you just rip it in half.

That's essentially what you've done.

And these people that you judge, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the sinners, these are the ones that they would look at and say, like, they're filthy, they're horrible, we're so much better than them.

He said, Hey, yeah, they may not have been in the library much, but they still recognized God when he showed up.

And they responded, and you have not.

I mean, he is throwing punches right now.

And you can just imagine the anger and the vitriol that's stirring up in the Pharisees.

Jesus isn't holding back.

He goes on.

Now listen to another story.

A certain landowner planted a vineyard and built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower.

And then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.

At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop.

But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.

So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.

Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, Surely they will respect my son.

But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, Here, here comes the heir to the estate.

Come on, let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves.

So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him.

And when the owner of the vineyard returns, Jesus asked, What do you think he will do to those farmers?

The religious leaders replied, He will put the wicked men to a horrible death, and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.

And then Jesus asked him, Didn't you ever read this in the scriptures?

Now just that question alone, like I said.

They know the scriptures.

And he says, You never read this?

Who does he think he is?

The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.

This is the Lord's doing.

It is wonderful to see.

I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit.

Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.

And when the leading priests and the Pharisees heard this parable, they realized he was telling the story against them.

They were the wicked farmers.

And they wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds who considered Jesus to be a prophet.

Now, there's a lot going on here.

And in many ways, Jesus is showing his mastery of scripture.

It's really interesting.

He talks about this stone, this cornerstone, and you stumble over the stone, and then the stone crushes you.

And what he's doing in this few sentences is actually weaving together several really powerful moments from scripture, pictures from the Old Testament.

Psalm 118, 22, David wrote, The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.

And David's either talking about himself here.

If you know the story of David, he was anointed to be the king, but then he had to live most of his life on the run in hiding as an outlaw because the current king Saul was jealous of him and didn't want to hand over his kingdom.

That's the way that tends to go.

So David lived as an outlaw, lived in caves, and then was restored and given the kingdom and was the most successful king that Israel had ever had.

And so David's saying, like, I'm like that.

I was the stone that was rejected, now the cornerstone, but he could also be talking about Israel itself.

Israel is a nation that God built out of nothing.

The Israelites were not powerful people.

When God looked at the earth and he said, What nation do I want to rise up, to raise up and empower to be the nation that I do my work through, that I reveal myself to the entire world through, through his son Jesus?

He did that through Israel.

He could have chosen the Egyptians.

They were already building pyramids and they had architecture and art and all kinds of crazy advanced stuff for that time in the world.

He didn't go with the Egyptians, he didn't go with the Babylonians.

He went with the Israelites, the Hebrews.

They were nomads, they were shepherds.

He took sheep herders and made them into a nation and grew that nation to be the very nation that he sent his son through.

It's like this rejected stone that now becomes the cornerstone.

They would have been very familiar with this, and Jesus also weaves in a few other pictures.

Isaiah chapter 8, he says, make the Lord of heaven's armies holy in your life.

Isaiah 8 · chapter mention

He is the one you should fear, he is the one you should make that should make you tremble, he will make you safe.

But to Israel and Judah, this is a point where they have rebelled against God, and Isaiah the prophet is speaking out against the nation.

He says, But to Israel and Judah, he will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall.

And for the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare.

Many will stumble and fall, never to rise again.

They will be snared and captured.

And what Isaiah spoke came true for the nation of Israel.

They were conquered.

And he says that, hey, God should be who you fear and serve and follow, but instead he's going to be like a rock in the ground that you trip over.

Jesus referenced that in his language to the Pharisees.

And one final picture, Jesus talked about a stone that you trip over, but that stone comes and crushes you.

Daniel chapter 2 in the Old Testament, Daniel's interpreting a vision that a king named Nebuchadnezzar has had, and he said, As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

And it struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits.

The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold.

Nebuchadnezzar had had a dream about a statue, and this rock comes and crushes it.

And then the wind blew that away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor.

But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.

So Jesus weaves in all these pictures of scripture of a cornerstone that you stumble over that crushes you.

And this is essentially what he's saying.

I want you to understand the audacity of this.

Jesus is saying, all of that was about me.

Think about this.

The Pharisees have studied scripture their whole life.

They taught on these scriptures.

And Jesus says, everything you've read, it's always been about me.

I'm the stone that was rejected that becomes the cornerstone.

I'm the stone that you're going to stumble over.

You're doing it right now.

I'm the stone that was not cut by human hands, that's going to crush all of this, all that's come before.

It's meaningless, it's worthless.

And I'm the mountain that's going to cover the whole earth.

I mean, guys, that's audacious.

That's a ridiculous thing to say.

Who does he think he is?

He's not holding back.

And the Pharisees at this point say, We gotta do something about this guy.

Jesus goes on.

Matthew 22.

This will be the last chunk of scripture we read.

Then Jesus told them other parables.

He said, The kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son.

And when the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited, but they all refused to come.

So he sent other servants to tell them the feast has been prepared, the bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready.

Come to the banquet.

But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his own farm, another to his business.

Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.

The king was furious.

He sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

He said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I have invited aren't worthy of the honor.

Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.

So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

When the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn't wearing the proper clothes for a wedding.

Friend, he asked, How is it you are here without wedding clothes?

But the man had no reply.

Then he said to his aides, Bind his hands and feet and throw them into the outer darkness.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.

Yay.

I'm telling you, Jesus, we've got we've got to appreciate him for who he is.

He has love, he has compassion, but he's not afraid to go there.

And I love that about him.

It's an intense moment in Jesus' life.

Now, first and foremost, we could talk for hours about what Jesus just said.

You're sitting there like this poor guy just didn't have the right clothes on?

And that's what happened?

Well, in their culture, going to a wedding is a different experience, especially the wedding of a king, and they would have had specific clothes they were supposed to wear, and many scholars have said that this is meant to represent someone who shows up, so to speak, and claims to be a follower of Jesus, but there's nothing in their life that has any indication that they actually are.

And that you can't fake it.

And that's a scary thought in many ways.

But the overall point that Jesus is making, he's again, remember who he's talking to.

He's talking to the Pharisees.

He's saying, You're the ones that were invited.

You received the invitation.

I mean, they've had time after time after time and chance after chance after chance to receive Jesus.

They've seen him do miracles, they've seen it with their own eyes.

Even Nicodemus, one of the leading Pharisees, who became a follower of Jesus.

Nicodemus likely became a follower of Jesus.

We don't know the full story, but there's some interesting stuff there.

Nicodemus says to Jesus in John chapter 3, we know that you're from God.

John 3 · chapter mention

He's speaking on behalf of all the Pharisees.

We've had talks, we've met about you.

We know you're from God because there's no way you could do the stuff you're doing if God wasn't with you.

But they didn't like what the God they claimed to worship had to say.

They didn't like the kind of people that the God that they claimed to worship chose to love.

So they rejected him.

Because for most people, they would rather serve a God of their own invention than the real living God.

That's the way humans are.

That's the way we can all be.

Jesus is telling them, you've had your opportunity, you've had your chance, and here I stand before you, and I know how it's going to go down.

I know what you're going to do.

And I'm not hiding, you know exactly where to find me.

The audacity of Jesus.

Again, I'll ask that question: who does he think he is?

Well, he thinks that he is God.

He thinks that he is the Son of God, which we can have a long conversation about the Trinity, and like don't think son biological.

In Hebrew, the phrase son of means of the same substance.

God is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is the Son.

He's God.

He's divine.

He's the rightful ruler of all the earth.

He has ultimate authority and power.

He's eternal.

That's who Jesus thinks he is.

That's audacious.

And what I want to talk about as we wrap up today is that we have to respond to that.

Audacity demands a response.

It always does.

Like sometimes if you have kids, if you're raising kids, or if you've been a kid and you can remember moments when you were growing up, like sometimes kids do audacious things.

And you have to, like you have to respond.

If you don't, you're, I mean, you're just abdicating your responsibility.

Sometimes kids say things, you're like, you can't say that.

I remember when one of my kids ran outside to play with friends, Sans pants, one time.

And I had to do something about it.

I can be like, oh, he's just not wearing pants.

Because that's you can it's audacious.

You can't run and play with friends with no pants on.

People say and do audacious things all the time.

And when something audacious happens, you have to respond.

Jesus understands that dynamic very well.

And he knows that by doing and saying the audacious things that he's doing and saying, by flipping the tables over, by challenging the Pharisees, by saying, I'm the one the scripture has been talking about, I'm the stone.

I'm the cornerstone, I'm the stone you stumble over, I'm the stone that crushes all the things that have come before.

That's me.

This is my house.

I have the authority here.

I'm not in your territory, you're in my territory.

Jesus knows that by doing this and saying this, he is demanding a response.

And what I want us to recognize, what I'm my prayer that all of us recognize, is that we have to respond to Jesus and the way that we respond matters.

Let me ask a seemingly random question.

How many of you are sushi people?

I'm just curious, sushi people.

How many of you are never not in a million years?

You couldn't drag me and make me put okay.

Those of you who are sushi people, I'm gonna be honest for a second.

Do you judge the ones that just raised their hands?

Or do you like, no, I get it, it's fine.

Like, how many of you like, nah, it's fine.

Like, I get it.

I was once like them.

Right?

First time I ever had sushi was uh my father-in-law took us to a sushi restaurant.

I just wasn't comfortable with the idea of raw fish.

And so he ordered me like a lobster roll, which is cooked, and I was like, this is amazing.

He's like, honestly, it all kind of tastes like this.

And so I worked up the courage.

Okay?

Back to the sushi people.

How many of you are like California roll sushi people versus uh how many of you?

Like I like sushi, but I like the you know, safe sushi.

Any safe sushi people here?

Anyone here would just be like, uh sashimi, a sliver of raw fish, just okay.

So I'll tell you a story about the guy who started his hands related to sushi.

I promise this connects, sort of.

No, it does.

So Steve, who started our church, got to go on a trip to Japan several years ago.

And while he was on the trip, he had an opportunity.

I didn't ask him if I could tell this story, but I think he'd be okay with it.

While he was on this trip, he had this opportunity that a like world-renowned sushi chef, like world-renowned, was having a private dinner, and Steve got an invitation to come.

But here's the way that these dinners work: you don't order, there's no menu.

Like you go and he brings you what he creates, and you put it in your mouth.

Now in Japan, sushi's a little different than it is here in America.

Like we have sushi, and you can go and find really authentic sushi here in town, actually.

There's some really great sushi restaurants in town.

Yun sushi for the wind, by the way.

If you've ever been to Yoon, that place is epic.

Just saying, all right.

Not trying to create sushi wars.

We're not gonna gather, we're a Zumi people.

We're you know, we're not doing that.

Um but uh but he had that opportunity.

You're just gonna go.

You don't get to go, hmm, no, I don't want, I don't like eel.

Uh I don't want sea urchin.

I'll take this.

No, no, no.

He brings it out to you, and if it's wiggling, you eat it.

How many of you would go?

That's way fewer than originally raised their hand to sushi people.

Some of our sushi people have fallen off.

Backsliders.

How many of you would say, not in a million years?

I don't care what awards he's won.

Yeah.

Alright.

Here's why I bring this up.

I love sushi.

But I totally understand if somebody doesn't.

Like, I'll tell you, Steve didn't go.

Didn't do it.

And I don't judge him for that, because I don't think I would have either.

Now my wife was like, Are you kidding me?

Are you serious?

Like, she watches cooking shows for entertainment.

And how could you say no to that?

But I'm like, I get it.

I get it.

I mean, I'm I love sushi, but I love my sushi, and I order the same three rolls every time I go somewhere, and I should order two rolls, but I'm kind of fat, so I get three.

And it's fine.

But if someone doesn't like sushi, I don't judge them.

Like, I get it.

It's raw fish and fine.

Sushi is one of those things that if you like it, great.

If you don't, who cares?

Here's what I'm trying to say.

I know this is silly.

Jesus isn't like that.

He's not this yeah, try him.

If you like him, great.

If you don't, it's fine.

That's not that's not who Jesus is, and he doesn't allow that to be the case.

Now, if you're here and you're not a Christian, you haven't decided to give your life to Jesus, this is not judgment at all.

I'm actually super excited that you're here or that you're listening or watching, whatever it might be.

Jesus is gentle.

Like, it took him three years to get to this point.

Understand that.

And it took him 30 years to even go public.

So for 33 years, he's been on the earth that he created, hanging out with the people that he made, reading and discussing the scriptures that he inspired and are about him.

And he's taken him 33 years to finally go, all right, now it's time.

But that time has come.

And what I mean is that for each and every single one of us, he is gentle and patient.

And if you're new to the whole Jesus thing, I'm not trying to force anything on you.

You can take your time to a certain degree with Jesus.

It's always challenging because we don't know how much time we have.

But I need us all to understand that there comes a point in time where Jesus is Jesus.

And he is audacious, and he makes it very clear who he is and why he's come.

And when you get to that Jesus, this isn't who wants a miracle, Jesus.

This is here's who I am, this is who I am, deal with it.

And you have two choices.

You either reject him or you worship him.

And there's no middle, he's not sushi.

You can't just be like, I mean, yeah, that's cool.

It's fine if it's for you.

It's not, he doesn't let you do that.

And sometimes that makes us uncomfortable.

And Jesus followers, those of you who've been following Jesus, don't ever let this world convince you that, you know, Jesus is for us, but you know, if other people, it's fine.

I'm if you know people that don't know Jesus, this should break your heart.

And we have to be filled with a passion.

Passion means like love so strong you're willing to suffer for it.

We have to be filled with a passion to share with the world that Jesus is the answer.

He is the answer.

And you have to either receive or reject it.

There's no middle ground, there's no like, oh, it's okay if you don't.

He makes that really clear.

And worshiping you guys can make your way out.

I'll use this and we'll we'll wrap up.

C.S.

Lewis had a really interesting uh thought experiment, and this is known today as like the Lewis Trilemma.

Some of you may be familiar with this.

Anyone here ever heard of the Lewis trilemma?

A handful of you.

It's not, I mean, it's okay if you haven't.

Sometimes I get really frustrated as a pastor because people will be like, have you ever read this guy?

I'm like, I've not.

They're like, have you read this book?

I have not.

They're like, you haven't read that book?

Like, we're 2,000 years into Christianity.

The early apostles, they just had to know Jesus.

I am supposed to know 2,000 years.

Come on, cut me some slide.

Okay?

I do like books.

But sometimes there's stuff I haven't read.

It's like sushi, you know.

But Jesus isn't like that.

So here's what Lewis said with the Lewis trilemma.

It's okay if you haven't read C.S.

Lewis, is what I was trying to say.

He said, with Jesus, you have really only three options.

He's either the Lord, like that song we sang, or he's a liar, or he's a lunatic.

Those are the only three options you have.

Because he said he was God.

Like he says to the Pharisees here, I am that stone.

You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life.

They point to me.

I'm the Messiah.

I am the great I am.

He said that one time.

He said, Before Abraham was, I am.

It's audacious.

Who does he think he is?

He thinks he's God.

If someone says, I think I'm God, you have two options.

Option one, they are telling the truth.

They are God.

Option two, they are not God.

You can't kind of be God.

That's not how that works.

So if Jesus was telling the truth and he's God, then he's the Lord.

And what do you do with the Lord?

You worship him, you bow before him, you submit to him, you give your life to him, you say, Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it, because you're my God.

Now, if he isn't God, you have two options there.

He either lied, he knew he wasn't God, but he told everyone he was, which would make him one of the most evil people in the history of the world.

That he was totally comfortable with all these people giving their lives to him and dying, sacrificing themselves, being martyred, and the whole time he's like, I'm not God.

Or he thought he was God and he was just crazy.

And there have been a lot of those people, like a lot of people like that in history.

Just they're nuts.

Now, those people rarely go on to say things that uh become the most foundational philosophy for thousands of years, and entire civilizations of human history have built upon what they say and they teach, like Jesus.

But if you want to say, I think he was nuts, that's that's one of the options.

That's what Lewis said.

You've got three options with Jesus.

That's it.

He's either a liar, he's a lunatic, or he is the Lord.

And you have to decide which of those you're most comfortable with.

And there's no middle ground.

I think Lewis was right.

And so here's what I'm saying this.

If you're a Jesus follower, if you've given your life to Jesus, and I recognize on a Sunday morning at church most of us have, then man, be so resolute about that.

Like we sang earlier, like the worship team wrote, He is, I am the Lord.

And make sure he stays the Lord of your life.

Don't let anything else replace that.

Don't be convinced that your hope is in something else.

I mean, it's election season and we're all in that mode right now.

Where it's like, this is our hope, this is the answer, this is the all of this will pass away.

You know, there's one answer for your life.

There's one thing you can build your life upon, and it's Jesus.

Because he's the Lord, he's the only Lord.

Like he has real authority.

Think about it.

In a few weeks, we're gonna elect a president.

And that president will have authority.

But where does that authority come from?

It comes from us.

It's borrowed authority.

Like we're giving you authority for a while.

You better do a good job.

We'll give it to somebody else.

That's the way that works.

That is not the authority that Jesus has.

His authority is not borrowed.

He doesn't get his authority from us.

His authority comes from God the Father.

His authority comes from the fact that he is the Son.

He has authority.

Like you need a leader like that.

We all need to be led.

We all need to follow someone.

We do, as human beings, have a deep desire to follow someone.

That's why politics, by the way, is so dangerous, especially for us believers.

Because it's very easy for us in a season like this to start following the political party that we affiliate with more passionately than we follow Jesus Christ.

Convinced in our mind, if we're honest, that actually this group or this candidate, they have the answers.

They're the hope for our world.

Jesus is the hope for our world.

Period.

He always has been.

And that doesn't mean that you shouldn't vote for who you care about.

I'm not saying that.

I'm just saying that, like, even if, look, even if you're like, even if you're convinced that the person who ends up winning this election is evil and terrible and horrible, and it was the wrong choice and we're doomed, uh, yeah, pretty much everyone who's ever run a country has been evil and terrible and horrible.

Like, that's just history.

And yet Jesus still stands.

So he's the Lord.

Worship him, serve him, put your hope in him.

And no matter how the world around you goes, just be like, whoa, that that was crazy.

That's a crap show.

But at least I have the Lord, and I follow a risen king who's the living God over all creation, and I put my hope in him, and I don't really care who's in the White House because I have a God.

Let him be the Lord.

And if you're not a Jesus follower, you should be.

He's awesome.

So much better than Sushi, I promise.

I'm a fan of both.

No, he's not a lunatic.

I don't think, I mean, if you think he's a lunatic, just read him.

Read his words and ask, is this a crazy person?

And at times you might be like, maybe.

Because he is audacious.

But then there's things that he says where you're like, no, no, no.

There's an insight in the mind of Jesus into the human condition that doesn't make any sense.

How, how in the world does a 30-something-year-old carpenter from the middle of nowhere in ancient Palestine, how in the world does a does that person have the kind of insight into the human condition, into life, into the meaning of life, into what's really true, what really matters, such that they could speak and with no formal education, with no political power, with no money behind them, change the entire course of human history.

Like if you know history, understand this.

Did you know that without Jesus there wouldn't be hospitals?

Study the history of hospitals.

They came from the church.

And ultimately, they came from a desire to follow through with what Jesus said that we ought to take care of the least of these.

The ancient world didn't care about hurting sick, broken people.

They're just, they're in the way.

It's dead weight.

Jesus, like if not for him, we wouldn't have values like mercy and forgiveness.

Those aren't that valuable to a world that's cutthroat and just cares about getting ahead and surviving.

Like Jesus changed the world.

Lunatics don't do that.

Lunatics burn their world down.

That was like Nero, the emperor in Rome.

Like, he's not a lunatic.

Is he a liar?

I mean, if he is, he's fooled a lot of people.

I mean a lot of people.

And a lot of really brilliant, intelligent, interesting people.

And what did those people have to gain?

What did Jesus have to gain?

You know, usually if you start a cult and you lie about it, like you say you're God or you're a prophet or whatever, you get something out of it.

You get money, multiple wives, a lot of those have that.

You do it for some horrible reason.

And Jesus didn't do any of that.

Like if he was lying about it, for why?

For what purpose?

He didn't get any money.

All he got was conflict and hardship and pain and suffering and torture and death.

So if he's a liar, he's evil and dumb.

I don't think anyone will call him dumb.

So if you're not a Jesus follower, I just want to encourage you today to make a choice.

Who is he to you?

Because he knows exactly who he is.

And it's audacious.

Who does he think he is?

He's God.

Who do you think he is?

And that's a question the Pharisees had before them, and they chose poorly.

But it's a choice all of us have.

Who is this man?

Who does he think he is?

Who do I think he is?

And if you're wrestling with that, if you haven't made that decision yet, I want to, I'm just gonna tell you he's the Lord.

And you need him.

And he's either going to be a stone that you stumble over or the cornerstone for your life.

So choose which one.

And with that said, let's take Lord's Supper together.

If you're new, we do this every week.

It's a little meal that we take together to wrap up.

This is a meal that Jesus is going to actually have his followers take with him in just a few days in the story where we're at with Jesus and his life.

But he took some bread and he took some wine, and he said that the bread represented his body, which was about to be broken, and the wine represented his blood, which was about to be spilled.

And all of this was a sacrifice that he was willingly give to, as Matt said before, make a way for us to be restored in our relationship with God the Father, to be included into the family of God, to be to be his.

it's a gesture.

But if he is the Lord, as I believe he is, then this is everything.

Then this means I have a guarantee that I accepted the invitation to the wedding banquet.

And I'm wearing my wedding clothes.

Because I'm doing this in a spirit of love and adoration.

It's not about being perfect, it's about the heart.

And in doing this, this is like me saying, I'm I'm sitting at that table and I follow you, and you're my king.

And so, if that's something that you believe, take this meal with me.

Jesus, we thank you for this piece of bread.

This is your body broken on the cross.

A sacrifice.

Pay the price for my sin, for all of our sin.

And because you are the Lord, because you are exactly who you thought you were, and exactly who you said you were, this has power.

This has an effect.

This changes everything.

Because you say it's finished, it's finished.

And my sins, all of our sins, totally forgiven, and we're restored by you.

Thank you, Jesus.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood spilled on our behalf to cleanse us.

Blood is always in your word, a symbol for life.

And in this we have life, your life, through us.

A life that's eternal, a life that doesn't end, a life that death cannot defeat.

And because you are the Lord, because you are exactly who you thought you were and exactly who you said you were, this changes everything for us.

It gives us a power and a life that we could never have ourselves.

And we thank you for it, Jesus.

Let's take the juice.