Jesus is Interruptible

Well, today we are starting a series that we'll be in for the next month or so called Jesus Is.

Jesus Is.

And so this is part of a larger study that we started back in February.

We're going through the entire book of Matthew.

We've called this following Jesus.

We're just trying to spend our year together following Jesus, understanding Jesus more.

And it's okay if you're just joining us, if you haven't been here for a while, each Sunday stands on its own, and definitely each series stands on its own.

But the hope, hopefully, the result of all of this, for those of us that are here as often as possible is that Jesus just becomes more and more clear to us.

We need that.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, it says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

So do not be attracted by strange new ideas.

We live in a world that is filled with strange new ideas.

Every few years there's a new thing, there's a new idea, and it kind of grips culture, and everyone's supposed to go along with it.

But the problem is it only lasts for a while, and it's just this never-ending, fickle, ever-changing world where the things that culture values today won't be the things that culture values tomorrow, and it's crazy.

If we live our lives with that as our foundation, we're gonna be a mess.

We need something stable, we need something steady, we need a North Star, so to speak, to guide us, to ground us.

And Jesus is that, because Jesus isn't like the world we live in.

He doesn't change.

He doesn't change what he believes is true, he doesn't change his mood.

He is steady.

He is like a North Star to us.

We can depend on him.

He can be a guide for us that grounds our lives in truth.

And so the more clearly we know Jesus, the better that we understand Jesus, right?

The more we're able to navigate this life and deal with all of that change and deal with all the craziness in the world because we are we are steadied by Jesus Himself.

We've just got to know him really, really well.

And over the course of the next month, as we explore several stories of Jesus that reveal different aspects of who he is, we're gonna have a clearer picture of our North Star than we've ever had before.

And I'm so, so excited about it.

Now, to kind of catch everybody up, all year long, we've been trying our best to sort of be reminded of where Jesus actually is.

We're trying to follow Jesus as literally as possible.

And so Jesus operated in what is modern-day Israel, okay, and ancient Israel as well.

This is a map of that region of the world.

You've got the Mediterranean Sea up there in the top left, the Dead Sea in the bottom right, Sea of Galilee, where Jesus worked a lot, uh, is up there in sort of the top right.

These are the regions that made up Israel at the time of Jesus.

And so if you ever read your Bible, these are some of the words that you'll read where Jesus goes from this place to this place.

You've got Galilee, Samaria, Judea, which is where Jerusalem was.

Um, and Jesus has been all over the place.

We've been following him everywhere, but for the last few months, he hasn't traveled very far.

In fact, just a few weeks back, uh, we have Jesus moving again for the first time in a while.

He's been very active in a place called Capernaum, but he went back to Nazareth, his hometown, and it did not go very well at all.

Uh he preached in his hometown, they didn't like it, and so he pretty quickly leaves Nazareth and goes back to Capernaum, this little fishing village where he sort of set up as his home base.

And then today we're gonna see Jesus take a short trip, a really short trip across the Sea of Galilee.

He's gonna go from Capernaum to this sort of uh wilderness area, kind of remote area, a little bit outside of a town called Beth Seda.

And he's going there for a very intense reason.

A super intense reason.

But what we're gonna see happen reveals to us a part of Jesus' character that we need to be reminded of, and honestly, we need to try our best to emulate.

So, with that said, let's just jump in and see what's going on.

We're in Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

It says, When Herod Ansipas, the ruler of Galilee, heard about Jesus, he said to his advisors, This must be John the Baptist raised from the dead.

That is why he can do such miracles, for Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favor to his wife Herodias, the former wife of Herod's brother Philip.

John had been telling Herod, It is against God's law for you to marry her.

Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of a riot because all the people believed John was a prophet.

But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias' daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him.

So he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted.

At her mother's urging, the girl said, I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray.

And the king regretted what he had said, but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders.

So John was beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl who took it to her mother.

Later, John's disciples came for his body and buried it.

Then they went and told Jesus what had happened, and as soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

So Jesus hears that his cousin, his dear friend, the man who baptized him, the prophet that God sent ahead of him to prepare the world for him, has been killed.

And it hits him, and he he has to go be alone.

Now, before we explore Jesus' mindset and what happens next, um, I'm wondering if if you're willing to like nerd out with me for a second.

Uh, a part of this whole year is when we have opportunities to learn things, to really jump into some history and walk away going, man, I never knew that.

We take advantage of that.

So I like to like nerd out on Bible stuff, and if you're okay, can we nerd out together for just a few minutes?

Because I got to explain to you what's going on.

Um, Dennis, thank you so much.

Dennis has uh has brought brought me a uh a little chart.

Let's hear it for Dennis.

Here we go.

Yeah.

It's a very fancy technology, it's a chalkboard.

Alright, thanks, man.

Alright, so I uh this is my handwriting, so apologies.

Okay.

I'm gonna walk you guys through.

This is a a little bit of a map of the family tree of Herod.

Okay, and for those of you over there you can't see it directly, we'll make sure that it's on the screen.

There we go, guys.

Alright, cool.

Alright, so let me this is this is awesome.

Awesome in the sense that it's not awesome at all, it's crazy and messed up.

But let me ask you guys this question.

Does anyone have a messed up family?

Like you'd say, hey, my family's pretty messed up.

Alright?

Every family's got got interesting characters.

Is anyone the interesting character in your family?

You're like, I'm the reason.

Okay, all right.

That's alright.

Dude, I I like we all have stories.

I'm part of a messed up family too.

Like one time, true story, my late grandmother, uh, gosh, she would have been in her late 60s at the time, uh, got put in handcuffs one time in front of some of us in our family because she and her husband, who's who's my grandfather, but but her second husband, my grandfather died when I was young.

Uh, they got in an altercation and plates were being thrown at the house, and uh neighbors called the police because they heard about it.

And turns out my step-grandfather had forgotten to bring donuts home.

She's really mad about that, and so it turned into this giant brawl.

And here's the thing none of us were that surprised.

Like, it's one of those stories that, like, oh, you know, sometimes when your grandma uh gets arrested by the police, because when the officer arrived, she was very belligerent with him, and she may have thrown a plate at him, I don't know.

But like, it's like a story that if you know my grandma, you're like, yeah, that tracks, you know.

We probably all have, and that that story, by the way, does not define the entire life of my grandma.

You know, I uh I love my grandma, but did some crazy things.

We all have stories like that in our family, and sometimes we might even feel a little bit of shame because maybe our family's a little jacked up.

This is going to encourage you so much.

Because your family has nothing.

I promise you, your family has nothing on this family.

Uh, this is a family that interacts with the story of Jesus and the early church as much as anyone does, and it's fascinating to understand all the things going on, all the historical implications.

It's super cool.

So I'm gonna walk you through this really, really quick, okay?

Uh at the top we have Herod the Great.

Herod the Great is the Herod that tries to have Jesus killed as a child.

He is the ruler of the entire region of Israel at the time of Jesus' birth, but not really.

Not really.

We could have just put uh a giant Rome on top of the map that we showed earlier, which would be more accurate in a sense, because Rome uh completely controlled Israel at this time.

Rome is the dominant empire at work in the world at this period in time.

They were the largest and longest lasting empire in history.

And what Rome would do is when they would conquer an area to try to keep the peace, to try to keep things from getting out of control, to keep the people sort of placid, they would allow people from that area to appear as if they were in charge.

They would allow that person to still sort of be the king, they would have authority, they would live in the palace, so long as they were doing what Rome wanted them to do.

They called that a client king.

And so Herod the Great was a client king of Israel.

Very powerful.

Um his father was very close with Julius Caesar, and so it was actually Caesar who appointed Herod the Great with that entire territory when he was only about 28 years old.

So at a young age, he becomes a very powerful king.

He had at least five wives, uh, five to seven wives.

He had a ton of kids, and I've I've laid out for you some of the most important kids.

This is not a complete family tree, but it's just sort of the important ones.

We have uh we have Auntie Potter, Alexander, Aristobulus, Philip the First, Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipos, and Philip the Second.

Okay.

Important information.

Um, Auntie Potter, firstborn of Herod, kills him.

Thinks he's a threat to him, has his son killed.

Alexander, son number two, killed.

Okay.

Aristobulus, here's the cool thing about this part of the family.

Herod the Great wasn't actually Jewish, not fully so.

He was he was from a different heritage called an Edomite.

And so the Jewish people really wanted to be ruled by one of their own.

And so Herod married this woman to sort of solidify his Jewish heritage because she was fully Jewish, and it was actually the mother of these two.

Um, but he had her killed, he didn't like her.

And then, this is crazy, four days before his death, four days before Herod the Great died, he ordered the execution of Aristobulus.

And so Caesar Augustus, who sort of succeeded Julius Caesar, once said, This is a famous quote from history, it is better to be one of Herod's pigs than to be one of his sons.

Like you're safer, you're better off.

Because Herod lived as an observant Jew to some degree, so he he wouldn't have eaten the pigs, but his sons, ooh, it was crazy.

All right, so three of his sons he has killed.

When Herod the Great died, um, no one really mourned him.

Everyone really they hated Herod.

He was a brilliant military leader and he was an absolutely brilliant builder.

Uh he had he had all kinds of projects that he initiated, fortresses, a huge expansion of the Jewish temple, very impressive stuff, but he was cruel.

And so he was hated.

He had an order put in place that on his death, many of the most prominent and respected men of Israel were to be rounded up and executed because he was determined that people would cry on the day of his death.

That's who we're dealing with.

So he dies, his first three sons, they're they're dead, and he divides in his will his territory between uh four of his of his children.

Okay?

Uh one of those uh is Philip I.

He's actually not one of the ones that gets some territory.

He lives in Rome, and this is where he interacts with our story.

He's not really in it very often, but this Philip, who lives in Rome, uh he marries the daughter of his half-brother, Aristobulus, who was killed.

Her name is Herodias, this is Herodias.

So Herodias marries her half-uncle, her hunkle, let's call it that.

She, you know, just one of those hunkle marriages, right?

Uh she marries, she marries her half-uncle, Philip I, moves to Rome, lives there, you know, it's just, it's every grandfather's dream that your granddaughter will marry one of your sons, right?

That's the way I told you.

This family's messed up.

So Herodias marries her half-uncle, and then these three are pretty significant.

You have Herod Archelaus, he's given the territory of Judea.

That's where Jerusalem is, okay?

In fact, he he was known to be just as crazy as his father.

And so when Joseph and Mary hear, they're living in Egypt on the run from Herod the Great when Jesus is young, when they hear that Herod the Great dies, they decide to move back to Israel.

But they do not move back to Bethlehem, which is where Joseph was from, because that was in the territory of Herod Archelaus, and they're like, we don't want to be anywhere near that guy.

So they move up to Nazareth, which is under the control of Herod Antipos.

And then this Philip over here, he doesn't really show up much.

He rules an area a little bit uh to the north and to the east.

Herod Archelaus, he's a disaster.

He's a disaster.

Within nine years, he is exiled by Rome.

Uh he does things that are not within his authority to do, and instead of giving his territory to another one of Herod's sons, Rome just decides we're gonna rule this area directly.

That is why when Jesus, by the way, is put on trial in Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate is the man who oversees that.

He was a Roman prefect, he was a direct representative of Rome.

That is who is in control of that part of Israel at that time, because Archelaus was a disaster.

Herod Antipas, he's the Herod that we're dealing with in our story today.

He's the one who has John the Baptist killed, and here's why.

So you remember Herodias over here, uh, she fell in love with her uncle and moved to Rome.

Well, Herod Antipas went to Rome to do some official business, you know, work with the emperor, and while in Rome, he catches up with his brother and his and his brother's wife slash his uh niece, and he's like, Man, I like her.

And so he he woos her, and because she has a thing for uncles, she just beginning on that, she she's like, I don't want to be with Philip anymore.

I want to be with Herod on Tepa.

So she leaves her her husband, slash uncle, and marries her other half uncle.

Yeah.

All right.

Anyone feel better about your family?

Anyone at all?

All right, good.

Some of you didn't raise your hands.

I don't know your story.

Okay, wow.

I thought you would.

And so that is what John the Baptist is like.

No.

No, you cannot do that.

You absolutely can't do that.

That's crazy.

That's wrong.

It's wrong on so many levels, it's just wrong, period, and it's also wrong biblically.

And so John the Baptist decides to confront Herod and say, You are living in sin.

This is against God's law.

Just because you're the quote-unquote king doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want.

And he is imprisoned for that.

And Herodias is so angry, she's embarrassed, and that's the whole situation that leads to the death of John the Baptist.

Now, we'll get rid of this in just a second.

Super interesting.

I mean, these people like, they all die in different situations.

In fact, interesting story, the way their story ends, Herod Antipos, is Herodias has a brother who lived in Rome named Agrippa.

He's Herod Agrippa I.

He becomes very good friends with uh a man named Caligula and a man named Claudius, both of whom will end up being the emperors of Rome.

And he's later given a huge bit of territory.

This Philip dies.

Herod Agrippa gets the territory.

He's called king by the emperor because the emperor knows him and his friends.

Herodias is like, that's not fair.

We should be called king and queen.

They didn't quite have those titles, so she convinces her husband, slash uncle, Herod Antipas, to go to Rome and to say, call us king as well.

But Agrippa didn't like them, and so he kind of told some, he he gave some rumors to the emperor saying, hey, you want to watch out for them, they're after more authority.

Uh the emperor has them exiled.

They get exiled to what is modern day France, they live there, they die there.

Herod Agrippa has some kids.

Herod Agrippa II, Baronice, their brother and sister, they also have a relationship, that's gross.

And uh anyone feel better about your family?

All right, there we go.

No, that's a thing.

That's an actual thing.

Um and then he has this uh daughter named Drusilla, and she has a son named Agrippa.

So we have Agrippa, Agrippa, not very creative family, okay, when it comes to names.

Here's what's crazy.

When this Herod Agrippa II is ruling, uh, there's a massive thing.

Around 70 AD, there's a revolt in Jerusalem, and it leads to an all-out war between the Jewish people and Rome.

Rome wins that war and destroys, completely destroys Jerusalem.

Herod Agrippa sided with Rome.

He was like, you don't fight Rome.

So he actually supplied troops to Rome, uh fighting his own people in a war against Rome, but it didn't work out well for him.

He ends up kind of being exiled too.

Everyone that's part of Herod's family, those that are still alive, they flee.

They're like, we're not gonna live there.

Everything's gone crazy.

And Drusilla and her son Agrippa, they move to this really nice, just think of like uh a city that would be a beautiful place to live, like a place everyone would dream of retiring to.

It was this wonderful city called Pompeii.

And they live there and they're like, whew, that was close.

We escaped the craziness of Jerusalem, but now everything's good.

Hey, what's that sound?

And uh and if you know the story of Pompeii, Mount Vesuvius erupts, kills everyone.

I mean, it's one of the most incredible disasters in the history of humanity.

A volcano erupts, kills everyone.

We actually still, it's so crazy, have these sort of ashen remains of the people who died in Pompeii.

We only know the names of a very small number of people historically who are in Pompeii, but two of those names are these two, Drusilla and Agrippa.

So that is actually, I'll erase this.

That is how this entire family's line goes away with a giant explosion of a volcano, which is, I think, in a weird way sad, but also kind of fitting because it's just crazy.

And they oppose God at every possible place, and that's how it all ends.

That's super interesting.

All right, Dennis, you can take that away.

Let's hear it for Dennis one more time.

Good job.

All right.

Now again, anyone feel better about your family?

All right, but isn't it amazing how like that's the story of the people who oppose God?

And they were very close friends with the emperors of Rome, with names like Julius Caesar, right?

They were super close friends with with Caesar Augustus and Caligula and Claudius and some of these people who were the most important people in, some of the most important people in history, and they opposed Jesus and his followers at every turn.

And yet here we are.

Here we are, celebrating Jesus, and they're just ancient history.

Super interesting to think about.

So now you know some of the crazy backstory that's been going on with this family that John the Baptist decides to oppose.

And it does not go well for John, it breaks Jesus' heart.

John the Baptist expected Jesus to rescue him, we know that.

He sent his followers to Jesus' followers and said, Hey, it's like I'm in prison, it's not going well.

Are you guys coming for me or not?

Because even though he was a prophet, he saw the Messiah through a very specific lens, as he had been trained to do, and he imagined that Jesus, upon initiating his kingdom, was going to do away with Rome, to do away with the Herodians, to establish an earthly kingdom, sit on an earthly throne, and set up a political, military empire of his own.

And clearly John the Baptist would be one of the movers and shakers there.

Jesus' own disciples thought the same thing.

There are times where they're having arguments about who's going to be given the most important position in Jesus' kingdom.

They have no idea, though, what Jesus' kingdom is really about.

It's not about earthly power, it's not about political power, it's not about military might.

It is an entire new way of life, free from sin, free from the wages of sin, and free from death, at least the fear of death, because Jesus conquered both of those.

They just didn't know that.

So John sits in prison waiting for Jesus, but Jesus doesn't come.

And what John doesn't realize is that Jesus is going to follow suit.

It's not that John gets the short end of the stick.

Being beheaded is much better than being crucified.

Jesus will join John in death shortly.

But even though Jesus understood what John did not, it doesn't change the fact that Jesus' heart was broken.

He loved John.

They were close, they grew up together.

In fact, it's been postulated that part of the reason that uh that Herod Antipos was worried that Jesus was John the Baptist reincarnated, because he obviously felt a lot of guilt for what he had done, is that John the Baptist and Jesus probably looked alike.

They're cousins.

They probably resembled each other.

And so all of a sudden, you know, Herod has Jesus killed, and maybe he got a report back of Jesus.

Maybe he saw Jesus face to face at some point.

I don't we don't really know.

We don't think so until later because Herod.

Harry wants to see him face to face, but I'm sure he got a report back at least of this Jesus guy.

Well, hey, what does he look like?

He looks like John.

Oh no.

Jesus is heartbroken.

So what does he do?

He gets in a boat with his disciples and they cross over to this remote area outside of Beth Seda.

We know that from Luke's account of this story.

And he just wants to be alone.

We'll go back to Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns.

And Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat.

So put yourself in the shoes of Jesus.

You're mourning, you're distraught, you've no doubt cried, your heart's broken.

You probably wanted to go rescue John, but you knew it was not part of the plan, which is a hard thing to think about.

But something I think we have to appreciate about Jesus is he didn't just walk around using his power to benefit himself and his closest friends.

He was willing to sacrifice and die.

He didn't use it for himself when it was time to go to the cross.

But you're you're brokenhearted, you're sad, and you show up just to be alone.

You've spent years.

At this point in time, we're two years into the ministry of Jesus.

You've spent years healing people, preaching to people, helping people, comforting people.

You just need to be alone.

And when you get off the boat to go be by yourself with your close friends and disciples to mourn the death of your cousin and friend John, you don't see a handful of people, you see over 5,000 people.

What do you do?

Jesus got he got interrupted.

One of the things we tend to hate is being interrupted.

Like how many people just you hate being interrupted?

Like it's an absolute pet peeve, someone cuts you off, right?

Apparently you guys are more patient than me.

Um, you know, it's like I live in a house with four children.

I get interrupted all the time.

Constantly.

In fact, I've I've joked with Megan, but it's kind of one of those jokes that comes from a place of deep frustration.

It's not really a joke, that we ought to just replace our bedroom door with a revolving door.

It wouldn't make any difference.

Because when we just try to sit down, to relax, to unwind, to hang out together, we close our door, and our kids just never ending, like knock on the door, knock, knock, knock, knock.

And I'm just like, go away.

And then they they're persistent, they knock, they knock, and I'll yell something like, What it, what is it?

What is it?

And you know, Megan, more gentle and kind than me uh in those moments, and I'm learning.

But she'll be like, just let them in.

And so one child will come in and they will have some situation that we need to address.

Usually it involves one of the other kids, and and they'll leave, and then two minutes later, the next one, two minutes later, it's just a revolving door.

We get interrupted all the time.

Everyone in my house gets interrupted.

In fact, there's no one in my home that probably suffers from this more than my daughter.

My daughter Lily, she's 10 years old, and she's the one girl with three brothers, and she's in the middle.

She's got a brother above her and two brothers beneath her, and every time Lily tries to do something that she values, none of the other kids value it.

She gets interrupted all the time.

In fact, I have some really interesting video evidence of this.

Before I show this to you, I want to preface this.

Lily knows about this.

Okay?

I got her permission to show this.

I also paid her$20.

Okay?

When she was five years old, when she was five years old, she went through this phase where I guess she had seen YouTube videos of people who stream and and like talk to their audience, hey guys, what's up?

This is me.

And she got through this phase where she thought that was cool, so she would grab my phone and she would record herself saying, Hey guys, and then she would do all this stuff, and uh and sometimes she'd sing, she'd just ad lib a song, just make it up as she goes.

Sometimes she'd do a little dance, sometimes she would teach a Bible story, she would just do all kinds of things.

One time she'd try to juggle.

Um and almost every single video ends the same.

With her little brother Judah messing it all up, and her in frustration being like, ugh, and stopping it because of Judah.

Now, before I show this again, she knows about it, she's been paid.

She is twice the age today as she was when this video was filmed.

That's how childhood works, right?

Five years, it's not that much for us.

It's a long time when you're only 10.

All right?

Do me a favor, let's all pretend like we didn't show this.

She knows we are, but if you see her out there later, don't be like, hey, I saw your video, okay?

Because then she's gonna charge me more money.

So help me out.

All right.

So I just put it, it's only 30 seconds.

It's like 30 seconds, a compilation of what it feels like to be interrupted from the perspective of a five-year-old.

So take a look.

I think you can relate to this.

And the boys are not in my hand.

Okay guys, I'm making a video.

Mom just interrupted me, so I'm kind of sad.

I'm extremely hot because I just went outside.

Um stop, stop, Judah! We messed up, Judah.

So guys, they sent an angel to protect you.

And shine looks so Judah!

Oh man.

I have hours of footage of her singing and dancing, and they all in the same.

Stop, Judah, stop.

It's great.

But she just gets interrupted all the time.

And I get interrupted all the time.

We hate being interrupted.

Like you can relate to her pain, especially in that last shot where her face is just so distraught.

It's what it feels like to be interrupted.

And let's appreciate the fact right now that Jesus has this legitimate reason to be alone.

For the first time in years, to just be alone and mourn and pray.

And he goes to do that and he gets interrupted by thousands of people who believe that their needs matter more.

So, what does Jesus do?

Well, it goes on to say this.

We'll go back to verse 13.

As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns.

Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Now we know from another account, the Gospel of Mark, that this takes all day.

This is not a quick thing.

This isn't like Jesus just goes, oh, okay, uh, peace be with you.

You are healed.

Now leave.

All day long.

Jesus spends hour after hour after hour healing people, encouraging them, speaking into them, and this is actually going to lead to them being there so long that they're all really hungry, and now Jesus is gonna have to feed them.

And he went there to be alone.

This teaches us something about Jesus that we need to know and we need to remember.

Remember, the next month is about us learning more and more about who Jesus is, what is he like, what is his nature, because guys, he's God.

He's God.

In fact, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 tells us that the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.

Hebrews 1:3

Sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Usually in the Bible, when we read the word God, it's short for God the Father.

Jesus is God the Son.

And he is exactly like his Father.

You know, we use that language, like the spitting image.

Jesus shows us what God is like, because he is God.

And so when we learn things about how Jesus is and what Jesus is like and what he values and who he is, this applies to the Father.

And we learn through this story that Jesus is interruptible.

Jesus Christ is interruptible.

I I am not often as interruptible as I would like it to be.

In fact, it's really funny how God works because today, you know, we we got a lot going on.

We got the worship album thing, and and I had like I have a it's a busy day.

It's Father's Day, right?

It's a lot of stuff going on.

We've got plans afterwards to go be with Megan's dad, and so lots of stuff.

And it's like in all my preparation for everything this week, the number of times I've been interrupted, whether by my kids or other people, it's just been it's been funny.

And I've been tempted at every time to be like, I don't have time.

Not not it's not a good time.

And then I'm preparing this message about Jesus being interrupted.

I'm like, oh fine, you know?

Sort of.

But actually, in reality, it's more like, oh yeah.

Lord, if if you're interruptible, I can be interruptible.

Jesus is profoundly interruptible.

This is not the only story that illustrates that.

We have several stories.

For example, in Mark chapter 2, Jesus goes to Capernaum, where he was living at the time.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

It says, when he returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home.

And soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors there was no more room, even outside the door.

While he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.

They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd.

So they dug a hole through the roof above his head.

Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus, sing their faith.

Jesus said to the paralyzed man, My child, your sins are forgiven.

Then he heals him.

It's just crazy to think about Jesus in a packed room, he's teaching, he's doing something.

They don't even wait until he's done.

They're like, we gotta do this now.

And so they they break the roof of his house.

It's likely his home that they're they're at.

They break it and they lower this man down in front of him.

I mean, can you just imagine, like right now, as I'm teaching, if like you know, there's rubble, and then someone's like, hey, hey, we need you.

Like, can you please just wait 10 minutes?

No, no.

But Jesus doesn't say, What are you doing?

I'm in the middle of something.

I'll be with you later.

He stops what he's doing, and he encourages this man, heals this man.

The man gets up and walks out.

It's incredible.

You say, Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them.

But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him.

But Jesus said, Let the children come to me, don't stop them.

For the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children.

And he placed his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left.

The disciples say, He's too busy.

Guys, he's got bigger things going on.

Yes, these babies are cute.

That's great.

And wouldn't it be nice if he, and this was a tradition in their culture for a rabbi to lay hands on a about a one-year-old, most likely, and bless them.

But I mean, come on, guys, Jesus, he's got bigger things to deal with.

Take him to another rabbi.

And Jesus says, What are you guys doing?

Don't stop them from coming to me.

And he's interrupted from his important work.

And he spends time with these children and their families.

And he blesses them greatly.

This is just who he is.

We have so many other stories.

We could go on and on.

Times where Jesus was on his way to do something, and he's interrupted, and every time he responds the same with compassion.

In fact, the Greek word for compassion there, it literally means your bowels.

It's an interesting connection.

And it means that he has a compassion, a pity that is so deep, it like comes from the deepest part of him.

It's not just this, oh, okay, um, here, let me do this thing.

It's like he feels the desperation that people have, and he stops what he's doing, and he's interrupted.

And here's the takeaway.

A worship team, you guys can actually make make your way back out.

Jesus is interruptible.

Now, that hits us on a couple of different levels.

Number one, we should be the same.

We should be the same.

We're called actually to be just like Jesus.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 through 5 says, Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Philippians 2:1–5

Don't do anything out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves.

Not looking out to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others.

And your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

We're supposed to be like Jesus.

And he was interruptible.

Now, does that mean that there's never a situation where you're doing something so important, so meaningful that you need to like block everything else out?

Of course, those things happen, but they're not as they're not as common as sometimes we feel.

You know, go back to me sitting in my bedroom just trying to unwind.

I I can be so selfish that I can see my need to relax for a few minutes as so important that it's not interruptible by my own children.

It's not true.

We should all be like Jesus and say, you know what, no matter how busy I am, no matter what's going on in my life, I can be interruptible.

If people need me, I can I can be there.

I can I can stop, I can listen, I can pray, I can help, I can serve.

So if we want to be like him and he's interruptible, we have to be interruptible.

We can't take ourselves too seriously.

So maybe this week, be mindful of that.

Maybe this week there's gonna be a moment or a time when you have a very specific thing you're trying to do, and maybe it's important, but it can't be more important than what Jesus was doing at any given moment.

And in that moment of interruption, when that unexpected phone call comes, or that that person knocks on your door, or comes to your office, or that sibling enters the room, and you're tempted to say, Not now, not now.

I'm busy.

What?

What is it?

Go away.

Just stop and say, Okay, I'm interruptible because my king is interruptible, and I can be like him.

And maybe those are actually some of the most important moments that you have laid out in front of you.

Maybe God is so good and knows us so well that He knows that if we just planned out our lives, we wouldn't, we wouldn't make room for the most important things.

And we have to be interrupted from time to time.

Sometimes those interrupted moments turn out to be the most important moments of your life.

Some of these stories that we have of Jesus in moments of interruption turn out to be the most important stories we have.

Jesus would never have fed the 5,000 if the 5,000 hadn't interrupted him.

Think about that.

We're gonna get to that story next week.

So be interruptible.

And final thing before we wrap up with a baptism.

Well, we'll take Lord's Supper and then we'll have a baptism.

Is uh, man, interrupt God.

I mean, I think about my kids coming to my door and knocking because I've shut it.

And then just having to navigate sometimes me in a bad mood, being like, what, what?

What could it be?

God never responds to you like that.

He's a better dad than I am.

It's Father's Day.

We can acknowledge that He's a better dad than me.

Hebrews chapter 4 says, Let us approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

That would be like one of my children, not knocking, just throwing the door open.

Which sometimes they do.

It's very confident.

But that's how we're supposed to approach God.

Sometimes we grab a hold of this sort of false idea of humility that we devalue ourselves and we devalue our own issues to the point that we won't bring them to God because we tell ourselves, He just has to have bigger things going on.

How could I ask him for this when there's so many other great needs?

I don't know if you've ever had that thought.

Most people have.

That's not his nature.

We never see Jesus do that.

He gives you everything, all of his attention, because you're his child.

If you've given your life to Jesus, you are a child of God.

And you can just go to the throne at any moment.

No fear, no worries about anything, and just say, Lord, I need you.

Jesus, I need your help.

Father, I need you to strengthen me.

I need you to deal with this.

I don't know what to do and not worry about it at all.

If he's interruptible, he's given us permission to interrupt him.

And I'm sure God's working today.

I'm sure he's got big things he's doing, he's in control of the levers of history.

Nothing happens that he's unaware of or uninvolved in.

But yet he shows us time and time again that we matter so much to him that our needs need to be brought to him.

So remember that today.

In fact, let's take Lord's Supper together and remember it in a really meaningful way.

Um, and by the way, if you're new, we do this every week.

There's tables at the back with cups, with bread and juice.

Grab those.

You're not going to interrupt anybody.

Grab them one now.

Um, sometimes interruptions are inconsequential.

Sometimes you get interrupted and it just takes a few minutes out of your day, a few seconds out of your day.

It's a minor inconvenience at best.

Uh the cross, Jesus dying on the cross was not a minor inconvenience.

And this reminds us every single week of the lengths to which Jesus is willing to go, the lengths to which God is willing to go to save us, to rescue us.

And if he loves us this much, if this is how deeply he cares for us, that he was willing to sacrifice his body, which is what the bread represents, to shed his blood, which is what the juice represents, if this is how much he loves us, how confident should we be in any moment, at any time, to just go to him?

To pray, to stop what we're doing and say, Lord, right now, I need you right here.

I can't think of anything else he needs to do to prove to us that we matter to him.

And we should take advantage of that.

So let's pray for the bread.

Lord, we thank you for this piece of bread.

This is your body.

Given up as a sacrifice, to pay the price for our sin and to deal with our shame and our guilt once and for all.

We thank you.

Let's take the bread.

Lord, we thank you for this juice.

This represents your blood spilled out for us to cleanse us, to cover us.

Thank you, Jesus, for going to these lengths to rescue us and to save us.

We love you so much.

Thank you, Lord.

Let's take the juice.