Jesus and the Church: Week 5

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0:00 Okay, we're thinking about here at the beginning this year, we are thinking about the role of the church in the life of Jesus, or the role of Jesus in the life of the church. And we're doing that partly because it's a good time to think about Jesus on Earth as we get ready, move towards Lent in a couple of weeks. And also because we have this like, we call it the annual church form. And we have this church form out there for people to engage with, to think about how

0:33 are we the church together, how can we be church together well, and giving us to the end of the month. So next Sunday, this Sunday is the last Sunday in January. So next Sunday I'll start sharing out some of what's come up from that and what we're going to do this year coming out of those forms. So I'm excited to start sharing some of that with you. But we're going to be on this, the role of the church in the life of Jesus until we get to Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday, which I believe is February 17th this year, Ash Wednesday.

1:05 And that'll start that six week period of Lent where we get ready for Easter, where we look at where we focus on ourselves and our need for Easter and then prepare to celebrate the resurrection. But getting ready for that, we're looking at the role of the church in the life of Jesus. And last week we got to the point where he announces the beginning of his ministry. And we focus on a couple of things there, one that he does that out of synagogue.

1:37 That Jesus, he's gone through the waters of the, he's got it through the waters of baptism, the baptism of repentance. He's redeemed for us the practice of repentance so that when we repent, when we agree with God that we have been heading in the wrong direction and would like to change direction and head a different way. Or we say the choices and actions we've been stacking up in our lives in some way are lacking or wrong and we'd like to change those.

2:08 That that process of repentance for us no longer piles on guilt or shame. It is no longer a burden, but it is now redemptive. It is a way to like repentance for us because of the work of Christ becomes this way of redemption. And so he goes through the waters of repentance, baptism, out into the desert and he battles with the enemy and he defeats this like temptation to trust himself or follow his greed and said

2:45 trust God and goes with what God will give him. And then he comes up into, we talked about, he comes up into Galilee and Capernaum there and right around the same time that he's beginning to gather disciples, he last week announced the start of his ministry and he does it in a synagogue. In a local gathering of the church in the first century, Jesus announces his coming and there's this interesting relationship he has always with the church where he's coming back to this small group of people and he quotes the prophet Isaiah and then the other thing

3:18 we looked at is who he says he came for, right? He came for the blind, the poor and the oppressed. So the question is I would like to be somebody that Jesus comes for, how do I fit into those categories? And so this you see how repentance and those things go together and that we're continuing in that vein because we're looking at the role of the church in the life of Jesus and it seems like so much of the role of the church in the life of Jesus is around this

3:49 repentance now leads to redemption and life but it's around this rhythm of repentance and life. And the next thing I was thinking about when I think about the role of the church in the life of Jesus is all these times he interacts with the Pharisees and he seems to really give the Pharisees a hard time and the feeling is mutual, right? This is really interesting kind of antagonistic relationship between Jesus, the Christ and the practices of church law, the leaders of the rules for the church.

4:24 And so I pulled out one little sequence of stories for us to look at. It's in Matthew's account of the gospel in chapter 12 if you want to go there with me. You have a paper copy, Matthew's the first book in the New Testament, Matthew, Matthew, chapter 12. And we've been looking at a lot of stories from Luke so it's worth just reminding you Matthew. We're pretty sure Matthew is also known as Levi that he was the regional tax collector that when Jesus came to call him to be a disciple and which means he was probably pretty wealthy.

4:58 Matthew famously throws this party afterwards where all of his kind of unsavory characters come and Jesus goes to the party and kind of gets himself in trouble. So Matthew's account of the gospel, he was the tax collector which means he was an Israelite and a lot of people feel like Matthew's account of the life of Jesus really relates well to the Jewish folks, to the Israelite folks in the first century. He pulls in a lot of prophetic fulfillment. He refers to a lot of Israelite practices and that will come up here in Matthew chapter

5:33 12. And I want to look right at the very beginning. He says, at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, his disciples were hungry and they began the pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw this they said to him, look here disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. And he said to them, how you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence which

6:06 was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him but only for the priests. Have you not read in the law about how the Sabbath, on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guileless? I tell you something greater than the temple is here and if you had known what this means I desire mercy not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guileless for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. This is one of the places where the Pharisees and Jesus fight a lot is around this idea

6:41 of the Sabbath. And appropriately so the Sabbath is a big deal. If you want you can look with me into Exodus chapter 20 where the Sabbath is really instituted and Exodus chapter 20 this is where God has rescued Israel from Egypt. They've made it across the Red Sea and in pretty short order, God's amount is thine

7:11 knife and God says I'd like to establish a covenant, let the Israelites come up. The Israelites look at the mountain, there's a big fire on top, it shakes every once in a while they're like you know what we'd rather not go up there it's pretty scary. Moses wants you to go for us and talk to us and come back and tell us what God said. So Moses goes up there he's up there for 40 days with a long time having a long conversation with God some trouble happens at the base but what he comes down with are the ten words the ten devarean the ten words that describe what life will look like now that Israel is

7:44 Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and then these ten words come to be described as the ten commandments. But there's intended to be ten words that describe what life looks like with God and it starts with the beginning says God spoke all these words to Moses and said I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. In Israelite tradition this is the very start, Protestant tradition that's not a commandment enough so we don't usually count that as a commandment it's just like a preamble. But in the Israel tradition where everything is understood in narrative this is the first

8:18 and the most important point. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. It's the context for everything. It says I come to you first I move towards you first I give grace to you first and your life as a response to my love to you. You don't I don't move because you love me you love me because I have moved. I didn't ask your permission to come get you out of Egypt I just came and got you.

8:49 You didn't ask Moses to come I sent Moses. As a matter of fact you told Moses to go away but I came and got you anyway. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You still have no other gods before me. Look just make this simple don't put any other God as more important than me don't put any other thing as more important than me and you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above or that is in the earth beneath or that is water underneath you should not bow down to them or serve them for I am the

9:22 Lord your God I'm the jealous God visiting the niquity of the of the fathers of the children the third and the fourth generation those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands and to those who love me keep my commandments saying hey when I say I am God I'm like serious like I can be so blessing for thousands of generations I am the origin of all things good but just don't pretend there is another God I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt so don't have any other gods in front of me as a matter of fact don't make

9:53 anything that and call it a God just don't do it it's not helpful right and then you shall not take the Lord the name of the Lord your God in vain for you shall not hold him God don't act like my name is not a big deal because it is a big deal because I am the God who brought you out of Egypt and you have no other gods before me you are not even making the image of something else so don't just throw them out around my name like it doesn't matter and then what does he say remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy first thing you have to understand is that what had happened in in the Israel first century Israel with the Pharisees

10:28 is that they had this commandment of keep the Sabbath and keep it whole remember the Sabbath and keep it holy but they had divorced it from all these other ones they they made them kind of automatic rules right where you could follow this one and then they then they made a scope around it and unfortunately for Jesus in his disciples who were walking through wheat fields and hungry part of the scope around remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy was that you couldn't harvest any food you couldn't go out in your field and harvest

10:58 that counted his work so then when they're walking through the the grain fields and they pull some kernels off of the wheat break them with their hands and eat them because they're hungry they're like you broke the rule and Jesus says but but but the Lord is the Lord of the Sabbath also the intention of this what is the intention of the Sabbath he says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy on six days each of the labor and do all you

11:30 work but on the seventh day is the day of the Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you should not do any work or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates for six in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth to see and all it is in them and rest on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy we talked about as the waters of baptism how the things that God inhabits he makes holy something amazing happened on the seventh day of creation God out of with the force of his will and by the cheer

12:03 power of his imagination calls a universe into existence he does it in six days and then on the seventh day he didn't do nothing he rested and so he blessed is the experience of rest and when he sets apart Israel the church of God in the world the kingdom of priests and the holy nation he said you guys are going to be like God your God cares for you so well he recognizes rest is redemptive and you get rest you'll have to work every day

12:36 as though money were the end all and be all as though as though somehow your provision depended upon you you get a day of rest because I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt before you knew my name or called for me you have no other gods before me you're not even making any carbon images you recognize the the importance and the care of God you'll throw my name around in vain and you just rest like I do because we're in this thing together

13:08 do you see that it's not about following the rule and marking out where the line of work is it's about an attitude that recognizes you belong to the God who made heaven and earth and who moves heaven and earth to come and get you and save you good heavens he'll provide for you actually he'll even provide rest for you so rest it's not about don't work we don't it's not that if we just don't work we're keeping the rules

13:46 the point is that because we are God's people we change our heart and we recognize oh we can rest this is why Jesus is so bothered by the Pharisees because the Pharisees are the representatives to the people of what it means to be the church and what they've done is they turned this position this relational position to the God of the universe that changes hearts in such a way that it changes actions and outlook of life do you see

14:22 because you are Israel because I'm the Lord your God and I save you from Egypt now you have no other God which means in a world labored with work running with fear and anxiety after their own provision the church of God gets a whole day of rest because the Lord your God came and saved you they take this relationship that changes hearts which then the with changed heart changed action

14:52 and they just said don't worry about the changed heart and the and the relationship just changed your acting just stop working and he says oh you you missed the whole thing Pharisees and you're leading a whole church of people with you in the wrong direction uh bomber now it's worth just a minute because of who we all are just drawing that line explicitly for you

15:25 of course uh but maybe you have experienced the church as rules that prescribe action before meaning maybe you've experienced church as people telling you what to do and what not to do before as though uh being a Christian we're about behaving properly

15:56 James says uh phase without works is dead uh Jesus says you can judge a tree by its fruit of course Christians behave a certain way but not because they want to be right because they have been captured by a certain relationship which has changed their heart and outlook on life which affects the way that they live

16:31 these things over here relationship and heart they beget changed behavior and it's this is the origin not this okay so Jesus is frustrated right now what gets really interesting to me is the next two stories remember that the gospel writers the specialness in optic goggles Matthew Mark and Luke

17:01 have a lot of the same stories and a lot of times they arrange them just a little bit differently so the point of a biography in the first century isn't necessarily to tell a factually fact fact factually is that a word it sounds doesn't sound like a word factually accurate chronological telling of details that's not the point of a biography in the first century the point of a biography is take true stories and arrange them in a way to communicate a reality

17:34 of points about the person that that the biography is about so that Matthew Mark and Luke take true stories either from their remembrance or from accounts and they arrange them in an order to communicate a truth about Jesus or the situation and so Matthew arranges the stories this way first the thing about the Sabbath with the Pharisees and then verse nine he went on from there from this encounter with the Pharisees and entered their synagogue he goes right into the local church

18:07 and a man was there with a withered hand and they asked him is it lawful to feel on the Sabbath now they just had this thing he and the disciples are walking through the wreath fields and they said hey man you shouldn't eat that you guys did it wrong and he like gives them a hard time you guys don't understand haven't heard the story about David haven't heard this other story man he says for the son of man or sword even on the Sabbath then they go straight into the synagogue and there's a withered man there and they're like we're going to get him now this dude is going to work inside the church even he went on from there and entered their synagogue and a man was there

18:43 with a withered hand and they asked him is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him that he says they wanted to accuse him so to catch him working and he said to them I guess to work I guess healing if you're like a itinerant healer and you heal that's your work for the day so I don't think that it's twisted law against healing someone but I guess they assumed it was his work if he healed someone and they didn't want him working because that was the rule

19:13 is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so they might accuse him and he said to them which one of you who has a sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out of how much more value is a man than a sheep I just for a second imagine that whatever questions or fears

19:49 for concerns are hanging in your head right now imagine that God values you enough to lift you up out of them I love that Jesus does this to the church people are of more value than rules

20:23 that Jesus can't not they're trying to set him up with a man who is ill and say leave him alone follow the rule and Jesus says if you had a sheep you would help him up out of the pit how much more valuable is a person I can't not he's right here and he is mine and I just want you to for a moment consider God looks at you the same way that you are his and he cannot

20:54 reach out to you and lift you up I love that of how much more value is a man than a sheep so it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath he says and then he said to the man stretch out your hand and the man stretched it out and he was restored healthy like the other but the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him and this matches my my notion of the Pharisees was something flipped today my nose in the Pharisees these like like stiff necked people they're called right

21:30 like they refuse to turn their head away from what they know is right and so frustrating and they are they're so certain that they are right that they miss the savior of the world standing right in front of them that they choose rules over people and they end up killing the Christ and just as a bummer right and and and then look at the next story that Matthew put here Jesus aware of this now I've always read this aware that they were conspiring against him and

22:06 how to destroy him and that may be what Matthew means that Jesus was aware that they were trying to destroy him so he got out of town right Jesus aware of this was true from there so he got out of town but today it occurred to me something different was what's happening that that may be something different was happening that Jesus was aware that the Pharisees couldn't grasp of what he was saying that though he had given this analogy the sheep though he had told them the story about

22:38 David they couldn't grasp that that proper Sabbath observance comes in light of the previous table of commandments that went that so the table of commandments the first couple are about God and the second table is about behavior Sabbath starts the table about behavior that if you want to follow the second table you have to first follow the first table that all other commandments come out of this notion that I'm the Lord you got him brought you up out of Egypt therefore have no other gods before me make no other idols and don't use my name in vain when you do that you're

23:11 able to do these second table commandments he's tried to lay it out for them to show them proper Sabbath observance comes in light of the first table of commandments and they are so stiff next that they can't get it and so rather than continue to push them rather than for a conflict or a break in the relationship Jesus just steps back that he has this interesting relationships with the

23:41 church where he he comes to them first right think about the phrases maybe you've heard because I come to the lawsuit of Israel first you talked about last week that he looked at Jerusalem and says oh Jerusalem I wish to gather you under my wings like that that he comes first that he says to the woman that I why would I throw the food that's meant for the table down to the Gentiles underneath the table that he comes to Israel first that he keeps coming back to synagogue that he

24:13 pushes the Pharisees just far enough where they're ready to strum and then he he backs off he doesn't arm remember Judas Judas wants him to to take up battle to take up arms against the Pharisees to overthrow the temple he doesn't do it so Jesus aware of this withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and I love this because I thought this a new way he healed them all and then he ordered them not to make it known he pushes the Pharisees until they're ready to

24:48 strum and then he backs away and people follow him because he healed the withered hand and he's like healing them as he's getting out of Israel he's healing them he's like but don't tell the Pharisees because it rows them up you can't not heal him because there's a few who wants to pull them out he's like let's don't make a big deal about this yet because it's driving them bonkers and I'd rather I don't want to drive them bonkers I want them to get it is that interesting oh it's I always thought Jesus and the Pharisees straight as heads but now I'm starting to think that Jesus

25:24 that there is grace in his battle with the Pharisees that he's like you guys are almost there you have the law and you have the Ten Command the description of what life would look like you just turned it sideways and you're you're missing the point and so and so this what looks like Jesus is battling them is actually him nudging them to get it right oh god bless them he has

25:55 such patience with the church he goes down there knowing they're going to kill him and he goes to them first it doesn't go straight to Jesus says in even he sends the disciples out to the Gentiles he stays in is like right in that area and then look at what Matthew pulled this is why I thought

26:26 this because of what Matthew pulled in from Isaiah so he ordered he withdrew from from Israel and many called him and he healed them all and he ordered them and it's only a big deal about it verse 17 this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet of Isaiah behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles he will not quarrel or cry aloud nor will anyone hear his voice

27:04 in the streets a bruised read he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory and in his name the Gentiles will hope as well he's pushed these fairs but not so far to break him where all hope is lost right the smold the wick of life in the fairsies is smoldering it's not even a flame there they've reduced the law that gives life into a

27:37 law that kills like simple rules rather than relationship and changed heart and yet he does not push them he does not overthrow them as a matter of fact he lets them kill him and says I'll take it I'll take it all the way to the end and give them the spirit then and maybe then they'll get it this is so compelling to me because sometimes when I engage God I feel correction

28:13 I feel rebuke sometimes when I engage the way of God I feel conflict in myself and occurred to me in a new way this morning that maybe there is grace for me in that conflict that the God who saves is patient with me coming back to me often reminding me that Sabbath that

28:55 law is the way to life not that that it liberates me doesn't put a burden on me my hope is that we can be church for each other in such a way that we call each other to life that we're not afraid of correction that we recognize grace in correction and healthy rebuke that together we find our way through law into life and can celebrate things like

29:36 Sabbath together this year let me pray that hey lord make us your church this morning for ourselves and each other thank you for your extreme long suffering patience with us lord we we accept your rebuke in love

30:06 teach us to be the ones that follow you not the ones that plan your destruction give us eyes to see and ears to hear you in our life today now and in the weeks to come and Jesus name the prayer