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Then Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ is our comforter. And even as I hear those words, it just allow for me to in the midst of just a crazy season, I don't know if anybody else is there. It just allows for me to be reminded of the reality that my problems are not bigger than my Jesus, that there is indeed a Christ as Savior who has come who is far greater than anything else that I can actually go through. And so, can we just go ahead one more time and just worshiping Jesus. Praise God. So good.
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Well, at this time, I'm going to invite you guys to take your seats, invite you guys to take your seats. And I'm going to invite.
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So yeah, Arie Todd, she is going to read the Word of God over us this morning. And I actually want you to take your seats because I want you to hear these words. And you need to close your eyes to focus on what's being said, if you need to kind of just like, maybe look up or something, so you're not distracted by anything else. I just want you to hear the Word of God laid over us. Because I think this this particular passage that we're in this morning, is very unique. When we think about Jesus, we don't normally think about Jesus speaking in the way that he is, in this passage, especially read these words over us. I want you to just maintain your focus on what is actually being said and this is Luke chapter 1137 through 54 Luke chapter 1137 through 54 Why don't you go ahead, resist it?
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While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined a table, the Pharisee he was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup, and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools Did not he who made the outside make the inside also, but give as arms those things that are within and behold, everything is clean for you. But what do you Pharisees for you tied meant and ruin every herb and neglect, justice and the love of God? These you ought to have done without neglecting the others won't do you Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and greeting in the marketplaces, won't you for you are like unmarked graves and the people walk over them without knowing it. One of the lawyers answered him teacher and saying these things you insult us also. And he said, What are you lawyers also for you? Load people with burdens hard to bear a you yourself Do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers won't do you for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your father's killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your father's, for they killed them, and you build their tombs, therefore, also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute so that the blood of all the profits shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation, from the blood of able to the blood of Zechariah. Who Paris between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation won't do you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourself. And you hindered those who were entering. As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things. line and wait for him to catch him and something he might say.
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Thank you so much.
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I want to go ahead and title this message, Inside Out. I'm gonna go before the Lord one more time. Father, would you be with us as we hear from you, Lord, none of us are in a place where we can quite understand the grace that has been given us. When we look at all these woes, we recognize that we're no better than these men are, that are being spoken about here. So God, I pray for your spirit to do the work of convicting us. I pray that your spirit would do the work of saving some. And Lord, would you just sanctify so many people in this room? A lower there's nothing I can say to accomplish any of those feats. And so, we are coming to you expectedly praying that you would do these things. Bring these things in a massive Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.
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All right. Is that what is that good? Alright, cool. Cool. Cool. All right. So the whole idea this message is, is inside out. And the reason why I wanted to entitle the message that way is because not too long ago, my family saw this movie by Disney called inside out. And how many people have actually seen the movie inside out? All right, good. Well, it is one of those I believe classic movies, not only because of the storyline, but because of how the story was actually. So when you look at the movie, what is happening is there's this young girl, she's just gone through what many teenagers would believe is the worst, most horrific thing in their lifetime, which is moving away from their friends. And what the story actually does is it brings out what is going on inside to life. In other words, it puts her conscious on the big screen. And you know, you have these emotions of anger, these emotions of sadness, and joy, and they're all interacting with one another in order to provide some kind of external action that this young lady would actually exemplify. Now, when you think about a conscious being on the big screen, it is an extremely unique and creative way of telling a story. So for that reason, this was one of those blockbuster movies, but I asked the question I asked the question, What if you're conscious was put on the big screen? What if your thoughts what you really think about people, your intentions, your trajectory and your motivations, the thing that drives everything you do? What if all of that was placed on the big screen? Would you be comfortable with what is actually being shown? See, I'm afraid that if my conscious was put on the big screen, I would be terrified. And the reason why is because I know that there is an inconsistent Distance between my motivations, my intentions and my heart and the things that I externally show off to other people. See, the Bible talks about an inconsistency, where the things that you do are very different than the purpose for why you do them. Most of the time when we think of this word hypocrisy, we think of an inconsistency between what you say, and what you do, between what you say, and what you do.
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I say, I love my wife, but oftentimes, I'm not gentle with her. I say that I love basketball, but I don't practice. I might say that I'm a great golfer. But the ball only goes 20 yards when I hit it. Seeing all of these things, there's a hypocrisy of inconsistency between what I say and what I do. But I love the writer Jonathan painting in his in his book on the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about a different kind of hypocrisy, and there's a different type of hypocrisy that the Bible describes. That is not inconsistency between what you say and what you do, but rather an inconsistency between what you do and why you do it. This type of hypocrisy is one that none of us want to really deal with. Because this is hypocrisy that is found deep within our very hearts. So the call of the text isn't going to be to overcome the type of hypocrisy that is an inconsistency between our declaration and our demonstration, but rather the type of hypocrisy that is an inconsistency between our demonstration and our motivation. If we are going to be a people that don't live in a policy, but live with integrity, being consistent inside out, we must find our consistency from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, he begins this text and this text is going to be broken down in this way. Seven woes. Now, as soon as I say that, you need to understand what a bow is a bow is a caution, a danger and we've seen this over and over again in the Gospel of Luke. And so what would this text is going to be as seven woes? And if you know that the text is seven was you know that this is not a very nice text. I don't know if you just heard the words that Eddie a nice read over us that this is not Jesus being very winsome. It's not Jesus being very in our own terms. Nice. I don't think Jesus kind of went to school and I will he lost the niceness here. This is Jesus getting gully again, and he gives them seven woes. And so we begin with the first one. Look at verse 37 through 41 it says this while Jesus was speaking affairs, he asked him to dine with him, so he went in and recline at table. The Ferris he was astonished to see what he that he did not first watch before dinner. The Lord said to him now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside Listen, you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools. You had a nice, Did not he who made the outside make the inside also, but give us arms, those things that are within and behold, everything is clean for you. This first row is a row to you who clean the outside and not the inside.
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Woe to you who clean the outside and not the inside. See what's happening is Jesus is talking and if you notice from what pastor any priests last week, he's actually talking about this idea of judgment again all the time. He's always talking about that. And so you have these Pharisees are like, he's clearly not talking to us. Let's invite them over for dinner. So the Pharisees inviting them over for dinner and what happens the fairest he gets upset the host, the one who invited him over gets upset at his Guests because he doesn't do things the way his tradition believes that he should actually do them. The Bible doesn't prescribe that this needs to happen but the Ferris he is viscerally reacting to something that he values. Just as a side note, you always know what you value by your reaction to someone who do values it. See, when I react to somebody talking about my wife, it lets me know I value her life. The way I react to somebody talking about my kids lets me know how much I value them. The way I react to somebody talking about my New Orleans Saints who killing it right now, let you know how much I value them.
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See, the way you respond the way you reacted to somebody devaluing something, let you know just how much you value that thing. And so this Ferris, he clearly values, the traditions and the customs of men, by the way that he responds to Jesus but I want you to notice in the text, it doesn't say that he actually externally reacts at all. Do you notice that? Again? Jesus knows his thoughts. It's not like this dude is telling Jesus, Yo, man, I can't believe you did this. All the text says that he was astonished, he marveled. He was surprised, but surprised and astonishment and marveling is something that happens internally. So Jesus again knows this dude's thoughts and knows why he's astonished. And so again, Jesus interrupts the conversation this man is having with himself. And this is what Jesus says. He says, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You notice this, but these Jesus doesn't just address the person who has this thought. He addresses all of the Pharisees.
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This is like bad preaching. You know, saying You You see a crowd and you're like, man, I have to generalize in some kind of ways. And so I don't want to make too many generalizations, but I know I have to generalize in some ways. So let me stay away from kind of stereotyping an entire people group. Bad preaching. Jesus says, not all your Pharisees is wack.
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And he said, all your clean the outside of the cup, but you don't understand. Look at the text, your own greed and wickedness. He goes for like the heart. I mean, Jesus is not being nice here. And he says, Listen, how foolish you are in doing this. Do you notice that? He calls them fools? I mean, again, bad press. If I ever stood up here like Cottage Grove, you fools.
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Y'all should have a problem me because I'm in that number. But Jesus calls him fools because he recognized Is the inconsistency of their hearts and what they're doing on the outside. Think about how nasty this would be. You walk into, you know, your favorite restaurant where there's Django malo, or Bubba's or something like that. You walk in at john, and you go to partake of your meal. Maybe you got soup that day. Maybe you you know, got one of them nice drinks that we can't talk about here. Maybe you did one of those things. And, lo and behold, the inside of the cup or the bowl is disgusting. The bowl has hardened cheese on it. You know, you got some old rice still in there. And yet the outside of the bowl is just clean as day. Now when you go and set your complaint before the manager, could you imagine the manager saying What are you talking about? The ball is clean? No, don't you see the inside of this, brother, we don't focus on the inside. We simply want to make sure that the Outside is clean, because that's what our customers see. So the reason why the Pharisees focus on the outside is because their hearts motivation is to please mankind rather than God. So you always know where you're focused in your intention and who you truly believe your audience is by where you place most of your activity. If most of your intention is focused on what you're doing on the outside, it means you believe your true audience is your peers, not God. So he says you focus on the outside you please the outside we say but did not the person who made the outside also make the inside your audience is not those people who can only see the outside your audience is the one who made your inside as well. So he calls them foolish. I'll never forget this. I went to a y'all y'all probably never heard of this place called checkers. It's a fast food restaurant. Some of y'all been may have been on the East Coast or whatever. They haven't checkers. Some of y'all have rallies same exact idea. Anyway, I go to this fast food restaurant. And if it's possible, checkers was more hood than McDonald's. I just think about that. let that settle for a second. I never forget one time I went to checkers in like, man, all I want it was like this is real. So all I wanted was some was some chicken fingers and some sauce. So they said what kind of sauce would you like? I said barbecue sauce. We had a barbecue sauce. All we have is ranch and honey mustard. I said honey mustard. We're out of honey mustard. Why did you tell me you had honey mustard? I said okay, I'll find I'll take the ranch. We're out of ranch dress. I'm sorry. We don't have any sauce for you. Why did you tell me the options of all the sauces you had? This is the the epitome of hood fast food restaurant.
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Now, I go to this one day, and I'm like, I cool. I'm gonna just take chicken fingers. I'm not gonna ask for sauce this time. Hopefully they make the chicken fingers nice. I get the chicken fish. I'm a yes. Crispy just like I like. I look at them Jones I'm saying I'm like salivating over it. I don't want to make a mess in the car so I wait to eat them Jones. I open them up and I begin eating them. But as soon as I chew on the food it hits me and my teeth are freezing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
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Now I'm like I am a little frustrated. Maybe I waited too long because the food is cold or whatever. So maybe it's just cold. I look at what I'm eating and the chicken is red. Now, I know that you can cook a steak medium rare. I know you could cook burgers medium rare. I never heard of consuming chicken medium rare.
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And so this john has red on it, and it's only because the inside has been exposed, that I recognize how not well done this chicken is here's what the text is saying some of your lives like crispy on the outside, but on the inside, there's nothing but cold blood. See saying that if you're going to walk in integrity, you must focus on the inside. And this means expose the inside is first john says let God know everything that's going on the inside and it's through exposing what's actually happening that you can actually be cleansed from the inside out.
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Whenever you try to cover it up, put make it real crispy on the outside and all of that you will never get to the core of the problem. of Christians we are called to live inside out with integrity. The next row we see in the text comes in verse 42. He says but what are you Pharisees for ewtodd mint and ruin every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Well number To his whoa to you who love regulations but disregard relationship won't to you who love regulations, but disregard relationship. Now, this is what I want to sit on for a little bit. Because the text says that you tied MIT ruined every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. I love how one sec says it says that you you tied MIT and Roo and cumin but you neglect hear me the weightier matters of the law. So what he's doing is Jesus is getting in this freestyle back and there's some wordplay going on here. When you think about Roo and cumin and admit these are very light objects. This is light matter. And he's saying and comparison you neglect but very heavy and heavy stuff. Justice and the love of God, justice and the love of God justice The love of God. Now, I think there's a reason why Jesus ties justice and the love of God together. And it's because of this, that every time the Israelites were in trouble, every time they were having a problem, and every time they were being punished for their sins, they would continue to do the regulation stuff. They will continue to tie, they will continue to fast, they will continue to give their offerings, and yet they would not be answered by the God of the universe. So they were confused, and they will go to God and they will say, Hey, we're tithing, hey, we're fasting, hey, we're giving our offerings. Why aren't you listening to us? And his response over and over and over again would be I see your time I see your offering. I see you're fasting, but you're doing so in an unjust manner. See, I don't care that you taught, I don't care that you give your offerings. I don't care that you fast in your back. You're you are living in an unjust way. So the reason why does justice and the love of God, so, so closely together is because oftentimes, they don't just neglect justice and the love of God, but they neglect the love of God by neglecting justice. Now, as I read that, I want to say this, I want to say this is honestly, why a Cottage Grove church, Pastor Andy and I and the elder team push so hard for us to see justice in the scriptures. This is why because we do not want to be a church that looks at the scriptures, does our tithing does our offering giving doves our arms giving, does our sacrificing does our our fasting, and yet at the same time, we neglect the weightier matters of the law, justice and the love of God. So we know that we exist in a culture that is actually bent towards that. We've seen that throughout history that you can be a church that preaches the Bible verse by verse, and still neglect justice. But the scripture says very clearly, that if you're going to neglect justice, don't even worry about this other stuff. Because these are the weightier matters. He says, Don't neglect these things. Don't put them away. It's good to tie. But make sure that you're doing these things first, justice and the love of God. So I'm at now 14 makes it very clear that the throne of God is righteousness and justice. Could you imagine a church that said we don't really believe in righteousness? We don't believe in personal morality before God. We don't believe in the reality that we are sinful. We don't believe in a personal rights is could you imagine a church That was built on not believing in the call to righteousness for the people of God. I would say very clearly, you don't got yourself a church. Because if there is no righteousness, then why in the world did Jesus have to come and die?
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If everybody is cool just as they are, and it doesn't really matter what you do personally, then why would Jesus have to die? And if we answered that question, he had to die because we were unrighteous, then we also have to come to justice and say the same thing. That if we were all cool, if justice was all good, if it wasn't that big of a deal, why would Jesus have to come and die He has to come and die to satisfy his just wrath. And so he says, do not neglect justice, and the love of God won't to you who love regulations, but neglect the relationship. Now, this is the next one. He says well to you ferrocene For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. I'm just gonna say right now this is the most convicting one for me off the brake. This is what most convicting one for me, because this is what to you who seek man's applause rather than God's approval wont to you who seek men's applause rather than God's approval. So for me, I'm just going to be honest with you guys for a second.
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I love affirmation from people. I mean, and to say I love it is almost an understatement. Like my emotions kind of depend on people's affirmation. When people are affirming me, I feel really good about myself and when people are not, I feel like I'm doing a terrible job. And so my emotions literally wane based on what people say or what they don't say. And do you see how unstable that is? That I can go up and down based on people's affirmation people's encouragement, people's compliments or their lack there of. And what that exposes is that I am more seeking men's applause rather than God's approval.
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It's a scary way to live. It says, whoa, do you who do this? What are you who have such a heart to seek man's applause, but you have neglected God's approval. See, at the end of the day, all that should matter is what God says about us. And this is the crazy reality for every person who trust in Jesus Christ. One day that God will say to our faces, well done.
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Well done. Now, you look at me crazy for a reason. Because you know, you ain't really well, no. Now you really didn't kill it like that. But because Jesus has accomplished well done on your behalf, you receive his well done this. Amazing. So therefore, what can anybody say about you? What Can anybody say against you? wonted Those who seek man's applause over God's approval.
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The next world comes to us in this form, it says this whoa to you, for you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing them. This was very clear, wont to you who deceive people to death rather than lead them to life. Now I'm going to tell you this. There's two ways that we do this. The Pharisees did it through teaching legalism. We in our day and age teach do it through teaching lawlessness. The way that we oftentimes deceive people to death rather than lead them to life is either by legalism or lawlessness, either by telling people that you have to do all of these things in order to earn the favor of God will which will leave you depleted, disregarded, and disrespected, and ultimately dead Are you teach people lawlessness, you basically say God is so gracious God is so good. God is so kind that God will never judge you. So just continue on your merry way and everything will be fine.
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And I see that oftentimes This is exactly how we lead people to death. Listen to the text, it says you are like unmarked graves, that when people walk over them, they don't even know they're walking over them. In other words, people think that they're walking towards life, and then all of a sudden, they fall into a grave to their death. So in other words, it's almost as if it looks like they're going in the right direction, but you have laid a trap for them and ultimately lead them to their death won't have you met God forbid that ever be us. But I do not want to be the cause of anyone stumbling from the way Wodi you who are like an unmarked grave and people walk over them and don't even Know the next world comes to the lawyers. And it's the next set of low woes. And this is where it gets very interesting. Because after these four four walls he I mean, he's already gone in what do you clean the outside not the inside. What do you love regulations and not the relationship won't do you seek man's applause and not God's approval? Whoa to you this last word to you who are deceived people to death, and don't lead them to life after he's gone in with all of that. Finally, he gets here and the lawyer speaks up. Now notice the text. This is hilarious. Verse 45, says this, one of the lawyers answered him teacher and saying these things you insult us also knows that Murray that again, one of the lawyers answered him teacher and saying these things you insult us also. Okay. What's happened is that this teacher is extremely since I mean, there's lawyers extremely sensitive. Jesus has not talked about the teachers.
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Jesus has not named the teachers. But because the I mean the lawyers, he has not talked about the lawyers. But because this lawyer is sensitive to conviction, instead of recognizing that he needs to change his heart, humble himself before God and turn away from his sins. Instead, he takes it personally, as though Jesus is attacking him. And by doing so, listen, he protects himself from something that's good. He protects himself from conviction. Now, here's what I need you to understand. We all do this, guys. We all do this. I can't tell you how many times I've been in conversations where pastor any is kind of talking to another brother or another sister, and I find myself convicted. And my first heart reaction is to say, Why are you talking about me?
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He's not looking at me. He's not saying going about me. He ain't even say my name, forgot that I was in the room. But my first reaction is say, Pastor Andy, why do you got coming my neck? And the reality is the reason why I do that is because in order for me to protect myself from conviction, I turn it personal. Now, as a good pastor, whenever that happens, whenever somebody takes something personally, that I wasn't directing towards them, this is what I'll say to them. I will simply say, brother, I was not talking to you. If that doesn't stir you up, if that's not convicting to you, that was not for you. Don't worry about it. Please set yourself free. And so I would think that being pastoral, that's what you do. Look at how Jesus responds to this man taking it personally. He says, oh, again, one of the lawyers answered him, teacher and saying these things you insult us also, does Jesus say, was it talking to you this cool, go about your merry way now really doesn't? He said all right. You said I assaulted you right? Don't you say it? You said I saw to you man I attacked you did not feel you. You know what wow to you also you lawyers. You can get it to any goes in on three walls that I'm not sure what have even been said had the lawyer not spoken up and felt insulted.
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Now I'm telling y'all if I passed it in this way, when I have a job and he was like, oh, man, I felt like really convicted. I felt really pressed. Yo, I felt attacked by what you said. You know, what was it talking to you? But what do you mean it's crazy what Jesus is doing here. And the walls against the lawyers are even worse than the ones against the Pharisees, y'all. Look at the first one. He says Why do you lawyers also for you load people with burns hard to bear. I mean, we're play crazy and you yourselves Do not touch that burdens with one of your fingers.
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So he said, and this idea of burdens is like cargo on a ship. So he's saying you're almost like a captain of a ship who says, load the cargo up and tells everybody to load everything up almost as though they are your slaves and you won't, even with a finger touch the cargo itself. But it's even worse than that. Because what it's talking about is the kind of cargo on a ship that is very heavy, very weighty. So he's saying that you're putting you're basically overloading the ship. It's almost like a captain on the ship, not just telling people to put cargo on the ship. But after he tells him to put the cargo on the ship, he himself gets off the ship and lets them drown. He's saying whoa to you, who put a whole bunch of burdens on people that you yourself aren't willing to keep. So you have a lot of demands but you won't keep them yourself. This is convicting as well. And even to this day, as you just read different writers on this particular passage, they're like, I'm a, alright, we know the lawyers, we know the keepers of the law, that we can't really tell what kind of way they're there. They're keeping, they're not keeping this law. So there's three different ways that he can be talking. The first is this, he can be saying to them, won't to you, for you make demands that you yourself are unwilling to keep in this sense that you tell people to do stuff that you would never do yourself.
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And we need to be careful of that. Because this is what happens when you tell people yo go and make disciples but as you been years since you made one yourself, go share the gospel but you never share the gospel. Hey live obediently to Jesus Christ, but you know, there's an area in your life that Jesus has been telling you to be obedient and and you've been pushing him off to the sideline. So this is the first way of looking at this. The second way is that This is that Yeah, you do it externally.
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But because your heart's motivation is wrong, it really doesn't count for anything. Your work has been disqualified by your internal motivations. I don't know if you ever seen like a track me to something like that. And oftentimes, you'll see where then they'll they'll go off way before the gun. And in two times of doing this, you're actually disqualified from the race. Now, it doesn't matter that the runner is running as fast as they possibly can. It doesn't even matter that the runner beats the world record. If they have been disqualified from the gate. All of their running is for not the text is also teaching that if you do all of these works of righteousness, do all these works of goodness, and yet your heart is wrong before the Lord. It counts for absolutely nothing. Or the third way of looking at it is this world to you, you place these demands on people, and yet you yourself are unwilling to help them in carrying that load. This is when Yeah, I got my life together, I'm doing the right thing myself, I put these burdens on somebody else. And then when they come to me and say, Hey, I need help, I just kind of turned the other way. Figure it out on your own. And whether or not you're in either one of those three, just hear me for a second. recognize this reality. All of us do that. Now, you might be like me, and you do all three of these. You might be like, like, and I'm not going to put nobody on blast but out in the past or world but let me just say like this. There are some churches, where pastors tell people to do all of these things. And yet they themselves live a totally erroneous life and the closet.
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I don't know where are you from? In this this round, but know this, every single one of us do this in some kind of way, shape or form. What do you make demands and don't keep them yourself. Look at this next little and it's probably the longest one he says this wont to you for you, verse 47, for you build tombs of the prophets when your father's killed, so you are witnesses and you can sit to the deeds of your father's This is crazy, for they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of able to the blood of Zechariah who pairs between the altar in the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this Jenna ration. Here's a crazy one will to you who claim unity with the profits but your actions to different story.
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Now, I want you to hear me in this one. There were so many people during this time, who saw the prophets as these wonderful figures of the Old Testament. They looked at the life of Jeremiah, they looked at the life of Isaiah, they looked at the life of the CQ, and they saw how they call it out wrong in that land. And they tied themselves to those profits, because they saw how honorably the God of the Bible spoke of them, but hear me but in everything that they did, and everything that they said, most of what they were doing and saying, did not actually line up with what the prophets spoke.
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It actually line up with those who oppose the prophets. The reason why I'm saying this, and I want to say this as Pastor early as I can, is because I'm in fear that we do the same thing. It was actually Dr. Russell Moore, who preached this very text at MLK 50 And he talked about the reality. And this was the quote that sticks with me forever. He said, all of these prophets were dead. And the reason why you love the prophets is because they can't speak to you anymore.
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You hear that? See, oftentimes we look back at the abolitionist and we say, Man, I would have loved to be right alongside fighting against slavery with them. But does your language in the present time line up with the kind of language they were speaking? Or does it line up with those who oppose them? So hard question you have to ask yourself, you think about even those in the Jim Crow era and you're looking at Dr. King as he Marshall people and he was beaten and we see all of the effects of what Dr. King and the civil rights movement actually had on the nation. So we go and we look in the past we look historically and we say how honorable how awesome man how I would have loved to march with Dr. Kane but he is yourself, does your language line up with Dr. King or those who oppose him? See what Jesus is actually saying, if I can illustrate it this way is is almost like footprints that if I'm walking in the snow, and I have a certain pair of boots on, you will see exactly where I am walking. And if someone else walks in a totally different direction, you'll notice that we are not going the same way. what Jesus is saying in this text is that I've seen what your forefathers did to the prophets, I've seen the steps that they have taken, and I can't tell where their footprints in and yours begin. Your trajectory is right in line with the forefathers who killed the prophets. And so Jesus says this, not in a kind way. There's nothing nice about what he says. He says, they kill them and you build their tombs. In other words, you're working for the same business. So hard word. But we need to be careful that we don't look back at the profits of the Old Testament who spoke out against injustice spoke out against evil and did so when everybody hated them.
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And then say we would have been right alongside with millennials hear me. To be a Christian in this day and age is to inherently be prophetic. You can't say what the culture says about sexuality. You can't say what the culture says about anger and rage. You can't even say what the culture says about how to fight injustice. To be a Christian in this day and age is to be inherently prophetic, and it means you're going to lose a lot of friends.
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This is the heart of what he's getting at. And when you find yourself based on the Word of God, losing a lot of friends know that you are in step with the prophets of old, because this was their life. Also hear me. Conservatives hear me please, that oftentimes we look back at those who spoke out and guess is just as I say, yea yea yea, but not now anymore. And again, I'm saying in order to be a Christian about justice in this day and age, you are going to lose a lot of friends. And it's not always pretty, it's not always fun. I don't like giving some of the messages I have to give. Like, it's not fun. And I'm just gonna be very honest with my family right now. It'd be much easier to preach some of these messages in context where they already wholeheartedly, maybe too much believe in justice. be much easier to do so. But guys, I do this because I don't want us to be a people who tied MIT and Q and room. A ruined cumin and neglect The weightier matters of the law, justice and the love of God, for us to be aligned with the prophets, we are going to lose some friends. We're going to lose some some people who are on our team. But it's all for good because we're walking in step with Jesus. Now, yes, this other world when he says this world to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge, you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. This is crazy, because it's kind of like that, that that person who you're like friends with, I remember I was in the East Coast, and all of our friends decided to go to this concert. And then all of a sudden one of our friends says, yo, it's not even worth it to go. I don't want to go anymore. And the reason why they say it's not worth that ago anymore is because they themselves couldn't pay for for it. And so because they couldn't pay to go to the concert, they wanted to like rain on everybody else's parade and say it's not worth it. Now, just to weeks ago, you were saying this is gonna be the greatest concert ever. Now all of a sudden is really not worth it to go. Why? Because misery loves company. So what he's saying is Walter, you who love companions in your misery, you sit there and you know, the way to eternal life is through Jesus Christ. But because you are unwilling to go that route, because you are unwilling to go that route, you'd simply say, well, it's not worth it anymore. And I'm not going to tell other people how to get there. Here's the problem with these Pharisees and these lawyers. It's not even that they were willing to pay the ticket price. That's not their problem.
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It's not that they were unwilling to pay the ticket price to enter the kingdom of God. Here's what their problem was. Their problem was they were unwilling to admit that they were unable to pay the price. That's their problem. See, it's not that they're saying like, man, I don't want to do the work to get there. No, they were willing to do the work. What they were unwilling to admit is that they had 50 cents and the ticket price was $500. When you go into a stand and you like, Yo, man work with me here, man, no, the ticket price is $500. But work with me here.
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Hey, two quarters. Yeah. Let me and this is exactly what they're doing to say, Yo, I have my own righteousness. I work hard for my 50 cents of righteousness. So God by my own righteousness, let me go guys like there's no cost 50 cents a go get you nowhere near here. The problem is not that they were unwilling to pay. The problem was that they were unwilling to admit that they couldn't pay.
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But here is the beautiful good news. Jesus paid it all. Jesus is paid at all, for every one of these convicting steps of the walls of walls of cleaning the outside and not cleaning the inside walls of you wanting to honor people, but not the approval of God. For every single one of these, Jesus has paid it all.
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All of it. This is why Jesus had to come in the first place. Because he knew it wasn't just the Pharisees and the lawyers. If you speak up after this text, like that lawyer did and say, Hey, Jesus, I'm sorry, but your words are insulting me as well. He probably got 94 more woes just for you personally. It's convicting words, but look at what Jesus has done himself. Jesus didn't come to worry about the outside Jesus came to cleanse you from the inside out. This is why he fulfilled what Jeremiah spoken with the xico Folk that he will give us a brand new heart. Isn't that good? News. And it good that Jesus doesn't come only worry about the regulations, but he comes to foster a relationship between the God of the universe and some broken stanky people like us. It that good news. Good news that Jesus doesn't seek the applause of man, but he live for the approval of God. He said, My work is to do my food is to do the will of my Father. Really good. Are you feeling like set free now, like every single one of these things you can't do but Jesus has done and you get down to the end of this. And it's very clear that the lawyers love companions in their misery. But you need to recognize that Jesus died to make you a companion in his glory.
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And this is honestly what it's all about. It's not about you figure out Now, how do I remove myself from the world? How do I get out of the cushion? Where do I go? How do I do this? What do I go? How do I do this? Turn your eyes on Jesus. He's already completed every single thing that is required. This is why our Lord Jesus doesn't make demands that he's unwilling to keep our Lord Jesus Christ made a demand that only he could keep. And for that reason, we now have a relationship with Him. And therefore, by doing so, he has turned our woes into Beatitudes and he has turned our cursing into blessing. Not because of anything we've done, but all because of what he has done. So for every single one of these things that convicts Don't do like the lawyer says, and take it personally. Don't run from this conviction. Embrace it. Say Yep, did that That is my heart. I have been inconsistent and hypocritical, but thanks be to God, Jesus lives with integrity, the text will go on to say that they want to catch him in the words and they couldn't. Why? Because Jesus is the same inside and out. He is the same yesterday and tomorrow, and he is the same forevermore. So all of our whole, all of our truth, all of our desires, everything internally and externally, let's lay the throne of grace, where Jesus Christ can take care. Amen. Father, thank you so much for your word. Lord, I honestly get nervous with convicting words like this from my own soul. reading this was hard. Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you that I don't have to run from conviction, because you've paid it all. Jesus love you and we thank you and we honor you for all that you have done. We pray These things in the Masters Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. August people say, Amen. Well, this time we're going to invite the ushers to come down. So we can administer communion. Excuse me, so we can administer communion. Now, as we partake of communion, I want to read this passage of Scripture over you from First Corinthians chapter 11. I just want these words to just settle in your heart as you partake of communion. It says, it says this, but in following instructions, I do not commend you for I've received from the Lord what I also delivered to the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, given, thanks, given thanks, given thanks. We're going to do this in a celebratory way when we take communion when he had given thanks, when he had given thanks. I'm going to say that again. We are given things this is not us being sad. Jesus Christ is winning when he had given things he broken, and said, This is my body which is for you Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way he also took the cup after supper saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often listen, as you eat this, drink this bread and drink this cup, you claim the Lord's death until he comes again. And it's dope to be able to proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again, knowing that Jesus Christ will one day return. So I pray, I pray that you are able to partake of this communion was celebration if you know the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not know Jesus, I pray that you will let this come. Take Jesus, even today and while you're sitting, receive Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your own sets and then come and tell us that you receive Jesus Christ today so that we could prepare you to protect the community and next up and protect it.