"The King's Aim"
Notes
Transcript
Engage
Engage
I became a Christian as a young adult, right after I graduated high school. I had heard the gospel clearly communicated multiple times and I was fascinated by all of the stories from the Bible. Healings, teachings, miracles, it all blew my mind! And along the way, one Sunday morning, the normal pattern of my churchgoing was replaced by the sense of how terrible my sin is and how glorious a Savior Jesus is and how much I wanted him. How badly I wanted to be with him and in a sense, to just be held by him. And on that unusual Sunday, the trajectory of my life changed while I was seated on the last row of the church I attended.
Any way, that day, Jesus saved me. And I loved him for it. I don’t say this next part with any negative spirit about me, but the church I was attending celebrated my baptism, and well...then sorta cut me loose. I would describe it like tossing your kid into the lake to figure out if they can swim. It was sink or swim time. I was asked to do a lot of things at that church, don’t get me wrong, but no one really came alongside me at that oh-so sensitive time in my life.
Tension
Tension
And that set me back a lot. I don’t know if this resonates with anyone, but where I found myself after about a year into my Christian walk, was just plain burned out on church. And because I was, I found myself in a season of my life that I am by no means proud of now.
Mind you, while I was in that season, I thought I had it all together. In this season I’m telling you about, I was in my 20’s and I had it all and my heart was set on bigger and better. Yvette and I were living in Austin, we were healthy and doing our very best to enjoy all the city offered. I had a great job and I felt like my work was important. In fact, I was consumed with my work and I jumped on every opportunity that came up for me to make my name better known and hopefully land that next promotion. Compared to most of the other people I graduated college with, I was rolling in high cotton.
I share this part of my history with you to ask you a question: Does anything sound wrong with that life? Ok, maybe everything sounds normal aside from the Austin bit, I get it. But… Young, healthy, hard-working, good employer, great pay. Even had my salvation. Sounds like some of the status updates we hear given so proudly by parents or grandparents, doesn’t it? “He’s so blessed,” is what’s said.
I set my aim on all those things because when I was growing up, I overheard plenty of those proud parent updates and frankly, as I learned what others valued, my values were shaped. I wanted to have a blessed life. Bigger, better, faster, and more sound like words we might like to hear spoken of about us, don’t they? “She got promoted faster than anyone.” “He makes more than anyone his age raised in Devine.” “They live in a bigger house and drive better cars...” God’s blessing!
But is he really? Let’s set our course this morning to answer this question:
What is a life blessed by God?
What is a life blessed by God?
This is a really important question that we probably have a bunch of answers to floating in our heads. It’s important that we grab hold of what’s true because what we value today will shape the passion and pursuits of tomorrow.
Truth
Truth
As we begin to purse the answer to this question, let’s remember that we sit under the teaching of the Bible this morning. King Jesus, King and Creator of all, is inviting us to hear about his kingdom, and in telling us about this kingdom, we are confronted by a portrait of a different understanding of what a “blessed life” looks like.
This portrait is painted by the words that we are reading which come from the real-life history told to us in story by a first-century man named Luke. And remembering back to last week, we saw that after an all-night prayer time, Jesus commissions from his group of disciples the twelve men who are to be preachers of God’s kingdom that Jesus is bringing to fulfillment on earth. It’s after this time of prayer that we see God’s mission now beginning to come into focus.
As we begin, I want you to know that Luke is an excellent storyteller, not in the sense like you and I might understand storytelling like every time a fisherman tells the story of reeling in a catch, where the size of that fish gets bigger and bigger. When I mean by calling Luke an excellent story teller is that when writing this, he was led by the Holy Spirit to record important details that we shouldn’t overlook.
I want us to observe a detail and what’s really an important distinction that Luke makes that we will need to remind ourselves of as we continue to read along, but let me first give you a Bible-reading tip. When you read the Bible, particularly those books that present themselves to us as stories, pay very close attention to all the characters on the scene. Get a few different color highlighters and give yourself permission to create a visual contrast between everyone on the scene.
When we apply this principle, we can see in the first verse we are studying that there are four characters on the scene:
Luke 6:17 (ESV)
And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people...
Carrying on from the paragraph that comes before this, we can conclude that he is Jesus, them are the apostles, the disciples are the rest of those who had been following the ministry of Jesus, and now there are these people known as the multitude that Luke introduces to us.
Now then, with the characters in place in our minds, we return to Luke 6:17 and we can envision the beautiful picture of diversity as people gathered, coming from various walks of life, each coming to Jesus with their needs, with their pains, with their hopes.
It’s not that different from what’s assembled here this morning…a gathering of individuals with different backgrounds, bearing our own burdens and seeking wholeness. And as we read on, we see that this mass of people had
Luke 6:18 (ESV)
...came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
And we might simply conclude right now that this is what blessing meant to Jesus. That this would be the essence of the ministry that he called the twelve apostles to go and preach because on that open plain, among the picture of diversity,
Luke 6:19 (ESV)
...all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
Can you imagine this? These people who were not following Jesus came from all over and maybe they were blind, maybe they were unable to walk, maybe they had a skin disease, you name it… All they had to do was just touch Jesus and become blessed! Once blind, but a man is now returning to Tyre with his vision to live a blessed life! Once a cripple, but a woman is ready to run back to Sidon under the strength of her own two legs! That poor baby boy who has developed a breathing problem from the Judean dust…healed!
Let me ask you something… How many of you would be up for something like this? I mean, think about whatever it is that ails you and let’s pretend I’m that voice on an ad. “Has time taken its toll on your body? Do you have trouble getting out of bed? Have the doctors told you that you’re beyond help? Are the memories of your past too painful to bear? Here’s good news for you: Whatever it is that has you down, can be healed! How? By calling in now to book your all-inclusive trip to a beautiful, scenic meadow that is nestled near a picturesque mountain where you and your loved ones will be able to make a lifetime’s worth of memories as you wait your turn to encounter Jesus. Never heard of him? Hailing from a small town, Jesus is an up-and-coming healer who will bless you with a lasting relief from whatever it is you’re dealing with! Don’t delay, spaces are limited, book now.”
I don’t have a future as a travel agent, but more or less, this is what’s happening with this multitude. And this opening scene says more about their understanding of a blessed life than what the Jesus of the Bible says. In fact, this may reveal to us our sense of what a blessed life is too. It’s why one of the greatest distortions of the true gospel of Jesus Christ is what’s known as the prosperity gospel.
The prosperity gospel leads to belief that financial blessing and health are always God’s will
Let me issue this caution to you today: the prosperity gospel is a lie from the pit of hell. It feeds on our sinful desire to pursue a better or best life, filled with bigger and better and it’s said that that life can be gift wrapped by Jesus himself if you just have faith, if you have positive speech about yourself and others, and if you make a monetary donation to the ministry of the person who’s telling you all about it. “Sow a seed of faith” is what they’ll say.
I tell you this to say that I am aware that I may not be the only preacher or teacher that you listen to and I include myself in this with what I’m about to say to you: be very careful to measure the words you’re hearing against the Word of God. Whether they’re words from me or from the radio or television or podcast preacher.
Our health, our finances, our jobs, every last bit of the details that make up our lives are each temporary. You might be living paycheck to paycheck or have no paycheck at all. That’s true for you now but it may not be true in a year. You may have amassed a fortune and that’s true now, but may not be true in a year’s time.
When I was sensing a call to be a pastor, I came across this quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a renowned British preacher who left a thriving medical practice to preach the gospel. I will tell you that this quote served to be one of those “aha moments” in my life and I think it speaks to this issue of what makes us happy or gives us a sense of blessing in contrast to what the gospel is about.
“We spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to their sin! I want to heal souls. If a man has a diseased body and his soul is all right, he is all right to the end; but a man with a healthy body and a distressed soul is all right for sixty years or so and then he has to face eternity in Hell.”
In leaving behind his medical practice, Lloyd-Jones is on to something that gets us closer to the blessed life Jesus is speaking about. He helps us see that every last human being, including you and I, need more than a temporary fix to get us down the road. Yes, Jesus is healing here at the start. Yes, Jesus is giving graciously. But what he begins to teach from Luke 6:20-26 counters the people’s focus on healing and he begins to turn everything upside down. Jesus flips our understanding of blessing in four areas upside down. They are wealth, comfort, fun, and popularity. First, let’s look at
Wealth
Wealth
The first warning Jesus gave is about wealth.
In our world people equate riches with success. People who make more money are deemed “more significant”. Money translates into influence. Almost all of us would like to have more money because deep down we believe that this would solve most of the problems we face in life.
The people of Jesus’ day looked at wealth much as we do. They actually believed that those who had riches were “blessed by God” and so, the poor were not blessed. Imagine the shock of the crowd when Jesus says this:
Luke 6:20 (ESV)
...Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
In contrast to this, Jesus says in
Luke 6:24 (ESV)
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Jesus wasn’t cursing money as a means of exchange. He wasn’t even saying that people who make a lot of money are bad. What Jesus is speaking against is the mindset that is so wrapped up in worldly possessions that we neglect the life to come. Riches tend to attach us to this world. Many people serve money. Riches are bad when they become our source of security and the driving force of our life. Wealth is often not a blessing; it is a stumbling block.
Jesus isn’t just talking about our bank accounts here either, he’s talking about our attitudes. The person who is poor recognizes that they deserve nothing from God. They also have nothing that can earn God’s favor. We are spiritually bankrupt. Everything we have is an undeserved gift from God.
Jesus is warning that if we put our hope and confidence in our bank accounts, retirement funds, and earning potential that we may indeed amass worldly wealth and all that comes with it, but we will find that we have spent our lives trusting that which does not last into eternity and will never ultimately satisfy. We may find that in the end we have put our faith in stuff rather than the Savior.
Comfort
Comfort
Next, Jesus said,
Luke 6:21a (ESV)
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
Jesus is not saying that hunger and famine are good things in and of themselves. We should be working to eliminate all such suffering. However, physically hungry people tend to be focused people. Have you ever searched the pantry for something to eat? People who are truly hungry are even more focused. Jesus says we need to have that kind of hunger for the things God considers to be important.
Jesus restates it,
Luke 6:25a (ESV)
Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
When we are full or satisfied, we stop working, reaching, and growing. It is the curse of the “good enough.” Jesus wants his followers to be constantly hungering for a deeper and fuller relationship with God. Soren Kierkegaard addressed the problem with a story:
A duck was flying with his flock in the springtime northward across Europe. During the flight he came down in a Danish barnyard where there were tame ducks. He enjoyed some of their corn. He stayed, for an hour, then for a day, then for a week, then for a month, and finally, because he relished the good fare and the safety of the barnyard, he stayed all summer. But one autumn day when the flock of wild ducks were winging their way southward again, they passed over the barnyard, and their friend heard their cries. He was stirred with a strange thrill of joy and delight, and with a great flapping of wings he rose in the air to join his old comrades in their flight. But he found that his good fare had made him so soft and heavy that he could rise no higher than the eaves of the barn. So he dropped back again to the barnyard, and said to himself, “Oh well, my life is safe here and the food is good.” Every spring and autumn when he heard the wild ducks calling, his eyes would gleam for a moment and he would begin to flap his wings. But finally the day came when the wild ducks flew over him and uttered their cry, but he paid not the slightest attention to them.
This can happen to us. We can become so comfortable in the world that we become spiritually lazy. Probably the greatest indictment of American Christianity is our comfortableness in the world. We don’t see faith that is characterized by sacrifice, diligence, passion or single-mindedness.
Think about two students in school. One is unmotivated. This student is content with passing grades and they have enough ability to pass without much effort. The other student loves learning. This student is less concerned with grades and more concerned with getting an education. The first person reads when they “have to” but the other reads for the joy of it. The first one wants to know “What do we have to know for the test?” The second is filled with questions because they are interested in the subject matter. Which student do you think will excel in the end? Which will truly obtain an education? It’s the one who is “hungry”.
I get the feeling there are a lot of people in the church who simply want to “pass”. They want to look good to others and feel that they have fulfilled the requirements to get to Heaven. Once again, the Lord draws attention to the fact that the Christian faith is not about checking boxes . . . it is about living in a dynamic and intimate relationship with God. The Lord wants us to hunger for a deeper relationship rather than being content with superficial spirituality.
Having Fun
Having Fun
We hear people all the time saying, “I just want to enjoy my life”. These are the people who live for weekend parties. They may do drugs, sleep around, and drink themselves into oblivion. The only question they ask is this: “Will I enjoy it?” These people are always laughing and they frequently talk about all their “great friends.” The problem is that it is empty. It is like the veneer on a piece of particle board. It looks good on the outside but what is on the inside is different.
The pursuit of pleasure is like a drug. We always need a little bit more pleasure to help us get our “high.” Jesus speaks to the “good time mentality” when he says,
Luke 6:21b (ESV)
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Later he adds,
Luke 6:25b (ESV)
Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Jesus is not against laughter. In fact, the Bible tells us that laughter is good medicine. Kent Hughes writes,
Jesus does not mean, “Blessed are grim, cheerless Christians,” though some believers have apparently interpreted it this way. The Victorian preacher Charles Spurgeon once remarked that some preachers he had known appeared to have their neckties twisted around their souls. Robert Louis Stevenson must have known some preachers like that because he once wrote in his diary, “I’ve been to church today and am not depressed.”
Jesus speaks against the superficial and shallow laughter that characterizes the world. As believers our joy should come from our relationship with God. The situation of the world is tragic. People are doing all sorts of foolish and sinful things to “feel good.” Sin has caused havoc in life. We should mourn over: disease, injustice that victimizes the weak, child abuse, battered women, the drug culture, the increase of violence, the increase in divorce, and the loneliness and alienation that so many people experience. And certainly we should mourn over the many lost people who will go into eternal darkness without Christ.
In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon tells us that it is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting. The reason is that the house of mourning makes us realize the shortness of life. It causes us to address ultimate issues. It strips away the pretend “happy world” in which so many try to hide. The house of mourning forces us to consider what is really important. It points us to the eternal rather than the temporary.
True blessing comes when we are able to look at the sometimes harsh realities of life and rest in the Lord. This joy comes from finding the key to life in Jesus Christ. This blessedness is not superficial. This blessedness brings forth a laughter that is anchored in joy, security, and the love of God. It is a joy that does not disappear even in the toughest of times.
Popularity
Popularity
We all see the power of peer pressure in teenagers. The desire to be accepted and popular can lead kids to do all kinds of dangerous and foolish things. Peer pressure is not only something that effects teenagers. There is nothing wrong with having people like you. The Bible tells us that we should have a good reputation with outsiders. However, the question is: “What are you willing to do to be popular?”
Jesus said,
Luke 6:22–23 (ESV)
22 Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
Note the key words: “because of the Son of Man.” Jesus is not saying it is good to be disliked. Some people are disliked because they act like jerks. They’re not being persecuted for their faith but because they are obnoxious. The blessing comes when we choose to stand with Jesus Christ and others reject us because of that fact. When people dislike you because you are a follower of Jesus, the Lord reminds us that “great is our reward in heaven.” We have chosen the right path and it will lead to eternal blessing.
I have had very little experience in being “popular” but in those fleeting moments I have discovered that popularity is an illusion. It does not last. Those who celebrate you today will just as easily turn on your tomorrow. The only dependable relationship is with Christ. Rather than building for ourselves a network of friends or amassing a huge social media following, allow me to summarize for you a life of blessing with a quote from an Austrian preacher:
“Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.”
Someone says, “That sounds so…unfulfilling. That sounds so limiting. Don’t you know what that would require?”
Sure. But this isn’t about you. It’s never been about you. And if you live this life the way God intends it for you, you may not be the most popular person at Devine High School or even in our own Youth Ministry. If it isn’t that way, Jesus warns:
Luke 6:26 (ESV)
Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
When everyone is singing our praise we should be on guard. We should ask, “Are we popular because we have compromised or sold out the gospel?” We should also ask if this popularity has come with a price tag. It is better to be faithful and hated by the world than to be popular at the cost of our soul.
Application
Application
This brings us to this, my friends. The aim of King Jesus is to bring heaven to earth. In bringing heaven to earth, the work of God is not to just snap his divine fingers and change temporary details in an instant, because that wouldn’t get to the heart of the matter. It wouldn’t change a thing because all the outward signs of things being wrong may be nonexistent, but everything at the core would remain as rotten as it has always been.
Friends, a life blessed by Jesus isn’t one that necessarily has wealth, comfort, worldly fun, or popularity. That’s not the King’s aim. The King’s aim is to transform your heart. To say that if you are in Christ, he’s made you a new creation! The King’s aim is to call men and women to himself and give them freely
A blessed life is a life where Jesus is enough
A blessed life is a life where Jesus is enough
Inspiration
Inspiration
How might you come to receive this blessed life? Well, you can’t come unless he calls. He’s calling this morning. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling for you and for me.
Calling for you and me to recognize that when heaven invades earth, we don’t simply receive his blessing, we respond to it. We become new creatures in Christ, given new passions with minds renewed to what real blessedness means.
Action
Action
Jesus invites you and I to enter into the blessedness of life where Jesus is enough. He’s calling each of us to this. What does it take? His cross. The cross upon which Jesus died is a shelter in which we can hide. At that cross, God’s grace is so free is sufficient for you and me.
Surrender to this King. He is ready to set your soul right, to give you a truly blessed life.
Have you surrendered to King Jesus?
Have you surrendered to King Jesus?
Why not?