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Following Jesus When You Need Grace- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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  Speaker 1: We're bringing to an end today what has been a
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  Speaker 1: unique series, at least for us.
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  Speaker 2: Our church has traveled to Israel and we have walked
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  Speaker 2: in the footsteps of Jesus. We have visited Galilee and
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  Speaker 2: Capernaum and Jerusalem and paused and considered the wonderful work
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  Speaker 2: of our Savior Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: In those cities.
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  Speaker 2: This came about because over the last, well, decades, several decades,
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  Speaker 2: I've made many trips to Israel and realizing that my
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  Speaker 2: travels to Israel are likely coming to a close, we
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  Speaker 2: thought it wise to capture the messages and we enlisted
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  Speaker 2: the help of a film crew and did so. And consequently,
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  Speaker 2: we have the messages and we felt like it would
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  Speaker 2: be an interesting way to take the church forward. Israel
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  Speaker 2: because so many people desire to see Israel have yet
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  Speaker 2: to have the opportunity. And for that reason, I am
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  Speaker 2: very excited to announce, in fact, today is the first
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  Speaker 2: announcement that Travis is going to lead a tour to
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  Speaker 2: Israel in 2024. Yes, Travis is going to be taking
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of folks to Israel.
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  Speaker 1: And if you want.
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  Speaker 2: Information about it, in your cup holder is a QR code.
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  Speaker 2: And this QR code will put you in touch with
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  Speaker 2: the folks who can answer your questions and you can
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  Speaker 2: begin giving that some thought March 3 through 13, 2024.
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  Speaker 2: We close out our tour of Israel by going to
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  Speaker 2: a city actually not known so much for the presence
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  Speaker 2: of Jesus, but certainly known For the impact of Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to Caesarea Maritima. Where Jesus' disciple Peter experienced
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  Speaker 2: a miraculous moment.
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  Speaker 1: That impacted you and me. That changed the church forever.
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  Speaker 2: You know you can learn a lot about a lot
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  Speaker 2: of things by studying its name. And Caesarea Maritima is
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  Speaker 2: no exception. First you noticed the Caesar in Caesarea Maritima.
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  Speaker 2: When King Herod the Great had the city built in
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  Speaker 2: 22 BC, he named it after Augustus Caesar. He constructed
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  Speaker 2: markets and baths and Roman temples and imposing public buildings.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's Maritima, which sounds a lot like maritime.
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  Speaker 1: As in ocean.
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  Speaker 2: The city got that part of its name because it
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  Speaker 2: sits on the Mediterranean coast. This Informal name for the
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  Speaker 2: city is simply Caesarea by the sea. And that's a
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  Speaker 2: helpful designation because there's another Caesarea a few miles away
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  Speaker 2: on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
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  Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul.
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  Speaker 2: Swung through Caesarea by the sea many times during his journeys.
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  Speaker 2: But the city is really best known for a visitation
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  Speaker 2: from Peter and a man by the name of Cornelius.
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  Speaker 2: As you're about to hear, Cornelius was a Gentile, but
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  Speaker 2: Cornelius was a God seeker. And God sought Cornelius and
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  Speaker 2: told Peter to lead Cornelius and his family into grace
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  Speaker 2: now this was a problem because Cornelius was a Gentile
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  Speaker 2: and even in the days of the early church the
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  Speaker 2: Jews had trouble associating with Gentiles so we're going to
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  Speaker 2: visit that moment in which Peter had to make a
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  Speaker 2: decision it was a cold windy day that we filmed
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  Speaker 2: this message but it was a day that we were
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  Speaker 2: reminded of how God got Peter's attention Turn your attention
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  Speaker 2: to the screen. We had a clubhouse when we were kids.
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  Speaker 2: My brother, my buddies, and I, we turned my dad's
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  Speaker 2: workshop into a clubhouse. And not just anybody could enter.
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  Speaker 2: Girls could not enter. We limited our membership to elementary-aged
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  Speaker 2: boys who liked baseball, who were fans of the Dallas Cowboys.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry.
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  Speaker 2: Back in those days, it made sense. Laughter and other
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  Speaker 2: boys who also lived on our block. We had a
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  Speaker 2: secret handshake. We had dues. And most of all, to
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  Speaker 2: be in our club, you had to be cool. Not
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  Speaker 2: just anybody could be in our club. You know, clubs
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  Speaker 2: have a way of tidying up the world, of keeping
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  Speaker 2: some people out and keeping other people in. They create
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  Speaker 2: insiders They create outsiders. And that's pretty nice. We like
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  Speaker 2: to know who's in. We like to know who's out.
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  Speaker 2: And since we tend to cluster according to what we
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  Speaker 2: have in common, the club eliminates surprises. Now, people in
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  Speaker 2: the club tend to look alike, believe alike, think alike.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe that's why Jesus did not start a club. He
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  Speaker 2: seemed more keen on welcoming people in than he did
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  Speaker 2: keeping people out. Remember how he was introduced to the
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  Speaker 2: world by John's Gospel? The Word became flesh and, according
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  Speaker 2: to one translation, moved into the neighborhoods Jesus spent 33
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  Speaker 2: years walking amidst the mess of this world. And just
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  Speaker 2: before he left, he invited you and me to follow
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  Speaker 2: his example. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem
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  Speaker 2: and in all of Judea and Samaria and.
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  Speaker 1: To the ends of the earth. Clubhouse?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: Lighthouse? That's better.
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  Speaker 2: He could hardly demonstrate this lighthouse view more clearly than
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  Speaker 2: he did right here.
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  Speaker 1: In the story of Peter and Cornelius. Peter was a Jew.
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  Speaker 2: Cornelius was a Gentile. And an impassable yawn stretched between
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  Speaker 2: Jews and Gentiles in the days of the early church.
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  Speaker 2: According to the Mishnah, a Jew could not drink milk
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  Speaker 2: drawn by a Gentile, could not eat their food. Jews
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  Speaker 2: could not aid a Gentile mother in her hour of need.
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  Speaker 2: Jewish physicians could not attend to Gentile patients. No Jew
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  Speaker 2: could would have anything to do with the Gentile. Unless,
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  Speaker 2: of course, again, that Jew was named Jesus. He was
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  Speaker 2: more concerned about bringing people in than keeping people out.
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  Speaker 2: And this was the tension in which Peter found himself.
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  Speaker 2: His culture said, keep your distance from the Gentiles, but
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  Speaker 2: his Christ said, build a bridge to the Gentiles.
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  Speaker 1: And Peter had to make a choice.
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  Speaker 2: And that choice came in the form of a Gentile
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  Speaker 2: by the name of Cornelius. Cornelius was an officer in
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  Speaker 2: the Roman army. So that made him not just Gentile,
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  Speaker 2: but also a bad guy. Think British red coat in
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  Speaker 2: 18th century Boston. Hardly deacon material. He ate the wrong food.
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  Speaker 2: He hung out with the wrong crowd. And he swore
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  Speaker 2: allegiance to Caesar. He didn't quote the Torah. He didn't
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  Speaker 2: descend from Abraham. He had a toga on his body.
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  Speaker 2: He had a ham in his freezer. No yarmulke on
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  Speaker 2: his head. And no whiskers on his face. Uncircumcised. Unkosher, unclean.
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  Speaker 2: Look at him. But look at him. He helped needy people,
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  Speaker 2: according to Acts chapter 10. He sympathized with all the
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  Speaker 2: Jewish ethics. In fact, he's described in verse 2 as
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  Speaker 2: one who feared God and all his household and gave
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  Speaker 2: alms generously to the people and prayed to God always.
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  Speaker 2: Cornelius was even on the first name basis with an angel.
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  Speaker 2: And this angel made an appearance to Cornelius. and told
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  Speaker 2: Cornelius to get in touch with a Jew by the
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  Speaker 2: name of Peter, who was staying about 35 miles away
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  Speaker 2: from Caesarea at the seaside town of Jaffa. Peter, meanwhile,
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  Speaker 2: was doing his best to pray one day, but he
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  Speaker 2: was so hungry, It's hard to pray with a growling stomach.
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  Speaker 2: The scripture says he became hungry and wanted to eat.
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  Speaker 2: But while they made ready, he fell into a trance
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  Speaker 2: and saw heaven opened and an object like a great
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  Speaker 2: sheet bound at the four corners descending to him and
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  Speaker 2: let down to the earth. In it were all kinds
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  Speaker 2: of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things
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  Speaker 2: and birds of the air. And a voice said to him, rise, Peter, kill.
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  Speaker 1: And eat.
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  Speaker 2: This sheep contained enough unkosher foods to uncurl the sideburns
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  Speaker 2: of an Orthodox Jew. Peter absolutely, righteously, stoically, and resolutely refused.
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  Speaker 1: Not so, Lord, he said.
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  Speaker 2: For I have never eaten anything common or unclean. But
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  Speaker 2: God wasn't kidding. And he repeated the vision. Leaving poor
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  Speaker 2: Peter alone, in a quandary with the question.
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  Speaker 1: Of the kingdom. If it's okay to eat Gentile food,
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  Speaker 1: is it okay.
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  Speaker 2: To be friends with the Gentiles? So Peter was pondering
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  Speaker 2: the pigs in the blanket. I thought that was clever.
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  Speaker 2: when he heard a knock at the door, and as
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  Speaker 2: he heard the knock at the door, the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 2: was knocking.
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  Speaker 1: A wall down for the future. Behold, three men are
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  Speaker 1: seeking you, Peter was told.
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  Speaker 2: Arise, therefore, and go down with them, doubting nothing, for
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  Speaker 2: I have sent them God was correcting Peter's people vision,
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  Speaker 2: adjusting Peter's eyesight. And those men at the door were
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  Speaker 2: not Gentiles, a.k.a. inferior people.
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  Speaker 1: They were God's creation. men whom God was leading.
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  Speaker 2: And Cornelius was not merely an unclean soldier. He was,
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  Speaker 2: according to verse 22, divinely instructed by a holy angel
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  Speaker 2: to summon you to his house.
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  Speaker 1: To hear words from you.
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  Speaker 2: Peter makes up for all of the gaffes of his
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  Speaker 2: life in the next response. All those times he spoke
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  Speaker 2: up too quickly. All those times he reacted inappropriately. Everything
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  Speaker 2: is tilted into the balance of a round of applause
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  Speaker 2: for Peter because of his response. He went against the
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  Speaker 2: current of his culture and he invited the messengers to
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  Speaker 2: watch this, spend the night with him.
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  Speaker 1: Big set.
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  Speaker 2: And then he headed out the next morning to meet Cornelius.
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  Speaker 2: And when Peter arrived, Cornelius fell at his feet. Peter said, oh,
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  Speaker 2: don't worship me. And he confessed how difficult this trip was.
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  Speaker 1: He said to.
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  Speaker 2: Cornelius, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish
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  Speaker 2: man to keep company with one of another nation.
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  Speaker 1: But God has shown me.
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  Speaker 2: That I should not call any person common or unclean.
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  Speaker 1: No pecking order in the kingdom of God.
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  Speaker 3: None.
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  Speaker 1: I should call no person common.
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  Speaker 2: Or unclean. Revolutionary words from which we stand as beneficiaries today.
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  Speaker 2: Peter told Cornelius about Jesus in the gospel. And before
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  Speaker 2: he could even issue an altar call, the Holy Spirit fell.
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  Speaker 2: And Cornelius and the members of his household were replicating
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  Speaker 2: the Pentecost miracle. They were speaking in tongues. They were
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  Speaker 2: magnifying God. Peter offered to baptize them in water.
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  Speaker 1: They accepted.
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  Speaker 2: They offered him a bed. Peter accepted. And by the
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  Speaker 2: end of the visit, Peter was making his own ham sandwiches.
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  Speaker 2: And we, what do we do with this story? I
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  Speaker 2: think we underline verse 28. God has shown me that
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  Speaker 2: I should not call any person common or unclean.
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  Speaker 1: This was a breakthrough moment. in the history of the church,
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  Speaker 1: and it happened right here.
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  Speaker 2: God's gospel, Peter declared, first discovered and then declared, was
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  Speaker 2: intended for all people. And the role of the church
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  Speaker 2: is not to shut people out, but the role of
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  Speaker 2: the church is to bring people in. Now, this wasn't
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  Speaker 2: the final time that Peter had to defend his position.
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  Speaker 1: Like Peter, they had to be convinced.
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  Speaker 2: And some 10 years later, in the city of Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 2: the Jews were resisting the Gentiles again. Oh, how slowly
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  Speaker 2: the church can learn, even the first church. 10 years later,
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  Speaker 2: they're still wanting to keep the Gentiles out. Certain men
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  Speaker 2: came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you
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  Speaker 2: are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot
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  Speaker 2: be saved.
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  Speaker 1: Boy, there's a church growth strategy.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, let's reach the city for Christ and, hey, circumcision
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  Speaker 2: is part of the deal.
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  Speaker 1: And then, if that wasn't enough....
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  Speaker 2: They said, it is necessary not only to circumcise him,
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  Speaker 2: but command them to keep the law of Moses. These
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  Speaker 2: concerned men were Pharisees, a group famous for their religious scruples.
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  Speaker 2: They followed the right law. They had the right secret handshake.
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  Speaker 2: They were part of the right club. And when unkosher
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  Speaker 2: Gentiles began showing up at.
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  Speaker 1: Their church, well, They had to add a few requirements.
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  Speaker 2: And in their hands, good news, grace became bad news requirements.
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  Speaker 2: You can be on God's team, but you've got to
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  Speaker 2: pay your own way. You can suit up, but you've
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  Speaker 2: got to write the check. You can be a part
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  Speaker 2: of the church, but you have to be circumcised. You
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  Speaker 2: have to become Jewish, or in our case, you have
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  Speaker 2: to crack the code on a certain doctrine. You have
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  Speaker 2: to obey every day in the right way all the time.
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  Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, this was a watershed moment for the
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  Speaker 2: church in Acts chapter 15. Is the church going to
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  Speaker 2: go the way of the Pharisees, or is the church
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  Speaker 2: going to go the way of grace?
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  Speaker 1: So, verse 6, a conference was called.
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  Speaker 2: The apostles and the elders came together to discuss the matter.
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  Speaker 2: On the table was one question, and that is, is
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  Speaker 2: God's grace sufficient for salvation?
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  Speaker 1: That was the question. Was the work of Christ adequate
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  Speaker 1: for eternity or death? we need to add a work,
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  Speaker 1: add something, contribute something?
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  Speaker 2: The Pharisees said, yes, it's not that they didn't trust
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  Speaker 2: Jesus's grace.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, we call them the grace a lots. They
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  Speaker 1: believed in grace a lot. They did. God's grace accomplished
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  Speaker 1: a lot.
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  Speaker 2: In the robot of salvation, God takes one oar and
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  Speaker 2: we take the other.
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  Speaker 1: God does his part. We do our part. That's grace
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  Speaker 1: a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Peter, however, introduced a refreshing, life-changing, soul-liberating truth not grace
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  Speaker 2: a lot anyone want to guess grace alone grace alone
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  Speaker 2: and he reminded the council of what the conversion of
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  Speaker 2: Cornelius he takes us back here 10 years later And
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  Speaker 2: he said, now on that day, I'm reading from Peter's
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  Speaker 2: words here, God made no distinction between us and them,
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  Speaker 2: purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why do you
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  Speaker 2: test God by putting a yoke on the necks of
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  Speaker 2: the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able
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  Speaker 2: to bear?
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  Speaker 1: We believe that through the grace of the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, we will be saved in the same manner
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  Speaker 2: As they.
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  Speaker 1: Grace alone.
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  Speaker 2: Or grace a lot. Maybe you've. Visited a. Church of
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  Speaker 2: the grace a lots. Have a. Tend to put a
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  Speaker 2: burden on you.
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  Speaker 1: And you leave. A little lower.
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  Speaker 4: Or.
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  Speaker 2: And then you came in because you're constantly reminded that
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  Speaker 2: you've not done enough, worked enough, learned enough, felt enough.
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  Speaker 1: There's always just something. You're just a little shy of grace.
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  Speaker 1: Let's embrace grace alone. Just grace.
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  Speaker 2: Let's embrace that wonderful truth of the gospel that your
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  Speaker 2: greatest work has never added one iota to your salvation.
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  Speaker 2: And your darkest days have never subtracted one ounce from
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  Speaker 2: your salvation. Because it is not your grip on him,
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  Speaker 2: but his grip on you.
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  Speaker 1: That sustains you for eternity. Grace alone.
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  Speaker 4: You don't have to stay close. As long as you're
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  Speaker 4: somewhere out there, that's enough for me.
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  Speaker 5: I don't need to hold you near me Don't need
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  Speaker 5: promises to keep Just the thought that you are breathing
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  Speaker 5: Somewhere in this world I see Even if I'm not
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  Speaker 5: beside you Even if you never know I don't need forever.
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  Speaker 4: I just need you to exist. You don't have to
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  Speaker 4: stay with me.
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  Speaker 5: You don't have to feel the same Just as long
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  Speaker 5: as you're still out there Calling softly through my days
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  Speaker 5: You don't have to.
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  Speaker 3: Look my way.
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  Speaker 5: You don't have to be my home It's enough to
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  Speaker 5: know you're living In a world I'm.
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  Speaker 4: Not alone.
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  Speaker 5: I won't chase you through the distance Won't disturb your
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  Speaker 5: chosen life. I'll just keep you in my silence like
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  Speaker 5: a star that shines at night.
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  Speaker 4: Through the dark and through the blue.
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  Speaker 5: I still think of you. You don't have to feel
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  Speaker 5: the same Just as long as you're still out there
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  Speaker 5: Calling softly through my days You don't have to look
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  Speaker 5: my way You don't have to be my home It's
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  Speaker 5: enough to know you're living In a world I'm not alone.
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  Speaker 4: I don't need to be your light I don't need
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  Speaker 4: to cross your mind All I need is just the
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  Speaker 4: truth That you're somewhere Still alive.
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  Speaker 3: You don't have to stay with me You don't have
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  Speaker 3: to feel the same Just as long as you're still
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  Speaker 3: out there Calling softly through my days You don't have
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  Speaker 3: to look my way You don't have to be my
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  Speaker 3: home It's enough to know you're living
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  Speaker 4: In a world I'm not alone