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Andy Stanley - Youre Not Far Part 2 What Does It Mean To Have Faith · Andy Stanley Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Today we are actually in part two of Your Not
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Far And this is the story that should have never
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: left Rome. It's a story that should have died in Rome,
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  Speaker 1: but it didn't. It's the story of Jesus of Nazareth
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  Speaker 1: as told by Simon Peter, Peter, his most famous apostle,
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  Speaker 1: and it's dictated to and edited by John Mark, Peter's
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  Speaker 1: traveling companion. Now here's something that's kind of cool. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: when people start reading the Bible, we think, oh, the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: bibl e. But today we're not reading the Bible. And
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  Speaker 1: I'll explain what I mean by that in just a second.
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  Speaker 1: For thirty years, over thirty years, but for thirty something years, Peter,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Apostle, traveled around and told his story over and
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  Speaker 1: over and over. And now he's in his fifties. He's
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  Speaker 1: imprisoned in Rome and he doesn't know it, but he
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  Speaker 1: is not going to leave that city alive. He's been
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  Speaker 1: arrested in Nero's Rome. No friend of Nero is no
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  Speaker 1: friend of Christians right, and he's either in a prison
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  Speaker 1: cell or maybe under house arrest. We don't know. But Mark,
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  Speaker 1: who has traveled with him and heard him tell these
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  Speaker 1: stories a thousand times or one hundred times is with him,
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  Speaker 1: and Mark, who is a Greek Christian, essentially says to Peter, look, look,
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  Speaker 1: I've heard these stories. I've taken some notes, but I
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  Speaker 1: need to hear it one more time. We need to
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  Speaker 1: document this your story, not just for this generation. This
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  Speaker 1: is a story that needs to be documented for every generation,
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  Speaker 1: not for the people in the room, but for the
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  Speaker 1: one person in the room, to John Mark, for the
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  Speaker 1: generations that would follow. And what Peter tells Mark comes
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  Speaker 1: to us as the Gospel of Mark, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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  Speaker 1: and John. This is where the Gospel of Mark comes from.
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  Speaker 1: Mark got it from Peter. Now, this first century document,
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  Speaker 1: when you know that in the first century Peter died
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  Speaker 1: somewhere around sixty five or sixty six, Ady, We're not
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  Speaker 1: really sure, but he died during the life of Nero.
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  Speaker 1: We know that this first century document would eventually be
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  Speaker 1: collected with some of the apostle Paul's letters, and then
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  Speaker 1: the other gospels that would be written, and then the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament and would be put together, and it would
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  Speaker 1: ultimately become the Bible. So here's why I say all that.
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  Speaker 1: For the next few minutes and for the next few weeks,
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  Speaker 1: please don't hear me reading from the Bible. And the
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  Speaker 1: reason that's important because for some of you the Bible
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  Speaker 1: is just a non starter. Soon somebody says, well, the
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  Speaker 1: Bible says, you want to raise your hand and say,
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  Speaker 1: let me tell you what else the Bible says, right,
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  Speaker 1: that may be some one of your conflicts with faith.
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  Speaker 1: I completely get that. So for the next few minutes,
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  Speaker 1: this is I'm not reading the Bible because Mark wasn't
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  Speaker 1: writing the Bible. Mark in the first century was documenting
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  Speaker 1: Peter's experience with Jesus. He is sitting with a man,
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  Speaker 1: and he's traveled with a man who spent years with Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: and after the crucifixion, Peter continued to believe that his rabbi,
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  Speaker 1: as we're going to see in just a minute, with
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  Speaker 1: somebody extremely special. Then here's what happened, and we know
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  Speaker 1: this from church history that Mark takes this document, Peter's
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  Speaker 1: account of the life of Jesus, and he smuggles it.
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  Speaker 1: We don't know if he actually had to smuggle it,
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  Speaker 1: but he leaves Rome with it. He goes to Alexandria, Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: and copies are made and they begin to distribute this
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  Speaker 1: account of the life of Jesus from the lips of
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  Speaker 1: the apostle Peter, who was an eyewitness. Then again it
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  Speaker 1: was collective with the apostle Paul's letters, and then in
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  Speaker 1: the fourth century, like almost three hundred years later, it's
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  Speaker 1: collected with the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, and then
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  Speaker 1: it's given a name the Bible. But for now, let's
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  Speaker 1: not think about the Bible. Let's imagine the apostle Peter,
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  Speaker 1: who's in his fifties, he's about to be executed. He's
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  Speaker 1: sitting with his friend John Mark, and he's just downloading
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  Speaker 1: the story. And Mark's like, okay, just give it to me.
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  Speaker 1: Give me everything you got, Peter, because you are an
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  Speaker 1: eye witness of the of all the events and conversations
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, and your story is
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  Speaker 1: so important. And here's how Peter begins. Mark's writing it down.
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  Speaker 1: It's like he doesn't want us to miss the big picture.
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  Speaker 1: He says, the beginning. This is the very beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel of Mark, the beginning of the good news.
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  Speaker 1: As we said last week, if Christianity isn't good news
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  Speaker 1: to you, perhaps you've never heard Peter's version the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of good news about Jesus the Messiah, and then this
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  Speaker 1: is amazing, the son of God. And we talked about
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  Speaker 1: this last time we were together, the Son of God.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, get this. Thirty something years after the
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  Speaker 1: crucifixion of Jesus, Peter is still convinced that his rabbi,
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  Speaker 1: his friend, was the actual, living, breathing son of God.
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  Speaker 1: We do not believe Jesus was the son of God
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  Speaker 1: because the Bible tells us so. We believe Jesus was
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  Speaker 1: the son of God because of what he did and
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  Speaker 1: what he taught and the eyewitnesses that risked their life
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  Speaker 1: to document it for us. Then he jumps into the
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  Speaker 1: story and he says this, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming
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  Speaker 1: the good news of God, to which we would say, well, Peter,
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  Speaker 1: what is the good news of God? Because most of
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  Speaker 1: us were raised to believe the good news of God.
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  Speaker 1: As Jesus died for your sins. You go to heaven
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  Speaker 1: when you die if you put your faith in Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: And Peter's like, no, no, no, that way later that he
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  Speaker 1: wasn't talking about any of that, None of that had
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  Speaker 1: happened let me tell you what jesus message was. Everywhere
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  Speaker 1: we went. Everywhere we went, he had one theme, and
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  Speaker 1: everything he taught about as was associated with this theme,
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  Speaker 1: and the theme was simply this. Jesus would say, the
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  Speaker 1: time has come, the time has come, the waiting is over.
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  Speaker 1: Something's been missing. But what's been missing is now here.
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  Speaker 1: And everything that came before in the pagan world, and
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  Speaker 1: everything that came before in the Jewish world was all
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  Speaker 1: preparation for what God is doing in history in this moment,
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom. The time has come. The Kingdom of God
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  Speaker 1: is near, the Kingdom of God. The best way to
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  Speaker 1: understand that is God's kingship, God's rule, God's authority. The
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  Speaker 1: Kingship of God is near because the king is in town.
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  Speaker 1: And then Jesus would say, and the appropriate response to
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the time has come and God is
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  Speaker 1: doing something new, the appropriate response is to repent and
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  Speaker 1: believe this good news, and to repent. And this context
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  Speaker 1: meant turn your life in the direction of this, face
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  Speaker 1: it and embrace it, because I'm introducing a new way
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  Speaker 1: of living. Not it's simply a new way of dying,
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  Speaker 1: a new way of living, a new way of relating.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to understand the way God sees you,
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  Speaker 1: the way God sees the world. And God wanted you
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  Speaker 1: to know so much that he sent me as his representative.
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  Speaker 1: The Kingdom of God has come because the king is
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  Speaker 1: in town. So repent faced it and embrace this new
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  Speaker 1: way of living, to which we might say, well, Peter,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not ready for that, and Peter would say, well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm just getting started. Hang on. You shouldn't repent and
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  Speaker 1: you shouldn't believe until you hear the whole story. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the first century response to this was amazing. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: in the Book of Mark, the word crowd appears in
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  Speaker 1: every single chapter, I think except too. Peter says, as
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  Speaker 1: we began to teach, and as Jesus began to teach,
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  Speaker 1: the people were amazed at his teaching because he taught
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  Speaker 1: them as one who had authority, not as the teachers
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  Speaker 1: of the law. And news about him spread quickly and
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  Speaker 1: the whole throughout the whole region of Galilee. So we
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  Speaker 1: interdewce this map last time. We're going to come back
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  Speaker 1: to this throughout our time together. Because the way the
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  Speaker 1: apostle Peter tells us the story, it has everything to
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  Speaker 1: do with geography. So the region of Galilee is this
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  Speaker 1: whole region up here, Jerusalem's down here. This is the
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  Speaker 1: Jordan River, this is the dead Sea Sea of Galilee.
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  Speaker 1: And so Jesus begins his public ministry in the vicinity
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  Speaker 1: of Galilee. And Peter was a Galilee and he said,
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  Speaker 1: throughout the whole region of Galilee, word spread that something
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  Speaker 1: fantastic and amazing has come. So, picking up where we
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  Speaker 1: left off last time, Peter immediately introduces us, or confronts
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  Speaker 1: us with these three very disturbing and paradigm shifting narratives.
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  Speaker 1: And when you piece them together, it becomes very clear
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  Speaker 1: Peter wants us to know how disruptive jesus ministry was,
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  Speaker 1: and how disruptive jesus teaching was. Disruptive in the sense
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  Speaker 1: that everybody kind of had a worldview. There was a
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  Speaker 1: Pagan worldview, a Roman worldview, a Greek worldview, a Jewish worldview.
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  Speaker 1: And Jesus steps onto the pages of history and he
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  Speaker 1: introduces a new way of thinking about just about everything.
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  Speaker 1: So very quickly at the beginning of his Gospel account,
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  Speaker 1: he gives us these three narratives that just give us
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  Speaker 1: a glimpse of just how different this kingdom was going
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  Speaker 1: to be. And I'm going to give you the summary
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  Speaker 1: of each of these stories real quick. The first thing
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  Speaker 1: we discover is that Jesus would ignore certain religious protocol. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: he's going to claim to have the power to forgive sin.
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  Speaker 1: And then third and where we're going to end today
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  Speaker 1: is Peter recognizes that Jesus was uncomfortably comfortable with unrepentant sinners.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, what Jesus did right up front, and
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  Speaker 1: Peter saw this was that Jesus came along and removed
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  Speaker 1: three obstacles to God, three obstacles to God. And then
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  Speaker 1: the strangest thing happened a few hundred years later, the
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  Speaker 1: church unfortunately took these three obstacles that Jesus had removed
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  Speaker 1: and put them back into the equation. In fact, one
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  Speaker 1: of these three may be your obstacle to God. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: the reason you got bumped out of a church with
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  Speaker 1: some kind of really ridiculous religious thing that you thought
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  Speaker 1: to yourself that doesn't have anything to do with anything.
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  Speaker 1: That's certainly not something I could ever make myself believe.
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  Speaker 1: They want me to act a certain way, or dress
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  Speaker 1: a certain way, or date a certain way, or not
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  Speaker 1: marry a certain way. I don't know what your thing was,
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  Speaker 1: but there was just something that was just purely religious,
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  Speaker 1: and you thought to yourself, if God is that small
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  Speaker 1: and that petty, I don't want to have anything to
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  Speaker 1: do with it. So maybe the reason you have walked
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  Speaker 1: away from faith or never even thought about addressing faith
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  Speaker 1: to begin with, was just certain religious protocol that doesn't
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  Speaker 1: make any difference. And Peter would say, hang with me,
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  Speaker 1: you're not gonna believe what he did. Or maybe your
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  Speaker 1: challenge is this, Perhaps you just can't come to grips
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  Speaker 1: with the fact that your sin could actually be forgiven,
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  Speaker 1: that God would actually forgive your sin, and you believe
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  Speaker 1: he might forgive everybody else's sin. But if people knew
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  Speaker 1: what you've done or haven't done, or what you promised
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  Speaker 1: to do and never follow through on whatever your thing is,
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  Speaker 1: it may be impossible for you to say, Look, I
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  Speaker 1: kind of believe the story, but I'm just telling you
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  Speaker 1: I don't know that I could ever have actual peace
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  Speaker 1: with God. Peter would say, I'm so glad you're reading
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  Speaker 1: my story. And the third thing, this whole being uncomfortable,
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  Speaker 1: uncomfortably comfortable, see one of the things maybe you thought
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  Speaker 1: is that, you know what, I think it's interesting, and
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  Speaker 1: I think it's good for everybody else. But as a
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  Speaker 1: friend of mine said years ago, he said, Andy, I
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  Speaker 1: would stand in the back of church and think to myself,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not as disciplined as these people. I'll never be
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  Speaker 1: that good. I mean, if I'm ever going to be
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  Speaker 1: a church person, I'm not ever going to be a
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  Speaker 1: Jesus follower, which is really the issue. Then I've got
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  Speaker 1: to clean up my act because I will never ever
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  Speaker 1: ever live up to the standard these people are living with.
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  Speaker 1: So before I ever decide to follow Jesus, I have
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  Speaker 1: some work to do. And Peter's like, I am so
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  Speaker 1: glad you're following me on my journey, because we were stunned.
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  Speaker 1: We were shocked at how comfortable Jesus was, not just
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  Speaker 1: with sinners, but with people who hadn't even left their sin.
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  Speaker 1: His point was Jesus had come to reverse the order
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  Speaker 1: of things, that Jesus was the king who came to
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  Speaker 1: reverse the order of things. So he continues, he says, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: here's what happened. So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in
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  Speaker 1: their synagogues and driving out demons, and a man with
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  Speaker 1: leprosy came to him. Now, in those days, in ancient times,
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  Speaker 1: leprosy wasn't something that was diagnosed the way we diagnosed it.
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  Speaker 1: So almost any kind of skin rash or skin disease
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  Speaker 1: scared people to death, and they immediately just put him
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  Speaker 1: in the category of you have leprosy. You have to
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  Speaker 1: go over there and live with those people until you're clean.
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  Speaker 1: People with leprosy in this time and this day and age,
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  Speaker 1: there was a sense in which they hung. Imagine this,
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  Speaker 1: they hung between heaven and earth. In fact, some of
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  Speaker 1: you would say, this is how you feel about your
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  Speaker 1: life right now. They were unable to die, but they
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  Speaker 1: were unable to participate in life. They were unable to die,
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  Speaker 1: and they were unable to participate in life. They watched
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  Speaker 1: the world go on around them, and they couldn't participate.
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  Speaker 1: They watched their children grow up from afar. They watched
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  Speaker 1: their husband or their wife become their egg husband or
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  Speaker 1: their ex wife and raise their kids and raise other
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  Speaker 1: people's kids. They watch people prosper, They watch the world change,
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  Speaker 1: but they couldn't participate. They hung between heaven and earth.
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  Speaker 1: They were shunned, and no one ever touched them. And
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  Speaker 1: this leopard comes to Jesus and he drops to his knees,
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  Speaker 1: and he begs him, and he says this, and this
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  Speaker 1: is so important. He says to Jesus, if you are willing,
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  Speaker 1: you can make me clean. If you are willing, you
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  Speaker 1: can make me clean. And in spite of what you
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  Speaker 1: may have heard about faith and Christianity or faith in
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  Speaker 1: religion in the past, you need to know this. That
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  Speaker 1: kind of faith that this gentleman expressed is perfect faith.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect faith. Is this confident Jesus can hoping Jesus will,
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  Speaker 1: confident Jesus can hopeful that he will. He said, I
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  Speaker 1: believe you can cleanse me of my leprosy. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if you will. That's perfect faith. And Jesus' reaction
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  Speaker 1: to this man was shocking. In fact, it was so
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  Speaker 1: shocking that later on scribes would actually change a word
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  Speaker 1: in Mark's text to try to protect Jesus' reputation, because
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  Speaker 1: what Mark, what Peter told Mark? Mark's like, are you sure?
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  Speaker 1: Peter's like, yeah, I was there. The word he used
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  Speaker 1: was so shocking that later scribes tried to change it.
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  Speaker 1: But in our oldest manuscripts, our oldest Greek manuscripts, here's
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  Speaker 1: what Jesus said. In fact, in your English translation, you
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  Speaker 1: may have a translation that says this. The text says
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  Speaker 1: that Jesus was indignant that this man falls to his
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  Speaker 1: knees and begs and says, if you're willing, I know
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  Speaker 1: you can make me clean. And Jesus was indignant, but
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  Speaker 1: he was like, there was all this emotion, almost this anger,
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  Speaker 1: But he wasn't angry at the leper. He was angry
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  Speaker 1: at the situation, neither the disease. He was angry that
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  Speaker 1: the fact that neither the disease nor the social taboo
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  Speaker 1: associated with this disease should exist. This just shouldn't be.
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  Speaker 1: And the text says, and Peter says that Jesus reached
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  Speaker 1: out his hand and Peter's don't. I'm just reading Peter's
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  Speaker 1: mind for you within that context. And Peter was thinking, oh, no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: no no no, don't touch him. If you touch him, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: you become ceremonially unclean. In Jesus, if you become ceremonially uncleaned,
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  Speaker 1: you know what we have to do. We have to
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  Speaker 1: make a six or seven day journey all the way
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  Speaker 1: to the temple and get you all cleaned. Up before
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  Speaker 1: we can come back. So look, if you're gonna do
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  Speaker 1: something for this guy, just say something, but don't touch him.
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  Speaker 1: And he reached out his hand. Peter said, I'll never
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  Speaker 1: forget this, and he touched the man because this is
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  Speaker 1: so big. Because Jesus was not constrained by the purity laws.
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  Speaker 1: JJU Peter would never forget this. Jesus chose to meet
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  Speaker 1: needs while ignoring ritual and political correctness because in that culture, ritual, religious, political,
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  Speaker 1: it all blended together. And Jesus ignores political and ritual
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  Speaker 1: correctness and he touches this, which was dangerous, but I
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  Speaker 1: bet Peter smiled and he said to Mark, but it
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  Speaker 1: was so refreshing, and Jesus said to him, I am
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  Speaker 1: willing be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him and
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  Speaker 1: he was cleansed. And then Jesus send him away at
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  Speaker 1: once with a strong warning. There's a lot of emotion
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  Speaker 1: in this Greek term, a strong warning, see that you
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  Speaker 1: don't tell anyone about this. Don't tell anyone about this.
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  Speaker 1: And the leper went out and told everyone about this,
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  Speaker 1: every single one of them. Right, But that was later.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is but here's what I do want you to do.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to go. I want you to go.
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  Speaker 1: Now Here is the tension we find throughout Jesus ministry,
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  Speaker 1: and Peter's going to highlight this over and over, but
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  Speaker 1: he wants us to see it up front. Peter doesn't
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  Speaker 1: want us to miss this. He says, I want you
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  Speaker 1: to go, and I want you to show yourself to
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  Speaker 1: the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for
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  Speaker 1: your cleansing as a testimony to them. Because according to
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  Speaker 1: what we call the Old Testament, or the Jewish people
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  Speaker 1: would call the Law and the Prophets, Moses commanded that
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: if somebody who had leprosy wanted to reintroduced to society,
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  Speaker 1: they had to make this long trip if they lived
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  Speaker 1: in this area of the world, to Jerusalem to the
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  Speaker 1: Temple to find a priest. The priest would check them out,
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  Speaker 1: declare them cleansed and clean, and in some cases give
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  Speaker 1: them a bill of health to say, hey, you can
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  Speaker 1: take this back to your community. You have permission to
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  Speaker 1: re enter society. And they had to make a gratitude
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  Speaker 1: offering to God at the temple. But that same passage
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  Speaker 1: also says anyone who touches somebody who's unclean also has
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  Speaker 1: to make that journey and give a sin offering because
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  Speaker 1: they've been contaminated by something they should not have touched.
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  Speaker 1: So Jesus breaks with Moses because he doesn't go to
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  Speaker 1: the temple. He sends this other fellow to the temple.
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  Speaker 1: And Peter is like, We'll never forget this. It's like,
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  Speaker 1: wait a minute, you're telling him he has to keep
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the law of Moses. And yet according to the law
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: of Moses Leviticus five, you have touched something unclean. Jesus,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: we should go with him. And Jesus said, we're not
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: going because this. Don't miss this. This was a time
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: of transition. This was a time of transition. The Old
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: was slowly This is why reading the Gospels can be
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: so confusing. At times, things were slowly changing, The Old
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: was passing away. The Kingdom of God had come. Because
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the king had arrived. And when words spread about this healing,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: so many people showed up. That Jesus and his guys.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: At this point, it's just Peter, Andrew, James, and John,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the five of them. They couldn't even enter the towns
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: or the villages. And yet Peter says, I'll never forget
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: it everywhere we went, the people still came to us
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: from everywhere. And then Peter moves us along to the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: next part of the journey. He says, Jesus, eventually we
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: ran out of supplies. He didn't say that. I'm thinking
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: that's why they had to go to town. They just
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: ran out of groceries. And it's like, we got to
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: go to town. Yeah, but there's all those people. Yeah,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: but we can't starve. They eventually go back to the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: major city of Capernaum, probably for supplies, and people hear
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: that he's in town, and again they just begin to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: surround Jesus, and Jesus goes into a large home and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: he begins to teach the people in Capernaum. And Peter says,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: they gathered from all over the place in such large
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: numbers that there was no room left in the house
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: or even outside the door. And he preached the word
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to them. And what did he preach. Here's what he preached.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: The time has come. The time has come, my Jewish
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: brothers and sisters. This is what you've been waiting for.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: This is what your ancestors has been waiting for. The
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: time has come. The Kingdom of God has come. Near now.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Repent that is, face it and embrace it. Face it
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and embrace it. Embrace this new way of thinking, this
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: new way of living, this new way of prioritizing, this
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: new way of seeing yourself, of seeing God, your father,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: and seeing the people around you. And while he was
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: preaching and teaching in this house. You may remember this
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: story from childhood, if you grew up in church, some
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: men came. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: carried by the four of them. So they've got this coy.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: They got each one in each corner, and they're outside
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the crowd out, and everybody's going because they're trying to
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: listen through the walls and the doors to hear Jesus teach,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and they're thinking, what do we do? And you remember
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: what they did? They went home? No, remember what they did.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: This is like a famous story. Peter Peter was there
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: for this. Peter said, we couldn't believe it. Jesus teaching
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: and preaching, and teaching and preaching. You could hear a
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: pin drop, and then we heard something else drop. And
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: then we looked up and there was stuff dropping from
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the ceiling. And then there's all this noise and Jesus
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: finally had to stop because, since the text tells us,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Peter says, since they could not get him in to
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: see Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: in the roof above Jesus by digging through and then
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: lowered the mat the man was lying on. Now, I
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: really wish Peter had given us more detail, like number
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: one was the homeowner there? Okay, that's what I always
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: want to know. Okay, like get off my roof, bunch
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: of kid. You're throwing beer cans at him or something.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, this is like a mess. Okay,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: this was an expensive home. One of the gospel says
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: that there was tiles a tile roof. They're pulling off
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the tiles and digging through all the support for the tiles.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: So I'd like to know that. I want to know
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: how long it took him and was Jesus like getting
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: stuff in his and then there's these little rays of light.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: You know, you can just picture this took a while.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: But Peter doesn't give us the detail. Peter's like, I
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: don't want you to miss the point of the story.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: So they dig this hole, I mean, through the roof
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: it's a big hole, and they let this guy down.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Ceilings weren't so high, you know, in those days. And
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: he's laying there beside Jesus and you know, the suns
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: in everybody's eyes because they've been in this dark part
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: of his house. And Peter says, when Jesus saw their faith,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: this is so important. How do you see faith? When
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Jesus saw their faith, how do you see faith? It's
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the same thing that we saw at the leper. They
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: were confident Jesus can, they were confident Jesus can. They're
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: hoping Jesus will. They're confident Jesus can. They're hoping Jesus will.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: They're confident Jesus can. They're hoping Jesus will. That's the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: difference between faith and hope. Christian faith is confident God can,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: hoping that God will. And he's laying there and there's
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you know, you could hear a pin drop now, and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: there's guys looking down, you know, says, I'll never forget this.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: And he said to the paralyzed man, Peter's like, we're
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: ready for another healing, right. But Peter chose this account
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: because there's a twist. He said to the paralyzed man, child,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: your sins are forgiven. And the crowd groans because mere
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: mortals can't forgive sin. And the paralyzed man groans because
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: that's not exactly what he dropped in for, is it.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: He's looking at Jesus like, well, that's great, my sins
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: are forgiven. That's not really why we're here, right. The
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: implications of what Jesus said were not lost on his audience.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: This was stunning forgiveness. Wait. Wait, wait, you're announcing this
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: man's sins are forgiven and there's no sacrifice that's been made.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: You're announcing this man's sins are forgiven and there's no
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: priest involved. You're announcing this man's sins or forgiven and
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: there's no trip to the temple. You're announcing in fact,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Jesus, Okay, do you think you're greater
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: than the Temple? Do you think you can just walk
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: in here and replace hundreds of years of tradition? Do
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: you think it? Look, you know they didn't have apps
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: for anything, but we got a whole system for forgiveness.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, we got a way that you're forgiven. And
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: you think with just a word you can counter man.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: With just a word, you can contradict. With just a word,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: you can replace everything Moses put in place in terms
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: of how we know we have peace with God. And
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: we know that's what they were thinking because of what
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Peter tells us. Happen. Next, some of the men in
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: the room, religious leaders, teachers of the law, were sitting
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: there and they're thinking to themselves. They didn't say it
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: out loud, they're thinking to them, says, why does this
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: man talk like that. He's blaspheming. He's blaspheming. Who can
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: forgive sins? But God? I mean, they just they this
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: is they'd have no category for this. Peter had no
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: category for this. None of the guys had a category
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: for this. And then it's silent again. Peter's like, I'll
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: never forget. Jesus just looked right at him, and you said,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: why are you thinking these things? And Peter doesn't say this,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: so I'm filling in the gaps, but I bet I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: know it. Peter was thinking, then, note to self. He
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: can heal lepers, he can cast out demons, and he
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: can read minds. We need to be very careful around
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: this guy. Jesus smiles and he says which is easier
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to say, this is such a big deal, which is
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: easier to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: which he'd already said, Or get up and take your
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: matt and walk. This is not a trick question. This
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: isn't even a difficult question, but you guys have to
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: answer it. Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: which bothers you you feel like I'm blaspheming. Or is
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: it easier to say, pick up your mat and walk
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: out of this room, which is easier to say, Now,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: this is really important for what's going on here. It's
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: a little background in ancient times, in Pagan cultures and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: in Jewish cultures. In ancient times, there was an assumption
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: about a correlation between sickness and behavior, or sickness as
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the Jews would call it, and Christians would call it
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: sickness and sin, that if a person was sick or
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: sick a long time, or born blind, or born with
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: some kind of ailment, that clearly, in their way of thinking,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: someone had sin, that sin always results in sickness. Even
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: in pagan times, if you had an illness, or you
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: had a child that had a problem it's because you
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: had not pleased the gods, you had not offered enough
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: sacrifices to the God. So there was this correlation. And
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: many assumed that sickness was a direct consequence of personal sin,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: that there was a one to one correlation. In other words,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: something's wrong with you because you did something wrong. This
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: is the way they thought. Now Jesus, so you know,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: completely rejects that view. In fact, he addresses it in
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the Gospels. He addresses he said, no, I don't think
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: people are sick because somebody sinned or they sin. But
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: he held to the genesis view. This is so important.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: The genesis view was that on the heels of sin,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: sickness and death entered the human experience. That sin opened
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the door for sickness and death. So there is a relationship,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: but it's on a one to one correlation. This is
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: why sometimes that we could prosper, and sometimes why the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: righteous get sick and die. And it doesn't make any
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: sense to us, and we can't make you know, rhyme
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: or reason out of it. Because when sin entered the world,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: right on the tale of sin came sickness and death.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: And Jesus understands that which means what he says next,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the implications of what he says next. For Peter and
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: his guys, this was like a point of no return.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Here's what Jesus said, according to Peter, recorded by Mark.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: But I want you to know because he's asked this question.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven, or
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: you know, pick up your mat and walk. But I
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: want you to know with certainty that the son of Man,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: and this is a messianic term. Now he's adopted a
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: messianic term for himself, which is equally as offensive. But
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I want you to know the Son of Man has
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: authority on earth to forgive sins. But how could anyone
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: substantiate the claim to be able to forgive sin. There's
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: only one way, by physically reversing the consequence of sin,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: by putting sin back in the box. So he smiles,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I think, and he says to the man, I tell
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you get up and take your mat and go home.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: And again you could hear a bendrop, because if he
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: could reverse the consequences of sin with a word, then
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: perhaps he could forgive sin with a word as well.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: And sure enough the man picked up his mat and
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: he walked out in Peters's mark. Make sure you get
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: this right in full view of them all. This is
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Peter's way of saying, fact check me. I was not
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the only person who saw this with my own eyes.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: And the crowd's response, we have never we have never
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: seen anything like this. Now we'll get back to the
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: story in a minute, but I want to ask you
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a question. We talked about this about four or five
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: minutes ago. Do you ever wonder if God can or
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: would forgive you? And here's what I mean by that,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: do you think it's possible that God could be able
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to look at you if you believe in a personal God.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: By the way, Peter believed in a personal God. And
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: you may struggle with that idea, which I get a
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: personal God that knows your name and knows the details
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: of your life. That's hard to believe. Sometimes Peter would
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: say I'm in but he had a unique experience, right.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: But here's the question. Do you wonder sometime if God
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: really could or what I mean, he's you know, Jesus
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: died for all the sins of the mankind. Gay. I
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: got that. There's sort of this categorical you know, forgiveness,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: But do you ever wonder if God really could and
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: would forgive you? And I mean by that that when
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: God looks at you, if God looks at you, when
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: God hears your prayers. Is it possible that God could
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: look at you and not look at you through the
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: filter of what you've done or what you haven't done,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: or what you promised to do and didn't do, or
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: what you promised you never did and you did it
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: over and over and over. Is it possible that God
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: can actually forgive and remove your sin? This so it's
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: no longer in the equation. Is it possible that you
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: could have actual peace with God? Peter, who knew Jesus,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: would say yes. And why are you so sure? Peter
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: would say, because I heard it a thousand times. The
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: time has come. Once upon a time, we didn't know
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: if we could have peace with God. Once upon a time,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: we just kept killing animals over and over and over,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: and something in the back of our mind told us,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think this is how you have peace with God.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I think this is just how you kill animals. And
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I know we got to go through a routine and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: we feel better and we make our way to the temple.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: When we go to synagogue and kind of do our thing.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: But could this really have anything to do with changing
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the way that God sees us? And Jesus says, the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: time has come for you to be able to know
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent, That is,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: turn in my direction and accept what I say about you,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: and accept what I say about your sin. Repent and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: believe this good news. For some of you, the best
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: news you could possibly get from here to hear is
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: that Jesus, because of his love for you, and because
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: of the Father's love for you, has forgiven and erased
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: your sin. And when he sees you, he doesn't see that.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: And you may struggle for the rest of your life
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: forgiving yourself. That's a whole nother thing. But the first
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: step to forgiving yourself is to recognize and accept the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: fact that your heavenly Father no longer holds your sin
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: against you. And at some point you'll come to the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: point where you realize, you know what, If God, who
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: created me doesn't hold my sin against me, who am
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I to hold my sin against my self? With this account,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Peter does something else. He sets up the ongoing conflict
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: that we're going to see between Jesus and religious leaders.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: When he claimed to be able to forgive sin, and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: when he basically replaced the entire temple institution, this made
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: him an enemy, and word would reach Jerusalem in no time.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: And in a further episode of a future episode, we're
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: gonna find some of the leaders from Jerusalem making their
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: way to Galilee to hear what in the world is
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: this guy teaching? But that's later. Now Peter rushes us
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to this third narrative. They're up in the area of Capernaum.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: There's all these little fishing villages along here. One of
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the fishing villages is where Peter, Andrew, James and John
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: are from. But this is where they have to go,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: you know, to Costco and the grocery store in the
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: drug store. Okay, that's kind of the big city, but
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: it wasn't even that large of a city. So in
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: this next incident, they're actually within walking distance from their
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: own home, and they're walking along the lake where they
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: have fish for years. And these are small villages. Everybody
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: knows everybody, and everybody knows everybody's business, and nobody travels
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: more than maybe twenty five miles from home. And that's
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: on occasion when they go to Jerusalem, or go maybe
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: to the sea, to the Mediterranean Sea if they're fishermen
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and they decide to do something different. But most people
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: never travel more in about twenty to twenty five miles
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: from home. These are his people, and he says, what
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: happened next? I'm sure just Peter just looked up with
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Mark and said, I know, Mark, You've heard me teach
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: this so many times. But this, oh my goodness. We
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: were walking along the edge of the sea and we
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: saw we walked up on Levi, the son of Alpheus.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Now let me stop and say something really interesting about this.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: How in the world with Mark know the father the
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: name of Levi's father, Levi, the son of Alpheus. I mean, Mark,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: it's like Greek, they're in Rome. How would he know
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: that because Peter told him? And how would Peter know? Well,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: this is my community, these are my people. Everybody knows everybody.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: And by the way, the name Levi is one of
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the most popular names in first and second and third
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: century Judaism, in fact, even going back earlier than that.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: So you can't just say Levi because it's like which Levi?
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, levis son of Alpheus. Go ahead and put
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: that in there, mark, because after all, when my people
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: read this, they're gonna know exactly who I'm talking about,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: because these things really happen. These are actual people with
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: actual relationships. He saw Levis, son of Alpheus, sit at
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the tax collector's booth. The tax collector was a customs
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: officer up there in this major city on the lake.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: And as you know if you grew up in church,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: these folks were basically crooks. They worked for the government
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: and they could collect really as much tax as they
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: could get, and as long as the government, the local
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: government in this case, could got their share, it didn't
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: really matter. There was no fixed amount, and there was
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: really no way to keep up with what they did
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: or what they kept for themselves. So consequently, any Jewish
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: man who dropped into this role in life was despised
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: by his fellow by the people in the community, and
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: despised even in some cases by their own family. And
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: to make it worse, Levi in this case is working
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: for a very unpopular governor. The governor was herod Antipus.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Herod Antipus just recently had had John the Baptist executed,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and people loved John the Baptist. He was like a folk,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: he wrote to the people. So they hate the governor,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and they hate anybody that works for the governor, and
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: they certainly hate a Jewish man that's working for the governor.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: That everybody hates. So Levi is not in a good
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: standing with his community, and Peter knows him. In fact,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: it's very likely that Peter had haggled with Levi over customs,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: dues and over transit fees before in the past, because
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: it's a small community. And now Peter is no longer
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: just a fisherman. Peter is a disciple of a very
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: popular rabbi. And remember, the whole region, the whole region
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: now has heard of Jesus and knows what he's up to.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: And Peter is one of his guys. Peter Andrew, James
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and John and they're walking by and they see Levi.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: We know him as Matthew, and Jesus stops and stares,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and Peter thinks, yeah, I know, really, really, it's just disgusting,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: it's embarrassing. I know his dad is not such a
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: great guy, but we don't know what happened to Levi,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: you know. And to finish out this trilogy of disruption.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Peter said, we couldn't believe it. Jesus walks over to
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: him and says, follow me to which filling in a
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: few gaps. I think Peter would say, wait before you answer, Jesus,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: come listen. We really got to talk about this. Okay, Look, okay,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: you know the paralyzed guy that you heal. Okay, remember
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: you said your sins are forgiven. Okay, no offense to
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: paralyzed people. But how much sin can a paralyzed man commit?
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's just be honest, okay, and you forgave
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: him of his sin, but we don't even know what
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: he done. Everybody knows what Levi's done. He does it
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: every single day in public. Okay, remember you touched the
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: leper fine touching the leper good that we gave us.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: We all cringed, you know, but we got through that
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: rubbing shoulders with a tax collector. I'm telling you this
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: will cause irreversible damage to your reputation and irreversible damage
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: to our movement. This is gonna offend the patriotic sensibilities
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: of the working class, and it's gonna offend the religious
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: sensibilities of the religious class. Jesus I know you're Jesus,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: but this is a lose lose if he follows us. Okay, besides,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: all right, besides, we already have like the perfect small group. Okay, Jesus,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: everybody in our little small group is just like me,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and they like me, and you know what, and I
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: like all of them, but nobody likes Levi, So why
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: would we invite him into our group? And then maybe
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: he thought this, I'm making all this part up. Maybe
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: he thought, wait a minute, this is probably just a
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: trick or a trap, or this is just a test,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: because there's no way he's gonna leave this job to
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: come follow us. I mean, he's making bank. I mean
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: he's like, I mean, he's already ruined his reputation. What
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: does he have to lose by staying here? He's not
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: gonna follow us. I bet this is some kind of test.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: And then do our utter amazement and disgusted, LEVI got
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: right up and followed him. It's interesting. I don't know
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: if this it's significant. I think it is that in
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the rest of the Gospel of Mark Peter's account of
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: the life of Jesus, he doesn't record anybody else being
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: singlely called to be a disciple or of an apostle.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: The only ones he's called by name are Peter, Andrew,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: James and John and Levi. In terms of the story,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I don't think he wants us to miss the contrast.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: And the contrast is this, And maybe for some of you,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: this is why you're here. Maybe this is why you're
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: watching or listening today. The Kingdom of God had come
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: near and everybody, everybody had been invited to participate in it,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: even folks like Levi who had betrayed their people out
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: of greed, and Peter will confess later. And yeah, even
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: people like me, Peter, who betrayed his savior out of fear,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: and even people like me, people like me, I'm the
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: preacher's kid. You know what that means. Before I committed sins,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I had already memorized the verses about those sins. I mean,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I knew and know the Bible backwards and forwards. If
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: anybody is without excuse, you were looking at the guy
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: who is without excuse. And the fact that I would sin,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: the fact that I would betray, the fact that I
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: would lie, the fact that I would walk away, the
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: fact that I would know better and then do it
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: anyway the fact that I wouldn't do what I knew,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: the fact that I would sin. I'm telling you, I
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: am without excuse. So Peter, Andrew, James and John and
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Levi and me and people like you, people like you,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: people like you, people like you, people like you who
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: dot dot You know your story, don't you? And Peter
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: stood there that day, and Andrew and James and John
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and they just don't have a cat goory, For this
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: is everybody invited to participate in this brand new kingdom,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: with this brand new king so unsettling, so new, This
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: new way, this Jesus way, would continue to collide with
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Peter's way. But as we're going to see throughout this story,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Peter's way was passing away. Why because the time has come,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the time has come the Kingdom of God, a new
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: way of viewing ourselves and viewing the world is near.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: And this new way would continue to collide with Peter's way,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Peter's fear, Peter's insecurity, and Peter's prejudice, And it continues
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: to collide with my fear, and my insecurity and my prejudice.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: And when you decide to follow Jesus, it will collide
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: with your fear and your insecurity and your prejudice. But
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: it is the better way, It is the way forward.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: So Peter, Andrew, James and John have a decision to make.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Do we walk away, save our reputation, let them start
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: a new group, there goes Jesus and LEVI see y'all.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Or do we repent and believe this good news, this
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: good news that God accepts sinners and invites them into
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: his brand new kind of kingdom. And what happened next? Who?
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: What happens next? Peter must have laughed and laughed and laughed,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: and Mark already knew this story, but he's just getting
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: it down. They must have laughed together when they thought
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: about what happened next. And we're gonna pick up what
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: happened next next week and part three of Your Not
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Far so don't miss it, assass