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Andy Stanley - Christmas Its All Good Part 1 Better than True · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: You know, for a lot of people, resistance to Christianity
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Speaker 1: revolves around this question is it true? Is it true?
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Speaker 1: And maybe that's you. And if you don't believe the
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Speaker 1: story of Jesus and the story of Christianity is true,
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Speaker 1: you have good reason not to believe. And the reason
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Speaker 1: I say that is because you're a smart person. And
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Speaker 1: if you don't believe, you have reasons that you don't believe.
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Speaker 1: And so for a lot of people, this is kind
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Speaker 1: of the question they wrestle with is it even true?
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Speaker 1: I mean, did Jesus even exist? Or did he do
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Speaker 1: all those things? And I really love talking about this,
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Speaker 1: And if you've attended for very long or watch for
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Speaker 1: very long, you know this is one of my favorite
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Speaker 1: things to talk about, especially this word, the it part
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Speaker 1: is it true? Because the question that you have to
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Speaker 1: wrestle to the ground is what is the it? What
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Speaker 1: is the it that you think you have to embrace
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Speaker 1: in order to be a Christian? And for many people,
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Speaker 1: the it is the Bible. And that's unfortunate because there
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Speaker 1: were tens of thousands of Christians before there was the
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Speaker 1: b I B L E. Right, I mean, there were
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Speaker 1: tens of thousands of Christians before there was a Bible.
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Speaker 1: So the it that you should wrestle with is not
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Speaker 1: is the Bible true. It's a different it. So I
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Speaker 1: hope that's not your it because just so you know,
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Speaker 1: and they've got to move on the Bible. And this
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Speaker 1: is a big deal, okay, especially if you walked away
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Speaker 1: from faith. The Bible did not create Christianity. The Bible
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Speaker 1: did not create Christianity. It's the other way around. But
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Speaker 1: that's a subject for another day. More and more in
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Speaker 1: our culture, the question isn't so much is it true,
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Speaker 1: but this question is it good? Even if it's true?
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Speaker 1: Is it good? Even if it's partially true? Is it good?
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Speaker 1: It's Christianity good for society? Is Christianity good for humanity?
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Speaker 1: Is Christianity good for children? Is Christianity good for you?
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Speaker 1: Is it good for me? Is it dangerous? Is it harmful?
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Speaker 1: Should we do dispense with all religion? Because all religion
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Speaker 1: is harmful, including the message of Jesus and including the
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Speaker 1: message of Christianity. Now, to kind of get us focused
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Speaker 1: on where we're going, this is true. When we hear
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Speaker 1: news that's not good. When you hear news that's not good,
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Speaker 1: don't you hope it's not true. I mean, this is
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Speaker 1: just human nature. When you hear something that's not true,
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Speaker 1: you hope it's not I mean, you hear something that's
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Speaker 1: not good, you hope it's not true. So when you,
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Speaker 1: you know, you find out that Netflix is doubling their
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Speaker 1: monthly subscription rate, it's life here. That is, like, I
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Speaker 1: hope that's not true. Then you're gonna find out if
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Speaker 1: it's true or if you If we hear that Amazon
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Speaker 1: is gonna go back to just selling books, which means
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Speaker 1: we have to go back to the mall, Okay, so
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Speaker 1: that's bad. That's you know, you hear Amazon's going to
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Speaker 1: they're just gonna sell books. That's not good news for
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Speaker 1: most of us. Unless you have a retail story, then
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Speaker 1: it's like the best news ever. Right, But for most
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Speaker 1: of us, that's not good news, So we hope it's
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Speaker 1: not true. So when you hear news that's not good news,
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Speaker 1: you hope it's not true. But the opposite is true
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Speaker 1: as well. Right, when you hear good news, you hope
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Speaker 1: it's true. Right, when you hear good news, you hope
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Speaker 1: it's true. I mean, imagine this, what if we found
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Speaker 1: out process sugar extends life expectancy. I mean, is this
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Speaker 1: not like the best news ever that we can go
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Speaker 1: back to sugar frosted flakes and I can eat those
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Speaker 1: again and we put the word sugar back on the
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Speaker 1: cereal boxes. I mean, if I made this up, but
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Speaker 1: I think this might be the best clickbait ever in
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Speaker 1: the history of clickbait, because you would click that, right,
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Speaker 1: I would click that, you know, process sug extents likes
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Speaker 1: it expectedly, and when you saw that most of us,
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Speaker 1: not all of us, but most of us, most all
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Speaker 1: of us, if we were honest, right, that would be
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Speaker 1: good news. It's like what you mean, I can eat
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Speaker 1: whatever I want, So you would hope it's true. Now,
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Speaker 1: it wouldn't necessarily be true, and the fact that you
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Speaker 1: hope it's true doesn't make it true. And to be clear,
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Speaker 1: the fact that it's good news doesn't make it true.
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Speaker 1: My point is simply this, when you hear something that's good,
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Speaker 1: or you hear about something that's good, you hope it's true.
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Speaker 1: You lean in. That's human nature. So when the announcement
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Speaker 1: of Jesus' birth was the first you know, announce or
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Speaker 1: when the announcement that Jesus was being born was first announced.
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Speaker 1: It was actually described on day one. This is so interesting.
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Speaker 1: It was described on day one as good news of
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Speaker 1: great joy. And then here's the surprise. Here's the part
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Speaker 1: that I don't think anybody would have made up because
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Speaker 1: the world was too divided, especially in Judea and Galilee
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Speaker 1: and that particular part of the world. But the angel
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Speaker 1: announced that there would be something. It was good news
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Speaker 1: of great joy. And then here's the kicker, here's the
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Speaker 1: surprise for all people that the message of Jesus, and
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Speaker 1: they didn't know what the message was yet would be
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Speaker 1: good news. It would spark joy for all people, the Jews,
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Speaker 1: the Gentiles, the Romans, the Samaritans, the Sumerians, that anybody
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Speaker 1: who'd ever lived and would ever live, that this message
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Speaker 1: was so good it would be good news of great
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Speaker 1: joy for all people. So here's the question, is it
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Speaker 1: was it? And if so, why they're resistance Because back
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Speaker 1: to what I said originally, when you hear good news,
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Speaker 1: you hope it's true. You may find no doubt it's
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Speaker 1: not true, but you hope it's true. When you hear
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Speaker 1: good news, you lean in. And if people lean into
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Speaker 1: good news, why isn't everybody in the world. Why isn't
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Speaker 1: everybody in our community, Why isn't everybody in our nation
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Speaker 1: leaning in hoping it's true, even if they decide at
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Speaker 1: the end of the day it's not true. In fact,
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Speaker 1: the original version, the original version, was not called the Bible.
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Speaker 1: The original version of the Good News was actually called
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Speaker 1: the Gospel. The Gospel comes from two Old English words
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Speaker 1: that mean that. The word is godspel some of you
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Speaker 1: know about this godspell means good story. That when they decided,
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Speaker 1: what do we call this? We call it good news?
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Speaker 1: What else do we call it? We call it the Gospel,
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Speaker 1: you know, a good story. And then in their Greek
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Speaker 1: New Testaments it's you on Gellion is the Greek word,
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Speaker 1: and it's translated in our English Bible good news. So
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Speaker 1: from the very beginning, and don't don't miss this, even
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Speaker 1: if you've walked away, you're thinking about walking away, or
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Speaker 1: you're reaching for the door knob. This is amazing. In
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Speaker 1: the first century, at the epicenter of the action, at
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Speaker 1: the epicenter of the activity, when this whole idea first
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Speaker 1: touched down on planet Earth that intersected with human beings,
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Speaker 1: it was considered such good news for all people. They
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Speaker 1: named it good news. You know, it's not very original,
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Speaker 1: it's not very originals. The best we can come up with,
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Speaker 1: and it's the best descriptor. This is good news of
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Speaker 1: great joy for all people. In the message of Jesus
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Speaker 1: and the teaching of Jesus and the claims of Jesus
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Speaker 1: caught on sandwich between the Roman Empire and the Temple.
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Speaker 1: It caught on anyway. And here's why. Because when you
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Speaker 1: hear something you consider good news, you lean in before
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Speaker 1: you know it's true or before you determine its faults.
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Speaker 1: But initially you lean in, and people leaned in. And
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Speaker 1: one of the things, in fact, maybe the thing that
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Speaker 1: breaks my heart more than anything about this generation is
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Speaker 1: that so many people are leaning away from the message
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Speaker 1: of Christianity because somehow they've come to the conclusion it's
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Speaker 1: not good news. And it's not their fault. In fact,
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Speaker 1: if you're one of those people, it is not your
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Speaker 1: fault because you bumped into, ran into, did business with,
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Speaker 1: went to school with, were raised by some people who
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Speaker 1: carried a version of the faith, a version of Christianity,
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Speaker 1: a version of the message of Jesus, and you determined
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Speaker 1: somewhere along the way this is not good news. I
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Speaker 1: don't even care if it's true. This is not good news.
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Speaker 1: I don't want to live my life this way. But
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Speaker 1: you should know, because you have to decide for yourself.
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Speaker 1: The original news, the initial news, it was so good
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Speaker 1: that it was compelling. In fact, Luke who recorded the
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Speaker 1: message in that The Life of Jesus, we're gonna talk
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Speaker 1: about Luke in just a minute. Luke records Jesus saying
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Speaker 1: something so interesting. I've shared this with you before, but
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Speaker 1: it's become one of my favorite things that Jesus said.
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Speaker 1: Here here's what Jesus said. He said, the law and
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Speaker 1: the prophets, the law and the prophets, and that's what
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Speaker 1: we call the Old Testament, the Law and the prophet
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Speaker 1: It's in the first century that didn't call the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament because it wasn't old anything. It was the Hebrew Bible,
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Speaker 1: it was the Jewish text, it was their sacred scripture.
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Speaker 1: But they called it the Law and the prophets. Jesus said,
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Speaker 1: the law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. Speaking
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Speaker 1: of John the Baptists, he says, the law and the
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Speaker 1: prophets were proclaimed until John, but the law and the
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Speaker 1: prophets were not good news of great joy for all people.
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Speaker 1: The Law and the Prophets, or our Old Testament, was
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Speaker 1: good news for the ancient Hebrew people who had just
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Speaker 1: come out of slavery, and they needed a moral and
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Speaker 1: civil and judicial and ceremonial law to live by. They
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Speaker 1: needed something that helped them understand who Yahweh was. And
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Speaker 1: the Law and the Prophets was great news of great
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Speaker 1: joy for the ancient Hebrew people, but it was not
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Speaker 1: good news of great joy for the entire world. So
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Speaker 1: with the coming of Jesus, there's this amazing transition, And unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: part of the reasons sometimes the good news doesn't sound
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Speaker 1: like such good news is that we mix the old
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Speaker 1: and the new and appropriately. So listen to what Jesus said.
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Speaker 1: He said, the Law and the Prophets have been proclaimed
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Speaker 1: up until the time of John the Baptist, when Jesus
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Speaker 1: stepped onto the pages of history as a grown up.
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Speaker 1: He said, But since that time, in other words, since
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Speaker 1: the time that I have stepped into this world and
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Speaker 1: have begun to teach the good news of the Kingdom
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Speaker 1: of God, the good news of the universal Kingdom of God,
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Speaker 1: the values of the Kingdom of God. What God is
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Speaker 1: truly like, how God truly loves, how God views mankind,
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Speaker 1: how God wants to be viewed by mankind, how God
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Speaker 1: wants the human race to treat each other. These brand
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Speaker 1: new values, this brand new world system, the Kingdom of
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Speaker 1: God is being preached, and everyone is leaning toward, leaning into,
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Speaker 1: fighting to get him, forcing their way into. His point
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Speaker 1: was simply this that when people understand what I'm saying,
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Speaker 1: he would say, when people understand what God is offering,
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Speaker 1: they may not be convinced it's true. But when they
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Speaker 1: hear the ma message, the way the message should should
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Speaker 1: be preached, when they understand what I've come to offer,
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Speaker 1: when they understand what God is like, when they understand
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Speaker 1: that I am as close to understanding what God is
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Speaker 1: like as they'll ever get close to you, that I'm
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Speaker 1: the perfect, the most perfect possible picture of God. When
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Speaker 1: people understand this, they are going to lean in. They're
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Speaker 1: going to want it to be true. So if the
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Speaker 1: life and the teaching and the message of Jesus doesn't
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Speaker 1: strike you as good news, perhaps it's because the version
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Speaker 1: you grew up with, the version you walked away from,
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Speaker 1: the version you're thinking about walking away from, wasn't the
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Speaker 1: original version. It wasn't the good news. It wasn't the
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Speaker 1: good news version, because the original version was compelling, the
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Speaker 1: original version was worth telling, and so it was told.
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Speaker 1: Now this is amazing. And again we don't think these
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Speaker 1: terms because sometimes the way the Bible's presented to us,
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Speaker 1: or the way we were brought up with the Bible.
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Speaker 1: But this is amazing. In the first century, very few
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Speaker 1: people had their stories told. In the first century, second century,
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Speaker 1: third century. In previous centuries, very few people had their
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Speaker 1: stories documented because most people couldn't read, and writing was
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Speaker 1: expensive and writing utensils were expensive. The only way you
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Speaker 1: got your story told was you had to be wealthy
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Speaker 1: and you had to hire a scribe to record the
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Speaker 1: events of your life. So consequently, in ancient times, the
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Speaker 1: only stories of people we know are famous, rich people,
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Speaker 1: because they paid to have somebody write their story, and
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Speaker 1: then they would edit it and made sure it made
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Speaker 1: them look good. So the fact this is amazing. The
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Speaker 1: fact that we have an account, one account of the
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Speaker 1: life of Jesus is amazing because he was a nobody.
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Speaker 1: He was a day laborer from Galilee, and when his
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Speaker 1: story was written, he was gone. He wasn't around to
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Speaker 1: pay someone to write his story and Luke at the
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Speaker 1: very beginning of his account of the life of Jesus
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Speaker 1: Matthew Mark Luke, the third gospel writer. With the very
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Speaker 1: first word, he says something that is so historically significant,
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Speaker 1: so easily overlooked. In the very first word of his gospel,
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Speaker 1: he says something that should stop everybody in their tracks.
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Speaker 1: And here's what he says. He says, many many. This
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Speaker 1: is the very first word in the Gospel of Luke. Many. Now,
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Speaker 1: quick question, don't answer out loud. How many is many?
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Speaker 1: The answer is, it depends on what you're counting. Right.
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Speaker 1: If children, you know that's one thing. Stars in the sky,
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Speaker 1: that's something else. Right, baseball collection, that's something else. But
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Speaker 1: how many is many? But no matter what, you're counting
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Speaker 1: for the most part, and listen, it's to your children.
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Speaker 1: For is it really many? It's forty many? I don't know.
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Speaker 1: But listen to what Luke says. From the first century.
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Speaker 1: He says, many many have undertaken to draw up an
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Speaker 1: account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.
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Speaker 1: This is astounding. Luke says, Look, I'm about to give
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Speaker 1: you an account of the life of Jesus. But you
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Speaker 1: need to know. My account is not the only one,
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Speaker 1: and neither is Mark, and neither is John's, and neither
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Speaker 1: is Matthew. We're not the only four. Many people have
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Speaker 1: endeavored to draw up an account of the things that
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Speaker 1: have happened or been fulfilled among us. Now, quick question.
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Speaker 1: I'm not trying to make you feel bad about yourself.
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Speaker 1: We live in modern times. Everybody can write a novel,
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Speaker 1: everybody can write a story. It is cheap to write.
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Speaker 1: We don't even write, right, I mean creating a novel
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Speaker 1: or a story or recording somebody's life. It is so easy.
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Speaker 1: It is so expensive, inexpensive. But let me ask you this,
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Speaker 1: how many are do you know? How many? Do you
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Speaker 1: know how many people will undertake to draw up an
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Speaker 1: account of your life? I do not not many? Okay,
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Speaker 1: And it's cheap. It'd be so easy to drop an
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Speaker 1: account of your life. And you're wonderful people, and I'm
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Speaker 1: a wonderful people. But there are gonna be a whole
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Speaker 1: bunch of people trying to make sure they get all
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Speaker 1: the details of our life right. So this is the
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Speaker 1: question to wrestle to the ground. This is where faith begins.
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Speaker 1: This is the thing that maybe that's easy to overlook.
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Speaker 1: Why why so many Why did so many people try
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Speaker 1: to document the life of a dead man? Why did
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Speaker 1: they try to docum? Why did they spend so much
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Speaker 1: time and energy and money documenting the life of somebody
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Speaker 1: that had come and gone, who was a nobody from nowhere,
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Speaker 1: who traveled maybe twenty five thirty miles from home, didn't
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Speaker 1: write anything. It was only in the public eye for
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Speaker 1: three or maybe four years. And the answer is this,
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Speaker 1: because in the first century in the land of Judea,
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Speaker 1: something significant happened. And the reason it was documented by
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Speaker 1: so many is because something good happened. I don't know
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Speaker 1: what your version of Christianity is, but the original version
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Speaker 1: it was good. It was all good. It was so
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Speaker 1: good that people wanted it to be true before they
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Speaker 1: were convinced it's true. Here's what Luke goes on to say.
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Speaker 1: He says, you know, I, like so many people, have
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Speaker 1: dog attempted to write down these events that have taken
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Speaker 1: place or been fulfilled among us, just as they were
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Speaker 1: handed down to us by those who from the first
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Speaker 1: were eyewitnessed. This says, now the account I'm about to
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Speaker 1: give you these are eyewitness accounts. This isn't me just
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Speaker 1: trying to cobble together some stories I've heard, and these
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Speaker 1: were eyewitnesses, and they were servants of Jesus. With this
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Speaker 1: in mind, this is the introduction to his gospel. With
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Speaker 1: this in mind, I myself have carefully investigated. In other words,
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Speaker 1: I'm not just doing this for memory. I'm talking to
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Speaker 1: everybody I can talk to who was an eyewitness or
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Speaker 1: a friend of an eyewitness, who was there, who knew
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Speaker 1: somebody who was there. I have carefully investigated everything from
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Speaker 1: the beginning, the beginning and meaning the beginning of jesus life.
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Speaker 1: Then he says this. Luke says, an I too, Why
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Speaker 1: I too? Because I'm not the only one, He says,
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Speaker 1: to understand, I'm not the only one who tried to
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Speaker 1: do this. I too, decided, in addition to all these
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Speaker 1: other people, to write an orderly account for you most
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Speaker 1: excellent Theophilists. And we don't know who Theopholis was, but
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Speaker 1: our best guest is that he was a wealthy, curious Christian,
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Speaker 1: and that he had heard these teachings of Jesus, he
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Speaker 1: had become a Jesus follower. He knew somebody who had
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Speaker 1: seen the resurrected Jesus. Perhaps so he was all in,
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Speaker 1: but he wanted to understand the story, and he wanted
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Speaker 1: to know the story from the beginning all the way
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Speaker 1: up to the end. And so he said to Luke, Luke,
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Speaker 1: would you spend your time and you use your skills
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Speaker 1: to investigate and put together an orderly account. But listen
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Speaker 1: to what Luke says next to Theophilis. He says, the
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Speaker 1: reason I'm doing this for you, and the reason he
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Speaker 1: did this for you for me, was so that this
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Speaker 1: is wonderful, so that you may know the certainty, so
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Speaker 1: that you would be soon to cure in your knowledge
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Speaker 1: of the things that you have been taught. You have
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Speaker 1: been taught the life and the message of Jesus. But
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Speaker 1: I want you to have confidence in what you've been taught.
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Speaker 1: So I'm gonna put together an orderly account for you.
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Speaker 1: Little did he know? This is amazing. Little did he know.
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Speaker 1: Little did Luke know that his account that he was
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Speaker 1: writing for a single individual would be one of the
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Speaker 1: four accounts of the life of Jesus that would survive antiquity.
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Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing? Many? Many many? Why was this story
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Speaker 1: worth telling? This story was worth telling because it was
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Speaker 1: good because people leaned in. Now. The angels were the
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Speaker 1: first ones to announce that it was good. But it
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Speaker 1: wasn't until Jesus stepped onto the banks of the Jordan
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Speaker 1: River as a full grown adult that the message became
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Speaker 1: good for the people who knew Jesus. That's when people
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Speaker 1: experience the goodness of this message for the very first time.
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Speaker 1: And how good was this message? It was real good.
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Speaker 1: It was so good that forgiveness and perhaps this is
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Speaker 1: what first intersects with most of our lives. If you're
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Speaker 1: a Jesus follower, that forgiveness of sin would be announced
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Speaker 1: ahead of time, that you could ask God for forgiveness
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Speaker 1: and be forgiven. You didn't have to sacrifice any more animals,
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Speaker 1: and you didn't have to work for it, and you
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Speaker 1: didn't have to work through it. And not only was
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Speaker 1: this good news, this was brand new news. This was
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Speaker 1: disturbing news. This made the entire temple system and Jerusalem antiquated.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly there was no need for the things that they'd
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Speaker 1: given their lives to and built their entire lives around.
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Speaker 1: In fact, it's Luke that tells us the story that
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Speaker 1: perhaps you heard if you grew up in church that
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Speaker 1: Jesus is teaching one day and he's in a wealthy
18:42
Speaker 1: person's house. It's a big home. In the living room
18:45
Speaker 1: or where are the biggest room in that house was
18:47
Speaker 1: full of people, and there were people in the next rooms,
18:49
Speaker 1: and there were people in the windows, and there were
18:51
Speaker 1: people outside straining to hear. Because wherever Jesus went and
18:54
Speaker 1: wherever Jesus taught, crowds or crowds. In almost every chapter
18:58
Speaker 1: in the Book of Mark, there are crowds everywhere Jesus
19:00
Speaker 1: goes because his teaching was so unique and it was
19:03
Speaker 1: so new, and people wanted to believe that he was
19:06
Speaker 1: who he claimed to be, and people wanted to believe
19:09
Speaker 1: that God was the way that Jesus presented God to be.
19:12
Speaker 1: And while he's teaching, they hear a noise on the roof,
19:15
Speaker 1: remember this story, And they look up, and then he
19:17
Speaker 1: keeps teaching, and there's more noise and more noise, and
19:19
Speaker 1: then there's mortar falling down, and then suddenly there's a
19:21
Speaker 1: ray of light that pierces the dark room where he's teaching,
19:24
Speaker 1: and then another ray of light and another ray of light,
19:26
Speaker 1: and they look up and there's a face and Jesus
19:29
Speaker 1: looks up and he says, do ye not know that
19:31
Speaker 1: we have an eleven o'clock service, you know, come back
19:33
Speaker 1: in an hour, you know. No, there's a face, and
19:37
Speaker 1: suddenly there's more than one person up there, and they're
19:39
Speaker 1: taking the tiles off the roof of the house. I mean,
19:42
Speaker 1: And of course the homeowner is like, good grief, I
19:44
Speaker 1: knew I shouldn't have hosted this party. I mean, they're
19:46
Speaker 1: tearing my house up right. And the next thing, you know,
19:49
Speaker 1: it's dark again, and they look up and it looks
19:51
Speaker 1: like they have some sort of hammock and they're lowering
19:54
Speaker 1: a hammock down and it's not lunch. They gets to
19:56
Speaker 1: the floor and they make space, and there's a guy
19:58
Speaker 1: laying there story and it's quiet. And in this crowd
20:04
Speaker 1: in the living room are some Pharisees and some teachers
20:06
Speaker 1: of the law that have come from Jerusalem because they're
20:09
Speaker 1: shadowing Jesus to listen to what this strange rabbi has
20:12
Speaker 1: to say, because he's teaching things no one has ever
20:14
Speaker 1: taught before, and he's making promises about God that are
20:18
Speaker 1: in conflict with the way that they viewed God and
20:20
Speaker 1: the way they had taught that God really was. In fact,
20:23
Speaker 1: one of the reasons you walked away from faith is
20:26
Speaker 1: because somebody presented a God to you that's very different
20:28
Speaker 1: than the God that Jesus presented to his first century followers.
20:32
Speaker 1: And Jesus looks down at this man and he smiles,
20:35
Speaker 1: and then he says the strangest thing. He says, sir,
20:40
Speaker 1: your sins are forgiven, to which the guide looked up
20:45
Speaker 1: at Jesus and thought, that's not why I'm here, sir,
20:52
Speaker 1: your sins are forgiven. He hadn't even asked. And the
20:57
Speaker 1: Pharisees and the teachers of the law, I mean, they
21:00
Speaker 1: go Vissergis like, wait, wait, wait, okay, you can teach
21:02
Speaker 1: fun stories and cool parables that none of us really understand.
21:05
Speaker 1: I mean, that's fine, and blessed are all these people.
21:07
Speaker 1: That's great, But you can't forgive sin. Only God has
21:12
Speaker 1: the power to forgive sin. Only God can forgive sin,
21:15
Speaker 1: to which Jesus says, that's true. But who can heal
21:18
Speaker 1: a paralyzed man other than God? And then Jesus says
21:22
Speaker 1: this to you, and he says this to me, and
21:23
Speaker 1: he says this to his audience, and Luke records this
21:26
Speaker 1: for all generations he said, but I want you to know.
21:31
Speaker 1: I want you to know that the son of Man
21:34
Speaker 1: has authority on earth to forgive sin, to which the
21:41
Speaker 1: pharisees and the teachers of the law responded, But we
21:43
Speaker 1: have a whole system for that. We have an entire
21:46
Speaker 1: temple built for that, we have a ceremonial law for that.
21:49
Speaker 1: We have a sophisticated system that people have to work
21:52
Speaker 1: through in order to get forgiveness. You can't just announce
21:55
Speaker 1: that someone is forgiven. But he did. And to punctuate
22:01
Speaker 1: his authority, he said to the young man, pick up
22:04
Speaker 1: your mat and walk. And people were in awe. This
22:12
Speaker 1: was good news. This was new news, and this is
22:17
Speaker 1: good news for you, and this is good news for me. See,
22:21
Speaker 1: when it comes to sin, you know, I have a
22:23
Speaker 1: friend who says, you know, he says he doesn't do
22:25
Speaker 1: guilt and he doesn't do shame, and he doesn't do sin.
22:27
Speaker 1: I'll tell you a little bit about him next week.
22:28
Speaker 1: Don't miss next week. He just I don't I don't
22:30
Speaker 1: do guilt, I don't do sin. I don't I don't
22:31
Speaker 1: do that, to which confirms to me that he's a
22:34
Speaker 1: guilty sinner. But anyway, that's just what And I understand,
22:37
Speaker 1: I know what he's saying, and maybe you've said the
22:39
Speaker 1: same thing. And I'm really not being critical. I'm not
22:41
Speaker 1: even trying to be sarcastic. It's just that there's a
22:43
Speaker 1: mentality that's like, I just reject those categories. I just
22:47
Speaker 1: reject those categories. And I understand that. But the reason
22:50
Speaker 1: you reject those categories is perhaps because you've never understood
22:53
Speaker 1: what Jesus said sin is, and sin isn't offending an almighty,
22:57
Speaker 1: invisible guy that's got a standard you can't meet. Jesus
23:00
Speaker 1: was so specific that when you hurt another person that
23:05
Speaker 1: God loves, which would be everyone you've ever met, that
23:08
Speaker 1: when you sin against people who were made in the
23:11
Speaker 1: image of God, that you sin against God. And all
23:15
Speaker 1: of us have sin. All of us have hurt other people.
23:18
Speaker 1: All of us have lied, all of us have betrayed,
23:21
Speaker 1: all of us have stolen, all of us have taken
23:23
Speaker 1: credit for things we shouldn't take credit for. All of
23:25
Speaker 1: us have dishonored, all of us have disrespected. All of
23:28
Speaker 1: us fall short. Get this, all of us fall short
23:31
Speaker 1: of our own standard, much less the standard of other people,
23:35
Speaker 1: much less the standard of a God who loves the
23:37
Speaker 1: people that you've offended, and Jesus had claimed the ability
23:44
Speaker 1: to forgive your sin and make you right with God.
23:49
Speaker 1: That's good news, but God even better? How good this good?
23:55
Speaker 1: Get this according to Jesus, anybody, I mean, no other
24:00
Speaker 1: world religion offers as nobody offers us. According to Jesus, anybody,
24:05
Speaker 1: regardless of their starting point, regardless of what they know,
24:09
Speaker 1: get this. Regardless of what they believe, and regardless of
24:11
Speaker 1: what they believe about Jesus. Anybody can make a step
24:15
Speaker 1: and choose to take a step to follow Jesus from
24:19
Speaker 1: where they are right now. Everyone is invited to take
24:24
Speaker 1: a step to follow Jesus. This is incredible news. We
24:28
Speaker 1: know this because Luke once again records this event, this
24:32
Speaker 1: encounter that most of us, many of us are familiar with.
24:35
Speaker 1: Jesus and his guys come to a big intersection of
24:37
Speaker 1: what they would consider a highway. It wasn't really a
24:39
Speaker 1: highway like we think of a highway. And there was
24:41
Speaker 1: a toll booth we know what those are, but instead
24:44
Speaker 1: of a plastic arm, it was a Roman spear. Everybody
24:46
Speaker 1: had to stop and pay the toll, and the guy
24:48
Speaker 1: collecting the toll in Luke's account is named Levi. He's
24:52
Speaker 1: a tax collector, and you know the reputation of tax
24:55
Speaker 1: collectors in the first century. They didn't have any friends
24:58
Speaker 1: other than other tax collectors and other people who weren't
25:00
Speaker 1: allowed into the temple or anywhere close to the temple.
25:02
Speaker 1: They were ceremonially unclean, and God had put them on
25:07
Speaker 1: the outskirts of anything that God would ever bless or
25:09
Speaker 1: say yes to our love. They were it was over.
25:12
Speaker 1: They better enjoy this life because if there's a next life,
25:14
Speaker 1: it's not going to be good for them. That's Levi,
25:18
Speaker 1: and Jesus walks up to Levi and he says, you
25:22
Speaker 1: know this story, and maybe it's for your sake and
25:25
Speaker 1: my sake that Luke records this story. It's just Levi,
25:30
Speaker 1: follow me, follow me, And Levi is staring at disbelief,
25:36
Speaker 1: like you want me to follow you, your Rabbi, I
25:40
Speaker 1: see your row, I see your followers. In fact, I
25:42
Speaker 1: see that your followers are giving me an evil look
25:43
Speaker 1: like you're kidding. He's not going to be part of
25:45
Speaker 1: our thing? Is he you mean to follow you? Come? Jesus, Look,
25:49
Speaker 1: no rabbi has ever invited me to follow. In fact,
25:53
Speaker 1: you know how the rabbis talk about me. They use
25:55
Speaker 1: me in their sermons. I'm a negative sermon illustration. Be careful,
25:59
Speaker 1: you'll grow up in be like Levi. Be careful you
26:02
Speaker 1: grow up me a tax collector. I'm the worst of
26:04
Speaker 1: the worst. And besides, you know what I'm up to,
26:07
Speaker 1: because look, I'm up to it. It's not like you
26:09
Speaker 1: met me at the grocery stores that follow me and
26:11
Speaker 1: I said, by the way, I'm a tax together. I
26:12
Speaker 1: didn't know that. I mean, I mean, everybody knows what
26:15
Speaker 1: I do. I'm doing it, and you want me to
26:20
Speaker 1: follow you. Isn't that good news that regardless of how
26:25
Speaker 1: low you go or how far you wonder, or how
26:29
Speaker 1: deep a pit you've dug, and you dug your own pit,
26:31
Speaker 1: you've become your own worst enemy. That Jesus says you
26:35
Speaker 1: can start there and follow me. And then the real
26:39
Speaker 1: surprise in the story, according to you know of Cory
26:42
Speaker 1: Luke and the other gospel writers, is that Levi gets
26:45
Speaker 1: up and says, all right, I'll follow you. Where are
26:47
Speaker 1: we going? And remember what Jesus said. He said, We're
26:49
Speaker 1: gonna go to your house. And all the other apostles
26:52
Speaker 1: are like, I'm not going to his house. Okay, his
26:55
Speaker 1: house has tax gathered with cooties and we can't go
26:57
Speaker 1: in there. If we go to his house, we're gonna
26:59
Speaker 1: be so uncle lean we'll never be able to go
27:01
Speaker 1: to the temple again. And Jesus like, just come on,
27:03
Speaker 1: we're going to his house. And they get to his
27:05
Speaker 1: house and it's a bunch of other people like Levi
27:09
Speaker 1: and the Pharisees are out, you know, in the could
27:11
Speaker 1: Stact because they can't even they won't even step on
27:13
Speaker 1: the yard. And they send a message into Jesus like,
27:16
Speaker 1: what in the world are you doing. You're disrupting everything.
27:20
Speaker 1: You say you're a man for sent from God, but
27:22
Speaker 1: this isn't how God operates. Jesus smiled, and he sent
27:27
Speaker 1: him a message out and he said, go out there
27:29
Speaker 1: and tell them this. I've not come. I've not come
27:34
Speaker 1: for the self righteous. I've not come for the people
27:39
Speaker 1: that think they never fall short of even their own standard.
27:42
Speaker 1: I've not come for the perfect people. I've not come
27:45
Speaker 1: for the people that get it right every time I'm
27:47
Speaker 1: not good. I'm not come for the people that don't
27:49
Speaker 1: do guilt and don't do shame, and don't do sin.
27:53
Speaker 1: I've come for the honest people, the people that know
27:57
Speaker 1: there's a standard out there that they don't live up to,
28:00
Speaker 1: and they don't even know where the standard came from.
28:02
Speaker 1: And the reason they know there's a standard out that
28:04
Speaker 1: that they're accountable to is even though they don't live
28:07
Speaker 1: up to that standard, they hold everybody else up to
28:10
Speaker 1: that standard. We're gonna talk about that next week. Isn't
28:12
Speaker 1: it interesting that thieves hate to be stolen from and
28:18
Speaker 1: unfaithful people hate to be cheated on, and liars hate
28:22
Speaker 1: to be lied to? Because we know, and Jesus said,
28:26
Speaker 1: I've come for the people who know that they're not
28:31
Speaker 1: all that good, that they could be better. That's good news,
28:38
Speaker 1: But listen to this next part. I've come to call
28:42
Speaker 1: sinners to repentance. If you know what this means, this
28:47
Speaker 1: may be the best news of all. I've come to
28:50
Speaker 1: call them to see the entire world in a different way,
28:55
Speaker 1: to change their thinking about themselves, to change their thinking
28:59
Speaker 1: as we'll see in a minute, about God, to change
29:02
Speaker 1: their thinking about the people around them, to change their
29:05
Speaker 1: thinking about everything, and to see themselves in a way
29:09
Speaker 1: that allows them to connect with God, their heavenly Father,
29:12
Speaker 1: and to change from the inside out. That's good news,
29:19
Speaker 1: because here's what I know about you, and we've never met.
29:23
Speaker 1: You've tried to change yourself right, is virtually impossible. This
29:29
Speaker 1: was the invitation of Jesus the Savior, and this is
29:32
Speaker 1: why people leaned in because they hoped there was something
29:36
Speaker 1: behind these words. It was good. How good was it?
29:42
Speaker 1: It just kept getting better. It was toward the end,
29:46
Speaker 1: a whole new level of good. A stop and stare good.
29:51
Speaker 1: Because Jesus' followers were not only invited to be good.
29:56
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, this is where the message of Christianity stops
30:00
Speaker 1: for way too many people. We just need to be good.
30:04
Speaker 1: I can't be that good. And the people to claim
30:06
Speaker 1: to be that good, they're not even that good. They're hypocrites.
30:08
Speaker 1: And I can't be a part of that. But Jesus
30:10
Speaker 1: didn't stop there. In fact, Jesus didn't even start there.
30:14
Speaker 1: That's why Levi could follow him. He called his followers
30:18
Speaker 1: not to simply be good, but to do good, but
30:22
Speaker 1: not in the usual way, because everybody does good. Here's
30:25
Speaker 1: what he said. If you're gonna follow me, if you're
30:29
Speaker 1: gonna be like me, if you're gonna be someone that
30:32
Speaker 1: lives their lives in a way that embraces these kingdom values.
30:36
Speaker 1: Because I've come to introduce the Kingdom of God to earth.
30:38
Speaker 1: It's a brand new kind of kingdom. It's not a
30:40
Speaker 1: geographical kingdom. It's a kingdom of conscience. It's a kingdom
30:44
Speaker 1: of the heart. It's a kingdom of the soul. It's
30:46
Speaker 1: a kingdom of the spirit. And here's how it operates.
30:50
Speaker 1: I want you to do good, but I want you
30:52
Speaker 1: to do good to those who hate you, and I
30:55
Speaker 1: want you to pray for those that mistreat you. Who
30:58
Speaker 1: does that, they would say to it, Jesus would say,
31:01
Speaker 1: hang on, you're about to learn something about God, your
31:05
Speaker 1: father that no one ever told you before. He said,
31:08
Speaker 1: if you do good to those who are good to you,
31:11
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just average. Everybody does that. That is
31:14
Speaker 1: so unremarkable. He says, what credit is that to you?
31:19
Speaker 1: That brand of good has been around since the very
31:21
Speaker 1: beginning of time? Right. But then he leans in. He says,
31:24
Speaker 1: come on, love your enemies and do good to them,
31:28
Speaker 1: and lend to them without expecting to get anything in return.
31:32
Speaker 1: And are you ready for this next part. This is
31:34
Speaker 1: when people you know put down their quills. This is
31:36
Speaker 1: when people gasp. This is when people are like, Okay,
31:41
Speaker 1: this can't possibly be true. But if this is true,
31:46
Speaker 1: this changes everything he said. If you are that good,
31:52
Speaker 1: if you embrace this level of good, if you choose
31:56
Speaker 1: to be good to those who mistreat you and those
31:58
Speaker 1: who cheat on you, and those who aren't good in return,
32:00
Speaker 1: if you choose to be good to those who can't
32:02
Speaker 1: offer anything in return, you will be called children of
32:07
Speaker 1: the Most High. Because that's what your Father in heaven
32:14
Speaker 1: is like that he is good to those who hate him,
32:21
Speaker 1: and he is good to those who mistreat even those
32:25
Speaker 1: that he loves. Because you ready for this. This was
32:28
Speaker 1: brand new for them. This may be brand new for you.
32:31
Speaker 1: This may not be the God you were presented with
32:33
Speaker 1: as a child. Because he God is kind to the
32:38
Speaker 1: ungrateful and the wicked. Wait wait, wait, Jesus, okay, wait,
32:45
Speaker 1: you're telling me that you're representing God and you're telling
32:50
Speaker 1: me that God is kind to ungrateful people and wicked people. See,
33:00
Speaker 1: that's good news because I've been ungrateful. That's good news
33:08
Speaker 1: because you Okay, because I have been wicked. You See,
33:16
Speaker 1: if your view of the Christian God, whether you think
33:18
Speaker 1: any of this is true or not. I mean, you
33:20
Speaker 1: may continue to walk away and reject it, and you know,
33:22
Speaker 1: go ahead and turn the knob and walk out of faith,
33:25
Speaker 1: but you just need to understand the God that you're
33:27
Speaker 1: walking away from, as presented by Jesus, was extraordinarily and
33:32
Speaker 1: is extraordinarily merciful to the ungrateful and the wicked. This
33:38
Speaker 1: comes from the lips of Jesus. But this is confusing
33:43
Speaker 1: to us. And the reason this is confusing to us
33:46
Speaker 1: is because this is not how most Christians act. Why
33:50
Speaker 1: aren't and this is we're gonna talk about this in
33:52
Speaker 1: week threes it all miss week three. Why is it
33:56
Speaker 1: that our reputation isn't like the reputation of the God
34:00
Speaker 1: that Jesus presented two thousand years ago? Why aren't we
34:04
Speaker 1: known for being kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
34:08
Speaker 1: Why are we not known for being merciful to the merciless.
34:12
Speaker 1: Why are we not known for serving the people who
34:14
Speaker 1: don't want to have anything to do with this? Why
34:16
Speaker 1: isn't our reputation so Christine that people are like you
34:19
Speaker 1: know what, they're crazy. I'm telling you, they are crazy.
34:22
Speaker 1: Just try to offend them, just try to make them mad,
34:26
Speaker 1: Just try to make them angry. It's like they live
34:28
Speaker 1: in some other alternate universe. It's like they it's like
34:31
Speaker 1: they there's in some other kind of kingdom or something
34:33
Speaker 1: with completely different values. And I'll tell you why. Because
34:39
Speaker 1: too many Christians, and I hope we're not those kinds
34:42
Speaker 1: of Christians. Too many Christians four generations have been content
34:47
Speaker 1: to believe but not follow, because believing doesn't make any
34:56
Speaker 1: difference in this life. It's following. It's doing that makes
35:03
Speaker 1: all the difference in the world. This is why jesus
35:07
Speaker 1: initial invitation was follow me, because if you follow me,
35:13
Speaker 1: you'll discover that following me will make your life better
35:17
Speaker 1: and make you better at life. And you'll follow me
35:20
Speaker 1: because of who I claim to be. And even if
35:23
Speaker 1: at the outset you're not sure it's all true, you
35:26
Speaker 1: will know it's all good. And let's know what he
35:31
Speaker 1: said next and be merciful, just as your father is merciful.
35:45
Speaker 1: Poof what is not to love about that? If you
35:53
Speaker 1: grew up on a version of Christianity where God was
35:56
Speaker 1: anything but merciful, I'm sorry it wasn't the original version.
36:02
Speaker 1: That's not good news. Jesus message was good news for
36:08
Speaker 1: the unrighteous, but it was threatening news to the self righteous.
36:13
Speaker 1: And just so you know, there are no self righteous
36:18
Speaker 1: Jesus followers because the original version, the original present presentation,
36:26
Speaker 1: the original announcement Jesus on Planet Earth preaching and teaching
36:31
Speaker 1: removed this option. Jesus message leveled the playing field. There
36:38
Speaker 1: are no self righteous Jesus followers. You cannot follow Jesus
36:43
Speaker 1: and hang on to a shred of self righteousness because
36:47
Speaker 1: at the very beginning, here's the announcement. Today, the Angel said,
36:51
Speaker 1: today in the town of David, a savior has been
36:56
Speaker 1: born to you, which means God is addressing our fundamental news.
37:00
Speaker 1: You need a savior, and I need a savior. And
37:04
Speaker 1: your sins may be different than mine, and mine might
37:07
Speaker 1: be different than somebody else's, but we all need a savior.
37:10
Speaker 1: And in that moment, the love of the playing field
37:12
Speaker 1: is leveled. There are no righteous, no, not one, for
37:15
Speaker 1: we have all fallen short of our own standard. We've
37:18
Speaker 1: certainly fallen short of the standards of the people around us.
37:21
Speaker 1: We have fallen short of that standard that we hold
37:23
Speaker 1: other people accountable to. And God says, and here's the
37:25
Speaker 1: good and the bad news. You've fallen short of my standard.
37:28
Speaker 1: But I have good news of great joy for all people.
37:31
Speaker 1: I'm not sending a second chance, and I'm not sending
37:35
Speaker 1: you know, five commandments rather than ten. I'm sending you
37:37
Speaker 1: a savior. He's been born to you, and he is
37:40
Speaker 1: the Messiah, the Deliverer. He is God in a body.
37:44
Speaker 1: And the end of the story is foreshadowed at the outset.
37:49
Speaker 1: The personification of good did not come. This is amazing.
37:55
Speaker 1: The personification of good did not come for his own good.
37:59
Speaker 1: He came free. You're good and mine. I love this
38:03
Speaker 1: when Jesus said this for the son of man, For
38:07
Speaker 1: the son of man, talking about himself, did not come
38:09
Speaker 1: to be served, but to serve and to give his
38:14
Speaker 1: life a ransom for many, for all the false shorders,
38:20
Speaker 1: a ransom for many. That's good news. He introduced and
38:27
Speaker 1: modeled a new version of good. Then he told us
38:30
Speaker 1: that God is good. And then he took all our
38:35
Speaker 1: un good on him to create an on ramp to
38:38
Speaker 1: good God. And then he says to you, and he
38:40
Speaker 1: says to me, follow follow is Christianity good, good for society,
38:50
Speaker 1: good for the world, good for your family, good for you,
38:52
Speaker 1: good for me. Luke thought so. Matthew thought so, Mark
38:56
Speaker 1: thought so, John thought so, Peter thought so. The apostle
38:59
Speaker 1: Paul eventually thought so. James, the brother of Jesus, thought so.
39:03
Speaker 1: Many many others thought so. Because the original version was
39:09
Speaker 1: good news, compelling news, and when it's presented in its
39:15
Speaker 1: rawest form, when it's presented in its clearest and most
39:19
Speaker 1: uncluttered form, I'm convinced because Jesus said so. Because this
39:23
Speaker 1: is what the first century teaches us, that people will
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Speaker 1: want the message of Jesus to be true before they're
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Speaker 1: convinced it's true. So if you don't buy it because
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Speaker 1: it never sounded good, maybe you never heard the original it,
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Speaker 1: maybe you grew up with the wrong it, and maybe
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Speaker 1: somebody misused it. And if that's the case, I'm so sorry,
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Speaker 1: because you need to know. The people who were closest
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Speaker 1: to Jesus were convinced they met Good in a body
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Speaker 1: because they had seen God in a body, and so
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Speaker 1: they documented the story because they were convinced this was
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Speaker 1: not a story, This was not a life that was
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Speaker 1: lived for a single generation, but for all generations, not
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Speaker 1: for one group of people, but for all people, all nations,
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Speaker 1: every generation. It was, in fact good news of great
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Speaker 1: joy for everybody, but perhaps especially for those of us
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Speaker 1: who aren't and who haven't been all that good, and
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Speaker 1: we will pick it up there next week