Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - Don't Settle For Christian

Transcript

Andy Stanley - Don't Settle For Christian · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in as
0:03
Speaker 1: as we all try to navigate the ever increasing complexity
0:06
Speaker 1: of life in America. Today, I want to lay out
0:10
Speaker 1: a specific challenge to all of us church people. Now,
0:13
Speaker 1: if you're not a church people, or you used to
0:15
Speaker 1: be a church people, I think you're going to enjoy
0:17
Speaker 1: today's message primarily because, well, today's message may explain in
0:21
Speaker 1: part why you're not a church person or why you're
0:24
Speaker 1: not a church person any longer. So I want to
0:26
Speaker 1: go ahead and just jump in. If you were raised
0:29
Speaker 1: in a church similar to the church I was raised in,
0:31
Speaker 1: you discovered really early on that becoming a Christian. Becoming
0:35
Speaker 1: a Christian is easy. I mean, it costs virtually nothing, right,
0:40
Speaker 1: I mean, Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
0:43
Speaker 1: The price has been paid. We put our faith in Jesus,
0:45
Speaker 1: and then we're Christians. That's what makes it so amazing.
0:49
Speaker 1: The price has been paid. You simply receive the free
0:51
Speaker 1: gift of salvation and forgiveness, and then you can call
0:54
Speaker 1: yourself and I can call myself a Christian. Becoming a
0:57
Speaker 1: Christian is easy. But and you know this when you
1:02
Speaker 1: open the pages of the Gospels, and when you read
1:04
Speaker 1: the letters of the Apostle Paul, you don't read anything
1:07
Speaker 1: about anybody becoming a Christian. In fact, as you probably know,
1:13
Speaker 1: first century Christians didn't call themselves Christians. That's what non
1:17
Speaker 1: Christians called Christians, and it was probably a slur or
1:20
Speaker 1: a derogatory term. It literally meant one associated with Christ,
1:25
Speaker 1: one associated with Christ, or a christ One. And this
1:29
Speaker 1: wasn't like a static label like being an American or
1:32
Speaker 1: a Canadian. It actually indicated a way of life. And
1:35
Speaker 1: the term only shows up three times in the Bible. Luke,
1:38
Speaker 1: who described the events following the Resurrection of Jesus, actually
1:41
Speaker 1: documents the first time this term appears in history, and
1:46
Speaker 1: it happened in the metropolitan city of Antioch. But here's
1:49
Speaker 1: the interesting thing. In telling us how the label originated,
1:53
Speaker 1: Luke actually clarifies what it meant, or what it meant
1:57
Speaker 1: back then, maybe not so much what it means Today's
2:00
Speaker 1: here's what Luke writes in the Book of Acts. He says,
2:02
Speaker 1: the disciples, the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
2:08
Speaker 1: But this raises a question for us disciples, the disciples
2:11
Speaker 1: were called Christians first that Antioch, So who were the disciples.
2:15
Speaker 1: Now he's not talking about the Twelve Apostles. This referred
2:18
Speaker 1: to a broader group of people. In fact, in the Gospels,
2:20
Speaker 1: and we've talked about this before, the term disciple always
2:24
Speaker 1: referred in the New Testament, the term disciple always referred
2:27
Speaker 1: to Jesus followers, people who publicly associated with Jesus before
2:31
Speaker 1: his crucifixion and the people who followed his teaching after
2:35
Speaker 1: the resurrection. Now, one of the reasons that we think
2:38
Speaker 1: the term Christian might have been a derogatory term is
2:40
Speaker 1: because first century followers of Jesus were accused of being
2:44
Speaker 1: part of a cult, or they referred to it as
2:46
Speaker 1: a sect. Specifically, they were referred to people who were
2:50
Speaker 1: part of a Nazarene sect. And the reason, of course
2:53
Speaker 1: they call it a Nazarene sect is because they followed
2:56
Speaker 1: a teacher from Nazareth. Was there was something unus visual
3:00
Speaker 1: about these people that set them apart from their idol
3:02
Speaker 1: worshiping friends in Antioch. So the citizens of Antioch, and
3:06
Speaker 1: you can understand this, the citizens of Antioch, they felt
3:09
Speaker 1: pressed to come up with a name for these people.
3:11
Speaker 1: And they couldn't just call them disciples because lots of teachers,
3:15
Speaker 1: and lots of philosophers and lots of rabbis had disciples,
3:18
Speaker 1: so they came up with a term they called the
3:21
Speaker 1: followers of Jesus or the disciples of Jesus Christians. And
3:26
Speaker 1: this is challenging for us, and this is challenging for me.
3:30
Speaker 1: You may be comfortable claiming the badge or the title
3:33
Speaker 1: of Christian the way US modern folks use the term, right,
3:37
Speaker 1: But here's the question I want us to wrestle with
3:39
Speaker 1: for a few minutes today. It's easy to say I'm
3:41
Speaker 1: a Christian, But are you? Am I a Jesus follower?
3:48
Speaker 1: Are we following or are we simply believing in? Am
3:52
Speaker 1: I following his example? Or am I just trying to
3:56
Speaker 1: be a good example? And this is a terrifying question.
4:01
Speaker 1: It's terrifying because, well, see, I can define and redefine
4:06
Speaker 1: the term Christian until I'm fine, and you can define
4:09
Speaker 1: and redefine the term Christian until you're fine. And we
4:12
Speaker 1: can all define and redefine the term of Christian until
4:15
Speaker 1: we all feel fine about our faith and our approach
4:18
Speaker 1: to faith. And the reason we can do that is
4:20
Speaker 1: because neither Jesus nor anybody in the Bible clearly defines
4:23
Speaker 1: what it means to be a Christian. But Jesus follower
4:28
Speaker 1: that doesn't really need any defining, does it. Becoming a
4:32
Speaker 1: Christian is easy, it won't cost you anything. Following Jesus,
4:37
Speaker 1: it will always cost us something, and it costs some
4:40
Speaker 1: people more than others. Right, And here's what you know,
4:43
Speaker 1: and here's what I know. Here's what history tells us.
4:45
Speaker 1: The ones that cost the most are the ones that
4:48
Speaker 1: made the most difference. As we talk about all the
4:51
Speaker 1: time in our churches, Jesus came to earth to introduce
4:54
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God to earth. He was the king.
4:57
Speaker 1: We know this. He was the king who came to
4:58
Speaker 1: reverse the order of things. So to follow Jesus then,
5:03
Speaker 1: and to follow Jesus now requires us to live in
5:06
Speaker 1: a different direction to some extent, to be countercultural. And
5:10
Speaker 1: this was certainly the case in the first century. And
5:13
Speaker 1: Jesus made this abundantly clear right out of the gate
5:16
Speaker 1: and his most famous, his most quoted, and perhaps his
5:21
Speaker 1: least applied sermon, we refer to it as the Sermon
5:24
Speaker 1: on the Mount. Here's here's how it happened. Now. When
5:27
Speaker 1: Jesus saw the crowds, there were always crowds. Now, when
5:31
Speaker 1: Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain,
5:33
Speaker 1: thus the Sermon on the Mount, and he sat down
5:36
Speaker 1: and here's our word. And his disciples, his followers, came
5:39
Speaker 1: to him and he began to teach them. And the
5:43
Speaker 1: crowd had no idea. How lucky they were to think
5:47
Speaker 1: about this. They don't know this. They have no idea.
5:50
Speaker 1: They are at the Sermon on the Mount. Are you kidding?
5:54
Speaker 1: I mean, what an honor, what a privilege. They have
5:56
Speaker 1: no idea. They are spectators. They are the audience for
6:00
Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount. Back in nineteen seventy seven,
6:04
Speaker 1: at the Omni And Arena in Atlanta, I saw sticks
6:07
Speaker 1: open for kiss It was amazing. These people are at
6:12
Speaker 1: this Sermon on the Mount. I was at Brave Stadium
6:16
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two. All the Atlanta audience will remember this.
6:19
Speaker 1: I was at Brave Stadium in nineteen ninety two when
6:22
Speaker 1: Sidbream rounded third base in slow motion. You remember this,
6:26
Speaker 1: he slides home and he sends the Braves to the
6:28
Speaker 1: World Series. I was there for that. It was amazing.
6:30
Speaker 1: We hugged strangers. We drove through the city of Atlanta
6:32
Speaker 1: with our windows down, high fiving people. We did not
6:35
Speaker 1: even know. It was unbelievable. But these people are at
6:39
Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount. I was so fortunate to
6:42
Speaker 1: be invited to and to attend Billy Graham's funeral, one
6:45
Speaker 1: of the highlights of my life. But goodness, this lucky group,
6:50
Speaker 1: they participated in an event that would shape Western civilization
6:55
Speaker 1: and would reshape cultural values and cultural norms. So Jesus
7:02
Speaker 1: stands up in front of this large crowd and he
7:06
Speaker 1: turns everything upside down. Love your enemies, give away your stuff,
7:12
Speaker 1: and when somebody asks for a little, give them a lot.
7:14
Speaker 1: And when somebody wants to borrow from you, let them borrow,
7:17
Speaker 1: and don't even ask for the stuff back. Go the
7:19
Speaker 1: extra mile, turn the other cheek. Oh, you can't make
7:22
Speaker 1: things right with God until you're right with the people
7:24
Speaker 1: around you. Don't think for a minute that you have
7:27
Speaker 1: pea can have peace with God if you don't have
7:28
Speaker 1: peace with the people in your family. If you're standing
7:31
Speaker 1: at the temple and you're about to make a sacrifice
7:33
Speaker 1: for your sin and there are three people ahead of you,
7:35
Speaker 1: and you've been standing there for hours, and suddenly it
7:37
Speaker 1: dawns on you that somebody at home has something against you.
7:41
Speaker 1: This was amazing. He said, leave your sacrifice they're in
7:44
Speaker 1: the temple, and go home and make things right with
7:47
Speaker 1: your brother or sister. You can't be right with God
7:50
Speaker 1: if you're not right with your brother, if you're not
7:52
Speaker 1: right with your family, if you're not right with your neighbor. Hey,
7:56
Speaker 1: and stop staring at a little speck of sawdust and
7:59
Speaker 1: your brother's eyes, and clean out your own eye first,
8:01
Speaker 1: and then you'll be able to see your brother better,
8:03
Speaker 1: and you'll be able to help your brother. You've heard it.
8:05
Speaker 1: Set an eye for an eye, and a tooth for
8:07
Speaker 1: a tooth, not anymore, not in my kingdom. Blessed are
8:10
Speaker 1: those who curse you. It was, it was epic, It
8:14
Speaker 1: was disturbing. He literally turned their entire value system upside down,
8:20
Speaker 1: and then read it for yourself. He drops the mic
8:24
Speaker 1: and he heads to Capernaum. When Jesus had finished, I
8:28
Speaker 1: love this. When Jesus had finished saying these things, and
8:31
Speaker 1: I just gave you the summary right. The crowds were
8:33
Speaker 1: amazed at his teaching. Why because he taught his one
8:36
Speaker 1: who had authority. He was a king as one who
8:40
Speaker 1: had authority, and not as their teachers. Of the law.
8:44
Speaker 1: And when Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds
8:48
Speaker 1: followed him. It was a street party. Nothing like this
8:52
Speaker 1: had ever happened before. I mean John the Baptist, he
8:54
Speaker 1: was kind of the warm up back and he attracted
8:56
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of people. But there was something different
8:59
Speaker 1: about Jesus. Again, he spoke as one who had authority
9:03
Speaker 1: and maybe maybe this was the Messiah. And then a
9:10
Speaker 1: man with leprosy shows up. He shows up, he steps
9:13
Speaker 1: right in front of Jesus and he kneels down before Jesus.
9:16
Speaker 1: And this was kind of a downer, right, I mean,
9:18
Speaker 1: as soon as the leper shows up, the crowd kind
9:20
Speaker 1: of stops, They kind of make space. Nobody wants to
9:23
Speaker 1: get too close, and it's like, oh, you know, things
9:25
Speaker 1: were going so well. And the leper says to Jesus,
9:28
Speaker 1: if you are willing, Lord, if you are willing, you
9:31
Speaker 1: can make me clean. Now, Jesus had just taught blessed
9:36
Speaker 1: or the poor in spirit blessed or the poor blessed
9:38
Speaker 1: are those who mourn for they'll be comforted. Big talk, right,
9:42
Speaker 1: So what's he gonna do, Jesus, you know this story
9:45
Speaker 1: he reaches out his hand and he touched the man
9:48
Speaker 1: and I love this, and he said, I am willing
9:52
Speaker 1: be clean. And immediately he was cleansed of this leprosy.
9:56
Speaker 1: And the crowd, the large crowd, it goes wild. I mean,
10:01
Speaker 1: this guy is walking his talk, he's doing for others.
10:05
Speaker 1: He stopped his car and gave that couple with the
10:07
Speaker 1: sign all the cash and his wallet. He is the
10:10
Speaker 1: real deal. He's actually gonna live out these extraordinary values
10:14
Speaker 1: that didn't make any sense. They don't seem like they
10:16
Speaker 1: would work in that culture. But here's a guy that's
10:18
Speaker 1: gonna do it anyway. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, the mood changes,
10:28
Speaker 1: and what happens next is completely lost on us. In fact,
10:30
Speaker 1: Matthew doesn't even bother to elaborate, because the folks who
10:34
Speaker 1: witnessed this, they didn't need any elaboration. And everybody there,
10:38
Speaker 1: everybody who heard about it, all of Matthew's first century readers,
10:41
Speaker 1: they got this. They felt it. It was like a
10:45
Speaker 1: seventeen year old boy talking to his friends and telling
10:49
Speaker 1: his friends about telling the friends of the story, being
10:51
Speaker 1: all cuddled up with his girlfriend and his girlfriend's basement,
10:54
Speaker 1: when suddenly the lights come on and her dad is
10:56
Speaker 1: standing there, and his friends. They all have the same question, right,
11:00
Speaker 1: and their question is not, well, how did you feel
11:03
Speaker 1: in that moment? No, they already know the answer to
11:06
Speaker 1: that question. What do they want to know? They want
11:08
Speaker 1: to know, well, what happened next? And this is one
11:12
Speaker 1: of those moments in the life of Jesus. Everything is
11:15
Speaker 1: good and then suddenly the lights come on and it's
11:19
Speaker 1: her dad. Now, Matthew didn't have to tell anybody how
11:24
Speaker 1: everybody felt in that moment, because everybody knew. Here's what happened.
11:31
Speaker 1: When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking
11:38
Speaker 1: for help, and the world stood still. This was beyond awkward.
11:46
Speaker 1: Love your enemy, do for others, go the extra mile.
11:50
Speaker 1: Great hashtags, but surely, surely those fifty one liners don't
11:55
Speaker 1: apply to this guy. I mean, healing sick Jewish people,
11:58
Speaker 1: that's one thing. This is a whole nother thing. So
12:03
Speaker 1: a little historical context might help us here, because again,
12:06
Speaker 1: we don't feel the gravity, we don't feel the tension
12:09
Speaker 1: of the moment. But everybody in Matthew's audience did. He
12:12
Speaker 1: a little background about about one hundred years before this event,
12:17
Speaker 1: General Roman POMPEII enters the city of Jerusalem, desecrates the
12:21
Speaker 1: Temple and the Holy of Holies by giving himself a
12:24
Speaker 1: self guided tour. Pompey was so curious to see this
12:28
Speaker 1: Jewish God that he'd heard so much about, this Jewish
12:31
Speaker 1: God that was so easily offended, and who considered himself
12:34
Speaker 1: too good to be a part of any pantheon of
12:36
Speaker 1: God's God, that was too good and so good that
12:38
Speaker 1: he claimed to be the only God. So he brushed
12:41
Speaker 1: aside the priest, and he boldly went where only the
12:44
Speaker 1: high priest had gone before, right into the Holy of Holies.
12:47
Speaker 1: He pulls aside that huge, over engineered curtain that separated
12:50
Speaker 1: the God chamber from the outer court. He walks into
12:53
Speaker 1: the Holy of Holies. He looks around, and he's so
12:57
Speaker 1: disappointed because there's no God. There's no eyes. There's a
13:01
Speaker 1: golden table, there's a candlestick, and there are about two
13:03
Speaker 1: thousand talents of gold, but no God. And he probably
13:07
Speaker 1: thought to himself, these crazy Jews. They build this extraordinary structure,
13:11
Speaker 1: this physical structure for a god who has no physical representation.
13:16
Speaker 1: I mean, what good is a god you can't see?
13:18
Speaker 1: And then he left, but he didn't leave alone, He
13:22
Speaker 1: left with thousands of Jewish slaves in tow Judea and
13:29
Speaker 1: Galilee in that moment were essentially annexed into the Roman Empire.
13:33
Speaker 1: Galileans and Judeans lost their independence again and they're forced
13:38
Speaker 1: to pay taxes to their pagan conqueror. Years later, another
13:41
Speaker 1: general shows up, Crissus. He actually goes into the Temple
13:44
Speaker 1: and he steals all the Jewish wealth, all the temple taxes,
13:48
Speaker 1: everything he could find, and he takes it with him
13:50
Speaker 1: to Rome. Then in forty BC, Herod the Great was
13:53
Speaker 1: crowned King of the Jews by the Roman Senate. Of course,
13:56
Speaker 1: the problem was Herod wasn't even Jewish. He murdered multiple rabbis.
14:00
Speaker 1: One of his sons is responsible for executing John the Baptist,
14:03
Speaker 1: who was a folk hero among the working class. Then,
14:07
Speaker 1: when Jesus was you know, somewhere in his twenties, Rome
14:10
Speaker 1: commissioned Conscious Pilot to be the governor of Judea, and
14:15
Speaker 1: Pilot has given credit for introducing Crucifixion to the Galilean
14:18
Speaker 1: and the Judean landscape. He was constantly, constantly offending the
14:23
Speaker 1: Jews on purpose. He too, stole money from the temple treasury.
14:26
Speaker 1: In fact, Pilot was so cruel that he was actually
14:29
Speaker 1: recalled to Rome because of his violence against Jews and Samaritans,
14:33
Speaker 1: and eventually he committed suicide. The point simply being this
14:36
Speaker 1: that anything in everything associated with Rome was tainted. There
14:40
Speaker 1: was just too much history. But it got worse. This
14:44
Speaker 1: was not a common soldier. This was a centurion asking
14:49
Speaker 1: Jewish people for help. This is a man who had
14:52
Speaker 1: earned his rank and his authority through violence. He obeyed
14:56
Speaker 1: without question, and he obeyed without conscience. Centurions were severe disciplinarians.
15:02
Speaker 1: They actually flogged their own men and on occasion executed
15:05
Speaker 1: their own soldiers. But it got even worse because we
15:09
Speaker 1: know from history there were no actual Roman centurions stationed
15:12
Speaker 1: in Galilee until about ten or fifteen years after this encounter. So,
15:16
Speaker 1: in all likelihood, this gentleman, this centurion, had been recruited
15:20
Speaker 1: from a region from around or outside of Galilee, and
15:23
Speaker 1: people outside or people in the regions around Galilee, they
15:26
Speaker 1: considered the Jews to be well pretty much a detestable race.
15:30
Speaker 1: They had resisted Hellenization. They clung to their ancient culture
15:34
Speaker 1: and their strange customs, and they refused to join the
15:37
Speaker 1: rest of the world. People from the neighboring regions considered
15:40
Speaker 1: Jews to be racist. I mean, after all, Jews considered
15:44
Speaker 1: all non Jews off limits, you know, unclean. They wouldn't
15:47
Speaker 1: allow their daughters to marry the sons of gentile people,
15:49
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't allow their sons to marry gentile women.
15:52
Speaker 1: In fact, you may remember this, Remember Jesus encounter with
15:55
Speaker 1: the woman at the well. We call it the woman
15:57
Speaker 1: at the well, the Samaritan women. When he spoke to
16:00
Speaker 1: the woman, the Samaritan woman, do you remember how she responded.
16:03
Speaker 1: She was shocked that a Jew would even speak to her.
16:08
Speaker 1: That was the relationship between first century Jews and outsiders
16:12
Speaker 1: in a nutshell. Remember Peter the Apostle. Peter, he admitted,
16:15
Speaker 1: he just openly admitted that he had never think about this.
16:18
Speaker 1: He had never stepped foot inside a gentile home. He
16:22
Speaker 1: wouldn't dream of such a thing. So no wonder that
16:25
Speaker 1: people from the border regions considered Jews to be strange
16:29
Speaker 1: and odd and to some extent just detestable racist. This
16:33
Speaker 1: was the context, This was the tension, This was the emotion,
16:37
Speaker 1: This was the disgust that hung in the air, that
16:40
Speaker 1: afternoon on the outskirts of Capernaum, as Jesus is stopped
16:43
Speaker 1: by a centurion asking for help. The centurion represented he
16:50
Speaker 1: represented everything Jesus had a right to hate. I mean personally, nationally, ethnically, religiously.
16:57
Speaker 1: It was all wrong. He had blood on his hands,
16:59
Speaker 1: he had Jewish blood on his hands, and now he
17:02
Speaker 1: needs a favor. Have you been there, been there? I
17:09
Speaker 1: think we've all been there? Right? What you want a
17:12
Speaker 1: job recommendation? Are you kidding? After the way you treated me,
17:15
Speaker 1: after the way you treated our employees, you want us
17:18
Speaker 1: to give you a good recommendation? Are you kidding? You
17:21
Speaker 1: want to borrow money? No, no, no, you mean you
17:23
Speaker 1: want to borrow more money. You haven't paid me back
17:25
Speaker 1: from the last time you borrowed money from me. You
17:27
Speaker 1: want a second chance? Are you kidding? This is your
17:30
Speaker 1: third second chance? You've had three second chances. Oh you
17:34
Speaker 1: want to come for Christmas? Have you forgotten how you
17:37
Speaker 1: treated me and our family last Christmas? Oh? You need
17:40
Speaker 1: to stay with someone for a while. Okay, last time
17:42
Speaker 1: a while was three months. You never said thank you,
17:44
Speaker 1: and you never offered to help with the bills. Too
17:46
Speaker 1: much history, Now, this is what we have in common.
17:50
Speaker 1: Isn't it true that if I want you to help
17:53
Speaker 1: a stranger who's never done anything for you or to you,
17:57
Speaker 1: you're for that, right. I mean, in terms of helping
18:00
Speaker 1: someone I don't know that's never done anything to me
18:02
Speaker 1: or for me, I'm all for that. I'm up for that,
18:04
Speaker 1: aren't you. I mean that feels good. But doing good
18:08
Speaker 1: for someone who hurt me, or doing good for someone
18:12
Speaker 1: who reminds me of someone who hurt me or hurt
18:14
Speaker 1: someone I love, I just think that's too much. Becoming
18:19
Speaker 1: a Christian is easy. Salvation is free, It'll cost you nothing.
18:24
Speaker 1: Following Jesus. Moving beyond what's reasonable, beyond what's expected, that's difficult.
18:32
Speaker 1: It's unnatural, it's beyond natural, it's almost supernatural. And of
18:37
Speaker 1: course that was Jesus's point. And if you do good,
18:41
Speaker 1: remember he taught this sermonal amount. And if you do
18:43
Speaker 1: good to those who are good to you, what credit
18:47
Speaker 1: is that to you? Even sinners do that. If you
18:52
Speaker 1: do good only for those who do good for you,
18:55
Speaker 1: there's nothing unusual about that. That brand of love, If
19:00
Speaker 1: that brand of love is so commonplace, that brand of
19:02
Speaker 1: love keeps us sequestered behind our brands, It keeps us
19:05
Speaker 1: with our tribes. So there they stand. There, Jesus stands there,
19:10
Speaker 1: the centurion stands, and the question was what would he do?
19:15
Speaker 1: They'd heard what he preached, but what would he do?
19:19
Speaker 1: And unfortunately you can guess, perhaps you know, perhaps you've
19:24
Speaker 1: read the story. And once we read the end of
19:27
Speaker 1: the story, then I have a decision to make, and
19:29
Speaker 1: you have a decision to make, and we have a
19:30
Speaker 1: decision to make. We have to decide are we willing
19:34
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus or will we be content with simply
19:39
Speaker 1: being Christian. When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came
19:47
Speaker 1: to him, asking for help. Lord. He said, my servant
19:52
Speaker 1: is at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. Wait wait, wait, hang on,
20:00
Speaker 1: you are suddenly concerned about someone suffering terribly? Are you kidding?
20:05
Speaker 1: The nerve of you? You personify as a Roman centurion,
20:09
Speaker 1: you personify suffering terribly. You cause suffering for a living.
20:13
Speaker 1: We've suffered our whole lives because of your, our whole
20:16
Speaker 1: lives because of you and your nation and your armies
20:19
Speaker 1: and your legions. We've suffered as long as we can remember.
20:22
Speaker 1: And now you want one of us to relieve the
20:24
Speaker 1: suffering of someone important to you, when you've never done
20:27
Speaker 1: that for us. In fact, you've done the opposite to us.
20:29
Speaker 1: And you know what. At this point, Jesus could have
20:31
Speaker 1: gotten personal right. He could have said to the centurion,
20:33
Speaker 1: look look at me. Thanks to you and your former emperor,
20:37
Speaker 1: my mother was forced to deliver me in a stable,
20:41
Speaker 1: which worked out well for Hallmark and the folks who
20:45
Speaker 1: sell yard ornaments. But anyway, but it was dangerous for
20:47
Speaker 1: my mother, right, I mean, granting this man's request, it
20:51
Speaker 1: would be potentially dangerous for Jesus. He could lose the crowd,
20:55
Speaker 1: he would lose the patriots, he would lose the working class.
20:59
Speaker 1: When rumor of this spread, this could be the end
21:03
Speaker 1: of the mission. But Jesus had come to introduce a
21:08
Speaker 1: new kind of kingdom. He had come to introduce a
21:11
Speaker 1: new morality, a new ethic, a new way of seeing
21:14
Speaker 1: the world, and maybe more importantly, a new way of
21:18
Speaker 1: seeing everybody in the world. And so, and keeping with
21:23
Speaker 1: his own teaching to illustrate what he just taught, he
21:27
Speaker 1: chose to do good for someone who represented an empire,
21:32
Speaker 1: who had done unimaginable harm to his people, his nation,
21:36
Speaker 1: his family, and think about it in the end the
21:39
Speaker 1: empire that would oversee his own crucifixion. And Jesus says
21:45
Speaker 1: to him, okay, I'll do it. In fact, would you
21:50
Speaker 1: like for me to come and heal him? Would you
21:52
Speaker 1: like to come for me to come with you to
21:54
Speaker 1: your home to heal him? And I'm telling you the
21:56
Speaker 1: Jews and the crowd are like, this is a this
21:59
Speaker 1: is certainly a bridge too far, And the centurion, to
22:01
Speaker 1: their relief, replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have
22:05
Speaker 1: you come under my roof, to which everybody in the
22:07
Speaker 1: crowd thought, well, you got that right. You certainly don't.
22:11
Speaker 1: The centurion continues, and in an extraordinary, extraordinary, unprecedented expression
22:17
Speaker 1: of faith, he says, but Jesus, you don't need to
22:21
Speaker 1: come to my home. But just say the word and
22:23
Speaker 1: my servant will be healed. Jesus, you and I aren't
22:28
Speaker 1: so different like you. I myself am a man under
22:32
Speaker 1: authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one go
22:36
Speaker 1: and he goes, and I say to this one come
22:38
Speaker 1: and he comes, and I say to my servant, do this,
22:41
Speaker 1: and he does it. So no, I don't need you
22:44
Speaker 1: to come to my house. Just say the word and
22:47
Speaker 1: my servant will be healed. And then Jesus, again, to
22:51
Speaker 1: the shock of this crowd, commends this centurion on his faith,
22:57
Speaker 1: and he says, go let it be you, just as
23:01
Speaker 1: you believed it would. And then I think he pauses,
23:07
Speaker 1: He looks out over his crowd, he smiles, and then
23:11
Speaker 1: he heads to Peter's house to get a bite of lunch,
23:16
Speaker 1: and once again the crowd is stunned. He spoke as
23:20
Speaker 1: one who had authority, and he's matching his words with
23:25
Speaker 1: his deeds. He wasn't kidding. Those were more than hashtags.
23:30
Speaker 1: He actually he actually expects us to literally do good
23:37
Speaker 1: for those who don't and won't do good for us.
23:42
Speaker 1: He expects us to literally to do good for those
23:46
Speaker 1: who don't look like or live like us. He expects
23:50
Speaker 1: us to do good for people who don't who don't
23:52
Speaker 1: even like us. So back to us, it's no wonder,
23:58
Speaker 1: come on, right, It's no wonder that we reduce our
24:01
Speaker 1: faith to a label. Right, It's no wonder we're content
24:04
Speaker 1: to take notes, feel bad about ourselves for a moment,
24:07
Speaker 1: and then just retreat to what's comfortable. Because it's easier
24:11
Speaker 1: to be a Christian than to be a Jesus follower.
24:16
Speaker 1: It's easier to do good for a stranger than for
24:19
Speaker 1: an offender. It's easier to love people who look like me,
24:24
Speaker 1: who think like me, right, who live like me, and
24:28
Speaker 1: who agree with me. It is easier to be a
24:31
Speaker 1: Christian than a Jesus follower. And if that's what you choose,
24:39
Speaker 1: if that's what we choose, we will contribute to the
24:44
Speaker 1: challenges we are wrestling with as a nation. And I'll
24:48
Speaker 1: tell you why, Because if you don't choose to follow Jesus,
24:55
Speaker 1: you will be content to simply believe. You'll be content
25:01
Speaker 1: to believe, You'll believe all the right things. You'll believe
25:04
Speaker 1: it all men and women are created in the image
25:06
Speaker 1: of God, that they're all created equal, that they have
25:08
Speaker 1: intrinsic worth, that they have divinely assigned value. You'll agree
25:12
Speaker 1: with C. S. Lewis when he made this extraordinary statement
25:15
Speaker 1: that there are no ordinary people, there are no mere mortals.
25:18
Speaker 1: You'll believe from the bottom of your heart that a
25:20
Speaker 1: person's value and dignity is not assigned by men. It
25:24
Speaker 1: is assigned by God. But if you have not decided
25:31
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus, if I've not decided to follow Jesus.
25:36
Speaker 1: It just ends there. It ends with correct belief. If
25:41
Speaker 1: we don't decide to follow Jesus, we will not act.
25:46
Speaker 1: We won't act on what we claim to believe when
25:50
Speaker 1: it cost us something, and we will not react. We
25:55
Speaker 1: will not react when we see people treated unjustly, unkindly, unfairly.
26:00
Speaker 1: Now here's the really interesting thing. Apparently Jesus saw this coming.
26:05
Speaker 1: Apparently Jesus saw us coming, He saw me coming. He
26:09
Speaker 1: seemed to have anticipated a generation that would be content
26:12
Speaker 1: to know but not to do. In fact, this is
26:15
Speaker 1: so interesting. Jesus reserved his final words, his harshest statements
26:20
Speaker 1: in the Sermon on the Mount, for those people who
26:23
Speaker 1: would hear and not do, who would agree, but who
26:26
Speaker 1: wouldn't act, For those who are content to sit and
26:30
Speaker 1: to listen and nod but refuse to follow. Here, think
26:33
Speaker 1: about this. This is amazing. Here is the closing statement.
26:36
Speaker 1: Here is the closing statement of his most famous sermon.
26:40
Speaker 1: Here's how he closes it. But everyone who hears these
26:44
Speaker 1: words of mind and does not put them into practice
26:48
Speaker 1: is like a foolish man. Everyone who heard this sermon
26:55
Speaker 1: and who was moved by this sermon and even agreed
26:58
Speaker 1: with parts of this sermon, But when it gets down
27:00
Speaker 1: to real life, when it gets down to those emotionally
27:03
Speaker 1: you know, those emotional moments where it's just just too
27:06
Speaker 1: much to think about following through with what we just heard.
27:09
Speaker 1: He said. The person who hears these words of mine
27:12
Speaker 1: and refuses to put them into action is like a
27:15
Speaker 1: foolish man. Specifically, they're a fool, and they're a fool
27:20
Speaker 1: because he or she will have fooled themselves. They will
27:23
Speaker 1: fool themselves into thinking that they're better than they really are,
27:28
Speaker 1: that they found favor with God that they don't really possess.
27:33
Speaker 1: It's like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27:38
Speaker 1: It looked great, you remember how this ends. And then
27:42
Speaker 1: the rains came down, and then the streams rose, and
27:45
Speaker 1: then the winds blew, and they beat against that house
27:48
Speaker 1: and it fell with a great crash. So here's what
27:53
Speaker 1: I want to leave you with. The men and women
27:57
Speaker 1: who make a difference in the world are not the
28:00
Speaker 1: men and women who believe right. They are the men
28:03
Speaker 1: and women who act and react when something isn't right,
28:07
Speaker 1: even when it cost them. So here's my invitation to you.
28:12
Speaker 1: Here's my invitation to us. Here's my invitation to me.
28:16
Speaker 1: Let's not be content with Christian Let's follow Let's continue
28:22
Speaker 1: to do good for those who can't or won't do
28:24
Speaker 1: good for themselves. And then when the centurions and our
28:28
Speaker 1: world show up, when everything in us recoils at the
28:31
Speaker 1: thought of leveraging our resources, our time, our reputation for
28:35
Speaker 1: their good, let's remember this because this is at the
28:40
Speaker 1: epicenter of our faith. This is the why, behind the what.
28:45
Speaker 1: This is why Jesus could say what he said and
28:48
Speaker 1: expect us to follow through. This is what compelled post
28:51
Speaker 1: resurrection followers to embrace this kingdom ethic to such an
28:54
Speaker 1: extent that it eventually captured the imagination of the empire.
28:59
Speaker 1: Let's remember this when confronted by the centurion in our world,
29:06
Speaker 1: but God, but God demonstrated, but God acted, God responded,
29:14
Speaker 1: but God demonstrated his own love toward us in that
29:22
Speaker 1: while we were yet centurions, Christ died for us. And
29:31
Speaker 1: then he rose from the dead, and from the pages
29:37
Speaker 1: of the New Testament, he glances over his shoulder at
29:40
Speaker 1: you and me, at all of us, and he says,
29:44
Speaker 1: follow me, follow me, and together we will astonish the
29:49
Speaker 1: world with a brand of love that has the potential
29:52
Speaker 1: to change everything. It's easier to be a Christian than
29:56
Speaker 1: a Jesus follower. But here's the funny thing. Jesus never
30:01
Speaker 1: invited anyone to become a Christian. He invited us to
30:07
Speaker 1: follow