Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 2nd Nov 2008
Matthew 4v17, 23.
To begin with I want to ask one deceptively simple question: what is the Good News?
It is absolutely fundamental to get the right answer to that question.
What actually is the good news?
Jesus came all the way from heaven to earth, and all that that entailed to tell the world the Good News!
But now 2000 years later we seem to have lost the message of this “good news.”
To get to the heart of the good news we need to go back to Jesus as he originally proclaimed His message in its first context.
And the best way to do that is to look at what Jesus actually proclaimed.
And that is found in Mat 4v17, 23.
1) first we are told Jesus : Preached.
That is Jesus came into the world with something to say.
Preaching is “making something known”.
When we think of Jesus we always go to what he has done, but Jesus came in the first place to tell us something.
All that he did was a consequence of what he had to say, the message he came to tell.
This highlights something that is very important for us about God. And that is he operates through speaking.
How did the world come into being? God spoke.
How is the world sustained today? By the word! Heb 1v3 “sustaining all things by his powerful word”
How does God communicate? By speaking. E.g 1kings 19.
Salvation comes to us by words!
In our humanity we are drawn to the dramatic and impressive looking things.
Words seem so weak by comparison.
But there it is; God operates at the level of words.
Rom 10v17 “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
So we note that and must see how important it is.
On top of noting it we must also realise what grace this is.
That God comes and speaks to us. We have done nothing to earn such treatment!
To have anyone take time to be with us and speak to us is a blessing.
To have famous people, or royalty, or experts etc come and share with us!
But to have God, to have the Lord Jesus Christ!
2) Next we need to see what it was that Jesus came to tell us:
V17 “"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."”
V23 “preaching the gospel/good news of the kingdom”
He came to tell us the good news of the kingdom.
To get to the meaning of that important message that Jesus came all the way from heaven to proclaim we need to ask what is the kingdom?
What is the kingdom of heaven?
Back then the world was ruled by kings and kingdoms.
Today we have PM’s and governments.
Jesus came to tell us about the good news of Gods government.
Isaiah 52v7 “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"”
That was it. Jesus came to tell us God is in charge. He reigns.
Gods kingdom is in operation wherever his rule and reign is given due allegiance.
In the world where Caesar was king Jesus comes and says “no, God is King.”
(The vast majority of the universe / cosmos operates under the rule of God.
The only place where Gods rule is ignored is in the lives of us humans!)
But that was not the full message.
The message was that Gods rule was near, or at hand. What does that mean?
It means that Gods kingdom was available, open, just there!
That was the good news about this - that anyone can enter into Gods kingdom.
Anyone can give due allegiance to the King! His kingdom was near to all and open to all! Acts 17v27 - that was the message Paul preached in Athens - that God was not far.
To the people Jesus was speaking to Gods kingdom was far off. To enter into Gods kingdom was unthinkable for the vast majority of Jews never mind Gentiles.
The Pharisees could enter in, but the common folk hadn’t a chance.
Jesus comes and say, Gods kingdom is open and anyone is free to enter in, anytime anyplace! That was news, that was the gospel that Jesus preached.
God’s kingdom is open and available to everyone now!
The beatitudes describes the kinds of people to whom the Kingdom was now open, and because they could enter in they were blessed.
So the kingdom is open, any can enter in - but how do we enter in?
3) how do we enter into the Kingdom of God? “repent”
Repent is a word that is addressed to the mind.
Jesus is calling people to change the way they think about God and his kingdom.
He is calling us to stop living life in our own little kingdoms and throw in our lot with His! When we think of “repent” we think it means to say sorry and to be really sincere about it. But what are we to be sorry for?
What is the great sin we have all engaged in? The sin is running our own little kingdoms, our own lives in our own terms and thus rejecting God!
To repent of that we need to say: God you reign in my life, I now hand all that I have and all that I am over to you. You are my King, I am you servant.
And the good news is, the great news is, we can do that!
Gods kingdom is open now, enter in.
So repent - think about your life. How is it going? Where is it going?
You have an opportunity now, to decide to hand your life over to God, to let Him be in charge, to give Him his rightful place.
If you are waiting for a flash of inspiration, for a word from God, then this is it. Jesus has spoken, his word remains alive today, he calls you to leave your own little projects behind and enter into something much bigger, much better - His project, his kingdom.
sunday evening - 2nd Nov 2008
What are you signing up for? Or what is the Cost ? Luke 14v25-33 (34-35?)
This morning we noticed the Good News that Jesus came to tell the world:
God is available, anyone can enter into His kingdom. He is near and available.
And Jesus simply called the people to “repent”.
We noted that that was a word addressed to the mind.
Jesus is saying - think about this offer. Consider placing your life into Gods hand.
Tonight I want to further “repent” - further think about this message and what it means for us today.
The good news that Jesus preached was the astonishing availability of God, but here in Luke 14 Jesus seems to be saying that it is not all that easy!
What is going on here? Obviously Jesus is not some jingoistic salesman trying to get our money with a great offer but then a load of small print! What’s going on?
Jesus is expanding on the message, working out its implications.
The context is v25 where we see lots of people following Jesus.
This undoubtedly would have been a mixed crowd. All kinds of people.
We can put ourselves there too.
No matter what we think of Jesus at the moment, we are here, we are looking.
And as we look at Jesus he explains to us what it means to be a disciple:
1) Two Cannots
We start with the negative “cannot be my disciples” statements.
V26 Jesus says you cannot be a disciple unless to hate everyone apart form Him!
Obviously this is not to be taken literally.
Jesus is teaching here and he is using memorable language. Very strong language!
He is basically giving the 1st commandment a modern translation!
He say you cannot be a disciples unless God gets his rightful place.
How do we get God in his rightful place?
We must get a vision of the Greatness of Christ.
Unless we believe that He is Saviour, that He is Lord God Almighty, we will never put him in first place!
Without this we cannot be a disciple. We cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. We cannot experience the power of Gods rule in our lives!
We will miss out on all that is divine and thus all that will truly make us human.
Note: Jesus is not turning anyone away, he is not saying I don’t want you as a disciple. He is simply saying it will not work! You cannot drive a car unless you learn, you cannot be a disciple unless you put Jesus first.
Then the second “cannot be my disciple”:
V27 this second statement is also very powerful.
The image is quite horrible in fact.
It was a common image in that day, the Romans killed thousands by crucifixion.
To see someone carrying their cross only meant one thing - they were off to die.
And that is what Jesus is getting at here. You cannot be a disciple unless you are willing to die for him. Indeed - unless you are dying for him!
Following Jesus means dying to self. It means the dethroning of self all the time.
Ultimately it may mean in following God that we are actually martyred.
Carrying our cross is not about carrying our own burdens and sufferings as such.
It is however, everyday dying to self and living to God - that is following Jesus.
The point is discipleship will not work if there is not this level of commitment.
It just won’t work, we will not be able to do it!
Our God Reigns is the Good News and we must allow his reign by dying to self.
The point of these two “Cannots” is to let the people know discipleship will only work when things are in their proper place:
God is in his rightful place - which is 1st place. And the disciple is in his rightful place - which is putting to death self.
2) Two illustrations about repentance
Having made these two points he give two illustration, to show that we need to sit down and think about it! We need to repent.
V28-30. We would not begin a build project without first considering and planning it. If we don’t have the wherewithal we don’t start!
V31-32. The king does not just decide to go to war he plans it out first.
The point is the same.
Jesus does not want us to jump without thinking it through first.
Because being a disciples will not work unless there is that intended level of commitment to begin with.
What we need to ask is this:
Is Jesus worth it? Is he worth giving this total allegiance to?
Then, do we really want Him?
Many fail to become disciples because they do not really want him!
It is as simple as that. And Jesus will not force himself on anyone. You are free to chose - that is the whole point of the illustrations.
Jesus wants you to consider and then chose him.
3) Finally Jesus concludes with a challenge to think again:
Half-hearted commitment to Christ simply will not work.
That is what Jesus goes onto explain v34-35.
Salt in those days was not like it is today.
Today we have pure salt that cannot lose its saltiness, but back then the salt they had came from rock.
And so if the rock was not kept properly - if it got damp, it would lose its saltiness. It was just useless. It was thrown out.
Discipleship is good, but it will be spoiled if not entered into properly and in the end will be good for nothing!
Many who call themselves Christians today are falling and failing because of just this thing - it has not been entered into properly and so it is not working!
There is no joy, no growth, no witness, no real life - because the foundation is all wrong!
Today I fear that we have a lot of stone and not much salt!
The reason for that is because we have not really consider the call to
discipleship-following of Jesus.
We have heard the Good News, but we have not considered the cost!
Here is the challenge tonight - have you properly decided to follow Jesus?
Have you made a decision to become a disciple?
It will not just happen, you will not fall into discipleship, you must decide.
