Pastor Bob Erbig: Speaking of NBC's global efforts, again, with Jonah, we've been highlighting our focus on global missions.
Pastor Bob Erbig: We've had a number of world partners come in and share about their ministries.
Pastor Bob Erbig: We have another one with us here today who's going to be our guest speaker.
Pastor Bob Erbig: That is Jason Casper.
Pastor Bob Erbig: We've supported Jason and Julie for many, many years.
Pastor Bob Erbig: They have a very impactful ministry.
Pastor Bob Erbig: And uh if you don't know Jason, I'm gonna let him introduce himself because I will not do him justice.
Pastor Bob Erbig: And then he's gonna be uh doing a bit of a coda on Jonah today uh and related texts.
Pastor Bob Erbig: So, Jason, welcome.
Pastor Bob Erbig: We're so glad to hear from you this morning.
Pastor Bob Erbig: Thanks, Bob.
Jayson Casper: Good morning, everyone.
Jayson Casper: Uh it's nice to be back again.
Jayson Casper: This is uh a church that has supported us for a long time.
Jayson Casper: Uh, as you said, many years, Bob, but it goes back to 1998 that we first served overseas, ascent and supported by this church.
Jayson Casper: When I got married in 2002, my wife Julie was a member of this congregation.
Jayson Casper: So we thank you guys for all of your prayers.
Jayson Casper: We serve uh just outside of the city of Beirut, Lebanon.
Jayson Casper: We've been there for the past seven years, and uh, we do want to give our assurances to everyone that we are safe.
Jayson Casper: There are bombs dropping 15 minutes from our home, but not in our neighborhood.
Jayson Casper: So it's a very weird thing to try to describe, but we are okay, and there are contingency plans in place if it ever gets worse.
Jayson Casper: But God willing, we will be headed back home in uh the end of this month.
Jayson Casper: And so we invite your prayers in that regard.
Jayson Casper: My wife Julie has perhaps more of a traditional missionary type of ministry.
Jayson Casper: She works with moms in prayer and uh out of the school where our kids attend, it's a mixed Muslim and Christian environment, and she organizes all sorts of community events, play dates, hikes in the mountains, baking cookies, and brings together a community in which people, whether they follow God or not, are able to experience his love and come along one step further in that journey.
Jayson Casper: My own work is less traditional.
Jayson Casper: I serve as a journalist.
Jayson Casper: I write with Christianity today, and four months ago I began a new publication, I call it Middle East Harmony, in which I tried to convey the perspectives of the Middle East Church, tell its stories, in a way that seeks to overcome the points of tension that often divide religious groups in the region.
Jayson Casper: Something that can work to bring everyone closer to peace if we understand the good motivations that often sometimes get misunderstood and drive people apart.
Jayson Casper: But what we're doing today is continuing the sermon series on Jonah, bringing that to conclusion, but in a way that is going to do just as Jesus did and close it with a focus on himself.
Jayson Casper: Jesus greater than Jonah.
Jayson Casper: Now, I do get to begin this sermon with an example from my journalism.
Jayson Casper: Several years ago, I was able to do a story looking at the prophet and seeing what he was meaning in the Middle Eastern context.
Jayson Casper: And I did that because I discovered something very interesting in that local history, perhaps legend, says that when Jonah was vomited by the whale, he landed on the shores of Lebanon.
Jayson Casper: So if you just take a look at this picture, this is amazing beachfront property, now located in the Lebanese city of Jie, which is a mixed Muslim Christian area.
Jayson Casper: And from here, of course, we don't quite know how it landed or where it took place, but he in the map journeyed northeast, and you can advance the slide.
Jayson Casper: Joppa, the first circle there at the bottom, is where he boarded the ship on the path to Tarshish.
Jayson Casper: And then, you know, he landed somewhere, of course.
Jayson Casper: The fish swam around for a little while, might as well have been that spot.
Jayson Casper: But then he went about 300 hours walking, maybe on a donkey, God knows, and landed somewhere up in modern-day Nineveh in the top right corner of that screen.
Jayson Casper: Now it's very nice of Google Maps to kind of show that dog leg between the two circles, that reflects the fact that you cannot go between Israel and Lebanon today because of the war.
Jayson Casper: And that is also reflected in that second circle to the north in GiA, because there are ancient Maronite Catholic mosaics that have Jonah and the whale just depicted, going back for generations, establishing that for the ancient times they thought that this was the spot.
Jayson Casper: Now, Jonah is a Muslim prophet also, and so the Sunni Muslims and the Shiite Muslims who live in this contested neighborhood, they can't agree on who controls the property that says he landed.
Jayson Casper: And so in the middle of all this, Hezbollah took its money and they built themselves a huge mosque and said, it was here.
Jayson Casper: So if you look at this next picture, that is the mosque in which that rectangle allegedly contains the body and remains of Jonah.
Jayson Casper: Now there's about four other places in the Middle East that say, no, we've got the real thing.
Jayson Casper: But nonetheless, Muslims and Christians look to this location and say, yeah, this is at least where he landed.
Jayson Casper: And now you can't really make it out in the picture, but on the top of that tomb is Arabic inscriptions taken from the Quran that say this there is no God but you.
Jayson Casper: Glory be to you.
Jayson Casper: And I, this is the voice of Jonah speaking here, was one of the wrongdoers.
Jayson Casper: This prayer is prayed by Muslims all around the world whenever they find themselves in distress.
Jayson Casper: So just like Jonah, wit's end in the body of a whale, this story is in the Quran as well.
Jayson Casper: And he prayed this prayer and God spat him out to safety.
Jayson Casper: Muslims today look the same thing with that confession, which is very interesting because it conveys something that the Bible doesn't quite convey.
Jayson Casper: When Jonah says, I was one of the wrongdoers, this is a statement of repentance.
Jayson Casper: We don't know in the book of Jonah in the Bible whether Jonah repented or not.
Jayson Casper: It's an open question.
Jayson Casper: So in the Quran, Jonah is a hero.
Jayson Casper: And we look to Jewish tradition, especially in the early periods of Judaism after the uh, you know, the ministry of Jesus, we find something a little bit similar happening too.
Jayson Casper: Now, in the series that you've found so far, Jonah is presented maybe not in the greatest light.
Jayson Casper: Now, I think this is an amazing exegesis.
Jayson Casper: It fits perfectly the way in which the story brings out that he was very ethnocentric, concerned for his own kind, missing God's vision for the nations.
Jayson Casper: But early Jewish tradition says there's a different reason why Jonah ran away.
Jayson Casper: There's a rabbi named Rashi from the 11th century.
Jayson Casper: And basically what he does is says, Jonah ran from God because he was afraid that if the Gentiles repented, the Jewish people would look really bad because they weren't.
Jayson Casper: And so, in this understanding, Jonah ran away because he was so devoted to preserve the reputation of God's people that he was willing to sacrifice himself and even run from God himself.
Jayson Casper: That's a pretty amazing testimony.
Jayson Casper: And by the third century after Jesus, we find the story of Jonah being read officially on the synagogue calendar on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of repentance.
Jayson Casper: So in both traditions, we get the focus on repentance and we get Jonah as a hero, which is a little different than the way we read them today, in which at least he's kind of suspect.
Jayson Casper: But this understanding that Jonah was a hero also helps us make sense of how Jesus made use of the character of Jesus when he presents himself as greater than Jonah.
Jayson Casper: And so let's take a look at that now and let's try to figure out exactly what he meant by this.
Jayson Casper: So, if we could read the scriptures, Jesus is speaking to the people, and he says, the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
Jayson Casper: For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
Jayson Casper: He goes on to say, make another comparison.
Jayson Casper: The queen of the south, this is Sheba, will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
Jayson Casper: For she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.
Jayson Casper: This really only makes sense if the people listening to Jesus view Jonah as a hero.
Jayson Casper: Now we can understand that with Solomon, the pinnacle of wisdom.
Jayson Casper: But Jonah, yeah, that's how they saw him.
Jayson Casper: And what Jesus is saying is he's focusing attention not on these characters, but on himself.
Jayson Casper: I am greater than Jonah.
Jayson Casper: I am greater than Solomon.
Jayson Casper: And this fits in the message that Jesus had been given as well, because earlier in this chapter, he says, I am greater than the temple.
Jayson Casper: He says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath.
Jayson Casper: And whatever we think of these heroes of the past, Jesus is reorienting their attention onto him himself.
Jayson Casper: Now this, of course, comes within a context.
Jayson Casper: Because to understand what he's doing, he's trying to show that no matter what we received in the past, something new is happening here, and I am greater.
Jayson Casper: How?
Jayson Casper: Let's take a look at three examples in which Jesus is greater than Jonah.
Jayson Casper: The first one, he is greater than Jonah in power.
Jayson Casper: If you remember from the sermons before in the early chapters, Jonah ran from God.
Jayson Casper: He found himself on this boat and he's sleeping soundly in the hull.
Jayson Casper: And as the storm is raging and everyone is panicking, Jonah is completely unaware of the danger that's all around him.
Jayson Casper: Jesus, by contrast, when he was on the Sea of Galilee and a storm raged, he was sleeping peacefully, with no worry whatsoever.
Jayson Casper: But their responses are dramatically different.
Jayson Casper: Jonah, when he's stirred from his sleep, has compassion on the soldiers around him.
Jayson Casper: This isn't their fault, he realizes that, and he says, throw me overboard.
Jayson Casper: That's the solution to how to bring peace to the sea.
Jayson Casper: What does Jesus do, by contrast?
Jayson Casper: Peace, be still.
Jayson Casper: He speaks the words and there's silence.
Jayson Casper: Clearly, Jesus is more powerful, greater than Jonah in this aspect.
Jayson Casper: Now that's not Jesus' main focus.
Jayson Casper: Jesus' main focus is how he is greater than Jonah in sacrifice.
Jayson Casper: And here we should read exactly what it is that Jesus said.
Jayson Casper: So if we go to the next verse, Jesus is telling the people, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Jayson Casper: Now, Jonah, the sacrifice that he was making for the sailors on the boat, almost kind of looks like an appeasement of the gods.
Jayson Casper: You know, get rid of me, and it'll be okay for you guys.
Jayson Casper: But where Jonah went down for three days into the belly of the fish, God saved him as an individual.
Jayson Casper: He called out to God, God saved him, it's amazing.
Jayson Casper: But when Jesus was three days in the belly of the earth, he saved us.
Jayson Casper: And here again, Jesus is putting that focus onto himself.
Jayson Casper: I am the one that brings the sacrifice, that brings salvation to all of us.
Jayson Casper: I am greater than Jonah.
Jayson Casper: But there's a third aspect in which Jesus is greater than Jonah that maybe isn't obvious from these texts.
Jayson Casper: And if you follow with me as I go through the rest of this sermon, I think you will see that what Jesus is really showing us that this third manner in which he is greater than Jonah is in righteous anger.
Jayson Casper: And here, again, you'll have to follow in what I'm trying to say.
Jayson Casper: But the sermon series so far has established Jonah as a very angry character.
Jayson Casper: He's angry with God.
Jayson Casper: And that's okay as far as it goes.
Jayson Casper: We can be angry with God.
Jayson Casper: We need to tell him that.
Jayson Casper: But he's certainly also angry at the Ninevehites.
Jayson Casper: And that anger is righteous.
Jayson Casper: They're wicked people.
Jayson Casper: They're going to come and they're going to destroy Israel.
Jayson Casper: God, okay, he'll have mercy on them.
Jayson Casper: Jonah's not very happy about it.
Jayson Casper: But that anger is pointed outward.
Jayson Casper: What does Jesus say?
Jayson Casper: How does he in the Sermon on the Mount tell us to deal with this frustration we have with those around us?
Jayson Casper: Basically, take the log out of your own eye first.
Jayson Casper: Then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.
Jayson Casper: As wicked as those Ninevehes were, that's a speck compared to the sins of the people of Israel.
Jayson Casper: And Jesus is greater than Jonah in righteous anger because he's pointing his anger in the correct direction at his own kind.
Jayson Casper: This is what the prophets always did.
Jayson Casper: Yes, they had messages for the nations, but they were calling the people of Israel to account for their failure to follow God properly, and Jesus did the same.
Jayson Casper: So, greater in power, greater in sacrifice, greater in righteous anger.
Jayson Casper: But we have to ask the question, why was Jesus so angry?
Jayson Casper: Up in the verses so far, maybe we haven't quite seen it clearly yet.
Jayson Casper: So if we go to the next slide, this is the way that Jesus introduces this sign of Jonah himself being greater.
Jayson Casper: It's prompted by this question from the Pharisees.
Jayson Casper: They and the teachers of the law said to him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.
Jayson Casper: Sorry, go back, please.
Jayson Casper: I think I might have missed a verse.
Jayson Casper: One Briar?
Jayson Casper: Yes, this one.
Jayson Casper: He said of them, in response to this question, a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Jayson Casper: And so this is what's introducing the little mini-sermon that Jesus gives here.
Jayson Casper: But this language, wicked and adulterous generation, it kind of seems unprompted.
Jayson Casper: I mean, what's the big deal?
Jayson Casper: They just wanted a sign, right?
Jayson Casper: Jesus did signs here, he did signs there, he did signs everywhere.
Jayson Casper: Okay, maybe these Pharisees were late to the game.
Jayson Casper: They didn't see this one.
Jayson Casper: They want to see it too.
Jayson Casper: Might as well let Jesus prove his case.
Jayson Casper: Well, one of the problems is that Jesus just did a sign, and the Pharisees responded rather cruelly to what they saw.
Jayson Casper: So if we advance again just a little bit, now we come to the episode itself.
Jayson Casper: This is the sign that Jesus had done, which flows into him talking about Jonah.
Jayson Casper: They brought a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute.
Jayson Casper: And Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see.
Jayson Casper: And all the people were astonished and said, Could this be the son of David?
Jayson Casper: But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, It is only by Beelzebel, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.
Jayson Casper: Jesus had just performed an amazing miracle.
Jayson Casper: A child of Israel is now able to talk, able to see, and is freed from the demon that possessed him.
Jayson Casper: And their response is to say, you are in league with the devil.
Jayson Casper: I would be pretty mad at this myself.
Jayson Casper: This is terribly rude, completely unbelieving, and setting himself themselves up in opposition to Jesus and his ministry.
Jayson Casper: Now, it's even a little bit worse.
Jayson Casper: Because yeah, Jesus is going to be mad at this, but he's also not in a really great mood anyway.
Jayson Casper: If we think back one chapter earlier in Matthew 11, Jesus receives a delegation from John the Baptist.
Jayson Casper: The one who launched his ministry in the first place.
Jayson Casper: And now John's disciples are coming to Jesus to say, I'm not sure.
Jayson Casper: Are you the one, or should we expect someone else?
Jayson Casper: What is Jesus' answer to him?
Jayson Casper: He says, look at this sign, and look at this sign and look at this sign, I did this, I did this, I did this.
Jayson Casper: And yet, even John's disciples aren't sure.
Jayson Casper: In the same chapter, Jesus sends out the twelve disciples to go and preach the same messages that he's been preaching.
Jayson Casper: And yet, what is Jesus' reflection after that?
Jayson Casper: He says, Woe to you, Bethesda, woe to you, Khorazon.
Jayson Casper: If the miracles that had been done in your presence had been done entire in Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
Jayson Casper: Jesus has been doing ministry for a long time, and people just aren't getting it.
Jayson Casper: His own kind are not believing.
Jayson Casper: Okay.
Jayson Casper: But he's going to meet this challenge head on.
Jayson Casper: If the Pharisees are going to come and say that you are working with the power of Beelzebub, well, guys, that just doesn't even make sense, really.
Jayson Casper: Because a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.
Jayson Casper: Right?
Jayson Casper: I mean, if I'm working with the devil, why am I going to be driving out his other agents who have taken over this guy's life?
Jayson Casper: Okay, the logic isn't there.
Jayson Casper: But since I am driving these demons out by the power of God, this shows that the power of God has come into your midst.
Jayson Casper: But here Jesus then does something perhaps a little unusual again.
Jayson Casper: Because if a kingdom divided against its stealth will not stand, what is Jesus doing except elevating himself to such a high place, greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon, and saying, I am the one that makes a difference.
Jayson Casper: And whoever is not with me is against me.
Jayson Casper: This is division, right?
Jayson Casper: You follow me or you don't.
Jayson Casper: This is the message of somebody who's frustrated, but it's also the truth.
Jayson Casper: If he is greater than all of these other figures and institutions in Jewish history, following him is the choice that is going to determine your destiny.
Jayson Casper: And the Pharisees, they're choosing the wrong side.
Jayson Casper: So who are you going to follow?
Jayson Casper: Division.
Jayson Casper: Now, be careful here, because this isn't only the way that Jesus talks.
Jayson Casper: In another passage of the Gospels, there's a different occasion in which there's a bunch of people over here, we don't really know who they are, but the disciples get wind of them because they are also casting out demons in Jesus' name.
Jayson Casper: And the disciples come back to Jesus to say, hey, should we stop this guy?
Jayson Casper: He's not one of us.
Jayson Casper: And Jesus says, Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it.
Jayson Casper: And then he says, Whoever is not against me is for me.
Jayson Casper: What's the difference here?
Jayson Casper: Well, I think it's the same reason why Jesus proves himself greater than Jonah in righteous anger.
Jayson Casper: These outsiders that are doing good in Jesus' name, this is amazing.
Jayson Casper: But to the Pharisees and those who are opposing him, if you are not with me, you are against me.
Jayson Casper: And here Jesus finds himself in that same spirit as the Muslim Jonah, the Jewish Jonah, and of course all the prophets of Israel beside, and he's looking at his own people and he's saying, Repent.
Jayson Casper: Repent.
Jayson Casper: Your sins are at Stake here.
Jayson Casper: And Jesus does something, and he flips the script further on the Pharisees.
Jayson Casper: He says, You want to talk about the demonic?
Jayson Casper: Okay.
Jayson Casper: Let's talk about the demonic.
Jayson Casper: And immediately after setting himself up as the sign of Jonah, on whom salvation depends, Jesus then launches into this part of his sermon.
Jayson Casper: Sorry, back one.
Jayson Casper: One slide prior.
Jayson Casper: Oh yeah, no, I'm sorry, my mistake.
Jayson Casper: They brought to him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him so he could both talk and see.
Jayson Casper: I'm sorry.
Jayson Casper: One ahead.
Jayson Casper: Yes, this is it.
Jayson Casper: Sorry, we'll go back to that slide in a moment.
Jayson Casper: When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
Jayson Casper: Then it says, I will return to the house I left.
Jayson Casper: When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean, and put in order.
Jayson Casper: Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they all go in and live there.
Jayson Casper: The final condition of that person is worse than the first.
Jayson Casper: So this is what Jesus then tells the crowd, tells the Pharisees immediately after, identifying himself as the sign of Jonah.
Jayson Casper: And basically, he's saying, watch out.
Jayson Casper: Now, we see this because we have to look a little bit more carefully at the miracle that he did.
Jayson Casper: And so now we go back to the original slide.
Jayson Casper: And we find that this demon-possessed man, blind, mute, Jesus healed him, we're not told that this character had faith.
Jayson Casper: I mean, maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but while the people who brought him to Jesus certainly had faith, otherwise they wouldn't have brought him in the first place, the man himself, well, I'm not so sure about him.
Jayson Casper: And these sections in which he says, when the demon comes out, the house is swept clean, but yet seven other demons might take his place, the final condition is worse than the first.
Jayson Casper: And that language, something worse, is not the first time that Jesus has said this.
Jayson Casper: If you think with me, back to John chapter 5, Jesus was going to the pool of Bethesda.
Jayson Casper: And at this location, there were a whole crowd of people who needed healing.
Jayson Casper: And they were sitting there waiting for something to happen in this pool, the waters to stir, so that they can go down and find healing.
Jayson Casper: And Jesus kind of just shows up in the middle of them.
Jayson Casper: So when we read these verses, this character, this paralyzed man, Jesus saw him lying there, learned he had been in this condition for a long time.
Jayson Casper: He asked him, Do you want to get well?
Jayson Casper: Sir, the invid replied, he doesn't know who Jesus is.
Jayson Casper: I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.
Jayson Casper: When I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.
Jayson Casper: And Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.
Jayson Casper: At once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked.
Jayson Casper: Again, we see a character in whom there's a healing, but not necessarily faith.
Jayson Casper: Right?
Jayson Casper: I mean, Jesus just said, You want to get better?
Jayson Casper: He gives some excuse.
Jayson Casper: Jesus says, Okay, you're fine.
Jayson Casper: Here you are, healed.
Jayson Casper: Pick up your mat and start walking.
Jayson Casper: It's an amazing story.
Jayson Casper: And the story continues for a few verses, but again, we wonder that this person might not have faith himself.
Jayson Casper: So we go ahead, and Jesus then finds him in the crowd, and he tells him this.
Jayson Casper: See, you are well again.
Jayson Casper: Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.
Jayson Casper: Here there's no example of the demon, eh?
Jayson Casper: The first one, okay, the demons.
Jayson Casper: Here, that same something worse language is present, demon or not.
Jayson Casper: And so how we understand this whole demonic thing or not, I think as we move into the application, there is a clear message here for some of us.
Jayson Casper: If you are in church today because you're a good person, and good people go to church, well then understand there's probably a good bit about you that is not good.
Jayson Casper: Be careful.
Jayson Casper: Your house is clean.
Jayson Casper: Do you want it seven times worse in the days to come?
Jayson Casper: Just tell God you're sorry.
Jayson Casper: Or if you were raised in a Christian home and you have the benefits of life in an environment that is lived according to Christian principles, but you have never told God yourself that my life is yours, then beware.
Jayson Casper: You're swept clean.
Jayson Casper: But what's next?
Jayson Casper: Something worse may come.
Jayson Casper: Now, here I don't think we should focus too much on the individual, because that's not where Jesus puts his focus either.
Jayson Casper: Let's go to the next slide and see what happens.
Jayson Casper: We had just read of the demonaic.
Jayson Casper: We're back in Matthew now.
Jayson Casper: The final condition of that person is worse than the first.
Jayson Casper: But here's what Jesus says next.
Jayson Casper: That is how it will be with this wicked generation.
Jayson Casper: This blind mute that Jesus healed, he's an object lesson.
Jayson Casper: Yes, his future is at stake.
Jayson Casper: But Jesus is making a point to talk to the entire crowd and saying, This generation is wicked for rejecting me.
Jayson Casper: Now, how do we understand the demonaic here?
Jayson Casper: I don't quite get it.
Jayson Casper: Possession, dispossession, repossession with seven.
Jayson Casper: What about now with the generation?
Jayson Casper: Is a demon going to inhabit each one of these Jewish leaders and those in the surrounding crowds that are against Jesus?
Jayson Casper: Or is it more like a spirit or an ethos in which a culture can kind of yield itself to negative impulses?
Jayson Casper: I'm not sure.
Jayson Casper: But if we look very clearly at this passage, right now all that's happening with the Pharisees are basically they're calling Jesus names.
Jayson Casper: They're really mean names.
Jayson Casper: But how is it that several chapters later, by the end of this story, they're conspiring to crucify him?
Jayson Casper: I mean, really?
Jayson Casper: He's a backwater prophet.
Jayson Casper: He's a minor nuisance.
Jayson Casper: He has no power, no armies.
Jayson Casper: Oh, yes, of course, we know he's a greater threat than that for all the reasons you've studied in other sermons, but to kill the guy?
Jayson Casper: Notice the power of the demonic at work in this generation.
Jayson Casper: It's phenomenal how rapidly this descended into chaos.
Jayson Casper: And here we have a second warning, not just for the individual, but for Christian civilization.
Jayson Casper: For Europe, for America, for Latin America, all these places that have been Christian for generations.
Jayson Casper: Our houses have been swept clean.
Jayson Casper: Where are they going?
Jayson Casper: We can see that this application is legitimate to bring into play because of what Jesus said to the people of his day.
Jayson Casper: Who's going to rise in judgment against those Jewish people?
Jayson Casper: The people of Nineveh.
Jayson Casper: The queen of Sheba.
Jayson Casper: Take a look at this map.
Jayson Casper: Sheba today is Yemen.
Jayson Casper: Nineveh is Iraq.
Jayson Casper: You want to live there?
Jayson Casper: Back in the day, these places had thriving Christian civilizations.
Jayson Casper: In Yemen, there's a city called Nejran, and the people there were famous Christians who endured during great persecution.
Jayson Casper: Now, eventually, the Muslims rise up after that episode in which they demonstrated the sincerity of their faith through death.
Jayson Casper: And the Muslims aren't out to kill them, they just make a deal with them.
Jayson Casper: Like, okay, you guys pay your taxes, we'll leave you alone.
Jayson Casper: You leave us alone, we'll leave you alone.
Jayson Casper: The Muslims are focused north.
Jayson Casper: They want to push into the very rich and wealthy lands of Christian civilization up there in the Middle East.
Jayson Casper: But in Yemen, it's out of the way, they can leave them be.
Jayson Casper: It's okay.
Jayson Casper: So the Christians made a deal.
Jayson Casper: Within a couple hundred years, their Christianity just completely withered away.
Jayson Casper: For this reason or that, they converted to Islam.
Jayson Casper: Now, up in the north, in Nineveh, Baghdad, basically, they made a different choice.
Jayson Casper: Now, the Muslims there, they were there in force.
Jayson Casper: This is the capital of their empire.
Jayson Casper: Baghdad became so eventually.
Jayson Casper: And the Christians decided to cooperate.
Jayson Casper: And in partnership with the Muslims, they helped create the most thriving civilization the world had known to that point in time.
Jayson Casper: The Library of Alexandria, you know, generations before, was certainly rivaled, at least, by the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
Jayson Casper: And all of the geniuses of Christian civilization joined with the geniuses of Muslim civilization, and they produced this location that basically preserved the entire heritage of Greek philosophy for us today, as they translated it into Arabic.
Jayson Casper: But before too long, the Mongols came from the East and basically just killed everybody in their path, Muslims and Christians together.
Jayson Casper: So I'm not trying to make a point on what they did.
Jayson Casper: In one case, they kind of just kept their distance from society at large and the outstanding culture.
Jayson Casper: In another one, they partnered with the outstanding culture.
Jayson Casper: In both cases, they came to nothing.
Jayson Casper: So Christian civilization today has those same choices.
Jayson Casper: We might do this, we might do that.
Jayson Casper: I don't know what's the thing to do.
Jayson Casper: But none of it really matters if your house is simply swept clean.
Jayson Casper: Because today, look at these two countries and where they are, despite the heritage that they had.
Jayson Casper: And where are we going as a nation ourselves?
Jayson Casper: Repent.
Jayson Casper: But this isn't perhaps the final application to make.
Jayson Casper: Now maybe this third warning isn't drawn directly from the text.
Jayson Casper: But if we have something to warn Christian civilization, aren't we doing the same as Jonah?
Jayson Casper: And looking out there at all the other people that are ruining this great heritage we've got?
Jayson Casper: Jesus is greater than Jonah because he directs his anger at the right people.
Jayson Casper: And so we have to also warn the church.
Jayson Casper: What is our role in this whole episode of what we do with Jesus?
Jayson Casper: Let's read the next verses.
Jayson Casper: We skip to another section of the Bible here.
Jayson Casper: We're in Revelation now, and Jesus is writing to the seven churches in Asia Minor.
Jayson Casper: One of them is Ephesus, and he says, I hold this against you.
Jayson Casper: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
Jayson Casper: Consider how far you have fallen.
Jayson Casper: Repent and do the things you did at first.
Jayson Casper: If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Jayson Casper: So here we're talking about a very different situation.
Jayson Casper: The demonaic or the paralyzed man.
Jayson Casper: Demon involved, not demon involved, what certainly was in neither of these cases was the Spirit of God.
Jayson Casper: So we here have the Spirit of God.
Jayson Casper: We are protected from these worst possible outcomes, seven times worse.
Jayson Casper: But at the same time, if we have lost our first love, the warning is God's going to come and take our lampstand and be done with us.
Jayson Casper: He'll find somebody else to work through, sure.
Jayson Casper: But whatever influence we can have on that wider Christian civilization that we're frustrated by, well, our attention needs to be here.
Jayson Casper: And where are we failing to follow Christ correctly?
Jayson Casper: Jesus was, as we are, frustrated with the situation we find ourselves in.
Jayson Casper: Because I imagine that most of you are leading the types of lives that you're supposed to be leading.
Jayson Casper: But there's one other aspect of this story that brings it even closer to home.
Jayson Casper: And here it gets very, very personal.
Jayson Casper: But to find it, we have to look outside of this passage in Matthew to the parallel passage in Mark.
Jayson Casper: Because we've got this episode, Jesus is healing a demonaic.
Jayson Casper: He has been called in league with the devil, Beelzebub.
Jayson Casper: He responds with this talk about the sign of Jonah.
Jayson Casper: And then he warns about the house swept clean.
Jayson Casper: But everything starts off in the very beginning with a different emphasis.
Jayson Casper: So let's read from Mark.
Jayson Casper: When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said he is out of his mind.
Jayson Casper: Even Jesus' family didn't believe him.
Jayson Casper: And we know that this is connected to the start of the episode because it goes in to this episode about Beelzebub.
Jayson Casper: And then everything happened as we've done in the sermon so far.
Jayson Casper: And when all of this is done, guess who's still standing there at the end, waiting to take charge of him?
Jayson Casper: His family.
Jayson Casper: So we read the next verse.
Jayson Casper: Now everything's finished.
Jayson Casper: We're back to Matthew.
Jayson Casper: Jesus was still talking to the crowd, and his mother and brothers stood outside wanting to speak to him.
Jayson Casper: And someone told him, Your mother and your brothers are standing outside.
Jayson Casper: They're wanting to speak to you.
Jayson Casper: Okay.
Jayson Casper: What does Jesus say?
Jayson Casper: He points to his disciples.
Jayson Casper: Here are my mother and my brothers.
Jayson Casper: For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
Jayson Casper: Gave a warning to the church before we need to be on our guard.
Jayson Casper: But here we see that the church is the answer.
Jayson Casper: When Jesus has had a horrible day of ministry, he's tired, he's opposed, he's frustrated, no one's listening to him.
Jayson Casper: And now even his family is waiting to take charge of him because they don't believe in him either.
Jayson Casper: Where does he find his refuge?
Jayson Casper: In his disciples.
Jayson Casper: That's us.
Jayson Casper: And if we are the church, if we are this body of Christ, we can provide Jesus the refuge that he desires today.
Jayson Casper: If that is what we are.
Jayson Casper: And how do we know if we are that or not?
Jayson Casper: Well, he says it very clearly.
Jayson Casper: Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, is that us?
Jayson Casper: Are we doing that?
Jayson Casper: Well, what is it?
Jayson Casper: What is the will of the Father for us to qualify into?
Jayson Casper: We wrap up the sermon here a little bit because as we review the cast of characters from today's sermon, we find exactly what the steps are in being one who is aligned with this will.
Jayson Casper: First, the people of Nineveh.
Jayson Casper: Why?
Jayson Casper: Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
Jayson Casper: I'd say most of you have done that already.
Jayson Casper: You're part of the body of Christ.
Jayson Casper: But have you lost your first love?
Jayson Casper: Do you need to repent again?
Jayson Casper: We all do.
Jayson Casper: But that's only step one.
Jayson Casper: Who do we see next in the story?
Jayson Casper: The Queen of Sheba.
Jayson Casper: Why is she highlighted?
Jayson Casper: Because she listened to the wisdom of Solomon.
Jayson Casper: The second thing you do with the will of the Father is you listen to God.
Jayson Casper: You read the Bible.
Jayson Casper: What's he have to teach us?
Jayson Casper: Right?
Jayson Casper: Let us soak ourselves in the scriptures so that we understand what the will of the Father is.
Jayson Casper: This is wisdom right here for the taking.
Jayson Casper: Listen to it.
Jayson Casper: And the third person we'll look at actually gives us two lessons.
Jayson Casper: The paralyzed man of John.
Jayson Casper: What did he do?
Jayson Casper: He picked up his mat and walked.
Jayson Casper: Why?
Jayson Casper: Well, Jesus told him to.
Jayson Casper: And if there is something that God is telling us to do, the will of the Father is that we do it.
Jayson Casper: If you have something on your heart that is going to make this world a better place, do it.
Jayson Casper: It's that simple.
Jayson Casper: That's the will of the Father.
Jayson Casper: That's what qualifies us as his church.
Jayson Casper: But yet the paralyzed man had something else that he did.
Jayson Casper: And this last thing brings us exactly to the point of the sermon series on Jonah, what you've heard week after week for this past summer.
Jayson Casper: And we read the man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who made him well.
Jayson Casper: If we have been healed, it is the will of the Father that we tell others about it.
Jayson Casper: So this is it.
Jayson Casper: Do we wish to be the church that gives Jesus comfort when he is far more frustrated with this world outside than we are?
Jayson Casper: Let's look to ourselves.
Jayson Casper: Let's repent.
Jayson Casper: Let's soak up the wisdom of God's word.
Jayson Casper: Let's do what he tells us to do.
Jayson Casper: And then let's share that message with those around us.
Jayson Casper: This is how we find ourselves in partnership with the one who is greater than Jonah.
Jayson Casper: Who three days in the belly of the earth saved us from our sins and all in this world who will believe it.
Jayson Casper: Thank you guys for listening.
Jayson Casper: Let's pray together and then worship as we close.
Jayson Casper: Lord, thank you for our salvation.
Jayson Casper: And continually remind us all the ways that we fall short of your will, but your love is with us all the same, constantly forgiving, constantly sanctifying us to be more and more like Jesus.
Jayson Casper: Help us to walk in that path and to share that message with others.
Jayson Casper: We pray that you would bless this church that has followed Jesus for generations.
Jayson Casper: And as they seek to do it now, give them the wisdom to know how to give this message into this environment so that those around will be drawn in and see that love that you have for them.
Jayson Casper: Not angry with the world as is so easy, but loving it as Jesus did himself.
Jayson Casper: Thank you for our share in this message, and just thank you for this ability to be here today, and may you bless us all as we follow after you.
Jayson Casper: In Jesus' name.