Luke 18:31-34

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Um so today we're in 31, 32, 33, and 34 of Luke 18. It'll be on your screen for a while. We're gonna dip in and dip out, dip in and dip out, dip in and dip out, and hopefully be blessed as we do so. 31, 32, 33, 34. I have studied these uh this little handful of verses for a couple weeks, and I've crafted about 42 top-level sermons. And the most recent set of notes are the ones I'm gonna share with you today because I felt like those were the ones the Lord really wanted me to share today. I think it is in very much uh practically it is a testimony, uh, if I may. My testimony. Some of you may know, some of you may have tracked with me over the years, and you'll know that tomorrow is an interesting and special day on the calendar for me, because tomorrow's the day that I celebrate the day that Jesus saved my soul. And and listen, y'all, I mean, it's hard to fathom, it's hard to think about, but it's like tomorrow marks 30 years that I've been walking in some capacity with the Lord. And and most days it's not so much I'm walking, most days it's I'm getting lazy and I'm sitting down, I'm turning around and going the wrong direction, but by God's grace, he brings me along, right? And so 30 years of his grace, 30 years of his goodness, and I'm marked by it, I'm humbled by it, I'm excited by it, and so I'll touch on it as we go uh throughout. But today, 31, 32, 33, 34, I'm gonna preach from the perspective of I can trust him. I can trust him. I can trust him. I hope that today you walk in and a declaration that you declare over your life is, I can trust him. Nod your head if that's something that you believe about yourself, I can trust him. Yeah? Because when you say, I believe that about myself, really what you're saying is I believe that about him, that he is trustworthy. And I've learned that somehow, somehow. I'm not just borrowing Adam's faith or borrowing Sheila's faith or barring Joey's faith or barring my mom's faith or barring my dad's faith or barring my grandparents' faith or barring the faith of that person on TV, but I have come to a place in some capacity that I can say, when I really think about it, I can trust him. This morning, I can trust him, and I want you to be able to walk out today with a bolder declaration over your life. I can trust him. As I look across the room, I got lots of church family, and I know because we're one of those churches that share our burdens, I know there's people in the house with burdens that you've been carrying a day or two too long. If it were up to you, it would have been gone. If it was up to just praying about it, it would have been gone. But I want to embolden you this morning to once again commit to the fact that I can trust him. I can trust him. 31, 32, 33, 34. We're gonna dip in, we're gonna dip out. Verse 31, let's look at just that one for a second. Actually, I'm gonna look, I got it on the screen here, but I'm actually gonna look at the hard copy because I feel like I don't know, there's something more emphatic about that. Love the hard copy. It's where I study in the morning, it's where I study in the evening. And I encourage you to grab a hard copy, verse 31. And I love this because it sort of stands on its own. Four little verses. Jesus has been ministering to groups of people. A couple weeks ago, Pastor Sheila busted open. Jesus blesses the children. Last week, Pastor Joey talked about the rich young ruler. He's ministering to multitudes, he's ministering to the public. And in verse 31, it says, taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said. And when I read that, I glossed right over. And so I just thought for a minute, we need to put a stake in the ground on this verse because I want to teach you, as a people of God, when you're in the Word of God, there's not a verse that you should gloss over. Verse 31, let me read it again. Taking the from the public place, taking the 12 disciples aside or taking them privately. You catch it? I see you nodding. I see what you're saying. Okay, taking the 12 disciples aside. Oh, to be like the disciples. Oh, to have that kind of access. Wouldn't you love as a believer to have that kind of access? Wouldn't you love to literally have the ear of God? And wouldn't you love for him to bend your ear and take you aside and tell you something direct? Wouldn't you like that kind of access as a believer? Yeah? Wouldn't you love to hear from God audibly? Why? Wouldn't you like to stand in his presence? These guys had unparalleled, unprecedented access to God. But what I want you to know today, and just a little reminder, is that by faith in Jesus, the gift of God, his blood applied, and the Holy Spirit in your life, you have even greater, unparalleled, unprecedented access to God. See, it was the disciples who got taken aside. It was the disciples who were nervous in their faith. It was the disciples who sometimes wondered if it was okay to approach Jesus with their questions. But the scripture gives us, those of us who are blood bought and saved by Jesus, gives us the kind of access that says in the New Testament that we get to run boldly to the throne room of God's grace. We don't have to walk tiptoeing, we don't have to be careful, we get to run boldly to the throne of God's grace. We have unparalleled, unprecedented access to the living God. So much so I bet the disciples would be jealous. We got something they never had. Holy Spirit was marking Jesus, and Jesus was introducing the disciples to the Holy Spirit and the work of the ministry and the power of the ministry. We have the Holy Spirit. We have the access they wanted. I don't want you to miss out on that. You guys with me this morning? So what did he say? Jesus says, listen, we're going up to Jerusalem. We've been there before. We go up at least once a year, but we're going again. And it's in Jerusalem where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. So I'm going to grab my Bible here and I'm going to show you just a little visual. The top portion is the New Testament, the bottom portion hanging down is the Old Testament. The Old Testament is absolutely littered with prophecies or predictions by the prophets of God about this guy, about this person who is the Messiah, who is the Savior. Jesus is saying that we're going to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written about the Messiah down here are about to come true up here. Yeah? That's what he's saying. He's saying, look, Pastor Joey did a masterclass on Son of Man a few weeks ago. If you missed it, I'm sorry. But Son of Man, essentially Daniel 7, write that in your notes if you're taking notes. Daniel 7, Daniel says, speaking of the Messiah, speaking of the Savior, he says, I see the one coming who looks as like a son of man. And so now in all the descriptors of all the Old Testament of the coming Messiah, of the coming Savior, we throw one more detail into the hopper. It's going to look like a man. So when Jesus shows up in the New Testament, he's doing ministry, public ministry and privately, right? He's saying, the Son of Man. He's calling himself the Son of Man. In this case, he's talking in third person. I wanted to get a little spiritual. It's not even taught there. I said, I wonder why he's talking in the third person. I wonder if it's because the Son of Man is talking about the Son of God. I don't know. But the Son of Man, anytime they hear that in this time, they think the Messiah. They think, not just sent by God, but cut from the same cloth as God. And so we've got this idea that Jesus is saying of Himself in the third person, speaking like they did in the pro in the pro in the words of prophecy. There's going to be fulfillment this time. This time to Jerusalem is going to be different than all the other times we've gone. Every other time we've gone, we've given a sacrifice. This time I'm going to be the sacrifice. Verse 32, he goes into detail. He will be handed over to the Romans, which by the way is a fulfillment of prophecy. He will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog him. All this is a fulfillment of prophecy. They will flog him with a whip and kill him. Pause. This is really bad news. This is really bad news. So I wanted to put a pen right here and just sort of lay a foundational truth in your hearts and in your minds. I've been teaching for 10 or maybe 15 years in different preaching environments. And that's this the gospel ain't the gospel if it ain't good news. The gospel ain't the gospel if it ain't good news. In our world, evangelism looks a whole lot like you're gonna go to hell. You're littered with sin. You ought to be ashamed, right? That's what evangelism often looks like in our world. Either that or nothing but love and butterflies. The bad news sets us up for the best news, right? That's what happens. That's the gospel. When we're talking personally, yes, it's important to acknowledge that sin is present in all of us. We've all missed the mark. It's important and essential to acknowledge that the payment for sin is death. Or in other words, we are going to be separated from God. We are born into enmity with God. But while we were still the enemies of God, God has sent his son Jesus that we may be saved and become not just the family of God, but the friends of God. Jesus said, I call you friends. I call you friends. So there's bad news. I'm going to Jerusalem. Not bad news yet, until, oh, but I'm going to be handed over. I've been handed, he's probably been handed over before. He's probably been questioned before. We know that if we read the gospels, that he's been hated before. But in this case, in this moment, he's saying something different's happening. I'm actually going to be treated horribly. I'm actually going to be beaten to a bloody pulp. I'm actually going to be killed. Really bad news. But on the third day, he will rise again. On the third day, he will, if I don't know, for me, when I read this passage, I'm like, my God ain't in the grave. He was put in the grave, but he didn't stay in the grave. And then I had this thought the only thing Jesus isn't good at is being dead. Think about that. The only thing he's not good at is being dead. They put him in the grave, and three days later, he's going to rise again. He says this, it's his promise. It's his prophecy. And he's speaking in a prophetic tone. And he's connecting himself to the prophetic person that is the Son of Man. And he's saying that all the things in the bottom half, in the older half, all those prophecies and predictions and promises that those people had been holding on to for their hope was about to come true. I love it. We got a couple more verses. One more verse. Verse 34. Like I'm celebrating when I'm reading this. Right? Irony, isn't that what they call it? The literary device? Irony when you know the end before it happens. Is that right? Is that the right word? I think that's the right word. Irony. We know how it ends, but they didn't. What was their response? Were they super pumped that he's going to get killed? Because he's going to rise again? If we read verse 34, it says, but they, the disciples, the ones who had unprecedented, unparalleled access, they didn't understand any of this. The significance of his words was hidden from them, and they failed to grasp. Everybody say, failed to grasp. Failed to grasp what he was talking about. Jesus is speaking in tone, in line with the scripture they all knew. He's saying things that we've never experienced, we've experienced some things together, but things we've never experienced together are about to happen. It's going to be really bad, but don't worry. It's going to flip. It's going to be really, really good. And rather than celebrating, rather than high-fiving, rather than asking really great questions, they just sort of scratch their face. They're like, what? What? It doesn't make sense. I don't understand. I know that there's some people in the house today in all sorts of different ways, shapes, forms, fashions. You're facing a situation or you're facing a season that's marked by a lack of understanding. We're going to come back to that. So what I want to do today is I want to break open this idea that I can trust him. You guys with me? I can trust him. I can trust him. And so I want to give you just a few ways that I've learned in all the years that I've known Jesus and all the years he's been good to me that I've learned that I can trust him. First, I can trust him at his word. I can trust him at his word. I can trust him at his word. I want to give that to you today as a gift. I can trust him at his word. You guys know I love coffee. I love having meetings for coffee. I love discussing the Bible and studying the Bible over coffee. Do that daily. Love to meet in a fru-fruit coffee shop. I'll never forget Rob and I, uh guy leading worship. If you don't know Rob, Rob, the beard guy. Uh Rob, we went to a conference in Anderson, South Carolina. And we went to, as we were leaving town, this wonderful little coffee shop. I couldn't tell you the name. Do you know the name? There it is, see? Common house. Common house. I don't remember the name because I remember the vibe. I don't remember the name because my brain stinks sometimes. I don't remember the name because the coffee is what I remember. The conversation is what I remember. Although it was short because we had to hit the road, I remember it. There's a place here in town, I'm gonna put my stamp of approval on it. It's called Albemarle Coffee House. It's just blocks from where I live. If I wasn't lazy and I didn't have a 50-pound bag to do my work, I'd walk there. So instead, I hop in the car and I drive a few blocks. Right? Around the corner, there's a Starbucks. I mean, if we got to do the chain, might as well do it right. Right? I hear we're getting some other chains around. I'll stick with the ones I know. It's pretty good. A couple people work in the house here, over there. Love coffee, love to sit down over coffee, love to meet over coffee. So many people, love to have coffee. But if we if if we were to sit down together over coffee, and I were to say, listen, we've been through a lot together. Over the next 10 days, ten very specific things are going to happen. They're gonna happen just as I say they're gonna happen. They're going to happen in the order I say they're going to happen. No matter how much you've trusted me in the past, you're gonna say he's crazy. You're gonna say he's nuts. You're not gonna trust me. But that's exactly what Jesus does in this passage. Jesus gives ten details that happen exactly like he says, in the exact order that he says, and they happen in ten days. And the disciples, the innermost, the ones who lay down with him at night at campsite, the ones who sit around the campfire, the ones who wake up and have breakfast with him, the ones who are in the thicket of the ministry with him, don't understand. So let's run it back. Let's look right here. If we start at the bottom side of verse 11, let's count them real quick. So detail one. We're going up to Jerusalem. We're gonna do that. They weren't there yet, they weren't in Jerusalem. We're going up to Jerusalem. Count them. One where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. That's not just saying things are happening. The prophets, the predictions will come true. That's two. Can you say two? He will be handed over, three, to the Romans, right? He'll be handed over to the Romans. He will be mocked, four, treated shamefully, five, spit upon, six. They will flog him, seven. You can flog with all sorts of things. Detail number eight is they're gonna flog him with a whip, that's number eight, and kill him, number nine. But on the third day, he will rise again, that's ten. Ten details in order. And I'm gonna give you homework. Go read the last few chapters, go read the last few chapters of Luke. But just for the fun of it, we're gonna count backwards from ten. You ready? On Luke 24, we're gonna call that day ten. Luke 24 is the day Jesus rises from the dead. We're gonna celebrate it here in a few weeks on Easter. Bring your friends, make the invites, even the people that make you nervous. Three days before he rose, he died. Few days before that, one week before his resurrection, there was Palm Sunday. Seven days. We're up to seven right there. In the period of the three or four days leading up, that's when he's beaten. That's when he's bruised. That's when he's spitophone and treated shamefully. That's when he's killed. So we're resurrection, rewind seven days, palm Sunday. Palm Sunday happens in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a one-day, if you're really getting it, a one-day on foot traverse from Jericho. We read in chapter 19, the chapter after this one, that Jesus is in Jericho. That's where he meets Zacchaeus. Right? Right? Zacchaeus climbs in the sycamore tree. What happens? When he gets there, he invites him to his house. Jesus said, I'm coming to your house. Actually, Zacchaeus didn't invite him. Jesus is like, yo, I'm coming to your house. He stayed with him, scripture says, there. So add a day. Add a day. We're up to eight. We're a day of travel. We're up to nine. There's likely a slower pace because everywhere Jesus goes, he's teaching, he's preaching, he's going in the houses and breaking bread. Let's add another day for fun. We're up to ten. Ten days, ten details in exact order. They didn't understand, but you better believe on day 11 they understood. Men should be men of their word. Ladies should be ladies of their word. And every man who is a man of his word and lady who is a lady of his word will mess up at some point and cause a confusion or cause a breakage in trust, even to the slightest degree. But the Lord God gave ten details, they happened in exact order, and they occurred in ten days. If I sat with you over coffee, you'd think I was nuts, and I would be. But hearing from the Lord God, he was telling the truth. I have done what it says, and I have never been left wanting. Let me give you a practical one. There's one that I noticed about 12 years ago in the scripture. I kept reading through the Old Testament and I noticed that all the men of God who were leading the people of God were getting up before the sun came up. You know what happens when you get up before the sun comes up? You get to meet with God because the whole world is quiet. My mom and Mickey come in this morning before anybody else got here except for team. Team's here real early. And I said to Mickey, I said, Early bird gets the worm. You're sitting on the front row with me, buddy. But when I listened and saw what the scripture says, I started getting up early. I moved my time in the word from nighttime or whenever it might fit, and most of the time it was missed, to morning. I sat down in the same place. I poured myself a cup of coffee. I opened up the bread of life and I broke it open, and God will meet with me in that place. He whispers strategies in my ear in that place. He whispers encouragement to my soul in that place. That's just a really practical one I wanted to give you. But there's so many. I've never obeyed, let me put it this way, I've never obeyed the scripture when it comes to my finances and how I use them and been and been left wanting. I've only ever received blessing. I don't give and manage my money in a certain way because I want to receive blessing. I do it because the Lord of hosts gives an instruction, and if he knows it all, if he can predict 10 days before the details that are going to happen in the order they're going to happen, and they happen, I think I can trust him with a few dollars. I want you to grab this, y'all. I am declaring over my life for my past, the track record I've experienced with God, and over my future that I can trust him at his word. And I want you to walk out today somehow, somehow, with a little bit, just a smidge, more confidence and boldness in I can trust him at his word. I could give you all the wild stats about how many promises the Bible gives and how many have come true. Pastor Joe, you've done that, something about a million quarters and covering the face of the earth, and how many times I'm not good at those kind of things. But I absolutely know that this book is full of promises and God always delivers. I can trust him at his word. I can trust him by his work. I can trust him by his work. When I was like eight years old, maybe nine, my dad would pick me up, and we would have a heck of a good time. We'd do all sorts of fun things. And my favorite place was Thunder Valley. You guys been to Thunder Valley? Let me see. Yeah? A bunch of you, Thunder Valley. So those of you who know Thunder Valley know that in the back of Thunder Valley, there's a laser tag and there's a baby track. Right? I don't know what else to call it. Baby track. Before the laser tag and the baby track, there was a pretty large room. I'm picturing in my head as I'm staring off into the carpets. And there were two pool tables. Two pool tables. There was a TV, I'll never forget. It was after 9-11. And then maybe within six months, eight months of 9-11, somebody else, you may not have remembered this, you may not have even known it. Somebody else flew a plane into a tall building in Florida. If you guys remember that. The world is melting. They hadn't seen nothing, right? Like, look at our world today. But we weren't in there for the pizza necessarily or the Coke or the TV. We were in there for pool. My dad was teaching me how to play pool. And he taught me terms like English. I don't even remember what it means now. It's like maybe the spin you put on it or something. He's a shark. Bank shots. Those were always the ones that got me. When a ball is up against the rail and and your cue is across the table someplace, and you got to hit the side of the ball and the rail at the perfect angle at the perfect time to shoot the ball straight down the rail and into the pocket. But I also remember, and I don't know what the like, I've watched professional pool on ESPN, and I love watching it, the trick stuff and the professional stuff. And I don't know the actual rule, but I remember being taught that you can shoot all of these balls of yours in, but when it comes down to the last ball, you gotta call your shot. You gotta call your shot and over the years I've put that into practice. And I a lot of times I will run the table. I'll employ English and bank shots. Every now and then I'll really get the angle right and hit a jump shot that works and doesn't fly across the room and put a piece of glass out, right? And I'll call my shot. They got seven balls, six balls, five balls left on the table. I'm clear except the eight. I'll call my shot and I'll shoot, but I don't shoot my shot. I shoot somebody else's shot. Eight ball, corner pocket, and it goes over here. I'm so good. How did I clear the table? But now I can't make the right. Then they get to go, they get like one or two balls in, then they mess up. I turn again. Okay. Eight ball, side pocket. Do my thing, misses, right? Comes that close, bounces across. I hit it too hard. The English wasn't right, the angles weren't right. Knock in a couple more balls, right? But you don't win the game unless you call your shot and shoot your shot. Like shoot your actual shot, right? I can trust Jesus. I can trust him at and by his work. Because Jesus doesn't just call a shot and shoot a shot. Jesus calls his shot and shoots the shot he called. The way I've said this over the years is he's a promise maker and a promise keeper. He finishes what he starts. He sees it through to completion. And it might not be on my timeline, but that's the kind of God we serve. And down through the corridor of time and knowing him and trying my best to trust him and trying my best to follow him. And even when I'm falling short, him picking me up and putting me back on solid ground and bringing me along. Sometimes through great relationships, sometimes through leadership, sometimes just in those moments over coffee. I've come to realize that I can trust him by his work. Some of you are not experiencing the work of God in your life because you simply won't let him work. You simply won't take your hands off of the control. You won't let go of the reins. I don't think God calls us, right, to sing Jesus take the wheel. But I do think that scripture calls us to let Him sit on the throne of our life. And we're fully engaged, not let go and let God. Maybe there's instances where we have to let go and let God, but generally speaking, in my 30 years, I found that that's a really bad theology. No, he wants fully engaged, clicked in, locked in followers of Jesus who are totally surrendered to his plan and his work in their life. And every single time I move out of the way and let God do his thing in my life, let God work through me, take my hands off the reins, give him the throne, I'm never found wanting. Is I can trust him even when I don't understand. I can trust him even when I don't understand. There were things that I experienced as a kid that when I was in those, I have hindsight now, I have understanding that God has been good enough to give me. But when I was a kid, there were things that I experienced that I didn't understand. I remember, I can't remember the exact reason. I can't remember the exact thing I didn't understand. But I remember being confused, I remember being sad, and I remember finding myself on the porch swing of my house over on Memorial Avenue in what's now called the Grand and Village. And I remember thinking only God and my dog love me. For a kid, that's that's it. You need to be loved, you need to be cared for, you need to be protected, and for one reason or another, probably something super silly. In that moment, I had no understanding of what was happening, but I had a cognizance of the fact that God did. I remember so many different scenarios throughout my life where I didn't have understanding of what was going on. I did the right thing and it didn't turn out right. I gave and I sacrificed and I poured, and the result didn't seem worth it. I had a calling from God Almighty, and I didn't know how to step into it. I had a marriage that didn't make it. I had a kid who almost died. When I was a kid, I I had anger problems. I wonder, I don't know. I don't have a clue why or anything, but I've paid a lot of money for counseling. He told me why, but I'm not sure I believe him. I watched uh our vice president's uh he wrote a book and I watched the movie about it called Hill Billy Elegy, and I thought, huh. Something practical. I paid a I paid a uh uh a really well respected fitness coach for two years. Lot of money. Showed up early in the morning, hour and forty minutes a day. Got really good on the rowing machine. Love that rowing machine. Deadlifts, bench press. I don't remember which I don't remember what it's called. What's this thing called right here? Lunges. My I hate lunges. Made me do the lunges, maybe push that heavy machine up the thing. On hot days in the summertime, make me get out and run the field over there in South Roanoke. Said, okay, you need you need to you need to do um macro counting for your food. Yeah, okay, I've heard of this. I got it. I've done a little bit of it before. Who's gonna help me with that? That's not his specialty, so I'm gonna pay a health coach. Paying a fitness coach. This is one-on-one stuff. You do that, you know about it, you know that ain't cheap. I'm paying the health coach to tell me all about my macros, working in tandem with my fitness coach. I'm paying a private doctor to take my blood every two months and tell me what's up with my blood and make sure I got the right supplements, eating the right thing, doing the right thing, making sure I'm not creating any new problems in the process. And as I do this for two years, I gain 40 pounds. I don't understand. By the way, I forgot to mention, I'm praying to God about my health. I'm asking him to help me be an example. I'm asking him to help me become fit and become strong and become the person he wants me to be, and I gain 40 pounds. It's really practical. It may be a little too personal. But reality is, in this walk of faith, you're gonna come up against things you don't understand. You believe in healing and people lay their hands on you, yet you still have the problem. You've prayed for your family and you've set the example, but but your faith is starting to shake because they're so resolute in the lack of theirs. And if there's anything that I can give you today, it's from the bottom of my heart, it's that you can trust him even when you don't understand. I think that'll be about all I'm gonna say this morning. So, God, I just thank you. I thank you that you're trustworthy. I thank you that you're good. I thank you for those who open their eyes and open their minds and open their hearts to you, that you'll prove that you are. So many people, when they come up against something they can't understand, they can't grasp, they bail. The puzzle piece doesn't fit, the dots don't connect, they bail. My family was right. My doubts were right, my questions were right, the guy on social media was right, the lady in the line at the grocery store was right. I'm so thankful that the disciples didn't bail because they went on to believe. And they went on to decree your gospel to the ends of the earth. And we are the benefactors in this house this morning. We are the benefactors in this house this morning. So I pray that as everyone stands and leaves today, that maybe somehow through my testimony of 30 years of trusting you or at least doing my best to, that we walk out with a certainty, a deeper conviction, and the boldness to declare over our lives, I can trust him. I can trust him. Would you say that with me this morning, family? I can trust him. A group of people who trust you, Lord. A group of people who love you, Lord. Help us in our journey. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Man, it's it's it's been good to bring the word, to share a little testimony, a little bit of a different speed. I am medicated. I am medicated, and I need the water so desperately. Pastor Joey, anything for you today? You're good to go. I just bless you in the name of Jesus today. As you stand, would you stand with me even still even right now? Yeah. I just bless you in the name of Jesus. I bless you in that place of lack of understanding that you're walking in right now. Why is this happening? Why is that happening? Why is it not? I bless you in that place. It's a hollow place, it's a lonely place, it's a confusing place, but it's a place where Jesus meets you. We can trust him, yeah? We can trust him. So, Lord Jesus, in this house, I bless every one of your people. I bless every one of your people. I pray that as they leave, they will have a boldness to declare that they can trust you. And I pray that inside of their heart, inside of their soul, they'll know that you love them and that you're good and that you're working in their life, and they can trust you. In Jesus' name. Amen.