WEBVTT 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:04.559 Welcome to the MetaCurch podcast. 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:05.440 My name is Clayton. 00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:14.240 I'm the pastor at MetaCurch, and I hope that today's message is inspiring and enlightening and really builds you up wherever you're at in life. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:18.079 Well, I want to welcome you in. 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:20.239 If you are new with us, my name is Clayton. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:22.079 I'm the lead pastor here at Meta. 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:29.760 And wherever you're joining us from, if you're here at our Holotus venue, and I am so proud of the work that is happening out in Holotus. 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:30.879 I'm so glad you joined us. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:36.320 If you're with us online, maybe even for the first time, I'm glad you found us and that you're streaming with us. 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:43.359 Man, we are walking very slowly, very carefully, and very intentionally through the book of Luke. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:52.240 And we went through one series called The Chosen King, all about the preparation and the presentation of Jesus as God's last and final chosen king. 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:56.560 Now we are in week three of our new series, The Kingdom Way. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:08.480 Jesus is now starting his ministry, and what we're realizing is that every single moment of Jesus' life, he's demonstrating for us the way of the kingdom of God. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.519 And so we're paying very careful attention to that. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:20.640 Some context to understand where we're at today is you have to realize that Jesus set up the movement that we now call church. 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:27.840 This wasn't an idea that some smart people had of we should gather together and do a thing on a Sunday and try to follow Jesus. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:30.000 The church was Jesus' idea. 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:33.599 He's the first person to ever say the word in Scripture. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:37.920 He instituted it, he set up the leadership model, and he pushed it forward. 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:47.680 And you need to know that the church is the mechanism for building and expanding the kingdom of God on earth. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:53.280 The church is the mechanism for building and expanding the kingdom of God on earth. 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:55.280 Say amen if you agree with that. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.000 Amen. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:56.959 So that's us. 00:01:57.040 --> 00:01:57.680 That is our job. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:05.920 Those are our marching orders, and we need to understand that because every text that we look at, uh, I I actually believe this is true. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.479 I spend one week per passage. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:19.520 Uh, I think I could come in and preach every passage I preach five weeks in a row, the same verses, because scripture just keeps going and going, and there's more application, and there's more and more and more. 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:25.360 Uh a lot of the application that has been drawn out for us by the Holy Spirit has been individual. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:30.400 It's been about you and your life, your salvation, your walk with the Lord. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:46.800 Today, a lot of our application is going to be for us, it's going to be for the movement more broadly, as Jesus is showing us how to build the kingdom, and we as the church are that mechanism for building and expanding the kingdom on the earth. 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:48.240 Now, here's some more context. 00:02:48.319 --> 00:03:01.039 Really, everything we've been able to pull out of Luke is just because we've been willing to slow down and get intentional, and we've been willing to look at and sit in the actual context that this was written in. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:04.319 And so I need to give you a little bit of context for today's passage. 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:12.080 Uh, number one, for the last three Sundays now, two Sundays ago, last Sunday and this Sunday, we've looked at three different passages. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:14.159 Each of them have miracles. 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:19.039 They happen at different times of the day, morning, afternoon, and now evening. 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:23.360 But you need to know this: all of this is the same day in Luke. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:30.719 So in the last now, three passages, we've looked at one day in the village of Capernaum. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:34.319 Uh, in the first passage, we saw them in the morning at the synagogue. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:43.599 Jesus does a miracle that is very public and it's very jarring as he exercises a demon in front of everyone and casts it out of the synagogue. 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:45.680 If you were here two weeks ago, you remember that. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:52.879 Last Sunday, which by the way, it's so good to actually see your beautiful faces. 00:03:53.039 --> 00:04:00.319 I know when I was in school, I would pray for a snow day, and that's how you know you have faith because you live in Texas and you're praying for a snow day, you know? 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:02.639 Uh man, I loved it as a kid. 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:14.879 I hate canceling Sunday services, and I am so glad that the body of Christ is back together where I can see you and hear you and smell your breath and look at you and judge your fit. 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:18.160 I'm so glad that you're here today, and I'm so glad that I'm here today. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:30.000 But last week we saw not a public jarring, but a very private and intimate miracle as Jesus goes into the back room of Peter's house and heals his mother-in-law. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:39.120 And so that brings us to today, and everything that we're building starts in our first week. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:46.639 In our first week, this thing happens in the synagogue that is the center of not just religious life, but social life in Capernaum. 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:55.439 And I told you, and it was so quick you might have missed it, but the last two verses from week one, I told you, hang on to these verses. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:57.040 Let me read them again for you. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:59.439 We're looking at verses 36 and 37. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:01.519 This is right after he casts out the demon. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:06.560 It says, Amazement came over them all, and they were saying to one another, What is this message? 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:10.879 For he commands the unclean spirits with authority and power, and they come out. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:16.959 And news about Jesus began to go out to every place in the vicinity. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:24.319 Everybody in Capernaum heard about what happened in the synagogue, and I told you two weeks ago, hang on to that. 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:30.399 You have to understand that to understand the tension in today's passage. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:36.000 That the message of what happened in the synagogue went out to everyone in Capernaum. 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:42.000 Now, you need one more piece of context, and it's at the very beginning of our first verse today. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:43.680 Today we're starting in verse 40. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:46.560 I just want you to look at the first five words. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:49.439 When the sun was setting. 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:51.199 When the sun was setting. 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:53.600 I lost confidence, but that was five words halfway into that. 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:56.480 When the sun was, I can still count, so we got good news here. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:58.480 When the sun was setting. 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:00.959 Now, we know Luke is a historian. 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:09.680 We know he gives us lots of details, and so maybe he's just setting the scene so that you can get it in your imagination and you can see this beautiful sunset happening behind Jesus. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:11.439 There's more to it than that. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:14.959 See, Luke didn't realize he was writing a gospel. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:21.680 Luke didn't realize that people in San Antonio, Texas, which he didn't know existed because he thought the world was flat and didn't know about our continent. 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:24.800 He didn't know 2,000 years later we would be reading this. 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:28.079 Luke writes this to his friend Theophilus. 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:31.680 He tells us that in the first four verses of the first chapter of Luke. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:34.399 However, God had other plans for his writing. 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:35.279 Isn't that amazing? 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:42.639 Sometimes you think that you are doing something and you have no idea that God has bigger plans for what you're doing than the plans that you have for it. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:59.600 And so this goes out, but because he is writing to someone that lives in his world, in his time, 2,000 years ago in the ancient Near East, there are some things that are assumed in the text that we don't know because we're so far removed from it contextually. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:01.680 I'll give you an example. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.240 We measure our days midnight to midnight. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:09.920 And so we actually end up in a bit of a paradox. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:18.399 Because if we stay up really late, like I know none of you guys would have done this, and none of you missed the 8:30 service because you stayed up and watched the UFC fights last night. 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:21.680 I know that didn't happen to anybody that actually comes to our venues. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:29.120 Um, but if you stay up really late till like one or two, you actually stayed up really early. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.279 And what you'll say is, oh, I stayed up so late last night. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:36.000 Oh man, I didn't go to bed till so late last night. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:39.360 But really, you didn't go to bed till so early in the morning. 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:43.199 It's a new day, but we do days from midnight to midnight. 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:50.079 In the ancient Jewish world, they did not do midnight to midnight, they did not have digital clocks running their world. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:54.240 Days were assessed by sunset to sunset. 00:07:55.519 --> 00:08:00.160 Which means that Tuesday started Monday at sunset. 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:01.120 Does that make sense to you? 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:03.920 Not midnight to midnight, sunset to sunset. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:04.879 It's a new day. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:06.160 Here's what we know about this. 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:14.240 The last three weeks are one day in Capernaum, and we know what day it was because Jesus taught in the synagogue it was the Sabbath. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:16.000 It was Saturday. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:22.800 And here's what you might know is that the Jewish people have some rules around Saturday. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:26.800 They are expected to keep the Sabbath and to not work. 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:34.080 And that goes all the way back to the Big Ten, the Ten Commandments in the Jewish scriptures, what we call our Old Testament. 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:46.720 Now, by the time that Jesus was on earth, the Sabbath regulations had become very extreme, where all you could really do was go to synagogue and eat a meal and you cannot do anything else that might be considered work. 00:08:47.039 --> 00:08:50.000 And so remember, it's sunset to sunset. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:52.480 So if on Friday at 9 p.m. 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:59.039 your front door fell off the hinges, you just have some extra air conditioning until Saturday at sunset. 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:00.480 You cannot work. 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:11.519 If in the middle of the night, Friday night, your roof starts leaking, you just have a wet floor until Saturday at sunset when the Sabbath is officially over. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:17.279 If your lamb wanders off, you cannot go track it until, yes, Saturday at sunset. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.919 There is no work that can be done. 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:22.960 And so it's like, okay, all this context. 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:25.440 Let me piece it together for you. 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:29.919 Not everyone in Capernaum heard about Jesus. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:36.159 He goes in the synagogue, he shows authority no one has ever seen a human carry before. 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:39.440 He shows power no one has ever experienced before. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:42.399 He has a presence nobody has ever felt before. 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:49.120 They don't realize yet that he is actually God in human flesh standing in their synagogue, but they do know something is different. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:52.879 But not everyone in Capernaum was in the synagogue. 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:54.159 Not everyone heard about it. 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:56.879 That's why the news about it had to spread. 00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.840 So who wasn't in the synagogue that day? 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:06.000 The people who weren't in the synagogue were the people who were ritually unclean or ritually impure. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:14.159 People who were sick, people who were diseased, people who were afflicted, and people who were handicapped. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:18.320 They would not have been in the synagogue that day. 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:27.200 And so what happens as I start painting this picture that Luke's friend could have picked up on right away, but we're so far out of the context we don't really understand it. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:30.159 And so let me help set you in the scene. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:36.639 By mid-morning, Jesus has driven out a demon just by his words, and there is no argument. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:38.559 We talked about that two weeks ago. 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.360 People leave the synagogue like something's happening. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:45.679 There is someone here with power and authority like we have never seen before in our lives. 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:50.720 They go and the news spreads, and who does the news spread to? 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:52.799 To the people who weren't in the synagogue. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:59.919 In other words, the only people who didn't know about what Jesus had done were the people who needed Jesus the most. 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.519 I probably don't have to connect this dot for you, but I will anyway. 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:18.960 That in our world today, often the people who are not hearing the message of Jesus are the people who need Jesus the most. 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:23.840 And so the word spreads. 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:34.480 And all who are sick and all who are diseased, all who are impure and unclean by their ritual standards, all who are too handicapped to make it. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:37.200 All of the people begin to hear this. 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:43.919 That there is someone in town who has so much power and authority that maybe, just maybe, they could be healed. 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:48.159 But here's the problem it's the Sabbath. 00:11:50.720 --> 00:12:04.799 And so imagine you are living with a lifelong disease, or you are watching someone that you love suffer, or you have someone who was born blind, which we have a lot of accommodations for people with those kind of situations. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:06.639 Today, there were none in the ancient world. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:08.080 Your life was just ruined. 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:12.879 You were destined for poverty and destitution and handouts from strangers to get you by. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:18.240 Imagine that you knew someone was in town and now you just have to wait. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:34.159 So all of Capernaum, whether they were sick or afflicted themselves, or knew someone who was sick or afflicted, they all sat and they just watched the horizon, waiting for the moment that the sun would set and they could finally go find Jesus. 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:41.759 Have you heard the expression a watched pot never boils? 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.200 All of Gen Z was like, what are we? 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:46.720 What about pot? 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:49.679 I don't know what we're talking about right now. 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:58.000 It just means that time moves more slowly, the more anticipation you have about something that's coming. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:06.639 You know, when you were uh in school, and maybe if you were an athlete, away games, you could leave school early. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:12.799 The class period before you got to leave school took four times as long as all the other class periods. 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:20.639 The last day before summer break, the last class you're sitting in, you just watch the clock, and it's like, am I in a time warp right now? 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:21.279 What's happening? 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:22.720 This is taking forever. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.080 It's the anticipation and the excitement that makes it seem to slow down. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:33.279 Now imagine you're in Capernaum, and there is someone who can heal. 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:37.919 And your spouse might just have hours to live. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:41.600 Your child could die at any moment. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:46.320 And you have to sit and wait for sunset. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:52.960 Can I tell you what makes this situation infinitely more heartbreaking? 00:13:53.840 --> 00:14:04.240 Is those rules and regulations that were keeping people from going and find Jesus are not scriptural laws, they were cultural laws. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.240 The Sabbath was set up for a very specific reason. 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:17.440 The expectation is that you would cease your work like you were nine to five in order to find rest and to find delight in the Lord. 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:19.120 That's the purpose. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:32.480 But from the time the law was given till the time Jesus comes to earth, the religious leaders had added, check this out, 39 more regulations to Sabbath law. 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:40.399 Not given to them by God, given to them by their own desire for control and their own religious impulses. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:55.519 And so the religious leaders in the oral law, which was called the Mishnah, had stacked laws on laws, on rules, on regulations, on commands, on boundaries, on expectations that God never gave us. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:05.919 To the point where people do not believe that they can take their blind family member by the shoulder or pick up their dying child and walk them to their healing. 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.919 They believe that not because of what God said, but because of what man has said. 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:21.440 And these religious leaders have built barriers so that the people who most need God cannot get to him. 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.360 I know this because I know Metachurch. 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:28.720 I've been here from the beginning. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:33.840 There are so many of us who came up in church, but we left the church. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:38.399 And it wasn't actually because God hurt us, maybe we thought it was at the time. 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:44.399 It's because people built barriers in between us and God that God never intended. 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:45.759 What is the Sabbath for? 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:49.039 The Sabbath is for delighting in the Lord. 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:56.639 Taking someone who is sick and dying and bringing them to God and human flesh would have been the purest expression of a Sabbath. 00:15:56.879 --> 00:16:00.159 And yet the religious leaders created a barrier to keep them from them. 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:02.799 I just, I need you to know this. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:18.240 That our job, as Jesus is demonstrating the way of God's kingdom, is not to build barriers of unwritten rules and cultural norms and unnecessary religious rights and expectations. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:23.759 Our job expressly is not to build barriers, it is to build bridges. 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:24.720 Amen. 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:32.240 And there are so many people who are hurting and lost and dying with no hope. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:39.440 And every time they try to get to Jesus, people in churches sit barriers in their way. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:43.360 And so I let me just say this. 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:48.320 You can wear a suit and tie to MetaCurch. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:49.600 We will let you in. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:53.279 As a matter of fact, I will dap you up. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:57.600 And if you've got a suit on, you've got cologne on, and I'll give you a little sniff too, you know. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:04.400 I don't typically wear a suit and tie. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:08.160 I have one, you might find it interesting to know. 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:11.680 And if I'm in it, I am marrying or burying. 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:13.440 That's when the suit comes out. 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:17.839 And it is intentional. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:28.240 Because the barriers that have been created in modern churches have to do with an unwritten dress code. 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:34.400 They have to do with a culture of judgment instead of love and warmth and welcome. 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:59.839 You know, it's like, yes, you gotta kind of put on something nice in order to show up to the sanctuary, but it's more than putting on a suit, it's also putting on this false, too blessed to be stressed, fake, phony Christian knees, trying to speak so people know that you are more religious than them, trying to raise your hands, not because you are reaching out, surrendering to God, so you can let the people around you know that you are more righteous than them. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:08.720 We end up in these churches where we intentionally create barriers, and I'm just gonna let you know, as someone who has stood on the other side of those barriers, we can see it. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:14.960 People know it, they know when they are not welcome by the time they have walked into your lobby. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:23.119 And the amount of pain that churches have unnecessarily caused. 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:30.400 Jesus created a bridge all the way from our heavenly Father down to our sinful, broken world. 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:40.480 He gave his life to break down barriers and build bridges, and it must break his heart to look down and see his very own people stacking up their own barriers, keeping people out. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:44.880 And so we have to get this right. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:47.440 At MetaCurch, we are desperate to get this right. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:54.960 And here's why this really matters because people are hurting people who are looking for Jesus. 00:18:55.839 --> 00:19:01.039 And this is tough because uh we also like we just keep it all the way real. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:02.799 We are never gonna lie at Metachurch. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:11.759 Here's the truth once you get into the community of believers, the body of Christ, the word stings sometimes. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:13.440 Anybody ever felt that? 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:18.559 The word of God will come and it will hurt. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:24.000 But Jesus is the great physician, he will hurt you to heal you. 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:31.680 And when people create barriers to the grace of God, we are harming, not to heal, we are harming to divide. 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:34.079 We are harming for control. 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:40.480 And so right away we see the tension of the moment. 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:50.160 And yet, there's more because it's not just enough to build bridges and break barriers. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:59.920 There are some people who are so close to getting this right, it's like, look, man, you don't have to wear a suit and tie, and we're gonna make sure our music is really good, and we've got a welcome team. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.559 We get all the extroverts on the welcome team so they can smile at you and you can come in and feel good. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:10.400 But then we think in the modern world that this is church. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:12.640 We did church. 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:16.880 We gathered on a Sunday and we sang songs, and somebody yelled at us for 45 minutes. 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:17.759 We did it. 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.359 And it just takes more. 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:30.559 This thing that we're doing at multiple venues right now, this isn't church. 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:37.359 This is a service for the church to gather. 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:46.640 But you're only really the church when you do church things, and church things don't really actually happen inside the buildings we call the church. 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:56.559 Church things happen when spirit-filled believers get outside of our services, live in the real world, exist in the real world, and bring light to the darkness in the real world. 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:00.160 So let me show you. 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:02.160 We're gonna stay in verse 40. 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:06.559 Let me just show you when the sun was setting, finally, freedom, we can get to Jesus. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:13.119 All those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to him. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:24.960 Notice, it does not say that these people who are so desperately sick that they cannot get to synagogue, that they made their way to Jesus. 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:29.519 It says that the people who loved them brought them. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:35.680 They put their arm over their own shoulders and walked them. 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:38.880 They picked up their mats and carried them. 00:21:39.119 --> 00:21:45.839 They grabbed the hand of their blind brother or sister and they guided them. 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:50.160 They brought them to Jesus. 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:55.039 For seven years now, we've had the same mission statement that has guided us. 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:56.799 It's helped us stay on mission. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.759 This is what we say we do whatever it takes. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:02.400 To get people to Jesus. 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:07.200 We do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus. 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:09.200 Let me use my analogy. 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:14.720 Our job is to build bridges between Jesus and the world. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:19.839 Here's how the church far too often thinks about this grace bridge. 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:27.519 They think you build the bridge, you stand next to Jesus, and you just freaking hope somebody finds their way over it. 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:29.440 You're like, you know what? 00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:38.240 I bet if our music's good enough, then the people who have been hurt by their last three churches will just magically show up in ours. 00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:49.519 Maybe if the preaching is inspired enough, we can just, you know, have a good culture and a nice welcome team, and then people will just magically show up in our services. 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:55.920 If you want to be effective, you must realize that this bridge works in two directions. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:02.640 That we are called to go and to be in the world while not being of the world. 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:15.759 So we are standing shoulder to shoulder with people who need the truth of God, and yet we are shining a bright light into their darkness, and eventually they will go, You've got something I don't have. 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:20.400 You have a story. 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:36.160 And there are believers who have convinced themselves because, you know, and we have some of these stories in our ministry at Metachurch where people were doing hard time, or they were, you know, in a bad way, or they were a significant drug dealer in town, or they were whatever. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:45.359 And then people who were a little more sheltered in their upbringing, they're like, well, I don't really have a story because I wasn't like freaking El Chapo, so I don't really know what to say to anybody about. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:24:02.640 The God who spoke the universe into creation loved you so much he stepped out of perfection into our brokenness, took a cross for you, walked out of a grave for you, redeemed you, tracked you down, called you by name, saved you, redeemed you, made you new, and brought you into his family. 00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:05.119 I promise you have a story to tell. 00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:11.440 Also, and this is a side note, and the Holy Spirit's just kind of putting this on my heart. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:20.720 Sometimes the people who will swear that they don't have a story to tell are also downplaying the severity of their own sin. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:31.200 It is not the severity of your sin that has separated you from God, it is the presence of sin in your life. 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:41.839 All of us have the same need, which is to be covered by the righteousness of Christ, and all of us get there the same way through putting our faith in Jesus. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:50.079 The people who were sick and afflicted did not make their way to Jesus, people took them by the arm, picked up their mats, and carried them to Him, and that is our job. 00:24:52.079 --> 00:25:10.000 And for the believers here at Metachurch, across our venues and online, you are going to work every day, you are going to the gym multiple times a week, you are in community with people who are spiritually sick and dying, and Jesus is just wondering when you are going to decide to do your job, pick them up and bring them to Jesus. 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:20.720 I've said it before, man, but you know, in our different services across our different venues, we have some services that are very full, we don't have many seats, we have some services with quite a bit of wiggle room. 00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:24.000 We should take every seat personally. 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:37.759 Every seat we have and every service we have belongs to someone who is spiritually sick, spiritually dying, and it is our job not to do a good enough Instagram marketing campaign to get them here. 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:39.519 That's really not our job. 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:48.880 It is our job to be in the world, not of the world, sharing our story, shining a bright light, and bringing people to Jesus. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:49.680 Amen? 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:50.559 Amen. 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:51.279 Let's keep going. 00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:52.480 Let's finish out verse 40. 00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:55.839 When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick, they brought them to Jesus. 00:25:55.920 --> 00:26:00.559 And as he laid his hands on each one of them, he healed them. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:11.279 What has struck me is that this passage is like the perfect mix of the morning and the afternoon. 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:13.440 Because it is very public. 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:20.640 I mean, we don't know how many people, Luke doesn't tell us, but like every single sick or afflicted person in Capernaum is coming to him. 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:21.599 It's very public. 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:28.640 But notice it says he laid his hands on every single one of them. 00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:30.640 Every single one of them. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:34.079 Everybody got a moment with Jesus. 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:39.119 It was both public and very intimate. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:41.279 And you need to know this. 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:46.960 You know, I probably should have put it on our screens, but you guys are becoming note takers, you can just write it down. 00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:47.920 Like this. 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:50.720 Jesus wants to save everyone. 00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:53.119 Jesus wants to save everyone. 00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:57.119 Scripture says God desires that all would be saved. 00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:01.440 Jesus wants to save everyone corporately. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:08.079 But Jesus also wants to save everyone. 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:12.240 Every individual. 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:17.599 He could. 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:20.079 He could have just gone, get all the sick people together. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:30.400 I don't want everybody breathing on me, so I'll stand over here, get all the sick people in the same place, and I'll do kind of like, you know, from way downtown, I'll hit them with some healing, and then everyone will get healed. 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:32.559 And once you're healed, we can shake hands or something like that. 00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:36.079 And I'll do like an autograph line, and then you can all go back home. 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:39.680 He wants to save everyone, but he wants to save everyone. 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:46.079 He could have been hinned and just took his jacket off and just slain everybody in the some of y'all don't know Benny Hinn and you're better for it. 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:52.880 Um he wants to save everyone, but he wants to save everyone. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:56.559 And that matters. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:06.319 Because when you only talk about the love of God and the mission of Jesus corporately, it allows people wiggle room to exempt themselves. 00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:10.559 And maybe you've been there and maybe you're there right now. 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:18.079 There was a time in my life where I believed with all of my heart that God could forgive everyone. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:23.680 I also believed that God probably couldn't forgive every one. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:28.319 And so we think of it like this. 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:40.480 Yeah, God loves everyone, and I'm sure he does, like every good person and every religious person, and every like person who hasn't been divorced a bunch of times, and every person without a criminal record, and every person who's not dealing with the addictions I'm dealing with, right? 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:44.960 Like God loves everyone, but then we carve ourselves out of that equation. 00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:55.039 Jesus gave his life for everyone, like sure, just you know, everyone who's like at least decent and isn't just a total degenerate and hasn't completely thrown their life away. 00:28:55.599 --> 00:29:02.319 And so we exempt ourselves, we can believe the love of God for others, but we struggle to believe it for ourselves. 00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:08.400 And Jesus wants to save everyone, but he wants to save everyone. 00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:28.960 And there are so many people surrounding you right now at our venues who are exactly where you are, and they just kept showing up and they were open to what God might want to do, and eventually God was able to break through those barriers and get to their heart. 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:38.480 And I know that, because that's my story, and I know that because I know a lot of you, and I know that that's your story as well. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:44.000 Now I told you this was a perfect mix of week one and week two. 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:46.880 Uh that crossover continues in verse 41. 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:51.279 It says also demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, You are the Son of God. 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:58.319 But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that Jesus was the Messiah. 00:29:58.799 --> 00:30:00.799 Week one, demon exorcism. 00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:04.559 Week two, healing of sickness, week three, both. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:10.319 Also, if you've been paying attention, week one, Jesus rebukes the demon. 00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:12.799 Week two, Jesus rebukes the fever. 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:16.880 Week three, we see Jesus rebuking illness and demons. 00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:28.880 And this matters, and we've said it every week, but I do just want to remind you, and I want to give you some further application, that rebuke requires authority. 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:33.920 And Jesus has all the authority. 00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:39.440 King Jesus has perfect authority. 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:47.519 And so demons cannot stand against him, and illness cannot stand against him, and affliction cannot stand against him. 00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:52.480 I don't really have time to preach on this, but I want to give you something to chew on over the next week. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:31:04.400 Paul says in Corinthians that believers in Jesus are now ambassadors of God crying out for Christ to a broken world. 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:10.400 Do you know technically what it means to be someone's ambassador? 00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:19.519 It means that you have been selected to be empowered with the authority of the sender. 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:29.680 Rebuke requires authority, and when we walk in the power of the Spirit of God, we have authority. 00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:42.240 Now it's very interesting how this starts coming together, and one of the things that's amazing about studying one of the Gospels is there's three others. 00:31:42.400 --> 00:31:48.319 And so you probably know this, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called synoptic gospels. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:50.880 They are giving a synopsis of the life of Jesus. 00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:57.839 Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all very different men who wrote for very different audiences and with very different purposes. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:03.440 And so it's amazing to cross-reference because Luke is a man who is Greek. 00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:07.039 He is writing to a Gentile, a non-Jewish recipient. 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:16.559 Matthew was a deeply Jewish man who was writing to a Jewish audience trying to convince them that the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, pointed to Jesus. 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:25.599 And so I want just really quickly to venture into Matthew chapter 8, and I want you to hear how Matthew tells this exact same moment in the life of Jesus. 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:29.839 It says, when evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:33.440 He drove out the spirits with the word and healed all who were sick. 00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:34.400 Listen to this. 00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:46.960 If you're taking notes, you can write down Isaiah 53. 00:32:47.119 --> 00:32:49.200 This is called the fifth gospel. 00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:55.920 Isaiah 53 is such a specific prophecy about the coming Messiah, the chosen King, Jesus. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.880 And here's why it matters that we make this parallel. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.400 Because Jesus in Capernaum is taking on physical sickness. 00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:08.319 But Isaiah tells us he actually came for more. 00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:18.079 He did not just come to heal our bodies physically, he came to heal us of our sin that is killing us spiritually. 00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:25.279 Now we're staying on mission, and so I want you to pay very careful attention to how chapter 4 closes out. 00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:34.799 Verse 42, when it was day, he went out and made his way to a deserted place, but the crowds were searching for him, and they came to him and they tried to keep him from leaving them. 00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:38.640 Tried to keep him from leaving Capernaum. 00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:43.039 Of course. 00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:05.440 You've got this guy in your town, you can't let him leave. 00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:12.320 You can't let him leave. 00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:24.559 Not only will just everyone be healed and everything will be perfect, you know, the business people in town, the strategist are going, can you imagine the tourism that's about to come to Capernaum? 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:26.800 Can you even imagine it? 00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:28.400 Jesus, what do you need? 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:29.840 Name your price, bro. 00:34:30.159 --> 00:34:32.880 The nicest house in town, we will kick that family out. 00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:34.239 It's your house now. 00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:37.039 The best cook in town will be your private chef. 00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:38.320 What do you need, Jesus? 00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:40.480 Name the price, name the demands. 00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:42.400 We want you in Capernaum. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:46.960 And of course, we would do the same. 00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:53.360 Jesus' response is so important for us as the church. 00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:57.440 The mechanism that builds and expands the kingdom of God on the earth. 00:34:57.679 --> 00:35:01.679 Here's what Jesus says: it is necessary, that's a strong word. 00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:03.119 Like I have to. 00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:13.119 It is necessary for me to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose. 00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:17.440 And he was preaching all throughout the synagogues of Judea. 00:35:17.599 --> 00:35:18.800 It is necessary. 00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:20.639 Why is it necessary? 00:35:21.119 --> 00:35:23.199 Because this is my purpose. 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:31.360 I've told you guys a thousand and one times God created you on purpose, and God created you with purpose. 00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:42.880 Now you have a unique purpose down on like the ground level, which is God wanting to use all that you are and all that you have, your gifting, your personality, your temperament, your upbringing, your background, your network. 00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:44.480 God wants to use all of that. 00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:52.159 We also all share the same big purpose, which is to glorify God and to build and expand his kingdom. 00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:54.320 That's what all of us are called to do. 00:35:54.480 --> 00:35:56.960 That's what the church was created for. 00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:03.119 And here's what modern Christianity has done. 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:30.239 They have built one building, and they have gathered in people that they are comfortable with, and they've created barriers to entry so that the wrong people can't be a part of their club, and they stay in that building three or four or five or six nights a week to hide out from the rest of the big, bad, dark, and sinful world, and they just wait to die so they can finally go to heaven. 00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:43.679 And I can't imagine a more backwards interpretation of the purpose of the church, which is not to hunker down in one location and wait to die so we can go to heaven. 00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:58.079 Our job is to gather together, to meet together so we can go move together, cross that bridge into the world, but not of the world, to people who are already dying and bringing heaven to them. 00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:08.559 We are called to live and to operate in ways where we start seeing evidence of heaven right here on the earth. 00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:15.519 And we should be dead set on building the kingdom of God by doing whatever it takes to get people to Jesus. 00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:19.119 And we should be dead set on expanding the kingdom of God. 00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:20.800 And that can look a lot of different ways. 00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:37.920 Right now, we feel like God has called us as resources and leaders are available to set up new venues of people, just like we have here in Holodas, listening to my words right here, on the same page with us, in community with us, on live teams with us, doing life in another part of our city so that more people can experience this. 00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:44.079 The world is owned right now by the powers of hell, and our job is to take back ground. 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:47.920 We do not do that by sitting still. 00:37:48.239 --> 00:37:52.000 We do not do that by prioritizing convenience and comfort. 00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:58.719 We do that by going, look, I've got to go get people and bring them to Jesus. 00:37:58.880 --> 00:37:59.920 It's necessary. 00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:00.880 Why? 00:38:01.840 --> 00:38:03.840 Because that's my purpose. 00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:12.239 However, we're going to get more ground, planting churches, starting venues, sending people out, I don't care. 00:38:12.559 --> 00:38:16.559 I care about being obedient to the purpose of the church. 00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:19.280