Transcription
Oh yeah. Down. Hey, hey, hey. Down. Hey Hey. Hey. I love you. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey, hey, hey. I feel down, feel down. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Hello. I love you. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.
Welcome to Ada Bible online. So glad that you are connecting with our church. Hey, I know that a bunch of you are regular Ada Bible attenders, and uh, well, you're watching online because you've got sick kids or maybe you're traveling. Whatever it is that's going on in your world, thanks for staying connected. And I know that some of you are watching online because you're checking out Ada Bible Church. Uh, let me take a moment and just tell you a little bit about our church. We're a community of people that uh, wow, we just want to know and follow Jesus, and we want to do this together in relationship. Uh, some things that we're committed to here in our church, uh, teaching the scriptures, passing on faith to the next generation, small groups, environments where we can really connect with each other, and also generosity. Uh, we are investing deeply in local churches here in Grand Rapids and also across the world. So that's just a little bit about Ada Bible Church.
Hey, I don't know what's going on in your life, but if you could use prayer, uh, encouragement, a conversation, I invite you to reach out to us through adabible.info/care; we would love to come alongside you in any way that we can. For the rest of the online service, you're going to be joining our Cascade Campus. And I really hope that our service encourages you in your faith journey. And I hope that you come in person to check out one of our services in the future. Uh, if you're interested, you can check out uh, times and locations on our website. Again, I'm so grateful that you are connecting with us today, and God bless. I want to, I want you. All right. Well, welcome to Ada Bible Church. Let me invite you to stand. We're going to jump right into a time of singing, turning our hearts together to our God in worship. Would you join us?
Come all you weary. Come all you thirsty, come to the well that never runs dry. Drink of the water. Come and thirst no more. Come all you sinners, come find his mercy. Come to the table. He will satisfy. Taste of his goodness. Find what you're looking for. For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us. Whoever believes in him will live forever. Come all you weary. Come all you thirsty. Come to the well that never runs dry. Drink of the water. Come and thirst. Bring all your failures and bring your addiction. Come lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting for God. The world is my son to save us forever. The power of hell forever defeated now is well, I'm walking in freedom for God so love for God so loved the world. Praise God. Praise God from full blessings flow. And praise him. Praise him for the wonders of his love. We praise God. Praise God. Praise him. Praise him for the wonders of his love. For the wonders of his love. For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son to save. For God so love the world that he gave us his one and only son to save us. The power Now I'm walking so bring all your failures and bring your addictions. Don't lay them down at the foot of the cross. Jesus is waiting. God so love the world. Amen.
Well, it is great to see you all. You can have a seat for just a few moments. Uh, my name is Kyle, campus pastor here at the Cascade campus. And if we haven't met, it is great to uh, great to meet you. I know every weekend we have people that are visiting Ada for the very first time. If that is you, special welcome to you. I'm thankful that you are here. Uh, if you want to know more about Ada Bible Church, that's good because I want to, I want you to know more about Ada Bible Church. And often after the service, I'm hanging out back at Next Steps, and I would love to meet you, or you can connect with one of our team members. They'd love to connect with you as well, and uh, tell you more about us. But we're glad you're here, and for all of us to be together is uh, just great, and I'm thankful, uh, thankful for this opportunity. I got a question for you as we begin worship uh, today. And that question is this. It might feel a little weird, but the question is, when was the last time that somebody said the words to you, "I love you," and it meant something to you. And it stuck. Uh, that happened to me this week. I was on the phone with a friend, and we ended our conversation. He said, "I love you, man." And um, it meant something to me. It kind of stuck with me. I said, "I love you back." Um, and it just stayed with me this week. And I thought about that a lot, and it was meaningful. Those moments can be powerful in our life. My hope for you today is that uh, you hear those words, "I love you," from God your father. And uh, we're going to take some time during worship just to sing about that truth that God loves us, to think about that together. And so I just want to invite you into just a few moments of reflection around that idea of God's love for you as we begin worship today. Heat. Heat. singing.
Oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on their cross. For all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love of God. Would you stand as we continue to worship him? It's so good. I almost can't believe it. Far beyond what hearts could ever dream. The God who sets the galaxies in motion would descend to give his life for me. For what could make perfection bleed for sinners? What leads a king to pay so great a cost? All my life my heart will sing the answer. Only the love of God. Singing, "Oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all the days we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love of God. It's so kind. It leads us to repentance. It's so bright the darkness has to flee. Halleluiah. It cleared my guilty sentence. For I was bound, but now I stand redeemed. For what could break the chains of any prison? What force could rock the power from the grave? What would trade my racks for heaven's riches? Only the Lord is the Lord of God. For all our days we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the Lord. Though I try, my mind can't comprehend. It's so high, too marvelous for words. I could sing a million songs about it and never scratch the surface of your worth. This all my life, the banner I'll be waving my anthem cry no matter what may come. And when I rise to walk the streets of heaven, I'll still be singing this song for everything that you love. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. How great is the love of God? How great is the love of God? I love you, Lord. Oh, your mercy never fails me. All my days, I've been held in your hands. From the moment that I wake up until I lay my hand, I will sing of the goodness of God. All my life you have been faithful and all my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God. I love your voice. Cuz you have led me through the fire in the darkest night. You are close like no other. I've known you as a father and I've known you as a friend and I've lived in the good days of God. And all my life you have been faith and all my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God. Your goodness is running out. It's running after me. Your is running after. It's running after me. My life now. I surrender now. I give you everything. Your goodness is running out. It's running to me. Your goodness is running. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. I will sing of the goodness of God. Yes, I will sing of the goodness of God. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior. I surrender all. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, Christ surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
God, we thank you that not only are you a God that we can surrender to, but that you're a God that just loves us so much. So much that you would come here to experience life, to give your life because of your great love. God, I pray in this moment that we wouldn't forget how important, how impactful, how supernatural you are, but that we will be constantly reminded of your love for each one of us. Lord, we love you, and it's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. You guys can go ahead and grab a seat.
At Ada Bible Church, it's our desire to equip you to go deeper in your life with God and to offer practical resources that will help you grow in Christlikkeness in your everyday life. And we created the Ada Bible Academy to do just that. We offer short four-week classes on topics of impact that are important to our faith and issues that we face in everyday life. This spring, we're going to offer two classes, four weeks long. One on spiritual practices and one on parenting to equip you to engage these topics and live out your faith every day in Christlikkeness. In the book of John, Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and life to the full." But what if our spiritual life is meant to be rich and full and vibrant? In this class, "A Deeper Walk, Practices for Life with God," we're going to look at time-tested spiritual practices that have helped believers for centuries in their relationship with Jesus. Learning how to receive the father's love and to go deeper in their relationship with him. Now listen, this isn't about adding more to your schedule or about somehow leveling up in your Christianity, but learning how to create habits to hear from God, to know his presence in your daily life, and to receive the love that he has for you. Now, each week in this class, we'll look at a couple different practices, whether it's Sabbath or fasting, Bible study, or prayer. We're going to learn how these habits influence our relationship with Jesus. And so if you've been following Jesus your whole life or maybe you're brand new to these practices, we believe this is an opportunity for you to go deeper. Would love to have you join us.
Parenting offers some of life's greatest joys and some of life's greatest challenges. I know I'm the parent of three adult children and one beautiful grandchild. and parenting with purpose. Building a faith-filled family. We will uncover some biblical foundations for parenting and some godly wisdom to lead into the joys and find direction in the challenges. Your child is a gift from God, and you, you are a gift to them. He has given you to them on purpose and with a purpose. I, along with our children and student ministries uh leadership, will be leading this class, and we'll uncover topics like biblical foundations for parenting. We'll talk about God-centered worldview and how that helps us to engage worldly patterns. We're going to talk about building a relationship with our kids that helps us to engage some of these social and cultural issues that we're all facing. and we'll have a panel where you can ask some of your very own specific questions. So whether you're early in the parenting stages or whether you have teenagers, I hope you'll join us and be encouraged to parent with purpose. We're really excited for these two courses, and we hope that you can join us for one of them this spring. They start April 17th and they happen at our East Paris campus on Thursday nights from 7 to 8:30 p.m. You can find all the information and sign up at adabible.info, and we hope to see you there. That's going to be some good stuff. Ada Bible Academy u I recommend you get in on that. Uh, I know that those classes tend to fill up quickly, and so you can go to, like she said, adabible.info and sign up for that. But those are going to be really good stuff. I'm excited about that for our church.
Well, and Easter is right around the corner, just three weekends away. And uh, very excited about that and looking forward to that. Uh, as I think about Easter, I have a memory that pops in my head almost every year. Um, go back to my childhood in my church. I'm a pastor's kid. Remember a lady named Dawn. Uh, she invited her neighbors to church and she came up to my dad, you know, the pastor, and was like, "Hey, would you pray that my neighbors would come to church?" And so Easter Sunday came, and you know, people came in, and everybody's dressed up, and we were uh, just excited. I remember that family walking in, finding their seat in the back of the church. They came back the week after that and the week after that, and uh, they, they got in a small group and started studying the Bible, and they eventually put their faith and trust in Christ, and that whole family trusted Christ. That whole family was baptized. They were part of our church for a long time. And I think about that almost every Easter because uh, God used an a simple invitation from a friend, from a neighbor, to bring that family to church for the first time.
A Kyle, thank you so much, man. And uh, can't believe it's been 10 years since your arrival to Aiden Bible Church. And hey, uh, those of you joining with us at our other campuses and some other spaces. Uh, today we get to continue in this series, "The Final Hours." This takes us up to Easter. Senior pastor Aaron Buer covered weeks one and two. And so I'm just so grateful for Aaron's teaching and also for his leadership of Ada Bible Church. and I get to walk us through parts uh, three, four, and five, three weekends in a row. And then uh, Aaron steps back in for Easter weekend. And I just uh, I want to begin with a question. The question is this. Uh, how well do you know somebody? And often in answering how well you know somebody, there's a couple different measurements, but one of them is in years and the other one is in mileage. Because you can say, "Oh, I've known her for 20 years." You go, describe that. Well, we were in middle school together, and uh, I think we're in a couple classes together in high school, and then she moved away from the area, but her family still lives in Grand Rapids. So, I bumped into her a couple times over the years. So, how well do you know her? I've known her for 20 years, my friends. That's years. That's not mileage. There's other relationships though where a woman would say, "Oh, how long have I known her?" "Oh, I've only known her three years, but we roomed for two years when we were in college." Now you know somebody. And one year during spring break, I drove over to Pennsylvania to spend spring break at her family's house. Met her older brother and her younger sister. I can tell you that she likes her coffee with cream but no sugar. That she's allergic to shellfish and that she was vegetarian for about three months and vegan for about 3 minutes. And there was the weekend we went camping. 25% chance of rain. It said 25% chance. And there we are trying to figure out how to set up this tent in a downpour with a soggy box and soggy instructions. And I'm standing up in her wedding next summer. How long have you known her? Only three years. But I'm telling you, it's not the years, it's the mileage.
Today, our story picks up at a point where Jesus has been arrested. He was arrested in an olive orchard, and it's dark. Jesus is bound. I mean, tied up, and he's being carted off to trial. But Peter, Peter is following him and walks into the house, the estate of the high priest where this trial is going to take place. And Peter is camped out at the fire warming his hands outside in the courtyard. You need to so know something. These two people, Jesus and Peter, it's not just the years, it's the mileage. Hundreds of meals, hundreds of miles together. And we watch Jesus. And then we watch Peter tonight. Both of them will be on trial. We observe the trial of Jesus and then we observe the trial of Peter. Both will be interrogated with wildly different outcomes. And as we drop in on these friends, good friends that have had so much mileage together, we're going to be stretched, man. We are going to be stretched. and and we're going to be challenged. In fact, I would dare say we're going to be stretched in some ways we don't particularly want to be stretched and challenged in some directions we don't particularly want to be challenged. In fact, when we come to the end of our teaching today, I'm just going to point out something that I believe is wildly out of balance in relationship to this whole question about who is Jesus and what does it mean to follow him. See, that's why we're going to be stretched. What does it really mean to be a follower? So, may our gracious God open our our hearts and our minds. May we hear his whisper into our lives as we look in on this story today in the final hours.
Before we get to the trial of Jesus, before we get to the trial of Peter, uh, let's just talk about the mileage. The mileage that these two had shared together over the better part of three years. It started beside the Sea of Galilee with these two words, "Follow me." Jesus is uh, Peter is throwing a net into the lake of Galilee. He's with his brother Andrew. Jesus walked by the lake and he says, "Follow me." And Peter does. He leaves his nets and follows Jesus. Later on, but Jesus had dozens of followers, dozens of disciples. Later, he reduces the group to 12. And this is their job description. In Mark 3, he appointed 12 that they might be what? Two words. That they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. This is why these 12 are collected around Jesus. First to be what? Two words. To be with him and then to send him. So what's their job description? Hang out. To be sent out. That's their job description. Hang out. And Peter was with him. He's he's with Jesus. When Peter when Jesus comes inside Peter's house one day in Capernium, Peter's mother-in-law is burning up with a fever. Jesus touches her hand and the fever lifts. Peter is with Jesus when this guy with a skin condition called leprosy crashes at Jesus' feet and says, "Can you help me?" Jesus reaches out and touches the guy and his health is restored and the guy is re restored to health and restored to community. Uh, Peter is with Jesus when he's in a boat and there's this furious we're all going to drown storm and Jesus stands up in the boat and yells cut it out to the wind and the waves and it was calm and the disciples are in the boat going what kind of person are we hanging out with here and he experienced those things because he was what? Two words because he was we together on this one. And he experienced those things because he was what? Two words. with him. And he was with Jesus up north when Jesus threw the question down. Who do people think I am? What's the word on the street? What are people saying? Who do people think I am? And on behalf of the 12, Peter is the one who speaks when Jesus asked the question, "And who do you think I am?" And Peter responds with these words. Peter answer, Peter answered, "You are the Messiah. You're the Messiah. You are the Messiah." Now, Messiah comes from a Hebrew word, but there's two other expressions here. Uh, the Greek word was Christos. So, in Hebrew, it's Messiah. In uh, in uh uh Greek, the Greek trade language, it was Christo, but it really had kingly implications. Uh, Messiah means one with the anointing. King David runs in from the watching the sheep. There's an aged prophet there named Samuel. Takes oil, dumps it on David's head, anointing him as the next king of Israel. This was Messiah, the one with the anointing. We believe you're Messiah, the long promised king. And when you say Jesus Christ, that's not his first name and his last name. It's his name and his title. Jesus, the one with the anointing. Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus the Christ. Jesus the long promised king. But say those words quietly if you are living in first-century occupied Israel, Roman-occupied Israel because there was an emperor in Rome who very much like the title of king and would crush any rival kings and their kingdom. So when Peter says you're the Messiah, those are words you do not yell. They are subversive words. Now you realize what this means for Peter who has been with him hundreds of meals, hundreds of miles. It now means that Peter is right next to this position of power. It means that Peter is right next to this position of respect, this position of authority. And right there when Peter says, "You are Messiah," Jesus drops this bomb, this teaching, he says, "Yeah, yeah. Let's talk about that. That power and authority and honor thing." Jesus says, "What I'm gonna walk through is suffering and rejection, and I'm going to get killed. I'm going to suffer. I'm going to get rejected. I'm going to get killed." Right smack dab in the middle of Mark's gospel is where Jesus drops this. is Mark chapter 8 where he says he began to teach them that the son of man that's what he called himself must suffer many things be rejected by the elders the chief priests and the teachers of the law and that he must be killed and then uh after three days you know rise again guys you don't understand yes I am a king but it might not be the kind of king you're thinking of I'm going to suffer I'm going to get rejected and I'm going to get killed and then Jesus says this That's not just my way. This is your way. Yeah. When I said we can be challenged in some ways we don't particularly want to be challenged and stretched in some ways we don't particularly want to be stretched. Jesus said my path the way of the cross is a path of serving and it's a path of sacrificing and your path as one of my followers is the pathway of serving and sacrificing. And he said this in the strongest, most brutal uh terms. We said in very uh two verses later uh whoever wants to be my disciple. You want to be a disciple? How about you? You want to be a disciple? You want to be a disciple? Okay. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and then take up their cross and follow me. Crucifixion was the worst possible death reserved for the worst possible people. You say, "Oh, you want to be a disciple? Great. Run into the woods over there, get an axe, hack out your own cross, and just carry it around with you." Because the way that I will serve and sacrifice is the way I call you to serve and sacrifice. I've reduced this to one sentence for today. The sentence is this. His way is to become our way. His way is to become our way. And Jesus will repeat this. That's Mark 8. Jesus will repeat this in Mark 9. He will repeat this in Mark 10. I am going to suffer and die and I call you to sacrifice and and to uh to to serve to sacrifice and sometimes to suffer. Uh, his way is to become my way. And the story starts to accelerate and you start to get shocks and then aftershocks. The last week of Jesus' ministry is largely spent here in the temple area. And if you're sitting there in the temple listening to his heat, listening to him teach. You can just feel the intensity and the animosity grow. I think the disciples are there watching him and also watching the leaders and going like they want him gone. And they do. And then comes the last supper together and they're uh eating together. And then Jesus says, "Listen, I need to let you know something. It's going to be one of you guys that stabs me in the back. One of you will betray me. One that has shared hundreds of meals and hundreds of miles with me. Someone who has been with me for more than a couple years. It's going to be one of you guys." Go, well, Judas is going to betray him, but at least he has 11 loyal followers. No. On their way to the olive orchard, Jesus will say, "Listen, you're all going to run." And Peter goes, "Over my dead body. They might run. I never will. My job is to follow you and to be with you." And Jesus looks at him and goes, "Peter, I mean, tonight, man, tonight before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, dawning the mark of a new day. You're like going to disown me three times in one night." And off to the olive orchard they go. Jesus prays. Peter sleeps. And then down the narrow road there's comes a parade of torches and clubs and swords. The betrayers kiss. Jesus is tied and he's taken to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest. And Peter, Peter is following him. But I want you to see very closely the language that Mark uses in letting us know how Peter is following him. Mark 14:54. But Peter followed him. Good. That's your job description, dude. They followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat and he sat with the guards warming himself at a fire. I do not believe it is accidental that Mark chooses the very words that were used at the beginning of the story when their mileage together began. Follow me. Be with me. And here is Peter following. How is it described as following? He's following from a what? From a from a distance. And he's now wi and I go, Peter, what are you doing with the guards? Are you with him or are you with the guards? He's with the guards. Now, I got to I got to drop a question here just I think this is critical. And just the question is this. Are you following at a distance? Are you following but at a distance? If I asked you the question, how long have you considered yourself a follower of Jesus? Some of you would say, you know, I Jeff, I've been a follower for about 30 years. My follow-up question would be, are you following at a distance? And some quite honestly say honestly uh yeah he's in there and I'm out here. He's over there and I'm over here. Yeah, I'm a follower but I I'm following at a distance. And I'm guessing for for for hundreds at our various campuses today, it would be the opposite answer. There'd be hundreds that would say, "No, no, no. I I I kind of like called myself I was kind of Christianish, but I was a nominal Christian. And Jeff, over the last year, year and a half, I have been trying to figure out who is Jesus and what does he want and what does it mean to learn his way and follow him? I mean, I'm not following perfectly, but I'm following closer than I ever have before. What would your answer be? Listen, if your honest If your honest gut answer is, "Yeah, I follow, but I follow at a distance," man, maybe today is the day. Maybe this is the season to close the gap. Peter's outside with the guards warming himself at a fire. Jesus is inside. He's about to get interrogated. I need you to know something. He is outnumbered. He is surrounded. and he is very much alone. So let's move the conversation into the trial of Jesus. And it says that Jesus was brought to the house of the high priest and there was gathered the and they're like listed in three groups. The chief priests, the elders, and the teachers of the law. And there's something called the Sanhedrin that he's in front of. It was if it was a full gathering of the Sanhedrin. This is like a 70-member Jewish Supreme Court. So there's a chief priests, there's the elders, there's the teachers of the law, 70-member
Sanhedrin. And it feels to me like something like this, like Jesus is surrounded, that he's outnumbered, that he is alone. It feels like a bit like he's surrounded by a pack of wolves. And it's lies and accusations, accusations and lies, and he stands there with his hands tied.
Finally, there's a certain accusation that is really kind of interesting. Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him. “Hey, you know what we heard? You know what we heard? We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made by human hands and in three days will build another not made with hands.’ What's up with that?” If all the of all the accusations you can bring against Jesus, we heard him say he was going to destroy the temple and in three days build another one. Why that? Okay. Uh, the temple temple compound uh took decades. King Herod's temple decades uh to build the courtyards and everything surrounding it. And the accusation here is he said he’s going to rip it down and he’s going to build another one in three days. Uh, not made by human hands.
Now this is a this is a distortion of something Jesus actually did say. They twist it and they change the words. What Jesus had said earlier in Jerusalem was this: “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” He’s talking about his crucifixion and resurrection. “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” The reason I believe they brought this accusation—he said he’s going to tear the temple down and build another one—is because they, the Jewish leaders, they don’t want to kill him. They want him dead, but they don’t want to kill him. They want Rome to kill him. And in order to shift the blame over there to Rome, they got to bring some kind of accusation in front of the Roman governor that actually means something to the Romans. So, uh, that that temple there, he says he’s going to destroy the temple. Just curious, does that sound kind of like a riot to you? Like a rebellion? Like an insurrection? “I’m going to come into the capital city and I’m going to tear the temple to pieces.” Does that sound like someone’s taken over, like large and in charge?
Secondly, uh, that first temple—some of you know that this is thousand years before it was king—it was King David who set aside the money to build the first temple and to to do the architectural plans for the first temple. That was King David. He didn’t build the temple, but his son, King Solomon, built the temple. Building temples is something kings do. This temple was constructed by King Herod of Jerusalem. And so I think they think, “If we bring this accusation against him of temple destroyer, temple builder, I mean that kind of has king, insurrection, riot, disruption, authority to rebuild all over it.” Are they going to try to twist that into—but but even those accusations they couldn’t get their witnesses to square on what he actually said?
And so then Caiaphas, that’s the name of the guy who was high priest, the the the religious leader in Israel with the most authority. The high priest just throws down the question just as plainly as he can. Again, the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah? Are you the Christ? Are you the king? The son of the blessed one?” My advice for Jesus is this: Keep your mouth shut. You are not obligated to testify against yourself. “Are you the Messiah?” And this is where Jesus goes, “I am. And you don’t know the half of it. And you will see the son of man sitting on the right hand of the mighty one and coming with clouds of heaven. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one riding on the clouds. The clouds are my ride.” What’s going on there?
What’s going on there is that Jesus is quoting a writing from the prophet Isaiah from 700 years before. If you are the notetaking type, write down Isaiah chapter 7 verse 13. And this was the prophecy of Isaiah. You need to listen clearly. “In my vision,” says Isaiah 700 years before, “in my vision at night, I looked and there before me was one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.” This is what Jesus is quoting. But wait, there’s more. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All nations and all peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. All nations and people of every language will worship him. Jesus said, “Are you Messiah?” “Yes, I am.” But more than that, this prophecy from Isaiah wasn’t just about the coming of the future king. It was about God coming. And Jesus says, “Yeah, that’s me. That’s me. I am the one from Isaiah’s prophecy who will receive worship from every language and every people.” Now, that wasn’t just something that would matter to Rome that he called himself a king. This is like to claim equality with God in that culture. It’s called blasphemy, and it was punishable by death. Caiaphas rips his clothes. “What do you think? Kill him, and the next day he will be led off to the Romans.”
But the brutality begins here. Then some began to spit on him, blindfold him, struck him with their fists, said, “Prophesy.” And the guards took him and beat him. Blindfold him. Prophesy. I think the sense here is that his guys are taking a swing at him. It’s just going to, “Hey, you’re some great prophet, who just hit you.” Spit, hit, mocked, and taunted. Spit, hit, mocked, and taunted. And Jesus had told his disciples, “This is exactly where this story is going. I’m going to suffer. I’m going to get rejected. And I’m going to get killed.” And it’s happening now. Spit, hit, mocked, and taunted. Jesus would say, “I have come to reverse the curse by being cursed. I I’ve come to bring a healing by getting torn up. And I’ve come so that outsiders would be invited in. But I’m going to get tossed out, spit, hit, mocked, and taunted. And this is just the beginning.”
And there’s just something in me right now that just kind of goes, “Listen, I want to follow Jesus. I just don’t want to follow him there.” I want to follow Jesus. I just don’t I I don’t want to follow him there. And and not just talking about this moment uh on on trial for his life. I’m just, you know, when Jesus whispers to you, “You need to forgive her,” I don’t want to forgive her. “What she did was harmful and it was hurtful and I think it was hateful.” Yeah. “That’s why forgiveness is required. I need you to forgive her.” I don’t want to forgive her. “I forgave you. Thank you very much.” I don’t want to forgive her. I’m not going to forgive her. See, I want to follow Jesus. I I just don’t want to follow him there. “You need to be kind to them.” You got to be kidding me. “I I despise their agenda. I I loathe what they are about. And quite frankly, I despise them and I loathe them.” Oh, and “I need you to be kind to them.” When we talked about “love your enemies,” what did you think I was talking about there? And listen, when you were lost and a runaway, did I not show my kindness to you? Thank you very much. I’m not going to be kind to them. I want to follow Jesus. I just don’t want to follow him there. “Look, I want to serve, but not in a way that will lock down my schedule and interfere with options I might have.” You’re talking every Wednesday afternoon at 3, two Sunday mornings a month. I I want to follow Jesus. I just the serving thing, I just don’t want to follow him there. Sacrifice. I want to sacrifice financially, but not in any way that could limit the stuff that I want to buy. And suffering. When listen, when you draw near to someone in a season of tragedy, when their life has been upended, if they are dealing with vast and depressing disappointment, as you draw near to that, you start to enter into their suffering. Their suffering becomes your suffering. Go, Jeff, being around that person just doesn’t take me to a happy place. I want to follow Jesus. I just don’t want to follow him there.
And when the thought occurs to you, we need to be fully aware of something. We’re not alone. Because Jesus is inside on trial, spit, hit, mocked, and taunted. Peter is outside and he’s warming his hands by the fire, and his face is illuminated by the dancing flames. And there is a servant girl that walks by and sees him, and then starts to check him out. And the servant girl goes, “You’re one of his guys, aren’t you?” Servant girl. Ser girl. Servant girl. Is she 13? We move from the trial of Jesus to the trial of Peter. Servant girl passes by. Note the language. “You also were with the Nazarene Jesus,” she said. Inadvertently, she has stumbled upon Peter’s job description. “You were with him, weren’t you?” But he denied it. “I don’t I don’t know understand what you’re talking about.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Peter. You’re lying and denying your calling to follow and to be with him.” My advice, get away from that fire where people can see your faith face. And he moves to the entryway. Now, the entryway is also the exit way, you know, just in case you have to make a break for it. I’d be near a door up from the fire to the entryway. Oh no, here she comes again. When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.” And again, he denied it. Now, Peter, maybe they can’t see your face as well away from the fire and out by the entryway, but they can still hear your voice. And Peter’s voice had a very distinct regional accent. Not the accent of someone born and raised down in Jerusalem, but the accent of someone up north in Galilee. After a while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you’re one of them. You’re a Galilean, man. We can hear it in your voice.” And he began to call down curses and swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about,” and a rooster crowed and he hits him like a ton of bricks. Jesus’ prediction that before the night was out he would disown him three times and what he had just done and we he goes out into the street and he broke down and he wept. He just breaks down and he starts to cry. And a whole lot of us know the tears of Peter. We’re sad for him, but we’re sad for us. It reminds us of our straying. It reminds us of our sadness over following from a distance for so long and maybe the mess we made in the process and the harm that we caused to others. I I just think that a whole bunch of us here are familiar with the tears of Peter.
Okay, spoiler alert. Jesus is going to come back in a few weeks. Easter Sunday, three weekends from now. He’s spoiler, he’s going to come back. When Jesus comes back, some of the women who experienced the resurrection are told, “Now go tell his disciples and Peter that there’s going to be a reunion and I’m going to meet up with him.” “Tell the disciples and Peter.” Why the whole and Peter thing? I think Peter needs to know that he’s still on the team. See, in this story, tears do not get the final word, man. And what if what if what if a first step toward finding our way back home is deep sadness over having gotten so lost. Peter’s out in the street. Watch him. He’s just crying out there. I think he’s already on his way home. “Peter, what’s your job? It’s to follow him and it’s to be with him. Are you with him?” “Not tonight. I wasn’t.” This statement here, I think, is significant. Just to serve and sacrifice is not just the way of Jesus, but the way of his followers. Um, can I can I get you to to read that one out loud with me? Ready? “Serve and sacrifice is not just the way of Jesus but also the way of his followers.” And you go, “Yeah, okay. Thank you.” No.
Um, I mentioned at the top that I think there’s something that’s gotten just wildly out of balance. I think it’s worth talking about. May I scribble for us? Here we go. Yes. A playground teacher taught over here. And I’m going to put a B here. The benefits of following Jesus, and they are many. The benefits of following Jesus. Let’s start here. He loves you no matter where you’ve been. He loves you no matter what you’ve done. His death covers your sin. No, no, no, no. It’s not just that he ignores the sins of the past, baby. They’re covered. They’re paid for. God is good. God is kind. God is loving. God is patient. The benefits of the gospel. And these are all true. But then up here on this end, we’ve got the demands of the gospel. And it is possible in our minds to concoct a version of Jesus that offers everything but requires little by way of serving, sacrificing, and sometimes suffering. It’s out of balance. Listen to Jesus speak. “My forgiving you was designed to transform you into a forgiving person.” It’s there in the Lord’s prayer. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” the blessings and the demands. “I want you to know my love and I want you to know my kindness because I desire to transform you into a radically loving person filled with self-giving. I am going to give my life away and I will call you to give your life away.” My friends, I just think these are wildly out of balance and there’s a reason for that. Many of you were raised in a rules-driven religious environment. Do more, try harder, do more, try harder, do more, try harder. And one day you started to come in contact with the mercy of God and the grace of God and the love of God for you. And it was life-changing and should be. Uh, earlier in the service we sang this song. We sang uh, “His goodness is running after me,” a song about the goodness of God. But we followed that by singing the song “I surrender all.” What I’m trying to say here is this: I think we are way overdue for a rebalancing where we see both the remarkable benefits Jesus brings to the gospel and then also the call to follow to follow closely and to be with the demands of the gospel. Someone pointed out to me last week, “Remember Jeff, the demands are also the benefit.” As I’m transformed day by day into a person of forgiveness, as I’m transformed into a person who’s willing to give my life away and to give sacrificial love as God transformed me, that is also the benefit. And this isn’t this is God’s job and this is my job. Both of these are the work of Christ. So what I got to do now is I I just got to ask you to focus on to focus on one relationship because if the point of the message was simply “get out there and suffer more,” thank you. Not sure I know what to do with that. So can get you to focus on one relationship and just some some images here just to get you thinking. One relationship, I mean someone in your life whose world has been upended. They are passing through trial, tragedy, suffering, extreme disappointment. And already in this sermon, you think, “Oh my goodness, uh, I need to move toward them and it’s going to cost me something.” That is the one relationship where I think God may be leading me to serve in this season. That might be that may be one for you to think of, one relationship. Those of you living under your parents’ roof, I’m speaking here to the seventh grader and also to the person in their mid-20s who between things lands back at home for a little while. I would plead with you to see yourself as a fellow servant in the household because for years, particularly when you were little, others served you. But this critical transition, whether seventh grade or mid-20s, where I see myself as a follower of Christ, as a fellow servant in the household, what I’m trying to say here is this: We are eager to change the world and slow to load the dishwasher, one relationship. Could that be a relationship in serving your parents or a younger sibling, younger brother, sister? I don’t know for you. Uh, bunch of you are not married. A bunch of you are. Marriage sometimes is not a happy place. Chris and I are in a great season. We’ve gone through whole seasons where we just struggled just to try to like each other. What’s it like to approach a difficult husband, a difficult wife, or a husband or wife in a difficult season and just go, “Man, how can I serve them?” “If I serve him, then he will change.” I don’t know. I know that it changes you. And often uh someone pulls a couple aside and said, “Man, you guys are different than you were two or three years ago. You’re just different. What happened?” And they say, “Well, nothing big, but something small repeated.” Uh, we just began to look for ways to serve each other again and again and again in little ways and it’s transforming us. This happens, you know, and not occasionally. What am I after? Just one relationship. One relationship. One relationship. What would that relationship be for you? Where you say, “Okay, I think my gracious God is calling me there to sacrifice and to serve.” At work, at work, there’s a common drama that is played out where praise is hoarded and blame is shifted. What’s it like to absorb some blame and to shift the praise? Some of you go, “Right there, right there, right there, right there.” A friend group, a family, a job site, an office, a factory floor. Where is it? One relationship where you could follow Jesus more closely. I’m here to serve because that’s what he was about. I’m here to sacrifice because he was that’s what he was about. And this statement here, just the last statement, it’s his way is to become my way. And man, I won’t do that perfectly, but his way is to become my way. Jesus had a term for that. The term he used was greatness. The pathway of serving and sacrifice is the pathway of greatness. And day by day, we begin to discover that the demands are the benefits.
Let me ask you to stand here at Cascade and our other campuses as well. Listen, I get to pray for us as we move into our week. I do not know what challenges you will be facing and what complications are on your horizon, but I ask that our gracious God would carry you through next week. That he would be with you. That he would give you courage. That he would give you a heart to follow, and that you that you would begin to experience the blessing and the reward of following closely. May he give you wisdom in your decision. May King comfort in your loss and peace in your storm. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen. We’ll see you next week. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Everybody feel—Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. down. Hey Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, baby. Hey.