Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 6)
2020: A Year of Celebration!
“Finding the Hope we Need!”
Key Verses: Romans 8:37-39
The Resurrection Narrative: Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20
Written and delivered by Pastor Jerry Ingalls from the building of the First Baptist Church of New Castle, Indiana through an on-line service to the Church of Jesus Christ.
Resurrection Sunday April 12, 2020 (Easter)
COMMUNION MESSAGE
Let us set the stage for communion this Easter 2020, in these very uncommon days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He is risen! _______________This is normally where I would hear hundreds of people saying in response: “He is risen indeed!” I am saddened that I am being greeted in person by less than nine people. But, it is for good reason that the hundreds of us who wanted to gather today did not because to not meet is the right thing for us to do.
In addition, I believe that our not gathering is neither a violation of our constitutional rights nor of our biblical mandate to not forsake the gathering of the saints. It’s neither! I directly, yet gently, say that knowing that some of my fellow pastors passionately disagree.
We are choosing to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word, online, because, at this unique moment in our lives, to do anything other than that is a violation of our chief evangelistic deed: To love our neighbors as ourselves! We don’t want our words of love and our deeds of love to cancel one another. Right now, we love our neighbors as ourselves by being the very best partners with our local hospitals and health departments that we can be in order to love our neighbors more than we love our own traditions and practices. We are called to fast these for a few months to actually live out our faith with full sincerity and conviction.[1]
Church, we’ll be together soon. I don’t know when, but be patient and trust God. We are prayerfully making the sacrifices necessary to speed our way through these uncommon days.
Here is the truth that I want you to come to the Lord’s Table knowing: Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
Paul teaches us this mindset in Romans 8:37-39, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Because of this truth, I can declare to an empty worship center the promise of the empty tomb without losing my hope. Because: HE IS RISEN! Nothing changes that! NOTHING changes the victory we have because of Jesus; therefore, let us view the world through these glasses—with hope, a hope that can look upon suffering and death and not lose perspective.
We are not victims of circumstances or chance. We are victors—more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. Our circumstances don’t determine our hope! The hope we need to face our circumstances is found in the empty tomb! HE IS RISEN! Yell it out… Proclaim it!
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
Listen to the word of the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 15:17-22,
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Serve Communion: Let us respond to this truth by coming to the Cup of Grace together. The Table of the Lord is open and all who are have been invited by Jesus are invited to participate with us in the remembrance of Him—our Lord Jesus’ sacrifice, His death and resurrection, for our eternal life. (lead in partaking from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Pray for all who have partaken in this meal and for God’s grace upon all who would receive.
Response Song: “Draw Me Close”
SERMON
That is the perspective we have today, after thousands of years of reflection—time gives meaning to events in history! Events are pregnant with meaning at the time, but it is hard to find meaning in the midst of a major, world-changing event when you are in the middle of it.
This was even true for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even at the resurrection, which we gather to celebrate today, there was unbelief, fear, and confusion.[2] The Bible doesn’t hide the real emotions of the first followers and disciples, we just read right over them.
Listen to some key words from the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
- Matthew 28:5 & 10 “Do not be afraid” and v. 8, “afraid yet filled with joy…”
- Mark 16:6, “Don’t be alarmed” and v. 8 “Trembling and bewildered…they were afraid.”
- Luke 24:5, “In their fright…” and v. 8 “Then they remembered…”
- John 20:11, “crying” and the resurrected Jesus said in v. 19 “Peace be with you!”
The closest followers of Jesus experienced a full range of emotions on the first Easter morning because they did not have perspective, yet! The same is true for those of us who are trying to faithfully walk through the COVID-19 pandemic. We need time and separation from the event to give the event meaning. We have neither—time nor separation—in our current crisis, yet.
Let’s process our current situation and then learn how we can apply today’s teaching to it: Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
A Christian author recently wrote in his blog, “It’s like there’s a dark cloud called COVID-19 hovering over us. It’s generating worry, irritableness, and especially tiredness.” Then he asked, “What is the dark cloud? What is it that is sapping our energy and causing stress reactions?”[3]
The answer is grief. I know it sounds weird, but I have been grieving all week in anticipation of not getting to hear hundreds of people cry out with conviction and hope, “He is risen indeed!” Could you text Ken or me, or FB post, or YouTube comment “He is risen indeed” right now so we can encourage each other? Please…that will do my heart some good. We need one another!
There is a sense of grief that is touching many of our lives in ways that have not been experienced in our well-regimented, orderly lifestyles as 21st century Americans. We are a time- driven culture. We are a people with a plan and have devices or planners to keep us on track. We get upset when things don’t start on time or take too long, by our own standard of effectiveness and efficiency. We are driven, but that leads to us being an intolerant and impatient people! What gets in our way of accomplishing our goals makes us angry…
It’s like there is a dark cloud hovering over us!
There is loss of safety from so many people getting sick from COVID-19, suffering, and dying.
There is loss of jobs, routines, and money.
There is loss of fun events and freedom of movement.
There is loss of opportunities to “touch” friends and extended family.
There is loss of gathering physically and doing life together.
There is loss of the security and safety of the “normal” life; whatever that means to you.
We do not know what to do for such a devastating event as COVID-19, because it is disrupting everything, right here and right now, and it has dangerous potential for the future, so we grieve and we start anticipating in our hearts and minds our worst fears. That is called “catastrophic thinking” and that leads to anxiety today and dread for the future, and we don’t quite know what to do about it or what to think about it. If we are not careful, that becomes depression and our hope bucket gets drained… And without hope, we die from the inside out…
It’s like there is a dark cloud hovering over us!
Like with any grief process, people are dealing with it differently. People are going through the five stages of grief: Denial; Anger; Bargaining; Sadness; and Acceptance.
Some of us are living in one specific state and others of us are oscillating through multiple stages in any given day or in any given conversation. Unfortunately, many Christians are living in denial and call it faith. Then they are controlled by what they are unwilling to recognize within themselves: real emotions revolving around a very real event that is affecting every aspect of life.
In a recent article called “That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief,” the leading expert in the study of grief, Dr. David Kessler, stated about our current crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic,
We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air. We’re feeling that loss of safety. We are grieving.[4]
I was talking (via email) to a friend about “anticipatory grief” and my friend said to me,
As followers of Christ, we have the advantage of hope, which may help combat the grief and trauma, but I also think we need to give ourselves some space and remind ourselves that it is okay to not be okay right now. The way we experience spiritual health in this time is that when we feel the need to attempt to escape that we escape into the arms of Jesus and not into the things the world says will bring us comfort.
We do need to cling to Jesus and the victory God has given us in Jesus Christ! His death on the Cross and His defeat of death—the resurrection—do give us a hope that is bigger than our circumstances, but that doesn’t mean we put on blindfolds to our circumstances! We hope in the New Heaven and the New Earth, but we live right here, smack dab in the middle of a broken, hurting, down-right scary world.
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
In 1 Peter 1:3-6, Peter trumpets the hope we have from the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the midst of a broken world with trials and temptations, suffering and grief,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
People are suffering in real ways, people are dying, there is real reason to grieve and we can’t add a layer of Christian guilt for experiencing grief, sadness, anger, or anxiety. Complicating your grief process with layers of guilt for having real emotions, covered by a veneer of self-imposed Christian platitudes does neither yourself nor others any good. Can I just say that this is hard and I want it to be over? I want people to stop getting sick, stop dying, and I want our lives to go back to “normal”, whatever that even means for any of us.
My faith, and even the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, does not stop me from being human—a real person who needs sleep, rest, healthy nutrition, relationships, and emotional well-being. And trust me that I have tried really hard to live a super-human life. It doesn’t work, not for long…
As the leading expert on grief teaches,
There is something powerful about naming this as grief. It helps us feel what’s inside of us. Fighting it doesn’t help because your body is producing the feeling. If we allow the feelings to happen, they’ll happen in an orderly way, and it empower us. Then we’re not victims.[5]
The victory of the resurrection is that I can face today and every day, of not only this COVID-19 pandemic, but of whatever may come in this fallen, broken and scary world, with HOPE![6]
As Paul triumphantly declares in 1 Corinthians 15:54b-57, “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is my deepest prayer that today, this day we call Easter, the Holy Spirit will fill up your own personal “hope bucket” to overflowing! Hope doesn’t come from what’s happening out there (in our circumstances) or even what’s happening in here (in our heads and hearts), hope is firmly established in the fact that the tomb is still empty! Hope is a gift from God!
Yes, grieving the effects of the fall and the brokenness of this creation is a real part of life and our faith does not stop that from being our reality. But we do not grieve without hope!
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, Paul teaches us, “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep [people will still die], or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him [the resurrection from the dead].”
Suffering and death have always been a part of living in a fallen and broken world. One thousand years before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 43:5 a call and response to God in our grief: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
So let’s try our Easter call and response again: He is Risen! He is Risen INDEED!
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
The hope we have in Christ gives us purpose and resolve to live with hope even when we have not yet found meaning in our suffering, or in the current COVID-19 pandemic. We do not need to wait to find meaning in our own suffering because we can trust that God is with us. This does not need to make sense to us, right now and right here.[7]
Patience in our circumstances and trust in God allow us to remain faithful and not paralyzed by grief, fear, or anger. Let us remain mindful of God’s presence in our circumstances and through these difficult times! That is His promise—God is with us!
Suffering and death are pervasive and intrusive experiences for all people! And in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death has been reframed so that we can see an old picture with a new perspective. Death has been swallowed by the victory of Jesus Christ and it now stands within the boundaries of God’s all-embracing love! We are no longer alone; God is with us!
There is a lot of suffering, here and now, and if the predictions of medical experts are accurate, we are going to see much more suffering in the coming weeks. Jesus never promised us we wouldn’t suffer, but that He would be our Good Shepherd through it and with us in it.
Hebrews 5:7-8 teaches us, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”
And this is why we must remember that Jesus’ suffering did not have the last word, because the Passion of the Christ led to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Good Friday happened but Sunday came!
It may feel like we are stuck in one long Good Friday, filled with suffering, but let us remember that Sunday has already came and death no longer has the last word. May we trust the Good Shepherd and the Hope He has given us. I join in the ancient prayer, written 3,000 years ago, relevant today during this COVID-19 pandemic: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
Jesus’ victory gives us the hope we need to face life and death with a victorious mindset!
You can listen to this message here:
To watch the video click HERE
FOOTNOTES:
[1] One of our church’s elders responded to this section with the famous quote of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” The more nuanced quote is actually, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
[2] A friend commented on this statement, “Just as it’s hard for us to see meaning in our current events, it is just as hard for us to have perspective that there was unbelief, fear, and confusion in the time of the Passion of Christ. We know how the story ends, so we view every event through the lens of victory (meaning)! But the people who were living it in real time were questioning their decisions and searching for meaning as their lives seemed to be falling apart around them.”
[3] Bill Gaultiere, PhD. https://mailchi.mp/soulshepherding.org/covid-19-help-for-grief?e=b4a0884ffa. Accessed April 8, 2020. There is a merging of Dr. Gaultiere’s thoughts on grief and my own in the introduction.
[4] Scott Berinato. https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief. Accessed April 8, 2020.
[5] Ibid.
[6] The same elder reminded me of the quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
[7] My friend wrote of this, “This is where the concept of ‘daily bread’ really seems to matter. There’s nothing wrong with seeking meaning, but lacking meaning does not give us license to sit down and quit in this moment. God supplies us what we need for each day as it comes, and we have a rare opportunity right now to live more presently than we have likely ever allowed ourselves to do in our lifetimes.”
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Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 5)
2020: A Year of Celebration!
“Comfort the Suffering!” (Part 2)
Key Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Crucifixion Narrative: Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19
Written and delivered by Pastor Jerry Ingalls from the building of the First Baptist Church of New Castle, Indiana through an on-line service to the Church of Jesus Christ.
Today is Palm Sunday. On this day we enter “Holy Week” or the “Passion Week”. It is a week normally filled with times set apart for silence & solitude, prayer & reflection, special gatherings and times in remembrance of Jesus and His Passion. During this unique time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are doing our best to both protect you by keeping you home and not inviting you into a situation that is potentially harmful to you and dangerous for your neighbor, while still bringing to you special services online (Holy Thursday & Good Friday at 6:30 pm) and times to take communion in your own home during the Holy Thursday Service at 6:30 pm and Resurrection Sunday Service at 10:30 am this Easter Sunday.
Let’s talk briefly about the opportunity for you to take communion in your home twice this coming week. As your pastor, this is a “seize the moment” opportunity. For me, it is beautiful and empowering, to invite you to the Table this Thursday night and next Sunday morning, for each of your households to learn how to participate in the common cup of Jesus Christ in your own home. I discern that this is an important step for many of us: to bring communion home and to empower parents and grandparents to be the spiritual leaders of their own households. For you to see your home as sacred and yourself as a spiritual leader to your family. God has called you to this and has already empowered you with His presence. So, when you go pick up your eggs and milk this week, pick up some grape juice and bread. Nothing costly or fancy is required. Have them ready for Thursday night at 6:30 and Sunday morning at 10:30. Call the church office or click on the contact us button on the webpage if you can’t shop right now or have questions.
On a personal note: I do miss our gatherings, there is something significantly missing in our lives when we can’t gather together on a regular basis. This grieves me more than you know: We lose so much of what God calls us to be as the community of God’s family when we think we can do church in our own homes, not physically with our brothers and sisters, but there is no other right or reasonable way to face these difficult days, so we must make do and make the best use of technology. I ask you though to allow yourself to anticipate our coming back together, to let the hope of our physical proximity one day to cause you to realize the importance of our weekly gatherings as a significant part of your future life, on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic. Until then, please remain home and live in agreement with all efforts for community well-being.
Many of us are praying and hoping we can be together soon, Lord willing in May. I love you and miss you! Your pastors, elders, and leaders honestly hope the daily phone messages, the weekly emails, and the online services through our webpage, FB Live, and YouTube are helping each of you. That the www.rightnowmedia.org resources are helping you grow in Christ. Please also utilize the new google spreadsheet, that we have sent out twice, to ensure every person in our congregation is being connected with personally. I can sincerely say that we are doing our best in these difficult days to communicate with you and to help keep people personally connected. These are difficult times for all of us. Please pray for us, as we pray for you.
In today’s teaching, we are going to continue to learn what I introduced to you last week: Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering! Our primary scripture for this lesson is from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3-5,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
I hope you took time to read through the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 26-27, this week If so, you saw that Jesus was “social distanced”, to the max! In Matthew 26-27 Jesus was:
- Abandoned by people: Matthew 26:69-75;
- Betrayed by people: Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 47-56;
- Condemned by people: Matthew 27:1-5; 24-26;
and then Jesus
- Died on the Cross for all people: Matthew 27:32-66
This is the extravagant love and amazing grace of our God for the world! Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering!
We are now going to focus on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As I prepared for this sermon, I studied not just the Matthew 27 account of Jesus’ death, but also Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. During this Holy Week, I encourage you to saturate yourself in these four accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion and the immediate events that led up to the Cross of Calvary. Once again, you will find those accounts in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. Please read them and allow the extent of Jesus’ suffering for us to pierce your own heart and mind.
Listen to what the finished work on the Cross of Calvary has made possible for you. Paul’s words from Romans 8:1-4,
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
This is the Good News of Jesus Christ: There is no condemnation for those who belong to God in a relationship with Jesus! On the Cross, Jesus faced the horror of taking on Himself all of humanity’s sin even though He never sinned Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21) and in doing so Jesus experienced becoming the curse—He was cut off from God (Galatians 3:13), becoming the forsaken of God in our place (Matthew 27:46, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me”). Jesus took the punishment for sin; so that, we can have God’s favor and protection in our lives—the blessing of never having to face God’s wrath and condemnation (John 3:18, 36).
Jesus came into this broken world to heal it! In fact, Jesus gave Himself over to death so that we can have life, not just eternally with Him, but also abundantly (John 10:10). The abundant life means our lives are filled with God’s peace and power through His presence in us. The abundant life includes an invitation to join with Jesus in the work of healing by how we respond to our own and other’s suffering: the grief, pain, anger, isolation, and loneliness of these dark days.
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering!
Are you willing to share with Jesus in His suffering, so that you can share with Him in bringing comfort to others? How are you reaching out to people during the coronavirus pandemic?
Jesus knows your suffering and can sympathize with you. You are not alone in your loneliness, isolation, or suffering and in fact, the God of peace is with you. God knows how to care for your needs. I invite you to “be still” and listen to God in this time. Truly listen. Set apart a space in your home and prioritize time every day to stop for 10 minutes to simply “be still”.
Please guard your mind against the lies of the world and your heart from the heavy loads of people’s brokenness and despair. You are not the sum total of your own or other people’s choices—do not be a slave to fear, because you are a beloved child of God!
A friend said to me about this truth,
When circumstances around us change, whether due to our decisions, the decisions of others that affect us tangibly, or things that are legitimately out of our control, it is easy to become defensive, embarrassed, or withdrawn when we can no longer present that image of “The American Dream” or whatever standard we feel we are expected to achieve. But, if our aim is to place our identity as a child of God in the forefront of our minds, then just maybe “the things of Earth will grow strangely dim.”
When we stop and listen for God through His Word and through prayer, He changes our perspective, but we must learn to “be still”—to quiet all the other voices and focus on our minds on God’s promises and God’s ways. We don’t know the ‘why’ of this present darkness, but we can know the ‘how’ of our response to dark days: to live by faith today, with hope for tomorrow! Shine the Light of the Word for all to see the glory of God in and through us (Matthew 5:14-16).
How do we shine brightly like stars in this dark night?
In Romans 12:9-21, Paul teaches us how to live the hope given to us through Jesus Christ:
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty [proud/arrogant], but associate with the lowly [humble/meek]. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering! Your days are in His hands and His hands were spread as the East is to the West on the Cross of Calvary so that you can overcome evil with good, here and now, today. This is the work of the Cross for you, in you, and through you!
Remember, God is not surprised by COVID-19. Never forget, that His Church is His Plan A to bring comfort to those who are suffering in this world! You and me! Bring the comfort that Jesus Christ has given you to the world that so desperately needs comfort in the midst of such horrific suffering.
Don’t let the hurts of this life determine the way you live your life. Here is a testimony from a friend in our church, “This is a thought I have to remind myself of almost daily. Sometimes I truly feel personally victimized by my own life… The nights we have laid in bed and said to the other person ‘did today even really happen?’ But I find resilience in Christ. Not in a trite, cross-stitched platitude kind of way, but in the sense that I wrestle with Jesus about what on Earth He is doing in my life and why things are allowed to happen and what their larger purpose can possibly be; without exception, these times of seeking understanding have driven me closer to Christ and never further away.”
There is a lot of suffering, here and now, and if the predictions of medical experts are accurate, we are going to see much more suffering through April and into May. But Christ never promised us we wouldn’t suffer. We are suffering as co-heirs with Christ.
In John 16:33, Jesus told His disciples to expect suffering and not lose focus, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Praise God for the finished work of the Cross!
Jesus is our Comforter and He can commiserate with us because he has suffered greatly! His suffering gives our suffering perspective! His actions for us gives our actions direction and focus!
I pray for all who are in Christ Jesus: May the Holy Spirit who lives in you activate in your heart and mind the promises of God and cause you to live with faith, hope, and love. May the Comforter lead you as you pray for God’s daily direction through this time of suffering.
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; therefore, let us comfort those who are suffering!
You can listen to this message here:
To watch the video click HERE
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Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 4)
2020 Sermon Series #2:
“Comfort the Suffering!” [Part 1 of 2]
Key Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Passion Narrative: Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 47-56, 69-75; 27:1-5, 24-26, 32-66
Today, we enter back into our series of messages on the Passion of Jesus Christ. Here is the big point of today’s sermon: Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering! Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
We think of Jesus’ suffering as primarily on the Cross of Calvary, but can you imagine the agony Jesus faced as He was abandoned by all of His closest friends, betrayed by one of them which led to incredible suffering at level of His human experience, and condemned to death by both the religious and political courts of His day. Jesus suffered all this so that, through putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we will never be abandoned, betrayed, or condemned by God. Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
I want you to realize how much God loves you and to what cost He demonstrated His love for you—not as a theoretical idea, but as a visceral reality—and how much security you have in your relationship with God. When we realize this, our faith response is to comfort those who are suffering—to be the hands and feet of Christ in a world that needs the saving love of the God. A world filled with people who are very obviously experiencing our fallen nature and who are living in the effects of a very broken world—death, loneliness, suffering… the list is too long.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20th century church martyr who stood up against evil and would not let the gates of hell prevail, said in his most famous of works, Cost of Discipleship,
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “[you] were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.[1]
God is with us through this because He has already poured out His wrath on Jesus as the propitiation for not only our sins, but “of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, 4:10) and He is now working to draw all people to Himself (John 12:32). The Church must seize this moment to lift up Jesus Christ and be the hands and feet of Christ to a world that God is redeeming and will one day make His home with us, in the New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 21—22)!
As you read through the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 26-27, you see that Jesus was “social distanced”, too. To the max! As I read through Matthew 26—27 Jesus was:
- Abandoned by people: Matthew 26:69-75;
- Betrayed by people: Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 47-56;
- Condemned by people: Matthew 27:1-5; 24-26;
and then Jesus
- Died on the Cross for all people: Matthew 27:32-66.
What love! What grace! Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
I proclaim that “God is with us” because of the Passion of Jesus Christ, His finished work on the Cross, and His resurrection! The author of Hebrews teaches us in Hebrews 4:14-16,
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Because of what Jesus Christ has done and His finished work, you can hang on tightly to the following promises of God:
- In John 10:27-30, Jesus explains, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
- In Romans 8:38-39, Paul declares, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- In 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, Paul proclaims, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
- In Hebrews 13:5-6, the author commands, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”
Apart from the vicarious suffering and death of Jesus Christ, none of these promises could be yours. Through a faith response to Jesus Christ, all of these promises are yours.
What will you do with all that God has blessed you with through His suffering?
Right now, with the ongoing onslaught of the novel COVID-19 pandemic, people are scared and we are experiencing “social distancing,” which is increasing the enemy’s tactics of isolation, loneliness, anxiety, and fear. States are closing up, travel restrictions are tightening, colleges, schools, and churches have gone on-line, non-essential businesses have closed their buildings, including community gathering places such as churches, local restaurants and businesses, and social organizations like the YMCA. People are rightly taking robust steps of precaution to preserve their lives and the lives of their communities, such as not gathering in groups larger than 10 and keeping social distances over 6 feet.
While this has felt like a military siege operation by an invisible enemy, we as a church are inviting you to seize the moment: We are asking you to pray and to ask God for everyday opportunities to bring faith, hope, and love to our communities and the world. That is what my daily phone calls are attempting to do: To encourage you to seize the moment and to be on mission as more than a congregation who meets in a building once a week, but as the Church.
Our congregational community and our congregational work cannot be closed because WE ARE THE CHURCH! Our building may be closed, but we are not! In fact, I am seeing evidence that says FBC is healthier, more vibrant, and making a larger impact than ever!! We are not only going to survive the COVID-19 crisis, we are going to get healthier as we learn to be the Church in new, unconventional (if not untraditional) ways! Like every living organism, we are changing to survive and to thrive in our new environment!
Are you joining with us in this effort personally or are you just praying for Jesus to return and sticking your head in the sand hoping it can all go back to the way it was soon? I, too, want this to end sooner than later, but things will never go back to the way they used to be; they can’t!
As with so much else in the coronavirus pandemic, the response here will depend on the level of social solidarity we feel, and the degree to which we’re willing to look out for each other. Social isolation and loneliness among older, sicker populations isn’t something caused by the coronavirus, but it will be worsened by it. The question is whether the intensity of the problem will force us to see, and respond, to pain we typically ignore. “A lot of my work is premised on the idea that extreme situations like the one we’re in now allow us to see conditions that are always present but difficult to perceive,” Klinenberg says. “We’re going to learn a lot about who we are and what we value in the next few months.”[2] (emphasis added)
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
We are called to respond in faith! Don’t let people’s fear and rejection get into your heart. Don’t take it personal when people move away from you, whether physically or socially or emotionally. People are scared and when we are scared we make decisions that hurt others. This has more to say about the fallen world we live in, than about you or me and how we feel. There is much to lament in our world situation; that is real and undeniable.
Please don’t give into despair! Hang onto hope because God is with us! Remember the sufferings of Christ and to what end He was willing to go for our salvation. Let us conduct ourselves, in remembrance of Him with a certain hope for the New Heaven and New Earth.
God’s peace and presence, all of His promises, are ours because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, and can’t be shaken by these dark days of suffering or taken away by even death itself.
It is by how we conduct ourselves during this coronavirus pandemic that the world will determine the Truth of the Gospel.
Will the world see the Suffering Servant of humanity, the Crucified Savior of the world, through our practical words and actions of faith, hope, and love?
This is our time to shine, people of God. The darker the night, the brighter the stars shine!
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
You can listen to this message here:
To watch the video click HERE
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship (New York, NY: SCM Press Ltd, 1959), 45.
[2] https://www.vox.com/2020/3/12/21173938/coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-elderly-epidemic-isolation-quarantine [accessed March 12, 2020].
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Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 3)
2020: A Year of Celebration!
“Keep Journeying Together!”
Key Verses: Matthew 21:12-13
Our goal for all of 2020 is to do one thing: LIFT UP THE NAME OF JESUS! Our theme verse for 2020 is John chapter 12, verse 32 (John 12:32, ESV), which proclaims, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” This verse explicitly points to the fact that Jesus would be lifted up on the Cross of Calvary to give His life as a payment for sin, as the very next verse says, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”
The implications of this verse go beyond Jesus’ death and influence every area of our lives: we are called to live our lives in response to Jesus being lifted up on the Cross as the Savior for all the World! In response to His Passion!
Throughout this series, the word “Passion” has a more technical meaning that in Biblical Studies points to the suffering of Jesus Christ, specifically from the historical events of the Garden of Gethsemane to the crucifixion.[1]
The Passion of Jesus cannot remain a once-upon-a-time idea in your head captured in the icon of the Cross, just as our call to follow Jesus and share in His sufferings cannot remain an abstract concept. There are real implications to the Passion of Jesus, not only in what He did to rescue us and give us life, but in how we should live our lives in response to His life, death, and resurrection. As we prepare our hearts and minds for Easter, we are walking toward the Cross in order to hear personally, from the Spirit, how each of us is invited to respond to Jesus’ Passion.
Today, we are going to learn: As the Body of Christ, members of Jesus’ Church, we must keep journeying together, even when we experience disappointment in fellow members of the Body. Jesus experienced deep disappointment through His ministry, with His followers, the clamoring crowds, the religious establishment, the political authorities, His own hometown and family. Even so, Jesus did not let His disappointment or pain stop him from journeying with them and for their good—to the Cross! In the same way, we can’t let our disappointment or pain with one another stop us from journeying together because we are the Body of Christ.[2]
Paul states in Romans 12:4-5, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
Jesus experienced significant disappointment during His earthly ministry, but He still gave His body to the Passion so that we can be His Body to proclaim His love! Love is when we keep journeying together even when we face significant disappointments with one another and in the church as a whole—that is a part of our sharing in the fellowship of His suffering that conforms us to His death (Philippians 3:10).
That is why we can’t forsake the gathering (Hebrews 10:24-25)—it short circuits God’s plan to reach the nations: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
If you didn’t know this—there is no Plan B—we are Plan A of God’s plan to show the world His love! I bet that sounds pretty crazy to you. But no crazier than the whole Gospel story and that the way God decided to save humanity was through the Passion of Jesus Christ!
If Jesus had to pay such a high cost for our salvation, what cost is His body willing to pay to carry on the work of God in the world? Reflect on things in your life that are not pleasing to God or are not working in agreement with His Plan A for your life and invite the Holy Spirit into that place. Are you willing to let God work in you and through you?
Honestly, going by what I see in how easily and how quickly people jump ship from the Body of Christ, or remain ineffective because they habitually forsake the gathering of the saints or are unwilling to let anyone do any kind of “stirring up” in their lives, people are not willing to suffer at all for the privilege of being a member of the Body of Christ, nevertheless, doing the necessary work to fulfill God’s plan to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).[3]
Most people I know are too distracted by the world and when they do get involved with the church, they are too preoccupied with their own comfort and preferences to join with Jesus in His Passion as a member of His Body. And I know mostly church people…
You are a member of Jesus’ Body and His Body is God’s chosen vehicle of salvation to the world…for the lost of our community and every community. We must return to a high view of Jesus’ Church.
Allow me a personal illustration. After decades of not doing it or not enjoying it like I did before my military days, I am back to enjoying running. I was a runner a long time ago and I’m back at it. Funny thing though is that one of my toes does not consider itself a runner and it has a black toenail to prove it. Every time I go running, it lets me know that it’s not a runner. Not too loud, but loud enough for me to question whether or not it is really committed to the fellowship of the body. I have not yet gotten to the place of questioning whether or not I should cut it off… J Really, it’s a part of me, a member of the body, even if it’s not quite on board with this whole running thing. Do you know what I do with this toe? I give it more attention. I use my wife’s fancy little stone to rub down the ever-growing callous at the end of it and I make sure my blackened toenail is hanging in there… It must feel beaten and battered, but I keep telling it that it’s doing it to itself if it would just get with the program like the other 90% of my toes. J
That reminds me of Paul’s teaching about the Church—the Body of Christ—in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. Listen to Paul talk about my toe, hidden to you, but trying to take over my whole body:
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
Jesus’ Passion gives us the motive to stay together as the body of Christ, whether we are that “toe” or find ourselves disappointed in it because it likes to let us know it’s still there from time to time. Maybe, that toe thinks it’s calling in life is to keep everyone patient and graceful.
Jesus had some “toe-pain” over 3 years of journeying with His disciples for 3 years. We think that the only suffering Jesus had was during His Passion. To capture this, I walked through the Gospel of Matthew, just took my Bible out during my morning quiet time, and read through it seeing the places Jesus experienced moments with people who are the people Jesus was inviting to become members of His body and instead might have felt some “toe-pain”:
- But what about how painfully disappointing the whole state of affairs were with the Jewish religious leaders: Matthew 9:3, 11; 12:2, 14, 24; 15:12; 19:3; 21:12-19 and throughout the rest of His time in Jerusalem until He is crucified He is in constant conflict with the religious elite. Talking about toe-pain! I’m sure I would have cut these people off, but Jesus didn’t. On the Cross He forgave them (Luke 23:34). What an example!
- How painfully disappointing His chosen followers—the future church leaders—were: Matthew 8:26; 14:31; 16:8, 23; 18:1 and that is just through His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and doesn’t cover their abandonment and betrayals up to His crucifixion. But upon His resurrection, He spends 40 days with them and forgives them. Empowering them at Pentecost with the Holy Spirit to be His Church—the Body of Christ.
- He experienced disappointment and pain with the crowds: Matthew 8:34; 9:24; 17:17; 19:23-24. With the cities and the generation as a whole: Matthew 11:16-24; 12:38-39; 16:1-4, 5-6, 11-12.
- Maybe most acutely, He experienced “toe-pain” with His hometown: Matthew 13:55-58.
So often, in the life of Christ, we are called to love people who have been hurt by so many others. And you have heard me say it: “hurt people hurt people!” It’s true! Part of responding to the Passion of Jesus is being a healing person in those hurt people’s lives, not adding church hurt to an already long list of offenders.
A pastor once said to me, there are people in the church who are EGRs—Extra Grace Required! They are in every church and if you leave a church because of them, you will just find them eventually in your next church. And if you don’t know who the EGR is, then you are probably the one and everyone else knows it! I laughed… I cried… I am the EGR…
Jesus was constantly surrounded by EGRs! I guess, when we view it from His point of view on the Cross, we are all extra grace required folks. Starting with me…
Do your daily behaviors reflect and point to Jesus? Are we pausing in difficult decisions? When dealing with difficult people are we submitting our emotions to the Lord and waiting on the Lord to guide us? Love flows out of patience and meekness…
Do we love others as God first loved us? As Paul taught in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Hurt people may hurt people, but Forgiven people forgive people!
Which are you? Have you been forgiven?
Do we know that our love for one another is a primary way we lift up the Name of Jesus as His disciples (John 13:34-35)? Are we willing to suffer with the members of the Body so that we may persevere in belonging to the Body?
To practically know how to do this, read Romans 12:9-21.
We are God’s Plan A! There is no other plan to reach the nations with the Gospel of Jesus.
What’s your Plan A?
Listen to the Message here:
To watch the video click HERE
Footnotes:
[1] For a short article that explains the technical usage of “Passion” in Biblical Studies, please check out: https://www.gotquestions.org/passion-of-Christ.html (accessed February 20, 2020).
[2] A colleague wrote back to me in response to this paragraph, “This really puts into perspective of how long-term care for people is so hard. Addictions, rebellious lifestyles etc.… The fleshly reaction is to cut that person out of your life, so you don’t have to deal with their brokenness. Please help me Jesus to love others and see others how you see them with Kingdom eyes not worldly eyes.”
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Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 2)
“Rest in Meekness!”
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
“Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
“I am gentle and lowly in heart.”
“Cease striving and know that I am God!”
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble [meek], and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (39).
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
James 1:21-22: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 3:13-16: “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
1 Peter 3:14-17: “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness [meekness in KJV] and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”
“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
“Our Father…” (Matthew 6:9-13).
Listen to the Message here:
To watch the video click HERE
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Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 1)
2020: A Year of Celebration!
“Jesus stayed on Mission!”
Key Verses: Matthew 16:21-23; 17:22-23; 20:17-19
Welcome to 2020, A Year of Celebration at FBC! This is our 110th anniversary year as our church was chartered on July 7, 1910. We are planning a big celebration the weekend after our anniversary date, so save the date for the weekend of July 11-12, 2020.
Who are we celebrating? We are celebrating Jesus and in doing so we are going to do one thing all year long: LIFT UP THE NAME OF JESUS!
Our theme verse for 2020 is John chapter 12, verse 32 (John 12:32, ESV), which proclaims, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” This verse explicitly points to the fact that Jesus would be lifted up on the Cross of Calvary to give His life as a payment for sin, as the very next verse says, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”
The implications of this verse go beyond Jesus’ death and influence every area of our lives: we are called to live our lives in response to Jesus being lifted up on the Cross as the Savior for all the World! In response to His Passion, by which we are saved!
Throughout this series, the word “Passion” has a more technical meaning that in Biblical Studies points to the suffering of Jesus Christ, specifically from the historical events of the Garden of Gethsemane to the crucifixion.[1] As I will teach today, I believe the suffering of Jesus began, with intentionality, well before the Garden scene when it was first put on public display.
Throughout this series, here is my overarching teaching goal: The Passion of Jesus cannot remain a once-upon-a-time idea in your head captured in the icon of the Cross, just as our call to follow Jesus and share in His sufferings cannot remain an abstract concept. There are real implications to the Passion of Jesus, not only in what He did to rescue us and give us life, but how we should live our lives in response to His life, death, and resurrection. During this Lenten season, as we prepare our hearts and minds for Easter, we are going to walk toward the Cross and learn together how we are invited to respond to the Passion of Jesus.
Today, we are going to learn: Jesus stayed on mission by long-suffering with His followers, not just suffering for them! The mission of Jesus to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) is not a one-time event of saving a soul, just like Jesus’s Passion was more than one week of events. The mission of Jesus was, and still is, a long slow obedience in the same direction of seeing people transformed by the love of God. This requires long-suffering with people!
Did you know the word for patience in the KJV is “long-suffering”? Long-suffering means patiently enduring lasting offense or suffering, especially those caused by other people. As a friend said to me recently, “Committing to having patience isn’t just agreeing to passively wait without worrying or complaining, but rather it is a commitment to be willing to suffer at the hands of others.”
There are three passages we are going to look at this morning as we start our journey towards the Cross of Calvary and Jesus’ vicarious death and victorious resurrection. Along the way we are going to study the Passion of Jesus and how we are invited to respond.
The first time Jesus clearly and explicitly states the plan of God to His disciples is found in Matthew 16:21-23:
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Peter is the voice we hear, but it’s very plausible that Peter’s voice represents the community voice of all Jewish people’s expectations of their Messiah: the anointed one of Israel would not die at the hands of Roman imperialism, but He would be the right hand of God to rescue God’s people from all foreign oppression, once and for all.
A real part of Jesus’ suffering was how much He was misunderstood—throughout His ministry. Even those who knew and believed He was the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God misunderstood His actions, because they did not know the plan of God.
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ’ ”
Both were attempting to thwart Jesus from the plan of God—the devil maliciously with evil intent and Peter ignorantly with ethnocentric intent.
The Passion of the Christ, which we have typically focused on as a Holy Week reality, was for Jesus a ministry reality. As we see in three allusions to His crucifixion before this first overt announcement of His coming death: Matthew 9:15; 10:38; and 12:40.
“And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast’” (9:15).
“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (10:38).
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (12:40).
The followers of Jesus did not/could not/would not hear it at the time.
“As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’ And they were greatly distressed.”
This time, instead of being a stumbling block to Jesus, they were “greatly distressed” by Jesus’ insistence that betrayal, suffering, and death was coming His way. They most likely never heard Jesus mention being raised on the third day and if they did, they did not understand Him.
How is that possible? Have you ever received really hard news? Once the person dropped the diagnosis or bad news on you, did you hear much of anything after that? Nope… The disciples of Jesus are in a state of shock, disbelieving shock…
The third and last time Jesus tells His disciples is in Matthew 20:17-19,
And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Jesus tells them in the greatest detail of any of the three times. He is forecasting what is coming. Clearly demonstrating a firm grasp of what He must do to fulfill God’s plan for His life, death, and resurrection. Jesus is also expressing His willingness to submit to His Father’s will in order to fulfill God’s plan.
As one commentator wrote, “It is the Son of Man, the Son of David, the divine Son of God, who would voluntarily undergo such treatment to save others. His humility would contrast starkly with the arrogance of the sons of Zebedee in the following section.”[2]
Jesus’ pronouncement is contrasted vividly by Matthew 20:20-28 when we see the followers of Jesus jockeying for power positions in the coming kingdom. Clearly, they still don’t get it after three years with Jesus, after three clear articulations of His coming Passion. Jesus responds with abounding grace and honest truth to His followers,
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
I say, “UGGHHH!!!! Frustrating people!!!” Jesus says, “Grace Abounds! These are My people!”
Why? Because Jesus was passionate about making disciples (a.k.a. training apprentices)—passionate about taking people who believe in Him on the Journey of being transformed from what they were in the world to what God intended them to be in His Kingdom!
Jesus was about to pay the ultimate price and hand this entire operation over to His apprentices after training them 24/7/365 for 3 years. Can you imagine His internal suffering at their thick-headed insistence to not understand Him or His mission? Can you imagine the amount of passion Jesus must have had for these disciples for Him to keep on keeping on with them?
It couldn’t be that He was stuck with them—they were chosen by God to be His Apostles! Jesus didn’t tolerate them being in His life, He loved them. They were His mission and the reason for His Passion! Do you see people this way? Do you tolerate difficult people or love them with long-suffering? Is this even possible apart from the Holy Spirit?
Jesus’ journey to the Cross demonstrates the entirety of His Passion! But, it wasn’t just the Passion Week where we most clearly saw Jesus’ transformative act of love for all sinners. Jesus was passionate about making something out of these ragamuffins—of walking with them and loving them through their doubts, uncertainties, and stubborn refusals to change their minds on preconceived notions. He’s still doing the same today, with us!
He is still patiently loving those who have been chosen by God to be His followers!
Time after time, situation after situation: Grace Abounded! Jesus kept showing His followers the way to be on mission, even though they did not fully understand Jesus’ mission.
Jesus’s journey to the Cross was a long, slow obedience in the same direction! It was a Passion Journey and on His journey we see Jesus on mission the way we are to go on mission: with a persevering and transforming love for others, starting here, but going out beyond the borders… out of our comfort zones!
Jesus long-suffered (showed patience) with His slow-to-get-it followers, soon-to-be-called the Church. Their transformation did not happen because of one moment (the Cross) alone! It happened because of three years of Jesus’ long slow obedience in the same direction of love that lead to the Cross, but did not end there!
Jesus’ mission carries on today, after the Cross, after the Resurrection, after the Ascension, because of those 3 years of Jesus’ long slow obedience in the same direction of love! These men may not have gotten it until after all these major events happened, but it was the love of Jesus on the Journey that led them to carry on the mission of Jesus to a new generation.
Let me say it this way: it took 1,095 days of persistent love for that one triumphant day to make sense. But, then only in hindsight after 3 long days apart from that love, followed by 40 glorious days of experiencing Jesus’ resurrection and redeeming love for them to finally get it, and now for an eternity without a day apart from God’s love living in us through the Holy Spirit.
Don’t bail before the blessing! God is with you and He has a better plan for your life than you currently have for your own life. God is in you…patiently loving you to work in you His love and through you His love to the world. Be patient with others as God is patient with you!
This is our mission, so be like Jesus in His Passion and be long-suffering with people on the journey, just as God is still being patient with you on the journey. Go as Paul commands in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8,
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
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Footnotes:
[1] For a short article that explains the technical usage of “Passion” in Biblical Studies, please check out: https://www.gotquestions.org/passion-of-Christ.html (accessed February 20, 2020).
[2] Michael G. Vanlaningham, “Matthew,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1490.
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