MK040 Sermons
Setting the Stage (Audio)
So before the event begins, I get a glimpse that the Denver Fair is coming to town. It begins with big massive tents being set up in the park that's just a block down the street from my house. And nothing really else happens other than there's just a bunch of tents for a week. But then by the next week, you start to see these big heavy power cables being run all over and strung all over the park. And by that weekend, there's loads of volunteers and they're moving tables everywhere and they're mounting lights to the poles inside the tents and they're spray painting outlines for the different booths to be set up. And then comes the craziness of Monday because Monday is when all the animals show up and all the everything that you've grown for the year and you have it all displayed and all the projects and the work that people have run, they're all coming there to drop all this stuff up. And all of these things are happening just so the fair can occur. And we get a front row seat to all of that, living one block down the street from the park. And as I thought about that, I realized there's events in our lives are much like that. Things don't happen in isolation that are not connected to other things in our lives. Think for a moment with me about the arena finances. If someone gets themselves into deep financial trouble, we have a house across the street from us that's going into foreclosure right now. But someone who gets to the point where they can't pay their mortgage, that wasn't just something that they woke up one morning and realized, oh man, I can't pay my mortgage this month. Why is it? No. No. It's a series of choices and decisions that starts way back here with maybe they've gotten themselves in over their heads financially or maybe they made some decisions and they spent some money and they did some things that they really shouldn't have done or they bought something and it didn't work and they had to replace it quickly and now they still have the debt for that. There's a series of decisions and choices that they make that lead them to the place where these have set the stage for this to happen in their lives. It happens to us in relationships, doesn't it? Maybe you can think as I'm talking right now of someone who at one point in time you were close to that person but now you're no longer close to that person. It didn't just happen overnight. I mean there was probably a time in your life when you can remember we used to do things together and we used to spend time together and we really enjoyed one another and we had this deep meaningful connection but now we're not and what happened? And what happened was a series of events that set the stage of not interacting with one another for a period of time and then maybe there's a conflict or two that doesn't get resolved as underneath the surface and when you think about going and seeing that person you're like oh but that thing that we didn't take care of and you're like I don't really want to go there and you just start moving further and further away and those events set the stage for being at that place and you're journey, it's like that was sin in our lives. You know someone doesn't just wake up one morning and decide to embezzle money. Someone doesn't just wake up and decide I'm going to have an affair or damage someone's property or get caught driving drunk or get themselves arrested. It's a series of choices and decisions that starts in their mind, it starts in their thoughts and then it begins to be little actions that set the stage for them to find themselves in a place where they say how did I ever get here and this is not where I want to be. Well this morning we're going to look at a series of events that set the stage for this study that we're going to be doing this fall and we're going to be doing a study this fall in fact it's sitting at the feet of Jesus and the study is based on the Sermon on the Mount. I don't know what you know about the Sermon on the Mount but the Sermon on the Mount is one of those sections in the Bible that is considered one of the most memorable or most significant parts of the Bible. Things like Psalm 23 and the Ten Commandments it kind of fits along that the Lord's Prayer kind of fits along that line. The Sermon on the Mount is one of those things, one of those parts of the Bible and so we're going to spend time looking at this but I thought before we look at the Sermon on the Mount and to properly understand it which is a little bit of a challenge we need to understand some of the events that take place before the Sermon on the Mount occurs and they will set the stage for what is going to take place. If you have a Bible if you would turn to Matthew chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4 if you don't have a Bible our ushers have some and then pass one of those out to you we'd love to have you follow along the passage, the page and the Bibles that they're handing out is page 958, page 958 if you don't have a Bible feel free to take this one home with you and read along the things that we're going to talk about this morning. But Matthew chapter 4 is where we're going to be page 958 and I'd like to read through the passage and then we're going to spend some time talking about how Jesus sets the stage for this most significant sermon that he's going to present. Matthew chapter 4 beginning in verse 17. From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near." As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Come follow me Jesus said and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and they followed him. Going on from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in the boat with their father's Zebedee preparing their nets and Jesus called to them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogue preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria and people brought him all who were ill with various diseases those suffering severe pain the demon possession the demon possessed those having seizures and the paralyzed and he healed them. Such crowds from Galilee and to capitalist Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. If you go back to verse 17 it begins by saying now at this time or from that time excuse me from that time in this translation what was happening at this time what was happening at this time well a few things were happening at this time if you have your Bibles open you can look back in Matthew chapter three there's an event that happens where Jesus is there at the seashore and probably along the Sea of Galilee and John the baptist is baptizing individuals who are choosing to follow him and and the Bible tells us that Jesus went down to be baptized and a voice came from heaven and said this is my son who I'm thrilled with as I talked about last week Jesus hadn't done anything yet and the father is thrilled with him so Jesus is recognized by the father and then he goes and he spends forty days in the wilderness forty days by himself forty days without food at the end of that forty days he's tempted by Satan tempted physically tempted emotionally tempted spiritually to take power from Satan that he really did not have the authority to distribute and so Jesus faces that temptation and then one other event happens Jesus is close friend John the baptizer the one who baptized he had been preaching this message of repentance and he had confronted Herod who is the ruling king in that region set up by the Roman government Herod wasn't too thrilled with being confronted and he was put in prison and eventually later John the Baptist was beheaded and so these are the events that are taking place before Jesus starts preaching before he announces who he is and what he's doing he's recognized by God he is faced with temptations and he defeats those temptations and then his close friend ends up in prison because of a very similar message that he's about to proclaim and so in the midst of all in that Jesus preaches this message he says repent for the kingdom of heaven is near and this is one of those kinds of messages that you would expect to hear in New York City over a loud speaker like this you know kind of crackling with some guy on the corner with this little boombox you know or maybe he's got a big sign up there that says repent for the kingdom of heaven is near it's not it's not really a message that we generally hear today but I think the people of Israel only really listen and heard the second half of the message you know it's kind of like parents if you tell your kids excuse me if you tell your kids when you get your jobs done we'll have ice cream and all they heard was we'll have ice cream so they all we can have ice cream that's good ice cream how much ice cream can we have and what flavors do we have and can we get the ice cream right now they never heard the part we said there's some jobs to be done all they heard was we're gonna get ice cream that's all they heard and it's a little bit like that with the people of Israel because I don't think they heard the word repent I don't think they heard that word at all you see the word repent is not a word that we use very often the word repent does not mean to say you're sorry the word repent does not mean to apologize the word repent does not mean to show a lot of emotion those things may happen the word repent simply means you are going one direction to Lancaster and you realize oh I'm supposed to be going to Reading and you turn around and go the opposite direction that's what the word repent means repent is a word that describes action word that describes is there emotion with it sometimes yeah I'm pounding the steering well why didn't I miss that exit you know why isn't I paying attention you know but the word repent and its essence means I turn and go the other direction you say well why do you think the people of Israel were not listening to this message well if you read the rest of the story of Jesus in the gospel as you realize they really weren't paying attention to this message they really weren't paying attention but Jesus goes on to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is near and and he uses this phrase kingdom of heaven and there's another phrase used in the Bible kingdom of God so this kingdom of heaven kingdom God probably referring to pretty much the same thing in the book of Matthew that was written to the Jewish people he uses the phrase kingdom of heaven because it's something that was used over and over in the Old Testament in the Old Testament the people of Israel were told that there was going to one day be a Messiah there was going to one day be a king and God's kingdom in heaven would come down to this earth and they would experience that kingdom and when that happened it talked about the deserts being turned into plush lands it talked about the dry areas being turned into luscious rivers it talked about topographical change it basically said the world as we know it is going to go back to what it was at the very beginning when the kingdom of heaven arrives on earth you read Isaiah 40 it's the message of the prophet calling out about the kingdom of heaven and the king arriving on earth and he says there he says the kingdom of heaven is near he doesn't say it's here he says it's near what do you mean what does it mean the kingdom of heaven is near it's mean it's close but they haven't fully experienced it yet it's kind of like if you get a phone call and then you you pick up the phone call and this individual says congratulations you know you have just earned a two night three day stay at the newest vacation resort on the east coast with all the with you know with a water park and with beautiful rooms and and all you have to do is give us your credit card we have a date waiting for you can pick up one of these three options and for ninety nine dollars this opportunity will be yours and what do you have to do to take to receive that opportunity what do you have to do to that person on the phone call on the phone you simply have to say what yes right you have to accept it they're offering something to you it's near it's close all you have to do is accept it and you will experience what they have to offer and a very long lecture about what they want you to buy while you're there you know but that's what he's talking about he's talking about something that Jesus was bringing to them something that they would be offered something it was right there and all they had to do was choose accept it and they would experience what God had to offer so Jesus says to them a message it's a little different than what they were expecting because I think that possibly they were expecting the kingdom of heaven to be something very different very different some writers suggest that the kingdom of heaven is simply something in our hearts that when we choose to follow Jesus that we make him the king of our hearts but the Israelite people they were already doing that Psalm 37 30 says that the that the people of Israel were were putting the law of God on their hearts so they were already trying to follow the Old Testament trying to follow the tour and do what God said for them do they are already doing that so this was something a whole lot more than that the Jewish people remember were under the rule of the Roman government now he the Rome of Roman government was kind of like a benevolent dictator they kind of let you do whatever you want to do as long as you didn't make waves but they were still under someone else's rule and someone else's authority and so Jesus begins by presenting by setting the stage by presenting a message that's a little bit different than what they were used to hearing I mean these he's talking to Jewish people I mean they go to temple they pray they give to the poor they follow the law they do all good things and Jesus say no no no no no I want you to turn completely and go a different direction other thing wait a minute I thought that this the Old Testament the law thought that's what I was supposed to be doing Jesus says no there's something radically different I want you to pursue and the pursuit of that is tied to my kingdom it's close not only does the message set the stage of what we're going to hear from Jesus as we look at the Sermon on the Mount but the people who receive it as well look in verse 18 converse 18 Jesus lived in the city of Nazareth the town of Nazareth not really a city towns in those days were several couple hundred people were the towns in those days if you look at the map of the Sea of Galilee is here Nazareth is just south of the Sea of Galilee so Jesus just maybe a few miles north I don't know five to six miles north is that right Tim somewhat something like that you know Tim travels there frequently and knows that area a little bit quite well and that's where he's at and I was thinking about this because as Jesus walking beside the sea he meets a couple guys who are fishermen and we kind of upon an initial reading of this we just assume he meets these guys that they're total strangers but does anybody remember or recall what Jesus did for a living with his father before he started preaching anybody recall what he did he was a what carpenter right worked with his hands he built things and these guys are fishermen right and what do fishermen go out in boats somebody had to build the boats and there probably wasn't a lot of carpenters they didn't have the kind of economy we do there was usually one of each each task and they would supply not only their little village but maybe a couple villages around them with this particular skill there's a good possibility these guys knew exactly who Jesus was there's also a good possibility that because Jesus at this time was approximately 30 years old and these were young men probably the ages of 14 to 17 that they knew about him and maybe looked up to him a little bit. In those days when you turned 13 you were no longer under your mother's care you were under your father's care guys that's the way it happened and your father's job was either to apprentice you to his skill his trade or find someone else that had a skill that maybe didn't have an apprentice and you would be a apprentice to them and you would spend the next three to four years learning that skill learning that trade and so that's what these men were doing they were only teenagers that's when they would be doing these kinds of jobs and the Bible tells us they were outside the Sea of Galilee which is a beautiful location with very mild year round temperatures on the east and west side are mountain ranges and when the weather comes in it rushes down and turns that sea upside down and stories of Jesus tell us about what can happen when you're out on that sea like that but he's along this sea and he sees these guys and they're throwing their nets out in the water to fish probably off the shore and again upon reading this and as you read the next verse verse 19 it says Jesus has come follow me and I will make you fishers and men and then they just left everything they just left everything if you read in John chapter one you get a little bit more of the story you see in John chapter one immediately after Jesus's baptism John points out and he says behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world these guys hear this and they go over and they start talking to Jesus and Jesus says why don't you come and come and see the phrase come and see and he proceeds to talk to these guys but they don't follow him at that point in time and as you start the pieces story together what you begin to discover is these young guys they get introduced to Jesus but they don't buy it right away and they're like hmm I wonder what this guy's all about see the real deal or not and they take some time to think about it and it's actually a little bit later when Jesus comes to them and he says guys why don't you come and follow me why don't you come and follow me the next story that follows right on the heels of this in verse 20 he now approaches two other young men or excuse me 21 he now approaches two other young men and they're actually they're in the boat with their father and it says that they were preparing their nets in all likelihood they'd come in from a night of fishing they would usually fish all night and I think there's a picture of them that's going to come up here on the screen and they were now kind of sorting through their nets finding out where were their holes in the nets and needed to repair cleaning the nets up getting them ready for the next day and so they're actually in the boat with their father very significant that Jesus points out that Matthew when he writes this says they're there with their father they've been apprenticed under and Jesus says to James and John come on guys let's go and they're like see ya dad now those of us with teenage sons that's not hard to imagine that happening you know but think about it from the father's perspective I mean here's a guy that these are his sons that he's been pouring into teaching them how to do the family business so that he can kind of enjoy some of his twilight years without the hard work and hard labor and all of a sudden they're gone what do you think they think about Jesus imagine family gatherings after that experience you know thanks for leaving me high and dry guys you know pour all my life into you and just abandon me for that Jesus guy and you start to get a glimpse remember we're setting the stage you're starting to get a glimpse of who the people are they're going to follow Jesus and what that's going to do in their lives it's going to disrupt their lives it's going to turn some things that they thought life had a pattern and we're just following that pattern and now it's turned upside down and this isn't the way I thought it was going to go you know I wondered why did these guys respond to Jesus this way what is it about young men and young women that there's just kind of a fire in their soul that they say I just want my life to matter I want to do something I want to do something I don't think it's just young men and young women but theirs is mostly more intense you know why is it that these terrorist groups pursue young adults for their mission because they know that they are willing to give their lives for something even if it's horrible they're willing to give their lives for something because they want their life to matter I mean you ever find yourself wondering is my life matter more than just getting the lawn mode one more time or making one more meal or cleaning the dishes one more time or whatever it is that you do every single day or every single week Jesus invites people into a journey where their lives get to be about something that matters he said it to the other guys he said fishers of men this isn't just putting a meal on the table but your life is going to be about something that really matters you know in our culture today to really matter you become a pro athlete or you pursue a music career pursue something in politics something to get your name and lights but if this last week hasn't taught us anything it's taught us how quick and how fleeting that is the one bad decision and one bad choice and it's a train wreck in your life and I want to challenge our students here not just our students but all of us that when what Jesus is doing as we're looking at these past passages he's setting the stage for you to consider following him in a way that your life will matter that it will matter well Jesus begins to travel the word about Jesus begins to travel and as the word about Jesus begins to travel it tells us what he does there in verse 23 and we're going to see this teaching through the synagogues this is what the sermon in the Mount is going to be all about his teaching preaching the good news of the kingdom you say John what's the difference between teaching and preaching well teaching is generally around information and preaching is around a response it's around a response but for Jesus they were pretty commingled we'll talk about that in a minute and lastly healing of every disease and sickness among the people and the same verse is actually at the very end of chapter 9 where it summarizes everything that Jesus had been doing but when Jesus taught in preach he did it a little bit differently if you have your Bibles would you just turn to the to the a couple pages over to the last part of Matthew chapter 7 the end of the Sermon on the Mount just turn there I don't have the verses on the screen so I'll paraphrase them for you but if you have a Bible and you're following along if you just turn to Matthew chapter 7 I believe it's verse 24 and 25 Jesus says this he's comparing two people wise man a foolish man he says the wise man is the one who he who listens to my words and does them and it's like he's building his house upon a rock then he says the foolish man is the one who hears my words and does not do them it's like he's building his house upon sand he goes on describe what happens to the rock and the sand when the storms of life come the point I want us to draw attention to is not the foundation but what they do and don't do the wise person hears God's word and he doesn't he hears it and he doesn't the foolish person hears it and he doesn't do it he doesn't do it and that's really what this whole Sermon on the Mount is going to be about we're going to go through each section of this sermon and we're going to talk I'm going to talk to you about it I'm going to give you some thoughts about it I'm going to challenge you to think about it I'm going to challenge you to talk to God and say God what do you want me to do what do you want me to do and then for you to do it for you to do it we in our culture today we sometimes give information we teach information for things that we're going to learn to do later learn to do later my son was having this debate with his sister about it something he was having to learn in history class memorized rivers or something like that and my daughter is a history teacher and so he says to his sister why do I have to know this river how's this river going to help me navigate my life you know and I don't remember what she said maybe she said you just need to learn it Daniel I don't know that's kind of what I recall but there's a part of our educational system that's kind of like that you're supposed to learn it and it will help you sometime I'm not sure quite how but you know algebra will be beneficial for you sometime in the future you know I don't think it ever helped me maybe it did maybe someone can help me understand it but in that culture and in that day they would only teach things that you needed to know right then and in the moment that's how they taught they would teach you what you needed so you could go and do it and then you would do it over and over and over again and you would learn it and so when Jesus is giving us his word it's not for you to file it away it's not for you to memorize it and say maybe for a rainy day it's not for you to know about it so you can tell someone else about it it's for you to hear it and for you to say God what am I supposed to do what do you want me to do and that's what God is calling us to do look where it's spread in verse 24 says news about him spread all over Syria fascinating then the news didn't spread down to Jerusalem and Judea oh it eventually gets there but the first place the news goes is to Syria now we know a lot about Syria because it's in the news these days but Syria was a Gentile region of the Middle East I mean there were not Jewish people there not Jews who read the Old Testament who went to synagogue who prayed several times that's not no these are just they don't care about that God of the heavens they just lived their own lives but the news about him spread and they're like we got to meet this guy and then eventually it goes on to say in the next verse verse 25 that eventually spread from Galilee to Decapolis to Jerusalem Judea and the region across the Jordan found him as a map is going to come up just kind of show where that where that went all the way way up north is Decapolis the first blue circle there is the Sea of Galilee and then and then the other is is the the arrows come up I'll show you where that spread but it's slowly made its way down to what we would know is the heart of Judaism and that's the city of Jerusalem but that was one of the last places for it to go just reminds us that this message that that Jesus has this invitation to follow him is first of all going to be a message it's going to be slightly different than what we expect and it's going to go to people that surprise us and it's going to require something and it's going to spread in directions we're not expecting it to go and the question for each of you to ask yourself this morning is where's my heart as it relates to following Jesus where's my heart you know some of you your heart may be at a place where you know you're here and you're kind of exploring the Jesus thing you're not following it's not really on your radar and Jesus is going to invite you to follow him some of you may have prayed a prayer when you were small and so that's kind of guarantees you've been told that guarantees you going to heaven but you don't really think about Jesus much during the week and you kind of open a Bible or listen to it when you're here but it doesn't enter the radar all week long and Jesus is going to invite you to follow him some of you are really struggling with Jesus right now because you tried to follow him and you feel like you got a raw deal because what you thought you were supposed to follow didn't end up the way you had hoped it would and he's going to invite you to follow him in possibly a very different way than you followed him before and for others of you your heart is at a place where you say God there's nothing more that matters in my life than to follow you and I don't know what that looks like and I don't know what that means but wherever you are leading me I'm willing to go you see Jesus is not just inviting you to pray a simple prayer he's not just inviting you to spend some of your Sunday morning here or to do good things in your community or to become a better person he's inviting you to make a choice about who's going to be the king of your life he's inviting you to accept the fact that this is going to cost you something that it could alter the relationships that are closest to you and it's going to be available to anyone and you're going to be surprised who receives it and I'll give you the opportunity for your life to be radically changed you know this morning I'm not going to ask you to do anything right now I just want you to take something home with you and I want you to take home these two things I want to invite you to read the sermon on the mount this week a couple of times it's three chapters Matthew five through seven carve out a little bit of time probably take you 10 or 15 minutes I don't challenge you every time you read it to say God am I willing to do whatever it is that you want me to do be honest about your heart be honest where you are with this invitation he's offering to you this morning I'm going to invite you to bow your heads and just take a moment and meet with God as I was talking about where you are in relationship to following Jesus maybe it was pretty clear you know where you are let's be honest with yourself be honest with God this is about your heart you're the only one who knows it don't try to make it up if you're not sure say what do my action show what someone watching me say just admit to God even though I think I want to my actions do not say that that is true of me maybe for you today you just start by being honest with God God as we look at these things that these events that seem to be maybe an initial glance just on the surface about what this relationship with you is what following you is all about it really gives us a glimpse it sets the stage if you will for what's coming a message that might be different than we thought it would be people who get invited to follow Jesus not what I thought was going to happen maybe more than anything a calling in a direction in my life that he gives me a nudge to that was not at all what I thought was going to take place Lord even just this morning here in Claire's story of where you gave him a nudge last year and what you did in his life is just cool to hear and sometimes you do that God sometimes you give us a nudge to hard places difficult places and although I pray this morning that we would be willing today and throughout this week to closely examine our hearts closely say where am I at today where am I at this week in my willingness to follow Jesus God help us to be honest and help us to face these things and walk into them and pursue you this week we need your help doing it God because we can't do it on your own in your name Jeremy [BLANK_AUDIO]