MCC Podcasts
Working It Out - Jesus Rescues
And we're just going to spend a couple of moments reflecting on a little bit of the word before we come to the table. And this is really part of the table message, and I was going to stand down here, but just not wanting you to have to crane your necks around to see I'll stay up here a minute, but Welcome to the table of the Lord. Regularly we gather together friends as part of the church around the entire world who comes to receive the Lord's table and celebrate the life and the death and the resurrection of Christ in this symbol in this way and We believe that it's a sacrament of the Lord that God meets us in a very special way at the table And so we come today knowing that his grace will be on us as we celebrate this experience I'll talk more about it in just a moment. You know, we're in a Series that where we're studying first Timothy and I just want to reflect on a few verses from first Timothy as we As we come toward the table. We're hey, we're in chapter two. We made it to chapter two. Nice job everybody We've gotten through chapter one, so we think that's exciting Let's look at these first few verses of chapter two First Timothy chapter two I urge then first of all that petitions prayers intercession. Thanksgiving be made for everyone For kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness This is good and pleases our Savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings Christ Jesus himself human who gave himself as a ransom for all people This has now been witness to at the proper time Friends of word of the Lord This text This message and this table is about one thing Jesus is our rescuer This text this table this this message this story your lives this This baptismal horse trough It's about one thing that Jesus rescues You look again at the words of three through six That's right. You're back there. Sorry you were there This is good and pleases God who God what what's the qualifier our savior? This is a god who saves who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth look at verse 5 There is one mediator Christ Jesus verse 6 who gave himself as a what? Now ransom this message this text to this table is all about the fact that Jesus is our rescue Jesus rescues and as I was reflecting on that and thinking about all these songs and thinking about my life and thinking about this story and talking about all the other stories and thinking about our stories and thinking about the things that we've gone through Jesus is our rescue and That is so powerful to me because I spent the week before looking at the text before where there was the word about shipwreck You remember that were you here last week that I want to look at that again Curtis look at that. Let's see that that text from last week This is the text last week again Timothy my son I'm giving you this command and keeping with the prophecies once made about you so that by recalling them You might fight the battle. Well Holding on to faith and a good conscience which some have rejected and so have suffered suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith You just leave that up there for a minute but last week's text about holding on to the faith holding on to Faith in a good conscience keeping the faith and fighting the fight that text last week was about hold on Don't bail fight the fight cuz some people have and they've suffered shipwreck with regard to their faith and That message that severe message from last week that idea of shipwreck was overwhelming when you really start looking at it and thinking about it and thinking No, God forbid that we would suffer shipwreck You know the idea of shipwreck that were Pummeled by the storms of life or by the poor choices or the wrong routes until we finally come apart at the seams we're Shubbed up on the rocks somewhere. There's debris everywhere. The journey that we were on is totally interrupted We're never gonna get there. We don't even know how we're gonna get there anymore. We're lost We're floating on a board. We're paddling with a two-by-four. We're freaking out about sharks and we think what happened This is the idea of shipwreck and we all have shipwrecked friends We've all suffered shipwreck in our lives in big ways some of us and some of us are sitting here going You have no idea the magnitude of the debris of my life. That's now spread over I've been pummeled and some of us It's in smaller ways where we make choices out of our flesh and out of our immaturity and out of our stumbling where we mess up We're not the woman up. We're supposed to be there. We're not the men. We're supposed to be we're not the parents We you know on father's day how many there's probably guys in this room who said man That was a great father until my alarm went off and then you know We've suffered shipwreck in our phase in big ways and in small ways We've done it before we came to know Christ and we were Wandering and that was the shipwreck that we were pummeled by the way that our life was going without the Lord leading and in control and protecting our lives And some of us have suffered shipwreck of course after we've become Christians after we've said yes to the grace and the love of God after we tried to submit our lives to Christ and stuff has come our way and choices that we made have gone awry and We've been victimized and just junk happens in life and we've just there's just been debris out of all of that It's be big ways small ways before Christ after Christ friends But this text and this message and this table is about the fact that Jesus is our rescue Now if we were another sort of kind of church we would say I'd say say that with me Jesus is our rescue and now you're not going to forget. That's how that works Yeah, and some of you were like, I don't really talk when you talk and I always do this to Jay Do us all right jay Jesus is our rescue All right, thank you. He's over there going Jeff always points me out when I do that Thank you. It's making sure you're with me, bro. All right there. I've got that But this text this message this table we've had shipwreck friends But Jesus is our rescue and the powerful thing you this last verse, you know We go back to the first verse one please Curtis and I'm gonna come back to verse one here Look at verse one. He goes I urge you then begin of second chapter I urge you then first of all that petitions and prayers and interstations and thanksgiving be made for everyone And he mentions kings and those in authority You know what he's saying right there? He goes even Nero because this was the emperor at the time that was hell bent on destroying Christians in the church He goes listen, I'm gonna urge you you start praying for everybody even the emperor now You go back to last the last verse of the last chapter. I should have put him together See I urge you then it says whatever no, sorry go back to verse 20 of the week before look at among those These are guys who suffered shipwreck Hymenius and Alexander whom he had to hand over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme He goes some people have shipwrecked their faith and I got to go let them out there live with Satan because maybe then they'll go I'm not under the Lord Maybe if I'm under Satan it'll wake me up and I'll recognize what it is that I need to be about it's a severe it's an awful reality but the reality is there because Hopefully when they're out there and they then live they said yeah I've totally walked away from the Lord and there's no protection and lordship and calling on their lives from Jesus Then they go what am I what a shipwreck this is and then they come to their senses, right? So when they get to the end of this he goes look at here's some guys that have been shipwrecked I've handed them over to Satan to tell them teach them not to blaspheme and maybe they're gonna learn something now Look at verse 1 of chapter 2. It says I urge you then you pray and make Intercession and give thanksgiving for everyone why because even Hymenius and Alexander are not beyond the ability of Jesus to rescue I Urge you then for all people even Nero You pray Because verse 3 through 6 He's our Savior this pleases God he wants everybody to save There is a mediator. He has been our ransom my friends. We have shipwrecked our lives, but Jesus is our rescue That's the good news of the gospel. That's what this table is about That's what this wife's family is about. That's what Norman's story is about That's what this text is about. That's what the whole story of the word of God is about that Jesus is our rescue We can talk about shipwrecked friends, but that is only part of the story Jesus is our rescue and Paul knows about shipwreck Do you know in 1 Corinthians chapter 11? It says that Paul said he was shipwrecked three times and that was written before a Story that's recounted in the book of Acts where he was shipwrecked again four times Hey, listen, some of you have walked your journey going. How come it seems like I keep getting shipwrecked Can you imagine the fourth time that Paul ship was getting beat up in a storm and going down and he's like? I we're not are you have you ever said this to God? Are you kidding me? Four times Paul went through a shipwreck. Could you imagine after the first time he's like that was amazing. Thank you Lord for that opportunity I'll finally someday be able to thank you for that and grow through that and man I'm never taking off again after the feast time because then it's winter and that's not a good time for sale I'm not gonna do that anymore plus those African ships man those guys are nuts from Alexandria I'm not getting on one of their ships again You know like you learn something and then there's another shipwreck and he's like this is my second He's going around the boat. Have you ever been in a shipwreck? No. Yeah, me two times as the things going down We don't have these recorded then a third time Is this reflected this is a mirror of some of your lives a third time another wave another hit another And then a fourth time Paul knows something about shipwrecks and the one shipwreck that we do know about when he ends up on the island of Malta It's amazing because it's a little picture of that story that our lives get shipwrecked These guys made a port choice They were in the wrong time in the wrong place and the ship got pummeled and sure enough It was just like our little example the thing blew apart at the seams some people who could swim got going and the other people clinged to hunks the wood and paddled themselves to shore and when they got to shore their journey completely interrupted God had said I want you to go to Rome Paul. He was in arrested going to Rome, but however the Lord needs to get you there He's arrested. He's going to Rome. Lord said I'm gonna get you to Rome because you're gonna testify before Caesar You're gonna bring glory to God. I got a work for you to do. Hello I got a calling on your life and then the shipwreck happens and Paul thinks What happened to my journey They end up on Malta and the words describing in Acts 28 the words at 27 28 the words describing what happens It says and the islanders were unusually kind to us you start to see God's hand even in the shipwreck Come on now. Jesus is our rescue the Islanders were unusually kind to us and then the chief official of the island takes him into his house and Takes care of them and meets their needs and then Paul gets an opportunity to minister because the chief officials father was in bed Six so Paul says, you know, I know a lord. He kind of heals So he prays for his father and heals him then the glory of God started to spread and people came three months of ministry Paul had in the middle of his shipwreck Jesus is our rescue and Then at the end of winter there was a ship. This is the picture of Jesus There was a ship who had been wintering the whole time in the midst of this exile There was a ship Wintering on the island that then picked them up and carried them on the destination that God had originally set out for him Before the shipwreck my friends shipwreck is not the end of the story There is a Jesus rescue that has been wintering with you the whole time And is bringing you back on the path to where God had for you to go. Do you hear me church? Do you hear me shipwreck is not the end of the story the text and this message and this table is about Jesus is our rescue and It is the funniest weirdest little passage where in Acts 28 11 Paul describes that they got on this ship And he says and there was a carving there was a figurehead on the bow of the ship And he said it was of Caster and Pollock's and that's all he just mentions that he got on an Alexandrian ship That had a figurehead of Caster and Pollock's on it, and I thought to myself. Why did he tell us that? What is that about and then he said and then and they go on and basically that paragraph ends with and then we arrived at Rome Which is what God had for him even though the shipwreck intercepted it Well, why would he mention I got on a ship and it had a figurehead on the front of Caster and Pollock's? Why would he say that? Because then when you when you do the research and you look at it all the sudden I realized that Paul was actually smiling when he wrote that because Caster and Pollock's were twin Deities who were the guardians of those who travel they were the sons of Zeus friends Here's what Paul said. I got on a ship whose figureheads on the front the carving on the front were the sons of God Who would take me to safety and he thought to himself as he wrote it dear friends What an irony I know which son of God is my rescue He did it tongue-in-cheek. I think I got on a ship with Caster and Pollock's on the front No, no, no, I know which son of God rescues us and on his way to Rome He knows something about shipwrecks. He knows something about rescue Jesus is our rescue. So friends we come to the table So we get to come to the table and we're invited by Christ To meet him there. I'm gonna have a band come We're gonna worship in a moment here as we come to the table Look at this text God is our Savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth There's one God in one mediator between God and human beings Christ Jesus himself human who gave himself as a ransom for all people This has now been witnessed in this proper time. It was time for that to happen We come to the table friends invited by Christ remembering that he saves This sacrament this this ceremony of the church this holy ceremony of the church that the church has been doing now for 2000 years since Christ instituted it he gathered his disciples in the upper room and he said he had a meal and he said okay Hey, listen, we're gonna share some bread. He said this is my body, which is broken for you You know why because he's the Savior friends He said do this in remembrance of me in the same way after supper He took the cup and he said this cup as we share this common cup and pass it around He said this cup is the new covenant in my blood. There's a new agreement now It's an agreement of forgiveness. He said do this As often as you drink it in remembrance of me For as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup you proclaim you affirm the Lord's death until he comes Jesus words You're saying I get it that Jesus died for me and I will live in that reality and remember it until he comes back Because that's the one reality we remember man. We'll go in and out of shipwreck But the one reality we remember is that he rescues He is our rescuer And when you look at this text, you know God is a saving God. It's what he does it's what he does and He is a God look at verse 4. He longs for all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth Friends, here's a very intense spiritual reality as we come to the table this morning The spirit of God is present in our world But he is present in this place and He is present in your experience Woeing you to come to a knowledge of the truth about him right now right here right now He wants you to be saved and if you having been shipwrecked Are far away from him He's coming to you today. I go on I can rescue you and I'm the bow my ship is a figurehead and it is the son of God who rescues us and If your life has gone Into the debris and another direction and you don't know our God can rescue you My friends as we come to the table today if you are a believer in Christ and your shipwrecks are of the kind that are after You've come to know Christ and they're part of your journey day in and day out and you need and long again for the reminder That this is his body and this is his blood and his spirit can come and get you back on his path And when you come to the table, you think Jesus your Lord your Savior that he's forgiven you and you cry out for rescue And my friends if you have never said yes to this gift of ransom of Christ you've never said yes to the free gift of forgiveness and Reconciliation with God by what Jesus did on the cross if you've never said yes to that gift Then you today can begin a relationship with God Your ship has come in It is sailing right by and he's ready to get you up out of that water and go let me take you where you were Designed to go and you can begin a relationship with our eternal God through Jesus Today and I would invite you to come to the table even if it's for the very first time or for the first time that you've ever Understood the table and you say to God I received the gift of Jesus's death His blood For my forgiveness I received the rescue today Either way friends Jesus hosts the tables just to hear to in the back and as we sing these next couple worship songs I'm gonna invite you to stand just a moment feel free whenever you're ready to make your way to one or Of this day I'll say one or more of the stations really make a loop if you want all four of them Enjoy the presence of Jesus our rescuer Shipwrecks not the end of the story Let's stand, let's worship, and let's meet Christ at the table.