WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.240 This morning I'd like us to turn back to the passage which we read as we continue our study 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:11.120 in the Gospel of Matthew. I want us to look at the whole section that we read, but we 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:18.120 can read again from verses 16 and 17. Jesus said, No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:24.800 on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:29.480 Neither is new wine put in old wine skins. If it is, the skins burst, and the wine is 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:34.960 spilled, and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wine skins, and 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:45.159 so both are preserved. Our title today is Thinking the Worshed, Thinking the Best. And 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:51.439 I've chosen that title for two reasons. One, because as I hope we'll see, I think that 00:00:51.439 --> 00:01:00.119 this title sums up one of the key emphasis of this passage. And two, because in life, 00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:06.400 the way we think is incredibly important. And whether it's in regard to ourselves, or 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:14.799 to others, or to our circumstances, or even to God, it's crucial that we ask ourselves, 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:22.439 am I thinking the worst, or am I thinking the best? So that's what I want us to think 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:29.079 about today. And because in this passage in Matthew 9, one of the things that we see is 00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:37.879 people coming to Jesus who are thinking the worst. But at the same time, we also see that 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:45.679 the Christian message gives us reason not to think the worst, but to think the best. 00:01:45.679 --> 00:01:52.599 So that's our title, and these are our two headings. Thinking the worst, thinking the 00:01:52.599 --> 00:02:01.399 best. In verses 1 to 17 of Matthew 9, we have three examples of people who are thinking 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:08.800 the worst. In verses 1 to 8, a paralytic is taken to Jesus. And in verse 2, we have that 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:15.800 remarkable moment when the paralysed man is lying before Jesus. But instead of Jesus 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:22.640 saying rise up and walk, Jesus says, your sins are forgiven. And that's reminding us 00:02:22.640 --> 00:02:30.599 that our need for our sins to be forgiven is more urgent than any physical or material 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:38.519 need that we have. But in terms of verification, someone could say your sins are forgiven. 00:02:38.519 --> 00:02:44.280 And there's no really obvious way of knowing whether that has actually happened or not. 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:51.560 But to say to somebody who's paralysed, rise up and walk, is in a sense a lot harder because 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:57.519 the validity of the statement is immediately put to the test. If you say rise up and walk 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:06.439 and nothing happens, then your words are undermined. Jesus therefore uses this miracle of healing 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:15.840 to powerfully show that the even greater miracle of forgiveness of sins is actually true. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:24.360 But in the process, the scribes think the worst of Jesus. In verse 3, we see that their immediate 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:32.240 response is to say, this man is a blasphemer. To them, Jesus is saying the wrong thing. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:39.160 And as Jesus's ministry continued, even though the religious leaders saw the miracles happening 00:03:39.160 --> 00:03:44.240 in front of them, in front of their own eyes, they still thought the worst of Jesus. And 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:50.440 they even accused him of using demonic power to do these miracles. And they refused to 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:59.759 recognize his authority. In verses 9 to 13, Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector, to follow 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:06.919 him as one of his disciples. Now today, when we think of inland revenue, we think of it 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:13.840 as a really important and a very well respected part of our society. But back in 1st century 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:23.120 Judea, it was not like that at all. Judea was under Roman rule, and they resented that 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:32.199 imperial rule greatly. But the tax collectors worked for the Romans to gather their money. 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:37.720 Therefore a tax collector to the Jews was a traitor because they were working for the 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:44.200 enemy. And on top of that, the tax collectors were often very corrupt, and they would exploit 00:04:44.200 --> 00:04:49.480 their role in order to enrich themselves. And the result of that was that tax collectors 00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:57.800 were despised by the general public. But Jesus goes and has dinner at this tax collector's 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:06.360 house, and a group of other sinners come along too. And these are people whose lives did not 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:14.360 match up to the religious expectations of the community. Yet Jesus goes and eats with 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:21.800 them. The Pharisees, however, think the worst. In verse 11, they say to the disciples, why 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:29.000 does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? To them, Jesus is mixing with the 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:34.720 wrong people. And throughout his ministry, Jesus was accused of being a glutton, a drunkard, 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:44.000 a friend of tax collectors, and sinners. And then in verses 14 to 17, we have the question 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.520 about fasting, which comes from the disciples of John the Baptist. Now, it's hard to know 00:05:49.520 --> 00:05:56.440 whether that question is just a simple inquiry. Why do we fast, but your disciples don't? 00:05:56.440 --> 00:06:01.480 Or is it more of a kind of veiled criticism, where they're saying, why aren't you fasting 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:07.240 in the way that we are? I'm not actually sure which one it is. Maybe it's a bit of both. 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:15.400 But what is clear is that the question itself arose from a negative mindset. For the disciples 00:06:15.400 --> 00:06:22.400 of John and for the Pharisees, fasting was associated with sorrow and calamity. You 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:30.280 see that back in the Old Testament, when something awful happens, people fast in response. So 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:35.000 these disciples of John who came to Jesus, they fasted because they could see everything 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:41.759 that was wrong with their circumstances. And that's confirmed by what Jesus says to them, 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:51.519 because he describes their fasting in terms of mourning in verse 15. To these people, 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:58.599 Jesus had the wrong mindset. They thought that he should have been mourning and fasting 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:09.120 instead of rejoicing. In each of these situations, then, we see people who are thinking the worst. 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:16.960 And Jesus, in many ways, sums it all up in verse 9 when he says, why do you think evil 00:07:16.960 --> 00:07:28.080 in your hearts? And the consequence of that mindset is that all of these people are missing 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:34.719 the amazing truth that's in front of them. So with the healing of the paralytic, we see 00:07:34.719 --> 00:07:41.279 a very clear demonstration of Jesus' authority. He's the Son of Man. He has power and authority 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:47.199 to forgive sins, and he proves it by healing the paralysed man. With the dinner at Matthew's 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:52.199 house, we see that Jesus has come to help people who are in need, to help people whose 00:07:52.199 --> 00:08:00.800 lives are in a mess, and he wants to extend his friendship to everyone, even to the outcasts 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:07.199 of society. And in regard to fasting, Jesus uses the image of a wedding to speak of the 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:13.159 joy and the celebration that we should be experiencing, because Jesus, the Savior, has 00:08:13.159 --> 00:08:19.360 come. All of these great theological truths are being set before the people in this passage, 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:30.480 and yet they are being missed because people are thinking the worst. And often we can fall 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:39.519 into exactly the same trap. So like the disciples of John, we can think the worst of our circumstances. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:46.680 That's true in lockdown, but even without that, we can have a very negative view of our circumstances. 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:51.399 That doesn't mean that our circumstances are never bad. Often they are, and that can be 00:08:51.399 --> 00:09:01.039 incredibly difficult for people in so many different ways. But what I mean is that whatever 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:07.159 our circumstances are, often our mind and our attention is drawn to everything that's 00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:15.519 bad, and we can easily forget about the good. Like the Pharisees at Matthew's house, we 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:21.639 can easily think the worst of others. So we can look at politicians and think that every 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:29.679 action is bad. We can look at colleagues and be convinced that they're out to hurt us and 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:34.079 give us a hard time. We can look at drivers on the road and think that they're just an 00:09:34.079 --> 00:09:41.960 enormous collection of idiots. And we can even look at other churches and find a hundred 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:51.280 things that are wrong with them. It's so easy to view other people as a threat, as a problem, 00:09:51.280 --> 00:10:00.200 or as an inconvenience. But we can also very easily think the worst of ourselves. And I'm 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:04.720 quite sure that many of the sinners who were eating with Jesus at Matthew's house would 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:11.240 have felt a huge sense of failure and regret about how their lives had turned out. And 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:14.720 it's so easy for that to be true of us. We can look at ourselves and see somebody who 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:23.039 has mucked up in the past and somebody who's probably going to fail again in the future. 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:29.360 And like the scribes who are watching the paralytic, it's also very easy to think the 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:36.240 worst of Jesus. We see that around us just now because we live in what's more or less 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:41.360 a non-Christian society, or certainly in lots of ways it's become a non-Christian society. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:47.879 Jesus is seen as irrelevant. His name is used as a swear and a lot of people don't want 00:10:47.879 --> 00:10:54.879 Jesus to have any influence in our society. But it's not just at a kind of national level, 00:10:54.879 --> 00:11:01.680 at a personal level, it's also easy to think the worst of Jesus. So you might be thinking 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:07.159 about whether or not you want to be a Christian. And in that situation, it's so easy to think 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:14.959 that Jesus is going to make your life worse. But equally, even as Christians, we can have 00:11:14.959 --> 00:11:21.199 a negative view of Jesus. So we can easily think that he's like a really strict headmaster 00:11:21.199 --> 00:11:26.839 who's always verging on being angry with us. Or we can think of him as a kind of scary 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:33.480 personal trainer who's only going to be impressed if you're pushing yourself beyond your limits. 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:38.519 Or maybe even we can think of him as like a kind of embarrassing relative who we're 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:47.000 connected to, but we don't really want other people to know. Jesus is none of these things, 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:54.240 but it's easy for us to think the worst of him. It's very easy to have a negative mindset 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:02.480 towards our circumstances, towards others, towards ourselves, and towards Jesus. And 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:09.519 all of that, of course, is a direct result of sin. Central to the fall of humanity, central 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:17.680 to sin coming into humanity's experience was a mindset that thought the worst. That's 00:12:17.680 --> 00:12:23.799 how the serpent deceived Eve all the way back in Genesis chapter three. He got her to think 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:31.039 the worst of God. And you can read Genesis three to see how he did that. And ever since 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:36.599 then throughout history, people have been continually drawn towards thinking evil in 00:12:36.599 --> 00:12:46.279 our hearts, just as Jesus speaks of in Matthew chapter nine. And many massive problems have 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:55.319 arisen in the world because of this. So racism thinks the worst of another ethnic group. Xenophobia 00:12:55.319 --> 00:13:02.000 thinks the worst of another nationality. Bullying and exploitation thinks the worst of people 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:05.559 because you think, well, they don't really deserve to be treated well. I can just use 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:15.360 and abuse them. Gossip and tabloid media looks for the worst in people's lives. And 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:24.720 the result of all these things is that precious people who are made in the image of God get 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:35.460 hurt. And that makes perfect sense because that's exactly what sin wants. Sin wants to 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:44.080 damage you. Sin wants to destroy humanity. And one of the best tactics it uses is to 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:53.720 get people to think the worst. So you take things like war, terrorism, bullying, corruption, 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:58.120 exploitation, self harm, hatred. When you think about all of those things, if you think about 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:03.480 the chain of events that leads up to all of these things taking place, what's the first 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:16.960 step in that chain? The first step is thinking the worst of either yourself or of others. 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:23.279 And for Jesus, it was actually no different because the evil that these people began to 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:32.500 think in their hearts in Matthew chapter nine, that went on to a chain of events that culminated 00:14:32.500 --> 00:14:44.279 in his crucifixion. Thinking the worst is incredibly easy and it's incredibly dangerous. And the 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:55.519 question I have to ask myself is, do I default to thinking the worst? And for me, I think 00:14:55.519 --> 00:15:02.480 far too often the answer is yes. So the next question I have to ask is, how do I evolve 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:12.080 thinking the worst? And what I want us to see is that I think the answer to that question 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:21.000 is found in the little illustration that Jesus gives in verses 16 and 17. Now you might be 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:25.720 thinking to yourself, what on earth has this got to do with all that I've been saying? 00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:32.039 Well, what I hope that we're going to see is that these verses, verses 16 and 17 highlight 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:39.360 the fact that the Christian faith is not about thinking the worst, it is about thinking the 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:48.319 best. In these verses, Jesus uses two very simple illustrations and in it he's saying 00:15:48.319 --> 00:15:53.399 that he talks about putting a patch on clothing and he talks about putting wine in wineskins. 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:59.919 And he says, you can't put a new patch of cloth onto old clothing. And that's because 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:05.360 when the new patch shrinks, it's going to tear away from the old material that's long 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:11.759 since already shrunk and that can't move with it. Likewise, you can't put new wine in 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:19.240 old wineskins because as the new wine ferments and as it releases gas and causes expansion, 00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:28.679 the old wineskins will crack because they've lost the flexibility that a new wineskin has. 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:35.399 Now, within these verses, Jesus is drawing two important comparisons and I want us just 00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:44.719 to think about these together for a moment. First comparison is old versus new. Jesus 00:16:44.719 --> 00:16:50.199 is using this illustration to say that in terms of God's plan of salvation, something 00:16:50.199 --> 00:16:58.519 new has come. So if you take the image of wine and wineskins, you see that at one level, 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:05.519 there's similarity and continuity. Both the old and the new are wine. But there's also 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:15.680 a difference. One is old, one is new and therefore you need to act appropriately to each. And 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:21.000 that image is very helpful in terms of understanding how the Old Testament and the New Testament 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:27.039 fit together, which is really what Jesus is talking about. At one level, there is continuity. 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:32.519 It's not that the Old Testament is being completely abandoned by Jesus and radically replaced 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:38.960 by something different. There is continuity, but at the same time, there is also change. 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:46.759 And now that Jesus has come, things are different. And the key difference is that the shadow 00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:54.279 of the Old Testament is now a reality in the new. The expectation of the old is now being 00:17:54.279 --> 00:18:00.440 fulfilled in the new. In other words, the Old Testament said, a Savior is coming. The 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:07.519 New Testament is saying the Savior is here. And the point that Jesus is making is to say 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:15.319 that you can't take the message, the Savior has come and put it back into the old wineskin 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:24.720 that says the Savior is coming. When fulfillment comes, expecting stops and that inevitably 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:32.079 means that you have to approach things differently. And that shift in mindset was very relevant 00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:38.359 to these disciples of John and to all the people who lived at the same time as Jesus' 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:45.399 ministry on earth. They needed to recognize that an amazing change has taken place right 00:18:45.399 --> 00:18:52.279 in front of them. They have gone from waiting for the Savior to come to realizing that He 00:18:52.279 --> 00:19:01.240 has come. The old has passed, the new is here. And the fact that the new has come is incredibly 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:10.240 good, positive, wonderful news. And the fact that the coming of Jesus and the fulfillment 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:17.920 of all the old promises is good news is reminding us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:28.599 very opposite of thinking the worst. Because if you think about God and think about how 00:19:28.599 --> 00:19:36.480 God could view humanity, He can see a million things that are wrong. He can see all the 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:42.399 ways in which humanity has rejected Him as Creator. He can see every single way in which 00:19:42.399 --> 00:19:50.599 we have failed Him. In other words, God has every reason to think the worst of us. And 00:19:50.599 --> 00:19:57.959 yet the whole reason that Jesus has come is because God looks at a broken humanity and 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:03.920 He sees people who are so precious and who need to be rescued. In other words, the whole 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:12.759 gospel is motivated by the fact that when God looks at you, He sees the best in you. 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:20.799 He sees someone who is worth saving. Now, that doesn't mean that God ignores our sin 00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:25.360 and everything else that's wrong with us. That's not the case at all. God knows better 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:30.119 than any of us that we are sinners and that we are broken. But the key point is that God 00:20:30.119 --> 00:20:38.159 recognizing our sin is not a criticism. It's a diagnosis. And the difference is crucial 00:20:38.159 --> 00:20:48.919 because a criticism is aiming to harm you. A diagnosis is aiming to heal you. And the 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:57.920 amazing truth of the gospel is that God's thoughts of you are so good and so positive 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:09.039 that He gave His only Son to die so that you might be saved. Now, when you think the worst 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:16.880 of people, you'll find any reason you can so that you can give up on them. But when 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:25.440 you think the best of people, you will find any reason you can so that you'll never have 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:32.880 to give up on them. And that is exactly how God thinks of you. And that's the mindset 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:40.920 that lies at the heart of Jesus' mission. In many ways, the Old Testament is a story 00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:48.680 of failure. God's people kept on mucking up. And even the good times and good things in 00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:56.880 the Old Testament never lasted long. But that's because the Old is only ever at best a shadow 00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:02.880 of what God's plan of salvation is really going to be. And when that plan of salvation 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:07.920 is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, when the shadow of the Old becomes the reality 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:14.960 in the new, we see the incredible, wonderful, positive, good news of Jesus Christ. And it's 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:23.000 all grounded on the fact that when it comes to you, ultimately God does not think the 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:35.920 worst. He thinks the best. Because the whole reason He gave His Son to be born in Bethlehem 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:44.800 and to walk among us on this earth and to be arrested and beaten and betrayed and ultimately 00:22:44.800 --> 00:22:50.400 to die on a cross, the whole reason that God gave His Son to do all of that is because 00:22:50.400 --> 00:23:04.539 to God you are worth dying for. And that brings us to the second comparison that Jesus makes 00:23:04.539 --> 00:23:14.920 in this parable. He compares the Old and the New, but He also compares rigidness and stretchiness. 00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:21.559 Now, what do I mean by that? Well, in both examples that Jesus gives in these verses, 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:27.960 a key point in the illustration is that the Old is rigid. So for the patch that gets put 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:35.440 on the piece of clothing, as the new bit shrinks, the Old can't stretch because it's rigid. 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:43.759 And so as the new piece shrinks, the Old just tears because it can't move along with it. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:49.480 With the wineskins, it's the same. The new wine needs to go into a new wineskin because 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:56.120 as the wine ferments, it needs to be able to stretch. Old wineskins have become rigid. 00:23:56.119 --> 00:24:01.399 So instead of expanding, they just crack and all the wine will fall out and both wine and 00:24:01.399 --> 00:24:10.399 wineskin are ruined. Now, I think that this comparison between rigidness and stretchiness 00:24:10.399 --> 00:24:19.559 is very important. That's because the negative mindset of the people in these passages arose 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:27.279 from a rigidness in their minds. So the scribes were rigid in their opposition to the idea 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:32.879 that Jesus could forgive sins. The Pharisees were rigid in their opinion that you should 00:24:32.879 --> 00:24:39.159 not be friends with tax collectors and sinners. And even the disciples of John were rigid 00:24:39.159 --> 00:24:46.039 in their view that their circumstances were bad and that we should not be celebrating, 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:56.559 we should be fasting and mourning. And I think that Jesus is telling them and he's telling 00:24:56.559 --> 00:25:06.079 us that if we want to really understand the gospel, we need to resist the temptation to 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:15.599 be rigid and instead we need to be ready to stretch. In other words, if we want to 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:25.359 stop thinking the worst and start thinking the best, then we need to stretch our minds. 00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:31.959 So when Matthew 9 talks about Jesus having the authority to forgive sins in verses 128, 00:25:31.959 --> 00:25:38.679 we need to stretch our minds to see how amazing that is. Think of your own life. Think of 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:45.880 every way in which you are conscious of your sin. Think of every failure in your life, 00:25:45.880 --> 00:25:51.000 every mistake you've made as a child or as an adult, all the things that you wish you 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:56.039 hadn't said or wish you hadn't done. Think of everything that weighs heavily on your 00:25:56.039 --> 00:26:01.880 conscience. And all of these things can be lined up together into this big panorama of 00:26:01.880 --> 00:26:10.320 failure in our minds. And all of these mistakes that seem to just stretch out further and 00:26:10.320 --> 00:26:20.560 further and further, we bring all of that before Jesus and he says, forgiven. And the 00:26:20.560 --> 00:26:29.320 whole lot is wiped out. It's like on a computer when you do select all, delete and it's gone. 00:26:29.319 --> 00:26:35.839 Jesus looks at that massive list of mistakes in your life and he says, forgiven. If you 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:42.399 are a Christian or if you become one, every mistake you have ever made in your past or 00:26:42.399 --> 00:26:52.559 that you will ever make in your future is forgiven. And Jesus has the authority to do that. So 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:57.079 your forgiveness is not just based on the kindness of Jesus or on his patience or his 00:26:57.079 --> 00:27:05.480 niceness. It is based on his eternal, unchangeable authority. Now that authority of Jesus is 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:11.639 the authority under which every other authoritative structure in the universe lies. So think of 00:27:11.639 --> 00:27:17.000 all the different authoritative structures that are in existence. You think of political, 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:23.279 financial, cosmological, biological, intellectual, spiritual, all the different areas of authority 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:28.680 that we can see around it. At the pinnacle of that authority is Jesus. Every other knee 00:27:28.680 --> 00:27:36.160 bows before him. Nothing can threaten him. His authority is the highest, the greatest, 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:45.440 the strongest. He is at the top. He has authority that no one else has. And it is his authority 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:58.720 that looks at you and says forgiven forever. Matthew nine speaks about Jesus eating with 00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:04.960 tax collectors and sinners. And again, we need to stretch your minds to think about 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:10.160 this. So often we can look at ourselves and we can feel worthless and inadequate. We can 00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:16.320 think that God would not want to be anywhere near us. Matthew nine is telling you that no 00:28:16.320 --> 00:28:23.720 matter who you are, no matter what failures or mistakes you've had in your life, Jesus 00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:33.200 wants your friendship. Now stretch your mind to think about that. That means that Jesus 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:39.000 doesn't just want to be that it means that Jesus that he doesn't want to just have some 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:46.400 kind of acquaintance of you. He wants to be your friend. He wants to be associated with 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:53.440 you. He is not ashamed of you. He actually really likes you. Now for anyone who has been 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:57.119 on the receiving end of rejection in their life, which is probably all of us at some 00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:02.720 point or another, for anyone who's experienced that we need to understand this, Jesus wants 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:10.039 your friendship. He wants to eat with you and he doesn't care for one second. Supposing 00:29:10.039 --> 00:29:17.600 there's a thousand people watching on saying, why is he eating with him or with her? And 00:29:17.600 --> 00:29:25.960 if you think that you are outside the circle of friends that Jesus wants to have, then 00:29:25.960 --> 00:29:34.160 you need to stretch that circle because no matter who you are, you are in it. No matter 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:40.200 your circumstances, no matter what mistakes you've made, no matter who you are, Jesus 00:29:40.200 --> 00:29:49.519 thinks the best of you and he wants your friendship. So we need to stretch our minds to see that, 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:56.359 but maybe we also need to stretch our minds to see how much value Jesus places on everyone 00:29:56.359 --> 00:30:06.079 else. So when we look at colleagues at work or people at school or people in society or 00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:10.839 people of other faiths, people who have no faith, people who are in a mess, people who 00:30:10.839 --> 00:30:17.920 think completely differently to us, maybe we need to stretch our minds to see how precious 00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:30.039 they are to God as well. And finally in verse 15, Jesus describes himself as a bridegroom. 00:30:30.039 --> 00:30:36.480 And the reason Jesus calls himself a bridegroom is because he has a bride. And the bride is 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:45.279 the church. In other words, if you are a Christian or if you become one, the bride is you. Now 00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:53.319 there's two amazing things about that image. The first is that the bridegroom loves his 00:30:53.319 --> 00:31:00.240 bride. Now you've maybe heard that a thousand times, but please stretch your mind to try 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:06.920 and grasp a little more of this. Jesus loves you. He's always loved you and he always will 00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:14.160 love you and he loves you so much that he died for you. And in Ephesians chapter three, 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:22.160 Paul prays that we might have strength to comprehend the height and breadth and length 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:29.200 and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. So you need to stretch 00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:37.000 your mind as far as you can to understand Jesus' love for you. So let's try and do it. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:43.360 Let's stretch our minds. Try and think of a tank or a bath and make it as big as you possibly 00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:49.119 can. Make it as big as Edinburgh, as big as Scotland, as big as the world. Make it as big as 00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:56.000 the solar system. Make it as big as the universe. Stretch out your mind. Make it huge in width, 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:07.959 in length, in depth. Now in that massive tank is the love of Jesus Christ for you. And you 00:32:07.960 --> 00:32:15.440 can picture in your mind that tank being filled with something that represents Jesus' love for 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:19.680 you. I don't mind what you think. You can think of it as water. You can think of it as hot chocolate. 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:24.200 You can think of it as strawberry sauce, whatever it is that comes to your mind. But as you think 00:32:24.200 --> 00:32:30.519 of that image of that massive tank that stretched out as far as your mind can possibly imagine, 00:32:30.519 --> 00:32:36.960 as it's been filled with the love of Jesus, there is one thing that has to be in your image 00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:50.360 for it to be accurate. The tank has to be overflowing because that is how much Jesus loves 00:32:50.360 --> 00:33:01.000 you. And the only way to get a glimpse of that is to stretch your mind. The bridegroom loves his 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:09.599 bride. But the second thing that we see in the bridegroom image is celebration. And at the heart 00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:15.759 of our lives as Christians, there should be massive celebration because Jesus has come and Jesus 00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:22.480 has risen. And in him, if we trust in him, we can have eternal life and we will be with him and 00:33:22.480 --> 00:33:29.200 we'll be with one another forever because through Jesus, all the brokenness of sin will be healed. 00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:37.000 Everything that's wrong is going to be fixed. Every tear will be wiped from her eyes and everything 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:46.799 that makes us think the worst will be gone. In the gospel of Jesus, there is so much to celebrate. 00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:58.240 And the amazing thing is that to Jesus, you are a reason to celebrate. So often, our minds are 00:33:58.240 --> 00:34:09.840 imprisoned in a rigid box of negativity. Jesus is saying, I have news that is so good. You need 00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:19.920 to stretch your mind as far as you can if you're going to grasp it. All of that means that in a 00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:33.119 world that so often thinks the worst, Jesus gives us every reason to think the best. And in response 00:34:33.119 --> 00:34:41.400 to that, I look at myself and pray, Lord, when I look at my circumstances, when I look at others, 00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:54.440 when I look at myself and when I look at you, please help me to always think the best. And if 00:34:54.440 --> 00:35:05.559 you're not yet a Christian, I really don't know what else I can say. Jesus thinks the best of you. 00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:17.559 And Jesus wants the best for you. And all you have to do is put your trust in him. And the only 00:35:17.559 --> 00:35:36.199 thing that can spoil it is if you think the worst of him. Please don't do that. Amen. Let's pray. 00:35:36.199 --> 00:35:43.880 Lord Jesus, we rejoice in everything that you have done for us and for the fact that you give us 00:35:43.880 --> 00:35:51.240 every reason to think the best. And we just acknowledge that you have given us such good news, 00:35:51.240 --> 00:35:58.440 such amazing hope, such wonderful joy. And we are so thankful to you for everything that you've done 00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:06.599 for us. And we pray that we would think the best of our circumstances, of one another, of ourselves, 00:36:06.599 --> 00:36:18.199 and above all of you. Help us all to see just how incredibly good the good news of the gospel is. Amen.