WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.219 And if you have your Bibles, perhaps you can open them with me to Luke chapter 7. 00:00:06.179 --> 00:00:14.339 While we think about what happens when love comes to town, reading this section this week 00:00:14.339 --> 00:00:22.260 reminded me of that classic U2 song of the same name, sung with B.B. King, the blues 00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:30.380 guitarist. If you know the song, you will know that it is full of tales, tales of hurts, 00:00:31.200 --> 00:00:39.640 tales of mistakes, tales of brokenness. But when love comes to town, there's redemption. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:46.040 And the chorus begins, when love comes to town, I'm going to jump that train. When love comes to 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:53.079 town, I'm going to catch that flame. In other words, there should always be a positive response 00:00:53.079 --> 00:01:03.219 to a love that rescues, to a love that restores when love comes to town. Luke chapter 7 is helping 00:01:03.219 --> 00:01:08.539 us to answer the question that we've been thinking about for a number of weeks. Who is Jesus? 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:18.500 Jesus. Jesus is the Lord. We've seen that. He is the Son of God. He is the Savior. He is also the King 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:27.040 of love who comes to these towns with redeeming and restoring love. And this section also helps us to 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:36.219 answer the question, how should I respond to this King? To borrow B.B. King's refrain, we should jump 00:01:36.219 --> 00:01:47.219 that train. This section is calling us to the positive responses of faith and worship to Jesus the Lord. 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:58.939 These are two powerful stories indicating for us Jesus' love in action. And these are stories that we 00:01:58.939 --> 00:02:05.219 need to hear. These are stories actually big enough to include all of us. As we have read them, 00:02:05.219 --> 00:02:11.960 we recognize that whether we are male or female, whether we consider ourselves to be outsiders or insiders, 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:19.939 whether we are rich and powerful or poor and weak, there is love from Jesus for us today. 00:02:21.099 --> 00:02:27.900 The heart of Jesus is open to show love to you and to me today, so there is good news for us. 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:35.400 If we're here today and we're suffering, if we're hurting, if we're confused, if we're searching, there is good news. 00:02:37.140 --> 00:02:43.819 The message for us in our time, in Edinburgh today, is that when the King of love comes to town, 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:50.400 when he comes to visit us in the gospel, we need to respond with faith and with worship. 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:58.520 So let's think about this. When love comes to these two towns, first of all, let's turn our attention to 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:07.200 the town of Capernaum. Verse 1 of Luke 7 reminds us that Jesus is on a journey. When Jesus had finished 00:03:07.200 --> 00:03:13.000 saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. So previously we have seen 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:21.000 Jesus has called his twelve apostles, and then he has been teaching them as their Lord, and now 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:28.340 they're following Jesus to his hometown. They're watching, they're listening and learning, 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:33.719 because in the fullness of time they're also going to be called to be doers. They're going to 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:41.120 be asked to show the love of God to continue the mission of Jesus. One question to ask is, 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:49.300 who does Jesus show his love to? And that takes us to verses 2 and 3, where we meet a centurion 00:03:49.300 --> 00:04:00.000 and his servant, a Roman army captain. Now, we might have our ideas of what a Roman army captain would be 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:09.599 like. The man we meet in this text is surprisingly different. We can notice three surprising aspects 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:18.439 about him. Notice, first of all, his respect. He has a great respect for his servant. Verse 2, 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:27.300 there a centurion's servant whom his master valued highly was ill and about to die. For many people, 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:36.060 servants were disposable, but not for this Roman army captain. But he also has respect for 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:42.480 the Jewish people. The Jewish people and the Jewish religion. Look at verse 5. This message comes to 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:49.560 Jesus. This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. 00:04:49.780 --> 00:04:56.160 Their place of worship was funded and founded by this Roman army captain. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:04.780 I would suggest he's also surprising in the humility he shows towards Jesus. 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:14.200 Verse 3, the centurion heard of Jesus and sent some of the elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come 00:05:14.200 --> 00:05:19.360 and heal his servant. It's really interesting, and we can miss this, that the centurion, we get a great 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:26.240 portrait of him. But to the best of our knowledge, he never actually meets with Jesus personally. Rather, 00:05:26.340 --> 00:05:33.160 he sends messengers, and when those messengers bring the message to Jesus, this man deserves 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:42.439 you to help him. As Jesus comes close to the house, verse 6, he sends friends to say on his behalf, 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:49.819 Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. I am not worthy. 00:05:50.339 --> 00:05:57.300 Here is humility. In the town of Capernaum, this Roman army captain, he had great influence, 00:05:57.300 --> 00:06:04.839 so that the Jewish leaders are ready to plead his case. In verse 8, we discover he has great power. 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:11.019 He has soldiers that he gives orders to, and those orders are obeyed. But before Christ Jesus, 00:06:11.019 --> 00:06:22.359 he is humble, he is humble. I do not deserve. He's also surprising, and Jesus notices this for us, 00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:31.859 he's surprising in the understanding that he shows about who Jesus is. Look at verse 7 and 8 with me. 00:06:31.859 --> 00:06:40.180 He says, well, his representatives say to Jesus, say the word, and my servant will be healed 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:46.220 for I myself. For I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one, go, 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:54.000 and he goes, and so on. In the army, this captain knows about a powerful word of command. 00:06:54.860 --> 00:07:00.660 When I tell the officers under me to go and do something, I know they will do it even in my absence. 00:07:00.660 --> 00:07:09.640 And he also says, I understand about a higher authority. And he sees both of these things 00:07:09.640 --> 00:07:18.580 in Jesus. He understands Jesus has the authority of God himself, and Jesus has this powerful word of 00:07:18.580 --> 00:07:28.560 command that can bring healing at a distance. He's a surprising figure that Jesus is going to show love 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:37.680 to you. Another question we can ask is, how does Jesus show love to this man? I think drawing on what 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:47.019 we thought about last week, we can see Jesus show love for his enemies. Remember chapter 6, verse 35, 00:07:47.019 --> 00:07:58.379 but love your enemies and do good to them. So for many Jews, Rome was the enemy. They were an occupying 00:07:58.379 --> 00:08:09.819 force, and they were hated by many, but Jesus in his ministry shows grace towards this enemy soldier, 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:16.339 just as Jesus' ministry so often shows grace to those who are on the outside. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:26.779 He shows love with action. Again, Luke records it almost in passing, but look at verse 10, 00:08:26.779 --> 00:08:31.959 then the men who'd been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. So remember, 00:08:32.079 --> 00:08:39.139 the centurion understands Jesus can heal by a word of command at a distance. And so as this centurion 00:08:39.139 --> 00:08:44.620 is sitting at home concerned for his servant, he never meets Jesus, but he sees Jesus in action. 00:08:45.439 --> 00:08:50.620 He sees his request miraculously granted. Jesus loves with action. 00:08:50.620 --> 00:09:03.139 Jesus' love also comes with honor. Verse 9 is really interesting, isn't it? When Jesus heard this, 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:09.240 his understanding of the authority of Jesus' word, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd, 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:17.940 he said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel. There's only two times in the 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:22.780 Gospels that Jesus is said to be amazed. First in Mark chapter 6, he's amazed by unbelief. 00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:29.960 How is it that people can witness the works of Jesus, hear the words of Jesus, and stay calm to him? 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:37.140 He's amazed by unbelief. But here he's amazed by belief, by belief from someone who is outside of 00:09:37.140 --> 00:09:45.600 Israel. And what does Jesus do? He publicly honors this man for his faith. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:55.899 Jesus loves it. Jesus loves it when people place their faith in him. As this centurion trusts Jesus 00:09:55.899 --> 00:10:06.040 as Lord, entrusts his servant to Jesus' love, Jesus honors him. Jesus honors his faith. Jesus will 00:10:06.040 --> 00:10:11.100 always honor our faith, however small and weak we feel it to be. 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:23.360 Let's shift from Capernaum to the town of Nain, because the journey continues. In verse 11, 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:31.420 we read soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along 00:10:31.420 --> 00:10:41.080 with him. And the action takes us, Luke takes us to the town gate of Nain. We were in St. Andrew, 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:46.379 St. Andrew's yesterday. St. Andrew's has a 400-year-old town gate. There's not actually a gate, but there's 00:10:46.379 --> 00:10:52.920 a gateway. So perhaps we can think about city walls, and there's a gateway. And at that gateway, 00:10:53.520 --> 00:11:01.320 Luke records two different crowds coming together. And these two different crowds come with very 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:07.700 different moods. There is the one crowd following Jesus, Jesus the King of life and love, 00:11:07.700 --> 00:11:13.680 and there is joy, and there is praise, and there's expectation. What's Jesus going to do next? 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:21.500 But then there's this other crowd coming out of Nain, and they're following the open coffin of a dead man. 00:11:21.500 --> 00:11:31.720 And that's a crowd marked by despair and loss and sadness. Now, who does Jesus show love to 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:38.500 in the town of Nain? Verse 12, as he has approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out, 00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:46.860 the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. So there is a woman from Nain who is a widow, 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:54.539 and now she's lost her son. It's a woman who has experienced multiple losses, the loss of a husband, 00:11:55.159 --> 00:12:02.560 the loss of a son, and with that the loss of security and income, and the loss of a name 00:12:02.560 --> 00:12:11.060 for future generations. Multiple losses. And the crowd that follow, they know it. 00:12:11.059 --> 00:12:18.859 A large crowd, we're told, was with her. They gather together to show support and to extend 00:12:18.859 --> 00:12:29.379 sympathy in this time of deep grief. So here we have coming into town the King of love, 00:12:29.659 --> 00:12:38.619 and here he meets with the reality of death. And wonderfully, this hopeless widow is about to be 00:12:38.620 --> 00:12:45.039 surprised by joy, about to be surprised by the love of God as we find it in Jesus. 00:12:46.700 --> 00:12:53.620 Now let's stop to recognize how does Jesus show love. Look with me at verse 13. 00:12:54.919 --> 00:13:05.060 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her. Jesus loves from his heart. 00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:14.259 There's been a lot of talk and a lot of studies, especially sort of since COVID, about compassion 00:13:14.259 --> 00:13:22.699 fatigue. Maybe folks who work in the NHS, sort of feeling that sense of being burned out by 00:13:22.699 --> 00:13:30.379 repeated demands and needs and so much suffering and it never letting up. There is no compassion 00:13:30.379 --> 00:13:37.299 fatigue when it comes to Jesus. Here is the power of God for sinners and sufferers. Here is the heart of 00:13:37.299 --> 00:13:44.779 God for sinners and sufferers. And he never gets tired of helping the hurting and the broken. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:51.439 It's wonderful to think as well, Jesus sees this great crowd coming, but he doesn't just see 00:13:51.440 --> 00:14:02.800 a faceless mass. Rather, he sees the one. What we have from Jesus is personal attention to personal 00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:11.760 suffering. Isn't that good news for us? Jesus would give personal attention to our personal suffering and 00:14:11.760 --> 00:14:19.220 need. There is love from his heart. There is love, we can say as well, for the so-called least of these. 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:29.620 Luke pairs these stories together, and there's a real contrast, because in society, this woman would be 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:36.800 on the very bottom step of the social ladder. If a Roman army captain was up here, then this woman was 00:14:36.800 --> 00:14:49.100 weighed down here. But to the Savior, there are no little people. Rather, he values her, he honors her, 00:14:49.220 --> 00:15:00.700 he sees someone made in the image of God, someone worthy of love and care. Our God and our Savior is personal, 00:15:01.300 --> 00:15:10.639 and he cares for the weak and the suffering. And we see him love with power, don't we? 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:22.799 Here in verse 14 and 15, we're taken into this battle of life and death. And Jesus enters in. 00:15:24.100 --> 00:15:31.299 Jesus went up and touched the coffin they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:40.039 In touching a coffin, Jesus should have been made unclean if he were just a man. But what happens with 00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:49.480 his touch? And with his words, young man, I say to you, get up, the dead man sat up and began to talk. 00:15:51.059 --> 00:16:01.579 Jesus has power greater than death. Redeeming love has come to this town. Here is a reminder in Luke's 00:16:01.580 --> 00:16:18.060 gospel that death. In these two stories we see it as profoundly good news when love comes to town in 00:16:18.060 --> 00:16:25.220 the person of Jesus. I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Pleasantville. I'm not even sure 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:31.300 why Pleasantville came to mind, but I can't remember anything about the story. But I do know that it 00:16:31.300 --> 00:16:38.980 involved a teenager from the 1990s who was watching a black and white sitcom set in a small town in the 00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:47.399 1950s. And in the movie, he is pulled into that town. So he finds himself living in this black and 00:16:47.399 --> 00:16:57.100 white reality. But as he interacts with people, as he meets with people, as this guy from the 90s walks 00:16:57.100 --> 00:17:06.359 around, he turns everything technicolor. He begins to transform that community. 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:18.819 What do we see when Jesus comes into the town of Capernaum, when Jesus comes into the town of Nain? 00:17:19.059 --> 00:17:29.099 Don't we see his transforming life bringing color, bringing hope, bringing joy in the place of sadness and 00:17:29.099 --> 00:17:38.399 suffering and despair? That's what Jesus does. That's what he would do in our lives. As we bring these two visits 00:17:38.399 --> 00:17:47.359 together, as Luke has paired them together, what can we say about Jesus' love today? Well, we can certainly say 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:57.559 from these two stories that Jesus' love is open to all. He is a Savior for all, regardless of our country. 00:17:57.559 --> 00:18:11.599 Regardless of our social class. Regardless of our career or achievements. There is no small print here. 00:18:11.859 --> 00:18:21.259 There are no exclusions here. The Bible says, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. 00:18:21.259 --> 00:18:34.819 And this is profoundly good news. When we become aware of our sin and our need. When we become aware 00:18:34.819 --> 00:18:43.039 in our suffering that there is in Jesus one who would love us, one who would help us. It's good news for us 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:50.579 when we think about the people on our hearts that we pray for. That the love of Jesus is open to all. 00:18:51.259 --> 00:18:59.920 We can also see from these stories that the love of Jesus is gracious. Something I think the 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:09.500 centurion understood. As he comes, as he sends his friends to Jesus, he wants to be clear, I am not 00:19:09.500 --> 00:19:17.900 worthy. He doesn't tell his friends, listen, you need to produce my record of achievement. They don't say to 00:19:17.900 --> 00:19:25.740 Jesus, see that synagogue. Our friend built that, so you should help him. We shouldn't come. We don't 00:19:25.740 --> 00:19:31.180 come to Jesus with our record of religious achievements. Jesus, here is why you should save me. 00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:43.039 It's all about grace. The very fact that Jesus comes to this dead man shows that we cannot save 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:49.039 ourselves spiritually. We are dead in our sins, and we need help. We need resurrection life that comes 00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:56.600 from outside of us. These stories remind us of God's grace, his love, and his kindness to those who 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:05.339 don't earn it, those who cannot deserve it. It speaks to us of God's saving love towards us in Jesus, the Savior. 00:20:06.859 --> 00:20:13.699 And this grace, this love is what we need for the whole of our Christian lives. How do we begin? How do we 00:20:13.699 --> 00:20:22.299 become a Christian? It's by trusting that God loves me, and he sent Jesus to die for me, that he has done 00:20:22.299 --> 00:20:30.940 everything, and we receive that by faith. How do we grow as Christians? We're not left to do that 00:20:30.940 --> 00:20:38.599 ourselves, but rather we have the power of Jesus by his Spirit working itself into our hearts and our 00:20:38.599 --> 00:20:45.639 lives, causing us to become more like us. How do we persevere in our faith until the end? Again, 00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:55.700 it's because of the saving work of the Lord Jesus, that those at whom God begins to work and those who 00:20:55.700 --> 00:21:05.000 he chooses to save, he will certainly complete that work and take us to our final destination. Love is 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:14.600 gracious, and that's good news. And we see that Jesus is a loving King. So often in the Gospels, 00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:19.359 we're reminded of this wonderful combination in Jesus, perfect power and perfect love. 00:21:20.719 --> 00:21:29.919 That's not something we find in anybody else. I wonder if we can identify with the crowd that met 00:21:29.919 --> 00:21:36.619 Jesus coming out of name. So often, don't we, we feel sympathy towards other people, 00:21:37.619 --> 00:21:42.819 but we recognize there is nothing in the end that we can do for people. We have sympathy, 00:21:42.819 --> 00:21:49.700 but often we lack power. By contrast, often we think of leaders in the world and they have power, 00:21:51.700 --> 00:21:55.559 but they lack sympathy for the, for the simple people, for people like us. 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:04.939 But when Jesus, the Lord, the Son of God, when he comes into the world, when he comes to time, 00:22:04.940 --> 00:22:13.480 we have perfect power, perfect love coming together. And we see this ultimately when love will come to 00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:24.240 another type. As Jesus walks to Jerusalem, there, the sinless Son of God will suffer and die in the 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:34.960 place of sin. So that all who trust in him will find forgiveness and eternal life. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:42.599 So we've thought about when love comes to time. Secondly, and much more briefly, when love comes to 00:22:42.599 --> 00:22:51.980 time, how should we respond? So Jesus is the King and he comes in love. How should we respond? 00:22:51.980 --> 00:23:03.460 Let's fast forward to Saturday and to the coronation of the King. There have been, as we know, months of 00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:12.240 careful planning. There have been practices being carried on at nighttime so that everybody involved 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:20.120 on that day will know very clearly, here is the behavior that is expected of you. 00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:27.979 The proclaimers, now that group from Leith, they discovered to their cost that if you don't 00:23:27.979 --> 00:23:34.079 match behavior, you will be excluded. Did you notice that they got ditched from the royal playlist 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:41.279 for some of their anti-royal sentiments? I don't think they were too bothered. But when the King of 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:52.700 Love comes to town, what is the expected behavior? What behavior does God expect from us in response 00:23:52.700 --> 00:24:01.079 to Jesus, the King of Love? From these two stories, let's together draw two lessons. 00:24:02.700 --> 00:24:10.180 First of all, let's learn from the centurion that we should respond with faith to Jesus. 00:24:10.180 --> 00:24:18.060 To go back to verse 9, Jesus was amazed at the centurion and said, 00:24:18.120 --> 00:24:24.700 I tell you, I've not found such great faith even in Israel. What is it that amazes Jesus about his 00:24:24.700 --> 00:24:31.039 faith? What can we learn for ourselves? Well, we've already said faith that he shows is faith that is 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:38.900 humble. If you were to turn to Matthew chapter 8, you would find the same story, but without the 00:24:38.900 --> 00:24:45.600 messengers. Luke has chosen to include the messengers because the messengers help us to understand 00:24:45.600 --> 00:24:55.500 here is a humble centurion. This is humble faith. The first set of people come and say to Jesus, 00:24:55.620 --> 00:25:01.620 he deserves it. And it seems like he's horrified by that idea, so he sends a second group of friends 00:25:01.619 --> 00:25:09.039 to correct that idea to correct that idea to say, I'm not worthy. Faith must be humble. 00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:18.419 We can think perhaps about the ABCs of faith, which all speak to us of humility. A, 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:28.220 faith involves us admitting our sin. And to admit our sin requires us to be humble, 00:25:28.700 --> 00:25:34.960 to recognize that we have broken God's law, that we have failed to love him and other people 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:39.259 as he would ask us to. It takes humility to admit our sin. 00:25:39.259 --> 00:25:52.960 Faith must be humble to be to believe that only Jesus can save us, that only Jesus can bring us to 00:25:52.960 --> 00:26:00.200 God. It takes humility to recognize, I can't save myself. I can't ever be good enough to earn a place 00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:09.460 in God's kingdom. I must believe in Jesus and trust that his perfect record is credited to my account. 00:26:11.360 --> 00:26:17.279 And faith must be humble as well in order to see come to him in faith, 00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:25.000 to recognize that these things are true, and to not just stand back, 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:31.680 but rather to receive this free gift of grace and to come to him. So faith must always be humble. 00:26:34.500 --> 00:26:39.240 Faith is in the word of Jesus as well. We saw that at the end of verse 7, 00:26:39.299 --> 00:26:45.460 but say the word and my servant will be healed. Our trust is in the word of Jesus, the gospel word, 00:26:46.359 --> 00:26:50.940 that declaration from God of what he has done for us through the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:26:50.940 --> 00:26:57.920 that he has sent his Son to be that promised Savior, that he has sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, 00:26:58.039 --> 00:27:06.880 to be the suffering servant. We place our faith in Jesus, who spoke those words of love on the cross, 00:27:07.019 --> 00:27:12.360 Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. That's a prayer big enough to include you 00:27:12.360 --> 00:27:19.860 and me today. We put our faith in the word of Jesus when he declared, it is finished. Everything 00:27:19.859 --> 00:27:24.500 that is necessary for salvation has been done. All we need to do is come and to believe. 00:27:25.500 --> 00:27:32.439 So our faith, too, is in the word of Jesus. And just like the centurion, our faith rests in the 00:27:32.439 --> 00:27:42.899 authority of Jesus. That's what the centurion recognized. Jesus has a unique authority as Lord. 00:27:42.900 --> 00:27:55.519 By faith, by faith, we see Jesus has come from God with all authority, and faith submits to him 00:27:55.519 --> 00:28:06.380 and commits to follow him. Faith trusts this message from the King and acts on it. 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:15.720 This message is so different to those scam emails that we probably all used to get in our inboxes. 00:28:15.760 --> 00:28:20.640 They don't seem to be so frequent anymore. I suspect scammers have become more sophisticated. 00:28:20.820 --> 00:28:24.580 But you know those emails you would get where there was a foreign prince who needed your help? 00:28:25.180 --> 00:28:29.220 He had a vast fortune that he just needed to rest in your account for a little while, 00:28:29.580 --> 00:28:33.580 and if you would give your bank details, then he would give you a portion of his vast wealth. 00:28:33.579 --> 00:28:39.619 We know the action to take to those messages, don't we? That message deserves to be deleted. 00:28:40.699 --> 00:28:48.139 But Luke's gospel tells us that Jesus really is God's King. He is full of glory and love. He does 00:28:48.139 --> 00:28:55.199 have the power to transform everything about us, our reality. He really will pour the love of God 00:28:55.199 --> 00:29:00.720 into our lives. He really does want to give us a spiritual fortune. 00:29:03.579 --> 00:29:10.500 What do we do with that truth? At the end of the day, there's really only two choices. We can still 00:29:10.500 --> 00:29:17.720 hit the delete button. We can dismiss that message. We can ignore that message. We can say, 00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:24.279 that's too good to be true for me, or that's for other people who are not for me. Or we can choose faith. 00:29:24.279 --> 00:29:35.779 Faith that believes it to be true for me. Faith that comes to him for salvation. Faith that comes to him for 00:29:35.779 --> 00:29:46.059 help every day. Faith that leads us to pray for others to come and to know Jesus. Faith sees and believes 00:29:46.059 --> 00:29:58.919 and responds to Jesus, God's King of love. So we should respond with faith. But we're also invited to see 00:29:58.919 --> 00:30:09.740 that we should respond with worship. And we learn this from the crowd. Jesus is the great teacher sent from 00:30:09.740 --> 00:30:20.480 God. The crowd on this day. They're like the pupils who almost get it. They've got the facts, but as yet they're not 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:27.220 quite able to put them together for a right conclusion. They fall just a little bit short in terms of their 00:30:27.220 --> 00:30:37.240 understanding of Jesus' identity. Verse 16, they were all filled with awe, and they praised God. A great prophet 00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:41.700 has appeared among us, they said. God has come to help his people. 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:48.880 So they see what Jesus has just done, raising this boy, and they turn to the Old Testament and think, 00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:55.600 Jesus is like Elijah and like Elisha, those great powers, those great prophets whom God gave power to, 00:30:55.599 --> 00:31:01.179 to raise the dead. They think about Elijah and Elisha, who had those great ministries to help 00:31:01.179 --> 00:31:06.539 restore people to God. And they say, well, Jesus is someone like them. He's another great prophet. But 00:31:06.539 --> 00:31:13.319 what's the missing link? Jesus is a prophet, and at the same time is more than a prophet. Yes, 00:31:13.500 --> 00:31:19.719 he speaks God's Word with authority, but he speaks that Word with authority because he is God. 00:31:20.899 --> 00:31:24.219 He is the Word of God who became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:32.539 Jesus isn't just another prophet come to help his people. Jesus is God. Jesus is the promised King. 00:31:32.939 --> 00:31:40.179 He has love come down to help his people. Jesus is God's way to restore us to life with God, 00:31:40.819 --> 00:31:46.179 ultimately by defeating death through the cross and the resurrection. 00:31:46.180 --> 00:31:58.900 And because this is true, we are called to worship, to recognize the supreme worth and glory of Jesus, 00:32:00.019 --> 00:32:08.080 that there be a real change of our heart and our attitude and our actions, because Jesus Christ has 00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:16.000 become the Savior and the Savior and the Lord and the treasure of our hearts and lives. He is precious 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:23.859 to us. As we come to understand, there is no greater love than the love we find in Jesus, a love that would 00:32:23.859 --> 00:32:29.939 die to turn enemies into friends, a love that is powerful enough to restore broken lives, a love that 00:32:29.940 --> 00:32:42.019 can change homes and families and communities as we see here. By faith, we joyfully treasure the love of God 00:32:42.019 --> 00:32:48.860 for us in Christ Jesus. We live to invite others into that joy. 00:32:48.859 --> 00:33:03.599 That's how living with worship looks. Love has come to town in Jesus, and we need to respond. 00:33:04.939 --> 00:33:13.719 We need to jump on that train, trusting Him and living for His glory day by day. Let's pray about that 00:33:13.720 --> 00:33:23.100 together. Lord, our God, we thank you so much for sending us your Son, the Lord Jesus. We thank you for 00:33:23.100 --> 00:33:31.779 His wonderful character, for His perfect power and His perfect love demonstrated here in these two stories. 00:33:32.740 --> 00:33:40.500 Lord, we're so thankful that Jesus in heaven is still full of power and love, a love that He would pour 00:33:40.500 --> 00:33:49.960 out on us. And so we do pray that you would give us the gift of faith, that you would cause us to 00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:57.400 worship you with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength, because of the great love that you 00:33:57.400 --> 00:34:04.359 have shown to us in sending us Jesus to be Lord and Savior. We pray in His name. Amen.