WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.759 Today we are continuing our study in the Gospel of Matthew. We've been working 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:10.200 our way through this book and we've come to chapter 19. We're going to take a 00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:14.939 kind of broad look at this chapter today so we can we can read again just the 00:00:14.939 --> 00:00:20.199 very last two verses where Jesus said, everyone who's left houses or brothers 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:24.839 or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will 00:00:24.839 --> 00:00:30.440 receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life but many who are first will 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:37.359 be last and the last first. This is a fascinating chapter that Mike read to us 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:44.039 and it's one which in many ways seems a million miles from life in Scotland in 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:48.640 2020. There's this controversy about divorce, there's this mention of eunuchs 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:54.280 and there's this man who's sad because he's rich and in so many ways it seems to 00:00:54.280 --> 00:01:00.000 be a long way from our own lives today but what I hope we will see is that 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.100 although that there's a lot in this chapter that does seem different to our 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:12.359 culture the truth is there is so much that is exactly the same. In particular 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:21.159 this chapter is setting before us three approaches to life and to religion that 00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:30.439 we still see around us today. Just take a drink for a moment. Excuse me. In summarizing 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:35.319 these I was thinking about my headings and I had a bit of trouble with them and 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:39.819 I think I've probably come up with the three strangest sermon headings that I've 00:01:39.819 --> 00:01:48.799 ever had. They are being a bit fly, going OTT and trying to be the bee's knees. Now 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:51.879 if English is not your first language and you're unfamiliar with these 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:56.879 expressions I'll just explain them. To be fly is to be kind of sneaky. OTT stands 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:01.359 for over the top which means kind of overreacting to situations and the bee's 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:06.439 knees is an expression that basically means being really good and really 00:02:06.439 --> 00:02:11.479 impressive. So being a bit fly that's the Pharisees in verses three to nine. Going 00:02:11.479 --> 00:02:24.839 OTT that's the disciples in verses nine to fifteen and trying to be the bee's knees is the rich young man. What I hope I'll be able to show you is that we see these 00:02:24.839 --> 00:02:29.679 approaches all around us. It's also probably likely that we've all fallen 00:02:29.679 --> 00:02:35.120 into one of these ourselves but what I want to see most of all is that Jesus is 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:41.359 brilliantly different to all of them. So first of all let's think about being a 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:45.820 bit fly. What I mean by that is that it's the kind of behavior where you're 00:02:45.820 --> 00:02:50.440 trying to use or even manipulate your circumstances to achieve a selfish 00:02:50.440 --> 00:02:56.160 outcome. Basically it's asking the question what can I get away with and we 00:02:56.160 --> 00:03:02.600 see that in two ways in the Pharisees because it's evident in both the way 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:07.320 they approach Jesus and it's also evident in the actual topic that they 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:13.959 talk about. If you look at verse three you'll see that they've come up to 00:03:13.959 --> 00:03:19.079 Jesus in order to test him and I think that even at a most basic level that's 00:03:19.079 --> 00:03:25.439 being a bit fly. They're coming up with what looks like a genuine question but 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:32.560 that word tested is telling us that behind their apparently genuine question 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:41.199 is a desire to catch him out and their motives are actually unhealthy. But 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:45.680 beyond that and perhaps even ironically the question they raise is also 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:50.800 revealing a kind of what can I get away with attitude. They ask a question about 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:58.439 divorce and they say is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause and 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:03.840 behind that question lay a difference of opinion among Jews in the New 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:11.979 Testament. Back in the Old Testament Moses had spoken about divorce in 00:04:11.979 --> 00:04:16.319 Deuteronomy which was a book where he set out many laws and guidelines for the 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:20.560 people of Israel in the Old Testament. It says when a man takes a wife and 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:24.839 marries her if he finds no favor in his eyes because he's 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:28.759 found some indecency in her and writes a certificate of divorce and puts it in her 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:32.119 hand and sends it out of her house she departs out of his house and the 00:04:32.119 --> 00:04:37.879 difference of opinion arose over that phrase some indecency. Some of the 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:43.559 Pharisees said well that just refers to an act of sexual immorality and only 00:04:43.559 --> 00:04:50.359 that is justification for divorce. But others had a much broader opinion 00:04:50.359 --> 00:04:54.479 whereby some indecency was basically just anything that the guy didn't like 00:04:54.480 --> 00:05:02.000 so if the wife did something that upset the husband he could 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.640 divorce her and historians say that sometimes that was something as tiny 00:05:05.640 --> 00:05:12.120 as cooking a bad dinner and that phrase finds no favor in her eyes was 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:16.439 used by some as a justification to say well if you found a woman who was more 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:19.879 beautiful than the wife you had you could get rid of the one you had and go 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:25.439 for the more beautiful one. Now there was these two approaches we don't know 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:30.279 for sure which approach the the the people who are speaking to Jesus had but 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:33.159 I think it's probably the case much more likely to be the case that they had 00:05:33.159 --> 00:05:38.079 this broad view thinking that that they as men could just get rid of their 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:43.680 wives on a whim because Jesus is very much trying to challenge that attitude 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:49.480 in his response. There's two alarming things about these Pharisees these 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:55.120 religious leaders in terms of their mindset. One is their awful attitude 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:58.960 towards women they basically thought they could just dump one and go on to the 00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:05.400 next just whenever they felt like it and remember of course in those days it 00:06:05.400 --> 00:06:11.560 was only the man who could initiate the divorce the poor women were stuck. 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:16.640 The other thing though is their awful attitude to the law they're basically 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:21.319 trying to stretch what Moses said in Deuteronomy as far as they possibly could 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:26.879 and you'll notice that that that they're quite fly in what they say and they 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:33.639 said why did Moses command divorce but Moses never commanded it and Jesus 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:39.399 rightly corrects them to say that he had allowed it but that was because of 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:46.599 their hardness of heart. In both ways these religious leaders are being fly 00:06:46.599 --> 00:06:54.199 they're thinking what can I get away with. Now even though we live in a very 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:59.639 different world today I think we still see exactly the same kind of behavior 00:06:59.639 --> 00:07:05.079 all around us. So the Pharisees were a bunch of men who wanted their needs met 00:07:05.079 --> 00:07:10.279 by women and but yet at the same time they did not want to be tied down by 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:14.839 any commitment they wanted to be able to just go from one to the next if they 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:20.959 felt like it. Does that still happen today? Of course it does and there's 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:26.919 women who do the same towards men. More widely this attitude of stretching a law 00:07:26.919 --> 00:07:30.719 as far as you can thinking what can I get away with is a really common approach 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:35.160 to life. It happened in lockdown people were kind of trying to stretch things as 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:43.720 far as they possibly could. Did I go more than five miles from my house? Maybe? 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:50.240 Maybe you did too. We maybe stretched it a wee bit, with greater or lesser degrees 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:54.200 of seriousness. It happens in politics they're constant kind of ducking and 00:07:54.200 --> 00:07:59.600 diving. Just now this whole Brexit agreement will we change it? Can we 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:03.200 change it? Will we not? What can we get away with? There's that kind of mindset and 00:08:03.200 --> 00:08:07.080 it happens at work. People want to stretch their time off, see what they can get 00:08:07.080 --> 00:08:11.120 away with, see if they can do things that they can't. But most seriously of it of 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:19.120 all this mindset happens in relation to God and there are many people who want 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:23.240 the privileges of being able to say oh yeah I've got God and I know he'll look 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:26.360 after me but yet they don't want any commitment and they definitely don't want 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:31.720 any inconvenience in their life as a result. And the consequence of that is 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.800 that people might express an outward loyalty towards God. They might even come 00:08:35.800 --> 00:08:42.039 to church each week but in reality they're constantly thinking what can I 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:49.800 get away with? Now sometimes that happens in a high-profile way and people you 00:08:49.800 --> 00:08:53.440 discover that people have all sorts of things going on in their lives that you 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:56.880 didn't know they were there but I think it's something that in a hundred 00:08:56.880 --> 00:09:02.880 little ways we can all fall into. Whether that's how we treat our colleagues, how 00:09:02.880 --> 00:09:07.480 we interact with the opposite sex, how we manage our finances, how we 00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:13.480 advance our careers, how we protect our interests. It's so easy to think what can 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:20.800 I get away with? But it's a dangerous mindset and it's not how we want to 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:26.439 approach our lives as Christians. And that's because it actually arises from 00:09:26.439 --> 00:09:32.159 one of the key characteristics of our sinful nature, the fact that humanity 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:38.959 is broken. Our sinful nature manifests itself in the fact that we display a 00:09:38.959 --> 00:09:46.319 constant urge to get the thing that we don't have. And we often satisfy that 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:54.280 urge by being a bit fly and it's not not a good way to behave. What I hope we are 00:09:54.280 --> 00:10:00.200 going to see is that Jesus is offering you something far better than an 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:08.400 approach to life that involves being fly. Our second heading is going OTT, going 00:10:08.400 --> 00:10:12.240 over the top and there's two examples of that in this chapter and they're both 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:18.360 displayed by the disciples. The first is in their response to the discussion on 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:23.799 divorce. Now the more I think about what the disciples said, the more I actually 00:10:23.799 --> 00:10:29.759 become alarmed by their attitude. It's as though they're basically saying, okay 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:36.360 Jesus if you're saying we can't divorce our wife for any reason, I think if 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:42.960 that's the case it's better off, you're better off not getting married. And that's 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:49.720 displaying a reaction to Jesus' teaching that is an overreaction. It's over 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:53.680 the top whereby they're basically saying, oh well in that case let's not get married 00:10:53.680 --> 00:10:58.759 at all. And of course that's ignoring the main thing that Jesus just said which 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:03.440 was from the very beginning God established marriage as a blessing for 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:07.240 humanity. So it looks like some of these disciples were your kind of typical 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:12.960 20-something-year-old bloke who was totally afraid of commitment. And it's an 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:20.160 example of where you take the fear of a specific risk and you use that to just 00:11:20.160 --> 00:11:25.280 write off the whole thing. It's an overreaction. The disciples thought if 00:11:25.280 --> 00:11:31.200 there's these risks involved in marriage you are better off without it. And we can 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:36.080 display the same over-the-top attitude in other parts of life as well. So a 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:40.240 young professional like many of you are might see a job you want to go for and 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:43.920 then think, oh but I might have a bad interview. I'm just not gonna apply at all. 00:11:43.920 --> 00:11:49.360 A school leaver might say, well I might not be able to pass my exams at uni or 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:53.800 I might not get on okay if I'm not at home with my parents. I'm just not 00:11:53.800 --> 00:12:00.240 gonna go. I'm not gonna do it. And a parent might see an inappropriate scene 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:07.120 on a kid's TV program or a movie and then just ban telly all together. And it's 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:12.200 the same in regard to our approach to our lives as Christians. We might think, 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:15.879 well there's a risk that people are gonna see my faults and they're gonna judge 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:20.480 me so I'm not gonna let anyone close to me. There's the risk that if I go to a 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.440 Bible study or to the course that's dead, that Derek's doing, I might say the 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:28.960 wrong thing, I might look stupid, I'm just not gonna go. And perhaps most of all 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:34.320 for many of us there's the risk that Jesus might challenge us to admit 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:41.120 that we've gone wrong. He might challenge us to change and our 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:45.680 response might be, I'm not gonna let him anywhere near me. Our fear of something 00:12:45.680 --> 00:12:51.240 we don't like can often lead us to an over-the-top reaction which writes 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:55.160 something off completely. So that's the first example in terms of how the 00:12:55.160 --> 00:12:58.759 disciples responded to the divorce discussion. The second example of being 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:04.000 OTT was how they treated the children. Parents were bringing their children to 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:09.000 Jesus and the disciples were saying, no, no, no, keep him away. So it's almost 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:14.120 ironic because in regard to divorce the disciples were over-the-top in the sense 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:18.120 that they wanted to just shy away from responsibility. In terms of the children 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:21.480 that over-the-top in fulfilling their responsibility and they're setting this 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:28.480 really high security kind of defense all around Jesus, children are to be kept 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:33.759 away and I'm sure their intentions were well intended. They no doubt thought 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:38.639 that Jesus was far too important for for Christ's duty. But even if their actions 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:43.600 were well intentioned they were completely over-the-top again and Jesus 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:49.000 rightly corrects them. And again it's a common approach to life and it's a common 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:53.840 approach to religion. We often overreact to situations and we can set the bar 00:13:53.840 --> 00:14:00.240 unnecessarily high and and over the years churches have been plagued with 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:06.240 man-made rules and expectations that reflect neither the Bible nor the light 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:11.960 of Christian prudence. And alongside rules that are sometimes over-the-top we 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:15.639 can easily, like the disciples, think that certain groups of people should keep 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:20.800 away if they don't fit into our own box of expectations. That might be different 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:24.599 age groups whether it's young children, old people or whatever. It might be people 00:14:24.599 --> 00:14:27.919 from different backgrounds, people with different opinions, even people with a 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:35.439 different appearance. And it's such an easy thing to do. If you have ever seen 00:14:35.439 --> 00:14:40.959 someone at church and a voice in your head is thought, what are they doing here? 00:14:40.959 --> 00:14:48.000 Then you've fallen into exactly the same trap as the disciples did. Often it's 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:55.480 well-intentioned but almost always it's over-the-top. The disciples were OTT to 00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:59.200 think that marriage was better avoided and they were completely OTT to think 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:03.159 that children should keep away. And we can fall into the same trap, we can write 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:07.399 off something good because of the risk of something bad, we can write off a group 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:14.399 of people because they don't fit into our expectations. And again this all comes 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:19.799 from the fact that our nature is sinful, it's broken. These are all 00:15:19.799 --> 00:15:24.840 manifestations of the sinful nature and this what's been manifested here is 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:29.399 the fact that we are constantly inclined to put ourselves in the place of God. 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:35.439 That's really one of the things that lies at the heart of sin. So we 00:15:35.439 --> 00:15:42.759 want to be the lawmaker, not God. So we set laws that are OTT and we want to be 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:47.600 the judge. So we make things absolutely black and white and we put 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:52.439 people into one box or the other. And in it all we are trying to maintain 00:15:52.439 --> 00:15:57.159 control and simultaneously it cuts us off from potential blessings and it 00:15:57.159 --> 00:16:02.360 excludes other people as well. And again what I hope we are going to see is that 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:08.360 Jesus is offering you something far better than an approach to life that 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:14.919 involves being OTT. Our third stage heading is trying to be the bees' 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:19.159 knees and this was the rich young man. On the face of it he's got everything. 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:25.240 He's well off, he seems quite sensible, his life is squeaky clean. And even as he 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:29.440 comes to Jesus I find it hard to know what his attitude is really like. Is he 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:34.039 kind of arrogantly boasting about how great he is or is he sincerely trying 00:16:34.039 --> 00:16:38.080 to do the right thing? I actually don't know. But whether he's being arrogant or 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:41.440 whether he's being sincere the fundamental problem is that it seems to be 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:47.440 all about him. If you look at these verses I don't know how clearly you can 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:52.920 see that but the pronoun I just seems to stand out. What must I do? All these I 00:16:52.920 --> 00:17:00.520 have kept. What do I still lack? This man is thinking about, his thinking is all 00:17:00.520 --> 00:17:05.160 about what he can do. And when Jesus goes on to challenge him about his 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:11.400 possessions it's also clear that what he has is very important to him as well. 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:17.160 And it seems as though this man's approach to life is all about trying to 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:21.960 be the bees' knees. And if you looked at him you'd think, yeah that's a guy, he's 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:30.120 got it all, he's achieved it all, he's got every box tick, he's sorted. And even 00:17:30.120 --> 00:17:34.519 as he comes to Jesus and asks about eternal life his whole approach again 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:42.079 is on what he can do. And again we see that all around us today. For all of us 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:46.119 just now there's a massive pressure to have it all, to have the job, the house, 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:51.500 the career, the family, the lifestyle. But there's also a massive pressure to get 00:17:51.500 --> 00:17:56.200 all of that yourself. So you need to stand on your own two feet, you need to 00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:59.599 reach the top, you need to make it on your own and you definitely don't want to 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:04.480 make it look like you need somebody else's help. And on the other side of 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:07.960 that coin is the fact that we don't want to show our weaknesses and we don't want 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:12.559 other people to see our mistakes. And just like the other two, this again is an 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:17.640 example of the effect that sin has had on humanity. Sin has given us this 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:23.759 constant desire to be self-sufficient and to impress others. At the heart of 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:29.720 humanity is the fact that God has made us and if he's our Creator we depend on 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:35.680 him but sin is basically saying to our Creator, no we don't need you. We can do 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:44.759 it on our own. And it's as though nowadays you're incomplete as a human unless 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:48.440 you've proved yourself and proved your independence in some particular way. 00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:51.480 Whether that's in sport or your education, your career, even your hobby, 00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:55.680 you'll hear people say, I have to do this. And if they don't then they've failed. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:19:00.400 There's this massive pressure to be completely self-sufficient and yet it's 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:07.440 exhausting, it's relentless and it's unsustainable. And again Jesus is offering 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:13.360 you something far better than an approach to life that involves being the 00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:19.880 bees, knees. So these are our three strange headings and there are three very 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:26.920 common approaches to life. If you think about it these are all examples of 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:33.920 putting ourselves in the first place. So the person who's being fly, they're 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:38.480 trying to look after themselves at the expense of others. The person who is OTT 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:42.680 is setting themselves up as the judge of the right course of action and looks 00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:46.680 down on everybody else. And the person who wants to be the bees' knees wants to 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:52.680 be at the top, which inevitably means being better than everyone else. But 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:59.519 there's two devastating consequences to these approaches to life. One is that 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:06.480 they all cause people to get hurt. So the men who were jumping from one wife to 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:13.000 the next were hurting women in the process. And if you were a woman in the 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:18.079 first century who got divorced then the consequences could be devastating for 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:23.039 you. The children who were told to keep away, they were at risk of being hurt. And 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:29.480 even the rich young man was hurt but he hurt himself and even though he was the 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:35.079 bees' knees he went away sad. So these all caused people to get hurt. The second 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:41.400 consequence is that they all leave people empty. So the men who wanted to jump 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:45.680 from one woman to the next were actually casting aside all the precious beauty of 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:51.320 a lifelong marriage relationship. The disciples OTT ideas were potentially 00:20:51.320 --> 00:20:54.680 cutting themselves off from the blessings of being married and from 00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:58.740 the blessings of having children at the heart of their community. And the rich 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:03.480 young man's possessions could do nothing to fill the hole that deep down he knew 00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:09.759 was in his life. And what I hope we can all see is that it is so easy for you 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:14.480 and me to approach life in the same way and it's so easy for us to approach God 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:19.799 in the same way. It's tempting to be a bit fly and to think what can I get away 00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:26.319 with. It's tempting to be OTT and and even churches have shot themselves in 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:30.960 the foot by doing that over the years. And it's tempting to try and make 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:35.160 ourselves out to be the bees' knees and to be just that wee bit better than 00:21:35.160 --> 00:21:41.400 everyone else. If we do that it is highly likely that we will hurt ourselves or 00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:48.840 other people and it's absolutely guaranteed that it will leave us empty. 00:21:48.840 --> 00:22:01.000 As Jesus says, the many who are first will actually end up last. But the amazing 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:08.160 thing about Jesus is that he is completely different to all of that. So 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:15.160 instead of hurting people, Jesus wants to protect people. So you see that with the 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:19.680 women. Jesus reminds the Pharisees that divorce was not part of God's original 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:23.640 plan for marriage and for humanity and that divorcing a woman for any old 00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:28.000 reason and casting them aside is not acceptable. And in doing so Jesus is 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:33.359 protecting the women. And they're showing these Pharisees who in those days 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.720 had all the power in a patriarchal society. He's showing them you cannot 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.759 treat women as though there's some commodity to be picked up and put down 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:46.440 on a whim. Instead they are to be loved and cherished because they are made one 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:50.640 with their husband. It's reminding us that running through the whole 00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:55.440 Christian ethic of marriage and relationships is the constant warning. 00:22:55.440 --> 00:23:02.240 Don't ever dare treat the opposite sex as though they are this thing that you 00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:08.840 can do what you like with. We also see it with the Unix. So the disciples had said 00:23:08.840 --> 00:23:15.480 oh stuff marriage that's far too much commitment. Jesus says hold on a minute. 00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:22.680 Not being able to get married is a lot harder than you think. Now it's important 00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:26.560 to remember that in Old Testament times pretty much everyone got married and 00:23:26.560 --> 00:23:31.519 often you didn't have a choice as to who you married or whether you wanted to get 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:38.400 married at all. To be unmarried was generally quite rare and especially for 00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:43.080 a woman to be unmarried meant there was huge risks because you couldn't it was 00:23:43.080 --> 00:23:46.120 difficult to work and it was you didn't really have much of a place in society 00:23:46.120 --> 00:23:51.000 apart from the place that your husband gave you. So it was it was pretty 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:56.440 uncommon for people not to be married in those days but one key group who weren't 00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:02.920 married were the Unix. Now that term generally refers to officials in 00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:08.819 society who had been castrated and they were often in place in charge of a 00:24:08.819 --> 00:24:15.039 ruler or a king's consort of women. So I think the idea was that you had all these 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:18.440 beautiful women who were there at the king's disposal and in charge of them 00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:23.080 you put a man who is not going to be attacked to them in the way that others 00:24:23.080 --> 00:24:27.799 would have been. Now again a kind of consort of women for a ruler seems very 00:24:27.799 --> 00:24:32.480 far removed from our world but of course exactly the same thing still 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:37.240 exists you just find them in websites magazines and films and the only 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:43.400 difference is that you don't have to be a king to exploit them. So a Unix would 00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:48.080 never get married they couldn't have children and Jesus explained some people 00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:52.519 have been made like that by others some have been born that way but some also 00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:56.279 choose that life of celibacy which doesn't necessarily involve any 00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:02.240 sort of physical change to their body. The point I want to highlight is that 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:08.679 immediately after Jesus speaks about God's ideal that a man and a woman should 00:25:08.679 --> 00:25:13.599 be joined together in marriage for life he then states that for some people it 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:22.039 is not that simple. And for these Unix their interaction with the opposite 00:25:22.039 --> 00:25:26.839 sex was not straightforward at all it didn't fit the boy meets girl and they 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:32.639 get married expectation that was the dominant thought in those days and so 00:25:32.639 --> 00:25:37.159 the disciples had just said we're better off not getting married which is as if to 00:25:37.159 --> 00:25:41.240 say well these Unix have got it easy and Jesus says don't think for a second 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:47.759 that it's easy for them. And what that's showing us is that Jesus 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:53.960 knows that there are people who don't fit into the simple model of marriage and 00:25:53.960 --> 00:26:02.079 parenting and he wants to protect them. Now that doesn't mean that Jesus is 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:08.359 saying that marriage and relationships can be anything because he's just said 00:26:08.359 --> 00:26:13.039 what God's model for that is that a man and a woman are to be united as one in 00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:21.159 marriage but he's also saying if people don't fit that don't be hard on them. 00:26:21.159 --> 00:26:27.919 And that's a lesson that that we must all remember. And as always Jesus is such a 00:26:27.919 --> 00:26:32.079 brilliant example to us here because here you have the tension that you often 00:26:32.079 --> 00:26:38.839 find in life between the ideal and the reality. So Jesus is saying that God's 00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:42.559 ideal for a relationship is that a man and a woman should get married and they 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:46.559 should stay together for life because they are now one. But Jesus also 00:26:46.559 --> 00:26:49.519 recognizes that for people for whom that's not worked out for people who 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:52.960 have been divorced or for people who can't relate to the opposite sex in that 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:59.960 way the reality of their lives is a long way from the ideal. Now we tend to react 00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:05.079 to that tension in two ways. We either reject the people and hold on to the 00:27:05.079 --> 00:27:10.720 ideal or we reject the ideal and hold on to the people. So often in some contexts 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:16.200 and maybe the church has sometimes fallen to this category we hold on to 00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:22.960 the ideal but we've kept the people who don't conform at arms length which has 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:29.000 left them feeling judged, isolated and rejected. The opposite option is what 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:33.599 the world around us often does which is to say well we must abandon the ideal in 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:36.519 order to keep favor with the people but the difficulty there is that people make 00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:40.599 up new ideals and anything becomes acceptable and eventually these 00:27:40.599 --> 00:27:46.440 these ideals come into conflict with one another. Jesus does neither of these 00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:54.319 things. He never rejects the ideal. He's totally committed to what God our 00:27:54.319 --> 00:28:03.519 Creator has set out for us but he never rejects people either and that means 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:07.879 that no matter what has happened in our relationships we can come to Jesus 00:28:07.879 --> 00:28:13.799 knowing that he will protect us and he will heal the bruises and the scarge 00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:21.399 that we have. Jesus does not want to hurt these people. He wants to protect them. 00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:25.840 We see it with the children. The disciples have said don't come. Jesus has said no way 00:28:25.840 --> 00:28:29.400 bring them in and you have this beautiful scene of him laying his hands on 00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:34.000 them with all that amazing protective care and we also see it with this rich 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:38.000 young man. Jesus doesn't want to hurt him. He wants to help him and protect him 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:41.040 but the difficulty is that the thing that's hurting the man is the very 00:28:41.040 --> 00:28:47.320 thing that he can't let go of and how often is that true that we want to hold 00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:52.079 tight to something that's actually hurting us. So that might be a job that's 00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.000 consuming us. It might be social media attention that we can't live without. It 00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:59.439 might be a lifestyle that we can't really afford. It might be a fallout with a 00:28:59.439 --> 00:29:03.319 friend that we can't forgive. It might be a disappointment that we can't stop 00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:14.200 stewing over. Jesus is saying to us let it go and if we say I can't then just 00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:20.440 like this man we're going to walk away feeling sad and hurt. In all of these 00:29:20.440 --> 00:29:26.559 ways and in a thousand others Jesus wants to protect you and that's so 00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:30.080 powerfully shown in just a couple of chapters time when Jesus looks out over 00:29:30.080 --> 00:29:35.960 the city and and he says how often would I have gathered your children together 00:29:35.960 --> 00:29:42.400 as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you are not willing. I really 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:47.920 hope that in this passage you can see that Jesus has a deep burning instinct 00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:55.680 to protect you and that's because you are so precious to him and that is why 00:29:55.680 --> 00:30:07.200 you should listen to him. So instead of hurting people we see that Jesus wants 00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:14.920 to protect you but we also see that instead of leaving you empty Jesus wants 00:30:14.920 --> 00:30:20.039 to fill you to the brim and that brings us back to the verses that we read at 00:30:20.039 --> 00:30:23.519 the very start where he said everyone who's left houses brother sisters 00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:26.519 fathers mother children lands from my name's sake we'll receive a hundred 00:30:26.519 --> 00:30:31.799 fold and will inherit eternal life. Now over the years whenever I've read that 00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:37.639 verse I immediately think about all the stuff I might lose so you think about 00:30:37.639 --> 00:30:40.599 your house and your brothers your sisters your family your father your mother 00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:43.919 your children your land these are all things that we don't want to part with 00:30:43.919 --> 00:30:48.399 and what I always find is that when I read that verse I start thinking about 00:30:48.399 --> 00:30:52.279 those things as I start reading the second half of the verse and I stop 00:30:52.279 --> 00:30:56.319 paying attention to what Jesus is saying and I miss the main point that he's 00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:00.119 making because Jesus is not saying that if you want to become a Christian you 00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:04.599 need to abandon your loved ones he's not saying that at all what he is saying is 00:31:04.599 --> 00:31:13.799 that even if you did lose these things what you gain is a hundred times more. 00:31:13.799 --> 00:31:19.519 Now that doesn't mean that you're gonna get a hundred mothers I would possibly 00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:24.159 risk falling into the category of being too much of a good thing. What it does 00:31:24.159 --> 00:31:28.519 mean though is that if we follow Jesus if you follow Jesus and the people around 00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:34.240 you don't come with you or if they think that you're crazy whether that's family 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:43.359 friends partner Jesus is saying if that happens I will not leave you empty. In 00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:49.839 fact I will pour love and joy and friendship and community into you that's 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:54.039 a hundred times more than anything you would have if you reject me and that's 00:31:54.039 --> 00:31:59.519 because Jesus's great goal is to fill you to the brim and this is something 00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:04.119 that that's so often people get wrong and that's people both in the church and 00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:08.319 outside the church. People think that you have this choice between a full life 00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:13.119 and being a Christian and that's based on the view that being a Christian is 00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:19.879 restrictive dull narrow-minded and burdensome and and maybe there are even 00:32:19.879 --> 00:32:22.960 have been Christians who've made it look like that. These verses are telling us 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:29.000 that that is absolute rubbish because if you think about it what do you do with 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:32.319 your house your brothers your sisters your father your mother your children 00:32:32.319 --> 00:32:36.039 your lands what do you do with them well with your house in our houses we spend 00:32:36.039 --> 00:32:40.960 time together we eat we talk we laugh we share Jesus says I want you to have a 00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:46.680 hundred times more of that. What do you do with brothers and sisters you grow 00:32:46.680 --> 00:32:49.799 together and you have adventures together Jesus says I want you to have a 00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:54.359 hundred times more of that. What do you do with father and mother and children 00:32:54.359 --> 00:32:58.599 you learn from them you lean on them you cry with them you get hugged by them 00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:02.960 Jesus says I want you to have a hundred times more of that. What do you do with 00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:07.319 land you achieve things you work you invest you see fruit for your labors 00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:12.559 Jesus says I want you to have a hundred times more of all of that. Jesus is not 00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:16.240 saying cut yourself off from your family and be miserable he's saying I want you 00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:23.480 to come and follow me and I will fill you to the brim of all the brilliance of 00:33:23.480 --> 00:33:31.400 being alive but ultimately that's not going to happen right here and right 00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:38.480 now because ultimately that's for our future because because Jesus doesn't 00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:41.240 just want to give you a full life just now what he really wants to give you is 00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:49.039 an eternal full life that's why he speaks about the new world in just the 00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:53.039 previous verse he speaks about the new creation when he will return and 00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:58.720 restore all things and in that new world that Jesus is going to make if you are 00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:03.039 a Christian or if you become one then we will be together and our lives will be 00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:09.360 so full full of joy and peace and security and purpose and friendship and 00:34:09.360 --> 00:34:16.880 adventure and above all else it will be full of love love from God and love 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:23.440 together with one another that will fill every void and heal every wound that 00:34:23.440 --> 00:34:30.160 lost or broken love has caused you here and all you have to do is put your 00:34:30.160 --> 00:34:39.320 trust in Jesus and follow him but you might ask the question well how 00:34:39.320 --> 00:34:45.519 can how can you know that you'll have all of this you think of what I'm 00:34:45.519 --> 00:34:52.039 saying here and I'm talking about a fullness of life that is amazing and 00:34:52.039 --> 00:34:56.640 you might think yourself what Thomas that's it's so easy to say that how am I 00:34:56.640 --> 00:35:00.880 supposed to know that I could have that if I follow Jesus well I think I can 00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:08.360 tell you how and why you can know this there's three reasons why you can know 00:35:08.360 --> 00:35:17.400 this number one because God is not fly so he is not gonna say one thing to you 00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:22.400 and do another he is never going to break a promise to you he is going to give 00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:30.360 you nothing but the honest truth of his word the second reason is because God is 00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:36.079 not OTT so he's not looking for the impossible or the complicated or the 00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:42.360 elite he has a simple message follow me and in fact he will give you everything 00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:45.679 that you need to do that the only thing that you have to come to God with is 00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:55.480 empty hands and thirdly God's not fly he's not OTT and he is not looking for 00:35:55.480 --> 00:36:02.759 people who are the bees knees never forget that you cannot do anything to 00:36:02.760 --> 00:36:09.680 impress God not because you're rubbish but because you're already a joy to him 00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:16.560 he loves you and he wants you and he cares for you and he knows every weakness 00:36:16.560 --> 00:36:20.640 and failing that you have and he's saying I will deal with all of that I 00:36:20.640 --> 00:36:27.000 just want you as my precious beloved child and that is why Jesus is so 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:33.719 different that is why he is so amazing that is why Jesus is worth following and 00:36:33.719 --> 00:36:40.880 if you are not following Jesus yet I beg you in the name of God Almighty go for 00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:48.119 it amen let us pray 00:36:48.119 --> 00:36:59.359 Father we thank you so much that you are not fly you are not OTT and you are not 00:36:59.359 --> 00:37:06.159 looking for people who are the bees knees sometimes we try to be these things 00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:13.759 and we are sorry for that but we thank you so much that we can come to you as 00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:23.360 we are and we just want to pray for everyone who has been hurt just by 00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:29.560 life and all that it can bring may we all just come to you today for healing 00:37:29.559 --> 00:37:44.940 amen