Ministry: Beheadings and All

By Andrew Gutierrez on September 27, 2020

Mark 6:7-30

AUDIO

Ministry: Beheadings and All

By Andrew Gutierrez on September 27, 2020

Mark 6:7-30

This is a rush transcript and is not in its final form.

[00:00:01] Good morning, everyone.

[00:00:05] Greetings from Arizona.

[00:00:09] Hello. All right, there we go. One person is awake.

[00:00:13] I am a good friend of your pastor. I am grateful for Bobby. I love Bobby. If if I wasn't a pastor in Arizona, my family would move here to be part of CompassHB. We love this church. Came here a few years ago to bring the word to you and Bobby invited me back. Last year we actually had Bobby out, Bobby and Christa. And he came out and preached at an evangelism conference that we did and then preached to us on Sunday morning. And our people loved him. And so there's that there's a connection happening between Compass HB and Canyon Bible Church of Prescot. So much so that last night I went and bought an HB hat. And now this is a big deal because you don't bring California stuff into Arizona. All right? They don't look too kindly on that. But I'm going to wear that hat in Arizona. And every time someone asks, I can tell them about this church and remind me to pray often for this church, which I already do. But I'm thankful to be here. I love this place. Love what you are doing. And it's an honor for me to bring the words to you. I pray that it will be some sort of spiritual benefit to you and that you would love your savior more in the next hour because of what he says in this passage.

[00:01:26] Open your Bibles to Mark 6:7-30. I'm calling this message "Ministry: Beheadings and All."

[00:01:39] Now, if you see that little picture on that sheet in your goody bag there, that's a picture of me with a backpack on. There's a reason that a backpack on. That was my first day of seminary. You see the big smile on my face. I had no idea what I'd be getting into. So that's me going in a ministry, excited, going to learn Hebrew and Greek. And then a week into that, because of some Hebrew tests. That smile got a lot smaller. Drew to some concern, but that was me excited to jump in the seminary and jump into full time ministry. And I I knew that there'd be hardships. But I still thought that a lot of them wouldn't touch me. I thought that, you know, when I preach when I get out there and start preaching and people are going to get saved, every single sermon that, you know, my church would always feel warm and friendly and then never be critical and that there never be disunity in our church. And there might not even be sin in our church. I mean, it's just going to be wonderful.

[00:02:39] Well. You know, things happen. You, minister, and difficulties arise and your heart breaks over and over again. You know that there are challenges whenever you do something in the name of Christ. And it's not just that pastors understand this. Christians understand this. The Christian life isn't easy. How many of you have had an easy 20, 20, being a Christian? Yeah, I don't see any hands. And if there are, you might be lying. It's not an easy time to live as a follower of Christ. I mean, we were separated for a significant amount of time and he actually calls us to be physically together. And that separation has an effect. This isn't an easy time for Christians to be alive. But remember that our lord told the disciples they're going to hate you. This world is not your home. And so I think that for a lot of years, we've actually had it pretty good. And and it hasn't been something Lord ever promised to us. But he's just been gracious to us. But the normal Christian life is one where there's suffering and hardship. You know this because maybe you are married or you got married in the past and there is this excitement.

[00:03:52] You know, I'm going to marry this person and we're going to be better together than we are apart. We're going to be a team together for Jesus Christ. And and then all of a sudden, you have all these great plans about what your marriage is going to look like for Christ. And then there are marital difficulties and challenges and and you go from trying to serve him to just trying to survive together. Or maybe you have children, we think we're going to bring this child up in the fear and admonition of law and they're going to be saved and they may go to be a missionary or they're going to do something for Jesus.

[00:04:21] And and it turns out that they get 18, they move out of the house and they never want to talk to you about Jesus again. And your heart breaks. So these great expectations, but it doesn't always come to fruition and there's difficulty. Maybe you start a new job and you think, where who are the souls? At my job that need to bow down and worship Jesus Christ, how can I be friend? These people. And so you work there and you develop relationships and there are friendships and and you bring the gospel to a coworker and and things are going so great. And it's almost as if they're on the verge of repenting of their sins and turning to Christ. And then one day they just say, don't ever talk about Jesus again. I want to be your friend anymore. Nothing maybe that's happened with your family. You've got a strange family members because of your commitment to Jesus. My point is this. We have the spirit of Jesus inside of us and we seek to make him known. We seek to build up the body of Christ. And there are conflicts. There's trouble. There is suffering. And that is nothing new to New Testament Christianity. Our lord said that that would happen in this passage. Shows us this. You might be saying, well, I'm not a pastor, so I'm not a minister. So I'm I'm almost ready to get up and leave because this isn't a message for me. No, it is. Disciples of Jesus Christ are called to bring the gospel to the lost. They are called to build up the body, edify the saints. And that's what we do. Whether you're a pastor or just a lay member of a church, we're all disciples of Jesus Christ who are told to go make disciples. He tells us that Matthew, 28, doesn't he? Go make disciples and he isn't. Just say it to the pastors of the world. It's for everybody. First, Peter for says, as each has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God as each has received, received a gift from the spirit. Use it. We are all workers for Jesus Christ, go read the last chapter of the Book of Romans. The greetings that we kind of often skip over. Look how often you see the term workers for Christ worked hard for Christ, things like that. That's who we are as saints. We're all ministers in Romans fifteen. It Paul commands the church at Rome and says you're able to teach one another. He commends them for being able to teach one another. So again, all of us ministers for Jesus Christ. And that sometimes is very difficult. And there are disappointments. This passage, Mark six, seven, three thirty shows the disciples who need to learn that ministry will be wonderful and ministry will be painful.

[00:07:05] Now, here's what I want to do. I'm going to walk through the passage. Your points for the message are going to come at the end of the passage. All right. Hope you can be OK with that. All right. It's going to walk through the passage. No points. And then at the end, I'm going to draw three lessons for administering disciples. And I think that'll be helpful for us this morning. But first, I want to teach you a term Marken sandwich. Can you say Marken sandwich? There we go. You are theologians now a marken sandwich is something that Mark does often in this book. He will write about a topic and then almost, it seems randomly go to a totally different topic and then come back to the original topic. So topic one, the bread. And then randomly topic to the meat or tofu for some of you. And then topic three, is that actually the first topic, the other bread? And what he does there is he's connecting those things together to say something. He's showing some similarity, some contrast. He's trying to bring that ful sandwich together. So you see something. So in this passage, we see the disciples being sent out and evidently their success being had. They are doing some great ministry. And then it seems as though it's random that he starts talking about King Herod killing John the Baptist. Where'd that come from? And then reverse 30, the disciples come back and tell Jesus all that they had done. Why that thing about John the Baptist? Well, we'll see why. Let's look at verse seven to start. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. Now, know this about the gospel of Mark. So far, the disciples have only been observing. They're not doing miracles yet. They're not preaching the gospel of repentance. Jesus is doing that. Jesus is preaching the gospel of the kingdom, according to Mark, Chapter one. He's the one casting out demons. He's the one healing diseases. And he's called the disciples. He did so in chapter one. And they're watching him do all of these things. Now, verse seven is key. It's a little turning point in the book of Mark. He sends them out to buy two. There's fellowship, cooperation, accountability there, sends them out to buy two, gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Now, Mark has been showing us that Jesus himself has authority over unclean spirits. No one can cast out demons except God himself in Chapter five. Jesus casts out a legion, many demons from a crazy man up in the hills. And people are amazed because you can't just do that. There have been false teachers doing signs and wonders. But you can't cast out demons. Well, Jesus comes on the scene and he has authority over unclean spirits. And notice he gives that authority to the disciples. Verse eight. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff. No bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. So just take a day's worth of clothing. You don't need extra money, Doni. Extra food. Just go. You're going to get to a place and they're going to the believers in that area are the people that are sympathetic to the Ministry of Jesus are going to put you up. They'll provide for your needs, just minimal needs. And the key is that you just go preach the gospel. Don't worry about money. Don't worry about extra money. What am I get eaten in five days. Just go preach the gospel. You'll have what you need. Verse 10. And he said to them, whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. What's what's that all about? When the first century you had a lot of false teachers that would go through towns and villages with a message to preach and they would stay at homes and they would actually start to benefit from the fact that they stayed at that home. In fact, the first century church document, the dead AK says that it gives it gives a command to the church. It says, you know, if someone is I'm paraphrasing, if a minister is passing through, put them up, extend hospitality to them for a night, but not two nights. Because they could start to benefit from all that you give them. It says now if they have a real need, if something happens, then two nights, but not three nights, because false teachers stay at homes for three nights. We know that Jesus top false teachers love money. So this is Jesus his way of saying don't go to these houses to look to get rich or to benefit from it. Just go get what you need and preach the gospel. The focus is the gospel getting out, not you lining your pockets. So that's what Jesus telling these men. Verse eleven. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you when you leave. Shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. Now, we know that the Jews, when they went to Gentile territory, when they returned, they would shake the dust off as a sign. We don't want it any of that unbelieving, wicked gentile stuff in our land. Well, Jesus is telling the disciples if they reject me, if they reject the message, shake the dust off. That's a sign of judgment. So they went out and proclaim that people should repent. Surprise, surprise. That's the message started with Jesus in Mark. Chapter one, John the Baptist preached repentance. Now the disciples preaching repentance, verse 13. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil, many who were sick and healed them. Notice the disciples are doing things. That so far only Jesus has been able to do. Why can they do these things? Because Jesus is giving them authority. Now, imagine if Jesus told you I'm going to give you power for a time to cast out demons and to heal people. You'd think you'd be excited about that. Think you'd tell people about that, you think you'd do that? Of course you would. You can relieve suffering. You can preach a message that changes people's lives as they repent and they enter into the kingdom of heaven forever. I mean, this is a high point here. Imagine being a disciple, being able to do these things.

[00:13:11] Ministry sounds pretty amazing. Verse 14.

[00:13:19] King Hair had heard of it for a Jesus his name had become known. Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said he is Alija. Another said he's a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, who I beheaded, has been raised.

[00:13:38] So Mark starts telling us about how King Herod viewed Jesus's work and the disciples ministry. What's going on here? Casting out demons, healing diseases. And all these people are saying it's Elijah. He went to heaven back in the day and now he's back. It's it's one of the prophets. And Herod says, no, no, this is John. John, whom I killed, is back from the dead. And then Mark shows us in verse 17. What Herod was speaking of. What do you mean, the one who I killed, who Herod killed? Well, that's as if Mark saying in verse 17, well, let me tell you about what happened when John was killed. So Mark's rewinding the tape for it was Herod who had sent and John and bound him in prison for the sake of her odious his brother, Philip's wife, because he had married her, because John had been saying to Herod, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Now, look what's happening here. Herod goes and takes his brother's wife. I wouldn't suggest doing that. He goes and takes his brother's wife, commits adultery. And John the Baptist doesn't keep his religion to himself. He says that's wrong. It's wrong. Unlawful, not lawful for you to have your brother's wife and her rodeo's first 19, the wife had a grudge against him. No kidding. And wanted to put him to death, but she couldn't. Why couldn't she put him to death? Because Herrod, her husband. Fear, John, knowing he was a righteous and holy man. And he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed. And yet he heard him gladly. So John is telling Erard, you're wrong. But Arad's like there's something about this guy. He's holy and righteous. I don't want to mess with him. So he locks them away, keeps them safe from being executed. And there's this kind of perplexity going on in. Herod was 21. But an opportunity came when herit on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For one heroics his daughter. So Herrod stepdaughter, his wife's daughter. When her oldest daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, Ask for me, whatever you wish and I'll give it to you. This was not an innocent dance. This would have been a lewd dance.

[00:15:59] And so he says, I'll give you whatever you want. And he vowed to her, Whatever you ask me, I will give to you up to half my kingdom. She went out and said to her mother, What should I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist, and she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Verse 26. And the king was exceedingly sorry. But because of B could because of his oats and his gas, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately, the king sent an executioner with orders to bring in John's head. I mean, think about the visual of this. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother when his disciples heard of it. John's disciples, they came and took his body and laid it in the tomb. Maybe this is an understatement. But a man of God who loves God.

[00:16:58] And preaches repentance and points people to Christ. Should it end up like this? But he does. And then verse 30. The disciples are skipping in with smiles on their faces. The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.

[00:17:18] So so you're kind of reading through Mark and you're emotionally hurting for John the Baptist. And there's this sympathy there for this man of God. And then disciples come in seemingly unaware, saying, Jesus guess what happened. James touched this girl and her arm was healed. Peter cast out this demon, Jesus. Notice what Mark says, they told him all that they had done. Look what we've done. Look what we can do. And the hanging, the background is the story of John the Baptist. Mark showing us something here. And he'll continue to show us in the gospel of Mark. The disciples don't get it yet. When the kingdom of God comes, it will come with power. It will come and change people's lives. And there will be great successes, but there will also be great suffering. Jesus tells the disciples this again, as I said later on in Mark. He says three times, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.

[00:18:20] And they have no category for that. He also tells them you're going to enter into suffering. And they're shaken by that because you're the king. You're supposed to take over this whole land and rule for us. Why the suffering? Talk.

[00:18:35] The whole gospel of Mark is about the fact that Jesus is the son of God. He is the sovereign one. He is the one bringing the kingdom of God, which, by the way, the Earth has been longing for since Genesis Chapter three. And he's the one to bring it so everyone can get behind that message. We're all for that. But do you know that the kingdom of God will be brought through suffering?

[00:19:03] You want to know the best example of that Jesus himself coming as the king and dying as the crucified savior. Joe Johns shows us Jesus comes to give his life as the servant. That's what the son of God does. The sovereign son of God comes to die for his people. And oh, by the way, his people follow him in that path. Disciples don't get it yet. But we had the rest of scripture and we see that played out. So for this morning, I want to end by doing this.

[00:19:37] Three lessons for Jesus as administering DISCIPLE'S. What can we learn from this? What can we learn that the disciples didn't know yet? And oh, by the way, you're going through first, Peter, in this book. You see Peter now you're seeing Peter talk to. Exiles, scattered Christians, you're seeing him talk to them and this Peter and first Peter, he gets it. He gets the purpose of suffering. He's telling you to endure. And it don't sin while you suffer this first. Peter, is Peter getting it? Mark, is Peter not getting it yet? He doesn't get suffering yet. And we know that Peter disciple Mark Mark is writing Peter's account of the life of Jesus.

[00:20:24] Here's the first lesson for Jesus as ministering disciples, you will have success. You will have success. People come to faith because Christians speak the gospel. How many of you were led to Christ by someone else? Yeah, if you're Christian. Everyone was whether someone gave you a Bible, whether someone shared the gospel with you, a grandmother, a church servant, an evangelist, whoever it was, you were led to Christ by someone. God use that person's life to lead you to himself. They were the instrument and he used them for salvation. By the way, that's still works.

[00:21:09] It wasn't enough if it worked. Back when the disciples preached repentance and then people were convicted of sin and they trust in Christ and they repented. And then it it happened to you. But, you know, 20, 20. Now, maybe the Holy Spirit's in quarantine.

[00:21:22] No.

[00:21:24] The California governor has no control over the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can do whatever he wants.

[00:21:30] And we know that our lord said he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. We know that sickness and death and viruses and even bad government or whatever it may be, we know those things are things from the kingdom of Satan.

[00:21:45] Those things cannot stamp out the Holy Spirit. He is just as powerful today. So what can we what do we think about 20? He works in mysterious ways. He just does things differently than we expected. But trust in him. Ministers of Jesus will have success, you have, according to John, 14. John, 16. You have the Holy Spirit inside of you.

[00:22:14] To do his ministry.

[00:22:17] My friends and our church, you just two years ago were on the brink of divorce. Marriage was on the rocks and through the ministry of the War in the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit's empowerment. And through many conversations and much prayer, whole experience changed. Both of them, and they will both say today their marriage has never been stronger. They've been married for over 20 years. Two years ago was almost to an end. Now, just two years later, that's never been stronger. We've learned so much. Who gets the glory for that?

[00:22:49] The spirit of Jesus Christ. God himself gets the glory for that. He didn't just stop working two thousand years ago when you got saved. He's still at work even today.

[00:23:02] You will have success. I think of. The juvenile hall right in our town. Lot of kids go there, a lot of broken homes, situations. We've got the number of men and women that go there regularly to preach the gospel to them. They get they get the Mormons that come in. They've got the boots that come in. And then sometimes they let the Christians in. And so our church people for our church said, sign us up. They get in there and they preach the gospel. And so many of these kids just tune out. They just want to be there because they get to interact with one another during that time. And so, so often people will preach the gospel and and seemingly nothing happens until last spring. Until last spring, when a young man named Ryan was there, his mom had kicked him out of the house. Ryan was there and through a number of months, he met Steve and Jeff from our church. Steven Jeff continued sharing the gospel time. They would go visit him in off hours. He'd never seen love show like this before. And these guys cared about him and prayed for him. And Ryan repented of his sins and gave his life to Christ. And last spring, right before coronavirus, we baptized him.

[00:24:15] I mean, you will have success. That's why we're here on Earth. To articulate the gospel message, to edify one another, to keep each other going. All the more as the day draws near, we're here to do work and God has given his people his spirit. So engage. Work for him. Trust that he is doing something. He's moving even if you're suffering during it. He's doing something. Second lesson for Jesus administering disciples, you will have Wound's. You will have success. And you will have wounds.

[00:24:57] We see the disciples having success. We see John the Baptist here getting the wounds, getting the martyrdom. And oh, by the way, the disciples will get that to.

[00:25:08] Almost all of them died as martyrs. Had success. And they had trouble. They suffered a foot follow this pattern.

[00:25:18] Mm hmm. John the Baptist preached repentance, was executed, was buried. He will rise again. Jesus preach repentance was executed, was buried, rose again. The disciples preached repentance. They were executed, buried. They will rise again. US. Preach repentance. Will we die of cancer? Will be will we. Will we be martyred or we die of old age? What will something else happen? We don't know. But we do know that will suffer to some regard, suffer because this is a cursed world. So we preach repentance. We will die unless Lord returns. Before that, we'll be buried. And we will be resurrected. That's the pattern of life for the Christian. And they were raised to glory with him. Now, some of us weren't taught. Christianity.

[00:26:20] Well, at the beginning, some of you came from environments like I did, where it was just kind of pray this form routine prayer. You're in the kingdom and it's seemingly doesn't do anything to your life. I mean, just kind of go to church on Sunday. You kind of wait for heaven. There wasn't much talk about working for Jesus and making his glory known to people, it was just kind of say this prayer, you're in the kingdom, you're good to go. Don't let anyone ever question that. Don't smoke, drink, cuss or chew or go with girls that do. There you go. It's all you need to know. That's what we are taught. Things like that. It was kind of this low level involvement in the Life and Ministry of Jesus. That's not what the Bible teaches.

[00:27:01] Some of you were taught more faithfully. And you were taught now that you're saved, it's. Time to work for him, he's given you gifts first, Peter, for use it, employ the gifts. Edify the body. Preach the gospel. You were taught that. Praise the Lord. You are taught that. But what should come with that is also this caveat. But just know this. As you do that, it's going to be hard and there's going to be heartbreak. There's going to be difficulty. You're going to be excited about leading your child to Christ. And they might. Walk away and say, don't ever talk about Jesus again and don't ever talk to me again. People didn't always prepare us for the suffering. Jesus follow Jesus in the gospel mark. He prepares his disciples for suffering. It's not a surprise. Occasionally I'll. Be encouraging our people, hey, serve Jesus, serve Jesus. Look at how he's equipped. You look at where he's placed, you serve him. Build up the body. Preach the gospel and they'll kind of. All right. Here we go again. Pastor Bob became Great Evangelism Conference. We're ready to go. And they go out and they start doing it and they kind of come back to Scourge like they just didn't respond like I thought they would. It didn't go well and there's kind of a surprise. But if they knew their New Testament, there's no surprise, Jesus said, it's going to be heart. He did. You will have wound's. But embrace it. What a privilege to suffer with Jesus Christ. To Sharon, his sufferings. It brings us a communion with him that we don't normally get on easy days. What a privilege to suffer with him. Listen to Romans eight. 17, Romans eight. One of the most encouraging passages, chapters in all the Bible. It calls us children of God. Romans eight 17. If children, then heirs were heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs of the Christ provided. We suffer with him. In order that we may also be glorified with him, we're children of God.

[00:29:09] If. If. You suffer with him.

[00:29:14] That's that that's the test in Romans eight. How do you know a child of God? They suffer with him. They're maligned with him, they're criticized within their persecuted with him. They have a hard life with him. But their ears and they know that when they suffer with him, they will be glorified with him.

[00:29:34] Amy Carmichael, the famous missionary to India. Kind of challenged comfortable Christians who didn't engage in ministry for Jesus, the kind of just, you know. Gave their life to Christ. And it kind of just waited around for me to take them to heaven, didn't seek to make an impact on the world with the time that he'd given them. So she kind of she kind of challenged them. And she wrote a poem called A House Down.

[00:29:59] No, Skaar. Like, where's your scar? It's a good poem. I want you to listen to it. She says this is the last stanza. No wound, no scar. It has the master, shall this servant be. So you see what she's doing. Wait. The master suffered, he said, therefore, the servants would suffer.

[00:30:28] But you seem fine. Has, though, no one, no scar yet, as the master shall the servant be and pierced. Are the feet that follow me. She takes up Jesus voice and Jesus says, your feet are going to be pierced just like mine were pierced if you're following me. And pierced are the feet that follow me. But yours are whole. Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar? Now, now, this isn't me saying, hey, you need to go out there and find a way to suffer. I mean, we don't go looking for that. My exhortation to you is it would be this. You've been given a mind.

[00:31:05] You've been given abilities. You've been given people around you. Some that are say that you can edify and encourage to grow and hold on to Christ. You've been given unbelievers around you. And I would say this. Use the one life you have. To give to the savior who loved you and gave his life for you, use it for him. Make use of the talents that he's given to you. And oh, by the way, when you do, you'll have success. And you will also have wound's. Let me say this to you, if you're here and you're not a follower of Christ. Maybe you're acting like you are, maybe you just know I'm not. Let me say this, because right now you could be saying, well, that seals that I'm not following him. I don't want scars. I don't want wounds. Let me say this, friend, you cannot go through this life. Trouble free. You'll lose people to death. You'll lose relationships because of conflict and difficulty. And oh, by the way, you can't go through eternity without suffering as well. Everybody on this planet will suffer because of sin. This planet is cursed, according to Romans eight.

[00:32:25] Everybody will suffer. Here's the question. Would you rather suffer as a disciple of Jesus Christ? And as you suffer, he shepherds you and guides you in his presence, as with you. And then he leads you to glory. Or would you rather try to avoid suffering in this world? And then in just a few minutes when you die, because time happens fast. Just a few minutes when you die because you've rejected him. You will suffer for all eternity.

[00:32:53] Which one?

[00:32:55] I would encourage you to suffer with Jesus, because when you suffer with Jesus, he is there. He died four years since he came to suffer for you. He died for the sins that you've committed, every single one of them, as if he committed them himself, which he didn't. He died, Rose again, showing you when you trust in him. You can know that you will have eternal life. And John, six Jesus were saying hard things. And it would.

[00:33:26] People were learning it's going to be hard to follow this rabbi, this Jesus. And then, John, six people start peeling away from him, you know? Well, we thought he was just going to be our king and give us all the water we need and and have a strong military and defeat Rome. We thought that was what we were signing up for. And he starts speaking hard words and it says the disciples started leaving him. And then he goes to his 12. You guys want to leave?

[00:33:53] And Peter says, Lord, where will we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. If you're not a Christian and you're here, listen, Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.

[00:34:08] Jesus message Jesus power is the one that reverses the curse of sin. He's coming in to write this world to bring a new heavens and a new wurth, one where righteousness and truth and justice.

[00:34:20] You want justice. Follow Jesus. You want love. Follow Jesus. All those things reign in his kingdom. That's what you want to be a part of forever.

[00:34:30] So follow him even into his suffering and follow him to glory. Turn from your sin. Trust him. Today's the day. So ministering disciples, you will have success.

[00:34:46] You will have wounds, and third, you will have Jesus his authority and presence when you speak for Jesus, when you speak the gospel, when you open the Bible and talk to people about what he said. Those words aren't just.

[00:35:00] Like other pieces of pieces of advice out there, these things are power, they come with power, you'll have Jesus is authority. And oh, by the way, because of his spirit, you'll have his presence with you. Now, you know, Matthew, 28, 18 to 20 is the great commission, you know this. When I say great Commissioner Mathie, 28, don't say yeah, I know, too. Now I know this. No, no. Listen to the words. Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, since I'm in charge, guys, here's what it means for you. Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of father and of the son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. So Jesus saying this. Listen, I'm giving you a hard task. Go into all the world and preach. And we know from what the Bible teaches us that that preaching involves telling people to repent. Was that always popular? No. But that's what he tells us to do. Go preach, go to all the world and preach. Listen, my authorities with you. You have power beyond yourself. Heaven is with you when you do this. Heaven empowers you. Now. You could get this command and think, oh, my goodness.

[00:36:30] What's my mom going to think when I preach the gospel and tell her she's repent? Oh my goodness. What's this person going to think? They're going to hate me. I mean, that's what you would start thinking. Who's going to hate me because of this?

[00:36:42] That's why he says this at the very end of the great commission. And behold. Listen, it's as if he takes the disciples and takes their face and looks right and says, listen to me. I am with you always. Even to the end of the age, you see how encouraging Christ is, even when he calls it to suffer, he says. Listen.

[00:37:05] I'm with you. Suffer with me.

[00:37:09] I'm with you. I care about you. I'll empower you, I'll guide you. The Holy Spirit. Has another name. The comforter. Jesus says in the upper room, they're going to hate you because of me. They're going to kill you. They're going to kick you out of synagogue's because of me, but I'm going to send another one helper, the comforter for you.

[00:37:36] Expect victories, expect suffering and expect his indwelling Holy Spirit to comfort you. So of you know, this, you've suffered for Jesus in different ways, some of you great ways, some of your smaller ways. But you know this when you suffer for him, there's a sweet kind of communion with him, isn't there? You're maligned and offended and and it hurts. Originally, but then you open your Bible, you have a time of prayer and you think, you know what?

[00:38:06] Jesus, you understand this? You understand when I'm going through and you love me, sometimes suffering brings us closer to Jesus than. A comfort free situation.

[00:38:20] Or a situation full of comfort.

[00:38:24] This summer, I was on a Zoome call. And if I don't yell at me because I said Zoom, I mean, I know we're all sick of it and I know I was on a Zoome call with a group of pastors that I've grown to become close friends with over the past five years. And one of them is a good friend of mine. He lost his wife to cancer a couple of years ago as a young family. He has three sons. He lost his wife to cancer. We all went to the funeral to be with him. They were grieving. Well. On the Zoome call, he was telling us of what had been happening in his life over last few months. You see, about a year after he lost his wife, he met another godly Christian woman, never been married before they started dating and got married. His kids love her. I mean, it's a sweet gift. Before Carrie died, she actually told the boys, you know, Daddy's going to need to get married. And that's a good thing, boys. And she was preparing them for that. And so a year later, Josh meets this wonderful woman. They get married. The boys are thrilled. Josh is thrilled. The woman's thrilled. But some people in the church weren't thrilled. See, they loved Carrie. And they weren't ready for just remarried. As if it was their business. But they let it be known. One gentleman actually started spreading rumors about Josh and this woman, how they had maybe not done so many things the right way, which were all a lie, and this man later admitted to. But Josh is being maligned and said he just lost his wife a year earlier. Now taking his great gift from the Lord. And people are starting to criticize. Not everyone, but just some. And Josh is talking us this summer in a difficult summer for past, a difficult time for everybody. He's talking to us on the Zoome Call and we've all got Zoome fatigue already, but he's talking to us and he's crying about what's happening.

[00:40:42] And we're just. This is quiet. And we're a group of pastors. It's hard to keep us quiet. But through tears, he's telling us of the difficulty of the last few months. And we're just quiet.

[00:40:59] Until Jim spoke up, Jim, older pastor in our group, Jim had himself been recently diagnosed with cancer.

[00:41:08] Jim said these words, I wrote them down as soon as he said them, because it just.

[00:41:15] It just it just hit us.

[00:41:18] He said this, Jim, through tears himself, said, Brothers.

[00:41:22] Ours is the way of the cross.

[00:41:25] And it just was a helpful reminder that it wasn't that just because we're Christians. Why? Why are we suffering? This is weird. This shouldn't be happening. Everything should be easy. He just kind of got our minds and focused us on truth brothers. Ours is the way of the cross and Christ is with us.

[00:41:45] And, man, I needed to hear that. I know Josh needed to hear that.

[00:41:53] Ours is the way of the cross. Christ is with us. Bobby asked me to preach. About a month ago. Pretty early on, I knew that this is the text I want to preach. 20/20 has not been easy. 20/20 is not been easy for Christians. You care about people that you know and love. Maybe some of you are going through great difficulties because of your commitment to Jesus. My prayer for CompassHB Bible Church, Huntington Beach, is that in this next year, even in the midst of pandemic, even in the midst of government regulations and riots and social justice talk and all that's going on, that this would be a year where the gospel would go out from this group like never before.

[00:42:43] Where you would build one up and love one another like never before. This is a time this is a perfect time for the Ministry of Jesus to be known, isn't it? People are wondering, questioning, they're angry, they're frustrated, they can't trust anybody. Even the political people they like, they're like, I know he's a problem, I know he's a problem. But but that's where I'm going right now. Well, listen, Jesus is never a problem. He's always the right one to listen to. His word is always true. His word is always uplifting and building up his word is always where you need to go. It's always consistent, never changes his word. And his kingdom is what you put your trust in.

[00:43:24] This is a year where people need to know that. So I believe that Christians should be the most opportunistic people in the world. We should always see the glass as half full.

[00:43:38] Because, yes, there is sin and sorrow and suffering. But Jesus Christ came to relieve all of that. And he gave us signs of that. He won salvation for us. And then he said, preach that message. This whole place will get better. All make it new. Preach that message and one day I'll come and you'll see it. People need to know that I pray that this is your best ministry here. But listen, if it is your best ministry year, it may be your hardest ministry year.

[00:44:08] There might be threats to the body. There might be disunity that could be starting to arise.

[00:44:16] Keep loving one another, stay true to the word. Stay true to Christ. Be patient whether they're better with one another. Keep taking the wounds and be strong with the strength of the Lord as you go and do ministry for him. It may be your best and it also may be your heart's at the same time.

[00:44:35] My prayer.

[00:44:37] Is it you would be known? For teaching people truth, reminding people of truth and pointing people to Christ. That's the only thing we have right now is Christ Jesus. Always been the only thing we have. Now we just see it more clearly. I want to finish by asking you turn to Hebrews Chapter twelve.

[00:45:03] Listen to how a Jesus suffered. And take your cues from him.

[00:45:10] Hebrews 11, we've just learned about all these saints of the past and their faith in God went when they were being sworn in to when they were leaving one place to go to another, they trusted God. They trusted God. Hebrews twelve, verse one. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also last side every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance, the race that has set before us looking to Jesus. Here's how you suffer. Here's how you live as a follower of Christ in twenty twenty, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecta of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross despising the shame and a seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Now listen to this. Verse three. Consider him. Suffering Christian, think about him. Who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. Yes, suffering is hard. And who knows that? Better than Jesus Christ. Nobody knows that better than him. He endured for the joy ... joy be on the suffering propelled him.

[00:46:29] So when you are suffering, when relationships are struggling, when your commitment to Jesus is costing something. Remember that joy before you. He will one day say, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the rest. I give you.

[00:46:48] Compass Bible Church, work hard for Jesus. Hang in there. Take the wounds. And we'll see each other in glory, praising him for all the victories he's given us. Let's pray.

[00:47:03] Father. You love this church, don't you? It's been so clear. Four last five plus years. You care for these people. You care for the people that they know that they can make you known to father, we are praying that your truth would ring out through this congregation. The brothers and sisters would encourage one another, edify one another. We pray that the unbelievers. Who know these people herwe would hear the life changing message of the gospel because these people love them. And father, if you determine to do that through difficulty and suffering, which seems to be the way that you so often do it, I pray that you would make this group strong, remind them of your son's love and his presence with them. We cannot do what you want us to do on our own. We just admit that to you. Give us what we need. Give us your son inside of us to do the work you've called us to do. You are an amazing God. We pray your blessing on this church. I pray this in your son's name. Amen.

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