Christ's Mission

my mom singing to me, Jesus loves me. This I know, the Bible tells me so.

This is not an anti-family teaching of Christ, it's an importance of bringing us together back into the trueness of God's family. And oh, the power parents have to proclaim that gospel. That's Christ's mission. Now we're gonna ask a few questions on how we should respond. First, why, why, We respond, this is verses 54 to 59. He's come to be baptized. He's come to not bring peace in this earth, but to bring peace with us in God. He's come to bring division in this earth, but bring unity with us to God. Why should we respond? This is verses 54 to 59. He now turns to the crowd. Now again, two guys were asking a question from the crowd. He goes through, he speaks to the disciples particularly. Peter's confused, are you talking to us? He's now turned to the crowd.

When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once a shower is coming, and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say there'll be scorching heat, and it happens. You hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Jesus is affirming their ability to see and understand what's going to happen on Earth. You say this and it happens. There's an affirmation. We actually were very thankful for this kind of prediction that we've advanced in because Friday night, after we got the kids finally down, it was raining and our phones start going off. And there's a prediction at 9.50, you're under a tornado warning until 10 o'clock. So we're looking at each other. We're going to wake up the kids and go to the basement? Turn on the local news. And so at that point, the local news guy says, people in this neighborhood, my neighborhood, get to your basement. We're thinking, all right, probably not a sign from God, but that's specific enough. We wake the kids up, go to the basement. It was pretty terrifying. It lasted all seven minutes. But we can tell what's going to happen. Sometimes. It was supposed to rain all day yesterday. The rain prediction led to my deciding to mow and then it was confusing. We don't always get it right. But he's affirming here, you can see so much, understand so much, it happens, but you're hypocrites. We usually think of somebody who's a hypocrite who wears a mask, they're masquerading, they're pretending, they say to believe one thing and they act like another. And also someone who's just contradictory, backwards. You have so much ability, you can see, you're designed for this world to know what's happening. How is it you can't understand the present time? What is he asking? The present time is what he's getting at with he, the promised savior, the son of God is with him. It's important that he's asking, how do you understand how to interpret these things? But God's given you his entire Old Testament. God's given you all the understanding you need. That sin is the problem in the first 39 books of the Bible, the books they had at the time. In all of God's writing, sin is the problem, and Jesus was the solution. Over and over again, God made promises. I will send a savior. I will send a son. I will send a messiah. I'll send a king. I'll send a prophet. I'll send a priest. And as they see Jesus and hear him, they should recognize this is the guy we've been waiting on. Jesus, how is it you can't interpret the present time? How is it God's own son is standing before you? How is it as creatures, the creator has fulfilled all his promises, right now is the time to believe and they're rejecting him. How is it they're missing him? If you're not a believer, this is where I really wanna encourage you and challenge you. One of the great arguments and one of the great evidences, if you're looking for an evidence, is God's own word and how God made so many promises over so many generations, different continents, different languages, different prophets, different promises, so many promises, and they all come together in Jesus. I challenge you, just look at Psalm 22. It's the Psalm that Jesus quotes in the cross. And one of the most interesting things is Psalm 22 says, his garments would be divided among them. This is what's amazing about that psalm. Jesus didn't fulfill that. The Roman guards murdering Jesus fulfilled that without knowing it. All those promises come to such clear fulfillment. The things written beforehand, they come true. All together in Christ. If you wanna know more about the scriptures, come talk to me or somebody around you. Let's read scripture together and see how all these promises come together in Christ. If you're a believer, how should you interpret the present time? I believe it's important we understand the present time Jesus is referring to is his actual present time, 2,000 years ago. The Old Testament was written with such clarity that when Jesus appeared, his people would not reject him, as they did, but receive him. How do we think about the present time today? The New Testament is not written for us to understand when Jesus is coming back. How do I know that? Jesus says in Acts 2-7, it's not for you to know. Pretty clear, right? You with me? The Old Testament was all promises that were supposed to come to that present time so that they could see Jesus. The New Testament was written so that we could look back and see He fulfilled them all. And to live faithfully, waiting, not knowing when He's coming back. We need to be careful not to get worked up by trying to understand what's happening and try to read it back in Scripture. No, God has given us all we need, His Word, His Spirit, His truth to be faithful. There's a big difference between the Old Testament telling us Jesus is coming, look, there He is, and the New Testament telling us He has come, He is ascended, He will return. And trust me, we don't need to have any interpretation. When He comes again, there's no guessing or doubting He comes. He comes with a trumpet blast in all of His glory. brings righteousness fully and finally peace on earth. Why do we get this so weird? Why do we labor so much trying to figure out how to interpret this way? There's a fellow named Edgar Wisenhan. He was a NASA engineer, pretty sharp dude, and a believer. He wrote a book in 1987 entitled 88 Reasons Jesus Returned in 1988. How many reasons do you think we're wrong? Now, it's at that point you would trust a intelligent NASA engineer just going through the methods he's learned as an engineer. Okay, well, maybe I'm approaching this wrong. Not Edgar. He did the same thing in 1989, 1993, and finally in 1994. Brothers and sisters, we look at God's word and the Old Testament was telling us As God's people, who to expect? The New Testament tells us, yes, he is the one we were expecting, and how to live faithfully. But when he's coming back, and how to understand this world, oh friends, the comforting words, it's not for us to know. That's relief. Is it not? It's relief. There's so much to know. But it's not for us to know when he's coming back. It's not for us to know. Oh, he promises there's gonna be Antichrist, false teachers. The church is gonna go through wars and tribulations. They're gonna be attacked. But it's good to know what we're not supposed to know. God does give us his truth. We should need to know him from his word. We need to understand the lies that are outside of this world. But Jesus tells us what we should know, what we should not know. Now, as we look here, he's correcting them because they should be seeing who Jesus is. Going back and pressing in, they should see who Jesus is, and there's a correction. And notice there's an immediacy to his conclusion. Verse 57,

why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way. lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.

" All right, he's picturing someone who's done something wrong. They know they've done something wrong, and as they're being judged, being carried away to the magistrate, the judge, they settle. They pull the man aside and say, I'm wrong, I wanna figure out how to settle, otherwise I'm going to spend my days in prison, and then still have to pay the last penny. Notice he's saying that the wise person make an effort to settle. Avoid the judgment. What does it mean to settle? How would someone settle? Well, we could think, let's just try to come up with random acts of kindness. Let's try to think through all my bad deeds and try to right them and make sure we overdo our good deeds. No, that's not the kind of settlement we're talking about. Because God, as Jesus was telling us, we are going to stand before a judge. We're going to stand before a judge who knows everything we've ever done and not done. The court will be full of writing of all our misdeeds, of all our transgressions, of all our sins. And we'll be speechless. We won't be able to pay any of it back. But the offer Jesus gives you is to settle out of court. The way we settle out of court is by believing in him. Believe in him who died for all your sins. Believe in him who can take away your sins. Believe in him who removes from you your sin as far as the east is from the west. The call here, interpret the present time, see who Jesus is, see how he fulfilled all of God's word in his death and resurrection. Believe in him. Believe in him today. Our next section is how to respond. Why should we respond? Because Christ has come. It is the present time. He has come to bring a fire, a judgment. There's a judgment to come. We must believe in him. But how? Notice this next section is interesting and it's still connected here. There were some present at the very time. We're still here in the same location, same scene. How much they're connecting what Jesus has said, It's not clear, but Luke's connecting this to our section.

There was some president at the very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifice. And he answered them, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

The conversation is moved. There's folks who are asking, have you heard about these Galileans? We don't know anything of this story outside of this actual account. But this sounds like Pilate, who's a vicious man. Apparently there were Galileans who went to worship. Pilate murdered them there so that their blood actually got mingled in with the very sacrifices they were coming to make. This seems to be a question of ethic. We don't understand exactly what happened, but Jesus is the great interpreter. He actually gets at their problem because he asked in two different ways, do you think they're worse? Jesus understands what they're asking and why they're asking it. That's what's helpful about this text. Do you think that these Galileans were worse? Do you think that those who the tower fell on were worse? They're asking an unethical question. There seems to be an assumption here. Bad things happen to bad people. Bad people have bad things happen to them. If such a tragedy fell upon these particular people, well, they must have deserved it. This interpretation is what Job's friend was all about. Praise God, he's given us an entire book to tell us not to think like this. But your Jesus is especially telling us not to think like this. But notice there's an ethical understanding of the world. If something horrible happened to someone, they must have deserved it. We ask the question, why do bad things happen to good people? It's the upper side of that coin. He challenges them. Do not assume that they were worse. Do not be self-righteous in your judgment to assume they must be worse than you if they've received worse. He even backs it up with another example. Do not try to interpret God's judgment because of the tragedies in this world. They were not more worse, they were simply more unfortunate. Now, this is one of those texts that actually really stands out to me in my life because of when and where I first heard it, and the only time I've actually heard it preached. I first heard it preached on September 13th. Al Mohler opened up this text two days after 9-11. And it was extremely helpful. Because if you remember, there were many who were saying the people who died in those towers, that attack was because of sinners worse than us out there. This is actually a warning against that kind of teaching. No, the sin we should be concerned about is our own. We're warned against the kind of self-righteousness that says that sin out there is what God's gonna judge. No, look at the command. Repent or perish. Repent or perish. There's a correction. Do you not believe you're somehow better? The teaching, all sinners will perish. All sinners will perish. The invitation, repent. Turn around. The invitation is to turn around. Repent or perish. John 3, 16,

God so loved the world that he sent his only son so that whoever believed in him shall not perish.

If we believe in Jesus, if we turn away from our sin, if we turn to him, we will not perish, but have everlasting life. The invitation to turn around, you turn away from sin, you turn toward God. How to repent. It's a word we get prickly around. Anybody else ever feel prickly around the word repentance? Just me? I've talked to somebody about it. You get prickly, too. Because repentance is confrontational. But it's so sweet. It's inviting out. Repentance is necessary for healing. It's a necessary healing ingredient for the balm of the gospel. Because God doesn't just say, I'll forgive you of that sin, just keep drinking the poison. He says, I'll bring you out of that sin. I'll bring you out of the guilt. I'll bring you out of the addiction. I'll bring you out of the pain. I'll bring you out of the trouble. This word is confusing for us because we have been taught and even the church has been taken part of the idea that whatever we feel must be right. Oh no, our hearts are full of sin. Praise God his word comes to heal us, to confront us. Praise God he does not leave us in our self-deceiving, dangerous hearts. He comes and tells us, repent. Repent of rejecting God. Repent of ignoring God. Repent of being indifferent towards God. Repent of the sin that if you hold on to it, you will have to stand before a judge and give an account for it. Repent of the poison you drink. Repent. What sweet words. And oh, how difficult it is. If you're feeling the conviction to repent, I wanna be clear, it looks daunting, it looks difficult. Ascent if you're a believer that you might find comfort in. It's become a pattern. You don't know how to live without that particular sin. If you're not a Christian, you don't understand how someone can live without that particular way of living. Where sin abounds, grace abounds. God, in his grace, helps us see sin. God, in his grace, calls us from sin. God in his grace heals us of our sin. Grace is what helps us overcome what we think is difficult. It's not too difficult to repent. It's too difficult not to repent. Not repenting is the dangerous way. Repent or perish. Repent or face your God for all of eternity with your sin still holding firm to and feeling the full judgment of God. Repent or perish. The last question we ask, Christ has come so that he might bring fire, so that he might bring healing, so that he might bring forgiveness by being united with us in our sin, uniting himself so that he takes the punishment so that we can now live the right life. Why respond? There's a judgment coming. How to respond? Repent. When to respond? When to respond is our last section. Jesus follows this up with a parable.

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and found none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.

Typical parable of Jesus. It's a clear teaching of Jesus. There's a man who owns the land. This is a wealthy man. He's able to have enough land to have a vineyard. That's a very expensive undertaking. He decides to put a fig tree in a vineyard. That's unusual. He plants a fig tree and he comes three years in a row. And if you plant a fig tree, what do you want from it? Figs. He's disappointed. But land's a premium, especially this land. It's rich land. He has his vine dressers working on it. It's a waste of resources. Cut it down. He has a right. And not just a vine dresser appeals. There's a care for this fig tree. He is the one who's been pruning and feeding and wanting to see figs for his master. He said, give it one more year. I'll fertilize it, I'll dig around it, then decide. Now, time is very central, that's why we're asking when. Three years, that's patient. The appeal is only one more year, still patient. What's the interpretation here? It could be the vineyard is all the nations, and the fig tree is Israel, who's supposed to be bearing fruit to be a witness to all the nations. And over time, over and over again, God has looked and said, there's no fruit. I'm going to replace that fig tree. I'm going to cut down that fig tree. That actually appears to be how Paul might interpret it, according to Romans 11. As we heard earlier, John 15, the father is the vinedresser. He looks, and if there's not fruit, he cuts. There's an immediacy here. There's an expectation that God expects fruit. Friends, repentance is fruit. Repentance is fruit. Denying ourselves of sin, taking up the cross ready for suffering, following Christ's commandments. What we should be hearing today, are we presuming upon God's grace and not bearing the fruit we know He expects? Faith without works is dead. Faith without any fruit is a false faith. We are saved by grace alone, by faith alone. We come to Christ simply by faith and that faith then produces good works, it produces fruit, it produces repentance. All the danger of presuming upon God's grace and delaying obedience. When will you respond? The answer should be today. If you're not a believer, today. The Lord could answer the require of your life today. What is it you're hoping to accomplish between today and tomorrow that would say, no, I just want to put this off a little bit longer? He doesn't take good things away from you. He takes sin away from you and he gives you his goodness. He expects faith that produces fruit. There's three things I want us to see from this fig tree. God expects us to respond with faith and repentance. He expects us to see fruit. Two, God is so gracious and patient. God is so gracious and patient And three, we should not presume upon his patience. This morning, Christ's mission is clear. He comes to unite with us to save us. He comes to unite with us to build a different kind of unity among us. He comes so that we can escape judgment, so that we can understand he is the one Savior who's come and he's coming again. He comes so we can repent. It comes so we can repent today. Let's take a moment and confess our sins to our Lord and make commitments of what we will do today in repentance. Father, we thank you for the words we've already sung. Our sins, there are many. Your mercy is more. We thank you for the songs that help us to see your invitation, come ye sinners, poor and needy. All you need is to see your need for Him. We thank you, Father, for such an invitation. By your grace to know your God, to know our sin, and to know you, remove it from us, as far as he sits from the West, and forgiveness. I pray we would stop trying to snuggle close to sin. We would distance ourself from the sin that creates distance between you and us in fellowship. Father, give us the grace to hear your word, give us the grace to obey it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our closing song of invitation. Jesus, I come.