Death of John the Baptist - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E2

[music]

>> Amen and amen.

>> [applause]

>> Hello 11:22, how are you?

Fantastic. Fantastic. How many of you

have been just absolutely blessed by the

sermon series that we've been in in the

book of Matthew?

Yeah? Incredible. It's been such a

blessing to me. I'm so thankful for

Pastor Joby and his faithfulness, not

just in execution, but in preparation.

I'm hearing testimony after testimony of

all that God is doing in our movement.

And so praise God for all of that. If

you have a Bible, meet me in Matthew

chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14 is where

we will be. Here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray for

you. I ask that you pray for me that God

would do a work that only he can do, and

that is save many today. And so with

eyes closed and heads bowed, let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for your word.

I'm praying that you would soften our

hearts so that we might hear you ever so

clearly.

God, I pray against the evil one whose

desire is to steal, kill, and destroy.

And so I ask that you would stand in my

body, think through my mind, speak

through my vocal cords those things

you'd have us know, say, and do. Jesus,

would you come and bring

abundant life

to this place. God, you are our king.

You are our redeemer. Would you have

your way here? In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Now, our text today is what we would

call a literary flashback. I think your

favorite TV show, season 5, episode 2.

It begins with something shockingly

gripping, and before you can connect the

dots, the screen goes black, and then in

big white letters it reads, "2

weeks

earlier."

That's what Matthew does in chapter

14. The first two verses are the

present.

And then the rest of the verses is him

taking us to the past so that we can

understand what's going on here. And so,

let's read the present.

Verse one says, "At that time Herod the

Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus."

Now, Herod is not his name. It's a

dynasty. It's a It's a title. In fact,

you might be sitting here going, "I feel

like I've heard that name before." Well,

you have. If you've been journeying with

us through the book of Matthew, you

would remember this name Herod all the

way back in Matthew chapter two.

We read about Herod the Great. See,

Herod the Great had heard about this

baby that would become the king of the

Jews from the wise men. And because he

did not want that to happen, he believed

himself to be the only king, he set in

motion a plan to have Jesus killed.

That was Herod the Great. This Herod

is his son.

It's safe to say that the family tree is

not a great one.

And so, at that time Herod the Tetrarch

heard about the fame of Jesus. And he

said to his servants, "This is John the

Baptist. He's been raised from the dead.

That is why these miraculous powers are

at work in him." Now, just to be clear,

John and Jesus were alive at the same

time.

And so,

Herod thinking that John the Baptist,

who is dead and we'll get to that in a

moment, him thinking that John the

Baptist, who is dead, has now come back

from the grave and is going by the name

Jesus.

Him thinking that is not confusion. It

is not a mistake.

No, friends, this is what happens when

an unrepentant

heart

does not surrender to Jesus.

This This happens when unrepentant sin

is left alone for too long. It creates

narratives that feel completely real to

the person living inside them and

completely irrational to everyone

watching from outside.

Uh it's like you know when you go into

the office kitchen and you reach into

the fridge and you take a bite out of a

dessert that clearly has someone else's

name on it.

And now when everybody asks you, "Are

you hungry?" you're thinking, "They

know."

You've told yourself that they are

hidden cameras all over the workplace

and they're just waiting for the office

Christmas party to put your face on

every single TV screen and then say,

"Beloved, we have gathered to expose the

dessert thief."

In an unrelated matter, um the banana

pudding that I had did not have

anybody's name on it, you know. Just

>> [laughter]

>> It was delicious though.

Or maybe on your phone you've

been to places that you shouldn't have

gone.

You're speaking to people that you

shouldn't be speaking to and now your

spouse reaches for your phone to take a

look at a picture that you took 2 weeks

ago and you think, "Oh no, they know."

And not only that, you're going,

"They've told their entire discipleship

group." In fact, it's made its way all

the way to the leadership. And so now

when Pastor Joby is preaching on purity

and looks in your direction, you're

thinking, "I'm about to become the

illustration to the sermon."

See friends, this is what guilt does.

Guilt that has never been dealt with

will make a sane person say foolish

things with full conviction.

This is Herod.

But we need to talk about this moment

for a little bit

because this is one of the most powerful

men in the region. He has a palace. He

has a court full of servants. He has an

army. All that power and it's at the

name of Jesus that he is sent back to

the worst thing that he has ever done.

That's the thing about power

without peace.

It's its own prison.

Power without peace is its own prison

because you're going, "I know how I

obtained this power and it wasn't

right." Or maybe you're going, "I know

how I'm maintaining this power and it's

not right." Power without peace is its

own prison and this man is in it.

Herod is scared, at the very least

worried, which raises the question, what

did he do?

Why can he not shake it? Well, to answer

that, we need to know who John the

Baptist was. Uh because if you're new

here today, if you are new to the Bible

and you've just walked in, you have

found yourself in the middle of

something that's been building for a

very long time, in fact, centuries.

And so, we need to go back all the way

to the Old Testament. Let's go to

Isaiah,

the prophet who had written 700 years

before this moment that a voice crying

in the wilderness would come to make

the way of the Lord. Then Malachi, the

last prophet who wrote the last book in

the Old Testament, he closes the Old

Testament with a promise that God would

send a messenger before that great and

awesome day of the Lord. John the

Baptist is that voice. John the Baptist

is that messenger.

He is the hinge between the entire Old

Testament

and the arrival

of Jesus. He is the last prophet of the

old order

and the first to herald the new. He was

born for one purpose, to announce the

arrival of Jesus. He preached. He called

people to repentance. He even baptized

Jesus

in the waters of the Jordan.

This man was fearless. Some might say

uncomfortably so.

He did not tailor his message to fit the

narrative so that the powerful people

would feel comfortable. He did not

soften what needed to be said because of

those who were in the room.

In fact, that's exactly what got him in

trouble with Herod.

You see, Herod had divorced his wife,

taken

Herodias, his own brother's wife.

Illegal? Yes. Immoral? Absolutely. And

John named it publicly and directly.

And that

that's what cost him his freedom.

Herod had him arrested. But But here's

where things get a little strange. You

see, Herod actually liked John. He

low-key respected him. He enjoyed

listening to him preach. He just didn't

want to be changed by the message that

John was declaring. Sound familiar?

Then came the birthday party.

Then the dance, then a promise made in

public.

A young girl coached by her mother

stepping forward to ask for one thing,

the head of John the Baptist on a

platter.

And now weeks later, the name Jesus is

moving across the region and and Herod

cannot hear it without the weight of

what he did pressing down on him. That

is the man at the center of our passage

today.

But now, let's take a look at the past

to understand

what's really going on. Verse 3, "For

Herod had seized John and bound him and

put him in prison for the sake of

Herodias,

his brother Philip's wife." If we read

Mark chapter 6 verse 19, we can actually

see that Herodias had a heavy hand,

played a heavy hand in making this all

happen. All

look with me, verse 4, because John had

been saying to him, "It is not lawful

for you to have her."

And that's all there is to it.

No need for elaboration, no softening of

the point, no careful management of the

tone, just the truth placed in front of

the most powerful man in the room.

Oh, 11:22, what I want us to understand

is this. John did not speak because he

had conquered fear. He spoke because

he's he feared someone more than he

feared Herod.

And there is only one fear that makes

every other fear small.

And John

had it.

John was gripped by the fear of God.

And the fear of God is not a cowering

fear, is not a frightened fear. No, no,

no, it is a fear that that a person has

who has stood in the presence of

something holy, of something weighty, of

something powerful.

That when they are in every room

and there's anyone else in that room,

it all pales in comparison

to the one who is seated on the throne.

Now, look, Herod was powerful, let's

make no mistake about it. But John,

John, John was in the presence of the

one who had made Herod.

John could boldly speak

because his fear was in the Lord and not

in man.

But but look at Herod. Look at Herod,

verse 5. And though he wanted to put him

to death, he feared the people because

they held him to be a prophet. You see,

Herod,

like I said, had respect

for John.

He feared the people, but he feared

Herodias more.

Herod had power.

He had power, but he he just lacked the

courage to use it for the right thing.

And John John was not the first prophet

to stand in front of a corrupt leader

and tell the truth. In fact, centuries

before Elijah stood before King Ahab,

the most wicked of kings that all of

Israel had ever known and and he stands

in front of him and he names this king's

sin without flinching.

We covered this last year in the sermon

series Elijah the life of a prophet.

You see that same prophetic tradition

that sent Elijah to Ahab

sent John

to Herod.

There is no coincidence.

And just as Elijah's confrontation of

Ahab came at a great personal cost,

John's confrontation of Herod cost him

everything.

That's what this

prophet prophetic tradition

does. Now, you might be sitting and

going, "Well, I don't know what what is

this

prophetic tradition. Would you name it?"

No problem.

This prophetic tradition

is when we speak God's word boldly and

truthfully and without apology, no

matter what it costs us.

And so, the question is never whether

speaking the truth will cost you

something. No, friends, it will.

The question is whether what you believe

is worth paying for.

Silence in the face of wrong is not the

absence of a choice. Hear me, it is the

choice.

And that silence has already declared

whose side you are on. And so, I ask the

question, are there places in your life

where you have gone quiet

because faithfulness felt too costly?

You say that you've surrendered your

life to Jesus. You say that you are a

Christian. You say that you love him

with everything, but are there places in

your life where you've gone quiet?

Maybe your workplace, maybe the

classroom, maybe your circle of friends,

maybe your family.

We are called to speak boldly and

truthfully and without apology. Now, I

know I say this and some of you might

get excited. You might be going, "Yes,

thankfully, oh now I can be fully

released into my gift."

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm not saying that you need to go into

every single situation and say every

single thing.

No, you need to check yourself. Check

your heart. To quote the old West Coast

philosopher,

check yourself before you wreck

yourself.

You see, John's John's boldness was not

personality, it was assignment.

Uh we must know the difference.

There is one. There is a difference

between speaking the truth which has

been entrusted to you and then

deputizing yourself with things that God

never put in your hand. There is a

difference. You see, the one is

faithfulness, the other is just noise

with a spiritual label on it.

Know the difference.

Silence in the face of what God has

called you to address is disobedience.

But, speaking into everything that

bothers you and calling it conviction,

well, that's just pride.

We should know the difference.

But, in verse 6, it says, "But, when

Herod's birthday came,

the daughter of Herodias danced before

the company and pleased him." This is no

innocent dance. Uh many commentators

will say this was kind of like a nice

cute ballet performance. No, no, no, no,

this was this was no innocent dance.

Pleased Herod so that he promised with

an oath to give her whatever she might

ask. Prompted by her mother, she said,

"Give me the head of John the Baptist

here on a platter."

And the king was sorry, but because of

his oaths and his guests, he commanded

it to be given. He sent and had John

beheaded in the prison, and his head was

brought on a platter and given to the

girl, and she brought it to her

mother. This is the kind of scene that

we've come to expect in movies.

Uh we sit through it on the screen, and

we don't even flinch. But But here, I I

want us maybe to be thinking The

Bachelor meets Survivor meets The

Kardashians meets The Hunger Games, all

directed by Quentin Tarantino himself.

And And the laughing makes me wonder if

you understand the illustration, or

maybe what are you watching?

But But this is not a movie. This is not

a parable. This is not a story

constructed to make a point. This is the

very word of God.

It's recording a real event that happens

to real people, a real king, a real

girl, a real man who lost his real life

at a real dinner party. God did not

construct this for dramatic effect.

He preserved it. Why?

Because God does not want to sanitize

what sin actually produces

in our lives.

A king so drunk on the moment that he

makes a public promise he cannot take

back.

"Whatever you want," said out loud to a

teenager. I mean, that alone, friends,

you should know, like this is going to

end badly.

And all of this in front of witnesses.

And so she leaves the room and comes

back and asks for a man's head on a

platter. God leaves every detail in so

we don't miss what we are capable of

becoming.

This is what the fear of man looks like

when it's been given

enough time and enough room to become

the thing that ruins your life.

And and look what verse 9 tells us. The

king was sorry.

He was sorry. He was sorry. And yet he

gave the order anyway. Why? Because of

his oaths and his guests. Because of his

oaths and his guests. Two traps.

Two reasons.

These two things that many of us still

fall into.

The first trap

was his mouth.

He made a promise

in a moment of pride.

Drunk on applause, performing for the

room.

And he gave his word on something he had

no authority

to give.

I mean, that's how it starts. It's not

with a decision,

but with a sentence.

Jesus said it plainly, out of the

overflow of

the heart, the mouth speaks.

Which means

your words are not accidents.

They are confessions.

Every reckless promise reveals what you

are actually worshipping in that moment.

Hear this. Herod's mouth, watch this.

Herod's mouth told the truth about

Herod's heart before Herod even knew

what was coming.

Pastor Joby likes to say, "Nothing ever

just spills.

It reveals."

That throwaway comment, that promise you

made to look generous, that commitment

you made to look strong, that yes you

gave because approval in the room

matters way more to you than the

integrity in your chest.

And now those words own you.

This is what reckless words do. They

feel like power in the moment, but they

imprisoned you in the aftermath.

Herod opened his mouth to impress a room

and handed a teenager the keys to a

godly man's life.

That's the first trap, his mouth.

The second trap was his audience, the

eyes in that room. You see, he was

performing for people who would forget

his name before the decade was out.

This is the trap of the audience. It It

promises you belonging. It promises you

safety. It promises you that if you just

give the room what it wants, you'll be

okay.

But let me tell you the truth.

It never pays out.

Oh, it never pays out. It just keeps

asking and asking and asking and asking

and asking until there's nothing left of

you.

See, Herod

did not lose his conscience in one

dramatic moment.

He had been building these traps for

years. Every careless promise, every

crowd he played to,

every time the approval of the room felt

more urgent than the voice of God.

Until the night came when both traps

shut at the same time.

And a man died because of it.

Oh,

when we read things like this, we have

the tendency to distance ourselves from

them, to go, "Well, he's Herod's a bad

person.

That's not me." Oh, we should be

not too quick to distance ourselves from

this man.

Because the traps he fell into are the

same ones you and I are building right

now with our words and with our need to

be seen.

One reckless promise at a time, one

audience at a time.

Until the moment comes and you find out

who

you really are.

That's how evil works.

It does not force its way in.

It uses your words and your need for

approval to let itself in through the

door.

Quietly.

Over days and months

and years.

And here's the thing, we never see it

coming.

Isn't that true? We never see it coming.

We're We're so good at seeing it in

other people's lives.

It's like, oh whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

whoa whoa, I see something happening in

your life. You're about You're about to

fall off the edge. But But But man, we

we first need to take the scriptures and

hold them up to ourselves. They need to

be mirrors to our own lives.

And that's what Matthew does. He puts it

right in front of us. So please, please,

please don't miss it. Let Let me tell

you something about evil. Evil Evil did

not walk into the party that day.

It was already there.

See, that's

what happens when you let sin sit

comfortably in

your life. And And here's the thing

about sin, it never sits still. No, no,

no.

Sin never sits still. It It brews. It It

ferments. It ferments to the point where

a man's severed head is put on a platter

and brought into a crowded room. And

that's just the intermission.

Sin

never just sits. It ferments.

Unforgiveness ferments to the point

where it poisons the soul and wrecks

relationships. Sin never just sits.

Greed ferments to the place where it

sacrifices people and integrity at the

altar of accumulation. Sin never sits.

Lust ferments to the point where it

commodifies image bearers and will pay

whatever

to satisfy a sick and twisted appetite.

Jealousy ferments into sabotage dressed

up as concern. Sin never sits. Prejudice

ferments into contempt where the only

categories that you will have left for

people is lesser than or a threat. Sin

never just sits. Bitterness ferments

into rage that has forgotten its

original address.

I mean, it started somewhere, but now it

lives everywhere. It lives in your tone.

It lives in your reactions. It lives in

the way that you see every situation.

You get to that point where everything

now is an attack on you.

Because sin never just sits.

And none of this none of this ever

announces itself in the beginning. No,

it lives rent-free in your life.

Sitting comfortably, quietly, getting

stronger

until that moment it all comes out.

Herod did not decide to become a

murderer that night. He had been

becoming one for years.

Every time he chose his reputation over

his conscience. Every time the room

mattered more to him

than what God is saying.

None of those moments felt like much.

None of them looked like evil. They

looked like ordinary compromises that

everybody makes until they do not.

Not one dramatic fall,

but a thousand small steps in the wrong

direction.

Each one feeling almost reasonable.

Then one day

it wrecks you and everyone around you.

This This is what happens when when

ordinary compromises become

extraordinary damages. Let me say that

again.

This is what happens when ordinary

compromises become extraordinary

damages.

Because you never just fall into who you

are becoming. We've got to get this

language out of the church. Oh, I just I

fell into that sin. I fell into

adultery. I just fell into that

situation. No, no, no, no, no. You drift

there one comfortable compromise at a

time.

One comfortable compromise at a time

until the drift becomes the direction.

And so I have to ask the question.

Are you in a Herod moment?

Are you in a Herod moment? A promise you

made when you were trying to impress

someone and now it owns you.

A room full of people whose opinion has

become louder than God's voice.

A compromise that felt

small when you made it, but now you live

with the echo that tries to justify it

by saying, "But everybody's doing it."

A word you should have never spoken. Are

you in a Herod

moment?

And I'm not trying to judge. I'm not

trying to judge BECAUSE BECAUSE WE ALL

have a Herod moment.

All of us. And so the question is not

whether you have a Herod moment. The

question is what are you going to do

when it arrives?

What are you going to do when it

arrives? When when that Herod moment

arrives, what are you going to do?

Oh, and because you're asking so

earnestly, let me go ahead and tell you.

Here's Here's what I I hope that you

would do. This is what I I plead and I

pray that you and I would do.

Is that we would be courageous.

Oh, that we would be courageous, but

it's not the way that you think.

Because the most courageous thing that

you can do in that moment is not is not

push through, is not do better, manage

harder. No, no, no. It's not that.

The most

courageous thing that you can do in that

moment is to confess.

Well, I hope that we would

build this into the culture of who we

are at 11:22, a people who know that

confession is courageous.

Confession is courageous because when

you confess, it means that you are done

performing. It means that you are done

pretending. It means that you are done

letting the room own you. It means that

you are choosing the fear of God over

the fear of man.

Herod had a door every single time John

preached.

He had an opportunity to confess every

time he heard the word preached.

He just chose to stay in the room.

But I want you to know today

you have a door

to confess, to lay it all at the feet of

Jesus and to say I I I cannot do this

anymore. I am in desperate need of a

savior.

You have that opportunity.

But that's Herod. Let's now take a look

at at John. Verse 10 says this, "He sent

and had John beheaded in the prison."

John did not die

heroically on a battlefield.

He did not die mid-sermon.

There is no dignity in the mechanics of

his death. It is brutal and deeply

grotesque. It is unjust.

And in all of that

God did not stop it.

That is not a comfortable sentence to

say and I I will never pretend that it

is.

But stay with me. Stay with me because

because what looks like silence is not

the same as God's absence.

What looks like abandonment is not the

end of the story.

Let me tell you a story and and and and

um 1886

King Mwanga of the Buganda kingdom, a

place that still exists today in Uganda,

East Africa. He summons about 30 to 40

of his male servants and slaves and

tells them to

renounce their faith, to deny Jesus. You

see, they had recently surrendered their

lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

And he didn't want that.

He He didn't want people in his kingdom

bending the knee

to another king, pledging their

allegiance to another kingdom.

And so he calls them

to renounce their faith.

And so those teenagers, some even

younger,

they disobey this earthly king so that

they might obey the King of kings.

And so King Mwanga sets them on fire.

History tells us that you could hear

their praises and their prayers as they

transitioned from this life into glory.

And you might hear this and go, "Well, I

guess then that was the end of the

church in Uganda." No, no, no, you would

be wrong.

You see, King Mwanga didn't realize that

as he was setting light to those young

men, in God's sovereignty,

he was using him to spread the church.

Oh, the church did not shrink that day.

In fact, it exploded. Within a

generation, Christianity had spread

across the region in ways that no

missionary strategy had produced.

And in all of that,

God was not trying to make these young

men comfortable.

He was doing something way bigger in

their lives.

Something that that they could not

produce in their lives, but was

accomplished in their death. I was

talking to my friend uh B Dubs. Uh he

leads an incredible church in Kampala,

Uganda about this story. And then uh he

goes on to say, "Hey, let me tell you

something.

The descendant of King Mwanga today who

sits on the throne,

he now professes Jesus as Lord and

Savior."

God is not done.

>> [applause]

>> You see, faithfulness is not a guarantee

of protection from pain. It is the

commitment to keep walking through it

even when the fire is real.

Friends, we have to sit with what all of

this means because

because many of us, if if we're being

honest, we we carry a quiet arrangement

with God that goes something like this.

If I am faithful, he will protect me

from pain.

Or maybe it sounds a little bit like

this. If I keep my end of the deal, he

will keep the worst outcomes away from

my door. And then yet John's life

dismantles that arrangement completely.

And Paul understood this, the Apostle

Paul.

In Romans 8, he writes that God is

working all things together for good for

those who love him, for those called

according to his purpose. And then he

tells us

what that good actually is. And let me

go ahead and tell you, it's it's not

comfort.

It's not comfort. It's not the removal

of difficulty. In fact, verse

29 of Romans 8 tells us, it says, "To be

conformed to the image of his son." That

is the goal. That is what God is after.

And sometimes sometimes the path toward

that goal runs straight through the

thing you were hoping he would take

away.

Oh, can I

Can I be honest for a moment?

Can Can I Can I be honest for a moment?

I know we've We've been pretending and

performing up until now, but let's Can I

just be honest for a moment?

You see, sometimes

the silence that you are experiencing

is not God.

Sometimes the silence that you are

experiencing

is us.

Because the thing we asked for has not

come. The The spouse has not come. The

child has not come. The job has not

come. The finances has not come. The

healing has not come.

The door that will not open no matter

how long we stand in front of it, and

somewhere along the way we made a quiet

decision.

Not a dramatic one.

It wasn't publicly announced.

[clears throat]

There was no moment where you stood back

and you just said, "God, I'm done with

you."

You just

kept showing up,

singing the songs, serving in the

ministry, doing what saved people do,

but you had pulled back just a little

bit.

Just a little bit.

Internally you withdrew.

You stopped expecting. You stopped

pressing in. You stopped bringing the

thing to him.

Because bringing it and not receiving it

hurts more than just carrying it

quietly.

And And now you're here.

But you're not really here.

I mean, you're you're in

the room, but you're not really in the

room. You're not trusting him with that

thing that is breaking you anymore. This

is not faith under pressure. This is

faith on pause.

Now, I don't know

what God has written for you

this side of heaven. I don't, but let me

tell you what I do know.

Is that every broken thing you have

brought to him in faith will be made

whole either in time or in eternity. He

is going to heal you in this life or

he's going to heal you in the next. But

hear me, he is going to heal you. He is

going TO MAKE YOU WHOLE. THAT IS not be

friends. That is a promise. And please,

please don't let unanswered prayer push

you away from the one who holds the

answer.

Why? Because he is enough.

God is enough. He has always been

enough. Sometimes this broken world will

want to roll the credits on your life

before the real director has yelled cut.

The prognosis, the diagnosis, the people

who've written you off, the

circumstances where it just feels like

IT'S ALL DONE. OH, BUT GOD.

BUT GOD. NOW, I know some of you are

listening and going, "I heard him hammer

on but God the last time he preached."

Yes, get comfortable with it. I am the

but God preacher. [cheering] I am the

but God preacher, but but the only

reason I'M A BUT GOD PREACHER is because

I'M A BUT GOD BELIEVER.

I'm a but God believer. I was heading in

the direction of DEATH AND CONDEMNATION,

BUT GOD PULLED ME OUT OF THE DEPTH OF MY

own depravity into his marvelous light,

but God. I'm not just a but God believer

for my salvation, I'm a but God believer

for sanctification. Oh, how many in here

know that we have an enemy? And even

though we've crossed the line of faith,

he's always there in our ear whispering,

whispering, whispering, whispering, "Oh,

you're still sinning. You're still doing

that thing. You're still jealous. You're

still envious. You're still going to run

back to God and say I'll never do it

again. And you know what we need to do?

We need to be those believers who stand

and go, "Okay, let me hear you. I did

this and this and this." In fact, you

don't even know the half of this other

thing, BUT GOD. OH, but God. You see the

blood that saves me still works to

cleanse me and to wash me and to make me

whole. God is committed to your

formation for his glory. He is not

finished with you yet.

He is still directing and he does not

take his hands off what he is making

until it's finished.

And that is exactly what John's life

shows us.

John kept walking all the way to the

end. John finished what he was given to

do. He spent his entire life saying by

word and by deed that Jesus was worth

everything.

And in the end he proved it with the

only thing that he had left.

His life itself became the final sermon.

John says of himself, he says, "He must

increase, but I must decrease."

John did not only preach that, he lived

it till his final breath.

I said again, God is not primarily

committed to your comfort.

He is committed to your formation and to

his own glory. And those two

commitments, if you will take your

relationship with God seriously, they

will cost you something.

The depth

of a life of faith is not measured by

what God protected you from.

It is measured by how faithfully you

walked through what he did not remove.

With your eyes still on him, trusting in

him, holding on to the one, hear me, who

has been holding on to you the entire

time.

Even in moments like this.

I mean, look at

John's disciples. Verse 12 tells us,

"And his disciples came and took the

body and buried it, and they went and

told Jesus."

Th- These men, they they they just they

bury their teacher.

That's what all of this culminates to.

They bury their teacher.

A man who died because a man another man

had too much to drink and made a promise

he should have never made to a girl

coached by her mother at a party that

should have never mattered.

And now they're standing at a grave

holding nothing.

They're standing at a grave holding

nothing. No explanation, no theology

that makes this make sense. No angel

appeared, no loud word from heaven, no

reason that justifies what just happened

to a godly man who spent his entire life

pointing people to Jesus. Just a grave

and silence.

Just a grave

and silence.

Have you ever stood at that grave?

Not necessarily a physical one, but but

that place where you believed what you

believed about God does not seem to

account for what just happened to you.

Where your theology runs out before your

pain does.

Where you prayed the right prayers, you

did all the right things, and still

ended up standing over something that

you cannot explain.

This is where the disciples were.

And what they did next

matters more than the entire passage. In

fact, this is the pastoral moment of our

text.

What they did next

matters is something that we should

follow.

Let me let me tell you this way. When

When our girls were small,

uh still finding their legs, I took them

to a kids' birthday party. Why? Because

every now and then I like to inject a

little chaos in my life.

>> [laughter]

>> And so I go, "Hey, let me be around some

little kids, balloons, and sugar that

they shouldn't be eating." I I told my

wife, "Don't worry, I got this. You stay

at home." But the reality is I never

have it. Never have it.

And so our youngest was at this party

and she was running the way small

children run when they've just

discovered their legs work and nobody

has told them yet

to be afraid. It's pure freedom, no

hesitation.

And so she's running and then she falls.

And then a cry comes out of her that's

more than just pain. It's a specific

cry. It's the one that every parent

knows the moment they hear it. SHE

CRIED, "PAPA!"

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEE it happen. You

don't have to be watching. That cry will

find you across a crowded park and your

body will start moving in that direction

before your mind has caught up.

I mean, there were people closer to her

than I was. Good people, capable people.

People already reaching toward her, but

she she ran past every single one of

them. She was channeling her Travis

Etienne, just juking left, right, and

center. Either that or she's just

learning how to salsa. You know what I

mean? She

>> [laughter]

>> She's got the moves.

She ran past every single one of them.

She's not evaluating the options. She's

not looking for the most qualified

person in the park. No, she was looking

for one thing.

The arms she knew.

And nothing else would do. I mean,

someone even tried to hold her and still

she was pulling. Still she was crying.

Still she was moving in one direction

because she knew the way

children know things before they have

words for them, that there is no better

place in the world

than to be in the arms of your father.

That's exactly what the disciples do.

They did not go to the Pharisees. They

did not go to Rome. They did not sit in

a circle and argue over doctrine. No,

no.

They went to Jesus.

They went to Jesus because John the

Baptist, their teacher, had spent his

entire life telling them

to do that very thing.

John pointed at Jesus and said, "Behold

the lamb of God who takes away the sin

of the world."

I mean, Jesus himself would go on to say

in John 14:6, "I

am the way, the truth, the life. Nobody

comes to the Father except through me."

I mean, Philip in John 14:8 looks at

Jesus and goes, "Show us the Father and

that'll be enough." Other translations

say, "Show us the Father and we'll be

satisfied." And then Jesus looks at him

and says, "If you've seen me, you've

seen the Father."

That the the way to the Father is not

around Jesus. It's not beside Jesus.

It's not near Jesus. It's through Jesus.

And it's always been through Jesus.

This is why the disciples went to Jesus.

They wanted to be in the presence of the

Father because they knew he is the one

that comforts. He is the one that heals.

He is the one that satisfies.

And so sometimes the most honest prayer

you'll ever pray is not an eloquent one.

It's not a theologically sophisticated

one.

The most important and honest prayer

is, "Lord,

I have nothing.

I do not understand what you are doing,

but I am here. I came. I need you."

And that is enough.

He has never turned anyone away who came

with that. Why?

Why do we go to Jesus when we are

breaking on the inside? Well, Hebrews

4:15 verse 16 says this, "For we do not

have a high priest who is unable to

sympathize with our weaknesses, but one

who in every respect" Say, "every

respect."

Say, "every respect."

has been tempted as we are yet without

sin. Let us then with confidence draw

near to the throne of grace that we may

receive mercy

and find grace to help in time of need.

This is not poetic language. This is a

promise that is yes and amen in Jesus

Christ.

Jesus did not observe human suffering

from a safe distance

and have an opinion about it. He entered

into it into it fully without

reservation. He wept at a grave. He

sweat blood in a garden. He cried out

from a cross quoting a psalm of

abandonment because he knows what it

feels like when heaven goes silent. He

has been to the bottom, not near the

bottom, not close enough that he can see

it. No, all the way down in the darkest

place this life can take a human being

and then 3 days later he came back.

3 days later he came back. This is why

we go to Jesus.

And so I don't know what it is that

you're carrying today. I don't know

what's sitting in your chest. I don't

know what grave you're standing at. I

don't know what guilt has been following

you from room to room. I don't know what

compromise has been building quietly

in your life or whatever door will not

open no matter how long you've been

standing in front of it. There is a

place that you can take it. It's not a

religion, it's not a program, it's not a

set of principles to try harder. It's a

person and his name is Jesus.

And so I'm going to pray.

Maybe for some of you

you've been around Jesus. You've been

close to him, but you know that you've

never fully surrendered your life. Now

is the opportunity to not pretend and

perform anymore. Now is an opportunity

to just simply come to him for

salvation.

And so with eyes closed

and heads bowed

if you know that you've never

surrendered your life to Jesus as Lord

and savior.

You You it.

You've heard the things, you've sang the

songs, but you've never

given it all to him.

I'm going to ask you to raise your hand

up real high.

And keep it there.

Cuz I'm going to lead you in a prayer, a

prayer that I believe Jesus answers 100%

of the time, every time.

And that prayer is Jesus, save me.

I need you.

And so Father God, I'm praying for every

single person who has their hand raised.

Would

you, by the power of the spirit, pull

them out of darkness into

your marvelous light. Would you move

them from being an orphan to being a

child of God?

Would you save them?

And would we welcome them into the

kingdom?

Knowing that they have a father who

loves them more than they could ever

imagine.

Because the tomb is empty.

Thank you for the salvation

in this place.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Friends, would you stand and would we

respond together?

We respond to the gospel. We respond in

three ways. We respond by singing,

by bringing,

and by praying.

We sing. We sing to the one who is

seated on his throne, who is fully in

control. And when our lives don't make

sense,

we're saying,

God, we trust your heart even [music] in

the times we don't quite see your hand.

And so we're going to sing.

And then we bring. We bring our first

and best

because God gave us his first and best

in Jesus Christ.

It's our act of worship.

And then we pray.

This is an opportunity for you to come

to the altar and to confess, to do the

most courageous thing that you can do

and say, I don't have this together. I

don't know what's going on. I'm tired of

trying harder and doing better. I'm here

to confess and to surrender [music] it

at your feet."

And let his grace pour over us.

And so let's sing.

Let's bring.

And let's pray.