-
He asked the pastors that
he's preaching to,
-
would you rather have
-
a hundred fireball radicals
-
in your church
-
than a hundred wooden Indians,
-
people that sit there...
-
I know what my answer
to that question would be.
-
I mean, if I thought right now about
-
what would I want a church to look like
-
that I was pastoring?
-
I have a picture in my
mind of what that is.
-
And I'll definitely tell you,
it's on the fireball radical end
-
rather than the wooden Indian end.
-
And I think to myself,
-
Ok, you've got Brother Kyle,
he's pastoring this church.
-
Gary, he's an elder here.
-
What their picture of the ideal church
-
is I'm certain going to be different
-
than what mine is
-
and what Gary's is
is different than Kyle's.
-
There won't be vast differences,
-
but maybe a little bit
-
based on our preferences,
-
our gifts, our desire, and vision.
-
And how do we get
-
to where we have that?
-
Our lives are up and down.
-
Brother Kyle's talking right now about
-
we're at a certain
chapter in our life
-
We're not only at a certain
chapter in our life,
-
we're at a chapter
in our church's lives.
-
And the churches are changing.
-
You know, I came here in '93.
-
Fifteen years ago.
-
Old building out there.
-
Who was still here then?
-
Lots of people,
-
that aren't here now.
-
It was different.
-
And lots of people are here now
-
that weren't here then.
-
It was a different climate.
-
Things were changing.
-
We've seen that in our own church.
-
It's been 7 1/2 years now.
-
And things are constantly changing.
-
Different people come
-
and with those people come gifts
-
and different degrees of intensity
-
and there's no doubt about it,
-
you lose some people.
-
And you lose some of that.
-
And we can have desires about
-
what we might want things to look like,
-
and yet if the Lord doesn't
put it together that way,
-
we could have all the
desires in the world.
-
We can ask God. We can
lay these prayers out there,
-
but ultimately, whatever the chemistry is,
-
whatever the makeup is,
-
we're so dependent on the Lord.
-
But I realize this,
-
if you come into the New Testament,
-
what you find so often
-
is that the New Testament writers,
-
especially I'm thinking
right now of Paul.
-
It's not so much when he wants something.
-
He wants to see God's people
in a certain shape,
-
a certain character.
-
Or he wants to see the churches
a certain way.
-
It's very interesting in the
New Testament.
-
It's not so much that
-
we're thrown the Ten
Commandments in our face.
-
Very often, you know what Paul would do
-
is I want to teach the
Corinthians about giving.
-
Very interesting.
-
He lays before them Christ.
-
Or you think about the Philippians.
-
I want to teach them about humility.
-
Where better can he go?
-
And he throws out Christ,
-
equal with God,
-
laid aside His glory,
came here to this earth,
-
took upon the form of a man.
-
And I really believe,
-
Brother Kyle says he
wanted me to come here,
-
and try, whatever he thought
he would get from me.
-
Obviously, he has something in mind
-
when I'm preaching.
-
But I've realized this,
-
I want the hundred firebrand
-
radicals in our church.
-
And I would suspect that Kyle
-
probably would have a preference
on that end as well.
-
And I thought about,
-
how do you get that?
-
Ok, well, if Paul's going
to take us to Christ
-
in these other things,
-
this is probably it.
-
If the Spirit of God - because
that's where we're dependent,
-
if the power of God does
not produce what we're looking for here,
-
we're just dead in the water, folks.
-
And I realize this,
-
God is very interested in
glorifying His Son.
-
In fact, that Spirit was put
-
into the church and into this world
-
to do just that thing:
-
to exalt Christ.
-
So if we can't go there
and produce something, folks,
-
then I don't know that I have
-
any hope of going anywhere else.
-
And so,
-
let's read together in Luke 19.
-
Luke 19:41-46
-
I am simply taking a snapshot
-
of the life of Christ.
-
Now realize, I could have gone
-
to many places,
-
but there's just something about
-
these verses that I find very interesting.
-
Luke 19:41
-
Got that brother?
-
I'll give you time to get there.
-
Luke 19:41
-
"And when He was come near,
-
He beheld the city."
-
Of course, this is speaking
of our Lord.
-
"...and wept over it.
-
Saying 'if thou hadst known,
even thou, at least in this thy day,
-
the things which belong
unto thy peace,
-
but now they are hid
from thine eyes,
-
for the day shall come upon
thee, that thine enemy shall
-
cast a trench about thee,
encompass thee round
-
and keep thee in on every side,
-
and shall lay thee even with the ground
-
and thy children within thee,
-
and they shall not leave
-
in thee one stone upon another,
-
because thou knewest not
-
the time of thy visitation.'
-
And He went into the temple,
-
and began to cast out them
that sold therein
-
and them that bought,
-
saying unto them,
-
'it is written, 'my house is the house
of prayer, but ye have made it
-
a den of thieves.'"
-
Now, I have entitled my sermon
-
"From Weeping to Whipping"
-
subtitled, "The Necessity of
Passion in Missions."
-
It's apparent to me,
-
as it probably is to you,
-
that the people who come
along in life
-
and turn the world upside down
-
are not the ones who are indifferent.
-
That's just true.
-
It's not the disinterest.
-
It's not the neutral,
-
cool-spirited individual
-
who usually makes a
difference in this world.
-
Rather, it tends to be the
passionate people.
-
When I talk about passion,
-
I mean that unusually
powerful emotion,
-
compulsion that drives some
to be and do,
-
what so many others,
-
they just sit on the
sidelines and they watch.
-
That's the idea.
-
It just seems to me,
-
that if you look at this world,
-
look at our history -
the history of mankind.
-
You look around.
-
Everything great;
everything worthwhile;
-
if things are significant,
-
if you see something out there
-
that's impactful, fulfilling,
-
it's typically the result of
-
somebody's undeniable and
unstoppable passion.
-
The endeavors that stand out
-
in human history are the result
-
of people with deep, consuming desire
-
to see something come to pass.
-
Brethren, you just look around.
-
You look at history.
-
You look at every major military endeavor.
-
You look at the major
scientific breakthroughs,
-
pioneering expanses into the unknown,
-
greatest ages, greatest turns in history,
-
they're marked typically by
-
certain valiant efforts of somebody
-
somewhere
-
some time
-
that had passion.
-
I mean really.
-
You know that's true.
-
The world is typically turned by
the fanatics.
-
It's always been turned
by the passionate people.
-
And you know what?
-
It's no less true for the
missionary endeavor.
-
Every major missionary advance,
-
every penetration in the
world's darkest holes.
-
Heard a little bit about
William Carey.
-
What do you think was pulsing
through that man's heart and veins
-
those days in his little shop there,
-
when he'd work on those shoes.
-
What was he doing all the time?
-
Maps.
-
His mind is off in other places.
-
He's contemplating the heathen.
-
It's the passionate people.
-
You've got Hudson Taylor.
-
What's the guy doing?
-
I mean before he goes to China.
-
The guy's sleeping on boards!
-
He's eating rice.
-
He's in some dismal shanty
shack part of town,
-
and he's ministering to people.
-
While his friends are doing what?
-
They're sleeping on the cushy beds.
-
They're eating roast beef
and pudding, right?
-
And you don't even know about his friends.
-
But you can sure read about him.
-
Folks, it's typically the
passionate people
-
who seem to exchange
the safety of inaction,
-
and there is safety in it, folks.
-
But they exchange that safety of inaction
-
for the hazards of God-inspired progress
-
out somewhere.
-
Whether it's into your neighborhoods
-
or out among the heathens somewhere.
-
That's just the way it is.
-
It's said that Robert Murray McCheyne,
-
wherever he stepped, Scotland shook.
-
Now I realize he wasn't a missionary,
-
but he definitely had
an evangelist's heart.
-
He made a nation shake.
-
What is it that makes nations shake?
-
You think it might be the fact
-
that when that man
stepped into the pulpit
-
he couldn't help but weep
-
and show sorrow and anguish for souls
-
just about every time?
-
Stick his head in the Bible
-
and just weep for the people.
-
There was passion, there was emotion.
-
You think that had anything...
-
Folks,
-
these are the things that
are going to move this world.
-
Jim Elliot - he said,
-
"the shouts in our churches
-
have been replaced by yawns."
-
Now you know what?
-
I know where we're at as a church
-
- the church I pastor -
-
I have some idea about where it's at.
-
I'm not exactly certain where
Community is.
-
I haven't been here for over seven years.
-
But is that the case?
-
Are there yawns now where
there used to be shouts?
-
I remember those days 15 years ago.
-
I heard plenty of shouting here.
-
Folks, it's always been that way.
-
Passion drives the evangelistic endeavor.
-
It's always been the burning heart
-
that presses forth with the new endeavor.
-
It's the burning heart that starts them.
-
It's the burning heart that sustains them.
-
And where that passion is quenched,
-
mark my words,
-
you cannot produce a single example to me
-
where passion is quenched,
-
where the missionary endeavor
-
will continue to live.
-
Oh, you can coldly carry on
-
some mechanical little deal
-
that you've got going.
-
You can coldly sign the check
-
and send it to somebody on the
-
other side of the world.
-
I'm not saying you can't do that
-
and there be no passion,
-
but you can't maintain this thing
-
in the way that God would
-
have you to do it,
unless there is passion.
-
To have the kind of impact on this world
-
to turn it upside down for Christ,
-
it requires the hot heart.
-
Not the cool mind.
-
So, brethren, the case I want to make
-
this morning, tomorrow,
-
this is really just going to be
-
one long message from right now
-
all the way through when
-
I say amen tomorrow
-
is this:
-
God-breathed passion sustains
-
the missionary endeavor.
-
There's no substitute for this
-
where passion for God for souls is weak,
-
zeal for missions will be weak.
-
And where that passion dies,
-
you can have all the learning,
-
and you can have all your books,
-
you can have all your Calvinism,
-
you can have all your money,
-
and programs, your theatrics,
-
all sorts of people, all the talk,
-
all the intentions, all the analyzing,
-
all of it,
-
will do little good.
-
God give us passionate people.
-
I would rather have 10
-
wild-eyed passionate savages
-
that you've got to corral
-
and guide and direct
-
and they scare you half the time
-
than a bunch of people,
-
a hundred people, two hundred,
-
five hundred
-
that they all sit there,
-
and you get all stirred up...
-
I can remember being in a
-
reformed Baptist church up in
-
Grand Rapids.
-
Now, that just gave that away
-
who that is,
-
but I remember something exciting
-
coming from the pulpit,
-
and one guy said,
-
"Mmmm."
-
I thought (scream), I want to
-
go back to Community.
-
Folks,
-
let our people be simple, let them be poor
-
let them be insignificant
in this world's estimation,
-
lowly, despised, foolish, weak,
-
but just let them burn with a
-
God-given fire.
-
One of the greatest hopes of the
-
missionary endeavor,
-
it's this, it's fire in the pulpit.
-
It's a blaze out there
in the pews, in the seats.
-
That's what's necessary.
-
I'll use the words of old Duncan Campbell.
-
He said this,
-
"We shall, at our best, appear to
-
a mad world as a crowd of common people
-
in a common market
-
babbling about common wares."
-
And that's if we have no passion.
-
I believe the best place, the first place,
-
we need to look to find this necessary
-
union of mission and passion
-
is in none other than
-
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
-
That's where we need to go.
-
That's where I want us to go.
-
We think of Him in so many ways.
-
King. Lord. Judge.
-
We thought about last night.
-
All right and proper.
-
We're talking missions this morning.
-
And even here, we can't get away
-
from the fact that even
when it comes to missions,
-
He is the First and the Last.
-
He's the model.
-
Jesus is the classic missionary.
-
He is the prototype missionary.
-
In Him, we have the standard.
-
Maybe you don't typically
think that way about Him,
-
but think with me here.
-
The word: missionary.
-
It comes from a Latin word,
-
derived from a word that has the meaning
-
the act of sending.
-
That's exactly what a
missionary is, right?
-
It's one we send.
-
Someone sent forth to proclaim
-
the Gospel of Christ.
-
That's exactly what they
did in Acts 13 is it not?
-
The Spirit of God designated
-
Barnabus and Saul,
-
and it says there that the church
-
sent them forth.
-
They were sent out.
-
Now in the Greek language,
-
the equivalent word somewhat close to this
-
is apostolos from which
we get the word apostle.
-
Both missionary and apostle have the same
-
basic meaning.
-
They contain the idea of one that is
-
sent forth with a mission,
-
or a messenger that is sent forth
-
with a message.
-
Listen, Scripture tells us,
-
it actually gives Christ
this title of apostle.
-
In Hebrews 3:1
-
"Wherefore holy brethren,
-
partakers of the heavenly calling
-
consider the Apostle and High Priest
-
of our profession, Christ Jesus."
-
Christ Jesus is the Apostle.
-
Not just an apostle,
-
He is the Apostle.
-
He sets the standard.
-
He is the missionary of missionaries.
-
He is the messenger of God.
-
He is the Chief Sent One.
-
Now here's the thing,
-
this is not at all
-
a foreign concept in Scripture.
-
Have you ever noticed how often
-
Jesus said things like this?
-
John 5:36
-
"The Father hath sent Me."
-
Luke 4:18
-
"He hath sent Me to
heal the brokenhearted,
-
to preach deliverance to the captives."
-
John 4:34
-
"My food is to do the will
-
of Him that sent Me."
-
John 6:57
-
"The living Father hath sent Me."
-
And on we could go.
-
At least some 34 times,
-
just in the Gospel of John alone,
-
Jesus Christ states that He is sent
-
of the Father.
-
Every time He says that
-
He's affirming His missionary capacity.
-
He is the Sent One.
-
That's what a missionary is.
-
Christ is the definitive God-sanctioned
-
standard for missions.
-
And I want you to notice something,
-
it ought not to surprise us
-
that it's John
-
who all these times declares Him
-
as the Sent One,
-
more than any of the other Gospel writers.
-
Why?
-
Why ought that not to surprise us?
-
Because you know how
He starts his Gospel?
-
You've got this everlasting Word.
-
This Word who was with God,
-
and who was God,
-
and you get down to verse 14
-
and what does that Word do?
-
The Word became flesh
-
and dwelt among us.
-
Now what do we have here?
-
We have incarnation.
-
What do we mean by incarnation?
-
That's a fancy word that means
-
deity becomes humanity.
-
Or God becomes man.
-
In the beginning was the Word.
-
The Word. The expression of God.
-
The declaration of God.
-
There you have the second person
-
of the Godhead -
-
that is Jesus Christ.
-
The Word was with God.
-
And the Word was God.
-
He's speaking of Jesus.
-
Now verse 14 tells us this truth.
-
How did Jesus influence the world?
-
He didn't sit
-
up in glory
-
and send us an email.
-
The Lord didn't sit on the throne
-
up in heaven and loft tracts down to us
-
or holler down at us.
-
What did He do?
-
He came and He dwelt among us.
-
The Word became flesh.
-
Eternal deity that dwelt forever
-
in power and glory and beauty
-
of the same essence with the Father,
-
He gave up that glory.
-
In condescension, He came forth
-
on a mission.
-
And what was His mission?
-
Remember what He told Pilate?
-
For this purpose I was born
-
and for this purpose I have
-
come into the world.
-
And what was that purpose?
-
To bear witness to the truth.
-
The mission of the Christ:
-
bear witness to the truth.
-
Not just to bear witness to
-
one truth among many.
-
He's not saying there's one truth
-
for you and another for me.
-
Jesus Christ came into the world
-
to bear witness to the truth.
-
He was sent from heaven,
-
by His Father,
-
into this world,
-
as a messenger of truth.
-
Is that not exactly what
missions is all about?
-
He laid aside His glory.
-
Laid aside His high position.
-
Laid aside His comforts, His safety.
-
And the Bible says,
-
He descended into the lower parts
-
of the earth,
-
and He took upon Himself
the form of humanity.
-
He came, He dwelt in
the womb of the virgin.
-
The Eternal Word became flesh.
-
That is the reality of incarnation.
-
And that is the very fabric of missions.
-
And here's the thing,
-
passion characterized that incarnation.
-
The Word became flesh,
-
and what did He do?
-
He dwelt among us.
-
He did not dwell far away,
-
out there in a field,
-
up on a mountain top,
-
in a monastery.
-
He came and He dwelt among us.
-
Not like some stoic,
-
not all cool and detached.
-
He dwelt among us with His passions.
-
Look at the man.
-
The God-man.
-
He came from heaven.
-
Sent of His Father,
-
and what did He come into this world with?
-
He brought His tears here.
-
He brought His indignation here.
-
He brought His rejoicing
in the Spirit here.
-
He brought His sorrows here,
-
He brought His zeal here,
-
His compassion, His weeping, His anger,
-
His love.
-
He brought them here.
-
He came from God
-
with the bowels of love
-
and He got right next to men
-
in their sin
-
and in their need.
-
A passion burned in the heart of Jesus.
-
And by that passion, He was driven
-
to do His Father's will,
-
and to go hard after the souls of men.
-
To call sinners to repentance.
-
And to go all the way to the cross.
-
This passion drove Him right to where
-
sinners are - in their dark holes,
-
in their back streets,
-
in the depths of where men dwell
-
in their sin,
-
and in their wickedness
and their need
-
and their depravity.
-
He wasn't so cold and so passionless
-
that He wasn't willing to condescend
-
and dwell with the lowliest, neediest
-
dirtiest, sinful creatures.
-
He came on a mission to dwell among us.
-
So forever stamp that into your minds.
-
The reality of Christ as the great
-
prototype missionary.
-
Now, let's look at our text.
-
Finally, Luke 19.
-
Now look, the reason that
I spent so much time
-
looking at Jesus as a missionary
-
is because what I want you to
-
constantly have in your minds
-
is that everywhere in the Gospels,
-
including right here in Luke 19,
-
Jesus is living, He's functioning,
-
He's breathing, He's going
about His business,
-
in the mission field - His mission field.
-
Everywhere we find Him in the pages
-
of these four Gospels,
-
He is the Apostle sent from Heaven
-
to earth by the living Father.
-
I want you to see Him as that.
-
One who came from outside this world,
-
One who laid aside His
comforts and His glory
-
to dwell among us.
-
Not far from us, among us.
-
And we look here in Luke 19,
-
I want you to feel this reality.
-
As you experience the yearning, burning,
-
passionate heart of Christ,
-
see all that right there
-
in the missionary context.
-
Now, like I said before,
-
I could have taken you to any number
-
of texts that show you the sort
-
of fire that burned in the
missionary heart of Christ,
-
but I find Luke 19 especially compelling.
-
And I want to show you why,
-
by having you notice three things here.
-
First.
-
Christ's passion agreed with His mission.
-
In other words, you can actually see
-
a distinct connection between what Christ
-
got excited about and why He was there.
-
Now let me explain what I mean.
-
The very term "mission" implies
-
there's a task to carry out.
-
There's a goal.
-
There's some aim at hand.
-
What might that aim for the
-
Son of God be in
coming into the world?
-
Well, we looked. He came to
bear witness of the truth.
-
He told us in some other places,
maybe more reasons
-
or a fuller picture on why He
-
came into this world.
-
Can you guys think of a text right off?
-
He came into this world to?
-
Save sinners.
-
That's clearly very focal
in the mission of Christ.
-
Christ Jesus came into the world
-
to save sinners.
-
1 Timothy 1:15
-
Here's the thing,
-
I find that when I look
there at Luke 19:41,
-
we would all have to admit
-
that the very nature of Christ's passion
-
is absolutely consistent with His mission.
-
It was for the souls of men that He wept
-
as He looked over Jerusalem.
-
Christ's mission is to save sinners.
-
Now look,
-
His passion is towards sinners.
-
His mission is to save sinners.
-
You see a consistency there?
-
You see they're in harmony.
-
His mission: rescue the souls of men.
-
His bowels of compassion likewise
-
yearned and burned for men.
-
But there's more.
-
In John 7:18, Jesus describes
Himself like this.
-
John 7:18
-
He describes Himself as the One who seeks
-
the glory of Him who sent Him.
-
The Father sent the Son.
-
And in being sent into this world,
-
one of the aims of the One being sent
-
is to seek the glory of the One
-
doing the sending.
-
The Son was sent and came
-
in order to seek the glory of the Father.
-
And again, if we look right here
-
at this portion that we read:
-
Luke 19:45-46
-
We find Christ full of holy zeal,
-
for what?
-
Nothing other than His
Father's glory and honor.
-
His mission, He says,
-
was to come in to glorify the One
-
who sent Him.
-
And what do you find Him
doing right there?
-
His mission?
-
Glorify His Father.
-
His zeal, His passion,
-
was for the glory of His Father.
-
Now look,
-
you might be saying,
-
ok we see that.
-
Folks, don't miss the simplicity of this.
-
His passion agreed with His mission.
-
It is any wonder that we can't sustain
-
high energy, high fervency exertions
-
for some radical missionary advance
-
into the kingdom of darkness
-
when our people's passions are not
-
consistent with our mission?
-
Folks, when your passion is for
-
the way your house looks,
-
is it any surprising,
-
that the church isn't sending forth
-
more missionaries?
-
When your passion is for the flowers,
-
your passion is for the car,
-
your passion is for
the workshop, or your job,
-
your passion is for your money;
-
Do you really think that where we
-
have people whose passions are not
-
in the direction of the souls of men
-
and the glory of God that we're
-
going to produce any
type of missionary thrust
-
advance whatsoever?
-
Folks,
-
you know what?
-
We can look around at a lot of churches.
-
And I've found people,
-
they are passionate for Calvinism.
-
But they could give a flip
-
whether the guy down the street
-
is damned and going to hell.
-
You've got people passionate
-
for whether everybody's on time or not.
-
Now I like that myself,
-
but we have passion for Puritans,
-
we have passion for this thing over here,
-
passion for that thing...
-
Folks, you get a passion for
-
the three point expository sermon,
-
passion for the regulative principle,
-
passion for this and that...
-
Everything be done orderly,
-
and I'm not against all
those types of things,
-
but these same people won't shed a tear.
-
I'd rather have a guy that can't
-
come to church ever on time,
-
but when you have prayer meeting,
-
that guy is just doubled over,
-
shedding tears.
-
I personally would rather he come on time
-
and bend over and shed tears,
-
but you know what,
-
if it's one or the other,
-
I'll tell you what I'll take.
-
We have to ask ourselves that.
-
Here's Christ.
-
He had a mission.
-
And He was passionate about
-
the aspects of that mission
-
He came to fulfill.
-
I assure you, folks.
-
We will not see the type of sacrificial
-
giving of time and money;
-
We will not see the fervent
-
prayers and fasting;
-
We will not see people ready
-
to lay down their lives
-
and do some daring endeavors out of love,
-
out of a desire for the passion of God,
-
if we're all hung up about
-
the Spurs or the Cowboys;
-
if our passion in life is about guns
-
or about the welder,
-
or about the new tires for the car,
-
or this toy and that toy.
-
Who was it that said?
-
And I don't think I'll
even quote it right,
-
but Tozer, he was talking about
-
man's susceptibility to idolatry.
-
We have this deep-seated tendency
-
to be pulled aside by every idol
-
that comes along.
-
It seems like even as Christians,
-
there's always one we're fighting.
-
It's always something trying to creep
-
back in - one or two or five things.
-
Folks, you let your passions run
-
off on those things;
-
the church will die
when it comes to missions.
-
You just start giving your passions,
-
you start giving your heart to all sorts
-
of other things;
-
this will never be sustained.
-
Amy Carmichael said,
-
"Oh, for a passionate passion for souls!
-
Oh, for a pity that yearns!
-
Oh, for the love that loves unto death!
-
Oh, for the fire that burns!
-
Oh, for the pure prayer
power that prevails,
-
that pours itself out for the lost,
-
victorious prayer in the conqueror's name.
-
Oh, for a Pentecost!"
-
The second thing I want you to notice:
-
The intensity of Christ's passions.
-
You think with me real quick here.
-
You know what?
-
You've got to picture Him.
-
This is what we often
times look at
-
with the triumphal entry.
-
He's coming.
-
He's on the back of this colt,
-
and He looks out,
-
and I guarantee you, folks,
-
that when it says He's
seeing Jerusalem there,
-
He's not looking at buildings.
-
He sees people in those streets.
-
There are men, there are
women, there are children.
-
They are out about their business
-
in the marketplaces,
-
and He looks down there.
-
Let me tell you something,
-
It says He wept.
-
I'm talking to you right now
-
about the intensity of His passions.
-
That is not the same word for weep
-
that you find over in Luke 11
-
when He wept at Lazarus's tomb.
-
When He wept there,
-
that term has to do with the fact
-
that He shed tears.
-
This one here has to do with the fact
-
that He wailed.
-
He lamented.
-
If you ever read these words
-
that He's speaking here
-
as though He spoke them like some stoic,
-
you are wrong.
-
He is wailing.
-
He is filled with affections and passions
-
for the souls of men
-
that literally rent Him.
-
It tore at Him.
-
Audible weeping is the emphasis.
-
The most intense pity and sympathy
-
and love and kindness
-
compassion and sorrow are flowing together
-
in this eruption of holy emotion.
-
And the amazing thing about this is
-
that in the matter of one verse,
-
all of a sudden, Luke just
-
whisks us away from that
-
and puts us in the temple now.
-
And what do you see there?
-
I called this "From Weeping to Whipping."
-
Now I hope you'll grant me that liberty.
-
I realize that doesn't specifically
-
say whipping here.
-
It does over in John 2.
-
And I realize that's
a separate account,
-
but I imagine that Him
taking those cords,
-
making them into a whip,
driving them out of there,
-
was effective enough the first time;
-
He probably did it the
same way the second time.
-
But I tell you this,
-
when I was lost,
-
my friends and I did a lot of gambling.
-
And I can remember
sometimes sitting around
-
the poker table,
-
and there'd be 10 guys, 12 guys, 15 guys
-
and an enormous amount
of cash on that table.
-
And I can tell you this,
-
if some guy would have walked in
-
off the street and flipped that table,
-
we would have attacked him first,
-
and then we would have been scrambling
-
like mad to get our money off the floor.
-
And I'll tell you what,
-
for Christ to walk into that temple
-
and do what He did
-
and send those guys running,
-
I'll tell you this,
-
whatever He had in His hand
-
or didn't have in His hand,
-
whatever they saw in His face
and in His expressions,
-
it put the fear of God in them
-
and they got out of there!
-
He had passion.
-
It was strong.
-
He had the zeal as it says in John 2.
-
The zeal of God's house had eaten Him up.
-
Look folks, the Lord walked around
-
this earth with fire burning in His heart.
-
He had a fire there.
-
It burned, it raged
for the glory of His father.
-
For the souls of men,
-
there was intensity,
-
there was fervency,
-
it was always there.
-
But you know what?
-
Many folks don't like people like that
-
in their churches.
-
Why?
-
It makes them feel uncomfortable.
-
People like that, they're dangerous.
They're unpredictable.
-
They're unconventional.
-
They don't follow proper etiquette.
-
We need everything right and ordered.
-
We've got to have that
regulative principle in order.
-
You know, people like that,
they just shout at
-
times they ought not to,
-
or they do things strange, bizarre,
-
make us uncomfortable.
-
Not politically correct.
-
I mean, how many of us,
-
we have to sit and analyze...
-
now if we do this, and we go after
-
those guys there in the temple,
-
there's likely to be these consequences,
-
we might get put on a cross,
-
they might kill us,
-
we better not do that.
-
But folks, I guarantee you this.
-
It's these types
-
it's these types that it's so amazing
-
how often they can find Christians
-
who are the perfect cold, wet blanket
-
for their fiery heart.
-
How often it's the Christians.
-
It's not the lost pagan guy
-
down the street.
-
It's the Christians who when you find
-
people like this,
-
they just want to take the cold, icy
-
bucket of water and
splash it on the folks.
-
I'll tell you this,
-
it's those types - intense like Christ,
-
who put the fear of God
in the heart of the devil.
-
The masses perish.
-
The enemies of God go unchallenged.
-
And what are we doing?
-
Jim Elliot.
-
He says, "Ah, generation that hears,
-
but feels not.
-
Listens, but aches not.
-
Harks, but knows not pain,
-
nor the pleasurable healing balm thereof.
-
Tell me, is all fire extinguish
-
save in hell?
-
Damned be this tipidity.
-
Have we no fire to hate?
-
Does no flame seize our prophets?
-
Show me one burning heart.
-
Let me see a single worldling
-
afire with true passion.
-
One heavenling, consumed with his
-
God's eternal burnings.
-
In them, I would find excuse for you,
-
my cheating, shamming,
-
joyless generation;
-
well has your own poet said,
-
you live and die ox-like,
-
limp and leaden-eyed."
-
He goes on to say,
-
"Oh, that God would
shake up some of those
-
married couples around Portland
-
with their prim unconcern for
-
souls and saints,
-
dabbling and building lots, houses,
-
jobs, babies, silverware,
-
while souls starve for what they know.
-
Souls starve for what these
-
married couples know.
-
God shall not hold us guiltless either.
-
He shall suffer loss.
-
The urge comes on me at times
-
to write in scathing terms,
-
articles for these piddly little magazines
-
of comfort and kind words
for God's little flock.
-
Baloney.
-
When are we going to rise like men
-
and face the world squarely?
-
This drively nonsense which
condones inactivity
-
because of the apostasy of the days,
-
needs a little fire to show up,
-
the downright ungodliness it hides,
-
we cuddle around the Lord's table,
-
as though it were the last
coal of God's altar.
-
We warm our hands thinking that
-
that's going to appease the wrath of the
-
indignant Christ when He charges us
-
with the unmet, unchallenged, untaught
-
generation of heathen,
-
doing their Christmas shopping.
-
It makes me boil when
I think of the power
-
we profess and the
utter impotency of our action.
-
Believers who know
one tenth as much as we do
-
are doing a hundred times more for God.
-
With His blessing and our criticism.
-
Oh, if I could write it,
preach it, say it,
-
paint it, anything at all.
-
If only God's power would
-
become known among us.
-
And then he says,
-
Ichabod.
-
Now, third.
-
I would have you notice this about Christ.
-
Notice the enduring
aspect of His passions.
-
When does Luke 19 take place?
-
It wasn't day number one of His
-
missionary endeavor to the world.
-
It wasn't the first day
or the first month
-
of His public ministry.
-
He was at the end, folks.
-
This is what's called,
like I already said,
-
the triumphal entry.
-
This is the long-expeted King coming
-
in the name of the Lord,
-
in several days, He would be
-
crucified and killed.
-
For nigh unto 33 years,
-
Christ has sojourned on His mission field,
-
and less than a week from the end,
-
the fire still blazes.
-
Some of you guys,
-
these guys go down on the streets downtown
-
and they preach.
-
And they came across a guy
from another church,
-
and here's what happened.
-
First week, he went down there.
Tried to get the church excited.
-
Let's go down there.
-
Let's do some evangelism on the streets.
-
How many went the first week?
-
18.
-
How many went the second week?
-
1.
-
Here's Christ. The intensity. The passion.
-
It hasn't diminished.
-
It hasn't grown cold.
-
It's still hot.
-
As magnificent as ever.
-
It's there.
-
But how typical...
-
What's the average stay for the
-
American missionary on
the foreign mission field?
-
Do you know?
-
It's pathetic and miserable.
-
I think it's right around 1 year.
-
And our Lord was
quite a different example.
-
His passion was consistent
-
with His mission.
-
His passion is intense.
-
His passion is enduring.
-
You know, folks,
-
far too often we have this
-
erroneous and probably
very arrogant notion,
-
that if we have the right doctrine,
-
it guarantees our success and blessing.
-
I think what Elliot
says is absolutely right.
-
There are those that know what?
-
A tenth as much as we do,
-
and they're doing a hundred times more.
-
And where you find those guys,
-
you're going to find the
passion of Christ
-
burning in their souls.
-
Here's the thing,
-
we do need right doctrine.
-
But we need more than that.
-
You look at this and you say,
-
I see the heart of Elliot.
-
More than that, I see the heart of Christ.
-
You know, folks,
-
what do we do?
-
Where do we go?
-
You know as well as I do,
-
that you're not going to get this passion
-
watching t.v., eating your twinkies.
-
It's not going to come that way.
-
2 Corinthians 3:18
-
We have a marvelous truth.
-
Oh, how often we get all hung up.
-
We're like Martha.
-
We become all disturbed, perplexed,
-
distracted, worried about our service
-
for Christ.
-
We're running around,
-
we're doing this,
-
and it all becomes so mechanical.
-
We've got our thing we do.
-
We've got our week,
-
it's all ordered.
-
We go through the mechanical plottings
-
of this thing,
-
we get all hung up on these things.
-
We need all the people in our churches
-
to get to the place where they say
-
I want more than that.
-
Be done with that.
-
I want the heart of the matter.
-
I want to get in this thing.
-
I want to be immersed in God.
-
I want to be immersed in His fire.
-
Because it can happen.
-
How's this thing going to happen?
-
It's not like we look at ourselves,
-
it's not like Drew,
-
you look at the past,
-
and you say, well,
-
that's it.
-
Wasted 46 years of my life.
-
Nothing can happen here.
-
That's not the way I read my Bible.
-
What it says is says this,
-
we can behold the glory of that
-
glorious Christ.
-
We talked about last night,
-
sitting upon that throne.
-
We can behold His glories
-
in the Scriptures, in the Gospels,
-
we can look there.
-
We can get on our faces.
-
We can get alone with God.
-
We can ask Him.
-
Lord, burn that image into our souls.
-
And we have a promise right there,
-
2 Corinthians 3:18
-
That He will do that, degree by degree,
-
glory by glory,
-
He will write that, emblazon that
-
very image into our soul.
-
That's why I wanted
to show you Christ.
-
Because I trust the Spirit of God.
-
He's in that business.
-
He has promised.
-
Does not Romans 8:29 say
-
that He has predestined to conform
-
His children to the image of Christ?
-
He has said that.
-
He's going to do that.
-
If you are a true child of God,
-
and you've been going through a season
-
where you've been down,
-
where you've been dry, you've been cold.
-
You're not going to find the heat
-
in your work, in your money,
-
in your favorite athletic team.
-
It's not going to come there.
-
It's not going to come by hours
in front of the computer,
-
or the television.
-
You've got to get alone with God.
-
You've got to get in the very presence
-
of that inner glory,
-
and you've got to stand there
-
in the light of that,
-
and in the light of the Scripture,
-
and on your face,
-
like we heard earlier,
-
trembling at God's Word;
-
you need to find Christ.
-
And you need to look at Him.
-
And you need to gaze at Him.
-
And His mission.
-
And you need to plead with God,
-
write that, burn that, emblazon that
-
into my own heart and life and being.
-
Lord, don't let me die.
-
Don't let me just fizzle out.
-
And you're not going to do that
-
in thirty seconds.
-
You've got to take time.
-
You've got to get with God.
-
You've got to see Christ.
-
I remember one man telling me,
-
"oh, I pray when I'm shaving."
-
Yeah, you pray when you shave.
-
He made it sound like that's all he did.
-
And if that's all you do, you're never
-
going to do anything.
-
We've got to have some people
-
that are serious about this,
-
that are serious about the quiet place.
-
They're serious.
-
Gaze at His glory, brethren.
-
Immerse yourselves more and more
-
until the fire is lit,
-
and the heart burns,
-
and all hell is afraid,
-
and there is no substitute.
-
Here it is.
-
This is essential.
-
The union of mission and passion.
-
Amen.