Savior and Judge
What's So Good About It? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 9 viewsJesus wanted his hearers to understand that repentance is necessary because a day of judgment is coming. We need to respond to the gospel with repentance.
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Have you ever compared yourself to someone else?
Whether it is their physical appearance, children, marriage, career, home, or general lot in life?
Because a lot of us do it. Especially with the rise of social media. I mean that is basically what people do. They make posts about themselves as they compare themselves to the posts of others.
And when we think about playing the comparison game we often think about the negative feelings we have about ourselves based on how we think we stack up against someone else.
But sometimes the opposite happens. Sometimes we use comparison to make ourselves feel better by pointing all the flaws and mistakes in another person.
I mean, at least I don’t do that, or my kids don’t act like that, or I don’t dress like that, or my husband or wife don’t treat me like that.....
We do the same thing in the Church world.
Well at least I go to Church more than they do
Well at least my marriage didn’t fall apart
Well at least my kids aren’t living in rebellion
Well at least I don’t sin as much as they do
And when we do that we elevate ourselves and view ourselves in a better light than we maybe should.
And that is when we get ourselves into trouble.
As we have been considering what makes the gospel, or the good news so good we need to understand that as we mentioned last week we need to be humble just as Jesus demonstrated humility, knowing full well we don’t deserve the forgiveness Jesus extends to us.
And if we don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, then we certainly are not in a position to judge the salvation or heart of another.
But the truth is, God is in a position to do that. God will judge the world and when he does his judgement will be final.
This is part of the Gospel. If we are saved, what are we saved from?
Power in the Text
Power in the Text
Today is Palm Sunday marking the moment Jesus rode into Jerusalem just a few days before his arrest and crucifixion, and one week before his amazing resurrection.
Mark 11:1-11 NLT As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2 “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’ ”
4 The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door. 5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.
8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting, “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!”
11 So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.
At this point in his ministry Jesus knows his time is coming to an end. And when you consider this scene it appears as though he has amassed quite a following.
I mean there are people literally lining the streets to honor him as both king and messiah.
They are shouting his praise and admiration. And from the outside it appears odd that in only a few short days he will be arrested and executed.
In fact many of the people in this crowd will also be in the crowd on Friday shouting crucify him!
How can this be, how can people be so fickle? Well the answer lies in what they were expecting there king and messiah to do.
You see they believed that because they were Jewish and were God’s chosen people that there salvation was guaranteed based on lineage alone.
In other words, they were going to inherit God’s blessings and eternal kingdom because they were heirs by birthright.
So when Jesus rode into Jerusalem they were expecting their king and messiah to rescue them from Roman oppression, to set them free, and actually position them politically to rule over the gentile nations and see them judged by God for their sin (Hosanna).
What they failed to understand and what ultimately caused them to turn their back on Jesus and call for his crucifixion was that they were just as much in need of salvation as the Gentiles were.
How could Jesus say such a thing? We are the decedents of Abraham. We have the law given to us alone. We are the keepers of God’s temple. We alone have access to his presence.
Yet Jesus came to let them know that his salvation wasn’t for Israel alone, and in fact whether Jew or Gentile, all would have to receive salvation the same way.
Earlier in the gospel of Luke, we see Jesus having one of these hard conversations with some fellow Jews about sin and repentance.
Luke 13:1-5 NLT About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”
Here we see Jesus making reference to two events that would have been recent enough for his hearers to remember them.
Apparently there were Galilean Jews in Jerusalem, likely because of a festival and they were there to make sacrifices at the temple.
It wasn’t uncommon for Pilate to attend these festival in an effort to keep peace and order.
Evidently these Galileans did something that provoked Pilate’s anger and he had them killed.
Then he mentions another tragedy where a tower fell and killed 18 people.
And Jesus is asking the question, was the suffering imposed on these individuals the result of their sin. Or more than that, were they worse sinners than other and that is why this tragedy befell them?
Big Idea/Why it Matters
Big Idea/Why it Matters
As with many cultures of the day, and so much in ancient Jewish thought, when something bad happened to someone, people would often wonder what that person had done wrong.
Modern day Karma...
The report of a tragedy in Jerusalem was thought by Jesus’ hearers to be due to the especial sinfulness of those who suffered it.
Jesus uses their thinking to affirm that all of his hearers are equally in danger of divine judgment.
Luke 13:2-3 NLT 2 “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God.
You see, what his hearers were doing here, what they were doing at his triumphal entry, and what we tend to do as well, is base our actions in life on comparison with the actions in life of others.
In other words, they are a worse sinner than me and so they are more in danger of judgment than I am because, after all, I’m a good person by comparison.
When we do this we will ultimately find ourselves far from the standard we need to achieve.
You will always be able to find someone worse than you in order to satisfy your own guilty conscience over your sin and disobedience.
A shop lifter compared to a murderer looks more innocent by comparison. But both are guilty of breaking the law.
As a guitar player I have to keep my instrument tuned in order to sound right. And is you have a good ear you can actually tune a guitar in relation to itself.
But in order for that to work you have to have your top string, your E string tuned perfectly. If that string is tuned you can tune the other 5 strings off of that first string.
But listen, if that top string isn’t tuned right then when you tune the other 5 they aren’t going to sound right because your standard was messed up.
When we compare ourselves to others we are using a standard that is messed up and our lives are not going to turn out right. They aren’t going to honor God because we used the wrong standard.
Whether my sin looks like your sin or if your sin looks like your co-worker’s sin is irrelevant because all of us and broken God’s law and all of us are equally sinners according to his holy standard.
What makes the gospel so good as that it levels the ground for everyone.
No one needs Jesus or need forgiveness more or less than anyone else and all of us receive it the same way, by the grace of God through faith alone.
It’s not faith plus something else depending on how severe your sin is.
Not faith in Jesus plus perfect Church attendance.
Not faith in Jesus plus a certain amount in the offering based on sinful you were.
Not faith in Jesus plus memorizing the gospel of Matthew.
It is faith alone in the work and person of Jesus and that faith is demonstrated through the act of repentance.
Application/Closing
Application/Closing
We don’t talk enough about repentance in Churches today. Why? Because the word repent means to turn from something in order to turn toward something else.
In other words, when we claim faith in Jesus, the gospel demands that we demonstrate that faith by repenting from our sin.
By turning away from it and toward Jesus’ standard instead.
We don’t want to talk about this because what repentance really means isn’t perfection, sinlessness, or never messing up again.
No we don’t want to talk about repentance because what repentance really means is change. A change of heart that leads to a change in action.
We don’t like that. Who are you to tell me I need to change. You are right, I’m a nobody, but Jesus says in Luke 13:5 NLT I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”
Jesus wanted his hearers to understand that repentance is necessary because a day of judgment is coming.
Rather than being concerned with comparing one person’s sin to another’s, we need to respond to God’s good news with repentance.
Those who were praising Jesus as he rode into town wanted all the blessings and protection that come from knowing the messiah, but without having to repent of their own hard hearts.
We can’t allow pride to get in the way, and we certainly can’t let our grip on the world hold us back from repenting of our sin and allowing God to not only forgive us, but to show us a better way to live.
One that is based on his standard and not our own. The Good News is what make this possible, do you believe that today?