Jesus emphasizes the importance of inner qualities like humility, mercy, and peacemaking, thus challenging all would-be followers. He challenges social norms, encouraging followers to love their enemies, turn the other cheek, and give generously. The chapter highlights the importance of following Jesus’ teachings rather than just hearing them.
JESUS ACTS GRACIOUSLY TOWARD HUMANS ON THE BASIS OF THEIR TRUST IN HIM AND RECOGNITION OF THEIR OWN UNWORTHINESS.
“Jesus didn’t spend time and eat with sinners because He wanted to appear tolerant and affirming. He spend time with them to show them He is God, and how to live differently. The Gospel is not about affirmation, but transformation.”
Romans 3:11-20
Psalm 107:17-18
Isaiah 53:4-6
extremely agitated or annoyed
- Faith is not based on .
- God will help despite who one is or what one has done or not done.
- Our hope is based on the goodness and power of Jesus, not on our own goodness and power.
- We don’t need to be worthy to receive Christ’s help.
JESUS WILL NOT YOU.
“You are God. You are Lord. You speak and it will be done.”
Luke 7:1-10
“I am 100% certain that if I died tonight I’d be in heaven with my Savior. I’m sure of this because of what He did – He lived a perfect life of obedience to the law, and on the cross He paid for every sin I’ve ever committed or will ever commit.
Because my faith is His work, and not in any works of my own, His righteousness has been imputed to me. I’m so thankful that I can rest in what He’s done, and that I’m freed from the burden of sin, and from the burden of the law.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
Let’s compare and contrast Modern Jesus with Biblical Jesus:
Preaches only on love…Preaches God’s Righteousness
Gives you health and wealth…Gives Salvation, Hope, Peace, and Joy
Never says anything negative…Warns of Sin, Judgement, and Hell
Serves your will, not God’s will…Exalts God the Father’s Will
Hates to offend you or others…Offends the World with the Truth
Charles Spurgeon: “In the grave he was like the sun in his winter solstice but he crossed the line in his resurrection. He has brought us all the hopes of spring and is bringing us the joys of summer. He is quickening many at this hour and will yet quicken myriads. This is the power with which the missionary goes forth to sow; this is the power in which the preacher at home continues to scatter the seed. The risen Christ is the great producer of harvests. By the power of his resurrection men and women are raised from their death in sin to eternal life.”
THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION YOU’LL EVER MAKE IS THAT DECISION WHICH DETERMINES YOUR ETERNAL DESTINY.
Luke 6:46-49
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “THE BIBLE HAS NO COMFORT WHATSOEVER TO GIVE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT CHRISTIANS – NONE AT ALL. EXCEPT TO WARN THEM TO FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME.”
R.C. Sproul: “Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once and He volunteered.”
“Nothing will humble you more than coming to grips with the reality that you had absolutely nothing to do with your salvation. From beginning to end it was all of grace and solely depended upon God freely choosing to have mercy on you, a sinner.”
DEATH WAS PROOF THAT JESUS WAS HUMAN. RESURRECTION WAS PROOF THAT HE IS GOD.
1 Corinthians 16:21-24
Luke 6:46-49
Hebrews 9:27-28
John 20:11-18
Revelation 21:1-4
SOLI DEO GLORIA…To the Glory of God Alone
Luke 6:27-45
When Jesus says to lend money expecting nothing in return, the literal translation is to lose hope.
As Proverbs 26:4 reminds us, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.”
Jesus is referring to condemning judgment.
The log and speck is a deliberate cartoon image painted by Jesus. As someone wisely observed, the cure for hypocritically trying to make other people better is a mirror.
Robert Griffin III captures these verses: “Choose kindness. There is so much hate in this world, but you can’t meet hate with hate and expect to build a better world for our kids and the next generation.
Choose kindness not prejudice and discrimination against entire groups of people.
Choose kindness not hate of those who don’t have the same skin color as you.
Choose kindness not hate of people who don’t have the same life experiences as you.
Let’s choose kindness every chance we get.”
Deuteronomy 32:35
Romans 12:14-21
DON’T ALLOW THE EVIL FROM ANOTHER PERSON TO OVERWHELM YOU.
FROM A GOOD HEART COMES GOODNESS.
Charles Spurgeon: AND BEST OF ALL, THE HIGHEST PORTRAITURE OF JESUS, TRY TO FORGIVE YOUR ENEMIES, AS HE DID; AND LET THOSE SUBLIME WORDS OF YOUR MASTER, “FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO,” ALWAYS RING IN YOUR EARS. FORGIVE, AS YOU HOPE TO BE FORGIVEN. HEAPS COALS OF FIRE ON THE HEAD OF YOUR FOE BY YOUR KINDNESS TO HIM. GOOD FOR EVIL, RECOLLECT, IS GODLIKE. BE GODLIKE, THEN; AND IN ALL WAYS AND BY ALL MEANS, SO LIVE THAT ALL MAY SAY OF YOU, “THAT PERSON HAS BEEN WITH JESUS.”
1. His words confirm His .
Matthew 26:64, Psalm 110, Daniel 7:9-14, John 18:36-37, John 19:11
2. His words reveal His .
Luke 23:32-34
3. His words reveal His .
Luke 23:43
4. His words reveal His .
Matthew 27:45-46, John 19:30
5. His words reveal His .
Matthew 26:64
Luke 6:20-26
HAPPINESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH OUR EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
Matthew 6:31-34
WE NEED A PASSION FOR GODLINESS.
TO BE HATED BY AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN FIND.
“A lot of things in life can let you down, my relationship with Jesus is the only thing in my life that doesn’t…I love Jesus. That is my foundation…I want everyone on our team to have a foundation that isn’t football, because football will let you down…Money, fame, it’ll all let you down…”
HEAVENLY FATHER, WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GRACE, MERCY, AND FORGIVENESS BY WHICH ALL BLESSINGS IN CHRIST JESUS ARE GIVEN TO US. GIVE US CONFIDENCE AND HOPE IN THOSE PROMISES OF THE FUTURE, THAT WE MAY DESPISE THE PRESENT ILLS WE SUFFER FOR A BETTER HOPE IN YOU. AMEN.
Scripture Focus: Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46, John 18:1-11
1. Confirmation of Jesus’
Jesus prayed “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.”
2. Confirmation of the Plan
Jeremiah 25:15, Revelation 14:10
Jesus willingly drank the cup of God’s wrath, making a way for us to be spared from God’s wrath.
3. Confirmation of Jesus’
There are two primary ways we see Jesus’ deity in the garden:
- He knew everything that was about to happen to Him
- He proved that no one had any power over Him.
When deity and humanity collided into the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, it brought all the pieces of the redemption plan together.
Luke 6:1-11
HELP PEOPLE…SHOW COMPASSION…SHOW MERCY…DO GOOD.
Psalm 37:30-33
“The religious mind is a curious thing. It’s not necessarily interested in common morality, still less in relieving human misery and affliction. It is interested in keeping rules, particularly the rules which spring from its own cherished interpretations of Scripture and tradition and to these interpretations it will attribute the inflexible authority of God.”
- We don’t embrace acts of kindness to earn God’s favor and salvation.
- We embrace acts of kindness because, in the cross of Christ, we have been given God’s favor and salvation.
REJOICE…REFOCUS…GIVE GRATITUDE.
The Greek, anoios, can also be translated as “rage.” Its root, noios, means “to know.”
JESUS SPEAKS THE TRUTH INTO EVERY SITUATION.
Carles Spurgeon: “Though the devil says you will never be saved, don’t believe it; and above all, turn your eyes full of tehars to Christ on the cross, and trust him. There is salvation in no other, but there is salvation
in the crucified Redeemer.”
Scripture Focus: John 14:1-6, 14:12-18, 15:1-8
1. Jesus the
The alternatives:
: all religions lead to the same place.
: every human being, whether religious or not, will eventually go to heaven because God is a God of love.
Good -ism: God would never send anyone to hell who works hard and does his best.
But when we examine the possibilities, only Jesus holds up…
a. We must examine own claims.
b. We must examine the of .
We have overwhelming evidence that the Bible can be trusted as sufficient and without error.
c. We must examine the .
d. We must acknowledge the difference between religions of and the .
The truth of the gospel is…God came down to rescue us.
2. Jesus our John 14:12-18, Romans 8
Summary of the work of the Holy Spirit:
-He Gives to do Things (12)
-He Allows to the (13-14)
-He is an to the
-He Reveals (17)
3. Jesus our Companion
The Weekend that Changed the World: The Last Supper – A Humble Picture of the Gospel
- The of the New
Exodus 12:1-15, 29-34, Hebrews 9:11-26
Details to understand…
The Lamb
The on the
The – this is the new covenant in my blood
Out – another prediction of His death
2. A of the New
Examples of Humble Servants:
Abraham – Genesis 18:27
Jacob – Genesis 32:10
Moses – Exodus 3:11
John the Baptist – Matthew 3:14
Peter – Luke 5:8
Paul
Jesus
What is Humility?
“The place of entire dependence on God. It is the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue.”
Ephesians 4:1-3, 1 Peter 5:5, Luke 9:48, Luke 14:11
“The most humble is the nearest to God…”
How do we apply these truths?
- You must humble yourself to have the New Covenant applied to you.
- You must humble yourself to be used by God.
Crucifying self means we surrender all of our wants, desires, needs, hopes, dreams, everything to God.
- A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
“If God answered all your prayers from the past month, would your life be more holy – or just more comfortable?”
Luke 5:33-39
THE GOSPEL IS ABSOLUTELY EXCLUSIVE.
Leviticus 16:29-34
Colossians 2:17
The sacrificial system was “a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
Charles Spurgeon: “LET YOUR TEARS FALL BECAUSE OF SIN; BUT, AT THE SAME TIME, LET THE EYE OF FAITH STEADILY BEHOLD THE SON OF MAN LIFTED UP, AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE WILDERNESS, THAT THOSE WHO ARE BITTEN BY THE OLD SERPENT MAY LOOK TO JESUS AND LIVE. OUR SINNERSHIP IS THAT EMPTINESS INTO WHICH THE LORD POURS HIS MERCY.”
We don’t change so we can experience the transformational presence of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ transformational presence leads to change.
R.C. Sproul – “{Our} natural tendency is to flee from the presence of God and to have no affection for the Biblical Christ. Therefore, if you have in your heart today any affection for Christ at all, it is because God the Holy Spirit, in His sweetness, in His power, in His mercy, and in His grace, has been to the cemetery of your soul and raised you from the dead. So you are now alive to the things of Christ and you rejoice in the kingdom into which He has brought you.”
HEAVENLY FATHER, THANK YOU FOR SHATTERING FALSE HOPE AND FALSE RELIGION. IN THIS HOLY MEAL, YOU BRING TO US THE PURE DELIGHT OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.