November 10, 2025 • 45 mins
In this compelling sermon, Pastor Karl concludes Matthew Chapter 4, tracing Jesus’ move to Capernaum in Galilee of the Gentiles—fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that light dawns in the region of the shadow of death—and the launch of His ministry with the urgent call: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He unpacks John the Baptist’s arrest and martyrdom as the forerunner who must decrease so Jesus can increase, then contrasts the radical response of the first disciples—Peter, Andrew, James, and John—who immediately abandon nets, boats, and family to follow Jesus and become fishers of men—with the great crowds drawn only by miracles to meet their needs. Pastor Karl challenges every listener: Are you part of the crowd seeking Jesus to fix your problems, or a true disciple whose primary identity has changed, leaving everything behind to seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness? He explains that biblical righteousness exceeds the Pharisees not in degree but in kind—imputed by faith in Christ, yet proven through a lifestyle of Scripture study, prayer, evangelism, tithing, and obedience. Join us for a powerful message that calls every believer to move from consumer to committed follower, embrace repentance as ongoing surrender, and live righteously as proof of genuine faith.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
I appreciate you being here.
On this Sunday, as we go through parts
of the book of Matthew,I titled this series Kingdom.
Now, and we're studyingthrough the book of Matthew,
chapter by chapter, section by section.
And this morning
we're going to make it throughchapter four.
We ended halfway through chapterfour last week.
(00:25):
We're going to finish chapter four.
And I want to introduce you
to a couple of different passages, onein Matthew six and one in Matthew five.
So we're going to be on a little journeythis morning together.
As we go through this.
One of the things that we'll see.
We'll see crowds around Jesus
and we'll see disciples of Jesus.
And my hope this morningis that we'll be able to identify
(00:49):
which of those two groupsthat we've chosen to belong to.
And, let me
get into the chapter four, verse 12.
We're going to be introducedto a well, introduced to it
to a, a a situation.
And not told a lot of details about it.
(01:10):
We'll study the details of it later.
But we're just kind of throwninto a statement
about about somethingthat's happened in verse 12.
It says, now when he Jesus heardthat John had been arrested,
he withdrew into Galilee.
That's all it really saysabout this event.
It doesn't tell us much about it.
Here in Matthew 14, Matthew will tell uswith this story that happened,
(01:36):
like why, John, this is John the Baptist,why John the Baptist was arrested.
The result of that arrest.
He would actuallybe beheaded because of that.
Through that arrest.
And right now, Matthew just says,Jesus heard
John was arrestedthrough withdrew into Galilee.
Doesn't tell us many details.
We're not going to look at those detailsthis morning other than
(01:57):
to say those details are in Matthewfour 2400 ahead.
We'll get to itwhenever we get to Matthew chapter 14.
Maybe mid next year or so at this rate.
But I will say this,
that John the Baptist,as the forerunner of Jesus to eat,
was here to prepare the way for Jesus'spublic ministry.
(02:20):
He became the first New Testament martyr.
Now, he wasn't the first martyrof the church that Stephen,
but the church had been established yet.
And so Stephenbe the first member of the church.
But John the Baptist is the first martyrin the New Testament.
And John was martyred.
He was he was beheadednot because he preached Christ
(02:45):
and the gospel, but simplybecause he confronted immorality.
And he
confronted the immorality of the king.
He called out sin for what sin was.
He spoke the truth about sin,
and he spoke the truthabout immoral living.
And for that he was arrested and beheaded.
(03:10):
Friends, please understand
that in this day and dayand age in our culture, just like then,
you can be canceled for many,many different reasons.
And if one chooses to speak out,
against sin and immorality,
(03:30):
this culture will revolt against you.
That's okay.
And it did against John.
He had been arrested.
He would eventually be beheaded.
And and I think, honestly,
I think John was okaywith how things went down.
(03:51):
And here's why.
Because John said of himself in John 330,
he Jesus must increase,but I must decrease.
Now, I'm
sure John didn't have in mindwhen he said those words.
His own beheading,
but he was very comfortable
(04:12):
with the idea that Jesus,
must increase,and I have to get out of the way.
And so God took him out of the way.
He said, John, you've done your job.
I put you on earth
to prepare the way for my son
so that he could come into his publicministry.
(04:36):
You've done a great job of that.
But your missionand your purpose is complete.
And now I need to get you out of the way.
And so God did, by beheading.
And God said, John, I realize that,
by most people's accounts,your life is going to be cut short.
(04:56):
It's not.
You've done exactly as I asked you to do.
And now I'm going to take you to be withme and share in your master's happiness.
You don't have to get old.You don't have to get decrepit.
You don't have to get seen.I don't have to get sick.
I'm just going to take you right nowbecause you've completed your task.
I love that.
It reminds me of what the Bible saysin acts 1336.
(05:19):
David served God's purpose in hisgeneration, and then he died.
What a glorious statement.
That's what I want on my gravestone.
Carl served God's purposes a generation,and then he died.
Who wants to be around herelonger than we have to?
And so God said, okay, John, you're done.
Now you will decrease, and I'm going totake you to heaven so my son can increase.
(05:42):
And that's exactly how it went down.
Verse 13.
And leaving Nazareth, he, Jesus wentand lived in Capernaum by the sea,
in the territory of Zebulun.
And Naphtali, so that what was spokenby the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
The land of Zebulunand the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyondthe Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people dwelling in darknesshave seen a great light.
(06:04):
And for those dwellingin the region of the shadow of death
on them a light has dawned from that timeJesus began
to preach, saying, repent,for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus moves now his home base,
into Galilee, in Capernaum by the sea.
(06:24):
Capernaum.
It's this whole area of Galilee,but especially Capernaum.
It's a great little place.
It's beautiful.
And it's the placewhere Jesus would make his home base.
And it's in this place, Capernaum,
that Jesus calls James and John,
Peter and Andrew and Matthew,because they all lived in Capernaum.
(06:48):
And so Jesus is in where he lives.
He says, these are the guys basically inmy huddle, and I'm going to go after them.
And so James and John, Peter and Andrew,Matthew, five of the disciples
of five of the 12 lived in Capernaum,where Jesus is making his home base,
and he calls them
(07:09):
this.
I love the fact that that that Jesus
makes his, his, his,his headquarters, Capernaum
in Galilee, because it's kind of a placethat's forgotten about.
It was a nice place. It's beautiful.
I've been there.
But it'sit's it's it's not along the beaten path.
It's the it's the little townthat that where the hicks live.
(07:34):
It's the little country place.
It's the place between Fresno Madera thatnobody stops and they all drive through.
And I love that.
I love that.
It's the hillbilly redneck place.
And, Jesus, like,I think I'll start there.
And what the Bible says about this
place, the Galilee of the Gentiles.
(07:55):
And it says, for those dwellingin the region of the shadow of death
on them a light has drawnthe reputation of this area
was just, as Isaiah said,a region of the shadow of death.
And here's why.
Because when God's people were livingin the Promised Land,
in an Old Testament times,Assyria from the north came down.
(08:16):
And this is the north of the land.
The galleries up in the north.
Assyria came down and invaded
the northern part of Israel,
and later years later,the Babylonians came down through Assyria
and invaded Israel again and took the ten
northern tribes back into captivityfor 70 years into Babylon.
(08:37):
So this area had seena lot of destruction,
a lot of war, a lot of death,a lot of difficulty.
And the byand so it was known as the region
of the shadow of death because it had justbeen decimated over and over and over.
And theBible says on them a light has dawned.
Here's here'swhat I want us to glean from this.
(09:00):
Your life.
My life may have had many timesin the past
when things have been destroyed,
when things have been brutalized,
when there's been destruction,when there's been difficulty and pain.
And even in those timeswhen Jesus shows up,
light dawns.
(09:21):
And so, friends, please don't get so
frustrated, discouraged.
Don't lose hope so much that you say it'sbeen this way for so long.
It will never get betterwhen Jesus arrives.
Okay?
Light appears
no matter how dark it might be.
If God has you here,you're here for a reason, here
(09:43):
for a purpose.
The light will not.
And from that time on, verse 17,
Jesus says, what is repent?
For the kingdom of God is at hand.
When, when John the Baptistwas preparing the way for Jesus
before Jesus started his public ministry,what was John's message that he preached
(10:07):
to remember?
We talked about it last week.
Repent,for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It's the exact same message.
John camepreaching a message of repentance.
Get right with the Lord.
Change your life,
for the kingdom of heaven is here.
(10:28):
God said, John,you were right when you said,
you must decrease, you must increase.
So I'mgoing to get you out of the way now.
Jesus comes and preachesthe exact same message repent!
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Repentance is the paramount messageall through the New Testament.
It's the messageJohn preach is the message Jesus preached.
(10:52):
It's the message the disciples preached.
It's the messageJesus gave the church to preach.
Once he has it, it's the message Paulpreached.
Repent. Change your life.
To repent means to change direction.
Repent,for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And so then
(11:12):
in verse 18, we see Jesus callhis first disciples.
And I want to look at hiscall of the disciples.
What? What it entailed.
And then I want to look at the crowdthat came to follow Jesus.
In verse 18, while walking bythe Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew,his brother, casting
(11:32):
a net into the sea,for they were fishermen.
And he said to them, follow me,and I will make you fishers of men.
Immediately they left their netsand followed him, and going on from there
he saw two other brothers, James,a son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,
in the boat with Zebedee their father,mending their nets.
And he called them immediatelythey left the boat and their father,
(11:56):
and followed him.
This is not the first
time Jesus met these guys.
This is just the first time he personallycalled them in Luke five three.
And in John 135 through 42, Jesus says,
the Bible tells usthat Jesus has already met these guys,
but this is the first timeJesus calls them
(12:19):
to leave their possessionsand they become disciples and follow him.
I want to talk about this ideaof being a disciple
because
being a disciple of Jesus
means a change in our primary identity.
That's what being a disciple means.
(12:39):
The moment I say Jesus, I will follow you.
You're my leader.
What that entailsis a change of primary identity.
Jesus says of these guys,the Bible says they were fishermen
and Jesus says,I will make you fishers of men.
I'm going to change your identity.
I'm to changewho who you are at your core.
(13:02):
I'm going to change your purpose.
I'm going to change your title.
I'm going to change your life.
I'm going to change your primary identity.
I want you to notice two
that in changing their primary identity,
what was when Jesus said, come, follow me.
(13:23):
What was their response?
What was their response?
After they left their father,they left their boats.
They left their nets.
They left their employment.
They left the guarantee of a secure futurefinancially.
(13:43):
They left everything. Why?
Because their primary identityhad changed.
God, you've called me.
I'm going to leave everything behind.
I'm going to change everythingabout who I am.
I'm. I'mgoing to submit to your leadership.
(14:07):
Holy.
In order to be a disciple, there has to bea change of primary identity.
And there has to bea leaving of things behind.
They could not be a disciple of Jesus.
(14:28):
They could not follow Jesus and say,I'm still going to dot, dot, dot.
There had to
be this moment in their liveswhere they say,
I am completely at your disposal
and whatever you deem appropriate,
I'm agreeable to.
(14:57):
That so vastly different. But.
Then what
we consider these days to be a Christian.
When we consider this dayto be a Christian goes along these lines.
God, I have problems and I have trouble.
And I know you love me.
I don't want to add you to my life to makemy problems better, to make them okay.
(15:20):
I need you to step into my lifeand make my life better.
God, I have my dreams. I have my goals.
I have my agenda.
I have my desires.
And I want to add you to them.
So you'll help me accomplish my dreams,accomplish my goals,
accomplish my desires. You understand?
(15:47):
That this is this is the
majority of our agenda.
And coming to God.
God, I have this planfor how I want my life to go,
my business to go, my finances to go, howI want you to work in my life
so I can get to the point of retiringso I can be comfortable.
(16:11):
And I and I want to add youto all of these things,
because I want you to makeall these things come to fruition.
And that's not a disciple.
A disciple of Jesus says,
I'm going to follow you and all of these
other things I put on the chopping block,
(16:32):
all of these other things.
And if you want to do something differentwith them, I gladly leave them behind.
I am your slave.
You. I'm at your disposal.
You do with me whatever you want.
That's discipleship.
(16:52):
You understand the difference.
And when we look
at the disciples of Scripture,
it ought to stand in stark contrast.
To many Christians.
(17:17):
It's interesting to mewhen Jesus calls these guys,
he called these guys
who were already workingand who were already industrious.
He doesn't call the idle.
He doesn't call the lazy.
When Jesus,
when God called Saul, Saulwas out looking for his father's donkeys.
(17:38):
When he called David,David was tending his father's sheep
when he called the shepherds of the ChristChristmas story.
They were guarding their flocks at nightwhen he called Amos the prophet.
He was busy farming.
Whether it was Matthew or Moses.
All through the pages of Scripture,God called those who are already working,
who were already busy,who were already industrious,
(18:00):
because
God calls those who have the propensity
and the character of work. Why?
Because that's what discipleship is.
Discipleship isn't just believing.
Discipleship means doing.
And if you want to add God to our lives
(18:21):
so we can relax and he'll make life easierso we can retire and be happy.
God says, you're barking up the wrong treewith the wrong person.
I have a task and a job,and you will not be done
until you die.
I revolt against the idea of retirement.
I'm sorry if some of you retire,but please hear me out
(18:44):
of pure retirement, as we think about in
our culture, is not a biblical concept.
It's fine to retire from tasks.
That's great,but you never retire from the call of God.
You never retire from ministry.
So God calls those who are industrious
(19:05):
because disciples are industrious.
Do you understand?
Neither.
You don't believe meor it's a little too much.
In this next section,
(19:25):
we're going to contrast disciplesand crowds.
So the disciples are thosewho are busy working.
God calls them.
They change their identity.
They leave everything behind.
They sacrifice it all.
And they say, God, we are yours.
You do it.
This whatever we please,we are at your disposal.
That's disciples.
(19:46):
Look at verse 23.
And he, Jesus, went throughoutall Galilee, teaching in their synagogues
and proclaiming the goodthe gospel of the kingdom
and healing every diseaseand every affliction among the people.
So his fame spread throughout all Syria.
And they brought him all the sick,those afflicted with various diseases
and pains, those oppressed by demons,those having seizures and paralytic.
And he healed them.
And great crowds followed him from Galileeand the Decapolis,
(20:09):
and from Jerusalem and Judea,and from beyond the Jordan.
So Jesus
goes into, as was typical of the timein their synagogues, proclaiming
the gospel, preaching and teaching,and healing every disease and affliction,
so that as that word spread peoplefrom all over the region, and it mentions
(20:29):
this thing called the Decapolis,that's two Greek words deca and polis.
Ten cities, this area of ten cities,ten gentile cities,
they're coming from all over the area,up to 100 miles of traveling
just to be around Jesus. Why?
Because they're sick. They're possessed.
They're they're ill.
They need him to step in.
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They need him to heal them.
And so they come.
And by God's mercy and grace, he does.
And when the Bible says thatthat he healed
all the sicknesses, he'shis exerting his authority
over fallen humanity because of sin.
And then when it says that he cast outdemons, he's
(21:14):
exerting his authorityover all creation, physical and spiritual.
So he's showing them I have completeauthority over all creation,
everything in heaven, on earthand under the earth.
I have authority over it all.
And these people who have great needs,
they hear about this and they're like,we need some of that in our life.
(21:35):
And they come to him and say, please, willyou, please, will you step it, please?
We intervene, please will you change?
And by his grace, he does.
But none of these are disciples.
They're crowds.
And I want us to think right now
about the differencebetween the crowd and the disciple.
(21:59):
The crowd realizesI have a need that I cannot solve.
I can't meet my need.
God, would you please.
Would you please step into my world?
And would you change that which I need?
Change.
That's the crowd.
And by God's mercy and grace,sometimes he does.
(22:22):
But that's the crowd.
That's not the disciple.
The disciple says, yes, God,I acknowledge that I have need,
but my agendais secondary to your kingdom.
And so
I invite you in to change my identity.
I sacrifice my agenda, my plans,my desires.
(22:45):
I even sacrifice you, meetingmy needs for whatever you discern.
That's what I'll submit to.
Do you see the differencebetween the crowd and the disciple?
And so you and I have a beautiful futurehere right now to decide
and to realize.
What have I been?
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Have I been part of the crowd?
Or am I truly a disciple?
Jesus
didn't invite peopleto be a part of the crowd.
They became part of the crowd
because he knew they had a needthat only he can meet,
and they wanted him to meet their need.
What heinvited people into was a disciple.
(23:29):
And they're vastly different.
Later, the crowd would fall away.
Because they get too difficult.
The disciples remain.
And to this point of discipleship,
(23:51):
I want to talk about what it means
to be a disciple.
The call to be a disciple.
We're going to jump over to Matthew 633.
Okay, there's a difference
between being a part of the crowdand being a disciple and a disciple.
Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 630.
Most of you know this verse.
(24:12):
You might not know where it lives,but you know the verse.
Matthew 633
but seek first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.
There's a difference between beinga part of the crowd and being a disciple.
And what Jesus says to disciples,
(24:33):
seek first what
you have.
Okay, well,
why is it that we stop afterwe see the kingdom of God?
That's not what Jesus said.
The kingdom of God
and his righteousness.
(24:55):
That's what Jesus said.
And when he says, seek first.
That word first is a Greek word, Protoss,and it means literally not first
in a series of events, not firstand then second and third.
It means priority,
but seek as the only priority
the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
(25:16):
I'm I'm noticing,
that we don't talk about
righteousness very much.
And even church people don't.
We talk about being loving
and kind and merciful and gracious.
We don't talk about being righteous.
(25:38):
There are many of us that matter.
How many?
How many of us,
you know, woke up this morning thought,Lord, I just I just
would you just increase my righteousness?
Even when I ask what Jesus said,
we stop, seek first kingdom of God.
There's something about usthat just pushes back on this whole idea
(26:00):
of righteous living.
Why is that?
What Jesus said hereis that for the disciple,
the priority for the disciple
is to be a righteousman is to be a righteous woman.
The priority for the disciple is a life
(26:20):
of righteousness.
You follow,
you think you do.
Go back a chapter to chapter five.
This talk about righteousness.
Now just listen to this
without any prejudgingof where it's going.
(26:43):
Matthew chapter five, verse 20
Jesus says, for I tell you,
unless your righteousnessexceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will never enterthe kingdom of heaven.
Oh, disciple, your my primary
(27:06):
agenda item
is to be righteous
and dear friend, unless our righteousness
exceeds that of the Pharisees,we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's what Jesus said.
That is in unless a
(27:27):
B doesn't happen.
That's what Jesus said.
Unless our righteousness exceeds that
of the righteous people. Now,
how many of you heard about how it's now,
how the bad rap that Phariseesget in the Bible anyway?
(27:48):
I mean, Jesus is always on them, right?
And so, I mean, how righteouscan they really be?
Right?
Our problem is
we don't understandwho the Pharisees were.
So just keep this in mind.
Just unless your righteousness
exceeds the Pharisees,you'll never enter the kingdom of God.
It's your primary and sole
(28:10):
agenda item is to be a righteous manand a righteous woman
as a disciple, here'sthe Pharisees, the Pharisees.
You will not read about the Phariseesin the Old Testament
because they didn'texist in the Old Testament.
After the
Babylonian captivity, people come back.
God's people have been so intermixed
(28:30):
with the people of Babylon,with the with with the, the other,
gentile groups had kind of infiltratedthe land that you really couldn't tell
the Hebrews, the Israelites,
you couldn't tell them as any differentfrom the rest of the culture around them.
They looked exactly the same.They acted the same. They taught the same.
You can look any different.
They didn't behave any different.
(28:51):
And so this group of peoplein the second century BC says,
we have to call our people back
to righteous living.
We gotta call our peopleback to the study of Scripture.
We gotta call our peopleback to the worship of God Almighty.
We gotta call our people backto pure living.
A life of that is pure beforeGod and pure before people.
(29:14):
We gotta call people back.
We gotta call people back to this.
And so this group was created.
They called the Pharisees.
The Phariseesmeans literally separated. Once
they were the separated ones,they're like, look,
we're lookingjust like the rest of the culture.
There's no difference between us.
(29:35):
Let's get back to Scripture.
Let's get back to worship.
Let's get back to devotion.
That's not a bad scenario, right?
When we say the same thing about us today,
Yes, this is who the Pharisees were.
Such great, impure motives.
A call to return
(29:56):
to God and return to Scripture.
So how righteous were they?
Unless our righteousnessexceeds that of Pharisees,
we will never enter the kingdom of God.
Let's talk about how righteous they were.
They were a group of peoplethat diligently studied,
memorized, and read Scripture.
(30:19):
Jesus will say of them,
you study the scriptures because in themyou think you have eternal life.
So they studied diligentlythe Word of God.
They read it, they memorized it.
It was their focus.
Unless your righteousness exceeds theirs.
(30:41):
It's last verse you memorized.
But what's the last in-depth study
you've done on your own?
The righteousness the Pharisees.
Let's talk about. They're righteous.
They were.
They were a group of peoplethat had a very disciplined
and orderly prayer life
(31:04):
consistently, regularly,
and practiced deepand abiding spiritual disciplines.
Jesus talks about in Matthew sixsaid, you all love to pray.
Good for you, but you do it in a waythat you get attention to yourself like.
But, but you have that desire to pray
this incredibly deep
(31:25):
spiritual discipline life.
Pretty righteous right?
Unless your righteous exceedsthat of them.
How are we doing?
The righteousness.
They were men who had an incredibleevangelistic zeal,
(31:50):
incredible evangelistic zeal.
We talk about reaching a huddleall the time.
They actually did.
Matthew 2315
Jesus says, you will seal the seas
to make one convert.
How's your evangelistic zeal
(32:11):
compared to theirs?
Whose last personality Jesus.
You want to leave your home
to go tell people about Christ?
See, the Pharisees get a bad rap,
but apparently they're pretty righteous.
(32:34):
And Jesus says,unless your righteousness exceeds theirs,
you don't get into heaven.
How righteous were these people?
Well, they were so righteous
they tithed 10% off the top of everything.
(32:57):
So righteous were theythat if they walked outside their house
and found a mint leaf, a mint plant,they would pick the plant
and take a 10th of that mintand give it to the offering,
because that wasthe Old Testament command.
If they found a dollar on the street,
they would go cash in ten dimesand give one dime to the offering.
(33:20):
They were so righteous at 10th
or right off the top of everything.
Unless your righteousness
exceeds that of them.
So how are you doing, disciple?
(33:43):
Does your righteousness
exceeds that of the Pharisees?
And Jesus said,
this is the primary agenda
item, not for the crowd
before the disciple.
The righteousness of God
that exceeds that of the Pharisees.
(34:10):
How are you and I doing?
Do we get a pass?
Do you want me to relieve
the pressure for you?
Yeah.
I can't,
(34:30):
there should be some pressure.
But let me let me put it.
Let me introduce the gospel.
Our righteousness,
in other words, are worksof righteousness cannot surpass theirs.
(34:52):
And what
Jesus says, it has to surpass it in kind,
not in degree.
The kind of righteousness
has to surpass that of the Pharisees,
because the Phariseeswere doing these acts of righteousness
as their way of being made right with God.
(35:14):
Disciples do these acts of righteousness
in response to being made right with God.
In other words, Philippians three.
The apostle Paul says this
for his sake I have suffered the lossof all things, and count them as rubbish
in order that I'm a gain Christand be found in him here it is
(35:34):
not having a righteousness of my ownthat comes from the law.
That'swhere the Pharisees made the mistake.
They thought that by their righteousnessthey were made right with God.
And Paul says, my righteousness.
It doesn't come from the law,but my righteousness comes through faith
in Christ.
The righteousnessfrom God that depends on faith.
(35:57):
So my righteousness does exceedthat of the Pharisees,
not in degree, but in kind,
because it's through faithin what Jesus did on the cross that I am
made right with God,not that I have earned rightness with him.
Do you understand that?
(36:17):
Now I hope
that relieves the pressure a little bit.
But let me push the pressure on you again,because
we cannot separate
the righteousness of God
from being right with him
and showing that rightthe rightness in our lifestyle.
(36:38):
You can't separate the two.
James 218
someone will say, you have faith.
I have works fine.
Show me your faith apart from your works,and I'll show you my faith by my works.
See, so many of us want
want an excuse to not.
(37:01):
And we
gravitate to the truth that I am maderight by God, by faith.
Absolutely. And be.And here's the here's our problem.
Because we know that we're maderight by God, by faith.
Now, I have an excuse to not.
I don't have to study my Bible every dayand memorize scripture,
because I'm already made right with Godby faith.
(37:22):
I don't have to evangelizeand tell people in my head about Christ,
because I'm already made rightby God, by faith.
I don't have to tithe because I'm alreadymade right by God, by faith.
And we use the truth of being made rightby God, by faith and his excuse
to be unrighteous in our living.
And James says, you can't do that.
(37:46):
You can't separate these two.
Yes, we're made right by God, by faith,
and we're called to righteous living. Now,
let me put this, James two way
in, in, in, in clear, understanding.
Let me let me just reworkthe words a little bit.
Someone will say,
(38:07):
you have faith.
I have works fine.
Show me your faith by not tithing,
and I'll show you my faith by tithing.
Do you understand?
How can you prove your faith by not doing?
It's like saying.
(38:27):
I'll show youhow fast I am by not running.
Does that make any sense?
Yet that's what we do with faith.
And Jesus says righteousness
is the primary agenda for the disciple.
Not so. You'll be right with God.
You're made right with God,but because you're made right with God.
(38:48):
Now your agendais the righteousness of God.
That's discipleship.
Second
Corinthians 521 I didn't put it up here,but I want you to write it down.
I want you to memorize this.
So Corinthians 521 so says he who knewno sin became sin for us,
(39:13):
so that we might becomethe righteousness of God.
So Jesus took all of my sin
and imputed to meall of his righteousness.
So I am right with God,not because of what I've done,
but because of the righteousnessthat's been imputed to me.
I'm made righteous before God by faithin Jesus, and it's work on the cross.
(39:36):
So now, because I've been made righteous,now I choose get this.
Now I choose to live righteously.
It's not an excuse
to not live righteously.
Now that's my primary agenda.
We cannot accept the righteousnessof Christ and live righteously.
(40:00):
Can't do it.
See, my dear friends, faiththat doesn't obey shows
that it was a faith that never believed.
And faith
that won't follow is a faiththat will not last.
Please understand
(40:21):
that obedience and righteousness is notthe proof of salvation, or is not the.
It is not the price of salvation.
It's the proof of it.
And what Jesus is going to doin these next three chapters,
chapter five, six and seven, isgive us a model of the kingdom
of of a life lived in the kingdom,and it will be unattainable.
(40:44):
Everything that he says in Matthewfive six and seven, like there's no way
we can't live up to this.
It's a great standard.
It's the high watermark,
but we're going to fall far short.
We just can't live up to it.
(41:04):
And in response
to what we're called toand the realize realization
of what we're capable of,we say, God, I can't,
I can't,
and so do for mewhat I can't do for myself.
I accept the work of Jesus on the cross,
and I, by faith,
(41:24):
I stand before you declared righteous.
And because of that grace,
I will spend the rest of my life
sacrificing my agenda for your kingdom
and living a lifestyle of righteousness.
(41:46):
I will study scripture and memorize it,
and I will evangelize those around mewho don't know Jesus.
And I will tithe,
and I will practice spiritual discernment
not so that I'll be right with you, butbecause you've declared me right with you.
And this is my response as a disciple.
You understand?
(42:07):
To understand.
And so, dear friends,we get to choose now, crowd
or disciple.
I invite you to pray with me, father.
Thank you.
Thank you.
(42:28):
The standard you have is
is unattainable for us in ourselves. God.
And I thank youthat we don't have to try to get to
you based on our own abilityand behavior in obedience.
Thank you. You knew we couldn't.
So, father, I thank youthat in the midst of that sin,
you loved us so muchthat you sent your son.
(42:52):
To be our way.
To be made right with you.
Friends, if you've never given your lifeto Jesus yet, if you've tried
to be righteous of your own doingand you realize you just can't,
would you just sacrifice that right now
and come to God based on his terms,not yours?
(43:12):
I invite you in this moment to say, God,I'm sorry for my sin.
I can't be good enough.
I've tried. I just keep failing.
Jesus, I accept what you did
on the cross to make me right.
I accept your death for me.
I believe in your resurrection
and I give myself to you.
(43:35):
Friends, if you've prayed that prayer,would you go a step further?
Maybe this morning.
And say, God, God, because you've made meright with you through your son.
I want to live a righteous life
not because I have to,but because you've done so much for me.
It's my natural response.
(44:00):
Would you give mea desire to live righteously
as an expression of my love for you?
Thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your grace.
When I'm unrighteous,
that you've given me your righteousness.
But in response to that, father,
(44:23):
oh, God.
Would you increase my desire
to live righteously?
Your agenda above mine.
You must increase.
I must decrease.
(44:47):
Father, thank you for your love.
Help us to love you more.
In your name I pray.
Amen.
I love you.
Good job.
Hang in with me through that one.
This week.
Read Matthew five.
There's enough there.
You could just stay in Matthew fivethis whole week.
(45:08):
It's lofty.
It's difficult.
And we'll try to unpack some of itnext week.
Deal I love youif you have people in your world
in your huddle that don't have a churchhome, invite them next week.
You understand that?
(45:29):
It's pretty clear you understand that.
Yes. Okay, listen, I'm not
afraid to start this all over again.
Let's sing.
I appreciate you being here.
On this Sunday, as we go through parts
of the book of Matthew,I titled this series Kingdom.
Now, and we're studyingthrough the book of Matthew,
chapter by chapter, section by section.
And this morning
we're going to make it throughchapter four.
We ended halfway through chapterfour last week.
(00:25):
We're going to finish chapter four.
And I want to introduce you
to a couple of different passages, onein Matthew six and one in Matthew five.
So we're going to be on a little journeythis morning together.
As we go through this.
One of the things that we'll see.
We'll see crowds around Jesus
and we'll see disciples of Jesus.
And my hope this morningis that we'll be able to identify
(00:49):
which of those two groupsthat we've chosen to belong to.
And, let me
get into the chapter four, verse 12.
We're going to be introducedto a well, introduced to it
to a, a a situation.
And not told a lot of details about it.
(01:10):
We'll study the details of it later.
But we're just kind of throwninto a statement
about about somethingthat's happened in verse 12.
It says, now when he Jesus heardthat John had been arrested,
he withdrew into Galilee.
That's all it really saysabout this event.
It doesn't tell us much about it.
Here in Matthew 14, Matthew will tell uswith this story that happened,
(01:36):
like why, John, this is John the Baptist,why John the Baptist was arrested.
The result of that arrest.
He would actuallybe beheaded because of that.
Through that arrest.
And right now, Matthew just says,Jesus heard
John was arrestedthrough withdrew into Galilee.
Doesn't tell us many details.
We're not going to look at those detailsthis morning other than
(01:57):
to say those details are in Matthewfour 2400 ahead.
We'll get to itwhenever we get to Matthew chapter 14.
Maybe mid next year or so at this rate.
But I will say this,
that John the Baptist,as the forerunner of Jesus to eat,
was here to prepare the way for Jesus'spublic ministry.
(02:20):
He became the first New Testament martyr.
Now, he wasn't the first martyrof the church that Stephen,
but the church had been established yet.
And so Stephenbe the first member of the church.
But John the Baptist is the first martyrin the New Testament.
And John was martyred.
He was he was beheadednot because he preached Christ
(02:45):
and the gospel, but simplybecause he confronted immorality.
And he
confronted the immorality of the king.
He called out sin for what sin was.
He spoke the truth about sin,
and he spoke the truthabout immoral living.
And for that he was arrested and beheaded.
(03:10):
Friends, please understand
that in this day and dayand age in our culture, just like then,
you can be canceled for many,many different reasons.
And if one chooses to speak out,
against sin and immorality,
(03:30):
this culture will revolt against you.
That's okay.
And it did against John.
He had been arrested.
He would eventually be beheaded.
And and I think, honestly,
I think John was okaywith how things went down.
(03:51):
And here's why.
Because John said of himself in John 330,
he Jesus must increase,but I must decrease.
Now, I'm
sure John didn't have in mindwhen he said those words.
His own beheading,
but he was very comfortable
(04:12):
with the idea that Jesus,
must increase,and I have to get out of the way.
And so God took him out of the way.
He said, John, you've done your job.
I put you on earth
to prepare the way for my son
so that he could come into his publicministry.
(04:36):
You've done a great job of that.
But your missionand your purpose is complete.
And now I need to get you out of the way.
And so God did, by beheading.
And God said, John, I realize that,
by most people's accounts,your life is going to be cut short.
(04:56):
It's not.
You've done exactly as I asked you to do.
And now I'm going to take you to be withme and share in your master's happiness.
You don't have to get old.You don't have to get decrepit.
You don't have to get seen.I don't have to get sick.
I'm just going to take you right nowbecause you've completed your task.
I love that.
It reminds me of what the Bible saysin acts 1336.
(05:19):
David served God's purpose in hisgeneration, and then he died.
What a glorious statement.
That's what I want on my gravestone.
Carl served God's purposes a generation,and then he died.
Who wants to be around herelonger than we have to?
And so God said, okay, John, you're done.
Now you will decrease, and I'm going totake you to heaven so my son can increase.
(05:42):
And that's exactly how it went down.
Verse 13.
And leaving Nazareth, he, Jesus wentand lived in Capernaum by the sea,
in the territory of Zebulun.
And Naphtali, so that what was spokenby the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
The land of Zebulunand the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyondthe Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people dwelling in darknesshave seen a great light.
(06:04):
And for those dwellingin the region of the shadow of death
on them a light has dawned from that timeJesus began
to preach, saying, repent,for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus moves now his home base,
into Galilee, in Capernaum by the sea.
(06:24):
Capernaum.
It's this whole area of Galilee,but especially Capernaum.
It's a great little place.
It's beautiful.
And it's the placewhere Jesus would make his home base.
And it's in this place, Capernaum,
that Jesus calls James and John,
Peter and Andrew and Matthew,because they all lived in Capernaum.
(06:48):
And so Jesus is in where he lives.
He says, these are the guys basically inmy huddle, and I'm going to go after them.
And so James and John, Peter and Andrew,Matthew, five of the disciples
of five of the 12 lived in Capernaum,where Jesus is making his home base,
and he calls them
(07:09):
this.
I love the fact that that that Jesus
makes his, his, his,his headquarters, Capernaum
in Galilee, because it's kind of a placethat's forgotten about.
It was a nice place. It's beautiful.
I've been there.
But it'sit's it's it's not along the beaten path.
It's the it's the little townthat that where the hicks live.
(07:34):
It's the little country place.
It's the place between Fresno Madera thatnobody stops and they all drive through.
And I love that.
I love that.
It's the hillbilly redneck place.
And, Jesus, like,I think I'll start there.
And what the Bible says about this
place, the Galilee of the Gentiles.
(07:55):
And it says, for those dwellingin the region of the shadow of death
on them a light has drawnthe reputation of this area
was just, as Isaiah said,a region of the shadow of death.
And here's why.
Because when God's people were livingin the Promised Land,
in an Old Testament times,Assyria from the north came down.
(08:16):
And this is the north of the land.
The galleries up in the north.
Assyria came down and invaded
the northern part of Israel,
and later years later,the Babylonians came down through Assyria
and invaded Israel again and took the ten
northern tribes back into captivityfor 70 years into Babylon.
(08:37):
So this area had seena lot of destruction,
a lot of war, a lot of death,a lot of difficulty.
And the byand so it was known as the region
of the shadow of death because it had justbeen decimated over and over and over.
And theBible says on them a light has dawned.
Here's here'swhat I want us to glean from this.
(09:00):
Your life.
My life may have had many timesin the past
when things have been destroyed,
when things have been brutalized,
when there's been destruction,when there's been difficulty and pain.
And even in those timeswhen Jesus shows up,
light dawns.
(09:21):
And so, friends, please don't get so
frustrated, discouraged.
Don't lose hope so much that you say it'sbeen this way for so long.
It will never get betterwhen Jesus arrives.
Okay?
Light appears
no matter how dark it might be.
If God has you here,you're here for a reason, here
(09:43):
for a purpose.
The light will not.
And from that time on, verse 17,
Jesus says, what is repent?
For the kingdom of God is at hand.
When, when John the Baptistwas preparing the way for Jesus
before Jesus started his public ministry,what was John's message that he preached
(10:07):
to remember?
We talked about it last week.
Repent,for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It's the exact same message.
John camepreaching a message of repentance.
Get right with the Lord.
Change your life,
for the kingdom of heaven is here.
(10:28):
God said, John,you were right when you said,
you must decrease, you must increase.
So I'mgoing to get you out of the way now.
Jesus comes and preachesthe exact same message repent!
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Repentance is the paramount messageall through the New Testament.
It's the messageJohn preach is the message Jesus preached.
(10:52):
It's the message the disciples preached.
It's the messageJesus gave the church to preach.
Once he has it, it's the message Paulpreached.
Repent. Change your life.
To repent means to change direction.
Repent,for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And so then
(11:12):
in verse 18, we see Jesus callhis first disciples.
And I want to look at hiscall of the disciples.
What? What it entailed.
And then I want to look at the crowdthat came to follow Jesus.
In verse 18, while walking bythe Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew,his brother, casting
(11:32):
a net into the sea,for they were fishermen.
And he said to them, follow me,and I will make you fishers of men.
Immediately they left their netsand followed him, and going on from there
he saw two other brothers, James,a son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,
in the boat with Zebedee their father,mending their nets.
And he called them immediatelythey left the boat and their father,
(11:56):
and followed him.
This is not the first
time Jesus met these guys.
This is just the first time he personallycalled them in Luke five three.
And in John 135 through 42, Jesus says,
the Bible tells usthat Jesus has already met these guys,
but this is the first timeJesus calls them
(12:19):
to leave their possessionsand they become disciples and follow him.
I want to talk about this ideaof being a disciple
because
being a disciple of Jesus
means a change in our primary identity.
That's what being a disciple means.
(12:39):
The moment I say Jesus, I will follow you.
You're my leader.
What that entailsis a change of primary identity.
Jesus says of these guys,the Bible says they were fishermen
and Jesus says,I will make you fishers of men.
I'm going to change your identity.
I'm to changewho who you are at your core.
(13:02):
I'm going to change your purpose.
I'm going to change your title.
I'm going to change your life.
I'm going to change your primary identity.
I want you to notice two
that in changing their primary identity,
what was when Jesus said, come, follow me.
(13:23):
What was their response?
What was their response?
After they left their father,they left their boats.
They left their nets.
They left their employment.
They left the guarantee of a secure futurefinancially.
(13:43):
They left everything. Why?
Because their primary identityhad changed.
God, you've called me.
I'm going to leave everything behind.
I'm going to change everythingabout who I am.
I'm. I'mgoing to submit to your leadership.
(14:07):
Holy.
In order to be a disciple, there has to bea change of primary identity.
And there has to bea leaving of things behind.
They could not be a disciple of Jesus.
(14:28):
They could not follow Jesus and say,I'm still going to dot, dot, dot.
There had to
be this moment in their liveswhere they say,
I am completely at your disposal
and whatever you deem appropriate,
I'm agreeable to.
(14:57):
That so vastly different. But.
Then what
we consider these days to be a Christian.
When we consider this dayto be a Christian goes along these lines.
God, I have problems and I have trouble.
And I know you love me.
I don't want to add you to my life to makemy problems better, to make them okay.
(15:20):
I need you to step into my lifeand make my life better.
God, I have my dreams. I have my goals.
I have my agenda.
I have my desires.
And I want to add you to them.
So you'll help me accomplish my dreams,accomplish my goals,
accomplish my desires. You understand?
(15:47):
That this is this is the
majority of our agenda.
And coming to God.
God, I have this planfor how I want my life to go,
my business to go, my finances to go, howI want you to work in my life
so I can get to the point of retiringso I can be comfortable.
(16:11):
And I and I want to add youto all of these things,
because I want you to makeall these things come to fruition.
And that's not a disciple.
A disciple of Jesus says,
I'm going to follow you and all of these
other things I put on the chopping block,
(16:32):
all of these other things.
And if you want to do something differentwith them, I gladly leave them behind.
I am your slave.
You. I'm at your disposal.
You do with me whatever you want.
That's discipleship.
(16:52):
You understand the difference.
And when we look
at the disciples of Scripture,
it ought to stand in stark contrast.
To many Christians.
(17:17):
It's interesting to mewhen Jesus calls these guys,
he called these guys
who were already workingand who were already industrious.
He doesn't call the idle.
He doesn't call the lazy.
When Jesus,
when God called Saul, Saulwas out looking for his father's donkeys.
(17:38):
When he called David,David was tending his father's sheep
when he called the shepherds of the ChristChristmas story.
They were guarding their flocks at nightwhen he called Amos the prophet.
He was busy farming.
Whether it was Matthew or Moses.
All through the pages of Scripture,God called those who are already working,
who were already busy,who were already industrious,
(18:00):
because
God calls those who have the propensity
and the character of work. Why?
Because that's what discipleship is.
Discipleship isn't just believing.
Discipleship means doing.
And if you want to add God to our lives
(18:21):
so we can relax and he'll make life easierso we can retire and be happy.
God says, you're barking up the wrong treewith the wrong person.
I have a task and a job,and you will not be done
until you die.
I revolt against the idea of retirement.
I'm sorry if some of you retire,but please hear me out
(18:44):
of pure retirement, as we think about in
our culture, is not a biblical concept.
It's fine to retire from tasks.
That's great,but you never retire from the call of God.
You never retire from ministry.
So God calls those who are industrious
(19:05):
because disciples are industrious.
Do you understand?
Neither.
You don't believe meor it's a little too much.
In this next section,
(19:25):
we're going to contrast disciplesand crowds.
So the disciples are thosewho are busy working.
God calls them.
They change their identity.
They leave everything behind.
They sacrifice it all.
And they say, God, we are yours.
You do it.
This whatever we please,we are at your disposal.
That's disciples.
(19:46):
Look at verse 23.
And he, Jesus, went throughoutall Galilee, teaching in their synagogues
and proclaiming the goodthe gospel of the kingdom
and healing every diseaseand every affliction among the people.
So his fame spread throughout all Syria.
And they brought him all the sick,those afflicted with various diseases
and pains, those oppressed by demons,those having seizures and paralytic.
And he healed them.
And great crowds followed him from Galileeand the Decapolis,
(20:09):
and from Jerusalem and Judea,and from beyond the Jordan.
So Jesus
goes into, as was typical of the timein their synagogues, proclaiming
the gospel, preaching and teaching,and healing every disease and affliction,
so that as that word spread peoplefrom all over the region, and it mentions
(20:29):
this thing called the Decapolis,that's two Greek words deca and polis.
Ten cities, this area of ten cities,ten gentile cities,
they're coming from all over the area,up to 100 miles of traveling
just to be around Jesus. Why?
Because they're sick. They're possessed.
They're they're ill.
They need him to step in.
(20:51):
They need him to heal them.
And so they come.
And by God's mercy and grace, he does.
And when the Bible says thatthat he healed
all the sicknesses, he'shis exerting his authority
over fallen humanity because of sin.
And then when it says that he cast outdemons, he's
(21:14):
exerting his authorityover all creation, physical and spiritual.
So he's showing them I have completeauthority over all creation,
everything in heaven, on earthand under the earth.
I have authority over it all.
And these people who have great needs,
they hear about this and they're like,we need some of that in our life.
(21:35):
And they come to him and say, please, willyou, please, will you step it, please?
We intervene, please will you change?
And by his grace, he does.
But none of these are disciples.
They're crowds.
And I want us to think right now
about the differencebetween the crowd and the disciple.
(21:59):
The crowd realizesI have a need that I cannot solve.
I can't meet my need.
God, would you please.
Would you please step into my world?
And would you change that which I need?
Change.
That's the crowd.
And by God's mercy and grace,sometimes he does.
(22:22):
But that's the crowd.
That's not the disciple.
The disciple says, yes, God,I acknowledge that I have need,
but my agendais secondary to your kingdom.
And so
I invite you in to change my identity.
I sacrifice my agenda, my plans,my desires.
(22:45):
I even sacrifice you, meetingmy needs for whatever you discern.
That's what I'll submit to.
Do you see the differencebetween the crowd and the disciple?
And so you and I have a beautiful futurehere right now to decide
and to realize.
What have I been?
(23:06):
Have I been part of the crowd?
Or am I truly a disciple?
Jesus
didn't invite peopleto be a part of the crowd.
They became part of the crowd
because he knew they had a needthat only he can meet,
and they wanted him to meet their need.
What heinvited people into was a disciple.
(23:29):
And they're vastly different.
Later, the crowd would fall away.
Because they get too difficult.
The disciples remain.
And to this point of discipleship,
(23:51):
I want to talk about what it means
to be a disciple.
The call to be a disciple.
We're going to jump over to Matthew 633.
Okay, there's a difference
between being a part of the crowdand being a disciple and a disciple.
Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 630.
Most of you know this verse.
(24:12):
You might not know where it lives,but you know the verse.
Matthew 633
but seek first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.
There's a difference between beinga part of the crowd and being a disciple.
And what Jesus says to disciples,
(24:33):
seek first what
you have.
Okay, well,
why is it that we stop afterwe see the kingdom of God?
That's not what Jesus said.
The kingdom of God
and his righteousness.
(24:55):
That's what Jesus said.
And when he says, seek first.
That word first is a Greek word, Protoss,and it means literally not first
in a series of events, not firstand then second and third.
It means priority,
but seek as the only priority
the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
(25:16):
I'm I'm noticing,
that we don't talk about
righteousness very much.
And even church people don't.
We talk about being loving
and kind and merciful and gracious.
We don't talk about being righteous.
(25:38):
There are many of us that matter.
How many?
How many of us,
you know, woke up this morning thought,Lord, I just I just
would you just increase my righteousness?
Even when I ask what Jesus said,
we stop, seek first kingdom of God.
There's something about usthat just pushes back on this whole idea
(26:00):
of righteous living.
Why is that?
What Jesus said hereis that for the disciple,
the priority for the disciple
is to be a righteousman is to be a righteous woman.
The priority for the disciple is a life
(26:20):
of righteousness.
You follow,
you think you do.
Go back a chapter to chapter five.
This talk about righteousness.
Now just listen to this
without any prejudgingof where it's going.
(26:43):
Matthew chapter five, verse 20
Jesus says, for I tell you,
unless your righteousnessexceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will never enterthe kingdom of heaven.
Oh, disciple, your my primary
(27:06):
agenda item
is to be righteous
and dear friend, unless our righteousness
exceeds that of the Pharisees,we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's what Jesus said.
That is in unless a
(27:27):
B doesn't happen.
That's what Jesus said.
Unless our righteousness exceeds that
of the righteous people. Now,
how many of you heard about how it's now,
how the bad rap that Phariseesget in the Bible anyway?
(27:48):
I mean, Jesus is always on them, right?
And so, I mean, how righteouscan they really be?
Right?
Our problem is
we don't understandwho the Pharisees were.
So just keep this in mind.
Just unless your righteousness
exceeds the Pharisees,you'll never enter the kingdom of God.
It's your primary and sole
(28:10):
agenda item is to be a righteous manand a righteous woman
as a disciple, here'sthe Pharisees, the Pharisees.
You will not read about the Phariseesin the Old Testament
because they didn'texist in the Old Testament.
After the
Babylonian captivity, people come back.
God's people have been so intermixed
(28:30):
with the people of Babylon,with the with with the, the other,
gentile groups had kind of infiltratedthe land that you really couldn't tell
the Hebrews, the Israelites,
you couldn't tell them as any differentfrom the rest of the culture around them.
They looked exactly the same.They acted the same. They taught the same.
You can look any different.
They didn't behave any different.
(28:51):
And so this group of peoplein the second century BC says,
we have to call our people back
to righteous living.
We gotta call our peopleback to the study of Scripture.
We gotta call our peopleback to the worship of God Almighty.
We gotta call our people backto pure living.
A life of that is pure beforeGod and pure before people.
(29:14):
We gotta call people back.
We gotta call people back to this.
And so this group was created.
They called the Pharisees.
The Phariseesmeans literally separated. Once
they were the separated ones,they're like, look,
we're lookingjust like the rest of the culture.
There's no difference between us.
(29:35):
Let's get back to Scripture.
Let's get back to worship.
Let's get back to devotion.
That's not a bad scenario, right?
When we say the same thing about us today,
Yes, this is who the Pharisees were.
Such great, impure motives.
A call to return
(29:56):
to God and return to Scripture.
So how righteous were they?
Unless our righteousnessexceeds that of Pharisees,
we will never enter the kingdom of God.
Let's talk about how righteous they were.
They were a group of peoplethat diligently studied,
memorized, and read Scripture.
(30:19):
Jesus will say of them,
you study the scriptures because in themyou think you have eternal life.
So they studied diligentlythe Word of God.
They read it, they memorized it.
It was their focus.
Unless your righteousness exceeds theirs.
(30:41):
It's last verse you memorized.
But what's the last in-depth study
you've done on your own?
The righteousness the Pharisees.
Let's talk about. They're righteous.
They were.
They were a group of peoplethat had a very disciplined
and orderly prayer life
(31:04):
consistently, regularly,
and practiced deepand abiding spiritual disciplines.
Jesus talks about in Matthew sixsaid, you all love to pray.
Good for you, but you do it in a waythat you get attention to yourself like.
But, but you have that desire to pray
this incredibly deep
(31:25):
spiritual discipline life.
Pretty righteous right?
Unless your righteous exceedsthat of them.
How are we doing?
The righteousness.
They were men who had an incredibleevangelistic zeal,
(31:50):
incredible evangelistic zeal.
We talk about reaching a huddleall the time.
They actually did.
Matthew 2315
Jesus says, you will seal the seas
to make one convert.
How's your evangelistic zeal
(32:11):
compared to theirs?
Whose last personality Jesus.
You want to leave your home
to go tell people about Christ?
See, the Pharisees get a bad rap,
but apparently they're pretty righteous.
(32:34):
And Jesus says,unless your righteousness exceeds theirs,
you don't get into heaven.
How righteous were these people?
Well, they were so righteous
they tithed 10% off the top of everything.
(32:57):
So righteous were theythat if they walked outside their house
and found a mint leaf, a mint plant,they would pick the plant
and take a 10th of that mintand give it to the offering,
because that wasthe Old Testament command.
If they found a dollar on the street,
they would go cash in ten dimesand give one dime to the offering.
(33:20):
They were so righteous at 10th
or right off the top of everything.
Unless your righteousness
exceeds that of them.
So how are you doing, disciple?
(33:43):
Does your righteousness
exceeds that of the Pharisees?
And Jesus said,
this is the primary agenda
item, not for the crowd
before the disciple.
The righteousness of God
that exceeds that of the Pharisees.
(34:10):
How are you and I doing?
Do we get a pass?
Do you want me to relieve
the pressure for you?
Yeah.
I can't,
(34:30):
there should be some pressure.
But let me let me put it.
Let me introduce the gospel.
Our righteousness,
in other words, are worksof righteousness cannot surpass theirs.
(34:52):
And what
Jesus says, it has to surpass it in kind,
not in degree.
The kind of righteousness
has to surpass that of the Pharisees,
because the Phariseeswere doing these acts of righteousness
as their way of being made right with God.
(35:14):
Disciples do these acts of righteousness
in response to being made right with God.
In other words, Philippians three.
The apostle Paul says this
for his sake I have suffered the lossof all things, and count them as rubbish
in order that I'm a gain Christand be found in him here it is
(35:34):
not having a righteousness of my ownthat comes from the law.
That'swhere the Pharisees made the mistake.
They thought that by their righteousnessthey were made right with God.
And Paul says, my righteousness.
It doesn't come from the law,but my righteousness comes through faith
in Christ.
The righteousnessfrom God that depends on faith.
(35:57):
So my righteousness does exceedthat of the Pharisees,
not in degree, but in kind,
because it's through faithin what Jesus did on the cross that I am
made right with God,not that I have earned rightness with him.
Do you understand that?
(36:17):
Now I hope
that relieves the pressure a little bit.
But let me push the pressure on you again,because
we cannot separate
the righteousness of God
from being right with him
and showing that rightthe rightness in our lifestyle.
(36:38):
You can't separate the two.
James 218
someone will say, you have faith.
I have works fine.
Show me your faith apart from your works,and I'll show you my faith by my works.
See, so many of us want
want an excuse to not.
(37:01):
And we
gravitate to the truth that I am maderight by God, by faith.
Absolutely. And be.And here's the here's our problem.
Because we know that we're maderight by God, by faith.
Now, I have an excuse to not.
I don't have to study my Bible every dayand memorize scripture,
because I'm already made right with Godby faith.
(37:22):
I don't have to evangelizeand tell people in my head about Christ,
because I'm already made rightby God, by faith.
I don't have to tithe because I'm alreadymade right by God, by faith.
And we use the truth of being made rightby God, by faith and his excuse
to be unrighteous in our living.
And James says, you can't do that.
(37:46):
You can't separate these two.
Yes, we're made right by God, by faith,
and we're called to righteous living. Now,
let me put this, James two way
in, in, in, in clear, understanding.
Let me let me just reworkthe words a little bit.
Someone will say,
(38:07):
you have faith.
I have works fine.
Show me your faith by not tithing,
and I'll show you my faith by tithing.
Do you understand?
How can you prove your faith by not doing?
It's like saying.
(38:27):
I'll show youhow fast I am by not running.
Does that make any sense?
Yet that's what we do with faith.
And Jesus says righteousness
is the primary agenda for the disciple.
Not so. You'll be right with God.
You're made right with God,but because you're made right with God.
(38:48):
Now your agendais the righteousness of God.
That's discipleship.
Second
Corinthians 521 I didn't put it up here,but I want you to write it down.
I want you to memorize this.
So Corinthians 521 so says he who knewno sin became sin for us,
(39:13):
so that we might becomethe righteousness of God.
So Jesus took all of my sin
and imputed to meall of his righteousness.
So I am right with God,not because of what I've done,
but because of the righteousnessthat's been imputed to me.
I'm made righteous before God by faithin Jesus, and it's work on the cross.
(39:36):
So now, because I've been made righteous,now I choose get this.
Now I choose to live righteously.
It's not an excuse
to not live righteously.
Now that's my primary agenda.
We cannot accept the righteousnessof Christ and live righteously.
(40:00):
Can't do it.
See, my dear friends, faiththat doesn't obey shows
that it was a faith that never believed.
And faith
that won't follow is a faiththat will not last.
Please understand
(40:21):
that obedience and righteousness is notthe proof of salvation, or is not the.
It is not the price of salvation.
It's the proof of it.
And what Jesus is going to doin these next three chapters,
chapter five, six and seven, isgive us a model of the kingdom
of of a life lived in the kingdom,and it will be unattainable.
(40:44):
Everything that he says in Matthewfive six and seven, like there's no way
we can't live up to this.
It's a great standard.
It's the high watermark,
but we're going to fall far short.
We just can't live up to it.
(41:04):
And in response
to what we're called toand the realize realization
of what we're capable of,we say, God, I can't,
I can't,
and so do for mewhat I can't do for myself.
I accept the work of Jesus on the cross,
and I, by faith,
(41:24):
I stand before you declared righteous.
And because of that grace,
I will spend the rest of my life
sacrificing my agenda for your kingdom
and living a lifestyle of righteousness.
(41:46):
I will study scripture and memorize it,
and I will evangelize those around mewho don't know Jesus.
And I will tithe,
and I will practice spiritual discernment
not so that I'll be right with you, butbecause you've declared me right with you.
And this is my response as a disciple.
You understand?
(42:07):
To understand.
And so, dear friends,we get to choose now, crowd
or disciple.
I invite you to pray with me, father.
Thank you.
Thank you.
(42:28):
The standard you have is
is unattainable for us in ourselves. God.
And I thank youthat we don't have to try to get to
you based on our own abilityand behavior in obedience.
Thank you. You knew we couldn't.
So, father, I thank youthat in the midst of that sin,
you loved us so muchthat you sent your son.
(42:52):
To be our way.
To be made right with you.
Friends, if you've never given your lifeto Jesus yet, if you've tried
to be righteous of your own doingand you realize you just can't,
would you just sacrifice that right now
and come to God based on his terms,not yours?
(43:12):
I invite you in this moment to say, God,I'm sorry for my sin.
I can't be good enough.
I've tried. I just keep failing.
Jesus, I accept what you did
on the cross to make me right.
I accept your death for me.
I believe in your resurrection
and I give myself to you.
(43:35):
Friends, if you've prayed that prayer,would you go a step further?
Maybe this morning.
And say, God, God, because you've made meright with you through your son.
I want to live a righteous life
not because I have to,but because you've done so much for me.
It's my natural response.
(44:00):
Would you give mea desire to live righteously
as an expression of my love for you?
Thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your grace.
When I'm unrighteous,
that you've given me your righteousness.
But in response to that, father,
(44:23):
oh, God.
Would you increase my desire
to live righteously?
Your agenda above mine.
You must increase.
I must decrease.
(44:47):
Father, thank you for your love.
Help us to love you more.
In your name I pray.
Amen.
I love you.
Good job.
Hang in with me through that one.
This week.
Read Matthew five.
There's enough there.
You could just stay in Matthew fivethis whole week.
(45:08):
It's lofty.
It's difficult.
And we'll try to unpack some of itnext week.
Deal I love youif you have people in your world
in your huddle that don't have a churchhome, invite them next week.
You understand that?
(45:29):
It's pretty clear you understand that.
Yes. Okay, listen, I'm not
afraid to start this all over again.
Let's sing.
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