March 17, 2025 • 31 mins
What did you think of today's message?
With Northgate Online, you can join us every Sunday live at 9:00a and 11:00a, and our gatherings are available on-demand starting at 7p! Join us at https://thisis.church
Subscribe to our channel to see more messages from Northgate: https://www.youtube.com/@Northgate2201
—
If you would like to give, visit https://thisis.church/give/
—
Check out our Care Ministries for prayer, food pantry, memorial services and more at https://thisis.church/care
—
You are welcome at Northgate just like you are. Life may be going great for you or you may have hurts, hang-ups, and habits. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome at Northgate. We value the process of journey. We believe in the transformative power of Christ. Northgate has a clear vision of transforming our homes, communities, and world by Pursuing God, Building Community, and Unleashing Compassion.
—
Follow Northgate on Instagram: https://instgram.com/ngatecf
Follow Northgate on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsNorthgate/
Follow Larry Davis: https://www.instagram.com/sirlawrencedavis
Subscribe to Northgate's Podcast (Apple): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/northgate/id1583512612
Subscribe to Northgate's Podcast (Google): https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS81ODE2ODAucnNz
Share your experience with Northgate by leaving a review: https://g.page/r/CRHE7UBydhxzEBM/review
...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
All right, that's it for today, guys.
See you, that was great, killedit.
That's awesome.
A couple quick things before wehop on in.
Easter is in a couple weeks.
We're going to have threeEaster services seven in the
morning, nine in the morning and11.
If you are able to make itseven, there's a sunrise.
(00:25):
It's beautiful, it's what wecall a sunrise service and it
would be so helpful because it'skind of like a family reunion.
Everybody shows up for Easter.
We all get to see each other.
It's great.
We want to make space for peoplewho are bringing friends,
because we're also doingbaptisms.
Right now.
We have, I think, over 50people sign up to get baptized.
So if you want to get baptized,please let us know in the
connection card.
(00:45):
We'd love to get you hooked up,give you information, give you
invites to invite friends,family, whoever, to come to one
of those three services.
And it's one of the last weeks.
It's the week before the lastweek of Matthew, the Gospel of
Matthew.
We have started this.
Get this.
I don't know if you guys know.
August of 2021 is when westarted the gospel, according to
(01:06):
Matthew, and you're almostthere.
So if you miss anything, you'vegot a little bit of time.
No, you're like oh my gosh,it's so much.
We've been going through thisverse by verse.
Later on I'll tell you whatwe're doing next, because some
of you guys are like what'shappening now and we'll get into
that, but we've been goingthrough this verse by verse.
If you're new with us, we're inchapter 26.
(01:26):
We're doing a big chunk today.
We're getting down to the finaltwo chapters.
Next week we'll be in chapter27 of 28.
So, if you're new or here today, or if you're not a Christian
or not a believer, maybe youused to be like a church person
and now you're back in churchand you're just kind of checking
out.
You're not really sure yet ifyou're a church person, like
really a church person.
(01:47):
I'll tell you this One of thethings that has always baffled
you, or baffled us Christiansthat we do, is this should, by
the way, baffle you.
One of the things that you findvery strange about Christians
and you should, by the way, findthis very strange about
Christians, and you should, bythe way, find this very strange
is that Christians, weChristians we often resist the
(02:08):
God we say we trust, like, infact let's just be honest Like
we're all in church.
We're all sitting here in thisspace, like, let's be honest
with ourself, how many of youwho are Christians would say at
some point in your life, ormaybe even today, you're like in
(02:32):
the midst of right now you'vefound yourself in this internal
battle with God and you foundyourself resisting the God you
say you trust.
I know, in fact, some of you inhere in the middle of that
right now, that battle.
Right now you know you'resaying like I know I should
forgive, but like it's hard toforgive.
You know you're saying like Iknow I should forgive, but like
it's hard to forgive.
I know I shouldn't do thatthing that I'm doing, but you do
do that thing.
You know.
I know I shouldn't spend mymoney that way, or I should be
(02:53):
more generous, or I know, andyou know what.
You sit there and you're likeyour heart tells you what's
right and your conscious tellsyou what's right.
If you read the scriptures, thescriptures tells you what's
right.
If you read the scriptures, thescriptures tell you what's
right and you're trying tofollow Jesus and we find
ourselves resisting the God thatwe say we trust.
Now, if you're not a Christianor a church person, you actually
(03:15):
have a word for this, it'scalled hypocrisy.
Right that we don't actuallywalk our talk sometimes and we
own that.
But come on, Can I just ask for,like, a little grace in the
midst of this?
Like, be merciful to us, cut usa little bit of slack, because
here's the deal.
It is very difficult tosurrender your life to a God
(03:35):
you've never seen, and it's verydifficult to surrender your
life to a God who speaks throughyour conscience or through
ancient literature and speaks toyour heart.
It is very difficult tobasically write a blank check of
life, of your life, to a Godyou've never seen.
And this is the ongoing battle.
Like, this is the battle thatwe struggle with.
(03:55):
This is the ongoing strugglethat, even if you're not a
Christian, even if you are not areligious person, you
understand this battle.
Like, if nothing else, askyourself this question what is
your conscience?
Like, what's taking place there?
And so today I just want us tolook at there's a little bit of
us and two charactersspecifically we see that we're
(04:18):
reading about today.
I'm going to hop in.
I know this is a lot and youjust heard it, but we're going
to unpack it a little bit more,starting in verse 43,.
It says when he came back, thisis Jesus.
He's coming back Now.
He was in the garden ofGethsemane and he's just having
this sorrowful prayer that isfilled with grief to the point
of death.
And it's literally about a cupand he's saying to God please
take this cup from me of painand suffering and sorrow.
(04:41):
But he's saying, but not mywill, if it be yours, then
that's what's gonna be done.
So now he's coming back tocheck on his disciples.
And there's three discipleswith him.
It says.
And Gideon found them, thesethree guys sleeping, because
their eyes were heavy.
It's the middle of the night.
So he left them again and wentaway once more and prayed a
third time, saying the samething.
And three, the number three inthe Bible, represents completion
(05:02):
.
So basically he was prayingthis all the way through, like
I'm going to ask you this finaltime, kind of like three strikes
, this is the whole thing.
Will you take this from me?
But if it's not your will, ifit's not, don't let it be my
will, but let it be yours.
Then it says he returned to thedisciples and he said to them
are you still sleeping?
And resting?
(05:22):
Like, look, guys, the hour hascome.
The Son of man is beingdelivered into the hands of
sinners.
Rise and let us go.
Here comes my betrayer, andwhile he was still speaking,
judas, one of the twelve,arrived and with him a large
crowd armed with swords andclubs sent from the chief
(05:43):
priests and the elders of thepeople.
Now the betrayer had arranged asignal with them.
The one I kiss is the man.
Arrest him and going once toJesus, judah says greetings,
rabbi.
And he kissed him.
Now, this wasn't like somesuper special code, this was not
an abnormal thing.
That's how they actuallygreeted one another.
They greeted one another with akiss.
(06:03):
But now it's dark and he'ssaying hey, there could be some
other guys there and I'm goingto let you know the one.
The first one I go and I greetthis way, is the one you're
looking for, because you're in agarden, it's the middle of the
night.
A lot of them, they all lookkind of the same, right, and so
Jesus replied to them.
After replied to him, do whatyou came for, friend, which is
really interesting If you lookat Passover, he kind of
(06:25):
dismissed Judas in the same way,saying hey, you can go handle
the business you came here andwish to do.
Then the men stepped forward,seized Jesus and arrested him
and with that, one of Jesus'scompanions reached for his sword
and drew it out and struck theservant of the high priest,
cutting off his ear.
Now we actually know who thisis, because the other gospels
(06:46):
tell us that this was Peter.
Peter, james and John were thethree disciples that were with
Jesus, and Peter's the one whothen took out a sword and struck
that.
And then Jesus kind of rebukeshim and says put, what are you
doing, peter?
Put your sword back in itsplace.
Jesus said to him for all whodraw the sword will die by the
sword.
Like what are you doing?
For three years I spent timetrying to teach you that this
isn't the way in which we reactto evil or to injustice, like
(07:11):
this is the upside down kingdom.
And look at you, just kind offalling back into place.
You're taking out a sword andyou're trying to chop somebody's
head off.
He said you need to stop.
Don't you think that I cannotcall my father and he won't at
once put at my disposal morethan 12 legions of angels?
But then how?
When would the scriptures befulfilled that say it must
actually happen this way?
(07:32):
And then, in the same hour,jesus said to the crowd that was
there, you know he was going.
What am I leading some kind ofrebellion, that you have to
actually come out here in themiddle of the night with swords
and clubs to capture me?
Every day, this whole last week, passover week, this whole
festival week, I've sat down inthe temple courts every day
teaching, and you didn't arrestme.
Then you saw me.
(07:53):
But this has all taken place,that the writings of the
prophets may be fulfilled.
And then get this it says thatall the disciples deserted him
and fled Oof.
So the first character is Peter.
You know, if I'm going to justsay, like Peter, he's trying,
he's with them and it's just sohard to get it.
(08:15):
And Jesus has to be like, comeon, dude, like what are you
doing?
So there's a little bit ofPeter in all of us that are just
struggling like how we reactand how we respond to people in
the midst of difficultsituations.
And then next it says in verse57, those who had arrested Jesus
took him to Caiaphas, the highpriest, where the teachers of
(08:38):
the law and the elders hadassembled.
So now the character in whichwe're going to talk about is
this guy named Joseph Caiaphas.
He was the high priest from 18to 36 AD and you know him if you
grew up in church just simplyas Caiaphas.
You've heard this short storyabout him.
You know, you understand thatCaiaphas maybe was the or maybe
(08:59):
you don't understand that he wasthe high priest at the time of
Jesus, which means that he wasthe most powerful, the most
influential person in Jerusalem,judea and what we would
consider ancient Israel Like.
He was the guy.
He was the connecting pointbetween the nation of Israel and
Rome, the person whocommunicated with Pilate or
(09:20):
whoever was the leader of theRoman garrison, whoever that was
, in whatever point that theywere at in their own leadership.
But, even more significant thanthat, caiaphas was a part of
this larger family and it'sreally hard to just capture and
describe the significance ofthis.
He was a part of a family thatactually controlled the temple
(09:40):
and the politics and thereligion and the power that was
in the temple for 40 years,because his father-in-law was a
high priest and five of hisbrother-in-laws were high
priests.
So basically, this is like adynasty.
They had all the power, theyhad all the influence and they
had extraordinary wealth, andthat's because Jews all over the
(10:02):
world paid what's called atemple tax, which would have
been the equivalent of millionsupon millions, upon millions of
dollars that would flow intothis 32-acre piece of real
estate known as the temple inthe middle of Jerusalem.
And everyone paid the templetax, not just the people who
lived in the vicinity.
So much money in fact actuallypoured into the temple through
(10:24):
the temple tax that there wereRoman providences all around the
Roman Empire where governorsactually tried to pass laws
against the Jews paying into thetemple tax and the surrounding
provinces, into, then, judea,into the city of Jerusalem and
then ultimately, specifically,into the temple.
And so Caiaphas he not only hadextraordinary power, he had
(10:49):
extraordinary influence becausehe had extraordinary access to
extraordinary wealth.
Extraordinary Did you get that?
Said that a bunch, and thingswent fine for Caiaphas, who was
the high priest, until acarpenter turned rabbi stepped
(11:11):
onto the pages of history, andwe know him as Jesus of Nazareth
(11:35):
, and so verse 59, and rebuildit in three days.
Then the high priest stood upand said to Jesus are you not
going to answer?
What is this testimony thatthese men are bringing against
you?
But Jesus remained silent.
The high priest then said tohim I charge you under the oath
by the living God.
Tell us if you are the Messiah,the son of God.
(11:57):
You have said so.
Jesus replied, but I say to allof you, and now he quotes for
the second time Psalm 110.
From now on, you will see theSon of man sitting at the right
hand of the Mighty One andcoming on the clouds of heaven.
Then the high priest tore hisclothes and said he has spoken
(12:19):
blasphemy.
Why do you need any morewitnesses?
Look now you have heard theblasphemy.
What do you all think?
And they responded he is worthyof death.
Then they spit in his face,they struck him with their fists
and others slapped him and saidprophecy to us, messiah, who
(12:40):
hits you?
So when Jesus showed up, theproblem was and Caiaphas had all
this power, he's got all ofthis wealth, he's got all this
influence, he's in this familythat controls everything.
And when Jesus shows up, theproblem with Jesus specifically
is the crowds.
It's the crowds.
(13:00):
It wasn't his teaching.
People taught all kinds ofcrazy things.
It was the crowds of peoplethat were gathering, and
everywhere Jesus went, therewere crowds.
Everywhere he went, there wasat least hundreds, and
oftentimes thousands of peoplethat would show up and this was
a threat to Rome and this was athreat to the Jewish system.
(13:20):
Because crowds, what they meantwas potential insurrection.
Crowds meant division.
Crowds meant that things maynot go well and they may not go
well quickly if suddenly a crowdturned on the Jewish leaders
and turned on the Roman garrison.
So the Romans, they wereconcerned about the crowd and
Caiaphas and his posse areconcerned about the crowds.
But everywhere Jesus went hedrew these huge crowds and
(13:45):
Caiaphas and his group.
They never drew a crowd Like.
Only during festivals is whenpeople would come around to them
.
The other thing that was aproblem in terms of Jesus and
his relationship with Caiaphasis that when Jesus spoke, when
Jesus acted and behaved, he didso with extraordinary authority,
authority.
(14:05):
People were just amazed by hisauthority.
In fact, remember the story ofJesus teaching he comes actually
into the temple and startsthrowing over tables and chasing
off the animals and releasingdoves and kind of wreaking havoc
there and wreaking havoc on themoney changers in the temple.
Now, when the religious leaderssent by Caiaphas approached
Jesus, they didn't say what doyou think you're doing?
(14:26):
They wanted to know about hisauthority.
They asked this question thatthey knew they needed to ask,
which is who do you think youare to do this?
Who do you think you are?
Because Jesus acted and behavedand spoke with such
extraordinary authority.
Also and we have seen this aswe've walked through these last
(14:48):
couple chapters Jesus wasextremely critical of the
religious leaders.
You want to see what a Jesusrant looks like?
Go back to chapter 23, and it'sjust a huge, long rant towards
these religious leaders.
And so Caiaphas A huge, longrant towards these religious
leaders.
And so Caiaphas he had a littleproblem with Jesus's authority,
with the crowds and hiscriticism of everyone that
(15:09):
Caiaphas worked with, and forthat Jesus actually threatened
the peace, and Jesus thenpersonally threatened the
peacekeepers as they saw it.
And now what happens is justbuilds and builds and builds
throughout the gospels, and thereligious leaders, and Caiaphas
in particular, then realizedthat their strategy to try to
(15:31):
like tear this thing down wasfailing, and what it was is
their strategy up to this pointwas actually to discredit Jesus
publicly.
That's why, when you read thegospels, they're constantly
asking Jesus all these liketrick questions and every time
they think they've got him,jesus comes back with a snappy
answer and they feel like theylook stupid and people are like,
yeah, that's right, get himright.
(15:53):
And so the point of thesequestions were actually to
divide Jesus from the crowd.
They wanted Jesus to lose thecrowd, because once Jesus loses
the crowd, there's no longer athreat of peace.
And that would have that wouldhave affected and that he
established they had establishedwith Rome.
And so the Pharisees and theleaders of the temple are just
(16:13):
like throwing their hands up.
They're like we keep trying todo this.
They're just thinking like howis this ever going to end?
Like what else do we got to do?
And the gospel according to Johnlike takes a peek in the window
of the Pharisees' interactionsright here with one another.
So the Pharisees said to oneanother see, this thing that
we're trying to do, it's gettingus nowhere.
Look how the whole world hasgone after him.
(16:34):
And this was their strategy,right, it was to try to
discredit him with the peopleand asking him all these
questions, tricky questions, andthey're saying like this isn't
working, like it's getting usnowhere.
And then I love this.
Look how the whole world hasgone after him, like we're
trying to discredit him andpeople are just falling more in
love with this guy.
Now pause, it's because you needto know this.
Like, how do we get thisinformation?
(16:54):
I'm gonna fast forward on youreally quickly, like fast
forward you into the book ofActs.
So it goes Matthew, mark, luke,john, acts, the book of Acts.
And the book of Acts isactually what tells us what
happened in the church afterJesus was raised from the dead.
Spoiler alert, sorry.
The book of Acts actually tellsus who Luke investigated all of
these things.
Luke tells us actually thatmany, many priests and Pharisees
(17:18):
later became followers anddisciples of Jesus.
That's how John then got thisinside track to this information
, because the gospel, accordingto John, was written much, much
later.
And so he's got this differentperspective and these people
telling us like, hey, this iswhat was going on.
You're never going to believethis.
And Luke is investigating someof the priests that eventually
follows Jesus and some of thePharisees.
(17:38):
And John is, like you know,sitting there writing this stuff
down and they're like you'renot, you can't even believe the
meetings we had about this Jesusguy.
Like we were so frustrated,like no matter what we did, no
matter what we said, no matterwhat we came with, like Jesus
made us look like fools over andover and over again and then
(17:59):
says that the chief priests andthe Pharisees, what they do.
Then they're like, trying tofigure this out they call the
meeting of the Sanhedrin.
Now, for us, that means almostnothing to us.
We just don't understand howsignificant this is.
But let me try to put this intocontext.
For this group, this is likethree different groups of people
.
There's a little bit ofcrossover in them and what they
believe.
There's different groups thatdidn't always get along.
(18:20):
One of the things they didn'tsee is eye-to-eye theologically,
like the Sadducees, they werepart of this group.
They didn't think there wassuch thing as a resurrection.
Most of the Pharisees thoughtthere was, and they were part of
this group.
They also didn't get alongpolitically.
They didn't have the same ideaabout how Israel should relate
to Rome.
So here's your modern-daycontext.
This is what this is like.
This is why this is such a bigdeal.
(18:42):
So this is like bringing theHouse, the Senate, the
Republicans, the Democrats andthe Supreme Court all together
and agreeing on something rightI'm not kidding Like
contextually.
This is what this is Like.
We just don't understand this.
This is like impossiblebecoming some sort of
possibility.
(19:02):
And so they said, together inthis meeting.
They're getting together rightLike, the harder we try, the
bigger these crowds get.
And so they ask what are weaccomplishing?
They ask here's this man who'sperforming many of these signs.
And this is where it gets sorelevant and like practical for
us that there was something thatwas so important to this group
(19:25):
of people that to follow Jesusand to embrace this
carpenter-turned-rabbi whoclaimed to be the savior of the
world, to embrace Jesus, whoJesus claimed to be, meant that
they would have to let go ofsomething that was extremely,
(19:45):
extremely important to them.
And what was that?
It was their I mean our power,it was their, our popularity,
and in our I mean their case, itwas their wealth, or our wealth
.
They knew what they needed todo, but it was gonna cost them
(20:08):
way too much.
They knew how they needed torespond, but the price was just
too high.
And so they say, man, if we lethim go on like this, everybody's
gonna believe him.
And then what's going to happenis the Romans will come and
take away both our temple andour nation, like, if we don't do
(20:29):
anything, we're going to loseeverything that's actually
important to us.
Because, friends, when youdecide to follow Jesus, it's
going to cost you something.
In fact, as a Christian, whenyou finally decide, when things
come up that are more importantto you than your relationship
with God, every single time youand I decide to put Jesus at the
(20:52):
front and center of our life,every time we choose to do that,
it's going to cost yousomething.
Like it costs you something,guys, like one of the reasons
many of you have resisted churchfor so long.
I totally get this Like.
I completely empathize this.
I mean, I know I'm a pastor,but remember, I am a flawed
human and I get this likedeciding and choosing to follow
(21:13):
Jesus is going to cost yousomething.
And there they are.
What do we do with Jesus?
Everybody's following this guy,and then one of them named
Caiaphas no-transcript.
You know nothing at all.
You do not realize that it isbetter for us I mean you that
(21:40):
one man die for us I mean thepeople, of course the people,
not for us.
Then the whole nation perish.
It's for the nation, not for us, but it's kind of for us
because we have all of this Now,caiaphas.
He's got this problem right.
Rome wouldn't execute anybodyover a violation of Jewish law.
(22:02):
And if you violate a Jewish law, even if it demanded death
according to the Old Testamentlaw.
Rome ignored that part ofJewish law, and so he needed to
come up with a charge.
He needed to come up withsomething else that would give
him an actual opportunity totake Jesus to Rome and say, hey,
this isn't just someone whobroke the Jewish law, he's
broken a Roman law.
(22:22):
In fact, what he needed to dois he needed a charge of
sedition, which meant that heneeded to be able to demonstrate
to Pilate that Jesus was anactual threat, not simply to
Jewish peace or to Rome peace,but the Roman empire.
And Jesus had claimed to be andwould claim to be and here's
(22:42):
the thing a king, and so that'sall Caiaphas needed.
And so he's pegged Jesus withthe charge of sedition because
he claimed to be a king, and sohe could now have Jesus
crucified, and the threat thenwould finally be eliminated.
Their position in the nationand the city would now be secure
(23:05):
.
Now, what do you think that hasto do with you and I?
I think everything.
Why?
Because there's a littlekaiaphas in all of us.
There's a little kaiaphas in methat says preserve at all costs
, preserve my reputation,preserve that relationship that
(23:30):
you know you shouldn't be in,but it means so much to you
right now and you would doanything to preserve it, or that
position, or that status, orthat lot, whatever it is.
And you find yourself thinking,god, either help me or get out
of my way.
Either help me, get this rightand keep this thing front and
(23:53):
center that I want, because it'smy kingdom and I care about it,
or get out of the way and don'tbother me.
Whatever that is at the centerof your life, this is the thing
that has replaced God in yourlife.
What is it?
Is it a position?
Is it a person?
Is it status?
Is it GPA?
(24:14):
Is it that college you'retrying to get into?
Even if you have to cheat, youwon't allow that thing to suffer
.
There's something, there'ssomething, friends, in all of us
that says preserve, preserve,preserve.
But here's.
I want you to hear one thing,and if you haven't been paying
attention so far, like, tuneback in right here, just for
this part, just hang with me.
Whatever right here, just forthis part, just hang with me.
(24:40):
Whatever you have replaced Godwith in your life, whatever you
have placed at the center ofyour life other than God, or, if
you're a Christian other thanfollowing Jesus as your Lord.
Whatever you have placed andreplaced God with in your life
and replaced God with in yourlife, here it is is already
(25:03):
diminishing in value andsignificance.
It is, and I can prove it toyou.
You see, my greatest regret,your greatest regrets, are
connected to your attempts topreserve something that probably
isn't even a part of your lifeanymore.
I mean, think about it Likethat thing, whatever that thing
was, or that relationship orthat person was losing
significance even as you clungtightly and this was the case
(25:24):
with Caiaphas, like the fuse hadbeen lit.
He was losing significance, hewas losing his place every
single day and he never evenknew it until it was gone.
And here's why it's because thelittle gods will always
disappoint.
The thing that you place inyour life in place of God will
(25:47):
always, always disappoint.
And here's the problem it's thepressure to preserve that thing
, that relationship or whateverit is.
The pressure to preserve thelittle gods will eventually
drive you to self-destructivebehavior and other destructive
extremes.
The pressure that you're goingto feel to prop up the little
(26:10):
gods ultimately will drive youto self-destructive behaviors,
and that's why your greatestregret is connected to your
attempt at preserving somethingthat you had no business
preserving in the first place.
That's not even a part of yourlife anymore, because God
actually has a plan for yourlife and God has a will for your
life.
And to put anything else at thecenter of your life other than
(26:32):
your creator, god, your heavenlyfather, sets you up for
self-destructive behavior thatultimately hurts people around
you, including you.
I mean.
Think about this.
This is actually amazing.
Caiaphas, the high priest, hadaccess to the oldest existing
copy of the law of God thatactually said thou shall not
(26:54):
murder.
Right, you maybe heard one ofthe Ten Commandments and as a
priest, as the guardian, as thehigh priest, he was a steward of
God's law.
Where it was first.
We see it first written onstone, given to Moses,
eventually copied and copied.
Caiaphas actually had access tothe oldest existing version of
thou shall not murder, and yetwhat happened?
(27:14):
He murdered an innocent man.
You know why this is the scarypart?
Because our capacity for eviland our capacity for sin is
extraordinary when we are tryingto preserve something that's in
the place of God.
This is why our greatest regret, my greatest regret, is
connected to a season of life.
(27:35):
This is why our greatest regret, my greatest regret, is
connected to a season of life, aweekend of your life, a
relationship in your life wherewe have tried to prop something
up that should have never beenthe center of our life to begin
with.
The little gods will always,always disappoint, and I
understand why we say we resistthe God that we say we trust.
(27:58):
I understand surrender isterrifying, like it's terrifying
, but the story of Caiaphasreminds us of something that we
dare not ever forget, and it'sthis that while saying yes to
God will cost you something,saying no will cost you even
(28:24):
more.
And here's the kicker Saying nowill not only cost you more,
but it will also cost you thatthing, including what you have
put in place of God to beginwith.
So closing question is this whathave you put in place of God in
(28:45):
your life?
This is a great opportunity forself-evaluation,
self-reflection.
This isn't shame.
What is dead center other thanyour heavenly father?
Like, what's the thing that yousay?
Like God, I need you to help mekeep this.
This is what I need.
This is what I need you for.
Like, maintain this, and if youdon't and you even threaten
that you're going to take itaway.
If you try to.
(29:10):
I'm done with you.
I'm not kidding.
Like I'll be done, I'm going towalk.
That's a little God that willultimately disappoint and you
will spend time and effort andenergy and money trying to prop
it up and keep it alive andultimately it disappoints and
disappears.
So what have you put in theplace of God in your life?
(29:31):
Or what are you seeking topreserve or prop up that
actually needs to be surrendered?
Or, let me put it this way,what's the little gods that's
demanding more and more andproviding less and less?
Because saying I get it, sayingyes to God, will cost you
(29:54):
something, but saying no willcost you so much more, including
what you've replaced God withto begin with.
That's the lesson from the lifeof Caiaphas, and I'll tell you
this it is way easier for me tostand up here and say than to
walk off this stage.
(30:15):
And do I get it?
But by God's grace and the helpof the Holy Spirit, may we
friends wrestle this stuff tothe ground and may God give us
his gentle spirit and compassionas we do just that.
(30:35):
So I'm going to invite you intolike 30 seconds of silence
Again.
There's no shame in this, butthis is a great opportunity for
confession andself-contemplation.
Like what is that thing?
And, holy Spirit, would youhelp me wrestle?
Would you wrestle this awayfrom me?
This cup, your will, not mine.
(31:00):
What is the thing you arewilling and not willing to give
up and let him meet you there?
You got like 20 seconds.
Just spend time with yourfather and then Aaron's going to
invite you to respond andworship.
All right, that's it for today, guys.
See you, that was great, killedit.
That's awesome.
A couple quick things before wehop on in.
Easter is in a couple weeks.
We're going to have threeEaster services seven in the
morning, nine in the morning and11.
If you are able to make itseven, there's a sunrise.
(00:25):
It's beautiful, it's what wecall a sunrise service and it
would be so helpful because it'skind of like a family reunion.
Everybody shows up for Easter.
We all get to see each other.
It's great.
We want to make space for peoplewho are bringing friends,
because we're also doingbaptisms.
Right now.
We have, I think, over 50people sign up to get baptized.
So if you want to get baptized,please let us know in the
connection card.
(00:45):
We'd love to get you hooked up,give you information, give you
invites to invite friends,family, whoever, to come to one
of those three services.
And it's one of the last weeks.
It's the week before the lastweek of Matthew, the Gospel of
Matthew.
We have started this.
Get this.
I don't know if you guys know.
August of 2021 is when westarted the gospel, according to
(01:06):
Matthew, and you're almostthere.
So if you miss anything, you'vegot a little bit of time.
No, you're like oh my gosh,it's so much.
We've been going through thisverse by verse.
Later on I'll tell you whatwe're doing next, because some
of you guys are like what'shappening now and we'll get into
that, but we've been goingthrough this verse by verse.
If you're new with us, we're inchapter 26.
(01:26):
We're doing a big chunk today.
We're getting down to the finaltwo chapters.
Next week we'll be in chapter27 of 28.
So, if you're new or here today, or if you're not a Christian
or not a believer, maybe youused to be like a church person
and now you're back in churchand you're just kind of checking
out.
You're not really sure yet ifyou're a church person, like
really a church person.
(01:47):
I'll tell you this One of thethings that has always baffled
you, or baffled us Christiansthat we do, is this should, by
the way, baffle you.
One of the things that you findvery strange about Christians
and you should, by the way, findthis very strange about
Christians, and you should, bythe way, find this very strange
is that Christians, weChristians we often resist the
(02:08):
God we say we trust, like, infact let's just be honest Like
we're all in church.
We're all sitting here in thisspace, like, let's be honest
with ourself, how many of youwho are Christians would say at
some point in your life, ormaybe even today, you're like in
(02:32):
the midst of right now you'vefound yourself in this internal
battle with God and you foundyourself resisting the God you
say you trust.
I know, in fact, some of you inhere in the middle of that
right now, that battle.
Right now you know you'resaying like I know I should
forgive, but like it's hard toforgive.
You know you're saying like Iknow I should forgive, but like
it's hard to forgive.
I know I shouldn't do thatthing that I'm doing, but you do
do that thing.
You know.
I know I shouldn't spend mymoney that way, or I should be
(02:53):
more generous, or I know, andyou know what.
You sit there and you're likeyour heart tells you what's
right and your conscious tellsyou what's right.
If you read the scriptures, thescriptures tells you what's
right.
If you read the scriptures, thescriptures tell you what's
right and you're trying tofollow Jesus and we find
ourselves resisting the God thatwe say we trust.
Now, if you're not a Christianor a church person, you actually
(03:15):
have a word for this, it'scalled hypocrisy.
Right that we don't actuallywalk our talk sometimes and we
own that.
But come on, Can I just ask for,like, a little grace in the
midst of this?
Like, be merciful to us, cut usa little bit of slack, because
here's the deal.
It is very difficult tosurrender your life to a God
(03:35):
you've never seen, and it's verydifficult to surrender your
life to a God who speaks throughyour conscience or through
ancient literature and speaks toyour heart.
It is very difficult tobasically write a blank check of
life, of your life, to a Godyou've never seen.
And this is the ongoing battle.
Like, this is the battle thatwe struggle with.
(03:55):
This is the ongoing strugglethat, even if you're not a
Christian, even if you are not areligious person, you
understand this battle.
Like, if nothing else, askyourself this question what is
your conscience?
Like, what's taking place there?
And so today I just want us tolook at there's a little bit of
us and two charactersspecifically we see that we're
(04:18):
reading about today.
I'm going to hop in.
I know this is a lot and youjust heard it, but we're going
to unpack it a little bit more,starting in verse 43,.
It says when he came back, thisis Jesus.
He's coming back Now.
He was in the garden ofGethsemane and he's just having
this sorrowful prayer that isfilled with grief to the point
of death.
And it's literally about a cupand he's saying to God please
take this cup from me of painand suffering and sorrow.
(04:41):
But he's saying, but not mywill, if it be yours, then
that's what's gonna be done.
So now he's coming back tocheck on his disciples.
And there's three discipleswith him.
It says.
And Gideon found them, thesethree guys sleeping, because
their eyes were heavy.
It's the middle of the night.
So he left them again and wentaway once more and prayed a
third time, saying the samething.
And three, the number three inthe Bible, represents completion
(05:02):
.
So basically he was prayingthis all the way through, like
I'm going to ask you this finaltime, kind of like three strikes
, this is the whole thing.
Will you take this from me?
But if it's not your will, ifit's not, don't let it be my
will, but let it be yours.
Then it says he returned to thedisciples and he said to them
are you still sleeping?
And resting?
(05:22):
Like, look, guys, the hour hascome.
The Son of man is beingdelivered into the hands of
sinners.
Rise and let us go.
Here comes my betrayer, andwhile he was still speaking,
judas, one of the twelve,arrived and with him a large
crowd armed with swords andclubs sent from the chief
(05:43):
priests and the elders of thepeople.
Now the betrayer had arranged asignal with them.
The one I kiss is the man.
Arrest him and going once toJesus, judah says greetings,
rabbi.
And he kissed him.
Now, this wasn't like somesuper special code, this was not
an abnormal thing.
That's how they actuallygreeted one another.
They greeted one another with akiss.
(06:03):
But now it's dark and he'ssaying hey, there could be some
other guys there and I'm goingto let you know the one.
The first one I go and I greetthis way, is the one you're
looking for, because you're in agarden, it's the middle of the
night.
A lot of them, they all lookkind of the same, right, and so
Jesus replied to them.
After replied to him, do whatyou came for, friend, which is
really interesting If you lookat Passover, he kind of
(06:25):
dismissed Judas in the same way,saying hey, you can go handle
the business you came here andwish to do.
Then the men stepped forward,seized Jesus and arrested him
and with that, one of Jesus'scompanions reached for his sword
and drew it out and struck theservant of the high priest,
cutting off his ear.
Now we actually know who thisis, because the other gospels
(06:46):
tell us that this was Peter.
Peter, james and John were thethree disciples that were with
Jesus, and Peter's the one whothen took out a sword and struck
that.
And then Jesus kind of rebukeshim and says put, what are you
doing, peter?
Put your sword back in itsplace.
Jesus said to him for all whodraw the sword will die by the
sword.
Like what are you doing?
For three years I spent timetrying to teach you that this
isn't the way in which we reactto evil or to injustice, like
(07:11):
this is the upside down kingdom.
And look at you, just kind offalling back into place.
You're taking out a sword andyou're trying to chop somebody's
head off.
He said you need to stop.
Don't you think that I cannotcall my father and he won't at
once put at my disposal morethan 12 legions of angels?
But then how?
When would the scriptures befulfilled that say it must
actually happen this way?
(07:32):
And then, in the same hour,jesus said to the crowd that was
there, you know he was going.
What am I leading some kind ofrebellion, that you have to
actually come out here in themiddle of the night with swords
and clubs to capture me?
Every day, this whole last week, passover week, this whole
festival week, I've sat down inthe temple courts every day
teaching, and you didn't arrestme.
Then you saw me.
(07:53):
But this has all taken place,that the writings of the
prophets may be fulfilled.
And then get this it says thatall the disciples deserted him
and fled Oof.
So the first character is Peter.
You know, if I'm going to justsay, like Peter, he's trying,
he's with them and it's just sohard to get it.
(08:15):
And Jesus has to be like, comeon, dude, like what are you
doing?
So there's a little bit ofPeter in all of us that are just
struggling like how we reactand how we respond to people in
the midst of difficultsituations.
And then next it says in verse57, those who had arrested Jesus
took him to Caiaphas, the highpriest, where the teachers of
(08:38):
the law and the elders hadassembled.
So now the character in whichwe're going to talk about is
this guy named Joseph Caiaphas.
He was the high priest from 18to 36 AD and you know him if you
grew up in church just simplyas Caiaphas.
You've heard this short storyabout him.
You know, you understand thatCaiaphas maybe was the or maybe
(08:59):
you don't understand that he wasthe high priest at the time of
Jesus, which means that he wasthe most powerful, the most
influential person in Jerusalem,judea and what we would
consider ancient Israel Like.
He was the guy.
He was the connecting pointbetween the nation of Israel and
Rome, the person whocommunicated with Pilate or
(09:20):
whoever was the leader of theRoman garrison, whoever that was
, in whatever point that theywere at in their own leadership.
But, even more significant thanthat, caiaphas was a part of
this larger family and it'sreally hard to just capture and
describe the significance ofthis.
He was a part of a family thatactually controlled the temple
(09:40):
and the politics and thereligion and the power that was
in the temple for 40 years,because his father-in-law was a
high priest and five of hisbrother-in-laws were high
priests.
So basically, this is like adynasty.
They had all the power, theyhad all the influence and they
had extraordinary wealth, andthat's because Jews all over the
(10:02):
world paid what's called atemple tax, which would have
been the equivalent of millionsupon millions, upon millions of
dollars that would flow intothis 32-acre piece of real
estate known as the temple inthe middle of Jerusalem.
And everyone paid the templetax, not just the people who
lived in the vicinity.
So much money in fact actuallypoured into the temple through
(10:24):
the temple tax that there wereRoman providences all around the
Roman Empire where governorsactually tried to pass laws
against the Jews paying into thetemple tax and the surrounding
provinces, into, then, judea,into the city of Jerusalem and
then ultimately, specifically,into the temple.
And so Caiaphas he not only hadextraordinary power, he had
(10:49):
extraordinary influence becausehe had extraordinary access to
extraordinary wealth.
Extraordinary Did you get that?
Said that a bunch, and thingswent fine for Caiaphas, who was
the high priest, until acarpenter turned rabbi stepped
(11:11):
onto the pages of history, andwe know him as Jesus of Nazareth
(11:35):
, and so verse 59, and rebuildit in three days.
Then the high priest stood upand said to Jesus are you not
going to answer?
What is this testimony thatthese men are bringing against
you?
But Jesus remained silent.
The high priest then said tohim I charge you under the oath
by the living God.
Tell us if you are the Messiah,the son of God.
(11:57):
You have said so.
Jesus replied, but I say to allof you, and now he quotes for
the second time Psalm 110.
From now on, you will see theSon of man sitting at the right
hand of the Mighty One andcoming on the clouds of heaven.
Then the high priest tore hisclothes and said he has spoken
(12:19):
blasphemy.
Why do you need any morewitnesses?
Look now you have heard theblasphemy.
What do you all think?
And they responded he is worthyof death.
Then they spit in his face,they struck him with their fists
and others slapped him and saidprophecy to us, messiah, who
(12:40):
hits you?
So when Jesus showed up, theproblem was and Caiaphas had all
this power, he's got all ofthis wealth, he's got all this
influence, he's in this familythat controls everything.
And when Jesus shows up, theproblem with Jesus specifically
is the crowds.
It's the crowds.
(13:00):
It wasn't his teaching.
People taught all kinds ofcrazy things.
It was the crowds of peoplethat were gathering, and
everywhere Jesus went, therewere crowds.
Everywhere he went, there wasat least hundreds, and
oftentimes thousands of peoplethat would show up and this was
a threat to Rome and this was athreat to the Jewish system.
(13:20):
Because crowds, what they meantwas potential insurrection.
Crowds meant division.
Crowds meant that things maynot go well and they may not go
well quickly if suddenly a crowdturned on the Jewish leaders
and turned on the Roman garrison.
So the Romans, they wereconcerned about the crowd and
Caiaphas and his posse areconcerned about the crowds.
But everywhere Jesus went hedrew these huge crowds and
(13:45):
Caiaphas and his group.
They never drew a crowd Like.
Only during festivals is whenpeople would come around to them
.
The other thing that was aproblem in terms of Jesus and
his relationship with Caiaphasis that when Jesus spoke, when
Jesus acted and behaved, he didso with extraordinary authority,
authority.
(14:05):
People were just amazed by hisauthority.
In fact, remember the story ofJesus teaching he comes actually
into the temple and startsthrowing over tables and chasing
off the animals and releasingdoves and kind of wreaking havoc
there and wreaking havoc on themoney changers in the temple.
Now, when the religious leaderssent by Caiaphas approached
Jesus, they didn't say what doyou think you're doing?
(14:26):
They wanted to know about hisauthority.
They asked this question thatthey knew they needed to ask,
which is who do you think youare to do this?
Who do you think you are?
Because Jesus acted and behavedand spoke with such
extraordinary authority.
Also and we have seen this aswe've walked through these last
(14:48):
couple chapters Jesus wasextremely critical of the
religious leaders.
You want to see what a Jesusrant looks like?
Go back to chapter 23, and it'sjust a huge, long rant towards
these religious leaders.
And so Caiaphas A huge, longrant towards these religious
leaders.
And so Caiaphas he had a littleproblem with Jesus's authority,
with the crowds and hiscriticism of everyone that
(15:09):
Caiaphas worked with, and forthat Jesus actually threatened
the peace, and Jesus thenpersonally threatened the
peacekeepers as they saw it.
And now what happens is justbuilds and builds and builds
throughout the gospels, and thereligious leaders, and Caiaphas
in particular, then realizedthat their strategy to try to
(15:31):
like tear this thing down wasfailing, and what it was is
their strategy up to this pointwas actually to discredit Jesus
publicly.
That's why, when you read thegospels, they're constantly
asking Jesus all these liketrick questions and every time
they think they've got him,jesus comes back with a snappy
answer and they feel like theylook stupid and people are like,
yeah, that's right, get himright.
(15:53):
And so the point of thesequestions were actually to
divide Jesus from the crowd.
They wanted Jesus to lose thecrowd, because once Jesus loses
the crowd, there's no longer athreat of peace.
And that would have that wouldhave affected and that he
established they had establishedwith Rome.
And so the Pharisees and theleaders of the temple are just
(16:13):
like throwing their hands up.
They're like we keep trying todo this.
They're just thinking like howis this ever going to end?
Like what else do we got to do?
And the gospel according to Johnlike takes a peek in the window
of the Pharisees' interactionsright here with one another.
So the Pharisees said to oneanother see, this thing that
we're trying to do, it's gettingus nowhere.
Look how the whole world hasgone after him.
(16:34):
And this was their strategy,right, it was to try to
discredit him with the peopleand asking him all these
questions, tricky questions, andthey're saying like this isn't
working, like it's getting usnowhere.
And then I love this.
Look how the whole world hasgone after him, like we're
trying to discredit him andpeople are just falling more in
love with this guy.
Now pause, it's because you needto know this.
Like, how do we get thisinformation?
(16:54):
I'm gonna fast forward on youreally quickly, like fast
forward you into the book ofActs.
So it goes Matthew, mark, luke,john, acts, the book of Acts.
And the book of Acts isactually what tells us what
happened in the church afterJesus was raised from the dead.
Spoiler alert, sorry.
The book of Acts actually tellsus who Luke investigated all of
these things.
Luke tells us actually thatmany, many priests and Pharisees
(17:18):
later became followers anddisciples of Jesus.
That's how John then got thisinside track to this information
, because the gospel, accordingto John, was written much, much
later.
And so he's got this differentperspective and these people
telling us like, hey, this iswhat was going on.
You're never going to believethis.
And Luke is investigating someof the priests that eventually
follows Jesus and some of thePharisees.
(17:38):
And John is, like you know,sitting there writing this stuff
down and they're like you'renot, you can't even believe the
meetings we had about this Jesusguy.
Like we were so frustrated,like no matter what we did, no
matter what we said, no matterwhat we came with, like Jesus
made us look like fools over andover and over again and then
(17:59):
says that the chief priests andthe Pharisees, what they do.
Then they're like, trying tofigure this out they call the
meeting of the Sanhedrin.
Now, for us, that means almostnothing to us.
We just don't understand howsignificant this is.
But let me try to put this intocontext.
For this group, this is likethree different groups of people
.
There's a little bit ofcrossover in them and what they
believe.
There's different groups thatdidn't always get along.
(18:20):
One of the things they didn'tsee is eye-to-eye theologically,
like the Sadducees, they werepart of this group.
They didn't think there wassuch thing as a resurrection.
Most of the Pharisees thoughtthere was, and they were part of
this group.
They also didn't get alongpolitically.
They didn't have the same ideaabout how Israel should relate
to Rome.
So here's your modern-daycontext.
This is what this is like.
This is why this is such a bigdeal.
(18:42):
So this is like bringing theHouse, the Senate, the
Republicans, the Democrats andthe Supreme Court all together
and agreeing on something rightI'm not kidding Like
contextually.
This is what this is Like.
We just don't understand this.
This is like impossiblebecoming some sort of
possibility.
(19:02):
And so they said, together inthis meeting.
They're getting together rightLike, the harder we try, the
bigger these crowds get.
And so they ask what are weaccomplishing?
They ask here's this man who'sperforming many of these signs.
And this is where it gets sorelevant and like practical for
us that there was something thatwas so important to this group
(19:25):
of people that to follow Jesusand to embrace this
carpenter-turned-rabbi whoclaimed to be the savior of the
world, to embrace Jesus, whoJesus claimed to be, meant that
they would have to let go ofsomething that was extremely,
(19:45):
extremely important to them.
And what was that?
It was their I mean our power,it was their, our popularity,
and in our I mean their case, itwas their wealth, or our wealth
.
They knew what they needed todo, but it was gonna cost them
(20:08):
way too much.
They knew how they needed torespond, but the price was just
too high.
And so they say, man, if we lethim go on like this, everybody's
gonna believe him.
And then what's going to happenis the Romans will come and
take away both our temple andour nation, like, if we don't do
(20:29):
anything, we're going to loseeverything that's actually
important to us.
Because, friends, when youdecide to follow Jesus, it's
going to cost you something.
In fact, as a Christian, whenyou finally decide, when things
come up that are more importantto you than your relationship
with God, every single time youand I decide to put Jesus at the
(20:52):
front and center of our life,every time we choose to do that,
it's going to cost yousomething.
Like it costs you something,guys, like one of the reasons
many of you have resisted churchfor so long.
I totally get this Like.
I completely empathize this.
I mean, I know I'm a pastor,but remember, I am a flawed
human and I get this likedeciding and choosing to follow
(21:13):
Jesus is going to cost yousomething.
And there they are.
What do we do with Jesus?
Everybody's following this guy,and then one of them named
Caiaphas no-transcript.
You know nothing at all.
You do not realize that it isbetter for us I mean you that
(21:40):
one man die for us I mean thepeople, of course the people,
not for us.
Then the whole nation perish.
It's for the nation, not for us, but it's kind of for us
because we have all of this Now,caiaphas.
He's got this problem right.
Rome wouldn't execute anybodyover a violation of Jewish law.
(22:02):
And if you violate a Jewish law, even if it demanded death
according to the Old Testamentlaw.
Rome ignored that part ofJewish law, and so he needed to
come up with a charge.
He needed to come up withsomething else that would give
him an actual opportunity totake Jesus to Rome and say, hey,
this isn't just someone whobroke the Jewish law, he's
broken a Roman law.
(22:22):
In fact, what he needed to dois he needed a charge of
sedition, which meant that heneeded to be able to demonstrate
to Pilate that Jesus was anactual threat, not simply to
Jewish peace or to Rome peace,but the Roman empire.
And Jesus had claimed to be andwould claim to be and here's
(22:42):
the thing a king, and so that'sall Caiaphas needed.
And so he's pegged Jesus withthe charge of sedition because
he claimed to be a king, and sohe could now have Jesus
crucified, and the threat thenwould finally be eliminated.
Their position in the nationand the city would now be secure
(23:05):
.
Now, what do you think that hasto do with you and I?
I think everything.
Why?
Because there's a littlekaiaphas in all of us.
There's a little kaiaphas in methat says preserve at all costs
, preserve my reputation,preserve that relationship that
(23:30):
you know you shouldn't be in,but it means so much to you
right now and you would doanything to preserve it, or that
position, or that status, orthat lot, whatever it is.
And you find yourself thinking,god, either help me or get out
of my way.
Either help me, get this rightand keep this thing front and
(23:53):
center that I want, because it'smy kingdom and I care about it,
or get out of the way and don'tbother me.
Whatever that is at the centerof your life, this is the thing
that has replaced God in yourlife.
What is it?
Is it a position?
Is it a person?
Is it status?
Is it GPA?
(24:14):
Is it that college you'retrying to get into?
Even if you have to cheat, youwon't allow that thing to suffer
.
There's something, there'ssomething, friends, in all of us
that says preserve, preserve,preserve.
But here's.
I want you to hear one thing,and if you haven't been paying
attention so far, like, tuneback in right here, just for
this part, just hang with me.
Whatever right here, just forthis part, just hang with me.
(24:40):
Whatever you have replaced Godwith in your life, whatever you
have placed at the center ofyour life other than God, or, if
you're a Christian other thanfollowing Jesus as your Lord.
Whatever you have placed andreplaced God with in your life
and replaced God with in yourlife, here it is is already
(25:03):
diminishing in value andsignificance.
It is, and I can prove it toyou.
You see, my greatest regret,your greatest regrets, are
connected to your attempts topreserve something that probably
isn't even a part of your lifeanymore.
I mean, think about it Likethat thing, whatever that thing
was, or that relationship orthat person was losing
significance even as you clungtightly and this was the case
(25:24):
with Caiaphas, like the fuse hadbeen lit.
He was losing significance, hewas losing his place every
single day and he never evenknew it until it was gone.
And here's why it's because thelittle gods will always
disappoint.
The thing that you place inyour life in place of God will
(25:47):
always, always disappoint.
And here's the problem it's thepressure to preserve that thing
, that relationship or whateverit is.
The pressure to preserve thelittle gods will eventually
drive you to self-destructivebehavior and other destructive
extremes.
The pressure that you're goingto feel to prop up the little
(26:10):
gods ultimately will drive youto self-destructive behaviors,
and that's why your greatestregret is connected to your
attempt at preserving somethingthat you had no business
preserving in the first place.
That's not even a part of yourlife anymore, because God
actually has a plan for yourlife and God has a will for your
life.
And to put anything else at thecenter of your life other than
(26:32):
your creator, god, your heavenlyfather, sets you up for
self-destructive behavior thatultimately hurts people around
you, including you.
I mean.
Think about this.
This is actually amazing.
Caiaphas, the high priest, hadaccess to the oldest existing
copy of the law of God thatactually said thou shall not
(26:54):
murder.
Right, you maybe heard one ofthe Ten Commandments and as a
priest, as the guardian, as thehigh priest, he was a steward of
God's law.
Where it was first.
We see it first written onstone, given to Moses,
eventually copied and copied.
Caiaphas actually had access tothe oldest existing version of
thou shall not murder, and yetwhat happened?
(27:14):
He murdered an innocent man.
You know why this is the scarypart?
Because our capacity for eviland our capacity for sin is
extraordinary when we are tryingto preserve something that's in
the place of God.
This is why our greatest regret, my greatest regret, is
connected to a season of life.
(27:35):
This is why our greatest regret, my greatest regret, is
connected to a season of life, aweekend of your life, a
relationship in your life wherewe have tried to prop something
up that should have never beenthe center of our life to begin
with.
The little gods will always,always disappoint, and I
understand why we say we resistthe God that we say we trust.
(27:58):
I understand surrender isterrifying, like it's terrifying
, but the story of Caiaphasreminds us of something that we
dare not ever forget, and it'sthis that while saying yes to
God will cost you something,saying no will cost you even
(28:24):
more.
And here's the kicker Saying nowill not only cost you more,
but it will also cost you thatthing, including what you have
put in place of God to beginwith.
So closing question is this whathave you put in place of God in
(28:45):
your life?
This is a great opportunity forself-evaluation,
self-reflection.
This isn't shame.
What is dead center other thanyour heavenly father?
Like, what's the thing that yousay?
Like God, I need you to help mekeep this.
This is what I need.
This is what I need you for.
Like, maintain this, and if youdon't and you even threaten
that you're going to take itaway.
If you try to.
(29:10):
I'm done with you.
I'm not kidding.
Like I'll be done, I'm going towalk.
That's a little God that willultimately disappoint and you
will spend time and effort andenergy and money trying to prop
it up and keep it alive andultimately it disappoints and
disappears.
So what have you put in theplace of God in your life?
(29:31):
Or what are you seeking topreserve or prop up that
actually needs to be surrendered?
Or, let me put it this way,what's the little gods that's
demanding more and more andproviding less and less?
Because saying I get it, sayingyes to God, will cost you
(29:54):
something, but saying no willcost you so much more, including
what you've replaced God withto begin with.
That's the lesson from the lifeof Caiaphas, and I'll tell you
this it is way easier for me tostand up here and say than to
walk off this stage.
(30:15):
And do I get it?
But by God's grace and the helpof the Holy Spirit, may we
friends wrestle this stuff tothe ground and may God give us
his gentle spirit and compassionas we do just that.
(30:35):
So I'm going to invite you intolike 30 seconds of silence
Again.
There's no shame in this, butthis is a great opportunity for
confession andself-contemplation.
Like what is that thing?
And, holy Spirit, would youhelp me wrestle?
Would you wrestle this awayfrom me?
This cup, your will, not mine.
(31:00):
What is the thing you arewilling and not willing to give
up and let him meet you there?
You got like 20 seconds.
Just spend time with yourfather and then Aaron's going to
invite you to respond andworship.
Popular Podcasts
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!