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We're now rounding the bend into Ephesians 3, which is when we're starting a
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new chapter in Ephesians. We all get pumped about it because we've been 21 weeks to get through two chapters. All right?
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So anytime we're round, we're like, whoa, chapter three, awesome.
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And then we're like, ah, one verse, awesome. So that's what we're doing today, one verse.
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And the reason is, is because the
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Apostle Paul turns the corner and he gets very serious.
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And so the nature of the whole
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tone of this is very somber because
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he comes at these people and he
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says, listen, if everything that I've said
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to you in chapter one is true, if God is sovereign over everything, if he chose you and you didn't choose him, if your sin, if the only thing you brought to the table in your salvation is the sin that necessitated him to come and die for you and instead of you, and because of you, and if you, if he saved you in Jesus and if he set you free from the stuff you were walking in. And like last week, if you're citizens of the kingdom of God, instead of walking and thinking like the ways of the world and you're part of this new family of God and you're building the church so the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Everything we talked about, if all of that is true, if everything I've said in these two chapters is true, then what do we do with this? Where does this go? And. And so he sets his own life out and says, let me talk as a pastor to the church that I planted. The AAPOstle Paul took three years, all right? Just like village church, he went to a city. He wanted to influence and change the city by planting a gospel centered church where people's lives got changed by Jesus and saw that the mission goes forward. When people who are teachers and lawyers and doctors and hairdressers and soccer moms, that they give their life to Jesus and then they just start to roll. And that that's how the mission goes forward, that you change a city like Ephesus and Corinth and Surrey, not by picketing law courts, but by saving judges, by having judges become Christians, by having law teachers become Christians and teach their students, that's how you're going to change a nation.
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It's not by voting in the right person so that the apocalypse come. If your guy doesn't get in, our hope doesn't rest there. And so how do you change a city? You plant gospel centered churches that change people's hearts and lives. And then they go out and when they're cutting hair, they tell people about Jesus because they're a barber. And then when they're lawyers, they tell. And when they're soccer moms, they're out in the soccer field, hey, you hear about Jesus? Jesus changed my life. Wanna come? Hey, come meet Jesus. Like, that's.
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That's mission, and that's how it happens. I was just at a conference last week, and people come up to me, what's going on? Why are people meeting Jesus? Why are you baptizing people? Why is it, you know, are you doing a tent? Are you doing big, you know, programs outside? And do we need to start dryme? Are you doing dry on the streets of South Surrey? I said, no. Doctors are meeting Jesus. And then when they're stitching dudes up who are stabbed, they're saying, go to village church and meet Jesus. And I go, okay. That's how the mission happens. It's what Malcolm Gladwell calls a social epidemic. It's when something just starts to go because people are getting saved and they're excited about Jesus.
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And the Apostle Paul did that with his life. He planted this church. And he said, I'll give my life to this church. And you can read the story in Acts, chapter 19. He planted it. People got saved. He raised up leaders and elders and deacons, and then he moved on. And he would plant these churches all over these influential cities, because that's the way you change a nation, a people, an entire country can be changed if these cities meet Jesus.
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And so that's why he writes in your Bible to Ephesus and Philippi and Corinth and Rome, because he goes and he plants these churches and then he leaves. And then what happened? Because he was preaching the Gospel and ministering to people, he got thrown in prison. And so the verse we look at is this sober verse of a pastor to his church. And so what I want to do is kind of use this opportunity to talk as a pastor to you, the church that I love, and let you into my life a little bit, as Paul does here. Look at what he says. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, here's what Paul begins to do. In chapter three, he begins to set up what he calls mysteries. And he begins to explain different mysteries.
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In chapter three, verse nine, he says this to bring to light for everyone who what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things? Here's what the apostle Paul is saying there was this. There's these mysterion, these mysteries. And he uses the word very differently than we use it in our culture. We use it for some obscure thing that nobody can figure out. The Apostle Paul used it as a way where it used to be obscure, but now it's in the open. Now it's free. Now everybody knows what it is. So we were in Niagara Falls coming back from this conference, and we walked into our hotel just about to get on a plane.
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So we had one night to sleep, and we could jump in. A hotel, a plane. We walked in, and as we walked up, there were detectives taking pictures, like, big flashes. We're like, what? So we walked in, and they're taking pictures of the ground, and they're doing, like, fingerprinting. And we're like, what's going on? And we walked up to the person at the desk, and we're like, what's happening?
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And they're like.
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I mean, they're looking terrified, and they're like, nothing. Sir, would you like to check into your room? We're like, no. It's like the Bates Motel. What's going on? Nothing. All right, now they got a secret. They're trying to keep it obscure. So we went to the detective. What are you doing?
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He's like, you can stay here, but we're leaving.
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All right, then we're leaving, too, right? So this whole idea, like, they're trying to keep a mystery, but now this detectives going, this thing's in the open. That's the idea. Paul's going, there's an open mystery. And the first open mystery is this idea of the adventure of Christianity. Some of you have been pitched a version and a vision of Christianity that says that you will embrace Jesus, you will come to know Jesus, and all of your problems will be taken care of. You won't have any debt anymore, you won't have any suffering anymore. You won't have any problems anymore because you believed in Jesus, and people pitch it to you. Come on, come on.
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Just believe, and all your problems will go away. And Paul right up front as he says, hey, guys, by the way, my life was really fine and everything was good, and then I met Jesus, and now I'm in jail. The adventure of Christianity, that Christianity is not for just little children and quaint little flowers around and Kleenexes and crying on cue and tell me your feelings. There's an adventure in this thing that Christianity is about what? What does it mean to die? What does it mean to take a bullet for something Bigger than yourself. What does it mean? Are you willing to go to prison? Are you willing to go to prison for Jesus? Paul is saying, I'm here, and it's not that Nero put me here. He could have just said that. He says, jesus put me here. I want to pull back the veil.
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It's Jesus that has me in prison. This is what Christianity is. And I don't want any of you to be fooled because some of you are just starting to investigate it, starting to wonder. And I don't want to bait and switch you and say, hey, look, it's fun. It's easy. Then you get into it. You're like, bam. So right up front.
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And this is constantly what Jesus did when he would preach. Here's what always made Jesus nervous. When crowds of thousands would gather to. To come and listen to him as a young charismatic preacher. And what made him nervous about it is because this could create a situation where it was a spectator sport, where faith could become observational, where I could just live vicariously through him and sit here. I mean, Jesus, he feeds 5,000. I don't even need to bring lunch. I just show up, I take a comfortable seat on the lawn, and he feeds me.
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And then I go home.
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I'll follow that guy around.
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That's observational. There's nothing on me. And so Jesus constantly gets up and he says, God, listen, a king doesn't build a tower until he sits down and says, what is this going to cost? What is the cost? And so right up front, he would preach these sermons that would cause people. He would take these days and say, I'm gonna preach that. I'm gonna raise the bar so high that it's gonna cause everybody to go away. We call those Sundays here,
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where we
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want to be honest with you and tell you, here's what Jesus demands of you. Everything. Your life, your family, your work, your money. That's hard when the gospel starts going, oh, by the way, you got to be generous with your money. Your money's not all yours. You got to give it. Give it to the church. You got to support the church.
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You got to give it to the poor. You got to support the poor. But I want a new. And Paul goes, be generous.
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Be generous.
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Because Jesus was rich and he became poor for you. He came and died for you. He gave his life for you. He didn't tithe his life. He didn't give 10% of his blood. He gave it all.
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And then he goes, hey, by the
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way, that applies to your money. And we're like, oh, we like, 10%. Give us that Old Testament, baby. I'm loving that. Love that Old Testament. 10%, man.
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I'll just do the math.
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Boom, done.
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And Paul goes, you know what? I'm never gonna tell you 10%.
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We're like, whoo.
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And he's like, jesus gave his whole
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life, now give all your money.
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Where's that Leviticus? So he's saying, what is the cost? Because oftentimes what happens is we take this version of Christianity that's like. It's like an Alpha poster. We're on a mountain. We're living free.
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We got.
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I mean, we're just like.
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We're in a commercial, all right? And we got all of our friends
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around us and our stockings overflowing.
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And, you know, there's every.
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I mean, it's just beautiful. And then Paul goes, prison. There's a cost.
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You guys know. I mean, I've talked to you about
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my life, the cost.
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I was going in one direction. I was going into the movie industry. I. I wrote Titanic 2 when I was 18 years old. And before I started shopping that thing around to James Cameron. All right, I got called into ministry. Walked away from millions.
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What?
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I walked away from that for this cost. That's what Paul is talking about.
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Kinda.
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He's saying there's an actual cost. What does it look like? I did a wedding yesterday.
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Whenever I do weddings, I say the same thing. And it's true about Christianity that you're
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here at this wedding not as a
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spectator at a wedding, but participants in this marriage.
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There's a world of difference between being
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a spectator at a wedding and participants in a marriage that you're called to
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journey alongside of love, pray for, laugh,
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cry with this couple if you're sitting here at this time.
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And so the same thing is true
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about the church that you're not called to be a spectator at a church. You're called to be participants in what the kingdom of God is doing.
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And the cost of that is huge. Let me tell you a little bit
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about the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, for those of you
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who are new, he was a religious zealot.
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He was a terrorist who would kill
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people if they were bad Jews.
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He was part of a sect called the Shemite Pharisees.
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And he was a religious guy.
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For those of you who don't know what a Pharisee was, a Pharisee was a guy.
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He was like the modern day pastor,
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the modern day Sunday school teacher, the
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modern day theologian who kind of lived his life, like many of you. I mean, his nose was clean, all right? He just. He had it together.
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He had everything together, all right?
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He worked. Like many of you, he worked a 9 to 5.
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He was steady stew.
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Steady stew. You work 9 to 5, you take care of your family, you raise them in the ways of God. You're good.
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And that was the Pharisees.
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And Jesus came to them and he ministered to them, and he said, hey, my message to you is, you are whitewashed tombs.
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You look really good on the outside. Your family's all put together, your job's going really well. You do your devos in the morning.
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But in inside, you don't love me. You don't walk with me. You don't know me actually, in the context of a relationship. So I'm terrified for you. And that was the apostle Paul. He was the kind of guy who wouldn't look at, hey, there's a problem with me. He would look at the external, and he would separate that out. And that's what we do.
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We look at the external stuff and we say, it's easier because I got to stay away from my identity being a sinner. So I'm not a sinner. I just sin, all right? I'm not. So I lie, but I'm not a liar. I have a porn problem. And we don't go, wait a minute. The Bible would say, stop looking at the behavior. Look down, deeper, and behind it.
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You got a heart issue. All right? It's not that you have a porn problem. It's that you're sexually broken. And so the Bible would constantly come and say, stop trying to assess and evaluate like the apostle Paul would as a pharisee on the outside and construct your world with all of these behavior modification points. And you think you're walking with God, but in the end, you don't know him. So I talked to a woman the other week. She's like, hey, when I was growing up, we were in a religious home, went to a very religious place, and we weren't allowed to draw pumpkins around the time of Halloween.
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All right?
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Not jack O lanterns, all right? Just the fruit pumpkins. I couldn't draw a pumpkin in the month of October. Why? Because that means you're not godly. And the church was full of people who were not sinners. Everyone was perfect.
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Everyone drank Starbucks, looked really nice, and never talked about their sin because there wasn't any.
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And then she grew up and found
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out, oh, wait a minute, that guy's beating his wife, and those kids are all sleeping around. But no one's talking about it. Cause there's no grace here. There's no gospel here. There's no ability to actually come out and go, oh, by the way, here are my weaknesses. Here are the things that are wrong with me.
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The apostle Paul, he would constantly find success in life and go, man, I
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just want to tell you about my weaknesses. I want to explain to you my
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weaknesses so that you don't think that this is me. So if you go over, flip over
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a couple books to second Corinthians chapter, he starts in chapter 11 and he starts listing. And this is what's beautiful for us. Village church. Are we a church that functions in
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a way of grace, that allows people to be able to say, you know what?
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My marriage is a wreck and I
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need you to journey alongside of me. I need you to put. I got to get you in, I got to get you praying for me. My kids are going completely off the rails and I don't know what to do. I'm scared, I'm terrified. I have anxiety. Can you help me? Here's my sin, here's my weakness. We've got to be a place that understands.
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This is what Paul's saying. He's saying I'm in prison. Do you know how embarrassing that is for a pastor? Imagine I, like texted you guys one day, hey, guys, have a good morning. I'm in prison. That's what he's saying. He's, I loved you guys. I built this church. I prayed, I preached, I raised up leaders, and now I'm in prison.
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And so he lists, if you pick it up in verse 11, he starts listing the adventure of Christianity. So we gotta get our hearts into this, all right? We gotta understand what we're being called to, that we're not being called to this quaint, little, simple, easy, comfortable, secure life. Here's how Paul lists it out. For those of you who are thinking about becoming Christians, here's Paul. Are they verse 23. Servants of Christ, I am a better one. I am talking like a madman.
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I love this. He's so all over the place, with
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far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less. One. A lot of guys would die from that. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. All right, that doesn't mean like in the modern way. That's like the old fashioned way.
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He's not saying one time I got stoned.
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It was crazy.
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Three times I was Shipwrecked a night and a day, I was adrift at sea. That's awesome. He's like, floating on this piece of wood. It's like, ah, Jesus, thank you. On frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people. Does this sound like your life, Man? We're so safe. Danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
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I have this pressure on me, this anxiety that you do well, that you function well, that all the churches I planted and all the people in them are learning and getting discipled and meeting with one another. I got this anxiety that's killing me.
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Who is weak and I am not weak.
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Who is made to fall and. And I am not indignant. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. Do you boast of the things that show your strengths or your weaknesses? Do you let people into your failures? Because here's what happens when you let people into your failures and your weaknesses and the places where you're pathetic. Jesus looks great and. And you look small,
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but we don't like that. So he moves into chapter 12, and he says this, verse 7.
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So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, he's given a bunch of revelations, and it might be, oh, Paul. Oh, Paul.
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Look at Paul. Look at Paul. Look at all the revelations.
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Paul, he's the man. He's the man. Put him on tv. He's a man.
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A thorn was given me in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
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Now, scholars don't know what this thorn was.
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Could have been a sickness. Could have been just an annoying companion, right?
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Hey, Paul, what do you want to do today? I don't know.
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I'm just trying to. Hey, what are you doing?
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What are you doing?
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I'm sleeping. Hey, you want to go over to Rome? I don't know what we're doing. I'm in prison.
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All right. Annoying companion. Then he says this three times.
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I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
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Let this guy get out of my face.
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Let this sickness leave my life. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. That you want to know about the power of God. Talk about your weaknesses. Let people into your failures. Let people into the stories. Not about your successes, but the times you look pathetic. I got a bunch.
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There's the weddings that I do where
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I forget the people's names and I
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just say, and we're all here because we're excited about Mr. And Mrs. Alright. There's the funerals that I walk into
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and I don't know what his name is and I don't even have my notes. So I'm just picking up a microphone and starting to talk about Jesus. When I was an intern back in the day, I got a phone call to do a hospital visit. And so I went to the hospital, have a visit with this man who was sick. And then I left, went home.
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A few days later, I went back
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to the same hospital to visit him again to see what he was doing. And I walked in and just as I walked in, I saw his body and he was kind of turned off to the side. And the nurse, just as I kind of went in, the nurse came in and said, what are you doing? And I just said, oh, I'm just here to visit. So? And so. And she said, oh, he passed away this morning. And I said, oh, okay. Have you told the wife? And she's like, the doctor's calling her right now. And I said, okay.
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So I went back to the office and told the secretary, hey, you know, just so you know, okay. And then a little bit later, the wife came into the office and she came into my office and I said, look, I'm just really sorry. And she said, sorry about what? And I said, just really sorry that your husband passed away today. And she said, he what? And she passed out into my arms and I sat her down. I said, what? You didn't know this? I saw the doctor calling you. And she's like, I was just there two hours ago. We were sitting, we were talking. I went out to get lunch and I was bringing it back to him.
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And what happened? I said, I was just there half an hour ago. I'm sorry, it must have happened quickly. And so we sat and we tried to unpack this and pray and hug and cry. And then I went out to get a glass of water for her and I heard somebody say, the nursing home. And I walked up and I said, he's at the hospital, right? And they said, no, no, they moved
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into the nursing home yesterday.
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What's that? So I picked up the phone and I called the nursing home.
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Oh, yeah, he's sitting up, he's great.
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He's waiting for his lunch.
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I got her in my office.
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And I walked in, I sat down just like, Remember that, Remember that thing I said, just playing. And I remember I told her, I said, look, there's a bit of mistake. I went to the same room, but they must have moved them and, and I remember her face just turned like I was doing something cruel. I wasn't the same for months. I sat in my office that day and stared at the wall as a young guy wanting to go into ministry, wanting to care about people. And all the thoughts were, you're a
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joke, you're pathetic, you're playing a game. You think you can do this, you fail.
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And some of you are wearing mistakes that you made 20 years ago and you think it's built into your identity. And I had to come to a place where I was like, man, my righteousness, my identity can't be in that. And so Jesus is like, man, it's
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not by what you do, it's my righteousness in you.
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Of course you're gonna mess up, of course you're gonna mess up. But here's the thing.
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I need you to get back up again. That's the adventure. I need you to get back up again. I need you to continue to fight. If you give up now, Satan wins because he's given you these things about who you are and who you're not. And Paul's going, you want to make Jesus look great, tell everyone your pathetic stories. And then it's going to be very hard for them to go, man, that guy's successful because of him.
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It's like, no, God's doing something in spite of him. He's pathetic. We gotta do we have that here, that ability
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to be open
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with one another, to share our stories, Because here's the reality. The Apostle Paul is trying to get us to a place where we respect one another at whatever level that we're coming from. He came out of this extremely religious background and Jesus saved and used him. Some of you come out of a very, very non religious background. You wouldn't know, listen, there's people sitting beside you all over these chairs that if they came to your house, they wouldn't know what you were doing when you grabbed each other's hands and started to pray in King James over your food. They come from very different places and it's very important that those of you who've been walking with the Lord for years, don't put that filter on them. When I came to know Jesus When I was 17 I swore like a sailor, all right? I don't mean like a guy with a sailboat. I mean like a sailor.
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And I gave my life to Jesus. He started working on me. And my buddy was like, I want you to come and tell your testimony at my church. And it was a small group of people. So I went in, it was rammed. You know, all these people. I'm sharing my story. Here's how Jesus saved me.
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And as I'm kind of telling my story, I see all their faces kind of just start looking at the ground and looking all awkward. I'm like, what's wrong with these guys? And so I left. I'm like, so how. You know, thanks for giving me the opportunity. How'd it go? He's like, probably need some work. Like, what do you mean? He's like, how do I say this? Too many F words for church. I'm like, what? What are you talking
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about? Oh, they don't like that there.
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So you got the Apostle Paul and he's coming out of this.
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He killed a guy. Like the Apostle Paul killed a guy.
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He was a murderer.
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At least one, if not more did
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violence to people out of his religious spirit.
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And so there's all kinds of people.
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Does the grace allow them that? We're showing them now. Here's the other piece of this mystery Back to Ephesians 3. The Big Idea here is he's saying, I'm a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. And what he's saying is, ministry is hard. Serving Jesus, being on mission for Jesus, it's hard. There's suffering involved when you choose to follow Christ. And Paul's saying, listen, I'm your pastor and there's a trade off. The trade off is you get saved and I end up in jail.
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You get saved and I end up suffering and serving, and I will bleed for you. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying to his church. And here's the reality. I love my job. This is a crazy season. Ministry takes from you as a pastor to his church. Ministry's always been a little sacrificial for me. I mean, I moved from Toronto out here.
Mark Clark [00:30:01]:
We didn't know anybody. We literally moved across the country, me and my wife, we.
Mark Clark [00:30:05]:
Not.
Mark Clark [00:30:05]:
We didn't know one soul. I'd never been in British Columbia before Rob moved from Saskatoon. Right now, that's not much of a sacrifice, but not hard to leave that place. He ran here, alright. He was like, get me out of this. But he left all of his family, everybody that He's. And they moved across the country to be here.
Mark Clark [00:30:35]:
Ministry takes.
Mark Clark [00:30:38]:
This is a crazy season. There are days right now where I'll wake up and leave the house at 6, 7am and, and not come home till midnight because of meetings and counseling and study and weddings and funerals and more study and more counseling and more meetings. And I'll walk into my house.
Mark Clark [00:30:57]:
I mean,
Mark Clark [00:31:00]:
my wife's been driving to church without me with the kids since December 2009. I haven't showed up to church with my family since then.
Mark Clark [00:31:08]:
My kids, I'll stand in their room
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at night and just be on the ground praying for them, that these three little girls would grow up to be
Mark Clark [00:31:19]:
just bold women for Christ.
Mark Clark [00:31:21]:
And I'll be crying because it'll be the third or fourth night in a row that I didn't get to put them to bed and read them the Bible and pray with them. And I'll sit there and say, is this worth it? See, this is why Jesus, when he
Mark Clark [00:31:39]:
went in front of people, he would say to them, you have to be willing to leave your mother and father. You have to hate your mother and father is what he said. Like, this is not seeker sensitive stuff. Jesus goes right out, he's like, you have to be willing to let. Now listen, this isn't rhetoric, this is legit. You have to let the dead bury the dead. Now what does he mean? In a culture that is family oriented, I want safety, I want comfort. I'm never leaving where I am right now, and I know everyone around me and I'm here.
Mark Clark [00:32:21]:
And he goes, you gotta let them die and bury themselves if you're gonna follow me to where I want you to go. Well, what does that mean? Literally, for me. I was preaching the second week of Village Church while my father died. I could not get back in time. I had a flight booked right after the service was over because it was a second week in existence. I got on a flight and by the time I landed, he was already dead. And by the time I got home, his body had been taken away.
Mark Clark [00:32:52]:
That's what he's talking about. Are you willing? Because here's what happens.
Mark Clark [00:33:01]:
Your family, your loved ones, your friends, they are sometimes your greatest enemy because here's what they'll do. I think God's calling me to this.
Mark Clark [00:33:08]:
No, they're not, honey.
Mark Clark [00:33:10]:
And the people who love you the most protect you the most from what? Jesus is calling you to the most. Every missionary trip I've ever been on has started with me calling my mother and me saying, mom, I'm going to Turkey. And her going. Why are you going to Turkey? They kill people there. Why are you doing this? Mom, I'm going to Israel. What are you doing? Don't you know there's war there? Why are you doing this? Mom, I'm going to India. You're going to get sick and die. Mom, I'm going to San Francisco.
Mark Clark [00:33:39]:
I can't believe you're going to San Francisco. Mom, it's San Francisco. Relax, everyone. Let me protect you. Let me coddle you. This is safety. This is security. This is the idol of the suburbs.
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And Jesus goes,
Mark Clark [00:34:04]:
let the dead bury the dead. I want to go back and bury my father. Don't even bother.
Mark Clark [00:34:08]:
What do you mean? I still want to follow you.
Mark Clark [00:34:10]:
No, no, don't worry about it.
Mark Clark [00:34:11]:
You're good.
Mark Clark [00:34:11]:
Just go bury your dad.
Mark Clark [00:34:12]:
But I'll bury him and then I'll come follow you.
Mark Clark [00:34:14]:
Don't worry about it. You're good.
Mark Clark [00:34:15]:
Go.
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Because you don't get this. You don't get the cost of this.
Mark Clark [00:34:20]:
You don't get that this doesn't end. Jesus didn't suffer so that you would never suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer, you can become more like him. And like the apostle Paul in prison, lead other people to him. He didn't go to the cross so that you would never suffer. He went to the cross so that you would be conformed into the image of his Son. As Paul says in Romans chapter 8, that even when you end up in prison, you can say, it was Jesus who put me here and not Nero. And in my suffering, as he says, what does he say? This is on behalf of who?
Mark Clark [00:34:53]:
You Gentiles? Because I'm here, you get saved. And therefore it's worth it for me.
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Because all this temporal stuff that you have, all of this joy that you take, and all of these temporal things that are going to fade and go
Mark Clark [00:35:06]:
away with time anyway, trade that out for eternal joy. You got to make that trade every time. I am in prison on behalf of you. The mission is, how do we see people come to know Jesus? Are we willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary? Are we willing to recognize that following Jesus sometimes doesn't feel like a. A temporal treat in this life at this moment. But there's an eternal expression of this that echoes out. Let me leave you with the image of persecution, because it doesn't just mean suffering, it means persecution. The Apostle Paul is in prison not just by accident, but because he preached the Gospel.
Mark Clark [00:36:04]:
The great thing about the Bible, when you read it Is. Is you're never gonna be surprised by the cost of discipleship because you're gonna pick it up and you're gonna read the story of guys like John the Baptist, who ends up in prison, and he's sitting there waiting to be beheaded. Matthew, chapter 11. And here's his equation. I'm following Jesus. Things should go well for me. I'm faithful to him, and I'm in prison. Let me send my disciples out to go and talk to him, to ask him.
Mark Clark [00:36:32]:
And here's the quote, if I should be looking for another meaning.
Mark Clark [00:36:36]:
I thought you were the right one.
Mark Clark [00:36:38]:
But now I'm suffering. So I'm wondering if there's another messiah coming who's gonna give me like, woo good times and be able to set me free from this place, all right? So that I can have really earthly
Mark Clark [00:36:50]:
joy in this moment.
Mark Clark [00:36:51]:
So the disciples come, and they walk up to Jesus. They go, hey, John the Baptist is wondering something. He thinks you're kind of maybe the wrong guy. Cause he's really faithful to you, and yet he's suffering. Just wondering what you were gonna do with that. And Jesus goes, ah, yes, tell John. And then he quotes this passage from Isaiah where during the time of the true Messiah in the new age, what'll happen is the blind will see, the
Mark Clark [00:37:13]:
deaf will hear, the lame will jump around like deer. All right?
Mark Clark [00:37:16]:
It's gonna be this great time.
Mark Clark [00:37:18]:
And in that passage is the phrase, and he will set the captives free. And so Jesus starts into this thing. And the disciples go, well, we know this passage. This thing's gonna go. Blind people see, deaf people hear, lame people walk. And he's gon captives free. So we're going to be able to go back to John, say this thing. And John's going to out of prison go, what's up, players? And Jesus goes, read it.
Mark Clark [00:37:44]:
Matthew 11. The blind to see, the deaf will hear, the lame will jump around like deer. Delete.
Mark Clark [00:37:50]:
And blessed are you if you're not offended by me. And what he's saying to John is, I'm not coming for you. You are going to die in prison, get your head cut off. And it's my will. It is my will for your life.
Mark Clark [00:38:14]:
You guys happy? Whoo. Yeah.
Mark Clark [00:38:21]:
But I thought this was.
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I thought this was this. And if it's not this, then maybe I'm looking for another.
Mark Clark [00:38:28]:
Jesus goes, what does this look like for you? Are you willing to count the cost? Are you willing to let the dead bury the dead? Are you willing to have all your security, all your safety Challenged, freed up to go where he is calling you, or do you hold onto it and say, follow you to the good places? My prayer is that we'd be courageous enough to do it. Father, I pray that in my life that I would be able to discern the kinds of things that you're calling me to do and never be afraid. Never hold on to the earthly stuff so tight that I can't hear you, that I'm not willing to follow you, that when you say the cost of discipleship is this, the cost of your godliness is this. I pray for the people in the room who are starting to investigate Christianity. And the number one reason why they can't bring themself to give their life to you is because of the persecution, the mocking at work or the family or the friends. Because the guys at work aren't going to understand why they're not coming to the strip club. The ladies at work aren't going to understand why they're not critical of the other ladies in the office and jump
Mark Clark [00:40:06]:
on board
Mark Clark [00:40:09]:
that we're afraid. We're so afraid. I pray that you would help us be people who understand that if we're in Jesus Christ, we're already dead, that we got no reputation to upkeep, that we're here for 15 minutes, and that you would help us be the kinds of people who would make the most of that time. In light of what you have done for us, and as we worship you now, as we give out of our worship, out of what you have done, that we would find joy that surpasses understanding, that our satisfaction we would be so satisfied in you, like the Apostle
Mark Clark [00:40:57]:
Paul, that we'd be able to sit
Mark Clark [00:40:58]:
in a prison and be okay with that. Because all of our joy is in you. All of our satisfaction is in you. And so we're able to look at those circumstances and say it's worth it. I pray that for every person in this room, in Jesus good name, amen.