Matt Chandler - Justification

Good morning, Village Church! My name is Luke Boblet, and along with my wife, Amanda, we are your goers in Berlin, Germany. Yes, we live there with our kids, Lucy and Max. They’re not here—sorry! But if you have a heart for Europe or if you have a passion for urban, post-Christian disciple-making, please come see us. We’ll be next door in Suite 165 from 12:15 to 2:30. We’d love to chat!

Our Scripture today is Luke 18:9-14. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray: one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: «God, I thank you that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.» But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven but beat his breast, saying, «God, be merciful to me, a sinner.» I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. This is the word of the Lord; thanks be to God.

Thanks, Luke. Hey, guys, it’s good to see you! I missed you. Let me start with this: if you are a first through sixth grader, do me a favor and just stand up where you are right now. First through sixth, go ahead and stand up and stay standing for a second. Hold on—don’t sit back down yet! Just stand up for me. Now, let’s look at each other real quick. Hey, look—we need to see each other. The Holy Spirit of God is going to do incredible things through you guys, and I’m so excited that, in some small way, I get to share this moment with you. I love you, and I think the devil is scared of you. I’m eager to watch how God uses you to push back darkness and establish light in the decades to come. Glad you’re here—why don’t you guys have a seat now?

I love it! By the way, I’m Matt; I’m Pastor Matt. If—yeah, I hope you enjoyed the guys we brought in during my little summer break. I thought they each crushed it in their own unique ways. I never want to stop being deeply moved by that passage. In the Premier Mine, which is in South Africa, in 1905, a man by the name of Frederick Wells found the largest diamond ever discovered: three thousand one hundred and six carats. It is a type IIa diamond with D clarity—it is the perfect stone. It now resides, as you might guess, in the Tower of London in England. They had a way of acquiring things from around the world that didn’t belong to them, and that’s where that diamond currently resides.

If you ever had the chance to hold it in your hand—though you won’t right now—you would see that it’s about the size of a softball. If you could hold it up to the light and turn it around, you would notice that each side and each direction you looked at the diamond would refract light a little differently. There would be something unique about each perspective, and it would be stunningly beautiful from every angle. In fact, I think it would be hard to keep in your mind that, yes, that’s a diamond—not just some weird rock. It’s a diamond diamond, unlike anything you might buy at Six Flags!

It’s absolutely fascinating. I had to write a paper for school, and the paper needed to be about metaphors for the gospel in the New Testament. As I was writing, I thought of this: the gospel is a profound and beautiful thing; there are countless angles from which to view it, and at each angle, there’s a little more—each turn offering a new refraction of light. It’s remarkably beautiful, regardless of your perspective.

So, we wanted to do a series—a five-week series, just on the gospel. By and large, I think we know what the gospel is. Maybe not all of us in the room do, but the gospel is simply that God created the world in perfect harmony: no disease, no death, no despair. He created it in what the Hebrews would call «shalom"—think of a symphony, all playing their parts perfectly. Then, sin enters the cosmos and fractures everything—everything down to the cellular level, all the way to the furthest reaches of the cosmos, affected by sin’s intrusion. Man’s rebellion against God shatters everything.

Yet, God, who is full of great love—the hesed love of God, the long-suffering love of God—does not turn to destroy man but moves towards man in grace by sending the second person of the Trinity. The second person of the triune God of the universe, the Son of God, comes in the form of a…