Matt Chandler - Ministry in Jerusalem

if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab them Acts chapter 3 and 4 is where we’ll be today uh that was our attempt at trying to uh keep you up to speed in a series that will cover a lot of ground quickly uh and so one of the things we had to work on is how to uh get you who have missed a couple of weeks uh up to speed with the narrative so you don’t get that 30 minutes late to a movie feeling uh as we progress our way through the book of Acts uh I I said in the beginning that my hope and the purpose of us walking through the book of Acts is actually to show the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea Samaria and to the ends of the Earth and we know that that’s actually been accomplished because we’re here right if this starts in Jerusalem and we’re here then the gospel has made its way to the ends of the Earth in fact to this day it continues to push its way way even farther to the ends of the Earth and so what I want to do for the next couple of weeks is I want us to look at uh the church in Jerusalem and I want to show you some things about the church in Jerusalem that are true about the church in any generation at any time and and my hope there is that they will build confidence and boldness in us to trust the Lord a as these things have been true about the church and around the church since the very beginning but before we dive into Acts chapter 3 uh I need to lay Hunter Hall before you uh and so I announced a few weeks ago that we have purchased a building in Plano uh that we’re doing due diligence on that property now and have plans uh to launch a Plano campus uh in the future in the next year for sure once we figure out uh all that will need to take place so uh we unanimously as Elders have decided that Hunter Hall uh is the man to lead that campus but in our structure our system of government um El campus pastor are elders and Elders must be presented before the body and and you get 30 days to give us a reason why he is biblically unfit for the role of Elder now um if if you just don’t like him that doesn’t matter all right but if you’ve got biblical reasons why he’s disqualified and if you’re not sure where you would find biblical reasons you can find those in 1 Timothy or in Titus and so Hunter why don’t you come out here I’m going to put him lay him before you uh and then how protocol works is for uh the next 30 days you you have those days to email in why this man is not qualified uh I’ve known him since he was in high school and have done Ministry with him for a long long time in fact when I was doing itinerant Ministry Hunter was with us in the band that traveled uh with me or I guess maybe I travel with the band depending on who’s telling the story uh and and then ultimately um got to watch him grow through multiple different things he’s got a beautiful Godly wife uh gorgeous children I think we’ve got a picture of them so uh if you want this man has been tested all right as uh little boy little girl and then twins all right if you if you’ve had one kid and thought oh my Lord how would you do two at one time Hunter can tell you uh and so moving forward 30 days for you to tell us why he’s not biblically qualified we feel that he is we’ve watched him for extended period of time but we’re not with him 24 hours a day so if you ran into him at the shops and uh he punched you in the face and took your wife’s purse we just don’t know that and we need to know it uh and so uh 30 days from today from there we’ll simply announce that he is now an elder uh and then we’ll have more information about the Plano campus rolling out from there including who’s on staff there when will soft launch when will hard launch and all that type of information but for this morning will you join me in praying for praying over his family um the anytime uh you uh rise up a bit in leadership in regards to serving the lord and serving the Lord’s people the spiritual climate just changes um and and so I want to pray just protection over him a blessing over him uh over his marriage over his children over uh his uh leadership and the wisdom it’ll require uh to lead people so pray with me on this um father I thank you for this man I thank you how uh you’ve allowed me to just watch him grow in his love for you uh love his wife well serve his children well and so I thank you Father that as I read your word I see in him all that you would have an elder bee and so I pray a blessing over his marriage thank you for Becky for her giftedness for her godliness father I thank you for uh the little Souls that you’ve entrusted to him and Becky and pray that all four of his children would trust in you early and fully it wouldn’t be a love for you built around hunter or Becky’s love for you but it would be their love for you very early on that their story would be they don’t remember what it’s like to not love you long for you and seek to follow after you pray for protection over his family and pray for wisdom Spiritual Authority and power as he seeks to lead and love your people in the Plano area it’s for your beautiful name I pray amen love you boss all right yeah we hey you got to commit yeah if you’re going to clap you just have to commit can have two of you from 1500 clap them all right so we’ll just let this section decides all right this section claps everyone else joins in this section doesn’t don’t all right if you’re on video I don’t let the campus Pastor make the rule now uh we’re not going to spend a lot of time in Acts 3 but I do want to tell you the story when we left off two weeks ago uh what we saw is that God had created a covenant people the first distinctively Christian Church in the history of the world and they were marked by really three traits the Bible tells us that they were devoted to the apostles teaching and to one another so they were marked by devotion and then the Bible tells us that they were a people of glad and generous hearts and so from there they’re meeting day by day they’re breaking bread together they’re sharing uh with one another they have all things in common you get this really beautiful picture of what it looks like to be the people of God and that’s how chapter 2 ends chapter three the the story is they uh Peter and John head up to the temple and as they’re walking to the temple they pass a lame beggar who is in his 40s or at least he’s older than 40 and he’s asking Peter and John for Ms and and Peter stops and and bends down and asks the guy to look right at him now that’s weird all right it’s not awkward when I do it to 00 I’m like look at me for 1500 that’s not odd or awkward but if we’re at C and in the middle of our convers like look at me right here look right here that’s weird and so Peter gets down he’s like look at me uh we don’t have any arms but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus stand up and walk and the lame beggar who had been at this gate for 40something years pops up and leaps according to the text cuz wouldn’t you leaps into the temple pra God and so of course he draws a crowd because the text is going to tell us he had been sitting at that gate every day and so a crowd gathers and they’re all praising God and Peter’s not wasting the opportunity so he preaches his second sermon uh of the distinctively Christian eror and so he preaches the second sermon here’s what’s important to note about the second sermon it’s very similar to the first that makes my heart Happy very similar to the first and once again God meets men where they are he tells them the truth about themselves he offers them pardon and Demands a response and then from there we’ll pick it up in Acts chap 4 starting in verse 1 and as they were speaking to the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead and they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening listen to verse four cuz it’s crazy but many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of men came to about 5,000 so um Peter is preaching his second sermon and near the end of his sermon he’s actually arrested and as they’re dragging him out arrested 5,000 men respond to the gospel and began to praise God for the offer of Pardon all right now if you try to get your mind around that this is like in the middle of this sermon if all of a sudden officers come out and and they Flex cuff me and drag me off the stage and while they’re dragging me off the stage I offer the invitation so come forward now if you want some of this I’m just guessing that few of us are going to go I’d like to maybe be arrested and come forward and yet so powerful is the holy spirit’s presence here at Solomon’s Portico that 5,000 men maybe 10,000 11,000 12,000 people join the chorus of the Saints and yet the thing that I want us to dial into today about what’s always true about the church and why we have to in some ways really be on our guard is that wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ is Faithfully proclaimed there will be men and women who receive that offer for pardon and rejoice in the lord and there will be those regardless of how you go about it who are offended by the idea that they need a pardon and seek to marginalize persecute or destroy those would Embrace such an ideology it has always been true it will always be true it is true today and so there will always be those who hear and praise God so if you remember what we said two weeks ago we said God meets men and women where they are right so he shows up where we are the the first church was birthed in a festival celebrating the barley Harvest all right so the First Christian Church exploded out of basically MRA no one saw that one coming and and then here once again he they aren’t looking for Jesus when Jesus finds them God meets men where they are and he always tells them the truth about themselves and although many get offended by what is true about them for many of us those of us who repent and find Our Hope in Christ Christ God telling us the truth about us is like a warm blanket cuz we’re finally outed and it feels good to no longer be outed and so the way I try or no longer be hidden the way I tried to flush this out a couple of weeks ago was that if God had shown up and looked into my heart and told me I was awesome I’d have no hope like for those who know they’re weak and is that not one of the most common accusation against uh all religious people but especially those of us who are Christians that were weak-minded that we need a crutch that we need a here’s the crazy thing I I usually don’t mind secular arguments but here’s what I’ll tell you about that one it’s true and pray praise God that by his grace he let us know we were weak rather than allowing us to continue to operate under the facade of strength so listen if you’re addicted if you’re depressed if you’re angry if you’re uh wrestling with anxiety if you know you’re selfish if you’re busting up all your relationships if you know you are easily prone to rage and violence on and on and on I can go when God shows up and tells you the truth about you that you you are in Rebellion that you cannot fix you that you make a crummy God and that I have wrath towards your Rebellion against me and then offers you pardon you go oh thank God that makes sense whereas if God shows up listen God shows up and your marriage is a train wreck and God shows up and goes no you’re nailing it think about how defeating and life sucking that would be I mean exhausted trying to make your marriage work exhausted trying not to lash out at your children exhausted trying to break addiction patterns exhausted trying not to fly off at the handle exhausted try and God’s word to you is you’re great now defeating and awful that would be praise God that he shows up and he goes no you’re a fool you’re trusting in you and you can’t do this that’s great news because I was already trying to be better I was trying to break those habits I was trying to break away what from what came so naturally to me I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t become a better version of me and then praise God when God found me where he found me he didn’t tell me I was doing great keep trying kid now you really came there were some harsh things said to My Heart by the Lord in love and then here’s what’s crazy on on top of completely outing me all right you have a lustful Wicked heart you’re a liar you love the Applause of men you are a slave to your own desires you you are a foul mouth hyper aggressive don’t care about people all about you buffoon and here’s your pardon in Jesus Christ that’s so now hear what I said the Declaration of God through Christ over the life of Believers is not that we’re Innocent but rather that we’re pardoned We’re Not Innocent we’re pardoned our crimes have been paid for in full and and where that happens there will always be a group of people who hear that respond to it and celebrate they are those who are aware of their weaknesses they are aware of their shortcoming means and to be aware of those things is a gift I’ve tried to plead with you now for a decade don’t despise those things I heard Ed Welch one point say we get confused about sanctification because we think it looks like strength in reality it looks like weakness in reality it looks like weakness to know you’re weak is not a bad thing to have a marriage that is difficult is not a bad thing if it gets you what you actually need I mean if you think about Kingdom economics Jesus’s first sermon it’s really it’s not really a crowd drawer right blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are you when you mourn I this is how you build a big church is it happy are you when your soul feels bankrupt blessed are you when you mourn blessed are you when you are persecuted when men say all sorts of evil against you because of my name this Kingdom economics why are you blessed in those situations because you understand you need him and you run to him not from him this is the blessed life this is your best life now there will always be those who respond always now this should create a great deal of boldness and confidence in us because it means people will respond all of them well no I mean just keep in mind Peter and John were Flex cuffed in this month right not all will respond with that’s great news there will be those who are offended by the idea of Jesus and the pardon now here hear me I’m not I’m not talking about those who would be offended by what we believe the word of God says in regards to moral positions and posturing I I totally understand why someone would be offended by what we believe God teaches around sexuality about what we believe God teaches around marriage totally understand why people would get angry about those things and lash out at Christians for those things but here’s what you’ll find often times it’s not even that that they’ll be defended by it’s Christ himself who is the stumbling block who is the one that brings the offense because God meeting us where we are the good news of the Gospel is that we are confronted in our sin and when God meets us where we are here’s what he says you don’t belong in that chair you don’t belong that little throne in your heart that’s mine well no it’s mine well since I created you I have rights and and by the way haven’t you done a pretty crummy job as the Sovereign of your heart H haven’t you been a pretty terrible God I mean it seems to me that everywhere you go you’re just jacking stuff up so you’ve got to PT the ball down the field continually that there’s this future place where you’re going to be really happy because you know you’re not there right now so you’re distracting Yourself by buying into the lie that really full satisfaction is found down the field when you meet the mythical one when you finally get that when you finally stop this behavior when you’re finally able to get these nice things when you’re finally able to not worry about this when you’re finally able to overcome your anxiety overcome your depression overcome this difficult relationship that you’re in you’re just punting the ball down the field you’re not ending the game but the gospel shows up and says you’re broken you don’t belong in that chair and you can’t fix yourself that’s offensive to those who are what Paul called himself insolent opponents so an insolent opponent says don’t care about the facts this is my position that don’t care about the facts I just care about what I want and and my position and so don’t bring me facts and so you’ll see that right here with how um they began to respond to um Peter and John Let’s look in verse 15 but when they had commanded them to leave the council they conferred with one another saying what shall we do with these men for that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and we cannot deny it but in order that it may spread no further among the people let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name do you hear Do you hear insulin opponent there do you hear the fact that hey we can’t deny that the power of Jesus Christ just healed this lame guy that’s has been begging at the gate for 40 something years we can’t deny it it happened but we don’t want them to do it anymore do you see the insolence in that so when I have met with non-believers one of the things I always just try to draw out of our conversation is that the default of many is I don’t want to believe so let me find reasons not to believe it’s the default posture of their art don’t want to believe cuz I like being God I don’t want to believe because I want to do what I want to do so I don’t want to believe because I know that Christ is going to be Lord and he’s going to lead me to some places I don’t necessarily want to go because I think I know better than he knows so I don’t want to believe so the fundamental posture becomes let me find reasons not to believe isn’t this what they’re doing I mean the evidence to believe is right there in front of them and yet it does not ever enter their minds maybe maybe this is real no it’s how do we crush this how do we marginalize this how do we make this look silly how do we get rid of this how do we make sure this dies how do we make them look foolish this is the posture of the heart of not only these Sadducees and the chief priest but also if you’re paying attention in the ministry of Jes Jesus the game that the Pharisees and Sadducees would play with Jesus where they would ask him questions he would answer their questions and it never kind of clicked or occurred to them that maybe he’s right they would just get bested by him and then huddle up and try to think of the next question what should we do about taxes Jesus anybody got a coin whose image is on the coin Caesars okay we give to Caesars that which is Caesars give to God that which is God bust it just Checkmate that’s what happens when you’re an all- knowing Sovereign god of the universe you just don’t lose a lot of arguments and so from there then they wouldn’t go gosh maybe he is who he says he is instead they’re like dang it he got us and they huddled back up one of the PO fundamental postures of the culture that we are in with those who do not believe is I don’t want to believe it let me find reasons to not believe versus let me figure out belief here it’s not a turning off of your mind it is a engaging honestly and then from there so you see they they know they’re like okay what are we going to do here verse 17 but in order that it may spread no further among the people let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name so they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus but Peter and John answered them whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard Peter finally Nails it finally I mean had he already failed this test and he already denied Christ three times and in such a merciful Act of Grace God gives him a chance to take the test again and this time he passes he doesn’t deny he doesn’t doesn’t waver at all he’s like hey you you decide whether it’s right for us to obey God rather than you but I can’t help speaking about what we’ve seen and heard so I I think the weight of this probably doesn’t stick in our heads because we can’t imagine the scenario in which we have been arrested and we are now standing in front of the judge and the judge says to us you will no longer preach about speak about or say anything about Jesus the Christ and and our response be hey judge mean you figured out for yourself but I’m going to keep talking about Jesus I mean that’s contempt of court isn’t it and and on a bad day that that’s a long time in prison and yet here’s the scenario that Peter and John find themselves in they’re being threatened by the established power of their day and then let’s keep reading 19 but Peter and John answered them whether it it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard and when they had further threatened them they let them go finding no way to punish them because of the people for all were praising God for what had happened for the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old so again think of just all the lunacy involved in this particular situation where they’ve got this massive evidence that what Christ is and who he is and what he has done is actually true so true is it among the people that to punish those who are preaching would seem so unjust to the crowd that they might rebel against their rulers and so they do nothing but threaten them further and then kick them out this has always been the environment in which the church has existed there are those who love the pardon offered and there are those who are offended by the pardon to the point that they seek to marginalize mock persecute or destroy those who have embraced and make much of the pardon so in light of this one of the questions that you’re going to have to wrestle with over and over and over again one of the pulls that you will feel I is the desire to have people like you rather than be men and women who are rooted in the gospel and being rooted in the gospel would risk some of the social relationships that you have some of the places you are invited into and some of the ways people interact with you um several years ago I’ve told this story before in fact there’s some people in the room that are at this party uh I was at a party and there was a guy at the party was a secret service agent um and you know when you’re at a party where you don’t know a lot of people you the the questions are are very similar you know so what do you do you know you live in the area you and and so uh what what would happen is is when people would come up uh to this guy like what do you do like I’m in the Secret Service they immediately go Oh my gosh let’s talk about that have you guarded this have you have you ever killed anybody have you like all these questions now people would then ask me what I did you know say I’m I’m Pastor up at The Village Church here and then there was always the awkward kind of oh all right all right man I’m going to get a drink you you take care brother and right I mean this is what happens this is what happens look can we be honest we want people to like us don’t we and if you’re like I don’t care if people like me then people don’t like you don’t worry bro we don’t like nobody wants to be marginalized nobody wants to be viewed as being a or some sort of hypers spiritual goofball like we’ve seen some of those clowns on the news we don’t be that that be the guy that’s always busting out the oil to put on people when they’ve got a cough oh my allergies praise God come here all right we won’t do that there’s a draw to want to have people like us there’s nothing intrinsically wrong about that desire look at me unless it makes you sell out unless it makes you not stand on the Promises of God’s word and the teaching of Jesus Christ and instead has you trying to give Jesus a makeover trying to make him more palatable to those who can’t swallow him the Bible has much to say about this let me read just two verses Proverbs 29:25 says this the fear of man lays a snake a but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe so I love this the fear of man the desire to please man to be accepted by men for them to applaud us for them to like us it’s a a trap it it’s a trap it doesn’t work so the desire I want to be liked I want to be accepted I want to be actually makes you a slave to their approval of you so then now they’re living your your life rather than you living your life and you’ve lost your spine and ultimately it doesn’t matter so I’ll say something harsh with acute analogy to be terrified of a kitten and have no fear of a lion makes you a fool for you to be mortified at a kid oh please don’t kill me and for you to walk up and slap a lion in the face makes you a fool doesn’t it so when your co-workers your neighbors those who sit around you at your children’s games when they become their love for you acceptance of you becomes more important than you pleasing God that desire to be like which there’s nothing wrong with that has now gone beyond that natural desire and has