Care Like Jesus

Introduction

Good morning. We’ll open to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21. Just want to say what an incredible joy and privilege it is to worship with everyone here, to see so many people we love and kin.

It’s awesome to worship with God’s people. It’s even more so when you get to see people you love and they come out at 9:30. This is early. I know it could be it could be nine. Can you imagine that? That’s central time for us. We worship at 9. That’d be 10 here. But 9 o’clock’s early too. And we’re looking forward to late times, Monday and Tuesday night. There’s nothing better than being with God’s people and studying God’s Word. We look forward to a good week with you. Shepherds here have picked out lessons that are helpful to Christians facing 21st century issues. And so I will say in advance, Monday and Tuesday night are a lot on our mental health, our thought processes. There are obviously a bunch of lessons.

You could do a series, you could do 10 on what could be covered therein. But we’re going to take a stab at two of those on Monday and Tuesday night, especially on Monday night, looking at some tougher things in anxiety and depression, etc. But for this morning, one of the toughest things that really in the world today is signified by what verses people know. It used to be back in a pre-COVID normal world where people just made fun of Ken and said, Oh, that’s a weird-looking guy, and everything was usual. With John 3.16 was the world’s most known verse. But now it’s a different one. And it’s Matthew chapter 7 and verse 1. Now I don’t know if you have to know that offhand, but you certainly know the words.

Jesus says, judge not. Or as modern translations render it, do not judge. And boy, if there’s something more offensive in our culture, I dare you to find it. I mean, you just I mean, you name what it is an attack on the home, attack on our health, attack on anything, children, school. You name it. The number one enemy of everything and everyone is judgment. And it’s complicated because then in verses two through five of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7, Jesus explains, well, there’s a certain type of judgment being considered. And instead of going through the nuances of that this morning, I just think as Christians, we have to learn to care. We have to learn to care like Jesus did. And really, when you think about Bible stories, I think Matthew 21, beginning in verse 12, is one of the ones that sticks in our mind.

And we’ll talk about why in a moment. But in Matthew 21, we have Jesus acting in a way that I think every single time you look at it, you’ll remember. And before we read verse 12, in a BBS a few years ago in 2021, 2020 canceled our VBS. But the next year we had one on Paul’s missionary journeys. And so I was drew the lucky straw to dress up like Paul. And one day that week, Kashka dressed up like Lydia, the seller of purple that Paul encountered at one point. And there’s a lot of good lessons that go through, and it’s always interesting to hear what do the kids take away from that. There’s story after story that can be told there. But my favorite and the most eye-catching for our purposes this morning was one of our deacons texts to me.

He said, Hey, my eight-year-old was asked at the table, what did he learn today? And he said, I never knew it, but apparently Paul and Lydia dated each other. That probably wasn’t the idea of what we wanted to get across. But I guarantee you now, every time I read about Paul’s missionary journeys, that’s in my mind. Because I don’t think we really were in the same room more than the beginning and end of the BBS session, but that’s what he caught. And so now I learned that if you don’t care, if you don’t take proactive steps, sometimes you come across in a way you didn’t expect. And that can be to your favor, but usually it’s to your detriment. It’s interesting here in Matthew 21, Jesus takes very specific action.

He doesn’t do things carelessly. He doesn’t do things without emotion. He doesn’t do things without logic. And we’re going to talk about needing both. Most of us tend to specialize in emotion or logic and act like the other half is unnecessary. And the Bible teaches that’s not just a bad idea, that’s wrong. But notice what Jesus does here, how he acts with logic, emotion, and spiritual intent in Matthew 21, beginning in verse 12. Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read how the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise? And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and launched there. I think we remember the story because Jesus in verse 12 does not act like the Jesus we imagine he is, right? If I say think about Jesus, only the most legalistic of us would say, All right, he’s a lawgiver.

He’s the old ten, he’s the Ten Commandments. He’s Moses, but he’s saying it himself, right? And then no one but the hippies among us would say, Well, he just wore sandals, he loved, he never said anything. We have all these mindsets. One time we had a community Bible study here in Orlando, and I met someone who said, I don’t really know anything about Jesus. And I said, Okay, well, I mean, if you had to color a picture of him, what would it look like in personality and otherwise? And she looked at us and she said, I gotta be honest, I really don’t know. I I guess he was just kind of a people lover who wore sandals and never said anything mean. And that’s really not the full Bible picture.

1. Jesus Aggressively Purged the Temple

He’s not the mean guy who’s just doing nothing but telling people they’re wrong either. But notice in verse 12, this really blows up that picture of Jesus. Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought the temple. We think, okay, that sounds a little dramatic, but we’ll see. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. This is what we would call, if anyone else did it, a temper tantrum. And I’m not saying Jesus did that because he knows how to tow the line between righteous anger and to avoid that which is unrighteous, sinful behavior, right? As Paul would write, be angry and do not sin. I’m gonna be honest. This is why I remember the story, because Jesus didn’t just purge the temple, he aggressively did it.

And here’s my question for the room as we go. Was this sinful of Jesus to see sin, to care about it, and to aggressively pursue it? Well, no, we’re not really comfortable saying Jesus sinned because I mean, just spoiler alert, he didn’t. But sometimes when you and I take on those roles of trying to be like Jesus, we’re uncomfortable when others fulfill that Jesus, Matthew 7 teaching of verses 1 through 5. I just remember the first part. Don’t judge. Judge not. Well, Jesus cared so much that he was not just cleansing the temple, not just teaching everyone, hey, let’s be better, let’s all be friends. He aggressively purged the temple. And yet, despite that, and this is really interesting, despite the fact that he’s furious at God’s temple being profane, that all the sin that is taking place at what should essentially be ground zero of worship to God, the one true and living, he takes time to care for people.

2. He Takes Time to Care for People

Isn’t that awesome? I think, and we’re gonna talk about this a little bit more in the next hour, in our politics, we have two groups. We have people who care about law and order and lives, all of which are good, and we have people who care about economy and lives, and can you see how sometimes we say the same thing and we just kind of are the same, but we sound like we’re on different sides? Jesus isn’t on your side, he is the side. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Interestingly, in the middle of Jesus being furiously upset by sin, and the question will be do I care that much about sin to actively be repulsed by it, and then to tell someone about it, trying to help their soul, do I also care about people in verse 14 so much that I will stop what I am doing, even in this holy quest to show love to the people who would otherwise be for God?

You see this in verse 14? The blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. I gotta be really honest. When you think about someone, you think about someone who’s an imposing figure and who loses his temper a lot and scares people, and I’m thinking, this is kin. I’m kidding, but let’s be honest. If he did have that side to him, and I don’t see that. I don’t watch him with watching Alabama games when they struggle like yesterday, big time, but I don’t see him get that upset. But if he was, would you view this as your time to go and ask him for a favor? I wouldn’t. Something about Jesus, despite the fact that verse 12 and 13, he is overturning the tables.

You see from John’s account, there was a whip of cords fastened that he’s using. This is amazing. This is why we remember the story. But in the middle of it, the people who would otherwise be forgotten, ignored, oppressed even, get his attention. And I have to ask the question yes, number one, do I care about sin enough to care, to act, and to say something uncomfortable? Number two, do I care enough about people who otherwise go invisible to stop what I’m doing to care for them? And by the way, how did Jesus care for them? He didn’t care for them with good words. He cared for their physical needs. He healed them, verse 14, the only indication would be of their what? Blindness and lameness. That’s the only affliction listed.

I think this is interesting that Jesus does that. And then, of course, this is the favorite part, because this is people. When you break some eggs, when you are trying to aggressively care about sin, sometimes we go too far, but Jesus didn’t. And even though Jesus didn’t, even though he did it well, even though he stopped to heal, guess who’s right around the corner as always, waiting to point a finger? The chief priests and the scribes. Everything he does when you read the gospels, this is incredible. Every time Jesus so much as breathes to help somebody, guess who’s there to point a finger and go, How dare you? The chief priests and the scribes. Notice what makes them mad. The specific thing that Matthew lists, right before it says they were indignant at the end of verse 15 is the children were crying out, Hosanna to the son of David.

And you say, Well, surely they’re not upset by that. Well, that’s what Matthew says. But even before that, what’s the other thing they could be mad at? When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did. Those wonderful things, contextually being either overturning the tables and/or the healing of the lame and the blind. That’s a nice word of saying the miracles that he worked for the hopeless. Jesus healed people, and the response from those in the room was to be indignant. Have you ever met someone who gets that upset when they see good done? I pray it’s not us. I pray it’s not me when I care about law and I see someone stop to show extra concern for the poor and the needy.

That people follow the order that Jesus, the way has spoken. To be one out of two is a failure. And I don’t mean a 50%, I mean a zero percent. To be like Jesus is to love and to serve when and how you can and to know law and to care intensely about it and be willing to talk to people when it is appropriate and needed. When you consider this story, I think it’s really memorable for a few reasons. I want us to talk about this. Why? Why do we care about this story? I mean, I everyone might not have known it was in Matthew 21, right? We we know judge not, we don’t necessarily know it’s Matthew 7, verse 1. But we know there’s that one time that Jesus got really mad and he’s overturning tables and he’s whipping them.

3. Care, Think, and Act Like Jesus

You know, I told the story in Alabama about Jesus being upset, and somebody said, you know, Jesus was looking out there and saying, Y’all have messed up. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know how that’s gonna translate up on the board if I were to say y’all have messed up. But we remember in our dialect what it would be like to be in the presence of the Son of God so mad that he’s physically acting out. Now again, remember, if if we did that, we would say that’s a crazy person, needs to be locked up, needs to be punished, needs some counseling, needs something. But Jesus did it, and so we know better. We remember the story because Jesus is so aggressive. And this is important to me, not just to say, okay, here’s the story.

Not just to say, well, Paul does say in Ephesians 4, be angry and do not sin. There’s a there’s a use case for anger. It’s to say, if I’m going to be like Jesus, I have to care, think, and act like Jesus, right? I think our culture wants us to decide we’re on team compassion or team law, and neither of those belong to Jesus. He is both of them at the same time. I know we don’t like to think about it because it breaks our minds. The idea that God is eternal means that he is already not only knows the future, but is the future, is in the future, is in the past. Jesus isn’t just in the past, the present, or the future. And he’s not just someone who loves, someone who sacrifices the Lamb of God, and He’s not just the one who could overturn the tables.

He’s both. And if he’s both, can I say this before we get to our application? That we have to be too. There has to be some time where I act like Jesus. Does this mean that I have, I can just get really mad and I have the right to overturn tables? And if I see some rope lying around, I’m like, I’m gonna fasten this together. I can’t wait for someone to break some law. I’m gonna be just like Jesus. No. In fact, we have to be even more careful because we don’t have the perfect judgment Jesus had. We don’t have the perfect discernment. I can’t read the hearts and minds of what you are doing and why you’re doing it. But I tell you what I can do.

I can look at a room that should be dedicated to God, see them focusing on stuff and things, and say, that is sinful, and say something. Now, does that mean I get to bypass what Jesus said in Matthew 18? If my brother sins against me, the first step is to do what? Go again, go to him and tell him his fault in private so that you can gain your brother? No. When Jesus gives me commands, I have to follow them, whether it’s the order I want or not. But there has to be some time that I act like Jesus if the scriptures make it clear that we’re supposed to remember the story about Jesus. And so aggression, that’s my word for it, has a place.

Romans chapter 12, verse 9, Paul says, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Now, this is different when your mom’s in the room, but my mama taught me growing up I’m not allowed to say the word hate. Okay, and so I hated that. The Bible word. But I found a loophole because one time in Bible class we were studying, and the teacher said, What does it mean to abhor? It means to strongly hate. And so I went back, I said, All right, can I say I abhor this? And she said yes, and that deflated my balloon so quick. And I said, Why? And she said, You can say that word all you want. Well, that’s no fun then. I didn’t want to say that.

I didn’t want to say the word for strong hate. I wanted to say hate. But the Bible teaches us through Paul’s words in Romans chapter 12, we aren’t just supposed to say, all right, evil’s bad, keep it over there. We’re supposed to strongly loathe, hate, abhor what is evil. I gotta tell you, as a society, we are terrible at this. And I don’t just mean the culture out there, I mean the people, myself included, in here. We are so used to living in sin and garbage, we don’t recognize that we’re not supposed to be in the garbage. It’s not supposed to be at arm’s length. It’s supposed to be way in a different vicinity from us. I think what happens is we’re really good at doing this.

We’re really good at saying, all right, we’re God’s people, we’re the church. We’re gonna keep the world at arm’s length. Isn’t this great? I mean, we’re up here, things are good, the world’s out there. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to keep the world at arm’s length, but look at us. We’re doing good. And we kind of shift. Time passes. A generation or two goes by. And we go, look at us. We’re doing good. I mean, we got all this room, we’re so holy, we’re doing so good, we’re fighting the good fight. It’s painful, it’s hard, but look, the world’s at arm’s length. And another generation passes, and another generation passes, and another generation passes, and here we are all the way over here, and we pride ourselves.

Wow, we’re fighting this good fight. We are hanging in, we are keeping culture up. I know the culture’s crazy, and I know we’re kind of like them, but we’re not. We are keeping them at arm’s length. And you know who wins in this scenario when we move all the way over here and feel holy about ourselves? Not me, not God. Satan is laughing. Satan is laughing his head off because he moved us, and he didn’t move us because we don’t love God. He didn’t move us because we’re stupid. He moved us because we don’t hate evil enough to hold the line. And this isn’t something someone else can do for you. Jesus did that himself. And it’s awesome that we have shepherds and Bible class teachers and preachers and deacons and Christians that we can team up with.

And we’re gonna talk a lot about that this week, Monday through Wednesday night. And it’s awesome that we have a team. But this can’t be instilled in you. You have to choose this. The only way to have the other translations for Romans 12, verse 9, genuine love. Instead of let love be without hypocrisy, modern translations will call it to have genuine love. You have to not only the last part cling to what is good, you have to hate what is evil. Isn’t this what Jesus shows here? We can’t just be, okay, well, you know, it’s in the room, but it’s not on me. You have to be moved by. Does abhor what is evil mean I can act like a psychopath and burn down the room when I see someone doing something that bothers me?

Of course not. But if souls are at stake, wouldn’t I say something? Albeit in a way that reminds me of my Savior who also took time to stop and heal the blind and the lame. Mindful that how I act impacts others. I think Jesus showed us something awesome. I think he showed us that we have passion and emotions and anger for a reason. Look at me now in Ephesians chapter 4. We’ve cited it numerous times, but I want you to notice the context of where Paul says to be angry and do not sin. Ephesians chapter 4. We’ll go ahead and pick up the reading in verse 25. As he’s encouraging them over and over, you see this in the first three verses. You see this in 16 and 17.

Do not walk like the Gentiles walk. You want to walk in a worthy manner of your calling. Notice what he says in verse 25. Therefore, having put away all falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, then we give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Paul doesn’t just expect us to never feel angry. He expects us to use it and to have it flare at the right moment. Is this lesson then to care like Jesus? Does this mean, all right, I gotta find my time to be angry and lash out. No. But if it was, I’m glad I’m leaving on Wednesday. If that’s the takeaway, that is not our takeaway.

But what is it? Well, to be different than the Gentiles who feel something and act on it, we actually have to have restraint and control. You really see this in verse 32. When Paul doesn’t just say, hey, do all these things, don’t do these things. He says, be kind, tenderhearted, to the point of forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. And so we say, okay, there is a use case, even in my anger, even in my frustration, even with my past sin of having stolen. What am I supposed to do instead? Think about how I can sacrifice for others. Be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. You can’t do that if you don’t care about people. To care like Jesus means not only recognizing sin, it means recognizing souls.

And that there are bodies God gave us around those souls. I don’t know where it happened, and I don’t know why it happened. But we’ve decided as a culture, souls are 100% of what matters. And that’s a little weird because Jesus spent a lot of time caring about the body he made for people. Is there a clear pecking order? Yes. Are the souls all that matter for the sake of eternity? Absolutely. But there’s a whole lot in the old law and in the new testament about caring for others who are sick, lame, blind, who need help, to need to be shown sacrificial love in the flesh. And so channeling my anger and not caring about people not stopping to heal like Jesus healed is part of the way.

And I do know where this came from. The other side is culture. Culture decided the body’s all that matters. This is it. This is your time. YOLO, right? You only live once, so go do something incredibly foolish. Go do something that might end your life early, right? That’s how to value life. We know how that happened. The world teaches that. And I gotta tell you, the world will never have it right. If you find yourself thinking like the world thinks on your social media feed, you keep seeing a lot of things and they agree with you, that’s a problem. Unless it’s God’s word and it’s just God’s word being straight shown to you verse by verse by verse, and you’re agreeing with it, uh oh. If someone comes to you and presents God’s word to you and you’re upset by that, that’s a problem.

Life is not about the body. That doesn’t mean we don’t show compassion and care for others in theirs. Because God saw fit to not only give souls, but to put those souls in a body. We were bought with a price. We are to glorify God, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, with our bodies. We’re gonna talk about that because to focus on the 1% when there’s a 99% at stake is foolish. But can we give the 1% its air time right now? Don’t be like the culture. Don’t live for the here and now. That’s foolish. Judgment day will come and our souls will be all that matter. But one of the things our souls will be judged on is how we show compassion and care for the people that we’re talking to in bodily form.

And so some of us are really emotional. And some of us are really logical. And we got to use all the tools in the toolbox to reach them. I think it’s interesting when you look at Jesus. He showed us that a message needed to be sent. The temple was so overrun. Do you think if Jesus walked in and said, hey guys, I know you’re used to your sin and all your money and all your income sources and your entire lifespan for the last probably two to three hundred years. Who would you mind changing it up a little bit? Me and some of my blind and lame followers are really uncomfortable with this. Do you think that would have worked? Jesus clearly didn’t think so. Jesus thought, at the situation, knowing he’s God, knowing God’s plan, knowing God’s law, I have to make a big deal out of this.

4. We’re Uncomfortable Making a Scene

And he did. And I’m not saying everything’s a big deal for us, but something should be. And some things should be a smaller deal, as Jesus shows too. As we conclude this, I want us to look at four reasons. Why do we struggle to act like Jesus? One of them is, excuse me, three reasons here. We’re uncomfortable making a scene. I’m gonna be really honest. When I go to a restaurant and I order something, there is a really high and seemingly increasing chance that whatever I order is going to be wrong. And that happens. I’m never gonna say anything about it. I mean, if I can order a hamburger, if you give me a hot dog, I’m just gonna eat it, and you’re gonna say, How is it?

I’m gonna say, it’s good, thanks. Because I don’t want to make a scene. Now, thankfully, my lovely, beautiful, sweet wife will say, No, this is not right. You need to take it back. And if you’ve seen her, no one can get mad at her, so it works. It’s a win-win. They’d be really mad at me if I said it. But some of us are like that. And some of you are not like that. I’ve eaten with you in your homes and in public. Some of you are like, nope, nope, not even close. Let’s do it. You’re this isn’t you, that’s fine. But for those of you who are like me, that you just don’t want to make a scene. The problem is, I don’t get to just have a personality trait if Jesus says I have to have a modeled behavior.

It doesn’t matter what my inclination is when I have to be like the Messiah. And that means I have to be uncomfortable at times. Sometimes I’m gonna have to go into a room like Paul did or an area at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17 and tell a bunch of idolaters they’re wrong. Look at this in Acts chapter 17. I want you to notice two things that Paul does, and it’s interesting because he models the behavior of Jesus. We always wonder, well, what does this look like if you’re not Jesus? I know we’re not apostles either, but this is the closest we’re gonna get. In Acts chapter 17, Paul is a guy, a flawed guy, a flawed man who did the wrong thing for a long time.

But now that he understands who Jesus is, he was changed. And notice what Paul does as he’s in the Athens area in verse 16. Now, Paul was waiting for them at Athens. His spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols. His spirit was provoked within him. Now, as an ally of Paul’s, don’t you want to be there when that happens? Wouldn’t you want to see what does it mean that Paul was provoked? Did he break stuff? Did he find one of those cool Greek vases? Did he find a cool Roman piece of art and just throw it down? Did he find a table out in the marketplace and overturn it like Jesus? Verse 17, so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

Some of the Epicurean and Soic philosophers also converse with him, and some said, What does this babbler wish to say? Others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there could spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So here’s Paul really mad. His spirit is provoked. This is sinful. Idolatry is not just kind of sinful, it’s not just something you dabble in. It is a rejection of God at the highest level.

And what is Paul’s response with his spirit provoked? Again, in verse 17, so he reasoned in the synagogue with them. And the scripture continues to say, how often did he do this? Every day, with those who happened to be there.

If we knew what he said, maybe he really laid the wood to them. Verse 22. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Ariopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this description to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. And what does he do in verse 24 through 31? He exclaims, There is a one true and living God. If he’s really God, he doesn’t need your stuff, he doesn’t need to be made in an image like you, and Jesus proves this by being resurrected from the dead. And just like Jesus when he overturned the tables, what the chief priests and the scribes do, they were indignant, they were mad.

When Paul spoke about the resurrection, what happened in verse 32? When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, We will hear you again about this. Paul was upset, he was angry. And day by day he reasoned with non-Christians about what it means to believe in a resurrected Christ. And even when he speaks to them, the recorded sermon that we have, he finds as much middle ground as he can. Did you notice that? He didn’t say, All right, this is my moment. You foolish heathens. He says, I perceive that you’re religious. And yet, here’s the unknown God altar. I can tell you who the real God is, why you should believe in him and what Jesus did for you. Isn’t that what we should do?

I tell you, when I see a bunch of people doing something I don’t believe in, my instinct is to be quiet, put my head down, and walk on. Is that like Jesus? Is that like Paul? That can’t be like me. And if this is the standard for non-Christians, how much more should we care about when we see other Christians in sin at fault? But can we say also that one of the reasons that we’re uncomfortable making a scene is we act like everything to be said has to be a 10 out of 10. And there’s a whole lot of time for one, two through nine out of ten conversations. Sometimes the conversation is, hey, I see you doing this. Can you help me understand why you made that decision?

It doesn’t have to be a punch in the face every time you see something you’re uncomfortable with. And one of the reasons I don’t say anything is because I have decided in my mind that if I say this, they’re gonna take this badly, they’re gonna hate me, we’re gonna have this spiral, and it’s all gonna be terrible until I say nothing at all. And every single thought I had was fiction, anxiety, undue worry. And even if it was true, aren’t we called to reach people who need the resurrected Savior? Gotta be willing to say something. We’ve got to be willing to stand up. And we gotta be willing to be the person like Paul walking around the midst of all the idols and not think this is cool, this is funny, these people are silly, but think this is upsetting.

5. We Don’t Really Hate Evil

Because as a Christian, I can’t tolerate sin. I have to say something. Well, one of the reasons is we don’t really hate evil. I think this is interesting. In Mark chapter 2, if you look at verses 13 through 17, one of the millions of times Jesus does something to upset the religious leaders of the day. In Mark chapter 2, particularly in verses 15 through 17, their chief complaint is Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners. And man, if he just isn’t the worst for that, they just are on him all the time. Jesus spending all his time with these sinners. And we think, now, wait a minute. Isn’t that what the sermons are always about? Don’t tolerate evil, don’t be around it, don’t befriend it.

How is Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners? But in verse 17, when he’s called out for this, notice Jesus doesn’t go, hey, we’re all just people, man. We’re all good in our own way. Who are you to judge? He says, who needs the physician? The sick. You know what he’s saying? When he says the sick need the physician, he’s saying, the people I’m eating with who can probably hear this conversation are sick. They’re in sin. I know they’re in sin. You know they’re in sin. He doesn’t say, How dare you guys judge them? They’re great people. He says, they’re sinful, and that’s why I’m here. They need me. And this is where it’s interesting because we have a real divide. One of the things that happens is there’s sometimes Christian teaching, don’t ever be with people who do wrong.

That’s hard to do because Jesus spent a whole lot of time with who? Tax collectors and the sinners. If we’re gonna be like Jesus, you gotta be like him. Did Jesus in any way endorse what they were doing or dip his toe in the water of what they were doing that was sinful? Not a chance. And we saw the only time he came close to being in the room with people who were sinful, what’d he do? He overturned the tables. But sometimes we act like, well, maybe if we heard what Jesus said, he was just blasting them. Do you really think the people who are mad at Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners would have been mad at him if the entire dialogue they’re hearing is you guys think you guys are sinful, you’re the worst?

No. They would have said, you get them, Jesus. We’re awesome, they’re not. Tell them. There’s a case to be around it. And you’re trying to help people. In Jesus’ case, it’s showing who he is, that they need him and they need his forgiveness. There is a huge difference between being in a room with someone as an ally and being in a room with someone as a messenger to Jesus Christ. And if we blend those, that’s on us, not the scripture. Yes, Paul says to abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. That is not talking about people, that is talking about actions. Christians do not hate people. And if you do, you better check that heart real fast. But we should hate sin. And we should be willing to have these uncomfortable conversations.

6. Show Emotion in Our Faithfulness

We should be willing to show emotion in our faithfulness. You want to make a room full of Christian people uncomfortable super fast, you tell them we’re supposed to show emotion. Because we have perfected the art of everything to be logical and timed and out for lunch. But what have we seen? Jesus upset. Paul spirit provoked. I just want to use one use case. When I was growing up here with a lot of people who aren’t here anymore who I love dearly, there was this idea, there was this conversation. What should we do after a baptism? I’m not going to litigate the sides. I would love to privately, I’m not going to do that publicly. But in Luke chapter 15, this is where we have the story of the prodigal son.

There’s a parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. And in every case, punctuated, of course, by the Father, you have the coin that is found, the sheep that is found and restored, and the son that repents and is brought back into the fold. And the scriptures say in each of these times, and there was great rejoicing. Do you know what started? Luke chapter 15, verse 1 and 2. Do you want to guess based on this morning’s lessons? The religious leaders, Jesus, how dare you be with these sinful people. And every time when the lost is restored, the angels in heaven are rejoicing. Now, do you think that’s a golf clap? Do you think they’re thinking, wow, amen. If you didn’t hear me, that’s because no one else would if you said it like that.

Amen. Shouldn’t we be excited that someone’s soul that was lost is found? Shouldn’t we be excited that we sing amazing grace? There is a case for emotion. It’s not always and all the time and with no logic, but you’ve got to show something. And one of the things that happens is we don’t show compassion for people because we’ve been trained not to feel it. Jesus felt compassion about sin and about people. And if I care about half of that, I’m completely wrong. And it doesn’t matter if I’m on the people side or if I’m on the sin side, you gotta do both. Because Jesus is both, and we desperately want and need both from him, don’t we? If we’re hesitant to show emotion, scriptures teach us we are judged as we judge.

We are forgiven as we forgive. Can you imagine if I’m shown compassionate judgment by my God the way I show compassion to others, and that compassion meter is empty from me? Uh-oh. We’re also judged very clearly in John 12 48 by the words of Jesus. And to not tell someone that they are living in sin and headed for a judgment day, eternal damnation, is equally damning towards ourselves as it is the person we’re not really showing love for either. Both matter. We need it all. And the reality is we can learn a lot from Jesus, and one of them is we gotta care compassionately and passionately about sin. Have compassion for people, have passion about what is evil. Jesus came into the temple, and it’s like Paul at the Areopagus.

He sees it and he can’t help it. And so if you hear a bunch of filth on the radio, on TV, online, and it doesn’t impact you, that’s not a compliment. That’s not strength, that’s weakness. If your argument is I can watch this, I can listen to this, I can be a part of this, and it won’t bother me because you’re used to it, that is a terrible Christian idea. And you didn’t find that in the scriptures. Jesus sitting with tax collectors and sinners to talk with them about his goodness and how they need his sacrifice is really different than trying to catch up on their cultural references privately, isn’t it? There’s a huge gap between those two. Sin is not okay. It needs to be passionately put away from us, it needs to be cared about.

Conclusion

And really cutting out sin in our life, but as this lesson is really focused on helping others, if I’m going to care like Jesus, I’m gonna have to be uncomfortable. Do you think Paul didn’t know at the end of his lesson where he says, hey, you guys have all these idols, you have the unknown God, but here am I? I am the one who can tell you where the real God is, and that real God is testified to you by the day of judgment, testified by the resurrection of Jesus, and some mocked you. Think Paul goes, I can’t believe they thought that it wasn’t real. I thought this was for sure a winning sermon. I thought I nailed it. I have no doubt in my mind, Paul knew some would mock him for bringing up Jesus in the resurrection.

He had been talking with them every day. You think he didn’t get some pushback occasionally? The decision to act, to speak with, and to have a tough conversation about sin cannot be decided based on how the other person will respond. And it can’t be decided on how it makes me feel to do it. But I’ll tell you this. If we care as much about people and sin as Jesus did, this not only isn’t an obstacle, it’s not even a thought. I think we’re really good at caring about sin or caring about people. The challenge to be like Jesus is to care about both at the same time. If we can master that, our discomfort level is gonna drop dramatically. It’s not even gonna be a consideration.

Because if I know a train is on the tracks coming for someone, and I don’t yell to move, what kind of love is that? And if I know someone is going to change their behavior in a rebellious way because I yell instead of saying it nicely, and I do that, what does that say about me? You have to know people to know how to reach them. You have to know God’s law to know what they need to be reached about. You can’t just be a people person or a law person, you have to be both. To learn from the example of Jesus is not only to care about people and sin, it’s to care about people so much that you are showing that in your everyday life, like in verse 14.

In the middle of this, where the chief priests and scribes are doing the thing the gospels always say that they do, in the first part, where Jesus is doing what he always does, which is caring about sin. There’s this really random sentence. And the blind and lame came to Jesus and he healed them. Isn’t that awesome? My question isn’t, do you know the law, do you care about sin? My question right now is do you passionately care about people? And if you think it’s yes, here’s the test. In the past seven days, what have you done to show compassionate care for others? Bodily, or as we know, far more importantly, the soul. If the answer is zero, that’s not passion. I’ll tell you what sport shows passion in college football.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in every city who congregate to root on their team of 18 to 22 year olds, most of whom are terrible. And we watch them because of the laundry they’re wearing, right? I say this as a football fan, but if you wear the right orange and blue, you have my back, and I have yours. Doesn’t even matter what name it is or how bad you are. If you wear the right colors, here we are. And people watch them when your teams tend and no. Oh and ten have a good offense. Don’t know what offense is. But we make time for it because we care. If we don’t care about people, we won’t make time for them. I’ll give you a safety question just because Christians ought to nail this one.

How often have you prayed for specific people that aren’t your immediate sphere of love? Your family, your romantic interests, your best friends. If it’s no one by name, isn’t that at least a little weird? That we’re Christians who believe we can talk to the Almighty God and He cares for us, and I won’t take the time to name you. How much care can I have? Because I gotta tell you, every time a family member of mine’s in the hospital, I am praying for them by name. Now it’s the name I call them mom, dad, meme, papa. I’m praying for them specifically because I passionately care about the people in my circle. We’re not called to care about passionate people in our circle. Jesus would say, even the Gentiles do that.

We have to love everybody the sinners, the lame, the blind, even the chief priests and the scribes who are the worst. And we show care for them not only by praying, not only by serving, but by having these tough conversations. To know someone’s in sin and to say nothing about it is not showing love. To know someone is suffering and to not offer help or to pray for them is not showing love. If we care about people, we will care about how they live and how God views them. We need, in conclusion, to act on sin in our lives and the sin that’s around us. I want to end on two verses. One of them is Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. As Paul is, by the way, having very strong words with the Christians in the churches of Galatia.

In Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1, as he’s moving to wrap up, he says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Or if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. For sake of time, just notice this quick example. If I’m going to bear your burdens, you’re going to bear my burdens. Two things have to happen. One of them is we have to be looking around, ready to lift somebody up. What kind of person are we ready to lift up? Somebody who is sinning. This is about the spiritual. This is about the most important thing.

And if I’m going to help someone who is sinning, that means I’m not walking around with the hammer, waiting for the toes to cross the line and then whacking it as hard as I can. It means I have to have a handout. However, it also means that I can’t just wait for someone to come fix my problem. And I can’t just give up on everyone. I have to have my hand up saying, I need help. I am in sin. What I’m doing, not okay, and I know that, but I need help to stop. I need someone to care about me. And one of the things that happens is we’re really good, like we said, at people or law. Law or people. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

We’ve got to do both. Doing nothing, not a good choice. Fail. Doing one without the other, fail. Be like the way, the truth, and the life. Have your hand down for help. Have your hand up to get help. I am not a mind reader. I cannot do much for you physically, but I can pray for you. And if you need prayers, I can’t just guess it. Now, some of you are facial people, and I can see something’s wrong, and I can pray. She surely had something going on. He’s really upset by something, I’m gonna pray for them. But most of you, poker face, Sundays, we gotta look good, we gotta pretend everything’s perfect and good. I’m never gonna know. I’ll be willing to put my hand down and my hand up.

I want to conclude on this last passage, 2 Timothy chapter 2. As Paul is telling Timothy how to handle sin. Notice something that makes everyone uncomfortable. Everyone I know is uncomfortable with these verses for one of two reasons. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I know almost every single person I’ve ever met has a problem with this. In verse 23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses, escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

We are to live in love how to show love, the Lord’s servant doesn’t pick useless fights, verse 23 and 24, but you do have to what? Verse 25, correct with gentleness. Why? Verse 26, because you care about souls. To care like Jesus is to care about souls, to care about the people who are living those lives that will be judged by the Almighty God. Because if I don’t correct them with gentleness, who has their soul in verse 26? The devil. And anyone who loves doesn’t want that. But yes, we need to correct. Yes, it needs to be done with gentleness. The reality is we need to care like Jesus. I appreciate everyone’s kind attention this morning. We’re going to continue with our series this week.