The Cost of Proclaiming the..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So brothers and sisters, I will this evening be doing an exposition of John chapter 9, the verses that we read a little earlier. However, I wanted to take you to the Gospel according to Luke, in that passage in particular.

because I wanted those truths that are there to be in the forefront of your mind because of what we're going to be addressing in the verses that we have before us in particular verses 19 through 23 in the fourth gospel. Those truths that we heard of in the gospel of Luke are truths that are going to be essential for us to understand those verses. Beloved, I could have taken you to any number of many New Testament passages that speak to the same truth and would demonstrate the same reality, the same truth. Whether it's the Old or whether it's the New Testament, the principle that it will cost and it will cost dearly to be a follower of Christ. To be a child of God will entail a definite cost, a tremendous cost to follow after Jesus Christ.

There is a price to pay if you choose to live in righteousness if you choose to follow after Christ, if you choose to uphold that truth, if you choose to believe the gospel and live accordingly. Because choosing to walk in the light, the light of Christ, in a sin-saturated world will require sacrifice. Dear brothers and sisters, don't hear me wrong. Please don't for a moment hear me saying that the cost is necessary. That is some way that you are required to pay somehow for your salvation.

That is some way that you have the currency that God will accept in order for you to be saved. that somehow you're required to do certain things or act in a certain way so that you can earn your salvation. That is not what I'm saying at all. Salvation is by grace alone, the unmerited favor of God alone, through faith alone, a gift from God to His people, to see Christ, open your eyes and embrace Him by faith. And it is in Christ alone.

He's the object of your faith, because faith is only as powerful as the object it embraces. You can have faith in many things, but if it's not in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came down from heaven, My brother said to live a life of perfection, but he suffered, he was perfected in his suffering, died upon the cross to shed his blood for people, for sinful people like us who will one day come to believe in him. He is the object of our faith, Christ alone. Beloved, that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We stand upon that truth.

We stand resolute and unwavering upon that truth, that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and exclusively in Christ alone, is the only way to the Father. It's a spiritual reality that we've seen. We've seen demonstrated before us in John chapter nine in previous weeks. We've seen this reality demonstrated before us in the healing of the man who was born blind. What did he contribute to his seeing?

That great miracle where his eyes were made open, how did he contribute towards that? Did he jump through hoops? Did he call out to Jesus because he had a particular type of faith that enabled him to embrace Christ without the intervention of a good and holy God? Beloved, it was Christ's work alone. Christ took notice of that man who was absolutely oblivious to anything and everything going on in relation to the Son of God walking down that pathway who would one day, on that day, change his life forever.

No contribution on his behalf. It's purely a work of God through Christ Jesus. No boasting allowed. None of us can boast. the salvation that we enjoy in Jesus Christ, none of us.

As we've been hearing through the gospel according, or actually the epistle of 1 John, the same author as this gospel, we know that coming into the light coming into the love of God that is found in Christ. Jesus is purely a work of God, but then we are called as Christians, as those who have been united in Jesus Christ, to continue to abide in his love, to continue to abide in the light. We are called to strive for the kingdom of God. There is a part to play. A part to play for every Christian, every believer and beloved, that is a part that will cost you.

And it will cost you dearly. Do you remember the invitation of our Lord in the previous chapter in John chapter 8 verse 8? John chapter 8 verse 12, my apologies, where the Lord stood and He declared one of those great I am statements. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows after me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Whoever follows, whoever follows after me. There is a following that takes place, that when the Lord redeems, when the Lord saves, there is a following that takes place. There's a following in the light of God. Follow after the Son of God, our Redeemer, our Savior, Jesus Christ. And beloved, I'm here to tell you, I'm hoping that we can see this in the scripture, that to follow after Christ will come at a tremendous personal cost.

Our Lord reminded His followers over and over again throughout the New Testament of that cost. In fact, His final words in the chapter of Luke 14, if you recall the passage that I read earlier, in His final words, that cost is articulated so beautifully in the mouth of our Lord, and this is what it says. So therefore, the culmination of what I have said, here it is. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

What is the personal cost to follow after Christ? According to him, it's everything. Everything. Even what's most valuable to you. Your own life.

Renounce everything. or you are unworthy to be my follower, unworthy to be my disciple. You are unworthy of me if you're not prepared to give it all up. That's the price that one must be willing to pay. That's the attitude of the heart of a true believer according to our Lord in his own words.

For most of us, we've lived fairly, I think, cushy lives, comfortable lives. And in the abstract, I think we have sincerely believed that we would be willing to give up all. For Christ, we've been confronted with these passages before, and I'm sure we've all asked ourselves those questions. I think we're sincere in our thoughts. We were prepared, or at least we think we're prepared to pay the price.

Many of us have made many willing sacrifices in our lives. But have we been yet stripped of everything? Has it cost us everything? Has it called us to renounce absolutely everything And have you seen that take place in your own life or in mine? Beloved, the fact that we are sitting in this room here this afternoon tells me that you have not yet paid the ultimate price.

We're alive, we're breathing, I thank Him for that. That everything, even your own life, He says, that I bear in Him for you. You might say, brother, the willingness to renounce, to give up, to completely turn the back on everything we own or that we hold dear to us, the willingness to do that in order to follow after Christ, in order to be His disciples, is an attitude of the heart. And I will say yes, that is true, amen to that. But the truth of the matter is this, At this point, only God knows if that sincerity of yours and mine is real.

He knows and sometimes by His grace He reveals to our hearts whether we are indeed renouncing all that we have. Whether we are indeed turning our back on the things of this world, the pleasures of this world, the passions of this world, and whether we have actually come to the attitude of our hearts, whereby we are putting all things behind and striving towards what is ahead of Christ. in Christ alone, even if we haven't come to the point where we physically have had to give it all up, although the day may come. It may come. And so how does the Lord test our hearts?

He doesn't need to know for Himself He is God, He sees all, He knows all. But beloved, we know throughout Scripture that He does it through trials. through tribulations, through difficulties and through suffering. Because it's in those moments he reveals to us what is the priorities of our hearts, what our hearts and our souls, our affections are actually rooted in when we have had to forego some of the pushiness and the comforts of this life. In those moments, He shows us the genuineness of our hearts.

He knows that it's for your own good and mine. So if He allows persecution to come our way, then beloved, we need to know by faith that that persecution has come our way from our Heavenly Father who loves us so that we would grow, and we would benefit, and that we would see what is in fact within, and to know whether we are indeed believing upon Him, and whether we have indeed hearts that renounce the world and everything in it for the sake of Jesus Christ. Persecution will come, The Bible doesn't say it may, but it says it will. Here we have in 2 Timothy, you might remember the text, that we may have been committed to memory. Indeed, all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Will be. Not maybe. Will be. We don't romanticise that persecution. We should never do that.

That would be sin. But beloved, that's where the rubber meets the road. That's where you and I know whether we have substance. that when the difficulties come, what we do in the moment is telling of the condition of our hearts. It tells us whether we have come to a spirit-wrought faith in the Son of God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, or whether we're believing in a man-made faith, a faith that we've conjured up based on the information that is in our mind and yet not have been placed by the Spirit of God in our soul.

Because when the persecution comes, and if that be the will of the Lord, that persecution does come, it comes like a fire. And it burns. It'll burn everything in its path. Everything man-made will burn. Your performances, the strength of your own hand, your ability, your intellect, whatever it is, it'll burn it all to bits.

And the only thing that remains is that which carries the fingerprint of the divine God of the universe. If it's not being placed in there by Him, it will burn. It will come to nothing. That's the effect that suffering has. That's the effect that persecution has on the life of the Christian.

We'll burn to a crisp, but only that which is divine, only that which is being placed in us by Him will remain. Now back to John chapter 9. The heat is beginning to be turned up in our passage. First century, the religious establishment, the Pharisees. The authorities of the day are starting to turn the heat up on this whole situation.

If you're a professor of Christ, we know this from verse 22, then you're going to be persecuted. Anyone who professes Jesus to be Messiah will be persecuted. Anyone who submits to Christ will be persecuted. Anyone who is sympathetic towards Jesus Christ will be persecuted. Why?

Because the religious establishment, the Pharisees, they built up a structure They build up an empire that they love. They have obedience. They have a fear over the people. And this Jesus didn't come alongside them and pat them on the back and say, job well done. You taught the Torah.

You taught Scripture. You had the responsibility of looking after the people of God. And you did a great job. I'm the Messiah. Pat on the back, you have a special place in my kingdom.

They didn't hear that from the words from the mouth of Christ. He offended them every step of the way. Jesus was an offense to them. And Jesus is declared and professed to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Savior of Israel. Then everything that had built up over that time is going to come crumbling down and they weren't prepared to do that.

Beyond that, if Jesus was declared to be Messiah, if He was indeed professed by the people to be Messiah, then what would the people expect of these religious leaders? They would expect them to fall on their knees and worship this Messiah, to believe upon Him, to place their hope in Him, and there's no way in this world that an unbelieving heart in darkness is going to do that without the intervention of God. My intention is not to speak so much about the unbelief of the Pharisees. We have spoken. We have spoken to that on several occasions.

Really, what I want to look at this evening is the cost, the cost of professing truth, the cost of professing that Jesus is Messiah, the cost of standing up for righteousness. This is the cost of standing up for the truth of God as revealed for us in Scripture. And so as these people, these lay people, living in this place called Jerusalem, knowing what the religious leaders are doing to them and how they've imposed their structure upon them, and then seeing Christ and the miracles and His teaching, He spoke like no other with authority. The healings cannot be explained other than the divine hand of God with this man called Jesus. He says, come unto me, salvation is found through me and through me alone.

They know that if they're going to go and believe upon him, if they're going to follow after him, if they're going to be his disciples, then there's going to be a great, great cost. In fact, it's going to cost them everything. So the question they need to ask themselves, are we willing? Are we willing to give it all up for Jesus? That's a price that they will need to pay.

in order to follow after him in the first century Palestine. And last time, we were in the Gospel according to John. We got as far as verse 18, so let's go to verse 19. Let's start there, but I want to read verse 18 for context, and we'll work our way through 19 through to 23 by God's grace this afternoon. Let's start from verse 18.

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, is this your son who you say was blind? How then does he now see? Now in previous sermons you may remember The Pharisees had a bit of a dilemma on their hands. You remember the dilemma? The dilemma was that they now had a bit of a fracture among them.

They've gone and some of their number, probably a minority more than likely, have now come to think, how can Jesus be a sinner? How can it be possible that He performed such a great miracle, a miracle that has the divine fingerprints of God upon it? God must be in this created miracle. How could Jesus be a sinner? How could God partner with a sinner?

That cannot be. Now, the majority will say, no, He is a sinner. He broke the Sabbath according to us, and therefore He must be a sinner. It cannot be from God. Either way, they had a problem on their hands, because the Pharisees as a whole, for the most part, were looking at finding the last nail, you might say, to get Jesus out of there.

To eliminate Christ. To take Him out of the equation, and remove His teaching, and remove anyone who was following after Him, so that everything can go back to normal, and they can continue to build up there as the Kingdom. All in the name of Yahweh. Some had second thoughts. You can't have this disunity among them.

So they had to find a way of reuniting and getting back on that plan that they began. And there's only two things that they could do to make this happen, to reconcile themselves as a party in unison, to go and against Jesus Christ. Because this was a big deal that happened there in Jerusalem. So the first thing they would require to do would be to either, it's one of two things they need to do, either they would need to disprove that the miracle had taken place. If they're able to disprove the miracle, that it didn't take place, then that would be okay.

There's nothing to see here. This didn't take place. It was a fraud. It was a hoax. put it behind you, great.

The emphasis is off Jesus Christ because this man was not indeed blind in the first place. Now if they couldn't do that, then plan B would be to somehow prove that Jesus is a sinner. If they weren't able to prove that the miracle disproved or refute the miracle, then they would have to prove that Jesus is not of God. That the miracle took place But Jesus was the one responsible for it. In a way, the limelight has to be taken off Christ.

That's what is necessary. So what we see is we see them going about their plan in three different distinct interrogations. Two of the man who was previously blind and one of his parents. Now, the first interrogation we saw a few weeks ago was then pursuing this man, and remember the objectives in their mind, either refute the miracle or refute Christ as being from God, have him to be a sinner. And then this man said, like he said to his neighbors, he's jumping with glee and he's happy.

He's happy that the Lord has saved him. And so this man kept on saying, no, it was me. I was born blind. I was born blind. I had no sight.

I am now seeing. The miracle did happen. And over and over again he declared it's the man they call Jesus that performed this miracle. He knew, he didn't even see him with his eyes, but he heard of him. You heard his name being proclaimed and said, I know it was the man they called Jesus.

He's the one who did this. He told me he sat on the ground and put on my eyes and said, go wash. And now I can see. I can see. I was blind.

And here is Jesus who's responsible to make me see. Furthermore, brazenly, They wouldn't have liked this. This would have increased the heat of the Pharisees, and their blood pressure would have gone through the roof. Brazenly, this man also says, when they ask him, who do you think this Jesus is, he says, I believe he's a prophet. Now they've just gone and said, he's a sinner.

He said, no, no, he is from God. He's a prophet. In fact, he is the mouthpiece of God. In other words, if he is a prophet, what he says, you need to submit to him. I don't like that.

Get out of that way. So now, they pursue who? They pursue the parents. And the questioning begins in verse 19. Now their concern when they approach the parents is to achieve three bits of information from the parents.

And from those information, here applying pressure on them, this is a very intimidating setting for the parents. And so it's three bits of information they require from the parents. The first is, Is this your son? This guy who's pouncing around saying that he once was blind, now he can see, causing a commotion in Jerusalem, is this your son? The next bit of information is, was he born blind?

Who's in a better position to know that? Dad. Is this your son, and was he born blind? And the third, again, is how did this happen? Confirming his identity, confirming his disability, and now confirming how it happened.

How did this happen? Tell us. Tell us. How did this take place? Just the facts.

As I said, it's an intimidating setting. The parents don't need to do much. They don't need to give a commentary. They're not expected to. Just give him then the facts.

Is he your son? Was he born blind? And then just tell us how he is made to see. How his eyes were opened. Some are easier said than done.

You see, they haven't got a problem answering the first Two of those. Because they knew there would be no harm in that. No cost. No price to pay for those answers. Those 20, his parents' answers.

We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. There's no doubt. We've seen him. We know what he looks like. Mum said, I clothed him this morning or whenever the miracle took place.

We nurtured him. We took care of him. We protected him. We guided him. We know this is our son.

He's definitely our son. We know that for sure. And we also know he was born blind. His eyes were put out from birth. He never saw a thing.

He'd knock into the walls, fall over himself. We knew from a very young age that this is our son, and he was born blind. We know that. Absolutely sure we know. Okay.

So they give and volunteer those two pieces of information, and now the Pharisees have a bit of a dilemma on their mind. Remember the first thing they're going to try to do? They're going to try to disprove the miracle. They can't do that anymore. Because both the man, as well as his Parents both acknowledge that he was blind and now he can see.

So the parents denied it. The parents crumbled under the pressure. They will be able to go away and say to the people, look, this is his parents. They've just told us. Speak.

Oh, no, this is not our son. No, this is not our son. We don't know who he is. It looks like our son's disappeared. We actually don't know where our son is.

And then they can paint the blind man as a cuckoo. as a fraud. They'll get away with that because they've gotten away with worse. But now, what they have is they have a miracle of grand proportions that they cannot deny. They can't get away with it.

So now they need to go over, okay, so the miracle we have to accept, but how can we now make sure that Jesus doesn't take the credit? The miracle happened. Okay, but we better make sure that no one believes that Jesus is the one responsible for making it happen. He must not take the credit. And I suspect the parents knew what was going on.

They would all freely offer their answer to the third little detail that they required. How then does he see, they say. I think the parents would have known that they would be in a world of pain. There's absolutely no indication to suggest that the parents had come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So we're not going to sit here and say we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they became Christians at this point in time.

That doesn't quite matter right now. The hostility that the Pharisees had upon on anyone who was not only a true follower of Christ, a true disciple of Christ, but anyone who showed any sympathy towards Him, anyone who declared Him to be even possibly the Messiah, anyone who walked after Christ, anyone who thought Him to be authentic, then they would feel the full brunt of these religious leaders upon them. If you're sympathetic to Jesus, then you're going to feel it through the religious establishment. And parents weren't strangers to this reality. They knew the Pharisees.

They live in Jerusalem and they understand what is going on. And so the Apostle John, after he gives us the answer to that third question, their answer to the third question. So how were his eyes made open? It gives us a very important commentary in verse 22 that will illuminate the context. It will give us the dynamics that we need to fully understand what's going on here.

You see, from verse 20, we read his parents answered, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he's of age, he will speak for himself. 22, here it is. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ. He was to be put out of the synagogue.

Therefore his parents said, years of age, asked him, yes, he's our son, and yes, he was born blind, but we don't know how his eyes were opened. Is that even possible? Is that even possible? Is it even possible that this man who was previously blind had come back and told all his neighbors, I can see, I can see, Jesus opened my eyes. I can see.

And he tells these Pharisees, despite knowing that there would be persecution coming his way, I can see now. I was blind, but now I can see. And it was Jesus Christ who opened my eyes. Is it possible that he tells the world, but doesn't tell his parents? It would have been the most happy to hear about how he came out of that suffering.

I think so. I think they knew exactly what was going on. Beloved, the fact of the matter is this. These people were gripped with fear. They were gripped with fear.

And this is a major detail. And they would have heard. They would have known exactly what took place. And they would have been happy for Christ. For Christ opening the eyes of their beloved Son, no doubt.

They would have been over the moon that this had taken place. They would finally see. Decades of being blind. He's a man, they say, which means he was at least 30 in this culture. He had to be 30 to be declared a man.

Now we can see what mercy was shown upon him, how grateful ought they be. But the cost of them going and answering that final of the questions, how did this happen? Who was it that opened his eyes? To go that far would mean that now we're in territory where it's going to cost something. And it's going to cost them dearly.

There's going to be a price to pay. And so they weighed up the price that they would have to pay. And it was too steep. It was too high. We know this is our son, that he was born blind, but that's as far as they're willing to go.

21, but how he now sees, we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. Ask him. He's of age. He'll speak for himself.

Now, if there's ever an example of throwing someone under the bus, this is it. Your first impression, maybe mine, would be to look at these parents and say, cowards! Maybe. Maybe some truth to that. But best that we hold back our judgement until we understand the dynamics of what is actually going on.

We know that their action was motivated by fear. I said that earlier. Fear of the Jews. We're told that in verse 22. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews.

Now we can go straight into exploring why it is that they feared the Jews. The Apostle John, an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that also. And in a few moments we will go there. But before we go there, I want you to look at the situation before us and I want you to think about the action of the parents. This will give us a bit of an understanding of the oppression and the fear that the people in the first century were living under.

Beloved, who is this man? What's his relationship to these people? It's their son. This is, this is, this is their son. Now I said earlier there's no reason for us to believe that they're Christian, but even on a human level, as parents, you would understand exactly what I'm saying here as parents.

What is the parent's responsibility towards their sons and their daughters? Is it not one of protection? So let me ask you this question, how great a fear was over these people in order for them to be willing to send their son out on his own in the face of the wolves that are before him and say, son, fend for yourself. We're not with you on this. All their life, they nurtured him.

All their life, they took care of him. All their life, mum dressed him, he couldn't see. They took care of this man, of this boy who became a man. And now all of a sudden, they're willing to throw him under the bus and send him out into the woods and say, we're washing our hands of you. We can go no longer.

No further. What would it take for a parent or parents to do that? Beloved brothers and sisters, let me tell you, as a parent, You can take away my rights, I'll take it. Treat me badly, I'll take it. Offend me, and I'll take it.

But touch a hair on the head of any one of my children, and you have another story all together. They are my responsibility, and I will take care of them and protect them. That's what every father and every mother has innately in them. a protection towards their children, and how great a fear would it take to compel this family, these two adults, the parents, mummy and daddy, to now step back and say, we can no longer protect you. Pray for yourself.

I don't think it was that there were harbours. I don't think that's it at all. But fear gripped their soul and it compelled them to do the unthinkable. I think a day earlier they never would have thought they would have done this. Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

For these parents, as incredibly difficult as I believe you was, They went up to the cost of professing this truth, being thrown out of the synagogue. It's just too high a price today. You might look at this as a 21st century person and say, what's the big deal? What's the big deal? To be thrown out of a synagogue, what is a synagogue?

Synagogue is the Greek word for assembly. So the assembly of a few people that get together, in fact, in this time when the Jews would go out of Israel, out of Jerusalem and Israel, when they would go to a region, if there were 10 family heads, 10 families, then it was incumbent upon them to establish what they would call a synagogue, an assembly whereby, you know, they would come and they would pray, they would read Torah, the activities that are taking place in the synagogue. I don't know if their rules apply to Jerusalem as such, the temple was there, but we do know there were synagogues around Jerusalem also. What's the big deal? Just find another synagogue to worship in.

I mean, that's what you do these days, right? That's what we see so prevalent. The local church is important until something goes wrong, and then you just leave, or if you're kicked out or excommunicated, you just find another local church down the road, and it's very likely that the members there, and even the pastor, may not even know why that person had come, or even communicate with the other church to see whether he's a threat to the church. That's not what's going on here. You get kicked out of the synagogue, and word is spreading that the Pharisee is new, and make sure that you won't be able to go to any new priests.

But I mean, essentially, someone who is excommunicated in this first century context, or as you would say, as the Apostle John calls it, de-synagogue. That's the word he used. It's only used three times in the whole New Testament, only here in the Gospel according to John. De-synagogue means to be withdrawn, to be cast out, to be thrown out of the synagogue, only used here. It was practically a death blow to that person and to his family in the first century.

When the religious leaders declared you to be a heretic, and kick you out. All your relationships with everyone, every Jew in the region would look at you as a leper almost. And they didn't have and they couldn't have relationships with you. Whether it's with personal relationships, whether it's financial, business, whatever it was. If you wanted to buy things from merchants, even things, essentials for your daily life, you would struggle to find someone to buy, to sell you any goods to maintain and to keep your family well and eating.

If you were a business owner, good luck getting any of the juice coming and purchasing from you. It's damn over. Closed business. No one's coming towards you. No one.

To be desynagogue meant to be disassociated from everyone, every Jew around you. That's what took place in this day. You were shunned from society. And the Jewish writings speaks of three types of the excommunication that took place in this time. We don't have a great deal in the Bible that speaks to it.

But in the writings there are three types. Of course, this is not scripture. Could be reliable, but it's not authoritative. But the three types vary from one degree to another in severity and time. You start from about 30 days, and then longer again, and then there is an excommunication that is one that is indefinite.

And so the relationships that you have with the Jews are broken. People can no longer associate with you on all those levels, whether it's personal, as I said, or business. And it could be indefinite. They even had a law, a rule, that was you couldn't, whilst you were excommunicated, whether it was 30 days or longer, you could not get within six or three, four cubits of one another. Four cubits, a cubit is from the elbow to the tip of your fingers, around 45 centimetres.

Four of those is about six feet. You couldn't get it that close. Hugs, abracadabra, kisses, no way. And you think of government overreach? You want to hear overreach?

that some of these rules even apply to your own wife. So you couldn't get even within four cubits of your own wife. That's the authority that the Pharisees thought that had over the people, and that's the terror that they lived under. With one swift declaration, your life as an excommunicated person, your reputation that you built up all your life, comes to an abrupt end. Your work, your relationships, everything comes to an abrupt end, and worst of all, you're considered cursed by God.

That was their attitude on the religious leaders of the day. And here's the thing. They thought they were acting righteously. See, from our point of view, we see such evil. I'm sure we've asked ourselves even recently, how could that be okay?

How could that be okay? And now we're in front of us, we have the Bible open and we think, how is it okay? How could they do that if that means that there's no work, no income, no provisions for the family? That means that all the relationships come pretty much to an end. If that means that really the only way some of these people who are excommunicated can continue living their life is to pick up and leave the region.

I know it's hard to think of examples like that in our day and age, but how could it be? If you're thinking how could they think that that is okay, religious leaders, daily and they memorize, how is it okay? How do they think it is okay? Jesus warned us of these things. He warned the disciples in a few chapters time.

In chapter 16, this is what Jesus says, of the Pharisees and their leaders of religion in Jerusalem. He says, they will put you out of the synagogue. Jesus already prophesied that this will happen. And then he says, indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's offering their service. Service to God.

And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. Persecuting anyone who stands for truth of Jesus being the Christ, they see as being a service to God. Oppressing and persecuting Christ and the people who follow after the Son of God. they see as being a service to God. Beloved, this is deception.

The appearance of a constant that was just too, too steep. Cowards. Amen. Now let me ask you, if it all hangs in the balance for you, if right now you're confronted with this type of consequences, how would you act? I think we ought not to be arrogant, Matt, as if we would not be tempted to do the same.

But by the grace of God. But by the grace of God. The heart of the problem, beloved, as I said earlier, and you picked up on it, I believe, is fear. Not that fear ought not to be present. Don't hear that.

It's not that the fear, fear ought not to be present. It ought to be present. The problem is the object of their fear. They had fear in the wrong person. The object of fear for these parents was man, namely the Jews.

And the object of their fear ought to have been the Lord God. The desire was to please the Jews when their desire would have been to please God. Their eyes were fixed upon getting the approval of the Jews when their eyes would have been fixed upon getting the approval of God. They feared man when they should have been fearing God. Matthew 10 tells us of this From verse 28 we read, And do not feed those who kill the body, Jesus said, but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, feed him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. He'll go on to say, So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. You get it? It's not that their fear is wrong, but it was focused in the wrong direction.

Their fear was focused in the earth on everything, on the creature, when their fear ought to have been a reverential fear of the Creator, God himself, who has made himself one through his Son, Jesus Christ. And this fear didn't only affect the lay person, just in case we think that it's only those who couldn't read and write, because you heard the stories, a lot of the first century people, lay people, couldn't read or write. They depended upon the teaching and the reading of the scribes and the Pharisees to teach them the Word. It's probably true, maybe up to 10% could read and write. Some estimates are a little bit higher than that, but it wasn't certainly everyone.

But even the elites felt the pressure. Because we're told also in John chapter 12, a few chapters' time, just before the Upper Room Discourse, towards the end of Jesus' ministry, listen to what Jesus says. Nevertheless, my apologies for what John is giving us commentary on. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, believed in Him, that is Christ, authorities, meaning the religious leaders of the day. But for fear of the Pharisees, and some among them, and others who were among them, around them, authorities, priests, and Sadducees and so forth.

And they, for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, what, their belief in Christ, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. Is that synagogue again? The synagogue. For they love the glory that comes from, yes, man more than the glory that comes from God. These people knew the teachings of Christ that hang around him.

They'd heard him speak. They had an intellectual level that was above the lay people. To some degree, they believed that Jesus was Messiah, the long-anticipated Christ. And even then, they denied him. Why?

Why did they deny him? We're told. because they feared the Pharisees. They were more concerned with the glory that comes from man. They were more concerned with the things of this world, more concerned with pleasing the people they see around them, rather than pleasing the God of the universe.

Their eyes were fixed upon the here and the now. Why did they deny Christ, beloved? Why? Because the thing that satisfied their soul was what was on this earth. The reason why they denied Christ is because their souls had not yet been satisfied in Jesus.

They haven't come to know the total and complete satisfaction that is found in Him alone. The bread of life that says, come unto me. He who eats of me, he who drinks of me, he who believes in me will never hunger and will never thirst. Now we're thirsty because the things of this world, the accolades of men, the applause of men, is what we live for and we can't do without it. That is what feeds our soul.

The souls were hungry and thirsty for what is earthly, rather than what is heavenly, rather than what is righteous. They didn't hunger for truth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. An unsatisfied soul will continue to seek satisfaction in the things of this world. That's the reality.

If the soul is unsatisfied, you'll be groping around on the things of this world. You'll be looking for ways to satisfy the longings of the flesh, the passions of the flesh, the longings of a sinful nature. The satisfaction of the soul can only be found in the one who brings forth satisfaction, who is Christ. Worldly things is what they hunger for. Temporal things is what they hunger for.

And if that's what you hunger for, like these parents, Their main concern is to make sure that they're in the book books of the Pharisees, because they didn't want to be excommunicated from the synagogue. As difficult as that is, and I'm not playing it down, but if that's where the heart is, then of course you will fear those who can take away what you grab so closely to your heart. Of course you're going to fear those who will take away the very thing that you think you're satisfied in, when in fact it is a fleeting pleasure. It is temporal at best. Of course you're going to be fearing them.

And so when they looked and they considered the implications and they weighed the cost, inevitably it was always going to be too high to pay because their soul hungers and thirsts for the here and now. This truth is so applied to us, beloved. Fear of man is so natural to the natural sinful nature. Because in the flesh we have a tight grip on this world. Why?

Because the flesh that every one of us battles with, by the way, is only satisfied with the things of this world. The flesh is never satisfied with the things of the spirit. The flesh is only satisfied with the things of this world. And it will continue to hunger for more and more and more and more. The lust of the flesh, the pride of life.

when one is desiring the things of this world. When one is only concerned with the comfortable, cushy life that we have. More concerned with losing our stuff than to uphold truth. More concerned, more concerned to ask the question, what will it cost me? What will the sacrifice be?

Will I lose my comfort? Will I tarnish my reputation? Will it affect my position? Will it affect those who like me, my friends and my relatives? Will it impact my popularity?

Will it affect my prestige? What are the emotional costs? What are the physical costs? What are the financial costs? Will I lose my comfort?

Will I lose my friends? What is the cost of upholding truth? What is the cost of pursuing righteousness? What is the cost of following after Christ? What is the cost of being His disciple?

What is the cost of standing for that truth in spite of any opposition and persecution that may come our way? You might say, brother, that sounds awfully negative. Counting costs, is that at all wrong? But brother, you began by reading Luke chapter 14, and in Luke chapter 14, Jesus is implying in that passage that we read to count the costs. You remember the two stories we read back then?

The king with 10,000 going against the king with 20,000. Can he win? Or does he have to put terms of peace? Or the guy who's building the tower, does he have enough money to build it all after his latest foundation finds out he's out of money? He's going to be the ridicule of the whole town.

Doesn't Christ command us to weigh the costs, to think through the implications of following after Christ? Foxes have holes and birds have nests, Are we not supposed to consider the cost of our life? Is that not the meaning of the passage in Luke chapter 14 that we sit down and we do what we normally do with like financial situations? Do I have enough money to buy that new car? Do I have enough money to build that extension or to go on that holiday?

Do I have enough money to put my children through university? Is that how Jesus wants us to look at how we live? how Jesus wants us to look, of how we assess or decide or deliberate if we are able, in and of ourselves, to follow after Him. If we are to be His disciples, is that how Jesus wants us to look at it? No.

No. No, that's not counting the cost. Because let me tell you something, to follow after Christ, to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, neither you or I have any currency that will get us even one inch of the money. The things that these two examples that our Lord Jesus Christ have in common in Luke 14 is from the very beginning, you're able to assess whether you can make it to the end. Does the king have the army soldiers or does the guy building the tower have the funds?

So you and I need to think, how do we count the cost of following after Him? How do we count the cost of being His disciple? It's not by looking at how much money we have in our bank account, how big our stamina is, or what our aptitude is, how well we speak, how well we know the Word. It's none of these things. Beloved, it's meant for you to examine your own heart and your own soul and to experience in your own soul whether you have in it the treasure that is Christ.

Because if Christ is not with you, if His Spirit doesn't empower you, you can never be His disciple. It's not about thinking from the beginning, am I willing to give up everything? Am I willing to give up my money, my home, my relationships, my job? Am I willing to do all these things? Because from the beginning you may say, yes, halfway down the track things change.

You don't know what's coming down the track. I don't know what's coming down the track. And what arrogance it would be for me to think from the beginning that I have this strength to make it to the end based on my decision or my emotions in the beginning. what to make to the end is to fall on your face and say Lord by grace you brought me into the kingdom and by grace I will follow you you empower me every step of the way give me to look to you as the treasure of my heart and therefore the things of this world and everything I own I will give up in a heartbeat for you because you satisfy the longings of my heart anything short of that means that you're relying on your own strength and your own ability to be able to walk that path that you and I don't even know that we're going to be confronted with. The examination ought to be simply this, where is my heart?

Who is my treasure? The things that you may have to give up, if they find place in your heart, you're not gonna give them up. That's why Jesus says in the end of that passage, unless, unless you renounce what? Some things? Everything.

With Jesus Christ, it's either all or nothing. And it's not that from the beginning you think that you'll be able to give things up for the sake of Christ. It's from the beginning you say, you know what? I've found the treasure of my soul. From the very beginning, I'm willing to give it all up for that pearl of great price.

I'm willing to give it all up for the treasure that is here in the field from the beginning. I'm willing to give it all up because I've found the one who satisfies every longing of my soul. Take it all, but I'm still rich because I have you, Christ, and no one can take that away. Can't count the cost, think of the implications. It may be that no cost is too high to follow after Christ.

But only then, only then are we able to understand so much of the Scripture that seems to be inverted to the human heart. So much of the Scripture that seems to be so antithetical to what the world believes. Let's think about the Beatitudes. I think back on that for a second. Blessed, blessed, by the way, my curse means happy or joyful.

Happy are the poor in spirit. Go out these doors and tell some people that and see what sort of looks you're gonna get. Happy are the meek. Happy are the meek. Happy are those who hunger and thirst Happy are those who mourn.

Luke says, happy are those who meet. Happy are the poor. Think about those words, we read them all the time. How can you be happy if you have nothing? How can you be happy if you have no bread to eat?

How can you be happy if you're weeping, if your eyes are weeping? How can you be happy? So antithetical to what the world believes. You know why? As a Christian, faith is otherworldly.

It's rooted in the divine Son of God, and it's empowered by the divine Spirit of God to the glory of the Father. It is so otherworldly. And then he goes on in those beatitudes to say, blessed are those who are persecuted, for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you. Who likes to be reviled?

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you when you suffer and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely. False testimony against you. That's not pretty. Jesus is saying, blessed are you if these things happen. But don't miss the next thing.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You're in good company if you're being persecuted. The prophets were persecuted before you, Jesus is saying. Blessed are those who are persecuted. Now let's get this straight.

The persecution or the blessedness is those who are persecuted for righteousness. And then Jesus says, on my account, blessed are those who are persecuted on his account, for his namesake. Because brothers and sisters, be careful. we may find ourselves feeling or under the brunt of persecution because of evil. 1 Peter 4 speaks to that very clearly.

It says suffer and don't suffer because of evil. It could be that we suffer persecution because of our political leanings. It could be because of our arrogant personality. It could be because of our offensive style. It could be a number of things that we can suffer persecution for.

Let's not sit back and say, oh, I'm a Christian. I've been persecuted for For Christ, he has my back. Oh no, do not, he says. Don't see that as a blessedness, as a blessing. Don't rejoice in persecution that comes your way because of unrighteousness, and only for righteousness, only for the name of Jesus Christ.

We don't romanticize it. You can remove yourself from persecution righteously according to the Word of God, and I don't think we have warranted spiritually to do that, but if He wills, with our good Heavenly Father who loves us, if He wills that we enter into persecution, He uses that persecution as an instrument. for God to be at work in us. Whenever suffering, tribulation, or persecution comes our way, God is at work in us. A God who loves us.

A God who promises never to leave us nor to forsake us. God of the universe, the one who created the heavens and the earth, the one who sits enthroned. The one whose life is contingent on no one and nothing else takes notice of you, takes notice of my pity-wretched soul. And he says, I love you, and I'm gonna work in you to mature you, but it happens through difficulty, through persecution. Can you think of a few outcomes of persecution that comes our way.

Can you think of a few reasons why the Lord will allow for that type of persecution to come our way? We can start in Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five, verse three, we read, I said it from the beginning, therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand. and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that it is, but we rejoice in our suffering. Blessed are those who are persecuted. and we are rejoicing in our suffering. Why? We know that knowing that the suffering produces endurance and endurance character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us because the love of God or because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Persecution, God uses to perfect us, to mature us, to make us more like Jesus. We read or we heard even this evening in Hebrews chapter 2 that Christ's suffering, he was perfected through what? Through suffering. It is through the difficulties, it's through the persecutions for righteousness, not for For the sake of Christ, standing up. For the Gospel, standing up.

For the goodness of Christ, standing up. For the truth of God that is found in His Word, that the world so fervently opposes, that God works in and through us to purify us, to defect us, to mature us, to make us more like Jesus Christ. to remove the corruption that we have in our souls because of the grip that we've had on this world. We sometimes can become so comfortable in the things that we have and the things that this world offers, a little too comfortable, and the Lord knows it. He uses the suffering and the persecution to humble us.

When we're humble, we realise that we are so weak, so dependent, so needy. And when you're needy in that time, what you do is tell Him of the state of your soul because you turn to Christ and say, you're my strength, you're my hope. He allows persecution, beloved, to find strength in Jesus, to increase our faith, to deepen our love for Him, our appreciation for Him. to deepen our resolve and our devotions to Him, to confirm our faith. Because when that fire comes through, as I said earlier, we either find ourselves holding to Christ and saying, you're my only hope, or flexing our muscles, thinking we're okay.

We can do it. It proves our faith that is more valuable than all genuine through suffering. and sometimes the persecution is the suffering that comes to teach us these things. And beloved, let me tell you that as I said earlier, that it is our Lord Jesus Christ who was perfected through suffering. He is our example.

He's the one who walked before us. He's the one who suffered in our behalf. He's the one who bore the ridicule and defilements of men. He's the one who was accused, wrongly, falsely, by the religious leaders of the day. He's the one that handed over to the authorities crying out, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be on us and on our children.

He's the one who's done it all. He's our example, he's the one who hung upon that cross and bore the wrath of God, the suffering that you and I could not even begin to imagine, and it's a suffering that He did not deserve. We're being persecuted for righteousness sake, but if that comes our way, just remember that He bore all that wrath and He was undeserving of it. Persecution doesn't come our way lightly, you know, brothers and sisters. Christ is right there with us.

Remember the apostle, do you remember in Acts chapter 9, on the road to Damascus when Paul has an encounter, Saul back then has an encounter with Jesus Christ. Those words are just awesome. Christ says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my church? No. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

What was the Apostle Paul doing? He'd had a letter from the temple that he was on his way to Damascus to go and capture the Christians and bring them and imprison them. Murderous threats was what the Apostle Paul was breathing out. He was hurting the church. His intention was to persecute the church because he was one of those in John chapter 16 that kills these people and says he's doing a service to God.

This was the apostle Paul, calls himself the chief of sinners because he persecuted the bride of Jesus Christ. Christ wasn't there. Paul was going to persecute the church, the people of Christ, the believers. And Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute? me, so closely identified with his church, beloved, so closely identified with you and I, that whenever we enter into suffering, tribulation, trial, testing, or persecution that comes your way, you are not alone.

The one who is Christ, who was perfected in suffering, has done it before on your behalf, and now he's with you, upholding you by his power, by the strength of his power, his spirit, upholding you. through whatever comes, your responsibility is just to keep your eyes upon Him. My responsibility is to simply say, Lord, I have no strength in and of myself, but I'm gonna look to you and believe upon you. I'm gonna trust in you. I'm gonna embrace your word.

I'm going to abide in your love. I'm going to walk in your light. And Lord, give me the strength for whatever comes, whatever consequences are coming, I'm going to trust them in your capable hands, Lord. I believe. What more can you do?

Where else can you turn? What other avenue can you go to? But let me just finally finish and bring this to a close. How is it that we can endure this type of persecution? a prophet or a son of a prophet.

I'm not saying we're going to enter into that type of person. I'm just saying it may come, it will come for every believer, will suffer persecution. What type of persecution that will be, I don't know. But it only takes a cursory, a very superficial reading of church history. And then you can see how difficult, how disgusting, how horrendous some of the persecution the church had to endure.

And I don't know about you, but when you read books, they're described in detail. And you read once, You sit down and you want to read maybe five or six of the accounts and you can read one and you can't go any further because you feel broken. When you read those details and you ask yourself, how is it that they endured? How is it that they endured? I think Jesus gives us the answer in Luke.

So back to that passage in Luke. When Jesus says, Actually, my apologies, go to Matthew, Matthew chapter five. I want to go back to the Beatitudes. And Jesus says in verse 10, blessed are those, happy are those, joyful are those, who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Then he goes on to say, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The reason that you ought to be happy and joyful when persecution comes your way is because yours is the kingdom of heaven. He'll go on to say in verse 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Do you see the distinct difference between human wisdom and biblical wisdom? Like brothers and sisters, coming alongside a believer and patting that believer who's suffering and entering into all types of difficulty, whether it's trials or tribulations, whether it's health concerns or whether it's persecution that is coming their way and patting them on the back and saying, it will be okay.

is going to get better. You will get another job. Your child is going to recover. Your wife will return. Your husband will return.

Whatever it is coming alongside that Christian, patting them on the back and saying those words, may be able to induce a very temporal A very temporal reaction in the heart. But beloved, there is no substance in those words, because you're not God. Nor am I. They're false, empty promises. And that's what the world uses out there.

No. No. If you want to touch the heart of the believer, you need to take and apprehend the promises of Jesus Christ. And then you need to bring those promises and encourage your brothers and sisters in the Word of Christ. You believe in the same Saviour I believe in, and our Saviour has said, Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Why is it blessed? Why are we rejoicing if the persecution comes? Because eternally and finally we're going to be where He is. Eternally and finally we're going to be in a place called the Kingdom of Heaven where Christ dwells and we will dwell for all eternity. Our joy, our security, our rest, our comfort, all that is fixed upon the person of Jesus Christ who is the treasure of our soul and the soul of the Christian desire is nothing more than to be with Him.

And that is what will bring life to your spirit. Not that things will get better, not that persecution will go, none of these things, but simply this. That when He hung upon that cross, He declared, it is finished. And when He said that, it is finished. It means that all that is required for the salvation of your soul and mine, for all eternity, has been accomplished.

And the Son of God loved you and gave His life for you. We haven't seen it in real time, but it's a done deal. And if that doesn't bring joy to the soul, if that doesn't bring the blessedness that's spoken of and the beatitudes, the happiness and the joy, then beloved brothers and sisters, nothing will. Nothing will. Sitting back and asking ourselves the question, Am I ready to renounce all that I have and follow after Christ?

We don't need to wait until the difficulties come, the testing to come, so that our faith is reproved and genuine, although the Lord may use it. But even now we can ask ourselves the question. And the question can be simply asked like this. Who is the treasure of your soul? Who do you live for?

Who is the lover of your soul? Who satisfies the deepest loneliness of your soul? Is it Christ? Or is it a fiend of this world?