Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ - Part 2

Let's turn now to the second talk, and I said what I would do is simply spend time here talking about Him, focusing on Him, and I tell you this is a real challenge because the whole Bible is ultimately about Jesus. Jesus said so. You search the scriptures and it is they that are testifying about me, and on Nehemiah's road he opened all the scriptures to them about himself, and so I have a lot to choose from in this talk. So how would you do it? I just didn't know what to do. Jesus, we're going to talk about seeing and savoring Christ in these 50 minutes or so, and so basically what you have here is random Piper favorites. I just, okay, I get to talk about anything I want to, about Jesus, and I'm just gonna go as long as the clock lets me go, and we'll do some random Piper favorites. So the first one I get from Jonathan Edwards. He helped me think this way, but let me orient you not with Edwards, but with the way Noelle and I have talked about manhood and womanhood. This isn't an analogy. This is not a talk about manhood and womanhood. I'll leave that to Stu Weber here. He knows the manhood piece really well. However, I'll do a little bit. I think Noelle and I have talked about this, and we agree on this, that a truly admirable woman and a truly admirable man are not simple things. They're complex things in that a truly admirable man has some feminine components, and a truly admirable woman has some masculine components. If a woman acts too much like a man, we think she's unnatural. We might pity her, be offended by her, but we don't admire her. If a guy acts too much like a woman, we're not impressed with that either. That makes us nervous. We don't admire him, but neither do we admire the man who is typically called all man. I don't anyway. Or the woman who is typically called all woman, because those little phrases suggest a man or woman who's just too narrow, too simple. They don't have the complexity and the harmony of personality that makes a person rise into something more admirable. So those phrases make us think there's just one kind of response, one kind of feeling, one kind of thought in monochromatic sexuality there. It's not complex. And to admire that, I think, would be to say that a male chorus would be more male if they all sang bass. Now that may be true, but they wouldn't be as good. It wouldn't be as beautiful. The music wouldn't be as beautiful. Or a female chorus, they all sang soprano. That would perhaps sound more feminine, but it wouldn't be as beautiful as if some of the women sang a little more like men. And in the male chorus, some of the men sang a little more like women. And then you get this amazing sound called harmony that is richer, deeper, more beautiful than if it were all just one thing. So we want to discover what admirable is, what's beauty. People who know music would know what the balance is. And the balance is that in that chorus, some of the men sing a little more like women, some of the women sing a little more like men. Or in a relationship or in manhood and womanhood, there should be features that they share, which, of course, does not at all mean that men should not be uniquely and distinctly men and women uniquely and distinctly women. It's complex. It's not a simple thing. And we bring then together diverse excellencies, that's a phrase from Jonathan Edwards, and you have something more beautiful. All of that is an analogy of why Christ is so magnificent, because He brings together in Himself aspects of greatness that seem incompatible. You put them in one person, you think, which are you? And that's why He keeps us off balance so much. He surprises us with the way He is. And I want to illustrate that by taking you to Revelation 5. In fact, in these 10 minutes of the message, I'm re-preaching a sermon from Jonathan Edwards, which probably took him two hours. Revelation chapter 5, I just want you to see what I mean, and this will kind of govern everything else I say about the beauty, glory of Christ. Here we are in chapter 5 of Revelation, last book of the Bible. Then I saw in the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne, that's God, the Father, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. That scroll represents the unfolding of history at the end of the age, and it needs someone to open it. And they can't find anybody. I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Weep no more. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. Now just stop there. That's Jesus. Everybody knows that's Jesus. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, and He has the right to unfold the end of history. So we have a Lion. Jesus is a Lion, King of the beasts. Don't mess with Him. Get your head bit off. But drop your eyes down to verse 9, and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain. So verse 5 says, Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll. And verse 9 says, You can open the scroll because your throat was slit. That's what slagizoma means, slaughter. What kind of lion is that? It's a lamb-like lion. Do they go together? He arrives on Palm Sunday, already tipping his hand that though he is king, Hosanna, Hosanna! He's on a donkey. And the children get his attention, and he pays attention to them, for goodness sakes. He makes them an illustration. He's not oblivious of the little ones. What kind of a king is this? He's on a donkey. He's receiving accolades with branches and clothes. The king is here, finally! And then on Good Friday, they slit his throat. What a king. What an amazing king. He gave his majestic, mane-covered neck to the knife of weaklings that he could have snuffed out of existence at any moment. What a lion, a lamb-like lion. Now, let's keep reading in the text. Verse 6, And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb. Huh. So, he is a lamb. Verse 5 says he's a lion, but when John looks, what he sees is a lamb. So, he's a lamb-like lion. But look what it says about this lamb. This is a strange lamb. I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. You're supposed to be slumped on the ground in a pile of wool with blood all over it if you've been slain. This lamb is standing. He was slain and he's standing. Strange lamb, right? And look what else it says about him. With seven horns, seven eyes, which are the spirits of God sent out into all the earth. What's a horn about? A horn everywhere in the Bible means strength. To break someone's horn is to shatter them as an enemy. And he's got seven of them. Perfect number. The point here is this is a lion-like lamb. Don't mess with the lamb. Can you give any text where it says don't mess with the lamb? I'll give you two. Revelation 6:16, fall on us. They cry into the mountains. Fall on us and hide us from him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. Don't mess with the lamb. Better to commit suicide being crushed by a rock than to face the lamb. That's an unusual lamb. That's a lamb that could get me really excited. I might be able to follow that lamb. Scared to death until I realized he was slit for me so that I could go with him. I wouldn't have to be crushed. Here's another one. Revelation 17:14, final enemies of God fighting against the Christ. They will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of lords and king of kings. What a lamb. Seven horns, seven eyes, totally knowing, totally powerful, standing though slain and so terrifying you'd rather be crushed by a mountain than face his opposition. So, we have a lamb-like lion and we have a lion-like lamb. Do you think there's any point to that? I think the point is beauty and admirableness do not come in simple packages. They come in very complex, paradoxical packages of personhood, whether it's a man or a woman in the analogy or a male chorus or a female chorus in the analogy or whether it's the living God in human form living out lion-like features and lamb-like features. This is why we love him. This is one of the things that Edwards meant when he said the evidence is direct and the step in the logic is one and it is by his glory. When you unfold the gospel in its fullness, this is the sort of thing that shines through. This is what 2 Corinthians 4-4 meant when he said the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. It meant the glory like this, the lamb-like lion-ness and the lion-like lamb-ness. It's just so unparalleled. We just need to get this news to people. We need to figure out all kinds of ways because they're made to know him. They're made to see this and say, yes, yes, we thought it was all about being Rambo. It's not about that. It's about another more complex strength. So, my conclusion on this first Piper favorite is that Jesus is not a simple thing. He's not a lion merely, and he's not a lamb merely. He's a lion-like lamb and a lamb-like lion and therefore magnificently attractive to my soul so that when the Spirit is on me, in me, I am awakened to say, I'll go anywhere with you. I just want to be with you. Absolutely anywhere. Take me anywhere. I'll go anywhere. I'll do anything. You don't want me Bethlehem anymore? Where do you want me? Iraq? Just so you're there. So, let's list off a few of these paradoxical combinations. We savor him for his glory. Yes, but even more so because his glory is mingled with humility. We savor him for his transcendence. Yes, we do, but even more because his transcendence is mingled with condescension to us. We savor him for his uncompromising justice. Yes, we do, but even more so because it's tempered with mercy. We savor him because of his majesty, but even more so because his majesty is woven with meekness. We savor him because of his equality with God, according to Philippians 2, but even more so because as God's equal, he has a deep reverence for God in his humanity and submits to his Father and obeys his Father as his equal. We savor him because of how worthy he is of all good, but more so because that was accompanied by an amazing patience to suffer evil. Nobody was more worthy of being treated well than Jesus, and nobody more willingly was treated more badly. That was a plan. That was a plan to reveal glory to us. We savor him because of his sovereign dominion over the world and that he's clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission. We savor him because he stumped the proud scribes and Pharisees with his wisdom, and yet how simple he could be with children. Suffer the little ones to come to me. I'm not so highfalutin in my wisdom and deity that I can't hang out with children, for goodness sakes. And we love that combination, do we not? A man who has no time for children, we know he's sick. There's something wrong with him. He's just too full of himself. And a man who can only play with children and can't hold his own with men, don't let him in the nursery, you know. We admire him because he could still the storm, and he refused to take that power and call down lightning on the Samaritans or get himself down from the cross. So, that's a sample, and you could finish the long, long list of how the lion-like lamb and the lamb-like lion have these diverse excellencies in himself. Let's go to another one, another Piper favorite. The mingling of joy and sorrow in Jesus. The mingling of joy and sorrow. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, Isaiah says. Luke 19, 41. When he drew near, he saw the city, and he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. Picture Jesus weeping over Jerusalem as he approaches. Picture it. He comes to the tomb of Lazarus, weeps, sweats drops of blood in Gethsemane. My soul is troubled even unto death. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Hmm. So, what was happening? Rejoice always, and again I say rejoice, the apostle Paul. Jesus said, He would come after me, let him take up his cross and deny himself and follow me, for he would save his life or lose it. He'll lose his life for my sake, and the gospel will save it. Follow me, get your cross, let's go. So, are you happy, or are you a sullen Savior? I'm not sure I want to follow a sullen Savior. I would have to be sullen all my life. And, of course, that's only a part of the picture, right? It's a big book, and even the gospels are big books. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Oh, that's better. I'm talking to you. I'm writing this. I'm speaking this. I'm ordaining this. I'm sad, but that my joy might be in you. John 17, 13. That was John 15, 11. John 17, 13. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. So, already now, something is sustaining all this pain. He's not a monochromatic sadness. Sad, tears, pain, aching, groaning. Yes, that's our Savior, but sustained for the joy that was set before Him. He endured the cross, Hebrews 12, 2. But joy that is set before you is like a reservoir that is streaming back into the present. The present does not get altered in its pain, but it gets sustained in its pain. And it's sustained because hope for everlasting exquisite joy is joy in measure. It's not as full as it will be someday. It's not as glorious as it will be someday. We're groping toward the fullness of it. But right now, one of our banner phrases at our church is 2 Corinthians 6.10. Paul simply, in defining his apostleship, says, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. You can put that right on Jesus. Sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Or you could turn it around. Rejoicing but always sorrowful. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Everywhere he turned, he saw the world as it really was. We see sin, we're not moved by sin. We get mad at sin, we don't get broken by sin. But Jesus, He saw it all, and He would carry it all. And the sadness in this man's soul was huge and always rejoicing. What a Savior. Very complex. At the end of the age, when He welcomes us into the kingdom, do you remember what He says in Matthew 25? What verse? 25-21. The Master will say to him, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the, tell me, the joy of your master. Who's the happy one there? Jesus. And I'm being welcomed in. So, now that He's risen from the dead, there is a Vesuvius of uninhibited joy in His Father, in His finished work, and we will one day enter into Christ's joy. If you've ever feared, every person in this room you know is crippled, don't you? Emotionally crippled. Everybody, not just the strange people. All of us are emotionally crippled, meaning sometimes horrifically ugly things happen, and we don't feel the horror or the brokenness we ought to feel. Or magnificently beautiful, sweet, wonderful, relational things happen, and we just don't respond. We don't welcome it, we don't respond to it, we don't say anything, we don't feel what we ought to feel. We're all broken. And therefore, when you read the commandments, delight yourself in the Lord, you feel like an idiot. That's not always going to be true. One of the great transformations that's going to happen at the last day when the trumpet sounds and we are transformed in the twinkling of an eye is our emotional framework that's broken by our parents and broken by our genes and broken by our heart experiences. It's going to be healed like that, and you will have the capacity to share the joy of Jesus in His Father and the Father in Jesus in a way that is now unimaginable for you. So don't give up on yourself if you feel, I'm just too emotionally broken to respond the way Christians should respond. Of course you are. Everybody is. This is why we repent all day long every day. There is nobody in this room that loves God the way you should. He is worthy of magnificent allegiance, magnificent emotional engagement, magnificent thinking, and He gets 40%, 50%, 60%. We flop around between D-minus and C-plus, giving evidence that we're alive. I believe in assurance. I know I'm messing it up for some people, but I believe in assurance because He's so merciful. He'll take a D-minus. You pass. It sounds like works, doesn't it? Be careful. The passing simply means there was evidence of life showing that I'm in Him where my righteousness is. I'm not talking works there. I'm talking there is a change that comes into our life in our broken lives, and we don't get fixed until we get to heaven completely. Hebrews 1:8 is an amazing statement. I'm almost done with the joy and sorrow favorite. The Son of the Son, Son of God, God says, Your throne, O God. Did you hear that? Of the Son, God says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. He's talking about Jesus. God is talking to His Son there, and He says, You are God, and you have loved righteousness, and you have hated wickedness. Now I have raised you from the dead, and I have anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Jesus Christ is the happiest king in the universe today. You do not follow a morose king, a sullen king. You follow a king who delights in all that He does with infinite joy, and you will be welcomed there in measure now and fully later. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. That's us. That was Him. Next, Jesus, sovereign, and submitted to His Father on the way to die. I am biased toward my heart's eyes, seeing, savoring, enjoying instances in the Gospels of Jesus' sovereignty. I'm biased. I know not everybody's wired the way I am. Just got to take this. Not everybody's wired to run into these and say, Yes! Oh, yes! Be that for me! So, just tolerate this for a minute, because I'm just going to enjoy a few of these with you. Number one, I've got seven of them. We'll see if I drop some out just to save time, because I do have other favorites, but sovereign and submitted is the one I'm working on right now. I read my Gospels. Not everything in the Gospel moves me equally, right? That's probably my problem. I think it's okay. There should be some proportion, but these are the kinds of things that when I read them, I just want to come out of my comfort zone. I don't want to get into the chair or off my knees or just go tell the universe, He stilled the storm. Peace, be still, and it obeyed. And then Mark 4, 441 says, They were all filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? I can never read that without stopping and saying, The wind says, Yes, sir! And the wave just goes flat, Yes, sir! He talks to water. He talks to water. He talks to wind. You can't even see wind. He talks to it. Wind stops. That's my kind of God. That's my kind of Savior. If I could have a friend like that, would you want a friend like that? Especially if you're on a boat crossing the ocean, which, of course, creates huge problems for us, tsunamis. I get interviewed by radio people after Blacksburg and after tsunami. I get interviewed. They ask, So, what's up with your God? And you say it softly, and you say it carefully, and you don't say it alone, but you do say, My God is in heaven and establishes His throne there. He rules the world, every molecule of it, and He was in charge. And He could have stopped the massacre in Virginia, and He could have stopped the tsunami, and He didn't. And whatever God permits, He permits by design, because He's infinitely wise. And if their next question is, So, if He's infinitely wise, what was He doing? What was the infinitely wise purpose? And the right answer at that moment, I think, depends on the tone of voice at the other end of the line. One of the most right answers is to say to her, God's purpose, according to Luke 13, is, Ma'am, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Because that was Jesus' answer to the question why the Tower of Siloam fell on 18 innocent people and killed them. They asked Jesus, What's up? And Jesus said, Do you think that all the people in Jerusalem are more sinful than them? No. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. The point of the tower was to call you to repentance, ma'am. This is personal, ma'am. This is not about a theory here. All of us should have been under the tower. All of us should have been shot in Blacksburg. All of us should have been shot. So hear that, ma'am. There are other things I need to say, way more, way more, in terms of God's compassion. But you're asking me about a purpose. I can tell you one for sure. Your repentance is being sought by God today because you should have been shot, and you didn't get shot, and therefore you have another breath to breathe, and you should use it to get right with your God. Another instance of His sovereignty, Luke 13:31, at that very hour, some Pharisees came to Him, Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. So they're warning Jesus, Get out of here. Herod's got a plan to kill you. And listen to this lion. He said to them, Go tell that fox. He called him a fox. He called the king a fox. Go tell that fox behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, the third day I finish my course. That is total in charge. You think I'm going to be scared of Herod? He's a fox. He thinks he's smart. He's small. I've got some work to do today. Could cast out some demons. Got a few healings to do. Third day, I'm going to get myself killed, and He won't do it. I'll do it. Which brings up another text. You with me? John 10. Nobody takes my life from me. I'll lay it down on my own accord, and if I lay it down, I'll take it again. I love every line in the Bible like that. That's my Jesus. That's my Jesus. You think Satan, that putting yourself into the heart of Judas, you did this? Pilate, you think you did this? Herod, you think you did this? Gentile soldiers, you think you did this? Crowds crying crucify him, you think you did this? Read Acts 4:27. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Jews, the Gentiles were gathered together to do what your hand and your plan predestined to take place. The Father and the Son had made a covenant. We're to save the world on our terms and our time. Now you go down and do it, son. Yes, sir, I will. As much as it will hurt, I will. Unimaginable pain, I will. Yes, sir. And as he walks toward the cross to do that, don't mess with him. His hour is not yet here. You're just a fox. I don't need to be afraid of you. My father and I have agreed when and how I'm going to die, so step aside. Luke 22:31. This is so beautiful. That's lovely. So full of power, so full of grace. Simon, Simon, Jesus says to Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. When you have turned, strengthen your brothers. When you have turned, not if you have turned. I got a plan for you, Peter. I didn't choose you as a rock for nothing. I just know that you're going to deny me three times. I know that. You don't think so. I know so. But guess what, Peter? I'm praying, and I'm asking the Father, don't let his faith fail utterly. It fails, but it doesn't fail utterly. Picture that sovereign glance that night. Only one of the Gospels records it. Jesus looks at him, and that prayer gets answered with a look. When you turn, strengthen your brothers. What's going on here? He's making a rock by breaking him. This sin is planned. All sin is planned. As long as you're looking funny on your face, I'll make it really funny. All sin is planned. God is sovereign. You meant it for evil. He meant it for good. Everything works together for the good of God's people. So, yes, you're going to go down three times. I know it's going to happen. You're going down. I'm praying for you. You won't lose your faith utterly. When you turn, be a rock. Of course, it took him quite a while to learn that. He messed up with Cornelius, and he messed up in the book of Galatians. Peter was quite the failure in many ways, but Jesus was sovereign at the denial. Luke 22, 52, hear it again. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the temple and the elders who had come out against him in the garden, have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs when I was with you day after day in the temple? You didn't lay hands on me. And then he says, this is your hour and the power of darkness. What does that mean? This is your hour and the power of darkness. You had all those opportunities to take me right there in front of everybody. I'm teaching, and you wanted to kill me. You wouldn't do it. You couldn't do it. And now you're here. What's going on? I'll tell you what's going on. This is your hour, and this is the hour of the power of darkness. My father and I have agreed. You get an hour. Take me. But this hour is going to close. It's a metaphorical hour, 60-minute hour. This is your hour. So you got this hour lasts a fraction of three days, and your hour's over. And in that hour, you're going to swallow me up like a whale, and I'm going to poke your guts out from inside. That's an image I got from Jonathan Edwards. And just like the whale vomited out Jonah, death vomited out Jesus. And he says, death has been sick ever since, and will one day be washed up on the sea and eaten by wolves, or as the Bible says, thrown into the lake of fire. Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. Mark chapter 14, verse 61. This is the moment when Jesus has the least opportunity to be taken seriously in what he says. He's on trial. He remains silent, made no answer, like a lamb being led to the slaughter, right? Again, the high priest asked him, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed? So stake your claim if you are. You've been talking riddles all your three years here, and we're trying to nail you on this, so come forth. And now, when it can least likely be believed, it's crystal clear. Jesus said, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Why didn't you say that earlier? Why didn't you say that right after you multiplied the five loaves and two fish in order to feed 5,000? Then people would have said, yeah, right, that fits. And here you are. Your hands are probably tied. You've got a spit run down your face, and you're surrounded by power brokers who're going to hand you over to the pilot. And finally you say, I am the Christ, the son of the blessed, and by the way, you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. That is the most outrageous time to say such a thing, because he just keeps us off balance. He just, he won't fit our expectations. Yeah, I'm coming. I'm coming. One more on this point. Luke 23, 43, filled with hope for us. Are there any robbers here, any adulterers here, any murderers here? Yes, there are. Some literally, and all of us spiritually, because if you hate, you're a murderer. And Jesus was crucified beside one of these fellows, and the fellow turned to him. I wrote a poem about this one time to try to figure out what went on in this guy's head, because he was wicked all his life, right? And in my little imaginary way, he was watching Jesus. They were both railing at him. Remember, one of the girls said, they're both railing at Jesus. And then he watches Jesus say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do. And by one act, his heart ascended to see glory. And he knew that is not a criminal. That's the Son of God. And he says, remember me when you come into your kingdom? That's an amazing statement of faith. You, you blood-soaked piece of meat, are coming into your kingdom. And Jesus says, today you will be in paradise. Talk about sovereign, in charge. Even before I rise from the dead, I'm joining you in paradise. So, take a deep breath and savor your God. Sovereign, time after time after time in the Gospels, exerting His majesty and exerting it on the way to be a lamb. That's what makes it beautiful. Any old big shot can strut. Jesus didn't strut. He walked with sober authority and power on His way to die for you. It's amazing, and I love it. What about this set of paradoxes? I'm off to a new Piper favorite now. The paradoxes of His teaching concerning whether it's easy or hard to follow Him, or whether it's safe or dangerous to follow Him. Which is it? And His answer is, yes. And you just read it, and you want to say, I mean, a superficial reading of the Gospels without the Holy Spirit quickening you to see the diverse excellencies coming together in a beautiful person would just cause you to scratch your head over and over again. I'll give you a couple of examples, just two examples. Matthew 11, 28, very familiar, we all love it. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. Find meek and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is, say it, easy, and my burden is, really? What about Matthew 7, 13? Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction. Those who enter by it are many. The gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. I want to say, are you psychotic? Are you schizophrenic? What is up? Come to me. Come to me, all you who labor. I got rest for you. I am meek. I am lowly. I've got a yoke. We'll put the yoke on, but the yoke is easy. I've got a burden, but the burden is light. Get on the narrow way, because the way that goes to hell is so easy, and the way that leads to heaven is so hard. That's my Jesus. That's my glorious Jesus. And you know why I think he talks like that? Because he wants us to pause, think, ponder, and realize we're dealing with something extraordinary. If Jesus were just understandable like that, everything fits in, makes sense, no problem, don't even think, just put in your back pocket, we got this figured out, on to do something else, he wouldn't be God. As the God-man, he unfolds for us a way of life that is as perplexing as he is. So, here's my way to put those together, and they're both true, he's seven, and there's a sense in which they're both true. The reason that the way is hard is because it is a struggle to believe that it's easy. If we trusted him, fully, it would be easy. But faith is a fight. Paul said, I have fought the good fight, I've kept the faith, I've finished my course, right to the end is a fight, and what's he fighting? He's not fighting to perform for God, that's works. He's fighting to trust him, because I'm wired to do it myself. I'm wired to, I'm not going to depend on you, I'm going to depend on me. And so it's hard to be on the narrow road, because the narrow road is the road of faith. Unless you turn and become like a child, you cannot enter the kingdom, and so the narrow road is the way of child-likeness, and nobody in this room likes being a child. We like being self-sufficient adults, for goodness sakes, and so it's hard to stay on the road of weak child-likeness that lets him work for us. So, here's my little image. If any of you's an artist, I'll be happy to take a little piece of artwork in a year or two after you finish it, because somebody did this for me one time, and I lost it. I feel so bad. I did this in a, I said, paint this picture. Jesus said, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. So, a yoke, we all know what a yoke is, big wooden thing fits on the back of an oxen or two oxen, and Jesus says, I got one of those for your shoulders, and we think, oh, it's supposed to be easy and light. He says, I've got it, so put it on, because it is easy, but it's a yoke. Yokes are for pulling plows through rocky soil and service and work, and yokes don't connote ease. He said, put it on, put it on. I mean, my life, my teaching. So, picture me now. I'm the ox, all right, and I'm like this, and He puts the yoke on my back, and He's got the handles of the plow. We got an old-fashioned two-handled plow here going down into the, whatever the metal thing is called down there, and the connection is with the yoke. It's on my shoulder, and He says, let's go. We got some, we got a church to lead here. Well, we got some evangelism to do. We got to plow this soil. He takes the handles like this. So, let's go, and then with Popeye-like forearms, He goes like this, and lifts me off the ground like that. Oh, really? And then He pushes the plow, and I'm just kind of, oh, oh, that's what you meant. That's not quite like that, but a lot like that. Isn't that, isn't that little image a picture of 1 Peter 4 11? That's the most important philosophy of ministry verse at our church, I think. Let Him who serves, that's me right here, okay? Let Him who serves, serve in the strength that God supplies so that in everything, God may get the glory through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the dominion forever. I don't know any other way to describe that in this image than to say, okay, I'm supposed to, I'm supposed to help you with this plow, right? By relying on your power, all right? You've got the handles, I'm, I've got, and if I'm relying on His power, He's pushing this thing, and I'm, I'm trusting Him to do it. So, I look pretty stupid hanging there, which is hard to look stupid, be childlike, be totally dependent, and since it's hard, He says it's hard, but it's easy if you just stop and think about it to hang in a yoke or to be a child. It's easy to be a child. You just receive things all day long. You're hungry, you cry, you get food, but nobody likes to be like that. That's why not many are on the road. One other illustration about that was hard and easy. Here's safe and dangerous. Are we safe or in danger? When you follow Jesus, are you safe or are you in danger? Listen to this. I don't even have to choose two texts here, it's all in one. This is Luke 21 16. David, when am I supposed to stop? Right now? 11 30? All right. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. Now, that is a promise. Some of you will be put to death. Trying to avoid the death of all the members of your church who are missionaries is a bad strategy. I mean, it's okay to try to avoid, just don't make that the bottom line. If some of your missionaries come back in a coffin, you haven't failed. Jesus' promise has come true. Some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. Not a hair of your head will perish. Not a hair of your head will perish. Some of you they will kill, not a hair of your head will perish. What's that, like they move my hair when they cut off my head? So, what does he mean? I mean, this is amazing. What does our Lord Jesus, so filled with glorious, diverse excellencies, mean? He means the same thing he did in Matthew 10. Don't fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing that they can do. Fear him who has power to cast both soul and body into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. In other words, don't fear man, because you can only be killed. Fear God, because you can be sent to hell. And then he follows that in Matthew 10 by saying, are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them before your Father is lost without the will of your Father? You are of more value than many sparrows, therefore do not be afraid, though you may die. The hairs of your head are all numbered. Not a hair turns white or black without God. No sparrow falls to the ground without God. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. He's totally in charge over your life, and you do not be afraid of death, because today you'll be with me in paradise. I'm looking at my leftovers and seeing which one I want to close with here. Okay. In the end of Matthew's gospel, Jesus said, Matthew 28, 18, all authority in heaven and earth belongs to me. All authority over galaxies and endless reaches of space. All authority over the top of mountains and valleys and oceans. All authority over plants and animals from the peaceful blue whale to the microscopic killer viruses. All authority over weather movements and earth and hurricanes and tornadoes. All authority over chemical processes that heal or destroy. All authority over countries and governments over Al-Qaeda. All authority over bombings and beheadings and campus massacres. All authority over bin Laden and nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea. All authority over all politics and elections. All authority over media and entertainment and sports and leisure. I have all authority over education and universities and scholarship and science and research. I have all authority over business and finance and industry and manufacturing and transportation. I have all authority over the internet and all the information systems in the world. I have total authority in this universe. Go make disciples because—now that was the lion talking—because I'll be with you. That's the lamb talking. The lamb like lion and the lion like lamb. I'll be with you. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Put these two together. Verse 18 and verse 20. I have all authority. I'll be with you. I have all authority. I'll be with you. The majesty and the intimacy together is enough to take us out of here on his side for his glory, ready to lay down our lives because he will never, never forsake us in his majesty and meekness. He is so worthy to be seen and savored. So, Lord Jesus, we submit to you now asking that you would exercise your authority over our wills and over our minds so that we more and more see you and savor you and be transformed by you as we ought. Amen.