Essentials: Obedience

Jesus isn’t looking for people who simply say the right things—he’s calling people to walk His way. In Matthew 21, we discover that repentance, obedience, and grace all meet in one simple question: Are we actually doing the will of the Father?

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If you would turn with me to the gospel. Some of you know already where we're at in the gospel right now, but the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 21, chapter 21. Now you may have noticed that we jumped ahead a little bit. And this is actually after. Now if you know Jesus's chronology as given in the gospels, this is now after.

After he's entered Jerusalem, remember after that confession of Peter, you know, you are the Christ. He turns his face to Jerusalem and he begins to walk with his disciples to Jerusalem. And he tells them three different times, I'm going there, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to die, I'm going to resurrect. And so now he's here, right? So now he's arrived in the holy city, right?

And so already he's shaking things up, let's just put it it that way. And before our text today, he ends up healing the lame, the blind, cleansing the temple even, which it's like, you know, some of the religious leaders, like, hang on, hang on, whoa, whoa. This guy, what, he's not even part of the priesthood, not any priesthood that we are aware of. Not the Levitical priesthood, right? The Aaronic one.

Like what kind of priesthood is this guy to be able to come in and clean the temple and to do these things, you know, on the Sabbath even. And so they're going to question his authority. But really what is at stake here this morning, I'm kind of taking a little bit more of an angle. I'm not bending it, I don't think out of proportion for Friend Day. But really, today's gospel is about the kinds of friends that Jesus goes after, if you can think of it like that.

So keep that in the hopper as we move through and read this section of scripture here, because what ends up happening in actually Matthew chapter 11 Good Ways Before 21. Here is the religious leaders already start insulting Jesus, at least they think they are, by saying this about him. He's a friend of tax collectors and sinners. That may sound like good news to us because we know the rest of the story, but it was meant as an insult. Okay, so what kind of friends is Jesus looking for?

All right, stand with me as we read the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 21. And we'll begin with verse 23 here. Notice these words. This is the word of God. When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things?

And who gave you this authority? Jesus said to them, I will also ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? And they argued with one another, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him?

But if we say of human origin, we are afraid of the Christ, proud for all regard John as a prophet. So they answered, jesus, we don't know. And he said to them, well, neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. What do you think? A man had two sons.

He went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today. He answered, I will not. But later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same. And he answered, I go, sir.

But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said the first. Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.

But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Jesus, thank you for your holy word. And we pray now that your Holy Spirit would come to us in this place and teach us your ways, Lord. Teach us to do the will of the Father. We pray in your name. Amen.

You can be seated.

Well, this, thankfully, is one of those parables of Jesus and prompted by a whole incident here that actually is quite simple. It's real simple, because either way they go with this thing, they are in a conundrum, right? They're in a pickle, okay, to put it this way, because either way, it proves that they did the wrong thing by not believing John, okay? And Jesus puts them in this situation. That's why they can't answer.

And they. And that's why he doesn't tell them. And this also teaches us, as Christians, by the way, that some people that ask us things about our faith aren't always actually asking things about our faith.

I mean, there is a point where you don't cast the pearls before the swine. Now, you share the gospel with everyone. Yes, of course, the good news and so on and so forth. But some people are only trying to trap you. They could care less about your answer.

It's never going to be enough. And, you know, if you feel led to keep going with them, certainly keep arguing with them, but there's also low hanging fruit all around us. What is that low hanging fruit? Some people that are sinners, that's who, and they know it. And that's kind of the point here.

Jesus has already said elsewhere, he says, you know, I didn't come for the well, but for the sick. Well, well, healthy people, they don't need a physician. I'm the great physician. Now, is Jesus saying that healthy people are bad? No, of course not.

He's saying they think they're healthy. That's the key to that. They think they're doing well, but they're not. And that's a real problem when you think you're healthy and actually you're not. And it's a scary thing to think about.

And it's one that we should consider and examine our lives and let the word of God examine us to make sure that we know that. We know that we are in him and that we are sinners, saved by grace.

And we heard from the Ezekiel text that even once you've converted, been born again, that there is the possibility of backsliding. I mean, Zeke 18 is like probably ground zero for that argument, quite frankly, at least in the Old Testament. And you know, it's good because he's like, am I unfair? If a righteous person starts sinning again and starts moving away from the righteous path and goes full blown into sin, then he will die because of that. But if a sinner who, who's sinning moves toward righteousness, guess what?

He'll live. How is that unfair? No, that's the point is salvation, dear brothers and sisters, is not a moment, but it's a way. It's a way.

You know, the earliest Christians, by the way, and this is found in Acts too, but not Acts, chapter two, but just Acts also, okay, the book of Acts, it talks about the people of the way. And before we were called Christians, we were called people of the way. What way? The way of Jesus. We're supposed to be Jesus people.

And sometimes that gets lost, doesn't it? You know, gets lost in the shuffle. We kind of forget why we're doing what we're doing. We just sort of show up to church and just kind of plug in the thing and doing this. And because we're supposed to do it, and we sort of lose sight of the end of all things, both the beginning and the end.

Who is the Alpha and the Omega, the A and the Z? It's Jesus. It's all about Jesus. It's all about following his way. We're Supposed to be people of the way.

And. And you know, Jesus is so unique among spiritual teachers and gurus. I mean, we have the writings of a lot of great spiritual teachers and world, you know, religious founders and so on and so forth. The Buddha, etc. Gautama, Mahavira, you know, all these.

They all came doing the same thing. And that was they preached and taught a way to God, every one of them. Whether you realize God in yourself or you're going to multiple gods, it doesn't matter. They all came teaching and discovered, were enlightened about a certain way to the divine, to the heavenly right. Jesus doesn't come teaching and preaching a way other than himself.

He actually puts it this way. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am. So there's no way to follow a certain amount of rules or follow certain propositional statements or think your way to the divine? No.

All of our thinking, all of our truth seeking leads not to some immaterial, impersonal something, but rather a true and living incarnate in the flesh God, Jesus Christ himself.

So it's not just about a moment in time where we make a decision for Christ. Now, that's the beginning. Yes, no doubt. Just like the beginning of my relationship with my wife. Right.

Like if that was the end of it. Well, what a horrible thing marriage is. Who would do it? No, the wedding day is the beginning of something. And the conversion moment, the day we said that prayer where someone led us, whatever, whatever the story is for you, that's a beautiful thing.

But what about now?

What is your heart like now toward God? Lean on the. Imagine if I just leaned on the past in my relationship with Jessica. How horrible would that. No, no.

We're continuing to grow together and meet challenges together every single day.

And, you know, there's so many people. And it's a sad thing that we see it right now all over the news, possibly, right, where somebody slowly makes a decision to get on a different way. And it may be just a small movement in the beginning, but give that a year, two years, three years, and you don't even know each other anymore, you don't trust it, and so on and so. No, no, listen. That same kind of drift, that same kind of misalignment can happen in our relationship with God.

Don't let the enemy let you rely on the past. But rather his mercies are new every morning, and we go after that mercy every day. Because if we're really sinners, we're going for his mercy. We need the physician. We need his light to shine.

Speaking about positions and lights, right, I usually use the birthing light, which is a massive spot, but I'm not going there today. Okay, here's where I'm going. I went to the dermatologist and I looked up while he wasn't there yet. And I'm like, there's a lot of light in this. Like, he had all this light.

He had light from two different angles, had another. I was like, man, what? I thought, well, you know, they asked me to take, take my shirt off, let me look at your back. You know, they gotta have light, right? And I want him.

I'm like, hey, look at this thing on my hand. He needs put a thing on, you know, that's what the doctor does.

But many of us, we've been hurt. You know what happens when you get hurt? You draw back, right? You know, slam your thumb. Nobody slams their thumb and is like, oh, yeah, yeah, look at that.

No, no, no. We draw in and then we get protected by it, don't we just. My hurt. No, get away. No, I mean, you know, that's what happens.

And the doctor says, no, no, no, no, no, let me see it. I think today in this room there's some hurt, some spiritual hurt in our souls. Good news is the great physician is here and it ain't me. His light can shine in our soul and it brings healing. But listen, I promise you, if you hide it and you keep it in the dark, it will only grow like a cancer in our soul until it finally consumes us.

We look on the news, how could someone do that? It's one decision after another, that's how. And all of a sudden you don't even recognize yourself anymore. You're so consumed with the lie, so consumed with trying to live another life. A dichotomy, a hypocrisy.

You're divided. What we're called to is to have a single eye, not to be cross eyed, not to be out here, but see one thing. And that one thing is not a thing at all. It's a person who then leads us into the three persons, Father, son and spirit. But the name that must roll off our tongue to get there is Jesus.

That's the name that's above every name. And if you've got darkness in you, and let me tell you, brothers and sisters, we all have the possibility of it. And some things lurk down in there. He wants to begin to shine his light. Now, thankfully, he's very gracious, very great.

He doesn't do it all at once. Okay. That's why some of us, we look around and say, man, I wish he'd start working on that guy pretty quickly. You know? It's like, well, you know.

You know, don't be the one with the beam in your eye trying to get the spec out of somebody else's. Right? Let's let the physician look at us. Let's open up our life. You remember after we sinned in the garden, what did we do?

We started hiding, and we're still doing it. No, no. He's the great physician that wants to heal. He comes into the temple and these cats get mad because he's healing sinners and prostitutes. And I mean, it's.

It's kind of like, why do we have to say that on Friend day? You know, of all things, you got to bring it up to PG 13. All of a sudden, there's kids in the room. It's Jesus that's saying it because he's trying to drive home a point. It's not okay to be a sinner.

It's not okay to be a prostitute. That's not the lesson learned here. And not to be. Oh, yeah, because some people take from this, you know. Oh, yeah, the religious people.

I'm not religious. I just have a relationship with Jesus, and he loves me just the way I am. You got it all wrong, partner. You really do. No.

He loves you so much, he will never keep you in your sin. He will never let that cancer grow. Show him and he will do the work. He will start that work. Because salvation is not just a moment.

It's a whole way of life. That's why they start arguing about, you know, hey, who gave you this authority anyway? Of course. We all know who gave him the authority. He is the authority.

Let's just be real. He is the authority. So he can't even point to something else. He just has to stand there because he's it. There's nothing else to point to.

It's not his wand. It's not his hammer. No, it's him.

Him. That's why, again, there's no way to be healed from sin without coming to Jesus. When you come to him, it's always open arms. He's already proven it. Our symbol that just stands through 2000 years of his self giving love toward us tells us he's done everything necessary to open up his arms to us.

Us. Will we? Will we?

His authority always is, if we could put it this way, therapeutic.

We kind of buck against authority. Who are you to tell me what to do? I'M my own authority, etc. Listen, that has no place when reality himself is confronting you, when the truth of all reality is when the only way to goodness and happiness and holiness is right here in our face. That's no way to act, brothers and sisters.

No. We notice the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, thanks be to God. That was Matthew 9. Rise and walk. Not only does he forgive sin, but then he gets us up and gets us on his way.

You notice how that works? Remember the guy, first forgive sin. That's the first thing got to deal with at first, and then it's time to walk in his ways. Many of us, we say, all right, thanks for forgiving me of my sin. I'm going to go right back out that door and live my same life.

Brothers and sisters, I'm telling you, that is not the blessed life. That is not the life Christ has for you.

We stop so short of all that he has.

You know, I too wondered in getting married, you know, shoot, how many old was I? You were 18 and I was 23. Yeah, you know, it's like, man, like, I mean, I've seen other people do it, like, get married and stay married for a long time, but it's like, you do wonder, like, am I really gonna be compatible with that person for that long? Well, just. Can I. I mean, I can really say this is not a joke.

Like, we just continue to grow and find more love. Like, it's insane. It's just like we were having kids, you know, we. We would have number three, and it'd be like, I don't think we're gonna be able to love him as much as, you know, the other two guys. I just.

I hate it for him. But, you know, we've already squeezed out enough for these two cats, you know, so it's like, I don't think the third one's gonna get much, you know, and then we'd be obsessed with them, you know, and so much so that the other people would be jealous. And it was like, well, no, you just, you know, babies. You nibble on them and bite on them and do these kinds of things. Just obsessed with them, you know.

And then number four, and then five. It's like, here's the thing about love. It has no bottom.

It just keeps going deeper. And many of us just settle for less. We just settle for less. This is all I deserve. No, no, no.

Because of Christ, we deserve all of his love that we can get.

Becoming a Christian is not a reducing of our desires. A reduction of happiness, but an amplification, it really is. And I'm here to test. Like, that's my testimony after being a Christian practically all my life is like, the more you give and go, the better it gets. And sure, I've stalled out just like you before.

I mean, just. Just stalling out. Whether it was an addictive sin or whatever it was, I was just stalled out. But then the Lord got me going. Once again, some of you, it's time to get going.

It's time to see how far down the rabbit hole you can go, right? Don't settle for surface stuff. He's got so many good gifts for you. But we gotta go. We gotta go.

Now, these two sons, they're called to go. I mean, this is the whole parable here that he gives as an illustration of their absurdity is like, hey, son, I want you to go in the field. He's like, no, I don't really want to go. I'm not feeling today. Then he's like, I mean, you've probably done that before, too, where you, like, you told somebody like, no, no, I can't make it.

And you're thinking, dad, Gummet, I need to. I really need to. It would mean a lot if I went to this thing, you know? Then you show up, right? And then you're glad you did.

I mean, after the fact, you know, and you feel pretty good about it, right? Well, the other guy, he's like, no, no, I'll be there. I'll be there. You know, always joke with people because, you know, like, anytime I meet somebody, they're like, oh, you're passing. And they're like, oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, I might drop by there, you know, I don't hold my breath, you know what I mean? Because, you know, I'd be dead, basically, you know, if I waited on them to get here. But, like, some people all of a sudden surprised you, like, oh, dang, you actually showed up, you know? And so this whole thing here turns on what Jesus says. Which of those guys did the will of the Father?

Well, it's not the one who just said it, but it's the one who did it. That's the lesson. The religious guys, they had all the right language. They'd been to seminary. They had all the theological arguments.

These. These chief priests, I mean, these are the bosses, right? These are the scholars. These are the guys that got books, okay? These are the ones that's on tv, the influencers, right?

Like, that's the ones, okay? They've got all the Right? Language. Tax collectors. Oh, that's the scum of the earth, man.

Right? I mean, you remember, they're like treasonous. They're working for Rome and yet Jewish. And then coming to your house, knocking on it, give me the money for Rome. You know, it's like, dude, what is wrong with you?

And yet Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, looks over at a table, tax collector, table. He says, matthew, actually, Levi was his technical too, right? He says, get up out of that tax booth. Let's go. And he calls him, and he's the one who writes our text today and says, tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes.

He doesn't say, because I got on the way. Well, I'm high and mighty now. And look at all these dumb people who don't know my way, you know, I think it's like helpful to think about being on elevator, you know, Always think. Think about it. Because I was on yesterday and so it's like.

And it was a packed one too. And. And you get on, you like, you open the door and it's already packed. You're like, I really need to go up. But, like, somebody's gonna have to scoot over and they're gonna be annoyed, right?

Because you're getting on board, right? Get in there and you turn around just like them right now. You're facing the door with your back doll them. So you're part of the crew now. And then some the next floor, and it's like, we don't want to let that guy in.

And just one floor difference. And we're like, bro, you really gonna get on here? You know? Like, why is this guy gonna make us? Sure, yeah, get in here.

You know, it's like, now I get to smell your hair for the next floor, you know, Some of us get in this mentality, don't we, in the church, we get comfortable with our little friend group, with our little small group, and we don't have room for anybody else.

The way of Jesus is always a welcoming, open way. The door's always open.

The door's always. Can I say that again? The door, even when you leave, okay, you leave the church, you get mad at everybody. The door's always open. In fact, everybody that's ever left this church, you know, because.

And people leave for all kinds of reasons, okay? I've told them all the same things. Like, hey, remember, the door's always open. Like, my door is always going to be open. I don't have a right to close it because it's not my door.

He's the door. He says he's the gate by which we enter. Not me. If I were to block people and do this or that, that's on me. No, no, his door is always open.

But the only way to truly come in is to repent and believe, not just to say it and then go live the same way. That's not repentance. The term repentance in the Greek is metanoiae, which is to change your mind. And notice what this dude did that, son. He said, no, I'm not going out in the field to work.

I'm gonna play Xbox. I don't know if he said that, but that's what I'm thinking of. And he's like, not gonna do that. But then he's like, man, you know, it's my senior year and like, I probably need to spend some time with him. I'm gonna go do it.

He changed his mind. And Jesus is saying, that's the guy who did the right thing. Why? Because that was the will of the father. Get in the vineyard, start working.

So, you know the real simple question for all of us, me included, are you doing the will of the father or are you just saying it because talk is cheap?

You know how it is, like you're going through a tough time, somebody says, yeah, well, let me know if there's anything I can do. And I know we all meet. Listen, I say that same thing, okay, so I'm implicating myself, alright? But you know what's better than like, hey, let me know. Because obviously if somebody's going through a tough time, they don't know what they need, do they?

Oftentimes just send them a mail, you know, send him a gift card, send a note. Let's not wait around, just do it. And doing something is better than just be ye warmed and filled.

It's acts of mercy. You remember the difference in like, acts of piety for Wesley and acts of mercy, right? You know, acts of mercy is doing something for someone else. By the way, if you're depressed, go do something for somebody else and you won't be depressed. There's really hardly any way to stay depressed when you go serve somebody.

At my assisted living place that we serve at, I'm just gonna be honest with you. Like, go in there and hang out with those people and you will be encouraged. Now, I'm not saying, you know, don't go see doctors. Listen, let's be real. Just simply saying, when you start getting out of your head and actually in front of somebody else and Being a friend.

Friend to them, just like Christ has been a friend to us, let me tell you. All of a sudden, you're starting to feel pretty friendly. You know, it's like you're feeling pretty good about things. Every time I leave my other congregation, that's what I call them, my assisted living people at Madison Village, I mean, Jack can attest to, others can attest to Megan, others, Sandy, Bobby, others can attest to this. Like, every single time, they're thanking us, but we're thanking them way more.

Thank you for letting me serve you today. I'm lifted up today. Some of the things I think are a big deal when I get in that room aren't a big deal compared to what some of them are going through. And to be able to serve people like that, it's a joy. And that's why Jesus says, look, if you love me, you will do what I say.

What? If you love me, you'll obey me.

Now, that shocks us. I get it. And it's strong language, but he's the God of the universe. I think he would know of all people. And he says, if you want to love me, follow my commandments.

In other words, do what I say. In other words, be that son, the first one who, even if you don't know how to say it or get everything right, go do it. Like, just take the next step, whatever that is. And in this room, every one of us have a different next step. We really do.

Like, some of us, it needs to be to call somebody and ask for their forgiveness, text them, whatever. Some of us, we need to text somebody today and just encourage them. That's it. That's our next step. For others of us, we need to repent of what we did this week.

We need to tell God about it. And we may even need to tell a brother or sister about it just to help them keep us accountable, to grow out of that, because otherwise it will consume us. I don't know the next step, okay? But this dude, he regretted it. He turned and then he went.

And that's exactly the formula for how to walk in the way of Jesus. We must regret our sin and be sorry for it, but that's not enough. Then repent. Let the Lord renew our mind on that thing to where it would be gross for us to even. Do you ever look back at your life and say, I was gross there in my life?

I was such a jerk or whatever it was? I mean, that's kind of a thing for me. I was a jerk and I never want to be like that. You know, he's helped me in some ways to grow out of that. There's still pockets of resistance that he's working on.

You know, it's that old song. He's still working on me to make me what I really ought to be. Yeah. No, listen, the tax collectors and the prostitutes here, very graphic language, are going ahead of those who just pay lip service to God. Don't just do that.

Today you already sang, you've already recited the creed, confess the faith, etc. Listen, don't let it stop on your lips. Let it move on down to the heart and to the hands, to the way that we walk out of here. It's got to get all in us. The gospel must be embodied completely, okay?

Because love loves to obey him. It really does. Like, that's the way it works. Like, it's a joy for me to serve my. I don't.

To serve my wife. It really is. Like, it is a joy for me to do that. It hasn't always been, but you learn the right ways. You know how some of that works?

You know what I'm talking about? There's just some things you grow it. Like, I love cleaning the kitchen, though. That's insane. Me at 23, I didn't even know how to clean a kitchen, really.

And now I love to do it. Like, I just. I'm obsessed with it, you know? Which is insane if you know how much Jessica has labored in our family and how little I have at times. You know, listen, today, as friend.

Sunday is a day to be a friend. It really is. Like, even to people in this room here, in just a minute, to go sit and just engage someone. I mean, we spend so much time on our phones. Well, there's real, live people here today.

You know, it's like, let's at least show a little love. There's people in this room that need encouragement, okay? There's people in this room that just, like, want to talk to somebody up, maybe talk to an adult, because they've been with kids all day, you know, or whatever it is. I don't know. But here's the thing.

It's our job to be like Christ, and he always comes after us, and he's always the first. First not saying, oh, you got to be a friend to me first. And then I'll be, no, he doesn't play that game. He's always first. And we owe everything to him, don't we?

That's why love God and love others.

Because heaven, where we're all headed. And what he's fitting us for is really the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So that when we have him in us, when we are partakers of the divine nature, we're already participating in heaven. It's been often said by some of the church fathers and others throughout church history that really one day when we see God face to face and get to heaven, we'll look back and see that we've already been living it. This is what it looks like, the virtuous life.

This is what it looks like, the good life. And we love to do it. Now, I know some of us that's insane. We're like, I don't know. I don't really love to do so.

He can change you. That's the good news. Like, that's the whole point of sanctification. That's what we're doing. That's why we're still alive down here.

And he hasn't taken us out. He's still working on us. Let him. He's the good physician. He's the great physician.

He wants to shine his light into your life, no matter what's in there. And he'll take care of it. You let him do that work. You just get on the right way, start living in Christ. Remember the first Christians, they were called People of the way.

Are you doing the Father's will?

It takes more than just saying it. It's got to work itself into doing it. May it be so of us. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.