So this morning's sermon is the Son of Man, the Son of Man. If you're new to joining us on Sunday mornings, we're working our way through Luke's gospel verse by verse. And we find ourselves at Luke 9.26, but don't turn there. We're going to look at a few verses in Daniel 7, the ones that Jack read. And just to tell you ahead of time, these verses we're looking at Daniel give the background to the verse we'll be looking at in Luke. So to say that one more time very clearly, these verses in Daniel 7 are the background to Luke 9.26. So let me just read Luke 9, 26 to you. We will turn to it later, but just so you can have it in mind as we look at these verses in Daniel. Luke 9, 26, Jesus said, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and of the holy angels. This verse is discussing the second coming of the son of man. And that's what we're looking at a vision of here in Daniel 7. So take a look with me at verse 9, Daniel 7, 9. Daniel describes his vision. He says, as I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. This is God the Father. His clothing was white as snow. The hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames. It's a truly fantastic vision of God the Father or the Ancient of Days. He's on this throne. The wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him, these would be angels, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. And the 10,000 times 10,000 that stand before him would be all the unbelievers throughout history who are here for this judgment to be judged by the Son of God. And it says the court sat in judgment and the books were opened. And so the imagery is of a judgment taking place here. You even get the word court drawing to mind the idea of a courtroom And according to scripture, who performs all of the judgment that takes place? God the Father or God the Son? God the Son. John 5, 22, Jesus said, the Father judges no one. He has given all judgment to the Son. Now in this vision, excuse me, up to this point, the only person of the triune nature of God present is God the Father. God the Father is the Ancient of Days. And since this is a moment of judgment, really the most sobering moment of judgment that will ever take place when all unbelievers are judged before the great white throne. That's really what's in view here. The Son of Man needs to be introduced or God the Son needs to be introduced into this vision. And so he shows up since he is the one to perform the judgment and not God the Father or not the Ancient of Days. Skip with me to verse 13 to see the Son of Man or God the Son arrive. I saw in the night visions and behold I With the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And go ahead and pause right here. Part of the reason that this vision is so fascinating is it's one of those rare glimpses into the Old Testament that actually reveals the separation between the persons within the trine nature of God. You can see here that God the Son, or he's called the Son of Man, is shown to be separate or distinct from God the Father or the Ancient of Days. You've got the Ancient of Days and God the Son is going to approach him. to receive the kingdom from him. So you see the separation or distinction between them, which is fairly unique in the Old Testament. Son of Man is the most common way that Jesus referred to himself in the Gospels. And of all the different ways that Jesus talked about himself, Son of Man is the most common title he used. And if you think of the different titles Jesus could have, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Son of God, what's probably the humblest? Son of Man. You almost wonder, why did he refer to himself so frequently like that? that title occurs in the Gospels, including in Luke 9, 26, where Jesus refers to himself in the third person as the Son of Man. And whenever you see in the Gospels Son of Man, these verses in Daniel are the Old Testament passage discussing the Son of Man. If you had to choose just one collection of verses in the Old Testament discussing God the Son being the Son of Man, these are like the Old Testament Son of man verses right here and you can see why I mean it is so Just amazing to consider god the son coming and receiving from the the kingdom from god the father, which is what's in view here When jesus says the words of luke 9 26, he's referring to these verses in daniel 7 if you write in your bible You can circle the words with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and you can write luke 9 26 If you write in your Bible, circle the words, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and write Luke 9, 26, which we'll be turning to in a moment. In verse 13, notice it says, Jesus comes with the clouds of heaven. If you think of certain verses in the Gospels, this is how Jesus described his coming, coming with the clouds. Matthew 24, 30, then will appear in heaven the sign of the son of man. All the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now, there's one particularly interesting exchange that took place with Jesus only hours before his crucifixion with the high priest. Listen to this. Mark 14, 60. The high priest asked Jesus, have you no answer to me? Because Jesus had remained silent up to this point. What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent and made no answer. Again, the high priest asked him, are you the Christ? the son of God. Now, even though the high priest is asking Jesus if he's the son of God, listen to the way he referred to himself or listen to his response here. Mark 1462, Jesus said, I am and you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. The high priest tore his garments and he said, what further witnesses do we need? You've heard his blasphemy. What is your decision? And they all condemned him as deserving death. Now, what's interesting is The high priest declares the blasphemy of this moment. It's terribly hypocritical. He tears his clothes as though he's so upset about what Jesus said. But what's the hypocrisy? This is the exact confession he wanted to hear from Jesus. I mean, that's the reason he's pressing him, is he wants to hear Jesus say something blasphemous so he can condemn him to die. The reason I mention it is it's interesting that it just doesn't seem to sound that blasphemous. Because he asks Jesus if he is the son of God, and Jesus responds that he's the son of man. That doesn't sound very blasphemous because who else is a son of man? We are. We are sons and daughters of men and women. And so when Jesus says he's the son of man, you can look at that and say, well, what's so blasphemous? Well, what's so blasphemous is from Daniel 7. The reason it's so blasphemous is because of the verses we're looking at in Daniel 7. When Jesus referred to him this way, he was claiming one of the clearest and strongest messianic titles for himself. That's one reason it was considered blasphemous. They knew he was claiming to be the messiah. But second, he was claiming to be this individual from Daniel 7, who was going to return with the clouds of heaven, and more importantly, was going to receive the kingdom from God the Father, from the Ancient of Days. Look at the rest of verse 13 with me. Daniel 7, 13, He, this is the Son of Man, He came to the Ancient of Days, He was presented before Him, and to Him, or to Christ, the Son of Man, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed." And what did Jesus teach us to pray? He taught us to pray, Thy kingdom what? Thy kingdom come. We pray for that. And these verses picture Christ receiving that kingdom to come. We're to pray that, and these verses describe God the Son receiving that kingdom that will come from his Father. There's one more thing I want you to notice before we turn to look at Luke 9 26. In verse 10, look back at the words, the court sat in judgment and the books were opened. Now, for some of you, you might recognize that phrase, the books were opened. It actually takes your mind to the Great White Throne Judgment. That's the New Testament parallel to these verses. The Great White Throne Judgment. You have this imagery of a huge courtroom. There's about to be one sentencing that is larger or greater than all of the sentencing that have taken place throughout history combined. Because this is the sentencing when all unbelievers resurrected from the dead stand before Christ at the Great White Throne. That is described in Revelation 20. Listen to the similarity in Revelation 20 to these verses in Daniel 7. Revelation 20 verse 12, I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne and books were opened, the exact same words as Daniel 7, 13. Another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And so you can tell that these books are the records of men's lives, because if you have not repented and put your faith in Christ, then you'll be judged by what? Your actions. How you have lived. You'll be judged by what you have done in this life. Do you want to be judged that way? Oh, are you serious? Like nobody answered that. Do you want to be judged by your actions someday? No, you do not. You do not want to be reminded of all of the sins that you have committed throughout your life. And so that's why there are these books there. And I don't know how literal the books are. I mean, maybe there are literally books there. Maybe there's a book for each person. Maybe a book is open when each person comes forward to be judged, recording the different actions that people have engaged in, reminding them of the sins they committed and showing them that the works that they committed that they thought were good enough were not in fact good enough to get them into heaven. But regardless of how literal these books are or aren't, we are told that these books are the record of men's lives, and this is what they're judged by because they did not put their faith in Christ. And here's what I need to tell you. When these unbelievers are judged, it is not just their actions that are judged. Actions are only one aspect to us. Also, our thoughts, the intents of our hearts, our feelings, our emotions are judged. Luke 8, 17, nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Romans 2, 16, on that day, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Hebrews 4, 13, nothing in all creation is hidden from his sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare, not just actions, but thoughts and intents of our heart before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Now, to connect this to Luke, One of the things or one of the main things that's going to be judged at this time is who was ashamed of Christ. One of the things that will be judged is how people lived for Christ and whether they demonstrated a shame for him or not. These books will definitely record the times that people were ashamed of Christ. With that in mind, go ahead and turn to Luke 9 26. You now have the background. I don't want to brag, but I just took those verses in Daniel 7 that could have been an entire sermon and just went through them in about 10 minutes, feeling pleased with myself. I thought that could have been a whole sermon to prepare us for Luke 9.26. Took out huge chunks of my message. Very, very painful to do that. But look at this. We're able to go to Luke 9.26 this quickly in the sermon, and you have the background for it, hopefully. With those verses in Daniel 7 in mind, look at it. Luke 9.26, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Now if you have a Bible with cross-references, more than likely it mentions Daniel 7.13. If it doesn't, or if you have a Bible that doesn't have cross-references, you might circle the word Son of Man and you can write Daniel 7.13 because that's what it's looking back to. Now here's the question. When we read Daniel 7, Is there anything in those verses that makes Christ look like someone we would be ashamed of? Let me say it one more time. When we just looked at those verses in Daniel 7, is there anything in those verses that makes the Son of Man look like someone people would be ashamed of? No, no, absolutely not. In fact, you look at those verses and he looks like someone you would not be ashamed of. It's almost impossible to be ashamed of the Son of Man as he's presented in those verses in Daniel 7. But here in Luke 9, 26, Jesus is not talking about people who were ashamed of him at his second coming, right? In Luke 9, 26, Jesus is talking about people who were ashamed of Christ, what? Before his second coming, specifically people who were ashamed of Christ after his first coming or during his earthly ministry. And let me ask you this. Did Jesus look different in his first coming or in the Gospels than he looks in Daniel 7? Does the Jesus of the Gospels look different than the Jesus or the Son of Man of Daniel 7? Yes, very much so, very much so. So what could it be about Jesus in his first coming that would make people ashamed of him? And this brings us to lesson one in your bulletins. Lesson one, people are ashamed of the Son of Man because of the cross. People are ashamed of the Son of Man because of the cross. One reason that Jesus knew people would be ashamed of him, or one reason we can just recognize that people would be ashamed of Jesus, is recorded a few verses earlier in verse 22. Take a look at Luke 9, 22 with me, and as Jesus describes what's going to happen to him here, does this sound like someone people would be ashamed of? The Son of Man must suffer many things. He must be rejected by the elders. The chief priest describes, be killed and on the third day be raised. And so right here in that verse, Jesus does not look like the son of man of Daniel 7. He looks like the son of man of the Gospels, rejected, betrayed, and then tortured, beaten, and then crucified. The only way to really understand what Jesus is saying when he discusses people being ashamed of him is to understand the shame of the cross. Now, I told you one of the aspects of the cross that the Romans, a few weeks ago, I invited you. See, it's unfortunate. I'll make this brief because I talked about it before. I mentioned the cross. and our minds go to something glorious. We go to the sacrifice of Christ. We go to his love for us and being willing to endure it. We view the cross, and we should, as one of the greatest symbols of love, or not one of, but the greatest symbol of love and sacrifice in history. That's our view of the cross. Now, the view of the cross 2,000 years ago is much different than that, right? The cross was an instrument of unimaginable suffering We think of the cross and we think of love, affection, love and affection, forgiveness, mercy, grace. The first century picture of the cross, suffering is what comes to mind. The cross was meant to be as excruciating as possible. Now, one other word that I want you to think of associated with the cross, along with suffering, is the word shame. Suffering and shame are the two words, if I could only choose two, that should come to mind when we think of the cross. Since crucifixion was reserved for the vilest and most despicable people, there was a very terrible stigma associated with it. People who were crucified were a complete disgrace. They were despised. They were rejected individuals. Because remember, Rome had lots of ways to execute people, and Rome did execute people different ways. In fact, crucifixion was the one form of execution that was reserved for individuals who were not Roman citizens. And so what Rome was saying, we're so gracious that if you're a Roman citizen and we have to execute you, we won't do it that way. That's what they were communicating. It was a statement. It wasn't just about executing people, it was about making a statement. That's why they made it very public. Did they take individuals and bring them to the place where they would be crucified and crucify them there? No, that's not what they did first. First, they marched them through the streets. First, they made them carry their cross that could weigh up to 200 pounds. It was meant to be a public spectacle. It was meant to be as shameful as possible. As much as the cross was meant to inflict suffering, it was meant to inflict shame. This individual would walk through the streets and guess what others would do? Mock them. Don't say pity them. That's probably what's not in view there. Mocking, ridiculing, throwing rocks at them if they were close enough just to spit. on the people who were carrying their crosses like that. There would be this sign that was hung around the criminal's neck with the indictment or the crime on it. People were yelling, throwing stuff, spitting, trying to be abusive to the individual. And so there was really no form of execution that was so associated with shame and guilt. And that's why Hebrews 12 too, which hold this in mind because we'll come back to it toward the end of the sermon, says that for Jesus to go to the cross, what did he have to do with the shame of it? He had to despise it. Hebrews 12 says he had to despise or he had to put behind him or he had to reject the shame of the cross for him to embrace it. Take your minds to when Jesus was on the cross and how much people were ashamed of him at that moment. Consider what it was like, the ridicule and the mocking. Just a few verses here, Matthew 27, 39. Those who passed by, they derided him. They wagged their heads and they said, you who would destroy the temple, rebuild it in three days save yourself if you're the son of God come down from the cross so also the chief priests with the scribes and the elders mocked him saying he saved others he cannot save himself he's the king of Israel let him come down now from the cross will believe in him Luke 23 36 the soldiers also mocked him saying if you're the king of the Jews save yourself so you've got these individuals who can see him there are no hint of of compassion no hint of pity for him you've got the chief priests, scribes, the pastors, people passing by, you've got the elders, you've got the Roman soldiers, everyone is mocking him. Unbelievable shame that he's experiencing at this moment. But the cross isn't the only thing that made people ashamed of Jesus. One of the other things that made people ashamed of Jesus is given for us in the verse. Look at the verse in verse 26. In particular, notice the words, whoever is ashamed of me, and of my words." Now, this is interesting as I was reflecting on this this week in my studying, because I would expect people to be ashamed of Christ. I would expect Jesus to discuss people being ashamed of him because of his crucifixion, because of his humility, because he didn't look like the king that people expected. But it's significant that Jesus didn't just discuss people being ashamed of him, he also discussed people being ashamed of his words. And I want to tell you why I think this is so important, especially as it seems that it's becoming more fashionable for individuals to identify themselves as Christians. I mean, they might not know anything about the Bible. They probably, if they were to open the Bible and read some of the things Jesus said, would completely disagree with much of it. But for whatever reason, it is fashionable in some circles for individuals to identify themselves as Christians. Many people say they are not ashamed of Jesus. They will say that they are Christians. But many of these same people, if they knew what Jesus said, they would be ashamed of it. And we know that because many of these people do not hold to Jesus' teachings. Even though they claim to be Christians, if you were to share with them, have them open the Gospels and look at the things Jesus said, they would disagree with it. They would not embrace it. And here's the thing. Let me say this very clearly. If you are ashamed of what Christ said, you are ashamed of Christ. You cannot embrace Jesus without embracing what he said. The messenger goes with the message. You cannot separate them. They are not distinct. They go together. The person of Jesus cannot be separated from the words of Jesus. The Son of God cannot be separated from what he said. Listen to this. John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. That's his way of saying I am the message. The truth is me. He didn't say, I think it was Will Mowat had shared it a few weeks ago. It just came to mind during his communion devotional that we think of truth as a concept, but scripture says truth is a person. You cannot separate truth or the message from Jesus. Hebrews 1.1, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. Now it says by his son as opposed to through his son, which gives the impression that Jesus is the message. You would expect it to say that God used to speak through prophets and now he speaks through his son, but that's not what it says. And any translation that I've seen words it this way, that God has spoken to us by his son because the son is the message. You cannot have the son without having the message. You cannot embrace Christ and reject his words. Now, what are some of the words of Jesus that people are ashamed of? And this could have been a long sermon. This is another part that I had to cut parts out of. So I'm going to give you just a few examples. This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of the things that people are ashamed of. Because if you go through the Gospels, you're not going to have to look into too many of Jesus' sermons to very quickly say, oh, people are ashamed of this, people are ashamed of this, people are ashamed of this. So I'm just going to bring forth a few things that seem to be most pertinent to our culture and some of the things that we see and hear that reveal people's shame associated with what Christ said. This brings us to lesson two. People are ashamed of the Son of Man's words about part one hell. Lesson two, people are ashamed of the Son of Man's words about part one hell. Jesus spoke about hell more often than he spoke about heaven. That's one thing I can say. And I can also tell you that Jesus spoke about hell more often than anyone else in scripture. So let me ask you this. Are you ashamed to tell people the truth about hell? Are you ashamed to warn people about hell? Because if the answer to that is yes, then what goes along with that is you're ashamed of Christ. Because if you're ashamed of what he taught, then you're ashamed of him. It's very unpopular in our day of intolerance to tell people, or excuse me, I said that incorrectly. It's very unpopular in our day of tolerance to tell people about eternal judgment. It would be much easier to remove references to hell in our conversations with unbelievers. Let's take a more positive approach to this. Let's tell everyone that Jesus is entirely love. Let's not discuss him being judge. Let's discuss only him forgiving sin. Let's not discuss him punishing sin. Let's only focus on the mercy and the compassion and grace. And let's ignore the wrath and the anger in the justice. Now, I want to be clear about what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that we should be insensitive. I'm not saying that we should go to the extreme of being very judgmental or hellfire and damnation type witnesses or preachers. But I'm saying that we should lovingly warn people about hell, because when you warn people about hell, that is loving. It is loving. Jesus taught it was a real place. He taught that many people were going to go there. He taught more people would go to hell than would go to heaven. We talked about that a few Sundays ago, or maybe a few months ago, when we looked at Matthew 7. The wide way, the narrow way. Many versus few. Now, I don't know what many versus few is. I don't know if it's 60-40. Maybe it's 90-10. But Jesus clearly said more people will go to hell than heaven. A few years ago, a very popular man named Rob Bell, he had published a book he called Love, it was titled Love Wins. The subtitle is A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. And the entire book is an argument against hell, or you could say the entire book is an argument for universal salvation. that everyone's going to go to heaven. I looked it up yesterday on Amazon. I was able to listen to an audio, not yesterday, but I think two days ago. I was able to listen to this audio sample, and Rob begins with all of these questions. And I'll be honest with you, the questions that he begins his book with, they are the exact same questions I have. I will confess to you that they are very good questions. But just because we don't understand something, Or just because we have questions, does that mean we get to reject that truth? Just because we don't understand something, or it doesn't make sense to us, or because it might be somewhat discouraging or even alarming to us. It is the height of pride. It is the height of pride to say, I don't understand this, so it's not true. Just because this doesn't make sense to me, it can't be true. And that's what Rob Bell did. That's exactly what he did. And just to tell you what we're talking about, that's what Mormons do. That's what Jehovah's Witnesses do. If you have discussions with them about hell, they are not convinced by scripture that hell doesn't exist. They are convinced that a loving father or a loving God wouldn't do this. That's what they say. It doesn't make sense to them that God would do this. And because it doesn't make sense, they don't believe it. But the question is not whether it makes sense or it doesn't. The question is not, do we think God would do this? The question is, does scripture say this is the truth? And if scripture says that, then that is the truth. Whether it makes sense with our finite minds on this side of heaven or not, Rob Bell was ashamed of what Christ taught. And as a result, he published a book that has motivated other people to be ashamed of what Christ taught. Don't ever think anything positive about individuals who are ashamed of Christ, because that's the case. I mean, you're probably not going to be one of Oprah's favorite people if you embrace what Scripture says, right? And I don't take any pleasure in discussing things like this. We'd actually purchased a couple of the Numa videos to watch before he seemed to go off the deep end in terms of his really serious heresy. Let's consider the next teaching that people seem to be ashamed of. Lesson two, people are ashamed of the Son of Man's words about part two, homosexuality. People are ashamed of the Son of Man's words about part two, homosexuality. And I mention this because it seems that every time we turn around, there is another prominent religious leader or there is another church Or there is even another entire denomination that is embracing homosexuality, whether it's even embracing homosexual pastors or leaders within the church. One of the common defenses goes something like this. Jesus never condemned homosexuality. If you ever hear someone say that, I hope I give you a defense against that defense. Because here's what Jesus did in Matthew 19 5 and in Mark 10. Jesus said that marriage is the union between one man and one woman for life. Now, by defining what marriage is, Jesus also, by extension, condemned everything that is not that. Jesus does not need to go through every possible sinful scenario man can contrive and condemn that for it to be sinful. Jesus just has to describe what marriage or what healthy relationships or healthy is not, that's an understatement. Jesus only needs to describe God's first institution and what it is for us to recognize that everything that is not that is a perversion or is sinful. Could you imagine, I mean, how long would the gospel, how long would that sermon have to be if Jesus was gonna condemn every single sinful relationship man can contrive or scheme? And so what Jesus did, which is a fairly simple and wonderful approach, is he said, this is what marriage is. One man, one woman. And when something doesn't fit in that, it shows the rebellion against God. It reveals the perversion of it. I wasn't even sure whether to use the word homosexuality or the word marriage in this verse, because I could have just as easily said that it seems like people are ashamed of God's first institution. Or people are ashamed of marriage. People are ashamed to say what it is, and they're ashamed to say, what it's not. With God's first institution under attack, this is the question I'd ask. Are you ashamed to defend it? Are you ashamed to faithfully tell people what marriage is? When it comes out and you find yourself in some conversation and you have the opportunity, you're given a platform, even, you know, whether it's a small one or a large one, a small platform, large platform, you know, small conversation with a few people or a large conversation, and you can tell that you're going to be that individual that everyone's about to label hateful or intolerant? Are you ashamed of Christ and what he taught? Or do you have the commitment to Christ to simply say, God's word says marriage is the relationship between one man and one woman. And it can be that short and that concise. And that is taking a stand for Christ and for what he taught, because that is what he said. The next aspect of Jesus' teaching that people are ashamed of, lesson two, people are ashamed of the Son of Man's words about part three, the gospel. People are ashamed of the Son of Man's words about part three, the gospel. The world wants to believe or hold to a number of things that are contrary to the gospel. And I will be the first person to say that for the first 20 some years of my life, I held to one of the great contradictions to the gospel, and that contradiction is man is saved by being a good person, or man is saved by works. That's what I believed for the first 20-some years of my life, that good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. People are ashamed of the gospel. They are ashamed to tell the truth that man is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. People are ashamed to say to someone, yes, this person, no matter how good, or moral, this person looks to you, will go to hell apart from Christ. Now, there's this loved one in your life, and I know you think this person is very good. You can remember how kind this person was. You can remember the nice moral things that this person did. And the person you're talking to, they cannot imagine that this person would go to hell, because they are convinced that good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell, and this person is a good person. And they're ashamed. And sometimes Christians are ashamed of the gospel, ashamed to tell people the truth that, no, we are not saved by any amount of good works. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. The other way that people are ashamed of the gospel is they're ashamed to say that all these other religions are lies. It sounds very intolerant. It can sound very hateful because the response is going to be, so you're telling me all these other people are believing lies, or all these other people are going to go to hell in response to that, the correct answer is they'll go to hell apart from Christ. I'm not saying they're going to go to hell, because I don't know what's going to happen with them. But I can say that if they enter a Christless eternity, then that is going to be an eternity in hell, because there is no salvation apart from Christ. Yes, those false religions, or those religions, if they are not preaching Christ, then they are preaching lies that are damning, that send people to hell. is very counterintuitive to what the world believes. So you can expect to be mocked when you tell people that Jesus is the only way. You can expect to be ridiculed or labeled hateful or intolerant when you tell people that these other religions that don't preach Christ are lies. You can expect to be mocked when you tell people that going to heaven is not about how good they can be. You're going to be ridiculed for that. because people intuitively believe that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. And that's actually a true statement. It is a true statement that good people go to hell. But what definition of good are we using? Because if we use God's definition for good, we're talking perfect, sinless. So you can say, yes, good people go to heaven. I'll give you that. But there's never been a good person except one. We're all bad people because we are all sinners. We have all fallen short of the glory of God or the perfect standard that he has set. That is not going to be received well by a world that's filled with false religions and people convinced that they're good. Now here's the thing. I'm sure we can all agree with this. I preach this and I see heads nodding. That's encouraging for me. It would be discouraging if I was preaching this and I thought people in my congregation were disagreeing with me about the gospel or disagreeing with the truth of scripture. But I do think that there is one way we need to discuss that we might be ashamed of the gospel and we might not even recognize it. And I want to back up a little bit to get some momentum into this. I want to first say that I love our church. I love being associated with this church. I love being one of the pastors of this church. I think our church has a lot of strengths, but I don't think that our church is perfect, and you don't think that either, right? And if I consider one of our weaknesses as a church, it's the area of evangelism. We are weak regarding evangelism. I think when it comes to sharing the gospel that we are not doing that like we should or like God would have us do. And I say that because most of the baptisms that we see in this church are children from parents in this church. And most of the believers in this church were believers when they came to this church. In other words, I don't see a lot of believers here who weren't, who were unbelievers when they came and were then converted. I also say this understanding that I'm the individual who's standing behind this pulpit each week. And so the reason I say that is I see this responsibility falling on my shoulders, or let me say it differently than that, I see the fault, that's how I say it, I see the fault falling on my shoulders more than anyone else because what is preached from this pulpit can have or has the greatest influence on this church. And so it's something apparently I need to preach more And so it is not my desire to sound independent of this weakness in the church. In fact, I see myself as a large part of this weakness and area where we need to grow. So let's talk about this. As a defense of not being more evangelistic, people will often say something like this, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. And as I was thinking about this statement this week, So even having a conversation with Katie about it, I used to agree with this defense. And I would say, well, it's true. People just don't know what to say. If you know the gospel, you know what to say. If you know what the gospel is, can you share the gospel? Now, if you don't know what the gospel is, Pastor Doug and I, we're going to be up front after service, and you should come talk to us. But if you know what the gospel is and you can put it into words, then you know what to say to people. But you're just not saying it. or we're just not saying it. Why aren't we saying it, myself included? Why aren't we sharing the gospel? And I think the reason must have to do with fear. We have a fear of man versus a fear of God, or we are afraid of how people will respond. We have a fear that we aren't going to say things perfectly, or we have a fear of how someone might mock us, or they might ridicule us. And I think I've said this before, I don't If I look at the office gifts, I definitely fall more into teacher than evangelist. Evangelism does not by any means come easy for me. And but I will say in the times that I have shared the gospel, I actually cannot think of one time that anyone ever mocked me. So even though I talk about that, I don't even know that it's happening that much. Most people, when you share the gospel with them, I mean, the worst case scenario is they don't repent and put their faith in Christ. It doesn't. I mean, are any of us in danger of being burned at the stake? Are any of us in danger of being beaten or arrested or thrown in prison, which is the case in other areas of the world? And so it's sad, and I include myself in this, that we are ashamed to share the gospel or that we are afraid of sharing the gospel. If we have a greater fear of God than our fear of man, if we have a greater fear of displeasing God than displeasing man, then guess what we're going to do? We are going to share the gospel. We are going to pray for opportunities for it. And that would actually be my encouragement. My expectation isn't that you're just gonna run out into your workplace and there's gonna be some staff meeting and you're gonna stand up in the middle of it and start preaching the gospel and get in trouble. That's not what I have in mind, but I would encourage you to just pray and say, Lord, show me these opportunities where you would have me share the gospel and then in that moment, give me the boldness to do it. Show me those opportunities, make those open doors clear to me so I can tell it's an open door and then give me the boldness to share in that moment. Listen to what Paul said, which can reveal another reason we might not be sharing the gospel. Romans 1.14, Paul said, I'm under obligation. He meant obligated to preach the gospel. Both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. And then this is why he said, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. And this is why he's not ashamed of it. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also to the Greek." In other words, Paul said that he wasn't ashamed of the gospel because this is the way God has chosen to save man. He said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because this is the power of God to salvation. This is the beautiful way that God has chosen to give men salvation and eternal life. And I would ask you, Does this reveal why we don't share the gospel? Unlike Paul, are we ashamed of the way that God has chosen to save man? Are we ashamed of it? Are we embarrassed to talk about it? Are we afraid of telling others how God would save them if they were to repent and put their faith in Christ? Do we wish that God chose some other way? Do we think about it and say, God, why didn't you do it this way? Why is there only one way? Why aren't there two ways? And if you listen to me say that and you say, no, no, I don't feel that way, then you should be sharing the gospel. I would ask you why you're not sharing the gospel then. Are we ashamed to tell people that Christ is the only way? I'm asking you to really think about this. If you are not sharing the gospel, why aren't you? Now, it's a very appropriate time to be discussing this because we've entered the holiday season. And this is the one time per year when even the secular world turns their attention to Christ. I mean, this is the one time per year where even many unbelievers have a receptiveness to Christ that they wouldn't other times of the year. Another reason that this is appropriate to discuss is this weekend is the Christmas program. We don't have a whole lot of outreaches here. And I might just challenge you if you're a home fellowship leader or even if you're not a home fellowship leader. Is there an outreach God would lay on your heart to perform here? My responsibility is to equip you for the work of the ministry. You should be performing much of that ministry. Is there an outreach God would have you perform, perhaps as a home fellowship? Let us know. How can we support you? How can we serve you in that? At least one thing you can do now is you can be inviting people to the Christmas program. The play itself contains the gospel message. Pastor Doug will be presenting the gospel both nights after the play, inviting your friends, inviting your neighbors. Let me conclude this lesson with one more point. There's a common quote that I suspect you've heard before, and I have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with this quote, and the quote goes like this, Have you heard that before? Here's what I love. I get the gist of this. And what I love about it is The way you act is important. People do not like hypocritical Christians. So if you're going to preach Christ, people should see Christ through you or from your life, right? I like that. I think that's a very nice encouragement from this verse. People are not going to care what you have to say about Christ if you don't look like Christ. People don't want to hear you preach Christ if you don't look like Christ. I like that part of the verse, but here's the part that I don't like. It's downplaying the importance of preaching. It's giving the impression that you're going to preach without words. I mean, preach Christ and use words if necessary. By definition, the word preach involves words. That's what preaching is. If I stood up here and I said, watch me preach this sermon, and I didn't say anything, it'd look like I wasn't preaching, right? Listen to what Paul said, Romans 10, 13. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him and whom call on him in whom they have not believed. How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone who remains silent, not preaching the gospel, not talking about Jesus, just letting everyone see Christ through their life? That's not what he said. He said, how are they to hear without someone preaching? And Paul meant with words. That's what he had in view. Listen to what Jesus said, Luke 12 8. I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men the son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of god now when jesus talked about us acknowledging him before men do you think he had words in mind he did in other translations it's actually translated publicly acknowledges i think that's how it is in the niv publicly acknowledges the king james and the nasb say confess confess with your mouth The verse, it's almost synonymous with Luke 9, 26, when Jesus said, everyone who acknowledges me before men, he meant everyone who is not ashamed of me. And when he said everyone who denies me before men, he meant everyone who is ashamed of me. And so one other thing I can tell you, since we're in Luke 9, 26, since we're talking about being ashamed of Christ or not ashamed of Christ, one of the blessings associated with preaching or sharing the gospel is you are showing that you are not ashamed of Christ. When you preach the gospel, you are showing or revealing that you are not ashamed of Christ. It is a comforting or encouraging thought to think of standing before Christ someday when you have preached Him some number of times throughout your life and shown, demonstrated that you are not ashamed of Him. These verses Luke 9 26 and Luke 12 8, they reveal a theme in scripture. And the theme is this. Those who receive Christ are received by him. Those who reject Christ are rejected by him. There's a few other verses that make this same point, just to show you that it is a theme. Romans 9 33. Behold, I'm laying in Zion, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Romans 10 11. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Second, Timothy 2 12. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. And so it's really a theme that if you're ashamed of Christ, he's ashamed of you. If you reject Christ, he rejects you. I want to show you one place in scripture that I think reveals this more beautifully than any other. Please turn to Hebrews 2.11. We won't turn back to Luke. Hebrews 2.11. Hebrews 2.11. Still hear some pages turning. He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them or to call us brothers and this brings us to lesson three The Son of Man isn't ashamed of those who aren't ashamed of him Lesson three the Son of Man isn't ashamed of those who aren't ashamed of him There are so many absurdities and inconsistencies associated with man. For example, man is not ashamed of his sin. We're talking about being ashamed of Christ, but consider for a moment that man is ashamed of Christ, or man can be ashamed of Christ, but man will not be ashamed of his sin. Men will engage in some of the most outrageous sinfulness, or the most outrageous immorality, and they will do it in a boastful way, or they will do it with their head high, people will leave abortion clinics. And perhaps you have seen the videos where you have individuals, pro-life individuals who are there and they are encouraging women to just, you know, not go forward with the murder of their baby, to move to adoption or provide any number of resources to prevent them from coming in, going into this clinic. And while they're engaged in a conversation, while this woman, while they're trying to save the life of this baby, there will be another woman that walks out of the clinic and this woman will just will just exclaim as boldly, as loudly and defiantly as possible about the abortion and how she's not ashamed of it. This isn't even her first one, and she'll do it again. Homosexuals will have parades, and you'll just see them flaunting the perversion of it. It's not enough that it would be a sin that's part of a private life, or even that there would be a parade that takes place with some amount of modesty It's a parade to flaunt or to be as offensive as possible, to fly in the face of individuals who are opposed to that lifestyle just as blatantly as possible. Young men who will boast about the number of young ladies that they fornicated with. You have young ladies who will flaunt their bodies desiring just to draw as much attention to themselves as possible. You'll have music You'll have movies or shows that are filled with as much violence and as much sexuality as possible because this is what people know sells. This is what they know is popular. And so my point is this, it's very simple. Man is not ashamed of his sin. Man is not ashamed of his sin. I think it's Psalm 73 when it talks about the sinner just wearing it pridefully like a necklace. I mean, putting it on his shoulder for everyone to see. Man is not ashamed of his sin. Jeremiah described the situation in his day, and it could describe our day too. Jeremiah 6, 15. Were they ashamed when they committed these abominations, Jeremiah asked? No, they were not at all ashamed. They didn't even know how to blush. So it's unbelievable. I mean, losing the ability to blush. I think it's 1 Timothy 4 where Paul talks about people who have a seared conscience. They no longer feel convicted. They can't even feel the conviction associated with what they're doing. If you were to talk to them and they say, I don't think there's anything wrong with what I'm doing, they might be lying to you. But the even more terrifying truth is they could be telling you the truth. And they don't feel bad about what they're doing. There is no shame. They're not blushing about it. When you put Luke 9.26 and Hebrews 2.11 together, you see that it is completely backward. It is completely backward. It is unbelievable how little shame we feel regarding our sin. But I think the only thing that is even more unbelievable is Hebrews 2.11, that Jesus is not what? Ashamed of us. It just does not read the way you would expect. You've got Luke 9.26, which talks about men being ashamed of Christ. And if you would just consider that for a moment, a perfect man, a perfect human being who lived his life for others so much he didn't even have time for eat or to eat, exhausted every day. His family thought he was crazy. Living a life of selflessness and sacrifice that the world has never seen before and that man would be ashamed of a perfect person like that. You would expect Jesus to be ashamed of us, and then you read Hebrews 2.11, and it says that Jesus is not ashamed of us. It is unbelievable that Jesus would not be ashamed of us. When you think about the things that believers have done, and I don't need to be a sin flasher, but when I think about my life and the things that I have done, and to know that Christ is not ashamed of me, to know that he is not ashamed to call Scott LaPierre his brother is an unbelievable thought to me. That Jesus Christ, the son of God, is not ashamed at all to call Scott LaPierre his brother. Here's the thing. Before Jesus could call us brothers and sisters, he first had to do something. Turn to Hebrews 12.2. While you're in Hebrews, turn to Hebrews 12.2. If you are a believer, if you have repented of your sin and put your faith in Christ, then Jesus is not ashamed of you either. He is not ashamed to call you his brother. He is not ashamed to call you his sister. But before Jesus could call you his brother or his sister, something had to happen. Hebrews 12.2 says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame of it, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Throughout Jesus' earthly ministry, he referred to the disciples with a number of different titles. He called them servants. He called them disciples. He called them apostles. In John 15, he even called them friends. But do you know what he never called them? until after the cross? Brothers. He never called them brothers. He never referred to them as his brethren until after he had died for them. Listen to these verses that take place after the resurrection. Because after the resurrection, then Jesus was able to refer to the 12, to his disciples, and by extension, to all of us as his brothers and sisters. Matthew 28.10, Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and tell, and you'd expect him to say, go and tell my disciples, but he says, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. John 20, 17, Jesus said to her, do not cling to me. I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brothers and say to them, and now listen to this, because this is why Jesus can call us brothers. He said, go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father and what? Your father. I am ascending to my father and to your father, to my God and to your God. So after Jesus paid the price for our salvation, we became his spiritual brothers and sisters because then we had the same father. The reason that God the son is not ashamed to call me his brother is because we have the same father. We are part of the same spiritual family. Now, let me tie this whole sermon together. Before this relationship could be established, the relationship horizontally between us and God the Son, or Jesus as our brother, and vertically between us and God the Father, the Ancient of Days becoming our father, before these relationships could be established, before Jesus could be our brother, and before God could become our father, the Son of God had to become the Son of Man. The Son of God had to become the Son of Man. He had to be willing to take on flesh and dwell among us. He had to be willing to deny the shame of the cross, die in our place. But because of his great love for us, because of his great love for me, because of his great love for those of you who have repented and put your faith in him, because of his desire to have a spiritual family, he was willing to make that sacrifice. He was willing to despise the shame of the cross. And this is one reason Jesus commands us not to be ashamed of him. Jesus says, if I am willing to despise the shame of the cross, you better be unwilling to ever be ashamed of me. And this, if you think about this, any shame that we might ever experience as disciples of Christ, Any shame you could ever experience from being a believer, could it ever remotely compare with the shame of the cross? No matter what shame you could ever experience on this side of heaven associated with being a disciple of Christ, could it ever compare with the shame of the cross? Think about anything anyone might ever say to you. Think about anything you might ever have to sacrifice for Christ. Think about any suffering you might experience for Christ. Could it ever remotely compare to the shame and the suffering that Jesus experienced for us? not even close. And so because of that, Jesus commands us. He says, a person who would be ashamed of me after I despise the shame of the cross, I can't help but be ashamed of that person. But the person who will not be ashamed of me, I will not be ashamed of that person when he stands before me and I present him to my Father. Now if you have any questions about anything that I've discussed this morning, if any of this didn't make sense, you have any concern about whether Jesus calls you his brother or sister. Pastor Duggan and I will be up right after service and we would consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to speak with you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the sacrifice that Jesus made and that that sacrifice allows us to have you as a father. We pray, we pray, Father, we pray, we are told to pray like this, our Father who art in heaven, recognizing that you have become our father. And we thank you for that. And we recognize that only took place because your son was willing to despise the shame of the cross. And so I pray that we could live lives not ashamed of Christ. I think about Peter and there's always going to be those moments where all of us stumble. We fail to be the witnesses for Christ that we should. We miss opportunities and then we're frustrated with ourselves. We think of your encouragement to Peter after he recovered. And you said, go feed my sheep. pray we would apply that lord that we could live bold lives for christ but when we when we fail that we could be encouraged to to return and to uh share the gospel in response to the salvation that's been made i pray for our church i think about acts four where the the early believers were praying for boldness and sharing the gospel and i thank you for this church i thank you for the strengths that you uh have given us i thank you for the people you have brought here i thank you for just this church in general, Father, I feel privileged to be part of it, but we want to grow in the area of evangelism and sharing our faith, myself included. And so help us to be bolder, reveal those open doors to us, those times that you would have us share the gospel, give us the words, take away our fear, or at least give us a greater fear of displeasing you than displeasing man, and provide those opportunities for us to share the gospel. It would be wonderful to see unbelievers come in and come to come to salvation. And so just use us as your hands and feet to go out to a lost and unbelieving world. And we pray these things in your son's name. Amen.