No, no, no, no. My church, I'm now one of the pastors at Apologia Church in Mesa, so I'm on a list where we talk with one another and I try to keep up with what's going on while I'm traveling. We were informed by the church we rent from that only one of the three air conditioning units in the worship center is going to be functioning today. We meet at four o'clock, which was an hour and 15 minutes ago in Phoenix. It's 109 in Phoenix today. So I'm thinking that my fellow pastor, Jeff Durbin, is going to have to really shorten his sermon today. And they're gonna have to get done A whole lot earlier than normal. I believe my first time here was 2011. I came up to do the long-lost and well-missed Sunrise Century. Before that, I went out on a ride with the two Erics, and we did a portion of the Hell of the West, the Morgul Bismarck Run or something like that. Yeah, the wall and so on and so forth, and had a good time doing that. I was still a fairly big boy back then, and so they were a little surprised that I was able to—that might have been 2010, now that I think about it. I think it was 2010, yeah, yeah. By 2011, I wasn't a big boy anymore. We've met at the top of Mount Evans on bikes in the past and done all sorts of stuff like that. I never could talk Eric into doing the double-triple bypass because he's smarter than I am. There you go. The one I do remember was the last time they had the Sunrise Century. As I came down Left Hand Canyon, that's what it's called, right? As I came into Boulder, I looked at my Garmin bike computer, and it read 111 degrees. And that was the last time they had that race, because who was it in your own congregation? Rob passed out on the descent. Oh, the whole thing was carnage, and I survived it because I'm from Phoenix. It's like, hey, what's this? This is sort of normal for us, but not for everybody else. That was the last time they had that race, which is a shame. It's a beautiful route. It just needs to be in May or something like that, rather than in June or July. That started me coming up here. I heard about this crazy thing called the triple bypass, and the rest is history, as they say. 2020, which will be a dividing line in history, I think, in many, many ways. But that is not our subject this evening. If you'll turn your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 11. Now, a couple of you I recognize. I have a few stalkers here from this morning. And then I have a few bikers here who just rode in, obviously, on their bike. men that I have ridden with in other contexts as well. I thought about riding down here, but I just didn't know if Eric would really survive my being able to do that. Has anyone ever preached in cotton lycra from here? Not yet. I look back at some of the pictures from now, 11 years ago, and yeah, we're all getting old. That's just all there is to it. Time passes us all by. But this morning, I was up in Denver, and it's interesting. I had decided on my subject up there weeks before Eric and I had talked about my being here. And this morning I spoke from the first few verses of John chapter 17. And so Eric had suggested the passage from Matthew chapter 11, and it's interesting because of the fact that this particular set of verses is called the Gospel of John in Matthew. And the reason is fairly easy to ascertain when you look at the text itself. It's almost like you were in, you're reading Matthew, and now all of a sudden you're over in the Gospel of John. It's the same language, it's the same concepts coming out, Now for me, what that illustrates is that the Gospel of John, being different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there's a purpose and a reason for that. I think that John was the last gospel written. And I think that John was given more freedom by the Spirit of God to reveal some of the more intimate aspects of Jesus's ministry that the Synoptic Gospels were not given that freedom to do. Yet this little section in Matthew demonstrates that this kind of language on Jesus's part this intimate Language on his part in speaking with the father Was well known to the synoptic gospel writers. They just did not focus upon it in the Gospels that were written earlier but in this one instance Matthew does and it is It is a gift of grace that we rarely think about. We rarely think about, I mean, how many times in your Christian life have you, in prayer, said, Father, thank you for the depth of the revelation that you have given to us in Scripture, for we are unworthy of it. the high priestly prayer in John 17, Matthew 11, Philippians 2, these places where you have intimate details of the relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit, where you literally, in John 17, have the Son praying to the Father and talking about, Father, glorify me with the glory which I had by your side before the world was. Or in Philippians chapter two, where his pre-incarnate glory is seen. And even though he has equality with the Father, it's not something to be grasped or held onto, but he lays that aside and he takes on a human nature, makes himself nothing. And then here in Matthew chapter 11, this prayer, which for some people, it seemingly just comes out of nowhere. Because look at the context. Matthew chapter 11 verse 22. Matthew 11 verse 22. It's really interesting. Nevertheless I say to you, I'm sorry, let's back up to 20. Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his miracles were done because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles that occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You shall descend to Hades, for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." That's the context. of some of the most oft-quoted words of Jesus about, come to me, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. It's a context of judgment. In fact, it's interesting. Thankfully, before the world fell apart, I got to visit Israel briefly in 2018. And one of the fascinating things that I noted, we got to visit the synagogue, the first century synagogue in Magdala, in Migdal. And as most things in Israel, they had discovered it when they started trying to build a hotel. And you start digging down, it's like, oh no, another archeological site. And so you literally have to redo all your plans and rebuild your building around what you discovered in the ground. And so this is a first century synagogue. I mean, the flooring is still there and it's beautiful to see. And when you think about what the New Testament says, Jesus went around all their synagogues in Galilee and Mary Magdalene is Mary of Migdal. And so there's a 99.9% chance that what you're looking at, the stones you're looking at, heard Jesus teach 2,000 years ago. It's just astonishing when you think about what that meant. What was interesting is when we visited Bethsaida and Chorazin, One of the things I just noticed in our guides, he was a really good guide, in our guides' commentary is they have never found the first century remains of the synagogues in those cities. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. Tyre and Sidon, they were destroyed. They were utterly wiped out. You can't even find the remains of them to this day. And just in passing, some people use this text, we are gonna get to Matthew 11, 25, don't worry, but some people use this text and they say, see, Jesus is saying that if those miracles had taken place in those cities, then that means God has this middle knowledge of what people would have done and there's no divine decree and all the rest of this stuff. It's so obvious that when you use Tyre and Sidon and Sodom as your examples, What he's saying is, these are places that the Jews considered to be absolute paragons of evil. And what he's saying is, they had no witness from God. They had no miracles. They had no teaching. You have had such a tremendous amount of light and yet you remain obstinate. The point is not that they're alternate universes or middle knowledge or anything else. The point is that you people who think you know so much about God and are so sensitive to his word, you possess the Torah, you possess the Psalms, you sing these songs that come from God, and yet he sends his son into your midst and you're hard-hearted. You don't repent. You are actually harder of heart than those people that you so easily condemn and say we're so evil. That's the point of what Jesus is saying. And so the question that immediately comes to your mind, notice verse 25. It specifically says, at that time, Jesus answered and said. Now, a lot of our modern English translations like to try to smooth things out and make things nice and readers digest easy. I just realized readers digest easy doesn't mean anything to anyone under 30 years of age. That's a sad, sad reality. Oh, I did my first debate over 30 years ago now. And so I just think about things like that and go. I do have an 11-year-old granddaughter, so I guess that does tell you something about that. But anyway, we like to make everything nice and easy reading now. And so we skip over some of the extra words, but it literally says, at that time, Jesus answered and said, answered what? I mean, that's a little bit of an odd way of putting things. Well, what that does is that attaches these words to what came before. And I'm concerned that in the church today there is a lot of desire to disassociate the hard sayings of Jesus, the sayings of judgment, the parables he told of God's wrath breaking forth upon people. That's been going on for a long, long time, but it's really bearing fruit now, I think, as generation after generation does the same thing. And so, in the midst of judgment come these words, and that cannot be forgotten as the context. Just as the cross is so often presented today, as a sentimental symbol, just as our society uses the word love in a humanistic concept, in a humanistic way. We must allow the scriptures to call us back to a proper understanding and balance when it comes to what it is saying. These are God's words. We do not get to take these words, and because our society will make us feel better if we soften them. That's not our right. We change their meaning when we do this. You live in Boulder. Okay? I don't need to tell you what that means. It doesn't get any bluer. And that means it doesn't get any more humanistic and secular and individualistic. And the culture of death is all around us and has been imbibed. It's become part of the very DNA of the people of our culture. And so there's an automatic rejection and rebellion against what scripture says. Well, do you think the people that heard Jesus's words in the preceding verses got warm fuzzies when he said that? He's saying to religious Jews, the people of Tyre and Sidon, idolaters, pagans, the people of Sodom that God destroyed from heaven, had softer hearts than you do. Jesus wasn't trying to win friends and influence people, using psychological methodologies here. And so in the midst of these harsh words, harsh words of judgment, which were going to have a fulfillment in not too many years, I'm gonna tell you that, like I said, can't even find evidence of some of these places from the first century. In the midst of that, Jesus answers that judgment, answers that hardness of heart, and helps us understand God's accomplishing his purposes. How? I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Why? Because You have hidden these things from the wise ones, the understanding ones, and have revealed them to babes. It's interesting to me, those two terms, wise ones and understanding ones, the exact same two Greek terms that Paul is going to use a few decades later when writing to the Corinthians. Where are the wise ones? Where are the understanding ones? Where are the debaters of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? He's going to use the exact same terminology, probably drawing from these very words. And remember, in that 1 Corinthians 1 section, beginning of verse 18, That's the same section where you have the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing, foolishness, but to those who are the call of Jews and Gentiles, Christ, the wisdom of God, Christ, the power of God. That hasn't changed. That's still true today. The church cuts off its nose to spite its face when it tries to change the gospel into something that will calm and pacify the rebel sinner. And the more deeply a people go into rebellion, the more deeply they have had so much light in the past, but they turn their backs upon that. That's what was going on with Chorazin and Bethsaida. That's what was going on in Galilee, in Capernaum. The Son of God has walked amongst them. There was never any better preacher. There was never anyone who had a more consistent life with their message. And yet they were not repenting. They continued in their ways. And God's judgment was going to fall upon them. That land was destroyed in only a few decades because they remained unrepentant. And when Jesus addresses this, this is not, oh, I tried my best. I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. that you hid these things from the wise and the understanding, the intelligent ones, and instead you reveal them to babes. This destroys the arrogant presumption of man. This destroys the idea that mankind has some innate capacity in and of himself Man is dependent upon the grace of God, always has been. God must reveal the truthfulness of the message. Those who think themselves to be wise and intelligent, they will turn down the message of God. It's babes. Nursing children are the ones that scripture says receives this revelation from God. How did Paul put it? Not many wise among you, not many well-born. That Greek term in 1 Corinthians is eugenic, good genes. Almost frightening to think about what we're capable of doing in that area these days without a Christian worldview. Then Jesus says in verse 26, yes, Father, because thus it was pleasing before you. It was pleasing in your sight. It's so easy for us. With our limited little knowledge, we know so little about what's going on today. And many times, we've been deceived about what's going on. And I have people come up to me all the time, hey, have you read this? Have you read that? No, no. I mean, we live in the information age. Stuff is flooding at us far faster than anyone could ever process all of it. And yet, with all of that, how much do we really know about history? How much do we really know about what's currently happening? Any one person has a tiny little amount, a fraction of the reality. And yet we think, on the basis of our flawed understanding, the basis of our tiny amount of information, that we can somehow judge God in what he's doing in this world. This is so much the argument that we encounter when we engage in apologetics in our day. What about the existence of evil? I'm not saying it's not a good question. Christians have spent a tremendous amount of time talking about what's called theodicy, the justification of God's existence in the light of evil. But every single person that's ever raised the objection had no idea of all the good that God has done that they did not see. how many times God had been gracious to them that very day, nor did they have any idea how the evil they'd seen around them had a purpose in God's eternal plan. But we stand up on our little creaturely legs and pretend we can judge God. And in all of this, Jesus tells us It was well-pleasing in God's sight to make mankind dependent upon grace. It's not the old Eastern religion type idea where you have the pilgrims or the monks climbing to the very top of the hill and you pull yourself over onto the summit. I know there's a bunch of you crazy yahoos that climb these mountains around here and balance on boulders over a thousand foot cliffs and all this other craziness that you people do. I had to do that in 2019. I freaked out climbing up to the top of Evans along the backside there, and I sort of embarrassed myself with my host. Two days later, I went up there by myself and did it all alone just to prove I could do it. I did it, but I will never do it again. You people do crazy things like that, and you've seen the pictures and the movies where people pull themselves up onto the summit, and there's the guru. And he's sitting there and sometimes he's levitating. You always wonder how he got any food up there. DoorDash, I do not think, delivers to most of those places. And now you can finally ask the important and deep questions because you put out the effort to get there. That's man's religion. And now that's done by how many years you spend in the academy and how many degrees you get and how many books you read only in your own narrow little field. There is so little serious classical education going on today, it's not even funny. Don't get me into that one. That's a whole other sermon that we don't have time for tonight. That's man's religion. Jesus says it's pleasing in the Father's sight to hide these things. That's God's action. God is hiding these things from the wise and the intelligent, and he's revealing them in grace to babes. And it's pleasing in God's sight. Do we really believe that? I have often said, I think anyone who deals at all with academia should read and reread 1 Corinthians chapters one and two at least every six months. And this section as well to remind ourselves of what God is really doing in this world, because the temptation for us is we want to look like, we want to have a place at the table, we want to be respected. And don't get me wrong, I think the Christian worldview is the only worldview that is internally consistent, coherent, it's the answer to every question that we have out there, but I recognize that until the heart is changed, Those arguments are gonna mean nothing because what does the person who's suppressing the knowledge of God do when you give him more knowledge of God? Suppresses that too. There's got to be a fundamental change of the heart first. And that's something that God does. And yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in your sight. Then hear these words that Jesus says. All things have been delivered over to me, have been given to me by my Father. You see why this is called the Gospel of John and Matthew? I mean, this is the same thing you get in John 17, the same thing you get in John 6. I've come down to heaven not to do my own will, but the will of whom has sent me. And this is the will of whom has sent me, that of all that he's given me, I lose none of them, but raise them up on the last day. This is a perfect and powerful Savior. And this is a foreshadowing of what Matthew is going to record for us at the end of the book. All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. What amazing words. These words do not fit in the mouth of the Jesus of most of Christianity in the United States today. If you think Jesus was a great moral teacher, but you don't really believe that he was the divine son who took on human flesh, the very creator entering into his creation, these words don't, how can you even begin to understand these things? How can a preacher from Galilee say, all things have been delivered to me, handed over to me by my father, not the father, my father. Intimate divine relationship. Here the son has submissively entered into human flesh. And as that divine revealer, he has been given authority. All things have been handed, no human, put these words in the mouth of Moses. Put these words in the mouth of David. What do you end up with? I mentioned it this morning, preaching in John 17, blasphemy. It'd be blasphemy for Moses to have said, Abraham to have said, David to have said, Solomon. All things have been given to me. You and I read it and we're like, yeah, that's Jesus. But there's a theology behind that. There's a theology behind that. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. And then you have, unique in its expression, not unique in its teaching, but unique in its expression, these words. No one knows the Son except the Father. Neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and whosoever the Son wills to reveal Him." Now, the term to know here is not simply to have intellectual knowledge of. It's a strengthened form, to truly know. But can you imagine how anyone else who has ever walked this earth could say the first, let me see here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine words of this phrase, no one knows the son except the father. Think of any human being who has ever lived. No one truly knows me except the father. Oh, I've met a few people that would have said things like that. They also had an extreme amount of pharmaceuticals in their bloodstream. And they hadn't bathed in three months and were wanted by the FBI. But those are the only types of people that will say, I am so Well, what is Jesus claiming? What is he saying? He has just said, I have all authority. All things have been entrusted to me. To whom can God entrust the universe? What angel is great enough for such a task? There is none. There is none. So he's already made an incredible statement, and now he's following that up by saying, no one truly knows me except the Father. That is a claim to deity. We don't see it as clearly as we should because we're used to Jesus saying amazing things, right? No one knows the Son except the Father. Test any Christology, any teaching about Jesus that someone brings to you by this, by this. I told a story this morning, sorry for those of you who visited this morning elsewhere, but I appreciate you coming. I told a story that is really illustrative from a debate that I attended a number of years ago. I had just gotten back from South Africa, and I normally don't attend debates, if I'm at a debate, it's because I'm doing the debate, but this was one of the very rare instances where I was an audience member. And Dr. Robert Gagnon was debating Dr. Daniel Kirk, who at the time was an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. It was on homosexuality. If you know Dr. Gagnon, you know it's an area that he has written extensively on. And at one point, the argument that Dr. Kirk was presenting, and this is very common today, for those people who are trying to get various denominations to become affirming of homosexuality, and that, of course, would be a majority viewpoint in your area of the world. What he was arguing was not that the New Testament teaches his position. His argument was that the Holy Spirit of God had to reveal, for example, to Peter and to the early church, that they were to accept the Gentiles. And this was a new revelation, it was a work of the Spirit of God. And so today, there's a new work of the Spirit of God. It wasn't happening in first century Palestine. And that new work of God is that the Spirit of God is now telling us that we are to accept into the fellowship just as the Gentiles were accepted into the fellowship. are LGBTQ brothers and sisters. I'm not sure if you can use the term brothers and sisters if you include the T. It's very confusing. Very, very confusing. But he was talking specifically, this was three, four years ago, maybe five years ago, on the subject of homosexuality. And then he said this, we have learned, we in the academic community have learned, to think past the Apostle Paul, who was a first-century Jew, and the categories he had, for example, in regards to women, and we must learn to think past Jesus, who was a first-century Jew, and only had particular categories from which to speak. And so during the break, I went up to Dr. Kirk, and I said, did I hear you say, and then I gave a summary, and you said, well, basically, yeah. And I said, so you would not affirm a historical Nicene orthodoxy of a belief in the deity of Christ? And his response to me was, you don't think the apostles thought Jesus was God, do you? As I said, I'm not sure my response was the best response given the situation, but the debate challenge came very quickly from me because I said, yes, of course I do, because they taught that clearly. But this is how the academy speaks. This is how so many in what calls itself the church state, this is where they're coming from. Test what he said by what is found in these words. No one knows the Son except the Father. If Jesus was merely an insightful moral teacher in the first century in the backwaters of Galilee, there were lots of people who knew the Son. Probably better than he knew himself. No one knows the Son except the Father. The Son's being is so vast, so divine, that the only one who can have full knowledge of it is Himself divine. And then the converse is graciously true. I say graciously true because this is the only reason we can know who the Father truly is, because no one has seen the Father. The monogamous theos, the unique God, the only son who is in the bosom of the father. He has made him known, John 1 18. Neither does anyone know the father except the son. This is a claim of divine exhaustive knowledge. God the Father is so vast, eternal, unlimited, that to have knowledge, perfect knowledge of Him, would require an equal intellect, an equal divinity. So the Son knows the Father just as the Father knows the Son. There is this reciprocity. This is again what you see in John 17. I am in the Father. The Father is in me. And as we are in Him, then we can have unity with God. Not that we become God. but that we have relationship with the Son. We enter into, how many times does Paul himself, in the first 13 verses of Ephesians, say, in Christ, in the beloved one, in Him. 10 times in 13 verses. That's where you have eternal life, is in Him. That's where you have forgiveness, is in Him. You must be in the Son, not simply have knowledge of Him out there, but you must have that intimate relationship with Him. Because he is the one who truly knows the Father. And because he truly knows the Father, he can reveal the Father perfectly, and therefore you have that last phrase. It's a phrase of divine election. It's a phrase of divine choice. And it's in the context of Jesus saying that it pleases the Father to hide from the wise and understanding ones fundamental truths. Whether you like it or not, that's the context. No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom The Son wills to reveal Him. Who knows the Father? Only those who have come to know Him through the Son. I know it's unpopular. I know it's repulsive to the modern rebellious humanist for you to say to anyone that it's not what will you do with Christ, it's what will Christ do with you. Oh, I know, someone might say, well, it's Jesus' will to reveal the Father to everybody. which is why he just said that it well pleased the Father to hide these things from the wise and understanding and to reveal them to babes. That's why I pointed out the context. And that's why I pointed out the necessary grammatical connection between a text that lots of people like to preach Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Oh, is that not one of the most favorite Bible verses in all the scriptures? And yet, how often are those favorite Bible verses right in the middle of a theology that a lot of people really don't like? In John 6, Jesus said, The one who comes to me, I will never cast out. Oh, that's wonderful. That's something you can grab hold to. It's an anchor for the soul, but it's the last half of a sentence. The first half of the sentence is, all the Father gives me will come to me. And the one coming to me, I will never cast out. We like the last half of the sentence, not so much the first half of the sentence. As parents, we know how that works, how our teenagers are able to hear only the last half of the sentence, not the first half of the sentence. Clean your room and we will go get pizza. All they hear is pizza. Well, we get that, but we cannot dare to interpret God's word in that way. And yet we do. Anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him means that Jesus is a perfect revealer of the Father. What we learn about the Father who's never been seen by the Son who has been seen is a trustworthy revelation. When you think about the world's religions, when you think about the leaders of the world's religions, and the things you have to get past, and then you think about Jesus, and you think about his credentials to say to us, this is the truth about the Father, we are a blessed people. Now, someone might say, but yeah, look at the, you know, these wonderful words that come afterwards. How do we fit them together? Come to me, all you who are weary and working so hard, you're bearing a heavy load, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke used to carry those heavy burdens. Take my yoke upon yourselves and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. My burden is light. Wonderful promise. Please note, it's all focused on Jesus. The pressure placed upon the faith to be inclusivistic. Don't say anything that would say that your way is the only way. That was the very pressure the early church faced from the Romans. That's why the Romans detested Christianity so much. The Romans needed religions to keep people together, but they needed religions that would say, our God will be good for you. And our God might even be better than somebody else's God, but what they couldn't put up with is our God is the only God and those guys don't exist. That exclusivity is what made the Roman Empire attempt to destroy the Christian faith, starting with Nero in AD 64, and then finally, with a period of 10 years, the entire might of the empire was brought against the Christian faith between 303 and 313. They failed. And in fact, it was right at that time that Constantine, judge him as you will from afar, converts, and everything changes. But for 10 years, and it had been happening for years before that, but all out, starting in 303. Why? Because of the exclusive nature of the Christian message. Even the Romans understood that. It's all about Jesus. Come to me. Moses never said come to me. David never said come to me. Come to me. Why? Because I am the one who reveals the Father. I have been sent to do the Father's will. I am the perfect revelation of the Father. So come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. Only the person in whose life the Spirit of God is working comes to understand that you're weary and heavy laden. to come to understand your need, and I will give you rest. When the Spirit of God begins to work upon a person's heart, they begin looking for real answers. This world, because of its love of death, the culture of death, destroys people's lives, destroys their well-being. But if the Spirit of God does not work in their hearts, to whom do they turn? To what do they turn? We can see it all around us. The lust of the flesh. Pharmaceuticals, entertainment, anything to take a person's attention off of what they know the real issue is. They know none of those things will ever give them peace. Until the Spirit of God causes them to realize that they are weary and heavy laden, only then can this invitation of Christ make any sense to them. You can't find rest for your soul when you don't believe you have one. When you think you are nothing but fizzing chemicals Finding rest for your soul is not your quest. You just simply want to fizz for as long as you can fizz and fizz happily, be very, very bubbly, and then stop fizzing and be no more. That's all the world has to offer. But when Jesus speaks, he speaks about taking his yoke That means he's talking about discipleship. That means he's talking about following him. We don't get to simply add Jesus to our self-help methodology. We take his yoke upon ourselves and learn from me. Once again, you cannot avoid the one speaking here is pointing completely to himself. That's the very thing that caused such offense in John 6. In John 6, Jesus feeds 5,000 men, probably an equal number of women and children. They're excited. They find him in the synagogue, Capernaum, and Jesus knows they don't believe. And in a fairly short sermon, They all walk away, but for 12 confused disciples, and one of them's a betrayer. And Jesus did it purposely, because it specifically says, I believe it's John 6, 65, Jesus was saying to them, using the imperfect form, iterative in the past, He kept saying to them, no one can come to me unless it's granted to them of the Father. He shut out their vaunted self autonomy. and offended them, and they walked away. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Jesus gets to determine the parameters of discipleship, not us. And there have been many times, my friends, down through church history, when God has called men and women into discipleship with Jesus Christ, and they knew That was a call to die. To die to the things of this world, yes, but to die. There are places on earth where that's the case today. There are places called North Korea and China. There are parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan where to follow Jesus, you know, is a death sentence. There are places in Africa. Follow Jesus. Many places in Southeast Asia, Vietnam. Follow Jesus. To become that first-time convert is not because you want your right leg lengthened so it's the same length as your left leg. To become a first-time convert with Jesus is to know that you may not see the next day. That's what Jesus himself had said. Gospel of Mark calls the crowds to him, says, if anyone would be my disciple, Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Wait a minute. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. How can that include the loss of my life because of what came right before that? I am gentle and humble in heart and you shall find rest for your soul. The soul that is at peace. with God is a soul that has nothing to fear from anything in this world. And that is truly a message I have to preach to myself all the time as I consider what we see on the horizon, on the very near horizon in our own land, in our own culture. If I find my rest for my soul only in Christ, if I am obeying what John says, love not the things of this world. If you love the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in you. If I'm obeying those things, then Jesus' yoke is easy. His burden is light. The yoke and burden of the culture of death is deadly. The yoke and burden of the Prince of Life is beautiful. That's the difference. That's the difference. Tremendous passage of Scripture. It ties into so many themes woven throughout Jesus's teaching and then outside in the teaching of the disciples. What will we do with these words? Are these words that we've come together and we've sat in comfort in our nice air conditioning, our comfortable seats? And despite what's going on around us, we really did not come here with any particular fear. of the authorities rushing through the doors in armor with weapons to drag us all away. We know, we've always lived with the reality that there were places in this world where that was happening to believers. We've always known that. But this is God's land, right? We're God's people. The question we cannot help but ask ourselves these days, What if we knew that that could happen and there was a good probability it would happen? How many of us would be here? What if we had to meet in secret? What if we had to make sure we had no electronic devices with us? What if we had to make sure that we were driving vehicles that weren't being followed by OnStar? So that the authorities can go, ah, look, they're all showing up at this particular house right now. What then? I simply ask a question over the course of... I didn't look. Is this your standard communion table? Of course. You want to talk about an evangelical tradition. Do this in remembrance of me. There are Christians in many churches There are still churches, even in our own land, surprisingly enough, that have not had the Lord's Supper in over a year. I've had people tell me about it. We've had people come and visit us. Last year, fall last year, we had people coming from Washington, Oregon, California, and they said, we made the trip simply so we could have the Lord's Supper. How much does that mean to us? How much does that command mean to us? Because I was certainly raised in a tradition where, you know, you did it once in a while, and if you weren't there, it was really no big deal. But I know that churches in persecuted lands have always found that communion of the gathered body with her Lord to be deeply precious. How much does it mean to us? What if it meant your job? Because we are at that point, to be honest with you. What if it meant your job? What if it meant not seeing your loved ones for six months, a year? These are all questions that are no longer theoretical. They're right in front of us. Because Jesus, I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to babes, for it was well-pleasing in your sight. God's active in this world. He's not just sitting back going, I don't like what's going on down there. I might have to come up with a new plan now. wonderful words that have encouraged, challenged the saints down through all of church history. We are a part of that history. And they didn't know what was in front of them. They lived through deep and dark times. They didn't know that there was a bright period right around the corner. We don't know what the future's gonna hold either. God could bring tremendous revival, and we pray for that. Or He could bring tremendous judgment, and we pray for faithfulness through it. But the reality is, we are not alone. We stand in a long line of people who have read these words and rejoiced to take on the yoke of Christ and to learn from Him Listen to what Jesus says, not what the world tells you. Don't run these words through the filter of humanism. Hear them as Jesus spoke them. Rejoice in them. You will find them truly to give you peace in your soul. Let's pray together.