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By What Authority? (Luke 20:9-18)
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By What Authority (Luke 20:9-18)
Gospel of Luke: Examining Our Spiritual Health
Sunday Message recorded 18 September 2022
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Using Talents to Uplift Christ
00:00:06
Speaker
Good morning. Isn't that great? He is really good at basketball. And so he just wants to use his basketball skills to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. What is he placed in your hands? Use that to tell others about Christ.
Spreading Christ's Message in Texas
00:00:22
Speaker
So I praise the Lord so much for opportunity to give, to reach Texas. It touches many ministries just like that one and so many more. And so more and more people across our state are hearing about Christ.
Prayers for Uganda Mission
00:00:35
Speaker
Would you turn with me to Luke chapter 20? Luke chapter 20, that's where we're going to be this morning. I'm so glad you're here. Hope you've had a good weekend. I want to remind you to be praying for the Garmo family because Kim Garmo and her two daughters, Mary Claire and Olivia, will be flying out today to go on a, it's about a week and a half, two week mission trip to Uganda. So please be lifting them up.
00:01:02
Speaker
I don't know if I haven't talked with the Millers yet about Alyssa and Aaron, but there's a storm up there in Alaska that is really causing some havoc up there. But pray for the littlers as well. But I hope you found Luke chapter 20.
Questioning Jesus's Authority
00:01:19
Speaker
This chapter in particular is a chapter of questions. Do you like to ask questions? Do you like for someone else to ask you a question?
00:01:29
Speaker
What is the hardest question ever asked? I mean in the whole world of all times. I got to thinking about that and I thought it won't let me alone. I'm going to look that up. And so there's this website called answers.com and I thought if they have the answers then surely they've got the answer to this one. And you know what the answer was?
00:01:50
Speaker
The hardest question of all time is the one you just ask. And so I'm like, really? I mean, I took my time to go there and to ask you this question, and that's all they've got?
Jesus as the Question
00:02:02
Speaker
Well, on the Wednesday of Passion Week, Jesus was teaching and preaching in the temple.
00:02:09
Speaker
and the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, they asked him some questions. There was two questions, but the primary question was this, by what authority are you doing the things that you're doing? And who gave you this authority anyway?
00:02:25
Speaker
I think those were two important questions. Jesus was often answering a probing question like that one with another question of his own. He would answer it back. He was asked 183 questions in the gospels, but he asked 307 questions according to Martin B. Copenhagen. He wrote a book not called Jesus is the answer. It's really intriguing. Jesus is the question.
00:02:55
Speaker
And of course, he puts a lot of these questions that Jesus asked throughout the book.
00:03:01
Speaker
As a matter of fact, when it comes to Luke 20, Warren Worsby, a commentator, wrote, really, in his estimation, this whole chapter revolves around four questions, four questions about four significant Bible characters.
Authority in Luke 20
00:03:16
Speaker
Verses 1 through 19, Worsby said, is a question about John the Baptist. You go down from verse 26, all the way down through verse 20 through 26, it's a question about Caesar.
00:03:29
Speaker
You go from verse 27 down to 40, it's a question about Moses. And then the last few verses, verses 41 to 44, a question about David. But their question at the beginning of this chapter was about John the Baptist, but indirectly
00:03:47
Speaker
They were asking Jesus, where do you get your authority?
Jesus's Authority in Nature and Life
00:03:51
Speaker
By what authority do you do the things that you do? You know, it's amazing when Jesus would teach, they said he teaches different. He teaches like one having authority. The disciples were shocked whenever they were in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee and he stood up and he told the storm to be quiet and it just calmed right down.
00:04:12
Speaker
I think that three different times people were shocked whenever someone had passed away and he just called them back, back to this life. Who has authority over death? Jesus. That's why we sing. What an incredible name that we have. Blessed be His name. Jesus is not like anyone that we know. No one else is like Jesus. He's the Son of God.
Parable of the Wicked Tenants
00:04:38
Speaker
And I think as we go through verses 9 all the way down through verse 18, looking at a parable called the parable of the wicked tenants, I think we're going to see something and that something is authority. They were asking him, by what authority do you do these things, Jesus? They were asking him, who gave you this authority anyway? So he says, well, John the Baptist, who gave him the authority? Was it heaven? Was it man? Where did it come from?
00:05:05
Speaker
And they said, well, we can't answer that one. We get in trouble with the crowd. So Jesus said, well, I won't tell you by what authority that I do these things. So then that's where we pick up. You see, really, in my opinion, this whole chapter is about the authority, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. That authority is the Greek word exousia. It combines the concepts of someone who has the right
00:05:32
Speaker
to do things, but also someone who has the power or the might to do those things. Jesus has both. 15 times Luke uses the word authority in the Gospels. Four times in this chapter, verse 2, verse 8, and verse 20, that word authority is mentioned. But I believe that the parable we're about to explore together, I believe that it connects to this whole topic of Christ's authority.
00:06:01
Speaker
You know, this parable is recorded three times, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's in all three of those gospels.
Significance of the Parable
00:06:10
Speaker
As a matter of fact, there are only eight parables that are in all three of the gospels out of 40. So it tells me this is significant. This is important to what the Lord, even if he said it once, it would be important. But how important is it if we can hear it in stereo surround sound? You can look at Matthew 21, Mark 12,
00:06:30
Speaker
Luke 20, and you can hear the same parable that the Lord is teaching. So I would like to invite you, if you would, to stand in honor of God's word. I want us to read this. I'll read it, and you can follow along in your copy of God's word, or you can look on the screen. I placed the ESV that I'm reading from up there, but you look in the translation, the copy of God's word that you brought. Hope you have a Bible, hope you bring a Bible, and you'll open it up whenever we look at God's word together.
00:07:00
Speaker
Beginning of verse nine, it says, he began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and led it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. And when the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.
00:07:24
Speaker
But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed. And he sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty handed. And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. And then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do?
00:07:54
Speaker
I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenant saw him, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours. And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
00:08:21
Speaker
He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. That's what the people said who heard the parable. When they heard this,
Christ's Rejection and Authority
00:08:30
Speaker
they said, surely not. But he looked directly at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
00:08:42
Speaker
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. We're looking this morning at the authority of Jesus Christ. Before he ascended back to the Father, he said, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. Later, Paul said in Colossians 1 16, all things were created through him,
00:09:10
Speaker
and for Him. Let's go to Him as we pray together. Oh Lord, thank You so much for the worship that we've already offered up to You. You are so worthy of worship. That's why we gather together here each Sunday, to just proclaim with one voice that Jesus is worthy, to try our best
00:09:32
Speaker
to give you the glory that you so rightfully deserve. Oh Lord, all the authority is already yours. We can't add anything more to it. But I thank you that together we can praise you for it. We can together affirm it.
00:09:49
Speaker
we can together speak it out and say, yes, we can together surrender afresh and new to the authority of Christ. So Lord, we just invite you to be Lord over this time that we share together. Pray that you would clarify to us different truths about the authority of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.
00:10:18
Speaker
I want to give you four different observations about this text. First, we're given an illustration of Christ's authority, an illustration.
Parable as an Allegory
00:10:27
Speaker
The illustration comes in the form of a parable.
00:10:31
Speaker
just by way of review, a parable is an illustration placed alongside of a biblical truth. And the purpose of the illustration or the parable is to help us understand the truth. It's like God is revealing to this group there, God is revealing to us now through his written word, a truth about Christ's authority, but he's thinking, I'm gonna make it where they can understand it.
00:10:59
Speaker
So it's more like an allegory, this particular parable. Not all parables, everything has some correspondence to a biblical truth or something like that. Sometimes the parable has one significant truth that is trying to get across. But in this case, this parable is loaded. It's so easy to see who all these characters in the parable represent. For example, the owner of the vineyard.
00:11:28
Speaker
would be God the Father. God the Father is the owner of the vineyard. He's the owner of this whole planet. But then the vineyard would be Israel. He was speaking to the people of Israel at that time. But notice what will happen toward the end of the parable. He says that the vineyard is going to be given to others.
00:11:50
Speaker
So we have to look beyond Israel and think, well, yes, it did apply to Israel and still does apply to Israel, but not only to Israel, it refers to God's kingdom. So let's say that the vineyard represents Israel slash the kingdom of God. What about the tenants that we heard? The tenants would be the Israel's religious leaders at that time.
00:12:16
Speaker
Israel's religious leaders at that time. And then whenever the landowner sends people, he calls them his servants. So he sends them servants over there. Who were they? I think when Jesus was speaking this, the context would tell us they were the Old Testament prophets. God sent to Israel several prophets across the scope and the breadth of the Old Testament, and they would bring to them the word of God.
00:12:45
Speaker
But then in the parable, the owner sends his son. Who would the son represent? Of course, Jesus. It would represent Jesus. And then the others, I think that would represent us. We, those Gentile disciples, those of us who have trusted Christ as Lord and Savior.
00:13:09
Speaker
But whenever I see this illustration of Christ's authority, I think it's significant once again to point out, who was he addressing it to? Who was he talking to? Who was the audience that he had in mind this morning? Who is the audience? Well, he says, and he began to tell the people this parallel.
00:13:27
Speaker
I think that Jesus was talking to the people that were gathered there in the temple. But I think that today, through God's revealed word, He's wanting to talk to you. He's wanting to talk to me. He's wanting to talk to all of us. And notice that it is an illustration that has agriculture. You know, out of 40 parables, at least eight refer to something related to agriculture. This one is about a vineyard where they're growing grapes and so forth.
00:13:55
Speaker
There's an agreement within the illustration, and the agreement is that the landowner owns the land, the landowner planted the vineyard.
00:14:05
Speaker
But he's got to go away. And so what he says is, I need some farmers, some tenant farmers, some men that will come, women that will come and take care of this property. So he wants these tenants to come. And he says, you work the land. And they made an agreement. They decided on a certain amount that they would give for their rent. And so they're going to work it. But notice the absence within the illustration.
00:14:31
Speaker
Because it says here, a man planted a vineyard, let it out to tenants, and went into another country for a long time.
Obligations Under Christ's Authority
00:14:40
Speaker
I think there's some people who say, God's dead. There is no God. He's not living. Just give him time. He is having grace and mercy. That's what this time is all about.
00:14:53
Speaker
There's so many corresponding elements to this parable, I think it will amaze you. But I want you next to go on from looking at the illustration of Christ's authority to thinking in terms of the obligation under Christ's authority. Do they, do we owe God anything? Did they owe the landowner anything? We're gonna see how this unfolds as we go through together. Look at verse 10.
00:15:21
Speaker
Verse 10 tells us that it was the season for the grape harvest. The season for the grape harvest. I looked that up and it would be anywhere from June through September. In Israel at that time, they had three primary harvests. They had the grain harvest in the spring. They had the grape harvest in the summer. And they had the olive harvest in the fall. So this is the grape harvest. It's time. It's time now.
00:15:49
Speaker
So what happens next? Well, it's time for the share of the grape harvest that belongs to the landowner. Do they owe him anything? Or can they just assume this is our land? These are our olive trees, our olive branches, our olive vines. I believe it's all ours. It simply says that when the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.
00:16:20
Speaker
Ancient records say that a lot of the written contracts that historians have been able to look up and to discover, they say usually the contract said at that time
00:16:33
Speaker
that the tenant owed the landowner anywhere from one fourth to one half of the produce. That's just what it said. Those were the contracts. They're gonna work the land, so they're gonna get a lot of it, but they're not getting all of it because the land is owned, the vineyard was planted by the landowner, not by them.
00:16:55
Speaker
So then you see this servant is sent for the portion of the harvest that goes to the landowner, right? He sent a servant to the tenants. So let me once again pause before we go to the next point. God gave you life. God gave me life. God gave you talents. God gave me talents. We have all this ability. Do we owe him anything? Or would you say, I don't owe God anything.
00:17:24
Speaker
nothing. There's nothing that I owe to God. Do you owe Him anything from your time? Do you owe Him anything from your talents? Do you owe Him anything from your treasures? Do you owe Him anything about what you talk about? Should any of your words be about Him?
00:17:42
Speaker
Well, if we look at this parable closely, we would see that they did owe the landowner something, but they didn't want to pay anything. So let's move now to the violation of Christ's authority. Remember, back then, they had to enter into a contract. They were obligated to do this, but they said, we don't care. We're not going to give anything. So whenever the first servant is sent, notice the rejection of authority.
00:18:11
Speaker
There's two things that I noticed about that first servant and how he was treated. First, notice the violence toward the servant. It says they beat him, but also notice the void of a share. Well, they beat the servant, but how did he go back to the master, to the landowner?
Tenants' Rejection and Owner's Patience
00:18:31
Speaker
He goes back with nothing in his hands. Why is that? Well, they were rejecting the authority of the owner.
00:18:39
Speaker
And then you go to the second one and you see the resistance toward authority because it's one thing to do it once, but this is the second time. How did they treat him? Pretty much the same way. The only thing that the text adds is shame. What does it mean when you shame someone? Well, back then that Greek word meant without honor. It meant disgrace. It meant to degrade them.
00:19:06
Speaker
So that's how they sent this one back out of their resistance, out of their continued rejection. You know, it's one thing to reject authority and resist it, but when you go down to verse 12, it's out and out rebellion. There's an escalation of hostility. There's this, I don't know, it's like cruelty because he's not sent back now after having been beaten
00:19:33
Speaker
No, it says he goes back wounded, so he's bloody. And whatever it is they did, he goes back, and I mean, it's really rough. And not only that, I noticed something else. Not just the escalation of hostility, but how about this? The ejection from the property. You don't even belong here anymore. So they just try to totally push him out. Isn't that what it says?
00:19:59
Speaker
This one they also wounded, but then it says they also cast him out. We don't even want to hear about the owner because he has no right on this property any longer. Before I go to the fourth delegation that he sends, I want to remind you of the patience of the owner. Isn't it incredible that after the first one is, well, let's just say rejected,
00:20:28
Speaker
The owner doesn't say, that's it, man. I'm going to go and wipe those people out. I'm going to go and put those people in jail. He doesn't do anything like that, does he? He just calmly sends another servant and then another servant. I wonder how many times God speaks to people in this life.
00:20:46
Speaker
How many times does the Lord give you an opportunity to yield to the authority of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? How many times does God speak to us and say, will you surrender to the Lordship of Christ? You know, if I look at this in terms of the servants and who they represent, those people back then, they knew who he was talking about. Those religious leaders.
00:21:14
Speaker
And so I got to thinking, did they really treat Old Testament prophets poorly like this is described?
00:21:22
Speaker
Well, let me just give you kind of a flyby. I'll give you a few. For example, how about Isaiah? You know over in the Old Testament, there's a prophet named Isaiah. He even preached about Jesus. But do you know that Isaiah was sawn into by a king named Manasseh? There was another prophet named Jeremiah. He was placed in stocks and chains. He was then later thrown into a well. There was another prophet in the Old Testament named Daniel. He was thrown into a lion's den.
00:21:52
Speaker
There was a prophet named Zachariah who was stoned to death by order of a king. There was a prophet named Elijah who was threatened by a queen. Her name was Jezebel. Amos was scolded by King Amaziah for preaching against Israel.
00:22:09
Speaker
Micah was censored for preaching against sin, and Micaiah was slapped by a priest that was on the king's payroll and then imprisoned by King Ahab. Yeah, I would say he sent some servants and they were not welcome with a message that they were declaring.
Prophecy of Jesus's Fate
00:22:31
Speaker
So in the parable, when you get down to verse 13, the landowner says, I know that there's something better than this. What can I do? Maybe I'll send my son. They'll respect him. He's got my authority. He represents me.
00:22:46
Speaker
And isn't it interesting that, okay, there's Jesus alive telling this parable. So I didn't catch this at first, but it's almost like the first three servants represent biblical history.
00:23:02
Speaker
But now when Jesus says what they're about to do to him, it hasn't happened yet, right? So this is going to represent biblical prophecy because Jesus is still alive. He's still standing there. And yet Jesus is going to tell them, I know exactly what's coming. Isn't it amazing how God, He's been Lord over history. He's Lord over the future. He's Lord over today. He's Lord over this morning.
00:23:28
Speaker
So now the parable reveals the truth behind the violations. When the son is sent, what do we learn about the hidden motivation of the tenants? What was it that they were really after? They wanted the inheritance that rightfully should have gone to the son, right? It's his inheritance, but he's not going to get the vineyard if they have anything to do with it.
00:23:57
Speaker
The tenants threw the son out of the vineyard. Doesn't matter if the dad owns it, doesn't matter if the dad planted it, doesn't matter if the son was all a part of it at one time, they throwing him out. And once they cast him out, then they put him to death. Is that the end of the story? No, no, it's not.
00:24:21
Speaker
You know, I like Revelation 5 because Revelation 5 shows us what's going on in heaven. Revelation 5 pictures God the Father sitting calmly on a throne. And in the Father's hand is a scroll. And that scroll is the title deed to this earth, to this vineyard. And so you know who has that title deed in his hand? The Father. The Father does in Revelation 5, 5.
00:24:51
Speaker
But what they were looking for is who is it that is worthy to receive the title deed, this inheritance of planet earth, who is it that is worthy to receive this?
00:25:06
Speaker
They all started crying and they said, there's none of us, none of us are worthy. But Revelation 5.7 says that Jesus, the Son of God, comes up to the Father and the Father places that scroll, the future of planet earth. He places the title deed of this world in which we live safely within the hands of Jesus Christ.
00:25:29
Speaker
And so I just want you to know that He's the one worthy to reign over this planet, worthy to reign over each of our lives. And so He's the one that really in the end, it doesn't matter about what the tenants are doing at the moment. What matters is what will the Father, the landowner, our Creator, God the Father, what will He do and what will His Son do at the end?
00:25:57
Speaker
That's what I want you to know. By what authority?
Challenges in Accepting Authority
00:26:01
Speaker
Well, there's one last thing I want you to see. Let's say that someone says, you know what? I don't want him to be an authority over me. I don't like Jesus. I'm comfortable running things myself. Thank you very much. Well, that's kind of what they said, wasn't it?
00:26:21
Speaker
He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. And when they heard this, they said, whoa, surely not. Hey, wait a minute. This sounds a little rough, right? This sounds a little rough. The confrontation with Christ's authority that we see depicted in this parable and the following verses, I think that it tells us something.
00:26:48
Speaker
It tells us that rejecting Christ's authority cannot cancel it. They might be able to cancel a lot of people today, but you know, there's one person, he will not be canceled. Even if you pretend I can reject, you pretend I can rebel, I can resist, man, I can even do a revolution. But man, let me tell you, someday,
00:27:13
Speaker
All of us are going to be right there, standing right there in his presence. And whenever we're standing in his presence, what is he going to say? You know what one thing I think he might say? Look at this passage again. It says that Jesus looked directly at them.
00:27:31
Speaker
Wouldn't that be incredible? The one who can see down in your heart, see right through you for him to look directly at you. That's why in the book of Revelation, sometimes it says his eyes were like fire, but he looked straight at us and he says to them, what then is it this that is written? What then is this that is written? He's basically saying, haven't I been saying the same thing?
00:28:00
Speaker
for hundreds of years, for thousands of years. Have I been saying the same thing? You know, the first prophecy of Jesus being the Messiah was all the way back with Adam and Eve.
Christ as Cornerstone
00:28:13
Speaker
And so it's just been like one confirmation about Christ's authority after the other. I mean, this right here that he goes on to say,
00:28:25
Speaker
He goes on and says, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Does the Old Testament say anything about Jesus being a cornerstone? Yes, it does. As a matter of fact, not just the Old Testament, you could go ahead and write down Psalm 118 and verse 22. You could write down Isaiah chapter 8, verses 14 and 15, Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 16. All of those keep saying, there's a cornerstone coming, there's a cornerstone coming.
00:28:55
Speaker
And the cornerstone had to be perfect. Perfect on every side. Jesus was perfect. That's why his death makes such a difference. That's why when he died, the father said, you don't deserve death. You never disobeyed me at all. There's no sin whatsoever in you. And he raised Jesus, the son of God, from the dead. That's what it's all about. He's trying to tell us he's perfect. And so he's perfect like the cornerstone. If you don't get the cornerstone right,
00:29:25
Speaker
The whole building's gonna be off. And so the cornerstone has to be right. I think there could be some people trying to do life without the cornerstone. Life won't work if you're rejecting Christ.
00:29:42
Speaker
life begins to fall into place. It starts lining up with God's purposes. Whenever we say, you know what, I'm going to yield to the authority of Jesus Christ. I'm going to say that yes, he's right when he says I've sinned. I know I've sinned. I know I've been selfish. I know I've been prideful. I know I've done the wrong things. So whenever that happens,
00:30:04
Speaker
What we're doing is we're saying, you know, you were right. If you were to keep going in Matthew, even Jesus talked about being the cornerstone, and Matthew 21, 42, Mark 12, 10 and 11, Acts 4, verse 11. Luke is recording the early church and how it all started. The Apostle Paul, he also echoed this in Romans 9.
00:30:28
Speaker
Verse 38 in Romans 10 verse 11 the Apostle Peter he says same thing 1st Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 7 In other words when we get to heaven and we say I didn't know That you were really the one that run thing. I didn't know God's gonna say I thought you were there when you heard the word right you were there. I remember you were there
00:30:55
Speaker
The word of God is trying to tell us clearly that Jesus is Lord. And so it's confirmed over and over in scripture, but also notice the continuation of his authority through salvation.
Surrender for Salvation
00:31:08
Speaker
Let's say that there are these Jewish leaders.
00:31:12
Speaker
There's people there in the temple, and they're not doing what Jesus wants. Some of them, when he even brings up about facing the Lord Christ at the end, they're like, no, no, no, no, no, surely not. No, this can't happen. But notice what he says. He says, you know what? He will come and destroy those tenants, and he's going to give the vineyard to others.
00:31:35
Speaker
He's looking for somebody who will say, yeah, I will agree. I will give you a portion of the fruit from my life. John 15, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he's saying, you know, it's kind of like all of you are like a vineyard. And as long as you stay vitally connected to the vine, you're going to bear fruit.
00:31:59
Speaker
But then I noticed not only the confirmation of his authority within scripture and the continuation of his authority through salvation, but there is this condemnation by his authority because of sin. Because of sin, we want God to ignore it, right? We don't want God to bring up our sin. But he knows whenever we say, no, I'm not gonna do what you say. I'm not gonna give you part of my life.
00:32:27
Speaker
And I just want you to know the end, because it's not the end yet, right? You're still here, you're still alive and we're glad. But I just want you to know that at the end, he says, what's gonna happen? Well, for those that reject his authority, there's three words, destroy, broken to pieces and crushed. None of those are great.
00:32:49
Speaker
So why not just yield to Christ?
Christ's Ultimate Dominion
00:32:52
Speaker
He wants you to be grafted into the vine. He wants you to be a part of his vineyard and his vineyard work. You see, the religious leaders in the temple that day and the Jewish people gathered around listening to Jesus, they would have known what Daniel the prophet said in the Old Testament.
00:33:13
Speaker
See, a king named Nebuchadnezzar was given a very disturbing dream in Daniel chapter two. And that king was like the king of the whole earth at that time. Babylon was in charge. But suddenly in the dream, what he sees is all of these other extensions, all of these other kingdoms of mankind, but then a stone comes out of nowhere. This stone comes out of nowhere and it crushes all of the kingdoms of men.
00:33:42
Speaker
And then that stone becomes a great mountain. And they're like, what in the world does this mean? What it means is Christ's authority. Ultimately, He will have dominion. He will have dominion. No wonder Paul wrote in Philippians 2 verses 9 through 11, those words that Marcia read to us earlier,
00:34:06
Speaker
that there's coming a time when every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It's not up for us to decide, well, I think I'll just reject that. I think it'll go away. He won't go away.
Sharing Redemption Through Sports
00:34:25
Speaker
He won't go away because your life, this planet, life itself, it belongs to him. He's the creator.
00:34:34
Speaker
But we're so broken, we needed a Redeemer. We needed a Savior. And that's why the man on the video about Reach Texas says, I'm using basketball to tell them about Redeemer, about redemption that's found in Christ. That's why we're sharing tonight in an evangelism training program, we're going to help you know how to tell your family, your friends, your coworkers,
00:35:00
Speaker
Neighbors, you'll be able to tell them how they can get connected to Christ, how they can surrender and yield to Christ. But today, it may be your turn. You may say, you know what? I gotta go first. I've got to do, I've got to make this right. So when I ask our musicians if they would come, I wanna ask you if you would stand. Would you stand with me? And I just wanna close by extending a gospel invitation.
00:35:26
Speaker
For anyone that would say, I'm ready to trust Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. He died on the cross in your place. You may say, I don't like it when anybody has authority over me. You would like this one. Jesus has authority over us, yes, but you know what?
00:35:43
Speaker
With that authority, he laid down his life. He died in our place as a sin substitute, as a payment. You see, all of our sins, we have to pay for all of the sins and the wrongs. And Jesus said, I'll die in their place. I'll take their punishment they deserve. That's great. But what's also awesome is once he did that, the father said, my son deserves to live. He doesn't deserve death. He deserves to live because it's the wages of sin that's death.
00:36:13
Speaker
So today, God just wanted you to know you can go underneath the umbrella of Christ's authority today. You don't have to wait till later. You don't have to be surprised by anything. Today, you could say, with my own will, I surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's what the invitation is about.
00:36:32
Speaker
Would you come to Christ today for salvation, saying, I'm ready to turn from self and living and making all the shots, being rebellious to what God wants, and I'm ready to submit to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I'll be standing down here down front to talk with you and pray with you if you need someone. Lord, thank you so much for this passage. It rings a bell.
00:36:55
Speaker
And the bell that rings is, Jesus is Lord, it rings the bell that all authority has been placed in your hands. And I got a feeling that sometimes we're asleep. We're asleep at the wheel, we're asleep in life, and we're not paying attention. And today you're ringing the bell and you're saying, you better pay attention because I will return and I'm looking for my property. So bless this time, may we yield our lives to you, Jesus name, amen.
00:37:30
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.