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163: Jesus’ Ministry Begins
0 Playsin 11 hours
If you confess Jesus as your Savior, every day you're being targeted. Satan wants nothing more than to separate God from His people, and he's really, really good at knowing how to go about it. We all have trials and temptations in life, and Satan has a great sense of timing. He knows when we're most vulnerable to his lies and what he can use to tempt us.
That's a lot of doom and gloom, but it's the reality of life for a Christian. Of course, we're not without hope! Early in His ministry, Jesus endured (and conquered) Satan's temptations. We have tools against the devil's schemes—and a loving God on our side who will go to any length to save us. In this week’s episode, Pastor Chuck Schlie looks at the beginning of Jesus’ mission of salvation.
If you’d like to dig deeper, check out these discussion questions. You can complete them on your own, with your Community Group, or with family and friends.
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Transcript
Introduction and Emotional Support Dog
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production.
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to Normal Goes a Long Way. I'm your host, Jill Devine, and let's get into it. Let's get back into our sermon series based on the story. right, hey, before we get going, I just wanna show this off. Somebody in the back there gave me a gift this morning before we started church today, and I just gotta show it off. it I just love this so much, I have to share it with you.
Beginning of Jesus' Ministry
00:00:33
Speaker
This is my emotional support dog.
00:00:36
Speaker
That is so awesome. Awesome, awesome. I'm at 58. I've got one to go. um If you know about the Messiah Hot Dog League, so i'm I'm in good shape. I'm going to ball game tonight.
00:00:49
Speaker
Watch the Cubs beat the Cardinals and have my last dog. And I'm really, I know a way to warm up the audience, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you're not an audience. You're a congregation. All right. Good morning, church.
00:01:01
Speaker
morning. There we go. Good morning, church. I hope you're off to a fantastic Sunday. If you were with us last week, we jumped back into the story, and now we're in the second half, the second part of the story.
00:01:14
Speaker
Last week, we celebrated Christmas. God's great gift to the world has come, and now Jesus' ministry begins. Jesus is about 30 years old. Up to this point, he has been working the trade of his earthly father, a carpenter.
00:01:31
Speaker
Actually, the word is tecton, so it doesn't necessarily mean working with wood, by the way. A tecton could also refer to a stonemason. ah Most of the houses were built out of stone, so it you know could be Jesus worked with rocks. But either way, it's safe to assume that Jesus was no wimp.
00:01:50
Speaker
He was a man who was doing blue-collar work. But today, Jesus steps out of the carpentry shop, ah leaving home, so to say, and he begins the real work that he came to do.
00:02:05
Speaker
His ministry begins, and the first scene takes place at Jesus'
John the Baptist and Repentance
00:02:11
Speaker
baptism. Now, Jesus had a cousin named John. He also had the same middle name as Winnie the Pooh, right? John the Baptist. And John is a little rough around the edges.
00:02:22
Speaker
He's kind of shaggy. He's eccentric, definitely in your face. And ah John the Baptist, he was out there, like literally in the wilderness, right?
00:02:33
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He was set apart since birth. He was the very last of the Old Testament prophets. And he was getting people ready for the coming of the Lord. And he had just one message, and that was repent.
00:02:49
Speaker
And that's a good word for us too. The word repent means to turn back, to turn back away from your sin. Mr. Dwyer, our all-star eighth grade teacher at Messiah, he demonstrated this for the kids in a chapel message a long, long time ago, but it stuck with me.
00:03:10
Speaker
He set it up by ah placing a poster on one wall with the word sin written on it, and then on the opposite wall, there was the word God. And he explained the way it works. so When we sin, we turn our back on god and We turn our back on what God wants for us, and we go after what our sinful self wants.
00:03:34
Speaker
And so repentance then it's just turning around. We turn around. We turn our back on sin, and we move toward God's will and God's ways and God's wants for us.
00:03:49
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Let's return to John the Baptist. He is out in the wilderness. He's ah preaching repentance. He's baptizing people in the Jordan River. And one day along comes Jesus. And cousin John points to Jesus and says, Behold, the Lamb God who takes away the sin of the world.
00:04:14
Speaker
And those words right there are wonderfully loaded because they refer to ah atonement or paying the price for sin.
00:04:26
Speaker
You might recall in the first part of the story that God had devised a way for his people to pay for or atone for their sins, namely animal sacrifice.
00:04:39
Speaker
ah The people would select one of their very own animals with without blemish. had to be a good one. And they would take it to the priest and they would slaughter it. And this is to be ah their most valuable animal.
00:04:52
Speaker
right ah The blood then would pay the price or atone for their sin. The the shed blood would cover their sin. A pure, innocent animal, one of great value, took the punishment.
00:05:10
Speaker
Instead of a sinful person being struck down for their sin, the lamb took the punishment so that the sinner could keep on and enjoying and living in a relationship with God.
Atonement and Jesus' Temptation
00:05:23
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That's not unfair. Yeah. Yeah, that's the point God was making. Totally unfair that an innocent lamb gets what you deserve. But it's the only way because you cannot get rid of sin on your own. And so God will provide a way.
00:05:44
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see, God does, he never condones sin. He does not sanction sin. God never looks the other way. He deals with it. God will not ignore sin, nor will he ignore us.
00:06:01
Speaker
The heavenly father is not a permissive parent. so No, he will deal with it. God gets involved personally. He will provide way.
00:06:13
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ah Jesus, he will provide the way. The way is the permanent way for you and for me and for the whole wide world. Jesus, the Lamb of God, enters the scene, and today he begins a long three-year walk to the cross.
00:06:35
Speaker
Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And the story continues as Jesus is baptized and the spirit descends as a dove and lands on him. Then there's a voice from heaven that declares, oh, you are my son whom I love with you. I am well pleased.
00:06:57
Speaker
God says the same thing to you at your baptism, by the way. You are my child who I love with you. I am well pleased. Father, Son, Holy Spirit all show up same time, same place, demonstrating to the world and to you and me that Jesus is God himself.
00:07:15
Speaker
Now, following the baptism, the Spirit of God leads Jesus into the desert wilderness where for 40 days, get this, he goes without food.
00:07:28
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And he is tempted by Satan. You have heard of him. He goes by other names as well. Lucifer, the tempter, the devil.
00:07:40
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ah The name devil in Greek is diabolos, coming from the root word to divide. the devil comes to divide. That's his name, to divide.
00:07:52
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He is a separator. That is his goal, to separate people. people from God. By the way, if you ever come across a guy with a cheesy mustache wearing a red jumpsuit and holding the pitchfork, that ain't the devil.
00:08:07
Speaker
That's just some weirdo. Satan is way more deceptive than that. Come on. He's not a cartoon. In Genesis, just at the beginning of creation, Satan enters the perfect garden of Eden, and he tempts Adam and Eve to sin, to go their own way.
00:08:27
Speaker
Turn your back on God, go your way. And they fall for it hard. And now he is back, and he's going to try his hand with Jesus, who is also known as the second Adam.
00:08:42
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See, this is the great do-over. Jesus goes into the wilderness for you and for me. He is representing all mankind. Jesus true God and true man. This is important.
00:08:58
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And he goes there intentionally to be tempted because he's going in our place. He is going as the second Adam. It is a rematch. And Satan comes at Jesus with all that he's got.
00:09:13
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Jesus is literally starving. and so Satan tempts him with this. If you are the son of God, then turn these stones into bread. Do you see that?
00:09:28
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The word if. Oh, he's bringing into question Jesus' identity. That's big because he does that to you too. If you're a child of God, you wouldn't have done that.
00:09:41
Speaker
If you are. Oh, see how he does that? If you are the son of God. And I know that you got to be hungry, so why don't you turn these stones into bread and dig in?
00:09:52
Speaker
and isn't that just the way?
00:09:56
Speaker
just the way he goes about it. Sneaky stuff, appetizing stuff. He knows you, he knows what button to push.
00:10:08
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That is his mode of operation. He goes after. Your weak spot. He sees you in your moment of need when you are down, when you are out, when you are exposed.
00:10:20
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And that is when he comes to throw a slippery solution to your problem. He knows your weakness and he personalizes temptation. You see, every Christian wears a target on their back.
00:10:40
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If you are living for Jesus, if you confess Jesus Christ as one and only Lord and Savior, if you are bringing your kiddos up to know Jesus as Savior, then heads up, were a target.
00:10:59
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And Satan's great goal is to separate you from god God's Word.
00:11:11
Speaker
He aims to have you turn your back on god and go your own way. Go with your own words. Go with somebody else's words, but not God's word. I'll tell you what, it's the way of death, and that's what Satan wants. he And he often strikes when we're weak.
00:11:34
Speaker
And you don't have to go into the wilderness to experience this. No, a hospital room will do just fine. ah So will a cemetery or a midlife crisis or a heartache or a failure or a financial strain or when you are stressed out or maxed out or burnt out. It is during those tough times that that lead you into the desert, and Satan is waiting for you.
00:12:09
Speaker
When you are weak, when you are weary, Satan comes calling. And if you are unprepared, what was once unthinkable
00:12:22
Speaker
becomes enticing.
00:12:27
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what was once unimaginable in the wilderness. You would never do that. Prior to the wilderness, you would never, ever, ever think there and go there. a sudden you get the wilderness and all sudden becomes quite possible.
00:12:41
Speaker
but a tough marriage can make a good man look twice at the wrong woman and vice versa.
00:12:51
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Extended sickness or a tragedy can make even the strongest Christian question God's love or even his reality.
00:13:06
Speaker
Stress, despair, loneliness ah can take the sickest idea and twist it in a way in which it becomes something to consider.
00:13:25
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As Jesus was tempted by Satan, the unthinkable is offered to him. Hey, Jesus, let's team up. You can skip all of the suffering and the shame and the cross, and instead you can be the ruler of the world. All you gotta do is bow down and worship little old me. And what does Jesus do?
00:13:50
Speaker
Well, he does what you and I can do. Jesus sends Satan packing with, get this, with the word of God. You see how important this is?
00:14:07
Speaker
And Jesus is quoting some Old Testament stuff now. It is written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. It is written, worship the Lord your God only. It is written.
00:14:18
Speaker
And as Jesus quotes God's word, the devil just gave up and left. But he'll be back. And I'll tell you, if you battle temptation, and who doesn't, we all do, then pick up the sword of the Spirit,
00:14:37
Speaker
Sort of a what? Go on the offense. The sword of the Spirit, that is the Word of
Calling of Disciples and Nicodemus
00:14:44
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God. You pick up the sword of the Spirit and start swinging, which means you have to have some verses committed to memory.
00:14:51
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i Have some verses some Scripture in your head and in your heart. It's incredibly important if you don't. You're going to be in trouble when it comes to temptation because your willpower won't cut it.
00:15:09
Speaker
You're just not that good. We're just not that strong enough to take that him out You need the word of God. So when Satan comes calling, and start swinging some scripture. I'm gonna give you my two personal favorites.
00:15:26
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My first, Ephesians 6, 11. Put on the full armor of God so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. I say that one daily. Daily.
00:15:36
Speaker
Another, that's what I say daily too. Matthew 16, 23. Get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me.
00:15:45
Speaker
yeah And you know what? It works.
00:15:51
Speaker
it's That's the only way I know. You do that, say that. You can say it out loud. Say it in your head, say it in your heart, wherever you are. That's the word of God there. You speak that truth and you will see the devil slink away.
00:16:03
Speaker
and he has to because he cannot stand up to Jesus who is the word of God. Okay, Jesus comes in the place of all mankind.
00:16:17
Speaker
take on Satan and win. He's doing it for us. This is the big do-over. Jesus is in the business of recreation.
00:16:28
Speaker
He was there at the beginning, and now he has come to make all things right, to make them new. And so as you read chapter 23 of the story, or as you read through the Gospels in your Bibles, you will see Jesus always making things right.
00:16:46
Speaker
He's turning water into wine, his first miracle. He's healing people of their diseases. He's preaching good news to the outsiders, to the poor. He's casting out demons. He's calling sinners.
00:16:58
Speaker
He's gathering disciples. Now, one of those 12 is an interesting guy. I'm just gonna talk about Nathaniel, kind of a sharp tongue on this guy. He comes off kind of cynical, a little bit arrogant.
00:17:12
Speaker
And here's how he came in to get to know Jesus. Nathaniel has a buddy named Philip, and Philip goes to Nathaniel, and he tells him about Jesus. And he says, hey, Nate, I think he's the one.
00:17:24
Speaker
He's the one we've been waiting for, the Messiah. You've got to meet this guy, Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathaniel responds, bah! Nazareth, that hick town, that place is dump.
00:17:38
Speaker
Nothing good ever came out of Nazareth, not a chance, no way. And Philip, all he says is, come and see. Come on, come with me, come and see. And then wouldn't you know it, here comes Jesus and he walks up to Nathanael and says, hey Nathanael, how's it going?
00:17:58
Speaker
And Nathanael says, how do you know me? How do you know my name? And Jesus looks at him and he says, I know everything about you, buddy.
00:18:14
Speaker
I saw you before. You were even talking to Philip. You were underneath the fig tree. Well, Nathanael, quite naturally, is a little freaked out, a little blown away.
00:18:26
Speaker
And Jesus says, follow me and I'll show you even greater things than this.
00:18:33
Speaker
Amazing. Jesus gathers the most unlikely people to be his disciples. ah You look at Matthew, the hated tax collector.
00:18:46
Speaker
Follow me, Matthew. And he gets up and he jumps at the chance. He turns around. He leaves the past behind. and he heads straight for Jesus.
00:18:57
Speaker
And that night, as Greg was sharing at the beginning of the service, ah Matthew has a party. And it's filled with all these, his buddies, tax collectors.
00:19:08
Speaker
and And Jesus is there with some of his disciples. He hasn't got them all yet. And then the Pharisees and the other religious do-gooders, I don't know how they got in the party, but they're there for some reason. And there are a Appalled by this. They are shocked.
00:19:26
Speaker
They are muttering. They're always muttering, always muttering. And they're like, oh, Jesus, look at him. he socializes with outcasts and losers and sinners and these unclean misfits. He eats and drinks with them, with these sinners. He must be one too. And Jesus knows what they're thinking. And so he kind of stands up and he says, he goes right at them. He goes, you don't get it.
00:19:54
Speaker
You don't get it.
00:19:59
Speaker
It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Why don't you go and learn what this means? And he's quoting God's word here. This is Old Testament word. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Why don't you go and learn what that means?
00:20:16
Speaker
You see, I didn't come to call people who think they got it going on. I came to call sinners. And Jesus was turning the legalistic religious world of the Pharisees on its head and they hated him for it.
00:20:32
Speaker
Except for this one Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was kind of a big deal, a member of the Jewish ruling council. I mean, if if you were looking for somebody in that world who was doing it right in that time, in that place, it's it's Nicodemus.
00:20:49
Speaker
He was of the right tribe. He is of the right nationality. He is the right pedigree, right profession, a very religious, very Jewish Pharisee. He is a leader of Pharisees.
00:21:02
Speaker
Elite company for sure. Everybody looked up to Nicodemus by worldly standards of his time and place. Nicodemus had a going on. He was all right, but he had it all wrong.
00:21:21
Speaker
However, there was something
00:21:25
Speaker
and Jesus that made Nicodemus kind of stop and think and scratch his beard
00:21:37
Speaker
ah something about Jesus, the way he acted, the way he treated people, the way he made you think about the goodness of God.
00:21:51
Speaker
Nicodemus wanted to know more. He's curious guy. hadn't seen anything like this ever. And so he comes to Jesus at night secretly, and Jesus and the old Pharisee have a conversation about life in the kingdom of God. And this a mind blower for Nicodemus because Jesus told him that it wasn't about following religious rules, but about being born again.
00:22:22
Speaker
wasn't about being a good person, so It's about having faith in what God has done and now is doing right in front of you.
00:22:33
Speaker
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes not works, not tries to earn it. Whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Samaritan Woman and Living Water
00:22:52
Speaker
Well, this sounded like pretty good news to Nicodemus, and he eventually came to believe. ah Jesus really was God in the flesh. And you can find Nicodemus meeting with Jesus in John chapter 3 in your Bibles. But if you turn the page to the very next chapter, you will see Jesus having an encounter with a totally different kind of person.
00:23:19
Speaker
I think it was set up this way. Just about the exact opposite of Nicodemus in every kind of way humanly possible. Jesus approaches a Samaritan woman at a well.
00:23:32
Speaker
Now, according to the religious standards of the day, if Nicodemus is all right, then this poor woman is all wrong. She's a half-breed Samaritan, the hated enemy of the Jews.
00:23:48
Speaker
And on top of that, she is despised and rejected by the Samaritans themselves. because she has a checkered past. She has gone through the more than a few husbands, or maybe they have gone through her.
00:24:03
Speaker
Regardless, the man she is currently living with is not her husband, and everyone in town looked down upon the scandalous woman, marginalized for sure.
00:24:16
Speaker
And so she goes to the well at high noon when no one else is around. She goes in the heat of the day when no one else is around because she's tired.
00:24:26
Speaker
She's tired of the dirty looks and the sneers and the eye rolls and the whispers. She was the exact opposite of Nicodemus in every way, but they're exactly the same here where it matters in the heart.
00:24:47
Speaker
Both of them had it wrong. Both of them needed ah savior. Jesus came, and he opened her eyes by letting her know ah he knew everything about her.
00:25:04
Speaker
He did that thing on her too, that Jedi stuff. He says, why don't you go home and tell your husband, right? Oh, yeah.
00:25:15
Speaker
And he spoke to her about living water, a water that will never run out, a water welling up to eternal life. and And then Jesus explains to her that he himself is that living water right in front of her.
00:25:30
Speaker
That he's, I'm the Messiah. I'm the one you've been looking for. And he changed her life.
00:25:39
Speaker
And that, dear woman, becomes the first Christian missionary. She's a hero of the faith. She runs back to town and tells everybody about Jesus.
00:25:50
Speaker
Come and see. Come and Jesus makes everything new. He knew everything about me. He is the Messiah. He is the king of fresh starts. He is the king of do-overs.
00:26:02
Speaker
And Jesus does the same for us today. No matter where you are, he knows no matter who you are, whether you're a Nathaniel or a Matthew or a Nicodemus or a Samaritan woman thirsty for something better.
00:26:23
Speaker
Jesus knows you. He knows everything about you. He knows your name. He came for you. You see, the story of Jesus is about the heart of God.
00:26:40
Speaker
You want to know the heart of God? Look at Jesus. It is about wanting you and loving you and saving you and living for you and dying for you.
00:26:56
Speaker
is the greatest story in the world. I pray that each of us will see the story of Jesus with fresh eyes as we journey through the New Testament. and i i pray that as ah ah we take a look, that we will just be astounded again. You know?
00:27:13
Speaker
Amazed. in a of God's great love for you and for me.
Impact of Jesus Film and Conclusion
00:27:24
Speaker
Well, let me leave you with this. True story. This one took place in the early nineteen eighty when life was cool.
00:27:33
Speaker
Think um Somewhere remote jungle of East Asia, a couple of missionaries showed the Jesus film to a group of people.
00:27:46
Speaker
A Jesus film. It's kind of like you know how we have The Chosen now. In the day, this is what they used to missionaries would take the Jesus film. It was a couple hours worth of the Gospel of Luke, basically.
00:28:00
Speaker
because and They would go to different places and show the Jesus film. and They showed it in East Asia to a group of people who had never heard of Jesus before, and they had never seen a motion picture before.
00:28:13
Speaker
It's a very accurate portrayal of ah the life of Jesus from Luke's gospel. And here's how author Barry Davis tells the story. One unforgettable evening, they saw it all, the gospel in their own language, visible and real.
00:28:35
Speaker
And they watched mesmerized by this good man, Jesus, who healed sick people and who was adored by children.
00:28:48
Speaker
And then, without trial, being beaten jeering soldiers. And as they watched this, the people became unglued.
00:29:00
Speaker
They stood up and they began to shout at the screen. demanding that this cruel outrage just stop. And when nothing happened, they attacked the missionary who was running a projector.
00:29:16
Speaker
Perhaps he was responsible for this injustice. And the missionary had to stop the Jesus film and explain to them, hold hold on, the story's not over yet.
00:29:27
Speaker
There's more. And so they settled back down onto the ground, but you know kind of holding their emotions in check. But then came the crucifixion.
00:29:39
Speaker
And again, the people could not hold back. They began to weep and wail with such loud grief that once again, the missionary had to stop the movie.
00:29:50
Speaker
And again, he tried to he calmed them down and he explained to the story's not over yet. There's even more.
00:29:59
Speaker
And so they com composed themselves and they sat down to see what would happen next. Oh, well, you know what's next. The resurrection.
00:30:13
Speaker
absolute pandemonium broke out of that. that All of sudden, this gathering of people, it just erupted into ah party. The noise was jubilation, and it was deafening.
00:30:27
Speaker
The people started dancing, you know, and slapping each other on the back, and Christ is risen. And again, the the missionary had to shut off the projector, okay, everyone?
00:30:39
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But this time, he didn't tell them calm down and wait for what happens next, because all that was supposed to happen was happened in the story, in their lives, is happening.
00:30:57
Speaker
And my dear friends in Christ, my hope and my prayer is that we would have that same reaction in our hearts as we take in the story of Jesus, as we listen to him.
00:31:11
Speaker
And watch what he does. That we would have ah just a great joy about us knowing and believing that Jesus is God. And that Jesus is real.
00:31:23
Speaker
And Jesus is alive. And Jesus has come. And Jesus loves you so much. Now that's the story.
00:31:35
Speaker
And it is to continued. Continued. please join us again on Thursday of this week as Miss Hannah and Miss April take this week's chapter and sermon series and present in kids form.
00:31:49
Speaker
And you can learn more about this right now at normalgoesalongway.com. We really appreciate you hitting play on this week's episode and can't wait for you to come back on Thursday.