Sketches II

And so there's a lot going on in our church and so on your way in you receive these North Way notes And if you could just take those out for one second make your way through those see some of the things that are going on In the church, and I just want to highlight a few of those tonight Okay, we have the car crews coming up many of you know this if you have been around North Way for a while But if you're visiting with us tonight want to tell you about this amazing outreach that we have here at North Way It's going to be starting in May. It's it's amazing There's cars that just come from all over the place I mean we're talking from hours away to come on a Friday night here And so if you're interested in helping us with this outreach effort then come and be a part of this on April 28th That's 7 p.m. In the South venue. It's kind of get on the team get involved help volunteer be a part of this with us Okay. Now, you know if you if you see inside your notes here, we have this very well done brochure I wouldn't even it's called a mailer, right? Here's what we would love for you to do with this we have services that are coming up on Good Friday Which is going to be kind of a separate experience from all the other services the four Easter services So make sure that you come on Good Friday Make sure that you come on one of the Easter services as well. But here's what we would love for you to do with this Give this to a friend Invite them to come with you Okay, invite them maybe over to dinner to your house afterwards Just join us for the Easter celebration that we're gonna have. So if you are Gonna be working on Good Friday want to let you know that we have some similar Experiences happening at Silicon Valley and at our Oakland campus, especially if you work in the city I thought I'd let you know this at noon on Good Friday at our Oakland campus We're gonna have a Good Friday service there if you work down in the city. So just thought I'd let you know that okay now What I love about standing in the front row is I can just hear you sing I can hear you participate in worship And it just kind of comes up over, you know The the rose here and man, I just get blessed to hear all of you sing, especially that last song And so I know you're here tonight and you want to participate in what's going on in the life of this church And so I want to tell you about one thing that we have going on where I need you to lean in With the pastoral staff with the elders we often will come to you and say hey we need you to get involved and be a part of you know, especially like the Saturday and you know for our Easter services we need help in the nursery. We need you to be a part of that Okay, if you're interested just mark that on your communicator card You can help us out that way and we'll come to you in these times and we'll ask for help in those ways But what I want to share with you tonight is something where we need your help on your knees in prayer This morning the elders council they gathered and we talked about They talked about how we as a church. We need to lean into prayer for our East End campus That's coming this fall. You heard about it being announced last weekend pastor Brian McCabe some exciting things going on for the East End Campus and we want you to help us pray on Wednesday night this coming Wednesday there's a meeting about the facility that we want to be in and There's a meeting where there's going to be some people that have the decision-making power To get us in that building or to prohibit us from being in that building so We're asking you to join us in prayer over the next several days For God's favor to come down on this church yet Once again as we move into that East End campus and be a part of that facility that we want to be in We need God to knock down some walls and so I want to lead us into prayer right now before we go to our sermon and I just want you to join in with me as we ask God's favor upon this church Going into the East End this coming Wednesday night. Okay, let's pray together So God, I know that you are a God that can knock down walls in The scriptures it says where there is faith the smallest of mustard seed we can say to that mountain move and it will move Well God we have a mountain This Wednesday night We have a wall this Wednesday night and we know God that you are on our side And when you are on our side who can be against us? And so we come together now God and we collect our faith together and we ask on behalf of the East End campus this church moving forward Advancing the kingdom of God that you would come down in that meeting on Wednesday night and you would just do what only you can do We've done the work We've done what we can possibly do but God now we're praying Because it depends on you We need you God to show up on Wednesday night in a mighty way So God, we're going to continue to pray not just sealing this moment here and and using this to catapult us to Wednesday But God we are a church that's on our knees From here on out until Wednesday when that decision is made and in faith God we just say God move that mountain Help us God show favor on us God We believe that it can happen Because you are on our side in Jesus name we pray. Amen Well, you know that we've been in this series We just started it last week Pastor Kurt kicked us off last week and now pastor Jay is gonna come and share a message from the book of John about Palm Sunday beautiful images They remind me of and I know we'll be speaking to multiple generations today But it reminds me when I was a kid about Palm Sunday Palm Sunday was in my memory that sort of happy day when We just lift things up a little bit more in the church. I we we had Little palms like this and in some places each person would get one big thing like this and some churches they get one little leaf like this and I remember we sang Special songs about Jesus being King and there was a word we used on Palm Sunday It was a positive word as a good word, but it was the only day I can remember using what word was that? Yeah Hosanna which means Lord save us. It's such a good. Why don't we use it in February in May? I don't know Hosanna, I remember Palm Sunday. It was the day This sort of started Easter week and then we went into that Monday Thursday Now whisper to your neighbor and tell him what Monday Thursday stands for and you'll get a special award when you leave if you know Uh-huh, not too many people whispering. I don't know. So let's get to keep going No Monday. We will put it up for you. It comes from the Latin word. Let's put that up Monday them which means the washing and it's talking about the washing of the disciples feet that took place in the upper room Just before Jesus went to the cross then we had Good Friday And we all know what happened in that day and I just want to add my encouragement to pastor Your campus and pastor Kent here at Wexford. Don't miss the Good Friday experience wherever you are it's it's a moment to connect with God and Deal with God at a heart level. That's so imperative if if Easter's to really matter And I remember as a kid Easter was that was I loved Easter. Oh, man, it was a Mom bought me weird clothes that I had to wear and We had just I mean everything was up and fun and and the best part was It wasn't quite as great as Halloween, but man, we had a lot of chocolate bunnies Was the first part of the chocolate bunny you'd eat What years he said his feet no no years, yeah But all that's like Just old memory stuff right Palm Sunday, I Draw back and think what a day It launched us into the week. That was probably and it's I suppose we could say and questionably the most Important week of the year for those who know Christ now Here's the piece that really just I have to say with a bit of embarrassment But with all humility I Learned so much this week in my study That I I believe that if you'll listen if you'll bear with me for the next 25 minutes 30 minutes the most you're gonna walk out of here with at least one or two things that you hadn't quite considered about this before because Friends on your notes, and this is a good time to grab your outline out of your notes Here's something that is Undeniably true the study of Scripture is a never-ending discovery of the inclusive and mysterious plan of God to save the world Save the world from what? Evil people know from sin and death But the important part I want you to grasp is a never-ending discovery and after 30 years of preaching on Palm Sunday Most of you expect me to talk about Jesus walking in and being hailed King of the Jews And how they had it really all wrong because it wasn't a political thing it was a spiritual thing And that's probably what I've preached most times most of that sort of old Presbyterian background that I grew up with carried You know itself into North Ways original DNA, and we sang songs sound like we did here today And all of our campuses we sang songs that have that said Hosanna and talked about the kingship of Jesus which are appropriate But there's so much more that I never really understood And along the way by the way I just want to alert you that I'm gonna ask you another question or two since you flunked the Monday Thursday question I'm one up. I want you to come out of this with at least 50% so I'll give you a couple more shots So let's look at this Here's the first thing that I found that I didn't know Did you know that the how many Gospels are there? All right, that's not that's not one of the questions, that's too easy okay, but you did get that right congratulations I trust you got it right at the other campus But did you know that that scholars wrestled for a long time that perhaps John should be two Gospels? There are actually two in their minds Distinct which we would call sections or books And on your notes, it's not correct, and it's my fault. I apologize So why don't you correct it now the first is the book of signs which is John 1 through 12 so you can just just scratch the 12 out of there John 1 through 12 and the second is the second half of the book John 13 through 21 is the book of glory Got it signs and glory Now I'm going to explain to you for just a few moments if you'll permit me Why this is so significant. I'd never understood this before and It all pivots around John chapter 12, and that's going to be the basis I'm not going to take time to read through that whole long chapter You can do that on your own, and I used to implore you as a meditative sort of place to land this week There couldn't be a better place up until Good Friday anyhow than John chapter 12 Let's look and look at the the idea of the book of signs the first half of the gospel of John What was Jesus doing? Well all through these 12 chapters which represent by the way the three and a half years of his public mystery John is one of the Gospels that does not begin at the cradle it begins with the declaration of Jesus ministry and who he was and for three and a half years John 1 through 12 talks about what Jesus did in terms of miracles he turned water into wine which is There are so many people that think well, you know that's really hard to understand. Why would you do something? You know as as difficult as that and and it seems not difficult in the sense of doing it, but it seems like inappropriate and I won't get in a rabbit trail just to say this Jesus was not as judgmental as some of us tend to be about people and their behaviors. He understood that people had a much deeper problem He did other great miracles in John 1 through 12. He healed a man that was born blind He walked on water or how about we've been posting on Facebook those of you who go to Facebook our favorite miracles I think pastor Kent might have started this and one of mine pastor Kent would have been the raising of Lazarus a man dead for four days I Got a pause here and say as a pastor on more than one occasion. I've gone to funerals And I said, oh Lord If I could just raise one person my ministry would be so awesome That's not what I think. I what I think is Wouldn't that change things forever? If the word got out, I mean you did it before but I do it again And there are reports by the way in different parts of the world where this does happen I've never heard of it happening in the United States and a legitimate verifiable way It did happen with Lazarus four days in the tomb and I loved the original King James translation when they say master, you don't really want to roll him up because two words he stinketh Say that with me. He stinketh. I had someone on an airplane last couple weeks ago that had that problem But for a different reason Lazarus was Decomposing is what that means and it also I so resonate with that is one of my top stories because It reminds me listen. Oh, this is important for someone this might be the whole reason you came is that oft times Jesus Operates on a timetable. That's frustrating to me. Does anyone else have that issue? That you have a certain timetable and it just doesn't happen and you think well, you know, he missed it again. I remember clearly Years ago when we were seeking to buy our first facility we'd been renting the facility I think we have a photograph that we're gonna throw up on that screen for you. Just to be reminded It's a facility. It was a sort of nondescript restaurant facility. There it is. It's that's called the Chadwick. It's It's down in the Wexford area and you can't see it from the main road, but it would it was very suitable for our needs And we tried to buy it and The owner would not negotiate and if you were here back then you remember that we had to just leave the building and There was no place at that point. We were maybe 500 people strong This was after four years and we ended up going to some I won't say abandoned but neglected Catholic Church down in in periopolis somewhere I mean I Will honestly type thought it was the beginning of the end of North Way as we knew it our first Sunday there was a Sunday morning in January and the temperature with the furnaces running was 50 degrees and people worshiped with their down jackets on and I thought God you just missed I don't what Why are you letting this happen? And Long story short four and a half months later on Easter Sunday of 1985 That Same building with a picture similar that one appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and said for sale by auction And long story getting too long now We ended up buying the building for half of the amount of money that we had already offered the man six months earlier You see friends God's not late He just has a different perspective and timetable and Lazarus teaches us that it's one of the amazing things that I love about that story There are many other awesome things that Jesus did we Kurt talked to him last week about Nicodemus and just how he Opened the understanding to what I mean meant to be born again The woman at the well who Jesus prophetically said had five husbands and the man that she was with was not her husband the the I love the way he sort of dismantles the wisdom of all the the Pharisees and the bright people and Talks about how he Was the true son of God that's where the I am statements come I am the bread of life I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection life He who speaks to you He said am he the Son of God The Compassion that he showed the woman caught in the very act of adultery in John chapter 8 friends in every way possible Jesus is through John 1 through John 12 saying please believe in me, please believe what I'm telling you I am here with a message about your eternal soul I've come that you might have life And have it abundantly John 10 10 He pleads with people he teaches them. He demonstrates his power over nature and affliction and sickness and every other thing and Then from John 13 through 21 now listen to this we begin three and a half years in 12 chapters and the last Nine chapters are just about a week maybe eight or so days, and then a little bit of post-resurrection appearance You know but that's for the sake of conversation Let's say about a month is covered in the last nine chapters, and you know what I just discovered as I say through this Not one person is recorded as receiving Forgiveness and eternal life in the last nine chapters or ten chapters doesn't happen Now here is your serious question, and why is it called the book of glory before I hit that I this is important Well here we're gonna put up a scripture for you This is from John chapter 12 and actually if I had the whole outline on there you'd see it and but let's just put it up This is John 12 verses 27 through 33 this is why We don't quite understand how the crucifixion can equate with gore, but here's what he said now my heart's troubled And what shall I say father saved me from this hour? It's a sort of rhetorical question that's gone. No it was for this very reason. I came to this hour father Glorify your name friends understand in going to the cross and Dying this horrible death Jesus was bringing glory to the father's name and notice what the father says then a voice Came from heaven This is one of the few times that an audible voice is spoken out so that everyone hears it and the voice says I have Glorified it and will glorify it again thus the name or the term the book of glory the crucifixion Represents the glorification of Jesus Raised up on the cross so that you and I might share an eternal life The chapter 12 is the turning point Chapter 12 is when he no longer appeals, and he moves into this this clear path of Whatever it takes fulfilling the mission even though he knows how horrible it's gonna be now here's the question for you Do you think there ever comes a time when God stops knocking at your door and You're no longer able to respond to him You think about that, please? As I went out to visit my mom a couple months ago, and my mom's pretty hard of hearing She's doing very well Cancer-free now for six years so praise the Lord for that, but she doesn't hear well I Drove out to Beaver and I knocked on the door and rang the doorbell and and sometimes you know she takes a rest It was a middle of the day. I didn't know if she was home, and I couldn't tell She won't give me a key to the house Understandable I Even threw some pebbles against the bedroom Like pebbles, you know just to see maybe if she was sleeping because I wanted to visit with her and After maybe 10 or 12 minutes, and I tried cell phones and every other way I Left Now I came to find out later that my mom was over at the hospital as a volunteer Should have thought of that forgot. This is her day to volunteer so she wasn't there but Driving away, I just gave up Here's my question for you listen carefully Do you believe there comes a day when God stops knocking on the door of your heart and says you know what I? Have shown you every way possible of my love My sacrifice You've heard the gospel so many different ways you've seen the power that I have to change lives You've heard stories. You've seen baptisms You've walked watched people be transformed, and you continue to refuse my love I'm moving on How would you answer the question Well as difficult as it may be loved one listen, I believe he does I believe there comes a point In fact it's clear. I think we have a scripture in Matthew. We'll put this up for you chapter 10 verses 14 to 15 Here's what he tells the disciples to do to cities that would reject him if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words Shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or that town I Tell you the truth it'll be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment enough for that town Paul says the same things Numerous times in the epistles hear me this is important because sometimes we think or our friends That maybe we're reaching out to think that you know I'll just live my life my own way, and then kind of when I get a little older and have all you know So in all my oats, and then I mean I want to do I'll look into the God thing but right now I'm not that interested or you may be someone who's been coming for a long time, and you just think you know I You're too serious about all this. I mean I'm into God, but I'm not into I don't want to be a Jesus freak And you think that somehow God will just be there and whatever you need I want you to hear me say this you don't know when you're gonna stop hearing that voice And I don't say that as any judgment upon you. I just tell you I want to warn you If you sense a nudge, and you keep pushing it off there may come a day. Well. You'll no longer feel that nudge and Your opportunity to come to Christ will have passed It's an incredibly sad, but true reality Now This is all about Palm Sunday, let me give you just four quick things I learned about palms in John 12. I see four expressions of palms, and I'm gonna have to go through these Quickly, but I'm not gonna rush through them because they're all important the first one has to do and this is on your outline with a story of Mary and Martha who were Receiving Jesus to celebrate Lazarus resurrection from the dead and a little town called Bethany now Bethany is just over the hill from Jerusalem, and and it's a small little town, and it's not a big deal It's about two or three miles. You can literally walk from Bethany to Jerusalem. No big deal And they're having this party. It doesn't say where it doesn't tell us any place in the Bible where it is but it does in three of the Gospels tell this story and A couple of them elaborate a little bit more than John does but John makes it very clear But the point I'm gonna make in a moment This is the story where Martha is real busy doing all this stuff, and she says hey Jesus Would you tell my sister to help me out because I'm just you know she's a slacker, and I'm doing all the work And here's what Mary the sister did look in your outline Mary took about a pint of pure nard an expensive perfume and she poured it on Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair and The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume Now let me just describe for you what this is about in a single act Mary called attention To the incredible Importance of the person who was with them you see People were you know why they were primarily there listen. This is this gonna blow your mind. They were primarily there to see Lazarus Because they wanted to see this guy they've been raised from the dead and yeah, they wanted to see Jesus But but Lazarus would want to get eyeballs on this guy that had been dead You know to see if you had any messages for them from the other side or whatever no, no and Mary pours out now. What is a pint of not a pint of What it first of all what an unfortunate name? you know I mean for How'd you like to be the person in charge of the marketing for that perfume? You know we have All these wonderful names for perfumes. You know like whatever eternity or Chloe or Whatever how'd you like me the person well? We have a new brand. We're rolling out. It's called nard I mean, I just I just I can't come up with an image for that, but nonetheless it smelled according to the to the Scholars like like gladiolus it was a beautiful rich fragrance, and it cost here's the important thing it cost 300 denaro which he poured which Friends that was equal to a year's worth of a day laborers wages Or roughly speaking in today's culture 20,000 or so dollars And of course the social justice people said what a waste This could have been sold and the money given to the poor and we could have fed all these people and other people were all confused by it And Jesus says two things. I want you to grab this he says number one More and Luke's account. He says she has done a beautiful thing for me and Then Mark's gospel. He says this he says and every place this gospel is told her name This woman will be remembered And here's my question, this is a serious question what she did for Jesus was extravagant I Looked up the word it means excessive It means beyond what was expected and here's my question in the last three and a half years Okay, and we're gonna keep it within the time frame of the book of Signs. I Want you to dig deep now in the last three and a half years. Have you my friend I? Had asked myself this question done anything that you would describe as extravagant for Jesus Beyond reasonable expectation Doesn't have to be about money, maybe it's some Extravagant sacrifice if it has to be sacrificial it has to get it has to be beyond the yeah I'm gonna spend an extra few hours. You know going down on the lamp mission. I know I'm talking about Something that someone says what you're doing what? I'm not gonna ask you to put your hand up in this one Because I'm gonna just confess them right now I failed this test Mary didn't I Knew a family or I know a family that had planned this wonderful family vacation and God And they'd saved money for it for several years And at the very end as they were You know But they had all the different trip brochures out and they were playing where they were gonna go It was gonna be somewhere warm with beaches and they had ten days and all this and at the last Minute in their minds last minute they could make the change they decided to chuck all that and go on a mission trip as a family What Yeah, it ended up being a six thousand dollar mission trip Extravagant And I could go on and I There's been enough of these that I've heard of that. Just I just stood up straight. I said wow That is Beyond the norm, that's that's sacrificial. That's something that I can't really even explain I Know of a man that had a coin collection that he'd worked to save for 30 years and he sold the coin collection for $20,000 and gave it all To drill for wells in Africa so that kids wouldn't die from malaria Wow extravagant love, okay, just Just something to pop into your brain and shake you up a little bit because it shook me It's right here. I mean, I didn't make that story up. It's right there my palms need to become a little more open toward Jesus and Maybe even be occasionally extravagant The second reference to poems that I see here is the one that we all know our palms together Now this is the one that we all expect you here, but this is what you think You're gonna hear the standard Paul message So let's all wave our palms and say hail King Jesus and you know We know you're gonna one day come back and be the real king the Jews thought he was gonna come and deliver them from the Roman Rule and he failed them one of the first clues that he wasn't really gonna do that should have been that he wasn't riding on a stallion And he didn't have a big army. What was he riding on? What yeah donkey not too many deliverers ride on donkeys Now here's the part that really got to me and they waved the palms and by the way I just this is where I want you the guys if you'd be kind enough to throw off the photograph I want you the folks to see The folks that would be heading on to Israel are gonna see this. This is a wonderful photo Taken from the Mount of Olives Here on this side of the screen and I'm not sure if you'll see it on the campuses but I'm I'm pointing and there right there's the dome of the rock and that is a Shared space the Muslims believe Right that they own that space And the Mohammed was last seen there about 600 AD and of course the wailing wall was right here and The Jews of course, that's what the original temple was built It's the most holy ground On all the world Now Jesus walked from and by the way Bethany's just a little bit off here. It's over here. Jesus walked down This is the Valley of kindred down here the the kindred valley you heard of that and it's likely that maybe he took this trail Here and walked you and there's the Eastern Gate right there It's all closed up now But it was open then and he walked through the streets of Jerusalem and the Bible says that people laid down their robes And they waved palms and it was a it was a triumphal entry King Jesus was coming to establish his rule and break the Roman stronghold This is a very contemporary picture you can see some of the buildings and both sides those are Functional office buildings on but all of this is ancient. I mean cobblestone ancient. I mean the way it was back then Now here's the part that got to me I'll do this quickly the same people that were waving their palms and so excited and so on a Week later had dropped their palms and raised their fists and Pilot was trying to say look, you know, let's not get carried away. We don't have to kill this guy and they kept saying what? Crucify him no longer palms raised The crucify crucify crucify here's my question for you next one. It's a tough one How sincere is your worship when we are together You know, I just say this and you know It's too late to fire me so I'm gonna okay I get to say this Some of you come to worship and you're ready to engage and and I understand by the way that all of us have different It maybe it was a nightmare getting the kids in the car and those kind of things happen So this is not this is not like a singular judgment on any person. In fact, I didn't walk around this evening So this isn't about tonight or if you're watching participating in their campus about to this weekend It's not about that. But in times past when I've done this I've noticed that I've seen a lot of people and I've noted that some people are engaged right from the get-go and they love the worship part and Some people are texting God Or someone else maybe They're not interested in all what's going on And I just I've got to say Something that would change our church at every campus and every location Dramatically is if we came and spent the first 20 to 25 minutes Undistracted wholeheartedly engaged in the worship of God the way we're called to do And we put aside our electronic toys and we ask God to clear our minds and just focus on him Why would that change things because of this if you'll pull up please Psalm 22 verse 3 Look at this amazing verse Psalm 22 verse 3. It's a promise given to those who worship It's found in the King James Version it simply says this I'll say it while the guys are looking for it it says that that the Lord inhabits the praises of his people Say that with me the Lord Inhabits the praises of his people, right? And so that means he shows up in his presence and when he shows up don't just unexplainable things happen People feel like the anger draining out of them The stress going away they feel love for somebody they find even healing and so on going So those are two ways that I see palms and I could go on but time won't allow me today. I just want to encourage you friends Don't be somebody that changes one day from lifting a palm and saying praise the Lord to someone who lifts a fist another day and Said God, I'm angry at you I hate you. I Ran into somebody in the mall a couple weeks ago It's a friendly honest exchange and I just said the person, you know, I Can I just be honest? I haven't seen you a long time I'm sure it's me because I don't get to see a lot of folks in church I just maybe we just been missing they said no, I stopped going about a year ago. I said well I'm really sorry to hear that. Is there a reason and here's what they said. I said I Just I wasn't getting anything out of it I Just tell you something If you come and you put anything into it You're gonna get something out of it If you so Something of yourself into this gathering Corporately you will walk out with the blessing of God in your life You Can say amen to that if it's true for you It's absolutely the truth and I just told the person what we miss you and you're welcome to come back anytime Because I believe God wants to bless you. Let me quickly go on The next simple one is this it's their palms their palms Look at the next one Now there were some Greeks among them Who went up to worship at the festival the festival of the Passover and they came to Philip who was from the setting alley And said sir, we would like to see Jesus now. I don't have time Today to really develop this but here's what happened this tripped the Messianic clock Jesus at this point says something remarkable Look at this next verse The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified He now announces that the first twelve chapters are coming to a close It's the book of signs and now the book of glory is beginning How did that happen? Because he knew that once the Gentiles started being drawn into the kingdom of God to receive Jesus that the now Paul said.