Video Gallery

KINGDOM CONTRASTS "John vs. The Pharisees" - December 4, 2016 - Senior Pastor Scott Christenson

Go to Video Gallery Added Dec 06, 2016 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//www.stpaulsorange.org/apps/embed/?v=130486" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

St. Paul's Lutheran Church Orange, CA

Show Transcript

there's no better time to come to church then during Advent and Christmas of course for a follower of Jesus anytime is a good time to come to church but what I mean is is this that during Advent and Christmas are need for church any more evident  because more and more every year we see the Advent and Christmas season being secularized isn't it true that in the culture we live in Christmas is now about shopping and decorating and ugly Christmas sweaters and it's about Frosty and Rudolph and the Grinch that stole Christmas and it's about cookies and gingerbread and fancy Christmas dinners and all things are fine I like all of those things  except that somehow in the midst of all of it it's becoming less and less and less about you Jesus has become almost incidental to Christmas in America and if you don't believe me I can prove go home today and do a Google search on your computer type in these words Christmas Essentials and look at all the images that come up I did it this you noticed not a single one of them has anything just look at this one that came pop lots of snowman and other things but that's it  it's good for us to be here in church today is there ourselves on the one true Christmas essential and that's our savior Jesus who came to rescue us from and death and Hell  and as we do that are we want to  issue on one theme this Advent then you'll hear over and over again in church if you're really paying attention because I'm on other things it's in almost all Christmas carols  fat let me sing a few of them to you and you will pick up where I leave off okay I sing when I Joy to the World the Lord is come let Earth receive very good haha Herald Angels Sing glory to the  newborn king O Come All Ye Faithful joyful and triumphant oh, New York Bethlehem call men Behold Him born.  Alright singing suffering a little bit but you're getting it okay What Child Is This who laid to rest on Mary's La fish sleeping fishes alright we better stop while we're there we can go on and on the Christmas carol authors all want to emphasize to us set this newborn Christ is a king  and that's very appropriate because this is of course the way Jesus described himself whose Earthly Ministry his message was simply this repent for the kingdom of how I want Jesus say taught in Parables he did an awesome by saying the Kingdom of Heaven is like such and such like a mustard seed like a pearl what treasure hidden in a field and so on  if you really want to get to the heart and center of pre Christmas is about the coming of a king and the establishment of his kingdom  however the kingdom that fish King is establishing is fundamentally different from all the other kingdoms of this world and that's what we're going to be talking about in this Advent sermon series called Kingdom contracts  next week as I said you'll get to hear pastor after the first time here at St Paul's and he's going to talk a little bit about how Jesus Kingdom Works how it works not through power and control I like all the kingdoms of this world but rather through weakness and vulnerability  and later on we're going to talk about who's included in this Kingdom that it's not an exclusive Kingdom like the kingdoms of this world that try to shut other people out  what an inclusive sheeps to draw everyone in  but this morning I want to talk with you a little bit about what the kingdom of God looks like tell me about learning today that it's a kingdom that comes  transformation external conformity  that's very important that's the most important thing I'm going to say to you today she let me say it again the kingdom of God internal transformation not external conformity show clearly in our first scripture reading in this interaction between John the Baptist and the Pharisees now there's a problem though that stop whenever a we read Bible texts like this one and the problem is is that after many years  tell me a bus trained to think bad guys whenever we hear the word Pharisees we know that the Jesus often had some pretty tough words for the Pharisees and at times they were out to get Jesus and in fact we know ultimately some of them conspired together to kill Chiefs so this bad guy reputation they have with us as well learn but we have to understand that in the day and age set the gospel of Matthew was being written Pharisees were not viewed in their own culture as spiritual bad guys just the opposite effect the Pharisees were not just religious they were the religious the guys were really serious about their faith Testament and who a Jewish person in the first century ad would have been much more likely to view the Pharisees as the good guys not a bad guys  Jesus was like I had a weird questions about right he was the radical and this is why is so startled  take a look you says in verses 8 and 9 you shout out the scathing criticism you brood of vipers which means family of snakes that's not a compliment  you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming Wrath produce fruit in keeping with repentance  what are you saying there is this that the external for Matty to religious rights and rules is not enough because you see the Pharisees were very but they were not as Paul said to the Corinthians being transformed into G is this likeness with ever-increasing in fact the more religious they became the more if they can warm to their rules and practices  the more selfish and judgmental and smug and arrogant and and this is very important to understand because of course this kind of thing still happens a lot in our world today  we have plenty of very very religious people in our day to who go to church who send their kids to Christian schools and they pray and they give their offerings and they do everything they're supposed to do  external what internally they're not being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing meaning they're not becoming people of joy and hope and peace and contentment they know all about the spirit  but they give little to no evidence of the and his fruit  in their lives  Tim Keller is a pastor in an author who explains this oh well in his book that's excellent a titled Center Church take a look at what he says this quote Testament he says Christians respond follow him who's Will  or reject him and do your own thing says ultimately this is true but there are actually two way to reject God that must be distinguished from one another  you can reject God by rejecting his law in living anyway you see and you can also reject God by embracing and obeying God's law so as to your salvation  after the Pharisees  he says the problem is that the people in this last group waiver of moralism look as if they're trying to do God's will consequently there are not ways to respond to God but three your religion religions and the gospel you see what he's saying there he's saying some people reject God by being very very bad put other people like Pharisees actually reject God by being very very good  they do all the right stuff externally but their hearts are as far from God and what he wants as are the hearts of those who are being overtly sinful and disobedient they do all of this under the guise of religion their sins and failures aren't as obvious to us and here's why all this matters so much  obviously it matters for our own sakes right this is not how life the Cheese's has called us to  but it's not just for our own sins  we need to understand that when we the internal transformation of Our Lives that God wants for external Conformity to religious rights and rules and standards we are absolutely killing the witness of the church again Tim Keller says it's so well take a look he says most postmodern people have been raised in or near churches that are heavily religious  they have observed how religious people tend to bolster their own sense of worth by convincing themselves they are better than other people which leads them to exclude and condemn others most contemporary non-believers have rejected these poisonous fruits but what they did so they thought they had rejected Christian if they hear you automatically believe you are calling them into the moralistic religious approach to God unless we distinguish the religious way of the Pharisees from the authentic way of G people who are far from God because if we don't do that when we say to them pay you add follow Jesus like us what they'll be hearing is you should become smug and self-righteous and proud and like us  and no wonder they won't be interested my friends Christianity does not make a smug and self-righteous it makes us humble and grateful self-effacing  why because we know we're saved by grace my Jesus doing Morris what we could never do for ourselves our salvation and our faith is based solely on his goodness not our just have to die  in order to save us we were that bad is there for authentic Christians could never think of themselves as better than anybody else if anything we should think we're worse than everybody else  we need but not back to the store because office what exactly ultimately happened with John the Baptist and the Pharisees  how does the Pharisees respond to John's scathing critique in his paw and the amazing answer is we don't know the text take a look  set the story is recorded in Matthew and Mark and Luke but none of the three how the Pharisees responded  which is actually a wonderful storytelling device of the reader from the text  to your own life because you see that issue that's before us today it's not how did they respond to this message to thousand years ago the real how will you respond to it right now will you see it in yourself will you see puffins you yourself have settled for external Conformity to religious rites and practices rather than allow the spirit of God to transform your life from the inside out  will you simply acknowledge Jesus as your or will you let him rain in your life and really have his way with you  that's what it means to call him will you hear this message today and say I'm so glad other people are hearing this they need to hear this or will you be honest and say nope I need it  because this is a better way than the way I've been living this is I don't want to be a very religious person who is smog and prideful and arrogant I want to be transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing boring what about you will you repent more importantly than that will you produce fruit in keeping let's bow our heads and pray forgot her Heavenly Father we confess to you today that we have often been just like Pharisees and allowed our faith to turn into smug and self-righteous people who look down on others who are not like us Lord forgive us and renew enough the teaching of Grace  and help us to remember that can we are everything we have is solely because of you and your working Our Lives Transformers Heavenly Father by your into the likeness of Jesus more and more each day we pray and his precious name

Listed in Worship Services

Video Gallery

KINGDOM CONTRASTS "John vs. The Pharisees" - December 4, 2016 - Senior Pastor Scott Christenson

Popular Videos