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2020 2.0: Week 6 | June 28, 2020
Bible CSI | Pastor David Hughes
Welcome and thank you for joining us for the Church by the Glades Podcast. If you would like more information about church by the Glades, including service times and directions visit CB glades dot com Way. Hope you enjoyed today's message. What's up, churc h bythe Thank you so much for logging on today. My name is David. I want the pastors here. CBD Happy fourth of July weekend. So s so. I got about 15, 16 very rowdy people in the room right now to 2000 seat auditorium. We are practicing social distancing, b ut thank you for logging on right now. And those words, those speeches you just saw as we reproduce those on this stage. What incredible words. The power of words. And by the way, this is a unique fourth of July service. And Fourth of July is my favorite s ervices all year longer. Church by the Glades. If that could event, can I vent? As a pastor, I share my frustration. You see, pastors get frustrated, were too cheap to pay for therapists. So we just tell our congregation Fourth of July is were our best ser vices. But there should be more people coming when we open up next year. Get here. I know it's a travel weekend. I know it's a 45 day weekend blob show up. It is an awesome patriotic celebration of all that is good. We do some fun stuff. In fact, the part that gets me every year is we. We ended the same way Onley service we do all year long. We ended the same way. We kind of rewrite an old Bruce Springsteen's song. We drop of Flag and we have veterans walk out at every campus we have bet some are serving cu rrently, but others older folks I mean, on this stage, we've had people from the Vietnam War from the Korean conflict This last year. Ah, couple of guys from war to we've had soldiers who fought with patent in the Battle of the Bulge Uh, D day survivors. W e had one Pearl Harbor survivor. It e I weep when I watch is so strong. But of course we can't do that this year because even in this limited capacity, I felt like it was really unsafe to invite senior adults to come to be on the stage. So so next year. Bu t if you have served our nation. Thank you. We honor you right now. We'll celebrate next year when you show up next year. Show up next year. Well, the best services all year long at church by the Glades We honor those heroes. You know, America has been sha ped by those moments on battlefields. You think historically within those brave men and women, Uh, whether it's the soldiers who stormed Omaha Beach to liberate Europe, whether ah those union soldiers at Gettysburg fighting to liberate millions of slaves o r Bunker Hill way back giving birth to this this unique, flawed but beautiful American experiment. You know, we've been shaped by those soldiers at the same time. Words, the powerful words, those speeches men and women, different races with incredible gift s of oratory, using their words, their words not to just generate toe hate or fear or violence, but to stir us as a nation to be better. Words are powerful. Words are powerful. In fact, the word word in the word of God is an important word. Dilution there, like I could say it again. The word word in. In the word of God, the Bible is a very vital and strategic word the Bible self defines as the word of God. But I love this. If you go to John, Chapter one, as John has his own unique spin on the whole Jesus st ory, you go to Verse 14. He describes Jesus as the word in Greek is the world Lajas Best English Translation is the word word. And look what he says. He's gonna put his own spin on the Christmas story. Something called The Incarnation, he says, in the word that is Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as the Onley begotten from the father, full of grace and grace and truth. So Jesus, the word full of grace and truth. And I wonder why the Holy Spirit led John just like those t wo qualities of the many qualities of Christ. What do you say? Full of power and creativity, full of wisdom and love, but grace and truth, grace and truth. Maybe if we manage, our words are words should embody what grace and truth, because over this Fourth of July weekend over the last weeks, I feel like
what a unique time in American history. There's a lot of passion, right now and there's opportunity believe for great change right now. But in my mind, the key to maximize in this moment of potential change words, words. If we'd be very careful and wise as we express ourselves with words and as we listen and respond to the words of others. So a word is a big idea. In the word of God, Jesus was the word. So glad you're here today. Gonna jump right into it. Th e main text today is found. Matthew. Chapter eight, Matthew, Chapter eight. It's a great, great passing. Don't jump right into it because there's three words and Matthew, Chapter eight, Verse 10. Blow my Mind something Jesus does what he feels. I'll put it back on the Queen I touched on this last week. Look what it says, it says in Matthew. Chapter eight, Verse 10. Read Jesus waas. When you read words like that in the word pump, the brakes Jesus, the almighty unlimited Son of God was amazed. Your translatio n might say, he marveled. It might say he was astonished. Somebody did something. Somebody said something so remarkable that Jesus was astonished. Let's go back and check it out if we can right now, we have some great readers last week. Who read that? The story in Matthew, Chapter eight. By the way, The context. Matthew, Chapter eight. That location in your Bible is key. Stay with the Matthew chapter. A key, Matthew. We read it last week. I want to read a shortened version right now. Check out some Our team reading Matthew, Chapter eight The story of Amazing Miracle When Jesus had entered cop Ernie Um ah. Centurion came to him asking for help. Lord, he said my servant lies at home Paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, Shall I come and heal him? T he centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed for I myself am a man under authority With soldiers under me I tell this one. Go and he goes and that one come and he comes. I say to my servant, do this and he doesn't. When he heard this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the West and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to this interior, Go, let it be done justice. Do you believe it would. And his servant was healed at that moment. Jesus was astonished. Hey, by the way, something folks watching online right now Can I welcome our virtual? Amen Corner. What's up, virtual Amen Corner. You're looking goo d today. People are over the country right now over the world joining us. I see people from Chicago watching. I see Arizona over there. Thank you for logging on. By the way, it's not too late to invite somebody we're telling you all the time, man. You got to connect and share, connect and share. So even right now, kind of middle of the message you can invite someone to jump in. Matthew. Chapter eight is our text. When a dive into this again, I started this last week. This is kind of a part too. So if you mi ssed last week, goto our archive. Go to our website or our YouTube channel. You can pick it up. I actually think of them or important talks I've had in some time. In fact, it's a story about someone looking for God, someone doing their God research. And th at's you or someone you know, man. Share it with them right now. So it was last week. I want to pick it up. So it's kind of a part two. I'll bring you up to speed here quickly. So the centerpiece of this miracle, this person who astonished Jesus was a Roma n centering a Roman centering. Now context is so important. Matthew, Chapter eight. That's where I found the Bible. Ah, historical context. If you were not ethnic Roman and you encountered a Roman centurion, you would think bad guy. The Romans were called built an empire they didn't build an empire
by free elections or nice conversations is by warfare conquest. They occupied all these other nations, including Israel, and the centurion was the backbone of the Roman Legion. They were oppressors. They were rut hless. So pretty much any time any indigenous person in the Mediterranean world saw Roman Centurion, you thought, Bad guy, Roman oppressor, tyrant. But man, the Bible is full of surprises. The Roman Centurion here in Chapter. It's not a bad guy. He's a goo d guy. So he's like a Hollywood movie where all of a sudden the bad guy turns into a good guy. And after watching the whole thing like, uh, you know Professor Snape in Harry Potter, like the last movie moving ate. All of a sudden he's a good guy. The centu rion turns out to be, Ah, good guy. Well, this Roman centurion turns out to be a compassionate good man. He astonishes Jesus. I mentioned last week for the Bible. Scholars, therefore different Roman centurions. We get a degree of detail about their lives i n the New Testament, and all four shockingly are good guys. There's a centurion with Jesus died on the cross. He's the first one Thio declare his divinity. There's one in acts. Chapter 27 who saves and rescues Paul Acts, Chapter 10, a Roman centurion named Cornelius. He accepts Christ with all his family by faith. It's a huge paradigm shift in the Bible. In fact, you should check out acts. Chapter 10, coordinate is that one is major. But here, this guy, he's a good guy. He he astonishes Jesus. What will bac k up to Verse 10? It's on the screen right now. It says now. When Jesus heard this, he marveled. He was astonished. Instead of those who are falling truly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith and anyone. Israel. Jesus! Whoa! Oh, my goodness. Me n. Oh, my, me. Look at this faith. Look at his faith in the party Said about Lord, no need to come my house. Just say the word. You have authority. I have authority. I get authority. You say you have authority over disease. Jesus, you're a healer. Yeah. Je sus sees that great faith. And last week, you'll recall we had some fun. We did a little biblical. Sexy because it says in Romans Chapter 10, verse 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word the word of God. And we thought, Where in the world did t his Roman centering here about Jesus Context? Context is everything. So the story is found in Matthew Chapter. What Chapter eight. There you go, Chapter eight. Right before Matthew chapter. We have Matthew Chapter seven before 76 5. What's 56 and seven. Ma tthew's Gospel. The Sermon on the Mount. Word's greatest words of all time. Not just the greatest sermon, I argue. The greatest speech. All due. Apologies to Dr King and JFK and Churchill and write the greatest speech. Read it. Do your homework. You'll fin d Jesus said that you quoted other people actually recording Jesus. So it's right before and, uh, of course, thousands of multitude. We're listening to Jesus. And any time there was a crowd in Galilee crowd control, the Romans had to be there. And I think the Bible puts the story in sequence in position, on purpose. I think he was there. Eavesdropping hearing. So we did. This whole went all the way back last week. Check out last week. Toe Luke, Chapter three. I won't. I won't take the check it out right. Th e one thing we turned about this this centurion. He's smart, he's ambitious and he's open right. He spiritually open. When I say three, I put in the chatter. Just say the word open. 123 I mean, I love people who are spiritually open. I don't care where you come from your background, your ethnicity, your religious heritage. I love people are open. And this this centurion, he's so open. He's looking for truth. He's looking for God. He self aware enough to go. You know, the religion I grew up with and no doubt what was that Idol worship? We don't know for certain he was an ethnic Roman, but pretty certain. No matter who he was, he worships some form of idolatry. Probably worshiped. You know, The Romans kind of re branded the Greek gods the Roman gods for those we've named our planet's after you might
worship Jupiter or Mars or Neptune. And maybe he went to temple religiously and gave money religiously and said wrote prayers. And he just had enough awareness to say, You know, I grew up this way. This is the relig ion of my fathers. No disrespect. But it's leave me empty inside. He was open. He was open. He was probably disappointed when he was posted the Galilee because he's ambitious e wannabe in Rome. I wanna be in a battlefield. I'm I mean Galilee. Nothing happe ned. Oh, God was waiting for him in Galilee? Yes. If you go looking for God, you will find God is already seeking you. There was a god trap waiting for him in Galilee. And this smart, ambitious, open Roman centurion chose faith in Jesus, decided to give hi mself. But I didn't say he felt faith. He made a faith choice because he was open. Say the word Open. 123 Now let me that set the foundation for everything we talk about now. Okay, Not only if he studied this narrative carefully was a centurion open, but s omeone else was open. If you know the historical context, it's remarkable, by the way, it is mind blowing. The not just the Roman was open, but Jesus was open. You see, if you know the context of this culture in this time, it is remarkable these two had an y exchange or communication whatsoever disclaimer with being there being so much tension our world right now, So much, uh, controversy issues of racial equality. You might think I'm Linda Bible looking for stories that have a subtext of racism. Well, the f irst few weeks, probably I always want to speak to the issues we're dealing with as a people. But not this week. I was just looking for a story the last couple weeks about a miracle. The power of Jesus, the power of faith and God took me to the story. But there's almost no narrative in the New Testament, where the issue of race is not a play. Right. See me, give you the background here. If you know the context of the story is remarkably is to have any exchange or conversation nonetheless, a miracle. Togethe r, you see, a Roman a Roman would have little to do with the Jewish rabbi. The Romans were that the power brokers, they were the conquerors they had occupied. They would never ask a received aid from a Jew. Yet in Verse 10, this Roma didn't just ask eight. He calls Jesus Lord the only human being a Roman would call. Lord was Caesar. But this centurion, this officer caused this young rabbi lord. And then the story, I think, is Verse eight. When the century says, Hey, no need to come to my house. That's not t he century. And being polite or trying to not trouble Jesus. No, There's been so much animosity over the years, So much mistreatment of the Jews, so much anti Semitism that in Jesus day Jews had such disregard for gentiles or for Romans, it was a taboo thi ng to have one at your house or visit their house. They hated each other, and if Jesus and the Roman would have followed the cultural messaging of their day, they would have canceled each other out. That's great. I'm not sure we're watching this right now. What part of the world? But you know, these campuses of our church or in South Florida in the U. S. And, uh, I mean, I get it. Attentions. Air high emotions are raw. Um, there's lots of anger out there right now, but we now live in a cancel culture e mean ing this we have become so highly sensitized to each other's words. We're scrutinizing each other's words so carefully. Things there said things, imprint. Surely things they're posted that if we perceive any offensive whatsoever, we canceled each other out . We might ignore context we might ignore. Ah ah, great body of positive word. We might ignore the rest of narrative that doesn't go with our our negative interpretation, and we cancel each other out. We cancel each other's words. Each other's voices we ca ncel reputations were canceling careers, and I think in this season well, I really believe there's opportunity for positive change. The cancel culture works against us. Jesus could have said, by the way we learn in Luke's Gospel, the Centurion seven third party. Some religious leaders came on his behalf,
right? That's that's fine. That's I explain that last week. That's not a typo in the Bible, so they tell stories back in the day. So the third party that these religious leaders came said, Hey, Jesus, here' s the Centurion and he has a servant. Will you help him? Jesus should have said, based on the cultural norm. Centurion. No, A Roman! No, I don't care if he is a good one. Do you know the pain and the hurt? The Romans have calls us for decades canceled so g ood. And if the Roman would have followed the cultural messaging of the day, he had been, like ask a Jew, demean myself lower myself to ask aid from a Jewish rabbit. What if my men heard what of my commanding officers heard? Oh, Jesus! Canceled! As I bring up this idea of the cancel culture, I'm gonna be candid I'm afraid you're to cancel May just for bringing this up just for speaking against the cultural flow right now. But I don't answer the cultural messaging. I answer to the word of God. Yeah. No. And I really believe with all my heart. This is a time for the church to be different. Why? Because this word binds us. And I know, I know. Listen, I know there's haters out there who just few poison. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about critiquing an d criticizing every word someone says looking to get mad, looking to be offended. Now, I know this will hurt out there right now, but the Bible says that his believers it says love is slow to take a fence, not looking to be offended. Try not to be offended , and I know anger Anger is justified right now, but it says in James Chapter one, verse 19. It says, Be quick to here, slow to speak, ready and slow to Wow. So we're gonna be careful canceling each other out. So if we have a discussion because right now I think the way we maximize this season of changes, we gotta talk to each other. We gotta listen to each other. We have to seek to understand and not just be offended all the time with we're gonna have authentic dialogue together. So I gotta listen first. I gotta listen. Be slow to talk and really guard. My heart comes to anger or a fence. I know that's not the way the world roles. That's the king's command for his people. And if the church doesn't lead the way, they'll never get it right. Oh, they're clappi ng. Let's see if you keep clapping. So if I talk to you about black lives matter now, I say 100% you cannot argue with that statement. I mean, it just That's just true. Uh, I think I'd be foolish to argue that at the same time, if I said I'm not sure about the political party called black Lives matter and their complete agenda, their ideology. I'm not sure. All that aligns the Bible. If I say that, would you cancel me out? One person, Um, if I said police brutality is wrong every single time, 100% and you'r e one of the cops that goes to our church. Would you cancel me out And listen, I I'm not saying anything about the police in all five or six weeks, I'm not mentioned. The word cop or police are surely the term police brutality. But the moment I mentioned t hat somebody is offended on, I would just say this to our officers at our church or anybody watching. Right now, yours is a very important job. Why? Because you carry authority and any time you have a professional responsibility that has intrinsic authorit y with authority must be accountability. E no, You're being scrutinized right now, But I get it to a degree. Pastors carry authority. We have spiritually authority. And so any time a pastor violates the biblical code of conduct, we disqualify yourself from ministry. And look, I'm not a perfect passion. I really try hard to live up to this code of contact. But when ah, colleague of mine fall short of that and I don't want to judge anybody but a colleague of mine no violates the Bible, says passenger to do an d do something sinful or shameful or illegal or scandalous and makes the newspaper he makes my job harder. You know, I you know, he's been dishonest, and people stop trusting me. He messed up in his church and people leave my church. That's the way it is w hen you have authority. Authority requires scrutiny and law enforcement you have. Gosh, you have the authorities sometimes over life and
death. Now, having said that, don't cancel me out. Keep listening. Don't be offended. Keep listening. I want to say thi s in my experience, and that's an important qualifier in my experience, because we have a number of cops at our church, I would say the majority of men and women in law enforcement, our imperfecta, good people doing a really tough job. There's been tougher in recent weeks, and again if that offends you, I'm not trying to be offensive. I'm trying to be fair. I'm trying to speak truth with grace, Truth with Grace, and I might be the one pastor in America position to say this about law enforcement, not positio n because I'm insightful or have certain status. I mean position geographically because two of our five campuses or within 10 minutes of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School context is very important. And it was just a little over two years ago on a Sunday after Valentine's day that on this very stage we invited all the police officers to come forward from all the different departments, men and women, different races. And everyone in this room stood up and we applauded and we cheered and we wept those polic e because I'm telling you they weren't just good cops and the cops were hero cops because a few days before, it was this Coral Springs Police Department. That's that's our city's police department. They were the first ones to charge into the freshman build ing, knowing there was an active shooter on. I talked to a couple of officers Officer Burton, Officer Fernandez, and they believe themselves rightly to be outgunned, that the gun had an assault rifle. They had shotguns and they went in to save not just the black kids or not just the white kids or not the Hispanic kids. But all our kids. There's a tough job, so accountability, scrutiny and support. Don't cancel me. You're not allowed to. I don't think it's biblical. Don't believe me. I'm to give another pers pective. KB, the rapper posted this recently. I thought this was so spot on because we have a different dynamic and standard in the kingdom and the church. Look, Look what he said. This is the church. We will rebuke you when you are wrong. We will forgive you when you repent. But we will not cancel you when you are down for Christ will not cancel us. Council culture is not kingdom culture. We don't just applaud the righteous. We restore the fallen well, soldier, hang in there. Love is not easily offended. I t can be offended but not easily offended. And as the habit of Jesus to bring people with great differences and different points of view. Different politics together as one. Let me quickly wind up with a couple of thoughts. Alright, So context context. We' re studying Matthew Chapter Matthew Chapter got Matthew Chapter eight before they were the Sermon on the Mount that chapters 56 and seven Matthew, Chapter eight. Stay with me. Smart people. Matthew, Chapter nine Miracles, all kinds of miracles, all kinds o f healings. And we need healings in America right now. And you see if Jesus and this Roma would have canceled each other. No miracle, no faith, no power of God, no healing. And we need healing. So 89 you have a bunch of healings and miracles in Chapter 10. Stay with you, Matthew. Chapter 10 Jesus picks the 12 Apostles. 12 o'clock. Now something Apostles. You know, if you're new to the word of God you've heard like Peter and James and John and Thomas. All right, The second, the last guys that I called Simon the Zealot. Simon the zealot three Only guy lower on the list. And Simon the zealot is juice. All right, so what do we know about Simon? The zealot from the Bible? Two things. Number one. His name is Simon. And number two, he is a good crowd. Sharp crowd. He is a zealot. You're like a zealous. He's like an enthusiastic guy, right? Uh, passionate guy. No. No, actually, Zella was a religious political party of that day. Simply said the zealots were the extreme nationalists. They hated the Roman occupation. Th ey wanted Israeli liberation, and they would do just about anything to secure that. They despise the Romans.
They would use violence. In fact, Simon, we had the chance would assassinate a Roman centurion like 20. Our story. Now that shows up, his name show s up. Stay with the Matthew. Chapter 10 verse four. Matthew, Chapter 10, Verse three. Disciple. You probably recognize his name. Matthew shows up on this. Matthew shows up with his job description. He was a tax collector. Doesn't mean that he worked for th e Hebrew RS. No. Ah, tax collector in the Bible was a Jewish man collecting taxes from his Jewish neighbors to give the proceeds to the hated Romans. See, the Romans founded a very effective technique to maximize tax collections by getting some national so me indigenous person to turn traitor, betray his neighbors. Tax collectors were despised. And the only person that Zella would hate worse than a Roman a Jew who was collaborating with Rome is like a tax collector. You leave Mathew and Simon the zealot in a room alone. They kill each other. And Jesus picks Mathew and Simon results. Guess what? Family. We're gonna build a kingdom together. We do live together. We're gonna change the world together. I don't think Mathew and Simon ever agreed on their politics. It didn't matter. I love biblical detail. Biblical details again to the story in Matthew Chapter Matthew Chapter, Matthew Chapter. You guys, Matthew, Chapter eight. So Jesus Impressed. He's astonished by what his great. His great faith is great Faith. Loo k at Verse 10, Verse 11 on the screen. Right now. Jesus makes a commentary. This is so cool. After you see that faith, he's astonished in Verse 10, he says I saw Let me tell you that No Israel light how I found faith as great as this Verse 11. And I tell y ou that many will come Gentiles from the east and the West and share in the banquet. Good job. The banquet Didn't like a banquet. Don't like a feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven now. So Jesus says so in heaven There's gonna be an awesome banquet that this giant feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob You grew up in church like Oh, yeah, covered this dinner. Remember? Back in the day, a little Styrofoam plate, three compartments Got a little one for the big beans and the coleslaw and th e barbecue Have a giant banquet in heaven. No, no, no, no. Glorious heavenly feast. You see, if you understand how powerful the statement is, you have not read, uh, Chapter 29 of second Barrack lately. Thes guys know their Bibles were like Second Barrack w ere a second barrack was not really in the Bible. It's a book in something called the Apocrypha for the Apocrypha is, uh, is not divinely inspired. Its historical is helpful. It was written probably between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning, t he New Testament and we get get insights as to the thinking, even the theology people that day. And there's this giant feasts and banquets and second barrack, Chapter 29. Stay with me, and this is a really exciting thing because everyone's invited. Who is a Jew? Everyone gets to show up and there will be plenty of food cause there's lots of pop poverty, famine and starvation in those years. So everyone's gonna eat all they want. What's on the menu? The Leviathan job talks about Olivia than a giant sea creat ure. I'm not. I'm not sure if that's what looked like but a giant sea creatures. If you like seafood, you're gonna like this feast on. The best thing is plenty of food, no hunger, no famine. Go back the buffets many times you want to know one's gonna judge you whatsoever. But for Jews have been marginalized and oppressed anti Semitism for year after year after year, generation after generation, the best news was this bank was for only Jews. In fact, some theologians of that era say that Abraham stood at the front door just to check and make sure not that you have faith, but you're his biological descendant. In fact, one translation has Moses at the door checking all the brothers to make sure they're circumcised. That's not the job you want for eternity. Is i t on S o the mindsets. They've been so hurt, so victimized, so much animosity. And that day was we
have this beautiful banquet. In The best thing is second group, Chapter 29. There's a giant sign over the door that says no gentiles allowed because the hurt and the pain, they would rejoice in that. But Jesus comes along as he invites this Roman to the banquet as he reaches out to a spiral Phoenician widow as he brings together Simon the Zealot and Matthew to take, he said, Guess what we're taking beyond that sign. I'm gonna bring natural enemies together and put him at a table, and I don't care what their politics are. We're not going to cancel each other out. A cancel culture is not a kingdom culture. So I don't care if you're Republican or Democratic, conse rvative or a liberal. Don't matter if you're black or white. We serve a king and a kingdom, and the church can't get this right. Nobody's gonna get this right. So we are serving a king and we are a brotherhood. We are a spiritual family. We celebrate our d ifferences, but we're all one. Jesus prayed for our oneness. And so as the church's loving responsibility. To use our words to, say, America, it is time to wake up and together. I believe we can seize this season and make a change