Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Matthew Seventeen, beginning in verse fourteen. And when they came to the crowd,
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a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said,
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Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers
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terribly, for often he falls into
the fire and often into the water.
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And I brought him to your disciples
and they could not heal him. and
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Jesus answered, Oh faithless and twisted
generation, how long am I to be
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with you? How long am I
to bear with you? Bring him here
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to me, and Jesus rebuked the
demon and it came out of him and
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the boy was healed instantly. Then
the disciples came to Jesus privately and said
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why could we not cast it out? He said to them because of your
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little faith. For truly, I
say to you, if you have faith
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like a grain of mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain, move
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from here to therein it will move
and nothing will be impossible for you.
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And as they were gathering in Gallilee, Jesus said to them, the son
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of man is about to be delivered
into the hands of men and they will
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kill him and he will be raised
on the third day and they were greatly
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distressed as by the reading of God's
word. May he bless it to us.
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Please be seated. Well, as
this ever happened to you, perhaps
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you've been enjoying a good time with
your family, say on a vacation,
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where you've had a wonderful time,
a time to really relax and really get
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refreshed, and then you go back
into the real world, you go back
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home and find out immediately that your
house has been robbed. Or so you're
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out with friends, enjoying a good
dinner out at a restaurant, and you
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get so caught up in the conversation
that you don't realize until it's too late
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that you've left your cell phone in
the seat next to you. You know
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what that feels like like. There's
a physical reaction to these things when,
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when joy gives way to panic,
you get tense, you feel that shortness
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of breath. Truly, we've all
had those times of joy that just sort
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of come crashing to a halt,
this abrupt change from from peace to distress.
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What's sort of what we read here
in Matthew's Gospel. For Look at
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what has occurred just before our passage. Chapter Seventeen begins with Jesus and three
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of his disciples up on top of
this mountain, where he was transfigured before
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their eyes. Jesus physically changed,
where he began to shine with with bright
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light, the glory of Christ was
on display to these disciples. He spoke
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with Moses and Elijah on top of
this mountain. There he reveals himself to
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these disciples in a unique way,
as the Lord Incarnate, perfect, glorious.
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Unlike Moses, whose face shone,
reflecting the glory of God, Jesus
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didn't reflect it, he shined with
this divine glory of the Lord. In
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fact, when Peter was presented with
this glory, he made a somewhat rash
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comment, as Peter tends to do, in verse four of Chapter Seventeen,
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Lord, it is good that we
are here. If you wish, I
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will make three tense here, one
for you, one for Moses, one
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for Elijah. Here, in his
excitement, Peter seems to be saying,
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can we stay here? Let's make
this glory last, let's make this permanent.
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You've been on a vacation and had
such a good time you start looking
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up home prices. Maybe that's why
some of you were in Tucson. And
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for Peter's no wonder he wants that
permanence that these disciples are getting a foretaste
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of the glory of the Kingdom of
Heaven. This is the glory of the
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Resurrection, the Glory of the New
Heavens and the new earth, and they're
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seeing it before their eyes. And
so, having been given this glimpse of
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this glory, having heard the voice
from the cloud confirming the identity of Jesus
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as the son of God, what
do you expect to follow this powerful event?
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What should flow from this glorious display? Don't you want to see an
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avalanche of blessing and Power and glory
cascading down this mountain side? What does
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Jesus find? When they came to
the crowd, a man came up to
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him, kneeling before him, said
Lord, have mercy on my son.
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He's an epileptic. He suffers terribly, for often he falls into the fire
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and often into the water, and
I brought him to your disciples and they
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could not heal him. The heavenly
glory that's just been displayed on this mountain
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is now immediately confronted by suffering in
this world. Jesus is confronted by this
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son, so ravaged by a demon
that the sun himself isn't asking for deliverance.
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It's his father coming to Christ on
behalf of his son. These aren't
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just medical fits and seizures, that
the results of a demonic presence. Jesus
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is cast out demons before, and
surely the father knows this and that's why
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he comes to Jesus. But what's
a little different about this event is that
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Jesus has disciples here have already tried
to passed out this demon and they could
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not do it. They could not
bring healing back. In chapter ten is
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where Jesus equipped and sent his disciples
with the authority to preach, with the
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Authority to heal. And Chapter Ten, verse seven, he says proclaim as
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you go, saying the Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand, heal the sick,
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raise the dead, cleanse leppers and
cast out demons. So here Christ
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is not only confronted by suffering,
by demonic possession, our Lord is also
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confronted by his own disciples and their
inability to carry out his commission. Sort
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Lord Declares Jesus answered, Oh faithless
and twisted generation. How long am I
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to be with you? How long
am I to bear with you? Bring
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him here to me, and Jesus
rebuked him. In the demon came out
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of him. In the boy was
healed instantly. Our Lord here, let's
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loose with what sounds like something of
a lament, right. How how long
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am I to be with you?
How long am I to bear with you?
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But also kind of sounds like a
rebuke. He calls this a faithless
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and a twisted generation. So who
is Jesus rebuking? It's just those disciples
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he left behind while he, Peter, James and John were on the mountain.
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Is it all the disciples, or
is it broader than that? He
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cries out concerning this generation, doesn't
he does, if he's both lamenting and
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rebuking this entire situation, that there
is suffering and demonic possession within the House
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of Israel, the People God has
chosen and called to be his own holy
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people are under a demonic influence.
There's inability among those disciples he has called
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and commissioned. All it brings about
the Lord's chastisement. And just as Jesus
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is own transfiguration at the top of
the mountain shared some similarities to to Moses
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his own encounter with the Lord on
top of Mount Sinai, coming down the
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mountain, wasn't Moses as well confronted
when he encountered the sin of Israel?
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Coming down the mountain, Moses was
confronted by sin and idolatry as God's people
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were making a golden calf for herself. And upon encountering and enduring the numerous
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sins of Israel, the Lord himself
would utter words similar to Jesus. Here
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in numbers fourteen eleven, the Lord
said to Moses, how long will this
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people despise me? How long will
they not believe in me, in spite
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of all the signs I've done among
them? And a numbers four hundred and
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twenty seven. How long shall this
wicked congregation grumble against me? So,
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when confronted by the faithlessness of his
own disciples, our Lord laments. How
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Long Our Lord Rebukes, Oh faithless, twisted generation? But he doesn't end
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there, does he? Tho's what
Jesus does next, our Lord also comforts
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and heals. In the midst of
his own disappointment, our Lord shows his
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patience and endurance. It's not the
disciples who are cast out. It's the
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demon. He acts where they have
failed. He heals where they could not.
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He casts out this demon, saving
this child. Where the disciples came
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up short when they asked Jesus why
they could not cast out the demon,
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he tells them. He says,
because of your little faith. For truly,
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I say to you, if you
have faith like a grain of mustard
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seed, you will say to this
mountain, move from here to there,
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and it will move and nothing will
be impossible for you. And Jesus uses
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this impossible example to make a point. Knows what Jesus here declares? He's
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not saying that with great faith comes
great things. Jesus speaking to these disciples,
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to those who have just demonstrated a
severe shortcoming, a severe lack of
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faith. But what does he say? He speaks to those with little faith
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to encourage them that with faith the
size of a mustard seed, they will
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do the impossible. I love how
he illustrates this. He picks the tiniest
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object around a mustard seed to describe
weak, little faith. Then he picks
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the biggest object around a mountain to
describe the impossible. Although he illustrates the
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impossibility of moving of mountains, to
demonstrate his own power, to demonstrate his
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own ability. What is absolutely impossible
for us, Jesus declares his incredibly easy
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for the Creator of Heaven and earth. There for, as Jesus says,
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nothing will be impossible for you as
believers. That's helpful to be remember that
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we rely not upon our own resources
but upon the resources of God himself.
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His resources are infinite. This is
so important for us to remember because,
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like these disciples who stayed behind when
Jesus went up the mountain, we too
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are left without our Lord physically before
our eyes, aren't we? After his
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resurrection, he ascended to the father's
right hand. Even though he is now
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ruling over US and interceding for us
and protecting us, it's so easy for
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us not to set our eyes on
him, but on ourselves and on our
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own abilities. Our comfort and our
strength is often not based on his promises
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or on his word, but on
what we can see, what we can
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do, what we can accomplish for
ourselves. We can be so slow to
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pray, and yet we're so quick
to be proud. We are hesitant to
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mention Christ, but so quick to
boast in ourselves for this little faith not
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only describes these disciples, it oftentimes
describes ourselves. And why was their faith
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so small? What would what is
it that made their faith so microscopic?
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On this next little seeing we get
a glimpse. When they're told of the
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coming suffering, the coming death and
the coming resurrection of Christ. We're told
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that the disciples were distressed. They
have just heard the greatest announcement the world
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will ever know, and the disciples
were distressed. So what part were they
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listening to? What part of Christ's
predictions? Did they hear his suffering or
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his victory over the grave? Were
they listening just to the cross or to
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the Empty Tomb? Don't you see
where their hearts were at? Don't you
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see what their faith is in?
In the chapter just before this, after
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Peter tries to rebuke Jesus for speaking
of the Cross, in Chapter Sixteen,
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Jesus tells Peter get behind me,
Satan, and then he says, for
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you are not setting your mind on
the things of God, but on the
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things of man. As we read
through the Gospels, there are many opportunities
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to show where the disciples don't get
it, where the disciples are setting their
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eyes on the things of men or
they don't understand what Jesus is saying,
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how they don't understand what he's doing. But we're shown there their failures.
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Were shown their shortcomings, not to
prop ourselves up, to feel better that
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we get it than they didn't.
We're to see how easy it is for
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us to do the exact same thing. We hear Christ's saying, for instance
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in this passage, if you have
faith the size of a mustard seed,
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you can move mountains. And what
do we do with that? Where do
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you our minds go? We go, write to those mountains in our lives
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that we want gone, that we
wished weren't there. Don't you go right
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to those impossible relationships and circumstances that
you want fixed. We hear that with
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faith we can do the impossible and
we immediately look to ourselves what we want.
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Where Christ's words are given as a
comfort, we so easily take them
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and turn them into a burden.
Surely have heard the abuse has done with
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this passage that if you ask for
something, they say, and if you
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didn't get it, the problems not
that the Lords to a week. The
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problem must be with you. The
problem must be your faith, but Jesus.
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His point is not that, with
faith, the Lord is now obligated
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to give you whatever you want,
because that's not really faith at all,
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is it? That's not trusting the
Lord, that's using the Lord to serve
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ourselves. For True Faith, even
if it is the size of a mustard
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seed, is still a looking to
Christ. True faith is a trusting what
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Christ has said. True Faith is
satisfied that Christ is enough. So even
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here, let us be comforted by
Christ's words and be encouraged that the Lord
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is the one who specializes in the
impossible. And if there's any doubt that
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our Lord specializes in what is impossible, listen to what Jesus tells us next.
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As they were gathered in Galilee,
Jesus said to them, the son
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of man is about to be delivered
into the hands of men. They will
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kill him, he will be raised
on the third day. And they were
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greatly distressed. And so Jesus takes
his disciples immediately to that impossible thing.
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He takes us right to life from
the tomb, life from the grave.
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He takes us to the impossibly good
news that he will be victorious over death,
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that death will be trampled down that
death itself will be cast off.
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For the stone that rolled away at
Jesus's tomb illustrates a farm more impossible mountain
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to move in Jesus's own death and
resurrection. That mountain of our sin,
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that mountain of our own rebellion,
that stronghold of our prideful hearts, has
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been defeated in Christ's death on the
Cross. And so Christ is sharing with
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his disciples the good news of his
mission, the good news he's about to
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accomplish. But they're distressed, and
that's understandable, because it's one thing to
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say that death has been defeated and
it's another to die in the confidence that
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death has been defeated. It's easy
to see the disciples dispress given their lack
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of faith that's been mentioned to this
point. They still don't quite get it.
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They don't see the full picture.
They're still learning what it means for
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the son of man to suffer,
to die and and why that's necessary.
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Their sorrow here means they don't yet
fully understand the resurrection. They don't yet
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understand the purpose of the cross.
Their minds are set on earthly things.
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But notice what their distress does reveal. Their sorrow shows that they're at least
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beginning to understand the suffering of Christ. Our Lord's suffering is one of distress.
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He truly suffers at the hands of
his enemies, he truly suffers the
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wrath and curse of God on the
Cross. For his cry, my God,
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my God, why have you forsaken
me? Is a quotation from Psalm
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twenty two, and it is a
cry of distress, a cry of sorrow.
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And by telling them what will happen
to himself, our Lord is also
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preparing the disciples to follow in his
steps. It's an invitation to his disciples
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to join in this suffering. By
coming with Christ, our Lord is inviting
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us to come and to die,
as he told them back in Chapter Sixteen,
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Jesus told his disciples, if anyone
would come after me, let him
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deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me. Isn't this what it
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means to have faith the size of
a mustard seed, even the weakest,
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even the tiniest, faith that looks
to Christ and not ourselves? It acknowledges
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that our life is found only in
Christ, and this means confronting the impossible,
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to take up the cross of our
Lord means being confronted by mountains without
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a shovel, without even a spoon
of our own to deal with him,
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for our faith often times doesn't make
these challenges any easier. In fact,
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does it make him harder. Knowing
of the Lord's love and compassion for us
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in Christ can make the struggles that
we endure that much more confusing. For
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if he's already blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places,
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if he's defeated to death itself,
why is it so hard for him to
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keep my car running, to keep
my child healthy? A Lord here's not
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promising him that following him his health
is easy. He doesn't promise life and
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health and success, but it does
promise to be with us, for he
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is still on the throne. Even
when we don't know why we're faced with
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this or that challenge, we still
cling to Christ, for he is the
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one who has actually conquered sin and
death. What does Jesus himself say when
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confronted by the suffering of this world, the inability of his disciples? He
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asks how long, Oh faithless and
perverse generation, how long am I to
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be with you? How long am
I to bear with you. It is
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this frustration with suffering, with sin, that compels our Lord to go to
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Jerusalem, to be delivered over,
to be killed, not simply because he
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wants to leave, but because of
his desire to redeem. Notice in his
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lament here, do you hear the
Lord's Longing for the Cross? Do you
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hear his longing for his work to
be accomplished? That was how he answers
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this question, both here and at
the end of this Gospel. Here he
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tells his disciples about his suffering and
his coming resurrection. That, the end
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of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus concludes being
being raised from the dead, speaking to
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his disciples with this announcement. And
behold, I am with you always to
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the end of the age. Look
at how the Lord continues to patiently endure
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with his people. Look how the
Lord continues to answer the challenges of a
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faithless and a perverse generation. He
met this challenge by going to Jerusalem,
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by being delivered over to the hands
of men, by being killed and by
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being raised on the third day.
Being confronted then by the faithless, being
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confronted by the twisted and perverse.
These things didn't weaken his resolve. And
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yet the dead bring about true distress, true sorrow. How does our Lord
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then respond to sin we see here? With genuine disgust, with genuine when
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hate hatred, he despises it.
You hear this and in Jesus's cry,
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don't you ever feel the same?
How Long Will Jesus name be mocked?
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How long will the Lord be blasphemed? How long will these sins go unchecked?
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How long will the lawless reign,
reminded daily that we live in a
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world with very little regard for the
Lord? Our Lord's assessment of his own
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generation could be spoken of our generation. It is faithless, it is twisted
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without faith, this world is distorted, it's upside down. Without faith,
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the world and thrones the self while
casting aside the true Lord and King.
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The World Glories and its sin,
while despising the true sinless one. So
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let in the Lord's cry here of
how long we hear our own outcry,
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the cry of how long, is
the cry of faith. It's a cry
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we hear throughout the Psalms, Psalm
for be gracious to me, hear my
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prayer. Oh men, how long
shall my honor be turned into shame.
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How long will you love vain words
and seek after lies? Psalm Thirteen.
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How Long, Oh Lord, will
you forget me forever? How long will
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you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my
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soul and have sorrow in my heart
all the day? How long shall my
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enemy be exalted over me? But
the thesalm goes on to say, but
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I have trusted in your steadfast love, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
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Is Cry of how long is a
cry that John Hears from the Saints
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in Heaven and revelation six, when
he opened the fifth seal, I saw
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under the altar the souls of those
who'd been slain for the word of God
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and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice,
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oh sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge
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and avenge our blood on those who
dwell on the earth? And so,
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as we ourselves cry out against this
age of of wickedness and death, with
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frustration and with longing for the Lord, we here in Christ's words, is
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that our cry is matched by Christ
himself. If we've been united to him,
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we are one, united to Christ
by his spirit. There's a sense
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in which Christ's desires and our desires
are the same. He is at the
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father's right hand. We are here
on earth, which means that his church
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is not yet complete. Until he
is finally united to us in eternity.
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He is still building and still perfecting
his body. How long until we are
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done with this body of sin?
How long until we are made perfect,
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bodily raised and all sin and all
wickedness destroyed? We can ask these questions,
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we can cry out in pain and
disgust, knowing that our Lord's cry
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is the same. And yet his
cry is not a helpless cry into the
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void, but the cry of the
one working towards that end, working towards
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that goal. How long will he
be at work? Behold, I am
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with you always, to the end
of the age. Therefore, our task
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is just as crucial as in Jesus
is day, where he calls us to
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go, to go to the faithless, to go to the twisted and the
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perverse, to go into this world
of sin and darkness with the light of
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Jesus Christ, with the clarity of
his Gospel, even if this means facing
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the impossible, for it's his strength
that is made perfect in our weakness,
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all the while trusting, because this
question that Jesus raises, how long,
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in our own cries, of how
long even Jesus is answer, till the
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end of the age? They all
lead us to consider that there will be
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an end. There will be an
end to sin, there will be a
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final end to evil and to suffering, and in Christ the Kingdom of Heaven
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has drawn near. And because there
will be an end to the twisted and
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the perverse generations, this means that
now is the time to come to Christ
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by faith. Now is the day
of salvation. Now is the time to
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proclaim peace and good news to the
nation's because we have a good gospel to
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proclaim. We have good news to
announce, that your king has conquered,
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he has triumphed, he has put
to shame the strongest thing this world could
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throw at him, death itself.
Therefore, let us sing his praises forever.
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Amen, let's pray
