Jesus the Tender Healer

Transcript

Well, good morning. If you turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12, Matthew chapter 12, we’ll begin reading in verse 9. While you are turning there, let me give you greetings from Western Seminary, from Hinson Church, where I serve as an elder. They will be praying for you, as are many churches around Portland, as are many churches around the country. I dare say that Trinity Church has never been prayed for as much as they are right now. You need to know that you are loved by God, and you are loved by God’s people.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 9. Matthew, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and an eyewitness of many things of which he writes, writes this, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

he, that is Jesus, went on from there and entered their synagogue. A man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So that they might accuse him. He said to them, which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him

— Matthew 12

(ESV)

for how to destroy him. And Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all, and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory, and in his name, the Gentiles will hope.

— Matthew 12

(ESV)

We pray again with me briefly, Father, we ask now that you open your word up to us, and open us up to your word, that we might behold the light of the glory

The Pharisees and Sabbath

of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please bless us to that end, in Jesus’ name and for his sake, amen. Well, so here we are, right? In, if you were to take a preaching class, you would be told that you have to do an introduction to the sermon to get people’s attention, but I think that would be kind of fakey right now, right? In speaking with Thomas earlier, you know, you are the illustration, right? You are the attention grabber. You have come here this morning, you have come here this morning seeking to hear from God. What would he say to you now? And so, I’ll just leave it like that. Let’s hear from Jesus, let’s meditate on him for a moment. We just read this passage in the gospel of Matthew, and we started in verse nine, but of course, Matthew did not start there, right?

He didn’t begin in chapter 12, verse nine. He started in Matthew 1, verse one. I know that’s terribly insightful. Write that down if you’re taking notes. He rightly assumes that you have read his entire gospel from the beginning, and the events of Matthew 12, of course, find their context in the whole. Matthew’s gospel, of course, tells the story of Jesus Christ, and it presents him as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. We find, as we work through the gospel, that Jesus is linked to that crazy, odd, but very popular prophet, John the Baptist. His very strange ministry, and of course, both of them proclaimed a message summarized by repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. John’s role as the forerunner to Messiah is kind of culminated when he baptizes Jesus, and he sends his followers off to follow now Christ. He had that job of pointing to Christ,

saying, this is him, this is the one we have been waiting for, and so Jesus takes up, of course, where John left off in the gospel of Matthew. He retreats into the wilderness where he fasts, he prays, he battles the kingdom, destroying temptations of the devil, and he emerges in Matthew four from that confrontation with Satan, victorious and unscathed, and of course, that continues a pattern of sinlessness that would last his entire life, and I say all this so that you know as we get to Matthew 12 that Jesus’ ministry is marked by confrontation and struggle from the very beginning. We find as we move through Matthew chapter five that Jesus preached with great authority unlike anybody that they had ever heard before. He preached a message of the coming kingdom of God, and with Jesus, of course, he unites word and deed

in his kingdom proclamation perfectly. His message was always accompanied by signs of the kingdom. Small foretaste of what the kingdom will be like when it is consummated. He fed people, he healed people, and he cared for them. He called his 12 disciples, and he sends them out, and this is where we get to chapter 12, but all is not good, we find, because he next runs into the Pharisees, and if this were some play from the past, I would say the word Pharisee, and you would all boo, and you would hiss because they’re the bad guys, aren’t they? But the Pharisees weren’t that bad. They weren’t that bad. I think the reason that Jesus had such confrontations with them is because they were probably the closest thing going to what Jesus was doing at the time, and yet they were so far, so far away,

and so the clashes are great. Jesus didn’t interact with the pagan Romans that much. They were like on a completely different planet compared to the people of Israel and the Pharisees, so who were they? The Pharisees were basically a grassroots organization of Jewish, not Jesus men, Jewish men from all walks of Jewish life. They were united around a commitment to seeing Israel’s former glory restored, and they understood biblically and correctly that Israel had been exiled due to their failure to keep the Mosaic Covenant, right? Israel was the chosen people of God. They had made a covenant with God at Sinai. If you do this, God says, I will do this, but if you fail, then this will happen, and of course, Israel had failed to live up to the obligations of the covenant, and they were exiled from the land. Now, they were restored back into the land,

but it felt as though they hadn’t actually been restored, that their national autonomy was not there, and it sure didn’t seem that they were living under the blessing of the Lord, and so the Pharisees figured if the nation could finally at last keep the covenant, then perhaps the Lord would fully restore the fortunes of Israel, and because of this, Sabbath observance rises to the forefront of Pharisaical attention. If you ever read through the Gospels and wondered, why were the Pharisees so cranky about the Sabbath? I mean, what is up with that? Here’s the answer. The Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic Covenant. You can read about that in Exodus chapter 31, and probably rightly so, the Pharisees figured out, I mean, if Israel’s gonna keep the covenant, shouldn’t we at least get the sign of the covenant right? Shouldn’t we at least get the sign right?

I mean, if you can’t get the sign right, what hope is there for covenant observance at all? And so the Pharisees were meticulous in their Sabbath observance. They created an oral tradition of guidelines to make sure that people not only didn’t violate the Sabbath they wouldn’t come close to violating the Sabbath. They had guidelines on how far you could move your bed on the Sabbath, how much food prep was legal on the Sabbath, how far you could travel on the Sabbath. They even had a guideline against spitting on the Sabbath because it’s possible that your saliva could mix with dirt and roll downhill and you would be making bricks and clay accidentally and therefore working on the Sabbath. In fact, there was a catalog of 39 forbidden acts on the Sabbath that were part of the oral tradition. And at the beginning of chapter 12,

Jesus had gotten completely sideways with the Pharisees over the Sabbath. The Pharisees saw the Sabbath maybe simply as a very important law to be obeyed but Jesus saw something more in it than that. He saw it as a gracious gift given to Israel and all of humanity that ultimately pointed to him. And in the first eight verses of chapter 12, he ends up parting with the Pharisees after declaring that I am the Lord of the Sabbath. What strange manner of talk is this, the Pharisees must have thought. Who does this guy think that he is? And so conflict is rising, a fight is brewing and that’s where we pick up the story in verse nine. So let’s read that again. Jesus went on from there and entered their synagogue. A man was there with a withered hand and they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath

A Setup for Confrontation

so that they might accuse him? He said to them, which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And the man stretched it out and it was restored healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him. Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. All right, what’s going on here? Well, Jesus, he’s probably in Capernaum and he enters the synagogue, but we note immediately that there’s conflict in the air. We’ve read about that conflict and now it feels worse.

Did you notice the pronoun there? He went on from there and entered their synagogue. Not a synagogue of God, not a Jewish synagogue, it’s their synagogue. It reminds us that opposition against Jesus extended even into the confines of religion. What follows then immediately feels for all the world like a setup. There’s a man in attendance with a withered hand. Did he just happen to be there? Was it just coincidental? I think not, right? I mean, nobody would think that. The Pharisees then present him to Jesus if he hadn’t noticed him before, right? They ask him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? And the question, Matthew tells us this, it’s more of an accusation than a curious inquiry. Oh, teach us, rabbi, teach us, because we’re not sure we get this right. No, they knew that they had it right even though they were wrong.

It carries the force of I dare you to heal him today. I dare you. According to the tradition, the guidelines that the Pharisees and the religious leaders had set up, not the Bible, according to the tradition, healing on the Sabbath was not lawful unless a life was in danger or a woman was about to give birth. And this man’s condition was not life-threatening. I don’t think he’s going to give birth, so surely, surely this man, he can wait until tomorrow. He’s had this withered hand for quite some time. What’s 12 more hours going to hurt? Of course, Jesus would have none of that, right? He gives a short parable. He compares the value of a person to that of an animal. Inconsistently, he points out to them, your tradition allows for the rescuing of animals on the Sabbath, but not the rescuing of people. And in Jesus’s economy,

humans are much more important than animals. Sorry if you’re an animal rights person and taken to the extreme. And so with a word of command, with a word of command, Jesus heals the man. Full, instantaneous restoration. Jesus doesn’t lift a finger. He lifts his voice and commands the man to be healed. And he was. Full, immediate restoration. And the result? The popular religious leaders of the day are determined to silence Jesus. They do not yet know how or exactly what they’re going to do, but they do know they want to destroy him. And that word translated destroy is a very, very strong word about the strongest word that you can think of. They mean nothing but malevolence against Christ. He has gotten in their way. He has gotten in the way of their agenda.

So what are we to think of this? Here’s some thoughts. Beware the deceitfulness of sin. Beware the deceitfulness of sin. Hey, have you read through this and wondered, what are they thinking? Jesus commands the man to stretch out his hand and what was once withered is restored. And they don’t even notice it. I mean, the setup is so extreme that they expect Jesus to heal the man, hoping he’ll heal the man so that they can condemn him. I mean, what kind of twisted, weird world is this? A miracle has happened right before their eyes and they are so hell-bent on destroying Christ that they forget all about what just happened.

Sin will blind you into its ways. It is deceiving. It is deceiving. I mean, and so we read this story, don’t we? We read this story and think, what a bunch of morons, right? I mean, a man was healed before their eyes and all they can think of is their own conspiracy. And you know, that’s the way sin is, right? I mean, we can see sin and the foolishness of it in others, in others. And we might think, what is that person thinking? What possible good outcome can come from this? I mean, I know you’ve had conversations like that. I know that you have seen that in others. You see a person bent on sin and to them it seems like a good idea, like they can handle it. But you know, and you may not even have the gift of prophecy you don’t necessarily know the future,

but you can see it clearly. This is a stupid, foolish, sinful act. Don’t do it. It will only bring destruction. But the person involved in it thinks, no, I can handle this. I can manage it. We see that clearly in other people, but we never see it in ourselves. We never see it in ourselves because we are really good liars. We are excellent liars. We might not be able to convince other people. We’re not that good at lying. At least most of us aren’t, God willing. But we can always lie to ourselves. And we think we can manage our sin. We can manage our own sin. But let me tell you this, you cannot manage sin. I’m preaching to myself right now. I cannot manage sin. I can’t. It hates me. It wants to destroy me. It hates you. It wants to destroy you. It will deceive you into thinking

that you have it managed, that you have it controlled, but it will betray you at the most inopportune time. I mean, sin is like a vampire. It wants to destroy you. It wants to feed upon your lifeblood, but it will wither in the light of day, which I think is why the scriptures rightly say, confess your sins to one another, get help. Brothers and sisters, I mean, you have seen this. We are right here. We are exhibit A for that, are we not? You cannot manage sin. So get help, get help. Confess your sins to one another. Ask for accountability. Do not be so proud as to think that you can manage your own sin.

Jesus Understands Betrayal

I think another thing we see from these first few verses here is that Jesus knows what betrayal’s like, doesn’t he? I mean, Jesus was rejected here by his very own people, by the religious elite of the day. They were the conservatives, right? They were the conservatives. They took the word of God seriously, and he was rejected by them. But by the people who cared most about submission to the Mosaic law, Jesus was rejected and betrayed by them. Now, of course, that betrayal escalates to the point of crucifixion, but I want you to, at this moment, reflect upon the pain of rejection and betrayal that Jesus must have felt at that moment, right? I don’t know what you’re feeling right now, as you sit here. I know that everyone has got to be disappointed, let down, over the news of last week. And perhaps some of you are feeling betrayed right now,

as though the one you trusted most to lead you in worship, to deliver God’s word to you, had failed you. And I am not here to excuse those actions, but I am here to tell you that you have a Savior who understands what you are thinking right now. And as you read through the Gospels, time after time, we find Jesus being let down, even betrayed, by those closest to him. And sometimes, the biggest betrayals come in the context of religion, don’t they? I mean, Jesus knew that. He understands it. So know this, you have, in Jesus Christ, a high priest who knows what it is like to be let down by those closest to him. You have, seated right now, at the right hand of God, one who knows what it is like to be betrayed. The very one through whom you have access to the throne of grace, the very one through whom

your prayers to the Father are heard, is the one who felt the most cruel of disappointments, the most cruel betrayals, the most cruel of tragedies. And in reminding you of this, I don’t mean, you think you have it bad, buck up. Jesus had it way worse. I mean, that’s not my point. I mean, I guess that’s true, but that’s not the point. What I mean by this is, go to him. Go to him who understands you. Do you know that you understand the privilege of having someone seated at the right hand of God, the Father, who knows what you are feeling right now? He knows it exactly. He has plumbed the depths of that thought. And so he invites you, no, he commands you to pray in his name. Take your laments, take your disappointments, your frustrations, take them to him. Why? Because he understands.

He understands. But more than that, as we see in this passage, Jesus heals, doesn’t he? Jesus heals. Jesus is a healer. Go to him. I mean, Jesus didn’t have to heal the man. He could’ve waited. He could’ve waited if he wanted to. He could’ve done it on another day. That would’ve been easier. He wouldn’t have to have created a controversy that would only end with the great healer, ultimately, hanging from an instrument of death.

In a moment, we’ll look at why Jesus healed, but here we must rest in the fact that he was able to heal. I know, we read these stories, you’ve heard them if you grew up in the church, Sunday after Sunday about Jesus healed, he did the miracles, he healed, he healed, yeah, yeah, I get it. But no, listen, Jesus healed the man. He can do it. He can do it. Where there was once disease, Jesus brought health. Where there was once disfigurement, Jesus brought wholeness. And he did so with a word, with a word. Now, he’s able to do that because he is none other than the Lord of life, and you need to know this. Jesus Christ is committed to bringing to you the promises of the new covenant, and he’s able to deliver them. You have been promised peace. You have been promised comfort

in the face of disappointment. You have been promised life. Now, that doesn’t mean that Jesus is gonna bring all the different kinds of blessings that you or I might want right now. He’s got bigger ideas and plans than that. He warned us that in this life, there are troubles expected. He warned us that in this life, there will be persecution, disappointment will come. I mean, Jesus is not a bait and switch guy, is he? At all. He said, if you wanna follow me, great, take up your cross. Die to self, follow me, because it’s not gonna be easy. It’s not gonna be easy. But he promises us that he will be our good shepherd, that nothing can take us out of his hand. He promised us adoption in him. He promised us his attending presence as we follow him. Jesus never, ever promised you your best life now.

He did not, but he did promise you your best life ultimately. He will heal you. He has, if you’re a follower of Christ, he has already healed you of your biggest problem, your alienation from God. He will forgive your sins. He has reconciled you to God. He will begin the process of recreating you so that you may dwell forever in the new heavens and the new earth with God. He may not take away your hurt immediately, but he will give you, as we sang, right? Peace for today, great hope for tomorrow. He will redeem all that you are going through right now for his glory and for your good. And that’s a wonderful place to be as a follower of Christ. God is sovereign. He never does anything that does not bring him glory. But as a child of his, he never does anything that is not ultimately in your best interest.

And those two things are never opposed. What glorifies God the most is always what is ultimately in your best interest. And what is in your best interest always glorifies God. His followers may let you down. Jesus’ followers may let you down. But Jesus never will. Jesus never will. Let’s be frank. You have lost a pastor, an under-shepherd. But you have not and you will never, ever lose the great shepherd. You will not.

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The Servant’s Character

Go to verse 17. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.

Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory and in his name the Gentiles will hope.

— Isaiah 42

(ESV)

I don’t know what’s going on here. I mean, why would Matthew just lapse into quoting Isaiah right now? It’s brilliant writing by Matthew. He quotes Isaiah 42, one through four to explain why Jesus did what he just did. Why would he move away from the public eye? Why would he walk away from this big controversy that’s growing?

Because this is the kind of person that he is. This is the kind of Messiah that he is. But it also sets up the next narrative, the unpardonable sin, because it establishes Jesus as the spirit anointed one par excellence. This passage from Isaiah that Matthew quotes is one of the servant songs, prophecies of the Messiah, and it served to project a spotlight into the future for Israel, for the people of God. So they would recognize the Messiah when he showed up. Those who read and then heeded the words of Isaiah would recognize their Messiah because he had been so aptly described by Isaiah. Does that make sense? So what do we see from this? What kind of person would this Messiah be? What would he do? Well, first off, we see in verse 18, there is an assertion that the Messiah would be chosen and beloved of God, and this is crucial.

The Messiah would be the sovereignly ordained agent of God. We have here the language of election, the language of sovereignty. God in his sovereignty has chosen the Messiah, that is, Jesus, and Matthew reminds us this at the very outset of the Jesus controversy that is going to brew and fester and get bigger and bigger and bigger as the gospel of Matthew moves forward. I mean, the times ahead are going to get much, much darker for Christ, but the word from heaven prophesied long before Jesus walked the earth is that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was chosen of God. Jesus Christ is beloved of God. And we see Jesus steadfastly clinging to this promise, to these words throughout his life and ministry. In chapter three, at Jesus’s baptism, a voice from heaven declares that Jesus was beloved by God the Father. In chapter 17, five chapters after our passage,

Jesus would be reminded again of these words in the transfiguration when a voice from heaven would declare again the love of the Father for the Son, and that certainty, Jesus’s steadfast faith in that promise would carry him throughout his lifetime all the way to the cross. And we note again that being chosen by a sovereign God, being loved by a sovereign God does not exempt Jesus from hardship. But we see in Jesus a model of one who will cling to that certainty, will cling to that promise. And Trendy Church, I think you need to do the same. Scriptures cry out the love of God in Christ for Christ’s church. You are loved of God. And you must, like Christ, you must cling to that promise. Hold on to that promise. Because things got darker for Jesus. I’m not a prophet, I’m not saying things are gonna get worse for you.

They aren’t right now. But hang on to that promise. Hang on to that. Second, we see that there is an assertion that Messiah would be Spirit anointed. That’s really what makes Jesus the Messiah. Messiah, the anointed one. The Christ, the anointed one. Anointed with what? Anointed with the Spirit. It is the presence of the Spirit that empowered Jesus during his earthly ministry. The Gospels declare that Jesus had the Spirit without measure. He was, if you will, the Spirit anointed man par excellence. And just as the Spirit never departed from Jesus, so he now sends the Spirit to never depart from those who follow him. Jesus promised his attending presence to his disciples. Remember that, the Great Commission, so many of you have it memorized, Matthew 28. He will never, ever leave you, right? And then he sends the Spirit to you. I think that’s Jesus saying, I kept my word.

I am with you always. I have sent you my Spirit. And Trinity Church, you have to cling to that too. Cling to that. Beloved of God, you are sealed by the Spirit. Difficulties and troubles come, yes, but the Spirit will never, ever depart from you. In fact, through the difficulties and troubles that come, the Spirit is actually at work transforming you into what you will be forever.

Even when the betrayals and the frustrations are the greatest, when you can’t even find words to express your disappointment and your heart to God, the promise of the new covenant is the Spirit of God who dwells within you is praying on your behalf. Do you believe that? Then as we move down through here, we’re told what the Messiah would do. We’re told that he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. And again, at the very end of this passage, until he brings justice to victory, and in his name the Gentiles will hope. So you need to know this. Jesus cares about justice. He cares about justice. That’s kind of the job description of the Messiah, the one who proclaims justice, the one who proclaims righteousness, and then brings the justice of God first down upon himself and then through him righteousness to others. Do not think that just because some among you

have sinned grievously that you have permission to do so. Your sins have been forgiven in Christ. Yes, that’s true, but the justice of God was not abrogated in order to forgive you. God did not just forgive. He is just, he is righteous. No, the cross of Christ is the greatest display of the holiness of God, the justice of God, the righteousness of God that God could conceive of. It’s not just the best idea man has. This is the best demonstration of how seriously God takes sin, the cross of Christ. And I know how this works, that when those closest to us sin, and in his public, it’s like it gives a de facto permission for the rest of us to do the same. But you need to know that is not right. Look at the cross, the very cross that reconciled you to God is a demonstration of the righteousness of God

and his wrath against sin. You do not have permission to sin. One of the job descriptions of the Messiah is to proclaim justice, to proclaim righteousness. God takes sin, praise God, far more seriously than we do. Far more seriously than we do. I mean, sin matters, right? It hurts, it destroys, and many of you feel the sting of that right now. Righteous and justice matter because they course through the veins of our Savior and Lord.

We also should pay heed to the scope of that proclamation, the nations. Jesus is the Savior and judge of the nations. Please keep that in mind. Your Savior has enormous shoulders, enormous shoulders. His death on the cross was sufficient to atone for the sins of the entire world. We prayed that earlier, including the sins that most beset and trouble you right now. I mean, you need to know this, that if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, you do not follow a mere tribal deity. You do not. We follow the one who, as we looked at last week, has rightly been given the name that is above every name, at whose name and presence every knee will bow and every tongue will confess his lordship. His arm is mighty. His shoulders are broad. He is big enough to carry your troubles and your concerns.

And finally, in verses 19 and 20, we are told what kind of person that Messiah would be. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench. What kind of person is Messiah? In this messianic prophecy that is meant to shine this spotlight into the future so that Messiah could walk into it, and we’ll recognize him, we are told of his character, we are told of his tenderness, of his gentleness. I mean, note here the priority on the character of the Messiah. Isaiah is effectively saying, you will recognize Jesus because he is kind and tender and gentle. There’s a bit of a chiasm here if you’re into it, like geeking out on Hebrew poetry, I suppose. It speaks of proclaiming justice at the beginning and justice at the end, but in the middle,

and our focus is driven to the middle, what do we have? The priority of the character and the tenderness and the gentleness of Jesus Christ. He’s not quarrelsome or angry, he’s not bucking for a fight ahead of time. I mean, there’s times where it seems like Jesus is courting some controversy, but this is all according to the plan of God. He doesn’t engage in controversy or fight or quarrels for the sake of fighting and quarreling, no. And he cares for the broken around him, a bruised reed he will not break. A bruised reed, a smoldering wick he will not quench. He is gentle. And of course that echoes throughout the pages of the New Testament as people reflect on who Jesus is and then as they look back on his ministry, how he demonstrated himself to be. Matthew 11, 29, the words of Jesus, take my yoke upon you and learn from me

for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. The fruit of the spirit, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And then as Paul writes to his protege Timothy who is pastoring this church in Ephesus, he tells him in 1 Timothy 6, 11, but as for you, oh man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Perhaps some of you right now feel like what Isaiah was describing. Perhaps your disappointment is so great, the hurt is so intense that you can’t even pray. You feel as though your faith has been all but snuffed out. And my counsel is this, run to Christ. He is tender. He will care for you. He will take what little faith you have, what little hope you have, and he will care for it as the precious thing that it is.

And maybe for some of you right now, it’s like you don’t even have enough faith to run to Jesus. And if that’s the case, then ask Christ to carry you to that place, to grant you strength to believe and to trust, to trust. Let me give a few summary comments. I have no idea what time it is, so if somebody took the clock down, that was mean.

Shepherds and Sheep

I don’t really mind, it was mean to you. Application, look to Jesus Christ. He is the good shepherd. We know that the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, and so you need to be rehearsing the gospel to one another. Man, I’m not asking you to believe in a mere human. I’m asking you to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, fully human and fully divine. The strength of his character, his trustworthiness, they were demonstrated through his faithful life and giving of himself to die for your sins and for mine that we might be reconciled to God. The validation of his sinlessness and his trustworthiness was demonstrated when he rose from the dead, victorious over the grave, victorious over sin. The indestructibility of his life and character were demonstrated when he ascended into heaven, forever seated as the changeless one at the right hand of God the Father,

and so call out to him, he will always listen. Turn to him, he will be there. Go to him, he will not let you down, and I’m gonna stop there before I go all Rick Ancy on you. That was a joke, you’ll laugh about that later, maybe. Now I wanna say something to the elders, to the elders of the church. Under shepherds, be Christ-like in your character. Be Christ-like in your character. I mean, it’s no accident that these prophecies of who Jesus are, they focus on the kind of person that he was and is, not necessarily the things that he would do, although there’s plenty of that. Consider 1 Peter chapter five, Peter’s counsel. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd, pastor,

the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those near charge, but being examples to the flock, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. If you’re an elder here, if you’re called to be an elder here, you are an under-shepherd, an under-shepherd of the great shepherd. That means that both mission and manner are given to you by Jesus Christ. You do what he tells you to do, and you do it how he tells you to do it. And how do you do it? Like he did. Isn’t it interesting that the New Testament writers, when listing the requirements for elder and pastor, they spend far more time on character than on gifting or skills.

Paul wrote to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4, keep a close watch on yourself, on your life, and on your teaching, your doctrine. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. The salvation of others, that’s what’s at stake, right? That’s what’s at stake. So guard your heart, guard your doctrine. It’s not an either-or, do not neglect doctrine, but know that ultimately, doctrine doesn’t matter

if you fail to live as Christ would have you live. It doesn’t matter how eloquent or how learned you are if your life is not characterized by a whole heart, a transparent discipleship. I mean, you have seen the trauma that ignoring God’s command spoken by Paul here causes. Trauma to self, trauma to others. And the others that this, I’m speaking of here, the others, they are God’s precious people, the ones for whom Christ died. Remember that.

And people of Trinity, I think you need to know that, man, I have seen that in your elders. I’m not omniscient, I can’t see into their hearts, but I have been thoroughly impressed by what I have seen from them, thoroughly impressed. I have great hope for this church because of the promises of God and the faithful shepherds that he has raised up and is raising up here. And as hard as this is to believe, people of Trinity, I would say this, this church is in a better position right now than it was two weeks ago. And I would say this, even about my friend and my brother, Art, he’s in a better place right now than he was two weeks ago. And by God’s grace, I think he’ll be in a better place a week from now than he is this week. And so it will go.

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I believe that. Men and women of Trinity, also be a conduit of healing among each other. Be disciples of Christ for one another. Guard your hearts, guard your doctrine, right? Make yourself available to one another. Inconvenience yourself for the sake of serving others. We don’t have an answer. We don’t have an answer as to why this whole thing happened. We don’t. I don’t know that one could be given this side of heaven. I think it’s important that we just listen to one another. Listen to one another. What does it mean to trust in Christ right now? Same things you’ve always been doing. It means trusting Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, for your sanctification, your future glorification. Essentially the same things that you did when you woke up a week ago. It means pursuing Christ in word and in prayer. It means meditating on his promises.

It means loving Christ, loving his church, your church. Loving your families more than you love your sin. So you confess your sins to God, you confess them to the church, knowing that in Christ you have a just and gentle, tender healer. It means seeking the fellowship of the body of Christ, knowing that in the church you have a body of people who believe the gospel with you and will encourage you in love and good deeds. It means plunging into the work of the gospel here at Trinity, nose to the grindstone, right? Praying fervently for your leaders and one another. Giving yourself to love and service. It means loving your families through prayer and sacrificial service. It means cultivating your familial relationships, pursuing one another, talking. And if you don’t have family members here at Trinity, biological families, I mean, pour yourself into others through love,

through prayer, through service, because the stakes are high, the stakes are high. And finally it means gathering together as a church whenever the opportunity arises, being transparent with one another, inconveniencing yourself for the sake of your church family. We should, we should pause now and conclude. To my brothers and sisters at Trinity Church, as I said at the beginning, please know that you are loved by God. You are loved by the church of Jesus Christ here and around the world. As I said earlier, there are churches in Portland, particularly around the Northwest, around America that are praying more fervently for Trinity Church today than they ever have before. And those prayers are heard, they are heard. Why? Because you serve a Lord who will never fail you. He will never abandon you. He always hears his bride and he lives to intercede for you. Run to him.

Amen? Let me pray. Father in heaven, we beg now your kindness and your mercy. We ask the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you would be kind to Trinity Church, be kind to each one of us gathered here. Be kind to each member of Trinity Church who was not able to make it for whatever reason this morning. Be kind to us. We ask that you would enable us to feel your grace and your healing touch in a tangible way this morning that we might with joy proclaim the glories and the excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, even as we continue to sing, we pray, Father, that the words that we are confessing would be true of us, would become true, would be felt in a powerful and significant way. Bless us, Father, lift us up that we might praise your son to your glory.

It’s our prayer in Jesus’ name, amen.