Churches in East Dennis

“``But the problem is, we've all betrayed God because God has loved us with everything. He has not withheld anything from us. He created us, gave us life, and gave us everything we need for life and godliness. He's given us his word. He's even given us his own son that we would know he loves us. And yet, astray. We all look out in the world for what can make us happy. What can give us security? What can provide for our joy and our satisfaction? We look anywhere else but God's word, and that's a betrayal. We even betray the ones we love most in this life. And the cycle goes on and on and on until we come to Jesus. The only one who can remove the stain of betrayal, the stain of sin from our life because he willingly went to the cross to shed his blood. That blood, that same blood that pays for our sin. Just like Aaron would wash his hands and feet and go into the altar, he would put blood on it with goats and rams, and he'd have to do it constantly over and over again for the people sinned, but Jesus died once and for all. His blood is the final atoning blood for all who would trust in him.”

“``And what does that look like? Well, it goes back to his demonstration. It goes back to humility. It goes back to step one, humbling yourself to see that you cannot forgive yourself, that you need Jesus to do it. Imagine back to the illustration I said with the the accident and the manslaughter and I'm I'm sitting in prison. Modern therapy might say, hey, you you just need to forgive yourself. I'm sitting in a jail cell and I say, well, you know Adam, that was a mistake, I forgive you. It doesn't change my place, it doesn't change my position, it doesn't change my future. Friends, what we need when it comes to our sin is not to forgive ourselves per se, we need someone above who has authority. Imagine the judge who sentenced me to ten years in jail comes down and says, yes, you are guilty of that, but I pardon you. That changes my position. Now, I'm truly free. It changes my future. I know where I'm going. Everything has changed. We don't need just to forgive ourselves. We need to be forgiven by the judge who has put his judgment on us.”

“``And the purpose of this in the old testament was to show how holy and set apart is God the father. That we are not like him. That's why he is utterly clean, utterly holy, utterly perfect, and he was setting this lesson back in the old testament that the dirt on your hands and feet is representative of the dirt that is on our hearts and souls called sin. God is wholly and utterly without sin and we are with sin. It was a lesson that was being taught back then. So do you see what Jesus is doing now as he says, you must wash if you're gonna have a part in me. He's not simply reenacting the priestly cleansing from Exodus 30. Jesus is saying, you will have no share in me while you have the stains of your unforgiven sin on your souls. That dirt represents your sin. You must be cleansed not from the dust of the road, but from the guilt of your sin.”

“``And this is the good news for us today. The lord of heaven and earth stoop down to make us clean. We cannot take part in the salvation that Jesus offers the way we are bearing our guilt and the shame and the punishment that our sins deserve. We cannot wash ourselves from the stain of our sin, but the good news is Jesus can and will for all who come to him. This is the offer he's laying out to all who would follow him. He will make you clean. He will wash the feet of your hearts, the stain of sin in your souls.”

“Perhaps God is intending in every situation you go through to grow you in faith, like a loving parent. God is more concerned with our maturity and our faith than momentary happiness. Sometimes he allows trials because he's reducing deeper faith. You think about it though, because sometimes we don't live like that. Sometimes we live like happiness is the goal in life. Our kids sometimes just by nature default there, but what happens when adults live like that? Instead of achieving happiness, they achieve a miserable life. Marriages can break, friendships sever, children grow up spoiled. Right? And if happiness is all we chase after, misery is all we get. God has a better way. Jesus tells us it's more important to be built up in maturity, to have deep faith to weather storms than it is for momentary fleeting happiness.”

“Every one of us is somewhere in this story today. Some of us are waiting like the sisters for God to give an answer, wondering why Jesus seems to have delayed. Some are questioning like Martha, and some are grieving like Mary. Some of us feel as hopeless as a sealed tomb. But the invitation here is the same for everybody, to trust in the God who stands outside the sealed tomb and speaks life into us. He's not just a a teacher with good advice. He's the friend who entered death, conquered it, and now offers eternal life to anyone who would believe.”

“This is how we grieve well. Jesus is angry at the grave. Angry at sin. At the broken world that rips loved ones apart from each other and causes such hurt even to those who love Jesus. And Jesus weeps. He enters into the grief, into our hearts. His heart breaks with the pain that we feel and this is the tension in our grief. You see, grief and compassion without outrage at death is mere sentiment. An outrage at death without compassion and weeping hardens our hearts. Jesus shows us a better way. Compassion and outrage, weeping and anger, this grief, even though Jesus is the lord of life, he enters into it. Even though he's gonna raise Lazarus in just a few minutes, he enters into these feelings.”

“``The idea here is those who love Jesus, are loved by Jesus, when they die, it's but sleep and Jesus will raise them up. Maybe you're praying for healing, for a child who's wandered away from the faith, for a spouse who doesn't know Jesus, for a job, relief from chronic pain, and it feels as though heaven is silent. This passage reminds us that God's delays are never evidence that he stopped loving his children. Jesus loved this family and yet he delayed. Sometimes his greatest work happens while we're wondering why he hasn't answered yet.”

“Social media. In a world of endless words where everyone has an opinion, everyone posts, everyone reacts. Ecclesiastes five says, let your words be few. Many Christians need more listening and less posting. This all present, all holy, all exalted, lifted up God is the righteous one. The God who is in heaven and you are the one who is on earth. So help us to know our place, to speak less out of reverence for God, that our words would matter.”

“That he's always with you, which draws us to some application because he says to draw our steps as we approach the temple of God. Well, if you are the temple, guard your steps everywhere. Because you're always in the presence of the almighty God, the one who the one who once filled the the tabernacle that was constructed and then filled the temple of the living God, now fills you. Guard your steps everywhere.”