In Control & Submissive

I'm going to read a passage of scripture this morning from chapter 26 of the book of Matthew. If you'd like to find that, I'm going to read the first five verses of that book this morning. Amen. Already? Boy, you're getting started just telling the numbers gets you excited, doesn't it? You might want to say that later in the service and wake people up, that might help out. Matthew chapter 26, beginning first one through five. In this passage, Jesus is going through a transition. Jesus in his life, his full life was always submitted and surrendered to the authority and power of the father, but here he's making a big transition. Jesus has always been submitted to the father and yet his life was always in control. That seems like a strange thing to be submissive, which means you turn loose of control, and to be in control, which means you grasp control, but the reality was that was really all of Jesus' life and it's the life that he shows us that that's what we should do and how we should live for this is the way in which life becomes victorious for us. In this picture, Jesus is turning loose of a part of his life that he had had and beginning to pick up a new part of his life. Verse one of chapter 26 says, when Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, as you know, the Passover is two days away and the son of man will be handed over to be crucified. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas. They plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him, but not before the feast, they said, or there may be a riot among the people. The very first phrase, when Jesus finished saying all these things, I think indicates a transition in Jesus' life. In the very beginning, Jesus came with a message to be able to proclaim to the people and Jesus was working out of history through a great long string of what God was doing. Whenever Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, they rebelled against the authority of God. They said, we're going to do what we think is right and so they took control of their lives and took the control away from God and did exactly what they wanted. They submitted not to God, but to their own wishes and will, and this rebellious act caused them to be thrown out of the garden and sin entered the human race. But in that event, God said, I'm going to make sure that in the future someone will come whose heel will smash the head of the serpent. He will be victorious over the serpent. The serpent has won here, but there will be one who will come who will smash his head in victory. All the way through the history of the Bible, that person was looked for. When God found Abraham and he called him to be his follower, Abraham followed him and was faithful and God looked at him as a great man who was willing to do wonderful acts of faith and obedience to God. But Abraham was not a perfect person. Satan sometimes got control of his life and no longer did he smash the head of Satan with his heel, but was bitten by Satan in his heel. He lied about his wife a couple of times and he was rebellious in his nature sometimes and he was not exactly the person God wanted to be able to fill that perfect role. He couldn't teach us exactly how we ought to live. There were hints, but not everything. And then Moses, the great man of God, came on the scene. He talked to God as no other person did. So in face-to-face and times that he would see God, the glory of God was so powerful on him he had to wear a veil because of the brightness of God's glory residing in him. He talked with God as if with God were another person. He listened to God and was close to God. But Moses killed a man one time in anger. Moses sometimes did things on his own and when God told him to speak he struck a rock and he never was able to actually finish his job and go into the land of promise because he took control of his life and didn't submit to God in every instance as he should. David was a great man. God says he was a man after his own heart. He won great victories and he showed great power and dependence on God. But there were times in David's life when he was far away from God. Satan took control of him and he committed adultery. Satan bit his heel. David didn't stomp his head. He took matters into his own hands at times and did what he wanted to do. So God was never willing, never able to allow David to do all he wanted to. He said he couldn't build his temple. He was a great man but he failed to be the person God was sending when Jesus was born. Even as early as 12 years old he said to people, I have to be doing my father's business. It wasn't playing with the other kids or doing the things that children would do. He was in the temple talking to the teachers and the priests and the rabbis, learning and discussing the nature of his father, finding out what his role was in this world. He was listening to the father, letting the father be in control of his life. Jesus started his ministry and the father told him what he wanted him to say and he drew people aside beginning in chapter 5 of the book of Matthew and began to teach them and instruct them what God wanted them to do and how important it was to submit their lives and surrender to the will and the authority of the father. He came, he said, to fulfill what was in the Old Testament. He wanted to teach us how to be able to put into practice the things that were in the Bible. Jesus said, I didn't come to do away with the Old Testament but to fulfill it. Those books of Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and Exodus where God tells us all the things that we ought to do. He started out teaching things about the outside and how to be able to behave and Jesus came saying, that's just part of the story. You can still not kill someone but still hate them on the inside and be filled with anger, resentment and bitterness. God is never satisfied with you until he transforms the inside of you. So Jesus fulfilled what the Old Testament started. This is what it means to really live in obedience and submission to the authority of God. You may feel like you're taking control when you lash out at someone who hurt you but you're really in control when you do what the father tells you to do. So Jesus came showing us in his own life at every single place what it meant to surrender and submit to the authority of the father. It didn't make Jesus a weak man, it made him instead a very strong man for in submission he became in control. People came to him when he was teaching and said, we've never heard someone speak with such authority as this. Jesus taught us what it meant, not only did he live this but he put it into words so we could understand. He said whenever you're living in this world and someone gets angry with you and slaps you in the face to insult you, your human nature causes you to want to do exactly what your own will says, to strike out and slap that person back. And whenever you start that you're in control of yourself but what I want you to do is to surrender your control and submit to my instructions and do what I tell you. When you do that you will be in control. For in your submission you find control and authority. Not only do I want you to turn your face and let them strike you on your other cheek but what I'm asking you to do is to forgive them. I know it seems like you lose when you forgive someone and say I'm not going to punish you for this and I'm not going to try to get even but really when you forgive them it looks like you're submitting to me and you are but you actually gain control of the circumstance. And then that's not even the end of it, what I want you to do is to pray that good things would happen to the person who slapped you. I want you to ask me to bless them and do good things for them. I know that it looks like they're winning when you do that but when you submit to me and you do what I ask you, you actually gain control in that situation. So Jesus taught us that by giving up, surrendering ourselves to the authority of God we actually gain control of our lives. That's what he was teaching us. He not only lived that before the world but he taught that to us showing us that submission and surrender was a way of having authority and control. When Jesus did that he made sure that we understood that the power and authority that God had was our authority and power when we depended on it. Now in this first section it says Jesus had finished and when Jesus had finished saying all these things he turned to his disciples. Now Jesus is saying I finished the job of teaching for you. I know whenever you're training someone you often wonder have I done it right and have I done enough? Is there anything left that I've left out? But Jesus had full of confidence that if he did what the father told him to do nothing would be left out. Everything they need would be provided. Have you noticed that whenever you take the teachings of Jesus and you read those everything before that Jesus is explaining. Everything after that people are explaining what Jesus said. He finished all the instruction we need to have. And that one day he set it down and that was the end of his teaching. He taught some more things but they were simply repeats of this and they would say well he taught 40 days before he was ascended into heaven but not anything that he tells us that he actually said because it had all been said. Jesus finishes his teaching. Now in all of his lifestyle and teaching he had submitted to the authority of the father and this gave him the authority. Now Jesus turns to a new picture. The scripture says Jesus told them as you know the Passover is two days away and the son of man will be handed over to be crucified. Then the chief priest and elders of the people assembled in the place of the high priest whose name was Caiaphas and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. Jesus was going to submit himself not to the father but he was going to submit himself to the chief priest and to the high priest and to those who are elders in this nation of Israel. Now Jesus had encountered these people before. One time when he met with them he said you guys are like graves. Now we dig graves in the ground almost everywhere but there they would dig them in the side of a hill or a bluff and put a rock, a big rock across the front of it and they would paint them, well white wash them with white paint so everyone would see them and they were really beautiful. You walk down a valley and look on the side of the hill and there would be white spots all up and down the side of the hill. They looked beautiful. He said you people are like those tombs that have dead decaying bodies in them. There are maggots in there. There's rotting stinking flesh in there. But on the outside they're painted beautifully. That's the way your lives are. You look like on the outside that you're religious. You go to temple, you do the things you're supposed to do and people look at you on the outside but inside you're rotting, stinking just like those graves. Another time he said to them you guys are odd because anyone who has a cup and it's dirty on the outside and the inside they would clean the inside out to make sure that it was clean before they used it again but you go ahead and let the inside stay dirty and you wash the outside and use it again. Who would do that? Your inside is dirty but your outside looks sparkling clean. You go to the temple, you do religious activities and act like everything in your life is as it ought to be but it is not. These are the people he's going to submit himself to. He said to them you are really just a brood or a nest of snakes, vipers, poisonous. These were poisonous, deadly, dangerous people. He was now going to submit his life to them. He said to them you are children of your forefathers who killed and murdered the prophets. You're just like them. If you have someone who's a man of God who would come to you, you don't have any compunction but to kill them and now he's going to submit his life to them. One time he said to them I pass a curse on you. Nothing good can come from your life. There is no hope for you and yet Jesus is going to submit his life to them. He called them one time children of the devil himself. They didn't have any love for Jesus either. They said that Jesus was an angel of Satan, that he was a blasphemer of God and yet Jesus says to his followers as you know the Passover is two days away and the son of man will be handed over to be crucified. They'd be handed over to the chief priest, the elders of the people, and the high priest. Here it is, Jesus again is submitting himself to human beings who are his very worst enemies. He's done this because the father has told him that's what he ought to do. Anyone in our own human nature if we're faced with people who hate us this much we want to avoid them. We want to get away from them. We don't want to have anything to do with them. We certainly don't want to trust our lives to people who we know hate us and are deadly people and have no scruples to kill. But Jesus instead submitted himself to the very people who were his worst enemies. If this seems strange or odd to you there is a story behind it. The father had already told him that he was going to Jerusalem. He would present himself to the chief priest and the scribes and he would be crucified. This was the instructions that the father had given him. All of our human nature would not want to do that and it was true of Jesus too when he was praying in the garden of Gethsemane he said if this cup can be taken away from me I ask that it be done. Nevertheless not my will but yours be done. You see his submission to these people who were his enemies was a direct result of obedience to the father himself. And in surrendering himself to the father he places his life in the hand of the father and the hand of the father has power and authority. So that while Jesus submitted to them he was really in control all the time. They didn't take his life he submitted it. He gave it. They didn't force him he gave it. Jesus gives us a perfect picture of how to live life in this world. You surrender to God everything in your life. You do what he tells you to do regardless of how dangerous difficult and costly it might appear. There is a reason for that. The mighty hand of God has power over everything that's in the world. In this event the chief priests the elders of the people were all plotting and planning. They were sitting together in the office of the chief priest and they were planning how they could destroy Jesus. They thought they were in control of Jesus' life. They said how can we get him to the place we want him? How can we kill him and no one will know? How can we get away with this? We don't know what all their discussion was about. They were convinced that if it happened that they should do it during the time of the Passover it would be dangerous because of the big crowds of people many of them from Galilee who believed that Jesus was indeed a prophet. Now Jerusalem was not a very big town. I've read different ideas, different numbers on the size of it, 15,000, 25,000 people our size. But during the time of Passover Jews from all over the world came to that city. I read one time where the Roman government tried to figure out how many people came to the Passover. So they gave orders to the priests to count the number of lambs that were slain. The lambs had to be taken to a priest to be killed in preparation for the Passover. And no one could kill a lamb unless there were at least 10 people who were going to eat it because it had to be completely consumed on the day of Passover. And this one time that the census was taken of the lambs killed was 263,000. Times 10 means 2,263,000 people in the Jerusalem area to be able to eat. Big crowds. Jesus had to stay 10 miles away. The crowds were so large to find a place. Many of them camped out even. They were afraid if some riot took place the Roman government would come in and take control. They allowed the Jewish people to have control of their own land so long as there was not any kind of insurrection. And if there was a riot or a rebellion against authority they would come in immediately and change the government. There's a period of time in Israel's history when the high priest was changed almost every year because he was not able to keep control of the people. And Caiaphas had been a high priest for a long time. He didn't want to lose that position. And they made their plan. We will take him. We will kill him. But we'll do it in a way that's deceptive. No one will know. And then when it's all over there'll be no reason for a riot or people to be disturbed. And when they were finished making their plans and figuring out the sly trick that they had to be able to do it, we don't know what it was, but they'd figured it all out and they left that meeting saying we know what we're going to do. We're in control. We've got the plan. It's going to work. But before their meeting was even over, while they were having it, Jesus said to his followers, in two days, at the day of the Passover, I will be turned over to the authorities and killed. God had his plan and it didn't matter what the high priest's plan really was. God's plan was going to work. You see, this is the great secret to living a Christian life. Whenever someone slaps you in the face and your anger boils up and you want to settle the score, you want to say, I'm going to take control and I'm going to do what I think will settle that. God says, no, here's what I want you to do. Turn your other cheek and let them hit you there. I am in control and I will settle this issue. You see, when we give up control of our lives to the authority of God, we then give God full authority and control of our lives and we allow him to work in whatever way he chooses. If we do slap that person who slaps us, we get even, but the person we slap never feels the conviction of God for what they've done. I hit you, you hit me back, we're mad at each other. I hit you, you don't hit me back, I'm still mad, I hit you again and you don't do anything and now I have to say, what in the world is going on? And God begins to talk to me. So by letting God be in control of all the circumstances and events, we give God the full power and authority in the lives of even our enemies. You see, what Jesus teaches us is by submitting to the authority of God, we actually gain control. When he placed his life in the hand of the Father and the Father said, here is my son to the chief priest and the scribes, do whatever you wish. It looked like they won, but in the end, the Father raised him from the dead and declared him to be the son of God who rules on high. And the resurrection becomes the great victory of God for us. For we no longer fear death, we now know what's going to happen to us and all the teachings of Jesus are authenticated because Jesus submitted to the hand of the Father and the Father gave him the victory. Jesus on his own did not win anything. They captured him, they tortured him, they killed him, they buried him in a grave. They won at every single point in human terms. But when they'd done everything they knew to do, because Jesus was in the hand of the Father, the Father reached down and took him, brought him to life, seated him at his right hand with power and authority. What Jesus teaches us is fighting on our own strength and wisdom and skill will never get us anywhere, but living our lives the way God tells us will guarantee victory for us. When submitting, you will win because you trade your own wisdom and power for the wisdom and power of God. So when you surrender to his authority, you do what he tells you to do, even if it means submitting and surrendering to the people who are around you, you become victorious. It is God's great plan for life. It all begins, you see, when you recognize one thing, that all of power and authority are given to God. All power and authority. His wisdom is beyond anything that we can ever imagine. And when we live in submission to him at every point of our life, we allow the full wisdom of God, the full power of God, and the full authority of God to operate in our lives. And the natural result is victory. All the great people of the Bible, from Adam to Abraham to Moses to David, lost their standing with God when they decided at some point, I must take things into my own hands. And they did what they thought was best in spite of what God said was the right thing to do. And when the history of your life is written, it will be the same. Every time you said no to your anger, you win. Every time you say no to your own plans and yes to God's, you win. Every time you say yes to whatever God's asked you to do, you win, regardless of how hard or difficult it might be at the time. For in our submission to God, we become victorious, because then the full power of God can work in our lives. And Jesus finished teaching this great practice. And now as the last stage of his life comes, he says, this is how it works. I've taught you what to do, and now in a few hours, I will submit myself in obedience to the Father to the hands of the people I've told you are not trustworthy, unreliable tools of Satan. And they will do with me whatever they choose. But watch, for in the end, the power of the Father will give victory. And you will know that everything I've taught you is the truth. Would you bow your heads, please? You want to face life with confidence? Then try to protect yourself. You want to make sure that in every circumstance you're living in, you come out better than you were before? Then don't try to fix it. Don't worry about it. Don't make your plans. In every circumstance, you say, Father, I've given you my life. It's under your control. I will do whatever you tell me, and even though it gets worse and worse and worse and worse, I will never give up believing that because I've given you my life, it's going to be fine. That's what trust and faith in God can do for you. It can allow you as Jesus to face your very worst enemies without even trying to protect yourself and know everything's going to be okay. If you have anxieties, if you have fears, if you have worries, if you have threats, if you face disaster, you need only stop and think one thing. Have I trusted God to take care of me? It all begins when you start by saying, God, I'm going to quit taking care of myself. I'm going to give my life to you, and I'm going to let you take care of me. I will do the things you tell me. I'll live in obedience to you as best I can. If I fail at that, I'll admit it and start again because I want to submit myself to you and to others as you teach me because I believe not in myself but in you. You ask in this moment, Lord, have I placed my life without reservation in your hands? You've never done that before. Maybe you've talked about it, maybe you've said some to him, but if you've never really placed your life in his hands, I urge you today, learn what it means to have victory by submitting your life to God. And if you have made that promise to him, but every time a little problem comes up, you try to fix it yourself, you know how difficult life can be. Maybe you need to learn to practice submission to him, not just your good things, but every single problem. Lord, I'm yours, this problem is yours. I'll do what you tell me and believe that you'll take care of me. Maybe God's asked you to become a part of the family of this church. Sometimes that's scary to people, but when you submit to him, you will find victory. Each one of us has our own place in life where God needs to help us grow. He needs your trust in him to help you. And so, Father, from myself to all the people who are here, we know that you're trying to teach us to trust you more and more. Point out to us the failures that we have in our life and show us that they're the result of us not trusting you, but ourselves. Give us the faith we need today to do exactly what you ask us. This morning I'm going to offer these people an invitation into your kingdom, saying to them that if they say to you, Lord, I give my life completely and totally to you, that you will receive them into your kingdom. Make them your children and begin to live with them, using your authority and power to guide them. So I ask if there's anyone here that is outside your kingdom that you'd make sure they would know that today you're inviting them to come and follow you. In their submission to you, they will become in charge and successful. In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask this, amen. We're going to sing an invitation hymn this morning. I'm going to ask, as you think about what God is asking you to do, that if there's some response you need to make to him, that you would let him know that you're ready to do what he's asked of you. Would you stand, please, while we sing? Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, the love unknown hath broken every barrier down, now to be thine, yes, thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. You may be seated for just a moment, please. I think I've talked to you before, Jack is very interested in committing himself to be baptized, and I talked with his father, and he hadn't been able to get together with his father, but he went to see his father, and he's talked to him about him, and his father says, okay, so we're going to set a time for Jack to be baptized. And we'll set that and announce that sometime soon. If you come today saying you want Lennon to commit her life to you, it's hard as a parent to not want to control your kid's lives, and think that you can know what's best for them. And whenever a parent wants to say, I want to commit my child to God, and submit my child to God, and acknowledge that my God has more control over this child's life than I do, it's a wonderful thing, and helps you make decisions about how to care for it. So we'll set a time in which we'll let you do that. Anything that you wanted to say, Roz? Carrie came this morning saying that God had answered a prayer in her life for someone who had been ill. Raven came asking that we pray for her great-grandmother. She lives in New York, and she's been very ill, but she's doing better right now. This is Emily, and Emily had something that she wanted to say. This is Raven's friend. Raven brought Emily. I'm going to let her tell you what she wrote this, and she said she wanted to tell everyone. I love Jesus because he gave his life so we can live, and he is with me through my whole life. Thank you. Would you stand, please? Brad came this morning saying that he knows that he wants to learn more about Jesus, and as he does, there's areas in his life that he's showing him that he's not pleased with, and he struggles with doing that. So just pray for Brad that he'd be able to be obedient to God and do the things that he knows he needs to do. We're so thankful, Father, that we serve a living God, a God who talks to us about our lives, our children, talks to us about our behavior, talks to us about a time in which he wants us to publicly declare to the world that we're dead to ourselves and alive to you. We're thankful that in the lives of children, you make them aware that you do heal people as a result of prayer, and we're thankful for the confession that they can make of their trust in you and dependence on you. We take seriously our responsibility to help them learn as they grow older and begin to do things that you don't want them to do. We take the responsibility to teach them who you are, how you forgive them, and how they can surrender all of their future to you. We ask, Father, for each of us the promises we've made to you that you give us the wisdom and strength to keep them. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.