I almost said Daniel's gospel, but maybe it
is the gospel according to Daniel.
The book of Daniel is an incredible book,
Daniel chapter 9, specifically verse 24.
Daniel chapter 9 verse 24, in this great
book, there is a prophetic layout that God
has given that is so exact and so
specific that when much of Daniel was fulfilled,
the critics began to argue that Daniel was
written after the historical fact took place.
With such accuracy did the prophet Daniel speak.
Now as you know, we are going through,
in fact today is part 4 of a
series entitled The Life and Times of Jesus
Christ.
But this morning we come now to his
mission, the mission of Jesus Christ.
And Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 is a
very powerful verse, and we'll look at this
in a moment, so I want you to
hold your spot as you get there.
But we look, or we turn, in part
4 of our series, Christ and his mission.
In our previous studies, you know, if you
were here, that we studied Christ in eternity,
that Jesus never had a beginning.
If you are a believer this morning, you
understand that the Bible teaches that Christ has
always been, Jesus was never born in the
spiritual realm, he has always existed.
The Bible says, in fact, that he is
the creator of the spiritual realm, example, angels
and the like, and also the physical realm,
that Jesus Christ is the creator.
In fact, if we do good Bible study
and thorough Bible study, we come to understand
that right there in Genesis chapter 1 verse
1, Jesus Christ is the very one at
work.
And we went through the passages of Scripture,
the Bible, proving this very fact concerning Christ.
Also, we saw in the following study, Christ
and his first coming, that the Scripture told
us that Jesus would have a first advent
to the nation Jerusalem, to the city of,
or the nation Israel, to the city of
Jerusalem, and specifically, as you know, as you've
studied with me, the Temple Mount specifically.
And of course, Jesus fulfilled that in his
first coming, not necessarily being born in Bethlehem,
though that's very important, but his first coming
actually took place on his Passion Week on
Palm Sunday when Jesus introduced himself as King
to the nation, fulfilling multiple Scriptures.
And then finally, last week, we saw Christ,
the Word made flesh, how we beheld the
incarnation of Christ, and we looked at him
in his physical advent, Jesus coming into Bethlehem,
being born as the prophets foretold that he
would.
We consider this also, as we go through
our study this morning, the life and times
of Christ, yes, but also Christ and his
mission, and of course, Colossians chapter 2 verse
9, where it says there, for in Christ
all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in
bodily form.
So when we talk about mission, what do
we mean by that?
Mission is extremely important.
You have a mission in this life.
Let's say you work for DuPont, or you're
a sales rep for DuPont.
Believe me, DuPont wants to believe you have
a mission, and that mission is to go
about all the area representing DuPont as their
ambassador, and you are paid a certain wage
for doing that.
But as Christians, we have a mission, and
by the end of the service this morning,
you'll see what our mission has to do
with Christ and his very mission in this
world around us.
But of course, Colossians 2 verse 9 tells
us, for in Christ all, all the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in bodily form.
This word mission, Christ and his mission, the
term assumes something very interesting.
If you have a mission, you have a
task.
You have a job to perform.
That's built into the very word mission.
The word mission also implies that there is
something to be had.
Listen carefully to this.
If you have a mission, there's something to
be gotten out of it.
If you embark upon a mission, let's say
it's a military venture.
You are deployed on a mission.
You have certain parameters.
You have certain rules.
You have certain things that you want to
achieve.
In fact, there are people, there are strategists
who, before you're deployed, have gone through great
lengths and studied various scenarios about the mission
and its success.
Why?
Because you are to perform a certain task,
and you're also to receive something out of
it.
You are to somehow come out of the
mission having completed the objective.
It's very important that that be the case.
If you don't have a goal to your
mission, you're never going to know if you've
finished or have completed the mission.
This is very important.
Christ Jesus had his mission, and quite frankly,
he's got one still, and it's still going
now.
But let me stress this, and I speak
for you maybe.
Obviously, the mission of Jesus Christ was to
come to this world.
In fact, the scriptures tell us plainly, clearly,
Jesus said that for this cause I was
born, for this reason have I come into
the world.
Now let me ask you something.
Have you had the week that I've had
looking at the news?
Now I'm a news freak.
I'm pathetic with news.
I have CNN.
I have MSNBC.
I have ITN.
I have BBC.
I have news stations.
I don't even know how to pronounce them.
I'm a news junkie.
I'm hooked.
Pray for me.
Why?
I want to know what's going on in
the world, and I love watching the news
with my Bible open, but lately it's a
little too close to home, don't you think?
When somebody goes nuts, some possessed lunatic goes
berserk on a Jewish center, that's a little
close to home.
Not that it was near or just not
far of a driving distance from here, but
do you know your Bible?
Do you understand that when there's anti-Semitic
movement against the Jewish people, that is a
key end-time sign of satanic activity?
Did you know that?
Are you aware of that?
That the very act of segregation or being...
Oh, what's the word?
It's escaping me.
Very simple word.
Help me.
When you...
Black, white, yellow.
Discrimination.
When you're prejudiced...
Did you know Satan is an absolute lover
of being prejudiced?
Did you know he loves when nations vie
against nations?
Remember when Jesus says that kingdom against kingdom,
nation against nation will be in the last
days?
You think Russia against America, don't you?
When you see that word nation, that's sad
because in the Greek it's ethnos versus ethnos.
Ethnic people versus ethnic people.
And when you've got a psycho, like we
had this week in our region, go off
on killing or trying to kill these Jewish
people and children, or as he visited the
Museum of Tolerance to scope out the area
to blow that up, who turns his gun
on a man who's a non-white federal
employee and kills him dead?
A man who lives very close to here.
What in the world is going on?
You can look at the news and be
completely consumed with the depravity of the world,
or you can say it won't be long
until Christ returns, and until he does, Jesus
said these days this world will grow worse
and worse.
I'm sorry to bum you out, people, but
Jesus said there'd be days just like this,
and evil is increasing.
But yet he said, I have come into
the world for this very purpose.
What purpose?
That Christ has a mission to deliver us,
to deliver all those who trust in him
from this world's fiery end.
Jerry Dunphy.
You know Jerry?
He's been on the news broadcast since, I
think, before I've been born, this guy.
He's been around forever.
From the desert to the sea.
What is his little thing is, you know?
He does his little spiel, and there's been
this saying about there's more to life than
news, weather, and sports.
Well, that's true.
It's called Jesus Christ.
You can look around and form your opinion
of the world and say, you know what?
There's nothing worth living for.
Yeah, there is.
But you can be consumed with what you're
seeing around you.
The fact of the matter is, Jesus is
real.
Everything that's happening is according to the Scripture,
and if you don't know your Bible, you're
going to get consumed in depression over such
things.
Christ has come for a mission, and that
mission, friend, is right on target, right on
schedule, just right.
God has his mission.
The term implies there's something to be gained,
and what might that be?
In Luke's Gospel, chapter 14, Jesus gave us
an example.
He said, No man building a tower embarks
upon the building of that tower without first
counting the cost.
He said that no king goes to war
against another king without first taking inventory, checking
to see if he has an arsenal fit
for the battle, and if he doesn't, he
sends overtures of peace before he goes to
that war.
He said if you go into a venture
unprepared, he said people will mock you and
make fun of you, counting the cost and
knowing what the mission will entail.
I don't know if you know this or
not, but in a historical documentary, President FDR
was summoned by William Churchill to meet him
in the middle of the Atlantic in a
clandestine meeting, a secret meeting.
As England, as Europe was getting whipped by
Germany, Churchill asked FDR to get America involved,
and FDR lied to Congress.
Nobody knew where he was.
It was a very top secret mission, and
in the middle of the night, FDR boarded
a freighter and went out of the middle
of the Atlantic to meet with Churchill to
plan or to invite America into the invasion
of Europe against Hitler, and nobody knew where
FDR was at, and he mapped out this
plan, and in one of those meetings, he
said what is in it for America, and
Churchill responded, a free Europe and a free
world, and of course you know the rest
is history.
The United States joined the alliance and Hitler
was defeated.
What's in it for America?
You ought to ask the question right now,
with what you're talking about Jack, what's in
it for me?
You can go ahead and think that way
if you're a non-Christian this morning.
You might put your hand on your hip
as a skeptic and say, what's in it
for me?
I want you to listen carefully because there's
a lot in it for you.
Jesus Christ had a mission, and the very
need of the world that is around us
right now is proof positive that his mission
is viable.
Are you with me?
Look at the world, and what you see
in the world, the Bible has predicted, and
the Bible has predicted that scenario to tell
you that there's a remedy for the world's
problems, and that remedy is Jesus Christ.
Very, very important.
Christianity is the message by which God has
sent his son Jesus Christ into the world
with a mission that he might redeem all
those who put their trust in him.
It's not called religion, friend.
It is Christianity.
It is the following of Christ.
It is the giving of your life to
him.
We talked about this passage, and we'll look
at it now there in Daniel, Daniel chapter
9, verse 24.
It says there, 490 years, or your Bible
might read 77s.
Don't let that confuse you.
The word's 490 years.
490 years are determined for your people, that's
the Jewish people, the message is given to
Daniel, and for your holy city, that's Jerusalem,
and this now unveils the most significant prophetic
verse in all of the Bible.
One, to finish the transgression.
Two, to make an end of sin.
Three, to make reconciliation for iniquity.
Four, to bring in everlasting righteousness.
Five, to seal up vision and prophecy, and
six, to anoint the most holy.
Three of those utterances there in Daniel 9,
24 were fulfilled at the coming of Christ.
There are three remaining, three that are going
to be fulfilled.
To finish transgressions, that's the Messiah's introduction of
himself to Israel.
We'll hear more about this later.
Jesus presented himself to Israel.
Why?
To finish the transgressions, God's Messiah had come.
Secondly, to make an end of sin, Jesus
Christ, according to the prophets, in his perfect
life that he lived as God in human
flesh, removed sin's dominion and power over mankind
by fulfilling the law.
Thirdly, to make reconciliation for iniquity is the
death of Christ upon the cross, whereby Israel
might be saved.
Well, that's how you and I are saved,
to look back at the cross, to trust
what Christ has done on the cross.
But the remaining three portions of scripture are
still yet prophetic in Daniel 9, 24.
To bring in everlasting righteousness, that's a reference
to Christ and the coming of the Messiah
for the millennium.
Do you know what I mean by millennium?
You mean the next couple of months?
No.
The next couple of months may or may
not have any prophetic significance at all.
We don't know.
It's not the millennium we're talking about.
The millennium is when Jesus Christ comes at
the close of the Great Tribulation period and
the Great Second Coming.
He establishes his millennium.
That is the bringing in of everlasting righteousness.
Number five is the sealing up of vision
and prophecy.
Christ will consummate all the prophetic passages of
scripture and bring them to a conclusion.
When you read the book and the prophetic
books of the Bible and come to Revelation,
how exciting it is to read the back,
the end of the book, and it says
that we win.
We win.
Jesus is triumphal.
And then finally, the sixth thing of Daniel
9, 24 is that Jesus will anoint the
Most Holy.
That is when he delivers the kingdom and
all that there is into the presence of
the Father.
And the eternal state, or what is called
the day of God, begins.
That's going to be a tremendous time.
The first thing we want to see this
morning, though, regarding the mission of Jesus Christ,
and again, it is wonderfully outlined for us
there in Daniel 9, 24.
What we want to see now, though, is
our first point this morning, and it is
this.
It is the purpose of Christ's mission.
The purpose.
Somebody might ask you, when you share with
people, they might say, why did Jesus come?
What is the purpose of his coming?
What was his mission?
That's a great question.
You and I ought to be able to
make that clear to them.
The first thing is that Jesus Christ fulfilled
all that was written.
His purpose was that he might fulfill all
that was written.
Now listen, this is an invitation for any
of the skeptics that are here this morning.
You might be sitting here saying, I don't
think the Bible has the authority to rule
over my life, which means I just gave
a definition of a teenager.
It does have the authority to rule over
your life.
See, the funny thing is, you may choose
not to bow to its authority or not.
That's the issue, okay?
That's the thing.
It has nothing to do with the validity
of the Bible.
It's perfect.
It has no errors.
It's absolutely without debate.
You can concoct your argument, but you'll lose.
God's Word is true.
Jesus came to fulfill all that was written,
and one of the very important things for
him to perform is all that was written
of him.
Many times as you read in the Bible,
especially Matthew's Gospel, why Matthew's Gospel?
Because Matthew was a Jew.
He was a Levite, and he's writing to
his fellow Jews.
That's why he says in there, and it
was fulfilled as it was written by the
prophet Isaiah saying, and there it is.
And it was as it was written by
the prophet Micah, and there it is.
Why did he do this?
Because Jesus Christ came to fulfill all that
was written in the Bible.
Muhammad didn't do that.
He didn't even care.
He didn't have a book written about him
in advance to fulfill.
Nobody has.
So my friend, if you're a skeptic, stand
back right now and take a scientific look
at the validity of the Bible.
Wow!
It says this, and behold, this event took
place.
The Old Testament makes the announcements, and the
New Testament is the record of its fulfillment.
Isn't that ironic?
That at this hour, the Jewish nation whom
Jesus said, I have come to my own,
but my own have not received me.
That if they would just look to the
New Testament, it is the bonafide account of
what was promised in the old.
But this even was foretold by the Lord
himself.
The invitation is to consider the mission.
If you're a doubter this morning, and I
hope you are.
I can really relate to you.
I want to see it.
I want to touch it.
I want to smell it before I'm going
to believe it.
I don't think God disparages that at all.
I just think what he does hold us
accountable for is that when he does show
the facts, that we respond.
Else we go away given information, but willfully
rejecting Christ.
That would not be good.
Now, he was to fulfill all that was
written, as the scripture says.
It says in Luke chapter 7 verse 20,
when the men had come to Jesus, they
said to him, John the Baptist has sent
us to you saying, are you the coming
one, or do we look for another?
And at that very hour, he cured many
infirmities and afflictions and evil spirits.
And to many, he healed their sight or
opened their eyes.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, go
and tell John the things that you see
and hear.
That the blind see and the lame walk
and lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and
the dead are raised and the poor have
the gospel preached to them.
Listen, he fulfilled all that was written.
That was his point.
John the Baptist, he was doubting.
Doesn't that encourage you?
John the Baptist, first of all, he was
Jesus' cousin.
Mary and Elizabeth were related.
John and Jesus were cousins.
Six months age difference between the two of
them according to the Bible.
And John was taken prison.
He was in prison.
And John says to his disciples, go and
see how it's going with Jesus and ask
him, is he the Messiah or what?
Why did John ask that question?
Because he was expecting Jesus to bring in
the deliverance from the Roman Empire, to establish
Israel as the prominent governmental ruling reign of
the earth.
That was not the mission of Jesus.
He was first to come, as you saw
in Daniel 9, 24, to give himself for
the sins of the nation.
That's why he came.
There's a blasphemous book written, the Reluctant Messiah.
It's a damnable heresy.
In that book, it portrays that Jesus was
caught up in the fervor of everybody laying
on him titles.
And he was somehow polluted by his own
megalomania.
And then the whole thing turned on him
and he wound up getting killed.
What a blasphemous book.
What an ignorant author.
When the Bible says of itself, all of
these things have been decreed in advance.
Jesus was to fulfill all that was written.
So what does he tell John's disciples?
Go back and tell John the things that
you what?
Hear and see.
What was John supposed to do with that
information?
As soon as his disciples came running back,
they said, John, this is what we see.
This is what we hear.
And that would have triggered immediately in John's
mind, the book of Jeremiah, the book of
Isaiah, the book of Micah.
John would have known.
Jesus came to fulfill that which was written
of him.
Luke chapter 24, the great passage regarding the
Emmaus Road.
Jesus, after his resurrection, traveling there on the
Emmaus Road, he comes up to two disciples
that are very depressed.
You can just see them.
Read Luke 24 later.
It's kind of sad at first.
They're walking along.
They're so bummed.
And they're saying, oh, you know, it's the
third day.
Nothing's happened.
What a bummer.
We follow Jesus in vain.
And you can see them just kicking a
can, going down the path.
Boy, were we duped.
I thought for sure he was the Messiah.
And Jesus comes alongside them.
Sounds almost mysterious.
And it is.
And he says, hi, why is your face
so low, hanging down?
And they said, what are you, a stranger
in here?
Don't you know what's transpired in these regions
lately?
Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Son
of God, did all these wonderful works and
spoke about a kingdom.
But they took him and crucified him.
And after all, it's the third day.
And Jesus said to them in Luke chapter
24, verse 25, he said to you foolish
ones of heart and slow to believe, spiritually
retarded, which is most of the world and
maybe many in here today, spiritually retarded ones.
You don't even know me.
You claim to know me.
You claim to have followed me.
You've missed it.
He says, didn't the Bible say about Christ
how he ought to suffer and enter in
to his glory?
And beginning at Moses and all of the
prophets, he expounded to them from the scriptures
the things concerning himself.
Luke 24, verse 31 says, and when their
eyes were opened, they knew him and he
vanished from their sight.
And he said, and they said to one
to another, did not our hearts burn within
us as he talked to us on the
road while he opened to us the scriptures?
Wow.
What did he do?
Jesus pulled alongside them and he says, Hey,
let's have an old Testament Bible study right
here, right now.
And from the scriptures, he opened to their
understanding himself.
Isn't that great?
He performed all that was written of him.
Secondly, he was to ransom Israel from their
sins.
That's very important.
The purpose of his mission, yes, was to
ransom Israel from their sins.
I mentioned to you earlier that in John
chapter one, verse 10, that there, it says
in the scripture that Jesus came unto his
own, but his own received him not.
That was the Jewish people.
They are the chosen people.
They're the chosen people to this hour.
They will always be the chosen people, no
matter what lunatic calls the world to go
against the Jewish people.
In fact, that's just a little sign of
the times and proof of the pudding.
Well, Jack, if there is people, why so
much pain in their lives?
Why so much hardship?
Know this, and it's sad to say this,
but it is absolutely biblically accurate.
The Old Testament told the nation that if
they rejected the coming of the Messiah, that
they would become a hissing and a byword
and an outcast through all the nations of
the world.
Has that not happened?
It's just that their homes will be pillaged.
Their nation will be taken from them.
Their wives would be ravaged and their children
will be taken into slavery and captivity to
all the nations of the world.
And in the last thousand years, that has
been so fulfilled.
But in the last fifty years, you and
I have been watching the rebirth of the
nation Israel and the influx of those people
coming back home.
Isn't that amazing?
Prophecy, Isaiah chapter 43, beginning at verse 1,
happening as you and I breathe this hour.
He was to come to his people.
Why?
The Jewish people had that same question.
They began to strut around.
Paul warned them.
Paul was even at one time once strutting
that he was of the tribe of Benjamin,
the nation of Israel, and all this stuff.
And Paul goes on later to say, wait
a minute, God didn't pick us because we
were more noble than any other nation.
He picked us because we're a bunch of
losers.
God says this in the book of Isaiah
and in Jeremiah in the Old Testament that
he says, don't think that I've picked you
because you're some spectacular thing.
He says, I picked you because you need
help.
Isn't that funny?
You say, well, well, glad you didn't say
that about me.
Oh, just wait.
He said concerning you and I that he
chose the foolish things of this world to
confound the wise.
That's why your boss or your neighbor thinks
you're an idiot.
Well, there they go.
Look, Harriet, they got their Bibles.
There they go.
Look at them every Sunday.
We are goofballs in the eyes of the
world.
That's okay.
This earth's not our home.
Aren't you glad?
Man, we're not home yet.
God always selects the underdog.
The scriptures teach us that he came to
the nation Israel.
The Bible says in Matthew 22, Jesus is
trafficking through the area and a Canaanite.
Remember the book of Joshua?
We studied about the Canaanites, a Canaanite woman
cried out to him and said, Master son
of David.
What is she using that term for?
She has no right to that term.
Son of David have mercy on me.
Help me.
My daughter's possessed.
She's a Canaanite and the disciples say, Master,
send her away.
She's bugging us.
Great men of compassion that they were.
Send her away.
She's bugging us.
Jesus, as she cries out, it says, does
not answer her a word.
And she keeps crying.
And he says, and I'll paraphrase, I've come
to bring food to the house of the
lost sheep of Israel.
And she says, yes, Lord, that's great.
And I'm not rejecting that truth.
Obviously you're Jewish.
I'm a Canaanite, but I recognize that you
have all the power.
And I do believe, though I'm not a
Jew, you are the son of David, that
you are the Messiah.
Please have mercy on me.
And he says, but woman, it wouldn't be
right for me to give the food that's
dedicated to the nation, to the dogs.
Now you and I, with that statement, might
have said, well, you can keep your messiahship
and walk away.
Or she said to him, Lord, this is
true, but even dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from the master's table.
And Jesus got a huge, it doesn't say
this in the Bible, it had to have
happened though.
It had to happen.
Jesus got a huge smile on his face
and he said, woman, I haven't seen this
kind of faith anywhere.
And he healed her daughter.
What's the point?
The Jews believed and believe today that Gentiles
are fodder for hell.
Did you know that?
They believe that we Gentiles are fuel for
the pit, for the flames of hell.
That's why they believe, this is not in
the Bible, this is in their traditions, that
God made Gentiles to stoke the flames of
hell and to pay retail.
But this is what
the traditions teach.
When Jesus says it's not right that I
give the food that's intended to be for
the house, for the children, to the dogs,
every Orthodox Jew would have said, boy, he
sure told her off.
Well, the word that he used, and you
and I don't get it in the English,
go to it in the Greek.
He says, woman, those cuddly little puppies that
hang around the table, they shouldn't get it
first.
I've come to the nation first.
A cuddly, cute little puppy.
Everybody loves a cuddly, cute little puppy.
Jesus elevates this woman and then not only
elevates by statement, but turns and blesses her
with a miracle.
He's come to the nation Israel first.
Yes, true, but watch this, consider this.
He's also come to liberate the Gentile nations.
Hey, look at this.
You and I, most of us are Gentiles
right now.
I am 25% Irish, 25% German,
and 50% Portuguese.
My mother was pure Portuguese.
I am definitely a Gentile.
I don't have a Jewish bone in my
body, but God has saved me.
You may not be a Jew, but what
has he done with you?
He has saved you.
Is it biblical?
Oh yeah, Isaiah chapter 11, God says, I
will go to a nation, the nation of
Gentiles, and they'll seek after me.
Do you seek after Christ?
His mission is to bring all the world
to himself, even you and I.
Isn't that awesome?
Isn't it great that God is not exclusionary
in his mission?
Only those who have an income of 100
,000 and over.
Aren't you glad he didn't lay that as
a requirement?
All those who live in certain zip codes.
Aren't you glad he didn't have that requirement?
All those who will look unto me, he
says, I will no wise cast out to
liberate the Gentile nations.
Peter, God had to just drive this into
his head.
Peter was in the town of Joppa, remember
there, and he was hungry.
And it says that he went on top
of the roof and he fell asleep.
Now that's something.
I cannot sleep when I'm hungry, but Peter
goes up on the roof and he falls
asleep.
He's starving.
And they're downstairs, they're cooking, the meal's being
done, the fish taco smell is coming up
through the roof.
Joppa's right on the beach.
It's a great place.
Peter's there sleeping, and it says while he's
in the trance, and he's so hungry, the
sheet comes down in his head.
He's dreaming.
He sees the sheet come down.
And he says, he looks into the sheet,
and all kinds of four-footed beast and
unclean things are running around in the sheet.
Can you imagine?
So he looks over there, man, and there
goes a lobster.
You know, and there goes a pig.
Peter's going, yes, unclean.
And the Lord says, Peter, get up and
kill and eat.
Peter says, no way, Lord, which is an
impossible thing to say.
I'm a good Jewish boy.
None of this stuff has ever touched my
lips.
God says, Peter, stand up and eat.
Go after it.
Get it.
No, Lord.
Three times.
Ladies, be encouraged.
Three times God had to tell Peter.
Three times.
It takes a while for us to get
it.
And Peter later in Acts, in the book
of Acts, Peter later goes on to say,
I have concluded from this that God has
even provided salvation to the Gentiles.
How is that?
Because it all started with a bunch of
little pigs running around in the sheet.
And in a Jewish mind, God wants them
to, yeah, to deliver a Gentile nation, us,
all of us.
This is wonderful.
This is liberating.
Jesus, the Bible tells us in a parable,
two of them actually, Matthew 13, he says
this, that the kingdom of heaven is like
a treasure hidden in a field.
Get it carefully.
Watch this.
A treasure hidden in a field.
Who, when a man comes, buys the whole
field so he can extract the treasure.
Very simply understood.
The field is the world.
The man who buys the earth is who?
Jesus.
What is the treasure in the field?
You are.
He buys the whole field for God so
loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever puts your name in
there, there you go.
Another parable, Matthew 13 again, verse 45.
Jesus is again the kingdom of heaven is
like this.
A merchant seeking beautiful pearls who, when he
had found one pearl of great price, went
and sold everything that he had and bought
it.
Who is the merchant?
Jesus.
Who is the pearl of great price?
You are.
He gave up everything on his mission to
get you.
That ought to clear up your self-esteem
problem, don't you think?
You are valuable to him.
The second thing we see this morning is
this.
The scope of Christ's mission, and that is
to provide a temporal liberation for mankind.
The scope of his mission is this.
When we say scope, we're talking about his
far-reaching grasp of all that concerns us.
In fact, a good verse to put with
that is Matthew 9, 36.
Where there it says in the Bible, when
Jesus saw the multitude, he was moved with
compassion for them because they were weary and
scattered and they were like sheep having no
shepherd.
Are you lonely?
Is your life just, are you hurting right
now?
It's not important.
I know your problem.
I probably can't do anything about it anyway.
I can pray for you.
But the very situation that you find yourself
in right now, Christ knows about it.
And he is saying this to you this
morning.
I see you weary, scattered, like a little
lamb that has no shepherd.
Maybe you're even a Christian and you wandered
away from his wonderful pastoral care, which means
shepherding care.
The fact of the matter is, he has
provided temporal liberation.
When I say temporal, I mean on this
earth now.
Maybe you're sitting here as a non-Christian,
you're saying, why should I come to Christ?
Well, the first thing is, is because he
offers to you temporal liberation.
That means right now he can give you
the peace of God and peace with God.
All your life, you've been kicking against God,
knowingly or unknowingly, and Jesus immediately offers temporal
liberation.
Peace now in the midst of a storm.
He provides that.
The scope of his mission is certainly to
help us now.
I love when people give their hearts to
Jesus Christ.
It's spectacular to watch.
We'll pray together, and they'll pray, Lord, come
into my life, and we pray.
They come to the conclusion of their prayer,
and you can almost put a stopwatch to
it.
They'll say, in Jesus' name, amen, and I'll
say, welcome to the family.
It's great to have you in the house.
And you'll see them go, there's just peace,
just peace.
You see it happen in the lives of
people.
I've seen it happen in people here quite
a long time ago.
There was a man that used to always
sit back in that area, right there against
that wall over there, and he wasn't a
Christian.
And his wife would drag him here.
She didn't drug him to get him here,
but he was dragged.
And finally, he gave his heart to Christ.
It was a very exciting day.
It was actually Sunday after a third service,
and after a third service, I ran home,
and I was mowing my lawn, or getting
ready to mow my lawn.
And so this guy pulls up to beat
me up.
I didn't know that.
He had a mission all of his own.
And it was to beat me up.
He was fed up with the messages and
why should I come to Christ and all
this stuff.
And so by the time he got to
me, God had just kind of touched him
a little bit, and God began to do
one thing and the other.
And to make a long story short, right
on the front lawn underneath the trees there
in my house, he accepts the Lord.
And the first thing we get done praying,
in Jesus' name, amen.
You know what he said the first thing?
Talk about peace.
This might seem funny to you.
But he went, oh man, great.
Now I can go to the church picnic.
I said, what?
He'd been fighting the church picnic.
Oh no, I gotta go.
My wife's gonna drug me or drag me
to get there.
All these Christians, I can't stand them.
Freedom.
Jesus would have said, truly salvation has come
to this man's home today.
He gets to go to the picnic.
Liberation, freedom.
God does that.
Jesus also provided physical relief.
He went around healing all those who were
sick, all those who were in pain.
He offers that help now.
He comforts your life.
He will either do it miraculously or he'll
do it, what I like to just say,
naturally, supernaturally.
Sometimes Jesus heals.
We reported some tremendous news last Wednesday night,
didn't we?
About God's wonderful, incredible works this week.
But sometimes God chooses natural means supernaturally.
Maybe the storm that you're in stays with
you, but there's a peace.
And haven't you had this happen in your
life?
There's a peace that comes into your life
and you almost feel guilty that you have
so much peace in the midst of this
problem.
It's the strangest thing.
Why aren't you worrying?
I don't know.
It's the Lord.
Don't you realize what's going to happen?
Yes.
Panic with us.
Make us feel better.
I just don't know.
I think God's going to do something.
I'm getting this right now.
I'm preaching to myself right now on this.
We've got to break ground on the property.
We've got to get going.
It's going to take years to build this
building and we're going to be out of
a building.
Our lease expires and the city won't renew
our lease and we're going to be on
the street.
We're going to be homeless.
Do you realize that?
I say homeless in two years.
There'll be 3000 of us begging on the
streets.
I'm supposed to start signing papers and I'm
supposed to say, you know, dump it here
and dig it.
It's like, and I feel terrible.
God, what am I doing?
Am I stirring these people toward homelessness?
I don't know.
I just know that God knows what he's
doing and he's bigger than me.
Hallelujah.
I don't know if that turns you on,
but it sure turns me on.
I just lay down and go to sleep
while everyone else, all of you are worrying
when we're going to put a shovel.
He brings physical relief.
He works in our lives now.
He is so faithful to do that.
He's so good.
And also to provide eternal freedom, obviously.
Don't you feel absolutely sometimes like you're in
some little super covert top secret club that
when you look at the news and look
around the world and talk to your friends
at work and share with people that you
know something they don't know and it's an
inside thing.
Don't you feel like that?
You know what?
I sometimes I feel terrible about having that
privilege.
When somebody says, well, I think of this
and I think of that and I think
of the other and I'm sitting there thinking
this poor guy doesn't know anything.
The Bible says exactly what he needs to
know or hear or do or whatever.
When you hear Europe say we've got a
brand new way of injecting implantable chips better
than ever before, cashless society that's on the
news.
Watch it.
That's there.
You go, what?
My Bible talks about that.
That's right.
And you go to work and your friends
will say, hey, cool.
Cashless system coming up.
Great.
Can't wait.
I'm sick of this big wallet in the
back of my pants or toting around my
purse.
If I just had a mark on my
right hand or my forehead, things would be
great.
And you go, and it's like, what?
What is this?
You know, something they don't know.
The Bible talks about this man coming and
he's going to implement a cashless system with
numbers and the prefix will be 666, which
is www in Hebrew.
W in Hebrew is the number six.
Interesting.
Why is it on the barcodes?
And boy, I'm getting into Wednesday night now.
Why in the barcodes on your items, it
has the long six and the middle long
six and the end long six.
Why do they pick 666 on the barcodes
of your products at home in your house?
Why not 333?
Why not 777?
Isn't that weird?
Anyway, moving on to the next point, we
continue.
We continue to the third and that is
the execution of Christ's mission.
The execution of Christ's mission.
Him doing this.
Him being real like that to manifest his
execution of it all.
Jesus, we are told in Luke chapter nine,
verse 51, he's enjoying the wonderful and many
of you have seen it.
Many more of you, Lord willing, shall.
The wonderful farmlands and regions, very fruitful regions
of the Northern Galilee, where the Sea of
Galilee is at.
It's beautiful.
Bananas and figs and oranges, papaya and guavas.
It's all growing there.
Jesus ministered and taught his disciples for three
years up there before he headed to the
hubbub of Jerusalem.
And it says in Luke chapter nine, verse
51, it was at that time when it
approached for him to be taken up into
heaven, that he resolutely set his face toward
Jerusalem.
The word is with absolute determination.
Nothing was going to sway Jesus from his
executing the plan, the mission that God had
given him.
And that was to die for the sins
of the world.
How did he do this?
Well, he did it by a couple of
ways.
Number one, that is that Jesus performed all
that was necessary.
Hallelujah for this.
He did it all.
Of course, you know, the passage Jesus is
not one jot or one tittle, one little
comma and one little curve of the scribe's
pen concerning the writing of the Hebrew language.
Not one of those little tiny dots will
pass away without the word of God being
completely fulfilled.
He did all that was necessary.
In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, the Bible
says that we ought to look unto Jesus
Christ, who is the author and the finisher
of our faith.
Isn't that great?
How many of you are Christians in here
this morning?
Raise your hand.
You're a Christian.
You can put your hand down.
Don't raise your hand now.
Next person.
But I said, don't raise your hand.
That is, how many of you are considering
becoming a Christian?
Well, God knows about this.
And if you're of any other persuasion, God
knows that as well.
But for those of us who raised our
hand, God started a work in us.
Did you know that?
And he will not stop.
Even though you might think he has, he
hasn't.
He will not stop until he's done.
And when he's done, or I guess when
he goes, mwah, or fini, or yeah, voila,
or whatever you say.
Voila.
It's called death.
What?
Oh, yeah.
Listen, get over it.
Death is a disaster if you don't know
Jesus.
But if you know him, it's voila.
It's when we leave this place that death
is in place, and Jesus gets to behold
the finished work.
He has promised that he will complete that
work that he has started in your life.
He will finish the work.
He's done all that is necessary.
He will complete it.
Jesus directed all that was important.
He directed all that was important.
In Matthew chapter 28, I'll go quickly.
We're out of time.
Jesus said this, Matthew chapter 28, this verse,
this passage of scripture has had probably the
greatest effect upon this church.
God has spoken to my heart at more
critical moments in Matthew chapter 28, verses 18
to 20 than the other passage.
It means so much to me.
Jesus directed all that was important.
When Jesus said, speaking to them, he said,
all authority has been given to me in
heaven and on earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And behold, I am with you always, even
into the end of the age.
Okay, those of you who graduated from logic
class, listen.
If Christ is going to be with you
all the way, all the way to the
end, what ought we to be doing?
Going into all of the world, proclaiming the
gospel, and making disciples worldwide, and baptizing them
in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, right?
There's a built-in promise.
You go, he goes with you.
I'm going to say something.
If you're visiting here at Calvary, you're privileged
today, I guess.
I'm going to say something I've never said
before in this church.
And I don't want to say it again.
Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19,
go, go, go, go, go in the world.
Go, get going, go.
Those of us who raised our hands a
moment ago, we're called Christians.
We're supposed to go.
If we can't go, we're supposed to send.
We have got to stop spending our money
so foolishly, and this is the part that
I've never talked about in eight years as
a church, or however long we've been a
church.
I don't talk about money.
We need to start spending our money with
some spiritual prayer and brains.
We need to start investing in either churches
that are going globally, or if this church
meets your passion for going globally, then bless
the missions ministry of this church.
But if we're not going, then we had
better be senders, or else we are robbing
God.
Read Malachi chapter 3, and see if this
is not true.
Those of us a moment ago who raised
our hands, we are either going on short
-term or long-term missions, or we are
both going and sending, or third option, we
are sending people.
And let me ask you this, don't you
dare respond to me, because I don't want
to know, nor do I know, nor will
I ever know.
But are you tithing to God's work?
Are you investing more in the kingdom of
God than in this kingdom that is going
to be toast momentarily?
Jesus says, lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven where moth or rust or thieves don't
come in and steal.
Where are you investing?
Jesus directed all that was important, all that
was important.
And finally this, Jesus imparted all that was
needed.
What does that mean?
The person of the Holy Spirit.
In John chapter 14, Jesus says that the
Holy Spirit has been with you all this
time, but He said, He will come upon
you, and He shall be in you.
Jesus said in John chapter 16, He says,
it's better for you, can you imagine Him
saying this to you, and I, it's better
for you that I leave you and go
away.
Because if I do not go away, the
Holy Spirit, He won't come to you.
But if I go, I will send Him
to you.
And He will teach you whatsoever I have
commanded you, and He will bring all things
to remembrance.
And lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the age.
Jesus said in His closing remarks, chapter 1,
verse 8, He says, to go to Jerusalem
and wait.
He says, there you will receive power, the
power of the Holy Spirit.
He says, you shall be filled or baptized
with the Holy Spirit, and you shall be
witnesses, the word is martis, martyrs, for me,
both in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the
outermost parts of the world.
For those of us who raised our hands
a moment ago, that's what we do.
Well, Jack, I thought you were going to
go do it for us.
No, I'll do it with you, but I'm
supposed to train you up to help you
go.
How's the church going to grow?
That's God's business.
But we're supposed to be going short-term,
long-term, or ascending, and here's the point,
we're done.
By doing so, we enter in as co
-laborers with Christ into His what?
Mission.
The Great Commission.
It's what He's asked us to do.
You can close your Bible, we're done.
I'm going to ask the worship leaders if
they'll come forward and tell you of something.
In London, about eight months ago, I was
in London, a few months ago or so,
we had a break on our outreaches and
evangelistic outreaches there just off of Piccadilly Circus
there in Leicester Square, and we went as
a team, all of us, and several from
the Calvary Chapel of Westminster, London, England there,
we went and saw Les Miserables, the play
in London.
It had been going on in that same
facility night after night for some 15 years.
Did you know that the author of that
play, and I don't know what they did
to the movie, how they legally got around
it, but did you know the author of
that play demanded, he's gone now from what
I understand, but did you know he demanded
that at the close of that play the
Gospel of Jesus Christ be presented?
Did you know Les Miserables, if you've seen
the play, it's all about Jesus Christ, did
you know that?
The law is pursuing the man who's guilty,
but the grace of Christ comes in and
sets the man free, and at the end
of that wonderful play all of the players
of the play come and stand and join
arms hand in hand.
In London, England we saw this, they lifted
up their hands and they said, will you
please, all of you here tonight, please join,
and this was according to the author of
that wonderful story, they said, will you please
join us in presenting Jesus Christ to the
world that he died for the sins of
mankind and that he grants grace and favor
to all those who put their trust in
him.
That's the mission.
Praise the Lord for our Jesus who loves
us so much.
Amen?