Aloha and welcome back to Amen Podcast.
I'm lucky one of your host, and I'm joined by my husband, Alex,
who is preaching about something that hits close to home for a
lot of us. When Jesus was on the cross, the
men were deserting and the women were distant.
And Alex is going to walk us through what it looks like when
we pull away from God, what we hide behind, why we go distant,
and how He still brings us back. This one is for anyone who's
been present in name but far away in heart.
The verses for today are Matthew 27, verses 55 and 56.
I'll go ahead and read those, and then Alex will take it from
there. There were also many women
there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus
from Galilee, ministering to Him, among whom were Mary
Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the
mother of the sons of Zebedee. Amen.
Welcome back. We're in our Death of Jesus
series and it's been a good time.
And we're looking at verse 55 today and 56.
Verse 55 starts off with saying that there were also many women
there. So where are we?
We are on Golgotha, or as we it's been called in history,
Calvary. This is the death of Jesus.
He just yielded up his spirit in verse 50, and we're looking at
all the things that happened directly after he yields up his
spirit and he breathes his last. And this is like Part 2 of that,
right? So we're in this series that has
many parts, but there's a little Part 2 of the things that
happened directly after he died. Last week we talked about the
curtains splitting, the earthquakes and the rocks
opening, the tombs opening, all that stuff.
But now we look at the women who were present after Jesus died.
So they were present there the whole time during this
crucifixion, and it says many women.
We're going to look at at least three women that are mentioned
and talked about. But there was a lot of women
there, and that's because they have been following Jesus since
the beginning. We'll get into this.
But they accompanied Jesus and the boys and the guys, the
apostles, and helped them cook and clean and take care of
wherever they were staying at the time as they were doing
ministry. But notice it doesn't say many
men. There was many women, but there
wasn't many men. Where are the men?
Well, we can see they have deserted Jesus in the garden.
They first left Jesus, deserted him, ran away.
We see Peter hanging out a little bit at a distance as
Jesus is being charged in the Gospel account.
But the men have deserted Jesus. They are hiding.
And so it is today with men 2000 years later, they're still
deserting Jesus. But not only that, if you, not
just your, your fault, you don't get this deserting problem from
your father or your or your grandpa.
We get it from our first father. Let's go all the way back to
Genesis chapter 3. In Genesis chapter 3 we see 3
different ways that Adam, our first father, deserts God.
In verse 7 it says that he sowed fig leaves.
In verse 8 of chapter 3 it says that he hid behind trees.
Why? He's hiding In his sin.
He's hiding he's deserting because of his sin.
But lastly in verse 12, he hides behind shifting the blame.
He blames Eve. What was the woman who gave me
God? That's why I ate of the tree.
So here's the three ways we desert God and we've been doing
this since the beginning as men and women are grouped into this
too. We desert God by sewing, we
deserve, We desert God by sinning, and we desert God by
shifting. So they sewed fig leaves.
Adam sins. He starts coming up with his own
way to cover his sin. He starts coming up with his own
work. This sewing, take these fig
leaves, cover up my nakedness. What is he doing?
He's hiding behind a work that he's doing.
He's hiding behind this sewing that he's doing.
So my question is, what is your sewing?
What is the thing that you run to or turn to to cover up
something that you've done? Or instead of running to God,
you desert God by running to work or rowing to a sewing
activity of some sort, something that you can do to keep yourself
preoccupied to, you know, hide behind so you don't think about
God. What is your sowing that work
that you turn to? But in verse 8, what is your,
you know, the sin that you're hiding behind?
Notice it says that they run behind some trees.
It this is interesting. The thing that got them in
trouble is that they went to a tree.
And then in verse 8, it says they hid behind trees.
They hid themselves among the trees, It says.
So the thing that got in trouble with is the thing they run back
to. Now this is a different tree,
but that's just a picture of sin.
We, we're distanced from God. We're we desert God in our sin,
but then we keep running back to the same sin, the same trees.
So the question is, what is your tree that you're deserting God
for? What is that tree?
You keep going back to thinking that, listen, they went to the
tree thinking that the tree will give them something that God
won't give them. And they go hide among the
trees, thinking that the trees can give them something that God
can give them. They could have hid themselves
in God, in God's grace and his gentleness, his forgiveness and
his justice, but they chose to hide behind other trees.
So what are those other trees? What is that sin that you're
deserting God for? But then lastly, shifting blame
and verse 12, when God inexplicably and finds them, of
course, because you can't hide from God, he says, Adam, you
know what's going on, What'd you do?
And Adam's like, well, God, I got to shift the blame to Eve.
It's her fault. It was the woman you gave me.
Men desert God. Lastly, by shifting the blame,
men have been blaming their wives since day one.
Well, my life would be different if I didn't have this wife or my
wife would My life would be different if my wife wasn't like
this. We are the culture makers.
We are the we are the leaders of the home.
How dare we shift the blame on our wives or shift the blame on
anyone. We'll blame the mailman for
something or we'll blame our next door neighbor for something
just so that we can desert God. Or we can keep our distance from
God and we run away from God by not taking responsibility and
shifting the blame. So sowing, we desert God for our
our sowing, our sin and our shifting.
But you know, when I play hide and seek with my kids, I've
noticed something. They can't hide from me.
It's just it's inevitable I'm going to find them.
They snicker, they laugh, they fart, they do all this kind of
different things. It makes it easy to find them.
And what's interesting is the younger a kid is, the worse they
are at hiding because the younger kids like live and, and
Luke, for example, maybe not Luke as much, but he's coming
out of this stage. But there's a stage in early
development called object permanence.
And what it means is an object doesn't permeate or become
permanent in their mind if they can't see it.
And so if they sit in the middle of the room with a blanket on
them, they think I'm hiding from Dad.
Why? Because they can't see Dad.
If they can't see me, they think I can't see them.
And we are like this in our spirituality, in our walk with
God. We lack God's permanence in our
life. Not that he's not permanent, but
that we'd lack that he that that we think he's permanent.
We lack a spiritual object permanence.
We think if I can't see God, God can't see me.
So if I hide behind this sewing activity, this work that I can
cover myself up with, if I hide behind my sin in the darkness of
my sin, if I hide behind that, then God can't see me.
Or if I hide in shifting the blame, then God can't see that
I'm the one to blame. So we think because if we can't
see him, he doesn't see us. And The thing is, at times it
does work for a short stint, like if we, if we sew enough,
you know, SEW, we do forget about God.
We get buried in our work. If we do keep on sinning enough,
God is on the, you know, farthest point of our brains.
We don't think about him at all when we're deep in our sin.
But also on top of that, when we're shifting the blame, it's
very easy to think that, you know, God can't possibly see
what's in me if I'm always focusing and shifting the blame
onto this person. So again, if we can't see God,
we think he doesn't see us, but it just doesn't work.
It's inevitable He sees us. It's like my kids trying to hide
from me in my own home. I will find them.
But look at verse the second part of verse 55.
Because the women are not off the hook here too.
It says that many women were there also looking on from a
distance. So the women are present, but
they're distant. And this isn't the first time
that you see this in Scripture. 1000 years before this, there's
a Psalm, Psalm 38, that's written and in verse 11 it says
that my friends and nearest kin have distanced themselves from
me. So the psalmist is saying, at my
lowest when I needed help, I was alone and rejected and deserted
and also distanced from his closest friends and nearest kin
distance themselves. Now that part nearest kin and
friends is going to come back later.
So pay attention to that. They were present but distant.
Now someone who is present and not distant, present and near is
Mary, Jesus's mom. In John chapter 19 verse 25, we
see the same account of the crucifixion.
And John is highlighting who was nearest to Jesus when Jesus was
on the cross. And one of the seven last
sayings of Jesus is when he says, woman, behold your son,
son, behold your mother. And he was talking to John the
beloved and he was saying, John, can you please take care of my
mom when I'm gone? And not that when he, you know,
definitely when he's gone to those three days being dead, but
also when he ascends into heaven.
Like, can you look out for my mom?
Because it's the oldest son's job to take care of the mom.
And he says, you know, I'm going to take care of her by giving
her my Holy Spirit that's going to live within her by saving
her. Mary was a Sinner who needed a
savior, just as you, just as me, just as everybody else.
Some huge heresy that the Catholics get wrong.
She needed a Savior and Jesus was providing salvation for her.
But he is looking out for his mom and saying, hey, I want you
to go with John. And John does take her to
basically be like his mom. He, the Bible says in John
chapter 19 that John takes Mary into his home to take care of
her. OK, so Mary is there and also
John is there. They're at the foot of the
cross. They're very close.
They were close. Are you close?
Where are you in this situation? The women, the other women who
were present but distant, following in line with that
prophecy of of Psalms 38 verse 11.
Why are they distant and how do we know they're distant?
They're distant and women today are present but distant.
Women today, they're the first to sign up for a ministry.
They, they come to more Bible studies than men.
They church attendance. Historically, if you go to
websites like the Barna Group that looks at statistics on
church attendance and church correspondence today, you'll
find that women, especially more so in the past, have vastly
outnumbered men in attendance. Women are they're, they're down
to show up, but are they present?
These women in this story, they showed up, but were they
present? No, they were they were present,
but they were distant. Why?
This is not what they signed up for.
I mean, this was they've seen Jesus do miracles, feed the
5000. They've heard about his walking
on water. They weren't in the boat when it
happened, but they they've seen Jesus heal people, lepers, the
lame, bring dead people back to life.
If they were anywhere near the vicinity when God when Jesus
rose, the young lady, there was women present when Jesus rose
Lazarus, they'd seen all of it. But this was not at all what
they thought would happen now their Savior, their Lord, their
Messiah was on a cross. And so they were scared, they
were fearful and so they were distant.
How do we see this today in our in our world?
Women can be present with distant and it's seen and
they're showing us OK, so if we desert God through our sewing,
through our sin, through our shifting, women are distance
themselves from God because of their showiness, meaning they're
present at church, but it's a show their their lips honor God,
but their hearts are far from God.
How many women in our church today are struggling with
immodesty, struggling with just being fake, just being the nice,
kind, smiling, wear the dress, Christian girl, but not really
close to God. In their hearts they're present,
but they're distant because we've been Women have been told
girls are made of sugar, spice, and everything nice.
This is all about what it means to be a woman.
You need to be smile and nod, smile and wave, smile and wave.
And women have fallen suit to that.
And So what? What's become of it is
showiness. They're present, but they're
distant in their hearts. How do we change this?
Well, we're going to get into that, but just some more
evidence of how they were present but not distant.
Look at verse. I mean present but distant.
Sorry. In verse, the end of verse 55,
it says they had followed Jesus from Galilee.
What does that mean? Day one, they've been with Jesus
since day one, since he started his ministry.
Galilee is where Jesus is from Jesus of Galilee, Jesus of
Nazareth is that connected places.
Now not only that they were ministering to him to minister
in this verse means to wait upon or to take care of or to serve
or to help to host. It means also to host someone.
So Jesus was homeless, so he they went from house to house,
place to place as they did ministry and the women would
join them and host them like go into this new he plays, cook
them meals, make sure they had everything that they needed to
keep on doing ministry and they loved doing it.
Being with Jesus, being in his presence was so exciting every
day. You get to see Jesus, hear him
teach, you get to see him do miracles.
You get to see how the God in the flesh helping people,
talking to people, holding hands with someone.
It was beautiful to hang around him.
So they loved doing it. Where was that same energy when
he was on the cross? You see what I'm saying?
They're present, but they're distant.
They had been ministering with him since day one.
Where was that same energy? The question, you know, of
today's culture is it's, you know, is it all a show?
Is it all a show? Are you really doing it with
your mind or with your heart? You should be doing it with
both. You know, if it's just your
heart, you're not putting thought into it, or if it's just
your mind, you're not putting heart into it.
It was both. Both of those could be a
problem. So are they really close to
Jesus in this scene? They're not.
They're distant and because of fear.
But praise God that they were even there, that they were
present because you think about Timothy's example with Paul.
Paul tells Timothy, a young pastor, Thank God for your mom
and your grandma who prayed over you and walked you through the
things of the faith. So better to be there than not
there, you know. And the men through the history
of the church have deserted God, but at least the women have been
present. We're going to talk about why
that's important even in these verses today.
So women, we need you to show up.
But before we get into that and men, of course, we need you to
show up too. Look at verse 56.
Here are the some of the women that are mentioned.
Among them were Mary Magdalene. Now Mary Magdalene is one of the
first time she's mentioned is Luke chapter 8 verse 2.
It says that she had seven
demons in her and God delivered her.
Jesus delivered her. But she's also mentioned in Mark
chapter 1540 through 41 at the cross.
So in Mark's account, she's mentioned being at the cross and
then also in Mark's account, she's mentioned being at scene
where they laid the body of Jesus.
Mark chapter 15, verse 47. So Mary was there when Jesus
died. She saw Jesus die.
She saw where Jesus was laid. She also, we see her at the
resurrection site. You know, she's one of the first
people that speaks to Jesus and Jesus.
Remember the time that Mary thought Jesus was the gardener
and and then when Jesus says Mary, she says Rabboni or
teacher, it is you. And so Mary's there, Mary
Magdalene is there the whole time, but there's another Mary.
This is Mary the mother of James and Joseph, as it says in verse
56 of our main text today, Matthew 27.
Mary the mother of James and Joseph.
Now this gets interesting because the first time we hear
about this James, right, Mary the mother of James and Joseph.
So we know this is not Salome. The Salome is the mother of
James and John, right? Zebedee's wife, the sons of
Zebedee, sons of Thunder, Peter, James and John.
They went with Jesus to more places than the other disciples
went, like secret missions. They went with Jesus.
This is a different James. Throughout history, he's been
called James the Less or James the Younger, not because he was
less important than James, the brother of John, the son of
Zebedee, but because he was possibly shorter or even more
possible younger. So he's called James the the
Less. Again, he, his mom's name is
Mary, just like Jesus's mom's name is Mary.
But not to be confused with James the the apostle who wrote
the letter of James. They have the same mom, Jesus
and James. OK.
And so this kind of gets confusing.
This is how we know it's real because it's confusing.
No made-up fictional book author would have given all these
people the same name if he wanted his book to sell or if he
wanted people to read his book. So we know that these accounts
line up and they're biblical and they're historical and they're
accurate because of these little indiscrepancies.
But Mary not to be confused with Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary
the mother of James and Joseph. In Matthew chapter 10 verse 3 is
the first time we see this James and this James.
James the Less had a brother named Joseph who wasn't a
disciple. Now it says in Matthew chapter
10 verse three that James the son of Alpheus, James the son of
Alpheus. So who is Alpheus?
Alpheus is Mary the mother of James, Joseph's husband.
And Alpheus and Clopas are the same.
Translation of the same Greek word the the different
translation of the same Greek word.
So Alpheus and Clopus are the same people.
Also Cleopus is the same person as Clopus.
It's just a different way to spell it.
Why is that all important? Because in in Luke chapter 24,
verse 13 through 35, we see Jesus risen from the dead
walking on the road to Emmaus with a guy named Clopus or
Cleopus or Clopus or Alpheus. So that means James the less who
was a disciple, his dad hung out with the risen Lord, the
resurrected Lord and didn't know it at the time.
If you read that story and they go to Cleopas's house and they
Jesus goes to Cleopas's house, has dinner with them.
So the question is, was James there?
James the less. Mary was most definitely there
'cause Mary was Cleopas's wife, James LS and Joseph, you know's
mom. So she was there at the
crucifixion, present but distant, but she was also having
dinner with the risen Lord days later.
So this is heavy because there's a Jewish Christian from the 2nd
century named Hagasipus. Now the first century is where
Jesus lived, right? The double digits?
Jesus died in around 33 AD. The 2nd century would be the one
hundreds. OK102103 Adad is Latin for the
year of our Lord. A no Damoni.
We base our calendar off of not when Buddha lived, not when
Joseph Smith lived, not when Muhammad lived.
We base our calendar off of when Jesus came to earth.
He is that influential, that important.
It's 2025 AD right now because of Jesus. 26 Sorry, 2026 because
Jesus came 2026 years ago. That's why we, that's what we
base our calendar for. That was transformative for me
when I first became a Christian. This Jewish Christian from the
2nd century, Hagasipus is quoted by Eusebus Eusebius or you?
Yeah, Eusebius is the father of church history and he comes
around in the 4th century and in the 4th century this Eusebius
from Caesarea not not to be confused with another Eusebius
at the time in the 4th century. This Eusebius quotes Hagasipus
in saying what Clopas is the brother of Joseph, Jesus's dad.
So all throughout church history, we have seen that this
Clopas is Jesus's uncle on his dad's side.
So step uncle, right? Which means Mary, who was
present at the crucifixion, is Jesus's aunt and James their son
Mary and Clopis's son James. And Joseph was Jesus's cousin
through marriage. So that means one of the
disciples, and there's more, we'll talk about it later.
One of the disciples was Jesus's cousin through marriage.
You know, we know that John the Baptist was Jesus's cousin.
Biological was first cousin because Elizabeth and Mary were
cousins. But James the Less, one of the
James of the disciples, was also Jesus's cousin.
So when Psalms 38 verse 11 says that my friends and my nearest
of kin have deserted me, that is actually biblically accurate
because James the Less was not just Jesus's friend, meaning
they grew up together. They're cousins, but on top of
that he was Jesus's kin and they deserted and he deserted Jesus
and so his aunt is their present, but there's another
woman that's present. This is look at verse 56, it
says Mary, the mother of James and Joseph and then the mother
of the sons of Zebedee. Now who is the mother of the
sons of Zebedee? We have to do a little Bible
study to find out who she is. And Mark chapter 15 verse 40, it
says that Salome is present at the crucifixion.
So who is Salome? Let's let's dig deeper.
Let's go to John's account. John chapter 19 verse 25.
We have the suspicion that the mother of the sons of Zebedee
and Salome could be the the same person.
We have to study to show ourselves, approved to study a
little bit more to find out. John chapter 19 verse 25, which
we've mentioned before, it says all the people who are
mentioned. Let's go and read that together.
John chapter 19 verse 25, it says that but standing by the
cross of Jesus were his mother, Mary his mother, his mother's
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.
Now historians have disputed this because look at where the
coma is. It says that Mary the mother of
Jesus was there, his mother's sister Comma, Mary the wife of
Clopas Comma and Mary Magdalene. So is Mary's sister Mary the
wife of Clopas? Or is Mary's sister Salome?
You see what I'm saying? So both of them are aunts and
I'll explain how. But which one is it?
Many, many commentators and historians have dug deeper and
decided that Mary's sister, although not named, is Salome
and Mary the the mother of Clopas.
It's a different aunt right through marriage on Joseph's
side, but Siloam and Mary are sisters most likely.
We can't know with 100% certainty, but I would argue
that that is what it is. Here's why.
In Matthew chapter 20, verses 20 through 21, Siloam comes up to
Jesus and says, can James and John, my kids, the sons of
Zebedee, can they sit on your right hand and your left when
you come into your Kingdom? So that is an outrageous thing
for her to ask if James and John are just like disciples, just
disciples. Where does she get the backbone
to ask a question like this? And so Jesus is like, you don't
even know the cup of suffering I'm going to have to drink from.
Now at the crucifixion, she sees the cup of suffering.
She sees exactly why Jesus said no, because they would not be
able to do what Jesus did to get that throne, to lay down his
life like that. So now she's like humbled by
that. But again, let's look at her
claim and her ask. That is a big ask, but it's not
that big if she's Jesus's aunt. It's not that big if she's seen
Jesus in diapers. It's not that big if she's
changed Jesus's diapers. It's not that big if Jesus was
there when James and John his first cousins were born.
If in John chapter 19 verse 25 by saying Mary was there, Mary's
sister was there, Mary the Cloepis was there, you can see
why John wouldn't want to put Mary, Mary, Mary or I'm sorry
Mary. He didn't want to confuse it all
so he just puts Mary's sister Salome.
If that's true then that means James and John the sons of
Zebedee were Jesus first cousins which means they.
This also explains this six times in the book of John.
John refers to himself, right? In the Gospel of John, he refers
to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Again, that would sound very arrogant to to pit himself
against all the other disciples if he wasn't actually Jesus's
best friend, if they weren't childhood friends, first cousins
who have gone all throughout their life with them.
It also explains how quickly they are to leave their dad when
Jesus calls them to be disciples.
It was a matter of, oh, hey, dad, Jesus, your nephew,
remember how like perfect he was all the time?
Remember how like wise he was when we're at dinner and he
would just say stuff that was like, so beyond his ears?
Remember that time he was 12 and he was preaching in the in the
temple? Yeah, that Jesus, he's actually
going to become a rabbi, and we love him like we're going to
follow him. What would Zebedee say?
Of course. Go ahead.
I love Jesus. It's an honor.
We have a rabbi in our family. It's a huge honor in the 1st
century. So it explains so much how
Salome would be the blood aunt of Jesus.
But still, she's distant and present.
I mean, she's present but distant.
So even being blood related, even being nearest of kin is not
enough for them to be near in heart and in mind to the Lord.
So where is the redemption of this?
Well, eventually the men stopped hiding.
Eventually the men stopped deserting Jesus.
They never deserted Jesus this bad ever again.
They're there at Pentecost. They're there in the in the book
of Acts. They, they stopped deserting.
Why, how, how do we as men stop deserting Jesus?
Well, we have to see that Jesus never deserted God and yet he
was deserted on the cross. So we would see that God would
never desert us and also see that even that he took our
punishment so we could be with God.
So Jesus was deserted by the Father, even though he never
deserted the Father. So the Father would not have to,
in his justice desert us because God is just because he is good,
He is right and and He would be right in deserting us.
But because because God is loving and and perfect and and
honest and merciful, he comes up with a plan with the Son in
cahoots with the sun to save us. So Jesus vindicating the justice
of God and satisfying the love of God, is deserted by the
Father on the cross for those three hours that we talked
about. And an infinite amount of wrath
fell on him in that moment, so it wouldn't have to fall on you.
The men eventually saw that it clicked for them and that's what
changed them. That knowledge of who God is
change them forever. And they never deserted God like
this again. They still made mistakes.
We still, we see Peter make mistakes and Paul has to call
him out. There's mistakes that are made,
but they never desert God like this again.
And when you really get saved, when you really get transformed
and you really start following him, you never desert God the
way that you used to desert him. Now look at the women.
The women actually carry the witness and they eventually
stopped being distant. What I mean by that is Matthew
wasn't there when he was writing about this.
He's with the other boys that have deserted Jesus.
So how does he get this account? Mary, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the
mother of James and Joseph Cloepis's wife, but also Salome
there. These women are present at the
crucifixion. Some of them are present at the
resurrection. They carry the witness.
Now this goes from being a group of women who are practicing
their showiness and just being a part of the scene to a group of
women who are willing to stand up and speak even if their life
is on the line. Listen, for a woman to stand up
and say no, I saw him raise, could have got her killed.
For a woman to go against a man's witness and say, no, you
think he's dead, I know he's alive, could have got them
killed. So at some point it stopped
being about being present but distant.
At some point it stopped being about just putting on a show and
and going through the motions and lip service.
At some point it stopped how they saw Jesus was always
present, and yet he never distanced himself from God.
With every person, every kid, every girl, every man, every
woman, every boy, everyone he talked to, he was completely
present. And he never distanced himself
with God. He always pursued God and would
often go off and pray to the Father.
And even though Jesus was like that all the time on the cross,
the Father is not present. On the cross, the Father
distance himself from Jesus. The Father's wrath is present,
but this, this closeness to Jesus is not present.
He's distanced from God on the cross not because he deserved
it, but because we deserved it. When they saw that, it stopped
being about a show to them. It stopped being about lip
service and start started being about ultimate devotion and
love. And even a sliver of that is
present. And that's why they're present
and not distant. And thank God for that sliver
because we have the gospel account and the witness because
of these women. And John, I'll end with this.
In Genesis chapter 3, verse 21, it says that God clothes Adam
and Eve after they desert God, after they distance themselves
from God, God clothes them. It's the first Euan Gellion, the
first gospel where it says that God killed a lamb and use the
wool to cover them, cover their nakedness to give them clothes.
So God clothes them. That's our redemption story,
that when we desert and distance ourselves from God, he's still
clothed us. He's still he.
You are still clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
But not only that, right after that, in Genesis chapter 322
through 24, it shows us that God drove them out of the garden and
then put a flaming sword there to make sure that they don't go
back in and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why? If they ate of the tree of life,
I'm sorry. Make sure they didn't get into
the tree of life. They already ate from the tree
of knowledge, good and evil. They're already in sin.
But they ate of the if they ate of the tree of life, they would
be stuck in their sin forever. And that is hell.
Eternal sin is hell. And so he drove them out.
It's not a, it's not a gentle suggestion.
He drove them out. He forcefully pushed them out to
protect them. Seeing what this would do to
them, he drove them out. God in Christ has driven you out
of your old life, driven you out of hell, driven you out of your
sin. Why it wasn't a suggestion.
He's not suggesting. Please come to me.
Just think about, just consider when Jesus says come to me,
that's an effectual call. He's saying those whom God has
chosen and elected, they will come to me because God is
driving them out of their old lives, driving them out of sin,
eternal punishment, eternal hell.
They do not have a choice and at the same time they have a
choice. It's kind of paradoxical, but
the point is, thank God that when like us, like our father
and mother, Adam and Eve, we would have went back into the
garden and kept eating of the tree of life and been stuck in
our sin forever. We know we would have, we would
have stayed the way that we were deserting him and dissing
themselves, dissing ourselves. But thank God in Christ and
praise be to God that he drove us out of that to protect us.
When you really see this, like the men and women in our
crucifixion story today, when you see this, you'll stop
deserting God. You'll realize I can't desert
God. I can't distance myself from
God. What can separate me from the
love of God in Christ Jesus? What distance could have come
between me and God in Christ? Absolutely none.
How could I outrun God? How could I desert the one who
made the Sahara Desert? How could I?
I can't. This was bigger than them.
All the disciples who deserted Jesus, all the the women who
were present but distant. It was bigger than them.
Christ knew. He knew way back in Psalms 38
verse 11 when He was speaking through the psalmist that this
would happen. He knew it was plan A, not Plan
B. He knew what it would take to
close that distance to refresh that desert between US and God.
And He willingly did it because of how much He loves us when the
men and women in our story saw that love and everyone back to
the way they used to live. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for how you've spoken through your
word, even this these two verses that are jam packed with so much
history, so much knowledge of your intricate design and
calling people to be a part of your story.
And we're just like those people in the story.
Although not hardly as significant as them in their
role, You still love us just as much as you love them.
You love all of us like Augustine says you love us all
as if we were one. And Lord, you, you call see a
part of your story just like these people in our in our story
today. And we pray that we would not
try to distance ourselves that we've no longer desert you,
Lord, because you are much greater and bigger than that.
And we love you and we thank you and your name, we pray.
Amen, Amen. This is the part of the episode
called After the Amen where we ask you a question to help apply
this message to your life. Our question for you today is
how are you deserting or distancing?
How are you deserting or distancing yourself from God?
I'll answer 1st and then it's your turn.
I first, I just have to say like, This is why preaching is
so important. And I think, and it is a
spiritual gift and it's we're so grateful you're here with us, of
course, listening to this podcast.
And Alex says like just dedication to studying the text.
And yeah, that you're able to hear the word preached through
that study. And This is why we also believe
it's so important to sit under a biblically sound pastor who
preaches the word of God and shows the study, shows himself
approved through his study. Because I think like if you just
quickly read over this, you wouldn't capture all of those
things, you know, and we're supposed to study the word for
ourself as well. But there's just also a
spiritual gift, you know, that really opens up the text and
helps you really understand and applies things.
And it's just a beautiful gift. And so just wanted to say that
first to reference everything but.
Yeah, I think, yeah, it was just so good and so spot on.
And I totally, I love how you're saying like what?
Once you've truly experienced, like his saving grace, like you,
you cannot desert or distance him again.
And I think, of course, in our flesh, there's little things
that we do, but ultimately he draws us back just like he drove
him out of the garden, like you were saying.
And I, yeah, I think it's just, it's similar.
I, I think what really stood out to me was like what you had
brought up and what I was also just like recognizing too,
before you brought it up while you're preaching was just like
them being a part of his ministry since they want the
women being a part of his ministry since day one, like
ministering to him. And I was thinking the same
thing. Like it's like when it's good or
when things are exciting, it's fun to minister.
It's fun to serve. It's fun to be a part of like
whatever's going on at the church or whatever, you know,
we're doing in the name of the Lord.
But like when things are bloody and messy and hard, like where
are we going to be? Like?
Are we going to have that same devotion and commitment or we're
going to distance ourselves? And I think it's really cool
that how you were saying that Mary and like Mary Jesus mother
got to be specific in this section and John were like
present, like the present and present, like there and fully
present as well. Like they were near.
And so I think that's cool because like you see just in
their stories in ushering in Christ, like Mary becoming a
virgin before, while she's, you know, very married, not becoming
a virgin, marry a virgin, becoming a mom before she's
married. Everyone knows she's engaged to
be married. And the hard task that is like
people are not going to believe me, like they're not going to
believe. But she bought with that for a
second, but she submitted to it when she had that encounter with
Angel. And like the same thing with
John, like he's like he chose to live just very differently.
It's just so crazy, like like they like people who truly
experienced the fullness of just who Jesus is.
Like they really knew him. They weren't just related to
him. Like they weren't just because
there's what we see other relatives in the story too, who
are at a distance, but like it wasn't just their relationship,
like their relative relationship with Christ, but like they
really knew him. They knew who he was and they
believed like what God revealed. And so I think that is so
beautiful. And it's like what you're
saying, just like when we truly have been transformed by the
gospel, like we, we won't distance or desert ourselves
because it doesn't matter if it's like the hardest, you're in
the thick of the hardest type of ministry or just hardest season
of suffering as a Christian. Like we don't just show up when
things are fun and exciting and we're getting praised or we're
getting recognition for how we're serving or what we're
doing or whatever. Like we just keep showing up
because we know we believe and we know Jesus.
Yeah. And so I think, yeah, I can
definitely in my flesh try to deserve a distance.
But it is true like, like it's his work and it's his work still
working in me now. So it was his work to save me.
And it's still his work drawing me back in when I'm like, oh, I
got to like I shared kind of last week ago.
I got to, like, distance myself a little bit to clean up or to
distract from maybe shame or to just even figure out why maybe
other people are not treating me well, you know, like it.
That must be a God's like view. But he always brings me back and
reveals the truth. And it's just, like, once again,
we have nothing to do with it. Like, we all gore goes to him,
you know, And so it's so. But yeah, this is just
thrilling. Yeah.
It's, it's crazy that like one thing that John Piper talks
about and Dane Ortland and many others, that Christianity is the
happiest religion and it's own. I like what Dane Ortland calls
it. He says it's almost
embarrassingly happy. It's almost like embarrassing
how happy we can be because of the gospel.
You know, it's growing up evangelical in the church.
It would have been so easy to end this sermon like you need to
close the gap between you and God.
You need to stop deserting God. You need to stop distancing
yourself from God. And that is how this type, these
type of messages are really often preached.
And they're effective because then people leave with this
condemnation and shame and they're like, I got to do
better, OK, I'm signing up for a ministry.
I'm going to start giving more. I'm going to stop doing this and
stop doing that. And and while all that is
important, your motive behind it is huge, very important.
If you're doing it because you think God will be happy with you
if you do it, then you shouldn't do it.
If you're doing it because you know God is already happy with
you and you have the time outside of your responsibilities
of taking care of your family and taking care of your own
relationship with the Lord and all that kind of stuff, your own
job that you have to afford. Like if you have time for it,
then sure, do it. But like you said, it has
nothing to do with us being able to close that gap.
We can't like an overflow of gratitude.
Yeah. Yeah.
What were we saying? Oh, I just said it's out of it.
Like overflow of gratitude for what he's done.
That's why we serve. Not because we think we have so
much to offer the world or we're trying to win his favor.
It's just, it's just crazy that like we, like you said, we
desert God, we distance ourselves, but then we also
can't, we can't like how can a kid distance themselves
ultimately forever from their father if their father is just
loving, good and beautiful father?
What we see is the kids always come back.
They may have their teenage years or whatever, but they come
back. Look at the the story of the
prodigal son. You know, the father was just
too good. So the son came back, the
father's love, even out in a distant land was still drawing
that that young man back to his home and it and it worked.
And so it is with us. We always come back to him
because of how good he is and he's greater than us.
His riches and mercy and grace and his love is so much bigger
than any kind of deserting or distancing or sin that we find
ourselves in our fig leaves we try to sew together.
So it's just really encouraging. And then I read Peter this
morning. Peter was saying, Peter says
this phrase more than once in his in his two letters that he
sends out to these exiles, these Christians scattered all along
the 1st century. He says, may you grow in the
grace of and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And he always comes back to that, that the the thing that is
most important for them to do is to grow in the grace and the
knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now you might be saying, how is
that possible for them if they didn't have a Bible?
Like we have a Bible and not only that, we have Bibles with
numbers. You know, there's a lot of
people who had handwritten Bibles in the 5th, 6th, 7th
century didn't have numbers. We have this beautiful numbering
system where it's Matthew 27 verse 55.
You know, we that's nice. So we can look up individual
stuff. They didn't have any of that.
All they had was Paul's letters. And if you read the second
letter of Peter, Peter actually likens Paul's letters to
scripture. He says that people get reject
Paul's letters or misconstrue Paul's letters as they do other
scriptures. So he's, he knows Paul is
writing and speaking the words of God because Paul is an
apostle called by the risen Lord Jesus, which is a the physical
risen Lord Jesus, which is a criteria of being a, an apostle
called by the physical Lord. And so not because you had a
dream and you're an apostle now or whatever God physical form
Jesus called you. And so Peter's like Paul's words
are scripture. And so it's just that's all they
had was these letters, but they didn't have as much as we had.
So what does that mean? That means if you are struggling
to read the Bible, you know, as I talked to young, young people
at our church who grew up in Hawaii and there's terrible
education system here and they're just like, I struggle so
much to read the Bible. I understand.
But know that the first, the first Christians, a lot of them
didn't have Bibles. And if they do did, there was
one book at a time. They didn't have the full thing.
And so an education was even worse back then.
And so the grace and the knowledge of Lord Jesus, how do
we grow in it? Reliance on the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit can speak God's truth to your heart.
He does. Distant islands where people
have no connection to the real, the the modern world.
They meet God without a Bible. So does that mean we should just
not read our Bibles? Of course not.
If you have such a great resource in your lap, in your
chapter or in your library, then take advantage of it.
Read His word, it's sharper than any 2 edged sword.
It'll transform you. How dare we those who can read
even if we only know 10 words? How dare we not try to find
those 10 words in scripture if we've been given this absolute
treasure. But at the same time, if you are
completely illiterate and blind and can't read, God is much
bigger than your shortcomings. And so we rely on God when we
open up Scripture. If we are without a time of
intense Bible reading it or a season of that, we still rely on
God and his Holy Spirit to to help us grow and the grace and
the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so because I read that right
before I started studying and preparing the last finish
touches on the message, I was like, you know what, I'm going
to throw all this family tree stuff in because it, it may seem
obscure, but it's important that we see that three of the
disciples were Jesus's cousins, 2 by blood, one by marriage.
That's so important because I just give us a rich history of
who these apostles are, who Christ was, that he was a real
living 1st century Jewish male with cousins that he fished
with, that he walked with, that he hung out with, that he went
through puberty with. This is a real 100% man all at
the same time. They followed him and gave their
lives to him because he was also 100% God.
And that's huge just for our image of who our Savior is.
So glad you guys got to learned some of that.
Some of you guys might have known that already, but we love
you guys. Thanks for being here.
I would not be able to have this time of extensive study and week
in and week out writing these sermons and doing this in
detailifitwasntforyougiving@amenpodcast.com. So the way pastors and priests
have always made a living, some more successful than others.
Some have to do it by vocationally or God forbid, try
vocationally, meaning they have to work other jobs outside of
their ministry. But since the institution of the
Tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament, it has been God's
plan that those who minister are taken care of by the people
they're ministering to. And that very much is our story.
You know, since AIM and podcast really started to grow, I
haven't had to work another job. And that allows me to do this
full time. It also allows me to be present
with my family and not distant, you know.
And then also we can do house church.
And house church is very small. And so even if you know, yeah,
house Church is just a little small thing we do on the side,
but that all the money for that goes back into house church.
And so this is very much our job and we can't do it without you.
And we have some really good things planned for this podcast
to bring you to allow you to support more, but also bring you
further in into what we do here at Ayman Podcast and at House
Church. And we're going to meet about
that today after this. And so we're excited about that.
But we love you guys so much. You can also rate and review
this podcast on Spotify and Apple, like and subscribe on
YouTube. Also, if you want to rate and
review the house church podcast, there's a house church podcast.
If you're on Spotify, you can go to the tab that says more like
this and you'll see house church by Alex Wilson.
You can rate and review that. It's essentially these messages,
but live to our house church audience and that's a lot of
fun. You can rate and review an Apple
podcast, the house Church podcast.
You can also like and subscribe to the house Church YouTube
channel. Those are all great ways to
support us. And and last but not least,
following us on Instagram to keep up with little quotes and
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want to post in your story and encourage your community.
It's a good way for people to get introduced to Amen podcast.
So that's a lot of help. And yeah, you can find all that
kind of stuff at amenpodcast.com or in the description.
And with that said, we love you guys and we'll see you in the
next one. Until then, go out and be the
church. Amen.