Lift High the Cross

[00:00:00] In the name of jesus, amen. [00:00:07] I want to first puzzle over a line from the Gospel. Reading from Matthew, chapter 10. [00:00:17] I'm in verse 24, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. [00:00:27] So we're establishing a hierarchy here. Jesus is right. [00:00:31] Who's above the teacher? The master. [00:00:35] And of course, he's the teacher and the master. [00:00:39] It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. [00:00:45] If they have called the master of the house Baalzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household? [00:00:56] I want to talk about the word Beelzebul for a moment here. [00:01:04] Beelzebul. [00:01:06] Have you ever seen it? Beelzebub. [00:01:09] Okay, which is it? It's kind of a question. [00:01:12] And apparently it's more a more modern thing to say. It was Beelzebul. [00:01:19] And traditionally we've said it's Beelzebub. You know, I'm not a Bible scholar. And the cool thing is that both work and looking at them both together is helpful. [00:01:34] So first of all, we're talking about the prince of demons. You've seen it that way too, I bet. Okay, like by the prince of demons, he casts out demons. [00:01:47] But Beelzebul means like master of the high dwelling, which is certainly how the prince of demons would see himself as the master of the high dwelling. [00:01:59] And it's interesting because Jesus is calling himself the master of the house, of the household. [00:02:07] Right? If they have called the master of the house Jesus Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household? [00:02:17] Beelzebub means master of the flies or lord of the flies. You might know it from that book that we had to read in high school. [00:02:32] I still don't get it. [00:02:35] Sorry. Whoever likes that? [00:02:39] But you see the contrast there, right? It's either like, master of the high dwelling or master of the flies. [00:02:53] Master of life, master of death. [00:02:58] Because the first thing I think of when I think of like, flies is maybe that emoji that gets used way too often. [00:03:08] Little pile of dung. [00:03:11] Say it politely, right? But that's not the most shocking picture of flies. [00:03:23] Flies are drawn to the carcass. [00:03:27] Flies are drawn to death. [00:03:29] The prince of demons is certainly the master of flies that are drawn to death. [00:03:37] Now, I don't think that the demons see it quite that way. [00:03:42] I mean, sure, they want our death. They want the decay of what God wants to build up. [00:03:50] They want to undermine God's purposes. But the devil sees himself as in the highest place or wants to against all hope. [00:04:05] But from God's perspective, He is the master of the flies. [00:04:11] He is not on the mountaintop. He's not on the pinnacle. He's not on the throne. [00:04:19] He. He's on the carcass. He goes where death is. [00:04:29] In Romans. [00:04:31] This morning, Paul says, for the wages of sin is death. [00:04:36] But the gift of God is. [00:04:42] Get this exactly right. Eternal life is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [00:04:52] So which are we pursuing? [00:04:57] Paul sets them both before us and says, the wages of sin is death. So are you going to go for sin? [00:05:04] The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Which are you going to go for? [00:05:12] Don't consider yourselves slaves of sin. Consider yourselves slaves of God. Don't present your members to sin as slaves for unrighteousness. Present your members to God as slaves for, you know, as instruments for righteousness. [00:05:28] See, we're between these two things. Or if we're talking Beelzebul, Beelzebub, death as. As below, right? And life as above, then it's kind of like we're between these two things. Are we going to turn to death and decay and to return to the earth and the decomposition to nothing? Or are we going to turn toward God and receive the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord? [00:05:56] We're going to be lifted into the refuge, as the psalm says. [00:06:00] Lifted up. [00:06:04] Just read it as it is, right? [00:06:09] You'll say to God, oh, he who dwells in the shelter of the most High, in the shelter of the most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. [00:06:19] We're going to be taken up into the refuge, Jesus Christ, our mighty fortress, or throw ourselves into the pit and accept destruction and death? Because the wages of sin is death. [00:06:35] But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, the choice seems really easy, right? Like, well, of course, let's just choose life, you know, like refuge or pit. [00:06:50] Refuge, safety, not death is the obvious choice. [00:06:57] But the choice isn't obvious for us, right? [00:07:02] Unless we're enlightened by the Holy Spirit and given his gifts. Unless we see things from God's perspective, having the mind of Christ, it's not really all that obvious. See, if we think it's obvious and we just pursue life instead of death, then our choices are easy. [00:07:25] Are you going to tell the truth and accept your just reward, even if it means losing something that you would rather hold onto? Or are you going to save your skin and throw Somebody else under the bus. [00:07:44] Well, let's see, are you going for life or death, gain or loss? [00:07:52] Then like, well, if you're called to do the opposite and take your just punishment and accept the consequences of your actions, but then that's flipping it upside down. Now you're willingly taking on the loss or death or. [00:08:08] It's actually a lot more complicated than it looks. [00:08:18] See, looking out for ourselves above all things, fighting for our life or for gain, trying to put ourselves up into the heavens and enjoy life, have paradise on earth by our own means, from an earthly perspective, setting our minds on the things of men and on the flesh, that actually brings death. [00:08:43] That's how Satan fell from heaven, like lightning. [00:08:47] By ascending in the wrong way, by grasping for power. [00:08:54] He fell. [00:08:57] See, he's still grasping for power and he's falling, you could say. [00:09:03] And we do the same when we pursue our own good, when we are serving ourselves, when we are disobeying God and obeying sin. [00:09:16] It feels like ascending. [00:09:18] We are not trying to undo ourselves, but in doing so, we undo ourselves. We choose decay. [00:09:28] Something like gossip gives us a leg up, right? It feels good and it maybe lifts us up while tearing others down. And really what's happening is a body, whether a family or a marriage or a church or whatever it is, business, a school is being decomposed by it. [00:09:54] Because the wages of sin is death, which is decomposition. It's a breakdown of good and of meaning. [00:10:04] The free gift of God is eternal life, which is the beautiful composition of things the way that they ought to be, right? It's not just physical life of the body. It's paradise. [00:10:18] It's so much richer than what we're often pursuing. If we set health or honor or wealth or those things as the highest good, the life that God has to give is more beautiful than we know. [00:10:39] We only come to know it as we receive it as a gift through Jesus Christ. And it's like, oh, I used to think that was life, but now I see, like, the love of God is so much more beautiful than what I used to enjoy or the. [00:10:58] Well, let's just jump to it. [00:11:02] Jesus Christ and the cross. [00:11:06] Now, if we look at that as obvious, then Jesus lost, right? [00:11:14] From a worldly perspective, he died and the cross is the symbol of his defeat. But by faith, we see him raised from the dead. And above all, how do we know that? [00:11:28] Because we've heard the gospel, the good news of his resurrection from the dead and his rule over all. [00:11:35] And so we see in the cross, not Jesus, decomposition But his recomposition of the world, his reconstruction of the world in himself, pulling everything together. [00:11:53] The devil, the devil opted for the cross. The cross was the devil's go to Jesus. Actually, like at the Last Supper, it says that the devil entered into Judas like this was the devil's work and the devil was fighting to win. [00:12:18] The thing is, the devil didn't understand the way things work. [00:12:23] God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. [00:12:28] He saves the weak. [00:12:34] The devil grabbed for power for those things that seem obviously good, like pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. Obvious, right? [00:12:47] But Jesus did the opposite. [00:12:50] Jesus willingly accepted suffering, right? He was in the form of a servant of God. He was in the form of God, but he willingly took the form of a servant, humbled himself to the point of death, took the lowest place, and in doing so, he shows us what's up and what's down. [00:13:12] He shows us, he reorients us. [00:13:16] See, when we mindlessly pursue our own good from a worldly perspective, which just keeps coming back, you know, like, give me the mind of Christ. And God says, okay. And you know, it's like, I give it to you by faith, right? Beautiful. [00:13:36] And then the old man clings, hangs on. And that old perspective needs to be drowned every day and die. We need to be flipped upside down. It's like we've got our head in the sand, we've got our head in death and decay and we need to be flipped upside down, reoriented, so that we're not going along with the flow of what seems obvious, fleeing pain and pursuing pleasure, trying to lift ourselves up into the heavens. With the Devil, what does the devil get? [00:14:14] He's the Lord of flies. [00:14:17] Like, good for you, Devil. [00:14:21] You've got Babel, right? But Babel is foolish. [00:14:28] We look out into the world. Now some people are calling, like the Pope actually of the Roman Catholic Church, just called AI the Tower of Babel. [00:14:39] You know, we've got extreme power consolidation happening in all these places. Like we just had some record breaking IPOs and you know, it really does. Like you see a rocket go up into space and then land itself and it's like, wow, right? Or you see what AI can do and these are powerful. That's been the story of technology throughout human history. It's like more and more power. Our tools are more and more powerful, which give us more power. [00:15:16] There again we have to remember God, give us perspective. [00:15:24] Not to look to power, not to say technology is all bad, but in ourselves, do we look to power, to medicines or whatever else as the Pinnacle do we lift them up into the heavens and let them pull us up into our own worldly ideas of what life is? [00:15:49] That's the danger. [00:15:52] Jesus says, don't fear the one who can kill the body only, but fear the one who can kill both body and soul in hell. [00:16:00] Don't pay attention to things just from an obvious outward earthly perspective, but remember what life truly is. [00:16:09] That's what the devil can't see. And so the devil, despite all his attempts, is the Lord of the flies. And we, when we're looking to the flesh and earthly things, are following the same path, becoming obedient slaves to sin and reaping its benefits. Death, decay on all levels, right? Not just like the decay of our body, which can happen through sin, but the decay of families, the decay of institutions, the decay of the body of Christ. Potentially. [00:16:46] Right? [00:16:50] And God forgives us as we repent and look to him. Right? We come together to remember together what is truly up and what's down. [00:16:59] To look to Christ on whom the world looks down. Right? The sinful world and the flesh look down like. Well, sacrifice, really like death, weakness. [00:17:20] God says to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. [00:17:25] Grace. Think of it as free gift of God. [00:17:28] That's literally what it is. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. [00:17:36] Lifting the cross high is looking to the source of life and taking on what is not intuitive. [00:17:47] Taking up suffering and the cross with Christ taking the form of a servant and serving those around us, not seeking our own good, but the good of those around us. [00:18:02] This is the cross. And God's grace is sufficient for you. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus for you and for me. [00:18:15] Let's lay down our weapons. [00:18:19] I don't mean become pacifists and a doormat to the world or something like that. Politically, I mean. Let's lay down our weapons among ourselves, in our families, in our relationships, in our church and school. [00:18:39] Let's together look to Christ and with him take up the cross. [00:18:47] See, we lift high the cross and Christ pulls us up and puts us in the same pattern as that trophy of victory. [00:18:59] What defeated the devil defeats him today as we willingly accept suffering, following Jesus, being conformed to him in his suffering. [00:19:16] Thanks be to God. Jesus name. Amen.