Transcribed by Beluga AI.
I will read just a couple verses from Matthew 26. This is right before Jesus is arrested.
Matthew 26:30.
30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ (Matthew 26:30-31, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
The one thing, Father, that the enemy wants is for all of us to fall away, to give up, to scatter and to let go of Jesus and miss out on eternity. We pray that you would speak to us today and that we would resolve that we will not give up. We will not fall away. We will stand firm and persevere to the end. Thank you that you fulfilled your mission. You died on a cross for the sins of this world, for every generation.
And, Lord, now we are the ones who receive your once and perfect sacrifice for our sins. And so, Lord, in thanksgiving for you, we want to respond by saying that we will also give our lives for you, live for you, surrender everything to you, and follow you all the way to the end. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
My son Timothy is a senior at UC Santa Barbara. And I had a chance to speak yesterday, in a room full of college kids. And I was saved as a college student. So, I have a big heart for college students because I remember how lost I was, how I grew up in church, but I didn’t know Jesus personally.
And so, when I get a chance to speak to college students, I really pray into that. And because my son’s graduating, I might not be invited again. This might be the last time I will see some of them.
I hope that’s not the case. I hope I will see some of them sometime in the future.
But at the very least, I said, I hope I see you in heaven. And I shared with them about not falling away.
In Matthew 11, there is a John the Baptist who finds himself in prison after living faithfully and zealously for the duration of his life and the earthly ministry that he was given. And then when Jesus comes onto the scene, now Jesus is taking center stage. And John’s ministry is kind of diminishing, as it should. And John doesn’t understand why his life is ending up the way it is.
Like he called out a government official’s sin, and that’s a good thing that he thinks he should do. He finds himself in prison awaiting execution, and so he sends two of his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the one, or is there somebody else who’s going to come after you?
Really, he’s the one I’ve been looking for, and so he’s stumbling a little bit. Jesus said, blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:6, ESV)
That word is, it can mean offended, it can mean stumbling. Like, don’t stumble the little one into sin, or you stumble because of sin and also fall away. All of it is the same word.
And while John the Baptist is stumbling for a little brief moment, Jesus gives such a great commendation for this man. He says, greatest man who ever lived. And he describes the greatness of John the Baptist. He says, he’s not like a reed that’s swaying in the wind. And that’s a picture of resolute faith. Somebody who will not. Who does not topple easily.
Like certain flowers, just a little breeze, and there’s a very thin stem, and it just blows left and right. But if you have an oak tree, that thing, the wind comes, that thing does not move.
And so while John the Baptist is stumbling for a little bit, Jesus commends him and says he is not somebody who is easily toppled. He knows John the Baptist is going to come through and return to faith the same way that Jesus predicted. Peter will deny him. But he prays.
He says, when you return, like he knows Peter’s faith is going to rebound, he’s going to recover. Same with John the Baptist. He is stumbling a little bit, but he’s not going to fall away.
And he says, what did you expect to see? This person that I’ve called into ministry, do you expect him to wear soft clothing? Such a. Such an interesting description. You imagine a. A very rich person with silky clothing, with plush textiles. That’s not John the Baptist. He’s wearing camel skin. He’s eating locusts and wild honey.
He’s describing somebody who does not easily fall away. John the Baptist, he stumbled a little bit, but he is somebody who will stand with Jesus to the end.
And Jesus says, when the shepherd is struck, you will all scatter. And while Jesus is strong, the disciples, they don’t even think of. They don’t even flinch because they know Jesus is with them.
So, whatever they’re facing, it’s a storm. He’s there. He’s going to calm the storm. If they’re missing food, he’s going to multiply food, and so all the needs will be met.
If there’s a demon, no problem. It’s going to be cast out. So, whatever they faced while Jesus is there, they are, they’re not flinching. But they’ve never seen Jesus weak like this. They’ve never seen him struck and arrested. They’ve never seen the Lamb who is about to be slain for the sins of the world.
And in that moment of weakness, they all scattered. And so, I think the question that the Lord is asking all of us today on this Good Friday is what will it take for you to scatter?
What will it take for you to stumble and possibly end your life in a state where you’ve fallen away?
And we all know people like that, like I was when I was a college student. I was very zealous. I said, I’m going to give my whole life to the Lord. I’m going to do missions. And by the time I was graduating, I already knew I was called to be a pastor. And so, I was surrounded by like-minded brothers in the church.
And some of them are still in the faith. Many of them are lost to false teaching. Unfortunately, some of them that I thought were really sincere don’t go to church because something happened in their life that derailed them. Maybe it was a health challenge, maybe somebody died, maybe they had a bad church experience, and they said, I’m done with God if that’s a pastor and that’s a church, and I’m going to be treated that way. I’m done with this.
And I would have thought that these people would be standing with me to the end. And yet, when I look at them right now, they’re in a state that they’ve fallen away. I pray they would not end their life there. But, but something happened along this journey that caused them to scatter.
And I’m not sure what it would take for you. Like for Job, his wife losing the children, that was it. That was the last straw. And she tells her husband, while he is suffering and dying, just curse God and die.
Why do you still have faith? Why are you still maintaining your righteousness? And for 40 plus chapters, despite all the terrible friends who were telling him false things about him, Job maintained his righteousness.
He held on to his faith. He endured to the end. And then he had a chance to pray for his friends. And his friends also were saved.
So, what will it take for you to scatter, to fall away?
We should take our cues from John the Baptist, from Jesus Christ, from all the men and women that we see in Scripture, the heroes of faith that we read about in Hebrews 11.
We should look to these people who sought a heavenly kingdom, a new city, who were considered the scum of this earth, who are hated by people in this world. And they were promised things, some of them, they didn’t even receive what they were promised. They welcomed them from a distance, and yet they held on to the faith.
So, on this Good Friday, my encouragement to the body of Christ who’s gathered here in Bellflower is: whatever you face in life, resolve now that you will never turn your back on Jesus. No matter what suffering you face, no matter what loss you face, no matter what uncertainty you face, no matter what seems like silence from heaven, that God is not hearing you, he’s not answering you, and you’re just knocking on heaven’s door and nothing is opening, and you feel like you’re stuck. It’s like the bridge is out.
The sign says, don’t go this way, but you know there’s nowhere else to go. Peter says, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, (John 6:68, ESV)
The world says, don’t go this way anymore. The sign says, stop. The bridge is out, but you have no choice. We’ve started down this path with Jesus. Hold on to him to the very end, no matter what you face. And that is the guarantee that you will endure.
I want to end with James 2, when it describes faith without works is dead.
Of course, works do not save us. you’re saved by faith. But I find it amusing because we were talking, like one of the students asked yesterday, how can you be saved? Is it just belief? And then I’m saved. I just repent, I believe, I’m saved. Is that all there is?
And then there’s all this theology out there, like faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone. But that’s grammatically incorrect. You can only have one alone, Jesus alone, Jesus alone. Everything else is just Man’s attempt to try to explain theology.
It doesn’t make grammatical sense to have five, five things alone. No, you can have only one thing that’s alone. Only Jesus saves you, not theology. In James 2, it says faith without works is dead.
Even the demons know that God is one, but they’re not saved. They’re going to an eternal. They’re going to suffer eternally for their rebellion against God, even though their theology is perfect. They know that God is one. They know they’ve lost, know Jesus is the victor. They’re not going to make it to heaven. They’ve lost. So theology does not save you.
Faith without works is dead. The works prove that we have faith, and the examples that are given in James chapter two are. There are two of them.
One is Rahab, who was in Jericho. The spies came over to look at what was behind the city walls, and Rahab hid the spies. She risked her life to hide the spies because of her faith. She wanted to be counted as a Gentile woman among God’s people, and she was saved. She risked her life for that. She passed a test.
The other example is Abraham and Isaac. Abraham put his son on an altar and had a knife, was ready to plunge into the heart of his own son. Because we read in Hebrews 11:19, he believed that God would raise his son from the dead.
What kind of faith is this that Abraham had? He passed the test. I believe Isaac was not a little boy. I believe Isaac was a grown man, possibly the age when Jesus Christ himself died, maybe in his early 30s. Isaac voluntarily laying down his life. Isaac also had faith.
I believe so. These works that are described, that prove that you and I have faith, are not small things. They’re life and death in some cases.
When you face situations in life and there’s a test before you, you’re going to be tempted to throw in the towel. you’re going to be tempted to scatter and to give up. But you need to pass these tests.
These are the works that God has predestined you to accomplish and perform, to prove to yourself and to all creation you are a true Christ follower.
You have a faith that will save you. So let’s be a people like John the Baptist. Not like a little reed, a little breeze and you fall over because you’re soft and you have a silky shorts. No, we’re not such people. We are hardcore. We are serious. We are resolute. We don’t flinch. We hold on to Jesus to the end, no matter what we face. We don’t scatter easily. We don’t. We’re not limp. We will stand firm to the end.
And for people that I, maybe I’ll never see in Santa Barbara, may I see them in heaven. Because they pass every test. They hold on to Jesus to the end, even through difficult tribulations that are coming in this world.
May we be a people that endure all the suffering Christ suffered for you. Now we have to embrace suffering for the sake of Christ.
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we’re so thankful that you suffered for us the scorn of the Cross, the shame of the Cross, the brutality, the nakedness on the Cross.
You did this because our sins were so great, but for the joy set before you. You saw all of us who would gather in Bellflower in the year 2025. You saw it for the joy of this gathering, to see your people gathered in remembrance of your great sacrifice for us.
Lord, we want to respond and arm ourselves with the same mindset that we too will suffer for you. We will undergo trials and tests and we must prove and have faith proved through our works.
Like John the Baptist, holding fast in prison, awaiting execution, holding on to his faith in the Messiah.
Lord, we put our full faith in you, and we pray that all of our loved ones will put their full faith in you. All of us together, we’d make it across the finish line, and you will pull us across to glory.
We pray that would happen no matter what we face in this life. Thank you, Lord, for your encouragement to us this day. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.