Voice of the Nazarene 3-29-26

Voice of the Nazarene 3-29-26

Transcript

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From North Central Ohio, we share with you the Voice of the Mazarine, a week-by-week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Business Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our pastor, Reverend Ray Listow and the Voice of the Nazarene.

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And if it is your first Sunday, be sure to stop by the cafe and tell them the pastor is paying for your coffee or whatever drink that they have back there. If you've read any of the biographies of Winston Churchill, the one that I'm thinking of, the author gave nearly equal attention to every phase and facet of Churchill's life. Touched on all of it. His early childhood, his struggles with his studies in school, his military college, his years as a war correspondent. And then his time serving in leadership there in England during World War I. And following the war, and after leaving office and Parliament, he didn't leave out one segment and gave equal attention to every avenue in the life of Winston Churchill. Now, in the Bible, there are four biographies of the life of Christ. They're written by four different people with four different perspectives. Not one structures the biography the way that the author did of Winston Churchill. You see, they largely ignored the first 30 years of life of the life of Christ. They barely touch on his birth and the 12-year-old age thing, and they just kind of skip over 30 years. And then they focus in and draw in the lens of the camera on the three years of Christ's ministry. And they save 35% of their attention in the biography to Palm Sunday and that final week. The last week of Christ's life. It's the last chapter in the life of Christ's earthly ministry. 35% of the focus is right here, beginning with Palm Sunday. It's not only a spatial day, but it's a doorway into this last week. Every gospel writer wrote about it. It must have significance, must have major importance. And the people that knew Jesus best felt that they you could not understand him unless you understood this week in his life. Now it looked like when he entered Jerusalem, he was going to be king. But by the end of the week, it only read over the cross a mocking sign handwritten in three languages. He said he was the king of the Jews. What a week. Palm Sunday is the doorway into that week. What happens in those eight days is a burning center of Christ's life. Now, on his own, Palm Sunday is a critical day. And if Palm Sunday Matters is a day, then Palm Sunday Matters has a doorway. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John all tell how Jesus enters the royal city of Jerusalem. He's riding in on a beast of burden. Incidentally, that little barl had a dark streak down its back. And then there's a little cross streak of darkness across, and it actually, if you'll see a picture of it, it looks like a cross. And Jesus is prefiguring what will happen by the end of the week. He's coming in on a cross. And he invites you to pick up the cross too. And to follow him. And they give glaching contrast. It has the triumph, and they're all saying, Hosanna the King, blessed be the name of him, and throwing down palm branches and cloves, and uh by the end of that, it's a tragedy. It starts off with joy, but it ends up in judgment. We hear the cheering of the crowd, but pretty soon you're hearing the weeping of the Christ. Begins with the waving of palms, but it ends with a whining of a whip against the flesh of God's Son. And so, from the core details, each gospel writer brings a unique emphasis in giving us various approaches. There's four views. There's four different angles. There's four insights. And I think we kind of read the story and just preach it, and we kind of miss all four. And I just want to kind of dovetail them for a moment this morning in this service. Matthew begins, and he calls for a regime change. He's saying that Christ wants to change things. People don't like change, except a baby, they like to have their diaper changed. Between that and getting saved in a moment we're changed and transformed, nobody else likes any other change. Not much. Not much for change. All I've had all my life has been change. I've traveled as an evangelist 23 years, stayed in somebody's bed, and to hear the kids whisper, When's the week over so we can get back to our own room? And I ate at their tables and whatever they slopped in front of me, and I preached in their pulpits, whether they wanted me or not. And all I've ever had has been change. It's been unique pastoring and kind of getting into a rut of things. It's just almost uncomfortable. But he calls for a regime change. Christ rides in as a king, but he does not head to a palace. He's got a spiritual kingdom. And guess where he heads? He heads not to a throne at a palace, he heads for the temple. That's his throne. Can we read it? Could we refresh our thinking for a moment? Here in Matthew 21, verse 8, and a very great multitude spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees. And they spread them out in the way, and the multitude that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, not to the palace. But he went into the temple of God. Now you say, well, he'd been to the temple, not that particular temple. This was the major temple. First time he goes in to claim it. And it said that when he got in there, he cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves. Now just as soon as Jesus enters Jerusalem, he clears house with all the buyers and the sellers and all that's going on. You see, he wants true worship in his house. And I want to tell you something. Beyond the fog machines and the lights and beautiful music and all of that, we've come to worship. This is a house of worship. It's a house of prayer. It's a place where we can meet together and our lives can be changed, and we can go out of here in couries because we met others that had their struggles during the week and we brought our struggles and God meets with us. What a house. And so they didn't see this coming. You see, they expected him to clear out all of that Roman rule, and he was more concerned about the church being cleaned out. And we need a visitation of the king in his temple. Now, you say, well, he was afraid of the Roman rule. No, he wasn't. The week later, on resurrection morning, he literally broke the Roman seal over that big rock that weighed 2,000 pounds. And when that thing was rolled away, they had put a string and put wax at the top of the cave, and wax again on that string to that big stone. And to break that was to break the Roman seal. It didn't bother him any. He was king. He was king. Beautiful little story here. So I mentioned that, but I want to move on. In Mark 11, this is the second gospel writer, the donkey takes up about half of the story. Isn't that amazing? How in the world did donkey get in there? I don't know. And why does Jesus need an Uber? I mean a donkey. And why did he uh attain it in such a very unusual way? Well, let's read again in refresh. Here's what Mark says as they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethnage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, Go ye into the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a coat tied there, which no man has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you doing this, say the Lord needs it. The Lord needs it. And will send it back here shortly. And they went, found a coat outside in the street, tied at a doorway as they untied it. Some people standing there asked, What are you doing untying that coat? And they answered as Jesus told them to, and the people let them go. And when they brought the coat to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. And those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David. Hosanna in the highest heaven, Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. Interesting to me that Christ borrowed everything. There at the birth, when there was no room, they borrowed a room in the cave. He borrowed the womb of a little mother in order to enter into our world. At the close out of his life, he borrowed a tomb. He didn't even own it. He didn't need to own it. He's going to borrow it only for three days. Beautiful scene. And in this story, he's borrowing a donkey. Do you know that when the Holy Spirit comes into this world? Do you know that he has no body? That's why he wants to borrow your body. He wants to dwell in you. He said, Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost? Did you know that? Are you going to lend him your body and allow him to dwell in you and to use you for transportation to reach a lost world? The spirit-filled life. Now, when Christ rode into Jerusalem on that borrowed donkey, his only earthly possessions were the clothes on his back. And by the end of the week, soldiers are gambling over his garments at the foot of the cross. Mark notes that if anyone asks why take the donkey, tell them the Lord needs it. I've come to tell you that this morning. The Lord needs you. He can use you. He wants your time. Give him some time. Don't spend it off with entertainment, with Hollywood. Spend a little time in the Holy Word. Give him some time. Give him some time for ministry and time for the church. Give him your time. May I say it's a good thing to give him your talents. All of us have different gifts, different abilities. Some of us are more limited than some of you, but we give him what we have: our talents. May I suggest that you also give him your testimony. The testimony that you have, you need to be sharing that testimony. It's a God-given gift that you have. And I would add that we ought to give him our treasures, your support. Can I just stop here for a moment? I'm just talking to the choir. It won't change my paycheck. It's not about that. I'll get the same and I wouldn't take a penny more. But you need to give your support to the kingdom. That's why I've always believed in tithing. That's why I've always believed in giving to the kingdom. Because if we don't support the work of God, who's going to? To think that we can have a building like this alongside the highway so that we can meet and we can fellowship and we can worship together. Do you realize it costs money? I think the other month, I think it was $6,000 for the gas bill for one month. It costs to have an auditorium and a place where we can come, but we need a place for our children, a place for our youth, and a place for us to meet like this. And we have staff. Don't you think that our youth are important enough that they ought to have a youth leader to care about them? To guide them. Maybe they've got something pressing and they don't want to tell their parents, but if they've got a good youth leader and we do, it costs weekly, monthly income. Don't you think children's pastors are important? We've got a couple doing our children's ministry. They prepare and they put together programs and they get all ready, and on Sunday morning they they share ministry with kids on a level they can understand. Pastor's responsibility to be sure there's enough finances coming in. If the pastor can't pull it off, the board's gonna be looking for another guy. I ought to give them a reason, oughtn't I? I know what you're thinking. Gentlemen, we have ministries like grief share and divorce care and ladies in outreach ministry and the men's ministry, all of that takes finances, and we have to have a director of outreach ministry. Costs money. To have music like we have here on Sunday morning, to have a couple like we have, talented and gifted, it takes a paycheck. To have somebody like Howard here in the second service with this giftedness on the guitar and his leadership with the praise team and praise band, it takes money and a monthly income for these workers. I can't handle the office, and so we we have an office administrator that does. And I walk in and ask her what's going on. It takes finances. I've never stopped and taken that much time talking about it, but it takes your support. And he said, I need you. The master needs this donkey, the master needs your support, your treasures, and your time, and your testimony, and your talents. But now Luke picks it up in chapter 19. He's the third gospel writer, and he contrasts the reactions of Jesus' disciples to the rejection of the Pharisees. And Luke points out the mixed reviews about how we praise him, and others want to push him away. Are you listening? Isn't it amazing how some people just fall in love with Jesus and others literally despise him? I want to read it to you, verse 37. Here's what Luke says, chapter 19, and when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples begin to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Now catch this, boy, the scene changes. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. God's going to get the praise one way or the other. He can get it from you, or if he has to, he can raise up stones to do it. The night my mom was saved, never been around church in her life. I don't know if she'd ever even darkened a church door. But a revival was going on in Brazil, Indiana, and mom talked dad into going. And that night when she was saved, she got to the back of the building and stepped out, and she said, Do you hear that? And little old saints of God were gathered around, just kind of looking at this gal with all of her makeup and her high heels and her fancy hair and her looks. And they said, Hear what? She said, The leaves. What are you talking about? She said the leaves are clapping their hands and saying, Glory to God. God just saved Maudy Violet LaSalle. Don't you hear it? They're praising God. And by the time they got in the car, Dad was trying to get her calm down. You just didn't know my mom. She said, We're going to go see your folks. No, no, he said, I don't think so. No, said that we're gonna go tell your folks what the Lord's done. And the only way to quiet her down, he had to take her over. Now it's after dark. It's late, service is over, she had just gotten saved, got on the front steps of an old wall in that street, and she's praising God. And the door opened, there stood grandma, about this tall, and grandpa behind her, about that big. And they said, What happened to her, Wilbur? And Dad said, We got saved tonight. They said, You did what? Said, we went to the holiness church and we give our hearts to Christ. And grandma said, My God, we're disgraced. To think that you'd go to one of them kind of churches. We already got a formal church. You can you didn't have to go to one of them kind. They said, We our lives got changed tonight. Well, she said, Bring her in. The lights are coming on up and down the street. We're gonna be embarrassed to the neighbors. Mama said, I'll leave if you promise you'll go with us tomorrow night. The only way to get rid of mom was to promise they'd go, and they got saved the next night. I want to tell you something. There are those that find God in their lives are transformed, and there's others that hate him. People are either for him or against him. Occasionally you'll have a pilot that just wants to wash their hands of him. Or you will have a Herod that'll look at Jesus and suddenly realize I'm an earthly king, but he's king of kings, and he just simply pushes him away and says, Send him back to Capheus. I don't want to deal with it. Only thing Jesus ever said about Herod. He said nothing in his presence, but he simply said, The fox. And what a what a fox he was. 1966. My dad took a small church halfway between Morgantown, Indiana, and Martinsville, Indiana. Along old highway 252, halfway between five miles one way, five miles the other. Dad only pastored about five years. They threw their heart into that church. They called on people. They studied. Mom and Dad would do most of the music. Dad played the guitar, and people begin to come and lives begin to change. And across the street, a couple moved in and had bought the land, and it was hilly down there in the southern part. And he opened up a salvage yard. Oh. He would drag those old car bodies until there was nothing but mud. And the tracks of those big machines that moved cars around and stacked them. It was rough looking. But one Sunday morning, the neighbor's wife came across the road and stepped into the church, began to weep, and came to the altar and gave her heart to Jesus. God so changed her life. She just couldn't quit telling everybody. Her face beamed, it glowed with a radiance. I've never seen anyone quite like her. Every Sunday morning she never missed. She'd carry a great big family Bible across the road, just hugging that thing. And just as soon as testimony time came, she was on her feet praising God. As far as I can ever remember, her husband never came across the street and darkened the church doors. For as I know, never got saved. Not to my knowledge, not during the time that I knew them. Now, going south off of 252 was a little gravel road that dead end back in the woods. And it was country, it was Copperhead area, rattlesnakes. It was a rough, wild kind of an area. And where that gravel road went south, it bordered the property of the church. Mom and Dad bought a mobile home, a used mobile home, and had it brought in kind of set on the hillside with props up on the back to level it out, and you could walk straight in, but you didn't want to go out the back window. It'd be a disastrous fall. Now, across the road, across the gravel road, nestled in a lot of woods and debris was a little cabin. Now I could barely see it in the wintertime, but I never went over because of all the copperheads. I mean, I killed a lot of copperheads. I don't like copperheads. I didn't see rattlesnakes, but I'd have treated them the same. I don't run from them, I kill them because I don't ever want to run into them again. You say, well, I wouldn't have done it. You didn't. So don't worry about it. The man that owned that little cabin was heir to a large trucking firm up in Indianapolis. Summertime came and he began to come down with his buddies, and they would go in there and they would party and they would drink and they'd bring a few gals along with them and they had a high old time. Now, I don't know why, but for some reason he seemed to hate that little church. It was called Mount Nebo Community Church. It was an older building, had two doors on the front. I don't know why. Maybe in its ancient past, women went in one door and men went in another. I don't know. Maybe you're supposed to go in one and out the other. I really don't know, don't care. Just thought I'd share it to mess you up. So evidently he didn't like that church. And during one of the weeks in the summer, he took a rifle and shot at that mobile home and hit it in the side, and it gouged the metal side of that travel trailer. Mom and dad, mom was quite leery, and she was afraid to stay there. But that's not the end of the story. One Saturday night, Mom and Dad's asleep. Somewhere in the we hours of the morning, that heir to the trucking firm carried a big can of gas across that gravel road and across the front of the church property. And he began to pour gas in the front of that church building. Across the road, the salvage yard owner, for some reason, was up, and in the moonlight he saw a movement up on the hill across because the church sat higher than the salvage yard. He knew something was amiss, and so he threw on some trousers, picked up a 357 Magnum, and made his way across the road. This man drinking and about half drunk finished dumping gas and pulled out some matches and started to strike a match. And the salvage yard owner pulled up his 357 and said, Sir, before you strike the match, I'm gonna put you into a place where the fires never go out. You're not gonna burn this church down. I'm not a churchman myself. I'm not much of a man for God. But I've got a wife and I've seen what God did in her life and what a difference he's made. And sir, you'll never burn this building down. Drunken, angry, stumbled his way back over to the cabin, but that's not the end of the story yet. A week or two later, took that same rifle that he'd shot our mobile home with and ended his life across the road in that little house, leaving behind millions and millions. And I thought through the years how some just seem to be attracted to the kingdom, and others despise churches. Preachers. Many times when I'm out and I visit, and if I don't have my wife with me, I'm safe. If she's with me, she gives me away. I never tell anybody that I'm a preacher. Never do. I walked into a hospital a few years ago. The secretary at that time had called and said there's a man, he may not make it. He's in the hospital. And would you want to make a call on him? I said, sure. I'm on the cell phone. But I said, I've just got old clothes on. I said, well, he's not a church guy, anyhow. He won't mind. I said, okay. So I just charged into his room and his last name was Young. And I said, uh, how in the world are you doing? He said, I'm doing good. How about you? I said, I'm pretty good, but I needed to check on you. You got any symptoms of pain, or how's it going? Tell me about it. Your stomach hurt? And we began to talk, and he told me how many kids he had raised and how his wife had died and left him to raise the kids and raised some cattle and some hogs and chickens to try to feed the family and worked his job. And we talked and visited, and I said, Man, I said, You're interesting. Where did you work? And he told me, Swan Rubber. I said, By the way, do you know what I do? Oh no. He said, You're probably a preacher, and here I am, I like you. Now, what am I gonna do? I hate preachers. And here's this crowd cheering and saying Hosanna and praising the Lord, and the disciples adored him. But the Pharisees and the scribes and some of the Jews were plotting, literally, to give him the most terrible death, the most horrific dying on a cross. What a plan. And so it's quite the mixed reviews. And then you have one other writer. His name is John. In chapter 12, he connects Jesus' entry to the raising of Lazarus. You see, it's a preview of coming attractions. Lazarus' death and rising previews what Jesus will go through himself. In that same chapter, he tells all about it. I'll read it to you in just a moment. But it's a prefiguration of his own death and resurrection. It's a prophetic utterance. He's telling us here in chapter 12, verse 1, then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served. I'd like to got in on that one. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spiker, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then said one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, let her alone against the day of my burying. Has she kept this? For the poor always she'll have with you. But me ye have not always. And then in verse 23, connects it. For he knew he was about to die. But there was going to be a resurrection. Lazarus was dead for four days. Jesus just couldn't last that long. He rose on the third day. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And I want to tell you something: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you're the fruit of that resurrection. If he had not rose from the dead, there'd be no church. There'd be no transformation of our lives. He died for a good cause, like every other so-called Messiah died, but he rose from the grave. And because he has arisen, one day we too shall hear the grand call on resurrection morning and will rise to meet him. Upon Sunday's more than just a day, though. It's a doorway and the most important week in Jesus' life. Therefore, it's one of the most important days and weeks in the life of the Christian and the church. It's not and cannot be just a day of triumph. He is king. But there's the start of suffering. And the only cross this king will wear is a thorns. He made a triumphal entry. And I just ask you in closing today have you allowed him entry into your home and into your heart and into your life and into your future. Have you allowed him to be the king? Just a few days, it'll be Good Friday. He'll say his final goodbyes. And even on the cross, had a conversion took place right next to it. And I want to tell you something, even in a service like this, he can transform your life by grace divine. He can change you and give you a brand new start. You may came, you may have come with a lot of different thoughts and connotations about the gospel. You may have a lot of different reasons why you showed up, but I want you to know this morning he's here to meet every need through his Holy Spirit. And he wants to live in you and give you everlasting life.

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Father.m with BNC's Pastor Ray Lestalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit EusyrusNazarene.org.