Allen Jackson - Lessons From Matthew - Part 1
If you’ve been around here for very long, you know the invitation to read your Bible at the beginning of the year is not a new idea. I don’t apologize for revisiting that. It is transformational. And I’m happy for you to read on another agenda. I’m happy for you to read random things that are of interest to you. I think all of those things are valuable, but if you wanted my best advice on how to initiate and sustain spiritual change, it would be the systematic, orderly reading of your Bible as the foundation of your engagement with your Bible.
I just haven’t found anything that has had the impact in my life and on the lives of hundreds and thousands of other people than that purposeful, intentional reading of your Bible will have. You can read the Bible in the course of a year from the table of contents to the maps with about a 10 to a 15 minute investment of time each day, depending on this rate at which you read. And it is worthwhile. So, I wanna put that invitation before you again, but I wanna reshape it a little bit this year because I believe we are in a pivotal time. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to do anything we can do to initiate and sustain change. And God is the great agent of change. I don’t want change that’s initiated by the Devil. Amen is the word you’re searching for.
So, here’s what I want to suggest. If you’ve taken a pass on this reading in the, you know, to be completely honest, if you’ve been around here and you’ve never read your Bible, I’m like, «Okay, good. I got it. I hear your position». To the rest of you, I wanna give you an invitation. Don’t just read it yourself this year. Let’s see who else we can include in reading the Word. And what I would suggest is let’s read the Gospels first. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the first four books of the New Testament. With that same block of time, about that 10 to 15 minutes a day, you can read through all the Gospels in 60 days. That’s a pretty light lift. You’ll know the names of some of the places, Jerusalem and Nazareth and Bethlehem. You’ll know some of the characters, Mary and Joseph.
You know, there’s a familiarity to it that makes it much more accessible to the person who’s just marginally aware of scripture. And so, what I wanna ask you to do is invite a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, somebody in your small group, whomever. See how many people you can get to join you in reading through the Gospels as we begin the year. They’ve even put a special plan together, just the Gospels. If you’re doing the normal reading plan with us, you know we’re reading through the Psalms at the same time, but we’ve got this pared down version. So that in 60 days, with really a minimal effort, you can have that introduction. If you do that and there’s a positive outcome and think, «That wasn’t as painful as I thought». Then with another 30 day add-on, you can finish the whole New Testament.
So, by the time we get to Easter, we will have read the New Testament together. I’m doing my very best to enlist as many people as I’m capable of to read the New Testament with me between now and Easter. Every platform that I have access to. Any place someone will talk to me, any place somebody’ll turn the camera on and give me a chance, I’m saying, «Will you do this with me»? So, I wanna start with the people that I do life with. Are you willing to not just read it yourself? I’m like, «Good, I’m glad you’re reading it, but when are we gonna», we need change. It’s more than just me. So, invite somebody.
How many of you be willing to invite somebody to read the Gospels with you? Look at you. What are the rest of you gonna do? Yes, that’s an attempt to shame you, which is not generally my approach. I’m kidding. I’ll give you a couple of heads up. Not everybody you invite is gonna say yes. Don’t be discouraged. Everybody Jesus invited to follow him didn’t say yes. Most of us didn’t say yes the first time somebody gave an invitation to us. I have friends at church, they’ve been a part of church for a long time, that I invited a hundred times. And it was 101 that seemed to be the key. I got the words right on that hundred and first opportunity. And through out the last 50 times, they would say, «Absolutely, I’ll be there,» and they wouldn’t show.
Well, I was just too stupid to quit. So, let’s take that approach. And I think let’s recruit all the way through January. It’s not like just this week. Let’s take this month and see how many people we could include. If they don’t get started until the end of January, they’ll read through the Gospels by Easter. That’s a big win. And then we could finish the whole New Testament by Memorial Day. Again, it’s not… and let me tell you why I think it’s so important. I know that when men and women take the time to open their Bibles and turn their thoughts to the Lord, that it brings the blessing of God. And if you ask me what’s most important for us to have a better future for our children and grandchildren, it’s not an election with people that you prefer. It’s the blessing of God.
Now, I understand elections have consequences, but the consequences are not sustainable without the help of God. And so, the best thing I know we can do to bring some legs to the changes that we need and not just have some momentary celebration, is to invite the blessings of God more fully into our lives. So, I’m gonna keep, I’m gonna talk about it until you wish I’d be quiet. So, be an early adopter, be ahead of it. You can just sit here and feel smugly. I’ve already recruited a dozen people. Somebody stopped me this morning and said he recruited 16. So there’s a good baseline. Say, «I don’t have 16 people that like me». Well, invite some people who don’t. It’s too important just to keep it amongst friends. Why not be identified with it? Say, «I don’t know what benefit it’ll bring».
Well, try it and see. It’ll be as diverse as we are a group of people, but I believe it’s a worthwhile investment of your time and effort. Will you join me in praying? I don’t know what the number will be. I don’t know if we’ll get 1000. I don’t know if we’ll get 100,000. I don’t know if we’ll get some multiple of that. But imagine what would happen if hundreds of thousands of people across our nation would take 10 or 15 minutes a day, and open their Bibles and their hearts to the Lord. We would live in a different place. We would. Thank you for that enthusiastic response. I started a new study in our previous session. I want to continue. I don’t know how many we will link together. The title of the study is «Stormproof Foundations».
Jesus told us that storms would come to our lives. You didn’t really need Jesus to know that, but if he hadn’t told you that, you’d be easy prey for some of those people that say, «If you love the Lord right and your faith is big enough, you’d be storm free». It’s a lie. It’s a false gospel. It’s not supported by scripture. In fact, Jesus told us very clearly that the storms come to all of us. The differentiating factor is what our lives are founded upon. He said if our foundation is in place, that when the storm comes, we will stand. If our foundations are inadequate or suspect, that when the storms come, our lives and all about them will collapse.
Now, he has my attention with that. And so, we’re going to spend a few sessions looking at some things that will help to storm proof our lives. And I’m gonna continue that in this session. We’re gonna do some lessons for Matthew. We’re reading through Matthew right now, wherever you are in the reading plan with us. If you’re on kind of the traditional, then you we’re on Matthew chapter 10, and that’s what I want to look at with you. I woke up New Year’s morning. I love the beginning of the year. It’s like the beginning of a semester. You know that first day of a new semester, I wasn’t behind. Nobody was ahead of me. I didn’t need the teacher to grade on a curve. Life was good. I mean, I was completely up to speed, and it would usually last until about noon.
Well, I’ve always enjoyed the beginning of the year and the fresh set of opportunities and the strength to meet a new year. And I woke up New Year’s day with the reports of a terror attack in New Orleans. Kathy and I turned on the television, and the first thing I heard was an FBI agent saying, «This is not a terrorist attack». Now, admittedly, I grew up in a barn in Tennessee. But if someone drives a truck at high speed into a street crowded with people, then gets out of the truck and opens fire on police officers, and attached to the truck is an ISIS flag, you don’t have to be Deputy Dawg to understand that’s a terrorist attack.
And I’ve been encouraging you for quite a season now to watch and listen and think and be prepared to act, not in anger or belligerence or violence, but we have to pay attention in a way we didn’t in the past because clearly some of the people controlling the messaging just think you’re stupid. It’s offensive to me. I mean, imagine that in any number of other contexts, it would be a laughable if someone wearing a white hood with KKK painted on the back of it drove into a group of minority people, the first thing that people observing would say would not be, «This is not a racist event». Of course it is.
Now, the motivations around all of that can be discussed and understood, but I think what we have to acknowledge is because of choices, because of manipulation, because of a diminishment of free speech, because of a burying of so much truth, there is a tremendous deterioration of trust amongst institutions and offices which it is very, very important that we have trust in. Which means that we’re at a very critical juncture. The reason it’s a part of the community of faith is we’re the conscience of a culture and we have to engage with what’s happening in the culture or the deterioration will continue. It’s like imagining there’s no connection between your diet and your physical health.
You say, «Well, I’m a spiritual person, so it doesn’t matter what I eat, I’ll be healthy». You’re confused. In the same way, a church that’s weak and anemic and not engaged and not watching and listening and thinking, not standing our post, not being light and salt, we diminish a culture to deterioration and ultimately collapse. There’s a tremendous deterioration of trust in the FBI. I don’t doubt there’s good people there. I’m waiting to see them find their voices and be given opportunities 'cause for a good while they have not been leading. The Justice Department, the Center for Disease Control, churches. Churches are as guilty on this front as any of those organizations that begin with letters. Big tech, social media.
I know they entertain us and we spend way too much time on those platforms, but they are filled, not only with ungodly things and cooperating with ungodly things, but they practice censorship of the values that we hold as a part of our Judeo-Christian worldview. And the list goes on. They said, «Well you know, I’ll get concerned about it when it comes to our community». You’re not watching. It was Christmas Day 2020 when there was an explosion on Second Avenue in Nashville. And I heard the August mayor of Nashville that afternoon say, «Really there’s nothing. There was just a few windows broken». They’re just now completing the destruction of that block downtown. There were businesses that never reopened, and within 24 hours they said to us, «There’s nothing to see here. It’s all complete. We understand the whole thing. Just look away».
Two years ago, we had a school shooting in Nashville. Children were killed. A transgender person, obviously someone who was not well, but there wasn’t anything even closely resembling full disclosure. We’ve become so accustomed to it that we’ve stopped watching and listening. Well, I would submit to you that the pathway forward from here has to be different. We have to expect something different. Trust has to be earned. If you give trust when people have not proven themselves to be trustworthy, you’re not kind or compassionate, you’re foolish. Trust has to be established. I learned the principle when I was a child that I still think is pretty effective.
When a mistake is made, acknowledge the mistake and then we can move forward. I believe the season ahead of us will reflect a bit of New Year’s Day. I don’t know the extent, but I feel very confident that there’s a time of confusion and chaos and disruption. I think there are powerful voices and influences that don’t want to see the momentum of destruction disrupted amongst us. I think the intent for the diminishment of the Judeo-Christian worldview and the dismantling of America is intentional. Don’t pray in our schools. Well, we stopped that because we weren’t praying in our homes. I get it. To separate us from our historic culture and tell us that it’s inappropriate or evil and we’ve been quiet.
Please understand that an election alone will not cause evil to relent. We’re going to have to learn new responses, how to live in the authority of our faith, and that’s more than just sitting in church when it’s convenient. We’re going to have to develop ourselves a new trust in God. God is moving in the earth. I choose to be a part of that. But to do that, I’ll have to be willing to be different. I’ll have to learn to trust him and follow him in new ways. People say to me frequently, I’ve heard it many, many, many, many times, «We know, Allen, Pastor. I just, I don’t know what to do. I’m only one person. I just don’t know what to do». Well, I do. I do. But I don’t mean in arrogance I know the solution to the whole thing or I have every detail worked out, but I do understand a response that would have positive consequences.
What if we, each one, begin to honor God with new intentionality in our lives? Oh, you mean that? Yeah. What if we begin to honor the Creator of heaven and earth as if we believed he was real? If we removed him from the category of a divine suggestion, and we really began to imagine he was Lord again, it’ll change everything. So, well, I would encourage you to watch and listen and think. I don’t want you to be agitated, frightened, threatened. I want you to understand that the response of the people of faith is essential. And for this day, I intend to read my Bible daily with God’s help. You missed today, come see me. We’ll reengage.
And I thought maybe just to add a bit of momentum with that, I would take a chapter from Matthew. It’s part of our reading for this day, if you started the year with us. If you haven’t, you can listen to the lesson when you get to Matthew chapter 10. Now, I know we all read the Bible differently. I don’t really read my Bible in that daily plan imagining that I’m gonna get divine direction every day. Those people make me anxious. Do you have one of those friends? Every time I see them, you know, there’s the Lord has spoken to them again. I mean, we read the same passage and they heard angels singing and they found things in the original language. I’m like, «I just read Matthew 10». And then they make me a bit worried, but there are times when I’ll pick it up and it feels far more personal.
So I don’t want to put on you the burden of reading it the way I’m gonna read it to you today. I don’t think that’s appropriate. I have a bit of an advantage. For on most of you, I have a few years head start. I had some technical training. I don’t know how helpful it is, but I had some. I have the same kind of opportunity that the color commentators on a ballgame have. They’ve been engaged perhaps more frequently than those of us who are just casual observers, and they give us the benefit of that. I believe that’s what I can add, but my opinion didn’t come down from the mountain carved in stone. When you read your Bible, it’s not always about having the definitive explanation. It’s about presenting yourself to the Lord and say, «I would like to know you better».
But with that, let’s step into Matthew 10. It’s an amazing chapter to me. But most of the chapters you would hand me, I would tell you were amazing. Some of them are a little less dynamic when you get to Leviticus. But we’ll work on that when we get there, I’ll help. Matthew 10, «He,» Jesus, «called his twelve disciples to him and he gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. And these are the names of the twelve apostles,» and then they’re listed, «Simon (who’s called Peter) and Andrew and James and John and Philip and Bartholomew and Thomas and Matthew and James and Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas, who betrayed him».
I think the punch line in there is that introductory line. It’s the thesis statement for this opening paragraph. «Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and he gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness». Now, when I read that, I recognize there’s a decision that has been pushed at me. And I believe it’s very intentional on both Matthew and the Holy Spirit’s part. I have to decide what I believe about that assertion. Was that something Jesus did in the 1st century? Or is that something Jesus is still doing in the 21st century? Because that’s gonna change everything.
If you believe the Bible is a collection of tales and ideas of things that may or may not have happened in antiquity, but they have very little relevance for you today, it presents one set of things to you. If you imagine it’s addressive literature and everything in it is becomes a manual for our engagement with life today in the midst of the world that we’re facing, it becomes a very different thing for you. I’m of the opinion that what Jesus did for those twelve disciples, he’s still doing in the world. Now, for full disclosure, there are schools of theology that disagree with me. They have a fancy label for that. It’s called cessationism. From the word cease, meaning to stop. So, there are people who have given their entire lives to studying the Bible that said that the supernatural, miraculous activity of God stopped with the apostolic age when the apostles died.
Now personally, I wouldn’t give my life to studying a book that didn’t have the dynamic relevance that it once did. So you understand, you have a choice to make. Will you believe that God still does miracles? This gets really personal very quickly. That’s why we read our Bible. And the point maybe the first day you pick it up because you say, «I’m not sure I believe that». I’m good with that. Keep reading. Keep reading. See, I would suggest to you that conversion, new birth, that entry into the kingdom of God is such a remarkable supernatural event that nothing more dramatic than that will ever happen to you. Not the Rapture, not the Resurrection from the dead. They pale in significance to the magnitude and the scope of the new birth.
So, it feels bizarre to me to see people that believe in conversion, salvation, the new birth, and then they say God doesn’t do miracles. Well, he doesn’t do them in the way I want. He certainly doesn’t follow my timeline. But the fact that I can’t control God doesn’t make him less God. In fact, it’s an argument to the opposite. If I could control him, he wouldn’t be God. I’ll give you one verse to kind of support my perspective, and I typically don’t argue scripture, so I would invite you not to do that either. I don’t think you can prove anything you want with a handful of verses. I’ll give you an example.
I read a story of a man that was looking for guidance. So, he opened his Bible and he put his finger down and he said, «God, I really need to know what to do today». And he looked and it said, «Judas went and hanged himself». Not funny. And he said, «Well that couldn’t be God». So he closed his Bible, he opened it back up and he put his finger down and it said, «Go thou and do likewise». If you let me pull three verses from the Bible, I can prove anything I want to. Context makes a difference. That’s why reading your Bible is so impactful, so important.
But in Acts chapter 10, Peter, through a series of supernatural events, dreams, visions, angelic visits, I mean, there’s a whole collection of things that caused Peter to arrive in a place Peter would have never have gone. A Gentile town dominated by Romans into the home of a Roman centurion. I mean, everything about it goes against the grain. And when Peter arrives in that place, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Gentiles, the Roman centurion and his household, in an identical fashion to what happened in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost.
And Peter gives us his deduction from that, his conclusion from watching all of these supernatural things. And then he recognizes that God is doing something far beyond what he can do, and this is what he said. It’s in your notes. It’s Acts 10. «Peter began to speak and he said, 'I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but he accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.'» Some of the older translations it says, «God is no respecter of persons». Well, I would submit to you that what God would do in the 1st century, God will do in the 21st century. And that’s a very important component as you’re building your foundation. God still hears the prayers of his people. God is still engaged in some very dramatic ways in the midst of the people of faith. We depend upon that.
Hey, before we go, we wanna pray. Let’s give an invitation to the Holy Spirit that if there’s any place in our lives that makes us vulnerable in the midst of the turmoil that God would help us see what it is so we can address it. Are you game? Let’s pray:
Father, thank you, I thank you for your spirit that lives within us as our helper, our teacher, our guide. Holy Spirit, if there’s any place we’re vulnerable, I pray that you’ll help us to see it, that we might choose you with our whole heart and stand firm in the midst of the turmoil. Thank you for your faithfulness to us in Jesus’s name, amen.