Beth Moore - Glory Afoot on Humble Ground
You may be seated. Would you turn with me to Matthew chapter 15. I wanna read to you verses 29 through 31. Matthew 15:29, "Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel".
I want you to imagine this scene that we just read together, cinematically. I want you to take these words and take these moments and every phrase like it's a movie on a giant screen TV, and you're holding the remote in your hand, and I want you to just hold that remote up and push "pause" on one particular moment in this scene. I want you to let that screen, the lens of the camera, go all the way down, and I want you to freeze the frame right on the feet of Jesus. What we're going to do together in this house is that we're gonna take a really, really close look at Jesus, but from a different perspective than perhaps we've done before because we're gonna peer into him, we're gonna stare into the Scriptures is at Jesus from the ankles, down.
We are going to look at the feet of Jesus over and over and over again because what I had the privilege to do in my preparation was look up every single time in the Scriptures that the lens takes us to the feet of Jesus and all the variance that happens there at that one pair of feet. Before we go there, I wanna explain to you why this has so much prominence to us and why this ought to strike up some awe in us as we see this thing unfold and we take a look at the feet of Jesus because, what had been spiritual imagery, and that was their reality, but they could not see it with their eyes, in the Old Testament, I'm thinking in terms of Leviticus 26:11 and 12, where God had said this, "I will make my dwelling among you, and I will walk among you".
What had been this unseen reality to them, he'd made his presence known in lots of other ways by the cloudy pillar, by a fire by night. He had shown his provision through the manna, through the quail, so many things, dividing the waters in the sea that they could pass to the land that God had called them, all of these things, but what had been an unseen reality in the Old Testament becomes a vivid, visible reality in the New Testament, and maybe some of you are like me, and you had been raised up in the things of the Scripture, and that does not hit you with any kind of profoundness or power right now, but we're gonna cling on it until it does because something about this ought to move us because this is God we're talking about, who said, "I will make my dwelling among you, and I will walk among you," and then, suddenly, he does it with real feet, feet of human clay. We're gonna see what difference it makes for our feet, that God came with feet, and how it is that you and I walk in the prints that those feet left behind.
Now, here's what I want you to do. If you'll leave something there in Matthew, if you're new to it and you just wanna listen and you don't know where all this turning is coming from, I'm gonna read it to you anyway, but if you love to flip around in your Bible and you would take the time to look, go with me, first of all, to Exodus. Now, get ready because we're gonna do this at lightning speed. Go with me, first of all, to Exodus 24. Now, what is our objective over the next couple of minutes? Well, to allow the Holy Spirit to stir up some awe in us that it is a very, very big deal that God put on human feet, a very big deal, and I wanna show you in the Scriptures why it ought to strike up a profound sense of humility that here we are on earth and God would make his dwelling place and walk among us with human skin on.
Exodus 24, I wanna read to you verses 9 through 11. This is when God has called the people out of Egypt into the wilderness. He is now calling Moses and the elders up the mountain where he is dwelling on top of that mountain in this dark, thick cloud, and all this lightning and all this thunder coming out of this dark cloud. And so he calls Moses up with Aaron and his sons, and some of the elders. They get to go partially up that mountain, and then Moses is called the rest of the way, but we're gonna lock in on it as the elders and Moses, and Aaron and his sons head up. It says in verse 9 through 11, Exodus 24, verse 9, "Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, "and 70 of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel".
Now, we know they could not have seen his face because Exodus 33 tells us that no man could see his face and live. So what did they saw some kind of manifestation of his glory in a form they would describe as "We saw the God of Israel," and that says, "There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness". Verse 11, "And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God, and ate and drank". So please hear with me that they see the feet of God, something that we would just call a manifestation that there is this wall, this floor, this pavement of sapphire stone, and it says "like the very heaven for clearness".
Now, I'm just gonna pitch out to you, this is not anything that you would ever wanna write down. This is just something that I'm wondering if is in play here in this scene. See, God never, ever is pictured, in any kind of revelation in Scripture, ever away from his throne. Every single time you see a glimpse of his throne, he's always on it.
There's Isaiah chapter 6. There's Ezekiel chapter 1. There is Revelation chapter 4. Never is the throne of God depicted in the Scriptures that he is not seated upon it, and we're even told in Ezekiel 1, in this fascinating vision that Ezekiel gets, that there were wheels that were turning on that throne, so you have to wonder, if God's gonna go anywhere, see, he never leaves his throne, so I just have to wonder, does he just take it up with him, and that's why all the wheels are on, and that's why all the angels just go with him? 'Cause they gotta keep flyin' around and goin', "Holy, holy, holy," 'cause they never do stop, night or day.
So he just takes the whole entourage with him wherever he goes. So, you know, I have to wonder, is this little glimpse 'cause he's bringin' the floor of heaven with him. I said, "Don't write that down in pen". I'm just asking you, sapphire stone right there. I mean, they saw God, and they're seein' underneath his feet there's this pavement, this pavement. What in the world? Be somethin' right about that, just startles me. It causes that kind of holy fear to stir around in my heart.
Now go with me to Isaiah 66, and we're getting really, really close to where we're heading. I wanna read verses 1 and 2: "Thus says the Lord, 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.'" But this is what he says in the second part of verse 2: "But this is the one to whom I will look: He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word".
This is not really where our lesson is headed, but I have to take this moment and say it: Listen, it is a beautiful thing for us to tremble at the Word of the Lord. We lose the power of the cross when we take the razor-sharp edge off the sword of the Spirit, when it no longer can divide between soul and spirit and marrow, when we've now made it so dull that it no longer causes us to look at some passage and go, "I have no idea what that means, but that nearly scares the life out of me".
Then what we've done is that we have cheapened the grace of the cross that said, "Even so, I have loved you, and I have received you, and I have made you clean, and I have made you holy and set you apart. This is the one to whom I will look, who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word". Go back to the part that says, in verse 1, "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool".
I love it when you see certain passages that are repeated a number of times in other places in Scripture. You would see this one. This one was a big deal. We see things like this in the Psalms. We see it in the New Testament. This is a big one to us, a big one to us, so we picture this kind of imagery here that he is saying, "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool".
In Psalm 110, verse 1, this is David being placed under the unction of the inspiration of the Spirit, and he says these words: "The Lord says to my Lord", and now he's talking about Christ, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool". And you find that in several places in the New Testament that, when Christ ascended to the right hand of God, he sat down beside him, and there is this picture in this prophecy of God goin', "Son, you know what? You just sit right here until I make every demonic enemy your footstool". It's a powerful, powerful picture. These are depictions of the feet of God.
The Scriptures tell us in several different places that under his feet were dark clouds. They would come in the whirlwind and in the storm, and so that gives us a little background for what becomes then, point number one, "Christ came to earth as God walking among us, wearing feet". And suddenly, here they are in view. It is God wearing human skin, flesh and blood, completely God, wrapped in man, and here he is, doing exactly what he said, all the way back in Leviticus, "And I will make my dwelling among them, and I will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people".
Born to a young mom, God walking among us came into this world with tiny little fragile feet that could carry no weight. What I need is a volunteer for a minute. Tell me your name. You have what? She just told me that she has wide feet, and she hopes that's okay. Is it okay with y'all if our sister has wide feet? Yes. Now, I needed to know your name. My name is Kimber. Kimber, because, Kimber, before we knew your name, we knew you had wide feet. I'm humble. Yes, you are. I am too, I am too.
Now, I want you to sit down right here. Kimber, I love that name. Now, Kimber, I want to use you, if I could. If you don't mind, let me slip your sandals off of you. Are they pretty easy? Thank you. You can take off the other one so that I can just get you to demonstrate with me what it is to have human feet. Now, let me tell you something, Kimber, and I'mma tell the rest of the group this while we're doing this, that what you may not know, I just want you to just, this precious little foot right here, what you may not know is that this is a wonder right here, an absolute wonder. Do you know that Leonardo da Vinci called the human foot "a masterpiece of engineering" and "a work of art," that this foot right here, "a masterpiece of engineering" and "a work of art"?
So many marvels about it because this foot right here was created specifically for man, that one of our defining characteristics when God created Adam and I almost wonder if God looked at his Son and said, "Listen, you get a lot of say in this 'cause you're gonna be the one puttin' all this on. So how do you want this thing to go"? Now, I'm makin' that up, but it does stand to reason, doesn't it? That he might go, "Listen, you're gonna be the one that's gonna be havin' to walk around in this. How ought this to go down"?
And so he gave man feet, and so, when he created him, this is one of our defining features, Kimber, and ladies, because in these feet you have the ability to carry everything upright. We are the vertebrates. We are upright creatures that God made to be able to come into relationship with him. We are not down on all fours. We are up on our two feet, and they're made marvelously so that they can stand that kind of pressure and that kind of weight. Feet are a marvelous masterpiece of God.
Like ours, Christ's feet would have been mostly cartilage when he was first born and that, through time, taking all the way to about the year 21, until our feet completely become hardened, did you know that there are about 5.000 nerves in your feet, and many of those nerve endings are very close to the skin, which is why, if I do this to you right here, Kimber, that it, very, very ticklish. Why? Because there are all these nerve endings that are right here on the bottom of the feet. And, see, you gave me such room. When you said that you had wide feet, I thought, "That's all the more, Lord". He's given us the double portion right here.
Did you know that there are 26 bones in this one foot, 33 joints, over 100 tendons and muscles and ligaments? And here's the part all of you came to hear: You have 250.000 sweat glands in your feet. You are not making up the smell that comes from your feet. There's nothing about it that is your imagination. I saw one, I don't have any idea if this is true, they reported that some pint of sweat comes from our feet every day. I don't know. I can't handle the truth. Can you? I really can't handle the truth. I can't handle it.
In 2 Samuel 21, verse 20, there's this giant, and, at first, you might think, I mean, "Was it Goliath"? No, no, no, but it's in the same general part of the world, same town that Goliath would've come from, and he's in the heritage, he's a descendant of these giants, and he's got six toes on each foot and six fingers on each hand. Foot. Foot. I love how the verse says, "Twenty-four in all", like that ought to be some big shock to us that every single one of those digits were counted, and that's how many he had. The marvels of the feet.
I want you to think through this with me because God designed these very feet, knowing good and well he himself would be wearing them one day, that he would be walking among us, making his dwelling place, walking among us, God taking on the feet of man. I'mma let you go, Kimber, and I thank you so much for lettin' me pick on you. Would you thank her for her feet? Thank her for her feet. Did you know that the very first time the word "feet" is used in the entire Word of God, it just happens to be in context of a theophany?
Now, "theophany", if you're new, say, you're 17 years old and you've never been part of a Bible study like this, you wanna know what this word means because it's a very, very cool word. It means some kind of manifestation of God that somehow was discernible by the senses, something they could see or they could feel or they could experience, and it's in the context of three visitors that came to Abraham. They were coming with the news that, in a year, they would have a son, just as God promised, only we find out, among those three visitors, that who it happens to be is the Lord himself and two of his angels, and in that very context, the first time the word is used in the ESV, we learn that Abraham says to him, "I will give you some water to wash your feet".
By the way, did you know that, according to one publication, women have four times as many foot problems as men? Four times. You wanted to know this. You wanted to know this. And why in the world would we have four times the foot problems that men have? Can somebody tell me, please? Heels. Heels. But would you also like to know that it was men that first started with the heels? Women picked it up from the men. It was men originally. It goes all the way back to the Persian warriors in the 17th century. They wore heels, and the reason they did was because the riders, the ones that rode the horses, the heels would help their feet, their shoes, stay in the stirrups of the horses.
So it became a status symbol because they were warriors. It became a European status symbol among the men that it's what made you look like a warrior, so men began wearing heels. Well, then, the women wanted to wear heels, so the women took it up. Once the women started doing it, 'cause the men were, like, over it, wasn't near as cool to them anymore, and so there we've got four times the feet problems. The disciples all knew exactly what Jesus's feet looked like. Now, we know for a fact because we know that John the Baptizer said of him, "I'm not worthy to untie his sandals", so we know for a fact that Jesus wore sandals.
I don't know how that hits you, but he did. And so they would've seen his feet over and over again. They would've known, was his second toe a little longer than his big toe? Did some of 'em turn in a little bit strange? And if you're thinkin', "No, he would've had these, just, like, very gentle, uncalloused feet," I don't think that's true. They walked all over the place. They weren't on wheels. They knew exactly how his feet laid out in those sandals, exactly what color they were, how he seemed to walk, what his gait was like when he did so, when he was God, who'd made his dwelling place among man, walking among us.
Isaiah chapter 60, Isaiah chapter 60. I'd love to read to you verses 1 all the way through to 13. Let this be cinematic while you're at it. Picture this on a screen. Imagine it. Imagine colors. Imagine depth.
Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and a thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you, and the nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together, they come to you. Your son shall come from afar and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. And you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and exalt because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you and the wealth of nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those of Sheba shall come and they shall bring gold and frankincense and they shall bring good news and praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you. The rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you. And they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house.
I will beautify my beautiful house. Now, this is talking about the future restoration and splendor of Israel. We would see this in sister passages in the New Testament where it talks about, and I'm thinking in terms of Revelation chapter 21 and several other segments of Scripture where we get glimpses of this kind when Jesus will return and when he will be vindicated before all of his enemies and the enemy will be dealt with once and for all, and he will create a new heavens and a new earth and so many things that you're about to hear about this restoration of Israel and this future, a dwelling place for Jesus Christ. So much of what you're going to hear, we would hear also toward the end of the New Testament.
So all of this would agree together, but listen to this wording here because it's beautiful. Remember what he just said:
And I will beautify my beautiful house. Who are these that fly like a cloud and like doves to their windows? For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them for the name of the Lord your God and for the holy one of Israel because he has made you beautiful. Foreigners shall bring up your walls and their king shall minister to you for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Your gates shall be open continually; night and day they shall not be shut that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations with their kings led in procession. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish and those nations shall be utterly laid waste. The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
Now we need desperately to see point two in conjunction with point one and let it build. Christ came to earth as God walking among us wearing feet. Point number two, God makes the place of his feet glorious. I've been reading through the Book of Isaiah. I don't know if this is affecting anybody else, but I've got chills all over my arms because I've been reading a chapter a day out of Isaiah. I finished about a week ago, but this is just what jumped out at me when you are taking it slowly and just trying to drink it in like water in the morning.
Just going through it and meditating on it, and this has jumped out at me that here God comes in the flesh through Jesus and that what he is going to do universally and globally, he literally will come restore this globe, have a new heavens and a new earth, and he will reign as king and there will be, praise God, peace on earth and the kingdom will come and the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is very, very good news, but here's what I've come to suggest to you. That what he is going to do universally and globally, he does personally with his people, and where he sets his feet, he makes it glorious.
And that everywhere he walked and every person who walked closely to him was inches from glory. The glory of God manifested in this human flesh. The writer John says under the inspiration, we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only full of grace and truth, and God will make the place of his feet glorious. So here's the deal. We're going to look at the broad range of places where we see Jesus from about this part of his body down. I counted them and went through them over and over again, read every single one of them, and I'm going to make mention. I can't read all of them to you and with you because we don't have time in the segments allotted to us but I'm going to make reference to all of them, and I counted 13 times in the Scriptures that we see a reference specifically to the feet of Jesus, specifically to the feet of Jesus.
Now, two of the times fall into synoptic Gospels that are telling the same story and that is the story of Jairus and his daughter is dying, and he comes and he falls at the feet of Jesus to ask him if he would come and help his daughter. So I'm going to count that as one since it's a story that is given in two different Gospels. So a dozen different times, all of them, we will make reference to. Several of them, we will go and cling to for a little while. All of these show us these pictures, these moments when the lens of Scriptures, a camera goes down, down, down to the feet of Jesus and we see who is there.
Now, what I hope will thrill you is its all manner of thing and reason. We're going to see that there's room for all of us at the feet of Jesus, and what I want to tell you is he makes the place of his feet glorious. So wherever he is when we're close to those feet, we are that far from glory, that far from glory. I want you to go back with me now to Matthew chapter 15, and I think now we're really prepared to go back and read it. Matthew 15.
Now I think we've got a little bit of context to it, and this is the first one we're going to see and I'm going to tell you why. The reason why this one is so dramatic and this one is so important is because it is the scene where a whole bunch of people are brought to his feet. So I mean, this is like an all open access. Anyone can come to the feet. And so now I'm going to read it again, Matthew 15. I'm going to start reading at verse 29, and it says this. "Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain," and what did he do? What does it say next? He sat down.
So he sits down on the side of the mountain, and it says, "And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet and he healed them". Now, I don't know about you, but one of the things that just drives me crazy about going to a physician today is that you have to go to a different one for every possible malady. Anybody? If you got a foot problem, you go to a foot doctor. If you've got a nasal problem, you go to a nasal doctor. If you got a bone problem, you don't just get to go to your GP about it. You better go over there to your bone doctor. And then there's going to be the blood doctor, there's going to be the brain doctor, there's going to be the spine doctor.
There's every kind of doctor. Only Jesus was every kind of doctor because, you see, he was a great physician. So not once did they bring him someone that he went, "Now, wait a second. This is really above my pay grade here". Not one time, not one time. He was a specialist on all of it. So they bring them and it says, "So that the crowd wondered", and I mean, it's wonder. Like, they were having wonder, astonishment when they saw the mute speaking. See, we don't know that the mute have been healed until they're speaking. Like, if you've been mute about Jesus in the Gospel, we don't know you've been healed till you start talking. If somehow you just been lame and not been able to walk out your calling and walk with the confidence and the chosenness and the belovedness and the cleansing that Jesus has made yours to the power of the cross, see, how is anybody going to know? Because the only way you know that the lame have been healed is that they walk, is that they walk.
Oh, I'm going to let that hit somebody in the house because healing means you actually can do something you ordinarily could not do in the past. Healing means that we are going to be able to do things we could not do before. That areas that have been bondage to us, areas that were inabilities to us, that were infirmities to us that we are able to do things we could not do before. Why? Because we've been healed, we've been healed by the great physician. Our eyes are going to be able to see what we've been blinded to before because Jesus is the healer.
You have within you, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, a very, very capable woman, a compassionate woman, a courageous woman. It's time for the fears of little bitty girls to be silenced in Jesus's name and for us to walk in the might of our calling. Maybe you think your substance addiction was entirely about escapism, but maybe it goes back even further than escapism to a feeling that there was so much you could not control. Here's the heart of the lesson. Put all of this under his feet 'cause he makes the place of his feet glorious. This is gorgeous, gorgeous part of Ephesians chapter 1 where Paul is telling what kind of power has been given to us who believe.
That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
He's the head of the body, the church. You know, we speak in mirrorisms, comparisons and extremes, head and feet. He is the head of the church and everything is under his feet. We have the joyful privilege by the power of the cross to surrender to Jesus what is under his feet. What is too much for you is under his feet, and here's the beautiful thing. When we surrender at his feet, when you and I learn how to live life at his feet, he makes that place glorious. What does life look like at the feet of Jesus? Turn to Luke chapter 10, verse 38.
Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.' The Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.'
Many of us have read this lots and lots of times. I guess one reason I camera on something like this is because I think that after years and years of being in the Scripture, sometimes we can lose the profoundness of what is in play like the fact that God made his dwelling among us and walked among us. The Word made flesh and dwelling among us, that he had skin that bruised when he hit it probably because he was raised by a carpenter, and that's what fathers did with their sons. They took them into their shops, and very likely he's bruised his thumb with the hammer trying to hit the nail. It's bruisable body that has to have sleep and food and drink. It's a marvelous thing.
But right here with Mary of Bethany, this is not Mary the mother of Jesus. There are so many Marys, so many Marys, but just keep those Marys straight because this is Mary of Bethany. This is Martha's sister and Lazarus's sister. Lazarus is who is going to raise from the dead, and she's in there sitting at the feet of Jesus while he's teaching. This was revolutionary. The reason why there are 5.000 women in this room this weekend is because Jesus Christ welcomed girls into Bible study. I'm just going to wait and let that hit you because it has everything to do with us; that a woman could be invited into theology, that a woman could be a theologian.
If you take that lightly, you have missed something that was really, really remarkable because really the woman should have been where I've been this very weekend, where I will go back this next week. There's everything beautiful about it and nothing wrong with it, but she should have been in the kitchen with Martha. She was not. She was listening to him teach. She was sitting at the front of his class at his feet, and he was glad she was there and said she has chosen what is better.
Listen, when it says she listened to him teach, that word right there, teach, is a form of the word logos. It means she listened to his Word, invited into Bible study front row right there at those very feet. Jesus, he changed everything for girls. I need somebody to get that with me this weekend 'cause I don't know if you know how we were treated in those days, the misogyny of those days. It was scandalous that Jesus would let us come into Bible study. And so what? We're not going to do it? Do you know what he did to welcome us there and we're not going to do it 'cause we got Pinterest? After he invited us to study the Scriptures, we're not going to? What are we going to pass on to our daughters? We got other things to do. We got Snapchat.
Invited into theology, "Come learn at my feet". I've written down in my notes the significance of the terminology: "She sat at the feet of Jesus and learned from his teaching". and I put right beside it Acts 22, verse 3 that I'm about to read to you and I made a comparison in my notes that there was more going on there that meets the eye because Paul said in Acts 22:3 something that we need to hear so that we can understand what's going on in Luke chapter 10 because Paul in describing himself said that he learned or sat at the feet of Gamaliel, Gamaliel. That was his rabbi. To sit at his feet was to be discipled by him that he was his student and that was his teacher.
That this terminology, when she sat at his feet, that she would be able to say, if we could put that terminology from Acts 22:3 into Luke chapter 10 what it means for her to be able to say, if we could see it this way, that I was educated at the feet of Jesus, and I want to say this to you, why this is so important, because the way that God has formulated the church. He's given us pastors and shepherds and teachers, and we're supposed to have that. We're supposed to be doing what we're doing right now. On Sunday to go to our churches and be fed the Word of God by our pastors and our teachers.
This is how he set up the church. That's Ephesians chapter 4 at the very least. It's blatant there and it's all over the New Testament, how we work as a body and how we go under teaching, but I'm going to tell you something and I pray that this is just going to be a game changer for somebody. I want Jesus to be the one teaching me. So as my pastor is preaching or as I'm listening to a podcast, I am mindful continually, "Jesus, teach me. Jesus, teach me. Jesus, teach me".
I'm thinking continually, "I want you as my teacher". This is the person that's bringing me his Word, but I want Jesus to be my teacher. When all is said and done and my life is over, I want to have sat at the feet of my teacher and I want it to been Jesus. That he is the one, you bring it to me. "These words that my pastor is saying; Jesus, you come, you bring the Spirit to it. Make it alive in my bones. Be my teacher. Be my teacher". I think this is a little bit of what Paul was talking about in Colossians chapter 2 when he said, "From the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that is from God".
Whoever you are, wherever you've been, whatever brokenness you bring, whatever has embarrassed you, chained you, whatever has broken your heart, whatever has your family in pieces, whatever has frayed your faith, whatever shape you are in, you bring that to the feet of Jesus because he makes the place of his feet glorious, glorious.
One of the points that we're making that I don't want you to miss is the broad spectrum of things that were happening at his feet. So, don't miss that because that will be the most important take home that you've got and the most important take home that I've got, that there is so much living to do at the feet of Jesus because there were all sorts of reasons for people being there. And we've already seen two of them, one that was in a corporate setting, and then another that was about one particular woman, and it helped us build several of the points that we have so far. So, I need to hear point one, please. I need to hear everybody say it. Number one, "Christ came to earth as God walking among us wearing". I mean it's just amazing that God came wearing feet. And then number two is this, "God..."
Now, when Jesus came to earth, he came fully God, and fully man. So, everywhere he planted his feet was glorious, was glorious. And when we live life at his feet, we are touching that glorious glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, here's what we're gonna talk about. Remember, we've been in Matthew 15 where we saw a large group of people that came for healing, and I cannot say enough how important it is for us to understand that when there has been a healing work of God, it actually shows up because that becomes critical to us today. I believe he's gonna do some healing on us.
And you know what? We're gonna go out and we're gonna walk it out. And when we go back into that old pattern, we're gonna go, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. That is not how a person who has been healed by Jesus acts, and thinks, and walks". This is how because it's imperative that we understand that when he looses our tongue, it's so the mute will speak who've been lame in our walk so that the walk of faith takes part in strength. We're gonna see the after effects of it. We also look at Luke chapter 10 at a woman who wanted to be and was welcome to be educated at the feet of the great teacher. We're going to look now at this process of the people of God and the person of God, taking his or her own feet and walking out in obedience because we're going to see that the feet of God have a great impact on what the people of God do in their walk of faith.
So, we're going to Genesis chapter 13, and this is where we'll begin to build. Genesis 13, I want to read verses 14 through 17 to you.
The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, 'Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.' So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and he built there an altar to the Lord.
I want you to see the two parts of obedience that are so clear in this passage with this first man of faith that God has called in this way, chosen to bring forth descendants from him and to bless all the nations of the earth. This is Abraham. Abram at this point, and then his name will be lengthened into Abraham. And I want you to see these two people because what he has him do is he has him look, and then he has him walk. I want you to see that it is vision first and then it's action, vision, action. He says, "Look, look, look out northward, southward, westward, eastward. See the land that I have given you. Look at it. Now arise and walk".
And so, he's calling him to this vision and this action. The reason I want to make a little bit of a big deal about this to you is because we are not called to blind obedience, and we don't just get this bright idea all of a sudden, and go do something that ends up in the news that we're saying God told us to do, all these bizarre things that no more reflect the character of God than anything we could possibly come up with. He says, "You look, let me give you vision, and then you walk in the action". And I love it because it reminds me of the time that he told the disciples, he said, "Pray for workers for the fields of harvest because," he said, "The fields are white for harvest".
And this is us today. I think it's a very, very convenient thing that the first two letters of the word "gospel" spell go 'cause I mean it's a lot of going. And he told them he said, "Look, the fields are white for harvest". We live in a world that is just I mean, ready, ready for harvesting, ready to share the gospel. And he says, I mean he's telling us, look, arise, and walk. There's vision and there's action, those two parts of obedience to God. I want to talk to you about why would he have him walk it? 'Cause this is gonna become important to us for the next couple of minutes. In the Word, you will see the concept over and over again.
There is something about stepping your foot on something. There is a, go with me here, a tactile element to the walk of faith where there is this, "Pick up your foot and step where I have told you to go". One reason why this is kind of a cool thing to bring up in our culture is because we now live in a virtual culture in so many ways. So much is online, so much. Ministry truly does happen online. I really do believe that, or I would not want to be any part of it. Many of you feel the same way. In all the ills that happen out there, some real live ministry can take place out there, some real live testimony to the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ and his work.
I love all of that, but I don't want you to forget the tactile part of it, that there's something about stepping your feet in your calling that you just like pick up your foot and you step in, that we stay back from it, one of the worst things that can happen to us is for us to get to where we no longer can feel flesh and blood. What a disaster, Nancy, if when you and I are ministering to women, we can't grab ahold of them because when I grab ahold of you, I remember that you are warm.
You know what I'm saying to you? That this is a woman it's got like real stuff going on that if I held her too hard, I could bruise her. And she's got a heartbeat, I can feel her pulse. I remember I look face to face, if she gets tears in her eyes, I don't miss them, why? Because I'm standing right in front of her. If we lose this, we have lost something so precious and we will forget, we will forget the real life needs of people. We will forget that when we hear of something, a story from someone, it's not the same as when we say see them face to face when we're able to touch flesh and blood. We gotta keep the hands-on part of our ministry.
So, I say to you, because I have some fellow writers in here, I'm sure. I have fellow bloggers in here, I'm sure. A lot of people that are doing a lot of ministry online and yet, I'm gonna say to you, do you have people you minister to face to face? It is imperative. Is there a place your feet walk? Because if you're just gonna do your ministry in your basement with your laptop, you're gonna miss it because I don't know if I can say this right, Jesus took on flesh and blood because flesh and blood is still important. It's still important. I still believe that there are people that need a hug.
I mean, I'm maternal and when I see somebody that needs a hug, I'm probably gonna give them one. I don't care if it's the woman checking out my groceries and she does not know me from Adam. I don't care if we've had no spiritual conversation. If, for any reason, I get the idea that she is having a hard day, I probably gonna come around there where that register is, and I'm gonna give her a hug. "Get over here, give me a hug". Because, you know, I'm just going to because I still believe in tactile ministry, that there's just a sensory side of it when we touch someone, and when we're face to face.
Pick your feet up and go. Pick your feet up and go. Let what we do online be the overflow of that but when that becomes our ministry, we will lose touch with people. We will lose touch with people. Tactile dimension, emphasis on the ground, that are our harvest field is the globe. Whatever piece of the gospel ground he's given you, go step your feet on it.
Now, let me show you two ways that are gonna give this more foundation. Go with me, let's see, I want you to get Deuteronomy 11 in your hands and Joshua 1. So, they're gonna be very close to one another. Verse 24, "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you," verse 25.
Now, look at Joshua 1:30, oh, thank you, Jesus. Joshua 1:3 he says the same thing. In fact, that let me go to 2. Well, let me go to 1 because I don't know if this gets anybody besides me, but I just, I love, I love when God just gets this. He's just plain spoken. "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 'Moses my servant is dead.'"
You know, there comes a time when God just goes on like, "Okay, that's dead. I've got him, I've handled him. Now, it's time for you to go. It's time for you to go and do what I've called you to do. You're like sitting in that place that's paralyzed by what has happened. And let me tell you something, that now is over and this is what we're doing now. I need you to go". And he says, "Therefore go, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land I'm giving to them to the people of Israel". Verse 3, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised Moses".
I want us to get some of this on us. You and I need some victory on us because I started thinking this this week, and I thought I was funny. I hope you think I'm funny too because I started thinking defeat is in the feet. If you're wondering where your defeat is, it's in the feet because it's where we're walking. It's we're not walking by faith, we're walking in fear. We're walking somewhere, God knows where, instead of where God has called us to, in this path of darkness over you're doing all manner a thing in all manner of sin, not having near the time we would be having.
Listen, sin is not just that it's not just as sin is sinful, it's that it is a robber. It is stealing from you the abundance that Jesus has for you. Our acting in a way that is more consistent with holiness and rightness is not to make God feel better. God feels fine. He's saying, "These commandments that I've given you, which are for your good". He knows what will set us free. He knows what it does to the soul to sleep with one person after another and half the time not even know what their name was. He knows what all that does. He knows what pornography is doing to that soul. He knows. He knows what bitterness, what emotional cancer that kind of bitterness is bringing us, heart troubles, all sorts of physical problems, because we just will not let go of the things that crowd our hearts with pride and with sin. He's calling us to freedom, and our defeat is in the feet.
Somebody say, "Defeat is in the feet," because right there, it's in the feet. We're gonna get some walk on us, some walk on us. I want to show you something. I'm so charged up about this verse that here pretty soon I'm probably gonna do a whole conference on this verse. I've heard it before somewhere along the way, but I don't know, it just didn't land with me. That's what I love about the Word of God is it suddenly something just like lands with you. That's when you know that the Holy Spirit really has you fixated right there 'cause he just lands on it with you and it gets loud.
I want you to go with me all the way to Jeremiah, the Book of Jeremiah chapter 12. If you have a caption at all in your Bible, what do you see at the top of that chapter? Jeremiah chapter 12 is talking about Jeremiah's what? Does anybody see it? Complaint, complaint. Now, this is really the second time. Goodness knows Jeremiah's got plenty to complain about, but he's already registered a very heavy complaint earlier in the book and the Lord was very, very tender with him and basically said, "Listen, I'm gonna go after those that have hurt you. I'm gonna make this right. I can tell you that. I am watching".
So, he done all this with Jeremiah, but Jeremiah has to come at it a second time. So, Jeremiah brings them all this complaint because some of the family's involved in it now, and these things are turned upside down and all this thing is happening to the land. And so, the Lord answers him this time, and I don't know if you feel this way, but I love that the Lord knows how to respond to us at different times because what worked one time, the next time we need something else entirely from him. Like sometimes we need him to just like sweet talk us and be very, very like, bring me some comfort.
And sometimes he goes, "You know what comfort I'm gonna give you? I'm about to kick your tail to next week. I'm gonna tell you the comfort I'm about to give you". And I need that, I need that. I need that, and it's kind of like kick your tail to next week for Jeremiah time because he says in verse 5, "If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting," and by this he means, this is the level of your trust in the safe land"? "Then what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan"?
Listen, we cannot change the world as it is around us in this moment. We cannot decide we're gonna wait around for a different world that we're gonna minister to. This is the one we've been given. This is the one that we've been entrusted with the gospel to share, and that's what changes the world. But we're doing all this complaining. And he's going, "Listen, if you are complaining about your foot race with men, what are you gonna do when I was gonna call you to compete with horses? If you're having trouble in your safe land, the thing of it was, I'm looking for servants that are willing to serve me in the thicket".
And I want to say this to you, we have to quit being such wimps. We're calling inconvenience affliction, affliction. We're so bothered by something down here. We're annoying when we can't get our computer to boot up when we need it to. Well, how are we supposed to deal with demons, and principalities, and the darkness because we're complaining about life in the light? Anybody know what I'm talking about? If we're gonna complain, we're complaining about life in our church in the light. "You're gonna complain about your church when actually I needed you out there where it's really hard. You're complaining in the light, and I need to send you to the darkness. Get some hair on your chest".
Well, I'm gonna try to think of a better metaphor for women. It's not coming to me right now. It will, it will come to me in a minute. Does anybody hear what I'm saying? My word, my word, it is like we're just scared of everything. We are scared of everything. We've got so much anxiety. We fear failure so much, we can't even get out there and serve. We'll be perfect of what God's given us to do without even trying it. Listen, we have this long here. Get busy. This long here. Let's quit complaining. Let's quit complaining about things that the rest of the world would call having a great day.
Can you imagine people in third world countries looking over at us and going and let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see. And you were complaining about you're gonna go back into your air conditioning, air-conditioned home. You got shelter. You got shoes on your feet, and you can read. And you drove into your driveway with a car. Okay, let's see, God bless your sweet heart. At some point, we just gotta like reset. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Because this is a generation called to a very dark world. And listen, we need to be able to compete with horses. We're competing with one another.
He says, "I'mma tell you, I have principalities for you to battle. Stop complaining about people and start fighting the darkness". Anybody getting a Word from that? Anybody getting a Word from that? All right, here's what we're gonna say. We're gonna lock this all together right here, and then we're gonna start flying like this. "What happens between God and us at his feet has everything to do with our feet". What happens between me and my God at the feet of Jesus has everything to do with what's gonna happen when I then arise, look out, and walk.
In fact, I want to challenge you. I want to tell you something. If you will surrender today, I mean this, test the Scriptures. Look at it, see if this is not so. I need you to know that your time is very limited to just like wig out in a pit of sin if you start doing a whole lot of life at the feet of Jesus because there's something about being at the feet of Jesus that makes it really hard to get up and go like walk into a ditch. You'll only be able to do it for a little while and after a while you're either gonna go walk in the ditch and leave God alone, or you're gonna stay with God and you're gonna leave the ditch alone, because there's something about living at his feet that makes my feet want to walk in the path that he's given me of faith.
Oh, I tell people all the time because we want people to turn from their sins, and then come to Jesus and then just like turn, won't they be motivated to turn from their sins before they're invited to even know this one who is Jesus. Come to him and turn from your sins because I'm gonna tell you something. I have not laid down some things that I thought I really had a right to that I thought were dear to me. I have not made some decisions to die to some of the things of my flesh to be alive in his Spirit because I wanted to be a good Christian. I'm sorry if that disappoints you. I have one motivation for everything, everything that goes against the grain of my flesh. I am crazy in love with Jesus Christ. He makes it worth it to me. He makes it worth it to me.
Getting to know him that suddenly it's like, you know what? I want to be with you so badly. Once we taste that, that the sweetness of intimacy with him. Once we begin to live life partaking of his presence at his feet, that becomes so precious to us that nothing can compete with that. And so, because I don't want anything to take that away from me. That's why it's worth it to me. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Yes, turn from our sins and come to Jesus. But in Jesus you will find what was worth you turning from every single bit of that so that you could live freely and in liberation in him. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Because what happens between God and us at his feet has everything to do with our feet. Take off your shoes because the place you are standing is holy ground.
You and I are gonna fly through some gospel passages. Luke chapter 7, turn there with me if you would please. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as much as any portion in Scripture, this is my personal testimony. It begins in verse 36. It goes all the way to verse 50. A portion of it is literally painted on my wall, painted on my wall over where I sit and write. It is the story of the sinful woman who has known the forgiveness of Christ.
Christ has been invited to a Pharisee's house for a fine dinner. And while he is there, this woman walks in, walks into the house, straight over to him, and she begins to just, in verse 37, she breaks open an alabaster flask of ointment, and she begins to wet his feet with her tears, and she wipes them with the hair of her head. And she kisses his feet, and she anoints them with the ointment.
Well, they're all just like shocked because when you know you have been forgiven like that, and it really does sink in what Jesus has done for you, there is an outpouring of the life and a fragrance that you cannot help but pour forth on him. You even will know from time to time, "I'm probably making an idiot of myself in front of people".
I think that from time to time in my worship. You know, I really should just keep my hands to myself and sit down. But there's just something that you have to lavish on him because he's forgiven me for so much. I come from a terrible background, terrible. Been in a ton of sin and my past, things that I can hardly bear to let myself even re-picture, re-envision. And I've been cleansed of every bit of that, forgiven for every single bit of that.
And there this woman is at his feet. The space at Christ's feet is holy. It's the strangest thing about Mary of Bethany. Every time she's in Scripture, she's at the feet of Jesus. She also anoints his feet at one point. Then she was at his feet for class, and then we're gonna see her there again, only this time her brother has died. They called for Jesus. He did not come for four solid days. He comes, Martha sees him first. Mary's still like devastated in the house because let me, don't know, I'm not prepared to say this so I'm probably not gonna say it well. But when you've been super close to him and something really bad happens, it hurts your feelings. It's like, "You've come through so many times. I don't understand why, why you weren't here. I thought you and me. I thought we were like this".
I need to see somebody's hand if you know what I'm talking about because it like hurts my feelings, hurts my feelings. I think he gets that and I think we'll have all of that explained to us. I want you to watch it in this scene here because she's just devastated. I'm gonna go to 28 so I can give you some context. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, 'The Teacher is here and is calling for you.' And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, 'Where have you laid him?' And they said to him, 'Lord, come and see.'
And, you know, he's about to raise him from the dead. "The space at Christ's feet is a sacred place for grief". You know why some of us in this room haven't been close to Jesus in a good while? Because you don't want to say what's on your mind. I mean it's the craziest thing because he's reading our hearts, but we're just like, here's the other option. We go drop at those feet and go "Why, why did this happen? You could have stopped this". My heart's broken. How am I supposed to live past this? Where... were... you"?
That is intimacy with God. When that which is heavy on our hearts, in earnest, in honesty, in complete transparency, we drop at his feet and just pour it out. "My heart is broken, and I feel like you broke it". Is that what you'd want to say? Why don't you say it? Why don't you grab onto him for dear life and go, I will not let go until you bless me. I do not know why this has happened, but I will wrestle this through with you. I will wrestle this through with you".
Listen, don't you think for one second wrestling is not a form of intimacy. Listen, who you're wrestling with, you're touching with everything you've got. You may never hold on tighter to anyone than you will when you're wrestling with him. Do you feel like you can do that? That place, that space, it's safe for grief. Bring it, bring it, get on with it. Tell him what's on your heart. Put it into words. Get that thing out and there such healing takes place.
I'm gonna tell you something, I wish it would always be that what happened would be undone like it was with Lazarus, only, of course, he had to die again. This I can tell you, your grief has nearly killed you and it will resurrect you to just find life back at the feet of Jesus. I don't know if your marriage will be resurrected. I can't tell you that. I don't know with that loss will be refound. I can't tell you that. What I do know for certain is that if you will lay out at his feet and you will pour out your grief, he will resurrect you because the space at Christ's feet is a safe place, a holy place for grief.
Want to see something else. Would you go with me now to Luke 17:16? This is one of my favorite ones, and this is on purpose because we're bouncing around like Tigger like this. We're bouncing around because I want you to see the fullness of the things happening at his feet. So, so, we studied at his feet, we know we can go for healing at his feet, we have seen already that the space at his feet is holy. We can go in all our former unholiness, and all our brokenness, and all our sin, and we can go lay at those feet and that is holy ground, it's holy ground. And we get to be holy there with him and completely forgiven. We've seen all these kinds of things that we grieve there. We grieve there.
But look at Luke 17:16, Luke 17:16 that has this glorious scene where Jesus cleanses ten lepers. It says in verse 12, "And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.' When he saw them he said to them, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests.' And as they went they were cleansed". All of a sudden, like, I mean, they're being cleansed as they're walking through that obedience of what Jesus has told them to do. And it says in verse 15, "Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks".
The space at Christ's feet is perfect for gratitude. You're just thankful. And this is what I want to be the one. I told him this morning, I told him this nearly in tears in my room early this morning I said, "I want to be the one that runs back. That's one reason I came to just thank you for the privilege to serve you is because I want to be the one that ran back with a loud voice. I don't to be quiet about it. I want to just run to him loud, loud, just praising God and going and just drop at his feet and go, Thank you, thank you, thank you. If you have ever had a child that had the spots of a leper, Lord, it was me. If you've ever known anybody, anybody that was gnawed up, something that had just eaten them alive, It was me and you healed me and I want you to know, I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful".
One of the things I ask him, and I think it's one of the things you ask him too is, "I don't ever want to get over my gratitude". We're just thankful. It's a safe place for gratitude. I want you to go to it with me now to Luke chapter 8. It's when Jesus heals a man who had demons. They'd gone over to the other side of the lake. They'd stepped out on land and he met a man from the city who had demons. And it says in verse 27, "For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs".
And we're told down into 29 that in the season, they had to bind him in chains and shackles, and he just was driven out in the desert. And here comes Jesus. That's my groom. I love my husband so much. I love Keith more with all my heart, but I've got an uncontested love in my life and for reasons just like this. I know this is gonna sound dumb: I cannot understand why anybody doesn't receive Jesus. I just think they can't know. It's 'cause they don't know 'cause if you... who wouldn't want him? Are you kidding me? Who wouldn't want somebody who would forgive them completely, cleanse them from head to toe, forgive them for everything they've ever done, invite them into class in the front row, disciple them, bring them up to walk on their two feet in him by faith.
"The people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind". Hey, did y'all notice it says, and they were afraid? Listen, for some of you, when God, when Jesus starts putting you back together, your family's gonna be scared to death of you, scared to death of you. My family's still scared of me. But I'm free, and they're warming up to it.
I looked up all these verses. You can imagine how many verses there are. Oh, let's see, I wish I'd written it down, 200 and something occasions where feet, the word "feet" is used, and then 100 and something occasions for foot. And so, I printed them all, so many of them out and read so many of them. There are so many verses about feet slipping. I'm thinking in terms of Psalm 38, verse 16 that says these words, "For I said, 'Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips"!
Anybody's foot slipped? There've been times I walked my way right into sin, but there have been other times my foot just like slipped. Does anybody know what I'm talking about, slip? The psalmist says over and over again, "Lord, don't let my foot slip". 94:18 of the psalm it says this, "As often as I said, 'My foot ha slipped,' your love, O Lord, upheld me". The space at Christ's feet is solid ground. I want you to think about just how true that is because the waves were like wood beneath the feet of Jesus, water like concrete under the feet of Jesus. It doesn't even matter if he's walking on the waves, they have to be solid under his feet because the ground under his feet is always solid. And when I am standing in him, the ground under my feet is completely solid, completely solid.
There are times when we feel like somebody has taken a jackhammer to the concrete all around our lives, and all we have left is this size seven, or eight, or nine or ten little space of concrete right under our feet, but it is held because we built our house upon a rock. And the winds came, and the rains came, and the floods came, and I don't know if this means anything to you, but I wrote down these words. It says, "The one who listens to my Word and does it is like a man who builds his house upon a rock". And I jotted down, "The Word of God is the solid ground in a mudslide world," isn't it?
The Word of God is solid ground in a mudslide. I mean, we are surrounded by a mudslide. What would it have been like when someone is about to be crucified? What they would have done is that they would have laid the wood down on the ground. And so, the person who was being crucified would have been laid on it and then they would have nailed them down, and I want you to picture because I thought in all these scenes of defeat, there is an implication of someone at his feet that never uses the exact terminology, but he had to be because whoever nailed him down with his feet was at those very feet. And I thought to myself, can you imagine what it was like to be the one that is going to hold down those feet and drive a long nail with a hammer into bloody feet?
My mind cannot even wrap around that. And I thought, wow, it'd be something else to be that person. I mean, then they lift him up and they have to set it down really hard into the ground 'cause it's got holes, but somebody nailed him down. Somebody was at his feet, those holy feet, holy ground, sacred ground. Take off your sandals because the place where you were standing is holy ground. Somebody was at those feet and nailed them down. And I said to the Lord, "I wonder who that was". This morning early for my quiet time, I had the strangest thought come to me. It was me just nailing him to that tree. Then I get to get up because I place my trust in him. Guilty, sinful, insane, undignified, old me. And I get my life.
I don't know how often you think of what it's gonna be like when you get to see Jesus face to face, but I think that's one of the good parts about getting older as you think about it more. With my birthdays, I think to myself, well, I'm getting closer and closer, just getting closer and closer, getting closer and closer to time. There's this beautiful scene I told you that at one point or another we would mention every single scene where we see anybody at his feet. And here we are at the very end of Matthew's gospel in the 28th chapter. Mary Magdalene and the person called the other Mary, 'cause there's all these Marys, and there's Mary that was the mother of Jesus, and then there's the other Mary. Don't we always feel like the other one, like we know nothing that matters, you just other?
And they're greeted after they find the tomb empty by angels that say, "Why are you looking for the living among the dead"? They tell them, "He is risen". And so they go joyfully into town to tell the brothers and on their way, they run into Jesus and he greets them, and they just like fall on their faces and they grab hold of his feet. I think about that a lot 'cause I just wonder when we see him, are we just gonna grab hold of the feet? And don't you know, he's gonna want bend over like this. If that's what happens, he's gonna want to bend over like this and go, "You know what? You're gonna get to be here a while so you really don't have to hold on all that time". Grabbing on for dear life. They'd waited three days. We've waited all our lives just to see that face.
It's the most magnificent thing that in Revelation 21 when it talks about the people of God being in the presence of Christ, it doesn't really talk about his feet. It says, "And they will seek his face and his name will be on their foreheads". Romans 16, verse 20, the Apostle Paul writing the Church of the Romans, such a magnificent book, and he ends it with the most marvelous statement. He says this in verse 20 of Romans 16, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you". Number eight, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet".
You need to know that it won't be long until God is going to crush the enemy underneath the feet of the church. You know how to have a divine pedicure? I'm gonna tell ya. We get to have one, we can have it right now. We have a divine pedicure for rest of our lives, and this is how it happens. Listen to Romans 10, verses 14 through 17. "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" It says something so beautiful.
So, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. We get released out of this room to go live our calling out on the globe carrying the message of the gospel. First two letters of the gospel, "Go, go make disciples, be disciples and make disciples". And as you carry the gospel message, listen, good news. You know how to tell good news. I'm just gonna tell you this, I've lived under that a long time myself. I've gotta tell ya what Jesus did for me. You know how to tell that good news. You know how to tell what Jesus has done for you. If he has set you free, if he has saved your scrawny neck, you know how to tell that good news. You know how to tell it. And every time we take that good news is you go out with joy in your tribulation, as you go out with a sense of peace in all this warring earth, you take the good news and you take it on a beautiful, beautiful feet.