Dr. Ed Young - Reach Out and Touch

I’ve had the privilege of going to the Vatican and visiting the Sistine Chapel on several occasions. The last time Joe, Beth, and I were there, we got what they called a backdoor tour. Our guide knew someone there, and we went into the Sistine Chapel before it was open to the public. Only a handful of people were there to look at it, and I think it was the time they had just completed a restoration of the colors, and it is indeed magnificent. Most of you are familiar with it; you can look and see it there on your screens. It’s a powerful figure you see to my right there on the screen-there’s God, reaching all the way out, leaning way over, his muscles taut, extending his finger toward Adam. Now, this is called the Creation of Adam; it’s a poor title. It’s not one that Michelangelo gave; it’s what people have picked up. It’s not the creation of Adam, obviously; there’s Adam, who is already created; he’s alive, his eyes are open. But notice, whereas God is reaching and straining to touch Adam, Adam is sort of reclined. He’s leaning back the other way — his left hand out, his elbow on his knee, and he’s just sort of languishing. God is reaching to touch, and Adam is saying, well, he is looking at God, but it’s sort of a placid, more or less seemingly disinterested look. His left leg is up, and all he had to do to touch the finger of God was look-just look! All he had to do was reach out, but he didn’t.

In this painting, the Bible tells us that God is nearer than any one of us could imagine or understand. The theological word is omnipresence; it’s the concept that God is everywhere at all times, in all places, in all situations. God is with us; God is tabernacling among us; God is everywhere. He’s nearer than any of us could imagine or think. A little girl told her daddy, «Daddy, Jesus lives in my heart,» and he said, «Well, how do you know?» Susie said, «Every time I put my hand over my heart, I feel Him walking inside.» We’re going to discover how God is near. We’ve been walking through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We’ve talked about it being the autobiographer of God walking on this earth, and the bottom line is the word we say at Christmas, but it’s true all the time: Emmanuel- God with us. God with us is here, right here, right now, in this place and every place. God is near.

We’ve taken Jesus all the way from birth in Bethlehem, all the way to Jerusalem for purification, all the way to Egypt. We took Him back to Nazareth; we took Him back to Jerusalem as a 12-year- old for the Passover. We took Him back again to Nazareth, and now we’ve taken Him all the way down-look at your map — where He was baptized by the Jordan in the bottom part of the Jordan River. After He was baptized, He went into the wilderness, the place of desolation, where He was tempted. Following that, we run into a very interesting scripture. We have John the Baptist who baptized Him, and here’s what happened:

In the Gospel of John, chapter number 1:35, it states, «Again the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples.» In verse 36, John looked at Jesus as He walked and said, «Behold the Lamb of God!» He just said that in verse 29-that takes away the sin of the world! The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, «What do you seek?» They said to Him, «Rabbi, where are you staying?» He said to them, «Come, and you will see.» So they came and saw where He was staying, and they stayed with Him, with Jesus, that day. It was about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard him speak and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, «We have found the Messiah,» which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus, and Jesus looked at him and said, «You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas,» which means Peter in Aramaic.

The next day, He proposed to go to Galilee and found Philip, and Philip said to him, «Follow me.» Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel. What’s happening here? The principle we learned at Bethany is that you can’t give away what you do not have. Tomorrow, somebody may ask, «What did I learn at church?» I learned that you can’t give away what you do not have! Boy, that’s profound; I wish I’d heard that before. That’s what you see here in the calling, the discernment of Jesus, and calling these people. What did Jesus give to these two? By the way, when John the Baptist says, «Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world,» he identifies Jesus as Messiah, and immediately two of the followers of John the Baptist left John and followed Jesus. Who were these two? They were Andrew and John. They followed Jesus, and Jesus turned around and said, «What do you want? Why are you following me?» They said, «We want to visit with you; we want to go home with you.» And He took them; He spent the rest of the day with them.

What happened in that conversation, do you think, between Jesus and Andrew and John? I think He listened, led, asked questions, and answered questions. Does that sound familiar, like the 12-year- old boy in the temple? Remember, that’s the way we teach; that’s the way we learn. We listen, we ask questions, we answer questions- we listen, we ask, we answer. That’s the genius of learning, and that’s exactly what they did. Jesus listened to them. He asked them questions, then He answered their questions. And what happened was Jesus gave to them-remember the purpose of the life of Jesus? Remember what we said? He came to change hearts- give us a new heart and then a new agenda to announce that you now have a new kingdom.

You’re in the kingdom of God, and that’s what He gave these two. Now they had something, didn’t they? They had new hearts, they had a new agenda, and what did they do? They said, «Let’s go find Peter!» They found Peter and introduced him to Jesus. He had a new heart and a new kingdom. Peter said, «I want to find my friend Philip,» and he did the same thing with Philip. Philip said, «Let’s go tell Nathaniel about it.» All of a sudden, you have the gospel being gossiped, and you have new hearts and new kingdom endeavors just exploding all around us. They were giving that which they had before they’d been baptized, or the baptism of John the Baptist-"Repent! Try harder! Go under, come up!» That’s the old way, «I’m going to just try hard.» Now they had a new heart, new power, new motivation, and they were in the Kingdom. They were giving to one another that which they were excited about-this new heart, this new life.

Some people have a hard time loving. Why is that? Because they’ve never really been loved. Some people have a hard time forgiving; perhaps they’ve never really understood, and maybe they’ve never felt they’ve been forgiven. Some people have a hard time trusting people because maybe they have never been trusted. You see, you can’t give away except for that which you have. You can’t give away anything you do not have. The first commandment says, «Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and spirit, with everything you’ve got.» Then you ought to love your neighbor, and then finally, you can love yourself. A lot of people don’t love themselves because they haven’t loved God. They have the inability to love their neighbor, and they haven’t understood that God so loved them. God fills us with love, and then we have the capacity to love.

A lot of people have trouble here. We say, «Boy, I want to be patient!» Whatever you need — that’s what you give. If someone needs to listen to you, listen to somebody, and then you’ll have that ability; you’ll be able to give it away. That’s the way life works; that’s the way the principles of God in Christ work. With a new heart, with a new agenda, being new in the Kingdom, you can’t give away what you do not have. They had Christ; they had Jesus, a new heart, and they began to give it to everyone they came in contact with. That’s what we learn at Bethany-you can’t give away what you do not have. You see these early apostles just giving away, giving away Jesus, showing them how that when they put their hand to their heart, they will feel Him walking around inside there.

Now they travel all the way to a wedding. They go to Cana. What happens in Cana? Wonderful, wonderful story there. Now these are recently followers of who? John the Baptist. Keep that in mind. So they walk all the way to Cana. In verse 3 of chapter 2 of John, we read, «When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no wine.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour is not yet come.'» That’s not the tone of voice Jesus had with His mom. Let me tell you what this is really saying. He said, «Woman,» by the way, the same word He used at the cross when He looked at Mary and said to His disciple, «That’s your mom now!» «Mom, that’s your son now.» The same word of reverence and respect, as in, «My dear lady, what does this have to do with us? My hour is not yet come.» What’s He saying? He’s saying here in this phrase, «It’s not the time for me to begin to publicly perform miracles.»

Then, in the next verse, I like what Mary said. Mary said to the servants, «Whatever He says to you, do it now.» Quietly- not a public miracle but a private miracle known to His mom and the servants there. Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing 20 or 30 gallons each. Jesus said to them, «Fill the water pots with water,» so they filled them up to the brim. He said, «Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter.» This is the first miracle; He turned water into wine! But you know what’s interesting here? Very, very interesting. First of all, the bride and the groom, and all of them would be embarrassed-particularly the parents of the groom-if they ran out of wine. They ran out of wine! By the way, wine in that day would be something they would drink because the water was not pure; it’d be like coffee or tea for us today. It would be mixed one part of water to three parts of wine. So don’t get into the alcoholic thing here; that’s not the situation. They used it as part of the ceremony, and they would pass it along, and they would drink wine all through the ceremony, and it would be a shameful thing, disgraceful-we ran out of wine! Oh, what are we going to do?

Mary had some position there. She didn’t tell Jesus to go and get more or turn water into wine; she just said, «Here’s our problem.» Jesus said, «I’m not ready to go public.» Mary said, «Whatever He says to you, do it.» They had these big pots for purification — six of them. They’d hold between 20 and 30 gallons each. So you multiply 6 times 30; Jesus produced 180 gallons of wine! Wow! We’ve got to have a wedding for everybody here. You see, this is a principle we learned in Cana-a very important principle. The Christian life is more about abundance than it is austerity. You see, here the apostles of John the Baptist had been out in the boondocks in the wilderness, eating local wild honey; man, they had been living lives of severity-"Repent! The kingdom is coming!» Oh, hard life! A tough life! A reclusive life! The life of hermits. And now they follow Jesus, and the first thing He says is, «Let’s go and have a party at a wedding celebration for a week in length!»

Jesus was a party animal in the best sense of the word! Now, follow me; that doesn’t mean He was a wine-bearer; it doesn’t mean that He participated in all kinds of debauchery. It means where Jesus was, there was fun, there was excitement, there was electricity. He was someone you’d want to be with! You see it all the way through the Bible, and we’ve got Him in sort of a solemn light. No, there was joy in Christ! By the way, that’s the most important word in the Bible to describe a Christian: joy. If you want joy, real joy, let Jesus come into your life, give you that new heart, that new kingdom.

These apostles were saying, «My goodness, we’ve never seen such celebration!» Being a Christian is more abundance than it is austerity; it doesn’t mean we’ll all be rich-no, not that! But it’s an abundance of things that last forever, the joy in Christ, the celebratory atmosphere. That’s what we learn at Cana. We learned from Bethany, you can’t give away what you do not have. In Cana, we learn that the Christian life, following Jesus, is more about abundance than it is austerity. It is a thrill to be with brothers and sisters, and I love when people think we as Christians can' t have any fun. Just follow us around for a week! We’ll show you how to have the finest kind of Christian fun you can ever imagine! That’s the kingdom!

You may applaud now! And then Jesus goes, and they make a little trip just about three miles away, and they go to Nazareth. He speaks in his home synagogue; He had gone there every Sabbath, every Saturday, his whole life. He had been taught there; that was his background. He goes to be the leader in worship there, the reading of the Old Testament, the prophets, and the rest of it. This is what He read. He read the prophecy of Isaiah, and it is a very, very interesting prophecy. Look over, if you would, all the way over in Luke, now Luke, chapter number four. Jesus took the book of the prophet Isaiah handed to Him, opened the book, and found the place written. He wrote: «The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.»

Not just those who do not have; the poor here would mean someone who was disenfranchised, someone who was out of fellowship with people. They were poor. «He sent me to proclaim release to the captives"-captives being those who were crushed-"and recovery of sight to the blind.» You have no illustration of that in the Old Testament of someone blind receiving their sight. This was the mark of the Messiah; these are Messianic passages. To set free those who are oppressed-those who are scattered, those who are down-and finally, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. This would be the Year of Jubilee. You see, they had the sabbatical year every seven years, and they forgave all their debts. But every 50 years-really, seven times seven, 49-in the 50th year, they had the Year of Jubilee.

In Israel, what they would do is that all debts owed would be forgiven, all the lands that had been bought and sold for the past 50 years went back to the original family, the original owners, and all slaves would be set free. In other words, they would enslave members of one another’s family when they couldn’t pay a debt. Now, there was a leveling of all of Israel, and they planted nothing or harvested nothing for an entire year. It was a Year of Jubilee-a fresh new beginning for everybody. And that’s what Jesus is saying: «I came to proclaim the Year of Jubilee. The Messiah has come.» That’s the announcement. And now here He is in His home church, standing up saying, «Hey, I’m the Messiah! I’m fulfilling all of this!»

Verse 21: «And Jesus began to say to them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'» Notice how they responded to that in verse 22: «And all were speaking well of Him and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, 'Is this not Joseph’s son? '» He said to them, «No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard has been done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'» What are they saying? They’re saying, «Look, we’ve heard you perform some miracles over in Capernaum and other parts of Galilee; we want a miracle right here in Nazareth! This is your hometown; perform a sign.» By the way, if you remember, we dealt with temptations jumping off the top of the temple; He had already said, «That’s not the way to build the kingdom.» Remember that? This is the same thing-oh, show us a sign!

He refused to do it. Then He goes on to say, «A prophet is without honor in his own country.» What’s He saying there? He’s saying, «Look at all the prophets in the Old Testament! How many of the prophets did the people of Israel listen to? How many did they respond to? Oh, maybe temporarily, but they didn’t get it.» And then Jesus says a very profound phrase in verse 25: «I say to you in truth» — by the way, I like truth unless it begins to cut me. You know, it begins to deal with me. I' ll tell you the truth! Oh, now wait a minute! We all love truth until it brings under conviction and begins to speak to where we are.

Jesus says, «I tell you the truth: there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah.» He goes on and says to those prejudiced, biased, narrow, provincial inhabitants of his hometown, «Let me tell you, there’s a prophet named Elijah, and there was a widow from Sidon, a Gentile, and he provided food for her and her daughter. Also, there’s a prophet named Elisha, and Naaman, a Syrian, came-another Gentile-and Elisha healed the Syrian.» He’s saying, «Why in the world didn’t these two prophets heal some Israelites? There were a lot of Israelites who were hungry after three and a half years of no rain, and there were a lot of Israelites who had leprosy! Why didn’t He heal one of them?» You see the prejudice that was there in Nazareth.

Nazareth, you remember, if you look at it closely, was a city that prided itself on being totally Jewish. They were Jews-Jews! Any other was not welcome. So they were very narrow in their beliefs; everybody went to synagogue, everybody had the same thing, and they said, «This is only for us.» That’s the reason Nathaniel said-who was from right up the road, three miles away-"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?» It was small-town competition, and Nazareth was so legalistic and pious that they said, «Man, can anything good come out of there?» And Nathaniel, by the way, knew that the prophet said that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, and now they said He’s a Nazarene. That was something he had to jump over in order to have that new heart in Christ.

So we see the principle that is here: what do we learn in this sermon in Nazareth? What do you think? Oh, the principle you can’t put new wine in old wine skins. That’s what’s here. What happened here to Jesus when He told them that God had healed these two Gentiles? They said, «We’ve had enough of this!» They took Him and tried to push Him over a cliff! You put new wine in old wine skins; what happens? The new wine ferments, and the old wine skins go boom! That’s what happened in the church at Nazareth. That’s what happened there. You see, they wanted things to remain as they are; they wanted nothing new. And we find that in the body of Christ today.

«Well, I want to put this new life in Christ in the old way I used to live, the old way I used to think. I’m going to have the same friends and do the same things; I’ve just added on Jesus.» Not so! Jesus is like that new wine; you can’t put it in our old lifestyles. If you do, it’ll explode; it will not work. Very, very important.

Go back up to the Sistine Chapel a minute. I wonder how many of us are like Adam-"Lord, I want you to touch me, but I’m not willing to leave this reclined, comfortable position.» Just to go-whoop! Just-whoop! But there’s somebody here; all you need to do is «go whoop!» and you’ll discover that God in Christ is right there to take you and to take me where we are and give us a new heart, a new kingdom agenda, and take us into a new life, a fresh beginning.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean, «Now I’m doing better.» No, no! Being a Christian means we’re brand new in Jesus Christ! That’s the miracle of it all! And then we’ll be able to say, «You know, Jesus is in my heart.» Well, how do you know that? «When I get still, I can feel Him walking around!» That’s what that is, folks! That’s what that is! If you’re in Christ, that’s Jesus walking around in your heart and in mine.