Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Mark chapter 10. It's also there in your worship guide. As we are continuing our study through the life of Peter, We are looking at what it looks like to follow Jesus through the eyes of Peter. And really, this is a thirteen week introduction for our study of first Peter. I'm not sure if any of you guys are are fans of the show The Office, but this past week, my wife and I, we tried to watch the episode of Scott's Tots.
Joel Brooks:I could tell some of you out there, you're definitely you're definitely fan that that's the hardest episode to ever try to get through. Lauren kept saying, turn it off, turn it off. It's it's so cringe worthy. If if you haven't watched it, basically, Michael Scott, he he made a promise to a group of inner city kids ten years ago that if they were to graduate from high school, he would pay for all of their college tuition. And, ten years has gone up, and Michael, he says, hey, I've made some empty promises in my life, but hands down, that was the most generous.
Joel Brooks:And and you just cringe, especially as the kids, they're celebrating, and they're, you know, they're saying, Hey, Michael Scott, what you going to do? What you going to do? Make our dreams come true? And you're like, Oh, please, stop. The reason I bring this up is because I I think if we were honest with ourselves at times, I think we would view Jesus' promises like that.
Joel Brooks:For sometimes, we we hear those promises. I mean, he's promised us some glorious things that he will give us in the future. Eternal life, resurrected bodies, something about streets of gold, pearly gates, I mean, we you you hear all of those things that are in the future, and you just wonder, is he really going to keep those promises? You know, he's been holding that carried out in front of us, but but will he actually give that to us? So Jesus here, he's having a conversation with Peter, and Peter asked him the question, Jesus, tell us the truth.
Joel Brooks:What exactly are we gonna get out of this? And Jesus says, Peter, you do not have to wait to the future to give what I'm gonna give you because I'm gonna give it to you now. Your reward breaks in even now. So that's what we're gonna be looking at this morning. We're gonna be looking at the rewards we have in this lifetime of following Jesus.
Joel Brooks:So Mark chapter 10, we'll begin reading in verse 17. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.
Joel Brooks:And he said to him, teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to the disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:The disciples were amazed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished, and they said to him, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with man, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.
Joel Brooks:Peter began to say to him, see, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly, I say to you, there was there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold, now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. This is the word of the Lord.
Connor Coskery:Thanks be to God.
Joel Brooks:You would pray with me. Father, we ask that you would honor the very reading of your word, that even now, through your spirit, it would begin to work its way in us, that you would begin to teach us the rewards of following you. You would bring us to a point where we're willing to give everything in order that we might have you. Lord, I pray in this time that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. I don't know if any of you have ever been to the the beautiful state of Utah, but it has more national parks than any other state in The US. But, there's one canyon in particular. It's a beautiful canyon, and it's known for its dramatic, narrow, kind of winding, orange red sandstone. It's also known for the hundreds of people who try to get their Instagram photo at one particular spot, and so you guys have likely seen those photos.
Joel Brooks:The canyon's called Spooky Slot Canyon. It's free. There's no permit required to hike that. But there are some restrictions. One, actually, you see the canyon itself is so narrow that you could get stuck, and so what they actually have is that the sign itself for the canyon are two poles, and it says, you must be able to slip through those two poles in order to hike into the canyon.
Joel Brooks:And and it's not that hard. Most people can get through. You do something, you know, you have to kind of suck in your gut a little, and you can kind of sneak through the poles, but you absolutely cannot take a backpack with you. There's no way both you and a backpack would fit, and so everybody has to leave their backpacks behind in order to go and to enjoy this beautiful canyon. The story that we just read is similar to that.
Joel Brooks:There's a rich young man who excitingly excitedly, he runs up to Jesus, he wants eternal life. Matt Francisco did an excellent job last year preaching on this particular passage, so I won't unpack all of it for you. Go and listen to that. But Jesus here, he essentially tells this man, you gotta sell everything you have. You lack this one thing.
Joel Brooks:Sell everything you have. Did you notice he says, you lack something, which means he needs something, but in order get something, he's got to get rid of things. You gotta you gotta sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and then follow me, you'll have eternal life. And we read that this man walked away sad because he just couldn't do it. He was a wealthy man.
Joel Brooks:That leads Jesus to say those words, it's difficult for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God, and then he gives us that image, I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to enter into the kingdom of God. There's all type of theories as to what Jesus means about a camel going through the eye of a needle, and I'm not going to bore you with all the theories of what that means out there, but I could tell you, at its core, what he means. Something really large can't fit through something really small. That that's his whole point. It's impossible for something so large to squeeze through something small.
Joel Brooks:That man eagerly wants to get into the kingdom of God, but in order to do so, he's got to go through a narrow gate. Now, it's possible for this rich man to walk through the gate by himself, but he wants to take his possessions with him. The image I have is he's got this bag, and he's just kind of dragging with him, full of all of his possessions, possessions, and and he's he's trying to squeeze through the gate just like you have to squeeze through that sign to to go and see that beautiful canyon. He's trying to squeeze through, and he gets through, but his possessions won't come with him. And Jesus says, hey, you you gotta let that go in order to follow me.
Joel Brooks:And he's trying, but he he just can't let it go. And Jesus said, you can either hold on to your possessions or you can have me, but you can't have both. Let it go. But the man, he just he refuses to let it go, and so he doesn't enter in to really see the beauty of Jesus. That's why Jesus says it's difficult for those who are wealthy to enter.
Joel Brooks:It's hard because their bag is so big and it's so much they have to give up. Well, after Peter sees this man not willing to let go of his bag and walk away sad, Peter asked Jesus a question. He says, Jesus, we've left everything and followed you. Now, technically, that's not a question, but we all know it is. He he actually you you read, he began to say he was going to get to what he really wanted to ask all along.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, you know, we've we've left everything. So, what are we getting out of the deal? What exactly are you going to give us? I mean, Peter is he's asking the question that every disciple actually had, but was afraid to ask it. But Peter is the one with no filter, so he just says it, which is why we love Peter in this time.
Joel Brooks:We love him. And here's the thing, when when Peter says that, he doesn't get rebuked by Jesus. It's amazing because Peter gets rebuked a lot. But but Jesus isn't even offended at the question. He takes it seriously.
Joel Brooks:We know he takes it seriously seriously because he says, truly, I say to you, which is, hey, guys, listen up as I answer this question. There's no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecution and then the age to come eternal life. Here, Jesus doesn't dismiss all that Peter's given up to follow him because Peter has actually given up a whole lot to follow Jesus. And Peter doesn't know it yet, but this is just the beginning of all that Peter's gonna have to give up because Peter's gonna have to give up his very life later. But what Jesus tells Peter is that even when following him costs everything, the reward, well, it dwarfs the cost, not only in the age to come, but what he's actually going get now in this life.
Joel Brooks:And so what I want us to do is I want us to look at what exactly is this reward that's being promised to us in this life, and then also, I want us to look at the cost of following Jesus. Let's first look at the cost because there is a cost of following Jesus. Jesus not only mentions that here when he says, and persecutions, you'll get that when you follow me, But, we all know in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said, if anyone wishes to follow me, come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And, we'll look at that next week in particular. But, Jesus is saying, everyone must give up everything if you want to follow me.
Joel Brooks:No exceptions. Everyone must give up everything in order to follow me. You can't take that big bag that's stuffed full of all those things, you can't take it with you. You have to let it all go. And you can't just let a part of it go.
Joel Brooks:You can't say, Okay, I'll let some of my time go. I'll donate a little bit of my time. Maybe I'll tutor some kids, or maybe I'll go on a mission trip to get some of my time. It still won't fit through. You can't say, Okay, I'll give some of my money.
Joel Brooks:How about I'll give you 10%? I'll keep the 90%. I'll give you 10%. The bag's still full. You have to let it all go.
Joel Brooks:Everyone must give up everything in order to follow Jesus. Jesus says, if you let it go, trust me, it's worth it on the other side. Now, let me ask you, have any of you ever had this thought? Perhaps you've you've seen someone trying to follow Christ and yet they they have an addiction they're struggling with. Maybe it's an addiction with with drugs or or with alcohol, or then you see somebody who maybe has a different sexual desire than you have, or you see somebody who is they're stuck kind of in a marriage in which they have a spouse that's really difficult to love, and you see those people and you just think, man, I'm sure glad that I don't have to struggle like that in my pursuit of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:I'm sure glad that he hasn't asked me to give up something that hard. It must be really hard, harder than it is for me for those people to follow Jesus. Have any of you ever had that thought? I have. I have looked at other people, and I've seen their struggles, seen what they've had to give up in their pursuit of Jesus, and there have been times when they're like, thank goodness, I haven't had to give up something like that.
Joel Brooks:Can I tell you that that thought is a lie straight from the pit of hell? Because Jesus commands everyone to give up everything to follow him. All of us are asked to lay down something precious and dear to us in our pursuit of Jesus. Pursuing Him does cost us. And if and if in your pursuit of Jesus, if your version of Christianity, if actually all it does is just look a lot like the life you already want to live, and Jesus just kind of fits neatly into it, perhaps you're not following Jesus because he the call to follow him is a radical call, and it alters everything about our life.
Joel Brooks:It's costly, not just for others, but for all of us. That's the cost. Jesus says, you you have to lose your life in order to find it. So what's the reward? Because Jesus tells Peter the reward dwarfs the cost.
Joel Brooks:Well, he says that everyone who's given up houses or brothers or sisters or mothers or children or lands are going to receive back a hundredfold of what they've given up in this life. Eternal life to come, but in this life, you're going receive all of those things. So what does that mean? Does that mean that if I were to give up my 115 year old drafty house, which can I tell you this past week, if I go up to a wall, literally, my hair was moving? It is that drafty in our house.
Joel Brooks:Is Jesus saying that if I were to give up that, then I get that lake house I've wanted. I get the beach house. I get the mountain cabin or cabins. Get a 100. I mean, I get cabins in Montana, Wyoming, North Carolina, Alabama.
Joel Brooks:Like, I'll get them everywhere. Is that what Jesus means? If so, then in a few weeks, when we we begin our capital campaign, I'm going all Creflo Dollar on you guys. You better I mean, that's going come in really handy if that's what we're supposed to do. I'm going say, hey, I need everybody to open up their wallets, and I need you to plant your seed, and you're going to receive back a hundredfold, people.
Joel Brooks:Put in a thousand, get a 100,000. 10,000, get a million. I can do the math, guys. I don't believe that's what Jesus is talking about, primarily. There's there's an element of truth to that, which we'll see in a moment, but I don't think that's what Jesus is talking about, really.
Joel Brooks:Let me tell you what he's talking about. I actually got to see a vivid example of this last year. There was a former member we had who moved away to Seattle ten years ago, and he was getting married. And a bunch of us in here, immediately, when we found out, you know, he was getting married, we got an invitation. Without hesitation.
Joel Brooks:We all circled that week on our calendar, spent whatever we had to spend to get on a plane, to fly over there, whole family stay over there, because it was just something we were not going to miss. It felt like half the church was there. And I remember at the rehearsal dinner, the the the photographer for the wedding, was also a friend, he got up to give a toast. And he said, you know, I I take pictures at weddings everywhere, celebrities, really wealthy people, but nothing like this. And he looked at the groom, and he said, you know, I know that when you were in Birmingham, you just felt that life was just kind of passing you by, that all your friends, you know, they they went on to to get better careers, or they would get married, they started having kids, and and there you were, just feeling like everybody's leaving you in the dust.
Joel Brooks:And yet, you gave yourself. You you gave yourself to the church. You gave yourself to all these relationships. You you served in the children's ministry. You served on our worship team.
Joel Brooks:You just you kept giving of yourself, having people over for meals and giving of yourself. That's why, without hesitation, all these people got up and left joyfully so to come over here. They said, I want you to look around this room. You are a wealthy, wealthy man. You have more wealth than anyone I know.
Joel Brooks:That's what Jesus is talking about. His reward is the church. His reward is is the relationships, the family that He gives us here in the church. Notice that Jesus the promises He's making, they're they're mostly, if not entirely, about relationships. We're given new brothers, sisters, mothers, children.
Joel Brooks:In other words, we're going be given this new, large, great family. And even when Jesus mentions leaving houses, He's still talking about family Because a house or a home, it's the place where the family lives. House or a home, it's that place of safety where you could go into and always be welcomed, always be accepted and cared for and loved. So Jesus is saying, hey, if you ever leave those homes, you know what? You'll be welcomed into new ones.
Joel Brooks:In other words, this 100 fold reward that Jesus is promising to Peter is the church. That's the much bigger, larger family. And, can I tell you, when I look around this room, I see family? I see my brothers and my sisters. I look around, and I see people who've been mothers to me, fathers to me.
Joel Brooks:I see homes. As you guys have welcomed me into your homes, and you've treated me like family, I look and I can see the hundredfold blessing that Jesus promises here. Do you realize how strange it was at the start of our service? We actually had these parents that were up here. And, what they did, they they presented a baby, and we made a covenant and said, hey, I want you to covenant with me to raise my child.
Joel Brooks:That doesn't happen in any other setting. I mean, there's no way I was going do it with my child, going to the grocery store or go to a gym or something like that and be like, hey, guys, can I get your attention, please? I just thought we'd take a moment to make a covenant with one another. You know, I'll commit myself to you, you're going to commit yourself to me, this is Jimmy, you know, and I want you to raise, help me raise him. I don't have a child named Jimmy, I just can't the name just popped out of my head, guys.
Joel Brooks:No. You you don't do that anywhere, but you do it in the church because we're family. That's what Jesus is is gifting us here. You know, if we we didn't have so many people in the overflow rooms or, you know, in the overflow rooms, can't even see, have a sight line here or across the street watching on a screen, I would just put a mic down here, open it up, and just say, hey, guys. I'm just gonna let you testify as to how the church has been your family.
Joel Brooks:And, I think, we'd be here all day and then some. Lauren and I, we could personally testify for how you have been our family and you have cared for us. You know, just one example that I thought of this morning, actually, was our oldest daughter, Caroline, she got married a couple years ago. In case you don't know it, weddings are really expensive, like, really, really expensive. Whatever number you have in your mind, you're wrong.
Joel Brooks:It's higher. Just just add a zero to that number. You know, if if a taco costs $3, a wedding taco is $30. It's just it's how it works. And I said, Lauren and I, we don't have that type of money, but you know what?
Joel Brooks:We have family here. And you know what? You guys, without even asking, you just stepped in, and you did what family members do. You helped with all the planning, you let us borrow all types of things, you ran errands, you did all this grunt work. It was beautiful.
Joel Brooks:I mean, you sisters out there, you became florists, and you you put together the most beautiful flower arrangements and bouquets. My brothers out there, you you became drivers, bartenders, DJs, you name it. And, can I tell you that became a hundredfold celebration, like the joy that we experienced? It was a hundredfold versus if we had just written a check. I'm sure that if Dwight and Stephanie Castle were here and they could testify, they would testify the countless ways that you guys have come alongside them and been family, as they have had to care for conjoined twins, as they are now caring through another child as they are battling cancer.
Joel Brooks:And if you haven't heard, Dwight just tore his pec muscle and had to have surgery on that. And I'm like, Lord, whatever you're teaching them, can you just go ahead and teach them? You know what I mean? Come on. There is no way they could endure or survive this apart from family.
Joel Brooks:You guys, you've come and you've provided finances for them, care support, babysitting, meals. It's been such a beautiful thing to see. My next door neighbor, Josh Halzeny, he's the executive pastor on staff, he and his wife, Laura, they had triplets. And, you know, for the first year of having triplets, they didn't have to lock their front door at night because their family would come in at midnight and would do the feedings for their children so they could sleep. My girls loved it.
Joel Brooks:To have three girls, had three babies, it was a perfect match. They just went over there, and they fed the babies. I was talking with Crystal this past week. She said, you know, when I got my wisdom teeth taken out, sweet Martha hair. I don't know where she is, if she's here.
Joel Brooks:It's like, she took me home. I stayed with her for two days. She changed my gauze. She was a mother to me. That's what Jesus has taught me, the gift of this church family.
Joel Brooks:Now, if this is something that you you're like, well, that's happened to others. It hasn't happened to me. If this is something that you haven't experienced, let me ask you this, have you actually given it all? Have you gone fully in, or are there things you're still holding on to? Jesus says, you know, if you've given up everything for me and for my gospel and for my mission here, if you've given those things up, He promises these things.
Joel Brooks:And perhaps, you're still holding on, holding on to your time, to your dreams, to your money. Maybe some of you have never felt the intimacy that I just described because in your home groups, you're not really letting open your heart. You're still holding on to a certain image you want to keep up, or you're holding on to certain sins you just want to keep in the dark. But, if you were to actually let those things go, and you were to confess those things and be open and vulnerable, do you know what Jesus tells us? You will find a warm, loving, accepting family on the other side.
Joel Brooks:Let those things go. Enjoy the promise of God. Now, church, there is something very particular about what Jesus promises here that is different from his other promises. And perhaps, you've already noticed it. I mean, his other promises that Jesus makes, he just fulfills it.
Joel Brooks:You know, he's going to provide, I'll promise, will forgive he forgives. He promises eternal life. Well, he's just going to give you eternal life. He makes promises like that. But in this promise, the promise of brothers, sisters, mothers, homes, all those things, well, we must actually be the ones who become those blessings.
Joel Brooks:Jesus' promise is actually dependent upon us being the fulfillment of those promises. It's unlike the other promises. We must actually be the fulfillment of those promises. In order for people to have more mothers or fathers or sisters or brothers, you actually have to become one of those and freely give yourself to others. You have to open up your homes.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus promised Peter, hey, you're going have a hundredfold homes out there, he's not promising him that lake house or that mountain house, that's not it. He's he's saying that if you follow me, that you will be welcomed into the homes of other followers of Jesus. They're going open up their homes and their lives to you if you follow me because that's the kind of kingdom I'm building. And Peter would experience that. When you read through the book of Acts, you see him experiencing that time and time again.
Joel Brooks:So, church, hear me. We we are being called to be the fulfillment of these promises. So, the question that I have for us as a church is how can we how can we embody this hundredfold blessing of Jesus? How can we be, for instance, you know, a if there was someone who is struggling with an addiction, maybe an alcohol addiction, How can we be the church where they say this? You know what?
Joel Brooks:I've gained more joy, more confidence by being part of this church than I ever had with alcohol. How can we be, you know, a place where a single can give up sex and pursue biblical singlehood? And yet, say, I have actually, through the church, I have found more intimacy, discovered more love and connection than I ever did in my former life. How can a person who has great wealth and has given up that wealth freely to others? How can we become a church where that person says, you know what?
Joel Brooks:Now, I actually have more homes. I've been invited to so many more homes. I've enjoyed better food and meals as I've sat around and enjoyed the deep fellowship of God. How can we become that? Because that is what Jesus is calling us to be.
Joel Brooks:We're to be the fulfillment of these promises. These promises are not just a promise. They're also a command. You have to be that hundredfold blessing to another. We see this powerfully demonstrated, actually, through one of the last things that Jesus did before he died.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus was hanging on the cross dying, before him were his mother and the disciple John, who was likely just a teenager. John was very young as a disciple. And, Jesus, he looked at his mother and said, woman, behold your son. He looked at John and he said, behold your mother. His last words, his dying words was he was creating a new family, which is astounding because Jesus had brothers, but he doesn't entrust his mom to his brothers who were not part of the spiritual family at that point.
Joel Brooks:He says, no, no, I'm entrusting my mom to a much deeper, more beautiful family. And so, he creates that there. You hear me say this all the time, but Jesus gave his body in order to create a body. He gave his body to create the church. And now, it is through the church that we both give and we experience the reward of following Jesus.
Joel Brooks:So, my question is, are you pressing in? Are you both giving that to others and receiving it from others in our midst? Let's pray to Jesus. Jesus, thank you for your bride, the church. Thank you that because I follow you, literally, I could go anywhere in the world where there are Christ followers and I would be welcomed in like family.
Joel Brooks:Doesn't matter my my race, my gender, my politics, nation, none of that matters. Lord, that's the type of family you have created. Lord, I pray that we will both give and we would receive this hundredfold blessing that you have given us. Thank you for the gift of your church purchased for us at such a high price. We pray this in the sweet name of Jesus, our brother and our savior.
Joel Brooks:Amen.