Jesus Came To Reveal Our Hearts Jonathan Rue Luke 2:34-35 Down to Earth Series 12.06.09 No matter how well you think you know yourself, no matter how well you think you have a handle on who you are and how you work on the inside, there will always be things that come along in our lives that reveal our hearts in a new way that reveal what s going on inside on a deeper level than we re aware of. Things that reveal our hearts And so we might think that we are very kind and loving and generous people. And this might be true of us when things are going well in life and we have plenty to give and we are surrounded by people that love us and treat us really well. But, then you re put in a situation that puts some pressure on your character, and it is shocking what comes out. I ve talked to so many people that say, I hate shopping in the Christmas season & dealing with all of those rude people and mass crowds in the store. People are just crazy this time of year! What they really should be saying is, I can t stand having my heart be exposed by all of the situations that reveal my impatience, my unwillingness to put someone I don t know first, and my greedy desire to get the best stuff in the store. I mean, have you ever had someone cut in front of you in line at the mall and been surprised by the strength of the emotion of anger that arises in your heart? So the situation is not ideal, but a terrible anger is revealed in your heart. You think, where did this come from? You get a thoughtful gift for a close friend, thinking how considerate and generous you are. You give it to them with great affection, only to discover that they don t have a thoughtful gift for you. They, in fact, don t have anything for you. And all of a sudden, your heart is revealed: you weren t giving for the joy of giving, you were giving for the hope of getting. Although our actions might look the same on the outside, there are a million different motives the might underlie the heart of what we do and how we do it, many of which are totally hidden to us until something happens to reveal it. 1
The poet Maya Angelou said, I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. Maya Angelou There are the simple situations in life that reveal our hearts, that reveal how impatient we are, how demanding we are, how much we want things to go our way. And as long as things are going our way then we never get the opportunity to discover this about our hearts. We just think we re fine and there s no problem. And it takes a situation in order to reveal certain aspects of our hearts. Well, as we continue in our advent series called Down to Earth: Why God Came to Us, we are looking at the reasons why Jesus Christ came to earth. What was the purpose behind that? Why did he come? And it s my hope that as we look at this very familiar story this story that most of us have heard many times before in past Christmases that as we look at this familiar story from different intersecting angles of why Jesus came, we might get a fresh glimpse at the powerful and amazing story of God coming to earth. I ve called tonight s talk, Jesus Came to Reveal Our Hearts. Let s pray. TITLE Jesus Came To Reveal Our Hearts Jonathan Rue Luke 2:34-35 Down to Earth Series 12.06.09 Tonight we re going to look at a passage from Luke chapter 2, which we re going to look at both this week and next week. The setting is that Jesus, the son of God, the Messiah, has been born to Mary and Joseph. And they have now taken Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to God in the temple and to make the customary sacrifice. As they re in Jerusalem, in the temple courts, they encounter a man named Simeon. And this is where we pick up the story in Luke 2:25, Luke 2:25-35 (TNIV) Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the 2
child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. 33 The child s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too. So there are a number of things that Simeon is proclaiming about this child, Jesus. And tonight I want to focus on that last part, verses 34 and 35 where Simeon says Luke 2:34-35 (TNIV) This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. One of the central purposes for why Jesus came to earth is to reveal the hearts of people. So how does he do this? Well, I want to spend a bit of our time tonight looking at how Jesus reveals our hearts. How Jesus reveals what is really in our hearts And so I want to look at three different ways that Jesus reveals our hearts. And the first is that the birth of Jesus, the fact that Jesus was born into a manger reveals our heart of vanity. The manger reveals our heart of vanity And what do I mean about our heart of vanity? I mean that we love to look good, to look like we re a big deal. To have the right image that reflects that we have money, that we have power, that we re in charge, that we re in control, that we re worth something. And of our leaders, we want this especially. We as Americans, want our leaders to look a certain way. They need to be attractive, powerful, wealthy people that we can easily respect. 3
This was made shockingly clear on September 26 th, 1960, when 70 million people tuned in to watch Senator John Kennedy and Vice President, Richard Nixon, debate in the first ever televised presidential debate. So before that time, only a miniscule number of people were able to watch a presidential debate in person, only those that could fit in the room. But, the rest of America had to listen by radio. And yet in this first ever televised presidential debate, something radically changed in American politics because this afforded the first real opportunity for voters to see the candidates in competition. And the visual contrast between these two men was dramatic. The month before, Richard Nixon had injured his knee and spent two weeks in the hospital and by the time of the debate, he was still 20 pounds underweight and his complexion still looked poor. He showed up to the debate in a bad fitting shirt. He refused to wear any make-up to improve his color and lighten his perpetual five o clock shadow. While Kennedy on the other hand, had spent the previous few weeks campaigning in California. And so he was tanned and confident and well-rested. Now what was so fascinating about this debate is that the radio listeners and the television viewers were both polled after the debate to find out who they thought won. People who listened on the radio said that they thought that Richard Nixon was the winner of the debate, but the 70 million people who watched the televised debate pronounced John Kennedy as the clear winner by a landslide. They had looked at JFK s good looks and compared that to Nixon s stern, sickly image and they voted with their eyes, not their ears. We want our leaders to look good. And yet the prophet Isaiah tells us about the appearance of Jesus before he is born. Isaiah says, Isaiah 53:2 (TNIV) He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. So there is nothing in Jesus appearance that would attract us to him. He s no John Kennedy. He didn t have a first career as an actor like Ronald Reagan. He s not getting requests from GQ magazine for cover shots. Jesus was plain in appearance, and plain in background. Luke 2:12 tells us of the humble circumstances of his birth: Luke 2:12 (TNIV) This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. 4
Despite the fact that we want attractive, well-bred people from prestigious families leading us, we find a plain features Jesus born into impoverished circumstances. This confronts the vanity of our hearts. We don t want to follow somebody that is born into poverty in a dirty smelly stable where the animals are kept, and yet that s exactly how Jesus came to us. To describe the scene that Jesus was born into as humble is to understate things but a long shot. His parents were poor, and they could find a room so they made do with animals. They gave the poor offering when they presented him at the temple because they couldn t afford the regular offering. And so Jesus starts out in this dismal condition and throughout his life, he lives in such a way that he always refuses to look like he was a big deal. He never wears flashy clothes, he never acquires a lot of wealth and money. He never feeds into our vanity of what we want out of a God, what we want out of a leader. Jesus exposes the vanity of our hearts. Secondly, not only does Jesus birth expose our hearts, but the cross of Jesus reveals our heart of pride. The cross reveals our heart of pride So that even if we can get over the fact that Jesus was born into poverty and lived a life of plainness, of simplicity, that there is nothing in his physical appearance that would attract us to him, even if we could still follow that Jesus, we would expect him to rise to the top by the end of his life. We would expect him to die at an old age in a position of power, of prestige, and of wealth. Yet at the end of Jesus life, he is humiliated, he is beaten, and he is hung up naked on a cross for the world to see. And it is impossible to be confronted with a God that is hanging bloody, beaten and humiliated and not have your pride offended. Because everything about the way that we look at the world and the way that we look at life, and the way that we look at power is turned upside down on the cross. And nobody saw this more clearly than the apostle Paul, who writes in I Corinthians these words: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (TNIV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. 5
20 Where are the wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. We think that we re so smart. We think that we can figure the world out. And we put such confidence in our intelligence and in our own abilities, and that the trajectory of our life is supposed to be upward. Also ascending toward bigger and better things. And yet when we come to the cross, we find as Paul says, that our wisdom is destroyed and that our intelligence is frustrated because our pride is exposed. You cannot come to the cross carrying pride. That s the one thing that is built in to this dramatic act of God is that you have to let go of your pride to come to Jesus. See if God was just the holy, majestic, awesome, all powerful God in the sky, we could come to him with our best clothes on and with all of the trappings of our successes and our great knowledge and our wisdom and we could come to God and lift our heads and marvel that God is just a little better than we are. He s a little higher. He s a little smarter. He s a little more powerful. But, when we come to the cross and we lift our eyes to see a God that is bloodied, that is beaten, that is naked, that is humiliated and lifted high for the world to mock and to laugh at and to scorn when we come to that God, we can no longer hold onto our pride. We can no longer hold onto our sanitized dignity or our desire to have it all together, to never show weakness. The cross exposes our pride for what it is and we have to make a choice about whether we re going to cling to our worldly wisdom or let God destroy it at the cross. So the manger reveals our heart of vanity and the cross reveals our heart of pride. And thirdly, the gospel reveals our heart of entitlement. The gospel reveals our heart of entitlement See the way human nature works is that we want to work hard to prove ourselves and we want the just rewards for our good efforts. That s human nature, that s how we work. If I ve worked really hard at something and you haven t worked at all, I don t want us to be in the same place. I want to be ahead of you. But, the gospel of Jesus, the good news, the message that Jesus preached and the 6
kingdom that Jesus brought in his life and ministry exposes and reveals this heart of entitlement, that I am owed something by God. That because of my good deeds and the things that I ve done, I ve somehow earned my way into God s presence. I want to look at a story in Matthew 9, where Jesus forgives a man s sins. Let s look at Matthew 9:1-7. Matthew 9:1-7 (TNIV) Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven. 3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, This fellow is blaspheming! 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, Get up, take your mat and go home. 7 Then the man got up and went home. Now I talked last week about Jesus authority to forgive sin, pointing to his divinity, that this is something only God can do. But, in this passage I want to point out the second reason why the teachers of the law were offended by Jesus forgiving sins. Why they said to themselves, this fellow is blaspheming. It wasn t only because he was claiming to be God, but also because they knew they had worked so hard to get their sins forgiven. They had done hundreds of sacrifices; they lived very closely to the law, down to every miniscule details of their lives. They were making sacrifices and living in accordance with God s law. And here comes this guy on a mat, and all he does is come up to Jesus, and Jesus forgives his sin. What s the deal, Jesus? That s not fair! Paul points this out in Romans 9:30. Romans 9:30-32 (TNIV) 30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 7
And to the culture that Jesus came into, this was one of the most offensive things about him. That Jesus did not go along with the system of works righteousness, meaning that you can earn your place before God. That as long as you work hard enough, you do enough good deeds, you make enough sacrifices, you follow enough rules, that that is what earns you a place with God, and if you don t do that stuff, then you re on the outside. The gospel, the good news, that Jesus came and embodied and taught is that relationship with God and right standing with God has nothing to do with how hard you re working. It has everything to do with the person of Jesus himself. The good news of God s grace that came to us in Christ. And so Jesus is revealing our hearts in these three main ways. He s revealing our vanity, our pride, our sense of entitlement, and ultimately why Jesus was crucified, why Jesus upset so many people so badly that they had to kill him was because Jesus forces us to confront ourselves. Jesus forces us to confront ourselves See it s not that Jesus was introducing some radical idea and that s why he was killed. It s because Jesus revealed people s own hearts, people that were hiding behind their vanity, hiding behind their pride, hiding behind their good deeds and their works and their entitlement to God and were covering up their hearts with all of these things. And Jesus came and revealed the truth of their hearts. Revealed this is what s really going on inside of you. And people didn t want to hear it. And so they killed him. And this is what Jesus does with us. With you and with me. When Jesus comes into our lives, he forces us to confront ourselves, to come to terms with who we really are. He shines a spotlight on the inside of us. And so what was dark and hidden and stowed away deep inside of us, all of a sudden, comes out and is exposed. And that s a painful process. And every time Jesus comes into our lives, this is what happens. That we are confronted with ourselves, with our own sin, with our own evil thoughts and brokenness of our hearts. We are confronted with our own vanity, with our own sense of how great we are and how much we want to be perceived as somebody that has it all together. We are confronted with our own pride. The fact that we want to be in control, to know what s going on and have confidence in our own ability. We don t want to need somebody else. And Jesus confronts our sense of entitlement, that God owes us somehow. And just give me the plan for what I need to do, so that I can do whatever s necessary to get myself right with God. That attitude is sinful. 8
Jesus comes and reveals that this is the state of our hearts. This is the state that we find ourselves in and that he forces us to confront in ourselves. And as we do this, what you ll find is that Jesus causes us to either rise or to fall. Jesus will cause you to rise or fall And that is exactly what Luke 2:34 told us in the beginning of the message. Luke 2:34-35 (TNIV) 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too. Jesus causes people to rise or to fall. And this image here is coming from an Old Testament metaphor that is used a lot in scripture, both in the Old Testament and then applied to Jesus in the New Testament, about him being a rock that builds the temple of God, and a rock that causes people to stumble and fall. We see this in Isaiah 8 that says this: Isaiah 8:14-15 (TNIV) He will be a holy place; for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. 15 Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured. Now contrast that, that this stone is going to cause people to stumble and fall, and then twenty chapters later in Isaiah, he tells us the other side of this image. Isaiah 28:16. Isaiah 28:16 (TNIV) So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. Now, Paul applies these scriptures to Jesus. Peter applies these scriptures to Jesus and Jesus himself applies these scriptures to himself when he tells a parable in Luke chapter 20, the parable of the vineyard, where the owner of the vineyard goes away and leaves hired workers in charge of the vineyard. And he sends somebody and they kill him and he sends somebody else and they kill him, and then finally he sends his very own son. And the hired workers kill his own son. And Luke 20:16 says this. 9
Luke 20:16-19 (TNIV) When the people heard this, they said, God forbid! 17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, Then what is the meaning of that which is written: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. 19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. So, Jesus is saying that he is the stone that everyone who falls on him will be broken to pieces, but anyone on whom he falls will be crushed. This is a powerful image of Jesus, of who Jesus is and what Jesus is going to do. And it s this idea that comes out of the Jewish thought, and in the Midrash of Esther 3:6. A Midrash is the Jewish commentary on the Bible to explain the meaning of it. And they say this. If a stone falls on a pot, woe to the pot! If the pot falls on the stone, woe to the pot! Either way, woe to the pot! Midrash of Esther 3:6 And so what this means is that Jesus is going to cause people to rise and to fall. And how he does that is that he either is a stumbling block to you or he s going to be your cornerstone. He is either a stumbling stone or a cornerstone There s no third alternative. Either Jesus is going to be a stumbling block that is going to trip you, that is going to crush you or Jesus is going to be your cornerstone, which in ancient architecture was the most important stone in the building. It was the most visible stone, the most ornate and structurally speaking, it anchored the whole building, the whole stone structure. That if you didn t have the cornerstone set in place right, the whole building was shoddy and shaky. And I Peter tells us this. 1 Peter 2:4-8 (TNIV) 10
As you come to him, the living Stone rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, 8 and, A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message. Every person that comes to Jesus, every person that hears about Jesus has a decision to make about whether Jesus is going to be a stumbling block that is so offensive to their vanity, to their pride and intellect, to their sense of entitlement, that they have done enough right and they don t need Jesus. Either Jesus will be a stumbling block or else Jesus is going to be the cornerstone, the anchor and foundation of your life, of the temple that God is building in you. 11
Jesus Came To Reveal Our Hearts Jonathan Rue Luke 2:34-35 Down to Earth Series 12.06.09 Things that reveal our hearts How Jesus reveals what is really in our hearts The manger reveals our heart of vanity The cross reveals our heart of pride The gospel reveals our heart of entitlement Jesus forces us to confront ourselves Jesus will cause you to rise or fall He is either a stumbling stone or a cornerstone 12