Mission

Welcome to Gospel and Life. Where do you turn when you need clarity or strength in a difficult situation? In Luke's Gospel, we see how Jesus confronted his own temptations and trials through Scripture in prayer. Today, Tim Keller explores how we can claim these same powerful resources and how we can live with hope and resilience in a difficult world. The Scripture reading is from Luke chapter 5 verses 4 through 25. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we have worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken. And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, Don't tell anyone, but go. Show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them. Yet the news about him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. One day, Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. So a man came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, friend, your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees and teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk? 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, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. This is the Word of the Lord. Now in the weeks leading up to Easter, what we're doing is we're looking at the book of Luke and these weeks are often called Lent in the history of the church. And during this time we're looking at the things or maybe we could say the resources that Christianity gives us to live life in a very hard to live in world. It's a hard place to live. Christianity gives us resources. There's various words and names for them. Sometimes they're called means of grace. They're ways of helping us live in a world that's actually not that easy to live in. Now we looked at the Bible and Scripture last week. We're going to look at prayer. But this week we're looking at one that might not immediately spring to your mind as a source of strength. Jesus sends us into the world. The Latin word sent is missio, mission. When Jesus calls us, he sends us into the world to serve others. And which we see here and we're going to see how he does it and why he does it. Now I said that's not immediately what you usually think of as a resource God gives you to live life in this world, but it actually is. Yes, it's true by the way that serving other people is draining, but it's not only draining. It's also strengthening because if you come to see that you should be living for your brother or your sister or your neighbor's fulfillment rather than your own fulfillment, paradoxically, ultimately that becomes very fulfilling. It's a very fulfilling life. So let's take a look and see what it is we're told here is our mission. If you're called to Jesus, how does he send you out? In what ways does he send you out? And he sends you out in three ways. First of all, the mission is he sends us with our faith out into our work. Secondly, he actually also asks us to take our faith out to the margins of society, to the marginalized. And thirdly, he asks us to go out and help change people's hearts toward God. So our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to take our faith out into our work, out to the marginalized society, and out to help people change their hearts toward God. So number one, first, there's three incidents here, and that's what we're going to do is we're going to look at each of the incidents and see in what way this tells us about mission. The first is in verse 4 to 11, the miraculous cast catch of fishes, where we're learning something about how faith changes our attitude toward our work. Jesus tells the disciples to cast their nets again. Peter is very, very skeptical. Not only is it the wrong time of day, those of you who do some fishing know that it's dawn or dusk, it would be the best time of day to fish. It's the wrong time of day, and also it was a wrong day, it was a bad day, they hadn't been catching anything. But they do what Jesus says, and they not only have a big catch of fish, from what we can tell, it's a miraculous catch. The ships were actually sinking under it, probably it was the, these were professional fishermen, but it probably was the biggest catch they'd ever seen in their lives. It was the biggest haul of fish they'd ever seen in their lives. When Peter realizes Jesus has done it and it's his power, he falls down and he says, go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man, and yet Jesus says, don't be afraid, from now on you will fish for people. And he calls them to follow him and it says they pulled up their boats, left everything and followed him. Now what do we learn from this? First of all, two things. The first thing is, when you meet Jesus Christ, you experience a self quake. That's a lot like an earthquake, except it's the self that's in upheaval. What do you mean a self quake? Well, notice this self quake. First of all, if you get near someone who's extremely smart, if you think you're smart, but you get near someone who's much smarter, it's painful. Okay, it's painful. But if you don't just think you're smart, but thinking of yourself as smart is a very important part of your self image, it's a very important part of your identity. Thinking of yourself as smart is a very important way in which you feel like you're a significant person. So if being smart is part of your identity and you get near a person who's way smarter than you, it's not just painful. You will experience psychological dislocation, a disorientation, because your self image is breaking up. This is one of the reasons why identity in college is so fluid. Because suddenly you're around all the people, you know, you may be the smartest kid in your high school, you go off to a school in which you're like below average, and suddenly you're having a self quake. Now, what about with God though? I mean, I've had people over the years tell me things like this. They say, oh yeah, you're a pastor, fine, but I feel so much closer to God when I'm out in nature, when I'm on the lake or looking at the mountains. I say, oh really, well, how does it feel when you draw near to God out there on the lake and in the mountains? They say, oh peaceful. And I say, okay, well, let me ask you a question. If there is a God, he would be infinitely beautiful. Wouldn't that make you feel ugly? He would be infinitely wise. Wouldn't that make you feel stupid? He would be infinitely good. Wouldn't that make you feel flawed and sinful? See, in the Bible, when people get near the real God, that's exactly what happens. So when Isaiah gets near God, and Isaiah 6, what does he say? What was me? I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. What happens when Job gets near God? What does he say? I heard of you with my ear, but now I see you with my eyes, and I repent. I despise myself. I repent in dust and ashes. And what does Peter say? Did he say, wow, this is incredible, Lord. No, get away from me. And the old King James, depart from me, oh Lord, for I am a sinful man. Go away. That's right. That shows you're drawing near to the real God. Why? Because when people come into contact with Jesus, they experience a self-quake. But the self-quake is actually a change in identity, because two things happen. Two moves. The first move is, suddenly Peter gets a real picture of himself. And actually, you know, Abe's already talked about it. When you get near Jesus, you begin to realize you have curved in on yourself. You may have thought of yourself as a good person, but when the gospel starts to dawn on you, and you start to draw near to Jesus, you begin to see you were very small. You basically very self-centered that even the good things you have done tend to be self-centered. You begin to see yourself as a small, curved in on yourself, self-centered person. And you might say, your self image starts to break up. The idea of yourself as being an unusually good person, or even maybe a religious or moral person, or an accomplished person, it starts to break up. But the other move is, Jesus, what does Jesus say? He says, yes, stay away. You are a sinful person. Now, what does he say? Don't be afraid. Come with me. I want you to be my partner. This is grace. This isn't just charity, by the way. This is undeserved grace, but he's not just treating us like charity cases. He's saying, I want you to help me with what I'm doing. I want you to be my loved partner. And that gives you erratically no identity. Now, when that new identity comes, here's what we see in this little part of the passage. It changes your attitude toward your work. First of all, by the way, it's interesting to know that even though these guys are professional fishermen, Jesus has the audacity to tell them something about how to fish. He says, hey, throw the nets over there, you know, or throw the nets down again. He doesn't say, well, you know, I'm a spiritual guy and you guys are out there doing your secular work, and I've got nothing to say about that. I'm only going to help you in your private inner life. No, he tells them something about their work. And then we're told they pulled up their boats on shore, left everything and followed him. Now, at first you might say, oh, does this mean that when you become a Christian, you have to leave your job and go off into full-time vocational professional ministry? No, the Bible does not teach that overall. Many of the great heroes of the faith were not in ministry. Remember Joseph from Genesis? Remember Daniel? Remember Esther? These were all people that God called and used in a mighty way, but they were in what you call secular jobs. They weren't ministers. They weren't prophets. They were administrators and government officials and leaders. No, no, no, the Bible never says that, but I want you to see what's going on here. First of all, what is it they leave? It's as they left everything. You say they left, well, they left their nets, they left their boats, but they also left the catch. Now, keep this in mind. That was a load of loot. That was the most successful, probably the most successful single day they'd ever had. And they left enormous profits on the beach or in the boat for other people. You know, when they, what can you imagine? All this fish and they walk away calmly. There must have been a rush for the boats. Every other fisherman said, wait a minute. You know, this will be enough to feed my family for a year. They will have the profits. And what does this mean? When you have a new identity in Jesus, when your self-worth and your self-image is now based in Jesus, what it means is the profits and success are not as crucial. They're not as important. So what this means is if Jesus is your identity and it's going to be unethical, or you have to do something unethical or illegal in order to get the profit, you're going to walk away from it. Or if Jesus is your identity and you even just have to trample on somebody, just be ruthless, just be unkind in order to make profit, you're going to walk away from that too. It won't be worth it. Why? Because it's not as important. It's not as important. It's not the big thing. In fact, let me press you further. If Jesus Christ is your identity, it changes your attitude toward every aspect of your work. Why is it that, by the way, so many English names are things like this? Baker, Fisher, Smith, those are jobs, but they became identities. David Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was a physician, he was a pastor also, a preacher in Britain in the mid-20th century, he had a lot of colleagues. He went to med school, he was a physician, and a lot of colleagues. At one point he was actually lecturing to the Christian Medical Society in London, and he made a very sardonic statement. He says, I have to tell you, honestly, I have a lot of friends who, when they die, you're probably going to have to put on their gravestone this. Born a man, died a doctor. And what he's trying to say is that it's great to enjoy your work, but when your work becomes your identity, when your success and your ability and your work becomes the very thing that makes you feel like this is how I know I'm good about myself, you're a slave, why? Because if the main thing about yourself is your work and your career and your success, if your work becomes your identity, then success will destroy you by going to your head, and failure will destroy you by going to your heart. Success will destroy you by going to your head, it will make you arrogant, it will make you overconfident, but failure will make you feel like I'm nothing at all. When we were doing an open forum in the downtown congregation earlier this year, there was an improv group that was doing it, and the head of it was a Christian. And the head of the Christian improv group was asked a question during the Q&A, because improv is frightening, because you go out there on the stage in front of a group of people, and you're given a theme, and then you have to make up things. In other words, you have no lines. It's frightening enough to be an actor to go out there to deliver your lines in front of an audience, but if you go out there as an improv, and so somebody was trying to say, how do you deal with that? And he says, well, I'm a Christian, and Jesus died for me on the cross, and that means he's done all the important things, so now I can just have fun. Did you follow that? He says, I'm not trying to get out of my work what only Jesus can give me. I'm not out there trying to prove myself. I'm not out there feeling like, if I do a bad job, I'm a failure as a person. Why? Because my work isn't my identity anymore. That's a pretty strong statement. Are you recognizing that? Now, here's what this means. If Jesus Christ is your identity, if you're not trying to get out of work what you could only get out of Jesus, then what this means is sometimes you can put your nets down. How so? See, if Jesus isn't your identity, your work is your identity, you won't be able to put your nets down even to relax. You won't be able to put your nets down even to go on vacation. In fact, you really never go on vacation. You won't be able to put your nets down, that is to say, in order to give your family and your children and your spouse enough time. No, you'll always be at it. You'll always be at it. But see how different it is. If you have a fishing beyond your fishing, if you have a wealth beyond your wealth, if you have an art beyond your art. See, when Jesus Christ says, look, fishing is great, but I have a fishing, you know, a spiritual fishing. Basically, what this is saying, unless you're real meaning in life, unless you're real wealth, unless you're real art, is something beyond the work. The work will strangle you. You'll never be able to lay it down. You'll never be able to walk away from it ever. You'll never be able to walk away from it, sometimes meaning, I'm not going to make as much money, but I'm not going to be unkind, I'm not going to be unethical, I'm not going to be ruthless. You won't be able to, you just won't, it won't be in perspective. Ah, this does not mean in any way that once you become a Christian, you got to walk away from any kind of work and just go into ministry. What this does say is it will radically change your understanding of work, the way in which you work, and therefore you need to take your faith out into the workplace. You need to take your faith out into the way in which you do life in every area, in every public sector, and that's just the first thing. So in other words, mission is first of all, you don't just keep your faith sort of locked away in private, you take it out into your work. Secondly, we're also sent out to the marginalized on the margins of society. Second. Jesus was the most influential man to ever walk the earth, and his story has been told through books, movies, and articles in hundreds of different ways. Can anything more be said about him? In his book, Jesus the King, Tim Keller journeys through the Gospel of Mark to reveal how the life of Jesus helps us make sense of our lives. Dr. Keller shows us how the story of Jesus is at once cosmic, historical, and personal, calling each of us to take a fresh look at our relationship with God. During the month of March, we'll send you a copy of Jesus the King as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the transforming love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now the second story is a very, very moving story, especially if you do a little bit of research to think about the historical context. The second story is the healing of a leper. Now let's do the context. When the Bible talks about leprosy, it's talking about really a series of debilitating skin disorders and physical diseases. It was more than one thing. And in those days, someone who was stricken with leprosy or some form of leprosy was not simply sick. Because of the fear of contagion, they were sent away. They were not allowed to live in the towns. They were not allowed to live in the city. They were sent out and they were not allowed to have jobs. They were not allowed to be part of the economy. And therefore, any leper was not just physically sick. They were also absolutely poor and impoverished. They were absolutely emotionally isolated and they were not allowed to go to worship either. So they were spiritually cursed. Now what do we tell, we're told here. It says, when Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Now one of the things that the commentators point out is, what is a leper doing in a town? Lepers were not allowed to be in towns. And therefore, this leper must have heard that Jesus was in town, made a mad dash against all the laws, against all the rules into town, saw Jesus, ran and fell down before him. Now you realize he's taking his life in his hands to have a leper come into the middle of a town? He knows the chances are nobody's going to touch him. What will I do? I'll probably stone him. And here's what's so moving to me. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Now he doesn't say, you got it. You have to make me clean before they kill me. No, if you're willing. See the humility, see the trust. See the remarkable trust and respect for Jesus. But see what Jesus does. He doesn't just say, I am willing, be clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I'm willing, he said, be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him. Because we've been going through the book of John looking at the miraculous signs, here's one thing we know, right? If you've been coming lately, Jesus does not need to touch this man in order to heal him. Jesus didn't need hocus pocus. He did it differently every time due to the needs of the person who was sick. But we know that Jesus could heal with a word from a distance. In fact, Jesus could heal without a word from a distance. So what's he doing? It's very, very possible that this man hadn't touched another human being in a long time. And Jesus is doing a couple of things here. The first thing is, he is not only healing him physically. He is seeking to heal him emotionally. But more than that, he's bringing him back into community. He's bringing him back into community. He's saying, come in. Be part of the human race again. Now this is one of the themes of the book of Luke. And I think as we go through Luke in these few weeks, I'm not sure we're going to be doing it enough for you to see it. But one of the most moving things about the book of Luke is how often Luke brings in what are called back then, social outcasts. He's constantly having Jesus deal with lepers, with tax collectors. A lot of people say, what is up with the tax collector thing? Because when you and I think of tax collectors, we're not excited about tax collectors. But we don't quite see them the way they were seen then. These were collaborators. Tax collectors were Jews who were collaborating with the occupying army. These are like, if you think, do you know anything about the French and Norwegian collaborators with the Nazis when those countries were under Nazi occupation? Do you know anything about how they were regarded, how they were seen? Okay, get the idea. There's lepers. There's tax collector collaborators. There's just Gentiles. Jesus is always dealing with pagans, foreigners. And he's also constantly dealing with women, and particularly women of ill repute, so called. He's always reaching out, and he's touching them, and he's bringing them into community. He's receiving them. In fact, so many of the people that Jesus reaches out, pulls in to community, become leaders. Matthew, one of his disciples, was a tax collector, a collaborator. Peter, of course, denied Jesus three times. It was a terrible moral failure. Mary Magdalene, evidently, had demons cast out of her. You might say, a former mental patient. Yet these are the prominent people. These are the leaders. And Jesus reaches out and says, I'm willing, be clean. Okay, two implications of this story. The first is a very practical implication. Jesus seemed to be attracted to the people at the margins of society. People on the outskirts, people that the world thought of as losers. People excluded from the centers of power. Are you a Christian? Then we should be too. We should sense ourself being sent out to those margins. Now, be careful, because if you're in New York, or right away you say, oh, great, I love this social justice thing. I was trained to do this. I'm so glad that you Christians are with the program. And so, now, if you gave me just 10 minutes to do a little bit of historical argument, I could tell you that Christianity created that program. The idea, Peter Brown, Princeton University, who's a tremendous historian of antiquity, says, the idea of loving the poor, the idea of loving the poor, not just giving alms here and there, but loving the poor is a Christian idea. He said it came from nowhere else but Christianity. But it's not just that we should be caring about the economically and socially marginalized. This is telling us that New York is, let me put it this way, New York is filled with people who want to help the poor. But in their own actual use of time, the people they hang out with, you just want to be with the cool kids. You want to be at the hot spots. You want to be as high up the A-list as you can possibly get. And you are way too observant of whether the person next to you is someone that would be helpful for you to know. We're not talking here about networking. Networking is basically a self-interested way of hanging out with the people that you want to hang out with because it makes things happen for you. Christians should be anti-glitz. You should love your neighbor, which means you turn to the person who happens to be in your path, the person who's next to you, and you don't care how many social media followers they have. You don't look it up. You don't decide who's the person you need to spend time with. No, no, you go out to the marginalized. Maybe not even a person who's socially economically marginalized, but a person who's not very glitzy, a person who's rather socially awkward, a person who seems to have a lot of problems, and you're willing to be drained by that. So first of all, this is telling us that Jesus is willing to go out to the margins, but here's one thing, another thing. This brings up a big question that we have to answer by going to the last story. Do you realize how crazy it is that Jesus Christ touches this leperin, says, be clean? Throughout all of history, and in every... Throughout all of history, everything we know about in science and everything we know about in religion goes like this. If the clean touches the unclean, it becomes unclean. If you're healthy and you touch something infected, you get infected. And throughout all of history, if someone is morally clean and you touch something morally soiled, I mean, this is what all of Old Testament religions based on this, in fact, all religions based on this, is that if you want to stay pure and spotless and clean so that God can accept you, you got to stay away from the soiled people, you got to stay away from the tainted people, you got to stay away from the dirty people. But Jesus Christ touches the leperin, says you're clean, and there's no indication that Jesus had to go and go through the ceremonial cleansing rites. This is astounding. Jesus is saying, I'm the first person in the history of the world who when I, the clean, touch you, the unclean, you become clean. I don't become unclean. Jesus is saying, I don't care how soiled you are, I don't care how tainted you are, I don't care how defiled you are. If I just touch you, you're clean. I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done. I don't care what your record is. Though your sins be a scarlet, get it right. I got three more times to do it, right? Though your sins be a scarlet, they will be whiter than snow. Jesus is saying to you, if I just touch you in a stroke, you are clean. I am not one more prophet here to tell you how to make yourself fit for the presence of God. I come to make you fit for the presence of God. I am cleanliness. I am fitness. How could that be? You know, the answer is here in the last one. This last story is certainly worth an entire sermon on its own. If you've been around for a number of years, you know that we've sometimes treated this story. But what you have here, and this is the top-level approach to it, is you've got a group of men who bring a paralyzed man to Jesus. They bring him in. They actually went up to the roof and lowered him down. There's a lot of interesting parts of this story which we can't look at right now. But he says, when Jesus saw their faith, he says, friend, your sins are forgiven. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus knew that they were thinking what they were thinking and said, why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk. 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, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. And immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Now the features of this are pretty clear and it really answers the question I just raised about how could Jesus do this. First of all, what's intriguing to see is though this man is being brought to be healed of his paralysis, Jesus first of all says, friend, your sins are forgiven. Now here's what this means. He says, you've got two paralyzing diseases, not one. You've got something paralyzing your body and that's a terrible, horrible thing. But the only disease that can really kill you, that can really destroy you forever, that can really destroy your life forever for all eternity is the fact that you're not right with God. You have sins between you and God and I'm going to remove that barrier. I'm going to make you right with God. And so he does. See, Jesus can heal you psychologically, he can change your social relationships, he can even heal you physically. But unless you get that right, in fact everything else is based on that. It's only the new relationship with God. It's only the being pardoned. It's only knowing that you're his delight. It's only the humility, the repentance, and the reception of that love that makes you right with God. It's the basis for all the other transformations. And this in a sense is the basis for all the other mission. You've got to get this right. However, interesting, Jesus says it's hard. Now what do you mean hard? Jesus knew what they were thinking. He says, why are you thinking these things in your heart? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk? Now that seems like a trick question. It is a bit. In fact commentators and Bible teachers and pastors have been preachers, have been working on this for years. Which is harder? Now it's pretty clear, I think, that Pharisees know that you might be a magician, you might have supernatural power from whatever, and therefore you might be able to heal someone. That's pretty amazing. But to forgive sins is an astonishing claim of power and authority. And Jesus says right, which is easier? He says, I want you to know that healing this man is going to be proof that I have the authority to forgive his sins. And therefore healing the man is easier. You want to know the answer? Healing the man is easier. But it's hard. What's incredibly hard. Not for the man, not for you and me, but for Jesus. It's how that forgiveness is procured and how Jesus' salvation, so powerful that he can make you clean in a stroke. Not years of purifying yourself and purging yourself of sin, but in a stroke, how it can happen? And the answer, of course, are these texts, famous texts. 1 Peter 2, 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. And my favorite, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, God made him sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Think about this and then walk back through the passage with me. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, God made him sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him, which means, he became what we are and took the punishment we deserve. He became what we are so that we could become what he is. He became what we are and took the punishment for our sins so we can become what he is and get the reward that he deserved. You know what that means? He can heal this immobilized man because he himself was immobilized on the cross, nailed. He can bring that leper in because he was crucified outside the gate. He was crucified outside the gate. He became a pariah. He became the leper. And you know what? Those disciples could leave their nets. They could leave everything because Jesus Christ left everything. He left his Father's throne. He left all of his glory. He left his divine prerogatives and he came to earth to do all this for us. That's the reason why his salvation is so powerful. That's the reason why he can heal in a stroke. He can make clean in a stroke. He can forgive in a stroke because it's a stroke for us. It's easy for us actually. We receive it and yet it's all because it was infinitely hard for him. And let me just suggest three things. Number one, trust Jesus. You know why you should trust Jesus? Have you noticed that he forgives this man's sin and the man hasn't asked? Do you see any place where he says, Lord forgive my sins? Doesn't ask. He just forgives them. And we know throughout the Bible that God doesn't forgive sins unless you repent. He doesn't forgive your sins unless you repent. And you know what this means? Jesus Christ must have sensed the fragmentary, imperfect, unexpressed desire for forgiveness in this man's heart and responded to it. So passionate is Jesus Christ to give us his grace. He is so eager to forgive us. He is so eager to bless us that he responds to a fragmentary, imperfect, unexpressed desire for forgiveness. You don't have to get your act all together for him. I have to surrender just right. I have to make sure. No. Just turn to him. And Mike, can't you see how you can trust this man? You can trust this man. Number one. Number two, this new Christian identity, this idea that I know who I am in Christ and profit doesn't matter, success doesn't matter, what people think doesn't matter. It's astounding, but you only get it in stages. Because one of the most interesting things, interesting contrast in the Bible is in Luke 5, the first time that Peter has this miraculous catch of fish through Jesus' power. And what does he say? Depart from me, get away from me. But it go to John 21, and we will see this later on this year. Go to John 21 when Jesus is on the shore and they're out on the boat, and Jesus says, throw your net on the other side and they have a miraculous catch of fish. What does Peter do? He runs as fast as he possibly can to get near Jesus. In Luke 5, he's trying to get away from Jesus. In John chapter 21, he's trying to get near Jesus. Why? Because it takes time for what we believe to sink in. I mean, you know, it's one thing for you to say, this year I am a new creature in Christ, but your heart is still going to respond the old way. Somebody's going to say something, you know, hurt your reputation, you're going to turn on them like this, as if you're the old person, because the old person is still to a great degree there. It takes years for it to really sink in. Take the years. And lastly, this is a public faith year. This is a year in which we've been talking about. We want to take our faith out, out of the walls here, out of our own, our little private world, out into the world in all these ways. So let's do it, even though a church that cares for the marginalized and still calls people to repentance and faith and believing in Jesus Christ and who's seeking to engage, have our faith engage the way in which we do our work in the public spheres, we're not going to look like any particular kind of church. Some people are going to say, that's too liberal, that's too conservative, it doesn't matter. Let's be public with our faith. Let us pray. Thank you Father for showing us in these three stories quite a panoramic view of what it means to be in mission. We thank you that you have been so willing to take us with all of our weaknesses and flaws and say to us, I want to be partners with you. I want you to come out into the world with me and do with me the things I'm doing in the world. Oh Lord, make us fishers of people. Help us to know how we can help others come out of the darkness into the light like you have brought us. And we pray that you would make us agents of reconciliation in the world in all ways. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Today's sermon was recorded in 2014. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was Senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. .