Something Greater is Here | Pastor Daniel Batarseh | Maranatha Shabiba 2023 Conference | Thursday

Well, welcome. Welcome to Maranatha Conference Shavibe. All that you wanna call it, year number '25. Yes. Amen.

My first time here was in 2014, and I have to I have to be honest from the beginning that I don't remember a more awake, passionate, excited opening service than this one tonight. Amen. Yeah. That's that's how my for some of you might disagree, but that's what I sensed. So I'm excited.

And I also wanna let you know from the beginning that because you chose to come here, and I I pray and trust that you came here for the Lord primarily, the Lord will reward you because when we do seek him, he does bless us. And so you're, you're not wasting your time this weekend. You didn't, sacrifice much. I'm sure maybe in the natural feels that way, but the Lord will reward us for seeking him in this way. And so I'm eager to see how he will bless us as we seek his face.

You might have noticed, these t shirts, the t shirt that I'm wearing, t shirt that the priest team was wearing, some other people sprinkled around. You might have noticed what it said on the back. And if you don't know what's said on the back, I won't turn around, but I'll tell you, something greater is here. Something greater is here. Now that's not a phrase that we came up with.

That is a statement that Jesus Christ himself made. And I wanna show you in the Bible very quickly where Jesus said it and how many times he said it in the same context for you to see what he was trying to declare about himself. So turn with me briefly to Matthew chapter 12, and I want you to see here beginning in verse six. Matthew 12. Jesus was going through grain fields on the Sabbath with his disciples.

They were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain, and they ate. And the Pharisees were there to spy on Jesus, try to find something wrong with Jesus and his followers, and they thought they got him somewhere in these fields. And Jesus corrects their understanding of the Sabbath, and he proclaims his authority in this way. Verse six, he says to them, I tell you something greater than the temple is here. Something greater than the temple is here.

That's Jesus' first statement. But then you continue, and you see in the same context as he engages with the religious leaders. In verse 41 of the same chapter, it says, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Number two. And immediately right after in verse 42, Jesus gives his third and final reference concerning himself and his superiority where he says, the queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Something greater than the temple is here. Something greater than Jonah is here. Something greater than Solomon is here. Now out of all the things that Christ could have referred himself to, out of all the things that Christ could have referenced, why these three identities? Why these three realms, so to speak?

Well, for one, the Jew would have understood very well what Jesus was trying to communicate by contrasting himself, more than contrasting, towering over these things that were highly prized and treasured by the people of Israel. More specifically, what Christ is trying to say is that he is the fulfillment of the three great offices that were in operation during the old covenant. And so by saying that he was greater than the temple, he's actually declaring that his priesthood is more significant and more effective. That his offering as a high priest pleases God, satisfies his justice, satisfies his demands, and makes a one time offering that never has to be repeated and seals your salvation forever. Something greater than the temple is here.

A greater priest, and that priest is also the sacrifice. Something greater than Jonah is here. Here is Christ expressing that he occupies the office of the prophet. And not only was he sent by the father to proclaim the word of God, he is the perfect expression and the fullest revelation of God. He is the radiance of the glory of God, and he's the exact imprint of his nature.

Something greater than Jonah is here. Yes. We understand the immediate context is because he's gonna perform a miracle that was foretold by Jonah. But more than that, the office itself, I'm the prophet of prophets. I am the word of God.

And lastly, he says something greater than Solomon is here. Now we're talking about what? What do you think it is? His role as what? King.

King. And so he is declaring that he is king, not just king, but king of kings, governing not just one nation, one people, but governing the world, the universe, who knows how to display and demonstrate perfect righteousness and execute true justice, and he also knowing how to rule and oversee the hearts of men perfectly, perfectly, as he is the king of the kingdom now and will usher in that kingdom here on earth forever and ever and ever. And so you have Jesus saying, I am greater than the temple because I am a greater priest, and I have a greater sacrifice. I'm I'm greater than joy Jonah because I am the fullest expression of the word of God, the nature of God, the character of God, and I am the king of kings, the long awaited son of David who will occupy the throne for eternity. Now that's more than just a clever, crafty way of interpreting Jesus' words.

Why is it significant for us to understand Jesus declaring himself to be superior in these areas? Because how you view Christ will determine how you honor Christ. You see, Jesus said these things to his immediate audience because they refused to acknowledge his authority. They reserved their repentance, and they would not give him the awe that he deserved as king. Nineveh repented when a man much more inferior to Jesus gave a very brief sermon.

And here's Christ who was giving the words of spirit and life, and these men hardened their hearts even more. Solomon, as fabulous as he was, was flawed in many ways, and here is the king who beautifies wisdom, who perfects it, who has not one thing wrong with him, and they wouldn't bow the knee. Here is the one who did not sin, and they try to find sin in him, and he declares that he is greater than the temple, and they would not acknowledge his position. How you view Jesus Christ is the most important thing about your life. It's the most important thing.

Not your job, not your hairstyle, not what you do in your retirement, what you study. The most important thing about your brief mist of life is how you perceive the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. If you have a wrong view of Christ, that will determine your eternal destination. This is not a matter of opinion.

This is not a subjective sparring that we can do. No. It's a matter of eternal life. How you view Christ will ultimately determine where you spend eternity. And if you if you are a person who says, I see him as the high priest.

I see him as the word of God incarnate. I see him as the king of kings. How you view Christ will also determine the depth of your sanctification. Doesn't just stop at you expressing your belief in him. It's ultimately you something that you continue to discover about him, how great he is.

More and more and more do you see and perceive him, and that has an impact on how you're conformed to the very same image of his greatness, of his moral greatness, especially. And so how you view Christ, and the goal here today is we would need so many meetings to touch on each of those components of his nature and of his work. And so we're gonna stick with Solomon for this weekend. And why Solomon? Personally, because in reading about Solomon in first Kings a few months back, I saw the great detail that the Holy Spirit gave concerning him as king, and his accomplishments, and what he was able to do, and his abilities.

And what was ringing in my mind as I was scaling through first Kings chapter two, three, all the way up to ten and eleven, all through that, as as you were just you're just reading this blueprint of this man's amazing capacity, Jesus is greater. Jesus is greater. Jesus said, I'm greater than even him. And so I thought to endeavor to say, okay, Lord, I know you're greater. That's my theology.

Right? It's wrong to say that Jesus is not greater, but show me how you're greater. Let me see it. Let me behold it. And I hope that you would behold it with me, and that you would see it for yourself.

Here's where I'll end in this brief introduction. When we get when we get together, when this is organized year after year, our desire is many things. One, that people who don't know Christ would come to know Christ. That happens, I believe, every year it's happened, where at least one person has given their life to Christ, which is amazing. Right?

To organize all that for that goal is is is something that God would approve of, obviously. For saints to be encouraged, to be built up, to meet one another, to be refreshed in a very dark and deprived world, absolutely. But there is a specific goal in this in this conference, at least in my prayers, and that is this, that every single person here would leave with a ferocious desire to master the word of God. If there's anything that we're hoping for and praying for is that you would leave here with this new ambition to devour the bible for yourself. To not be content with looking at just some things, but to but to ask God to open your eyes to see all that he wants to show you in his written word.

And one way of being able to hopefully stimulate that is to see how one verse can take up a conference. Is to see how one statement that Jesus makes, behold something greater than Solomon is here, would cause you to say, this word is inexhaustible. Where does this well end? And I'll give you a hint. It doesn't.

And that you would, for the rest of your days, draw from this well as we take Matthew twelve forty two and try to wring out as much as we can from it, which we won't, for you to say, if that's what can happen with one verse, Lord, I wanna know all that you have to say to me. And I wanna show you what's at cost. Just one example of what's at cost if you and I, as believers, do not value the word of God, do not seek to know all that God has said, at least familiarize yourself with it. Let me give you an example. Turn with me to Luke 24.

Luke 24, and go to verse 13. It says here in Luke twenty four thirteen, that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad.

Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes.

And besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. You have two sad disciples walking towards Emmaus. Jesus camouflages himself. Does it make himself known? How true is it that as you're walking, Christ doesn't necessarily show himself all the time?

He camouflages himself, and he he wants to hear he already knew their conversation, but he wanted them to open up and see what was the reason for their sadness. And they do. They they open up and they say, are you did you just walk in here? Did you not hear the news? Everybody knows what just happened.

This This mighty prophet that we were hoping was a fulfillment of the prophets. He disappointed us. They killed them, and our hopes are dashed. Now here's Jesus inquiring the source of their sorrow. Now what would what would you do if if you were a pastor?

You probably put your arm around these these disciples, say, it's okay. And then try to comfort them, and try to give some kind of assistance to their heavy hearts. Here's what Jesus does. Verse 25, and he said to them, oh, foolish ones. That seems kind of insensitive, doesn't it?

Oh, foolish ones. I have a feeling that you're not gonna get that in seminary for your counseling course. But this is Jesus. His ways are perfect. He said to them, oh, foolish ones.

Let me say it one more time. Rebuke is necessary sometimes in the Christian walk. Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? What is Christ getting at here?

He's diagnosing the real source of their problems. The source of their problems is not that they believe the right things, and what they believed did not come to pass. It was that they did not believe everything. They were ignorant of all that the prophets had spoken. Either they were willfully and selectively interpreting the word of God or they were negligent, and that is their responsibility nonetheless.

Look what Jesus says carefully. Oh, foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all. All that the prophets have spoken. You believed some. You're familiar with a fraction.

Your heart was drawn to the political messiah, the redeemer of the oppression from foreign nations, the prosperity that was once known under Solomon's reign perhaps. This is what you were drawing. That was a that was a common problem for all the Jews. Some people are sympathetic towards the Pharisees because they thought, well, maybe maybe the word of God was a little bit complicated, and that's why they didn't understand all that Jesus said. That's not true.

And that's that's that's what we see here with Christ. He blames them. The scriptures were clear. You just chose to turn your eyes away from all that God had to say about myself. And I think the problem for the Jews is the problem of many Christians today.

Let me put it this way. There is much confusion, frustration, depression, dare I say, and all these spiritual maladies based on one main thing. A bad spiritual diet with the word of God. What's the reason why they were sad? Jesus made it clear.

You didn't take in all that God said. Just some, not all. And we look across the lens, and we see perhaps very weak Christians. We see people who are frustrated, people who are roller coaster with their devotion. And I would say that the main cause is the very same reason what Jesus brings up here.

A lack of willingness to embrace all that God has to say. A lack of willingness to investigate all that God has to say. And because of that, there is weakness where there doesn't need to be weakness. And there is sadness where there doesn't need to be sadness. And there's brokenness where there doesn't need to be brokenness.

And there's fear where there doesn't need to be fear. The word of God is the answer. Say prove it. Look what Jesus does. How does he solve this?

How does he treat this wound? Verse 27. This is what pastor Jesus does. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. How does the Lord treat their sadness?

He opens the scriptures to them. Because he knew that the reason why they were sad is because they didn't open up all the scriptures for themselves. And so let us save ourselves from unnecessary pain and seek to know all that God has to say. That's my prayer. That's my desire, and I hope that's your desire for yourself as well that you would leave this place excited to know that God speaks through this, and that something happens the more you discover, the more you inherit, the more that you glean.

Something happens to you. Let me prove it to you. This is my last verse In James, this is one of my favorite verses concerning the power of the word of God. I quote it often, so forgive me if you're hearing it again in such a short span of time. But look at these words from James in James chapter one.

And this was where we will sign off for this introduction. James one, and look here with me in verse verse 21. James one twenty one, therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. What a significant charge. Receive the implanted word world.

If it's implanted, it's already received, isn't it? What are you asking me to do, James? Continue to receive that which you received initially in salvation. Continue to open up your heart to indulge and accept and explore what the word of God has to say. And notice what he says, which is able to save your souls.

He's talking to Christians. What do you mean save your souls? You're already saved. Yeah. But there's another saving that needs to take place, a continual saving, a perpetual delivering in your life.

You know it. Right? You know that when you get saved, you're not instantly made perfect? Just join a local church and you'll figure that out within a few months. Nobody is.

And yet, there is a promise, there is a guarantee that to the degree that you expose yourself and receive the word of God, you will know a saving in your own soul from trauma, from disappointment, from sin, from wrong world views, from temptation, from bondage, from strongholds. It's the word of God that saves and cleanses and washes and uproots all the things that perhaps you've had from the earliest memories of your life. That's the word, and that's what it can do. So here's one thing that we can guarantee. Here's one thing that you can guarantee every single time you go to the word of God for yourself that you sit under the preach word, and this is why this weekend is exciting because we have a condensed time where you're just gonna receive the word of God as though it's coming from a fire hydrant.

People are gonna be saved. If it's received with meekness, we will know it's saving. I'm not talking about salvation. I'm talking about a renewing of the mind. I'm talking about a redirecting in your affections.

I'm talking about an empowerment that will make you leave this place stronger than you came in. That's what the word of God can do. And we're gonna see it through Jesus saying something greater than Solomon is here. What does that mean, Lord? We're gonna figure it out together.

Let's pray. Father, we give you glory even from the opening night. Thank you for the joy in this place. Thank you for the openness in the hearts of every soul in this house. Thank you, Lord, for people who decided to take up this weekend, though it might be a difficult weekend in the year, to dedicate a few days to be with God's people and to seek the God of these people.

We ask, Lord, that we would know the very saving that you promised in James, that we would know a new ambition to have a complete grasp, a growing grasp with the word of God so that we would be rescued from unnecessary sorrows. And, Lord, we ask from the beginning that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would open our eyes to behold how Christ your son is greater than that great man, Solomon. And may it cause us to give him the worship and the honor and the praise that the king of kings rightly deserves. Lord, bless our hearts, our minds, protect us from head to toe. Let everything about this weekend from the messages to the singing to the activities to the eating, may it all be led by your spirit.

May we sense your presence wherever we go for we are here for you above all else. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.