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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
WHAT DID JESUS TALK ABOUT?
INTRODUCTION:
Statistics play a very important role in genetics. Statistics prove that the number of children
you are most likely to have are actually an inherited trait. For example, it can easily be shown
that if your parents didn't have any kids, the chances are you won't either.
One day two statisticians were traveling in an airplane from LA to New York. About an hour
into the flight, the pilot announced over the speakers that they had lost an engine, but don’t
worry he said, there are three engines left. However, instead of 5 hours it will take 7 hours to
get to New York.
A little later, he announced that a second engine failed, but because they still had two left, it
would, he said, now take 10 hours to get to New York.
Somewhat later, the pilot again came on the speaker and announced that unfortunately the
third engine had died. Never fear, he said, because the plane is perfectly capable of flying on a
single engine. However, it will of course now take 18 hours to get to New York.
At this point, one of the statisticians turned to the other and said, “Man, I hope we don’t lose
that last engine, or we could be up here forever!”
Proverbs 17 says that a cheerful heart is good medicine…
Many times over the years I’ve heard people quote all kinds of facts and statistics about the
Bible, but the one I’ve heard most of all is this one. ‘The Bible speaks more about money than
it does about Hell.’ I don’t know if you have come across it, but it’s one of those little
statements that comes up so often that a while ago, I had this nagging thought that I needed
to find out if it was actually true or not.
Anyway, as a bit if background, when I first married Sam, about 17 years ago now, I was doing
some work as a statistical computer programmer for the National Health Service in the UK, it’s
the organisation that runs most of the hospitals and the doctors etc., and essentially my job
was to write computer software that could analyse health statistics like waiting lists,
operations, time spent in the Emergency Room, that kind of thing, and I can tell you in one
short sentence everything that I learned in my role, and it’s this: Do not trust anything you are
told by statisticians!
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
Now, I’m not today trying to promote scepticism and cynicism as desirable character traits for
disciples of Jesus, but I think that there is a wisdom in at least thinking carefully about the
things that we read or hear.
And because of that, I have learned to try and remember to look into things that I hear very
carefully. And so one day, again having recently heard this claim that Jesus spoke more about
money than Hell, I decided to look into this question of what Jesus actually talked about most,
and I want to share a few simple thoughts about it.
Since coming to faith, I have always felt that what Jesus said, the words that He spoke, carried
infinite value. This is because I believe that Jesus is the wisest man that has ever lived. I look at
it like this, if Jesus is the Son of God, if He is God incarnate, He has to be infinitely smart. He
really must have to have a grip on everything that matters, and His voice has to speak louder
than the wisdom of this world. He has to know how to live life successfully. He has to have the
perfect insight into how to know and live for the Father. He has to understand how to live in
this world more than anyone else. He has to have the best insights into what really matters.
He has to know how to conduct relationships. He has to know what we should aspire to and
aim for. He has to know how to be satisfied. He has to know how to be in this world but not of
it. So I believe that what He thinks and says represents the very pinnacle of the wisdom in this
life. The Apostle Paul puts it like this in 1st Corinthians 1:24. He says ‘but to those whom God
has called, both Jews & Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
So, whilst I love the fact that Jesus teaches us how to be saved and how to get to Heaven and
how to know God, in addition to those amazing answers to the fundamental questions of life
and existence, I also believe that what he says in terms of everyday practical wisdom is also of
infinite value. No one, not Plato, not Aristotle, not Pascal, not Einstein, none of them even
begin to approach Jesus, even when He is talking about seemingly mundane things.
Let me give a good example, listen to these words. Jesus said: When someone invites you to a
wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may
have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this
person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when
you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you,
‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other
guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted.”
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
Now I think you would agree that on the surface, here Jesus is talking about sounds like a fairly
mundane subject. It isn’t how do you get to Heaven, or how you can be forgiven, or why I am
here, it’s just where you sit at a party. Of course, there is more to it, and Jesus is reflecting on a
deeper character trait, but compared to the issues like how to inherit eternal life, it’s a lesser
subject. But hears my point, I still believe that these simple words about where we sit at a
party, still convey the infinite wisdom of Jesus, the unique son of God.
And so, whilst I certainly don’t manage to get it right all of the time, I try hard to follow Jesus
teaching. So when I go to a meeting, I try and remember not to take the best seat. This caused
me great difficulty when living in India, because as a foreigner you are always treated as an
honoured guest, and sometimes I would go somewhere with lots of people and just sit on the
floor with the poor people and then hosts would get very frustrated indeed because I didn’t
automatically take the place of honour. It would always make me laugh!
But one day, and this is the focus hear today, it occurred to me that we should not just be
listening to Jesus words, in the sense of what did he teach, but also that if He is the wisest
teacher ever, if He is the unique Son of God, we should also pay lots of attention to the
balance of Jesus teaching. In other words, what did He spend a lot of time teaching about, and
what did He spend just a little time teaching about, because surely this is really important too.
I think that we can learn from Jesus what is most important to learn about in our own lives,
and what is most important to teach about in church.
You might put it like this. What did Jesus major on and what did He minor on? What mattered
most to Jesus. This is the question that I wanted to ask.
So I wonder how we would all do if we had to guess and list Jesus top ten subjects.
Now of course, there would be a variety of different ways of answering that question, but here
is one approach! Of course you are probably familiar with the idea of a red letter Bible, but
essentially the idea is that in the Gospels, when it seems that Jesus is speaking, the text is
highlighted in red, and when it is not Jesus speaking, like commentary or the quoting of facts,
the text is in black. Of the Gospels, Matthew has the most red-letter teaching verses, 1071 in
one particular translation, or about 55% of the total material in the book.
So I used Matthews Gospel. What would you guess were Jesus top ten subjects?
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
Most people would do a great job and correctly guess that Jesus main subject, what He spoke
about more than anything else, was the Kingdom of God, or since it is Matthew, we should
probably say the Kingdom of Heaven. Mark & Luke use the name the Kingdom of God,
Matthew generally says the Kingdom of Heaven. There are approximately 159 verses about
the Kingdom, representing %19 of His recorded teaching there. So, about 1/5th of the time
Jesus was teaching, it seems that He spoke about the Kingdom of God, based on a sample of
Matthews Gospel. I’m guessing that makes the Kingdom exceedingly important to Jesus. So for
example, we see Jesus saying: But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come
upon you. 1 Or when talking about the parable of the sower, Jesus says: When anyone hears the
message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in
his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.2
Jesus direct teaching in Matthew
Kingdom 159 Verses
Jesus identity & mission 129 verses
6%
6%
19%
Fate of Jerusalem and evil
generation 119 Verses
7%
Second Coming 79 Verses
7%
Hypocrisy 73 Verses
15%
8%
Prophecy 67 Verses
Judgment & Hell 61 Verses
9%
14%
9%
Persecution 54 Verses
Prayer 48 Verses
Eternal life 46 Verses
1
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 12:28). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
2
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 13:19). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
Identity and mission: The second most popular subject in Jesus teaching is the category of
Jesus identity and mission with 129 verses, so about %15 based on a sample of Matthew. So
examples would be when Jesus said: …the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many.3
Fate of Jerusalem and this evil generation: Jesus 3rd most popular subject was the fate of
Jerusalem and what he called ‘This evil generation.’ There are 119 verses about this, or around
%14 of Jesus teaching. An example would be when Jesus said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill
the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I
tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” 4
Second coming: Jesus 4th most common subject was His second coming, with 79 verses or %9
of His teaching. An example would be when Jesus said: “But I say to all of you: In the future you will
see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 5
Hypocrisy: Jesus 5th most common subject was hypocrisy with 73 verses or and again about %9
of His teaching and you will remember Him saying: When you fast, do not look somber as the
hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.6
Prophecy: Jesus 6th most common kind of teaching was prophecy with 67 verses or %8 where
Jesus gave various prophecies about the areas around Jerusalem.
Judgement and Hell: His 7th most popular subject was judgement and Hell with 61 verses and
%7 of His teaching.
Persecution: Persecution is His 8th most common subject with 54 verses and %7.
Prayer: Prayer is His 9th most common subject 48 verses and about %6 of His teaching.
Eternal Life: And then last, the subject of Eternal Life is Jesus 10th most popular subject with 46
verses and again about %6 of His teaching.
3
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 20:28). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
4
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 23:37–39). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
5
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 26:64). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
6
The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 6:16). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
So to recap, in Matthew, it goes:
The Kingdom
Jesus identity and mission
The fate of Jerusalem and this evil generation
His second coming
Hypocrisy
Prophecy
The judgement and Hell
Persecution
Prayer
Eternal life
So, we answered the question about money from Matthew’s gospel at least in the sense that it
doesn’t come in the top ten, so it doesn’t seem to be a major theme there. But of course,
there is more to the answer. When we read Matthew’s gospel, what we pick up as we read is
that much of the focus of His gospel was for the Jews, and of course when Jesus spoke to the
Jews, one of His major concerns was to warn them against hypocrisy, because it trus out that
hypocrisy was one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Jewish leadership at that time. So
to the Jews, Jesus focussed on some of the things that they most needed tyo hear.
And of course it would greatly surprise most people to find in Matthew that there seems to be
more teaching on the subjects of judgement and Hell, than either prayer or eternal life!
Can it really be that Jesus spoke more about judgement and Hell than prayer or eternal life?
The simple answer is ‘Yes’, or at least, that is what Matthew recorded. It seems that that was
what was necessary for the Jews at that time.
But interestingly, when you read Luke’s Gospel, as well as the big subjects that you expect to
find, who Jesus is, how to be forgiven, Jesus return, you find a very notable emphasis on
money that didn’t seem nearly so prevalent in Matthew. Jesus tells Roman Soldiers not to
extort money from people, he warns others that they can’t serve both God and money, we see
Zacchaeus completely changing his attitude to money after being born again, he warns of
covetousness and hoarding wealth.
Because it seems that Luke is writing mostly for a Gentile audience, we see a different
emphasis on what Jesus seems to have spoken to them.
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
And then of course, if we had taken a sample from John’s Gospel, we might have arrived at a
different focus, because John is written above all to help us believe, he says ‘I write these
things that you may believe.’ Most of the emphasis is on the divinity of Jesus, and then
perhaps secondly the message of love.
At this point, I haven’t yet had the time go through all four gospels and do an exhaustive study
making note of the statistics on the various subjects. I hope to do that one day, because I
haven’t yet found anyone else who has done it either.
What I’m trying to help us with here, is that I believe that not only should we believe what
Jesus says, but that we should also be interested in what He is interested in, passionate for
what He is passionate for, that we should hunger for what he hungers for, and teach what
Jesus taught. The balance of what Jesus said is very important, just as the content of what
Jesus said is very important.
There are some subjects that we really don’t think about very much, or talk about very much
that turn out to be very important to God.
So for example, in the life of Jesus, we see Him as someone who hungered for intimacy with
the Father, that He expressed practically in generally getting up early in the morning and
having quality time with Him. Because I believe that we should want to be like Jesus, I believe
that we also should get up early in the morning and have fellowship with God. If Jesus, with
His infinite wisdom and perfection decided to get up early every morning and spend time with
the Father, I find it hard to believe that another pattern could be better than Jesus pattern, so
I try and do it too! Now for the sake of integrity I have to say that I don’t do this perfectly, and
sometimes during the school summer holidays, when the kids are at home, it’s harder to be
consistent, in fact some of my patterns go completely out of the window at those times, but
most of the time, I try hard to do what Jesus did.
Another example is teaching. When it comes to teaching, I try and talk about what Jesus talked
about, so the Kingdom always comes first. Whenever I get the opportunity to visiting
somewhere to preach, it is almost inevitable that I will be preaching about the Kingdom,
because the Kingdom was Jesus main subject. When we moved to India and taught the
children, I spoke about the Kingdom nearly all of the time for weeks and weeks!
Let me put another thought in your minds. I said this, that we should be: interested in what He
is interested in, passionate for what He is passionate for, hunger for what he hungers for.
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
I would like to argue that this is a key part of being like Jesus. When we discuss the subject of
being like Jesus, we naturally go straight to thought like having self-control, being careful how
we speak, being full of love, being good at forgiving, having humility. There are any number of
other wonderful characteristics of Jesus that we could mention, and they are core to being like
Jesus. But I also want to say that Jesus priorities in His teaching, what He spoke about, came
from Him having the heart of the Father. We are told that Jesus only did what He saw His
Father in Heaven doing. So I want to say that spending lots of time in the Scriptures and
learning what was really important to Jesus is central to becoming like him and reflecting the
heart of the Father, because what matters to Him needs to matter to us.
For example, the fact that Jesus spent almost twice as much time talking to the Jews about
hypocrisy as eternal life is very significant indeed. Let me explain this carefully. I am not saying
that by a mathematical formula we can deduce that hypocrisy has double the importance of
eternal life, and in a different Gospel we might come up with a different balance, but what I
am saying is that the surprising fact that Jesus 5th most popular subject to teach the Jews on in
Matthew was hypocrisy must challenge us to think that, whereas we might not naturally think
of it is right up there at the top of our priorities as a Christian, Jesus challenges us to realise
that in the heart of Father, hypocrisy is a big deal, and that learning to grow to become less
hypocritical, would clearly be very pleasing to our Father indeed. It matters to God.
Another thought would be that quite often these days, we don’t speak about judgement and
hell very much. Perhaps it is because we don’t like to be thought of as getting people into the
Kingdom through fear, or we don’t want to be associated with certain styles of evangelism. I
don’t know, there could be many reasons.
But here’s my thought. Jesus spoke about Hell and Judgement quite a lot, and therefore if we
want to be like Jesus, we need to have a heart to share about what He taught about. If in our
heart to win the lost we never speak about that subject, are we really being like Jesus? Putting
it simply again, we need to care what He cared about, love what He loved, hate what He
hated, and be passionate about what He was passionate about.
And to finish, there is no doubt in my mind that the primary focus of Jesus teaching, was the
Kingdom. His work was to introduce the Kingdom, He is the King of the Kingdom.
If we are to be in any way like Jesus, we must be bringers of the Kingdom, we must be
Kingdom people. If people get annoyed with you because all you ever talk about is Kingdom,
Kingdom, Kingdom, Kingdom, Kingdom… you are probably getting something right, because
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Goleta Vineyard Sermons: Nick Catley. 21 August 2016
that was how Jesus was, and that is our calling today. As I’ve said so many times, Jesus said
that He would look after building His church, and He gave us instructions to bring the
Kingdom.
So in a roundabout way, everything we’ve looked at today, is a study in how to be like Jesus.
There is nothing better that we could aim for!
-End© PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS WORK FREELY, BUT PLEASE BE KIND ENOUGH TO
ATTRIBUTE THE WORK TO THE AUTHOR.
REV. DR. NICK CATLEY PHD, DMIN, FINSTLM, FBCS / [email protected]
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