Participants: David Asscherick, James Rafferty, Jeffrey Rosario, Ty Gibson
Series Code: TT
Program Code: TT000022
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00:01 [Music]
00:11 [Music] 00:21 --It's very interesting, you guys, that as we look at the 00:25 story of Israel, and we look at Jesus as the fulfillment of that 00:30 story, it becomes pretty obvious that much of Christian thought 00:36 and theology just skips right over the life of Jesus, and much 00:40 of the gospels and jumps right into death, burial, 00:43 resurrection. 00:45 What's going on there? 00:47 Why would there be a necessity, not a necessity, but why would 00:52 there be an inclination, or a tendency to skip over the 00:55 gospels and right to, well, not the gospels as a whole, but jump 01:00 right to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, when the 01:03 gospel is preached, and to not spend as much time on his actual 01:06 life and the things that he did, because he's enacting Israel's 01:11 history, he's redeeming that history. 01:13 --There's gonna be several reasons, I'm sure, but one is 01:15 what you just said, I believe, is that it's probably a lack of 01:19 time and focus in the Old Testament, because his life, as 01:24 you say, it's a reenactment of the history of Israel. 01:26 So, if we understood the significance of the story, then 01:31 we would have an incentive to carefully look at the life 01:34 aspect of Jesus, because it would be packed with 01:37 significance. 01:38 So, maybe it has to do with just the fact that you were saying, 01:41 that useless page in the bible that divides the Old from the 01:44 New Testament, that that's indicative of our mentality, or 01:48 maybe, indicative is too strong, but that's representative of our 01:53 mentality that there's this distinction, but if we saw the 01:57 Old Testament as Jesus saw it, which is as a beautiful 02:01 narrative, then when we looked at his life, we would see more 02:05 of those connections and we'd realize the significance of the 02:07 details of his life. 02:08 --Much of the misunderstanding of who Jesus is and what he came 02:13 to do, even in contemporary Christianity, is built around 02:16 Jesus' refutation of a misunderstanding of the story of 02:21 Israel, but then that's incorrectly assumed to be a 02:24 refutation, or standing in contradistinction to the Old 02:28 Testament. 02:29 Jesus is not against the Old Testament, in fact, we've 02:32 already quoted in Matthew 5, where he says, don't think I 02:34 came to destroy the law of the prophets, I came to fulfill. 02:37 But we have this idea that there's this, not we, but some 02:39 have this idea that there's this sort of arbitrary, archaic, you 02:43 know, antiquated God in the Old Testament who's really hard to 02:47 understand and he does a lot of strange things in strange ways, 02:49 and then you come to the New Testament, and you have this 02:51 really easy to understand, accessible God, his name is 02:53 Jesus, he's sitting across the table from you, he was eating 02:55 bread, and all is well. 02:57 So, if you fail to see the narrative, as you said, if you 03:00 fail to see the continuity of the story, my point is is that 03:03 there's an interpretive danger that we need to be aware of and 03:05 that is that we should not interpret the Old Testament in a 03:08 way differently than Jesus did. 03:10 --And even Paul and the apostles. 03:13 --Of course, absolutely, because they're taking their cues from 03:15 Jesus, Jesus as the Messiah, and just a word on that, we'll get 03:19 to Paul, we'll spend a lot of time in Paul, but Paul was 03:22 initially, like all first century Jews would've been, 03:25 disinclined to see the Old Testament narrative the way that 03:29 Jesus saw it. 03:30 As we already said, no man spoke like this man, you know, it was 03:34 astonishing the way that he spoke, and Paul at first was a 03:37 persecutor of this seemingly incorrect and blasphemous and 03:41 this incorrect perspective, but when he actually went back, in 03:46 fact, there's this crazy verse in Paul that we'll eventually 03:49 get to, you read it and you're just like, Paul, you're talking 03:52 out of both sides of our mouth. 03:53 It's in Galatians 2, and he says, for I, through the law, 03:56 died to the law, that I might live to God through Christ in 04:01 the context. 04:02 What a weird thing to say. 04:03 I, through the law, died to the law. 04:05 Well, when you understand what Paul means by law is the 04:08 writings of the Old Testament, particularly the writings of 04:10 Moses, he says, I had to go back and read my own book. 04:15 I, through the reading of the Old Testament, through my 04:18 reading of the scriptures upon which my faith is based, I died 04:21 to my old way of understanding it so that I could live to the 04:25 correct way of understanding it, which is fulfilled in what 04:28 Christ has done as the climax of the narrative. 04:31 --In 2 Corinthians 3, David, Paul explicitly states that 04:36 that's what's going on in his own experience and that's what's 04:40 going on in the experience of corporate Israel, because he 04:44 says, in 2 Corinthians 3, even in the reading of the Old 04:48 Testament scriptures, the veil is upon their minds, speaking of 04:53 Israel, himself included, until the point of his paradigm shift, 04:57 but the veil is upon their mind to this day, Paul says, in the 05:01 reading of the Old Testament, and then he says something very 05:04 fascinating. 05:05 He says, but that veil is removed in Christ. 05:09 When Jesus is introduced into the picture as the fulfillment 05:13 of Israel's history, then you begin to read the scriptures 05:17 with an entirely new perspective. 05:19 You see it all with new eyes. 05:21 --I wonder, Ty, if, I know that this is, you know, this is Jesus 05:24 in the gospels part 2, but I wonder if that wouldn't be a 05:26 great way to start this conversation, to actually go 05:28 read those texts. 05:30 --Which ones? 05:31 --Inside Corinthians 3, because that is, that is absolutely 05:34 normative for Paul's understanding, the disciples' 05:37 understanding, and thus, our understanding for how to read 05:40 the Old Testament. 05:41 --Take us there. 05:42 --Okay, let's just do it. 05:43 I mean, you basically walked us through it, but I think that's 05:44 something that you know, that James knows, that Jeffery knows, 05:47 and David knows, but we should not rush over that because many 05:50 listeners are, what was that? 05:52 What was he saying there? 05:53 --2 Corinthians 3. 05:54 --If you just start sort of in verse 13, and just kinda tell 06:00 the story. 06:02 --Can you just read the passage through and then we'll comment 06:03 on it. 06:04 --Sure, so unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the 06:07 children of Israel could not steadily look at the end of what 06:09 was passing away. 06:11 Right, so let's just pause there. 06:12 Paul here is taking an actual historical event in the history 06:16 of Israel. 06:17 Moses went up onto a mountain, he was with God, face to face 06:19 for 40 days and 40 nights, and when he came down, scripture 06:23 says that his face was so luminous, incandescent, that the 06:28 children of Israel said, hey, put a veil over your face 06:30 because we can't look at you. 06:31 So, what he does is, is Paul says, metaphor. 06:35 That's a perfect symbol and illustration of what's happening 06:38 to Israel today, because just as the Jews are going into the 06:41 synagogue to open the writings of Moses, he's saying, just as 06:45 Moses was veiled back then, he says, now Moses is veiled. 06:49 So, so far, so good. 06:51 --The writings of Moses. 06:52 --The writings of Moses are veiled. 06:53 Verse 14, but their minds were blinded, for until this day, the 06:59 same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament 07:03 because the veil is taken away in Christ. 07:07 But, even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on 07:10 their heart. 07:11 Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken 07:14 away, and here it is, verse 17, now the Lord is the spirit and 07:18 where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 07:20 Not just liberty in any generic sense, but in a couple very 07:24 specific senses, one of which is a liberty to understand your own 07:27 story in the way it was intended to be understood. 07:30 And then, secondarily, at least, a liberty to experience, the 07:34 opportunity to experience the liberty that Jesus came to 07:37 offer, which you kept using language in our last 07:39 conversation of a new Exodus, that's exactly the right 07:42 language, a new Exodus, a new Exodus, not just from Egypt, but 07:46 from sin and death and, so what Paul is saying here is, when we 07:51 go read the Old Testament, we can't read it like this. 07:56 We cannot read it as if Jesus had never come. 07:59 We have to read and look, where is Jesus, as we've seen it and 08:03 as we did in the first, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8 sessions of 08:05 this conversation, it's like, there he is, there he is, there 08:08 he is, there he is, there he is. 08:10 No wonder when Jesus was walking with the disciples on the road 08:12 to Emmaus there and they were blinded because they, you know, 08:16 Jesus has been crucified, he's, you know, we thought he was the 08:19 Messiah, you know, basically a pity party. 08:22 Jesus draws near to them and says, oh, fools, and slow of 08:26 heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. 08:30 And then it says, he opened the bible, and in the law, and in 08:32 the Psalms, and in the prophets, he's like, let me show you how 08:36 to read your own book. 08:37 --But David, even in the early Christian creeds, we see a gap, 08:42 and it's glaring. 08:45 Obviously, it wasn't glaring to those who composed those creeds, 08:51 but it's a glaring gap that you notice when you begin to read 08:56 the New Testament with this grounding in Israel's history 09:01 because what you have in the creeds is you have, you have 09:04 creation referenced and then it jumps right over the life of 09:10 Christ, his teachings, his miracles, the entire reenactment 09:13 of Israel's history. 09:15 All of that's skipped right over, and it's creation, and 09:17 then Jesus died and rose again for our sins. 09:21 --It's a whole lot of skipping. 09:23 --Ty, I want you to talk at least briefly about why you 09:26 think that is, but I have here, on my iPad, the actual creed. 09:30 I won't read the whole thing, but let me just read the 09:32 Germaine part. 09:33 --For those who are sitting in on the conversation, what time 09:35 frame are we dealing with? 09:36 --The Nissian creed was formulated by the early church 09:39 in AD 325, okay, so about 300 years after the time of Jesus, 09:43 and it was basically, I won't go into the history, but it was a 09:46 creed that was designed to solidify the teaching of who 09:52 Christ was in his relation to the father. 09:54 And, there's a variety of reasons that the Nissian creed 09:58 was necessary, we could talk about the conversion of 10:00 Constantine, but that's not our point. 10:01 --But they're intending to encapsulate what the gospel is. 10:04 --That's right, so, now, listen to this. 10:06 By the way, there's not gonna be anything in here that you're 10:08 gonna disagree with. 10:09 It's not the presence of something that's wrong, it's the 10:12 absence of something. 10:13 So, listen, this is how it starts. 10:14 We believe in one God. 10:16 The Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that 10:18 is seen and unseen. 10:19 Okay, we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of 10:22 God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from 10:25 light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being 10:29 with the Father. 10:30 Through him, all things are made, for us and for our 10:32 salvation, he came down from heaven. 10:34 I know this really well because we used to recite it every 10:36 single Sunday in the Episcopal Church. 10:38 So, that's sort of the theology. 10:40 Now, listen, here's the Germaine point for us. 10:42 For us and our salvation, he came down from heaven, by the 10:45 power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin 10:48 Mary, and was made man, for our sake, he was crucified under 10:51 Pontius Pilot, he suffered death and was buried and on the third 10:54 day, he rose again, in accordance with the scriptures, 10:56 and he ascended to heaven. 10:57 That's the point. 10:58 He was born of a virgin, he was killed by Pilot. 11:01 And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story. 11:04 No, hello. 11:06 I mean, you understand that a creed has inherent limitations, 11:09 it's not gonna be a novel, it's not gonna be a whole book, but 11:12 the point is, is that it's as if the life of Jesus didn't happen. 11:16 I mean, it's as if he could've just been born in the manger, 11:20 right there, and then somebody could've, Pilot could've just 11:23 walked up and, you know, not to be indelicate here, but could've 11:25 just killed him there in the manger and the gospel would've 11:27 been the same. 11:29 --The life of Christ is completely skipped over. 11:30 --You know, I like this, the way we're going, the direction we're 11:34 taking here, because it reminds me of this big picture of the 11:38 story and you know, I know, we all know that a story has many 11:42 perspectives. 11:43 For example, when there's an accident, let's just say there's 11:46 an accident and a police officer comes, you know, to investigate 11:49 the accident, and of course, he wants to get the story, he wants 11:54 to get the story of how this happened, and he's gonna collect 11:56 the information from different sources. 11:58 He's gonna ask the people who were involved in the accident, 12:01 perhaps the driver of one car and the driver of another car, 12:05 and the people who were in the cars, and then he's gonna ask 12:07 maybe people who were in other cars who saw it, or pedestrians, 12:10 and he's going to get perspectives, but that's part of 12:14 the story is these perspectives and they're all gonna be 12:17 different based upon what they saw. 12:19 So, a story is based partly on information. 12:22 It's also based on your perspective. 12:24 If you were in this car and not that car, if you were connected 12:26 to this person, not to that person. 12:28 So, you've got information, you've got perspective, but then 12:30 you've got motive. 12:32 Part of the story's gonna be based on the motive of those who 12:37 are involved. 12:38 Are they just walking by and they want, they just want the 12:40 truth to get out, oh, I saw exactly what happened. 12:44 Or, are they the ones who actually were at fault and they 12:49 want to cover up as much as possible of why it happened in a 12:54 certain way so as not to be found at fault, and you look at 12:58 that in this, just translate that to these texts, to what 13:02 we're reading. 13:03 You talked, you asked the question, Ty, well, why did we 13:05 skip over that? 13:06 Why was that skipped over? 13:07 Well, one of the answers to that is because the story begins with 13:10 deception and the being that deceived is continuing in the 13:15 story. 13:16 So, when we look in 2 Corinthians, for example, 13:18 chapter 3, the very next thing Paul says, and there's no 13:21 chapter break in his original letter, the very next thing he 13:24 says in chapter 4 is, he says, but if our gospel, verse 3, be 13:29 hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom, verse 4, the god 13:32 of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not. 13:36 You've got the same person, the same being that is continuing in 13:41 the story to blind minds. 13:43 Now, notice this, he continues this same theme, Paul does in 2 13:46 Corinthians 11, and he wants us to bear with him, that's how he 13:52 begins the chapter. 13:54 Chapter 11 begins, of 2 Corinthians, he says, I want you 13:57 to bear with me in my folly, I'm wanting to share this with you, 14:00 verse 2, because I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. 14:03 Now, I just wanna pause there for a second. 14:06 There are 2 types of jealousies in the bible, there is jealousy 14:10 of, you know, I saw you with another person or you're having 14:14 something that I don't have, and I'm jealous because I want that. 14:17 That's the natural, carnal jealousy that I'm left out of 14:22 this, that I'm affected by it. 14:23 Then, there's a godly jealousy, and the godly jealousy is kinda 14:26 like this, I'm jealous over you because I love you and I don't 14:30 want you to get hurt, and this is the kind of jealousy that God 14:33 has, this is the kind of jealousy that Paul has. 14:35 I have a godly jealousy for you because I'm afraid something's 14:38 gonna happen and I don't want that to happen to you because I 14:40 love you. 14:41 And he says, this is the jealousy I have, and he says in 14:44 verse 3, but I'm afraid, and then he goes all the way back to 14:47 the beginning of the story, and he connects this storyline of 14:52 the serpent beguiling Eve through his subtlety to the 14:55 gospel of Jesus Christ. 14:57 He says, I'm afraid that, just like the serpent beguiled Eve 15:00 through his subtlety, so your minds would be corrupted from 15:03 the simplicity that is in Christ, because he that comes, 15:06 verse 4, might preach another Jesus or you might have another 15:10 spirit, or you might receive another gospel, and you might go 15:15 along with it. 15:16 You see? 15:18 So, the whole picture here, it's powerful because the issue here 15:21 is that you have the story, you have information, you have 15:25 perspective, you have motive, and then you have people in the 15:28 story who are trying to blind our minds by giving us a 15:31 different perspective, by misrepresenting God, by leaving 15:35 out some information, that's what we're looking at when we 15:38 look at the whole picture of the bible. 15:39 --So, the veil is there deliberately, that Satan is 15:42 throwing a veil over the Old Testament scriptures, because he 15:45 wants to perpetuate the distorted picture of God that 15:50 he's trying to perpetrate on the human race, and part of that 15:55 picture is that he doesn't want us to see that Jesus is the 16:01 magnification of the character of God in the process of 16:04 salvation and our liberation. 16:06 He wants us to think of God in the narrow, limited sense of 16:10 appeasement for sin and God making demands that need to be 16:17 met in order for him to adopt a position of favor toward us, so 16:23 I think that there might be something to this that the deep 16:27 dark secret of why the creeds inadvertently skip over the life 16:33 of Christ as the new Israel and the fulfillment of Israel, is 16:37 because those Christians in that part of church history are 16:45 skipping right to the penal substitution aspect of the plan 16:50 of salvation because they're locked into a picture of God 16:56 that misrepresent the character of God, not intentionally, but 17:03 as James is sharing, there's something going on behind the 17:05 scenes. 17:06 So, there's no sense of necessity for the life of 17:09 Christ. 17:10 There's no sense of necessity for him fulfilling Israel's 17:13 history in any sense. 17:16 You see, I'm not getting, I'm not achieving a high level of 17:18 clarity because I'm just beginning to sense this myself 17:21 as we're sitting at this table. 17:22 But, is there something there? 17:24 --There's something very much there, in fact, two of the 17:27 factors, and this may be shifting the conversation in the 17:30 same direction, but I think we should loop back to the gospels, 17:33 but I do wanna say that it's a well-known fact that one of the 17:37 major, two of the major factors that shape the early Christian 17:40 church, especially in the sort of second, third, and fourth 17:43 centuries was what is called by scholars, a dejudaization, that 17:48 just means an unjewishing of the New Testament, and of an 17:51 understanding of the Christian way. 17:54 And, that, as that ground was being yielded, the loss of a 17:57 thing, that ground was being acquired by what's called 18:00 Hellenization, which is a greeking of an understanding. 18:04 So, what you have is an ebbing of one thing, or the ebb and 18:08 flow, one thing is increasing, the other thing is decreasing, 18:09 and what was decreasing was an appreciation for the rich, 18:13 Jewish heritage story, the prophecies, the proverbs, the 18:17 psalms, the great story, the narrative, the package that is 18:21 Israel's history, to skip to a largely gentile understanding of 18:27 the gospel, a Greek understanding of the gospel. 18:28 Not entirely, but largely. 18:30 Now, there's reasons for that. 18:32 One of the major reasons is that as the gospel began to go to the 18:34 Gentiles, many of the new converts, thus many of the new 18:37 apologists, theologians, etc in the second and third 18:39 centuries were Gentiles. 18:41 Right, they were Greeks, they weren't Jews. 18:43 And I read a great book a number of years ago by one of the great 18:46 church historians of modern times, Jaroslav Pelikan, in 18:48 which he says that basically, you can think of it this way, 18:52 the apostles Paul and the New Testament writers, they related 18:56 to Judaism, right, to the Old Testament as their mother. 19:01 Right, this is their mother, this is the thing that gave them 19:04 birth. 19:05 Where the church of the second, third, and fourth centuries 19:08 related to Judaism as their mother in law. 19:12 You see? 19:14 There is a relationship there, but it's not. 19:16 --If you're married, you should see that. 19:19 --So, and no offense to any mother in laws, but you get the 19:20 idea that basically, there's a big difference between...hey, I 19:25 have a really cool mother in law. 19:27 --Me, too. 19:28 --But you get the idea that there's a way that you relate to 19:30 your mom, she's your mom, she's the one that gave birth to you, 19:33 she's the one that was up with you when you were sick at night, 19:35 and then there's the mother in law, in the context of this 19:37 little quotation, someone that you don't really relate to, that 19:39 you're not really connected to, that's not really a part of your 19:42 family. 19:43 That's how some people would feel, and that's a great point, 19:46 because as that umbilical cord is being cut, right, in the sort 19:50 of, you can just think of a balloon, a helium balloon that's 19:53 drifting away. 19:54 What's drifting away is the Jewish heritage and roots and 19:57 stories and prophecies that makes the New Testament even 20:00 make sense. 20:01 --Which makes sense, so when Paul writes like the letter to 20:04 the Hebrews without that background, it would make sense, 20:07 right? 20:08 --So, increasingly post-apostolic Christianity 20:13 begins sensing or feeling a need for salvation or a kind of 20:20 salvation or salvation on a level that the bible is not 20:24 super aware of or focused on. 20:29 --So, you have to flesh that out a little bit. 20:31 --Yeah, because what you have taking place is, the question 20:36 is, how do I get out of trouble with God and into heaven? 20:40 --Now, that's clarity. 20:41 --How is it that I can have some kind of solution to the fact 20:49 that God is angry and have that resolved so that I can go to 20:55 heaven when I die, basically. 20:56 And that's not to say, by the way, that God isn't angry about 21:01 sin, it's not to say that there isn't heaven, it's not to say 21:04 that there isn't punishment for sin, and there isn't rewards, 21:07 but it's to say that there's a larger context and a picture and 21:13 a beautiful perspective on the liberation and salvation that 21:17 the bible is communicating that is inclusive of far more than 21:21 merely getting me out of trouble with God so that I can go to the 21:25 good place when I die. 21:26 --And how self-centered is that? 21:28 I was gonna say ethno-centered, but how personally-centered is 21:30 that? 21:31 That at the end of the day, the whole thing is about me and my 21:34 salvation and my personal internal experience with God, 21:37 etc it's not that that's not a part of it. 21:40 It's that that's, there's a larger story that's being told 21:43 here of God's love, not just for you, Ty, and not just for me, 21:46 David, but God's love, and not just for the Jews and not just 21:49 for the church, but God's love for the world, and Jesus in this 21:53 grand, overarching, his actions, his words, his healings, he's 21:58 sending the message, God loves people. 22:00 When he sat down with Nichodemus, Nichodemus, he 22:02 basically said, he encapsulated the whole thing, he's like, this 22:04 is what it's about. 22:06 For God so loved the world that he, and he tells the story. 22:08 Rather than, just man, I'm in trouble with God and, this is 22:11 actually a very primitive and pagan way of thinking about God. 22:15 --I think we've used the term... 22:17 --Yeah, we've used the term virgins and volcanos, right? 22:19 We gotta go find, you know, an innocent person to throw into 22:22 the volcano so that there'll be rain on our fields. 22:25 That's not the God of scripture. 22:26 --In our conversation here, we're trying to validate and to 22:30 include the idea that there is trouble and that there is 22:35 substitution. 22:37 There is a penal aspect to the whole thing, but then even that 22:40 can be framed in one of two ways. 22:42 Either it's framed in the light of the idea that there needs to 22:47 be a third party whipping boy, the virgin and the volcano so to 22:50 speak, a third party whipping boy that God vents on to get me 22:54 out of trouble, or... 22:55 --I'm really angry at you, but I'm gonna whip this guy and I'll 22:58 let you off the hook. 23:00 --Yeah, or we continue the trajectory that we've learned in 23:03 the Old Testament scriptures and we say no, no, no, God himself 23:06 is putting himself in the place of suffering on our behalf. 23:11 He's absorbing in himself the suffering, the guilt, the sin. 23:17 So, you have a two party view of the atonement, not a three party 23:22 view, not there's God, and there's man, and then there's a 23:25 third party whipping boy that God vents on for appeasement 23:27 purposes, but rather, you have man who has sinned and is 23:30 guilty, is guilty, we are in trouble. 23:33 We are guilty before God. 23:35 Is he legitimately angry about our sin? 23:38 He ought to be. 23:39 --Well, I'm angry about sin. 23:41 I see things that happen in the world and I'm like, what's going 23:43 on? 23:44 --But there's only two parties. 23:45 There's the sinner and then there's God, and the one that's 23:47 hanging on the cross, the one who's doing the suffering is 23:50 God. 23:52 He's exercising the most monumental level of self-control 23:56 rather than venting. 23:59 --You know, I gotta tell you kind of a funny story that kinda 24:01 sums up most of what we talked about here. 24:03 When I first became a Christian 30 years ago, I wasn't connected 24:06 to any denomination so to speak, I was raised Catholic, but I was 24:10 at work, and there was a guy that I worked with who had 24:13 become a born again Christian, and was witnessing to me, and it 24:17 was through his witnessing that I accepted Christ as my savior. 24:20 We were going to a nondenominational church, it was 24:22 really cool, and both of us were, you know, we were isolated 24:26 in our department. 24:27 Everyone else in our department, you know, they were basically 24:29 partiers, this, that, and the other, even our boss, and so it 24:33 was just us two, and when we would get together, we would 24:35 connect on a swing shift, I would work the late shift, he 24:37 was working the afternoon, the evening, and I was working the 24:39 evening to night. 24:40 And we connect together, and we would talk, you know, about, 24:44 first, when he first started, you know, became a Christian, I 24:46 didn't want anything to do with him, but after I became a 24:48 Christian, we just talked about Christ and different things, and 24:50 eventually, I was really getting into the whole bible, the whole 24:54 story, and reading it. 24:56 But, we got this bible game that we used to play. 24:59 It was a bible game, where you know, you answered questions and 25:03 you go around the board, and so we played that for a couple 25:06 hours in our off time when we were there. 25:08 So, we played this bible game and eventually it would come, 25:12 you'd have the New Testament questions, you have the Christ, 25:15 and then you'd have the Old Testament questions. 25:17 And we'd be moving through it and, you know, we're both new 25:18 Christians, and we get to the Old Testament questions, and 25:21 boom, I'd leap ahead. 25:22 And he couldn't answer, I'd answer every time. 25:24 And he got so frustrated, he would throw up his arms and say, 25:27 how come you know so much about the Old Testament? 25:29 You know, he was just that way. 25:31 And I would say, well, because, I'm reading it, and I'm studying 25:34 it, and it's just, it's great. 25:35 But he was of the mindset, you know, what are you doing the Old 25:39 Testament? 25:40 And you know, it was really interesting, because of the 25:44 nature of the competition, etc he started reading the 25:47 Old Testament. 25:48 [Laughter] 25:50 --Which is exactly what we're doing, and we're finding a lot 25:51 of light there. 25:52 --So, remind me never to play a bible trivia game with you. 25:56 --Okay, we have to take a break, and we'll come back and continue 26:00 this discussion, it's really fun. 26:02 --Amen. 26:04 [Music] 26:15 Want a seat at the table? 26:17 Well, you're certainly invited. 26:19 Visit our website at lightbearers.org. 26:22 In fact, you may wanna make it your homepage because we're 26:25 always adding something new to strengthen your relationship 26:28 with Jesus. 26:29 At lightbearers.org, you'll find thought-provoking blogs and 26:33 verse-by-verse bible studies on a variety of vital topics. 26:37 Our online resource 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donate using our convenient and secure web 27:47 page, and receive a tax deductible receipt. 27:50 We're here to serve and equip you in sharing your passion for 27:55 Christ and the global advancement of his benevolent 27:58 kingdom. 27:59 Lightbearers.org. 28:02 There's room at the Light Bearers table for you. 28:07 [Music] 28:17 --It seems like in that last session, we were really getting 28:20 into some deep theological points, but we didn't know 28:24 exactly how to explain them in the best possible way, but 28:27 that's the point of bible study. 28:29 The conversation is edifying, and we're growing in our 28:33 understanding of these things, but let's now continue drawing 28:38 the parallels with Jesus to ancient Israel into the gospels, 28:45 so we talked about the fact that Jesus gave the law in Mount 28:49 Saini, but something we haven't mentioned is that Jesus 28:52 replicated the 12, the number 12 is significant. 28:55 So, what's the significance of the number 12, both in Old 29:00 Testament history and in the New Testament history that's 29:05 unfolding now? 29:06 --Well, it's very clear in the context of the 12 tribes. 29:09 In the Old Testament history, you have the 12 sons of Jacob, 29:13 and those 12 tribes were the basis, the foundation for God's 29:17 kingdom people. 29:19 In fact, so much so, that they're actually brought into 29:21 the New Testament. 29:22 You see them in a couple of places in the book of 29:24 Revelation, New Testament book, you see them in Revelation 7, 29:27 the sealing of God's people, and you see them in Revelation 21 in 29:30 relation to the New Jerusalem. 29:33 It has 12 gates and 12 foundations and the 12 gates 29:36 have the name, one of the names of the 12 tribes all the way 29:39 around as well as the foundations have the names of 29:41 the apostles. 29:42 --So, the point here is that Jesus is not willy nilly 29:45 selecting 12 or 10 or 14 or whatever. 29:48 --He's following a pattern. 29:49 He's following a pattern, and it's interesting because when 29:52 Steven, who would've been the first martyr of the Christian 29:56 church, when he retells the story of Israel, I'm just gonna 29:59 read something here in Acts chapter 7, I think this in on 30:02 point with where we're going. 30:04 When he retells the story of Israel, he uses a word to 30:08 describe Israel in the Old Testament in Acts 7 and in verse 30:13 37, he says, this is that Moses who said to the children of 30:19 Israel, and then he quotes, the Lord your God will raise up for 30:23 you a prophet like me for your brethren, him you shall hear. 30:28 You know, that's a Messianic prophecy. 30:30 There would be another prophet sent to another people. 30:33 --Like Moses, Moses was the prophet of the Exodus. 30:36 --Of the Exodus, and Moses was the leader of this people 30:38 Israel, but here's my point in verse 38, this is he who was in 30:41 the... 30:43 --Wow, church. 30:44 --Now, your bible says church, the King James, the New King 30:48 James will say congregation, I like the word church better. 30:49 This is he who was in the church in the wilderness with the angel 30:54 who spoke to him on Mount Sinai with our fathers, the one who 30:58 received the living oracles to give to us, the law. 31:03 So, the point here is that, according to Steven, the first 31:06 Christian, the first martyr of the Christian church that the 31:09 Israel of the Old Testament was the church, that was the church, 31:13 so if Christ is coming to repeat, what did you say, 31:19 tracing the steps, to retrace the steps of Israel. 31:21 --To reenact. 31:22 --To reenact, it's curious that he calls 12 that become now, the 31:29 church. 31:30 --So, could you say that Jesus is founding a New Israel? 31:34 --Don't leave here, though, don't leave here. 31:37 Notice this next verse, to whom our fathers would not obey, but 31:40 thrust him from them. 31:43 Because that's exactly the same thing that happens to Christ. 31:46 He comes, they don't obey, they thrust him, they push him away. 31:50 In fact, in the very beginning of the gospels, they try to 31:54 throw him over a cliff, they won't listen to him, they thrust 31:56 him from them. 31:57 So, there's another parallel there. 31:58 --So, Jesus is the prophet of the Exodus, it's explicitly 32:04 there in Acts 7, Steven says that he's the new Moses, right? 32:08 But Jesus is not only the prophet of the Exodus, the 32:12 liberation, but he is also founding a new Israel by calling 32:16 the 12, but what do you think of this? 32:18 What is that New Israel end up including? 32:22 Because you had referenced the story of the centurion earlier. 32:26 I wanna call our attention to something in Matthew chapter 8, 32:29 the story of the centurion that we didn't even notice, because 32:33 Jesus is doing something downright scandalous. 32:37 He is inaugurating, he is launching a revolution. 32:41 Because here, you have this centurion, i.e., a gentile. 32:45 --An outsider. 32:47 --An outsider. 32:48 --A Roman soldier, no less. 32:49 --A Roman soldier, no less. 32:50 The enemy... 32:51 --Of the hated, of the hated people. 32:53 --Okay, so this centurion comes to Jesus and he has a problem. 32:58 My servant is at home sick with the palsy and Jesus is 33:04 approached by this centurion, will you come and heal him? 33:06 Okay, we told that part of the story. 33:08 Jesus does the healing, but here's the scandalous part, 33:11 Jesus then points to this Roman centurion, this gentile, and he 33:17 says to national Israel, to biological Israel, he says, I 33:22 have not found such great faith, no not in Israel. 33:27 Verse 10 of chapter 8 of Matthew. 33:29 I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. 33:33 But that's not the end of the scandal. 33:34 Right there, they're just, their mouths are gaping open and 33:37 they're just blown away. 33:38 What in the world are you talking about? 33:40 but then, you guys, look at verse 11, Jesus encompasses the 33:44 whole world in the embrace of the gospel here, he says, and I 33:48 say to you, that many will come from the east and the west and 33:55 sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of 33:59 heaven. 34:00 Isn't that incredible? 34:01 So, what's the east and the west? 34:03 Well, this is Old Testament speak for the outlying area of 34:10 beyond Israel, right? 34:11 --The whole world. 34:12 --It's east and west of Israel. 34:13 --It's east and west of Israel specifically, and Jesus is 34:15 saying, yeah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they'll be, as it 34:19 were, they're under the tree of life. 34:22 But who's going to be there with them, fellowshipping with 34:25 Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? 34:27 The gentile nations will be there as well. 34:31 Now, watch this, you just come right over to Galatians chapter 34:34 3 and verse 29 and Paul fills in a little bit more language here, 34:39 he says, if you are Christ's, if you're in Christ, if you belong 34:43 to Christ, if you've identified with the New Israel, in other 34:47 words, Jesus Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs 34:51 according to the promise. 34:53 So, who is New Israel? 34:55 Jesus calls out the 12 apostles, he's inaugurating a New Israel 35:03 with those apostles, and then he's reaching out and he's 35:05 taking in the whole world to be a part of Israel. 35:09 --Anyone who has the faith of Father Abraham. 35:11 --And anyone who identifies with Christ is a part of New Israel. 35:17 --That's still part of the story, because when we looked at 35:19 Matthew chapter 1, we know that the Gentiles were included in 35:22 that lineage. 35:23 --I understand what you're saying and it's a great point, 35:26 about the New Israel, and we're saying that to demarcate between 35:30 what Jesus is doing with the calling of the 12 and the 35:33 national Israel up to that point. 35:35 But in a very significant sense, this is not, this is Israel. 35:39 --This is Israel, it's what God intended all along. 35:41 --And I understand that linguistically, we have to make 35:45 the distinction so we understand what we're talking about, but 35:48 just so that those of us that are listening in outside of the 35:51 conversation, this is not a new thing that God is doing in the 35:54 sense that, oh, you know, that didn't work out, let's come up 35:57 with something. 35:58 No, this is the thing all along, in fact, I wanted to do this 36:00 about 4 programs ago, and I can read really fast, so let me just 36:04 read this from Isaiah 56, just listen to this, I'll just start 36:09 in verse 3, do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined 36:12 himself to the Lord say, the Lord has utterly separated me 36:15 from him people. 36:17 Don't let the eunuch say, I am but a dry tree, for thus says 36:19 the Lord, the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath and choose what 36:22 pleases me and hold fast my covenant, even to them, I will 36:26 give in my house and within my walls, a place and a name, 36:31 better than that of the sons and the daughters, I will give them 36:34 an everlasting name that will never be cut off. 36:37 Also, the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord 36:40 to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his 36:42 servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and 36:45 holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy 36:49 mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer, their 36:52 burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on 36:55 my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all 36:59 nations. 37:00 The Lord God who gathers the outcast of Israel says, yet, I 37:03 will gather to him others besides those who are gathered 37:06 to him. 37:07 This is, that's what Jesus is doing. 37:10 In Matthew 8, when Jesus, rather than chopping the head of the 37:14 centurion off, which would've been the expectation, if you go 37:17 back and read about the Messiahs in second temple Judaism, the 37:21 messiahs that were believed to be messiahs, leading up to the 37:25 time of Jesus, and even the people that claimed to be 37:27 messiahs after the time of Jesus, I mean, Jesus was not one 37:29 messiah figure. 37:31 There were dozens and dozens and dozens of messiah figures, some 37:34 made larger impact, and others smaller impact, but the 37:36 expectation was always the same, the messiah will come and he 37:40 will establish Israel, he will cleanse the temple, or rebuild 37:45 it, whatever the case needed to be, and he will give the nations 37:48 a good whacking. 37:50 --What you just said about cleansing the temple. 37:51 When you were reading that, that reminded me of what Jesus does 37:54 when he starts his ministry. 37:56 Because he does it twice, but he does at the beginning, but when 37:58 he cleanses the temple as is the expectation of the Messiah, he 38:01 goes in and cleanses the temple and then what does he say? 38:03 He said, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all 38:09 people. 38:10 He's quoting Isaiah 56. 38:11 He says, my house shall be, you've made it a den of thieves, 38:13 but my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. 38:15 Yes. 38:16 So, it's not a new thing, it is a continuation, as you're 38:19 saying. 38:21 --The thing that Jesus cleanses the temple from, and here's the 38:23 remarkable thing, is not as in, oh, sort of the period of about 38:26 200 years before when Antiochus epiphanies was offering pigs in 38:31 the temple and that needed to be cleansed of pagans. 38:33 Who is Jesus cleansing the temple of? 38:35 Jews who had misunderstood their own faith and their own 38:39 religion, which is why when he's done, they are like, 38:41 incredulous. 38:42 Who gives you the authority? 38:44 Who do you think you are? 38:45 And then Jesus sets himself in radical juxtaposition to the 38:49 temple, he says, you destroy this temple, and in 3 days I'll 38:52 raise it up. 38:53 --In other words, I am the temple. 38:54 --It took us 46 years to build this. 38:57 And then he's like, you'll see. 38:59 You will see. 39:01 So, that thing you're quoting there of the centurion, Jesus 39:05 didn't come to chop the heads of the Romans off, he came to save 39:08 the Romans as well, they're just picking their jaws up off the 39:12 ground at every turn. 39:13 I mean, remember the story, just very quickly, don't forget that, 39:16 when Jesus is talking to this woman at the well, this 39:19 Samaritan woman, when the disciples showed up, they're 39:21 like, what's he doing? 39:23 Why's he talking to her? 39:24 --Doesn't he know he's not supposed to talk to her? 39:27 --But here's the incredible thing that I don't wanna lose 39:31 sight of because, and all of that is just so, my mind is just 39:36 spinning on this, but back to the centurion and Jesus says, 39:39 many will come from the east and the west, even in modern 39:42 Christianity, we're not as inclusive in our perspective of 39:48 who God is interested in and who he's embracing because, check 39:52 this out, when Jesus says, many will come from the east and the 39:56 west, this is going back to prophecies in the Old Testament, 39:59 you took us to chapter 56 of Isaiah, but have you ever seen 40:03 this in Isaiah 49? 40:06 Isaiah 49 says, verse 1, listen, oh coast lands, to me, coast 40:11 lands, that is outside of Israel, listen to me and take 40:15 heed, you peoples from afar, alright? 40:18 People from afar, outside of Israel. 40:20 But then skip all the way down to verse 12 and we see here that 40:24 the messiah is the messiah for not only Israel, but watch this, 40:28 surely these shall come from afar, look, those from the north 40:33 and the west, Jesus says east and the west, and those from the 40:37 north and the west and these from the land of Senem. 40:40 What is the land of Senem. 40:43 Well, the land of Senem is a direct reference to China or to 40:47 Asia, yeah, the far east from Israel. 40:51 Senem, even in modern language, sinology is the study of things 40:56 Chinese. 40:58 American and seno talks is political conversations between 41:03 America and China. 41:05 Senem is China. 41:07 We have here in the Old Testament, God has a big vision 41:09 and he's had that vision all along. 41:12 When we get into the kingdom, as Jesus said, and we are just 41:16 kicking back under the tree of life with Abraham, Isaac, and 41:19 Jacob, there are gonna be people from every nation, kindred 41:23 tongue, and people there, I mean, seriously, if we look back 41:28 in history, there are countless people in areas of the world, 41:32 nations of the world, outside of Israel, and even to this day, 41:37 outside of Christianity, who never heard the name of Christ 41:41 per se, and yet, at the same time, Jesus is explicitly 41:45 stating, there will be many people from every culture and 41:49 nation in the world in the kingdom. 41:52 Well, how in the world did they get there? 41:54 They got there not because there are two ways of salvation, Jesus 41:57 is the only savior, but he saves people in ways that we never 42:03 imagined or dreamed of. 42:05 --And when he's born, those are the type of people that come, 42:07 the wise men from the east. 42:09 And when everybody else missed the point, the people who got it 42:14 were the people who were coming from far away. 42:17 --When you go back and you look at that text, that's an awesome 42:19 point that you brought up. 42:20 When you look at that text, it says that when the wise men went 42:23 to Herrod and said, hey, we're looking for this, there's a sign 42:26 in the east. 42:27 You know what it actually says, the text says, I don't know if 42:28 it's Matthew, Mark, or Luke, it says, when Herrod heard this, it 42:31 said, Herrod and all Israel was troubled. 42:35 Like, who are these people coming from outside telling us 42:38 about the arrival of our messiah? 42:41 This gets back to the thing that James brought up, it was either 42:43 last conversation or the one before, and I loved it. 42:46 He said, when he was a Catholic, it was Catholics and 42:49 non-Catholics. 42:50 When he was a Protestant, it was Protestants and others, when he 42:52 was an Adventist, it was Adventists and nons. 42:54 Jesus did not reinforce the national prejudices of his... 43:00 --Countrymen. 43:02 --That's right, he was actually, and point after point, tearing 43:06 down those walls, tearing down, until eventually, and this is 43:09 skipping ahead, when the spirit is poured out in the book of 43:12 Acts, Acts chapter 2, and the Holy Spirit is poured out, you 43:16 see here an actual reverse of the fragmenting of the nations 43:22 that took place back in Genesis 11, where the nations are 43:25 dispersed because of linguistic separation, in Acts 2, when the 43:29 Holy Spirit's poured out, the languages are coming back and 43:31 it's because of Jesus, and here's the crucial point, they 43:34 were going to make a name for themselves, and God said, no, 43:38 we'll spread that. 43:39 That's Genesis 11, but when God brings them back together, the 43:42 linguistic bringing back together, not just of Jew, but 43:45 eventually even of gentile as well, it's to make a name for 43:47 God. 43:49 --Here's a beautiful prophecy to kinda tie this off before the 43:52 break, in Zachariah chapter 13 verse 6, you have this picture 43:56 of people who are asking Jesus a very interesting question in the 44:03 kingdom, what are these wounds in your hands? 44:05 I mean, think about that. 44:06 You and I will never ask Jesus, hey, why do you have wounds in 44:10 your hands? 44:11 Why? 44:12 Because we know the story, we're post-Christ, we know the story 44:14 of Calvary, we see the scars in his hands and we know why 44:17 they're there, but there will literally be people there who 44:20 have to ask the question, hey, what happened? 44:23 Why the wounds? 44:25 And Jesus, for the first time, in the kingdom, will tell those 44:30 people, well, actually, I'm the one that was nudging and wooing 44:34 and pursuing you heart all along, I'm Jesus and I died for 44:39 you. 44:40 You died for me? 44:41 And Jesus will tell people the story of redemption for the 44:46 first time in the kingdom, but the amazing thing is, they're 44:51 there. 44:52 They're in the kingdom. 44:53 God's embrace of the human race is so massive, he's interested 44:59 in all. 45:00 We have to take a break, but this is exciting stuff. 45:03 This paints a picture of God that is so beautiful and 45:06 irresistible, that as Jesus said, all will be drawn to him. 45:11 So, let's just take a break. 45:13 [Music] 45:20 Truth is not merely a list of theological facts, but rather 45:23 the revelation of God's beautiful love in Jesus Christ. 45:27 Truth Link is a series of bible study guides that magnify God's 45:31 love as the center of every bible doctrine. 45:34 To receive your free copy of lesson one, call 877-585-1111, 45:41 or write to Light Bearers 37457 Jasper Lowell Road, Jasper, 45:46 Oregon 97438. 45:48 Once again, to receive your free copy of Truth Link, lesson one, 45:53 call 877-585-1111, or write to Light Bearers 37457 Jasper 46:00 Lowell Road, Jasper, Oregon 97438. 46:05 [Music] 46:11 --So, continuing the story line, this is pretty exciting what 46:15 we're learning, and of course, as is the nature of a 46:17 conversation, we're kinda all excited and here and there and 46:20 everywhere but a beautiful picture is emerging. 46:24 Jesus is forming a New Israel and then we kinda wanted to 46:27 correct our language, this is not in the strictest sense a New 46:32 Israel, this is Israel as God always intended Israel to be. 46:35 --The original plan is actually happening. 46:37 --The original plan is to include all of humanity, or all 46:41 who will by faith, be a part of this New Israel. 46:45 --Or at least to invite all humanity. 46:46 --Invite all humanity, if you are Christ, Paul says, you are 46:50 Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. 46:52 And that includes the centurion, that includes Gentiles, that 46:55 includes anybody who, by faith, wants to identify with Christ. 46:59 --You know what's so interesting, we've spent a lot 47:00 of time in this centurion story, but I think that's because it's 47:02 so representative of what Jesus is doing in his ministry, and I 47:05 love the fact that when Jesus says that people will come from 47:09 the east and the west, he very purposefully and intentionally 47:12 says, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 47:16 The very ones with, by whom God identified himself in the Old 47:20 Testament. 47:21 I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 47:23 In other words, what he's doing is he's sending a message to the 47:26 people who identified, they thought they identified with the 47:28 story, with the history, with the legacy of Abraham, Isaac, 47:31 and Jacob, and he's like, look, this is not an exclusivity. 47:33 This is a broad, universal, God is doing something bigger, and 47:40 he was always doing it through Abraham. 47:41 --Wow, he's literally saying that the story of Abraham, 47:45 Isaac, and Jacob is the story of all humanity. 47:49 That story belongs to everybody. 47:52 --Remember, because God's original covenantal promise to 47:55 Abraham was, Abraham, we're gonna get you back the land that 47:58 was lost in Eden, and I'll give you people to fill it. 48:02 The same thing he said to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and 48:04 multiply. 48:05 Same thing he said to Noah, be fruitful and multiply. 48:06 He says to them, you'll get the land and you'll fill it with 48:09 people. 48:10 In fact, all the families of the earth will be blessed. 48:12 But that universality was lost for a variety of reasons we've 48:15 not fully developed, that's beside the point. 48:17 When we come to the New Testament, there's this sense of 48:20 isolationism, social purity, ritual purity, ceremonial 48:24 purity, just we're gonna be sort of cloistered away here, and 48:27 Jesus just starts to, he's not washing his hands at the right 48:30 time, he's touching lepers. 48:31 What is he doing? 48:32 --And by referencing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he's even 48:35 telling them, you missed, you lost the plot. 48:37 --That's right, you missed your own story. 48:40 --Your own ancestors, your own heritage, you've missed it. 48:44 --And when we come to the book of Revelation, the whole world, 48:48 planet earth, is redeemed, the land is returned, and there's 48:52 only one city. 48:53 Is Jerusalem is the one city, and check this out, every 48:57 nation, kindred, and tongue and people of those who are redeemed 49:00 are a part of Israel. 49:03 Everybody ultimately, this just dawned on me, everybody, 49:06 ultimately, is a part of one of the 12 tribes that are named in 49:10 Revelation. 49:11 --Yeah, that's why the phrase, every nation, kindred, tongue, 49:13 and people is a radical, revolutionary statement for any 49:15 fundamentalist. 49:17 It's radical. 49:18 --Okay, say that all again, that was a lot of syllables. 49:19 --The phrase, every nation, kindred, tongue, and people is 49:22 purposefully put in the book of Revelation because it's a 49:24 radical statement for any fundamentalist. 49:27 Anyone who believes we're the group, no, we're the group, no, 49:30 we're the group, no, it's our group. 49:32 That phrase, used over and over again, every nation, kindred, 49:34 tongue, we just take it for granted, oh, every nation, 49:37 kindred, tongue, and people. 49:38 No, that's a radical revolutionary statement. 49:40 --You know, that's interesting because when I would read that, 49:41 you referenced Revelation and how the names of the tribes... 49:44 --And the names of the apostles. 49:47 --Specifically with the tribes, I would often think, man, we're 49:50 back to that? 49:52 Like, what, the Jesus thing, like, he came and then the door 49:56 swung open and then the Gentiles, like, I'm a gentile, 49:58 why are we back to that? 50:00 And then you realize you want those names there because, from 50:03 the beginning, those names represented me, those names 50:08 represented the whole human race. 50:10 So, we're not back to, we're not back to any of that, it was 50:13 never really there. 50:14 It was always inclusive. 50:16 --Every person who enters the city New Jerusalem, enters the 50:20 city through one of the 12 gates over one of the 12 foundations 50:23 and therefore is identified with Israel and identified as Israel. 50:28 --That's why Paul, when the church is scattered abroad, I 50:31 shouldn't say Paul, I should say James, that's why when this 50:34 church is scattered abroad, James writes this epistle and he 50:37 says to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. 50:39 --Oh, wait a minute, what is that? 50:41 --James 1. 50:42 --Twelve tribes scattered abroad. 50:44 --So he's addressing... 50:45 --The church as the New Testament church, the New 50:47 Testament church. 50:48 --Wow, that's something. 50:51 --One of the things that we have talked not a lot about, but is 50:54 always a part of what Jesus is doing in the gospels is healing. 50:58 I've heard it said, I don't know if it's precisely mathematically 51:02 correct, but for every, every time we see Jesus preaching, 51:04 he's healing at least twice. 51:06 In other words, healing is a huge part of what Jesus is 51:09 doing. 51:10 --He did more healing than preaching. 51:11 --That's a simpler way to say it. 51:12 And when Mark introduces, we've spent a lot of time in Matthew, 51:15 sometime in John, when Mark introduces the healing ministry 51:18 of Jesus, he sets the tone for what all of Jesus's healings 51:23 ultimately meant or stood for. 51:25 They weren't just magic tricks, they weren't just, you know, 51:29 watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat or saw a woman in two kind 51:32 of a thing, no, there's something going on here. 51:34 The opposite, unsaw. 51:36 --I had this visual. 51:38 --Sorry about that, I shouldn't have said all that. 51:39 In Mark chapter 2, Jesus has the audacity to say, in verse 5, to 51:46 a person, son, your sins are forgiven. 51:51 --You're in chapter 2 of Mark what? 51:53 --Mark 2:5. 51:54 Jesus says, your sins are forgiven. 51:56 And some of the scribes were sitting there and they were 51:58 reasoning in their hearts and they're like, why does this man 52:00 speak blasphemies like this, who can forgive sins but God alone? 52:04 Jesus discerns. 52:05 Immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that 52:08 they reasoned thus within themselves, he said to them, why 52:09 are you thinking about these things in your hearts? 52:13 Or why do you reason this way? 52:14 What's easier to say to the paralytic? 52:16 Your sins are forgiven you? 52:18 Or to say, arise, take up your bed and walk? 52:20 And then he says, here's the key, verse 10, but you may know 52:23 that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, that is, 52:26 to bring restoration, so that you know that I can lead this 52:31 New Exodus out of sin and out of death. 52:33 He said to the paralytic, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, 52:37 and go to your house. 52:38 Immediately, he arose, took up his bed and went out in the 52:42 presence of them all, so that they were all amazed and 52:44 glorified God, saying, we've never seen anything like this. 52:47 So, not only was Jesus talking in a way that no one had ever 52:50 heard, he was healing and doing things that no one had ever 52:53 seen. 52:54 But these healings, again, were not just, like, to try and gain 52:55 popularity or to get a following, they were always, in 52:58 fact, sometimes when Jesus would heal, he would say, let's just 53:00 keep this between us. 53:01 Just between us. 53:02 He is saying, among other things, what I'm doing here to 53:06 your physical person is a much easier thing than the thing I 53:11 really wanna do, and that's the healing of your... 53:14 --So, there's a direct parallel between, he's saying there's a 53:16 parallel between the healing of your body and the healing of 53:20 your soul, there's a parallel between in the exact language 53:23 here, the healing of your body and forgiveness. 53:25 --That's right. 53:26 --Especially in the mindset of the Jews, because in the mindset 53:28 of the Jews, if you were sick, if you were afflicted with some 53:31 kind of a disease, you were under the condemnation of God, 53:34 you were under the direct condemnation of God. 53:37 --Something was wrong. 53:38 --You had sinned. 53:39 You had spiritual, you know, disease. 53:44 --That's right, leprosy. 53:45 --And therefore, you had this physical disease. 53:47 The physical disease, which is an indication of the spiritual 53:49 disease. 53:50 --You know, when you read the story, a couple of things 53:52 occurred to me, number one, we've been developing this idea 53:55 of covenant, covenant. 53:58 All through scripture, beginning in Genesis, all the way through, 54:00 and we mentioned the fact that the idea of covenant, the reason 54:05 God continually references previous actions, previous 54:11 deliverances to Exodus and things like that, the promises 54:14 made to Abraham, is because the people are to take him seriously 54:18 on the basis of what he's already done in the past. 54:21 So, just follow me with this, his words illicit confidence 54:28 because they're backed up by action, right? 54:31 --Say it again, say it again. 54:32 --So, his words illicit confidence in the listener, in 54:36 the people, because his words are backed up by actions. 54:39 So, here in this story, what he's essentially saying is, you 54:45 can have confidence in my saying your sins are forgiven you 54:48 because, check this out, I'm gonna back up my word with 54:52 action. 54:53 Now, here's the interesting thing. 54:54 --The action is healing. 54:55 --Of course, but you can't see somebody's sins being forgiven. 55:00 Like, I can tell you guys, I can go up to James and say, James, 55:03 my brother, I forgive your sins, it's done. 55:08 You can't prove the fact that I didn't just do that. 55:11 You can't falsify that because no one can observe his sins 55:15 being forgiven, so what Christ is doing is he's giving us 55:17 something physical, tangible, observable in order to back up 55:21 what you can't see. 55:23 What is not observable, right? 55:25 And I just love that whole thing, he's giving us actions by 55:28 which to back up his words. 55:30 --Powerful, powerful point. 55:32 --Jesus actually says that, in John chapter 14, he says, 55:34 believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, 55:39 and then he says, or else... 55:40 --Believe my actions. 55:43 --Believe the actions, believe me for my work sake. 55:45 If you're struggling, that's your point. 55:46 You can see what I'm doing. 55:48 --I love this in the context of the cleansing of the 10 lepers 55:53 because there are actually 2 different words that are used 55:56 there. 55:57 When Jesus cleanses the lepers, he cleanses them physically, all 56:02 10 of them are cleansed, and that is the demonstration of 56:05 what God can do for us, sozo what he can do for us in the 56:08 whole man. 56:10 And it's interesting because it says that the 10 go, they're 56:13 cleansed, and one of them comes back and the one that comes 56:16 back, by the way, interestingly, David, is a Samaritan, because 56:19 Jesus actually says that, he says, is this the only one? 56:23 And then he says, to the Samaritan he says, go your way, 56:28 you're made whole. 56:32 Sozo, not cleansed, it's a different word. 56:34 In other words, he came back to glorify God and the revelation 56:39 of that response indicates that he's not only been cleansed, but 56:44 he's been made whole, which is the ultimate. 56:47 --That's salvation. 56:48 --Yeah, that's the goal. 56:49 --And that gets back to something Ty mentioned about the 56:51 point, I think we've all mentioned it, actually, that God 56:54 is not just out to rescue our spirit, whatever that even 56:57 means, you know, to take, to get rid of this old body and this 57:00 old earth and just get us to some, you know, where we're 57:03 floating on clouds with little beady eyes, I don't know. 57:05 --Beady eyes. 57:06 --We are social, physical, emotional, you know, we are 57:13 mental beings, and what God wants to heal is the person, the 57:17 whole person. 57:18 What you got? 57:19 --When he heals somebody physically, in that society and 57:23 culture, he has healed them emotionally and socially because 57:26 these people with illnesses, particularly lepers, were cast 57:30 out of society. 57:31 Socially messed up. 57:32 When you're cast out of society, you are emotionally messed up, 57:36 it has an effect on you. 57:37 --That's a sermon right there. 57:39 --So, by Christ, that is a sermon, don't take that, none of 57:41 y'all, don't take that. 57:42 I'm taking that. 57:46 --But, no, that's a great point, you opened with the parable of 57:50 Jesus, you opened with the parable of Jesus making the 57:53 water into wine. 57:54 In addition to all the theological implications and the 57:57 covenant and all that, what Jesus is doing is, he's meeting 57:59 a social need there. 58:00 There is an actual simple social need. 58:02 Hey, they need some food. 58:04 And that's another instance. 58:06 Hey, we need some food, hey we need some wine, the party is, so 58:08 he does that. 58:10 In other words, Jesus was not just this walking around, 58:12 floating on clouds and not in touch with people, he's 58:16 accessible, he's real, even the kids want access. 58:19 There's something about this guy, he's beautiful. 58:22 --So beautiful. 58:23 Jesus is not preaching an evacuation theology, so to 58:27 speak. 58:29 --The fire escape theology. 58:30 --Yeah, he's preaching a present-tense here and now 58:34 deliverance healing, wholeness, a present kingdom. 58:39 --Today, this scripture's fulfilled. 58:41 --The kingdom of God is within you. 58:44 --The kingdom of God is at hand. 58:45 It's right here, you're seeing it in living action, you're 58:48 seeing it in motion. 58:50 So, what we're discovering is that Jesus is the prophet of the 58:54 New Exodus and Jesus is the New Israel, but the New Israel is 59:01 the Israel that God intended all along and it's inclusive of the 59:07 whole human race, all who will, anyone who's of thirst count. 59:10 --Amen. 59:11 --Hallelujah. 59:12 --Praise his name. 59:13 [Music] |
Revised 2014-12-17