What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead. Only one man has risen from a grave never again to taste death. Jesus Christ died, was buried, remained in the grave for 3 days, then was raised to life again.
Jesus is unique. He is the only one proven to be the Son of God because God validated His Kingship and accepted His payment for our sins all with one incredible stroke: He raised Jesus from the dead!
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this evidence about who Jesus is:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
Because Jesus Christ is very much alive, five things are true right now that wouldn’t be true if He were just another dead religious leader like Confucius, Mohammed or Buddha.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive…Prayers are answered, We can talk to Jesus 24/7
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Nobody wants to get in a line. And the coach says, OK, now put your arm at a 90 degree angle, put your respect, get three fingers spread on the ball.
Nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants to learn the principles behind a three man weave this one to play.
But we all understand that that sort of stuff is foundational to becoming an effective player. Similarly, you can have fun studying the Bible from scratch. You can pick it up, you can read it, and you'll be blessed, you will grow in your relationship with the Lord. Absolutely. But if you want to study the scripture at a deeper level than you're going to need to wrestle with some of the types of issues that we're going to look at today.
So let's start by talking about a few key principles for studying scripture. These are not exhaustive. They're just a few that are going to help us with this and many other texts. Firstly, as you study the Bible, you're going to encounter.
Scripture that you cannot understand at first reading or find offensive, can you say amen to that, that it just happens, right? It happens.
And when it does, I want to encourage you to do this as a habit.
I have a journal, a spiritual journal of some kind. Write down the verses in question, write down the date, write down your issues and your questions and your concerns, and then pray about it.
Pray about it. Ask the Lord to lead you to an answer, then read some good Bible commentaries, listen to some different preachers, preach on that text.
And you know what? God will lead you to an answer. It may be days, it may take decades, but I can promise you he will be faithful to give you peace about the issue one way or another. And when you find that peace, when you find that answer, you'll be able to go back in that journal and write the date that the issue became settled for you.
And you will be so blessed as over time you build this journal that tracks God's faithfulness in answering your questions about scripture.
Now, why don't we just give up when we encounter something in scripture that we don't fully understand? Because there's more than enough that we do understand, and the part that we do understand clearly reveals to us a loving and good heavenly father. And so where we don't yet understand. We have faith in the goodness of God.
That one day we will we fill that gap between the question and the answer with faith, because we know enough, we know the character of our heavenly father, let me tell you something about the truth.
The truth can handle your questions. Do you know that the truth can handle your questions when something is genuinely true, it can hold up to scrutiny. And this is why it's so dangerous that as a culture, we're starting to exhibit this belief that conversation and questions should just be shut down and questioning should be forbidden when it comes to certain topics. This is true. We've established it. No more questions. Let me say it again.
The truth never needs to be protected from questions because it has nothing to fear from questions. Listen, we don't need to ban people from suggesting that the earth is flat. We need to do a better job of sharing why it is that we really, really sure that the earth is round, that's what we need to do.
The solution is not shutting down questions. The solution is providing better, clearer answers and evidence. It's laziness or at worst, cowardice to just say, no, we're shutting down the questions.
Jesus doesn't need to be shielded from our questions and his word.
The Bible does not need to be shielded from our questions. The more you question the truth, in fact, the more clearly it reveals itself to be the truth.
And our job is not just to question the truth, but to pursue the truth. Please understand the difference.
I hear people all the time who say, Oh, I'm a spiritual seeker. I just have all these questions. Well, what are you doing to actually look for the answers?
Because sometimes we're just throwing out questions so that we don't actually have to commit or respond in any way to the evidence. Will I have this question? I have these doubts. Have you pursued answers in any way?
Well, not really. Well, enough, you know this, but the term seeker implies action, it implies that you're actively looking, you're not really a seeker, you're more of a sinner if you're not doing anything.
I'm a spiritual sinner.
What does that mean? Well, I have questions and doubts, but I just don't do anything with them. I'm a spiritual sinner. Copyright 2020. Geoff Thompson. And our job is to pursue the truth.
So write this down. Record your questions and issues. Pray and seek the answer. Record your questions and issues. Pray and seek the answer.
Second, spiritual principle. You know, when we talk to somebody, when we read something, we always begin with the assumption of literalism. If I ask you, are you going to church tonight? Your first response is not going to be based on the assumption that I'm speaking metaphorically to you because there's no reason to make that assumption right.
You're going to assume that I'm asking you as a human being with a body if you're physically going to the gathering of the church this evening.
Now, if I said, oh, it's so beautiful outside right now, I feel like I'm in church, you wouldn't say, I don't understand.
I don't see any walls. There's no worship team. We're not in a. You wouldn't say that. You wouldn't take what I said literally, because I use the word like and I told you by doing that that I was not speaking literally.
But in everyday conversation, we always begin with the assumption that we're speaking literally and then we change our interpretation if there's a good reason to do so. And so we approach the biblical text the same way we approach the biblical text the same way. And let me say this. It's too difficult to understand is not a good reason to not take the text literally. Well, it just seems unbelievable to me.
I don't believe in miracles. So if this is about a miracle, then it can't be speaking literally. It's not a good reason or you know what I find a literal interpretation. It's going to embarrass me in front of my friends.
If I say I actually believe in the flood and the plagues of Egypt and all that stuff, your embarrassment is not a good reason to not adopt a literal interpretation.
Our ego and our level of knowledge should not determine when the word of God is and is not speaking literally. So write this down. We begin by taking the biblical text literally and change our approach if there is a compelling reason to do so, if there's a compelling reason to do so, that's the second principle.
The third principle is already on your outlines, the primary meaning of a text.
Any part of scripture in the Bible is determined by the person who wrote it, their intended audience and the historical cultural context of the time it was written. So if you want to understand the main meaning of a biblical passage, you got to understand who's writing it, who are they writing it to, where are they living and when are they living?
You got to understand those things to really understand what it means. And many biblical passages, let me say, have secondary meanings and even tertiary meanings. But those cannot be entertain
I don't believe in miracles. So if this is about a miracle, then it can't be speaking literally. It's not a good reason or you know what I find a literal interpretation. It's going to embarrass me in front of my friends.
If I say I actually believe in the flood and the plagues of Egypt and all that stuff, your embarrassment is not a good reason to not adopt a literal interpretation.
Our ego and our level of knowledge should not determine when the word of God is and is not speaking literally. So write this down. We begin by taking the biblical text literally and change our approach if there is a compelling reason to do so, if there's a compelling reason to do so, that's the second principle.
The third principle is already on your outlines, the primary meaning of a text.
Any part of scripture in the Bible is determined by the person who wrote it, their intended audience, and the historical cultural context of the time it was written. So if you want to understand the main meaning of a biblical passage, you got to understand who's writing it, who are they writing it to, where are they living, and when are they living?
You got to understand those things to really understand what it means. And many biblical passages, let me say, have secondary meanings and even tertiary meanings. But those cannot be entertained or explored until the primary meaning is first established.
And this requires a much greater level of humility than most of us realize at first, because if we take Exodus as an example, none of us are experts on ancient Near Eastern anthropology or archaeology.
I play one on TV on Sunday nights at five, but I am not an expert on ancient Near Eastern anthropology or archaeology. We have not studied the oldest Torah manuscripts in the original Hebrew. Even though I've been studying this text all week and reading materials, I'm only scratching the surface of what we know about it and how much there is to know.
And so with that in mind, how arrogant would it be for any of us to say, if I can't understand any of these verse is in Exodus after reading it once, then I'm not going to believe it.
Right, that would be like me trying to build a house from scratch, inevitably failing in the first 10 minutes and saying, well, it can't be done. It's impossible to build a house.
Is it? No, of course not. What's the problem? The problem is I don't have the skills or the knowledge required for the task, so I need to acquire the skills or knowledge or I got to get some people involved in the process who have the skills and knowledge.
But wouldn't I be a fool to essentially elevate myself so highly that I declare if I can't do it, it can't be done?
If I can't understand this verse, it's incomprehensible and therefore cannot be speaking literally why I am the smartest human being alive, I am the gold standard of biblical hermeneutics.
Come on now. Come on. Now, as I said earlier, there's enough that we can learn from scripture, all of us right now to reveal to us that we have a loving and good heavenly father.
And when we understand that we're able to keep faith in those areas of scripture that we don't yet fully understand.
Now, I'm going to share a couple of different views on the Book of the Covenant and I'll share which view I subscribe to personally. But you don't have to agree with me.
As always, I encourage you not to believe anything I say simply because you hear me saying it. Do your own research, do your own study, come to your own conclusions, pursue the truth actively.
Now, the first view holds that the Book of the Covenant was not recorded by Moses at Mount Sinai, but is rather a compilation of case laws that document rulings made by judges in Israel decades after Israel's time at Mount Sinai.
These are men who love God and ask really important questions and believe in the authority of scripture.
And here's why some of them hold this view. Firstly, many of the laws in the Book of the Covenant only apply to a settled community.
And what I mean by that is a community that's built homes, they've planted fields, they've engaged in domesticated livestock farming. Additionally, it includes commands on how to deal with slaves. Does Israel have any slaves at Mount Sinai right now? No, because just a few weeks ago, they were all slaves write the Book of the Covenant addresses a context that Israel is not in at this time, at this point in their journey, their wandering in the wilderness.
And they're going to be doing that for almost another 40 years.
And by the way, this entire generation of Israelites who came out of Egypt is going to die before they enter the promised land.
Their children are going to go into the promised land with Joshua and they'll still have to conquer the promised land before they settle.
And so many scholars will say, listen, it makes no sense that God is laying out all of these laws at Mount Sinai when pretty much all of those who are hearing these laws are going to be dead before they get into the promised land, which, by the way, is still decades away.
They'll point out that Moses is going to die. He's not going to enter the promised land.
Therefore, they'll say it cannot be Moses who recorded the Book of the Covenant and it cannot have happened at Mount Sinai. Tension plus one, I could feel it. Now, scholars also note that the commands in the Book of the Covenant seem to be incredibly specific. The Ten Commandments, they're broad laws that encompass all of life and they could be applied at any place in any time.
The Book of the Covenant deals with incredibly specific scenarios that seem bound to a specific part of the world at a specific time in history.
And there's no moral code that could possibly encompass every potential scenario a person and community could face.
And the Book of the Covenant doesn't cover every possible scenario, which makes scholars ask the obvious question, well, why these specific scenarios?
Why not others? And when you read through it, the commands can be seemingly very random, leaping sequentially from issues like executing a sorceress to not charging interest on loans back to back.
Seems a little random tension up another notch. Thirdly, some of these commands bear a striking resemblance to commands that appear in other contemporaneous.
That means, at the same time in history, ancient Near Eastern moral codes such as the Code of Hammurabi and the Mesopotamian lore codes of Qanoon, which we probably all read growing up.
So scholars note this and they say, well, well, well, doesn't that mean this is kind of evidence for human authorship in response to surrounding cultures rather than commands coming directly from the mouth of God?
Another notch of tension and then lastly, scholars note that there seems to be sort of a contradictory heart behind some of these commands. Next Sunday, B.J. is going to teach on Exodus 21, Verse is one to 11.
And it lists some commands related to slavery that paint a powerful picture of our relationship with the Lord.
And be just going to walk us through exactly why it's such a wonderful illustration.
And in those verses is, there's this relationship described between a slave and a master that's so wonderful that when the time comes for the slave to be released in the seventh year, the slave doesn't want to leave.
It's a vivid, beautiful, wonderful illustration of a biblical truth and it's clearly from the Lord.
And then later in the same chapter, Exodus 21 versus 20 and 21, we read this. It's on your outlines. And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished for he is his property.
So those verse is are saying, if you own a slave and you beat them so bad that they die right away, you're going to be considered a murderer. If it takes him 24 hours to 48 hours to die, you're in the clear because the slave is your property.
And that leads some scholars to say there seems to be sort of a different heart between these two laws about slavery, that maybe one is written by God and maybe one is written by a man attempting to apply the law of God and not doing a very good job.
And when some scholars put all this evidence together, they posit that perhaps the Book of the Covenant was written decades after Mount Sinai when Israel was settled in the land and perhaps it wasn't directly spoken commands from God.
Perhaps it's case law, legal verdicts from court cases by godly men in Israel who were appointed as judges and were attempting to apply the values of the Ten Commandments to everyday civil life in Israel, much like the Supreme Court in the United States is charged with applying the Constitution to everyday life.
Now, perhaps at this point in the message, if you're a Bible loving Christian, you're feeling super uncomfortable and you're telling yourself, OK, Jeffs got at least one other view he's going to share, maybe he'll come back from the heretical edge of the cliff and bring everything home.
And I'm going to get to that other view. But I just want to encourage you, if you're tense, remember what we talked about. The truth can handle being questioned, can handle being prodded and poked.
And when it comes to the truth, the solution is never to say, let's just shut down questions that shut it down. Let's not talk about it. The truth doesn't need you to do that.
So I'm going to stretch you further by addressing a couple of obvious objections that people might have to this first few, just as a quick reminder, when I refer to the Torah, I'm talking about the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers, Deuteronomy in Greek.
It's called the Pentateuch. So perhaps you're thinking, well, Jeff, the answer is really obvious. If the Book of the Covenant shows up at this point in Exodus, then it was obviously recorded at this point in history and not decades later. Well, the problem with that is there's lots of stuff in the Book of Exodus and other places in the Torah that's out of order chronologically. And the reason is really simple.
They didn't write history back then the same way we do it right now. They recorded it accurately. They recorded things as they happened.
But when they were putting them in a book or in the Torah, editors would often group things together by theme. So it's entirely possible that an editor of the Torah moved the Book of the Covenant from decades later to this point in Exodus, because the more radically it's connected to the Ten Commandments, it documents the people trying to apply the Ten Commandments to everyday life.
Interesting information... So many things that people do and that have done are inspired by God or in some cases the Holy Spirit. We don't always know what the out comes will be but the impression is so strong it cannot be ignored. That's why we're not expected to know everything.. just have faith that God knows what needs to be done. Myself I've always wondered why there has to be wars and loved ones dying and the only reasoning that I am told is that God doesn't look at dying as we do. He gives us a memory so we can remember them. But to him death is no different than birth, when you die you go back to where you came from.
And we hear that and we go, well, that's wrong. That's a crappy way of writing history.
Well, we're really. Really, just because 3500 years ago in the ancient Near East, they didn't deal with history exactly the same way we do in the West in 2020, they're wrong.
It's just different, as we talked about earlier, we have to understand the historical and cultural context in which the author was writing as well as their intended audience.
Well, perhaps you're thinking. But Jeff, Jeff Moses wrote the Torah. Even Jesus said so on this point.
I believe that we know for sure or as close as we can get to sure. That Moses was not the only author of the Torah.
Now, it's true that during his earthly ministry, Jesus quotes from all five books in the Torah.
And every time he does so, he credits Moses as the author.
It's clear from Scripture that Jesus considers Moses to be the primary author of the Torah, which includes Exodus. However, there are places in the Torah, including Exodus, where it's undeniable that somebody else is the source.
Joshua Miriam, if the Ma Lamar and the Levitical priests even during Moses lifetime.
There's also information in the Torah that could only have been added after the death of Moses, for example, the death of Moses in Deuteronomy 34. Now, yes, technically God could have had Moses write about his own death, but how awkward would that be? You think God is like, OK, Moses, sit down. I'm going to give you today's chapter for the Torah. Let's start with the title, The Death of Moses. What?
What now? Yes. Could that have happened? Yes, technically it could have happened.
But I think that suggestion is a little bit of a stretch, and I hope you'll agree with me on that. And so for this reason, I would consider myself to be what's known as a supplementary and when it comes to the Torah.
So a supplementary and agrees with Jesus that Moses is the primary.
He is the core author of the Torah, but a supplementary and believes that the Torah was also added to and edited a little bit later on across the centuries by other qualified writers who were also inspired by the Holy Spirit.
So a supplement, one believes that the Torah is still 100 percent divinely inspired. Just over centuries, rather than the lifetime of one individual, in this case, Moses, this is viewing divine inspiration of the scriptures as a process rather than a singular event. And if you're nervous, let me just point out, we already hold this view regarding the formation of the biblical canon. If you have a Bible in your hands, you're already a supplementary.
And when it comes to how the Bible was formed, collectively, we believe that it was added to it was a process of coming together. Books were selected to be left out and considered extra biblical. And we believe that process unfolded over thousands of years.
We just believe that God was in control of the entries from beginning to end. We're all supplementation when it comes to the formation of the Bible. What I'm just suggesting is I'm also a supplementary.
And when it comes to the part of the Bible, that's the Torah.
The tradition of the Jewish fathers teaches that Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai. He handed it down to Joshua, who then handed it down to the elders, who then handed it down to the prophets, who then handed it down to the men of the great assembly. And any of those men may have been part of God's divine process in assembling the Torah. Now, just to restate this again, this view does not clash with Jesus's teachings that Moses authored the Torah.
Moses was the main author and editor, and he should be considered as such.
Almost any book you read has an editor that's different to the author, any book, and nobody then says, well, then the author didn't really write it. Of course, he did. He just had an editor involved in the process, often more than one. Or how about this?
Now, for those who haven't heard the term ignorant before, when we say that the Bible is an errant, we're claiming that the Bible is without error in its original form, without error when we say that it's inspired.
I think we need to be very clear about what it is that we're claiming, just as we do when we claim that the Bible is true. What are we actually saying when we say that it can't be as simple as we're saying everything in the Bible is true.
It can't be that simple because the Bible contains different genres. In other words, not all of scripture is God declaring absolute universal truth. That's not what all of scripture is. And two of the most obvious examples are Psalms and Proverbs. Psalms is primarily poetry. A lot of it is David's poetry. It's a songwriting journal, and much of it expresses David's heart personally. And therefore, it's not always absolute truth. Not every statement in the Psalms is an absolute truth.
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes contain observations of general truths recorded by the wisest human, not named Jesus, who ever lived Solomon.
But guess what? Ecclesiastes and Proverbs there's still tainted by Solomon's personal emotions and sin. Let me give you an example.
When we read something like Proverbs 22 six, which says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Let me ask you, is that an absolute truth? If a Christian set of parents raise a child, do their best to raise that child to love Jesus, is this verse 8 guaranteeing that without exception that child will end up following God? Is it guaranteeing that? Because if it is, then if you know any Christian's parents whose children walked away from the Lord and died in that state, then applying this verse 8 means that you can say to them, you did not raise up your child in a godly way.
That's what it means if this is absolute truth. Now, we all know this is not the case. We all know wonderful people. Unfortunately, wonderful godly parents and some of their children rejected God as adults and sometimes did not come back. What about To verse, where Solomon says Vanity of vanities all is vanity, where Solomon essentially declares life is meaningless?
No, no, don't try and get clever and be like will. I mean, without God, it is no the verse 8 itself. Is that an absolute truth?
Is life utterly meaningless? No, of course not, Solomon is writing this in a dilapidated, sin infused state, his mind is not right when he's writing this. It is not an absolute truth. And so what I'm sharing here to help you understand is the Bible contains genres. And when we say the Bible is true, we do not mean that every single statement in the Bible is an absolute universal truth.
We don't mean that. And if you're uncomfortable, that's because you've been taught something that's not true.
OK, now hang with me and then you're like, OK, everything's going to be OK.
The Bible also contains the genre of history, it records things that are true in the sense that they happened, but not true in the sense that they are right. So when we asked the question, is the Bible true, the answer is more nuanced than we might first realize when the Bible is dealing with issues of absolute truth and reality. Yes, the Bible is absolutely true. When the Bible is recording poetry, it's recording poetry. There may be truth within that poetry, but we would need to discern that by examining the parts of the Bible that are not poetic and that deal with absolute truth.
That's my that's my theme verse 8 right. Now, seriously, I got to say, there's like songs out there today, worship songs. Churches still sing about things like God's Smiting My Enemies. And I'm like, you've read the New Testament, right? Where Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Like like, you're aware of this, that this was David's journal. He was having a really, really bad day. And he's like, God, would you just take this person out?
It's not a piece of theology you were supposed to actively apply, OK, genre. Genre matters. Now, when we look at the issue of inspiration, the key verse, of course, is second Timothy 316, which tells us all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
Some of you have like, oh, finally something I can say, amen to all scripture is given by inspiration of God. So write this down. Here's what that statement means. It means that God is the ultimate initiator. He is the ultimate author. He is the ultimate editor. And he is the ultimate preserver of his word. Now, here's what that means when we say the Bible is inspired, it means everything that God wanted to be in there is in there, and there is nothing in there that he does not want to be in there, including the poetry, including depressed Solomon, including all of that stuff.
The history is there because God wants it in there. The poetry is there because God wants it in there. The philosophy, the truth statements, the parables are in there because God wants them in there. When we say that scripture is inspired, we mean that God is the ultimate initiation initiator, author, editor and preserver of scripture.
If you subscribe to the first view of interpreting the book of the Covenant that I've talked about, it does not mean that you don't believe scripture is inspired. It simply means that you believe that the Book of Covenant, the Book of the Covenant, has a different purpose.
You may believe that these commands are recorded in scripture to make the point that God expects us to apply his word to our everyday lives, even though sometimes we get it wrong. So, Jeff. Kind of sounds like you believe this first few. I don't I don't personally, I hold to a second view, I believe that Moses received the Book of the Covenant on Mount Sinai and shared it with the people of Israel at that time. And I'll tell you what it's journey through this.
Write this down. It's wise to start a study of any biblical text by simply reading what the text says. It's wise to start a study of any biblical text by simply reading what the text says. You don't need to listen to somebody talk about a text without actually reading it.
You've got to start by reading it. And when we examine the text itself, in this case around the Book of the Covenant. We find two undeniable truths, undeniable even in the original language. In Exodus 20 22, the first verse of the Book of the Covenant, we read, then the Lord said to Moses and the commands that make up the Book of the Covenant follow. There is no break or interjection that ever changes the subject of who is speaking, it's all got all the way through and then on the other side of it, in Exodus 24/7, as we read at the beginning, we're told that Moses took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people.
This is telling us explicitly that Moses read from a list of commands known as the Book of the Covenant at Mount Sinai. That's what the text says, and so remember, the only reason to not interpret the text literally or plainly is if we find what a compelling reason to do so.
So is there a compelling reason? Let's take a look again at the first set of points we made.
The Book of the Covenant speaks to a context Israel wouldn't be in for decades. Therefore, Moses cannot have written it at Mount Sinai. Really? Really. God is incapable of giving Moses a revelation that pertains to Israel's future.
It would kind of seem that the entire biblical genre of prophecy would disprove this idea.
But why would God do it so far in advance? There are honestly lots of good reasons. Perhaps he wanted to give them time to digest his commands. Perhaps most obviously, it's because he wanted these standards to be in place long before Israel ever settled in the land, so that when they finally did, they would have a clear understanding and expectation of how they were supposed to build the society.
Perhaps it's because God just wanted to speak in one authoritative blast at Mount Sinai and cover all the issues that were going to come up for the next several decades, maybe he wanted to give all the instructions he needed to give for society in one go at Mount Sinai.
There's lots of good reasons. Well, why only these very specific random commands. Perhaps while these laws seem random, it's not really about the specific laws themselves, but about the principles that they reveal. Perhaps the point is that these principles and values behind these commands do actually cover all the different examples that can come up in society.
And as BJ and I journey through the Book of the Covenant, we're going to see concepts come into play like personal responsibility for livestock, children respecting parents in greater detail.
And so perhaps when you look at the heart behind all these commands, it really covers everything. And perhaps for the judges of Israel, these are the only examples they would need to begin to figure out.
Oh, this is the pattern of how you apply the Ten Commandments to everyday life. We've got enough examples in the Book of the Covenant. We can spot the pattern and we can begin to do the same thing and apply it.
Well, couldn't some of these commands have been stolen from other law codes that were around at this time?
Yes, but but equally and quite frankly, it's more likely that those cultures were borrowing from Israel and the best dating doesn't actually tell us which came first between the Ten Commandments or the Code of Hammurabi.
But additionally, some similarities in any moral law code are inevitable. Just because two cultures have laws about stealing bread doesn't mean that one stole from the other. Oh, my gosh. You have a command about not stealing. We do too. This is crazy. I don't know if you've noticed this, but sin is super prevalent everywhere. Every people, every point in history, sin everywhere, no shortage of it.
And then lastly, well, well, what about the seemingly contradictory hearts behind the different laws on slavery? As I said, next week, B.J. is going to lead us in a Bible study on the hot issue of slavery. It's so great.
I'm just going to sit back and watch him deal with that.
I'm really, really, really looking forward to it. It's going to be it's going to be a great study, because if you if you don't know, this is still a hot topic. There are people who say I could never be a Christian because the Bible condones slavery. Have you looked into it? No, I'm a spiritual sinner, but it's going to take it on for us.
He's going to walk us through what the Book of the Covenant has to say about slavery. And he's going to deal with the whole issue of slavery in the Bible.
And so I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I am going to tell you before we can address Verse is on the subject of slavery, again, we need a thorough understanding of who wrote it, who he was writing to and the historical cultural context, because we can't offer an opinion on a text we don't even understand yet.
And this is going to help us understand what the word of God is saying on this issue next week. And when we do that, I'll tell you this.
You're going to find that a whole lot of these supposed contradictions disappear very, very quickly.
Now, at the same time, even if the contradictions don't disappear and I look at this and I'm like, I don't like what this verse is saying.
Heaven forbid that I read one difficult to verse I can't understand and say this cannot be from God, even though the text says it is. Again, humility is key.
And just because I find it very difficult doesn't mean that it's not from God. So for me, the bottom line is that there is not, in my humble opinion, a compelling reason to not simply take the Book of the Covenant at face value.
That is to say that God gave it to Moses at Mount Sinai and he read it to the people there. But as always, you study, you research, you pray, discuss with mature believers and come to your own conclusions.
I'm going to close with this one point of practical application, no matter what view you take on interpreting the Book of the Covenant.
One thing is eminently clear. God expects his people to live out their daily lives in light of his values. That is crystal clear.
Let me say it again. God expects us people to live out their daily lives in light of his values. What that means is that he expects his word to be the lens through which we perceive reality. He expects his word to be the lens through which we see him ourselves and each other.
And can I tell you, the Lord still expects that from his people, he still expects that from the church, from you and I, but there is a difference for us.
For the Old Testament, Israelite, the law, the Ten Commandments, were to serve as their lens on life for us, for the New Testament church. The gospel is to serve as our lens on life.
So would you write this down?
The gospel is the lens through which the church is to view all of life and all of reality.
It's the lens through which we ought to view all of life and all of reality.
Obviously, you can't know the gospel without knowing the word everything we do, everything we say, everything we think, every person we interact with, our relationship with God.
The goal is to perceive all of that through the lens of the gospel as revealed in the word of God. That's the goal.
And to help us do that moment by moment, day by day, we have his word. But yes, even in those moments where it's not physically with us, we have the Holy Spirit.
Should we choose to be led? The Holy Spirit will in any moment lead us in the way to live in light of the gospel. If we choose for the Christian, the question we must ask ourselves every day is not is this legal? It's not a bad question as a start, though, let me just also say that I saw some people who were like, really? No, no, no, no.
Let me say it's not the only question. OK, I heard Pastor Jeff say the question that we asked primarily should not be how does society say I should live? The question above every other question for the Christian every day is how does the gospel say I should live? How does the gospel say I should respond? How does the Gospel say I should treat them? How does the gospel say I should manage my time, my resources, how does the gospel say my relationship should function?
That's a sermon in and of itself. And because I'm a gracious preacher, I'm not going to preach it right now, but I'll ask you to think on that and pray on that this week. And so we had a lot of academic stuff this week going into the Book of the Covenant. And it's going to be fascinating. It's going to be a blessing. And we are going to get into the thick of some of the most challenging passages in the scripture.
And so that would you just bow your head and close your eyes and let me pray for us. Father, thank you so much for your word.
And Lord, more than anything, help us not to simply be hearers of the word Lord. Our primary concern is not to be smarter. It's not to be greater academics. For the sake of our own ego, Lord, our desire is to be doers of the word. And so, Father, our desire is that the gospel revealed in your word, would grow in clarity and greatness in our lives. Lord, that it would rule and reign over everything, over every thought, over every deed.
So, Father, may we be led in everything we do by the Gospel?
May we live in light of the Cross of Christ, what it says about you, what it says about us, what it says about the world and what it says about our brothers and sisters. You are the way you are the truth and you are the life. And Lord, we just want more of you and we want to know more about you. So we ask even in this time of worship, Lord, would you just reveal yourself to us, give us a fresh in filling of your spirit right now?
Because we need it, Lord, wherever we are, we need it.
And Father, help us to just grow in our knowledge. One little bit more of you this evening, because as they would say of you in the days of old, your glory is like a multifaceted diamond being struck by the light. And every microscopic movement reveals a new angle of your glory.
And so, father. Just give us a different angle of your glory this evening, Lord, we love you, Jesus, we're in all of you speak to us now and your mighty name we pray. Amen.
Date:7/19/20
Series: Exodus
Passage: Exodus 20:17-...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
As the Ten Commandments draw to a close, they conclude in a unique way: with a commandment addressing our internal thoughts and motivations...
In our study through the Book of Exodus, we have been camped out of the Ten Commandments in Chapter 20 for the last couple of months. And today we're going to wrap things up with the 10th and final commandment in Exodus 20:17. The Lord gives Israel and us this command: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." "Covet" is not really a word that we use in our everyday vocabulary.
The dictionary explains it as feeling or showing a very strong desire for something that you do not have, and especially for something that belongs to someone else. This 10th commandment refers specifically to the act of coveting something that belongs to someone else, something that belongs to your neighbor, as the Lord puts it. And the first thing I want us to notice about this commandment is that it specifically addresses an internal desire. Did you notice that this commandment is not about an action?
It goes upstream to the condition of the heart that leads to sinful actions, specifically breaking the other nine commandments. And that's fascinating because you can't regulate a person's internal thoughts and motives. You can't pass laws to enforce this commandment because we can't see and do each other's hearts. So, what does that mean? What do we take from that? I think it's evidence that the Ten Commandments are first and foremost, not about our accountability to each other. They are about our accountability to God.
The one who can perceive our internal thoughts and motives. So make a note of this. It's the first fill in on your outline. The internal nature of the 10th commandment reveals our ultimate accountability to God. The internal nature of the Tenth Commandment reveals that ultimately the Ten Commandments are about our accountability to God. You know, some historians will say stuff like, oh, you know, the Ten Commandments were really just moral laws based on pre-existing laws from other cultures in the Middle East, like the Code of Hammurabi written down to form the framework of a new Hebrew society.
In other words, they're just borrowed ideas from other ancient Near Eastern cultures put together into some sort of moral code so that Hebrew society could have a foundation. But this tenth commandment doesn't fit that description because unlike all of those other ancient moral codes, this 10th commandment deals not with an action, but with intent. The internal emotions, motivations and thoughts of a person.
When Jesus came to the Earth as a man, he taught that from God's perspective, all of the Ten Commandments applied not only to our actions, but also to our intentions. And this 10th commandment was clearly intended to tip us off to that reality all the way back in the ancient days of Exodus, Chapter 20.
And so those who claim that the Ten Commandments were borrowed from other cultures or were just civil laws ascribed to an invented deity, have a conundrum with this tenth commandment because it can not be externally observed or regulated. It may lead to external actions, but internal covetousness cannot in and of itself be observed. The Ten Commandments are simply unlike anything that existed in the ancient Near Eastern world or has ever existed anywhere since.
Advertising is a multi-billion-dollar industry that makes money by stirring up covetousness in our hearts. It's an industry that makes the same promises over and over again in different ways. And the promises are always along the lines of You'll be happier if you have this, you'll matter more. If you have this, you'll have more friends. If you have this, people will respect you more. If you have this. You'll be more attractive if you have this.
You'll attract the person you're looking for. If you have this. The promise of covetousness is always, "If you had this, THEN your life would be complete. THEN you'd be happy. You'd be at peace. You'd find love. You'd have purpose." Write this down: Covetousness falsely promises fulfillment through the acquisition of something or someone. I'll say it again: Covetousness falsely promises fulfillment through the acquisition of something or someone. "If you get this, you'll be fulfilled." That's the false promise of covetousness.
And yet those things don't ever really bring us any satisfaction. In fact, they usually don't even make us happy. In and of themselves. Because the moment we get something, we want something else. Don't we? The problem with coveting is that it's like lust when we feed it. It doesn't get satisfied. It just creates a greater appetite in us. We just want more. We get one house and we think, well, now that we're in, we're in this kind of home now.
This kind of home is within striking range and we can start working toward that.
The truth is that if I feed my greed, I'll always be a need. I'll always be a need. It'll never be enough.
Now this one's gonna hurt. So hold on. Most of the time, we're not happy with the things we have. We're happy with the things we have that our neighbor doesn't have. I say that one again to most of the time, we're not happy with the things we have, we happy with the things we have that our neighbor doesn't have.
And if that didn't make you say ouch, that you're not paying attention if you're a parent. One of your great frustrations is likely how quickly children lose interest in their toys.
But we all know that there's a magical way to get them to crave that toy again more than anything
in the world. All you have to do is have another kid play with that toy in front of them. Because suddenly it's, "Mommy! Daddy! That's... that... that's my toy! I want to play with it!" Even though they haven't touched it for nine months, right? Our natural self is not happy with the things we have, it's happy with the things we have that our neighbor doesn't have.
And so, we go round and round on the same ride, repeating the same pattern over and over again into adulthood, often until the day we die. Never clueing in to what's right in front of us. To the obvious thought. Hey, hey, wait a minute. None of those other things that I thought would make me happy. Did. Maybe stuff, maybe things, and having people is not really the path to true fulfillment. We just repeat the same empty cycle over and over again.
Never acknowledging the obvious. That stuff. And covetousness never leads to real fulfillment. One of the hardest things to be honest with ourselves about is, is why we want things. We're not very good at being honest with ourselves about that. Most adults will never get to the place where they're honest enough with themselves and know themselves well enough to be able to recognize when their behavior is being driven by insecurity, a need for affirmation, or a desire for status.
This commandment is a call to do just that. It's God saying I wouldn't be talking about this if it wasn't a really, really big deal and a danger to everybody. Coveting will take over your life. If you don't recognize it and intentionally live against its every beck and call. As parents, we need to be very careful that we don't unintentionally nurture coveting in our children.
Here's what I mean, because this is what we'll do with our kids sometimes. There's another kid playing with a toy, and we'll say, well, you can play with that toy later.
They're playing with it. Now, what we're really saying is, well, you can cover it, but just make sure you add patients to your cover. Still not a virtue. It's still coveting. Or we'll tell them what we'll I'll go and buy you one of those toys. What we're saying is, "Oh, you're right to covet. And to prove that you're right to, I'm going to give in to your coveting." Or we'll say, "Why don't you play with this toy?"
It's even better what we're saying is, oh, you can satisfy your covetousness by getting something even better than that other kid has. The problem is those core beliefs they've been taught are going to manifest when they get older and get their first credit card. It's going to affect their career, their ambitions, their motivations. It's going to affect what they devote their life to, their life's pursuit. We have to be intentional about raising our children to be heavenly-minded, eternally-minded rather than earthly-minded. Good parenting says, "Hey, buddy... Hey, sweetheart, I know you'd really like to play with that toy. But right now, they're playing with it and they're enjoying it. So, let's be happy for them. Let's find joy in their joy. And then you go find something that you already have that you can be grateful for because you're blessed."
And I know you're thinking, "Jeff, you're out of your mind if you think that's going to work with my kids." And I'll just tell you what my wife says to me when I get frustrated and I say, "How many times am I going to have to tell my kid this?!" And she'll always say, "Only about a thousand. Only about a thousand." It's like anything else in parenting. You've got to repeat it over and over and over again. But we've got to be real careful about not giving in to the coveting that exists in our children's hearts that is naturally there. We've gotta teach them how to be happy for other people. You know, I don't know how your children are, but most of the time, my children are never more passionate about justice than when they suspect that one of their siblings may have been given a little bit more than they were.
They turn into superheroes if they think that their brother may have been given one more minute of video game time than them. This is an outrage. Justice is at stake. Equality must be defended. You know, fairness is good. Fairness is a good thing. But so is learning how to be happy for someone else. When they get something that you didn't. And far too many adults have never learned how to be genuinely happy for someone else.
They haven't recognized how much they're driven by coveting and they haven't learned the secret of happiness, which is contentment. In Philippians for the apostle, Paul writes about the secret to happiness. The solution to coveting and he says this. It's on your outlines. I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to live humbly. And I know how to live in prosperity everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Pray about it. Ask the Lord to lead you to an answer, then read some good Bible commentaries, listen to some different preachers, preach on that text.
And you know what? God will lead you to an answer. It may be days, it may take decades, but I can promise you he will be faithful to give you peace about the issue one way or another. And when you find that peace, when you find that answer, you'll be able to go back in that journal and write the date that the issue became settled for you.
And you will be so blessed as over time you build this journal that tracks God's faithfulness in answering your questions about scripture.
It's a real car. Or a real woman or a real man. You see, our coveting just grows up with us. But make no mistake about it, we simply go on being driven by the same childish impulses that drove us all those years ago.
The stakes just get higher. The toys become more expensive. Make a note of this. I need to recognize my susceptibility to coveting and replace it with contentment that comes from trusting the Lord to determine what's best for me. The solution is contentment, trusting the Lord to determine what's best for me. As always, Jesus has some priceless insights for us on the topic at hand in Luke 12, beginning in verse 13. We read this then one from the crowd said to him, Teacher.
Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. So just to bring you up to speed, at this point in his ministry, Jesus has been preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God with power and authority and insight like nobody's ever heard before. He's claimed to come directly from heaven and that Father in heaven is his literal father and to back up all of these incredible claims. Jesus is performing miracles of a magnitude and volume that nobody has ever seen or even ever heard of before.
And now you have his attention, you're face to face with Jesus.
Obviously, you're going to ask or raise the issue that you think is the most important thing you could talk about with Jesus.
And for this guy, that issue is Jesus. My father has just died and left everything to my older brother. Brother, tell him that the right thing to do is to divide it with me. Not a question about eternal life. Not a question about ultimate reality or truth, not a question about who Jesus really is. Rather, he tells Jesus what to do. Fix my problem. Jesus, get me my money. You see, that's what coveting does to us.
It causes us to miss what's going on in our lives right in front of our faces. It causes us to miss the blessings that God has already given us, because all we can focus on is the thing we don't have that we think we should have. The tragedy, of course, is that everything this man was looking for, was right in front of him, literally. Jesus, the way, the truth and the life. Was right in front of him.
And he missed it. He missed it because he was consumed with covering.
No wonder Jesus response was basically, are you kidding me right now? This is what Jesus said. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you. And then Jesus turns to his disciples and he reveals the problem at the root of this man's blindness. And he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness. Please. Please, church, hear these words of Jesus. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
Jesus, the one who created you, who knows you better than you know yourself. Is not giving you an opinion. He's telling you the truth when he says the meaning of life is not how much stuff you can accumulate. Our culture says the exact opposite. Consumerism says you are what you wear. You are what you drive. You are the kind of phone that you have.
What determines how much you matter and what your value is, is the stuff you have.
But Jesus says I determine your value. Your worth comes from how much I love you. And I have loved you with my body and with my blood. I have loved you with my very life. Do you realize that the value of anything? Is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it.
When I covered something for whatever reason. What I'm really expressing is the belief that Jesus is not enough. Would you write that down? I'm expressing the belief that Jesus is not enough. Lord, I know your words says that you supply all of my needs, that you know my needs before I even ask for them and that you know me better than I know myself. So you know how to give me what's excellent for me. But despite all that, I think you're wrong.
I think this is what I need. This is what I deserve right now. Your judgment, God, of what I need is wrong, or it's I know that your word promises joy and peace and fulfillment that comes from your Holy Spirit and has nothing to do with what I do or don't have. But that's not enough for me. However, if I had this thing, it would be enough. Then I'd be happy. However I phrase it, however I frame it.
The bottom line is that covetousness is me saying to God, you're not enough for me. I also need this thing. You see, that's how Satan works in the life of believers. He gets us to take the first step toward coveting by deceiving us into believing the lie that what we need to be satisfied in life is Jesus and fill in the blank.
Jesus. And if you believe that, you'll be happy when you have Jesus. And something else. Let me tell you the truth. You are coveting whatever gets filled in that blank space. Whatever comes after the word and you're covering it. Jesus was asked Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
You ever realize that that is one heck of a command from the Lord to love him with everything we have and above everything, and God only asks us to do that for one reason? Because he is enough. Because if we love him with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind, we will have everything we need and we will be more blessed than we would be loving anything else. That's why God calls us to do that. The liar says God's not enough.
The liar says, what you really need to be happy is Jesus. And but the Lord says, no, love me with everything you have, because I'm everything that you need to be happy, to be content, to be fulfilled. And if you love me with everything you have, you will be more satisfied than you will be loving anything else. God didn't give us the Ninth Commandment for his good. He gave it for our good as a loving father.
He doesn't want us to waste our lives pursuing things he knows are empty and will not satisfy us. He doesn't want to see that happen to us. Just ask the wealthiest man who ever lived, King Solomon, who summed up his lifelong pursuit of pleasure and riches and fame by saying this when he had exhausted everything the world had to offer.
This was his summary statement of his findings. Vanity of Vanities. All is vanity. Or as the new living translation puts it, everything is meaningless. Completely meaningless. If you don't believe him, John Rockefeller said the same thing in his own way when he was one of the richest men on the planet. He was asked how much money is enough for a man? With a wry smile, he replied. Just a little more, just a little more.
Converting creates an appetite that will never be satisfied, because if you believe what the world tells you, there will always be something greater to shoot for. There will always be someone who has more. There will always be someone undeserving who has what you believe you should have. And perhaps most cruel of all, even if you reach the pinnacle, and you get it all, you have it all.
And like Solomon, you too will cry out vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Mark Twain answered the question, what is civilization? By saying this, a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities, a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. That's what our civilization is. Your heavenly father loves you. And he's good. And so he desires to spare us from that pain and vanity. So he invites us to give our entire heart and soul and mind and life to loving and pursuing the only thing that truly satisfies and never disappoints himself.
He's a good God, and he doesn't want you and I to waste our lives on the meaningless. Would you write this down if I allow God's word to define success? I will be satisfied if I allow the world to define success. I will covet and never be satisfied. Now, I want to pause here and put Jesus in his rightful place in our minds as we read this next test. This is not a really, really smart man offering commentary on the meaning of life.
This is not a philosopher pondering the purpose of true wealth. This is not a life coach offering tips on how to manage your finances.
This is God in the flesh, the one who stepped into space and time but has existed for eternity outside of it.
This is the son of God who has conversed with his Heavenly Father about how the world will end one day, about what will take place when every person is judged before the throne of God.
This is the only one who has ever set foot on the earth who actually knows how this thing called Earth and the human race and Eternity are going to play out.
The only one and that one that Jesus is telling us, his disciples, this is what really matters in life and what will matter for eternity. And I hope that, as I've shared, that we're we're lifting Jesus up to the highest place of honor in our minds and our hearts and that we've gotten our hearts and souls into a pasture before the word of God, where we're saying, oh, I'm listening, Lord, I'm going to hang on every word that you say next because you're about to tell me what matters most in life and in eternity.
And so, with that posture taken, what Jesus is saying, the first thing he wants us to know is this. Jesus says, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Then he spoke a parable to them, saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? So, we said, I will do this.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said to them, for this night, your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. This man who says, I got so much stuff, I don't know what to do with it.
I know I'll tear down my current house and storage sheds and build a bigger house and a bigger garage and a bigger storage shed for all my stuff.
But none of his wealth could give him control over the fact that he was going to die that night. Find himself standing before God, where all his wealth was worthless. He couldn't take it with him. And let me tell you, it sure doesn't impress God. The folly of covering the foolishness of living a life driven by covetousness will be obvious to all of us. One second after our earthly life ends in the blink of an eye. All that stuff will be worthless.
I've said before that as we grow in maturity in the Lord, two things become more and more glaringly apparent. The first is the depths of my depravity. And the second is the grand of God's grace. The longer you live as a Christian, the deeper you grow in your relationship with the Lord, it becomes shockingly obvious the depths of your own depravity, but also, oh, the grand here and the greatness of God's grace. You know, our church exists in a very unusual situation.
We reach thousands of people every month who watch our videos and listen to the messages online.
And we have a few dozen adults in our live local church. And for the first few years, I thought, God, why? Why? And then one day it really hit me. It really hit me. The penny dropped that my heavenly father knows me better than I know myself. And he knows what's best for me. You see, here's the hard truth. I don't know what would happen if this church just exploded overnight locally or if it had exploded overnight five years ago.
Maybe I'd get a massive ego and I just turn into a giant jerk and then fall in love with the money. I mean, I don't think I would. I hope I wouldn't. But again, I also know that I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner, and I would never, never put it past me to sin. And here's what I do know. God is always doing good in my life. He's always doing what is best for me.
And here's where the understanding really changes for us. That means there's a reason for what is happening in my life right now. There's also a reason for what is not happening in my life right now. And as I've gotten to know my heavenly father in a greater and deeper way, I found it easier and easier to trust him because he is wonderful. He is good. And I know I know that he loves me. I know he's doing what's best for me.
And he loves you, too. And you can trust him to. There is a reason for what is happening in your life. And there's a reason for what is not happening in your life. And I think sometimes we really wouldn't want to know what the reason is for some of the things that aren't happening in our life yet. It might be hard to hear, hey, hey, maybe you're actually still single because you're not ready. And maybe if you got married right now, you'd be divorced within three years.
None of us wants to think that. But what if that's true? And the best thing God can do for you is say, "We're going to grow those parts of you that would destroy a relationship so that when you get into it, it's going to be a blessing. You're going to prosper because I'm going to do what's best for you." Maybe God is saying, "There's some things you've got to learn before I can answer this prayer because I'm going to do what's best for you."
Coveting is the result of God saying, "This is what I want for you. This is what is best for you." and me saying, "Well, that's not what I want for me." It's rejecting the idea that God knows what's best for me. It's me telling God to get off the throne in my life because I know what's best for me. Coveting is what drove the sin of Lucifer and heaven. He coveted God's throne and the position of God Almighty. Coveting is what drove Eve to eat the apple and eat. And she coveted being her own God, becoming her own God.
You're acting as though you don't have a heavenly father who takes care of you.
For your heavenly father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. I love that Jesus says, "Instead of worrying about all those things. Seek God. Live for God. And He'll take care of all those things for you." What's the solution for coveting? It's gratitude. It's contentment. It's trust in the character of the father and his generosity. Why generosity?
Because, hey, when we give, we're being like God, we're being more like that, which we were created to be. And when we're generous, we're responding to what Jesus said, which is it's more blessed to give than to receive. And the blessing of generosity is that generosity comes from the belief that I don't have to hoard because I have a father who will provide for my needs. I don't have to have the best of everything because my value comes from God and not from my stuff.
That's why one of the solutions to covering is generosity. It's giving it away, saying, hey, I'm not defined by what I have. So if God wants me to give it away, that's no problem. I don't have to hoard. I've got a father who provides for me and my identity is found in him, not in my stuff. Here in the Final Commandment, I'm going to wrap up with this. We're prompted to ask the logical question.
But how do I deal with my internal sinful desires? How do I control them? The answer, I can't. I need new desires. And those are only available through God who gives me a new spirit, his spirit that brings with it new godly life giving desires.
My old spirit, my old nature cannot be rehabilitated. It is hopeless. It is irreparable. It is death. That's why the language that Jesus used is that we need to be born again. We don't need to be rehabilitated. We need to be born again. And thank God through Jesus. We can be. I've shared this before, but I think it bears repeating the concept of bankruptcy is that a person lays out their financial situation to the court with total transparency and acknowledges the reality that they are in a situation they cannot repair themselves.
They have incurred debts that they cannot repay. Bankruptcy is a remedy for a hopeless situation. But in order to receive the remedy, you have to acknowledge the hopelessness of your situation. You and I have incurred a moral debt, a sin debt to God that we cannot repay. Our situation is hopeless. But praise God, there's a remedy available. And his name is Jesus. He stepped up and took our place. He took on all of our debt and received the punishment for it.
That should have gone to us. And in so doing, he canceled our debt, freeing us from it completely. But in order to receive that forgiveness, we have to acknowledge the debt. We have to acknowledge our hopeless situation. And that is why the Ten Commandments were given to mankind. They reveal God's perfect standard of holiness, his perfect standard of moral goodness and the law.
The Ten Commandments serve as a mirror to show us our own sinfulness, to show us the truth that we've all fallen hopelessly short of God's standards.
We've all incurred a sin debt we cannot repay. The apostle Paul said it like this. The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. This is why we love Jesus so much. He saved us. He forgave us. He canceled our debt when as he died on the cross. He cried out in Greek to tell us stye meaning. Paid in full. Paid in full. Your debt and mine was paid by Jesus.
But in order to receive that debt forgiveness, we have to acknowledge our sin debt. And if you've never done that, you're going to have a chance to do that in just a moment. And if you have done that already, then make sure that you use this coming time of worship as an opportunity to pray. Thank God. Take communion and rejoice over the fact that your sins are forgiven. Your debt has been paid in full.
Would you bow your head? Close your eyes. Pray with me.
Father. You're a good and loving father, and we confess that. You know what is best for us? And you want what is best for us and you do what is best for us. So, Father, help us to want the same things for ourselves that you want for us. Because your heart for us is what is best. Help us to live in agreement with you. Help us to not fight against you when you're only doing what is best for us.
You're a perfect father. And so we ask that you would just forgive us for the times when we've resisted you. When you've only been acting in love for us. Father, I pray for those who are struggling right now to trust you. Father, I pray not just for a change in behavior, Lord, but for the thing that causes a change in behavior.
Father, I pray for an encounter with your goodness, with your character. Father, I pray for anyone struggling with trust right now that they would have an encounter with you. With your love, with your heart and with your character. That would make trust easy, because the more we get to know you, the more of you we see, the easier trust becomes because you are simply wonderful. You're just wonderful, Lord, so reveal yourself to us.
If you've never given your life to Jesus, if you've never asked him. To take that sin debt of yours, if you've never acknowledged that sin debt, but you want to experience the forgiveness of God. You want to be born again. You can choose to do that right now by just saying, Lord, would you come into my life?
I want you to be my God. I want you to forgive me of my sins. And I'm ready to get off the throne of my life and have you step onto it. I'm ready to have you lead my life.
If you want to make that decision right now. I'm going to pray for you in just a moment. And I want to ask you to also go to our Web site, go to my new hope that seei slash gospel, watch the gospel video there, learn more about what God has done for you and fill out the form.
Let us know you've done that so that you don't slip through the cracks so that we can follow up with you and get you going in your new relationship with Jesus. It'll be the best decision you ever made. If you've just done that, let me pray for you. Father, I thank you for anyone who's just given their life to you right now. Father, I thank you that you are moving in them, that, Jesus, you are doing a good work already.
Right now.
You're bringing healing and wholeness into their life. And father, they are beginning a completely new trajectory in their life toward wholeness, toward fulfillment, toward joy, toward peace.
Father, I thank you that you have good things in store for them. And Father, I pray that even right now, they would be overwhelmed by your great and unfailing love for them, that they would already begin to experience your peace in a radical, tangible way. We love you, Jesus. Amen
Date:12/5/20
Series: Special Messages...........Speaker: Jeff Thompson
In this special update, Jeff discusses the current state of the world and shares some Biblical insights to help Christians make sense of everything that's going on. We'll touch on COVID-19, climate change, the looming global debt crisis, the Great Reset, United Nations Agenda 2030, and more, and highlight some important things for Christians to remember in the days ahead.
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The Great Reset (World Economic Forum):
United Nations Agenda 2030:
Full List of Agenda 2030 Indicators:
Hey, everybody, I wanted to do something a little bit different with this video. This is not a normal Bible teaching message. This is something much more informal.
I wanted to address the fact that if you haven't noticed, there's a whole lot going on in the world right now. And as I read what Christians are posting on social media and I listen to questions, there 's's so much confusion still. There's so many conspiracy theories out there. There's so much that we know is going on.
But we can't quite decode we can't quite make sense of.
And so I wanted to make a video that I hope will be helpful to you as you take a look at the world around you and seek to understand biblically what's going on.
I want to be very clear. This is not a Bible study. Again, these are some of my own personal insights, thoughts and opinions and views based on what I see. But looking with eyes that have spent a lot of time studying eschatology, a lot of time studying biblical prophecy. So with everything I teach, as we often say, don't believe it because I say it. Check for yourself. You pray, you discern, you get into the scriptures and you come to your own conclusions.
But I can tell you this, this video is going to give you some very, very interesting things to talk about with your friends and your brothers and sisters in the Lord and your small group.
So let's talk about conspiracies.
Let's talk about what is going on in the world right now.
And when I thought about things to cover, the very first thing that you need to understand as a Christian is that Satan is running the show on Earth right now.
Let me say that again, Satan is running the show on the earth right now. When the Lord created man and woman, he created Adam and Eve. He gave them, he gave Adam what was essentially the title deed of the Earth. He gave Adam rule and charge over the Earth to steward the Earth. Adam had that authority.
However, when Adam and Eve sinned, they transferred they gave up that title deed to Satan and Satan held the deed to the earth and had authority over the Earth.
When Jesus came to the Earth, died and rose again at the resurrection, he took back that title deed from Satan. Jesus now holds it. However, Jesus has not yet cashed it in, so to speak. He holds it, but the scroll has not been opened yet.
The title deed has not been opened yet because as soon as Jesus reclaims the earth, the opportunity for people to join the family of God, the opportunity for people to be saved will be over.
That door will close. The apostle Peter puts it like this.
He says The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but his long suffering taught us his patience toward us. Why? Because he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So Jesus is not yet cashing in that title deed to the Earth because he wants to give more time for people to turn to him and be saved.
So for now, even though he doesn't hold the title deeds, Satan is still running the show on Earth.
Jeff, that doesn't seem very biblical. Well, it's in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, which record the famous Temptation of Christ. Perhaps you recall the interaction from Luke, Chapter four verses five through seven.
It says then the devil taking him, that's Jesus up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment in time. And the devil said to him, to Jesus, all this authority I will give you and their glory for this. Listen to me. This is what Satan says to Jesus.
He says, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours.
And Jesus doesn't say, don't be ridiculous, Satan, you don't own the world, you can't make that offer. I already own it anyway. Your offer is meaningless.
He doesn't do that.
Jesus responds to Satan's offer seriously, because it's a serious, legitimate offer, because at that moment in time, Satan did indeed own the kingdoms of the world. In John 14 /30, Jesus calls Satan the ruler of this world.
John the Apostle declares, Long after Jesus returns to heaven, the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
And in Second Corinthians four, again, long after the resurrection, our brother Paul speaks about those whose minds the God of this age has blinded the God of this age.
And here's what that means in terms of the world's power structure.
I want you to imagine this will use some really nice conspiratorial imagery. OK, we'll imagine a pyramid. And then just the way it is on the American one dollar bill, imagine the top of the pyramid, the cap of the pyramid separated from the rest of the pyramid. And we'll say that this pyramid represents the world's power structure.
And however you view the world, we all understand that at some point there is a top to the pyramid.
There is a group of people who make the biggest decisions on Earth who are calling the shots and earthly politics and industry and things like this.
And so whatever you believe, let's call that group at the very top, the elite. Now, if you don't believe in conspiracies at all that, then you believe that these are essentially just heads of state that's as high as the power structure on earth gets.
That's fine. That's cool. If that's what you believe, that's who is at that level.
They're part of what we'll call the elite. If you believe in conspiracies at this level, at the top elite level, then let me show off my conspiratorial bona fides here a little bit.
If you believe that's the Illuminati, the Bill de Bergers, the Trilateral Commission, the UN, the deep state, the World Economic Forum that gathers in Davos, the world banking families, the Merovingian bloodline, the lizard people, whatever you think, whatever you buy into, you believe that they're at the top and they're part of the elite. What the Bible tells us is that whoever those people are.
Above them is actually another level that's not where the power structure ends, you get to the top of the pyramid. That's not where the power structure ends.
You have to cross over into the spiritual world to get to the next level, because at the next level, above those people is Satan, the God of the sage, the one who holds the world system under his sway.
That is what the Bible teaches, that Satan is ultimately at the top of the world's power structure.
And so the people at that elite level, whether they realize it or not, are ultimately under the influence of Satan.
We need to understand that according to the Bible, anyone who does not belong to Jesus is under the influence of Satan. They are susceptible to being used by him for his purposes.
But Satan is currently restrained to a degree, there's a reason that that's not just total hell, Satan is restrained to a degree by the physical presence of the church on the earth because the church made up of men and woman is full of the Holy Spirit.
Everywhere there's a Christian, the Holy Spirit is there. And so the Holy Spirit is all over the Earth, inside believers and in acts.
Chapter two, when God gave the Holy Spirit to the church, the church was deputized, so to speak, by Jesus to resist Satan schemes on the Earth. And in second Thessalonians, two seven. It all comes together as the apostle Paul declares The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
And ultimately in that verse, when we're talking about he who now restrains, we're talking about the fact that Jesus has placed the church on the earth.
And so the question becomes, is there a coming time when that restraining force of the church, is there a coming time when scripture says that that restraining force of the church is going to be removed from the earth so that lawlessness will no longer be restrained?
Yes, there is at the moment of the rapture, the church will be removed from the earth and the restraining presence of the Holy Spirit and believers across the world will suddenly be dramatically diminished.
And Satan will not be restrained the way he is right now in this church age.
That is why the Rapture will be shortly followed by the rise of Antichrist.
It will only be possible when the restraining force of the church is removed from the earth. And so what I want, what I really want us to understand is, is the implication of Paul's phrase. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
What Paul is saying is that Satan has been trying to lay plans for a very, very long time, even when Paul was writing this in the first century, he was saying Satan is already at work trying to work his plans that will facilitate the rise of Antichrist when he has opportunity.
He's been working on that for a long time now. The church is not going to be on the earth when Antichrist rises to the fore.
Paul tells us that in Thessalonians.
But we will be here for many of the preparations that will precede the emergence of Antichrist. And we will likely be able to see and recognize and identify some of those preparations. I heard one pastor put it this way.
He said, you know, that when you see Christmas decorations in Costco, it's almost time for Thanksgiving.
Here's the idea, when we see preparations for Antichrist being established and made across the Earth, we know that the rapture is almost here.
That's the biblical side of things.
And I really want to share with you some of my own personal observations about what's going on in the world right now.
As I said, I'm not saying;" thus sanest the Lotd", that is a very serious thing to say. And I'm not saying that these are just my observations.
You can consider them for what they're worth, but I hope they'll be helpful to you.
I believe that Satan is a globalist. If you don't know what a globalist is, a globalist is someone who has a political and sociological philosophy that the whole world should essentially be one community.
They're in favor of things like open borders, essentially a one world system of governance, a one world currency, so that the whole world can be one true global community. That's what a globalist is.
We don't need to have individual identities as countries. We need one global identity. And I believe that Satan is a globalist for one simple reason.
It's about finding the God in you and learning to live out your desires so that you are God. That is the essence of Satanism because that is the essence of Satan. That's what got him thrown out of heaven, his desire to be God himself, to be equal with God.
And I believe that Satan truly desires globalism, grab a hold of our planet so that the whole world can be united in secular humanism, the exultation of self and the rejection of God.
And I say this because firstly, in the Garden of Eden, this was his appeal to Eve, wasn't it?
Either the fruit, then you will be what, like God.
But even more compelling when the world's first civilization begins to emerge in Mesopotamia, in Babylon, specifically, Satan stirs up the first Antichrist Nimrod to attempt to lead all of human civilization in the pursuit of self, this secular humanism, this paganism.
But that's really about the worship of self, he says. Let us build a tower, the Tower of Babel. And his whole idea was, let's unite the world in the pursuit of self and the rejection of God.
And if you know the story, then you know what happens in Genesis one. God comes down, and he confuses the speech of people by creating different languages and different ethnic groups, and they're scattered across the world.
But do you remember what Nimrod tried to do? When all the world was living together in the same place, when they were all one community, Scripture says that the people got together and said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.
It all sounds so wonderful, doesn't it? We can reach our human potential. Let's be united. Let's move into a new age of of enlightenment, a new age of fulfilling ourselves. But then God comes down and he breaks all that up because at the center of it is this satanic philosophy of self exultation and turning the self into God.
And ever since then. I believe that Satan has been waiting for the time when he could once again rally humanity together under one leadership in the pursuit of this humanist philosophy.
The problem is people have been scattered and Satan's plans have been hindered. But this is why we saw the League of Nations as soon as Satan could do that, then that was followed by the U.N. when he could do that, then by the EU, Satan was always doing the best he can to build a globalised society with what he had available.
But what Satan has really been waiting for and needing is technology. Satan has been waiting for international travel to become the norm. He's been waiting for more trade alliances between countries. He's been waiting for a world wide system where you could disseminate information and mislead the entire population of the world by controlling the information that they receive.
He's been waiting on the Internet. He's been waiting for mass surveillance to be possible. He's been waiting for communication to increase. He's been waiting ever since Babul for the infrastructure to truly implement globalism yet again and try and turn the whole world into what he tried to make Babylon in Genesis 11. And in case you're not picking up on what I'm putting down. I think his wait is over. The wait is over, and so now the question really becomes, if you're Satan will, how do you get the world to buy into globalism?
How do you get the world to buy into the idea of becoming one of giving up personal identity, national identity, personal individual freedoms, going to a one world currency?
I mean, some countries that would be easy, because Third World countries, you're only offering them the potential of something better.
But first world countries, nationalistic first world countries that have an independent streak, well, they're a real problem because they value personal freedom and personal freedom is antithetical to globalism. So what do you do?
You have to attack the concept of nationalism. And that's really what we've seen in the media over the past few years, haven't we?
We've seen this rhetoric develop where if you're a nationalist, then you're a Nazi. If you're concerned about your personal freedoms, then then you're a nut job.
This is the emerging narrative, but it's still not enough. We see that in America right now, don't we? You know, 50 percent of the population still hasn't bought into that idea of becoming essentially a more socialist state.
And so not everybody is on board with the idea, and the problem is in some of these countries, you can't just take everybody's rights because they might rebel could be a real problem.
And what you're doing suddenly has to become revealed as being brutal rather than enlightened.
So you can't just take everybody's rights and freedoms, you have to make them give them to you. Now, how in the world do you do that, how do you make people who value individual rights and freedoms give you their rights and freedoms? It's really not that difficult. It's been done in history over and over and over again. And we saw it happen after 9/11, didn't we, when even those who value freedom were willingly giving it away because they were scared?
And they were offered the promise of safety in return. See, that's how you do it. If you can create fear and then offer security in exchange for freedom, most people will take that deal all day, every day.
That's what happened with the Patriot Act after 9/11, and things like intimate body searches became the standard protocol at airports, we got to do it, got to stop the terrorists. Well, I'm scared. So I'll let you invade my personal body space. The Patriot Act led to things like mass surveillance on citizens, which was later exposed by people like Edward Snowden. People were scared, they said, go ahead and do it, just keep us safe now, hang with me because I'm going somewhere with this.
In First Thessalonians five, Paul is writing specifically about the day of the Lord.
It's a term that applies to the whole coming season when God will judge the Earth, including the tribulation.
And here's what Paul says about that time. Listen to this. Paul says, for when they say peace and safety. Peace and safety. Then sudden destruction comes upon them. Paul tells us that the rapture and the tribulation and the rise of Antichrist that whole day of the Lord is all going to unfold in a time when people are crying out for what?
Peace and safety. And I think that's because this global system of governance, this infrastructure out of which Antichrist will emerge, can only be implemented and created when there's an atmosphere of fear where people are crying out for peace and safety, give us peace and safety. And I suspect their fear is what will be used to create this new version of the world.
Now, keep following me down this train of thought. If the goal is to create global governance, if that's the goal, and if the way to get there is by creating fear, that makes people willing to give up their rights because people are crying out for peace and safety, then the fears that you create, the fears that people have, will need to be global in nature.
They will need to be existential threats. Are you tracking with me?
If you want to bring the whole world under global governance, you have to create fear on a global level.
You can Google any of them.
They're well-established. They're very real. They're being discussed in all the mainstream circles. But what I want you to picture in your mind right now is a Venn diagram that has those three circles that overlap in one place. And each of these circles represents one of these three things.
You've got three circles, you've got covid-19, you've got climate change and you've got the global debt crisis and where they overlap.
Is where they all create existential fear. For the whole world. And the question, of course, is what is their purpose, what is the ultimate purpose of all this fear? And I believe it's to create a world system that will facilitate the rise of Antichrist in the very near future. But to bring it down, how are we going to get there?
We're going to create a more globalized society across the world. That's what all of this is for.
It's to create the fear that will overlap and create enough fear that people will be willing to accept a new version of the world, the world's economy, the world's industry, the world's civil liberties, the world's borders, all of these things now, all of these things are are real. But there's something very interesting about each of them. You see, the debt crisis has been known to be coming for decades. It's not something that emerged out of the blue.
And we're like, whoa, we blinked. And suddenly the whole world's in debt. The world economic system since the early 20th century. Has been on course to get us to where we are right now, a situation where the world is unsustainable in debt, where countries are trillions of dollars in debt in a hole so deep they cannot possibly dig themselves out. We've known for a very long time this is where this is going and no country has changed course.
Why is that? Why is that? And then we get to climate change and covid-19 both real things, but both, quite simply, extremely inflated and extremely exaggerated and constantly pushed in our faces.
There's a reason why Al Gore can make entire documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth, where every single prediction fails to come true.
And yet he's still considered an authority to speak on the subject of climate change.
There's a reason why people just ignore facts like the environmental damage caused by producing the batteries for electric cars and the environmental damage caused by disposing those same batteries when they die out in seven to 10 years.
There's a reason why nobody wants to look at that information. It's because there's something bigger, there's an influence behind the scenes driving all of these things, and when you get to countries that have a more independent streak, there's even smaller circles in this Venn diagram, things like racial issues and police shootings, all these things, they all overlap to create fear and to create the impression that the whole world is in imminent danger and it's falling apart and something has to change.
Now, that's where they all overlap.
And what's very interesting. Is that we now seem to know specifically what is in those overlapping areas? Yes, we know it's to set up the infrastructure for the emergence of Antichrist, but I would suggest how we're going to do that is actually out in the open.
Now, if you haven't heard, it's called the Great Reset. It's called United Nations Agenda 2030. And please understand, these are not things spoken about in whispers.
You can go on to the United Nations website and read about United Nations Agenda 2030 and the 230 something parts of that proposal. These are not conspiracy theories.
These are absolute facts out in the open for anyone to read, being pushed by heads of state simultaneously because these overlapping, existential global threats are all creating fear and this feeling that things need to change right now.
And this is what's being proposed to bring about those changes, the Great Reset and United Nations Agenda 2030.
And together, they envision a massive restructuring of the global community economically, socially and politically. As I mentioned, these are wide out in the open. You can go check them out for yourself.
And I'm sharing this video because I don't want to just add to the noise. I don't want to just do a new update on who we think the Antichrist could be every week.
But I don't want to add to the noise or the panic, but I'm doing this video because I think it could be helpful. And I think that these things are potentially imminent. I think we're going to see a lot of movement on these specific issues next year in 2021.
And I'm sharing this because as Christians, we need to know how we should respond to all of this.
Firstly, we need to not get angry at people. We need to not get angry at people.
Listen, the idea that your local health authorities are knowingly part of a grand conspiracy is simply ridiculous. There's too many people involved for that to be kept secret. You can't run a conspiracy with that many people.
But as we talked about earlier, anyone who does not belong to the kingdom of God, who's not saved is susceptible to the influence of Satan. And so Satan is able to make things like closing churches, but keeping bars open.
He's able to make that make sense in the mind of local and national and international health authorities.
He's able to make it seem like a good and considerate, compassionate, logical scientific idea. This is why Paul told us to remember that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.
Don't get mad at people, don't rage on social media. And listen, if you're concerned enough to speak out, then you should be concerned enough to pray. Because your prayers are going to make a whole lot more difference than ranting on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram ever is, there's also no point ranting at people.
There's no point.
And by the way, Paul's commands to honor and pray for our leaders still apply.
We may not be able to always obey our leaders, but we're still required by scripture and by the Lord to pray for them and to honor them and to watch the way that we speak about them publicly.
You know, I see a lot of churches and pastors who are talking about how the church needs to not meet.
We need to not gather because it could damage the church's reputation in the community and we need to keep our neighbors healthy.
Listen, those are good things, they're good things, OK, they really are, but they're not the most important thing.
The most important thing is to remember that the church we've got to be so clear about this. The church does not exist first and foremost for us. Most of us are clear on that, but I'm going to say something now where the church is very confused much of the time. Neither does the church exist, first and foremost for our community. Do you understand that the church does not exist first and foremost for the lost? The church exists first and foremost for Jesus.
The church is the bride of Christ, that is the identity of the church.
And so as the church navigates these times, there are a lot of questions we should ask. But the one at the top, and we should not be confused about this, the one at the top, the most important question is what does Jesus want us to do?
What does he want us to do in our daily situation, in our corporate gatherings, in response to restrictions? What does Jesus want us to do? The first question is not what does our community think we should do?
The first question is not what do our health authorities say we should do, the first question is not even what's best for my health. You want to know what's not good for your health gathering as the church in a country where being a Christian will get you murdered?
Where it's a capital offense that's bad for your health, and yet this weekend, Christians all over the world in places where they could be killed for loving Jesus will gather together as the church, even though they are risking their health in a far more serious way than we ever will with covid-19.
The question is not what does our community think, what are health authorities say we should do what's best for our health? Those are all questions that, yes, we should consider. But above all of the above, all of them is the question, what does Jesus want us to do? And that will be the question tomorrow, next week, next month, 10 years from now. If the Lord tarries, that is the question. How do we discern the answer?
We stay in the word of God. We pray we fast.
We do our best to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And and I need to let you know, Christian, that in the days ahead, what God will ask you to do will probably not line up with what you want to do if you have a very independent and contrarian streak, as I do.
You may find that Jesus is going to ask you to comply and obey civil orders much more than you would like you to.
You might find that Jesus will tell you, no, you need to stay home. You need to meet online for several months.
You might not like it, but that may be what Jesus will ask you to do. If you're conflict averse and you care deeply about being at peace with everybody.
Listen, you may find Jesus asking you to engage in civil disobedience much more than you would ever like. But here's the big thing I want us to remember. When the church is making decisions corporately and individually and as families. What Jesus wants is at the top of the list, always, no matter what, no matter what. Christian, we need to also understand that the rapture is God's promise to remove his church before he pours out his wrath upon the Earth.
The rapture is not God's promise to remove his church before the Constitution gets shredded or the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is radically revised or before society takes a significantly darker turn in terms of civil liberties.
God doesn't say I'm going to rapture my church before your country embraces communism under another name. It's not what the Bible says. Do you know that living in a time and place where Christians are not persecuted is a historical exception in the church age?
As always, every Christian needs to be ready to live for Jesus to preach, Jesus to go to prison, for Jesus, to suffer for Jesus and to die for Jesus. The rapture is not to deliver the church from persecution. It's to deliver the church from the wrath of God. Jeff, this is some scary stuff. Here's what Jesus told his disciples when he was talking to them about the difficult days that would lie ahead for his followers, Jesus said, see that you're not troubled.
For all these things must come to pass, all these things must come to pass over and over again in scripture, the command, not the suggestion the command appears, do not be afraid.
But don't ever forget. And there's someone else even higher over everything is Jesus over everything is Jesus. And listen, there's an elite class in the world that is playing chess while the rest of us are playing checkers, Satan's playing on a level above them.
But listen, Jesus. Jesus is working things on a level we can't even fathom. Everybody thinks they're making their own choices, but the Bible says man makes his plans, but the will of the Lord prevails.
What Jesus has written about biblical prophecy is not a plan, it's not a prediction he hopes will come true, it is future history. Not one word that the Lord has spoken will fail to come to pass, his word will never return void. What he has spoken will happen with absolute certainty and the final chapter of the Earth.
And the ages to come are already written. You can read about them in the word of God. The ending is certain church. We are getting so close, we're getting so close. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't get distracted.
Don't get distracted. No matter what happens, we belong to Jesus, we live for Jesus if you're not doing that. Get serious about the Lord, get serious about the Lord, make up your mind now, make the decision now that you're following him no matter what, no matter where it leads, because the king is coming and he's coming soon.
God bless.
by David Tan
Introduction
On November 25, 1942, Vice-Principal Mark Ma of the Northeast Bible College was praying and reading his Bible when he heard an audible voice telling him to set up an evangelistic band to take the Gospel back to Jerusalem. Since he was not a Pentecostal, he kept the encounter to himself for six months.
On the next Easter Sunday, April 25, 1943, Pastor Ma delivered a sermon about taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem. After the service, Miss Ho En Cheng, shared that she had received a similar call 10 years earlier.
Meanwhile, on the campus of Northeast Bible College, students gathered at the court yard that same morning to pray together. Each of these students heard a call to also take the Gospel back to Jerusalem. After praying, the students realized that they had each heard the same message from God.
Pastor Ma returned to the campus after his preaching to hear the students' exciting news. In consultation with the principal and staff of the college, the "Back to Jerusalem Gospel Band" was established.
God was also speaking to others around the nation. By 1948, a movement to take the Gospel "Back to Jerusalem" became the passionate cry of the Chinese Church. It is recorded that as many as 5,000 of these individuals with the same call from God walked from Northeastern China all the way to the Western China border. They were prepared to cross into the Islamic world. However, they were stopped at the border by the communist revolution. Most of the 5,000 were shot and killed, but those who survived were sentenced to 45 years imprisonment.2
Dr. Peter Wagner, former professor of Fuller Theological Seminary, spoke these words a number of years ago: "By the year 2025, the Chinese Church will take the Gospel back to Jerusalem." When I first heard these words, I thought Dr. Wagner might be patronizing the Chinese Church, but during our first term in Asia, we did see the beginning of this new wave of the future. Others also saw this mission. Dr Larry Keyes of Overseas Crusade predicted this new wave of workers in his book in 1985.3 Although Dr. Keyes did not specifically point to the Chinese Church as the leader of this mission, he did forecast it would be the Two-Thirds World Missionaries who would complete the task of bringing the Gospel back to Jerusalem.
As you can tell, hearing the above story filled my heart with excitement. Is it true that the Chinese Church will take the Gospel all the way back to Jerusalem and reach people who have been unreached along the way? What and where is the evidence of Dr. Wagner's foresight?
First, we must examine the missionary zeal of the church in Asia. Second, we must study the potential of the American Chinese Church to fulfill this mandate. Finally, we will make logical implications from these discoveries.
According to Operation World, the number of cross-cultural missionaries from East Asian countries totaled almost 18,000 in the year 2000.4 The conservative estimate for 2002 increased this number to approximately 25,000. Note that these figures do not include workers from China since we have no way of knowing how many more we can count on.
The conclusion is quite clear. The churches in East Asia are beginning to assume the missionary responsibility that our Western brothers predicted. The following are missionary mottos of the churches in East Asia. The Mongolian church missionary motto is "Taking the Gospel to the places that the Great Khan devastated."
The missionary motto of the church in China is "Taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem along the Silk Route."
In order to fulfill these two mottos the Gospel will need to reach the four resistance blocks of unreached people groups: Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and atheist.
Potential of the American Born Chinese Church
In the last few months American Demographics Magazine released an analysis of the Chinese population from the 2000 national population census. According to these reports, 3.6% or 10,242,998 of the US population is Asian.5 While the national population grew only 6% from 1990 to 2000, the Asian population grew 107%. In the next five years the Asian segment will grow another 27% to 13,957,310.
We all know that the term Asian American can mean different things. The report provides a detailed break down of those who call themselves Asian into more than 20 subgroups. The Chinese form the largest subgroup with 2,734,841 individuals. To this figure we must add 144,795 from Taiwan, 18,566 from Malaysia, 2,394 from Singapore, and199 from Indonesia for a total of 2,900,795.6
"Crowning Cash Flow" and "Superlative Segment" are two terms used to describe the economic wealth of the Asian American. American Demographics also reports that a disproportionate 21.9% of Asian Americans earn $100,000 and above annually.7 The San Jose Mercury reports that the average annual income of Chinese citizens is $36,000 which is higher than the general population.
"Education-Asian American Excellence" is the subtitle for another major segment of the American Demographics report. 44.4% Asian Americans hold an under-graduate or higher degree as compared to 34.4% of the general population.
How does this information apply to missions and the American Born Chinese church? It applies in many ways.
According to George Barna's analysis of the same 2000 population data, there was no significant growth among ethnic churches in the last decade. The only exception is the 27% growth of the Asian American Churches.9 When we combine the economic purchasing power and the educational excellence of the Asian Americans in general and the Chinese Church in particular, we are talking about a great potential missionary force. At the last Urbana 2000 over 5,000 Asian Americans attended the missions conference. This was 27% of those attending. Over 1,000 Chinese Americans met during the conference, while others had to be turned away for lack of space.
Implications
"By the year 2025, the Chinese Church will take the Gospel back to Jerusalem." This prediction is unfolding before our eyes.
Those volunteers who survived the 1948 massacre when they first tried to cross the border of Western China prayed each night with their face to Jerusalem, that the Lord would preserve and keep the vision alive. One Sunday morning in 1998, after imprisonment for 40 years, Simeon Chiu was sitting in church service. That morning, a young preacher led the congregation to sing a hymn he had written 40 years ago for the Back to Jerusalem Gospel Band. The message challenged the members to take the baton and complete the race by taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem. Now an old man, Simeon could not help but weep throughout the worship service. The young preacher noticed his strange behavior and immediately after the service approached Simeon. Hardly able to speak, Simeon told the young preacher he wrote the hymn 40 years ago.
Today, there are a number of initiations to complete this vision of the Chinese Church. In fact, there are thousands who are ready and willing to go. God in His wisdom has allowed the responsibility of carrying the Gospel to the ends of the world to fall into the lap of Christians from a particular nation. In the first era of modern missions from 1792-1910 the European Christians dominated. America has taken the lead in the second era from 1865-1980.10 Missiologists believe that the Chinese Church will complete the race and finish the task.
In a team rally race, medals are won or lost during the transition. The most critical part of the race is during each transition when one runner hands the baton to the next. Dropping the baton or failing to hand it to the next runner within the prescribed distance will disqualify the whole team. The European and American churches have each paid the price and completed their part of the race. Will the Chinese Church drop the baton? I am glad to report that the baton is safe. Chinese churches in East Asia as well as the Mainland are now busy dreaming, recruiting, training, preparing and engaging in the task.
One question remains: "Will our brothers and sisters in the American Born Chinese church jump onto the train and join the rest of our team to complete this task?"
Some professional "headhunters" for mission agencies are worried and concerned about a trend they've observed. While there has been much talk and many activities and mission conferences organized by the Chinese American Church, we have yet to see the first wave of volunteers. Brian Leong of ESI reports that each year he recruits and trains over 100 volunteers for short-term ministry, but only half a dozen are Chinese or Asian. I spoke to over 20 interested individuals at a huge conference but found that only our Western brothers and sisters are ready to go. A year later only Western believers are on the field as career cross-cultural workers. Our Chinese believers are still home scouting the options. This is not to invalidate short-term missions or the efforts of churches; however, the overall picture is not encouraging. With so much "purchasing power" and "educational excellence,"
We read in Acts that "during the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us'" (16:9). Throughout the past year, the Lord has laid the same invitation upon my heart-"Come over to Asia and help us." Won't you come and answer the invitation?
Date:1/3/21
Series: Matthew
Passage: Matthew 26:26-29......Speaker: BJ Chursinoff
Throughout the 4 Gospels, Jesus constantly makes shocking and awesome statements. When we hear Jesus’ words repeatedly, we can easily grow numb to just how scandalous some of His statements are. His words can begin to sound almost normal to us. But His Words are anything but normal, and we'll look at an example in this message that takes place during the Last Supper, the night before Jesus is crucified.
It happened almost 20 years ago, but I can still remember seeing the footage of it on CNN. Giant explosions everywhere and a lot of them all at once. It was it was surreal.
It was back in 2003 when the United States led a coalition that invaded Iraq and overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein.
The Iraq war began with what is known as the shock and awe campaign. It was called the shock and awe campaign.
Because of the force that was used, the military force was shocking and it left you in awe if you saw it.
It was extraordinary, it was abnormal, it was not something that you saw every day, it took your breath away if you saw it, it took mine away, to be sure. Part of the reason it was so shocking to me personally was the fact that war has never been a part of my life as a Canadian citizen. I haven't seen or heard gunshot fire first hand. I haven't been present when a bomb has gone off anywhere. I wasn't used to what I saw happen in Iraq.
So when I saw it, it really left an imprint on my mind. But there are so many people in our world today who have had upbringings that are totally different from what mine was like.
There are people who have grown up in war torn countries and all they've ever known is gunfire, explosions and war on a daily basis. Some people have experienced war so much that it's not even shocking or awesome to them anymore. It's become almost normal to them.
They've become numb to it all because they've seen the sights too many times and they've heard the sounds one too many times.
They've become numb to the shock and awe of war. Now, I think the same thing can happen to us on a spiritual level when it comes to Jesus. See, almost every time Jesus opens his mouth and speaks, it's like a verbal shock and awe campaign. Powerful words, explosive words, words that change everything Jesus says, shocking and awesome statements constantly throughout the gospels.
And I think that when we hear Jesus words repeatedly every day for years on end, I think that we, too, can grow numb to the shocking and awesome things that he has to say.
His words can become almost normal sounding. But his words are almost anything but normal. I want to show you an example of this in our text tonight, some shocking and awesome words from the Lord Jesus. So if you have your Bible with you, I want to get you to turn to our text, which is Matthew, Chapter 26, Verse is. Twenty six to twenty nine as we pick up our study through the book of Matthew together. As you find your place, I'll start in the very beginning of verse twenty six and it goes like this.
Says now as they were eating, so there's a stop there for now in this scene, Jesus and his disciples are enjoying what's what is known as the Passover meal.
They're eating this dinner together on the eve of Jesus crucifixion. Now, if we're going to comprehend the shocking and awesome words that come out of Jesus mouth in this scene, we're going to have to grasp the significance of the Passover meal.
You can read about the institution of the Passover more fully if you go back and start near the end of the Book of Genesis and read through about the first third of the Book of Exodus, all that I'm about to reference about the Passover here can be found in more detail there.
A pharaoh rejects God's word to him, which tells Pharaoh to set God's people free.
God then performs a series of ten devastating plagues that bring all of Egypt to its knees in submission. These 10 plagues demonstrated God's power towards those he was saving.
But they also displayed to the entire world that there is only one true God and all of the gods of Egypt could never hold a candle to God's glory. Is plague number 10, where our understanding of the Passover comes from, all the plagues were harsh, but number 10 was the harshest.
To understand that this is the tenth plague, Pharaoh has had more than enough time and opportunity to heed God's warning up until this point, plague number 10 was this God was going to kill the first born son of every family in Egypt, both of Egyptians and the Hebrews alike, unless each family took the blood of a lamb and painted their doorpost with it. Then, when the angel of death came to that house and saw the blood, he would pass over that house and not kill the firstborn son.
But if the blood wasn't placed on the door post when the angel came, the firstborn son would be killed. Now all of God's people killed the lamb and painted their doorpost with the blood, just like God told them to do.
And all their firstborn sons were spared. The Egyptians, they, didn't heed God's warning, and that night all the firstborn sons in Egypt were killed.
That was the final straw for Pharaoh. The next morning, God's people were finally kicked out of Egypt and then God led them through the Red Sea and into the wilderness and eventually into the promised land is during the exodus out of Egypt that God instituted that this event in his people's history should be commemorated every year with a special meal. We can read about this specifically in Exodus Chapter 12 or 14, where it reads God saying this day shall be for you, a Memorial Day and you shall keep it as a feast.
The Lord, throughout your generations as a statue forever. You shall keep it as a feast.
So every year forward from this point, from the day that God passed over his people and delivered them from out of their bondage in Egypt, God's people remembered what God had done by celebrating the Passover meal on the anniversary that their freedom was given to them.
That was what Jesus was doing with his disciples in our text. This is what they were celebrating. Now, there are many parts to this Passover meal, and for the sake of time, we're not going to break down every part of the Passover meal in this message. But we're going to look at two of the parts of the meal, the unleavened bread and the cups of wine. The unleavened bread was eaten at every single Passover meal throughout the Bible.
Unleavened bread is a picture of senselessness, and Silvan is symbolic for sin. And so unleavened bread is symbolic for now then. But there's an added layer of meaning to the unleavened bread when we consider the very first Passover event, see when the Israelites ate the unleavened bread of Passover, the very first time, it reminded them that they had to leave Egypt very quickly when the opportunity came for them to go. Listen to this in Exodus, Chapter 12, starting in verse three, it's going to be on an outline as well, if you have it says the Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste, for they said we shall all be dead.
So when the Jews ate the unleavened bread, they remembered that their people had to flee Egypt in haste. In haste. That's the unleavened bread. Now, not another part of the Passover meal was the four cups of wine that were staggered throughout the dinner.
If you go back and read the Exodus account, you won't find wine as part of the prescribed meal that God gave to Moses. The wine was in addition to the Passover meal that was added over the years since the exodus. I don't know when it was added, but I do know why the wine was added. The four cups of Passover wine were an integral part of the Passover celebration because this is what they did.
They represented each of the four promises that God made to his people in Exodus Chapter six, verses six to seven when I read those two verses for us right now. Exodus six verse is six to seven says this say, therefore, to the people of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptian. During the Passover meal, each of the four cups of wine commemorated one of these four promises that God made to his people.
Number one called the cup of sanctification. And this was connected to the first promise that God made an the one where he said, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And so when the people in Passover had that cup, they remembered that promise. Then cup number two was known as the Cup of Deliverance, and that was connected to the second promise God made, which was I will rescue you from their bondage.
Later in the meal, they'd get to number three. This would be called the cup of redemption connected to the third promise, which God said, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.
And then finally, the cup for was known as the cup of praise connected to the fourth promise God made, which was I will take you as my people. So every year during the Passover meal, God's people remembered God's promises when they participated in the four cups.
As I said earlier, there are other parts of the Jewish Passover, but I highlight just the aspects of the bread and the wine for the purpose of examining our text here tonight.
And now we're ready, we're ready for Jesus verbal shock and awe campaign.
Are you ready for it? All right, Jews celebrated the Passover every year to remember the historical event of their exodus out of Egypt every year, they had celebrated Passover every year for centuries, for centuries, up until this time that Jesus is celebrating it with his disciples.
And so in our seeing, Jesus is reclining around the table with his disciples and he says to them, in what I would imagine, is a nonchalant kind of manner.
He mentions to them that the centuries old tradition of Passover. It's not about the exodus anymore now, according to the words that came out of Jesus mouth, the Passover celebration is now. All about him. It's all about Jesus.
Let's read our text the first several verses in Matthew Chapter twenty six, starting in verse twenty six. Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them. Same drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
So we really need to grasp the shock value of what Jesus is saying and doing here. So let me try to help us grasp the shock and awe of it by sharing the modern day equivalent with you.
Here's a scene that I made up taking place around a family's table for Christmas dinner.
Totally made up scene. OK, so imagine this. Everyone sitting around a big table, a big spread for Christmas dinner.
Grandpa has already prayed and the meal has begun when halfway through dinner, Uncle Bob stands up at his seat and rings his glass with his fork ting ting ting to get everybody's attention.
Can I please have everybody's attention, Uncle Bob begins. I have a really important message that I want to share with you. It's about Christmas. At Christmas, we always remember and celebrate when Christ was born and people have done that for the past two thousand years. Uncle Bob continues.
But starting tonight, things are going to change from here on out. Christmas is not about Jesus anymore. From now on, when we celebrate Christmas, everybody is to remember me, Uncle Bob.
My favorite color is green, and so when you put up your Christmas tree every year, I want you to remember me. You know, you all know I have a pretty good sense of humor, so when you're eating your turkey at Christmas dinner, I want you to remember your Uncle Bob, who's a big turkey himself.
And since I'm the point of Christmas now, Uncle Bob continues, when you set up your nativity scene each Christmas season, I want you to place Baby Jesus face down on the ground. And I want you to put a picture of me there in his place instead.
Grandpa finally chimes in, OK, that's enough, sit down, Bob and everyone, Uncle Bob is now cut off officially from the wine for the rest of the night. It would be shocking if someone did what Uncle Bob did in this fictitious example, wouldn't wouldn't it be shocking? But that's what Jesus is actually doing during the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus words are shocking and they're awesome. Take a look again at verse twenty six says Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body.
Jesus is saying this bread is about me now.
Remember me when you eat this bread, Jesus says, shocking, the full weight of these shocking words will become clearer to the disciples when on the very next day, Jesus body was brutally tortured and hung on the cross.
But Jesus is saying, when you eat this bread from now on, I don't want you to focus on the Passover in Egypt anymore. I want you to focus on me and my body hanging on the cross, my body that was buried, my body that was physically raised from the dead.
This is about me. Now, the scene with Jesus and his disciples reminds me of a well-known meme. The meme comes from a movie called Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks. Now, in this particular scene that this meme comes from, the pirates get on board the Tom Hanks ship and one of the pirates comes up directly to Tom Hanks character, and he does one of these with his eyes. The pirate looks directly at the captain, Tom Hanks, and he goes like this and he says, look at me, I'm the captain now.
Look at Verse is, twenty seven and twenty eight again. And he took a cup and when he'd given thanks he said you gave it to them. Same drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. We've already seen that there were four times during the Passover meal where one of four cups was of wine was drunk and each cup of wine corresponded to one of the four promises God made those people in the exodus.
The cup that Jesus has given to his disciples in Arsène is the third cup which corresponded to the third promise God promised back in Exodus Chapter six.
I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. I will redeem you means I will purchase you for myself. And that is what God did during the Passover. In the Exodus, God purchased His people out of Egypt for himself.
And now Jesus is saying this wine of redemption is about me. It's about me. This wine is a picture of my blood which was poured out on the cross the very next day. Jesus, blood was the price that had to be paid if God were to purchase a people for himself in the exodus, the blood of the lamb, which was which stained the doorpost of each house, saved people from physical death.
On Good Friday, the blood of the Lamb of God, which stained the cross, saves his people from spiritual death.
In the exodus, people were saved from a physical death, but they would still end up dying one day in the future. But in the gospel, people are saved from an eternal spiritual death. So we are all going to physically die one day unless we're raptured or we're alive when Jesus comes back. But the blood of Jesus applied to our lives by faith ensures that when we stand before God in the final judgment, spiritual death will pass over us.
To why? Because Jesus died for us. You shed his blood for us. And that was enough to pay for our sins because Jesus paid for our sins. We don't have to pay for our sins anymore.
The bread and the wine of Passover used to point God's people to a past event, and it did for hundreds of years. Don't miss that.
It was a centuries old tradition given to them by God himself. But now Jesus is saying that the bread and the wine are pointing to a new event.
The Gospel, the bread and the wine now point to the slain body of the Lamb of God given for the sins of the world hanging on the cross where his blood was poured out in order that whoever is covered by the blood is saved forever.
Shocking, awesome words and great news. If you are new to the Bible and new to the Christian faith, this is what Christians do when we observe communion together, we are doing what Jesus told his disciples to do during the Last Supper. When we eat the bread of communion and drink the cup of communion, we are doing what Jesus disciples did during the Last Supper. We don't remember Egypt. We remember the cross Jesus body hung on it and Jesus blood spilled out on it so that we can remember the wrath of God has passed over us.
Wow. Wow. Final, the final words in our text verse, twenty nine, Jesus goes on, I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you and my father's kingdom. Remember, it was the third cup of wine that Jesus held up when he spoke. The words found in verses twenty seven and twenty eight. But then he goes on to say here in verse twenty nine that he won't drink the Passover wine until a future date.