Beyond Belief | Ps Shane Willard

hello everybody it's so good to uh speak with you today i get to open the scripture i love doing that and i can't wait to share this with you today anytime we preach we want jesus to get bigger the cross to work better the resurrection to be central scriptures to get bigger not smaller we also want to ask ourselves a couple questions one what happened and two more importantly what's happening in me right now because of what happened so i want to um talk to you about faith and how to build faith and what faith looks like particularly in troubled times what does faith like i think we've almost ruined the word faith because faith subtly i don't think anybody intended to do this faith became a what do you believe word and if faith stays as a what you believe word versus a who do you trust word and how do you look at your world word well it's it's just at best juvenile so what we want to do is we want to have faith in christ in the sense that christ is not something we believe in rather christ and the way he taught us to live is a fundamental way of seeing the whole world and i want to read you a a passage from one of jesus's disciples who is writing to first century christians he's writing to people who already know christ and he's talking to them about what this means for how we live in our world this is first john chapter 2 and verse 18 to 25 it says children it is the last hour and as you've heard the antichrist is coming so now many antichrists have come therefore we know that this is the last hour they went out from us but they were not of us for they had not been of us if they had been of us they would have continued with us but but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us but but you have been anointed by the holy one and you have all the knowledge that's a mouthful right there if they were of us they would have never left us so there's there's that i write to you not because you do not know the truth because you already know the truth these are people are followers of christ and because no lie is of the truth who is the liar but he who denies that jesus is the christ this is the antichrist he who denies the father and the son no one who denies the son has the father whoever confesses the son has the father also let what you heard from the beginning abide in you if what you heard from the beginning abides in you then you too will abide in the son and in the father and this is the promise that he made for us eternal life i write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you so a couple of observations about this first there's a few times in this passage you see the words the last hour and the antichrist mentioned now that's an interesting thing because when you look up all the other uses in the whole bible of the word antichrist or the last hour this is the only time it's used the the word antichrist does not appear in the book of revelation which is where you would expect it to appear this this word antichrist is not about some singular person later this is about something going on in their world right then and it's the only time it's mentioned in the whole bible that this letter is written as a solution to debates around the three fundamental questions that were going on in history around christ who is jesus how is jesus unique and what does he promise us who is jesus how is jesus unique and what does he promise us so here were john's answers in his letter who is jesus he was the messiah he's he's unlike anyone else he's a king he's a king anointed by god to establish a new narrative of a new rule for the earth the idea was is that if god was actually in flesh it wouldn't look like caesar oppressing and raping and destroying most of the world it would actually look like christ who come to lift the lowly to the level of the elite it would be the end of social classes it would be the end of misogyny it would be the end of male female jew greek slavery it'd be the end of all that so so who is jesus he's the one that came to introduce a new narrative to the world about what the world would look like if it was under the rule of a god who came in flesh and that was called the kingdom of god and he is the ultimate picture of what that god is not a god who tortures or demands to be served but a god who empties himself and serves others um number two how is jesus unique well he's divine somehow the father and the son are connected and can't be separated that this was the propaganda around caesar as well that that caesar was fully man fully god but but the point the gospel writers and john is making is if god was a man it wasn't like that like surely god can do better than a guy enriching the top one percent at the expense of the 99 surely surely it would be better than that uh what does jesus promise us eternal life john loves this phrase and uses it extensively eternal life so let's look at that phrase so the phrase eternal life is made up of a compound it's two greek words psyche and zoe psyche is the greek word to describe our consciousness that is present that's where we get the word psychology from it's what we're aware of right now it's um what gains our attention psyche zoe is described as something with no beginning and no end and is always in the present tense so when first century jews used the word eternal life they weren't talking about going to heaven when you die although we embrace that we embrace resurrection we embrace the olam hubba we embrace that but when when john's using the word eternal life he's not talking about where you go when you die he's talking about tapping into the life source that was present at creation is ongoing holding all things together now and we'll continue to hold all things together and in the present tense our consciousness reaches into that let me be as simple as i can in a first century jewish world eternal life was having a moment where you were exceptionally conscious of god's best way and his activity in our life right now it's any time we can cancel the white noise of everything else and be focused and attentive to what god is up to it's touching the best kind of life here now today and john uses the word knowing john uses the word no and the word believe often in the gospel of john he uses the word believe the most in his letters he uses the word no and possibly because the gospel of john is written to people who have no idea about jesus the letters are written to establish communities of jesus followers so to john there was a journey from belief like i believe that to a knowing maybe we can say it this way from a what we believe to a how we believe what we believe or to move jesus from a bullet point on a pamphlet describing what we believe to moving jesus to a knowing of how we fundamentally see our whole world those two things what if john is giving us a progression of a posture of believing to an experience of knowing let me say it a couple different ways belief resides in the head but knowing resides in the center of our being for us that would be our heart for the first century people that would be their bowel their splatna the the life source so in one sense maybe john's saying wait a minute it's okay to start with belief but at some point belief has to journey to a position of knowing an experiential knowing of a fundamental way of seeing the world see jesus was bringing good news and eternal life to a world of pain and bad news that's a good narrative i'm going to bring good news and a way to touch eternal life in a world of pain and bad news i'm changing the narrative that guy over there called caesar who says he's gotten flesh he's not bringing life to most people top one percent being enriched everybody else impoverished raped pillaged oppressed starving no no no no no no if if god was actually in flesh it wasn't like that no no i'm going to bring a new narrative and we're going to call that narrative the kingdom of god a phrase that wasn't used before jesus uh it wasn't used in any old testament passage any rabbinical literature jesus is saying a new thing i've come for this purpose to establish the kingdom of god what what does that mean in the most common language i can say that jesus came to establish the rule of god by introducing a new narrative of how the world can work if god was in flesh and ruling and invite people to change the way they think to align themselves with it that's called repentance jesus is bringing good news in in in this passage antichrist seems to be anyone who believes the bad news instead of knowing the good news antichrist is anyone who says no the old way of seeing the world is better than the way jesus just brought to the world that that is the antichrist way of living it seems in this passage that there is an invitation to move from belief to knowing to move from what to who to move from bullet points to a fundamental way of seeing the world and the invitation to build our faith in in a time like this is times like this expose where our belief is just bullet points times like this expose when our faith can be relegated to bullet points on a pamphlet versus faith being a fundamental way of seeing the world and who do we trust and how do we surrender our control to god it's that it's it brings about what's really important are we are we after stuff it also it also teaches us that what the scripture says about stuff being temporary is quite literally true like how many times in scripture do you see hey don't put your faith in temporary don't put your faith in that that's it's not bad it's just temporary and when you put faith in temporary things it's pretty fragile things can go away like this like in our world right now a germ brought the entire global economy to his knees that's fragile like the best laid plans like that that's that's fragile if if you put your faith in something well that's fragile that's that's trusting a temporary thing and the invitation in this passage is to trust a better story to move our faith and trust from a certain narrative about how the world works to a better narrative and that would be called good news it's also called eternal life it's a way to reach into what god has been up to since before the foundation of the world and we get to touch it a bit now we experience it on a daily at least weekly basis probably in prayer like prayer isn't supposed to inaugurate new realities as much as prayer is to align us with what god's already been up to since before the foundation of the world prayer cancels the white noise of our whole world around us and allows us to be conscious of what god's been up to all along same thing with worship great worship does not inaugurate the presence of god like hey sing a song so god will show up what no that's ancient primitive paganism no no great worship does not inaugurate the presence of god great worship cancels the white noise of people's lives long enough to allow them to be conscious of what god's been up to all along and in that moment they get to touch it but it was there all along we experience eternal life in moments where we do something for someone who could do nothing in return for us it's in that moment where we truly start living it's in that moment where jesus said when you learn to love your enemy that's when life really starts in an earlier passage he says god makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust so when you learn to live like that you're actually being holy as god is holy in other words to jesus life actually begins when we treat people as they are worth and not as they deserve and here's the issue in a moment like this in a moment like this our faith gets exposed for whether it just belongs as bullet points on a pamphlet or are we actually in the process of knowing do we actually know on the in side is it fundamentally shifting the way we see our whole world are we holding back from the poor in the afflicted are we putting them vulnerable at more at risk is jesus simply belief system and john is inviting us to a progression that is normal and that normal progression is yeah believing one thing i'm inviting you to know and to know means you're going to touch eternal life not someday but here now today so a couple questions that i want us to wrestle with because what happened and what's happening in me now because of what happened are two different things so let's stop and let's ask a few questions about this one can we stop and remember a moment where we shifted from belief to knowing like i believe that jesus could heal people but that's fundamentally different than the first time i saw someone get healed i believe christ could deliver people that's fundamentally different than the first time i saw someone be delivered i i believe that the best way to live is to forgive my enemies and bless them and not escalate the conflict i believe that but that's fundamentally different than the first time i by faith engaged in that and got to know and taste a little bit about what that life looks like what does it look like to not just believe it what john is saying to people who already believe in jesus is do not relegate jesus to a bullet point on a pamphlet but rather a fundamental way of seeing the world and how do we know that we know that through knowing instead of believing and through eternal life let's say this way are we deficient in belief are we deficient in belief and can we ask the holy spirit to help our unbelief in the biblical narrative that's a common thing hey help my unbelief in other words this side of the ledger i'm a little bit deficient i'm not sure i actually have my head wrapped around that i don't know if i believe that and that's a legitimate part of the spiritual journey but but maybe for some of us we don't have a belief problem we have a knowing problem and can we ask the holy spirit for the opportunities to help us know not just believe to have the opportunity to minister to the poor and feel and know what that kind of life looks like to forgive our enemies to not escalate the violence that this if jesus is relegated to a bullet point on a pamphlet what what is that like we believe this wait a minute wait a minute what about if it's if jesus is how we know stuff is is how we see our whole world this would change everything this would change how we shop this would change how we hoard or don't hoard this would change our basic attitude around hey i'm willing to suffer a bit so that the most vulnerable don't suffer a whole lot it would change that it would change it would change how we treat someone who we perceive wronged us it would change the way we see wait a minute hang on hang on these people are the most vulnerable how can we do something for them that they could do nothing in return for us maybe we actually do have a belief problem and if that's the case we need to ask the holy spirit to help us with that but we might not have a belief problem we might have a knowing problem and a knowing problem we need to ask the holy spirit for the opportunity to engage in the kind of life jesus taught us to live so that we can know it let's ask it a fourth way do we wrap our consciousness around the good news of eternal life or the bad news in the whole of scripture this is the only time the word antichrist is used that's it it's not used in revelation it's not used anywhere else just in first john and the context is is that there's a narrative that christ brought a new narrative to the world called good news christ's message was i've come for the primary reason of establishing the kingdom of god what is that that's a new narrative if god was in flesh it surely wouldn't look like caesar surely can't look like that that if caesar is what god looks like in flesh then he's oppressing 99 of the world and enriching one percent no way that happens no way if god who created the whole thing and is holding the whole thing together if god became flesh he's going to enrich himself and rape and pillage and oppress people it's not that that jesus came with a new narrative which requires repentance a new way of thinking about the world that in christ there's not june or greek male nor female slave nor free that christ was the end of the class systems it was the end of racism it was the end of misogyny it was the end of the differentiation between those things and that would be good news and we have a choice we can wrap our consciousness around the good news that brings eternal life or the bad news that keeps the world in a subpar narrative so jesus offers this narrative to the world his invitation is to repent to change the way we think about it and when we do there's a word for that salvation true life this is where living starts are we centered on christ or antichrist so my brothers and sisters may your knowledge of christ not be relegated to belief like a what do you believe but rather a who do you trust and and and a fundamental way of seeing the world may we grab eternal life not someday but here now today by being aware of what god has been up to says before the foundation of the world and today we get to touch it may that get bigger for you today

Channel: Bayside Church Melbourne

Views: 2,777

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Keywords: bayside church, rob buckingham, bayside, God, Christianity, shane willard, ps shane, ps shane willard, beyond belief, hope in tough times

Id: nOrd1fCbHlM

Length: 17min 56sec (1076 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020