Blood in the Water - Pastor Shane Willard | Ascend Global Church

hey great to have you join us again see ya and it is always a privilege and an honor just to come together and to meet with you will be virtually and it is still great to have to be with you here thank you so much for joining in you know we it really is a privilege to just to be part of each other's lives at this time and we're so grateful that we have media platforms that we can stay connected as a as a church family and as a body of believers wherever you are fun tonight if you're with you from Hawke's Bay or you from somewhere else in New Zealand or maybe you're tuning in from Australia or the Middle East or wherever it is America or the United Kingdom but we want to say welcome tonight we're so glad that you are with us and we know tonight that you're gonna be so impeccable gift speaking tonight that you your life will be very challenged by his message tonight and so tonight we have passed a Shane will add and he was supposed to be here with us in person but obviously can't but nonetheless what he brings to us today is just gonna be very very powerful and Shane is a great friend of ours we love them a lot he's been a great blessing to us he's the words the ministry he's brought it's really touched your heart and transformed us and I encourage you over this time not to just listen with your mind yeah and just get some information it sounds cool but allow the Word of God to come into your heart and so it's really important that we do that because otherwise we can just listen that the Bible often speaks about giving us an ear to hear so not just hearing without just ease these ears and then forgetting about what's even been seen but listen with the ear of your heart listen to the ear of your spirit because in there you'll feel the Holy Spirit start to speak to you yeah and that's where we get transformation the Hebrew culture was largely a largely a culture of the word and of the ear in other words they received by listening so I encourage you today is to listen with your heart listen with your spirit and let's welcome pastor shown without as he comes to minister tonight fantastic we bless you tonight we look forward to seeing you on Sunday 10 a.m. pass today we're bringing the message yes and next week we have a whole lot of guest ministers coming on as well and a p.m. each weekday night and so we do we really want to bless you we want to bless your households we're praying for you right yes we're praying for you every day we're praying for our families and we can't wait to be back together again really soon so why don't you are grab something to take notes on because you'll want to with this message from Pastor Shane it's not too late share it out so start pruning shears out leave for this message past a shame we honor you tonight we thank you for your words into our lives over many many years consistently bringing the Word of God to shape us and to challenge us I mean I mean enjoy hello everybody it's so good to be here with you and coming into your homes I get the opportunity to open the Bible today and I take that very seriously and I love it anytime you look at the scripture you want to ask yourself at least two questions one what happened and then two and more importantly what's happening in me right now because of what happened and I want to look at one of the meanings of the cross and resurrection if the cross and resurrection are ever relegated to bullet points on a pamphlet like this is what we believe I think that that's a cheaper version of what could be more profound that the cross and resurrection is not meant to be something that we simply believe in rather something we know and something that fundamentally shifts the filter by which we see our whole world and so I want to do so by looking at one of the things that Paul wrote about what it meant for Jesus to die on the cross what it meant for our world how do we live tomorrow and so this is in Colossians chapter 2 here's what he says once when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your God has made you alive with Christ so obviously one of the meanings of the cross and resurrection is this death or life thing he forgave us all our sins so there is this sense of there's this forgiveness part of the cross and resurrection and of course in other places in the New Testament it demands that the forgiveness part was true before the foundation of the world and the cross was physically manifesting what God had always done since before the foundation of the world so you have this movement from death to life you've got this forgiveness of sins the cancellation of debt here's what it says having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness so there's that part which stood against us and condemned us he took it away by nailing it to the cross and having disarmed the powers and authorities he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross so what I want to talk to you about for today is I want to talk to you about the disarming of the powers and authorities the public spectacle the triumphing over them by the cross and I want to do so by not robbing the cross of its other meanings that doesn't have a forgiveness of sin meaning yes say oh yes it does it doesn't show us what got it accomplished before the foundation of the world yes it does it absolutely does does it cancel our legal indebtedness absolutely absolutely that's does it move us from death to life yes because how do you concur death will you die and then you and the enemy rice again that there is a cross and there's an exaltation there's a death and there's a life there's what we want and then there's the struggle to get to what we want and so so what you see in Jesus is really something unique but not new this is how the world works the way you conquered death is by entering into it and bringing life this is what God has been up to since before the foundation of the world you look at Genesis 1 he didn't shy away from disorder he engaged it to bring order he didn't shy away from chaos he engages it to bring new creation he engages the darkness to bring light and so I want to talk to you about one part one part today of the cross and resurrection that I'm not sure gets enough play time but part part of the problem is is how the world how the word salvation gets thrown around so we throw the word salvation around like like willing it like oh are they saved am I saved and sometimes we relegate salvation to us in them in and out right and wrong but but actually when you look at Scripture salvation is used it to my knowledge and by my research at least seven different ways and I don't want to cheapen the other uses but in one session you got to focus on one is I want to I want to focus on the use of the word salvation that has nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins it has nothing to do with going to heaven when you're dying it has nothing to do with the afterlife at all it has to do with God's intent to rescue us from things that oppress us here now today now the other use of salvation just as valid and it's used that way throughout scripture salvation is used to describe healing it's used to describe deliverance from some of the oppressors it's also used to describe a state of where indebtedness has been forgiven it's used to describe all of these things and so in Colossians Paul says that one of the meanings of the cross was the being set free by the disarming of the power and authorities now this is vaguely familiar all the way back in Exodus 3 as far as I know this is one of the first uses of the idea of salvation in the whole Bible this is Exodus 3 verse 7 and the Lord said I've indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt so the context here is about misery suffering oppression and I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I'm concerned about their suffering once again misery suffering slave drivers so I won't come down and rescue them now the word rescue there is the same word that gets translated to other times salvation you could easily say I'm gonna come down and save them I'm gonna deliver them I'm gonna rescue them so the context here is not the forgiveness of sins as much as it is the freedom from oppression the setting free from the suffering it's it's somebody or something is doing something to us and God is not happy with what it's doing to us so he is going to rescue us from it I'm gonna rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land into a better good and spacious land now this has illusions that go back all the way to Genesis chapter 2 so early on in the biblical narrative there is four rivers that come out of Eden and it's written about this way there was a river watering the garden and it flowed from Eden and from there it separated into four headwaters that the name of the first was the push on and it winded through the entire land of havilah where there is gold and the gold is perfect now this is so packed full of metaphor and literary devices that we have to unpack it just the basic thing going on here there's a river called push on now the word push on is the word hope it actually has the pictures in in the in the hieroglyph of of something that is dormant that suddenly burst forth with life like you thought it was dead but now it's bursting forth with life it's like a dormant volcano it's suddenly rumbling again it's it's this sort of thing it's it's very reminiscent to the cross and resurrection that the cross is a part of the story and it looks dead but there's a resurrection coming but the word for this would be hope would be hope so there's a river called Hope and it's winding through the entire land of havilah now Havilah just means suffering so if an ancient person was reading this here's what they would read there's a river called hope and it's winding through the entire land of suffering in other words if you're in the land of suffering there's a river called Hope flowing somewhere in it you just got to find it that to every crux there is an exultation to every struggle there is a victory to every that that the victory is not the the only part of the story the struggle is also part of the story and the meaningfulness in life is often interpreted from the struggle not the victory itself not just getting to the end of the story the idea is is when we look at the cross and resurrection it shows us that even when we're in the land of suffering there's a river called Hope flowing somewhere in it you just got to go find it even when you're in a place of doubt there's hope flowing through that in a river of even if you're in a place of uncertainty there's a river called Hope flowing somewhere in it and that's what you find early in the story it's what you find the middle stories what you find in the story of Christ in the story of Paul and ultimately our stories and then it says this that the river had gold in it and the gold was perfect now there's some things going on here for those who don't know that ancient Hebrew was written in hieroglyphs they learned to write in Egypt so every Hebrew letters a picture so every Hebrew word is a comic-strip and so when you put the comic strip on gold when you put the letters out it hit there's an eyeball there's a man harvesting supply and there's a house or a house of God so in an ancient Hebrew person read this they would have read behold the one who brings a substance for survival brings it to us in the house of God so when you start putting this all together it starts sounding something like this there's a river called hope and it's winding through the entire land of suffering because behold the one who brings the substance for survival brings it to us in the house of God and now there's one more thing to it it makes a delineation it says that the gold was perfect now I've actually seen this with my own two eyes if you take perfect gold and you put it into water it makes a colloidal suspension it takes one part gold to a hundred thousand parts of water to turn the whole thing blood-red it's how they make stained glass I had a scientist in Perth do it for me one time I had it in a little vial he just made a colloidal suspension a few nanoparticles of perfect gold in that little bit of water it turned the whole it looked like a blood sample it looked like I used to carry around with me until it exploded on a plane one time if I was gonna be preaching this people would go why are you carrying your blood sample around it was it was that deep dark red color so when you put all this together this is what it would say there's a river called Hope and it's winding through the entire land of suffering because behold the one who brings a substance for survival brings it to us in the house of God through a river of blood so in Hebrew literary imagery anytime water is turning red you might be in the land of suffering now but it's hey take heart hope is flowing through the suffering and what will you look at the cross of Jesus Christ the issue isn't the crux getting the last word is there's always another partisan it doesn't get the last word there's hope even in that in the Garden of Gethsemane there's hope so anytime water in Hebrew literary and in home water is turning red it's saying hey these people are in suffer but hope never leaves hope is on the way fast forward to Egypt I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt and I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I'm concerned about their suffering so I'm gonna save them think through your Bible Sunday school teacher notes think through the flannelgraph think through think through those things think through the times where you memorized the plagues remember how does God get them out of Egypt he sends ten plagues what was the first plague all the water turns to blood well to the Egyptians that would have been a curse but to the Hebrew people there would have been a buzz in the camp hey did you hear all the waters turning the blood we might be in the land of suffering now but hopes fixing to flow Moses then leads them out of Egypt into freedom by walking them through the Red Sea red water hope floats through suffering they get to the mountain and they make a gold cow and Moses comes down and he can't stand the fact that they've already made a gold Kal to worship and he loses the plot of it and he beats the gold cow into powder and he makes them throw the gold into the water that's coming out of the rock well if they take the gold and put it into the water coming out of the rock what color would it become red hope floats through suffering hopefully through suffering if you've ever given birth this is the way it sort of works I've never seen a birth and I only know what I know on the Internet and forgive me if it's I know it's this is a caricature and more complex but when a woman gives birth her water breaks when her water breaks she enters into a time of labor suffering and two fluids mixed together in a time of labor blood and water so when blood and water come together in the greatest suffering a woman might ever know out comes a bundle of joy that even in nature when blood and water come together hopes flowing in the middle of suffering fast forward to Jesus he's a first century rabbi that got very popular we would know that he's the fullness of God in flesh in their world they were still trying to work all that out and he's walking around in and he's ministering to the oppressed and the sick and people were under the boot of the military occupation in Rome and think about it his first miracle was what he turns all the water into wine what what was this point was this point to provide adult beverages for the party no in their world to take water and turning it red in a middle of an oppressed situation these people would have thought wait a minute we're in the land of suffering but hope is flowing fast-forward to the cross years later he's having a really bad day and he ends up on a cross in the middle of the night so that the popularity of his following couldn't stop it so they by the time everybody got up from the Passover meal they couldn't stop it he was already up there and he's and he's not he's on the cross and they don't want it to cross into Sabbath because the idea for the Romans was let's keep the Jews calm and not rioting that that that's the idea and the scripture tells us that one of the Roman soldiers came up just to make sure Jesus was dead and he put a spear through his side and the scripture writer said that out of his side came a steady flow of blood and water well in Hebrew imagery what does that mean it means in the greatest suffering you can possibly imagine at the foot of that is a river of Hope glowing somewhere in it you just got to go find it once you understand these stories and these situations and you start looking at Jesus dude that lens if you go back and look at every use of the word salvation in the gospel and then talk in and separate out the ones that had nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins but the freedom from oppression or part of the forgiveness of sins was the freedom from oppression like like there was this one time where there's this guy named Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus is up a tree and Jesus stops the whole crowd and says hey I'm gonna eat with you today and Zacchaeus is so moved by the compassion of Jesus that he says hey here and now I'll give half of what I have to the poor and Jesus says that's it salvation has come to this house that is unthinkable no temple visit no ultracal no Romans 10:9 and 10 no sacrifice how could Jesus call this guy saved without any of those rituals well think about it in the first century what was the only way for Zek he has to be saved temple ritual who's not allowing the temple tax collectors so when your job forbidded you from entering into the ritual that brought the salvation what do you do jesus circumvents the entire system of oppression and he sees the man's heart change and he says that's enough for me salvation has come to this house there's this one time there's this lady and she's a prostitute and Jesus goes and visits her and it says that she is so moved by the compassion of Jesus that she knelt down and washed his feet with her hair and Jesus says that's it all your sins are now forgiven what Oh no snow altar call no sinner's prayer no Romans 10:9 debt no temple visit no sacrifice how is Jesus pulling this off whoa think about it in the first century what was the only way for her to be saved temple ritual who's not allowed the temple prostitutes so when your job for bida G from entrance into the only place the ritual is allowed what other choice did you have Jesus is circumventing the entire system of oppressive power and he's saying I I see that heart and we're gonna call that okay this was Jesus not simply forgiving sins but setting people free from the oppressive system of suffering that they found themselves under there's this one time where there's a paralyzed guy once again what's the only way for the paralyzed got to be saved temple ritual who's not allowing the temple paralyzed people and so his friends find out Jesus is in a full house and they lower him in from the roof of that house and it says this and Jesus saw the faith of his friends and proclaimed his sins forgiven that is in your face a confrontation to the system of oppression as you'll ever find no temple ritual no sacrifice no all call this guy was struggling with his own faith so Jesus found his friends faith forming could you imagine living in that system of oppression finally someone giving you a glimmer of hope that salvation isn't just about going somewhere when we die salvation is about God's intent to set us free from the suffering and the oppression here now today to make sure that the misery and the struggle and the suffering never ever ever get the last word for Christ gets the last word there's this one time where Jesus is on a cross and the guy next to him is having an equally bad day it's not like this crucifixion would have hurt less for him and he can't breathe and um he only manages to get three words out of his mouth please remember me and Jesus is like that's it that's it today today is your day what no temple ritual no sacrifice Jesus even in his dying breath is confronting the corrupt system of oppressive power that put other people and their rituals and their profiteering in charge of what God says about a person I mean in the first century the only way for that guy to be saved would be to get off the cross run to the temple find someone to do a ritual for him for free then come back get back up on the cross and died no way no way Jesus says no we're not doing things like that anymore nope you know I am here to not just forgive you but to set you free from everything that oppresses you this is this is why I came to proclaim the kingdom of God is what he said in one place to proclaim a new rule let me put some language around that too to proclaim a new narrative there's a new way the world is going to work and I'm here to show the world what that looks like that a God that sits on a throne and watches people suffer that is not compelling but a God that empties himself and chooses to identify with that suffering that is the ultimate picture of what God is like so let's ask ourselves a few questions about this about what's happening in me right now because of this one what is driving you that you need deliverance from like I realize that if you're a follower of Christ and you're like oh I'm going to have it okay okay amen but like today what's driving you that you need to live us from what is that slave driver what's that thing you just can't seem to beat the thought you just can't seem to expel whatwhat is that let's say this way what are you doing to help free others from their slavery where are you actively involved in helping others with their own slavery and thirdly where do you need salvation for your house here now today that we acknowledge and we embrace the someday element of salvation someday the line lamb someday no more pain someday no more crying someday someday we acknowledge and we embrace that but we also acknowledge and embrace that tomorrow God is at work bringing salvation to our world and to our house where do we need salvation to come to our house today because what you find in the narrative scripture is that from Genesis 1 God does not back off the disorder he engages it God does not back off the chaos he engages it not to judge it but to bring new life new creation new order new new new chances fresh starts Mulligan's and the opportunity to write a better story this is the problem with statements like all God can't be in the presence of sin and look I know what you mean when you say that but but actually the narrative scripture seems to indicate that when God is encountering darkness he doesn't run from it he engages it and brings light to it he doesn't run from the chaos he brain gauges it to bring new creation he doesn't run from the disorder he engages it to bring new creation and when we look at the cross and resurrection in the cross what we find is the ultimate picture of that a God who empties himself and identifies itself with the suffering of humanity even to the point of death on the cross and he does that so profoundly that he's not running from the darkness he's not running from the brokenness he's engaging it not to judge it or condemn it but to fix it the word for that is salvation so my brothers and sisters may we embrace that side of the cross and may salvation come to your house to grace and peace everybody

Channel: Ascend Global Church

Views: 4,021

Rating: 4.7460318 out of 5

Keywords: Shane Willard, Salvation, Ascend Global Church

Id: Oy2xDiRNK8g

Length: 24min 19sec (1459 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2020