Dr. C. Baxter Kruger - The Eternal Truth - Session 5 (FGC 2016)

lord thank you for Baxter thank you for his ministry thank you for the books that he's written Lord God I thank you for the vision that you've given Baxter just with the word perichoresis and that you would call us into your include us in your very life so Jesus thank you for Baxter and I pray that you would implant your word deeper in our hearts through what Baxter shares this morning in this afternoon in Jesus name we thank you amen good morning I wonder would you allow me to pray also Holy Spirit for generations you have planned and worked for this moment you were overjoyed by our presence here and we asked you now that you would reveal Jesus Christ not to us but in us there is no assurance on earth no intellectual certainty more profound than meeting Jesus inside that is your passion Holy Spirit and we give you permission right now to work behind our defenses and our watchful dragons and blow our minds with Jesus in his name amen that constitute a barque I never have gotten the bar I've had people fall out one guy I felt he uh no mo let's calm down come on have you ever seen or encountered something that took your breath away and you knew instantly you did not even have the vocabulary or the concepts or the categories to even begin to describe what you had seen and what you know that's the revelation of Jesus in us and it challenges our minds instantly I grew up in five point Calvinism I was taught that stuff from my mother's womb if my mother were here she would say and he fought it from my womb I know I was there there are many layers of problems with Calvinism one is it excludes a bunch of people which is not the gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ is the entire creation is included in this that's one issue that's been addressed and is being addressed there are other issues one is the way in which Calvinism is really a subset of a larger family conversation in the Western world of which were all apart Roman Catholic Protestant all of us and their issues there and to me the most damaging issue growing up was this sense of salvation being something external to me it was something reserved in heaven for me at some point there was something to do with I prayed a prayer something happened God now my friend and I'm like that's not what I'm reading in the New Testament Jesus talks about a river of living water flowing out of me and you and the whole human race Peter speaks about joy unspeakable and full of glory Jesus talks about the kingdom of God within you that's not a transaction that's a relationship that's the Holy Spirit bubbling and flowing out of us as soon I wrestled with this because I was given an external vision of salvation it's largely legal it's largely accounting and it comes down to me to figure out how to apply these external principles in the New Testament to my life and believe me I tried I tried to do it it doesn't do anything in here so you may have the form and we're really good at that in America looking the part I'm good at it I'm an expert at it but we don't want the part we want the reality we want the inside this struggle inside of me of the little boy eventually took me across the sea to study at the feet of Professor James deterrents and to study the work and writings of Professor TF Torrance I did not realize at the time the singular privilege that I was being given to be able to spend that much time with these brothers because they knew exactly what I was looking for brilliant men but grounded in encounter that's what it meant and my last semester there is a post graduate in 1989 I was doing my doctorate doctoral dissertation on the note of knowing God in the theology of TF Torrance and I'm going to tell you what I learned from him in just a moment but one of the pieces that came to came into place for me is that my last semester in 1989 professor Torrance was doing a Carl Barks seminar for postgraduates we were there for six or eight of us and it just so happened that Carl FH Henry who is in North America was in North American sort of leader in the evangelical so-called evangelical world he was in Scotland and he was coming to Aberdeen so professor Torrance extended you know an opportunity to him to speak to the Postgres because that was the only thing that's going on that after so so karla faye chandra comes into the room and he immediately recognized him as a gentle soul like John a man who knows Jesus and when you think about and this is a huge discussion about the nature and authority of Scripture and all this kind of stuff that goes on but for me the reason I loved this book the reason I read John and Paul and Peter is because those brothers saw what you see and they did a great job talking about it and I want to listen to every single work that was the way Professor Henry was he walked in the room a gentle soul and he walked over on the board and he wrote down for Carl Bart revelation means God reveals himself to us I'm like okay I didn't expect that and then he wrote down for Carl Bart I mean for evangelical theology revelation means God reveals truths about himself and I sat there thinking I couldn't process it but I knew it I was looking at the Western problem right there one issues who's included we've seen that the next issue is what is the nature of this life that Jesus has come to get is it really about accurate information that he came to give us about God so that then you can have a whole list of truths about God that you can figure out how to apply in your life or is just about Jesus inside of you and me with his father in the Holy Spirit you're two worlds here it took my breath away and I say oh my good so I wrestled from that moment forward what does this mean what does this mean in one day this was 20-something years ago now I was sitting on the couch in my den on the Saturday morning getting ready to watch Ole Miss football game out of the corner of my eye I saw movement over here the door going back to the back of the house I saw two facings camouflage painted faces down on the floor camouflage hats camouflage outfits plastic knives guns grenades the whole kitten caboodle and before I realized what was happening those two camouflaged blurs were flying through the air at me screaming and hit me and we ended up in this mock battle for about ten minutes that's all I could last machine guns going off bombs low and I died and rose again several times and my son and his buddy we ended up in this ball of laughter on the floor in our den and I was sitting I was even down painting and I heard Baxter pay attention this is important that's what I heard in fact it was the ticker tape that went across the front of my mind's eye and I thought well okay a dad his son his son's buddy playing army Saturday morning getting ready watched football game what is so extraordinary about that I didn't get it I didn't get it until my first clue came and my first clue was that I did not know this other little boy at all in fact I didn't I've never seen him I didn't know his name I didn't know who his people were what he was from and then it began to dawn on me what would have happened if this boy that I didn't know would have come and stood in that knelt down and seen me on the couch he would have known that's probably mr. Krueger but he wouldn't have known that for a fact what if my son was in the back part of the house playing with his dog Nessie and his sisters the last thing on earth that is going to happiness for that little boy who does not know me to come flying through the air and engage me and that kind of familiarity and play because he does not know my heart he doesn't know what I'm like and when I saw that it suddenly dawned on me my son knows me my son knows my heart my son knows that not only do I love him that I like him and I want him and so in the freedom of his now in my heart my son did the most natural thing in the world which is fly through the air and engage his father in play and I watched my son's knowing in my heart go inside that other little boy and he got to play in our fellowship in that moment it became as much his as it was mine and my sons it didn't rub off on him it took shape with anything he felt the freedom he felt the intimacy felt the life he felt the joy it became as much used experientially as it was my sons and I sat there and I thought oh lord that's the gospel that's the gospel that's what I've been reading about an early church Brad and I both sure a grand Paul share I'm sure Peter and others share a great veneration for the early church fathers because they saw it and they were very careful to articulate it and hand it on and we lost it John the Apostle wrote the book of John of the gospel John when he was an old man at least many people believe that possibly the late the latter um the last book and written in the New Testament probably 60 years on from Jesus death resurrection ascension he's the old veteran who has walked with Jesus for a long long time he's looking out on 60 years 50 years of church history as it's developed from nothing into this church spreading all over the Mediterranean Basin and he already sees the problem beginning to happen he already sees that we are going to separate Jesus Christ from his salvation we are going to think that salvation is something about going up somewhere when we die rather than countering Jesus inside of our soul and head in Jesus giving us his eyes to see his father Jesus giving his spirit to us he sees that coming and he sees the larger assumptions at play that are going to lead the Western on the church into this dead end thank God after 2,000 years we're finally having to face the fact that we don't know what we're talking about everybody's voting with their feet who doesn't want Jesus inside of their heart when Jesus is the one who knows the father and is anointed in the Holy Spirit but how many of you have heard that and why weren't we told this in our mother's womb why isn't that plastered on every church wall around the world because we've been distracted and we lost our way and John knows that so he begins his gospel I just if you can't have respect for this just ask Jesus to give you eyes to see this is astounding utterly astounding let's praying about this prolong and Jesus is saying Baxter you will know that you have come to experience what you have longed to experience when you cannot read John's prologue and you cannot read Ephesians 1 or Colossians 1 without falling on your face and silent wonder we're handling this information as if it's abstract information designed to speak to your head and it is designed to awaken us here John begins the very first word of his gospel in that don't think that he doesn't mean several things by that in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was in the beginning with God all things came into being through him and not one thing has come into being apart from him there is so much going on in those three verses he answers the question what is the problem he answers the question what is the nature of salvation that Jesus has come to give to us he answers the question for us how does this work in the beginning was the word and the word was with god john has moved from being a quote/unquote illiterate fisherman to beholding the glory of jesus and he doesn't know what to do with that but he knows that Jesus is Yahweh this is God right here got that well I don't know what to do with the fact that you're walking around talking about my father because that's kind of dangerous in the Jewish monotheistic culture and I don't know what to do Jesus with the fact that you're talking about one day the Holy Spirit's coming and I don't know what that means but I see it's important and John takes that first step in the Christian tradition he's one of the early ones who sees something going on in eternity did his two beautiful words and he wants us to see it because he knows if we see this we won't go off the rails and we won't end up in a dead end with religion religion is what you and I try to do when we don't know Jesus is in us let me let me share one one scene from this the number one talk about the prologue this sub this is my new book that I didn't know I was on the right it shocked me it's about a burned-out suicidal theologian from Mississippi who inexplicably time travels and ends up on the Isle of patents with the Apostle John there commences the three-day extraordinary conversation which is way more than a conversation John has been sent back to Patmos on a mission from Jesus his mission is to lead Aden to encounter Jesus Christ inside Aden soul and the Holy Spirit and the Father and John realizes rather quickly that in order to do that he has to deconstruct Aidan's Western mind and reconstruct it based on his gospel and as he does that Aden has these encounters and they are encounters Aidan thinks they're outside of him because he's a good Western land in fact and I wasn't aware of this - about the third draft Aden represents Western church one of the editors told me you need to have a lot more drama in Ava's life you know something dramatic happened he's trying to find an instant solution I said I said there's drama there enough for me and she said what what do you mean I said what I mean is everybody in the church knows immediately who Aden is he's a good man he's not doing a bunch of stuff wrong he has searched for God his whole life he's even gone to seminary he's even gone to study theology even psychology and he's been the therapy he's been in every denomination including the charismatic sand he has not found what his heart was looking for that's a huge elephant in every church room all over the Western world one of John's things that he says I read you this he says ideas important are important he said slowly helping me savor every thought ideas become our eyes if your ideas are wrong you cannot see what is part of me was excited and part of me squirmed are you speaking in general or about making perhaps both he replied with a gleam in his eye but no hint of condemnation what do you do when you cannot see what is I hesitated his question was obviously rhetorical but the answer was not obvious to me I felt like I was trying to organize a boat a bowl of wet forget it when you don't see what is Aiden you create something that you can see in your imagination of course then you defend it with a vengeance because whatever you've created because it's all that you think that you have when you don't see what is you're going to create something that you can see and then you and you and you and you and you're going to try to convince everybody that what you're seeing is real and in you and you and you're going to begin to each other you have to be against each other because you can't all be right the judgment of Jesus Christ is the manifestation of who he is it is the revelation of Jesus as the one in whom all things were created in whom all things have been redeemed and he's in you and he's in me how embarrassing is it for Aidan when he realizes he's worked for 40 something years to get into something that he's been in all along that's the judgment that begins at the household of God it is very very simple John's Gospel is designed to lead you by the emotional and psychological and spiritual hand until you encounter Jesus Christ for yourself inside of your own soul in fact it's cracks me up you know about the great IMS in John's Gospel I am the light of the world I am the way the truth in life and the resurrection life there's seven of those not quite as well-known as the fact that there are seven other iron statements which are called the absolute iron statements they don't have a predicate it's not I am the resurrection it's just simply I am I am the name of God from Isaiah second Isaiah and from Moses ego Eimi I am the name of God there are seven of those every time spoken by Jesus and then I was litigated random-looking I discovered that there's actually an eighth I am there's one person in John's Gospel who says I I go I mean it's not Jesus and I thought that John did you do because there's all the scholarly debate about what does he really mean like I know what he it's the man born blind jesus heals him all these people around saying this can't be him you know this is him no no it can't be him in it and he's going back and forth to the man born blind John says he kept saying I am I am I thought John you blessed brother you have given the answer to the world the way we walk forward in the light as we keep saying I am I am in Jesus and Jesus is in me he did that I didn't do that I didn't make that real he did that so let me back up and show you in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God in the Word was God this is what John is doing he uses a specific word for we translate it with and sometimes it means with but it's much deeper the word is cross and it means to be turned towards it means to be face to face what John is saying in the very first verse of his gospel because this is what has completely blown his mind and this is what he's come to see as being the most fundamental most important thing for all of us to get again and again and again and again is he saying in the beginning was the word and the word was not side by side with God God was not on a bigger chair higher than the word in the beginning was the word and the word was turned toward face to face with God he's already telling you what Jesus has come to bring to you he's already told you in the first verse of what Jesus has come to bring you is nothing less than what he expenses right here in this face-to-face relationship with his father and there is no shame in that relationship the voice of the Pharisees carry no weight here you are my beloved in whom my soul delights this relationship is face-to-face John saw it he told us about he said if you start here you will find your way forward you will understand who you are while you're here you'll understand what Jesus Christ came to do he did not come to get your ledger in heaven fixed and did not come to close you an external robe of righteousness like George McDonald his unspoken service he says this is my paraphrase but he said you really think that we're going to feel good about ourselves walking around in heaven when this circle is a lot as the circle of light where there's no shadows and all we have is a robe to cover over our crap I mean you think you run from your mother when she calls you by your whole name mm-hmm what we have here is relationship and light its face to face it's not hierarchical its other-centered the Holy Spirit and this took me a long time and now I kind of fallen in love with the Holy Spirit or I am falling in love I always thought the Holy Spirit was a ghost that's what in the King James is Holy Ghost and sidon Nicene Creed that being was translated the Holy Ghost is in all of our you know hymns that we sang in the in the Calvinist world but Father Son Holy Ghost I thought what I bookworm hang out with the coast especially a holy one not at 13 so I spent most of my adult life running from the Holy Spirit I was trained theologically in the early days to believe that the Holy Spirit really doesn't show up much these days but that was just for the time of the Apostles there's a special New Testament word for that line of thought it's called stoop low you can look it up all users in flippin free the Holy Spirit is known in the early church is the modesty of God that doesn't mean the father's not modest or the sons not modest it just means that there's something peculiar about the Holy Spirit doesn't like to be the center of attention he or if we're going to be old testing about it she loves to shine the light on the other so the other can be known in seeing back your adult mind refers to the Holy Spirit as the eternal light in whom the father sees the Son and the son sees the father the Holy Spirit is a lover of communion in fact when the Apostle Paul pronounces has benediction in 2nd Corinthians 13 says the love of God the grace of our Lord Jesus and the the Koinonia the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh in order to lead all flesh to discover Jesus Christ inside of them in order for us to begin to see Jesus father with his eyes and the commandment of Jesus I think to us in terms of abiding the commandment of Jesus is Baxter here's what I want you to do take sides with me against the way you see my father take sides with me against the way you see the Holy Spirit take sides with me against the way you see every person on planet Earth and please especially take sides with me against the way you see yourself that's repentance Metanoia changing my taking sides with Jesus because what he's come to do is share his eyes with us now this afternoon when we come back I want to talk about how Jesus got inside that's even to me more breathtaking - more beautiful and certainly more full of hope how did he get inside of me and you how did he get inside of Saul of Tarsus how did he get inside the world you know while ago Brad was talking about all the insights from Eve this brilliant idea that when Adam turns from God it creates this shadow and the shadow is not real to God it's real to us Jesus is going to find his way inside 10-shot it in fact what kind of salvation would it be if he didn't it still be external extremely that's what I want to talk about this afternoon but right now I want to focus on this relationship and I want you to see when you begin here in this circle John does not take us back to simply Genesis and I loved your plot scene love that in fact I thought what he's already told everything and Brad's already done the two chairs so one my supposed to talk about them so I'll add a third chair and I'll out plot you wonderful picture of the plots but this is its origin right here this is the origin of the story of creation it begins in this circle of shared life face-to-face the Father Son and Holy Spirit and this right here is one of the things that jerked me out of my Calvinism that I grew up with because if you're going to posit that God elected some for salvation and rejected others and if you don't know what I'm talking about praise the Lord [Applause] but if you are going to posit that the eternal God predestined son for salvation and rejected others then you have to found to find the ground for such a thought in this relationship who came up with abandonment is that the Holy Spirit is that Jesus said father I want to abandon 3/4 of the human race as a living expression of the way you relate to me you see the folly events we didn't start with John how many times in your entire life have you heard a Bible study on Jesus Christ as the creator of all things how many times have you heard a sermon or series of sermons on John 1:3 all things came into being by him and apart from him nothing's coming John is saying all of creation is taking place in Jesus we brought in this darkness and Jesus is going to sort it through in the beginning was the word and the word is face to face with God in insolent other centered self giving love that is so right and so unclouded and so beautiful and so non religious and non external the only way we can begin to talk about this relationship is we have to use a word like one anything less than one betrays the fidelity and the beauty and the depth of this relationship and yet and this is so critical and yet Jesus never becomes the father or the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit never becomes the father or Jesus and the father never becomes Jesus they maintain the distinction of personhood now are you getting the idea of where the idea of our existence comes from if you start simply with g.od individual alone separated God up there in the universe you have to ask the question mine without God create the world and we can go into that conversation later but why does this God think of creation why does this God think of you what is the purpose of this God acting in creation I asked that to a group of kids in Sunday school in Scotland one year doing something stealing a children's sermon this little Scottish boy says ask the body God create the world he said because God was bored well if he's all alone from all eternity there are no angels nothing else just God g.od alone then that's a great answer and it also means that we were created for his entertainment or we were created to do something for his glory but if you start here with John you begin to realize that God is already having a good time this is not a relationship of sadness it's not a relationship of anxiety it's not a relationship of fear it's a relationship of other sense of self giving love it's the most stable reality in all of the universe it undergirds you and your life and everything that we're about in the room the one purpose of this God in creating the universe and creating human race is to bring us to be right here and not only to bring us to be right here in Jesus included in this relationship but to bring us to see what Jesus sees and to know what Jesus knows what I do in my Bible Olivia listen to this this is the coolest thing in the world all right here we go in the beginning was the word and the word was face to face with God in the word was God and I know you're not going to get that someone repeated he was in the beginning face to face with God now at the end of the prologue with the introduction he says no one no man no human being has ever seen God at any time that's pretty exclusive everybody is in that circle they've never seen God at any time the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father he has explained him that image of being in the bosom is taking us right back to this intimate relationship this word explained is the difficult world to translate that's really interesting rigor scholars it's the word from which we get our idea of exegesis and in the West exegesis is all about the head it's all about the information in the text and explaining what all these words mean it's often from head to head you think John is talking about head to head when he says the word is face to face with the father you think he's talking about information that Jesus is going to head known what John is giving us a clue to is that Jesus has come all the way across all worlds finds his way inside of our darkness so that we can know what he knows not information like Jesus knows that we can know what he knows that we can share in his own communion with his father in the freedom and joy and fellowship of the Holy Spirit that we can see the father with his eyes in my journey one of my great wounds was that very early on for a variety of reasons I begin to believe that I was dumb and that almost kept me from a whole lot of things in my life what's pulled me out of this is Jesus saying Baxter am i dumb No I'm in you I'm sharing my mind with you who cares about what other people think am i unworthy am I not good enough or in my case growing up in the Presbyterian Church in my totally depressing grandchildren within that arguing I can tell you am I not good enough am i I'm not special not included not all these I am NOT that rummage around in your head that it wounded you they keep you from seeing what is this is what it is and you seeing it from the inside because that's where you are not outside looking in trying to figure out how we can have a relationship with Jesus like the father that's what religion would be if you go back to my opening illustration about my son is budding the den religion would do this it would be the little boy jumps up walks over to the side pulls out his notepad starts writing down what it looks like to have a relationship with mr. Krueger they stand this way they sing these songs they make these gestures and we memorize this stuff and then we apply it or we imitate it that's not relationship that's the external that's what religion does Jesus is saying I'm coming to find my way inside and I listen my favorite part of John's Gospel Jesus prayer right before he goes to the cross we're going to pick up here this afternoon I love this bless you John father I have made you know and you can't can you feel Jesus's joy while I'm inside the darkness I have made you known to them and then this is my favorite part and I will make you known that the love with which you love me may be in them and I in them that's who you are that's who I am that's what the good Shepherds been sent to do he knows that we're in the dark we don't know who we are he knows that we have created a thousand different religious ways to get back to God in our own worlds we've been defended with a vengeance we killed each other doing it in a lot of different ways shame the cure hell out of our children because they're sitting in the midst of all this they may wait but this doesn't make sense well you sit down who are you to criticize the Lord's anointed what school have you been to power these sisters to defend themselves and shame people and Jesus is saying father I have made you known to them and I will I take responsibility for little Baxter broken down believing he's too dumb to be included I will find my way inside his darkness and I will bring him to know what I know and what I experience in the Holy Spirit when I hear I see you face to face and I hear you declared in a year my beloved and him I saw the light you think Jesus bites his fingernails sitting right here you think he's worried you think he's scared about how this is going to turn out what does he feel emotionally as a human being right now sitting here face to face with his father in the Holy Spirit is it sphere is it sadness is it anxiety as it Hanks is it nervousness he feels loved accepted known embraced filled overflowing prepared to give that all the way again and again and again so that we can know and feel exactly what he knows the fear that's why it fought out of spirit on all flesh all flesh I love that I just love that growing up in Caledon well that doesn't mean all flesh because because obviously the people that wrote this didn't know the distinction between antipasta and sorry it means everybody everyone is created here in this circle hosting for die to find them in or they can come to know what Jesus know now let me just take you to Ephesians 1 just for a moment and let you see this developing in the Apostle Paul's minor Salah Tarsus has an encounter with Jesus on the inside of the soul we're going to talk about that this afternoon that's a shocker and that's beautiful and if you want to pray if you want to pray for people who are not necessarily wanting to be in this conversation here's a simple prayer Holy Spirit revealed Jesus in John in Betty in Fred in my enemy because Jesus is there we need a revelation that's a symbol not to not to that's external because you can argue external revelation you can't argue here well you can because then your brain kicks in so this can't be true this can't be true in the revelation comes again this is what happened Saul of Tarsus he discovered Jesus inside of his own soul it blew his mind he had to go away for three years and he comes back and he writes this astounding sequence of statements in Ephesians 1 first he says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ Paul begins every one of his epistles with a reference to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ he's a Jew he grew up in the Jewish tradition you know you don't talk about a slore ality you talk about Yahweh you talk about the Lord but what Paul had come to becoming convinced of is the same thing that John had and Peter and they knew that Jesus was the Lord Yahweh himself and Jesus had what he called father and that's where probably gives all the epistles directing us back in the same way as John to start here blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places I think Gordon T is right when he says what is meant by every spiritual blessing that God has given to us that would be the Holy Spirit blessed be the God and for all of our Lord Jesus Christ who has that's dust with the Holy Spirit not will blesses Saul of Tarsus is saying my goodness I didn't see this coming and not only did I not see it coming I didn't see it when he was here but it's already happened the dream of the Father Son and spirit to include the human race in this relationship was given into Jesus hands before creation he was appointed the Good Shepherd of the sheep before the foundation of the world and the lamb I had this enormous pressure in my life that I had to get my faith right what's important to hold all this together is his face that's what I'm banking on if you want to believe in something believe in the faith of Jesus and asked Jesus to share his faith with you and that begins to take shape this Paul says and he blessed us with every spiritual present play thought spiritual blessing in the heavenly places just before creation to be holy and blameless before before him in love he predestined us to adoption and son which is an inclusive concept which means daughters through Jesus Christ himself I don't know about you but very rarely have I heard a sermon on Jesus that did not make him a footnote to Adams fall if Adam had not fallen there would have been no Jesus lucky for us huh if you start here you begin to see what Paul is saying what John is saying telling us about who we are we were chosen in Jesus before the foundation of the world that means that Jesus is coming because there's no way that this relationship this divine relationship of other centered astounding self giving self-sacrificing love it's infinite fountain that that Brad was talking about there's no way that this can be shared with us that unless someone within that circle Stoops without breaking that circle down to where we are as creatures so Jesus was chosen before we were chosen he's the one that's going to pull this whole thing together and this is back to what John was saying about I have made you known father Jesus says I was appointed the Good Shepherd before the foundation world my job was to bring my sheep here with me and Paul says to be before him and that means to be face to face it means very very intimate it means to be able to see what Jesus sees in his relationship with the father such that everything that the father is toward Jesus and all of Jesus emotions as he hears the father declare his love all of that is to become as much ours bike steers like my son's buddy as it is theirs that's the gift of salvation it's not about going to the place called heaven when you die so you can hide in Jesus from the father it's about being face-to-face with the father and not being ashamed of yourself knowing you're supposed to be there and being able to hear what Jesus here and let that fill you up with something that you can't possibly create in all of your isms how many more millennial we're going to need before we realize we can't create this and until we realize we can't create it we're not going to realize that we already have it this is where we are in our journey we have really made some silly mistakes and we perpetuated them for generations we can go on and on this is just astounding but the same thing John is saying in his gospel in the beginning was the word and the word was face-to-face with God all things came into being through the world and then in verse 5 of John's Gospel he said and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not understand he doesn't explain the darkness we'll talk about that in a little bit but I want you to see this verse 14 in the word became flesh you know that must y'all know that verse I think a better translation is the words so light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not understand so the word became flesh to dwell in us here on the inside so that we could begin to see this is the eternal plan of god this is not Plan B quickly thought up in the failure of a plan a and Adam it's not a half time adjustment after God's getting you know his backside kicked by the fall this is the eternal purpose of God Jesus you're going to go in you're going to go into the abyss you're going to go into the darkness you're going to find my sheep and you're going to bring them home and Papa saying I have your back I don't do abandonment and the Holy Spirit saying you know I'm in on that one we read the story from this other framework out here we split this relationship apart I'll close with this I wonder how many of you have this verse underlined I did for years and years and years I read it I didn't pay attention this is John 16 Upper Room behold an hour is coming and has in fact come for you to be scattered he's talking to his disciples each to his own home - leave me alone yes I am NOT alone because the father is with me Metta United this is what's happening this circle creates the world it's in darkness and they're going to find a way to get inside of the darkness not simply so that we can go to a place called heaven when we die find a way to get inside of your blindness and mind blindness and our stinking thinking down to the this of that tartness and they're going to come in the first of Jesus and picks their tent down in that place inside of you and me and our enemies pitch that inside of them there and John is sitting you can have the right to golf if you can seem shaken ceases then the Holy Spirit is going to reveal Jesus I am inside of us and then we're going to get to have a long argument Jesus on how it can't be that simple it doesn't fit in with what I narrated it can't be that simple you can't just be in me Jesus then we go through this long process where our minds are beginning to explode and get changed around to where then can begin to believe what we already know and we get to live from that we get to see that in our marriage friendships our fellowship see it in our kids playing army in the den you get the seating people fishing it's a long journey but we are in a place historically where the wheels are coming off of external religion and where people know in the Holy Spirit that this includes us all not just a handful however you cut that and we're beginning to know that Jesus has found his way inside of you and me and of every person on planet Earth I had a conversation just the other day with the man who was a Hindu and I asked him all kinds of questions wanting to know what he believed and eventually he asked me what I believed and I said I believe that Jesus is in you and you're in him and he did that ask you ask Jesus if it's truth let him be the one who answers that question amen [Applause]

Channel: Early Church Faith

Views: 11,727

Rating: 4.8441558 out of 5

Keywords: God, Jesus, Christ, Gospel, Truth, christian, salvation, redemption, Lord, Christianity, Word, Word of God, Bible, Spirit, Life, Grace, Cross, teaching, humanity, inclusion, oneness, freedom, etermal life, victory, mankind, Adam, new creation, Holy Spirit, power, anointing, prayer, cross, holy, blessing, sin, righteusness, faith, healing, shalom, peace, love, love of God, Good News, Kingdom of God, incarnation, resurection, Trinity, Church, religion, sermons, trinitarian, Orthodox, C. Baxter Kruger, The Eternal Truth

Id: aBDI1MT_nC8

Length: 49min 37sec (2977 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2017