- Today I want to do
something a little different and I wanna take you
back in time with me and I'm gonna ask you
to use your imagination. I want you to imagine
that you and I and five of your best
friends, you pick the people, or family members, all six of us with the five of
them, you and me, the seven of us, we
are able, somehow, to go back in time
to the city of Rome and the year is 82
and in the year 82, when we show up in
the Roman Forum, of course people are amazed that time travelers
have shown up. When we show up in
this period of history, the emperor is a man called,
named Emperor Domitian. You may remember
him from school. Emperor Domitian. Emperor Domitian was
the son of Vespasian, a little context
here, and Vespasian was actually a Roman general
that Nero sent to Judea to put down the
Jewish rebellion. He was there about two years. When Nero is assassinated,
Vespasian goes back to Rome and becomes the emperor. He leaves his son Titus to
finish the work left undone, to finish taking over basically besieging the city of Jerusalem, punching through the
exterior two walls and destroying the temple. He eventually comes
back and becomes the emperor as well
after Vespasian dies, but he's only the
emperor about two years and then his brother, Domitian
becomes the emperor of Rome. So when we show up, he's the
emperor and word travels fast that there are time travelers that have come from the
21st century to Rome and word reaches
Emperor Domitian and immediately he sends
someone to invite us to a party and the party is
at the Colosseum because it's the end
of 100 days of games and they're celebrating the
end of the 100 days of games with this elaborate,
elaborate party and so the person they send us, guides us out of
the Roman Forum, down toward the Colosseum and as we're going
in this direction, we actually pass
beneath the recently, the very recently
constructed Arch of Titus. The arch of Titus was an arch
that Domitian actually had constructed to commemorate
his brother's victory over the Jews just
12 years earlier and as we move underneath,
we're able to look up and actually see inscriptions
depicting the looting of the Jewish temple,
14 or 1,500 miles away. Eventually we are escorted
through the VIP gate of the Roman Colosseum
where we are greeted by hundreds of people. There's a large patio,
there is food everywhere. There are curious senators. There are slaves. There are escorts and
of course there seated on a temporary throne is
Emperor Domitian himself surrounded by his Praetorian
guard dressed in purple. It is a lavish, lavish meal. We're unfamiliar with
most of the foods. It's exotic meats, exotic
fruits, lots of eggs and enough wine to float a ship. In fact you ask for
water and I remind you that the water here
would probably kill you. So we go thirsty. After the meal, Emperor
Domitian sends someone to us and by the way, the only reason
we're able to communicate is because I took Latin
in the eighth grade and I paid very very
close attention. So consequently I
could understand them and I can speak Latin
because my Latin teacher in the eighth grade assured
us, Mr. LaDuca assured us that Latin is not
a dead language and so it comes back to life
in this particular episode, but you have no idea
what's going on. You're just hearing
the foreign language and trying to read the body
language and the glances and trying to follow
what's going on based on what you see around you and the Roman emperor, Domitian, sends this message
with a messenger who comes to our table
and says the emperor would like a report
from the future. He wants to know what is the
state of the Roman empire in the 21st century
and you look at me because I'm the only
one that can communicate and I realized that if
I don't get this right, we may all become part of
the gore on the arena floor. And so I begin and I
say, Your Excellency, to understand the future of
Rome, I must first rehearse a bit of recent history. On our way to the Colosseum,
we passed through the arch celebrating your late
brother's victory over the Jewish rebels
and while it's true that the Roman legions
decimated the Jewish people, and while it's true that they
destroyed the Jewish temple, the God of the Jews
escaped unscathed and as difficult as this
will be for you to believe, eventually Rome, the empire, will embrace the Jewish
God as their God. Eventually Rome will come
to believe and accept that the Roman Gods that
you currently worship are no gods at all. A future emperor
will actually oversee the destruction of
all your temples. A future Roman empire
will eventually oversee disbanding the priesthood
and making it against the law to sacrifice an animal
to any of your Gods. Well at this point,
the crowd just erupts and you're looking at me
wondering what have I said? And Domitian is leading
in at a Praetorian guard one by one, drops their
right hand to the hilt of their gladius and looks
for a signal from Domitian. But he leans forward
and he raises his hand and he calls for silence
and he asked this question. How, how? How can this be? And I say Emperor Domitian,
in order to understand that, I have to take you even
further back in time. 50 years ago, just 50 years ago, during the reign of
Emperor Tiberius Caesar, in the land of Judea, a man
came out of the wilderness named John and he proclaimed
that the Jewish God was about to do something
in the world for the world. He was an unseemly character, but he attracted a
large, large crowd. In fact, all of Jerusalem
and all of Judea went out to hear John. He has a nickname,
John the Baptist. In fact I see in your
group today, Josephus. In our world, Josephus is
a famous Jewish historian and Josephus can confirm
what I'm saying about John. Eventually John got
sideways with Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, and Herod Antipas
had him beheaded, but before he did,
John the Baptist announced that one
was coming after him that would be greater than him and the leaders in
Judea wondered, in fact, if John was claiming
to be the Messiah, the one that the Jews had been
waiting for for a long time, a King that would actually in
their mind, overthrow Rome. But John said no
I'm not the one, but there is one
coming after me. Keep your eyes open
and sure enough, very quickly, before
John was beheaded, Jesus of Nazareth appeared on
the banks of the Jordan River. He began to preach and he spoke as no man had ever
spoken before. He announced a
brand new kingdom. He announced a kingdom
that was not of this world, but a kingdom that was going
to touch down in this world and influence the entire world. He was a miracle worker. Like John the Baptist,
he attracted crowds, but eventually he got sideways with his own people,
the Jewish leaders. They had him arrested,
they had him condemned and he was crucified
by Pontius Pilate. I see as well that Senator
Tacitus is with us in the crowd. In our world Senator
Tacitus is known for being a famous
historian in this era and he can confirm what I've
said about Jesus of Nazareth. He can confirm what I said that
in fact under Pontius Pilate Jesus suffered the most
severe kind of punishment. He can also confirm the fact
that what should've been an end was actually a beginning because
after Jesus had been buried for three days the way that
Jewish people measured days, after their Passover, the
tomb was found open and empty and at first people
assumed grave robbers, but that didn't make any
sense because Jesus was poor. He was a rabbi. He had nothing to
steal and besides, it wasn't items that was
buried with Him that were gone. His body was missing
and within days, there had been rumors that
He had been seen in Jerusalem in the vicinity of Judea
and even in Galilee and at first it was individuals. Then it was groups
then it was tens then it was dozens
and then eventually hundreds of people claimed
that Jesus was alive and His resurrection galvanized
the courage of His followers and they spread the
news that in fact, as Jesus had said when He
was alive and had said again after His resurrection, the
kingdom of God has come. A kingdom not of this world,
but a kingdom for this world and Jesus, the resurrected
rabbi is in fact the king and His followers would
declare that He was their lord. His closest followers
were arrested, beaten, many of them were put to
death, but they persisted. Their confidence was convincing. Their confidence was contagious
because they had seen, had meals with, had listened to their resurrected
friend and Rabbi, Jesus. Domitian, you know this. Even now in this city,
there are citizens, slaves, men, women,
freedmen, visitors who are meeting all over the
city in their own apartments, in gardens, under trees, by the river who worship
Jesus of Nazareth as their lord and for
the next 230 years, for the next 230 years,
your great empire will leverage all of its
power and all of its might to stamp out this Nazarene sept, but your efforts
will ultimately fail. And though Jesus of
Nazareth never visited your grand and glorious city, in the 21st century,
his name, his likeness and his symbol will adorn
buildings throughout the city. Emperor Domitian, as
impossible as it must be for you to imagine, one
day over the very gate that you entered
into the Colosseum just a couple of hours ago, there will hang
an enormous cross, an enormous wooden cross
that will no longer represent the ruthlessness or
the power of Rome, but in the 21st century,
it will represent the power and the love of God,
the Jewish God Yahweh. Well when I stop, I look
around and they're speechless. They're, it's silent. This is impossible. The cross, a symbol of love? All of their temples throughout
the empire destroyed? No more priesthood, no
more animal sacrifice? Jupiter replaced by
the God of the Jews? A Jewish rabbi who's
been dead for 50 years will somehow be worshiped by
the empire that executed him? Before they could
respond, I continue. Oh great Domitian, as
for you, in the future, you will be known primarily
for your reign of terror. In fact, Domitian, you along
with every other Roman emperor will be reduced to
a paragraph of two in our modern history books with one exception
and the exception will be the great
Caesar Augustus. His name will be referenced
every single year in homes and places of worship
throughout the world, but not in recognition of
his great accomplishments. His name will be referenced
within the context of the story of the birth
of the Jewish savior. He will be a footnote in
the story of the birth of the Jewish King Jesus, whose words will be
collected and distributed more widely than all the
Roman emperors combined and as impossible, as impossible I'm sure this sounds to you, Jesus of Nazareth will
be the most influential and revered man who ever lived
and this, Emperor Domitian, is the future of
your glorious empire. Rome is not eternal, but there
is a God who reigns eternal. It was His temple that
your brother destroyed. It was His son that
your governor crucified, but in the end, it was
His sovereign purposes that your empire advanced
and then I sit down. There's silence. This is unimaginable. This goes beyond offensive. There's no appropriate response, but then slowly, ever so slowly, a smile breaks out on
Emperor Domitian's face and then he bursts into laughter and because everyone takes
their cue from the emperor, the entire crowd
bursts into laughter, but no one knows why. And the Emperor hoists his
cup and proposes a toast to the storytellers
from the future. Brilliant, he says. Brilliant. You had me believing you right
up to the end of your tale. And then he calls for music,
makes his way to our table, congratulates us and
then he says I insist, I insist that you
join me tomorrow night for dinner once
again, but this time no more fanciful stories. I want the truth. I must know of what the future
holds for our glorious empire and for this, our Eternal City. You see, my friends, what
happened, not what was believed, what happened was
absolutely inconceivable. What actually happened
was impossible. What happened, no
one could dream up. What happened, no
one could plan. What happened, no one
could orchestrate, but what happened is exactly
what Jesus predicted. In the region of
Caesarea Philippi surrounded by a group of people
with no future and no hope other than to simply
survive living under, at the heel of the Roman empire, overtaxed, misled by
their religious leaders, Jesus said gentlemen and
all of those who came along with the gentlewomen because
everywhere Jesus went there were the apostles and
then there was the crowd. He says to the apostles
and to that group, ladies and gentlemen,
I will build my (speaks in foreign language) I will build my gathering,
my congregation, my assembly, my movement. It is going to happen
and the gates of Hades, death itself, will
not overcome it. And these words must've
sounded so hollow, so thin, so trite,
so unbelievable standing out there in that
blazing hot Syrian sun, but Jesus meant what he said and the gate of Hades
will not overcome it and it didn't and it won't
because what God began and what God continued
through the ministry and the life and the death and the resurrection
of Jesus is linear. God showed up in
history with a plan and we have so much
to look back on. We have so much to
appreciate and the thought that we are a small part
of what God is doing in our generation, in the church that began all those years ago against insurmountable
odds is such a privilege. It's what wakes me
up in the morning. It's what keeps me going
when things get difficult because we all have
a little bit of time and we all have a little
bit of opportunity and we have been invited
into this grand narrative that no one could've imagined and no one could've
orchestrated, but my friends, it happened. Jordan Peterson in his
book 12 Rules for Life says it so perfectly. I just want you to
let him tell you. A new book that basically says what people have been
saying for generations, but again, he brings it
to life in such a way that I just couldn't
say it any better. Here's what he writes. He says Christianity achieved
the well-nigh impossible. There it is. The Christian doctrine
elevated the individual soul, placing slave and master and
commoner and nobleman alike on the same
metaphysical footing, rendering them equal
before God and the law. This was unheard of. The implicit, the implicit
transcendent worth of each and every soul
established itself against impossible,
impossible, impossible odds. It is in fact, he
writes, nothing short of a miracle that
the hierarchical
slave-based societies of our ancestors
reorganized themselves. How, why? Under the sway of an
ethical/religious revelation such that the ownership
and absolute domination of another person came
to viewed as wrong and then this next
statement is so heavy and it's so weighty
and it's so important. It's why I wanted to
read this quote because what is so normal to us,
what is so normal to us, what is so expected
by us that we think it is just common sense,
that it's so self-evident, how could anyone miss it,
we are absolutely wrong. Here's what he writes. We forget, and we forget
because most of us never knew. We forget that the
opposite was self-evident throughout most
of human history. That throughout most
of human history, what made perfect sense
was might made right. The one with the
gold makes the rules. Owning another person
is just natural. Being able to enslave an
entire population is natural. This is the way of nature,
this is the way of things. It is so self-evident, why
would anyone ever question it? But when Jesus came, everything
got turned upside down and we are stewards
of that message. He continues, he
says, the society, the society produced
by Christianity was
far less barbaric than the pagan, even the
Roman ones it replaced. It objected, you heard me
talk about this before. I just want you to hear
it from someone else. It objected to infanticide,
to prostitution, to the principle that
might means right. It insisted that women
were as valuable as men. Unheard of in ancient times. It demanded, it demanded
that even a society's enemies be regarded as human. All of this was
asking the impossible. But it happened. But it happened and it
happened around the teaching of one Jewish rabbi whose words
should never have survived the dusty first century. Once upon a time, what
we considered normal, once upon a time, what
we consider self-evident was inconceivable and my
friends, here's my concern. If we take it for granted, it
might vanish from our culture. We take it for granted
and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren
may not have it. Some of you, some of you want to make America great
again and rightly so. Some of you are concerned
about what does again mean? What is again in reference
to and rightly so. Of course we want our
nation to be a great nation. Of course we want our
nation to be as great as it could possibly be and
the key to our nation being as great as it can possibly
be is a thriving church because a thriving church
that truly embraces the message of Jesus both for
this life and the life to come is a message that
impacts the culture and the conscience of a nation. A thriving church is how
we get a great nation because Jesus
defined great for us and he turned it upside down
and he said to his disciples on their way to Jerusalem
when they were arguing about who is going to be
the greatest among us. I mean Jesus, we know
that you're number one, but we wanna know who
gets to be number two and number three in the kingdom. When you rip off your rabbi robe and there's a big M
and you're the Messiah and you turn around the
back and there's a big K because you're the
king, we wanna know who sits at your left hand and
who sits at your right hand and Jesus said to them,
all of you sit down because you still
don't understand. This isn't the way it works. In the rest of the world, that's how the
structures of power work, but not in my kingdom. In my kingdom it's
completely backwards. In my kingdom it's
completely upside down. I want you to follow
me, he would say, but as you follow me,
you remember this. Even the son of man
talking about himself, even the son of man did not
come to be served, but to serve. Even the son of man did not
come to be served, but to serve and to give his life
a ransom for many and he would say to them,
if you're up for that, you follow me and we
will change the world. And they did. This is why be rich
is such a big deal. This is why being generous in our communities
is such a big deal. This is why creating
new churches that get this is
such a big deal. This is why you
are so important. This is why we are so important. Jesus said it best,
of course he did. He said it this way to
his first century audience and I think to us as well. He said you, you, those of
you who choose to follow me, you are the salt of the earth and when he said this,
the group of people he's talking to are
looking around going like, no we're not. We're not the salt of anything. Nobody even knows we're here. We're Judeans, we're
Galileans, we're, you know, we're not even a
sovereign state. We can't even make
our own rules. We can't even trust
our own leaders. We're not the salt of the earth. You're the salt of
the earth, Jesus said, but if the salt
loses its saltiness, that is if you just blend in,
if you just go with the flow, if you embrace the power,
the structure of power that the world models for us, if you decide it
means being number one to the demise of
everyone else around you, if you decide that somehow
living for yourself makes you someone, if you
forget that the value of a life is only, is always measured by
how much of it's given away, if you lose your saltiness, he says how can it
be made salty again? It is no longer
good for anything. It is no longer
good for anything. It is no longer
good for anything except to be thrown out
and trampled underfoot. You, he says, to his
first century audience. You, he says, to you and to us and again, this,
this made no sense. Looking back, it makes all
the sense in the world. Little did they know that they were on the
verge of greatness. Little did they know that
they were at the beginning of something that would
truly revolutionize the world and topple an empire. You are the light of the world to which they said no we're not. Rome is the light of the world. The city of Rome is
the city set on a hill where all the
instructions come from, where all the power
emanates from. Rome is the light of the world. Caesar is the
light of the world. We're not the light of the world and Jesus would smile and say you have no
idea what's in store because I'm going to
build my gathering and nothing, including
Rome, will stop it. You're the light of the world. Let your light
shine before others. What does that mean? That they may see
your good deeds. Nobody's even paying
attention to our deeds, Jesus. Jesus says you just wait. You follow me and when
people see your good deeds, when people see the way
that you treat the sick, when people see the way
that you honor women, when people see the
way you honor children, when a plague comes
through a village and you no longer fear death and you stay behind and
take care of the sick, you let people see
your good works and eventually they will
glorify your Father and Heaven and together we will
change the world. And you is not me. You is we. You is us. Think of it. That we are the
stewards, think of it. In our generation, we are
the stewards of the church and the faith for our generation and the question I have for you, the question I have to
constantly ask myself is as stewards of the
church for our generation, what am I gonna do with it? What are we gonna do with it? Will we just take from it? Will we take from it and
get what we can get from it and leave it weaker
sidelined and ineffectual? Or will we, or will
we engage with it and in engaging with the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ ensure that the church
continues to shape the conscience of our
communities and of our nation and of the world. It's impossible for us to
get our hearts and our minds and our emotions around,
but 2,000 years ago, Jesus launched
something for the ages. 2,000 years ago, Jesus launched something
for you and for us. 23 years ago, we launched
something for our communities and I'm confident because
history bears witness to the fact that I'm confident
and we can all be confident that God will complete
what he's begun and with your involvement
at our churches, we will complete what
we've begun as well against all odds, it's
impossible to even exaggerate. Against all odds, the church
changed the world once and there is still a great deal that needs to be changed about
our world and by God's grace and with your help, perhaps
we can be a small part of bringing about that
change in our communities, in our nation and
maybe in the world. And so, here's what
I'm inviting you to do. Here's what I'm
challenging you to consider whether you have been
with us for 23 years or for 23 minutes, in the
words of the apostle Paul to a group of first
century believers, they had no idea what
hung in the balance of their faithfulness,
he said to them, my friends, stand firm. Let nothing move you. This was battleground language. Stand firm, don't retreat. Stand firm, dig in your heels. Stand firm, prepare
for the assault. Stand firm, let
nothing move you. Always, he said to them,
give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know, even
though they didn't know, because you know that your labor
in the Lord is not in vain. And their labor in the
Lord was not in vain. We are here as a
result of their labor. We're here because
of their labor. The question is will we
take our cue from them because just as we are here because of their
tenacious labor, our labor will determine
who's here tomorrow. Our labor will determine
what the church of the future looks
like, how it operates and if it will continue to
embrace the extraordinary command of Jesus, what He said. If you forget everything
else, you remember this because this is how people
will know you're my follower. You are to love not
as you've been love. You are to love not as
you want to be loved. You are to love as
I have loved you and the morning after
He made that statement, He put on a
demonstration of love that will take His breath away and the world would
never be the same. So, for all of you at
all of our churches, engage and stay engaged. We have been given the
opportunity of a lifetime.
