Mighty God | Greg Boyd

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that happened I'm Thanksgiving dinner that we had here was that the Thanksgiving dinner we had here it looked like it that was a fun dinner I was there and that was I didn't see the guys doing that but that was a fun dinner and thanks for putting up that little bumper before the sermon how do you guys I'm Greg it's really good to be here with all of you I I don't want to be a consultant on mission there is there anything but but my advice for the Honduras trip would be if you guys would do that in January you probably get a few more takers I'm just thinking I'm just thinking I'm feeling called to go where the weather's warm and there's a lot of things going on around here that app thing is really wonderful you should really get that you can keep up and with so many things going on around here I bet some of you probably know that we've got missionaries that are sent out different parts of the world so you just kind of find out what's going on around here and some cool events one I read selected mentioned briefly was that this Friday the tap is having a party if you want the best party in your life yeah you got it that's Kingdom party man is it is just so fun it's just so fun and and beautiful it's beautiful okay so we're in a series here they were probably more than a name and I am in the process of discovering that my notes are all mixed up more than name we're basing on the Isaiah 9 and which is a prophecy about the coming Christ and and and we're doing this with a having an apologetic twist apologize just means giving reasons for what you believe and so we're gonna be talking not only about what this passage says about the Christmas story about God becoming a human being but but also why should we think it's true and that's a very good question to always be asking yourself why do I believe this or why don't I believe this I don't want to believe something that's not true and so I'm always interested in like if someone's got objections to what I'm believing I want to hear them because I I have a phobia being duped and and so we want to can't lead us out there and that's good not just for what we're hoping that that you invite some friends and there's some folks here that are maybe not believers or a lot of sense they're kind of they're I'm hoping that there's folks here like that and I'll be giving you reasons why I would encourage you to consider becoming a disciple of Jesus but even for believers you know the Bible says Peter tells us prepared to give an apologia and then that's a Greek word for for reasons we get the word apologetics from it be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have within and so this is information for some it should be quipping for believers because you always should be ready to be able to say well you never thought about this as you're talking with people about Christ so the passage is isaiah 9 which says this for a child has been born for us a son has given given to us authority rests upon his shoulders and he has named wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of Peace we just saying about it his authority shall grow continually and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David in his kingdom he will establish and up hold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore amazing thing here this prophecy 700 and some years before christ is born isaiah says that that the son will be given to us he'll be a human being a child will come but then he says this child will be mighty god an everlasting father and so here isaiah is getting a glimpse into this remarkable truth that the coming messiah was going to be more than just a mere human being he would be the embodiment of the mighty god we find the same thing in micah i talked about this a little bit last week but we had a storm so half of you were missed it but it's just too good to pass up so i'm gonna go over it again but you O Bethlehem Ephrathah who are one of the little clans of Judah from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel whose origin is from of old from Ancient of Days it's a very strange passage because I the one hand that Micah is identifying Bethlehem as the town where this ruler this coming Messiah will be born which itself is surprising because Bethlehem know we're in the middle of nowhere a bunch of nobodies everyone would have expected the Messiah to come to the City of David the holy city that to Jerusalem but he says no it's gonna be that little tiny teeny weeny thing in the middle of Israel Bethlehem so he'll come out of they'll be born there come out of there and yet his origin didn't you say his origin was Bethlehem but now he says his origin is good B of Ancient of Days and that's a Hebrew phrase that just means unimaginably old and it was applied to God because only God is unimaginably old he's called the Ancient of Days and so Micah here is both Micah and Isaiah and there's several other Old Testament passages I could point to are getting a glimpse of the truth that the coming Messiah 750 years later will will will be the embodiment of Yahweh himself and this is how the New Testament portrays Jesus when Jesus shows up these disciples there they end up praying to him and they worship him but every Jew every monotheistic Jew in the first century knows you only pray to God you only worship God and they call a creator to call him word and they even apply it four times the title God to him it's what's most amazing about all this is that none of it was expected at the time of Jesus no one was looking for the Messiah it should be God they were looking for a messiah to be anointed by God but they were looking for him to be God and those prophecies that now seem so clear Isaiah 9 Micah 5 those weren't looked to as Messianic prophecies and prophecies until after Christ one of most fundamental assumptions of the Jewish faith is that God is God in humans and humans and never the two collide they were mixed and so when they say these incredible statements well people didn't know what to do with them answer these questions there once Jesus comes and they experience him and they makes his claims of divinity and and in a lives this life that's exemplary Nietzsche's with this authority that's unprecedented he does these miracles and frees people from demons and then most of all he raises he's risen from the dead what's that happens they become convinced that this is the embodiment of Yahweh against the most fundamental assumptions of their Jewish faith and now when they look back they can see that these passages we're predicting this all along but they didn't believe in Jesus they didn't believe in Jesus because of the prophecies they noticed the prophecies because they already believed in Jesus which forces them this very important question what convinced these disciples that this contemporary fellow Jew of theirs was in fact the embodiment of Yahweh in a context of social context where nothing could be more antithetical to their Jewish faith than the idea that a fellow human being was God and yet Jesus somehow convinced them and even can miss his little brother that he was God and so he got asked a question what was it that convinced them I mean it would take a lot I would think well what would it take to convince you that I was God or that your brother was God think of James what would it take for what must Jesus have been like to convince his own brother James that he was the embodiment of Yahweh I mean I love my brother but I can't imagine what he'd have to do to convince me he was God this is not gonna happen okay and I'm not a I'm not as resistant to that idea as as four century Orthodox Jews would be whatever trouble I would have believing that they would have more and yet they believed so the question is what must Jesus have been like to have convinced him of this now the disciples tell us they say well it's the claims he made and and and the the authority with which he taught and the exemplar life that he lived and and the miracles that he did but most of all he rose from the dead and see I would think it would take something about that miraculous to convince these Jews against the most fundamental assumptions of their faith that their fellow contemporary was God and so if these things are true if they're telling the truth and everything that needs to be explained is explained if Jesus did all these things made these claims but now now I can begin to understand how his brother and other contemporaries would be brought to faith in him but that's because I'm a Christian if you're not a disciple and you don't believe that Jesus was who the disciples say he was then I ask you what explains their faith how did they come to faith how did James come to faith what was it if it wasn't what they said it wasn't then what was it it comes down to this either you accept it as true in which case everything's explained or if it's not true well then then well your your alternatives you got you so far as I can see if they're not telling the truth so this is isn't based in history then they're either intentionally lying or they're it's easier it's either false intentionally in which case they're lying or it's full of unintentionally they're they're sincere but actually they're passing on a fabrication they're passing on a legend it's got a lie or legend or the truth now the legend hypothesis I submit to you is a little bit difficult for one thing you eat this isn't a story that's told long long ago and far far away in some part of the galaxy this is a story they're telling about a contemporary of there is his brother and his mother are among the crowd of believers you don't have enough time for a legend develop alleged wouldn't have developed about a god man in the first place not in this cultural context this would be the last kind of legend that would develop this legend globally would go against everything that the culture believes and legends don't do that but most of all these disciples at least some of them claim to be eyewitnesses so for example John says this in the beginning of his epistle says we declared to you what was from the beginning what we have heard with our ears what we have seen with our eyes what we have looked at with their eyes what we have touched with our hands concerning the word of life this life was revealed and we have seen it and testify to it and declared to you the eternal life that was with the father and was revealed to us we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us okay so John is here saying it emphatically repetitiously redundantly that that we've seen but we're not passing on stuff that we heard you know naysayers or what's the pot of time or some rumor or something we witnessed this we shot with their eyes we touched him with our hands we heard his teachings with our ears he's not passing on a legend he's either telling the truth or he's lying and you can make the same case for other New Testament documents there's no way this could be a legend so could it be lying because they have this fabricated the whole thing made the whole thing up well the trouble with that among other things is but why would they do that first of all they're gonna make up a story it wouldn't be this story because this story goes everything that they necessarily believe but but but why would they make up a story in the first place because they would know that they would suffer you take this message into the world the Jews are gonna hate you because you're blaspheming calling a man God the Romans are gonna hate you because it's not good citizens you know you're gonna suffer persecution and they did and it was horrendous in 64 Nero there's a flier that burned down 2/3 of Rome and there was a big rumor all over on the Roman Empire that Nero actually had started that himself for political reasons and just kind of got out of control as a massive fire terrible a lot of destruction and so the the rumor mayor was that that Nero had done this Nero - he first if she tries to placate the crowd does what politicians always do he gives gifts to everybody hey like me like me I'm a nice guy and then then he offers up all these sacrifices to the gods he gets religious on everybody and when that doesn't appease the crowd he gets Nast and he turns on the Christians and we have an account of this by a man named Tacitus he's a Roman senator who's also a court historian court historians they work for the state their job was to keep a record of all the goings ons they were the experts in all the the the traditions of the Roman Empire and part of the job was to make the emperor always look good because the center of the Roman civility was the belief that the emperor is is divine so you have to make him look good which is interesting because in this passage tess's just doesn't do that so let's read this here we got where are we here ok but all human efforts test it just writes it he's writing this right at the turn going in the second century all human efforts all the lavish gifts of the Emperor all the propitiation of the gods did not vanish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order by Nero ok so it didn't work so then here's what happens consequently to get rid of the report Nero fastened the gilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations called Christians by the populace Christmas and that's just the Latin form of Christ Christmas from whom the name had originated see justice is a pagan and so he doesn't know that Christ isn't a proper name it's actually a title it means Anointed One but he doesn't know that and so he thinks it's the name bro who Christa's from whom the name had its origin suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of us procurator's Pontius Pilate and a most mischievous superstition that's checked for a moment again broke out not only in Judea the first source of the evil but even in Rome were all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their Center and become popular little jab their accordingly an arrest was first made of the Christians who pleaded guilty and then upon their information and immense multitude immense multitude was convicted not so much for the crime of fire in the city to save the city on fire as for being hating humankind hatred of humankind so here is a we've had we have earlier references to secular references to Christians before this but this is the most informative one here Tacitus confirms the basic historical framework of the Gospels this Jesus Christus was was born in Judea mr. in Judea he was crucified under when Tiberius was the Emperor and when Pilate was a procurator and that's exactly what the Gospels say so in secular confirmation of the basic historicity of the Gospels also confirms that by 64 this little tiny cult as the Jews thought it had spread out throughout the whole Roman Empire and it's really quite amazing in fact from Pliny we find that there are Christians way up there in the north and Bithynia and other regions of the Roman Empire there got everywhere in 30 years this movement spreads from 120 scared disciples in an upper room and in within 30 years they're everywhere in the Roman Empire despite the fact that the population as a whole doesn't like note that to like these people Tiberius hates on me Tacitus hates him he thinks that they're an abomination and yet the gospel spread is it it just shows you that these early Christians were very zealous in their faith they were out there preaching it and we're willing to pay the consequences for it Jassa this also confirms this that after Christos Jesus Christ was crucified the movement broke out all over all Rome now what's interesting about that is the reason you put the leaders to death is to kill the movement and Romans were experts at this this is how they kept a pox Romana the Peace of Rome they knew how to squish movements you go in there you round up whatever leaders you can find kill them and if you can't find them you find anyone you just to install terror in people you crucify them on the hillsides they knew how to stop movements how did they miss this one it makes me wonder what might have happened after Jesus died that caused the movement to explode when you thought you were putting it to death you thought you were extinguishing it it explodes hmm what might have happened I don't know well the disciples give us a clue they say he rose from the dead after he was crucified he rose from the dead he appeared to us forty days they had hung out together I mean they were convinced he rose from the dead and see if they're telling the truth well then that explains things wouldn't it I would think it would take something like a resurrection from the dead to turn these disciples who are scared fearful hiding away and turns them overnight into this zealous band of disciples who go out into the Roman Empire and preach this gospel if Jesus rose from the dead you can explain how their faith changed if he didn't if you don't believe he rose from the dead then what's your explanation one of my favorite things to do is to read not Christian historians wrestled with this question I love it because they squirm so wonderfully trained and so he mainly had a hallucination there's one guy who wrote a book and he actually proposes that in Galilee there was growing at that time in the first century a certain kind of mushroom that had wonderful hallucinogenic powers and so these disciples were strung out like mushrooms no wonder they thought that Jesus was God and rose from the dead I mean Jesus like a trail well yeah well I'm gonna go change the world come on come on tell me those mushrooms man the first communion was really mushrooms man there all good Heisley it just shows you how far people are willing to go to avoid the conclusion that he actually rose from the dead to avoid the conclusion that they're actually accurate when reported why they believe what they believe so narrow to deflect the blame off himself he pins it on the Christians and and and if he takes the populace suspicion towards these weirdos this weird call it and turns it against them and it was brutal see throughout the Roman Empire Christians quickly developed a reputation we get this from other sources there later but they probably reflect kind of general sentiment at the time but Christians were heated because number one they were server subversive they followed a different King in a different Lord they didn't honor Caesar and that made them guilty of treason they were hated because of killjoys everyone likes to go the gladiator games were the criminals in the end and the insurrectionists gets fed to lions they get their heads chopped off and it's all great fun probably being normal in the ancient Roman world and the Christians come along and they say that is of the devil and that's like going down to Texas and saying college football's of the devil you're gonna get crucified it's just doesn't gonna work and then a type of all that they were accused of cannibalism word got out that when these weird Christians get together in each other's household they say words like let's eat the blood or drink the blood and eat the body as he is body and drink his blood and people would wonder well whose body are they eating the killed with this answer Christians would in the ancient Roman world the father had absolute authority and could decide he had two weeks in most regions to decide whether or not a baby would live or die and the father didn't want the baby well then the baby was taken out by the local bridge and thrown at local river so the Christians would hang out by the rivers all night long they take shifts hang out by the rivers and if someone her splash they go in and save the baby and if it basin think the murderer was right but what happened was when people got word that they were saying let's eat drink the blood and eat the body that they're eating the babies no wonder they're going snatching those babies are eating them so so Christians were kind of frowned upon and Pilate tapped into that suspicion that out of animosity and he's these crystals aren't good citizens and they're not patriotic and and all the rest and it was a bloodbath it was an absolute bloodbath Tacitus writes about this listen to this and this is this is remarkable mockery of every sort was added to their deaths covered with the skins of beasts they were torn by dogs in Paris or were nailed to crosses were doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle and was exhibiting a show in the circus while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car hence even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment and Tacitus thinks that Christians did deserve this their insurrectionist but even then he says there arose a feeling of compassion for it was not as it seemed for the public good that Nero was slaughtering these people but to glut one man's cruelty that they were being destroyed so Tacitus is a sanitary Tacitus is a Roman historian he's seasons he goes the gladiator games he's used to seeing people getting ripped apart he's not like some kind of queasy liberal who feels offended when someone gets hurt enough he's used to this and yet even he this hardened senator and some having compassion on the Christians they were treated so terribly that he and others in the crowd felt sorry for them and he even criticizes Nero now that's you're a Roman historian you're supposed to this guy supposed to be God you know go say you did it just a god one man's cruelty but you can see that Tacitus here is he's he's really objects to this he thought he was just barbaric one of the exhibit that Nero did and Tacitus writes about it is that he would take Christians and you know just to have festivities he didn't pay him on posts and then tar them and then light them on fire and we make jokes about how these are his roman candle sticks that's where that phrase comes from and while people are being burned alive and paled on posts screaming bloody murder I've got to imagine he he invites dinner party you come along and they're illuminated by this burning flesh I find this to be unthinkably decadent I can't I can't fathom I can't enter into that but it's historically true these were tortured in the most unthinkable ways now here's the thing all of the almost all the earliest disciples and apostles were killed in this in this proper persecution and these other ones who said we saw him we touched him we heard him where we were eyewitnesses but if you don't he's not gonna believe them then you have to believe that they were lying because we've already ruled out the legend hypothesis so try to imagine this here's John and and and they get arrested because the Christians and now John has to watch his first his wife and then his children get impaled on post tarred with feathers and lit on fire and then he will be impaled on a post tired and lit on fire and are we to believe that he made this all up and he's not gonna crack now he knows that he's telling a lie and yet he's gonna let his wife and kids and himself get impaled and burned alive folks people don't do that you lie because it's in your interest to lie right we've got some liars in the crowd why do you lie you don't like it you're gonna get killed you lie because it's in your interest you benefit some way right you benefit from it there's nothing there's no benefit here there's nothing but negative lost I if I if you're gonna hide hold the lie hypothesis I'm if I were you I'd entertain the mushroom hypothesis is a little more plausible why would they die for a lie and in the amazing thing is this we've got no record of anyone retracting their confession it's a if any of the early disciples possums had had cracked we likely would have known about it because that would have fed the propaganda machine perfectly both on the Roman site and the Jewish side they all wanted to expose this thing as a fraud if they could have got one of the leaders to crack that would do it you prayed him around town and he confesses it's kind of amazing that no one correct even though they were telling the truth because when you're facing you and your family being impaled on a post hard and lit on fire well you've got a good motive to lie and and so you know it's remarkable that we don't have that but one thing is for sure and that said these folks were sincere they weren't making this up they weren't passing out a legend so if if we ruled up the legend that theory and we ruled out the lie theory you're left with there it's all the truth I think that's substantially true well we can say they've met I got this sorted out a little bit but the substance of it has got to be true and and and and so the only remaining question is how are you gonna respond to that and you could acknowledge this reality and bow your knee and surrender your life to him and I would encourage you to do that or you can walk away but the Bible warns aloud and when you've shown light to walk away from light is you're walking down a dangerous road when you surrender to the reality of Christ's lordship you're now on a road that leads to eternal life that's the road you want to be on that's what you want to be on I encourage you to seriously consider that here's the here's a really interesting thing oh my gosh it's 12 o'clock already Oh Lord give me the gift of succinctness okay uh here's the thing the thing backfired this is a incredible phenomenon here okay whenever that when Nero tried to squish this thing annihilate it that's what he wanted to extinguish it he reduced the numbers greatly for sure but you know what it actually accelerated the growth of the church so Pilate tries to extinguish it by crucifying Jesus and it explodes and then narrow tries to extinguish it and it explodes 30 years later they're filling the Roman Empire again it just grew at a phenomenal rate in the most uninhabitable circumstances and gretel phenomenal right then doctor that Diocletian tries to extinguish it it explodes 100 years later Hadrian tries to extinguish it explodes and it's unprecedented world history you know Muslims as part of their apologetic part of their proofs they will say well the growth of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries was beyond human explanation Allah had to have given us this growth well it was it was an impressive growth but it was impressive growth because it was an impressive military victory or a series of military victories Muhammad all the Arabs there was no like organized stayed there's all these little tribes and Muhammad's got the idea that if we just kind of unite a couple of these tribes we could take over this whole thing and that's what he did he did it in the name of Allah and in a conquered and they slaughtered and and whatever and it was impressive you're looking at just sure growth see the the birth of the church it grew faster and they didn't use the sword to advance the gospel they advanced the gospel by being willing to be used by the sword to be they have a sword used against them and that's a it's unprecedented how does a movement keep on growing the more you try to extinguish it the more it grows as symmetry the answer is is this the kingdom movement was birthed with Jesus crucifixion which was confirmed with the resurrection and the kingdom movement always has a cruciform flavor to it it always looks like the cross so I always say that the kingdom begins in our life was our first drop of blood it's in the DNA of the kingdom that sacrifice self-sacrifice self sacrificial love is what advances it its very nature and self sacrificial love and so when there's sacrifice that inherently grows this thing it's like Jesus you remember the story where it was a story it was an actual event where there's a lady who puts a penny in the offering where everyone's putting all these big gifts and Jesus says that lady put in more than everybody else because that was all she had and what he's saying there is it's not money isn't the currency of the kingdom it's the sacrifice behind the money that you give that is the currency of the kingdom it's the bleeding that advances the kingdom when the bleeding is done out of love it's when we're denying ourselves individually and corporately for the sake of others that is the essence of the kingdom that's what God's doing on Calvary and when we replicate that when we do that it advances the kingdom and nowhere more do Christians ever do that than when they're being persecuted for the church it's called to me it to look like a kind of corporate Jesus the giant Jesus right and nowhere has the church looked more like a giant Jesus when then when the church was being crucified when the church was imitating Jesus in terms of a self sacrificial death and that brings me to the mighty God I know you were wondering what's the mighty God good to come into this well here's the mighty God because here's what's amazing that is amazing that Isaiah and Micah could see that the 800 years from now there's gonna be a person who's gonna be born he's gonna be both God and human amazing but what's really amazing is that the one who fulfills this who fulfills the mighty God prophecy is regarded as mighty God he's the same one who got crucified what is mighty about that in fact it's not just that well the mighty guy got crucified but in the New Testament the cross is the perfect expression of the mighty God the cross expresses the mightiness of God when God flexes his of Nipigon biceps it looks like him getting crucified out of love for his enemies the very enemies who are crucifying him that's the power of God so here's what Paul says in first Corinthians this is the message about the Cross yeah it's foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God the Cross is the power of God we proclaim Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God the cross is the power and the wisdom of God that is among them craziest things anyone has ever said which is partly how I know how it's divinely inspired we've got a whole Eastern religion we know we know what gods look like when you and beings invent them we take the kind of power that we lust after which is course of power power to get our way power to impose our will on others power to win power to defeat our enemies we like that kind of coercive power so we attributed to the gods and then religion becomes the quid pro quo arrangement where we do some things to please the gods and the gods help us kill our enemies and bla bla bla bla bla been going on since day one Paul comes long as this sorry you got the wrong concept of God the power the true power of God is God's willingness to suffer God's willingness to enter into solidarity with us in our sin and in our judgment and to Barratt himself that is the power of God the true power of God is the power to give yourself away the way to change the worlds give yourself away invest in others not that you have to become you know some kind of a ascetic out in the desert or something like that no you're just walking around having nothing but to have a life orientation that's that's other-directed where you you you you notice people you love people you're pouring on for people that's the essence of the kingdom and it's totally contracted with the world's always said about the gods it's it's it's insane but it's beautiful it's that play beautiful the power of God is expressed in his willingness to give himself away your sacrifice the sake of others and see it looks foolish awake to the world look so foolish and weak to the world hot stew but what kind of God gets himself crucified how's that mighty mightiness is supposed to protect you not get you killed bosses know that the mightiness of God is the power of that cross and see it looks foolish and weak but in fact it's the most powerful you force in the universe you can have if you have enough course of power you can pretty much get anyone to do anything say anything but I don't care how many guns you have bullets you have laws you have tanks fighter jets and nuclear weapons you cannot make a person love you you cannot make a person love God or love themselves or love others you can't change a person's heart force cannot change a pretty good heart in a person's heart but it cannot change a person's heart it's only the cross like love of the mighty God that can get on the inside and change a sinner like me from the inside out it's only the power like cross of the mighty God that can possibly change an enemy into a friend and stop a cycle of violence that characterizes this this world it's only that that cross like power of the mighty God that can empower people to love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable and to see the invisible to care about people who even other people's radar screens it's only that that cross like power of the mighty God you get on the inside and and and melt the calluses in our heart and open our eyes to see the beauty in the difference of people and the uniqueness of people rather than seeing categories or labels or problems all you love of God can't can do that you can get a law or rule that says people ought to do that but nothing will empower them to do that until the love of God begins to get on the inside it makes all the difference in the world doesn't it if you take our hateful heart and make it loving that's the power of God the power of the Cross a hateful heart make it love me you can take a racist heart and make it embracing take a fearful heart and transform it into something courageous take a faithless heart make it transformed into something faithful take a an arrogant heart and transform it into humility take a despairing infused it with hope only the love of God the mighty God that's revealed on the cross can bring about that kind of change and see here's the thing that's the kind of change this way this love this power of the cross is the hope of the world and it's where all this is the kind of power we're to trust because here's the thing the problem with the world and there's a lot of problems with the world but it's not like we're gonna figure this out it's not like if you get the right policy get the right laws get the right armies to win the right battles well then things will go well you know it's America on it we'll just keep on going on because the problem is in the human heart which tells you that all the world's coercive power isn't gonna save us because it can't get to the problem the one power that is powerful enough to get in there is power of the Cross the power of self sacrificial love and folks that's the kind of power that we are called to to manifest at all times here in America yeah we're blessed we don't have to usually give our life for our faith that may change who knows but but right now mitrice till called to be martyrs Tertullian said this he said that the the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and I think this is just so profoundly true now barter is in early church the word Mar just means to bear witness but it became synonymous with giving your life for your faith when the Christians were persecuted we're all called to be martyrs in the sense of being witnesses and we're all called to be willing to be Mars in the sense of getting killed right we're if you see that's because this is what manifests the power of god this is what spreads the kingdom the blood of the Mars is a seed of the church the sacrifice of the witnesses whether you're killed or not it's whether you sacrifice or not that is the seed of the church it's what fuels the kingdom that's why the widows penny did more to advance the team of God than all the other money that people put in there it's because the currency of the kingdom isn't money it's about to sacrifice behind the money it's about the bleeding it's about the willingness to suffer on behalf of others where are we our kingdom our lives our kingdom to the degree that it costs us something like that and that's why whenever the church is coming to this kind of persecution it's always backfired it spreads it because you've just given Christians a wonderful chance to put on full display the self-sacrificial love that was revealed on Calvary and never as the church more look more like crucified Christ and when the church was being crucified it's in the nature of it so we are manifesting the love of God the mighty power of the mighty God when we carve out space in our budget to include others instead of having all of our Christmas on ourselves and our family let's let's include in our budget concern for the homeless and concern for disadvantage of families that's what we're doing collectively during this season here that is manifesting the the cross like love of the mighty God and when you stop doing something you wanted to do because there's somebody in need you're manifesting the power of the outrageous got it when you carve out time out of your busy schedule to volunteer whether it's at children's church or youth or you come to the tap where you go lift or or you have some other place that you're investing in that is manifesting the power of the Almighty God Jesus completely redefines with powers what might he is I'm sure that would Isaiah said mighty God he's probably thinking some military thing because he's he's right from that perspective but when Jesus shows up what a different kind of power he introduces of the world it's so radical and so beautiful just cross like power across the power of God that the vast vast majority of Christians today and throughout history have not been willing to accept it the vast majority of Christians throughout history and yet today when it comes to thinking about the power of God so far as I could tell people go totally pagan they think it's about control power it's bugged I get my way kind of power it's it's it's Zeus on steroids you know control I want to control that is the essence of a pagan conception of God here Paul reveals that the true power of God is revealed and sacrificing for others and that's what we are called to do it's in our DNA and so for believers I don't ask and with this question would you add it should be a regular part of our relationship with God and with the Holy Spirit that we're always asking the question Lord how would you have me bleed how would you have me bleed and to be open to however the Spirit moves you in that and it may be the case in fact it certainly will be the case that as you grow you ask more of you and I just encourage all of us to always be listening to the spirit sincerely seeking the spirit and then yielding to the spirit sacrifice it sounds onerous it sounds burdensome it sounds painful and it can be that but a lot of us in this room and listening on podcasts would testify that when you break through that yeah you got to lose your life but man when you lose Elijah find it and then and and that that life that life is joy that life is joy to not be clinging to things to be free with things to be really in just kind of let go then you find joy if I enjoying that I encourage us to really be pursuing that it's the essence of what we do how do we bleed for the sake of the world to manifest the love of God if you're here this morning and you're not a believer I just want to ask you to really seriously consider the arguments I put out here how do you explain the faith of the disciples how do you explain the courage in going out and preaching to the world when they are so discouraged before how do you explain how they came to believe that a contemporary even James ohm brother it was was was God in flesh how do you explain that in a context where everything worked against it and how do you explain those prophecies God's given us many reasons to believe this is true I've being one was kind of paranoid about being duped I've looked into this rather carefully and I just come into the collusion that I got way more reasons for believing this is true that I have for any other candidate to believe out there and so I'm gonna stake all my eggs in this basket consider the things I've said and when you come to the point where you're ready to do that or if you want to find out more about that come up here and tell me some people up front would love to talk to you about what it is to become a disciple of Jesus he gives us many reasons but there's still a decision you have to make you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink right I've led you to the trough here whether you drink or not it's up to you and that takes faith faith goes beyond reason it doesn't go against it but does go beyond it as a decision you have to make I encourage you to make that decision and start to learn what it is to be a disciple of Jesus because now you're on the road it looks like Calvary and it leads to everlasting life and that's where you want to be amen what you saying I think that's the prayer teams to come forward here and if you're here this morning you know what I'm gonna give a hollow you out here right here I uh I got a little bit chest cold going around and it was it was it was kind of iffy today and but we got prayed over and I have knocked off one time it this morning so it's no watch I'll start coughing up blood your thing so if you're here this morning I mean that could use prayer come up here and talk to these folks they'd love to pray with you and I'm here this morning and are interested in finding out what it is to be a disciple come up here they'd love to explain it to you as we leave this place can we do it as the people who are committed to following the mighty God manifesting the mighty power of the Cross to all people at all the times know if answered but if you don't agree with that same man and go out and do it see you next week

Channel: The Narrow Gate

Views: 2,466

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Satan, Sin, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, Christian, The Gospel, Truth, Lord, Salvation, The Word, Preaching, Study, Sermon, The Father, Faith, Hope, Love, Apostle, Disciples, Heaven, Hell, Demons, Angels, Prophets, Saints, The Cross, Calvary, Crucified, Born Again, Scripture, Prophecy, Holy, Justification, Sanctification, Regeneration, Soul, Church, The Blood, Prayer, New Covenant, Grace, Christianity, Martyr, Pastor, Messiah, Savior, Atonement, PRAYER, repent, Greg Boyd

Id: rXvwKl6JqQk

Length: 41min 31sec (2491 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 09 2019