Shout 2021 | Shane Willard | The Bible in 40 Minutes

it's been such an honor to share the stage with incredible leaders and communicators and um around from around the the world and um it's just it's just an honor to be a part although i reckon i reckon the best the best preacher of the day might have been the young lady that did the spoken poetry thing that was pretty awesome i i was up there i was like mesmerized it took me five minutes to get over how stunned i was at the rhythm of it and you could give me to the end of days to come up with something like that i couldn't do it and everybody's got their their grace and so my job is to open the bible and um and i take that really seriously and so anytime you open the bible you want to ask at least two questions one what happened two more importantly what's happening in me right now because of what happened if you're the type that wants to look at some of the actual bible romans chapter five we're going to get there um in in just a second so where we've come over the course of the last couple of days is we've been talking about unified and in the first night we talked about that part of our unification is is in our worship and in our divine dance being in step with what god is up to and showing the world what that relationship might look like pastor mark varghese this morning talked about one of the things that unifies us is a thankful heart and that gratitude that spirit of gratitude serves as an alarm clock and a compass and an anchor and a key to what we are trying to to build what i brought this morning is one of the things that unified us that unifies us is salvation it's very simple to get distracted by things that matter less and so one of the things that should unify us is the idea that hope flows through suffering and salvation is one day one day one day but it's also here now today tonight my task is to talk about something else that should unify us and that is the bible and namely the gospel of jesus christ so i might have been off more than i could chew here's what i'm hoping to do i'm hoping that everybody that'll stick with me tonight will understand the entire bible in five words and why jesus is so important and unique and special and that will understand the gospel so my goal is is that we will understand the entire bible and how the gospel works in about 40 minutes and i promise you won't be bored in the middle of it we're also going to do some things like i'm going to ask you to repeat some words with me and do some motions and i want you to do it with some equippers gusto because i can see that you all know how to move and shout and heck you call the name of the thing shout so we're going to do some of that this is romans chapter 5 verse 8 but god demonstrated his love for us and this while we were still sinners christ died for the ungodly a revolutionary ridiculous claim as far as i know the only claim like it in the history of the world from any religion from any part of the world from any from any corner of the globe a god that acts first and then humbly waits for your consent back as far as i know it never happened every other god in the history of the world you go to their temple at their moment at their time and do their risk role in their posture and pay their offering and then maybe that god would respond to you by acting on your behalf not the god revealed in christ the god revealed in christ humbly consents in love first and then waits for you to mutually consent it's a radical claim because whoever says i love you first is taking all the risk if you've ever dated somebody and you got that weird point in relationship where you wonder if you could say i love you whoever says i love you first is taking all the risk like you imagine you imagine sitting across somebody you're like i think i'm going to say it i think i'm going to say um i love you what if they what you hope is they say i love you too but what if they say i know that's nice good for you right an unreciprocated non-consensual relationship would would that be this is not the god revealed in christ is a god that says i expect you to do nothing first i will take the first move and then humbly consent to your mutual consent that is a revel so revolutionary actually that i'm not sure to understand this we got to understand the bible and where the bible takes the narrative that this was a revolutionary thought so let's talk about the bible for a second and then we're going to bring the gospel into the story because the way i look at the bible is the bible is christ centered that the whole bible is going that christ is the culmination of where the story goes so i'm going to say a few things the first one will be quite academic do not panic i'm going to state the same thing more simply and then i'm going to even go more simple than that ready here's the academic statement ready here we go the bible is not a static record of god the bible is a dynamic progressive moving revelation of god leading to the final revelation of god in the risen christ let's go one step simpler what that means is is that although god never changed the way people related to god and thought about god changed over and over and got better and better and better and better and better leading to the final revelation of god in the risen christ let's state it even more simple that although god never changed the more people understood about god the closer he got and the nicer he got in other words and that's a good thing because you don't want somebody getting closer and meaner like closer and nicer is a good thing so in other words although god never changed the more they understood about god the closer they realized he was and the nicer they realized he was now to understand this let's go all the way back to abraham i told you you would understand the entire bible in five words in 40 minutes i will keep my promise okay so let's go back to abraham and let's answer the question how did god get closer so in abraham abraham lived in an age and in a place called ancient sumeria no temples no scriptures they didn't know much about god at all right and if you wanted if you ask anybody in that day where did god live the answer was ready up up in the sky that god lives out there somewhere so for us to learn this we're going to interact a little bit okay so for the rest of the night when i say in abraham's day god lived we're gonna all say up and put our thumb up in the air so we're gonna go up now because this place is so huge it's sprawling we're gonna have to work on this to get our rhythm okay so let's do this with some equippers shout conference gusto okay let's try this ready in abraham's day god lived up that's very good very good so let's do this a couple more times just to get our rhythm because this is going to come back in abraham's day god lived oh oh that is really good one more time with one more edge of gusto ready in abraham's day god lived yeah that's that's that's it yeah god lived up in the sky now we know from the bible that abraham was a sun worshiper was he a bad guy no the idea is that if god lives up in the sky if you go out in the day and you look up in the sky what's the most powerful thing in the sky the sun so obviously that big ball of fire is god the problem is that with that is that the sun sets every day so if the sun is the god of the day then the yeah the moon would be the god of the night and the idea was is that the sun was more powerful than the moon until by observation because you can look straight at the moon they started writing things down about the moon and here's what they realized they realized that the moon goes through a 28-day cycle very predictable new moon waxing waning full moon new moon waxing waning full moon and every 28 days the moon renews itself which led to this observation what else in creation renews itself every 28 days women half the room should know this i could see the guy in the back going hey billy what's he talking about man i don't get this at all yeah no tweet you know that thing that happens once a month right if it doesn't you panic and go to the chemist shop right no that right it's like oh no what what like no no no that okay so so just basic seventh grade science every 28 days a woman a woman's body renews itself so here is the logic right if the moon renews itself every 28 days and the women are renewing itself every 28 days then the moon must speak in charge of fertility so the god of fertility is the moon and the god controlling the women's moods how powerful is this moon so when the full moon's out you better get out of the cave so the idea is that god lived up in the sky now i don't don't think too hard about this if you're an ancient sumerian farmer what do you desperately need to come out of the sky for you to live yeah rain and so the idea is who's controlling the rain the gods in the sky so the question is what must we do to please the gods of the sky i'll get to that in a second because we want them happy because if they're happy they'll send rain if they're upset they'll withhold the rain and we'll die if they're really ticked off they'll send too much rain but but but the gods of the sky are controlling this life source that helps us live we'll get to that in a second for right now everybody ready all i want you to remember is that in abraham's day god lived 430 years later a guy named moses comes along and moses is like no god doesn't live up god lives in a tent in the middle of camp god doesn't live up that's ridiculous god lives in a tent because that's less ridiculous so what moses did is he said no no god isn't existent and far away like that god is actually closer than we can imagine he lives in a tent so moses built a tent it was 45 foot long by 15 foot wide by 15 foot high it was covered in animal hair it was pretty unimpressive actually so he told the people the presence of god is so special if you go in there you'll die of course there's no record of that ever happening actually nebuchadnezzar stole the furniture did not die take black police or rats at the place he didn't die but the idea is is that if we tell people it's unavailable to them it'll make it even more special but what made moses revelation so awesome is that it moved the whole world from god living up to the idea that god can be closer and in a tent so for the rest of the sermon when i say in moses's day god lived in uh we're gonna point toward the ground and say tent all right so let's practice that ready in moses's day god lived in a tent moses day god lived in a tent in abraham's day god lived up moses day lives in a tent then years later a guy named david comes along and david's like no god doesn't live in a tent that's ridiculous god needs his own building because that's less ridiculous so david starts the process of building god a temple here was the problem david was the head of state so when he went to other countries to visit other kings the other kings would say let me show you our god's temple and it was these magnanimous things right and then those kings would come back and visit david and they'd be like where's your god's temple and david's like send that tent over there and so david said this is this is nonsense if the pagans can build their gods a temple that is grandiose why can't we build the real god a temple that is grandiose and the idea is is that if the pagan kings ever thought that their gods were bigger than us they would attack us so david starts the process of building god a temple now i understand that solomon finished it but solomon's a bit harder and less rhythmic to say so for tonight we'll say in david's day god lived in a temple and will point up like that like sort of at an angle right so let's practice that in david's day god lived in a temple right a little bit more rhythm and a lot more umph right in david's day god lived in a temple so it's practiced from the beginning in abraham's day god lived up moses day lived in a tent and david's day he lives in a temple then years later this guy named jesus comes along and people were like hey wait a minute in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and the word became flesh in other words in the bible the bible is not a static record of god the bible is a dynamic progressive moving revelation of god leading to the final revelation of god in the risen christ in the same narrative beautiful awesome inspired narrative of scripture you have this idea that god can live up and then later they realize actually he's closer he's in a tent and then no no he's in a temple but by the time jesus comes along they're like actually god has put flesh on and is walking around having dinner with us teaching us how to live god is getting closer so for the rest of the sermon when i say in jesus day god lived in we're going to tap our hand and say flesh so let's practice that ready jesus day god lived in flesh very good in jesus day god lived in flesh let's review in abraham's day god lived up moses day he lives in a tent david's day lives in a temple jesus day lives in flesh boy god's getting closer the more we understand about god the closer you get like you go from up this untouchable thing to a tent to a temple to flesh and then the rest of the new testament there's a guy named paul peter james john they say things like this don't you know that you are the temple of the living god so in paul's day the way he understood god was that jesus gifted his spirit to us so for the rest of the sermon when i say in paul's day god lived in us not just me but us for in christ all things hold together and he is all and in all things for the spirit of the risen christ is filling everything in every way for by him and for him through him all things were made and in him all things hold together the idea is that in paul's day they finally understood that god was the insistent indwelling spirit holding all things together and that changes everything so for the rest of the sermon when i say in paul's day god lives in us a lot more gusto a little more together and paul's day god lives in us let's review in abraham's day god live up moses day lives in a tent and david's day lives in a temple in jesus day god lives in flesh and paul's day god lives in us the whole bible in 11 minutes five words 11 minutes up temple flesh us and by the way that strangely mirrors your own relationship with god the pilgrimage of the scriptures strangely mirrors our own relationship with god there was a day that you thought god was real but he lived far away and you couldn't get to him and then at some point you realize no no god's closer than i think but i still can't touch him and then at some point you acknowledge that the fullness of god is in christ and you get gifted the holy spirit and you realize that god is in the very air that we breathe as jesus prayed my father who's as close to me is the air that i breathe i stop and become aware of you that the progression in the pilgrimage of scripture mirrors our own relationship with god from up to ten to temple to flesh to us but that's only half the story one part of the story of the scripture is that god is getting closer the other part is that god is getting nicer now did god ever change no but what people thought about god changed and how people related to god changed until the final revelation of god in the risen christ to understand how revolutionary romans 5 8 is let's go back to abraham and let's review ready everybody together with a whole lot of gusto in abraham's day god lived up but we need to please the gods of the sky so that it'll rain now there's no temple there's no scriptures there's no anything in abraham's day what did you have to do to please god and the answer was i'm going to show it to you that we're going to do it all together with a lot of gusto in abraham's day if you ask what must i do to please god the answer was yeah i don't know so let's practice that together with a lot of gusto we're going to shrug our shoulders and say i don't know all right ready go yeah i don't know so in abraham's day god lived up abroad say god lived up how did you please god yeah yeah i don't know i don't know and what do you do when you don't know well you make it up and if you make it up with enough gusto it sticks so here's what ancient sumerian culture did they said you can please god two ways first way is by self-mutilation so if you've offended god and there's going to be a drought that affects everybody that's not that's not good you could get right with god though by cutting yourself now what's the problem with that if i say hey you've offended god and you can get right with god by cutting yourself and do so for everybody right what's your question well what must i cut and more importantly how much of what must i cut and the answer was everybody together i don't know so what if you did 10 cuts but the magic number was 11 and you still went to bed never knowing if he'd done enough to get right with god so one second of ancient sumerian culture said just cut till it rained they lived in iraq their arms would have been falling off the other thing they said you could do to please god is sacrifice again that's problematic like if i say hey you've offended the gods and you could get right with god by sacrificing what's your question what must i sacrifice and more importantly how much of what must i sacrifice and the answer was everybody together i don't know so what they did is they there was a sect of ancient sumerian culture that abraham lived in that they said god cannot not accept if we give our best so they made a rule everybody has to give their firstborn child as a sacrifice because the gods can't possibly reject that and so they started killing their firstborn children in order to appease the gods of the sky to bring rain now it's in that historical context that god shows up to abraham this is so important if you don't anything else i say hear me say this the god revealed it creation scripture and christ god is always humble enough to meet the broken story where the broken story thinks god is in order to move it forward to a better version of that story not to judge it condemn it banish it destroy it but to engage the brokenness of the story in order to move it to a better version of that story so god shows up to abraham i love the grace of god with abraham he says hello abraham my name is el shaddai el shaddai just means god almighty in other words you got a bunch of gods you got to be wondering who's in charge that's me right abraham's like well at least you're speaking what do you expect from me el shaddai now remember in abraham's world what did god's expect mutilation and sacrifice so god meets the broken story exactly where the broken story is and god says okay abraham first thing i want you to do is i want you to mutilate yourself i want you to sac i want you to circumcise yourself with a rock yeah which is an odd command isn't it to a 90 year old man god's first command to a 90 year old dude was pick up a rock swing hard don't miss strange have you ever seen a 90 year old man his hand shakes his eyesight's not real good he's like well sarah say pray for me sweetheart just gonna be interesting it's gonna hurt really bad if i miss i gotta tell you now so god says to abraham okay you think you need to mutilate let's mutilate i'll give you something to mutilate no problem now for us we think of circumcision as barbaric and the law and why would you ever do that but to abraham the great god historian karen armstrong makes this great point that to abraham circumcision was the most gracious thing ever why because in abraham's day how much did you have to mutilate i don't know so god shows up in the middle of that story and says hey here here's what we're gonna do i'm gonna meet you exactly where you think i am but if you think you need to mutilate fine mutilate but we're going to circumcise now why is that the most gracious thing ever well because how many times could you ever possibly circumcise yourself yeah the answer that's ninth grade anatomy yes once like on if you can circumcise yourself twice you demand i don't know right like i don't know right say hey hey no circums so in other words abraham moved the whole world from infinite cutting to one cut god's getting nicer and then god god says okay uh second thing i want you to do is i want you to kill your kid it's a weird story unless you understand the history and that god was meeting the broken story where the broken story thinks god is then moving it forward you go read the story this is essentially how it goes god says abraham kill your kid now that's weird if i was to say hey you could get right with god by killing your kid what would you be like what why hell what am i what did i drink like it would be like how am i missing this but not that day god says abraham i want you to kill your kid abraham's response is sounds reasonable he doesn't ask why he doesn't ask how he knows how it says so abraham took isaac to a high place why would you go to a high place where did god live up so you got to get higher so he went up there to kill his kid this is where the story gets awesome god engages the broken story where the broken story thinks god is and moves it forward god says okay you think you need to kill your kid kill your kid but then god engages the broken story he says hey i got a good idea instead of killing children let's kill animals instead now when you're the first person to get the idea that we can kill animals instead of kids is that a good move or a bad move that's a pretty good flipping move is that a word from god you better believe it is that inspired absolutely is that the final word of god no the final word of god is the risen christ but that's a giant leap in the right direction kill animals instead of kids who duh right so abraham does this abraham comes down off the mountain with isaac still alive what are his neighbors thinking no no bro you got to get up there and kill your kid it's not nice but we had to do it our grandpappies had to do it our great grandpappy's had to do it it's unfortunate it's not nice but you're going to bring a drought on everybody go kill your kid and abraham's like no no listen i've got a new revelation of how nice god is instead of killing kids he accepts animal sacrifice instead the talmud tells the rest of the story the talmud says that abraham was so moved by the compassion of el shaddai to spare isaac that he went into his room of idols that abraham had this room of idols and he went in with an axe and he finally with the compassion of god driving him he finally had the guts to destroy all of his idols in his room of idols except one and he left the one standing and he put the axe in his hand so the next day when abraham's father came into worship he's like abraham what happened in here and abraham's like isn't it obvious there was a fight amongst the gods and that one must have won so abraham goes on a journey abraham's god's name was el shaddai with that same amount of shout gust on everybody to say that with me ready go el shaddai very good let's try that again go l should i one more time because it's so important el shaddai abram has a son named isaac who's his god el shaddai isaac has a son named jacob who's his god el shaddai jacob has 12 children who's their god el shaddai 12 children have 12 children who's their god el shaddai 144 kids have 12 kids who's their god el shaddai the math is getting too hard who's their god el shaddai 20 generations later there is no god but el shaddai no other name other than el shaddai it's in our verses it's in our websites it's in our pamphlets it's in our fundamental truths there is no god but el shaddai then moses comes along and moses is a premeditated murdering fugitive i look this way in that and seeing no one i killed the man and hid him in the sand problem was the next day the sand shifted you got this leg sticking him out of the sand he's out in the wilderness now moses grew up in pharaoh's house and in pharaoh's house the god the main god was the sun and the sun is made of fire so moses grew up his whole life thinking god's a fire so moses is out in the wilderness god is always humble enough to meet you where you think god is and then move your story better moses thinks god is a fire so how does god meet moses a fire oh you think i'm a fire i'll be a fire but if you're paying attention i'm not a consuming fire that you were taught like if you took this fire off it would like consume you i'm actually if you're paying attention i'm not even harming the most flammable thing in the desert i'm more of a refining fire right as the great ts eliot wrote we only sustain only cespire consumed by either fire or fire that you will live your whole life terrified of the consuming fire of the sun god ra or by faith you'll embrace the refining fire of a loving yahweh who although he will perfect you he will never harm you for the bush was not consumed so moses has this encounter with the burning bush think about your bible right the burning bush says hello moses i am the god of abraham isaac and jacob well wait a minute the god of april of isaac jacob is who right moses goes oh hello el shaddai i should probably take my shoes off the burning bush says no my name is yud hey vav hey i am the god of abraham isaac and jacob moses argues with a talking bush moses says no the god of abraham isaac and jacob is el shaddai everybody knows that it's in our verses it's in our pamphlets it's on our websites it's in our fundamental truths the god of abraham isaac and jacob's hell should i the burning bush says i introduced myself to abraham isaac and jacob as el shaddai but by my name you'd hey vav hey they didn't know me now if you know anything about hebrew you know you cannot say you would have ave the letters don't go together it's phonetically import like you de vave would be like me saying my name is come again love you samantha it's not even a word i know i know my name is julie what's that even mean it means i am what i am well that clears it up so moses goes back to the israelites he doesn't have much credibility and and here is his message ready you wouldn't have bought it either don't worry here's his message hey guys i know you've been taught for 20 generations that the god of april is like jacob's el shaddai but i've got a new revelation of god and his name isn't just el shaddai it's also you and hey vavhay how well do you think that went it didn't go well it went something like this what you de vave what you deva moses is not even a word i know i know his name's jude hey vave where'd he tell you this moses in the wilderness was anybody else there to witness that no how'd he tell you talking bush which leads to this observation right you wouldn't have bought it either and don't worry they didn't either remember when they were stoning stephen he said why are you stoning me they said because you're removing the traditions of moses he mean he said you mean the moses you rejected when he had a new idea about god that guy you kidding me jewish history tells us the story that they didn't buy his story until he brought water out of the rock and parted the red sea that started to lend credibility to his story so this god inspires moses to write a book called leviticus again to us barbaric just blood everywhere leviticus but in history leviticus is the nicest book about god ever written in the history of the world up to the time it's written why because leviticus is the first book ever written from any civilization anywhere that put a limit on sacrifice and mutilation leviticus says here's what we're gonna do we're gonna we're gonna circumcise on the eighth day that way no one remembers it and then no more mutilating your bodies i forbid you from ever putting markings on your bodies to please god trust me he never thought there'd be people arguing in 2021 about whether or not it's a sin to have a tattoo that was not the point the point was you'll never have to scar yourself to please god ever again we're going to mutilate once and then we're over in one sacrifice per family per year and you can know you're okay with god wow so in moses's day god lives in a tent but how much did you have to sacrifice once how much you have to mutilate once let's review with a whole lot of equippers gusto ready here we go in abraham's day god lived up how much you have to sacrifice well i don't know how much you have to mutilate i don't know moses day he lives in a tent how much you have to sacrifice once how much you have to mutilate once years later david makes a temple the rules don't change how much you have to sacrifice once how much you have to mutilate once and then the prophets come along and the prophets start really foretelling some really cool things like the prophets start thinking i think i think we've missed something it's not that it was bad i just think there's i think there's another version of the story that makes it better like there's this prophet named micah and mike is like what kind of a god is grumpy and then gets less grumpy because you killed a bird that doesn't make any sense just do justly love mercy and walk humbly with god it'll be okay of course micah was too far ahead of himself and they killed micah jesus talks about that in matthew 23 he says you who the people you call prophets today are the ones you stoned yesterday like anyone who shows up with a too far of a good idea about god you kill them only to realize they were onto something right and then jesus comes along so before we get to jesus let's review to make sure we're all on the same page with that same amount of shout gusto ready here we go and abraham's day god lived up how much have to sacrifice i don't know mutilate i don't know moses day he lives in a tent how much you have to sacrifice once how much you have to mutilate once david's day lived in a temple sacrifice once mutilate once in jesus day god lived in flesh and then jesus started making god nicer than anyone ever thought possible ever jesus started calling people forgiven without a sacrifice which led to all kinds of questions like is jesus allowed to do that oh my goodness okay so we got to practice that if i ask you is jesus allowed to do something the answer is yes all right so let's practice that is jesus allowed to do that no like there's this one time there's this tax collector up a tree named zacchaeus and jesus sees him like there's a crowd and jesus sees the guy up a tree and he says hey zacchaeus come down i'm eating with you and zacchaeus was so moved by the compassion of jesus that he said hey man here and now i'll give half of what i have to the poor and what does jesus say that's it salvation has come to your house is jesus allowed to do that no sacrifice no temple visit no ritual no no romans 10 9 and 10 it hadn't been written yet i know it surprises some people that anyone got saved before the book of romans was written but they did jesus sees this man's heart change and that seems to be enough for jesus to meet him the rest of the way that jesus consents and this guy consents back one millimeter jesus is like i'm in the rest of the way see what was the only way for zacchaeus to be saved in the first century temple ritual who's not allowed in the temple tax collectors so when your job forbidded you from entering into the only place salvation was available what hope did you have jesus circumvents the entire system of oppressive power and he sees this man's heart change and he says salvation has come to this house there's this one time it says that jesus went by a prostitute's house which leads to all kinds of questions like is jesus allowed to do that and what would be going on at a prostitute's house in the first century business like jesus is between customers which leads to this question would there be ever a worse place to run into jesus that would be horrible imagine the guy coming out of the back room you know he's like [Music] oh jesus hey man i was just here to use the toilet and it says that the prostitute was so moved by his compassion that she knelt down and washed his feet with her hair and what does jesus say that's it all your sins are now forgiven is jesus allowed to do that no sacrifice no temple visit no specific prayer no romans 10 9-10 she washed her feet with her she washed his feet with her hair and aren't you glad that that's not the rule see we tend to say jesus is the only way and yes but if we mean by that my way to jesus is the only way to jesus that's a whole nother problem like what you find in scripture is jesus meeting people exactly where their broken story is and responding to any heart response back to him at all like to all my ball brothers in the room yeah oh my goodness me you definitely like with all respect to you sir for you to wash your feet with your hair it'd be a three-man job you'd have to be turned upside down use like a buffer see what was the only way to be saved in the first century temple ritual who's not allowed in the temple prostitutes so what do you do if you're forbidden from injury to the only place salvation was on altar what do you do what do you do jesus circumvents the entire system of oppressive power and he sees her heart change and says i'm meeting you the rest of the way that's it all your sins are now forgiven there's this one time there's this paralyzed guy and he can't get in the house where jesus is preaching because it's too full so his friends cut a hole in the roof and lower him down it's the most chaotic scene in jesus's whole preaching life like i don't care how good of a preacher you are if someone repels from the roof the meeting is over how do you hold the attention like heck if a bird flew in here i would have no hope this guy just comes down and it says and jesus saw the faith of his friends and proclaimed his sins forgiven is jesus allowed to do that what was the only way for that man to be saved in the first century temple ritual who's not allowing the temple paralyzed people so what does jesus do he circumvents the entire system of oppressive power and his clear message is god is so much nicer than you've ever imagined i'm meeting that guy the rest of the way there's this one time that jesus is having a pretty bad day and he ends up on a cross and uh the guy next to him is having an equally bad day it's a horrible day he can't breathe you know all he can do is get out three words please remember me and what does jesus say well you better hurry up and say the sinner's prayer they're not gonna think you're saved in 2021 oh i know what oh what what was the only way for that man to be saved in the first century temple ritual he would have had to get off the cross run to the temple find a priest off him a sacrifice come back get back up on the cross and die jesus is like that sounds all entirely too hard right he's like oh please remember me and thank god jesus was not as close-minded as some of us imagine that conversation you better hurry up and say the sinner's prayer they don't think you're saved sinner's prayer what's that it's a prayer they make up in 1830 to help people connect with me and i dig it what's it based on it's based on romans 10 9 and 10. what's romans it's a book that hasn't been written yet but you better hurry up what no no this guy moves one millimeter towards jesus and jesus meets him the rest of the way why because jesus is the final full way to see god and god has always been nicer than anybody ever thought and he's meeting people the rest of the way which is why the writer of romans a guy named paul said actually the god revealed in christ showed us that god always makes the first move and then any mutual consent back he meets us the rest of the way see in jesus day how much did you have to sacrifice none how much you have to mutilate none god's getting nicer let's review with that same amount of shout gusto ready here we go in abraham's day god lived up how much time to sacrifice i don't know mutilate i don't know moses day he lived in a tent sacrifice once mutilate once david's day lived in a temple sacrificed once mutilate once and day in jesus day he lives in flesh sacrifice none mutilate nine boy god is getting nicer but then it gets better than that the rest of the if if you want to understand the new testament right they say great teachers can summarize big things in like one statement here it is ready here's the whole new testament in one statement ready here you go god is like jesus exactly like jesus god had always been like jesus we did not know that but now we do [Applause] see by paul's day god lives in us paul's day god lives in us and then paul peter six different places by four different authors it says that what happened on calvary was not a new reality it was a manifestation of what god was always like that jesus did not inaugurate a new reality he simply manifested what god had been like from the beginning if you need a scripture verse for everything here we go ready ephesians 1 4 he was crucified before the foundation of the world first peter 1 20 he was crucified before the foundation of the world and then these last days was made manifest so we could see it hebrews chapter 4 verse 3 his sacrificial work was completed before the foundation of the world the entire first chapter first john for we know that all these things have been true since before the foundation of the world but now we have seen it with our own two eyes revelation 13 8 blessed are those whose names are found written in the book of the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world first timothy chapter two your salvation was given to you in jesus christ before the foundation of the world and my personal favorite hebrews chapter nine didn't you know all along it was impossible for the blood of sacrifices to take away your sin but god let you do that because you thought you needed to and your conscience needed to be a peace in other words god meets the broken story exactly where the broken story thinks god is and moves it to a better version of that story didn't you know all along it was impossible for the blood of sacrifices to take away your sin but god let you do that because you thought you needed to for don't you know that jesus died before the foundation of the world at the culmination of the ages i love that the culmination of the does that sound like a jewish theological principle no that sounds like a rock festival where did you go last weekend i went to the culmination of the ages it was awesome see to the new testament writers this is not the gospel okay and please never present it this way and if it's ever been presented to you this way i ask for forgiveness that god was grumpy and then he got less grumpy because he hurt his own son it's not the gospel the gospel is that jesus physically showed us what god was like all along that god was like jesus exactly like jesus god had always been like jesus we did not know that but now we do and by the way that's the only thing that makes the bible and the gospel make any sense if that's not true then this is the gospel right somebody says come on share the gospel in one sort of statement okay okay uh uh god created the world and even though he was god he lacked the foresight to foresee human rebellion so when humans rebelled it sort of surprised him so he had to rack his god brain as to what to do and his best idea was to torture and kill his only son by sending earth on a suicide mission and even though the son obeyed the suicide mission it was still pretty uneffective because billions of people are still going to burn in hell forever with no hope of ever getting out and god never gets what he wants anyway join us no way no way the gospel is way better than that here it is that god created the world and because he was god he was able to foresee human rebellion and he loved his creation enough not to destroy it but to fix the whole broken thing before it started but his broken creation wouldn't believe it without seeing it so he loved us enough to enter into the broken story allow the broken story to kill him and then turn that murder around for the redemption of the broken story and the idea is is will our life ever show the world the beauty of that love story the whole bible in 45 minutes why is jesus important the gospel presented these are things that unify us the scripture the gospel the risen christ one more review everybody ready with a whole lot of gusto ready in abraham's day god live up sacrifice i don't know mutilate i don't know moses day lives in a tense sacrifice once mutilate once david's day he lived in a temple sacrifice once mutilate once in jesus day god lives in flesh sacrifice none mutilate none by paul's day god lives in us and when was it all true before the foundation of the world that god was like jesus exactly like jesus god had always been like jesus we did not know that but now we do so my brothers and sisters yeah we can get the band back up i want to pray a blessing over you it's been such an honor to be a part of you and what we're doing today and i hope everybody who listened to this understands the whole bible in five words in 45 minutes and why jesus matters so much i bless you to know that you serve a god that believes in you more than you believe in him i bless you know that you are the hope for this world carrying that message to the world may we carry the message of an awesome inspired beautiful story called the bible culminating in the risen christ and may our life show the world what it's like to come to revelation that god is like jesus exactly like jesus god had always been like jesus we did not know that but now we do and may we embrace this beautiful inspired narrative and may we journey maybe you're here tonight and you still see god as up far away in distance or a tent there but i can't get to them maybe you need to make a decision to acknowledge that god lives in christ and maybe you've done that and maybe you need to come to this awareness where you own that this holy spirit is totally in you totally available and the question is is what are we going to do about it so my brothers and sisters may we carry this beautiful awesome revolutionary story to the world and may our life show what it looks like to be profoundly connected to what's been true in christ since before the foundation of the world for jesus did not inaugurate a new reality about god he simply showed us what god was always like and may our life show the world in unification what it's like to be connected to what's true before the foundation of the world at the culmination of the ages i hope jesus got bigger the cross worked better the resurrection is central and scriptures got bigger not smaller thanks let me be part of your night guys grace and peace

Channel: Equippers Church

Views: 3,606

Rating: 4.909091 out of 5

Keywords: Equippers Church, Equippers, Sam monk, Bruce Monk, Wayne Huirua, Libby Huirua, Steve Graham, Church, Jesus, Helen Monk, Esther Greenwood, Equippers Revolution Band, Who is Jesus, Christianity, Kathy Monk, Equippers Worship, change my life, transform my life, Church Online, Church at Home

Id: 8-MGFKlUsiQ

Length: 49min 23sec (2963 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021