The Modern Church's Sissified Jesus | Voddie Baucham

our view of jesus matters our christology matters it matters because it affects everything that we believe and do as christians and in this culture in which we live we have a view of jesus that is more than slightly askew we think of jesus not as a very masculine character for example when you think about the pictures that we have of jesus and just full disclosure i have a problem with that just in general because of the second commandment but the pictures that we do have of jesus are pictures of a european metrosexual with the hair of a shampoo model hands that have never seen a hard day's work and feet that have never walked a mile that's the visual image that we have of jesus this sissified feminized european gorgeous picture isaiah said that we wouldn't have been attracted to his form but he's gorgeous which also by the way says something about the way we really think about people we equate righteousness with attractiveness we prize beauty above all and not even in the right sense of the word but what we believe about him theologically is closely aligned with what we perceive about him visually because we do think of jesus as soft we do think of jesus as one who who doesn't confront people we do think of jesus as the god who comes along on the right side of the bible to apologize for what the guy did on the left side we see him as a kinder gentler administration and as a result of this when we encounter people our evangelism is affected by our view of jesus when when the church writes songs our worship is impacted by our view of jesus we sing like we're singing to a beautiful european metrosexual shampoo model with flawless hands and flawless feet when we work through our theology what's the biggest reason or the biggest problem that people have with the doctrine of election it's just not nice and it's one thing to have these opinions and ideas in isolation it's another to have these opinions and ideas in direct opposition to what we see in scripture that's what's problematic that our christology is completely skewed and as a result of that all of the rest of our practical theology is worked out in a way that is demeaning to the christ of scripture so with that in mind let's look at jesus shall we open your bibles to the first chapter of the last book in the bible book of revelation and is all as is always my practice i have to i have to i have to i know people don't want to wax professorial when they open up revelation but i have to wax professorial for just a moment you have to have it at least one moment of me being a professor and giving you a lesson that you have to have is that all right just for one moment here is here is the lesson the book of revelation has no s on the end of it you just hold on to that all right wherever you go for the rest of your life just hold on to that right there okay it's just one revelation okay revelations sometimes when i tell people that the next thing next time i mention the book i put an s on it as we're there i want you to see something here i love this letter i didn't i didn't love this letter actually it was the first letter that i read as a new christian the first one i read as new christian i just kind of went to the end trying to figure some stuff out probably was well there was no problem it just wasn't a good idea yeah it wasn't a good idea to start there um but yeah it was the first book that i read i didn't grow up in church i didn't grow up around the gospel i was raised in you know in in south central los angeles california by a single teenage buddhist mother first time i ever heard the gospel my first year in university and and the first thing i ever read as a new believer was was revelation um so that was it was kind of it was traumatic for me poll after poll after poll you talk to christian people about the one book that they would love to hear taught in church and at the top of the list it's revelation paul after paul after paul you talked to pastors about the one book that they don't want to preach in church at the top of the list this revelation um and so many people never hear anything preach from revelation and if they do it's only from the first five chapters and we're finishing revelation this uh in the next several weeks at church we're in chapter 21 right now and i i just regret the fact that i haven't spent more time in my ministry in this particular book it is absolutely magnificent and one of the things that i love about it is i love i love the literary style of revelation this book is written beautifully and i just want to give you a flavor for that as we begin here we're going to look mainly at that second paragraph beginning at verse four but i want to back up so that you can get a flavor for the rhythm of what i call the the revelation waltz there are numbers in this book that are important right and we're aware of the numbers and the numbers that are important and we know that the number uh 12 for example is important because it's the number of the people of god we know that the number of 10 is important um that's the the the number one of the numbers of completion although it's usually uh a number that is reserved for the other side for the beast and the false prophet and so on and so forth we know the number seven is that number of perfection or completion we know that because number seven is very important that there's another corresponding number three and a half that's a broken seven that's also very important and if you understand that three and a half is perfection and completion and three uh that seven is perfection and completion and three and a half is a broken seven um there are a number of things in the book of revelation that just open up to you um this time period of three and a half years for example that you see over and over and over again this is the number four number four is this number of the earth and particularly the the people of the earth or the four corners of the earth and then there's that number three number three that serves a dual purpose and revelation the number three of course is a reference to our god the triune god but it's also a reference to what i like to call the revelation waltz there's a rhythm in this letter there's a one two three one two three one two three rhythm and so many things that you see in threes and i i believe that it is a sort of mnemonic device to help the early church remember this book because when you have things that come in a rhythm like that it is much easier to remember them but listen if you will the revelation of jesus christ which god gave him showed his servants the things that must soon take place he made it known by sending his angel to his servant john there was a one two three god gave it to him he gave it to his angel gave to his servant who one bore witness to the word of god and two to the testimony of jesus christ and even three to all that he saw one two three one two three here's another one blessed is the one who one reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who to hear and three who keep what is written in it the time is near three threes now come to the next paragraph john to the seven churches that are in asia how many of you know there are more than seven churches at this time in asia but he picks these seven churches that number of seven is a number of completion he's speaking to all the churches seven churches that are in asia grace to you and peace peace from whom one him who is and was and is to come and from the seven spirits who are before the throne now we got that number seven thrown in there what's that though we'll answer that question in a moment and from jesus christ stop there i think when you understand the pattern [Music] and you understand the use of numbers you understand the identity of the seven spirits who are before the throne there's a picture of the throne room here being foreshadowed this throne that we're going to see in chapters four and five and the picture here is a picture that will make a lot more sense when we understand this lamp stand for throne and the oil in these lamps stands we understand that this is language that is used to refer to the holy spirit that number of seven being that number of completion or perfection we also understand that this is a presentation of the trinity there is the father the one who was and is and is to come and there is the son jesus christ and in between those two there's these seven spirits so are we talking about a trinitarian reference to the father and the son and angels or the father and the son and some other spirit or the father and the son no it's the father and the son and the holy spirit why is this significant well because the first thing that we see about the identity of jesus christ is that he is a member of the godhead not just that jesus is god not just that and i really believe i become convicted myself that we are not nearly as trinitarian as we ought to be but there is a clear trinitarian picture here it's not just that jesus is god but that he's a member of the godhead it's not just that jesus is divine but that he is a member of the trinity that he has existed eternally as god that although he took on a human nature in his incarnation he did not come into existence in the incarnation and although he relates to his father in the economic trinity there being sent by his father and empowered by the spirit even while he is here in his human nature he nonetheless has this divine nature as well that hypostatic union that we heard of earlier that he is fully god and fully man it's one thing to say that jesus is fully god and fully man it's another thing to say that he is part of the godhead that he has existed eternity in perfect union with the father and the spirit always in perfect union and perfect harmony with the father and the spirit completely and utterly equal to the father and the spirit he is god this is significant for a number of reasons number one it's significant in our worship we worship the father in the name of the son and the power of the spirit we pray to the father in the name of the son and the power of the spirit we our worship is trinitarian when we baptize we baptize in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit our baptism it's trinitarian but here is another thing on a very practical level remember i told you that this affects our worship yes it does but it also affects our witness how does it affect our witness let me give you one example it is very very common for people to say especially for example in relation to all of the recent you know hoopla over same-sex marriage and so on and so forth if you've had a discussion with someone about this issue you have run into people who have said yes but jesus never said anything about homosexuality well number one that's not true jesus in the sermon on the mount talks about pornea he talks about sexual impurity which is a reference to the porneia code in leviticus 18 which clearly upholds the idea that homosexuality is sinful because because and if that's not what he's doing we've got a huge problem because leviticus 18 also talks about incest and you know we get some bestiality in there and some other stuff in there so if our new christian ethic is only if jesus talked about it specifically then homosexuality is the least of our problems but jesus did address the issue of homosexuality because he addressed the issue of sexual impurity he addressed the issue of fornication he also addressed the issue of marriage and the nature of marriage but here's the other problem in doing this we divorce jesus from the rest of the bible and we let people do that we let them do that well jesus never said anything about it and then we just start scratching our heads and going oh well well um well uh when people say that just look at him say so you can't divorce him from the rest of the bible you can't do that and the reason people continue to do this is because it works but here's the other issue well jesus never said anything about homosexuality and i just i'm just i'm just going to go ahead and be honest i may have told y'all this last time i was here there's this guy kind of lives on the inside of me name is bad voting i everything is cool as long as i let him out every once in a while you know go to the gun range or jiu jitsu tournaments we're cool but you know sometimes when i'm well when i'm dealing with people like this he he wants to talk to him and i just really have to try to not let him do that um because i am sure that brother saved some time um but at any rate bad voting gets excited when people bring this up you know he does because they're like well jesus never talked about homosexuality um dear friend jesus is a member of the godhead jesus has existed eternally in perfect union with the father and the spirit which means when rocks of fire and brimstone were coming down on sodom and gomorrah he was not absent nor was he in disagreement he is a member of the godhead tell the truth when people bring that up to you you don't think about that we don't think about the fact that jesus is a member of the godhead he's a member of the trinity and as such you can't divorce him from the god on the left side of the book because he is the god on the left side of the book perfect union perfect agreement no disagreement whatsoever in fact he raises the stakes you have heard it said don't commit adultery but i say to you if you look at a woman with lust you've committed adultery already in your heart he raises the stakes so again there is this perfect union unity this affects our worship and it affects our witness we worship the one who is god we worship the one who has always existed as god we worship the one who is in perfect unity and perfect harmony with the father and the spirit we worship the triune god jesus is worthy of our worship because he's god but even beyond that watch what he says to him who was and is and is to come from him who was in his liver and is and is to come from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from jesus christ now he's going to describe him now we've got the three we've got the father son the holy spirit there's a three on the father we got another three was is is to come now we're gonna get two different triads on jesus jesus christ first the faithful witness the faithful witness intrinsically the faithful witness he is the witness who can only be faithful he is the way he is the truth he is the life he is the faithful witness he is the one who bears witness faithfully because he can only bear witness faithfully he is the faithful witness who communicates to us faithfully who god is and he is the only one who can communicate to us faithfully who god is because he is god and god has taken on a second nature so that in that second nature he can live as the god man and bear faithful witness to god so he is the faithful witness in that regard but he is the faithful witness in another regard because remember there are these two natures so in the one sense he is the faithful witness who brings to us the truth about god he is the faithful witness who shows us in the flesh who god is but in the other sense as a man who lives as a man born under the law he is the faithful witness who kept the law now saying that he's the faithful witness this doesn't happen in a vacuum saying that he's the faithful witness puts him in the line of redemptive history and demonstrates his superiority to every other witness who's come before him he is the faithful witness there are other witnesses who have not been faithful he is the faithful witness now this goes in both directions it goes backwards to all of those witnesses who came before who were not quite faithful and it also goes forward because the rest of the book of revelation is about those witnesses who are faithful even unto death and about christ the faithful witness eventually avenging the martyrdom of his saints so on on the left side as we go backward he is the faithful witness and this is incredibly important by the way this is what matthew's gospel is all about people are again another way this is another one of those areas where our witness comes into play how many times do people come to us and you know you got all these gospels and they don't all say the exact same thing and they don't have everything in the exact same order and we go into all these kind of convulsions again bad body just likes that i gotta like hold him back because he really does he says yeah you got you got different gospels because you got different people writing to different audiences and when you speak to different audiences who have different understandings you communicate different things for example matthew is communicating to a jewish audience and when matthew communicates to this jewish audience he communicates that jesus is faithful israel how does he do that well if you just go backwards and look on the left side of the book god creates man and man sins and when man sins god brings judgment but he also brings hope he brings hope in genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. i will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed here bruise your head your bruises heal so there is one who is going to come from the woman who is going to crush the head of the snake this is going to be dealt with that's the thesis statement of the rest of redemptive history for the rest of redemptive history we are looking for the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the snake or the faithful witness and there are many in that line but ultimately they all fall short we go through that line and eventually we get to these people who become israelites and abraham and isaac and jacob and these 12 tribes who eventually go into egypt interestingly enough matthew begins his gospel with what genealogy why tracing jesus as the promised seed well then after you identify him as the promised seed what happens well what happened to israel pharaoh wanted to kill all the male children and they had to be protected while they're in egypt herod wants to kill all the male children and jesus goes to the same egypt to be protected there now not only is he the promised seed but he's the protected seed eventually he comes out and then he goes through baptism where in the jordan same place israel had to go through before they came into the land of promise he goes into the wilderness kind of like israel went into the wilderness they were there for 40 years he's tempted there for 40 days now while he's tempted he's tempted in three very specific ways lust of the eyes thus of the flesh and the most full pride of life the exact same three things that led the first adam to eat the fruit but the last adam is the faithful adam not like first adam he's the faithful witness then he goes up onto a mountain and starts teaching kind of like moses and he says you have heard it said but i say unto you after he teaches for a few chapters he comes down and starts healing and casting out demons kind of like the conquest eventually it goes to the cross as isaiah's suffering servant and then raises from the dead in other words israel became a people but they were unfaithful they had a law and the law couldn't save them they had judges judges couldn't save them eventually they got kings and the kings were unfaithful and couldn't save them eventually came prophets and eventually they were taken away from their land christ comes as the faithful witness the prophet priest and king who is faithful where israel was not faithful he is the last adam he is the promised seed he is faithful israel he is the faithful witness this is who our jesus is he is connected to all of redemptive history and even going forward he is the faithful witness who will vindicate those who die at the hands of the unholy trinity not only is he the faithful witness but he's a faithful witness he's the firstborn from the dead i love that he's the firstborn from the dead doesn't say he was the only one resurrected from the dead it says he was the firstborn from the dead which means that there are going to be others resurrected after him amen so jesus doesn't just conquer death but jesus conquers death on behalf of all of those who are in him so that we have hope that we will conquer death as well this is of great significance so again what does the world want to say what does liberalism want to say liberalism wants to say the resurrection may be true it may not it really doesn't matter why because ultimately we just need jesus for his moral example no we don't we need one who can conquer death and the grave and that's precisely what christ has done because death is the last enemy we will all face this last enemy and christ is the one who has been victorious over this last enemy sorry we got a little rush limbaugh going over all right we got it all right the faithful witness the firstborn from the dead all of the religions basically say this you need to have a religious experience from that point on do more good stuff than bad stuff and hope for the best when you die is that an oversimplification only slightly only slightly christianity does not communicate that the bible does not communicate that death is real it is the last enemy we will all go there unless the lord returns first but as we go there is one who conquered death we don't hope that death can be overcome we know that death has been overcome by whom by the faithful witness and because he's the faithful witness by whom by god himself that's who he is the faithful witness and the firstborn from the dead we serve a risen savior we worship christ in our midst we don't just memorialize christ who was we worship christ we are in christ we have union and communion with christ christ is seated at the right hand of the father forever making intercession for us he has overcome death he has overcome the grave he has won victory and not only on his own behalf he is the first born the firstborn which means that there are those who follow and then lastly and the ruler of the kings of the earth i love that by the way when you put this in context you have to understand we see the kings of the earth a number of times in revelation especially as we get toward the end because what happens is the adversary the the harlot the beast the false prophet the dragon they rally the kings of the earth and the kings of the earth come to fight against god but when you read that at the end of revelation you're supposed to remember that in chapter one you've already read that jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth amen that means there is no human authority that stands over and above his authority he is the ruler of the kings of the earth that means that there is no human authority that is going to thwart what it is that christ has done and is doing fret not saints it's one thing to be active in our community it's one thing to be active in our culture it's one thing to be active in politics it's another things for us to sit around in the corner afraid because some decision came down or some man got elected that we think is going to fort the plan of the ruler of the kings of the earth help you if you scatter that folks god is not running for god christ is the ruler of the kings of the earth you did not hear me say our political life is unimportant you didn't hear me say that that's not what i'm saying at all what i am saying is our hope is not there why would i put my hope in rulers of the earth when i serve the ruler of rulers of the earth my hope is not there news flash america and the new jerusalem are not synonymous just saying now it will be set up somewhere near texas but but as for the rest of the country okay but sometimes we think that way and we think oh what's gonna happen to america now and not in the sense that you know i love my country i love the people here i love the freedoms that we have here but really almost in the sense of we believe this is the new jerusalem we believe that this is the new heavens and the new earth we believe this is as good as it gets and if something happens here then god has fallen off of his throne let me give you two reasons why that's problematic number one that's problematic because this is not our home number two that's problematic because it's arrogant egocentric and ignorant how every time you say that you say to the conrad and bayways of the world we have more freedoms here because we're more godly than you and if y'all were just as godly as us y'all would have a better country now we would never say that well yes you would because you think when things don't go well here it's because the church has stopped being what she's supposed to be and if the church was just a little more godly that things would be better here by extension of that very same logic every country that does not currently enjoy or has not historically enjoyed the same liberties that we enjoy it is directly because they lack the kind of godliness that we have shame on you shame on you and anybody who's walked into a church outside of american soil knows exactly what i'm talking about some of the godliest people on planet earth have chains put on their church doors and have the place set on fire where they're killed some of the most godly saints in the history of the world have been martyred for their faith in places where they do not enjoy the liberties that we enjoy some of the most godly men and women in the world today are in prison somewhere with churches praying for them in ways that you ain't never prayed in your life how dare we how dare we jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth all of the kings of the earth and they will answer to him this does not mean and it can't when you read the rest of the rest of revelation it can't mean that if the people of god are just godly enough that the kings of the earth will love them because you keep reading and the kings of the earth are the ones who killed the people of god because of their godliness because they hate christ so the great irony is because of this unbelievable completely abnormal experience that we've had here the rest of the world the rest of the christian world and the rest of the history of the church people have not experienced what we've experienced here it's a complete anomaly and it's not because we're prettier than everybody else the fact of the matter is we're so spoiled and arrogant and egocentric that we can't even lift up our eyes and see what godly brothers and sisters are experiencing and recognize one that it's not because we're more godly than they are and two that we're not nearly grateful enough for what we have we ought to be grateful see our christology affects more than we think thirdly well those that was the third one now we get from the objective to the subjective first of all there's this picture of christ being worthy of our worship because he's god because he's a member of the godhead we see this picture of of him and his father and the spirit and this union and communion within the context of the godhead we see then that jesus has taken on another nature that he is the god man and as the god-man he is the faithful witness both the faithful witness as god to man and the faithful witness as man to god both the faithful witness past because he has accomplished what all other witnesses could not and the faithful witness future because he will vindicate all those faithful witnesses who are faithful unto death he is the firstborn from the dead because he's the faithful witness and he's the ruler of the kings of the earth and because of all of this he's worthy of our worship because of all of this and as we witness we witness to him in this way as objectively worthy and all of this is true and we need to experience and receive and understand the weight of all of this we need to understand the weight of his majesty we need to get this picture in our minds but just when we begin to get this picture in our minds and just when the weight of his majesty almost becomes too much for us to bear just when we begin to say i can't even better look at him maybe i should come into his presence backwards john says to him who loves us he is god bow to him he's the faithful witness honor him he's the firstborn from the dead revere him he is the ruler of the kings of the earth fear him he loves us i know we overuse the word but that is awesome he loves us love is significant in direct relation and proportion to the magnitude of the one doing the loving it's one thing to say my dog loves me they just do that it's another thing to say my children love me still another thing to say my wife loves me again when you have my dog my dog is a dog he's going to love me because i feed him he's going to love me because i feed him because he's not a cat [Applause] amen somebody they just do that that's what dogs do you know there was this cartoon and there was there were these dogs and these dogs are sitting in front of their bowl and they're going man these people feed us they take care of us they must be gods next caption there's some cats and these people feed us they take care of us we must be gods some of y'all got cats you know exactly what i'm talking about but again my dog loves me because because i because i'm the one who feeds the dog my my children that's different they have a completely different understanding of who i am that's different my wife that's different still because my children think i'm superman my wife knows i'm not and yet she loves me jesus knows me better than my wife and he loves me so now not only is he worthy of my worship and of my adoration and of my reverence but on top of that he loves me and this makes me yearn to give him the worship and the adoration and the praise and the reverence and the fear and the honor and all of it that he deserves even more because he loves me nor is this some sappy sentimental love what's being said here is not that jesus gets a warm feeling in his heart when he thinks about me that's not what's being said here john is clear on this picture and again this is important here's where it comes into our witness again because how many times do we confront sin and people say oh we just need to be more loving what does that mean what does it mean you just need to be more i don't know it just didn't sound very loving you know sometimes love doesn't sound very loving if my kid is getting ready to run in front of a car my love will not sound sappy and sentimental it may even sound violent my neighbor's house is on fire and he's in his house sleep my love for neighbor will kick his door in break it down if i have to and drag him out of his house now you take that out of context that may not look loving but it absolutely is you see we've confused love with sentimentalism that just needs to be more loving it's not loving to tell people who are sinners in the hands of an angry god that they're okay it's not loving so there needs to be some context here what does it mean that he loves me does that just mean that he's sentimental toward me to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood there's his love christ died for sin once for all the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us back to god god demonstrated his love for us in this and that while we were yet sinners christ died for us greater love had no man than this then he laid down his life for his friends husbands love your wives as christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her with a washing of water with the word that he might present her to himself see that's that's that's love it's not just sappy sentimentalism love acts it's an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object he loves us and there is a demonstration of this love he loves us he loves us christ is loving and he loves me when he looks me in the eye and says go and sin no more he loves me when he runs me out of the temple with a whip he loves me he loved peter and looked him in the face and said get thee behind me satan how about that you see this is love here again this is important for our witness but it's also important for our worship because see sometimes i don't feel very lovely and sometimes i don't believe that jesus loves me because sometimes i'm looking through the lens of my own emotions and so here i am and i don't feel very worshipful i don't feel very lovely i don't feel very loved because of abc and xyz i just don't feel loved and of course if i don't feel loved that means jesus might not must not be loving me right now because if he was just loving me right now and pouring his sentimental sappy love all over me then i would feel loved right now when you want to know whether jesus loves you do not look in your own heart look to the cross i just don't feel very lovely look to the cross where he died and here's a news flash he did not feel like doing that father if there is any other way let this bitter cup pass from me if you want to run past that we want to run past that quickly and we don't want to look there into the humanity of jesus we don't want to look there at a man agonizing before he dies knowing that the cross stands before him we don't want to pause there and recognize that he did not want to but you got to pause there in order to appreciate the next line nevertheless not my will but yours be done by the way what do we have there number one we have a picture a proper understanding of the love that jesus has for us which is based on the fact that he freed us from our sins by dying for us on the cross but you also have another picture of the trinitarian demonstration of love for us because the sun is there agonizing yet he yields to his father how by the power of the spirit that's how i told you there was a triad and made us a kingdom of priests to his god and father he loved us he freed us from our sins and he made us a kingdom of priest turn back to the left real quick i want you to get this turn back to the left and look at first peter first peter chapter 2. and then we'll connect our christology again to our worship and our witness watch this first read of chapter two beginning in verse four as you come to him a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of god chosen and precious you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ again back to our text he loved us he's freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priests to his god and father a kingdom of priests who offer acceptable sacrifices so christ is worthy of our worship objectively because he's god the second person of the trinity christ is worthy of our worship because as the god man he's the faithful witness he's the firstborn from the dead and he's the ruler of the kings of the earth he's worthy he's worthy he's worthy christ is not only worthy of our worship and our witness but also we yearn to give to him our worship and our witness why because he loved us and because he freed us from our sins by his blood through the cross he freed us from our sins and then thirdly he made us worthy to worship him understand something christ is worthy of the worship of every human being who has ever lived and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father everyone he is worthy of our worship we owe him and so the god of the universe stands there and says bow the knee and worship my son worship my son because he's god he's the second person of the trinity worship him worship my son because he's the faithful witness worship my son you owe it to him as the firstborn from the dead worship my son he's the ruler of the kings of the earth worship him and worship no other worship my son and the rest of the world does this they either offer worship to idols to which the father responds that is unacceptable because it's going in the wrong direction or as conrad just shared with us we try as unregenerate men to obey god's command to worship his son because we owe it and he says that's unacceptable but we have to yes you do you have to you have to you have to you have to it is not optional you must worship christ okay well here's my worship it's unacceptable how does it become acceptable christ loves you frees you from your sins by his blood and makes you a kingdom of priests who then and only then can offer acceptable worship before god he makes us worthy to worship he makes our worship acceptable in spirit and in truth he alone makes our worship acceptable it makes us worthy to worship him again this affects this affects our worship this affects our worship because our worship now our worship always has to be cross-centered we offer cross-centered worship to the triune god our worship also has to be rooted in redemptive history we worship god because of who he is because of what he's done and we also worship god in light of the cross why because it's the cross that makes us worthy to worship when we witness same thing is true we witness because there is a god who demands worship and we look at a lost hurting and dying world and say you owe god worship worship him how do we tell them to worship him by painting a picture of a metrosexual shampoo model with pretty hands and pretty feet and hope that he'll be beautiful enough to elicit some heartfelt emotional response from them or by pointing them to the second person of the trinity demonstrating that he's a faithful witness preaching the resurrection he's the firstborn from the dead challenging all human authority he's the ruler of the kings of the earth and ensuring with them that out of his love for his people he takes their sins to the cross he dies he's resurrected on the third day and we are in turn through repentance and faith raised up with him and made into a royal priesthood offering imperfect yet completely acceptable worship to the one who is worthy to receive it this changes our worship this changes our witness all by changing our view of christ our culture believes that what we need is a soft feminized non-judgmental jesus do you know why because when you say to sinners god says worship my son you owe it to him sinners look back at us and say i don't like that that's rude and instead of coming back with the rest of the story we come back with well you know actually he's he's not like that let me give you another picture how do you like that one as one old preacher said whatever you want them with is what you want them to and if we win people to a jesus made in their own image by taking away aspects of his character and person and work that they don't like we will spend the rest of our ministry doing the same thing but if we understand who christ is and that he is objectively and subjectively worthy of our worship and our witness then we will not fear and in following the faithful witness we will be faithful witnesses as well some even unto death even so come lord jesus let's pray father we bow before you in the name of your son and in the power of your spirit acknowledging you as the one true holy living righteous god one god and three persons existing eternally in perfect unity harmony communion we bow before you in the name of your son whom you sent to be our redeemer your son the faithful witness your son the firstborn from the dead your son the ruler of the kings of the earth your son who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood your son who has made us into a kingdom of priests for you o god so that to you might be the honor and that to you might be the glory forever grant by your grace that our worship and our witness would be conform to these truths reflective of these truths grant that we might offer you that which you are due and grant that we might witness to it so that christ might have the fullness of the reward for which he died help us lord not merely to object to the images of jesus in our culture but to insist on biblical accuracy not solely because we want to be right but because we desire to worship you in spirit and in truth because we desire to know you as you have revealed us to yourself and your word because we desire to worship you in ways that you have deemed appropriate because we recognize our own limitations and weaknesses we recognize our own short-sightedness and selfishness and so we yield to you grant now that even the prayer of our heart and the words of our mouths might be acceptable in your sight that christ might be magnified in us and through us and by us more than he ever has that we might rest in him abide in him he and us this is our prayer and we ask it in that name that is above every name that name at which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is lured to the glory of god the father in the name of jesus who is the christ amen you

Channel: G3 Ministries

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Id: 3O0GWbVZ58Y

Length: 63min 20sec (3800 seconds)

Published: Wed May 18 2022