"Understanding the Historical Ark #1" Shane Willard

right all right let's start first with some some review because some of the things we say come from other things and so I have to repeat some things where I've been here before because sometimes sometimes I felt insecure about saying something because I knew I've said it before and then people act like it's the first time they've ever heard it and so it's and it's I realize and that's fine because I realized that people forget 96% of everything you say within four days so so a lot of things we have to remind ourself of so first there's a difference between forgiveness and blessing those are two different things if you equate them you get a problem forgiveness was always for free even in genesis exodus leviticus numbers and deuteronomy forgiveness was always for free blessing was always conditional on obedience and decisions this is true even in revelation in revelation 22 I think it's verse 2 it says and I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to each one as his work was so so the so somehow there's this dichotomy this tension between forgiveness and blessing and so and so any any system of religion that says forgiveness is conditional on something you do missing the point any any system that says blessing is unconditional no matter what you do also missing the point so you can't you can't do both yeah but you can't well you can't mix them but you can't hold both with both hands what one of the one of the rabbinical tenets of reading scriptures is they always read the scripture with both hands so so it almost never has to be either/or it can always be it can always be both can you be forgiven for free and blessed by condition yes of course you can it doesn't have to be all for free or all for work it's it can be held in tension with both hands that's actually the healthiest way to read scripture is is to read it with hands and so it's a yeah are you forgiven for free yes is your cousin Earl forgiven for free yes is your is your sister forgive it free yes is the neighbor down the road is he forgiven for free yes does he belong to God yes is he breathing God's air yes it is is he is he necessarily blessed no it does blessing is conditional on obedience it is is it a system once forgiven does that mean they go to heaven no no for there are lots of forgiving people outside the gate forgiveness is forgiveness is free but if you're going to live that way can't can't be in here like that can't be in here and I'm not willing to eradicate your free will so yeah like like the that the there's a response that's it's taken it's it's been around for a long time but it's taken it's 20 years of it gaining steam but the and I under there good people I understand that they're responding against religious abuses they're responding against a message that says God forgives you for free but if you don't do everything he says he's going to throw you in a torture chamber for twenty billion years because that makes so much sense and so there was funny against that and essentially the equal but opposite reaction against that which is equally as bad is well we're all okay and we'll see in heaven because God's just that nice it doesn't matter right which is also makes no sense because if anything goes in heaven then it's not heaven anymore because what makes heaven heaven is that Jesus is in fact ruling with an iron fist and so that's what makes heaven heaven is that there's certain parameters and boundaries that say well this is how life is here and if you're not with this agenda there's a spot outside the gate for you and that's what you see at the end of the book is at the end of the Bible even after death and hell have been destroyed and all things have been made brand-new and the new city is on the earth it says blessed are those whose robes have been washed white for they're the ones who have the right to enter into the new city and partake of the Tree of Life but outside the gates or sorcerers dogs sexually immoral thieves and anyone who loves and practices a lie so even after death and hell have been destroyed and all things have been made brand new there's still people in and there's still people out where did they come from there's no more death no more hell yet they're sitting out here where they come from and the issue is is God it's God's world God gets to make the rules of the community and if you're not gonna live within that you're forgiven just as much as anybody but you're not welcome to live that way here and that's what makes heaven heaven is that things that belong to death do not belong breed racism and horror and oppression and things like that the next verse simply says this and the spirit and the bride compel them to come essentially it's like revelation 22 so the last five verses the Bible it's just before copyright 1977 NIV 22 so yeah it's the it's the last five verses this is what I mean if you'd like to turn there you can turn there and we'll read it together this is the picture you see you see clear boundaries being drawn so the idea of oh look you know we're all okay and and and we'll all make it I think with all respect to everybody made in the image of God I think that's a bad path I think it's dangerous to think that way because this is what it says and I'm doing it from my head you guys have in front of you now 22:14 should say something like this blessed or that this is now let me put it in context since we're reading it now this is after death and hell have been destroyed no more death no more help all things have been made brand-new revelation 21:5 the new city of heaven has been established on the earth and this is how it ends blessed are those whose robes have been washed white for they're the ones who have the right to enter into the new city and eat of the Tree of Life but outside the gates of the new city or dogs sorcerers sexually immoral thieves anyone who loves and practices a lie wait a minute where they come from see see we've been taught our whole life by good people that once you get to heaven you're just stuck there you know like you just you can't choose to do anything bad you know and which they might be right but that makes no sense considering this I mean you've got if you have no if you have no free will in heaven how did Satan fall and he didn't just fall a third of all heaven fell with him and if you have no free will in heaven how come Jesus says in Matthew 23 he has to rule heaven with an iron fist why do we have to rule something with an iron fist that no one can do the wrong thing and and why does he need twelve helpers to do that and then people say well Shane no sinful things allowed in heaven really Satan's allowed in heaven all the way to the throne room he can come and go what really well Shane God doesn't it happen a sinful thing really inhabits you inhabits me you have us the world seems like all he does doesn't have its central things well Shane there's no you can't send in heaven really well then how after a thousand years do many still are deceived and fall away hey how's that and then then you get to the end of the book and you have people in and you have people out where the people out come from did they get out of heaven or get out of hell you tell me either way that doesn't work so and then the next the next verse says something like I Jesus give you this as a testimony to the churches something like that and then it says and the spirit and the bride compelled them to come who are they compelling to come the people on the outside so they're so at the end of the book it's it's essentially you have people in and you have people out and the people in or going what are you doing you don't live like that that's not the way this is better and then it says something like this if you add or subtract from this I'll get you grace and peace copyright 1977 so here's what happens the people who say everybody's gonna make it don't worry about it if you want a theological term for it it's a big scary word that actually means nothing is called universalism okay and so the people who say that they actually subtract the fact that people are still sitting outside not to be fair the evangelicals subtract the fact that God's still calling people okay so both are guilty of subtracting something but the truth is is both are true and it doesn't say the people are moving it says they it just leaves it open right and so which is why it is urgent that you respond to Jesus now because if you ever create a pattern of rejecting and resisting the call of God on your life there might be a day you don't hear him anymore and it's not that he's not calling it's just you've lost your ability to hear okay so so the issue that the issue isn't hey I can't wait to get to heaven and we'll all be great there that's not the that is not how Jesus framed heaven at all Jesus I was um I was doing a Bible a pastors training in South Africa for over 600 pastors and here's what I did I put a thousand Rand on the pulpit that's that's a lot of money to them okay I put a thousand Rand on the pulpit and I said I'll give a thousand ran to any person who can find anywhere where Jesus invited someone to go to heaven and then I just sat down in a stool and waited and you could hear some people had paper Bibles some people had iPads right and so and they were all they were all looking for one place Jesus invited someone to go to heaven and I waited two and a half minutes in a room full of ordained pastors and nobody could and I went what you guys are you guys are already in pain you can't tell me one not one not one time Jesus invited someone to go to heaven and they were embarrassed like but then they still didn't get it so somebody raised their hand said will you tell us where is it and I said well no no that's the point it's not an error like 630 ordinances can't find one time yet our main message has become do something to go to heaven Jesus never invited people to go to heaven now Jesus gave the hope of heaven today you'll be with me in paradise of course where did Jesus go that day he went to hell so is heaven and hell in the same room um today you'll be me in paradise or Jesus so powerful that when he walks into hell he transforms it I don't know the answer is I don't know he says in my father's house are many rooms rooms the trick the English translation is sometimes translated mansions but because by the 1600s the idea was we're gonna live in heaven forever but that's not what it says in the root word says in my father's house are many rooms and the root word is hotel room which is a place you go visit until you come back home right now don't panic it's God's Resort like it's gonna be like Five Diamond yeah I have Wi-Fi and golf and and if you're into poker yeah they have a little poker thing but you you could you could do it's it's gonna be nice but the point it's making is not to describe heaven and its fullness the point it's making is to say heaven is a place that you visit until it ultimately everything in heaven comes back to the earth because that's where men and women were meant to exist okay so so so Jesus Jesus gives the hope of heaven but you never see Jesus preaching to thousands of people and he never ended his sermon by going to listen we got this magic prayer we need you to pray and so if we just the most important thing is that you accept me in your heart to be your personal Lord and Savior so so that one day your ticket can be punched and you can go somewhere else never did he ever frame anything like that when Jesus talked about heaven he talked about a reality that we will all be faced with one day and the question isn't will you make it to heaven so much as it is if heaven invaded your life tomorrow would you even like it could you could you live there this is how heavens gonna look could you do it now you're forgiven by free simply by receiving what Jesus did for you and it's very important for you to receive what Jesus did for you that's only part of the story the idea of the idea of well now I'm forgiven and then in heaven I'll just magically become a new person and that's not how he frames it he frames heaven as a reality that's gonna be very challenging essentially he says well in heaven all the secret conversations in your heart will be revealed for all to see are you ready to go there really how many of us could use some internal work before we entered into an environment where our motives are on display all the time Jesus says in heaven you'll you'll be eating with every tribe tongue and race now this isn't so bad up here but in South Carolina and Alabama in Pretoria it's a whole new deal I don't know how much racism exists in Michigan maybe I'm not from here but maybe there's a good bit of that too so wait a minute so Jesus didn't describe heaven as a place that you go to fairyland Jesus described heaven as a ultimate picture of the rule and reign of God and here's what it looks like and his challenge to people was line yourself up with heaven today so that when you do walk into heaven it's a seamless transition into what life is really meant to be about the question isn't about the patience of God because because jesus also frames God is someone who relentlessly pursues and he relentlessly to any-any relentlessly purifies any relentlessly is that work in your heart and it's not God doesn't give up on you Norton or when you mess up as he hold it against you forever he doesn't frame it that way but he frames heaven is something that's very challenging so my question isn't are you forgiving my question is are you blessed are you you're here on Saturday morning you've risked all of you have received what Jesus did for you before the foundation of the question is that forgiveness the question is what decisions are you making with your life that is your life leading you to darkness or light death or life decrease or increase is it leading to those sorts of things and the better question might even be if Heaven invaded earth tomorrow if what we read in Revelation happened in the next 4 minutes after you use the toilet in your pants if if if if heaven if heaven invaded Detroit Michigan now what parts of you would thrive and what parts of you would would be burned up it couldn't go there and and the challenge of Jesus is whatever those parts are get it get it straight come on man you know like like it's one thing to need Jesus as your Savior once it's a whole nother thing to need Jesus to keep saving you maturity is I don't need Jesus as my savior anymore now please understand what I mean I say that I'm nothing without God nothing I I can do nothing to save myself I'm absolutely zero without God but it's one thing to need Jesus as your Savior all the time it's another thing to need Jesus as your Lord like like that's a whole different deal and the challenge to believers is not to just sit back and go to heaven the challenge to believers is is now that now that you've believed now what if you want a great book on this NT right talks about he wrote a book called life what happens after you believe what and then the subtitle is why Christian character matters today if you take my encouragement read everything NT Wright ever does I think he's I think he's the greatest theologian in the world he's been around so long that when when we were in seminary we would have read his commentaries on Romans and things like that now he's in his 60s and he is writing books for common people like he's not he's not writing seminary level books he's writing bestsellers and so so he's he's written books like simply Jesus simply Christian simply Jesus is so good and it's about Jesus being the only way because Jesus is the only way it's a he his best book to me was surprised by hope it's a great book a and gutsy wouldn't you say Kelvin 67 years old saying I think we're wrong about heaven in hell and in the end the implications of resurrection and he doesn't deny heaven or hell obviously or he he he just simply says that all of our images of heaven hell and angels come from Renaissance art which was pagan like it was it was influenced by Sir Aston ISM epicureanism and an extreme sect of Roman Catholicism that was controlling people to guilt and so it's not that angels don't exist angels just aren't fluffy it's not that heaven doesn't exist but can I get an amen that none of us want to live in a heaven that was painted by Renaissance artists it anybody want to dress in white sit sit on clouds playing harps singing in perfect pitch to 1780s hymns anybody want to do that no no you you want to have a job and you want to have some responsibility and you want to feel like you're accomplishing something otherwise 20 billion years of existence is gonna be terrible pastor told me once that heaven was an eternal church service kid yeah so this heaven exists yes does it look like Renaissance art no does hell exist yes does it look like Renaissance art no no no what I know about God Renaissance art hell can't be true can't be true can't be true and it's not that hell doesn't exist it's just it doesn't look like that it'd be like if I said I see Richard Chris goes home he lives on 60 acres has 27 bedrooms nine bathrooms he's got marble toilets with special Coyle stone they heat up your bum when you're sitting on it it's the most unbelievable house you've ever seen and someone goes well actually no he he lives on like a third of an acre in an actual neighborhood and he's got like a four-bedroom house and and and and his TVs all right you know he's you know he's got this little dog right like but if he's and then I go so you saying he doesn't have a house well no he has a house it just doesn't look like what you're saying and so if you if you um if you if you want to start reading some great books to pick up in tea right stuff it is in the UK which my ministry is really expanding there he is the he is the hero he is the it's very good so one forgiveness and blessing or two different things okay I'm less concerned with whether you go to heaven when you die as much as I'm concerned with would you like it if you walked in there tomorrow and so so my question is is is more if heaven invaded Rochester Michigan tomorrow what parts of you would thrive and what parts of you would need to be pruned and the invitation of Jesus is pre he said in English it says it this way but doesn't make as much sense in English it says judge yourself here so you won't be judged there in Hebrew it says prune yourself here so you will not be pruned there the the image once again imagery is very images make things stick pictures make things stick if I say judgment and you picture a black robe wearing gavel wielding guy then that's the wrong image that's not what it's not the wrong image it's not what they meant when they said judge they saw a farmer with pruning loppers and so it's a good prune yourself here prune prune yourself here so you will not be prune there and so forgiveness and blessing or two different things third thing I wanted to remind yourself up is our dimensional limits okay when when you're looking at the scriptures we got to remember these two people veterans to my teaching they know what this is but if this is your first time seeing me these are I'm gonna do this quickly these are two dimensional people and if we created them as gods and then we wrote them letters to try to explain to them what we're like everything we write to them would be filtered through two dimensions even though we live in at least what the physics as we live in eleven but that's real complicated let's say at least three like I have I can I have depth I can do this they cannot they're stuck doing this and so even even the most even the most simplest things in my world would blow their mind like if I said hey let's let's say their names are Joe and Jane and if I said hey Joe Jane listen my world and before we even read this book before you read this thing we're gonna call it the Bible we're gonna send it to you as a loveling as a love letter so we want you to know what we are but before you even start reading it we want you to know that our ways are higher than your ways and our thoughts are higher than your thoughts so even at your best effort you're gonna understand like one percent of us but we're still gonna give it a go cuz we're still gonna we're still gonna try to have a relationship with you and so so I'm gonna hand you this book but but before it but before you read it we want you to understand that we don't expect you to get it all right cuz that would like be impossible but what we're just pleased that you're trying to interact with us this is gonna be fun and so Joe picks up the book and the first thing he reads about me is that I can be in front of him and behind him all at the same time Joe goes that is unbelievable in front of me and behind me all at the same time and how easy is that to say all you need is some depth perception that's not hard to do that's not hard to do what if I said hey hey guys your whole world is actually a small part of a big room that rooms a small part of a big building building small part of big piece of land that lands a small part of a city in that city is a small part of a state in that States a small part of a country that country is a small part of a continent that cause a small part of a world but that world is a small part of a solar system the socio is a small part of a galaxy and that galaxy is a very small part of the universe don't let it blow your mind or anything what if I said hey Joe guys hey check this out in my world I can extend my arm out they go no way because see in their world they're limited to two dimensions in their world this always is a circle and this always is a rectangle but what if I told them that in our world the same object can be a circle and a rectangle and a cylinder all at the same time the only have to have a thing an axis to spin it on circle rectangle cylinder all at the same time in their world it's either/or in our world it can be both which is why the rabbi said that when you're stating scripture you have to understand that your filtering limited dimensions through infinite dimensions so you have to be willing to hold seemingly conflictual things in both hands all right so now with that as the backdrop I want to talk to you about history and I'm talking about that when you're studying your Bible considering the historical Ark before you interpret the scripture considering the historical Ark before you interpret your the scripture there's so there's so much we can talk about here now I'm gonna spend a lot of the morning talking about this let me give you an example if my friend up there if you could put slide number seven up and this is a scripture no no there's someone before that that's all right all right salute acts 17:23 now this is Paul walking into Athens so when you're studying I'm trying to give you tools to help you study the Bible long term okay as soon as you know that Paul's walking into Athens usually start asked yourself questions about Athens like what was going on in Athens at the time what sort of things a fault the Bible did not was it's not like it was given with the chicken and the egg I mean it was it was written inside real things going on so what was going on in Athens at the time what were the stories behind the stories and then when you read something like this which makes almost no sense you have to ask yourself if there's a story behind the story okay so this what it says friends I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship so if I was studying this I would say Athens what kind of objects of worship and now you don't have to go to the library to figure this out you can go to Google and just Google gods of Athens in the first century and you'll find out that the philosopher said that Athens were the birthplace of the gods one philosopher said it was easier to find a God in Athens than a man they had a God for everything so it makes sense that Paul walks into a city and goes I see all your objects of worship well what were the objects of worship well literally everything and you can you could go on Google now and you can read about the gods of Athens and what Paul would have been looking at because it it makes sense when you keep reading I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God so not only do you guys worship people you think you know you actually worship something you don't know that's how complete or incomplete your deity worship is so you are ignorant of the very thing that you worship and this is what I'm going to proclaim to you so why is Paul using an altar to an unknown God to ultimately if you keep reading to the end of the story he ultimately proclaims Jesus Christ to them but he uses the unknown God what Paul is telling them is that you've been worshipping the unknown God all along and the unknown God for as long as you've remembered has been Jesus anyway let me tell you what Jesus is about now is that okay is that legal can you do that well you have to understand the story behind the story to understand this there's a story about the altar to the unknown God they didn't just out of midair create an altar to an unknown God there's a story as to why they did it and it helps to interpret this scripture to understand the story the story starts in 620 BC there was an Athenian king named mega Cleese M EGA cles mega Cleese now I realize he sounds like the leader of the decepticon resistance against the Autobots all right I realized that right Optimus Prime it was making Cleese now I realize that but that's how they that's was their names minute so there was this athenian king named mega Cleese and mega Cleese attacked the followers of a small community called Cylon see why ello n so mega ki met mega Cleese yeah I know I I realize I'm giving you a Transformers plot here but that's okay so but this is actually historical fact mega Cleese invaded a small area called Cylon CY ello N and it was obvious mega Cleese was gonna win and so the followers of Cylon said if we surrender without a fight will you give us am nice tea and be kind and not kill us mercilessly and mega Cleese agreed if you surrender without a fight I'll spare your life so they surrendered without a fight and then he broke his word and he slaughtered all of them in public in horrible ways this happened in 620 BC in 610 BC a horrible plague came over Athens and it killed over a third of all the people and the people of Athens were convinced that it was God's anger because of mega Cleese's deception and he because of mega Cleese's deception God has now poured out his wrath upon Athens by making them all ill and so what they did is they got together in the center of Athens which was a place called Mars Hill Mars Hill which happens to be exactly where Paul is when he walks into ethanol and 610 BC and the wise men of Athens get together and say what must we do about this horrible plague obviously God is offended now I want you to think about it for a second if God is offended because of mega Cleese's deception what is your problem in Athens the problem is which God they have a thousand of them so so they don't know which God is offended so the wise men's advice was let's sacrifice to every God so they had the priests of each God sacrifice to every single God and asked for forgiveness from mega Cleese's deception and ask the gods to remove the plague the problem was it didn't work so they sacrificed every god they know and it didn't work so they come back to Mars Hill and they say what do we do we've sacrificed to every god we have and it did not work and so one of the men of Mars Hill said there must be an unknown God that we don't know yet and they said well what's his name and they said we don't know so the men of Mars Hill went to a pinion Oracle P Y th IA n they went to a Pythian Oracle which is one of these crazy-looking women in a cave stirring a cauldron they went to this Pythian Oracle and said this is our situation what do you reckon and she says there is an unknown God that you haven't thought of yet and you must please him so they asked her what's his name she says I don't know his name you have to go ask f epitomise who was accretion a famous chrétien prophet who Paul actually quotes in the Bible three or four times okay so she says she says you need to go ask f epitomize what he thinks he'll know if anybody in the world will know what this God's name is it'll be epip enemies so the men of Mars Hill go to Crete now this is not a fast journey in those days they go to Crete to find F epitomize the famous chrétien prophet to ask him about this let me show you a picture of epip enemies if you just know that next slide up there this is EPIP enemies here his modern-day reincarnation is uncle Herschel from The Walking Dead or Uncle Jesse from the Dukes of Hazzard either way this this is epithet amis and EPIP enemies is very very sleepy as you could tell and he's a famous creation prophet and so they bring him to Mars Hill and they show him the carnage of Athens and they say what do you reckon we do he says and he says what the Pythian Oracle says he says there's an unknown God that you haven't pleased and they say well that's nice we knew that what do we do he said I don't know the gods name he said but this is what I need I need a thousand sheep pinned up over there where there's no grass so I need you to pin up a thousand sheep and do not feed them all night long and I need every stonemason in the city here tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. and so they do this and so the next morning at 6:00 a.m. epip enemies tells them release the Sheep and so they release the Sheep onto the grassy knoll and here's F epitomizes prayer here's what he prayed O great unknown God behold the plague afflicting our city and if indeed you feel compassion to forgive us and help us behold this flock of sheep please forgive us for our ignorance of your great name we do not know who you are but if you would please reveal your willingness to respond I plead you by causing any sheep that pleases you to lie down upon the grass instead of grazing choose white if white pleases you black if black delights you and those you choose we will sacrifice to you acknowledging our pitiful ignorance of your great name and asking you to forgive us despite us not knowing so he lets the sheep out and that they've starving they haven't been fed all night and so they watched and essentially the test was whatever sheet lays down instead of eating despite being starved that that's the one that pleases this unknown God because they didn't know what pleases him and so there was six out of the thousand there were six that laid down and so at the pet amis told the stonemasons wherever they're laying build an altar right there and inscribe it to an unknown God and so they built the altar right there inscribed at an altar to an unknown God they sacrificed the sheep on the altar to the unknown God and the plague lifted so from 610 BC in Athens even though they kept all their other gods to them that God of gods was the unknown God and the unknown God became the center of worship in Athens they kept the other gods because they didn't understand but they they said that the God of gods the Lord of lords was this unknown God because he was the one that lifted the plague so for six hundred years they worshiped the unknown God Paul shows up and says you've been worshipping Jesus all along let me explain to you his name you've been wondering what his name was let me tell you what you've been doing all along now do you see how a bit of historical Ark understanding helps us interpret a scripture like that and it has huge implications to our evangelism can we honor people's responses to the unknown God you will meet people all your life who you might think they've rejected Jesus but what you'll find is is that they didn't reject Jesus they rejected the image of Jesus that was presented to them and so but there's still this deep inner knowing that there is God out there but the only Jesus they knew was the Jesus that you would have rejected if that was the image of Jesus presented to you and so what they do is they spend their whole life responding the unknown God and they're waiting for someone to tell them his name and so that's that's what happens a lot of times in evangelism more often than not when I lead someone to the Lord it's not man I've never heard of this Jesus almost never that it's almost always oh Jesus is sounding more like the God that's been calling me I I thought Jesus was this but you're telling me he's bad I've actually been seeking Jesus my whole life and didn't realize it but today's the day God's opened my eyes and I'm gonna reach out and grab what God's had for me all along is Jesus the only way absolutely Jesus is the only way but but people's pass to Jesus Jesus has been given an incredible task of overcoming false images of Jesus everywhere so so it's not like it's if it's not like I mean it's not like there's not 87 denominations in the world that paint Jesus a little bit differently can you blame the world for being confused about what Jesus actually is can you really blame them for not actually knowing what's going on can you actually blame them for rejecting someone that not even his own followers can agree about can you really really blame them and aren't they actually rejecting Jesus no they're rejecting the image of Jesus that was presented to them and so what happens in most people most people do not become atheist some do most do not become atheist what most people do is they go that can't be right but I feel this internal calling I know that God is calling me to himself and so they erect an altar to an unknown God in their own heart and what they're doing is it's it's Jesus calling them all along and all they need is somebody to come along and explain hey what's been calling at you all along has actually been Jesus and it's not the image of Jesus you rejected when you were a kid it's an image it's actually the real Jesus calling you you've called it the unknown God you've said prayers like Lord God whatever you are wherever you are I'm yours I I'll follow you I don't know what even this looks like we we have to honor people's journey along that line because Paul did and because it just makes sense it just makes sense you know you know we're the Athenian people save for six hundred years I don't know it's not my call but I do know that they were journeying towards the heart of the unknown God and so historical arc helps us with that all right now I've got ten more minutes in our morning session so I want to do I want to talk about history and how it affects so whenever I turn to Deuteronomy 21 verse 10 I'll give you another example yeah it did Rami 2110 a preacher's that we would call Hellfire and brimstone preachers they they like to quote their pet scriptures you know and they never quote the whole thing and but in my whole life I've never heard of preacher pound his fist and quote this one even though it's in the Bible and so because we would just rather not deal with it alright but this is a good example of how historical arc effects things alright doing Rami 2110 when you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them captive if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her you may take her as your wife bring her into your home have her shave her head trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured after she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother why would she be mourning her father mother because you just killed them and mourned her father and mother for a full month then you may go to her and be her husband and she will be your wife if you're not pleased with her let her go wherever she wishes you must not sell her or treat her as a slave since you have dishonored her thus saith the Lord your God our God is la where do you even start with something like that what even how many of you women are like more in love with God right now oh I find you desirable I'm gonna shave your head clip your nails and we're gonna make you change your clothes losing don't worry I'll let you mourn for a month but then your mind never ever never once have I ever heard a preacher quote that never once that's in there you see Shane what do you do with that well if you interpret that from 2013 in Detroit can I get an amen God's a lunatic right no no no no lightnings coming down it's okay God if if you interpret that to 2013 in Detroit God is in fact a lunatic and here's the question here's got a lunatic no so so you have to understand the historical arc of what was happening Karen Armstrong the pilot surprise wedding God historian talks about that being the kindest thing God had ever written about gender relations up to that time so for us it's lunacy to them she talks about how when that passage of Scripture would have been released the women would have applauded like they would have they would have had a party like this is the most unbelievable thing we've ever heard ever this is so great the debate would have been amongst the men really really why because in that time in ancient Middle Eastern culture if this group of people took over this group of people every survivor in the new in the group that was taken over became property not people they were property they were not given the same rights as people in Leviticus who has given a right to mourn people for God to command you to let a captive mourn is a command that says treat them like people not property this was ultimate kindness revolutionary love in that day revolutionary love to tell a man that if you take over a city and you find a beautiful woman that you just can't have her as your sex slave that that's how it was you're now my property and I'll use you until I'm tired of you and then I'll sell you to the next man until he gets tired of you and then he'll sell you to the next man until he's tired of you and then he'll sell you to the next group of men until they're tired of you and then when everybody's tired of you we'll throw you out of the city and you have to prostitute yourself for the rest of your life just to eat that was called life God is transforming a culture and he's saying when you take over a city and you desire a young woman first you have to treat her like a person not property that's first second you have to give her the right to mourn traditional signs of mourning in those days was to shave your head tear your clothes and clip your nails so God's saying you cannot take her as property you have to treat her as a person and you have to give her sufficient time to mourn properly as a person would after that it doesn't say you can use her sexually till you're tired of her it says you can't 8 you have to take her as your wife in other words you have to make her a functioning member of your household who you are responsible to take care of to provide shelter for to provide food for and to provide security for women would have had a rally in favor of this scripture not women in Detroit not women in Detroit in 2013 but women in the land of Canaan in you know 1200 BC 1500 BC when they read that they would have thought the god of the Jews was the nicest person ever the debate would have been amongst the men come on Moses women are property no no no God says women are people what no no women are property it's a long time for society to catch up with Deuteronomy 21 even in the 1500s women will be women were sold for dowry z-- to be wise like there's a there's a global outrage now about these underage girls being forced to marry men who pay a price for them there's a global outrage why because culture is finally catching up with the fact that women are equal to men they are they are they're meant to be both treated as people in the image and likeness of God and be treated with dignity and respect society is finally starting to catch up with this idea in the 1500s women little girls were sold as dowry now there's there's a bit of that going on where little girls are sold for dowries just like it was in the 1500s and there's global outrage over it that used to be life I mean do you realize that women didn't even have the right to vote in America until 1919 1919 now you voted twice we had the Great Depression but nonetheless it just kidding so if it's one of those things where I I want you to I want you to make sure you get my point that if you're reading the scripture outside of the historical arc that it was written in you're gonna come to it to an interpretation that is really jaded or you'll do what most pastors do which is just avoid the scripture all together and say that sounds lunacy so I hope no one ever reads it and asked me about it but the truth is is we would do much better to read those things and deal with it and show how God was being kind even in Deuteronomy compared to where society was he was transforming the world even then women are not property no you can't take him his property nope you have to treat them as people yes you have to let them mourn yes you have to protect them yes you can't sell them no because they're people not property what this is like this is revolutionary so what sounds lunacy to us was actually one of the most revolutionary kind things ever written and so I'm gonna I'm gonna spend the next session showing you about 17 of those and and and helping you understand how when you interpret Scripture and and by the way I'm up here you're over there when I read the scripture and then I talked about how nice it was at first I did it on purpose I talked about how nice God was to write that at first and listen for your response and everywhere I was hearing what why because it takes discipline to read the Bible through that historical lens instead of our own and so and so it just really helps you to understand the historical arc that if if someone wrote that today lunacy but the reason why is because the reason we're the reason we are where we are today is because God started the process of restoring women's rights in Deuteronomy 21 and just took the world 3,000 years to catch up with where God was all along right so I wish my whole hermeneutics class was here on how to study the Bible because we just talked about progressive revelation and this is an excellent example of progressive revelation and and I want to ask you Shane in I know that I'm kind of catching a little bit but we're going through John first by verse we just finished John 9 I can't go jesus heals the blind man of course you know Jesus is concerned about bringing healing to the guy whereas the disciples are more concerned about who's to blame for sin yeah which is really a revelation in itself you know how whacked we are but he ends he ends with a statement because Jesus said over and over again I did not come to judge but to restore but yet in in verse 39 jesus said for judgment I have come into the world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind so in other words this is again what you're saying here that that he came to again help us to see more clearly what God wanted all along so when he said judgment here he didn't mean judge as we think judge right but judges in help you to see things clearly exactly and like a good example of what you're talking about there is um is there's so there's three different words in Hebrew for judgment one is to decide which you do all the time I choose to go to lunch here there that the second one is has to do with law the third one has to do with exposing motives okay but then there's a fourth concept of judgment that has to do with pruning so essentially essentially in this context Jesus is like this is not how it should be and so I'm going to prune the parts that aren't and so in that sense he calls healing judgment and in some cases healing his judgement because healing is when the farmer prunes back the parts that don't belong sickness right and for those of you who are not here on Wednesday night we kept pointing out how the religious leaders control people through fear and intimidation so that even even this young this man's parents were afraid to declare that Jesus was Christ because because other religious leaders said that will kick you out of the synagogue and so they pretty much throw their son underneath the bus which shows how strong that the fear and manipulation was of the day that Jesus was trying to set in order a bit before we break I want to ask you I'm spelling a little bit though because of course the Pharisees are going you know they're offended at Jesus statement they go oh so are we blind and then Jesus says this with these words if you were blind you would not be guilty of sin but now that you claim you see your guilt remains help help us digest that a little bit shame no no no because this is all together this all fits it's all one story and in the historical the historical arc of of what we're talking about fist there I just hadn't thought about that scriptures you gotta give me a second to sort of talk it out loud without being held accountable everything I say you know yeah yeah yeah yeah you know it's um I have one thought on judgment and and then and then I have a thought on that and and that is and that is this the central the central forbidding and this was the Pharisees issue cuz see you gotta understand historical arc is so important Pilate was in bed with the temple leaders because Pilate was given a job by Tiberius that said you can keep your mansion if you keep them from rioting well you cannot rule anything just politically you have to have a political leader and a religious leader and so Pilate knew it was futile to try to keep Jews from writing because part of why they were rioting was their concept of God and Caesar was violating it by claiming to be God and so it's so the kingdom of Caesar and the kingdom of God became in in in in conflict and that was the source of the riots so so Pilate says how can I keep these people from rioting I need to get the religious leaders on my side so Pilate paid the religious leaders bribes to keep the people under control with fear so that he didn't have to do it all the time and so now the people were being controlled politically and religiously which is why someone being accused religiously could be flogged 39 times but the thought that the flogging 39 times was a Jewish thing that was a Roman thing it was it was called you can read about this in Stephen Mansfield's book killing Jesus it was it was called the almost death the thing is that if you were the Roman soldiers in charge of the beatings if you actually killed them you would be killed and so they had to make sure that they took you to the point of death without actually killing you and they would chain you to a poll that was hooked to a stone and so and it wasn't one beater it was three it was a beater there a beater there and a beater behind you so when the beater behind you started your tendency would be because you could move this way right so so you weren't this it was you could move this way so as you tried to get away from the beating it would just be beat from here and then you'd just be beat from there and so and so if you were accused in Jerusalem at any point of opposing Rome or if you were a rabble rouser I remember they bring Jesus to Pilate they say he's stirring up the people there was three levels of interrogation first first level was they beat you up without asking questions they beat you up just for accusation after they beat you up they got to the bottom of the story after they got the bomb story they took the person who was responsible and they would would beat him so so if if the the the essence I'm getting to where he's asking the essence of the fear there was for him for these blind people the blind man's parents to call Jesus the Christ would have been in opposition to the Pharisees and if these were the Pharisees who were in bed with Pilate they were one message away from being the almost death okay and so there was this there was this carefulness in this oppression and Jesus was taking Jesus was taking this on now then even even in the middle of this context he tells the he tells the Pharisees if you if you were blind you wouldn't be guilty of sin but you know what you're doing you're actually supporting the kingdom of Caesar in the name of the kingdom of God your guilt is on you yeah you know you're not ignorant to what you're doing here you know that you're holding up remember later he says you keep people from the kingdom of God nor do you walk into it yourself why because you have aligned yourself with Caesar you you guys you guys have aligned yourself with Pilate and Caesar and these guys that that are oppressing the people that you are supporting the kingdom of Caesar and essentially Jesus saying if you didn't know what you were doing that's one thing but you know which is the reason why I keep saying over and over and we're in the middle of a series on sphere as well I would never be a part of a congregation that was being controlled by fear because fear is a demonic force that has torment and God has not given us a spirit of fear and I don't want anything God has not given me right it we should always be motivated by love love should be the bottom line of everything that we do see here that like I did this here last time were you guys here when I did my message horse or donkey yes okay exactly what we're talking about here that the the confrontation of the kingdoms of this Christ against the kingdoms of Caesar was ultimately Illustrated if you want a great read on this Stephen man says about the killing Jesus he talks about that the crucifixion of Jesus from Rome's perspective he's that he's the award-winning presidential historian from America's a historian I don't even know if he's I guess he's a Christian I don't know it doesn't matter he I mean his history is really good so but but that for Jesus to choose to come in on a donkey on the same day Pilate was coming in on a warhorse because it see the question of Jesus is trial I never understood this till he wrote the book I knew I would read it and I didn't understand it the question of jesus' trial was they arrest him in the middle of the night right and Pilate was awake and willing to get up how do you get the Supreme Court of Michigan to get up at 2:00 a.m. to hear your problem that never made sense to me until I read that book and he talked about how the Pharisees and the Tim and he said to be fair there were seven sects of Pharisees only one was the the corrupt that yeah the ones you read about or their but there were six sects of Pharisees that were actually really really good people and would have fought for Jesus but the one sect was in partnership with the with the top-level Sadducees the priests and they were they were being paid underhanded he said they didn't realize this two archaeologists dug up the high priests home thousands of years later you know and and and they found $5,000 bottles of wine because they they were they were being back handedly paid to control the people religiously and to tell on him so so the reason the reason Pilate was willing to get up at 2:00 a.m. was because the priests that were telling on Jesus were part of the people being paid to tell on rabble rousers and when they bring him to Jesus they bring Jesus to him and they say he's stirring up the people remember and it but they don't accuse him of blasphemy they say on a starting up the people Pilate says really I don't he seems he doesn't seem like that kind to me remember and then they said let's get here it involves so you have a situation where the two head honchos of the entire region are willing to get up at 2 a.m. to hear a trial about one guy Wow so what why and why were they even in Jerusalem they both lived in Caesarea see these these are things the historical arc helps you to understand hermeneutical II is Pilate was in Jerusalem because it was Passover pilots main job was to hold down riots and there was never an environment more conducive to riots than Passover because you had three hundred thousand people singing songs about God's will to deliver them from those enslaving them and so partners I got to get down there for this so he would go down there on his warhorse Jesus ghost you can come in on your warhorse I'll comment on my donkey and so there's this there's this there's this tension between this and this and so but but that that is great scripture that pastor Richard brought up about you know if you were the parents of a blind guy who's getting healed you think you'd be excited but they were actually scared to confess it and why because the Pharisees were standing there and these were the Pharisees who were paid by Pilate to tell on people who were proclaiming a new Kingdom see and so and so Jesus turns to them and goes this blind guy is healed and these people are still in fear because you're in bed with them if you were blind it would be art that you're not you are not blind you know what you're doing so we have a bunch more of these let's take a let's take a 10:05 to go however long you want to take a break I'm happy just keep going but but take a break um you get feeling in your rear end and um and if you want to come out if you want to come out and buy some things and know you're helping our missions efforts in the world and we'd be glad to see you out there okay

Channel: Rochester Christian Church

Views: 11,746

Rating: 4.6404495 out of 5

Keywords: Shane Willard, Richard Crisco, Rochester First, Salvation, Gospel, Holy, Spirit, Holy Spirit (Deity), Word

Id: DpK7EiyECk4

Length: 62min 0sec (3720 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 27 2013