Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Classroom: Christology 04-05-07

04-05-07

Romans 15:1-6

Ephesians 1

From this passage, here are three questions for you to answer.

What is our destiny?

Where is our destination?

What is your inheritance?

I think that Ephesians 1 says this: We’re on a bus. The bus is called “Faith in Christ.” On the front of the bus is written the destination. God guarantees that, while you’re on that bus, you will arrive at that destination, but you have to be on the bus. If you get off the bus, you may not get there. But while you’re on the bus, there is a guarantee that you will get to the destination. So God guarantees that no power in the universe can prevent that bus from reaching its destination. He says that the very power that was used to raise Christ from the dead, will be used to get that bus to its destination. Neither power on earth nor power in heaven, or power in hell will be able to prevent that bus from reaching that destination; but you have to be on the bus. Now, the route of the bus is not guaranteed. You’re driving the bus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Once you have faith in Christ, you will arrive at the destination. There’s a straight forward route, and there are any number of other routes. Sometimes you might feel like you’re lost. You might feel like you’re a long way away from the route. But the guarantee is that while you’re on the bus, Christ is well able to get you from where you are to the destination.

Jeremiah 29 does not say, “I know the plan I have for you.” It does not say, “I have one plan for you.” Jeremiah 29 says I know the plans I have for you.

The destination is not geographical. It is not a particular ministry. The destination is conformity to the image of Christ. Why? Because only when we are like Christ can we fully receive the love that God has for us. And we were created to receive and give that love.

One YWAM team went into the Amazon rainforest to do an eco forestry, Typically tribes in the Amazon cut down part of the rain forest, burn it, and then plant crop. But because of the way they have done it, they can only produce a crop for one year. So then they move on to another part, to slash and burn. So the YWAM team in that region is working with the tribe to find other ways. It’s a really exciting project.

And all through the lecture phase we kept preaching this message. The destination is not Brazil. The destination is not this particular project. The destination is conformity to the image of Christ. And they say, “oh, yes! Yes! We understand!” But in their hearts, their destination was this project in Brazil. And it was a great project. Now, the end of the day came and they went on outreach. The day they arrived, the director of the project had to leave. He was the one who had arranged what they were going to do. It was a 12 week outreach; and because he was unable to be there, and because of other staff problems that they had at that time, for 12 weeks the team was unable to do anything that they were able to do. They had the most miserable time. Visited the team during the 12 weeks. They were at each other’s throats. They wanted to kill me. Because they thought the destination was the project in Brazil. So thought that either they had failed or somebody else had failed. But they hadn’t failed. So they thought their destination was the project in Brazil – but really the project was just a tool that God was using to get them to the destination of conformity in Christ. So they thought they should be one place when God was actually taking them closer to the destination. They were disappointed that they weren’t in Brazil when they should have been rejoicing that they were closer to the destination. Slowly they began to understand that the destination was not the project, but a person. The person of Jesus Christ. Two years later we sent another team to Brazil. This team was going to work with schools out of the local church. We said to them all through the lecture phase, “this is your destination: conformity to the image of Christ. Not a particular project or a particular place.” And they arrived in Brazil, and for all sorts of different reasons – the projects that they were set to work on didn’t happen. People changed their minds about who was allowed to do it. So the team made a decision. “Our destination is conformity to the image of Christ. Can God do that in our lives even if we don’t do this project? Absolutely He can.” They had the best time of any team I’d ever heard. And they rejoiced, and God broke open new opportunities. They were on national television there – they were able to minister far beyond anything they’d ever imagined. They actually exposed some corruption and some problems that had a dramatic impact for years to come. There’s one difference in the two teams; and that was the understanding of what the real destination was.

Now am I saying that God never has a particular calling to a particular place? Of course not. There are times when He calls specific people to specific places. And there are times when we have to battle to see God’s purposes come to pass. But our goal is not the fulfillment of those purposes. Our goal is conformity to the image of Christ, and we can always win with that as the goal. Even though there will be times when the route will be different than what we thought.

Do you get that? Our destination is not a place or project, but to be like the person of Jesus Christ.

We need to realize that if we want to please God, it’s faith and nothing else. Faith is the root of love. Corinthians says we can give our bodies to be burned, but if it’s not of faith it’s useless.

Now what is Jesus’ greatest temptation? He is God. He has given up the attributes of God to be more human. So when Jesus is in the wilderness, how does Satan tempt him? To be God, and to do miracles. And each time, Jesus says, “no, I’m going to live by faith.” Jesus was filled with the Spirit, was driven into the desert, tested, and empowered. He faced the same temptation that Adam did – only he persevered.

John the Baptist said that Jesus will baptize with the Spirit, and with fire. The fire is the testing. He is saying, “if you want to be filled with the power of the Spirit, there will be testing.”

In his home town, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah. The scroll says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, therefore God has anointed me.” Then he goes on to explain what that means: to preach the good news, to bring new life.

All throughout the gospel, people ask this question, “by who’s power are you doing this?” And Jesus says, “I do nothing of my own accord, but I listen to the Father and I speak His words and do what He tells me.” In other words, Jesus wasn’t doing these miracles through his own attributes, he was doing them through the gifts of the Spirit. So when he’s with the woman in Samaria, how does he know she has had 5 husbands. Does he do it because he’s exercised the power of his attributes? No, it’s because the Father told him, through the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “greater things than these will you do.” Because he knew that the day would come when they would all be filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered. So he goes on with his ministry, demonstrating the light of the Kingdom. But it’s an upside down Kingdom.

We’re going to spend some time looking at Luke chapter 8, and then the rest of the time looking at Jesus’ last moments.

There’s a lot in this chapter. Jesus says to his disciples that he needs to get away from the crowds for a while. They all got in a boat and went across the sea of Galilee. Then a storm comes. Some of the disciples are fishermen, they know how to operate boats. What do you do in a storm? Take the sails down, turn the nose of the boat into the waves, and if it’s a bigger boat – put the anchor down. That’s pretty much all you can do. The disciples did everything they could do, and then they panicked. They were out of options. There was nothing else they could physically do. But here’s the thing. Jesus had said, “let’s go to the other side of the lake.” Now who is Jesus? He’s God. So they had God’s word, and they had God’s presence. If you have God’s word and God’s presence, what should you do? You should trust. So what do they do? They go and wake Jesus up. They don’t really believe that they can do anything about it. From the context, they said, “don’t you care that we’re going to die?” At the point they woke him up, one of the gospels says that they were afraid. They were afraid they were going to die. Now what does Jesus do? It’s interesting, the Bible actually uses the word that he rebukes the storm. You don’t rebuke things that aren’t alive, do you? Okay – hold that thought. Now, what does Jesus say to the disciples? “You of little faith.” In other words, what is Jesus saying they should have done? Had faith and rebuked the storm. He had this attitude of, “Why are you waking me up? You have God’s word and God’s presence. Why didn’t you deal with it? Why didn’t you rebuke the storm?” At the point in which he rebukes the wind and the waves so that it’s quiet, the other gospel says, “then they were terrified.” So when they thought they were afraid, now they begin who’s in the boat with them and they’re terrified. There’s an important question to ask whenever we believe we are faced with a problem against what we believe God is saying to us. If it’s a natural storm, then you treat it like you would any other storm. But what if this storm is a supernatural storm? It’s pointless to do all of the natural things, you need to do the supernatural things! Now who do we know is on the other side of this lake? It’s the demonically possessed man, and on the water is the Son of God. Now then, who might be causing this storm? Maybe the demons, who don’t want the Son of God coming. So now it makes sense, what is it that Jesus is actually rebuking? Maybe the demons. Does that make more sense? He takes authority against the demonic powers that are stirring up this storm. So it’s really important to know what is behind the things that are going wrong; because if it’s a natural storm, praying against the enemy won’t fix it. But if it’s a supernatural storm, it doesn’t matter how good you are at sailing, you still won’t succeed. You need discernment. So Jesus gets to the other side, confronts the enemy in this man, and brings in the Kingdom of God. Now, there’s another interesting thing. What do the demons ask for? They ask Jesus to send them to the pigs. “If we can’t control this man, at least give us some pigs to control.” Now what are the demons trying to do with Jesus and the disciples? First, the demons tried to drowned God. Then the pigs ran into the sea and drowned. So there’s a principle here. Whatever the enemy tries to throw at us, that which the enemy purposes against us, ends up against him.

Now, when you look at scripture – there are often at least two or three ways of looking at it, and God can draw truth out of all those ways of looking at it.

Does anyone like jigsaw puzzles? How do you do them? You look at the picture – the example you have. I believe the Bible is a lot like a puzzle – how do you know you have the right piece in the right place? How do you know that you’re not forcing it to fit somewhere that it doesn’t really belong? The answer is fairly simple: you have to know what the picture is on the box. So what’s the picture of the Bible? Jesus. Exactly. The Bible is painting a picture of Jesus. All scripture points to the work and the life of Jesus. If the piece you have doesn’t build this picture of Jesus, you have it in the wrong place. There’s a technical term for this approach to interpretation that means “Christ centered interpretation.”

The God who is love is perfectly represented by Christ, and scripture therefore points to Christ.

Let me give you a controversial example, and then we’ll move on. Is it true that wives should submit to their husbands? Yes. The scripture says it more than ones. Yes, but we have to look at context. And what is the context? What is the picture on the box? Jesus, the God who is love. Here’s what I want to suggest. Truth, without a context of love, becomes a lie. So, wives submit to your husbands without the context of love, - husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church – can be used as a means of oppressing women. This builds the kingdom of the enemy, not the kingdom of God.

So Jesus said many things that were controversial, turning upside down people’s views. Quick example: In the sermon on the mount, Jesus dismantles their entire understanding of the Law. All of the Law, pretty much applied to the actions, the outward. Jesus says things like, “you’ve heard it said…” – then he goes on to say that what happens on the inside can be breaking the law. What happens in your heart effects your actions. Now, the authorities are quite angry with him, and seek to kill him.

Imagine the mount of olives (if you can). You have Bethany on a hill in one place, Moab further down. Before Bethany, in a valley is Kidron, which is where Gethsemane is, and before Kidron is Jerusalem.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ disciples can’t stay awake; and Jesus is praying. What does he pray? Jesus says, “If it is your will that I go to the cross, then let it be done. It is not my will. But if it is your will, I will do it.” Here we are in a garden. In the first garden, we had the first Adam. In the second garden, we have the last Adam. In the first garden, the first Adam said, “not your will but my will.” In the second garden, the last Adam says, “not my will, but your will.” It’s about choice. Because, without choice you don’t have relationship. Without relationship, you don’t have love. What answer does Jesus get when he prays this prayer? He doesn’t get an answer. Because, if the Father says, “it is my will.” There’s no point in praying again because God has told them what His will is. If God says you don’t need to do it, there’s no need to pray again. But the second time, Jesus goes and prays the same thing.

And we don’t know what happens there, except that we can guess from what Jesus says later. And at that point the soldiers arrive with Judas. At that point, Peter pulls out his sword and says, “I’ll die before I let you be that kind of God.” He’s tired, and he chops off the man’s ear instead of who knows what. Jesus says, “put away your sword.” Then Jesus says something to Peter, which I believe is the answer to Jesus’ prayer. “Do you not know that even now, I could call on my Father and he would send more than 12 legions of angels?” Now, remember the context. What have they just celebrated? The Passover. And what happened on the first Passover that they just celebrated? The angel of death just passed from them. And all the firstborn that did not put the mark above the door were killed. So one angel killed the firstborn of every person in the nation. And Jesus says on this night, “If I ask my Father on this night, He’ll send more than 12 legions of angels.” What’s been offered to Jesus? If one angel does this to a nation – what will 12 legions of angels do? Judgment day. So just as there is a tree in the first garden, from which Adam and Eve fell, there is also a tree in the second garden – in the shape of a cross.

And as we approach Easter, I want to encourage you that Jesus had that real choice, to go to the cross or not, and he chose to go. When we’re thinking about relationships in the Kingdom of God, let’s remember how much he was willing to do to maintain relationship in unity with us. How much more then should we be willing to give in maintaining unity and relationship with one another – so that others will see Christ in us, and be drawn to Him.

Hebrews 12:2 says this:
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

The question I want to leave you with is this:
What is the joy that was so tangible, so real, that it made the cross worthwhile?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home