Pastors Brian Lother and Robert Smith
Brian: Well, it's great to have you back in the, I think it's a pilot seat actually, with me Pastor Robert. Thanks for helping me out again today. I appreciate— how many of you appreciate Pastor Robert Isn't he just a blessing to us? God bless you.
Robert: Apparently, I passed out eye test for a Jacque.
Brian: Yes. Or we need healing for blindness. I don't know. Anyways, I wanted to kind of give you a little bit more of a backdrop, kind of a 40,000 foot view of this whole is issue about what God really trying to do on the Old Testament, because sometimes it can be a little confusing when you see some of the things that take place there. The Old Testament scriptures really tell us a repetitive story. That repetitive story is how Israel went into exile. In many ways and on multiple occasions, they went into exile.
In reality, virtually, the whole narrative of the Old Testament is really about this topic and very little else, other than the fact that God was trying to bring redemption to them, but that the whole Old Testament is really about Israel being called by God, to be the way that God brought redemption to the world. In the end, Israel needed as much redemption as the rest of the world did. That's really what ended up happening. If you look at the prophets Haggai, Zachariah Malachi, those three books were basically written in what we call the postexilic age, after the exile to Babylon. There was a remnant that returned to Israel and these three books, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi were written after the remnant had come back to Israel.
One might think that this was like the coup d'état or like the culmination of what God's plan was. But when you really look at those three books, they warn in those three books, that all is actually not well; all is actually not well. They suggest that even though many exiles had returned back to Israel, their Homeland, and to their Promised Land Yahweh, or God— Yahweh is a Hebrew word or name for God. Yahweh, God himself had actually had not yet returned in the way that people had imagined and thought that God was going to return, and shall we, say set up his kingdom. Malachi, the last book of the Bible, of the Old Testament, promises that God is going to return, and yet when you look at how the state of Israel was when this was written, it was very, obviously that that fulfilment had not happened.
Even though there was a remnant that had returned, and even though there was blessings and fulfilment of prophecy and all those sort of things, God had not returned in the way that had been declared that he was going to return, especially like in the book of Daniel and some of these other very prominent books that talk about this glorious kingdom that God was wanting to set up. We find between Malachi and Matthew, this roughly 400 years, we see there let me put it this way, a divine need for fresh action on God's part. There was a need to undo the present slavery, in a sense, to complete the story and put all things right at last. When you read a lot of prophetic scriptures in the Old Testament, you see that God's desire is to set things right, to make things right.
When you read these three post exilic books, you see that the story is still unfinished. When Malachi finished writing his prophetic book, you never get the sense that, and they lived happily ever after. There was something left to happen. There was something that was still unfinished. There was still, shall we say, they were still in certain of an ending. They were still a search of an ending. And that is why throughout the whole period from Malachi to Matthew, again, roughly 400 years, through this whole period, if you look at Jewish writing, not biblical writing, but just Jewish writing during this time, you see that the main theme that they write about is hope for the future and hope is needed for whatever you are expecting that hasn't happened yet.
When we started our church here, I felt like God gave us the name, Hope Community, because everybody needs hope for something. It doesn't matter what strata of life you are in, what place you are in, everybody needs hope. I have hope in my heart today, and I'm a very blessed man, but I have hope for other things. I'm sure you have hope for things. God wants us to be a community of believers and a place where hope is encouraged with each other; hence, we have the name Hope Community, but whatever you are expecting when it hasn't happened yet, you need hope. You need hope. The hope that is spoken of between Malachi and Matthew is this because Israel's God was the creator of the whole world; he has to take some action sooner or later. He has got do something to put everything right, because let's face it. We are doing a crappy job of it.
All the money spent, all the social programs, which again, we need to do. We need to take care of the poor and the infirmed and the disenfranchised. But all of our efforts, all of our efforts to stop bullying in schools, has it worked? All of our efforts to diminish poverty in even our country, never mind Africa and some of the other real third world nations of the world has virtually been almost non-productive. The fact of the matter is we need something outside of ourselves to put everything right. We need something bigger than us and our minds and our abilities and our own goodness to make things right, to put things right. God had called Israel. Remember what he said to Abraham: through you all nations— say it, Robert.
Robert: Through you, all nations will be blessed.
Brian: Yeah. Through you, all nations of the world, of the earth will be blessed. God had chosen Israel to be the means of rescuing the human race. God had chosen Israel to do that. But we find after exile, after exile, after exile, after exile with Israel, now Israel needed rescuing just as much as the rest of the world needed rescuing. The more they needed rescuing, their way of trying to fix things was to add more rules to the rules they already had. How many know that the more rules you pile upon people, the heavier the weight becomes, the burdens become? People don't become more free with more rules. Do they? And the freedom that Jesus was trying to provide for us and that God wanted to give to us was never going to come by adding more rules and more regulations. Israel was to be this source as it were, this place of human rescue.
Now Israel needed rescuing as much as the rest of the world did, and the remnant that God was looking for— listen to this: the remnant that God was looking for, ended up being a remnant of one, just one person. That's what the remnant ended up being. This one person would not only deliver Israel, but he was going to deliver the whole world. This one person would be faithful to his covenant and to his purposes for all of creation. We know that Jesus came and as we saw last week, we saw that Jesus died to show us God's love. So let's read that scripture again, Pastor Robert, from John 15:13.
Robert: The word says greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends.
Brian: What does that mean to you?
Robert: First of all, it means that when the Lord looked at us, he looked at us from the stamp point of friends, not enemies like we were, but as friends.
Brian: That's right. When the scriptures talked about the fact that we were enemies of God, that's not God's perspective, but that's how we were conducting ourselves. That's how we were interacting with God. But God says that he looked at us as his friends because he said, "No greater love that has a man than this that he laid down his life for his friends." And then the second thing we brought up last week was that Jesus died to save us from our sin. We oftentimes think of that as all of the rules we broke, but the sin that really God is trying to eradicate out of our lives is the sin of idolatry, where we place other things as the hit in front of God. How many of you know that power can be a beautiful thing.
If you have power, you have ability to serve people and to make things good and you have authority to implement certain things. But how many also know that power can be a very terrible thing? All we've got to do is think back on Hitler or some of the leaders in the world and throughout the history of mankind, and we see that power can run amuck. The real issue isn't that power is good or bad, or that money is good or bad. Money can be a wonderful thing. Look at all the good that money can bring about, but also look at what greed does in the hearts of people and how it oppresses other people when we are thinking just of ourselves financially.
Jesus never said that money was evil. He said the love of it, making money a God in our lives, idolatry in our lives does that. Look at sexuality. Sex is a wonderful thing in a marital relationship, but it can be a horrible thing that breaks down marriages if it's not entered into properly. It's a wonderful gift from God, but it can be also something that completely undermines virtual every relationship a person has if you don't enter into that in a proper way.
The sin that Jesus is really trying to take out of our lives is really the sin of idolatry, where we've placed all these other things. In other words, we have worshiped the creation rather than the creator. In other words, we've worshiped the things that God created. He created the ability to have power and authority. He created the ability to have wealth. He created the ability to have sexual intimacy with one another, and we have idolized that in our lives, and that has become more important than God.
Robert: Pastor, that's a— I don't know if they realize how profound that is. You did the backdrop of God's relationship with Israel, and if you look at the writings of the prophets in the Old Testament, that was the major thing: God calling the people back to him. It was dealt with the subject of idolatry. If you really go back and read the Old Testament, you can see God's cry out to the people. It was always against idolatry.
Brian: Yes. The scripture says that Jesus came and died to save us from our sin. Well, most of my life, if I've been thinking of not sin, but sins, plural. When I think of that, I think of all of the individual rules and regulations that I violated and I broke, but when you get right down to it, the sin in my life was idolatry. I placed these other things in front of God. What Jesus came to take from us is our idolatry, and to let him have this place of worship in our lives. Let's read the second portion that I would like you to read, Pastor Roberts, first Corinthians 15:3.
Robert: It says for what I received, I passed onto you as a first importance,
Brian: First importance, I mean, that's like what? If it's first it's— let me just say this: when the scriptures talk about the last trump, there is not a trumpet after the last trump. Otherwise, it wouldn't be the last trump. So, when you are looking at eschatology, look about the last trump, and that's the only trumpet that really matters. Go on the first importance.
Robert: That Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.
Brian: Yes. So according to the scriptures, Christ died for our sins. He absorbed into himself. As I said last week, this is a mystery. I don't really understand how he did it, but I just know I've been the recipient and the benefit of it. I'm so grateful for that. How many of you have really had a true sense of your sins being forgiven? How many of you have that? How did God do that? I don't know. How did he reach into your damage spirit? How did he reach into your mind of, of chaos and shame and all of a sudden that was gone? How does he do that? I don't know, but I just know he does. That's why this is partly called the walk of faith. It's partly called the walk of faith.
He absorbed into himself, somehow, our sin, our transgression, our evil, our hardened hearts. All of our shame from our past was placed on him, taken out of us and placed on him, and the scripture says he nailed it to the tree, the cross. I have a feeling that when he was taken down off the cross and placed in the grave and the tomb, there was some symbolism (1:00:00) going on there that it was buried into the deepest parts of humanity or the earth and never to be seen again. And then of course, when Jesus resurrected, he didn't take all that crap with him. That's two times I've said that word. I probably shouldn't say that as much. I'm sorry, but he just left it there. He left it there. I hope you did not get distracted by for some of my vocabulary here today. Anyways, and what did he give us in return? Forgiveness; he gave us forgiveness in return. There are two other reasons why Jesus died that I would like to draw our attention to this morning. The third on this list of reasons why Jesus died was he died to set up God's kingdom.
I find it somewhat ironic or almost amusing that at the crucifixion, the Roman guards really didn't know what they were doing. They were actually mocking Christ. And one of the things they did was they put a purple robe on Jesus at the crucifixion, which of course purple is the color of royalty, isn't it? And then of course they also made a crown, obviously a crown of thorns, they were mocking Jesus because they were now going to fix a sign above his head, which pilot had made just to tick off the Jews that said, Jesus Christ the king of the Jews or Jesus of Nazareth, actually, which was even a worse kind of— it was a low blow to the Jews because nothing good came from Nazareth. That was kind of idiom from back in the time of Christ: Nothing good would come from Nazareth.
The Jews were antagonized by the Romans. Obviously, Jesus was mocked. I believe they didn't do this of themselves. This was a prophetic declaration that even the Jews or even the Roman soldiers were a part of without even realizing it and amount of them. As a matter of fact, if you go back and read Psalm 22, you will see so much of what happened at the crucifixion that was the fulfilment of Psalm chapter 22. Even though they were all mocking, Jesus was establishing a kingdom where the king himself was going to conquer hearts by loving his enemies to death, or maybe another way he, you could say it is he was going to love the hell right out of us. That's what he was going to do. He was going to love all the hell right out of us. That's how he was going to do it.
Notice this, when transformation comes to us, it doesn't come because of judgment. It comes because of grace and love. We have to understand that in how we present the gospel, because Jesus doesn't look at us as his enemies. He looks at us as his friends and that he changes us and transforms us by pouring his love and grace out upon our lives.
The fourth thing that I think Jesus died to do, and this is a little bit more difficult, one for a lot of people to understand, but I believe that when we look at the details of some of the things that happened with Jesus, let me use this expression way, where he was cutting a new covenant—the word cutting a new covenant there was a, you know, a lot of symbolism where people might cut their hands and shake each other's hands, and that was a symbol of blood covenant. That was a symbol of cutting a new covenant.
Jesus was cutting a new covenant with between God and the human race. We know real clearly that religious leaders wanted Jesus dead and they wanted Jesus dead to preserve their system of religion. That's why they wanted him dead. He was undermining their vocation. Their jobs were at stake, but the first followers of Jesus were convinced that this event, the death of Christ, the death of their leader was a doorway into a whole new world.
I remember I was in seventh grade when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Even though we had in person to step into the office, LBJ, there were many people, especially people who were leaders in other countries, who are asking the question, who is going to lead them? Their leader is dead. Who's going to lead them? Throughout history, when a leader dies, that's the main question that oftentimes is asked: well, now who's going to lead them? But when Jesus died, the followers of Jesus began to learn and understand that his death was simply the doorway to a whole new world, and if anything, the cross was kind of the hinges that, that doorway swung on, in a sense, and this was now a world without religion, where all people could access God's grace and experience his love directly.
You and I have never known. It's like to have to have somebody else be a mediator between us and God. You and I have never known what it's like to have to bring something to somehow get God's attention and get God's approval to accept us. We've not known that because we've lived in a post resurrection era in our lives, but prior to this, there was a major system in place, and it didn't matter if you were poor or rich or anywhere in between. There was a veil that separated you from God, and there was a symbolic veil in the temple where only the high priest would enter that holy of holies, that place where God's presence dwelled only once a year to ask for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation of Israel.
And we know that when Jesus died, the scriptures, tell us what event happened. Do you remember? The veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. It was as if the finger of God was just taking his finger and ripping it apart. Tradition actually says that that veil was made of the strongest material that even horses couldn't actually pull it apart. Church tradition teaches that. Yet in one fell swoop, there was more than darkness on the face of the earth. And there was more than earthquakes. The most significant thing that happened at the time of the death of Christ was that the veil of the temple was torn in two and everybody could now see or come into the presence of God. There wasn't an insider and an outsider. There wasn't an “us and them” mentality.
We see that there is a Roman soldier, a century Syrian who had at least a hundred men under his command, possibly more, who experienced this very supernaturally. We find his story in Acts chapter 10. I'm just going to want Pastor Robert to read just a couple of these verses. The first one we find in chapter 10 verses 27 to 29 when we talk about Cornelius,
Robert: While talking with him, Cornelius, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them, "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile."
Brian: Let me just stop you there for a second. Is that the heart of God? How did that happen? Let me tell you how that happened. Religion made that happen. Religion created by man with man's rules and regulations on how I can somehow rise up to meet God. That's how this happened, where even though Peter has experienced the crucifixion and the resurrection and the wonderful empowerment of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, 3000 people get saved when he preaches, he experienced all of that, and yet he has got reluctant. So God had to give them a vision. You see that before this takes place where he has this vision.
You remember, Pastor Robert, where all of these different creatures were on the sheet, and then God says to them, why don't you eat them all? Ooh, they are not kosher. I can't do that. They don't fit within the framework of my rules and my laws and my regulations. God says, "What I have cleansed don't call unclean." Imagine that. Peter is thinking, I can just imagine what's going on in his head. What in the world is God trying to tell me? Have you ever thought of that? What in the world has God tried to teach me here? What's going on here? This does not compute. This doesn't fit in the framework of my religion. It doesn't fit in. That happened to me when I went to Haiti and I had a baptismal service and I'm baptizing these ladies who had already confessed faith in Jesus Christ and demons start coming out of them in the baptismal tank. Some of them tried to draw on me. I was in this baptismal tank thinking this just doesn't mesh up with my theology. You know what God said to me? Maybe you need to change your theology. Maybe what you've been believing has just not been completely like it should be. This is what's happening to Peter. He says to them, "Hey, you are well aware that it's against our laws. It's a religious violation for me to come and talk to you."
Robert: Our law, not God's law.
Brian: That's right. Our laws, very good, our laws. In fact, you are well aware it's against our law for a Jew, even to associate with or visit a Gentile. Whoever came up with that forgot what had been spoken to Abraham. What had been spoken to Abraham, which is what? Resay it.
Robert: Through you, all the nations of the earth will blessed.
Brian: Yeah, through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. They forgot what they are calling was: to be a blessing to the whole world. It had become a very self-centered, I like to use the word, me-centric, all centered on me right there. It had become a me-centric, self-centered religion, for them not a relationship with God that would affect the whole world, not a relationship with God that would in a sense, reflect his glory.
Robert: A light to the nations: God to be a light to the nations; with the nations, meaning all people.
Brian: That's right? Yes. Yes. Let's finish reading this now.
Robert: But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.
Brian: So we could learn something from this, from what Peter said there, that God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean? We shouldn't call anybody that we have a tendency to look at their outward behavior, don't we? Obviously there are negative impacts of behavior. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying there isn't anything like that. I'm not saying that God doesn't care how we live. He does care how we live. He doesn't want people going around killing each other. We had a shooting here in St. Paul last night, 14 people shot and one killed, maybe more.
I read in the paper this past week; I was just sharing with Paula before the service: in Minneapolis and St. Paul this year, just this year there have been reported over 10,000 gunshots, 10,000 in Minneapolis and St. Paul. God is concerned about that. He doesn't want that. I was pondering how we as the church reflect God's goodness and his glory, and I thought to myself, sometimes I wonder if the church looks any different than the world. Maybe we just haven't been reflecting God's goodness. I would think that if we had the goodness of God just spilling out of us and reflecting this image as Christ bearers, image bearers, that people who are angry and hurting and wounded and broken, you would think they would be running to us, but maybe what we are reflecting has not been really Jesus.
Maybe what we've been reflecting on them or portraying to them is that we look at them and we think they are unpure. They are impure; they are unclean. And they feel that judgment coming down from us. Nicodemus discovered this thing here. Let's jump down now to verse 44 and 47. This is just really incredible. Again, keeping in mind, there were a hundred soldiers under his command, probably many from different parts of the world, many speaking, different languages, probably servants from who knows where and other people. They were all this large crowd. It said there was a large gathering of people in Cornelius's house here. Peter now begins to preach. And this is one of the things that happened, verse 44.
Robert: While Peter was still speaking. These words, the Holy Spirit came on. All who heard the message, the circumcised believers, Jews who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on gentiles.
Brian: Why do you think they were astonished? Because their perspective, their perception was this, this gift of the Holy Spirit that we got at the day of Pentecost is just for us, just for us. They were astonished here. They are at a Gentile's home. He is a Roman soldier. The Roman soldiers had just killed Jesus some weeks prior on and on and on, and now they are at this Roman soldier’s house, and all of a sudden, Holy Spirit comes, falls on them all. What happened?
Robert: For they heard them speaking in tongues, other languages and praising God.
Brian: Let me stop you here again. I believe that this tongues here was the same kind of tongues on the day of Pentecost, where people heard in their own language. There is also another gift of tongues that is a prayer language. That is something that is a wonderful gift from God to all of us, that when we pray and we don't even know how to put the right words into motion, we can groan in our spirit and pray in the spirit, and really God is actually praying through us. Imagine that God's talking to himself through us. That's kind of a cool thing. He cares so much about us that he'll talk to himself through us. That's just kind of a simple, practical way of looking at it.
Here, the Holy Spirit came, they started to speak in all these different languages and I'm sure that others who were native tongues, they began to hear the wonderful things of God in their own native tongue. And then Peter said what?
Robert: Peter said, "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."
Brian: Wow. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. This was God's desire. This was God's passion. I'm just going to finish with this because I've got too much more to finish today and I'm going to push it off until next week. So can you come back next week maybe? You bring the best out of me, or at least I hope it's good. When Jesus breathed his last, this end of religion that created a pecking order of importance, people who were in the inside versus people who were on the outside, all of that got wiped away. All of that got eliminated. The significance of the veil of the temple being rent in two really was this: in God's heart, there was no longer going to be insiders and outsiders. There was no longer going to be insiders and outsiders, but everybody was to be his friend. Everybody was going to be his friend.
Today, I want us to just ponder that. Kelly Willard wrote a song many years ago. I don't know the words. That's why I always have Jacque here because she knows the words of every song that has ever been written, but the lyrics go something like this: just to see the beauty of his smile. The fact of the matter is, and I'll just make a confession to you, religion causes people to see a God that frowns at them, but relationship with God causes you to see a God that smiles at you.
I would just encourage us today to start throwing away everything that causes God to come across as though he is frowning at us and start to embrace the real truths that are in the scriptures that this remnant of one whose name is Jesus, he came to break down the dividing wall. We are going to read that next week from Ephesians. He came to break down the dividing wall. He came to remove all the stuff that separates us from each other and us from him. Salvation wasn't your idea or my idea. It was God's idea. It was God's idea. Aren't you thankful for that idea? Where would we be? Where would you be if you didn't have the love of God, Robert? Where would you be?
Robert: Depressed, lost, dead.
Brian: Probably angry.
Robert: Angry, yup, all the negative things you could think of, but for God.
Brian: I believe I would have been in the very same place, but there was a God who saw us as his friends who loved us so much that he was willing to die and take upon himself all of that anger, all of that hatred, all of the selfishness, all of the greed, all of the things that became idolatry to us. He took it upon himself, and in so doing, he nailed it to the cross. So father I'm so thankful today for the love that you have shown. Oh what manner of love has this, that you gave your life for us. So just praise you, Lord and thank you. Thank you. Pastor Robert, why don't you come and lead us in prayer today?
Robert: Hallelujah. What a powerful message today that should cause us to reflect in our witness. Imagine our witness if we come with the perspective that God has for us, that God looked upon us, even as sinners and enemies, as friends. Lord, forgive us, as we have prejudged others, as we have frowned upon others in their appearance and in their circumstance, renew in us, Lord, our spirit and our heart to have a heart like yours that when others even look differently from us, act differently from us, live differently from us, that we would have the heart of the father that would reach out in grace and love as a friend to bring them into the redeeming fold of you. Father, I pray that you would renew our minds that we would think differently that we would truly grasp the words of the message today to be a guidepost in sharing your love to hurting, dying world.
For those of you that are listening, that are watching that have been offended by the church. I stand in proxy for the body of Christ and ask you to forgive us of our ways. I reach out to you on behalf of the church as a friend, and to remind you that God loves you. God has torn down the veil that separates you from him and he is inviting you to come into his arms. I pray, maybe you've never prayed this prayer before, maybe you are praying it again or need to renew your life to the Lord. Right now is the time. I would ask you to repeat after me with all of your heart.
Dear God, I thank you for loving me. Because of your love, I realize that I've been an enemy of you, but the good news is which I receive, that you are a forgiver of sin. I ask you to forgive me of mine. Forgive me of my idolatry and putting other things and other people before you. I receive you and all that you've done for me, especially the loving sacrifice of your son, Jesus. I accept him as my redeemer, as my savior as my Lord.
I pray from this day forward that you would walk with me as I follow you. Thank you, Lord for your steadfast love and your love for me. Thank you for accepting me as I am. Now, I ask you to come live with me and show me a new way that is the way of life, in Jesus name. Amen. I often say to people as we think about being friends with God, when I see people with the down countenance I always run up to them and say, "Smile. You are on Jesus' camera."
Brian: That's good.
Robert: So whenever you have in a bad day, whenever you see other people having a bad day or frown on their face, tell them to smile. They are on Jesus's camera.
Brian: That's good. Let's raise our hands together, shall we? Now may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turned his face towards you and give you his peace. I pray this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Again, Dave and Lou please join Dave and Deb, serving communion. If there is any of you who want prayer for anything, Lou will pray for you over here. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. We look forward to seeing you again real soon. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 10-10-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.