Anchors of Truth

Off The Charts

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Ty Gibson

Home

Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000003


00:13 Welcome to Anchors of Truth, live from the
00:16 3ABN worship center, the Extravagant
00:18 Love series with Ty Gibson.
00:23 Good evening, when I was young most of the texts
00:26 that I learned, I learned the King James Version
00:29 of the Bible. One of the most enduring and
00:31 endearing text to me was found in Book of Romans
00:35 chapter 5; I think it begins about verse 7.
00:38 The Bible says for scarcely, for the
00:40 righteous man will one die, perhaps for a good
00:43 man one would dare to die? And I always
00:46 loved that text, it's always been very dear
00:50 to me as it talks about the power of God's
00:53 love, but I found a different version
00:55 I want to just read for you. I gotta put
00:59 on my specs. This is the, the clear word version
01:04 of that very same text. The Bible says:
01:09 A person would hardly give his life for
01:13 a self-righteous man, but you might find
01:16 someone willing to give his life for a truly
01:20 good man. But God showed His love for us
01:25 while we were still sinners, His natural
01:28 enemies, by giving His Son to die for us.
01:33 Our series is of course called Extravagant Love,
01:38 and I dare say that that is an example
01:42 of Extravagant Love. I think the best kind
01:46 of love is demonstrated love, not
01:49 theoretical love, not love that is only
01:51 spoken about or even thought about or
01:53 dreamed about, or sung about.
01:57 The best love is love that is put in action,
02:00 and that's what we have been talking about
02:02 the last several nights Extravagant Love,
02:05 I really love that that, that title. Tonight's
02:08 sermon is called Off The Charts, Love
02:13 off the Charts, I really like that idea. Our
02:15 speaker is of course our pastor, our friend,
02:18 our Bible teacher Ty Gibson, I was told
02:20 to him just a little bit ago. He has been
02:23 given the ability by God to make that
02:25 which is profound, very simple, very plain,
02:30 very use of friendly that is a gift of God
02:33 to take some of the profound things of the
02:36 Bible and make them very simple and very
02:38 plain for those of us who are not geniuses,
02:41 we too can understand the word of God.
02:43 And God has given him that gift, and so
02:45 we expect that the Lord will bless him abundantly
02:48 as he speaks to our hearts this night
02:50 as he did on last evening and the evening before.
02:53 We are thankful that it is not raining and
02:55 pouring as it has been doing before it is
02:57 a cool, dry night and God has bless that is
03:02 nice and warming here and we know that
03:03 His Spirit will warm our hearts. Our music
03:05 ministry is coming from Yvonne Lewis and
03:08 she will be singing His name, but before
03:10 we call her forward and then just in advance
03:13 of the speaker I am gonna ask you to bow
03:14 your heads with me in a word of prayer.
03:16 Gracious Father, we do thank you, we
03:19 thank you for the power of Your love and
03:21 how it does indeed draw us to the precious
03:24 bleeding side of Jesus. We thank you for
03:28 extravagant, extraordinary, special
03:32 love. The kind of love that is committed itself
03:35 to us unworthy children of thine. We thank
03:38 you for the speaker and I ask for him heaven's
03:43 very best, so that he maybe this night a
03:46 conduit of Your love. And that Your love might
03:50 shine through him to us as we understand
03:53 more of Your will for our lives as a loving
03:57 Heavenly Father. Bless the word this night,
04:01 He who gives it, those of us who receive it,
04:05 may Christ be glorified, we love You,
04:08 we praise You and we thank You for
04:11 every good and perfect gift, in Jesus
04:14 name, amen. And now Yvonne Lewis.
04:32 There is a name that is so precious,
04:40 A name so wonderful to me.
04:47 A name that's worthy of all praises.
04:54 Because of him, I am made free.
05:01 And that name is Jesus, oh, how I love him.
05:08 The one who gave his life for me.
05:15 Because of love, so unconditional,
05:22 I will have life, eternally Oh.
05:46 His name speaks peace, to all my storm clouds,
05:54 His name speaks calm, to all my fears.
06:00 And when I think that no one loves me.
06:08 His loving presence is so near.
06:15 And His name is Jesus, oh, how I love him.
06:22 The one who gave his life for me.
06:29 Because of love, so unconditional,
06:36 I will have life, eternally.
06:44 Oh! Praise that name!
06:52 Praise that Holy name!
06:59 Praise that name!
07:06 Praise that name!
07:15 Someday I will leave this earthly dwelling,
07:23 Through time and space, we all will soar.
07:30 And finally see the face of Jesus.
07:38 And praise that name, forevermore!
07:45 That name is Jesus, oh how I love him!
07:53 The one who gave his life for me!
08:04 Because of love so unconditional
08:11 I will have life eternally
08:20 Ohhh! Blessed is the name Jesus!
08:28 Oh glorious is the name Jesus!
08:35 Oh! Wonderful is the name Jesus
08:42 Oh! Praise... That name.
08:59 Amen.
09:04 Thank you Yvonne, wow! What a blessing huh?
09:07 Amen. Just lifts your heart. Well, I hope
09:10 you had a fabulous day, did you? Amen.
09:12 I had an excellent day, a lot of great
09:15 thoughts developed during my study time,
09:18 and so I am eager to get into our subject
09:22 for this evening. And I want to do that by
09:25 beginning with a certain experience that
09:29 some of us have, maybe all of us have this
09:30 experience. Have you ever seen something or
09:35 someone that you thought you knew really well,
09:38 maybe for years and years in a whole new light?
09:43 As if you never knew that thing or that person
09:46 before, have you ever had that experience?
09:50 I don't know about you but, but I just
09:52 continually go through this, this experience
09:57 as I age, where I am reacquainting
10:02 myself with subject matter that I thought I
10:05 knew, have you had that experience? Amen.
10:08 And acquainting myself with people that I
10:12 thought I knew well. And, and even geographical
10:16 locations, I mean this happens this, this
10:19 psychological phenomenon happens in
10:23 all different kinds of ways. For example, a
10:27 few years back a friend of mine landed
10:29 in my backyard in a helicopter, which
10:33 was really cool if you think about it to,
10:34 to have a friend with a helicopter is, is pretty
10:37 nifty to begin with, but the house was just
10:40 shaking as he landed and he motioned with
10:43 his hand and my wife and I we ran out into
10:46 backyard, we jumped in this helicopter and
10:48 we went straight up. Now, we had lived in
10:52 this location for many years I knew every
10:57 inch of our own property, which was 20 acres.
11:00 I knew the roads all around because I've
11:03 driven back and forth to the airports nearly
11:06 every week to go to meetings, I knew
11:09 the roads, I knew even the countryside
11:13 because I had done a lot of just wondering
11:15 around and hike. I thought I knew this
11:16 area, but when we lean up in the air in this
11:19 helicopter and began to get the aerial view,
11:24 to really see this place first of all, first
11:28 of all I saw some errors in the, the roofing
11:31 job that I had done myself that I didn't
11:33 know were there on the house, but I began
11:36 to see our property and our area in a way
11:40 I had never seen before and I said something
11:42 to myself the something like wow! So,
11:44 so that's where I lived. I had never seen it
11:48 before from that particular vantage point
11:50 from that angle. So, so we do see things that
11:54 we thought we knew in a whole new light
11:56 sometimes. I remember I was in a hotel and
12:02 this documentary came on, this was also a few
12:05 years back and believe it or not this was
12:08 a documentary about what lives in your eyebrows,
12:14 it is a jungle in there I kid you not. They
12:18 magnified people's eyebrows I don't know
12:23 maybe a million times they magnified what's
12:27 going on in your eyebrows and, and I was
12:30 amazes I sat there watching and saw
12:34 creatures, that that resembled dinosaurs and,
12:42 and crawdads and lizards, just very
12:46 microscopic and small though, but when they
12:49 magnified you see, they're just wondering
12:51 around in your eyebrows grazing, they
12:54 live there and I had this friend at Church,
12:59 a buddy of my, one of the greatest guys
13:00 I have never known and he is deceased now,
13:02 but we used to go get firewood together.
13:05 And I have been wanting to talk him
13:07 about this situation because he had what my
13:10 wife calls a unibrow you know what that is?
13:14 And so, when I sense that the time was
13:17 right and I had just seen this documentary
13:19 after all and I wanted to help my brother out
13:22 I said, I said listen brother, listen if you
13:24 knew what's going on in that bushy thing
13:29 you would let your wife plug it. And I can
13:33 guarantee you she wants too. And she
13:37 will correct the situation if you only
13:39 knew what lives in your eyebrows. For weeks
13:42 after seeing that documentary I found
13:45 myself just, just unconsciously just
13:47 with a reflex just, just, just wondering
13:51 visualizing what's going on in my eyebrows.
13:54 And so, we can see things from a whole new
13:57 perspective, can't we? But that's not the half
14:01 of it, what about people? My daughter Amber
14:04 came into the world 8 pounds, 10 ounces
14:07 out of my wife's 5 foot, 200 pound body,
14:11 this was a monumental event and we
14:15 raised her. I thought I knew my little girl,
14:19 her name is Amber and then the day came when
14:24 she got married, and we were visiting,
14:26 my wife Sue and I were visiting their home
14:31 and I was sitting in a chair in the living room
14:35 and my daughter Amber, now a full grown adult
14:40 woman and her new husband were kind of
14:45 preparing the meal and flirting in the kitchen
14:49 and I thought no, no stop, stop, that's my
14:52 daughter, get your hands off her that's,
14:55 that's what I was going through in my mind,
14:57 it was a very difficult experience to let
14:59 her go, to give her away, to watch her become
15:03 this full grown woman and then you're in the
15:05 kitchen and they are, and all of the sudden
15:07 she grows upon her tiptoes and he is a tall
15:08 guy upon her, and she, she gives him a gentle
15:11 kiss, and I thought can't handle it. My wife
15:17 Sue said she's grown up, she is married,
15:19 you, you need to just get with the program.
15:26 I saw my little girl in a way I had never see
15:28 her before. Now, the full grown woman and next
15:32 thing I knew pretty soon she was a mommy
15:36 and I saw her holding her own son and I
15:40 fell in love with her all over again. I thought
15:43 wow! She is beautiful. My little girl is so
15:47 beautiful. Now, as a woman, as a wife, and
15:53 as a mother, but I've had this experience
15:57 of seeing all over again for the first time most
16:03 of all with my wife. Sue and I have been
16:06 together since she was 13 and I was 14
16:10 we've been best friends. I mean I really think
16:13 I know this chick, but you know what?
16:17 Just before coming here, just literally
16:21 less than two weeks ago I got an angle,
16:25 a perspective on her personality I had
16:30 never seen before and she was more beautiful
16:34 then I had ever known. Parts of her who she
16:39 is just came to the surface in the process
16:46 of a day and certain events and a
16:49 conversation and tears forming in her eyes.
16:55 I knew her suddenly in a way I had never known
17:00 her before; certainly you have that experience,
17:03 right? A place, a topic, a person that you
17:10 thought you knew and you suddenly see as
17:16 it were for the first time all over again.
17:20 Have you had that experience, anybody
17:22 here? Well, tonight I want to bring to you
17:27 a topic that has to be regarded as the most
17:31 familiar topic in Christianity. I want to
17:36 bring to your attention that which we go into
17:42 psychological neutral so easily but as soon as
17:46 the topic is brought up, we think oh! Yeah,
17:47 yeah, yeah I think I'll just take a little,
17:49 a little Nano nap as the preacher talks because
17:53 I have heard this before. May I, may I
17:57 respectfully urge you this evening to
18:01 somehow psychologically and emotionally go into
18:05 a, a place, a position where you assume that
18:09 you have never encountered the
18:14 Cross of Jesus Christ before. This very
18:17 familiar territory we sing about it, the
18:21 preacher preaches about it, but I want to,
18:23 I want to share with you that I think,
18:24 I think that often times we circumvent our
18:31 potential for deeper inside because we
18:35 get locked in to certain aspects of a topic
18:42 and assume that that's all there is. What
18:45 I want to suggest to you is that when it
18:47 come to the Cross of Jesus Christ we often
18:50 times have so focused on the physical dimension
18:54 of the sufferings of Christ, the what
18:56 dimension everybody? The physical dimension.
18:59 We've so focused on the physical dimension
19:01 that we have failed to, to pear within the deep
19:07 interior of the heart of Jesus as He hung
19:12 between heaven and earth. I mean what was
19:15 going on inside of Him, what was the thought
19:20 process, what was the emotional process
19:23 that He was enduring. Do you hear my question?
19:28 Certainly he was physical abused; he was
19:31 tortured, wasn't He? But I would like to you
19:37 to consider the possibility that what
19:41 Jesus endured by way of physical torture
19:46 was by comparison almost nothing compared
19:53 to what He endured in His heart and in His mind
20:00 for you and me. So, allow your mind to access
20:05 the subject tonight as if maybe you have never
20:08 considered it before. Now, last evening we
20:14 conceptually prepared ourselves for where we
20:18 are going tonight? We laid some ground work,
20:20 we introduced some concepts and some ideas
20:23 you remember, we explored the incredible reality
20:30 of the incarnation of Christ. Which is
20:34 preparatory as I pointed out in the Apostle
20:37 Paul, preparatory to the Cross. Jesus literally
20:43 engaged in a, shall we call it a quantum
20:47 leap of transformation. I mean He was God
20:53 and had always been God. Philippians 2 said,
20:56 He was in very nature God. So, this one that
21:03 we are talking about this evening He had
21:05 always been God and only God, forever and
21:09 ever for all eternity past. This was his
21:13 familiar domain of nature. Shear divinity
21:20 in all it's glory, but then, then He, He
21:27 moved not just geographically, not from
21:30 heaven to earth alone, He moved in nature,
21:36 He literally became something He had never
21:41 been before, He became human. The Creator
21:48 of all things became a part of His very
21:54 creation. I mean He is in Mary's womb, He
22:00 comes forth from the womb she begins
22:03 to raise the one who created her. She
22:09 begins to teach and to educate the
22:13 Creator of the Universe, if we can
22:16 comprehend what that would mean?
22:20 Jesus endured; He experienced what we
22:24 refer to last evening as a dramatic fracture,
22:28 a severing, a cutting off between Himself
22:37 and the other members of the Triune God.
22:39 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, these three who
22:41 are one, who had always been together
22:45 in a beautiful ebb and flow of other centered
22:48 self giving love, they had only ever known
22:51 one another's fellowship in the deepest
22:53 intimacy imaginable and Jesus according
22:57 to Scripture. Jesus condescended and stepped
23:03 out of that inner circle of beautiful intimate
23:07 love. He endured what we refer to as a
23:12 transmigration of nature, He became something
23:18 He had never been before, He became
23:23 a member of the human race. Now, the
23:27 Apostle Paul begins to work this subject,
23:31 He begins to finesse it and, and to,
23:35 to bring to the surface of this greatest
23:38 of all mysteries. He begins to develop for
23:43 our understanding just exactly what
23:45 was involved in this amazing reality we
23:51 call the incarnation, that is the enfleshment
23:54 of God. He begins to bring it to the surface.
23:58 Look with me at Hebrews chapter 2,
24:02 we refer to this text last night, but we
24:04 didn't actually read them look at Hebrews
24:06 chapter 2 and in this sacred text the
24:12 Apostle Paul brings to our awareness the
24:17 astounding relationship between the Incarnation
24:20 and the Cross that is the God logic for God
24:24 becoming human. God has an agenda, He is
24:27 up to something, and the first stage of God's
24:31 agenda, His saving plan is to become human.
24:36 This is stage one. So, in verse 9 of Hebrews
24:40 chapter 2 we read these words. But
24:41 we see Jesus, who was made a little lower
24:46 than the angels for, notice the word for
24:50 the suffering of death, crowned with glory
24:53 and honor, that he by the grace of God,
24:56 might taste death for everyone. Note
25:00 grammatically what Paul is saying to us,
25:03 he is saying that Jesus became human
25:08 for the suffering of death. In order of that
25:12 He might experience death as an authentic
25:17 experience, not as a charade, not as a
25:20 projection, not as an illusion He is
25:24 hoping we will believe, but as a concrete
25:27 reality for God. He became human in order
25:34 that He might experience the full ramifications
25:38 of our death. Look at verse 14 he repeats
25:43 himself, but he gets even clearer. In as much
25:45 then as the children have partaken
25:48 of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise
25:50 took part of the same, the same what
25:52 everybody? Flesh and blood, what's the first
25:56 word after the comma? That in order that so
26:00 that He through death might, what?
26:05 Destroy him who had the power of the death,
26:08 that is the devil. So, here's this bridge in
26:11 Paul's understanding. This, this, this bridge
26:13 between incarnation and cross, the incarnation
26:18 creates the necessary metaphysical
26:24 situation in which the almighty creator
26:27 of the universe who can in himself know
26:29 no death. This God who cannot die moves out
26:35 of himself becomes human in order that
26:41 he might submit himself to the circumstances
26:47 that would make it possible for him to
26:50 experientially, authentically undergo an
26:53 experience that in and of himself with a
26:56 completely retained divinity that is not
27:01 grafted to humanity could never ever authentically
27:05 experience and you'll see what I mean more
27:06 as we continue. Now go to Philippians chapter 2,
27:13 you're gonna have to sit up a little straighter
27:14 and breathe a little deeper, because we're
27:17 going to exercise the frontal lobe this
27:19 evening. We are going to be engaging
27:23 in a process of Bible study that opens
27:27 and unveils to us the deep things of God,
27:31 the deep interior of the love of God,
27:33 the extravagant, extraordinary,
27:36 over the top, off the charts love of God.
27:39 And you are gonna want to make sure that
27:41 you prepare yourself for the punch line by
27:45 grasping where we're coming from as we arrive
27:50 at the punch line. Right now we're contemplating
27:53 the practical ramifications of the
27:56 incarnation of God in Christ. Chapter 2
28:01 of Philippians notice verse 5 let this mind
28:03 be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. So,
28:07 now what Paul is about to do, is He is about
28:10 to actually described to us the mind,
28:13 that was in Christ Jesus. Let this mind
28:15 be in you which was also in Christ Jesus and
28:18 here we go, I'm about to describe it for
28:19 you Paul says. This is the disposition,
28:21 the mind, the Spirit, the character that we
28:24 witness in Christ Jesus. Who, being in very
28:29 nature God, did not consider his equality
28:35 with God something to be grasped to held onto,
28:39 I am giving it you from the New International
28:41 Version from memory here, you're probably reading
28:43 the King James, New King James. The New King
28:46 James Version says: Who, being in very form
28:50 God, did not consider it robbery to be equal
28:54 with God. What's that mean robbery? That's
28:56 a little bit too, too arcade, that's the
28:58 Queen's English from 300 years ago,
29:00 there is no way we are going to access that
29:03 just on the surface. Look at me, He didn't
29:05 consider it robbery to be equal with God.
29:08 It was His inherent right, this wasn't
29:11 something that that He, He took by fiat,
29:14 He didn't, He didn't steal this identity, He
29:17 is in very nature who? None other than
29:20 God, but He did not consider this equality
29:25 with God something to be held on,
29:28 to be grasped, His disposition, His
29:32 attitude toward this high state, this divine
29:35 state, His attitude toward it is a
29:38 willingness to just abdicate, to just lay
29:42 it aside. I mean, can you imagine what it
29:45 would like to just be you and be willing
29:49 to lay aside the totality of your history and
29:54 identity and all that you have and possess
29:57 and all that you are by nature to become
30:02 lets say an ant, or a possum or can
30:09 you imagine having the disposition toward
30:12 your humanity that says you know what?
30:14 If it is for the best good of others that
30:17 would be willing to literally lay aside my
30:19 human nature to become a lower life form,
30:25 are you with me? That's right. Okay,
30:27 the distance between what it means to be human
30:30 and what it means to be a possum is a shorter
30:34 distance then what it means to be God and
30:37 to become human. That's right. Okay, Jesus
30:41 who was in Himself God took that quantum leap
30:46 out of eternity past into time and space realities
30:52 where he literally became a human being,
30:56 and He didn't feel a jealous regard for
30:59 holding on to that past status. He was like;
31:03 if that's what it takes I will do it, why?
31:07 Because He has you, He has me, He has
31:10 everybody that you have ever known, and
31:11 everybody you have ever locked eyes with,
31:13 everybody you love, everybody you
31:15 haven't love, He has everyone of us at the
31:19 center of His heart. So, this is the one
31:23 who is equal with God, New International
31:25 Version says: The one who wasn't very
31:27 nature God made Himself nothing. Made
31:30 Himself what everybody? Nothing. Nothing
31:33 by comparison that is. Now, then New American
31:39 Standard Bible renders the Greek here
31:42 differently, but it accesses an idea that
31:46 we need to, to take in. It says: The one
31:49 who was equal with God, New American
31:51 Standard Bible emptied Himself, He did
31:53 what would Himself? He emptied Himself.
31:56 So, so you get the idea that in His divinity
32:00 as God there is content, right? And he empties
32:07 that content. What it means to be equal
32:12 with God, to be in very nature with God?
32:14 What would it mean to be God and to empty
32:17 the content of that divinity? Well, the
32:21 Philips translation does something remarkable
32:23 here with the Greek. The Philips translation
32:26 says: He laid aside His advantages as God.
32:33 His prerogatives, his privileges, those things
32:38 that are shall we say inherent to divinity.
32:43 There is, there is a certain content to being
32:47 God, there are certain attributes, there
32:50 are certain things that are true of God and
32:52 not true of anybody else in the universe,
32:54 you have to be divine to have these things.
32:57 And they fall into three basic categories;
33:00 we refer to them as the three Omnis, Omni
33:03 is Greek for all, there is number one,
33:07 omnipotence, what is potence? Its power,
33:12 so what does it mean to be omnipotent?
33:15 All powerful, that's why he is called the all,
33:17 what? The Almighty. And then what's the
33:22 second Omni, omniscience, what does it mean
33:26 to be omniscient, not that you would know,
33:30 not that I would know, it means to know
33:32 how many things, all things, how often? All
33:36 the time, simultaneously you just happen
33:39 to know everything. God never, God never
33:43 has an Aha moment, let's put it that way.
33:46 God never ever, ever, says whoa! I
33:49 never thought of that before ever, ever.
33:53 He knows everything all the time,
33:55 this is omniscience, nothing ever occurs
33:57 to Him. Okay, what's the third great Omni?
34:01 What's the third Omni? Omnipresence,
34:05 that means that he is how many places,
34:07 everywhere all the time, not in a pantheistic
34:10 sense, He is not present in everything,
34:12 He is present to everything. Okay, He
34:15 is present here right now for example God is,
34:18 but He is also present everywhere
34:21 else geographically in the entire world and
34:25 in the entire universe. Now, these are the
34:29 things that pertain to the divine nature and
34:33 Paul is trying to tell us something here,
34:35 he I saying listen this one who in very nature
34:41 is God, emptied the divine content, He laid
34:46 aside His advantages and prerogatives
34:49 and abilities, you see wait a minute Ty
34:52 this is, this is, are you, are you pushing
34:54 the edges Ty? Are you seriously? No way,
34:57 He didn't do that, did He? Do you really
34:59 want psychologically and emotionally to access
35:02 the magnitude of this extraordinary,
35:05 extravagant love? Do you really want to
35:07 see it, yes or no? Okay, open your mind to what
35:10 Scripture saying here? I will give you clear
35:12 biblical examples of the fact that Jesus
35:14 did lay aside, but say put into remission
35:20 the three Omnis. According to Luke
35:24 chapter 2 the child, that is God in human flesh,
35:28 grew in stature and in wisdom. What does it
35:33 mean to grow in wisdom, to grow in knowledge,
35:35 what does it mean? It means you're learning
35:37 things you didn't what? Know before, you read
35:39 the book Desire of Ages you learn that Jesus
35:42 at 12 years of age went to his first pass over
35:46 feast, he watched the mysterious ceremony
35:50 unfold, there is the Lamb, there's the knife,
35:54 there's the blood flowing, there is the
35:56 fire, there is the sacrifice, and he
36:00 watches and ponders the whole thing and
36:02 we're told in Desire of Ages that it dawned
36:04 on him for the first time as it were that
36:09 that is me, that is symbolically
36:13 representing my destiny and where I am going
36:15 and what I am here for? Mary literally
36:19 had to teach him, he, he had the one,
36:22 the one who inspired the Bible had to memorize
36:26 it. Mary taught Him Isaiah 53 and said,
36:31 Son I don't, I don't really get it, but the
36:33 angel at your birth explained that this has
36:36 something to do with you, oh! We like
36:38 sheep have gone astray, we have turned
36:40 everyone to his own way and the Lord is laid
36:42 on him, son that's you, the inequity of us all,
36:46 it is mommy? Yes, it is, I don't know what
36:51 that means, but you need to allow the
36:54 Holy Spirit to open your mind to your mission
36:57 and who you are? Jesus didn't come into this
37:00 world and just, just at 5 years of age,
37:02 could just go kick back under a sycamore
37:04 tree and reminisce about what life was
37:06 like in heaven before he came here with
37:08 the Father the Holy Spirit and Gabriel
37:10 all the other, oh! I remember when we
37:12 created Mars, no. Jesus came into this world
37:17 then according to the Testimony of Scripture
37:19 he grew in knowledge and wisdom,
37:23 he learned things. He explicitly states
37:28 in the Gospel of Mark and again it is
37:31 recorded in the Gospel of Matthew that
37:34 Jesus told His disciples no man knows,
37:40 no man what everybody? Knows the day nor
37:44 the hour of the coming of the Son of man
37:47 not even myself, but the Father only.
37:52 Who knows the day and the hour of the second
37:54 coming according to Jesus? The Father.
37:56 Does Jesus, when He speaking to His
37:59 disciples at least, does He know? No,
38:02 He explicitly says there are things I don't,
38:05 what? Know that is not omniscience, Jesus
38:10 has laid aside, He has not ceased to be
38:13 divine, He is fully 100% God and His divinity
38:18 has now been fused with or grafted into a
38:24 very real living humanity. And that
38:27 humanity is during His earthly experience
38:30 that humanity is superseding His
38:33 divinity. He is allowed the divine abilities
38:37 and powers by voluntary choice to go into
38:39 remission my friends. What about
38:41 omnipotence, so you laid at aside? Absolutely,
38:44 John chapter 5, the Lord Jesus Christ said,
38:47 I can of my own self do nothing, that is
38:51 nothing an omnipotence statement,
38:53 that is a human being saying I am utterly
38:56 dependent upon the Father for all these
38:58 miracles you see me doing, I raise the dead
39:00 by the power of the Father's omnipotence
39:03 channeling through me. I heal the sick
39:06 by the Father's power and that's why
39:09 by the way the disciples could turn
39:11 around and do the same things and they
39:12 weren't God. Jesus modeled for them
39:16 and accessing of divine power, when you come
39:21 to Acts chapter 2 when Peter is preaching
39:24 he says, we testify to you this Jesus Christ
39:27 who did many signs and wonders, which God
39:32 did through him? It was the Father's
39:37 omnipotence acting in the human personhood
39:42 of Jesus Christ that we witness, are you with
39:44 me so far? And the same as true and for
39:47 the sake of time I won't go there,
39:48 the same as true of omnipresence.
39:50 Jesus was local to time space consideration
39:55 when He was in this world. This is the
39:57 essence of what Paul is telling us in his
40:00 treatment of the incarnation in Hebrews
40:02 chapter 2 and Philippians chapter 2.
40:06 So, he says that, Jesus emptied himself
40:10 of this divine content, why? He goes on
40:14 and He says in chapter 2 Philippians still,
40:18 but made himself nothing of no reputation,
40:22 taking the form of a servant and coming in
40:25 the likeness of man and being found in
40:28 appearance as a man, He humbled Himself
40:31 and became obedient unto death even
40:35 the death of the Cross. Do you see Paul does
40:37 it again? Just like he did in chapter 2
40:39 of Hebrews, Paul says there is a,
40:42 a bridge of understanding that we need to
40:44 have between the Incarnation and
40:46 the Cross. He became human,
40:48 He emptied Himself, so that an authentic
40:52 self sacrific could be made,
40:54 so that we could behold it and stand in all
40:57 and wonder at the love of God.
41:00 Because think about it for a moment,
41:03 if Jesus had retained omniscience and
41:08 omnipresence during His time in this world.
41:13 Got that so far? And then He having
41:17 omniscience and omnipresence fully
41:20 operable went to the Cross and cried
41:23 out my God, my God why have you forsaken me?
41:25 What would it mean? Approximately nothing,
41:29 I mean think about it because in the moment
41:32 of the cry of despair and the feeling of
41:35 separation and forsakenness He
41:38 would have simultaneously
41:39 have been transcending the event,
41:44 He would have simultaneously
41:45 have been in heaven with the Father
41:48 if He were in that moment omnipresent,
41:51 He would have simultaneously
41:53 been on the other side of the experience
41:56 if he had omniscience, transcending the
41:58 event and knowing exactly what the
42:00 outcome would be? The sacrifice would
42:02 have been rendered absolutely meaningless
42:08 if the incarnation were not an authentic
42:11 condescension, but it was,
42:15 He literally did become human,
42:17 it was an authentic condescension my
42:19 friends and He became human,
42:21 so that He could experience the full
42:26 ramifications of the sin problem that you
42:31 and I experience and ultimately will
42:34 experience, but His grace save us from
42:39 the ultimate consequence. So, Jesus in our
42:44 humanity now finds Himself at the final few
42:50 days of His experience in our world as our Savior.
42:55 He is walking with His disciples,
42:56 I'm in chapter 26 of the Gospel of Matthew,
42:59 He is walking with His disciples up a
43:02 dusty path into the Garden of Gethsemane
43:07 we're told and you can figure this out
43:09 if you understand the calendars of the Hebrew
43:13 people and the fact that Passover was
43:15 about to happen, it was a full moon
43:17 they could see his person and Jesus began
43:21 to stagger under the weight of some kind of
43:23 unseen burden according to Scripture.
43:28 Peter, James, and John were taken deeper
43:31 into the heart of the Garden wit him as he
43:33 told the other disciples to remain in a certain
43:34 place and pray. And as they walked
43:38 and he staggered and stumbled unto no
43:41 apparent physical trauma, nobody had laid a
43:45 hand on his physical body as of yet,
43:49 Jesus is staggering and the disciples wonder
43:53 and whisper among themselves,
43:55 what's wrong with the master,
43:56 why is he so burdened? And Jesus breaks in to
44:00 their wondering He says, He tells them the
44:03 mystery, the secret of His agony.
44:08 He says my soul is exceedingly sorrowful
44:13 even unto death. My what everybody?
44:17 My soul, now you know what the word soul
44:20 means in scripture, don't you I don't need
44:22 to take the time to define that?
44:26 The word soul in scripture means being
44:29 that means the totality of personhood,
44:31 that means all that you are,
44:32 the physical dimension, the emotional dimension,
44:35 the psychological dimension,
44:37 it's the whole person, that's the word soul
44:40 in scripture. Here when we come
44:42 to the New Testament it is homing in on a
44:45 certain dimension of personhood, of being.
44:50 The word that is chosen here for soul in Gospel
44:53 is the Greek word psyche;
44:56 it's what Greek word everybody?
44:58 Psyche from which we get the English word
45:01 psyche that's right. And it refers to what
45:05 dimension of human experience, the mind,
45:07 the hearts, the internal content.
45:11 Jesus says I want you to know what I am
45:13 experiencing, my soul, my mind,
45:16 my hearts is exceedingly sorrowful to the point
45:21 of death. There is something of a lethal
45:25 nature going on inside of me.
45:29 In other words, Jesus has not
45:33 experience any physical tortured yet,
45:34 yes or no? None, not one drop of blood
45:37 has been drawn from His flesh by brutality.
45:41 The crown of thorns has not been pressed
45:43 on his brow. The nails have not
45:46 been driven through His hands.
45:47 And yet Jesus in the quietude of a midnight
45:50 serene garden says I am dying on the inside.
45:58 Something is going on inside of me that
46:01 is taking my life away, I am exceedingly
46:06 sorrowful to the point of death.
46:09 And then Jesus unveils through a metaphor
46:13 what he's going through? He falls to the ground
46:18 and He clutches at the earth,
46:21 ripping at it with His fingers because
46:24 of the sense of separation that he is
46:27 enduring between Himself and the Father.
46:32 And as He is there upon the ground
46:36 He prays a prayer, if it be possible Father
46:41 let this, what's the metaphor He uses?
46:43 Let this cup pass from me nevertheless
46:45 not as I will, but as your cup, what cup?
46:49 This cup is mentioned other places in
46:50 the Bible, the one you will be most familiar
46:52 with this in the Third Angels Message
46:54 it is there called the cup of the wine of the
46:57 wrath of God, which is poured out without
47:00 mixture of mercy that is into the cup of
47:03 His indignation. This is the full ramifications
47:08 of justice, undiluted righteousness and
47:14 holiness with no buffer of mercy between.
47:19 This is Jesus telling us that He holds in His
47:22 hand a cup of infinite magnitude suffering
47:29 that no human being has ever, ever, ever
47:31 experienced. And He has this cup in
47:35 His hand and He says nevertheless Father,
47:39 I don't want to drink this,
47:41 I don't want to endure this,
47:42 I feel myself slipping away from You,
47:45 the separation is intense. Nevertheless,
47:53 and in not nevertheless He sees
47:56 you and He sees me. Nevertheless,
48:01 if this is what it takes to save them,
48:07 even this I am willing to endure?
48:11 Jesus then arises from this suffering in the
48:17 garden and He has taken to the Cross of Calvary.
48:24 The physical suffering is intense it's brutal,
48:29 it's hard to contemplate and that Jesus never
48:33 utters a complaint about what's done
48:36 to His body. Never, never people, people,
48:39 why are you torching me? But He does cry out
48:42 from the depths of His divine human soul,
48:46 my God, my God where are You?
48:52 Why have You forsaken me?
48:55 The sense of abandonment,
48:57 this chasm of separation,
49:00 this most awful and horrific of all
49:04 experiences imaginable, my God,
49:08 my God where are You? Jesus in His heart
49:12 and in His mind turned with me to Psalm 88
49:17 as I prep you for it, Jesus in His heart
49:20 and in His mind is undergoing an experience
49:24 that has a certain, a certain content to it,
49:29 it has, it has a specific kind of color
49:35 and contour to it, Jesus is going through
49:38 something. What is He going through
49:41 my friends? Psalm 88 is a
49:44 messianic prophecy, it's what kind of
49:46 prophecy everybody? Messianic that means
49:49 it's foretelling who the Messiah.
49:52 It is a prophecy that foretells what
49:55 Jesus goes through psychologically
49:58 and emotionally on the Cross.
50:01 This chapter in Psalms, Psalm 88 draws
50:05 the veil aside, so that we can,
50:07 we can look into the mental and emotional
50:11 process of Jesus as He hangs between
50:13 heaven and earth. There in the New
50:15 Testament all we hear is, let this cup pass from
50:18 me and my God, my God why have You forsaken me?
50:21 But here is what's going on?
50:23 I am in Psalm 88 verse 2, he says:
50:28 My soul is full of troubles and My life
50:35 draws near to grave. I am counted with
50:39 those who go down into the pit;
50:44 I am as a man who has no strength.
50:46 Adrift among the dead, like the slain who lie
50:55 in the grave? This is astounding whom You
51:01 remember no more. Father, I feel like I am
51:07 sinking into a pit of death from which You
51:12 will never remember me again,
51:15 from which You will never call me forth in
51:18 resurrection life. This is second death
51:22 language. This is a death in which there
51:25 is no more remembrance of the individual
51:28 and God's mind. Look at verse 6 amazing.
51:35 You have laid me in, which pit.
51:39 The lowest pit in darkness,
51:43 in the depths. Your wrath is heavy upon me,
51:50 what is this darkness? You have laid me in
51:53 the lowest pit in darkness,
51:55 is this turn the lights out blow the candles
51:57 out kind of, sun down kind of darkness.
52:00 No, no, no this is mental and emotional darkness.
52:03 This is, this is the darkness of what it
52:05 feels like to be guilty, and filled with shame
52:10 and dread of sin. This is what it feels
52:16 like to know your sin with perfect acuity
52:23 and feel no buffer of mercy in between.
52:27 No sense of forgiveness, no compassion,
52:30 all you see in your heart and your mind
52:32 is just justice and holiness and
52:35 righteousness and its eternal distinction
52:39 from sin. It's infinite and it feels it to
52:45 the depths of His being, verse 8.
52:50 This is the climax. You have put mine
52:53 acquaintance far from me,
52:55 watch this, you have made me an abomination
52:59 to them: I am shut up, and I cannot get out.
53:05 That's King James, New King James,
53:06 I am shut up, and I can't what everybody,
53:10 get out. New International Version
53:12 says something to the effect I am confined
53:15 in oblivion and cannot escape.
53:20 What does it mean? When he says I am,
53:22 I am shut up, shut up where,
53:25 what's the context? In this pit of darkness,
53:29 in this utter and complete sense of
53:30 separation from God, my God, my God
53:34 why have You forsaken me?
53:36 I am shut up in that separation from God
53:40 and all the collective hold of human
53:43 transgression and sin is owned by me
53:47 as if I were the guilty pardon,
53:49 every sin ever committed. I bare all of that,
53:53 the whole load and it has separated me
53:57 from My Father and I am shut up in this
54:02 deep dark psychological place,
54:06 and I feel like I will never ever get out.
54:10 What is this language? If you are dead and
54:14 you can't get out of death,
54:17 what are we referring to here?
54:18 Resurrection and so we come down to verse
54:23 10 and He muses as He hangs on the Cross.
54:27 Will your work, excuse me.
54:30 Will You work wonders for the dead?
54:32 Shall the dead, what everybody?
54:35 Arise to praise You? What about verse 11?
54:42 Shall Your loving kindness be declared
54:44 in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in
54:46 the place of, what? Destruction,
54:49 second death language again.
54:52 Shall Your wonders be known in the dark?
54:54 And Your righteousness in the land of
54:57 forgetfulness? God, are you going to
55:01 forget me for eternity? I am sinking into a
55:04 death from which it appears there is no
55:06 resurrection, will you ever call me
55:08 forth from the grave? Jesus,
55:13 my friends came in to our world took our
55:18 humanity upon Himself and submitted to all
55:21 its inherent limitations. And then He went to
55:26 the Cross and He entered into the deep
55:31 dark physiological place of guilt and shame
55:34 and sin, so that He felt to the depths
55:38 of His being what it means to be cut off
55:43 and severed and sundered from God,
55:47 he felt it. And that any point in the process,
55:52 scripture tells us, He tells us,
55:56 He could have called 12 legions of angels
55:59 to deliver Himself, but the Bible says that
56:03 He loved them and that is us.
56:08 Chapter 13 verse 1 of the Gospel of John,
56:09 He love them to then end,
56:12 to the end of Himself my friends,
56:16 to the utter and complete end of Himself.
56:19 Jesus literally faced the prospect of eternal
56:23 damnation, never to see the light of day
56:26 again and He voluntarily for shear love,
56:30 extravagant love for you and me was
56:33 willing to die forever, so that you and I
56:37 could have eternal life. We witness at the Cross
56:41 God's value system, and astoundingly
56:44 He literally values all others above
56:47 and before Himself. And in the beautiful
56:51 way that convinces us that we are in
56:56 the best of all imaginable universes,
57:00 governed by a God of infinite other centered
57:03 love and we can forever trust explicitly
57:08 and never be disappointed.
57:11 God loves you tonight with an extraordinary,
57:14 extravagant love and the Cross proves it.
57:18 Father in heaven, we love You because
57:23 You have first loved us. I pray that we love
57:27 You tonight in a new way with new vision.


Home

Revised 2014-12-17