Participants: Ty Gibson
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000002
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00:13 Welcome to Anchors of Truth,
00:15 live from the 3ABN worship center, 00:17 the Extravagant Love series with Ty Gibson. 00:22 Well good evening and welcome to the 00:24 auditorium here at the 3ABN worship center 00:28 and we are so happy that each one of you 00:30 could join with us. It is a cold and rainy 00:34 night here in Illinois. And but there is warmth 00:38 inside this auditorium tonight and we believe 00:41 that we're gonna be blessed by the spirit of 00:43 God just as we were last evening. 00:46 Last evening we enjoyed so much, Pastor 00:49 Ty Gibson's presentation on Extravagant Love. 00:52 He continues that series tonight. 00:55 Ty Gibson as most of you know is the 00:59 co-founder and he is co-director and speaker 01:03 of Light Bearers Ministries. 01:05 And they have spread the light of the Gospel 01:07 all around the world. In this series he's 01:11 talking about how much God loves us and last 01:15 night I know that he touched my heart 01:18 as I felt more than I had ever felt before 01:21 that God really does love me. 01:26 And you know my friend I hope that you 01:27 felt the very same thing because God does love you. 01:32 He cares about you. He cares so much; 01:34 He gave His son to die for you. 01:37 And that is the greatest gift that could have ever 01:41 been given to this world. Well tonight we're going 01:44 to enjoy another presentation by 01:46 Ty Gibson and we're going to enjoy some 01:49 music in just a moment but just before we do 01:52 I'd like for us to bow our heads and have a 01:55 word of prayer. Our Father and our 01:57 God we thank you tonight that we can 02:00 come to you in the name of Jesus Christ, 02:03 for you love this world so much that you gave 02:08 Jesus, your only begotten son, 02:12 our Lord and our savior, to come to this earth 02:16 and to die for each one of us. 02:18 Father, we pray tonight that your Holy Spirit 02:21 will come to each of us, will speak to our hearts, 02:25 will encourage those who need courage 02:28 tonight, and will comfort those who 02:32 mourn this evening. Thank you Father for 02:36 hearing us in Jesus wonderful and powerful 02:41 and loving name Amen. Well before Pastor 02:45 Gibson comes to speak to us, we ask Pastor 02:49 C.A. Murray to sing for us and he is gonna sing 02:53 the song "I'll Tell the World." 03:12 I'll tell the world, that I'm a Christian, 03:19 I'm not ashamed, His name to bear; 03:26 I'll tell the world, that I'm a Christian, 03:34 I'll take Him with me anywhere. 03:41 I'll tell the world, how Jesus saved me, 03:48 And how He gave me a life brand new; 03:56 And I know that if you trust Him, 04:02 That all He gave me, He'll give to you. 04:13 I'll tell the world, that He's my Savior, 04:20 No other one could love me so; 04:27 My life, my all is His forever, 04:34 And where He leads me I will go. 04:45 I'll tell the world, Jesus is coming 04:52 And it maybe near or far, far away 05:00 But we've got to live as if He is coming 05:07 It could be tomorrow or today 05:14 For when He comes, and life is over, 05:21 For those who love Him there's more to be; 05:29 Eyes have never seen the wonders, 05:36 That He's preparing, for you and me 05:46 Go tell the world, that you're a Christian 05:53 Don't be ashamed, His name to bear 06:00 Just tell the world, that you are a Christian 06:08 And take Him with you everywhere. 06:17 I'll tell the whole world, how Jesus saved me 06:26 And how He gave me a life brand new 06:34 And I know that if you trust Him 06:40 That all He gave me, He'll give to you. 06:51 I'll tell the world, that I'm a Christian, 06:57 I'm not ashamed, His name to bear; 07:05 I'll tell the world, that I'm a Christian, 07:12 I'll take Him with me anywhere. 07:20 I'll take Him with me anywhere. 07:40 Thank you C.A, what a blessing. 07:42 Good evening everybody, good evening. 07:44 I'm so happy you've joined us again for this 07:46 series of presentations entitled, 07:49 do you remember? Extravagant Love. 07:53 And this is the first five part series in the larger 07:58 series called Anchors of Truth. 08:01 And so what we did last night as we plunged the 08:05 anchor as deep as you can possibly go into 08:10 Eternity Past. We spent our time 08:12 together exploring the fact that before creation 08:18 before any human beings existed, before 08:20 angels existed, God the Father, God the Son, 08:25 and God the Holy Spirit were involved in a 08:29 beautiful love relationship of self 08:32 giving other centeredness. 08:35 Living each one for the others and how long did 08:39 we discover last night, how long had God 08:41 existed in that Eternity Past? 08:43 It's mind boggling to think of it, how long 08:45 has God existed? Well did Paul say 08:49 that God existed in a non-time region of 08:53 reality, right, you remember that in 08:55 chapter 1 verse 2 of Titus. Where Paul says that 09:00 God existed before there was time. 09:03 I mean there was no way we can 09:05 comprehended it. We can't understand 09:08 the nature of God, I mean what He is 09:11 composed of in nature, nor can we comprehend 09:15 what it means for God to have always existed, 09:19 because we are time-bound creatures, aren't we? 09:24 We are confined to time and all we know is 09:28 succession and history and one event following 09:31 another but God created time so therefore there's 09:35 some sense in which He must be outside of time. 09:39 And we can't really understand that, 09:41 we can't understand the nature of God and we 09:44 can't understand what it means for God to have 09:47 always existed. But I'll tell you what 09:50 we can comprehend the character of God 09:56 we can comprehend something of what goes 10:00 on the divine thought process, in the divine 10:05 emotional process and in the divine behavioral 10:10 process, that's what character is. 10:13 Character is composed of thoughts and feelings 10:15 and the behaviors that flow out of our thoughts 10:19 and feelings. We can comprehend something 10:22 of what God is like another words? 10:26 What kind of person He is? And we all want to 10:29 get to know people for who 10:31 they really are, don't we? 10:34 That's how friendships are formed. Yes. 10:36 Friendships are developed by entering into 10:40 relational interaction, that relational 10:44 interaction may begin at an 10:46 acquaintance phase right? This is the lady that you 10:49 buy your groceries from, you know her 10:51 first name, you know don't her last name. 10:54 She's a pleasant lady, she's an acquaintance. 10:57 But if the events in your community somehow 11:00 outside of the grocery store were to bring you 11:03 into closer proximity maybe at a dinner party 11:06 or something. You might move from 11:08 being an acquaintance with her to being 11:11 a casual friend, right? But then casual 11:15 friendship can develop beyond that if you 11:18 begin say for example playing 11:20 racquetball together. You could develop a 11:24 more intimate friendship and then if you 11:27 happened to be single and she happens to be 11:28 single and you propose to her, 11:31 you could end up being the most intimate of 11:33 all friends, husband and wife. 11:38 Now the universe that we live in, is a universe 11:42 listen carefully now that is defined by relationship. 11:49 In fact I would like to suggest you as we begin 11:51 this evening that relationship 11:54 is the prime reality. Relationship is the, 11:59 what everybody? The prime reality. 12:03 It is the most basic constituent of what it 12:07 means to be a living, thinking, sentient, 12:11 feeling volitional creature. 12:14 Now we know this intuitively because God 12:18 has put it in our hearts to know this 12:21 but I wanna demonstrate as we begin, 12:23 as we launch into our message tonight just 12:26 how primary this thing we call relationship is 12:30 to our, to our nature as human beings and to 12:33 reality as a whole. And I wanna do that by 12:37 asking you to engage with me in a simple but 12:40 very effective psychological exercise. 12:44 Now be careful because I'm going to trick you, 12:46 so you need to be paying attention 12:48 to this exercise, okay. And it goes something 12:51 like this, I want you to imagine and this will be 12:54 difficult that I'm an extremely 12:56 wealthy individual. So wealthy in fact that 13:00 I could give you literally anything you want. 13:05 But I'm going to put anything 13:06 you want in quote marks. And so I'm feeling like 13:12 I'm in the best of moods today and I just happen 13:16 to like you, the way I like D for example. 13:19 I mean I really like D on a very high level of like. 13:23 And so I'm feeling pretty good today 13:25 and I say to you I have the wealth to give you, 13:29 I mean I could give you a lot and I really have 13:33 an excess of stuff and so I'm gonna make you 13:36 an offer, I would like to give you something. 13:38 For starters I own a lot of real estate and so I'm 13:42 gonna give you a paradise tropical island. 13:46 You know there are individuals in our world 13:48 who actually own whole islands, in fact 13:51 down somewhere in the vicinity of the 13:53 Caribbean, they're dumping a lot of 13:55 material to create islands so people can 13:59 buy them, people buy islands and I just 14:03 happen to have a number of them and I'm 14:04 going to begin my offer, my gift by giving to you 14:11 a beautiful tropical island, it's about the 14:13 size of Oahu and it is beautiful and the 14:17 weather is always just right except for the 14:20 tsunamis of course but you can always go 14:22 inland to avoid them and I'm gonna give you 14:25 this island, but not only that I have built on this 14:29 tropical paradise island I have built five 14:35 mansion level homes. I mean these things are 14:39 luxurious, they are extravagant lets say 14:44 and they're all yours as a part of this gift, 14:46 as a part of this island package but not just 14:50 these beautiful houses, check this out I have 14:53 stocked these houses each one of them with 14:56 all your favorite things, your favorite books, 15:00 your favorite music, your favorite movies 15:03 although I would caution you there and 15:06 I have stocked these houses with all your 15:09 favorite food which just happens 15:11 to be Ramen noodles. Lifetime supply, all you 15:15 can eat in your whole life time of these 15:19 Ramen noodles, everything you like is 15:22 there in each house. But I'm gonna sweeten 15:26 it up a little bit and the deal is going to become 15:28 even better. Because in each driveway 15:33 I have parked one of the top five best driving 15:38 machines ever created. There is a Ferrari in one 15:45 parking lot, in one drive way, there is, 15:49 there has to be a Harley- Davidson in one of them. 15:53 And whatever you so choose probably the 15:56 1967 Corvette and they're all there and it's 16:03 all for you and I am just going to give it to you. 16:07 How many of you want it? How many of you say 16:09 yes, sign me up, sign it over, give it to me 16:12 I mean why would you hesitate, you want it? 16:14 Yes or no? Yes, of course, you do. 16:21 And then and then with all your desire to posses 16:24 all these things even if you are born again and 16:29 again and you're just gonna sell it all and 16:31 give it to the cause of the Gospel which 16:33 I would highly recommend if you 16:34 would have all that. But there is just one 16:39 little tiny, maybe it's not little, maybe it's not, 16:42 I don't know just one little itsy bitsy fine print 16:48 bit of condition, just one condition. 16:52 You have to go to the island with all your 16:54 stuff that you love and you have to stay there 17:01 for the rest of your life absolutely 17:06 and utterly alone. No email, no texting 17:13 which would be very hard for some of you 17:14 because you are addicted to texting 17:17 I know that because some of 17:18 you text me, please stop. 17:23 No texting, no email, no phone just you and your 17:27 tropical paradise with your finely crafted 17:31 driving machines and your mansions and your 17:34 Top Ramen, just you and your stuff, that's 17:38 the only condition, how many of 17:39 you still want the deal? Absolutely nobody 17:46 except maybe a few adolescent boys, 17:50 but once they get through puberty they 17:52 don't even want the deal anymore. 17:54 Here's the thing you know somewhere 17:59 in your heart that there is one thing that trumps 18:03 everything else, don't you? 18:07 You know if you stop and think about it that 18:09 there is one reality that is more primary than 18:13 any other, don't you? And that reality is 18:19 relationships with those you love and those who 18:24 love you, in fact, the Bible would have us 18:27 believe that the human being, the human being 18:30 that I am that you are is literally 18:34 engineered for love. Psychologically, 18:38 emotionally and even yes even biologically 18:43 you and I, we are designed for a constant 18:48 inflow and outflow of love. 18:54 We are made to receive and to give. 19:00 That's really if you stop and think about it, 19:02 that's really the definition of what it 19:05 means to be human. And by contrast if we 19:12 realize that relationships with others are a 19:16 primary to reality I mean really when push 19:19 comes to shove, we would not, we would 19:21 not take anything this world has to offer 19:25 if it meant being isolated from those 19:28 we love, would we? I mean I would rather 19:32 live with my girlfriend, also known as my wife 19:36 Sue in a dry arid cave in New Mexico for the 19:45 rest of my life with her then to spend the rest 19:49 of my life in a penthouse suit with 19:53 everything I want at my command without her. 19:57 Anybody identify? Of course you do. 20:00 There's somebody you love like that or 20:02 somebody at least in your memory that you 20:04 love like that. So, you understand what 20:07 I'm saying, you understand you know 20:10 that you and I are made for relationship. 20:15 Now having laid that foundation this evening 20:19 what I would like to do with you is explore the 20:23 next step in our Extravagant Love series. 20:29 Now last night you remember where we came from? 20:31 We suggested, well actually scripture 20:34 suggested that all of reality can be 20:37 comprehended as being composed of two basic 20:40 parts, remember Psalms 90 verse 2. 20:44 From everlasting to everlasting you are God. 20:49 What is this from to? From everlasting to 20:54 everlasting how did we define it last night? 20:56 From eternity past into the far reaches 20:59 of eternity future. Now what we can't 21:02 comprehend eternity past and what it would 21:04 mean for God to have always existed, 21:07 this is fascinating, we can somewhat 21:10 comprehend what it would mean to live 21:12 forever and ever and ever without end. 21:15 And if we so choose it lies within the grace of 21:21 God to escort us into eternity future where 21:27 we will literally live from millions and 21:29 billions, yes trillions, I mean Googleplex type 21:33 numbers beyond comprehension and 21:36 never ever age or die. And we're going to 21:41 explore that in our final part of this series 21:44 together called Eternity Future. 21:46 So let's not get ahead of ourselves we're saying 21:49 that in eternity past something was going on. 21:54 What was going on? Well as we mentioned 21:57 and elaborated in greater detail last night 22:01 what was going on in eternity past is a 22:05 beautiful love relationship. 22:08 A relationship in which God himself who is the 22:12 origin of what we just discovered through our 22:15 little mental exercise that we are relational 22:17 creatures, why are we relational creatures 22:20 because God is relational and we were 22:23 made in God's what? Image. We're relational by 22:26 nature because God is relational by nature 22:29 and we are made in his likeness. 22:32 So back there in the far reaches of Eternity Past, 22:36 there's God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and this 22:39 beautiful relationship of other centeredness and 22:42 self-givingness. Now shift gears with me 22:49 and look at John chapter 1, John chapter 1 in my 22:54 opinion is one of the mountain tops of scripture. 22:59 It is one of the pinnacles of God 23:04 communicating to us who He is and what 23:07 He is all about? In John chapter 1 we have 23:11 these words starting with verse 1, look at it 23:13 with me, in the beginning was the 23:16 word, now notice the language carefully and 23:18 the Word was, what's that very, 23:22 very incidental almost you don't even notice it, 23:25 you just go right on by grammatically 23:27 what's that word? With. With. Okay. 23:30 In the beginning was the Word capital W, 23:32 who is this? This is the pre-incarnate Christ. 23:37 This is before He had the name Jesus Christ. 23:41 Okay. This Word, this Word where was He 23:45 before He came to our world? 23:47 He was with God and the Word, notice this, 23:53 was God, verse 2 He was in the beginning with God. 24:01 Now just do a little bit of editorial sculpting 24:04 here, take out some of words with some 24:07 inserted ellipsis in order to make a point. 24:11 I'm gonna read what's in the text within quote 24:13 marks but just taking out a few words in 24:16 order to make the point. The scripture literally 24:18 says in the beginning God was with God. 24:27 Yes, that's what it says. There is some sense in 24:30 which there was a divine, 24:34 shall we say togetherness? 24:36 Right. God was with God, 24:39 God who was with God who? 24:42 Who was with who? God the Son was with 24:48 God the Father, and by logical extension with 24:52 other scriptures pulled into the picture 24:54 God the Holy Spirit. They were with one 24:57 another in eternity past before 25:01 Jesus came to this world. 25:04 Now when they were with one another my 25:06 friends what does the Bible teach us about 25:11 the nature in quality of their relationship? 25:14 Well, for starters, I want you to look at this 25:18 absolutely astounding scripture in 25:21 chapter 42 of Isaiah. Do you have a Bible? 25:23 Look at Isaiah 42, we're gonna study the Bible 25:26 this evening, we're drawing our 25:29 information from the Holy Scripture, 25:31 so please if you brought a Bible, look at it with 25:34 me, chapter 42, this is gonna just blow your 25:37 mind in a really good way. This is going to, 25:41 this is just going to lift your heart and give you 25:44 a picture of the character of God 25:46 that is just absolutely stunning. 25:50 Notice this with verse 1, the person who's 25:53 speaking is the Father, God the Father is the 25:57 one articulating here, so you keep that in mind 26:00 and God the Father says behold that is 26:02 comprehend understand about to tell you 26:04 something, sit up, take notice, behold 26:08 my Servant, capital S, who is this? 26:14 This is Jesus, this is the coming Messiah. Okay. 26:18 Behold the Father says, my Servant whom 26:22 I uphold, my elect one in whom, notice this 26:28 language, in whom my soul does what? 26:33 Delights. Isn't this fascinating? 26:35 Here is God the Father prophesying ahead of 26:40 time and telling us that Messiah's coming, 26:44 your savior is about to be born into this world, 26:47 He's going to come and I wanna tell you who 26:49 He is to me. He is the one in whom 26:56 my soul delights. What an intimate picture huh? 27:02 What a beautiful insight into how the Father 27:04 feels about the Son, about how the Father 27:09 thinks about the Son. I'll tell you the one that 27:15 I'm sending you just want you to know 27:19 I love Him deeply, I delight in Him, 27:24 there's something beautiful between us 27:29 and I'm willing to send Him for you. 27:34 Well notice this, there's obviously some kind of 27:37 difficult and painful ordeal coming up. 27:41 Because look at verse 6, the Father says I the 27:45 Lord have called you, who is the you here? 27:50 The Messiah, the Son, the one He is going to 27:53 send into the world I the Lord the Father have 27:57 called you the son in righteousness notice 27:59 this and I will, say it loud with me, 28:03 hold your hand. I will keep you and give 28:09 you as a covenant to the people. What? 28:15 This is something the Father says, 28:17 I'm sending into the world, I'm sending to 28:18 you for your Salvation. I'm sending you the one 28:22 in whom my soul delights. And then the Father 28:25 turns to the Son before the incarnation and He 28:29 converses with Him and He says but Son I want 28:31 you to know that when I send you into the world 28:33 to go through this horrific ordeal. 28:38 I will hold your hand through the experience. 28:44 This is the God of the universe, this is the God 28:48 who speaks worlds into existence, this the God 28:51 from whom radiates all the energy of creation, 28:55 He is omnipotent, sovereign God. 29:00 Almighty God and He communicates to us in 29:05 these tender relational terms. 29:10 I find delight in Him and I will hold His hand. 29:15 Because when did your hand need to be held? 29:20 When you're going through something. 29:23 Jesus is going to go through something, 29:26 now go with me over to Zechariah, one of the 29:28 minor prophets Zechariah it's kind of hard to find, 29:31 I just, I just and I'm there, that was an 29:33 accident, I want you to know that, I'm just there 29:37 didn't have a marker or anything but it was 29:38 totally accidental and I want you to notice 29:41 again a prophecy and the one who is speaking 29:45 here is the Father again. Who is speaking? 29:48 The Father. And He speaking about the Son. 29:51 Who is He speaking about? About the Son. 29:53 It's in verse 7. And the Father is contemplating 29:57 the incarnation again. It hasn't happened yet 30:02 when this is being written by the 30:03 prophet Zechariah where is Jesus? 30:07 He is with the Father in heaven. 30:09 How long has he been there again? 30:12 For all Eternity Past and so the whole 30:16 universe overhears this. And the Father says, 30:21 Awake O sword,898 does that sound like a 30:25 pleasant thing or painful thing? 30:27 It's a painful thing a sword is, 30:29 what's a sword for? It's for plunging and 30:32 twisting and it's for taking life. 30:39 It's a painful thing and in a metaphor, 30:43 in a symbol, the ordeal that Jesus is about to go 30:47 through is a sword. It is to be plunged 30:52 through His divine heart and His life blood is to 30:56 be spilled for you and for me. 31:00 And the Father knows it. And the Father politically 31:04 says to the universe, the listening universe, 31:06 awake O sword, sword of the divine justice. 31:13 Awake O sword against my shepherd, 31:19 against the man who is my, what does your version say? 31:24 My fellow, you have the King James Version, 31:26 excellent, what's a fellow? Someone with whom 31:29 you have fellowship. My version New King 31:32 James says "Awake O sword against my 31:34 shepherd, against the man who is my companion." 31:38 What's a companion? Someone with whom 31:40 you have companionship. Another version, the 31:45 New Century Version says, the one who is my friend. 31:52 New International version says the one 31:53 who is close to me. So again what is the 31:58 Father contemplating here? He's contemplating the 32:00 up and coming incarnation of Jesus and the sacrifice 32:06 that will be made on our behalf. 32:08 And He thinks of the son in these tender 32:12 relational terms. He tells us ahead of time 32:16 the one who's coming? He's the one who is 32:20 close to me. He is my nearest, dearest friend. 32:25 He is the one who is my most intimate relation. 32:33 Are you beginning, 'cause some of you are 32:34 going ahead in the story, you're beginning 32:36 to sense the palpable pain in the Father's 32:41 heart here. Are you beginning to sense that 32:44 something grand and glorious is about to be 32:47 done for you and me but it will not be 32:50 without cost to Him. Are you beginning to 32:55 sense it? We'll now go back to John chapter 1. 33:00 And in John chapter 1 the Apostle tells us 33:07 who Jesus is and where He came from? 33:13 He in verses 1 and 2 is the word who was God 33:18 had been God for Eternity Past and was 33:22 with God, with the Father. But look now down at 33:26 verse 18. No one has seen God that is God 33:30 the Father at any time the only begotten Son 33:36 who is where everybody? In the bosom of the 33:40 Father He has declared Him. 33:41 What is this Bosom language? 33:44 I'm just, I'm just demonstrating to you 33:47 repeatedly here that if you have a Biblical 33:50 perspective, if you allow the Biblical 33:53 language to have it's weight and to register in 33:56 your mind, you will develop a very intimate 33:59 picture of God. What is the language that 34:04 the Holy Spirit is inspiring these 34:06 prophets to employ? It is the language of 34:09 relationship, it is the language of delight, 34:12 it is the language of relational 34:14 integrity and faithfulness. 34:18 What is this bosom language? 34:19 It's obviously a metaphor, it's a symbol, 34:22 anybody who was alive and old enough to be 34:27 conscious in the 1940s and 50s would have 34:31 been familiar with a terminology that was in 34:34 vogue at the time. If two guys were close 34:39 friends they were bosom buddies, 34:42 now don't be talking like that nowadays, 34:44 that you just don't want any dude near your 34:46 bosom at all and we don't use that kind of 34:50 language, okay. We don't talk about 34:52 being bosom buddies because that doesn't 34:55 sound right in our modern culture but it 34:57 sounds right Biblically. The Father is the one 35:03 who has a heart, the bosom, a deep interior 35:10 of emotional personhood. This is the Father's 35:14 bosom and who was there? Jesus was there, before 35:18 He came into this world. This is the Bible's way 35:20 of saying that Jesus was in intimate close 35:25 relationship with the Father before 35:29 He came into this world. Now look back to verse 35:32 14, to verse 14 of John chapter 1 and notice the 35:40 dramatic and I mean dramatic I wish I had 35:45 stronger language to employ, the dramatic 35:49 change that has occurred now. 35:52 Verse 14 and the word that's the pre-incarnate 35:56 Christ, the word became something. 36:00 What is the word became? 36:01 What does it mean to become? 36:03 It means to go through some kind of change, 36:05 some kind of metamorphous, right something there's 36:08 something going on here, there's movement. 36:11 Now this movement is occurring at a very 36:15 extraordinary level. The word that is the 36:19 one who was with God and was himself God. 36:23 The word became what everybody? 36:27 Flesh and dwelt among us. Now the Greek here is 36:31 literally, the word became flesh and 36:35 tabernacled among us. You know what this 36:37 means to tabernacle? In Biblical language 36:40 this basically means that God came into 36:44 close proximity, he pitched his tents in our midst. 36:50 Modern language we might render this in one 36:52 Bible version does render it this way, 36:55 God moved into the neighborhood. 36:58 That's the sense that you get here. Okay. 37:01 God came out, stepped out of Eternity Past 37:04 came right into our immediate proximity. 37:09 Pitched His tent right in our midst. 37:15 Now how did He do this? He didn't pitch a 37:19 physical tent did he? Well in a sense not a 37:22 physical tent made out of canvas but a tent of flesh. 37:27 Right. He pitched His tent, he tabernacled among us. 37:31 In other words God took on a body. 37:35 He became a member of the human race. 37:40 Are you with me so far? Now this is astounding 37:44 This is not playacting, God is not giving us a 37:47 charade, or a charade if you're 37:49 from over the Atlanta. God is giving us here 37:56 an account of historic reality. 37:59 This actually happened. Now there are some 38:01 schools of theological thought I won't name 38:03 them specifically for the sake of time, but there 38:06 are certain Christian denominations who 38:09 basically say that God is projecting an image 38:13 or an illusion here, it didn't really happen, 38:16 how could God possibly do this? 38:18 God couldn't possibly do this, if he wouldn't 38:20 condescend that far, no, no, no. Yes, yes, yes. 38:24 God literally is telling us His own personal history. 38:29 He's saying I want you to tell, I want to tell you 38:32 that I became human literally, concretely 38:38 actually that God himself underwent 38:44 a transmigration if you will, the word Trans 38:48 meaning to move, to become, to travel, right. 38:52 A transmigration of nature, He didn't just 38:55 moved geographically from heaven to earth, 38:59 he moved in nature. He became human, 39:07 now we know the past history and we can 39:10 comprehend now that one moment he was there. 39:14 And had always been there, where is there? 39:16 In Eternity Past, in the bosom of the Father, 39:20 in relationship with the one who delighted in 39:23 Him, in this beautiful relationship, 39:26 one moment He was there and had always 39:29 being there. And the next moment 39:32 He vanished from all heavenly sight and touch. 39:38 The angels were astonished, where is he, 39:41 the one that we have always known as our 39:44 commander throughout all of our existence. 39:49 Where is he? Well one moment He was there 39:52 and the next moment He vanished 39:57 and took on form in the womb of a teenage girl 40:04 and stitch by stitch, chromosome by 40:06 chromosome God almighty began to be 40:12 reconstructed as a human being. 40:16 And the embryo grew and the babe developed 40:20 and finally God came into our world. 40:23 This is the astounding announcement 40:25 of the Gospel. In Matthew chapter 21 40:28 this is no kind of mediocre, 40:32 tepid announcement. This is Emmanuel, 40:38 God with us. Or to use the words of Paul in 40:44 First Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, Great is the 40:49 mystery of Godliness, God likeness. 40:53 Great is the mystery of God's character. 40:56 God became human. Great is the mystery of 41:02 Godliness, God was manifesting 41:04 the flesh my friend. Now when He 41:07 was manifest in the flesh, 41:11 what we're comprehending here to whatever degree 41:16 we can, what we're comprehending here is 41:21 that the God head, to use the language of 41:25 Paul in Romans chapter 1. The God head underwent 41:32 some kind of fracture to use the words of an 41:37 extremely insightful women author, 41:42 they underwent a divine sundering. 41:46 Do you know what it means to be sundered? 41:49 Means to be split apart, to be fractured, 41:54 to be separated. Now earlier in our time 41:57 together I pointed out, we lead ourselves 42:00 through an exercise in which we determined 42:03 that the most primary of all realities, realities the 42:07 most important and fundamental and 42:10 elemental of all realities is relationship. 42:15 But on the other side of that truth is the fact that 42:21 if relationship connectedness is the 42:26 most primary of all realities, then my 42:29 friends separation is the most 42:33 horrific of all realities. And that's exactly the 42:39 language the Bible uses to describe for you and 42:43 me the ultimate destiny of the lost. 42:47 In chapter 20 of Revelation, don't go 42:49 there for the sake of time, the wicked of all 42:52 ages, the lost, those who have not found 42:56 refuge and in Christ all though refuge was granted. 43:01 They're described as being resurrected and 43:03 they stand before the Great White Throne and 43:06 the Bible describes their physiological situation 43:10 and says, there was found no place for them. 43:17 And so they fled from the face of the one who 43:20 is seated on the throne. They find in relation to 43:25 God, they find no relational connection. 43:31 The whole universe has no place for them. 43:35 They are out of sync with the one 43:38 overarching pervasive principle of life. 43:43 The law of life for heaven and earth. 43:47 The law of benevolence, the law of love. 43:51 They have no harmony with the love of God 43:57 and so there is no place for them. 44:01 They experience utter and complete 44:04 separation from the source of life. 44:11 Relational connectedness is the prime reality 44:14 and separation from all others and from God 44:22 is the most horrific of all realities. 44:25 Now friends, this is exactly what the God 44:30 head voluntarily chose to endure to save 44:37 you and me. In the incarnation, we are 44:43 witnessing a deep fracture, a separation, 44:50 to use the words of Jesus hanging on the 44:52 cross, a forsakenness. We are witnessing in 44:56 the incarnation this most incredible of all 45:00 things imaginable that the ones who had been 45:03 forever in intimate relationship one with 45:08 another, voluntarily chose to undergo a 45:13 severing one from another. 45:17 In the book Early Writings if you have 45:19 access to that book page 127, An angel is heard 45:26 to cry out, to shout over the universe, 45:31 "think ye that the Father gave up His dearly 45:35 beloved Son without a struggle? No, no. 45:40 " Said the Angel. "It was even a struggle 45:45 with the God of heaven, whether to let a guilty 45:50 man perish or to give His darling 45:58 son for our salvation." Can you imagine God 46:05 engaged in a struggle somehow I think we 46:10 tend to imagine Him as impassible, 46:13 that is without passion, 46:15 without any sense of emotion. 46:19 How could God possibly struggle, 46:21 everything obviously always goes His way, right? 46:25 Well on second thought, everything doesn't 46:28 always go His way because you and I in 46:31 the human race rebelled against Him and that 46:33 certainly wasn't His choice. It was ours. 46:38 But here's the glorious truth. 46:42 God so deeply, so personally, so selflessly 46:46 loved you and I that He was willing to undergo 46:52 this horrible, horrific fracture of relationship 46:58 on our behalf. Now in the Bible we get 47:03 a sense of this separation 47:07 in many different places but in Genesis 15, 47:12 we have one of the earliest, one of the 47:15 earliest windows of understanding into what 47:20 would be involved in the incarnation and 47:22 sacrifice of Christ. All the way back with 47:25 Abraham, God communicated through a process of 47:30 symbolism, through a process of 47:32 enacted metaphor. Exactly what the God 47:36 head would have to endure. 47:39 God said in a vision to Abraham in chapter 15 47:43 of Genesis, Abraham, I want you to do 47:45 something, I want you to get a few animals and 47:49 he names them. And I want you to take those 47:53 animals and I want you to sever them straight 47:57 down the middle in half. And I want you to 48:01 lay each of the pieces of these animal sacrifices 48:07 I want you to lay them across from one another 48:09 forming a path between the pieces. 48:14 And then Abraham having obeyed the Lord 48:19 and having sacrificed and severed the animals 48:22 in two, Abraham went into vision and He saw 48:27 something like a, like the King James version 48:30 I think it says like an oven, another version 48:34 says like a torch, like flaming fire of some 48:37 kind which is associated through out scripture 48:40 with the presence of God, you remember 48:41 that Moses encountered the burning bush 48:46 and through out the Bible God has 48:48 associated with fire in this way. 48:51 Paul in Hebrews went so far as to 48:53 say our God is a what? Consuming fire. 48:57 So in vision Abraham sees this fiery presence. 49:03 And what does this fiery presence do? 49:06 This fiery presence walks the gauntlet 49:11 between the severed pieces. 49:15 Abraham is not called upon to pass through 49:18 the pieces, he can't make the sacrifice for 49:21 the salvation of the human race. 49:25 No, Abraham watches as God enacts this 49:28 parable and says in so many words through 49:32 this metaphor Abraham, I'm going to show you 49:36 what I will endure to save you and the rest 49:40 of the human race. Sever the animals and 49:42 I will pass between the pieces. 49:46 This goes into ancient customs in which 49:49 covenants were made in this way. 49:53 In ancient times a covenant formed not by 49:55 signing on the dotted line, obviously that 49:58 doesn't work, our culture has proved that. 50:02 But the way that covenants or 50:04 agreements were entered into is the two 50:05 agreeing parties would sever an animal, 50:08 sacrifice in half and they would each pass 50:11 through the pieces indicating through the 50:13 symbolism that they were committing the 50:16 totality of themselves to the agreement and 50:21 indicating in symbolism that if they don't follow 50:23 through with their end of the covenant 50:26 that they will be severed, they will be cut 50:30 off, they will be giving themselves in sacrifice 50:37 for not following through. God is saying in so 50:39 many words, I'm gonna make a covenant with 50:41 you, I'm going to enter into a relational 50:44 agreement with you, I'm going to promise to 50:47 give you myself as a sacrifice for your 50:53 salvation and I'm going to show you in the 50:56 symbolism Abraham that God will endure 51:01 some kind of painful fracture, some kind of 51:05 separation for you. Now what form does 51:09 this take through out scripture? 51:11 Well we move forward into Genesis 22 and 51:14 God takes Abraham through another enacted 51:17 parable He says Abraham, I want you to take your 51:20 son, your only son, emphasis on your only 51:23 son Abraham, I want you to feel what I feel, 51:28 so you can communicated to the world. 51:31 Abraham take your son, your only son and 51:33 sacrifice him on an altar and Abraham follows 51:37 through and he feels all the emotional anguish 51:40 of this separation from his son. 51:43 His hand is lifted, his lips are quivering; 51:46 he begins to thrust the knife only to have his 51:50 hands stopped and for God to say no. 51:55 I'll provide the sacrifice. You can't. 52:00 But now you know what it feels like to be God. 52:04 Now you know Abraham what it feels 52:06 like to be God. Now you know and can 52:10 tell the world the good news, the gospel, 52:13 the glad tidings, the happy message that 52:17 God so loved the world that He will give His 52:21 only begotten son. So that anyone who 52:26 believes in this beautiful self sacrificing 52:29 love of God will never perish 52:32 but have eternal life. We fast forward in our 52:38 understanding of this great sacrifice and we 52:43 come to the practical implications of the 52:46 sacrifice in the New Testament. 52:48 When Jesus became human, Hebrews 52:51 chapter 2 tells us in verse 9 that He did so, 52:55 He became human so that He could taste 52:59 death for every human being. 53:03 Verse 9 of chapter 2 of Hebrews. 53:05 Then in verse 14 of Hebrews of chapter 2 53:09 the Apostle Paul builds a bridge in our 53:11 understanding between the incarnation and the 53:13 cross and He says that He would become flesh 53:19 and blood, he would become like us, 53:24 so that through death He might destroy him 53:28 who had the power of death that is the devil. 53:31 So in Paul's understanding and 53:33 Paul's theology there is a vital linkage between 53:38 the incarnation and the cross my friends, 53:43 vital connection. Well in chapter 2 53:49 of Hebrews, we get the distinct feeling that 53:53 something tremendous has occurred 53:59 to save human race. That God came down 54:04 all the way down my friends and became 54:06 human and then Paul fills out our 54:09 understanding yet further in 54:12 chapter 2 of Philippians. One of the most incredible 54:16 scriptures you will ever read bar none, 54:18 you ought to commit it to memory and after 54:20 that put it on paper and put it with a magnet on 54:22 refrigerator and do other things with it to 54:25 bring you into an understanding of this 54:28 text, never forget it, Paul says let 54:30 this mind be in you. This disposition, this 54:33 character this way of thinking and feeling, 54:36 let this mind be in you, which was 54:38 also in Christ Jesus. Now what kind of 54:41 mind was it? Who being in very nature God. 54:46 Thought it not something to be held on 54:50 to be equal with God but made himself 54:52 New International version nothing, 54:55 King James of no reputation, made 54:58 himself nothing, so that he could endure the 55:02 cross even the death of the cross. 55:06 This is Paul's understanding. 55:09 The incarnation this monumental severing 55:17 of the son from the tribune God head, 55:21 this severing was the precursor to the cross 55:26 where God's love reaches it's zenith 55:29 level of expression. The apex, the crescendo 55:34 my friends, the climax, where as we're going to 55:37 talk about tomorrow night God's love goes 55:40 off the charts, it's immeasurable, 55:45 can't even begin to fully comprehend it, 55:49 that's where we go tomorrow night. 55:52 Well I have a friend and we were at a table 55:57 together, just eating I mean at least I was 56:00 eating; he was just picking at his food 56:03 obviously no appetite. I could feel the heaviness 56:07 and I knew something was wrong. 56:10 I looked across the table and caught His eyes in 56:13 mine for a steady two seconds to 56:15 communicate with my eyes. Hey, I don't know what 56:18 you're going through but I'm here for you. 56:22 I gave Him permission and he blurred it out. 56:26 Ty, Katy is leaving me. A wave of nausea came 56:32 over me, I could hardly bear it. 56:35 My friend was enduring this fractured 56:37 relationship, he said Ty, the ache is so deep 56:42 because I so want her back. And I said I know, 56:50 it wasn't even my experience 56:51 and I could feel it. And my friends, 56:54 there was a sense in which an ache like that 57:00 hangs over our world. A hurt like that hangs 57:04 over you and over me. And in Christ God is 57:09 saying, it hurts to be separated from you 57:12 and I so want you back. Father in heaven, 57:21 thank you for your great love manifested in Christ, 57:25 brought up and close personal in 57:27 his incarnation, in Jesus name. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17