WEBVTT 00:00:00.501 --> 00:00:15.044 John 1.14, verse 14 of John 1, my favorite verse in the gospel of John and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:00:15.044 --> 00:00:26.077 And we have seen His glory, glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:00:26.077 --> 00:00:34.704 Let's hear it again And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:00:34.704 --> 00:00:48.104 Father, this morning, the reality of the incarnation, may it dawn on us that what we hold true is different than any religion that's ever existed. 00:00:48.104 --> 00:00:55.521 That God, the Almighty God, who created heaven and earth, became a man. 00:00:55.521 --> 00:00:56.664 Wow. 00:00:56.664 --> 00:01:05.822 Help us not to treat that contemptibly or cheaply, but to treasure the truth of that, father. 00:01:05.822 --> 00:01:14.487 We thank you now for the Word of the gospel which we're about to receive in Jesus' name, and everyone said amen. 00:01:15.489 --> 00:01:20.001 Several years ago, i was invited to a Bible college to do a course on church history. 00:01:20.001 --> 00:01:30.206 I think I had 24 hours of teaching in like four days, and it was with a sister network that I know and love called Grace Churches International. 00:01:30.206 --> 00:01:50.998 We were in Raleigh, Durham, north Carolina area, and they asked me to cover the whole period from the apostolic age, the first century, the age when the books of Scripture were written, to the Reformation, and I started studying the second, third, fourth, fifth centuries of Christian history and I got a headache. 00:01:50.998 --> 00:02:09.388 I began to get a headache because I was studying all the debates that went on in the early church in the first five centuries, especially All the debates between the church fathers and the heretics over the person of Jesus. 00:02:09.388 --> 00:02:16.269 If you don't know this and I'll spare you the headaches of all the intensity of the debate Actually it shouldn't cause us a headache. 00:02:16.269 --> 00:02:17.920 There's good reason that it was done. 00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:33.966 But the debates were intense because there were people floating around the early churches in the first four or five centuries distorting the nature of the Son of God, and the debates were trying to get a handle. 00:02:33.966 --> 00:02:37.133 They were over this mystery of Jesus. 00:02:37.133 --> 00:02:38.317 How do you get a handle? 00:02:38.317 --> 00:02:39.640 Is He fully man? 00:02:39.640 --> 00:02:41.618 Was He fully God? 00:02:41.618 --> 00:02:45.317 How can God and man coexist? 00:02:45.317 --> 00:03:05.162 And I got a headache because some of the church fathers seem to be splitting hairs over the minutest details regarding the nature of the Lord Jesus And at times the debate got so intense that it causes cause shisms and schisms in the body of Christ. 00:03:05.201 --> 00:03:35.574 But then I realized while I was recovering from my migraines and it is this that the very quarrels and debates that existed in the first few centuries of Christian history over the nature of the person of Jesus Christ only prove the authenticity of Jesus Christ, because, as far as I know, no one's debated about Muhammad. 00:03:35.574 --> 00:03:42.638 They might have debated what his teachings mean, and they still do, but the debate has never been over the person of Muhammad. 00:03:42.638 --> 00:03:44.062 Is he God, is he man? 00:03:44.062 --> 00:04:02.028 Or, for that reason, there's not been any debates over Buddha or Moses, even, which is my favorite religious hero as a Jew None of these men have ever been debated about as far as their persons or as far as the nature of their persons. 00:04:02.028 --> 00:04:09.271 There may have been vigorous debates over their teachings, and they're still not essentially over their identity. 00:04:09.271 --> 00:04:23.413 But in Christianity, while there have been and still are debates over the teachings of Jesus, the debates in the first few centuries were not over his teaching, essentially, but over this person. 00:04:23.413 --> 00:04:25.399 Who in the world is he? 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:29.348 How do we understand the man Christ Jesus? 00:04:29.348 --> 00:04:34.680 And then it hit me why Jesus Christ defies description. 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:56.930 So the very debates that caused me a headache as I tried to grasp them began to bless me because they gave clear evidence of the uniqueness of Christianity, because, according to the New Testament, the person of Jesus is shrouded in mystery. 00:04:56.930 --> 00:05:08.562 And here's why, last week, i opened up a series and, if you're new to Trinity, i'm teaching through a series over the next two months on the person and nature of Jesus. 00:05:08.622 --> 00:05:13.283 This month we're talking about the person of Jesus from John's Gospel, chapter one. 00:05:13.283 --> 00:05:16.862 Next month we'll look at the events of his birth. 00:05:16.862 --> 00:05:26.074 Last week we began in John 1.1, with John's incredible declaration that in the beginning was the Word. 00:05:26.074 --> 00:05:31.651 And we saw that to know Jesus properly and to answer the question, who is this man? 00:05:31.651 --> 00:05:37.586 You have to start not with his birth as a babe in Bethlehem, but back in eternity past. 00:05:37.586 --> 00:05:50.230 He is the Logos, the wisdom of God, the Word who has always been with the Father and always was God alongside the Father. 00:05:50.230 --> 00:06:00.218 And John tells us he's Word because he alone reveals the Father, not just beginning from Bethlehem onward, but always. 00:06:00.218 --> 00:06:03.386 He is the one who has revealed the Father. 00:06:03.386 --> 00:06:10.447 And now John takes that which we studied last week and makes this massive statement. 00:06:10.447 --> 00:06:14.601 Thank you, aaron, for reminding us of it in the middle of worship this morning. 00:06:14.601 --> 00:06:19.673 It's an incredible statement, it's massive. 00:06:19.673 --> 00:06:24.083 It changes the whole landscape regarding religion. 00:06:26.067 --> 00:06:30.413 Time itself is divided around this statement. 00:06:30.413 --> 00:06:49.831 It is this may it dawn on us afresh the eternal Logos, the Word, the eternal wisdom of God, he who was always with the Father and was one with the Father and is himself deity, became flesh and blood. 00:06:49.831 --> 00:06:56.485 If you don't get my drift, let me say it without any holds barred God became a baby. 00:06:56.485 --> 00:07:05.901 He who was God became a real flesh and blood human being. 00:07:05.901 --> 00:07:07.644 And get this, it's so critical. 00:07:07.644 --> 00:07:25.805 He was not God masquerading as a man for 33 years, but a real man, subject to all the things that real men and women are subject to, who himself was very God of God. 00:07:25.805 --> 00:07:33.065 This was the point, by the way, that was being vigorously debated in the first five centuries and actually beyond. 00:07:33.065 --> 00:07:35.552 It has been debated for 2,000 years. 00:07:35.860 --> 00:07:49.632 There have been two errors going around Christian churches for 2,000 years about Jesus, and they are this either people think Jesus is fully God but only pretended to be a man. 00:07:49.632 --> 00:07:54.925 He was man like, but he wasn't a fully, a full, a orbed man. 00:07:54.925 --> 00:08:08.208 Or else Some posited that Jesus was a man who is very God like but never deity himself in the flesh. 00:08:08.208 --> 00:08:19.144 John is refuting that thought in his gospel, especially in the first 18 verses of the first chapter. 00:08:19.144 --> 00:08:26.463 He is saying God was the Word and He became flesh and blood and dwelt among us. 00:08:26.463 --> 00:08:37.618 In fact, in his first letter John says it this way, and I'm paraphrasing We rolled in the grass with him, we held him, we heard his voice in our ears. 00:08:37.618 --> 00:08:50.014 But truth in John's gospel begins with eyewitnesses not men who heard accounts or men who heard stories, but men who were eyewitnesses, and they said two things. 00:08:50.014 --> 00:08:52.977 He was God in the flesh. 00:08:52.977 --> 00:08:59.616 We heard him, we listened to him, we talked to him, we rolled in the grass with him and we never saw him sin. 00:08:59.616 --> 00:09:03.413 But he was fully man as well. 00:09:05.090 --> 00:09:11.731 I think Charles Spurgeon grasped it best and described Jesus this way Listen to this Bask in this. 00:09:11.731 --> 00:09:44.495 It's so rich, infinite, yet an infant, eternal and yet born of a woman, almighty, yet hanging on a woman's breast, supporting a universe, yet needing to be carried in a mother's arms, being of angels and yet the reputed son of Joseph, heir of all things, and yet the carpenter's despised son. 00:09:44.495 --> 00:09:48.477 I want to focus for a few minutes this morning. 00:09:48.477 --> 00:09:50.477 I'm very aware of the time, but please bear with me. 00:09:50.477 --> 00:09:52.517 This is too important to rush through. 00:09:52.517 --> 00:10:00.644 I want to focus on this aspect of John's prologue that the word became flesh and blood. 00:10:00.644 --> 00:10:11.760 From here on, in John's gospel, the eternal Logos of God is now identified with a human being in time and space named Jesus of Nazareth. 00:10:12.049 --> 00:10:17.774 And I believe and I say this carefully, i'm going to make this statement, let me preface it. 00:10:17.774 --> 00:10:19.315 I hope you know this. 00:10:19.315 --> 00:10:26.239 If you weren't here last week maybe you need to hear it again I believe that Jesus Christ is very God of gods. 00:10:26.239 --> 00:10:28.393 Everybody clear on that. 00:10:28.393 --> 00:10:32.599 He's not God man, very God-like man. 00:10:32.599 --> 00:10:35.118 He is God of very gods. 00:10:35.118 --> 00:10:36.053 We believe that. 00:10:36.053 --> 00:10:37.013 We teach it. 00:10:37.013 --> 00:10:39.235 We named our church after it. 00:10:39.235 --> 00:10:51.462 He's the second person of the divine trinity, but I believe the church needs to learn what the humanness of Christ is about. 00:10:52.230 --> 00:11:01.015 We need to let the full implications of Jesus being a man hit us squarely in the face, and I think there are three reasons. 00:11:01.015 --> 00:11:02.653 The first I'll mention. 00:11:02.653 --> 00:11:07.339 I'm not going to talk about it, it's my subject next Sunday, lord willing. 00:11:07.339 --> 00:11:14.783 It is that this man, this God, had to become a human being, to die. 00:11:14.783 --> 00:11:16.154 I want you to think for a moment. 00:11:16.154 --> 00:11:23.793 If God became a man just to model that to the human race and then ascend to heaven, it would be enough. 00:11:24.250 --> 00:11:26.518 But our gospel goes further than that. 00:11:26.518 --> 00:11:39.519 It says our God became a man in order, supremely, not to give the human race an example, though he is certainly that, but he came in order to die. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:45.735 Hebrews 2.14 says it best, and this is all I'll say about this. 00:11:45.735 --> 00:11:48.317 Come back next week for another installment. 00:11:48.317 --> 00:12:01.720 Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy. 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:07.235 The one who has the power of death, that is the devil. 00:12:07.235 --> 00:12:19.163 He became a human being so that he might die And, in his death, redeem the people of God from the death and destruction which is wrought by the devil. 00:12:19.163 --> 00:12:24.600 There was ever a man who ever lived, who didn't need to die. 00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:27.254 It was the Lord Jesus. 00:12:27.254 --> 00:12:31.058 But he did die in order to redeem us. 00:12:31.058 --> 00:12:43.841 And we will look next week how John says the eternal Logos became a human being and he became the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:51.383 But there are two other reasons the church desperately needs to come to terms with the incarnation. 00:12:51.383 --> 00:12:56.138 That's the technical term for the doctrine that God became human. 00:12:56.138 --> 00:13:09.256 And the second reason is Jesus became human because he became the ultimate dwelling place of God in the earth. 00:13:09.256 --> 00:13:37.162 The second reason we need to focus on the humanity of Christ is it reveals uniquely that the ultimate dwelling place of God now is not a temple, a tabernacle, a place in the wilderness, a mountain, but God now resides fully and completely in a flesh and blood person. 00:13:38.110 --> 00:13:47.734 The text says this the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and the Greek word dwelt. 00:13:47.734 --> 00:13:54.538 If you have a better translation or a marginal reading, it will give you another word, which is the better word. 00:13:54.538 --> 00:13:56.374 John is actually using a word. 00:13:56.374 --> 00:14:15.504 Most of us, if you know your Old Testament, would know It literally, should read the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and John intends, in using the word tabernacled to make us think of something. 00:14:15.504 --> 00:14:19.118 And if you're a Jew, and every Jew who would read this text would think of it. 00:14:19.118 --> 00:14:19.600 What is it? 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:22.096 The tabernacle in the wilderness. 00:14:22.096 --> 00:14:33.216 Now, there may be some here that you never read the Old Testament because you opened it once and it says old and you said I don't need this And I won't comment on that because I'll really get off track. 00:14:33.216 --> 00:14:35.673 It's not old in that. 00:14:35.673 --> 00:14:37.296 We don't need to know it, folks. 00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:42.711 But you remember when God brought his people out of Egypt, he brought them to a mountain. 00:14:42.711 --> 00:14:46.071 Getting delivered from Egypt was not the goal. 00:14:46.071 --> 00:14:48.961 It was necessary, but that wasn't the landing place. 00:14:48.961 --> 00:14:50.544 God had a different purpose. 00:14:50.544 --> 00:14:51.989 He brought them to a mountain. 00:14:51.989 --> 00:14:57.875 And here's what he said to two million people or a million, whatever the count was at a mountain. 00:14:57.875 --> 00:15:00.144 First he took Moses up, he spoke to the people. 00:15:00.144 --> 00:15:12.130 Then he takes Moses to the top of the mountain And God says this let them construct me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. 00:15:12.495 --> 00:15:18.509 You got to get that God wasn't just about taking a people out of bondage. 00:15:18.509 --> 00:15:29.034 He was about creating a covenant community of people so that God could move in and actually take up residence in their midst. 00:15:29.034 --> 00:15:33.183 And so God said I want you to build something for me. 00:15:33.183 --> 00:15:37.740 I'm going to move in your midst, but I must live in a certain house. 00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:40.788 In fact, god told Moses here's the specifications. 00:15:40.788 --> 00:15:44.183 Nothing was left up to Moses and his own ingenuity. 00:15:44.183 --> 00:15:49.259 God gave him the pattern for the house and the tent, and then God came down. 00:15:49.259 --> 00:16:05.567 You remember when they built the tabernacle and in Exodus 40, the shecha'ina glory of God, the visible cloud of God's presence which had been leading Israel through the wilderness, came and hovered over the holy of holies in the tabernacle. 00:16:05.567 --> 00:16:10.475 As God said, he moved in to his dwelling place. 00:16:10.475 --> 00:16:16.565 Now this is the theme of the whole Bible. 00:16:16.565 --> 00:16:29.087 Let me take a moment and just go back a little bit because some of you might think God moving into a pup tent called the tabernacle was the first time God decided to move into a house. 00:16:29.087 --> 00:16:32.220 But it's really the story of the Bible, even up to Exodus. 00:16:32.400 --> 00:16:37.339 I mean, if you go back to Genesis, the Garden of Eden is believed to be a sanctuary. 00:16:37.339 --> 00:16:49.813 I don't know if you know that There was actually a land called Eden and the Garden of Eden was a sanctuary, the place where God dwelt in the land of Eden and had fellowship with Adam and Eve. 00:16:49.813 --> 00:16:52.264 That's what the Garden was. 00:16:52.264 --> 00:16:55.417 It wasn't about this beautiful, luscious garden. 00:16:55.417 --> 00:16:58.644 You stroll around and you pick daisies and sing songs. 00:16:58.644 --> 00:17:00.009 I mean, the Garden was that. 00:17:00.009 --> 00:17:06.847 But the thing about the Garden that made it a sanctuary is God's presence was there, it was tangible. 00:17:06.847 --> 00:17:34.354 But then suddenly you have what is called the great dislocation, the fall of Adam and Eve and the entrance of sin, and get this the removal of the presence of God in the earth, or we should say the removal of our first parents, who are now barred, banished, kept away from the presence of God. 00:17:34.354 --> 00:17:46.144 God is omnipresent, he was still there on the planet, but the place of sanctuary where God dwelt, where Adam and Eve were invited to have fellowship in their presence. 00:17:46.144 --> 00:17:55.163 Now Adam and Eve and their descendants are barred from the presence of God. 00:17:55.464 --> 00:17:56.366 And the rest of the? 00:17:56.366 --> 00:18:00.539 This is a two-minute review of the Old Testament. 00:18:00.539 --> 00:18:25.464 The rest of the Old Testament from that point in Genesis 3, when the presence of God moved off the planet, or I should say men and women were barred from the presence of God, the, as one theologian, gordon Fee, says so aptly the rest of the Old Testament is the story of the restoration of the presence of God in the earth. 00:18:25.464 --> 00:18:45.366 Jacob puts a stone under his head, sleeps at night, has a dream of an open ladder between heaven and earth, wakes up in the morning and shudders and says surely the Lord was in this place and I didn't know it. 00:18:45.366 --> 00:18:48.881 He was encountering the presence of God Here. 00:18:48.941 --> 00:19:06.047 In Exodus 25, the verse we just read, god says I want to move into a tent, and Israel carried the tent of tabernacle the tabernacle of witness, as it was called and the presence of God was invaded, the Holy of Holies. 00:19:06.047 --> 00:19:28.846 Later, the tabernacle gave rise to a temple that David's son built according to David's specifications, and you will remember in 2 Kings I'm sorry, in 1 Kings when Solomon dedicates the temple, the presence of God, the shechina again, the glory in dwells, the Holy of Holies of the temple. 00:19:28.846 --> 00:19:45.535 But all of this Jacob's experience tabernacle, temple were temporary, shadowy structures intended to foreshadow something else. 00:19:45.535 --> 00:19:50.090 All of these were not reality. 00:19:50.090 --> 00:19:56.470 If you would, we might read them and say, wow, i wish I could have seen a cloud leading Israel through the wilderness. 00:19:56.470 --> 00:20:03.313 But the reality of God's presence was not the temple and tabernacle and Jacob in the wilderness. 00:20:03.313 --> 00:20:06.144 These were only shadows of something else. 00:20:06.144 --> 00:20:09.771 And John now tells us it's occurred. 00:20:09.771 --> 00:20:13.786 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. 00:20:13.786 --> 00:20:19.880 Jesus is the restoration of the presence of God in the earth. 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:28.051 The Old Testament tabernacle was a picture of what John says now happened. 00:20:28.051 --> 00:20:33.268 The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. 00:20:33.307 --> 00:20:38.124 By the way, does anybody know why the Old Testament tabernacle was a type of Jesus Christ? 00:20:38.124 --> 00:20:42.519 One of the reasons is, when you looked at the tabernacle, it was not that impressive. 00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:43.583 It was pretty ordinary. 00:20:43.583 --> 00:20:55.063 It was a tent and probably it was made of badger's skin, whatever that is, and it wasn't really impressive and the sun probably marred it and it didn't look that impressive. 00:20:55.063 --> 00:21:01.906 I mean, when you compared the tabernacle to the pagan temples in the Old Testament, it paled in significance. 00:21:01.906 --> 00:21:12.642 But looks are deceiving and the tabernacle may have looked ordinary, but once you entered beyond the veil, you were struck with the riches. 00:21:12.642 --> 00:21:18.355 Colors on earth scarlet, purple, bronze, everything was gold. 00:21:18.355 --> 00:21:20.340 You were struck by the richness. 00:21:20.340 --> 00:21:23.769 How many know There's a perfect picture of the Lord Jesus. 00:21:23.769 --> 00:21:26.042 From the outside, people missed him. 00:21:26.042 --> 00:21:33.403 He's just a carpenter from Galilee, not that impressive, just from a little Galilee in Despised Town. 00:21:33.403 --> 00:21:34.727 But how many have discovered? 00:21:34.727 --> 00:21:39.722 once you entered into Christ you meet the riches of God. 00:21:49.535 --> 00:21:56.307 Now, if you still don't get it, jesus himself understood that he was the restoration of the presence of God in the earth. 00:21:56.307 --> 00:22:02.107 Remember in the next chapter of John, when he cleanses the temple and the Jews come up to him. 00:22:02.107 --> 00:22:05.539 They say by what authority do you do these things? 00:22:05.539 --> 00:22:09.472 And Jesus made this statement John, chapter 2. 00:22:09.472 --> 00:22:11.210 Don't turn there now. 00:22:11.210 --> 00:22:14.181 But it's there, i believe it's there. 00:22:14.181 --> 00:22:17.670 He said what authority do I do this? 00:22:17.670 --> 00:22:18.222 by? 00:22:18.222 --> 00:22:24.102 Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. 00:22:24.102 --> 00:22:26.366 And the Jewish leaders went what? 00:22:26.366 --> 00:22:29.734 It took 46 years. 00:22:29.734 --> 00:22:32.761 They're talking about Herod's temple, the second temple. 00:22:32.761 --> 00:22:39.362 It took 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days. 00:22:39.362 --> 00:22:40.923 I'm paraphrasing. 00:22:40.923 --> 00:22:52.648 And then John gives us a little footnote, john's inserting this, but this he spoke of the temple of his body. 00:22:52.648 --> 00:23:01.432 They didn't get it When he said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up, he wasn't talking about the temple he was speaking in. 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:03.805 He was talking about the temple of his body. 00:23:03.805 --> 00:23:12.373 In fact, in Greek, jesus used the word naos for temple there, which was the specific word used by Jews. 00:23:12.373 --> 00:23:18.509 Not of all the buildings of the temple, because the temple had outer court and all kinds of Roman architecture. 00:23:18.509 --> 00:23:24.166 It was the word in Greek for the sanctuary where the presence actually dwelt. 00:23:24.166 --> 00:23:27.894 And so Jesus is saying guys, get with it. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:33.405 This second Herodian temple is not the dwelling place of God. 00:23:33.405 --> 00:23:36.549 I am the dwelling place of God. 00:23:36.549 --> 00:23:42.380 The temple won't mean anything anymore. 00:23:42.380 --> 00:23:47.519 By the way, tell the church because everybody's excited about the temple being rebuilt. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:48.781 I don't get it. 00:23:48.781 --> 00:23:58.858 We have Jesus Christ and now God living in a flesh and blood temple called the church, and everybody's really excited about a temple standing in Jerusalem at the end Yuck. 00:23:58.858 --> 00:24:15.323 I don't have a problem with believing it might happen what Israel might do in unbelief, but please, please, i beg of you, do not posit the notion that God can't wait to rebuild the temple in the Middle East. 00:24:15.323 --> 00:24:26.055 God would never do that because that would be an abomination and an apostasy, because the blood of Jesus has finished the work the temple was a shadow of. 00:24:26.055 --> 00:24:36.289 I'm going to get a lot of people texting me saying you've destroyed my eschatology. 00:24:36.289 --> 00:24:38.757 I'm sorry, i didn't mean to. 00:24:41.304 --> 00:24:44.733 Here's what we have, but let me bring it to its conclusion. 00:24:44.733 --> 00:24:47.539 There were three reasons we need to understand the humanity of Christ. 00:24:47.539 --> 00:24:50.647 Number one he needed to die next week. 00:24:50.647 --> 00:24:55.069 Number two Jesus is the restoration of the presence of God. 00:24:55.069 --> 00:24:57.096 He's the dwelling place of God in the earth. 00:24:57.096 --> 00:25:07.159 Number three, and this is an inference The incarnation means that God is now living in his permanent temple. 00:25:07.159 --> 00:25:10.787 It's not Trinity Chapel, the building Thank God for the building. 00:25:10.787 --> 00:25:12.096 He doesn't live here. 00:25:12.096 --> 00:25:15.261 He's moved into his real temple, the church. 00:25:15.261 --> 00:25:22.215 He dwelt in shadow language in the Tabernacle and Temple. 00:25:22.215 --> 00:25:44.387 He then dwelt historically in the person of Jesus, and now he dwells permanently and in reality in the church, which is why Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 could say things like this We apostles are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, god's building. 00:25:44.387 --> 00:25:49.482 And he's speaking to a church that didn't own buildings yet For the first three centuries. 00:25:49.482 --> 00:25:50.707 This blows people's minds. 00:25:50.707 --> 00:25:55.223 The church never thought we need a building called the church. 00:25:55.223 --> 00:26:03.015 The church understood by apostolic teaching that the church was the building of God, the place where he dwelt. 00:26:05.101 --> 00:26:16.105 Later, in this chapter, 1 Corinthians 3, paul says it this way to the Corinthians Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? 00:26:16.105 --> 00:26:24.892 If anyone destroys God's temple, god will destroy him, for God's temple is holy and you are that temple, please. 00:26:24.892 --> 00:26:27.557 He's not talking about cigarette smoking. 00:26:27.557 --> 00:26:31.624 I've heard this quoted. 00:26:31.624 --> 00:26:40.448 There may be other verses that would be against smoking, but he's not talking about that. 00:26:40.448 --> 00:26:47.904 He's talking about the divisions that the Corinthians were dividing around and destroying the unity of the house of God. 00:26:47.904 --> 00:26:51.519 But he says you are God's temple. 00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:52.721 Everybody, look up here. 00:26:53.482 --> 00:26:56.388 God does not live in brick and mortar buildings. 00:26:56.388 --> 00:27:08.595 He lives in a house of living stones, each one indwelt by Jesus Christ and by the spirit and brought together in relationship, and that is God's permanent building. 00:27:08.595 --> 00:27:16.287 The church is not a building. 00:27:16.287 --> 00:27:35.198 It may use buildings as we do, but there's a hindrance and the answer is not to get rid of buildings, but there's an inference that we got to get rid of because there's so many of us who could never think of church life apart from buildings. 00:27:35.198 --> 00:27:40.487 But that's not the biblical, apostolic mandate. 00:27:40.487 --> 00:27:43.656 The church is a community indwelt by God. 00:27:43.656 --> 00:27:53.704 I heard a prophet once say it this way God may bless your plans, but he definitely inhabits your relationships. 00:27:53.704 --> 00:28:00.743 God may bless your plans, but he definitely inhabits your relationships. 00:28:00.743 --> 00:28:13.866 We must be very careful to remember that our experience of the church listen, it must be informed by the incarnation. 00:28:13.866 --> 00:28:17.220 It has to be informed by the incarnation. 00:28:17.742 --> 00:28:26.469 And I'm going to do a plug here for house churches, because if all you know of church life is going to a building looking at the back of someone's head, no relationships. 00:28:26.469 --> 00:28:29.803 And I understand that everybody can get to house churches. 00:28:29.803 --> 00:28:31.146 I understand that, i get that. 00:28:31.146 --> 00:28:43.317 But what I'm passionately pleading for is not to think that church life is just a compendium of Sundays where I sit and listen and participate and then run out and never involve myself with the body of Christ. 00:28:43.317 --> 00:28:47.005 This is why our vision at Trinity is house churches. 00:28:47.005 --> 00:28:50.660 They're not secondary meetings, sub meetings, plan B. 00:28:50.961 --> 00:29:00.348 The church meets once a week, corporately, but we gather together and we experience community, because that's what God indwells community. 00:29:00.348 --> 00:29:11.303 Now, having said that, there's something very important about a corporate gathering I don't minimize it What we do once a week and exploding in worship and hearing the gospel is very important. 00:29:11.303 --> 00:29:23.625 It is biblical, it is apostolic, but church life is entering community, entering relationships, experiencing the body of Christ And, by the way, when you try this, you'll know why you need the presence of God. 00:29:23.625 --> 00:29:31.917 Mean God get along great, but he has some weird kids And we have to. 00:29:31.917 --> 00:29:43.077 Now I'm going to say something controversial, because but I listen to people and I don't get it, because the incarnation says God's dwelling in the church, but we keep acting like we have to bring him down. 00:29:43.077 --> 00:29:48.647 Here's some good news We don't have to bring him down. 00:29:48.647 --> 00:29:51.417 He's in us, he came down. 00:29:51.417 --> 00:30:01.098 I get the feeling that we think he goes back to heaven and if we worship loud enough and scream loud enough and do stuff, he'll come back. 00:30:01.098 --> 00:30:01.859 But you know what? 00:30:01.859 --> 00:30:20.878 He's here And when you begin to realize you're indwelt by God if you're a Christian, the whole ballgame changes And finally the incarnation informs us of the way we are to do mission. 00:30:20.878 --> 00:30:23.192 Give me five more minutes. 00:30:23.192 --> 00:30:24.971 Give me your undivided attention. 00:30:24.971 --> 00:30:26.288 You need to listen to this. 00:30:26.288 --> 00:30:28.070 This isn't for message only. 00:30:28.070 --> 00:30:30.451 This is where we're going as a church. 00:30:31.325 --> 00:30:34.174 I like Eugene Peterson's translation of John 1.14. 00:30:34.174 --> 00:30:35.289 It's actually a paraphrase. 00:30:35.289 --> 00:30:37.711 I read it occasionally as a paraphrase. 00:30:37.711 --> 00:30:40.048 Don't read it If that's the only Bible you use. 00:30:40.048 --> 00:30:42.115 You're going to be in trouble because he takes great liberties. 00:30:42.115 --> 00:30:43.549 But I love John 1.14. 00:30:43.549 --> 00:30:50.007 In the message he says it this way the word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. 00:30:50.007 --> 00:30:53.830 Isn't that neat? 00:30:53.830 --> 00:30:55.849 It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood. 00:30:55.849 --> 00:31:13.814 But that paraphrase catches and captures what lies at the core of the call of the church to be a missional people. 00:31:13.814 --> 00:31:20.592 The word became flesh and blood and he didn't haul up in a building once a week invite people to come and hear him. 00:31:20.592 --> 00:31:27.478 He went intentionally to seek and to save that which is lost. 00:31:27.765 --> 00:31:32.236 The mission for Jesus, unlike the modern church, wasn't an event. 00:31:32.236 --> 00:31:35.874 Mission wasn't Tuesday night 7 to 9. 00:31:35.874 --> 00:31:37.548 There's nothing wrong with that. 00:31:37.548 --> 00:31:39.750 Missional events definitely have their place. 00:31:39.750 --> 00:31:49.165 But when God decided to invade this planet, he did it by wrapping himself in flesh and blood and coming to this planet And get this. 00:31:49.165 --> 00:32:00.298 When he came he didn't come as some unappreciable religious figure, you know, far removed from the things that normal human beings have to deal with. 00:32:00.298 --> 00:32:05.277 He was a real man living with real problems in a real world. 00:32:05.444 --> 00:32:12.238 There is a term that theologians and misciologists use for this approach to ministry. 00:32:12.238 --> 00:32:20.853 It's called incarnational missionality Incarnational, if you don't get it. 00:32:20.853 --> 00:32:21.634 It's this simple. 00:32:21.634 --> 00:32:28.678 Jesus, in order to accomplish his mission, had to enter the lives of people. 00:32:28.678 --> 00:32:30.130 He moved into the neighbor. 00:32:30.130 --> 00:32:31.628 Where did he get his apostles? 00:32:31.628 --> 00:32:34.372 How did he touch a woman in Samaria? 00:32:34.372 --> 00:32:35.930 He moved into their lives. 00:32:35.930 --> 00:32:39.670 He touched people, he entered people's space. 00:32:39.670 --> 00:32:44.051 It happened to me again, even this week. 00:32:44.051 --> 00:32:48.294 I'm leaving my house for the 14th Christian meeting I do this week. 00:32:48.294 --> 00:32:58.116 Now I'm looking at my neighbors outside getting in their cars and I said to myself I wish I could spend time reaching my neighbors but I can't. 00:32:58.116 --> 00:32:59.689 I'm too busy serving God. 00:32:59.689 --> 00:33:07.172 But for Jesus, entering the lives of his neighbors was serving God. 00:33:07.172 --> 00:33:15.211 This has incredible implications for how we do church. 00:33:17.005 --> 00:33:21.055 Now I'm not going to go to extremes, but there's two models of missionality. 00:33:21.055 --> 00:33:26.976 One is rapidly decreasing in effectiveness in the Western church. 00:33:26.976 --> 00:33:29.049 It's called the attractional model. 00:33:29.049 --> 00:33:36.176 It's the Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams philosophy of missionality. 00:33:36.176 --> 00:33:43.019 If you build it, they will come And we will bust them across town and they'll pass 300 churches. 00:33:43.019 --> 00:33:46.029 but that's okay if we can get them in our house. 00:33:46.029 --> 00:33:54.373 And in order to do that, pastors are living under tremendous pressure to have all the bells and whistles and the best programs. 00:33:54.373 --> 00:33:57.733 Man, we got to have better youth programs over here than over there. 00:33:57.733 --> 00:34:11.150 If we want to get them Now, i'm not suggesting that there isn't a place for dynamic corporate meetings where people are drawn, i think, to X. 00:34:11.210 --> 00:34:12.233 That out is stupid. 00:34:12.233 --> 00:34:14.952 Only God brings people in that way. 00:34:14.952 --> 00:34:17.873 But if we want to reach Knoxville, i do not have faith. 00:34:17.873 --> 00:34:22.777 I'm sorry that next Sunday all of Knoxville will come out to hear me. 00:34:22.777 --> 00:34:27.987 It isn't going to happen, folks, i'm just worried that you'll come back and hear me. 00:34:27.987 --> 00:34:44.090 But the incarnation informs us that Jesus never said go into the world, set up buildings and bid them to come in. 00:34:44.090 --> 00:34:45.668 He gave two commands. 00:34:45.668 --> 00:34:48.231 If you're a Christian, number one, come unto me. 00:34:48.231 --> 00:34:49.208 How many have done that? 00:34:49.208 --> 00:34:51.851 Okay, and now look up. 00:34:51.851 --> 00:34:53.349 His second was go. 00:34:55.405 --> 00:35:01.690 Friend of mine, jim McCracken, preached from that text and his sermon title was if you're a disciple, you're out of here. 00:35:01.690 --> 00:35:05.246 He lost half his church. 00:35:05.246 --> 00:35:05.568 That's not. 00:35:05.568 --> 00:35:17.034 You see, when we talk about being a missional church, we can't think of that, apart from an event and a program and doing something evangelistic. 00:35:17.034 --> 00:35:18.389 And again, there's a place for that. 00:35:18.389 --> 00:35:20.911 But most of us are not gifted to do that. 00:35:20.911 --> 00:35:25.655 Most of us are probably not going to open air, preach or knock on doors. 00:35:25.655 --> 00:35:26.789 Some of us can do that. 00:35:26.789 --> 00:35:29.990 Some of us have divine chutzpah. 00:35:29.990 --> 00:35:33.577 That's a Jewish word. 00:35:33.577 --> 00:35:39.650 I did not curse, but you know what missionality is. 00:35:39.650 --> 00:35:45.954 It's about normal human lifestyle being the perfect conduit for reaching people. 00:35:47.878 --> 00:35:51.813 Think about this The Word came to this planet in John's gospel and what did He do? 00:35:51.813 --> 00:35:56.315 First thing He did invited some guys to hang out with Him. 00:35:56.315 --> 00:35:58.692 John 1, rabbi, where do you hang? 00:35:58.692 --> 00:36:01.088 Come and see Profound Word. 00:36:01.088 --> 00:36:02.505 Come and see Enter. 00:36:02.505 --> 00:36:03.248 Hang out with me. 00:36:03.248 --> 00:36:10.574 Then He went to a wedding, normal, ordinary wedding. 00:36:10.574 --> 00:36:16.213 Okay, they ran out of wine and He turned water into grape juice. 00:36:16.213 --> 00:36:19.086 Get that right. 00:36:19.086 --> 00:36:21.509 He went to the temple. 00:36:21.509 --> 00:36:24.052 Next chapter, he talked to a woman. 00:36:24.052 --> 00:36:31.577 Next chapter, he went to a portico and touched a person, crippled for 38 years. 00:36:31.925 --> 00:36:43.195 Jesus' life demonstrates that God is perfectly comfortable in human skin and that human skin is the perfect conduit for God. 00:36:43.195 --> 00:36:49.134 Because I had somebody ask me well, how do I do this? 00:36:49.134 --> 00:36:50.250 I don't know what to say. 00:36:50.250 --> 00:36:51.389 I said don't say anything. 00:36:51.389 --> 00:36:59.952 Become friends with sinners, hang out with them, love on them And you gotta get out of this pressure. 00:36:59.952 --> 00:37:07.215 You know, it's like some of us think I gotta get my neighbor over for dinner And when I'm pouring the salad so nice to have you. 00:37:07.215 --> 00:37:08.309 Would you like Thousand Island? 00:37:08.309 --> 00:37:08.951 you're going to hell. 00:37:08.951 --> 00:37:18.012 I mean, we become so unnatural and weird and like, and I learned that I learned evangelism was disregard. 00:37:18.012 --> 00:37:19.789 The person don't show an interest. 00:37:19.789 --> 00:37:23.349 Get the message out and move on if they're not interested. 00:37:23.349 --> 00:37:24.313 Do you want Jesus? 00:37:24.313 --> 00:37:24.974 Goodbye. 00:37:24.974 --> 00:37:31.568 Now that's valid when you're in a restaurant you're never going to see a waitress again or you're in a store. 00:37:31.568 --> 00:37:32.452 But when you. 00:37:32.764 --> 00:37:35.847 Missionality is not about just touching people you won't see again. 00:37:35.847 --> 00:37:36.490 That's valid. 00:37:36.490 --> 00:37:45.956 But it's about entering the lives of people and becoming aware that every man and woman in this room has been given a sphere of missionality. 00:37:45.956 --> 00:37:50.893 There are people in your orbit, through work, through school, through your neighborhood. 00:37:50.893 --> 00:37:56.806 We went to a homeowner's association in my subdivision, first one. 00:37:56.806 --> 00:37:58.211 We went to man, oh man. 00:37:58.211 --> 00:38:02.652 That was almost like a doctrinal fight. 00:38:02.652 --> 00:38:06.606 I mean it was, but we were there going man. 00:38:06.606 --> 00:38:08.431 How do we enter these people's lives? 00:38:08.431 --> 00:38:15.208 And then we went to an event this week and I saw someone from my subdivision, got to know him a little bit. 00:38:15.208 --> 00:38:27.351 I'm always asking God, god, let me enter lives, let me experience people in a way that I can just love on them and touch them. 00:38:27.485 --> 00:38:34.668 Someone once said that the real need of the church is not to come to terms with Christ's divinity but with his humanity. 00:38:34.668 --> 00:38:46.074 In a word and I end here it's not so much that we need to invite people into our churches as we need to invite people into our lives. 00:38:46.074 --> 00:38:49.949 But here's the gist, and this is amazing What is the church? 00:38:49.949 --> 00:38:52.490 If you're a part of the church, would you raise your hand? 00:38:52.490 --> 00:38:58.771 So if I invite people into my life, i am inviting them into the church. 00:38:58.771 --> 00:39:03.851 It's not just about getting them to a Sunday meeting, and I think there's a place for that. 00:39:03.851 --> 00:39:05.505 I'm not saying don't do that, some of you. 00:39:05.505 --> 00:39:08.690 I need to say that I give you permission to invite people. 00:39:08.690 --> 00:39:13.670 I won't be weird, but how many have discovered that? 00:39:13.670 --> 00:39:16.748 for example, the one time you get the guy there, the meeting is weird. 00:39:16.748 --> 00:39:17.411 Have you noticed that? 00:39:17.411 --> 00:39:20.128 Remember that, sandy? 00:39:20.128 --> 00:39:27.429 remember in Alabama we tried to get that church of Christ minister and we finally got him to come And Steve and I had this group. 00:39:27.429 --> 00:39:29.094 It was. 00:39:29.094 --> 00:39:34.851 We had our heads down the whole time just praying oh God, shut his ears. 00:39:38.525 --> 00:39:47.327 Look at our three values as a church and look how they're informed by the incarnation Community discipleship and mission Community. 00:39:47.327 --> 00:39:50.235 God doesn't live in a building and I meet with him. 00:39:50.235 --> 00:39:52.152 He inhabits my relationships. 00:39:52.152 --> 00:40:03.210 When I go to Gary's house church, if I'm part of that house church, i'm being built together as a living stone with other people in that house church. 00:40:03.210 --> 00:40:10.952 Discipleship we need to move away from the notion that people learn the Christian life only by coming to meetings. 00:40:10.952 --> 00:40:19.612 Meetings have a place, but listen to me, people don't learn Christianity by sitting in chairs and listening to me the rest of your life. 00:40:19.612 --> 00:40:23.114 Christianity is caught, not merely taught. 00:40:23.114 --> 00:40:26.054 It is imparted person to person. 00:40:26.054 --> 00:40:27.889 It is personal. 00:40:27.889 --> 00:40:33.567 It is discipleship which allows a person to transfer the life of God to another. 00:40:33.567 --> 00:40:38.753 And finally, mission Mission is not only about inviting people to meetings. 00:40:38.753 --> 00:40:41.952 Again, that has its place, but that's not the heart and soul of it. 00:40:41.952 --> 00:40:47.789 It is asking God to allow you to enter the lives of our neighbors and coworkers. 00:40:47.789 --> 00:40:50.072 I wanna do something here at Trinity in the future. 00:40:50.072 --> 00:40:50.686 I mean this. 00:40:50.686 --> 00:40:53.148 I mean we laid hands on Kevin and sent him to Columbia. 00:40:53.148 --> 00:40:58.251 I'd like to lay hands on men in this church and send you to become Little League coaches. 00:40:58.251 --> 00:41:18.215 And I have a friend who's a pastor who joined not Kiwanis, what's the other club Rotary he became a part of the Rotary Club and he said man, it's amazing the relationships I'm forming just by being part of the Rotary. 00:41:18.215 --> 00:41:24.550 Shelly and I are gonna join Benay Brith, that's a Jewish organization. 00:41:25.452 --> 00:41:31.791 Intended to be a very sick joke, but I asked you this question this morning. 00:41:31.791 --> 00:41:34.612 The word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:41:34.612 --> 00:41:37.648 I was talking to a guy. 00:41:37.648 --> 00:41:38.932 I said how you doing right now? 00:41:38.932 --> 00:41:43.634 And he hung his head and literally said well, just working in a factory right now. 00:41:43.634 --> 00:41:47.193 And then he said but I'm looking for the will of God. 00:41:47.193 --> 00:41:50.048 I said what are you on hold? 00:41:50.048 --> 00:41:55.072