Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Outside the Bell Curve
Jesus did not act according to social norms, and often His actions look sinful to us; but is the problem His behavior or our standard?
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:He assaulted businessmen in the temple right and he damaged their wares John 2, 15 and 16. It says he made a scourge. It didn't say he picked one up. He made it for this purpose. Have you ever done that? Made a weapon and then went and used it on someone? Many people would say that is not the act of someone who is sinless. That's sin. Now, if Jesus took a modern psychological personality profile, a lot of companies do these right.
Speaker 2:They want to evaluate people who are candidates for their positions in their corporations because they want to see if they're, you know, in the right place in the bell curve, because we can't have any people on the outside fringes of the bell curve. So they have these psychological profiles that prospective employees must fill out, questionnaires and so forth. Now, if you did and Christians have done this they've submitted the gospel accounts of Christ's life to these questions to fill it out, so to speak, on his behalf, to see where he would fit on the bell curve. He wasn't exactly inside the bell curve very far, and you know people like, for example, some of these questions are like do you pray about, you know this or that, and so on and forth. If you say yes, you get points off, okay. So Jesus kind of did a lot of that stuff where he lost points on these modern psychological personality profiles, so he wouldn't be considered again by these evaluations to be perfect. He'd be on the fringes of the bell curve. Now I'm building all this up because I said on one hand, hey, the Bible says Jesus never sinned. There are behaviors, things that he states and other things that he does that from some people's perspective indicates he did sin. And now I'm asking the question why is it that there seems to be a discrepancy in some people's minds about whether Jesus was really sinless or not. It has to do with the source of standards for evaluating. It has to do with the source of standards for evaluating. Question who came up with the personality psychological profile test? Well, the guy who wrote the test. In other words, what's it a reflection of? It's a reflection of the person who wrote the test. In other words, what's it a reflection of? It's a reflection of the person who wrote the test standards. The standards come from the person who made the test. All they are is reflective of his own persona.
Speaker 2:Now, when we evaluate Jesus' life, his bluntness toward his mother, his abrasiveness toward Jewish family loyalties and traditions, his perhaps speech abuse of people calling them sons of hell, dens of vipers, whitewashed tombs and every other thing like this when does the source of standards for judging him come from? In many cases, they're coming from us. What do we think is a proper child's response to a parent? Where is that source or standard coming from? Because if the Bible insists that Jesus never sinned, then Jesus' bluntness toward his mother was not sinful, was it? So could a child be blunt toward his mother like that and be okay? Well, many moms today would say absolutely no. But what is wrong with the picture? The mom has her own standards, or the dad whatever, and they're not the standards of god. They are that person's own standards.
Speaker 2:So what have you done? You've elevated yourself and made your thinking above God's thinking. In other words, you violated the created creature distinction and you put yourself above him. Is this a problem? Yes, this is a problem. We shouldn't do this. We should never do this.
Speaker 2:So the source of standards for judging is the Bible. In fact, if you want to look at the perfect person, to see what the perfect life looks like, so you can design a test. You would take the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and you would build a test based on him and what he did and what he said and whatever that test was. Then people took that test. You'd see how perfect they were or were not, because he's an absolute standard. This isn't Joe Blow, working for some corporation who built a personality profile test. This is the God of the universe, who came and dwelt among us and he knows what it is to be a human and he lived the perfect human life.
Speaker 2:So this challenges every one of us to ask the question do I have the right standards? Am I adopting the right standards and criteria for evaluating things? Because if we're not, we're not judging things rightly. And that's why I said you know, the modern Jesus has been reduced to a caricature and a what-would-Jesus-do bracelet. I mean, it's laughable, because I don't think that 99, and I really mean 99, not 95 or 90 or 88, 99% of Christians would not do what Jesus did and they would think that if they did something like what Jesus did, it would be sinful.
Speaker 2:And why would did something like what Jesus did? It would be sinful. And why would they not do what Jesus did? Because they don't really know who he is. And that's why I've gone into the hypostatic union, that's why I've gone into the kenosis, that's why I'm going into impeccability now, because if you really want to do what Jesus did and you really want to love Jesus, you have to know who he is and you have to do what Jesus did. And you really want to love Jesus, you have to know who he is and you have to see what he did.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church that is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. Bible Church that is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.