WEBVTT 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:24.539 Listen, I'm going to invite you to take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to the book of Colossians. 00:00:24.699 --> 00:00:29.420 Just probably the best thing to do is to look down at verse number one. 00:00:30.140 --> 00:00:34.379 We're going to be reading some verses around that particular passage. 00:00:35.019 --> 00:00:43.899 Man, what an incredible study God has given us to walk through as we prepare our hearts for the resurrection. 00:00:44.140 --> 00:01:06.379 Several weeks ago, as we started this study, I told you my objective, like really what I want to come out of this, is to create within each of us this aptitude, this desire, this press to worship for not just what God has done at the cross, but how he did it. 00:01:06.539 --> 00:01:14.140 Now, in fairness, every single time we open up God's word, it should provoke us to worship. 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:29.659 But with this material here, to examine what God did at Gagatha is to really learn something about his heart as well as ours. 00:01:43.099 --> 00:01:47.500 To be honest with you, people share their thoughts with me about a lot of different things. 00:01:47.659 --> 00:01:54.140 Sometimes I'm not always ready to hear the things that people share with me, and that's cool. 00:01:54.379 --> 00:02:01.260 But when it comes to death, it's a topic that, man, I'm I'm eager to discuss. 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:02.939 Not because I'm excited about it. 00:02:03.019 --> 00:02:04.299 I'm like you are. 00:02:05.739 --> 00:02:09.819 The older I get, the more I look, and like I want to see what comes next. 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:18.540 Like I'm eager to see what happens, and I'm so convinced of the truth of Scripture that I has not seen and ear has not heard. 00:02:18.620 --> 00:02:22.219 Like no one knows what God has in store for his elect. 00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:24.860 And I'm looking forward to seeing that. 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:30.860 But it's the it's the transition to get there that concerns me. 00:02:31.819 --> 00:02:32.540 Am I alone? 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:34.139 Are you all with me on that? 00:02:35.100 --> 00:02:37.180 Here, let's try this pop quiz. 00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:40.379 Um, answer this question, fill in this blank. 00:02:40.779 --> 00:02:44.939 When it comes my time to go, I hope blank. 00:02:45.980 --> 00:03:04.139 Well, if you're like most folks, words like um, I hope I go too quickly, I hope I go too painlessly, um, I hope I go um in my own home and in my own bed. 00:03:04.540 --> 00:03:23.339 Now I can tell you that unfortunately, because of the state of the world we live in and the fact that technology, while it has been able to extend living, sometimes it creates situations where that goal isn't achieved. 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:36.620 In fact, I read an article several um probably about a year and a half ago in uh Scientific America uh where they're discussing the fact that most people don't die at home in their own bed. 00:03:36.939 --> 00:03:45.100 And in fact, less than one out of four of us are going to be able to achieve that goal. 00:03:45.660 --> 00:03:55.819 So when we say, when it comes my time, I hope, blank, we know the truth is we have no control over when that happens or what that looks like. 00:03:56.060 --> 00:03:58.379 If we did, we know how we would ride it. 00:03:58.540 --> 00:04:07.660 I mean, right, I'd be asleep, a very, very old man in the middle of the night, the day after the Lord called Kim home. 00:04:07.819 --> 00:04:09.660 Like that would be that would be how I would go. 00:04:09.899 --> 00:04:12.300 Either that or I would die in this pulpit, right? 00:04:12.379 --> 00:04:14.060 That one of those two ways, good for me. 00:04:14.139 --> 00:04:15.420 God pick A or B. 00:04:15.579 --> 00:04:17.740 But we don't get to choose, do we? 00:04:18.379 --> 00:04:22.379 Now, we don't get to choose, but Jesus did. 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:25.100 He, of course, is God. 00:04:25.420 --> 00:04:35.020 And as we read when we first began this series, as he knelt in the garden and called out to the Father, he said, All things are possible for you. 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:37.500 Let this cup pass from me. 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:42.300 And so that prayer was in the context of the cup he was about to drink. 00:04:42.460 --> 00:04:47.020 In other words, that prayer was in the context of the cross. 00:04:47.819 --> 00:04:49.259 All things are possible. 00:04:49.420 --> 00:05:01.500 Like whenever God picked up the whiteboard and began to sketch out the plan of salvation before creation, scripture tells us, before the foundation of the world, he sketched this stuff out. 00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:08.620 Whenever he began to sketch it out, he had no limits and could have chosen any way he wanted to go. 00:05:08.780 --> 00:05:16.860 And whenever Jesus completed that blank, when it comes my time to go, he said, I choose the cross. 00:05:19.259 --> 00:05:27.259 Now, when we say he chose the cross, we don't mean like it was a binary choice, like I can do it or I cannot do it. 00:05:27.819 --> 00:05:34.699 When we say he chose the cross, we mean he chose, he designed, he planned the cross. 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:37.980 This was not accidental, it was intentional. 00:05:38.139 --> 00:05:49.100 And since it was intentional and such a key focus of Scripture, we know that like everything about it must have been rich with meaning. 00:05:49.420 --> 00:06:22.139 And so we began to look at specifically Luke's description of this moment when he said, when they came, the Romans and the Jews, those who represented the hope of government to fix our reality, and the hope of religion to fix our reality, those who represented what we would do if we were at the cross, that if we were there, we would also kill God, because scripture tells us we are born at enmity. 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:24.300 We are born at war with God. 00:06:24.460 --> 00:06:37.819 I know you think you wouldn't, but the reality is when your heart is triggered, when your heart is provoked in the absence of the Spirit, what we really want is to be our own God, to stand at the top of the hill. 00:06:37.900 --> 00:06:42.460 And for us to stand at the top of the hill, God has to be dethroned. 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:45.180 We would kill him given the chance. 00:06:45.340 --> 00:06:48.460 Just like the Romans would, just like the Jews would. 00:06:48.540 --> 00:07:16.780 And then last week we looked at not only they, when they came to the place, that very precisely chosen location where Abraham had offered Isaac, where David had prayed for mercy on the city, and where Solomon established a prayer for the entire world, the entire world to be to experience grace and mercy there in that place. 00:07:17.660 --> 00:07:25.500 And then today we move forward in this phrase that Luke gives us. 00:07:25.900 --> 00:07:32.060 They, when they came to the place that is called the school, there, they crucified him. 00:07:32.939 --> 00:07:42.300 Now, if I had the chance to choose how I was going to leave this world, there's a long list of options that I would check before I got to crucifixion. 00:07:42.540 --> 00:07:54.780 Because crucifixion is perhaps, if not absolutely, the worst form of execution man has ever devised. 00:08:30.939 --> 00:08:34.779 And you were in as much pain as they could inflict. 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:50.220 So that as you were up there, the spectacle of your death wasn't just people could see you and be afraid, but they could hear you groan as you passed out. 00:08:51.180 --> 00:09:09.899 And the momentary silence might lead someone to believe that you finally expired until they could hear the groan of your body reacting against the open wounds on your back rubbing up against the rugged cross. 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:13.659 It was a brutal, brutal way to go. 00:09:13.899 --> 00:09:17.100 Which raises the question why would he choose this way? 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:22.539 Why was this the pathway to redemption that he chose? 00:09:22.779 --> 00:09:30.860 Now, I know what some of you are saying, Major, it's obvious this is the way that he chose because this is the way Scripture said he would go. 00:09:31.259 --> 00:09:34.860 Okay, well, let's let's get into some infinite regression here. 00:09:34.940 --> 00:09:38.460 And let me ask you the question: who wrote Scripture? 00:09:39.419 --> 00:09:43.419 God wrote Scripture, which means this was his plan from the very beginning. 00:09:43.580 --> 00:09:45.500 What was the reason for it? 00:09:45.740 --> 00:09:50.060 Now here's what I want to do in the next few minutes that we have together. 00:09:50.379 --> 00:10:03.659 I want to look at a passage in Colossians where Paul sets Jesus up as the one who brings our salvation by himself. 00:10:04.060 --> 00:10:12.220 And you're gonna notice the phrase in him repeatedly used throughout a couple of verses that we're going to read to set this up. 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:32.539 And when we when we get down to verse number 15 of chapter two, we're gonna skip some verses, but when we get down to the end of the verses, what you're going to see is that Paul reveals two reasons why the cross was used by God to accomplish redemption. 00:10:33.019 --> 00:10:35.740 The cross said this another way. 00:10:35.899 --> 00:10:44.460 The cross accomplished two purposes for God that were necessary for our redemption. 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:46.379 Okay, here we go. 00:10:46.539 --> 00:10:52.460 If you will, look with me down to verse number 15 of chapter one. 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:54.860 So roll back to chapter one. 00:10:55.419 --> 00:10:57.500 This is an ancient hymn. 00:10:57.820 --> 00:11:03.259 As Paul writes to Colossae, a church he had never visited, which he did not establish. 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:11.259 He's writing in response to a conversation that he had had with the church planter, the apparent church planter, a man named Epaphres. 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:20.620 And what Paul learned was that there were cultural pressures that were causing people to take half measures in the faith. 00:11:21.100 --> 00:11:23.580 We have the same pressure today, don't we? 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:37.180 There are cultural pressures which push us to take a step back, to turn the volume down, to maybe not be so, you know, so dedicated and so um out in our faith. 00:11:37.419 --> 00:11:46.779 And so Paul is writing to a culture very similar to ours, and early in the letter, he gives them a hymn, a song that they would have sung. 00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:51.740 And as we read this, I want you to watch for the phrase, in him. 00:11:53.100 --> 00:11:59.100 He, he's talking about Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:13.019 For in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether throngs or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. 00:12:13.899 --> 00:12:16.940 And he is the head of the body, the church. 00:12:24.060 --> 00:12:25.580 Look at verse 19. 00:12:25.899 --> 00:12:33.100 Again, for in him all things, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:34.379 What's he saying there? 00:12:34.620 --> 00:12:43.500 And throughout this entire passage, he's saying, Jesus, his power, his authority, his rule created everything. 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:48.940 And that same rule, that same authority now sets at the head of the church. 00:12:49.180 --> 00:12:59.740 If we are involved in an organization that is being led by someone of such great power and magnificence, that gives me a lot of hope for what the church does. 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:00.539 Amen. 00:13:00.779 --> 00:13:06.379 Now, I'm not necessarily talking about us, but I'm talking about God's people collectively. 00:13:06.620 --> 00:13:13.100 But when we think about God's power, Jesus' power, it's not just that he sits at the head of the church. 00:13:13.180 --> 00:13:16.620 It's something far deeper, something far greater. 00:13:17.019 --> 00:13:29.100 All of that power, all of that authority dwells in him, in his personage, and through him to reconcile, we're told himself to all things. 00:13:38.620 --> 00:13:42.940 Sorry, peace by the blood of his what? 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:45.659 Because that's all about the cross. 00:13:45.899 --> 00:13:46.220 Right? 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:47.580 This is how God did it. 00:13:47.820 --> 00:14:07.659 God brings the power that spoke everything into existence and delivers it to the church and lives inside of the individual, the individuals who make up the church and he did this through the cross. 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:10.300 Now, why is that important? 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:28.060 It's important because the next command tells us, verse 6 of chapter 2 tells us that as we received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk, and here are the phrases again, in Him. 00:14:29.419 --> 00:14:29.899 Why? 00:14:30.460 --> 00:14:37.419 Why are we called to use the same power that gave us access to Jesus? 00:14:37.740 --> 00:14:45.419 Why is it that we still lean on that same power after we've been baptized and came to faith? 00:14:46.060 --> 00:15:01.340 Why is it that this that that the the 90-year-old Christian who was saved whenever she was eight continues to walk by the same power that that the individual who just today prays the prayer of salvation? 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:03.659 Like why is it that same? 00:15:04.060 --> 00:15:09.580 The reason is because the same power that saves us sustains us. 00:15:10.300 --> 00:15:16.860 We aren't saved and placed on a plateau where we exist kind of on our own. 00:15:17.180 --> 00:15:19.500 Sin's no longer a problem, so we're good. 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:20.460 No, no, no. 00:15:20.539 --> 00:15:22.779 It takes more than sin not being a problem. 00:15:23.100 --> 00:15:29.180 Sin must not be the problem and the Savior be the solution at all times. 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:36.620 And so that's why we're told about the power of Jesus, that the same power that created this world now lives in the church. 00:15:36.700 --> 00:15:42.620 Now look at verse number nine, as Paul sort of drills in on this idea of the cross. 00:15:42.700 --> 00:15:47.740 He says, For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:53.500 Like he is very God, a very God in the flesh, and you have been filled with him. 00:15:55.500 --> 00:15:56.779 Did you catch that? 00:15:57.340 --> 00:16:06.860 In Jesus, all of that power that we just sung about here earlier in Colossians dwells in Jesus fully. 00:16:07.580 --> 00:16:09.659 And you and I dwell in him. 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:15.500 We've been filled in him who is the head and rule of all authorities. 00:16:15.659 --> 00:16:24.700 In him also we were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. 00:16:24.860 --> 00:16:28.940 Boy, that's confusion, confusing for those of us who were in this context. 00:16:29.019 --> 00:16:37.259 But essentially, what Paul is saying here is that same power that lives within you has marked you for covenant. 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:53.820 I appreciate that because I don't want to have to get up every morning and mark myself for covenant to do something that identifies the fact that, okay, that makes it so that God and I are still good. 00:16:54.460 --> 00:16:57.180 I want the burden for that to be on Him. 00:16:57.340 --> 00:17:02.060 And so we've been marked for covenant by the power of Jesus Christ now. 00:17:02.379 --> 00:17:03.180 Here we go. 00:17:03.500 --> 00:17:05.500 How does that happen? 00:17:05.819 --> 00:17:10.059 Well, of course, Paul's already told us that happened by the cross. 00:17:10.700 --> 00:17:13.259 But what exactly happened at the cross? 00:17:13.419 --> 00:17:15.899 What did God accomplish at the cross? 00:17:16.379 --> 00:17:16.859 Here we go. 00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:17.419 Here it is. 00:17:17.579 --> 00:17:31.259 We've been buried with him in baptism, in which we were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. 00:17:32.299 --> 00:17:37.339 Now, here's what God did at the cross for you. 00:17:38.219 --> 00:17:44.619 Here is what he accomplished for us by choosing the cross. 00:17:44.939 --> 00:18:06.379 Number one, he um it tells us what he did at the cross tells us what he did with our record, and number two, it tells us what he did to the rulers, what he did with the record, and what he did to the rulers. 00:18:06.539 --> 00:18:08.139 Look at verse number 13. 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:17.259 And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your heart, of your flesh, God made alive. 00:18:17.899 --> 00:18:24.699 Please read that in the context of the power we just read about earlier in this chapter. 00:18:25.019 --> 00:18:36.059 That the same power that created the universe that fills Jesus, that now fills you, has made you alive, which means when Jesus makes you alive, you are really alive. 00:18:36.539 --> 00:18:43.179 It has made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. 00:18:43.339 --> 00:18:44.779 That's important, isn't it? 00:18:45.019 --> 00:18:52.379 Because the real question about how do we connect with God is how do we deal with our sin? 00:18:53.099 --> 00:18:56.459 Because it is our sin that has made a breach between us and God. 00:18:56.619 --> 00:18:59.819 Something has to be done with our sin. 00:19:00.699 --> 00:19:02.859 The past sins that we have committed, right? 00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:14.219 All of those things that you thought that you should not think, do that you should not have done, that the lies, the cheating, the images, the thoughts, the stuff that didn't belong to you that you took. 00:19:14.939 --> 00:19:16.139 Something has to be done with that. 00:19:16.299 --> 00:19:17.339 What gets done with that? 00:19:17.579 --> 00:19:26.459 And by the way, not only what has to be done, something has to be done with the sins that you have committed, but how many of you plan on committing sins later today? 00:19:26.939 --> 00:19:31.179 I mean, you don't plan on it, but you know what's going to happen or later in life. 00:19:31.339 --> 00:19:34.619 Like something's got to be done with all of that. 00:19:35.019 --> 00:19:36.299 What happened to it? 00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:48.939 Well, Paul tells us that he got rid of it, that he removed it, that we've been forgiven, and he did this by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with the legal demands. 00:19:49.099 --> 00:19:55.500 Well, of course there were legal demands, because the consequences for crime were brutal. 00:19:56.219 --> 00:20:24.299 Whenever Paul says here that he removed it, that he removed, that he canceled the debt, the record of debt that was against us, it's the same word that's used whenever an amanuensis, an author was using a parchment to write something down, and there was already something on that parchment, but it was an old note, an old letter, something that could be could be erased. 00:20:25.419 --> 00:20:34.939 He would take the parchment and he would he would clean it thoroughly and wipe off all of the old print and all of the old ink so that he could put a new message on there. 00:20:35.099 --> 00:20:43.339 It's the same word that was used here that the record of our sin has been wiped clean. 00:20:44.859 --> 00:20:47.179 I don't know about you, but I need that. 00:20:47.579 --> 00:21:06.459 Because whenever I open up the book of Revelation and I see about the, I see the time whenever the dead are going to be brought before the Lord, and in great and small, wealthy and poor and influential and insignificant, they're all brought before the Lord, and their books are opened. 00:21:06.619 --> 00:21:09.339 And the dead are judged out of those books. 00:21:10.059 --> 00:21:17.179 I mean, you you think you think the NSA has a record on you, you should see the one that God has on you, like it's thorough. 00:21:17.740 --> 00:21:25.500 And so that that's that's like you're going to be judged out of that book, and that is a frightful, fearful thing. 00:21:28.059 --> 00:21:48.779 The only alternative is if you don't want to be judged out of those books, is to be judged out of the book that is open beside of that library, the Lamb's book of life, for the names of those who have who've been sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb is written. 00:21:49.899 --> 00:21:51.419 I know what some of you may be thinking right now. 00:21:51.500 --> 00:21:53.339 You may be thinking to yourself, well, that's okay, Major. 00:21:53.419 --> 00:21:59.099 I can I'm not great, but I really think my good works outweigh my bad works. 00:21:59.419 --> 00:22:08.139 I'm just going to tell you there is no amount of good works that you can do to outweigh the bad works that you and I have committed. 00:22:08.779 --> 00:22:10.219 Can't be done. 00:22:11.179 --> 00:22:25.500 There's no amount of water that you're going to pour into a glass, no amount of pure water that you can pour into a glass and Hand me and then tell me that there's a small amount of poison in the bottom of that cup first. 00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:26.699 No big deal. 00:22:26.859 --> 00:22:28.299 It's mostly pure. 00:22:28.539 --> 00:22:29.819 I'm not drinking it. 00:22:30.059 --> 00:22:40.539 And if that's true for me, and I'm wicked and ignorant in so many ways, the holy, pure God is not going to be satisfied no matter how many pages of good works you fill out. 00:22:40.699 --> 00:22:47.500 And the truth is, if we're honest, most of us fill out fewer pages of good works than we think we do. 00:22:48.219 --> 00:22:50.059 We need this gone. 00:22:50.859 --> 00:22:54.619 Now, this is an image, of course, of what happens at the cross. 00:22:54.939 --> 00:23:17.579 Because at the cross, whenever the criminal is affixed to the to the members of that instrument of execution, over top of him is placed a bill of indictment so that everybody can know that if you don't want to wind up where this guy is, you need to make sure you don't steal horses. 00:23:17.899 --> 00:23:21.259 You need to make sure that you don't cause an insurrection. 00:23:21.899 --> 00:23:31.019 Because if you don't do that, like if you do, if you do those things, there's a good chance you're going to wind up in that same kind of spot. 00:23:31.339 --> 00:23:42.859 And that individual has been so beaten and so mangled that the sounds that you hear, that the sights that you see, that the smells that you take in from that execution tell you, I don't want any part of that. 00:23:43.019 --> 00:23:44.539 And that bill is nailed to the top. 00:23:44.699 --> 00:23:54.219 And Paul picks up on that image and says, our bill of indictment has been nailed to that cross that stood against us with all of its legal demands. 00:23:54.299 --> 00:23:55.979 You know what the legal demands are? 00:23:56.379 --> 00:23:58.779 The wages of sin is what? 00:23:59.659 --> 00:24:01.899 The wages of sin is death. 00:24:01.979 --> 00:24:07.899 And this, Paul tells us, it has been set aside, nailing it to the cross. 00:24:09.339 --> 00:24:16.939 See, through the cross, this image of punishment and pain. 00:24:18.779 --> 00:24:28.619 Whenever Jesus was nailed to it, they affixed an indictment against him that says, he said he's king of the Jews. 00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:30.699 He says he's Rex. 00:24:31.179 --> 00:24:33.819 There's no Rex here except for Caesar. 00:24:34.139 --> 00:24:37.740 And of course, the Jews came by and said, you need to redact that. 00:24:38.859 --> 00:24:43.019 Not that he is king of the Jews, but that he says he's king of the Jews. 00:24:43.259 --> 00:24:44.699 This was his indictment. 00:24:44.859 --> 00:24:51.019 The irony there, of course, is very clear that he is king not only of the Jews, but he is king of the entire universe. 00:24:51.179 --> 00:24:55.419 And in the place of that truth is placed our error. 00:24:56.139 --> 00:24:58.059 He died for you and I. 00:24:58.299 --> 00:25:05.740 The cross is the perfect image for what happens, what needs to happen to our sins. 00:25:05.899 --> 00:25:08.219 Someone needs to bear them. 00:25:08.459 --> 00:25:10.779 Someone needs to lift them up. 00:25:10.859 --> 00:25:14.859 He canceled the record of our death that stood against us with his legal demands. 00:25:14.939 --> 00:25:16.619 This he set aside. 00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:24.459 The word set aside here is the Greek word arrow. 00:25:25.819 --> 00:25:27.179 It's the word for bearer. 00:25:27.259 --> 00:25:28.219 It's the word for carry. 00:25:28.299 --> 00:25:32.219 Some of your translations will say bearing it on the cross. 00:25:32.459 --> 00:25:34.619 It's the same word that's used in the gospel. 00:25:34.779 --> 00:25:44.299 Whenever Jesus would heal someone laying on a mat, and Jesus would say, Be healed, stand up, pick up your mat. 00:25:46.139 --> 00:25:47.500 It's the same word. 00:25:53.419 --> 00:25:55.899 It's Jesus carrying our sin. 00:25:57.339 --> 00:26:05.019 Now we're going to talk more about this next week or in two weeks, but this tells us something significant about the heart of God. 00:26:05.419 --> 00:26:15.740 That he's not just in your business because he's opinionated or you annoy him or because he's angry or wrathful. 00:26:16.859 --> 00:26:19.579 He is in your business because he loves you. 00:26:19.979 --> 00:26:24.619 And you know that because he did this for you and I. 00:26:25.740 --> 00:26:30.619 See, the cross tells us something about what God did with our record. 00:26:31.659 --> 00:26:35.979 And what he did with our record is he bore it in himself. 00:26:36.379 --> 00:26:42.619 But not only does it tell us what he did with our record, it tells us what he did to the rulers. 00:26:42.939 --> 00:26:43.899 To the rulers. 00:26:49.019 --> 00:27:01.339 No way are we going to be able to do a thorough examination of all that could be meant here, because it is so powerful and liberating. 00:27:02.059 --> 00:27:03.019 Here it is. 00:27:12.219 --> 00:27:14.859 So there it is again, in that phrase, in him. 00:27:15.099 --> 00:27:18.459 Some of your translations will say in it, referring back to the cross. 00:27:18.619 --> 00:27:27.419 The ideal here being is that this instrument of violence became an instrument instead of victory. 00:27:27.740 --> 00:27:37.740 This instrument that the leadership used to create compliance became an instrument of genuine heart change. 00:27:37.979 --> 00:27:43.500 This instrument that was used to create fear became an instrument of faith. 00:27:43.659 --> 00:27:57.419 This instrument that was supposed to conquer him, he used it as a weapon against those who would disobey God and cause others to do the same. 00:27:57.659 --> 00:27:59.899 Okay, so let's look at this real quick. 00:28:00.299 --> 00:28:02.379 He disarmed the rulers. 00:28:02.539 --> 00:28:08.379 The idea for disarm there, the Greek word, is actually a word that means to disrobe. 00:28:08.779 --> 00:28:11.339 It's really more of a metaphor than anything. 00:28:12.059 --> 00:28:22.459 It was used in other places throughout this time period to talk about disarming people, but literally it means they've been disrobed. 00:28:43.659 --> 00:28:44.699 They're up there for hours. 00:28:44.859 --> 00:28:51.819 Guys, I don't want to get too visual here, but if you're up there for hours, like there's a lot of there's a lot of things that are happening to your body. 00:28:52.059 --> 00:28:54.779 And it's all happening out in the open. 00:28:55.099 --> 00:29:00.699 Paul takes that image and he shifts it around and says, Jesus wasn't the one who was disrobed. 00:29:00.939 --> 00:29:02.379 They were disrobed. 00:29:02.619 --> 00:29:05.099 And in their disrobing, they were disarmed. 00:29:05.659 --> 00:29:06.459 Isn't that weird? 00:29:06.619 --> 00:29:11.659 In what way were the rulers and authorities disarmed? 00:29:12.779 --> 00:29:20.059 Well, that raises the question that we will cover very, very quickly: who are the rulers and authorities? 00:29:20.859 --> 00:29:32.059 Every other time that Paul uses the terms rulers and authorities throughout the epistles, it appears to reference the rulers and authorities in spiritual realms. 00:29:32.779 --> 00:29:50.619 This may refer to the divine counsel that we learn about in the Old Testament and this system that we don't know much about of spiritual beings who God has allowed them to have certain control over certain territories, and they're supposed to manage those territories. 00:29:50.859 --> 00:29:57.099 But there was a rebellion in that realm, in that layer, in that unseen realm, as there was in our realm. 00:29:57.179 --> 00:30:06.779 And Paul seems to refer to these rulers and authorities in Ephesians chapter 4, whenever he talks about the power of God to overcome these spiritual beings. 00:30:06.939 --> 00:30:14.139 That here's the point: that you and I are engaged in a warfare that is not political, that is not economic, that is not social. 00:30:14.379 --> 00:30:17.740 Principally, our warfare is spiritual. 00:30:17.899 --> 00:30:24.219 And if you're here right now thinking to yourself, oh, I just don't know that I believe that's a good interpretation, that's fine. 00:30:24.379 --> 00:30:25.339 It may not be. 00:30:25.579 --> 00:30:46.619 But if you're believing like if you refuse to consider the possibility that Paul is saying that these spiritual warfare was completely, the spiritual rebellion was completely crushed at the cross, because like you think to yourself, you know, the devil's not that big of a deal, or maybe you imagine there is no devil. 00:30:46.779 --> 00:30:51.979 Can I just tell you if that's your belief, you have fallen into the devil's trap? 00:30:52.859 --> 00:31:10.459 Long before Kaiser Sosay said it, uh a famous French poet said it in a work called The Generous Gambler, that the greatest, the most the loveliest trick the devil ever performed was convincing, convincing people that he did not exist. 00:31:11.099 --> 00:31:13.339 You were part of a spiritual warfare. 00:31:13.500 --> 00:31:18.459 And according to, I think what Paul is saying here is that he put them to open shame through it. 00:31:18.619 --> 00:31:18.939 How? 00:31:19.099 --> 00:31:19.659 Why? 00:31:20.219 --> 00:31:29.019 He did it, the context seems to tell us, by doing in the cross what they could not do. 00:31:29.659 --> 00:31:40.059 See, these rulers and authorities were called to rule and have authority over the world and different areas and principalities and states and those kinds of things. 00:31:40.219 --> 00:31:56.059 And by the way, even if Paul's not referring specifically to the spiritual realm here, and he's talking about the rulers and authorities that wear crowns in this world, the truth still holds, it's still still the same. 00:31:56.379 --> 00:32:13.740 That Jesus was able to conquer, Jesus was able to accomplish through his blood what no nation has ever been able to accomplish by shedding the blood of a million soldiers. 00:32:14.699 --> 00:32:21.579 He is able to accomplish not just change from the outside in, but change from the inside out. 00:32:22.379 --> 00:32:33.579 It must have been compelling to go by an intersection like the corner of 77 and 81, where thousands of people come by every single week. 00:32:33.819 --> 00:32:49.419 It must have been compelling to go by an intersection like that and look up and see a group of individuals bloodied, beaten, barely looking like they're human at all, with an indictment above them saying, you want to behave. 00:32:49.659 --> 00:32:51.099 Trust us, you want to be. 00:32:51.419 --> 00:32:54.939 Like that must have been a compelling experience. 00:32:55.179 --> 00:32:58.699 But the truth is it cannot change the heart. 00:32:58.859 --> 00:33:04.459 It can force capitulation, but it cannot change the heart. 00:33:04.619 --> 00:33:10.939 This is exactly what Paul says in Colossians chapter 2, verse 23, at the end of this argument. 00:33:11.099 --> 00:33:12.299 Look at what he says there. 00:33:12.459 --> 00:33:17.819 He says, These have all indeed an appearance of wisdom. 00:33:17.979 --> 00:33:19.179 What's he talking about? 00:33:19.500 --> 00:33:27.419 He's talking about the things that we do to force people to look like they're doing the right thing. 00:33:27.659 --> 00:33:29.339 We would call it legalism. 00:33:29.579 --> 00:33:56.299 Paul says, you know, things that you shouldn't touch and you shouldn't do, and you shouldn't like this, all these rules that religion sets up, and all of these rules that government sets up, that all of these things may have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, right? 00:33:56.459 --> 00:34:00.619 I mean, severity to the body makes me want to mind. 00:34:01.819 --> 00:34:09.500 But they are not there are they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 00:34:09.659 --> 00:34:11.019 What's he saying there? 00:34:11.659 --> 00:34:16.539 The world cannot accomplish what the Son of God has. 00:34:17.820 --> 00:34:32.700 That whenever you come to a place where you acknowledge in humility that I cannot be my own God and you lay down your arms fighting against the one true God, it's at that point where the real change occurs. 00:34:32.860 --> 00:34:42.460 That does not feel natural because everything about this life tells me that it's through my blood, sweat, and tears that I have to work to change things around me. 00:34:42.700 --> 00:34:44.620 But that's how it works in this world. 00:34:44.780 --> 00:34:52.860 When we're talking about the world, the kingdom that Jesus is setting up, it's not through our blood, sweat, and tears, it's through his blood, sweat, and tears. 00:34:53.180 --> 00:34:56.380 You must, we must trust Christ only. 00:34:56.620 --> 00:35:09.820 Not only to come into a relationship with him, but just as Paul says here in the middle of all of these in him phrases, we must be willing to walk in the same way. 00:35:10.140 --> 00:35:17.500 Therefore, the same way that you came into Christ, continue to walk in him. 00:35:17.980 --> 00:35:21.500 Ladies and gentlemen, I need Jesus every single day. 00:35:21.820 --> 00:35:23.180 Every single day. 00:35:23.500 --> 00:35:30.620 See, the cross reveals both the depth of our sin and the limits of our strength. 00:35:31.099 --> 00:35:32.539 See the beauty of that? 00:35:32.780 --> 00:35:35.340 The cross reveals the depth of our sin. 00:35:35.660 --> 00:35:47.980 The bloody, mangled body underneath the indotment of Jesus that truthfully announced who he was placed there by a group of individuals who would do anything that they could to be their own God. 00:35:48.220 --> 00:35:59.340 In the middle of that, while they were pouring out their wrath on God, God was pouring out his wrath on sin and pleading for them, Father, forgive them. 00:36:00.460 --> 00:36:02.940 For they don't know what they're doing. 00:36:03.740 --> 00:36:09.900 What depth of sin would allow that thing to happen? 00:36:10.220 --> 00:36:25.260 What a depth of sin would cause the sovereign God to rise up from his very safe abode and come down and tarnish himself with our sin, the depth of our sin. 00:36:25.420 --> 00:36:32.059 And it also tells us simultaneously in the in the same instrument, the limit of our strength. 00:36:32.539 --> 00:36:37.099 The cross, if if you didn't get any of that, please hear this. 00:36:37.740 --> 00:36:44.860 The cross represents man's very best effort to create change. 00:36:46.220 --> 00:36:47.579 And it failed. 00:37:28.059 --> 00:37:34.059 No saying, well, I'm okay, I'm not that bad, maybe I could be a little better, and one day it's gonna be okay. 00:37:34.140 --> 00:37:35.340 No, no, no, no, no. 00:37:35.579 --> 00:37:45.420 The writ of my lawlessness has been nailed to the cross, and I am very thankful for that. 00:37:46.140 --> 00:37:47.500 How about yours? 00:37:48.220 --> 00:37:51.500 How is your writ of indictment? 00:37:52.140 --> 00:37:55.500 Whenever you stand and it's going to happen, this is real. 00:37:56.059 --> 00:37:56.620 Yes, it is. 00:37:56.780 --> 00:37:57.740 Yes, it is real. 00:37:58.059 --> 00:37:59.900 This is this is real, it's going to happen. 00:38:00.059 --> 00:38:11.420 Whenever you stand, are you going to be okay being judged by the writ, by the record of your actions? 00:38:12.460 --> 00:38:16.460 Or do you want to be judged by the grace of his? 00:38:17.900 --> 00:38:26.860 The cross simultaneously crushes our excuses and puts to rest our efforts.