WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:07.120 So if you've been with us the last few months, uh you can tell right away that we have broken away from the book of Exodus. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:11.519 We've been going through this second book of the Bible for uh a couple months, really. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:17.760 And so we've broken away because we are uh two weeks out from Easter this week and then next week's Palm Sunday, and then Easter. 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:33.920 And so I wanted us to come into the Easter story so that when we get to Easter, perhaps some of us, if uh you're new to church or um new to us, uh Redeemer, uh, when we get to Easter, uh we know what we're talking about, that we're all on the same page. 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:41.520 We know what we're celebrating, that we've entered into this storyline of Jesus coming into Jerusalem and what's going on. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:42.560 Well, who are the players? 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:43.200 What's going on? 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:45.840 Who are these people and uh what's going on? 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:55.039 So that's why we're taking a break for the next three weeks from Exodus to join in in John chapter 11, 12, 13 for the next few weeks. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:58.479 So we're gonna work our way through this story that Janine read for us. 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:21.120 But let me retell it just a little bit, and that's that um people are starting to see what Jesus is up to, and he sort of ups the stakes because right before this passage, he raised Lazarus from the dead, and so he is he is coming on the scene and he is making it known that he's just not another radical, um, but he actually is God himself in the flesh, the incarnation. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:24.319 And so he's on the scene, and this is what's playing out. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:34.959 And now the Pharisees are gathering because they're seeing this, because some people are believing in Jesus to be the Messiah, and the Pharisees are showing up and they're gathering together and saying, This is going to be a problem. 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:40.079 Uh because, right, if you want to fight, just uh threaten establishment. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:41.439 That's how you get a fight. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:45.040 You get a fight, threaten establishment, threaten somebody's power if you want to fight. 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:46.959 I mean, that's how it was, right, on the playground. 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:52.400 Still true in a boardroom, at your office, it's the same way somebody has power over the copier. 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:57.680 And if you step into how the copier works, you know, you're threatening somebody's power. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:01.040 Anytime you threaten somebody's power, you're gonna get a fight. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:05.519 And so a fight is brewing, a real soap opera, to tell you the truth. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:11.439 Um you know, so if this is a new story to you, uh, I mean, it is it is captivating. 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:20.080 And for those of us that we've heard this story, maybe grown up in it, um, it's so good to kind of walk our way into Easter, remembering all of this. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:24.800 So we're gonna look at this story Janine read, uh, make a few points to work our way through it. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:25.759 And so, three points. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:33.120 So the first point is it is futile to live a life of trying to purify yourself. 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:36.240 It is futile to live a life of trying to purify yourself. 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:37.599 And here's what I mean by that. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:40.479 So in the Old Testament, there were seven festivals. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.639 Uh, God set up these seven festivals. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:53.039 There were there were four in the spring, there were three in the fall, and these festivals are organized around celebrating their history, celebrating their faith, celebrating what God had done for them. 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:55.680 This is how they remembered. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:58.159 And so Passover is one of these feasts. 00:02:58.240 --> 00:02:59.759 And that's in this passage what's going on. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:01.439 All these people are coming into Jerusalem. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:11.360 They're coming to Jerusalem as a city up in the mountains, and they're coming to Jerusalem, they're walking up the mountains, they're singing probably psalms, a lot of the songs of ascent in the book of Psalms. 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:24.960 They're probably singing these songs walking up to Jerusalem, and these families are bringing an unblemished male lamb, and they're bringing that sacrifice to make at the temple for their sins. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:30.319 And there's probably a group of people there even before the festival who are coming to purify themselves. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:39.680 It says that in that passage, that there's a group already there purifying themselves, and then a group's coming later for the festival where there's gonna be a sacrifice, which is the purification of their sins. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:52.000 So this earlier group, it could be, um it looks like it was probably like people maybe who had done an arrangement of different things during the year, like maybe they touched a dead body or different things like this, and they were there purifying themselves even before the festival. 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.759 So there's lots of purifying going on here. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:03.039 And in this idea of bringing this lamb, this was this was just this was the biggest part of the festival. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:04.479 And this is a big festival. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:09.680 I mean, this is this is the Jewish nation converging on a city. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:11.360 This is game day, right? 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:12.879 Like, I don't know what your town is. 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.039 This is game day in Athens for me. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:17.439 Like, there are people everywhere. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:24.480 Every inn is filled, uh, you know, every campsite is filled, there are there are tents in the parking lots, every everywhere. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:25.920 It is full. 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:38.480 And it is festive and it is celebratory, and there's going to be sacrifices being made, and people are going to be making these sacrifices because it's a way of expressing that all things are reconciled. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:41.519 You go, what is all this crazy sacrifice stuff in the Old Testament? 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:50.000 It is a way that they are expressing all things are reconciled, darkness and brokenness and sin does not win. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:52.160 That there's a gift to receive. 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:54.879 And the gift is outside of yourself. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:56.000 Right? 00:04:56.079 --> 00:05:06.079 So the way to make oneself right and whole with God, and then thus also with yourself, is not by your work, but by receiving a gift outside of yourself. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:16.800 And that's what that lamb is about, and that's why that lamb actually points us to a final sacrifice, so we don't have to keep making the sacrifice over and over and over and over again. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:27.279 So now these people in the Old Testament, so they're being forgiven and saved by grace because in the sacrifice they're looking forward to a final sacrifice. 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:29.759 They're looking forward to a Messiah. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:34.399 And then in the coming chapters, what we see is a lot of these people miss it. 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:35.040 Right? 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:40.879 I mean, Jesus shows up on the scene, and a lot of these Jewish people that are practicing the sacrifice, they miss it. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:43.920 They miss the practice that they've been practicing. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:49.120 That they've been they've been doing this, their family's been doing it, this is their heritage, they've been doing it their whole life. 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:53.600 And it's all been pointing towards Jesus, the final sacrifice, and they miss it. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:59.839 It's like they're so entrenched in the religious practice, they miss what the practice points to. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.560 And you go, oh man, I mean, how we can do that. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:04.000 We can still do that. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.600 We can become so entrenched in some religiosity of our own that we miss what it points to. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:10.160 Right? 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:28.560 A lady I heard speak years ago, I heard her word it this way, and she said, you know, for she she accepted Christ through Savior, the grace of God, welcomed her into the family, and then it was like at that point on, she just moved into like a Christian religiosity, and she left Jesus like at the point of becoming a Christian. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:32.959 She just left that back there, and from then on, she was living by merit. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:42.560 We can become so entrenched that we forget the practices we practice point to a person and it points to God Himself. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:45.439 And this is all over. 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:48.240 It's not just in the Christian world, it's not just in the Jewish world. 00:06:48.319 --> 00:07:08.399 I mean, it in the in the Hindu world, every 12 years in one of four places in India, millions and millions and millions of people, they gather, tens of millions of people will gather and they will bathe in a holy river, and by bathing in the holy river, before going in the river, their sins are on them. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:14.560 And after getting in the water and bathing after when they come out, now they are clean. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:18.079 And you go, well, that's a great act of devotion. 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:20.560 And I'm not going to say it's not a great act of devotion. 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:28.800 To make that pilgrimage to do that, it's a great act of devotion, but it is still like a behavioral action to receive purity. 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:49.040 I was listening to a podcast recently, and the host was talking, sort of talking, he was incredibly just he's he was so enamored by this Buddhist monk who he this guy he burns his fingers like as an act of devotion, an act of purifying himself. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:56.480 And in this podcast, he was just you know, super pop culture podcast, talking about how cool this was. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:07:59.279 And I'm going, like, we don't have to do that. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:08.160 Like, we don't have to sacrifice ourselves, and we don't even we shouldn't even be judgmental of the Hindus or the Buddhists because we we we still do this in our own way. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:10.480 We do this in our own way. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:28.639 I mean, anytime we leave Jesus back at the front door of coming into the Christian faith and we move into like merit or become overly focused on behavior unto feeling pure or whole or righteous, or as Paul would say, a returning to the law. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:32.559 I mean, we're doing the same thing. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:38.480 And maybe maybe you can think, man, I mean, this is so theological. 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:51.519 But see, what happens is when we do that, Christians, when Christians do this, what happens is you end up with a Christian culture where anybody except the Christian can be hurting. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:52.480 Right? 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:59.039 Like, like because the Christian should be striving and meriting and maintaining, but they can't be having a hard time. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:00.799 Now, now the non-Christian would have a hard time. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:07.039 We'll give grace to the non-Christian, but but to the Christian, we're not quite sure if we'll give grace to the Christian. 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:12.080 And that's the culture that develops out of a religiosity for purity. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.039 And I still do this, right? 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:31.039 I mean, this is this is this is still when when I wake up and I feel like, well, I'll be pure before God or whole before God or feel pure or whole by uh reaching that next level of Christian maturity or getting that next nugget of truth, and then, right? 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:38.559 And then I'll be uh pure or whole or at peace before God. 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:54.799 Then the position will be maintained, or or maybe for some reason, like I mean you mess up, or I mess up, and there's shame, or maybe you're remembering something in the past, all that shame is on you, and you feel like, well, well, if I can just get the scales back to like a balance, then. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:05.840 And what this is, is whenever we're in that world of merit, it's a nod, it's a nod at the work of Jesus. 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:14.799 And then it's us being entrenched and enamored with our own work and our own merit. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:21.120 So last Sunday afternoon, Christy and I and the girls, it's a beautiful last Sunday afternoon. 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:22.720 It's yard work season, by the way. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:24.720 If you're into working in the yard, this is what's going on. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:28.399 Y'all have been mulching, perhaps, starting to plant some stuff if you're into that. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:29.360 And so we're into that. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:32.879 So we're out Sunday afternoon and we're planting some variegated vinca. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:35.120 Anybody planting variegated vinca and vinca? 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:36.320 Anybody into vinca? 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:37.120 Only one. 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:37.360 All right. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:38.960 Well, variegated vinca, fantastic. 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:40.559 You should look into a good perennial. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:50.879 So, ground cover, so we're planting variegated vinca in the section of our backyard, and I have finally hit the life stage where I have a little workforce. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:55.039 Like, I I mean I looked around, I was like, this is fantastic. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:11:06.799 So I was digging the holes, Christy was dropping the plants in, and then Izzy and Josie, seven-year-old, five-year-old, are coming behind Christy, and they're putting the soil back on top and pushing it down. 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:08.159 And we are motoring. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:12.720 I mean, we are motoring through this thing, and I was thinking of how long this would take me on my own. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:14.000 It's amazing. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:15.840 I have labor. 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:21.440 And so we are just motoring through this, and they're, I mean, it our hands are getting nasty, right? 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:30.879 Like all under the nails and caked on, and inevitably, because they've been over, their hair would get in front of their face and they would want to, you know, brush it away. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:41.279 And so, you know, at first, I'm like, well, clap your hands, you know, clap your rub your hands, and you kind of do the back of your hand, try that, and every once and then their nose would itch, and and so you know, and you have to teach them these things. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:42.080 They don't know these things. 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:44.720 So you so you teach them, oh, you go over to the grass, right? 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:47.519 Go over to the grass, rub your hands in the grass, like that's pretty basic. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:48.320 We kind of know that. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:53.919 And so go teach them that, and and then you go, well, uh it didn't work as much as they wanted to. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:55.360 So I teach them the pine straw trick. 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:56.399 You know the pine straw trick? 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:01.360 You get a whole bunch of pine straw and you rub it in your hands, and it actually works pretty good. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:04.399 I mean, it gets a it gets a lot off. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:06.720 But when we're finished, right? 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:12.080 Like when we're finished, I mean the fact is, is like the grass and the pine straw and the clapping or whatever. 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:16.399 I mean, I mean, you can get the chunks off, but you your hands are still filthy. 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:22.799 And when we're finished, there's only one way that you really are gonna get your hands clean, is soap and water. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:23.919 I mean, I mean, that's it. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:27.440 I mean, and every everything else is just kind of like moving the dirt around. 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:29.840 I mean, the dirt's still gonna be there. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:37.120 And that's probably a very bad illustration, but here's what it's about is how many different ways we try to clean ourselves up. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:54.159 Like, let our ego try to wash our soul, let our merit try to wash our immorality, let our discipline or hard work or even devotion wash away some shame. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:57.120 But it's only pine straw. 00:12:57.519 --> 00:12:59.600 I mean, all of that's just pine straw. 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:02.480 I mean, you might be able to knock some chunks off here and there. 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:12.399 But by cleaning the soul with behavioral, I mean even religious practices, it just isn't enough. 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:25.039 And that's why this Old Testament sacrificial system, it's pointing toward a final sacrifice that is fully enough forever, once for all. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:28.080 Point number two. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:30.320 Look at these religious leaders. 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:34.639 So you have the people, but then you also have these Pharisees, the religious leaders, and this is point number two. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:40.000 It is blinding to live a life of defending power and position. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:46.960 So the the Pharisees, highly religious group, they're leaders, they're very serious in terms of their religion. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:48.000 They're vested. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:50.879 These are very vested people in the system. 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:54.720 They're vested in the system of all these people coming to Jerusalem. 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:57.759 They're vested, their lives are built around this. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:13:59.679 Here's what it says in verse 48. 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:05.600 Uh, one of them says this is the Romans are going to take away our place and our nation. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:16.320 And so, in one commentary I read this week, is talking about how this idea of our place and our nation is actually even more emphasized, it's almost like our very own. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:22.799 Like they almost feel like that they have ownership. 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:45.440 Like that their own, that a mass conversion to Jesus would not be a good thing because it is truth, but it would take down their ownership, the system that their life is built around, and to some extent, incredibly, you know, some pretty good financial and social reasons for Jesus not to be the Messiah. 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:46.960 He's a threat. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:52.080 He's a threat to their lives, to their system, to their income, to the way that their lives are built. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:15:02.559 So then Caiphus, the high priest, he's one of these guys in charge, he says in verse 49, it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:07.279 And for a second there, you kind of think, well, so is he on Jesus' side, or where is he coming in? 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:13.200 And a commentator, he rephrased it this way, that it's better to kind of read that sentence this way. 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:18.639 Better for Jesus to die than for thousands of us by the hands of the Romans suppressing rebellion. 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:23.759 In other words, if there's a mass conversion, there's gonna there's gonna be some social upheaval here. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:29.519 And when there's social upheaval, the Romans, the soldiers are gonna come in, they're just gonna start killing people, just shut it down. 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:33.679 And so Caipus is coming along and he said, Hey, we don't want that, right? 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:34.799 We don't we don't want that. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:37.440 We want to keep things, just keep keep it going. 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:39.679 Just keep the system going. 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:42.720 And so let's just kill him. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:45.759 Let's just get rid of him, let's shut him down. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:51.200 Better for him to die than this whole system to kind of go into upheaval. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:53.440 So there's layers here. 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:57.840 Because if Jesus causes too much of a ruckus, Rome's gonna step in and kill people. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:04.240 So let's take down the innocent man, and we get to keep our safe positions. 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:08.159 So on one level, they saw it, right? 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:10.720 They saw the miracles going on with Jesus. 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:17.200 They sought it enough to know like something special is going on here, and we have to do something. 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:20.879 In order to maintain our system, we're gonna have to act. 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:31.759 What's interesting is they're so busy defending their power and their position that they're not willing to consider that it might be true. 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:39.200 So they're using power and position to try to find wholeness or life. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:47.200 But then because they're trying to defend the power and position, they miss the life that is truly offered for them in Jesus. 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:55.600 And I read this, I was thinking about this, and I wrote these two questions more for myself, I'll share them. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:17:05.039 Is this when will I be done exerting my heart and energy to meriting and maintaining some position or wanting some status? 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:10.720 When will I finally be done with this and trust that he is enough? 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:33.759 See, if I would trust in this radical message that the final sacrifice did come in the position of being fully known and fully loved, that is true that I am his beloved and I am righteous and I'm whole, and I don't have to keep sacrificing myself at the judgment of other people for their approval to merit some status, to maintain some status. 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:37.599 I don't have to take other people down in order to keep some status. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:42.160 Well, there's freedom. 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:44.960 I mean, there's freedom for us. 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:47.359 I mean, that's not just theology right there. 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:51.119 I mean, that's life, practical freedom for today. 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:58.880 Point number three, and this is such good news is that it's relieving to believe. 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:04.480 To believe position and purity are given, not merited. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:11.279 It is relieving to believe position and purity are given, not merited. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:12.400 They are a grace. 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:15.279 So because what we've seen, we've seen kind of two groups of people. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:28.559 We see the people who, as this plays out in the next couple weeks, a lot of these people miss that Jesus is the fulfillment of the practice that they're um they're practicing, and some would argue, entrenched in. 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:38.000 You have the Pharisees exhausting themselves by defending their position, and because of that, they're they're blind to the truth that's right before them. 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:40.160 And we feel this, right? 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:45.119 We feel anxiety and fear when we enter either of these ways of life. 00:18:45.839 --> 00:19:02.640 You using religion to attempt to feel pure or whole before God, or feel like I got to do something else in a religious world in order to feel pure or whole before God, and then you screw up, you mess up, and you go, Oh, I've got to maintain this or earn it back, so the shame will finally go away. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:13.119 Or over in kind of the world of defending social status or building social status or having power and you're defending it, and you're needing it, and you're trying to use it to feel whole. 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:15.440 And that's exhausting. 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:32.240 And there's such anxiety and fear and both of those kinds of ways of life, and we we can feel that when we enter those ways of life as such insecurity, and we think it could lead to purity, we think it could lead to wholeness, but we never quite get there. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.319 Because these things can't be earned, they have to be given. 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:42.160 That's what that unblemished lamb was about. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:46.160 Was receiving something from outside of yourself. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:48.960 So you don't have to keep sacrificing yourself. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:54.960 Maybe you're here and all this is kind of new, and I've been kind of bouncing around and you're thinking this is all kind of crazy. 00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:58.720 And so it's just, I like to break it down as simple as possible for me. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:01.920 Um so to me, I was thinking it kind of looks like this. 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:09.440 This isn't perfect, mind you, but it kind of looks like this that we so easily uh busy ourselves. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:14.720 Let's say ourselves, you know, this onion, which actually has been quite smelly up here. 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:16.640 I did not plan on that aspect. 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:18.000 Y'all didn't realize that. 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:32.960 So uh we just busy ourselves just with our actions, our behavior, our religiosity, defending our power, gaining our social status, and we're just we're just trying to cover, just trying to cover, trying to cover, trying to cover, and trying to cover, trying to cover. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:43.599 Now, we now we never stop, maybe perhaps to to realize what Jesus teaches in the New Testament, that our sin is from the inside, not from the outside, right? 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:52.160 But this is what we do anyways, and we just cover and and what happens inevitably, just as we're trying, just as we get an area under control, right? 00:20:52.240 --> 00:21:00.640 Like we get this area under control, and inevitably what happens is it's just deeper than we thought, right? 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:15.279 I mean, it was going so well, and you go, Oh, I I didn't know, I didn't know that motive was under that behavior, and then you you start to deal with that, and you're back to work, just back to work, defending, earning, back to work, back to work. 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:17.039 And you go, oh, I'll skip over here to this area. 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:18.799 This area is pretty nasty over here. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:30.000 I'll work on this for a while, and then you just don't plan on it, but then you just see just another layer and another layer, and it just keeps going, right? 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:31.440 Like it goes over and over. 00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:33.119 It's deeper than you thought. 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:35.519 And you come at some point you come to the realization. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:38.319 Some point you you end up, you have to come to the realization. 00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:39.599 I need a love. 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:47.680 I need a love, not a behavior, but a love from outside of myself to solve this problem. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:57.279 God, what God is saying to us in Jesus, through Jesus, He's saying this even though even though you are this, I see you as this. 00:21:58.160 --> 00:21:59.680 Like I like I cut. 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:06.000 I see you for the very thing you're trying to be the entire time. 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:07.599 Right? 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:09.680 And that's what's going on here the whole time. 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:11.680 God's right before them. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:14.559 And He's headed to the cross to be the sacrifice. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:16.559 So they don't have to keep sacrificing themselves. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:20.480 And God's saying to them, you don't have to keep coloring the onion. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:22.480 You don't have to do that. 00:22:25.279 --> 00:22:26.799 Sure, life won't be perfect. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:43.440 I mean, there's plenty of struggles, but the struggle for purity or wholeness before God, and then thus also to learn to know it here now, that struggle, that doesn't have to be a fight for today. 00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:45.839 That doesn't have to be a pursuit. 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:48.400 Here's how it happens. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.640 We see it in verse 45, I think it's contrasted with verse 55. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:23:01.359 Verse 55 was the old way, purifying yourself, leading into all the Jews are coming up to sacrifice the lamb. 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:04.880 So the old way, here's the new way. 00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:07.359 Verse 45. 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:14.240 Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary had seen what he, Jesus, did, believed in him. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:27.680 Christian faith is radical enough to say belief in God's grace through Jesus' work for you is enough for you to be pure and whole. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:40.640 Listen, what we see in John 11, 12, and 13, this Easter story, this is the climax of the entire biblical story, which is the story of humanity and God, which is also your story. 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:48.319 And we see that God pursues you and moves toward you, wants to speak to you, and it is the worst sadness. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:54.559 I mean, we should read this and we should look at these people, and we should have set it should be sadness for them. 00:23:54.640 --> 00:24:03.839 It's the worst sadness that religious or worldly illusions and pursuits would keep us from the grace of God. 00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:10.160 I want to close with reading some verses from Hebrews chapter 10. 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:12.000 I'm going to read 18 verses, a bit of a reading. 00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:12.880 It's not in your bulletin. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:14.400 You have to just hang with me. 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:19.519 I just want to read it and read it kind of over you as it ties it all together. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:22.720 You can reread it later at home if you want to. 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:28.000 Hebrews 10, verses 1 through 18, I'm reading from the message Bible. 00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:35.759 The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:43.279 Since that old law plan wasn't complete in itself, it couldn't complete those who followed it. 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:49.599 No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:25:04.160 If they had, the worshippers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins, but instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices repeated over and over, they actually heightened awareness and guilt. 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:10.160 The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can't get rid of sin. 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:13.759 That is what is meant by this prophecy put in the mouth of Christ. 00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:17.119 You don't want sacrifices and offerings year after year. 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:20.319 You've prepared a body for me for a sacrifice. 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:24.240 It's not a fragrance and smoke from the altar that wet your appetite. 00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:30.480 So I said, I'm here to do it your way, O God, the way it's described in your book. 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:37.039 When he said, You don't want sacrifices and offerings, he was referring to practices according to the old plan. 00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:50.640 When he added, I'm here to do it your way, he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan, God's way, by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. 00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:51.599 You still with me? 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:53.599 We're halfway through, but it's worth sticking with it. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:26:05.920 Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:11.279 As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it. 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:17.279 Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:25.039 It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. 00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:25.759 Amen. 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:26.319 Anybody? 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:27.039 You with me? 00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:28.079 That's us. 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:37.039 By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:38.960 The Holy Spirit confirms this. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:45.759 This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:53.279 This time I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the linings of their hearts. 00:26:53.599 --> 00:27:01.119 He concludes, I'll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:09.839 Once sins are taken care of for good, there's no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them. 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:17.440 I wonder if if at some point you you wonder what's on your slate. 00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:23.359 Like what do you need to outperform? 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:29.279 What is it you need to overcome because of something that you did? 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:39.759 Like what level of power are you trying to get to and then and then it'll all be okay? 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:47.200 What sacrifice do you think that you need to make for finally, to finally be okay with God? 00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:53.039 Once sins are taken care of for good, there's no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them. 00:27:53.119 --> 00:27:55.119 It's been taken care of. 00:27:55.359 --> 00:28:03.759 See, when your belief is in Christ's work and sacrifice, not your own, you rest and live in the comfort of Christ's substitutionary death for you. 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:08.880 This is like you're in a basketball game and you are playing horribly. 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:14.640 You're not even good at basketball, you're not sure why you're on the team, and it is so, it is, it is awful. 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:21.279 You are you're worse for the team, the crowd is seeing it, you are ashamed, and it is like a substitute. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:27.279 It's like Michael Jordan shows up to check into the game and he comes and he takes your spot. 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:30.319 And it is so relieving. 00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:34.240 It is a substitute for you. 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:37.119 So this isn't just theology. 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:38.799 This is theology that means something. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:45.039 It's the polar opposite of the coldness of religious merit and social maneuvering that we see in this passage. 00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:51.680 It's the gift of security and relief that we know in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:52.799 Let's pray together. 00:29:00.480 --> 00:29:06.960 God, would you help us delight more in the work of your son? 00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:14.960 Would you help us to know your great love for us, the restoration you have for us? 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:32.400 Would rightful thinking about this story of your pursuit of us, your fulfillment of an Old Testament plan of sacrifices into this new plan, of your sufficiency, of stepping into this? 00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:36.880 Would we be in admiration? 00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:40.960 Would we be in freedom because of it? 00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:47.200 Would our lives be lives of gratitude and worship and response because of it? 00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:56.640 God, would you help us to see in greater ways the ways that we right now sacrifice ourselves? 00:29:59.119 --> 00:30:00.480 Unneedingly. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:09.119 Thinking that it's going to make us whole or make us pure or make us righteous. 00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:21.680 Would you show us the ways that we use religion or spiritual practices in ways that entrench us rather than free us and point us toward you? 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:29.119 Would you show us ways that we defend our power and defend our status? 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.119 And we miss your grace. 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:42.160 We miss living in the fact that you have named us righteous and whole and pure. 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:47.680 Help us to trust greater in the great work of Jesus for us. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:49.440 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:30:49.680 --> 00:30:50.319 Amen.