WEBVTT 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:06.959 Welcome to the Medichurch podcast. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:08.080 My name's Clayton. 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.240 I'm the pastor here at Medichurch. 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:17.920 And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you. 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.559 I hope that you enjoy today's message. 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:25.199 Man, it's so good to see everyone here. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:26.879 If you're new with us, my name is Clayton. 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:28.800 I'm the lead pastor here at MetaCurch. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:35.920 We are in week two of our Master Plan series where we are seeking to get a bigger picture on the Easter story. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:51.119 Last week we saw that you can get yourself in a little bit of trouble isolating out just the small snippets of story from the Easter narrative and trying to build your entire worldview or your entire theology out of them. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:01:01.280 We use the metaphor, this would kind of be like approaching a master set of construction plans where there's hundreds of pages and just isolating out one of those pages. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:08.000 And it could be quite confusing if you don't understand those instructions and the broader picture of the whole project. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:13.680 And Easter is God's project of rescue and redemption for the world. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.200 So to fully get the power of each moment of the Easter story, we have to see it in its context. 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:27.120 And today, I want us to see just how deep the Easter story goes in a message called Firm Foundation. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:28.239 Firm foundation. 00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:29.359 Would you pray with me? 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:36.159 Jesus, we love you and we are here seeking you, trying to understand better what you've done for us and what Easter means to our lives. 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:41.760 And so we just trust what you say in your word that if we seek you with all of our heart, we will find you. 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:48.079 And we have come here across all different paths, different places in life, different areas of our spiritual journey. 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:51.439 I'm all gathered here to do just that, to see what you might have to say to us. 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:52.480 And so speak now. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:54.640 We're listening, and we pray it all in Jesus' name. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:56.560 If you're ready to get going, say amen. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:57.280 Amen. 00:01:57.439 --> 00:01:58.400 Firm foundation. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:03.280 I want to see how deep the Easter story goes, how deep the foundation is. 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:06.400 And I want to talk about death in like a technical sense. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.759 What does it actually mean for something to be deep? 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:16.560 We've probably all known someone at some point in our life that called things deep that weren't, right? 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:22.560 I don't want to say this especially happens when someone's stoned, but this especially happens when someone's stoned, right? 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:24.479 Everything sounds deep to you, bro. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:25.520 That was so deep. 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:28.000 And usually it's just not, right? 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:30.240 Just a very basic idea. 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:36.400 There is a technical way to assess the depth of a story or the depth of a truth. 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:43.599 The first thing that you need to know is how many layers it goes down into history and into experience. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:48.000 Like how deep does this idea go, or how deep does this story reach? 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:51.840 A good example of this would be the American Declaration of Independence. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:58.960 The Declaration of Independence was written by our founding fathers who were immense studiers of human history. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:01.759 They were mostly deeply religious people. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:16.000 And in this one document, they presented some brand new ideas in the scope of human history, like that all people are created equal because they're all endowed by a creator with inherent rights. 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:26.319 This was a new idea that we have rights just because we're humans that don't come from the government, they don't come from a monarch, they don't come from a dictator, they don't come from a ruler. 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:29.360 We have these rights just because we're human. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:35.680 And that one idea is layered deep down all the way into like all of human history. 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:37.680 It's a very deep idea. 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:39.680 That's one way of assessing depth. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:50.000 The other thing that you look for is how many other truths and realities does that idea or story intersect with as it goes throughout history? 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:55.039 An example of this kind of depth would be what the gospels call the law of love. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:02.639 The law of love says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, your soul, and your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:05.199 In other words, love God and love people. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:12.879 And Jesus said, all of the law and all of the prophets, the law and prophets is what we call the Old Testament. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:16.720 All of it is fulfilled in that one command. 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:25.839 And so all 613 of the Jewish laws, all the teachings of all of the rest of the Old Testament, all of it intersects with one law. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:30.720 And all those points of intersection means that is an incredibly deep, deep truth. 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:40.560 So depth is measured by how far an idea or story goes into our history and how many other truths and realities it intersects along the way. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:47.360 And this matters because depth is required to establish a firm foundation. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.920 When you are building any kind of building, the foundation has to be right. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:05:00.240 You can get some other little things wrong here and there, some things cannot match up perfectly, but if the foundation is wrong, the entire building is off. 00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:03.600 When you look to buy a house, there are a lot of things that you can fix. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.879 But if it has a faulty foundation, you have to run away. 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:09.439 You don't buy a bad foundation. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:14.879 And the more significant the structure, the more significant the foundation has to be. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:16.560 I brought a picture. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:22.079 This is the beginning of the foundation for the largest skyscraper in San Francisco. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:27.120 You can look, there are people and even vehicles in this picture to get a sense of scale. 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:37.120 They look like ants in comparison to the massive, massive foundation that they're pouring because it's gonna be a massive, massive structure that it has to uphold. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:40.480 And you're building something with your life. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:46.720 Which means by necessity, you have to have a foundation for who you are and who you are becoming. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:48.800 That's just a fact of existence. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:58.319 You are grabbing hold of something as the foundational ideas, the foundational worldview, and the foundational truths that you build your life off of. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:01.360 And at MetaCurch, we start with a key idea and a key belief. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.000 We believe that you were created on purpose. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:15.920 It is no accident that you're here on planet Earth, and we believe you were created with a powerful purpose, which means you are supposed to build something significant with your life. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:20.959 And significant buildings require significant foundations. 00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:24.480 I've seen what happens when foundations are not put in correctly. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:31.759 In 2010, an earthquake hit the island of Haiti that killed somewhere around 300,000 people. 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:36.480 An unimaginable number on this very small Caribbean island. 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:44.639 And just months after the disaster, I was on the ground in Haiti, and our local pastor there explained why this had been so devastating. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:49.360 What's interesting is Haiti and the Dominican Republic are on the same island. 00:06:49.519 --> 00:07:02.560 And if you go to both of them, their houses and most of their buildings look just about the same, and yet most of the buildings in the Dominican withstood the earthquake, and in Haiti, almost everything was leveled. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:06.560 And our local pastor explained it all came down to the foundations. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:11.920 Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and they build everything out of concrete. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:18.720 The walls are concrete, the roofs are concrete, in multi-story buildings, every one of the ceilings is concrete all the way up to the roof. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:29.120 And it explained that one of the most expensive parts of construction is the metal rebar that looks kind of like this all thread that goes down into the foundation and all throughout the structure. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:38.079 And because they're so impoverished, they cut corners financially by only putting in vertical rebar all throughout the building. 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:43.439 When an earthquake happens, you might not know this, the ground doesn't just shake, it actually twists. 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:53.439 And the way that you are supposed to structure a proper foundation is you have your verticals, but they intersect all along the way with horizontals. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:08:02.399 And what happened without the proper foundation is as soon as the ground began to twist, all of the floors of every building imploded on top of one another. 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:13.600 And you could drive around the bigger cities in Haiti and you could see buildings that were once four or five, six stories tall, and you just count all of the ceilings pancaked one on top of another. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.439 It's devastating when you don't have a firm foundation. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:31.199 And you know this because you've lived long enough to know there's gonna be real suffering in life, and you're gonna go through real storms in your life, and the foundation of your life is going to be tested, and it requires us to cement ourselves in something that's strong. 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:34.240 What foundation are you building your life story on? 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:36.559 What foundation are you building your family on? 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.360 What foundation are you building your future on? 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:46.240 What foundation brings actual peace in your present and actual hope for your future? 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:54.399 This points out a real danger in the world we're living in because it prioritizes as the highest goal discovering your truth. 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:56.480 I just gotta go find my truth. 00:08:56.639 --> 00:08:58.240 I gotta go find my reality. 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:02.639 I gotta, in a vacuum, assess and create my own identity. 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:13.600 And the idea that you can live as your own God and create your own truths, what that actually does is put you on the shallowest foundation possible. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:17.120 Your foundation only goes as deep as you. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:21.200 Its history is only as deep as however long you have been alive. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:25.600 And the real problem is that as humans, we are always shifting and always changing. 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:31.200 And if we set our own foundation, that means our foundation is always changing and always shifting. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:40.399 And it's no wonder the further and further we move away from God as a society, the more and more unstable our lives become. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:55.600 Today I want to show you just how deep the truths of Easter go, and I want to try to make the case that the story of Jesus and what he offers us at Easter is the deepest foundation possible to set your life on. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:00.720 Last week we talked about the confusion that the followers of Jesus had when he was on the cross. 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:02.799 How is this a part of the plan? 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:08.720 They didn't think this was like a brand new beginning like we know it is now on the other side, 2,000 years later. 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:10.240 They thought this was the end. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:13.679 They didn't think Jesus on the cross was creating a firm foundation. 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:18.000 They thought the foundation of their life was crumbling and falling apart. 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:28.559 And one of the most controversial moments, and therefore one of the most confusing for us today, happens just moments before Jesus takes his last breath and dies on the cross. 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:34.879 In Matthew 27, it says, From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:44.559 And about three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, Lima, Sabactini, that is my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:50.240 Or maybe you grew up hearing it, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:52.879 What did Jesus mean by this? 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:58.879 Has anybody else been confused by this specific part of the Easter story before? 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:00.320 Nobody. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:02.000 I mean, nobody. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:04.159 If I'm the only one, we can go to lunch. 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:05.360 You know what I'm saying? 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:08.000 It's very confusing. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:11.759 God turning his back on Jesus, but Jesus is also God. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.600 How exactly does that function? 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:14.480 How does that work? 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:19.919 If God loves us, the God who will never leave us or forsake us, but yet he forsook Jesus when he was on the cross. 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:21.120 How does this function? 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:35.039 This highlights exactly what I'm saying in this series: the danger of isolating out just one specific moment from the Easter story and building your entire theology around it without seeing it in the full scope of the master plan. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:46.399 And when you see it in the master plan, what you begin to realize is Jesus in that moment is actually pointing people to the fact that this is a plan that is in place. 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:57.200 He is not a helpless victim, the cross was not a detour, the cross was always the destination, and he was driven to that cross by his great love for you and for me. 00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:02.799 And so, to understand what he is saying, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:10.480 We have to try and hear it and receive it the way the crowd would have heard it and received it that day. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:20.240 Jesus lived in a Hebrew context, and one thing that all of the Israelites had in common is they all went to school for the first few years of their life. 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:27.279 And one of the things that everyone learned in these primary years of school is they all learned the Psalter, what we call the Psalms. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:32.639 It's this collection of 150 poems that you have right in the middle of your Bible. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:42.879 And to them, they weren't poems, they were songs that they sung, and they memorized them through singing them, and everyone memorized all 150 of them. 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:45.919 And this was a part of their religious activity every week. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:52.960 They would go to the synagogue, or if they live in Jerusalem, they would go to the temple, and there was a song leader, and the song leader would do what our song leaders do. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:59.519 They get up on a stage high above everyone else, and they would call out the psalm that they were gonna sing that day. 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:02.159 But the Bible back then wasn't the Bible. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:10.720 It was scrolls, and there weren't chapters or verses, and so they wouldn't say, Everybody turn to Psalm 48, or everybody turn to Psalm 119. 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:13.679 Instead, they had to have names for each of the psalms. 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:17.759 Now, today we get real cute when we name our songs, right? 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:19.120 We want to be clever. 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:22.960 Sometimes we name it after like a repeating line way down in the chorus. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:26.720 Sometimes we name songs' names that nobody even knows what it means. 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:28.720 Like, what is a bohemian rhapsody? 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:32.080 Nobody knows, you know, we just get real too clever with it. 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:34.480 They kept it really, really simple. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:50.240 The way that it would work, imagine yourself, you're you're living in ancient Israel and you're attending synagogue, and you come and the psalmist would get up on stage, and the way they named him was just the first line or the first sentence of every psalm. 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:51.039 That's it. 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:54.080 They would just say the first line, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:57.279 And everyone would sing what we know at Psalm 23. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:00.399 So, what does that have to do with Jesus on the cross? 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:06.320 Well, most of us know Psalm 23, but most of us do not know Psalm 22. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:13.919 And Psalm 22 starts with my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:26.240 Jesus lifted above the primarily Israelite crowd, took on the position of the psalm leader, and called out for a singing of what we would call Psalm 22. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:32.799 There's 150 Psalms, and Jesus specifically highlighted the one that he wanted everyone to focus on. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:36.559 And remember, by the time you were a little kid, you had all of these psalms memorized. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:43.519 And you know, there's this thing that happens when someone calls out a line of a song that you have memorized, you can't help but sing the rest of it in your head. 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:44.720 We know this, right? 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:49.440 Because if I said the stars at night, and I'm not gonna finish because I don't want you to clap right now, right? 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:54.799 But you wouldn't be able to help it if I was like, sweet cabra, I'm not gonna do the rest because that's not what we're doing right now. 00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:56.960 But when you know the song, you can't help it. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:58.799 And they knew all of the psalms. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:03.840 And when he just put the first line out there, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:10.960 The rest of it starts churning through their minds, and Jesus, of course, picked this psalm on purpose. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:16.799 It's worth reading all of it, but here's maybe the most startling verses. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:23.120 Psalm 22 says, It was you who brought me out of the womb, making me secure at my mother's breath. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:27.200 Not breast, not a biological father, it was you, God, who did this. 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:28.720 I was given over to you at birth. 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:30.639 You've been my God from my mother's womb. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:35.120 Don't be far from me because distress is near and there's no one to help. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:39.039 Many bulls surround me, strong ones of Bashan encircle me. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:47.200 They open their mouths against me, lions mauling and roaring, a violent, vicious, mocking crowd surrounding the psalmist. 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:53.440 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed, my heart is like wax melting within me. 00:15:53.679 --> 00:15:57.840 My strength is dried up like baked clay, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.559 You put me into the dust of death, for dogs have surrounded me. 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:10.480 A gang of evildoers has closed in on me, they have pierced my hands, and they have pierced my feet. 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:21.279 I can count all my bones, people look and stare at me, they divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:41.759 And if you've read all of the gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus, you know that what Psalm 22 depicts in this song, in this poetry, played out to a T at the crucifixion of Jesus as historically recorded in all four of our gospel accounts. 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:48.320 And remember, how deep a truth or a story is, it depends first on how many layers it goes down. 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:50.720 How far down into history does it go? 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:52.399 And so let's talk timeline. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:56.320 Psalm 22 was written around 587 BC. 00:16:56.799 --> 00:17:01.120 Jesus was crucified sometime between 30 and 35 AD. 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:10.720 Psalm 22 is a prophecy more than 600 years before Jesus actually hung on the cross. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:17.039 Psalm 22 is describing the events and the details all of these centuries before it actually happens. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:22.960 If you were here last week, we saw that Jesus was fully in control of executing this master plan. 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:35.119 Every moment of the Easter story, he was ensuring that he would end up on the cross so he could pay the price for all of our sins so that we could be back in relationship with God. 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:38.400 Imagine this moment in its context. 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:44.480 We read it again, it says about three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:56.799 But all of them are said quietly. 00:17:57.519 --> 00:17:59.200 All of them are said in reserve. 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:06.400 And this he cries out, he makes sure that everyone can hear it because he is on it. 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:19.119 Elevated above the crowd, calling out, letting them know that the prophecy of 600 years is playing out right in front of their eyes. 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:24.400 Jesus knew the master planned, and he knew exactly what he was doing. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:34.640 The most significant buildings need the most significant foundations, and the same is true for the most significant stories, and the same is true for the deepest truths. 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:39.359 And so, how far down into history does the Easter story go? 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:44.960 We know it goes at least 600 years back to Psalm 22, but that is just scratching the surface. 00:18:45.200 --> 00:19:01.119 The writers of the New Testament, the Christian scriptures, once Jesus rose again, they saw evidence of the master plan on every page of history, even all the way back to the very beginning in the narrative of creation. 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:14.000 Right after humanity rebels against God and eats the forbidden fruit, God is explaining to them how the world is now going to be cursed because of their sin, how it's gonna be broken, and we're gonna be jacked up and all of those consequences. 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:31.759 And now, in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, God is speaking to the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve and says, I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, and he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.480 And the writers of the New Testament now saw this as a prophecy about Jesus Himself. 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:47.200 In fact, in Romans, in the Christian scriptures, Jesus is described as the second Adam who came to reverse the curse of Genesis chapter 3. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:59.839 Yes, Satan will bite his heel and cause immeasurable suffering, just like we see on the cross, but ultimately Jesus will crush his head, he will be victorious over sin and evil forever. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:03.599 How many layers down does the story of Easter go? 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:09.920 It goes down to like all of them, but in John's gospel we learn it even comes before time itself. 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:18.960 In John 1, it says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and all things were created through him. 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:32.559 And apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created, and in him was life, and that life was the light of men, and that light it shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:42.720 The story of Easter didn't start in 30 AD when he was on the cross, it didn't start the moment he was born, it didn't start in 600 BC when Psalm 22 was written. 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:46.000 It didn't even just start in the garden at creation. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:59.839 The story of Easter, the master plan for the rescue and redemption of all of humanity, it started before the foundations of the earth, before time itself even existed. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:03.839 The story of Jesus goes down all of the layers. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:06.640 It is the definition of deep. 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:19.839 And the way we assess something's depth is how far down it goes into history and into our experience, and how many other truths and realities it intersects. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:21.359 And here's where it gets interesting. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:29.599 The Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, they are filled with very specific predictions about who the coming Savior would be. 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:34.079 Who is gonna actually come and execute on this master plan? 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:38.000 There are over 300 of these predictions in the Old Testament. 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:42.799 And the Old Testament was not written by one guy making all of these predictions. 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:51.039 It was written by dozens of authors across hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years across vastly different geographical areas. 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:59.119 Many of these authors did not know each other, and many of them did not even have access to each other's predictions. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.119 Yet over 300 predictions were made. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:16.480 And these predictions act like these horizontal intersection points, potentially bolstering and firming up the foundation of the claims that Jesus would make. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:19.200 And so let's talk about odds. 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:27.759 Just to try and get a grasp of what it would mean for one man Jesus to come and fulfill all of these prophecies that were made about him. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:33.440 As a counterpoint point of comparison, it's March Madness. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:36.400 So who all still has a perfect March Madness bracket? 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:37.599 Any anybody? 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:39.599 Of course you don't. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:41.519 It's basically impossible. 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:55.039 The odds, even if you know something about basketball, like if you're really trying on your bracket, the odds of a perfect bracket are one in 128 billion with a B. 00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:58.640 There's only seven or eight billion people on Earth. 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:05.039 So, in other words, it is virtually impossible to get a perfect March Madness bracket. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:10.720 That's why they always offer millions and millions of dollars if you can do it, because they know you can't do it, right? 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:14.559 Like Florida Atlantic is, I mean, San Diego state. 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:15.920 There's no way, right? 00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:16.960 There's no way. 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:21.039 That's one of the most spectacular odds, the March Madness bracket. 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:46.319 Several years ago, some of the most recognized mathematicians got together because they wanted to assign some kind of odds to what it would take for someone to show up hundreds of years after all of the prophecies of the Old Testament and actually live them out, fulfill all of these predictions, all of these intersections that could bolster and firm up the foundational claims of Christianity. 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:56.319 And what they ended up having to do just so they could have a number to work with, is instead of the 300 predictions, they limited it down to just eight. 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:12.000 They said for someone to come hundreds of years later and fully fulfill just eight of the 300 plus predictions, these mathematicians gave it a one in one hundred quadrillion odds. 00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:30.160 If you had a hundred quadrillion dollars, you could buy every single person on planet earth a$20 million mansion. 00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:32.720 It's an unbelievable number. 00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:41.359 It's another way of saying one person coming and fulfilling all eight of these prophecies is in fact impossible. 00:24:41.519 --> 00:24:45.039 And yet Jesus came and did not fulfill eight. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:47.599 He fulfilled them all. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:25:01.440 The prophet Micah, who lived 700 years before Jesus, wrote, But you, O Bethlehem, are only a small village in Judah, and yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, whose origins are from the distant past. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:09.599 And sure enough, in the Gospels we read, and because Joseph was a descendant of David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:14.160 And he took with him Mary, his fiance, who was obviously pregnant by this time. 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:19.599 And she gave birth to her first child, a son, and wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:25.039 In the eighth century, a prophet named Isaiah got even more specific about the birth of Jesus. 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:27.839 Isaiah said, The Lord himself will choose the sign. 00:25:28.079 --> 00:25:31.039 Look, the virgin will conceive a child. 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:33.279 She will give birth to a son. 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:38.319 Isaiah is making a prophecy that is impossible. 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:45.200 And yet, we read in the Gospels, Joseph, son of David, the angel, said, Do not be afraid to go ahead and marry Mary. 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.960 For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:52.319 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. 00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:59.519 A virgin birth is crazy enough, but predicting it eight centuries earlier is insane. 00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:06.480 Around 520 BC, a prophet named Zechariah looked forward to the day that the King of kings would enter Jerusalem. 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:14.319 But instead of coming in majesty and riding a beautiful white horse, he had a very interesting picture of what would happen. 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:20.079 Zechariah 9 9 says, Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem, look, your king is coming to you. 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:28.640 He's righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey, even on a donkey's colt. 00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:32.880 And 550 years later, that strange scene actually played out. 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:36.640 So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on. 00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:46.000 And the crowd spread out their coats on the road ahead of Jesus, and all his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:52.640 These are not vague predictions, they're not generalizations, they are specific prophecies. 00:26:52.880 --> 00:27:15.440 The men who wrote them down claimed that these were the words of God, setting the scaffolding in place for one person to come, represent the deepest truths that intersect with reality, predictions, and prophecies to give you and I confidence that we can give our lives to Him and put our faith in Him and build our lives on His firm foundation. 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:20.160 Let's go back for just a moment to Psalm 22. 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:31.440 We already read, I am poured out like water, my bones are disjointed, my heart is like wax melting within me, my strength is dried up like baked clay, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. 00:27:31.599 --> 00:27:38.880 You put me into the dust of death, for dogs have surrounded me, and a gang of evildoers has closed in on me. 00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:44.640 And they have pierced my hands and they've pierced my feet. 00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:49.279 And these verses are a direct allusion to crucifixion. 00:27:49.599 --> 00:27:50.720 We've already been here, right? 00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:51.839 This is crazy. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:57.599 This is predicting the crucifixion 600 years before Jesus actually died. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:10.640 But what might be even crazier is Psalm 22 was written 400 years before Rome had invented crucifixion as a means of execution. 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:14.880 The Bible calls its own shots. 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:28.720 The life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, it represents the deepest story containing the deepest truths that form the deepest understanding of reality that has ever existed. 00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:32.480 And yes, his story goes back into infinite eternity. 00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:43.039 It intersects with the stories and prophecies and truths and realities that are unfathomable in terms of the odds of them all taking place, but there's more than that. 00:28:44.880 --> 00:29:13.759 The story of Jesus, the story of Easter, his perfect life, his death, where he exchanged his perfect life for my broken and sinful life, his resurrection, where he defeated death itself, giving hope and a promise to all who believe in him that in like manner we do not have to die either. 00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:21.200 We may cease to exist physically, but there is now life after life. 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:29.200 Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection, his promise that he's coming back for us. 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:30.960 What you talk about? 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:34.079 The foundation for our hope. 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:38.480 Why should we believe that Jesus will come back someday? 00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:49.119 It's because the same words of God that predicted 300 prophecies that Jesus perfectly fulfilled has also given us new promises. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:55.119 We have every right to believe because they've already shown themselves to be accurate. 00:29:56.559 --> 00:29:59.920 Not just his life, but the movement that Jesus started. 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:04.480 It is the truth that changed our world. 00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:07.759 For all of human history, people were divided. 00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:14.400 For all of human history, people were looking for some foundation, some hope that they could build their life on. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:16.640 And everything fell short. 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:26.400 It's the story of Jesus and the movement that he started that changed how we view ourselves and changed how we view our fellow man and woman. 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:39.359 No longer would we be divided along class and race and gender and ethnicity and geographical location, all of the things that had divided humanity for all of human history. 00:30:39.599 --> 00:30:48.400 Now everyone was forced to contend with the worth and dignity and value of every single other human being. 00:30:48.559 --> 00:31:07.519 We had nowhere to run because we believed that our God stepped out of heaven into our earth, that the cross was not a detour, the cross was the destination for him to prove the worth and the value of every single person's life. 00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:12.000 You will find some kind of foundation to build your life on. 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:16.880 It's just a part of being alive and navigating our world. 00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:19.599 We're building our life off of something. 00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:33.039 And there is only one foundation that never changes, that will never be shaken, that will never let you down, that will never let you go, that will always give proper direction, that will always point you towards your purpose. 00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:46.400 Jesus is our firm foundation, the deepest reality, the deepest truths, the deepest story, the king of all the kings, the story of all the stories, the archetype of all archetypes. 00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:51.200 He is the path and the way for the life we've been called to live. 00:31:56.160 --> 00:32:01.920 And so maybe you'll seek to build your life off the foundation of your accomplishments. 00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:05.119 You'll live as your own God. 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:09.279 And I believe my prediction will come to pass. 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:15.119 Give it enough time, you'll come to find that you make a pretty awful God. 00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:27.200 That you can't actually bear the weight of your own hope, you can't create your own future, you cannot give yourself assurance of what comes on the other side of this life. 00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:32.319 Maybe you will build your foundation off of relationships. 00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:40.720 Relationships where even the closest, most loving, most intimate relationships we have will let us down and will fail us. 00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:55.759 And if other people are going to be your foundation, you need to realize that you have now put the weight on them that only God can hold, and it will only be a matter of time before you find out how shaky that foundation is. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:33:12.319 And some of us don't know what our foundation is, and so we build our foundation of our life on our dependencies and our addictions, and we live our life to try and forget the pain that we're in because life is painful and the world is broken, and we are humans who are frail and limited and finite and jacked up. 00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:22.799 We will mess up, people around us will mess up, and if you live long enough, you will fall through foundation after faulty foundation after faulty foundation. 00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:35.200 And I understand a virgin birth and a perfect life, a death and a resurrection, God and human flesh, all of it requires real faith to believe in. 00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:59.200 But I hope that if your decision is you're not quite ready for that and you're gonna try to do your own thing, that as you live and as you fall through foundation after foundation after foundation that this world offers that cannot bear the weight of your life and cannot bear the weight of your hope, potentially you'll fall through so many faulty foundations, you'll find yourself right at rock bottom. 00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:01.920 And I pray that you will remember these words. 00:34:02.079 --> 00:34:14.800 Even at rock bottom, God is still there, and he's still pursuing you, and he is just waiting for you to turn to him and find that his arms are open and he is ready right then and right there to receive you, right where you are. 00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:18.719 That's what God does, he meets you right where you are. 00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:32.639 Whatever storms come in life, how much suffering comes your way, Jesus, our rock, our cornerstone, our firm foundation, will never fail us. 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:42.639 As we close right where you are, if you'll close your eyes, bow your head, it's not magic, it just creates some space for you and space for the people around you. 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:53.679 I wonder if you've ever had a moment where you have put your faith in Jesus, where you have simply believed in who he is and believed in what he has done. 00:34:54.239 --> 00:35:05.599 If not, the bad news is you don't have a foundation in your life that is transcendent, that is bigger than big and deeper than deep. 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:14.239 The good news is all you have to do to receive that foundation is believe. 00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:33.039 Scripture says that God loved us so much that he gave his one and only son that everyone who simply believes in him will never die, but will have eternal life, a firm foundation. 00:35:33.280 --> 00:35:40.320 If you're ready today to put your faith in Jesus for the first time, I want to invite you to acknowledge that faith through a simple prayer. 00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:43.440 I'm gonna invite you to repeat right after me. 00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:48.239 You can say it out loud or you can speak this prayer in your mind where God can hear your thoughts. 00:35:48.559 --> 00:35:55.840 You can pray something like this Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you. 00:35:57.280 --> 00:36:02.079 I choose you as my firm foundation. 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:19.039 I believe you are God, I believe you came to earth, that you died for my sins, that you rose again, and I believe someday you're coming back. 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:27.599 And so today I thank you for a new and eternal life. 00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:32.000 Let me pray for you, Jesus. 00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:53.119 I lift up everyone here, everyone online streaming with us who just voiced that prayer, who just moved from death to life, who just moved from estranged children to being back in relationship with their heavenly father, who just moved from a foundation of shifting sand to a foundation that is firm throughout the centuries. 00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:55.519 I thank you for hope, Jesus. 00:36:56.000 --> 00:37:04.079 That no matter how bad life gets and how divided our world becomes and how uncertain we are about our future, we can know that we have hope in you. 00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:08.639 We do not know what tomorrow brings, but we know that you hold tomorrow. 00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:14.400 We don't know when our life will end, but we know that you've given us life after life. 00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:20.400 We love you, and I thank you for once again bringing salvation to this place. 00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:24.800 We thank you and we worship you all in your name, Jesus. 00:37:25.119 --> 00:37:25.760 Amen. 00:37:29.679 --> 00:37:32.480 Thanks so much for listening to the message today. 00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:40.960 If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast, you can rate and review or share it with your friends. 00:37:41.199 --> 00:37:47.840 If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv. 00:37:48.159 --> 00:37:58.239 There you can learn how to take next steps, you can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward. 00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:01.920 Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.