Is Jesus Really God?

Speaker 1 0:31

Well , it's good to be with you . My name is Larry . I'm one of the pastors here . If you're with us online taking a peek in the window , and I just give you a special invitation today to join us in person . There really is something about being together corporately and worshiping and community together . Before I hop into today's topic we got some cool things coming up . I wanted to tell you about a resource that I think everyone in here could use . I literally mean everyone .

Speaker 1 0:52

A hundred percent of you have either dealt with loss or grief or know someone who has dealt with loss or grief in their life and coming . I do not want this to pass by any of us , but we're getting ready to come into , you know , a season of Thanksgiving and the most wonderful time of the year , which I love it , but there are people who are dreading it and not looking forward to it , because it is just filled with difficulty and loss and pain and empty chairs and you name it . So we have with you this twice in the holiday season . Our first one's coming up . It's surviving the holidays . It's coming up in just a week and a half . I would love for you to be able to take someone with you there and just give you tools on how to help someone else or you yourself , when I encourage you , employ you like and be empowered . Go there and get the resources and care as you walk into this holiday season . You can see information about that at the resources area as you walk out today . If you're with us in person , online , you can look under Northgate U if you look at our webpage , like I said , we got stuff for everybody coming up .

Speaker 1 2:05

We have tomorrow , we're gonna be having a men's , we're gonna watch football in here and we're gonna eat chili . It's a chili cookoff . I know women like chili too and they like football . But look at , guys are coming . I've dominated this competition for years , so I plan on doing nothing less . So guys are gonna come . You know , ladies , you don't wanna be here . It's just a bunch of guys watch football and they're gonna be chilling and making noises . So it's yeah , ladies , there's something for you too , and I know not everybody likes this , but there's tea . We have a women's tea event . Yeah , the ladies are excited about that . I love that . Women are the only ones who have paused for both of those . They're like , yay , no , men , and we're away from them . Yeah , so that's coming up in just a couple of weeks . What a time of community . I love it too , because I think it's the only time some women use the China that they've inherited . It's like a once a year thing , but it's beautiful . It's so much fun . There's just lots of things coming up , and if the community is something you're looking for , don't miss that opportunity . We'd love to do that with you .

Speaker 1 3:05

So today we are hopping right back into a conversation we've been having which is like wonder with us , explore with us , as we've been tackling these big questions . And today's big question is is Jesus really God ? And so this week I sat with that and I was trying to not just , I was trying to think of my evidential thinkers in here , those who have friends who are evidential thinkers and struggle with this . And are you just gonna stand up there and give me another because the Bible says so ? So it's true . And then you sit there and you grapple with and you struggle with . There's this 2,000 year old archaic language and book that we go through , and so I am going to try to attack this with more of an evidential aspect to the conversation today . But I also wanted to highlight something about scripture for you , and that's actually next week is when we talk about the topic of is the Bible reliable ? Now , I know for many of you this is a deal breaker . That's been for you . That's kind of got you wobbly at times , or one of your friends or somebody that you know , because they're like you know , like it's just a house of cards . So next week I've invited my professor that was oversaw my master's program . He's coming next week and is gonna talk about the authority of the Bible . I highly encourage you to be here . I think there's a lot you can learn from that and then you can engage in conversation from that .

Speaker 1 4:31

But for today , is Jesus really God ? I've been asked this question before of why should I believe that Jesus was God if he never said the words I am God , like those three words together . He didn't even say those words together . So why should I believe this ? And I believe that that question is based on a mistaken assumption that Jesus would have talked like us and then said things , the ways that would satisfy our ways of thinking and our culture today and how we determine truth . If he had done so , his meaning would have actually been missed by his immediate audience in the first century Jewish culture . So , while it is true he didn't put those three words in that exact order it's also irrelevant but in the end you're gonna see and you need to understand that Jesus said much more than that , that he made these claims to be God through words and methods that the first century Jews would have understood . So we might miss Jesus has claimed to be God , but that ends up being our problem . The world that Jesus lived in and breathed in and responded in it was right on cue . So it's our job to kind of pull back the veil and unpack that so we can have an understanding as 21st century followers or explorers of the faith .

Speaker 1 6:08

And so I want you to listen to a couple of passages in the New Testament . First one is this it's kind of a foundational one , just to kick off today . It's found in the book of John , which is in the New Testament . This is Jesus talking to religious leaders or leadership , and he says for this , it says this for this reason , they tried to kill him all the more . Now you're like oh my gosh , who's trying to kill who ? Like this is just starting crazy Religious leaders , when someone else made a claim like down here , making himself equal to God . They wanted to protect God Like this was blasphemy , this was bad stuff . So they had been having a conversation about a rule that had been broken around Sabbath , and so , for this reason , they tried to kill him all the more Like this . This is dangerous for our culture and for us . Not only was he breaking the Sabbath , but he was even calling God his own father , making himself equal with God . So this is a huge claim .

Speaker 1 7:04

We went over this a little bit last week . We're gonna jump right back in , so let me take you through a bunch of stuff that Jesus said , and then I'm gonna talk about what he did around this question of this claim to be God . These are just a shotgun of things . He claimed that he invented the Sabbath and he had the authority to update the rules of observing it . He put his own knowledge on par with God . He claimed to be equal with God . He claimed that whoever saw him saw the father .

Speaker 1 7:36

When Jesus was given the opportunity to correct people who were treating him as if he was God , he doesn't do that . He claimed to have pre-existence , having descended from heaven , being older than Abraham . He claimed to be replacing the temple , which was the place where God's presence resided and where forgiveness of sins actually occurred . He claimed to have shared glory with God before the world existed . 39 times Jesus claims to be a missionary from heaven . He claimed that he would sinned his angels you see elsewhere in the Bible where angels , of course they were referred to as the angel of God . He claimed the authority to forgive sins . He assumed the authority to judge the world and that one's attitude towards him would define the judgment that they received at the end of their lives . He claimed to be perfectly sinless . He took the divine name I am , which we spoke about last week , which is from the book of Exodus , which he put that on himself as God's name , as I am . He claimed that I and the father are one and , frankly , we could just spend the next 30 minutes and just keep going and going and going and going , but pretty clearly , for people in that culture , he was claiming to be divine .

Speaker 1 9:02

Now , what about what he did ? If you just look at some of those things , some of the things that he actually did , that portrayed , that communicated this he taught people to pray to him multiple times and , sub-quincely , we actually see people like Steven in the book of Acts , or Paul , who's an apostle , or John actually prays to Jesus . He does nature miracles , like turning water into wine , like walking on water . Thank you very much to communicate specifically that he was God and over . He was , over nature itself . You know , people would say who is this ? That the wind in the waves obey him , and the audience would ask those types of things . But yet they would say but nobody but Yahweh , god does the wind in the waves obey . He received worship from people . Not even the angels would accept . He lived into his name , rightly called Emmanuel , which is God with us . He assumed authority to then forgive sins , which only God can do . He claimed to determine people's eternal destiny before God , and Jesus claimed to be God through both word and deed , and did it in a way that upended everyone's ideas , which is why you see so much of the gospels as full of just conflict , because it's upending everything .

Speaker 1 10:26

In my experience , there are generally two reasons that people reject that Jesus claimed to be God . Either people one already have an idea of who God is and they can't figure out how to fit Jesus into that , or two , they already have an idea of who Jesus is and they can't figure out how to fit God into that . So when we study the life or the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament letters that actually followed from those teachings , what we see and what we unpack is that Jesus actually challenges both of those streams of thoughts and then presents to his listeners this radical alternative picture of both himself and of God . This claim to be God incarnate is not made by the founder of any other faith , any faith investigation that you've done . I encourage you to listen to last week's message . We cover this in quite a bit more detail .

Speaker 1 11:31

But there's this question of how is God different than any other world religion or world belief ? Here it's this really just kind of wrapped up into one . God is the creator , the solo creator , who actually has an intentional and unique love for every human being . That sets it completely apart that you have a creator , god that has an intentional and unique love for every single person . That's how this claim ends up being different . He's not just a God , he's the solo one creator and has an intentional , unique love for every single person . Did you know that that is not found on any other deity , no other force , no other nirvana , no other enlightenment , there's no other philosophy or belief system that says that there is a creator who actually has an intentional thought after unique love for every single person . And this God not only that will sacrifice himself for his people .

Speaker 1 12:36

We've had all kinds of religions and history and man and anthropology that shows us that we're like supposed to sacrifice to gods . You know , over millennials people have sacrificed people to God , sacrificed himself , self-mutilation for God . All kinds of sacrifices to appease some God of wrath , some God of wrath that we've offended some way somehow and comes out of this idea that we know we're not gods and we're broken people and so we have to appease God . How we do that ? By some sort of sacrificial system . And this is the only religion where the inventor of it and the creator of it says I will sacrifice myself for the people . No one's ever claimed that we don't have any other religion , world religion or worldview of a God . That's a personal , unique God to every single individual . And then he does the sacrificing .

Speaker 1 13:43

So Jesus came , god sent his son to this planet to do something brand new , brand new in the world . And then here's the thing for the world , for the world , he came to establish this brand new covenant , this new brand , this new idea , this new type of relationship between God and all of mankind , and this governing ethic . This brand of new movement is then called the church . See , the thing with Jesus is the crowds were amazed so many times you read about this . They were amazed by his teaching because he taught with somebody who had authority and they were trying to figure out where does this authority come from ? It's different than other teachers of the law , but this surfaced for many people .

Speaker 1 14:33

Yet another question that launches us into our discussion today how much authority does he actually have ? Like , how much authority does Jesus actually have ? Did he really have the authority to replace things of the past , of the Old Testament , of these profits , of these huge faith figures of Moses that he put into place ? Did he really have the authority to place everything that Solomon , when he built the temple , put into place ? Was he really the person they'd been waiting for for all these centuries , who would actually bring something brand new into the

Temple Greatness, Jesus' Statement

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world ?

Speaker 1 15:09

And then here's one of those statements that he made In the midst of that Sabbath conversation . He then says this I'm gonna tell you that something greater than the temple is here . We do not understand the gravity of that statement , because we are not temple people . But right here , when he makes this statement , this shakes everything up . To compare yourself to the temple , to declare yourself as greater than the temple , is either arrogance , its ignorance or its insanity , but it is most definitely for many people blast . For me , right off the bat , nothing was greater than the temple and certainly no individual person was greater than the temple . In fact , if anything ever said it was greater than the temple , that was actually considered a threat to the temple , which then was considered a threat to the nation , the nation of Jerusalem of the first century Jewish population . In previous generations and centuries to follow , people would die to protect this sacred piece of real estate , this 37 acres or so , that housed the law of God . That was the epicenter of their worship , it was the epicenter of their world and nothing was greater than the temple . If you were to threaten the temple , you threaten the nation .

Speaker 1 16:38

An illustration of this that we see in history is , seven years after Jesus said this , in the year 40 , yes , 40 AD , the citizens of Jerusalem . They got wind of this plot that there was an emperor , calugula Calugula , and this was a statue of him . They got wind of this plot that the emperor was going to send a statue of himself from Rome to then be traveled down to Jerusalem to be placed inside the temple walls . And so when the Jews heard of this , they went to the port city where this statue was being delivered . And there we meet Peronius , who's the governor of Syria , who has been tasked with the job to take emperor Calugula's statue and then take it down south and place it in the temple . And when he got there , he encountered thousands and thousands and thousands of Jews that when he threatened them with violence that he couldn't take this to this temple , they fell to their knees . It says that they pulled down their cloaks and stuck their necks out up to the Roman blade , saying we would rather be slain and killed than you to come and desecrate our temple .

Speaker 1 17:52

Peronius didn't really know what to do with this . He eventually was able to make himself out of the port city , made himself down to Tiberias , just a little south from there , and then encountered even more thousands and thousands more of Jews who threatened to just give their life over , and so he thought this was gonna be met with violence , and they pulled down their cloaks . Again , peronius didn't know what to do with this . In fact , the first century Jewish historian , josephus . He says this when we look at history , it says the Jewish people . They threw themselves down in their faces , they stretched out their throats and said we are ready to be slain . And they did this . Give this for 40 days .

Speaker 1 18:34

This was like wrecking house , like farmers were on strike , the economy was in peril , like everything stopped , everything was wobbly and this was a stalemate . This wouldn't just simply be like armed conflict because one side wasn't armed . This would be genocide , like to get this statue here , we're gonna end up killing everyone . So Peronius then wrote a letter to the emperor for advice , knowing that if he failed to deliver this statue into the temple , not only could he lose his job , he potentially could lose his life . So he didn't know what to do , and so he sent this letter off . And then , in this twist of providence or faith , while the letter was on its way to Rome , the Roman senators conspired and the Roman Victorian guard got together and they decided that they were gonna assassinate the emperor . Caluga Caluga . The crisis was averted , it stopped . So this statement I tell you something greater than the temple is here . That was impossible , like that's impossible . There is nothing greater than the temple . Besides , this isn't the second temple . This is Herod's temple . The first temple was Solomon's temple . It had been destroyed .

Speaker 1 19:54

Around 580 BC , the people were expelled from the city . The Jews were thrown out of the city . The Babylonians actually had come in there and they took all the treasure from the Solomon's temple . They took some of the best and the brightest people and took them away from the city as well . And some years later , fast forward , the Persian emperor allowed the people to return to the city and Cyrus the Great said I'll let you rebuild your temple , but there's a caveat to it . You can't build it as big as Solomon's temple . I need like a little temple because I want you to feel good , but I can't have you feeling too good about yourself . In fact , some people there in the audience when they opened the temple who remembered Solomon's temple and the text tells us that they wept because it was not near as grand as the original , as Solomon's temple . Then , 20 years before Jesus is born , herod the Great , he goes to the Jews and says you know what ? I would like to rebuild your temple to its former glory . And so they did some negotiating back and forth to figure out how they're gonna build this magnificent temple . And 20 years before Jesus shows up , the temple is rebuilt and it's extraordinary .

Speaker 1 21:14

Here's what a model of what this temple looked like . This isn't the model . Gotta go way back there it is . So here's what a model looks like . So this is 37 acres of cut stone . Like I understand it gives a foundation for this is the temple . Over here is Solomon's Colonnade . This is a huge area , a piece of land and this temple . This is what made it so magnificent . Some of the walls in some of these places are 100 feet high 37 acres of cut stone in order to be prepared to hold and maintain the structure of the temple itself . And the temple itself is 60 feet high .

Speaker 1 22:02

But the thing that made it so magnificent , if you think about it , the thing that made it this ancient wonder of the world in agriculture excuse me , in architectural the world was that the entire temple was built on the plaza was made of stone . Some of these stone walls were like 11 by like 16 by like 44 feet long . Actually , been there and touched this back this last January , touched this , like this corner this is a picture for my camera and saw this this . You cannot understand the gravity , how large these stones are . Like you sit there and you're like , how do you even get them there ? I mean , this is thousands of years old and it's still holding up there . I mean , this was magnificent . Some of these stones weighed over 500 tons , and this was also in an area where earthquakes were frequent and Herod essentially built an earthquake-proof temple for the Jews .

Speaker 1 22:59

So to say that something is greater than the temple , jesus ? No , I don't think so . One afternoon , jesus and his guys , they're leaving the temple and they're going down . They're leaving the plaza and they're probably working their way down to what was common area , to go down the southern steps . I'll show you a picture of that in just a few minutes .

Speaker 1 23:19

We got to spend some time sitting there and as they're leaving , we pick up in a spot in the scripture where the writer of Mark tells us about how they stopped , because they were in awe on their way down from there . It says they stopped and says look at this teacher , look back , look back at this temple . Look , what massive stones . Isn't that crazy ? Have you ever just seen something that you're just impressed with , where you have to slow down and be like whoa right , you can find it in little

The Destruction of Herod's Temple

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areas .

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When you drive into a city and you see something that's overwhelmed if you've been traveling and seeing ancient wonders of the world , even out here when you look at our view and somebody else is like , wow , this is your view and you're like , yeah , right . But then you recapture the wonder and you're like , oh yeah , that's pretty rad , right , that's what these guys are doing . They're like , what magnificent buildings . Like in awe . It was one of those things , as many times as you've been there , one of those things that you just see over and over and over again . You're just like , how crazy is this ? How did they get all of these things up in this mountain ? Like , how did they carry it up here ? This is just also overwhelming . And they pause and they marvel at these extraordinary buildings and Jesus then stops and looks back with them and then says this what I'm about to say ? It's so incredible and I'm gonna say that I would love for you to fact check me , because what happens next is so epic . They said do you see these great buildings ? Jesus replied to them yeah , I see them .

Speaker 1 24:53

Not one stone here will be left on another , everyone will be thrown down . Now it's interesting right off the bat . I'll tell you . Sometimes we talk to you in church about the original language , because it's old , it's written in Greek , and how there's some differences from the way we translated , the way we read in English . So , right here , what's interesting is every stone will be thrown down . The original Greek says it just the way we read it in English Not every stone will fall off of one another . It talks about being thrown down , like thrown down off of the ledge into a plaza below .

Speaker 1 25:31

Now , when Jesus said this to his guys , his followers , this group of him , the only thing I'm sure they could do at that moment is just stare at him and be like what ? Like they just went . This is insane . Who can , however , would this be thrown off of something and thrown down into the plaza ? And they just stared at him . They couldn't . You can't tear down hair as temple . It's impossible . Like an earthquake might like topple a parapet a little bit , or it might crack a little spot in the foundation , lose a few bricks here and there , but an earthquake couldn't throw the stones off the temple into the plaza valley below .

Speaker 1 26:12

There was only the time , one force that was powerful enough to do that , and that would have been the Roman army , and the Roman army isn't about to destroy Herod's temple , because Herod was King . Herod was the vassal king who works for Rome , and he's the one who Herod . I said Herod a bunch of times . I'm like what am I saying ? Herod ? Thanks for fixing that for me . Geez , king Herod , herod the great , yeah , he built this temple to essentially keep the Jews quiet , right . So it's just disturbing , it's impossible . It's not just disturbing , it's literally impossible . And the fact that if it would happen , it'd be like apocalyptic , like that's the end , that would be completely the end . Everything is destroyed , the world would be over as we know it .

Speaker 1 27:00

And so now they make their way down into the valley and then they make their way back up on the other side of this valley , past Mount Zion to the mountain of Olives . And these guys , they were just still so disturbed by this . They're like , well , I remember he said something greater than the temple was here . That's kind of weird . But then , like what ? Everything's gonna be thrown off of each other . Why were you saying that ?

Speaker 1 27:21

So now they find themselves sitting at the top of Mount Olives and you can see this scene right here . This is kind of the view they had . It was that other view . There it is . This is a bunch of us . We actually went there this last January . You can go there too and check it out . So this is the view . So over here is the south wall where I was talking about the stairs . Come down back . There is the west of the Wailing Walls behind there . This is where they would have come down , come through the valley of Kidron , come this way up Mount Zion , right here , and then they would have been right over here on this side , at the Mount of Olives and near the Garden of Gassimide , and this would have been their view back , except this would have been temple there , where you had that gold dome . So then we'll see this .

Speaker 1 28:02

And now they're staring back , looking back at this massive , crazy structure , and Peter , james , andrew and John go to him privately and they're like we just need to know when are these things supposed to happen ? That you're saying , and I wanna encourage you . We don't have the time to do it right now , but find yourself a Bible this week . Go to Matthew , mark , john , luke and you can read about this really specifically in Luke , chapter 21, . Read about what he would say when this day would happen . He said this is gonna take place when you see an army surround the city . And he said when you see an army surround the city , you know that destruction is coming . He's saying when that happens , you need to leave the city . And he says things like you better pray that there's no nursing mothers or your wife's not pregnant at the time . Men will be slain . They will pray for mercy , they will pray to die . This was not apologetic . When he's saying this , he's saying men will die by the sword . And when he's talking about this , when this is supposed to be thrown off of one another , he's not . I'm not speaking figuratively . This was . He wasn't really nostalgic about this , but when he described what would happen , it was clear that it was really heartbroken and it was disturbed , but he wasn't exaggerating . But if that were to happen , then the world would literally come to an end to them . And here's the deal . Here's where you can fact check me on this . 40 years later , that's exactly what happened .

The Fall of Jerusalem and Prophecy

Speaker 1 29:37

After four years of battling with basically Jewish gangs , the Roman army was taken down by an uprising of Jews . That had one giant victory over a Roman legion , and they thought this gave them all the momentum they needed . They thought we can expel Rome . And so they started gathering men from Galilee and all the way through Judea and saying that we were gonna rise armies . Now , this is our chance and our opportunity . And then you had the citizenry of Judea , knowing this probably isn't gonna end well , but the young men felt like this is our time , we can rise up and conquer Rome . And then Rome sent the 10th legion and others and they began to herd the Jewish rebels from Galilee all the way down south and eventually they rounded them up in the city of Jerusalem and they built a wall of stone all the way around the city .

Speaker 1 30:39

By this time , vaspian , who started the war , had gone off now to be emperor and left his son Titus in his stead . It was then festival time . So the festival time is when thousands and thousands of Jews descended upon the city and began to wake their way to a city , and initially the Roman army said no , you can't come in . We've kind of heard of this group of people in here Said you can't come in , but Vaspian said no , no , no , actually let them in , welcome them , accompany them into the city and , once they're in , seal it , because their food supply will be depleted faster .

Speaker 1 31:16

And what happened next in the city was horrific . You can read about this . They fought the Romans by day . They fought with each other by night . There were grain stores that caught on fire during one of the internal skirmishes . They were so sure that they were gonna win and they were gonna expel the Romans . They began fighting with each other who would be the next king of Israel ?

Speaker 1 31:39

And on August 6th AD 70 , the second wall was breached and the Roman legion you can fact check me on this , please do the Roman legion went into the city and killed just about everything they could that they could not sell into slavery . They burned everything they could burn in the temple and then literally it's the craziest part , literally they literally dragged every single stone used to build that temple off the ledge of the plaza and dumped it into the valley below to say this is the end of Judaism . In fact , today you can go to the Southwest corner , took a picture of it and see those very stones that have been thrown over laying on the ground . Thousands of years later , thousands of years later , it was never rebuilt . On that day , ancient Judaism died , never to be resurrected , just as Jesus had predicted .

Speaker 1 32:52

This is what it looks like today when you see this . So that Mount of Olas vantage point is from this angle . This is the eastern wall . This is the southern wall . These are the steps that I was talking about . This is a mosque that's here today , that some of you are familiar with seeing in this type of view . This is the dome of the rock that was built in 700 AD by the Muslims . They came there , and this is a place where they made that both Jews and Muslims could go and pilgrims there , depending on which religion you're part of to go see where Isaac either Isaac or Ishmael was to be sacrificed by Abraham . Over here this is familiar to many of this is the wailing wall where the Jews worshiped now today on this site . And then this bottom corner right here this is all the stones that I was talking about , where they literally took the temple and they dumped it over that edge . And then here's the building . Rabbinic Judaism was born , but ancient Sinai . Judaism was never resurrected . Here's the deal . This is the grace point . It was just as Jesus predicted . Not one stone will be left on another , everyone will be thrown down .

Speaker 1 34:08

Now I'm gonna depart from this storyline just a little bit because I think it's really , really important , but it's a little bit complicated to understand this . The group of men that followed Jesus as apostles after Peter was martyred , after Paul was martyred Andrew , they say Matthew , was martyred all of Jesus' first century original followers died . And the next group of people that stepped into the leadership are called the church fathers . And the church fathers would do exactly what I'm doing today , because we have context , we have space to see everything . The church fathers would say , aha , look , what happened was exactly what Jesus predicted . Jesus is who he claims to be . He made this prophetic remark about exactly what was gonna happen and it happened . Can you see that ? How in the world could someone predict something so epic , so claticismic , so easy honestly to verify that other people could actually put eyewitness to like even 2000 plus years ago ? We get to go and put eyewitness to what took place . Jesus must be who he says he is and they did exactly what I'm saying . They're saying Jesus said it , it happened , he predicted it , it happened .

Speaker 1 35:25

But here's the deal and this is what can get really confusing for us is the gospel writers of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John . They don't . They don't do that . And the question that we have to wrestle to the ground , especially if you're a skeptic , is how could they resist ? How could they resist doing this , how could they resist editorializing such an incredible phenomenon so that we would know ? How could they resist adding to their text something like this and then it came , so just as Jesus said it would , how could they resist not saying that , saying this is one of the craziest things . That was so unimaginable , that would never happen . He predicted it , he prophesized it , and then it actually happened . So they can say look , I told you so he was who he said he was . They didn't understand at the time . Why wouldn't they do that ?

Speaker 1 36:20

It's common , if you actually look through the Gospels , that they do this . If you look through the Gospels where they didn't understand what Jesus was saying and they go through the life of Jesus and they're writing this stuff down , they're like we'll write it down , I don't understand what it means , and then later give it context , how and why ? Well , it's because then they lived through the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus and so they got to go oh yeah , that thing and that connects and makes sense , and so they got to write that . So why , in this instance , when they do the very same thing , especially when you read the detail that Luke , chapter 21 gives in Matthew and Mark , why not leverages ? Why not see , like , say see there , I told you so and here's the answer that I think for you Skeptics , should make you sit up straighter . This should make you fall on your face and declare Jesus as Lord , because of what exactly he did .

Speaker 1 37:14

When the gospel of Mark was written , the temple was still standing . It wasn't like , hey , let's just put something in there and then say that he said this and then , because it actually happened , like we can go back right , this happened . Let's talk about somebody who said it was gonna happen and just say it no , no , no . When the gospel of Mark was written , it was still standing . All we had was this prophecy in there . When the gospel of Matthew was written , it was still standing . That's why Matthew didn't say sure enough , it happened , just as he said it would happen . That's why he only included the prediction , not the fulfillment of the prediction . When the gospel of Luke was written and Luke said look it , I've done all the work for everyone . I have thoroughly investigated everything and put it in its timely order so that you know the accounts just as they took place and what Jesus looked like . And he didn't put it in there because when the gospel of Luke was written , the temple was still standing .

Speaker 1 38:15

Jesus predicted the fall of Jerusalem in detail that he gives us , and it was not written after the fact and because of that it is indisputable evidence . I believe , as we're talking about evidence that Jesus is worth following . Why Matthew didn't include it ? Because it hadn't happened . But , friends , it happened Just as Jesus said it would happen . Just as he said it would happen . This is the most verifiable prophecy ever given anywhere by anyone . Why ? Because we , like me and you , physically , can travel over to Israel . We can walk there and see it and touch it for ourselves . We then become eyewitnesses of the truth of this prophecy . There's your evidence . And Jesus was clear . He was so clear that the days of temple sacrifice and the days of animal sacrifice and the days of God's covenant with the nation of Israel was coming to an end and this was gonna be replaced by something new . It was gonna be replaced by something that was improved . It was gonna be replaced by something that was universal for everyone and the temple was gonna be replaced by something portable , portable , 20 years later . Well , the temple's still standing 20 years after Jesus gave this prediction .

Speaker 1 39:59

The apostle Paul , the ex-temple-loving Christian persecuting Pharisee , writes to the ex-pegon Corinthians that have their own temple experience . He writes these astounding words and again , I really feel like we missed this . We're not temple people . We don't understand the gravity of this , but here's what he says . He goes do you not know , because he didn't know Do you not know that your bodies are temples ? Are you not the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you , whom you have received from God ? You are not your own . Do you not know , now that your bodies this was a game changer and we're talking about temple people your bodies are now the temple this is portable that the Holy Spirit which inhabited the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem , that building that he could have said while standing at that time , no longer inhabited the Holy Spirit , because the Holy Spirit had left the building and inhabits the heart of men and inhabits the heart of women . You , friends , have been inhabited by the Holy Spirit who is in you , whom you have received from God . Therefore , you are not your own .

Speaker 1 41:18

I think that significance is lost on us , but it is loaded with implications for first century pagans and first century Jewish people . And here are the implications that , essentially , the arrival of Jesus meant that sacred was being commuted , the sacred had been commuted , that there were no more sacred objects , there was no more sacred geography , that there was no more sacred sites . There were only sacred individuals , sacred sacred people . And the message of the gospel , the message of Jesus , is that the new that he came to introduce that is wasn't just for a group of people , but for this world , is this Get this . You are seated next to sacred . For some of you , this is going to be a big grasp . You are raising sacred , you're married to sacred , you work for or you hire sacred .

Speaker 1 42:26

The stage was set with Jesus . The stage was set for the up-ending of all society and the seeds were sown to end slavery . The seeds were sown to give dignity to all mankind , but more importantly , more importantly , for all womankind as well , because there is this inextricable link between the message of Jesus and human freedom , because there is this link between this message of Jesus , between human dignity and the cross that had to pay to Christ to declare that the worth of every single person , that there is worth of every single person that has ever walked the planet . There is this inextricable link between the teachings of Jesus and your value and your worth and your intrinsic dignity . He said something greater than the temple is here , and it was something greater than the temple that had to come to the world for the world . And then , just as he predicted , the temple came down and eventually all the temples all over the Roman Empire , in the light , in the love of God , had been released and manifested into the world for the world .

Speaker 1 43:55

And here's now where it intersects with you and me and me . Here's where this original invitation still stands today , and the invitation is this . It's simply this Follow me To follow me . Follow me , the one who gives life and life abundantly . Follow me into the fearless life . Follow me into the life where you can take an easy or yoke . Follow me into the life without shame . Follow me into a life where you're in the bookends of eternity . Follow me and you will never be the same . Follow me and you will never see the same . And follow me not because of faith . Follow me because I have demonstrated that I am faithful . And follow me because I have given you more than enough evidence to know that I am who your Father sent to pay for your sins and to establish a relationship with your heavenly Father . Follow me . Why wouldn't you do that ? Why would you resist that or some of this ? Why would you fear that ? If you'd been with us for the first couple weeks , maybe you remember this wager , if you're new with us .

Speaker 1 45:28

We talked about a wager by a guy named Blaze Pascal . He was an intellectual , one of the more infamous intellectuals over time in the American history , the 1500s , and he made a wager with his fellow intellectuals that said place a bet on God that he is real , and if he is , you have everything to gain , and if he is not , you have nothing to lose . And his question was essentially will you place a bet on God and pray this simple prayer God , if you are real , will you make yourself real ? To me , I can't think of a more real story than the story we just went over . He said this and now , today we are eyewitnesses to that . Maybe for some of you , over the last couple weeks I've had a stirring in you because you're looking back going . There is moments where he showed maybe he's real . That bet might pay off . There might be a lot to gain in here , and for some of you , today is day one .

The Invitation to Follow Jesus

Speaker 1 46:36

I'm going to give you , and maybe others in here , just a quick picture of how you share this . What is the good news , which is the gospel , which is that God , first of all , like we've talked about , loves you , cares for you . What breaks your heart breaks his heart , wants a relationship with you , wants to give himself uniquely to you , every single person , and be in relationship with you . But then we have a problem . We can't be with a righteous God , a perfect God and he knows this because he gave us free will and with that becomes problems . Right , we make our own free decisions and other people make their own free decisions , and then their free decisions impact us in negative ways and we have hurt and we have loss and we have brokenness . You guys understand that it's not God making all these decisions , it's our ability to have free will , and we just wreck each other's house every day , and so there's a problem .

Speaker 1 47:28

We can't be with this God and we can't receive the things that he wants to give us this perfect love , the shame , the care , the uniqueness of Him with you and Majo Dei made in His image , and so he came up with a solution , which was Jesus Himself . That says I am going to be the Creator who will sacrifice Himself for His people . And so you have Jesus . He says take His yoke , take His way , his truth , his love , his grace . You can experience joy , gentleness , kindness , and he wants all that for you to take off the shame . And so you have a God . You have a problem , you have a solution that he comes up with , and so the last thing is just the invitation . You're invited , follow me . And the question really comes down to you what are you going to say ? What's your answer to the invitation Follow me ? Would you stand as we respond and worship ?