Judgement and Mercy

AI Transcript

Amen. If you have a Bible, you can begin to make your way to the book of Revelation, Revelation, Chapter eight and nine. We're going to cover two chapters this morning. So buckle up. I read these chapters last Sunday as I was right after the service and I said, oh, it's time to buckle up. So I immediately went home and began to do some work, try to understand, engage. What is actually going on here? And as I was starting that work, I got a text from a friend.

who is now a pastor down in southern Colorado. And in the text, he sent me this picture. It's this picture of this little two inch Jesus. And he said, hey, I was standing in line at Burger King today. And the guy in front of me turned around, pulled this Jesus out of his pocket and handed it to me and said, Jesus loves you. That's what the sash says. And he said, I immediately thought about you, Mark, because 10 years ago you preached a sermon at my church.

And in it, you talked about a two inch pocket Jesus. And here it is. And I in no way want to demean or discredit the guy that turned around at Burger King and handed this guy, handed my friend this Jesus. I'm sure his heart is to just share the love of Jesus. I commend that. But in that sermon, in that sermon, I was kind of lamenting the state of modern Christianity, specifically Christology, that there is this cultural pressure to

redefine, reshape, reimagine Jesus in all the ways that we want him to be for us and not in the ways that he is portrayed in the totality of scripture. And I said in that sermon, it can be like we have a two inch pocket Jesus where we pull out this Jesus to kind of coach us along, give us what we need, whatever our current circumstances are. When we need him, we have him. But when we don't need him, we could just put him back in our pocket.

And let's say, Jesus, I don't need you in that area. In fact, I don't want you really to press in on this area of my life. And so I was kind of lamenting the two inch pocket Jesus mentality. You know, I think it comes there is this pressure. There's this pressure that we feel if you've ever tried and I hope you have if you've ever tried to share Christ with someone, there is this pressure to say, OK.

here's all the things that I want you to know about Jesus. And really to try to put forward a Jesus that really appeals to their felt needs, that really is palatable. And again, I think that comes from a good heart. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, some churches and church growth gurus were saying, how do we reach a lost culture?

They came up with what was known as become known as the Seeker Sensitive Movement and behind the movement again I think it is from the right heart like we want to reach people with Christ and they said they postulate there's seekers out there that have spiritual hunger and needs and real life needs that Jesus can speak to and so they began to reshape their worship experience reshape their churches reshape their sermons and messages to appeal

to those things. And again, I think it came from the right heart. But what you got was a bunch of messages and sermons and worship styles that really appealed to the individual like, here's how God can help you in your marriage or here's how Jesus can help you with your finances or with your health or in any number of felt need ways. And these churches, they did reach a lot of people. A lot of people grew. And by the way, that is part of what is true in the Bible.

When we align our lives with the reality that God has set in place, like a lot of those things do get better. Like relationships get better. Your finances get better. All of that is true. But the problem is, that's not the whole truth. Like there are moments, you followed, if you have followed Jesus long enough, there are moments where Jesus isn't so palatable. Life isn't so easy.

Things don't get better. And so as another friend of mine often says, Mark, what we win people with, we win them too. What we win people with, we win them too. And so if you win people with a gospel that says, here's all the ways that God can enhance your life. Here's how Jesus is kind of like a divine life coach. Then you better stick with that. You've got to stay with that because

And every week and every time you've got to begin to make it so appealing to the person that they continue to come. And then the gospel begins to get truncated. You get you get a distorted view of who Jesus is. More than that, worship becomes about the people in the pew than Christ on the throne. This is a tragedy. So.

I want to push back on that. In fact, we're in this section of scripture that we have to push back on that because chapters six through 18, maybe some of the most difficult chapters in all the Bible, especially because of the cultural air that we breathe. They're difficult to understand because it's apocalyptic literature. But what we do understand, it's difficult to embrace because of the cultural air we breathe. My favorite sermon title of all time.

comes from Jonathan Edwards in 1736. He was preaching a sermon on Revelation five and he entitled it this, and they were just so gangster with their sermon titles. I need to do better. But here's what he entitled his sermon from Revelation five. The admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Christ Jesus. That's quite a mouthful, right? Let me say it slower. The admirable conjunction.

of diverse excellencies in Christ Jesus. And what he was saying from Revelation five is one of the glories of Christ is that in the same divine person he is both lion of Judah and lamb of God who takes away the sins. And he goes throughout the rest of the scripture and he shows Jesus is the holy one, the righteous one, the one who is worthy of all glory and the one who humbles himself. This is diverse excellencies. Jesus is

all truth and he is mercy, he is justice and he is grace and it is the full and complete picture of these diverse excellencies that make him even more praiseworthy. It's what we need. We need to see Jesus in all of his glory, even the parts that are hard for us to swallow. So for example, in the Gospel of Luke, we recently studied Luke.

There is a line that Jesus says that I can almost guarantee no one gets tattooed. Like you're not going to see this verse on the bottom of your in and out cup. Sorry Rick. But in Luke chapter 12, Jesus says, came to cast fire on the earth and wood that were already kindled. Hello? No one's got that tattooed? This is about the judgment of Jesus. I came to bring judgment. I don't like that pocket Jesus.

No, no, we like Luke chapter 19 for the son of man came to seek and save the lost. But both are true. He is both the judge and savior. He is righteous in his wrath and gracious in his mercy. The admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Christ Jesus. Now, I learned a while ago that God does not need me.

God does not need you to be his defense attorney. The line of Judah does not need to be tamed. The line of Judah is the line of Judah whether we try to tame him or not. He is God on the throne. And what God has called us to in this time and in this place is to be a faithful witness. Here's who God is to the world.

Revelation 6 through 18 as I said are difficult to understand they're difficult to embrace but they are for our good that they're part of God's Word that they show us that God cares about sin and because God is love he has wrath because God is love he has wrath and I've said this before but let me just explain like you you have this too

So good parents, good fathers, good mothers, you love your children and so you give them commands and instructions and boundaries for their flourishing because it's out of your love. And you discipline when they go out of that because you love them. And if someone was to mistreat, take advantage, abuse or even try to kill your child, then the righteous wrath would rise up in your heart and soul.

defend them because it's out of your goodness and your love now if God is infinite in his goodness and infinite in his love then his wrath is also good and right this is what we're gonna see in the next several several chapters now one of the problems with with the book of Revelation is it of all the books of the Bible it's very easy to miss the forest for the trees

What I mean by that is you can start to nail down on specific verses and be like, well, what does this mean? What is that? That's really bizarre and start to get lost in the weeds, right? Again, I think this is one of the reasons why Calvin never wrote a commentary on Revelation, because when you write commentaries, that's what you do. You commentate on every verse, but it's easier to actually preach Revelations than commentate, because we can go...

at a 30,000 foot view and explain and understand what is actually happening here. So there's two lenses that you can come to this section or the whole book of Revelation. One is a futuristic lens. This is the typical lens that most American Christians come to the book of Revelation. Speculate, how is this thing going to play out in the end? What does this verse mean? What could it possibly, is it talking about Apache or?

Apache helicopters in this chapter. Is that what's going on here? We could speculate like that. And by the way, we're in the chapter where the Apache helicopters are speculated upon. Just a heads up for you on that one. Or again, as we've said throughout this book, this book cannot mean to us what it did not mean to the first readers. There's another lens and when you see it through the other lens, it becomes so obvious. The other lens is you have the Book of Revelation in one hand, you have the

Old Testament in the other. And when you see clear echoes from the Old Testament into the book of Revelation, you say, I see what's going on. What was going on then? What did that teach us about? Teach God's people about God then that is applicable in this case, 92 A.D. or 2025 Parker, Colorado. And when you come to chapters eight and nine,

What immediately would have jumped off the page was these are echoes of two books, primarily the book of Exodus and then secondarily the prophet Joel. When you start to understand, okay, well, what was happening in Exodus? What was happening in Joel? What does that teach us about God there that is true today? You start to say, I see what's happening in this book.

Did you know Revelation actually does not give us any new doctrine or actual revelation about the fangs of God? I love how Eugene Peterson puts it in his book on Revelation. says this, do not read the Revelation to get additional information about the life of faith in Christ. I've read it all before. Everything in the Revelation can be found in the previous 65 books of the Bible.

The revelation adds nothing of substance to what we already know. The truth of the gospel is already complete, revealed in Jesus Christ. There is nothing new to say on the subject, but there is a new way to say it. I read the revelation not to get more information, but to revive my imagination. This apocalyptic literature sets our minds on fire with the truth of God in ways that epistles or even gospels

Do not. We're going to see that in this passage as well. Again there's going to be an echo from Exodus. So if you remember the Exodus God had spared his people from famine and they had come down to Egypt and they had lived in prosperity for a while but eventually the kings the pharaohs they changed and as Israel grew that there would there became a animosity towards the Israelites and they were enslaved.

And in their slavery, they felt just the brokenness of this world. They begin to cry out to God. at the end of chapter two, verse 23 says this, during those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning.

And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God, I love this last verse, God saw the people of Israel and God knew. And God knew. Keep that in mind as we turn to Revelation 8. But also later in Exodus, remember there's the 10 plagues. I'll put them on the screen here. These plagues are God's judgment on

the Egyptians. We had water followed by frogs and gnats and flies and pestilence and boils and hail and locusts and darkness and death of the firstborn. Again, keep these in mind as we look at Revelation 8 and 9. But also keep in mind what was happening in Egypt during these things and what was the purpose of these judgments. Part of the purpose was to call Pharaoh

call the Egyptians to repentance. Right at the end of each one that they it was like are you going to repent and and they kind of half-heartedly did sometimes but then their heart was hardened and the next one came and their heart was hardened. What was God teaching us in Exodus in Exodus that is true in the first century. Well in Egypt it was the most powerful army in the world the most powerful nation in the world and it had set its oppression on the people of God.

Well, what's happening in the first century? The most powerful empire that the world has known, the Roman Empire, has set its oppression on the people of God. So there's an echo. And what did Exodus teach us? God hates sin. He hates all sin. God hears the prayers and the cries of his people. You can go on and on and see the echo between Revelation and Exodus. So with that,

Let's turn our attention to Exodus chapter eight or Revelation. chapter eight. We've had seven seals. We're to have seven trumpets. We'll have seven bowls. I'll put those up on it. I break these up because it's interesting because again, this does not happen in chronological order, but recursive, repetitive. They're cyclical.

They're not telling what's happening. Then this happens, this happens, this happens. But they're telling the whole story of the church age from the death, burial and resurrection of Christ until he comes again. We see this in each one of the seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls are different judgments from God and they break up in this way. All of them. There's four that go together and then there's a pause. Then two that are totally unique and then a pause and then a

at the end comes Christ returns. So we get to the end three times and we start over. We start over. But they're telling the same story but from a different perspective. We saw in chapter six to eight that the seven seals tell the perspective from the church. Here's what's affecting the church. Here's explaining the church's experience in the last 2000 years. But now we're in the seven trumpets and that's going to tell the perspective from

the unbelieving world from what Revelation is going to say, the dwellers of the earth, from those that are in rebellion to God, His rule, and His reign. This was just helpful for me to see, because normally I read through Revelation and I'm like, that was weird, that was weird, that was weird. But to see there's actually a pattern, a rhythm to each one of these three. Okay, so let's jump in to chapter eight.

said when the lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer. And he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense

with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Did you hear the echo from Exodus chapter 2? The people were oppressed. They cry out to God and it rose to the throne room of God. This is significant. God saw them then and in the first century and now and

What we see immediately is that the prayers of God's people are significant, far more significant than you could think or imagine. Right. So far in the visions of the throne room of God, we've seen this continuous loud like thunder worship of God. Holy, holy, holy. But now the prayers are there and there is silence. God is hearing.

prayers. We see this from the sixth seal. The martyrs under the altar are praying. They're calling out, Lord, how long until you avenge us? How long before your righteous wrath comes to the earth? And now in response to their prayers, the seven trumpets are about to be blown. Look at verse five. says, then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth.

And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. The judgment of God is falling on the earth.

Now we see the seven trumpets, verse six. Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. Again, they're in groups of four and then two and then one. says the first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, think Exodus. And these were thrown upon the earth and a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up.

Remember in Revelation the numbers are symbolic. So we should ask the question why a third a third a third a third. We'll come back to that. The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood. Think of the River Nile turning to blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Verse 10, the third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven blazing like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter. The fourth angel blew his trumpet and the third of the sun was struck. That's the ninth plague in Exodus and the third of the moon and a third of the stars.

so that a third of their light might be darkened and a third of the day might be kept from shining. And likewise, a third of the night. This is a picture of creation gone berserk. It is what we see. We see it today. We've seen it for 2000 years when nature is broken itself. Romans chapter eight says all of nature itself, the creation itself is groaning.

redemption but there is brokenness in the world there are earthquakes that happen there are there are floods there are famines there are all these things and in the brokenness of the world that there should be a crying out to God it should be a wake-up call to the world like things are not right how are things going to be put right again it's an explanation of creation gone wild

Verse 13, then I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead. Whoa, whoa, whoa. To those who dwell on the earth. Again, unbelievers on the earth. At the blast of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow. So now we come to the fifth angel, the fifth with the fifth trumpet. And just a heads up, this is where we're going to see the Apache helicopters. Not really.

I promise you these are not Apache helicopters, but we'll get to that in a second. This is in the fifth angel blew his trumpet and they saw a star falling from heaven to earth. And he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit. Again, this should stir your imagination. And from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace.

and the sun and the air were darkened and with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth. Again, the prophet Joel or Exodus. These locusts come up, but they're not ordinary locusts. Look at what it says. And they were given power, like the power of scorpions on the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree.

Clearly these aren't locusts because that's what locusts do. They eat all the grass and harm the plants and eat the trees but not these locusts. In fact they're not locusts at all. We'll see in a minute. It says but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. So they torment but they don't torment God's people. Remember we saw that last week. We are sealed. We are saved and we are secure forever. This is

from the perspective of the unbelievers. It says, were allowed to torment them for five months. Again, we'll come back to that. But not to kill them. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. This is the peril of the unbeliever. Life can be miserable.

but they're afraid, terrified of death. They want death, but they don't want death. Verse seven then begins to explain these locusts. Again, this is where some are like, well, that must be Apache helicopters. No, it's actually a picture of the demonic world. And it's intentionally a ghastly, gruesome, and horrific image of demonic forces in this world.

So in appearance, the locusts were like, he's reaching for words, it's simile. And what he describes is far more horrific than anything Stephen King has ever described. The locusts were like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces. Their hair like women's hair. And their teeth like lion's teeth. They had

breastplates like iron and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions and their power to hurt people for five months in their tails. They have a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abedon and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

This is probably Satan, this demonic whore that has been released out into the world to afflict unbelievers. But remember what Eugene Peterson said, revelation doesn't tell us anything new. What's being described here, it's what Paul described in Ephesians. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers, the principalities, the dark forces.

in this world and in this apocalyptic vision you're like my gosh this is terrifying that there is a real spiritual battle raging all around us with horrific beings seeking to destroy, distort, and blind those who do not know Christ. When you start to feel the weight of that you start to have a little hopefully a little bit of compassion with those that seem like they're in total rebellion to God.

And you start to see there is a demonic presence behind that. And so you're reminded our struggle is not against them, but against these dark forces. They're afflicting the unbelievers. Verse 12 says, the first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to come. Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet. And I'll let you on your own time read that, but it's this picture of this 200 million

warrior army coming across the far reaches of the Roman Empire at that time, the Euphrates River. Rome was obsessive about their control and power and dominance and they were always trying to expand it more, but they always had this deep fear in the hearts that there was some unknown army just outside their border ready to roll in and the Revelation says, oh, it's an army of 200,000 strong. It's a demonic army.

that is going to roll into Babylon, roll into Rome. It's a horrific, scary picture here. But let's get back to the numbers. One third, five months. What's going on there? Just like in Exodus with the plagues, they were limited in scope and in time. It does affect the whole world, but not all of the world, a third of it.

These judgments are mixed with mercy. The idea is that you should see the brokenness of the world. You should see the brokenness of our heart. You should feel the demonic oppression and that should press you on to turn to repent and to come to God to find mercy in God. That's the hope. But that's what makes Revelation 9 verses 20 and 21 some of the saddest verses in the Bible. It says the rest of mankind

who were not killed by these plagues did not repent. They did not repent.

They did not repent of their works of their hands, nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. They had their hearts.

They persisted like Pharaoh. The vast majority persist in the rebellion. They don't see the judgments for what they are. An opportunity to turn to God. They did not repent. Now John isn't saying that no one ever repents. There are some that repent but the vast majority don't. Did you know in Exodus chapter 12 as the people are leaving Egypt it also tells us that

There were some Egyptians that went with them. Some Egyptians saw the plagues and they're like, Ra is not God. Whoever is the living God of the Israelites, that is God. And they went out with the Israelites. The vast majority did not. This is true of our world, right? The vast majority will not repent, but some will. Some will. Which leads us to the question. Revelation 8 and 9. How should we

as believers respond to these chapters. Well, what is this calling us to in this time in this place? think three things. One, I think it's obvious. We are called to pray. We should respond with prayer. John is showing us the significance of prayer, that it rises before God in his throne room. It silences heaven and he hears, he sees

And he responds that if we took to heart the vision of prayer from Revelation, we would be a praying church. It would not be an add on to our spiritual life. It would be our life. It would be our breath. It would be what we would do all the time. Lord, you hear our prayers, you see, you respond, you react to how we pray and then let us be a praying church. We should pray. Number two.

Because God hates sin and has wrath for all rebellion. We should repent. We should regularly repent. See the difference between those that are sealed and the dwellers of the earth isn't that we we are we don't sin and they're they just sin. No the difference between a believer and unbeliever is a believer has the Holy Spirit is constantly convicted of sin and constantly turning away.

from sin and turning to God. This is what it looks like to be a believer to repent to take sin seriously. God knows your sins your sins omission and commission. He knows your heart. He knows the rebellion. He knows the wickedness. If any of us had the thoughts of our last week played on the screen we would all be embarrassed. God sees it all and God's people repent continually. This is what

Martin Luther said in his 95 Thesis, 508 years ago this month, when he nailed the 95 Thesis on the church doors at Wittenberg, number one he said this, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, Matthew 4.17, he willed that the entire life of believers be one of continual repentance. These chapters and the ones to come remind us that God's

people repent. We take sin seriously because God takes sin seriously. And then finally we'll see this more next week. But these chapters remind us that this is the time and this is the place that God has called us and placed us to be on mission in the world. So we warn the world in rebellion to repent that that that there is a way to life and hope. We don't take up a sword.

to defeat our enemies. When we don't go online to try to defeat everyone on X who doesn't agree with us theologically, because that works so awesome. No, we don't pick up a sword. We point a finger to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We alone have a message for the world. There is hope, there is forgiveness, there is a path to life.

In our culture, in our day, and even in our own church, we're asking this question, are we on the verge of revival? What evidences of grace do we see that could be a national revival or a churchwide revival? Now, to be clear, there is revival happening in many places throughout the world. Brazil is blowing up with the gospel. Many are getting saved every single day. The fastest growing church in the world right now is in

one of the most oppressed countries in the world in Iran. Iranians are coming in droves to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. We praise God for that. Sub-Sahara Africa is coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior like no other place. But our question as Americans in this time and this place, and hopefully our prayer is, Lord, would you bring revival here? Would you stir here and somewhere like, well, I see this and this and this. But here's the thing. At least

Historically, how does revival happen? It happens on the twin rails of prayer and repentance in the local church. Show me a church where there is a growing culture of prayer who understands that prayer silences heaven and leans into it. Then I'll show you a church that God is on the move. Show me a church where there is a culture of confession.

and repentance among one another. And I'll show you a church where God is on the move. But you show me a church where there is prayer and repentance. Buckle up. May God do that in our day. Amen. Let me pray for us.

Sealed, Saved, and Secure

AI Summery

Mark Oshman (00:00.367)

Welcome. My name is Mark. If you have a Bible, we're in Revelation chapter seven this morning. You can begin to make your way there. Um, I don't know. Anyone, anyone on tick tock? Any tick tock? I didn't, I didn't guess that we would have a huge tick tock crowd. Don't be afraid. I know some of you on tick tock. Come on. Some of you on tick tock. Well, uh, apparently a few weeks ago, uh, there was a something kind of blowing up on tick tock, a hashtag rapture talk. Did you see this?

Rapture Talk, there was a South African pastor who said he got a vision from God that said that the rapture would happen during Rosh Hashanah, September 23rd. And this began to get some traction and spill over to Instagram and YouTube shorts and others. And people were sharing their anxieties about the rapture. Others were sharing tips, how to prepare and what to do with your pets, apparently, when you get raptured.

Others were mocking Christians that you believe in a rapture. Of course, September 23rd came and went and there was no rapture. Then this pastor said, that was the Julian calendar or the Georgian calendar. I meant the Julian calendar. So it was going to be this week, October 7th, when the rapture was supposed to happen. Of course, we're all still here. So either we're not Christians or it didn't happen.

I remember in middle school, this is before the internet, 1988, before things went viral on the internet, there was a viral thing going on. remember talking to other middle schoolers about how in September of 1988, there was going to be a rapture. I was like, what is that? they're like, the Christians are just going to get sucked up into the sky. It's going to be awesome. And so we were all like, OK, rapture's coming. And that came from a guy who was a

former NASA engineer who kind of became a self-proclaimed, hey, you threw me off here. Who's running the slides? Who's running the slides?

Mark Oshman (02:07.463)

No, actually because I need to get some instructions. Okay.

Mark Oshman (02:14.606)

Alright, okay.

You can throw that up there, he wrote this book.

Mark Oshman (02:22.702)

So Edgar Weisenhunt, he was a former NASA engineer, became a self-proclaimed Bible prophecy scholar. He wrote this book, gave out millions of copies, and so eventually made its way to Powell Middle School over here in Littleton. We heard about this. 88 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1988. I love the subtitle, The Feast of Trump. There you go. That's also what Rosh Hashanah is called. And he was just arguing there, was, it's going to happen. And of course,

88 came and went. the next year he said 89 reasons the rapture. was off on one. It's going to happen in 1989. And of course that came and when he did this two more times in 1993 94 came and went this this kind of happens all the time. And and that's one particular view one particular framework to approach the book of Revelation and and before kind of digging into this book with you guys over the last couple of months and

digging deeper I kind of thought well that's one view not kind of seeing that but by but I'm starting to come to see that bad theology is not just bad because it misses the point of revelation it's bad because it hurts people. mentioned to you last week that there's a silent persecution going on in the world right now a silent genocide rather of Nigerian Christians in.

at hands of Boko Haram. Well, they heard about this prophecy from the South African pastor. And I saw one video of these Nigerian believers who are under intense persecution right now. They had gone out to the forest and they were waiting for the rapture that day in September and they were crying out to God and they were begging and just waiting and waiting and waiting. And of course it didn't happen. And I felt my heart broke for these people.

because they were about to go back into their village and go back to the face of persecution. And in their mind, either this guy was wrong or God had failed them or all these things. It's bad theology hurts people. And it misses the point of the book of Revelation, which is not to hurt anyone, but to actually encourage us deeply. See, the book of Revelation is a discipleship manual for how God's people can overcome.

Mark Oshman (04:45.452)

tribulation, trials and temptations in a world that is opposed to God's kingdom. It's a discipleship manual. It's meant to comfort, encourage and strengthen Christians that are facing these kind of trials and temptations. Rightly understood that the book of Revelation should be the most comforting book to those Nigerian Christians right now. Because it's meant to give them strength in the face of tremendous evil.

Tremendous evil. I believe chapter seven, this encouragement, this comfort, chapter seven is meant to do just that and maybe to do that more than any other chapter in the whole Bible to strengthen our spines, to give us hope and encouragement as we press on together. So we're going to go to seven and in chapter seven that there's going to be a shift. Last week the first six seals were open but there's going to be a pause and

And movie directors or authors would say this is a framing device. John's doing something to frame the context of what's going on. So let me give you an example of a couple of framing devices that I came across this week. So my wife was traveling a lot this week. She was speaking with her mom in Canada. So was a bachelor at home by myself. And I did that. was scrolling through Netflix like what show could I watch? And I came across this show Zero Day.

I only watched three minutes of it, so I don't know if it's good. I'm just saying. it's Robert De Niro. He's a former president. And the show opens where he's frantically, he's in probably his own library. He's trying to open a safe. And while he's trying to get this safe open, the doors are being pounded on and they're giving way, they're giving way. And he's scrambling. He has to go find the code again and he gets the code. And as he's opening the code, as soon as the safe opens, the doors

bust open and then the scene cuts and it says three days earlier. That's a framing device. As a viewer, you're like, well, what's going to happen in those three days to get us to that point? Or think of another one, the best war movie of all time, Saving Private Ryan. It starts with James Ryan as an old man walking with his wife, his children, his grandchildren through the

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graves of Normandy with the crosses and the stars of David and he's visibly shaken, emotional. Eventually he falls to his knees before one particular cross and starts weeping and then Steven Spielberg zooms in on his face and it goes to D-Day. But you know, seeing that, you know, okay, this man survives in the midst of so many that gave their lives. What's the story behind that? It's a framing device.

So this is what happens in Revelation chapter seven. If you remember in Revelation six as the seals were broken the horse the four horsemen of the apocalypse start to ride across the face especially against the kingdom of God. False teaching false doctrine in the white horse. You have the anger rage and war and the red horse. You have the famine in the black horse and you have sickness suffering and death in the green horse. And then finally.

The martyrs crying out how long lord will you will you wait to avenge our blood and God answers their prayer in the day of the Lord in the judgment the Decreation of the universe and what happens is all of the unbelievers that they They start scrambling in the day of the Lord and we saw that in all the places that our world tends to look for in moments of crisis whether it's the rich and the powerful the kings and the Queens the government's the armies

poor, so anyone, there's no way to, there's nowhere to look for hope and so they all flee to the mountains, they go in the caves and they start crying out, not to God, but to the mountains, fall on us, fall on us, maybe if you fall on us then we won't have to stand before the Lord in his wrath and his judgment. That's how chapter 6 ended but the unbelievers asked the question at the end of chapter 6. In light of all this,

In light of the horses, in light of the decreation and the judgment of God, who can stand? Who can stand? And here John pauses and does a framing device. He is going to flash backward and he's going to flash forward in the narrative and answer that question. So Revelation chapter 17. Listen carefully, this is God's word.

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Seven, sorry. Thank you.

Yeah, chapter seven, verse one. He writes this, after this I saw. So after they said, who can stand? says, after this I saw. Remember in Revelation, doesn't always happen in chronological order. It's not what happens next, but what does John see next? And what he sees is actually a flashback. Chapter seven happens well before, in eternity before chapter six. And he says, after this I saw.

four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. This is they're holding back the judgment of God, the releasing of the horses, all those things. This is before chapter six. They're holding this back. It says, then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God.

This word seal becomes very important over the next few verses. We'll see it six times. Take note of it. I saw another angel rising from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God. And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

I heard the number of the sealed 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed. Same for Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed. Okay. What is going on? This

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This idea of sealed from eternity past has happened and to understand all that the metaphor and language of sealed means, it's very important in the New Testament and in the Old Testament there are multiple layers to this. And I think all of them are in view to some degree in this idea of being sealed. And the first one is sealed is a sign of protection. It is protection. So.

particularly in this passage, there's a flashback to the book of Ezekiel. And in Ezekiel chapter nine, God is going to send these six warriors into Jerusalem to judge the people of Jerusalem who are idolaters. That they've given themselves over to false worship and these six warriors are gonna come and destroy all the idolaters. But.

With them, there is another man who's got a writing device on its side. And he's been given this command to go and seal some people, to put a mark on their head. And here's what it says in chapter nine, verse four. It says, throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it. And he says to these six warriors, do not touch anyone who has the mark.

So those that are repentant, those that are grieving over their own sin and the sin of the city, they receive a mark or a seal on their forehead and they are spared from the judgment of God in this case. You think also of the Exodus when God has them put the blood of the lamb on their household so that they are in a sense sealed from the destroying angel. They're protected. This is the first thing that sealed implies, protection.

The other thing that sealed implies is ownership or belonging. So kings and governors and noblemen, they would have their own signet ring and they would seal their documents. And you would know that this belongs to whoever has the seal on it. Think of even chapter six, that the scroll had seven seals on it and only one who was worthy to open up the seals. This is...

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This belongs to someone. those that are sealed belong to someone. Slaves in the first century had marks or seals on their hand or their forehead to show who they belonged to. I think this is in view here as well. Seal implies a kind of character or nature. We see in chapter 14 that this seal is actually a metaphor for the name of God and the Son. So in chapter 14 verse 1,

Says then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I think this is metaphorical but to have a name in the Old Testament it meant your character your nature and so that the people of God had the character and nature of God. You looked at them and they like oh they represent the kingdom of light they represent the kingdom of of goodness. Look at their.

behavior, their nature, their speech, as opposed to those that have the mark of the beast who represent the kingdoms of darkness and the kingdoms of this world. But also throughout the New Testament, the way the apostle Paul uses sealed most often is in relationship to the Holy Spirit. Let me give you a few verses from there. Ephesians chapter one, verse three. It says, in Jesus, you also, when you heard

the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Again, all these things are in mind, protection, ownership, character, and the Spirit. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory? Later in the book of Ephesians, he'll say this, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed.

for the day of redemption. So the Spirit is the seal on our lives. And then 2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come, to be sealed. His protection, is ownership, its character, its presence and power.

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of Holy Spirit and John says that he saw all those were sealed. says that was 144,000. Again, we should keep in mind a few things here. This is debated meaning behind this. So there are some like the cult of Jehovah Witnesses, when they started they said, oh, you have to be one of the 144,000 to be saved in the end.

And as they grew and once they got to 144,000, they said, oh, you have to know or be friends with one of the 144,000. It was very specific. And then others are like, well, this means that there's going to be 144,000 exactly that amount, exactly 12,000 from each one of these tribes. But there's a problem with that. There's a few, now, of course, God could do exactly that from exactly those.

But in the year 722 BC, the Assyrians conquered the Northern 10 kingdoms. So the Northern 10 tribes scattered them, intermingled them with all the Gentiles. They intermarried. Those that stayed got intermingled with other Assyrians conquered people. They became known as the Samaritans, kind of half-breed Jews. They were hated, in some ways, hated worse than the Gentiles. The 10 Northern tribes are the lost tribes. No one knows who they are.

There's no way of telling. Of course, God could tell and say, you have a little bit. That's a possibility, but that's probably not what's going on here. The number twelve is very significant throughout the entire book of Revelation, right? We've seen this already. We'll see it again in chapter twenty one. There are twelve tribes. There are twelve disciples. In Revelation twenty one, there are twelve gates. Each gate has the names of the twelve tribes. There are twelve foundations. Each one has the name of the twelve disciples. Twelve times twelve.

The number thousand throughout the book of Revelation and even in the first century, even in Jesus's own teaching, the multiply of the thousand just means a really, really big number. Doesn't necessarily mean a specific number, but if you take 12 tribes times 12 disciples times a thousand, you get 144,000. Furthermore, us Gentiles probably didn't catch this at all, but that list of tribes is not anywhere in the Old Testament.

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That's not the list of the 12 tribes. Many of them there are there. But notice what it says. 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed. What's the big deal? The big deal is Judah never comes first. Judah is the fourthborn son. But of course we've seen Judah being a preeminent, the line of the tribe of Judah. And so maybe that's why he put it there. Reuben's the firstborn. And we have Gad and Asher, Naphtali. Then it should be Dan. Dan is missing. Instead he puts Joseph's.

son Manasseh but not Ephraim so one of the sons and not the others then Simeon Levi Isk'ar Zebulon Joseph and Benjamin what's going on here when a Jewish man like John is writing a genealogy which they were obsessive about genealogies and he begins to tweak it he's signaling to you and us I'm communicating something else here something else is going on so pay attention to that

So I believe and we'll see, I think we'll see this throughout the book of Revelation that 144,000 represents the totality of all of God's people, Jew and Gentile going forward. Say, okay. And if you don't think that, then I think the very next verse proves this. So this is the flashback and now he's going to flash forward. Remember in verse four, he says, I heard the number of the sealed 144,000.

Verse nine, after this I looked and behold, this is a pattern we've already seen. I heard about the line of the tribe of Judah, but when I looked, I saw a lamb as though he was slain. It's not what John hears that's important, but what he sees that's important. After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.

standing before the throne and before the lamb. What he hears is 144,000 but what he sees is, man I cannot possibly count all of this. This is a massive number from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. This is a fulfillment of the promise to the Jews. All the way back to Abraham. Abraham, when God calls Abraham this pagan living in the land of Ur, when he calls Abram.

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out of the land of Ur. gives him this promise in Genesis 15. says and he brought him outside verse five and he brought him outside and said look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to them so shall your offspring be. In verse 20 chapter 22 verses 17 18 says I will surely bless you. God speaking to Abraham and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

your offspring shall possess the gates of the of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed it was always God's plan to bless all of the people of the earth through Abraham through Israel again for those of you that are currently in Rick's Israel and the church class you get this already but but for some reason others are like no this is just the tribe of Israel and then this is the nations no

I heard 144,000 but what I saw was people from every tribe, every nation. They are clothed with white robes and with palm branches in their hands. This is a celebration of victory. And who's the victorious one? Well Jesus is. Verse 10, crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and

the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever and ever and ever, amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? I like John's response. I said to him, sir, you know.

He said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Those that are sealed are saved. They have the righteousness of God. They're coming out of the Great Tribulation. Again, some would say, that that is a seven year period after the rapture that that that is.

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what's going on here and I don't think that's what's going on here. The word tribulation, phalipsis, just means pressure. And it's a great pressure. So think of tectonic plates. When two tectonic plates smash together, earthquakes happen. Great pressure happens. And it says they are coming out of the tribulation. It is present tense ongoing. So it is whenever the kingdom of light,

runs up against the kingdom of darkness. We see this at the birth of Jesus. There is a great tribulation. Herod says, we're gonna kill all the firstborn sons and all the babies in Bethlehem. That's tribulation, that's pressure. Kingdom of light running up against the kingdom of darkness. It happened in the year 70 AD when Rome rolls into Jerusalem and destroys Jerusalem.

It continues to happen in the year 92 AD as the church is under intense pressure from the Roman government. It's happening today in Nigeria, it's happening in Iran, it's happening in North Korea and on and on and on. Whenever the kingdom of light bumps up with the kingdom of darkness, there is a great pressure, a great tribulation that is happening. And they come out of it, they come out of it having their robes made.

their robes made them white in the blood of the Lamb. This is a great image that we get righteousness, cleansing from the blood of the Lamb. We are saved by the blood. Well, again, the question though, at the end of chapter six was who can stand? It's the question of unbelievers. That they are terrified to stand before a holy

just God but you know who is standing we saw it in verse 9 I think that was verse 9 yeah I saw people from every tribe tongue language standing before the throne and before the lamb those that are sealed those that are saved are standing they're standing with absolute confidence why because they have been washed in the blood of lamb they have no fear of judgment because Jesus was judged

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in their place on the cross and so they stand in victory. That's who's standing. All those who are sealed and saved, who will stand? You know, this is incredibly good news. As much as we in the West like to read ourselves into the text all the time and sometimes in very poor ways, like, there we are. No, this is the verse where you're in the Bible. Like if you zoom down enough, if you drill in, you might see

You can see Redemption Parker in this verse. You can see us standing with the multitudes from every tribe, tongue, and nation, the multitudes out of South America and out of Africa and out of Asia and even the multitudes out of Parker, Colorado, standing before the throne because we have the righteousness of Christ. have Christ's victory as our victory. His salvation belongs to us because he

gave it to us. Christ's cleanses us. Christ's Spirit has sealed us and saved us. So we should be comforted. We should be encouraged. In the face of the writers who seek to destroy us and the church, the kingdom of God continues to advance. What false teaching has derailed the church so that it has destroyed the church? Nothing.

What red rider has put so much anger and rage and war on the earth as to totally destroy the church? None. We stand in the face of the red rider. What famine, what plague, what sickness, suffering, or death in the face of the black and the pale rider has totally decimated the church? None of them have. We continue to stand. Jesus taught this, that in the end, the kingdom of...

of God will continue to increase and the kingdom of darkness will continue to increase until the very end. There will be greater and greater tribulation and yet we will stand. We will stand because we are unstoppable. I love what Eugene Peterson says about this. says these people are not only secure they are exuberant. This is a curious but holy biblical phenomenon.

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The most frightening representations of evil in Revelation six are set alongside extravagant praise. Revelation seven Christians sing. They sing in the desert. They sing in the night. They sing in prison. They sing in the storm. Any evil, no matter how fearsome is exposed as weak and pedantic before such songs. We see. And this is in no way to soft sell the tribulation.

suffering that we face, that our brothers and sisters are facing. We don't soft sell that at all, and yet we get to sing in the face of the writers because we know this is not the end of the story. I you've been there. I remember when my mom was dying of ALS and Matt Redmond's song, 10,000 Reasons came out. It's just this beautiful song that kind of takes you from life to death into eternity.

And literally as the days were approaching where she was about to die, she would sing this song. She was singing in the face of the Pell Rider. I will stand. You won't win. It's not the end of the

Let's conclude. So we are sealed, we are saved, we are secure. Look at verse 15. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence, literally translation, be a tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. That's a wild image. The lamb will be their shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He will lead me besides quiet waters. For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water. It's what Jesus promised the woman at the well in John chapter four.

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Follow me and I'll guide you to streams of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is a flash forward. This is Revelation 21. This is where the people of God will stand in joy having been sealed, having been saved, having been now secure forever and ever and ever. Imagine though, imagine redemption.

Imagine how we could advance the kingdom of God among our neighbors and the nations if we held on to these two great truths. we have been sealed. From eternity past, we have been sealed and we have been saved. And that will last forever and ever and ever. These are the realities by which we live. Imagine how fearless we could be in this world now.

Imagine the risk that we would take in this world now for the sake of the name of King Jesus because we know in the end there is no risk. There is no risk when this is our future and our past. And so we live in light of these realities. Imagine how eternally secure we are in Christ. So brothers and sisters, this is meant to encourage you, to comfort you. Hold fast. You have been sealed.

In Christ you are safe. You say, I don't know if I am. I don't know if my name's in the book of life. I could tell you right now, just trust in Christ and I promise you, your name is in the book of life. You don't have to get worked up about that. Turn to Him in faith. Say, I take everything I know me and I turn to you and I confess my sin. I repent of that. I want your life in my life. I want to be sealed. Bible says you will be sealed. In fact, you will have been sealed from eternity.

and then you hold on to this future vision, a day is coming where you will wipe away every tear. This is our reality and we get to live into that as a church, amen? Amen, let me pray for us to that end.

The Seals Are Broken

AI Transcript

Amen. Amen. If you have a Bible, you can go to the book of Revelation. Again, the last book of your Bible, chapter six is where we're at. We've been the last five weeks working our way through this last book, this apocalypse. And I've been I've been deeply encouraged by it. I've never taught through preach through this before. So it's given me time to dig deeper than I have before. I've been encouraged by the vision of Jesus standing among his churches, defending them, encouraging them.

wooing them. I've been encouraged the last couple of weeks in chapter four and five of God on the throne worship by all creation. The lion of Judah, who is the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world also worshiped. I've been encouraged by all that. I've been encouraged by many of you. Many of you have shared. Hey, I really enjoying this. last week after I finished preaching, one of you came up to me and said, Hey, I'm really digging this.

Revelation series. Thank you so much. And I knew where we were going the following week. And so I said, well, just keep that same energy. Because in the book now we're going to shift a little bit. It's going to get apocalyptic. It's going to get in some ways difficult. But it is a good word for us and to us. We say often with this book, we have to realize that actually it wasn't

written to us, but it was written for us. was written to the church at the end of the first century that were facing all sorts of persecution, trials, and temptations in their life. so we've said that the book of Revelation cannot mean to us what it did not mean to them. So that's our first kind of point of interpretation, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So yeah, keep that same energy, because if we were on an airplane right now,

And the flight would be smooth sailing so far, but this is the point where the captain would put on the fasten seatbelt sign and he would come on and he's, this is your captain speaking. Yeah, the flight deck has told us that there's going to be some turbulence. It's going to get bumpy. We're surrounded by thunderstorms and we can't go around them, but we'll go through them. We'll make it, but just buckle up.

I think that's what the captain would say to us if we were to do that. again, we come to this book, this book that was meant to encourage, literally to put courage into the saints. And they needed it at the end of the first century. These small churches, this small movement called Christianity, facing this giant of an empire that has now set its

aims to destroy this movement and they are dying for their faith. They are feeling all sorts of pressure from their own family members that aren't Christians, feeling pressure from their pagan neighbors, but feeling internal pressure like, hey, why don't I just compromise or why don't I just be silent about my faith in Jesus? That way I can have it all. I can get to heaven when I die, but no one will really

persecute me and I get to participate in all the blessings of the Roman Empire. This would be the temptation that they face when you start to understand that you like. We get we get nervous if we think our co-worker might look at us funny if we mention that we're a follower of Jesus. These people were dying for their faith. So the temptation was real. so Jesus comes in and gives John who's on the island of Patmos this vision he's on the island because he's been

persecuted for his faith and he's going to spend his last days there. But in that moment Jesus gives him a vision and he shows him I am standing among my churches. I am fighting for you. He gives him a vision of ultimate reality that we looked at over the last couple of weeks that that just on the other side of the veil right here in our midst that there is God on the throne. The line of Judah the lamb who was slain he is being worshipped by all of creation. This is what's

actually true. And so I don't know about you. Again, I was deeply encouraged by that scene of ultimate reality, that what we live in is actually the shadowlands, but that is the real life. But I imagine as they read that and heard that, they said, that's good, that encourages me. But it's really hard for us to get beyond our five senses.

It'd be really hard if you're like, man, I know God is on the throne, but my wife was just dragged off by the Roman authorities yesterday. That's what feels real. I know God is on the throne. Maybe you're here today, but I just got this call from the doctor and things don't look well. That's what feels real. And so what do we do with this tension? One of the themes of the book of Revelation is that

Not all is as it seems. There's more going on than meets the eye. More happening than we can diagnose with our five senses. And this is going to be true in our passage as well. Starting this week and really for the next several months, there's some truths that we're going to have to grapple with. And we'll start today and I won't even pretend to say, well, we'll answer all the questions that come up today.

We live in a time where you have 140 characters to explain theology and that just doesn't work. But there's some truths that we do need to begin to grapple with and we will today to some degree. We have to grapple with the truth that God is sovereign over all things. Not just things we like but over all things that the sovereignty of God we have to wrestle with that. We'll have to grapple with God's judgment and wrath are necessary.

Again, we live in a time and a place where we don't like to think about judgment and wrath, but we're going to get a lot of judgment and wrath for the next few months. And we're going to see that they are necessary. And beyond that, number three, God's judgment and wrath are good. It's actually a very good thing that this is who God is. And so with that, fasten your seatbelts and turn with me to Revelation, Chapter six. Last time.

we saw that there was a search out in heaven for who was worthy to open the scroll to break the seals. And we found that it is the Lion of the Tribachuta. It is the Lamb of God. And so he begins to break the seals. In chapter 6, says this. And now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, Come. And I looked, and behold, a white horse.

And its rider had a bow and a crown was given. Keeping my underliner highlight was given. This is going to become important. A crown was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer. This begins the introduction to what's known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They show up in different ways in our culture and our

movies and video games and songs and poets. But who are these four horsemen? Well, again, this is a vision given to John to help explain, hey, there's more than more going on behind the scene than meets the eye. Yes, God is on his throne. Yes, he is being worshipped for all creation. But the four horsemen kind of represent the chaos, the suffering, the sickness, the persecution that is

being unleashed all over the world. Now, of the four horsemen, the first one, the rider on the white horse, is the most difficult to interpret and understand. And I think that's intentional. Some scholars and people in church history, church fathers, they say, well, the first one must be, it must be Jesus.

Because the only other time we see a rider on a white horse is Revelation 19. And Jesus, it is Jesus. He comes riding on the white horse to conquer at the Battle of Armageddon. And so this must be Jesus. But in those scholars and church church history, people are much smarter than me. And I read those. And in fact, it was the first one I read this week. I was like, OK, let's go. I think that's Jesus. But then I began to read all the other commentaries. I no, this is not Jesus.

This is a counterfeit Jesus. This is a false gospel. And you begin to think, actually that makes sense. And so the rider on the white horse is a false Jesus, false gospel. That's the first thing that we see. Now, why do I say this? Well, a few reasons. First of all, this passage, again, the book of Revelation is steeped in imagery and allusions to

verses of the Old Testament. We could go and trace all these down and look at the horses and Zechariah and all this stuff. But again, we tend to read Revelation in one hand and like the news or newspaper in the other hand. the first readers would have read Revelation in one hand and the Old Testament in the other. And that's how they would have made sense of it. But we actually don't even need to go to the Old Testament to make sense of this. Matthew 24, Jesus actually

In his teaching on how the end times are going to roll out, it parallels Revelation six. So in Matthew 24, as as his disciples asked Jesus about the end times, Jesus begins to answer. in verse four of chapter 24, he says, Jesus answered them. He says, See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray.

And then at the end of his teaching, at end of chapter 24, he says, if anyone says to you, here is the Christ or there he is, do not believe it. false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Jesus's first teaching about the end times is there's going to be false messiahs, false gospels, and it's going to lead people astray.

this makes sense. Paul says Satan appears as an angel of light. This is one of his greatest tactics, to show himself as good but to twist the truth. So, anytime we add to the biblical Jesus or subtract from him, now we've got a different Jesus, a Jesus that cannot save, a Jesus that is not reigning and ruling. This happens throughout every century.

You know, of the 27 books of the New Testament, all of them to at some level explicitly explicitly call out false teaching. This was a problem in the first century and the second and the third and the fourth and today. Right. So one of the most historic, famous examples of this is Mohammed goes goes and he gets a vision of an angel of light. And this angel tells him, hey, this is the way. And Jesus is not the savior of the world. He's a great prophet. That's a false Jesus.

And it's a lie from the pit of hell. You fast forward to America in the 1700s, East Coast, Joseph Smith gets a vision from God and it says, this is what Jesus is. And it's adding to and subtracting to the biblical Jesus. It's a false Jesus. It's from the pit of hell. It's the rider on the white horse. Jehovah Witnesses, the same thing. anytime, anytime Jesus is presented as something that he is not,

The rider on the white horse is riding. And we see this all over in churches all over the place. There's false Gospels. There's the health, wealth and prosperity of gospel straight from the pit of hell. This tells you that if you just have enough faith, then God will make you healthy, wealthy and prosperous no matter what. And if you don't have enough faith, then that's why you don't have those things. That's a lie. It's the.

The opposite is true as well. The false gospel of the poverty gospel. God only wants you to be poor and to have no attachment to this world. That's a false gospel. There's the false gospel of the word of faith movement that that your words have power and you can manifest reality into your life by what you say. And so be careful what your words say. No. God's words have power but you are not God.

Your words don't manifest reality. That's a false gospel. We could go on and on. The false gospel of self-actualization. I can dream it, do it, believe it. If I have enough faith, it's going to happen in my life. The false gospel of self-affirmation. Whatever I desire, especially when it comes to my sexual ethics, whatever I want, God must bless that and affirm that. It's a false gospel. That's the rider on the white horse. A false gospel of a Jesus who is just your

personal life coach who comes alongside you to affirm you and encourage you in whatever you want to do. That's a false Jesus. And all of these are the rider on the white horse meant to lead you astray. No, we worship the true Jesus, the one that we find in Scripture. So this is the first rider. Now let's go on to the others. Number two, when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come.

Mark Oshman (14:22.74)

and out came another horse bright red and its rider was permitted that's an important phrase again was permitted to take peace from the earth so that people should slay one another and he was given a great sword this is the rider on the red horse this represents anger rage war this rider has been riding since the ascension of christ to

to dominate God's people, also dominate all image bearers to ride across the planet. We see this on a global scale, right? No matter how many advances we have in humanity, no matter how much we think we've grown as a people, no matter how many peace treaties are signed, this rider continues to ride. I we just have to look at the last hundred years and look at the massive

Massive genocides and tragedies and six million Jews or or 10 million Ukrainians that were starved to death by Stalin. We can look at the 60 million that died at the hands of Mao Tse Tung. We can just keep going on and on and on and on and see that this writer is writing. He rides on a global scale. He rides on an individual scale. He fuels anger and rage.

in our hearts that boil over. It destroys communities, it destroys families, it destroys ourselves. Are we not a people given over to anger and rage? Right? I mean, as the first readers read this, they would have thought immediately of the Roman Empire, who dominated their enemies through intimidation, terror, and violence. The cross was not just an execution instrument, it was a terror instrument. It was a torture instrument.

It was used by Rome for the sake of Rome's enemies. Don't mess with us or this is how you will die. But not just for the enemies. Violence in Rome was used to placate its own people. It was used as entertainment. Philip the Colossum. We have the barbarian games. You get to see blood and violence and you get to be entertained by it. You get to be desensitized by

the red horse. Are we not? Are we not that people as well? Right? Are we not a people given over to rage and anger and we're told that it that's just the way it is. Right. You know there's these things called rage rooms. I looked it up. I found no less than a half a dozen rage rooms in Colorado. These are places where you can go and you can fully venture rage. The first one I looked at was called All Out Smash in Denver.

And this is on their front page. This is what it says. Don't just manage your stress, channel it. Imagine stepping into our Denver Rage Room armed with a sledgehammer or a baseball bat, ready to demolish everything from office printers to a framed photo of your ex.

Mark Oshman (17:35.534)

Some of you are like, what was the place called again?

And then says, it's all about breaking things and breaking free. If you could just release your rage, you'll be fine. But that's not the way. fact, medical professionals have showed us like giving yourself over to rage actually changes the chemistry in your brain. changes you. It's not good. It's not for your health. But the rider on the red horse, we hear hits hoof beats on the planet and even in our own hearts and lives and homes.

This is the rider on the red horse. Let's look at the next rider. Verse five. he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say come. I looked and behold a black horse and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a court of wheat for a denarius and three courts of barley for a denarius.

Do not harm the oil and wine. What is going on here? This is the black horse. The black horse represents famine, but also injustice. Famine. So it says a quart of wheat for Denarius and three quarts of barley for Denarius. So Denarius was a day's wage for the average person in the first century. And so they're saying it's going when this rider rides, there's going to be famine, but it's not a

It's not a natural disaster caused famine, happens, drought or flooding or other things. notice because why? Do not harm the oil and wine. Those are luxuries. So it's a scene of people can't get the essentials for their daily bread, but the wealthy and the rich have all that they need. They have an abundance or not what they need or what they desire that they have their oil and wine. This is a picture of not having

enough of what we actually need and having an abundance of what we don't need. Again, this described the first century, but it certainly describes us as well. Isn't that what we live with now? We have so much more than we actually need, but what we, I'm sorry, we have so much more than what we don't need, but what we actually need, there's a kind of famine behind it. One writer who writes under a pseudonym,

In an article I read by called his name pseudonym was Elijah del Megito Says this the brutal painful fact is this the average person living in a western country Increasingly has nothing to live for he has little family few friends No neighborhood no community and no God he exists mostly as a ritual of economic activity a number on a balance sheet

It's this overabundance of what we don't need and a scarcity, a famine of what we do need. Let's go to the fourth horse. Number seven, verse seven. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard a voice of the fourth living creature say, come. And I looked and behold a pale horse. And its rider's name was Death. And Hades followed him. And they were given authority. Again, were given.

They were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild bees of the earth. The pale horse literally translates the green horse or it's the color of gross. It's the color of someone fighting and battling and losing to a disease. This is what this horse looks like. It's this picture of sickness, suffering and

Death. And since the ascension of Christ, this horse has been riding all over. No matter how many medical advances we get, this horse is undefeated. Everyone dies. This horse goes throughout the whole earth. It is riding even today. Well, these are the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And then with the fifth seal, something shifts.

The view shifts back to the throne room of God. And in verse nine, it says, he opened the fifth seal, saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had born. So he sees that the souls that this is they don't have their resurrected bodies yet, but they're under the altar. So the altar in the temple was the place where twice a day the priest would go and make sacrifices.

to God and the blood of the sacrifice would drain down and go under the altar. he gets this vision, this apocalyptic vision of the souls under the altar because they had been slain. They'd been martyred. Because of their faith in Christ and their perseverance to the very end, they have lost their lives. Verse 10. They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true.

How long is this question that has been asked by God's people since the dawn of time when they've encountered the brokenness of this world and of their lives? How long? How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Now, these souls are sinless. They've been delivered. They're in the throne room of God. They're not sinning when they're asking this

question. They're genuinely confused. They're genuinely wondering how can God who is sovereign, notice that, sovereign Lord, how can God who is holy and true, how can this God put up with this level of injustice in the world? It's the question Job would ask. It's like, Lord, what are you doing? It's a question of Abacuk asks, what are you doing?

It's a question many of the prophets and many of the people, maybe many people in this room have asked when faced with the brokenness of this world, Lord, here's what I believe is true about you and there seems to be a massive disconnect. And this is what they're saying. You're sovereign, you're holy, you're just, and you just keep letting your people die. How long ago?

And like with Job and Habakkuk and maybe you, the infinite one doesn't try to explain to the finite ones all of his reasoning. And that can be very dissatisfying. That's where we have to remember some things about who this God is.

We'll come back to that in a moment. Here's how God answers in verse 11. God just says, just wait. Not all the martyrs are here yet.

There's a set number of martyrs and they haven't filled up the number yet. Okay. Well, it's with the sixth seal that we start to see the answer to the cry of the saints under the altar. Verse 12. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked. Behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth at the moon.

The full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that was being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place. What in the world is happening here? If you're just visiting a redemption park and you're like, what is this church? What are they talking about? Again, this is apocalyptic imagery.

that rooted in Old Testament apocalyptic imagery. This is the end of the story, the end of the world as we know it. This is de-creation. It's a reversal of Genesis 1 and 2 where things are in chaos and coming to order. This is the end of time. So again, remember in Revelation, there's these windows that we look through. They don't happen in chronological order, but in the window, we get to the very end of history several times.

This is the first time we get to the very end of history. The earth is disintegrating. is metaphoric language. This isn't actual. Like, it says a third of the stars of the sky are thrown to earth. Like, one star into our solar system destroys everything. So that's not actual language. It's this picture of at the end, when God decreates to recreate, and it's also the time.

the prophets would speak of what's called the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord. The time when God brings history as we know it to a close and in His righteousness, He brings His justified wrath against sin. All sin. And notice who is judged. Everyone. Starting in verse 15, from great to small.

Says, the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, everyone who thinks that they're above it all, that they can do whatever they want. And everyone, slave and free, covering all the bases, they hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains. Notice they don't call to God.

They don't turn to the Lamb and ask for His mercy to fall on them. No, they're calling to the mountains from the caves that they're in. Calling to the mountains and rocks. Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. That's an image. Right? The wrath of the Lamb?

the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand?" This is the answer to the cry of the martyrs below the throne. I will bring history to an end. I will respond with my judgment. Did you see what they asked for? They appealed to the character and nature of God. He's sovereign. He's holy and true and they're asking for

God to judge, to avenge their...

The great day of wrath has come and who can stand? Next week, the answer comes more fully. But let's deal with some things here. What I said at the beginning, we're going to deal with three truths we must begin to grapple with throughout the rest of the book. That God is sovereign over all things. That God, not the horsemen who ride, who seem to be in control, is actually God who is in control. This is

the passive language was given, was permitted, were given authority. See, the horsemen that are sent out are still under the sovereign reign and control of God. He's allowing them to rage war, to revolt against it for a time, but they're on a leash. All evil is on a leash. It falls under his sovereign reign. Sometimes we think, well,

It'd be better if God wasn't sovereign over evil because then it would just be kind of this cosmic battle that we hope God wins. we couldn't, you know, we couldn't make any accusations against God. No, God is not the author of evil, but he is able to use evil to bring about ultimate good. This is what Paul says to the Romans in Romans chapter eight. For those who love God and are called according to his purposes, he works together all things for their

good. It doesn't necessarily answer every detail of how this is going to be worked out for your good, but there is one massive example that we must always turn our eyes to to know, even if we can't understand our own circumstances and our own suffering and how the horses are riding over us right now. There is one massive example. In fact, it is the worst atrocity that the world has ever seen, the greatest injustice that the world has ever seen, when the Holy One

The one who took on flesh, the perfect one, the one who was without sin, went to the cross. It was the most evil event in the history of humanity. And on the cross, he's tortured. And on the cross, he bleeds. And on the cross, it becomes the place of our salvation, the greatest good that the world has ever seen. God is sovereign. He's sovereign over evil. He's sovereign over what the doctor says to you.

He's sovereign over car accidents and everything else. He's working it all together for good. doesn't always answer us every detail of every suffering we face, but we can look to the cross and know He is sovereign overall. The victory of the Lamb is absolutely secure. So that's the first thing. We're going to have to wrestle with God's sovereignty over all things. Number two, we have to wrestle and grapple with the truth that God's judgment

and wrath are necessary. Because as the martyr said, you are sovereign, you are holy, and you are just. When the end of history comes, there will be zero injustices left hanging in the universe. He will deal with it all. After all, what kind of universe would we live in and what kind of God would we worship who turns a blind eye?

the brokenness and injustices of the world. Every single one of them. Every single one of them. This is why the victory of the Lamb is absolutely secure. This is why the third point is that God's judgment and wrath are good. And the reason we struggle with that as a church in 21st century America is because we're so disconnected.

from the reality of what so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the ages and even in the world today are facing these great evils that are persecuting them. For example, are you aware right now of the silent genocide going on in our world right now? It doesn't get much news time. But since 2009 in Nigeria, Christians have been under massive persecution.

Since 2009, 19,100 churches have been burned to the ground in Nigeria. 100 churches a month from Islamic Boko Haram movement. Christian persecution. Can you imagine that happening in America? 100 churches being burned down every month? 62,000 or more Christians have been put to death in Nigeria since 2009.

In 2025 alone, this year, over 8,000 Nigerian Christians have been kidnapped. And who knows what is happening to them right now.

Now, if you are a Nigerian and you've seen your wife taken away by Boko Haram and you've seen your children put to death,

and you open up your Bible and you turn to Revelation 6 and you hear the cry of the martyrs, you say, yes! Yes, Lord, how long before you avenge their blood? You're crying out for God's judgment and wrath to come because it's right and good because God is love. Wrath is necessary.

And that's just one example. I mean, we could talk about what's happening in northern India, Iran, North Korea, parts of Asia. We could go on and on and on and on. This is why for the first century Christians and for Christians under persecution today, the Book of Revelation is such a treasure for them. It's not entertainment. It's not speculation of how things are going to happen. It's life for them. And they, with the martyrs, cry out, so the judgment of God.

and his wrath are good. So two responses two responses that we should have as God's people here in this time and place to Revelation 6. Number one we should remember rehearse and share the gospel. Remember rehearse and share the gospel. We've said this all the time but it's true. We have to remember what's true that that Christ did die for us to the question who can stand. It's no one no one can stand unless they first fall before.

Christ now. Like the only way you stand at the end of time before the throne of God is if today you fall before the feet of the Lamb and you trust in Him. You come to Him. You plead His blood over yourself. You remember the gospel. You rehearse the gospel. You're reminded that He is sovereign over all. He controls history and the universe. And then that should also fuel us to share the gospel.

How will your family member or your coworker or your neighbor or your a stranger that you come to, how will they stand at the end of time? It's because you will share the gospel and they will fall before Christ as Lord and Savior. That's the only way they can stand. So this is meant to encourage us to share the gospel, remember the gospel, rehearse the gospel. And then secondly, a second response I think to Revelation six is that we do not need to be surprised.

We need to keep the end in mind. We need to know that God is sovereign. He controls history. We win in the end, right? We know that the riders on the horses don't have the last word. We know that Russia doesn't have the final word. Iran, North Korea, they don't have the final word. Terrorism doesn't have the final word. Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, Hamas, Hezbollah, they don't have the final word. We know who has the final word because we saw it. It's the

only one who is able to open the scroll. It's the lamb who was slaughtered because he controls everything. We're not on the losing team. So church, let us be encouraged to live out what we believe, amen? Let me pray for us to that end.

Who is Worthy?

Ai Transcript

Hey, good morning. It's good to be with you this morning. you have a Bible, we're in the book of Revelation. Revelation five is where we're at this morning. So you can begin to make your way there.

My name is Mark. If you're just visiting, it's my privilege to open up God's word. I'll say this about this passage. It's always my privilege to open up God's word with you. But this chapter in particular has stirred my soul, my affections for Jesus, my joy in Jesus and my prayer for you this week is that you would get a bit of that, a bit of what I had the privilege of experiencing this week in God's word. So Revelation five is where we're going to be at now.

Every summer there's a formula for a blockbuster. It's usually a superhero movie. One of the reasons that the movie studios do this is because it's so financially lucrative. It's a tried and true formula, but it's lucrative because we...

In the end, it's our story. In the end, it's a story that we want. I say this all the time. Every superhero movie is a longing in our hearts, a cry for Jesus. It's what we want. And so whether you recognize it or not, there is this angst in us that's desiring us as image bearers of God for someone, someone who is worthy, usually someone from outside of us to come and rescue and redeem. And so every superhero movie falls

as a narrative arc, which really reflects the gospel. Some call this a memory trace, that there is this longing, there's this place, there's this angst for someone or something that we can't quite get our hands on here, but we know it's out there somewhere. And again, it doesn't matter whether you're a Christian or not, across time and place and culture, this memory trace just kind of resounds in the mind of humanity.

C.S. Lewis, who was a master of the English language to say the least, he knew that there was not an English word to describe this, but there is a German word. It's called Sehnsucht.

Zane's here's how C.S. Lewis puts it. Zane's look is that unimaginable something the desire for which pierces us like a pain, the inconsolable longing for we know not what it is the secret signature of each soul.

the incumminable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work and which we shall still desire even on our deathbeds. Lewis would often talk about how there is this longing for something that is not in this world, which means that we are probably made for another world.

We see this all over the place the the rightful king that returns whether it's Aragorn or Beowulf or King Arthur the chosen one Neo from the matrix the sacrificial leader could be Broto or Harry Potter we see it in our poetry like Dylan Thomas rage against the dying of the light or and we hear it in our songs even songs that are written today or Maybe a few years ago 20 30 years ago you too. I still haven't found what I'm looking for

If you listen carefully, you'll hear it in so many Taylor Swift songs. Honestly, there is this existential angst. There is this longing. There's this longing for some sort of deliverance. And there's this question, who is worthy? Who is worthy to do it? Who is worthy to...

bring me to the spot where I think I need to go. We all feel the brokenness of this world. I don't need to belabor that. Like we can turn on the news and we can see that there are wars and famines and preschools being bombed across the planet. And we become numb to it because we can't possibly enter into all that pain, but we see it in our own country. And we see a brother assassinated and we see the Colorado's 13th school shooting on the same day. But we don't even have to go beyond that, right?

This week I was going to play tennis and as I was going there all of sudden cops blocked off the road. There was a dead man on the road after a road rage incident and someone was shot right a few minutes before I got there. Brokenness. But we don't need to go there. We can go in our own homes. We can go in our own relationships. We can go in our own minds and our own hearts and all of that just stirs this longing again. Like who is worthy to set it right? Who is going to...

set things right. We echo the psalmist, how long lord, how long will you forget me forever? And it stirs in us, zane zucht as CSU would say, it stirs in us the question of our passage, who is worthy, who is worthy to do this? Well, we're in Revelation 5 and it's the second half of

the scene in Revelation of the throne room of God. So if you weren't here last week, let me just recap what we saw last week after Jesus gave his message to the seven churches, the first apocalypse, the revealing happened for John. He was taken up and he gets this vision of heaven and in the vision he sees God is on the throne and it really is too awesome for words. The best that John can do is,

it seemed like or it had the appearance of a sea of glass and there's lightning and thunder and there's these four creatures with different faces and there's the 24 elders that are all worshiping and there's these angels and they're worshiping God as creator over all. is the theme of chapter four. God is worshiped as the creator and sustainer of all life. It's so it's so awesome and so beyond our finite minds it almost seems

like a dream. It almost seems like a fantasy. But here's the thing that you and I have to really get our hearts around this morning. It's not a dream. It's not a fantasy. It is actual reality.

And we are the ones that are living in the fantasy, the dream, the shadow lands as C.S. Lewis would call it. Or let me help illustrate it another way. So the TV show on Netflix, Stranger Things, Spoiler alert, but it's been out for a few years. It takes place in this kind of idyllic, nostalgic Midwestern town in the 80s and things seem good, but it doesn't take long to realize that in this

Midwestern town that there is a parallel reality running alongside them and it's called the what? The upside down right and in the upside down the upside down is a world of darkness and evil and shadows and monsters and there's this tension that's the whole plot of the TV show but here's the thing

The Bible, what we see in Revelation four and five, that there is that same kind of parallel, but we're the ones living in the upside down. We think we live in the land of solid reality and light and goodness, but just stepping back, no, we're in the darkness. We're in the land with monsters and evil and all the brokenness. And Revelation four and five shows us what is ultimate reality. This is what's really, really true.

And this is what we need to wrap our lives around this morning. So let's jump into this because as the scene continues to unfold in chapter five, we realize some things are happening that we did not see in chapter four. There's new details that emerge in chapter five in this scene of ultimate reality. This reality that isn't far off, some place in the universe, some place we will go one day when we die, but this ultimate reality that is

present now but like if we could pull back the veil and see into the throne room of God in this place right now it's happening now this isn't a future hope this isn't something that will happen one day right now in this room God is being worshipped

Whether you join in that worship or not, God is worthy of your worship right now. And every now and again, there's some convergence where or the old Celtic theologians would call it thin places. Every now and again, the veil between heaven and earth where we see in our five senses every now and again, that veil gets very, very thin and you sense the ultimate reality. You sense the transcendence, but most of the time we don't.

That doesn't mean it's not there. It doesn't mean that it's not running parallel to our lives right now. This is what's happening right now. So the vision continues to unfold. Verse one of chapter five, listen carefully. This is God's word. John writes, then I saw.

And remember in the book of Revelation, it's not what happens next because what happens next isn't always chronological. But what does John see next? He says, then I saw something that he hadn't seen in chapter four. Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

John sees that in God's right hand, however that looks, this unapproachable light, in some way, or form, in the right hand, that's his power, his authority. He's got this scroll, and on the scroll, it's written.

on the front and back. is odd that this is this is communicating something to what's on the scroll. Well it doesn't tell us explicitly what's on the scroll but from context most common most theologians think what's on the scroll is the plan of God the plan of God for the redemption restoration the judgment of evil that the restoring of all things. This is the plan of God but it is sealed and it is sealed by seven seals.

seven in Revelation is this symbolic number for perfection for completion so it is perfectly sealed the plan of God to rescue and redeem and restore all of creation and set the universe right it is on this scroll it's perfectly sealed and then a search goes out in verse 2 I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice our question who is worthy

Who is worthy? Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seal? He goes on this search in the throne room of God, but beyond that to the ends of the universe with this loud voice searching for the worthy one. Now what we need to do as we enter this passage, John intentionally slows down the narrative.

Don't jump ahead. Enter into it. If you're a follower of Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we need to ask the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds and our imagination to feel what John is feeling in this moment. This is why he's slowing it down. There's this universal search. There's this angst like someone has to come. Someone who is worthy has to come and break the seal so that the plan of God can move forward. Verse three says, and.

No one, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. The search goes out to all the universe and there's no one.

Again, if we slow down and we try to feel what John feels, the next verse will make sense. Verse four, and I began to weep loudly. Or you could say, I began to wail because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it.

He's been told that he's going to see the things that must soon take place. He's been told that the plan of God is going to be revealed to him and now the plan of God is in the scroll, but there's no one worthy. And he's desperate. He's broken. Imagine how you would feel if there was no redemption, no hope.

that there was no savior, that there was no future. Humanity just ends in a inglorious death, maybe by at the hands of one another or some asteroid or something. And the atheists are right that it's all meaningless and pointless and pointless. This reality, this feeling is hitting John like a brick and he's undone. There's no one worthy in all the universe for the plan of God to move forward.

And then it says, verse five, and one of the elders, so remember these elders, 24 of them, 12 representing the 12 tribes of Israel from the Old Testament, 12 representing the disciples, these angelic beings, one of them comes to John and gets his attention. so John takes his eyes off the center of the throne room and he turns towards this angel, this elder. And the elder says, weep no more.

Weep no more. Behold, it's the command of Revelation. Look, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered.

so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. The lion of the tribe of Judah. This is fulfillment of the prophecy. In Genesis 49, Jacob is blessing his sons. And when he gets to Judah, he gives this, I think it's verses 10 through 12. He gives this blessing on Judah. And he says, Judah, you're going to be like a lion. You're going to raise up, you're going to defeat the enemies, you're going to rule over not just Israel, you're going to rule over all the nations. You are a lion, Judah.

It's coming true.

Not just that, he's the root of David. The promise to David is that one would come who is worthy to sit on your throne and rule and reign forever. That one is the Messiah. He has come. And in fact, he has conquered past tense. Remember the message to the seven churches. If you overcome, if you conquer, then this blessing will come into your life. Well, we can conquer. We can overcome because the lion of the tribe of Judah first has conquered.

so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. So the line of the tribe of Judah. Think of the image that might come to your mind in that moment.

What does this look like? I was thinking about this this week and trying to picture what I would be feeling when the elder would say that to me. And so I asked Chachi Petit to help me out here. So I've got this lion. He's got a crown. He's got blood on his face from having just devoured his enemies.

This is what John, I think, is feeling and picturing and very, very slowly now as he's been told this great news that the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Messiah has come and conquered and is able to open the scroll. he has been told all that, he begins to lift his eyes, turn his eyes back to the throne. And we see this in verse six. This is very important because this is disorienting.

says in between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb. What? I've been told that the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered and he lifts up his eyes and he says I saw a lamb. In fact the word there is not just lamb it's Arneon it's used 25 times in the Bible 24 of which is in Revelation it means little lamb.

I saw a little lamb. didn't see, remember the important thing is what did he see next? He thought he was about to see a lion with blood on his face and a crown on his head, majestic and regal, but as he looked up he sees a little lamb standing as though it had been slain. This is wild, right?

This lamb does have blood on his face. This lamb's neck has been slit. This lamb has blood on its chest. But it's not the blood of his enemies. It's his own blood. He's been slaughtered, but he's not laying there dead. He's standing. It's Jesus. Death. Burial. Resurrected.

And this lamb has seven horns. Again, seven perfection, completion. Horns represent power, authority, and might. This little lamb has omnipotence. He is all powerful. And with seven eyes, eyes represent wisdom. He has perfect wisdom. He is omniscient. He knows all things.

This lamb has seven spirits of God. saw that that's the Holy Spirit of God sent out to all the earth. This lamb by the Spirit of God is everywhere. He is omnipresent. This is a distorting kind of apocalypse for John. He thought he would see a lion and this would make sense, but he sees a little slain lamb. But this lamb is all powerful, all knowing, all

omnipresent all the things. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Each holding a harp. is they're worshipping him now and the golden bowls full of incense which are prayers of the saints and they sang a new song.

Of course they sing a new song because new revelation has come to them. And they tell us why this lamb is worthy to open the scrolls. For reasons. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain. You were slaughtered. This is the lamb.

Mark Oshman (19:36.78)

The lamb imagery is the fulfillment of all the lamb imagery leading up through the Old Testament. This is when Abraham is with Isaac, his son on Mount Moriah, and God stays his hand and doesn't sacrifice his son. Genesis 22, eight says God himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. This is Exodus 12, five, the Passover lamb where the blood of the lamb was put over the doorway of the houses and the destroying angel would pass over all that had recovered by the blood.

of the Lamb. This is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. The Lamb led like a slaughter to his death. This is the Lamb that John the Baptist said in John 1.29, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. You are worthy because you were slain. You laid down your life. Number two, and by your blood.

by your own blood you ransomed people for God. Number two he ransomed people for God. His blood was the purchase to to buy people back from the penalty and the payment of sin and death. He ransomed people back but not just a people like Israel. Number three people from every tribe and language and people and nation. He is the lamb who ransomed people back. And finally number

Verse 10, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God and they shall reign on the earth by his blood, by his sacrifice. He has made them a kingdom. It is the original intention of God for God's image bearers that we would be a kingdom of God's people on the earth and that we would also be priests on the earth. By the Lamb, this is our role. Not someday in the future, today.

Today, this is our role that we are co-heirs with Christ. are representatives of the kingdom. We have been purchased by the blood. We have been transferred from the domain of darkness, the stranger things, upside down world, and brought into the kingdom of the Son God loves as co-heirs with Christ to reign with Him and to be priests. What did priests do? They offered up prayers. They mediated between God and man.

that they represented. So this is our calling, our role today to mediate, to buy the proclamation of the gospel, buy our good works, buy our loving of our neighbors and the nation to usher more into the kingdom of God so that they too can become a kingdom of priests and heirs with Christ. This is why the Lamb is worthy.

But the worship service now for the lamb does not stop. It gets bigger. The worship circle expands and it expands exponentially. Look at verse 11. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voices of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

Maybe you were counting there. That's seven blessings. It's a perfect blessing. This is perfect worship of the lamb. Now, this is really important. What we saw in chapter four, God on the throne, at very end,

This is an echo of chapter four. God on the throne worshiped as creator. Verse 11 of chapter four. Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. John as a Jew is fiercely monotheistic. And yet the worship of God on the throne is now worship of the Lamb. And he has no problem with that.

Because the Lamb is God. This is our triune God. This is the Trinity on display. Don't let anyone ever tell you, whether from the kingdom of the cults or false teachers, that Jesus isn't to be worshiped, that Jesus isn't God. Point them to Revelation 4 and 5.

He gets all of the praise, all of the glory, all of the same things of God on the throne because he is God. But did you also notice he's worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, and might? We can't give those to God. But we can and we must give the last three an honor and glory and blessing. This is our role. We honor the Lamb. We give him glory. We bless the Lord.

And it says, myriad of angels, of thousands of thousands. So this worship scene from the throne expands and all of sudden, 100 million angels show up to worship the land.

That's quite a worship service, but it goes beyond even that. Verse 13, and I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever and ever. This is all of creation.

Paul talks about this in Romans 8, that all of creation is groaning as a woman in the throes of childbirth, pangs of childbirth, longing for this day. Well, this has come now in the Lamb to rescue and redeem. says, and the four living creatures said, amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped him.

This is an amazing passage of present reality that is happening right now and we're invited to join in. We have to ask the question though, and I said this in week one, that the book of Revelation was not given so we could speculate about the future. It was not given so that we could be kind of entertained by these apocalyptic images.

The book of Revelation was given to those seven churches and by extension to us to make a difference in our lives. So we should ask the question, what difference should this make now that we know what ultimate reality is in Revelation four and five? What difference is this meant to make in our lives?

It's meant to not only give us a vision of ultimate reality, it's meant to give us a lens by which we see our own lives, to see earth clearly. So how is the vision of heaven, how does it help us see earth clearly? I'll say five ways. There's many more, but at the center of reality is one who suffers. This is how God

chose to display himself as a little lamb, yes an omnipotent lamb, an omniscient lamb, an omnipresent lamb, but a little lamb who's one who suffers. Our God is, this is just a reminder, our God is not a God who is indifferent to our suffering, who is indifferent to the brokenness of the world. Our God isn't even a God who doesn't know of that. He knows of all suffering intimately.

Like we see the suffering on the other side of the planet. We can't possibly enter into that. We don't have the capacity for that. But God sees every tear, every heartache, every brokenness, everything that is wrong in the world. He sees it and he feels it. He's suffered more than all of humanity combined. And he knows that that means he knows where you're at this morning. He knows what you've been through. This is really important.

He was a lamb who was slain. He carries with him into all eternity the wounds that he suffered for you and for me. This is why the old slave spiritual song rings true. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows but Jesus. At the center of reality is one who suffers.

Which brings us to the second one. At the center of ultimate reality is grace. Costly grace. The lamb goes to the cross because of us. The lamb goes to the cross instead of us. This is costly grace. There is no cheap grace on the throne room of God. He laid down his life. This means that God is not keeping score.

He's not wondering if you're gonna, if your good deeds are gonna outweigh your bad deeds. He's not wondering if you're gonna do enough to get your life together to come to him someday. You never could do that. But you can come to him through the blood of the lamb, grace upon grace upon grace. At the center of reality, we work from victory, not toward victory. Did you see this already, the past tense?

The Lion of Judah has conquered, has overcome. The victory has been won in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lamb. The victory is there and we partake in the victory. We're not hoping someday that we'll overcome. We're not hoping someday that victory will be ours. Victory is ours today, right now.

number four at the center reality we see that the way to fullness of life is the way of the lamb.

This is important for us. This would have been really important for the seven churches facing persecution, suffering, a tyrannical government that was burning our brothers and sisters alive, that was throwing them to lions to be devoured, that they had no power, they had no political influence. It was really important to them. But what about us?

What if we do have power and political influence? We don't rule like the lion. We go in the way of the lamb. The lamb.

The is not just the means of our salvation, it is the model of our sanctification. I'll say it again. The cross doesn't just save us, our lives are to be cross-shaped. This is the upside down nature of the kingdom. We give ourselves away. We get low. We sacrifice ourselves because our King sacrificed himself. This is what Jesus said all the time. If anyone would come after me, he must...

take up the throne and dominate his enemies. No. If anyone would come after me, he should knock out anyone that's opposed to me. No. He said things like this, if anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross daily and follow me. Here's the thing about taking up a cross.

It requires some humility. You got to get low. It's heavy. You cannot carry a cross and a sword at the same time. Anyone carrying a cross in the first century was going to one place and everyone knew it. Their death. This is the upside down nature of the kingdom. We exercise the power of the kingdom by laying ourselves down for the sake of others, even our enemies. Listen, that...

That is not a message that will build churches today, but it is the message of the kingdom. We get low. We get low. This is why Jesus teaching that the greatest power in the universe is weakness of sacrificial love.

When Jesus taught on the kingdom of heaven in the sermon on the mount here's how he started it. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of peace of God. Blessed are those who are

persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven at the center of reality we see that the weight of fullness is life is not

as dominating but as the lamb who was slain. brings us to the last one. At the center of reality we realize where history is going. All of history is going to the feet of the lamb. He is worthy of all praise. All creation will praise him. We could either join him in glad praise now or in forced submission later but he will be praised. It's where it's going.

So let's join him now. Let's join him in his upside down kingdom with his upside down values so that the kingdom of God expands. Imagine if we wrapped our lives around these truths at Redemption Parker. What if we wrapped our lives around ultimate reality? Imagine how purpose-filled your life would be.

It would be full of purpose. You would be living for a different kind of king in a different kind of kingdom. Imagine how passionate our worship would be as we join in the course of four living creatures and the hundred million angels and 24 elders and all of creation. If right now we join in that course, imagine if we lived into the reality that right now we are a kingdom and priest to our God interceding and reconciling our neighbors and the nations to God.

Imagine how fearless we would live if we held before us ultimate reality. Even death could not stop us. If you had no fear of death, no fear of losing anything in this side of eternity, and you knew this was your promised inheritance and you lived like that, how much different our lives and our mission would be here. Who is worthy? Jesus alone.

Who is worthy to open the scrolls? Jesus alone. Who knows all things? Jesus alone. Who is all powerful? Jesus alone. Who is everywhere at all times? Jesus alone. That's why he is worthy for all worship. If you haven't met Jesus today, you can get that thin place and come into the kingdom of God by grace alone through faith alone. You simply just say, Lord, I want you as the king of my life. I believe you are the lamb who was slain for my sins in my

place. trust you. I give my life to you." And the Bible says, in that moment you will become a new creation. In that moment you will be transferred from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son of God. Don't wait for that. If that's already your story, renew your mind to that truth. See, Mary had a little lamb. His soul was white as snow. And anywhere his father sent, the lamb was sure to go.

He came to earth to die one day, the sin of man to atone. And now he reigns in heaven alone. He's the lamb upon the throne. Amen. Let's pray.

White Hot Worship

AI Transcript

Good Redemption Parker. Good morning. morning. Happy New Year on Tuesday. Rosh Hashanah, New Year. Happy New Year guys. Why don't you begin by making your way to Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4 is where we will be.

I received some, some unexpected mail the other day, the September edition to world magazine. I get random magazines here and there that show up in my mailbox. And quite frankly, I have too much stuff to read. Ain't nobody got time for magazines, but the September edition of world magazine. It should be up there. There it is. The world's last night subtitle.

Apocalyptic thinking surges amid worrying trends in culture and technology As I opened up the pages this magazine I was reminded how much the book of Revelation impacts the way we understand everything from from politics to war from vaccines to to conspiracy theories and I was reminded as I read some of these articles how dangerous

Some of these views can be the rapture is coming. say, how, how can we do all we can to speed up this process to usher in the end times? So we look around, we, we read revelation with, one eye on the text and one eye on the world scene. We need to know who are the players, who is our president? Cause of course America has to be at the center when everything goes down.

And the most important question, what in the world is going on with the nation state Israel? One article in September's edition, World Magazine called Trump number four to 45 modern Cyrus who began the restoration process. now Trump number 47 is Darius who will rebuild the temple usher in the Messiah, the rapture, the church, and the end of the ages. the words of one prominent preacher.

The bombing in Iran, for instance, is not just world news, quote, it's end times fulfillment. This is the labor pains and quote for many Christians in our country. Revelation helps us realize the, like one article says, the church must grow in influence, power, and glory so that it can establish and prepare the kingdom for Jesus to return.

This is where we get things like the seven mountains of influence. And though not all of this is bad per se, my fear with these end times understanding is that we can totally miss the point of revelation. With so many wild theories and crazy charts and false predictions on the last book of the Bible, like one theologian says, our batting average is zero.

It's no wonder why someone like Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer would say, quote, revelation is neither apostolic nor prophetic. I can no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it. They are supposed to be blessed who keep what is written in this book. And yet no one knows what that is. Christ is neither taught nor known in it. And unlike his anti-Semitic rhetoric towards the end of his life, I can actually be sympathetic.

towards Luther here in Revelation. Though in both cases I think he's wrong. The Holy Spirit did produce it and read correctly. This book is for the church. This book is for us, the bride of Christ and Revelations friends, Revelation friends is all about Christ. If we have ears to hear what

the spirit is saying. Yes, many today use this book to gain influence in politics, wed the church to the state, grow in power and build a kingdom and completely miss the point of revelation, the upside down kingdom of Jesus. But this is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. As we jump into Revelation four this morning, things are going to get a little

crazy, a little apocalyptic. But this should not deter us. Rather, like Mark said in week one, we need to let the apocalyptic genre do what the Holy Spirit intended for this genre to do, namely hit us deep in the core, spark our imagination, evoke worship, white hot.

worship like we've been saying. Revelation is a book that that asks us a question. Are you a citizen of New Jerusalem or Babylon? Are you with team lamb or with the beast? This morning things are going to move from earth to heaven from Satan's throne to God's throne. This morning where we're going to be confronted with another question and that's this where

is your worship? Where is your worship? Like the theologian Bob Dylan sung years ago, you're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Through this apocalyptic vision of the throne room of God, that's our question. Who are you serving?

Where is your worship? Well, if you're not already there, Revelation 4, let's jump in. Start here in verse 1.

After this, looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. After what? Well, those who hold to a dispensational theology, a very popular view since the release of content like left behind novels say that that verse one,

of chapter four, what I just read is where the rapture takes place. The time where all the Christians are caught up, zapped up into the sky to be with Jesus as the end times, the tribulation is ushered in. It's right there in the text, they say. Look at verse one. Jesus literally says, come up here. Clear as day.

I remember when I saw Left Behind for the first time, was tripping. I was 20 years old. I'd been a Christian for maybe six months. And in those precious early months of my discipleship, I remember two things were really clear. The presidential nominee that my friends didn't want to win, he was the Antichrist. And don't get Left Behind. Well, first off,

Christians can disagree on these secondary issues, but we shouldn't get our theology from a novel. Second, there's no rapture happening in verse one of chapter four. What we do have in the verse I just read for you was a word that might be the most important word in Revelation if we're going to grasp this book.

Daryl Johnson says, quote, the key to the structure of the whole book of Revelation is the verb open. Let me read verse one again. After this, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.

This verb open is going to appear four times in revelation, creating for us a beautiful structure for this book. These four windows that that open to John will divide this book into five sections. If you can go back to the last one, divide this book into five sections. The picture of the windows. yeah.

that we're dividing this book into five sections. And then if you're a note taker, you can go to the next slide. Now, if you're a note taker, right, these verses down chapter four, verse one, what I just read chapter 11, verse 19, chapter 15, verse five, chapter 19, verse 11, every verse, every verse you're going to see that word open appear. You, you remember these four verses. You'll be able to keep this entire book in front of you as you read through each

hard. It will help us not see, for instance, Locus as the Apache helicopters and every president we don't vote for as the Antichrist. Well, if the rapture did not happen in verse one, what is going on? John, who is on the island Patmos on planet Earth, is given a vision of heaven. And from verse one here in chapter four,

all the way to the end of the book, Revelation 22 in the New Jerusalem could actually be seen as an expansion of the Lord's Prayer. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This week and next, Revelation 4 and 5, we're going to see the part of the Lord's prayer that confesses God's will be done in heaven as we enter holy ground, the throne room of God. And in these two chapters of Revelation, we're going to see all of heaven acknowledging God's sovereignty, His will, and His reign. And then for the rest of the book,

Revelation 6 through 22 will tell us the story of how heaven becomes a reality on earth. You guys tracking? Cool. All right, let's do this. Look with me at verse 2. At once I was in the spirit and behold the throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.

John is taken by the Holy Spirit himself to the throne room of God. Exactly how this occurs I don't know. Whether this is some trance John is in or not, he really is transported to the royal throne. And when exactly is this taking place? Michael Byrd reminds us John is now granted access to the throne room of heaven itself.

He is not as some have supposed looking into the ultimate future rather he is seeing what is going on in God's presence throughout the present time. If you remember from last week Mark ended his sermon with that wonderful promise that Jesus gave the church in Laodicea to the one who overcomes I will grant him to sit with me on my throne.

As I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. What a promise, right? God's throne, but the promises don't hit our imagination quite like what we see now. These believers in Asia minor in the first century and us in Parker, Colorado, 2025 are given a vision of well, the throne room itself. Verse three.

And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. The importance of these stones is that they signify divine glory and splendor and God's presence. Some of them also point to stones that will be picked up again in the new restored Eden, new

Jerusalem, paradise of God, where God will once again dwell with his people in all his glory. John's audience, who knew their Old Testaments, would have thought immediately of Ezekiel's vision. It'll be up on the screen. I'll read it. saw, this is Ezekiel, I saw, as it were, gleaming metal.

like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. I saw as it were the appearance of fire and there was brightness around him like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud on the day of rain. So was the appearance of the brightness all around. I love the language of Ezekiel and John here in Revelation. Lots of the appearance of seemed like

I love what New Testament scholar Thomas Schreiner says here, quote, this language demonstrates that no attempt to describe the indescribable God is being made. Or Richard Bauckham on this scene says the image as a whole combined with the fact that the author avoids any direct description for God's appearance conveys the sense of God's transcendence, his total otherness and unfathomable mysteriousness.

Over the course of these next two weeks, we are going to get some revelation. This morning here in chapter four, a revelation of God. And next week, we're going to get a revelation of Christ. And before we go any further, this picture is already showing us deep in our core that God is incomprehensible. In the words of John Calvin, the finite mind cannot

comprehend God in His infinite essence. As John enters the throne room of God in heaven, he's reminded of the good news, that God is holy other, that God is fast, that God is beyond our understanding. And I know we think we're smart, but our finitude

And God's divine incomprehensibility is really good news. In his wonderful book, Light Unapproachable, Ronnie Kurtz quote, the otherness of God means his glorious well of all that he is will never run dry. Contemplating God's beauty will never be exhausted. For for all of eternity, we will never

plumb the depths of God. Each moment will be sweeter than the last or like C.S. Lewis famously says in Narnia's last battle, further up and further in forever. Some of us in here this morning, we need a big God theology.

We can so easily see ourselves, others, our problems, our fears, our worries and anxieties as huge. And God is rather small. but a vision like this is meant to shake us up. When we feel the weight of God's glory, the weight of His transcendence and His beauty, everything else begins to

pale in comparison. Let's keep reading. Verse four. around the throne were 24 thrones and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumbling

peals of thunder and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne, there was, as it were a sea of glass like crystal. What a scene, right? As we read this at our GC on, on Wednesday and the words were read aloud almost on cue, the sky outside cracked with thunder lit up with

lightning. It was intense. If I ever thought the rapture was about to happen, it was on Wednesday night. And as crazy as this scene is, what's at the center of it all? The throne. There's a lot going on here, but there is a throne above all the thrones and the throne will become a major theme in Revelation from here on out. The word throne is literally going to keep

coming up for the rest of this book. It appears 19 times in just chapters four and five alone. But around this throne, John sees 24 other thrones and seated on those thrones, 24 elders. Now these aren't humans. These are heavenly beings and they are representatives. Why 24? 12 tribes of Israel, 12...

apostles of Jesus, these 24 heavenly beings, these elders are representing God's people. They are wearing white, conveying righteousness, victory, worship. They have golden crowns depicting their share in God's reign. All these things Jesus just promised to the churches who overcome.

24 elders are are standing in holy ground. are amidst the presence of God lightning and thunder taking readers back to Mount Sinai when God's presence was seen was was heard was felt don't don't think for a minute that that the presence of God himself is just some warm and fuzzy feeling we get when we go to Estes Park

know that this God is a consuming fire. We also have seven torches of fire, are the seven spirits of God, the Holy Spirit. In this chapter, in chapter five, we have a beautiful vision of the Trinity. Here we see the Father and the Spirit. Next week we will look right at the Son. The scene is mind blowing, really. Can you sense the majesty of our

Triune God. I know many of you guys have been in some pretty impressive rooms with some very important people. Nothing like this. Now as we'll see, the sea in Revelation comes to mean different things at different places. But here the sea of glass like crystal, it's the vault of heaven itself.

The sea of glasses is what seems to separate the one who is transcendent, the one on the throne from, well, everything else in creation. Let's keep reading. Middle of verse six. And around the throne, on each side of the throne are four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox.

the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.

Who the heck are these guys? Well in short, like the elders, these are heavenly beings. And as the elders represent the people of God, these creatures seem to represent all of creation. So this scene of God's throne room in heaven. We have this magnificent yet unapproachable light who is the Lord Almighty on His

throne and around the throne you have the people of God and all of creation. And before we move to the climax of this scene and see what these creatures are doing in the throne room of God, we do need to understand what to make of this scene thus far. What is going on? Well, the throne...

is a political image. We're talking sovereignty and kingship here. God's throne portrays God's sovereign rule. think about this for a second in light of the context of revelation written to these seven churches, these struggling.

Christians living in Babylon where Satan's throne is there they're given a vision of the capital T Throne and though they they may have had all sorts of doubts as to who really is in control this picture of God's sovereignty his total control of all things reminds these Christians and us that that the

The one who might seem to be absent at times is far from removed. John's vision here is actually a parody of the Roman court scene. Talk about a Jesus flex. Jesus is countering the imperial claims that these Christians are hearing, namely, Caesar is Lord.

And with this vision of God's throne, he's pulling a coach prime and calling bull junk. Nah, Jesus is Lord. That the gospel is political because God is sovereign because Christ is King. Amen. Well, let's finish out our passage this morning. Let's see what is taking place in the throne room of heaven. Look with me at verse eight and follow me.

and the four living creatures. Each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and night they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him.

who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.

white hot worship 24 7 365. Can you imagine like like right now as we speak this is going down these creatures these elders ceaseless praise and worship as revelation scholar Michael Gorman points out the worship of God is the heartbeat of the cosmos.

Even when we humans are do not see it, participate in it or value it. Only God is worthy to receive what others, especially powerful political figures may want or demand our total devotion, our praise, our crowns. love that only God is worthy to receive our total devotion, our praise, our crowns. And this is happening as we speak.

I want you also to see that, that, this epic worship party taking place, this doc thology, namely the praise of God is not happening apart from theology words about God. Many people are like, I don't like theology. just want to worship God, but it's right theology friends of who God is that

produces what we see here. Adoration, affection, praise, white, hot worship. I mean, look at these heavenly hymns. One focuses on God's eternality. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. The other, while on their knees, crowns before the Lord. Zoom in on another doctrine of God as creator. Worthy are you?

our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. You are the eternal creator before anything was you were and everything exists only because of you theology.

producing doxology. When we realize who this God is, what else can we say but holy

at our GC last week after the lightning and thunder, Frank Mendez had this cool realization after spending time in the text, we broke off into our groups, his realization was simply this, we were created for worship. Yes and amen. And if it's true friends, that all our hearts, every single

one of us that all our hearts are restless until they find rest in God. If that's true, then it's also true that this endless worship party is the most satisfying event possible. And that right now, we friends can get in on this. You don't need to let your FOMO settle in. You don't need to worry about

missing out or being left behind. This is not simply for these four creatures and the elders. This is for all of creation. This is for all of God's people. Where is your worship?

ask yourself, where is your worship? It's unbelievably sad, tragic really. And I'm preaching to myself as well that this is our offer and we settle for so much less. I love what C.S. Lewis said in The Weight of Glory. Many of you guys love and know this quote. It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. are far too easily pleased. We are far too easily pleased.

Maybe you're just thinking, can I, how can I access this throne room? I'm not a heavenly creature or one of the elders. I know what I did last week. I'm a sinner. Now next week, we're going to zoom in on, on Jesus in chapter five, but how does a sinner access the throne room of God? What, what does it look like for us to enter into this Holy of

The Bible tells us that God's good creatures, we turned on him. Sin has separated each one of us from this holy, holy, holy God. And yet, the Son of God, who likewise is God, who never had a beginning, who was and is and is to come, took on another nature and began as the God man.

the Son of God incarnate entering into his own creation. Like this is crazy. As Mary was nursing her baby Jesus, he was sustaining her every breath, upholding her very life. Those who yelled, crucify him, only spoke because he, the word himself, gave them a voice. And the soldiers spit.

on Jesus it was spit that he kept flowing in their mouths. When he was struck again and again until his body was unrecognizable it was by men that he fashioned in his own image. When Pilate declared don't you know I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you Jesus Jesus answered you would have

no authority at all unless it had been given you from above. When he was crucified on a piece of wood, it was wood that he once spoke into existence. And then the son of God incarnate died.

that sink in. He died. The son of God incarnate died for you and for me for the purpose that we would have a seat at this table of worship. And even in his death, he was not defeated. He was still in control earlier on in his ministry. He said, I have authority to lay down my life.

and I have authority to take it up again." And take it up again he did. He's alive and well, enthroned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So when, for instance, the author of Hebrews says, come boldly to the throne of grace, we can.

church, would we be laid down everything that vies for our attention, our affection, our adoration, and would we come to this throne, this throne of scandalous and sovereign grace, praising the one who was and is and is to come, the one who created all things and the one who by grace alone through

faith alone in Christ alone saved us. Let us like the churches. This letter was read to be encouraged. God is not absent. is far from removed. Matter of fact, quite the opposite. Whatever you might be facing this morning, whatever you might be facing Jesus.

is King. Jesus is sovereign in control of all the details working out everything for the good of his people and for the glory of his name. This is true on the grand scale of world history and this is true over every area of

let's be a church that doesn't let Babylon dictate our worship, but let's give our allegiance, our devotion, our worship to the King of Kings. Let's join in the praises that are already taking place. Holy, holy, holy. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.

Overcomers Part 2

AI Transcript

Amen. If you have a Bible, let's get started here. Revelation chapter three is where we're at. If you're just joining us, we're working our way through this book, this apocalypse. And we are in the midst of these seven messages to seven churches. So that's where we're at. We'll cover the last three churches today. Have you ever noticed how pervasive culture is at shaping a people and their values and their thoughts?

We may not notice how much we are shaped by our culture, but we can certainly notice it in others. My wife has a whole degree in this, cultural anthropology, so she notices it. But have you ever noticed how nations have culture about them? And the people of that nation think certain ways and act certain ways. And in those nations, states have cultures and cities have cultures and towns and churches have...

Cultures that shape people. Families have cultures. You can think about like New York City and you can think, well, what's the culture there? What's the cultural value? Well, you might say it's economic power in New York City, but then you think about DC and you think, that's political power that shapes that culture. You think about red states and blue states and you think there's some different culture there. You could think about just how culture is shaped by history and even geography.

We're in the US West in Colorado. And so there's a kind of individualism. There's a kind of cowboy, lonesome, a lone ranger kind of individualism that is the cultural air we breathe. And that's why Denver is the third loneliest city in America. Because we're on our own, but that shapes us as a culture.

It shapes us that we do not want to be tied down by anyone or anything. We don't want to have obligations or commitments to others. And this is why in the US West and in Colorado, church membership is so difficult to sell people because we're like, no, the Bible actually calls us into something together. And we're like, no, I'm on my own. I'll do it myself. mean, culture shapes us. Do you ever think about how Parker is shaping you?

Mark Oshman (02:25.336)

Probably not, but it is. Did you know that 80134 zip code was like the, in the top 10 most moved to zip codes in America in the last six months? People are coming here for something. They're going to be shaped by something. They're gonna shape you like culture shapes the people and sometimes in good ways and sometimes in not so good ways. We're in these messages to these,

seven churches in the book of Revelation at the end of the first century and they're real churches with real problems facing real persecution and real dark days ahead. But they're also in cities and in a culture in the Roman Empire and sometimes that culture unbeknownst to them is shaping them and forming them in ways that is not great. And so these letters are written and you see these like historical and cultural

things being played out and Jesus is calling these churches out in most cases sometimes commending these churches for pushing back reminding these churches that yes you live in the world but you're not of the world you are called to be a culture a colony of heaven amidst a kingdom of death this is what we're called to we should be culture shapers not shaped by our culture and this is where where

Jesus is going at with these people. In the book of Revelation, see that there, as Rick already talked about, are glimpses of unseen realities, not just in the future, but in the present. There are unseen realities happening. When we see evil unfold before our very eyes, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. There is something going on. There are forces. There are demonic forces. There are...

powers and principalities that work in this world and Revelation helps us understand some of that that's going on and renews our mind renews us to be a colony of heaven amidst a kingdom of death. So these seven messages there's some repeated themes and the theme is how are we going to be conquerors or overcomers in the midst of the land and the culture that we live in how will we persevere in the end and in each

message it is both timely for them and for us and timeless it applies across time and space to the church of Jesus so at the end of every kind of message there's this repeated refrain for example in our passage today verse 6 he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches so it was a message in this case to Sardis but it was a message to the churches now here's the thing

These seven messages apply across time and space, but they don't all apply equally to every church. There are some churches where a message, a particular message to a church that they would really hold on to. For example, today, the message to the Church of Philadelphia, a church that is small and persecuted and powerless, but they are faithful and so.

What happens in the world even today, not here in America, but elsewhere where the church is persecuted, where the church is oppressed, they go to the letter to the Philadelphians and they hold tight to the promises of that. Well today we don't have time to dig too deep into Sardis and Philadelphia because I wanted to spend most of our time on the last one, maybe the most famous message, but it is also the message that is the clearest mirror to the church.

in the West and maybe to us and maybe to us individually as well. So let's go ahead and jump in and see. Again I will just go quickly through these first two but you'll see this pattern that we saw last week. There's this pattern where Jesus addresses Jesus has shown up and it's pointing back to chapter one where Jesus stands among his people. He addresses some problem that they're facing. He gives them.

commendation or confrontation he gives them a solution and then a promise pointing to Revelation 20 21 and this is the pattern so look for that pattern even as we go quickly through these first two churches listen carefully this is God's Word says then to the angel of the church in Sardis the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars this is Jesus from

Chapter one, seven spirits of God just means the Holy Spirit. Seven is this symbolic number throughout the book of completeness and wholeness. The seven stars we know from chapter one are the angels of the seven churches. He says this, know your work, Sardis. You have the reputation of being alive. were well known. that church is killing it. Look at all that they're doing. Look at their services. Okay, I told you I wouldn't preach this, so I gotta keep going.

You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. The Spirit has left the building. Wake up. Strengthen what remains and is about to die. For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. So there's the problem that they are doing works apart from the Spirit. John 15 says, apart from me, you can do nothing and they're doing things, but they are spiritual zombies. But this is Jesus' grace to them to call them back.

Here's the solution. Verse three. Remember then what you have received and heard. What did they receive and heard. Remember the gospel. Remember the gospel. See a church that moves on beyond the gospel is on a certain path to death. They might do a lot of stuff but it's on a path to death. So remember and repent. If you will not wake up I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you still have a few names in Sardis. People who have

not soiled their garments and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy. Here's the promise. Verse five. one who conquers or overcomes will be clothed thus in white garments and I will never blot out his name from the book of life. And we see this later in Revelation. I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the church. So Sardis.

Remember and repent. Now we move to Philadelphia. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the words of the Holy One, the true one who has the key of David, that becomes important, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. So Sardis had nothing but confrontation.

that there was nothing good to say about Sardis and now in Philadelphia there's nothing bad to say about Philadelphia. Says, I know your works, behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not.

but lie, behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. Here's what's going on. This is why Jesus stands with the key of David. This is why Jesus says, I will open a door for you. Here's what's happened in Philadelphia. Remember, the Jews in the Roman Empire had legal protection. They did not have to worship the emperor as Lord, but these Christians, many of them Jews themselves,

We're in the synagogue pointing them to the Messiah and they rejected the Messiah. In fact, they didn't just reject the Messiah. They kicked the Christians out of the synagogue and shut the door in their face. And they were exposed to Roman persecution. They were dying for their faith. And Jesus says, Hey, I have the keys to David. I have the key.

the keys of David. have the real keys to the kingdom and I'm going to open a door and you can come in. The synagogue might be shut in your face, but it's not a true synagogue. It's the synagogue of Satan. They don't follow me. They don't really know me, but I'm going to open a door and you can go in and you will find salvation there. He says, because you have kept my word, you've been faithful about patient endurance in the midst of your suffering. have not

Given up you've been faithful about patient endurance. I will keep you From the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth now Let me just say something real quick about this because some will say well see verse 10 there says that this church is going to be raptured before the the trials and tribulations come that that may be an interpretation or it may be more like the history of

God's people more like the Old Testament. So for example it isn't that God takes his people out of persecution and suffering but rather preserves them in the midst of his righteous judgment on the land. So you have Noah and Lot. Noah and Lot aren't raptured but they are preserved amidst God's righteous judgments coming. Or you have Israel in Egypt.

They are still there when all the plagues come on Egypt, God preserves his people in Egypt. But most likely this refers to Daniel chapter 12, verse one and following where it says, my people who are faithful amidst a land that is persecuting them, I will preserve them. So when God's righteous judgment comes on the earth in these great trials and tribulations, it won't fall on the people of Philadelphia because they are.

persevering in their faith. God will preserve his people. Well, here's the solution to their problem. It's not really a solution. It's just an encouragement to keep on keeping on. Verse 11, I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have so that no one may seize your crown. Keep on keeping on. Persevere. Verse 12, the one, and here's the promise, the one who conquers or who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my

God never shall he go out of it and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own my own new name he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. So in Philadelphia there was all these pagan temples and and someone with a.

of good reputation. would set up a pillar in the temple and put their name on it so everyone could see. But in Philadelphia there were a lot of earthquakes and so these temple these pillars would always fall and break. But Jesus says hey I've opened the door for you to go into the actual temple of the true and living God and I'm going to set up a pillar and I'm going to put your name on it. And guess what it's an unshakable temple. It will be there forever. I'm to put your name on it. I'm to put God's name on it. It's just this promise. You are apart.

of the kingdom forever if you overcome. So now let's look at Laodicea. Again, look for who Jesus is, what the problem is, what the solution is, and what the promise is. This is verse 14. To the angel of the church in Laodicea, the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness and beginning of God's.

creation. is Jesus. is the amen, the truth. He is faithful. What he's about to say is true. He is the beginning of God's creation, meaning he's the Alpha and Omega. He is the creator of all things. This is who stands and is about to address the Laodiceans. Again, he doesn't have any words of commendation for them. These are actually very hard words for a church, but you need to know this. They are hard words from a soft heart.

You will see in this passage, Jesus will say himself, what I'm saying to you is hard, but it's because I love you. Again, when we think about which of these seven churches most maybe reflect in general, the church in the West and maybe us and maybe some of us individually, Laodicea is probably the one that has the clearest echo. So let's see what the problem is. Verse 15.

I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. Again, he's speaking about a well-known cultural, historical, geographical phenomena in Laodicea. Jesus isn't saying, I wish you were on fire for me or I wish you really hated me. He's not saying that. Here's the deal, Laodicea was this.

on a superhighway of sorts in the Roman Empire. It was this center of economic and cultural hub. It had so much going for it, but it did not have its own water supply. It had to get that from elsewhere. Nearby, five miles away, Colosse had a fresh river going through there. And so you could go there and get a refreshing drink of cold water that has come down the mountain, and it would refresh your soul.

Or you could go by to nearby Heropolis. in Heropolis, they had these hot springs where you could go in and sit and receive all the healing properties of the hot springs. But not so in Laodicea. You either had to carry water five miles away from Colosse, or there was an aqueduct that would carry water in. But as it traveled those five miles, it got warm, it got stale, it started to take on a sulfur type of...

to it. even though Laodicea had all this wealth, all this power, they were lacking this one thing. This one thing that could either revive people physically or heal people spiritually. And Jesus says, I know you're neither hot nor cold, just like your water source. that you were either hot or cold? And then verse 16. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Wow. And in fact, that translation is pretty benign. The word is spew or vomit. You disgust me.

You initiate my gag reflex. Jesus says this to a church. I will spit you out of my mouth. These are hard words. No doubt when Laodicea received this and it got to them, they were wondering what Jesus was going to say because they would be shocked by this. Like, what are you talking about, Jesus? We're doing well. Our services are full. We've got programs for husbands and wives and children and we're...

doing well in this city. What what why would you say that he goes on for you say I am rich I have prospered I need nothing I am rich I am proud I have prospered and I need nothing. This was the cultural heir of Laodicea not just of the pagans but in the church. This was a wealthy city Laodicea was known for three things. It was known for one for their wealth just

that they had a tremendous wealth. One time the temple in Jerusalem needed some repairs and they asked the Laodiceans, Jews to send some money. They sent 22 pounds of gold, like 22 pounds of gold to help in the repair of the temple. In the year 60 AD, when an earthquake kind of leveled some of the temples and buildings of Laodicea, the Roman imperial empire said, hey, we'll come and help you rebuild that. And they said, no thanks.

We got this. We can do it on our own. We are self-sufficient and self-satisfied. This is what Laodicean said. This was the cultural air that they breathed. And this is what has shaped the church in Laodicea. So they were wealthy. The other thing they were known for is their textile industry. They were a hub of fashion. They had produced this kind of glossy black wool. And so that they were the envy of the Roman Empire in their dress and their clothing.

They were known for that. And the third thing they were known for is one of the pagan temple gods, had a medical school in there. And in this medical school, they had developed a salve, an eye salve for anyone that had kind of eye irritants and stuff like that, that they would travel to Laodicea, put this in their eyes, and it would have this healing and antibiotic properties to it. It actually worked in many cases. And so this is what they were known for. Wealth, clothing.

eye healing. And Jesus says this, for you say I am rich. The people of Laodicea and the church would say that, we're rich, we don't need anything, I have prospered, I need nothing. I need nothing. Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

You think you're rich, you're poor. You think you have good clothing, you're actually naked spiritually. You think you can see, you're actually blind. These are hard words from a soft heart. There's some irony here. Where does this compromise come from? Where have they gone off track? Well, they've compromised with the surrounding culture.

They've become so much like the culture outside the walls of their church that you couldn't really tell a difference. They had the same values, the same pursuits, the same goals, the same ideas. Hey, we're rich. We got this. So they compromised with their culture. They also ignore the spiritual dangers of wealth, security, and comfort.

This is like Jesus's number one topic, by the way. On repeat. Hey, it's actually dangerous for you to be wealthy. It's actually dangerous for you to be comfortable. It's actually dangerous for you to think that you don't need anything. Because you can blind yourself to the fact that you have need of me. Jesus says this is the greatest danger.

This was the greatest danger for the Laodiceans. And is this not the greatest danger of living in Parker, Colorado? Like, it's spiritually dangerous for you to have money in your bank account. We don't think so. It's spiritually dangerous for you to be comfortable. It's spiritually dangerous. And when I say spiritually dangerous, I mean like eternally dangerous. Like your soul is at risk. And we say, well, no, I need nothing just like the Laodiceans.

I need nothing. say often times when was the last time you prayed the Lord's Prayer give me this day in my daily bread and mint it. No we don't mean that. I'm good. I'm rich. I'm well clothed. I can see Jesus says don't you get it. Don't you get it. You can't see that. See when Christians from other parts of the world come to America that they're appalled by our lukewarmness.

Did you know that? They're appalled by our lukewarmness. They're appalled by our prayerlessness. Why? That's born out of self-sufficiency. Why should we pray when there's no sense of urgency to pray? This is what the Laodiceans felt. They're appalled by our greed. They're appalled by how much we make and spend most of it on ourselves or store most of it for ourselves in the future. They're appalled by that.

They're appalled by our lack of bold witness. We live in a country that says you have religious freedom. You can tell anybody, you can tell your neighbors and anyone else about Jesus. And they're like, no one's telling anybody here. Back in our country, we tell people and then we get arrested and we get thrown into prison.

This is lukewarmness. Jesus says, I vomit you out of my mouth.

Maybe sometimes, maybe I've already made the mistake and done too much exegesis and explained things and you're like, oh yeah, that's the hot water and the cold water. But do you see the plain reading of the scripture here? You're like, well, are they Christians? I don't know, you tell me. Where else is Christians described as being vomited out of Jesus's mouth? Right? Or a wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

I once was blind and now I'm still blind. That's not how the song goes. Like these are hard words, but they're gracious words. See, our struggles mirror the struggles of the Laodiceans.

Probably worse, right? Like if we go on a time machine and live back there, we're like, you guys actually don't have that much. I don't know what you're talking about. Just because you have some nice clothes. Come to 2025 Parker. That's where it's at. They would have been, you know, seeing the temples, you know, in the temples, there would have been statues of different gods. I think this picture would have fit well in one of the statues in Laodicea.

except for you won't find that in Laodicea. You'll find that a half a mile away from here. This is the statue of the self-made man. You can walk down Parker and get to Main Street and Parker Road and you'll see this statue. The self-made man. Is this not the air that we breathe? I mean, if he hammers down far enough, he might chisel out some bootstraps and pick himself up, right? We love it. We are self-made. I need nothing.

Jesus says, don't you know? That's a very dangerous place to be. Don't you feel that at all? Don't you care about the worth of your soul? What does it gain a man to get the whole world and lose your soul? Consider what the Laodiceans knew about Jesus. Just consider for a moment.

So at the end of Colossians, don't put it on the screen yet, this is at the end of Colossians. So Colossae is five miles away. So listen what Paul writes to the church at Colossae at the very end. says, he's just wrapping up his greeting. says, give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea. And when this letter has been read among you, so when you get this letter of the Colossians among you, have it also read to the church of the Laodiceans.

and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. So a couple of things we know from this. Paul had written a pastoral epistle to the Laodiceans. So they've been taught by the apostle Paul. Not only that, they have a copy of Colossians. And so we know from Colossians one, and I'll put this on the screen, we know that they know this about Jesus. Where do I start? Verse 15. Can we get to the Colossians one? Yeah, verse 15. Well, that's Philippians.

Let's try this again. Okay. Here's what we know. They knew about Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation for by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him, all things hold together and he is the head of the body.

the church. is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. That's an echo from the letter to Laodicea. That in everything he might be preeminent, meaning nothing is above, more valuable, more beautiful than Jesus. For in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his.

They knew this about Jesus. And they were like, meh, yeah, that's not gonna really shape my day to day. I'm glad I got Jesus so I get to go to heaven when I die, but have you seen the latest fashion trends on Main Street of Laodicea? That's where my affections really are. They knew about Christmas morning.

that Jesus left his throne and glory, put on flesh, and was born among us to live a life of poverty among us. They knew that. They knew about Jesus' teaching and his miracles. They knew what happened on Good Friday when he went to the cross and bore the sins of the world and took their sins on the cross for him and gave them his righteousness. They knew that. They knew three days later that Jesus had conquered sin, death, and the grave and had rose again.

They knew that 40 days later Jesus appeared in the flesh to His disciples and He gave them the great commission, go make disciples of all nations. They knew that He then ascended to the right hand of the Father and He reigns and rules from there. They knew all of that. And they're like, meh. What I really like is what's in my bank account.

As C.S. Lewis said about Jesus' life, Jesus Christ produced mainly three effects. Hatred, they hated him. Terror and adoration. There was no place, there was no trace of people expressing mild approval.

mild approval, hat tip to Jesus, tip Jesus when the offering box comes by.

And Jesus says, that lukewarmness? it makes me sick. It makes me sick.

Maybe you're here. We should ask the question. Listen, I don't know anyone's heart. I've just been wrestling with this all week and wrestling with my own heart. it's really dangerous for me to be in Parker, Colorado. I have a really nice house. I've got, I mean, I was a financial advisor, so I've got a Roth IRA that I put money into every year and it's grown a lot. But Lord.

Can I survive in a place like Parker, Colorado? I don't know. This may be the most dangerous, most difficult place to reach on the planet. Because you say, I am rich, I have need of nothing.

Do you sense any lukewarmness in your affection for Jesus?

If you do, then that's God's grace to you this morning. That's God's grace to you this morning. There's going to be a solution. There's going to be a hope for you. You don't have to live in that space. You don't have to be spit out of Jesus' mouth. That's awesome. But here's the thing that keeps me up at night as a pastor in the wealthiest place, in the wealthiest time in the history of the world.

Maybe, maybe there's some here that sense some lukewarmness and you're okay with

You're okay with

It's so dangerous. And even worse than that, as Francis Chan preached on this 20 years ago, you're lukewarm and you're loving it.

Luke warm and loving it. I get to have it all. I get to have all of the promise of the American dream and I get heaven thrown in when I die. This is awesome and Jesus is not awesome. It's so dangerous. Do you not care about eternity. Did you really think that all that matters is this little speck of dust in the cosmic universe and your little plot of land and your your bank account. Do you think that's all that really matters.

Jesus is saying hard words to wake them up, to shake them, to call them to Himself. And this is where the solution begins to come. Look at verse 18.

Sasa.

You're not realizing that your wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, actually rich, and white garments so that you may be clothed, actually clothed, so that you may clothe yourselves, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Now this is an odd command.

buy from me. How do you buy gold with no gold? Well the key word there is from me. It's a way of Jesus say come to me with your empty hands and your recognition that you have nothing to offer and say Jesus I need your gold. need true riches that only come from you. Jesus I need your clothing not my clothing. I need to be covered in my sin. I need your

righteousness to cover me. Lord, I need to see. I need your eye ointment to open my eyes because apart from you I can do nothing. So buy from me. Buy from me. See verse 19 says, those whom I love I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Jesus tells us. He's telling this church this because he

loves them. He's not trying to be mean. He wants their eternal best. He wants their eternal joy. Those whom I love, I reprove in discipline. So be zealous. Have a zeal and repent. Turn back. Jesus is nauseated by our lukewarmness, but he doesn't stay there. He moves towards us. This is the gospel. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. He is coming.

close. Look what he says in verse 20, behold, look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. Sometimes we use that as an evangelism verse, but he's saying this to a church, a church with Jesus on the outside. He says, I'm coming to you, I'm knocking, I'm inviting myself in, all you have to do is let me in.

Let me in and I will come in and I will eat with you and you with me." This is the promise. This is grace to us. This letter has the most stinging confrontation of all the letters, but also the sweetest invidation.

says, you do that, if you have this intimate relationship with Me, if your zeal rises again, if you don't trust in your own wealth and your own clothing and your own seeing, if you come to Me, here's the promise. The one who conquers or overcomes, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne.

Now, if that doesn't stir you at all, it's one of two things. You have no idea what he's talking about.

or you don't care. Next week chapter four the apocalypse is going to be pulled back and we're going to go into and see the throne room of God. Here's the promise Jesus said if you overcome if you if you don't let this world become your whole thing and you you renew your zeal and you repent and you come to me I will bring you into the very throne room of God. We're to get a picture just a glimpse of what that looks like.

where God is on his throne and there's there's there's lightning and smoke and fire and rainbows and and diamonds and and the 24 elders and they're falling down and and the angels the multitude upon multitudes the the millions of angels singing holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come and they're falling down and then there's this is this picture of worship of the the eternal God and Jesus says you'll be there right there with me.

Yeah, but I'm thinking about a mountain house. That's what really captures my attention. Stupid! That is the stupidest thing. Anything of this world is so dumb compared to being with Jesus on the throne room of God. Like, do you get that? Does that stir you at all? If not, man, you should be on your face right now desperately pleading to the Lord. Lord, I am lukewarm. I am lukewarm, but I don't want to be. I don't want to be lukewarm.

I want to live for you. I want to live forever with you on your throne.

how will we be invited into the throne room of God? Because Jesus earned it for us. The second half of verse 21, as I also conquered, as I also overcome and sat down with my father on his throne, Jesus earned it for us. How will we get his riches? Because he who was rich became poor, that we might become rich in him.

Why will we be clothed in His righteousness? Because He who is clothed in glory in heaven laid that aside and came down and went to a cross and was stripped naked to have His shame exposed before the world to take away our shame and to give us His clothing, His righteousness. He earned it for us. How will we see?

Because on Good Friday he was beaten in the face, his eyes was closed shut, he went to the cross, he plunged into the darkness of darkness so that we might be brought into the light and see he earned it for us.

And so the invitation is to open the door.

however that looks like in your life today, right now, this week, open the door, invite the Lord of all to be Lord over all of your life.

Jesus is persistent about this. He's not just your Savior. He's your Lord. That means everything. Every area. Every spot. Every relationship. Every dollar. Every spot on your calendar. Jesus is Lord. Let's pray.

Overcomers part 1

AI Transcript

Good morning Redemption Parker. Good to see you guys. My name is Rick. I'm one of the elders. If you're new here, you can begin making your way to Revelation chapter 2. It's been a minute since I preached and we are in the book of Revelation. So buckle up. This could be a long and bumpy ride.

Growing up in, in Southern California, my, my favorite day of the year was a yearly field trip that was not put on by our public schools. Rather, my dad once a year would let us play hooky and he would take me and my two siblings to six flags magic mountain. And there was a roller coaster, one roller coaster that I eagerly anticipated each and every year.

Colossus. Yes, Colossus. Now Colossus was a beautiful white wooden roller coaster. The term Colossus means something gigantic or massive in scale. This roller coaster was just that. When it opened in 1978, it was the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster in all the world. As a kid, as far as I was concerned, this was one of the wonders of

the world, this and maybe Dodger Stadium. Little did I know it was named after Colossus, the statue located off the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. We have a pic of it here. It's a small pic. It is a big statue, though. This was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Colossus represented Helios, the Greek sun god, this beautiful

bronze statue was built in 280 BC after the Greeks won a huge military victory. It stood about 110 feet tall, roughly the size of the Statue of Liberty, built in 280 BC. And though 50 years after its inception, it was toppled by an earthquake in 226 BC, its fame as a wonder of the world, its visible ruins and the stories and

cultural pride that Colossus brought to the Eastern Mediterranean world would not have been missed by any of John's hearers in these seven churches scattered just across the same sea. Writers like Pliny the Elder in the first century described the fallen Colossus as an awe-inspiring

He said even after the collapse, quote, people could barely wrap their arms around its fallen bronze thumb. This thing was huge. When John, on the island of Patmos, not far from where the statue lay in ruins, in prison because of his witness to Christ, gets a revelation on the infamous Lord's Day.

Jesus is like, you might be imprisoned on this island, John, but you're not done pastoring your flock. My people, you are faithful and you did not compromise. That's why you're here, John. And I'm going to give you a vision that will help them likewise be faithful to fortify them in these last days. Let me remind you what we read last week after John hears a loud voice like a trumpet.

And when he turns around, he sees a colossal vision. He's told to write what he sees and send it to the seven churches. Verse 12, this is chapter 1, verse 12. Then I, John, turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like the Son of Man.

clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, white like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. Colossus.

ain't got nothing on this colossal vision John gets of the colossal Christ. And this is not just some gnarly picture of Jesus. This vision is filled with Jewish metaphor. This picture of Jesus is not so that we can understand what Jesus looks like when we see him one day. If so, that would be interesting, to say the least.

White hair, fiery eyes, sword for a tongue. A couple chapters later, we might have to add some lamb features and eventually we'd have to give him some lion attributes. No, these metaphors, these symbols in this vision are meant to hit us deep in our core. They should spark our imagination. John's vision of Christ draws from Daniel chapter seven, the son of man.

and the Ancient of Days. His robe and stash reveal him as both priest and king, clothed in majesty, robed in authority. He oversees the seven lampstands, drawing us back to Zachariah's vision of the temple lampstand. But now, because of the seven spirits, namely the Holy Spirit, the lampstands signify his new temple, the church. And Christ himself

is walking among his churches. His white hair reflects the ancient of days. This is not just the son of man. This is the ancient of days. Our culture despises age, but here age is glory. Wisdom without beginning, the alpha and omega. This is a vision of God, the God-man. But unlike us, when we age, his power does not...

His power does not fade. His eyes blaze like fire, piercing every pretense, judging with perfect vision. His bronze feet glow, but unlike the colossus which fell in an earthquake, his bronze feet proclaim that he is unyielding, unshakable, immovable. In his hand, he holds

the seven stars, these messengers, these angels of the churches showing his sovereign grip over all things. And from his mouth comes the sword, the double edged sword. He is the word, the word of judgment and the word of salvation. This vision leaves no doubt redemption Parker that Christ is the reigning king, the sovereign

judge the shepherd God who walks among his churches. John's vision is meant to evoke white hot worship. Like John who fell on his face, we likewise need to see this colossal Christ for who he is. Now as John begins to write what he sees and send this to these seven churches in chapters two and three, so for us,

today and next week, John is going to be constantly looking back to this colossal vision of Christ in chapter one and looking ahead, far ahead to the end of all things, Revelation 22 and the New Jerusalem. Now if you weren't here last week, please listen to Mark's

sermon, it's, it's a must not only because it's the first sermon of a sermon series, but because we need to understand how to read this book. It's a different genre. It's a few different genres. This book is Mark shared last week and it is, we'll find out in weeks to come is not chronological. I think even for today, it'll be helpful to, to ground ourselves a bit before we jump in.

to chapter two. A lot of theologians say we should read Revelation backward or at least start with chapters 17 through 19 to get acquainted with some of the characters. The unholy trinity or this idea of Babylon. Ultimately this book is about living as exiles in Babylon.

John will make it very clear that Babylon is Rome, but what will also become clear is Babylon is anywhere Rome-like. And so like New Testament scholar Richard Baucam says, if the cap fits, wear it. The question all throughout the book of Revelation is this, are you a citizen of the New Jerusalem or Babylon? Or another way to put it, are you rocking with the lamb or?

beast. This morning as we hear Jesus address four of these seven churches in Asia Minor, let's remember what Mark said last week. This was written to these seven churches, but this is for us. Redemption Parker, I believe God has something to say to us this morning from the apocalypse. And as you hear how these churches who are called to live for the lamb, namely

Jesus amidst the presence of the beast, aka Satan, called to live as citizens of the New Jerusalem, that is to say heaven, while they live in Babylon, namely Rome. I want you to see how the beast makes his moves. What temptations does he throw at these churches? Because though our world in 2025 does not look exactly like

Asia Minor in the first century under Roman Empire. The beast is using the same playbook today and he is here to kill, to steal, to destroy you, your family, your church, your faith. My prayer is that we would be humble enough to see how Babylon can and does get into our midst.

and that we'd be bold enough to ask Jesus this morning, examine us. But my end goal is to show you that the promise of New Jerusalem from the colossal Christ Himself gives us all we need to be overcomers. So if you're not already there, Revelation 2 is where we will begin. Starting in verse 1.

to the angel of the church in Ephesus, right? The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Each of these letters are going to have a very similar outline. I'm going to try to follow that flow as we go this morning. First, Christ wants them to get their eyes on him. So he's going to point back to each church.

to the colossal vision of himself. Remind the church who he is. Second, Christ is going to examine the church, strengths and weaknesses. And third, finally, Christ gives each church a promise. And what's wild, I've been reading Revelation for almost 20 years, never noticed this till this week, but each promise he gives to each church is found in Revelation 22 in the New Jerusalem. He's pointing them.

ahead. He's getting their eyes on where they are headed, where they must be living for now. Well, let's get rolling here in Ephesus to the angel of the church in Ephesus. Wait, what? The angel of the church. Now we can't build an angel ology here and that is a word angel ology, but angels are prominent characters in apocalyptic literature. would be

blown away if we could see what was really present. And if we knew our Old Testament, Deuteronomy 32 and Daniel 10 seem to give us the idea that there are angels that are over certain regions. There's one passage in Matthew's gospel that might give us a clue that each child has an angel. Again, not enough here to build out a theology of angels, but Revelation...

two and three in light of this crazy chapter in first Corinthians 11 seem to make the case that each church has an angel. Kind of cool to think about, right? I wonder what the RP angel is like. But before we start to speculate, it's not what we want to do here. What is much cooler than that, and I guarantee the angel, the RP angel would agree, is what the Ephesian church is told about their savior.

He holds the angels and walks among us. Christ is present in His church. Let that sink in. Christ is present among His church. Even now. Well, after this, he's going to examine this church in Ephesus, verse two.

I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know that you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. So far, so good. It seems like on all fronts, these guys are checking off the boxes, working hard for the Lord. Check. Patient endurance.

Check, not growing weary. Check, not compromising in sin. Check, not believing false doctrine. Check. mean, look at verse six. hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Again, this church is killing it. And wouldn't you expect that? The church in Ephesus was one of the most significant communities in the entire New Testament. mean, Paul planted this church for crying out loud.

This is where Aquila and Priscilla preach. Apollos ministered here. Timothy pastored this church and according to the sign outside some ancient landmark when Holly and I visited Ephesus, the apostle John posted up here along with Mary, Jesus' mama. And the ink spilled here, second to none. For instance, Ephesians is a letter we have from Paul for this church. First and second, Timothy.

letters addressed to Timothy while pastoring this church. First, second, third, John, possibly written from this city. Yes, of course, they're killing it. And yet look at verse four, but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen.

Repent and do the work you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent. Yikes. This sounds intense like come on Jesus. But then you remember the importance of love. mean, their founding pastor, Pastor Paul once says the only thing that counts is faith.

expressing itself through love. Now scholars are all over the place on the question for the Ephesian church. Is this love for God or love for others? I think the answer is very clear. Yes. mean, Jesus says the most important command singular love God, love others, plural or first John. can't say you love God unless you love

your brothers and your sisters and this powerhouse church in Ephesus has abandoned. This is a strong word. They haven't left. They abandoned their first love, the love they had at first. this morning I feel like a dying man preaching to dying men and women. I remember like yesterday the love I had at first.

I remember walking into that mega church 18 years ago. was lost, broken, looking for answers to life's biggest questions. And as I searched for answers to no avail, next on my list, check out a church. So I showed up for a Saturday night service, joint in my pocket, ready to get out of there and go party. God had other plans. Ain't no.

party like a Holy Ghost party because the Holy Ghost party don't stop. That night I heard the gospel and by faith alone in Christ alone I received life. And that season was filled with well love overflowing overwhelming love love for God and what he did to save my soul love for my new brothers and sisters and his family called

church and love for the lost world around me. I love for them that they would know Jesus. This week has been convicting to me to say the least. What about you? Can you remember the love you had at first? Is it still intact?

If not the call for us is the same that it was for this church. Repent, turn back, turn to the one who loved you and gave himself for you. And finally, look at the new Jerusalem promise there in verse seven. love this. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers or overcomes. I like that translation.

This book is for the overcomers church to the one who overcomes. I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. The whole Bible can be summed up in four words, Eden lost Eden restored the tree that was taken away in the garden will be restored again in the new Jerusalem see revelation 22. And I love.

church history because sometimes it helps us answer these questions like I wonder if the church at Ephesus had ears to hear. Well about 20 years after John penned these verses the bishop of Antioch Ignatius was arrested for his faith and was sent to Rome for execution. On his way he stopped in Smyrna not far from here while there the Ephesian church sent a team to care for him. In response he wrote a letter thanking them in it he said

The Ephesians were quote characterized by faith in and love for Christ Jesus our savior. He rejoiced that they quote love nothing in human life only God. He praised one of their elders as a man of inexpressible love and said that that he could see the love of the whole Ephesian church reflected in the love of the team they sent. I it seems that they had ears to hear what the spirit said to.

their church. Let's move to the next church. Look with me at verse eight. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life. Here we see the heart of the gospel. The first and the last died and came to life. The one who has always existed as the son of God, the second person of the Trinity took on flesh and became

the Son of God incarnate. And as the God man, He lived and died as the suffering servant. The one who died for our sins came to life for our justification. Well, in verse nine, He examines the church in Smyrna and only commends them. But verse nine, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich.

And the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and for 10 days you will have tribulation. Y'all are suffering. Jesus is saying, and this is a mark of my church. So you're doing well. Smirna. J.I. Packer sees each church in revelation two and three exhibiting a different mark.

These are the marks of a healthy church. Love in Ephesus, suffering here in Smyrna. The next two churches will be the marks of truth and holiness. But here, Smyrna is holding it down. They are suffering well. Because they will not succumb to the pressures around them, they are being slandered. Because they won't call Jesus Lord, they are in poverty.

And according to Jesus, are only going to get worse. Physical persecution is going to be more intense. Yet what does he say? Y'all are rich, filthy rich, spiritually speaking, that their ultimate citizenship is not in Babylon, but rather New Jerusalem. And then his Revelation 22 New Jerusalem promise comes in verse 10. with me.

faithful unto death. And I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. If your home is Babylon.

If your home is Babylon, and some of us need to hear this. If your home is Babylon, you will be hurt by the second death. Don't let this be home because if here you have no lasting city, but you seek the city that is to come, you will gain the crown, namely eternal and abundant life, faithful unto.

Death again, one more church history story. was a dude sitting in these pews in Smyrna in his twenties at the time, Polycarp. He would have heard John's letter read out loud. They didn't just come to church twice a month back in those days. He would have heard loud and clear, be faithful unto death. Well, Polycarp eventually became the pastor of this church and fast forward more than 50 years, another

Another wave of persecution came rolling in. Ten days was not literal, FYI. As the pastor, Polycarp was taking to the local stadium where the sport of burning Christians was underway. The story is told like this. The crowds roared in the stadium. The procouncil pressed the old man. Swear by Caesar, curse Christ and I will release you. Polycarp replied, I love this.

86 years I have served him and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me? Pressured with wild beasts, warned with fire, he declared, you threaten me with fire that burns for a time and is quickly quenched, but you do not know of the fire that awaits the ungodly in the judgment to come. Remember, he knew he wasn't going to be touched by the second death and

As the flames rose, Polycarp lifted up his eyes and prayed, Lord God Almighty, I bless you that you have counted me worthy this day and hour to share the cup of Christ. And with that, the pastor Smyrna entered glory, faithful unto death. You might be thinking that that's inspiring, Rick, but look around.

What does this have to do with us?

everything. We might not be living in severe persecution, at least not right now, but are we willing to embrace suffering? Have you counted the cost of your discipleship? Are we dying the little deaths of ego or are we clinging like many in our town for dear life to ourselves?

We do not receive the life of Christ without the death of self. So to even get more practical, have you died to your control? Our town statue is the self-made man. We love being in control.

Have you died to your comfort? Again, we're doing everything we can to build more comfort. Have you died to what others think about you? Are you truly willing to embrace suffering for the sake of Christ? Because the Christ's life does not come to those who preserve themselves. It comes to those who lose themselves for his sake. Amen. Next up.

Pergamon and we gotta pick up the pace. I still got two more churches

Look with me at verse 12. to the angel of the church and Pergamon write the words of him who has the sharp two edge sword. This time Christ wants his church to focus on his double edge sword. So he reminds them right away. I am the one who judges. I am the one who saves. Verse 13 examination time. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Let's pause here real quick. I know we live in bougie.

Douglas County, everything is clean and nice and we like it this way. The last days, this phrase that John is going to keep using throughout the book of Revelation, this phrase, the last days, which is used by all the New Testament authors is the time from Christ's ascension after his resurrection to his second coming. Friends do the math. We are living in the last days.

Theologian slash rapper slash author, Lecrae Moore interprets the phrase last days to mean quote, it's ghetto down here. Yes. And amen. This is true even in Parker, Colorado, where Satan's throne is. Let's keep reading. Yeah. You hold fast my name.

And you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells. These are solid Christians holding down the faith once delivered to the saints, even had a member of their church killed for the name of Christ. Imagine what that would do to our church. Just think about that for a second, right? And Joe gets killed for being a Christian. Man, that's a good church.

So chill.

But verse 14, I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balaam to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so they might eat sacrifice food to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I'll come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Unfortunately, we don't have time to get into the details of all the teaching here. And quite frankly, it is a little vague, but in short, some from this church were being sold a bill of goods. Don't think for a minute that teaching doesn't matter. Truth matters. Doctrine matters. If you don't care about theology, you don't understand that you are a theologian. Are you a good one?

According to this passage, there's a lot on the line. We must be good theologians, church. What story are you believing? Is it the one in scripture or is it something else? What is holding your affections? What are you believing about yourself, about God? And where are you getting it from? Verse 17, Jesus again, pointing this church.

to the New Jerusalem promise says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. When I told my oldest Eden about this passage, she was a little bit confused, but dad, I like my name. Again, metaphors in revelation. This is speaking of nourishment.

and protection, namely life in New Jerusalem. Well, we've had three marks of the healthy church so far. Love, suffering, truth. Let's look at the final one, holiness. Verse 18. The angel, the church, and Thyatira write, the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. Jesus is now getting their eyes on his

Stability, having them look into his eyes of perfect judgment tells them this. Verse 19, I know your works, your love, your faith and service and patient endurance that and that your latter works exceed the first. Again, really good start. Sounds like gospel culture to me. But first 20, but I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel.

who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrifice to idols. gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her, will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works and I will strike her children dead. Jesus speaking.

And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart. I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thaia-Taira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden, only hold fast to what you have till I come. Yowsers.

Again, more Old Testament allusions and we don't have time to get into everything here. But what is clear from this exhortation is this. God cares about our holiness. God cares about your holiness. Like Luther says, we're saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never

alone or like he says in our passage, I will give to each of you according to your works or like my dude, Dr. Craig Blomberg at Denver seminary says, being a disciple means he's Lord of your wallets and your zippers. One example, but in Babylon where we live, if you're okay with a little porn in your life, and I'm speaking to men and women, the numbers show that this issue affects both.

sexes and this is an issue in the church. But if you're okay with some porn or some erotica and you think Jesus is okay with it, meditate on these verses. Spoiler alert, he's not. What kind of shows and movies are you okay watching? What type of thoughts are you okay thinking or fantasizing about? Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount,

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And what's the New Jerusalem promise here? And this is where I'll land the plane this morning. Look at verse 26. The one who conquers, the one who overcomes and who keeps my works until the end. To him I will give authority over the nations. What?

And he will rule with them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my father. Wow. What a promise to reign with Christ in the new Jerusalem, given a glorified body like his and to reign with him forever. And if that's not enough, look what he says next. Verse 28, and I will give him the morning star.

It's easy to read this verse and be like, Whitestone, new name, Morning Star, where are we going for lunch after church? But if you read Revelation 22, Jesus will tell us He is the Morning Star.

The promise is more than just a promise. is what theologians call the beatific vision, the doctrine of all doctrines. It's the blessed hope that one day we will see God. That one day, Redemption Parker, we will be given the morning star. Namely, we get Christ himself in all his glory. This is our

This is New Jerusalem. So are you a citizen of New Jerusalem or Babylon? Are you rocking with lamb or the beast? Imagine, Church, if we took these promises of New Jerusalem from the colossal Christ himself to these churches and for us, imagine if we took these promises seriously. Imagine.

the kind of overcomers we would be. Amen? Amen. Let me pray.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

AI Transcript

Amen. Amen. How are we Okay, good. Buckle up. Go to Revelation chapter one if you have a Bible. I hope you do. If not, we do have some Revelation books. If you're a note taker, you can get up and grab one right now. This is the scripture journal that we provide for you in the back there. But Revelation one. And as I always say, if you, if that's not the last book of your Bible, come talk to me after this sermon.

We'll just chat. We'll chat about that. But Revelation 1, I'll go ahead and read the first chapter. Listen carefully. This is God's Word.

Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia.

grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priest to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold.

He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him even so. Amen. I am the Alpha and Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty. I John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos.

on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna, to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest, the hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun, shining in full strength.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys to of death and Hades. Right therefore the things that you have seen and those that are those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands.

The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's Lord again we we come before you under your word. Lord we ask that you would give us what we need most in this series today that you would give us Jesus Lord help us to see and savor him in our time together and in this week.

We pray in Jesus name, amen, amen. Well, as we start a new series, maybe you're asking, why now? Why do Revelation now? And maybe depending on your background and where you come from, and maybe churches you've been involved with before, maybe you're thinking,

Maybe Mark's unlocked some things. Maybe, you know, the whole thing with Hamas and Iran and the bear of the North Russia coming down and all these things. Maybe Mark has pieced some things together and he's going to show us what's about to happen. Sorry to disappoint. That's not why we're doing this book. And I have not unlocked any special codes or clues to that. So that's not why I'm doing this book. Now, for 25 years as a pastor, this has been the

the number one requested book for me to preach on and I've never done it until now. 25 years. I think that the request comes from some good motivation and maybe not so good motivation sometimes depending on the request. I think it's good motivation to be like, hey, this is part of God's word. And especially in the New Testament, we understand the rest. Like we can get that, but Revelation is a different beast, no pun intended, all together.

We want to know what God has in His Word. That's a good motivation. Now, oftentimes I think the request is more speculation. What's going to happen? How is this going to roll out? Entertainment even. Like, this is bizarre. And indeed, there are a lot of bizarre things happening in Revelation. It's one of the reasons I've been hesitant for 25 years to jump into this. There are four creatures around God's throne, each with different faces.

There are locusts from the abyss shaped like horses prepared for battle with human faces, women's hair, lion's teeth, iron breastplates, wings like thundering chariots and tails like scorpions. Revelation nine. A beast rising from the sea with 10 horns and seven heads, blasphemous names written on him. Leopard-like body, bear's feet and lion's mouth. Revelation 13. There's the beast from the earth who performs signs, makes fire fall from heaven and forces everyone to receive a mark.

in Revelation 13. There's the woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars giving birth while a great red dragon with seven heads waits to devour her child in Revelation 12. There's the great prostitute Babylon. She's riding a scarlet beast dressed in purple and scarlet drunk with the blood of the saints. In Revelation 17 there are

There are hailstones weighing about 100 pounds falling from heaven in this book, Revelation 16, a new Jerusalem descending from heaven as a perfect cube shining with jewels and with streets of pure gold like glass. And at the center of this book, there's a slain yet standing lamb with seven horns and seven eyes taking the scroll from the throne. What is going on in this book?

Often when people ask me, you do that book? My first response is, it's probably not what you think. It's probably not what you think it is. What do you mean by that? said, the book of Revelation is made up of 402 verses and there are over 500 direct quotes or allusions to Old Testament passages. You cannot understand the book of Revelation without being steeped in and understanding the whole of the Old Testament. And as a people, a new covenant people,

In the West, we are not really steeped in the whole of the Old Testament. Therefore, we are left with speculation and wondering what's going on. so this has been some of my hesitancy to teach this book. And then after all, I have some good company in church history. Martin Luther and John Calvin, they taught extensively, wrote commentaries on almost every book of the Bible, and both of them barely touch revelation at all.

So listen, if Calvin and Luther are like, that's too much for me, who am I? Mark Auschwitz in Parker, Colorado. No. So I've been intimidated. Yeah, I'll admit that upfront. And I am still intimidated. I am on a journey of learning with you on this. But if we neglect any part of God's Word, that creates a vacuum for other teachings to come in, maybe not so helpful teachings to come in that can kind of mislead us.

Now the most popular understanding of Revelation and the Bible, particularly among Western American evangelicals that are non-denominational, so we would fall under that, the most popular understanding is a world view or a biblical view called dispensationalism. It is relatively a new view.

that has come about in the last couple centuries. It isn't a historic view. It isn't what the church has taught for 2000 years. in 1830, a guy named John Nelson Darby kind of systematized the Bible to be dispensations, that God works in different ways throughout history and throughout his word for his people. And so he had a very strong distinction between Israel and the church.

He had a futurist interpretation of the book of Revelation. this was all to take place sometime in the future. And he taught a pre-tribulational rapture. That before a tribulation comes, the true church of God will be raptured up into heaven and then tribulation comes. Well, his...

His teachings kind of spurred on a lot of interest in end times thinking and theology. There were a lot of Bible conferences and seminars. 1909, there was basically a study Bible called the Schofield Reference Bible. And it codified John Nelson Darby's teachings so that now you had a study Bible that taught these dispensations. Fast forward in 1918 to 1940s and the rest of the 19th century.

Many Bible conferences teaching this and many Bible colleges, seminaries and parachurch ministries were founded in this time and most of them, probably the majority of them were founded on this paradigm of dispensation. In fact, I was part of one of them after seminary. So I get that. In 1970, Hal Lindsey wrote a book called The Late Great Planet Earth and in it he shows this in graphic detail how

the book of Revelation comes alive and how the end is going to come. there's a lot of fear there, but like there's all these things that are going to happen. Also in the 60s and 70s, the Jesus movement begins to take place on the East, rather the West Coast of America. All these hippies start to get saved and they come into these churches called Calvary Chapel. And Calvary Chapel holds to this dispensational teaching of how we are to understand.

the end times and this book in particular. More recently, the Left Behind books and movies with Kirk Cameron have repopularized this idea of how the end will come and how we are to read the book of Revelation. Now, I want to just say this. I love my dispensational brothers and sisters. I love them. I've been mentored by them. I've learned a lot from them. I have a deep respect and appreciation for them. They tend to

love the Word of God. They love Jesus. I just think that they have a bad interpretation and a bad interpretation of this book in particular leads to a missing out on what God actually has for his church not only back then but throughout the centuries and today. So with that said depending on your background and maybe where you went to school or where you went to college.

church or maybe this this view this dispensationalism is all that you've ever been taught. So what I'm about to say might sound like man I'm really off base here but just stick with me. Stick with me. It's six months. You can handle it for six months. Worst case scenario you're going to learn what the church historic has has held to for 2000 years. You're going to learn why both now and throughout history when the church has been oppressed

and persecuted, they've turned to this book for comfort and hope. And it's not because they're trying to figure out how America plays out in all this thing. No, there's a message for God's people down through the ages in this book and for us today. So that's worst case, best case scenario, you will be deeply encouraged and strengthened in your trust and love for Jesus.

This book was not written to entertain us or to fuel our speculation. It was written to strengthen Christians. Then, always, and now to remind us that we are in the midst of a battle raging all around us. This is what this book is for. So as we jump into the text in an opening series, you always want to properly understand any book of the Bible. You need to do some work. What's the context?

Who is the audience? Why was it written? These are important questions to understand before we can start to say, how does this apply to where I'm at here and now? Now, one of the ways that we do that is we ask the question, what's the genre of the book? Well, how was it written? So for example, the book of Proverbs is proverbial truth. That's interpreted different than say poetry in the Psalms or narrative literature of the gospels or Exodus or.

apocalyptic literature of Ezekiel or Daniel and so on. What is the genre? And then that starts to help inform how we're to read this. Now, Revelation is unique because it actually has three, three genres. It's a letter, it's a prophecy, and it's an apocalypse. A letter, a prophecy, and an apocalypse. And they all kind of come together. So that makes it a little bit more difficult for us to piece out. But nonetheless, we have to deal with each one of those.

Look at verse four, it says,

John. So this this may be John the apostle who is with Jesus or maybe another John who was a leader of the church in the first century. We're not sure for sure. We're not for sure but it doesn't matter. He is a leader of the church and it says John to the seven churches that are in Asia and in chapter in verse 11 says write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia.

and to Laodicea. First and foremost, this book is a letter. Like the other letters of the New Testament, we call them epistles, it is a letter from a pastor to a church, or in this case, churches that he loves. It's a letter that John wants to write to encourage and instruct the churches. So as a letter, that means it's to real people from a real person to real places facing real problems in need of

real encouragement. So this this at its base means it cannot mean to us the book of Revelation cannot mean to us what it did not mean to them. This is Bible interpretation 101. It can't what we come to in this cannot be totally foreign to the first recipients of it. That's not how we read the Bible how narcissistic our Western individualistic lenses that we think this was written to us.

No, it was written for us, but not to us. Does that make sense? It was written to the people of God through the ages, but this is not about us. Revelation is not trying to figure out America's place in history. I'm sorry. It's just not. Let me give you some historical context. After the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in about the year 33 AD, the church experiences growth and the gospel is expanding.

There are pockets of persecution we read about in Acts, but overall the church is expanding throughout the Western Empire. And it is planning churches and it's going from one place to the next. Peace, prosperity, expansion. Well in the year 64 AD, Nero in Rome goes crazy and he burns down half of Rome and the Romans are about to revolt and put him to death and so he blames Christians. And now in 65 AD, the first state-sponsored persecution of Christians unleashes and it was horrific.

be a follower of Christ. It meant that if you don't deny Christ you could have your land taken from you, you could be exiled, you could be put to death in graphic and horrific ways, you could be crucified, you could be fed to lions. Nero would have Christians dipped in oil and then put up on poles and lit on fire so that the Vatican garden, not the Vatican garden, what's the place where the Vatican's at? Yeah, anyway, where the Vatican is currently at.

It was a garden and he would light Christians on fire so that they could the Romans could have nice stroll in the garden at night. This was real persecution. This is real pain. Well, in the year 70 AD might be the darkest year in all of church history. The Romans roll in with their army into Jerusalem. They're tired of the different revolts by the Jews, and so they decide to decimate Jerusalem.

They destroy and take out the temple. destroy just all of Jerusalem. Those people scatter. In 70 AD, Paul, Peter, and Timothy are all publicly executed as leaders of the church. Can you imagine? In the year 81 AD, a new Caesar rises to the throne. His name is Domitian. And Domitian, like a lot of Caesars before him, was also a megalomaniac, narcissist, and he believed...

the press. believed what everyone said. You're so great, Domitian. He's like, I am great. I'm God. And in fact, here's my decree. I want temples to be constructed all throughout the Roman Empire and all the major cities to my honor. And here's what I want. I want people to come, the Romans to come into the temple, to take a pinch of incense and to throw it on the fire and say, Caesar is Lord. That's all you had to do. Now for the

vast majority of Romans this was no problem at all. They were polytheists, they believed in many gods and after all they were the beneficiaries of the peace and prosperity and the security and the excess and the wealth and the indulgences of Rome and they're like we're not gonna give that up. Yes Caesar is Lord and they do that. This wasn't even a problem for the Jewish people because they would never do that but they were a recognized state historic religion and they weren't they weren't subject to this decree.

They just had to pay a special tax. They always had to just pay these special taxes. But Christians, on the other hand, they did not have such protection. Christians were commanded to go into the temple of the mission and to take the pinch of salt and proclaim Caesar is Lord. But if you do that, you're selling out Jesus because the cry of the Christian is Jesus is Lord and there can only be one Lord.

But now you start to see the pressure that the church is feeling. And if I don't do that, you know, I could, I mean, I could lose my property. could be cast out to an island like Patmos. I could lose my own life. And if I do do that, I get to participate in all the goodness of Rome. I get to enjoy the peace and the roads and all the excesses.

Mark Oshman (20:34.144)

So there's real pressure to give up on Jesus. And this is what has happened to John. see John is on the island of Patmos. It's a labor camp. He apparently will only proclaim Jesus is Lord. They don't have him put to death, at least not initially. Instead, they send him to Patmos because he says Jesus is Lord. And he writes this letter to encourage the church and it becomes this deeply held

and cherished book of the Bible for the persecuted church. Then, always, and now. Over the next couple of centuries, persecutions will break out against the Christians and it will be bad. So we must keep this context in mind if we're to rightly interpret, understand, and then apply this book. We can start to see how even that might apply to us. Have you ever felt any pressure to maintain your

prestige, your job maybe, your status amongst friends, and just kind of put Jesus in a box, your private little personal faith box, then you can start to see, no, Jesus is actually calling us to more than that in this book. So first thing, it's a letter. Second, it's a prophecy. We see this in verse three. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. Blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written.

in it for the time is near. Now again, when we hear the word prophecy, because of the influence of dispensationalism, we almost immediately think future. Prophecies, they get fulfilled in the future. But biblical prophecy, that's actually a minority of cases. That is part of the case and it's part of the case in the book of Revelation. But prophecy in the Bible, both Old Testament and New, is a thus says the Lord. It is a

Forth telling here's what God has to say rather than a foretelling. Here's what's going to happen when you understand that what John is saying is the message I have for you churches doesn't originate with me. It comes through me but it comes from the Lord like all the Old Testament prophets. It is a fourth telling not a four time because how cruel how cruel would it be understanding just the just getting a slight glimpse of the.

the kind of persecution and temptation and trial that the church in the end of the first century was facing. Just bloody death, losing family, losing property, going into exile. How cruel would it be for God to write a letter to these churches and say, hey, don't worry about it. In 2000 years, there's going to be a place called America and it's all going to work out. Well, they don't have any persecution there. And we don't. Listen, no, I better not say anything. That'll get me in trouble.

I was going to say something about the vaccine, but I'm not. Okay. I'm just saying it's not the mark of the beast. Okay. Can I just say that? Listen, if you're worried about being tracked, get rid of your cell phone.

We've to edit this out. But he says, he says in verse one, that this must soon take place. These things must soon take place. And he also says at the anniversary, the time is near. Well, how are we to interpret that? Was John wrong? Because it's been 2000 years. It doesn't seem like it must soon takes place. It doesn't seem like the time is near. And so some will try to...

like skirt that issue by quoting Peter who quotes the Psalms. In 2 Peter 3, 8 he says, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. They're like, see, it's only been two days in God's eyes. Except Peter's talking about God's perspective on time. John is bringing us man's perspective. A day feels like a day for us.

And he says it must soon take place. What's going on here? Well, it is like it is like how Jesus would often teach like in Luke 10 nine when he comes and he says the kingdom of God has come near to you in the coming of King Jesus. The kingdom has also come near. It's already here but not fully here. It's the already not yet tension that we live in right now. And that's how we should understand this book that this.

Word was very much a word for the people that received this. It was very much a word in the fifth and sixth and 12th century. It's very much a word for us. It's an already not yet tension. And this is a word for all Christians through all the ages facing similar trials, tribulations and temptations. It's also so it's a letter, it's a prophecy and then it's an apocalypse. We get this from verse one and really the rest of the book but

The first one in the Greek, word is apokalypsos. It's one word. It says the apokalypsos of Jesus Christ. Apocalypse means revealing. Picture you go to a play and when the curtain opens, that's an apocalypse. It's here it is. It's an apocalypse of Jesus, by Jesus, about Jesus. What's important to know here is that it's not a concealing. It's an apocalypse. It's not a concealing.

So many people come to this book like, there's a mystery here. If we could just unlock the mystery, God has kept it hidden from us. No, God wants us to see something. God wants to reveal things to us. God doesn't want to hide things from us in this book. It's a revealing. And one of the big ideas of this book is that things are not only as they seem. Things are not only as they seem. I should have that on the slide here.

And I put not only as they seem because the revelation does not deny that your temptation, your trial, your suffering is real. It's real. Like it's real when you see your loved ones dragged off because they follow Jesus and they're put to death. That's real pain, real suffering, but that's not all that is happening in that moment. See, these are dark days for the church at the end of the first century. The gospel is under pressure. The gospel means

Good news, but it doesn't feel like good news. It doesn't feel like this is, God is for me. It's the gospel, we talk about the kingdom advancing. It doesn't seem like the kingdom of God is advancing, but shrinking. It seems like the Roman kingdom is advancing. We talk about Jesus is king, but where's the evidence of His kingship? Where's He doing? How do we know He's king? This is what they're wrestling with. It seems like Rome is winning. They're debauchery.

their false worship, their power, their oppression. It seems like they're winning, but the book of Revelation is things are not what they seem or not only what they seem. There's a cosmic battle raging and Jesus, Jesus stands among his churches. Did you see that? We'll come back to that. Apocalyptic literature is not like a letter or a prophecy. We read a letter from beginning to end, a prophecy, here's what the Lord says. Okay, we've got that.

Apocalyptic literature is different. If you've ever tried to read the second half of Daniel or parts of Ezekiel or Isaiah, you're like, man, something else is going on here with this. It's not what we're used to in our post-enlightenment Western minds. We want things to progress in a systematic way. And that's why it appeals, why dispensationalism appeals to us. this happens, this happens, this happens, and then this happens. That's not how Revelation was written.

Rather, the question that we should ask is not what happens next in the book of Revelation, or the question we need to constantly ask is what does John see next and what does John hear next? And what he sees next and hears next isn't necessarily what happens next. Whoever's running my slides, can you go back to the very first slide, the title slide? Revelation is broken up into five windows. John's going to open up five windows, we're gonna...

look through these windows and we're going to see some bizarre things and a lot of stuff happening and they're kind of cyclical. About five times it looks like the end is here, like everything's getting wrapped up only to open another window and to start again and the windows aren't in chronological order. Let me show you. At the theological crux of this book, at the center of the book is Revelation 12. It is the fourth window. So there you go, the fourth window.

Like what's going on there? We got a baby and a dragon. it's bizarre. It's a red dragon. It's got these horns. He's frothing out the mouth. This woman is about to give birth and the dragon is about to devour the baby. But before the dragon can devour the baby, the baby is taken up into that throne room of God and the woman is taken out to the wilderness and protected. What in the world is happening there? Well, John is describing with graphic imagery something that

doesn't take place in the future. Something that took place 90 years before he writes. John is describing Christmas Eve. Like that's not like how I've heard Christmas Eve. You're right. It's not. What is going on there? No, Christmas Eve is a silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. Like let's get the candle, right? No, imagine, I mean, we're always going to do that on Christmas Eve, but imagine if we just kind of went with Revelation 12 Christmas Eve.

Welcome to church. We've got dragons chasing babies on the stage and there's fire and like that's that's a wild Christmas. What is going on there? Well, in Revelation, symbols and imagery are the key to apocalyptic colors and numbers have symbolic significance. Colors and numbers have symbolic significance. We'll see throughout even in

chapter one we see this seven seven seven seven angels seven churches seven horns seven like seven. What's going on there. This is an image of wholeness completion perfection. It's not what John sees next but not what John not what happens next what John sees and hears next and it's often graphic in nature. Go back to our Christmas Eve story. Like why why can't John just be like hey.

What Luke said, know, all is calm, all is bright, there's no room in the end. Like that's a sweet story. Let's just sit in the sweet story. What's with the graphic imagery? Well, because graphic imagery hits us on a different level emotionally in our imagination and it communicates some things that simply telling the story and narrative prose do not communicate. Let me see if I can help illustrate this.

So this summer we were in Paris again and we got to go to the best art museum in the world. It was our fourth time, the Louvre. If you've ever been to Louvre, if you've gone the first time, you'll do what most people do. There are 35,000 masterpieces of art on display. Did you know there are another 550,000 in storage that you just never see? This is wild, right?

But when you go to Luluv, it's just massive and you feel this pressure and the crowds, you feel this pressure. I got to see it all. I got to see all the most popular ones. I got to see, you know, the Mona Lisa, which is like the Kardashians of the art world. I don't know why it's famous. It's famous because it's famous. That's why. But you go through and you see, you check the box. I saw that. saw that you get about a tenth of a second for each piece. that's awesome. That's awesome. You get through it done and you're like, whoo. Yeah, I've been to Luluv. I got it. Well, this time.

having gone a few times, I'm like, I'm not gonna do that.

I had read this book, Rembrandt is in the Wind about Christian and art and all this stuff. I said, there's four paintings that I want to look at. That's my whole priority this time. I want to just go sit in front of these paintings. And we would find them and we'd sit before them and something different happens. It was the best experience I've ever had at an art museum where you just sit before it. You're like, whoa. You start to notice details. You start to see.

things that you didn't see before, it starts to speak to you in ways that only the image can speak to you. And after you sit there for a while, I take out my phone, I take a picture and I asked you at GBT, I'm like, what else should I know about this? And it's like, look here, look here. Okay, well, what was going on? Why did they write it? Like, why did he paint it like this? What was this? Like, and you just, you start to take in the image and you're like, it comes alive. So that if I were to describe any images to you, it would just.

do a disservice because it's meant to be seen. The same is true in apocalyptic imagery. Let's go back to Revelation 12 and the Christmas Eve that something different happens to you when you're like, no, there is a cosmic battle. There's a dragon about to eat the baby, but God is sovereign and he's controlling, he's fighting our battles.

for us and you're like, well, there's a dragon that wants to take us out. There's a dragon that hates our families and our marriages and our church and hates the advance of the gospel. And we're in the middle of a battle that stirs you on a level that silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright doesn't stir you. we need both. But now you start to see symbols and imagery. Here's a quote by one of the books that we've been working through to get ready for the series, Daryl Johnson.

writes this, says, has the power to hook us deep inside. Images can quickly and effectively convey that which we struggle to put into words. Imagery goes beyond the intellect and through the emotions into the imagination, grabbing hold of us at the deepest recesses of our being. It's cool. And the imagery that gets painted for us is

the language of the Old Testament. Again, in the 402 verses, there's over 500 references to or allusions to the Old Testament. Now, why did he do that? Again, he's a religious exile on Patmos and he desperately wants to get a message of hope and encouragement and perseverance to the churches he loves. He can't just come out and say, Jesus is Lord, Caesar doesn't know what he's talking about.

He's got to speak in a language that the churches will understand, but that the censors of Rome will not understand. Enter the Old Testament. They would get this and be like, man, this is the ramblings of a crazy man. Maybe that's how you've read Revelation before. But as the church receives it, they're like, I know what he's talking about. He's referencing Exodus in.

and God's deliverance of the people then and he's pointing to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Exodus and so on and so forth. is the imagery that he draws from. Revelation is a call to hope filled perseverance. It's the only book of the Bible that starts and ends with a blessing for those that engage it. Verse three blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this. So the reader of it. The words of this prophecy.

And blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. There's a blessing to this. And so as such, I want to encourage you, I want to challenge you this week as you engage this, begin to engage this word to receive the blessing. So read the whole book this week. If possible in one setting, if possible, read it out loud. That's what it says. Blessed is the one who reads aloud and those who hear.

back in the first century, most people couldn't read aloud, but we can. So read it aloud, go through it, ask some questions of the book as you go through it. What is this teaching me about King Jesus? This is ultimately about Jesus on his throne, that there's more going on than meets the eye. What is it teaching me? Number two, what's confusing or what do I not understand here? And if you're like most of us,

You'll have a lot of question marks. A lot of it will be confusing. Again, it's hard for us, but it's still good for us to have these questions. And in this series, hopefully we'll answer some of those questions. I promise you we won't answer all the questions. Sorry to disappoint, but at least you'll recognize, hey, what's confusing here? Number three, what does it look like for me to obey this word? Remember the third blessing, blessed are those who do it.

who put it to practice in their lives. Normally when we read the book of Revelation, or at least me, I'm just kind of an observer, like, whoa, this is all bizarre. But it actually is calling us to something as a church. It's calling us to faithfulness, to perseverance, to understand that more is going on than meets the eye. So we've got some resources for you through this series. We've got some scripture journals in the back. If you are a note taker, this is just...

The book of Revelation. You can see I took my notes for my sermon here as I was working through it. You can grab one of those. If you're not a note taker, don't grab a book. We don't have one for everybody. But if you are, feel free to take one. We have a webpage full of resources that we, can we go on to the next place, the resource page. We've got a webpage that lists our different resources that you can get if you want to go deeper on any of this.

And then finally, if you have any questions, can scan the bulletin QR code or email us at revelation at redemption Parker. And we'll try to answer some of the questions. We're going to try to do a, like a 10 minute podcast each week answering some of these questions. Okay. Let me land the plane here. Even in revelation chapter one, we get what we need most. Look at verse eight says this, I am the alpha.

and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty down in verse 12. says then I turned to see the voice of that was was speaking to me and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man. This is a reference to Daniel clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was full, what was like the sun shining in full strength.

I say Revelation gives us what we need most because no matter who you are today, no matter what you face, no matter what your past is, no matter what your future is, what you and I need most is a big vision of our big God. We need to see Jesus as who he is because most of the time what we see big in our life is our own struggles, our own temptations, our own

problems. These seem to loom large in our eyes. But if we could lift our eyes beyond that and we could see the Jesus who stands among us, even right now with fire in his eyes and a sword from his mouth and his face shining like the sun, when we see the glory and the majesty, the sovereignty, the providence of King Jesus who is with us and for us and fighting with us and for us right now, man, everything else gets put into proper perspective.

It's what you need most. It's what revelation is going to give us. And when we see this God as who He is and what He's doing for us, then with the apostle Paul, for example, in Romans, when he says, if this God is for us, then who can be against us? That is our God. Amen. Amen. Let me pray for us as we prepare to leave here.

The Secret

AI Summary:
Mark Oshman explores the themes of joy and contentment as presented in Philippians chapter four. He emphasizes that true contentment is not dependent on external circumstances but is learned through a relationship with Christ. The discussion highlights the paradox of seeking happiness in material wealth and the importance of generosity as a reflection of one's faith. Oshman encourages listeners to pursue a deeper understanding of joy, especially in times of adversity, and to recognize that true happiness comes from within, rooted in one's faith and connection to Christ.

AI Transcript:

Well, good morning. Welcome. Hey, it's my joy and privilege to open up God's Word with you. Looks like my daughter stepped off stage and went out. But you can wish her happy birthday. It's her 20th birthday, so she's not a teenager.

It's her last Sunday with us. She's headed back to college this week. So it was a joy to have her lead at school when your kids lead you in worship. So that's awesome. We are in Philippians chapter four. If you have a Bible, you can begin to make your way there. This is our last sermon in the series. Enjoy Jesus. The central premise of Paul's message to the Philippians and to us is that joy is found in Jesus. And that's important.

important because there are a million things that this world will throw at you a million paths to go down that promise joy and in the end don't deliver on what they promise. We were all made to pursue joy and whatever you do every person at every moment you're you're in a sense pursuing your own joy and so the Apostle Paul just wants to throw into that conversation. Here's where joy can actually be found. So Philippians chapter four is where we're at.

Paul's writing from Rome and in Rome at that time, Rome is the epicenter of the Western world. It represented all that a good Roman would want.

All the excess, everything you want in terms of food and drink and sexual excess and entertainment at the Colosseum and the opera, comfort, safety, all the things that were promised to bring you happiness were found or believed to be found in Rome. And at the top of that triangle is a guy named Nero Caesar Dominicus Augustus Germanicus.

the leader of the Western world at that time. And I imagine a conversation on the street in Rome would often go like this over their meat or whatever they would drink, their wine. They would just kind of ask the question, what would it be like to be Caesar for a day? That must be awesome, right? And the other person would say, yeah, can you imagine? You can have whatever you want. You can have whoever you want. You can do whatever you want. can...

At all times, and there's that choir of Roman boys that is always singing your praise that says, glory to Caesar on the highest and on earth, peace on whom his favor rests. Caesar must have it all. He must be the happiest man in Rome on the planet. But of course, historians tell us that was not the case.

He was probably one of the most miserable people in all of Rome. Even though he had it all, he was not content. He was a megalomaniac. He wanted more. He wasn't content with the borders of the empire. He wanted to spread those out. He wasn't content with the excesses of his life. He wasn't content with the praise of the people. And so he would always just kind of search for more and more and more. At one point, he had part of Rome

burned down and the people were about to revolt. So he needed a scapegoat. And so he heard about this new little religious sect called the Christ Little Ones, the Christ Followers, the Christians. And he said, it's those strange people. They burned down the city and a great persecution broke out against the Christians under Nero because of his own insecurity and his own megalomania. He just always, always wanted more. He was not the happiest man in Rome.

far from it. But the happiest man in Rome, on the planet was in Rome, he just happened to be in a cold, dark, damp jail cell. If you looked at him, you would say, man, what happened to you? Your face is a little bit messed up. And he would say, well, I was beaten this one time and they stoned me. They left me for dead this other time. But I'm happy.

He often would go without meals because he didn't have people to provide for his basic necessities in that jail cell. In the wintertime, he was cold and he had just clothes that were threadbare and he would shiver at night. He had a lot of struggles. He had a lot of ups and downs. You can read about him in the book of Acts. A lot of high highs and low lows, but he didn't really talk about them that much. He would tell you if you asked him, but he had this, this...

overwhelming joy. This explosive happiness. Now, either he is completely insane or he figured something out most of us never figure out. The Puzzle Ball writing from that jail cell wants us to figure it out. That's what he wants for you and me and for the Philippians, for all people to find the secret.

So if you have your Bible, we'll look it up in verse 10 of chapter four and I'll read our passage and pray for us. But as always, I you to listen carefully. This is God's says, rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Yeah, Lord, we come before you again in the name of your son and the power of your spirit.

We are grateful that you. You see fit to speak to each of us through your word by your spirit and so Holy Spirit do that now. What we know not I pray that you teach us what we have not that you'd give us what we are not that you'd make us. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Shouldn't we as a people in this place and this time shouldn't we all be more content.

like satisfied with our lives, joyful. Do you ever feel that? Shouldn't we like in the course of world history, most people have been working towards what we live in, the very midst of what we live in. And the past says, you get this, if you can get Parker, Colorado in 2025, then you have arrived. You should be the most content.

most happy, most joyful, most praise-filled people on the planet. Shouldn't we be more content? But why aren't we? Why aren't we marked? Why aren't our neighbors marked? Why isn't our community marked as the greatest place of joy on the planet? Well, philosophers and sociologists and others have studied this a little bit. And there's a couple concepts that

that are a paradox in our modern world. I'll put them on the screen here. The comfort crisis and what's called hedonic adaptation. You can just leave that up there for a moment. So there's a book by a guy named Michael Easter. He wrote the book called The Comfort Crisis. And he did all this study and this research and he's basically said, listen, we all want comfort. In fact, we live in a time where we actually can get a lot of comfort, but the more comfort, the more ease, the more just

feeding ourselves whatever we want, doing whatever we want, sleeping as much, all those things, that actually is leading to a kind of fragility in our lives, in our bodies, in our minds, in our spirits, in our emotions, in our relationships. We're actually far worse off in the midst of comfort than we are in the midst of struggle or pain or difficulty. There's a comfort crisis and that comfort crisis is breaking us on so many different levels. And yet,

our natural default and the path that we think will bring us joy is always going to be to comfort. We don't want to think hard, we don't want to work hard, we don't want to have hard conversations with other people. And yet he would say, no, we need all of that for some resiliency, for some joy. The second concept is hedonic adaptation or some call it the hedonic treadmill. And it's simply this, that as you pursue those things that are promising,

happiness and joy when you get them. What sociologists find, there's a temporary spike in happiness. Like you get the new house, awesome, that's awesome. You get the new car, that's awesome. You go on the vacation, that's awesome. And it bumps up for a second, but our satisfaction, our joy always comes back down to this kind of baseline. Now the problem is, as you get those things, as your lifestyle goes up, now your baseline is still here.

but if you come down at all, now you're dissatisfied with life. This is how we're wired. So for example, let me give you a few examples of that. If you've been married any amount of time, think about your satisfaction in life, your first year of marriage and where you lived. And now could you go back and live in that place and have the same level of satisfaction? That 600 square foot place with the cockroaches and all that?

No, because of hedonic adaptation. No, I now need this level of lifestyle for me to be baseline happy, right? So we know that. Or I'll give you a couple more examples. You know, we lived overseas for about 15 years. We lived in Japan, so we flew over the Pacific a lot. We lived in Europe, we flew over the Atlantic a lot. I have never.

in my life been upgraded. I've always been in I think in like sub economy with like the chickens and stuff in the back and and I'm tall and it's it's not comfortable but but I've always just done that. That's what I know. And my predecessor and mentor who we took over the ministry from in Japan he's I'm six five he's six foot nine. So it's even harder for him. He said but one time in the many many trips over the ocean one time they upgraded him to first class.

And he was thinking, this is going to be awesome. And so he flew first class and when he got back, I was like, Drew, what did you think? Did you love it? He's like, no, I hated it. Like, why? He's like, cause now I know what's going on up there. I know what that life is and I know I'll never be there again. I will always be back with the chickens with you, Mark. It's miserable. It ruined my flying forever.

Like, no, no, just give me a chance. I'll break that, no. Another one I thought of, I mean, I like to go on a cruise, David Foster Wallace back in 1996, he's a great philosopher writer. Unfortunately, in his seeking for happiness, he could not find it and eventually took his life in 2007. But in 1997, a Harper's Magazine said, hey,

here's a brochure about a luxury cruise. We want to send you on a cruise and we want you to just write an article about it." And so he looks at the brochure and he's intrigued because it's written by a professional author, but it written in such a way like this isn't an advertisement, just this, you know, every need you have will be met on this luxury cruise. And he's like, all right, I'll take the free cruise. I'll take all the luxury. And so

He goes and he's initially wowed by the ship, like wowed by the size and the glamour and the glitz and the glass elevators and his balcony and his room. And he found that he could get room service whenever he wants. He was like calling like five times a day to get room service in there and all the food and all that. And he was really enjoying it. He had that initial bump in happiness, but even on the ship in a few days, his baseline happiness began.

come back to this level. But it really met a crisis point when they pulled into the port at Cozumel. And he's an introvert, so he didn't want to get off and do any excursions. So he just went up to the 12th deck and he laid out in the sun and he was just trying to enjoy the moment when all of a sudden another cruise ship comes in and and parks next to them. But this one was more luxurious. This one was bigger and he's looking up at it and he's thinking.

That's better than what I'm experiencing. And this discontentment starts to roll in his head and he thinks, you know what? Actually, even though the cabin steward comes in and 10 times a day redoes my room, sometimes I don't like where they put my shoes and sometimes the little piece of chocolate on the pillow isn't at the perfect 45 degree angle and that bothers me. And this room service, it's good but they don't pay attention to the details. Sometimes they put the...

pickled too close to the crust and it makes the crust soggy and I don't like that. And sometimes the water in my bathroom is not cold enough. I like it cold. And that's when he writes this. says, I'm standing here on deck 12, looking at the dream where that's the other ship, which I bet has cold water that'll turn your knuckles blue. And part of me realizes that I haven't washed a dish or tapped my foot in line behind somebody with multiple coupons at the supermarket checkout in a week.

And yet instead of feeling refreshed and renewed, I'm anticipating how totally stressful and demanding and unpleasurable a return to regular landlocked adult life is going to be. Now that even just the premature removal of a towel by a crewman seems like an assault on my basic rights. And the sluggishness of the aft elevator is an outrage. And as I'm getting ready to go down to lunch,

I'm mentally drafting a really mordant footnote on my single biggest peeve about this ship. They don't even have Mr. Pibb. They foist Dr. Pepper on you with a manly unapologetic shrug when any fool knows that Dr. Pepper is no substitute for Mr. Pibb. And it's an absolute travesty, or at best, extremely dissatisfying indeed.

You can be on a luxury cruise ship and be extremely dissatisfied. In the 1600s, I think it was 1649, Jeremiah Burroughs, a Puritan pastor and author, he wrote this book. I love the title of the book. He calls it the rare jewel of Christian contentment. The rare jewel of Christian contentment. says, I love the title. It's rare. Not many people have it. Not many people embrace this in their life.

He calls it a jewel. is precious. It's valuable. If we could find the rare jewel, it's what our hearts are longing for. Well, as I already mentioned, the apostle Paul, found it. He found it. He lived it. He wanted the Philippians. He wants us to get it. And so he's going to tell us three truths about contentment that are kind of countercultural. And when we read them at first, we'll say that's not true. But Paul wants to press in on us.

And then he's going to show us how the Philippians themselves are actually on a pathway to joy and contentment and invite us along that as well. So back to our passage, Philippians chapter four, verse 10, says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly now that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever

situation I am to be content. So this is the first truth he wants us to know. Contentment is not tied to our circumstances. Now you and I don't believe that. We don't believe that. Because if we did we wouldn't daydream about if we just had that thing. If we could just get that thing. If I could have that kind of relationship. If I could have

that kind of success. I could have that, like we just daydream about stuff keeps us up at night that is tied to this idea. If my circumstances would change, then I would be happy, right? So when you're in your teens, you're like, when I get into my twenties and I have some freedom, I'll be happy. When you're in twenties, you're like, when I get into my thirties and get some money and some advancement in my career, then I'll be happy. When you're in thirties, you're like, if I could go back to my twenties and college, then I should have been happy in college.

Right? All of us are like, well, what was I thinking? Why was I ever dissatisfied just going to class like one hour a day? That's a tangent. have college daughters. I try to tell them this every day. They don't listen. When you're in your 40s, you know, you're like, 30s, or so on and so forth. When it's summer, you're like, I can't wait until it cools down in the fall. In the fall, you're like, I want to...

to be winter so I can hit the slopes. When it's winter, you're like, I need spring to come out so I can enjoy that. was spring, you're like, I need summer. I like the summer days. And you get to the end of your life and you're like, man, I never, never had what I wanted. We can miss it. We can miss it all. But Paul is rejoicing. He's not rejoicing because his circumstances changed. He's grateful for their gift, but he's rejoicing because he has learned this secret. He says,

My contentment is not tied to my circumstances. In fact, Jesus makes this point. We think so often we're told in our hyper materialistic world that contentment comes with more, more stuff. And Jesus would teach parables on this. In fact, it was his top topic of teaching. But in Luke chapter 12, verse 15, I'll put it on the screen, it says, watch out and be on your guard against all.

covetousness for life does not consist in the abundance of of one's possessions. It says watch out. Do you ever watch out like when things are going well in your life when your bank account is growing are you like I need to be real careful here I am on spiritually dangerous ground. No we don't think that. We're like finally I can rest and relax a little bit right. This is

what we think because we think our circumstances determine our happiness. I know because I checked that none of you won the mega millions this week. None of you won it. That means it's going up to 220 million you could win this week. Now if you you if you happen to play it and you happen to win it I would say a few things but but I would say this it won't be enough. It won't be enough for you. It will not be enough to purchase what you really want.

joy. it could bring a lot of distraction and a lot of happiness in the sense of, cool stuff. And our hearts believe, yeah, you I know all the studies that show people that win the lottery are actually less happy than they were before. But every single person in this room is like, well, just let me have the chance. I don't know what's wrong with them. I would be fine. We all think that because we believe happiness is tied to our stuff. And Paul's like, no.

No, contentment is not tied to our circumstances, which leads to the second kind of counter-cultural truth. Back in verse 11 again, it says, that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. It's like I know poverty, and I know prosperity.

In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. the second point, the first one is that contentment is not tied to your circumstances. The second one is contentment is learned in the school of Christ. Paul mentions this twice. I have learned this. This implies process. This implies time.

This implies focused attention. Like you don't just when Paul gets knocked off his horse on the way to Damascus and Jesus called him to himself. He doesn't just zap into Paul contentment in his life. No he's been following just for about 30 years now and now with incredible highs and incredible lows. He has learned the secret of being content. One of I saw this interview with a NASCAR racer says

When you're racing on the track, you have to focus really, really hard or you'll hit something really, really hard. I love the clarity of that. Yeah. And the same is with the Christian life. Listen, if we are going to be content in the school of Christ, we have to focus. OK, what are the lessons Jesus is teaching me? What are the tests that I'm giving that he wants to stretch in me? And some of the tests will face what Paul says.

There's a test of prosperity, which is probably most of the tests here, given the time and place. And then for most of the Christian world, there's the test of poverty. Can you still learn the secret to being content in each one of those tests? So the test of prosperity, for example, Ecclesiastes 5.10 says this.

coming. There it is. Okay. Says this, the one who loves money is never satisfied with money and whoever loves his wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile. He's just saying, listen, if you think more money is what's going to satisfy your soul, then it's going to be, as they'll say, otherwise in other places, a chasing after the wind. You'll never grab ahold of it.

And even if you have material prosperity, and we do, if that's where our hope is, then we will be forever disappointed. So Paul will write to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6. He'll say this, command those who are rich in this present world. And that's most of us. So you're in the top 8 % of the world if you have a car, for example. You're in the top 75 % of the world if you have

more than $10 a day, if you live on more than $10 a day. Like we get this, even though we try to convince ourselves, middle class, this is normal, all that stuff. No, we are the rich. So this is a command for us. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant. Our wealth can kind of get some self entitlement, some arrogance to it. Nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. So much of our greed isn't actually just greed for more, it's fear of the future.

Like I'm afraid if I don't build up, if I don't build bigger barns, if I don't have a big enough bank account, if I don't have enough put away for the future, if something happens, then I'm not going to have any security in my life. And so we put away, we put away, put away because we think there's security in that. And look how Paul calls it. He says, which is so uncertain. We don't think of our money that way, but Paul understands it's uncertain, but they put their hope in God.

who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Paul is pushing back both in this passage and this one, both on a prosperity theology and a poverty theology. A prosperity theology says, if you have enough faith and you pray enough and you do enough things and you give enough, then God will bless you material and that's how you'll know. And Paul rejects that. And poverty theology says, well, if you give it all away and you live kind of a miserable life,

then God will see that and God will bless you. But in both cases, it's not the gospel. In both cases, it's trying to put God in your debt to get something from God. He says, you're missing the point. I've learned the secret of having a lot, being on the cruise ship and being hungry and not being fed because there's something else. Well, that's the test of prosperity. wait, second verse. Command them, the rich, to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous.

and willing to share in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. I love this. you've read many Alcorn spoke the treasure principle he'll say this with your wealth you cannot take it with you but you can send it on ahead. can't take it with you but you can send it on ahead. He gets it from this. You can lay up treasure with your gospel fuel generosity and send it on ahead. He says but.

when you do that so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. When greed and stuff and the things and the circumstances of this world no longer have a grip on your heart and dominate your life and control you, you are freed from those things and now you are freed as a redeemed, rescued image bearer of God to live the life that is truly life, a life of joy in Christ. That's the test of prosperity.

Well, there's a test of poverty as well. fact, earlier in the book of Timothy, in chapter six as well, here's what, look at what Paul says. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. Now that's a pretty low bar, right? Are any of us there? Well, I have a shirt and pants and I have food today, I'm good.

mean, Paul writing from a Rome prison cell, he's like, yeah, I'm good. So maybe we've got some things out of whack. Like that's a lower bar than any of us in this, myself, like man, if all I had was a set of clothing and some food, could I be good? Could I be content? And Paul says, yes, you can. We'll see why in the next point, but also Proverbs 38, verse eight and nine, says,

The author is writing this plea, me neither poverty nor wealth or nor riches. Keep me from the extremes, Lord. Feed me with the food I need. Give me my daily bread. Otherwise I might have too much and deny you saying who is the Lord? Like isn't this a struggle for us? The struggle for our neighbors? I don't need God. My life's good. I've got plenty of stuff. And the author is like, please, Lord, don't don't put me in that situation. And conversely,

He says, who is the Lord? Or I might have nothing and still profaning the name of my God. See, greed can be in your heart whether you're poor or you're rich. The issue is where is your heart? How do we get it? Which brings us to the last point, verse 13. says, can do all things through him who strengthens me.

I can do all things through him who strengthens the point here is contentment flows from our union with Christ. Now this this verse again probably one of the most maybe the most pulled out of context verses in our culture. Right. Like every Christian athlete has to have this tattoo or this shirt or have it written on his eyes below you know on his football. And I'm not doubting their sincerity. I love the sincerity. I'm just doubting their their interpretation their exegesis here. It's a little bit off Tim Tebow.

I get it. I get it. You want to honor Christ. but here's the deal. This is not Paul's not saying, hey, if you have Christ, you can crush a home run. Like, what if you go up there thinking I can do all things through Christ's strength and you strike out. Has Jesus let you down in that moment? No. One commentator said the context of this is extremely important. It should read I can do all these things through him who strengthens these. What are these things?

I can live a content life with much or nothing because I have Christ. Why? Through Him who strengthens me. This is our union with Christ. This is the greatest gift that you have right now if you are a follower of Christ, that the Spirit of Christ is in you. He is for you. He is with you. He is empowering you. He is helping you live a life worthy of the gospel. It is our all in all. When we have

Union with Christ. And we wake up to that. We realize, Lord, this life is your life. You can do whatever you want. I am content in you. Contentment flows from our union with Christ. He'll go on and say these are the three things. And then he'll show the Philippians as he's writing this thank you letter. He's not just thanking them that they provided for his needs.

He's really praising and thanking God because of what it reveals about who they are and what they actually believe. They believe Jesus is who he says he is and he'll do all that he promises they will do. And so in verse 14 he shows the Philippians that they're on the right path. Verse 14. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel when I left Macedonia.

No church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again." He's commending their gospel-fueled generosity. This church led the way. In fact, to the letter at the church at Corinth, he would point back to this church. He's like, want to see a people who have been captured by the gospel. Look at their life. Look at their generosity.

But again, he's not grateful just because they're providing his needs, though he is. He's grateful more as their pastor of what it reveals about their hearts that they truly have embraced the gospel. Look at what he says, verse 17. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. He's so happy that their lives reflect that they actually believe what they say they believe. says, I have received

full payment and more. am well supplied having received from the papyriditis the gifts you sent a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." They have this gospel fueled generosity. their life was, they didn't just say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but what does the world say where all the happiness is? That's where I'm going to go with my life. That there was not that disconnect that is so

prevalent in our own lives. Well, Jesus would often speak of this, right? Matthew 6, 21, Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus wasn't trying, wasn't seeking their money. He was seeking their heart. And so he would often tell them where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Or put another way, I heard this quote this week from Tim Keller. says this, money.

flows effortlessly to that which is its God. It's another way to say where your treasure is, there your heart is also. So where does your money flow freely? Wherever our money flows most freely is where it's at. It flows effortlessly. I've felt this, that there have been moments where I'm like, I really want this thing. I really need this thing. I can't afford it, but let me run the numbers.

Let me rework some things. Let me move my budget around. Let me plan some things here. What debt could I go in? Because money flows effortlessly to that which is, it's God. And for the Philippians, he's commending them. said, listen, you're getting it. I praise you that you're providing for my needs, but I praise God more that it shows that you believe Jesus is who he says he is. And he will do all that he promises he.

will do. So he concludes his letter commending them and he says, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Again, another verse that can be ripped out of context, but he's saying God will supply every need in light of your gospel fuel generosity. You don't have to worry about the future. God's got you. And he says to our God and father.

glory forever and ever. Amen. God gets the glory. We get the joy. Contentment is not tied to our circumstances. It is learned in the school of Christ and it flows from our union with Christ. So as we close out this series, my prayer for you and for me as a church is that we may be marked by a relentless pursuit of our joy in Jesus.

In a culture of material abundance and spiritual need that RP, Redemption Park, would be a people that shows our neighbors where true joy is found. And they won't learn it by us simply jumping on the same hamster wheel that they're on. They'll learn it by us being a people content in Jesus. A people joyful in Jesus. A people that are different because we have Jesus in our lives.

And so the question over this book is have you found joy in Christ? Is Christ your treasure? Do you believe he is who he says he is and that he will do all that he promises he will do? The good news is that a day is coming, Paul already told us, the day is coming where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But even today, right now, Jesus stands with arms wide open. He says, come to me all who are weary and need rest. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke. My burden is easy. This is Jesus' invitation. So wherever you're at on that scale today, on contentment, Jesus will hear your prayer, saying, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I want to be content. And He will meet you in that spot.

wherever you're at. To that end, let me pray for us.

Pressing On for the Prize

AI Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Mark Oshman explores the themes of righteousness, the pursuit of knowing Christ, and the importance of spiritual growth through the lens of the Apostle Paul's teachings in Philippians. He emphasizes the difference between trying and training in the Christian life, advocating for progress over perfection and the necessity of community in spiritual journeys. The sermon culminates in the understanding of our citizenship in heaven and how it shapes our lives as believers.

AI Transcript

Hey, I'm glad you're here. My name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors. If you have a Bible, we're in the Book of Philippians. Philippians chapter three is where we're at this morning. It's my joy and privilege to open that up with you. When I first preached this book, it was back in 2011. And when I was assigned to preach this passage, I received an email from a friend of mine. She was a member of our church back in Japan. And it was just, hey,

it said this, hey this article that she sent me, this article is about my grandfather. I thought you might be interested in it. And so I was like, okay, let me see what it is. I clicked the link and I pulled up the article and here's how the article started. I actually wish I had the whole article. I couldn't find any more. just have the first sentence of the article. But here's how it read. On June 4th, 2011, during Gold Hill's annual Gold Dust festivities, Peter Fish,

a 75 year old resident of that city will begin a 24 hour run in the hopes of running his age in miles.

Let me just read that again. Because I did. It's like, wait, wait, back up. Peter Fish, a 75 year old resident of that city, will begin a 24 hour run in hopes of running his age in miles. And he did it. And he did it. Again, do the math in your head. 75, 24, 75. This is crazy. That definitely got my...

attention. How is that even possible? I've heard of ultra runners, but 75 year old ultra runners? And you think about that a little bit and you realize there's more to the story, right? There's more than what the article is saying. There's a whole backstory there, but more than that, I thought if we understand that, if we can begin to understand that.

then you can begin to understand what the apostle Paul is actually trying to communicate in our passage today. That what seems impossible is possible. It is possible. So let me just recap where we're at because if you weren't here last week it's very important that you have that foundation before we go to where we're at today. And the reason I say that is because last week the apostle Paul was

was writing to the church and he was confronting some false teaching that had infiltrated the church known as the Judaizers. These Jewish people that would come into a church and say, glad you got the Messiah. Now follow all the law and do all the things to get your spiritual resume. Remember your spiritual resume really good. So God will accept you. And last week and the reason is very important because Paul says no that's not the case. The Judaizers loved resume building.

And Paul says, if you want to play the resume game, remember I could play the resume game. I have more than they have, at least in my pre-Christian life. I have the right rituals, the right ethnicity, the right rank, the right tradition, the right rule, the right zeal, the right obedience. He said, I have all of that. But here's how Paul concluded that just as by way of recap in verse seven, he says, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss.

Because of and this is the key phrase the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord whatever I had in my credit category move my debit category and only Jesus is to my credit now for the for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish or scabula or crap is what he said in order that I may gain Christ and then he got to it he got to the heart of it

It says, be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Now, why do I recap that? Because this is the doctrine of justification. But I said last week, even as Christians, that we can lose the narrative, our hearts can wander, and there is always this pressure to kind of prove ourselves again, to kind of show to God and to others that

We're serious that we have a righteousness of our own. if you just weren't there last weekend, you just heard what I have to say this week where Paul shifts his attention from justification to sanctification. You could mishear this message. You could say, see, it's about trying harder. It's about building a resume. It's about that's not the case at all. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But that grace alone that works in justification, it works

differently in sanctification. It's still grace alone, but Paul says in light of the grace that he received in Christ, remember having known Jesus, the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus, it caused something in him and should cause something in us. And I call that a holy angst. If that's how good God is to us in the gospel, there is a kind of holy angst. I want more. I want to know him.

more. I want to experience more, not less of God, but more of God. And so for 30 years now, the Apostle Paul has been going hard after Jesus, not to build a resume, but to pursue his joy in knowing and experiencing Jesus. It's a holy angst. But the Apostle Paul was clearly an intense dude before he became a Christian and after he became a Christian.

So is this just a Paul thing? Like, he's just another level. Like, he's kind of, probably to some degree, yes. He is on another level. But what does a holy angst for you look like? What does it look like for me? How do we, by the grace and mercy of God that we receive, live a life of just pursuing our joy in knowing and becoming more and more like Christ? What does a holy angst look like? And I'm glad you asked the question.

because the apostle Paul wants to answer that for us in our passage today. So then we pick it up in our passage. He says, not that I have already obtained all of this or I've already or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own. What is he talking about? Not that I've already obtained all of this, all of

What? Well, he's referring back to the immediate context. Verse 10. He says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and share in his suffering. He says, I want to know him. And again, we're like, Paul, you've known him for 30 years. What are you talking about? What do mean you want to know him? I had a friend.

that was part of our church. I remember one time he said, Mark, I want to know what Jesus' favorite ice cream is. I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, well, I know my wife's favorite ice cream because I've gotten to know her. And I want to know Jesus like that. I want to know what's your favorite flavor of ice cream, Jesus. And I was like, yeah, that...

That's good theology actually. This is what Paul is getting at. There is a vast difference. I said this last week at least in the second service between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. And you should never settle for knowing about Jesus in place of knowing Jesus. Knowing about Jesus as knowing a lot of things about him maybe even appreciating those things but

simply a set of facts and truths about Jesus. Now, the Christian life is not less than knowing the right facts and truths about Jesus, but it is more. It is a knowing. There is a difference between knowing and knowing, if that makes sense. In fact, the Bible makes this clarification. I mean, the old King James, Adam knew his wife. Well, we know what that means. That's it. That's an intimate knowing. In fact, in this passage, in

In verse 10, when Paul says, want that I may know him, the word he uses and the context he uses, he could have picked other words. He could have picked the word oida. I want to know about Jesus. I want to know all the things he did and all that, but that's not the word he picked. He picks this Greek word and it's an important word. I'll put it on the screen. And the word is gnosko. So gnosko, to know, but it is a knowing by.

relationship and experience. So Paul says, I want to know. I want to know by relationship and experience. want more. And if Jesus is infinite, there is more to know about Jesus. He is pressing. I want to know. But notice what he says. Not that I've already obtained all this, all this knowledge, this exhaustive depth of knowledge of Jesus, or am already perfect or complete or whole.

says, but I press on to make it my own. Now, the Judaizers had this perfectionist theology that had come in. And throughout church history, this has sometimes creeped in. And it's this idea that you can get to a state in your Christian life where you are perfect and sinless and you've arrived and the Apostle Paul, who is the Apostle Paul, by the way, who's been going hard after Jesus for 30 years.

I think says something tremendously comforting to the Philippians and to us because deep down we all know we all know we're not where we want to be we all know we're in progress process but maybe there was some insecurity amongst the Philippians with this false teaching like we're not there yet no we're not far enough are we far enough for God to accept us we don't know and Paul's like listen I'm not there I've been going for 30 years

I'm not there for Paul it was progress not perfection. Progress not perfection. See in justification in the moment you trust in Christ by graceful and through faith alone. We saw this last week you are found in Christ he has credited to your account. You have perfect righteousness positionally in Christ but practically we are in process. Practically we're not perfect. Sanctification is the

the confluent operation of the Spirit of God working in your life and you submitting your will to His to make you more practically what you are positionally. Paul's like, I'm not there yet. And I don't know about you, but I breathe a sigh of relief because I know I'm not there yet. And yet that's not my hope. Paul is pursuing Christ, not for his righteousness. He already has it. He's pursuing Christ for his joy.

And this is the whole point of the book. so progress, not perfection. And then he doesn't get far from from the gospel. Again, we said the gospel is the A to Z. He just wants to come right back to it. He says, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. I'm not there yet. I'm in process. But Christ Jesus has made me his own. Again, just a reminder, I didn't make Jesus my own. Christ made me his own. So I can rest in that.

And then Paul goes to his favorite analogy throughout many, many of his letters. The apostle Paul loved sports. I mean, you find it in many of his letters. Historians tell us that Paul was probably in Corinth when the Isthmian games came to Corinth. The Isthmian games were this major sporting event, second only to the Olympic games in the ancient world.

And we know Paul, when he was in Corinth, his side hustle or the way that he provided food for himself was to be a tent maker. And so he would set up these tents for the games and he would observe the crowds come in and the fervor of it all. But he would observe the events. And more than that, he would observe the athletes, how they prepared for...

the events what they ate and how they slept and how they trained and how they ran and he looked at it and he said that's like the Christian life.

If we understand that and you can translate that to our pursuit of Jesus. And so Paul will constantly come back to this theme of sports and athletes. says this in verse 13, brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. And he goes to this running analogy. He said, but one thing I do as I'm in process, as I'm pursuing progress and not perfection, one thing I do straining forward

I forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. He's like, I've seen that's how runners run, at least the ones who win, right? No marathon runner at mile 13 is thinking, man, mile one was awesome. No, they're thinking, what do I need to do to do the next 13 and a half miles as fast as I possibly can?

They're straining ahead. think what Paul's getting at is he's not going to live in the past both in his victories and his failures. Right. Like we shouldn't like we shouldn't be like well I remember five years ago when God really did some awesome things in my life and it was amazing. I'm just going to kind of dwell on that. Paul's like no I forget that because I want more of God. I want to live on past grace. I want future grace. He's

pressing into that. And more than that, he's also like forgetting what's behind. I think it's about our failures too, right? It's like, man, I wish back then I was more mature. I wish I didn't make these mistakes. I wish I didn't. Like some of us can live so much in our past failures that we think God would never use me. God would never grow me because I've messed up so bad in the past. And Paul says, forgetting what lies behind. Victories and the failures.

I am pressing on just like the runner to Jesus. I saw this video this week. It's about three or four years old now. Three years old. Heather Dorndon, she was a mid distance runner for the University of Minnesota. She's the best of the best. It was a 600 meter indoor on a 200 meter track. So it's three times around the track and watching the race and she's leading the pack as expected and the announcers are like, yeah.

This is what's expected. She's that good. But as she's coming around and comes to the 400 meter mark, the runner behind her clips her heel and she hits her leg. She falls and falls way to the back with one lap to go. Right. And I love the video. It's one of those things you could put, you know, inspirational music to it. You can start crying because she just gets up and she just starts running and running and running.

forgetting what lies behind and she passes one after the other and at the very end she strains to just get her chest across the line before the next person she wins. I'm like that's what Paul's talking about. Forgetting what lies behind it, straining towards what lies ahead. Again, we've also all seen the opposite, right? The runner who is so happy about how they started, maybe so confident, so...

cocky that they're looking around only to be passed at the last moment because they've let up and Paul says I don't want to let up I want to press on I want to go hard after Jesus in this moment he says so forgetting what lies behind and straining towards what lies ahead verse 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

His desire and his life were aligned. He wanted more of Jesus. He wanted more joy. He wanted to know, gnosko, know Jesus. And so he's pressing on toward the goal for the prize.

I think there's just some consistency in his life that I want to see in my life. Because I have a lot of good desires, but a lot of times my life doesn't reflect that those are true desires. Right? Like I want to have financial freedom, but I also want to go out and eat every night.

And I don't want to contribute to my Roth IRA because that's no fun. Right? There's a disconnect. Here's what I want. Here's what I do. You know, I want to be in super good shape, but I like chocolate cake also. So it's going to conflict. Right? I we could go on and on. I want to be this kind of husband. I want to be this kind of father, but I also want to just spend time on my own hobbies, pursuing my own thing all the time.

There's a disconnect.

We know that we'd actually have more joy as a good husband and father, but in the moment, we might just kind of give ourselves to ourselves and there's a disconnect. But here's where Paul gets at. He's like, no, if you understand the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, there won't be a disconnect. You will pursue progress over perfection. Paul, again,

he was in Corinth he probably observed all this and got a ton of sermon illustrations out of it but in 1st Corinthians 9 here's what he says about again another sports analogy verse 24 do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize like okay we get that so Christian run that you may obtain it

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things, in what they eat, in how they sleep, in how they train, in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. It's kind of haphazardly, but I discipline my...

body and I keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

What's your relationship to spiritual discipline?

I think if you don't understand the gospel of grace, that you are saved by Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, then your relationships to spiritual disciplines can be kind of a begrudging one. Man, I need to pray more. I should fast. I know I should be more generous. I should be spending more time in this Word.

I should be memorized because if your relationship to spiritual disciplines is to prove yourself or to build your resume or to be self-righteous, it's always going to be a begrudging relationship. But notice how the apostle Paul talks about discipline. It's like, want as much.

joy as I possibly can. So I'm willing to discipline myself now for the sake of a greater and deeper joy. See the world of difference that is? See how prayer is a pathway to joy rather than an obligation that you must do? See how all the disciplines are really so that in the end you have an explosive joy that changes your relationship to spiritual joy.

Discipline. This is not about self-righteousness or working for your own glory or showing, proving to God how serious you are. This is about you pursuing your highest joy. And so he says, discipline yourself. Discipline. D.A. Carson, who I think I quote every week, I'll quote him again. He says this. He says, we need what he'll call grace driven

Listen to what he says.

People do not drift toward holiness. You're not automatically just going to become more holy.

Apart from grace-driven effort, confluent operation with the Spirit in your life, apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, toward prayer, toward obedience to Scripture, to faith and joy in the Lord. It's not just going to happen.

This is we drift toward compromise and call it tolerance. We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom. We drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation. We slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism.

We slide toward godliness, godlessness, and convince ourselves we have been liberated. No, church, we pursue the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord with a purpose, with intentionality. So let me see where I'm at. yeah. It says, let those of us who are

mature think this way and if anything you think otherwise God will reveal that also to you only let us hold true to what we have attained. Verse 17 we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Brothers join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. Look for worthy models to follow in your pursuit of your joy and knowing Christ.

knowing Christ. See I think let's go back to our boy Peter Fish. 2011, 75 years old, 75 miles. Again we know inherently Peter didn't wake up on his 75th birthday and he's like hey Liz I think I'm gonna run 75 miles today for 24 hours. You're like no that's that's not how it works. Listen we could all we could all try

We could all try today to run 75 miles. And some of us, like Josh back there and others, might go pretty far.

michael could you get seventy-five miles today

So if the two most athletic people in the room right now, between both of them can't go 75 miles, it doesn't matter how hard you try. And I think sometimes we think, well, if I try, then I'm just, I'm faithful. At least I tried, Lord. And we miss the idea. No, it's not about trying. There's a world of difference between trying and training. So we know Peter Fish didn't wake up.

that June morning on his 75th birthday and tried to run 75 miles. Now I found another article about him this week and it was just an interview about his running journey and he said, he said, well, I've kind of been athletic my whole life but I didn't pick up running till 1984. So if you do the math, he had been running and had become an ultra runner and he had 27 years of training before his 75th birthday. With training.

I don't know if any of us could do 75 miles, but we could all do more than we could do today. We could all go further. And maybe some of us could. But you get it. There's a world of difference. And I think we settle in the Christian life for just trying. I'm going to try to be a better husband. I'm going to try to be a better evangelist. I'm going to try to pray more this year. I'm going to try to be more generous. And we try and we fail and we're like, well, I tried.

That's all that the Lord cares about. No, Listen, if you are serious about your joy, your eternal joy, an imperishable wreath, then you start training. You start training. You pursue progress over perfection. When the Apostle Paul is watching these athletes run around and train and do all these things to get better and prepare for the games,

in Corinth, I think he realizes that every athlete, every Olympic athlete has to answer or continually answer three questions. I I love the Olympics, right? The Olympics are the only time I'll watch any sport and be like, yes, let's go. Skeet shooting's on. This is amazing, right? I'm not watching swimming any other time, no offense to the swimmers in the room, but like, if it's Olympics,

Forget about it. The 100 meter last year, Noah Lyle, talk about forgetting what lies behind and straining towards what lies ahead. He's running in that and looks like Kishane Thompson of Jamaica wins the race to the naked eye. And then there's this pause, this long pause. Who won? Who won? And the photo finish shows that at the very end he strains ahead. So five one thousandths of a second faster than Kishane Thompson, he wins the gold. He wins the gold.

He didn't just try to do that though, he trained. His whole life came to this moment. This is why if you ever watch the Olympics with my wife, be prepared to give her some Kleenex. She cries all the time. She's overwhelmed by just the skeet shooters have tried so hard or trained so hard. It doesn't matter what it is. Like man, there is just something admirable. Someone whose whole training has come to this moment to win the prize.

So I think athletes ask three questions. First one is, where am I at right now? In light of where I want to be and I know I'm not there, where am I at right now? Because I can't try right now to run 75 miles, but where am I at right now? Am I a seven yard person or a seven mile person? Like you got to know where am I at right now? So just take some honest self assessment. I every athlete does that. Number two,

that they asked this question. Well, what's the next step in my journey? Well, what's the thing in my sport or in my development? Where am I weak? What's one thing I can do? What's what's the next step? Not I know there's 10 million steps, but what's the next step as I pursue progress over perfection? And then finally, I think every athlete asked, who do I need to invite into my journey to help me get there? What coaches?

or coach do I need to surround myself with to get their experience, their insight have gone further than I have and what other athletes, what other athletes can I train with so that as we train and I get tired, they push me further faster than I would ever go on my own. I think every athlete understands this, right? So it's a rare athlete who's just a total isolation person and they can do it on their own, right?

I think these are good questions for the Christian. If Paul's metaphor that the athlete is a metaphor for the Christian life, then we should be asking the question, well, in light of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord, where am I at right now?

Do I desire? I have a desire for desire? Then I just bring that to the Lord. Well, like none of us are perfect. None of us have arrived. If the apostle Paul can say that, surely all of us can say that. So where am I at right now? What's the next step in my journey? Yeah, I would like to do 10,000 more things better in my life today, but what's one? What's the area? Is it in my marriage? Is it in me being a father? Is it in...

my loving the saints is it in my evangelism to my neighbors loving my neighbors it is in my just heart of generosity is in my like again there's ten thousand things that I need to improve.

but rather than just trying to be perfect at all of them, how can I train one? And then the last question, well, who do I need to invite into my journey to help me get there? As I say all the time, this is good news because we kind of organize our church this way so that you can get other people in different areas of your life and your marriage or just life together in gospel communities or intense.

training discipleship environments like our core groups for our members or so on and so forth. Like who do you need to invite? Who can you train with? Who will push you further faster? The other thing that is important in this whole athlete analogy, Paul gets to it at the end of our passage here in verse 20. He says, citizenship is in heaven.

Our citizenship is in heaven. Remember, Philippi is this Roman colony about 800 miles away from Rome. But they loved the fact that they were an outpost of Rome. Not necessarily the Christians, but the Philippians in general. And so if you were in the first century traveler and you had been to Rome, then you go to Philippi and you look around and like, the architecture, this reminds me of Rome. the worship, they did that kind of worship in Rome.

customs, the culture, the food. This is like a little Rome. But Paul says, no, no. You Christians, you're citizens of heaven. So that when others come into your community, they should be like, I bet this is what heaven is like. Look at how they worship. Look at how they love one another, serve one another, care for one another.

This gives me a thought of heaven. This is our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is our citizenship in heaven with this sports analogy the beautiful transformational inspirational thing about the Olympics is the runners don't really run for themselves do they. They run for their country.

This is again why my wife cries about this because there's something when you're running your race and it's not just for you, there's something that is of a deeper joy in that, right? I think of Andre Agassi's biography and the whole book he's like, I hate tennis. It's just crazy. I hate tennis. I've always hated tennis. There's one time, one time where I loved tennis when I went to the Olympics.

I played for my country and I got the gold medal. That's when he had joy. The only time in his life he had joy playing tennis. But there is something joyful to know that we don't just run for ourselves, we run for our citizenship that is in heaven. And so we train ourselves because the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord is worth it. Amen. Amen. Let me pray for us.

The Surpassing Worth

AI Summary:

In this sermon, Mark Oshman explores the concept of life as a resume, emphasizing the human desire for acceptance and approval. He discusses the burdens of resume building in various aspects of life, including relationships and spirituality, and highlights the dangers of false teachings that promote a 'Jesus plus' mentality. Oshman reflects on Paul's teachings in Philippians, illustrating how true righteousness comes from faith in Christ alone, not from personal achievements or moral standings. He encourages listeners to embrace the grace of God and to seek a deeper relationship with Jesus, moving beyond mere knowledge to a transformative experience of faith.

AI Transcript:

Welcome to redemption Parker. If you're new, my name is Mark. It's my joy and privilege to open up God's word with you this morning. We are working our way through the gospel, gospel, the letter to the Philippian Church. Philippians chapter three is where we're going to be. So if you have a Bible, you can begin to make your way there. If you have a smartphone, make your way there either way. Put your eyes on God's word as we work our way through it. As you're turning there, let me ask this question. Anyone here recently, you know, within the last year or two,

done a resume or applied for college or college essay anyone? Okay, yeah I know Cole has. Cole how many jobs did you apply for with that resume? Like 40, 40, someone had 75 last time. No one else? My daughter's in the back row, she's not raising her hand, she should be, she's gotten to college, there you go, college essays. That's an intimidating time right? Like down on paper you're trying to put,

all the reasons why you should be the one, why you should be accepted and not rejected and why you should be accepted above everyone else. Like when you have to do that, it's not fun, right? I remember the first time coming out of college trying to get a real job doing that, but the problem is they wanted this experience, but you don't have the experience. You got to spice up your resume. And we didn't have ChatGPT to spice it up. Like you just had to come up with something like,

Choose me please. Right. And so the whole point of the resume is accept me. Bring me in. Here's all my strengths. Here's my experience or lack thereof. Here's you know why I would be awesome. And the whole point of that is to put forward your best self and then to hide. Actually I don't have these strengths and I don't have these experiences and I don't really have these skills. So that's the whole thing. Resume.

But here's the thing, whether you've done it actually in the last couple years, our whole lives are really presenting a kind of resume to people from the very beginning. And it's the same thing. Here's who I am. Here's why you should bring me in. Here's why you should accept me. Here's why I'm good enough. Here's why you want me. And so it starts, I remember just that feeling in elementary school, like, okay.

What do I need to do? What sports do I need to play? How do I, what people do I need to get in with? Like how can I present to them a resume that will cause them to want to bring me in? Of course that rolls into middle school, then high school, there's all that pressure, you're always presenting your resume and then you're trying to get into that school. So you gotta have the right resume and the right college essay to get into that school. Why? To get that degree, why? To get.

that job, to have that on your resume, to get that job. Why? Because you want to climb this ladder. You're just constantly, constantly presenting a resume. And we do this with everyone. When you're trying to find a spouse, when you're dating, that's all about the resume. Hey, here's all the good things about me. If you choose me, here's the humor that you're going to be exposed to. Here's the wisdom and here's the...

Here's my earning potential and my family values. Look at me, choose me please. Here's my resume. Meanwhile, we're trying to hide the things that they're not gonna love. I don't want them to know about that. I don't want them to know about my experience in this area. I don't want them to know about my insufficiencies here. That's all of dating, right? Like here's my resume, choose me. And it can be exhausting living our lives constantly.

trying to seek the acceptance and the approval of others. But this kind of horizontal resume building and resume showing, it really has a, from a Christian worldview, a theological root to it. It has a vertical root to it. Since our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled in the garden, were kicked out of the garden, the whole human project has been a resume building project to be accepted, to find your way back.

into God and every religion in the world says basically here's what you need on your resume. Now there's different resumes out there but essentially here's what you need. Here's the prayers you need to pray, the sacrifices you need to make, the things you need to do, the things you shouldn't do and if your resume is good enough maybe just maybe you can come back to God. I mean that's every philosophy, every worldview that there is this internal longing to

well, in Christian terms to be righteous. It is our greatest need and it is our greatest problem. We know that that God is holy and we know we need righteousness. But we also know in and of ourselves, no matter how many successes we have, no matter how many MVP trophies, what our title is at our job, or whatever Nobel laureate or Grammy award. At the end of the day, when you lay your head on the pillow,

There's this voice. Is it enough? I don't think it's enough. And so there's this void. It's our greatest need and our greatest problem. And even even the philosophies that deny the very existence of God. When they're honest, the atheist philosophers that they they recognize there's still this thing that haunts them. I saw many this week. I'll just pull out one from Jean Paul Pulsart, the atheist. says this that God does not exist. I cannot deny.

So in his mind, there's no God. But then listen to what he says. That my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget. He's like, there's no God, but really all I want is God. That's what he's saying. Like there's this existential angst in his soul. And so we're faced with this dilemma. We're resume building people. think, what do I need to do to be accepted by one another and by God?

And Paul wants us to feel the weight of that, feel the burden of that, feel the problem of that, so that when you hear the good news, you can feel the freedom from that. So Philippians chapter three is where we're at. We'll pick it up in verse one. I ask you to listen carefully. This is God's word. He starts off writing this. Finally, my brothers and sisters, he says, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble.

to me and it is safe for you. says rejoice in the Lord and he says I'm going to write the same things. What are the same things. Well we're going to see in a few moments what is the same thing. But if you remember the history of this church. Philippi in Acts chapter 16 Paul goes to Philippi goes down by the river where there's kind of a Bible study going on and and he encounters this.

woman named Lydia, this business woman, he explains the gospel to her. the scripture says, the Lord opened her heart. She receives Jesus, becomes the first Christian in Philippi. This church is started. And then the power of God just continues to roll out over the next several days. There's a demon possessed slave girl who's following Paul around. And then he turns to her and in the power of Jesus, exercises the demon and she is set free. She's added to the church.

And then there's the Philippian jailer, Paul and Silas are in jail, but the jailer is just this kind of blue collar, drink a beer on the weekend, watch the game, try to get through retirement, kind of life, and all of a God shows up, rocks his world, opens his heart, he becomes a follower of Jesus. And Paul just teaches him the gospel.

over and over over the next weeks and months and years he's teaching them the gospel and more and more are coming in and he reminds them of the gospel see for paul the gospel is not just the entrance into the kingdom of god the gospel is not the abc of the christian life the gospel is the a to z of the christian life it is the alpha and the omega it's an inexhaustible well and it's what we must always come back to and he says so it's no problem for me

to remind you what I taught you when I was with you, because we need to remember, we need to rehearse, because here's the thing, we have a tendency to drift. Both that there's pressure internally in our hearts and minds, externally, there's pressure outside the church, there's pressure inside the church, as the old hymn said, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. This is just the pull of our heart. And so Paul says, no, it's safe for you

come back to the gospel. It is and must be central. Don Carson who was a professor at Trinity Evangelical School wrote this about this. says, is it in the Christian faith that excites you? Today there are endless subgroups of confessing Christians who invest enormous quantities of time and energy in one issue or another. Abortion, pornography, homeschooling.

women's ordination for or against, economic justice, a certain style of worship, the defense of a particular Bible version, and much more. Not for a moment am I suggesting we should not think about such matters or throw our weight behind some of them, but when such matters devour most of our time and passion, each of us must ask, in what fashion am I confessing the centrality of the Gospel?

that we have a tendency to drift, that there is pressure, that there is this internal pressure that when we forget the gospel, we begin to add things to the gospel. When we forget that it's all about Jesus, we begin to make it Jesus plus something, Jesus plus a certain kind of behavior. And it's not that what we already saw in this letter, we are called to live a life worthy of the gospel, but

But it's not in the sense that it adds to our righteousness at all, but we feel it. What must I do so God will be happy with me? It's got happy with me because I went to church. It's got happy with me because I gave. It's got happy with me. What must I do to be accepted? Here's my resume. And then there's there's outside pressure. There's false doctrines, false teachers that will come in. There are wolves in sheep's clothing and

I say that is most false teachers that come into the church, they look good. But like they appeal to the sense of like, Hey, just do a little bit more. Look at my morality. Look at my family. Look at my successes. Don't you want that? Like, yeah, that looks pretty good. But Paul has no patience for false teachers. He sees them as they are. They are wolves.

And they send out their own missionaries and they look good and they they might look like a life that you want but but in in the end it's Jesus plus something which equals nothing. And so in the first century the first heresy that would find its way into the church after Paul would plant these churches of the gospel of grace amongst the Gentiles it was called the Judaizers. These these people would come in these Jewish people would come in and they say to these Gentiles hey it's great that you have

followed the Jewish Messiah. Now all you need is to follow the Jewish life. You need to do Jesus plus circumcision in their case or Sabbath worship or this dietary law or these 612 rules. Whatever it is, this is how you can build your spiritual resume so that God will really be happy with you.

And again, they come in, they look successful, they look moral, they've got Bible verses to point you to on this, and they make this compelling case, and people are like, yeah, I have this internal desire to prove myself. So I do want Jesus plus that thing or this thing or this activity. And so without even thinking about it, you begin to take that on. And Paul says, no, no, no, that's a very dangerous thing.

And he says, this is a safeguard for you to remind you of the gospel. And he calls out these false teachers and he uses explicitly inflammatory language on purpose because he does not want to be kind to wolves. Like wolves should be called out as wolves. And so as there's Judaizers and those that are sympathetic to the Judaizers in the Philippian church, when they get this letter and this part gets read, they begin to feel very nervous. Look what Paul says in verse two.

He says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Like what in the world is he talking about? Look out for those who let the dogs in, right? Dogs in the first century weren't pets. They were considered unclean, dirty, and dangerous. Like in the countryside, that would be dangerous to come across a pack of wild dogs. And Paul calls these Judaizers, these very

morally upright, externally pristine people, dogs, unclean, dirty, dangerous. He says, look out for the evil doers. Now they're offended by this. like, we're not evil doers. We're known as the good doers. Like we're just telling people to do good so that this must be good. He says, no, no. And the motive that you're telling them is actually evil. We'll see why in a moment. He says, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

It's a reference to circumcision, but it's also a parallel between the pagan idol worship. When pagans would worship idols, they would often mutilate their flesh. And Paul's saying essentially this is what the Judaizers are doing in requiring circumcision. It's inflammatory and intentionally so. Paul shows them what are true marks of genuine believers.

Verse three, for we are the circumcision. In Galatians chapter five, says circumcision in the new covenant is circumcision of the heart that the spirit does. He says, we are the ones who worship by the spirit, or your translation might say, serve by the spirit. It's the same word. spirit-filled, genuine believers, their energy and motivation and strength to do everything they do comes by the spirit. Jesus said this would happen. John chapter four, the woman at the well, he says,

A day is coming and is already here when the true worshipers of God will worship by spirit and truth. And so Paul says, this is how we know we're genuine. Our energy comes from the spirit and glory in Christ Jesus or boasting Christ Jesus. Our boasting is not in ourselves or our church or anything else. It is simply Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So what he's saying is

For the genuine believer, there is no Jesus plus something. There is no sense of, well, look at all the religious activity I've done or look at the good works I've done or look at how many people I've helped. And then crediting that to our account as as somehow our behavior makes us more righteous in the sight of God. I mean, we all feel this, right? I mean, the more you do like there are good works we're called to, but we can shift in our mind to think

God must be happy with me. And Paul says, no, no, no. We put no confidence in the flesh. None of the things we do, we put in the column to our credit. This is the mark of genuine believers. Well, the Judaizer says they would come into a church, they would essentially say, do you want the best resume for God? Yes, Jesus, plus these things.

There's these things and if you the more you get of these things the higher you'll be in the kingdom of God the more you'll be accepted the more you'll be righteous and and again It's appealed to them. And and so Paul says you want to play the resume game? We could play the resume game Paul says I understand the resume I have the resume and and as Paul starts to talk about the next line I'm sure the Judaizers get very nervous. Look what he says

He says, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Every Judaizer that came in there that tried to convince them of doing more, Paul says, I've done it more and better than anyone else. He points to seven things that that would have in his pre-Christian life, he would have counted as his own righteousness. He says this.

I've been circumcised on the eighth day. He points to ritual. He says, yeah, the ritual of circumcision. I know some people say, well, you know, I'm a Christian because I was, my parents baptized me when I was born. The ritual was checked. The box was checked. Paul says, it doesn't do anything for you. It does nothing. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel. He points to as ethnicity. He's not a convert to Judaism. He is...

He is a Jew of Jews. He is from the line of Abraham. He points to his ethnicity. He that's not sufficient, Sometimes people are like, of course I'm a Christian. I was born and raised in Alabama.

No, that doesn't make you a Christian.

He points to his ethnicity, he points to his rank of the tribe of Benjamin. He's not just of Israel, he is of the tribe of Benjamin. Of the 12 tribes, 10 of them rebelled and followed the Baals and two stayed faithful, at least for a time, Judah and Benjamin. So if you were part of Judah or Benjamin, you were like the upper class of rank in the Israel mine. He says, I have the best rank.

but it does nothing for me. A Hebrew of Hebrews, he comes from the best tradition. He points to his tradition and he says, that does nothing for me. As to the law of Pharisee, he was a moral guy. Again, in the first century, Pharisees, besides the gospels, aren't really looked down upon. They're seen as pristine. They not only keep the law, they keep their own laws to...

help them prevent breaking the law. they're extremely moral. They've got this upright life. He's like, I was a Pharisee, but that's not what saves me. As to Zeal, a persecutor of the church. Now we live in an age where Zeal seems like the only thing that's important. Whatever you believe, as long as you believe in it, you have Zeal, that must be good for you. And then Paul's like, no, Zeal does nothing. Does nothing for your spiritual account. And then finally he says,

Number seven, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Now Paul's not saying that he was perfect, but in the first century in the Jewish mind, there is a category of submitting yourself to the law to such a degree that you are blameless. He says, if anyone did it, I did it. I've got all these things on my spiritual resume, or at least I did have them.

The next thing that he says just shocks them. He says, but whatever gain I had, whatever was on my resume in the pro column, he says, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. In Paul's mind, all of those good things, all of sudden when he encounters Christ on the road to Damascus and Jesus reveals himself to him, all of sudden, all of that long list of zeal and tradition and ritual and.

rank and rule and obedience, all of that gets shifted over to the negative column. And then in the positive column, there's just one thing, just one thing, Jesus. That is on his resume now. He says, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things." In Paul's mind, everything is lost, but he's got the surpassing worth of now knowing Christ Jesus, the Lord. Now when you read that, at first glance it can just sound like, well, compared to Jesus, compared to Jesus, all this stuff is nothing compared to the infinite greatness of Jesus. That's partially true.

But that's not what Paul says. It's not just that Jesus is better and we'll see that in a moment. It's not just that Jesus is infinitely better. No, he's actually shifted some categories here. All of those amazing things that obedience, that heritage, his ethnicity, his nationality, all of those things, he's now put in a negative column. It's a loss. It's a debit. What's going on there?

I had a friend in our church in Japan. He came from a very conservative, very, very legalistic background, very, very legalistic tradition. And he still had some of those tendencies. And so I remember having this conversation with him and he was like, Mark, Mark, I get it. I could see how grace is better. I acknowledge that. But is it really so bad where I came from? Is it really so bad?

These things, I mean, after all, this saved me from a lot of stuff. I didn't go into a life of debauchery like so many people. I don't have all this sexual sin in my background. And though I was forced to memorize all this scripture, you know, now that I've come to grace, I've got all that scripture in my mind. So, is it really that bad?

Well, let's have Jesus help us understand that one. I'll put it on the screen. Luke chapter 18. Jesus tells a parable about this.

Verse 9 says, he also told them this parable, to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, believed in their own spiritual resume. And not only that, they treated others with contempt. Here's the parable. He said, two men went up to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, morally upright, respectable.

seemingly righteous. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector, the worst of the very worst.

says the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus God I thank you that I'm not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector and in his prayer he he pulls out his spiritual resume he says I fast twice a week not just the one time required I give a tithe of all I get not just

my income. But then look what Jesus says, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus concludes, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

righteous, justified, accepted. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So why does Paul put all of that list in the negative category? Because it's this, there's two ways to keep yourself from Jesus. It's full on headlong into sin and rebellion that everyone in the world knows about, and it's self-righteousness.

Your life can look impeccable, but if it blinds you to your need of Jesus, it is a loss. It is detrimental to your soul. Any trusting in your own work is detrimental to your soul because you don't believe you need His grace. You don't believe you need His mercy, and that's all you need. And that's all you must have to get His righteousness. So he says it's a loss.

I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for the for the sake of for his sake. have suffered the loss of all things. It's true when he became a Christian he lost his prestige. He lost his position. He lost his family. He lost his friends. He lost his rule and role like he lost everything but he says it's worth it and he counts all the other things as well the ESP says rubbish.

The word is scabula. Maybe yours might say other than that, the old King James version gets a little bit closer, dung. It means excrement. Sometimes the Bible translators are more genteel than God's word himself. This is what Paul says, all that stuff that was to my account, it's crap. I mean, your problems with the Bible right now if you're offended, it's crap. Your good works is crap.

If in them you are trusting in yourself and not in Jesus, it's crap. If you think it adds anything to your salvation, it's crap. If you think it is in any way to your spiritual benefit, you count it as crap. In order that I may gain Christ. Then Paul just reminds him, remember, it's no trouble for me to write the same things to you and it is safe for you.

He unpacks the quintessential gospel. I love what he says. He says, order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. I love that language because remember in the garden when Adam and Eve sin and God comes down, God knows where they are, but he looks for them, right? Remember? Where are you, Adam? But I imagine this now, God coming down and be like, where's Mark? Where's Mark? there's Mark.

He's I found him. He's in Christ. He's in Christ. That means he has the righteousness of Christ. That means he has the perfect life of Christ. See, to be justified. Maybe you've heard it before. Just if I'd never sinned. Well, that's only half the equation. It isn't that Jesus just came to wipe away our sin. No, on the cross, Jesus does the great exchange. He actually takes it on himself so that it is just if i'd never sinned. But not only that, he gives us his resume, his

victories, his good works, his perfect life of obedience, all of it gets credited to us so that we are found in Christ Amen I mean you could be excited about this. This is the gospel That means you could stop striving and stop trying to show God that your resume is sufficient if you are found in Christ you're in You're in you have all of his righteousness all of his victories credited to your crown

He says, having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. is quintessential gospel. This is a summary of the entire book of Romans. It is Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourself, so that no one may boast. Like this is the gospel. So in light of what Paul is saying here,

How now shall we live? How do we respond? How does the Spirit help us respond? Well, we stop striving and we start resting in Christ alone. And when those temptations to start to think, God will be happy with me if I do X, Y, and Z, I'll get some spiritual credit, then we repent of that and we trust in Him alone. So maybe you're here, this is...

Good news. This is the best news. It's on the table for everyone in this room. You have been made in the image of God. Maybe you're here and you've never called yourself a Christian. Maybe you're here and you know you're not a believer, but the offer on the table this morning is you can be by grace alone through faith alone in your seat. You can trust in Christ and be found in him. Get his victories, his righteousness credited to your account. You can do that today. And if you do that, we'd love to talk to you about that. Help you walk in that.

to know Jesus more. But maybe, maybe when Paul was going through that list of his pre-Christian resume, maybe some of it resonated with you. Yeah, I have, I do like Jesus, but I have trusted in my tradition or my ethnicity or my political affiliation or anything else in the blank. If you're waking up to grace today, that's a beautiful thing.

That's what Paul had to do on the road to Damascus. Martin Luther. You know, in the 1500s, the church had lost its way. It was a Jesus plus system. It was Jesus plus, do these works. It was Jesus plus, go on this pilgrimage.

to Jerusalem and Rome and if you do that and if you go to each step of up to the Basilica and you pray on your knees at each step then you can take 10,000 years off of your time in purgatory. Jesus plus pilgrimages. Jesus plus relics. The churches even Luther's own church in Vittenberg had something like 8,000 relics.

These things that were supposedly from the cross of Christ or some gown that Mary wore or some table that Jesus built, like little pieces of that, the church taught. If you go and see those things, you will take years off your purgatory. If you give money, this is the equation for how much you can take off of purgatory. was Jesus plus. They would say, it's absolutely Jesus. Absolutely Jesus died on the cross for you. Now just add to that.

these things. And Martin Luther was like that. He was like the apostle Paul. was like he had this sense that God was holy, righteous and just and he was terrified of God. And so he knew that he needed righteousness and so he tried his hardest. went on the pilgrimages. If they asked you to fast a week, a day he'd fast a week, they would find him sleeping in the snow as a way of penance for his sins.

He would whip himself so that he would bleed like he just showed the world and really he was trying to show God. Here's my resume. I'm good enough. Accept me God. And some later would say well you must have really loved God Martin. He said love God. No sometimes I hated him. A God who punishes sinners. I was doing anything I could to try to earn his favor. But it wasn't until.

He was asked in Wittenberg to teach a class, a class through the book of Romans. He said, OK. And he began to study Romans. And he came to the line, and the righteous shall live by faith. And it unlocked grace in his life. It's like all of this striving, all of these accolades, all of this resume, it's.

righteous will live by faith and it unlocked the Reformation. So maybe you're here today and you just realized you've had Jesus plus something you can repent of that and just have Jesus and you have it all. You can have it all or maybe you're a Christian here and you just need to remember and rehearse the gospel every week every day. Find those rhythms of your life to remember rehearse and rejoice. This is what's true. This is what's true. It's not about

my work, it's about his work. So let's let the gospel fuel our praise and our perseverance. And then one last thing in this passage, we see it in verse 10. It says, righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him. Talking about Jesus. Well, Paul, you already said you know Jesus. But here's the thing for those that have had a genuine encounter with the Lord.

There is what I'd call a holy angst. There's a holy angst that wants more. Don't ever confuse the very dangerous thing of knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. We can have churches full of people that know a lot about Jesus, but to know Jesus is to want to know Him more. He's an inexhaustible well.

He is infinite in glory and majesty and grace and mercy. That means forever and ever we get to go deeper into the ocean that is Jesus. And for those that taste a little, they want more. This has always been the case. Moses has amazing encounters with God. What does he say? Lord, I want to see your face. Show me your glory, Lord. He wants more. David in the Psalms, here's a man after God's own heart. He just wants more.

Psalm 63, example, verse one, you God are my God earnestly I seek you. Do you hear that the holy angst I thirst for you my whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I just want more. So the Christian life is about going deeper into the well of Jesus, not to earn his righteousness, but to soak in his righteousness, to soak in his

presence and his power and his being. This is the cry of the apostle Paul. My prayer for us and for the church and for churches around the world and in our city is that there would be a holy angst. A holy angst to go hard after Jesus, not to earn your righteousness, but because you have his righteousness. For the joy of God and the glory of all people. Amen. Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.

Discipleship Through Imitation

AI Summary

In this Sermon, Mark Oshman explores the themes of joy, discipleship, and the importance of community as presented in the Book of Philippians. He emphasizes the significance of Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples of genuine concern and service, and discusses the concept of imitation in the Christian faith. Oshman also introduces the idea of 'ultra learning' in the context of spiritual growth, encouraging listeners to actively engage in their discipleship journey and honor those who exemplify Christ-like qualities.

AI Transcript

Good morning. It's good to see you all here. You all it's good to be back. I've been gone for a while. ⁓ It's good to be back in the book of Philippians. And so if you're just joining us, we're trying to work our way through it this summer. took about a five or six week break. So we'll jump back in. So we're in Philippians chapter two. We'll pick it up in verse 19. I'll read and pray and we'll continue from there. So as I read, just listen carefully. This is God's word. Philippians 2 19.

I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare, for they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that surely I myself will come also.

I thought it necessary to send to you a papyriditis, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and minister to my need. For he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill near to death, but God had mercy on him and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him therefore that you may rejoice at seeing him again.

and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men. For he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Father, we come to you now in the name of your Son and the power of your Spirit. We're grateful for gathering us, sustaining us, and now teaching us.

So we know not we pray that you would teach us what we are not. You'd make us what we have not you to give us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. As I said at the beginning of the summer we began the series through the Book of Philippians. It's entitled Enjoy Jesus and that's purposeful because us as a church we exist to enjoy Jesus and make disciples. It's the key to the Christian life joy. And in these four short.

chapters, Paul puts before us joy time and time again. it's interesting because we live in a world that says joy is you accomplish your goals. You get the thing. You have success. You get everything going well for you. But Paul pushes back against that narrative and says, no, joy is separate from all that. In fact, all of that can be going very poorly in your life and you can still have joy. And he writes from a Roman prison sale ⁓ saying just that, not knowing if he's going to live to the next day.

He is incredibly joyful. So he's got something for us. And in this four short chapters, there's some bangers. There's like some really good nuggets that you can wrap your life around. can get the tattoo of these verses. Like I saw one out in the wild this last week from the book of Philippians. ⁓ because there's just some good stuff like, you know, 121. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

That's awesome right. He'll go on and say things like ⁓ well let me see if I see any other examples. ⁓ Yeah. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So what does it look like to live a life worthy of the good news in our lives. And he begins to unpack that and he says do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others more significant than yourselves. Like that's awesome.

What does that look like? How do we actually do that? Well, he says, well, look to Jesus who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God grounds for grasping. He emptied himself and became a servant. He humbled himself even to the point of death. So we're to look to Jesus. I mean, just great stuff. Last time we saw in chapter two earlier, he says, work out your own salvation with.

fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. This is amazing. We're to work out our salvation, not work for our salvation or work up our salvation, but what God has put in us in our salvation to work it out into our lives. Let it breathe. Let it impact our life and those around us, which is awesome. And again, it's one thing to know that, but,

lived that, that's a whole different thing. And then in chapter three and four, you're going to see even more very memorable verses. like I said, I saw this tattoo in chapter three, right? On this guy's, he had a huge arm. He had livings 314. I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I'm like, I don't think that means what you think it means, but hey, I get it. That's a great verse. Every athlete loves that verse.

But you get it. So there's just some memorable things. And I've encouraged you to memorize this short four chapter book. It takes about 20 minutes if you do it ⁓ from memory. many of you are doing that. And I want to give a shout out to Marshall McBride. He's the first one to do it. Marshall, raise your hand, Marshall. Let's give it up. He's like, that's the last thing he wants is to be pointed to. ⁓

He sent me the voice memo of him reciting it from memory. I loved it. There was points where you were singing in it. It was awesome. ⁓ But I'll let you recite that some other time, unless you want to do it. No, you're good. Okay. But yeah, it's a very memorable, memorable passage. You know what's not memorable about the Book of Philippians, The passage we just read.

Like three minutes ago, if I was to be like, hey, in your own words, can you recite that for me? Like, oh, ah, there's something about Timothy and a path or something. I don't know. Nobody's favorite verse is in this passage. No one's getting this tattoo. It says, well, why are we even in it? Why are we looking at it? Is it a throwaway passage?

It seems on the surface that Paul is interjecting in the middle of his book of joy, a travel log. Hey, this guy's gonna go here, this guy's gonna go here, but don't worry, in chapter three, we're gonna get back in it. Is it just a throwaway passage? Well, two things convict me that it's not. In fact, I think God has something for you and for me and for us in this passage. The first one is just the general truth that,

Paul writes to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3, 16, all scriptures God breathed and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness. So there's something here, but some scripture is more useful than others at different times. So do we still need this passage? Many would skip over this passage. Well, I think this passage, this little interlude that Paul interjects, he does it on purpose. There's a context for this passage. Paul, ⁓

Well, I don't want to get ahead of myself. So some of you know that I was we were traveling over the last several weeks, had some work to do in Croatia. We were doing a evangelistic English camp and I got to preach there and we we do that. We've done that for the last couple of summers now. And but it's also when we go there, we're like, should we add anything on? Should we do anything fun? And just so happens that this month I had kind of one of those.

I guess unfortunate milestone birthdays. I turned 50 this month, okay? Thank you. I'm getting mail from ARP and I'm gonna get, that's amazing when you get that mail. You're like, what? No, I don't qualify for discounts, but I do like a good lunch buffet. But, so I don't know, maybe it's appropriate. So I turned 50 and in turning 50 Jen asked me, she said, it's a big birthday. What do you wanna do for your birthday?

was like, we should do some. We're going to Croatia anyway. I wonder if there's, we could add some stuff on to the front and back. And she's like, okay, well, what do you want to do? And I said, you know, I've been trying to play tennis the last several years, but I've kind of plateaued in my skill level, which is just maybe at suck. That's where my skill level is. And so I was like, I wonder if there's like an adult tennis camp for a week in Croatia somewhere.

And every rolls her eyes, she's like, oh gosh, that's the most Mark Osman thing ever. But I was like, let me ask my friend, Chad GPT. And I was like, Chad, I'm going to be in Croatia. I need to find an adult tennis camp this week. Sure enough, found it. There's an Austrian company that was like, yeah, here's 10 options. They're at this all-inclusive resort on the island of Brac and your family can enjoy the resort and the beach. And you can go for the week.

each day for about three or four hours and play tennis. I was like, awesome, let's do it. ⁓ It was great, by the way. ⁓ It's cheaper to go there than to go to Florida, I promise you that. ⁓ And so we did and Jennifer was a sport, she did it as well. Didn't love it like I loved it, but ⁓ we enjoyed that. Then we went and did the evangelistic camp and the ministry, but there was a few more days that we had and she said, well, what else do you want to do? And I said, well,

I've been kind of on this art and architecture kick, where I just, there's some very specific pieces of art that I wanna look at, because I've been reading some things about them, and then that there's some architecture ⁓ in and around Paris that I'd like to go to, and so let's do that. So we flew to Paris and had a few days there, and my daughters love Paris, and so ⁓ that's whole different thing. ⁓ Not the art and architecture, they love the shopping, but. ⁓

We were on national French news twice for radically different reasons. I've never been on the news, but now I'm on the French news twice. ⁓ First was because there was a massive heat wave in Paris that week and ⁓ we were melting on the side of the street and the reporter and camera person came up to us and they're like, said something to us in French. We're like, sorry, we're Americans. They're like, ⁓ great, you're Americans.

We'd like to talk to you about the heat wave. What do you have to say? And we're like, it's hot. And they're like, well, how do you deal with it? What would you do in your country? So we would turn on the AC. It's a wonderful invention. You should bring it to the continent here. They don't have it. And so that made the French news. Americans want AC. And you'll hear about the other reason we made it on the news later in the message.

Yeah, I have no idea where I was going with all that. yeah, I do. Okay, so during this whole time, great trip, great trip. I gave you my own travel log, just like Paul. But during this time, I'm reading this book, it's just secular book, it's called Ultra Learning by a guy named Scott Young. And he poses the question, is it possible, well, he says it is, it's possible for humans to learn very difficult things and master them.

in a very short amount of time. Things that you would think take a long, long time, you can do it. If you have the right strategies, principles, commitment levels, you could grow very quickly in these things. So he kind of first made a name for himself when he realized that MIT puts all of their, most of their courses online. And so they have a ⁓ four year computer science degree at MIT. This is high level, high level education in our country, but they have it online. And so,

It's a four year degree. And so he took a year, went through it all, passed all their stuff. So in one year on his own, he passed all the requirements for the four year MIT degree. So that kind of got some, so he's like, well, what about other areas? Is ultra learning possible in other areas? And so he got a friend, convinced him, hey, we're gonna travel to the world.

For one year we're gonna go to four different places and learn four different languages that we do not know at all And we're gonna learn them to profis proficiency There's different levels and ways to tell how fluent you are But we're gonna reach these high high levels of fluency and when we go the only requirement is as soon as we land Zero English we can't talk to anyone in English. We can't talk to each other It's gonna be a merchant experience and so they go to Spain for three months and they learn Spanish and crush it

That's that's kind of the easy entry. If you're an English speaker, then they go to Brazil and learn Portuguese in three months. Crush it. Then they fly to China and learn Mandarin Chinese in three months. They they get to their proficiency level, not quite as good as they did before. And then they spend their last three months in Korea and learn Korean radically different. And they show, yeah, it is possible with the right strategy, the right commitment, the right principles to

master these subjects. And the book has all these cool stories about different like chess masters and people that go on Jeopardy and people that win ⁓ Scrabble competitions. One guy won a Scrabble competition in French even though he knew no French. ⁓ think about that for a moment. He was able to do it. But there's all these things. But then there's ⁓ thing going on in my head ⁓ as I'm reading this. I'm like okay. So is it possible?

as a disciple of Jesus and disciple means a follower, a student, if we're learning is it possible to apply ultra learning to our discipleship? Is it desirable? Should we do it? And I began to think about that. we know it's possible because we have some really good examples. Like, for example, new believers, they often are ultra learners. I I experienced this when I was 18 and I came to faith. Like you just

You're reading the word for the first time, you're soaking it all and drinking from a fire hose. You're in it and you grow very quickly in a short amount of time. And so we've seen it there. There are other ways that we grow very quickly as disciples sometimes. And if we were to go around the room and share our stories, one of the common threads would be crisis and suffering. There was a crisis in my life, in my health, in my relationships or finances or whatever. And in that moment,

God met me and my faith grew deeper quickly in that moment. This is a common way that we grow fast as disciples. And so it is theoretically possible. But then the question is, what about in that everyday ordinary life? Like summer 2025, Parker, Colorado, is it possible to become an ultra learner? To grow intentionally and quickly in our faith in the everyday ordinary life.

Then I thought about ⁓ the New Testament will give these like commands like, hey, make this a priority. the end, what matters is how much you know and reflect Jesus and help others to do the same. And so there's this intensity to some of the New Testament passages about taking your discipleship seriously. So, for example, in Second Timothy one, chapter versus five and six, it says this. Timothy writes on the screen.

Make every effort. So, whatever should you make? Everyone. Like, be an old children. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing,

They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But there's this like press on stack grow learn like none of us are there yet. We're all in process but there should be this forward momentum. Paul will write to Timothy in first Timothy four seven. Train yourselves. Training means like actually do some intentional things. Train yourself.

in godliness. then I thought, so it is possible, it is encouraged. And then I realized in the book Ultra Learning there is one principle that is very much present in our passage and for the Christian life. And it is the principle of imitation. To see others that are maybe further down the road in different areas than you, to watch their lives and say, I'll do the same.

See the Apostle Paul knows that to live a life worthy of the gospel, yes, we look to Jesus who is the preeminent example, but he also knows that you and I need flesh and bone, tangible and yet imperfect examples of people who are pressing hard after the Lord. And so in this passage, Paul wants us to consider imitation. And imitation is everywhere. Almost everything that you've learned in life,

You've learned through imitation. You learned to talk because you saw other humans moving their mouths and making noises and you imitated them. And eventually you made the right noises. You learned to walk the same way. Every ⁓ electrician learns as an apprentice, as an electrician. Businessmen learn from businessmen, doctors from doctors. Athletes learn from other athletes. Artists learn from other artists.

I in this book, ⁓ he points to van Gogh. And we had a day at the beginning in Amsterdam. So we went to the van Gogh Museum and van Gogh has this very distinctive style. You can kind of picture his colors and all that stuff that he produced. And though he only sold one painting in his lifetime, four times after his life, four times his paintings have been sold for the highest price of any painting in history. But van Gogh...

Van Gogh was an imitator before he was Van Gogh. That's how he learned. His favorite artist was a guy named Jean-Francois Millet, who painted this painting called The Sower. Van Gogh loved the painting. So Van Gogh got a copy of the painting, put it in his studio, and he just studied it, studied it. He repainted The Sower hundreds of times, just replicating it, learning the strokes, learning the techniques.

learning all that so that after mastering the sower, he was then able to create his own works. I this is imitation. Imitation helps us go further, faster in all areas of our life. This is true spiritually as well, right? Like, how do you learn to pray? Like no one becomes a believer, shows up at the prayer meeting and be like, I got this guys, let me show you how to do it. Now you learn by observing, watching, imitating.

Same thing with worship, right? Like if we were a charismatic church, you would probably be more charismatic. Just because you'd look around, you'd be like, ⁓ we dance, we wave banners, we run around. Like that's what you would do. But no, instead you come in here and you're like, okay, we put our hands in our pockets and we worship.

That's fine too. You know in the Czech Republic when we'd go to church you'd sit down and worship. You're like okay you know but we observe. That's that's all I'm trying to say. So imitation is a is a powerful tool that God uses for our discipleship. Not just ours but for others who imitate us as well. And this is why Paul in the middle of this passage where he's like hey live a life worthy of the gospel. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

He says, now look at these two guys. Here's two examples of what I'm talking about. Flesh and bone, people that you know that are imitating Jesus. Look at verse 19 again. says, hope in the Lord to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be cheered by news of you for I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. Paul has written, do not look to your own interest but

to the interest of others. And now he puts before them, Timothy, here's someone that does that. Here's what a heart transformed by the gospel. Here's what it looks like when you just see it in front of you. He is genuinely concerned for your welfare. And that is transformational, that is ⁓ inspirational, but that's spirit given, right? Because the natural way, he shows what the natural way is in verse 21.

For they all seek their own interests not the interests of Jesus Christ. It's natural for us to live most of our lives seeking our own interests. That's our default posture. It takes the spirit to say actually I'm going to lift other people above myself and he says Timothy is someone who does that. So look at his life. Look how he loves. says verse 22 you know Timothy's proven worth. He has a track record.

He has some history. You know his history. You've seen him. does. He's not just serving when all eyes are on him. He's a behind the scenes guy. But you know he is constantly laying down his life for the church. That's the spirit in him. says you know his proven worth how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me and I trust in the Lord.

that shortly I myself will come also." So I said we were on the French news twice. Well, the last day that we were in Paris, ⁓ one cathedral I wanted to go see was Sacre-Cœur, which is like on this hill looking above the city. And we paid to climb the 310 steps up to the top to get a 360 degree view. And as we walked around, we looked kind of northeast and off in the distance, we saw a fire.

You know, just the smoke going up and didn't think much of it. Didn't know that that would be very significant in our lives in just a matter of a few hours because we came down from soccer core, walked to the garden or the main train station, got in there, got our bags. And also we realized, man, it's very crowded in here. Like it's packed. What's going on? And everyone's just staring up at the, the departure board, but, no one's moving and

Then all of sudden, I'm there's no trains in the tracks. Like, where's the trains? And after a while we find out, oh, we hear there was a fire on the tracks. The tracks are destroyed. No trains are coming or going. So, uh-oh, we need to take the high-speed 200 mile per hour train from here to Amsterdam. At 200 miles per hour, it's about three hours, but we need to get to Amsterdam.

to catch our flight back home to America the next morning. And so we're like, do we do? I'm getting nervous. I'm like, okay, we got to make a plan. I don't care if we have to drive the nine hours. Let me go rent a car. I go down there. No one's there, just a sign. All the cars are gone. So they shut down for the day. I'm like, okay. ⁓ Well, maybe they'll fix the train tracks and maybe we'll still go and...

just keeps going delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed. I'm like, okay, now I don't even have a place for my family to stay in Paris. And I don't know how we're gonna get anywhere. I'm like, okay, what if we flew? What if we went and flew from Paris to Amsterdam or Paris even to America? And so I looked that up, but lo and behold, French people are doing French things and they're on strike, so they're not flying. So like, oh my gosh, okay. So I can't fly.

don't have a place to stay. I have to get to Amsterdam or it's going to be like eight thousand dollars for me to try to make my way back. I don't know what to do. We're just praying about like please Lord just let the train start again. And so now it's about 10 10 10 o'clock at night. And Jennifer just text one of our friends. They were members of our church when we were passed when I was a pastor in Okinawa Japan military. They now work for NATO. And so

She just texts her says, hey, Martha, what are you hearing on the news about this? And she looks up, gets back, she's like, it doesn't look good. But then she writes, but don't worry, we'll get you there one way or another. Like, what are you talking about? She said, hey, if the train comes, obviously get on that. It's a three hour, 200 mile per hour bullet train, but I'm coming to get you. Now, Martha suffers from chronic. ⁓

Yeah, just fatigue and illness. So it's 10 o'clock at night. She's like, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to drive. She lives two and a half hours away in Little France. So thank Pueblo, Colorado. I'm going to drive at 10 o'clock at night. I'm going to come get you. Then I'm going to drive back to my house. My husband's going to wake up and then he's going to drive the equivalent down to Santa Fe, New Mexico to get you to Amsterdam on time. And so.

We're just like blown away by this. go and get some hamburgers. I come back out and there again, Jennifer's being interviewed by the French news. And they're like, how do you feel about this as American? Well, we don't feel good. What are you going to do? We don't know. Did they tell you anything? Told us nothing. And so that was the news. Americans complaining again, but the French love complaining. So it's all good. And so.

We wait, we wait. Now we're at the train station at 1230 in the morning, which by the way, any train station in Europe at 1230 in the morning is the sketchiest place in the world at that moment. Like everyone's tweaking out and like, man, I gotta go. And so our friend Martha arrives and we are crammed in this like car with all our bags laying on top of each other. We've got a long journey ahead of us and she drives us there. Then her husband drives through the night like.

giving up all their sleep, getting us to the airport in just the right amount of time. And then he's got to drive back home. They gave up their whole sleep. we're just blown away with their love for us. And then I was just thinking, man, would I have done that? I thought, give up that? Like, I would have been like, probably not. Like, it probably wouldn't have crossed my mind. But you know what? It would now. I have the example.

our friends who are like, will consider you more important than myself. Imitation makes us more like Jesus. That's why Paul puts before them Timothy and now Epaphroditus in verse 25. He says, I thought it necessary to send you Epaphroditus. I love this. Epaphroditus, his name comes from the Greek goddess Aphrodite. So here's someone who comes from

a Gentile from a pagan background who's been radically transformed by the gospel of grace. And look at how Paul describes him. Epaphroditus, my brother. For a Jew of Jews of the tribe of Benjamin, the apostle Paul, to say Epaphroditus, he's my brother. That's what the gospel does. It makes us family members, right? And family members,

love one another. He says he's my brother, he's a fellow worker. I mean you're the apostle Paul, but Paul's like no we're all in this together. Yeah I have my role, but Epaphroditus has his role. He works and he's a fellow soldier. He understands duty and sacrifice and honor and commitment to the mission. Look at Epaphroditus. You want to see someone transformed by the gospel? See his life.

model your life after his. says, your messenger and minister to my need. Epaphroditus had been sent by the church at Philippi to travel by foot a thousand miles to Rome to give this gift from that church to Paul. Verse 26, for he has been longing for you all. This is like Timothy. He is genuinely concerned for you. This is what it looks like to have the spirit. Genuinely concerned. He's

longing for you all. Why? Because you heard that he was ill. This is amazing, right? Papyridias gets very, very sick. In fact, we saw, almost dies. And he knows that word has gotten back to his home church. And he's like genuinely concerned. I don't know about you, but when I'm sick, I'm genuinely concerned about myself. And that's about as far as it goes, right? And you know,

If my wife gets sick, I'm concerned for her and Jennifer's concerned for me. But that usually lasts for about 24 hours. And then it's like, you got to get up. Like you got to get over this. We don't have time for this, right? But he's genuinely concerned. Like when I'm sick, I'm not like, gosh, I wonder what the people at Redemption Park are going to think. I'm sick. No. But he is. He's been restored. so Paul says, indeed, he was ill near to death. So it is bad bad.

God had mercy on him and not only on him but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him therefore that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious that I may be less anxious. Well Paul will go on and put this principle of imitation before them again in chapter three verse 17 Paul says brothers and sisters join in imitating

me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us as followers of Jesus on some level though not perfectly all of us should be able to say to one another hey as I follow Jesus do what I do I mean that sounds bold but but but here's the deal we're going to see in a few moments many of us have gone further down different roads of discipleship than others and that's okay

We can help others follow us and vice versa. Imitate me. In verse 29 it says, well let me not get ahead of myself. I'll end with that. So let me ask you a couple questions. Do you plan on being alive in five years? I mean that's not guaranteed for any of us, but most of us would say, I think. I think I'll be alive in five years. Great, I hope you are.

So then the second question is, what's your plan? What's your plan to grow as a disciple and to help others grow as disciples? We've already seen it. You should have a plan. Maybe you have a plan. This is what I'm gonna do. This is how I'm gonna help others do it as well. If you have a plan, awesome. This isn't for you. But if you don't have a plan, maybe you're just like, well, I just assume it'll kind of happen. And maybe it will.

But let me just encourage you to have a plan. If you don't have a plan, try our plan. And our plan involves what I'll call some structured relationships. And we get this in so many other areas of our lives. We enter it into structured relationships for our growth. for example, if you have some trauma from your past, you might go into a structured relationship for a time with a therapist to kind of walk you through that thing. That's good. If you have some...

issues in your marriage, you might see a marriage counselor. If you have some issues financially, you might go and enter into a structured relationship with a financial advisor. If you want to get, if you want your kids or yourself to get better like me, I entered into a structured relationship with some tennis coaches to get better, to imitate them. Okay, so we see this in all. The same is true spiritually as well. We've got several ways.

that we invite you to lay down the tracks for you to grow as a disciple and help others grow as disciples. The first one is our gospel communities. ⁓ next month a lot of our gospel these are our small groups. They're intentionally simple. We gather in someone's home. We get to know each other. We open the word and kind of review the sermon and you can talk to each other about how bad my sermon was whatever.

That's not the point. You get to pray for one another, but really it's a context to get to be in each other's lives. You get to see some people love Jesus in ways that you aren't quite there yet and you imitate them. So if you haven't done a gospel community, let me just encourage you. Try it. It's twice a month. Just commit yourself to it. Commit yourself to it for the next year and see if you don't grow as a disciple and help others do that.

And then there's other ways, too. For example, our men's ministry on Sunday nights is going to be kicking up again as well. The life together where where these men just do life together. And I don't say this lightly in twenty five years of ministry, there is something significant happening among the men at Redemption Parker, where there's confession of sin, there's the discipleship, there's there's guys sharing burdens and there is growth that is happening here that

that is a work of the Spirit and evidence of grace. And if you haven't been a part of it, let's just invite you to that. They'll welcome you with open arms. A great way to do that is to sign up today for the men's retreat that's coming up. And again, you're like, I don't know anyone, so many guys, this is their entryway into just life together with other men at the men's retreat. You will be welcomed. You should go to this. And the same is true for

for women there there's lots of stuff coming up on the calendar there's going to be a ⁓ end of summer party. ⁓ That's one way to get to know women on August 16th there's going to be various studies and groups that will meet throughout the fall. There's also going to be a women's retreat at the same place where the men are going and so you can check that all out. This is true for our youth. ⁓ The youth volunteers do awesome and Pastor Ryan one of our elders is going to pour into our youth and youth middle schoolers high schoolers I mean.

On so many different levels, this is true. If you want to really catalyze your faith, go on our Worldview Missions Immersion Trip to Armenia and see what God is doing among the nations. You'll spend a week with other people. So talk to ⁓ Brad Dugas about that. They're going in October, so time to go. But all that to say is that there's opportunities to imitate one another. But we aren't just to imitate one another. In verse 29, Paul concludes it this way.

So receive Epaphroditus and Timothy in the Lord with all joy and honor such men and women. Honor them. says be actively looking at how different people follow Jesus. And when you see it, encourage them. Hey, here's what I see in you. When I think of patience, you have patience. When I think of

love for neighbors and the nations. This is what I see in you. And so on the back of your bulletin, if you didn't get one, get one on the way out. I listed all these different virtues and roles and responsibilities that ⁓ we all could grow in. And as I wrote down each one of these things like hospitality, generosity, gratitude, simplicity, mercy, gentleness, self-control, or things like care for widows, orphans, the poor, the oppressed, encouragement, honor.

love for the as I wrote down each one of them. God just. Encouraged me deeply because he brought different people in this faith family to my mind like this person does that well that person's excelling in that these people open like it was it was a great encouragement to me. So as you look through these things if there's any names that come to mind maybe maybe just write them down and then do what Paul says honor them.

Send him a text or say, Hey, I just want to know when I think of joy, I thought of you. Because you have joy when I think of integrity, I thought of you when I when I think of a servant heart, I thought of you. That will tremendously encourage that person. But also it'll be reminder. Hey, you should probably spend some more time with that person or this person or that person, because none of us have arrived, but all of us have something to offer. Amen.

Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.

A Better Way to Live

The Proud and the Humble

A Christian Approach to American Babylon

The Only God Who Can Save

Work Out

Summary

In this sermon, Mark Oshman explores the themes of humility, obedience, and the multifaceted nature of salvation as presented in Philippians chapter two. He emphasizes the importance of working out one's salvation with fear and trembling, while also highlighting the role of God's grace in the process of sanctification. The discussion encourages listeners to reflect on their personal faith journeys and the communal aspect of living out their beliefs in a world that often challenges Christian values.

Transcript

If you have a Bible, I hope you do. You can work your way to the Book of Philippians. We're in Philippians chapter two. It's our summer series as we're working through Philippians in a series called Enjoy Jesus. I mentioned last week that when we moved back nine years ago, our kids were not born in America. They weren't growing up to that point in America. And so one of the things that we wanted to do is kind of teach them about their home country.

Jen and I are both natives of Colorado. We're one of the few, the rare born here. And so we want to teach them some things about Colorado, Colorado history, Colorado culture. And so we did a lot of things that summer, but one of things we did, we found that, you know, there's nothing more quintessential historical Colorado than going in a gold mine. And so we found a gold mine called the Molly Kathleen gold mine outside of Cripple Creek. And I told just side note real quick.

Told Jennifer like on Friday. Hey, my opening illustration is gonna be about the Molly Kathleen goldmine and she looked horrified. I was like what what's the problem? She's like, you know, a lot of people died in that mine like four months ago I was like no, but I'm still going with it We did look it up someone did die and the tourists were stranded for six hours down in the mine But that's not anywhere in my illustration. So

When you go to the gold mine, well, you you've heard of the San Francisco 49ers, the gold rush of 1849 to California. That was mostly like panning for gold. That was the easy way apparently. Well, in the 1850s, they began to find gold near Boulder and Golden and Denver and Colorado Springs in the hills and in the mountains. And so 100,000 people.

left the East Coast, left their lives, their families, their careers in search of gold, in search of instant riches, 100,000 people. And so in Colorado, it's called the 59ers. 1859 is when they arrived, 100,000 people. Now, of course, most of them did not strike it rich. Many of them were left broken, destitute, and in terrible conditions, but a few did. There were

golden them their hills. so the cry was, Pike's Peak or bust. That was on advertisements on the East Coast. And so people began to make their way there. Well, in 1890, a woman by the name of Molly Kathleen, she becomes one of the first and only women who starts her own mine. And it becomes a booming mine. And when you go into the

the tourist attraction now, you go into the mineshaft elevator after putting on your helmet and getting a little bit of briefing. You go down with the guide and it drops a thousand feet. It's very fast. It feels like you're falling for a thousand feet in pitch black, which is, mean, Disney's got nothing on that. So then you, and they warn you like it's going to be black and you're going to feel like you're falling and it's all true. And so eventually you get to the bottom and you come out and it's cool.

Literally, it's cool, but you go around and I'm tall, so I'm always smacking my head on the caves. But what you start to get a sense of as they're explaining how they did it is just how incredibly difficult it was. At that time, they just had hand drills and dynamite to make their way and make the holes and...

And it was very, very dangerous. It difficult. Twelve hour days back breaking work, blowing up the rock, taking it out, all in search of gold or these veins of gold that would run at all sorts of angles and depths and go in all these different directions. And when they find a vein of gold, that they would just work that vein until the last ounce of gold would come out of the hills there.

At its peak, produced in its day, $500 million worth of gold. That's the equivalent of $17 billion today. In fact, as I was looking at it, I wanted to make sure that I was thinking of the same one that we had went to. And so I looked it up on Google Maps and you see the gold mine is still active, but now just very near it, you see it from the satellite view, it's all strip mining.

where they've stripped mine down a thousand feet and they still are just taking gold out of that place. Now, what does that have to do with our passage today? Well, actually, I think it's a lot. If you can understand the difficulty, the struggle, the danger of that, but also the worth and the treasure of doing that hard work, then you can start to understand what I think the apostle Paul is getting at here.

the apostle Paul, the spirit of God wants for all of us. We're going to come to this passage in Philippians chapter two that I think is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, on what it means for those of us that are currently followers of Christ. What does it mean in this time and this place to live? How now shall we live? But it is one of those passages that has a lot of landmines in it. When I used to travel around Cambodia,

We were living in Asia. There were these signs all over that are still there today. Danger mines everywhere from 1970s Civil War. And you would see the evidence of it all over Cambodia. People missing legs and this like that. There's still just mines all over the place. I feel like our passage today should have this sign in front of it. This is the one of the greatest passages on what it means to be a Christian. But if we're not careful.

There's some landmines. So I just want to give you that warning. Philippians chapter two in this book of Philippians. Paul is writing to a church that he loves and helped establish 10 years prior. He loves these people. He's currently in prison in terrible circumstances, wondering if this is going to be his last day, wondering where his next meal is going to come from. And the Philippian church has sent a gift, have sent him some

money so that he could eat while he was in prison because they don't feed you there. And so he's writing back to them and he's writing with this incredible, incredible sense of joy. In fact, it is the theme of the book that in spite of our circumstances, there can be joy in your life because joy is found in Jesus. And so that's what we talk about often here. Our website you'll see we exist to enjoy Jesus.

and make disciples or put it a few other ways. think John Piper is the one that coined the phrase God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him or happy in him or in older catechism the Westminster catechism question number one what is the chief in demand the chief in demand is to enjoy God and glorify him forever or enjoy God by glorifying him forever we were made for joy we were made to find

our joy in spite of our circumstances in the person the work of Jesus. And so that's where we've Now in chapter one verse 27 Paul had said this only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. And we saw that it's this term for citizenship. Let you let you represent your heavenly kingdom well because you are citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

And the rest of Philippians is going to answer the question. Well, what does that actually look like? How do we let our manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ? And last week, Paul points to Jesus in that great hymn, that great theological rich hymn of Jesus who humbled himself and did not consider equality with God something to be clung onto, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, becoming like a man and even

being obedient to death, even death on a cross. This was what Paul wanted us to look at. And it's right after that hymn of Christ's humility and then exaltation after his death, burial and resurrection that we come to our passage. And so this has not pulled out a context. The context is important. Paul says, therefore, therefore, and what in light of what you just heard about what Jesus has done, who left his throne in glory,

came and died in your place and now is reigning as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Therefore the word is host a it could be translated as a result as a result of looking at Christ his humility and his glory as a result. He gives them three things a commendation a command and a comfort. Here's the commendation he says my beloved therefore my beloved.

Agapetoi from the word Agape. Agapetoi, my beloved. Paul doesn't say this to everyone. The only other church he says this to is Thessalonians. He loves these people. He's like, I have such affection for this church, my beloved. He says, as you have always obeyed, because he's pointing back to Jesus' obedience, even obedience to the death, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence,

But much more in my absence. Continue to bathe is basically what he's saying. He says I remember when I came to to Philippi and you all became followers of Christ and there was just this strong desire to submit yourself to the lordship of Christ with each other and individually. And so he's just saying now I'm a thousand miles away. I'm in prison. But but as every father to sons or daughters because Paul is their spiritual father.

He wants to see when you grow up and mature, you still are obedient. You are still pressing on. And so he commends them. calls them his beloved. And you can see out of this his tender care for him. So what he says next is where the warning sign should be. Says, so as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with

fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation. Now, the reason we get uncomfortable with this is because there's just in the Greek, there's just one word between the word work and salvation. So, Therial, work and salvation. So, we get nervous like, what I thought, I thought salvation was, was all grace, all grace. Well, what is this? Why is work so closely tied to our salvation? This is where we

where we're careful. We tend to have a flat and linear view of salvation. We tend to think, well, I got saved and therefore when I get to heaven, I've got the Willy Wonka magic ticket that they got to let me in when I get to the Dick gate. And this is kind of a real simplified version, but this is what a lot of us think. Well, I did nothing. I got the ticket. I'm going to get into heaven. And on some rudimentary level, that's true.

You will go there. for Paul and for the New Testament writers salvation, this word has much more depth and breadth and width that we sit in often. for example, Paul will often talk about this word soteri in the past tense. So let me give you an example of that. So Ephesians 2, 8, 9, the great one. So in the past tense, for by grace you have been saved, past tense, you have been saved.

through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast. So is Paul just contradicting himself in the letter to Philippians? No, he's talking about this in the past tense. more than the past tense, in fact, most often this word is in the future tense. the next slide. So in the future, here's one example, Romans 5, 9. Since therefore we have been

justified, that's past tense, salvation, by His blood, much more shall we will be saved. One day is coming, we're going to be saved by Him from the wrath of God. And I love this one as well because we shall be saved by who? God. From what or who? God. You're going to be saved by God, from God, for God. So this is actually the most common

Tense of the word salvation you're going to be said you you have been saved. That's justification You will be saved that's called glorification But here Paul talks about the present tense That there's a present tense to it. For example 2nd Corinthians 2 15 for we are the aroma of Christ to to God among those who are being saved we are in process being saved and we

call this sanctification. There's height, depth and breadth to this word. And in the present tense, it's sanctification. are being saved. So when we are justified, we get the righteousness of Christ. We get the absolute righteousness of Christ. That's our position. But practically, we're not there yet. None of us are there yet. And sanctification is the process, we'll see, empowered by the Spirit, of becoming

practically what we are positionally in Christ. Becoming practically holy, practically righteous, even though we have the holiness and righteousness of Christ. And one day we will fully have the holiness and righteousness of Christ. But we live in the present. We live in the sanctification period. And so Paul says, work out your salvation. Work it out. Now, that makes me think of...

the Molly Kathleen mine. In the first century, there was a philosopher and historian named Strabo. Strabo wrote a 17 volume encyclopedia of the world at that time. And in volume three, Strabo is writing about the mines in Spain and about the workers going into the hills and bringing out gold and silver. And you know what he says? They worked out

gold and silver. He uses the same word that Paul uses. Now you can start to think about it. The gold and silver in the Mollie Kathleen mine, it was put there by God. It's there. But it takes work, a lot of work to get it out. Notice Paul doesn't say work for your salvation or work up your salvation. He says work out

what God has worked in to your life in Christ. You have the righteousness of Christ, in Christ. you have the presence of Christ and we are called to work out. But maybe you're still uncomfortable with even that language. But the New Testament is not uncomfortable with it. New Testament will often talk about this effort that is involved. So Hebrews 12 14 strive for holiness.

without which no one will see the Lord. There should be a striving in our Christian lives. First Timothy 4 7. Train yourself for godliness. And he uses these parallels between athletes and soldiers who go into this training mode so that they can win the prize that there is work to be done. We train ourselves. Second Peter 1 5. Make every effort. Which effort should you make? Every one.

every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. There is this working out what God has worked into us and he says and do this with fear and trembling. Again there's landmines here. Often maybe you've heard well when the Bible says fear the Lord it doesn't really mean fear it means just be in awe of the majesty and glory

God. But the problem with that is there's other words for awe in Greek and Hebrew. Paul knows these words. 35 times in the Old Testament we are commanded to fear the Lord.

when because he's the Lord. He is the sovereign one. He is the holy one. And every now and again every every now and again the veil between heaven and earth gets pulled back in the Bible and people get just the slightest glimpse of who God actually is. And you know what they experience fear and trembling Isaiah in the year King Uzziah died in Isaiah chapter six. He goes into the temple just to

a normal day to church like you might go to and all of sudden God decides this is the day I'm going to pull back the veil and God's glory fills the temple. And you know what Isaiah does? He isn't like, that's awesome. I'm in awe of you, Lord. No, no. He gets on his face. He sucks dirt. He says, woe is me. I'm undone.

I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. I have seen the Lord and I'm dead. I don't know how I'm still breathing in this moment. He thinks he's done. There is some fear in trembling when he sees the majesty, glory and holiness, just the glimpse of God. This is the right response. I mean, even in the New Testament, John, John who writes the gospel of John, John who refers to himself as

the disciple whom Jesus loved. I love that humble brag. I don't want to put myself in the gospel. I'll just say the guy that just really loved. But this guy, John, man, he and Jesus did love him. He was one of the inner three. Like we have scenes in the gospel of John where John's like leaning, lounging with Jesus as they're eating, like next to him, shoulder to shoulder, head on his shoulder, like all that stuff like.

He's close with Jesus. But you know what? When John's an old man and he's on the island of Patmos, God says, OK, now I'm going to pull back the veil a little bit. I'm going to give you a glimpse. He pulls back the veil, gives him a vision in the Book of Revelation. Revelation chapter one, John sees the glorified, resurrected King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus. And what does John do? He doesn't say, Jesus, my homeboy, I'm the one you love.

No. In that moment, he gets on his face and he's like, he says, I fell as though dead until Jesus lifts him up. There is a kind of of fear that is good fear, and it is not exclusive of of love. Right. But like there is just like a recognition that this is a dangerous thing. Like a great example of this is

Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan. He's not a tame lion. He's not a safe lion. He's a lion. But he's good. He's good. When my kids were little, our church was also connected to our house in Okinawa. And so my office was upstairs in the church. every now and again, with four little girls, my wife would be exhausted trying to discipline these kids. And so she would say, go tell your father what you did.

And I always knew, because I'd be in my office and I had a window and I could see the stairs come up. I'd see this little head come up very slowly. Very, very slowly. And then it turned and it faced me and there'd be tears in their eyes. I'd be like, I know what's going on here. But I play dumb. And they open the door and it's like, hey, Zoe, Abby, Hannah, whatever, what you doing? Mom sent me up here. Yeah?

Yeah. Why'd she send you up here?

bit my sister.

Hmm. So she sent you up here to be disciplined. Yeah. What do you think we should do? I don't know.

And I would explain, well, you know, I love you, right? Yeah. And because I love you, I can't let you live in rebellion to your mom because we're training you to live in obedience to your heavenly father. So I have to discipline you, right? Yeah. So there can be fear and love in the room at the same time. Or even take creation. Like a few years ago, again, we were trying to teach our kids about America, so we drove to...

The Grand Canyon. mean, this is majestic. It's awesome. It's beautiful. But there are places where it's not just at the tourist center where it's just a cliff and it just drops off and there's a ton of fear like because one slip and you're dead. But there's no other place you'd want to be in that moment. It gets glorious, but you don't play around with it. So Paul says, work out your salvation.

take work out what God has worked into your life. Do this with fear and trembling. Now if this was the only verse that we had on sanctification we would be a sad lot. We would leave here and be like man I got to I got to really try harder and be afraid apparently and tremble.

But this isn't the only verse. In fact, the very next verse is meant for our comfort. The very next verse, verse 13 says, so after you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both the will and to work for his good pleasure. It is God who works in you. This is

Good news, this is gospel. We are saved by grace. We will be saved by grace, but even our sanctification is grace. The word work, there is inner gone. We get the word energy from. It is God who pours energy into us. So if I had a miter saw up here and some two by fours and I started to try to cut it, if I don't plug it in, it does nothing.

But the moment I plug it in, it's got energy. I put on my goggles and I chop it in a half a second. It goes through. This is the kind of work that God wants to put in you. He doesn't leave us on our own. He doesn't save us and say, okay, work it out on your own. And when you die, then I'll meet you there. No, His spirit lives in us to energize us to will and to work. This is a comprehensive working of the spirit in our lives. I love

What Charles Spurgeon says about this verse, he says, assistance of divine grace is not given to us to put aside our own efforts, but to excite them. God comes to us to work in us. What? To work in us to be indifferent? no. To work in us with will, with resolution and firmness. Does he work in us having willed to sit still?

no, he works in us to do. The direct effect of the influence of grace upon the heart is to make a man active. And the more divine grace he has, the more energetic he becomes. A man will never overcome sin except by energy. We have the source of all energy. We have the power to conquer all that keeps us down. We have the Spirit of God.

The new covenant is God has removed a heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. He has put in his spirit so that to to will and to act so not just to give us energy but also to give us the desire. Did you see that this is to will and to work so to have a desire and to actually get to work for his good pleasure. God's good pleasure and our good pleasure are not opposite of each other. They are one in the same. When he

wills and he works in us. do what theologians say is this confluent operation with the spirit. So for example, if I ask you who wrote the book of Philippians, Paul or God? You'd say yes.

So when I say by the spirit in your sanctification as you work for holiness as you make war with your sin as you as you as you strive to to reflect in your life what God has done in you and justification as you do that who's doing that work God or you. The answer is yes. Yes. And if we have any desire for holiness this verse just said well God put it there. Well praise God give me more desire God.

If we have any success in breaking down the hard granite hearts and bringing out the gold, it's God who did that. This is all good news to Will and to work. Well, then Paul goes to an application for the Philippians church. if Jesus is the one who humbled himself, who was obedient to death and is now

reigning as king of kings and lord of lords and we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling but we do it with the Spirit's energy power and desire how now shall we live verse 14 he says do all things if if Christ really is sovereign over all it means he's sovereign over all every thought every action every desire every conversation every relationship every dollar like he is sovereign over

all. We bring it all under His rule and His reign. We do all things. Now when Paul's writing, we tend to view this only through an individualistic lens, and there's a place for that, but he's writing to a church that as a church needed to work out their salvation, bring out what God has worked into them. And for them, he says this, do all things without grumbling or disputing.

that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Paul has gotten word of this church that he loves with the immense pressure that they're facing. They're starting to be some fracturing. There's some disunity. There's some grumbling. There's some gossip. They're losing the narrative. Now, we might not think of grumbling and disunity and gossip as that big a deal, but God takes it very, very seriously.

Because Jesus with his blood bought his bride and has sent his bride on mission and nothing derails mission more than these things. And he says so because Jesus is Lord do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. He says among whom you shine as lights in the world. I like what.

The Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper said about this, said, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine. Mine. It's all his. And when we live in light of that truth, did you see what happens? In a world that is crooked and twisted, that has lost.

their way in a world of brokenness and darkness. When we work out our salvation when we put forth the good that God has put in us we are a light to the world. This is our distinct contribution to the world. But if we if we're not working out our salvation if we are living like all of our neighbors and friends and that don't know the Lord then then there's no distinction there. Jesus put it this way if salt loses its saltiness what is it good for. Nothing.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl, right? He says, no, you are a city on the hill. But when we work out our salvation, our light shines forth and the world can look on. You know, when you go down into the Molly Kathleen mine and you go through the different tunnels, there's a moment where they say, all right, everybody, turn off your lights. We're going to turn off all the lights. And it's unsettling. I don't know if you've ever been a place where it's absolute darkness and you can sense no movement.

whatsoever. And it doesn't take long to let you just sit in that darkness for a moment where you're like, okay, can we turn on our lights now? And then the guy lights a single match. He's walked down the tunnel a long way and you see this single match and you're just kind of like walking towards it because you're this is, you're just drawn to the light. Like this is our role. This is our distinct calling by God.

in Parker, Colorado in 2025 to work out our salvation, to work out what God has worked in so that we might be a light to the world. So what does that look like for you and for me? I don't know. I don't know all the answers. Maybe you're aware of an area where the Spirit is saying, this is where we're going to do the hard work in your heart, in your mind, in your life, in a relationship. Maybe you're already aware of that. And that's good. So ask God to

to work into will in you. Maybe you don't know and so you just begin to pray. Listen none of us have arrived. All of us are in process but with fear and trembling we want to work out our salvation. So we ask the Lord Lord what area do you want to work on in my life in my church in me.

Maybe it's you do foster care. Maybe you are reaching out to neighbors. Maybe the Lord is saying, I want you to be more bold in your witness and in opening your mouth. I want you to be a better father. I want you to shine the light as a mother to your children. Like there are 10 million applications to this passage and the spirit will work with you in showing those things. So for the glory of God.

and the joy of all people, let's work out what God has worked in, amen? Amen, let me pray for us to that end.

Gospel Shaped Minds, Hearts, and Lives

Summary

In this conversation, Mark Oshman discusses the concept of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and their unique experiences of belonging and identity. He draws parallels between TCKs and Christians, emphasizing that believers are citizens of heaven and must live in a manner worthy of their citizenship. The conversation explores the importance of orthodoxy (right belief), orthopathy (right feelings), and orthopraxy (right actions) in achieving spiritual maturity and unity within the church. Oshman highlights that knowledge alone is insufficient for spiritual growth and that true maturity involves a holistic approach that includes love, unity, and practical application of faith.

Transcript

Many of you know that my my daughters weren't born here. They were born in Japan and we were serving as missionaries in Okinawa, Japan. And so they are known as TC case. Anyone ever hear that term? TCK. OK, we got it. Yeah, we have some TC case. We had some in the last TC came in third culture kid. And what it means is that they have a third culture, meaning they don't share the host culture of their.

their parents because they weren't born or raised in that culture in our case here in Denver Colorado and they don't really share the culture of the place they were born Japanese culture because they're not really from there and so that they exist in this third space and that that develops them in certain ways and it gives them opportunities and challenges and so my daughters are all very ⁓ culturally aware that they're aware.

They're observant, they're able to fit in in different places. They're very, they're hyper aware of Americans and their bad behavior overseas and how they're acting. Cause they're like, you don't do that. ⁓ And so that's a third culture kid, but that it's also challenging because they never really feel home anywhere. this America doesn't really feel like home for them. They lived in check. That doesn't really feel like home. They lived in Japan. That doesn't really feel like home.

There is something in TCKs that longs for something of home, but they don't know where to point to that. And so it reveals itself in different ways. It's just ⁓ kind of some funny ways. ⁓ My daughter, Hannah, she loves American commercials. Like no joke, like we have YouTube TV, we're watching a show and a commercial come on and she'll just.

And I'll start fast forward and she's like, dad, no, no, no, stop. The commercials are on. Like, yeah, that's why I'm fast forwarding. Everyone, no one likes the commercials. Like they're entertainment for her. I'm like, where did this come from? Like, wow, who watches commercials? Well, I thought about it when growing up in Japan, we had one channel, one English channel by AFN, Armed Forces Networks. And AFN has all these shows from all the different networks.

in the states that they'll show and they'll have sporting events, but they don't show commercials that they just have this, but they still have this gap in space that they got to fill where a commercial would be. And so they fill it basically with, ⁓ it feels like homemade public service announcements. They're so bad. So we learned all about ⁓ cholesterol levels and ⁓ we learned about how you need to drink a lot of water because you're in Okinawa, it's hot, you got to be hydrated. We learned about

All the different ways that the ocean is going to kill you. And so consequently, none of my daughters love the ocean, even though we grew up there. Like it's trying to get you at all times. ⁓ Learned about, ⁓ what other things we learned? ⁓ yeah, this term OPSEC. Anyone know OPSEC? It means operational security. So there's ⁓ all these commercials with the bad acting where ⁓ this, you know, ⁓ airman is walking home and.

and someone in the shadows is following him and ⁓ you need to watch your operational security, what's going on. And never take the same way home from work as you do. Like who does that, right? Like take a different way home every day, like you can't do it. But we still use that term in our family. Like if we're traveling and it's kind of a dangerous place, say like Marseille, France, and we're like, hey, watch your opsec. And we all know, like don't be on your phone, don't have the earbuds in, like watch what's going on.

There's that, but there's one other commercial that would come up in different ways time and time and time again. And it was basically this, you Americans who are living in this host countries would be Japan, Germany, Italy, Korea, you Americans understand who you are. Understand that you represent America. You represent your citizenship. And as such, you either give a good name to America or you give a bad name and we see this.

all the time. And so the commercial was, hey, represent America well. Paul is getting out here at this point in his letter. Last week, he said something. He basically said, we're all TCKs now. We're all third culture kids. If you are in Christ, have Colossians 1.16, you have been delivered from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the sun.

God loves you have a new citizenship in Philippians three you'll say we are our citizenship is in heaven therefore we never are fully comfortable where we're at. This isn't really our home. Don't get settled in so much. And then Philippians chapter one last week Ryan preached on this but in verse twenty seven it said this only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. And as Ryan said

Paul's not contradicting the gospel. He's not saying earn your salvation. There's one word, manner of life, and we get the word politics from. ⁓ It's a word you might have a footnote, citizenship. He's basically saying, listen, Christians in Philippi, you understand Philippi. Philippi is this Roman colony on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, but they are thoroughly Roman, and they have as such obligations and responsibilities as Romans.

to represent Rome well. And Paul is saying to these people in Philippi, you understand how they do it, but you are citizens of heaven. Therefore, live in a manner worthy of your citizenship in heaven. You represent a different king and a different kingdom. He says, well, what does that look? It looks like ⁓ spiritual maturity manifests itself in spiritual unity. So he says, so that whether I come to you and see you or in absent, I may hear of you.

that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the one gospel. So we are citizens. Chapter two, where we're at today, answers the question, well, how do we actually do that? How do we pursue a spiritual maturity that leads to spiritual unity that reflects the kingdom values in the world? And Paul's going to show us there's actually three things that are necessary. The three things that...

have to be in our lives if we're going to be those kind of people that live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus. And so if you have your Bible ⁓ Philippians chapter two ⁓ we'll pick it up. Actually I'm to pick it up in verse five. I'll read this passage. It's known by some as the Christ hymn. Some some theologians think this is not unique to Paul but rather one of the oldest Christian hymns to teach Christians about Jesus.

that is in existence and Paul is quoting it. You'll see some rhythm to it, but we'll jump off from there. Paul writes this. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours and Christ's, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself.

by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Well, this passage, what you just heard,

is one of the most important ⁓ passages in all the Bible in this area of theology called Christology. What is the truth about Christ? And libraries have been written about this. so Paul pointing to this is showing this first essential that we must have as Christians to reach some level of spiritual maturity. And that's orthodoxy. It's right belief. But like we are ⁓

We are unified on a truth, on the truth. And so it is incumbent on citizens of the kingdom to know the truth, to believe the truth, to tell the truth. And this passage ⁓ tells the truth about who Jesus is. Again, it'd be very hard to overstate every single word and line of this Christ hymn. I'm going to just show you quickly what I mean by this. So I don't normally do this.

But ⁓ I want you to lock in for like three minutes because I want to give you a grammar lesson. You're like great grammar. That's going to be an awesome sermon Mark. ⁓ I know I know but just stick with me for three minutes. I've got my mother-in-law here who's a lifelong English teacher. So this was for her. ⁓ I'm just kidding. But this is important. I just want to show you like how important every word in this Christ him is for our understanding.

and our orthodoxy, our right belief. And so in verse six, it says, though he was in the form of God, those words, though he was, in the Greek it's just one word. it normally gets translated being. It's a participle, know, a verbal adjective, a verb that describes a noun. You're like, yeah, okay, we got that. I was like third grade or something.

Well, here's the deal. In the Greek language, ⁓ that word ⁓ gets translated differently based on circumstances. So it's what's called a circumstantial participle. So depending on the context and the circumstance, you use different words in the English to describe. Does that make sense so far? So let me give you some examples. So the first example I have up here, can we get to ⁓ the example? Okay, so if we have a blank here and it says the baby was crying.

the mother fed the baby. What do you think you would put in that blank? Because, there. So this is what's called a causal participle. Because the baby was crying, the mother fed the baby. Next example. Now don't give it away too quickly here. We'll see if they get here. So this one is blank, the baby was crying, the mother went to bed. What would you put there?

What? Okay, could be in spite. In spite of the fact that the baby was crying, the mother was exhausted. So this is called a concessive. So you might put although, although the baby was crying, like mom's like, I'm done. And so the context would be although. Same exact word in the Greek, but in English, it's context. And there's like five or six more based on circumstances. I just wanted to show you two, causal and concessive. Now, you're like, okay, great.

What does that have to do with this passage? It blows my mind. I hope it'll blow your mind. So in the ESVs, what I'm saying, it says this, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. what is that? Is that concessive or causal? Concessive. It'd be although he was God. And this makes sense. And this could be right. Many scholars land there. And obviously the

ESV scholars land there. It's concessive. Although he was God, he did not consider equality with God something to be clung onto or grasped onto. Totally makes sense. If I'm God, I don't have to serve anybody. Everyone could serve me that that would make sense. And if I choose to, I'm not that that could be true. However, ⁓ one scholar I was reading, Dr. Hawthorne, he spent his life as a Greek professor at Wheaton College.

He says this, listen to this, says if you understand the context, if you understand the flow of Paul's argument and what he's saying about God, it's exactly the opposite. In other words, this ought to be translated. Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who precisely because he was in very nature God, precisely because he did not consider equality with God to be grounds for grasping. So do you see what it's saying?

He's saying, listen, if Jesus, when he came and took on flesh as God in the flesh, he didn't come to conceal who God is, but to reveal who God is. And because precisely because he is God, he is a God who serves. He's a God who gets low. This is an amazing, mind blowing truth about who our God is. Like we read stories of CEOs and up and comers and Forbes and Wall Street Journal and

And the whole aim of this world is to climb the ladder, climb the ladder, climb the ladder, climb the ladder, get to the top. But what we see here in Christ is that that he is coming down the ladder, coming down the ladder, coming down the ladder, even to the point of death, even death on the cross. And when you hit death on the cross, you hit rock bottom. So some quick application for us in our striving and our striving to get to the top.

and are striving to get ahead of others as we climb, climb, climb, climb, climb. The biggest problem with that is that as we're climbing to the top, we'll miss Jesus because he's on his way to get low. I mean, this is this is cool theology, right? Like this is what we we start to see. That's just one example that I wanted to show. But but ⁓ I want I want to say that there should be a warning attached to this.

There should be a warning because orthodoxy alone isn't sufficient for your maturity. In fact, it's actually kind of dangerous. We're all children of the Enlightenment. That means we value ⁓ rational thinking and thought. And we've in some circles boiled down Christianity to ⁓ what do you know about God? And if you know a lot about God and you know a lot about the Bible and you know a lot of scriptures that are memorized, then you must be spiritually

Mature and if you have a platform and if you have books then then we want to be like you we boil down Maturity to knowing things about God now. It is not less than knowing But it is certainly more than knowing We know this right there are plenty of things that you know that have no impact on your life. You know, you should eat better You know, should sleep more, you know, you should

Exercise, you know, you know you should spend more time with your family. Like we could go on and on. My daughters, my teenage daughters, always know the UV levels outside. Yeah. They also know that it's not great for their long-term health. But it does not change their behavior whatsoever. It's actually the opposite. They are always tanning.

I'm sending them reels from doctors thinking if I get more knowledge into them they will change but knowledge doesn't necessarily change us it should like we should read this passage about Christ and be like wow that's going to change me but knowledge alone is actually kind of dangerous ⁓ it's not sufficient it's actually the easiest easiest one of the three that Paul is going to say we need to get ⁓ so for example

We were living in the Czech Republic and in Czech culture it's pretty hostile to the gospel. And so a ministry we were partnering with was like hey we need to we need to bring someone American over here that's going to just be very clear on the gospel. And so they found had this relationship with this guy very large ministry ⁓ strong ministry. ⁓ He's a professor ⁓ in California at a ministry at a seminary. He is a pastor in.

Texas, he's written many books, has his own ministry, like just known for like truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, this guy. So they bring him over there and they say, hey, we need someone to speak to the wives. And so they asked my wife to talk to the wives there. And he does it. He stands up and he proclaims the truth. And everyone's like, yeah, this guy, I want to be like this guy when I'm older. He's 72. And that's what I want my life to be because he is bold for the truth.

Well, nine months ago, it was discovered that this man that's 72 has been in a five-year relationship with one of his seminary students for five years.

that there's some sort of disconnect. I don't know many people that know orthodoxy better than this man and have such a massive disconnect to his life. Listen, every week I can stand up and open up God's Word and say, this is what God says and you should test me in light of scripture to see if I'm orthodox. you can't know my heart. You can't know what's going on in my thought life, how I steward my affections.

I could be a fraud for all you know.

Again orthodoxy without anything else is actually dangerous because we think I must be spiritually mature because I know things about God. That's not true and we have to push back against that. So Paul gives us the second thing that we must have in order to be mature that leads to unity that leads to mission that leads to joy. Verse one says so if there's any encouragement in Christ have any comfort from his love any participation in the spirit any affection.

and sympathy complete my joy. Paul is appealing. Notice the words encouragement, comfort, love, affection, sympathy, joy. These are words of the heart and the soul. So we need orthodoxy but we also need orthopathy. We need right feeling. We need to feel things right. We are to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Our whole body. We live in a culture that ⁓

that we think we're victims to our hearts. We're victims to whatever we feel. Like, well, I, you know, the heart wants what the heart wants. Follow your heart. Like that's paganism. That's not Christianity. Christianity is, hey, you can control your heart. Your heart doesn't have to control you. You can shepherd and steward what you love, what you set your affections on. This is what we're called to. This is good news because you don't have to be a victim of your feelings.

You can recognize that your feelings are not in line with the truth and that there are patterns and pathways to change them. The Puritans got this. They got orthodoxy, but they never disconnected it from orthopathy. Right feeling. Thomas Watson, I'll put it on the screen, this. Knowledge without love inflames pride. The devil has knowledge but no love, and so is a devil still. Knowledge is for the eyes, but love...

is for the heart. So we must cultivate our hearts carefully. Well, how do do that? I just I feel what I want. I want what I want. I love what I want. No, you can you can lead your heart. We see this all over the place in the Psalms. The psalmist are having conversations with their hearts and their soul. Why are you downcast on my soul? Trust in God. The psalmist is reminding. I will remind myself of the

deeds of the Lord. Every song that we sing is not just for our mind, it's for our hearts. Sometimes you come in a room like this and the words, you're not feeling anything, but you are singing to your heart saying, this is what's true. This is what we feel. This is what we love. We've got to understand, as the Puritan said, what stirs our affections for the Lord and what robs our affections from the Lord.

What stirs your affection? Prayer, worship, reminding each other, fellowship, like these things will stir your affection. What robs your affection? Certainly sin robs your affections, but a thousand other things do as well. Like I can give myself to, I can give my emotion and passions to what a 20 year old does with a football more than who Jesus is. I need to give an account for that. I need orthopathy. need right.

feeling but but even that is not sufficient because some of some of us here are more emotional than other more in tune with that but but if you have orthopathy without orthodoxy then you're just going to affirm everything that the world affirms you're say love who you love love what you want follow your heart and and the Bible is gonna say that no that's a terrible path in fact if you have orthodoxy and orthopathy it's still not sufficient there's one more thing that we must have

here we see it beginning in verse two. says complete my joy being of the same mind have the same love being in full of cord and one of mine. He's calling them to unity or or we could say ortho proxy right action. We are called to love God with our minds our hearts and our hands like we shouldn't be satisfied just like well I love God and my mind and my heart and it's personal and private.

No, Christianity is not a personal and private religion. It's a personal religion. Yes, it's not private. We are meant to love God with our actions, with unity in this case. Unity is a huge deal in the Bible. It's not a huge deal in most of our circles, but Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed in the upper room, gathered his disciples and he says, the world will know that you're my followers as you love one another in unity.

Jesus said that. And then in John chapter 17, he begins to pray for his disciples. He says, but I don't only pray for them, I pray for all that will believe after them. So he prayed for you. You know what he prayed for you? Father, make them one as you and I are one. And then he went to the cross and with his blood purchased the unity of his bride, the church. It's a huge deal in the mind of Christ. Christ died for the unity of his church.

And so we should fight for unity, but unity is not easy. Like unity is easy when we all agree and everyone's happy and we sing kumbaya, but when there are legitimate differences of opinion and ideas, then what do we do? Well, usually we just go to a different church. I don't like that. That's not what Jesus is saying. that there is a fighting for unity and orthoproxy that's here.

And so Paul shows us, here's the path. Here's how you get unity. He says, nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Paul appeals to humility. Again, that's why he gives this whole Christology.

not to give you theology, to show Christ has humility. Like until the time of Christ, humility was not seen in the ancient world as a virtue. It was seen as weakness. Rome valued power and dominance and control and pride. And then Jesus came along full of humility. And Jesus followers saw Jesus' humility and they memorized this Christ hymn and they're like, this is the way, the way up is down, the way to glory is...

down. And so humility, but humility is hard, right? It's hard to just generate in yourself, right? I love what Chuck Swindoll says about humility. says, we appreciate humility in others, but rarely want it for ourselves. The price is too high. Humility is not what gets us ahead. And let's be completely honest, we like humble people around us because they don't threaten our position.

They're safe people with that quaint little virtue that keeps them on the sideline during the scramble to the top of the hill. We can afford to be humble after we're king. Church, live in a manner worthy of the gospel. That means humility. We are a humble people. How do we do this? Well, the best book that I know,

that I regularly reread. It's this tiny little book by Tim Keller called The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness. You can read it in 45 minutes. The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness. He actually takes a passage from 1 Corinthians, but it's an echo of Philippians 2. And he shows the path to joy is simply taking your eyes off yourself. Here's what he, I'll put a quote on the screen here. says, humility.

is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself. It's thinking of myself less. humility is not like, I'm so bad. I'm so, no, it's just like, take your eyes off yourself. True gospel humility means I stopped connecting every experience, every conversation with myself. In fact, I stopped thinking about myself altogether.

C.S. Lewis would say, you ever met a truly humble person, you probably wouldn't think that's a humble person. You'd just think, that person was a happy chap, I think he said. That person ⁓ really was interested in me. Like there's just this freedom of lifting our eyes and this is what Paul is calling us to, consider others above yourself. So there it is, orthodoxy, orthopathy, orthoproxy.

How will we pursue spiritual maturity that leads to unity, that leads to joy as a church? Again, if we only value the first one, we'll think, okay, I took notes, it's good sermon, don't really need to do anything. But if we value all three, then we'll consider all three. Orthodoxy, do you know the truth about the gospel? Do you love the truth? Do you proclaim the truth to one another and to others?

Without the truth, we have no common basis for our belief and our mission as a church. We pursue orthodoxy, but not alone. We go to orthopathy. What captures your heart, your imagination, your feelings when you're alone, when your head hits the pillow at night, where's your heart at? So how are you going to lead your heart rather than be led by your heart this week?

What truths of the gospel are you going to rehearse to your heart this week? Maybe in prayer, maybe in scripture reading, maybe in song. What stirs your affections for God and what robs your affections for God? Without right affections, we may be puffed up with pride and not love God or love people. And then finally, orthopraxy. Have you become comfortable with a faith that is merely personal and private? In what ways will you...

Let your knowledge and your passion work itself out in your life this week. How will you use your life to build up, encourage the unity of this church this week? Without orthopraxy, there's no evidence that we are citizens of the kingdom of God. And the whole point of Paul's letter is for our joy. Our mission and our joy are tied together to unity.

Paul knows that enjoying Jesus is tied to one another. Like every organization knows this. Like every sports team knows we must have unity if we're going to win the championship. Like go to a musical performance in the orchestra. There's no unity there. That's a terrible performance, right? Every business knows this. Why wouldn't we know this as the church? Why wouldn't we value what Christ values? Unity for our mission and our joy. There's just too much at stake here to ignore.

these truths. So let's love the gospel in our minds, our hearts, our hands in unity together for the glory of God, the joy of all people. Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.

To Live is Christ

The Gospel Unchained

Transcript

If you have a Bible, Philippians chapter one is where we're at. in week three of our series, our summer series through the book of Philippians. We're calling it Enjoy Jesus. And that's from the themes of Philippians. 16 times you're going to come across the word joy or enjoy. And 31 times you're going to come across Jesus in these four short chapters. So that certainly is the theme. But this is the book of joy. But paradoxically, as Ryan mentioned in his prayer, it's also known as the book of suffering.

And I say paradoxically, not because the Bible says it's paradoxical, but because we and our culture says joy and suffering. Those are like if you had a spectrum over here is suffering and you don't want to spend any time there. You really want to go all the way to the other end of the spectrum where joy and get as far away from suffering as possible. In our mind, that's how it works. Avoid suffering so that we could go to joy.

But Paul is going to show us that that's not actually the case. That the purpose of life isn't to avoid suffering, but that actually, that there is a path to joy even in and through our suffering. In 2003, I graduated from Denver Seminary and had a six month old baby at the time. And we headed off to Okinawa, Japan to do ⁓ military ministry. had a contract with the chapel on base to run.

They're young adult ministry, so 18 to 25 year olds. So you could think college ministry and it was awesome. Privilege of my life. Love working with the military. ⁓ Got to have a lot of fun. A lot of scuba diving, snorkeling, spearfishing, jet ski, all the things. Sports, every Thanksgiving we'd have this massive ⁓ turkey bowl thing. And I was in my late 20s at the time. And so ⁓ it was awesome. But something happened over the years. I noticed that every year

I'd be a year older and they'd be the same age because they were just like switching out and every year I was getting a little slower and a little bit more broken down and and I was like what was this was frustrating to me because they were just keep going there still 18 it seemed like every year and and I realized early on that one of my responsibilities as their pastor was to help develop a theology of suffering.

And that was a particular challenge in that community ⁓ because they are some of the healthiest people on the planet. To be in the military, you had to be healthy. You had to stay healthy. You had to ⁓ continue to get the scores. In fact, to be in Okinawa and bring your family, everyone in your family had to be healthy because they wouldn't send your family over there if they couldn't deal with them there. So they all had to be healthy. And so I would remind these guys and girls, I'd be like, hey,

Life is actually shorter than you think. I know you're living like this is how you're going to live forever. I know you don't believe me when I say your body will break down. You will suffer. You will eventually die. I know you don't believe all that, but that is coming. And it was hard because even when someone did get sick, ⁓ there was occasions where someone would get cancer. Within a matter of days, they would move them out of Japan and back to the States. And so just take that out of their realm.

When my daughter was two years old and in ⁓ the commissary, the grocery store on base, one time my wife was pushing her down the aisle and ⁓ she screams out, she says, mommy, mommy, why does that man have white hair? It was such an oddity to see on base anyone over 40 years old. And so this was the environment. So it was real hard practically to be like, hey, actually ⁓ it's coming.

And the better you prepare for it now, the better you'll be then, but it was hard. But what's true then and there, I think is still true here and now. Yeah, we might have a diversity of age that we didn't have there, but we still, most of us live our lives as if we will live forever. As if things are just going to keep going in spite of the evidence, right? Like last Sunday, I woke up.

I had injured my knee while sleeping.

I still can barely, I'm like, why can't I walk? Well, you're 49 now. You can go to sleep in injury. So some of you, most of you are younger than that. You don't realize that's a possibility, but it's coming. But also this life, like on this side of eternity, there is suffering. You'll lose jobs. If you're married, one of you will bury the other one. Like this is genuine. And I know just pastorally, when we do,

our worship and prayer nights, and we have you fill out the prayer cards. The level of suffering that is in this room every Sunday is just, it's unbelievable. In so many realms, brokenness from the past, brokenness in relationships, brokenness in finances and career and unmet expectations and life plans that have gone astray, like that's all in the room. But we spend most of our time thinking, I...

That's not where God's at work. I just need to focus on God. just need. But but here's the big truth that Paul is going to show us. And it's actually really good news that that whatever area your life in right now you point to as a struggle, a point of pain, an uninterrupted plan like that, that it's that's probably the area in your life where God is at work the most. That God has plans for your joy.

through that. And the sooner we can understand that and begin to wrap our minds around that, the sooner our joy will rise. So we've got to have a broader definition, a theology of suffering, a broader definition of what God's blessings are. make no mistake, we have a lot of blessings here at this time in this place. Most of us are healthy. Most of us do have finances. We have

education, like all those things are good things and evidences of God's grace, but they're not the ultimate thing. And all those things can be taken away tomorrow. And if that's the case, does that mean all your joy goes away as well? Well, Paul wants to give you something better, a firmer foundation for your joy and mine. And that's why I'm so excited for this passage. There's good news. There's a path not

around suffering but through suffering for our joy here now and forever. So if you have your Bible we're in Philippians chapter one and I'll pick it up in verse 12. Paul's writing to the church at Philippi.

in about the year 60 A.D. and he writes, I want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Okay, so if you've been here you know some of the context but I'll just remind us Paul had traveled about 10 years prior to this to the city of Philippi. He brought the gospel. God did a miraculous work. A church was planted. They loved.

their pastor and they were just so encouraged by him. They've now gotten word 10 years later that he is in prison in chains, literal chains in Rome with an uncertain future, maybe death before him. And so they've got two concerns or two major worries that Paul wants to as he sends back a letter to them, he wants to calm them down a little bit. He wants to encourage them. And the first one is

What's happening to our friend and pastor? He's suffering. Is he OK? And so Paul wants to address that a little bit. But the other one is they know the apostle Paul is the in the first century, the preeminent architect of of Christianity and church planting and evangelism. Where Paul goes, churches are being planted. But now he's in prison. So the question in this young church is mine and this young movement is will.

the mission of God continue when God's best man is out of the game. And so Paul wants to put them at rest. He wants to encourage them with that. And so he starts and he says, I want you to know what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. And when Paul says what has happened to me, it's such an understated way of saying what has happened to him. He could have listed out many things. We have them recorded in the book of Acts.

Since he planted Philippi, things have not gone well physically in Paul's life. He's gone into cities to preach the gospel. People got mad. They dragged him out, stoned him, left him for dead, thinking he was dead. When he comes to again, he gets up and he heads back into the city to preach the gospel. Like, probably that's not happened to any of us. Praise the Lord, I guess. But he continues and...

And we read in Acts chapter 20, says, Holy Spirit has testified to me that in every city I go, persecution awaits me. To which I'm like, Paul, stop going into the city. Like that seems like a bad path. He's like, no, but I need to go into the cities to finish the course that God has set for my life. And so he continues. Well, in Acts chapter 21, he's headed on his way back to Jerusalem and this prophet named Agabus comes up to him and

takes his belt and binds his hands and he says, the Lord says, whoever has this belt, this is what's going to happen to him. You're going to go to Jerusalem. You're going to be arrested and you're going to be handed over to the Gentiles and treated, misabused. ⁓ Things are not going to go well for whoever owns this belt. And everyone's like, okay. And Paul's like, yeah, I know. That's what the Holy Spirit told me too. And so the other Christians are like, so Paul, you're too important for the mission.

Don't go to Jerusalem. He's like, no, I swear the Lord told me I need to go. And so he goes to Jerusalem and sure enough, he gets arrested. He gets beaten. He gets handed over to the Gentiles. He appeals to Caesar. So they put him on a ship while he's sailing from Jerusalem or from Palestine to Italy. He ⁓ that there's a storm, there's a ⁓ shipwreck. The ship breaks up. He spends a day and a night in the open sea. Like, that's not fun.

When they wash up on shore, they're freezing, and so they try to start a fire. He reaches into the woodpile, gets bit by a venomous viper. Lord, you're sovereign. Why the viper? Like, that's... I would have some prayer of lament. Like, why, Lord? Where are you, right? But he survives, and because he survives, they think he's demon possessed. Like, all this stuff. Eventually, he gets to Rome.

and chained. And the book of Acts ends kind of unceremoniously. It just says, and then Paul was in prison in Rome for two years. So for at least two years, he's in Rome chained daily to a guard. Hour by hour. But he says something crazy. What has happened to me? All of that has actually served to advance the gospel. So your fears about the gospel going forward, you don't need to worry. And he offers up

two compelling and surprising evidences of God's grace. In verse 13, he says, it's advanced the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. This is really significant and interesting. The imperial guards, the Praetorium, it's the elite special forces of the Roman Empire. And as such, in many ways,

They're the most powerful force in Rome, more so than even Caesar because they have been known to take out Caesars that they don't like. So Caesar wants to be kind to them. Well, for 24 hours a day, in four to six hour shifts, Paul is literally in chain, chained to one of these guards. And Paul says, and because of my chains, the gospel hasn't been changed. The gospel has actually been unchained. It's been.

released 24 hours a day, four to six guys a day are literally a captive audience for me.

This is kind of crazy when you think about it, right? The apostle Paul, you're going to be chained to him for six hours? you're going to get some gospel there. So every like over two years, that's like 2000 guys chained to him. And then, you know, maybe some of them don't say anything. Maybe some of them mistreat him, but others are like, so what are you in chains for? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's because I believe that Jesus,

This Jewish guy is the Messiah. Okay, what's big deal with that? Why believe he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords? And the guards are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay. Now I know why you're here. That's a dangerous thing to say. That could ⁓ end in your death. We say here in Rome, Caesar is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You can't just be saying that. Well, tell me more about this Jesus. Okay, well, yeah, Jesus.

is the Son of God. is God incarnate. He left his throne in glory. He took on flesh to live among us a life of perfect obedience to the Father that you and I could never live. And then after 33 years, he was betrayed and crucified on a Roman cross. And the Roman soldier says, ⁓ crucified. This guy must be a bad dude. he's a bad dude, just not in the way that you think.

because he died on the cross. took his body down. They put him in a tomb and by the power of God on the third day, he rose again from the dead, conquering sin, death and the grave. And after 40 days, he ascended to the right hand of the father so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And every soldier is just like, okay, dude, maybe some are offended.

Maybe some are indifferent, some, some are like, wow. God opens their heart and opens their mind and they're becoming followers of Jesus one by one by one. Their shift is over. They go back to their family. They're like, I got to tell you something happened to me today. I'm a follower of Jesus and their families are like, well, tell us about that. And they tell the story and they become followers Jesus and they're all in, in the.

heart of the Roman Empire, heart of the power of the Roman Empire, the heart of Caesar's household so that some of Caesar's aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and cousins, they're becoming followers of Jesus. So that at the end of the book of Philippians, third to last verse, it's crazy what Paul writes. says, greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brothers and sisters who are with me, greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

This is wild. Paul wants the gospel to go as far as possible. He's now in chains. Everyone's thinking the gospel is not going to go forward and Paul's like, contraire. The gospel is going further and faster than it has ever gone before. And it's just a reminder that God doesn't need any of us to advance his mission. And yet he invites all of us to be a part of it. And so this surprising evidence of grace is the first thing he offers up to

allay their fears and their worries. And he says the second thing, which is also surprising. It says, and most of the brothers and sisters having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear. This is interesting because you would think if the leader of Christianity is seen as suffering and about to die,

that all the followers might scatter, but the opposite is true. It's actually true throughout church history. It's simply this, that Christian courage is contagious. Christian courage is contagious. You can see it in every century where persecution rises up and the church is put to death, burned at the stake, crucified. It doesn't actually... ⁓

The doesn't suppress Christianity, it actually fuels Christianity. Let me give you just a couple of examples. One from 470 years ago, year 1555, during which would start what's called the English Reformation. Prior to this, there was a king, King Henry VI. He brought Protestantism to England for the first time and it began to grow. But then his sister took over the throne. Her name was Queen Mary. She's known as Bloody Mary.

I don't know what you think about Bloody Mary. I thought you just say her name three times in a mirror and she shows up or something like that. Or it's a drink, whatever. But Bloody Mary was named Bloody Mary because of her hatred of Protestants. She wanted to bring back Roman Catholicism into England. And so she gathered up all the Protestant leaders and she would burn them at the stake. And in 1555, she gathered up Hugh Latimer and what's his name? Ridley is his last name, Nicholas Ridley.

and they're leaders of the church and she condemns them to be burned at the stake and so they set up the two poles, they set up the wood, ⁓ their friends had come by and put ⁓ gunpowder on their chests so that it would catch fire quickly and they would die more quickly. It was a mercy to them. Well, they start Ridley's fire first but the problem with Ridley's fire was they used fresh wood. It was green wood. It wasn't burning very fast or hot.

So it was just burning his legs and he's just praying Lord into your hands I commit my spirit into your hands I commit my spirit into your hands I commit my spirit and he's in agony and he's praying Lord let the fire come to me let the fire come to me let the fire come to me just he just wants it to be over and then Latimer next to him he's got a wood pile but his wood is dry wood and it starts to go up very quickly and Ridley suffering and then Latimer says this famous phrase to his friend.

says this, of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man. I love that, play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out. Play the man. Now two observations about that. In a few moments, so Latimer dies first because his wood was hot and fast. Someone had mercy on Ridley. They took a log that was on fire, put it to his chest, caught that, caught that ⁓

gun power on fire and he died after that. cross over from this side of eternity to the next. I imagine they enter into glory together and Latimer just looks or Ridley looks over to Latimer and he's like dude hey Mr. Quickburn ⁓ what was all that about play the man. I was trying. All right. But God used that to absolutely spark a flame of revival throughout all of England going north into Scotland where it reached a guy named

John Knox and John Knox from there just lit that the whole island nation on fire and into Europe as well. Courage is contagious. What Paul wants the Philippians to see, what Paul wants you and I to see, wherever you're at in life, whatever you're facing is simply this. When our passion is Jesus, when that's the all-consuming passion, then our joy will rise above our circumstance.

When your passion is Jesus, your joy rises above the circumstances because circumstances are good and bad, good and bad. And if your joy is tied only to your circumstances, you're going to go up and down. if Jesus is above it all, your joy is secured. Now, Paul knows this. He knows this theologically. He knows this personally. Like he knows the word. He knows the stories.

He knows the stories like Joseph in the book of Genesis, where his brothers leave him for dead. gets sold into slavery in Egypt, but rises up through the ranks so that in the sovereignty and goodness of God through Joseph, the nation of Israel is preserved. His brothers are preserved. And when his brothers realize who it is that is saving them, they're afraid and they think he's going to take vengeance on them. But Joseph knows this truth as well. He says this in Genesis 50-20.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. What you intended for evil, God is sovereign over even that. He meant it for good. Paul knows this. He knows this theologically throughout the word. He knows this personally. Before he goes to Rome, he sends a letter on ahead and in it he writes that famous verse, Romans 8 28. And we know that for those who love God,

all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purposes. That's not a throwaway verse. That this is a ⁓ trust and no matter what I face I can have joy because my passion is Jesus and he's above my circumstances. Well he gives one more just evidence of grace showing that when your passion is Jesus

Your joy will rise above your circumstances in verses 15 through 18. When you first read them you ask the question like what is going on there. What's wrong with these people. Look what he says. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. That's interesting. But others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

This former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Now don't know about you, but I do know my own heart. I do not have yet developed in my soul the gospel flinch.

that the apostle Paul has here. You see what I'm saying? Like when someone is critical of you, or ⁓ as my daughters would say, if someone's one of your ops, ⁓ there's not exactly warm feelings to that, right? Like your ops are trying to pull you down, they're going after you, they're backstabbing you, like all these things.

Like my pride rises up and my my defense rises up and I said, you know, I get personally offended. But that wasn't the case for the apostle Paul. Again, when your passion is Jesus, your joy rises above your circumstances. I love how ⁓ Eugene Peterson put this in his paraphrase in his book, The Message. Listen to how he reworked these verses. I think he gets it right. He says this.

It is true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they'll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I'm here defending the message, wanting to help. The others, now that I'm out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition.

And so the worse it goes for me, the better they think for them. So how am I to respond? I've decided that I really don't care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed. So I just cheer them on.

And that is a joy in Christ, a passion for Christ that has a joy that is above our circumstances. So then the question becomes in all of this for you and for me is this, is Jesus your passion?

Think about that. How do you answer that? Is Jesus your passion? And I don't mean by that, is Jesus one of your passions? Because you're here on a Sunday morning. That's true to some degree of all of us. But I mean, is Jesus just a part of the pie? Like, hey, give me a little bit of Jesus, but I'll really be happy if I have ⁓ this going on in my life and this relationship and this financial state and this vacation and this retirement plan. If I have the whole package,

then I'll be happy. Or or or do you get to a point where the apostle Paul get got to or the Psalmist Psalm 73 in Psalm 73 the Psalmist starts his Psalm and he says as I looked out into the world I saw the wicked prospering. He essentially says and I was mad at God. It seemed everyone else was doing great in their life. Here I am trying to follow and worship God.

And my life isn't like their life. And he's grumbling and he's he's discontent. And it says eventually as he goes through life he comes to this place where he goes into the presence of God and and in the end all he has is God and in the end he finds God is enough. Here's how the psalmist in Psalm 73 concludes his psalm he says whom have I in heaven but you and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Can you actually say if tomorrow God stripped everything from your life, your health, your relationships, your finances, would Jesus still be enough?

I think this question is Jesus your passion. If we're honest with ourselves, maybe what we have to say is no, but I want him to be. And if that's your prayer this morning, that's actually a prayer I think Jesus understands and answers and respects. Look, we all have competing things for our joy. But Jesus loves us too much to let...

The good things become God things because then they become idols and they crush us. Is Jesus your passion? Well, we should also, maybe you're here today and you're like, I don't know about that. I still feel like you've got suffering on one end of the spectrum and joy on the other and never shall the two meet. Or maybe it's something you're going through or have been through or are about to go through and you're like, there's no way my joy can be

⁓ had because of this suffering in my life. I get that. But there is a place you can look outside of your life to know that actually joy and suffering do overlap. It is God's plan. The author of Hebrews tells us about this in Hebrews chapter 12. Listen to what he says. He says, Let us run with endurance the race set before us. So run your race. Let us look to Jesus.

the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. You see the connection? The joy and the cross, the joy and the cross, the greatest suffering the world has ever seen. The cross of Christ where the wrath of God for the sin of man is being poured out on him is a pathway for Jesus's joy, it says, and it's the pathway for our joy. Joy and suffering are.

hide at the cross. So even if you can't make sense of your suffering, you can look to Jesus and see that your joy is eternally secured in Him. Amen. Let me pray for us to that end.