Messiah Before the Foundations - Part 8

[00:00:00] There are moments in your career, defining moments. Everyone has defining moments in their career, whatever their career is. [00:00:10] As a rabbi, I think the last seven weeks have been, for me, a defining moment. Years in the making of having to really ask questions, tough questions, about God, about Messiah, about salvation. [00:00:33] And I know that we have questions. [00:00:36] Who saw this report this week that earth, that seven other planets were discovered of some sort that could inhabit life? [00:00:44] Did anyone think about what that would mean if life like us was found on another planet? [00:00:53] Did anyone think about that in a biblical context, what that would mean? [00:01:00] It would take some real questions, worthwhile questions about God, about Messiah, about where we go when we die, about, I mean, everything. [00:01:10] Because the truth of the matter is we don't know very much. We know only in part. And as the rabbis say, when Messiah comes, he'll explain it, all right? And that's why we say Messiah come, because we really want to know. We really want to know. [00:01:28] But this series of christology for messianic believers, I don't care if you're jewish, non jewish. I don't care if Messiah is a central component of your life. [00:01:44] What has come down the pike for the last 2000 years is different. [00:01:52] It's different than what we read in the text. I mean, there's just no way around that. People saying that Yeshua came and he undid the law. But then we read Matthew five and it says, I didn't come to abolish the law. [00:02:10] And just like concepts of God that have been developed, that if you really look at where they came from, they're loosely derived from the text, but they don't really accord with what the Bible says. And more importantly, what Jesus himself said about himself and about his father. And so this pivotal moment in my life is a pivotal moment that, like it or not, you came along with. [00:02:46] I've known these answers for a long time in my own mind, but I never had the courage to articulate them to a group of people. Because you know why? When you do it, you run risks? There are risks because we're talking about paradigms, we're talking about dogma, we're talking about thousands of years of tradition. [00:03:13] And last week, as a matter of fact, and I know these messages are recorded, and that's fine, I don't know that this particular person who was here last week is going to be listening to the messages based on what I'm getting ready to say. But nevertheless, we had a message last week. What have we talked about? Back up. What have we talked about? Seven weeks, first of all. Usually you get about six weeks in a series and then everybody checks out and that's it. So that was last week six. We're at seven. [00:03:44] So I figured I'd better do something either like extremely controversial or extremely motivating and powerful to keep you awake and alive. [00:04:01] Seven weeks into a series. I hope you know more than you did when we started. About the question, who do you say I am? [00:04:11] Who do you say the son of man is? Week one, the word of God, the word made flesh. Week two, pre existent Messiah before creation. Week three, the shaliak, the messenger. We talked about it. The son of man. In week four, filled with the Holy Spirit. In week five, the son of God. In week six, we talked about his humanity, that he had to be fully human to be tempted to have the capacity to sin. We talked about his divinity. He had to have the authority of God, and therefore the logos, the very essence of God. Six weeks, 6 hours, basically, of teaching that you have been through. And man, if I don't watch myself, we'll be here for 2 hours talking about today's. I'm not going to do that to you. [00:05:03] But last week we talked about son of God. And I was sharing some things that might at least shake the paradigm. [00:05:17] And somebody in the congregation got upset and said, I don't know if you were here or not, but our question was Jesus is God. Is Jesus God is Jesus not God? How do we reconcile this? And at one point in the service, someone I heard later said with some great animosity in his voice, Jesus is God. [00:05:48] And the thing is, that's the risk I've had people come to me and say, why are you teaching such controversial. I mean, why would you go there? Why not just stick to the stuff that teaches well, that preaches well. And you know what? After this week, I'm asking myself the same question. [00:06:14] But I've had a lot of you come to me and say thank you, and I'm not tooting my horn. Please do not take it that way. Thank you for addressing, talking about, being willing to put out for discussion. I've told you from the beginning, these are things I believe. [00:06:37] They're things I believe from prayer and from study. Passionate, I think hundreds of hours of reading and study and listening, but I believe it. I'm not telling you, you have to believe it. But what I hear resonating from the people who have been active and participating is these are questions that I want answers to. [00:07:03] Unfortunately. Unfortunately, if we have a 70 week series, there will always be questions why? We're dealing with a mystery beyond our comprehension. God, divine, human, divine Messiah. His origins, how he did what he did, what he did, why he did it, mysteries. [00:07:27] But my hope is, and the question has been asked specifically in this congregation, I get it. The quote was, I get it cognitively. [00:07:40] Like, I can logically think through it. I get it. [00:07:45] But what do I do with Yeshua, if my paradigm is shifted at all? [00:07:57] And I hope. I really, really wanted to conclude this series this week, but I don't think I can. I think it will be next week, and it will be a short and sweet, unlike today. This will be sweet, but not short. [00:08:14] It will be a short and sweet declaration of what we do with Yeshua, the messiah. [00:08:23] And I can tell you one word that is in it will be exalted, magnified. [00:08:30] That's two words. How about three? Glorified. [00:08:34] At the right hand, we are going to have him in the place he merits to be, because he is the messiah. [00:08:46] To get there, we ask some tough questions. And it's been fun. [00:08:51] For you, maybe, not for me, because I stand in fear and trembling. Literally fear and trembling. I have asked my brothers to pray for me, please. Because, gosh, I don't ever want to lead someone wrong. I don't want to plant even a micro seed that could germinate and lead you astray. So, God forbid, as we proceed, I asked a lady a question this week. I said, simple question. And listen, I know the phrase, Jesus is God. Jesus is not God. Was Jesus God all this? There's no way, I'm sorry for you to know why I'm saying that and what I mean by that without being informed by the last six weeks. And so I've learned this lesson. It's very difficult to do series like this when everyone's not here every week. [00:09:52] But you do have the option, through the app, to go back and listen to the last six weeks of teaching to get to where we got today. But I asked the lady, was Jesus God? [00:10:06] And she said, well, yes, he was. [00:10:13] I said, there's not a right or wrong answer. I want to know what you believe. Was Jesus God? Yes. Well, I mean, the Trinity. The second part of the Trinity, God. [00:10:26] And I said, okay, so I want to ask this question then. [00:10:32] Did God die? [00:10:39] And she said, my first answer, of course, is no. [00:10:46] And I said, well, I'm asking you. I'm hearing you talk. [00:10:53] How? How did he not, if Yeshua is a part, if Yeshua is. If he is. The Trinity is according to the theology of the Trinity. Three persons, one God. [00:11:09] How did he not. How did God not die? [00:11:14] And she said something that I think is the common answer. [00:11:22] I don't exactly know. I mean, saying it and asking it really makes me think about it. I don't really know. [00:11:30] I've just always believed it. It is what it is, right? I hate that phrase. It is what it is. [00:11:38] It's not often what it is. [00:11:41] Here's a better way of saying it, as a side note, when someone says, it is what it is to you, and you want to give them a little slap, don't say that to me. You say, it is what it is, and you say, yeah, but it will be what you make it. [00:11:53] That's a good conclusion of that. That's free. That's just a bonus to the message. [00:12:03] The truth of the matter is, it's a rhetorical question. [00:12:09] Of course God didn't die. [00:12:15] The universe hangs on God. [00:12:19] Everything is created and maintained and sustained and lives and breathes by God. [00:12:27] Of course he didn't die. [00:12:31] But is it a confusing question for people who may not either don't ever think about it, or just like, I can't even think about that. I mean, that'll blow up my brain and it's not worth thinking about. But the thing is, the questions are still there, whether you say it or not. [00:12:54] Of course he didn't die, but something did. [00:13:04] Something that might be not the best language. [00:13:11] There was a death at Golgotha, a death with blood and pain. [00:13:18] Sacrifice cries out to heaven, a death. [00:13:28] But I heard Daniel Lancaster say one time in a message, he said, where is this premise? [00:13:41] Know? Where do we find in the Bible this law of the universe that says to God, if the human species you created should sin, they must be obliterated, unless you come and die for them. [00:13:58] Where is it? [00:14:00] Well, there's a lot of pointers, there's a lot of different things. [00:14:06] But it's kind of a crazy question, and it's a heretical question, actually, for many people. This is why you just don't talk about things like this. [00:14:27] Of course not. God can't die. [00:14:32] But Yeshua is all these things, right? Colossians one. In him, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. Hebrews one. He is the radiance and the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. Philippians two, Yeshua Mashiach, who, though he was in the form of God, what does that mean? [00:14:57] It's just chalked up to mystery. We'll never know. The human, fully human, fully God. He died and. [00:15:05] Go on. [00:15:09] We know what it means that Yeshua was in the form of God. John one ties everything together. And we've spent plenty of time talking about John one. We're not going back right now. The word became flesh. But the question remains, and here, I think, is the essence of where we lost it along the way and why christology and councils and every other thing became so convoluted and mysterious. [00:15:52] It is because we've lost sight, and I've made a lot of points toward this during this message. [00:16:00] We've lost sight of the importance of the Humanity of Messiah Yeshua. [00:16:12] What died? [00:16:17] His humanity. His flesh. [00:16:21] He laid down his flesh. It says, you know, the King James has funny language for this. It says, when he breathed out his last. The King James says, and he gave up the ghost. [00:16:34] That's funny wording. [00:16:37] That's strange. How about we go with the delich, hebrew, english gospels, which say, and he died on the cross, and he gave. He breathed out his soul. He breathed out his life. [00:16:58] And where did it go? And what happened? And what was that soul? Yeshua is an incredibly incredible. You remember this? [00:17:08] Your boy is different, Mrs. Gump. [00:17:17] Yeshua is different. [00:17:21] He is beyond comprehension different. Yeshua in his own right makes up some kind of Yeshua trio. [00:17:31] How can we explain it? How can we explain that? He says, the one who descended from heaven must also ascend. He has this exalted soul that was from before. He possesses the divine logos, which John talks about. We saw the logos in action in the Hebrew and the English that Irvin read today. [00:17:55] The word of God. [00:17:58] The logos, the active force of God interacting with his people on earth. I send you, angel. Listen to him. Don't depart from him. My goodness. What could this be pointing to? [00:18:10] Active participation. But he has the logos. He has the exalted soul. That was different. There was something special. [00:18:19] And he has to have a human inclination. He has to have the ability to sin. [00:18:30] What died? [00:18:33] That which he had mastered so perfectly. That which merited. And the scriptures go on and on and on about how Yeshua, the man. [00:18:48] The man laid down his life. [00:18:54] And the mystery is, I cannot explain to you Yeshua's exalted soul and the logos and the evil inclination. There is some mysterious component. When he breathed out his soul, what happened? He breathed out his soul, and with it went the logos. We talked last week about authority. We talked about why the son of God? Why can't he just be a good guy who really loved the Torah and was just so good and did everything. Why? Because he needed authority. He had to have the authority of God within him. How did he get that authority? He got that authority from the logos. [00:19:37] Did the logos lay down and die with his flesh? Of course not. [00:19:42] God can't die. [00:19:49] An even greater confirmation of Yeshua's need for the son of God, the logos, the divine inspiration from heaven, is he didn't just lay down and have a little dead party for three days and say, come on, father, get back here and get me lifted up again. I got things to do. He was doing things that we can't understand or ever know. But do you know how he did them? [00:20:16] He did it because the father put his name within him. And every authority he has comes from his father in heaven, the logos. And when he breathed it out, it wasn't just a vacation waiting for three days. Wherever he went, whatever he did, he did it in the power of the logos. [00:20:40] But why? [00:20:44] Why someone? [00:20:51] Why did Yeshua have to die? [00:20:57] Again, it goes back to our question. [00:21:00] Where do we find it that a man must die for the sins of all? [00:21:07] It's a question a lot of people ask. It's a question jews have no concept. Well, that's not true. There's a suffering messiah and some of those things. But the idea that a man takes on the sins of the world and that we find redemption through him, where is it? How does it work and why? The answer is absolute and clearly. [00:21:32] He died for my sins, that I will go to heaven when I die. [00:21:45] I mean, is there anything more basic than about why Yeshua died? Right? Is this the answer? He died for my sins? [00:21:57] Can I suggest to you that in his humanity, which he laid down, there is something so much bigger and so much grander and so much more cosmic and, like, beyond comprehension than he died for my sins so I can go to heaven. [00:22:21] You know, when Paul talks about the first Adam and the second Adam, everybody completely and totally understands that, right? I mean, you've processed through this, the first and the second Adam, and there's this language. He says it in Romans one. [00:22:44] I'm sorry, not Romans one. One corinthians 15. [00:22:48] Thus it is written. Just listen, because again, I ask a lot of questions during the week of people as I'm preparing messages and I'm listening to what they say. Thus it is written. The first man Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven, as was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Man. [00:23:28] Gosh, that's a lot of man. [00:23:32] What in the world does that mean? [00:23:38] We all have an idea of what it means. [00:23:46] Why did Yeshua die? [00:23:50] Or the better question is, how could that work? [00:23:56] Well, because it's God, and he can do anything that works. If you're having a conversation with your five year old and you say, because I said so, you guys are not five year olds, and neither are the people out there who have questions. Why? How? What? You know, the concept. And to revisit this on the app, Darren did a class called nothing but the blood during Yom Kippur, talking about sacrifice, atonement, redemption, blood, all of it. And he elaborated very specifically on a concept that is very familiar in Judaism called the suffering of the righteous. [00:24:38] We know what I'm talking about. Suffering of the righteous. You find this even in writings contemporary with Yeshua, like the book of fourth Maccabees, where there's a. [00:24:53] Let me see if I can find that quote. [00:25:05] I don't remember where I put it, though. [00:25:10] Bear with me. You with me? Okay. [00:25:14] The jewish sages, those who accept suffering lovingly, unconsciously bring salvation to the world. [00:25:23] This is the jewish understanding of why bad things happen to good people. [00:25:29] Proverbs, for the Lord reproveth him whom he loveth. Second Maccabees. Pre Yeshua speaks of the suffering of martyrs atoning for the whole nation. Fourth Maccabees, which is. This is apocryphal stuff, but basically contemporary with Yeshua, more or less. Make my blood their purification and take my life in exchange for theirs. And you can read first Enoch, and you can read Isaiah 53 and all kinds of things that talk about the suffering of the righteous atoning for sins. It's a jewish concept. [00:26:08] But how does it work? [00:26:10] How does the math work? Can one man atone for the entire world? [00:26:18] Well, if he's God, he can. [00:26:20] I know, but we're talking about something unique here. We're talking about his humanity, his perfection, his total righteousness as a holy Saddik, a man who never departed from the ways of Torah. Please, at this point, do not check out and say that. I'm saying Yeshua is only a man, because I'm not saying that I'm saying that we have to look, because Paul talks specifically about these adomic connections twice in one Corinthians and Romans, he's talking about it. There's something unique that happened, and I do believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that in Yeshua's atoning death at Golgotha, that our father in heaven tasted mortality, human mortality. Not his mortality, of course, but through the death of his son, he tasted mortality. [00:27:30] There is a problem that could only be reconciled by the human divine messiah. Adam stole from God, and he therefore stole from you. [00:27:50] What did he steal? [00:27:55] Well, not the original sin stuff. [00:27:59] Not the original sin stuff, because that also finds no footing in Judaism, that we are born into the world, damned by default. [00:28:09] We are born into the world with a soul that's from God. [00:28:15] It's a pure soul. Please, if you sin, don't blame it on Adam. [00:28:21] If you sin, you want to sin, you chose to sin. [00:28:30] But Adam was given a pure soul, and God wanted relationship with him and had relationship with him, special relationship. [00:28:51] Do you know Luke's genealogy in three? Do you know who Adam's father is? [00:28:58] Do you know how he's described there in Luke three? Goes all the way from Yeshua, the supposed son of Joseph, and down through all the guys. And then we get to son of Enos, which always makes me think of the dukes of hazard. I never knew it was a biblical name. Enos. Deputy Enos. We get all the way down, and there is Adam. [00:29:23] And Adam is called the son of God. [00:29:31] That's strange. [00:29:33] But he was. [00:29:35] He was created by God. [00:29:40] He had no father other than the father. [00:29:48] But you see, Adam's humanity, he stole from God and he ruined it for all of us, because through him entered sin and death, separation from God, ultimately, and death. [00:30:16] And he was no son of God in the sense of what we're talking about. [00:30:25] But there is such an interesting quote that I think tells the story of Adam and Yeshua, the first Adam and the second Adam. And we find it in the scripture, which is usually always a good place to look for answers in Philippians two. Listen to this. When it says, yeshua mashiach, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. [00:31:03] Yeshua mashiach, although he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as something to be grasped. Do you know what the word means? Grasped. [00:31:13] Grasped. It means to steal, to rob, to take without authority, to take that which is not yours. Do you know Adam's problem? [00:31:24] He was created in the image of God. He was called a son of God. He was special. Rabbinic literature talks about his exaltedness, and Adam was something great, but what he couldn't get over is what we can't get over. [00:31:38] He wanted equality with God, and so he reached out and he took it from the tree, well, from his wife. But we won't get into that right now. [00:31:54] No, I don't know how it all worked, but all I know is Adam stole from God and he stole from you, and he did it in his humanity. [00:32:09] And you continue to read on in Philippians about what it says about Messiah, and you read from there. What does it say? It says he did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself. [00:32:28] 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, that is the key word. Therefore, therefore, because he did this in his humanity, which Adam was a complete and total failure in, he did this for you. [00:33:01] He reconciled the equation. [00:33:07] Do you know the sages teach that everything that befell Adam happened in one day? [00:33:12] One day. [00:33:14] Boy, that is a pretty crappy, pretty crappy day and pretty crappy track record looking at Adam. [00:33:24] Hey, name all these beasts. Hey, I created you out of the ground. Look at yourself. Now I'm going to split you in half and give you a wife because she's going to be beautiful, you're going to have fun. You'll walk around naked, you won't worry about it. It's going to be good. You'll name all the beasts. It's going to be really excellent. And by the way, one commandment, one thing, one thing, one thing. [00:33:48] Don't do this, okay? [00:33:55] One day. [00:33:58] Remember we talked about Yeshua coming up out of the Jordan river, being filled, being activated. The logos, the Holy Spirit, is alive and he's ready for his mission. And what happens? The spirit takes him where? [00:34:12] Bam. Right to temptation. Wilderness. What did he tempt him with? Things that human beings would fall for. What was the temptation? I will make you like God. [00:34:26] All you have to do is reach out and take it. It's right before you take it. Take it. [00:34:35] And he quotes Torah and he shuts him up and he shuts down the enemy and he goes on from there, man, the man of dust versus the man of heaven. [00:34:59] What a reconciliation in him, in his perfect submission, perfect son of promise, with all of humanity's sin. The man of heaven's righteousness, humility, heart of a servant outweighed them all and why he was so connected to the father nothing could separate him nothing could separate him devecoot right clinging he clung to the father we talked last week about all the John is such a book it's such a book talking about him and in this fullness of deity that was within him with this power of God in his humility he sacrificed, submitted and laid it down and even though he could have asked his father to call down legions of angels and he could have come off that cross if he wanted to and all those other things that he could have done in the logos and in the power it was always, always and still is your will be done not mine and my friends that's the example the messiah who had all of God within him who chose instead humanity which died on a cross in Golgotha because he was submitted to his father's will this is elementary stuff it is. I mean it's salvation and there's so much that I want to say about God dying and this and that we don't even have to born of a woman a man a real man a true and perfect israelite according to Nathaniel a fitting representative and one man embodiment of the nation could reconcile the world back to his father how does the math work? Sin entered by one man eternal life came by the man from heaven one man as one trespass led to condemnation for all men so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men for as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners so that by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous therefore. [00:37:44] Therefore God exalted him the man Yeshua the exalted soul infused with the full essence of God the image of the invisible God to be seated at the right hand and the humanity was taken up into the divine and there he sits the father pointed to Yeshua all throughout the Torah and this was a good example but listen to me when you read and this is where we want to be is that when we read the Torah and we hear him talking about I'm put my name in him listen to him, don't depart from him that we don't have to be forced to say it's Jesus, it's Jesus right there and does that sound heretical? [00:38:38] I mean you can understand now everything that God did pointed to this event to the logos that filled all these people all these angels and burning bushes and everything in the Torah all came and took up residence in King Messiah. [00:39:07] And he makes it. And this is where we end. [00:39:13] Yeshua makes it so simple. [00:39:18] Because seven weeks of christology is enough to explode your mind. Yeshua makes it simple. [00:39:25] And he says this. [00:39:28] Believe in God. [00:39:31] Believe also in me. [00:39:34] Inseparable. [00:39:37] John 17 and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God. [00:39:45] And Yeshua, the Messiah whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. What was the work? What was the work? We just did it. [00:40:10] The man of heaven versus the man of dust. [00:40:14] The reconciliation for all of us. [00:40:18] Exalt me to the glory I had with you before the world existed. And my friends, thank you, God. There he sits. [00:40:31] There he sits, exalted in glory, at the right hand of God, having reconciled all men unto God, who will receive him? The son of man, the son of God, the word made flesh. Listen to me. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. And after making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And now, and I believe, seated at the right hand of God sits the resurrected coming king. [00:41:18] And what is he waiting for? [00:41:22] The same thing he always waited for. [00:41:26] To hear his father's will and complete it. [00:41:34] And that's what he will do. And because you, all of you, God willing, if not, please see me after, have placed your faith and trust in Messiah Yeshua. When he comes to complete the work and establish the kingdom, we are together with him and the father, inseparable. [00:42:06] And that sounds like a conclusion. And it is actually for today, but next week, an answer to that specific question. [00:42:18] What do I do with what I've always known about Yeshua? How do I reconcile? How do I, as they say, make him lord of my life? What does that mean? [00:42:33] And we will, God willing, come as a congregation to a healthy and full understanding and dialogue and love, admiration, connection to God through Messiah. Yeshua Shabbat alum. [00:42:55] Amen.