Approaching the Cross - The Message

STORY -

So, to recap: people at the time, they were expecting this messiah. But they were expecting a warrior king, somebody to overthrow the Romans and give them their country back.

They forgot the suffering servant

aspect of the prophecies.

And then Jesus came into the world. The King of Eternity was finally present. But - God was clear through the scriptures that love for the lost was his motivating factor.

Jesus wasn’t here to condemn - He was here to save

But now he’s here. He’s been tested, he’s been baptised. Now he’s ready to preach.

And surely Jesus is going to throw down the gloves here. And he’s not going to pull any punches.

So, here’s a trivia question for you:

What was Jesus’ primary message?

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One topic stands above the rest. And the gospel writers point it out to us.

It’s this:

The Kingdom of God.

Matthew 4:17

Matthew 4:17 NIV

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Now, what does Jesus mean by this? Maybe he’s talking about the fact that there’s heaven, and he’s got a list of rules we all need to follow to get there.

Luke 17:20-21

Luke 17:20–21 NIV

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

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So, the pharisees, they ask Jesus this question. ‘Where is the kingdom going to be?’. Aka,

Where is the best seat in the house?

where’s the ‘holy spot’? and remember, this was right in league with the pharisees - they LOVED the best spot in the house. They LOVED feeling better than everybody else.

Where’s the spot on earth where God says, ‘that’s the place where I am - so you have to make sure you’re there.’

For the jews at the time, it was the temple. And there were STRICT rules on how to enter the temple. And the spot where God’s presence actually sat - the holy of holies - could only be entered once a year, by the high priest, with a sacrifice, on pain of death.

And Jesus says, not only is there not one - that’s not even how it works anymore.

See, the pharisees were VERY concerned about providing a clean and holy temple for God to live. The temple was the very spot where God’s presence intersected with earth.

But Jesus had another idea.

John 14:23

John 14:23 NIV

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

God sees the problem of sin - and decides that He is going to be the one who is punished for it

God sees the people who have gone astray - and decides He’s going to come and rescue us, rather than give us exactly what we deserve

And now, Jesus is saying, that God’s coming to earth, and the spot that He picked out for himself ...is in our hearts.

God came to live with us, and in us

and this is what Jesus means when he talks about the kingdom - what it looks like to have God living right with us, working right in us, and working in the world through us.

and I think it’s really upside-down compared to

what we expect, or how we unconsciously act

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And here’s a question I ask to people who have been around in a church for a while. I’ve seen this happen a lot. But the way I’ve seen many churches operate, and how they approach the presence and movement of God - it’s almost like we believe that God is just itching for a reason to smack us one.

Now, don’t get me wrong - God is holy, and pure, and He works in every situation to drive away sinfulness and draw us towards greater holiness.

But his perspective isn’t ‘throwing out the trash’ - it’s

Cleaning up the house

Jesus said above, that His father and him were working to MAKE their house with us.

and I mean, has your house ever gotten messy enough that one day you’re like, that’s it. i just have to throw the whole house out.

God is always working towards greater holiness. But he’s doing it by moving in with us, and helping to clean up. He doesn’t drive us away.

And that should radically change our approach to how we understand Him.

I’ll tell a quick parable from Jesus - it’s called the Parable of the Lost Sheep

Problems are Projects

Your problems aren’t tickboxes God checks until he gets to a certain level - they are projects God works on to try and help you

People are priorities

The shepherd’s goal here is to find that lost sheep - not to leave it to it’s fate

If you want to see the greatest joy on God’s face when he looks at your life - find lost sheep

In fact, in this scenario, the shepherd isn’t beating the sheep, or hating on it, or abusing it for being a dumb little sheep that wandered off. He’s calling his friends to rejoice that he found it

Plan is preservation

What’s the shepherd’s ultimate goal? To keep his sheep.

God isn’t working to keep you out - he’s working to keep you in!

So what should we do about it?

Spend some time this week just on the idea of

Getting to know God in a new way

and if you’ve known God for a why, you may ask - why a new way? Simple. Freshening things up a bit often teaches us something new.

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So what are some new things you can do?

Take up a simple reading plan. There’s a great app out there called ‘The Bible App’ by youversion. They have amazing reading plans that are short and easy to go through. After service, I will post a few ideas of ones you can check out on Facebook.

OR if you’re a visual person, watch a study through Rightnowmedia. Same deal - I’ll post some suggestions after the service.

Sometimes, you’re a person that really likes getting into the practical nitty-gritty. There’s these great things called ‘Spiritual Disciplines’. It’s a fancy way of saying ‘Committing to doing a specific thing the bible talks about for a period of time’.

Prayer

Listening to worship music

Silence and Solitude

Meditation (this basically means, pick a bible verse, and spend some time just praying and asking God for wisdom about this particular verse)

Later today, I’m going to post a question - ‘What do you do regularly to get closer to God?’ and let’s see some discussion in the comments. Offer ideas to encourage other people. Or come on to learn something new you can do. But share the wealth, check out our facebook, and get talking