The Way Home

Exile Week 4

The Way Home

Good Morning, Welcome to River’s Edge Church this morning.

I started this series by telling you about an experience I had at a restaurant in Venice beach.

I want to come back to that story for a minute…and if you haven’t heard it…Here is the twitter version

Desiree and I went to lunch for our anniversary in Venice and when we sat down they offered us water…and then Chlorophyll to put into the water …It was so wild and strange

The restrooms were like these multi-gendered bathrooms which I guess fits the area but it threw me off , because like I said before…I am a little old fashioned…I don’t want to go to the bathroom in front of a woman...

and then for dessert we were offered these really expensive brownies…with something extra in them...

It was as if I had stepped into a strange land…I was a complete stranger in that restaurant

It reminded me that as a christian...The way the culture is going, I just don’t fit.

I am a stranger in a strange culture...

So for the last couple of weeks we have been talking about what it means to be in cultural exile...

How can we embrace exile without compromising our faith?

How do we live as strangers in this world, but still bless it?

How do we reveal God to a world that thinks that we have these crazy archaic values?

So again: Last week we were in Babylon…

This week we are asking the question…what does it look like to come home?

Flip your Bibles open to Isaiah 40.

Its not labeled this way in your bibles but when you do a study of Isaiah you find that there are really two works of Isaiah

Chapters 1-39 pronounce this judgment that is to come because of Israel’s sin. But it also announces that there will be a new king. A king in the line of the great king, David. A king who would rule forever. And somehow this king is the way home…

But in chapter 40 begins what is commonly referred to by scholars as 2nd Isaiah just because it is begins a section of writing that is so different… this new sequence of hope…of returning from Babylon. It talks about how this new king will suffer for us and take up our sin and by his own punishment we will somehow find this peace that we are so desperate for in our lives.

Isaiah 40 is sort of this vision of YAWAH himself leading his people out of exile and back to Jerusalem…There is a lot to this chapter but we will only read vs. 1-5

Isaiah 40:1-2

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

Do you get it? Israel has paid for her sins…She is now able to return home to Jerusalem…from exile

Next look at verse three and ask yourself if you have heard this anywhere before...

Isaiah 40:3-5

3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

So you sort of get the vision here?

The Israelites were coming home and the idea was that YAWAH himself lead Israel home from exile...

But if you have read the New Testament at all Isaiah 40 really jumps out at you

Why? Lets look at Matthew 3:

Matthew 3:1-3

The New International Version (Chapter 3)

3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness,‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” 

to announce that Jesus was coming.

The messiah

God with Flesh on

The son of man

The one who would redeem and restore all of humanity...

John the Baptist quotes this very famous verse out of Isaiah...

And he is saying…Look Guys…Through jesus…we are set free…Through Jesus we are no longer slaves.

Jesus is the one who will bring us true freedom...

But for the Jews when they returned home from Exile

They found a temple that was burnt down and a city with no walls up...

This is what the entire book of Ezra/Nehemiah is all about

In the book of Ezra, the temple is rebuilt ...

and in Nehemiah they rebuild the wall around Jerusalem...

Lets just look at this little verse from Ezra 3 when they are laying the foundations of the temple...

Ezra 3:12

12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.

The generations are colliding here.

They wept because they remembered Jerusalem in all its glory…

and I think they wept because they realized that we are never going back to Jerusalem in all its glory…That God needs to do something new!

But their kids…they grew up in Captivity, they heard the stories of how great jerusalem was... so when they see the stones being laid for the temple…They are shouting for Joy...

So we get this sense that they may have returned to the land but it was just this glimmer of what it used to be

In addition to that, When the people of Israel came home from Babylon They were never really home...

They were a client kingdom of the Persians

And for years the Persian empire marched through Israel to fight the Greeks and

But then the Greek empire splits into 4 kingdoms and Israel is right in the middle..

Alexander the Great finally finishes off the Persians…But he comes through Jerusalem to do it…and for about 200 years these Greek governors act as sort of high priests in the temple…and it is just this horrible defiled place

And finally by the time that Jesus comes…The Roman empire is firmly in control of Jerusalem

King Herod had actually refurbished the temple…It was part tourist attraction and part place of worship

But King Herod, to show that Rome had paid for the temple renovations put a giant Roman empirical eagle across the top of the temple:

So as you might imagine…For 500 years your people have been home from exile...

They are living in their land, but they have never truly been home.

I mean, The temple which is of the most sacred and holy site of your life has a Roman eagle above it…It is defiled

and because of that Roman Eagle above the temple, there was a Jewish led rebellion that is actually mentioned in the bible in Acts 5

This rebellion lead to the crucifixion of 2,000Jewish rebels…And not only that during Jesus’ life there was almost a continuous rebellion against the Romans...

The people of God were Home…But they were not really home!

They were back in their land but they were absolutely conquered...

And not only that…Their good jewish life…where everyone lived and acted like them…where everyone ate kosher…where everyone just followed the 10 commandments and went to synagogue & kept all of the festivals

This was all slowly replaced by the Greco/Roman Culture that was just seen as sinful and disgusting by the Jews...

And it is in the midst of all of this that John the Baptist says prepare a way and quotes Isaiah 40...

He is saying…You know how YAWAH is going to lead us out of exile?

And in an unexpected twist, YAWAH took on Human flesh

Isaiah see’s this future king (Jesus) as the one who will truly lead Israel and the entire human condition out of exile

So Jesus gets baptized by John the baptist

Then he goes on to preach out of the book of Isaiah

When you begin to study Jesus you see that he loved to quote Isaiah…Why?

because all of humanity was exiled from their true home.

This garden of Eden, the garden of Delight...

And Isaiah is all about how God will come back to us and restore us from that exile.

When Jesus is beginning his ministry and preaches his famous 5 word sermon…The Biblical author Matthew frames it all in Isaiah

Matthew 4:12-17

12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,

Galilee of the Gentiles—

16 the people living in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

a light has dawned.” 

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

The invitation out of exile, is to repent and live in the kingdom of God. (Matthew 4:17)

As an exile in this world, Jesus inaugurated an “upside-down” Kingdom.

Everyone already knows the rules of our worldly kingdom. They say:

if you want to be happy, save money and build equity;

carefully build your reputation and status;

maximize your life by pursuing what you’re most passionate about.

But in Jesus’ new Kingdom:

you become rich by giving, not saving (Luke 18:22); 

you are exalted by humbling yourself (Luke 14:11); 

and you receive real life when you lose yours (Matthew 10:39).

This by the way is what Jesus says the good news is.

That God’s rule and reign on this planet is available to us.

The good news is that you no longer have to find your identity and live by the rules of political kingdoms, of cultural kingdoms or anything like that ...

The good news is that when we learn to repent and accept the kingdom of Jesus…Heaven is available to us right now.

Think about this word “Kingdom” for a second. This is a super political world.

For thousands of years kings and queens, emperors and Tzars have ruled the world.

It has really only been since about 1918 that world wide that monarchies have stopped working...

So for Jesus to walk into the scene and to say that a new kingdom is available to you!

THIS IS HUGE

THIS IS WHY THEY CRUCIFY PEOPLE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Just by this little announcement, Jesus becomes a threat to everyone ever that holds a political position...

So this invitation out of exile

Is first off repent: Repent means to change your mind or turn around

In other words Jesus is saying, stop talking and praying like your from my kingdom but living like Babylon

Then Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven has come near”

See in every other religion in the world, you have to do things to get near to God. But this is what jesus says the good news is...

That God draws near to us.

Invites us into a new reality

A kingdom that is not of this world

A kingdom where the king is available to each person

A kingdom where the king values the poor and hears their cry

A kingdom where the king gladly lays down his life for his people.

A kingdom where getting ahead looks a lot more like serving than it does being served

See the invitation out of exile is to choose a different kingdom

Our world has a thousand kingdoms that want your attention and allegiance

There is the kingdom of donkeys and elephants

The kingdom of masks or no masks , Vax or non Vax

The kingdoms of facebook, Instagram & Amazon

There will always be a thousand kingdoms competing for your attention…But Jesus’ constant invitation is to come to him because his kingdom is available to you right here, right now.

Second fill in

The invitation out of exile is to eat at the table of God (Luke 22:17-20 )

Last week we dug into the book of Daniel and how Daniel was conscripted to eat at the table of the king.

We talked about how this was not just eating…It was not a neutral act.

That this meant that you were to take on the identity of the king

to make a covenant with the king

To live under that king’s values

But Jesus does the same exact thing with the disciples…See Jesus is the king of his new kingdom and he offers us to eat at his table

Luke 22:17-20

The New International Version Chapter 22

17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Jesus is saying when you eat from my table. This is not neutral!

It is a declaration that you are living in my kingdom…taking me as king

and not only that…It means that you are ingesting my life into your life...

You are literally becoming more and more like me...

Jesus’ table is supposed to form us and shape us

See in Exile from the garden of Eden, one of the things that we were exiled from was the tree of life:

Genesis 3:22-24

The New International Version Chapter 3

22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

It strikes me as very interesting that the very first time that humanity was offered to eat from God a meal that brought on eternal life was the tree of life in the garden of Eden.

But when humanity went after the other tree, of knowledge of good and evil…they actually forfitted this meal of life...

Think about the other things that Jesus was called in the gospels

Jesus called himself the vine…And we are the branches

He was called the word of God

Jesus called himself the resurrection and the life

he called himself the way the truth and the life

Jesus is saying come to my table…Ingest from my life in the same way that Adam and Eve ate at the tree of life...

The garden is re-open to you....

Many Tables

You will be at many tables in your life

Tables where those sitting around the table will try to convince you that their way of life leads to the good life

If only you had the things that they had, then you would have the good life

If only you voted the way that they voted…Then you would have the good life

If only you partied the way that we partied then you would have the good life

If only you gossiped the way that we do…Then you would be in our club and you would have the good life

Jesus knew that the tables we sit at form us

And with this meal Jesus offers us a way out of all the other tables

Jesus says Eat from my life

Come to me...

Don’t buy into the lies of Babylon

The lie that tells you that whatever you decide is good! It’s a lie

Come to the table...

The invitation out of exile is to allow Jesus to take on your status as an exile

When Jesus carried his cross onto the place where he would allow himself to die…He didn’t do that because he just wanted to be a martyr. He did it because at that moment the sins of the whole world were heaped on him.

See there is a quality about our lives that cause us to be exiled from God

It is the desire to decide what is good in our own eyes

It is the stuff that has taken up residence in our lives that doesn’t please God.

That stuff that you do that in secret that dishonors God

That attitude of anger or hate that you have in your heart toward your neighbor.

That attitude of pride that gets in the way of having a relationship with God..

All of that was heaped onto Jesus on the cross and he took it on himself for you

The cross literally takes away your status as an exile from God.

It is the place where we go both to confess our own sin and lay our lives down AND the place where we go to find new life

The cross is both an instrument of our own death to our previous way of life and a door into a new life with God

Peter, an apostle and an eyewitness to the crucifixion said it this way

1 Peter 2:24 -25

The New International Version Chapter 2

24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” a but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

By the way, Peter is quoting from Isaiah...

What he is saying is...For unworthy sinful humans like you and me, God would die and absorb our collective exile.

Jesus took on the ultimate exile of all humanity in order to bring us home to the Father.

He experienced the utter homelessness that plagues us as we live apart from God.

Jesus did it to bring us home.

Challenge

Maybe you are here today and you are just in exile. There is no way around it.

There are a few ways that looks

Your life is separated from God. You are in exile from God

There might be stuff in your life that is not pleasing to God

maybe you have a deep shame and hurt from that past that is keeping you from God

The easiest way to say it is that you are simply in exile

Jesus is inviting you to his table today...

Or maybe you are here today and you are in cultural exile…You follow Jesus but this world just keeps pulling you back in.

Come to the table

Stop eating from the table of this culture

Step into God’s kingdom!

two different situations but they call for one response.

Come to the table

Eat from the table of God, eat from the life of God.

As you take out your communion supplies,

John Wesley would say that this is a means of Grace. It is a way for you to experience God right here right now.

We believe that communion is open to everyone who calls on the name of Jesus as their savior.

So maybe your here today and you’ve never taken communion before.

Just like a wedding ring, it is a tangible reminder of a covenant that God makes with us.

If you’ve never taken communion before, and you want to come to the table today, then I want to invite you first to lay your life down.

and pray with me: “Lord I lay my life down, I recognize that I am broken, I need your grace. My life has strayed far from your life. Help me to accept your free gift of Grace and to walk in a new life with you today.”

if you prayed that prayer for the first time today. Either me or one of our pastors wants to talk with you to help you take your next step in faith. You are now in the family of God. Today is day one of you being made new.

Jesus has a whole new life for you...

So lets come to the table.