Don't Miss the Point
Notes
Transcript
ME:
ME:
Veteran’s Day Celebration
Introduction
This year London played CRYSA soccer for the first time ever. Which was amazing to watch but you quickly learn that a game like soccer doesn’t come as intuitively to a five year old as it does an adult.
For instance, during one of their first games London was put in the goal playing defense. She understood the basics that she was supposed to keep the green team from kicking the ball into her net. But she kept getting out of place, finally one of the coaches came up to her and told her to stand on the line in front of the goal. This would be the ideal distance from the goal.
However, my little girl took this instruction very literally. She stood on her line and did not move from it. She was unwaveringly holding down that line. In fact, the ball came and went right by her, she did not move off of her line. The team scored and she looked around like, I did what I was supposed to do.
I tried to get her attention from the sideline to tell her that she could move off of the line, she did not listen to me at all. It wasn’t until her coach told her to move around that she did.
She might not have understood the WHY but she trusted the WHO. Her coach told her to stand there and that’s what she was going to do. Now, there was clear misunderstanding but I love the faith of a five year old. They trust those that know more to give them instructions and they follow it.
I wish I had faith like that. Because a lot of times, I don’t understand the WHY so I make up my own excuses not to listen to the WHO.
Well God, I can’t go tell them about Jesus because I have some heinous coffee breath right now.
I would stop and help them but I’m running late for work.
I’d cover that meal for them but honestly, that’d put me in the negative.
I’ll read my bible after this episode.
I’ll pray when I get time later.
I’ll spend time with my family after this month’s overtime.
I’ll...
If we’re not careful, We will justify not following God. Honestly, we can be quite good at it as well.
WE:
WE:
If you’re like me and you really think about it, you’ve said no to God more than once this week.
Yet, we hold the title Christian. That word means “Christ follower,” but can we even claim that if we are not actually following Christ? I grew up wearing that title but wasn’t one. I didn’t believe in Jesus nor did I follow Him, but everyone else was a Christian, so was I! Honestly, that is the most dangerous lie I’ve ever told and I told it to myself daily.
Ask the question, am I actually following Christ? Am I following and obeying the will of God. Do I actually trust God to provide and to guide? Do I trust Him in real tangible ways? Am I trusting Him with my actions or my words only? James says that Faith without action is dead.
Are we trusting God with our actions or with our words only?
Are we trusting God even when we don’t understand the Why? I say it all the time and I’ll say it again here, faith is not trusting that God will do what I want Him to do, it is trusting that He is good and even though I don’t see how, He will work this for Good.
When I first tried to read the bible, like Teresa, I also got hung up in Leviticus.
I found that I was very confused by the Mosaic Laws and their reasonings. So like most Christians, I skipped over them and assumed they were for a different people for a different time and didn’t matter as much to me now. Now, I believe there is some validity in that and we’ll get to that a little bit later.
But personally, I love how we are working our way through the Old Testament and not staying away from the hard texts. I knew today would be a limited message for me, so rather than tiptoeing around the hard stuff, let’s hit it head on. That’s one thing I love about our church, we’re not afraid of the bible. Yeah, it says some stuff but it’s all from God and we know that God is good and though we may not understand it, His word is always for good.
GOD:
GOD:
Today, we’re going to be in Deuteronomy 22-25 and in this particular portion of scripture, Moses is going through many of the laws and mandates from God. Some are hard to understand, those are the ones we’re going to look at today. I do not have time to look at all of them, so as always, your homework is to go home and read through these chapters with your spouse or maybe your small group if you’re in one.
Chapter 22:
Chapter 22:
As we begin reading in Deuteronomy 22, it’s all pretty straightforward. If you find something that belongs to another, return it to them. If you see a fellow’s donkey or ox fallen, help them get it back up. All of these can be tied to today, if you see someone broke down, stop and help them. That’s a biblical thing. If you find something that belongs to another, return it to them.
Then we get to verse 5. Deuteronomy 22:5
A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
This one is very interesting because in Old Testament times, the distinction between male and female attire was not very predominate. If you have watched “The Chosen,” you’ll notice that the men and women are dressed pretty much the same, they’re all in robes.
I’ve heard a lot of people use verse 5 to state that women shouldn’t wear pants or t-shirts. If you believe that way, that’s fine but in my own opinion that is not what this scripture is talking about. Based on the study that I’ve done, this has a lot more to do with how the individual is presenting.
It’s not simply a commandment about fashion but a warning against deviating from God’s original design.
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Male and female He created them. Meaning, we were all created a certain way, we were all created as a male or a female. This scripture is a warning against rejecting God’s original creation by presenting as the opposite sex.
This is something that is very predominate in our culture right now and I want to be clear, I love those who struggle with the sin of homosexuality and transsexuality. As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we are called to love. Jesus says we shall be known by our love, unfortunately by many that is not what we are known by.
In fact, Wednesday night I went live on Twitch like I do four days a week. I had a young man of 22 come into my chat and proclaim his atheism and talk about how he’d had several bad experiences with religion. Turns out, he’d encountered a few Christians. Shocker.
Personally, I don’t believe in coincidences and I knew God put him in my stream for a reason. So I started asking him questions about why he was an atheist, I then answered all that I could. About an hour later, I felt like it was time to present the gospel. I did and he accepted Christ right there, I led him through a salvation prayer, he spoke it and even said that he felt God while he was praying. I’ve been following up with him and have shipped a bible to him, in Canada.
I’m not going to lie and say I’m the best at this but I really think this is what we as Christ followers are called to do, to love people like Christ loved them and share the good news.
As Christians, we can’t build the kingdom of God out of pride or hate. We have to build it out of love. I do feel like as Jesus followers we’ve mistreated the LGBTQ+ community. Hear me out, I’m not saying we accept their lifestyle. We can’t do that, it would not be loving to sit idly by and watch as someone we love dies when we hold the cure. There’s a reason that I said, I love those who struggle with the sin of homosexuality and trans-sexuality, it is still a sin but everyone I currently love is also a sinner. Let’s take this particular sin off the pedestal it has been placed on and show those that struggle with it the love of Christ.
If this is something you are struggling with, homosexuality or trans-sexuality. We love you, you are welcome here. I believe that you were created on purpose for a purpose, God knew you when He formed you together in your mother’s womb. Yes, you have a struggle, we all do and all our struggles are different. However, faith in Jesus can break every chain. Start by placing your faith in Him, living life to please Him alone and watch as every struggle and every temptation melts away.
As we continue to move through Deuteronomy 22, nothing immediately jumps out until we hit verse 13. Deuteronomy 22:13-16
If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin. Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her.
Do me a favor, let’s not look at the bible with 21st century eyes for just a little bit. A lot of this will sound very odd if we continue to look at it with our current expectations of culture. At this time, there was no premarital sex, there were strict laws preventing this. We’ll get into those shortly.
A man would marry a woman and it was expected that she would be a virgin. In fact, they would spend a year betrothed to each other where they would get to know each other. Then at their wedding, they would go away and consummate their marriage. Once the deed had been done, they would come out and present the bed sheet to the bride’s parents showing that she was indeed a virgin, it would be marked with blood from the act. This is the proof that is mentioned here. They would keep this bedsheet as a symbol of pride that they had raised a good respectable daughter.
This is the proof they would bring forward if her husband claimed she was not a virgin in order to divorce her. If it is found that she is indeed a virgin, then the man is fined and must keep her as his wife and can never divorce her. If however, proof cannot be made, she is taken and stoned to death because she was promiscuous while in her father’s house. It goes on to say, “You must purge evil from among you.”
If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
Notice the words here, if a man finds a virgin who is betrothed to another man and sleeps with her. Stone both of them. I mean, this is a pretty good law to end premarital sex. We know that it was consensual because she did not scream for help. In a town like this, it’s not like our towns, they were very very close together. Homes are like 4 feet apart, if a young woman were to scream, she would have been heard.
By contrast, verses 25-27 speaks of how if a man meets a young woman in the country and rapes her, that he alone shall die because he found her in the country and though she screamed, no one could hear her.
Ok, this is the weird one and I’ll try to explain it.
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Again, let’s remove our 21st century lenses for a moment. If a man rapes a virgin who is not betrothed to anyone, he must marry her and pay her father fifty shekels of silver, also, he is never permitted to divorce her.
Immediately, this seems crazy that God would command them to get married when he raped her. However, if we look at this culture, this is actually an act of kindness from God. No one would want to marry a woman who was not a virgin, in fact if she married another and was found to not be a virgin, she would be stoned per the law we just covered.
As a woman in this time, her means of survival was through her husband. A man was to go out, work and take care of his family. So this law is forcing the man who sinned to now take care of this woman and he can never reject her. Yes, it’s very odd to us but culturally this is the only way that worked out positively for the woman.
Chapter 23:
Chapter 23:
Goes on to talk about how different people and people groups are excluded from the assembly. So why they could not come to church.
It goes on to talk about in verses 9-14 the different ways they need to keep their camp Holy because God moves through the camp alongside them.
Verses 15-25 cover miscellaneous laws.
Chapter 24:
Chapter 24:
Verse 1 of this chapter is the basis of an entire conversation that Jesus has in the New Testament:
In Matthew 19:3
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
These pharisees came to Him to test Him. They asked him what was the reason a man should divorce a woman. At this time, there were two popular schools of thought. One from the school of Shammai and one from the school of Hillel. They were two very popular teachers at the time and both had differing beliefs of the meaning of Deuteronomy 24:1
The school of Shammai taught that a man could only divorce a woman because of sexual immorality. Whereas the school of Hillel taught that a man could divorce a woman for just about any reason. This could be anything indecent, yes, sexual immorality or her burning his lentils. It could be that she spoke poorly about his mother or he simply saw a woman who was more beautiful. As you can imagine, the beliefs of Hillel were the popular ones of that day.
So when asked about this, Jesus goes all the way back to Genesis.
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
Jesus’ rules on divorce were even stricter than Moses’.
Chapter 25:
Chapter 25:
Honestly, chapter 25 is pretty straight forward for this culture until we get to verse 11. Verse 11 is a doozy.
If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
Don’t you love the bible? This is good stuff right here.
First, this law comes right after Moses is talking about the law of levirate marriage. At this time, a person’s name was understood to be erased with their heirs. So chapter 25 starts talking about how if a man dies with no heirs, his brother should have a child on his behalf with his widow. This way his name can live on.
The severity of verse 11 probably has to do with protecting a man’s ability to reproduce and to protect the woman’s modesty. Either way, that ain’t the way to win a fight.
Chapter 25 continues on to talk about how you shouldn’t have differing weights used to cheat others. You must be accurate and honest. This goes for us as well, we need to be honest and not cheat others out of things. I love a deal on FB marketplace as well but we should never try to cheat someone out of what is rightfully theres.
YOU:
YOU:
We’ve made our way through the toughest laws of these three chapters. Now for the title of this message.
Don’t Miss the Point
Let’s not miss the point. These laws were put in place for a people at a certain time for a certain reason. I don’t believe that God does anything for no reason, the Mosaic Law is no exception. If God put it in place, He had a good and perfect reason for it.
Over and over again it is repeated in these chapters, “You must purge the evil among you.”
The Mosaic Law reveals our sinful nature:
Romans 3:20
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
The Mosaic law reveals our need to be separate from sin
The law was to show that we are to be Holy, which means to be set apart. To be different from the rest of the world.
The Mosaic Law reveals our need for a Savior
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
We are all guilty of breaking the law. We have all fallen short of the glory of God and are deserving of death.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
God’s desire was always to have fellowship with us but it was our sin that prevented that. He gave the law to set a standard of Holiness and at the same time to show that we could never meet that standard on our own. That’s why Jesus came to fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law on our behalf, and then take the punishment of violating the law, also on our behalf.
Don’t miss the point. The law was put into place because of our sin, because of our rebellion against God. God’s perfect plan was for peace, no pain, no disease, no suffering it was our sin that led us to brokenness. That is where a lot of us exist today, in brokenness. We live in a world of brokenness and we chase every source of fulfillment imaginable only to be disappointed again and again.
The beautiful part of this story is known as the good news. Though we were broken, though we were sinful and rebelled against God. God loved you and I so much that He sent His one and only son Jesus Christ to fulfill the law and take the punishment of violating it on Himself. Jesus became our spotless lamb that died for our sins. Because God loved you so much, you are made right in His standing by the precious blood of Christ.
God is calling you back to His original design, to peace, where there is no pain, no suffering, no disease, no depression, back to perfection. He’s made a way for you to get there in Jesus Christ.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
A little boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon. Suddenly out of nowhere a bumblebee flew in the car window. Since the little boy was deathly allergic to bee stings he became petrified. His father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it. But as soon as he let it go, the young son became frantic once again as it buzzed by the little boy.
The father sensed his son’s terror. Once again he reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to this hand. There, stuck in his skin was the stinger of the bee. “You see this?” he asked. “You don’t need to be afraid anymore. I’ve taken the sting for you.”
The Christian does not need to be afraid of death because Christ has taken the sting out of death and sin.
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.