From Yeshua to Yeshua

Intro to Joshua

Jesus came to inaugurate the Kingdom in a new way... but the foundations had been laid long ago.

The Kingdom of God is a story of conquest and victory... acted out on the stage of history by actual people at actual places. We are likewise called to an impossible mission: capturing territory for the Kingdom of God with our actual people in our actual places.

It isn’t theoretical: it is actual. It isn’t just about ideas; it is action.

Volleyball Tournament

Last week we had the volleyball tournament.

What I loved about it was how everyone was there to have fun. Pure enjoyment.

Do you remember how we even stopped keeping points? We just hit and hit the ball, and then hugged and hugged each other and, in the end, everyone was a winner!

We can rob the game of all its real-ness, all its life, all its vitality by removing its point. Victory is the point. The striving to get to the victory is fun too, and that’s why I don’t mind if I lose, but if victory wasn’t even a thing I wouldn’t play. It would be boring.

That isn’t a game is it? My Mom loved a game called “The Ungame” which is a “non-competitve learning/communication board game”. It is a game of conversation which fosters listening skills.

Awful! Just the worst!

Christian Theory

What is the purpose of what we do here this morning?

Isn’t it really all about love… and love is all about the way that we feel towards people… and if we just feel generally good toward people than all is accomplished.

It is about feeling inner peace and growing to be all you can be as a person. Be the person God created you to be!

Now those are all true statement! Those are all good things! But the whole tone of them is very internally focused, and the expression of them is intangible. You can’t actually see it. You can’t touch it. You can’t point to it or measure it.

Kingdom Victory

Jesus wasn’t content with just hugs and good feelings. He did teach his disciples to love one another… but it was a love that took action. He did make his disciples grow as people, but it was towards a purpose, in fulfillment of a mission. He did empower his disciples, but it wasn’t so that they would just feel powerful, he empowered them to accomplish his great mission.

And in the weeks after his physical resurrection, Jesus commanded his disciples to follow in his mission, to achieve Victory for his Kingdom. He gave them an active role, an active command. He commissioned them and we call his words the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:16-20

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

This is another appearance of the resurrected Jesus, a different one than the ones we just studied in John, but while they are still up in the North, up in Galilee.

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Go and make disciples. Who are we to make disciples? All nations. What is the first step in that discipleship? Baptizing them. What next? Teaching them to obey everything.

That is a ludicrously ambitious mission to give 11 guys. That is a ridiculous command, unattainable. The scale of it. These guys don’t know all the nations, they barely have seen their own nation. But Jesus gives them the command to conquer the world for the Kingdom one disciples at a time, one soul at a time.

And he tells them why they will be successful. He commands them to go and do… but he gives them strength and courage with these words: “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus gives them an impossible mission… made possible because he would accomplish it through them.

Kingdom Command

Now I have brought in this Kingdom language even though it isn’t in the Great Commission. It is all throughout the rest of the gospels. Matthew calls it the Kingdom of Heaven, Luke and Mark call it the Kingdom of God.

This is the language of Jesus, announcing and proclaiming the founding of the Kingdom, and wherever Jesus went, there was the Kingdom of God. And wherever someone was a true disciple of Jesus, that was the Kingdom of God.

This Kingdom is inaugurated in a new way, but it has its roots all throughout Scripture. God has been planting the seeds of the Kingdom, carving out a chosen people for His Kingdom, and planting that people in a chosen location for His Kingdom. This Kingdom Mission has been in motion for millennia.

We are going to turn our study from the fulfilled inauguration of the Kingdom in the gospel of John back to more of the roots of the Kingdom in the book of Joshua. For those of you who remember our trip through Exodus a few years ago, and even further back to Genesis, we are kind of picking up the story of God’s people.

God planted the seed of his people by choosing and calling and covenanting with Abraham… and he turned Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob into a people, the twelve tribes of Israel. They lived in Egypt and then were enslaved and then, working through his servant and prophet Moses, God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt because the time was right to plant his chosen people in the chosen land.

But because of their sin upon sin, panic upon panic, stupid decision after stupid decision, God has them wander in the wilderness South East of the Promised Land until all the men who were of military age die, except for Joshua and Caleb who were the two “good” spies.

And Moses has prepared this guy Joshua to follow in his footsteps and lead his people. And at the end of his life, Moses is preparing to die in sight of the Promised Land as God has commanded, and he commissions Joshua to continue the Kingdom Mission.

Listen to his words:

Deuteronomy 31:1-6

1 So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken. 4 And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

And then words for Joshua alone

7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

God has called the people of Israel to an impossible mission. A ludicrous mission. They are not a military people yet, and the people of Canaan are larger, more numerous, entrenched, live in fortresses and are a military people. The people in Canaan haven’t been a nomadic collection of tribes, they have been a strong northern outpost of Egypt, mostly.

But God, through Moses, commands them to this impossible mission… but gives the very same reason why it is possible.

I will be with you. Twice: be strong and courageous. “The Lord goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Be strong and courageous in advancing the Kingdom of God.

Be strong and courageous in following the King.

From Yeshua to Yeshua

We see the parallels. God commands, through Moses, his people to conquer the Promised Land to establish his Kingdom against impossible odds. But they will be victorious because He is with them.

Jesus commands his disciples… and us… to win, to make, disciples and thus expand His Kingdom across the world against impossible odds. But we will be victorious because he will be with us.

From Jesus to Joshua.

Except that isn’t right.

Do you know Jesus’ name in Hebrew? Yeshua.

Do you know Joshua’s name in Hebrew? Yeshua.

It is from Yeshua to Yeshua.

And do you know what Yeshua means?

Change of Joshua’s Name

I will introduce you to what one scholar called: “The most important onomastic study of all time!”

(I didn’t know what that meant either)

It is in the list of the spies sent out to spy on Canaan. And in the midst of that, a man name Hoshea is sent.

Hoshea is a name that means “salvation.” Or maybe in a more declarative way “Oh, Save!” as in “Save us!” This is a great name for a baby born into slavery in Egypt. Somebody save me!

And they knew the God of Abraham…. But they didn’t know him by name. They didn’t know him as Yahweh until Yahweh revealed himself in the burning bush to Moses.

Numbers 13:16, Hosea (Oh, Save!) is changed to Yeshua (Yahweh is salvation!).

16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)

Be strong and courageous for the Kingdom of God… and God will win the victory.

Hoshea means “Save us”. Yeshua is the answer. Yahweh saves. Yahweh is salvation. Perhaps it is this name change that reminds Joshua when he is one of the first to see how impossible their mission is, that with Yahweh on their side, they would simply win no matter what the odds.

Volleyball

We played the volleyball tournament. And there was a prize. And you know what? We won that prize! Because clearly God was on our side. We had Josiah and his name means “Yahweh supports him”. And I will savor my delicious burger at Bad Daddy’s because it will be the very taste of victory!

But the purpose of the volleyball tournament was bigger than that! Victory in the volleyball wasn’t a point, there there were winners and losers. The volleyball tournament was an outreach tournament, and its purpose was to bring people together to build relationship and hear the gospel. And that happened beautifully. Brandon shared the gospel message beautifully and people heard.

And we don’t know exactly what seeds were planted and what steps were taken for the Kingdom. Just as in our study, often Joshua and the people of Israel aren’t going to understand how walking around a city is going to help conquer it. But there is a purpose and it all comes down to real people in our actual place.

There is a victory! There is a mission and you and I can be victorious in that mission because Yahweh saves, because He goes before us and stands guard behind us.

Your Mission

Your mission, should you choose to be a follower of Jesus Christ, is to conquer the world. God has planted you in your family, in your neighborhood, in your workplace. He has called you where you are now and may well be calling you to expand that or change that. But without question, he is calling you to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all he has commanded.

That is your mission. And it is huge, it is impossible, it is easy to get intimidated and choose something lesser and more comfortable.

Like “let’s just work on inner peace and healing and being all we can be.” No, let’s do all that, let him do that in us, as we pursue his impossible mission.