Latest / Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies / reDiscovering Jesus | Jordan Abrams | Week 05

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reDiscovering Jesus | Jordan Abrams | Week 05 · Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online@madisonchurch.org be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
• 0:37
  Speaker B: I'm thankful that you're here tonight that we can continue to study about Jesus together. I hope you maybe shared a funny story or something about your kid and why they're unmistakably yours and picked on your spouse for that maybe even. But there's a reason I ask that is because we're going to, we're going to talk about Jesus as the Son of God tonight and think about what that means for us, what that means in that relationship and him being God with us and all as well. And so I want to do something a little bit different tonight. Kind of have started, I have started these classes on ask a question about what's going on, something that goes to your world or how do you feel about this? Or what do you think about this? But let me go a little bit different. And it may not make sense, but I hope it does. And I'm sure that one of you really smart people could tell me how I did it wrong. Now you understand what I'm going to say. We're going to do this as like a court case type thing. So look at it as Jesus is the Son of God and so the case asking what does Son of God mean? And this charge of why was Son of God treated as blasphemy and a threat worthy of death. And then what if when we get to all that, then what's the verdict of it? What does it mean for us? And so again, one of you really smart people could tell me why that's not right or right. And that's great with me. Whatever it is, we're going to be in God's Word tonight talking about Jesus as the Son of God. So you got your Bibles, turn to the book of Psalms and we're going to be. Or you can read up here Psalm Chapter two, thinking about this Exhibit A of the title Son of God. We actually find it in the Old Testament. You find it in Genesis with the idea of sons of God, or you can find it throughout, throughout the Old Testament relating to this. If somebody could read this for me. Psalm 2, 6, 7 for me.
• 3:01
  Speaker C: I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my Son, today I have begotten you.
• 3:09
  Speaker B: Okay, so. So son ship language here, talking to a king. I've set my king on Zion. So what is he talking about here? Is he talking about biology? What is the psalmist writing about here when it relates to being a son of God? And we actually see, you know, we see in our Bibles that, you know, other kings were actually called Son of God or in that likeness of Son of God. We see throughout the Old Testament this idea of it relating to actually his role or authority or status. And it's actually one of the background threads that you see throughout the Old Testament relating to kings. And so it's about being God's chosen representative or ruler, someone who carries the Father's authority, his likeness, his mission on earth. And so NT Wright describes it like this. He points out that this title always carried the hope that God's true king would finally bring God's rule or kingdom to the world. So if son of God means the one God has chosen to represent him with real authority, where does that create conflict in our world, personally and globally?
• 4:42
  Speaker D: I think a lot of times we can do it. Society definitely doesn't place authority not in Jesus, but in what I want or what I think or how I feel.
• 4:57
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I think you're exactly right. It's very me centric. A lot of times we want it where we want it, how we want it, when we want it. Our kids want that as well. We feel that every day. Us grownups do that too.
• 5:15
  Speaker C: Well, the kingdom that Jesus is bringing is one that they were not expecting either. Very difficult concept for those in the first century to understand that they weren't getting a physical king that was going to go sit on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and rule and overthrow the Romans and rule.
• 5:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. We're going to see that in just a second in one of the verses we look at. And you're exactly right.
• 5:38
  Speaker E: John related to that, you know, in that second Psalm, I mean, the next few verses talk about, I will make the nations your heritage. You shall break them with a rod of iron. And they interpreted that to mean you Know that he's going to take control of Israel, that. That he's going to destroy all the other countries, that they would rule over everybody else, like in the time of David and Solomon, but even better. And they didn't realize that he's smashing the nations. As in, it doesn't matter where you're from. You can be part of his. It goes on to, say, dash them in pieces, like a potter's vessel. Well, the potter doesn't just break things. He sees that he can make something better out of that clay, so he smashes it and then makes something better.
• 6:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's great. I love that point. In fact, I'm going to skip a few slides, actually, and go to this point here. This is. Hold on, let me go to this one. Here we go. So Jesus, we skipping to the Gospels, because I think this is a great point that both of y' all just brought up. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, this is Philip going to get Nathanael and say, come meet Jesus. And he said, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the king of Israel. And so, you know, this idea of being this king, in a physical sense, the king of Israel, what do you think that implied there for him and really meant for him. This is John 1. So this is like Jesus just coming on the scene. How do you think it would have changed their world had Jesus been this type of king?
• 7:48
  Speaker C: They would have gotten what they were looking for. They were looking for someone to come in and establish that political system that gave them power again. That gave them status again. That took them back to, like Jimmy said, David or Solomon. And so when they see that power coming and those early miracles, they would have just continued to strive on this concept that they're going to get everything they wanted. And that's why it was so difficult even for the apostles to understand why he kept reinforcing over and over that he had. Because kings don't die, don't go through what he was going to have to go through. And all the way up until his death, they still struggle with that basic concept.
• 8:26
  Speaker B: Yeah, this idea of this Son of God being a kingship weight to it. Because that is a lot of what they anticipated. This is what they saw and expected. And we even see that as we get to the end of Jesus life. But before we get there, let's go back just a little bit in the Book of John and look at this. One of my favorite verses in our Bibles is this verse, John 1:14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is the verse that separates us from every world, religion, every other one. Is the Word becoming flesh is that God wanted to be with us, not just feel bad for us or wanting to come to him, but he came to us. We see that it gets to the heart. This verse really gets to the heart of Jesus moving. You know, one I actually mentioned it Wednesday night at the end of the devo. Jesus moving into the neighborhood is what one paraphrase uses this verse. It's God's eternal word that we see in John 1. One who is God himself becoming human in Jesus. This only son, the begotten, the unique, sharing the Father's essence reveals God's glory. Not in the old testament way. N.T. wright, again New Testament scholar, says this. It's not just the kingly title. Jesus embodies God's presence, fulfilling Israel's hopes while elevating sonship to divine intimacy. We have a God who wanted to be with us, not just feel bad for us. Now think about that God, the creator of the universe, wants that intimacy, wants that relationship with us. What does that say about God?
• 10:54
  Speaker D: You think it says he's intentional?
• 10:57
  Speaker B: I like that. Intentional.
• 11:01
  Speaker F: It goes through the fatherly aspect of Father one.
• 11:11
  Speaker B: You know, I love that idea of Father and thinking about relationship with our children and how they do some things. And we think, why? How. How did you get there? And you know, just so many times there's things like, I don't understand why you're doing this or why you're making this choice or that choice. Or you see that happen a lot. And we've done that ourselves, as you know. And our parents thought the same thing, I'm sure. But as his children, we get to see that there's grace and truth in John 1:14. It shows God's character and that, you know, and you see that throughout Scripture, really, Jesus doesn't just merely teach, he makes God known, going between heaven and earth, this idea that God and him are one in this character. So let me ask this about this grace and truth. What if Jesus was just full of grace, not grace and truth, but the only Son from the Father full of grace? What does that look like? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's full of Grace is anything goes. Right? I mean, everything is excused. It is just, hey, this idea of you do you and I do me, and we're going to be good because everybody, we can show grace to everybody. But what about this? What if it's just full of truth, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of truth.
• 13:11
  Speaker E: That reminds me of this growing up in school. There's this famous sermon from a puritan preacher or something, falling in the hands of an angry God.
• 13:24
  Speaker B: And that's.
• 13:25
  Speaker E: That's all it would be there. There'd be no salvation. There'd be no. No escape that it would be. You know, you do your best to try to live up to some. To some standard, but we can't. And so everybody would fail. And that's the end.
• 13:45
  Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
• 13:47
  Speaker G: It kind of answers your first question, which is why. Why did he become flesh? Put in a roundab.
• 13:57
  Speaker C: I lost my train. He was.
• 14:00
  Speaker G: It took a perfect man to come and fulfill the whole law so that we might have a chance to become heirs, so that we could put on Christ through baptism and obtain that salvation. And the only way that's accomplished through both of those.
• 14:18
  Speaker E: Right.
• 14:19
  Speaker G: We can't. Full of truth. That doesn't bring salvation and grace. He's not fulfilling the law, so he had to have both.
• 14:27
  Speaker B: That's. Thank you.
• 14:28
  Speaker H: A scary world to live in. Like, you think it's bad now, but if you don't have that aspect of grace, like you would say, everything's just darkness and despair.
• 14:38
  Speaker B: Just.
• 14:39
  Speaker E: You're what bad things that everybody are.
• 14:41
  Speaker H: You know, everybody is and how bad of humans we are. But there's nothing to give you that hope and that light. Our country is founded on Christian beliefs.
• 14:53
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 14:53
  Speaker H: This country doesn't exist anymore. Like, there's a bunch of different stuff like that throughout the world that just
• 14:59
  Speaker B: wouldn't even exist without that knowing that Jesus is full of grace and truth, how does that change our perspective of how we see others?
• 15:12
  Speaker F: So I was listening to something recently, talked about truth and mercy and grace and how they're related. And often we conflate mercy and grace.
• 15:24
  Speaker B: But
• 15:28
  Speaker F: mercy is we're spared death.
• 15:29
  Speaker B: Right.
• 15:31
  Speaker F: And grace takes it a step further, is that we're not only spared death, but we're also invited to the table.
• 15:36
  Speaker E: Right.
• 15:37
  Speaker F: So that tells me about the character of him, not only sparing it from what we deserve, but also inviting that relationship, casting those.
• 15:54
  Speaker B: I like that. Great comments. Thank you, everybody. You did. I did. Either extreme, full of all grace, and then there's chaos full of only Truth. And it's a miserable world to live in as well. And some of us may have grown up in a full of grace home, and some of us may grew up in a full of truth home. And there wasn't both either. But I'm thankful that we have a, that we have a son of God that loves us, that is full of both. And it's cool. You can actually see that play out in the book of John. You see that when he turns water to wine, he could have told his mom, sorry you weren't prepared, mom, truth. But he showed her grace and took care of the problem. You go to John 4 and he tells the woman at the well the truth about these men that she's been with, but then shows her grace and offers her living water. So you see this played out throughout the book of John of Jesus being full of grace and truth. And it's really cool to be able to see that in the Son of God. But both had to be Jesus to be in Jesus so that he could embody a God full of love, but also a completely just God as well. His love drives him to offer salvation while his justice requires that sin is addressed and punished. You know, there's other thoughts if we had time thinking about, you know, how does Jesus, you know, as the only Son of God differ from the Kings in this way even and stuff that we talk about in the Old Testament. But I also think it's. Again, we don't have time to think about this, but it's often easier us to think about this in the physical realm and how it relates to us and just making choices in our actions every day. But Jesus being the Son of God affecting spiritual things. How Jesus as the Son of God transforms access to God the Father. It's no longer just a law keeping distant thing do good to be able to get access to God. But this intimate relationship is why we do what we do is because of love. That's why he did what he does, because of love. And we experience that grace through forgiveness, but then also the truth through his teachings and reshapes our brokenness. John Mark Comer says this in practicing the way. He says that Jesus models perfect sonship, inviting us to be with the Father as he was through the Spirit. And so in doing that, think about our prayers to God and that relationship that we get with with God because of that moving on because of time. Jesus in John 14 we know this passage says I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, lord, show us the Father. That will be enough for us. Jesus answered, do you know me, Philip? Even after I've been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? See, Jesus shows. You know this. Really. We see more about the Father through Jesus. Jesus perfectly reveals God's compassion, his power, his justice, his heart. One commentary I read said, jesus isn't just the pointer to God, he is God. With us enacting the kingdom. This brings about this intimate relationship where we can pray. Father, now think about this question just for yourself. Which part of Jesus life most reveals the Father's character to you? You know, I think there's a lot of things that, the way that you grew up, the way that you were raised, and the way you experienced that being a son or daughter. Probably we see different aspects of Jesus life where we see different parts of the Father that relate to us differently than others do. I think it's pretty incredible that we have a God that wanted to be with us in his Son, Jesus. And then we got to get to those. But then get to that verse we already covered. And then let's think about this. The charge, the charge in front of Pilate and why this was such a big thing. Jesus is the Son of God. So the Jews answered him. This is in front of Pilate, and things are going real south for Jesus. Real quickly, we have a law, and according to the law, he ought to die because he has made himself the same Son of God. What do leaders believe that this claim in front of Pilate would have done? You know, they would have had to. Had a reason, right, to have Jesus crucified. And so they need to appeal to that side of things as well. You know, the Son of God in their world was not a neutral thing. It collided. Collided. I don't know if that's a word with the powers to be. And so they needed to appeal to that. And so they used the Son of God as that. Then again, in front of Pilate, he says this. And they began to accuse him, saying, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ a king. So you see, not only used the Son of God there, but also the king part of that when he's on the cross. If you go through and read this, it's so powerful in thinking about the Son of God, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself if you are the Son of God. Come down from the cross. He saved others. He cannot save himself. He's the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and he will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now if he desires him. For he said, I am the Son of God.
• 23:24
  Speaker I: One thing just reading that a little bit jumped out to me is that Jesus followers and his opposition, they have to unlearn. And it's harder to unlearn something than to just learned something for the first time.
• 23:38
  Speaker A: Excuse me.
• 23:38
  Speaker I: So I feel like they're still. They're trying to use an earthly measure for him to prove his divinity, his kingship.
• 23:44
  Speaker B: Right.
• 23:45
  Speaker I: If you are who you say you are, do these things, but neither side gets it. His followers obviously are crushed. They're mourning now. The movement's over now the way it's like what just happened, you know. But then also those that think that they've won, they have this gotcha moment when the gotcha is really on them.
• 24:02
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They saw it as escaping suffering. And instead, you know, this idea comes at the end of that. You have Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Skip down. When the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly this was the Son of God. The crowd said, the Son of God is power that avoids the cross. Come down from the cross if you're the Son of God. The Gospel reveals the Son of God is faithful love that stays on the cross. If we had a minute to define the Son of God in the gospels, maybe it looks something like this idea of the Son of God is tied to God's chosen king, collides with every rival claim to authority. And there's some vindication probably in that Son of God when he rises from the dead, from the grave and proves himself as from God, takes down the power.
• 25:28
  Speaker I: That's the redefining even in our own minds today. That's the question, who has the power in your life? Are you submitting to the power of God that he is the Son of God? Good segue, but I think that's the conundrum that they have there definition of power is you've got to check these boxes. It's military might, political might, but his power was that he submitted.
• 25:51
  Speaker B: Yeah. And so the leads to that question is who has the real power in your life. Thanks, Jason. Who has the real power? What you believe actually works when things are difficult or they're supposed to be, et cetera, there, but has calm, volume, peace, intimidation, passive aggressiveness. I'm good at that one. Silence, money. You get the idea. What power are you using? If son of God means Jesus redefines power through sacrificial faithfulness, staying on the cross, where can that definition change one of your relationships this week? How do you let that power take over? Think about these things. If Jesus being the Son of God, reclaims God's authority from rival gods, little G gods, what's one throne in your life where you will let him rule differently? If a different authority needs to be present in my life, what am I going to do to make that happen? How am I going to turn over the power? Someone think about this is take a picture of this maybe at least once this week. Choose a moment where you would normally use power the world's way. Control, volume, passive aggressiveness. Then choose one small alternative that matches the sun's power, steadiness, truth with gentleness, with love, repair, patience, staying present. And then. This may be silly, but at the end of the day, think about those things. At least that works for me. How we can give more power to the Son in our life today. Let Jesus have power over fill in the blank and in us reminding ourselves of that, us seeing that and kind of looking back on what right decisions we made maybe can help us continue to make some of those right decisions. Yeah, I think there's a. I don't
• 28:11
  Speaker G: know if it's Pope. The right is the right word here, but Galatians 3 and 4 is all about how we are also heirs, based
• 28:17
  Speaker B: on what you said for us, once we're baptized, right.
• 28:20
  Speaker G: We are also equal. And so the fact that we're sons of God being imperfect, right. The fact that we can't achieve all of these things, right.
• 28:30
  Speaker H: We're so aspiring to do so as
• 28:33
  Speaker G: we mature over time. But we always. We will make mistakes. But that should be encouraging to some degree that we are still able to inherit the end result.
• 28:43
  Speaker B: And part of this I skipped because I had way too much information. Sorry, guys. What is this idea? And I think you're right, Jared, is this idea that we get to become children of God because of the Son of God. And you know, we see that in the Beatitudes. We see that throughout in, you know, scriptures where we become His. His children. And it's because the Son of God wanted to come and be with us, move into the neighborhood, that we then get the opportunity to become his children as well. We got an awesome. God, you know it. Love you guys. Hope you have a great week.