Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 3, 2019 | The Names Of God - Immanuel - Connor Kraus

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November 3, 2019 | The Names Of God - Immanuel - Connor Kraus · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Connor Krause.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have the pleasure of being the student pastor here at TBC.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Jim's gone today, so called up the B team.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: The reserves came in here.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you'll have to excuse me, I've been getting over one of those like week and a half long colds.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if the first like three rows smell like menthol when we're done, you'll you'll know why.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have the pleasure this morning of continuing our series in the names of God.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning we're going to be looking at the name of God, um, Emmanuel.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Emmanuel means God with us.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if this is starting to ring some bells this time of year, then that's because this is the word that you hear in a lot of our hymns about Christmas time.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's in reference to basically Jesus.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of this comes about in the book of Matthew, and in the beginning of Matthew, the angel Gabriel is speaking, and he tells them that, Mary and Joseph, that they're going to be having a baby, and its name will be Emmanuel.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting about this, besides the whole aspect of an angel speaking to somebody and telling them that they will have God as a child, is that Emmanuel is a fulfillment of prophecy that was in Isaiah 7.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, way back in Isaiah 7, the prophet Isaiah was talking to the king at the time, and he said, Hey, listen, um, you're going to, there's this person who's going to be born, and his name shall be Emmanuel, and he's going to save your people.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so when the angel is speaking those words in the book of Matthew, he's referencing back to this fulfillment of prophecy.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there might be four of you in here, I'm going to guess, who are interested or have maybe picked up on the fact that there's some different spellings of Emmanuel.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so just briefly, I'll say that both are correct, and it depends how you translate.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're going from the Hebrew, the circled let little dot there translates kind of to an I, and that's where we get the Emmanuel that we're using.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're going from the Greek, you get the E there, translates for us as an E, and that's where you get Emmanuel with an E.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So in a lot of our Christmas songs, um Emmanuel is spelled with an E, and that has to do with the fact that they were translating from here.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But no matter, and to the four of you who are satisfied by that, then you're welcome.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're asking a bigger question here, and that is so why do we call him Jesus?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: If the angel said, Hey, Mary and Joseph, you're gonna have this baby, you're gonna name him Emmanuel, why did they name him Jesus?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Did Mary and Joseph go rogue?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Did they just decide that they didn't really like that name and Jesus sounded better?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was easier for him to spell when he was a kid or something like that.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, it it uh best way we can say it is Emmanuel is like a holy nickname.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're like me, you've had some nicknames growing up.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've gone by C, or my aunt calls me C-man, or when I was in high school, some people called me Sauerkraus, like I'm German.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, some of them stick better than others, right?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Emmanuel is basically a holy nickname.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there were others that have been given to Jesus as well.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the prophecy of Emmanuel was Isaiah 7, and just two chapters later in Isaiah 9, we get this passage.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: All of those are other names for Jesus as well.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And each one sort of denotes an aspect of his character or his divinity or his power or something like that.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So why Emmanuel?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that the one that we're focusing on today?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're focusing on it because it has the most to do with us.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: You see, today we can have a relationship with God.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: The pathway has been opened for us to relate to him and have this amazing fellowship.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that that was opened was through Jesus Christ.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And through Jesus, God with us, we can understand more deeply who God is and how we can relate to him.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we are, you know, hearing about the story of the baby in the manger and this amazing thing that is the incarnation, which is the word we'd use to describe God being made flesh, when we think about the incarnation and Emmanuel, we can understand that those who lived 2,000 years ago were actually able to have a conversation and have a meal with the God of the universe.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's not amazing, I don't know what is.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, my hope is that we can begin to sort of expand our minds just a little bit in who we think Jesus is and understanding why Emmanuel is such this miraculous event, and that we might also understand how we can develop a deeper relationship with God as well through that and through Him.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to do that, I've kind of got sort of three topics that we're going to cover through the definition of Emmanuel, God with us.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first one that I want to get into, and each one of these sort of build upon the next.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so the more that you're able to grasp the fact that Jesus is God, the more that you will appreciate him being with us.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first one is simply that: that Jesus is God.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians says it this way: that he is the image of the invisible God.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so, again, if you were a disciple 2,000 years ago, or somebody who had the opportunity to see him and talk with him or eat with him or hear him teach, you were interacting with the God of the universe.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, I think one of the problems that we can have is that sometimes our vision of Jesus is just a little too constrained.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: It sort of starts with him in the manger and ends with him on the cross.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is much more than that.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: John 1 tells us that he was there at the beginning.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the Colossians tells us that it was him, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, whose role it was during creation to speak things into existence, which then gives more credence to in the Gospels when we see him calming the wind and the waves by speaking.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because he made it the same way.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus is not simply this man who walked the earth that died on the cross.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: He is God in flesh.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And for centuries, for millennia, we have been trying to try and describe how exactly this can be, how these two natures, fully God and fully man, can come together.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so you might be familiar with this, uh, these lyrics from Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, this is as close as we're getting to Christmas.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is, we're gonna stop right about here.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: But veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful lyrics.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Doing probably the best to take a scratch at how in a song you might be able to describe the incarnation.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's this wonderful thing.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it is somewhat confusing at times.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, um, it is something that people have debated for a long time, how exactly these things come together.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' human nature and his godly nature coming together in one is called the hypostatic union.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it was talked about in a couple councils and it's clarified in the Athanasian Creed.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're like me and a little bit of a nerd, it might be helpful to think of who Jesus is not like.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is not like Thor, because Thor is a God who just walks the earth.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's not like Neo from The Matrix, who is a man, but is the chosen one.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he's not like Hercules, who's a demigod and is half God and half man.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's not like any of these things.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: He is much more than that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: But if even back then, um the disciples had struggled to understand what exactly was happening as well.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: We see here in John 14, 8 through 9, Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: How can you say, Show us the Father?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Even back then, it was incomprehensible that the God that the disciples had read about in the Old Testament, all these stories of his majesty and wonder and power and splendor, that he was somehow standing in front of them, the image of the invisible God.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was a wonder back then and it's a wonder today.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: But make no bones about it because it's the truth and it really impacts who Emmanuel is and what that means.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: In him we can see God's nature and being.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so for us, the way that that is really helpful is when we read stories about Jesus and the Gospels and part of Acts, and just as the we understand what it was like to live with Him, we can understand just a little bit more about how God might interact with us.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: But if you understand the, if you will, the bigness of that, of God becoming flesh, then the next part that's necessary is what God had to undergo in order to be with us.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is sort of the critical turning point of Emmanuel.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is the focus.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is why that nickname was chosen over the other ones, is because what was amazing about that baby in the manger was that it was God with his people.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so you'll see in Philippians 2, 7 through 8, but he emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: See this word emptied right here, in the Greek, it's the base word is kenosis.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And to make a long story short, that word is how we would describe what this process of emptying looked like for Jesus.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there's been, again, some debate about how exactly that came about.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because you've got to, sort of like when you're bowling and you've got bumpers, you've got to be careful you don't stray too far on either side.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because there were some ways that Jesus, and I think the best way to say this, voluntarily gave up some of his privileges as God.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe giving some examples would be helpful.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So think of it this way the God of the universe does not grow tired or weary, but Jesus did.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: The God of the universe does not get blisters when he's been walking 15 miles in a day in his leather sandals, but Jesus did.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus had a favorite meal that Mary probably made for him, probably had a least favorite meal too.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: He probably had wonderful interactions and pastimes with people and playing sports and got dinged up and all these different things that the God of the universe doesn't really affect him.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: But because Jesus is man, it did affect him.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: You might also think about when he's in the garden and he's about to be arrested, and the disciples come and they say, Hey, Jesus, they're coming for you.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: What are you going to do about it?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Can't you stop them?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, If I wanted to, I could call down legions of angels right now and they could rescue me, but I'm not going to.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's this amazing reality of the emptying of Jesus, that he humbled himself in order to be with us, that he gave up some of the privileges of being God willingly in order to best relate with us.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: See, when you've got a baby in a feeding trough outside of a busy inn, in a cave, really, around a bunch of animals, and then you've got the king of the universe.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: That is a God who transcends the entire spectrum from bottom all the way to the top.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And every person on earth can relate to that in some way or the other.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another way to describe this, you might, I might get some of you with it, is if you've ever seen Downton Abbey, none of you.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're watching Downton Abbey right now, Hannah and I are.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, the analogy will hold true.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is Lord Grantham, he's the head of the household.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is Mr.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Carson, he is the head butler.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: So Lord Grantham has um legal rights.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: He has got powers that have been given to him by the state, he has got abilities, he has got privileges.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be as if Lord Grantham decided to put on the livery, the uniform of a butler and serve the rest of the household.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: It would make him no less Lord Grantham to put on that outfit.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: He is not divesting himself of any of his attributes, but at the same time, he is willingly subjugating himself and allowing himself to serve others who he is technically over.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is just a portion of what it looks like to understand.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the more, again, we can appreciate God's immensity and his holiness, we can appreciate even more this process.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: The incarnation was a humbling event, but it was necessary for God to be with us.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: See, God was with us at other points in time in the Old Testament.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was with us in the clouds by day and the fire by night as they were going through Exodus.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was with his people in the tabernacle, he was with his people in the temple, he was with his people through the Ark of the Covenant, and his presence was there.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: But this was different.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: This was far different.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is the type of with us that should remind us of what the Garden of Eden looked like, where God was walking with Adam and Eve during the cool of the day.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: God was finally with his people, and it was not being mitigated through some sort of curtain or some sort of process.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: God was having conversations and healing and doing miracles for his people.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So finally, God with us.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Where do we come into the story and why is it important?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if Emmanuel is God with us, and Emmanuel is how we can see God's love for us through Jesus Christ, then in the last moments that we have together, these last few minutes, I'd like to kind of draw a picture for you of what it might have been like to experience this love that Jesus has.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully through that we might be able to get a greater sense of God's love for us today.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine for yourself, just for a moment, that you are Peter.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're one of the disciples, you were called by Jesus Himself, and you're the rock based on your statement of faith that He is God.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to base his church on that.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: You were one of the few who was selected to see the transfiguration.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus even healed your mother-in-law.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: You have walked with him for years, going city to city, traveling, and you have seen many miracles performed in his name.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you're pretty proud of the fact that you're kind of the de facto leader of the disciples.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So much so that you start to brag a bit.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, Jesus, I know that you say that uh there are troubled times coming, but listen, if uh anybody ever challenges us, I will never leave you.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if all the other disciples deny you, even I won't.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Well, that's not actually true, Peter.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna deny me three times.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you just think to yourself, you say, Okay, I'm sure.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: He obviously doesn't understand the love that I have for him.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then fast forward to you're in the garden and you can see the torches coming in the night.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has had you praying for what's about to happen, and you start to get really scared.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: You get scared because all the things that Jesus has been talking about and the mobs that have been encircling your gatherings and the anger of the Jewish ruling council, it's come to a spear point, and it's coming for you.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they and they take Jesus to the high priest's house, and you follow, but you stand in the courtyard.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And just up the hill at the high priest's house, you can see them as they're still interrogating Jesus.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can see them doing it.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And not once, not twice, but three times.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody comes up to you and asks you, Do you know that man?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I recognized your accent somewhere.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are you sure you aren't one of the disciples, one of those people?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: No, but that's not me.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are you sure you don't know Jesus?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you, I don't know that man.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Luke tells us that at that third denial, however far away Jesus was from that interaction, at the moment that he said that he did not know him, Jesus turned and made eye contact with Peter.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you began to weep.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: As Peter, you go outside the high priest's house and you break down.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: The rooster crows, and you know that what Jesus had said was true.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: That in the moment of greatest testing you fell short.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you feel a lot of shame.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: You feel a lot of shame.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like not only have you failed your God, but you feel like you aren't worthy to even be one of the disciples.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: All the talk that you had about standing up for him, it it really amounted to nothing.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you deal with that.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Fast forward again, now it's Easter.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: You saw your Savior be crucified and be put in the tomb.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And Mary Magdalene comes back to you and she tells you that the tomb is empty, and you go off in a sprint.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can't believe what she has just said.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: You need to check for yourself.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And John's running with you, and though he's a little bit faster and he beat you there, you are the first one, you are bold enough to be the first one to walk into the tomb and see the linen folded up there on the bench.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you're confused.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: You don't understand what's happened because you don't see a body.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: And though you know what Jesus has said, you don't understand exactly what he meant.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you leave, somewhat dejected.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: You don't stay as long as Mary did to see the angels and to talk with Jesus.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: You go back to the disciples, and all of you together, you're worried about what's going to happen next.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't here, you haven't seen him.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: He said he would come back, and he's not back.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so you lock yourselves, and as Peter, you kind of gather all the disciples together and try and figure out what to do next.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then through the locked door, Jesus comes in.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he tells you that he's back, and you're overjoyed, and there's exclamation, and you can't believe it, and you know, you truly understand now what he had been talking about, but still, deep in the back of your mind, you know the last real interaction you had with Christ was you denying him.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he's acting a little bit different now that he's back.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: He comes in and he greets all of you and gives you peace, but then he gives you a mission.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he tells all you and all the other disciples that your mission now is to go and share the gospel with people and to forgive them of their sins.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the only thing that you can think about is how you are so unprepared for that task.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: How you are not worthy to carry out that gospel.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: You weren't even strong enough to stand for him in the high priest's courtyard.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that bothers you for a while.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, he's not back like he was before, spending all the time with With you and the disciples, now he's starting to appear to hundreds of people to show them and prove to them that the resurrection had happened.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so, though he's been back now for a couple weeks, you haven't seen him very often.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so you decide that you're going to go fishing.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some scholars would say that this is you rejecting part of your responsibility to carry out the gospel.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Some people would just say that you were tired and wanted to go and fish, your former profession.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Something you were actually good at.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you get together the disciples, you grab a couple of them, about six of them come with you in the boat, you head out at night and you cast your nets, and you cast them and you cast them and you don't catch anything.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're a professional fisherman, and so are the other people in the boat too.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of them.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: You don't catch anything.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: You spend the night in the boat, and the next morning you hear a voice from the shore call out and say, Hey, hey, go ahead and throw your nets over the other side of the boat.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of scoff and think to yourself, All right, fine.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you throw them over, and fish begin to swarm into the nets.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: You caught nothing all night long, and here now the nets are almost to the point of bursting, but they're not breaking.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And as Peter, you something kind of snaps in the back of your head.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: You remember this is a whole lot like the first time that you encountered Jesus.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he called you a fisher of men.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And there was another point in time where he helped you catch a lot of fish.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You think that that must be some kind of coincidence.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then John, who's in the boat with you, exclaims, then now that's Jesus on the shore.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can't believe your eye, you can't believe your eyes as you look to him.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can't believe what's happening.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can't believe that Jesus has come to minister to you and is close to you once again.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so you wrap your outer garment around yourself and you dive into the water.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not good enough to just row back to land.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: You need to swim back to land to get there first.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be the first to see Jesus.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And when you get there to shore, you see that He's prepared a breakfast for you.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a fire, and there's fish and bread.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: As the disciples bring the boat back, you help gather the other fish.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it is just like it used to be.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Traveling, going along the side of the roads, from temple to temple, synagogue to synagogue, hearing your Savior speak, having these intimate meetings.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like it used to be.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like old times.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And for a moment you forget the shame that you had felt before.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And after this breakfast has been cleared away, Jesus kind of takes you aside and says, Peter, do you love me?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: You say, Yes.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know I love you.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Okay.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Feed my sheep.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Peter, do you love me?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know, you know that I love you.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've walked with you all this time.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Peter.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Tend my lambs.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then a third time.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, do you love me?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this time that one hurt.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: That one hurt.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: A third time, and then it clicks for you.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's three times, just like you had denied him three times.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you're here around a fire, just like the fire that you had denied him at not a month previous.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you have witnesses around you, the disciples, just like you had witnesses around you at the high priest's courtyard.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you see that Jesus is asking you these questions.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because the last time you didn't answer them right.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: But what's amazing, though it doesn't surprise you, is the grace that comes through and the mercy and forgiveness that is in his voice.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's no condemnation in the things that he's saying to you.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's no judgment that you can feel from God sitting across from you as he asks you these questions.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is only love.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you get this sense of assurance that doesn't really make a lot of sense for the type of thing that you're talking about.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so you restore this relationship, and then finally Jesus says to you, He says, Okay, Peter, here's the deal.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to come a time in your future when somebody's going to lead you where you don't want to go, and they're going to stretch out your hands, and they're going to dress you in the way that you don't want to be dressed.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know that he is referring to crucifixion.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And though it's going to nag at you for the next 20 years of your life, when exactly that might come, Jesus is letting you know that a point in the future you will have a time of redemption.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: And in that time, they will ask you if you believe in him, and you will say yes.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, you will be killed for it.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, Jesus says two words.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: He says, follow me.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: After that, and they couldn't be any sweeter words to you.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because despite the shame that you have felt, and the guilt, and these feelings of needing to distance yourself from God because you're maybe not worthy to serve the calling that he has for you, he still wants you to follow him.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that felt great.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And church history tells us that Peter did end up dying for his faith.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And church history also tells us that not only was he crucified, but he did not consider himself worthy enough to be crucified the same way as his Savior and asked to be crucified upside down.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: So to wrap up with you, I wanted to draw out three quick points from this story of Jesus' interaction with Peter.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe just to reinforce the point of God's interaction with Peter.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to draw these out because I think for a lot of us, I know myself, I've felt this way at times.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Shame for the things that I have done, or knowing that I've fallen short, knowing that I'm not the man that I am supposed to be in God's eyes, choosing to sin or those kinds of things, there have certainly been times where I have felt like Peter, and even though I am a Christian, I have desired to distance myself from God.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: And in those moments where we find ourselves feeling distant from God, it's important to take the first step, which is return to God.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus was waiting at the shore.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is, proverbially, always waiting at the shore.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was Peter who had gone out in the boat.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: But he was so desirous of his relationship and was so in awe of who Jesus was that it wasn't enough to row back to shore.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: He had to swim and get soaking wet.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best verses that describes this is actually normally misapplied.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Revelation 3.20.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone opens, I will go in and eat with him and him with me.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: That verse is normally, incorrectly, used to talk about salvation.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's not about salvation.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: The context of that verse is to believers.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because as believers, sometimes we shut the door in Jesus' face, and he is at the door knocking.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so this first step is just that we would simply open the door, that we would let him in because he wants to come in and be with us.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: The second point is that we would restore the relationship.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: You see, there was a bit of discomfort that Peter needed to go through.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it wasn't the most fun thing in the world to have this conversation with Jesus and have him ask three different times if he really loved him.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: We understand from the text that it was painful to Peter, and he was almost incredulous that Jesus could ask these questions until he realized what was going on.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: So for us, I think the way this looks is that there are many ways in which we have all fallen short of God's glory.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 3.23 tells us that.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, like Peter, we need to go to Jesus.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that we restore the relationship is we admit the ways in which we have fallen short.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we accept the forgiveness that is being offered.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the transactional nature of Jesus Christ in the cross.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: He died so that we may be forgiven of our sins if only we would accept that gift.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so you see, Peter went through some discomfort, but he was restored in his standing and his relationship.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: He goes on to be an amazing church father, write other books in the New Testament, letters in the New Testament, and have an amazing testimony of faith, even though he had this moment of failure, but it required him going to Jesus and accepting that forgiveness.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, that Peter would follow him.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: These were those two words that came shortly after Jesus telling Peter that he was going to die, die for his faith.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I think it's safe to say that not many of us would be in peril of being crucified someday for the faith that we have.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: But to think that this command for Peter is lost on us would be incorrect.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because every single one of us have still been called to a higher purpose to follow Jesus every single day.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we've still been called to die to ourselves and to die to the desires of this world so that we can follow Jesus.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not exempt from Peter's call just because we live in America and we're not necessarily in danger of our losing our lives for our faith.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: So my challenge to you with that is that the next time that you are given the opportunity to stand for your faith, and the next time that you are given the chance to identify as someone who follows Jesus, that you wouldn't back away, but rather that you would step forward in faith like Peter did, taking whatever might come, because it is worth it to follow him.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and pray.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we thank you for who you are and what you have done for us, and we thank you for that for Emmanuel.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, what it means that you are with us.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that as we transition into this time of communion, that you would help us to focus on that relationship and the sacrifice that you freely gave.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: As the uh the ushers that will be passing out the elements for communion, I want you to picture just one last time.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you're Peter again and you're in the upper room, and it's the Last Supper.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is passing around the bread and the wine, and you hear him saying those familiar words to yourself.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is my body broken for you.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is the blood poured out for you.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: But that this time you might hear them in a different way.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Not just to a group of 12 people 2,000 years ago, but hearing them yourselves.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus' body and blood was given for you too.